Tula

I dabble in poetry. I was inspired and encouraged by my good friend, Nini, a poet. I can say, without any reservation that she is one of the best, and I'm sure some of those who have read her poems agree with me. (Pssst...you agree? Right? Come one say something.) Her poetry takes one off to her world; to her feeling of joy and soars with her. It is a gift. How I wish I could write just like her, but, alas, I am not to be. I am a mere rhymester...not a poet.

Here's one I wrote in Tagalog.

Ay, Hinagpis

Si Mang Isko ay naghihinagpis
Di makakain; singnipis na ng ipis.
Ang paningin ay nagkaekis-ekis
Nang ang mahal niya ay umalis.

Ito ay nangibang bayan,
Tumawag o sumulat nakalimutan.
Si Mang Isko ay nagmuk-mok
Kanyang ulo'y ipinuk-pok.

Sa pader na walang bukbok,
'Sing tigas ng martilyong pamukpok,
Hanggang siya'y nagkabukol-bukol
Animo'y kalsadang Maynila na bakul-bakol.

Maawaing kapitbahay ay di pansin
Kahit may dalang bibingkang kakanin.
Maawa na sana ang mahal niya
At bumalik na sa piling niya.

O, hinagpis.

Aug. 19, 2004

Interesting reading...

From The Week Magazine.
Feb. 23, 2007

It wasn't all bad.

A Thai woman who got lost 25 years ago has returned home. In 1982, Jaeyaena Beuraheng left the remote southern province of Narathiwat to shop across the nearby border, in Malaysia. But on her way back, she mistakenly got on a series of buses that eventually took her to Chiang Mai, 745 miles north of her hometown. Unable to make herself understood, she ended up living in a homeless shelter until three students from Narathiwat, visiting the shelter on a research project, recognized her native Yawi dialect and pieced together her story. Last week, Beuraheng was reunited with her seven children, who had long assumed she was dead. "She remembered all of her children's names," said a local official.

Bad week for

Fatal attractions, after a 70-year-old Japanese woman went on a trial for bombarding a 79-year-old man with more than 200 love letters and forcing her way into his home seven times. When the object of her affection did not respond, she told him, "If it comes down to it, you could die." (Naloko na...masama palang tamaan si lola.)


Workplace

What drives co-workers crazy
The people you work with might say otherwise, said L. M. Sixel in the Houston Chronicle, but they really hate your cute ring tone. Ringing cell phones annoy 30 percent of working adults, according to a Randstad USA survey. The only workplace pet peeve that ranked higher was loud talkers. In fact, your co-workers can't stand anything about your cell phone. Besides the distracting ring tone, they don't like the ensuing conversations. People tend to discuss more "personal, medical, and romantic issues on their cell phones in front of their co-workers." They're not interested in your furniture deliveries, dental appointments, and marital spats.

A few rules of cell phone etiquette will keep your co-workers happy, said Cynthia Hubert in the Sacramento Bee. The moment you step into your office, put your phone on the vibrate setting. When calls do come in at work, let them roll to your voice mail. If you must take a call, walk to a private spot to speak. Forget about the bathroom. "Chances are, the person you're talking to won't relish the sound of flushing toilets in the background." If you can't leave your workplace, tilt your chin downward so that you're speaking toward the floor. Then your voice won't carry so far.

In A Little Corner

At the Island Pacific, a Filipino store in Van Nuys, California, there is a painting that I've been admiring for some time now. It looked like an oil painting; and most probably done by a Filipino painter. It's colorful and painted in an impressionistic style. But somehow this painting was hanging so high, about 20'-0" from the floor; and at a corner where hardly anyone would notice it, unless, one's eye wanders around and up. It is right above where shelves of tofu (tokwa), dried fish, dried shrimps and jars of shrimp paste (bagoong) are. A few feet away are the fresh fish section. From here it gets, maybe, the proper amount of humidity and perhaps could've absorbed some of the fish smell. It could be for lack of room to hang it was relegated to a small dark corner of the store. What a shame, a beautiful painting cast aside. Sana ibigay na lang sa akin at ilagay ko sa sala namin para makita ng lahat ang ganda nito.

