Morning programming
Posted by: Fats in: Fats, Vitamins & Minerals > Bali-balita > Media Watch
Yesterday afternoon, I saw a butterfly resting on a plant (I think it’s called five-fingers plant) at the back of the house. I was able to take only one photo since it was rather breezy and the butterfly started flying about. It was a beautiful black and yellow butterfly, too bad I wasn’t able to get a much closer photo.
Anyway, the good news is that it seems that I’ve finally gotten into a very good rhythm of sleep and getting up. I have never been able to do this in my adult life (as a kid I was forced to do this because I had to be off to school early morning, and when I got older, I always stayed up very late to do work). But now, by around 9-10PM I feel sleepy enough to quickly doze off, and then wake up after about 7-8 hours. It definitely feels so much better (especially since I do this not because I have to be off to work early in the morning) being able to see the morning sunlight and cook breakfast for myself and for Gemma and Nery too.
By 7AM, breakfast is finished and I get a chance to watch some television, and should say that early morning local TV is not so bad at all. These are some of the best morning programs (weekdays) I’ve seen thus far:
- Magandang Umaga Pilipinas (MUP), ABS-CBN 2, which starts around 6AM, has a variety of content (news, cooking, traffic, food prices in market, entertainment news, business advise, etc.) and by around 6:30AM is Punto por Punto hosted by Anthony (forgot his last name) which looks into top political issue for the day and interviews relevant people through phone. Quite excellent questions posed by Anthony, I should say.
- Hapinas by Joaqui Tupas, Q11 on channel 27, which starts around 8AM. It’s a jokes and comedy show, a pretty good way to start the day if you’re not up early enough for the morning program MUP. Hapinas (which wants to make the entire country happy) is quite good too. I think it works because, apart from a very good host (Joaqui’s really crazy and funny, and he actually looks like one of my students), the program goes to government offices, private offices, restaurants, schools, and get the people there to tell jokes. There’s also a segment for jokes sent by SMS, as well as sponsored segments (i.e. hot jokes sponsored by KFC, “Do the Hagod” exercises sponsored by Robitussin cough medicine, “Just Kidding” sponsored by Clusivol for Kids, etc.) which surprisingly were quite funny and amusing.
- At around the same time are a number of good programs on Net 25 (UHF), like Kapatid sa Hanapbuhay which is about small businesses, and Gabay sa Kalusugan which is about health.
- Liwanagin Natin (with Ka Totoy Talastas and Weng dela Fuente) on Net 25 starts at 8:30AM. It’s a 1 hour and half socio-political commentary program (which actually started - just with Ka Totoy - on DZEC AM radio many many years ago). I think that it is one of the most intelligent programs on radio and now on TV.
By 10AM, all the garbage starts coming in on the other channels: Myx on channel 23, Slim ‘n’ Lift on SBN 21, Biohairs on IBC 13, Dermawand on RPN 9, Winner TV Shopping on ABC 5, The Presidents’ Live Telecast on NBN 4, and Asianovela dumping on GMA 7. Net25 is the only one that doesn’t show as much garbage, by around 10AM is their Radyo Agila program, very extensive local and world news.
I haven’t checked the morning cartoons on Q11, GMA7 or ABSCBN2, so I don’t know if they’re any good. But I think there are some good Nick cartoons (i.e. Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues) in the very early morning (around 6AM) which are intended for kids before they go off to school. I think later in the morning are the Japanese anime types.
Right now, I’m watching Liwanagin Natin on Net25 and Ka Totoy is discussing the issue of the banning of the Erap documentary by the MTRCB, and the plans to distribute the documentary through the VCD/DVD piracy networks. And now onto the 32-M libel suit filed by First Gentleman Mike Arroyo vs. Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano (which might not prosper if there was no malicious imputation of a crime to constitute libel (i.e. bank account was not declared in income tax declarations, came from illegal sources, etc.). Filing libel is also a good opportunity for Arroyo to answer (whether he likes it or not) the allegations.
