Wish All Kids Are Like This

Pam sent me a link for YouTube.com. It is a video of her granddaughter opening her Christmas presents. It is amazing that some kids just appreciate what was given to them. But I wish all kids are like this. Here she is:

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About last month David and I watched a segment on MTV (was it "Super Sweet Sixteen"?). They showed the preparation for the birthday party for a girl (probably of Mexican heritage, but that doesn't matter). She such a pain in the ass that I was ready to hurl something to the TV. She wanted it to be very expensive etc. She didn't like her gown. Her mother was "too kind" to let her act like a bitch I wished I could slap the mother. They didn't show her father (probably he was too embarassed to have such child). They shot a music video where she gyrated like a God-forsaken wild hippo, although a hippo is more adorable than her. One of the gifts her parents gave her was a new car (a Lexus convertible, about $65,000-$80,000). Well, the bad thing is, the day before the big day her mother surprised her at school by bringing the car on the parkway, with this marvelous ribbon wrapped around the car. The daughter screamed and shouted obscenity at her mother. I can still remember it: "That stupid, idiotic mother of mine!" All because she wanted the car to be delivered on the day of her party so everybody can see it. Well, the mother returned the car anyway. The party went through though. I told David that kid will end up in the hospital if she did that thing to mother in our country. If I was there by the time she went on a fit I would have banged her head on the wall. But the problem in America, if you do this to your kids you'd end up in jail for child abuse. That is why I am proud of those Filipino-American parents who raise their kids the Filipino way. But there are a few American parents who raised their kids well, by instilling the value of respecting their elders.

Gifts

I think I am truly loved by a lot of people (I think...). I received gift cards this year from:

1. David Smith for Michaels (yey... I think Martha Stewart will love me)
2. Tim Smith Sr. for Borders (yey)
3. Calvin for iTunes (ah, yey?... because I don't own an ipod)

Pam gifted David and I with a gift certificate for Flour City Diner

I think I should make an accounting of what David gave to me this Christmas. The heaviest of which weighs 15 pounds: ha! a dumb-bell.

Happy New Year to my Family

My family sent me a Christmas card. I have yet to take a picture of it. How I miss them.


My mother inserted a letter. It was written in English.

Sigh, I have been away for a year but my mother thinks I wouldn't understand a letter written in our dialect.

Happy New Year to Papa Nitz, Mama Lin, Dodong and Lola Nisa.


Also Happy New Year to my cousin, Josie, her husband, Marlon and their three kids. The Berueda family is now based in Minnesota.


And Happy New Year to my Sun.Star Family (ex and current):

1. Ambo who is getting married next year
2. Idol Darren
3. Madz Tess
4. Miss Michelle
5. Nong Reynold
6. Nong Larry and the production people
7. Robert
8. Clai who got married this year
9. Danny D.
10. George P. (Dubai boy)
11. Jerome
12. Sir Henry V.
13. Gil, MA
14. Avelyn
15. Claudine

To my journalist friends:

1. Nang Nanette (ex-Sun.Star Iloilo ed.-in-chief; now with VDS)
2. Cedelf (sports editor of VDS)
3. Nang Toks of Philippine Star and Marhe
4. Tita Dolly Y. (now a councilor)
5. Nang Mate of Manila Times and Marhe
6. Eric L. (the new commissioner of the Philippine Sports Commission; formerly the Philippine Olympic Committee ambassador)
7. Sir Henry D.
8. Carla of Negros Daily Bulletin
9. Joe Chua of Manila Bulletin
10. Sir Henry of VDS
11. Mike Limpag of Sun.Star Cebu
12. Nonoy Third (and Mommy Ging)
13. Sir Rios

Also to:

1. Congressman Monico Puentevella (as if close kami)
2. Sir Roger Banzuela (former Philippine Volleyball Federation president)
3. Sir Bing Soyao of Basketball Unified Sports Group
4. Sir James Sy, Jr.

and the list continues...

Again More Books

Yeah, books borrowed from Pittsford Library (due in three weeks and can be renewed for another three weeks):

1. Inventing Human Rights: A History by Lynn Hunt
2. The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression by James Mann
3. The Jesus Papers by Michael Baigent (who co-authored Holy Blood, Holy Grail)

Made In China Redux

Reading Xiaolu Guo's novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (Double Day 2007) gives us a "concise" and funny glimpse of a Chinese "import" to Europe. Zhuang Xiao Qiao, 23, traveled from her hometown, Zhe Jiang, in China to improve her English in London, her "bloody new world." Her parents own a shoe factory, giving her the luxury of leaving home to study the Queen's English.



