Random Prose Scratchings: Of Web Portals and Wall Street Indices

Today, I thought, was deserving of more personal introspection, but away from the flighty spiritual and mystical milieus. More on the mundane scratchings of the daily living of one's life. The daily, at times irksome and plodding, chores required to carry on decently and respectably with the passing vistas that make for the droning workaday life of most earthbound humans. Let us start with:

Web Portals

Of course, like most everybody else, you put your pants one leg at a time. But when you boot up that PC and click on your preferred browser, does it automatically bring up a web portal, or a selected personalized homepage?

Time was when web portals were such hot commodities. Netscape easily comes to mind since it pioneered with its proprietary internet browser. Yes, before the now ubiquitous IE. There were then little known web crawlers. But the browsers war was between Netscape and IE. Their duel to the death in a match considered by many as stacked against Netscape ended with IE now undisputedly ruling the roost.

So, is your web portal, MSN now? But there are still choices out there. What about Yahoo! Or might not Google also qualify? It now has so many services, just getting to know it enough boggles the mind. And there are even regional portals.

I know that personal choices are probably as numerous as the stars in the firmament, but in my little world, it has remained static and the same for the last 6-7 years. "Home" to me is a personalized version of iWon, endearingly called My iWon. Tailored to fit my own specific choices and idiosyncratic taste. It even shows the weather condition for the closest place to the old hometown 7,000 miles away.

In a very real way, it defines my person, though in a rather circumspect though still accurate way. My proclivity for science news, my need to track the Wall Street indices in which my puny future hinges on, search services for unfamiliar words, some places to click when needing some humor, and many other "editable" services that one can configure.

Thus, this reflected image of me greets me every time I open my IE browser. And this steady and faithful friend never fails to pique my interest and work me up to a perky disposition.

But, iWon?

Here's what's little is known from Wikipedia:

iWon is an Internet portal and search engine that offers users the chance to win money by earning entries in a sweepstakes. Entries are earned by performing the normal tasks performed on the Internet such as using search engines, checking stock quotes, reading email, and keeping up to date on the news.

Among major early backers of iWon was Viacom, parent of CBS and MTV. It is now owned by Barry Diller's InterActive Corporation, parent of the Home Shopping Network, Ask.com, Evite, CitySearch, Ticketmaster, and until recently, travel sites such as Expedia and Hotels.com.

As of March 9, 2006, iWon claimed on its site that it had given away more than $65,667,000 in prizes to more than 268,907 winners.

When Excite@Home went bankrupt in 2001, iWon decided to buy over Excite. They designed a new Excite website and on 16 December 2001, the new Excite was launched.

Some spyware/malware detection programs attempt to limit access to iWon.com because of a program called "Aornum" that was installed for a short time by iWon users with other iWon applications. [1]

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWon"

Which brings me to the next item.

Wall Street/Dow Jones Indices

To the non-business types, I fear that I may as well blabber along about the California slug. And maybe, especially for those outside of the US of A. But not to the millions little guys like me who have hitched our fragile financial futures to the coat-tails of Wall Street, whether in the equities markets, the bonds and other indebtedness markets, commodities/metals markets, etc.

And why so?

To be succinct and to the point, because many of our pension plans, whether company initiated and financed or employee financed, have been invested in the markets of Wall Street in the myriad of plans that have cropped up during these many years.

Thus, the futures of many American workers, whether still actively in the marketplace or retired, hinge on the performances of Wall Street in general. It is estimated that over 70 millions of the labor force are invested into them. Thus, while traditionally Wall Street was limited to the corporate types, the stock broker types, and other white collar professions, it has now also evolved as part of the working man's domain.

Thus, every day or when opportunity allows, I religiously go through the 3 or 4 major indices. And My iWon also allows me to configure my page so it will also show the individual performances of each stock or mutual fund that I am invested in.



And what's the current short-term prognosis? This little Dow Jones Ind graph above should tell a more revealing story. Just this year alone, it recently went to an all time high close to 12,000, only to drop below 11,000. Now, it hovers on 10,700, losing in the process about 1000 points.



The tech index, Nasdaq, did almost similarly. I am particularly tracking one tech mutual fund I own that shows that at the present time I am showing that its present value is less than all the initial funds that I invested in it, including ploughed-back dividends. And I have held this fund since 1999. A continuing grim reminder of the last tech bust!

