I HAVE A CAMERA!

and I'm going to Vietnam.

Speaking of books..

Our school librarian chose me as Reader of the Month for August. And I chose one of my all-time favorite books - Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm not sure if our high school students will appreciate this, but...

"Never Let Me Go is by Kazuo Ishiguro, the Japanese-English writer best known for his novel, The Remains of The Day. It revolves around three students – Kathy, Ruth and Tommy – who seem to live an idyllic life in a sunny, upper class English boarding school. We witness them go through the typical experiences of adolescence – peer pressure and insecurities, love and heartbreak.

But as the story unfolds, Ishiguro reveals from one sinister scene to another, how Kathy and her friends’ lives are anything but normal. In fact, the very idea of their existences makes even their teachers and guardians recoil in horror.

Ishiguro writes this macabre story masterfully. Part sci-fi, part horror tale, part love story, Never Let Me Go is replete with scenes that are normal and innocent on the surface, but are throbbing with knotted tension and heart-in-your-throat terror. There is one particular scene near the end, where Tommy and Kathy confront their old headmistress, Miss Emily, which still haunts me at odd moments and sends shivers tingling down my spine.

In the end though, the story is more sad, rather than scary. And because it is set in a believable, relatable environment, with very real, very human characters that you will come to love, the ending is all the more tragic and heartbreaking. "

I heard that there's a movie coming out this year starring Keira Knightley and Cary Mulligan. I hope it's good.

My Bedside Book

I always sleep with two or three things beside me on my bed -- books, my journal, and a shirt that I am hiding from my sisters because I want it to be available when I feel like wearing it.

Why not keep it in the closet, you ask. Well I have three sisters and we are notorious for borrowing each others' clothes without permission. So we’ve taken to hiding them in rather clever places. My sister stashes them in her car. I put them under my pillow.

Anyway I was going to talk about one of the books I have bedside:

The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco. When I was in college, I was in love with our Communication Theory Professor. That was enough reason to immerse myself in all of the Semiology books I could get my hands on, and of course Umberto Eco’s name is almost synonymous with Semiology.

So I tried reading his most famous work – The Name of The Rose. It was soooo tedious. The main characters were a Franciscan and a Benedictine monk. It was set in a monastery. Some of the dialogue was in Latin. After about 50 pages, I gave up. My non-fiction teacher said that Eco purposely made the first 100 pages boring, to weed out the serious from the casual reader. The rest of the book, he said, was a wild ride. So you can imagine that now, 6 years later I am reading with a conscious effort to go beyond the 100 page mark.

And so far, it has been…one ride that sends me straight to sleep, each night. I'm past the 200th page and I'm still waiting for the "wild ride." I remember reading somewhere that it's The Da Vinci Code for smart people. Guess this is how geniuses get their kicks - Latin dialogue, verbose discussions on heresy, religion and history.

I've decided to keep reading though. I can never walk away from a murder mystery without first finding out the culprit.

Sleight Of Brands and Twist of Feet

Right before going off to Erika's surprise despedida, I missed a step on the stairs going down Mia's house. Twisted my ankle.

We didn't get to talk much, the night was strange like that. Maybe it was the big round table at Zong, which discouraged across-the-diameter conversation?


I'm going to miss Erika, and how she'd say things like, "Victoria's Secret? That's what launched the career of Noemi Campbell right?"

Mia and I nearly died laughing. NOEMI? Pinoy na pinoy.

And when Erika asked "What's a good brand for jeans, 7 in Rockwell?

Us: "Wowwww. Clazzzz."

Erika: "Levi's doesn't fit me well."

So we suggested, Freego. And Bunny Jeans. Blowing Bubbles. Jean suggested Crissa. RR Jeans. BUM Equipment. Hahahaha. All these Department Store brands of our homogeneous childhood. The kids today -- with all the choices that globalization has brought -- will they have such collective memories as ours?

The twisted ankle formed a big ugly lump after I got home. So I've been hobbling, limping and walking abnormally for the better part of three days. The doctor recommended taking a sick leave today, but no way was I going to miss the House Launch.

A Time For Everything Under The Sun

Tonight, I get to own my very first SLR. I've wanted to own one for a long time, but it's only now that I can afford it. It couldn't have come at a more perfect time. The winds are a' changin', at least for me. This is the beginning of a new chapter in my life. I can feel it.

The best days are ahead, and indeed my God is the God of PERFECT TIMING.

Tonight I Can Write

All of a sudden I feel a slight tinge of sadness after reading Clarise' blog - the watercolor paintings,the stacks of Hemingway and Fitzgerald books, the Singin' In The Rain poster.


Some people really do get to live the romantic life.

When It's All "Up In The Air"

In the Oscar awards in my head, Vera Farmiga won for Best Actress, Anna Kendrick for Best Supporting Actress, and Best Movie -- Up In The Air. For me, it wasn't so much a movie about the commitment-phobic guy. It was about the women, in that guy's life.


It's been a long time since a movie has had moments that ring so true, that life comes to a screeching halt, and I'm left in a haze of discomforting thoughts. I'm no Ryan Bingham. I guess I'm one of the girls in his life.

