Archive for the ‘Leyte’ Category
Princess Junea of the Philippines Nikon D 70 Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Princess Junea
of the Philippines
Jun Jun Tanahale places the tiara crown on his daughter, Junea to celebrate her birthday. My philosophy of life states that every person who has ever lived, who is alive now, and who will be born is future years is a unique person. Every person should always celebrate their birthday – the anniversary of the day of their birth. Every girl should always feel like a princess on her birthday. Every boy should feel like a prince on his birthday. In the adult world, a woman should always feel like “Queen For A Day” on her birthday. A man should always feel like “King For A Day” on his birthday. Saturday, February 16, 2013, at One Warren Way in Barangay Baras, Leyte, Republic of the Philippines, Junea Tanahale celebrated her birthday with family and friends. Her Uncle Sam in observing the long standing tradition of women worldwide and is NOT publishing her age. And, a birthday party on the weekend is a Real World acceptance that it is easier for family and friends to be able to attend family events like birthday parties on the weekend, thus, her actual birthday is in the days ahead.Happy Birthday, Junea ! Nikon D 70 Photo by “Uncle Sam”uel E. Warren Jr.
New Year:The Wheel Goes Round Slowly by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
New Year, Slow Beginnings
New Year:
The Wheel
Goes Round
Slowly
Burn The Calendar !
There is an old Ozarks superstition and wives’ tale that says, “Every January 1, you throw away the old year’s calendar.” Usually there was some kind of logic or type of explanation that suggested a common sense approach to Life.
I don’t remember my mother or grandmother’s explanation of the logic. They both were simply efficient about getting the calendar off the wall and outside into the trash.
January 15, 2013, my old calendar was still on the wall. I needed a photograph for this article, so off the wall and into the yard goes the old calendar. The Year 2012 was not one of my favorite years. Good Riddance, 2012 !
One flick of my trusty Zippo lighter and I got to watch 2012 go out in a blaze of glory. Nikon D 200 Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
After New Year’s Day, the theory is that the world is ready to pack away the holidays and get back to work.
Have you ever noticed how slowly the world at large usually seems to move ahead in the new year ?
You can blame The Twelve Days of Christmas from December 25 to January 5 and celebrate Christmastide and The Twelfth Night on the evening of January 5, but, that does not explain the slow take off for a New Year.
The Old Christmas Day is January 6. The Feast Of The Three Kings, which is the first Sunday of the New Year, can work out to January 6, 7,8, or 9, and depends on if you use a Julian or Gregorian Calendar.
However, The Old Christmas Day and The Feast Of The Three Kings observances are not sufficient reason to explain why the world at large takes a slow stride into the early days of January.
Wherever you are in the world, when a New Year starts you can run the celebrations and the observances period about as long as you like and can afford.
If you can afford the time off in The Real World of earning a living, you can even postpone getting back into “The Work World” until you observe Candlemas on February 2.
Humans throughout history obviously have not been in a hurry to get back to work in the New Year. The world’s major religions accommodate the reluctance by a host of various religious holidays to help the average human to ease into January.
Why are people slow to jump feet first into the New Year ?
We humans jump up and down for the New Year’s Eve celebration and are anxious for the New Year. Yet, at the stroke of midnight, we seem to ease off and step back.
Why is it after January 1, humanity seems slow to move bravely and confidently into January and the New Year ?
In my life time, I have noticed people may have to go back to work after January 1, but their heart is not in it.
Anyone can sit at a desk, keep the lights on and run the heating or air conditioning, but, to “do work” that accomplishes something requires the initiative to be willing to undertake tasks.
I have noticed that it seems to take about the first two weeks of January before people “get down to business” and “get back in the game” of earning a living.
It seems there is a cautious need to ease into a New Year like a hot bathtub of water by putting one toe in first.
Like an old steam engine, we seem to have a need to build up a head of steam to finally get rushing down the tracks into the present.
Perhaps, all of humanity is “A Bunch Of Lazy Bums.”
No doubt, everyone will have a theory or come up with a theory.
The best theory that I have come up with about the caution of a New Year is : Capricorn.
Salute The Goat
I applaud the ancient Western astrologers. Sometimes the ancient astrologers were “dead on” when they selected an animal to represent a cross section of humanity. They definitely got it right when they chose The Goat to represent Capricorn and the people born under that sign.
“Goats Are God’s Weed Eaters”
Capricorn is one of the most reserved signs of the Zodiac.
I grew up around livestock on a farm. My mother, the hog farmer, had hair goats to eat away the brush, sprouts and cedar tree saplings.
“Goats Are God’s Weed Eaters.” If a goat can nibble away at a half inch or inch thick sapling, then, they will eat it down to a stump. They, like their appetizers, which means they start with the the lush green leaves of a bush, vine or sprout first.
Goats can be curious. A kid might run up to you in the field and a billy goat might slowly saunter toward you to check you out in the pasture.
Ozark farmers in the 1960s took pride in their goats. Goats are not pretty creatures. They have a Minus Sign pupil in their eyeballs, which gives their faces a distinctive character.
All goats, billy goats, the kids and the female goats all have “chin whiskers”, which most people call, beards.
Wool goats have wavy or ringlet strands of hair that hangs down aound their body. In the winter time, poor old wool goats seem weighed down in a mink coat that seems bulky and heavy to carry and wear.
Don’t “kid”, (pun intended – on the farm, a child of a goat is called a, “kid.”) yourself, an old wool billy goat in the heavy wool coat can move and “charge” at you quickly.
You violate an old billy goat’s “personal space” and if he thinks you are a threat, head down and horns “locked” in your direction and he will come at you with the speed of an Olympic sprinter and the strength of a small bulldozer.
Ozarks farmers always claimed, “Goats will kill brush.” Goats will nibble saplings and vines down to stumps and roots, but, in time, Mother Nature will bring the brush back.
Goats Versus Sheep
Goats will eat grass down to the roots. Ozarks farmers never liked sheep because sheep would eat grass and the roots, which meant you always had to reseed and re-sod the pasture.
Grass seed is expensive when you have to buy several acres worth plus fresh topsoil and fertilizer.
Ozarks farmers know livestock can be “skiddish”, which means they frighten easy. A loud noise will send chickens and turkeys to the four winds. Horses, cattle and goats usually don’t frighten easy.
Early Bible writers obviously weren’t farmers or had a low opinion of humanity, every sheep I ever saw was stupid.
Sheep scare easy and you always have to watch them to make sure they don’t do something stupid like wander off a cliff or out of the field into the highway.
Wolves, coyotes or packs of wild stray dogs get in sheep, they run and get “mowed down” by the hungry predators. Goats initially run, but, then, some stop, turn and fight the predators. Battered, beaten and bloodied, sometimes an old billy goat will win and the predator is dinner for the buzzards.
Goats Are The Weather Warriors
Goats are “sure footed.” Their hooves are designed to allow them to stand and walk in the most challenging terrain.
In wintertime in southwest Missouri, horses, cattle and sheep can’t always stand up in the cold, ice and snow.
Horses, cattle and sheep have to lay down out in the pasture because they can’t walk in the terrain and weather. Goats can.
One winter in my childhood, I witnessed goats unable to stand for a couple of days in the winter.
However, Mother Nature had dropped hail and ice mixed with the snow for a couple of days, so that one to two layers or sheets of ice coated the earth underneath the picturesque blanket of snow.
Roads were closed. Snow plows with their weigh and chains on their tires were carefully trying to break through the sheet or sheets of ice that covered the asphalt under the snow.
When a ton-and-a half or two ton dump truck fitted with a blade to act as a snow plow finds it difficult to move along a road without slipping into a ditch, you have to give a goat in the field credit for trying to stand up.
For a couple of days, that winter, even a goat could not stand up. When the animal tried to rise the hooves slipped and slid on the sheet or sheets of ice beneath the snow.
The poor goat ended up spread eagle on the ground with his or her legs spread out to the sides.
The Dead Of Winter Remains Alive
In The Missouri Ozarks
I believe that the severe winter was either The Winter of 1967 or The Winter of 1968. It was an “Arctic Winter”, Heavy snowfall all winter long. Extreme cold temperatures. And power lines were down two or three times, during that winter. It was a Frozen Hell. It was masochistic winter that tortured man and beasts in the southwest Missouri Ozarks.
That severe childhood winter of the 1960s is why when “The Experts” talk “Global Warming”, I laugh.
In situations where “The Experts” talk and try to convince me of “Global Warming” and “Climate Change”, I challenge them to go spend a winter in the southwest Missouri Ozarks.
If “The Experts” still have all their fingers and toes free of “frostbite” and have not “froze to death” out in the woods or the countryside come Spring, then, I might listen.
It does seem that there is a “Climate Change” because the southwest Missouri Ozarks, now, can receive a tornado in January. However, where winter weather is concerned the temperatures are still bone-chilling and you get heavy snowfall.
Granted from the 1980s through the early 1990s, the winters in the southwest Missouri Ozarks did not seem as severe as in the 1960s.
Check with The Stone County Old Timers and they will tell you Mother Nature has a strange sense of humor about winter weather in the southwest Missouri Ozarks. There can be two, three or a few years were winter seems almost mild.
Just when people start to smile positive “Climate Change”, Mother Nature pulls out all the stops and you wonder if any person or animal can survive the cold and snow until spring.
The bright side of that devastating 1960s Winter in the southwest Missouri Ozarks was, in the spring and summer there were less ticks, chiggers and snakes because Mother Nature had “killed them off” with the severe winter.
The Naked Goat
Sheep farmers always claimed sheep wool was better than goat wool, but, in the 1960s in the Ozarks wool goat farmers had a market for the wool. Wool goats like young boys are not fond of “haircuts.”
Of course, in the wool goat’s case the annual “haircut” is more like a “bikini waxing” in that you have to remove all the hair, i.e., wool against the goat’s will. Electric shears are faster.
Uncle Richard DeLong only had the manual scissor shears, which meant the bawling, moving, fidgeting wool goats would sometimes get their skin nicked by the shears.
The end result is poor wool goats with their “nicked shaving cuts” looked comical.
Think of a close friend in full body Long Johns pink underwear that the worn and frayed arms and legs seem at least one size too short. Then, image the trap door in the back of the clothing,
The poor goat’s sheared backside would wave the trimmed tail as the sheared animal with the fresh haircut quickly exited the pen to the freedom of the pasture.
If you think the mental picture of a freshly sheared wool goat is funny, then, visit a farm and help a farmer at wool shearing time.
Hair goats have the same “work ethic” and eating habits of wool goats, but their hair is more like a windbreaker in the sense that while it keeps them insulated in the winter they can easily move around.
In the spring, a hair goat naturally sheds the hair like dogs and cats do at the right times of year.
Hair and wool goats were also used to provide milk, cheese and as a source of meat.
I am a “picky eater” country boy. I never drank goat milk, ate goat cheese or goat meat. I have put a big nipple on a bottle and fed baby goats from time to time.
Goats Adaptable Livestock
Goats are resourceful livestock. They seem to adapt well to almost any terrain, although I would not recommend trying to raise a “pet goat” in a Madison Avenue New York City apartment.
Goats love plants. They do not discriminate between briar bushes, orchids and prize roses, so you definitely have to fence goats off away from gardens and flower beds.
Goats don’t require gas, electricity or catalytic converters; sorry OPEC.
