The Chamber and The Rainmaker

The Chamber and The Rainmaker
in one volume for only
P107.00 at Booksale.

Funny how those two big men stared at me when I handed this book down to the cashier to pay for it. Could they be thinking as to how nerdy I am for buying a 3-inch thick book? =p








Are you a bookworm as well? Let me share to you this very nice post in I ♥ Books.

Date a girl who reads...

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.  

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.  

She has to give it a shot somehow.  

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.  

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.  

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.  

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.  

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.  

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.  

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.  

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

by Rosemarie Urquico

Chris Hemsworth!

I have just finished watching Thor. Yeah, I know, I JUST watched it. This addiction of The Avengers has lead me to watch all those Marvel movies and collect their DVD copies. I'm not so much of a fan of fantasy movies. I don't go gaga over Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and such movies. I'm more like of a psychological thriller movie-watcher. So you can call it an achievement on the director's part for I have watched The Avengers twice in 3D and am still planning to get the DVD copy of it, simply because I got hooked with it. And yeah, I've got this crush thingy on Thor when I watched him on The Avengers.

I so love the voice and his manly built (oh my, it's so not me). While I was watching the movie (Thor), I got this crazy and funny thought. What if I would be like Natalie Portman in the movie, where a god would fall in love with me? What if the portal was never destroyed? What if Thor would ask me to come and live with him in Asgaard and become a queen? Will I accept the challenge of living on a weird planet, or a realm as they call it, and be ready with an unworldly way of living?

Just the very thought of Chris Hemsworth asking me those is just too good to be true that I would not think twice and say YES. Pinaabtik! Ha, ha! I'm not pretty enough to be someone's love interest, much more like that of a god's. Crazy thought nga eh. And a crazy answer from a crazy girl. Magkaaminan na. Alam kong kayo rin. =p

Eden Nature Park

After constant planning and careful spending (char lang), we, the bitches, finally were able to visit the Eden Park. It was an adventure-packed day. Needless to say, I'm still overwhelmed with lots of first time experiences that we had during the day.

The Eden Park is a 15-km drive from the town of Toril. 'Twas only a P75-tricycle ride going there. We arrived at around 8:30. We then arranged our itenirary and spent time waiting for our first stop taking pictures and of playing Indiana Jone, which is the first in the list of my first time experiences.

Our day tour started at 9:30 and we had to ride a shuttle to fully explore the wide area. We had this lady tour guide who told us that a certain Ayala in Davao (not the Ayala in Manila, as what she repeatedly said) owned the park. She also discussed about the mangosteen and the deer and the rainbow and the aviary and a whole lot more. We only had three 5-minute stops so we can take pictures of the place. First was with the rainbow park thingy, and I forgot what our tour guide told us about why it was called just like that.

Second was with the Tinubdan Falls.

Third was with Lola's Garden, called as such because most lolas would love the plants there. It has a wishing well, the Sadako well (hehe), which is filled with these:

The day tour lasted for an hour. After that, we went to the Skyrider area, which is about 250 meters long. That was my first zipline adventure and that was OH-some! The only scary moment was when I was about to take off, but the fear was then replaced with excitement, and of wanting for a longer zipline.

After that, we went horseback-riding with Kookie and Lupin. And oh, that was a first time as well, and I don't wish to experience riding one again because they look so helpless. Nakakaawa.

Afterwards, we devoured the food during our lunch buffet. The food were good but they didn't really stand out.

At 2:00 PM, we went to Pasyalan, which is surrounded by magnificent birds of all kinds, and later on went to see the aviary. There's a room there filled with these,

and there's also a room which is filled with worms and pupae, like you can really see the life cycle of a butterfly.

At 3:00 PM, they went swimming. Yeah, THEY, because I had this bloody period thingy that time.

We arrived home at around 6:30 PM, tired yet very happy. It was all worth the expenses, and a real great first time. Indeed, it's more fun in the Philippines.

***Here's the brochure for the Day Packages***

A Very Special Labor Day Plight

Brace yourself because this entry is just all about my rants. It's hard to contain it all, and this lump in my throat needs a space here on my blog, so I'm gonna pour it all out right here. This is my special Labor Day complaint - a speech as to how labored I feel I am.

Remembered my entry about my transfer to a different account? I was so excited then, and as expected, the training was fun and smooth-sailing. That was a good transition, or so I thought. Until we were endorsed to the floor and would be taking in calls. My first day there wasn't at all pleasant, and as much as I don't wanna remember that nightmare, it is now becoming my everyday life. From the very first day up to now (and still painfully counting), we (my co-batchmates) haven't had really enjoyed a normal hour break. Though they've already warned us of the cancelled breaks, I just can't bear it. Being a newbie of the account, I was expecting of a very magical term called consideration. My shift starts at 7am, and since I am not used to early breakfast, I only had bread and coffee then. Of course, hunger strike was at around 12 noon. Yet, no one's allowed to take their breaks, and let me rephrase it, no one was allowed to pee (if you are not skillful enough to put your customer on hold, keep your kidneys from bursting, and run to the comfort room in three minutes which is about 50 meters back and forth), or if there's one agent available to get the queue, no one is still allowed to eat. And this went on for hours. I was able to eat my lunch at around 3pm (my very first break, hurrah!) and that was only good for 15 minutes. My work has taught me how to eat fast (that is, swallowing without grinding the food). Imagine how painful it is for your empty stomach to be suddenly filled with solid food. I didn't know how I was able to survive my first 8 straight hours on the phone with customers I could barely understood and with devices I could barely troubleshot. Imagine working with an empty stomach. And as if that was not enough, we had to render an hour overtime. Again, overtime! It was starvation, adjustment, disappointment, frustration and confusion all at once on my first day. And oh, should I mention that my second day is much the same, except that the bar went higher because our overtime is TWO HOURS. Big letters - TWO HOURS! Guess they don't need agents after all, what they need is Superman. And I just would like to highlight that one moment in my lovely work life. This was yesterday when I got lucky because they did grant my break request at 11:30am (bless their heart) for 15 minutes. I finished my lunch for 10 minutes (it's becoming a talent) and went back to my table while sipping my Coke. As I was about to take my seat, this lady in-charge told me to press my backup aux, which I did, and boom, a customer is waiting for me to answer the phone. That really pissed me off. My god, 15 minutes! 15 minutes was all I asked for and they can't even give it to me in full! Kaluoy na lang unta! Not to mention that we will soon render our weekly work on rest day.

Oh my, so much for my complaints. Yeah, I admit that I complain all the time, but this is almost an inhumane treatment. Regular office hours is nine hours, by which only 8 hours are paid, because that remaining one hour is intended for lunch. So that means that we are working our asses off for another hour without being paid for, plus only a day per week off work, which will happen regularly. Yeah, sure, I will be richer (as if my salary is big enough compared to other companies). That's fine by me PROVIDED that they'll let me devour my food for at least 20 minutes. I can take one or two hours of overtime PROVIDED that they'll let me eat my lunch on time. I guess that was not asking too much. I am staying in the company because I wanted to, not until today anyway. It's not that the company should be thankful that I stay, who am I anyway but just another agent needing money, can't resign yet because of a loan I am still paying. Eating should've been an employee's right but it's coming out of my mouth as a plead. JUST LET ME EAT ON TIME, FOR GOD'S SAKE!