But lest anyone get the wrong notions, while the markets have gone south somewhat and temporarily, the US economy overall is going great guns - unemployment is still very low, the labor force continues to grow, productivity continues to improve, inflation continues to be in check amidst continuing fears of an upsurge, reported GDP growth is still commendable, as well as other crucial indicators. All this, amidst continuing costly wars, unprovided expenditures on national security measures against terrorism, and yes, with over 12 million illegal aliens taxing many public services throughout the country.

Humility In Action

Living life to the fullest and as humanly perfect as possible requires an honest facing of facts. This is the core of the virtue of humility. Facing facts invariably leads to realizing how little one is compared to the rest of humanity and to any higher being.

True humility makes one realize how little he is not only to himself but to everybody else. The lower one reaches into self-esteem, so much the higher he rises to the higher good of truth. The more one attributes any good to himself, the harder he hinders the blessings of virtue to raise him to true perfection.

This is the truth about humility that each one should strive to put into action in daily lives, whether personally interacting or distantly writing about other people.

Nothing is more pleasing than the blessings of peace that true humility brings to our daily lives. One’s fixed attention to this personal nothingness and complete dependence on others or a higher being strips one of the false pretenses of pride that inevitably bring discord and chaos in one’s life.

Think hard about this.

How easily we understand that other people resent the man who seeks to raise himself above them, seeking to appear better and more learned. But no one resents one who appears little before his own eyes. Who does not seek admiration for its own sake, who does not think much what others think of him and thus not solicitous about honors, or human applause. Because he seeks only the higher approbation of goodness and truth.

The truly humble man refuses to defend his rights in unimportant matters. The truly humble man is not afraid or anxious to have others know his faults or correct them. He instead takes these humiliating experiences to show that he is not after earthy temporal glory, but after an improvement of self for the sake of the higher good and truth.

The truly humble man will not also compare himself with those who seem worse than he is. He would rather reflect on his own nothingness and be thankful for the infinite generosity of life he continues to enjoy.



(Adapted ideas from the Bread Of Life.)

A Slice Of The Filipino Diaspora – Part II

Continuing on the initial piece on the Filipinos in diaspora here in the West Coast of the US, particularly in the San Francisco-Bay Area of northern California, here is another rich and revealing slice of how the Filipino away from origins continues to exhibit his Filipino-ness, all social and political pressures and nuances notwithstanding.


Pacific Super Grocery: (Click On Images To Enlarge)


Pacific Super - Another View:

Pictured herewith is a place quite well known and frequented by our compatriots, when they shop for their food items. Located in the “newer” side of Daly City, the sector close to famed SerraMonte mall, and where the later houses in Daly City have been built – bigger and more expansive.

These pictures show the Pacific Super grocery store, euphemistically called an ethnic grocery store because it caters to ethnic minorities but in this particular instance more to the FilAms in their predominantly controlled area and city. Ironically, it is owned and operated by Chinese entrepreneurs, uncharacteristically employing Chinese nationals and Hispanics, but no FilAms. Another store location is on the other side of town, which is geographically still part of San Francisco, though patronage-wise, it also caters to the predominantly FilAm areas on that side of town.

Because food and its partaking is such an integral and basic part of one’s Filipino-ness, this grocery store which is located on a strip mall is always a busy beehive of activities by mostly FilAms with Lolo or Lola and little pre-school kids in tow, during most days of the week but most especially during Fridays and/or paydays. It is a place where pesky nostalgia about yearned-for food and food items of the old homeland can be set aside and satisfied, because many of the old familiar items can be found and purchased here. Pan de sal and pan de leche, and even pan de coco wrapped fresh in plastic and baked by FilAm bakers. Popular saltine crackers in tin cans, reminiscent of happy merienda time of the past. Various packets designed to add flavor and local touches to home-cooking menus such as dinuguan, kari-kari, tinola, etc. Fresh tropical fruits such as frying bananas, guavas, mangoes, etc. And what about rice, in its many varieties from as far away and exotic as Thailand and Burma, and as close as the lush farmlands of California with its famous CalRose brand.

And most other necessary items found in a typical Filipino meal setting, though not necessarily imported from the old homeland, since the other Asian neighbors have also gotten wise to this heating lucrative market. Lucrative, because comparatively speaking, many items here, not necessarily imported, sell for far more than comparable items in other grocery stores. For example, a loaf of American bread may have been baked and may weigh similarly to a package of pan de sal, but price-wise, the pan de sal may cost twice as much.

