The AnitoKid on Billiards | Philippine Sports: July 2007

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Friday, July 20, 2007

Jeff Stewart Comes Home to the Literatis!

Mr. Jeff Stewart,
The Founding Father of the LIteratis,
comes home!

A couple of pics on Jeff's first minutes in the office!

Jeff with Team Lead Dexter Lim

An update with Team Lead Carlo Dionisio

From the Literatis:

Mabuhay Jeff Stewart!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Happy Birthday Agi!

Happy Happy Birthday Agi !!!!
Wishing You All the Best
on Your 12th Birthday!

Happy Birthday, 'nak.
My Closeness and My Soulmate.
All my love - Always.

Monday, July 16, 2007

The GSM Mobile Phone Tracking System - Test It Now!

Moblie phone tracking technology has evolved to a point that one can pinpoint, with great accuracy (less than 10 meters), the location of a certain mobile number via GPS! Think of the potential applications, e.g., detective work, police investigations, no more cheating spouses and loved ones! No more worries! Wow! Satellite tracking has never been this much fun!

From TraceMobile.com

Using no additional hardware our mobile phone tracking service is ideal for families, friends or even businesses who have staff working outdoors.
You can even track your own mobile phone! It's also ideal for people who enjoy outdoor activities, like hiking or climbing so if you got into difficulties and were unable to use your phone, then friends or family could quickly locate you and advise the emergency services.
And because the person has to give permission to be traced and it's password protected, it's 100% safe!

From SunSat Satellite Solutions Co:

GSM mobile phone tracking system via the GPS-TRACK satellite network
Based on repeater triangulation, the system tracks mobile phones using GPS and GSM technology.
We are not responsible for possible tracking errors that may occur.

Do you want to test the technology yourself?

Do you really want to know the truth?

But can you handle the truth?

Why don't you find out.

Test is now! And I kid you not!

- Click Here To Test-

*Much thanks to my friend over at Kegler747
for tipping me on this one :)

Haikus and The AnitoKid

I was driving towards Makati City this morning when I remembered the haiku post at my friend over at The Broken Bow. I used to do poems - have a collection of them. But never did haiku. Not even one. When I got stuck in traffic, I thought the unthinkable - my first haiku... :)

Blogging is an Art
They call me a Picasso
And I kid you not!

and here is another one - this just in! :)

Sometimes it just pays
To read between the lines - cough!
And I kid you not!

Sunday, July 15, 2007

The AnitoKid is #7 in Week 9 of The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2007!

Ms. Janette Toral's (Reflective Thinking - Taking the 8th Habit Challenge) Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2007 project is now on Week #9. The project now has a total of 142 participants citing 442 blogs. Here is the overall ranking of the blogs (Weeks #1-9) mentioned:

An Apple a Day (25 mention)
Culture Shiok! (18 mention)
Make Money Online with a 13-Year Old (17 mention each)
The D Spot
Kubiertos (16 mention each)
The Philosophical Bastard
Misterhubs (15 mention)
CokskiBlue (12 mention each)
It's not only fruity, it's oaty!
Make Money Online with Dosh Dosh (11 mention each)
The Anitokid Chronikos
Utakgago
BISEAN (10 mention each)
Confessions of a Hopeless Romantic
Gibbs Cadiz (9 mention each)
Unsent
Dabawenya Jud! (8 mention each)
I Heart Manila
Quotes in Can
Studies in Technopreneurship
The Dork Factor

Much thanks to the following friends
for nominating the AnitoKid

Maraming, maraming, maraming, maraming salamat po!

*To those who haven't submitted an entry yet, please visit the writing project page to join. Two (2) weekly updates to go! And oh! Ms. Janette is organizing an eyeball on August 1, 2007 (possibly in Makati City, dinner time). If your blog was cited and would like to attend this eyeball, please write an entry as well citing your Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs.

N.B.
A total of 33 new blogs were cited from the 15 entries (including the additions made by some of the earlier entries). Here's the overall list of the blogs mentioned for Week #9:

The following blogs got one mention each:

Much Thanks to the Brown Baron, Filipina Soul, Pink Reviews and Untwisted Vortex!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank fellow bloggers for enjoying The AnitoKid's articles and posting a thing or two about them. They are:

Brown Baron

Filipina Soul

Pink Reviews

Untwisted Vortex

Your blogposts on my views and thoughts serve as a moral support, an encouragement, for me to continue what I have learned to love - blogging. And I kid you not when I say that all of you have treated The AnitoKid with great generosity. Much thanks, my friends!

