Saturday, October 20

Borders... and reading again

I have always loved reading. As far as I can remember, I read and read and read since I was a kid. I remembered spending countless hours reading the then very popular "komiks" when I was still a boy in my small hometown, even spending time squatting in our local market with other kids during lunch breaks renting them and reading them there. It is good that I heard Carlo Caparas and his wife is trying to resurrect "komiks" - and the Filipinos' habit of reading them - in the Philippines. When I become a little bit more "mature" in my hobby (that is not to say that only immature readers read "komiks"), I started reading magazines and pocketbooks. I remember starting from Hardy Boys stories in high school, then gradually shifted to science fiction, particularly Isaac Asimov's Robots and Foundation series during my first years in College, and finally into conspiracies and thrillers with the popular authors of that time - Ludlum, Clancy, Forsythe, Sheldon, and others. My favorite in this genre - and in this era of my reading - is John LeCarre, but it did not stop me from reading the works of all the other authors, whenever and wherever I get hold of them. I've read about spies and agents and Jason Bourne long time before they got the chance to be watched on the big screen. After that, I moved into reading legal stories - the John Grisham variety. And I was totally hooked. I became fascinated with each novel so much, that I practically collected all of Grisham's books and read them... you could say learn them by heart, even. During this time, I did not only become more mature in my reading, I also reached a certain maturity in life, as you might say.

When I become a teacher, my love for reading became more intense. If before I want to read just for the sheer pleasure of doing it, this time it became an inherent requirement. I feel that to become the best in my craft, I need to read more. Not only on the areas that I learned to love and appreciate all these years, but on all areas possible. I started exploring (and reading) new genres, and I began expanding my reading habit in the process. During this time, I got fascinated with reading general business and management books, aside from books about IT and computers. And so, I started collecting them also. I read about Microsoft, Intel, National Semiconductor, IBM, General Motors, Dell, and countless other successful stories of organizations. This provided me the foundation to be curious and interested about the life of the people that run them, and so, I started reading about their lives - Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Jack Welch, and many more. It dawned on me that reading biographies and memoirs not only give you immense reading pleasure, more importantly, it gives you important lessons - life lessons which you can always practice in your own context, in your own situation, and in your own time. I bought and read books about the life of Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Albert Einstein and a few other individuals who, in one way or another had very colorful and important lives from my own perspective. I even read a chapter in the life of Osama Bin Laden in one of the books written about him, the title of which is lost on me now. And I continue to read and read and read...

When I read about Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, I become fascinated with everything religion. I read several other books relevant to it and for that matter read and learned also about the Knight's Templars, the Freemasonry and the Lodge, and the so-called secret and discarded gospels. I become facsinated with Dan Brown's stories that I also read his other novels. (Sadly, except for Angels and Demons, his other stories did not measure up to the same league as the Da Vinci Code, so I thought).

When I first came to this place, I had a hard time finding books to read. And I don't know for the life of me why I decided to accept a job here in the first place because of that. It was actually the first time in my life that I couldn't read anything, except for some old educational textbooks and newspapers. I'd been to several places already - and always, plenty of books are there for reading. And I thought, this is becoming not fun anymore... but then, I need to sacrifice a bit inasmuch as circumstances really need for me to work here in the meantime. And so, I waited... something, I hope, will eventually happen.

Yesterday, when I visited the city center once more after a long vacation, I was greeted with a new shop called Borders at the newly-constructed wing of the mall . It's actually one of the biggest bookstores I've ever seen in quite a while... and the good thing is, it houses thousands of books that I love! The place even has a small Starbucks Coffee shop in one corner, which made Alice very happy :) Now, Alice can stay there and wait for me while I scan all the titles there and choose my next read. Borders really get me going again.

I actually did not stop reading during the whole time I stayed in this area. Although there's not that many books to get, I contented myself reading magazines - computer magazines for that matter. I even collected one publication which caught my fancy. From time to time, I also download eBooks (although good titles that do not have copyrights are scarce). Overall, my reading did not suffer too much, and I would say it's not that bad afterall. However, the coming of Borders is indeed a very welcome development, and the resurrection of my reading hobby is definitely in the offing once again - I already bought three new titles for me: The Google Story, one by Isaac Asimov, and I'd like to try Cormack McCarthy now by planning to read The Road. I bought Alice one as a gift - A Mighty Heart, to prepare her also for a long time of reading again.

