My Kimono Birthday Dinner in 2017

-
Benicia, CA • September 2017. My Birthday Dinner in 2017 — Kimono Japanese Restaurant Family Birthday Video. jf perseveranda birthday, kimono japanese restaurant benicia, perseveranda family dinner, september 12 birthday, old camcorder video archive, pinoybuilt family archive.
Benicia, CA • September 2017

My Birthday Dinner in 2017

A 1 a.m. hard-drive backup turns up the biggest video file of 2017 — the Sony camcorder footage from J.F.'s September 12 birthday dinner with family at Kimono Japanese Restaurant in Benicia, CA.

J.F.R. Perseveranda and family at his September 12, 2017 birthday dinner, Kimono Japanese Restaurant, Benicia, CA
The Perseveranda family at Kimono Japanese Restaurant, Benicia, CA — J.F.'s birthday dinner, September 12, 2017.

I'd fallen asleep sitting on the sofa. I woke up after 1 AM. The Amazon Photos app had backed up all the PICTURES folder on my Macbook.

📌 Did You Know? Old camcorder tapes and hard drives are one of the diaspora's quiet family archives — MTS files and Seagate folders sitting untouched for years until a 3 a.m. backup run brings a whole birthday dinner back.

💬 Please comment below ↓
🇵🇭 Tagalog Word of the Day alaala — ah-lah-AH-lah
Memory, recollection. What a backed-up video file becomes the moment someone presses play again.

Backing up videos to YouTube. The biggest folder on my Seagate Expansion external hard drive is "2017." The biggest folder within 2017 was "9/12/2017 Sony." The MTS files from my old high definition camcorder are huge. This video was the biggest.

I tried going back to sleep with the CPAP. After almost one hour, I gave up and got up.

Sources
  • Personal account and home video archive of J.F.R. Perseveranda, recorded September 12, 2017, at Kimono Japanese Restaurant, Benicia, CA.

Help Us Become the #1 Filipino-American Media Platform in the U.S.

PinoyBuilt is built by the community, for the community. If this article meant something to you — if it made you proud, informed, or connected — we need your help to reach every kababayan out there.

💬 Drop a comment below — wish J.F. a belated maligayang kaarawan, or tell us about the old family videos sitting on your own hard drive.
📲 Text this article to a friend, a tita, a teammate — anyone who needs to see this.
📣 Share it on your socials — every share brings us closer.

4.6 million Filipinos in the U.S. One platform telling our stories. Salamat, kababayan.

J.F.R. Perseveranda — Founder and Editor, PinoyBuilt

Founder & Editor

J.F.R. Perseveranda

J.F. (Jonjo) left the Philippines at age nine, spending a lifetime bridging the gap between his Marikina roots and his Chicago/Vallejo upbringing. A proud Hogan Spartan from East Vallejo and resident of LA/SF, he founded PinoyBuilt not just as a digital archive, but as a cultural compass for his three children to navigate their heritage, language, and identity with Pinoy Pride.

💬 Please comment below ↓

Location: 1654 E 2nd St, Benicia, CA 94510, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Hi! Thank you for dropping by. Please leave us a comment. Sige na!

Popular posts from this blog

The Memory Heist: How DreamWorks' 'Forgotten Island' Turns Filipino Mythology Into a Diaspora Reckoning

-
Image
Hiddenbrooke, CA • March 2026. The Memory Heist: How DreamWorks' 'Forgotten Island' Turns Filipino Mythology Into a Diaspora Reckoning. forgotten island dreamworks, filipino mythology animation, H.E.R. liza soberano, lea salonga manananggal, nakali island, filipino american diaspora, pinoy pride, fil-am identity, filipino folklore, dreamworks animation 2026, joel crawford januel mercado, filipino culture film. FILM & IDENTITY • MARCH 2026 The Memory Heist: How DreamWorks' 'Forgotten Island' Turns Filipino Mythology Into a Diaspora Reckoning The first major animated film rooted in Philippine folklore asks the question every immigrant carries: What do you lose when you leave? A PinoyBuilt analysis of the most important Filipino cultural moment in animation history. DreamWorks Animation's Forgotten Island features a voice cast led by H.E.R., Liza Soberano, and Lea Salonga in a story root...
Read more

Hiraya Manawari: The Ancient Filipino Phrase That Became a Generation's Battle Cry

-
Image
Vallejo, CA • March 2026. Hiraya Manawari: The Ancient Filipino Phrase That Became a Generation's Battle Cry. hiraya manawari meaning, ancient tagalog phrase, filipino manifestation, reach your dreams filipino, baybayin tattoo hiraya, decolonize filipino identity, pre-colonial philippines language, hiraya manawari tv show abs-cbn, filipino words of power, fil-am cultural reclamation. DECOLONIZE • MARCH 2026 Hiraya Manawari: The Ancient Filipino Phrase That Became a Generation's Battle Cry How an archaic Tagalog phrase meaning "may the visions of your heart come to pass" survived colonialism, powered a beloved 90s TV show, and is now reclaiming Filipino identity — one tattoo, one graduation caption, and one whispered prayer at a time. There are words in every language that carry more weight than their syllables suggest. In English, we have "freedom." In Japanese, ikigai . In ...
Read more