St. Francis Square:

St Francis Square - Another View:

The entire strip mall itself has been abundantly Filipinized. Named St Francis Square, many business tenants are FilAms and I was told when we first chanced upon this mall in the 80’s that the owner of the mall was the late Antonio Villegas, noted former mayor of Manila.

In the pictures, notice Kadoks selling what else, lechon, and other usual short orders. There is a freight forwarding office named Johnny Air. There is even an RCBC office engaged in money remittances and allied services. And next door to Pacific Super is the now homely-looking Tito Rey of the Islands, which used to be the Filipino restaurant and club to go to be noticed by your fun loving away from home compatriots. And where visiting “stars and celebrities” had as their venue of choice for enticing local FilAms to part with their hard-earned dollars to witness them perform, or just simply to see them live and in person. And there are also a number of FilAm mom-and-pop operations behind the front façade and parking lot of the mall.

Notice also on the surrounding hills the confining clusters of both new and not-so-old residential buildings erected close to each other, mute testimony to the scarcity and dearth of land in this part of the land-strapped San Francisco peninsula. You bet most of those houses on higher elevation are owned by our FilAm compatriots.

The Lowly Philippine Half Centavo

The current day Philippine peso definitely cannot get one a bagful of pan de sal, the islands’ bread staple. Imagine what a half centavo could purchase!

Next to nothing. Plus, there is no issue of half centavo on the current set of coins.

However, once upon a time, half centavos were in circulation and did have real purchasing value.

Click to read on.

Making Sense Of The Da Vinci Code Phenomenon

Some Candid observations.

The early works /books on the Shroud of Turin, including the recent one that also tied the name of controversy-magnet Da Vinci to an alleged hoax, and which work is alleged to be not fiction, made very tiny splashes compared to the deluge created by DVC, both in book and movie form.



Enjoying its late-blooming successes at the tills, the DVC is now being compared to Scorsese’s Last Temptation of Christ, which also created quite a stir during its time. Now its precursor book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, which many concede was better written and had a more exciting storyline, is following suit and generating more sales because of the DVC. And needless to state, the other works of fiction of author Dan Brown are also garnering reflected glory and late financial successes.

You know what might be the most primal and elemental thread that piques people’s interest to read and/or view these particular stories, whether fictional or factual, and not the others?

Let not anybody, least of all the fainthearted and shaky of faith, be shocked and scandalized. But it is my lowly hypothesis that it is the sex angle in them that sparked their great following. The eye-popping revelation that Jesus Christ could be involved in any human sexual relationship! That’s what piques and titillates the interest of most everybody, sufficient enough to make people want to set aside time and resources to read or view those works.

I have witnessed the randomly-picked man/woman on the street being asked on TV, sheepishly say that that is so. And of course, the image of Leonardo Da Vinci over time has been defined and inured by sexual innuendos. And as the unwritten but revered advertising code declares and confirms: Sex Sells!

The Passion of the Christ was also a box-office success, narrating a very oft-told and reflexively familiar story, already known to most of the world. Granted that the antecedent stories about the unparalleled gore and barbarism made for a compelling intro and come-on for the patrons to see the movie. But there may be more to it than just that.





Producer/Director Mel Gibson hired his cast composed mostly of virtual unknowns in the US, and thus not noteworthy not only in renown but also in looks, except possibly for James Caviezel. And of course, the very beautiful and voluptuous Italian siren, Monica Bellucci, cast in the role of Mary Magdalene. So, why her for that specific role? Even the role of Mother Mary, who may have only been 47 when Jesus died, is given to an older-looking woman who though possessed of striking features paled considerably when compared with the former.

The news reported that Miss Paris Hilton in her recent holidays in Europe was paid a cool 1.2 million bucks, just to be present in a couple of events and to wave her dainty hand to the public.

So what kinetic attraction value do you think she has? Most everybody knows.

What could possibly develop if we all simply “get out of the closet” and recognize the very strong, maybe immutable and inescapable, magnetism sex and its many allures exert in the everyday and workaday lives of most humans? Is it time maybe to let it all hang out in the open, and maybe somehow strip away (puns intended) some of the puzzling mystique of guilt pleasures clandestinely associated with it?

For after all, isn’t it that most everybody, experts and lay people alike, already swear that sex is good and should not be viewed as dirty and shameful?