The Memoriter Blogs

This is my first Poetry Project post for the month, and something we could ponder on...

Short Time
by Jaime An Lim

I am haunted by the sadness of men
hanging out at night
in all the parks and alleys of the world.
They wait and meander
weighing
measuring
the safer distance
between dread
and desire.
Every face a catalog of possibilities,
every look a whole vocabulary of need.

Tonight, you are the dream
who walks in my waking sleep,
who bears miraculously
the shape voice motion of remembered love.
How can I resist the reckless

Leap from the world
of furtive brushes
and tunnelling headlights
to this room, no less anonymous,
of thin walls, thinning mattresses
where we grapple and thrash
like beached sea creatures
breathing the dry unfamiliar air?

When you stand to go, I ease myself
into the hollow your body leaves.
I press the faint smell of you to my face

O Christ, were I loving you
drinking your blood, eating your flesh!
But the morning betrays nothing.
The chair in the corner stands mute,
the mirror repeats your absence.
When the curtains are flung back
to let the harsh light in,
the bed looms empty.

I am finally all I have.

- - -

What are your thoughts on this poem?

- Nancy -

If my Math is right (and I don’t trust my mind with numbers at times), then the National Book Week in the Philippines has been running on every year for 78 years now, and I, a great lover of books and reading, hardly know about it. The key word is “hardly” because I did hear about it but not with enough rapt attention as the event deserves.

Last year's poster for the 77th National Book Week

In Nov. 19, 1936, Manuel L. Quezon, recognized as the first president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines and the second president of the Philippines after Emilio Aguinaldo, declared Nov. 24-30 every year starting 1937 as National Book Week for the following reasons:

1. Reading of good books or printed page is one of the most effective methods of bringing enlightenment within the reach of the largest possible number of people, and of promoting the cause of popular culture with its tremendous social benefits, and

2. It is desirable that the task of arousing a widespread interest in the reading of good books be recognized as a highly patriotic duty as well as a privilege.

Technically, though, the proclamation went further before this time. Then Governor-General of the Philippine Islands Frank Murphy declared on June 6, 1934 through Proclamation 696 that National Book Week be observed from June 18-24, stating that “arousing of a national interest in the reading of good books is a patriotic duty and privilege” and that “the time designated includes the birthday of Dr. Jose Rizal, one of the foremost men of letters of this country.” I’m not really sure why there was a movement from June to November, but I’ll ask a couple of librarians.

So what have we been doing every National Book Week? Well, I tried to look for events online but apparently, there seems to be a lack of them. The only group I found actively celebrating it is the Philippine Librarians Association Inc. (PLAI), which is not at all surprising because PLAI is in charge of holding different National Book Week activities for elementary, high school, and college, such as storytelling, essay-writing, poster-making, and a book parade. Besides, November was declared as Library and Information Services Month by the late President Corazon Aquino who pointed out “the need to focus on public awareness to the invaluable service that libraries and information centers render, i.e. providing data and materials for lifelong knowledge and learning for research and leisure”.

Are you aware of what your public libraries are doing to celebrate National Book Week?

I’m happy to share with you that on Nov. 23, the Basadours, an active Cebu-based reading advocate group will kick off the National Book Week celebration with “Storython: A storytelling marathon event”, which will gather more than 100 selected schoolchildren in Cebu City at the Cebu City Public Library (CCPL).

Featuring six storytellers coming from different backgrounds who will read and act out value-laden storybooks, the one-day event carries the theme, “Storytelling is more fun at your public library”, which is basically true, don’t you think? I grew up with school libraries but I did have a couple of memorable experiences with public ones. I remember how the Mandaue City Public Library drew together students from different public and private schools to do research.

To Basadours, I wish you good luck and more power!

On another note, being active on Twitter (@nrcudis) has a lot of advantages. I discovered Scholastic’s Read Everyday, Lead a Better Life: A Global Literacy Campaign, which aims for one “to promote the importance and value of reading for success in school and in life and provide literacy champions with tools and ideas for making reading easier, more fun, and more accessible to the kids in their lives and for all the children all around the world”. Its cornerstone is the Reading Bill of Rights, which is really interesting and worth knowing by heart.

And so...naturally...as a sucker for good causes...I signed up to be a literacy champion.

I’m not really planning to embarking something really big as of yet. The nice thing is Scholastic offered five simple things I can do today to get children reading:

1. Read Aloud. Kids who are read to from a young age become better readers and students. Read every day with your child, or be a volunteer reader at a local school or community center.

2. Be a Reading Role Model. You are your children’s first teacher. If your children see you reading, they’ll want to read, too.

3. Give Books. Help a family start a home library. Give books as gifts. If kids have books
in their home, they do better in school.

4. Support a Literacy Organization. Check out our listing of Literacy Champion organizations and choose one you’d like to help with time or money.

5. Make Reading the Main Event. Join or create a book club, institute an “unplugged” night at home, or talk about books over dinner. Getting the family involved raises reading achievement.

Join me and be a literacy champion, too! Happy National Book Week, readers!

- Nancy -

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I’m entering a quite unfamiliar territory in this blog post. So I am taking an amateur perspective of things and deal with them in the best (amateurish) way I can. I think my personal interest in spirits and superstition has been brewing for a while. I’ve long been fascinated in them, but I attribute comics or graphic novels featuring local folklore characters I’ve read earlier this year as among the major propellers that hauled the said interest to staggering awe and appreciation.

You see, it’s November, a time when we not only anticipate impending Christmas but also remember our dead loved ones. And death, for that matter, is heavily linked to various elements--spirits, ghosts, witches, demons, and other supernatural creatures--through no fault of its own. But the societal perception of death is so embedded in our culture that some ancient death rituals and beliefs are as ancient as our pets’ ancestors, the dinosaurs. Since no culture is consistent, many death-related practices evolved over time (much to the distress of our grandparents). Still, at the end of the day, regardless of how we revere the dead, what matters is that we revere the dead.

We actually have different creative ways of doing so. I found an informative article by Trizer D. Mansueto on how Visayans in the 17th century hold their practices concerning their deceased loved ones. The Visayans are people from the Visayas, the mid-section of the Philippines. Cebu is in the Visayas, making Cebuanos also Visayans. Long before the Spaniards arrived and made their conquest, we buried our dead in elaborate coffins along with some comforts they enjoyed when they were alive (like gold) along the shorelines, believing that the soul would travel by boat to the other life to meet the god of the underworld.

(Stories like these remind me of Ruth Rendell’s short story called “The Dreadful Day of Judgement” that tells how men steal from the dead and how the dead avenges for what they have stolen.)

It is interesting to note that the period between 17th century and 19th century did not mark much difference in the way we observe death rituals as far as values are concerned. There have been several deaths in my family to know that the dead should be resting in an elaborate piece of woodwork; to know that enough prayers should be said and enough candles should be burned during the wake; to know that all family members and relatives, before the casket is taken out of the house, must walk under the raised coffin; to know that the funeral procession should only follow one line from the house to the church to the graveyard and in no point along the trail should the casket move backwards; to know that mourning pins should be buried with the dead; and so much more. All these are to ensure that we show steadfastly and consistently our respect for the dead.

Naturally, we grieve when someone close to us died. Point blank, we are at our lowest points. Perhaps this state, or any low state--depression, anger, hatred--makes us vulnerable to fearful images of witches and demons and easily cast blame onto them for phenomenon we could not explain. Just last month, local media reported an alleged demonic possession of 17 high school students in Talisay City, Cebu. It instantly attracted media and public attention, from believers and skeptics alike. Rather than submit the students first to proper healthcare (which for me should have been the protocol but our beliefs in the supernatural is so strong for us to do otherwise), the administrators put them under a charismatic community to be prayed over, fueling further speculations that it was indeed a bodily conquest of evil spirits.

Stories on demonic possession and oppression are nothing new to the Cebuanos. In fact, in another newspaper feature written by Mansueto (I could not find an online link, though), he shared a couple of gruesome characters found in the the book, History of the Bisayan People in the Philippine Islands, by Jesuit Francisco Ignacio Alcina who documented the Visayan living in the 17th century. Alcina wrote about dalundungan, witches who copulate with the devil whose form is either that of a serpent or a wild beast and use the sperm for spells to kill their enemies or those of their clients. He also wrote about a woman (who did not engage in occult practices but whose mother was a sorceress) sexually tormented by the devil. The tormented woman felt “much pain and as if a fire has singed her and left the genitalia wounded and in deep pain”. The oppression stopped after the woman became active spiritually.

There are two ways of looking at these scenarios--the skeptics would say the stories were means to convert the Visayans into Christians while the rest would say that evil spirits do exist, which is all the more reason to find a solid consistent bearing in God. Whether or not these stories are true, what should be remembered is that the dead and the spirits should not be messed up with.

Well, I’m being amateurish alright. So what do you think? How does your family view death? Have you come across with spectacular stories or true-to-life cases about demons or evil spirits?

- Nancy -

No doubt the Internet is a wealthy resource of how-to’s and what-not’s to last us a lifetime. Just look up Mashable and Media Shift and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Yet somehow, at some point in their lives between appraising online content and fiddling with their sites, bloggers, entrepreneurs, and SEO specialists just need to meet with each other--oh, but not to brag.

Special events like the Digital Influencers Marketing Summit (#dim2012 on Twitter) I attended in SM City Cebu last Nov. 24 provided me something that social networking could not: a personal encounter with the persons behind sites I visited, admired, and followed, such as Janette Toral of Digital Filipino and Fleire Castro of Third Team Media, and with persons who are colleagues at the Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. with peachy online reputations, such as Ruben Licera, Kevin Ray Chua, and Rabsin dela Cruz.

The event showed how serious these resource speakers (and many more of them present) are with social networking by engaging in face-to-face sharing of knowledge with people who know them and with those who just learned about them. In doing so, they validated their positions as digital influencers and brand advocates. For sure, for me, they mouthed off enough social media gospel to spur me into action, which is essentially to continue blogging and learning about blogging.

Ruben Licera, president of Cebu Bloggers Society Inc., shared inputs about the blogger group
in an open forum during the Digital Influencers Marketing Summit in Cebu last Nov. 24 at SM City Cebu.