Learn Filipino: How Cup of Joe's Record-Shattering 'MULTO' Teaches Us Pagharap — The Courage to Face What Haunts Us

-
Image
Philippines • March 2026. Learn Filipino Through Cup of Joe's Record-Breaking Hit "MULTO" — Tagalog Vocabulary, Grammar & the Value of Pagharap. learn tagalog, cup of joe multo, opm, filipino language, tagalog vocabulary, fil-am, filipino american, pagharap, grief, silakbo, baguio, billboard philippines. Learn Filipino • March 2026 Learn Filipino: How Cup of Joe's Record-Shattering 'MULTO' Teaches Us Pagharap — The Courage to Face What Haunts Us The most-streamed OPM song in history isn't just a love song — it's a Tagalog masterclass in grief, release, and the Filipino courage to confront what we've buried. 50+ words. One grammar lesson. One song that changed everything. Learn Filipino through Cup of Joe's record-shattering hit "MULTO" — the most-streamed OPM song of all time. (PinoyBuilt) There are songs you hear. And then there are songs that fol...
Read more

California's Filipino Power Map: Where 1.7 Million Filipinos Live, Work, and Build Community

-
Image
California • March 2026. California's Filipino Power Map: Where 1.7 Million Filipinos Live, Work, and Build Community. filipino americans california, fil-am california, filipinos in california, daly city filipinos, vallejo filipinos, los angeles filipinos, san diego filipinos, bay area filipinos, california filipino population, philippine diaspora california. CALIFORNIA • MARCH 2026 California's Filipino Power Map: Where 1.7 Million Filipinos Live, Work, and Build Community From Historic Filipinotown in LA to the Navy-rooted streets of Vallejo — this is the definitive breakdown of where Filipino America lives, and why California is the center of the diaspora story. If you want to understand Filipino America, you start with California. Roughly 1.7 million Filipinos live in the state — about 38% of the entire U.S. Filipino population . That's not just a statistic. It's a living, breathing network of familie...
Read more

Negros 19: Massacre or Legitimate Encounter in Toboso?

-
Image
Negros Occidental • April 2026. Negros 19: Massacre or Legitimate Encounter in Toboso? negros 19 toboso, lyle prijoles filipino american, alyssa alano up diliman, rj ledesma altermidya, bayan usa, lfs sfsu, fil-am activist killed, philippine insurgency 2026, red-tagging, npa clash. Negros Occidental • April 2026 Negros 19: Massacre or Legitimate Encounter in Toboso? A 40-year-old Filipino American from California was among 19 people killed in a 12-hour firefight in Negros Occidental on April 19, 2026. The Armed Forces of the Philippines calls it a lawful encounter. BAYAN USA and rights groups call it a massacre. Here is what is verified, what is contested, and why this one should matter to every Fil-Am household. Northern Negros Occidental, where the 12-hour firefight in Sitio Sinugmawan, Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, left 19 people dead on April 19, 2026. The first shots were fired at 3:58 AM. By ...
Read more

'Madonna of the Slums' by Vicente Manansala

-
Image
Manila, Philippines • March 2026. Madonna of the Slums: The Soul of Post-War Manila. Vicente Manansala, Transparent Cubism, Filipino modernism, post-war Manila, National Artist Philippines, Thirteen Moderns, heritage, art history, diaspora identity. Art History & Heritage • March 2026 Madonna of the Slums: The Soul of Post-War Manila Vicente Manansala's 1950 masterpiece reimagined the sacred Madonna as a Brown Filipino mother in the wreckage of post-war Manila — and in doing so, changed Philippine art forever. Seventy-five years later, it still speaks directly to us. Madonna of the Slums (1950) by Vicente Silva Manansala. Oil on Masonite, 86.5 cm × 61 cm. National Museum of Fine Arts, Manila. A cornerstone of Filipino Modernism. There is a particular kind of gravity that settles over you when you stand before a painting that refuses to look away. Vicente Manansala's Madonna of the Slums , complete...
Read more

My Virgo Titos: Eduard and Manuel, Thanksgiving 2007

-
Image
Vallejo, CA • September 2026. My Virgo Titos: Eduard and Manuel, Thanksgiving 2007. virgo titos perseveranda, eduard perseveranda ronnie nonoy, hiddenbrooke vallejo thanksgiving 2007, filipino american family archive kapamilya, chinese zodiac year of the horse virgo season. KAPAMILYA • VALLEJO, CA • SEPTEMBER 2026 My Virgo Titos: Eduard and Manuel, Thanksgiving 2007 Three Perseveranda brothers at one table in Hiddenbrooke — and a tribute, this zodiac season, to the two who were born under the same sign as me. Seated, left to right: Eduard, Ronald, and Manuel Perseveranda. Standing: Brian, Paulo, Glenn, J.F., and Melvin. Hiddenbrooke, Vallejo, CA — Thanksgiving, November 22, 2007. It's Virgo season, which in my family has always meant one thing before anything else: which of the titos are we celebrating this year. Two of them share the sign with me. Tito Ed was born September 4. I followed him on September 12. Tito Maning's birthday la...
Read more