N: "You've set up a way of life, that basically makes it impossible for you to make any human connections. Now, somehow, this woman runs the gauntlet of your ridiculous "life choice" and comes out the other end with a smile -- just so you can call her CASUAL?"

Hahahaha. Right through the heart.

Doc Alex: March 10, 2009

"A true act of love, unlike imaginary love, is hard and forbidding. Imaginary love yearns for an immediate heroic act that is achieved quickly and seen by everyone

A true act of love, on the other hand, requires hard work and patience, and, for some, it is a whole way of life"

--The Brothers Karamazov



"This is a job for superman" + "This is the happiest Christmas of my life" + IMAR-flex + Bardak + Sintak + Doc Aga + Toy Cars + Noh, Tanya Noh! + "Alam nyo, mga bata pa kayo" + "Grade two palang ako, sinasabi na sakin ng teacher ko na gwapo ako"

Happy Birthday Dad :-)

The Importance of Being Ernest

My boy is a bundle of contradictions. He's the kid brimming with outbursts, jumping to his feet whenever a thought or idea tickles his fancy. But he's also the kid sitting alone in the corner listening to his iPod, lost in a haze of music. He'll seem disinterested in the topics discussed in Literature class, but later on he'll surprise me with his in-depth knowledge of Dante's Inferno, which he said he read on a whim during a particularly boring plane ride. He is equal parts sweet and sulky, animated and aloof, wary and trusting.

He struggled through most of the year. He lost most of these struggles – getting banned from prom for alleged inebriation, missing the RTV, the biggest school event of 2008, and committing this offense and that, which led to an end of school year suspension that made him ineligible to march. There is a sense of guilt at not having been able to do more for Ernest, and not being able to fight for him tooth and nail, a some other homeroom teachers would (Thea Sordan).

If there was any student in my homeroom class that has a lot to be pissed about, it would be him. Yet on the last day of classes, he stood up, asked permission to read a speech – a speech he had typed the night before. This was new to me, for he did not even make the same kind of effort for actual graded speeches in class.

Most of it might be lip service, especially the hyperbolic compliments, but there is a sentence or two that radiates truth.

Delivered with shaking hands and a voice that wavered from time to time, here is Ernest's speech, verbatim.

"First of all, I don't know why I decided to make this. I guess it's just tradition for me to make a farewell speech before every school year ends, for me to reminisce, realize, and to just say what I want in front of my class. To be frank, I'm really glad that I'm leaving Reedley, the only sad part about leaving Reedley is breaking out of this cycle, seeing the same faces, hearing the same voices, sitting in the same chairs, and studying in the same classroom.

I'm just sad right now because I am also leaving some of my friends like Boga and Enzo. I really regret leaving Xavier, it was where I grew up, where all my friends are. I only had a few friends before I got into Reedley, Rafa, JM, Matas and Enzo. It was hard for me to adjust to this new environment, I felt lost alone and mad at the world most of the time. Then days grew longer and I met and gained new friends, some came back home from the States, and I met one of my best friends. These friends meade my stay here in Reedley easier for me, especially Ms. Lady May Martinez, the prettiest, kindest and just simply the best class adviser in the world.

Days grew into weeks, weeks grew into months. Time just flew in a blink of an eye here in Reedley, everything just happened so fast. Instead of learning academics here, I mostly learned life-lessons, lessons you wouldn't be able to learn in any other school. I realized a lot of things about myself and my friends.

Yes, I regret leaving Xavier, but I can't do anything about it anymore. God has a plan for all of us and His plans for me is to study in this school, and now I realize going here wasn't so bad after all. I was able to meet new people, learn a new language and most of all, build everlasting friendships. I just want to say thank you to you Oxford, you made my senior year a good one. I'm glad this year is finally over and done.

Now we can all go back home bringing with us stories and memories of things you once did. To our classmates Sean Oh and Eric, To the Notorious Boys of Oxford! To our broken walls! To our lovely adviser Ms. Martinez! And most of all to Oxford! Thanks guys! That sure was one crazy roller coaster ride which I will gladly ride again. I'd like to end my speech with a quote my mentor told us last year before he left for the States. “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened!” Smile guys"

Some Things Last

Like many of the best stories, this movie is about the redeeming and transforming power of love. From the moment of his birth, Benjamin Button, despite his unusual condition (aging backwards, and therefore being born looking a horrible, decaying old man) was surrounded by an unconditional and accepting sort of love.

From his adoptive mother Queenie, his childhood playmate Daisy (who would become the love of his life), his piano mentor -- a woman in the elderly home, his first employer, the tugboat captain, and many, many others.

It's also a meditation on how it is to live on borrowed time. One has to love completely and live fully. And, one also has to learn how to wait. Because, the movie says, life has a way of putting everything in its place at the best possible time. "We finally meet in the middle," Daisy says.

And finally, this movie tells us -- despite the ephemeral of nature of life, there are some things that do last.

Like the real kind of love. Love that compels people to teach you how to play music, or share with you a Shakespearean quote, or engage you in an intimate conversation in the middle of the night. The kind of love that sees you, with your wrinkly skin, thinning gray hair, and arthritis -- in other words, whatever imperfections and flaws you might have -- and still manage to look at you, like you are the most beautiful person in the world.