September 4, 2009 at 3:21 am · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: books, literature
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?
Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Look at the list and then number the ones you have read, so by the end, you have your count. Tag other book geeks.
1 Pride and Prejudice - (1) one of my all time favorites!
2 The Lord of the Rings - i’ve only read a few pages…i can never sit down to really finish it.
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (2 or 2-8?) I’ve read everything in the series
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (3)
6 The Bible - (4)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - I am halfway through the book but I could never go beyond it…I’m not a fan of Dickens.
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - (5)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien -
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - (6) one of my favorite books in college 
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - just watched the movie, but i’m planning to read the book
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel - i watched the movie though :Pl
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck -
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll -
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens -
33 Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis - (7 or 7-13?) my favorite in the series? the horse and his boy 34 Emma - Jane Austen -
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen - I want to read this book for the longest time but I haven’t done it either.
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - (8)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - have been wanting to read this…
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden -
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (9)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (10) one of my favorites by Garcia Marquez…
4 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - I watched the classic movie, but haven’t finished it.
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens -
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon (11) I LOVE THIS!
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (12) It took me a year to finish because I kept stopping in the middle of the story but I finally finished it…i don’t like the movie adaptation though
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (13)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (13)
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding -
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie - ahhh! i never got to finish this book because my sister had to return it.
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (14) reminded me of pastries and tea in the garden
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - (15)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - (16)
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (17)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - (18)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - (19) one of the best classic novels in my opinion
ahhh! i can’t believe i’m a reading and writing teacher and i’ve only read 19 books on the list! i think i’ve watched half of the books with movie adaptation though. I have to keep reading!
August 3, 2009 at 6:21 am · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: carlo j. caparas, national artist
i haven’t blogged in a while but this news just annoyed to the highest level that i had to write about it.
carlo j. caparas as a national artist? the man who gave us such cinematic masterpieces as The Marita Gonzaga Rape-Slay (In God We Trust!) and Kuratong Baleleng Wilson Sorronda: Leader Kuratong Baleleng Solid Group. and how can we forget his two best works of all time, The Untold Story: Vizconde Massacre 2 - God Have Mercy on Us and The Vizconde Massacre Story: God Help Us.
can you really consider him to be in the same level as artistic genuises fernando poe jr., lino brocka, ishmael bernal, f. sionil jose and my all time favorite nick joaquin? can his work Babeng Hinugot sa Aking Tadyang actually measure up to joaquin’s Summer Solstice or jose’s Mass?
a national artist is someone who has the highest recognition for having made significant contributionsto the development of Philippine arts, namely, Music, Dance, Theater, Visual Arts, Literature, Film, Broadcast Arts, Fashion Design and Architecture, and Allied Arts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Artist_of_the_Philippines)
i refuse to believe that we have run out of artists to acknowledge that we have resorted to the man who, i sincerely believe, contributed to the demise of Philippine cinema. before he produced those horrible pitu-pito movies, we were producing cinematic jewels such as Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kami Ngayon…we have a multitude of people that deserve to have this award (dolphy, ryan cayabyab, kidlat tahimik, i would even go for pol medina jr. etc). come on people! give the award to someone who actually deserves it!
July 13, 2009 at 7:37 am · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: birthday, dad
my dad is not the usual type of dad. let me state a few examples…
my dad loves rock music so much that he could give lester bangs a run for his money. we knows his rock history well; our vast collection of cds from the beatles to rolling stone to U2, pink floyd, deep purple and inxs can well attest to that. i remember growing up to the sound of pearl jam, guns and roses and metallica blaring from our speakers every sunday whenever he cleans our house. i use to think that it was normal for people to play this type of music every sunday. he even got my name from a song. ironically, he never learned how to play any musical instrument though 
he always knows the latest upcoming movie, as long as it’s foreign (i don’t think he knows the local showbiz entertainment scene exists). sometimes he knows it way before i even know about it. he rarely watches movies on cinema though. he only watches it when he gets free ticket
his favorite sport is basketball. i believe he can state the statistics of any game in the NBA, PBA or PBL, past or present. he knows every strength and weakness of a player and coaches. and yet for all his love for the game, i have yet to see my dad take a single shot or even dribble a ball.
he was never the affectionate type. he was never the type to shower you with hugs and kisses with each achievement or milestone in life. he never said i love you as often as you might expect but there was never a doubt in my mind that he loved as all. i guess it was the way he spent time with us, his kids, and how he always seemed to listen to all our stories. he might be watching TV while you speak but you can be sure that he heard every word you said. i never doubted in my mind that my dad love me.
for all his contradictions and idiosyncrasies, i love my dad and am extremely proud to be called his daughter. he may not be perfect but i could not imagine growing up with anyone else. happy birthday daddy!