If you wish hard enough, and hope long enough, everything is possible... really.

Thursday, October 18

The 50th Post....

Well, what can I say? After ten months and a handful of topics, I am now in my 50th post in this blog... time sure flies real fast, and when you're blogging, it flies even faster... but then, the skies become much more colorful doing it anyways, so I guess the fun continues...

Just so there's something to see in my 50th blog, I included in here a picture of me and Alice at the top of a castle during our recent trip. What can I say (again), the feeling's kinda at the top right now...and it's a good one! Hope it'll last...



Sunday, October 14

On PressCon and Writing

River had good news to us the other day. He said that he won in the Division Schools Press Conference (for elementary students), although he only got the 9th place. It was in the editorial writing category. He's actually kind of sad getting only 9th place, but Alice told him that it's alright, and that it was only his first venture in the journalism area, and that still has next year to improve on his skills in writing. She said further that it was indeed an accomplishment on his part, because he was not prepared - there was no formal training and coaching before the contest unlike in other schools - and even so, he still managed to be included in the top ten.

It was indeed an achievement for River. The division press conference is quite difficult to hurdle inasmuch as all the best writers in the province are there, competing with each other. And with no formal training in his school on the category in which he competed, that means the kid really knows how to write and got what it takes to compete in this field. Maybe it's the product of those years of reading anything he lays his eyes on. River you knnow, is a voracious reader.

While looking at the mother and the son chatting away about writing and press conferences, I cannot help but remember my childhood experiences in these areas. I was a writer too, having nurtured by my mother in this field at an early age. I actually started in press conferences in much the same age as River, and had been editor-in-chief of my schools' official papers from the elementary until college. I had been to various press conferences, in different levels, and I guess I really developed my skills by competing with the best students in this area. I believe that most probably just like me, River will hone his skills slowly but surely, until it comes to that point when he'll be there competing with the best of them. You know, just like me, River likes to read a lot, and I think that's one of the most important characteristics you need if you want to become a good writer. It reminds me of the time when I was still in high school competing and besting all of them in the regional and national levels. I usually rely on phrases and words I read, and remembering the writing styles of the authors of the articles I often read. I know River could go on much the same way. I can sense in him the interest and passion in this area which I felt when I was his age. While at it, I came to realize that the only difference between me and him in this field is that River likes to write editorials and features, while I wanted to be a good copyreader and sportswriter then.

Anyway, we finally put up a plan to further hone River's skills, and it is that he should continue writing manuscripts in his chosen areas, send his writings to me for comments, and then improve them throuogh my guidance and write more. This is again a time when you appreciate the developments in technology since it will not be a problem for us to do that, because we have emails and chats nowadays, and sharing and transfer of files is as easy as browsing the Web. River is sad that this year, he won't be able to compete in the regional level since only the best seven will be sent by the division. I told him that it will be an opportunity for him to practice more and learn more... and to become a better writer for next year. He liked the idea. He's really looking forward to participate in a higher level next year, and he's ready to do what it takes to get there.

Friday, October 12

Going on a Trip...

Alice and I both got week-long rests starting tomorrow... that's definitely good news! Well, for one, we'll be able to finally push through with our long-delayed plan of having the one-day tour of the areas near our place. You know, when you've just transferred to a new place of work, there's just so much to see and explore, and for quite a while already we've been wanting to do that. However, the last few weeks had been overwhelming for both our jobs and we couldn't just find the time for it. Now, due to this recent 'development', we'll finally make it happen...and it's fun! We actually talked to some friends already regarding this, you know, asking them to come with us and make the day more enjoyable (and less costly)... as the old adage goes, "the more, the merrier...".

