How To Compare Things With Other Things

HAPPINESS is being contented with yourself, on who you are, what you are for. You wont be happy when you compare yourself to others. Everyone is absolutely different from one to another, so there's really no comparison and no need to compare.

You are different from me. I don't need any competition nor do I want to compete in anything just to be the center of  attention.

At work you have to compete for promotions. In sports and games the competition is very stiff up to the extremes that the stress and pressures are way over the top. All these stress can lead up to illness. When it gets to that point you deny yourself of  happiness. When you are sad, unhappy, restless and nervous all the time because of such extreme competition that's not fair and it wont be success. The result of winning should be happiness and fulfillment but if you are to achieve illness that is not success, it's called failure.

Whatever! I try to ignore stressful situation to make me happy and contented. The power of the mind. That also the way of the Buddha. I'm not a Buddhist but some principles of Buddhism helps. Budhi means conscience. Be conscientious.

To achieve greatness starts with clean and purified conscience. The elimination of competition with others is one way or another. Of course you don't compete to lesser people than you are. You don't compete with people without ammunition. Best of all don't compete. Be happy and do what you can do best without the need to compete. Relax, life is not about competition. RELAX, watch a movie.

I watched the movie BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. It was a superbly, honest to goodness movie on how Freddy Mercury had his beginning as a musician. He was very talented, he was able to sing with incredible emotions, can play the piano, his stage performance and amazing vocal chord is enigmatic and magnetic. Sure, he has a charisma like no other. Freddy was portrayed by very talented actor Rami Malek (Best Actor - Golden Globe's Award, Best Actor - Academy/OSCAR's). THE QUEEN is sure a huge, popular musical/rock band and their music has catapulted to golden platinum. They were huge success. All the members of the band have talents beyond compared. They can sing and they can play musical instruments and they wrote the lyrics of their songs = Great combination. They are the geniuses of the music world. GENIUSES, can't be compared with other rock bands, they are one of a kind.  Their songs are almost national anthems that everyone can sing and dance. Their presence on stage was like pandemonium.

US - the movie is what am planning to watch next. Intriguing and controversial movie. Just the trailer of the movie made me scream. It was very frightening. More than scary compared to zombies? We have to find that out later.

Keeping Up With Chores To Do

SCIENCE will always and forever be the unfinished business. It's the unfinished business because of human evolution ... MANKIND need to exist and co-exist.

So let us tackle other topic for discussion and keep our minds busy with other things.
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Our garden has yield already:

Fresh harvest of raspberries.
My husband had them stored in 3 plastic bags and kept them in the freezer.

We also had 3 fresh cucumbers and 3 zucchinis from our garden. One big zucchini was cut into cubes for our viand. Two chili peppers from the garden was added to spice up the special viand: squid with coconut milk.

Easy to cook the squid. Make sure to clean each squid with running water and get rid of its transparent spine that looks like plastic film inside its body. I know, not too many like squid as an edible food. People would rather eat hot "calamare" the deep fried squid with tzaisiki sauce.

Ingredients for cooking squid with coconut milk:
Cooking oil (Canola oil, Corn oil, vegetable oil, Olive oil, any kind of cooking oil)
Garlic, onions , squid (1 kilo), salt, ground black pepper,
shredded ginger, cubed zucchini (optional), one tbsp. of soy sauce,
1 cup of water, coconut milk, bay leaves, chili peppers

Use a stainless iron wok.

 First saute' the following ingredients above on hot cooking oil until the squids are drained of water and the squids are cooked (keep watch on what you are cooking and don't let the squids get burn) then pour in one can of coconut milk, let it boil and simmer on low temperature. Taste it, add salt if needed. Add 2 bay leaves. If  its not spicy enough, sprinkle more ground  pepper and chili pepper and chopped cilantro.

Serve hot with steamed jazmine rice.

Environmental Science

While people from Hawaii are having "emergency preparedness in case of hurricane having a landfall at the island" other people from other parts of the world are in limbo trying to find out or questioning what these early advance preparation when they cannot see any signs of calamities.

