Leslie Carter, 25, sister of famous brothers Nick Carter and Aaron Carter, passed away last Tuesday and it was said that the cops ruled the death as drug overdose.

She was remembered as an aspiring singer who never made it as big as her siblings. She had a long history of mental illness and had been treated as such. When she died, it was discovered that there were prescription drugs around her. The drugs found near her were Olanzapine, Cyclobensaprine and Alprazolam. These drugs are used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and anxiety respectively.

It was her stepmother Ginger Carter who called 911. Her father, Robert Carter, attempted to give her CPR before the paramedics arrived. She was brought to the Westfield Memorial Hospital in New York where she died.

Leslie seemed extraordinarily depressed on the day of her death. She said she took a lot of pills, maybe 8 Xanax pills, and then fell asleep on the shower. Her stepmother brought her to her room but eventually, she was unconscious and that was when they called 911.

The sad part is that Leslie has a 10-month-old daughter named Alyssa who will grow up not knowing her mother.

In a recent news item, it was reported that the Sandiganbayan has sentenced two former officials of the Batangas State University (BSU) here in the Philippines to 10 years imprisonment. Their crime? The two have conspired so that one of them who owns a shop will exclusively rent graduation caps and gowns to the graduating students.

The officials in question are Former BSU president Ernesto de Chavez and former vice president for academic affairs Rolando Lontoc Sr.. They were charged and now sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. They were also disqualified from holding any public office in the future.

You see, De Chavez and Lontoc were found guilty of violating Section 3 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which specifically prohibits government employees from getting unwarranted “benefits, advantage, or preference.”

While parents and students of BSU may actually rejoice that justice was served their case, I cannot help but think that these two school officials only committed one small act of corruption and yet they are going to serve 10 years imprisonment and their reputation, as well as that of the families, are tainted forever.

If ever they had amassed ill-gotten wealth from the rental of the caps and togas, I don’t think that it ever afforded them mansions in the United States and luxury travels.

It is just too bad that they were not able to cover their tracks and so they got caught. And they were not powerful enough to make people shut up. Tsk. Tsk.

It just saddens me that small fry like these get caught and incarcerated. I just feel that they are mere fall guys of the big fish.

We are going to meet with our Wednesday group again tonight. It is like a weekly get-together of friends where we can share, laugh, and play with each other. The kids can also play.

But the adults–we talk and eat. Now I am thinking of what to bring later. Hmmmm…It will not be a sit down dinner where we can eat our filet mignon with knives and forks. Now, just something light…and maybe sweet.

I still have some things to finish so I will decided in about an hour or so. By then, it will have to be done in 30 minutes. LOL So that means, it is going to be a simple recipe. Last week, I brought pasta, so what is it going to be tonight? Hmmmm…

Any suggestions? Oh…maybe I should check out the website of Rachel Ray huh? She’s the expert in 30-minute meals!

I recently read a letter that was supposed to be written by a slave to his old master sometime in the 1800s. That was the time when the slaves were already freed and started new lives.

There was this master, however, who wrote to his old slave saying that he wanted him back and promised to treat him well. So the slave wrote back.

And in the letter, it was revealed how his master treated him in the past, including getting shot at.

In our present times, we enjoy much freedom. We do have maids, but even our servants have a lot of freedom. Sometimes, the maids become even very abusive. I just wonder how it would be if they lived during the times of slavery.

Instead of being bratty, maids should have a thankful attitude because times have certainly changed.

Bears and other wild animals hibernate or sleep during the cold months and then they just wake up for springtime! They really know better.

Sometimes you would wish that humans can do the same and not have get up in the morning, prepare breakfast, shovel the driveway, and go through the snow in order to go to work. But life is just like that and we have to live with it. Or we can follow the animals and live like Tarzan in the jungle. That is also possible.

But in order to get just a sampling of the comfort that the animals have during hibernation, we have to keep ourselves warm at night. We could do this by having a heated mattress pad and a cap over our heads as well sleep. You do not want to catch a head cold you know.

Ahhh..if only we can sleep tight that long huh?

I have read recently that the Kardashian sisters–Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe–will soon be launching a Kardashian Kollection of denims for Sears. The three of them took their shirts off for a topless photo shoot.

Hounded by intrigues, they just seem to laugh everything off and just gamely flaunt all their family and personal affairs on worldwide television. The more that people hate them, the more that they just do something else productive.

If there is one thing that we can learn from them–that is it. The whole world can hate you but just focus on the ones that love you and then make money from them.

Anyway I just think that everything about them is business. While there maybe family and love dramas, it seems obvious that everything that they do or say has something to do about business.