The summit turned out to be a pot of productivity. Of course, sucker for knowledge that I am, I and my sleep-deprived brain absorbed information like I was naturally sipping noodles. My interest was already peaked with Fleire Castro’s sharing on bloggers as influencers and brand advocates because I want to be more than just a blogger; I want to be an influencer and educate as many people as possible the value of literacy and reading. Fleire’s spiel, the first on the program, placed the whole event into proper context so I know it was going to be an interesting summit. (And I was right.)

Elisa Escobar of Azalea Residences and Richard Eldridge of Lenddo also got my attention because, truth be told, I was present in the activity not as a blogger but as a representative of my company, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., where I serve as communications specialist for media and public relations. Through them, I learned some valuable tips on how to roll out an effective social media marketing campaign. Their corporate practices may not work for a non-government organization but their successful experiences are worth benchmarking on.

To Ms. Janette (and Fleire), congratulations on the successful holding of the Digital Influencers Marketing Summit. I am excited to follow through and support your plan on creating a solid base of digital influencers and brand advocates coming from the different parts of the country. Cheers!

- Nancy -

I officially turned 28 today. I still find the number quite hard to grasp, not because of the fact that I’m really getting older but because of the feeling that I feel a lot older than my age. This is perhaps because I have experienced many things that pushed me to grow up quite a bit faster. I love birthdays, mine included. I have to thank my parents for that; I grew up thinking that no matter the circumstances, birthdays are always something to be thankful of and so we always celebrate within our means.

This year, which I personally consider as “my year of turning points”, I decided to do something different for myself. I’ll list down my 28 birthday wishes. The blogosphere is fond of lists. I used to make a lot of book lists for this blog, which I stopped eventually. Other than that, I actively make lists of things to do at work. But hey, today is a special day, a day of exemptions, so I might as well break my fast and make a list of things I hope to do before I reach 30 (or forever).

Bear with me?

1. Be kind to self. People close to me know that I work, study, and worry too much. I should learn to make time to take a break and do things I want to do, like partying more often and harder and getting a full body massage every other week.

2. Spend more time with friends. I consider my friends good ones when they understand if I’m busy but makes a very subtle passing complaint about me spending less time with them in meet-ups, impromptu or otherwise.

3. Travel to a new place in the Philippines once a year. I long started this and I’ll continue to do so. As much as possible I travel with my best friend who happens to by my boyfriend. We are pining for a culinary and historical trip to Vigan next year.

4. Get Cebu Book Club going. My friend Geezelle of www.geemiz.com and I started this in October this year. We’re having birth pains at the moment but we hope it will kick off really well in 2013.

5. Watch and support more professional theater productions and locally made movies. I already marked my calendar--Victor Villanueva’s My Paranormal Romance tomorrow and Focus Production’s “Serapio” on Dec. 8. I hope there will be more productions.

6. Read more classics. I used to read a lot of hardcore classic novels by of Victor Hugo, Voltaire, and the Bronte sisters until college. Since then, I haven’t finished reading any classic book I’ve picked. It’s about time I remedy that.

7. Be more active in Cebu Bloggers Society. The group is literally hounded by invitations from corporate entities. With my current workload, I don’t think I can join them all. But I can help in other ways with the management. After all, I share with the other leaders the ultimate wish for the group to be “admirably and credibly professional”.

8. Finish my postgraduate studies. Two semesters to go and, if nothing goes wrong, I’ll be a certified graduate of Master in Media Studies at the University of San Jose-Recoletos. At this point, I’m already entertaining the possibility of pursuing Doctor of Arts in Literature and Communication at the Cebu Normal University. But oh well, nothing in life is set in stone.

9. Write at least one short story a month. Short stories are, for me, brief glimpses of life’s underappreciated moments. I wanted to write the short stories of my life and the people around me and capture them as faithfully as a camera would of a candid occasion.

10. Volunteer more. And by this I mean to teach more high school and college students some writing tips with the hope that such move will make a difference to their future literary creations.

11. Support local artists. Read more comics. Yes, Justin, I’m still bent on borrowing your copy of Arnold Arre’s Martial Law Babies. Now I’m hunting for the serial copies of Trese. Got any?

12. Reduce my staggering consumption of sweets. Better yet, uproot my sweet tooth. But that would seem too drastic for my taste. Here’s a toast to risk reduction!

13. Reduce weight. Oh, I’m serious about risk reduction alright! Thanks to my doctor, I’m on my way to full recovery from hyperthyroidism, which means that from now on, I have to keep weight charts on my phone and check on them every other day.

14. Continue The Short Story Initiative. I have every good intention to see this project through because literature is generally a mine of awesome (yet painfully neglected) short fiction waiting to be discovered and shared.

15. Take more walks. Drive less. Here’s the good news: I’ve driven the same red van that I aptly call “Little Red Riding Hood” since I got my driver’s license at 18. That makes it 10 years of legitimate driving experience. The problem is I’ve grown abnormally fond of it .

16. Read more poems aloud in public. Public speaking is not a strong point. But that does not give me any excuse at all not to engage in poetry reading.

17. Learn to maneuver a bicycle. Starting with how to hold it properly without stumbling.

18. Support a homegrown bookstore. I’m already a full-fledged supporter of La Belle Aurore Bookshop. If you’re going to open a similar business anywhere in Cebu, count me as a loyal advocate.

19. Learn how to cook hamonada. There is that thing called special family recipes. In my clan, from my late grandmother to my late aunt to my mother, the specialty is pork hamonada. It would be a shame not to pass it on to the next generation, right?

20. Read more works by Filipino writers, dead and otherwise. Estrella Alfon, Edith Tiempo, NVM Gonzales... oh, there are so many of them, all great!

21. Join more blogging and writing contests. Oh, just for the thrill (and pumped adrenaline) of it! And they make good excuses for writing more!

22. Buy less books and more clothes. Uh, scratch that. Buy more clothes and more books.

23. Venture again into oil painting. I missed it. The last time I painted was in high school. Two works are now hanging on the wall. I am excited to create more for my future home.

24. Start and complete collections of books that inspired me to read more--Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins--and of books that have inspired many other people, such as the Little House on the Prairie series.

25. Read first before watching the movie. My usual tendency is that if I haven’t read the book, I don’t watch the movie. But there are movies I just could not resist. Other times, I would come out of the theater houses disappointed and discouraged to read the book versions when at the back of my mind I know the book editions are way better. So, this means I can watch Les Miserables later this month.

26. Connect with authors whose books I’ve fallen in love with. So they will be encouraged to keep on writing.

27. Learn more about Cebu. Just as public speaking is not a strong point, so is history. But I wanted to learn more about my birthplace so I can share them with others when I travel.

28. Read again the Bible. It’s one of the greatest publications in the world after all.

With my 28 birthday wishes done, I’m now off to blow the candles on my birthday cake. Thank you for celebrating with me!

- Nancy -

First off, I would like to wish you happy holidays!

I am terribly aware that I have not been within the blogging radar for nearly two months now and I have been remiss in my efforts to be consistent with The Short Story Initiative. I've missed blogging and my blogger friends, including you. Please allow me to make it up with you (I have something exciting for you, my dear friends!). Before anything else, though, let me take you a bit to what I and/or Simple Clockwork was occupied with in the recent weeks.

A birthday party. My birthday is Dec. 2 and I always have a small party at home. For the first time, with my boyfriend’s family’s help, I organized a modest dinner gathering of friends last Nov. 30 outside of my home, so I was pretty much swamped with the preparations. But I must say, my loving boyfriend did most of the hard work.

My friends (some of them)...
My cupcakes (baked by my good friend, Rhia de Pablo)...
and my gifts!

My first public poetry reading. I was invited to read a poem (my first time in eight years) during the second branch opening of La Belle Aurore Bookshop last Dec. 1. To sum up the experience, I was so freaked out with stage fright I was not even sure I’ve read the poem, Ili-na by M. de Gracia Concepcion, properly as it deserved. Talk about bloopers!

Photo by Mark Monta, founder of Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. (www.facecebu.net)

My uncle’s death. Shortly right after, my uncle died in his sleep. He was having serious health problems. Although we were not very close, he is my father’s brother (and that is still something). As among those directly related, we have to observe several funeral traditions and preparations.

Typhoon Pablo’s terrible onslaught. Despite the weather forecasts, my hometown, Cebu, was fortunately spared by the strong winds and rains brought by Typhoon Pablo during the first week of December. As a member of a non-government organization (NGO), I assisted in disaster risk reduction and management preparations for Cebu. But Pablo was cruel; it ravaged Compostela Valley in the Davao region of Mindanao (southern part of the Philippines) where hundreds died, banana plantations are forced to close, and many more became jobless, facing a bleak new year. If you wish to help, the Ateneo de Manila University continues its call for donations for the typhoon victims.

World Blogathon. The Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. (CBSi) held a blog-for-a-cause initiative called World Blogathon last Dec. 8 when several bloggers and NGO representatives (including me) gathered to share our organizations’ causes.

Last quarter work-related preparations. Many of us know that the last quarter of the year in corporate entities and NGOs is usually dedicated to planning and budgeting for the following year. I did just that with my team. As I recall, it was head-splitting... so let us just skip this part.

Blogger friends in need. CBSi audit head, Dr. Narciso Tapia, who is considered Cebu’s first doctor blogger, is suffering with polycystic kidney disease, a life-threatening hereditary disease characterized by numerous fluid-filled cysts that damage both kidneys. He is raising funds so he could undergo an operation that will prolong his life. I am knocking on your kind hearts to help him. Here is his story and here is how you can help. Another CBSi member, Bert Padilla, is now confined in the hospital due to dengue. His platelet count is awfully low. As we seek friends who will make compatible blood donors, be with us in prayer for Bert’s speedy recovery.

Book shopping and reading. Christmas would definitely not be Christmas without books as gifts. I happily and gratefully got many of them since last week (and I’ve already finished two of them):

From my parents - The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
From my boyfriend - The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart (this series is really awesome!) and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
From myself - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Love Letters for Strangers. Have you seen Hannah Brencher's "Love Letters to Strangers”? Following her unique concept, my favorite bookstore, La Belle Aurore Bookshop in collaboration with Cindy Velasquez, a Literature and Humanities teacher of the University of San Carlos, organized a Christmas project called "Love Letters to Strangers." It encourages the public to write love letters to anyone. It is heartwarming to know that the bookshop was able to gather bags (bags!) of letters. I made and dropped two (one for a mother and another one for a child with cancer). And in return, to my surprise, I got two lovely letters from strangers for a stranger.

