Malditang Librarian

[Note: may contain some spoilers but nothing major] The last film I saw in the movie theater was Wonder Woman , an amazing superhero movie on a character based on Greek Mythology. Marvel's Avengers franchise have produced a string of successful superhero blockbuster movies for a long time now: we're all familiar with Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, and of course, the Norse god of thunder Thor and his trickster brother, Loki. I'm not a huge fan of this franchise or comic books, but I can enjoy a movie from time to time. I watched the first movie Thor in 2011, it was funny and entertaining, and I followed the storyline of Thor and Loki through the next few Avengers films I've watched. Thor: Ragnarok is the third installment of the Thor movies, and here Thor is battling a new (yet old) enemy: Hela, the goddess of death played by the superb Cate Blanchett. She also played the other-worldly Galadriel, leader of the elves in Lord of the Rings . I loved how on...

Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan is a Filipino crime novel which has won numerous literary awards: the Carlos Palanca Grand Prize for the English Novel in 1999, the National Book Award 2002, and the Madrigal-Gonzalez Award 2003. It was first published by UP Press, but the edition I bought was a revised version published by Soho Press New York. It has been made to a movie with the same title in 2016 starring Nonie Buencamino and Sid Lucero. It claimed to be the 'First Filipino Crime Novel' and since that's a genre I like, of course I bought the book. The story is about a series of gruesome murders of young boys in the Payatas Dumpsite, and two well-educated Jesuit priests aid the investigations. Father Gus Saenz is a forensic anthropologist and his protege and former student, Father Jerome Lucero, helps him in solving the case. The killings have a pattern: the victims' faces are ripped off, the heart and genitals removed, and they all seem to occur the firs...

True Detective (season 1, 2014) is an HBO crime drama television series created by Nic Pizzolato. It's about two Louisiana detectives Rustin 'Rust' Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Martin 'Marty' Hart (Woody Harrelson) who investigated a murder in 1995: A woman named Dora Lange is found murdered, her body kneeling, hands in prayer, blindfolded, with a crown of antlers on her head. Seventeen years later (2012), they found that the case isn't quite closed yet - they discover more unsolved cases of missing and murdered women and children. After being estranged for a long time due to personal conflicts, they must team up again. The story is told through flashbacks to 1995 as the estranged partners are separately interviewed for a police investigation of the unsolved cases. We see them as older men in 2012 as they talk about their story. Marty and Rust were assigned as partners to solve the case. Rust in introverted and nicknamed as the "Tax Man" due to ...

While browsing on Facebook for reviews of cafes in Megaworld Iloilo, I stumbled upon the page of Book Latte (if you like books and coffee, try it) and registered for an event that sounded interesting: Creating Stories . It was affordable and included food, so I thought I might give it a try. The event was hosted by Nile on Weekends , and there were three speakers who talked about three different topics. The first topic by the host was on blogging, and the speaker introduced what blogging is, its advantages, and blogging ethics. Interesting to note that due to current events, blogging is under the spotlight (a kind of negative one). Mocha Uson is under heat in a Senate Hearing about Fake News, and we have heard her say "Hindi po ako Journalist, I'm a blogger" and Nancy Binay saying in reply, "It’s high time for you to decide if you want to be a blogger or if you want to be an Asec." In all these, blogging seems to have gotten a bad image. However, Nile...

Photo credit: Dan Dimmock  @ Unsplash This is my last semester in grad school with regular classes. I'm currently taking up Research and Statistics, prerequisites for Thesis Writing. This is also the semester that I taught for the first time. Somehow I was 'expected' to teach - like how it was always assumed that if I excel in my grades in college, I'm also good in heading student organizations (I hated that and I wasn't!), and now it seems that since I graduated with honors and luckily topped a professional licensure examination, there was an unspoken expectation that I was to teach. I don't mean that in a negative way. I always thought that I would teach eventually. Both my parents were university instructors before their current jobs. I was also curious what it was like. As a student, I've always been an independent learner. I saw my teachers as my guides, but I set off to learn in my own way. I've always believed that I'm responsible for my...

