My Inner Hero - Wizard!
There are many types of magic, but all require a sharp mind and a cool head. There is no puzzle I can't solve, no problem I can't think my way out of. When you feel confused or uncertain, you can always rely on me to untangle the knots and put everything back in order for you.
How about you? Click here to find your own inner hero.
  
June 28, 2005
MY LOSS
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July 27, 2005
Harry Potter and the Half-blood prince
Any true HP fan who hasn't bought--and read--the 6th book by now should be lynched! Well, okay...not as if it's that great or anything. I don't know about you guys, but I didn't like it as well as the past five. The others were stand-alone books, with their own engaging subplots aside from the main one (a.k.a Harry versus Voldemort). But this one...I don't know, it didn't quite seem up to par. The beginning bored me. That trick with book seemed vaguely reminiscent of Ginny's diary. It was only at the end that I got really excited--and then, grief-stricken. I won't say anymore, because that would be a major spoiler. But I think everyone knows anyway that someone dies in this sixth installment? The real question is who? I'll leave that up for you to find out. Anyway, the second thing which struck me is the fact that this is definitely not a children's book anymore. I guess that can't be helped, seeing that Harry is now seventeen years old! It's kinda hard to believe. Everyone seemed obssessed with 'snogging', which I guess is the British vernacular for making out. Oh well, even the wizards live in a modern world. At least Harry and, er, _____ were discreet about it, unlike Ron and uh, _____.
Still, it was a great book, a worthy installment. I can't wait for the finale--not to mention the movie! Go JK Rowling!
Harry is the...
apple of my eye, mango of my pie,
palaman of my tinapay, keso of my monay,
teeth of my suklay, fingers on my kamay,
blood in my atay, bubbles of my laway,
sala of my bahay, seeds of my palay,
clothes in my ukay- ukay,
calcium in my kalansay, calamansi on my siomai,
itay of my nanay, knot on my tie,
toyo on my kuchay, vitamins in my gulay,
airplane of my Cathay, stars of my sky,
hammer of my panday, sand of my Boracay,
sultan of my Brunei, highlands of my Tagaytay,
MOLE on my Ate Guy, baba of my Ai-Ai,
voice of my Inday Garutay, spinach of my Popeye,
sizzle when I fry, wind when I paypay,
tungkod when I'm pilay, feeling when I'm high,
shoulder when I cry, wings when I fly,
chilli on my siomai,prize when I vie,
cure to my "ARAY!", answer to my "WHY?",
foundation of my tulay, truth behind the lie,
the life after I die...
In short, he's da best habang buhay!!!
July 26, 2005
 A BIRD'S LESSON IN FILIAL DEVOTION
I've always liked birds, but I've never set much store by their intelligence. All that has changed now. It started when we found that house sparrow nest.
Dad hired a carpenter to put a screen on our topmost window. While mucking about the attic, the carpenter found this nest that was just inside the window. He gave it to me. Inside were three house sparrow chicks, gaping wide and calling for food.
I love animals, but not a week before that, we found another chick which must have fallen to our backyard from its nest. Its right leg was broken, so we called it Pi-ang, or Crippled. I put a splint on this leg, because I knew that he wouldn't survive as an adult if he couldn't walk, even if he learned how to fly. We tried to take care of it, but it died after three days. I guess we got overzealous about feeding it--and we were giving it just about anything that was available at the moment, like bits of hotdog, or even strawberry cake. We quite forgot that a baby anything might not be able to handle such exotic food. Pi-ang ate voraciously and indiscriminately, but ended up paying the price. We found him on the third day, stiff and distended.
It was with this sad memory that I looked at those three tiny chicks, so I wasn't so eager to take charge of them anymore. They were even younger than Pi-ang, and possibly even more fastidious. What they needed was the tender loving care of their mother. But how were we going to let her know that we had her babies?
A few hours later, my cousin Kathy told me excitedly that she had seen a pair of house sparrows, fluttering about near the original site of the nest, chirping frantically. Guessing that these were the unfortunate parents, we did the next best thing to putting the nest back. We placed the nest on top of the wall of our backyard, where the birds could see them easily.
The parents did find the nest eventually, much to our delight, but we were worried about another thing. A stray cat regularly patrolled that wall at dusk. If he came upon those chicks, they'd end up as dinner. We decided that if the parents cared enough to look for the nest the first time, they would find it again, so we moved it nearer to the house, on a chair that was sheltered from the sun and the rain. Our dogs were tethered close by, so the cat never dared to come this far. It was a very good thing that we moved that nest, because it turned out to have a hole at the bottom. Two of the chicks had fallen out and were thrashing around in a small water puddle at the edge of the wall. If we hadn't checked sooner, they might have either drowned, frozen to death, or fallen off altogether.
The experiment was a success. The parents found their chicks again and set about feeding them. Or, rather, the mother set about feeding them. The father just sort of loitered around and sometimes even darted in to snatch the food away before his wife could give it to their kids. We laughed about that, and said that the bird was a typical male. Soon, we took pity on the hardworking mother, so we strewed some rice next to the nest. She was ecstatic, and proceeded to hop hurriedly back and forth from the unexpected bounty to her children, practically force-feeding them. At one point, the male seized a mouthful, but the the female flew right into him and chittered angrily. They looked just like your typical quarreling wedded couple.
That night, we put the nest in the kitchen, fearing that a rat might find the nest. We could only hope that the parents would return the following day.