March 16, 2009 at 4:06 am · Filed under Uncategorized
i realized im starting to get old this weekend. it didn’t really bother me but i just realized that time flew by so fast and before i knew it, 10 or 15 years had already passed.
it started with the death of francis m. hearing his music over and over again as people paid tribute to him brought me back to my childhood. i remember my grade school years when my classmates went crazy singing mga kababayan ko in their loudest voices. people who never liked rap music before suddenly enjoyed rap music. i remember how my classmates would stumble over the words or replace the lyrics with their own words to suit their fancy.
next came the eheads final set concert. i enjoyed this concert even more than the first one. i loved the fact that they sang songs i haven’t heard in at least ten years. wishing wells, back2me, poor man’s grave, fine time…it brought me back to my high school days. i would borrow my uncle’s cassette tapes of circus and cutterpillow and just listen to it. i remembered our house in sta. mesa right when it was still in the middle of construction and we were already living in it. i remembered our old worn out stereo. i remembered lying in my bed in the middle of the afternoon on a lazy saturday and just reading their lyrics. during the concert, i kept singing along but i couldn’t remember the titles of some songs until it reaches the chorus. i remembered the first time i heard huling el bimbo over the radio and how it gave me goosebumps becuase it was just so good. those were definitely the good old days…
i also realize the power of music. it can trigger a single memory and bring you back to places you’ve never been to and people you haven’t seen in a long time. it’s nice to reminisce sometimes. bittersweet, but i like it 
October 6, 2008 at 8:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
last monday, i got to try wall climbing for the first time. i’ve seen it a lot of times before but i never tried it. i thought that i was too heavy to scale the wall. i couldn’t imagine scaling a 50 feet or 75 feet wall while i entrusted my safety to a thin piece of rope. the objective of wall climbing is easy: use different grips or hand holds to reach the top most part. actually doing it though is a different story. you have to use your arms and legs to pull yourself up. its a lot of hard work but the satisfaction of reaching the top is well worth it.
one person in our group was stuck in the middle of the wall. she couldn’t move up or down because she refused to let go of the hand hold she was holding. she was doing fine at first but she reached a hard part and she couldn’t seem to reach the next grip. we told her to let go so the instructor can pull her down. she wouldn’t let go so she couldn’t go down. she was terrified of falling down that she gripped the hand hold with all her might. as a result, she was just there on the wall, stuck.
as i watch her frozen in the middle of the wall, i realized one thing. you have to let go in order to move on.like wall climbing, sometimes you have to let go of certain things in our lives in order to welcome new things. if we don’t let go, we can never move up or down. you will just stay stagnant in one position. sometimes it’s an issue of trust. some people refuse to let go of the grip because they don’t trust the strength of the rope or the instructor beneath them. but trusting the rope or the person holding the rope is part of the process. you cannot climb the wall if you don’t trust the person holding you. in the same way, you can’t move on if you can’t trust god.
it’s funny how God reveals things in the most unexpected places…
as for my friend, she finally let go the of the grip and finished the wall
August 27, 2007 at 8:24 am · Filed under Uncategorized
my holidays are usually spent at home. i take advantage of the free day to either do extra work, watch movies or sleep all day. i rarely go out since it is the only time i get to spend an entire day with my family. however, this holiday was particularly different since i had a "packed" schedule, so to speak.
it started with the larong pinoy at the parks and wildlife. it was a kick-off event for the CFC anniversary so rain (and rain it did) or shine, the show had to go on. my entire family was going so i decided to go with them. my family and i might go to different churches but we still support each other. and besides, CFC will always (always) be special to me.
honestly, i didn’t think i’d enjoy the event; it was raining after all and the entire place was either wet or muddy. the venue was right on top of a lake and the weather was gloomy. it makes you want to crawl under the covers and sleep. however, the infectious mood of my teammates and everyone around me, especially the children, changed all that. (go yellow team! 
) i mean they really gave it their all, especially in the scavenger hunt. the rain kept raging yet everyone was busy literally scavenging trash cans and pathways to find the ever elusive juicy fruit wrapper and bottle caps to win the game. you have to hand it to the kids. when they capture the vision, they really go all for it. they didn’t care if they were wet, muddy and dirty. all that mattered to them was finding the list and winning the game. kudos to the organizers and facilitators of the event. given the weather we had, i’d still say that it was a success. (photos to follow on my next update).
from the serene surroundings of parks and wildlife i travelled all the way across manila to the bustling area of quiapo. ("bustling" would be an inappropriate adjective to describe the quiapo we visited today. it was quite uncongested which was something that i wasn’t used to.) our linggo ng wika was at hand and materials/prizes had to be bought. i then met up with heidi and carla and we set out to scour the streets for the right materials.
