Bangkok Traffic Love Story

These days, watching lakorns is one my guilt trips.  I'm reluctant to admit this but for this year alone, I'm on my fourth or fifth lakorn at Youtube.  Lurking in the sites dedicated to lakorns, I discovered this movie last year but can't find the English subbed version until last night.  

Was not really blown over by the plot, script or cinematography.  I think it's the "everyday-ness" of the situations that the heroine faces that makes me relate.  Well, more than that - her being single amidst the foreboding couple-dom universe that is sucking her in.  I mean, I can somehow relate. 

Although, I sometimes feel that the situations are beyond belief - bumping too many times with an acquaintance during train rides; actually forming a relationship with your ideal guy from too many chance meetings or being relentless in you pursuit of the Mr. Perfect (I'll give her points though as it's Ken Theeradej - sigh, sigh sigh).  

Have to give it to the main actress - Cris Horwang.  She made the character Li someone that not only single, working and middle class Thai women  can relate too.  I start thinking about friends and even myself as her while watching this.  I even asked myself if we already have a Pinoy version of this.  If not yet, I think we should have a love story with the MRT or LRT playing a huge role in getting the protagonists together.  Calling Star Cinema or GMA Films execs - such things really make

 for a great rom-com movie.  

But on the personal level - most of the time this movie is all about Ken, Ken and Ken!    

Industry Audit Course, Cebu 2010

This course took almost two years to develop. We did the pilot conduct in Cebu and spent 12 days in the city. Got sick too, so did not really take a lot of pictures. First time, I felt like going back home after 3 days of being away. I think, I'm starting to burn .... OUT.

Sungkyunkwan Scandal

Every year there's one or two drama that really gets into me.  Everything revolves around it - work, recreation and life.  This drama keeps me awake until the wee hours of the morning.  It will also get a big chunk of my internet surfing time.  Last and most important, it gives me that light feeling - I look forward to the airing date, when the English subbed version will come out and somehow, I see and hear myself discussing or interjecting just simply anything about the drama - plot, characters and even small details during conversations with friends.  

This year, it's Sungkyunkwan Scandal (SKKS).  I really wished that my drama for the year is Japanese (lesser episodes); romantic comedy (for the light feeling) and with veteran actors (assurance of decent acting).  Well, SKKS is not all these.  It's a saeguk kdrama that stars a TVXQ idol turned actor and all those 20 something stars.  A complete opposite of what I want my drama of the year to be.  I can't remember what made me watch this as I only know Super Junior as Kpop idols.  But somehow, I got to watch the first episode and was drawn towards the characters (university students in Korea's Joseon period), the setting (Sungkyunkwan is Korea's oldest university established in 1398) and the plot (poor girl forced to cross dress and fell in love with the son of a political heavy weight, whew!).  More than these and in the course of its 20 episode run, the drama raised some issues that made me think and re-think some issues:

1.  State run universities are funded through the blood and sweat of its citizens and when the country is made up mostly of people living in poverty - that gives these students not just the privilege of getting a degree from such prestigious university but the obligation to SERVE this people that put them through school.  There was one scene when a professor told one of the main character to finish a meal as each student meal in the university can provide for a week of a family of 4 in Joseon.  As a state university student, I heard two or three professor give a lecture within the same lines.

2.  What a university education entails - not so much as getting good grades and job prospects but really learning from the different people that makes up a university.  It's a microcosm of the world.  More importantly, you get to learn things when you start to question the establishment.  Never be complacent - universities thrive on new ideas and theories.

3.  Get to know yourself.  This is the time when you start to question your beliefs, even your sexual preference!  Be open and embrace who you may become.  

4.  Excel, excel, excel.  Here, we have Lee Sun Jun, the brightest and most promising Confucian Student at SKSS.  He entered SKKS at the King's command but is constantly toiling and reading at the library.  Surpassing yourself means work, work, work. 

5.  Do things that are outside your comfort zones.  Being young means trying crazy things like drinking till you pass out, being late for curfews and  getting to know women (as SKK is an all male establishment).   

6.  Look for mentors and coaches.  All the characters look up to their fathers or siblings.  It's continuing the family heritage of being civil servants and maintaining the prestige.   But along the way, they get to meet the King and their professors.  

