Category: self
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Remembering is reconstructing
My grandfather passed away weeks ago at 85. It was the first death in my father’s side. After the funeral mass, while walking from the church to the parking area, my seven-year old nephew asked Tita Ai, why do people die when they get old? I was fighting back tears that have been struggling to gush out since […]
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How does it feel being 30?
One month after my birthday, I am still getting the question how does it feel being 30. Rusty at answering such questions, I’ve answered “it’s great, I’m more confident, I’m at peace with myself.” It’s interesting, that query, because it’s as if I just climbed a mountain and people would like to know how it feels seeing […]
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My first cover story
For anyone trying to make a dent in their ‘writing career,’ having one’s story published on the cover of a magazine is such a milestone worth sharing. Here I post my first cover story – the latest progress in Alzheimer’s disease research. Like the other science articles I’ve written and edited, this one had to […]
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Radio and bedtime stories
When I was small, my parents were sometimes away and the aunts slept in another room, so my sister and I would sleep at the master’s bedroom, listening to voices and sounds on the radio, clutching our blankets or hiding beneath them while waiting for the right time to scream, like when the moon has […]
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Jars and a rainy day
When I was small, I slid some sheets of crepe paper into jars of water, and my jaw dropped when the water turned red, blue and green. I kept the jars at the backyard of my grandparents’ house, believing that I discovered something the world doesn’t know. I covered the jars with sheets of something, […]
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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, […]
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We are what we eat and I am a salad
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 […]
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Musings and brief moments of indulgence
I’ve been locked out of my blog for some time to avoid any hacking incidence that’s been crippling my host’s websites, so to make up for it, I’ll try to write every other day starting today. First, some realizations. In less than two months, I have written about 80 articles: news re-writes, breaking news stories, […]
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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 […]
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Editor
The title “editor” is a convenient, self-explanatory name quite handy to say to people who ask what I do for a living. It’s a capsule of information about what editors do: edit. One year into this editorial post, though, I understand that being an editor of a magazine is not just about trimming articles, spotting […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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my 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 […]
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Post-holiday depression, the story of Lola Cion, and ticking one box in my 2012 goals
Okay, the holidays are over. So many gifts exchanged, so many carbs consumed. And we have no more money. I’ve been very busy for the past weeks, working-relaxing-working, acting like a grown up, so I didn’t have time for myself and my blog. After the noise, there’s all this quiet. This week I was feeling a bit down for reasons I […]
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gone growing up
Gone are the days. This sentence has been filling up my mind lately. And the more you say this, the more you tell yourself you’re actually getting older. I was in denial before: that I’m a grown up and I hold responsibilities like a grown up. You know that word accountability? It’s a scary long […]
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It's-My-Life-It's-Now-Or-Never kind of attitude of Us
We are the Generation Y (born in the 80s and 90s), nephews and nieces of Gen X (born in the 70s), and sons and daughters of the Baby Boomers (born postWWII). We are described as techy-savvy, family-centric, achievement-oriented, team-oriented, and attention-craving (about.com). One look on our Facebook News Feeds and we can observe that many of […]
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Daily Anxieties Dissolved in A Cup
Every morning brings me quiet happiness. A steady stream of wind from the huge windows cool the house, blowing away the previous night’s coldness in my body left by the air conditioned bedroom. I would
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How To Politely Ask Smokers To Clear Off Your Zone
Yehey! I have not used my inhaler (anti-asthma maintenance) for two weeks now. That’s since I stayed here in Asia’s Greenest City for 2011–Singapore. So maybe that’s the cure to this curse: get out of a polluted city (ehem,Quezon City) and live in a place where air pollution is kept to minimal.
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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 […]
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Summer in UP Diliman
Walking down wet streets of the national university spoil the fun of summer’s warm promises, and not even the main library is a homely place to stay, until I watched Possession, the film adaptation of AS Byatt’s seminal novel. For two weeks now I have been unearthing priceless possessions of history from the basement of […]
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missing randy david's class
the professor posing for aiscracker in his office at the Faculty Center, UP Diliman This is one semester I will not forget because of the professor above. The way he engages the Socio 275 class into critical thinking will leave an indelible mark in my memory and perhaps in my teaching. Definitely my
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confessions of the tita who suggested abortion to her sister crying in vain what to do one night she found out she's pregnant with a man she doesn't love
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 […]
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what happens when you gatecrash into some people’s Christmas party
Week before Christmas, my boyfriend invited me to their company Christmas party. Like any decent, self-respecting person, I refused. I said I’m cool all by myself that night. He insisted, said that since their group is too small, they’d be joining an umbrella organization in their Christmas Party at some hotel in Malate, Manila. I […]
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