Goats are environmentally friendly and they provide biodegradable nutrient rich fertilizer for your lawn or pasture.
Capricorn Humans
Samuel E. Warren, my father, Uncle Richard, Uncle Hobert and Uncle Joe DeLong were all born under the sun sign of Capricorn. My Rising Sign is Capricorn and I have worked with many Capricorn natives in my life time.
The goat is not as pretty a mascot as a ram, bull or eagle. Yet, the goat is a steady, determined, industrious, hard working, resourceful creature that braves terrain and weather to carry out it’s life mission. Goats are curious and have a subtle sense of livestock humor.
Talk to a farmer or watch hair or wool goats in a zoo or petting zoo and you will wonder if God has a sly sense of humor because the noble characteristics of goats do seem to be ingrained into Capricorn humans.
In my experience Capricorn human are conservative, cautious, curious, deliberate, determined, resourceful, and hard working.
If there is a fish or sea aspect to Capricorn, then, I consider it the sense of humor. Capricorn humans have a subtle sense of humor that often flows past their fellow humans.
Saturn The Ultimate Foreman
A Capricorn human’s biggest challenge is always Saturn, which a person might call Fate. In ancient Roman mythology, Saturn ruled agriculture, liberation and time. In a early 21st Century sense, then, Saturn is “The Business God, who decides promotions, schedules and time off.” The ancient Romans identified Saturn as a “God Of Wealth.” The ancient Romans had Saturn pegged as “The Work God.”
As “The Boss Of Bosses”, the bottom line is the ancient Romans realized that Saturn was not going to “cut them any slack.” Saturn was not going to go out of his way to give anyone “time off” or “promote” a person if they didn’t “earn the promotion.” And, Saturn was “ A Grade A Rule Book Stickler,” who demanded “by the book, all the time, no exceptions.”
Obviously, Saturn had to be a pagan God, because no human would ever want to work for such “A Dictatorial Boss.”
Saturn ruled agriculture, which meant farming and food. In an early 21st Century perspective Saturn or Fate is the God Of Agribusiness.
As a God Of Wealth, Saturn signed the paychecks and As the God Of Agriculture, He got to say, who got to Eat and who went Hungry.
The only time, the ancient Romans ever “Got to Stick It To The Boss” was once a year at the annual festival of “Saturnalia,”
At Saturnalia, the ancient Romans had free speech, switched jobs, ate like pigs, partied like wild men, got drunk and gave gifts. Sound like an office Christmas party ?
Bingo !
Saturnalia was celebrated December 17. Today Saturnalia is celebrated December 25. The “get even with your boss” pagan god party became the Christian Christmas holiday
Historians have not discovered why the date moved from December 17 to December 25.
Crafty Christians
Early Christians however, when they “stole” or “ripped off” pagan ideas liked to “Christianize” them. For instance: Christian churches were often built on pagan worship sites.
If the move to December 25 was to “Christianize” the holiday, early Christians “outsmarted themselves” and did Saturn a favor by moving the holiday from Sagittarius right smack dab into “Capricorn” a Zodiac Sign ruled by Saturn.
The W Word : Work
Whatever mythological God rules a sign is considered the “ruler” of the sign, so since Saturn rules Capricorn, Capricorn humans are “the employees of Saturn.”
If you move the mythological religious god concept to a philosophical and psychological concept then you can swap the name, Saturn, for the word, Fate.
Look at your calendar, from December 22 until January 19, during the Zodiac Sign of Capricorn; haven’t tasks seem more time consuming?
Doesn’t it seem to take longer to get even the minor jobs done?
Even if you were able to take time off from work for Christmas and or New Year’s: doesn’t it seem that now your work has piled up and you are paying for the time off ?
Time is another trait that the ancient Romans attributed to Saturn. Saturn truly was an “Equal Opportunity God” because He didn’t discriminate. Saturn made “everyone work like a dog.”
Regardless, whether you call the ruler of the sign, Saturn or Fate,
Capricorn humans always seem to really have to earn their “pay” in Life. They work hard.
Capricorn humans don’t seem to get “the breaks” that people born under other sun signs seem to get on the job.
However, when a Capricorn human earns a promotion, award or honor; they “earned the recognition through hard work.”
Some sun signs can be a boss’ “pet”. In my life time, I have noticed, seldom, if ever, is a Capricorn a “bosses’ pet.”
Fate or Saturn keeps a Capricorn human’s “nose to the grind stone.”
When you look at the month of January and wonder, “Why does it seem the New Year always seems to get off to such a slow start ?”
Consider that Capricorn is the steady sign, which is conservative and steady; not fast and impulsive. Saturn or Fate demands due diligence, hard work, attention to detail, procedures by the book and hard work.
Short cuts usually just mean more hard work or going back and fixing the mistakes caused by short cuts. Saturn The Ultimate Foreman is looking over your shoulder.
Fate is in charge !
Saturn is in charge !
Aquarius En route
On the bright side, look at the calendar. A shift change is coming.
January 20,Aquarius The Water Bearer reports for duty. Aquarius is more laid back, more flexible, and tends to think “Outside The Box.”
While Capricorn demands rules, regulations, procedures and wants to “Do It The Way It Has Always Been Done”; Aquarius usually takes the risk of tossing or, at least, putting aside the rulebook.
Aquarius is an air sign, which means you can breeze back in to the daily responsibilities of Life.
Keep in mind, the ancient astrologers chose “Waves Of Water” as the glyph or logo for Aquarius, which should be a subtle reminder to let your emotions ripple along on the job.
In the Real World, when Mother Nature adds significant amounts of cold or hot water to air the result is an ice storm or thunderstorm that can grow violent.
Violent air creates hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones. Try to learn to heat up and cool down at regular intervals in your work day, so that you don’t let the stress of daily life cloud your judgment and send you thundering in the wrong direction.
Best Wishes for Clear Skies and Smooth Sailing !
Sam
Links
Twelve Days Of Christmas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas
Old Christmas Day
http://www.christmas-time.com/cp-old.html
Feast Of The Epiphany Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_the_Epiphany
Candlemas Time and Date.Com
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/common/candlemas
Capricorn Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capricorn_(astrology)
Capricorn Astrology Online
http://www.astrology-online.com/capricrn.htm
Capricorn Sun Sign Zodiac Signs Astrology.com
http://www.astrology.com/capricorn-sun-sign-zodiac-signs/2-d-d-66920
Saturn Mythology Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_(mythology)
Zodiac Sign Dates
http://www.whats-your-sign.com/zodiac-sign-dates.html
Star Cats Personal, Relationship, Family Astrology
Flip Flop Pitchers’ Contest Photos by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Flip Flop Pitchers’ Contest
Elyza Tanahale dashes to claim her “Flip Flop.” Ranyiel Saldana, Elyza’s cousin watches in the background and awaits his turn.
Children have a knack for finding a way to entertain themselves. When Elyza, her brothers, sisters and cousins got together New Year’s Day in Barangay Baras, Leyte in the Republic of the Philippines, they found a way to entertain themselves.
“Flip Flop” is the nickname given to sandal footwear in the Philippines. Many of the “flip flops” that children and adults wear are the basic “shower clogs” that Americans wear getting into and out of the shower.
My Cousin, Bill DeLong, had a reputation in the DeLong Family of being a champion horseshoe pitcher.
My Filipino and Filipina, nephews and nieces “flip flop” pitching is basically the idea of horseshoe pitching, which is a popular past time sport in the United States. Instead of stakes, my nephews and nieces placed an empty tin can several yards away from the starting point.
Nikon Photos by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Links
National Horseshoe Pitchers’ Association of America
http://www.horseshoepitching.com/
Horseshoes Wikipedia
Honor The Friend by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Treasure the Damon and Pythias’
Relationships Of Your Life
Honor
The
Friend
by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Iremember friends.
In life, you, my reader, will remember friends.
Friends are the unique people, who add spice and meaning to your life. The ultimate concept of a “Friend” is the classic story of Damon and Pythias.
Phythias stood ready to “give” his life for his friend. Damon returned and the devotion of loyalty, fidelity and friendship, so impressed the king that the issue was settled and the king allowed both men to enjoy the “freedom” of their lives.
In Life, there are different levels of friendship.In my life, I have had friends my own age, friends who were younger than I and friends who were older.
The older friends were sometimes employers, supervisors or bosses who I respected for their integrity and credibility.
A friend is someone that you can rely on and they can rely on you.
Fools Fair Weather Friends
“Fair Weather Friends” are the fools in Life, you meet, who show up to party with you. If you are paying for the food, buying the drinks and are in a position to pay the tab or the bill, then, you will find you have “scores of friends, followers, groupies, and companions ready to be your buddy.”
Of course, when your wallet is empty, they will slip into the shadows.
The first time Life puts a crisis in your path, the “Fair Weather Friends” will have lost, misplaced their cell phones and changed their cell phone numbers.
After all, they are already “too busy” leeching, bumming and being a parasite to another person, who is celebrating a great moment of Life.
A Fair Weather Friend is always a “prostitution” of the word, “Friend.”
Fools are The Fair Weather Friends that are pathetic people, who are simply the cancerous bacteria of Life. The minor role of any Fair Weather Friend in your Life is to clarify the true meaning of the word, “Friend.”
Friends, true friends, do not leave you in time of trouble. They help to the point they can and will still be there once the trouble passes.
A friend may not always be able to go shoulder-to-shoulder with you to “combat” the trouble head-on, but, usually they will be in a position to provide advice, guidance and counsel that will help you.
A friend always maintains their integrity, credibility and devotion to you. An acquaintance or an associate is a “temporary friend”, who will exit out the side or back door anytime the “heat” of a Life situation starts to rise.
The trick in Life, is the ability to look at and think about people and decide where they stand in your Life. Realize, we all have relationships in Life. Everyday our Life changes and the lives of our friends also change.
Relatives,spouses, Life events and the natural progression of “Time” can change your relationship with a friend. You loose contact with the friend.
Remember A Friend Always
The important fact is you never loose the memory of a “Friend.” Years later, when you are faced with a serious life situation you will remember the “Friend” of that event and you will know how to approach the situation for a successful result.
Years later, you will be able to reflect and remember a “Friend” or “A Roster Of Friends” who have added meaning, enjoyment, happiness, joy, laughter, and depth that changed the shadow of your Life into the pyramid that will stand the test of the ages in the Real World.
“The Ancients”
“The Ancients”, those early, superstitious humans that inhabited planet earth and eeked out an existence in stubborn soil, under moody skies and facing angry seas, where smarter than we, modern humans, give them credit for.
The ancients took note of their lives and the world around them and left behind stories, sculptures, paintings, drawings, sketches and other items that would be documented by scholars and uncovered by archaeologists.
Their pagan gods and goddesses inspired their simple imaginations and gave their dubious lives meaning in a world that was alive at a level far beyond their simplistic interpretation of life.
Their understanding and attempts to solve the curiosity of their lives allows us to pass on those lessons as stories, TV shows and movies to inform and entertain ourselves and future generations.
“The Story Of Human Nature”
The true genius of their daily lives is “The Story Of Human Nature” survives every generation for the next.
