About the Sinulog Festival

The Sinulog festival is one of the grandest and most colorful festivals in the Philippines. The main festival is held each year on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City to honor the Santo Niño, or the child Jesus, who used to be the patron saint of the whole province of Cebu (since in the Catholic faith Jesus is not a saint, but God). It is essentially a dance ritual which remembers the Filipino people’s pagan past and their acceptance of Christianity.

The festival features some the country’s most colorful displays of pomp and pageantry: participants garbed in bright-colored costumes dance to the rhythm of drums, trumpets, and native gongs. The streets are usually lined with vendors and pedestrians all wanting to witness the street-dancing. Smaller versions of the festival are also held in various parts of the province, also to celebrate and honor the Santo Niño. There is also a Sinulog sa Kabataan, which is performed by the youths of Cebu a week before the Grand Parade.

Recently, the cultural event has been commercialized as a tourist attraction and instead of traditional street-dancing from locals, Sinulog also came to mean a contest featuring contingents from various parts of the country. The Sinulog Contest is traditionally held in the Cebu City Sports Complex, where most of Cebu’s major provincial events are held.

How To Get Closure

There may be times in our lives when relationships - whether they are romances, friendships, or family ties - hit a bump in the road and seem to fade away, leaving us wondering what happened and why? If it's been a long time and it's clear to you that the relationship is over, but there was no final talk or last goodbye, you might be in need of some closure so that you can move on, and put that relationship behind you.

Steps

1. Define your loose ends. What is it that lingers in you that prevents you from moving on? What residual emotions are still tying you to this person? Usually it's some form of anger or guilt - anger over what a person did to you, and you don't feel they were held accountable to it, or guilt over what you did (or didn't do) to (or for) someone else, and your resulting sense of regret.
   
2. Forgive. The fastest way to free yourself from an enemy and all associated negativity is to forgive. Untie the bindings and loose yourself from that person's ugliness. Your hatred has tied you to the person responsible for your pain. Your forgiveness enables you to start walking away from him or her and the pain. When your enemy and his or her evil actions come to mind, send him or her a blessing. Hope the best for him or her. The first 15 - or 150 - times you try this, the "blessing" may feel contrived, empty, and even hypocritical but keep trying. Eventually, it will become a new habit and soon thereafter, the anger and pain that has burned in your heart will evaporate, like dew before the morning sun.
   
3. Apologize. If you feel guilt or shame, if you are the one who needs forgiveness, then apologize. But it's not as simple as saying or thinking "I'm sorry." Grab a pen and paper and write a full-blown apology, keeping the following in mind:
   
• There is no excuse. Do not try to think of or offer one. An apology with an excuse is not an apology. Take full responsibility for what you did.
  
• Make it a point to avoid using the word "but". ("I am sorry, but..." means "I am not sorry.")
  
• Do not say "I'm sorry you feel that way" or "I'm sorry if you were offended" --it makes it seem like you are blaming the other person for feeling a certain way, and is not a real apology.
  
• Think about what caused you to make the offense. Find the underlying problem, describe it to the person (as an explanation, not an excuse), and tell them what you intend to do to rectify that problem so that you can avoid this mistake in the future.
  
  
4. Have a symbolic ceremony. People still hold funerals for the deceased whose bodies were never found, and you can still have a formal way to say goodbye to relationships that were never resolved. Gather all of the things that remind you of this person and burn them, or donate them to charity. Give a eulogy to the relationship, and say it out loud.
   
5. Write a story. Think back to when your relationship with this person began, and document it from beginning to end. This may be very painful, but it will give you a broader perspective. When you get to the final chapter, finish off on a positive note and write "The End". If you're writing in a notebook, close it forcefully, take a deep breath, and put it on a bookshelf. If you wrote on looseleaf papers, fold them, put them in an envelope, and seal it. You may choose to keep the story, or you may choose to shred it or burn it. The very act of documenting your relationship and closing the book, however, will help you find closure emotionally.
   
6. Begin a new chapter. You'll never be able to erase your memory of this person, but you can use the experience to better yourself and to help others. If you wronged someone, resolve never to make the same mistake again, and take it a step further: help others avoid making the same mistake you did. If you were a victim, reach out to other victims, and teach others how to avoid the wrongdoing that you faced. Make the end of your relationship with that person a turning point in your life. Start moving in a new direction.
   

Tips

• Give yourself time to heal. It won't happen overnight.
  

Whenever you think of the person, visualize him or her in front of you, then imagine yourself blowing him or her away. Whether they fly away like a dry leaf or scatter like dust in the wind, let them go. Do this every time you find yourself dwelling on the past.

Warnings

• Avoid distractions or any kind of escapism. Don't submerge yourself in substance abuse, television, or a new relationship. It will only delay your feeling of closure.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Overcome Serious Regrets
  
• How to Apologize
  
• How to Forgive
  
• How to Bury Your Burdens
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Get Closure. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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Find.com - The Search Engine To Use

FIND.COM!! The easiest thing to remember when searching online for your favorite items, just use there newly designed keyword search tool and you will be directed to the results. It’s that simple, what more could you ask for.

With some of the other search engines on the world wide web you get so many results. It can take hours to go thru the links to find what you are looking for. Not with FIND.COM! With there technology you will only get the best results that match your keywords.