A post by the Invercargill City Libraries and Archives  of New Zealand went viral. Six librarians posed for a photoshoot inspired by the Hollywood Reporter cover with the Kardashian family celebrating the 10th year of their reality-TV show  Keeping up with the Kardashians . Check out the photo below and the original cover: Their post caption reads: "It has been 10 years since the Kardashians first graced our screens. To celebrate, our social media team decided to have a totally impromptu, definitely not planned, photo-shoot." As of this writing, the post has about 9,300 likes and has been shared for nearly 4,000 times. The post got both positive and negative reactions but it was done all in the name of good fun. This library has also created fun content to promote the library in other ways . Its great to see librarians using their creativity and promote their libraries at the same time. I hope we Filipino librarians also get a clue from them. Even our simple posts o...

"The Archivist" art by Martin Motett Inspired by "Why I became a librarian" by Von Totanes (of the Filipino Librarian blog) from Rappler. When I was younger, I wasn't a reader at all. My grade school friends and classmates were conyo  English-speakers and were deep into reading Harry Potter before it was even a popular movie. I didn't feel like I belonged with them. I wasn't a smart student based on my average grades, but I was interested in logic, philosophy, and ideas. The first book I remember that really fascinated me was an old book, The World We Live in and How it Came to Be. I think it was my first exposure to the world as it was. It described the history of humankind from the splitting of the first cell, and all the important events (the invention of the Printing Press, the telegraph, and the telephone; the wars, plagues, and religions that have shaped history) until space travel. I somehow lost the book, but I remember that reading it a...

Namatay na daw si Robin Padilla. May bank account daw si Trillanes sa Singapore. At kung ano pang iba. Tila noon, wala pang fake news sa panahong wala din ang social media. Pero una nating narinig ito noong eleksyon 2015 – kung ano-anong balita at chismis na nagpapanggap na totoong balita ang lumutang lalo na sa social media.  Isa ang “fake news” sa mga bago at kontrobersyal na isyu sa bansa at mundo ngayon. Noong nakaraan lang, may hearing sa Senado tungkol sa fake news na pinapakalat diumano ni Mocha Uson sa kanyang sikat na blog. May nasulat sa Manila Times na fake news pala ang basehan. Tila hindi na tayo sigurado kung totoo nga ba o 'fake' ang ating binabasa. Paano nga ba natin makikilala kung ang balita ay tunay o hindi? Dahil sa social media, marami sa atin na sa internet na lang kumukuha ng balita. Ngunit sa internet, kahit sino pwedeng gumawa ng blog o website at makasulat dito ng kung ano-ano at magpanggap na may tunay na balita ngunit may ibang dahilan. May ilan ...

Isang gabi, biglang may sumigaw sa kalye namin. Patay na daw si Richard Prevendido alias “Buang” (salitang Ilonggo para sa ‘baliw’), ang isa sa mga kilalang Drug Lord sa Iloilo City na nakatira noon sa barangay namin. Ngayong taon lang, nagkaroon ng tila masamang reputasyon ang syudad ng Iloilo dahil sa sinabi ni Pangulong Duterte na ito ang pinaka-‘shabulized’ sa buong Visayas, at nang nasama si Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog sa lista ng mga pulitikong sumusuporta raw at may benepisyo sa illegal na droga. Si Mayor ay “on indefinite leave” ngayon, at naiintindihan ko naman – siguro ay natatakot rin siya para sa pamilya niya, lalo na sa nangyari sa Mayor ng Ozamis City na namatay rin sa isang police operation. Ilang buwan lang ang nakalipas, napatay na rin si Melvin Odicta (alias ‘Dragon’) at kanyang asawa sa isang pier, mga diumanong kumikita sa droga sa Iloilo City. Hindi lang sila. Simula nung idineklara ng bagong Presidente ng bansa ang ‘Giyera kontra Droga’ may mga 13,0...

