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stayarmytinyzenmoa-l · 3 years

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TW: Ouija Board Use, Disturbing Topics, Ghost Mentions, Possession Mention, Talks about the Sixth Sense, Blood Mention, Suicide Mention

**Don’t read this if you’re easily scared**

There’s this thing that I just can’t get out of my head.

I figured that if I shared it maybe the nagging thought would leave me alone, so I’m writing this here to account it with that hope.

Last night I was watching a horror movie with my sister and her girlfriend and it just reminded me of someone that I knew back when I first started Uni.

But first full disclaimer here, I was never really close to this person, we had just met in my English class because we sat next to each other and had a couple of group work assignments together, but that was it. I’ll only talk about my experiences while I was with this girl, we’ll call her B for the sake of this recounting. And yes, this actually happened, but as you should with anything you read off of the internet, take it with a grain of salt because even I don’t know if I’m recounting everything perfectly, it happened a couple of years ago now and I’m trying to remember them as I write this.

I’m a very superstitious person, also. I totally buy into that bad luck stuff about ladders and mirrors, but my belief stems from I simply don’t want to try it if it ends up being true. That and from my Filipino descent I have many relatives who are superstitious also, not to mention the sixth sense runs in both sides of my family and is floating around somewhere in my generation so I don’t want to suddenly awaken that shit, no way (I’ll include a bit explaining that at the end of this post if you’re curious). Hell, I’m so superstitious that I won’t watch certain movies that deal with summoning entities just in case, or at least, I won’t watch them at home. But onto the story.

Anyway, the movie we were watching mentioned a Ouija board once or twice, which is what reminded me of my classmate, and it just sent chills down my spine and I’m still thinking about this even now because, my god, I am certain that she was possessed by something.

If you don’t know what a Ouija board it, let me crash course you. Essentially it is a tool to communicate with otherworldly creatures. Its a board with letters, numbers, and a yes/no option, and you hold on to the planchet (which is a huge triangle with a magnifying glass in the middle) and theoretically the spirit you contact will move it around to respond to your inquiries. However, this is not always the case, the board serves as a portal, and it is very rare that the entity you are trying to contact is actually the one interacting with you, and such it is considered a profane object. Once you bring it into your home alone you open your home to immense amounts of negative energy and it is now somewhat of an area of thin protection in which otherworldly entities can walk in and out of.

Basically, don’t fuck with them.

Now B is a huge occult fan, she loves the stuff, has read books on it and everything but, go figure, she’s a religious studies major and she wanted to specify in more occult practices, and with that you’d think she’d know never to dabble in those things, but I think her choice of major stemmed from a different kind of fascination in it. I think her thing was that she wanted to see if this occult stuff was real, I think she was a true skeptic and she just got a kick out of playing dangerous games and inviting dangerous creatures. I remember being appalled when she recounted her experience playing the dangerous game known as the [Midnight Game], which still gives me nightmares to this day. Either way, it would be an understatement for me to say that I wasn’t worried about her.

One day around week 8 of the quarter, meaning we were finishing up the quarter and starting to study for finals, while we were working together in class, she brought up to me and the other two group members (C and D for simplicity and anonymity) that she recently purchased a ouija board. And I immediately voiced my concern.

“You’ve already fucked with spirits before in the Midnight Game and [Dry Bones], are you trying to piss them off even more?” I was genuinely worried about her.

“Come on, Crys, they’re not real.” She insisted that towards me, but me and C made eye contact, both of us being Filipino and highly superstitious, we warned her again to give it back to where she got it from but she refused.

“What are you going to talk to anyway, B?” D asks her.

“Dunno, maybe I’ll talk to my granddad.”

“Or you could open your apartment to a poltergeist who will possess you and kill you slowly,” I said with a half joking tone, or at least that’s how I intended it to be.

“If you’re going to be so uptight about it then ignore me, Crys. It’s just a game,” she scoffs.

“Sure, yeah, I just think it’s smarter not to try anything. You’re already walking around with a target on your back because of the other games you’ve played, I’m just worried that something bad will happen to you this time. They come in threes, B,” I continued on. I didn’t know if it was fear for her or for me.

Needless to say she didn’t show up the next class. Me, C, and D just brushed this off as maybe she decided to skip class, which she had done many times before, and didn’t think much more of it. Of course I was still worried, I had a feeling that it had something to do with the board, but she looked really pissed when I brought it up to her so I didn’t want to overstep more than I already did.

But when she didn’t show up for the next week’s worth of classes, that’s when we really got concerned. We asked my professor about it just in case she just dropped the class and didn’t tell us, but no, she was still on the roster. So we decided to pay her a visit and make sure everything was alright.

Now we knew where she lived, it was an off campus apartment a couple of blocks away from school so it was an easy walk, and we had been there a handful of times already for group work. It was a relatively new apartment she had moved into before school started and, to our knowledge, she hadn’t tried anything there yet up until the board. But when I stood outside of her door, something just felt off. The air felt still, and something just wasn’t right. I knocked on the door and nothing. No shuffling, no movement, we thought she wasn’t home. But right when we turned to leave, the door opened.

Now B looked horrible. Her cheeks were sunken in and the bags under her eyes were more than just concerning.

“Hey, are you okay?” D asks her.

“I just have the flu,” B responds. Her voice was hoarse.

Now here is where I am conflicted. As you all know, I’m a premed student, and as you now know I am superstitious to a fault. My rational side says “ah, I get it now” but my superstitious one told me to call a priest. Like yes, the flu can do this to you, but it’s been a week.

Either way we’re backing away from the door. She opens it wider, as if to let us in, and when I tell you the apartment looked unrecognizable, I mean it. It looked nearly unlivable actually. I swear there was probably something alive hiding under the piles of pizza boxes and clothes. And this really concerned us because we knew B to be a very clean person, she always was throughout the quarter and would even reprimand C for being so messy himself, so the change was very jarring for us.

“You can come in if you want,” she says. “I haven’t been upholding my end of the group project.”

“No, it’s fine,” I declined for the group.

“I insist.”

“You have the flu, we could catch it.”

“You won’t, I know you’re all careful,” she says. Keep in mind, C and I are premed and D is accounting.

“We just wanted to check in on you,” D steps in now, seeing that I’m uncomfortable.

“Then why did you come all the way here and bother me?” She snapped. We were taken aback and she just shook her head. “Forget it, I’ll be fine by the presentation date. Just email me what I have to do.” Then she closed the door and was gone.

She never came back to class, and I learned later from another person in our class, who I’m assuming she was close with, that she dropped out of uni altogether. She never really told us either, so we had to rush to finish her part of the project, which was horrific, but that’s besides the point.

It’s just... this superstitious nature of mine typically gets in the way of a lot of things I choose to do. It’s always the first thing I put into consideration. And it’s a bit strange considering how... bad of a Catholic I am. Either way it’s just terrifying. Maybe I’m just more hyper aware of it because of how “close” I am to otherworldly things. I have cousins who’ve played games like [The Hosting Game] or [Lady Spades]. So I can sometimes feel things when they’re not right, then of course there’s the whole sixth sense running in both sides of my family thing so there’s that too. I don’t know, the whole thing just rubbed me wrong and still does to this day. I guess I’m more afraid of these negative energies reflecting back on me somehow, who knows?

I don’t know, maybe this was just me vastly overthinking things, maybe I’m just being paranoid, but something just didn’t sit right with me with that last exchange we had, who knows? The movie I watched last night just reminded me of her so much and I started getting worried again, I just hope she’s alright.

As for the promised bit about the sixth sense running in my family, here’s an abridged version from what I’ve learned:

On my mother’s side, it skips generations (therefore it is in my generation). The most notable one with this sense currently is my Uncle, who can see the auras of spirits (white for passive ones, red for aggressive ones, etc.) he’s helped other family members and extended members for many things involving these. There’s a certain term for him, actually, in the Philippines that is. He’s definitely not a shaman, no way, but the term escapes me for now. But it stemmed far back in our family’s lineage when we did have shamans and albularyos (witch doctors), if you looked up my mother’s maiden name in the Philippines you’ll even find an extensive history behind them (Obviously I won’t share that, but they were a very prominent Clan throughout the Philippines and still are in some islands). They have a history of communicating with enkantos (which are environmental spirits), the strongest one in our family to date being my great-great grandfather. I also have a cousin who sees spirits as they died, like if they happened to jump off of a tall building (and I’ll spare you the details because the aftermath is bloody) he will see them like that, it was so bad that he even went to the best therapists in the UK to treat it, but something like that isn’t exactly... treatable. So there’s that.

On my father’s side it’s a bit more muddled. We don’t understand the pattern it’s in, we just know that some people have it and most don’t. And if anything, it’s more of a curse. In every generation there has been someone who’s literally gotten possessed (one of my aunt’s did in the Philippines, she got possessed by a duwende I think? I’ll have to ask again). Haven’t had a possession yet in my generation (and no that’s not an invitation), but we’ve had hauntings many a time that my previously mentioned uncle helped us out with. There’s also a spirit who appears to every male who carries the name, and apparently when she is seen said male should not travel anywhere, some cases being my grandfather’s usual transit bus which drove off a cliff, my dad’s brother’s motorcycle combusting, etc. Whatever is going on in my dad’s side likely got passed down to me so I’m being extra careful.

TL;DR: I’m very superstitious because of the shit that has happened on both sides of my family and that probably fed into my fear for B.

Anyway, if you guys want scary stories, trust me, I’ve got scary stories.

#crys talks #personal

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purplesurveys · 4 years

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979

survey by xalikattx

FOOD

What is your favorite salad dressing? I’m not really familiar with most of them as I only consume one type of salad and the recipe for that usually calls for mayo and some kind of spicy sauce. I guess that’s my favorite dressing by default.

Favorite sit-down restaurant? Yabu for days. I personally don’t think that will change for me. Mama Lou’s is also nice but its crowd can be so boujee it kills the dine-in experience for me.

Favorite pizza topping? I’m easy to please; I just like my pizzas cheesy.

What food could you eat for two weeks straight and not get sick of it? Fried chicken sandwiches.

What do you put on your toast? Butter is fine with me. I don’t really eat toast.

What food do you eat the most? I have rice in every meal.

Do you like food? Yes.

Do you LOVE food? Yesssssssssir. I have my preferences and things that I don’t like but I’m not picky for the most part, and I love being adventurous with the foods I try.

Do you even eat at all? ...What kind of question is this

What do you put on your ice cream? I never customize my ice cream. I usually consume ice cream however way it’s already served.

Do you like steak? For sure.

Or are you a vegetarian? No.

How about a vegan? No.

What food do you hate the most? I’ve never learned how to appreciate kakanin, which is a group of a variety of sweet rice cakes that we have in Philippine cuisine. This has definitely caused my Filipino card to be revoked in the past lol, but ugh the texture is just so slimy and I hate how, even though we have so many types of kakanin, they all just taste and feel like sticky, chewed-up rice doused in sugar and coconut flakes. Korean rice cakes taste so much better.

TECHNOLOGY

How many TVs are in your house? We have four. Two downstairs, two upstairs.

Do they all work? I think the one in my brother’s room has stopped working but we just never get around to throwing it out because of the possibility of it getting fixed someday.

Do you have Comcast digital cable? I don’t know what that is. Probably a US thing? In that case we don’t. We used to have cable TV but my dad ceased our subscription a few months ago because no one in the family has been watching the TV for cable anymore and he got sick of paying for something that we don’t even avail of; we all stream our shows and movies on Netflix now.

AT&T Uverse? Definitely no AT&T on this side of the world, so no.

Dish Network? No.

Something else? Obviously.

Nothing? Again, it was a local cable provider but we’ve since cut off our subscription.

What's your favorite show? Of all time, Breaking Bad. Currently, it’s The Crown but I’ve been such a bad viewer at the moment; I stopped watching at some point a few months ago and haven’t gone back to Netflix since, welp.

What's the worst show? I don’t objectively know what’s the worst one out there but when it comes to my personal preferences, I’ve just never seen the appeal of shows targeted to teenagers or a younger demographic in general, like Teen Wolf, 13 Reasons Why, Riverdale, the TV adaptation of Scream, etc. Of course, this is just my own taste and I certainly don’t judge people who enjoy these shows.

What color cell phone do you have? The official name is Space Gray but that’s too fancy so let’s just call it black.

What kind? iPhone 8.

What does the first text message in your inbox say and who sent it? So I scrolled all the way down to the bottom of my text threads and the last person on the list is Ate Frances, and she was just telling me to check my Messenger because she had sent me a question regarding an event our org was holding at the time.

What was the last text you sent and who did you send it to? Gabie. I simply said “hi.”

Who was the last person to call you? My mom.

Who was the last person you called? Gab.

CURRENTLY

Are you missing someone? Yeah but let’s not get into it.

What are you listening to? I can hear rain pouring from outside my window.

Watching? It’s mostly background noise because I’m focusing on this survey, but I have on a YouTube video playing.

Worrying about? Work. I was tasked to think of PR executions for a client over the weekend and I just really really dislike it when I’m assigned to something that forces me to brainstorm, so ugh. Wish me luck because my brain juices have been feeling weak all weekend.

Where are you? I’m in my bedroom, my favorite place to be these days.

What's it like there? Lonely, but it’s quiet and comfortable. I used to avoid my bedroom all the time everyday because it makes me depressed, but now I am depressed and prefer to stay here all the time too.

How are you feeling? A little sad but I think tonight’s one of the nights I can fake it a little more easily, which is decent enough for me.

Is anyone with you? Who? Just Kimi.

Are you hungry? I haven’t had an appetite in a while. No.

What do you want to eat? I’m not craving anything.

Thirsty? I’m good, thank you.

What do you want to drink? I might end up drinking some of the plum soju that’s been in the fridge for months tonight, even though I told myself I wasn’t interested in touching it lol.

What time is it? 6:58 PM.

LASTS

Thing you ate? A tuna empanada.

Thing you drank? Pretty sure it was just water.

Thing you said? “Go, pee” It was to Kimi as I set him down on the balcony.

Movie you watched? I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Ugh, I really should watch a more light-hearted movie soon because this answer is such a depressing one and I’m tired of mentioning it.

Store you went to? What did you buy? Grocery store; dog food.

Person you talked to? My sister.

Person you hugged? I think it was Gabie.

Kissed? Also her.

Yelled at? I haven’t raised my voice in a while. I don’t remember anymore.

Book you read? Midnight Sun.

Thing you touched? Other than the keyboard, I pushed up my eyeglasses.

Person you became friends with on Facebook/Myspace/whatever other site? [continued the next day] A co-intern, Justine, added me on Facebook. I honestly don’t see the point of being Facebook friends because we’re bound to part ways and never encounter each other again after our internship...but I guess it’s nice to have friendly co-workers.

RANDOM

Are a righty or a lefty? Righty.

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Just a decaying tooth, but otherwise no organs or anything larger.

What is the last heavy object you lifted? Does Cooper count? Little man has been getting so big over the last few weeks. He’s finally getting the growth spurt that we’ve been waiting for :’D But I don’t really do heavy lifting around the house, so.

Have any scars? Sure.

How did you get them? Any interesting stories? Most of them are scars from childhood falls, because I was the clumsiest kid in the neighborhood and tripped and scraped my legs at least once every time I played outside. There’s a scar on my left eyebrow from an idiot cousin who had been out to make me blind, and then there’s the self-harm scars as well.

if it were possible, would you want to know the day you're going to die? Yes. It’s one of the things I’ve always wanted to know.

If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I’m happy with mine. I’m not five anymore.

Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? If it was like sriracha then yeah. Not willing to do anything overly hot, though.

How about 10 bottles of ketchup? I’d be more enticed if you offered mayonnaise, but even then I think such a feat deserves a higher prize than $1000.

10 bottles of maple syrup? Thinking of how thick that is already hurts my throat. Pass.

A bottle of vinegar? HELL no.

10 jars of peanutbutter? HELL yes but again, I’m gonna be asking for more money lol

How many pairs of flip flops do you own? A couple. They’re not my favorite things to wear so I don’t feel the need to collect a lot of them.

Favorite month? April because birthday month; December because even though that’s when my depression strikes the hardest, everyone else is caught up in the holidays and that allows me to guiltlessly cut off contact with people for a few weeks.

Do you always answer your phone? If you mean calls, then no. I do not pick up if it’s an unknown number, but after rejecting I immediately text them asking who they are and what they’re calling for. I just feel like it’s proper etiquette to text before you call, especially if you’re reaching out to me for the first time.

It's four AM and you get a text message, who is it? Gabie for sure. She’s on the graveyard shift, so it wouldn’t be a surprise.

If you could change your eye color what would it be? I’m okay with mine, but if I got reincarnated as a foreigner I’d love to have hazel eyes. They look very pretty.

Do you own a digital camera? Not anymore. My phone camera can take good enough photos.

Do you take lots of pictures of yourself? Hell no.

Do you take them in front of the mirror in the bathroom? Nope.

Have you ever had a pet fish? I had several goldfish as a kid, yes.

Pet hamster? Nope. That’s mostly a Western thing too I think; I don’t think I know anyone who’s ever had a hamster.

Bird? We had lovebirds before; they were so low-maintenance and made for such sweet pets.

Rabbit? Yep. Tobi was a bit of a handful, but I loved him all the same.

