I want more Vietnamese food!
Oh my. Vietnamese food is all goodness. Heaven’s delight. pho Honestly I had zero idea what specialty Vietnam has, until my co-editor at IRRI, Lanie, advised me to try pho, noodles made of rice! (they’re abundant with rice, Vietnam being the world’s second largest rice exporter (after Thailand). That advice came to me weeks...
3-Day Preparation for a 4-day Boracay Stay
It was flattering to be told that I must’ve photoshopped my picture of me in bikini, or, I must’ve undergone some “preparations” to achieve this so-called Boracay-worthy body. For the record, it was my first time wearing bikinis on the beach, and I loved it. Hurrah, guts, hurrah. The more contact there is between...
Ohhh Sad Movies. Always. Make Me. Cry.
Couple of days ago, I solicited suggestions for all-time tear-jerker movies, the kind that will give you swollen eyes and runny nose. And here’s what I got: Rizza: A Moment to Remember Kamille: I Am David Andre: The Notebook Raymond: Simon Birch, The Love of Siam Jay: Never Let Me Go, Grave of the Fireflies, Toy Story 3, Up Connet:...
Drowning End-Of-The-World Thoughts With Tsunamic L...
In Japanese, the name Ai means- love. (Says meaning-of-names.com) If the tsunami in Japan sent waves of panic and end-of-the-world thoughts (and jokes) around the globe, I could only think of that statement. In Japanese, the name Ai means- love. Our social conscience would tug at our heart strings, feel for Japan, and offer a prayer or a...
beautiful persons
When you are in the middle of your 20s, you want to conquer the world and go all the career paths available out there. You think that you understand the world and everybody else is getting it wrong. When you are older than 20 and you still feel the same way, boy, you gotta be kidding yourself. But when you are in the middle of your 20s and...
not all gays*
*to Juni, who lent me dvds of gayness, after he talked about his clothing designs and love affairs, the first time I met him one evening in Quezon Ave. Issues of gender are difficult to evade because along with social class, education, religion, nationality (among others), gender is part of one’s subject position-or the...
Sir Caloy Aureus’ 100 Books You Should Read ...
Once, my prof in Classical Literary Theories teased us: do you want to know the books that you should read at least once in your lifetime? We asked for the list and he e-mailed us this. How many and which of these have you read, dear reader? You can’t possibly be reading blogs all your life, can you? I hope my professors don’t...
How True Blood Perked Up Zombies in the University
The last time I had dvd marathon was about a year ago, when Sex and the City was showing on the silver screen and my friend Janette and I wanted to revisit Manhattan world of painful stilletos and back-breaking sex. One weekend, another friend, Kei, passed to me a copy of True Blood Season 1, which Janette just returned after 10-hour-straight...
confessions of the tita who suggested abortion to ...
This is my first nephew, Marcus Wayne. He loves to sleep and make face. Most of the time he’s in deep thoughts. Rarely he smiles. Always he stares. Babies. More than nine months ago, his mother would always engage me in philosophical talks, trying to answer the most painful questions about life, love, and happiness. What...
Strawberry fields forever lalala (La Trinidad, Ben...
Harvest images of happiness here: “Let me take you down/ cos I’m going to strawberry fields/ Nothing is real/ and nothing to get hung about…” (the Beatles) How is the strawberry field connected to art, I asked as the field trip buses of Hum 2 (Art, Society, and the Individual) belched intermittently in their struggle...
elbi students
Here’s a toast and roast to UP students in Los Baños (the ones I’ve handled, at least) who are worth the stay for about four years now in the University of the Philippines: 1. Elbi students’ fashion sense is extreme. In one room, you could see the typical maong and shirt/blouse, as well as shorts and sleeveless, but...
Philippine gov’t explains why there’s no need to increase minimum wage
What an ugly, mortifying news this is:
THE country’s daily minimum wage is one of the highest in the region, based on the amount of rice, the staple food of Filipinos, it can buy.
The National Statistics Coordination Board’s newly released “Sexy Statistics” showed that last year, the daily minimum wages in the Philippines and Thailand could buy the most rice, compared to the daily minimum wages in other Asean member.