My love letters to strangers

Employee-turned-entrepreneur friends. A friend and her mom opened Kireina Salon and Spa last week and another friend will be opening a disco bar called Outburst sometime soon. I volunteered to help promote their businesses.

Christmas parties and causes! I attended several Christmas parties, donated some 20 books to the Cebu City Public Library and some 20 more to St. Theresa’s College-Cebu Library (my alma mater), and helped my boyfriend’s family distribute packed food to 30 street children.

Writing for a magazine. I will be a book reviewer for XYNC Magazine, Central Visayas’ lifestyle and leisure magazine. I already have two assignments (and I’m working on them already). Wish me luck!

Yes, it has been a breathless and (other times) exciting two months. What’s even more exciting is that in this post, I’m going to give away $10 worth of a short story collection you’ve been wishing for quite a time now. This is only open to bloggers who have participated at least once in The Short Story Initiative. If you win, you can order and have the short story collection delivered via Book Depository. All you need to do is leave a comment in this post with your email address. The winner (only one) will be selected by random.org.

I look forward to catching up with you and blogging more in the coming days. Thank you and Merry Christmas!

Nancy

I’m starting this year with a grateful heart--grateful for the gift of loving family and supportive friends (both online and offline), for the gift of good health and good work, for the gift of daily food, shelter, and safety.

For this blog, I am grateful to you for sticking with me through all my joys and sadness all these past 12 months. I look forward to connecting with you more this year. Rest assured I will continue to blog about short stories. I like them too much to neglect them. I still have a couple of posts due for The Short Story Initiative, which I will continue in 2013. My prediction for this new year, though, is that I will be doing more personal posts than posts about books or short stories I have read... but then again, who knows, anything could happen between now and in December. After all, there are always unique ideas we could find daily in the blogging community. For instance, I came upon Project 196 by Mel U of The Reading Life, which shares 196 short stories from 196 countries (and I think that that’s an amazing idea!).

Visiting blogs recently, I’m amazed at how much many of the book bloggers I know have accomplished so much in the past year. A couple of them are now writing books about their field of expertise (I’m looking at and congratulating you, Hila and Nina). Others posted their blog’s statistics in 2012, wrote about the best books read in 2012, summarized how they fared in the reading challenges they have joined, and announced what they look forward in 2013. Here is wishing you will continue to achieve more in this new year. Keep reading and blogging!

For my part, I am just grateful that I have finally come into terms with being a blogger (I was a traditional news reporter so the transition was quite an adjustment), having established professional working relationships with other bloggers, promoted works by Filipino writers, started a small online community called Cebu Book Club, and won a couple of prestigious awards.

While I will still be blogging as actively as I could, the focus of my 2013 plans will be aligned with my 28 birthday wishes, including (in a nutshell):

- keep my weight at a normal level (or else I, or more like my sensitive spine, will suffer the consequences!) and this means devoting time to exercise
- improve my grammar and write more literary pieces (and I hope to publish them here)
- spend more time for bonding with family and friends
- build a local community of readers with a cause
- support Filipino artists, performers, and writers by patronizing or promoting their works

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to share the books I hope to read in 2013. There are 12 of them--at least one for each month--mostly middle-grade and young adult fiction (but I’m sure this list will grow in the coming months):

Artemis Fowl (Book 1) by Eoin Colfer
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues Book 1) by Rick Riordan
The Fairy Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm Book 1) by Michael Buckley
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book 1: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood
The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making by Catherynne Valente
Stories: All-New Tales by Jeffery Deaver
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Cut Through the Bone by Ethel Rohan
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Have you read some of them? What do you think?

Best wishes and have a wonderful reading experience this New Year!

Nancy

Cebu is buzzing with excitement, what with the Feast of the Sto. Niño a week away and the Sinulog parade expected to brightly cover once again the long streets of city’s downtown area. I even found myself commenting a couple of times that more and more activities, non-profit and otherwise, are opened in support of the Sinulog festivities compared to last year, although, truth be told, I have no factual basis to use upon. One thing is for sure: the streets in Cebu City is brighter and more colorful than what I saw during the long holiday, which goes to show that between Christmas, New Year, and Feast of Sto. Niño, we sure know how to save the best for last! <wink!>

Art is no exception in the long string of activities celebrated in honor of Sto. Niño. Wawart Contemporary Art Group opened “Tahas” exhibit at Persimmon Plus last Jan. 11. Tahas is Cebuano word for task, but Radel Paredes, a talented artist and writer and part of the group, explained, “This strong sense of personal errand that one has to make in life as the ultimate measure of one’s worth is implied in the Cebuano word, ‘tahas’, which can mean task, duty, or mission at the same time. The native faith is seen as some kind of a pledge or promise to God that we make or impose upon ourselves... In the spirit of the Sinulog, when once again Cebuanos renew their pledges to the God-Child, the group Wawart interrogates through contemporary art the many ways by which we interpret this deep down urge to do something that would justify ourselves.”

Photo by Radel Paredes, Wawart Contemporary Art Group

If I’m not mistaken, the recently opened exhibit is Wawart’s second show; the first, entitled “Sawum”, was mounted in Maribago Bluewater Gallery sometime last last year, around the time when the group was formed.

I’m no expert in visual arts, but I do enjoy exploring the emotions evoked and the relationships built between the viewer and the art and imagine the stories behind each masterpiece. On a personal level, I dabble with my sign pens, charcoal pencils, and acrylic paint. Why, just the other week, with insomnia making most of my night time, I grabbed a box of colored pens and, inspired by the ever rich resources on Pinterest, I made these (enarse is another way of saying my initials, NRC, which stands for Nancy R. Cudis):

Inspired from Pinterest

Inspired from: A Blog Named Hero

Right after the exhibit opening on the same night, Bathalad, a Cebu-based literary group, and InnoPub Media, a journalism start-up founded by former colleagues Max Limpag and his wife Marlen, launched “Skina Balak”, an e-book anthology of Bisaya poetry written by Bathalad members. The e-book can now be downloaded on iPhone and iPad, and Aldiko, Stanza and other e-book readers for Android and other devices, as well as on Kindle. It can also be downloaded through phone scanning of quick response codes printed on posters, desktop standees, and other materials. I downloaded mine on Kindle and I have been enjoying some poetry pieces, such as the one below made by talented artist and cartoonist Joshua Cabrera:

Ang Modelo Ug Ang Akong Brotsa
Ni Joshua Cabrera

Imong dughan mikurba
Nagpanilap ang akong brotsa
Nitulo ang pintal subay
sa imong hubo nga hulagway
nga natanggong sa akong canvass
nga gamay.
Pagtabon sa imong pilo
sa imong mata, mitidlom
akong kaugalingon sa kantil
sa akong gininhawa, gilumsan
sa imong kaanyag, nga gibistihan
sa kangitngit ug kahayag.
Gikuptan ko’g hugot akong brotsa,
Kay dungan pag-ugdo sa imong sampot
Akong kabuhi miulbo nikurog akong kamot.
Sa dihang nibuhagay ang imong talidhay
Nahulog ang akong brotsa sa salog.
Nayabo ang pintal sa akong paa.
Ug hinay nga nibuhi ang akong kumagko
Sa bangag sa paleta.

I can’t translate everything. Some Cebuano words are quite old (and foreign) to me, like kantil. As a whole, this poem tells how an artist with his brush is distracted, if not stimulated, by a (nude) model before him whom he has to portray on canvas. I enjoy poetry and the truth behind poems written in our own native tongue almost always hit close to home.

Photo by Max Limpag

There are many more wonderful pieces found in the e-book by Adonis Durado, Anthony Kintanar, Cindy Velasquez, Delora Sales-Simbajon, Ernesto Lariosa, Gerard Pareja, Greg Fernandez, Ioannes Arong, January Yap, Jeremiah Bondoc, John Biton, Jona Bering, Josua Cabrera, Karla Quimsing, Michael Obenieta, Nancy Garcia Noel-Nacua, Noel Rama, Noel Villaflore, Panteleon Auman, Radel Paredes, Rolando Morallo, Romeo Nicolas Bonsocan, Temistokles Adlawan, Vicente Bandillo, and Vince Cinches.

Let me take a pause to congratulate Bathalad and InnoPub for a successful collaboration!

Every Sunday, like today, at the Biliran Park, a garden square in front of Ayala Center Cebu,Qube Gallery with the support of Cebu Holdings Inc. set up “Art at the Park” from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., gathering artists to display their own artworks for sale. This beautiful set up is inspired by the 63-year-running Art in the Park by the Allied Arts Association in Howard Amon Park, Columbia River, Richland in Washington DC. I have yet to visit our own version of Art at the Park, but I’m sure it’s fantastic. Kudos to Qube Gallery!

Other exhibits:

Until Jan. 22 - "Sto. Niño Exhibit" at Ayala Center Cebu, Exhibit Area 2 during mall hours

Until Jan. 31 - "Cebu! Cebu!" exhibit showcases unique couture creations of fashion designers Carlos Arnaiz, Dan Ong, Dennis Bersales, Erwin T. Lim, Cary Santiago, Gladys Young, Hive, and the Rodriguez Sisters.

Jan. 16-Feb. 28 - "Dinhi ug Didto" exhibit presented by Art at the Park features Raul Arambulo's photographs and Raymund L. Fernandez' sculptures at the Linear Park (across Marriott Hotel) in Cebu Business Park.

Until Feb. 2 - Qube Gallery also presents an exhibition of the works of popular Cebuano artists Anthony Fermin in celebration of the Feast of Sto. Niño at the CAP Art Center along Osmeña Blvd., Cebu City.

Come February, which was declared National Arts Month, I expect more art exhibits or literary works to be launched. These are really something to look forward to. Seeing art alive in my hometown around me at a time when I’m “fully” aware of and appreciate their presence, who am I not to get excited?

Support local artists!

- Nancy -

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February, with all the red, pink, and white paper hearts dangling inside stores and love songs played out with (spooky) repetition all over town, is almost like December. Well, just almost. The month is filled with a couple of obvious reasons for us to celebrate, it being Heart and Art Month at the same time.

The latter is being observed in the Philippines with the seriousness of a reader irrevocably hooked to a good book. In fact, Presidential Proclamation 683 signed in 1991 declared February as National Arts Month (NAM) for the country, and we have a credible agency, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, taking the lead to organize various NAM activities all over the islands, including the recently held Taboan literary arts festival in Dumaguete City.

