The "Superman" Suit

If you think your childhood dreams of being Superman or the Incredible Hulk is way beyond your reach, then let the latest technology of this generation make those impossibilities become a reality for you. If lifting a truck with a single hand is just an effortless act for Superman, then it would be similar for you, too. With the entry of the Superman Suit in the world of fashion in the late 21^st Century, you are sure to be doing heroic acts in your neighborhood when you wear the the Hybrid Assistive Lim or HAL system.

This is a fully functioning robotic exoskeleton designed to provide it’s wearer an unimaginative strength and super abilities that will enable you to perform extraordinary things like lifting a 50-kilos barbell with one hand. This extra-ordinary suit as developed by the Cyberdayne in Japan. This is especially designed and developed in a way that it moves according to its wearer’s orders. Thus, this only moves whenever the wearer wants it to move.

This suit is covered with sensors at are applied to the skin. This suit makes use of these sensors to help detect the feeble electrical currents sent by the brain through the nervous system whenever it commands a certain task or activity. The sensors are connected to a computer that interprets the signal received. Next, they send their own commands to the electric leg and arm braces. When the signals are being detected, the appropriate electrical nerve signals, and then the HAL moves for a split-second before the leg muscle will move itself. The upper-body component of the exoskeleton improves the strength of the entire portion of the arm.

This amazing suit is then attuned to the wearer’s natural strength. This helps the weak to wear this technology easily. This was created as a rehabilitation tool that will bring strength and mobility to physically disabled people and the older ones. Nevertheless, availability for this suit is still limited in the market. Even the upper-body units are not that popular in the fashion market yet. "Unlike cars, HAL wasn't developed in a one-sided fashion, but by incorporating the views of many people, including end-users," Yoshi-yuki Sankai, Cyberdyne Chief Executive said in a statement,

You might be excited to own one of these super-suites to become the next superhero, but you might also want to consider how much it will cost you to become a strong person. This suit is indeed amazing, but wearing one isn’t the only way to make you a superhero. Helping others in your own little way will make you a modern-day hero, too.

Of Our Dear Friend, Brycel

These are Brycel's birthday greeting cards
given to the writer.

As we looked at the pale and unusually deformed face behind the clear glass of the coffin, we had difficulty taking in and accepting the fact that it was our dear friend. My best friend, Dess and I couldn’t contain our tears as they cascaded down our cheeks. We hugged our dear friend’s mom and then we hugged each other as we let out some loud sobs for more than ten minutes before we finally recovered from the painful thought that Brycel, our beloved friend was finally gone. Fate took her away from us.

A week before the accident, my best friend and I bumped into her at the third level of SM City Cebu, near Toy Kingdom. Dess was supposed to meet her boyfriend at that time who was so freaking late in their date. So, we walked around the mall for a little window shopping before we’d meet up with Mark.  After a few rounds on some floors, we went back to their supposed rendezvous, and that was when we saw Brycel with Hannah, another friend of ours, too. They were also hanging around the mall after classes.

When we saw each other, we were so excited that we chatted non-stop. Dess was a little bit anxious seeing some friends because her relationship was not open to everybody. She was scared that other people might know that she has a boyfriend and even feared the idea that it might reach her mother. So, while chatting with Brycel and Hannah, Dess was a little uncomfortable and was a bit of in a hurry. Brycel, sensing her uneasiness, told her, “Si Dess bah, karon ra gani ta nagkita, nagdali na’g lakaw… (You’re in a hurry to go now, we just see each other now).”

Ignoring Brycel’s words despite a bit of guilt within her, she just said, “we’re actually in a hurry because we need to meet someone.” I just told Dess to wait and look around for Mark, while I continued to laugh and chat a bit longer with Brycel and Hannah.

After we graduated from high school, we went to different schools to pursue different courses and majors. Brycel and Hannah studied at the University of San Jose Recoletos, while Dess and I took up Mass Communication at Saint Theresa’s College. It was only that time that we saw each other after we graduated from Saint Alphonsus Catholic School.

After a few chitchats, we bade good bye to each other as Brycel and Hannah took the winding staircase down to the next floor below. Before we separated ways, Brycel told Dess, “others na kay ka ha…” an expression stated in a joking manner that suggests a bit of coldness in relationship. Dess just gave her a grin and shrugged her words by responding another joke.

It was summer and we took summer classes. A few days after our rendezvous at SM, we got a text message from a common friend: Brycel got hit by a multi-cab and she was at the ICCU in Mactan Doctors Hospital. Hearing this, my best friend and I were worried. But Dess was more worried than I was because I have never witnessed a person sent to the ICCU, while she had when her aunt was admitted a few months ago.

