Oedipus Rex, the PDAF "Tragedy" and Hopes for My Students' Generation

To my dear HUMALIT and LITFORM classes,

I just wanted to share some thoughts: It's so uncannily timely that we are taking up Sophocles' famous tragedy "Oedipus Rex" at a time when our nation is undergoing an awful lot of turmoil and discontent. We know that political, economic and social turbulence are no strangers to us as Filipinos. But the recent exposé of the colossal, profoundly entrenched system of corruption involved in the PDAF is one to which so many recent high profile corruption cases can be tied up (Corona impeachment, Malampaya, fertilizer, Arroyo scandals, etc.), and perhaps to which all the tragedies of our country are rooted in. 

It makes me so sick, and it should make you, too, even if most of you are not yet earning their own living and paying taxes. Granted that none of us are tax evaders or enjoying tax shields, try to compute how much of your family's breadwinner's salary goes to the government if tax deductions are between 20-30%. Don't stop there; every time you dine out, shop, buy anything from anywhere, keep the receipts and keep track of how much you're paying for VAT, travel tax, etc., of which a substantial amount also goes to the government.  

And yet budget cuts and insufficient resources for education, social care, health care abound. And students either drop out or commit suicide because they cannot pay for education. The poor and ill end in tragic deaths on the streets--like that pedicab driver, at the gates of our University. 

Just like some characters in the story of Oedipus Rex, the people who are supposed to answer for these scams and scandals are all either 1) in hiding (like the shepherd who knew that Oedipus--in his fit of pride and intemperance--was the one who has slain Laius; and 2) in denial, therefore would rather suppress the issue  (like Jocasta) and keep silencing the FOI Bill, or 3) blind to their own accountabilities to the suffering of the nation (Oedipus himself). 

If we look decades back into our history, we can see a string of unresolved plunder, corruption, extra-judicial killings, assassination, massacres, etc. So many of these are still unresolved, not because our forces and institutions cannot, but because the people who have committed these crimes are in power and money has sadly become the currency for truth and justice. It makes me sick to think that the Napoles exposé is only the tip of the iceberg. I don't know if I can bear to hear all of it. On the other hand, if hearing and seeing the whole story is what will make ALL Filipinos care, take to the streets, write, shout, voice out and finally say ENOUGH, then like Oedipus, we must demand for the entire truth and punish the culprits. 

But do we have leaders like Oedipus Rex? Yes, he has faults: pride (hubris), a quick temper, etc.; but he also has a strong sense of justice, a person of action and principles, and proved that he is capable of humility when proven wrong. Do you see him in any of our leaders?

I hope the culture of corruption ends with those people's generation, my dear students. I hope that we have learned good lessons from this class and will continue studying literature, art and the humanities; they contain lessons technical courses cannot convey (but you can use technical courses to convey these lessons). I hope that you talk about this issue and similar, serious, unselfish ones among friends, family members, and immediate social circles. I'd like to see more social media posts on matters that are not just centered on the self or the most superficial things that I call "first world problems." 

Talk, write, tweet, take photos of things that matter. Buti pa si Benedict Cumberbatch:

 Read more: Cumberbatch & Political Ideals

That's quite a lengthy post; hope it wasn't too TLDR. Feedback is most welcome. Have a great afternoon, pray that Nando doesn't gain strength, catch up with you guys soon! 


Sincerely,

Dianne

Revisiting the Dragon of Manila

Unlike most of the members of the small group from the AUDRN workshop, yesterday's trip to Binondo was not a first-time thing for me.

My first "real-world" job was with the Yuchengco Group of Companies' Pacific Plans, Inc. Their old office--before transferring to the more prestigious RCBC Plaza in Makati--was in an old building in Binondo, several stories high and wedged in between other residential-slash-business buildings. Every working day for 4 months, I took the bus to Manila, a jeep to Escolta, and walked several blocks until I got to that spot in one of the many crowded crevices of Old Manila. I was young and angsty and oblivious to many other things around me.

