why men like long hair July 10, 2008

I met a girl recently who told me she couldn’t live without hair extensions. She had tried but, in the end, she had no choice but to return to her extensions.

Now, there are some things I can’t imagine living without — Starbucks, sushi, the spa — but hair extensions??? That one puzzled me…

Was she bald without them? Cold?? Mistaken for a boy???

No. The real answer? Without her hair extensions, she had “lost her powers.” As in lost her powers over guys. Without long, flowing tresses, she discovered, she could no longer wrap a guy around her little finger with a mere flick of her hair.

As the French would say, “Quel disastre!” Or, as my friend put it: “The boys” love long hair. All this, of course, got me to wondering - why do men like long hair?

Here is my theory… I think men WISH they could have really long hair, but then they start to worry that:

A) they wouldn’t be able to carry it off and would suffer mercilous unfavorable comparisons to long-maned male models like Fabio.

Or

B) they would suffer “Samson Syndrome.” Sure, it’s nice to be the world’s strongest man but then they remember all that unpleasant gouged-eyes and building-caving-in-on-top-of-you stuff and the idea kinda loses its luster.

Speaking of hair, I got mine cut today.
Oh no! Losing powers over men . . .
F e e l i n g w e a k . . .

A visit to the gates of hell June 21, 2008

Israel is skinny. Whereas the Philippines is a nation of skinny people, Israel is a skinny nation. From the northernmost tip to the southern border, it is at most 260 miles. When I was a kid in Canada, we used to drive farther than that to visit my grandparents for the weekend. The distance from east to west in Israel is 70 miles at its fattest point and only 10 miles at its thinnest. It can take longer to drive from the north to the south of Manila than it takes to drive across the entire nation of Israel.

Was Jesus buff? The other thing you come to appreciate when you visit Israel is how fit people in Jesus’ day were. When the Bible says in Acts 1:12 that the distance from Jerusalem to the Mt of Olives was “a Sabbath day’s walk,” what it is really saying is, it was a walk in the park for one of Jesus’ disciples – and would probably take you or me two days to get there (and even then we’d probably end up calling for a taxi).

Jesus walked everywhere. Across the wilderness. Up and down hills and mountains. Over lakes. And they did it brisk-wall, Oprah style. Arie kindly pointed this out to us on our last day. We were on the Road to Emmaus where Jesus appeared to two disciples after His resurrection in Luke 24:13. The walk to Emmaus from Jerusalem (where they had come from) was, in Arie’s view, a 3 hour walk for a Roman soldier, a 4 hour walk for the average person of that time, and a 6 hour walk for today’s wimpy tourists (which included us).

Our visit to the Gates of Hell. One of the many cool revelations from our trip was our visit to the Hermon Spring. This was the site of a very famous pagan temple – also known as the Pan Gate (pictured above, left). Pan is the goat footed, flute-playing Greek god of, well, goatherds and music (above, right). Apparently (or at least according to Greek mythology), Pan spent a good deal of his time chasing nymphs who, they also say, commonly fled from his advances.

Apparently the nymphs were not into goat-footed, flute players.

It is from Pan, interestingly enough, that we get the word “panic” because his unseen presence caused panic in the men passing through the remote, wooded area where he lived. And it is here that Jesus made His famous declaration, “on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hades will not prevail against it” (Matt 16:18).

Jesus chose the “pan gate,” a place reknowned for pagan worship, to tell the world that the “gates of hell” would not prevail against His church. Pretty cool.

“marvelous in our eyes” June 18, 2008

Rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. The one lasting impression I have from Israel is that everything is made of stone, and stone is everywhere. It makes you understand why they used to stone people to death — it was just the closest and most abundant thing at hand. If it were in the Philippines, the Pharisees would have cellphoned people to death. Apparently there is a law in Jerusalem that all new buildings must be either built with or covered with limestone so that all the structures have the same old stony appearance.

