Kidado

This is a video tribute made in honor of my brother, Jonathan Scott Mendoza. January 10, 2008 marked the ten year anniversary of his death.

This is for mom, dad, my sisters, Jewel and Jen and all friends and family who never let a day pass without remembering him.

My apologies… the video is no longer available on youtube…I took it off in fear of breaking any copyright laws. I still have it safe and sound on my desktop though, so mom, don’t worry I can make you copy if you want.

An estimated 20 million people in the United States have asthma and, despite the availability of treatments, it remains poorly controlled among many. This health problem is the reason for nearly 500,000 hospital stays each year. People with asthma can be of any race, age or sex. Its treatment costs billions of dollars each year. (Asthma and Allergy Foundation)

Learn all you can about asthma. It’s the first step toward erasing…long-held myths and living a full, active life.(Asthma and Allergy Foundation)

Thought I’d never find it. After a couple of cross country moves, throwing things in boxes and not labeling them…I think we’ve got quite a few boxes we haven’t rummaged through since we moved out to New Mexico in 2004. Four years later and many states away, some still lay unopened. I wonder what’s in them? I’ve found clothes I could’ve been wearing and my children could’ve been wearing if I had known the boxes existed. Unassembled lamps that our living space desperately needs. Tools. Kitchen junk drawers haphazardly thrown in a box. And, oh yeah, pictures. Envelope after envelope of family photos. Great photos, too. Photos from 35mm film. Whew, remember when?

1997 Y100 Sonic Session w/ INXS

We spent an evening looking at all the pictures.

I got a serious dose of nostalgia when I stumbled upon this photo of me with Michael Hutchence of INXS. It was taken by two good samaritans at an invite only studio performance with Philly’s Y100 in 1997. Not a month had passed when we found these pictures in the mail. Thanks to the Franklins for taking the pic and actually sending us two copies. Sad thing is, I am 11 years older than I am in the picture. Sadder still, Mr. Hutchence died two months after the photo was taken.

The Best Little Frame Shop and Art Gallery in Mahwah, NJ, Bergen County, is hosting their 8th annual ‘The Journey: The Yellow Bra Event, 2008′ art show. Show dates are scheduled for October 26th to November 21st. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade.

For more information on the event, click here.

My mother-in-law, Janina Jayme, has donated pieces of her artwork to this event in the past and has successfully raised money to this worthy cause.

The Kidado Blog family would like to express their sincere gratitude and thanks to all 3-day participants, fans, supporters and the like for their endurance, strength and enthusiasm for taking us one step closer to the cure for breast cancer. Our thoughts are with all Philadelphia walkers, who at this very moment are resting beneath their pink tents, hopefully keeping warm throughout this cool autumn night, after their first full day of walking.

A special shout-out to my friend and survivor, Anne Moss! Go Anne! And to her daughters, Karen and Amy!

Click this for some footage of Day 1.

view from balcony bar

Well, thanks to my sister and her fabulous iPhone, we were able to take a few decent photos of the event. Despite being the handful of late thirty-somethings in the crowd, we managed to have a spanking good time. It was a night out we needed desperately. A big thank you to JP and Jen for the comp tickets!

Can you believe just two minutes after we parked our car we were slapped a parking ticket.  Not even a block and a half away… Geeeeez!

Crunchiemummy tapped me to do this meme and I can’t thank her enough for giving me this opportunity to divulge some useless information about me. Here it goes…

But first, the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write 6 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know he/she has been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six rules. Six things about myself.

1. I accidentally started a fire on a Florida beach when I was fourteen. My fellow accomplices and I successfully extinguished the blaze with bucketfuls of sand leaving one big black hole on a sand dune.
2. I like my coffee dark, sweet and creamy.
3. I am Tom Chaplin’s number one fan. Go KEANE!
4. I just recently noticed that my left eye is significantly smaller than my right eye.
5. I love going to work because the people I work with are super, fabulously awesome!
6. Best story I’ve read is Chekhov’s Ward No. 6.

Without further ado, I now pass on to these six that follow, their moment to blab about their super fabulous selves. I have visited these blogs in some way, shape or form and have found them quite entertaining to say the least, so pay a visit!

1. Jessica Gottlieb
2. Terri, Terri Quite Contrary
3. thenakedanarchists
4. Annelicious
5. MelissaColeBlog
6. FilmFish

As some of you know, my 13 year old daughter is attending the 2008 National Youth Leadership State Conference in Harrisburg this week.

Early Thursday morning, my four children and I took a nice drive to the state capital. We made it in good time arriving earlier than planned with twenty minutes to spare before NYLSC registration. My daughter stood among dozens of anxiously waiting teens as parents stood close by. After a quick check-in, I walked my daughter to her first activity. I gave her one final encouraging hug and smile, her sisters and brother did the same before she disappeared in the crowd of other confident young students. We will be returning on Sunday to watch the closing ceremonies and to bring our daughter back home.