Yesterday, on a one-day trip to Binondo, Manila, guided by Mr. Karl "Happy Place" Go, I got to see the "Dragon of Manila" with fresh eyes. I chose to focus my fresh, sleepy eyes on the versatility of the space spanned by the historical construct of Binondo. Like what Karl said, the value of space (real estate) in Binondo is probably the most expensive in Manila; basically because the physical space doesn't grow, but the business, the population, and the vibrant life it fosters, do.

From Binondo Walk

Therefore, what caught my fancy yesterday was how people maximize space, and how space has acquired a versatility, a plurality of purpose, a fluid, transformable quality that fits in seamlessly with the pace of life of its inhabitants. People are used to it, no one is shocked, offended or jarred (except perhaps bumbling "tourists" like us, which the dragon has uncomplainingly accommodated, as well). The versatility comes naturally as the will to survive.

From Binondo Walk

From Binondo Walk

From Binondo Walk

A Prezi on Tragedy (based on Aristotle's Poetics)

May also be viewed on the Prezi site: http://bit.ly/fCYZDh

Embedding Greader feed Folders as Blogroll Lists

Eurethra!! [sic]

I am glad for the delasalle.ph igoogle/email accounts (despite some feature, data ownership and privacy limitations). There's really a lot you can do with it. Earlier in the schoolyear, Ms. Cielo and I found out how to maximize Gdocs filesharing and storing features during the AUDRN workshop. Later on, Sir Ronnie and I found time to tinker with GDocs form creator to make surveys for classroom and CFA use. Recently, I have been encouraging students to get more reading done by subscribing to their fave blogs using RSS functions and Google Reader.

Anyway, this might be old news for some tech-savvy educators out there, but I recently discovered a way to make blog-checking easier--by subscribing to feeds via Google Reader, yes--PLUS by embedding whole folders (I made one for each class) of blog feeds as a blogroll/list on your own blog or wordpress site. I use blogger to archive these and before I discovered this particular blogroll embed in Greader, I've always dreaded going through that tedious task of manually putting in blog URLs into lists (hah, ang tamad talaga).

But there you are! I just wish there were better design templates. Ah, well, be content, Ruby, you schmuck!

I would LOVE to sit down with fellow teachers who do not know this yet so I could share why blogging makes a better student output tool. I would love to share experience with it (positive and negative as well) and how to make blogging as an educational tool less of a headache. Of course, I would definitely appreciate hearing what tools and techniques you have found to be useful as well.

All we'll need is a decent internet connection and coffee. Message me!! :)

On Teaching & Movies (1st podcast entry)

Thanks to Ayel and whoever was it who asked the other question.

Powered by Podbean.com

I Think Therefore I Don’t Watch Telenovelas (A research writing exercise for my EnglOne class)

I am relatively fond of the Filipino culture for some good reasons. Primarily because it is mine and I have spent all my life immersed in it. Secondly, because it is the culture that has produced a lot of interesting ethnic characteristics, historical events and social phenomenon that can baffle even the most toughened travelers and zealous cultural dabblers. The Philippines is not difficult to love: we have wonderful cuisine, abundant natural resources, numerous and astounding scenic spots, and beautiful and hospitable people. There is one thing though that I do not always hold in favor of--an aspect of current, popular media: Local television programming.

If one needs to be specific on the matter, my pet peeve in local programming is the ubiquitous telenovela/teleseryes that parade across the screens come lunch time up to primetime. In hindsight, though, I have not always harbored dislike for them. I do remember liking a few (i.e. Isabel, Agila, etc. back in the late 80s or early 90s). But those seem to have come from a totally different era. As Mano Figueras puts it: “Soap operas in the Philippines have gone from true-blue baduy to true-blue Mexican to true-blue powerhouse productions” (2002, p. 68).

Figuera (2002), in his article “The Road to Sudsville,” articulates a skeptical view of teleseryes or telenovelas as legitimate media. The author is doubtful of the purpose of telenovelas as educational or as something that can improve the lives of Filipinos who watch them. In the end he concludes that most telenovela viewers merely patronize these shows to escape from their daily travails or to fulfill a fantasy (p. 68).

