Malditang Librarian

Me in Ling Shan Temple, Yilan, Taiwan This year was full of surprises. A lot of things and changes happened. Here are my highlights for the year: - Joining the Humanistic Academy of Life and Arts (HALA) , a free study program to learn about Buddhism and Buddhist living. We stayed for two months in Manila at Fo Guang Shan Mabuhay Temple, then for another month in Taiwan where we stayed in Yilan, Kaohsiung, and Taipei. In Kaohsiung, we joined the Fo Guang Buddhist Monastic Retreat  (FGBMR) 2018 along with other students from all over the world. For FGBMR, we studied Buddhism, had a 7-day meditation retreat in full silence, and toured around the southern area of Taiwan. I just didn't get to study another belief, but I also learned a lot from being with people from different countries and cultures. I wrote about my HALA experience in this blog entry: Learning Buddhist Living, the HALA experience . - It was also my first time traveling alone to another country to join my f...

Book cover images from Scholastic News Room The Hunger Games was a popular series of young-adult books and its movie adaptations. I just read these novels now and just watched the four movies, and I find that it's as relevant now as it was when it first came out. Most of us are probably familiar with the story of Katniss Everdeen and The Hunger Games. In a post-apocalyptic world, Panem, a state which was once known as North America, stages an annual Hunger Games  where 24 tributes from its 12 Districts fight to the death. This is Panem's way of controlling the districts and preventing another uprising. The 12 Districts work to the bone to support the lavish lifestyle of the Capitol. The Hunger Games in the story is part beauty pageant, reality show, gladiator game, and the Minotaur's Labyrinth. Katniss Everdeen, a poor girl from District 12, volunteers herself as tribute when the tribute lottery picks up her sister's name, Primrose. Her father is dead from a min...

"It was a Host. It stepped to the center of the carpet. I stood immediately, out of the respect I’d been taught and my child’s fear. The Host came forward with its swaying grace, in complicated articulation. It looked at me, I think: I think the constellation of forking skin that was its lustreless eyes regarded me. It extended and reclenched a limb. I thought it was reaching for me.  ...  The indigenes, in whose city we had been graciously allowed to build Embassytown, Hosts were cool, incomprehensible presences. Powers like subaltern gods, which sometimes watched us as if we were interesting, curious dust, which provided our biorigging, and to which the Ambassadors alone spoke." - from Embassytown , China Miéville If you have been checking this blog for a while, you probably know by now that I am a China Miéville convert. Embassytown  is probably the second best next to The Scar.  Ursula K. Le Guin herself gave a positive review of the book. Before an...

I'm on a China Miéville binge recently. I've gone through most of his novels except for King Rat and Iron Council because they didn't really engage me in the first 50 pages (my threshold in reading, the number of pages I read before deciding to finish the book or not). The last I read was  Embassytown, his excellent science fiction novel. So far, I wrote my reactions to some of his books on this blog: Perdido Street Station , The City and the City , and Un Lun Dun . The Scar is the second of his novels set in Bas-Lag, following Perdido Street Station but reading that isn't required to start this one. Though having read Perdido Street Station might be helpful in being already familiar with the world, though this book already preps you on the world and it has some monsters that are not in the previous book. After the events in Perdido , people associated with Isaac der Grimnebulin are being hunted down by the militia of New Crobuzon. Isaac's ex, Bellis Cold...

Last Sunday, I was invited along with some blogger friends to have a taste of the new food offered by Book Latté Café located in Festive Walk, Iloilo Business Park, Iloilo City. As a reader and writer, I love a good cafe surrounded by books and an ambiance that gets you inspired. Book Latté is not just a cafe with good food, coffee, and books, but they have also helped organize some great events like Book Swaps and the latest was the 1st Iloilo Mega Book Fair which I also joined as a writer. You can browse the " Book Latte " tag of this blog to see my posts about the place and events there. Here are some pictures of the new dishes and what I love about them. I'm not a food blogger or expert but I will try my best to describe them! From lower left: Chicken Papisik with rice and salad, Mojojojos, Spaghetti, Chicken Lollipops, Fish & Chips, Baked Macaroni From lower left: Gambas with Shrimp and Chorizo has a refreshing spicy flavor but not that overpowering...

I am reposting this from Facebook as there might be librarians and library science teachers who want to take part in this project: Call for Chapter Proposals Internationalization of Library and Information Science Education in the Asia-Pacific Region Editors: Reysa Alenzuela The University of the South Pacific, Vanuatu Heesop Kim Kyungpook National University, South Korea Danilo M. Baylen University of West Georgia, USA Recommended Topics Original Research, Case Studies, Review Articles on following major areas but not limited to: Education • Equivalency and Accreditation • Internationalizing Curriculum • Formal/ Informal Education • Continuing Professional Development • Building Capacity in Multicultural Environment Practice • Global Librarianship • Field Work experience and Equivalency • Leadership in the Academe and in Organization • International Librarianship Competence • International Librarianship for Asia Pacific Librarians • Research Collabo...

I'm currently devouring the works of China Miéville and have reviewed Perdido Street Station and The City and the City in this blog. The author's offhand remark about wanting to write a book in every genre has been taken seriously by his readers, and so far he has indeed written a novel in most major genres! Un Lun Dun is his first book marketed for young adults. If you want an introduction to Miéville, this is a good start if Perdido Street Station or his other books are too intimidating. The story revolves around two young girls, Zanna and Deeba. Zanna is tall and blonde, Deeba has dark hair and on the shorter side. They are best friends in school, but one day they find a weird umbrella that moves on its own. They find a mysterious wheel somewhere in London's pipes, and soon find a switch that turns off the whole city of London and they find themselves in another city... UnLondon , where all the trash and forgotten things of London end up. In UnLondon, all sorts o...