Carlos is learning to obey

I got home one night and went straight on to dispense a glass of cold water from the fridge, when I saw a door knob hanger (except that it was not exactly a knob, but an ordinary door handle) dangling in my cousin's bedroom. The header says, "Obedience - doing what I am told to do". Further down it says, "Carlos is learning to obey."

Carlos is Kaloy, my nephew by a first cousin. I published an entry about him twice before; he's 6 years old now and have been a little bit exposed to the outside world. We seldom play cars now, as he has learned to cross over our fence of bushes and congregate with his playmates next door. He's learned how to bargain Playstation (oh yes, game consoles at 6! I know, what the...) times with his mother and father. And yes, he is having a hard time learning to obey now.

When I saw that door hanger, I must admit I too was convicted by the word Obedience. Patience, trust and obedience are three things I am not so good at. I don't personally believe that you cannot teach old dogs new -- sometimes even the old -- tricks, though. In my line of work for instance, I've witnessed how some traditional librarians I know of, technophobes they may be, have been continually struggling to learn new trends to be more professionally effective every single day.

What's my point then? If I want to be obedient, I have to learn and imbibe obedience. If I choose to be patient, I have to learn and imbibe the virtue of patience. If I need to be more trustworthy, I have to be trusting.

I have to learn everyday.

Nanny McME II

I took up my new role as "Tita Yaya" a couple of months back, which indeed proved to be a doubly stressful time for me. My usual routines gone berserk, my luxury being a good night's sleep.

It has been 7 months since then. Although mother and son aren't staying with me anymore, yes, I am still a full-fledged Tita Yaya. I'm just so amazed at how we (my sister and I) were able to cope up with having a baby around. Things have pretty much gone back to normal, the only difference is that we have this adorable little cookie...

...who brightens up our everyday. It's just so awesome!

Big girls don't cry

Apparently, becoming a big girl could be difficult in other matters in some other days.

Green candy

No offense meant to some, but THIS I can never suck nor swallow. Amazingly, I heard from an officemate that it's colored green on the inside (hah!). That doesn't matter much to me, though I am really impressed at how far a person could go just to strike a chord. As if.

Power princesses!

CREDITS: Shrek.com

Ooooh, you better watch out for these kicking ladies!

Going nuts

A short trip out of the metropolis offered me a glimpse of the provincial life once more, which of course I always appreciate. The thing is there's always room to get to learn a thing or two about the simple ways of life -- the back-to-basics. To begin with, there were just the natural elements available all around for survival, long before push-buttoned and mobile technology ever invaded the urban homes. It's only sad that majority of today's "modern" people (including me) either at the very least lack the curiosity of things (how do they do it?) or are simply put: indifferent, as long as the microwave oven in the kitchen works.

This brings me to the main subject of this post (so much for that melodramatic intro). I didn't know how cashew nuts (kasuy) are cooked. Well, I do know that they're being cooked (winks) but I haven't seen how it's done and how a cashew tree looks like until last week. So when I finally got the chance to witness it, I didn't pass it up and documented everything (for the record).

Step 1: Roast cashew nuts on wood fire, atop a yero (galvanized iron sheet).	Step 2: Let it come to flames (oo, susunugin!). Careful not to go too near the fire as cashew oil squirts in all directions.
Step 3: Remove from fire and let the nuts (and the yero) stand to cool for a while.	Step 4: Time to begin the pukpukan session. Peel off the nuts’ burnt shells by lightly pounding it rock-on-rock. The idea is to shell them all off without cracking the bean shape apart.

I would complain at how much I find one pack of kasuy expensive. Supposing that one small pack went through the traditional process, such as the one above, there it leaves me with no more room for kiosk tantrums.

The invisible world made visible

My current fascination nowadays is looking into Lennart Nilsson's works of microphotography. Well, he has always been around the field all this time. It's just that it was only last week when I got to discover him actually. And before his book, Life (c2006), journeys its way back to our book dealer's warehouse (we only get our hands on reference books for our department), I got to examine it page by page and was awestricken photo after photo.

