Author: rhodora

(This information was in The New York Times as part of their “Spotlight on the Home” series that highlighted creative and fanciful ways to solve common problems.)

Who knew!! And all we thought they were good for was eating! It is interesting.

1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.

2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.

3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.

4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.

5. Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the python chemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!!

6. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!!

7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation.

8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don’t have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.

9. Need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!

10. Stressed out and don’t have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams.

11. Just finished a business lunch and realize you don’t have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the python chemicals will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath. 1

12. Looking for a ‘green’ way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but is won’t leave streaks and won’t harm your fingers or fingernails while you clean.

13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!!

The Best I Ever Had

Noong isang araw, may nagpunta sa aking bahay at may iniabot na supot.

“Handog po namin ito sa inyo”, ang sabi ng babaeng nagbigay ng supot na plastic na may lamang isang kilo ng bigas, dalawang lata ng sardinas, isang pakete ng kape at apat na pakete ng instant noodles. Kalakip sa supot ang isang papel na naglalaman ng litrato at pangalan ng isang kandidato sa pagka mayor sa aming lugar. Ah, isa itong paraan ng pangangampanya.

Napangiti ako dahil naalala ko noong ako ay nakasama rin sa mga ganitong pangangampanya noong panahong ang aking asawa ay aktibo sa pulitika. Taong 1992 noon at natatandaan ko na synchronized election din ang halalang iyon kung saan tumakbo ang aking mister para sa pagka vice mayor sa kanyang bayan.

Hindi ko akalaing magiging parte ako ng kalakaran ng pulitika. Kahit minsan sa buhay ko ay hindi ko pinangarap na maging bahagi ng magulong labanang ito, pero ako ay napilitan dahil kailangan kong suportahan ang aking mister sa kanyang ambisyong maging opisyal ng bayan.

At ako nga ay nangampanya. Ang akala ko noong una, ang gagawin ko lang ay sasama sa aking mister, kakaway-kaway na ala-Miss Universe, ngingiti, makikipagkamay at mangungumusta sa mga tao. Mali ang aking akala.

Read more…

Carl Sandburg: Nothing happens unless first a dream.

– gem –

(Bonifacio Heights – photo by @megnaika)

I started reading the book one night when I couldn’t find anything else to do because I was once again running away from the guilt of not doing my homework or studying my notes for Accounting class. I realized I had kept a few E-books on my laptop for which I had yet to find time to read and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to start off.

I’m not much of a reader these days because I’ve had enough bad experience of being disappointed with dragging pointless stories. “Looking for Alaska” is different though. I know it’s one of those books I’ll always be reminded of simply because it is very philosophical but not a heavy read at all.

So I was stuck contemplating on a quote (which can be found on the 151st page) after I finished the story. It struck me because it made me figure out why I have been feeling quite miserable over the past few months.

“He was gone, and I did not have time to tell him what I had just now realized: that I forgave him, and that she forgave us, and that we had to forgive to survive in the labyrinth. There were so many of us who would have to live with things done and things left undone that day. Things that did not go right, things that seemed okay at the time because we could not see the future. If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can’t know better until knowing better is useless. And as I walked back to give Takumi’s note to the Colonel, I saw that I would never know. I would never know her well enough to know her thoughts in those last minutes, would never know if she left us on purpose. But the not-knowing would not keep me from caring, and I would always love Alaska Young, my crooked neighbor, with all my crooked heart.”

There’s one word used in the phrase highlighted in bold letters that caught my eye – one word used in two tenses. Forgive; forgave.

The bitter person that I am now is the product of the number of events in my past that left my heart broken in pieces. They’re not just wounds as I thought they were before. Now I figured out that wounds would heal but pieces would take a lot more effort to be whole again. Someone or something would have to do the gritty work of piecing it back together. I realized that it would have been easier to mend it if I wasn’t so stubborn and played victim all the time. Yes, I was the victim but no one else could heal me but myself. I was the patient and the doctor both at the same time.

Mistakes could be forgiven because it’s us who commit them and we are only humans. We make mistakes and we do the wrong things and sometimes it leads to hurting someone we do not intend to hurt in the first place. But these things happen whether or not we try to be a 100 and 1% cautious in our actions.  And as Alaska questioned in the paper she turned in for their Religion Class, quoted from Simon Bolivar, the character in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel The General in His Labyrinth, “‘How will I ever get out of this labyrinth’— of suffering?”

I believe that there’s never really such a thing as suffering. I think it’s this in between that we make up at the back of our heads because we cannot find our way to solid ground. Suffering can only be felt if we let it envelope us. It’s like a pitfall that’s waiting under the cracks. I must admit that I caused myself to be stuck in this “suffering” over the past months because I couldn’t take the fact that people I care about made mistakes and I could not bear absolve them for what they did to me. I was never aware of their reasons, of the whys and hows and I guess it was that that made everything more difficult. What made it worse is how I tried to find explanations that would help justify their actions hoping that doing so would make it less unbearable.

Now I understand that sometimes we don’t need a reason to play even with the pain.

And though what I’m about to do is not easy, I will swallow my pride and forget my bitterness and forgive my dad for leaving us for another woman, forgive the first guy I loved deeply for breaking my heart, forgive a close friend for betraying me and lastly, I forgive myself for causing this misery to drag on for too long.

Finally, after a long time I am accepting the existence of forgiveness because life can end in a split-second and I don’t want to be robbed of the opportunity to give peace to others and be at peace with myself.