To keep up with the celebration, here at Simple Clockwork, let us get to know Philippines’ National Artists for Literature. After all, the Order of the National Artists Award (Orden ng Gawad Pambansang Alagad ng Sining) is the highest national recognition given to Filipino individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of Philippine Arts. More than that, it honors the country’s cultural heritage that has become enriched because of these contributions.

I admit, I don’t know all of the National Artists for Literature until today. Well, for an excuse, I can easily say I was not a literature major (although, on second thought, I did take up a couple of literature units), but I am a Filipino and that puts me in a position without any excuses at all.

Let’s start:

Photo Source: www.rizalarchive.blogspot.com

Jose Garcia Villa

National Artist for Literature (1973)

Villa is known for a lot of things--his unforgettable way of capturing the attention of a crowd, the tartness of his tongue. But no one can dispute his incredible talent as a poet and writer. He is, in fact, considered as one of the “finest contemporary poets regardless of race or language”. He introduced the reversed consonance rime scheme in poetry. Attributing to himself the characters Dove, Eagle, and Lion, he combined these three and used Doveglion as a penname. And guess what, E.E. Cummings wrote a poem for Villa, titled “Doveglion, Adventures in Value”.

Photo Source: www.voiceseducation.org

Amado V. Hernandez
National Artist for Literature (1973)

Hernandez is what we call a “committed artist” through and through, with the way he live by his belief that the function of the writer is “to act as the conscience of society and to affirm the greatness of the human spirit in the face of inequity and oppression”. He wrote his novel “Mga Ibong Mandaragit” while in prison. It is considered the first Filipino socio-political novel that exposes the diseases of the society through the agrarian disputes in the 1950s.

Photo Source: www.travelsphilippines.com

(Nicomedes “Onching”) Nick Joaquin
National Artist for Literature (1976)

Like all other national artists, Joaquin and his works are timeless. But to me, he is more memorable because I was debating with myself in a bookstore between choosing his “The Woman Who Had Two Navels” (uniquely titled, if I may add) or F. Sionil Jose’s “Gagamba” for a school paper. I ended up with the latter for childish reasons I could no longer remember. Still, I read the former, although I haven’t gotten around to finishing it yet. Joaquin is praised for his exploration of the Philippine colonial past under Spain and his scrutiny into the psychology of social changes from a young generation’s perspective. He has an insane love for books such that he preferred them as his educational and self-enrichment materials than classroom work.

Photo Source: sites.google.com/site/jedahmamorbor/camiling-tarlac

Carlos P. Romulo
National Artist for Literature (1982)

Romulo is well known for his being the Philippine’s foremost diplomat and advocate of a continued wholesome Philippine-American friendship. But I would like to remember him as a writer and as a smiling individual with significant contributions to the country starting from when became a reporter at 16, a newspaper editor at 20, a publisher at 32, and later on, a public servant who received many recognitions. Above all, during his time, he was the only Asian to win America’s coveted Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for his series of articles predicting the outbreak of World War II.

Photo Source: www.philstar.com

Francisco Arcellana
National Artist for Literature (1990)

Arcellana is a writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist, and teacher. But I will always remember him for his beautiful poignant short stories. He is an important precursor in the development of modern Filipino short story in English. I will not forget his short stories, “The Flowers of May”, “The Mats”, and “How To Read”. Of his own stories, he considered “Thy Kingdom Come” (which I still have to read). Because of his quiet disposition, Arcellana prefers soft spoken and quite people, such as the shy, silent writers Vicente Rivera Jr., and Carlos Angeles.

Photo Source: www.guialimbaga.weebly.com

Nestor Vicente Madali (N. V. M.) Gonzales
National Artist for Literature (1990)

Oh, how can I forget Gonzales’ memorable Children of the Ash-Covered Loam? In my mind, I could still remember the clashing scent of early morning dew and the kaingin smoke when I read the story. A fictionist, essayist, poet, and teacher, Gonzales’ incredible talent lies in reflecting the Philippine culture and spirit in rural and urban landscapes. His works have appeared in practically all the leading pre- and post- World War II magazines in Manila and in various journals abroad.

Photo Source: www.aroundtheflexure.com

Edith L. Tiempo
National Artist for Literature (1999)

Tiempo is the only female in the group of current roster of National Artists for Literature. I best associated her with the Silliman National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete City, which she founded and directed with her husband, Edilberto K. Tiempo and helped produced some of the country’s best writers. I’ve read several of her poems, and I appreciate her contemplative style and profound substance.

Photo Source: www.bilingualpen.com

F. (Francisco) Sionil Jose
National Artist for Literature (2001)

Jose recently visited Cebu for a lecture and graced the theatrical portrayal of his short fiction, “Progress”, which I will talk about in another post. Mel U of The Reading Life made a recent post on Jose’s “The God Stealer”. Common in his works is the simple yet profound way of espousing the aspirations of the Filipino people and at the same time reflecting his belief that the writer has a strong obligation to the society. He is owner-manager of Solidaridad Bookshop.

Photo Source: www.tabaon09-delegates.blogspot.com

Virgilio S. Almario (also known as Rio Alma)
National Artist for Literature (2003)

Honestly, I’ve only heard of Virgilio Almario just recently. I found out about him while I was reading some short stories compiled through Likhaan, the publication program of the University of the Philippines Institute of Creative Writing. One of the editors in previous journals is Almario himself. What I like from among the facts I discovered about him is how he made a mark in Philippine children’s literature by establishing the Children’s Communication Center, which publishes the Aklat Adarna series, and how he himself has written stories for children and directed children’s illustrators.

Photo Source: www.lakwatcha.com

Alejandro Roces
National Artist for Literature (2003)

This man can truly move mountains. Apart from being considered the country’s best writer of comic short stories (I look forward to reading some of them), he is a champion of Filipino cultures as evident in his own writing and in his causes. He popularized several local fiestas, including Moriones and Ati-atihan, led the campaign to change the Philippines’ Independence Day from July 4 to June 12, provoked the change of language in country’s stamps, currency, and passports from English to Filipino, and recovered Jose Rizal’s manuscripts when they were stolen from the National Archives.

Photo Source: www.designbluemanila.com

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature (2006)

Lumbera, one of the leading literary critics of Philippine literature, reads and writes both Pilipino and English. He is also a poet, librettist, and scholar. He introduced to Tagalog literature the “Bagay” poetry, which is described as “a landmark aesthetic tendency that has helped to change the vernacular poetic tradition”.

So, folks, these are the Philippines’ National Artists for Literature. Which among them is your favorite? Whose works have you read or haven’t read yet (but planning to, soon)?

Happy National Arts Month!

- Nancy -

References:

www.ncca.gov.ph
www.globalpinoy.com
Valeros, Florentino B. & Gruenberg, Estrellita V. (1987). Filipino Writers in English. Quezon City, Philippines: New Day Publishers

There comes a point in your life when you know you have to give up something you love doing in order to cope and breathe. I am about to do that. It is sort of inevitable. Regrettably. My life has recently (yet happily) been taken over by my family, friends, school, civic groups, and a lot of reading, which is a stark contrast from last year, which was, on a personal note, best remembered for several work adjustments and, by choice, more time for blogging. Oh, I am not saying last year was bad because it was not. It was very gratifying in a different way.

It is no secret that over the past Christmas, I readjusted my priorities to include more time for family, friends, and books. And I have been living that dream. I have weekly impromptu meet-ups with my girl-friends, two of whom will be getting married this year; I am organizing family celebrations and planning a couple of out-of-town trips this year for myself; and I have read more than 10 books since January. Here comes the second best part: I’ll be wrapping up my postgraduate studies in September this year, which means I have to do a lot of preparations for my written and oral exams.

It is indeed a promising year, not to mention starting off the year with my doctor telling me he will most likely end my medication mid-year if I stay good and obedient. Perhaps my only regret is that I only have 24 hours a day, eight hours of which are already spent for my full-time job, leaving me not enough time to continue what I started. This is the sad part, which I never dreamed I would say (because I told myself I could do this but now I finally come into terms with myself and honestly say I could no longer do it): I will give up some things in my blog. I won’t quit blogging altogether, I assure you. Blogging in itself is fast becoming synonymous to reading...or breathing.

However, for the time being, I will take a pause from reviewing books, not that I have been very active in that area in the past few months. With much sadness, I am looking for someone to pass the Short Story Initiative project to. I first got the torch from Risa of Breadcrumb Reads when she passed on the Short Story on Wednesdays (that I later developed into the monthly Short Story Initiative) to me. I really hope someone will take up the challenge and help promote short stories by hosting the Short Story Initiative; short stories are good fiction worth reading and being appreciated. I will miss this project terribly. If interested, please email me: enarse@gmail.com. At this point, let me take this chance to thank each one of you, my dear readers, for your support for the Short Story Initiative! And I am sorry, deeply sorry, that I could no longer do it!

I will continue to blog and focus more on Philippine literature. I have an ongoing promising project with Mel U of The Reading Life, which I will pursue more actively. I have several short stories by Filipino writers in my stock waiting to be read and talked about. I will be doing some reflective blogging as well, something I have been wanting to do for a while now. And I will be talking more about my town, what’s happening in the local literary and art sphere because I realized there are very few bloggers in my place actually blogging about Cebu’s literature, heritage, and culture. Hopefully, despite some major changes, I hope I will still see you around here, at Simple Clockwork.

Ending this post on a sad note would be awful, so I am sharing with you some good news. We have the winner for the short story collection I promised to give away! The list was raffled off via random.org last January 13 (I never got around to posting it immediately)...so congratulations to Nina Zumel of Multo (Ghost)!

Also, did you remember that I mentioned having read 10 books or so since January? Oh, it was so much fun! It was like I was being driven by a positive sense of urgency to finish one book after the other, and I enjoyed each one of them. Here are the books I have read:

-The Mysterious Benedict Society (Book 1) by Trenton Lee Stewart
-The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (Book 2) by Trenton Lee Stewart
-The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma (Book 3) by Trenton Lee Stewart
-The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling (Book 1) by Maryrose Wood
-The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery (Book 2) by Maryrose Wood
-The Sisters Grimm (Book 1) by Michael Buckley
-The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
-The Ordinary Princess by M. M. Kaye
-The Best of Archie Comics
-The Dragon’s Eye by Dugald A. Steer
-The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett

Photo by Nancy Cudis

Here are the books I am now reading (because I got print copies!):

-The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making by Catherynne Valente
-From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
-The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

I posted some book covers over at Simple Clockwork’s “sister” blog, www.cebuanobibliotheca.tumblr.com, which I still own, of course.