7.  Don't forget the people who helped you become where you are - for Lee Sun Jun, it's his manservant Sondool, for Kim Yoon Shik, it's the bookshop owner.  They were there when you started, chances are they're helping you now and you'll also see them at the end.  

I can probably think of a lot of issues.  There's the class issues between Norons, Sorons and Namins.  There's gender - Kim Yoon Shik has to cross dress to enter SKK as women are forbidden to learn and be educated in Joseon.  There's the family issue - of fathers constantly struggling to make this world a better place for their sons.  But more than anything, SKKS is really about four young people falling in and out of love and losing and finding themselves. Totally cliches but enough to keep me wanting for more.  

This comforted me ....

October 19th

DO NOT WORRY ABOUT MY SILENCE 

Already you are with Me. I have revealed Myself to you and you have followed Me. I have granted you access to My Kingdom. I will no more allow you to leave Me.

But there are still many that are far, that have closed the door of their heart to My Voice, that do not know Me, do not love Me.  I go to search for them. I will speak to them, I will introduce them to (indicates a dwelling, a place) Me, I will let them know My Love so that they too, become My friends.

Thus, don’t worry if I seem to forsake you for while.

Postcards from Melissa

She spent Summer 2010 roaming around Europe.  She has with her Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love book to read since she's in one of those I's - Italy.  During those times she sent me these postcards - pretty cool,     I wonder if Ading and Ate2 also got some too?

Coffee date with Mary, Pearl and Tita Cora

Sunday, August 22 at Shangrila Mall - Got this e-mail message from Mary three weeks prior to this date that she's in Manila for a month-long visit.  The last time I met up with Mary was two years ago also in the same mall.  She was with Rodri, her Argentinian boyfriend, at that time.  They got married last spring; hence, her visit is a welcome surprise for everyone.  

Well, Mary is my senpai (senior) who read and did preliminary reviews of my thesis; gave countless advice on how to survive Katayama sensei and Kobe University's GSICS and sat through our weekly zemi class for two years listening patiently to my presentation opening, "The BIR is the country's premiere tax collection agency...."    In short, Mary is somebody who makes me think of Kobe, Japan with fondness and nostalgia.  

The date was arranged so that Mary can finally give us the answers to such questions as - how was the proposal and the wedding; who attended the ceremony and was Katayama sensei there to stand as Ninong.  Stuff that are really important and requires a trip to Manila to give us all the juicy details.  Mary provided us with the answers and shared anecdotes on her married life with Rodri in Tokyo.  Plus, I got some updates from Pearl on her Pol Sci students in Diliman, her married life with Jay-jay and the challenges of caring for her sick father.  Bonus is that I got to meet Tita Cora and learned about her advocacies on the environment and healthy lifestyle among others.  I listened as she narrated with candor her family's daily struggles and adventures in surviving Manila after more than 10 years of living and working in Japan.    

More than the conversations with these three beautiful women, I also enjoyed the dango (Japanese sweets) that Mary shared with us as well as the Mary Grace lemon squares that she gave as our takeaway pasalubong.  

Then Monday morning on August 22, the hostage taking happened.  I look back and think that back then, less than 24 hours ago, things were much easier to analyze.  That somehow, with our graduate degrees from Japan, we can help solve the Philippine problems.  

Maybe, we were given such snatches of mundane conversations with our friends to realize how lucky we all are and that we really have to savor every thing that life offers.  For after such brief moments, we go back to facing more difficult tasks.  Forging ahead or just battling the "everyday-ness" of things.  

Michael Voltaggio is Top Chef Las Vegas!

I watched all the episodes in 2nd Avenue and has been rooting for him from the start.  I mean, I could have "googled"  who won the season but didn't.  