A highlight of the trip is going to the fish market. Locals say that there is an area that is nearby our place that is very famous for fish. I don't know yet the exact name for it, but it will definitely be mentioned in the coming blogs :) They say that fish there are not only fresh and in abundance (meaning, there's just too many variety of them there), but also very very cheap. This sort of thing reminds me of the Sydney Fish Market where you can find just too many different species, choose what you like, and have it cooked while you watch the sun set while passing time at the marina... or it could be the Marina Bay in Singapore, where after paying 12 dollars you could practically eat all the seafoods you want (as long as you could take it). Well, if it's any of these two, that's definitely fine for me... but who knows, maybe this one has qualities that will make it unique in itself...

Then, there's an old castle just 20 minutes drive from our flat that I really would like to visit. I read about it in a book many weeks ago and I couldn't wait to check it after. This castle is one of the oldest in the region, and is an important component of the history of this place. Unfortunately, unlike the other younger 'forts', it was not properly maintained, and right now is undergoing a vigorous renovation. I always feel that by visiting places like this, you get to know more about the new place... you get to understand more about the country where you're living in for the moment... and I always wanted that, to understand the country and its people... I guess that's the only way we could be truly 'global' individuals...

And there's more... having been raised in a country full of beaches, I'd always liked the beach. And every chance of getting to one and touching the water and feeling it roll on my feet is always a welcome moment... and when there's fish, there's water... and of course beaches. Well, swimming, probably, is out of the picture right now, but we'll see :)

For Alice's part, well, she's a typical woman... she's looking forward to visit one of the biggest malls there is in this country, and it's there in the place we'll be visiting soon... she'd heard from a friend that there's a nice coffee shop there, offering varied 'specials', and if it's about coffee - everything about it - Alice will be there.

There will probably be other places to be visited during the trip, we don't know for sure right now. And that's the good thing about it... there's nothing better to look forward to than embarking on an adventure :)

Wednesday, October 10

Today I Realized...

That Filipinos can also compete with other nationalities in the area of education and training, and that Filipinos far from their homeland really become brothers and support each other during times of trial for one. This is a very different scenario from what I usually see and experience in the Philippines, where in every possible opportunity, other Filipinos will take cheap shots and backstab their colleague/s so that he/she will not be able to prosper.

Today I also realized that given the opportunity and the chance, Filipinos like me will do what it takes to excel in his field and help his organization realize his vision in his own humble way...

I got exactly that today. The chance to do a presentation about a strategic plan that I drafted two days ago for the educational technology center of an institution. This is in relation to my development plan for the said center. There are several development presentations given, and each one proved to be unique in itself. I happen to be the last presenter which enabled me to observe the various presentations and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Applicants are varied, and that means they come from different nationalities and different academic background and industry experiences.

I do believe that based on the plans presented, my plans for the various action programs for the Center could compete with the best of them. Of course, it will sound bias since I am the one assessing everything, but objective as I can be, it really dawned on me that Filipinos could really do it, that is, we can really compete in the international stage provided we work diligently and devote serious time to our work. I know that more than 10% of Filipinos work abroad. But most of us work as ordinary employees. Some probably get lucky and are appointed in various administrative positions, but then, what I'm saying is, Filipinos outside of their native lands, really work their butts out and compete. And if they just put more efforts and more commitment to it, better positions can be there for the picking for them.

As I realized today, Filipinos are really one gifted people... the problem is, we tend to show these gifts to us when we are far away from our land. In the Philippines, we're contented on just being dead woods and always show our crab mentality... of course, not all of us are like that there... but then, those ones that are not are the rare ones... the exceptions, rather than the rule...I wonder, why is it so?

Sunday, October 7

Today I learned...

That it takes almost two hours to teach a five-year old how to download a picture from the Internet...

It's like this... after chatting with River for about a half hour, Ashvin followed his 'Kuya' in chatting with me. Now, Ash, just like any other five-year old boy, needs to know everything about something he is currently doing, and after only five minutes of chatting, he asked me to give him a "download". Well, Ash is not new to chatting. We chat with him almost everyday, and he's already familiar with signing in and out, turning on the webcam and the voice chat facilities, and many other features of the Yahoo! Messenger that other adults wouldn't be able to learn in their lifetime. Maybe he heard it from his Kuya, who is in himself another tech-savvy boy, maintaining his own Friendster site and also doing other techie things on the Net, but Ash is very curious about downloads right now...