And while I’m busy reading, I will have to make a mental note to go through my wardrobe because I will be dressing up for the 2013 Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. (CBSI) Appreciation Night at Harolds Hotel on Feb. 15!

Ah, exciting times, don’t you think?

Cheers,

- Nancy -

Miss Auras by John Lavery

When my instructor in Advanced Grammar and Composition, Mr. Bob Cabardo, at the University of San Jose-Recoletos mentioned to the three-person class (oh, make that two, since the third one was absent) during our last meeting for the semester that a recent news reported many Filipino still loving to read, I tucked that tidbit in my mind and when I got home, I searched far and low online for the complete story. Since I didn’t have the right keywords, I haven’t found it--yet. However, what I did find was still a similar piece of news, though old and a bit discomforting.

The National Book Development Board (NBDB), in partnership with the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines and Vibal Foundation, commissioned the Social Weather Stations to conduct the nationwide 2012 NBDB Readership Survey. It is considered the most comprehensive study on the reading habits of Filipino adults, taking into account the way the study covered 1,200 respondents who evenly came from the different regions of the country. Last year, NBDB released the results of the survey.

Here is the catch, though. The results showed a decline in the number of Filipino adult readers in the country--94 percent in 2003, 92 percent in 2007, and 88 percent in 2012. The 2012 figure represented a total of 49.2 million Filipino readers. Blame my business reporting training at Sun.Star Cebu, but my instant thought was the impact of this fact to my favorite bookstores, including La Belle Aurore Bookshop, National Bookstore, and Fully Booked. Will there be significant decline in their inventory? How often will I get to see new titles or arrivals? Will there be lesser than less book events in Cebu?

An Old Woman Reading. 17th century, Imitator
of David Teniers the Younger
(Image Source: www.nationalgallery.org.uk)

While the NBDB was astute (and quite quick) to point out that there still exists an enormous market in the Philippines for producers of all sorts of reading materials, I could not help thinking these questions, especially when, in the same study, Visayas (where my hometown Cebu is) contributed to the decline because of its own decline in readership from 96 percent in 2007 to 87 percent in 2012. It also shows that those educated in private schools read books more often that those educated in public schools.

For me, a lot of things are happening behind these figures, which is why I was quick to nod with NBDB chair Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz when she said, as quoted by Manila Bulletin, that she wished the readership data is “neat and so compartmentalized” so her team can attribute the decline to electronic media that has become an “expected alternative or distraction”. But I guess such is not the case, and so I move to present my hypothesis that the decline of readership is largely due to lack of promotion or advocacy of reading, something that parents should consider in their mental how-to-raise-a-well-rounded-kid manual.

Take this scenario, for example: A teacher of 60 elementary students (public or private school, take your pick) who does not know the difference between their and there or quite and quiet will end up spreading the mistake to 60 more people whose young minds are like delicate sponges. Unless this is immediately corrected by succeeding teachers or by parents, the scenario becomes a vicious cycle. One way to correct this, I believe, is to encourage the young to read, let them appreciate the value of reading, let them discover good writers for their list of role models, and continuously expose them to good writing. Based on my experience, I can say with confidence that reading can teach us proper grammar, which in turns makes our expressions on paper clear and understandable, which in turn makes us conscious of our grammar when speaking.

Image Source: www.pinterest.com

Studies show that readers “improve comprehension, increase their vocabularies, develop the use of their imaginations, foster their imagination, expand their curiosity, become better writers by understanding the grammar, patterns, and rhythm of language, improve their memories, hone their attention spans, enhance their critical thinking and reasoning skills, acquire second language more easily, and develop the ability to express themselves clearly and confidently” (www.survelum.com).

Dino Tabaña, my classmate in Advanced Grammar and Composition (whom I will miss after he completes his comprehensive and oral exams this month and claim the title of a full-fledged graduate in Master in Media Studies), mentioned that writing and speaking, particularly broadcasting, are two different modes of communication, hence there are differences in the tone and composition but he was quick to point out that the difference does not excuse them from observing proper grammar. And this brings into mind the recent humorous column of former teacher and colleague, Lorenzo Niñal. He shared a story of a radio intern who inadmissibly, repeatedly pronounced debutante instead of deboto to refer in Cebuano the devotees of Sto. Niño. Of course, naturally, Niñal practically turned hysterical, something I understand from a college teacher’s perspective.

During the same discussion in class, I raised the hypothetical question as to what could be the possible factors that make the younger generation of mass communication students more inclined with broadcasting than print writing. We theorized that the new media, which makes use of diverse visual materials, is one factor. Another could be the fast pace of living that builds the appetite in us to watch a one-minute condensed TV news rather than spend five minutes of our time reading the same news in print just so to save time, although we lamented the way grammar is poorly used in broadcast in more than one occasion.

Image Source: www.arcadja.com

When I was teaching news and feature writing to an all-girl class, my question on the first day of the semester was, “Who likes to write here?” Looking back, it was a stupid question, but I was attacked with childish curiosity. Guess how many raised their hands? None. Later on, I realized that they like to sing and dance and report on camera more than writing. They have a certain sense of fear when it comes to writing. Some of them does not even associate blogging with writing. I can only guess why. I think one factor is how the traditional way of teaching has fueled that fear through endless accounts of bloody composition papers week after week since Grade 1. It could work for some, the way it worked for me. But times are changing. On top of what they are doing and are required to do, such as publication of research outputs as a requirement for tenure in colleges and universities (which I will tackle in this blog in the future), teachers across all school levels are urged to adapt, too.

At the end of the day, if we keep saying our young is our country’s future, then so much still needs to be considered and done. The decline of readership and (observed) quality of writing and broadcasting, for instance, have brought for the next batch of full-time teachers, including myself, a new wave of challenges, which, from personal experience and observation, calls on for fresh approaches that go beyond the traditional red ink and circled test scores.

Let’s advocate reading, writing, and good grammar in between!

- Nancy -

P.S. This was submitted as a final reaction paper in Advanced Grammar and Composition class.

When you’re totally involved in something else, some other good news takes a while to sink in. My recent experience as recipient of the Blogger of the Year conferred by the Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. (CBSI) was like that. The conferment was seven nights ago, and the trophy is on my desk at home practically screaming for me to be appreciative, if not attentive, to its beautifully crafted orange, gold, and silver curves… And I am, really.

Members and partners of Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. during the 2013 CBSI Appreciation Night

It’s just that these past few nights, I was (utterly) basking myself with relief after we successfully pulled off the first CBSI Appreciation Night last Feb. 15 at Harolds Hotel. Of course, the word ‘successfully’ is a subjective term. But when you count five reputable companies as our partners for the event; no physical accidents onstage whatsoever; an intimate venue complete with large backdrop, photo wall, and a photo story; charming emcees flawlessly moving the program from one segment to the next with wit and humor; and more than 40 people in attendance despite the cold weather and traffic, then, yes, you may enthusiastically accuse me for being subjective. So, you see, after the event, indulging myself with the “organizer’s relief” was the next best thing.

Actually becoming conscious of the trophies I’ve brought home came only second. But I’m happy just the same.

Blogging pushed me out of my comfort zone. In a good way. Outside this comfort zone, I found myself socializing with different people, meeting weird characters, craving to share good news with others, organizing events, advocating personal causes, and forming my own community of readers.

I am amused to recall when I received the CBSI Blogger of the Year during the Appreciation Night. I was onstage in hypertensive mode ready to fly out of the stage to proceed with the program and look at other things that I was assigned to take care of (yes, I was part of the organizing committee). The next thing I knew I was asked for a message. And oh boy, did I freak out! Public speaking has never been a strong point, though I try. With the microphone on my face, here is a part of what I said--that is, as far as I can remember, given my shocked nerves:

“Ruben (CBSI president), this was not part of the program! (My readers, I just had to protest! I was in charge of the program, for Jesus’ sake!) Anyway, uh, uh, um, thank you. (Yep, there were so many lots of ums and uhs that I lost count, which obviously showed how my mind suddenly went blank). This is kind of funny because I was the one who called for the voting for the CBSI Blogger of the Year. So when Bjornson (CBSI external vice-president) tallied this, the result came as a big shock. So thank you. Let us keep blogging. There is so much joy and gratification in what we do. Thank you.”

Then I practically jumped off the stage.

I received an Award of Distinction and the
CBSI Bloggers of the Year award.

Please humor me when I say I would like to extend that speech through this blog post:

It has taken me some time to come into terms and accept that I’m a blogger. I have long perceived myself more as a writer, student, and teacher. Perhaps it is because blogging has such a technical ring to it, something that I’m not really knowledgeable of. Give me
books to read, give me art exhibits to cover, give me people I can debate with on responsible news reporting, and I can manage myself. But give me the technicalities of search engine optimization and social media, and my instinct would tell me to run to the opposite direction.

My experience with blogging has been a humbling one. I am what you call the reluctant blogger. I was a business reporter for Sun.Star Cebu under the tutelage of Liberty Pinili, working proactively with my then partner in business crime, Debra Magallon-Estero, when I came across CBSI. If my poor memory serves me right, the interview happened around the time when the group was on their first year. I met bloggers who are now reputable in their own niches, such as Kevin Ray Chua, Mark Monta, Clarence Mongado, Jorich Ponio, Mikyu Maglasang, Agnes Jimenez, and Evan Johnn Mendoza. These people have encouraged me to try out blogging, which seemed to be a buzzword at the time. Even my former editor, Max Limpag, who holds my respect and admiration, especially when it comes to clear and effective blog writing, pushed me to explore it. Buoyed by this supportive climate, I made an online portfolio of my news reports. The amount of interactions I received bolstered my confidence enough to further explore this amazing platform. Later on, in the span of four years or so, I was learning other things beyond what is familiar to me—setting up my own site under my own name, embedding photos, videos and plugins, networking with other local and international bloggers, engaging in blogging partnerships, and even doing basic Adobe Photoshop.

My interview with CBSI four years ago. (L-R) Kevin Chua, Mark Monta, and Jorich Ponio
(Photo credit: Clarence Mongado)

Blogging pushed me out of my comfort zone. In a good way. Outside this comfort zone, I found myself socializing with different people, meeting weird characters, craving to share good news with others, organizing events, advocating personal causes, and forming my own community of readers. In this blogging environment, where I thrive with good intentions and without ulterior motives other than to help professionalize the blogging community in Cebu in general and push my personal advocacies in reading and writing, I guess I turned out okay.