Perhaps a few of aspect of local telenovelas that I find most disconcerting are the ones mentioned in a personal essay entitled “Television Torture by Telenovelas” (2009). I agree that sickening melodrama generated by torturous minutes of the camera unnecessarily focused on an amateur starlet’s weeping face, and the stereotypical, double-standard roles that women and men occupy in these shows, render local telenovelas unprogressive (Zytryxx). That is, if progress is measured by the level of mental maturity, capability for critical thinking and the capacity for creativity that products of media can lend to its viewers.

Sadly, so far, I do not see this as a quality of Filipino telenovelas.


----------------------------------------------------
References:

1. Figueras, M. (October 2002). The Road to Sudsville. FLIP: A Official Guide to World Domination (vol. 2 no. 1), p. 68.

2. Zytrexx (July 1, 2009). Television Torture by Telenovelas. October 5, 2010. http://zytrexx.multiply.com/journal/item/256

An Introduction to ArtMusc, 2nd term 2010-2011

A presentation for my ArtMusc class; to get things started.




Now, if this doesn't load correctly, please follow this link instead:

https://prezi.com/secure/765b1bbc5f92b19f7cf6effee4b1150502d62026/

Testing Embed Audio

Hola. The reason I seemed to have been neglecting this blog is that I've been busy having many of my students set up their own blogs and microblogs. It should be that I be giving an update about the previous term--a list of my EnglishOne and LitForm students websites, that is. I will get to that in a bit, if not today, then...okay, give me a couple of days. (Aaargh so busy). For now I just need to test this audio embed thing using 4shared and the google media player.

Here goes:




YES! It worked!! Mwahahahahaha!!
Now, time to have my students test it on their own blogs. Another round of headaches I foresee.

Umagahang Hatid ni Manong Magpuputo

Napaisip ako nung isang araw, nung tinanong ako ng kaibigan kong hindi pamilyar sa lokal na kultura tungkol sa magpuputo. Nakatambay lang kami nang siya'y magitla sa narinig na torotot. Nanlaki ang mga mata--pagkatapos ay natawa. Ano yun? (pero sa Ingles). Sabi ko nagtitinda yun ng puto, sabay takbo ko palabas para hanapin, habulin kahit man lang ng tingin ang nagbebenta ng kakanin. Tanong niya ulit, bakit ganun yung tunog? Akala ko meron nang payaso sa likod ko. Natawa ako sandali, pero napaisip ako pagkatapos...Oo, nga no. Lahat ng ibang nagbebenta ng mga samu't-saring pagkaing pangkalsada ay isinigaw ang kanilang bentahe. Pero bakit si Manong Magpuputo'y nantotorotot? At bakit ganun ang tunog ng kanyang torotot?

Mabilisan akong naghalungkat sa kalat ng aking karanasan na hindi ko na naisip pang ayusin dahil sa mga nakagawian. Hindi ko na matandaan kung kelan ko natutunan ang mga patakaran ng mga bagay-bagay na ganito na mistulang maliliit at hindi "consequential" para sa mga Pilipino. Nagtagpi ako ng mga "lohikal" na dahilan. Mabilisang sabawan na may halo na din sigurong bolahan. Sabi ko na lang... Para hindi malito ang mga tao. Kasi magkasing tunog yung "taho" at "puto"...at ganun yung tunog ng torotot para hindi akalaing jeepney o tricycle o kung ano pa. May gumagamit na din kasi ng bell, yung mamang sorbetero. Kung tugtog naman, baka akalaing basurero.

Parang naniwala naman siya. Pero ako... iniisip ko pa kung tama. Mababaw ba?


[ang mga comments ay iincorporate/ico-consider para sa Illiterati zine issue # 2]

It doesn't matter how slow you go

All these thousands of years of human evolution has led us to a point where what seems important is how fast we can all get to somewhere and how fast we can get the job done once we get there. Fast cars, fast trains, crash courses, fast food, instant noodles, one-click friendship requests & confirmations, etc etc. A friends of mine shared an age-old adage from Confucius (not sure, and I refuse to google to confirm, leave me alone) which I have encountered some time back. "It doesn't matter how slow you go, as long as you don't stop." Incidentally, I have had a conversation with this same friend regarding time and relativity weeks ago.