Emotions The River Of Life
The emotions of human nature is still the same basic water that has always flowed in “The River Of Life.” A friend, who stands on the shore, may have worn her Roman tunic and carried her shield and worn her sword. You might have called her, “Isis, Diana, Fortuna, Juno, Athena, or, Hera”
In the 21st Century, a friend may stand on the shore of The River Of Life in a bikini,a business skirt, a uniform, a simple dress and, one would hope, the gender appropriate attire, unless of course; it is Halloween, the holiday, which tosses out all rules of dress for a comfortable costume.
A friend is a friend, regardless of the time period of history. Emotion is the key that always unlocks the feelings that identifies a “Friend.”
Time and the events of Life will age you and your Friend. Fate and distance will demand circumstances that will keep you from a Friend.
Your mind will never delete, corrupt or misplace the memory of a Friend. Because in Life, whether it is two weeks later or thirty years later, when you notice a man on the street or a woman in a cafe; your mind will quickly identify your Friend.
Associates, affiliates, acquaintances, groupies, fans, and Fair Weather Friends are the respective props and holiday banners of our lives that end up in the dumpster of our daily memories and activities.
The Immortality Of Friendship
A Friend is a person, who can step through the mists of Time and step back into your Life and the “friendship” resumes as though only a few minutes might have past.
Children, spouses, jobs, travel and all the events of Life, will have changed you and your Friend, but, the immortal genetics of Friendship never change.
The truth of the Damon and Pythias story is the voyages, crisis and disasters of Life will always challenge you, but, Friendship is a value engineered into your immortal soul and no force on earth can destroy a Friendship.
People can decide to end a Friendship;but, no force in the Universe can destroy a Friendship.
Usually in The Real World some of the best stories of Friendship are found in the annuals of War. War is the entity that rattles Time and consumes lives. The human struggle for survival creates and solidifies Friendship quickly.
Peace time relationships that evolve into Friendship usually require more time and day to day interaction to allow the Friendship to grow into maturity.
Fabulous Feast For A Friend
A true friend is always a “Friend.” A Friend lasts a lifetime.
In The Real World, Viking feasts should be held in great oak halls. Huge torches should burn away the evening hours.
Valkyries from Valhalla should descend and slide a chair up to the feast table to celebrate the glorious banquet held in the “Honor Of The Friend.”
Waves of music should rush through the caverns of the great hall. Wings of aroma of mutton, pork and sides of beef should tickle the noses and salivate the tongues of guests.
Joy and laughter should thunder off the walls under the bright campaign streamers of your Life that decorate the great hall. Platters of vegetables should glow like ripe jewels and the sweetness of fruit should blanket the senses.
Your Coat Of Arms and your Friend’s Coat Of Arms should be side-by-side as “The Great Shields” and be the centerpiece of the evening hung in the command position on the great rafter over the head table.
You and your friend should sit under The Great Shields, feasting, toasting, and laughing. Your karaoke voices should sweep through the hall to announce your deeds to the assembled guests. Great animal skins, symbols of your great hunts should line the hall for your guest to sit on.
On either side of The Great Shields are the other Coats Of Arms, campaign streamers and prestigious sheepskins that document the voyages and battles of your life.
Of course, the evening would be devoted to feasting and storytelling. You and your friend while away the hours with the tales of your triumphs, tragedies, successes, failures, and the stories of your lives.
Honor Your Friend
Of course, in The Real World, no one goes out of their way to find or rent you a Great Hall for a banquet feast for a friendship reunion. However, your mind and your imagination can make the necessary arrangements and host the monumental occasion. After all, a true Friend is always a Friend for Life.
Honor yourself; Honor your Friend.
Go ahead, pick up the cell phone or log on the Internet and try to find a Friend of your past.
A New Year is always a wonderful time to try and “check in” with an important person in your past that you call,”Friend.”
Sam
Auld Lang Syne Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne
Damon and Pythias Wikipedia
Thank You Mrs. Sheryl A, Vargas by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Thank You,
Mrs. Sheryl A. Vargas
Tanauan National High School
During the 2012 – 2013 Holiday Season you gave Ranilo Saldana a homework assignment on “Friends.” He diligently worked on the assignment.
At one point, he asked his “Uncle Sam” to help explain the English lyrics: “ . . . For good times and bad times, I’ll be on your sides forever more. That’s what friends are for. . . ”
From my old days of working in a radio station and listening to contemporary music, the lyrics were instantly recognizable.
The ability to try and put the concept of “Friendship” into words to explain an idea is not always an easy task.
While he returned to work on his school project, the explanation inspired an idea about “Friendship” that I had considered to write as the December holiday season began.
Ideas about previous Christmas celebrations made their way to the front of the line in my mind. The “Friend” idea found a comfortable chair and lounged in the lobby of my mind.
Ranilo’s assignment had reminded me of the “Friend” idea lounging in the lobby of my mind. Mrs, Vargas, “Thank you for the homework assignment”, it provided the inspiration to get me thinking and to put my thoughts on the virtual paper of cyberspace.
My “Honor The Friend” article is the result of the inspiration.
Thank You
Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Warren Flight School by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Warren Flight School
Established – January 5, 2013
Rayniel Saldana does his walk around preflight inspection before working the controls of the radio-controlled helicopter.
Nikon D 200 Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
I never got to sit on the kitchen floor and run my own electric train set. My childhood ended too quickly. Years later, I got to buy a train to run around the Christmas Tree, but it wasn’t the same.
I didn’t get to spend hours working with the scenery. I didn’t have the opportunity to hone my skills for meticulous details by carefully matching the paint scheme to the appropriate railroad or box car.
I did get some great toys. I had a wonderful childhood. Sometimes, in life, it seems you seek out those opportunities you missed.
I never got to fly a radio-controlled aircraft as a child. My childhood ended too quickly.
Since I am The World’s Oldest Kid, I usually manage to find away to stroll past the toy department of a store. In December 2011, I bought a radio-controlled helicopter, but, the Christmas Day guests got to fly it.
The 2011 Christmas Day Guests did not return in 2012, but other activities of the day kept the family busy. A couple of days later, I decided my nephews and nieces and I would try to fly “Saldana One YF,” I began the refueling operation, which consisted of plugging in the charger and waiting for it to charge.
The model aircraft burst into flames and the aircraft removal consisted of it being moved to the backyard “boneyard” to naturally become part of the ecology.
The happy ending is a few days later, I did add a new radio-controlled aircraft to the inventory.
Warren Flight School set up on the Barangay Baras Road, January 5, 2013. The radio-controlled helicopter flagship, “Warren One” sat ready to fly.
Rayniel Saldana became my “Chief’, which meant I let him take control of checking out the aircraft and making sure it was ready for flight.
Like an aviation warrant officer, once the chopper checked out, he worked the controls and took it up for a “check ride.”
Vanissa Saldana and Junea Tanahale watched and took their turns.
Their “Uncle Sam” watched.
Double A batteries don’t last long; not even eight of them. However they “logged” about two hours of flight time.
Their “On The Job” radio-controlled “pilot training” consisted of getting familiar with the controls, which averaged about 10 minutes per pilot.
Junea displayed her “pilot’ skills by flying along the Barangay Baras Road and her ability to gain altitude that put the helicopter about 20 feet in the air and flying over my head.
The first day of Warren Flight School was an outstanding success.
Junea Tanahale “pilots” “Warren One” a radio-controlled helicopter past the coconut tree of Barangay Baras, Leyte, Republic of the Philippines, January 5, 2013. Nikon D 200 Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
All the photos of this session of Warren Flight School can be found at Samuel Warren Picasa Web Albums.
Warren One
https://picasaweb.google.com/115529281361827670221/WarrenOneJanuary52013
Sam
Sam And The Kids by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Time To Be A Kid
Sam
And
The Kids
“Warren One
Junea Tanahale pilots this radio-controlled helicopter past the coconut trees of Barangay Baras, Leyte, Republic of the Philippines. Saturday, January 5, 2013 is the first time my niece ever “flew” a radio-controlled aircraft. She “logged” this third flight after only working the controls for less than 30 minutes. She made her “Uncle Sam” proud. Nikon D 200 Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
I was a kid. I still remember what it was like to be a kid. I had fun. Life was great. I enjoyed Life. I still enjoy Life. Adults tell you you will “Grow Up.” You do. Soft of . . . grow up. You get taller and you celebrate birthdays.
You learn to do all those “Adult” things like get a job and earn a living. Somewhere along the way, the Adult world expects people “To Forget” what it means to “Be A Kid.”
Grown ups are not suppose to walk down a street in a major American city and just “start dancing along the sidewalk to the corner.” I’ve done it.
In a military uniform and in a business suit I’ve broke into a spontaneous dance routine on a sidewalk. People look at you weird. A few always just smile because they remember what it meant to “Be A Kid.”
The point is – in Life everyone takes themselves and their jobs “way too seriously.”
New Year’s Resolution
Celebrate Life.
Naturally, if you are in one of those public jobs where appearance and protocol is 
important you aren’t going to suddenly burst into the board room doing your best Gene Kelly “Singing In The Rain,” improvisation.
You will not walk into a meeting of global government leaders dressed in sequined jacket, pants, a half cloak and broad a broad smile to sit down at a baby grand piano. The G-8 leaders probably would not appreciate your Liberace showmanship.
Nonetheless, even adults can hum in the elevator. You go to another city on a business trip and after your meetings find a place you will probably never, ever see the people again. You get the karaoke microphone or borrow a guitar and sang Hank Williams or Hank Williams Jr., all night long.
If you don’t sing, dance and celebrate life every now and then; why do you get out of bed in the morning.
Maybe, you can’t be Robert Preston singing “76 Ttombones. . . “, but, you can enjoy life and remember, what it was like or suppose to be like to “be a kid.”
Obviously, if you are under the hot lights of an operating room carefully performing a delicate operation in the midst of brain surgery on a patient, you will not break out into a chorus of “The Happy Wanderer” and you will not be tapping your foot and singing out the words to “Bachman Turner Overdrive’s “Takin’ Care Of Business”, or bust out into a rendition of ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man.”
After the operation, the brain surgeon or the heart surgeon can go home, find that boxed up “Operation” game and put it on the desk and realize and remember that life was simpler when you were a kid. For the record, there is, nor will there ever be a law in any nation that will outlaw you “Being A Kid At Heart.”
Rayniel Saldana, my nephew, displays serious concentration in working the radio controls. Nikon D 200 Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
I am The World’s Oldest Kid
I Beat The System.
I Always Stayed A Kid At Heart.
I am The World’s Oldest Kid.
I am an Adult. I grew up. But, I stayed a kid at heart. Now, I get to enjoy time with my nieces and nephews.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Adults let kids be kids.
In the 1970s – the World Went Stupid. The World Is Still Stupid.
But, there is always hope the World will “Wise Up.”
In the 1950s and 1960s, kids usually had a chance to play, enjoy their childhoods and grow up. There were adults on the job, who dealt with the American Civil Rights Movement, The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Korean War, messed up the Equal Rights Amendment, sabotaged the American Woman’s Rights Movement.
Suddenly, realized there were more than “two genders” in humanity and these people were ready to step out of the shadows of history and into the sunlight of their lives.
Sex, drugs and rock and roll woke up America in the 1960s. America still had the Cold War, Fear of the A Bomb, and leaders were still trying to make sense of The Vietnam War. When the Stupid Seventies arrived only the morons wanted to inherit the earth.
Edu-ma-cated Experts
By the 1970s, the hard working and intelligent adults stepped off the world stage long enough to grab a hot dog, have a beer and smoke a cigarette.