Iguana? No.

Favorite Christmas movie? Love Actually and It’s A Wonderful Life.

Favorite Christmas song? Probably It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas. It’s so soothing and yet makes me feel festive and excited for Christmas.

Can you do push ups? I can, doesn’t mean I’m good at holding myself up ha.

Can you do a chin up? I can but I hate those.

Does the future make you nervous or excited? Both.

Ever been in a car accident? Just minor ones.

Do you have an accent? I think everyone does. I’ve honestly never understood this question lol, if I go to a different country or continent, people are always going to have an accent in my ears. Even in my own country, I can think of a number of accents I’ve heard people speak in.

What song always makes you cry? 26 by Paramore.

Have any plans for tonight? Rest my tired head.

What were you doing at 12 AM last night? Talking to Gabie.

What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Ugh, Monday.

#survey #surveys

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smokefalls · 5 years

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Title: America Is Not the Heart Author: Elaine Castillo First Published: 2018 Genre: fiction, queer lit Content Warning: domestic violence, infidelity, suicidal ideation, homophobia, sexism, sexual abuse/assault including mentions of rape, police brutality, genocide, torture, drug/alcohol use, colorism, death/murder

I want to start by saying that I didn’t dislike this novel. I love a good immigration/diaspora story, which is jam packed in America Is Not the Heart. Throw in some queerness—more on that—and you usually have me hooked.

That said, immigration/diaspora and queerness are big topics. You can write plenty on just one of those two themes. I really do commend Castillo for wanting to tackle both (though it mostly focused on being an immigrant), because it often is the case that the two don’t interact with each other as much as it could and should. It takes a lot of care to try and strike that balance… and that unfortunately doesn’t happen in this novel.

There was a lot happening at the same time in America Is Not the Heart which significantly affected the pacing. You weren’t just dealing with the aforementioned themes; there were politics, the general lives of these characters (read: a necessity to focus on character development), trauma, etc. As a result, I found that it took me far longer than I anticipated to finish this novel because there was simply too much. Some themes felt more forced than others, almost as if to remind the reader that [insert whatever topic here] is still a thing. You end up slogging through some parts of the novel (and damn, when those parts come up, they’re really hard to get through), while other parts breeze past.

Another frustrating component of the novel is something that I wish didn’t bother me as much as it did, and that’s the use of non-English (specifically non-western) languages. Castillo drops a lot of Tagalog, Ilocano, and the occasional Pangasinan (if I’m remembering correctly) throughout this novel. There’s a beauty in using such languages. I would say that I have an incredibly high tolerance to seeing untranslated languages I don’t understand in novels. I don’t mind not fully understanding the text; I think there’s a beauty in that intimacy for those readers who do understand and are able to follow. Particularly for immigrant stories, it really adds to that level of intimacy and authenticity that makes the story all the more powerful. But it gets really tiring to have to stop almost every page because a character speaks in Tagalog or Ilocano without any translation, and the book itself is already overloaded with content.

So why did I stick around for this novel, despite my frustrations? I know it’s pretty cliché, but it’s for diversity. And damn, does Castillo do a phenomenal job to highlight the Filipinas and their experiences in the United States. There are so few works of fiction that focus on anything related to the Philippines, let alone Filipina immigrants. Yet here we are, hearing from not one but three women (though I will say that there is one voice heard over the other two). On top of that, two of them are bisexual women. Castillo celebrates their bisexuality without forcing it in your face. Writing queer characters—especially ones that aren’t monosexual—is hard. Oftentimes, it’s not done well and often written in a way where they have to be defined by their sexual orientation/gender identity. Castillo does away with stereotypes and created wonderfully complex women who, for the most part, aren’t shy about their sexuality. The only unfortunate thing is that it comes and goes in really weird ways, but again, I think that’s a result of poor pacing/too much content in general.

I think if I were to recommend this novel to anyone, it would probably be to my Filipino American friends. This novel really reads as a story for them more than anyone else. And I think that’s another problem that cropped up. I love stories that clearly celebrate another culture, especially ones that are severely underrepresented. I don’t love them as much if I’m given little to no explanation of the significance of certain elements. Castillo had moments where she did great showing of these cultural aspects, but there were also plenty of other moments where no one could possibly follow except (diasporic) Filipinos.

America Is Not the Heart was an ambitious debut novel. There were certain elements here and there that were striking to me; I really appreciated them when they were there. It was a disorganized novel though, which could make for a frustrating read for some depending on your tolerance.

#America Is Not the Heart #Elaine Castillo #book review #2019 reads #fiction #queerlit #bookblr

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kfteasers-blog · 5 years

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Jane Re.

“I am content with who I am and how my past experiences have shaped me. What is important is that I know that both of those sides–Korean and white–are a part of who I am.”

How do you identify ethnically?

I am half-Korean, half-white. In Korea they call it honhyol.

How do you feel like you belong to each ethnic identity?

Honestly, I feel like I still don’t quite belong to either. Koreans will still look at me strangely, notice my honhyol-ness, and white people will still view me as Asian. I’ve learned to embrace my Korean side as I’ve learned more about my family. I don’t know if I would call it “belonging,” but maybe a deeper understanding, respect, and appreciation for it. I do think I now feel more secure in the title “Korean-American.” I can still be Korean, practice certain values (read: nunchi) and view the world a certain way, but also find community and connection among white people. Some of my dearest friends today are white; and while it’s been a difficult (if awkward) journey of mutual understanding on both sides, I think that we’ve reached a point where I can feel truly comfortable being with them, not like a stranger or foreigner.

Was there one side of your heritage that you identified with more as a child? Do you feel like you belong to one identity over the other now?

I can say that when I was little, my uncle made being white sound shameful. Growing up, everyone in my neighborhood looked at me differently because I didn’t quite look like them. People (especially my uncle) treated me a certain way because I was honhyol, not fully Korean like them. Whatever “bad” qualities I had, they were attributed to my father–my “whiteness.” So as much as I wanted to be seen as Korean, it felt as if social circumstances and my own upbringing wouldn’t allow me to. I used to despise being this in-between. But as I’ve said before, since then I’ve come to learn that my whiteness isn’t a curse, and can in fact be an advantage: I have access and immersion in not one, but two divergent cultures. And I can either let them cripple my sense of self-worth and identity (like it used to), or let them reflect their positive impact in me. Even if I do subconsciously gravitate towards one identity over another, it doesn’t matter to me. I am content with who I am and how my past experiences have shaped me. What is important is that I know that both of those sides–Korean and white–are a part of who I am.

How has movement influenced your feeling of belonging to your identity?

I’ve definitely had my fair share of moving. And now that I think about it, with each move I practically forced myself to belong. When I was an au-pair at the Mazer-Farleys, I followed Beth’s rules and sat through hours of talks with her. I met my first white friend Nina, who encouraged me to dress more provocatively as they did in the clubs in the city. But at the time there was something in me that didn’t feel right about the situation in which I had placed myself (in no small part due to my affair with Ed), and I felt the sudden but strong impulse to leave altogether.

There was an article I read once in The New York Times, about South Korean adoptees returning to their country of birth. There was one sentence in particular that stood out to me: “How can a person exiled as a child, without a choice, possibly fathom how she would have ‘turned out’ had she stayed in Korea?” I thought of my grandfather, and how he had sent me away to live in America because he foresaw a future in Korea where I’d be judged for my mere appearance. So when I moved to Korea, I think I equated belonging with becoming just like them, at the cost of losing myself. I became so immersed in a different culture and lifestyle, that I felt the only way to belong was to conform to it. I changed my appearance and clothing, acted differently, and almost lost Nina. It took me a little while to realize I was doing it all wrong. The measures I was taking were making me feel more Korean, at least according to the standards of this modern society I was thrown into. It was becoming a norm for me–could’ve even been a “home”–but it was definitely not one I was comfortable in. It was much like how the South Korean adoptees felt; as much as they tried to conform by spending time in the country, Korea would never be home for them. I was actively trying to find a place to belong, that I didn’t realize that the change began within me, as cheesy as it sounds. I make the most of the place I am in. I am the one who can determine where I belong or who I belong with. My parents did that, and they were happy, so why couldn’t I? So I moved back to the United States, where I could be among the people with whom I wanted to be and live a life on my own terms. And from there I became happy.

Recount the scene in Food where Beth and Sang meet for the first time. That seemed to be a distinct clash of white and Korean culture–describe how you felt in that moment. Have there been any other instances in your life in which parts of your identity do not align/clash with each other?

That was probably the most significant (and awkward) clash of cultures I’d ever seen. It was bound to happen, since neither side had really had such close contact with the other. It’s weird to describe it that way–like they’re completely different species or something. But that’s what it felt like in that moment; Beth’s lack of nunchi was made all the more obvious in this little world that was dominated by it, while Sang couldn’t pick up on Beth’s own culturally-influenced behaviors. This woman who always seemed to have control of the situation and had the answer to everything suddenly didn’t, and she could feel it. Honestly, I probably watched it with such sick fascination because it was like a physical manifestation of my own identities clashing with each other. At that point in my life, I felt like they could only exist separately, and that episode at Food only seemed to further prove this point.

Reflect on this passage from The Night Counter (“Like I was saying, I look at myself in the mirror a lot. I see sickly and pimply, but I don’t see Arab, or Chinese, or Black. I do see someone who could definitely pass for Latino but not a hot one like Shakira or Jennifer Lopez…I used to think I would look weird ice fishing, but once someone thought I was eskimo, so I guess I could go ice fishing one day if Brenda would want to do anything fun.”) How do other people’s perception of your identity affect your own perception of your identity?

I actually read this book. Nina recommended it to me, saying it reminded her of me. I guess because I always used to talk about how I’d look in the mirror and see neither a Korean or a white person. I’d just see me, a honhyol. And I thought that was a bad thing unlike this Decimal character, who didn’t seem to really care what she looked like, especially to other people. It’s odd, actually–in the United States, I was condemned by my family for looking too white. But in Korea, I was praised for my honhyol-ness. I had a friend who said she envied my “white skin, big eyes, big nose and small chin.” I’d never considered them as admirable features, more like things that set me apart from everyone else. There’s this article I found once called “Whatever Happened to the Kayumanggi?” It basically talks about how Filipino Malay people admire the fair skin of white people at the cost of acknowledging the beauty of their own golden-brown tone, called “kayumanggi” in Tagalog. This fascination had its roots in historical circumstances, like how the Spaniards converted the Filipino natives into worshipping white-skinned religious figures, or how the Americans brought along with them a vision of the Hollywood ideal. What I learned from this article, and my time in Korea, is that sometimes skin color can be associated with a specific value. It can truly affect how people think of themselves and others–which is probably why Monica always had a bitter undertone whenever she commented on my appearance or position as a half-Korean, half-white woman. The ads on the trains in Korea, my aunt’s fascination with cosmetics, it’s all a part of this attempt to attain what history and society has defined as a beauty standard. And while I let it get to my head a little bit, I think I’ve reached a place where I don’t care as much how people perceive me–because I am happy with the person I’ve become.

Reflection

Jones, Maggie. “Why a Generation of Adoptees Is Returning to South Korea.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Jan. 2015.

Although Jane is not adopted from South Korea, she was similarly removed from the country due to the decision of others, and seemingly for her own benefit. This New York Times article essentially explores the impact this displacement (to the United States, no less) has on the adoptees, and how this impact is felt once they return to South Korea. There are various individuals interviewed who all come from different environmental circumstances and upbringings, which wound up affecting how they adjusted to the country of their origin: some were able to adjust and move their permanently, while others had a difficult time viewing it as another home for themselves. Jane falls into the latter group, raised in her own version of Korea and utterly unprepared for the world she threw herself into. The article captures a relevant angle on the concept of belonging and its relationship with movement: and in Jane’s case, how physically journeying to a part of your ethnic identity is not always a return home.

Pedero, Dero. “Whatever Happened To The Kayumanggi?” Philstar.com, The Philippine Star, 6 July 2003.

Pedero dissects Filipino society’s favoring of whiter, fairer skin and their disregard for “kayumanggi,” or the golden brown skin color that is characteristic of most Filipinos. This article, although focused on a specific nation, can be applied to several others who attempt to emulate the white American/European ideal. Striving to model oneself after this type of person, or even having such a mentality subconsciously ingrained into one’s way of thinking, can have damaging effects for self-perception and racial identity. Jane was raised in an environment that belittled and shamed the white side of her, in terms of both appearance and negatively stereotyped values. When she goes to South Korea, though, her whiteness is praised as an enviable trait. The extreme dichotomy Jane experiences between these two reactions ultimately gives her the perspective she needs. Skin color is not always a direct reflection of one’s ethnic identity, but it is certainly not a determinant of one’s value.

#biracial #biracialbelogning #ReJane #transnational #Korean #American #Korean-American #KatherineBaisa

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simranmukherjee011-blog · 5 years

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Find Rooms For Rent In Singapore – Tampines, Pasir Ris, And Other Eastern Estates

If you’re looking for the easiest and most convenient way to find a property and rent in Singapore, TRUrental is a great option for you. The app sends you daily notifications about new listings, which are selected for you based on your specified search criteria.

With the app, you’ll also hear from landlords who want you as their tenant, which makes finding a home twice as easy and twice as fast!

Here are some of the active rental listings available for September 2018.

Check out more inside the Truuue Tenant app! If you are a landlord or agent, you can list your rental unit for free in our Truuue Landlord app.

To learn more, call TRUrental at 65918842. You could be scheduling viewing appointments as soon as today.

Renting in Tampines, Simei and Pasir Ris: Everything You Need To Know

There are many advantages to having a property on rent in Singapore’s eastern region. For one, it means quick and easy access to Changi International Airport, which is an absolute bonus if your job requires frequent travel. (Besides, the number one airport in the world also boasts four terminals that are chock-full of family-friendly amenities, activities and eateries.)

Secondly, you’ll find that some of the best local parks and beaches are located in the east, including Changi Beach Park and East Coast Park. And finally, life-long ‘easties’ will argue that the sun shines just a little brighter on their side of the island (a claim that’s not actually backed by proper scientific evidence).

By the time we are done, you will have the information you need to decide if you are an “east-sider”!

Basic Figures

Tampines Area: 20.89 sq km Population: 258,310 (2015)

Simei Area: 2.78 sq km Population: 42, 710 (2015)

Pasir Ris Area: 15.02 sq km Population: 139,810 (2015)

Got A Job In The East? Great!

Known as the commercial hub of the east, the Tampines Regional Centre is home to insurance giant AIA, major banks such as UOB and OCBC, and the Central Provident Fund (CPF). I don’t know anyone who likes a long commute, so if your place of work happens to be located in and around the regional centre, that may be reason enough to make Tampines your home base – you could be walking to work or just be a short bus ride away. (Simei and Pasir Ris would just be one and two train stations away, respectively.)

Also located in the area is the Changi Business Park (also known as the CBD of the east), a technology, IT and financial services centre. It houses major banks – Citi Group, DBS, Credit Suisse, Standard Chartered, to name a few – and other major companies including Cisco Systems, Infosys, Huawei, Honeywell, Wipro – the list goes on. The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and the Singapore Expo are also situated in the area. If you’re working in any one of these organisations, know that the business centre is serviced by the Expo MRT station, which means a quick train ride to and from any of the three estates.

The estates are also extremely well-connected to the rest of the island. The Tampines bus interchange and MRT station (East-West Line and Downtown Line) – both located in the heart of the Tampines Regional Centre, makes travel to the Central Business District (CBD) – and to the rest of the country – uber convenient. (too early?)

For drivers and “Grab-ers”, the entrances/exits to major expressways like the Pan Island Expressway (PIE), Tampines Expressway (TPE) and East Coast Parkway (ECP) are just minutes away from these two major centres.

And if your day-job is an international man/woman of mystery, just note that the by-road commute is only mere minutes from your departure gate.

MATURE ESTATE NICETIES

Are you a homebody? Do you fantasize about pan roasted meals, fresh home cooked pasta, and ice cream binging? No less than 6 supermarkets (yes, more than the fingers on your right hand) are at your grocery run’s disposal.

At the Tampines Regional Centre alone are three supermarkets, each located within the following malls – Tampines Mall, Tampines 1 and Century Square. Next to the Simei MRT station is EastPoint Mall, which has a FairPrice supermarket taking up the entire fifth floor.

In Pasir Ris, White Sands Shopping Centre (located right by the Pasir Ris MRT station) also has an NTUC FairPrice in its basement. As if that isn’t enough, there’s always the Giant Hypermarket located at 1 Tampines North Drive 2 (right across from an IKEA and a Courts Megastore, in case you need to do some furniture shopping).

As you get to know your area, you’ll find more minimarts and smaller supermarkets peppered around the residential areas within each of the estates, many of them located at the void decks or ground floors of HDB flats and private condominiums – you’ll never have to worry about running out of milk.

The area is also well supported by medical services. If you’re feeling under the weather, you won’t have to travel far to see a doctor. The Singapore Doctors Directory online lists at least 37 clinics in Tampines alone (6 in Simei, and another 12 in Pasir Ris). Along with SingHealth, these are useful resources if you need to locate a 24-hour clinic, check where your nearest hospital is at, find a paediatrician, and so on.