Some people are gifted in KNOWING WHEN, HOW & WHY. Maybe they have science gadgets in Meteorology. Maybe they are professionals when it comes to Weather. They have TV Weather Channel that features a weekly weather forecast. Maybe they have knowledge on Astronomy and Meteorology and knew about their environment. Advancement in Science. Hey, it's JUNE 2019. When it's June... precipitation is low. June is the month of typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and irrigation system must be cleared and cleaned and the flow must be smooth. Yearly as we knew it, June is the month of  "cloud cleansing."

It gets hot during summer, of course those several wildfires caused so much smoke in the sky in the air. Industry that cause pollution anywhere, everywhere. The build-up of those dark smokes can cause pollution and must be cleansed through showers of rain and if rainfall is not enough, storms and hurricanes helped splash the remaining pollutants on earth. Tornadoes are powerful calamities that are harmful yet we don't really know the upward turbine that draws harmful toxic out in the air and been carried through these tornadoes as if its the giant vacuum. Toxic fumes were then carried into outer space away from Earth. The ozone layers opened up mid September and close down before November. That too helps eliminate toxic fumes from Earth. Will you wait for ozone layers to open up in September? I don't think so. Whatever!

Know where you at on planet Earth.

Stranger Things happened for a reason

Maybe because I am complaining too much that it's really HOT! HOT! in this country of mine. Yeah, this country belongs to me now. lol. It was hot yesterday. It feels like hot oven and we are being baked and we might turn into cookies. Ha ha!

Then it rained. How nice eh? Showers from the sky this morning. I don't know how long this rain would be... We need a storm. Then I think of the sunflowers, the dahlias and the clematis and the many plants at the yard. They will suffer eventually if there would be a storm.

A storm in Vancouver is not much of a scary calamity in this part of the island unlike in other parts of Canada when storms are combined with tornadoes and gusty wind the speed of  150 km/hr. It's frightening when hurricane and storms happened where your dwellings are surrounded by tall trees or your electric posts are just steps away from your house. Worse of all if there's flash flood which happened in the Atlantic region, mostly in Quebec.

I was there at our yard when I heard sudden explosion. When I looked at where that loud noise came from, I was like stunned of what I'm seeing, smoke and sparks of light and fire gushed out from the post along the highway. Transformer? What could be? Too far away from where we at. To see it properly need to have a binocular. Hour later I saw a guy in uniform (yellow and orange uniform) maybe BC Hydro electrician doing his work up there with the cable and wires. Fixing what was broken up to that electric post.

Before that happened, I was doing my rounds of looking after the floral in my garden. Counting the many buds of dahlias, more than 50 buds. Counting the sunflower plants (99) don't know what happened why it's only 99. Some are taller than the others. The tallest sunflower plant is almost 5 ft. tall in height and the shortest is just barely 10 inches in height. They seeds were all planted at the same time and nurtured the same thing, the same way as the others. Why oh why?

 The violet clematis has climbed up to the tallest post. At this point in time, two flowers bloomed on top of the two tendrils.

The palm that was about to die has survived. Thank God! I replaced the small plastic container with a bigger plastic bucket for the transplant of this remarkable palm tree and now the palm tree has given birth to 3 younger palms.

The big bucket is now too small for the mother palm tree that those offsprings or youngsters will occupy so much space. OMG!

I started with my sewing project once again to keep me busy.
Remember, B.C. is not a place to be idle with.

Punishment For Hackers

As if I don't know how hackers work their way through the internet... It just happened a while ago. Grabe!!

Did you watch the "marketplace" show on CBC Documentary on how hackers do it? Hackers are just pain in the butt kind of  animals. They are animals not human beings. Whether they are paid for their hacks and their maneuvering of stealing they are THIEVES. Magnanakaw sila ng information that doesn't belong to them.

MAGNANAKAW SILA. They are plain and simple thieves!

What kind of punishment for thieves?

Ibitin ng patiwarik? Bitayin? Feed them to crocodiles? What could be the best punishment for hackers/thieves?

Seafood: Cook It With Much Gusto

It's only 10 degrees C today, this morning at 6:11 AM. I know that the temperature will rise up today after lunch time. You know that happens in the afternoon and at night. Ever-changing weather temperature in Canada.