The thing about his work is that he is able to make us see and understand the universe invisible to us: the anatomy of life. He even has one photo of a toothbrush scraping away at bacteria in the mouth (iiiiwww!!!). But most of his earlier masterpieces deal with the evolution of life in the womb, which are flat-out awesome! Like this one:

A successful sperm

Awesome.

Patayin sa sindak si Ligaya(katulong ang mga Spirit Warriors)

I'm inventorying around 400+ (and 500 more to come, I was told! wah!) moldy but original video titles donated by a very benevolent faculty member. So far of this number, I've inspected just close to a hundred Tagalog titles and man, the titles were already driving me insane! I was chortling the whole time!

And then I found a way to amuse myself with what I'm doing (listing down 900+ titles could get you bored, until it grows on you). I figured, jeez, I can actually come up with my own version of teleserye just by combining and playing with these titles. This string I came up with a group of action film titles. Here's a sample (titles in boldface):

Ang sabi ni Warat, "Bibigay ka ba?"
Sagot naman ng Soltera, "Oops, teka lang…diskarte ko 'to!"
Nagalit ang Largado. Banta nya, "Ibabalik kita sa pinanggalingan mo!"
Pero ang akala ni Resbak, para sa kanya ang banta kaya ang kabig nya, "Babalikan kita!"
Pagtalikod nya, liningun nya pa si Resbak ng isang beses sabay sabing, "Uubusin ko ang bala sa katawan mo!"


Here are other titles that made me go tsk...tsk... (most is pito-pito, i.e., shot in less than a month, sometimes even in just one week!):

Babae sa bubungang lata (my comment: ano ba?!!!!)
Balahibong pusa
Gamugamong dagat
Gawin sa dilim
Hubad sa ilalim ng buwan
Malikot ang agos
Sa iyong haplos
Tuhog
Uhaw na hayop


Wah!

It's just relieving to know that Filipino film buffs have become intelligent moviegoers, most homegrown producers have begged off of cheap movie manufacture, and directors have likewise learned how to remaster their craft and tapped potential talents over time.

Just because

"Scarcely had I passed them
when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go
till I had brought him to my mother's house."

~ Song of songs 3:4 (NIV)

E

The gold-encrusted E is engraved majestically in my forehead; it sweeps me off of my feet as would a magic carpet.

All colors are E.

Nanny McME

Lately, I spell luxury: S-L-E-E-P.


By-the-book nanny

I was "prematurely" introduced to full-swing nanny hood about two weeks ago, when my sister finally arrived home with her little bundle of joy (draining all her energies for 9 hours full of labor pains, ending with a slice in the belly, when all labor inducing drugs seemed to immune her). I couldn't exactly say I've prepared for his coming well enough, yet I did ready myself just the same. As they say, you'll never know how it is like until you get to spend your first day (or night) with the baby.

She being a first-time mother, my sister is grappling with parenthood big time. I being her big sister, had to most of the time pretend that I'm not even half as stressed as she is with baby-sitting; and avoid ending up baby-sitting both mother and son. I may deceivingly look like a mom with my cellulites screaming all over me (shamefully), but frankly, I am totally clueless with baby care. We needed truckloads of parenting inputs to grab.


We're quite fortunate to have relatives -- traditional and modern, to rescue two helpless fledglings. My cousins wasted no time at all in delivering their hand-me-downs to my sister. However, what I consider the best among these hand-me-downs is this hardbound handbook of pregnancy and baby care by Good Housekeeping (GH). One cousin lent it to my sister when she was still in her first trimester of pregnancy, and it has been really helpful ever since. We now turn to it as our baby bible. Although what we have is the first edition (I searched away Amazon.com and discovered that GH has come up with a paperback edition, which makes it literally handy), the principles of nurturing are of course, universal. I especially found the color photographs most practical. I'd secretly consult this book whenever my sister is occupied with other things (I had to pretend I'm no dummy, remember?).