They also have a growing number of interesting articles for you to read. Currently at 500 and should be in the thousands by the end of the year. These articles are all unique and expert-written. Find.com Search Engine site is very clear, simple and not a lot of overpowering ads, plus easy to remember. You can Find People, Find Friends, and even Find Jobs. I compared there keyword search to a few other search engines while timing the amount of time it took to find the link to the website of my choice. And by far FIND.COM was the fastest. In comparison it took an average of 15 minutes less time to find the link of my choice. I will surely be using and going to FIND.COM first the next time I am searching for something online.

Think Firefox 3 is fast? Try Firefox Minefield

A colleague today showed me a cool, new browser that he's been using to browse the web at blisteringly fast speeds. The browser? Minefield. The author of the code? Mozilla. Yes, that same Mozilla that makes the Firefox browser. Minefield is, in fact, a way to glimpse into the future of Firefox, as it's a pre-release/alpha version of the Firefox browser. After spending some time with Minefield, one thing is clear: the future of Firefox is fast. Lightning fast.How fast? Some claim that it has the fastest javascript engine on the planet, which means it leaves Google's Chrome browser in the dust. In my own unscientific tests, I'd say that this assertion is correct. Ars Technica pegs Minefield as 10 percent faster than Chrome. You can download the latest nightly build for Mac OS X, Linux, or Windows, but be warned: it's alpha code. Feeling brave? Or simply feeling like your browser is too slow? Give Minefield a try. It's a separate install so it won't affect an existing Firefox install. You have nothing to lose but your chains. Review by CNET

Travel to New Zealand

Have you ever considered traveling internationally? Are you afraid you cannot afford the airfare or traveling expenses? Well, I to was in your shoes for many years. I never traveled anywhere for the first half of my life and regret every minute of it. Now I have traveled all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Hong Kong, Japan and the Philippines. The Philippines is where I meet my loving wife and we still travel there almost every year for a visit.

We have dreams of traveling to a few other places in the world. One of these places is The Land of The Long White Cloud. This is in New Zealand and has scenic mountain ranges, coastlines, beautiful wildlife and geysers. These are big tourist destinations that draw visitors from all over the world.

One of the countries largest and most popular air carriers is Air New Zealand. They have teamed up with the tourist industry to provide great air travel at an affordable rate. Please check them out at www.airnewzealand.com for great rates as well as complete tour package deals.

Also Air New Zealand has a promotion going that can assist you in the cost of your fare. Air New Zealand is holding a casting call in late October to select 30 adults to be shaved and tattooed to serve as cranial billboards in Los Angeles as part of the airline’s marketing campaign promoting life-changing journeys to New Zealand. Each selected applicant will be eligible for a cash prize of $777 or an economy roundtrip ticket to New Zealand. The cash prize will be paid in two installments. The first half will be given after the selection and tattoo application and the second half will be given at the October 30 reapplication. For those who select a ticket in Pacific Economy class to New Zealand instead, the ticket will be given at the second application on October 30.

49 Reasons to Live in the Philippines

The Philippines, why some people consider it to be the most beuatiful place on earth.
Yet parts of it is the only place on earth where...

1. Every street has a basketball court.

2. Even doctors, lawyers and engineers are unemployed.

3. Doctors study to become nurses for employment abroad.

4. Students pay more money than they will earn afterwards.

5. School is considered the second home and the mall considered the third.

6. Call-center employees earn more money than teachers and nurses.

7. Everyone has his personal ghost story and superstition.

8. Mountains like Makiling and Banahaw are considered holy places.

9. Everything can be forged.

10. All kinds of animals are edible.

11. Starbucks coffee is more expensive than gas.

12. Driving 4 kms can take as much as four hours.

13. Flyovers bring you from the freeway to the side streets.

14. Crossing the street involves running for your dear life.

15. The personal computer is mainly used for games and Friendster.

16. Where colonial mentality is dishonestly denied!

17. Where 4 a.m. is not even considered bedtime yet.

18. People can pay to defy the law.

19. Everything and everyone is spoofed.

20. Where even the poverty-stricken get to wear Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger (peke)!

21. The honking of car horns is a way of life.

22. Being called a bum is never offensive.

23. Floodwaters take up more than 90 percent of the streets during the rainy season.

24. Where everyone has a relative abroad who keeps them alive.

25. Where wearing your national colors make you baduy.

26. Where even the poverty-stricken have the latest cell phones. (GSM-galing sa magnanakaw)

27. Where insurance does not work.

28. Where water can only be classified as tap and dirty.

29. Clean water is for sale (35 pesos per gallon).

30. Where the government makes the people pray for miracles. (Amen to that!)

31. Where University of the Philippines where all the weird people go.

32. Ateneo is where all the nerds go.

33. La Salle is where all the Chinese go.

34. College of Saint Benilde is where all the ********** go and;

35. University of Asia and the Pacific is where all the irrelevantly rich people go.

36. Fast food is a diet meal.

37. Traffic signs are merely suggestions, not regulations.

38. Where being mugged is normal and It happens to everyone.

39. Rodents are normal house pets.

40. The definition of traffic is the 'non-movement' of vehicles.

41. Where the fighter planes of the 1940s are used for military engagements and;

42. The new fighter planes are displayed in museums.

43. Where cigarettes and alcohol are a necessity, and where the lottery is a commodity.

44. Where soap operas tell the realities of life and where the news provides the drama.

45. Where actors make the rules and where politicians provide the entertainment.

46. People can get away with stealing trillions of pesos but not a thousand.

47. Where being an hour late is still considered punctual (Grabe talaga 'to!)

48. Where the squatters have more to complain (even if they do not pay their tax) - than those employed and have their tax automatically deducted from their salaries.

49. And where everyone wants to leave the country!s are normal house pets.