A Terrifying Experience In Which: Pooh and Piglet Encounter a Ghost

One evening, Pooh and Piglet were walking home through the forest. It was the night of the full moon and all kinds of strange creatures were wandering in the darkness. Midway home, a floating shadow appeared before them. Pooh was so scared he immediately hid behind Piglet, while Piglet made fists, ready to fight if needed.

Nobody moved until the shadow floated away from them. Then, quickly they ran towards home, Pooh lagging behind. Piglet stopped and waited for his friend. Reaching home together, they quickly bolted the door.

Pooh sat on the couch, relieved. “Don’t be afraid, dear Piglet. I will protect you, whatever happens!” said Pooh, proudly.

“I know, Pooh!” answered Piglet happily.

Just then they heard someone banging the door. Pooh instantly hid himself behind a cupboard while Piglet took a firewood for defense.

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An Amazing Adventure In Which: Pooh and Piglet Go Hiking

One day Winnie-the-Pooh and his good friend Piglet were sitting together when Piglet said, “Why don’t we go hiking?”

“Where shall we go?” asked Pooh.

“How about Skyhigh Mountain? The whole world is visible from the top.”

“We shall go tomorrow then!” said Pooh. Though Pooh did not like hiking, he was happy to go anywhere with Piglet.

Next morning the two friends were on their way. Piglet walked with short but swift steps admiring the flowers on the road. Pooh lumbered along heavily, humming a song:

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5 Filipino Words That You Should Include in Your Vocabulary

Filipino is the official national language of the Philippines. It is also the term for the country’s citizen. Like me. I am a Filipino. My parents are Filipinos.

But did you know that dozens of Filipino words are now officially in the Oxford English Dictionary? Yes. The list is getting longer.

Here are five from the list:

1. Kuya –a term used as a sign of respect to an older male relative such as a brother, cousin, or family friend. It can also be used to address an older man even if they’re just an acquaintance or a stranger.

• If you have a biological brother, you can call him kuya apart from calling him bru or bhaee.

Example: My kuya John is three years older than me. He is an engineer.

2. Suki –a term used to refer to a customer who purchases products or services from the same provider.

Example: I own Kumar’s store and Mr. And Mrs. Negi are my suki. They only buy their groceries from my shop.

3. Baon –money, food, or other provisions taken to work, school, or on a long journey.

• If you’re working and you take food for lunch from home to eat at lunch break, then that food is called baon. The same applies to the money that parents give to their children when they go to school.

Example: “Don’t forget your baon, else you’ll starve at lunch,” Mrs. Rana reminded her daughter who is in fifth grade.

Baon to school for two kids
(photo credit: vegan friend, DK)

 

4. Yo-yo –is a toy consisting of an axle connected to two disks, and a string looped around the axle. (See photo).

• In many countries around the world, a yo-yo competition is being held every year. This competition normally consists of two parts, a set of compulsory tricks and a freestyle, where points are scored for each and the winner is the yo-yo player who scores the most points. Compulsory tricks, also known as a trick ladder, are a set of tricks that have been chosen before the contest, and the competitor must successfully complete each trick on their first or second attempt to score points.

Yo-yo toy that children and adult enjoy.

5. Halo-halo –("mixed together") is a popular dessert made of mixed fruits, boiled sweet beans, sago, agar jelly, evaporated milk, and shaved ice, typically topped with purple yam, and ice cream. It is served in a tall or wide-brimmed bowl. Yum!

So which of these words would you use first?

Backpack Out of Old Jeans

My husband has quite a number of old jeans that are not good enough 

to give away to people who can wear them but still good enough to be something else. 

So, I disassembled three of his jeans pants and made two bags,

 a big hand/shoulder bag and a not too small back pack. 

Here, I am going to share the backpack.

Inspired from this Youtube tutorial, I made one my own -sewed and modified. 

No stick glue needed. 

I don't trust glue in keeping the back safe to carry around. 

Thinking about it brings me to a scene of falling stuff in the middle of the jungle, 

water bottle bent or worse, emptied or house keys missing. Lol! 

Instead of straight, I made the top edge tapered and the bottom area semi-cercilar. And I did some blunders, which I am going to enumerate, along with some tips so you don't fall for the same mistakes, at the bottom part of this article.

Here are some pictures.

The front part of the bag. The string is my old shoe lace. The blue lining and the pocket are from my husband's short pants

To make this bag, you need the following:

• 2 pieces of jeans cloth of your own measurement/size (this one is 11 by 12.5)
• a long 4 inches wide and 32 inches length cloth that would serve as the middle section of the bag
• 2 pieces of 1.5 inch bias cloth for side piping
• 1 piece 2.5 inches bias cloth for top edge piping
• 1 piece shoe lace
• colorful threads
• 1 button (I used the button from one of the jeans pants)
• 2 pieces of 3 x 25 fabric for handle
• 1 7x8 fabric for cap and a bias cloth
• one 5 inches piece of bias cloth for hanging (the one right in the middle of the two handles) 
• a rectangular piece of cloth for inside pocket
• sewing machine
• sewing needle
• scissors
• tape measure
• pen or marker
• ruler 
• needle pins (optional)

~The black lining of the handle is the string of the short pants which I just added on one side of each handle to make it wider~

Inside are tablet phone, kindle, and mobile phone. This bag can also hold a 1-liter water bottle.