By the time, the leaders were ready for Round 2, the bummers and losers were on the World Stage strutting and cackling about “Political Correctness.”
The morons had inherited the earth and no one ever took the time to “check on the kids.”
They were tons of “Edu-ma-cated Experts” with initials before and after their names with all kinds of advice about “raising kids.”
In the 1950, Dr. Benjamin Spock published a book about raising kids. My mom had a dog-eared, well worn copy, but she used her God-given “Common Sense” and let me “Be A Kid.
Vanissa Saldana, my niece, cautiously works the controls of the helicopter. Nikon D 200 Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
How To Play
Through the years, I have watched kids. No one shows them “How To Play.” I have seen an adult hand a kid a box with a toy in it and walk away. The adult never lingers long enough to see if the kid goes on line and tries to sell the toy on ebay or tries to bully another kid into buying the toy.
The adult never stops long enough to notice if the kid tries to “re engineer” the toy to cause it to blow up or watches long enough to make sure the kid doesn’t use the toy as a weapon on his or her younger brother and sisters or the family dog or cat.
People ignore kids are “small versions of adults.” Parents just assume their kid is not going to grow up to be the next “Jack The Ripper.”
Yet, adults in the late 20th and early 21st Century seem to treat their kids like “rental equipment” like canvas tents to place in the yard for a show and social function.
You call the company and they come pick up the tent. Kids had parents that used them as props. Once the show was done, the kid got to “wing it through life until the next social function.”
Share The Dreams
Parents don’t seem able to share imagination and their dreams with their kids anymore. Manners, common sense, civility were actions that parents once taught their kids. Now, it seems kids are basically creatures that survive on their own in the wilds of life. No one takes the time to respect and teach the kids.
Kids are left to “fend for themselves” like humanized wild dogs. Kids walk upright and grumble, rather than foam at the mouth. All of the Edu-ma-cated Experts of the 1970s did was make kids “accessories” for “older kids who needed to play parents for their careers.”
In the early 21st Century, it is even easier for the adults, they hand the kid an electronic gadget. The light comes on and the kid is mesmerized like a deer in the headlights. For minutes to hours, the kid gets “sucked in” to the electronic abyss and passes their time.
Parents still don’t check on their kids’ so they don’t know if the kid is using the gadget to gain knowledge and work on hand and eye coordination or if the kid is trying to become a “drug courier”, or is using the knowledge to build a pipe bomb in the basement.
Do 20 Questions
My mother always “played 20 questions” with me every afternoon when I came home from school. I had to try and remember what I had for lunch. She wanted to know if I had homework. What kind of homework ? What kind of day I had ?
Momma’s “Nightly 20 Question” routine was all about teaching me to be responsible and reminding me of what I had done during the day. It let me know I had a mom, who loved me and cared about me. After my afternoon debrief, she would usually head back down on the hill to check on an old sow or we might go to some kind of social function.
The Grapevine Is Still FREE
It never did any good to with hold information from momma. In the prehistoric days before facebook, twitter, yoono, linked in and all the other social media networks; In The Ozarks, there was still “The Grapevine.”
Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, relatives, friends and neighbors always talked about the kids. Everyone knew “The Good Kids” and everyone knew “The Bad Kids.” If you acted up at school, someone made a phone call and you were “busted” before you ever walked in the door.
If I had acted up at school, I had to stand tall and explain, “My Side Of The Story.” If it was one of those nights, I had homework, she would check the cattle across the road or check on an old sow, but, she always made a point to “check on me.” I never felt like a neglected or “discarded kid.”
People always love to talk. People share the stories about their kids. If you are a grandparent or parent just let people know you love your kids and you want to hear about them. People will make the telephone or cell phone call to let you know. With or without the social media networks, the grapevine still works and it is still FREE.
The Big Red M
Grandparents and parents should remember to listen to the kid’s side of the story. Momma always listened to my side and weighed all the facts before she responded.
I knew I was a “Momma’s boy on a mission.” In the years ahead, I would figure out my mission, but, in childhood – I got to be a kid, have fun and be treated with respect.
I never saw “The Big Red M” on the chest of a super heroine costume in one of momma’s closets. I never found “The Big Red F” on a super hero costume in one of daddy’s business suit wardrobe. Regardless, I had “Super” parents because they loved me, respected me and let me “be a kid.”
I had a Mother, who knew the M word was more than six letters in an English dictionary that meant a little girl becomes an older girl and swaps out her plastic dolls for a personal miniaturized biological lifeform.
Parental ‘Brood Sow ‘ Mentality
“Having Kids” and “Raising Kids” is not the same thing.
I grew up on a hog farm in Missouri,”any old ‘brood sow ‘can have kids. You put her with an old boar for a few days and then in a few weeks, she has her kids. Most of our old brood sows were good mothers. They looked after and took care of their kids.
Shame on me I didn’t check any of them for “Postpartum Depression.: I didn’t have to. They knew what it meant to be a mother and take care of their kids.
I grew up on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks, where mothers and fathers took care of their kids and they didn’t rely on the American psychiatric community coming up with a new form of depression to explain that Life is tough and requires work.
When it came the time to wean the pigs, I didn’t have to drag a TV out to the hog shed or the barn and tune in “Jerry Springer,” “Oprah,” or try to call “Dr. Phil.”
The old sows, of course, already new “how to teach” their kids A Fundamental Life Lesson parents in The Ozarks always told their kids of my generation: “Root Hog Or Die.” In the political correct vernacular of the early 21st Century, it means, “Life is tough; deal with it !”
Animals and wildlife still knows what it means to be “Mom and Dad” and let the kids, “Be Kids.” Humans we forget.
When an old brood sow in Missouri does a better job of raising her kids than some people, then, a parent needs to toss the books from the “Edu-ma-cated Experts” and make a cell phone call to Mom or Dad.
People claim to be smarter than ‘brood sows.’
I’m The Older Kid
I respect and admire my nieces and nephews they are great kids. I know I give them more advice than they want.
But, hey, I am “The Older Kid.” I am the five year old kid with 52 years experience. I have the seniority and the rank of age. I have been there. I have done that. I have all the T-shirts and all the hats.
My goal as their “Uncle Sam” is to love, respect, and help them enjoy their young lives. The day will come soon enough when they have to do “The Silly Adult Thing” of working to earn a living. They will have to “Take Themselves Way Too Seriously.”
No doubt, they might even have a bad boss that makes will make their life miserable. They might even forget that being a kid meant that you are suppose to learn How To Love And Enjoy Your Life.
Play Into Your Jobs
Any job will give you money to put food on the table and pay your bills. Find the job that you enjoy.
As a kid, if you sat on the floor with a play cash register and get all excited about counting your play money, then, when you grow up you probably will enjoy being an economist, stock broker or banker. Go for it.
One of the best things about childhood is you get to “Play Into Your Job” that you want in Life. You don’t have to be the President of the United States of America or the President of the Philippines to sit on the kitchen floor and remind your action figures or your dolls, “ I’m in charge ! ”
If you wanted to be an astronaut; why are you working as a landscaper ? Turn in your trowel and live your dream. Fine. You may be too old for NASA. Maybe you don’t have enough or the right “Edu-ma-cation.” Big deal.
Use the brain God gave you. Use you Common Sense. Find a way to live your dream. Gene Roddenberry wrote some scripts and remarked that he had an idea about “Wagon Train to the stars.” It worked out well for him. Star Trek is a factor of global cultures.
Robert Goddard, an American kid, who built rockets in his yard followed his dream that led to Mercury, Gemini , Apollo and made human spaceflight possible.
The Chinese built their firework rockets centuries ago, but it took a kid with a dream to realize “How To Ride A Rocket To The Moon And Back.”
Everyone is always more capable of doing things than they give themselves credit for.
A Job For “Uncle Sam”
Over the holidays, the kids have been keeping themselves occupied. They seem bored.
This is a job for their “Uncle Sam.”
I didn’t really need the radio-controlled helicopter in the bright and shiny box. But, I never had one as a kid.
A few months ago, I had an experimental prototype helicopter , but the kids didn’t get a chance to fly it. We decided to see if “Saldana One” would fly.
Being “The Older Kid” I handled the January 2, 2013 refueling operation. It burst into flames. The plastic housing of the cockpit burned away. I was left with the charred radio controlled gadgets on the fuselage frame and the twin alloy tail rotor booms. I overcharged it.
Unfortunately, “Saldana One” was experimental from the git-go because it was an “Impulse Buy” that I reacted to, rather than researched. I re-designated the aircraft “Saldana One YX.” Reclassified as an experimental aircraft I could feel better about placing the rotary wing aircraft in my backyard “boneyard” to become part of the ecology.
Plus, I could not justify to my wife, Christy, my version of Congress, the needed “budget expenditure” to add a model aircraft into my “inventory.”
I decided Sam and the kids needed to get in or get out of aviation.
Gee, retired Air Force; I wonder what my decision will be ?
I spent two hours in the Gaisano Central toy department. The sales girls were looking at me funny. I considered braking into a chorus of “Off we go into the wild blue yonder.” Instead, I smiled, put down the big box and picked up a box with a tiny muddy camo colored helicopter
The tiny camo chopper didn’t “sing” at me. I looked at the egg beater that fires plastic rockets and realized they would be lost in the front yard for future archaeologists to discover.
The plastic G.I., on the retractable line from the whirlybird looked cool, but, I decided to start the kids with civil aviation.
The news chopper really caught my eye because it had the built in video, which was obviously a camera lens on a platform below the fuselage, but it had a boring white paint job.
The beautiful metallic red and blue choppers sat at the bottom in big boxes. I read all the information on the front back and sides of the box. These rotary wing aircraft “sang to me.”
A Filipino man, who had been studying the model aircraft inventory pointed at the white chopper. “This helicopter has video,” he smiled.
“It really is cool,” I replied. He looked at the white chopper.
I held the red chopper box and looked at it. “Sky rockets in flight. Afternoon delight.” The words echoed in my ears. I glanced down at the blue helicopter hangar-ed in the box.
I put the big boxed red chopper back and picked up the big boxed blue helicopter. Words came to mind: “Jolly Green Giant”, UH-1, “Huey”, “Apache”, “Air Wolf”, and I saw my grin reflected on the plastic window of the box.
I looked at the metallic blue chopper for a moment and recalled a UH-1 chopper flight I had had the opportunity to board a 13th Air Force helicopter from the parade ground out of Clark Air Base.
The wind in my face and the whirling rotor blades made me feel like at last I could fly with the angels. I could look out across the horizon at the checkerboard pattern of rice fields until we touched down in Manila.
I stepped off the Huey in my blue uniform with my camera in hand and familiar song lyrics singing in my mind. I looked back down at this blue model helicopter in the box.
I bought the big blue boxed helicopter and strolled out of the store with the familiar song lyrics singing in the back of my mind.
Junea Tanahale “pilots” the controls of “Warren One” as the chopper rises to fly in the Philippines’ sky, while Vanissa, her cousin, watches. Nikon D 200 Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Flight Line Time
Today, I’ got to “Be A Kid.” Rayniel and I did the preflight check and maintenance last night. We put the eight double A batteries in the helicopter. Junea and Vanissa looked at the helicopter manual. I charged up the chopper, earlier in the day. The movie, “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl” just ended. Aunt Christy and the kids watched the movie, while I wrote this editorial.