My husband and his two friends went crabbing and caught crabs. Only 3 crabs. My husband brought home 2 crabs for us. I know, they set up the crab traps with big baits but when crab traps are full of female crabs no mater how fat and big they are you must release them back to the ocean including those crabs that are not up to the right size allowed. If the crab measures smaller than what it supposed to be the required size then have to release those small crabs (less than 7 inches). Female crabs should propagate, breed and have more eggs. Female crabs should multiply its race.  Female crabs are fortunate enough not to be taken and eaten for human consumption. Unfair for male crabs eh? I wonder if there's no more male crabs, do you think the female crabs can propagate by themselves? Unless if they are sea anemones. j/k

I once went crabbing before and I know the laws of the ocean when it comes to fishing and crabbing even with oysters picking. There are lots of oysters along Quadra beach and Saratoga beach. You can't just gather and pick those oysters from the beach. You must have a license. You should have license to go fishing, crabbing and gather oysters and clams from the beach. $17 for a license certificate/card. Catch card. To purchase a crab? I think one big crab 8 inches long is worth $20 or depends also on its weight  (by the pound).

That's right! Canada protect their environment, land, air and water coast to coast. They protect their wildlife and its habitat. Almost everything here has a tag. Do you have a tag?

We had chicken  and prawns curry for dinner.

 I cooked it for my family. It was yummy, delicious and spicy hot curry.

The crabs? I will have it for crab salad or do I have to cook it with squash with coconut cream? Actually, I already eaten the legs of one of the boiled crabs. It's good when the crabs are cooked and boiled hot.

Homelessness: A Huge Problem In Canada

I seldom get out of the house so when we went shopping (once a month) noticed that there are many houses being built and condos are also one of the residential homes for would be new owners and tenants. Well, lo and behold that those buildings are not completely finished yet and the units were already sold to buyers. There is that subdivision that is not completely done yet and it's already been bought by buyers. The housing market is the most in demand nowadays. There is that great boom in this industry. The population is increasing in a faster rate, faster than a heartbeat and millions of people are always looking for good, decent homes.

The question of whether those houses are affordable or not that's the question. Everyone needs a good home. To make a house affordable for the working class is great. This is what the government should invest in building more housing facilities for its citizen, for people who deserve not to be homeless in their own country.

Being homeless in your own country, in your hometown, in your birthplace...
 is worse than being a refugee.

Think about it.

Think about it when more than 50,000 refugees arrived in Alberta and they were given a settlement inside the military camp. The soldiers lost their camp to these thousands of refugees. What happened afterwards? Some soldiers started having PTSD. It was in the NEWS ON TV. So if I were you tune in to your television news for further details, everyday is a new day and everyday is BREAKING NEWS. Some news are hoard news. Oh, well is that good for a novel?

The Long Waiting Seems Forever

Oh my gosh! It's already the 19th of June 2019. It wont be long and it's the beginning of summer. Actually it's summertime now. Can you feel the heat? Most houses, actually all houses in Canada have heating insulation because at winter time the cold is unbearable. But at summertime the heat-insulation can be very suffocating that if you don't own electric fans and air conditioning unit you'll die from heat exhaustion. I'm not kidding. It feels like microwave oven. You have fans that give you cool air? No. The air is not cool but warm air.

Getting out of the house is a plus. The wind blows nicely sometimes in this part of the island, closer to the beach. Although it's breezy, the heat of the sun can give you suntan. Are you loving the suntan effect on your skin? It feels like California now in this part of the island. I don't know if you can surf down there in the ocean, right there at the Passage. LOL. Or you have to travel down to Tofino. Whatever!

Time is precious not to be kissed by warm air during summer time. Love the hot, hot sun. How long hot summer would be? Four months? I think it's equally distributed: 4 months of summer, 4 months of autumn, 4 months of winter and 4 months of spring. Unless otherwise there is a switch out there, I mean up there in heaven.

One strawberry is ripe for picking. Too many raspberries, blackberries and loganberries soon ready for picking.

The blueberries are still green in color.

And still, waiting for the sunflowers to grow up and bloom its flowers. When? Probably August. Maybe late of July. God only knows. Only God knows.