Maraming, maraming, maraming, maraming salamat po!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Random Facts About the AnitoKid

My friends over at Lucky Every Day and Andy-Coates.Com tagged me for this meme, 8 Random Facts. The are the rules:

In the 8 facts about [name], you share 8 things that your readers don’t know about you. At the end, you tag 8 other bloggers to keep the fun going.
Each blogger must post these rules first.
Each blogger starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
At the end of the post, a blogger needs to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random Facts about The AnitoKid

The AnitoKid has at least 30 pairs of shoes - most of them boots!
The A-Kid loves stamp collecting! He started the hobby when he was in the fourth grade. The collection now runs in the thousands!
The AnitoKid's favorite movie of all time - The Sound of Music. A close second is Star Wars. Other favorites include "The King and I" and "Mary Poppins,"
The Champ loves "pusit" (squids) deep fried in oil, shrimps, "alupihang dagat", and crabs! He has a very high high tolerance for seafoods! Dampa - a top pick for seafoods!
With regards to fastfoods, The A-Kid absolutely loves Jollibee's Champ burger! Had his first taste of Jollibee's Yumburger in the third grade. Boy! That was a long time ago! And guess what? The burgers still taste the same! Langhap sarap goodness talaga!
At home, the cool dad loves having fried rice and Purefood's hotdog for breakfast!The 4C Dad loves trying out different restaurants and food establishments with his kids. The A-Kid and his children are rice persons, and the family loves food with gravies and sauces! Yum-yum!
Friends from abroad know what "pasalubong" (gift) to give the A-Kid - chocolates! The A-Kid absolutely loves dark chocolates, i.e., Toblerone Dark! In the absence of dark chocolates, any will do! (M&M's, Hershey's, Lala, Goya, Adong, etc.) :)
I just noticed that the post has suddenly turned into one big menu! :) The AnitoKid is seriously craving for Dinuguang Ilocano and Longganisang Ilocano right now. Kain po tayo!

Too bad, the meme only called for 8 random facts. I was about to add my love for peanut butter on the list. Crunchy Skippy Peanut Butter! The yummiest and crunchiest peanut butter on the planet! And I kid you not!
I now tag the following friends to continue this meme:

Why the AnitoKid Blogs

My friend over at Betshop Boy tagged me on this meme, "5 Reasons Why I Blog." I feel I owe my friend an apology for taking too long to do my piece. It has been a busy and hectic month for me, but still, I always keep my promises. :) And without further ado, here are my reasons for blogging.

5 Reasons Why I Blog

My buddy from New York City introduced me to this wonderful art of blogging. It was supposed to be a spin on work - but in the end, I found in it a lot of fun. "We are at the forefront of a revolution - an information revolution!", he exclaimed. And I said to myself, "This is history in the making. A path towards immortality."
However, from November 20 to January of 2007, I was only able to do 3-4 posts only (and most of them were random pics of get-togethers with friends). In February 2007, my buddy and I had the chance to share ideas once again. Coincidence or not, this was the time the blogbug bit me. The art of blogging allowed me to pursue one of my passions in a different way - photography! Blogging allowed me to share to others (in pics) the fun that my friends and colleagues had - online! And as friends and colleagues expressed their desires to see more photos of ourselves and get-togethers, I realized that my site is attracting a steady number of loyal followers. Yeah, my colleagues and friends were my initial audience (Ang aking mga suki). I got hold of a "Recent Visitors" widget and took delight in seeing my counter go click with each visitor. Click, click, click, click! :) The widget had a number of features that allow me to see other types of stats, e.g., visitor location, OS type, and minutes logged-on. As a lover of numbers, I was intrigued. Such features made me realized that I can actually forecast the number of visitors in my site based on the number of posts that I do. And why stop there, i said to myself. I can actually try and attract other bloggers to come to my site with interesting posts and content! And as they say, "They came. They read. They commented."
My discovery of blog communities, i.e., MyBlogLog, My Blog Catalog, and Spicy Page, further fueled my appetite for blogging. For the first time, I was able to see a visual pic (almost in real-time) of my visitors! They were just awesome widgets to have! It gave me a sense of visual feel that someone, somewhere, another human being is reading my posts - and finding great delight in them! It was at this point in time that I discovered the importance of responding to comments. Most of the sites I read in my first 2-3 months as a blogger had "one-way" comment sections, i.e., dozens of comments from readers, yet not a single one from the blog owner. This puzzled me. I asked myself, "Could this be the norm of established bloggers? Not to respond to comments made by their readers?" "Nah! They could just be busy and all", I gamely answered back myself. Then came a comment that I still hold dear - a comment from my friend over at DoshDosh thanking me for joining his Technorati Link Exchange project. It was a feeling of unforgettable rush! The great DoshDosh actually took time out to comment! Wow! Indeed, it was such a rush! A rush that further inspired me to blog, blog, blog, and blog away!
Then came the Blog of the Day Award on a Super Saturday! This really got me going! I mean, it's not everyday one wins an award! It's my first award for blogging. And it will always be one of the sweetest. The award also seemed to have good luck written all over it! My site has been blessed to receive other honors, awards, and nominations, including one that I am very proud of, i.e., The Seeking Alpha Gold Badge.
I love sharing my ideas. My views. My thoughts. I also love hearing others speak their minds out. Simply put, I love people. I love being with them. And this blogging art has become a venue for me to do such - and more. I have been very fortunate to have realized so many firsts and milestones in my newest passion. The most notable and most important of which is the fact that I have made new acquaintances - most of whom have become my friends in real life. And this is the major reason why I blog, i.e., to communicate ideas and develop friendships.