A day or two after, we decided to visit Brycel at the hospital. Dess, Michelle and I met up at Burger Machine, in front of our Alma Matter. When we got to the hospital and finally got in the room to see our friend, we were so surprised at what we saw. Our dear friend, Brycel was totally in a bad shape. Her faced was a little bit deformed and was purplish with bruises. Her right leg was raised and she couldn’t open her eyes. When we talked to her, a tear would silently slide down her cheeks. The sight of her on that bed broke our hearts.

On our second visit, Brycel didn’t look any better from the first time we visited her few days ago. To make matters worse, Michelle told me silently that she dreamed that her tooth fell down from her mouth. Trying to be cool, I just tried to ignore the thought despite my little knowledge on the meaning of dreams because I feared for the worse to come.

One afternoon after our second and last visit in the hospital, Dess got a text message: Brycel passed away. We just finished our classes and we’re heading for home at that time. It seemed like the clock stopped at the moment, but I tried to ignore it. I was still hoping it was just a joke, but crazy me, who would’ve pull such a serious and unfunny joke. Dess and I talked a bit about it, but most of the time, we were silent as we rode the 21B jeepney heading to SM, then the shuttle van towards Opon Mercado (Opon Market).

As Dess and I hugged each other in front of Bycel’s coffin, my best friend couldn’t help telling me her regrets. Looking back to the days before we looked at Brycel in her coffin, she said, “If I have known that it would be the last time I would see her at SM, I would have given her more time. Now, I won’t ever see her again and I was so sorry for that…”  

Indeed, life has given us many chances to be able to meet and be with our beloved family, friends and other love ones, and even perhaps, along with this, is the chance to say goodbye to them formally before fate would finally take them away from us. Who would have thought that in a single instant, Brycel would be gone forever, even before we had a chance to say “goodbye” to her. A thousand pleasant words won’t matter anymore when the person is dead.

Therefore, live your life everyday as if it were your last, so when the time comes, you won’t have to regret a single moment. Time lost can never be found, so live each day fully by sharing wonderful moments with the people you love and cherish... who knows? 

This was written and published at the Lifestyle Section of The FREEMAN on September 8, 2010; Tuesday as a tribute to a special friend.

Ideal Attire When Going Tropical

You just got the news from your big boss! And you’ll be off to a tropical destination for a business trip or whatever assignment it may serve. In a week or so, you will be flying to a country with a totally different and hotter climate from what you’re used to. With countries like the Philippines, Brazil, West Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, etc., the next question would be, are you ready with your tropical-business dress shirts?

Tropical climate countries are located in the equator where the temperature usually ranges from 30 – 35 degree Celsisus, mostly, hot and humid. So, to help you decide on the right clothing to put on your baggage, here are some ideas that you might find helpful.

In an interview with Creative Director and former model, Beverly Solomon, she said having grown up in “Houston, which rivals any place on the globe for heat and humidity…” and having traveled the world to promote art and fashion – many in tropical climate countries -- with her international artist husband, there are basic clothing requirements you need to wear to survive the high temperature.

Solomon recommends wearing “light, cool and white long sleeved dress shirts” that are made of cotton. Long sleeves “are best because they keep off both the sun and mosquitoes.” Many well traveled people also go for cotton when touring very hot areas. One of them is Indian-American rock star, Anad Bhatt whom we also conversed with.

Having traveled and toured throughout the Southeast Asia -- often in India – because of his career, he said nothing beats the extreme heat but a dress shirt with cotton fabric. And “many times, a short sleeve button up cotton shirt will keep me more comfortable than a T-shirt. Also, you wouldn't think of it, but silk is not a bad option, especially if you have someplace formal to go. It keeps me surprisingly cool without compromising on fashion,” Bhatt said.

For tropical climate areas, dress shirts should also be cut and hemmed so that you can wear them loose and not tucked into your pants. Tucked in shirts create a hotter effect to the body, causing you to sweat more on the lower part of your chest and abdomen. Now, you’re ready for your business trip and at the same time a summer get-away.

The Students' Stolen Lunches

Grade one students from Lapu-Lapu City Central School were crying when they found out they lost their food for lunches.

The teacher from that class wondered who would do such act. So, one morning, when the students were out of their classroom for an activity, she spied the empty classroom to know who the culprit was. She saw one of her female grade one students rummaging through the lunch boxes and bags of her classmates, took their rice and viands and gather them in one plastic bag. The student then slowly went out of the classroom and out of the school. The teacher followed the student in her aim to tell the parents about what their child did at school. The teacher continued following the student until she was led to a small, tattered shack where the student entered.

