Things we accumulate

Starting on Tuesday, we (our org) will be participating in the LIS BAZAAR, which will be held at the left wing of the Main Library. Punta kayo, ha?!   Since we need some books to sell as part of our IGP (income generating project), I decided to do a quick inventory of the books I have personally bought (meaning not recommended/bought by my mom) throughout the years and choose some I can donate to the cause.

Here are the books I will donate, may they be in better hands (:

Closer shots:

Here are some of the titles of the books: The Golden Age by Kenneth Grahame, Barron’s Book Notes: David Copperfield by Dickens, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, Soba Senbei and Shibuya by F. Sionil Jose
Shakespeare: Three Comedies, Three Tragedies (these I asked my mom to buy when I was still in BA CW because we are required to take ENG23: Shakespeare in our course), Secrets of the Code edited by Dan Burstein, The Survivors Club by Lisa Gardner, Fifties by BS Medina, A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, In Chancery by John Galsworthy, Twinship by Laurie Foos, Voice from the Underworld by Maningning Miclat, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens (obviously, I am not a teen anymore! Haha. But that’s not the reason I’m selling it. I’m over this.), Living Yoga, and Microsoft Office 2007.

Of course, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of my beloved books:

Books by Sophie Kinsella: Shopaholic Series, The Undomestic Goddess, and Can You Keep a Secret. I have already read Remember Me but I only borrowed it. Some of my Marian Keyes: Further Under the Duvet, Rachel’s Holiday, Sushi for Beginners and etc. I think I still have 3 more Marian Keyes books but they’re with my friend, K. Hehe. From Helen Fielding, I have Bridget JOnes’s Diary 1 and 2 and Cause Celeb. In terms of Chicklit, My favorites are Marian Keyes, Helen Fielding and Sophie Kinsella. Obvious ba? Sa Dicklit (hahaha kabaligtaran ng chicklit), si Nick Hornby ang favorite ko. I have his About a Boy, How to be Good, and Speaking with the Angel.

State of History, et al.

As you know or rather if you have been reading my blog or if you personally know me, then you must have already know that the lack of history or documented records on the history of some of the prospective subjects of my LIS 199 topic stresses me a lot.

Here is my proposed topic: An Analysis of Library and Information Needs of Selected Filipino Fashion and Clothing Students. (Hoy, walang kopyahan ha? Hehehe.) And my probable objective is to determine if Filipino fashion and clothing students make essential use of libraries, the characteristics of libraries which will best meet their needs; and what are their sources of information regarding visual and inspirational information needs. (This one, I patterned after another study which uses Filipino Visual Artists, it’s by Casco, year 2000).

I have chosen five schools to be the subject of my proposal: (1) UP Diliman for their BS Clothing Technology degree, (2) Fashion Institute of the Philippines (FIP), (3) LaSalle College International (LCI), (4) CSB for their BA major in Fashion Design and Merchandising (FDM), and (5) School of Fashion and the Arts (SOFA).

I am now trying to come up with my Chapter 1 and I am honestly having a hard time due to the lack of readily available information on the history of the schools. Materials regarding academic and/or learning resource centers are not a problem, I already have some and I know I can get more if need be.

Some of my pertinent questions are: What is the history of fashion education in the Philippines? Who was the pioneer? And how old is fashion education in the country? This made me wonder why some of the schools don’t teach these. I mean for FIP and LCI it’s kind of understandable since they are not degree-based (this is not derogatory, I meant, think of the school as only offering their MAJORS). But for CSB, SOFA and yes, even UP, I wonder why they do not teach history of some sort regarding the industry that they are going to pursue. I also understand that they are skill and/or creativity based degrees/courses. But so is Creative Writing, and even LIS, but we still have to learn or at least have some primer regarding the history of our industry. Hello, Melvil Dewey and the NY Library School, anyone?

Araw-araw na Ginawa ng Diyos

Pambihira! Pebrero na, ang bilis ng mga pangyayari pero parang ang bagal paden ng pag-usad, di ko maexplain! Una sa tanan (feeling bisaya ako ano? hehe), nastrestress ako sa acads ko. Again, if you know me, nakakatawa tong statement na to. Although since bumalik naman na ako ng school, matino nako sa acads ko. So ibig sabihin, magdadalawang taon nako nastrestress sa acads ko. Haha.