And so, I told him that I will send a picture to him. It is actually one of his pictures... taken just before we left once again to travel and work far away from them, and the one where he is bragging about his new shoes just before going to school. The initial steps were kind of easy... I just transferred the file, asked him to accept the file (which he missed the first time by clicking 'Decline' instead, so I transferred it again), and told him to wait until the file transfer finishes. That part was completed with minimal glitch, and everything was fine. And then...

After completing the transfer, I asked him if he saw his picture and he said he did not see anything. I told him to open the file and he said what button to press. I told him to describe to me what he sees in his YM window, and that's when the trouble began... Ash couldn't find the file, and much more he doesn't know where and in what folder it was saved (well, what can I say? He's five years old!)... I asked him to put the camera in front of the computer's screen so that I could see his YM, but it didn't work (of course...) I asked him to call his Kuya River, but River seems to be doing something and is unavailable for the moment. Alice joined the fray already because Ash is starting to get tantrums and we can clearly see him crying on the webcam. We've done the process again (transfer file)... then repeated it once more...until Ash got completely into fits... Alice decided to call them on the phone, talk to River in a strong voice (so he helps Ash), and finally solve the problem.

When River arrives, we repeated the file transfer one last time and it took only five minutes for Ash to learn how to download his picture from Yahoo...

Well, sometimes you have to learn things the hard way...

Pacquiao Land Once More

Today, Filipinos are once again gathered in that land of unity called the Pacquiao Land... well, that is not mentioning the fact that it is not only there in the Philippines that Filipinos are glued to their TV sets, but indeed, in all lands where Filipinos thrive, Pacquiao Land rules today!.. a colleague at work was asking me this morning if there's any news yet, obviously he doesn't have the Pinoy TV at home, and he's hoping someone from the group is a subscriber, which turned out no one is... with that, we just relied on the breaking news from Inquirer.net and hope that tonight, somebody will upload it on YouTube so that we, unfortunate ones, can at least watch the recorded versions of the fight... that's the problem when the fight's beamed by a network rather than TFC, and you're outside of the country during the event...


Anyways, so much for the (no sense) ramblings... as expected, Pacquiao did win the fight, although it was not what Filipinos are hoping for. As you can see, we wanted it to be an exclamation mark... sort of punctuating Barrera's retirement with a knockout. But it wasn't meant to be. It was probably because of the fact that he had to shed three pounds the day before the actual fight, or maybe it was - based on persistent rumors - because of the distraction (about Ara Mina?) he had during training, that he never really perfected his arsenal of weapons to bring Barrera down. Well, a win is still a win, as we say, and Pacquiao winning another fight is indeed good news for us. For the Pacman personally, it is a saving grace. After the bitter defeat from last election's battle, the Pacman had some sort of redemption in winning this fight, and we should see his popularity, which had waned during the last few weeks, soar again in the coming days.

For most of us, well, it was another day of unity for a country and a people mired by never-ending bickerings and divisiveness. At least, even for just a day, the Pacman once again becomes the Filipinos' hero... the only one that can unite them...even if it's only in that place called the Pacquiao Land.

Friday, October 5

Canon in D Major

Several nights ago, while Alice was busy looking for some songs to be added to her Friendster site, she came across a nice classical piece which quickly got our fascination. The piece turned out to be Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major, and in the next few hours we had downloaded more than a few arrangements of it. The piece had since became Alice's default audio for her site. We had selected some beautiful arrangements and would like to share them with you. You may want to visit our family's site at http://lontokfamily.multiply.com for these pieces. (copyrights of the pieces are reserved by their respective owners.)

Johann Pachelbel's Fast Facts:

Johann Pachelbel was one of the great organist-composers of his day, a man who could count Bach's teacher among his pupils (He taught Johann Christopher Bach who gave his younger brother, Johann Sebastian Bach, lessons in music). His life was tinged with tragedy and hardship - his first wife died with her baby son in the plague of 1683, and he had to flee from the French invasion of Stuttgart in 1692 - but he settled in Nuremberg and his second marriage produced seven children, two of whom became musicians, one an instrument maker and one a painter. His church music is highly regarded and innovative in the way it links the pitches of the notes to meaning - steadfast faith denoted by repeated notes, for example. His lilting Canon in D is a throwaway little piece by comparison to his big sacred works, but its charming grace has made it a favorite filler of compilation CDs. The canon in D major was written in or around 1680. Pachelbel was born in Nuremberg in August 1653 and died there on March 6th, 1706.