Living Stones:

Arie explained to us that, in the Hebrew language, a solitary rock that is not attached to anything else (ie, that just likes to sit by itself in a field somewhere) is called a “dead stone.” A rock that forms part of a wall or a building, on the other hand, is called a “living stone.”  The “living stones,” of course, have to bear weight — not an easy job when you look at the size of the rocks used in some of these old walls and buildings. Not only that, but the other rocks beside you rub and chafe against you. This is why the rocks needed to be “chiselled” by a master builder — which, of course, is not a happy experience (for the rock, I mean) but it ultimately results in less friction with the other rocks and a better fit and a more beautiful wall or building. Kind of gives new meaning to that verse in 1 Peter 2:5 that says, “you also like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

The stone the builders rejected:

Arie also showed us the “cornerstone” or “capstone” — which is the foundational stone at the corner on which the whole building depends. When the builders discover what they think is a suitable cornerstone, they start to dig it out of the ground. If it is deemed unfit to be used, however, they will leave it there, half-uncovered, and it will become a “stumbling block,” as in “a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall” (1 Peter 2:8). This is the fulfillment of my second favorite Scripture in Psalm 118:22-23, “The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

grace and truth revealed June 15, 2008

I just returned from my third trip to Israel. Everytime I visit, I fall more in love with the Holy Land, the Bible, and … hummus. The trip was incredible on so many levels, so I will attempt to share a few of my observations and experiences…

Most incredible experience:

Hands down, the most amazing experience was when we sailed out onto the Sea of Galilee and had our own private worship service. Daniel Carmel, a Jewish believer from Galilee, led us in some of the most beautiful worship I have ever experienced in both English and Hebrew. There on the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus did so much of His ministry, the presence of God was so thick that all we could do is lift our hands as tears streamed down our faces.

My favorite Jewish person:

No doubt about it, our guide, Arie bar-David, is the most passionate and insightful bible teacher I have ever had the privilege to sit under. Now 61, Arie’s family was the first known family of Jewish believers in Israel. His father spoke 11 languages and his mother was a direct descendent of the Levites. His father-in-law miraculously survived Auschwitz and the 900 km death march which followed it, becoming a believer just months before he passed away. Listening to Arie teach the Bible makes me realize how little of my brain I utilize.

Coolest revelation:

The story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Arie shared this teaching with us on the Temple Mount – site of the magnificent temple which Solomon built and King Herod rebuilt and the center of daily life in Jerusalem. When the Pharisees brought out the woman caught in adultery and asked Jesus what He thought they should do with her, Jesus bent down “and started to write on the ground with his finger” (John 8:6). According to their Law, she should have been stoned. Unexpectedly, however, Jesus responded, “if any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

I always thought He was writing something in the dirt (at least that’s what they always show in the movies), but they were in the temple courts, which means He was kneeling on marble. In other words, what the people saw was the finger of God writing on stone – which to the Jewish people would have instantly evoked the finger of God writing the Ten Commandments (“the Law”) on the stone tablets on Mt Sinai. Even the legalistic Pharisees knew that no one could keep the whole Law, which is why they all disappeared. But though the “truth” was that she deserved death, Jesus gave her “grace” in the form of forgiveness, the same forgiveness He extends to each one of us today. This is the fulfillment of my favorite Scripture — John 1:14 – that Jesus was “full of grace and truth.”

Lessons from the gravel road of despair - Pt 1 May 1, 2008

i once went on an 16 km hike that became 45 kms of wandering in the wilderness (of tennessee). it was one of those — “if i get out of this alive, i’m sure it will have a great life application” kind of experiences that become much funnier once they are safely over.

it all began with a camping trip to fall creek falls state park in eastern tennessee with some friends from church. on saturday, we went on a very pleasant 3 mile roundtrip hike to a waterfall. one of our friends had even brought his two young kids, so we chose the easy route.

we camped overnight and the next morning while most of our group prepared to drive back to nashville, one of my friends (a very fit kickboxing instructor) asked if anyone wanted to stay and do a longer hike with her. her roommate (also a kickboxing instructor) and i were the only volunteers.