Rayniel carries the aircraft. Vanissa and Junea fall in step behind Rayniel toward our imaginary “Red Horse” runway.
I grab my Nikon camera and follow the kids. Rayniel does his preflight of the helicopter on the Barangay Baras road and takes the radio control unit. I zoom in on the chopper. The rotors spin.
We, kids start to have fun.
The chopper starts to rise. I begin to take photos. The blades are rotating and the chopper is singing. Over the digital camera shutter, I hear the familiar song lyrics singing in my mind,and the song lyrics sing in my mind:
,”. . .nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force.”
Enjoy Life !
Fly With The Angels !
Sam
Radio Controlled Helicopter Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_helicopter
Radio Controlled Aircraft Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_aircraft
Experimental Aircraft List Wikipedia
Welcome to 2013 by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
New Year’s Eve Party sings the year in in style
Welcome to 2013 !
Silent Supper
Christy Warren and Leneil Sadana sit down to a silent New Year’s Eve supper. Mano Bito, in the background of the snapshot, watches TV news coverage of the countdown to 2013. After I take this snapshot, I take a plate and sit down to supper.
The conversation is sparse. We all wonder if Ranilo Saldana’s classmates will attend the New Year’s Eve Party. Snapshot by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Supreme.
I rate Ranilo Saldana’s New Year’s Eve Party,”Supreme.”
Ranilo Saldana had the idea for a New Year’s Eve Party to welcome in the new year. “Aunt Christy” Warren liked the idea as well.
Even before Christmas was over, they discussed ideas and started small tasks. December 26, 2012, Aunt Christy was already, “swabbing the deck.” She had water and a mop and was mopping over the porch floor.
The furniture seemed to take on a life of it’s own. The final days of December 2012, the bamboo chairs, coffee tables and end tables kept moving around the porch in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evenings.
By December 30, 2012, it was mentioned that in rural Leyte people stay around home on New Year’s Eve. The classmates might not show up for the party.
The Whole Hog Concept Of Partying
Nonetheless – New Year’s is New Year’s. In the United States, the day embodies the hope and optimism of the coming year. Thus, you gear up to welcome the new year. As we say,in the Ozarks, “You go whole hog.”
The “whole hog” times of life means you set aside conservative thoughts and go liberal. You pull out all the stops and do what you want to do. Common sense, of course, reminds you that you are not going to do something that will hurt you or others. Common sense, further reminds you, not to spend your last centavo on a celebration or party because you will want to be able to eat again tomorrow.
Overall, the”whole hog”concept as it relates to a party means you will do what it takes to have fun for you and your friends without you going broke or doing something that will put you behind bars for breaking the law.
Christy and Ranilo set up the karaoke arrangement of the TV, DVD player, speakers and the temperamental microphone. Mano Bito cut the bamboo limbs to use as decorations. The disco ball was in place.
New Year’s Eve evening the only thing missing was the guests.
Christy Warren and Leneil Saldana had been busy in the kitchen and the table had been set.
Would the guests show ?
While I wait for the guests to arrive, I jot down a note to outline men’s fashion issues in my New Year’s Eve article for my readers. The article within the article would address the barong and business suits. The article would point out my successes with these styles of attire.
My Business Barong
I put aside my T-shirt and walking shorts and went with denim jeans and a yellow barong. A barong, is a formal shirt in the Republic of the Philippines.
The holiday significance of the evening tempted me to consider wearing my military mess dress uniform. However, since the guests were suppose to be teenagers; I didn’t want to walk in and “Freak Them Out.” A duty military uniform can make some adults uncomfortable just walking past you on a sidewalk in the United States.
I decided the chevron and the medals would of probably made the young guests feel like they were in a military recruiter’s office and I would leave recruitment to the professionals, who get paid to do the job.
The barong has all the prestige of a tuxedo and the formal appeal of a white dinner jacket with slacks or a white sport coat with slacks. The message is simple: “This is a social function, but my professional attire means I am willing to talk and do business.”
The beauty of the Philippines’ barong is it is a designed article of clothing that is conscious that weather can and does affect formal dress. The barong is always comfortable like a T-shirt or polo shirt.
Business suits and military mess dress uniforms are always impressive, sometimes stylish, but, seldom comfortable, especially if you are in a situation where you will be wearing the clothing for a long period of time.
The barong has the debonair and panache of a tuxedo and escaped associations with the leisure suit. Leisure suits were popular in the United States in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Leisure Suit Lament
The Leisure Suit is basically a long shirt and slacks. Leisure suits are comfortable attire. On a temporary duty assignment to the Kingdom of Thailand, in Bangkok, I located a tailor, who was willing to try my designs and deliver my tailored leisure suits.
I designed seven. One for each day of the week. I looked at the bolts of cloth and choose a rainbow of colors. I had a light blue leisure suit and a dark navy blue leisure suit. I had a dark green leisure suit, but I did not choose red because there were no casual or formal functions that a red leisure suit would work at at that point in my life.
I kept the leisure suits and wore them out. Even after the “fad” passed, I kept the leisure suits because they were comfortable and functional. In essence, a leisure suit is really a combination of a barong and a matching pair of slacks.
In the tropics, the leisure suits were really a brilliant idea because they were comfortable and provide a bridge between casual walking shorts, jeans and business suits.
Unfortunately, negative publicity quickly made leisure suits obsolete. The Leisure Suit Larry computer game was hitting big in the United States about the same time that the fashion fad of leisure suits was gaining ground.
Leisure suits seemed to quickly disappear as a man’s fashion choice in the States and men were back to either denim jeans, sport coats and slacks or business suits.
Leisure suit-style uniforms can still be found as fashionable in some places in Asia and the tropics.
Common Fashion Sense
Women have no problem wearing colored pants; men sometimes have the “macho” mindset that men should not wear brightly, colored or loud pants. Women have always had “fashion sense”, which explains why the fashion businesses or the world concentrate on trying to impress a woman.
A man’s concept of “fashion sense” is “Barbarian Basic.” If the religious, political, moral, business and social ethics of the world would allow, a man would wander around the world, naked, or only wearing a towel or a pair of denim jeans.
Thank God for Mothers ! Thanks to mothers, a boy learns at an early age not to mix plaids and stripes to wear out in public. A loving mother does not let her little boy grow up without some “common fashion sense.”
Suddenly, the global publicity took a negative spin on leisure suits. The attire became yesterday’s news. People began to associate the clothing with grandfathers whose fashion sense seemed antiquated.
Coveralls’ Culpability
The people who didn’t like leisure suits would point to overweight men in polyester coveralls and snicker that the man looked like a guy in a leisure suit. Dumb comparison.
Coveralls are basically bathrobes with legs. Instead of a terry cloth bathrobe belt coveralls have a zipper or Velcro fly. Coveralls are important work uniforms. You slip on a pair of coveralls and you go out and feed hay to the cattle in winter. Those type of coveralls contain insulation to keep you warm.
Men’s coveralls really do not work for casual or formal dress functions because once a man gets past his 20s or 30s, then, the physical silhouette of his body changes and men usually look like they have a “Beer Belly.”
The skintight, form fitting polyester men’s coveralls of the 1970s unfortunately called attention to a man’s physical appearance. Any man on the planet past age 22 always “looked like an old sow about ready to drop a litter of pigs.”
God’s “Beer Belly “ Design For Men
When God designed Man, He knew Men had no need for a wider or larger pelvic girdle like women, so He didn’t add that design detail to a Man’s body. Thus.men need a belt or suspenders to hold their pants up.
With or without alcohol, over time a Man’s body ages and gravity pulls at the stomach. “The Middle Age Spread” for men means nature has lowered your stomach and around your hips your favorite belt is going to “fit” differently.
Look in the mirror. A young man puts on a belt and the buckle “Points Out At The World” and that image is reflected in the mirror.
A middle age man puts on a belt and the buckle “Points Down At The Ground” and that image is reflected in a full length dress mirror.
Readers, notice for yourself, that at a certain age men have “The Beer Belly Flaw.” Look at the pictures in newspapers and magazines, especially at the side views of men and you will notice that “the belly pushes the belt buckle down.”
No article of clothing really hides or melts away “The Beer Belly Flaw.” In pictures of Arab leaders you will notice that in their robes that age has elaborated and elongated their bellies as well.
Appearance conscious men realize that age does their physical appearance no favors and they try to work around “The Beer Belly Flaw” with a suspender option; it doesn’t work. Suspenders and overall galluses pull the pants up and actually make the beer belly more noticeable.
I don’t wear suspenders often because to me they are uncomfortable. In my case, they would always rub over and feel like a weight on my shoulders. Whether the suspenders were clip on or the button-hole type, I could never get the suspenders to adjust to my level of comfort.
Some men resort to girdles for physical appearance or health issues like a back injury. The health issue is an understandable concern. A girdle looks uncomfortable.
God has a sense of humor. He gave women the pain of childbirth to remind them as a mother that she has a responsibility to love and care for her child. Men did not get off “Scott Free”. God gave men “The Beer Belly” to remind them of their responsibility as a father to love and raise their child.
For nine to 10 months, God made it obvious that a woman is “Pregnant.” Forget the”Healthy Glow” and look at a woman’s body – the obvious physical appearance screams, “I’m Pregnant !”
God’s sense of humor is evident with Men because while a woman carries and gives birth to a child, God reminds the father and grandfather’s of their responsibility by giving them “The Beer Belly.” The sense of humor is: “Pregnancy lasts around ten months. Parental Responsibility lasts a lifetime.”
The vanity of physical appearance is a personal issue of a man. You can’t beat age, but, you can reach an acceptable compromise with common sense and some effort.
In my lifetime, I have never noticed or discovered an article of clothing that will remove the physical design of “The Beer Belly.” However, leisure suits do seem to make a man’s middle-age and senior citizen “bulk” less obvious.
Leisure Suits Conceal Beer Belly
The nice thing about fashion is if something in the past had many people that loved the clothing or the style then the item will return. The bad thing is bad fashion ideas come back also.
Leisure suits’ main trump card with men is they were comfortable. For dress or business, once, a man had his slacks on, all you had to do was slip on a clean, white, cotton athletic T-shirt over your body and then slip on and button up the leisure suit shirt.
Leisure suits’ secondary trump card is they were functional and fast. Business suits require matching shirts and matching ties to the color and style of the suit. For instance:You don’t wear a wide tide with narrow lapels.
Sam’s Style
Business Appearance
Rules For Men
In the Real World, in your lifetime you will, no doubt, have an event where you need to at least look like a business man or a business women. I was fortunate to have a mother, who from an early age noticed my appearance. If I crawled out of bed looking like a creature from the sewer, she would not letting me go out in public until I at least looked human.
Around 1973, I learned about “Gentlemen’s Quarterly” magazine. For years I bought monthly copies. Momma had taught me all of the basics of public and business dress. “GQ” pointed out style changes, fads and used the terms that a man would use in working with his tailor for a new business suit or tuxedo.
Thanks to Momma and GQ, whenever I don a business suit, I know I will be successful.
I am passing on these rules that I have used and hope they will benefit my readers. Keep in mind, “Everything changes.” so what worked a week ago; may not work today. Life is usually cyclical, which means at some point the 1940s hairstyle for women will be a fashion focus for a time for women.