Really glad that he is Top Chef, 

Queen Seon Deok

I usually stay away from sageuk (historical) dramas.  Haven't seen Jewel in the Palace, Jumong and Hwang Jini (I have DVD copies of these kdramas but still haven't seen a single episode of any of them).  Besides, jdorama has sort of spoiled me - imagine 11 episodes and everything wraps up.  Most sageuk dramas have 20 plus, even 50 plus episodes.  Queen Seon Deok has 62 episodes, so just thinking of starting this drama is an enormous decision to make.  It means investing on time, committing emotionally and preparing to fall in love or in hate. Well, I kinda cheated and skipped some episodes but I was able to finish the drama and here are the five characters that made me invest, commit and fall - in LOVE:

5.  Wolya (Joo Sang Wook):  It has to be the stance.  As the leader of the Gaya restoration movement, he's the head of a proud belligerent group but tends to stand behind Kim Yushin.  He plays the second fiddle to Yushin's character but there's something with his stance that somehow makes him stands out.  It's also the character's capacity to weed everything out and make a decision that affects his roots, race and reason.  

4.  Kim Chun Chu (Yoo Seung Ho):  He'll make a very good political scientist.  Among his traits - displaying shrewd political analysis of the events; cultivating an innocent image; and knowing the buttons to push to make the winds of history favor his desired directions.  It also helps that as a drama watcher - we know he'll end up as the successor.

3.  Alcheon (Lee Seung Hyo):   Knowing one's duty, giving everything to achieve that and still being ready to give some more.  Like Wolya, he tends to be Yushin's second fiddle but you get the feeling that he can be the main dish if the writers want to.  

2.  Kim Yoo Shin (Uhm Tae Woong): If you're a ruler, you have to have this general to win wars for you, colonize other countries and be your rock.  He's your chief of staff, the executive secretary, the CEO.  This character does everything - even love you.  But you can be comfortable in knowing that even if you don't return that love, he'll be able to move on because his love and loyalty for his country is greater than his love and loyalty for his queen.

1.  Bi Dam (Kim Nam Gil):  This one can annihilate a whole army - possessing fighting skills that can protect and destroy.  He's childish but also a murderer; calculating but can be very obtuse and simple but quite complicated.  He's the main reason why I watched the whole thing, cried buckets at the last episode and wished that I can have tons of patience in re-watching the whole thing.  Simply put,  I  Bidam!

Actually there's more - most of the Hwarang leaders, Bidam's master, Seol won, Jukbang, Santak and even Godo.  The costumes and production values are spectacular.  I still don't know why I was never fascinated with the female characters - Mishil,Princess Chun Myung and Duk Man, the Queen.  Must be because most of these characters love them.  

Birthday celebration of Victoria and Evangeline Ophelia

Pictures from the joint birthday party of Victoria (she turned 11 last April 11) and Evangeline Ophelia (1 last April 17).

Mini-Me

Ipeng told me that my niece, Amanda Theresa, looks way too much like me. I'm starting to agree that's why I grabbed these pictures from my sister-in-law's Facebook account, =)

Dinner date with Nova

The last time I was in National Bookstore Katipunan was four or five years ago, actually maybe more.  So, I was kinda taken aback at how much the place has remained the same but yet felt small and different.  The feeling was akin to when I went back to my old high school for a reunion - everything looked the same but at a smaller version.  Not that I've grown taller or heavier - well maybe there's some truth with this.  But I'm pretty sure that it was like being time-warped back when I was in college yet strangely, I'm not wearing my jeans and white shirt anymore.

Anyway, I was there to kill time as I'm scheduled for a dinner with Nova.  I figured instead of waiting for her inside the restaurant, I'll just read some books and hang out at NBS.  Some things I discovered about ME that day:

1.  I tend to get really hungry during the hours of 7 to 9 pm.  

2.  I can wait for a friend for more than two hours provided - I'm inside a bookstore (or even a museum);  I have a book and a spot to read it; I get text messages assuring me that they are on their way - something terribly important is just holding them up.

3.  A lifetime of waiting including the pangs of hunger just disappear (well, temporarily) when you get a text message saying, "D2 na ko." 

It was a fun dinner - we discussed a lot and I was reminded how important it is to talk to a person face to face.  Text and offline messages, even phone or video calls are just not enough.   We did not have time to reminisce, the meeting was purely to talk about her plans and well, since it's Nova - we have to talk about the upcoming elections.....

I hope to write another blog entry about her plans though - maybe in September this year and Spring Next Year!  

Ah, had another dinner this weekend too, but this one's different - more like a home coming dinner.

Overheard from Glee

"You can't always get what you want

But if you try sometimes well you might find

You get what you need." = Rolling Stones

Heard these lines from the last episode of Glee's first season re-runs at the cable channel.  Shikes, I was thinking that I'm the type of person who wants and tries for things I ONLY NEED.  Well, I just probably have to hum these lines and hear them over my head for the rest of the week.  