my friend, being not only a very fit kickboxing instructor but also a former wilderness orienteering instructor, decided we would take the most difficult 8-mile route. fair enough. however, shortly into the hike, we encountered a fork in the road and decided to take the road (much) less travelled. it was, in fact, so much less travelled that soon we were bush-wacking our way through thick underbrush and climbing over giant boulders and trees covering the path.

by this time, we all knew we were hopelessly lost.

after a steady two hours of hiking down steep slopes to the point where my toes were completely numb, we then started two hours of steady incline. my ever optimistic kickboxing friend, in an effort to buoy our now-flagging spirits, would throw out encouragements such as, “wow! this is a really good calf workout!” to which i would reply, “in other words, we are on a really steep and seemingly endless uphill climb…”

by this time, we had been hiking continuously for 4 hours in 95 degree heat, and had now run out of water and food.

Lessons from the gravel road of despair — Pt 2 May 1, 2008

we summited the incline, only to find ourselves on what i fondly referred to as “the gravel road of despair.” gaining the summit, it was clear to me that we were now walking in the OPPOSITE direction from the entrance to the park, our car, and most desired of all, the vending machines. however, none of us could bear the thought of turning around and backtracking the gruelling 4 hour climb we had just completed. we were now on what appeared to be a gravel logging road, so we decided the best plan was to keep going forward and pray that we would encounter a road, house or human that would lead us back to civilization.

my still very fit kickboxing friend gamely offered to jog down the gravel road to see if there were any people at the end of it that might help us out. she ran on ahead with her very fit black labrador retriever. meanwhile, dehydrated and hungry, her roommate and i fantasized about what we would eat if we ever found our way out. the roommate declared that, diet be damned, she would go straight to outback and get the biggest steak she could find. i declared that, at that moment in time, my life goals consisted of: 1) drinking an ice-cold coca cola; 2) eating anything; and 3) taking off my shoes (which by this time had turned my toenails black.)

soon enough, we saw our friend, walking dejectedly back toward us. even her dog looked dejected. “this cannot be a good sign,” i prophesied to her roommate.

“you won’t believe this,” reports my kickboxing friend, “but we’re not even in fall creek falls park anymore. we have walked clear out of the park and are on private hunting grounds. and this gravel road ends in a roadblock.”

it was at this point that despair truly set in. we had now been hiking for 6 hours without a rest and were now on a gravel road on an open ridge in 95 degree heat with no tree cover, no water, no cell phone signal, and no idea where we were or where we were heading.

Lessons from the gravel road of despair — Pt. 3 May 1, 2008

the faint hope that a search helicopter would suddenly appear and a good-looking ranger would rescue us occurred to one of my friends (she’s obviously seen too many movies). but then we realized that no one actually knew we were missing yet and therefore no one would be looking for us… so we pressed on.

the gravel road of despair had a profound effect on us. once we realized how truly and utterly lost we were, our thoughts were no longer of outback steaks and ice-cold colas. with no real end in sight, our pace slowed, our lively conversation ceased. we decided to concentrate on just putting one foot in front of the other.

we knew we had less than a couple more hours of daylight left and i started mentally preparing myself to sleep overnight in the park (we were all wearing tank tops and had no other clothes, or a flashlight, or a lighter, or … well, we basically had no supplies).

we made the decision to turn around on the gravel road of despair and retrace our steps until we found the path again. shortly we did find it — overgrown underbrush had covered the sign that showed the path back to the park. we surmised that if we followed the path we were on, we eventually had to come out at an entry point, which would lead to a road, which would lead us back to civilization (and vending machines).

and herein lay the great life application. by this time, we had been hiking for more than 7 hours without a single rest break, but once we knew we were on the right path again — and now that we had a destination — our pace picked up and the weariness melted away.

this, in a word, was “hope.”

when you don’t know where you’re going, despair is inevitable. however, the reverse is also true. when you know where you are going and have the hope of your goal within reach, you can endure an awful lot. i no longer noticed how hungry i was or how painful my feet were (possibly because my toes had gone completely numb round about the 6th hour). we even started joking again.

finally, we came to the end of the path and came face to face with a trail map and realized what we had done. when we took the fork in the road, we had inadvertantly ended up on a now unused path which took us so far off course that we had literally walked “off the map” — and out of the park! our intended 16 km hike had ended up being an 8 hour endurance test of close to 45 km.