This weekend is one of those rare slow ones. It's not that there is nothing for me to do; in fact my "to do" list is a mile long as usual (and I suspect it will be like that for all time unless I will myself to stop). I found that if I don't step out of the house, time slows down more. The minute I go out to do some errand, especially if I go to a mall, the minutes and the hours zoom past as fast as a jeepney driver with diarrhea. Anyway, the point tonight in resurrecting this Confucian quote, out from under all the subsequent data it has been buried under, is that I think, sometimes, people should do more than just slow down. I think there are times when we need the absolute silence and resolution in stopping. Once in a while. Just stopping and dropping everything.

And DO NOTHING--without falling asleep of course. I used to be good at this...when I tried it earlier, it felt... ridiculous.

I miss my tai-chi and eskrima arnis classes. And no I did not wear costumes like that, I don't think I ever left the beginner's level; it's just really the exercise and the calming effect on the mind these martial arts offer that I were after--something I realized much later on in life. There had been a few things in life that I got into that taught me the value of stopping, these sports were some of them. And then there is photography. You can't always shoot moving and relying on fast lens. I have always imagined photography as something akin to whatever it is that snipers do (snipering, teehee). You have to just stop and disappear so you can compose through the viewfinder and shoot what you want how you want when you need to.

Right, am I still making sense?

With that I share some photos I uploaded at AUDRNing (but which I set to public anyway). The first is some activities during the second day of the workshops and the other one is photos on the way to Intramuros, Manila coming from Miriam College in QC. Check out the cute kiddie laptops, XO. I had so much fun playing with these, and I don't think I'm the only one who did. :)

*Sigh* Here comes Monday. A toute a l'heure!

The weekend that was not (aka, How to not save a stray cat)

I knew when I got that phone call from my father last Friday that the weekend ahead was going to be rock n roll. Ay nako, it was.

I was getting ready for class when my phone rang. Having read somewhere that the secret to a less stressful life is to not gadgets such as clocks, watches, beepers, cell phones, email and appointment notifications run your life. That is, if you are currently preoccupied with something, especially if it is something you are enjoying such as eating a meal, pampering yourself, talking with a friend; don't be pressured to disrupt these things just because someone unwittingly encroached unto your personal time by sending a forwarded, pa-tweetums SMS.

Anyway, I virtuously ignored the ringing phone until I found a suitable Friday shirt to wear to school; and I gasped the moment I realized who had been trying to call me. Erpatsko_SMART. It rang again, and I answered in a split second.

"BAKIT HINDI MO SINASAGOT TELEPONO MO??"

Argh.

So anyway, I got scolded for that and for something else. Apparently, my Uncle Sonny who is based in Toronto flew in last week but only told the clan (my Aunt's family and my father) of his local presence on that Friday. What we think he did was he went the rounds visiting and hanging out with his friends during that week; and since he's done with that he can now hangout with family. When he was "interrogated" for this he told them that I knew about it all along because he told me about this trip. My father was now demanding why I didn't tell them. I was a bit taken aback by all of this and I was quick to tell them that I knew nothing about him being here. It's true!

Anyway, the whole Saturday the next day saw me and the rest of the clan at my aunt's. I used to dislike going to family reunions, they were the most stressful things. But now that it doesn't happen that often and everyone's older and have kids (the attention is no longer on my generation), I realize that reunions can actually be fun and relatives can actually be endearing.

I still have to tell you about the kitten that I found lying half-dead on the side of the road somewhere on Laguna Blvd. near Metrobank LTI. It was as if I didn't have a choice at that moment, and I instinctively picked it up and placed it inside a plastic bag I had been toting around. It meowed a few times but on the walk home, it was more or less silent. I can tell that it was very weak and sick and cold. I posted a status message asking for help; on twitter too. But no one responded to help; except for one person who, unfortunately, lived 8500 miles away from me.

Here, let me show you how the conversation went.










I tried my best to nurse her back to life but I really think that kitten had lost it's will to live. It looked depressed as hell and I suspect that it once was a house pet (it looked well-kept for a street cat). It probably died more out of sadness than hunger or disease. It had these really big and beautiful pair of green eyes that just stared at me every time I came near her to try to give it something to drink or eat. I couldn't help but get the feeling she was trying to remember me so just in case we meet again in some lifetime, she would recognize me. I stared back at her one time, for several minutes--you know those staring contests you played with friends as kids? It made me think if I was right in prolonging her suffering like that just because I felt guilty about the cruelty of mankind on the rest of life on earth.