Indeed, blogging is an art.
It continuously enriches my life
with newfound knowledge, music,
laughter, and friendship.
And in the end, it may also serve
as an avenue for my immortality.

And I kid you not!

I now tagged the following friends to continue this meme. :)

Friday, July 13, 2007

A New Blog Toy From Samsung - The SGH-L760 Mobile Blog 3G Phone!

Hardcore bloggers and master bloggers, do check this out!

A mobile phone that is touted to fuel the current boom

in mobile Internet and user-created content services!

From FarEastGizmos.com

The Samsung SGH-L760 promises to further fuel the current boom in mobile Internet and user-created content services. as it can upload directly to popular UCC sites like YouTube, Ublog and Buzznet. The phone will debut in Germany and Spain this month and next hit the Southeast Asian market.

The new Samsung SGH-L760 Mobile Blog 3G Phone will meet the demands of the new generation of users who want to share their everyday life with others in real time.

Available in metallic silver.

The slide phone has a 2-megapixel camera and Bluetooth technology and operates in line with the UMTS technology (Europe’s 3G wireless technology).

The mobile blog function's speedy data transmission will distinguish SGH-L760 from other handsets.

From DigitalTechNews:

The new Samsung SGH-L760 cellphone enables one to upload photos and videos directly to Youtube.com, Ublog.com and Buzznet.com.
This UMTS 3G slider "mobile blog phone" features a 2 Megapixel camera, web browser, MP3 and video player, RSS reader, FM radio, and microSD card slot

The number of bloggers continue to grow at an amazing rate! And bloggers are in-tune with the technology that surrounds them. Can the Samsung SGH-L760 live up to its promise? Hmmm. It could be an interesting experience. And I kid you not!

What do you think, thinker?

Thursday, July 12, 2007

The AnitoKid Receives the Thoughtful Blogger Award!

Here's another nice surprise! Just got this one from my friend over at ManilaMom - the Thoughtful Blogger Award!

ManilaMom left this comment in my previous post (Agi Receives the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award):

And Agi would agree, I think, that you deserve the Thoughtful Blogger Award :D Go get your plaque!

Little did I know that she was serious and all with the award, which was waiting for me at her site! It was really an unexpected, yet pleasant, surprise! And when I read the criteria for selecting the recipients of the award - WOOOO! Here it is:

For those who answer blog comments, emails, and make their visitors feel at home on their blogs.
For the people who take others feelings into consideration before speaking out and who are kind and courteous.
Also for all of those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping others bloggers design, improve, and fix their sites.
This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.

"My blog bro may be quite overexposed here but there's just no denying the fact that he's one of the most generous bloggers I've met online, going out of his way to help fellow bloggers." - ManilaMom

And may I just say that I am deeply honored to be among those chosen by ManilaMom to receive this award. These include Jenny of Gus' Gang; Sasha of Sasha Says; AnnaManila of Ode2Old; and Arhgil of Macuha.com.