we flagged down a pickup truck (the dangers of hitch-hiking no longer mattering at this point) and the driver told us to help ourselves to the ice-cold colas in his cooler while he ferried us to our car. thinking it might be too great a shock to our dehydrated bodies, the three of us shared one coke. it was truly the best tasting third of a can of coke i have ever consumed.

sadly (or comically, depending on your perspective), our troubles did not end there. we also got lost on our way back to nashville. somehow, we missed the turnoff to the small town with the outback restaurant and had to settle instead for a sandwich at arby’s…

THE END

My best and worst health habits March 11, 2008

What do Martha Stewart and I have in common? We’re both media moguls? We both know how to make a table centerpiece out of a recycled hubcap? We’ve both done time in federal prison for insider trading???

No!!! We both have blogs about our best and worst health habits. I found Martha Stewart’s Best and Worst Health Habits on the web, and just couldn’t resist trying my own version.

Those who know about my alter-ego-life-as-an-aerobics-instructor often ask me questions, such as “does the ab-roller/thigh-master/gazelle-glider really work?” (hint: just about any piece of exercise equipment works, the trick is actually getting it out and using it 3-5 times a week since they generally do not work if you leave them in the closet)

So here are my “best and worst health habits”:

1. Health Flaw: Eating fat. Yes, it’s true — I love fat. It’s my favorite part of a steak or pork barbecue, and the best part of a roast turkey or lechon is the crispy, fatty skin. Yum!

2. Health Flaw: Procrastinating. Although I love to exercise and feel 100 times better every time I do exercise, I still manage to consistently put off exercising the way a teenager hits the snooze button on an alarm clock in the morning. I will put “GO TO GYM” in the calendar on my celfone with an alarm so that I will remember to exercise. But then I will keep moving it later and later in the day until my 6pm exercise becomes a rushed 9-10pm session as the gym is closing.

3. Health Flaw: Overdosing on CNN. Okay, here’s one Martha and I share — not getting enough sleep. They say you should get 8 hours of sleep a night — I generally get 6. And not for any particularly good reason. Usually it’s because I’m not falling asleep so I decide I should start watching CNN around midnight or 1am. (hint: turning on a tv while trying to fall asleep is about as wise as turning on all the lights in your room and expecting to fall asleep — experts say even the light from your celfone or laptop being illuminated is enough to counteract the natural melatonin your body produces which induces your sleep cycle).

4. Health Feat: No Junk Food and No Fast Food. Steak fat aside, I really do have very healthy eating habits (and I eat steak about once every 5-10 years). (seriously!) I do not buy or keep any junk food or soda in my house. I almost never eat fast food. McDonald’s is what I consider “emergency” food — as in, it’s 2am and there’s nothing else within a 20 km radius that’s open and I only have 10 minutes to eat and 90 pesos in my wallet.

5. Health Feat: Almost No Deep Fried Food and Almost No Dessert. Once you start eating healthy, your stomach will stage a revolt if you try to give it greasy or deep-fried food so I avoid these as much as possible (other than the occasional french fry). I can’t claim much self-discipline with regards to dessert because, first of all, I am allergic to eggs so I can’t eat 90% of desserts and, second, I don’t have a sweet tooth so dessert doesn’t have much appeal for me.

6. Health Feat: Eating Japanese!  I eat Japanese food whenever possible. Especially salmon sashimi. I would eat salmon sashimi every day if I could afford it. I saw a report (on CNN, of course) that said more than 33% of Americans are obese compared to less than 3% of Japanese. I’ll take the Japanese diet. Besides, they say salmon prevents wrinkles.

7. Health Feat: Regular Exercise. Despite the fact that I always seem to end up rushing to complete my workout before they turn the lights off in the gym, I do exercise regularly. This is, in fact, the only New Year’s resolution I have ever kept. I made a New Year’s resolution in January 1992 to get in shape, and for the past 16 years I have worked out consistently — usually 2-3 times a week. Of course, everyone needs incentives to work out — mine is the reward of treating myself to the spa after a particularly hard workout.