She died around 10pm last night; I buried it in my backyard a couple of hours ago. I'm off to work now. Til next time.

Just sharing some music

I made a playlist for a friend who I recently found out also listened to / appreciated some of the kinds of music I am crazy about. My first venture into ska,neo-swing, swingska, then later on jazz and fusion types all started with (believe it or not) PUNK. The first punk bands I really got into were the old school, punkrock/streetpunk/oi/punkska/hc bands like Operation Ivy (which later on went to become Rancid), The Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers, the Clash, Minor Threat, Agnostic Front, SickOfItAll, BlackFlag, UKSubs, MightyMightyBosstones, etc etc etc... I can go on forever.

I made a short playlist (15 minutes lang, enough for a morning's jog) of my choice Operation Ivy, btw. I'll upload that again next if I find enough people who'd be interested (raise your hands please).

But these songs are from two of my fave ska/jazz/swing&whatnot bands. I'll share it with you. Download while it's there (will be taking it down in a few days). Enjoy Skatmondo!!!

Pete

Loose pages from an old journal fell from a storage box this morning, while I was getting my life organized. I came across an excerpt that I took down from a former co-faculty’s “open letter” to the UPLB community during the height of the Chancellor David, et. al. brouhaha. While I wasn’t a big fan of Pete back then, I admit now that he did have a few a couple of one redeeming qualityies. This excerpt from that impassioned open letter makes me forget—if only for a moment’s rest from these chores—his atrocious dorkiness and bouts of depravation.


“If teachers fail to defend themselves in principle and in action aginst any power that robs them of their rights and dignity, what right do they have to teach students of lesser means and privilege that they could likewise defend? If chancellors and chairs could command obedience and concensus by force rather than by reason, then of what use are teachers of Philosophy who cannot prove by example that knowledge of logic and reason is necessary or even a “good” thing? But shadows only thrive where ignorance and fear remain a cave and a prison, and people have no other choice but to be deceived.

I refuse to be deceived.”

—Ulysses Aureus, Instructor of Philosophy, Dept. of Humanities, CAS, UPLB, 2000-2003

extra: I had a major crush on his dad back in my literary grasshopper days in UPDil. I guess Pete got his name from the Joyce novel. Hmm. No comment.

My Childhood Library

One of the highlights of my week was the trip to my old grade school/high school, De La Salle Zobel. Although I have been back there several times since I graduated in--well, I won't tell!--I had really only been back for some specific events that allowed me only enough time to go to one place--the Zobel theater. This would usually be for the Pacquiao fights.

Last Wednesday, however, Prof. Malu, Prof. Neri and I were invited to check out ZoobTV: DLSZ's radio and TV studio. We walked around some parts of the campus, some offices (met the Bro Pres). All throughout the "official business" though, I have been waiting for the right time to ask Mrs. Balgos (the one who entertained us) if I could perhaps go and check out my most memorable hang out during my 13 years in DLSZ: the library.

She said, yes of course. It's still there, where I remember it to be: at the basement of the main building. Malu and Neri obliged and was more than happy to check the library out with me. I really had one mission there. I was eager to see if all the books I have read as a child were still there.

Well, waddya know?!?





Sadly, a lot of the old Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Dana Girls have been discarded because they were so old and destroyed already (according to the current librarian). I couldn't even find Bobsey Twins anymore, and most of the Judy Blume novels. But I was ecstatic to find that some of the books still had their old call cards and two still had my name on them!!! (WOWOOWOW!!!) \m/ astig di ba???!

Assimilation (sacrificial post for my writing class)

Important Note: This is a journal entry from way back 2005, posted merely for my writing class' exercise in methods of exposition and partially because I am delighted with what you guys have been posting so far. The others who still have nothing posted on their blogs...well, we are waiting.