Whenever Kim tweets a picture of herself, she seems to be advertising something. Even a greeting card that she sent to the Duchess of Cambridge has a marketing pitch.

So those who hate the Kardashians, brace yourselves, they are here to say. And the more you hate them, the more popular they become and the more money they amass for themselves. And the haters can just continue hating and burning with jealousy but this family just keeps on getting richer, affording all the luxuries that their minds can imagine.

Who wins then?

Most people would consider garbage as stinky and are just mere waste materials. But for some people, there are actually valuable things that are like gold bullion hidden masked by rubbish.

That because there are people who know processes that convert the seemingly worthless garbage into useful things.

For example, if garbage is properly segregated, organic fertilizer can be made out of them and sold at premium prices.

Other things that look like junk can still be sold to other people for a much lower price. But if these are in large quantities, that could mean a whole lot of money!

But even if we do not make money from our garbage, we can lessen our wastes by segregating and giving away those things that can still be used by other people. We can also gather those recyclable materials that we can sell to the junk shop. These may not be things that will make us rich but at least we can help lessen the garbage volume in our cities.

I do not really follow teleseryes on TV but tonight, I caught the final episode of Ikaw Ay Pag-Ibig–the drama on primetime TV that stars Zaijan Jaranilla, Xyriel Manabat, and many other others, including veteran actor, Mark Gil.

Aside from the remarkable acting of Mr. Gil as Congressman Gonzales, what struck me most was his confession. He was convicted in the last several episodes and he really repented from his sins. He asked forgiveness from the people he had wronged, including his family and the people under his district, plus he also tried to correct the mistakes of his past–like withdrawing his false accusations that sent his daughter’s lover in jail. Although he could not entirely correct everything, as several of the characters already died or lost a number of productive years in their lives, the point of the matter is that, he repented.

How I wish that even just a fraction of corruption politicians here in the Philippines would do so? Imagine, even just one percent of those in public office who have willfully done the people of the Philippines wrong will just repent, come out in the open, and try to make amends for what they have done–you can just imagine the change that will happen in this country.

Sigh…too bad…it only happens on TV…

Jordin Sparks and Whitney Houston in Sparkle. Photo from Sony.

Yes, that is the talk going on nowadays that superstar Whitney Houston, who has battled with cocaine addiction, is already broke. She is just relying on the financial support of her record label Arista, but this is going to be deducted from her next contract.

Imagine that. On the height of super stardom and now broke. Who would have thought? But I guess nobody is just too rich that he will remain wealthy even without proper financial management. We just have to manage our resources well, whether we have little or a lot.

I am not sure about this story but Whitney became addicted because her husband Bobby Brown was also in the bad habit. Is that true? Who got became an addict first?

It is just too bad to be in this spot. But it is a reminder to all of us that we should be good stewards of our resources. If ever we want to splurge on something, that should be to help others. The rewards are far greater.

Whitney Houston has a comeback movie, Sparkle, which stars Jordin Sparks.

The diva superstar Whitney Houston during her heydays and with her husband, Bobby Brown.

His Airness Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty

NBA Superstar Michael Jordanhad been considered a legend in basketball but of course, there will come a time that your star will fade as you grow old and no longer perform like you used to.

But Michael had been idolized by many people–fans, basketball wannabes, and even fellow players. A lot of players wanted to follow his footsteps, but it seemed that no one came close.

Recently, however, Jordan said that if there is one play who came close to his achievements, that would be Kobe Bryant. Wow! That should really make Bryant happy and fulfilled.

Here is a tweet from Roland Lazenby, the writer who is now making Jordan’s book.

Kobe’s ultimate competition is MJ. That’s why MJ watches him. MJ made people think what he was doing wasn’t human. Ditto the Kobester. I never said Kobe was better than MJ. MJ just told me Kobe’s the only one to have done the work, to deserve comparison.

When I was still working at a cable company in the past, I was very happy to collect pins that were distributed to us as corporate giveaways from cable companies. I really had a special place for them and they really looked cool as a collection.

But now, since I no longer work for the company, all I get are personalized pins. That is fine, though some of the pins that I got already tarnished or have rust on them. I guess they were just made locally and were not produced from stainless steel materials. Oh well, but they just look nice, especially when they are given as tokens during a birthday party.

Right now, I am in the process of preparing for Dindin’s third birthday. But I think it will just be a simple. So I am still debating if I will give out tokens or not. hehe We will see.

Vin Diesel can’t drive? Oh yeah? That is how TMZ is presenting star of the Fast and Furious series.

But I dunno, it seemed like a pretty incredulous story. Watch the video below.

Diesel was driving a big truck that people said was an Escalade. Sometimes, the media can really make small things big.