Late this morning, my wife and I walked 3 miles around the lake and back.

Now, I had to stop running and walking for a few weeks because I was feeling knee pains and realized that I was probably pushing too hard by walking/running 5 miles a day.

I have to be realistic.

I’m not 25 any more, although someone told me last week she thought I was in my twenties.

Though I might look young, even younger people need to train properly and slowly build mileage so as not to injure oneself in any way.

Anyway, the last 1/4 mile I felt energetic and ran it. Toward the last 50 feet I felt a pull in my right calf muscle. Nothing painful and anything. But enough to cause me to walk that last 20 feet. It didn’t feel good.

And, I’ve been resting up because I hadn’t been feeling too well today. I have a gig tonight and have to wake up early tomorrow at 6am to rehearse and play some church music.

I’ve been trying to take a nap but can’t, but at least I’m resting up before tonight.

So, I know that I must get back into the walking/running routine but perhaps just do 2 miles for most days (30 minutes) and do my long run at the lake on Saturday or Sunday.

And we’ll take it from there. And hopefully I can get back on a good exercise routine that is a daily practice and one that I feel good doing and feeling strong and injury-free.

The one good thing is that I have my new running shoes, which feel like I’m walking on a cloud. No probelms there.

Today’s Wigs have come a long way in terms of style and function.

Many of today’s best selling wigs looking very realistic and are natural looking. They can consist of synthetic materials or real human hair, and can range in price from $25 to $1,000 and more.

In this post, I’ll focus on the most practical reasons for wearing a wig, for any person, at any age. Wigs are a suitable alternative to the real hair that’s on one’s head. And, I’ll cover practical reasons for wearing wigs.

10 Reasons To Wear a Wig

1. Beautification.
More than likely the number one reason to wear a wig, for attaining the body, beauty and fullness that a regular head of hair might not achieve. And for getting the “pre-styled” look you’ve always wanted without having to sit for hours in a beauty salon.

2. To Hide Hair Loss.
Whether significant hair loss is the result of a serious illness, or due to hereditary factors, wearing wigs can be the perfect solution for hiding hair loss. Hiding a significant amount of hair loss and helping one’s self-esteem are two important reasons to wear a wig.

3. Save Time.
Simply using a wig instead of taking the time to style your hair can be a big time saver.

4. Style Versatility.
A big advantage of wearing wigs is being able to change one’s hairstyle instantly. Most wigs come “pre-styled” and there are hundreds of styles to choose from, with a variety of lengths, shapes and sizes. You could have a different hairstyle for each day of the week. Wear short hair one day, and long hair the next.

6. Premature Gray Hair.
If you have gray hair and you are tired of coloring it, and also tired of the expensive costs that can add up by constantly coloring your hair, then perhaps wearing a wig is a good alternative. Especially in giving your hair a much needed rest from the constant barrage of hair dye.

6. Cost Savings.
If you DO spend a lot of time at the hair salon, you know that salon costs could add up to thousands in a year’s time. Wigs can be a cheaper, alternative solution. But, keep in mind that some very realistic hair solutions can cost thousands of dollars, cost savings could go either way, depending on whether your hair salon costs are that expensive or not.

WigSalon.com features the Top 50 Best-Selling Wigs in 2009, for those interested in the best wigs available.

Our top 50 wig styles reflect 2009’s most popular hairstyles world-wide. These customer-approved styles feature wigs from Raquel Welch, Revlon, Noriko, Jon Renau and many more. There are style to suit every personal style so you are sure to find the best style for you!

Four More Reasons To Wear a Wig

7. For Halloween.
For looking different during Halloween, wigs are an essential item for making that Halloween costume look all the more appealing and authentic.

8. To Go Undercover or Incognito.
Let’s face it. Perhaps there is a reason (hopefully not illegal) for wearing a wig, but there could be a time when one’s identity needs to remain hidden… whether you are a secret agent or an undercover cop.

9. Masquerade Balls.
If you’re going to attend a masquerade ball, what better way to further hide your identity than to don a wig, adding to the mystery.

10. If You Are an Entertainer or Performer.
Many of today’s top performers, entertainers and celebrities wear wigs to enhance and vary their look and appeal. Many actors wear wigs to “transform” into another person which would help them maintain “character” and assume the role of that character.

This has been a sponsored post.

Below is a screenshot from my Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala” desktop. One of the background options is a collection of photos taken with the Hubble Telescope. This particular one is The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and Companion Galaxy.

Last Friday I successfully installed Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala”.

A few days earlier I upgraded from “Jaunty Jackalope” to “Karmic Koala” completely online. It was the official launch day. The process was painfully slow because I wasn’t the only one upgrading to this new Linux OS.