The holes for the string. Each hole is hand-stitched with different colors of sewing threads.

In the video, only two holes are suggested for each side. I suggest that you do the same (remember the blunder I mentioned earlier).

~string holes at the side~

~I let the chair wore the bag for the time being.~

Tips in making this project:

•  Decide which part of the bag is the back side so you can sew the inside pocket there. The inside pocket should be folded twice at the opening so that no broken threads would be visible. The three sides should be folded once while sewing it to the middle of the 11x12.5 fabric.
• Since I used a ready-made pocket for the out part of the bag, I just sew it in the middle of the front part of the bag.
• With right side attach one 11x12.5 fabric to one edge of the 4x32 fabric using needle pins and sew. Remove each pin as you sew along. When you reach the curve side, make 3 to 4 small slits half an inch apart so as you continue sewing, the fabric also comes along.
• Do the same on the other side of 4x32 with the other 11x12.5 fabric.
• Sew in the bias cloths at the edges (see the blue edge lining of the bag). While doing so, remember to attach one end of each handle at the back side of the bag so you don't need to remove the stitches on that part later on, which what happened to me.
• Make the necessary string holes and stitch around it using blanket stitch or buttonhole stitch.
• Attach the other ends of the handles in between two string holes on  the back side of the bag. On top of it, sew in the cap with the right side upside down. Watch the video for clarity.
• Put the shoe lace and your bag is ready. 
• I added a button right above the outside pocket and added a hook for it that is sewn at the center edge of the cap. You can make a buttonhole there instead of a fabric hook.

If you decide to make this bag and have a question, do let me know and I'll answer your query as soon as possible.

The bigger bag that I mentioned will be posted soon -once I finished adding a zipper to it. :-)

With God, All is Possible!

Religious apologists would claim so!

Yesterday, I posted this -

"There had been an accident. One dead, three heavily injured, one lost a leg. 

These guys were rushed to the nearest hospital. 

While doctors were doing the best they can to save the victims' lives, 

their friends and family prayed for their safety."

If you were God, what would you do?
Would you listen to the families pleas and prayers and answer them 

or would you prevent the accident from happening altogether?

You see, if I were God, I wouldn't let any harm come to my children,
therefore, I'd prevent the accident from happening!
And I know you would do the same.

Now apply the scenario to a ship sinking, a fire, a plane crash,
a murder, a shooting, etc. The answer is all the same.

And that, my friends, is the difference
between your God and me 

or anyone who chooses
to prevent bad things from happening.

Less than three minutes later, my niece shared a link to an article titled, "why so much suffering" in the comment section. It was a link to Jehovah's Witnesses website. This is the link if you're interested. 

We exchanged arguments, questions, and answers (although much of my rebuttal were ignored).

She shared the link for me to read since, according to her, I have a lot of unanswered questions. Well, I do. But just because these questions don't have answers...yet, I'd leave them to god. No way! And that is because the universe is filled with mysteries and we don't have enough knowledge to unravel them. Even then, it is perfectly fine to live in doubts and accept that many things are unanswered. That even makes our life more exciting. 

She encouraged me to go through that article, which I did. I read lines after lines with verses quoted from the Bible. There are many flaws in that article if one really tries to understand it, but I didn't enumerate them all to her. Instead, I took two claims and added my own interpretation. But before I go further to discuss that, I'd like to mention three (there are more) claims presented in the article:

1.  Jehovah, God, never causes bad things to happen, for it is unthinkable for the true God to act wickedly, for the Almighty to do wrong!

2.  The ruler of the world is Satan the Devil. (That is why there is so much suffering in the world.)

3. With God, all is possible. 

So, let's dig this deeper. 

~If there is a benevolent God, the number one must be true. (Yes, it would be fantastic if everyone on earth is happy and face no problems, including global warming. Yay!)

~But wait, famine, riots, war, hunger, diseases, conflicts, murder, shootings, atrocities with each other, etc. are all over the world! Ah, Satan the Devil is behind all these. (Well, it's actually great to have someone else to blame for all the mess in the world created and governed by the Almighty that doesn't do wrong! Perfection!)

~Oh, geez! All is possible with God! If so, then it means that Satan the Devil can be destroyed, immediately! Once Satan the Devil is defeated, all suffering in the world will disappear, will dissipate into thin air. With God, all is possible so those people who are victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time can never be in the wrong place at the wrong time anymore. 

"Do it, God! Do it!" plead these starving innocent children.

"I will, my children! I will. Be assured that I know when all of Satan’s challenges will have been fully answered.So be patient 'cause I am patient. For now, I am giving you time to come to know me and choose me as your Ruler. While you do that, I'll let you starve!" answered God (Jehovah).

"Don't bother about that promise, children," I butted in. "God is some egomaniacal, capricious piece of sh...., err, human imagination that has extremely low self-esteem. Why else would he want his children to please him and creates a tantrum if he isn't pleased and let you starve instead of smashing that head of Satan's so you'll never starve and suffer again? So, go home! Tell your parents to wear contraception and demand from over-eating, obese, mansion-owning dregs of humanity to spare you some food for your bellies! Don't depend on God. He's got a huge ego to please!"