The sunflower plants are now 4.5 ft tall in height while some of them are 3 ft. tall. Maybe next week these sunflowers are above the height of the fence. It's very windy today. It feels like there's a wind turbine somewhere in the island or next island? I don't feel this kind of wind in the interior part of Vancouver island only when we moved here last year. It's weird.

The Mystery Of The Moths

 My daughter Tam was sprinkling water to our vegetable garden when I saw a white butterfly fluttering so I chased it with my digital camera on my hand ready for the shooting. Photo-ops.

 I always want to capture this butterfly which turned out to be a moth. Cabbage moths are dainty, hairy creatures. It's not that easy to capture them especially through the lens. They are very tiny, too small to be photographed that you need camera with extra long zoom lens. The photo above is somewhat a white moth with greyish spots and blue colored abdomen. Its two antennas have white spots at its ends, maybe their extra eyes or feelers.

 I took many shots of this tiny moth because it keeps moving and flying from one plant to another.
The moth really like the cabbage leaves. Why not? Amazing leaves, bigger leaves, size varies from 12 inches to 14 inches in length. Although I like creatures like moths and butterflies, you don't want then laying eggs and larvae on the leaves because their small caterpillars will eat the cabbage's leaves.

 Then suddenly another moth arrived. It flew on the cucumber plant. I made sure not to make any movement staying unmoved without making any noise in that part of the ground and keep on aiming my camera using the zoom lens.

It probably heard the clicking sound of the camera and both of the moths flew up to the blackberries, to the loganberries, then fluttered in the air chasing each other. The moths collide. Wham! Bam.

Then one moth was down on the grassy part of the yard not moving. The other moth chased its own kind. I think the other moth was hurt or tired from flying. What could be happening? Let me inform you that "they had a fight." They are the Taylor Swift and Katy Perry of moths. Ha ha! Just kidding. They are not loud enough. Do you really have to calm down?

Birdwatching Is Also A Hobby

 There you are again...

 Is that you again?

I don't think so.

Eagle Sheldon sits on the top of the third tree not on the second.

 Who are you eagle? What name I can give you? Eagle Motion? From now on you are named Motion for sitting and nestling on the second tree.

 This could be a different eagle. Looks like it. It's a smaller eagle. The eagle who sits on the third tree is much bigger than this one.

Whatever, it's another eagle so it's good to see one bird that keeps the guarding of the sea and the grounds.

Keep on guarding and keep on watching.

Looking forward to see an eagle who will sit on top of the first tree.

Dahlias Now and Dahlias Before

Looking after and caring for a garden is my kind of passion nowadays, including photography. Above photo shows the dahlia plants, sunflowers, and on the tub are herbs: cilantro and basil.

Although some of the dahlias have buds already...they will probably bloom its lovely flowers after 15 days. When I first saw the buds out last June 3, 2019 I thought it will take only 5-7 days (just like before) and dahlia flowers will bloom and blossomed but no. It will take 2 weeks now. Apparently, I can't do magic. Patience is a virtue for my experiment.

Anyway, if you are keen and curious on the many dahlias that bloomed in my "garden before 2019",

here are more photos to peruse:

 A dahlia plant can grow up to 6 ft. tall in height.
The photo above of the dahlia plants are taller than me of course.

 There are hundreds of dahlia variety and of different species in its unique shape, colors, texture and fragrance

 Some dahlias are cross-pollinated

 Some gorgeous dahlias are hybrid and out of this world

What so great about gardening and planting floral - plants with flowers... can give you the satisfaction that your hard work has come into its final result. The process has finally ended and completed its stage. The long process of waiting days, weeks, and months came into fruition, the cause and effect is there to be achieved and cheered on. That you didn't waste any time and energy because its' there for you to see and believe.

Now, the waiting game for the new dahlia variety in my garden 2019
The long waiting game starts now...