….
Virola said that the data could also be used as an argument against increasing minimum wage. He said this is why the NSCB releases these kinds of statistics to contribute to government policy-making and planning.
“Based on these data, there is no need to increase minimum wage in the Philippines. But we all know that setting minimum wage setting is not as simple and we also need to take other factors into consideration,” Virola said.
Excuse me, National Statistics Coordination Board, but, seriously? Let’s not raise the minimum wage because Filipinos can buy more rice than other Southeast Asian countries can? With a minimum daily wage of a little over P200.00, Sure we can buy more rice. We can compare it to an African country for crying out loud and you could say we should cut off the minimum wage.
Read More2012 may be a year of success, says the Dragon
The 28 and 40 year old Rats can look forward to some easy successes and unexpected good news.
Happy Chinese New Year! What I love about this celebration is the astrology. Like many people, I take these predictions as a suggestion or possibility and not the end of the road fate for me. This Year of the Water Dragon, those born in the year of the Rat seem to have a great time of their life. Now you’re talking, stars.
Feng Shui 2012 Forecast for Rat
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The lunar years of the Rat are 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996 and 2008. People born in these years will be blessed with the characteristics of having a strong sense of leadership, ability to overcome obstacles, and be ambitious in whatever you undertake. Your are creative, imaginative, resourceful and a problem solver. However, these positive traits are often the causes of more negative ones, such as selfishness, ruthless spending of money, short temperament and backstabbing. Despite this, those with the Rat as their Chinese Zodiac are very loyal and affectionate to the people they hold dear to them. The suggested professions for those born in the years of the Rat are writer, publicist, critic and sales manager.
bursting bubbles
Strength can be drawn from family, from a special person who used to massage your feet and kiss them, from friends who could put up with you for ten years, from your childhood imaginary friend, from blueberry cheesecake and chai tea latte, from old-smelling dog-eared books, from a plate of garlic rice, from black and white photos and 1920s music from an antique box, from kind eyes of a stranger overseas, from a toddler who blows soapy bubbles from a green plastic bottle, from a toddler who wipes the floor wet with burst bubbles, from a toddler whose tiny hands touch yours as tears burst from eyes that could not take it anymore.
Read Moremy first economic report published in an international magazine
Slowly I am inching my way to learning about my job, that is writing reviews/ updates on exports (for an online trade publication that features highly classified information) and being one of the editors of Rice Today, an international magazine (with print-run of 5,500-6,000 distributed around the world). Both publications are dedicated to rice, the political crop that feeds half of the world.
To be honest, I am having serious difficulty shifting from Communication Arts and Comparative Literature (the fields where I came from) to Economics and rice science, but I am learning everyday–both easy and hard way.
Normally I don’t write about my job because I don’t know of anyone close to me who’d be interested in international commodity trades or rice varieties. But after a long meeting with publishers this week, I thought of posting in my blog some of the things that I write.
please click on the link below to view this article better
When I posted this link on Facebook, I didn’t expect anyone to comment or like it, but I got a couple of “Likes” and somebody commented I sound like a rice expert. Another friend, Rye, said I am such a rice nerd. LOL. If only they knew my hardships.These made my day because after all, my baby steps in learning to write publish-worthy articles are gaining momentum.
I hope to write more.
Read MoreIt’s more fun in the Philippines
So I’m back again in the Philippines and all I saw on the frontpage of newspapers is the Corona impeachment in the Senate with all those tacky robes, and I don’t quite see the point of the press putting all its energies in creating negative vibes for the country when it could look at things that could pull the economy up, like the Department of Tourism’s new campaign, “It’s More Fun in the Philippines,” which actually ignited some investors’ and foreigners’ interest, unlike this political circus, which gave them investors a second thought, and trust me, this much I can say after listening to some trade talks.
Read MoreFrom the Blog
Who, Me?
Hello there! My name is Ai, Japanese for "love". This blog is a celebration of love for life. I couldn't stay in one place for too long, so I'm always walking, traveling or changing address. My goal right now is to make people happy, because I am.