In a medical emergency, there are two hospitals (open 24-hours) to save your life: Changi General Hospital at 2 Simei Street 3, Singapore 529889, and St Andrew’s Community Hospital at 8 Simei Street 3, Singapore 529895.

ESSENTIAL SERVICES

Locksmith/Key Duplication

So you’ve just rented your apartment and need to make an extra set of keys. Mister Minit is a reliable key-duplication chain store to go to and there just happens to be one located at EastPoint Mall (B1-K1). But what if you’ve misplaced your keys or are locked out of your rental? Well, Hoe Siong LockSmith(Blk 406 Tampines Street 41, #01-13, Singapore 520406) can not only duplicate your keys, they also happen to be (well-reviewed) locksmiths that have been in the business for 25 years and is one of the best 3 in the business!

Singapore Post Offices

Pay your utility bills and send your letters at any one of these locations:

1 Tampines Central 5, #01-03 CPF Tampines Building, 529508

350 Bedok Rd, Singapore 469538

White Sands, 1 Pasir Ris Central Street 3, #05-01, Singapore 518457

Laundromats

If your rental doesn’t come with a washing machine, or if said machine is eaten by the Cthulhu, here are some 24-hour anti-monster laundry solutions:

Wonder Wash (24 hours): 527D Pasir Ris Street 51, #01-02, Singapore 514527

Dobi Ekspress (24 hours): 445 Pasir Ris Drive 6 #01-100, Singapore 510445

Bubble Wash Simei (24 hours): 17 Simei St 4, #01-58, Singapore 529881

Wash2Dry (24 hours): 201E Tampines Street 23, #01-122, Singapore 527201

The Laundry Room (24 hours): 164 Tampines St 12, #01-297, Singapore 521164

FEAST IN THE EAST!

Seriously, food is everywhere. In Singapore, you cannot walk one kilometre without running into an eatery or food kiosk of some sort – eating is unabashedly the nation’s favourite past-time and this region has an equal share of delicious food finds. We’re simply highlighting some of the places where locals have given the thumbs up.

1. Ministry of Rojak

White Sands Shopping Centre, 1 Pasir Ris Central St 3, #01-30, S(518457).

Known for their Indian Rojak Fondue, the stall also offers local favourites such as tulang, mutton chop and bee hoon goreng. Wash it all down with a hot Teh Tarik or an ice-cold milo dinosaur.

Mellben Seafood Palace

440 Pasir Ris Drive 4, #01-13, S(510440).

This coffeeshop is famous for their pepper crab and crab bee hoon dishes. If you love seafood, it’s worth a visit.

Humble Burger

Pasir Ris Hawker Centre, 110 Pasir Ris Central, #02-22, S(519641).

For an interesting take on the traditional burger, head down to this hawker stall to try their Chicken Rice Burger (with buns made from chicken rice) or Sio Bak Burger. Or you could just indulge in the classics (with a side of twister fries) – their fish and beef burgers are really good.

Comida Fiesta

Singapore Expo Hall 4, 1 Expo Drive, #01-41, S(486150).

The restaurant serves up Filipino-Spanish fusion cuisine with dishes like Kare Kare, Sinigang, Sizzling Sisig, and Seafood Paella.

The Flourist

824 Tampines Street 81, #01-36, Singapore 520824

Here’s a cozy café where you can choose from a sweet selection of gelato flavours such as Matcha and Horlicks, and pair them with a plain waffle, or something more adventurous like charcoal mochi.

GET OUT OF YOUR HOME TODAY

Whether you choose to rent in Tampines, Simei or Pasir Ris, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much there is to do in the area.

If your idea of recreation is picking up a great book, you’ll probably never want to leave the massive five-storey Tampines Regional Library. It spans over 10,900 m2 and has over 400,000 books. The library has designed several reading areas that cater to the different age groups.

Flip through a magazine while overlooking a football field or hop on the one exercise bike that’s fitted with a reading desk – after you’ve worked up an appetite, why not take out one of the many recipe books available for loan so you can whip up a lovely meal. (Incidentally, the library also has a culinary studio where cooking classes are periodically run. Just saying.)

There’s another library at White Sands in Pasir Ris, albeit on a smaller scale (1,986 m2 and housing 125,000 books).

If retail therapy is your idea of a good time, there are five malls to drain your bank account: Tampines Mall, Century Square, Tampines 1 (Tampines); EastPoint Mall (Simei); and White Sands (Pasir Ris).

Catch the latest blockbuster at any one of the four movie theatres located at Tampines Mall, Our Tampines Hub, Century Square, and Downtown East.

Dreaming of that beach bod? No more excuses!

The sprawling Tampines Hub, houses swimming pools, jogging tracks, a professional football pitch, rock-climbing walls, a 30-lane bowling alley, an 836 m2 gymnasium, and so on. Alternatively, slap on some sunblock and go for a run or a bike-ride on the Tampines Park connector, a respectable 7 km stretch of largely car-free pathways that connects the three estates, and takes you from Bedok Reservoir Park to Pasir Ris Park. And as you explore the neighbourhoods, you’ll discover that the various estates are peppered with smaller parks, and outdoor playgrounds and gyms (and they’re free to use). With such easy access to everything, there’s no excuse not to get your workout on.

For something a little less manicured, take a leisurely cycle to the Tampines Quarry Park, a small body of water frequented by locals in the know. On weekends, drone-flyers and anglers looking for their elusive catches are a familiar sight, as are cyclists and picnickers.

Pasir Ris Park is another great outdoor space that’s perfect for a day out with friends and family. Not only is the park a safe and scenic environment for cycling and inline skating, kids can also go on pony rides and enjoy the park’s adventure playground. When you’re hungry after all that activity, you could have a packed picnic lunch or rent a barbecue pit (or enjoy a meal at the nearby food outlets). But this isn’t any run-of-the-mill park. There’s also a six-hectare mangrove forest that you’re welcome to explore, as well as a butterfly garden and a birdwatching tower. You could even pitch a tent and camp under the stars in one of the designated camping sites – a pleasant respite from the concrete jungle.

Downtown East in Pasir Ris is a great way to spend the weekend afternoon in a game of laser tag or get some watersports fun at Wild Wild Wet, Singapore’s largest water park.

The integrated accomodations at D’Resort can give you and your family overnight fun at all of Downtown East’s offering too!

These three estates are exceedingly self-sufficient; not only would you have easy access to all your daily needs, there’s also plenty of fun to be had. You may be hard-pressed to think of reasons not to lease in the east!

READY TO RENT? CHECK TRUUUE OUT!

Download the Truuue Tenant app and let landlords find you today. It’s the easiest way find a room or apartment on rent in Singapore. For landlords, list your unit for free on Truuue Landlord today!

Plus, you can use our super easy-to-use app to coordinate your rental unit viewings, for free! And if you need to speak to a real person, simply call our hotline at 6591 8842 to access our Concierge services!

Rent happy with Truuue!

original content available at https://blog.truuue.com/

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mjdavid · 3 years

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13 July 2021

(10 AM, Tuesday | Rosewood, PH)

Be warned. Venting out general frustrations ahead. Proceed with caution and a sense of humor:

Just when you thought that your government had run out of ways to disappoint you, it fucking goes the extra mile to run your country to shit in ways you could probably never imagine.

This current admin is fucking us up so bad and it's not even the good kind.

In drunken nights I've spent in my apartment at Pasay in the past few years, it's become quite a trend for me to catch myself mutter: You know what? It's this dickhead's Quezon's fault.

What was he on when he was delivering the speech that had something along the lines of "it's better to have government run like hell by Filipinos, than a government run like heaven by *foreigners*"?

I mean, I get it. Sure.

We've never really been that independent for centuries then, but, man, have we been conditioned for so long to fold right away.

Because of our extreme hospitality, we've basically received every colonizer in our islands with arms wide open and taught ourselves to fear them as a welcome gift.

Critical thinking? The fuck is that?

Religion played a huge role here, of course. As soon as the white-men found our land, we were immediately indoctrinated with a belief, which, ironically, originated from a place/culture, some of these racist fucks hate anyway.

Being raised a hard-core Catholic (like the rest of us here), I was made to feel guilty every time I question my family's/peer's faith. Although very much obvious, I believe there is a need to state how fragile this faith is, if such is the case.

Of course, there are quite a few exceptions.

Those whom I've met who are faithful, yet discerning. Capable of living their faith, expounding the logic behind their subscription to this specific brand of belief.

For those I people I have a deep sense of respect. For a slight bit, it might be even said that I admire these people, because of how few they are out there.

Now, with all that being said, what's my point here?

Nothing, actually.

Like I said from the beginning, I just wanted to spill out a few ink, to vent my general frustrations from reading the news on my Twitter feed.

Here's such a sad place to live, man. Now is such a sad time to live.

Anyway, I still have more than half of the day to live through.

So far, I've spent it to cook myself breakfast (leftover sausage, egg, hashbrowns), watch an episode of New Girl (Season 2), and weigh myself.

This morning, pre-breakfast, I weighed 64.4 kg. The overall goal is to get myself back to 60 to 63.

Up in the afternoon, I have a meeting to attend to for work (SAAD-related) and I plan on working out and getting myself back on track in terms of meditation.

Even with the Work From Home arrangement going on for more than a month now, I still feel like I badly need to go on vacation to take my mind off the blandness of everyday life.

Everything feels routinary.

Because of the pandemic, now that taking myself on a date is not a very wise option to consider, and, also, staying at home is a must, even the most spontaneous activities have become mundane.

I've been losing interest in almost everything which I used to enjoy in my free time. I've lost interest in playing online games (which probably explains why I got hooked to chess again, reading books. Even dancing.

Hopefully, I get my mojo back in terms of my creative pursuits, because we aren't getting any younger.

Are you?

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mikamema · 4 years

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I want to speak to Kafka

I’m reading again.

A friend of mine (hi bernienie!), has been reading a lot this quarantine and I thought maybe I should too. With my–surprisingly–current disinterest with Netflix or any activity that entails mindlessly scrolling on and staring at glass, perhaps now is a good time than any other. I’ve had this book for years, I bought my secondhand “Kafka on the Shore” at a quaint bookshop the last time we were at Singapore. That trip, sometime 4-5 years ago, I traveled to an overseas country alone for the first time to meet my father where he used to work. Unrelated, but it feels right to mention given the fact that I’m about to talk about a Murakami novel.

I’m reading again. I say this again because it’s been ashamedly years and years ever since I finished a book, much more read outside of school and work, and it feels–I am about to say nice, but right, seems to be the better word. Reading, after all, has always been my first love. Way before dance and theatre, books, by way of my mother, have always been the first that welcomed and introduced me to the world.

Even then, I felt myself tiptoeing around having to read again, all the more fiction as odd and out worldly as that of Murakami’s. I was afraid my rekindled interest in this hobby is just a phase (I still am) and it worries me that the moment I lose interest, again, it’ll be years until it returns. This is why, for the first few pages, my guard was up. Murakami, by way of his characters, loves to meander, and you wonder what he means, what it’s for, and where it’s meant to lead you, but as early as less than half of the book, you realize that the characters have no idea either. I think this is where Murakami loses some of his readers, and almost lost me. I read my first Murakami novel 5 years ago, “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage”, and I remember flipping to the last page in shock. I really thought I had another chapter to go until the end. That was it? I thought. What was that for? Yet I say this with awe, admiration, wonder, and melancholy.

Many of us enter the world of fiction through whatever medium with a timed tolerance for ambiguity or uncertainty. We expect and accept them for only as far as it takes to introduce and create conflict, but never near or beyond the end or the supposed resolution. For the most part, we consume fiction to escape our seemingly unceasing realities, so what is there to appreciate in texts the only seek to show us the same? But in Murakami’s oddest way, this, I realize, is what captivates me. The usual query of “what happens next?” surprisingly gives me more comfort than doubt and discouragement, as I surmise that Kafka and Nakata is asking the same question in their universe way beyond what is tangible for me on paper, and this is what pulls me in. Because in this running from and towards the unknown, despite the isolation and occasional desolation, what comes in between and after are the characters’--by way of Murakami’s--wisdom.

I’m the type of reader who marks pages through dogears, and if a quote sticks with me I underline it with anything nearby. I apply heavy hands on my books, and I like to excuse this by thinking that this is how I express my care and gratitude for it. I also like to think that the ruggedness it dons in the long run mirrors the journey I take with it. And with my secondhand Kafka, within its already worn out body are the dogears I fold for pages with lines that I want to remember. Here are some of them. They’re a lot, I realize, and I’m only halfway through. At almost every other page, the characters teach me something new. Sometimes, they also open doors to questions or thoughts in my mind that I’ve set aside or forgotten even existed.

I encountered this last one just today. Last night, in the spectrum of well to melancholy, I was floating just a little beyond the halfway point to the latter. I read Kafka most of the afternoon and had a feeling it was what brought me there. Night came and I surprised myself by choosing to continue Kafka over watching Mindhunter with Mama because I wanted to hover over the same spot just for a little longer. I woke up today at 12 noon with such emotion having faded away, but reading about America’s racism brought me back to that halfway point and pushed me even further. I cry over this black woman’s cries of “No Justice, No Peace”, and I find myself turning to Kafka for escape and a little bit of comfort if possible. Magically, I wasn’t met with both, but more.

“Kafka, in everybody’s life there’s a point of no return. And in a few cases, a point where you can’t go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That’s how we survive.”

I haven’t even processed what it meant but I already found myself crying again. Are we in this point of no return? I ask myself then. Why the desire to turn to a work of Murakami for escape? Much less comfort? I ask myself now.

“When someone is trying very hard to get something, they don’t. And when they’re running away from something as hard as they can, it usually catches up with them. I’m generalizing of course.” “If you generalize about me then, what’s in my future? If I’m seeking and running at the same time.” “That’s a tough one,” Oshima says, and smiles. A moment passes before he goes on. “If I had to say anything it’d be this: Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.”

I wanted to run from the world’s pains, to seek comfort and escape all at the same time, and indeed, it came in the form I least expected. I wasn’t able to escape reality per se, nor was I comforted by what I just read, but I found a sense of stability. A grounding in the truth with a sensation that I find could be a cousin of comfort. Escape, in a way implies some sort of cowardice, and comfort, at this time is almost improbable. Yet in Kafka on the Shore, I unexpectedly found steady hands that held me safe and still. In Oshima, I heard a voice that reminded me of what is more necessary than escape and comfort--truth. And this is a nudge I didn’t know I needed to keep me going.

Last night, after switching off my reading light, bringing my comforter over me, and priming myself to sleep, like a door that naturally, slowly, sways to a close and kisses the hinges of its doorway, it dawned on me how film, theatre, or any other animate and visual form of medium will always be somewhat inferior to books as a means to escape. In any of the former, complete escape is impossible because what you see is still human. Although the mind has the temporary power to suspend its disbelief, the eye, I don’t think can ever deny that it is seeing humans, actors, dimensional objects that still have relations and associations beyond the world of whatever film or play is being consumed, deeming true escape from one’s reality impossible.

But words, literature, are an entirely different kind of entity. Entity, being the primest word. Christian Benitez, a poet, all around writer and Filipino professor I adore and admire, has always believed and said that words are alive, tangible, thus, entities. I thought I understood part of what he means, but I also thought I’d probably never truly understand it in its fullest. But I think I see it now (although still partly). Words are as alive, true, and real as anything tangible. The persons, voices, sounds, images, places, sensations, and emotions it creates in our imaginations are as valid and as real as the world we live in. Even more real, perhaps. This could be why escape done by means of language will always be more effective than that of the visual.

Laging nakakakapit ang mga imahe sa mga mundong nagagalawan at ginagalawan natin, ang mga salita, hindi. Matapos itong isulat at palayain sa mundo, “may sariling buhay na ito,” ika-nga ni Benitez. May sariling mundo ang mga salita, na kasing buhay at marahil mas buhay pa nga sa atin.

To reading more, hopefully beyond this quarantine. To reading for more than escape, but to become closer to the truth, regardless of both the comfort and discomfort.

#kafka on the shore #haruki murakami #personal #2020 reads

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thewhizzyhead · 3 years

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a non-filipino's guide to trese: ep 1

So some of my mutuals decided to check out Trese aka the Netflix adaptation of the Filipino horror comic book series that I keep rambling about here and then since well um most of my mutuals aren’t from the Philippines fshfs I decided to make a long-ass post that basically consists of me rambling about the cultural context present in Trese with fun little tidbits about Filipino folklore. I’m not an expert on Filipino mythology so um I just typed out the stuff that I know and the stuff that I looked up on Wikipedia so um take this with a grain of salt aaaaa I’ll save the extensive google scholar research ramble on folklore present in Trese for another day.

I’ll try to find the sites where I got some of the information from cause um yea I kinda had a bit of a hard time finding the other shit so um once again, take the stuff here with a grain of salt. Also, feel free to add more info if you guys got any!

SO ANYWAYS ENJOY ME RAMBLING ABOUT EPISODE 1 OF TRESE WOO

+ MRT and LRT (Manila Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit) are train systems in NCR (the capital region) and yea them suddenly stopping and malfunctioning in the middle of the goddamn rail is a daily occurrence and we have been trying to deal with this bullshit for years but alas, corruption and negligence are sweet sweet drugs.

+ When the MRT broke down, you'd see a red bee in the flashing billboard right? Well that's Jollibee and that's probably the most well-known fast food restaurant chain here heck there are even branches of it abroad!