A major point to remember in business dress is to “Dress Conservative.” Women would not wear a PVC,Spandex or Lycra dress to a business interview. Women know better.
Men should not wear a sport coat and basketball shorts to a business interview; but, someone usually has to tell a man because men don’t always listen when their mothers are trying to tell them not to go outside looking like a dork.
The Business Of Business Suits
Business shirts and dress shirts, means the neck size has to be comfortable for a man. If the buttoned collar is too tight, then, you unbutton the collar and find a tie stay or tie bar to slip under the necktie that will hold the collar down and give the collar the appearance of being buttoned.
Learn To Tie Your Tie
Business suits require neckties or bow ties. Clip on neckties and bow ties have to be manufacturer by fashion designers, who know how to make the tie seem natural when worn.
If you do not know how to tie a necktie or a bow tie: Learn. A badly tied necktie is a “Visual Eye Sore.”
Business Bow Ties
A bow tie can work with a man’s business suit and look professional. The secret is the man has to select the bow tie.
Before you buy the tie, look at your face in the mirror and hold up the bow tie. The bow tie calls attention to your neck and the area around your nose. If you look like an “Off Duty Clown”; choose another bow tie or select a necktie.
French Cuffs
Business suits require dress shirts that may have French cuffs. I love French cuffs on my business shirts. French cuffs require cuff links since there is “No Button” to hold the cuffs.
White Suits
Business suits require the right material. Forget “The Memorial Day White Sale Mentality” that says you never wear white until after Memorial Day. That idea disappeared around 1965 or 1966, when women started wearing white anytime of the year. Mark Twain loved his white suits. He must have had closets full. There are many pictures of Mark Twain in a white suit.
Men can wear white. Men can wear white business suits. Men who wear white business suits should be conscious of the style – because if you look like a “Bozo”, someone will smile and give you directions to the circus.
Business Suit Weather Considerations
Business suits rely on climate for comfort material choices. You do not wear a paper thin tropical business suit to Alaska, Russia, China, Korea, Missouri or any other cold climate in the dead of winter unless you want to rush out and buy a heavy parka. If you do business in states or countries with cold, winter climates then choose wool or a heavy fabric for your business sport coats and suits to remain attractive, comfortable and warm.
Salute To Sharkskin Suits
“Sharkskin Suits” are the shiny business suits. I loved my sharkskin suits. When I found a tailor in the Kingdom of Thailand, while on a temporary duty assignment, I sketched out the design I wanted and ended up with two beautiful business suits, a shiny silver and a light blue shiny suit. I wore them out going to parties, instead of board rooms.
The sharkskin suits are beautiful material that plays with the lights. Entertainers love shark skin suits because they seem wired with electricity because light brings out the sheen of the material, even in a dark room.
Sharkskin business suits are beautiful and do work in a business setting, but, you have to match your accessories from your wrist watch down to your cuff links and your socks to make sure the accessories compliment and do not challenge or make the sharkskin suit seem gaudy or garish.
Sharkskin suits were popular business suits in the late 1970s and early to mid-80s. Unfortunately, the late 1970s to the mid-1980s was “The Era Of The American Televangelists”. Every two-bit con man with a Holy Bible and a buddy with a video camera started their own “Ministries” and empty your pockets for God scheme.
The televangelist became so associated with the sharkskin suits that it did not matter whether a minister was credible or a conman because the shiny suits got unjustly associated with the “crooked preachers” of the era and the suits went into storage.
Business Suits Genius Of Style
Business suits usually require accessories. The overall business suit design for a man or a woman is a pure work of genius because the suit gives an overall uniform appearance to people committed to being, acting and dressing in a professional manner.
Women have the option to choose a skirt or slacks to go with their business suit attire. Women have learned since they were little girls how to “accessorize.”
The Breast Pocket Handkerchief
Men need to learn to pay attention to the accessories they choose to compliment there business suits. In the early 21st century, men are still “ignoring” the breast pocket of the business suit.
For the record, guys: A handkerchief goes in the exterior breast pocket of a business suit. The handkerchief is functional because it can be removed to wipe sweat from your brow in an emergency. It is wiser to carry a clean, folded, white cotton handkerchief in a rear pants pocket.
The breast pocket handkerchief is an important accessory. The presence on the business suit states, “I Pay Attention To Detail.” In the good old days of business suits, breast pocket handkerchiefs came boxed with a matching necktie.
“Always Carry A Handkerchief.”
Gentlemen, if you ignored your mother; listen to me, “Always carry a handkerchief.” The second handkerchief is the most important and should always been in a rear pants pocket or an inside breast pocket of a suit. It can be used to wipe sweat off your forehead, take care of tears or sneezing. And, any one of a bazillion situations that come up from a wound dressing to waving down a taxi; you can use a white handkerchief for.
Business suit accessories include your watch and your rings. Silver, gold, black or brown leather watchbands are business staples. Pay attention to the rings you wear with your business suit. Pay attention to the socks you wear with your business suit.
Slip On The Shoes
Shoes are important with the business suit, They should be stylish and comfortable. If you wear basketball sneakers with your business suit, I would hope the company calls building security and either has you escorted off the premises or transported to the nearest mental institution. Basketball shoes are for the basketball court; never for the world of business.
Boots ? If someone is from a western or southern state of the United States or some part of the world where the boots are normal footwear, then, they should be accepted as business footwear. The key is to go with the traditional colors of black and brown to compliment and not overwhelm the suit.
Hat Headliners
Hats ? Hats have style. Hats are functional because they keep the sun out of your eyes, keep the rain off your head, hold your hair back and in cold climates a hat helps to retain some of your body heat. Fedoras were popular business hats of the 1940s through 1960 in the United States to be worn with a business suit.
Western hats should be considered a cultural tradition for people who live in the American south or west, so they should be considered a part of the business attire. The key with an appropriate Western hat is the crown and the brim. The crown and the brim should compliment the wearer’s face and not overwhelm or hide the wearer’s face. Leave “The Goat Roper” wide brim, tall crown western hat in the pickup and choose a more conservative style like a Stetson stockman hat to wear with your business suit.
Baseball caps are not hats. Baseball caps are for playing baseball. If you wear a baseball cap with your business suit I would hope building security removes you from the premises and possibly has you transported with the “basketball sneaker” wearer to the nearest mental facility. Baseball caps look dumb with business suits and a business suit is designed to be professional.
Quick Change
One of the greatest selling points of “The Leisure Suit” is the “Quick Change.” Just like Clark Kent running into the phone booth to change into “Superman,” the Leisure Suit gave men the ability to quickly change into a professional business style of dress that looked presentable, professional, and comfortable.
A business suit is a professional form of dress that require conscious effort in the selection and wear of the suit. The leisure suit allows men to bypass a whole series of decisions that should be made in the wear of a business suit.
The leisure suit being a comfortable and functional designed shirt with matching slacks solves a majority of the issues that have to be considered with a business suit. Plus with a leisure suit you do not wear a necktie or a bow tie. It is acceptable to keep the top button unbuttoned.
The other major plus of a leisure suit is age makes a man’s “beer belly”predominant. Some men their stomachs literally shout,”In Your Face !” The leisure suit seems to overcome the physical appearance issue by design. The material like any shirt rests on a man’s shoulders and the length of the material hangs down long enough to cover the stomach without drawing undue attention to it.
Forget the belt with a leisure suit. The belt brings back the “Beer Belly.”
Super Supper
I look at the clock on the wall and realize that 2012 is about to be history. Ranilo’s young guests have not arrived.
While Christy and Leneil cater dishes to the table. Mano Bito arrived, The black disco ball light slowly spun colored lights out around the bamboo decor
Everyone anxiously awaited the Noche Buena feast, a few days ago. I love food. I am always anxious about dinner.
The magick furniture had at last settled into positions that would allow people to be able to use the microphone and TV for “Karaoke Night.” A large enough area of the floor remained vacant to allow for dancing.
My appetite recognized the containers of Pancit Canton and fried rice. The platter of lumpia confirmed that 2012 was being sent into oblivion with a full dinner table of delicious food. The last platter had watermelon, pineapple and an assortment of nuts.
I lost no time, seating myself at the table and satisfying my appetite. Christy, Leneil and Ramon joined me.
One nice factor of being a writer, you can use your imagination to look at the end of the table and watch women in evening gowns and men in tuxedos and white dinner jackets with pink carnations stepping out on to the dance floor. Balloons bob about, while the orchestra in their dinner jackets play the music of the evening. My “Secret Life Of Walter Mitty” mindset is interrupted by the brief visit of Rafael and Virgie Saldana
Rafael and Virgie Saldana stopped by to say, “Happy New Year !” They didn’t stay for dinner.
The black disco ball spins out it’s colored lights across the bamboo decor I notice the lights briefly wash over the Christmas Tree. It reminded me of Aunt Bill and Uncle Audrey Irwin’s small silver artificial tree and the color wheel still decorating one of my holiday memories of the 1960s.
After supper, dreams of a Waldorf Astoria New Year’s Eve Party were vanishing. The hours had become minutes. Each passing minute cast aside a New Year’s Eve Party dream.
The clock on the wall displayed the civilian digits of 1-0 and I smile at the military memory of “2200 hours.” I smiled at Christy and remembered the New Year’s Eve Party at Clark Air Base, where famous Filipina singer, Regine Velasquez sang in the new year.
Carry Out The Plan
Life has taught me you never give up on a plan.
A celebration is always a celebration. New Year’s Eve is one of those celebrations that you should always celebrate because everyone only gets so many holidays and celebrations in their lifetime. It is silly and senseless to waste a single one.
I Am A Party Of One
The nice thing about having grown up an “only child” is I can appreciate “The Party Of One” concept. You maybe “alone”, but, you are not “lonely”, unless you choose to be.
If I want to party, whether I am in the middle of the Sahara Desert or in an igloo at the South Pole, I will find a way to “Par – tay”.
In my lifetime, I have made it my mission to “uproot wall flowers” and try to get them out on the dance floor. I stroll to the karaoke setup and browse through Christy’s collection.
I play the “One Night In Bangkok” selection and begin to dance. The nice thing about your senior citizen years is the “Liberation.” People look at your white hair and wrinkles and, no doubt, consider your possible “senility.”
Alas, my friends, if you live long enough, you too will sport the snow on the roof.
Sam’s Psychology Of Dancing 101
The kids and the adults watch Sam slippin’ and slidin’ across the dance floor. At first, they snicker, giggle and laugh. Minutes pass and before long, I am not alone on the dance floor.
Years of people watching and barroom boredom have taught me that people like to dance; few are willing to be the first to “get out on the dance floor.”
An empty dance floor simply means I have room to dance. Once a person or a couple begin to dance, then, other people who really wanted to dance will sneak or proudly strut out on to the dance floor.
After all, whether they realize it or not, people come to a dance – to dance. Sam’s Psychology Of Dancing 101 seldom fails because people do like music and people do like to dance.
Sometimes in the Real World people become so grown up that they forget sometimes to allow the “kid within” to slip on his dance shoes and party down.
The kids were enjoying kid style dancing and the adult were making brave attempts to overcome their “nervous knees” and actually cut loose and dance.
The kids were having fun. I’m too old not to have fun. I put in the“Rock Around The Clock” selection, closed my eyes and mentally time traveled back to a dance of my youth.