Philippine Independence Day - June 12 - 121st

121st Philippine Independence Day. As a Filipina and was born in the Philippines being loyal to the country means being loyal to the birthplace, loyalty to the Motherland, loyalty and respect to my parents to the family that I was born with. Maybe if I'm there I could be more active participant in matters of socio-economic and political aspects of my native land. ((Working so hard like I used to. Maybe I can earn wages and compensation for my blogs)). ((Because here, blogging is just a hobby)). You have to be physically present in one's country to better show your kind of spirit towards helping the country you love since birth. Otherwise, your voice wont be heard or you become invisible to the rest of the people who never see you in person. INVISIBLE with INVISIBLE HANDS. Naks drama! I mean, Dr. Jose Rizal's life's works and writings were of different category to even make sense now in today's generation esp. to the Millennials. There are too many geniuses now but lack the courage to do what Dr. Rizal did. Of course who wants to be a hero? Who wants to be a HERO and DIE for his country? Nobody's crazy yet!

Look, even Dr. James Watson once said, " nobody puts to death a highly intelligent human being even if its an alien." Why? Maybe your answer is better than mine.

We live in a different high-tech movement when most of the people are highly educated and only the millionaires and billionaires have louder voices. They have louder voices and they are heard most of the time. MONEY TALKS! You really have to be financially wealthy to be heard nowadays. Or at least have the back-up of the most influential influential human beings out there. Other than that without money and being poor even if you are educated, everything will fall on deaf ears.
 Somehow, that's the trend now everywhere. Everywhere.
Just like what Negan said, "he is everywhere." Ha ha ha! j/k

GOD IS THE ONLY ONE EVERYWHERE.

Time changed everything, when it comes to the true nature of what loyalty means as it defines what a country can do for you in matter of existence. What you can do for that country. Canada loves wealthy, capable businessmen and business owners. IT'S FOR THE ECONOMY. The PHILIPPINES and  people from the Philippines value the same "language of capitalism." You really have to take it in a different level, step by step and matter of maturity not just because you were born in such country. It must have a deeper meaning or definition for some other humans based on how they were brought up and raised in a country of too much influences and colonial mentality. You want to come here and immigrate to Canada? What kind of business you want to build? It's not just that you want to end up as panhandlers? I hope not.

Being here in Canada, a country of well-diverse entities, of multicultural citizens with different culture, tradition and heritage all mixed up as their differences in religions and certain beliefs (in their denominations) clashed with perspective on what could be the total outcome of such diversity? Magulo ba?  A total mix-up? A confusion of ideology intertwined with common bounds to specifically be successful in matters of undertaking certain target. High energy in competitive world. Competition is a fast growing initiative to succeed. Even babies compete here. Everyone would like to have Einstein babies. lol. Jokers! Specifically, if they can beat one mentally, psychologically then physical competition matters too. In Canada, it's the sports that made them reach one common ground to excel. There is that one direct goal to succeed in sports and forget other things that hinder them. Sports is what unites them. When it comes to Olympic games, they are totally looking forward to PERFECTION and EXCELLENCE. Then after the OLYMPIC GAMES had been achieved in matters of  medals acquired you have to come to your senses and think if the Olympic Games is a game leading to restructuring or the building of a new infrastructure of a certain country or the accumulation of land as a colony. What could be the deals being played at? Each host country make demands or their demands are met once they are chosen as the host country for the game? What could be? What country is getting smaller and what country is getting bigger? What is being colonized?

Anyway, if you want to add an extra star to the triangle? What? Who the hell want an extra star to the Philippine flag? lol. Probably he hates a triangle. Maybe he is for the QUAD. Ha ha! Not funny.

Wishing my native land a HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! I hope it's really a happy one hundred and twenty first. Teka, would you like to add Canada to be the 4th star? Umh, I think Canada is not just a star, it is the SUN. I hope playing the balls is not the game that deals with the colonization and conquest.

June 10 is not a holiday WTH is going on?

What's happening today? Two shows that were replays! What the hell is going on? We're paying television connection religiously why the need to have those reruns? It's not holiday today. June 10 is not a holiday. Uhm, weird out there. Are they playing us? What a BS.

OMG. Another day wasted for so many...

I know how that feels.
How to conquer by altering your minds.
Expect the unexpected and expect the worse
Ignore the cause of dis-appoinment
Conquer unhappiness
Be happy even if you're not
LOL
Seriously?
It's the reverse psychology
Wear the red if you are blue
Wear the blues if you are red
Batch and bunch of tricksters

That's why last Saturday & Sunday I had my focus on sewing. Alterations mostly. Sewn two blouses, altered one blouse, sewn one apron, altered two pairs of jogging pants. I can go and on but you know better to have more fabric. Textile, textiles. I have enough spools of thread in assorted colors. Sets of sewing needles, and the drive to set and sew again.