+ According to many youtube comments along with other social media posts that I am way too tired to link here, the opening theme is an Ifugao ethnic song called Balluha'd Bayyauhen but with modern accompaniments and I think the song is about a fruit called a balluha that the character in the song tries to it but cannot swallow. (someone please correct me if I’m wrong here fjkfs)

+ The first um monster that we see Alexandra interact with is the White Lady of Balete Drive. White Ladies or “Kaperosa” are a type of female ghosts typically dressed in ghostly white dresses or similar garments. According to legend, she died in a car accident while driving along Balete Drive (a two lane street formerly lined with Balete Trees which are said to be a home for spirits and mysterious creatures) in Quezon City while other accounts say she died waiting for the arrival of her lover; others also say that she was a teenage girl who was run over and killed by a taxi driver at night and then buried around a Balete tree while another variation of the tale claims that a student from the University of the Philippines was sexually assaulted and killed by a taxi driver nearby and so said ghost haunts the street in search of her murderer. There are many other variations but according to local rumor, the legend was fabricated by a reporter in 1953 in order to make an interesting story. What remains consistent in many variations is that apparently taxi drivers would be stopped by a beautiful lady asking for a ride and if one would look at the rear window, they would see that the white lady in question is bruised and drenched in blood.

+ There are a lot of mentions about "lakans" and stuff in reference to Alex and her father right? In precolonial times, the term is used to refer to the paramount ruler or the highest-ranking political authorities in Tagalog communities (so um NCR and some parts of Region 4). In Muslim communities, they are called sultans while communities with strong trade connecitons with Indonesia or Malaysia called them Rajah. Datu is umm the more generalized term though when it comes to discussing the leaders of the precolonial Filipinos.

+ So, Alex’s mom is a babaylan and back in the pre-colonial period, each barangay (which a native filipino term for a village or a district; said term is still used today to describe um divisions in municipalities like) had them and these are basically Philippine shamans and they specialized in communicating with the spirits of the dead. To my knowledge, the role of babaylan went to women and yea people assigned male at birth but then identified as female were also allowed to become babaylans and they would be treated with the same respect given to any woman back then (honestly I dunno much about lgbtq+ stuff back in the precolonial times but all I know is that precolonial Filipinos were much a lot more welcoming towards trans identities bUT THEN THE SPANIARDS CAME AND UM ERR RUINED THAT); also the writing Alexandra's mom did in that one scene with the dagger is in Baybayin - preHispanic Filipino script. I dunno what she wrote down though. .

+ Also I kinda find it funny that the people here esp those who were at the White Lady scene are um,,, not at all surprised? Like yea quite a number of filipinos have their own superstitions and beliefs and all that but um yea the people in Trese seem very used to the bullshit,,,which in retrospect, isn't at all inaccurate fsdfd I MEAN WE DEAL WITH UNSURMOUNTABLE AMOUNTS OF BS ON A DAILY BASIS SO I DON’T THINK DEAD GHOSTS WOULD EVEN FAZE MANY FSKJDS

+ The one that appears right before Alexandra talks with the duwende (the one in the manhole) is called Laman Lupa (which i guess translates to um "What is in the earth"? just um YEA THEY ARE DIRT CREATURES). normally this is an umbrella term for duwendes and nunos but in Trese they are servants of these aforementioned creatures.

+ Duwende (which came from the Spanish phrase "dueno de case" which means "owner of the house") or dwarves in Filipino folklore are known to be mischievous and magical environmental guardians. They are believed to reside in trees or under earth mounds (those that live in the latter are called nuno sa pundo or old man of the mount) which is why quite a lot of Filipinos say "tabi tabi po" or “excuse me” when wandering around a forest or earth mounds as a sign of respect and in the hopes the duwende won't torment them. If the person is friendly, the duwende can also be friendly in return and will bring that person good lucl; otherwise, those who destroy their homes by stepping on them will face their wrath in form of heartless curse and predictions of ominous and disastrous fates. A duwende's color also depends on their budhi or conscience: to my knowledge, white duwendes are kind, red ones give protection amulets, green ones are firnedly with children and the black ones give nothing but trouble.

+ Chocnut aka the snack Alex bribes the nuno with is a very yummy chocolate snack made of coconut milk, crushed peanuts and cocoa powder. They are umm about an inch in length and maybe half an inch in width so it's fairly small; that being said I WANT THE CHOCNUT THAT ALEXANDRA HAS CAUSE HOT DAMN THAT'S A BIG CHOCNUT

+ In Trese, the creatures in the MRT scene and in the warehouse Alexandra visits after she talks with the duwende are called "aswang". In Philippine folklore, it is an umbrella term for any kind of monster so um an aswang in Luzon would be very different from the aswang in Mindanao. According to what I saw on wikipedia, they can be classified in 5 categories: the vampire (self-explanatory um they drink blood), the viscera sucker (the manananggal, i'll get to that next time), the weredog (cats and pigs are also possible but um yea they target pregnant women), the witch (self-explanatory boom curses and stuff) and the ghoul (they gather near trees in cemeteries to feast on human corpses). Aswangs are often described to have a long, hollow tongue, sharp claws and sharp teeth, although they do also have human forms.

+ To my knowledge, Ibwa, the leader of the aswangs in the warehouse, is a creature from Tinguian or Itneg mythology (they, like the Ifugao, are an indigenous ethnic group in northwestern Luzon) though I could be wrong about this dksfsf Ibwa seems like an ethnic filipino term tho wah I can't remember where I once read that. But anyways, Ibwa often stalk sthe house of a dying person to steal its body. In order for the ibwa to NOT succeed in that, some people burn holes in the garments of the dead and put a sharp iron object on top of the grave since those are most powerful weapons against aswangs which is what Alexandra uses to subdue the Ibwa and kill all the other aswangs (the knife alex uses is named Sinag which means "ray of light".)

+ ALSO I AM SO SO GLAD THEY KEPT THE FILIPINO SWEARS IN THE ENGLISH DUB YES YES THIS IS A VERY GOOD JOB so lemme discuss the versatility of tangina-

+ Also umm Bossing is a nickname of Vic Sotto - one of the three pioneer hosts of Eat Bulaga! which is the longest running Philippine noontime variety show. Over time, most probably due to the show's popularity, the term "bossing" then became um slang for "boss" or "chief"

+ Translation of what Alex says when she's stirring the eye inside the cup: “In the eyes of others, secrets will reveal themselves.”

+ Sidenote: The English dub's pronunciation of many of the tagalog lines are um yea they r pretty good but they could use a bit of work but then again I'm really not that good in speaking in Tagalog so who am I to judge gkdkf sorry po guys conyo po ako-

+ Maria Makiling is arguably the most famous of all the diwatas (ancestral spirits, nature spirits, or deities) in Philippine Mythology; she is associated with Mount Makiling in Laguna as the guardian spirit of the mountain. Mount Makiling is said to resemble a profile of a woman and people associate the profile with Maria herself. She is also known as a goddess by the name of Dayang Masalanta and people would pray to her for safety and to stop storms and earthquakes. That's the goddess Alexandra's mother mentions right when she tells Alex to hide. (Translation to what she said there: Maria Makiling, goddess of the mountain, bless us.)

+ ALSO YEA THAT MAYOR IN THE MRT STATION IS UMMM RATHER REMINISCENT OF MAAAANY POLITICIANS AND PUBLIC SERVANTS HERE LIKE BELIEVE ME I CAN THINK OF SO MANY NAMES RN. THEY WOULD FLAUNT THEIR MACHISMO AND PROMISE THAT THEY THEMSELVES SHALL PUNISH THE PERPETRATORS HARSHLY BUT IN THE END THEY DONT MEAN SHIT AND ARE IN OFFICE TO SERVE ONLY THEMSELVES AND TO SHIT ON THE REST ESP THOSE OF THE POORER SECTORS AND *NOTHING IS DONE ABOUT IT*. WE LIVE IN HELL OKAY. also hmm how the police are represented here is umm,,,interesting,,, like i know there are sOME good police officers like the ones alexandra assists but like,,,our current sociopolitical climate + the many cases showcasing the corruption in the police force + tHE SHEER AMOUNT OF POLICE BRUTALITY HERE would ummm beg to differ. but um anyways-

+ Also Mang Inasal posters can be seen in the MRT station backdrops and um it’s a very famous restaurant chain here and they serve lots of barbecue and other filipino stuffs and i miss them a lot God their halo halo is very yummy

+ Santelmo - oki so this is the fire face thingy that Alexandra summons inside the ruined train. This is the shortened version of the term "Apoy ni Santa Elmo" or "St. Elmo's Fire" - this is a weather phenomenon wherein plasma is created from an electrical discharge from a rod like object in an atmospheric electric field. This phenomenon was used to warn of imminent lightning strikes or storms (there is a chapter in Noli Me Tangere where Pilosopo Tasyo talks about that bUT I'LL SAVE THE NOLI ME TANGERE RAMBLES FOR ANOTHER DAY). But according to Philippine folklore, santelmos - which are said to be souls of people lost as sea - are balls of fire that appear where accidents or big arguments happen. In Trese, santelmos (alex's santelmo being "The Great Spirit of the Binondo Fire") can be called to assist in supernatural investigations

+ Translation of what Alex says when she draws the circles to meet with the purple ghosts: "Souls, where are you off to? I'll be entering too, so please open the door."

+ Remember the scene at the train with all the purple ghosts and the woman in a veil? Yea the woman is an emissary of a goddess named Ibu and she is the Manobo (again, another indigenous ethnic group but this time they're from Mindanao; fun fact we have around 134 ethnic groups) goddess of deceased mortals and the queen of the underworld; she also serves as a psychopomp and guides the newly deceased souls to the other side (having an MRT be the ride to the underworld isn’t in the legends tho so fkkjsf)

+ The aswang in the top hat is called Xa Mul and according to the Isneg/Apayao people (yay another ethnic group but this time in northern Luzon - the Cordillera regions to be specific), they are an evil spirit known to swallow people whole.

+ Alex has two henchmen right? Yea they are named Crispin and Basillio and No I still don’t know who’s who and I'm really sorry about that fsfjs so anyways the names Crispin and Basillio are actually those of two brothers featured in the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo novels (Crispin is younger and Basilio is older) which are basically the national novels here cause um yea written by national hero Jose Rizal as sociopolitical commentary about the Spanish regime here. I don't know if I want to spoil this cause I kinda want other people to read the novel too fskfs BUT ALL IN ALL, ONE OF THEM DIES IN LIKE THE 10TH OR 11TH CHAPTER OF NOLI ME TANGERE (and the novel has 64 chapters btw) AND UM YEA-

+ OKI SO TO ADD MORE CONTEXT TO THE SQUATTER STUFFS MENTIONED IN TRESE (we r gonna use the tiny font here because holy shit this rant is long): So,in the Philippines, especially in the capital region, there are lots of slum areas called squatters. These are dense urban settlements made of compact makeshift housing units that aren't really officially recognized by the government. This is um very reflective of the poverty situation here and there are maaany factors that come into play here and if i were to go into depth about this topic, that rant would probably turn into an academic paper so for the sake of brevity, let's just say that Things Are Fucked Up Here. Oftentimes the poorer sectors are being ignored and left to their own devices despite tons of campaign promises to make things better and easier for them. The communities that live here are incredibly vulnerable to floods, fires, and the like and afaik no concrete solutions have been in effect to protect these people and their settlements. There have also been many times where squatter areas are dismantled or demolished despite protests of people living in those areas and yea I understand the need to make space and the need for renovation but the people should still be offered some sort of temporary settlement or financial compensation thingy that doESN'T fuck them over but alas, we have an anti-poor government. That being said, I really like Trese Ep 1's portrayal of governmental negligence, but I also have some thoughts, especially in regards to the mayor being arrested THAT FAST which um believe me, NEVER FUCKING HAPPENS BECAUSE MANY MAYORS AND A LOT OF POLITICIANS HAVE THE POLICE IN THEIR POCKETS SO UM ERR YEA JUSTICE IS RARELY A THING HERE BUT UM ANYWAYS YEA THE GOVERNMENT LIKES TO SHIT ON THE POOR WOO LET'S SAVE THE USE OF SOCIOLOGICAL LENS ON THIS MATTER FOR ANOTHER DAY

+ The news channel reporting the arrest of the mayor is ABC-ZNN WHICH IS AN OBVIOUS REFERENCE TO ABSCBN aka the top media conglomerate here (that has been fucked over by the government so many times to the point that they had to shut down operations last year which is all sorts of unfair so seeing them being referenced here kinda made me happy gksfks)

#HI PATROC I HAVE A GIFT #IT'S A VERY LONG AND CONVOLUTED GIFT #BUT IT'S A GIFT #I WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK IN TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THIS #this is literally 2813 words long AND IT TOOK ME 12 HOURS TO TYPE THIS OUT OH GOD #AND THIS IS JUST EP 1 #here's to hoping the following eps are gonna be much easier for me to like ramble about considering that i explained quite a lot here gfsfs #please do take this ramble with a grain of salt tho cause obviously I am not a mythology expert so um feel free to add more info!#i'd really love to see more info about trese so yay!#trese #trese netflix #alexandra trese #trese spoilers #ask to tag

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2000daysprekindergarten · 4 years

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Top 5 Reasons A Daycare Is Better Than A Nanny

Written by Marlene Alcon Kepka

@AlconKepka

| 8 MIN READ |

A few quotes from interviews at our daycare:

“She just quit. Happened in one day and now I have to take work off! It’s been a struggle!!”

“She promised to educate my kids. It’s one of the main reasons we hired her. All we got was TV watching and daily walks.”

“I fear my kid aren’t getting much socially. They hang out all day but a lot of it is my kids playing by themselves. A play date here or there but I can see its not enough. Also I’m worried their English is suffering.”

After interviewing over 700 families and talking to many about nannies. We noticed a theme.

The quotes above are para-phrased but true. Many crying and upset. Let’s take a look at the top 5 reasons a daycare wins over a nanny.

#1 – Daycare is safer, plain and simple

Your worst nightmare came true. Your child is choking at your daycare! They are turning blue and can’t breathe! They have minutes before the worst. 2 people freeze up and panic.

No idea what to do. A third walks in and preforms the Heimlich maneuver for toddlers. The child is fine and goes off to play.

This is a real scenario that happened at a Calgary daycare. There were 2 childcare workers with full child CPR.

They both froze and panicked. It took the third daycare to calm down and attend the child. Everything was fine.

This shows how much more safe and secure a daycare is. There is usually one nanny in a home. And they usually watch many children.

What would have happened in this scenario if the nanny froze? Or if she didn’t have child CPR training?

By having more people around there are more eyes to watch the children. More daycare workers to take action and more child care workers to help in case of emergency.

Add safety procedures, safety drills and a very safe building. And you can see how a daycare is safer then a nanny in your home.

Here are some tips of how to make your home safer for your child.

#2 – Socializing is key to a healthy child

Being social is as important as academics… or even more important than academics. How many of you got jobs by knowing a person? Or a hook up of some sort by a friend? Or a found your partner at a party? I could go on and on.

Don’t believe me? Check this out. Research shows that children that are socially and emotionally well adjusted are happier, more motivated and more positive.

A daycare can give your child all those things and more. I have seen it myself.

Children learning about sharing, the good and the bad. A daycare worker teaching empathy after two children fight.

Five children working together to color a large dinosaur painting. I could go on and on.

With a nanny you get one person. They can take your child out to play groups. Or other smaller activities. But its limited. And seeing the same children daily is important to create bonds.

Plus the peer in the group is the nanny. Usually they play with her and talk to her. Her values will rub off on your kids. Which could be good or bad.

At a daycare you have many daycare workers. Everyone teaching the little ones about being social and self-regulating their emotions.

Teaching a child empathy is important. It’s not an inherent ability. It takes time to cultivate. Great daycares know this and teach it.

#3 – Daycare workers are professionals

Early childhood are well educated. They usually have a 2 year diploma and extra training on top of that. Many have a 4 year diploma. Their schooling makes sure your child is safe and healthy.

Many daycares also have yearly on-going training. Or training when the child care staff start. For Alberta here is what a diploma program looks like.

It’s in-depth and many faceted. Childcare workers have a solid education in teaching your children.

Many nannies have zero or limited early child care education. Some are early childhood educators but very few are. My family is from the Philippines.

We go back every few years. So I have some insight. Not that all nannies are Filipino but many are. Some have CPR and that’s about it.

Most don’t have any education that is relevant to little children. Many don’t even speak English very well and that rubs off on your child.

Speech development is one of the main brain activities at this age.

These aren’t assumptions. We speak to many families that had nannies and switch to daycare because of these issues.

Most people would choose a lawyer for law challenges in their lives. Doctors for health issues. I believe most people would choose an early learning educator for their child.

#4 – You will save money at a daycare… probably

Yeah I know, that #4 title is terrible. Who writes a probably like that? It’s needed because a lot matters on how many of your children are going to daycare. Let’s break this down a bit.

These numbers are close to the average costs of daycare in Calgary.

This article discusses about daycare costs. It seems on the low side for Calgary. Especially at higher quality centers.

Let’s dig in and see why it the cost matters on how many children you have.