after a couple of hours of scouring the streets and haggling with vendors, we decided to treat ourselves with the sumptous food of binondo. this is the first time i’ve seen binondo in the morning and i have to say that i was quite excited. our first stop was an old restaurant that claimed to be the house of the original fresh lumpia. we decided to give it a try and to rest our weary feet. the food was quite cheap but the lumpia was not exceptional (according to my food critic bosom buddies). we headed out in a few minutes in search of tasty dumplings.
needless to say, tasty dumplings really do live up to their moniker. it is tasty. we started with the steam dumplings, followed by fried dumplings and ended with the tsai mao (? im really not good with chinese names). the food was very cheap (8 pieces of dumplings for only P60) and it will surely satisfy your craving. there’s something different with their sauce (its vinegar and patis) that truly brings out the flavor of the pork. the "siopao" bread was fluffy and tasty in itself. i guess it would be safe to assume that this is not my last visit in binondo 
we were tempted to visit binondo church after our meal but our we decided to head home and rest.
to finally cap the day, we decided to put on our dancing shoes and watch the remake of hairspray. (read hairspray review)
i love holiday mondays
June 24, 2007 at 6:35 am · Filed under Uncategorized
i remember the first time i ever wanted to walk inside the walls of intramuros. i was seven years old then, reading a story in our filipino workbook. the story was about a field trip in the different historic sites in manila particularly intramuros and rizal park. and i remember reading it and being fascinated about the history of my city. i literally begged my mom to take me on a tour of these places and we did, amidst the rain and all. (the first time i laid eyes on dr. jose rizal’s monument was under an umbrella with my mom and sister. i was that desperate!)
and now nearly two decades later, i was here yet again, in Manila’s original walled city. i have to admit, i was hesitant to tour intramuros for the nth time. my friend carla has been bugging me to go on these mini tours around manila but limited resources and time have always been a big factor on my end. i finally gave in when i learned that they were offering a free tour. at least i won’t have any regrets if i did not enjoy this tour. at least that’s what i thought.
we started in the new bahay na tsinoy in anda street. the tour began in this section because it will trace the arrival of the different influences of our country: chinese, spanish, american and japanese. i loved the part with the piedra chinas or the heavy stones the chinese used to balance their ships as they make their way here from nearby china. they were reused as tombstones when they arrive here in the philippines.
after this, we headed to one edifice that survived the bombings of world war II, the san agustin church. there were two bell towers in the church but only one remained standing to this day. the other one welcomed the visitors as they entered the church. i never grew up in the catholic faith so i am quite unfamiliar with the rituals and traditions that comes with it. i am fascinated with old churches though. i loved the design of the church sanctuary itself. it was painted yet had the illustion that it was three dimensional. the tour around the church also showed how visual we are as a nation, even in the early days. the spanish came here to "market" their religion. we bought hook, line and sinker because we were fascinated with the ostentatious display of gold, their intricate carvings in the altar and of course, the ubiquitous santo. however, i believe that these are all part of God’s plan for our nation. we were the only spanish colony and christian nation in asia. i believe we were immersed in the christain faith, to the point of fanaticism, because we are called to spread it.
we finally reached the end of our tour with a ten-minute walk to the walls of intramuros itself. it was a beautiful site, seeing the original manila built by the americans after the war. there was a slight drizzle but it was perfect nonetheless
i have been a manileno for the past 25 years and yet it still never fails to take my breath away. yes, it is polluted, bursting in the seams with the population it currently it has and not to mention traffic jams in every corner. but if you look closely, it is still a city with a rich cultural heritage and, i believe with all my heart, a bright future. walking around the walls of intramuros and learning about my history once all over made me proud that i live in this city maynila…
May 11, 2007 at 4:28 am · Filed under Uncategorized
halos magtatatlong taon na rin akong nagsisilbing guro sa PH229. naka tatlong klase na rin ako ng mga batang nasa 5-6 na edad. ngunit sa tinagal-tagal kong naging guro dito, hindi ko pa naranasang bisitahin ang mga estudyante ko sa mismong tahanan nila. sabi ni ate vicky, dapat daw ginagawa ang home visitation kahit isang beses sa isang taon. isang paraan ito upang lalong maintindihan ng mga guro ang kanilang mga estudyante. kung alam mo ang kalagayan ng mga bata sa kanilang tahanan, mas lalo mo syang matutulungan.
