Brain Contour

Few Filipino friends back home have asked me about how clean Americans are in the house. I could not give an answer straight to the point, because the term “clean” is relative. Cleanliness in the Filipino perspective could be a far cry from from the American viewpoint. If cleanliness is the absence of dirt or offensive odor, then based on the number of American homes I have been into since 2006, Americans do maintain a clean surrounding.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Some Americans (mostly the younger generations) do not know how to maintain tidiness in areas of the house that are supposed to be shipshape. This is not specific to one culture, however. Although Filipinos are known to be really clean in the house, some are deficient in this area of household responsibility as well.

There are a number of hotels, motels, and inns around the Buffalo area in New York for those wanting to visit the famous Niagara Falls. I have been traveling quite often and, in most times, I always check hotels.com for hotel availability for my travel dates. This time, when I searched for hotels near Niagara Falls, I found a hotel name that is unfamiliar – Lord Amherst Hotel. This is my short review for the Lord Amherst Hotel in Buffalo, NY.

I wanted something that is affordable yet well maintained and clean. Getting a cheap hotel near a popular tourist attraction like the Niagara is a game of chance. If there will be good deals online, expect that it can be filled in no time. Most of the hotels I saw were priced over $100. This is quite pricey in comparison with those hotels I stayed in Florida and California.

I only saw the link online while searching for things to see in Iowa. It says that I need to visit the Grotto of the Redemption, specifically located in West Bend. I saw some pictures posted on some blogs, but was not actually impressed by them. What really captured me was this line: a miracle in stone. Another description of the grotto that I found interesting was that it is the “Eighth Wonder of the World”. This, I will dispute because for a very long time now the Philippines has been cited to have the “Eighth Wonder of the World”, and that is the famous Banaue Rice Terraces (which, by the way, is too beautiful for the Grotto of the Redemption to surpass).

Anyway, my friend and I drove almost 4 hours to reach the Grotto of the Redemption, coming from the eastern side of South Dakota. The site is hidden in the rural Iowa community, situated amidst residential houses. I was expecting an ordinary sight, you know something that will make me utter short reluctant ahhs and ohhs, and then the scenes will quickly vanish in my head. Yet, the moment my eyes laid on the grotto, I was in awe and the place etched a perfect picture in my mind.

Walmart in Brookings South Dakota is selling expired orange juice. I was in Walmart today to buy a gallon of Minute Maid juice (my favorite is the one with pulp). While searching for it along a line of glass coolers, I saw another brand of juice displayed: Florida’s Natural Orange Juice (see picture below). I wasn’t intending to purchase one, but what caught my attention was the expiration date printed clearly on its side — August 2, 2010.

Since I always look at the date when purchasing perishable products, I was shocked that Walmart is displaying the juice, 8 days beyond the expiration. And it was not just one, but many of them inside the cooler!

A friend sent me an email about a new scam in Manila using the cellphone. It sounds real to me and very possible to happen. So I am sharing this to everyone.

Dear all,

I would like to share this worrisome experience with all of you.

Its all started when I received a call from someone claiming that he was from Maxis and he asked me to shutdown my phone for 2 hours for 3g update to take place. As I was rushing for a meeting, I did not question and shutdown my cell phone.

After 45 minutes I felt very suspicious since the caller did not even introduce his name. I quickly turned on my cell phone and I received several calls from my family members and the others were from the number that had called me earlier – 3954380.

I was having my daily news reading on philstar.com when the picture (below) of a man gathering rattan fruits, locally known as littuko, caught my attention. I had seen the fruits before in the Philippines, but never thought that it’s from the rattan tree, more so, that it could actually be eaten. The snakelike rattan fruit is small, about 1.5 inch in diameter.

According to those who have tasted the fruit, it is sour, akin to a tamarind taste.

You have the top-notch ideas but your command of the written English is limited. You can speak in English and understand the language, but you cannot even spell 75 percent of what you say. Your grammar construction is, almost always, something to jeer about. Nevertheless, you possess the academic degree and the know-how you insanely desire to share with your intellectual peers through published scientific papers. Would you ever let a lexical deficiency hinder your rise to the top of the scholastic ladder?

No way – says few of the people I know. I personally know a research scientist whose first language is not English, whose sub-par writing skills could easily send peers to frown, if not, jerk. But he manages to impress people with good write-ups and well-written documents. The key is to be smart — let others do the writing or the editing (read: flipping it 75%, recall that you cannot even spell 75% of your words) for you! Hire or pay for an academic ghostwriter for your scientific papers. Or get it for free by befriending the better-schooled American writers. Or could also be any person whose English skills are par excellence, someone who could spell receive with “e after c” and not “i after c”. A ghostwriter could edit and refine your rough draft or even create an article from start to finish based on your basic idea.

Journal Online

I never fail to read her articles as they are really in a class by itself, a far cry from the rest of the news reports posted on Journal Online and from those I often read from Philippine Star or the Philippine Daily Inquirer. If you translate verbatim a tabloid article written in Filipino, the exact match is Zaida delos Reyes-Palanca’s English article. Read the samples below.