Full-time daycare is around $1250 a month. A nanny starts at $2000 at a minimum and goes up to $4000 a month. I’ve seen closer to $5000 for a high-end nanny.

One child in daycare is much less expensive than a nanny. Two children become comparable if you use the lowest possible nanny amount. Once you get to three children then the nanny option is cheaper.

But wait. Is it apples to apples comparison? No, it’s not. As stated before there are many benefits to a daycare.

True curriculum and program. Professional educators. Safety. You get a lot for that amount.

Nannies also have some pros. They can clean your house, do laundry and drive your children around. They can also live in your home, so the convenience is there. Who wouldn’t want all that?

If you’re looking to save money then the daycare makes more sense. It’s not as expensive expensive.

The kicker is that the more children you put into daycare the more expensive it is. And this starts to get as expensive as a nanny.

5# – My life got flip turned upside down

I had a family come in and the mother, Karen, started to cry. Her life was turned upside down in a matter of days.

She wanted her child in a Calgary daycare right away. Karen would do anything to get her child in a daycare.

What happened? Her nanny quit. Literally overnight. Something happened to her family back home and she had to leave.

Karen needed to get back to work asap and had few options. Her nanny quitting really put a wrench in her plans.

I’ve heard this several times. The reasons different, but the outcome is the same. Need daycare ASAP!! Why?

My nanny quit on me out of the blue. Another issue with having one person watch your children. If they are sick or leave, you are usually out of luck.

In a daycare you have a lot of staff. There is always someone to teach your child. A sick daycare staff doesn’t affect your child as there are other staff to take over for the day.

Your little one’s routine is intact and she is happy to come to her childcare center.

Liz had a nanny for about a year. Everything was fine and then slowly things got worse and worse.

Her nanny would be late, had the kids in front of the TV a lot. She wouldn’t follow instructions anymore.

Liz had to let her nanny go because of performance. It took her months to find a great nanny and it would take months again to find another one. During that time her family would be very disrupted.

With a daycare you rarely get that. There are enough teachers and daycares around that you can move to another if you aren’t happy.

And the winner is… daycare

Now don’t get me wrong. Nannies can be a great resource in certain scenarios. If you have 3 children or more a nanny can save you money.

Or if you need help cleaning and cooking at home. Nannies can add value that daycares can’t.

But daycares add much more value in the end. Safety is important to all parents and daycares win hands down over nannies. They are a safer place to have your child.

Social and emotional development grows leaps and bounds at a daycare. More children, trained staff and a focus on emotional and social skills give daycares the hand up on this.

Speaking of training. Daycares have professionals that know what they’re doing. A few online courses and CPR are a far cry from a 4-year diploma.

The cost savings at a daycare also trump what a nanny costs. As long as you have 2 or less children in daycare then the cost savings would add up monthly.

The stability of a daycare is priceless. Knowing your child goes to the same place for years and has a routine that rarely gets interrupted is peace of mind.

There is less stress for you about your job and where your child will be taught then with a nanny.

There are many more reasons that a daycare wins out over a nanny. Academics, better immune system, closer relationships with other families and so many more.

I had to choose a few or else this blog would turn into a book. I picked the top 5 that impact parents the most.

From my experience and talking to many parents I feel a daycare is the best choice for most families. It will give your child the best early years you can give them.

What are your thoughts on daycare centres being better for your child? Or do you think nannies are a better choice?

The post Top 5 Reasons A Daycare Is Better Than A Nanny appeared first on A Calgary Daycare & Child Care School.

#education #pre-kindergarten #kindergarten

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purplesurveys · 4 years

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946

Do you flush the toilet with your hand or your foot?: I use my hand at home and in other people’s bathrooms, but I use my foot in public washrooms because I know everyone else does and I would not want my hands anywhere near something so dirty.

What is your Myers-Briggs Type Indicator? (Ex: ENTP): My results change every time I take it and I believe it’s because I retake the test at different points in my life where I’ve changed a little bit. That being said I’ve gotten ISFJ, ISTJ, INTJ, and ENTJ. I feel like it would eventually give me the entire spectrum so I just stopped taking the test altogether at some point.

Do you read any blogs? If so, which ones?: I read people’s answers on here because I find everyone interesting, if that counts as reading someone’s blog.

Where do you typically buy your clothes?: Small, independent tiangges at the mall that sell trendy pieces for a lot cheaper.

On a scale of one to ten, how healthy do you eat?: 5. I like my veggies and would never skimp on them, it’s just that more unhealthy foods are more accessible to me for the most part ha.

What do you think is the most valuable college major?: All of them are? This question really comes off as elitist.

Which book(s) should I read this summer?: I’d rather refer you to other survey-takers instead who read way more than I do and for sure have a better selection to recommend, heh.

Would you rather have curvy legs or skinny legs?: I don’t mind what kind of legs I have...but I have a bit of both, I’d say. I have a thigh gap but my thighs have a bit of meat on them and aren’t entirely skinny.

Do you believe in ghosts? If so, have you ever seen one?: It’s fun to believe in them just because it makes watching things like Buzzfeed Unsolved more fun, but at the end of the day I like to remain skeptical. I’ve never seen one.

What is your favorite game show?: Jeopardy! Family Feud can also be hilarious.

How many times a day do you use the restroom?: 1-3 times a day, probably.

How much fruit do you eat on a given day?: Blech, none. My sister loves fruits though, so we always have a selection of them at home. I just ignore them.

What was the last thing that made you cringe?: I was watching a Good Mythical Morning video on people who attempted to beat world records but failed, so you can imagine the secondhand embarrassment that came off that video.

What is your favorite 80s movie?: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off FOR. DAYS.

What time did you go to bed last night?: I was tired and cranky and sad, so I was in bed by 9 PM.

Do you have your own car?: I technically do. But my parents paid for it; it’s just mainly mine so I can take myself anywhere if I have to.

Do you own a romper?: Yes, a couple. It’s one of my favorite things to wear; they’re simple and easy to wear and still always look nice on me.

Who was the last person who drew you a picture?: Andrew.

When someone takes your picture, do you smile with mouth open or closed?: Depends how close the camera is. I close my mouth if it’s a selfie or if the camera is very near; if it’s a group shot I tend to smile with my teeth.

Be honest -- do you floss?: Occasionally.

Five years ago, what did you want to grow up to be?: I wanted to be a journalist and do documentaries, lels. Naïve times when I thought that would bring me money.

What do you want to be now?: Career-wise my priorities have moved onto being in public relations and handling brands. Person-wise, I wish I was happy and that my life would be on track soon.

Would you rather hold a scorpion or a snake?: Scorpion, only because I’ve already held snakes before and it’d be nice to try something I’ve never done.

Can you do the splits?: Never could.

What is your favorite type of personality in a person?: I like approachable people, those who don’t close themselves off when it comes to helping or those who are super easy to talk to.

How about your least favorite?: People who live in their privilege and aren’t considerate of others who may be living in different, less-advantaged situations.

What is your favorite breakfast cereal?: I don’t like cereal but my favorite brand to eat on its own is the Cookie Crisp one. Tiny chocolate chips as a cereal will always be revolutionary to me, ha.

How do you usually get your exercise?: Walking my dogs is my only workout. And since I can’t walk them together, I get to have two rounds.

Who are your godparents?: Some of my mom’s cousins.

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?: Cookies and cream! And chocolate chip cookie dough.

Are any of your siblings married?: Neither of them are, and at 20 and 17 I’m not expecting them to be.

What does your phone case look like, if you have one?: It’s just a plain, clear one. I managed to destroy an Otterbox case, so the second one my parents got for me was a cheap plastic case lol.

What is something about you that the opposite sex finds attractive?: Why ask me? Go ask them.

What are your three favorite girl names?: Olivia, Mia, and Arden. Those are my favorites today, at least. Olivia’s a constant, but the other two are always changing.

What are your three favorite boy names?: Lucas, Matteo, Miguel.

What do you usually put in your omelettes?: Cheese, tomatoes, bell peppers.

Have you ever tried to go vegetarian? How long did you last?: I haven’t, but it’s something I’ve wanted to try for a while. Filipino cuisine hardly has any avenues to allow for a vegetarian diet though so I’m never sure if I could actually push through with one.

What kind of exotic animal do you think you could keep as a pet?: None of them.

If you could be any kind of building, what would you be and why?: I don’t really care...

What is your favorite type of dog?: Anything but the feisty chihuahuas.

What is something you can draw really well?: Letters.

What is your favorite fast food joint?: Jollibee will always be a winner in my heart.

#survey #surveys

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bloggermagazine · 4 years

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Meet The Blogger - Mecyll Gaspary

In our latest interview series which I like to call “Meet the Blogger”, where I spotlight inspiring creatives on this Blogger Magazine. We caught up with Mecyll Gaspary who runs mgaspary blog and an aspiring Filipino best-selling author. How To Start Blogging, Earn Your First $500, & Succeed Without Getting Overwhelmed 1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your blog? Hi, I am Mecyll Gaspary, an aspiring Filipino best-selling author, blogger, and freelance writer. My interest in writing combined with work-related experiences as a writer led me to create my blog into a useful resource for writers like me in the public domain. 2. Describe what inspired you to start your blog? I began my blogging journey back in 2015 when I met a co-writer on a news website where I worked before. She told me she made money from blogging anything. So, that caught my interest in the blog as a potential to add income streams. It wasn’t easy, though. I started with Miss Creative Journaler (nulled) as my first professional blog where I bought web hosting packages and all that stuff. After I failed, I started again with another website and failed again until I finally made up my mind to create my professional website where I can showcase my strengths as a writer and help other struggling writers to make money using their skills online. 3. How do you motivate yourself to keep the blog up and running? I’m a productivity geek. Desperate to perform more and see more progress in my endeavors, I scoured the internet to find solutions for my dilemma: procrastination. While working full-time as a content writer, I tried to spare time for my blog despite the mental exhaustion and fatigue. I tried many ways to remain productive and followed different people’s tips but nothing worked for me. What I do is to know how my body works in rhythm with my mind. My head may tell me I need to finish the task but I have to make sure my energy equates to become ultra-productive. For instance, I wake up in the morning and the adrenaline rushes, I have to finish as many tasks as possible before the euphoria fades. This isn’t laziness for me. Surprisingly, I accomplish more when I follow this system rather than forcing myself to do something for the sake of productivity. If I failed to align my work rhythm and forced myself to accomplish a task, I tend to procrastinate and stay away from my desk. This is why I need to consider myself in the process. It’s the same thing I suggest you do. Listen to your body and respect how it works. If you push yourself too hard as I did, you will not enjoy the process of doing anything, including your blog. I once believed that when I do more, I make more progress. That was my old productivity principle. It wasn’t the case. I succumbed to writer’s block to the point I couldn’t write a word again. Imagine a writer who can’t even hold a pen and a notebook to scribble a single word. That’s a painful, unimaginable situation most writers can’t avoid (unless if they follow the same productivity strategy I did). Many people define self-discipline as doing the same thing every single day. It doesn’t matter if you’re tired, keep going until you see results. However, I beg to disagree. It’s also important to listen to your body when to do things and not to do things. Rest if you have to. But that doesn’t mean you quit. When your mind and body align, you unknowingly become more productive than you think. 4. How active are you on a weekly basis? How often do you communicate with your followers? I communicate with my audience weekly. With the help of automation, I send weekly emails to my subscribers, as well as pin posts on Pinterest via Tailwind App, which is my go-to-platform to schedule my pins. 5. What do you think is the best social media strategy for getting more visitors to a blog? Video presentation suits better than most strategies I tried. This is the best option for Facebook and Instagram as the posts perform best when it’s in a video format than photos alone. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with sticking with photo posts, though. When you prefer using Pinterest, on the other hand, it follows a different strategy. You need to join group boards and Tailwind Tribes by collaborating with other pinners. Your posts will not perform better if you stick on pinning on your boards without the help from others. This is what makes Pinterest different as to how you execute social media strategies on Facebook and Instagram - the reason for bloggers to love this platform. 6. Would you encourage other people to make their blog? Yes, definitely. My writing career began when I started writing blog posts. Although I have been blogging since 2012, I got into the business side of it in 2015. Without my blog, I wouldn’t have discovered vast opportunities waiting for me ahead. For instance, earning $5,000 as a writer wouldn’t have been possible without considering blogging as a stepping stone for that success. 7. A lot of people think that blogging is an easy way to make money online. Do you have some tips for those people who are interested in making money from the blog? Out of all the tips and strategies suggested by experts, successful bloggers, as well as authors, this one is at the top priority. Create phenomenal content. Regardless of the SEO - which also plays a big role in getting more web traffic - Google values unique and high-quality content. After its algorithm change not too long ago, many big websites that published outdated posts and invaluable content faced devastating effects. It was the first time in history that the big sites like Daily Mail UK witnessed plummeting website traffic. At the time, small websites were facing a big threat. However, it was otherwise. Consequently, it gives opportunities for small websites with quality content to rise on the top search engine results aka SERP. This proves that writing epic posts work for all online content. It’s a must for bloggers to gain traction. When you keep creating epic or cornerstone content, you don’t need to chase money. It’s drawn to you. It doesn’t matter if you’re an affiliate marketer, blogger, freelance writer, or author. The easy way to start making money online is by creating phenomenal content that hooks your audience to the bone. A post that will engrave in their minds and will never be forgotten. Your content is too valuable and irresistible, pushing them to take action i.e. purchase the product, sign-up on your email lists, etc. 8. What was the most challenging moment in your blogging journey so far? It’s when I have to blog while working full-time as a writer for someone else while performing my household duties as a wife. Fortunately, I didn’t have children yet so it wasn’t as stressful compared to mother bloggers whom I offer my salute to. 9. What is your greatest achievement outside of blogging? I was a student council president in one of the top universities in the Philippines. During my term, I several organized programs for the students, especially the scholars and the unfortunate young students in our city. Initially, the program for the scholars I developed with the help of my team was exclusive to one college. Over the years, the program grew into an annual university activity wherein all the scholars undergo orientation to help them assess their academic performance better. With the other program, it was created to discover potential young leaders who are less fortunate within the city. With the help of my team, we scoured the city to search the youth to train and excel as future leaders of the country. Given the scale of the program, it was no surprise that it garnered awards from the university’s award-giving body. Although it took years for developing that program (from my term to the next 2 student council presidents), it was worth it. 10. Who is your blogging hero and why? Several names appear in my head the moment I read this question. Over the years of studying hundreds of thousands of content in the public domain, I encountered great bloggers who happen to be best-selling authors. To name one, I have been following Jeff Goins, a blogger, and best-selling author, since 2015. That’s when I got serious with blogging. His influence is big enough to push me to self-publish my book, which I’m working on right now. “Just write,” he always mentions in most of his blog posts. There’s no other way for someone to become a writer but to write. Nothing else. 11. What advice would you give to a new blogger starting out? Don’t be scared. Just don’t. Many of us tend to scour the internet to search for potential niches we might like to do, especially when we’re just about to start it. When we do, we see massive topics to try without knowing these could potentially threaten our drive to start a blog and continue. The internet provides a lot of information about every single thing. This overwhelms you so much that you’re scared to try writing something because you thought, “Anyway, somebody has probably written about it. Why would I bother?” Or, you might be thinking too much about web traffic, SEO, and all the technical side of blogging that compromises the quality of our work. Our drive to blog is to share our experiences with our audience. And if we’re too distracted with the plugins, Google algorithm, etc., we might lose the spark we once had when we started. A piece of advice? Start writing for yourself. Write epic posts you love to read over and over again. I know this sounds like a bit of advice for fiction writers but the same principle applies to the blog. Just write. That’s it. 12. Have you collaborated with brands? If yes, name few brands you worked with If this includes the affiliated programs I partnered with and made money from it, these include Your Online Revenue LLC, Grammarly, WP Engine, Tailwind App, and Dabble Writer. 13. Finally, what are your thoughts about BloggerMagazine? First of all, I’d like to thank BloggerMagazine for giving me this wonderful opportunity to share my thoughts with your amazing audience. This is because, for me, BloggerMagazine is a great hub for the most inspiring and creative bloggers on the planet. That’s why I’m so grateful to be featured in your great community. Follow Mecyll Gaspary on her journey at: mgaspary.com | facebook.com/mgasparywriter | instagram.com/mecyll.jamila | instagram.com/mecyllg | linkedin.com/mecyll-gaspary Read the full article

#bloggerinterviewseries #bloggermagazine #communityofbloggers #influncerinterview #MeettheBlogger #technologyblogger

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 7 years

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“Spider-Man: Homecoming is the best Spider-Man movie ever, and it isn't even close.”

No it isn’t.

It’s not even the best example of filmmaking about a character called Spider-Man.

Vital plot points don’t really make much sense, there is fatigue from the MCu overall and on top of that it aggressively lacks substance and weight to it the way Spider-Man 2002 and Spider-Man 2 had.

As a film it’s fun but the best ever and it not being close?

But I expet nothing less from the blog that straight up claimed Brand New Day was awesome, the Spider-Man story could have ended after the Death of Gwen Stacy (despite you know multiple dangling plot threads) and that One More Day was great because we got young and hip Spider-Man back and the whole story makes sense because by making the dealto never be married there could never have been a deal to get unmarried therefore Spider-Man never made a eal with mephisto so shuttup and stop complaining about it idiots, enjoy Carlie Cooper and creepy Black Cat mask sex instead!