Ganito ang normal kong schedule, sisimulan ko ng Tuesday para maintindihan mo ang ‘vicious’ cycle. Hehe.

1. Magigising ako dapat ng 6 or 7 ng umaga. Or else malalate ko sa 10am class ko. Di nako pwede umabsent pa! Umaalis ako ng bahay ideally ng 8am kung ayaw kong malate diba (ayan may mga words na ‘dapat’ at ‘ideally’ dahil nagkukumahog na ko talaga, hahahaha, parang ang dark dark naman ng post nato, feeling).
2. After ng 10-1130 class ko, may break ako, 1130-1. Ginagamit ko to para kumain, tumambay (umangst! hahaha.), magaral o maghanda sa isang report o gumawa ng assignment na hinde ko pa tapos at ipapasa na din that day, at iaddress ang ilang org matters. Minsan lahat yan sabay-sabay or spontaneous yan na nangyayare sa loob ng isa’t kalahating oras. Ayos ba?
3. Pagdating ng 1-230, pumapasok ako sa pinakanakakaantok na subject sa napasukan ko sa UP (sunod sa ENG 23: Shakespeare class ko nung CW pako). Hinde naman sha boring eh, in fact maganda yung subject kung alam mo lang. Ayoko na magbelabor ng point, kasi baka igoogle nila ang subject na ito at lumabas pa ang blog ko. Mahirap na. Pero mhen, kailangan ko talaga ng labaha at dayap sa subject na ito at tila may ibong Adarna sa classroom, everyfcukinsingle time! I swear, kahit gaano ka kawell-rested hinde mo sha maiiwasan! At least yung mga ibang nakakaantok na classes ko dati, may fear factor pa sa prof kaya talagang pipilitin mo lagyan ng toothpick ang eyelids mo. But no. Jinojoke ko nga sila na eto na ata ang pinakamalaking pagkakamali na nagawa ko sa student life (ang kunin ang subject nato), bukod sa pagiging AWOL. Pero parang hinde na joke minsan eh! Hahaha. Moving forward…
4. May kasunod pa na class after nyan, 2:30 to 4. May lecture din. Ewan. Aside from the fact na lutang nako dahil sa out-of-body experience ko sa previous class, ayoko na din magsalita sa lecture na nangyayare sa class nato. Hehehe. Okay, lets move forward, AGAIN…

Destressing After Vargas

I do my OJT @ Vargas Museum in UP Diliman with my friend, A. Last Saturday, we decided to treat ourselves to TIMEZONE and a foodtrip. Yahoo! After months of not being able to play at TIMEZONE (such a baby! tsk! haha), we were, at long last, able to play basketball, throw-balls-at-the-screen-i-dont-know-the-name-of-the-game, shoot-the-screen and play some samurai-ing! Hohoho. Boy, it was fun. Except that my right arm hurts like hell for throwing things like a mad person (di nga?).

After getting all sweaty (yuck, eto na yung pinakaexercise namin, ano ba yan, kadire! haha), we decided to treat ourselves to some french fries and ice cream!

Some NYFD fries and chicken something w/ pesto and garlic parmesan dip!

*that’s A’s hand there. I told her I’m not gonna post her face, honest! Hehe.

After which, even though we are both feeling kind of full na, we still think we deserve some sugar rush. So we went to this ‘attractive’ kiosk which we thought was selling some old school ice popsicle we all had when we were kids. Here’s how the stall looks like:

*its beri hard to take a pic kasi may mga dumadaan, common! )

To our surprise, they are GELATOS!!! Shushal na ang mga popsicle! Hehehe. I was kind of hesitant kasi they’re a bit on the pricey side for a gelato popsicle, but what the hell, I might be ‘happier’ after! Who can resist Pistachios, right?

Ate, papicture ha, okay lang? Ate: Sige okay lang po mam!

Pistachio Gelato on stick topped with crushed Pistachio nuts and chocolate drizzle!

Ichura palang ang sarap na diba?! hehehe. So here are the other drool worthy flavors:

Premium Gelato (Pistachio and Coffee) is P80, regular ones (Milk Cream, Chocolate, and Giandula) goes for P70, and sorbets (Mango and Strawberry) are P60 a pop. For toppings, it’s P25 for full coat of either almonds, hazelnuts or coffee and it’s P15 if you only want half of your popsicle to be covered. It’s P40 full and P25 for pistachio toppings. Chocolate dips goes for P35 (full) and P20 (half).