This is filmmaker Guo's third novel which was drawn from her diary and experiences in London. She was short-listed for the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction for the same novel. She was in the long-list in the 2007 Man Asia Prize (where Filipino fictionist, Jose "Butch" Dalisay, was short-listed for his novel-in-progress Soledad's Sister - one of the stories, Woman in the Box, won first prize in the Don Palanca Memorial Awards).




Here are some of the remarkable stories in the novel told in a true-to-form typical Chinese broken English first person narrative:



Upon her arrival in London airport where alien and non-alien people are being "segregated": "I am alien, like Hollywood film Alien, I live in another planet, with frowny looking and strange language."



"Pulling large man-made-in-China-suitcase into hostel, second wheel fall off by time I open the door. (First wheel already fall off when I get suitcase from airport's luggage bell). But anyway, one over-the-sea trip and I lost all the wheels. I swear I never buy any product mande from home town again."



Reading in-progress.



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I abandoned reading Ian McEwan's novel, On Cheasil Beach, because it is boring. It is one of those novels which you can skip one or two chapters and never get lost in the story. It was a real disappointment. Although it has the same tone as John Banville's The Sea, McEwan's novel lacks spice. His novel, Atonement, however, is raking raves in the movie tills.



I returned Doris Lessing's novel, The Cleft, without reading it because I don't fins it engaging either.

Recent Acquisitions

Though I'll be giving them away, except for the last two, here is a list of new books I picked up somewhere:

1. Siberian Light by Robin White
2. Die In Plain Sight by Elizabeth Lowell
3. Zoya by Danielle Steel
4. The Bourne Ultimatum by Robert Ludlum
5. Murder at Union Station by Margaret Truman
6. Promise Me by Harlem Coben
7. True Believer by Nicholas Sparks
8. Do the windows open? by Julie Hecht
9. Accordion Crimes by E. Annie Proulx

Currently Reading

1. A Tranquil Star (unpublished stories) by Primo Levi
2. Presence: stories by Arthur Miller
3. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
4. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo
5. The Cleft by Doris Lessing

December Fever

On Dec. 1, David and I went to see a show at the Hochtein Music School featuring the Rochester Gay Men's Chorus. The show was called "Home for the Holidays." The group performed under their new principal accompanist, Tim Schramm. Some of the songs they performed were the same as last year's. However, this year's performance concentrated on innovation and form. Last year they had choreography for each song, this time they relied on vocal interpretation. "The musicality of songs" is what I mean. Of course, there was some choreography but they're subtle. Peabody Award winner (1994) Michael Lasser narrated the history of each songs in the repertoir.


The next night we watched "Garth Fagan Dance" at Nazareth College's Callahan Theather. I'm sorry to say this but it bored me so much that I asked David that we exit even before the show ended. I told David that the dancers' moves were like those of our neighbors back home when they get drunk on the night of the fiesta. I got bored because I've seen those movements before. I've seen our native people dance those steps, even better. I told David I regretted buying the tickets. We could have used the money to buy ice cream or a ream of paper.


We watched "The Devil Wears Prada," "The Queen," and "Little Miss Sunshine" on DVD last time.

This week we are watching "Finding Nemo," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "All About Eve," and "The Incredibles" on DVD because we can't find new copies at the library.

The Greatness of Mr. David W. Smith

Don't talk about kids in front of David. He knows how to handle them in a snap. He was a teacher and librarian for 38 years.


It is no wonder that David has a booming voice. He can make a child sit up straight with just a whistle and even make them faint when he sneezes. No exaggeration with that. That is why old folks love him because they can hear him clearly. They don't have to check their hearing aid batteries.


The greatness of Mr. Smith, the teacher-librarian, is comparable to a multi-faceted diamond ring with emeralds surrounding it. Several times have I witnessed scenes that proved my claim. Of course people like David are rare. Our neighbor back home is a teacher who used to bring her students who were children of poor farmers in the mountain to her home. She'd promise the parents that she'd tutor the child only to find out that she'd make a slave out of the poor kid. Her eldest daughter who was living with them (left by her husband) used to drag her mother (the teacher) outside the house, grabbing her hair and cursing at her, "You stupid bitch. I'll kill you. I'll kill you." The teacher didn't fight back. Nobody wants to deal with the mother or daughter.


At a local festival here, while waiting for our turn to play for a prize organized by a telecommunications company, David recognized one of his former students. He called on him and asked the boy if he recognized him. The boy beamed, "Oh, Mr. Smith! The librarian!" And the little black boy hugged him. It was a wonderful scene.