"Tita-Yaya"

Half-way through my very disheartening (almost 3-foot high) laundry, I paused for a minute and yelled at my cousin (who was at the bathroom at that time), "Waaahh!!! This is not me!!! I want my old me baaaaack!!!"

These two weeks saw major, MAJOR changes in my routines. I've been reporting late for work for 7 days straight to date (late, to mean 20-30 minutes late). I spend four hours at most for laundry chores - which my sister usually does for the two of us every single week. I no longer check the Internet for cable programs to look forward to in the evenings. I haven't come home late from the mall like I used to (although this is not a regular habit) as of yet. My business nowadays is to catch up on sleep while I can, master the 101 techniques of diaper-changing, help out on pinning pediatrician and vaccine appointments, cheer on Sherwyn (our baby!) as he feeds on his mommy's milk.

Wait up. I am the aunt, not the mother. But look at me. I overreact way more than Sherwyn's mom. How much more if it were my own baby? Push me to the door now and shoo me off.

Don't get me wrong. This is all new to me, yes, yet I do welcome these changes embracingly. I perceive it as my pre-parenting dry run. I now enjoy cuddling a newborn, whereas before I was really, really scared of cuddling a fragile baby. I still panic whenever I change his diapers (he might pee again when I'm still not done changing him), but maybe in a few weeks' time I'll do just fine.

Having to take care of this bundle could be so, so exhausting. And yet when I'm in the brink of complaining, he would smile with his eyes shut close and the weariness just magically goes away.

Acknowledging

One of the recurring characters in this blog has been my ordeal with graduate school. I promised myself lately that I won't keep my paper locked away too long in my procrastination chest anymore, as I did in the past. Well, roll the drums for me. After nearly 7 years, I now hold a Master of Library and Information Science degree. FINALLY!

I couldn't have done it all by myself, of course (sidebar: for my research, I developed a thesaurus on gender and sexual and reproductive health and rights for use of local NGO resource centers in Metro Manila). There were so many people to thank for and give credits to. This was my acknowledgment page (let me bore you for 3 minutes):

Being an esteemed member of the elite scatterbrained society, I consider this portion here the most challenging page I have ever written so far; even tougher than putting this thesaurus together and writing five chapters of this paper. This early, I am begging for pardon from those whose names could be unintentionally left out mentioning, but do not necessarily go unacknowledged. You know who you are and I am indebted to you all.

I thank my respondents for taking my research seriously and have made it all possible for me to get through graduate school: Dr. FLORENCE TADIAR and the STAFF of ISSA for this research opportunity; Ms. AIDA ARACAP of DOH Library; Mr. ROBERT ROMERO of NCRFW Resource Center; Mss. EMILYNE DE VERA and NOEMI BAYONETA-LEIS of HAIN Resource Center; Mss. GIGI FRANCISCO, SUSAN ALBAO, REMY GAMBOA and ANA DINGLASAN of WAGI; Ms. TEENA CAMPOS of WCC; Dr. CAROL SOBRITCHEA, Mss. DHANG SIOSON and ARDIS GONZALES of UPCWS; and Ms. LEONNIE DELA CRUZ of UPCSWCD Library. I also thank Ms. ROWENA O. ALVAREZ for sharing her expertise with me.

And to Binsent, for recommending these highly efficient people to me.

My sincerest appreciation goes out to my adviser, DEAN ROSALIE B. FADERON, for believing that I can write good stuff. I thank you for being my perpetual referee. I count myself blessed to have been mentored by you.

SIR ROD TARLIT, for putting invisible pressure on my shoulders. I thank you so much for that huge motivation for me to finish this paper.

And to Binsent, for the added push.

Mrs. AFRICA CASTILLO, for her hawk-like eyes. Thank you so much for reading my paper, never minding our geography. I am grateful for your time.