My verdict? Anything pistachio flavored is good by default in my book. However, they could still improve on the pistachio taste of the gelato itself (compared to Amici’s and FIC at least). The creamy texture is like that of Selecta’s. But that’s just me. This is definitely a feel-good treat so if you’re needing a bit of pick me up, go get one!

Spring Film Festival @ Shangri-La Plaza Mall

I was passing through Shang last Friday when I chanced upon this poster:

I figured some people might be interested so might as well take a pic and post it for people to know. It’s going to run from February 3-9, 2010.

Here are some tighter shots of the movies and scheds:

Apologies for the quality of the pictures, they’re taken using my modest and trusty SE K800i. Anyhows, for movie fest enthusiasts like moi, you might enjoy these. I do hope I also have the time to enjoy some of these movie. *sigh* I’m really really really super busy nowadays.

And to end this post, since I felt so freakin’ harassed that day going around the metro for my LIS 199 topic, I treated myself to this:

That’s a small cup (P155) of Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt in Cake Batter. It was delish, like Jollibee’s ice cream. Hehe. Seriously. Anyhow, if you want frozen yogurt which still has a tinge of sourness in it, you might want to try other flavors or brands. I still <3 White Hat for their cheesecake toppings. Hee-Hee. Ive tried Red Mango and its a-okay for me. Nothing spectacular.

Golden Spoon is available @ 1st Flr Shangri-la Mall and @ Magallanes Complex. Enjoy!

PS. Click view image for the pics if the movie scheds are still too small for you to see.

MRT Book Club, Promises and First Paragraphs

One of things I promised myself to do more this year (aside from updating my blog more often) is to read more books. And I don’t mean the required-for-school-kind-of-books. I mean books for leisure reading. However, I recognize that I have to prioritize my academic readings (right) over these ‘vice’ books so I came up with my MRT Book Club. Hehe.

The MRT Book Club is founded on the principle of my ridiculous commuting hours from my house to school (for those who do not know me, its from Parañaque to Diliman, QC) and how to better utilize those hours (read: multitask). I reckon that if I spend at least 3 hours on the road, I can use those minutes to read my pleasure books. The rule is that I can only read the book during those commuting hours so that the time I spend at home will be for other errands and chores that I really have to do for school (right. hehe). The goal is to finish 1 book/per week. I can’t read at home, it would be cheating! LOLS. (exemption may apply if there’s only 1 chapter or 10 pages or less on the book for me to finish it. oh common, it would be excruciating to not know the ending especially if you’re only a few pages from it, right?)

Anyhows, here are the books I have slated for my first batch of reading. I went on a shopping frenzy for books the other week since I was (as I’ve told you) feeling a bit sad because of the resumption of classes. (huhuhuhu. crazy!) Just an advisory, in buying books, I always read the first paragraph of the first page and if I’m hooked, then its sold!

Here they are:

1. Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes
By: Mark J. Penn with E. Kinney Zalesne
Published: 2007
Details: paperback, bought @ Powerbooks (ATC), Php 379

First Paragraph:

Introduction
In 1960, Volkswagen shook up the car world with a full-page ad that had just two words on it: Think Small. It was a revolutionary idea–a call for the shrinking of perspective, ambition, and scale in an era when success was all about accumulation and territorial gain, even when you were just driving down the street.

Notes: This book got my attention since it’s very rare that I chance upon a seemingly interesting non-fiction book. The blurbs reminded me of Blink and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, both of which I liked very much so I figured this might be worth a read.

2. Middlesex
By: Jeffrey Eugenides
Published: 2002
Details: Winner of Pulitzer Prize, Paperback, bought @ Powerbooks (ATC), Php 349

First Paragraph:

The Silver Spoon
I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan in August of 1974. Specialized readers may have come across me in Dr. Peter Luce’s study, “Gender Identity in 5-Alpha-Reductase Pseudohermaphrodites,” published in the Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology in 1975. Or maybe you’ve seen my photograph in chapter sixteen of the now sadly outdated Genetics and Heredity. That’s me on page 578, standing naked beside a height chart with a black box covering my eyes.

Notes: As far as I can remember, my Tito Vic has been raving about this book, so that’s a plus. And since I looooooovveee Virgin Suicides the movie (also written by Jeffrey Eugenides, I’ve been looking all over for the book but it always seem out of stock at Powerbooks), I figured this book must be worth reading.