Every now and then he gets greetings from his students.


Lately, David has been browsing through his files and found valuable items. They're not jewels or papers for a will but they can be considered treasures. Here's what I mean:


The Library Rap


The library is the place to be,
You'll see movies, like "Mr. T."

The place to learn, as you will see,
Is the Number 36 School Library.

If you think you can't find a good book,
The librarian is the one to help you look.

Clifford the dog is big and red,
Mother said, "Timmy, put him to bed."

Charlotte is a friendly spider - true,
In her web she wove messages to you.

King Midas touched things - they turned to gold,
Our heads are thing of stories - Mr. Smith told.

We have computers, encyclopedias and much, much more,
Come to the library and find what you are looking for.

Reading is fresh - it's not just for nerds,
Don't hang on the streets - that's just for birds.

Don't live your life in total frustration,
Come to the library and help your education.

Read a book with your educational mind,
So you, like Mr. Smith, can write a rhyme.

Just come to the library - take a good look,
I'm sure you will find just the right book.

Written by Jeffery Sillato when he was in Grade 4
David helped him with the rhyme. #36 School


Here's another:


The Place To Be


I was looking for a good book in the library

Didn't have no idea where the book could be

Mr. Smith said go look in the card catalog

It had everything from Dr. Seuss to Clifford the Dog

Took a look, found the book, had little more time

Used computers, saw a video, relaxed my mind

Give me a L.I.B.R.A.R.Y. anytime, any year, any day or night

Dr. Seuss, Mother goose even Little Boy Blue

Jet magazine and the Old Woman Who Lived In a Shoe

Computer disk, the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz

Books on buildings, people, trolls and Aztec Gods

General words, don't disturb on the library

Education, orchestration it's the place to be

Don't dismiss Mr. Smith he conducts the room

New books, clean magazines, books on man on the moon

No destruction, introduction over due return

Dr. King had a dream, read a book and learn

You want knowledge second floor it's the place to be

Feel the rage, read a page in the library.

Written by Matt McCrea who was in Mr. Smith's 4th grade at #22 School. This was written while Matt worked at #36 School as a teacher aid. He still respected Mr. Smith and the library.

This Made Me Think

"The good reporter, it is said, can be judged by the condition of his legs. Success in the field comes from a fortuitous combination of luck and shoe leather. The business of getting news is described in the metaphors of the mine worker - pick and shovel, digging, a great deal of sweat."

-Douglass Cater

The Fourth Branch of Government

The Saddest Art of Shoveling Snow

Headline: Three inches of snow. In the Philippines, malls decorate their Christmas trees with fake snow - shredded styrofoams or pre-manufactured to look like little beads, some of them in multi-color. And the air is filled with "Frosty the Snowman" song as well as "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas." I was excited when I first touched a snowflake or made my first snowball. But on the succeeding days when there were a lot of shoveling going on I said to myself I'd never want to experience snow again.

It is worse when you are going to school and taking the bus at 7 a.m. David and I have a wake up very early to shovel the snow in the driveway. (One billionaire here has a heated driveway so his staff need not have to shovel). One thing I like about shoveling snow though is I get the chance to exercise (which I badly need).

[Forward to the future: Dec. 2008. I apologize for the bad writing in the previous post. It was done in a hurry and I never had the chance to edit it. This post received the most hits. Especially that snowstorm hit the U.S. lately. Lately (this is Dec. 2008 guys), we were struck with 10 inches of snow. Now, that's extra work for me and David. Aaaaarrrrghhh!)

Filipinos think it is cool to have snow. It is COLD.

David on his way to the side of the house to check his electric meter. His Indian neighbors were on their driveway that day shoveling snow, too. Ooops, more of Sanjaya's vote.

David's beloved pine tree covered with snow.

Our pumpkins are still on the ground. You can't see it now as it is covered with snow.

Three inches of snow dude. How cool is that?

Snow Tango

It isn't wonderful when it is snowing hard and you are at school. Adding to the burden was that classes are in separate buildings. Sometimes it takes 10 minutes to walk from one building to another when the snow piles up. And sometimes 30 minutes when you walk from the Seymour Union to Drake Library (with all your books and stuff). But we do it because of education.

Here's what I mean:

Video taken from the Student Union. I was on my way to Holmes Hall. This was about 3 p.m.

This video was taken at 5 p.m. My class ended early. I had to go back at Seymour to get my stuff, get to the Tower Fine Arts bldg. at 6:10 and wait for the 6:20 bus. I am one of the few students who doesn't own a car.

Signs of the Times

Isn't it a wonder how a small breeze could stir a colony of ants?