h o m e s i c k (7 Reasons Why I Love the Philippines)
I was in the Philippines last week for a 7-day holiday. And I had a blast! I am now back in Vietnam and the new school term is in full swing. But just before my holiday ended, I left my heart in Manila.
What is it about the Philippines that fills my entire being and consciousness with such intense longing to be back in her loving arms?
Click here to read the 7 reasons why I love the Philippines…
Report card
Today is my son’s last day in school before they go on a two-week semestral break. It is also the day for parents to meet with the teachers to discuss their kids progress in school.
I am unsure why I keep thinking PTA (Parent Teacher Association) but I feel this meeting has come to be called just that.
His teacher then presented me with my son’s report card. It reminded me of my own back when I was still struggling through grade school. This time though instead of the familiar grades of 80, 85, 90… there written were 1, 2, 3, and 4 with 1 being the highest grade given. And instead of seeing subjects like Math and English, what was listed were school activities like – use of pencil and crayon, recognizing letters and numbers, initiating activities with other kids and the like.
First Try at Rebel 2000
These are my first attempts of using my brothers SLR. Expect ugly pictures. But I’m reading about photography and yes, I’m practicing my composition. I actually shelled out 2 rolls of 36 shots in Pangasinan last weekend. I’ll show some of those in another post. The pictures below were taken last October 19 at the National Peasant Mobilization at CM Recto.
Living in the land of the lost
I first encountered Sumilao when I went to Bukidnon last April. The bus made a five-minute stop in the town’s central market to pick up some passengers. The whole stretch of the highway- from Cagayan De Oro to Malaybalay (where I eventually rendezvous-ed with one of my closest friends from medical school, Dr Lester Geroy) –was flanked by a seamless array of plantations, hills, and, sparingly, by forests. It exceeded the vision I created in my head, of how nature and agriculture has fused perfectly in this bountiful place to provide for all who live off of it.. This is the reason why the place seemed as peace… Or so I thought.
Dos Lang?
Sometimes, when you put a little piece of you on your work, a literary piece perhaps, and you got too attached on it like you treated it as your best work ever, you tend to expect things from it, you tend to expect others to like it also, to admire it, to give it the right commendation you think it deserves. I think it’s human nature. We tend to put a little bit of ourselves on something important to us, on something which signifies our own personality, of our own pleasure. But yeah, I think one of the biggest despair in it is that if things don’t fall under your own expectations.
See, I made a short story for my Creative Writing class as my final paper for this semester. Since I had this feeling of trust and confidence towards the idea I’ve formulated, I just gave it a go and finished the whole material. Actually, it took me more or less three concepts to arrive in that particular idea, and it still took me a long while before I made that idea into a full-blown plot. And that plot, of course, took me a long time before I managed to create a very satisfying short story.
E-flowers/prayer campaign touches Inquirer.net
This just came in!
Earlier I have called for prayer and sobriety, which was followed up by my call for photographers to post a flower for Glorietta victims and their families.
It was not expected, but fellow blogger Erwin Oliva, who happens to be a PDI writer, too, noticed my blog. Honestly I did not know how I could show these photos of flowers (read: show of sympathy) to the family of the victims. Rhodora, who posted a really nice prayer suggested television. But I guess, that would be self-promoting. Erwin Oliva is a blessing in disguise.
Below is the link to the article he wrote, entitled:
Virtual flowers offered to Glorietta mall blast victims
This is already a great leap from this lowly blogger to get the message accross the country and the entire globe. You are still welcome to share your prayers and keep on posting your flower photos (even if it was taken only with a celfone camera).
God Bless
S.O.S.
Somewhere out in the World Wide Web, there’s a site that’s mine (marocharim.com), but it’s completely blank. I don’t know what to do with it. I’m one of those people painfully ignorant about HTML, webhosting, and the technicalities of it.
I won the domain in the recently-concluded Wika2007 Blog Writing Contest: as it seems, I’m about the only winner in that contest who has yet to figure out what to do with it, much less get around to do what I’m supposed to do with it. Matter of fact, I don’t know what to do with it. Strangely enough, the site was already there for me to take since the last week of September.
I am now on my virtual hands and knees, begging kind-hearted members of the Filipino blogging community to help me out with that site: the only thing I know how to do is to make images in Photoshop. Drop me a line at my site (marocharim.blogdrive.com) using any of the (in)conveniently-placed contacts there or through Contact Form, and please share with me your valuable knowledge on the matter of starting and running a website.
Thanks in advance.
Marocharim
At home with Joomla!
REMEMBER THAT WEBHOSTING PACKAGE that I won at PBS Wika 2007 blog tilt? It has come to life with the help of Joomla. It is an Open Source Content Management System. Honestly, I do not know anything about web development or content management system. So I asked Jared, one of my previous officemates who is now working as Systems Administrator for the Provincial Government of Zamboanga del Norte and is currently based in Dipolog City, and he recommended Joomla.
Beyond Planning: eProductivity
On November 24; 26-29, 2007, one of the gurus on Productivity, Eric Mack, will be in Manila for a series of lecture on eProductivity. Different Tracks will be available to suite the needs of different audiences, i.e. students, employees, managers and executives.
Please visit Sonnie’s Porch for details.
Estrada pardon sets precedent for Arroyo
From having his spokespersons demand an “all-encompassing” amnesty, Estrada now had his lawyers withdraw his motion for reconsideration with the Sandiganbayan for his September 12 guilty verdict on two counts of plunder.
While insisting to bowing on the “wisdom of my lawyers” after realizing that “I don’t really stand a chance with the justice system that we have…,” Estrada also justifies his change of tack by saying that this would “start a healing process” for the “sharply divided nation” and that he can do something better for the country if he was free.
The long and short of it, he claims, is he was doing it with “the highest national interest” in mind.
