Dead Corals Were Discovered in the Mountains of Alamada, Cotabato

Giant clams and brain corals are known species that are living in the ocean, but the location where these objects were found is in the middle of an upland agricultural area which is about 200 meters above sea level and more or less has 40 kilometers distance away from the nearest shoreline. Before the area was converted into agricultural land in the 1960s, it was forest land.

What is That Green Plant at the Asik-Asik Falls

The beauty of Asik-Asik Falls is incomplete without. that species of water-loving plant which blends with the cascading fresh water on the cliff at Sitio Dulao, Dado, Alamada, Cotabato, Philippines.  It adds grandeur to the scenery but since the falls was introduce to public in 2012, that particular species of the plant remains unidentified.

At the precipice, we change.

As I was scrolling my Facebook feed, I was stuck on the old movie,  The Day the Earth Stood still, starring Keanu Reeves where the actor said, "At the precipice, we change."

Literally, the word "precipice" means a very steep rock face or cliff, especially a tall one, and the whole statement means that in times of life-or-death situations, people change. A person can make a 360 degrees turn if he or she is at the peak of a very serious situation.

Especially during this hard time when the word is hit by the pandemic COVID-19 and everyone is scared of the novel corona virus, we do things that we do not usually do.

For those who do not follow the orders of our government as precautionary measure against the disease, I hope we will not wait until we reach the precipice before we make a change.

At the precipice, we change.

As I was scrolling my Facebook feed, I was stuck on the old movie,  The Day the Earth Stood still, starring Keanu Reeves where the actor said, "At the precipice, we change."

Literally, the word "precipice" means a very steep rock face or cliff, especially a tall one, and the whole statement means that in times of life-or-death situations, people change. A person can make a 360 degrees turn if he or she is at the peak of a very serious situation.

Especially during this hard time when the word is hit by the pandemic COVID-19 and everyone is scared of the novel corona virus, we do things that we do not usually do.

For those who do not follow the orders of our government as precautionary measure against the disease, I hope we will not wait until we reach the precipice before we make a change.

The General Rules for Title Case: Capitalization in Titles

Capitalize the first, last, and important words in a title. Important words include nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and more. So, generally, these parts of speech are capitalized in titles:

• Nouns
• Adjectives
• Verbs 
• Adverbs
• Pronouns
• Subordinating conjunctions 

Words with less than five letters, are lowercase in titles, unless they are the first or last words.

Generally, do not capitalize:

• Articles
• Coordinating Conjunctions (fewer than five letters)
• Prepositions (fewer than five letters)

General rule recommended by The U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual: Capitalize all words in titles except a, an, the, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as, but, or, and nor.

The General Rules for Title Case: Capitalization in Titles

Capitalize the first, last, and important words in a title. Important words include nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and more. So, generally, these parts of speech are capitalized in titles:

• Nouns
• Adjectives
• Verbs 
• Adverbs
• Pronouns
• Subordinating conjunctions 

Words with less than five letters, are lowercase in titles, unless they are the first or last words.

Generally, do not capitalize:

• Articles
• Coordinating Conjunctions (fewer than five letters)
• Prepositions (fewer than five letters)

General rule recommended by The U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual: Capitalize all words in titles except a, an, the, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as, but, or, and nor.

Kalivungan Festival 2018 Best Dressed Booth Contest Criteria

Booth of the Municipality of Alamada

One of the highlights of the Kalivungan Festival is the Best Dressed Booth Contest, which is participated by different City and Municipalities of Cotabato. The contest has the following Prizes and Criteria for Judging:


PRIZES

• 1st Prize - P25,000.00
• 2nd Prize - P20,000.00
• 3rd Prize - P15,000.00
• Consolation Prize to non-winning but participating LGUs - P10,000.00

CRITERIA

Product Display - 25%

• Variety of Display, Presentation and Arrangement
• Backdrop, Signage

Packaging and Labelling of Products -20%

• Product information, Promotion
• Contact Details, Flyers, Business Card, etc

Marketability of Product - 15%

• Export Potentials, Industry Trend

Farm/Agri-Tourism & Culture - 15%

Sustainability of Display -15%

Overall-All Impact - 10%

Booth of the Municipality of Alamada

Kalivungan Festival 2018 Best Dressed Booth Contest Criteria

Booth of the Municipality of Alamada

One of the highlights of the Kalivungan Festival is the Best Dressed Booth Contest, which is participated by different City and Municipalities of Cotabato. The contest has the following Prizes and Criteria for Judging:


PRIZES

• 1st Prize - P25,000.00
• 2nd Prize - P20,000.00
• 3rd Prize - P15,000.00
• Consolation Prize to non-winning but participating LGUs - P10,000.00

CRITERIA

Product Display - 25%

• Variety of Display, Presentation and Arrangement
• Backdrop, Signage

Packaging and Labelling of Products -20%

• Product information, Promotion
• Contact Details, Flyers, Business Card, etc

Marketability of Product - 15%

• Export Potentials, Industry Trend

Farm/Agri-Tourism & Culture - 15%

Sustainability of Display -15%

Overall-All Impact - 10%

Booth of the Municipality of Alamada

How to Take Care of Your Favorite Expensive Clothes

Taking care of you favorite clothes enables you to use them in good condition for a long time. because in the first place, you have bought them even if the price tag is very high.