Dynamic DeMolay Dance
The Ozarks Chapter of the Order of DeMolay boys went to the dance in Republic. Missouri. It was a formal function, which meant we wore coats and ties to the dance. Rainbow Girls and Job’s Daughters in their evening gowns waited patiently for the DeMolay boys in their stylish 1970s attire to ask “the girls to dance.”
A nice blessing of having been “A Momma’s Boy” in my youth is I put my mother on a pedestal. My allegiance to my mother meant that I have always respected and been attracted to girls and women. Therefore, anytime as a youth I noticed an attractive girl or woman, she became “Helen Of Troy Incarnate.”
At the dance, under the spinning disco ball of light, across the room I noticed a beautiful young brunette woman in an evening gown, Donna Knight. She did me the honor of walking out on the dance floor with me.
I have always hoped that I did not embarrass her. My formal dance training consisted of copying the moves of Elvis in his movies, My dance philosophy has always been, “Let the music move you.” This dance was the first time that I had ever been permitted to dance in public. Stone County, Missouri’s religious values outlawed “dancing” and denied seniors a “prom.”
This night, my heart was beaming. My mind raced, My body reacted. Joy, exhilaration, excitement, celebration – No English dictionary on the planet contains enough words to describe the overwhelming positive emotions flowing through my body. I cloud dance. And, dance I did.
Although films like “Dirty Dancing,” and “Footloose,” had not been made,yet, like the leading men of those dance films, I was out on the dance floor dancing my heart out. My young lungs ached and my leg muscles went numb.
I love to dance.
Anytime I am in a situation, where people come to dance, but are reluctant to take the first step; I do.
I think back to the DeMolay dance. I realize one of the pleasures of life is being able to move your body in ways you never realized that your body could move.
Regardless of your age, if you do a freestyle form of dancing and allow the “music to move you”, you will shock and offend some people, so, be aware of not only how you dance, but where you dance.
To me, dancing and the right music is just too precious to waste sitting it out on the sidelines. When you see the digits 6 and 0 vaguely on the horizon, you might have to back off of the “No Pain, No Gain” approach to dancing, which means you might not want to spend as long out on the dance floor.
I left our dance floor to sit out the next song, Ranyiel stops dancing and picks up the microphone to sing. He kept the karaoke microphone warm with his Tagalog and English songs until his brother, Ranilo, returned with a guest.
Chrismar Mora, Ranilo’s cousin, stopped by.
A better karaoke microphone got plugged in and passed around. Sarge, our blue heeler, and Smiley, our mixed breed wooly dog, became our resident music critics and let loose their canine howls.
Forget the judges of “American Idol”, Sarge’s bass howl is a loud piercing ambulance siren wail that raises the hairs on the back of your neck.
Smiley’s tenor bark is rapid and persistent.
The canine karaoke judges voted with their barks only a couple of times during the evening. I realized it was time for me to quit trying to sing Beatles tunes.
Whenever Chrismar Mora took the microphone, it became as quiet as a church and you could hear a pin drop.
I can’t play an instrument; but, I can play a radio or a record player. I’m no musician, but I know what I like in instrumental and vocal music.
My Music Memories
My mother had always had a radio on somewhere around the house, when I was growing up, so country music became part of my genetic code. I got exposed to opera,jazz and various forms of music.
When I was working my way through college at KSOZ-FM at Point Lookout,Missouri, I would pay attention to singers and new releases.
I learned how to dance watching Elvis Presley movies and would imitate “The King’s”vocal style as a child. In grade school and high school, there had been the great hard charging rock and roll music of the 1960s.
As I remember, the early to mid -70s gave the world Bachman Turner Overdrive, ZZ Top, Boston, Rush and the “Heavy Metal” that reached into the souls of musicians and stress tested the absolute limits of instruments from guitars to pianos.
From Iron Butterfly’s In A Gadda Da Vida to Jethro Tull’s Aqualung, the music came in through your ears and the pores of your skin. It seemed the tone vibrations of the music always rattled the red and white blood cells flowing in your blood stream.
You might doze off on an elevator playing “Elevator Muzack”, but, “Heavy Metal” music seemed destined to flow through your body and attempt to bond to your immortal soul.
I love Rock and Roll and Heavy Metal because both types of music seem to flow into your bloodstream and challenge you to react. Rock and Roll and Heavy Metal music call to mind the Black Oak Arkansas lyric about standing in the Hall of Commons between the devil and God.
”Bubble gum” rock like Partridge Family music had a following. The movie “Saturday Night Fever” sent ever man in America to the tailor to find a white suit and try to learn to dance. Disco became a definite form of music overnight thanks to the movie.
Rap or Rat music?
I had been exposed to a lot of styles of music and could accept them all until “Rap.”
The introduction of “Rat” music “tuned me out,”
Take a boring, repetitive, rhythmic beat and apply it to the dirtiest words in the English language and you have a “Rap Hit” on your hands. Early rappers all seem to be “tone deaf convicted drug dealers on their way to Federal lockup.”
Like disco, everyone predicted “Rap” music would end; unfortunately, “Rat” music survived. As always the “Doomsday Prophets” were wrong and fast talking vulgar noise became an accepted part of the music industry.
By the 1990s, I might hear a song, but unless there was something special from the 1980s on, I didn’t get all that excited about music,with a few notable exceptions like Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler and Huey Lewis and the News.
“This young man can sing !”
My skepticism and cynicism of global music “took the night off.” Chrismar Mora proved there are still people in the world who can sing and bring back the feeling of a song. As we say, in the Ozarks, “This young man can sing !”
Chrismar Mora’s voice singing along to the words on the karaoke screen reminded me that music could be beautiful, interesting and soothe the soul.
Happy New Year 2013 !
The TV shuttled back and forth between the ABS and CBN countdown and the GMA countdown to midnight. The family, began the remarks of “Happy New Year !” The fireworks in the distance exploded to signal the arrival of the new year. A slight breeze stirred through the tropic night and Christy commented, “A cool breeze.”
After the welcome of 2013, family members began easing off to bed. I really appreciated Chrismar’s singing,so I stayed on the bamboo loveseat until 2 am. Ranyiel relinquished his microphone and went to bed. Ranilo would take a turn at the mike now and then. Sarge and Smiley had voted against my singing earlier in the evening, so I sat back and listened.
My eyes became heavy. I remember a lyric about “singing until the break of day.” Perhaps, Ranilo and Chrismar did. I felt the party had been a success.
My recognition of the definite presence of 2013 came thanks to a familiar song I heard on New Year’s Day. Family members and friends arrived to spend some time with us on New Year’s Day/
In the midst of the conversations, I heard music coming from a distance through the jungle. I recognized the voice of Bonnie Tyler, singing. “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
For my readers, I wish you the best that 2013 can bring to you.
Happy New Year
2013 !
Sam
New Year’s Party Links
Regine Velasquez
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_Encarnacion_Ansong_Velasquez
Barong Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barong_Tagalog
Tuxedo Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuxedo
Military Mess Dress Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mess_dress
Sharkskin Suits Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharkskin
Gentlemen’s Quarterly “GQ” Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GQ
GQ Magazine Online
Secret Life Of Walter Mitty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Walter_Mitty
One Night In Bangkok Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Night_In_Bangkok
Rock Around The Clock Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Around_The_Clock
Order of DeMolay Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_DeMolay
Rainbow Girls Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Girls
Job’s Daughters Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job%27s_Daughters
In A Gadda Da Vida Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_A_Gadda_Da_Vida
Black Oak Arkansas Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Oak_Arkansas
Saturday Night Fever Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Fever
Helen Of Troy Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Of_Troy
Total Eclipse of the Heart Wikipedia
lhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_of_the_Heart
Waldorf Astoria Hotel Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf-Astoria_Hotel
Clark Air Base Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Air_Base
Singing Sensation–The Discovery–by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Record executives get ready for “The Voice”
The first international singing sensation of 2013, “a son of a Filipino rice farmer”
The Discovery
by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
American and Filipino record company executives wake up ! I have your first major singing sensation for 2013.
Chrismar Mora, 16, of Barangay Cameri, is a young man with a voice that will amaze record company executives
Ranilo Saldana, Chrismar’s first cousin, held a New Year’s Eve party. They plugged the microphone into the holiday karaoke setup. Years rolled away and youth returned compliments of “The Voice.”
Chrismar sang the words on the screen and his voice reminded me that I once loved and enjoyed listening to music.
I worked at KSOZ-FM in college. I “spun a few discs” back in the days of vinyl 33 1/3 and 45s. A few 78s got spun for the format, but we didn’t play a lot of these platters as a rule.
The National Public Radio station had a classical music format, which meant we aired The Texaco Metropolitan Opera with Tony Randall on Saturday afternoons. We aired more than our fair share of operas for even the most sophisticated New York City theatergoer. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture still echoes in my ears.
We did a lot of classical, some jazz and some blue grass broadcasts. Our station manager had no great love of rock and roll, so the :Ad Lib Itum” time slot was late at night before sign-off – for an hour or two of rock and roll.
I enjoyed playing “disc jockey”, but I was a print journalist at heart. So, I put my third class FCC license in the closet and put on the US Air Force uniform.
Since retirement, I leave “music” CDs, sound systems and the gadgets to my wife, Christy and our nieces and nephews going through their teenage years. Ranilo;s New Year’s Party woke me up.
“On Air”
I could see myself back in the studio, sitting at the board. I lean into the hanging microphone and reach out to the turntable with the first record cued up. I glance up at the clock overhead. I let the turntable go and the first notes echo in my headphones. I choose my words quickly and carefully, so I don’t “step on the intro.”
My words end, a second passes with the music and the singer begins to sing. Usually, this is the point, where you take off the headphones and drop them on the desk. This time, I lean back in the chair and close my eyes. The voice starts a video of memories in my mind.
Chrismar Natividad is a name that the International record company executives want to jot down on a notepad.
Record executives you should seek out this young man. He took the microphone to sing karaoke. I truly enjoyed listening to his voice. As we say, in the Ozarks:
“He can sing.”
Christy told me he has performed on “Leyte Idol”. She explained “Leyte Idol” is an IBC local televised entertainment show broadcast out of Palo, here in the Republic of the Philippines.
Nonetheless, Manila and Hollywood record scouts, agents and publicists get out your cell phones and have your assistants call the travel agent to book you on the first Philippine Airlines flight to Leyte.
“This young man can sing ! ”
The karaoke songs on the monitor were Tagalog love songs and English love songs and his voice brought emotion to the words on the screen. Your mind noticed the colorful video footage on the screen, but your ears locked on to his singing of the song.
His voice stirred my emotions and then eased into my soul to satisfy all my senses. His voice cleanses your soul I had the sense of being happy to be alive. I felt the feeling of life being lived around me
Taxi Time To LAX
Capitol Records, Artista, and Atlantic Records, you guys and gals wake up ! Grab the briefcase of paperwork and head for the airport. Here is a young singer, “too good” to go undiscovered.
On the way to LAX, you should make a cell phone call to “Billboard”. They might want to get a reporter and photographer on the same flight or the next flight to Leyte.
Here is a young man with a voice that will have young women doing the Beatlemania screams of their great-grandmothers at the airport and passing out at a glimpse of the singer. Think about the “Beatles” first trip to the United States when they got off the airplane and young girls went wild.
If you weren’t in the audience or watched the TV coverage then fire up your iPad to search it out on line.