The Thoughtful Blogger Award is one of five Blogger Awards created by Christy of Writer's Reviews. When one receives an award, the blogger passes the honor on to five other people. It can be five of the same award or a combination of the five different honors. In light of this, I, The AnitoKid, hereby present the Thoughtful Blogger Award (in no particular order) to:

Wacky Mom - A devoted mother who chose to become ONE TOUGH COOKIE instead of a WIMP. A strong woman with a very loving heart. Her posts will move you and make you realize that life is indeed beautiful. Her thoughts consistently touch my soul.
Ex Skin Diver - Chesca's Helping Hams Project is proof of her social conscience. Her views on life is a must read for everyone! Her words reflect our respective joys and pains. Our everyday challenges and rewards at the end of the day. Our wishes and wants. Our analogies and sentiments on this challenge called life. Chesca is a skin diver. A one-time stage actress. A dotting mother. A loving friend. A Filipina.
I Am Balong - I call him my brother. My Marist Brother. He is a member of the Marist Brothers of the Schools (FMS), a congregation of missionary teaching brothers serving in more than seventy countries all over the world. His posts tells tales of extraordinary challenges and experiences in community living. His thoughts make me feel that "I belong" and "I am loved". That life is about sharing happiness and overcoming challenges together. To Jesus Through Mary.
Jehzlau Concepts - Jehzlau is a DOST-SEI scholar. Has his own share of recognitions and awards - yet he keeps his feet planted firmly on the ground. His thoughtfulness is evident in the kind act he did (together with Batang Yagit) for a fellow blogger searching his place in the blogosphere. You know what I'm talking about, kabayan! ^_^ Jehzlau kinda reminds me of myself when I was his age. With the right guidance and attitude towards life, this kid will go far.
The Broken Bow - My colleague. My friend. My brother. My blog's header and favicon are proof of Dundee's thoughtfulness. His posts always demand one's complete, unadulterated attention. And if one carefully dissects his words, it is all about one thing - Life. If my memory serves me right, our friendship started with a single comment he made in my blog - "Bwa he he he". Little did I know that the comment will serve as the catalyst for me to know the man behind the blog. Dundee puts others' interests and good before his own. I know I've said it before, but allow me to say it again: To Dundee's Papang and Mamang, "You raised a good man in your son." And I kid you not!

*A special mention to my friend over at An Anonymous Journal, who honored one of my daughters, Maria Agatha, with the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award. Anonymous Journal touched both my heart and soul. Will never forget it, my friend! And I kid you not!

To ManilaMom:

This award will go hand-in-hand with the one
given to my daughter this morning.
Much thanks for the surprise!
And much thanks for the beautiful friendship, Mom!

Maraming, maraming, maraming, maraming salamat!

Agi Receives the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award!

I just got this nice surprise from my friend over at An Anonymous Journal! No,it isn't for me - it's for The Apple of My Eye. My Closeness - My Soulmate. My eldest daughter, Maria Agatha aka Agi.

An Anonymous Journal said:

Later in the day, a fellow blogger handed me with the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award and it sort of makes up a little bit for my rotten day.Now, I am supposed to award this to five female bloggers. This award now goes to:
1. _butt of JustA Ride
2. Angel O-Liu-Liu of Angel's Paradise Playground
3. AnitoKid's daughter, if she has a blog. I am not surprised if she has one because she is such an amazingly articulate girl even though she is so young
4. Kahealani of Marvelous Things
5. My friend, Samm, of Just A Lil' Organic Life

Grab this badge and post on your blog.

I remember the brief chat I had with my daughter - about her continuing my blog someday. And solicited her thoughts too on continuing KLAPKiDS Foundation when the right time comes. She knew what I was trying to say and it kinda made her sad. But cheer her up, I did. :) Yeah, she knows everything about me. I don't keep any secrets from her. Not one. And let me tell you now, Agi will be very pleased and delighted with this! And I kid you not!

To my friend over at An Anonymous Journal, you didn't just hand an award today - you have just honored one of my most precious, one which I hold dear and very close to my heart. You have touched a fellow blogger's heart - another human being's soul - in a way that can never be truly expressed with words.

And with utmost sincerity, I thank you for this unexpected surprise.
Maraming, maraming, maraming, maraming salamat po!
Mabuhay!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The Beatles' Here Comes the Sun is Wednesday's BlogSong!

Here Comes the Sun
- The Beatles -

Here comes the blog, here comes the blog,
and I say it's all links
Little blogger, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little blogger, it feels like years since it's been ranked
Here comes the blog, here comes the blog
and I say it's Anito's
Little blogger, the trains returning to the faces
Little blogger, it seems like years since it's been ranked
Here comes the Legal Two-Timer, here comes the Blogmeister
and I say they're all links
Blog, blog, blog, here it comes...
Blog, blog, blog, here it comes...
Blog, blog, blog, here it comes...
Blog, blog, blog, here it comes...
Blog, blog, blog, here it comes...
Little blogger, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little blogger, it seems like years since it's been linked
Here comes the blog, The Broken Bow,
and I say it's all links
It's all links .