There are several things you can do to take care of your expensive and favorite clothes. Let us take a look on some of these reminders.

Read the Instructions

Expensive clothes usually comes with important instructions that are found on the label of the item. Some types of fabric really needs to be washed by hands, should not be ironed, or should not be applied with fabric conditioner.

Some of the instructions will tell you not to use concentrated detergent and bleach, to wash in warm water in normal cycle, to wash inside out, and more.

Leave Them to the Expert

The other way you can take care of your expensive clothes is to have a professional clean the clothes. This means that you have to take the clothes for dry cleaning at least once a week.

 This is important because the fabric used in making expensive clothes is high quality and requires a professional to clean it in order to ensure that the clothes remain in good condition.

I heard a story from a friend that someone has expensive dress that is embellished with beads, but it was damaged and totally unusable after the owner washed the dress using a washing machine.

Store Them Properly

Storage is very important when it comes to taking care of your expensive clothes. You should ensure that you store all your clothes according to fabric and in fabric bags. This protects the clothes from damage especially if you are storing the clothes to use them in the next season.

Your closet ought to be well ventilated to ensure that your clothes retain their quality for a long time.  You should also make it a habit to leave spaces between your clothes when you hang them in the closet.

This prevents moths and other insects from sticking onto the clothes and airs the fabric of the clothes which is important in ensuring the fabric remains in good condition.

In case you need to store your expensive clothes so that you can use them for the next season, it is important to ensure that they are well cleaned.

Proper Handling

Once you get them from the dry cleaners, it is also important to ensure that you remove the clothes from the cleaners wrap paper before storing. This is important in ensuring that the fabric is not ruined since the papers may become damp during storage and ruin the fabric.

Most people ruin their expensive clothes by the way they handle the clothes when taking them off. When taking off your clothes, it is important not to throw them on the floor. You should hang the clothes using a hanger especially if you intend to wear them again. This works well in protecting the fabric.

When eating ensure you place a napkin on your lap or neck to prevent the food from staining your expensive clothes. Moving your mouth towards the plate is also very important because it does not require you to lift the spoon over your clothes. Doing enables the fabric to stay in hood condition since tough stains are very difficult to remove. Scrubbing too much to get the stains off may damage the fabric.

Don't  Use them Too Often

First and foremost, it is important to ensure that you do not wear your expensive clothes regularly or very often. This is because, obviously, wearing them to much leads to wearing out.

It may therefore be a good idea to wear the clothes when you have an important event to attend or only when you really need to have them on.

How to Take Care of Your Favorite Expensive Clothes

Taking care of you favorite clothes enables you to use them in good condition for a long time. because in the first place, you have bought them even if the price tag is very high.


There are several things you can do to take care of your expensive and favorite clothes. Let us take a look on some of these reminders.

Read the Instructions

Expensive clothes usually comes with important instructions that are found on the label of the item. Some types of fabric really needs to be washed by hands, should not be ironed, or should not be applied with fabric conditioner.

Some of the instructions will tell you not to use concentrated detergent and bleach, to wash in warm water in normal cycle, to wash inside out, and more.

Leave Them to the Expert

The other way you can take care of your expensive clothes is to have a professional clean the clothes. This means that you have to take the clothes for dry cleaning at least once a week.

 This is important because the fabric used in making expensive clothes is high quality and requires a professional to clean it in order to ensure that the clothes remain in good condition.

I heard a story from a friend that someone has expensive dress that is embellished with beads, but it was damaged and totally unusable after the owner washed the dress using a washing machine.

Store Them Properly

Storage is very important when it comes to taking care of your expensive clothes. You should ensure that you store all your clothes according to fabric and in fabric bags. This protects the clothes from damage especially if you are storing the clothes to use them in the next season.

Your closet ought to be well ventilated to ensure that your clothes retain their quality for a long time.  You should also make it a habit to leave spaces between your clothes when you hang them in the closet.

This prevents moths and other insects from sticking onto the clothes and airs the fabric of the clothes which is important in ensuring the fabric remains in good condition.

In case you need to store your expensive clothes so that you can use them for the next season, it is important to ensure that they are well cleaned.

Proper Handling

Once you get them from the dry cleaners, it is also important to ensure that you remove the clothes from the cleaners wrap paper before storing. This is important in ensuring that the fabric is not ruined since the papers may become damp during storage and ruin the fabric.