sa aming pagbisita, lalo akong nagpasalamat sa Diyos sa mga biyayang walang sawa nyang ibinibigay sa atin. minsan puro kakulangan lamang ang ating nakikita at nalilimutan nating magpasalamat sa maliliit na bagay na ating nakakamtan. mas lalo ring nadiin sa akin kung bakit ako naging bahagi ng programang ito. sumali ako rito dahil ako mismo ay nakaranas ng kabutihan ng Diyos. nais kong ibahagi sa mga batang ito na maari rin nilang maranasan ang kalayaan mula sa kahirapan kung hindi sila bibitaw sa salita ng Diyos at mananatili sa pananampalataya ^^
April 10, 2007 at 3:40 am · Filed under Uncategorized
this wasn’t my first time on boracay. i went there five years ago with my family as a side trip when we went to odiongan (yep, there is such a place in romblon). however, this is the first time i’ve there for more than two days and actually experience boracay. this was also my first time to experience the economy section of a ship. to say that it was a memorable experience would be quite an understatement…
it was part of our annual trip in compassion but any friends who are willing to join the trip with 20 other people are welcome. we were on a very limited budget so we can’t travel first class. we took the very hip and clean (sarcastic) MBRS Virgin Mary line. it was tolerable, to say the least, in the economy section. but if you have a distinct hatred to be surrounded with feet while you sleep and eat, i suggest that you avoid this place like the plague. definitely not for the faint at heart we survived the first round of the trip by sitting on the deck and taking lots and lots of pictures of ourselves. what was that quote by al pacino, who played the devil, in the devil’s advocate? vanity is definitely my favorite sin? tsk, tsk, tsk…
since we can’t imagine eating surrounded by possibly unhygienic extremities, we searched for a cafeteria to eat our dinner. one such cafeteria transforms into a disco, complete with a dancing dj/waiter, at the stroke of 9PM. whoever thought that people on an overcrowded ship would have the energy and interest to get down and party definitely has a very weird imagination.
the rest of the night went on quietly. my friends, my sister and i managed to squeezed in and get a couple of hours of sleep. it was quite a feat considering that we were three people in one very hard bed. if one person moves to the left, everyone else has to move to the left. we were a very coordinated group morning finally came and we ate our breakfast in a more "fancy" cafeteria on the upper deck. we had a great view of the odiongan port and the island. needless to say, we were more excited to reach boracay than ever.
when we finally reached the caticlan port, there was another hour or so of enless people, pushing, shouting, sweating and hauling their bags to ride the ferry. the ferry was a mere 10-15 minute ride. we finally reached boracay after a very exhausting 12-15 hour journey.
i’ve always considered myself as a very laid-back person. i rarely fuss about anything and you can take me anywhere and i hardly complain. but i have to say, traveling economy class during the holy week season has made me change my opinion about myself.
February 12, 2007 at 5:41 am · Filed under Uncategorized
"transition" was the word of the weekend. blame it all on heidi’s knack for coining up terms or for using unusual words in a common way. but it a way, it did sum up our weekend getaway in zambales. it was a transition for us. it was our first ever planned weekend getaway. most of our former excursions were spur of the moment decision that miraculously pushed through. i remember one out of town trip where in lory literally woke up lei in the middle of the night to go to Baguio. That was how spontaneous we can be
to say that i had a fun weekend would be a grave understatement. we left early saturday morning and arrived in zambales around 9am. after spending an hour in the town market buying enough food to feed our insatiable hunger, we went to the resort expecting the worst. what can we say, mac said it was a hassle and we took it very literally. we were completely taken aback when we finally saw the accommodations though. it was very charming to say the least
we literally did nothing but be total beach bums for the rest of the weekend. we sat on the beach, stared on the horizon, slept, ate, swam, talked, sang and do everything all over again. one thing i’ve learned over this weekend is that women really do talk more than men. A LOT MORE. we woke up at 5am on sunday morning and instantly, and i mean instantly, the room was filled with incessant chatter. to quote heid, "wala man lang transition, gising na gising agad!" i’ve been with these girls for the past eight years now (gosh! i can’t believe it’s been that long! ) and yet the we never seem to ran out of things to talk about. it doesn’t matter if we’ve discussed that topic a million times before, we can still discuss it and enjoy what we are discussing. weird huh? but i guess that is friendship.
one additional thing we did for the weekend was learn how to surf. yup, surfing in the waves, and not on the information highway i never imagined i would have the opportunity to do it in the near future. so when mac volunteered to give us free lessons, we were thrilled! hey, that was one faithgoal i checked on my list (learn a new skill). it wasn’t as easy as what you see on tv; surfers made it look sooooo easy! but it was certainly just as fun we covered the basics theories of surfing first, how to stand, the different parts of the board (who knew it had parts?) and others. after practicing for a few minutes on how to stand on the board, we started hitting the waves. Fighting to stay on top of the board and actually standing on the board required a LOT of hard work. even paddling was difficult. a lot of upper body strength is required. and i never knew that those boards were sooo heavy. surfers carry it around like a purse and use it like a skateboard so i thought it was that light as well it wasn’t as easy as what you see on tv; surfers made it look sooooo easy! but it was certainly just as fun. riding on the wave and feeling the wind on your face for just a second was worth all the bruises and scars i got i will definitely do it again!
It really was the perfect weekend that I’ve always wanted
*for more information regarding the resort we visited, check out www.crystalbeach.com.ph
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