“To be fair, I don't think Tom Holland was the best Spider-Man — that's Andrew Garfield, who is much closer to my preferred version of Spider-Man (the late, college-age Steve Ditko version) than anyone else (Holland wins the prize for being the closest version to Ultimate Spider-Man. That's the thing. Spider-Man is open to interpretation. They all got a piece of him right.).”

So the OP’s preferred version is a version which existed for literally 8 issues?

Okay.

Also Holland might be relatively closest to the Ultimate version of Spider-Man…but only the Ultimate Miles Morales version.

“Nor do I think that it's the most groundbreaking of the Spider-Man movies, since that still probably goes to the first one with Tobey Maguire, which was mind-blowing at the time of release, but is horribly dated now.”

No art should ever be legitimately judged outside the context in which it was created. A movie not dating is nothing more than a bonus. It doesn’t make or break the film’s value because the standards of today are simply arbitrarily different to the standards of yesterday and the standards of tomorrow will be much the same.

“With context as to what the superhero movie would later become, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst look positively amateurish and incredibly underwhelming. (And whiny. Let's never forget whiny.)”

Yeah…fuck this guy.

Every character who whined in the first 2 films had legitimate reasons to do so.

But oh noes, they aren’t deadpan snarker badasses like RDJ’s Iron man therefore they must suck because…they act like human beings I guess.

“Context matters, though. And in the larger scheme of things when the history books are written, Tobey Maguire's first foray as Spider-Man will be remembered as the character's coming out moment, for better or for worse. Similarly, context matters when looking at creative choices made in a movie like this. And while I can't quite put into words why the movie fell short for me despite the fact that all the elements to make it successful were there, I can talk about something else regarding the movie, and that's the fact that it's one of the most racially diverse blockbuster movies in recent memory.”

So it’s the best Spier-Man movie ever but fell short for you….okay…

“So let's look at...

Racial Diversity and Bending in Spider-Man: Homecoming

by Duy

SPOILERS FOLLOW Spider-Man: Homecoming has a pretty damn diverse cast. Let's take a look at his main classmates Breakfast Club style.

So you've got Tom Holland in the middle playing Peter Parker. He's white. Over to his left is Zendaya, playing Michelle, is half-black, half-white, while in front of Tom is Laura Harrier, playing Liz, also half-black, half-white. Tony Revolori, to the right, plays Flash, and is of Guatemalan descent, while Jacob Batalon, who plays Ned, was born in Hawaii to Filipino parents. It's diverse. It's a step forward in Hollywood. It's wonderful. It also bugs me. WAIT, NO, HEAR ME OUT BEFORE YOU FIRE UP THE COMMENTS. All of these characters are named after a longtime Spider-Man character. It could be argued that since their last names are never given (except for one), they could be anything from callbacks to tributes to trolling methods on the part of the filmmakers. And that's fair.”

No it isn’t.

In an adaptation they should actually adapt the characters whilst respecting the spirits of them. Spider-Man is one of the best franchises ever. It doesn’t need OCs and it doesn’t need OCs’ who’re ‘references’ to the established characters who are on the whole richer and more movieworthy than them.

“All the same, I think there are missed opportunities here. Let's look at them one by one, in the order of the level of opportunity wastage. Tony Revolori plays Flash, the school bully. This is named after Flash Thompson. Flash Thompson normally looks like this: So now we've got a Guatemalan playing him who also doesn't play him as a jock. Instead, he's also another science nerd, who just happens to be the least smart out of all of them, and instead of threatening to beat Peter up or calling him "Puny Parker," he calls him "Penis Parker" instead. I'm cool with that. Look, racebending a 1962 comic just makes sense. You know what schools in the US were like in 1962? Segregated. That means white people and non-white people couldn't really interact. You know what a New York high school is like in 2017? Not segregated. That means Peter Parker's gonna have classmates of all races and descents, and if you populate a cast with racially diverse characters, but the only ones he interacts with are all still white, that just calls attention to the whole issue to begin with. You can't diversify without empowering.”

As for Flash being a nerd rather than a jock, that's cool too.”

No it isn’t.

Flash’s character is very much wrapped up in the fact that he I a jock. He’s a dumb blockhead with a good heart at the end of the day who learns to be more than that whilst still being nostalgic for his high school glory days when he peaked due to his athleticism and when life was much simpler because of that.

“The past decade and a half has seen a rise in the nerd bully, the type that torments you verbally rather than threatens you physically.”

Er, yeah…Flash was mostly a verbal bully in those Ditko comics this guy has claimed to have read. He wasn’t doing a Biff Tannen impersonation at all. He was mostly verbally insulting and humiliating Peter.

“See, for example, Gamergate, Kylo Ren, the villain in the last Ghostbusters movie, and the entirety of the internet. Are jocks vs. nerds still a thing?”

Yes I suspect nerds vs. jocks is very much still a thing actually.

“ The nerds kinda crossed the line the moment Revenge of the Nerds happened, and that was in 1984”

I grew up in the 90s and the 2000s so…yeah this is bullshit nerds really didn’t cross the line in 1984.

“Are jocks still bullies? I dunno, I'm old. But from the looks of the internet, nerds certainly are.”

The internet isn’t the real world.

Nerds can be bullies and so can jocks.

Flash being the latter is important to his character.

“Laura Harrier plays Liz, the girl Peter has a crush on. In the comics, this girl is Liz Allan.

Here's the thing: they've racebent Liz before, in the excellent Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, which I still think is the best Spider-Man outside of the comics medium. She's Hispanic in the cartoon, I believe, and half-black in the movie. And that's fine — the character of Liz Allan works regardless of race.

I think it's a powerful message when young kids watching Spider-Man see a white guy having a crush on a girl who isn't white — and an interracial one at that. Seeing examples this early on in life can only have a positive effect.”

Colour me crazy but…aren’t people just going to fancy whoever they are going to fancy?

Like…I don’t think any little white boys watching this movie are going to be influenced towards finding ladies of the same ethnicity as Laura Harrier more attractive one way or the other. “Zendaya plays Michelle. And at the end of the movie, Michelle says she prefers to be called MJ. I shouldn't have to remind readers, this is Mary Jane Watson: Now, she isn't "Mary Jane," she's Michelle. But the role is still there. She's going to be Peter's main love interest moving forward (unless we get someone showing up as Gwen).”

a) How do you know that?

b) Mary Jane’s role is more than just his love interest. By this definition Liz filled Mary Jane’s role.

“And if that's the case, it was pretty smart in this movie to establish her as someone with her own agency and her own personality rather than someone who gets in trouble and motivates Peter.”

Yes it was because that doesn’t pertain to the 616 comics version of Mary Jane nor the Dunst version as I’m sure you meant because you’re a narrowminded so and so who like the rest of the internet gets the knives out for Dunst’s version of the character regardless of how justified it might be.

“All the same, this bugs me, for two reasons. The first reason is this: Zendaya's Michelle is nothing like Mary Jane Watson, party animal with a troubled soul... but she could be. We know this from what Zendaya's done before. She plays a socially conscious, withdrawn, isolated person when Mary Jane is usually the exact opposite of all of those things. She's basically another character altogether. The "MJ" reveal just feels tacked on and unnecessary, and without value past the first time you hear it. And it closes the door on a future MJ that may actually be like the MJ from the comics. (Kirsten Dunst was not the MJ from the comics. Kirsten Dunst played Kirsten Dunst.)”

Do you know Kirsten Dunst personally in order to verify that?

“The second reason is that the character that Zendaya's "Michelle" is most like? A sarcastic woman who is both mean to Peter Parker and yet shows affection for him? That's actually a character named Michele. And she's awesome.”

Like I said…Brand New Day worshipper right here.

Michelle wasn’t awesome.

Michelle was a racist sterotype of Latinex women.

She was ‘the hot blooded latina’ sterotype taken to insane degrees because she

a) slept with Peter when he was intoxicated and didn’t know what he was doing (which you could at the very least argue is a form of rape)

b) vandalized his property when he claimed he’d been impersonated by the Chameleon which is an entirely reasomable thing for him to say given that they live in a world of superheroes.

c) Slightly tortured him with with food

d) Needlessly insulted him

e) Oh, and did I mention that in a scenario that wasn’t in the defence of herself, a third party and didn’t come from a place of justifed mental inhibition she punched him in the face!

Let me repeat that.

Michelle who is apparently ‘awesome’ assaulted someone.

Did I mention she was a lawyer too?

Fuck Michelle.

“I'm always of the stance that racebending is fine if there is no counterpart that already exists. In this case though, there is. (Side note: Zendaya playing Michelle is still a racebend, since Michele is a Latina.) And what bugs me about this is more from a marketing perspective: Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson became the big Spider-Man love interests by continued exposure.”

No.

Gwen became the big Spdier-Man love interest because she was positioned as that and was then immortalized when she died.

Mary Jane became that because she was a great character everyone loved and was then positioned as his love interest eventually marrying him.

“How can we possibly build more characters and the presence of those characters when we're still cycling back and forth between Gwen and Mary Jane?”

That argument is as fucking asinine as saying we can’t build in new Superman love intersts because we keep using Lois Lane.

Gwen and MJ aren’t just there via repetition.

They are massive important parts of the mythology.

“That's why fans get so resistant in the comics whenever Peter has a new love interest, the belief that it can only be one of those two.”

No fans get resistant because most of the new love interests suck shit and are never as good as Mary jane because they can’t be because she had 20 years of a developoing relationship with him preceded by 20 more years of development as his frined/confidant.

Again…it’s the same reason Superman is always with Lois Lane.

It’s not a legitimate basis for an argument to say Spider-Man should even have other love interests by this point. The ship sailed on that decades ago.

“But we don't give chances to other love interests, partly because Marvel doesn't give them those chances either.”

WTF did Carlie Cooper have if not a chance?

She existed for over 2 years as Spider-Man’s love interest.

Peter dated Felicia for over 2 years in the 1980s.

Fans gave characters chances half the time but those characters didn’t live up to those chances. The other half of the time they didn’t give the character a chance because in context the character didn’t deserve a chance.

Post-OMD every romantic relationship is 100% pointless UNLESS its with Mary jane putting things backt he way it was.

See Nu52 Superman/Wonder Woman another fine fucking mess people didn’t give a shit about because of how utterly asinine it was.

Spier-Man isn’t fucking James Bond and Mary Jane and Gwen aren’t optional interchanagable characters asshole.

“Jacob Batalon plays Ned. Ostensibly, this is after Ned Leeds. And this is Ned Leeds:

Ned's a reporter who didn't even go to high school with Peter. In the movie, Ned is his best friend, who knows who he is, helps him with Spider-Man stuff, and looks like Ganke.

Ganke is the best friend of Miles Morales, the second Spider-Man.

Seriously, why didn't they just name him Ganke? He's right there.”

Because they didn’t want to give Bendis royalties probably.

Also alongside Brand New Day worship this blogger seems to find zero problems with a Peter Parker story STEALING Ganke from Miles Morales.

Charming.

“Which brings us to Tom Holland, who plays Peter Parker. And he was great. He nailed high school/Ultimate Spider-Man, and got the right mix of humor and angst that that makes Spider-Man who he is. And that's fine. That's fair. “

No he didn’t and no it isn’t.

He could do that stuff if given the chance.

But he wasn’t.

Because the angst he had was over his Tony Stark worship and desire to be an Avenger rather than the horrible life mistakes he made and his desire to do right by his mother and the humour he was used in boiled down to slapstick bumbling.

That isn’t Spider-Man.

If you think that’s Spider-Man you need to re-read your shit because you are entirely wrong. Not even Ultimate comics Spider-Man was anything like that.

“But here's the thing. Peter Parker in high school classically is a loner, someone who makes sure no one knows he's Spider-Man, goes about things on a grassroots level, and doesn't let anyone — anyone — help him out. He's actually a bit of a jerk, honestly.”

Yes and no.

Yes he is a loner but no he wasn’t a jerk.

He was a typical teen but one who was understandably stressed out because on top of the typical trials of adolescence, he was trying to earn a scholarship, was getting bullied, was dodging bullets every night, trying to earn money to support his household oh and also dealing with HIS DAD DYING!

And the picture given to this part of the article doesn’t even SHOW him being a jerk!

“The thing is, there is a character named Spider-Man who grew up idolizing other superheroes, who has an overweight Asian best friend who helps him out as Spider-Man, and who is mentored by the Avengers, and that guy is Miles Morales. This should have been a Miles Morales movie. By concept, premise, and execution, everything about the movie screamed "Miles Morales" to me more than it did "Peter Parker," to the point where it felt like it was, in fact, a Miles Morales movie, except they wrote out Miles and dumped Peter in his place.”

That is true but this shouldn’t have been a Miles movie by design.

Nobody should have consciously tried to make this anything like a Miles Morales movie. “And that's the rub about this whole diversity thing right now. Whenever we applaud a movie for being diverse, we mean one of two things. We could mean it, as we did for Captain America: Winter Soldier or Spider-Man: Homecoming, as "a racially diverse cast with a white male lead." Or we could mean it, as is happening and will continue to happen with Black Panther, as "a cast that is dominated by one race." Both are well and good and unheard of even ten years ago on the level that it is now. But there's still something missing, and that's having a non-white character headline a blockbuster movie with a racially diverse cast. I will consider the battle for diversity won when we can see that type of movie in spades and not have to remark about how noteworthy it is. This would have been the perfect opportunity to do it. They could have written Peter as an older character to focus on later, one that's always been Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and just not heard of much, as he normally is in the comics where he isn't that well-known outside of New York City, while focusing on Miles.”

No they couldn’t.

The Netflix series all happen in New York city.

We the audience are supposed to know EVERYTHING about the MCU beyond the stuff that is behind the scenes or secret.

Saying

“Oh Spider-Man was there the whole time you just didn’t know about it” is a creative cheat of the highest order and makes no fucking sense because OF COURSE people in and out of New York were going to know about him. It’d be unrealistic for them NOT to.

Not to mention how actually Spider-Man IS known outside of New York.

As for making Peter older and focussing upon Miles this wouldn’t have worked for a million reasons.

But chief among them is that Miles doesn’t have the material necessary to eek out a film trilogy of his own. Most of his highly decompressed stories are rossovers and tie-ins that can’t work for film and the rest of them repeat beats from other Spider-Man and superhero movies.

You couldn’t even introduce Miles without telling his origin story which is exactly what helped kill the LAST film version of Spider-Man because Miles and Peter have incredibly similar origins.

Then you have the fact that it royally fucks the entire appeal of doing Spider-Man in the MCu.

The mass audiences DOESN’T WANT to just see any given kid in web spandex called Spider-man on screen with the Avengers they want it to be THAT SPECFIC kid from the previous five movies who’s worked his way into mass pop culture.

The audience impact and appeal is grossly diminished if you DON’T make it peter Parker.

Which doesn’t mean Peter himself must be white.

But it does HAVE to be Peter NOT Miles.

Peter who is, I’m sorry…like an egregiously better character than Miles in alsmost every way possible.

“And it could have been done, since we literally just saw it two years ago in Ant-Man, where the movie focused on Scott Lang instead of Hank Pym, the original, classic bearer of that mantle.”

Fuck me this stupid ass argument again.

NO you didn’t just see it get done in Ant Man.

In Ant Man Hank Pym was a SECRET super hero working behind the scenes.

That’s intrinsically different to the inherent nature of Spider-Man as a public crime fighter who is demonized by the media

And I’m sorry…switching out Hank for Soctt is also inherently different. Hank Pym’s deal is that he switched identities a lot and has a mental illness. The Ant Man mythology if you like isn’t as reliant upon HIM holding the mantle as it is for Spider-Man who’s whole history and mythology is built specifically around peter Parker and his personal life and relationships.

Because Peter IS Spider-Man.

And again, people didn’t get excited to see any given kid called Spider-Man onscreen with the Avengers. They got excited for it to be Peter specifically.

Let me repeat that again.

Introducing Miles into the MCU is NOT THE SAME THING AS HAVING TWO ANT MEN!

“And I get it, too. If this was the only time we're ever going to see Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I would want that Spider-Man to be Peter Parker. But if that's the case, I wish I could've seen a movie that felt more like Peter Parker than a Miles Morales movie where he's removed and replaced with Peter Parker.”

Finally something we agree on.

“That this didn't feel like a Peter Parker movie to me is a cranky old fanboy nitpick.”

That isn’t a nitpick that’s a legitimately massive problem with the film that fucks it over.

#Spider-Man #spider-man: homecoming #Miles Morales #peter parker #mjwatsonedit #MJ Watson #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #ned leeds #ganke lee #liz allan #Marvel Studios #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #Flash Thompson

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authorsdenbyorihime-may · 7 years

Text

How I Write Baybayin (Handwriting and Straight-cut Nib Calligraphy) Subtitle: This is a freaking long-ass post so be warned now

You can read the entirety of this post as is, or you can go straight to the calligraphy portion. It’s at the end of the post (sorry dunno how to link that portion here).

Writer’s Note: First and foremost, I will advise everyone who reads this somewhat master post that I am not an authority when it comes to how baybayin is written, as what you shall be reading is just based mostly on my own experiences on how the characters are written and comparing them with other writing systems that are based on syllables rather than individual letters, like the Japanese Kana and the Korean Hangul, among others. This is because baybayin are not technically letters (individualized, can’t stand alone, only comes either as vowel or consonant but not both, you get the picture), but rather are syllables (i.e. the consonants have free vowels with them lol) that form words.