Chasing Daylight by Eugene O'Kelley

Got this book during the SM North Edsa Sale late January.  Read it for two weeks - again while lining up for the UP-SM jeep.  The title is quite intriguing plus the premise of suffering from an incurable disease and preparing for one's death - pretty much my usual reading fare, 

Also, while paying for it - I thought this will give me insights on what makes accountants tick - they're all over ruling and dominating my work place.  So, what did I actually get from the author?

1.  Chasing daylight refers to a special moment when night time have to set in and of course you need to pack in or suck in as much as you can - time, energy, passion - anything that you can think of.

2.  One really has to have money and support to prepare, be transformed and eventually welcome death.

3.  Although death, like taxes, is a great equalizer, "some" can write a  book and make it a highly individualized event.

Overall, not really a memorable or life transforming book.   Although, it got me to try the Starbucks iced coffee last night - pretty good.   This probably marks the eventual phasing out of coffee jelly frappuccino from my order list.    Lastly, if given the money and opportunity to map out and have the best death possible, will also adopt the concept of saying good goodbyes.  Although, will keep it within the inner circles (just like some entries in this site for contacts only).  

Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

Just to keep track with my goal of reading at least 6 books this year, I really tried to finish this one.  So, I found myself reading while falling in line every morning for the UP-SM jeep.  It means 5 to 10 mins Monday to Friday. 
I bought the book in the first place because of the title.  Usually, when I run a regression analysis, I tend to disregard the outliers.  I'm more focused on the normal distribution.  This book though looks at the small dots that are simply further away from the clusters.  Well, given that successful people are fewer than normal people, I guess Gladwell maybe right in categorizing them as outliers.  But the irony of this book is that once he has isolated the outliers or the successful ones, he looked for the pattern and here he clusters the factors together - making them, his outliers, into part of the "normal distribution." 
For Gladwell an outlier becomes one because of "...steady accumulation of advantages."  Hence, a successful person is born in a certain era and place with a certain set of parents and a certain "something"  while growing up.  He cited, the Beatles, Bill Gates and Jewish lawyers in NYC during the late 1980s to 1990s as examples.  It's not really unusual to learn that geniuses are not created overnight.  In fact Gladwell, goes as far back as the circumstances and the evolution of a certain culture to determine the success of their people. AND yes, basically why Asians are generally good in Math.   

Resolutions for 2010

I read Lea's (ehemm.... Salonga not Bron just to make it clear) resolutions before 2009 ends in her PDI column.  I started thinking this is kinda old fashioned and I always end up frustrated when I don't get to strike these things at the end of the year.  Maybe this is an exercise in futility but things are starting to slow down and I'm starting to feel mediocre so just to challenge myself here goes my list:
1.  Read at least 6 books for the year - as in really read.  I've been reading a lot from the net but most are fluff materials so just to make sure that I'll read all the books and plan to buy at Powerbooks or Fully Booked.
2.  Continue to bring "bento" at the office.  At the start of 2009, I ventured grudgingly on bringing baon for lunch at the office then I started to like the big savings that I get out of it,  
3.  Be "visible" at least for Melissa on YM.  Cecille has been in Singapore for more than 2 years, Lea in the Netherlands for more than 3 months and they're my friends as in forever but we never really find time to have regular chats.  But since Melissa will be in the Netherlands too - and she's the "touchy-fee-ly" type of friend so I have to really buzz her.
4.  Be more spontaneous - as in grab opportunities to do things that I don't normally do.  In the words of Ma'am Zen, "Get out of your comfort zone!"
5.  Travel to Egypt - I saw Lea's pictures in Greece (her dream destination since we were kids) and it got me into thinking, I should go to my dream destination too.
6.  Wear a dress at the office.  I own quite a number and they still have their tags on.  Whenever I plan on putting one on for Friday - I end up taking it off - feeling too dressed up,  
7.  Go to productive and useful internet sites and watch only one drama per season (better if Japanese).
8.  Visit my tatay more often.
9.  Embrace failures, rejections and disappointments so I can move on.
10.  Be more hopeful.