After the online upgrade, I launched “Karmic Koala” and lo and behold, there were some problems, possibly due to a very “customized” install of the previous Ubuntu installation. Things weren’t working right for whatever reasons.

Since I had already transferred all of my important documents and files to my 1 terabyte external drive, all I really had on my main internal drive was the previous Ubuntu install and Windows XP on the other partition. I had a dual-boot setup but didn’t use Window XP.

So, this past Friday I made the decision to completely wipe clean the internal hard drive and do a clean install of “Karmic Koala”, effectively deleted the huge Windows XP partition, and giving me a 100% Linux system with much more room for growth!

I’m happy. I really am. “Karmic Koala” is a lean and mean operating system. It’s very stable, and fast!

But, it’s definitely not a beginner’s operating system:

• 1. You do need a certain aptitude for problem solving.
• 2. Some things you’re going have to do from the “command line” window. Like, install certain apps and utilities.
• 3. The clean install of “Karmic Koala” is fast and lean, but comes at a price. You’ll need to find and install more apps if you want to do a lot more. Fortunately, there are so many free open source applications that can be easily downloaded online. It’s just a matter of search for the right ones.

Nobody’s Perfect But…

No operating system is ultimately perfect. There is, after all, room for improvement. And that is why new and improved versions of an OS is released after so many years, with updates every few months.

The best things about going the Ubuntu route is:

• 1. Freedom to tweak and customize (heavily) your own operating system.
• 2. Getting an OS that is absolutely FREE, and future upgrades FREE as well.
• 3. Ubuntu relies on FREE open source software, and those plus their future updates are FREE as well.
• 4. A smaller footprint in your hard drive makes for a leaner and faster machine. I can’t emphasize that enough. I have both Mac OS X and Windows XP. My older son has Windows Vista. I can’t vouch for Windows 7 by I imagine it’s a behemoth of an OS. Everything is slower than Ubuntu, and I’m running mine on an older HP Laptop that’s 4 years old.

No Adobe Photoshop and ITunes

One drawback I’ve experienced with Ubuntu is the fact that I can’t get iTunes and Photoshop to work with Wine.

Maybe someone could help me with this. I’m really glad that there’s Picasa 3 for Linux, a free app for managing, organizing and tweaking all photos and images on your hard drive.

But Photoshop and iTunes… won’t work.

There are, however, alternative guilt-free apps… like Gimp, though it’s not as good as Photoshop. And, I use Exaile to replace iTunes and I can’t purchase and download music from the iTunes store. But with Rhythmbox Music Player I can purchase music via Jamendo (offering free downloads but there’s a PRO account) and Magnatune.

And I finish this post with the great Crab Nebula, another amazing photo courtesy of the Hubble Telescope! Live long and prosper, Earthlings!

Clement D. Roman: 01/11/1922 – 06/03/2008
Last year on June 3rd, my father-in-law passed on at the age of 86. He was a great man who achieved so many things in his lifetime. He was a kind man… diplomatic, caring, giving. He is dearly missed.

Paranormal Activity In Your Home…
Talk about “Paranormal Activity”, one of my sisters-in-law called me at 3 o’clock in the morning (which happens to be the “witching hour” to some occultists) and was very disturbed, saying she woke up to someone turning on her bathroom light and then the shower! She ran downstairs and called me, promptly waking me up in the process. She wouldn’t sleep in her room for weeks, and we even had a priest say mass and bless the house.

Could this have been the spirit of my father-in-law, dropping by for a visit? There were other paranormal events in the home, including a shadow passing by a doorway one night, and my nice saw this.

The Michael Phelps Diet: 10,000 Calories a Day
I don’t know how anyone can possibly eat that much food, but if anybody can do it, it’s World Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps. I guess if you can burn that much fuel, you can eat all you want and keep piling it on!

Hate and Fear: Still Powerful Forces in American Society
I think last year’s election brought out the best and the worst that the United States has to offer, as witnessed by all during the November Presidential elections. We experienced history in the making as the U.S. elected its first African-American President. And he still faces a tough road ahead in 2009 with right-wing conservatives calling him communist and socialist, and every other name in the book. He also inherited a bad economy and two wars in the Middle East.

Gary Wilson @ The Knitting Factory NYC
Gary Wilson, longtime friend and musical colleague, leads this other life where he sings about Linda and Mary, plays with mannequins and blowup dolls onstage, and someone throw flour at him…

. . . .