Also, as far as I know regarding how the baybayin texts are originally written pre-Hispanic colonization era, some of the written texts in the Philippines (or at least, those that survived, or I remember seeing in old history books) were written from right to left, top to bottom. This also coincides with other writing methods in some parts of Asia that also read from right to left. The technique of writing and reading from left to right may be a Western invention, in my opinion so I just did some of the strokes in the baybayin characters go from right to left, except for the straight-cut nib section. Again, I am no authority so I’m just doing what I think makes sense to me, as there is no existing ANCIENT written rules on the stroke order of the baybayin. Other people may disagree with my stroke orders here due to various reasons, but if you’re into what I did then feel free to learn from them, for free. *heart*

This author’s other notes: I won’t be elaborating the history of baybayin here because that would take around (counts how many years I spent in school) 5ever as it basically intertwines with the “current” history of the Filipino people. I put quotes on “current” because every decade or so, some written histories get re-written based on some evidences or what, and I totally respect that. It’s like in scientific papers: legit today, debunked tomorrow. And it’s completely OK, because THE MORE YOU KNOW~

Also this author’s note: I keep calling baybayin alibata, because that’s what they were called when I was a kid and how it was taught by history teachers before the process called “being politically-correct” became the norm. It’s because alibata was supposedly an incorrect term which signifies that the characters were letters based on Arabic, but apparently it wasn’t so.. Yeah. I’m just saying, so the kiddies would know. And if you’re like me who also refers to baybayin as alibata, let’s get a high-five! (Cause you’re also old, but gold =D) Some biased history FTW lol ok let’s get started.

Handwriting Alibata Baybayin Strokes with a Bamboo pen (or Ballpen, or Pencil, w/e floats your boat)

OK, before I start I would be first putting here the somewhat traditional ordering of the baybayin, which is:

A BA KA DA E GA HA I LA MA NA NGA O PA RA SA TA U WA YA

As well as the borrowed/loan syllables (which correspond to C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X, and Z were apparently added some 6-7 years ago, in which I didn’t get the memo x__x)

CA FA JA ÑA QA VA XA ZA

OK, now that’s out of the way, it’s time for the actual stuff. For ease of practice and recall, I’m grouping the letters based on how I write them and in turn, their forms. This would make sense as the pictures move along, don’t worry. The forms are built sequentially, I tried making that a bit obvious in the diagrams, but there are red arrows in case I wasn’t that clear. For those that only have one picture or arrows in the sequence, I would be implying that the form is built on a single stroke.

Group 1: A, MA, PA, YA, FA, JA, VA

OK, let’s start with A:

Then MA:

PA:

YA:

FA:

JA:

VA:

Group 2: E/I (more on that later), KA, DA, HA, RA, CA, QA, XA

I’ll start with HA because it’s a foundational stroke:

I looks structurally like E, but only with a vertical stroke on its hat.

It’s because originally, E and I were the same character and whether it should be read as a syllable from the E or I line depends on how the reader would read it and the dialect used in writing the words, like it’s a fill-in-the-blanks kind of thing. It’s also the same with O and U, so if you see that part yeah they look alike. This is also the reason why revisions on writing the E-I and O-U consonants were made, but that would be for a later part. Just be patient for now. =D

Ok, moving on, we’ll go to KA:

DA:

RA:

A short note on DA and RA: In olden times, these two were only one character, and are used interchangeably based on word usage, thus for words such as doon/roon, which both mean way over there one is used for passive and one is used directly (sorry not a speech comm person). This is also the case for marami and ang dami (both meaning “there are many/there is much” but one is active and one is passive. Madami is, IMHO grammatically incorrect. But then again, I’m not a speech comm person so sorry if these are wrong. I’m just saying).

CA:

QA:

XA:

Group 3: O/U, GA, SA, ZA

Just like in E/I, O and U are also structurally similar. To make an O:

To make it a U, just put a vertical line on the right side:

GA:

SA:

ZA:

Group 4: LA, NA, TA, ÑA

I grouped this bunch based on having a downward stroke in the middle of the form. The initial strokes are written as a single stroke from left to right, like in the first group.

LA:

NA:

TA:

ÑA:

Group 5: I have no idea where to put BA, NGA, and WA so I just made a miscellaneous group lol but they deserve just as much love OK?

BA:

NGA:

WA:

How the E, I, O and U lines are written:

In writing E, I, O and U (as in the case for the example below, which is GE, GI, GO, and GU), the original positions of the additional marks (such as the vertical lines for I and U) were kept but in order to differentiate E from I and O from U, the marks were made to be further distinct. For instance, GE is basically GA which has a horizontal line above it, while GI has a dot above it. As for GO, it has a dot below and GU has a horizontal line.

GI and GO can have either a hollowed dot like in the sample, or can also be filled like the samples below. It’s based on personal preference. Also I used G for the samples because it looks nice, fun to write, and most other examples of alibata on the internet use BA as their examples for this portion. Whoops, I meant, baybayin. XD

Vowel Killers: Invented by People who Needed It

I’m not entirely sure why vowel killer was the term used but it does tell it exactly what it does: it silences the vowels in the characters (because baybayin is composed of syllables) in order to make separate letters. It was invented by some Spanish friar who couldn’t properly write the native words because words that have consonants at the end were written incompletely. I.E. the word DOON (over there) was written as DO-O in baybayin. It was such a drag that he decided to introduce the Spanish/Latin alphabet by making baybayin characters that acted as alphabets, which is essentially killing all the vowels and leaving the consonant behind. So instead of using dots, the friar made a cross underneath the symbol which they called a kudlit (for obviously non-secular reasons), so that the words with consonant ends can be written and read as they were. As per the revision that was instated a few years ago, in order to make the baybayin a bit more secular, more forms of the vowel killers were made, which in my opinion look better than the original kudlit, because they look more organic with the forms.

As you can see in the pic of the letter G above, the first on the left is the original kudlit, which is shaped like a cross. The next one has an X, or sinawali (it’s literally based on the patterns of hard, woven rattan walls called sawali which look like X’s), the next one is called a kawil (sorry dunno where that came from) and the right-most one has a pamudpod (which may have come from the word “pudpod/pudpud” literally meaning grinding or repeatedly striking something on a hard surface or on a whetting stone till it disappears or becomes flat/dull, so pamudpod is the surface that makes the item pudpod like a used pencil or eraser. Do I even make sense anymore? Oh well, YOLO).

Stringing them All Together

My personal preference is using a kawil on horizontal writing (left to right) and using a pamudpod when writing vertically. I think the overall impact is better. But then again, it’s just my personal idea. Using any of the vowel killers are, like the filled or hollow dots on I and O are personal preferences, as long as there is consistency in usage.

If you can read the above and understand where the reference came from, you probably also call baybayin as alibata, and we should totally get some tea together. XDD It pretty much means “What is there, yonder?” smth idk but yeah, it sounds like that. Old and formal Filipino/Tagalog.

Langit - sky or heaven, Lupa - ground or earth, Araw - sun, and Buwan (or Bulan in Ilokano) - moon

Soliman - A variant of the name Sulaiman/Solomon

Amihan - the northeast monsoon, the nice wind that brings in cool, dry air around November-March. Or if you watched the old and new Encantadia, she’s the protag. XD

The third sampler is a phrase (I ran out of space it was supposed to be a sentence), and vertical double bars are used to end the sentence. I just made them into diagonal slashes to make them look cool. Also I ran out of space. x__x It’s transliterated as a wailing mom looking for her child: Ai anaku (bunga) - Ah, my child (fruit). No space for fruit so it ain’t there.

Author’s extra rant note: Of course, some early Filipinos didn’t wanna use the kudlit due to being comfy with whatever they had at that time, but eventually they gave in. Fast forward to a century later and the baybayin was pretty much dead, as it was for the next 4 centuries or so. Romaji became the norm (except for some of the native tribes that have their own awesome writing systems), but then again some Filipinos didn’t forget it entire time, as many of the revolutionaries’ battle flags had the syllable KA, which is the first syllable of Katipunan, their group which can also be transliterated as “the entire group of the people who meet and come together”. I can’t say more because this is a long-ass post and it’s not about Philippine history. But we can talk about that if you want. Just hit me up with an ask. Warning though: I might just say “thanks for asking but please ask something else” lol j/k XDD

Writing Baybayin using a Straight-cut Calligraphy Pen/ Dip pens with Straight/Oblique Nibs

For this portion of the post, aside from posting pictures of the baybayin in black and white ink I would be pointing out that the techniques I used here are based on Western traditional calligraphy techniques used by scribes of the past, so some of the stroke patterns would be a lot different from the handwritten strokes above. But then again, if you clicked the link to get here straight away instead of reading the previous portions, well you won’t be having that much problems then. Also I will assume you already learned how to write baybayin so I’ll leave you at that. For the black baybayin, I used a calligraphy fountain pen with a 2mm straight-cut nib from the Visual Deck Set – Calligraphy box, not sure where you can buy it online but I bought mine at the National Bookstore because nobody wants to buy it. (Should’ve also bought the other calligraphy set while they’re on sale. LOL Just saying XDD). The surface is just the back of old calendars because I was just testing the strokes. For the white baybayin, I used a Speedball™ C-2 oblique-cut nib and for the ink, it’s glittery silver poster paint from Reeves™ (diluted with dH2O), and the surface is some random paper with nice surface and sizing which my father got from the office. (Apparently you can’t print anything on it so it aged well there until my father disturbed the papers’ sleep and brought them home. Now I ran out of both the calendar and the weird red paper so business is halted for a bit. XDD) Again, these are all based on how I write stuff so it’s pretty much a personal opinion, it’s not absolute but it certainly works for me so here you go.

Group 1

MA:

PA:

YA:

FA:

JA:

VA:

Group 2:

E/I: I’m just putting I here because E and I basically have the same strokes. To make E, just omit the final vertical stroke.

DA:

HA:

RA:

CA:

QA:

XA:

Group 3

O/U: Same with E/I, I just placed U here because O is practically the same, minus the vertical stroke on the right.

GA:

SA:

ZA:

Group 4

LA:

NA:

TA:

ÑA:

Group 5

BA:

NGA:

WA:

E, I, O, U Lines

Vowel Killers

I didn’t make any full sentences or words because I ran out of nice papers, so maybe I’ll post some next time. Sorry. ._.

Author’s final note on writing using baybayin: I’m still on the fence in using the loan letters C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X, and Z because in my opinion apart from having redundancies with some other letters, they were just invented to spell out proper nouns that are foreign in origin. I wouldn’t even spell my full name using baybayin, except my nickname and would just rather use the Romaji/Latin Alphabet for ease. As for using baybayin to write foreign words, well, that can be as tricky as using kana to write foreign words. Both methods boil down to localizing a foreign word into how it would be pronounced based on the original language that the writing system belongs to. For instance, the Japanese waifu (as in “My waifu”) is the Japanized form of the English word “wife”, but because their spelling system is a bit different they had to estimate which kana would be suited to approximate how the word would be pronounced and in turn, be spelled. It is also the same case for some Filipino loan words that got Filipinized (and bastardized because long words are hard lol not kidding tho) such as the word istambay which originally came from “standby” and is now shortened to “tambay” which means “just loitering and doing nothing” or in how the young ones use it now: to hang out with friends (and probably just loiter and do nothing lol don’t kill me ok?). Thus, the usage of baybayin (or kana, or hangul, or Arabic because I think their writing is very lovely or whatever writing system you like that works as syllables more than letters) in writing words from another language would take extra steps such as following the rules of the written language or localizing the word first before writing them in whatever letters or syllables that you want. It’s like using what you have then making do with it/winging it out.

The End!!!! No just kidding. But it’s the last part.

To be honest there are a lot of stuff in the internet about baybayin so I’m not that entirely sure if what I have here is pretty much redundant or not. There are a lot of sites so just use your Googling skills to find what you need, although it may be a bit difficult for readers/users who simply try writing and not understanding the entire language so just use with caution. It’s hard to end up with THAT tough guy who has a kanji tattoo that actually spells “poop” instead of whatever it was supposed to be. I actually saw a guy sporting a tattoo that reads FUUBEN in Japanese, which translates to inconvenience. I lol deep inside but the guy seems happy with that so I just let him be.

Well, I hope this long-ass post helped you a lot, or at the very least the stuff made sense to you and it was worth your time reading. Please leave an ask if you have other questions, I’ll try to answer them if and when I can. Have a great day and may the force be with you. =D

#how to write baybayin #how to write alibata #how i write baybayin #baybayin handwriting #baybayin handwriting stroke order #baybayin calligraphy stroke order #baybayin calligraphy

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pabilipongi5awss-blog · 7 years

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DI ASS-OLUTE WAY OF LEARNING (pun intended)

by Kristina Valera of 12-Generosity

For the first semester of the school year 2017-2018, my classmates and I were introduced to this class called “Disciplines and Ideas in Applied Social Sciences”, which we, alongside our teacher, rather referred to as ‘DIASS’ in order to 1) shorten its lengthy name and 2) poke fun at how it sounded like the slang word which many use as an alternate term for the human posterior. Considering that we took the prerequisite class ‘Disciplines and Ideas’ during the previous school year, to be honest I was not expecting much for this year’s class, thinking that it would probably end up being similar to the one we had before, where in we were not actually able to apply what we had learned in real life and just stuck with the knowledge that our text book had provided us with. Surprisingly enough, this year’s class was far different from what we had. Living up to its name, the Disciplines and Ideas in Applied Social Sciences class was really able to give us the opportunity to incorporate into our everyday lives and mindsets whatever we had learned in the classroom. For both quarters, I hardly remember taking any quiz nor reading, let alone receiving any handout, but I did remember writing loads of papers, going on interviews with lots of intellectuals and editing their videos taken for documentation. Most importantly, I remember not only realizing but also experiencing what it is to actually learn without the requirements of quizzes, handouts or a course outline, but with the requirements of openness and bravery to immerse oneself in an environment that he or she is not familiar nor comfortable with in order to see the other sides of life and society that he or she does not usually get to see nor experience on a regular basis. The first semester was quite a wild ride, so here’s a little break down of what we’ve done and what happened:

1. COUNSELLING: the demonstration, the practitioner and the clientele.

The first quarter mostly comprised of the class reporting about Counselling—which was what I was assigned to—as well as Communication, and Social work. The reporting done in this was not the typical stand in the front, read your part, sit down, finish the report type; it was divided into three parts, firstly, the demonstration, in which our group made a little skit mirroring how business, government and mental health counselling works, which kind of gave us a surface level idea of how they do. We delved deeper from that surface when we reached the second part—the interview. Our group interviewed a psychotherapist, Dr. Angelo Subida at a Starbucks branch; yes, a Starbucks branch, and not in his office. Apparently, he meets with his other patients elsewhere instead of his office as well. But why is that, though? Isn’t that quite unprofessional of him? Not really; true enough, his way of counselling and meeting with patients is not the traditional type, but that does not mean he does not take what he does seriously. As a matter of fact, he meets with his patients outside his office to make the session seem more natural to the patient and to make them feel more comfortable. Through this interview, we realized that counselling is more than just telling others what to do, rather, it is about being open and respectful, given that this person who does not even have the slightest idea about you is going to be telling everything she knows about herself to you. It is about committing oneself to be of help to others, since counselling is not a one-time, easy, “just think positive and pray!” kind of thing. To add to that, it requires the counsellor to recognize the thin as or even thinner than thread, yet crucial barrier between personal and professional life in order to perform his duty effectively. Through this activity, we too were able to catch a glimpse of how the Filipino people viewed mental issues, in which we were downhearted upon finding out about the situation. Unfortunately, a lot of Filipino people only think of mental health issues as “phases” in one’s life. They fail to recognize that a person may be suffering from mental health issues because they immediately dismiss it and tell them that they’re just being overly dramatic. Also, a lot of people still have the mindset that telling others to smile more often and to think of happy thoughts will immediately help get rid of depressing thoughts. It is unfortunate to learn that the society we are living in does not give that much focus or help to those who really need it, and stereotypes people with mental health issues to be dangerous and scary and ends up isolating them from the majority. To add to that, we realized that telling someone to just “see a therapist/counsellor” should not be an immediate option, nor may it always be a good piece of advice. Going for counselling, as helpful as it is, still should be given a lot of thought. Like the counsellor, the clientele too, requires commitment. Counselling and therapy is being done regularly and it cannot be concluded easily with just one session. It may take a lot from one’s finances and time too, and the person may not even be that comfortable to open up and seek for help just yet. Having said those, telling someone to see a counsellor or a therapist must be given a lot of thought too, as much as the amount of thought that a person must give before committing to oneself to attend counselling regularly.