They did. They must have accepted the fact that their nest was mysteriously moving around. What mattered was that it was there during the day, and that all their three chicks were still alive.
And so it went on for almost a week. The chicks grew incredibly fast. When we first saw them, they were tiny, pathetic, featherless things with closed eyes. They could be described as all beak and legs. But soon, their eyes were open and bright, feathers were collecting from the tips of their bodies inward, and they were making creditable attempts to hop around. Soon, the eldest chick looked like a smaller replica of its mother. It was able to flutter about, and was no longer so easy to catch.
Then, it disappeared. We thought it had flown away and last, and wished it a fond farewell. However, a suspicion lurked in our minds that it had been eaten by something. Our dachshund Meiji was the likeliest culprit, since it was tethered nearest, and would bark deliriously when any of the chicks made an appearance.
The second eldest was almost as precocious, so we observed it more closely, hoping to find a clue as to its older sibling's whereabouts. When it left the nest but was unable to fly up the wall despite its mother's exhortations, we seriously reconsidered the first one's fate. To prevent the second chick from coming to harm too, we tied its leg to the bannister with a long piece of string, so it could not fly far enough to reach Meiji. After two more days, we released it,leaving a small piece of string around its leg so we could identify it afterwards. To our delight, it was able to fly away with its mother. We still see it around the house sometimes.
The youngest, unfortunately, met the same grisly fate as the oldest. We tied it to the bannister too, but unfortunately, Meiji got free one day and headed straight for it. The string became a liability rather than an asset, and the dachshund caught the young bird easily. All we found of it afterwards was the leg, still tied to that fatal string.
I wanted to punish the dog, but everyone said, what's the use? That's the dog's nature. It won't understand why it's being punished. If it encounters another helpless bird, it'll do the same thing again.
I guess they're right, but I was mad at that dog anyway. All I could think of was the mother bird, tirelessly feeding her young.
July 6, 2005
If I had all the talent, all the resources, and none of the limitations, I would love to be...
· An astronomist or a physicist. Of course, I'd need a tremendous boost in IQ. But I would love to rub elbows with such stellar personages as Stephen Hawking and speculate about the beginnings of the universe. Singularities? Wormholes? Heaven!
· A geologist, or a vulcanologist. Is there such a word? The composition of the earth, its electromagnetic field, and the dynamics of volcanoes are fascinating. On second thought, this enthusiasm is partly because I'm miffed that The Core fooled me so completely.
· A biologist. I would love to study about insects (entomology), birds (ornithology), or fish (ichthyology). Mammals are pretty cool, too. What do you call the study of reptiles? Or even amphibians! I'm always dreaming about rafting down the Amazon, just gazing about in wonder at the plethora of life. I think that all animals are cool. Just don't put me face to face with a cockroach, or I will lose all dignity and composure.
· A successful freelance creative writer. Tolkien, Brooks, and Rowling come to mind. Science fiction and fantasy are my favorite genres, of course. But it's getting harder and harder to be original with such masters around.
· An actress! To spend your days and nights acting out your fantasies and alternate lives and get paid handsomely for it! Oh, if only it didn't require talent, and flawless beauty, and an excessively curvaceous body, and er, height... Oh well, I did preface this with a disclaimer, didn't I?
· A successful artist. No, I don't have that kind of classical talent. I'd probably end up in advertising or cartoon illustration or something equally shallow. But hey, what does it matter if you're happy with what you're doing, making money, and making kids happy, right?
· A game designer or game tester. The ultimate juvenile's dream! Designing such beautiful RPG's such as Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger. The plots are absolutely heart-wrenching. I'd love to have that kind of imagination.
· A successful doctor, preferably an Internist in the field of either Cardiology or Endocrinology. (Sigh) This is not supposed to be wishful thinking! Too many people out there have expectations of me. Back to reality...
July 2, 2005
THE PERFECT MEAL.
According to Reader's Digest, the perfect meal consists of the following:
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1/2 teaspoon fresh garlic (No kissing afterwards!)
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2 cups fruits and vegetables (especially leafy greens and citrus fruits)
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100 grams dark chocolate (Yummm!)
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a glass of wine (red is rich in antioxidants)
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a handful of almonds (64 grams)
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112 grams salmon, herring or another fish containing omega-3 fatty acids (2-4 times a week) - oily fish are actually good.
If you ate these six key foods everyday, you would reduce your risk of heart disease by 76 percent. Men could increase their life expectancy by 6 1/2 years, and women by about five years. Not bad, not bad at all. The foods listed here are actually nice to eat! I guess I'll be stocking up some Cadbury later...
June 30, 2005
STUPID ME.
Okay, something a little lighthearted this time. I've always liked the movie THE CORE. Don't ask me why. I thought it was pretty cool, and for the longest time, I wondered about the Earth's fate should that kind of disaster ever actually happen. Well, that teaches me to swallow everything that Hollywood dishes out, hook, line, and sinker. Apparently, it's all a load of bull****. I've read a scientific analysis which trashes the movie from start to finish. As a science aficionado and science fiction fanatic, I knew that there were loopholes in that movie, but I didn't realize how many loopholes. Now it seems that the entire thing was one gigantic misconception designed entirely to entertain--laypeople by its extravagant special effects, and scientists by its sheer ridiculousness. Oh well. At least, on top of other things, we won't have to worry about the Earth being fried by electromagnetic radiation for the time being.
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