*Wednesday's Blog Song started out
as an exchange among my friends over at
The Broken Bow, My Extra Dirty Mind, and I am Sam.
It got me thinking of posting songs
with a hint of and feel for blogs.

The Department of Education and Undersecretary Franklin Sunga are Recipients of Da Daily Donkey Award!

Da Daily Donkey

Da Daily Donkey Award goes to the Philippines' Department of Education (DepEd), which approved error-filled textbooks used in our country's public elementary schools, and to its Undersecretary Franklin Sunga, who sought to downplay the errors uncovered by academician Antonio Calipjo Go. Mr. Go had a full-page ad in the Inquirer's Monday issue listing down the hundreds of errors he found in English and Filipino textbooks.

From Inquirer.net:

"Those are alleged errors,'' DepEd Undersecretary Franklin Sunga said in reaction to the full-page ad put out by Go in The Inquirer's Monday issue listing down the hundreds of errors he found in English and Pilipino textbooks.

A-Kid: Common sense is not so common after all. Mr. Sunga, an academician such as Antonio Calipjo Go wouldn't put himself out in the open for libel suits (and via a full-page ad in one of the country's popular newspapers) if he didn't know what he was talking about.
Sunga said that he did not find the terms "titi'' (penis) and "titatita'' (pimp) used in the ``Hiyas sa Pagbasa,'' a textbook for Grade 5 students, vulgar. "The way they were used wasn't vulgar. If at all, they were designed to boost the skills of the students,'' he said in an interview by phone. He said there was no reason to correct the textbook.

A-Kid: Yeah, right! Defend the author and publisher of "Hiyas sa Pagbasa" for miserably failing to come up with words more appropriate to feed the minds of our young Grade V students.
Go, academic supervisor of Marian School of Quezon City who blew the whistle on other error-filled textbooks in the past, said the use of the terms, among others, was "abominable.'' He said that despite the errors, the DepEd had ordered 69,409 copies.

A-Kid: Reminds me of some posts I've read a few days and a few months ago, i.e., End textbook cartel,’ DepEd vets, tutors ask Lapus; DepEd belies allegations of defective textbooks; and DepEd intensifies textbook procurement reforms. Tsk.
Sunga said the department could not verify the alleged errors detected by Go in English textbooks for Grades 1 to 6 students in public elementary schools since Go did not mention "specific references.'' "I want to see how they are used,'' he said.

A-Kid: Man! Come on! Are you serious? You can do better than that! Your department approved those error-filled textbooks in the first place! Your department should have copies of each book approved to feed the minds of the future leaders of our country! For @#%^ sake, skim all of them! The man (Go) already did his part in pointing out the errors! Could it be that, maybe, just maybe, now is the time to do your job?
All the current English textbooks for public elementary and high school students would be replaced by new ones now being evaluated by the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of the Philippines, according to Sunga. "I hope so,'' he said when asked if the DepEd would circulate the new English textbooks after the completion of the bidding process by the end of the month.

A-Kid: Dapat lang, ser!
Sunga said he welcomed Go's proposal to form an independent board of experts to validate his "corrections'' to the errors, and expressed willingness to meet with him. "His suggestion will be seriously considered. We welcome meeting with him at a time and place of his choice so we can thresh out the problem,'' he said.

A-Kid: If it has not yet come to your attention, Mr. Sunga, let me just point it out that Mr. Go and the media have left you and your department no other choice!
Go proposed in the ad that volunteers from the academe, clergy, civil society, business and industry conduct a "free and open review'' of all public school textbooks without the threat of being sued by the publishers.
"What's important is that the corrections will be validated. I just can't turn the corrections over to the DepEd,'' he said in a phone interview. "If you're making money from these books, you might as well correct them."