Another huge event to look forward to next month!

If this were a speech, then this would be the time when I would hold my trophy on my left side and lift it up and down as I thank my family and friends (offline and online) who supported me in this remarkable blogging journey—my longtime non-showbiz boyfriend (haha!) who is my number one fan; my parents and sister Sheilou and my boyfriend’s family who all spoil me; my writing “stars” and former professors and colleagues Mayette Tabada and Lorenzo Niñal; my special friends Jen, Dess, Mayang, Darah, and Venshang, for keeping me sane; all my fantastic colleagues at CBSI with the dependable leadership of Ruben Licera and Bjornson Bernales; my ever patient friends at the Cebu Book Club Geezelle Tapangan, Fleire Castro, Jaysee Pingkian, Agnes Jimenez, and Ken Taarup, among others, and all my readers, followers, and blogging partners!

Here is praying for more years of productive and effective blogging experience for me!

Cheers,

- Nancy -

There are times I would quietly complain why a lot of good events--SS3 concert, Nicholas Sparks meet and greet with fans, national awards--are being held in Manila, Philippines’ capital city and an hour’s flight from Cebu, my hometown. From the marketing perspective, I have nothing against Manila; it has a very huge potential market for any event after all. While many events are still going on in Manila, the rest of us in the other cities who don’t have the luxury of time and extra money to travel and attend these events are getting restless.

Cebu, for instance, is home to a lot of very talented Internet marketers and SEO specialists who are silently yet impressively making big strides in their fields such that meeting one or several of them is always a humbling experience for me. When I was invited to meet some of them with other bloggers several weeks ago, I discovered among them the thirst for knowledge, the desire to share, and the enthusiasm to help. These elements led to the organization of the first Social Media Influencers Summit 2013, a clear manifestation of Cebuano and Cebu-based professionals who are not content with waiting things to happen for them.

The summit, organized by iNewMedia Online in cooperation with Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. (CBSI), will happen on March 16 at the Convention Hall of J Centre Mall. It will feature incredible speakers from across the country, such as Rappler’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Maria Ressa; Chris Ducker, founder of Location 63 and CEO of Virtual Staff Finder; and lawyer Ethelbert Ouano, legal counsel of CBSI, practically making the summit a national event. The topics are very interesting, covering a lot of areas that used social media to propel their causes, such as Community Trending: Using Social Media to Build an Online Tribe by Ducker and Community Social Media Influencers at Work: The Iloilo Bloggers Experience by Mary Jane Cabrera.

What pushed the Social Media Influencers Summit 2013 to a clearer and more visible limelight is the staggering support of the private sector, several of them are sponsoring and rooting for the success of the event, including co-presentors Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., Megaworld Corporation, Smart Communications, and J Centre Mall.

Photo Source: J Centre Mall

The beautiful thing about the summit is participants will be able to learn and help at the same time. Proceeds of the event will benefit the Dr. Narciso Tapia, a dynamic and active CBSI member now battling a rare kind of disease; World Vision; and CBSI.

We should have more events like this where we will be able to learn a lot and help a lot. Since this summit is going to push through (in Cebu, at that) with a lot of beneficiaries, who am I to complain? I am personally looking forward to attend this summit. So I hope to see you there!

- Nancy -

The month of March marks a heightened sense of excitement and dread as we see eager college seniors scampering off to tailors for their togas and pampering themselves deservedly before romping the aisle to receive their diplomas that will officially declare them graduates. Even while many are enrolled in college here in the Philippines, tertiary education is still a privilege honored well by parents who value their children’s successful education more than anything else, which is why you cannot blame very happy mothers and fathers shelling out extra cash for extra costly gifts for the new graduates of the family.

So you may ask what I got on my own graduation? On my high school graduation, which was more than a decade ago, I got a point-and-shoot digital camera, which at the time, was ridiculously expensive. I still have it with me today. On my sister’s college graduation last year, she got a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and I was quite green with envy such that I bought my own Samsung Note several months later. While my sister and I love our gifts, they actually pale in comparison to utterly rich college kids receiving brand new cars and European trips.

For families who could not afford such grand gifts, Lazada.com.ph, a fast growing online shopping site, offers some ideas on what to shop and how to shop them. (As a price guide, the foreign exchange rate as of March 11, 2013 is Php 1.00 = US$ 40.72.)

1. Samsung Galaxy Note N700 (Php 23,989.00 at Lazada.com.ph as of this writing) - This is my current phone and I love it. It’s a smartphone with a powerful eight megapixel camera (which fuels my craze over Instagram) and an awesome internal memory of 16 GB that is expandable up to 32 GB on microSD, allowing me to use a lot of useful applications. Rather than a notebook, I bring my phone to meetings and classes because it’s handy, powerful, and reliable. It looks cool and chic, too!

2. Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (Php 21,989.00 at Lazada.com.ph as of this writing) - My sister’s current device is the older version of this one for nearly a year now and it seems like she can’t part with it. So I’m sure Tab 2 is much better. One can already enjoy new interactive games, read e-books, and listen to music, among many other applications!

3. Mossimo Silver Gentleman Sports Watch with Metal Rubber Bracelet Black Dial (Php 4,606.00 at Lazada.com.ph as of this writing) - I’ve never been quite fond of watches; they make me too conscious of the time. But I know of several men who adores watches in the same way women adore their engagement rings. So a good reliable watch with a sleek design might just be the right graduation gift for a son, daughter, or sibling.

4, The Mysterious Benedict Society Complete Collection (Php 3,218.00 at Lazada.com.ph as of this writing) - If I had started book blogging during college, I would have asked a lot of book sets from my parents and each of my aunts and uncles. What a tall book tower it would have been! I read The Mysterious Benedict Society and love the entire trilogy! Books are always beautiful gifts for avid readers like me. Book sets make them extra special. Now that I’m working, I’m browsing through sites like Lazada.com.ph for sets that I could buy for myself (and I don’t need a graduation as a motivator, although I’ll be graduating in October for my postgraduate studies--that is, with crossed fingers). Right now, I’m eyeing at Trese Book Set (yeah, I like gory graphic novels, too).

With a lot of students graduating every March, you can expect a lot of foot traffic in physical stores. It can be stressful, which is something I don’t need after a whole day of brain whacking work that comes with the very cold air conditioning blowing down my neck. And so, I resort to online shopping. It has been effectively convenient for me. I shop my clothes and shoes online. For books, well, I just have to go to a bookstore and smell them (you understand?), although oftentimes they don’t have the titles I like, which again prompts me to go online. The wonderful things about Lazada.com.ph are that it accepts cash on delivery, it has promos, it offers the option of free shipping for orders above Php 1,000.00, and it has a seven-day return policy.

Do you remember the gifts you received on your graduation? What is the most memorable gift you ever received? What gifts would you recommend to give to a graduate?

- Nancy -

This business of buying and selling online is a fascinating process. A few clicks on button after button from one side of the world, the lure of convenience brought by credit cards, and the exciting, if not agonizing, wait for the order from the other side of the world to arrive can indeed maximize one’s time. If nothing goes wrong—no system glitches, no extreme weather changes to disrupt deliveries—both the buyer and seller end up happy, provoking another yet positive review on service and product, and encouraging further the spirit of online shopping. Shopping for goods in the virtual world, though, is just one application of electronic commerce (e-commerce) that probably sounds relatively new to many with the subsisting madness over social media.

But e-commerce is a long-time trend with services and promotions in various applications, such as instant messaging, online banking, and online ticketing (among so many others), keeping the entire process constantly in vogue. Along the way, many small and big companies have been attracted to and really invested in e-commerce and its promise of global markets and better customer service and even reputation building. With the current speed of things, it is only natural, especially for businesses that are into or that will be embracing e-commerce into its systems and process, to be regularly updated of what is going on and what is most likely going to happen with this side of the business.

And here comes the exciting part. For the first time, the 4th Digital Filipino E-Commerce Summit is coming to Cebu on March 23 at Diamond Suites and Residencesin Cebu City! The summit is an intensive one-day educational event on e-commerce strategies. When the organizers practically put it that way, who would want to miss out such an important event? Participants can expect a series of interactive sessions with e-commerce players and industry practitioners that compose the credible panel of resource speakers.

On a personal note, from the perspective of somebody who is not new to online shopping as a buyer but is new as a seller, I look forward to the talk by lawyer JJ Disini of the University of the Philippines College of Law who will discuss “E-commerce and Data Privacy: What Every Merchant Needs to Know”; to Mark Joseph Panganiban, e-commerce specialist for Shopinas.com, who will speak about the “Lessons Learned in Running an Online Store”; and to “Using Community, Content, and Conversation to Drive E-Commerce Sales” by Randolph Novino, founder of Pinoyscreencast.net. You can check out the complete line-up of speakers here.

The fee for the summit is only Php 1,500, which is already inclusive of lunch, conference shirt (until supply last), and kit, in exchange for a wealth of practical and strategic information that our businesses could put to good use. Register today to confirm your seats! Free conference passes are given to Digital Filipino Club members.

I look forward to meeting you there! See you at the first E-Commerce Summit in Cebu!

- Nancy -

Pay it forward. This sounds like a trite line picked up in a regular charity event. But a year-old group of reading advocates, the same one that often gets mentioned in this blog, jazzed up the meaning of that statement.

Last March 23, Basadours, an enthusiastic circle of students and young professionals dedicated to promoting the love for reading, invited partners and community stakeholders to a simple yet intimate gathering they aptly called “Panagtambayayong” (Cebuano term for partnership or collaboration) at the Cebu City Public Library (CCPL) and Information Center along Osmena Boulevard.

Meeting old and new friends.

I got re-acquainted with a couple of students from St. Theresa's College, my alma mater.

Attending the event as a long-time fan, I reconnected with former colleague Cris Evert Lato, five months pregnant with fraternal twins (hooray!) and working around in her usual sanguine energy. I also met familiar faces like Bea Martinez and Keena Martinez whom I met during the opening of the Junquera branch of La Belle Aurore Bookshop, Ms. ConCon Cabarron whom I previously met in a couple of social gatherings, and two students from St. Theresa’s College. I also met new faces like Bartolome Mariscal, a barangay librarian, and Cebu City librarian Ms. Rosario Chua.