Jordano: Flamenco Guitarist Extraordinaire
Where’s Jordano? This question kept ringing in my ears for much of 2008, when my musical colleagues and me in the group Flamenco Nova, suddenly found ourselves without our Flamenco Guitarist and fearless leader. He joked once that he was a secret agent, and his “missing-in-action” and not answering our phone calls led us to believe that might be true! We still, to this day, don’t know what happened to him, other than the video that surfaced on YouTube!

The Significance of Throwing Shoes
“One of the oddest things I’ve ever seen in my life… an Iraqi journalist throwing shoes at an American President. I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.”

. . . .

Momentary Zen…
And to end on a positive note…

Part Three in the Series

This article is part three of my original article, Are Filipinos Asian? and Are Filipinos Asian? – Part 2.

I recently noticed that I STILL receive a big percentage of traffic from Google with the following search phrase: “Are Filipinos Asian?”

And The Question Remains

Though I’ve written three prior posts on the subject, it doesn’t really help the fact that it seems most Filipinos (and non-Filipinos alike) think The Philippines is a “Pacific Islander” nation rather than an “Asian” one.

But the search for an answer continues it seems, while my Google Analytics for this site points out the fact that, other than my homepage, the top three pages are about articles I’d written about whether Filipinos are Asian or not.

What Does The Philippine Government Say?

So, I was thinking well, what does the Philippine Government say about all this?

Upon visiting The Philippines “official” website at http://www.gov.ph, there is this paragraph in the “General Information” page in the “About The Philippines” section that states:

“The visitor to Metro Manila commonly sees the Philippines as the most westernized of Asian countries and in many ways, it is. But there is also a rich underlay of Malay culture beneath the patina of Spanish and American heritage.”

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere!

The Philippine government states emphatically that the Philippines is an “Asian” country with a “rich underlay of Malay culture”.

“Asian” and “Southeast Asian” are in the Philippine Government’s Vocabulary

Now most people know (hopefully) that the Philippines was a colony of Spain for some 200+ years, and after that was a colony of the United States of America until its independence on July 4, 1946. So, there has definitely been a strong European and Western influence in the country, that may have affected how people in general have perceived the Philippines.

The Philippine government site goes on to say:

“The most lasting legacy of the Spanish rule was the Catholic religion which makes the Philippines the only Christian nation in Asia.”

Ah, two words, “in Asia”. But yes, with a strong Christian (mostly Roman Catholic) upbringing, this can very well distance Filipinos from that whole identity of being Asian, as most other Asians are either Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or some other religion that is more associated with other Asians.

A few more paragraphs down the page we read:

“Hospitality, a trait displayed by every Filipino, makes these people legendary in Southeast Asia. Seldom can you find such hospitable people who enjoy the company of their Western visitors. Perhaps due to their long association with Spain, Filipinos are emotional and passionate about life, in a way that seems more Latin than Asian.”

Well, there’s that word once again, “Asian” and now we see “Southeast Asia”. So, now the government site is identifying Filipinos as being specifically from Southeast Asia. No, really?

Incidentally: For those of you thinking that Filipinos are “Pacific Islander”, this term was mentioned not even once on the Philippine government site.

. . . .

Location, Location, Location…

Now looking at this map of the Philippines, it appears that the closest country is Malaysia, which if I am not mistaken is definitely considered an Asian country.

Ethnic Identification

According to the Philippines’ government website, most Filipinos are considered to be Malay in origin, and a small percentage Chinese and other ethnicities…

“Ethnic Groups: 91.5% Christian Malay, 4% Muslim Malay ,1.5% Chinese and 3% other.”

Apparently, although many Filipinos were somehow “christened” or had adopted “Spanish” names, there is really a very small percentage of Filipinos with Spanish blood.

Wikipedia’s Definition of Filipino Ethnicity

According to sources in Wikipedia.org, Filipinos are ethnically Asian, specifically of Indo-Malay origin.

“Many Filipinos are an Asian ethnic group, a Mongoloid people, part of the Austronesian group, a group of Malay/Malayo-Polynesian speaking people. Non-Malay/Malayo Polynesian ethnic groups also form a part of the Philippine population. These include Europeans (Spanish, and other European people), Chinese, American, and other ethnic groups. There are also mixed blood individuals known as mestizo. Mestizo refer to those of mixed Spanish/Latin American, and Malay/Malayo-Polynesian descent, but may also refer to those of other European ancestry. Mestizos may also refer to other foreign descent.”

Of course, the “Mongoloid” race is thought to be the origins of modern-day Asians.