Their schedule is jam packed with activities including mock debates, leadership drills and socials. I am so proud of her and her drive to succeed in everything in life. I can imagine the energy in a room full of other students who want the same thing. In light of political drama/bashing/hate speeches, whatever you want to call it, plaguing the current election at the moment, it’s nice to know these kids, the future of our country, can work together and learn how to be a true leader, away from media biases and distasteful campaigning. I know this will be an enriching experience for her.

My daughter called me tonight letting me know that she’s having a blast. Her excitement was clear in her voice despite the late night call. To make the stay at the Hilton a little more exciting, Bruce Springsteen was spotted in the hotel. Apparently, my daughter was elbow to elbow with him in the lobby but she didn’t know it. I don’t think she would recognize this guy if his name was posted on his forehead. She knew he was something special when she noticed his eccentric fashion, rings up and down his fingers, unbuttoned shirt. One of her new friends eventually approached him crying and asking for pictures. Dead giveaway. Although not a fan of his music so much, she can appreciate any music legend of this greatness

If you want to see some pics of the event, then check out Day One and Day Two. I spotted Bella on three pictures on Day Two.

Okay, the first time I ever heard of this chocolate delight was from my Aunt Venus who had just returned from a trip out to Spain. This was a year or so ago. She walked into a local Barcelona market or bakery and noticed chocolate covered cookies labeled with the name Filipinos. Apparently, they come in different flavors (white chocolate, too) and sizes. Upon hearing of this and knowing a little of Spain’s history with the Philippines, I was at first really offended and in disbelief– WHAT THE #%#%!. I’ve heard in the past that the term filipino in some western dictionary was defined as ‘house servant’. WHAT THE #%#%! So I’ve googled the term filipinos and got a blastful of blogs doing as I am now. Like Ivan Man Dy’s Street Walker Tales- Manila and Beyond and Market Manila. What’s interesting are the responses to the posts. Some are clearly outraged and many are quite ok with it, often times many find it pretty amusing.

I can’t help but wonder, at the birth of these chocolate treats, why name it filipinos? Is the answer lying deep in our centuries old history with Spain? Did they prefer the philippine variety over others? Or was it simply the astonishing parallels between a sun-kissed filipino person and a chocolate covered cookie, smooth and creamy on the outside, crispy on the inside? Some have argued that plaguing a population with this type food association is nothing new; there are other foodstuffs out there that bear the name of a group of people, take for example the frankfurter.

So, I’ve never bitten into one myself. My aunt didn’t get a chance to stuff her duffel with a dozen or so of these Spanish souvenirs… But do I need to in order to have an opinion? Even if every last morsel was pure ecstasy, I’d still be wonderin’ WHAT THE #%#%#.

If you feel strongly enough that this brand name of cookies, Filipinos, should be changed to a more acceptable name, then check out Go Petition, Changing the World. Someone’s got a petition going to wipe it off the face of this planet.

Also, if you are in the mood to intellectualize this topic a bit, then you might want to read Nathan Gilbert Quimpo’s Colonial Name, Colonial Mentality, Ethnocentrism. Interesting stuff.

Oh yeah, if you read my post on champurado, you know that I myself am a filipina, born in the Philippines and everything, moved to Philadelphia area when I was six months and I now sport a Polish/Catalan/Mexican husband and four very mixed kids…just thought I’d add that to help clarify what I’m trying to say in this post…hee, hee.

On the eve of the Tegan and Sara concert in Philadelphia, I write this post. After weeks of waiting, my daughter has expressed that she does not want to see the show. My first thoughts were WHAT? Then WHY? Then AWWWW! This was supposed to be a sort of mother/daughter event planned along with my sister. Has that moment come when she’d rather not attend this type of event with MOM? No, it is not. At least that’s what she said.

She said that she simply lost interest. Then she expressed that she probably wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway because she was too short. It’s going to be one of those standing room only crowds, so I wasn’t really planning on plopping my thirteen year old in the thick of it all anyway. Tegan and Sara aren’t known for there rowdy crowds, just listen to there music and you’ll understand. It’s all very cute and catchy. And if you bother to watch the video, you’ll find that the bandmate’s interactions with each other are hilarious. My daughter still doesn’t want to go. She was the big fan and no longer is I guess. My companion for the evening will now be my husband. Not a bad substitute at all. But we’ll miss you Bella.

So my husband can’t stand them, not his favorite genre of music, and mentioned something about their voices irritating the hell of him. We are in need of a night out together anyway. Besides, I’m looking forward to seeing my sister and meeting her significant other…

So here’s one of my favorites… Hop A Plane video excerpt

And another… Back In Your Head