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Today, July 31, is the birth anniversary of my eldest daughter,
Myra. She would have been 38.
Myra died in California on March 29, 2008, a
victim of aneurism. The medical cause of death is brainstem
compression resulting from cerebellar hemorrhage. Cerebellum is that
part of the brain located at the lower back side of the skull, just
above the neck. It gives you a sense of balance.
Today, my children (Noreen, Ciara, Ali and
Mike), my granddaughter Anika and I will have a picnic lunch at
Myra’s resting place at the Manila Memorial Park Sucat. I will
probably cook adobo and pinakbet. If any of my readers want to join
us, they are free to drop by.
Myra died at the prime of her youth, unmarried.
She finished journalism at Ateneo de Manila in 1992 and MBA, also at
Ateneo, in 2002, high school at La Salle Zobel High School and
elementary at Benedictine Abbey. She was the founding chairman of
BizNewsAsia, my weekly business and news magazine. She had 14 years
of experience in sales and marketing.
Until now, I haven’t overcome my grief over
the untimely passing away of my beloved daughter. For a number of
weeks, I couldn’t focus. Many times I am by myself, writing to put
my magazine each week and produce this column, and letting time pass
me by, listening to music and watching DVD movies with a plasma or
LCD television sets.
Plasma or LCD tv?
I have learned many things about large-screen tv
sets. Like which is better— plasma or LCD, which brands have the
better resolution and specs, which are the better buys.
I Googled for the answers and visited a number
of appliance stores. Plasma tv is better because of its high
contrast ratio and for producing the blackest black. Plasma uses
internal algorithms to block the power to particular blacks to
render a pixel “dark” or black. By contrast, LCD (liquid crystal
diode) use electric charges to twist and untwist liquid crystals,
causing them to block light and thus, emit blacks. Also, in plasma
according to LCDTV Buying Guide, each pixel contains red, green and
blue elements which work together to create 16.77 million colors.
Plasma thus produces better colors. Plasma also beats LCD in viewing
angle and in fast-moving video playback. In longevity, LCD beats
plasma which have half the life of the former.
The best judge of what is good or best is your
eyes and your pocketbook. Plasma costs more than LCD. Try them at
the store, with the tv antenna connected because stores use blu-ray
DVDs for testing and they are high-resolution movies. If you like
what you see on Channel 2 or 7 (usually the signal is bad), then the
tv set is good. The prices of Plasma and LCDs have gone down lately
and many brands are on promo. While I like the Vizio, there’s
nothing like betting your money on the known brands, like Sony,
Samsung, Panasonic and Toshiba—in that order of quality and
preference. In terms of value for money and quality, Sony is the
most expensive, Samsung is the most reasonable, with Panasonic and
Toshiba not far behind.
Cardinal Audio in Greenhills and Ambassador
Appliances have the most competitive prices. To improve your viewing
and listening experience, try buying a 5.1 audio set but this can
set you back anywhere from P5,000 to P100,000. Your ears are your
best guide of what is a good sound set for you. As for DVD players,
get the one with HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) and if
you can afford it, blu-ray disc (BRD) players. The price is worth
it, if you are an enthusiast. Pirated BRD movies are P50 to P60 in
Quiapo. Genuine ones are P1,800.
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I would like to thank additional donors to the
Myra V. Lopez Scholarship Fund—Helen and Elizabeth Lee, Francis
Chua, and Efraim Genuino, P100,000 each; Senate President and Mrs.
Manny Villar P50,000; anonymous P50,000; Chairman and Mrs. Bayani
Fernando P50,000; GSIS and Norvic Foundation P20,000 each; PNOC,
Mayor Alfredo Lim, Viking Cars, and anonymous, P10,000 each; my
Greenhills Walking group P7,500; PDIC, PCGG and Ric Abcede,
Benedicto Steel Group, Sonny Valmonte, Ed Ladores, and Jun Palafox,
P3,000 each.
Earlier donors included: Henry Sy and SM Group
P205,000; President Arroyo P100,000; Andrew Tan of Megaworld
P100,000; President Erap P50,000; Nelia Gonzalez P46,425; Tony
Abacan of Metrobank and Joey Leviste P25,000 each; Secretary Angelo
Reyes, Governor Tetangco and Loren Legarda P20,000 each; Ambassador
Felimon Cuevas P13,000; Fe Barin, Ayala, Globe Telecom, Plantersbank,
Philamlife, Raul Concepcion, Kalinawa Foundation, and Obet
Pagdanganan, P10,000 each; Justo Ortiz, Lilia de Lima, ABS-CBN, Full
Circle, Fe Barin, and Camilo Sabio, P5,000 each.
The Fund will sponsor scholarships in journalism
and entrepreneurship and professorial chairs in journalism.
biznewsasia@gmail.com
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