Most people ruin their expensive clothes by the way they handle the clothes when taking them off. When taking off your clothes, it is important not to throw them on the floor. You should hang the clothes using a hanger especially if you intend to wear them again. This works well in protecting the fabric.

When eating ensure you place a napkin on your lap or neck to prevent the food from staining your expensive clothes. Moving your mouth towards the plate is also very important because it does not require you to lift the spoon over your clothes. Doing enables the fabric to stay in hood condition since tough stains are very difficult to remove. Scrubbing too much to get the stains off may damage the fabric.

Don't  Use them Too Often

First and foremost, it is important to ensure that you do not wear your expensive clothes regularly or very often. This is because, obviously, wearing them to much leads to wearing out.

It may therefore be a good idea to wear the clothes when you have an important event to attend or only when you really need to have them on.

3 Adult Party Games Which Don’t Require Much Movement

You cannot really escape from the reality the most adults do not like to participating party games especially if the games require too much movement like running and jumping. They prefer the games that will only let them stand of sit in one place.


This is maybe because they are old to move quickly, but whatever would be the reason behind this situation, here are the types of the party games to make them participate in the activities.

Words Games

Scrabble is the most popular words game which you can use, but you need to set particular time to end the end. You can make this game special when you add extra points or double the points of the player who can forma a word that is related to your celebration or qualify some words like the name of the birthday celebrant in the game.

Boggle is another exciting word game which you can use. If you have smartphone or tab, you can download this type of application so that you won’t need the bulky dice and sand timer.

Other popular words games which you can use are crossword puzzled, fill in the missing letters, rearranged letters and word factoring.

Easy and Common Sense Quiz

You need to give each participants, individually or by group, with a piece of paper and pencil to write their answer to questions. Make sure that the questions that you are going to ask are easy, practical and common sense questions. Take these for example:

• What is the name of birthday celebrant’s grandmother?
• What is the year our birthday celebrant was born?
• How many animals of each type did Adam take into the arc? Answer: None, because it was Noah, not Adam
• If you have the coin inside a bottle that covered with a cork, how can remove the coin without pulling out the cork. Answer: push the cork inside the bottle then get the coin.

After few questions, ask the participants to exchange the answer sheets with their opponents for checking. The highest number of correct answer is the winner.

Act the Answer

This is a group game. Ask each group to have a representative to act with saying a word the word or title of a song that you are going to give. Say for example, the title of the song is “Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer”; the representative will act it and his or her group will guess the answer.

Please take note that only you and the representative know the answer. If the group cannot get the right answer after 1 minute, the other groups can steal the answer if they know it. The acting is done each group, one after another.

You can use popular movie title, news, quotes or phrases as subject of the game.

3 Adult Party Games Which Don’t Require Much Movement

You cannot really escape from the reality the most adults do not like to participating party games especially if the games require too much movement like running and jumping. They prefer the games that will only let them stand of sit in one place.


This is maybe because they are old to move quickly, but whatever would be the reason behind this situation, here are the types of the party games to make them participate in the activities.

Words Games

Scrabble is the most popular words game which you can use, but you need to set particular time to end the end. You can make this game special when you add extra points or double the points of the player who can forma a word that is related to your celebration or qualify some words like the name of the birthday celebrant in the game.

Boggle is another exciting word game which you can use. If you have smartphone or tab, you can download this type of application so that you won’t need the bulky dice and sand timer.

Other popular words games which you can use are crossword puzzled, fill in the missing letters, rearranged letters and word factoring.

Easy and Common Sense Quiz

You need to give each participants, individually or by group, with a piece of paper and pencil to write their answer to questions. Make sure that the questions that you are going to ask are easy, practical and common sense questions. Take these for example:

• What is the name of birthday celebrant’s grandmother?
• What is the year our birthday celebrant was born?
• How many animals of each type did Adam take into the arc? Answer: None, because it was Noah, not Adam
• If you have the coin inside a bottle that covered with a cork, how can remove the coin without pulling out the cork. Answer: push the cork inside the bottle then get the coin.

After few questions, ask the participants to exchange the answer sheets with their opponents for checking. The highest number of correct answer is the winner.

Act the Answer

This is a group game. Ask each group to have a representative to act with saying a word the word or title of a song that you are going to give. Say for example, the title of the song is “Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer”; the representative will act it and his or her group will guess the answer.

Please take note that only you and the representative know the answer. If the group cannot get the right answer after 1 minute, the other groups can steal the answer if they know it. The acting is done each group, one after another.

You can use popular movie title, news, quotes or phrases as subject of the game.

Product Review: Electric Ice Crusher from Lazada

I purchased this product last May 2018 and when I received the product, the base was broken though the machine was working well.