Tatlong tula na may paksang "Karatula" 1 "Sibol sa Aspalto" Iniwan kang bangkay sa gitna ng kalsada Nakabalot sa scotch tape at may karatula: Adik, wag tularan, salot sa lipunan,  ikaw ay nararapat sa kamatayan. Nung pinapatay ka, nakikita mo na, ang pait ng iyong tadhana, bangkay na nakahandusay sa gitna ng daan Sa isang gabing madugo at puno ng karimlan. Hindi mo na nakita ang  kanilang mukha, at hindi ka na makalaban. Kahit makiusap ka pa at magmakaawa. Tumahimik ka na lang, ikaw na ay nahatulan. Nanay, tatay, at aking mga kapatid, Huwag isayang ang luha! Gusto kong sabihin na lahat ay may katapusan, at ang akin lamang... Isipin niyo na ang buhay ay puno ng pighati Sakit at paghihirap. Isipin niyo na lang na ako ay pinagpala, at asahan na kahit sa kabilang buhay... ay marahil may hustisya at katarungan. 2 "Propeta ng Taft Ave." Sa isang sulok ng Maynila, ay may propetang itago natin sa pangalang Belton. Uling, ch...

One of the most popular teleseryes today is ABS-CBN's Wildflower starring Maja Salvador, Aiko Melendez, Tirso Cruz III, and other talented actors in Philippine TV today. Its no secret that I'm a fan of this TV show and I think it is the best teleserye I've watched in Philippine television. The bida of this show is Ivy Aguas, who seeks revenge against the people who have wronged and tried to kill her and her family. The antagonists are the Ardiente family, a strong political family controlling Poblacion Ardiente. We all know that there are tired and overly abused stereotypes, tropes, and plotlines in your everyday Filipino teledrama. Talk about amnesia, lost children (and they eventually find out they're from a rich/powerful family), revenge, kidnappings, over-the-top kontrabidas , dramatic scenes, and you name them. Wildflower also has their fair share of these things but it manages to use it in a good way. Though it can get overdramatic at times, the actors are ...

I wrote this because of a mistake. I thought "Kalye" was the theme of a blog writing contest, but I got it wrong. I just thought it was worth posting here, though in real life I dislike love stories but most people love them. This is just all in theory, with no experience. Anyway it was a fun moment writing it. Enjoy. Nakita kita sa kalye, pagkatapos ng ilang taon. Pitong taon na ba o walo? Mula nung iniwan mo ako. Sa kalye din. Tadhana nga ba yun noon? Na lagi talagang magkikita ang ating mga landas. Magkakilala lang sa itsura, at mga mata. Hindi ko na maalala, saan ba tayo nagsimula? Mula sa kalye, naging parte ka ng aking buhay. May mga masayang araw din. Nung huli kitang makita, Papunta ka na pala sa airport. Hindi man lang sinabi, na aalis ka na. Sana sinabi mo na lang. Nakita ko sa Facebook mo. May binalikan ka pala, sana sinabi mo man lang. Di na sana ako umasa. E bakit pa ba tayo nagkita? Ngayon, hindi inaasahang panahon. Sobrang b...

Excuse me, Atty.'s, M.D.'s, R.N.'s, Dr.'s. Now registered librarians in the Philippines can use RL to append their names. Example: Malditang Librarian, RL Professional Regulatory Board for Librarians (PRBFL) Resolution No. 03(A) - Series of 2017: Allowing Only Registered and Licensed Professional Librarians to Use and Append to Their Names the Professional Title "RL" was approved last September 8, 2017 now allows Registered Librarians to append RL to their names. Only licensed and registered librarians can use this. The definition of a licensed librarian in the Philippines according to RA 9246 or The Philippine Librarianship Act of 2003: "refers to an individual who is a bona fide holder of a Certificate of Registration and Professional Identification Card issued by the Professional Regulatory Board for Librarians and by the Professional Regulation Commission in accordance with this Act." According to this resolution by the PRBFL, "...

From the JSTOR website : Link:  Open Access Books on JSTOR "More than 2,000 Open Access ebooks are now available at no cost to libraries or users. These titles reflect JSTOR’s high standards for quality content; we’ve partnered with leading publishers such as University of California Press, University of Michigan Press, ANU Press, and Cornell University Press. Download title list These titles are freely available for anyone in the world to use. Users won’t need to register or log in, and there are no DRM restrictions or limits on chapter PDF downloads or printing. The ebooks are also preserved in Portico, ensuring that they will be available to researchers in perpetuity. Librarians can receive free MARC records and activate the titles in discovery services ."