Bea, Basadour’s secretary-general, filled in the audience—there were more or less 20 of us (not counting the members of Basadours)—on the group’s performance for the last 12 months. She presented an interesting timeline from the formation of the group in Feb. 25, 2012 with 10 members, which was shortly followed by the kick-off of a year-long reading project aptly called, “I Love to Read” Project. The project features a lot of creative monthly and seasonal activities, including Storygami, It’s Story Time at the Library, Hugpong, National Children’s Book Day, Storytelling goes to Town, Banilad Town Center Story Hour, Yard Sale, and Storython, which all manifests just how the dedicated and committed the lean-membered group is to their advocacy.

Bea Martinez gives the Basadour's updates.

“Reading is a dying culture among the young, and that’s a shame. We at the Basadours want to keep this reading culture alive by way of a non-formal non-class approach. Through stories, we can teach children so much. We believe in the importance of books and libraries and so we partner with CCPL and other groups,” Bea said. “We bring kids to the library for them to make a connection, for them to create a bond with the library. More than that, we open books for children to read, believing that we open a world for them.”

Rapt, I found myself nodding in agreement. Let’s face it; the reading population is in a decline over the past few years as books struggle for our attention, digital crazies that we are. By reading, I mean getting through several pages of the book from start to end, from epilogue to prologue. I think we are so distracted with so many things today that it is quite hard for us to concentrate a full time on a good book. Expert studies may show the decline, but the pain of the fact is extremely aggravating when I realize the kind of dispiriting attitude many of my college students have towards the printed word.

Marvin Legaspi, president of Basadours, facilitates the open forum with partners.

Perhaps acknowledging this decline during the Panagtambayayong is what drove the stakeholders to nurture the Basadours with insights for improvement, each personally sending a silent prayer to God and the ancestors that the Basadours will last long as it should. We need more groups like them with members who are admirably dedicated to sharing the love for reading more than anyone I know. One concern pointed out was the lean membership. At present, it only has 10-12 members, maintaining about the same number over the past 12 months. Evert pointed out the group has not extensively promoted its membership since they want to build a track record first. And what a track record they have, always organizing well-planned (often library-based) events one month after the other!

“Let’s make the library alive; not a repository of old books,” Evert said, adding that as long as the Basadours is around, the Cebu City Public Library won’t close shop. To recall, it nearly did in 2008 when Cebu City Government officials decided to do so, only to have the statement and plan retracted amidst a lively public protest, and instead put forward the plan to have the building, a charming neoclassical architecture established in 1919 in one of the busy modern sections of the city, under renovation for several months.

At the time, Mrs. Rosario Chua was a newly appointed City Librarian, and she shared that the experience was truly a “baptism of fire”. Fast forward several years later, Mrs. Chua continues to serve as the City Librarian, continuously striving to put the library out of a hellhole ornamented with budget cuts and lack of government back-up by banking on the strong public support for reading, such as the one manifested by the Basadours. Just so you know, CCPL has been provided with a budget of Php 1.8 million this year, Php 500,000 of which is intended for the purchase of additional books and other reading materials. Do you think that’s enough?

I personally admire her for the way she is rallying beside the public’s call to extend library hours on weekdays and open on Saturdays. Not only is the library low on budget, it is also understaffed, which means extension of hours on weekdays sounds impossible but opening on Saturdays is feasible. This requires permission from the Cebu City Council, though. (And I just got struck with a provocative thought: This coming May 13, 2013 polls, I’ll elect leaders who support libraries.)

Mrs. Chua very kindly gave me a brief tour of CCPL. It was not my first time in the library but I went along with it. She showed me one section she is very proud of: the Children’s Reading Corner, where the library’s monthly read-aloud sessions with children from the different barangays are held. (Can you picture me? For someone who loves children’s literature, I was practically gushing with awe.) Mrs. Chua shared how a father from Talamban would bring his daughter to this corner several times a week to nurture that (addictive) love for reading. She did a thorough job of making my day.

Mrs. Rosario Chua poses inside the Zonta Children's Reading Center.

And we took turns posing! :)

What a heavenly set-up, big thanks to CCPL and the Zonta group!

It is also under Mrs. Chua’s librarianship to ensure that barangays put up a functional reading center in their area, as required by law. Currently, there are 37 out of 80 barangays in Cebu City that have reading centers. That’s quite a feat, considering the lack of sustainability plans of many government officials as far as maintaining the resources of the library and putting someone reliable in charge of the facility are concerned.

(L-R) I am sitting beside Mr. Bartolome Mariscal and Mrs. Rosario Chua.

Mrs. Chua cited Barangay Ermita as one of the barangays with a very efficient reading center. During the Basadour’s event, I was happy to have met Ermita’s barangay librarian, Mr. Bartolome Mariscal, a grassroots hero in his own right. He shared with me some funny anecdotes, such as how the air-conditioning of the facility encourages children to come indoors and read, and how his library services expanded to include free tutorials for children who are actually bright but merely lack parental guidance.

So… To the Basadours, thank you. May you continue what you do, always breathing fresh air into the library and opening up fantastic worlds for kids through books. May you continue to pay it forward.

Your ever supportive fan,

Nancy

My journey from print journalism to blogging starting four years ago has been a sort of whirlwind love-hate experience. Well, my original exposure has been fraught with pyramids, upside and otherwise, filled with strict instructions on pattern, proper transitions, and words that are big on impact (or at least with strong force enough to send subjects to act, hide, and/or complain). Then, by some force of nature backed up with a sense of curiosity tempered with the eagerness to learn, I started blogging.

For some time, I was in a mental pain—oftentimes grimacing at the sight of wrong spellings, wincing at poorly structured sentences, shaking my head countless times over the potential of some blog posts gone somehow wrong, and coming into terms with how many blogs have digressed from the writing rules I have learned in school and kept in my heart. Knowing my own grammar is certainly far from perfect, I stumped down the teacher in me who wants to point out these mistakes and told myself to let these pass. For me, the fact that many bloggers are regularly writing is a favorable indicator that they will improve.

Between the period I started to blog seriously and now, I won an award, which propelled me head on into the local blogging scene. I was hesitant at first; I felt that since my education about web development and Internet marketing is very inadequate, I was not really a blogger in the full sense of the term. Even up to now, while trying to stumble my way through the vacillations of online trends, I consider myself, above all, just a writer, continuously wanting to improve. In this tech-dazed time, having basic technical knowledge in blogging is a bonus. Because of this, I would tend to shy away from invitations to be a speaker or a panelist. My public speaking jitters are so hopeless.

So far, I have only really spoken before a crowd thrice this past year. The first one was during the Social Good SummitCebu at MarceloFernanCebuPressCenterin September last year, and I have so nervous I had to read my two-page speech. Part of the speech went like this:

“At the end of the day, my blog is not about me. It’s about how I am doing with my goals. Am I inspiring change through blogging and social media? Am I getting other people to really appreciate and understand Philippine literature? I don’t have a monitoring tool like radian6 for me to know. But with comments received, with conversations made, and relationships built, I want to think I’m making small steps—small but moving forward.

You remember I told you I was a Jughead before? Now I’m bent on making an impact, on inspiring change, by being diligent and patient and passionate in blogging and social media, quite an opposite of Jughead. And you know, you could do it, too. Blog with a purpose. Do social media for a good cause. Act now.”

My second exposure was in a poetry reading last December. The third one was as a panelist during the Cebuanas on the Web Meet-up last Saturday at Location63. It was organized by Google Business Group and JCI Womandaue. Notwithstanding another set of unwelcome jitters, the good thing that happened before the event was it gave me a good opportunity to learn more about the situation of women in the area of technology. Most of what I found painted a bleak yet not totally hopeless picture.

Cebuanas on the Web Meet-up at Location 63

There are stories of women who made tech innovations in their companies, were lauded and recognized, and went on maternity leave only to come back having been demoted or their projects taken advantage of. While sexism is pretty much alive in a workplace perceived to be dominated by men, many women in the underdeveloped economies are still bewildered by the mere presence of computers mainly for cultural reasons. In other parts of the world, we also read of stories of how there is a decline in terms of women population for senior technology-related positions only to be countered by comments coming from women themselves that women are leaving corporate positions to build their own start-ups. Well, I would like to think this is the case. And I would like to believe that there are more women in tech industries today than there has been 10 years ago.

Break and networking. Here, I pose with Hannah Amora and Iren Licera.

My turn to speak (Photo by JKAR Photography)

During the Cebuanas (women from Cebu, Philippines) on the Web event, the panelists—there were four of us—were asked how women in our respective fields are making waves and accomplishing things Cebuanas should know of. I cited the event’s keynote speaker, Hannah Amora, whose inspiring story manifests how her dedicate to her cause has transformed the lives of her family for the better. She put up Maven’s Heart Fund to raise Php 1 million in three months for her son’s surgery. I also cited Fleire Castro of Third Team Media and organizer of Google Business Group Cebu who balances one hell of an act as a digital entrepreneur, wife, mother, and teacher to her home-schooled son. In the field of journalism, I cited my former professor, Mayette Tabada, also a columnist for Sun.Star Cebu, who inspires me to be a better writer. She is what I would consider my mentor, but I’m not sure she knows that. I pointed out to the participants that many women are making waves and accomplishing many things. All we need to do is ask and network.

The speakers and panelists of Cebuanas on the Web Meet-up (Photo by JKAR Photography)

The Cebuanas on the Web Meet-up was, for me, successful, what with the humor and dynamic interaction during the event, and I would like to congratulate Fleire and her team for another milestone.

(And as I end this post, I expressed to Fleire my hope that there will be a sequel of the event but of much grander scale, such as the Women in the Web Philippines.)

So all these that I have been saying are meant to draw a picture of how women are capable to be in tech jobs. Take me, for instance, who started with rigid print journalism training to become someone who is now into blogging as a hobby and digital management for a huge foundation as a full-time job. If given equal opportunities and treated as counterparts, women can do what man can, and that includes information technology and digital entrepreneurship.