We purchase this item because we needed an ice crusher for halo-halo. The item has a powerful 500W motor and stainless steel blades and it comes with stainless steel bowl. However, the base which looks like made from metal is actually a plastic material.

Since the base is plastic, it was easily broken during the shipment because the seller did not pack it well; there were no fillers inside the box to make the item stable during delivery.

Only the tube where the blade is attached, the handle, and the cover, which is use to push the ice are the parts which are metal. The bowl that hold shaved ice is stainless steel, and as mentioned earlier, the base is plastic.

I contacted the seller about the problem but they advised me to return the product. Since we urgently need the unit in making halo-halo, I decided not to return the item. Besides, the process of return an item to Lazada is not a favorable option for.

The quality of the shaved ice it produce is good, but since this item is branded, I am not sure if the output of the other units are consistent to this unit I have purchased.

Product Review: Electric Ice Crusher from Lazada

I purchased this product last May 2018 and when I received the product, the base was broken though the machine was working well.

We purchase this item because we needed an ice crusher for halo-halo. The item has a powerful 500W motor and stainless steel blades and it comes with stainless steel bowl. However, the base which looks like made from metal is actually a plastic material.

Since the base is plastic, it was easily broken during the shipment because the seller did not pack it well; there were no fillers inside the box to make the item stable during delivery.

Only the tube where the blade is attached, the handle, and the cover, which is use to push the ice are the parts which are metal. The bowl that hold shaved ice is stainless steel, and as mentioned earlier, the base is plastic.

I contacted the seller about the problem but they advised me to return the product. Since we urgently need the unit in making halo-halo, I decided not to return the item. Besides, the process of return an item to Lazada is not a favorable option for.

The quality of the shaved ice it produce is good, but since this item is branded, I am not sure if the output of the other units are consistent to this unit I have purchased.

"Merchandise in the Philippines are Expensive" is a Lie

If you believe that groceries and other merchandise in the Philippines are expensive, then you are being fooled. Don’t be gullible.

When I was still abroad, I used to hear from my friends that the prices of different commodities in the Philippines are getting more expensive year after year. Well, that is inflation.



When I go back in the country, I discover that the ‘expensive’ notion was wrong. Philippine merchandise are actually cheaper compared to the price of similar goods in other countries.

In the Philippines, you can have a simple meal for only 15 pesos, which is only about 30 cents in U.S. dollar or about 45 cents in Brunei Dollar. You can also buy a fried banana snacks or cucur pisang in Malay for less than 10 pesos, which is less than 20 cents in U.S. dollar.

When you are in Hong Kong, your 10 pesos is only good for a piece of candy.

The 50 pieces regular size party balloon which is priced at about $8.00 in Brunei is only PhP. 90.00  in the Philippines. That is three times cheaper.

And most of all, my favorite art material which is crepe paper which is 70 cents in Brunei is only 8 pesos in the Philippines. The 70 cents Brunei money is about 24 pesos value. See the difference? 

And the most exciting truth for fashion lovers? You can buy some RTWs for as low as 50 pesos. No, it’s not ukay-ukay.

Thought there items that are slightly higher prices in the country and the prices of oil are indeed high, most merchandise are cheaper compared to some other countries.

Therefore, if you are planning to shop Christmas gifts for your family and friends, better do it in the Philippines and I am shopping that will really enjoy your shopping.

"Merchandise in the Philippines are Expensive" is a Lie

If you believe that groceries and other merchandise in the Philippines are expensive, then you are being fooled. Don’t be gullible.

When I was still abroad, I used to hear from my friends that the prices of different commodities in the Philippines are getting more expensive year after year. Well, that is inflation.



When I go back in the country, I discover that the ‘expensive’ notion was wrong. Philippine merchandise are actually cheaper compared to the price of similar goods in other countries.

In the Philippines, you can have a simple meal for only 15 pesos, which is only about 30 cents in U.S. dollar or about 45 cents in Brunei Dollar. You can also buy a fried banana snacks or cucur pisang in Malay for less than 10 pesos, which is less than 20 cents in U.S. dollar.

When you are in Hong Kong, your 10 pesos is only good for a piece of candy.

The 50 pieces regular size party balloon which is priced at about $8.00 in Brunei is only PhP. 90.00  in the Philippines. That is three times cheaper.

And most of all, my favorite art material which is crepe paper which is 70 cents in Brunei is only 8 pesos in the Philippines. The 70 cents Brunei money is about 24 pesos value. See the difference? 

And the most exciting truth for fashion lovers? You can buy some RTWs for as low as 50 pesos. No, it’s not ukay-ukay.

Thought there items that are slightly higher prices in the country and the prices of oil are indeed high, most merchandise are cheaper compared to some other countries.

Therefore, if you are planning to shop Christmas gifts for your family and friends, better do it in the Philippines and I am shopping that will really enjoy your shopping.