Where you may have heard of Canon D:

- films such as Father of the Bride and Ordinary People
- some TV ads
- Coolio rap single in 1997, The Farm single All Together Now used in Euro 2004, Go West by the Pet Shop Boys
- in shopping malls
- in the funeral of Lady Diana Spencer

Sound Trip, Part 2

Yesterday, while preparing for our weekend ironing chore, Alice decided to organize her iTunes song list in her computer. There are songs that are repeated, primarily due to re-copying and re-updating of the list over time. Since she is currently 'crazy' over Pachelbel's Canon in D Major, she wanted to add a few of the good arrangements of the piece which she downloaded several days ago to her iPod, and thus before doing so, she needs to organize her iTunes list so that no songs can be repeated in her iPod. While at it, she decided to play our favorite songs done by local artists.. and so after quite a while, we had another sound trip there...

As I already intimated, sound tripping gives you varied emotions... when you're listening to your favorite songs, certain memories flood your thoughts, and you cannot help but just let them flow. Yesterday was the time to reminisce important events about me and my family... it was the time to remember precious events I shared with my kids... it was the time to rewind events of my life once more...

Sometime when you're listening to music and you're rewinding your life again through your thoughts, it cannot be helped that both good and bad memories will come. Good memories are always welcome... they serve to refresh both your body and your soul, and make you face life in a brighter perspective... bad memories... well, you cannot do away with them... good thing about them is, they give you important lessons in life... lessons that helped mold your character, if not made you a better person altogether...

Yesterday, aside from the ironing, I have done another important thing with the help of songs I listened to... that is, meditate about my life again... time and again, I need it.

Friends

It's always nice meeting and talking with friends...old friends that you haven't talked to for a while especially. Yesterday, while chatting with my kids, I chanced upon a friend who was also my student in the graduate school sometime ago... We chatted for a while - the usual pleasantries - and then the conversation later turned into our respective jobs. He said he's currently in the middle east, working as a lecturer in a college there, and right now in the second year of his contract. He further said it is quite boring there, sort of being inside the jail... Well, he said, that's primarily because there's just nowhere you can go to whenever you get that extra time to spend on leisure. (I guess that's the perennial dilemma of OFWs in the middle east). Anyways, he said that he's currently looking for a better job, maybe in another country... one in which he can bring his family, he says, so that he'll not be homesick anymore... we talked for a quite a long time... probably because both of us had nothing to do anyway to spend the weekend rest time, and probably because somehow, when you're in a foreign land, chatting with an old friend is really a time that you can treasure... I told him also about my job, and how I'm having the same emotions as his because I'm far from my family, and other trivial things an old friend will tell another old friend when they talk to each other again after sometime. We parted saying that we should always keep in touch, so that at least we can pass important 'trivial' information between each other :)

The same thing happened to Alice today... while preparing to chat with our kids, she chanced upon an old friend whom she met as a co-scholar in Sydney... they talked about many things - family, friends, work - and they also chatted for quite a while... Alice found out that she also visited Singapore last summer for vacation, and it was unfortunate that we were not able to see each other there, and probably spend some kind of a reunion there. Anyways, she's inviting us to come and see her place, probably in the summer, and Alice said we'll give it a serious thought. Alice and her friend even swapped new pictures of their adventures to further update each other of each one's new experiences... they also parted ways promising to keep in touch, and chat with each other again...

Friends are indeed treasures... they provide that extra 'push' so that we could go on happily with our lives, and continue with our own journey... chatting with old friends fill some space in our lives and somehow make it more colorful... meeting them even in the web after many years still brings us fond memories that provide more colorful pictures to our lives, both then and now... that's one purpose of the Net we should be thankful about.