3. Girl With A Pearl Earring
By: Tracy Chevalier
Published: 1999
Details: Paperback from Plum, cover is from the movie adaptation, bought at Booksale (MCS), Php 70

First Paragraph:

1664
My mother did not tell me they were coming. Afterwards she said she did not want me to appear nervous. I was surprised, for I thought she knew me well. Strangers would think I was calm. I did not cry as a baby. Only my mother would note the tightness along my jaw, the widening of my already wide eyes.

Notes: The first thing that came into my mind was the painting and the photoshoot of ANTM (America’s Next Top Model season something) where in they had a photoshoot inspired by some of the world’s greatest paintings of all time.

Under the weather

I am feeling a bit under the weather. Oh no wait. I don’t exactly know how am feeling. Depressed seems passe and overused and needy that I don’t want meself calling my feelings that. (denial, ishdatchu? haha, nah.) But I’ve been over thinking as usual and there are somethings/errands that can be attributed to my lackluster attitude lately:

Lust

I hate it that I’m a slave to material and worldly things. NOT! Hahaha. I just hate the fact that I can’t buy them. Lols. Anyhows, I recently stumbled upon things that my closet will be more than happy to adopt.

Double Breasted Swing Jacket from TOPSHOP

and this:

Classic White Shirt from JCrew

I’m not really a hardcore ‘fashionista’ (for the lack of better term, because i hate the term, i dunno kasi parang politically incorrect or whatever). However, I consider myself conscious enough to be at least fashion savvy and presentable at all times (if you disagree, you will be glad to know that I do my best and that should be good enough, hehe).

My fashion philosophy highly revolves around comfort, mobility (because we are commuters with angst ), good fit (the antonym of ill-fittedness for me ), timelessness (or classicness) and confidence (no matter how expensive or sexy your clothes are if you’re fidgety in it, then forget it. It will never look good on you). Simple enough right?

Anyhows, I want these! If only retailers in the Philippines can do something like these with affordable price tags for people-like-us (PLU) but with considerably good stitching and fabric to boot, then you already have a customer in line! *raises hand*

Photo credits: 1. Jacket, 2. Classic White shirt.

Green Minded

Subject: LIS 131-Media Materials and Technology (LIS subject elective)

Task: Reaction Paper on the article, A Greener Library, A Greener You by Wanda Urbanska (if you want to read the original article, click here: ->A Greener Library, A Greener You.)  *no copyright infringement intended.

Over the past recent years, humanity has been ignited with a new kind of environmental activism. What, with the weird climate changes all over the world and bullet-speed technological overdrive, at some point, the earth is bound to have a nervous breakdown—and it seems like every inhabitant has to do their part in helping the earth became a saner, healthier world. So, how can libraries fit in this equation?

Being eco-friendly does not come without a price. Of course, the lesser the chance that the materials you use can damage the earth, the more expensive they can be because, well, they are especially prepared. For libraries in the first world countries, the construction of an environment-friendly library (as in a physical place) can be relatively easier because materials are more or less easier to source and funds are much more present. However, libraries in developing countries like the Philippines, what are the ways in which they can participate in the global movement to save the world?

On: Media Librarians and Media Librarianship in the Philippines

Subject: LIS 131-Media Materials and Technology (LIS subject elective)

Task: Reaction Paper on Media Librarians and Media Librarianship in the Philippines

Notes: I honestly had a hard time conjuring up a 1 page, single-spaced reaction paper for this topic not because I’m lazy or something like that. But I really don’t have enough materials or background for me to react on. Eh instead of lying and making chingky that I know a lot about the topic, I just kept it real. Hehe.

Actual Paper:

How exactly does one draw the line? Between a ‘plain’ librarian and a media librarian, is there really a definite distinction between the two?

According to Republic Act 9246, which is ‘An Act Regulating the Practice of Librarianship and Prescribing the Qualifications of Librarians’, first part of section 5 (Scope of the Practice of Librarianship ) indicates that: “Librarianship shall deal with the performance of the librarian’s functions, which shall include, but not be limited to the following: 1. Selection and acquisition of multi-media sources of information which would best respond to clientele’s need for adequate, relevant and timely information.”

By virtue of RA 9246, every librarian can be a media librarian since the very act of selecting and acquiring of multimedia sources of information are really, in essence, a function of every librarian. But really, do every graduate of a library and information science course has what it takes to be a media librarian?