Record studio executives in LA, you do not want to miss out on this young man’s talent. Book that flight to Leyte, now. If you hesitate, the record company executives in Manila, may hop a ferry and grab a fast jeepney to the province ahead of you.
Sam
samwarren55
I Welcome Readers’ Comments by Samuel E. Warren Jr,
leave a comment »
Readers are welcome to write back
I
Welcome
Readers’
Comments
Ready, Aim, Flash !
My Nikon F3 with motor wind, flash bracket and the Nikon flash gun is the basic photography setup that U.S. Air Force photographers assigned to base photo labs and as “Combat Camera” photographers carried to “shoot” photo assignments in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the photographers actually used a Sunpak flash gun. I used a Canon AE-1 Program camera to shoot the majority of my military photography for base newspaper articles.
Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
I love to write.
I know there are those Spam robots out in cyberspace that lock on and generate all kinds of junk.
Human Readers Welcome
Humans, real readers are always welcome to send me comments and I do reply.
My blog platform is Word Press. My theme is the FREE Word Press Journalist theme.
I let Word Press catch the majority of the spam and then check the folder to make sure, real comments aren’t being vaporized into oblivion.
If I have answered a particular question numerous times, then, I don’t respond because the answer or one exceedingly similar is already in the reader’s comment section of my blog.
I like to get feedback from readers. I like to know I inspired a reader or gave them an idea that they can use in their life.
Alien Readers Welcome
However, every few days I sit down and read my blog comments from readers.
I glance at the comments and the first ones that get deleted are the ones that look like a warehouse full of adding machines exploded because there are strings of numbers thrown into the message.
If an extraterrestrial intelligence is trying to communicate with me: “Dear Alien Life Form of Unknown Origin. My name is Sam. I ain’t a mathematician. Disengage your communications keypad and use the alphabetic one. Thank you.”
To all my friends at the Search for Extraterrestrial Life, i.e., SETI, if the Andorians, Klingons, Romulans, Vulcans or little green men email me, then, I’ll forward a copy of the email to you guys and NASA.
Relax, Mutual Unidentified Flying Object Network, I’ll forward a copy of the same email to you and The Center For UFO Studies In Rockville, Maryland.
Back in the world of human readers, I do glance over every email comment that I get on my blog. Some are obvious “Locked On And Trying To Use Your Blog To Be A Spam Spreader,” which means when it is obviously a ploy to use the blog, then, I delete the spam.
Advertisers Buy An Ad
I watch for the advertisers that try to promote everything from ambulance chasing legal services to spiffy new SEO software to up your statistics to search engines. Those emails get vaporized by the delete key.
I’m An English Bad Boy
Bad boy that I am; I break English rules. I write English to communicate.
I do not write English to teach it.
As a child, English teachers engineered “All The Rules Into My DNA”
The English teachers hardwired the information by requiring me to “Diagram Sentences.”
Then, as a reporter, I had to memorize the “Strunk and White” gospel on grammar and nit-noy English to the extreme.
Uncle Sam demanded that I “memorize”, live and breathe, “The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual.”
I see correct and proper English in my sleep.
English To Communicate
I am not on Her Majesty’s official staff and I am not writing a book for publication, so I write to communicate.
I write for fun.
Two – Ton Type
One of the major rules of English that I break often is the “Old All The Same Thoughts In One Paragraph Rule.” Back in the days of Shakespeare that silly rule might of made sense.
Then again, Will Shakespeare didn’t have a cell phone.
Poor Shakespeare, he never got a facebook account or got to type: LOL.
Legions of lawyers, doctors, academics and others who love those bureaucratic English paragraphs with their 40 sentences and the jargon bloated sentences don’t realize that all the professional vernacular words are weighing down their eyes.
The two tons of type that scholarly documents and legal paperwork rely on to make a point are a format technique that scares off readers. When your eyes scans a page and there are thick blocks of type, your eyes want to jump somewhere else.
Two tons of small artistic squiggles on a page tells your brain this is going to take some digging to get through all this type and make sense of it.
English Always Fashionable
I use the journalism layout technique.
Reporters know the eyes dance over words.
Important words get uniforms and ball gowns, which translates to big point size type and fancy fonts.
Too many sentences in one paragraph is a badly tailored suit. It doesn’t appeal to the eye and suit the mind.
English has to be “fashion conscious” to be read and understood. Words have to tempt the eye to get the reader.
English In A Bikini
I try to put my English in a bikini.
I go for short sentences. If the idea is too long and too many sentences start to fill out the paragraph, then, it is breast augmentation time for the paragraph.
English In A Bustier
If the paragraph starts to look to busty to my eye, then, I step into the literary closet of my mind and look at the wardrobe. I space between the sentences. If the paragraph still seems busty, then, I will add line art or a photo.
If I can’t find the appropriate art or photo I step back into the literary closet. I look at the sentences and chose a nice bustier.
After all, the right subhead pushes the copy up and out at the reader.
The point of any article is to get the words in your face and before your eyes so they will be noticed.
Comma Conversion
I like commas. They are cute and cuddly in their own way. English teachers do not like comma splices.
The cuddly comma outlines a series of words and sets off phrases for the eyes.
I worked in a radio station and sometimes we had to splice tape to splice out “Ah,” “Umm,” “Dah,” “Ur,” “Er”, and other unintelligent sounds. I like commas. I like splices.
Samuel E. Warren Junior English
The English speaking countries of the world have their own take on how to use, communicate, spell and arrange English to make sense in their countries and cultures.
Americans spell theater with the er. British spell theatre with the re.
Americans spell Manila one way. Filipinos spell there capitol city, Maynila.
English is a global language because it is flexible and adapts. English never lets silly rules drown out the language’s natural communications ability.
English’s flexibility is the reason why English thrives.
English as a language adapts.
Even a writer can tweak the Commandments Of English and “Yea, though, thou, might offend scores of English professors; who cares ?
If the message gets through to readers and your communication is understood, then, English as a language did what it is designed to do – it communicated !
In the 1970s, IMHO scribbled on paper would not mean anything to anyone.
Thus, like the BFF teenagers with their text messaging cell phones, I tweak English to suit my communication needs.
Warren Wonder Words
I like words.
Some words like War, Death, Land, Life, Love, and some others are not suppose to be capitalized because they are not “Nouns”, which, a noun is “a proper name of a person, place or thing.”
I capitalize War because War kills people, destroys property and lays Land to waste for decades to centuries.
I capitalize Death because it comes to us all.
I capitalize Land because the bloodiest Wars in history are always fought over Land, whether the War is a domestic Civil War or a foreign War, the bloodshed and Death toll demand that Land not be trivialized as lower case.
I capitalize Life because we all live it.
I capitalize Love because it is a significant human emotion.
From time to time, I will capitalize those English words known as articles and prepositions like The and Of. In a phrase, I want the words to stand out. When I put the word The with a word like car, I want the reader to know I am writing about The Car and not simply a car someone on the planet.
These two cabins are in Galena, Missouri on the banks of the James River in the Missouri Ozarks. Galena, Missouri in The Ozarks is the sight of The Last Official Public Hanging In The United States Of America and The Show Me State Of Missouri. Famous United States 7th District Congressman Dewey Short is a native son of Galena, Missouri. Galena gained notoriety in the 1930s as The Hometown of George Leonard “Shock” Short one of the most successful bank robbers of The Depression Era because his O’Malley Gang robbed banks throughout the Midwest and is one of the only gangs to successfully pull off two bank robberies at the same time.
Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Ozarks English
I grew up in the Ozarks. Thus, if I am in my country boy mode: “Reckon I is gona’ go and write them thar little ole’ words any way I darn well please. If’n ya don’t like it. Well, yous don’t have ta’ read my article. I hain’t gona loose none of my shut eye time over it.”
I grew up in The Ozarks, so if I want to use, talk or write “Ozarks’ English”, I reckon I have a better right than the people who never set foot in The Ozarks.
Spelling
Spelling, I believe is important. However, I will misspell an English word to make a point.
Magick – I always spell the word magick with a k.
Aleister Crowley’s spelling idea works. With the k on the end of the word, then, the reader knows that you are writing about supernatural, paranormal, or universal unseen forces in Life, which I call, “magick.”
When I write the word, “magic” it means I am writing about entertainment or stage magic.
I usually am a good boy when it comes to spelling. I might do the old Photo or Foto word switch every now and then,but usually I do not “purposely” misspell a word.
Spiritual English
I, God and Satan are “old drinking buddies.”
From time to time, I write about my immortal friends.
I will capitalize He when I write about Satan. After 21 Centuries, He has earned a captial H and daily headlines, show He isn’t retiring anytime soon.
God understands that I am one of those people that believes every object in Life has to have at least two parts. Everything in Life, at some level, is at least, one half of a whole.
Genetics reveals, all little boys genetically are first little girls. If the genetic material moves in a certain direction then the little girl is born a little boy – so, much for “The Macho World Concept.”
God grins when I capitalize the S and put it in front of he to create She. I sometimes write about Him, The Creator Of The Universe, in a Her sense.
Incidentally, when you are a Supreme Being; you don’t have “gender” and “orientation” issues. God asked me to pass that along the next time I did some religious English writing.
Now, that I have told readers to feel free to email me there comments, your writng is up to you.
English Professors Chill Out
I have outlined my use of English, so that the English Professors Of The World can
relax with a glass of sherry or port and curl up with their favorite leather bound Shakespeare play or Lewis Carroll’s “Alice In Wonderland” tale.
English Professors relax and chill out. English is a language that changes. The beauty is English can change and still communicate ideas that are understood.
I have outlined my approach to spelling English words, which means I know how to use my “Spell Checker” software and usually I do.
However, alas, I am still a mere mortal, so I make mistakes. Sometimes a word sneaks by me.
Oops, I’m human.
I have outlined my religious and spiritual approach to English, so “The Holy People In The World” can go ahead and bad mouth me.
I am Sam The Writer. I am Sam The Photographer.
If you want to send me comments about the articles and photos in my blog, I am sure I will enjoy reading them. I do reply. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I appreciate the readers, who take time to comment.
Sam
Share this:
Like this:
Written by samwarren55
January 12, 2013 at 8:52 AM
Posted in Bloggers, Blogs, Business, Crime & Law Enforcement, Current Events, Editorial, Family, Holidays, Leyte, Magick, Money, New Age, Observances, Opinion, Patriotism, Philippines, Photography, Photos, Politics, Religion, Sam I Am, Soap Box Political Opinion, Soap Box Religious Opinion, Spiritual, The Ozarks, Tourism, Tropics
Tagged with Advertisers Buy An Ad, Alien Readers Welcome, “The Holy People In The World”, busty, by Samuel E. Warren Jr., Comma Conversion, comments, Death, English Always Fashionable, English In A Bikini, English In A Bustier, English Professors Chill Out, English To Communicate, feedback, foto, Geoffrey Chaucer, Human Readers Welcome, I am Sam The Photographer., I am Sam The Writer., I Welcome Comments, I'm An English Bad Boy, jargon, land, life, literary closet, love, magic, Magick, MUFON, NASA, Ozarks English, Photo, Readers welcome to write back, reckon, Samuel E. Warren Junior English, SEO, SETI, Shakespeare, Spelling, Spiritual English, subhead, The English Professors Of The World, Two Ton Type, UFO, vernacular, war, Warren Wonder Words