Nancy

My mother is a born storyteller, very verbose and quite animated. Just like her own mother, she remembers many stories from long ago, even from the time when she started first grade. Mind you, not all of these are happy bedtime stories that make you smile before you sleep. These are tragic tales of the Japanese occupation, of unrequited love, of regrets, and of what-could-have-beens and what-ifs, pretty much balanced off with stories of climbing the neighbor’s mango tree (and harvesting some fruits without permission), of harvesting cacao at her family’s own backyard, and of endless talking over laundry by the riverside.
Unsurprisingly, my mother being my mother—a maddening petite package of bluntness and gentleness, of friendliness and sarcasm—would hover at me at breakfast time, and I would get this foreboding feeling that something creepy is going to happen in the next 30 seconds. Almost always, that something would: my mother would sit down on one side of the table and ask a subtle question about life in general, and then before I know it, she would be telling me stories of bloody suicide attempts that happened close to home during the war while I would attempt to finish my breakfast plate of ham and bacon and gulp down as much as I could a bowl of her utan bisaya.
I really don’t mind hearing these stories. In fact, I like listening to my mother, just like I sat as a rapt young listener to my late paternal grandfather’s stories of dealing with guerrillas and to my late maternal mother’s tales of fleeing from her war-threatened neighborhood to the mountains fresh from giving birth to her first child. Since these are things one does not get to hear everyday, I would say I am privileged to be a holder of some true stories of courage, sacrifice, and love that happened within my family, which I could pass on to the next line.
Here is an old photo of my mom visiting her mother's grave

As we celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday, I remember my mother and her unusual breakfast time stories. Some days, there are stories told before and repeated. Other days, there are new tales that are either too fantastic to believe or too horrendous to imagine (but either way, my melodramatic mother has achieved her goal of capturing my attention and her childish desire to have an audience).

My mother would tell me how her father, a gentle carpenter, would walk all day long with a cabinet on his head needed to be sold for a few pesos to feed his seven children; how she and her siblings would walk so far to go to school; how they have to make several rounds everyday to the well to gather water enough to feed and bath 10 members of the family; how a well not far off from where they fetched water has become a tragic scene of a pretty female neighbor who committed suicide to escape an abusive father (the well has to be closed off and abandoned); how family scandals in town are “contained”; and how cruel war was to a simple family and neighborhood like her own (and here I thought flogging only happened in Voltaire’s “Candide”.).
Come Mother’s Day, allow me to share with you my appreciation of my own mother and how she has kept our family alive with stories passed from her mother and her mother’s mother to her daughters (who are both still wrestling with how to deal with them in these digital times and Korean culture frenzy) and stories that happened to her and to her family, forcing us to deal with realities and teaching us by way of true events that courage, love, hard work, and understanding are way better than cowardice, hatred, and discord.
Go give your mother a hug this Mother’s Day. And listen to her stories. Really listen. Don’t worry too much if some of them are too hard to believe. She is your mother after all. (And if you are a female reading this post, you might become one soon with your own set of stories to tell.)

- Nancy -

P.S. I have entered this blog post in the 2013 Grandmother Power Blogging Campaign.

Do you remember this line: “What happened to romance? Sappy, soppy long-hand love letters...”? If you have seen the film, Beastly (2011), a nice modern-day rendition of one of my classic fairytales, Beauty and the Beast, then you have heard this line said about twice (if my poor memory serves me right).

And it’s really something to think about: What happened to romance AND handwritten love letters?

Maybe the best question should be: Where have all the men who would choose to brave the intricacies of grammar and the battlefield of composition writing gone? The next best question would probably be: Where are the women who demand (deftly and creatively without being too obvious) these letters given to them without the dictates of holiday spirits?

Better yet, looking at the big picture, why is our constantly evolving culture failing to support a certain system commonly called post office that is deemed capable of feeding the thrills and joys of a titanic population of romantics who constantly wish at the back of their minds for handwritten letters?

Perhaps the population is not that titanic anymore... Perhaps the demand is declining more rapidly than I think... Perhaps a lot of us has finally succumbed to the convenience of sending letters quickly and merely looking at them on a monitor rather than waiting for a few days, running to the mailman, holding the letter with a special thump of the heart, running back to the room, and opening the letter with a characteristic sense of excitement, and rereading the whole thing more than twice without being aware of that glowing smile...

I still remember this feeling vividly from old times when I would receive a letter full of advice coupled with a ten-dollar bill from an aunt living in Kansas or a letter full of stories of adventures from a distant American cousin or a letter of instructions from my Bible teacher from Wisconsin or a new pen pal from Greece. Each time, the feeling of having received a letter was the same: thrilling yet intimate. You see, young as I was, while I was making friends in my neighborhood, I was already building connections with the world. For me, a shy girl, it was a big deal.

And so, to keep feeding on that exhilarating experience of intimate connections, I made frequent trips to the Mandaue City Post Office, which was--and still is--a stone’s throw away from where I studied elementary and high school, hoping that I had written understandably and enough to prompt them to write me back. Shelling out some of my allowance for the stamps was not a biggie at all. In many cases, handwritten letters and post offices just have to go together.

Somehow, between the time I graduated high school and now, email became popular and my relatives and friends started to prefer it for its convenience and efficiency. Over time, I learned to catch up with the trend and started doing more than just emailing them; I tag them on Facebook and I tweet them on certain announcements. The next thing I know, I nearly forgot how the Mandaue City Post Office looks like such that recently I have to ask my mother if the said facility is still alive, to which she answered that yes, it is still very much alive because she just arrived from there after sending my aunt in Kansas a package of dried fish and whatnot. Oh, lucky aunt. All I get by traditional mail these days are credit card flyers, insurance premium notices, and subscriptions. And they are hardly romantic, you know.

Truth be told, I have grown accustomed to keying in my thoughts through a keypad. Cursive writing is already a hardship. When I tried writing again a letter by hand, the experience was an uphill battle. The culture of technology has encouraged real-time objective, if not impulsive, reporting through a variety of platforms like Twitter and God-knows-what, but what happened to wracking of the brains to get a the right sentimental word out, to the sweaty holding of the pen, and the rough walk to the post office? All these efforts make any letter doubly romantic.

Oh, I’m not saying we abandon the modern ways. I’m just wishing that handwritten letters and post offices won’t fade into mere cherished memories. I pray for them to be still around when I have grandchildren and they have their own grandchildren. I dread the day when my grandchildren would ask me themselves, “La, what happened to romance? What happened to sappy, soppy long-hand love letters?”

- Nancy -

I belong to a family of collectors. For the most part and for sentimental reasons, I consider myself lucky. For the rest of the part, well, I say I’m beginning to worry about the shrinking space. Nevertheless, I am grateful that my mother and her mother know how to keep things, including their crochet and embroidery projects made during their youth that have survived the weather and the pests to this day. Then I realized: I do not only belong to a family of collectors; I belong to a family of “practicals”. That should have been our surname. I mean: Why buy something when we can make it ourselves?

When my maternal grandmother asked her husband for an ironing board, my lolo made a sturdy one out of a dead jackfruit tree from the backyard rather than buying from the neighbour; he was a carpenter after all (and a darn good one!). My dad, when he was younger, made a wooden hanger for a class project. In the process of gaining knowledge on how to do it, he, too, gained the penchant for producing more for home use. My aunts sewed and embroidered their own dresses. My mother, while she knows the basics, does not have the dexterity that my grandmother and her eldest sister possessed, and so she lets lola do or complete her school projects on crocheting and embroidery, much to my lola’s frustration.

But my mother is good at something else—collecting, keeping, and preserving. Thanks to her, I feel extremely lucky to be holding my grandmother’s crochet masterpieces made out of thread once used to stitch a sack of rice. I remember during my elementary years when my grandmother was still alive, I would help my mother roll the threads into a ball and give it to lola. I had to connect one sack’s thread to another to keep the ball rolling. I got the threads from our store where we sell rice in kilos (talk about being practical). My lola was always pleased when she received the thread because it meant another project for her, another way to pass the time. Then she would get her bent rusty hook (which I borrowed and misplaced, much to my mother's frutration) and start exuding this admirable aura of contentment.

My grandmother was really good at what she did. When I learned how to crochet at school, I tried using the threads from the sacks but they were very tricky, always curling up and knotting by itself. I gave up and went back to using a neat piece of yarn bought from Almis, a small decent store beside my old high school, St. Joseph's Academy. The way the sack’s threads are very annoying made me admire my grandmother even more; she produced so many beautiful table covers, all of them white (save for a green one that was my mother’s elementary project my lola completed) because during her time, not only was white yarn practical, it was also the fad. These days, bright colors are the trend, and you could just see my basket bursting with ‘em yarns. Oh, I see a lot of possibilities with each of them—bonnets, socks, scarves, belts, necklaces, and so much more!

Crocheting is nothing new to many of us. This act of pulling loops through other loops with a hook is said to have originated from

Iran

, South America, or

China

. Just the same, this is not a Cebuano tradition, although we have our unique forms of weaving, such as sarok weaving in Consolacion, buri weaving in BogoCity, and hablon in Argao. Crocheting is a manifestation of foreign influences most likely during the time of war. I learned the skill at school, which is part of an education system heavily influenced by Americans. Below is a one-minute video clip of me crocheting a small center table cover, one of my many latest (unfinished) projects. Being left-handed, it is one of the rare right-handed things I could do (and there you could see my right pointer finger inked with proof of how I recently exercised democracy).

I recently added to my mother’s inventory of heirlooms the headband I made and used as part of my gypsy costume in a Christmas party last December because I could not find a suitable one in the department stores. I also crocheted a blue belt to break the plainness of a boring dress rather than buying a belt or a sash, and handmade cellphone and table covers as gifts to escape the terrible holiday shopping rush. And all I require is a ball of yarn...and labor of love. I belong to a family of collectors and practicals after all.

- Nancy-

Short Time, a poem by Jaime An Lim

National Book Week has been running on 78 years now!

Of revered spirits and tormenting demons

When bloggers just need to meet with each other

My 28 birthday wishes

What got me occupied + a GIVEAWAY for you, my dear Short Story Initiative participants

My New Year’s Reflections (with a small book wish list to go with them)

(Updated) Cebu is alive with local art!

Getting to know our National Artists for Literature

Inevitable changes, challenges

Advocating reading, writing, and good grammar

My App Night Experience: On being a blogger

Why I am attending the Social Media Influencers Summit 2013

College graduation gift ideas!

The first E-Commerce Summit 2013 in Cebu, and why businesses should attend

Cebu’s reading champs

Me, women, and the web

My mother and her unusual breakfast time tales

A trip down memory lane...to the post office with handwritten letters

Family heirlooms