Walk with Blue
Archive for April, 2010
Turn your Stress to Success
0650 days
by bluestella
in opinion
Atlast, I now have a job. Details can’t be tackled up here, JobsDB sent me a bit of advice regarding stress and I am happy to share this to you for I know it will help not just me but others as well.
Power naps. Browsing books during lunch break. A walk around the block during coffee time.
More and more employees are resorting to ‘quality break times’ to recharge themselves for a few minutes (or at most an hour) before they charge into the arena again.
Quality break times are not an escape that makes the employee forget his or her duties or zone out into fantasy land. Rather, they let his energies slow down a bit, tap into a resource that will refuel their creativity and brain power, and then infuse them with a fresh burst of adrenaline that takes them through the day.
Leadership coach Jim Loehr touched on this in his book, Stress for Success. He recommends that employees take a few minutes every day to take a breather from their work load and channel into a hobby that they like or at least a short exercise that removes part of the stress. It’s a way to recharge. Loehr likens it to athletes in the middle of a competition who uses the precious break times called by referees to do breathing or stretching exercises. It’s a way of slowing down for a brief time while still staying in the game.
Here’s how to do it (and remember, they take only 15-30 minutes during your official break):
- Artistic/creative hobbies: writing a blog; learning computer design; reading a non-work-related book; drawing and design.
- Physical: 10-15 minute power naps; a short walk around the office; clenching down on those stress balls; hitting a punching bag or doing jump-rope (if you have a mini-gym in the office)
- Communal (or activities that you do with other people): swapping stories during lunch break or merienda that can evolve into brainstorming; non-gambling card games or chess; etc.
The next time you feel stress ganging up on you, slow down a little, smell the flowers by taking that quality break, recharge – and then get back to the race.
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Bosconians from Makati will rock the world this 2010
1657 days
by bluestella
in news
Few months ago my friend asked me to support Don Bosco Mandaluyong-Team Grigio for Shell Eco-Marathon Asia; a competition for high school and college students from around the world to design, build and test energy efficient vehicles. This will be held at Sepang International Circuit this coming July of 2010.
As I look for other teams which will be with Team Grigio, I found out that two of our colleagues in high school are leading another team. Mapua Institute of Technology Team Atalanta team leader Jericho Paolo Rivera and Richard Saul Turalba a member of the Engine group was part of Batch 2006 of Don Bosco Technical Institute Makati. Both of them are coming from Automotive Technology 1 class when they were in High school. From a humble beginning of being an Automotive Technician graduate they were now using what they have learned into this competition. Proud as a Bosconian, two different teams with bosconian spirit will represent the Philippines and be proud about what they can do. I will cheer neither for Don Bosco Mandaluyong nor Mapua but for Bosconians.
Not far from the limelight was another Bosconian breed from Makati who will be representing us Filipinos on another field which is Public Speaking. From a family of public servants, here comes Ervim Charles Orbase, an 18-year-old Multimedia Arts sophomore at Asia Pacific College in Makati City. Proudly I say he is the brother of my friend, Bert Orbase.
Here’s an excerpt from Philippine Star:
Orbase topped the national competition that drew 37 participants coming not just from the usual high schools, colleges, and universities within Metro Manila, but also from new schools in Bulacan, Dumaguete and Cebu. Participating schools included UP Diliman, UP Manila, UP Los Baños, FEU, UST, DLSU, STC, ADMU, LSGH, Philippine Science High School, St. Paul’s College, Letran, Claret, Bulacan State University, Siliman University, and Cebu Normal University.
The screening rounds were conducted on March 6 at UP Diliman’s School of Economics, in conjunction with the UP Debate Society’s hosting of college debate competitions. Nine finalists were selected and presented by UP Debate Society president Anna Arcellana to the ESU-Philippines board of judges for the Finals held later in the day: ESU-Phil chair Amb. Cesar Bautista, ESU-Phil president Dr. Marlu C. Vilches, and board members Howard Belton, Dr. Lourdes Montinola, Erlinda Panlilio, Dr. Butch Dalisay, and this writer.
Joining the judges’ panel was Gian Karlo Dapul, the IPSC grand prize winner in 2008, our second winning delegate after Patricia Evangelista’s breakthrough triumph in 2004.
Orbase’s draft speech that went no more than five minutes, on this year’s contest theme of “Speculations for the Future,” was curiously titled “The Optimism of a Highly Sinister 13-year-old Thief.” It certainly drew the appreciation of the judges, who gave Ervin plus marks for originality, humor, substance and structure, and dynamic delivery. His selection as our Philippine candidate was unanimous.
Wounding up in second place and thus the first alternate was another student from Asia Pacific College, Czarina Moresco Frias, while winning 3third place was Richard Estrella from UP Diliman.
Hail Don Bosco, Hail Bosconians we stand high and proud representing Don Bosco Philippines to the whole world.
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A beautiful Story
0657 days
by bluestella
in opinion
I received an email from one of our friends in Taekwondo and found this article good for sharing. This story wasn’t quite eyecathing but what I do like about this was its final poem. Enjoy 
The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.
They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc, and on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished.
On December 19 a terrible tempest – a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days.
On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.
The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home.
On the way home he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.
By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later.
She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.
Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. “Pastor,” she asked, “where did you get that tablecloth?” The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the Tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again.
The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.
What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.
One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike. He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in between.
The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
True Story – submitted by Pastor Rob Reid
Who says God does not work in mysterious ways?
I asked the Lord to bless you
as I prayed for you today,
to guide you and protect you
as you go along your way.
His love is always with you,
His promises are true,
and when we give Him all our cares you know
He will see us through.
So when the road you’re traveling on
seems difficult at best..
Just remember I’m here praying and God will do the rest.
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