Just another day and there will be more days to come.

food.food.food - food matters

 What to cook today? I'm running out of ideas when it comes to cooking the right food. I mean, it must be suitable for the weather eh?

It's only 16 degrees centigrade temperature today. Unusually cold for spring-summer weather. Cloudy day. I don't know if it will be sunny and hot in the afternoon. But it would be nice to do some bbq (barbecue) if the weather permits but I doubt it. I can use the oven instead.

Yup, a delicious, savory, tasty pork barbecue is great, marinated in soy sauce, calamansi juice, ground pepper, salt, garlic, sprinkled with chopped cilantro.

 Fried rice with sliced thin sausages and shrimps.

Or just simply deep fried shrimps with chili sauce.

We had potato/egg salad, pancit bihon/vermicelli with pork and shrimps and cabbage, and pan fried beef steak with lots of onions last night.

What could be our supper today? That is the question.

From Sunflowers To Clematis

 OMG! My sunflower plant is now 28 " in height. I'm so happy on how it progressed slowly but surely and how these sunflowers passed the test of time, the ever changing weather temperature from hot heatwave at daytime to freezing cold at night. To be exact, the sunflower plants are now age 2 months & 9 days (from the time of planting of seeds direct to the soil).

The other variety (Large Russian is now 32 inches in height). Some of the plants are not as big as the other ones because of certain problems: snails and slugs, ants, and what other could be happening down to its roots? The winds are also a problem to some of these sunflowers that I supported the thin stemmed plants with bamboo sticks.

 The stem is much fatter in this variety of sunflower compared with the rest of the other variety which are thinner. Wrap-around the measuring tape to the stem and it measures 1 inch.

The leaves are getting wider and bigger and I measured the largest leaf which measures up to 8 " (inches).  Nine (9) inches if you'll measure the left and right side of the leaf. Wow! Of course the stems, the leaves, and everything in it will grow up to its right measurement at the right time, at the right stage. It will take time for sunflowers of this variety to reach its true, real height of 12 ft. and I can't wait.

I know, patience is a virtue and some people will just buy already made-up flowers or sunflowers that bloomed its flowers or the flowers itself. Why the long wait, right?

Maybe my obsession is about knowing whether the label in its package will lead up to expectation or maybe I'm being a botanist and the long progression or process of looking after a sunflower will yield to something else. lol. Remember, BOTANY is the scientific study of plants. Yeah, they have certain mundane attitude and incredible weird behaviour just like humans.

Many humans believe in patience. Waiting to get the final result without the need to rush.  There is excitement in waiting.

You can do that your own baby if you don't have a plant to care for.

 So what really happened to the pink clematis? The pink clematis has reached its point of flowering from 12 flowers to 34 flowers. This clematis seems not good at climbing up the strings provided for its tendrils. Their tendrils loop around each other suffocating the main frame or main stem. I have to manually help its tendril to loop in another string. I provided a wigwam frame for it. Later had a kite frame for it to grow up and maybe they can fly. Once again the tendrils loop around themselves.  Weird! Stubborn kids!

The violet clematis has a different structure that support its growth. An arbor was provided for this clematis plant. The arbor is their "condominium." While the pink clematis had its 12 flowers, the violet has no other movements of happenings in its stage of life, until suddenly 58 buds sprout out all at once and bloomed simultaneously with its beautiful, bright violet flowers. As of today, the violet clematis has reached and bloomed up to 64 flowers and there are few buds still about to bloom.
Then the tendrils came alive like as if they are tentacles of an octopus. The strings provided for the tendrils were then used by this plant as you can see from the photo. The tendril grows and crawls 4 inches per day. Wow! The incredible tendril looks like "fantastic beast." Too many tendrils in this violet clematis and some of them are out from the arbor and shooting upward.

Of course they received the same amount of water, sunlight, miracle grow, and same amount of care.