Here's the painting taken with my cell phone camera.

Will it Catch my Dream?

It was a surprise package coming from the eastern side of the continent. I don’t remember when it came; it must have been in the early part of January of this year, 2007. The small envelope was bulging and something hard inside was in bubble wrap. I opened it and there it was, a beautiful piece of art--intricately woven tiny threads with colorful beads in a ring wrapped with leather ribbon and tassells of feathers. I never knew anything about dream catchers until I got this one from a special friend.

The enclosure in the packet gave me a synopsis of what it is.

Dream Catcher

It is believed that each woven web will catch your dreams in the night. The bad spirit dreams will get caught in the web and disappear with the morning sun. However, the good spirit dreams will find their way to the center spirit hole and will float down the sacred feather.

The Legend of the Dream Catcher

A spider was quietly spinning his web in his own space. It was beside the sleeping space of Nokomia, the grandmother. Each day, Nokomia watched the spider at work, quietly spinning away. One day as she was watching him, her grandson came in. "Nokomia-iya!" he shouted, glancing at the spider. He stomped over to the spider, picked up a shoe and went to hit it. "Nokeegwa," the old lady whispered, "don't hurt him." "Nokomia, why do you protect the spider?" asked the little boy. The old lady smiled, but did not answer. When the boy left the spider went to the old woman and thanked her for saving his life. He said to her, "For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift." He smiled his special spider smile and moved away, spinning as he went. Soon the moon glistened on a magical silvery web moving gently in the window. "See how I spin?" He said, "See and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift for you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web."

My dream catcher hanging above my drawing table. I'm hoping that my dream of painting a large masterpiece in oil would fit through the hole.

Thanks, D’Chrysalis. I will treasure this gift. Muah!

A Day in Redondo Beach

On the last Saturday of the month of January my husband and I headed to Redondo Beach. But before going there we went to a computer place where we purchased computer parts that my husband needed to put together in preparation for the coming of the new Windows, the Vista. This place was in Manhattan Beach, a few miles north of Redondo Beach. After we went around the place looking at all the merchandise, comparing and selecting, we made our purchases, and we headed to Redondo Beach. We parked at the residential area close to the beach, about quarter mile away, and walked towards the pier. (This is one way of stretching our legs...by walking.) We went to our favorite restaurant, right on the pier, where we ordered our usual hot and spicy seafood soup.

After our lunch we took a stroll on the pier. The clouds were gray that day, and there was rain that morning when we were on the freeway. So there were only a handful of people on the pier, a few were fishing, but it seems the fish were not biting. Although it was overcast there were sailboats on the water. My first time to see them, since I've been coming to this place.











One side of the pier was deserted. The early morning rain had turned away beach goers.










This family still managed to have a picnic at one of the tables. The gloomy weather has not discouraged them.











The pier was still teeming with birds of all kinds. I took pictures of those that took my fancy.
This one above has only one leg. My husband peered to see if it really has one leg, or if it's folded up. It has learned to balance itself with just one.











This bird above caught...not really caught, but grabbed a fish from another bird. (The other bird stole it from a fisherman's catch.) It's trying to fend off other birds from stealing it. Others are waiting for the chance to pounce on it...circling it, waiting...and waiting.










We went down to the fish store and restaurant and checked out what they have. They have prepared dishes, like the shrimp special above, and some fresh fish like: yellow tail, pompano, tilapia, sardines, anchovies and many more. They have bangus, which they called bangoose. Oh, very expensive--$2.95/lb. Cheaper at Pinoy stores, of course.

We were at the boardwalk when it began to drizzle, so we thought we should head back home. There were some accidents on the road as the wet asphalt became slick and drivers were not careful enough.

This accident on the surface road had someone badly hurt an ambulance had to transport the driver to the hospital. Some were just fender benders. Traffic on the freeway was long and at a snail's pace. That's what usually happens when it rains.