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...
Thank you
At the onset of this year, I was hired in Manila as a journalist for APN Educational Media, where I write for the Australian magazines Campus Review, Education Review, Insite, Nursing Review and TechGuide.
Before I blog about the perks and rewards of the new job, I would like to say thanks again to all the people from my previous job as editor in IRRI and in Singapore. I’ve been getting praises in my current work and I guess it’s only wise to attribute my skills to the kind of training I received from my former bosses and colleagues.
Gene
Thanks, first of all, to the kind team of Communication and Publication Services at IRRI, headed by the legendary Gene Hettel who can whip a clever title up in a few seconds during pressworks. One thing about Gene I’d really admire, aside from his funny side comments, is he knows his stuff. Really dedicated both to the world of rice science and the art of communication. He’s also the dream boss that anyone could wish for because of his management style–relaxed but output driven. Billion thanks for inviting me to CPS trips and lunch at your lovely house that sits atop Mt Makiling.
Bill
In terms of grammar and stylistics, Bill Hardy taught me the most, I think. He’s the copy editor of Rice Today and every journal/book/poster/whatever has letters that comes out of IRRI passes through the senior and superior hands of Bill. IRRI scientists hold him in high regard, I was told. He’s like the principal of English Grammar School and writers obey his edit marks. He’s very vocal about how he feels toward a wrong preposition or wrong information or wrong subject-verb agreement and he wouldn’t hide his frustration when confronted with ugly writing or wordy sentences. What I like about Bill is his dedication to standard English usage, his loyalty to Merriam Webster Dictionary (the tome! not the online one), and his name–just because I read Hardy Boys when I was younger (plus, it sounds rock n roll). Oh, and his office full of books from Art to Literature to Rice Science.
Lanie
Thanks to my co-editor Lanie Reyes with whom I shared stories about world events, history, politics, economics, fashion, travel, food, beauty, health, family, grammar, plant genetics, rice hybrids, cross-fertilization, climate change, carbon credits, and more.
Sophie
Many thanks also go to her boss, Sophie Clayton–PR head and “IRRI’s finest.” Her politeness that I’ve observed among other Australians comes out naturally and genuinely. What I’d like to pick up from her is the ability to stay cool, calm, and collected amid tension and pressure. Her decisions are quick and wise, and like Gene Hettel, her approach has this Filipino kindness with a dash of elegant strictness. What I like about her is her outgoing personality and healthy lifestyle (yoga, cycling, walking).
Read MoreAn amazing dance revolution of one billion
This Valentine’s day, a billion women will rise.
Every day, 2 to 3 cases of rape are reported in the Philippines.
Imagine every country around the world keeping similar statistics of forced sex, of physical abuse of women, of malicious touch and looks, of hitting and , and that would be enough to join One Billion Rising.
The One Billion Rising Campaign is an international campaign to end violence against women.
It hopes to jolt women as well as men into action by raising awareness through creative action.
STRIKE, DANCE and RISE against violence against women
Flash mobs, parades, and mass actions will take place in at least 144 countries worldwide on February 14, 2013.
In the Philippines, the main rising will be in Tomas Morato, Quezon City, with simultaneous and nationally coordinated events in major cities nationwide.
Read More4th annual Manila Game Jam: making games in 48 hours
Students, professionals and hobbyists create games
in just 48 Hours
Sweet home, Tubbataha
The news of a US military ship stuck in an important paradise of a coral reef in the Philippine waters strikes a blow to any nature lover and travel enthusiast whose appreciation of marine life and ecological balance runs deep.
Tubbataha reef may actually be considered the planet’s act of kindness–of showing a slice of the ocean’s vast mysterious beauty, thus, smashing it with tons of metal borne out of modern human warfare is nothing but a relapse into that phase of human history called barbarism when man’s sense of civility toward others and his environment hasn’t been achieved.
It’s a puzzle, still, how among other life forms, the creature most capable of thinking can do reckless damage to the wonders of the world, which has been quiet home to the fish and corals, and playground to birds–as seen in snapshots and watercolor paintings at BenCab Museum just a few months ago.
Is it an artist’s omen that Tubbataha is to become a museum artifact? Hopefully not. Hopefully this world’s premier diving spot and heritage site survives. Hopefully, justice be laid upon those who are accountable to this incident that pulls a tangle of ugly threads of sovereignty, aggression, and territory issues.
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.
