March Birthdays

March 6       - John Anthony F. Ongchangco
                      Benita S. Padilla, MD - Sayans classmate and nephro doc
March 10     - Jonas O. Ongchangco
March 11     - Ernie Uson - STI friend
March 13     - Eriene Lao - STI friend

Hope your birthdays are/were wonderful.
               

edgar huang sarte - short bio

Edgar Huang Sarte. 

this is what he had told me over the years we had been friends.  if anything here is in error, then he must have been funnin' me about those items. 

born in Polangui, Albay.  Yes, he's a Bicolano.  Polangui is place for seminarians.  he was a seminarian....or so he said. i cannot remember his school days, but one of his good friends is the father of one of my good friends

and so i know how he spent the night before his wedding.  *grins*
but i wont talk about that

He was in sales at IBM, and of the management guys i know said he could sell ice to an Eskimo.  Oh yes, Ed had the gift of gab. It helped that he was very charming.  i only saw him fidget once - when he was meeting with one of the upper management guys.

i thought he was one of those rare gentlemen who could recite poetry.  i cannot remember the title of the poem he recited to one of my best friends, but it was about daffodils swaying in the wind.  i suppose i could google it to find the title, but i would like to remember - eventually.

He was one of the founders of SRI, Systems Resources Inc. - and one of their offices was at Rada, in Makati.  He became one of the consultants at Anscor Insurance Brokers, Inc. where Antonio R-Infante was President.  That's where i met him.  i made many friends at SRI, and Ricky (+) was one of them.  He made a very good programmer at the time, and i used to call him Rikki-tikki-tavi, from Kipling's mongoose.

Since he needed IT people, he established Systems Technology Institute (STI) with Gus Lagman and Herman Gamboa.  and the rest, they say - is history. 

the stint at AIB was to be the start of a long friendship .... that ended only in his death.....
he was cremated at dawn (or early morning if you prefer to be less poetic) on my birthday of that year.....2003

The Elephants - last weekend of July

i have been mentioning my elephants so i thought i'd give you a peek at my collection.  i started collecting in grade school and am still collecting to this day. 

ELEPHANTS

pink elephant wooden pencil holder, salt-&-pepper elephants, & perpetual thai elephant calendar

lockets, pendants, necklaces, buttons, pins, clips - all elephants

a candle holder gilded pink elephant, a tall blue elephant, a papemelroti elephant glassholder, odds-and-ends

 the elephants in the grey frame is new.  found it in ebay.  the tall blue elephant was given to me by Juancho, we were officemates at STI.

elephants galore

the gray elephant in the white box - beside the blue rhino and elephant - was made especially for me by an etsy vendor from Korea.  Sui?  will check my etsy.

Horace Templo gave me that elephant behind the white elephants.  it is crystal and has yellow ears. 

Jerry O. gave me the wooden elephant with the shocking pink "matt" on his back just this July.
Dale gave me the elephant on the saucer-with-depth.  and i got the elephant beside it from papelmeroti - probably a long time ago. the PE in papemelroti stands for Peggy,  who is from Sayans, and my classmate.

my elder brother left his Beta Epsilon sticker in the glass. So no, it isnt an elephant but it is difficult to remove so i will let attrition take care of it. 

my 2 elephant pillows, my thai elephant bag - given by Alice, my elephant cd carrier in my elephant decorated box

do you see my brass elephant bell?  i dont remember where i bought it. the grey flat like elephant is actually a soap dish and the oldest elephant is the one that my lola Petra owned - the large right-most elephant on the first tier.  the collection is valuable only for me.

Remembering Edgar H. Sarte - The Horse Collection

Collecting elephants is my thing.   Ed had a horse collection.

i started Ed's horse collection.  i dont know where they - the horses - are now

but the collection started with my first birthday gift to him at Systems Technology Institute (STI)

i couldnt think of a unique birthday present so i cogitated .... and thought... and pondered

He was born in the Year of the Horse

So i figured, i should give a horse and i did, and that first gift was really just a figure of a horse

but it came with an original short free verse

in essence the verse said that he was THE herd stallion

briefly it described what a herd stallion is - 

it defends and protects

and you know, it also tickled his fancy ....

here's a link if you want to read about herd stallions

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stallion

my last horse gift was an ancient horse drawn carriage, the cinderella type

like the first gift, this too came with an original verse

this time, about horses ... and dreams come true

Remembering my Friend Edgar H. Sarte

Remembering Edgar H. Sarte


he would have been 66 in real time today. those who knew him would understand what real time meant. he was a very good friend.


i still have his old cellphone number - and he passed away in 2003. a day before Christmas eve. i was at the office - in the middle of an office Christmas party - when i found out. i couldnt believe it. so i called his number, knowing that someone close to him would answer.

he gave many IT lessons. a lot of them both technical and financial.
i had known him for more than 20 years! we met when i was at my first job - in Makati.
a company i didnt even apply to - they had seen my name in UP's list of honor graduates.


i remember the gifts i had sent him through the years.
i had given him a book in the 80s... which he never got to read until year 2000.
as i said then, at least he got to read them and liked them .... even if it was more than several years later.


i shall think of him tonight.

edit:  those of you who love my friend Ed who want to know more about him, i will be periodically posting stuff i remember. just follow the label EHS