The teacher hid a few meters away from the house where she got a good glimpse of almost all the parts of the house, since it's just a box-type of house. She watched her student.

The female grade one student then took out four plates from their tiny kitchen and placed it on the small wooden table. She took out the small amount of food she gathered from her classmates' lunches and divided them among the four small plates. She then happily called her younger siblings who were playing on the floor and ushered them to their seats for their breakfast.

Then the student went to a sickly woman lying on a small wooden bed and talked to her, smiling. The woman smiled back to her then laid her head back again.

Upon watching the entire scenario, the teacher felt a painful lump in her heart and silent tears fell from her cheeks. She was greatly touched with what she saw. She went back to school anyway.

The next day, she visited her student in her house with a sack of rice. The student was so happy. Later did the teacher learned that her student didn't have a father anymore and that their mother was sick and couldn't work, that's why they didn't have food to eat. This left the grade one student, who is the eldest among her siblings looked for ways to feed her little brother and sisters and their sickly mother.

This led us into great realization of how lucky we are in life. We don't have the right to complain but to thank every gift we have, instead.

An Unforgettable Experience in Shanghai

credits to someecards.com 

IT WAS ONE OF THOSE BORING DAYS I had during my month-long stay in Shanghai in 2009 that I went inside this internet café located more than six blocks away from our apartment. 

In Shanghai, one block is more than a five-minute walk; therefore, I had to walk for about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, this was the only internet café nearest so I had to travel by foot to save 4 RMB (about 28 pesos or 50 cents).  Nevertheless, I didn’t mind walking to the internet cafe since I could just enjoy the bustling life in Xu Jia Hui District teeming with people from different walks of life.

When I got inside the internet cafe, I suddenly felt like answering the call of nature, so I looked for a comfort room inside the cafe, only to find out ironically that it’s far from being comforting. 

With the main door wide open and the toilet in each of the two cubicles revealed its dirty interior without doors, it’s not worth to be called “comfort room” indeed.  

I was about to get in the first cubicle, when a very embarrassing sight welcomed me.  A Chinese girl in her early twenties sat like a frog on the toilet bowl in front of me, texting while defecating. She just looked at me without giving a damn. Instead of turning red, I was even the one embarrassed with what I saw.  Never in my entire life have I seen anything as embarrassing as that anywhere in my own country, and it’s only in Shanghai that I experience it! I guess I had to blame it all on cultural differences. It really gave me a good laugh when I left the café. It sure was a nice story to tell my sister when I got back to our apartment.

On Slippers and Simplicity

I WALKED along side Yishan Road from our apartment. People I walked past kept staring at my feet then looked at my face with puzzlement. I stride down the couple flights of stairs to the subway in station four, unmindful of my countenance and the simple fashion I was clad with. People I met along the way kept glancing at my feet then gawked at my face.

The recurrence of people staring at me quizzically from toe to head, as if I just wore the most ridiculous footwear puzzles me. That’s why I asked my pretty Filipino friend, Byen, “What’s wrong with wearing rubber slippers in public places here in Shanghai?” Like me, she’s also wearing a pair of simple slippers, yet, I only got a bemused expression and shrug from her.

A lot of presumption came up when I brought this question to my Filipino friends also living here, who, in the Philippines were used to just wearing rubber slippers or flip flops even in fancy malls and other public places.

Being Filipino myself, simplicity is in fact, a fad in our country that never went out of style. Famous Filipino celebrities are just clad in their simplest white shirt and denim jeans with a pair of simple slippers. They stroll along the mall and even attend events on them. Does it matter? Of course, it does, but not as much as the person wearing them. Confidence also adds to the beauty in a person. It’s just like eating a peanut. We do not eat the shell, but the nut inside it. So, it’s what one holds inside that really matters more.

Getting used to this lifestyle and fashion then, most of my friends and I would slip into our simplest footwear and stroll along the streets in People Square, at a park in Century Avenue and other crowded and nice places where tourists and locals alike usually go out to unwind or for recreation activities. We usually get a lot of funny expressions from many Chinese people. Their faces obviously read, “She’s odd and out of style,” as they looked at us, and act as if wearing simple things like a pair of rubber slippers would make us less of a human. I just shrugged it off anyway.

I brought this question up to my Chinese friend who is a Kindergarten Teacher. She simply said, “It’s not common to wear slippers outside, we only wear them at home.” Still unsatisfied with the answer I got, I asked another young Chinese friend studying at Song Jang University. She gave me a longer answer yet such didn’t change my mind about sticking to my simple fashion statement.