To the ILIS ADMIN STAFF, for not banging the phones and doors on me whenever I pay them "purposive" visits. Thank you so much.

Likewise, for Binsent's incredible, incredible patience.

The ILIS LIBRARY STAFF, for the extraordinary help for my extraordinary requests, maraming salamat po.

The late DEAN JOSEPHINE C. SISON, it was always refreshing to capture memories of your quips and smiles. Thank you for letting me experience all of those.

And to Binsent, for his occasional one-liners, sending me off to frantic laughter.

The VL.IR, for taking me to Europe and to my STIMULATE 4 professors and classmates, thank you. SAHDIA KHAN, the most patient program secretary there is, thank you for always keeping our lines burning.

PROF. ALAN HOPKINSON of Middlesex University (London), for his faith in the Filipino scholars.

Mrs. FLOR MALLARI, to me you are the perfect reference librarian. Your professionalism is worth emulating. I am humbled by your confidence in me. Thank you.

Mrs. SALVACION ARLANTE, you inspire me of your big dreams to revolutionize the field. Thank so much for allowing me to think out of the box.

I also thank Binsent for making sure that I not only excel in my career, but also in perfecting my sinigang na baboy.

Many thanks to the entire UPD MAINLIB PEOPLE: My fellow "athletes" at the stroke of 8 in the morning (hehehe); to my GENREF family, thank you so much. I have always been proud of our teamwork; to all my Ate at the ACQUISITIONS SECTION for keeping my stomach full; all my Kuya at the MEDIA SERVICES for keeping the Section up and running; the ladies of the L.O. -- ATE GILDA, ATE MYLENE, ATE VANGIE and ATE MARLENE, for the on-the-house peanut butter sandwiches; and ATE GAY, for her special treatment...Salamat sa inyong lahat.

To the "superninangs": DENISE, YANI, EMANG (gracias tia, for correcting my barok Spanish each time), ATE ELVIE, KLIT and GRACE T. Thanks to GENE and CHITO for accommodating the superninangs. I owe you people.

To ANDO, MARCKY, LEA, AL, and the rest of the PINOYS IN BELGIUM (PSB), thank you for the rice meals and the motherland feel. I also thank ALICIA and MARJ for our friendship made in Sunday flea markets.

Para mis dos mejores amigos del otro lado del mundo -- el Cubano ORLANDO y el Chileno MANUEL, mil gracias por haciendo mi vida en Europa una aventura cada dia. Si me iria por detras, lo hare todos otra vez con vosotros. Os echo de menos, ambos. I will see you two again.

And of course to Binsent, for putting up with all my ramblings. Thank you.

To RICHARD, for the friendship behind the CD collection.

To KRAM, for making me his Ate Christine.

The ABRIGO HOUSEHOLD, thank you for adopting me as one of your own. I thank your big brother Binsent for keeping the coffee jar packed to the brim for me.

My brothers and sisters at the METRO MANILA CHRISTIAN CHURCH (MMCC), for making me see and experience the love of God. You are all precious to me. My heart goes out to every single one of you.

LORNA, for her motherly instincts. You will always be engraved in my heart.

NIMFA and IRENE, we are now walking in the quarter life of our friendship. You are both amazing.

To my COUSINS and PAMANGKINS, I always look forward to our Sunday luncheons. You all make me smile.

To AUNT JAZ for being my surrogate mother.

PAPA, SHERYL and our little SHERWYN, you three inspire me to grow up everyday. I love you guys.

MAMA, I am invincible because of your still presence.

BINSENT. We repel yet we connect. You are so everywhere, everyday, every time. Thank you for being so everywhere, everyday, every time.

Above all, I am overflowing with gratefulness to my FATHER GOD in heaven. No amount of words can ever begin to describe Your perfection. You are awesome. I bring You back all the glory. I love you.

Moonlighting

I imagine fewer sunny days, golden-yellow leaves a falling, perfect hot cups of coffee, and Paris glowing in the night.