Besides those, I personally enjoyed learning about communication and social work through the other groups. I saw, through the social work group’s interviewee, how a lot of people view social work negatively and discourage it, and how social workers still stick with what they do amidst the misconceptions, stereotypes and negative opinions people hold over them and what they do. I realized that social work is a matter of helping and bringing others up whilst helping ourselves. It helps us realize that just because we are fortunate enough does not mean that everyone is in the same situation and place as us, and thus we must not use that privilege in thinking that we secure a higher place in the social hierarchy, rather use that privilege to be of service to those who do not have as much privilege as we do. Most importantly, seeing how dedicated social workers are to what they do made me realize that working is not all about the salary; the money we get in return should not always be the ends that we focus on. We should focus on giving and not receiving. I also enjoyed the communication group’s ice breaker in which we were asked to approach our classmates one by one and tell them what we feel and vice versa, which showed how important it is to constantly tell others the not-so-small things such as the ‘I love you’s’ and the ‘I appreciate everything you do for us-es’.

2) CASE STUDY

The second quarter was opened with two performance tasks: the case study and the term paper. For the case study, I partnered up with two other classmates, where in we studied the comedy of the two most famous Filipino gag shows Bubble Gang and Banana Sundae, and how they, despite their disrespectful, sexist and racist skits, still manage to appeal to a wide audience. We watched numerous skits from both shows and critiqued them, making use of a rubric we made in order to see which of its factors—including the delivery, content, harmlessness and setting—are reasons as to why people still continue to watch them. Through the activity, we realized how unfortunate it is to have sexism and racism viewed to be comedic as well as how ignorant the majority of the Filipinos are towards these issues. One skit made use of blackface to portray a black man, and most skits have story lines with women being objectified and being portrayed to be ‘easy’, which teaches society just the wrong things and outlooks, and promotes being racist and sexist. Moreover, we realized that perhaps the reasons why these gag shows still continue to be enjoyed are because 1) they make people feel better about themselves, seeing how foolish and dim-witted the characters of the skits are, and 2) they stroke the egos of men and feed their pride, showing them skits of women being easily attracted to them in a whim. The shows create an image in the heads of their male audiences of them being the ultimate Hokage™, which again is unfortunate. Finally, we realized that there are more means to appeal to others and be comedic without being racist, sexist or homophobic—I mean, if wholesome memes exist, why can’t wholesome skits too? Moving on:

3) TERM PAPER

In this performance task on the other hand, we were tasked to look for an organization for the youth, know about them and what they do, and propose suggestions and recommendations for them to be able to extend their services better, and my group mates and I decided to choose an organization founded by Ateneo called “Tulong Dunong”. It was originally just an outreach program for the Atenistas of the high school department, but it evolved into a program that funds its scholars’ miscellaneous fees, helping them greatly with their education.

It is enlightening to find out that such organizations exist with the objective of helping in the providing of education for others. Education is a basic necessity and everyone deserves to learn and go to school, and although a lot of people cannot provide for their education, organizations like these can, and they extend whatever they can to help these people experience the optimal education they deserve. However, also came the ill-fated realization that at present, education is being controlled by one’s grades. The students are being defined by the numerical value they receive in a subject, discouraging them, when it should do the exact opposite and encourage them to learn. Nowadays, there also exist such types of teachers who repeat the exact same thing written in their subject’s text books when discussing, driving their class on a memorization basis. The value of being able to learn substantial knowledge in school is being defeated, and as many say, “school nowadays is just about passing and not learning anymore”. This term paper and the organization further emphasized the point that education is in fact important and vital--i mean, it’s a given,-- yet if that is the case, why is education not being given the proper approaches for it to be effective? Why do we let education be a mere label, dictating whether or not we are smart instead of letting it be a healthy environment for us to further our knowledge? This type of learning environment we have now could not get any unhealthier, and it is saddening; but then again, there still are some teachers and aspiring teachers who change and wish to change the game of education at present. There are still those who do not rely on tangible materials such as books, but instead rely on sole experience and immersion. The students, instead of getting their necks stiff from looking down at their notes get to go outside the four walls of the classroom and explore, learning the essentials from what they witness and not from what is being planted in their minds. This type of approach to education is what should be promoted, as it gives the students the opportunity to create insights for themselves and to not have old insights made by others planted into their minds unnaturally. For two months of my life, I was able to experience such, and I could not be more thankful.

Going through a class such as DIASS made me more open about the conditions of society and strengthened how I view my relations with fellow human beings. It was one factor that made me truly grasp the meaning of what life is all about, and despite the requirements and the hassle of going from place to place meeting with people and interviewing them constantly, I could tell that it was all more than worth it. An experience such as this made me feel even better about choosing my strand, and as a HUMSS student, I could tell that a class like DIASS, to quote what our teacher said to describe how she feels about the subject acronym being DIASS: “it’s like it was made just for me!” (well, in this case, me and my classmates.)

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heyligaya · 5 years

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MY KOREA 2019 ITINERARY

Okay. I decided to make (write) this guide that might help someone out there planning to go to Korea. I'm going to make this guide the one I wished I read when I was fixing our itinerary so let’s go to what needs to be done after booking your ticket.

Honestly, it’s just simple guideline any traveler I think already knows but just in case.

Check the weather. I am a freak when it comes to packing. There is no such thing as PACK LIGHT. Homegurl needs options okay?? So I always check if what I'm going to bring will fit the current weather. Ask yourself, “do I need extra baggage allowance?” If personal baggage isn’t enough am I right? Haha.. hahaaa...haaa. But do consider this once you booked your flight. In my case, I added baggage allowance AFTER we booked the ticket since I figured “teka, pasalubongs will be extraaaa on this trip so better come prepared”

RESEARCH. Yeah yeah I know it can be a burden making those itineraries but honey, if you can stalk your ex-boyfriend for a week, you can search some good activities to do on your trip too! So get your stalking skills in work! In my case, my priority was PROXIMITY and BUDGET but will discuss that later. Make sure to change your peso bills to dolla dolla bills yo! It’s better to change the currency in Incheon Airport from dollar to Won than in any place outside the airport so better get those dollars before your flight.

Keep at least ₱2000 with you on your departure day. Why you ask? Two words. TRAVEL TAX. I learned this the hard way. I thought all was paid upon booking the ticket but Cebu Pac be like “Sis no! Better get that money for this countryyy” so yeah. You can actually pay Travel Tax upon booking but I didn’t know that. ₱1640 per person for travel tax. SHAKS ANG MAHAL DIBA? But it’s mandatory so...

Bring your own light snacks. My family ain’t playin. Once the plane took off, they started grabbing their hopia, crackers, and chips and people hear them crunch through and I'm so proud! Not paying 150 for a cheese cupcake okay? No. So bring your own.

If you’re planning to go to Korea, here are a few of my recommendations to purchase:

KLOOK Nami Island + Le Petit France. = It costs (₱1689 per pax) and it’s actually quite sulit for the whole experience.

KLOOK Discovery Pass = This is probably one of the most worth it purchase we had. 35 sightseeing privileges for free for only ₱2222 per person! COME ON! I actually calculated the number of entrance fees of the places we want to go to versus the amount of DP and yup! I definitely saved A LOT from that.

KLOOK UNLIMITED WIFI = Okay! I mean there were a lot of 4G internet that you can purchase here in PH already but with my pro-research skills, I found out that you can actually rent wifi that you can redeem in Incheon Airport upon arrival.(₱575 for 5 days) I purchased the 5-day free wifi. Para connected tayo diba?

If you are going to purchase, make sure to take note what terminal in Incheon you will depart since there are several choices where you can pick them up. Also, align your time of departure. Not all kiosks are 24hrs so if you’ll arrive beyond 9pm, choose the kiosk that has 24hrs running time for you to claim your rentals and passes.

If you booked your ticket with a late arrival LIKE ME (10:25pm but settled all the claims and reloads of T-Money at around 1:00am), your only choice is the NIGHT BUS. (see pic below for the airport bus schedules)

If however, you have a normal time of booking which reaches within the time where AREX is still going then I HIGHLY recommend using the AREX for ₩9000.

We took the N6001 bus which will drop us at Seoul Station.

Let us start.

So my itinerary wasn’t your typical one. I had the places as my priority so when I made this one, I made sure that I can utilize the location as much as possible. I researched all the places I can visit near

Myeongdong

Insadong

Ewha Woman’s University

Okay. So It might sound boring when I only mentioned three BUT do imply that these 3 have an abundance of tourists spots where either I can just walk or a 9min subway ride.

OUR LOCATION: We rented an Airbnb in Jungnim-ro.

(https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/214545347)

That is literally 7 mins away from Seoul Station subway which was HIGHLY convenient for us since we used the subway. ONLY subway (psh if I’ll rant about how many time I’ve been conned in my first time in KR, it’s gonna be to long) so I’ll attach my host’s details and if you want to rent her place WHICH IS SUPER DUPER NEAT BTW and we’re located near police station so the place is 100% safe so if you want to rent, you may do so. And one more thing, they have a youtube directional instruction on how you’ll be able to go to the main building of the house. LUV THAT! <3

PS: My Itinerary is made for my mum and aunt where they can explore but also minimize the stress of walking coz they’re old but STILL I made sure to expand the place I can explore as much as I can.

==========================================================

Day 1.

Namsan Tower/Myeongdong

Disclaimer: Don’t judge! I know we only went to two destinations for Day 1 but I consider the fact that I'm with my mum who’s a senior citizen and we haven’t slept yet 😳 so I decided to shorten our destinations to visit for Day 1 so she can rest in the afternoon

Discover Pass can be used as T-Money (like beep card here in PH) so I suggest to load at least ₩30,000 for subway purposes.

Subway ride costs ₩1,2000 FIXED.

N SEOUOL TOWER

NAMSAN PARK

LOVE LOCK LANE

MYEONGDONG

Namsan Cable Car opens at 10:30. I specifically picked the daytime tour since Im with my mum and aunt and the would pretty much appreciate pictures in light BUT I highly suggest visiting Namsan Tower at night. The City lights is AMAZING.

Namsan Entrance fee is around ₩3000. You can choose if you want the one-way ride or the round trip. CAREFUL! The payment for the Cable car is different from the Namsan Tower Entrance. We have to pay for the cable car but have the Entrance fee for free in Namsan tower because of the Discover Pass (YASSSSSS)

You’ll find Love Lock Lane amazing scenery! If you get hungry, you can take the roundtrip cable car and just go back to Myeongdong and explore all the food!

PS : Okay, Korea has a few restaurants that offer “solo” on their menu. It’s always, MINIMUM of two orders. Doesn’t matter how many you guys are, the menu will always be a minimum of two. Example: Samgyupsal is around ₩23,000 so multiply by two, that’s ₩46,000 but I guarantee that it will feed 4 people. If you’re with more than four people who will accompany you, make sure to bring enough money for food. BECAUSE IT’S SOOOOOOOOO FLIPPIN’ GOOD!!

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Day 2

LE PETIT FRANCE + NAMI ISLAND

DONGDAEMUN

Le Petit France + Nami Island will take your WHOLE day. We departed at around 9am at the meeting place (Myeondong Station Exit 3) which is just where we dropped off for Namsan Tower and got back at around 5pm in the afternoon.

Nami is known for their DAKGALBI which is grilled chicken or Spicy chicken. Again, a minimum of two orders. There’s this place where we ate Dakgalbi two years ago and luckily, it’s still there when we visited and decided to eat there. I don’t remember the place BUT It’s in front of the Bus Parking space. It’s the only one there so I definitely suggest that place. Try their Buckwheat cold noodles too. IT’S THE BEST!

Dongdaemun for me was THE. BEST. ONE. YET!

So upon departure, the tour bus will give you instructions on where you can drop off. We had our meet up at Myeongdong and just our luck, the tour guide informed us that Dongdaemun station will be one of the drop off stations for those who want to explore the place WHICH WE DID. The drop off area was just at the gate of Dongdaemun so there’s not much walking needed. One thing you need to know is that it’s a very tricky place. It’s like a maze. A lot going up (not stairs) but the place was worth it. We went just before sunset but didn’t manage to experience the place at night. So I suggest you visit Dongdaemun at night too because the whole place is lit with lights and you’ll probably appreciate the structure more.

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DAY 3

GYEOUNGBUKGONG PALACE

NATIONAL FOLK MUSEUM OF KOREA

INSADONG

MYEONGDONG

I originally planned the Palace tour for 2 Palace visit BUT I underestimated Gyeoungbukgong palace. THAT PLACE IS TOO BIG for a day visit. I was telling myself there is NO way a Prince or Emperor could finish morning walk AROUND that palace coz it’s so big! So we only managed to visit Gyeoungbukgong Palace.

TRIVIA : It’s the biggest palace in the country AND many K-drama set place in G.Palace. An example would be Goblin.

National Folk Museum was actually INSIDE/BESIDE G.Palace and it’s free! We went there knowing they have CHAIRS coz our feet went bonkers after all that walking around the palace but we never knew how beautiful the museum was inside! All the history and ornaments and even old traditions were there.

INSADONG was probably one of my most awaited place to visit. Two years ago, Insadong was our last destination so we kinda rushed our visit here so this year I decided to take my time and really enjoy the place (so I didn’t really have that many pictures). Insadong is just a WALK away from G.Palace so it was pretty convenient. Insadong was a place for souvenir shopping. Literally, ALL kinds of stuff and magnets are there at such cheap prices. My mum hoarded A LOT of ‘em. Also, Insadong is where some of their traditional dishes are sold. I tried a honey thread-like candy (am so sorry I can’t remember the name of the stall) which for me was the highlight of my visit there. They have a public show of how they make these candies and also they know how to speak Filipino which is super cool. So if you’re going to buy souvenirs, I recommend Insadong. There’s a subway station direct to Insadong BUT it’s Jongno Station.

MYEONGDONG

This is probably the most mainstream place for tourists but I DO LOVE ME SOME GOOD FOOD. Cheap skin care products and awesome food!

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LAST DAY

We kinda rushed this day since our flight is scheduled that night but managed to still go ONE. MY. MOST. FAVORITE. PLACE.

EHWA WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY

I'm a sucker for good architecture and this place is mindblowing. Instagramable! Snapchat worthy! Photo walk legend!

The good thing about EHWA is they have a subway station for it. Literally EHWA University Station and just outside the station exit are stores filled with coffee shops and boutiques and my favorite, ARTBOX which is a store of tumblers and iphone cases and cute college bags and pens and notebooks and my heart JUSSSSST mmf! Paris Baguette is a very well known bakery in Korea and we just happened to pass by one at EHWA since we haven’t had any breakfast or lunch yet and let me tell you, BAKERIES IN KOREA ARE LEGIT. BEST ONES! Coffee in EHWA is different in Myeongdong. It’s like specially catered for students. It’s so goooood! Goblin also had kdrama shoots in EHWA so I was a little excited to see some of their buildings.

PS: EHWA doesn’t have entrance fee BUT you can only take pictures at the famous stairs but you can’t go further inside unless you’re a student.

AND THAT WAS THAT.

For our departure, we used the free ride of AREX that comes with Discover Pass. Price of AREX was mention earlier. It’s a 30 min. ride so you have to make sure you have enough time before your flight. ALWAYS BE IN ADVANCE.

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HERE ARE SOME OF MY TIPS:

Upload these apps! It’s definitely A MUST! This 3 apps made my life easier as a first-time subway user.

SUBWAY app helps you with the subway stations. It look intimidating at first because of the loops and colors but I tell you, it’s really easy! Im bad with directions and I understood the subway stations so much faster because of this.

KOREA TRANSIT GUIDE will help you with transfers and time. Your destinations may have a direct subway station but doesn’t mean you are connected to just one line. It’s like here in PH, there are instances where you need to transfer from LRT to MRT to get to your destination. It’s the same with Korea Subway BUT what’s good in Korea Subway is that transfers are all in one place. If you are going to transfer stations, there’s directions and instructional signs right when you drop off to point you to where you’re going. It’s so easy! Then you can use SUBWAY app to check the color of the subway transfer. As you can see, there are several color codes on each Subway lines. This app will also give you what BUS number you can take or if it’s possible to walk instead.

I posted a picture where you can see color codes in subway suggestions. Seoul Station (blue) to City Hall (green) then you can check in SUBWAY app the color code if it’s correct and to familiarize you with the station names you’ll encounter.

DISCOVERY PASS app IS A MUST if you’re going to avail one. You need to register your app so you can check the remaining balance of your Discovery Pass. You can also use it as T-Money for subways. I loaded ₩30,000 and I used it fully.

Bring good walking slippers (depending on what season you’ll go). Comfortable shoes goes a looong way but it’s good to have spare walking slippers just in case

Buy 110 plugs here in PH. Sockets in Korea is different so be prepared to have at least 2 or 3 for your chargers.

Bring clear packaging tapes. If you’re going to buy liquid skin care, make sure to put a seal because you don’t want your expensive skin care bottles to explode inside your luggage so better be ready that regret after.

POWERBANK POWERBANK POWERBANK. Never forget!

Korea is filled with PUBLIC wifi. So if you’re lost and didn’t avail the pocket WIFI they have at Klook, you can just go to a near coffee shop and have their free wifi just outside.

FOOD IS A MUST. I know you have your skin care list ready but don’t be thrifty when it comes to their good food. COZ IT’S GOOD! TOO GOOD!

Bring your own towel. We are used to big towels. Towels that can cover and dry your body. However, in Korea, they prefer a smaller towel. Like…..bimpo type of towel. It takes us 5 towels just to dry us up. They do give an abundance of small towels but come on! I need to be dried up in one swoop okay? So just bring your own.

AND THAT’S THAT! Hope this LOOOONG itinerary helps people one way or another.

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