A long time ago, people used to wear slippers even in public places. However, as time meanders and brings us to another generation after generation, slippers became out of style, until it became unpopular as we approached the contemporary era where people are more concerned with looking more fashionable and attractive in public places, even at the market, notwithstanding the risk of discomfort they put themselves into as they walk for more than 30 minutes on hard pavements. Simplicity then became neglected, so do the rubber slippers.

We see women, young or a bit older like in their mid-forties, wearing pretty and very high heeled-close shoes walking how many blocks before they get to their destination; their ankles showed some red marks at the side, signaling discomfort and pain. We came across a young lady being carried by her lover on his back. The guy held the sexy red high-heeled shoes on his left hand while the other hand supported his girlfriend’s back. The girl’s feet looked swollen already, and we couldn’t help thinking, “she should’ve worn a more comfortable footwear.”

Personally, I believe there’s no such thing as out of fashion, because time basically recycles them as generation moves to another generation. The fashion in the 80’s may not look great now; the trend in the 50’s may look shabby and over killed but eventually, these fashion statement that went out of style will become popular again in a few years from now. Thus, style is not the whole pizza, but only a slice of it, while the other and the bigger part is, how one carried him or herself in public.

Moreover, it’s how one brings comfort to oneself when choosing to be all simple that matters more. One shouldn’t think too much about what the public would say about their fashion sense, because in fact, it doesn’t make sense at all. In Shanghai where travelling by foot is not uncommon, I would go for comfort than style and fashion, because it’s not just our physical reputation that’s important, but more of how we bring ourselves to act at an appropriate manner that does.

So, as the subway train opened its electronic sliding glass and metal doors, Byen and I dismissed the looks of criticisms from the locals that greeted us as we entered the transportation, because despite the simplicity in our attire, we are comfortable with what we’re on and we believe that we are presentable and neatly clothed. Though simple we may be, but the big smiles on our faces that exudes our confidence is what makes the difference. After all, it may sound so cliché, but I still stand behind the quotation that says, “With Simplicity, one can find real beauty.”

Hobby vs Hubby

A COLLEAGUE of mine and I chatted via Facebook, a famous online social networking. We conversed about how our lives had been lately after I rendered my two-month vacation leave from work to go to Shanghai, China in a few days.

With her usual chatty, lively and curios personality, she asked me how I felt lately and how I felt about leaving the country, as well.

Though, I already got a hint from her questions that she’s referring to my love life, with me leaving my boyfriend for three months. Undecided with my answer and not even knowing how to answer her, I just told her I had mixed emotions. Part of me was excited to go while the other half wanted to stay for several reasons. I told her I’m really going to miss my hobby.

Curious and thinking that I misspelled the word “hubby” into “hobby,” she was about to send me a comforting message about it; yet before she could send her succeeding messages, I already told her, “I won’t be able to design more fashion accessories when I get there because I’ll be working hard…” That’s when she found the humor after realizing that I used the right word and spelling when I typed down the word, “hobby.”

Personally, if I compare my boyfriend (“hubby”) and my hobby, which is designing and handcrafting ethnic fashion accessories out of recycled and indigenous materials, I would miss my hobby more than my so-called “hubby” or boyfriend. 

With my hobby, I can express all my negative emotions whenever I would fight with my boyfriend, my parents and feel bad at work. My hobby is my biggest comfort whenever I am depressed or discouraged. It may not hug me like what my boyfriend can do, but it gives me a mean to express and release all the tension I feel inside, reducing the burdens I have inside.

Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean I would exchange my boyfriend for my hobby, since these two are incomparable and are both important to me. What I just want to imply is, let’s not forget ourselves when we are in love. Let’s not be too dependent on our other half. Let’s not let our heart rule over our minds. It’s good to follow our hearts when we are in love, but we should know when to use our brain when our heart is leading us to the direction of a deep ravine. We should know when to use our brain to take our hearts back home… and usually, our home is where we kept the great things we once enjoy doing, and one of these great things is our hobby.

Let’s also invest on the things that allow us to venture our creativity, give us sanctuary from our pains, and fill us with joy and gratification in life, like our hobbies! Whatever these may be, these will be our comfort whenever our hubbies would leave us behind.

These are my hobbies, some of the accessories and crafts I created and designed:

These are fashion Summer earrings made from assorted wooden and glass beads accented with an olive green-shade tiny sea shells.

These are full moon wooden loop earrings in different designs, crafted with wooden materials. These wooden loops are just recycled from used wooden materials for furniture making.

These ham-look-alike earrings are eco-friendly. They are made from recycled Angel's Burgers' plastic bags accented with red and black plastic beads. A lot of Western buyers are amazed with its concept.

For more information about these handicrafts, you may contact the website admin or inquire from BISA'G UNSA Online Store. Thank you.