My eyes, my thoughts, my heart, they penetrate through the dividing mirror. Catch your aroma, I could. I long to experience the warmth of your biting cold.

Let me, would you please.

Yet again.

Yet again.

Coming to grips

Just when I thought that I was the only one gasping for air, along came friends who are just as desperate as I am to finish off graduate school. If only to claim relief in knowing that someone else is pressing in on the same boat, I'd be my own guest to suck it all up.

Well yes, I've been working on my paper for more than a year now. I've capitalized on procrastination far more than anything I have ever imagined myself am capable of being. Truth be told, I’m tired of just longing. I want to graduate and do something else, other than this. I even struck a bargain with my officemates (their next carbonara will be on me), again if only to stimulate my already growing low self-motivation.

I have other things in mind after graduate school. For one, my interest to pursue European languages has already caught up with my paper! I'm done with one quarter of mis clases Españolas, and so far, it has been good.

In the words of my thesis adviser, "...okay, but don't let it stay with you too long."

Believe me this time, I won't keep it stale.

Counting screws

"Isa lang ang hiniling 'ko sa kanila: ang karapatan 'kong madapa at bumangon sa buhay nang walang tatawa, magagalit, magtatanong o magbibilang kung ilang beses na akong nagkamali at ilang ulit ako dapat bumawi."

-- A B N K K B S N P L Ko?!
Mga Kwentong Chalk ni Bob Ong. ©2001.

bonito!

ANG GALING!!! Sony Ericsson + Cybershot in 1! Awesome.

Nostalgic

The gentle air of rain
reminiscent tunes refraining not;
tending intangible keepsakes

and then...

Goodbyes.

That I missed

I have no idea how the grapevine twined here at work yesterday, because since I came in to my "bat cave" this morning, I've been picking up somewhat exaggerated, way out of proportional responses from people around me.

"How's your back? Does it still hurt?"

"Hey, are you any better?"

"I suggest you go and have your spine checked."

"How are you?" (with matching soft pat on the shoulder)

Don't get me wrong, I really do appreciate their concern. It's just that I find it a bit odd, as I don't usually get such remarks from people I don't relate to personally. They sounded like I was near-death yesterday.

Unbeknownst to them, it's the chicken sisig delivered for lunch yesterday that is still making me go tsk tsk today. Argh! I missed that. That, and the two cups of rice that goes perfectly well along with it. Yesterday's lunch will never be the same as today's. Hehehe.

Siempre = Always

SIEMPRE
de Pablo Neruda

Antes de mi
no tengo celos.

Ven con un hombre
a la espalda,
ven con cien hombres en tu cabellera,
ven con mil hombres entre tu pecho y tus pies,
ven como un rio

lleno de ahogados
que encuentra el mar furioso,
la espuma eterna, el tiempo!

Traelos todos
adonde yo te espero:
siempre estaremos solos,
siempre estaremos tu y yo
solos sobre la tierra
para comenzar la vida!

ALWAYS

I am not jealous
of what came before me.

Come with a man
on your shoulders,
come with a hundred men in your hair,
come with a thousand men between your breasts and your feet,
come like a river
full of drowned men
which flows down to the wild sea,
to the eternal surf, to Time!

Bring them all
to where I am waiting for you;
we shall always be alone,
we shall always be you and I
alone on earth
to start our life!

Looking forward to a groovy weekend!

They're from the Kuzco Academy

While we're on the subject of Disney channel movies...

Finally, after six long years since Kuzco rocked my animated world, Disney Channel Asia is premiering tomorrow night a new cartoon series called The Emperor's New School. That will be more of Kuzcotopia and Yzmania for me. Yey! :-p

The Channel's marking the event with a Kuzco marathon (Emperor's New Groove, Emperor's New School, Kronk's New Groove). Therefore my friends, my weekend is solved. Oh, yeah. So solved. Hehehe ;-p

[I'm a certified Disney addict, in case you STILL didn't get the picture]