Assimilation
The process of receiving new facts or of responding to new situations in conformity with what is already available to consciousness – (Merriam-Webster, 2009)



Last night sent me on a rollercoaster, or rather, he had me riding an emotional rollercoaster. He said he and I were going to have dinner at their place and I was to meet his mother. Yes, in a declarative tone, like he was delivering the latest traffic update. I went through the emotional stages—albeit, probably not in order—that normal human beings go through went confronted with such predicaments.

Denial (ha? Ano sinabi mo? What mother?); Anger (ang daya mo, sabi mo sa kin April, tapos March, tapos Feb, tapos nextweek…tapos ngayon ngayon na?! Sumosobra ka na!!); Bargaining (please, next week na lang, I’ll just finish the work I have to do and wala talaga ako sa kondisyon ngayon); Self-deprecation (lagi na lang ikaw masusunod, lagi mo na lang ako binu-bully. Kawawa naman ako!); until finally Acceptance (fine, goddamit! Is my hair okay?!)

So I met his mother, and she wasn’t bad. Not bad at all. She’s actually cool: very sprightly, warm, and frank. A bit intimidating especially when she looks at you with a gaze that kind of holds you in your place, but she can whisk all that in a second when she smiles at you. I don’t know her yet, so I can’t make generalizations.

Meeting his other friends, though, got me down. Really down. I don’t know why, because they’re a cool bunch—amazing in fact. But they—all of them including him—just made me realize how much I miss my friends, the kids at the punk gigs, the fellas in the pit. How much comfortable I was with people who sang the same songs, who moved to the same music. Now they seem so…I don’t know, maybe, far and out of reach. I felt strangely out of place. Awkwardly uprooted.

And because I am the kind of person I am, I know I will make no such effort to fit in. Oo, bahala na.



-----oh, I found a photo, too-----




Me and then co-faculty, Charelle, ca. 2005 (around the time I wrote that) taken during a DLSC College faculty get-together bonfire.


Have a great weekend. \m/

old friend

[this is a poem i wrote for the modern day academic...but a good friend of mine, taking up his PhD in some hot shot field of chemistry in some hot shot ivy league school in the US says it's about him. fine fine. maybe, maybe not)

when we were little you would doodle comets and jupiter
in the last pages of your notebook.
i would draw mountains and rivers and rising suns
on the wooden schooldesk.

well, now..of course
i can’t draw blue whales on my students’ exam essays.

but, you can’t draw rockets headed for mars on your case analysis, either.

but i can still make star-trails on the office floor.

you? *sly smile*
what can you still do?

Rainy Days

It's been raining a lot these days; quite a sudden change from those weeks of blazing hot weather and high humidity that seemed to have dragged on and on and on. I have always like the rain and welcomed it: I don't really mind if I get caught in a shower and soaked in a rainstorm; as long as I don't have anything on me that will not survive (i.e., mp4 player, cellphone, fancy clothes, etc.).

Oh, and yesterday, for some forgotten reason, I got around tot telling my friends about a netizen I have met years ago and who I remember (despite my notoriously lo-fi memory) quite well. He is actually one of the most..uh...curious people I've met to date. His interests are varied (and some people might have trouble coming to terms with this) and, as I understand it, there might be a lot of people who will find this simply incomprehensible.

Ok, let me quote a few lines from his MySpace account:

"My name now is Tydyn Rain St. Clair, a name I quite like, but that does not hint at the multidimensional complexity of my being, invisible to the objective eye.......
....I live my life by new paradigms in all areas of life. I've always felt different from just about everyone I've ever met, and compounding that I've also always questioned and challenged the assumptions, beliefs, conditioning, patterns, and programming of the society in which I matured (and those globally). In doing so, I've come to hold a radically different perspective on just about everything. In the past, this caused me to alienate myself from everyone around me, which, of course, left me feeling intensely unfulfilled, frustrated, and isolated. Now, however, I revel in my eccentricity and difference, and wear it like a badge of honor."
I've been training in the immensely multifaceted and multidimensional Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira (Grupo Axé Capoeira) since April of 2005. It challenges me and pushes me to my limits like nothing else...I want to express excellence in all aspects of capoeira and become an amazing capoeirista.
I want to travel and live worldwide restoring tropical forests, working with my beloved bamboos, and learning languages through cultural assimilation.

