Walking among the millionaires in Singapore (SG p...
Singapore’s leading publisher, SPH, reported that the country has the “highest density of millionaires” around the world because of the state’s small size and the number of millionaires living here: 99,000! A typical millionaire, the report says, has an average of 3 signature watches (SGD15,000 each or half a million pesos), and...
iPhone 4s (technology meets art: perfection)
Once upon a modern time, before iPhone 4s was released, my game designer friend Jay warned me, in an arcane tone, that the way you look at mobile phones will never be the same again once you use an iPhone. Since I was never a techie person, that geek data he was trying to feed my electronics-proof head didn’t really come through. The...
I was published in Young Blood!
Today’s a lovely day. I’m back at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) headquarters in Los Baños to start another issue of Rice Today. IRRI is just beside the UPLB campus, so walking around the university brings me back to my golden days of 2001 when I was a freshman. I felt like a student again walking with young...
what make up can do, or, thoughts on my MAC tutori...
For the most part of my life, I was that skinny little poor flat-chested thing buried on the pages of novels well into my early 20s. Until one day, like in the movie Persepolis, the body decided to pop some boobs and swell the hips to 35 inches. The face remained boyish with thick eyebrows and upper lip hair, zits every ‘bloody’...
first timer in Vietnam (snapshots of walk trips, p...
When I checked in and entered my room, I literally stopped in awe at the room reserved for me (my mind said: omigoshoigoshomigosh). Like in my other trips, I don’t expect much from the places nor do I read so many travel guides since they may spoil my own impressions. One funny habit I have is, I read travel blogs of a place after...
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...
Given
Do you remember me, Ms Ai? would always be the exacting question of a former student whom I'd run into; I'd answer not with a categorical yes or no, but with a classroom no. and seat location, or a topic in research paper--that's where you sat, that's what you wrote in class, I would answer; then comes the predictable reaction...
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...
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...
At the sound of hello
At the sound of hello, I quiver holding the telephone connecting me to a voice from the land of aborigines, kangaroos, and koalas.
Koalas. Seventy-five percent of a koala’s day, they say, is spent on sleeping. There’s no way you can say hello to them while they’re up there with their arms looped around branches, dozing. Cuddly sleeping furballs.
Sleeping. I always like to sleep at work, but I can’t do it all the time.
My job is to write stories. I write news and feature articles about health, ageing, nursing, education, and technology. These stories are relevant to people in New South Wales, West Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, North Territory, Victoria and Canberra (yep, that’s just about all the Australian states and territories).
Believe it or not, I was clueless about Australia’s geography until the first day of my Manila-based work. Did I get an orientation or training on the culture, territory, history or the state-continent?
Read MoreApril
I’m not sure how many of our classmates and professors had a crush on her.
Women, they say, are most physically attractive when they’re in their late 20s and early 30s. Natalie Portman easily comes to mind as an example. This is the time of maturity for many in terms of physique, career, romance, and well-being. (If you’re 28 and you still baby talk in social media, perhaps you’re a sad case of under-development.)
One person I know of, though, has been beautiful ever since I’ve known her. She just announced her having a baby, and I’m blogging about her because I almost missed the big news.
I’m talking about a fellow Comm Arts graduate and staff of UPLB Perspective, April.
April’s smile sets a room aglow.
She’s one of those girls back in college enviable for sex appeal and graciousness. The university newspaper office would swell in envy whenever a bunch of expensive-looking flowers would come from her then suitor, now husband.
April wasn’t born in April, but her personality brings about the promises and warmth of summer (I was about to say spring, but using that metaphor in this country is just not fit).
Whenever we would enter the office, and hear the Hanson roaring “rooool the wiiindows down” we know April is on the desk happily typing her draft by the window. If she’s high, I mean, hormones high, she would sing with the brothers while snapping and clapping her hands and swaying in her chair. She loves being in love.
Cause Penny and me like to roll the windows down
Turn the radio up, push the pedal to the ground
And Penny and me like to gaze at starry skies
Close our eyes, pretend to fly
It’s always Penny and me tonight
We are what we eat and I am a salad
Star ingredient: creamy camembert cheese. Salad is best enjoyed with a glass (or two!) of Chardonnay
Since I come home after work early in the afternoon, siesta time, I would usually take a nap, read a book, walk around MOA (Booksale or Fullybooked or fashion stores), watch BBC/CNN/HBO, or prepare merienda.
Pasta is my pastime because all it takes to cook it is boil the pasta and prepare the sauce. All in about 15 minutes ala Jamie Oliver. Black pitted olives, parmesan cheese, basil leaves, lots of garlic, and Clara Ole sauce are my favorite combination. Not only does the dish serve a holy treat but it gives our place a coffeeshop-ish aroma.
If you are obsessing over pasta, you would also invest in good oil and cheese, that is, splashes of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of mozzarella. It doesn’t really matter for me what meat I put in, whether hotdog for spaghetti, tuna for pesto, or ground pork/beef for bolognese, because I usually like mine puttanesca style – ”whore’s style spaghetti” containing only olives, garlic, tomatoes, and herbs.
When I finished reading a novel called The Food of Love I got all excited experimenting with different pasta: spaghetti, linguine, fusilli, fettucine, rigatoni, and farfalle. The story is set in Italy and I felt like roaming Rome and eating Roman dishes prepared by one of the chef characters. The effect of reading it is unbelievable. A turn on, sensually and gastronomically. I picked up the book at Booksale, because I saw Jamie Oliver’s commentary on the cover: “A fantastic story, you can almost taste the wonderful Italian food.”
Read MoreCrossing fingers for heaps of good news
It’s a shame that the world is crazy over news on Boston bombing while ignoring or ignorant of that bombed Afghan wedding where casualties were ten times more than the marathon tragedy. This is not to say that little attention should also be given to Boston, but that equally big, caring social media space be given to the Middle East, Asia, and the rest of the world.
That is the bad news, and hopefully beautiful things alight from these rubble in the coming days. Surely, there are inspiring stories every day but we tend to focus on what will make us anxious and angry. (Sadistic tendencies in today’s media?)
Good news is, after completing short written tests and passing a phone interview, I was offered a place at Westminster University in London. Should I be given one of the so many generous scholarships that the University offers to international students, I will start this September.
Crossing my fingers for more Good News.
Read MoreNo use talking about privacy in social media, says law professor
Less—not more—privacy benefits the community, said Deakin Law professor who argued that “the more we know about other people, the clearer it becomes that they are like us.” This, he said, reduces stereotypes and prejudices.
Privacy, irrelevant
Talks of privacy in the time of flourishing social media and technological advances are irrelevant, said Professor Mirko Bagaric, Deakin University’s head of the Law School.
He argued that modern technology undermines the very relevance of the need for more privacy as people are more inclined to seeking attention rather than hiding in anonymity.
To give an example, he used Facebook, which has more than 800 million users, more than half of which log on every day.
Read MoreFrom the Blog
Who, Me?
Hello there! My name is Ai, Japanese for "love." I couldn't stay in one place for too long, so I'm always walking, traveling or changing address. I write for Australia's Campus Review, Education Review, Insite health care, and other magazines under APN. Before this, I was an editor of a quarterly rice science magazine and a weekly publication on international commodity trade in Singapore. But before everything else, I was an educator for five years.
