Malditang Librarian

The city of Manila holds a special place in my heart. I myself had my first job in Manila and have lived (mostly alone) there for almost a year until I resigned last March. My mother had a board meeting, so me and my sister went along so we can also see my brother and the new place he's staying in Taguig. In Manila, one can clearly see the difference between the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich in this country. Beggars live in karitons or sleep in the streets, but here are also high-class condominiums where the rich live. I lived in Malate before, and now we stayed in Bonifacio Global City. If you are from the province, the place may be very intimidating and you may be ashamed of your naivette, because the lifestyle is so different. BGC may be the richest business area in the country right now. High-end shops and restaurants litter the place, the only limit is your budget. High, beautiful towers and buildings that look like stunning works of art you don't see i...

“Just because someone loves you doesn’t mean you can trust them.” I love accidental Booksale finds (and books are always ‘calling out’ to me) and this was a good psycho-thriller slash romance where the main character is a librarian and her husband is a sociopath. Yeah, formula for a favorite book. If you liked The Girl on the Train and thrillers set in problematic marriages, this book is for you. The book opens with the widow Lizzie Carter visiting the site of her husband’s death a year after his fatal car accident. Before she lays her flowers for Zach Hopkins, there is another mysterious bouquet from someone else, signed XENIA. Was there another person from Zach’s past that Lizzie isn’t aware of? Or is there *a lot more* she doesn’t know of Zach? And is he… really… dead, or not? Why does Lizzie feel like she is still being watched by someone? Why does it feel as if someone familiar is breaking into her home, stealing Zach’s things, leaving sinister messages? The book is writte...

I've been posting about Christianity for awhile now, but Buddhism (as a subject) is pretty close to my heart. So far, I'm the only one in CPU who has read most of the Buddhism books from the Henry Luce III Library (as the book cards indicate, usually I'm the only name). I've worked for a year in Fo Guang Shan Mabuhay temple in Manila, and I've had first-hand experience in temple life and learned more about the Buddha's life and teachings. Though I am not a Buddhist, I really respect Buddhists and the nuns I knew. I will always treasure the time in there, even though it had its challenges. Except for Chinese Buddhists in Iloilo City, you are probably not aware that there's a Buddhist temple in the city, Fo Guang Yuan Iloilo. It is located in Ledesma Street, in front of Ijas College and Robinsons Mall. The resident monk is Ven. Miao Roon who has been my boss when I worked as a librarian. There's a main shrine with the figures of Buddha, Guan Yin, and K...

September 2016 exam results were out yesterday night! Even me, who has taken the exam and passed last year... waiting for the results is nerve-wracking. This year's passing rate (65%, 738 out of 1,140) was better than last year when I took the board which was only 47%. My classmates who took this second time had said that it was easier than last year's.  Central Philippine University (my school) had 13 test-takers, 3 had taken the second time and 2 passed. Out of all the first-timers, all passed except for one. Overall, 11 out of 13 passed which makes a decent passing rate of 84% for our school. Even if we didn't have a top 10 this year, that rate is better than last year. Congratulations to my schoolmates! For those who didn't pass, there's still a next time. Test takers with out ever-supportive teacher, Mr. Daryl Superio. Congrats guys! So proud! The top 10 this year is interesting, with a diverse list of passers from different provinces. Unlike previo...

We all create stories to protect ourselves. If there's a book that had influenced how I view stories and literature, House of Leaves would be it. How would I begin to explain it? It is a book about a fictional paper about a fictional documentary called The Navidson Record . It's a story within stories, with many narrators and layers. A family of a famous photographer buys a new home, and they discover a mysterious hallway. An impossible hallway somehow appears on the wall (but when you look on the outside, there is no other space, the hallway leads to this impossible space).  At first, it is just a hallway.  I will never forget the moment and the shivers in my spine the scene where Navidson walks through it and sees another hallway to the right. Then, upon further discovery, that inside is an immense, shifting, dark labyrinth whose mystery they will try to uncover.  I can't summarize and describe this book so simply because its difficult... here be winding pass...

Something I wrote last November 2013 : "I think of my sanity as a fragile aluminum cover over a turmoil of boiling, foaming water in a pot. I can’t keep it down. Its a makeshift sanity, but I don’t have anything other than it. The skin of my hands is scalding off, and foil can only hold so much. The rules are: the fire will not stop and you can’t take the pot. Its not that easy. They are in an inseparable symbiosis. The foam will soon change back into me. I left my old skin inside for a fake one (that looks more fashionable and normal), and I already knew it would never work. Yet I still hope it won’t spill over. If it gets out of the pot, this body will be re-absorbed into it. I will forget reason. I don’t want to forget what I am until now. I kind of like what I am until now. The thing inside is hideous."

Central Philippine University, MLIS Batch 2016! First picture together. Two years after graduating, a lot of things has happened and life changes. I had worked, and working for a living to support yourself gives you a new perspective on life. You learn that not everything you learned in school will be useful in real life or actual work. You learn that theory is different from application, and even if you know the work, doing it is different. I understood how it was to work with other people, and to do the best work you can. I worked in a Buddhist temple, and what a change from life at home! I learned a lot. I quit my job and decided to enrol in graduate school back in my hometown because I miss studying - unlike work where tasks and projects are ongoing and you can't see the end, there is some comfort actually in the definite projects and the grade to achieve. That, and for career development. At work I was doubting everything I was doing, and its good to be near my teachers ...