I heal, liberate, and empower women, especially in the domains of relationship dynamics, body-freedom, and sexuality, through my role as a Healing Transformational Catalyst. Practices which I have been drawn to combine and utilize for this purpose are polyamory, naturism/nudism, sacred sexuality/tantra/erotic spirituality, ethical sluthood/sacred (or deep) swinging, integral transformative practice/integral life practice, conscious reality creation, global nomadism/citizenship, and capoeira."

My friend Tydyn also calls himself EROS REBORN in honor of his lifelong mission. So, feel welcome to check his Myspace out.


Allright, that's all for now, kids. Hope to read your journals soon.

\m/

Revival!

Hola!!

I'm back to blogging over blogger.com once again and reviving one of the old blogs I keep for academic purposes. I can't remember how many blogs I have out here in the "wawawa" (WWW), but I do hope to compile a list soon enough just to go over what I had been preoccupied with back in my more carefree (?) years. Reading my past journal entries (onlie and off) has always brought me much entertainment. Have you ever felt, at any point in your life, that you have evolved into a significantly different (if not better) person over such a short span of time for reasons you have yet to decipher? It happens to me quite often.

So, yes, this blog revival of sorts is for a couple of classes I am handling this term. Namely, my English One class and my English Basic classes. I am still deciding whether to use this for my Litform class...

So far, only Happy has submitted/shared her designated English One blog with me, owning the first spot on the blog list to your right. Check out "Written and Not Spoken"...yeah, yeah \m/. That's the spirit.

Ok, I'll make this short and sweet and I'll write more in the days to come. I do hope to write more often and get back into this blogging thing outside some of the sites I am more active in. And before I go, I'll share a video of this musician that I just admire so much not just for the skill/talent he obviously has but because of ...well, this sort of intrinsic vibe and HEART for jazz/groove/soul/funk and just the kind of music I am totally crazy about.

You guys enjoy, drop me a line, and have a nice day :)

to "journal" or not to "journal"

I received an interesting article in my mail today. It's about the merits of habitual journal writing. The article confirmed once more that writing down one's thoughts (positive, negative or anything in between) contributes to the writer's physical and psychological well-being. However, the article's author (Writespark's Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ) takes it one step further by stating:

"While pouring out your frustrations can be a release valve for daily stress, it is important to make a positive statement from it all. When you look at the proverbial bright side of an experience, you are on the way to a happier life. If you can only see the dark, depressing side, take a few moments to consider what you have in your life that makes you feel thankful. In fact, an entire journal devoted to gratitude is not a bad idea at all for your emotional health."

I'd like my Englone students to read the entire article by clicking on this link to Ideas for Simplifying Daily Journal .The article also has practical tips for overcoming writing blocks (i.e., running out of topics, not being able to start your essay, etc.)

Good luck!! :)

advance octoberfest (inulan tuloy)!

Because we were sick and tired of a week filled to seams with work and studies and being patient with the sordid aspects of life...

Because we were relatively young and single and entitled to whatever fun life can still offer...

Because there was nothing left to do but go home, yet the weather got so bad we couldn't do that even...

Because we were bored and Paseo was just several blocks away...we went OCTOBERFEST-ing!

But hey, it wasn't as glamorous as you'd probably think. We had dinner at Kanin Club, but we had to hurry up a bit because we came in about an hour to closing time. Our table lend a generous view of the gyrating vocalists of some show band on stage; talk about [beer] belly dancing!

Then we all trooped over to Sofia to down some malt; that's when in poured. It poured and poured all throughout the night. At certain times, it rained down harder. After our 2nd bucket, we had to transfer to a spot with sturdier roofing, just to make sure we didnt get soaked. After Mojofly, the main band, played, we went home.

There was nothing really special about the event. Same showbands, same crowd, almost the same price for the beer (what octoberfest?!?!?), and Mojofly sounded really bland...no different from the next pop band on the street.

So what was special about last Friday night? Well, I spent it with some really good friends, we laughed and despite it all we had fun. Thanks Sche, H, Raymond and Bjorn! :)