There is some talk going around that Filipinos are from the Austronesian group, but this is just a sub-group of the Malay/Malayo-Polynesian peoples. Oh, there’s that word “Polynesian”. And I think this leads (or mis-leads) us to a lot of confusion because the actual Polynesian Islands are a sub-group of the peoples of “Oceania”, along with Melanesia and Micronesia.

But, recent evidence has pointed out to the theory that Pacific Islanders originated from mainland Asia, particularly China:

“China had a sea-faring civilization as long as 7000 years ago. Archaeologist Tianlong Jiao says, one day, these mariners sailed their canoes into the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, and stayed. He points out, “Most scientists, archaeologists, historical linguists and human biologists agree that today’s southeast China, Taiwan and Northern Philippines, the whole region is the ultimate homeland of the Austronesian people.” The Austronesians include today’s Polynesian, Micronesian, Melanesian, and the indigenous people in Philippines, in the Southeast Asia archipelago, and in Taiwan.”

And further studies have pointed to the theory that Austronesians originated from the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan:

“These findings provide the first direct evidence for the common ancestry of Polynesians and indigenous Taiwanese, and suggest that Taiwan genetically belongs to that region of insular Southeast Asia that might have been the point from where Polynesians started their migration across the Pacific, followed by later cultures that developed from their descendents in east Indonesia and Melanesia.”

So, if you’re thinking that Filipinos are in fact, Pacific Islanders, there surely is a connection, but only because true Pacific Islanders originated from Taiwan and mainland Asia, according to the above two sources.

If anything, Pacific Islanders came from Asia too, but Pacific Islanders would’ve had to originate from Taiwan, mainland China, and Southeast Asia. And not the other way around.

Surely, the Philippine Government’s Website is Correct

In summary, the Philippines is a culturally rich nation, with influences coming from various surrounding Asian nations, and also influenced by Spain and the United States. The country is a member of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), so whether you don’t consider Filipinos to be Asian or not, they are politically, culturally, and geographical bound to Asia.

But also, the Philippines has been influenced by Western Culture through Christianity and via European and American colonization.

Filipinos are a unique Asian people. And their origins and cultural heritage definitely set them apart from other Asians. It is this “uniqueness” that possibly contributes to many Filipinos having an “identity crisis” of sorts, yet they are very similar in many ways to their fellow Malaysian and Indonesian neighbors.

7,107 Islands in the Pacific Ocean

Okay, it doesn’t help the fact that The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands in the Pacific Ocean. Logically, one would assume that Filipinos are Pacific Islanders then. But I keep thinking that Japan is also a nation of islands in the Pacific Ocean as well, though they don’t have as tropical a climate as the Philippines, with coconut and palm trees and a very humid climate.

But wait, other countries in Asia have that same tropical climate and coconut and palm trees…. oh, and the Philippines abounds in rice paddies, just like those other Asian countries. Rice (like in other Asian countries) is the main staple of The Philippines.

Understandably though, the confusion remains. And whether you consider Filipinos to be Asian or not, it is up to the individual to decide, obviously. But just consider the entire continent of Asia and all of its peoples, and you’ll see that there is so much diversity. In the end, I am grateful that there is such a varied cultural and ethnic diversity… otherwise, the world as a whole would be an incredibly boring place.

. . . .

Note: For more on this topic, please visit Are Filipinos Asian? – Part 1 and Are Filipinos Asian? – Part 2. Thanks for reading…

I confess I wasn’t really around for Halloween; just wasn’t emotionally into it this year, though I entertained thoughts of putting together the most awesome Zombie costume with blood, tattered suit, and makeup. But there’s always next year.

[ youtube video via Niki ]

I actually ended up gigging at Bistro 221, playing piano for singer and musical colleague Donnie Finnell. So, mentally and emotionally, I was focused on performance. It was awesome to be playing piano live in front of an audience and getting applause. In addition to accompanying Donnie I had many opportunities to play solo piano.

And surprisingly, there was a decent turnout at the restaurant. And the audience was more into the music tonight, than what I have noticed on other nights. For me, it was a great night.

Candy Confession

I succumbed. I ate one or two pieces of Halloween candy, but that was it.

My wife reported that there were more children than last year wandering the streets of our neighborhood. The usual costumes of ghosts, witches, princesses, ninjas. And there was a young lad dressed as George W. Bush… interesting.

Twitter Lists

So, Twitter now features “lists” in which you can create your own lists of your favorite tweeters divided into categories of your choice. So far, I’m seeing quite a few “celebrity” and “friends” lists.

I created one public list of a few really funny tweeters (or is that twitterer?): http://twitter.com/randomguru/funny

I guarantee these people will deliver a chuckle or two.

My Current Desktop

Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala”