Burnt

Daily Prompt: Burnt

Remember yesterday, when your home was on fire and you got to save five items? That means you left a lot of stuff behind. What are the things you wish you could have taken, but had to leave behind?

I sort of answered this in my post yesterday.
Books and DVDs.
But now that I think about it, I might add my collection of mugs and Playbills.

Books.

I am a self-professed bookworm. Give me a good book to read and a comfortable place where to read it, I’m all set. Ever since I started reading novels in grade school, I have started buying and collecting books. However, most of them are in my childhood home in Zamboanga. I’ve continued adding books to the collection when I started working but there is not much progress because books tend to be expensive. Plus, I’m starting to run out of room for them. Recently, I have opened myself to the idea of e-books and started buying them. But there is still no substitute for a book wherein you can smell and feel its pages. So hooray for physical books!

DVDs. VCDs.

I get lost in the worlds of each movie and show I see that sometimes I would want to relive them again. This is why I never get tired of watching movies and shows over and over again. So I make it a point to have a copy at home for my viewing convenience.

Mugs from travel

When I got the chance of visiting other countries, I started the tradition of buying Starbucks demitasse mugs with the name of the city and country of where I got them. This is such an epic fail because I wasn’t able to find one in the only Starbucks we visited in Bangkok (so I got a tumbler with an original Thai design) and there are no Starbucks in Vietnam (so I got a regular-sized mug from CBTL instead). Anyway, they still became part of my small collection.

Playbills!!!

I don’t know why I haven’t thought of these in yesterday’s post. I am a HUGE musical theater geek. So I would definitely would want to save the souvenir programs I got from some of the plays I have seen in the past years. For some of these shows, I literally had to get my passport stamped to see! They were wonderful moments in my life that I would never ever forget. These musicals changed my life. 🙂

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Burn Down What Now?

Daily Prompt: Burning Down the House
Your home is on fire. Grab five items (assume all people and animals are safe). What did you grab?

It would be such a tragedy to have one’s home burnt to the ground.
All the things you treasure… to be gone just like that?
On the upside, at least no loved one is hurt and that’s what’s most important.
Material things can just be acquired again. Even if those things have memories attached with them, new memories can be made right?

So I will answer this question with what I think I would do when I’m panicking.
Amidst the chaos, I will probably bring the following:
1. my shoulder bag, which always contains my wallet with IDs and some cash, umbrella, some make-up, and one of the books I’m currently readin
2. passport
3. ipad
4. phone
5. laptop computer

But, oh, to leave all my books and DVDs behind!
I will be so devastated.

Help! Must follow blogs…

I just realized.
I write but I never read other blogs.
I follow few bloggers.

This must change.
Any suggestions of what good blogs to read/follow?
Thanks!

Through the Window

Daily Prompt: Through the Window

Go to the nearest window. Look out for a full minute. Write about what you saw.

— It’s already very dark out but the next door neighbor’s garden light got me to see some of the things outside.

My room’s on the second floor, so my view is pretty much the roof of the neighbor and their windows of the second floor rooms.

I cannot make out what’s inside their rooms because they have already turned off their lights and are probably already sleeping. But just outside their window and up on the roof is a white cat sleeping. The cat seems peaceful but cold. He/she is so curled up and tucked in so very close to the wall, just so it would be under the second floor outside roofing.

I was staring for a bit longer when I was caught by surprise by the light inside the neighbor’s room suddenly turning on. Apparently, the owner just got home. The unexpected noise woke the sleeping cat and it started to look at every direction, obviously very startled.

Afraid that the cat would jump to my bedroom’s open window and embarrassed for my neighbor to think I’m prying, I automatically closed my windows. And all this happened in less than a minute. Yikes!

Ode to Golden Bell

Daily Prompt: Ode to a Playground

A place from your past or childhood, one that you’re fond of, is destroyed. Write it a memorial.

Golden Bell was Zamboanga’s bookstore, an office/school supplies store, appliance and grocery store.

But for me, it was more than a store… it was my playground.
It’s a part of all the wonderful memories when I was a child.

I remember before the start of every school year, my mother took my sisters and I there to buy school supplies and we would be so psyched. We each get to choose our own notebook covers and cute little erasers. To have brand new notebooks, pens, and art supplies that we get to choose were priceless feelings. I don’t know why.

Every Sunday after church, my family and I would have lunch and then I would beg my parents to bring us here so that I can browse the new released books and see if there were new stationery designs. (We were collecting stationery before and sometimes trade them for better and cool ones. So it was necessary to also be on the look out for new designs.)

Also, I will never forget that Golden Bell was the place where my parents would bring me (on separate occasions) after every spontaneous lunch time school visits. And every time  I go back for the afternoon classes with a new autograph book from Golden Bell. So imagine how many autograph books I had signed throughout my elementary days. Close to filling up a shoe box!

Lastly, Golden Bell was the place my best-est friends and I would always visit during weekends. We were only in the fourth or fifth grade then, but I remember my parents would give me Php200 (Php100 from my mother, another Php100 from my father without my mom knowing), and I always spent them on jeepney fare home (my dad always brings me to the town), lunch, and all the rest for books! I can still recall the P59.75 Sweet Valley books that I always bought and collected.

All these wonderful memories, all from Golden Bell.

Christmas in August.
Excitement for first day of school.
The cool plastic stationery my sister got.
My first cassette tape.
My first book.
My childhood.
My playground.

Children today may not get to have the same experience but I hope you’ll be at peace knowing you made one child happy and gave one adult the lasting good memories.

Good bye.

Of Sliced Bread and Instant Noodles

Daily Prompt: Sliced Bread
Most of us have heard the saying, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread!” What do you think is actually the best thing since sliced bread?

My initial reaction to today’s Daily Prompt was instant laughter. It’s a crazy topic, dude!

Then, the next reaction was a question — when DID sliced bread become “SLICED BREAD”? So I did a little bit of research on it’s history and found this site: History of Sliced Bread.

It is quite interesting. It’s more than the fact that the bread WAS sliced but that the bread stayed fresh even in it’s thin configuration.

Anyway, to answer the question…to be the best thing since sliced bread, it must be an inconvenience to prepare before but because of innovation, has become a household staple. Well, for me, it would be instant cup noodles!!! It’s staple in my house, at least. I cannot imagine my life without them (especially instant pancit canton. Yum!)

Side Note: Now, I’m hungry. 🙂

Share this:

Somebody crowd me with love
Somebody force me to care
Somebody let me come through
I’ll always be there
As frightened as you to help us survive
Being alive, being alive.

— Company

Now I can say I have a favorite song. And this is it — Being Alive from Company. :’)

That Stings!

Daily Prompt: That Stings!
Franz Kafka said, “we ought to read only books that bite and sting us.” What’s the last thing you read that bit and stung you?

— Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I was stung really hard by this masterpiece.

At the start of reading the book, it made realize that we are all cast aways in the great sea of life. Learning how to survive. Fearful of the big world surrounding us that sometimes feel like an ocean never ending.

So basically, Pi’s activities for survival is also same with living or surviving real life in a situation wherein you are left or at least feel alone. Alone. No family and friends but with situations you fear and don’t fully understand. The questions now are: will you just give up trying to survive or go on? If you decide to go on, how?

Belief in God. Religion.
Keep yourself busy. Forget the concept of time.
Learn from experience to be able to adapt.
Have a book. Hopefully, a long one with a never-ending story.

… And finally: Do things you don’t think you would ever do.
Now this last part really made me cringe. This is what bit and stung me so hard that at first, I refused to believe it. I am not going to expound for I would not want to spoil any one. Let’s just say, Pi would not have survived if it weren’t for Richard Parker. Good book. *sigh*

Weekly Photo Challenge: Love and Beyond

Killing two challenges with one photo…

Musical

Daily Prompt: What role does music play in your life?

EVERYTHING.
I could not imagine life without music.
It may sound cheesy, but music heals me.
It tames me and gets me out of any slump.

I love music so much that I wish that every day is a musical.
Music makes me laugh. Music makes me cry.
Music conveys feelings that words cannot.
Music is life.

I got skills! (I wish)

Daily Prompt: I Got Skills If you could choose to be a master (or mistress) of any skill in the world, which skill would you pick?

— The skill of DANCE! 🙂

Morning Jaywalk

Daily Prompt: Breaking the Law
Think about the last time you broke a rule (a big one, not just ripping the tags off your pillows). Were you burned, or did things turn out for the best?

— The pedestrian crossing I usually use on my way to work was now prohibited to cross. One has to use a footbridge around 50 meters (feels like 100) away from the usual crossing. Since the bus I catch every morning has a strict schedule, sometimes I jaywalk to reach the bus in time. I’m not saying I’m proud of this. My heart is literally pounding every time I do this. Not only because of the fast vehicles I need to dodge but also of the police station right just as you cross along with the wire and big signs, clearly saying that it is illegal to cross there.

Never again this 2013. Promise.

Memory Gap

Daily Prompt: Apply Yourself
Describe your last attempt to learn something that did not come easily to you.

— Hmm. The last attempt to learn something that did not come very easily to me was the last time I memorized the script and lyrics for a musical I’m in.

It is really one of my weakness: to memorize. I have never been the person to memorize words. This is why I see myself as a math/physics person, where I just understand theories and then manipulate or apply it to problems.

So I tried to use the same concept to memorizing the script and songs. First, understand the scene… and I did. But it was hard to use this understanding because I cannot ad lib. I must use the exact words. Plus, they are in deep Filipino, which I am never really confident with.

It was really hard but I got through it. But every time there is a new script and new song to learn, my fear of memorizing them precedes the fear of actually performing them.

Heart Roots Gloom

Today’s Daily Prompt topic result really got me laughing.
It said to write down the first words that comes to mind when we say:
Home, soil, and rain.
And to use these words as the title of today’s post.

… these are the words that I wrote:
Home == heart
Soil == roots
rain == gloomy

Now, isn’t this just perfect? My cynicism really shows in whatever I do, huh? Well, I may not agree with this most of the time but sometimes the heart really is the cause to some of our gloom.

Loving too much. Wanting too much.
Letting our hearts think first before our brains.
With this premise, I believe Lauren Oliver was able to come up with her Delirium book series.
It’s just absolute genius to consider that:
… What if “love is a disease”?
… What if the feelings associated with love are symptoms of this sickness?
… What if it’s not a matter of choice that we love but just a result of our chemically imbalanced brain?

While reading it, I wanted to hurl because of the cheesiness but at the same time wanted to give Oliver a big pat on the back. If you think about it, it’s so corny but how she wrote and treated everything logically, really made up for every mushy detail.

Now, let’s turn down the negativity a notch, the heart may cause sadness but it also causes all the unexplained joy in the world. I guess, its just a matter of how many tears you can endure for a few of these laughter.

Crisis Act

Daily Prompt: In a Crisis
Honestly evaluate the way you respond to crisis situations. Are you happy with the way you react?

–Lucky for me, I have not been in crisis situations that often. Well, at least I don’t consider some of them actual crisis (even if for some, they already are).

The way I react to them… Hmm… I guess, I am balanced. There is always that moment of shock and confusion. But I always try to think of what to do next. Like: “What happens now?”

However, being able to answer that question is a different story. Sometimes, I block out of ideas but sometimes I pull through. It totally depends on my emotions at that moment. So far, I have not done a thing that I regret in response to these situations but I know that I should always be guarded with letting my emotions take over.