From Reign of Error:

Antonio Calipjo Go had one hell of an ad in this newspaper the other day. Go is the guy who has been indefatigably (his enemies say relentlessly) pointing out the mistakes and inaccuracies that teem in what pass for elementary and high school textbooks in the Philippines. A crusade that has gotten him not a load of praises from grateful countrymen but a load of bull -- and libel suits -- from irate textbook suppliers.
I did know about, and applauded, Go’s crusade. But until he published that ad, I didn’t realize the mind-boggling extent of the wrong he was trying to right, or the mistakes he was trying to correct. Young minds are the most impressionable of all, fallow ground for vice and virtue, enlightenment and benightedness.
Some of the classic displays of waywardness:
- “Many Filipino men and women have brains.” That should go with an exclamation point.
- “You should always address the envelope.”
- “Kiosk: A structure open at one or more sides and used as a bandstand.”
- “He seemed to be waiting for someone, not a blood relation, much less a bad blood.”
- “It is very dangerous to face a bull that has been played with.”
- “Here’s for you!” the guard said while hitting Basilio. (I guess that’s a transliteration of “Eto’ng sa 'yo!”)
- “People are not made to float like a bird.”
- “Galileo invented a magnifying telescope.”
- “He became the primetaker of his family’s land.”
- “The lakes widdled down.”
- “The hen walked coquetly.”
- “It makes him squirmish.”
- “The potato pursued a disapproving lip.”

Those Eraptions are almost forgivable. What are not are these:
- From English Book I: Jose Garcia Villa wrote “The Woman Who Had Two Navels.”
- You don’t know who did, you shouldn’t have passed high school.
- From English Book VI: “Fort Santiago was the fortress used by Rajah Soliman as his protection against the Spaniards.”

Go says that these are an infinitesimal part of the errors, mistakes, inaccuracies, lacunae and inanities that riot in our textbooks. His own pet peeve is the inclusion of “titi,” defined as the male organ, and “titatita,” defined as pimp, in a Grade V “Hiyas sa Pagbasa” textbook. Though I myself have a high tolerance for these things, I am at pains to see how those words could possibly represent pearls of reading, not to speak of wisdom.
Is the theory to improve reading skills by supplying pupils with words that are closest to their cultural environment? Indeed, is the theory to give pupils an understanding that language is not static and that new words are constantly entering the vocabulary? If so, then I can suggest better words than “titi” or “titatita” to give pupils a better grasp of their milieu, while improving their reading capabilities.

Examples: “‘Boto’ (not the Visayan or Bicol variety!): English: vote: The cheapest commodity in the Philippines.” “‘Filipino/Filipina: The number one export of the Philippines.” “‘Peke: English: fake: Filipino nurses, the Filipino president, the 12th Filipino senator in the new Senate.”

Or maybe you can retain “titi” and “titatita” and give them new meanings.

Thus: “Titi”: English: Prick: See also congressman.” “Titatita”: Eng. Pimp: See also number one promoter of overseas work.” And so on.

Less facetiously, Go truly deserves praise for the zeal with which he is advancing his cause, which almost unbelievably seems almost a lonely one. It’s not hard to see why his pleas for the recall and/or correction of the textbooks have fallen on deaf ears at the Department of Education. The late Raul Roco told me when he was still education secretary that during his early months in office the department's parking lot was filled with Mercedes-Benzes. They were owned by people who either had contracts or were seeking contracts with the department for printing and/or supplying textbooks.

Textbooks are big money. Filipino authors may be impoverished, which include the authors of the textbooks themselves, but the people who sell textbooks to the education department are not. Cheaper for their suppliers to get public officials to forget the three R’s than to hire people who cost more than three G’s to correct them. Or since some of them are near-uncorrectable, to go by Go’s revelations, write new ones in their place.

Go has every reason to give up on the Dep Ed and plead his case instead before the public. His cause is better served stoking the wrath of the parents of the kids than pricking the conscience of the king, or queen, to whom the Dep of Ed officials report. Malacañang won’t be bothered by benighted textbooks either: It wants only a population that can obtain enough learnings to work abroad and benefit the glorious nation of Gloria. Or a population that is sufficiently kept in the dark the better to be divided and conquered. Ignorance is bliss -- for tyrants.

Not for the tyrannized. As abundantly taught in show-and-tell lessons about fakeness, reigns of error all too easily turn into reigns of terror.

This is the DepEd's second Da Daily Donkey Award! Aba! Di 'to paramihan! This is not the Oscars!

MAHIYA NAMAN KAYO!

Some quotes to think about and ponder on.

Remember that our nation's first great leaders were also our first great scholars. - John F. Kennedy
Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave. - Lord Brougham
A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes. - Mahatma Gandhi
Gumalaw-galaw naman kayo! Baka kayo ma-i-stroke! And I kid you not! - The AnitoKid