So that’s the tale of the tape between Martha and me.

My brain is green and female February 28, 2008

i recently discovered that my brain is green and female. not green in a vulcan, mr spock kind-of-way, but at least according to sheila glazov. what color is your brain is a “fun and fascinating” (according to her) book that explains your personality and that of your friends, colleagues and family according to four colors — blue, orange, yellow and green.

at first i wondered why she picked such boring colors — if it were me, i would have chosen turqoise, violet, fuschia and chartreuse.

perhaps that’s why she chose blue, orange, yellow and green.

i also thought it would be more interesting if she called it “what animal is your brain?” she could have had a lion brain, dog brain, cat brain, bird brain… oh, well, then again maybe not…

apparently i am green because i am logical and composed, i value knowledge, my priority is “no drama,” my stress factor is not having enough time to myself, and i like no frills greeting cards. (please note: that last one is not entirely accurate — i like hoops & yoyo e-cards)

it is particularly enlightening to read the characteristics of all my blue, orange and yellow-brained friends. most entertaining is when you read the attributes of different colored brains and a specific person will pop into your mind — like when she says that an orange-brained person’s attitude toward social events is: “where’s the party?” (i know a lot of people who fit this description), but i have to admit, she has green me pegged as well, under the banner of: “do i HAVE to go?”

i could never understand why people would say i was intimidating — according to glazov, this is because green sees green as “calm, cool and collected” while other colors see green as “insensitive and intimidating.” hey, at least i use emoticons, right???!!! :-)

some people don’t like personality profiling because they feel it “pigeonholes” them and it causes people to stereotype them. hey, can i help it if you’re an orange-brained, high “I”, dominant, extravert …??!!

my brain is not just green but also female. according to the “what gender is your brain?” quiz, my brain is 73% female and 27% male. i am assuming the femaleness of my brain derives from the fact that i have more than 10 pairs of shoes and would spare the feelings of a friend if she asked me if she had gained weight.

i said i would NOT marry for money even if the person was a billionaire. now, if he was a billionaire and REALLY GOOD LOOKING, that would be a whole different story… (if you fit this category, please send me a personal message). i’m guessing that the male brain equivalent might be, “I would be willing to marry someone even if she was penniless as long as she was a supermodel…”

Things that are super February 15, 2008

i have been a delinquent blogger of late. this is mostly due to a confluence of events which includes super tuesday and being super busy.

I am not an american (and therefore cannot vote in the upcoming election) and have always had as much interest in american politics as I have for, say, the inner workings of the internal revenue service. this year, however, is different.

when a friend invited me to a dinner party on feb 5, I responded, “oh! that’s super duper tuesday!!!” (whereupon she gave me one of those, “o…k…, that’s, really odd…” kind of looks)

i found myself glued to cnn the next morning, watching the results come in, trying to make sense of superdelegates and the super-confusing american electoral system.

some random thoughts from super tuesday …

In the span of 5 minutes, the commentators on cnn referred to THEMSELVES as “the best political team on television” no less than 5 TIMES. now, is it just me, or are these folks missing a little thing called “HUMILITY”???

americans love their hyperbole. for example, why do the winners of the superbowl call themselves “world champions“??? haven’t they noticed that other countries play football too?

If america was a superhero, which one would it be? batman’s too dark. spiderman too self-effacing. wonder woman too buxom and the incredible hulk too, well, green. no doubt about it — it has to be superman.

all the politics and flights of hyperbole, however, did get me to thinking … what qualifies something as “super“?

here, then, is my list of “things that are super”:

–> friends who tell you men are blind when the guy you like doesn’t notice you;

–> mr & mrs incredible

–> people that give up cushy jobs to serve orphans and the poor;

–> milenyo, the typhoon that flattened large swaths of the philippines in 2006 with 230 kph winds;

–> terry fox, the courageous young amputee who lost a leg to bone cancer and then ran a “marathon of hope” across canada on one leg and south africa’s “blade runner;”

–> christians in china.