Libraries and Leuconia

Probably what I'll most miss from my school is our library. I love my school's library. Heck, I love libraries. Just that word is romantic to my ears.

I grew up in the same school, studied there in my grade school, high school and college years. It is in our grade school library that I first fell in love with reading and ever since, it has been a lifelong relationship.

Just last week, I visited my college library. We have good periodicals, probably the best in my town. I read an educational journal about the Philippines. It was published by Ateneo de Manila University and I've noticed that the best books and reading materials about Philippine History are published from Ateneo. Even our national hero, Jose Rizal, is from Ateneo.

The journal is called Philippine Studies. I braved reading it even though that September 2011 issue was about preconquest math. I learned so much about how advanced and civilized Filipinos were. I love reading about Pre-Spanish Philippines. Even at that time we already had an advanced and organized counting system which still closely resembles how Filipinos count today. We've also been extensively using math for business. Heck, Pre-Spanish Filipinos even knows and applies the concept on interest and compounding interest.

Math things aside, another fact I found interesting was that my country, the Philippines, has been mentioned specifically in ancient texts. Before it was named Philippines by the Spaniards, it was known as Leuconia.

"Leuconia, the ancient Ptolemaic name for the Philippines." (Manapat, 2011)

It's a beautiful name. :)

~

Manapat, R. (2011, September). Mathematical Ideas in Early Philippine Society. Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints .

Bloglovin!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

It's 11.11.11 at 11 pm. I figured it's a good time to do something important so I decided to be the CEO of my own life!

The Sweet Far Thing

We take such pains to be polite. We never say what we mean. For all it matters, we could greet each other and speak only of cheese—“How was your Limburger, miss?” “Salty as a ripe Stinking Bishop, thank you.” “Ah, very cheddar, miss. I’ll have your Stilton brought to your Camembert, then.”—and no one would likely notice.
from "The Sweet Far Thing" by Libba Bray

I finally got on to reading the ebooks I've been putting off till later. I'm currently reading "Summer and the City" by Candace Bushnell, and "The Sweet Far Thing" by Libba Bray, which I've quoted above. I've been reading both books out of curiosity.

Good morning!

How do you know your body clock really needs repair? It's not when your first meal for the day is lunch, it's when your last meal is breakfast.

These days I've been reading mangas until late at night. My sleeping time continually progressed at an even later hour until 4:30am today. I didn't take the brightening light from your windows a good sign so I forced myself to sleep, but it was useless. There wasn't an ounce of sleepiness in me. Around 5am, I decided to make breakfast for my brother who has an early flight today.

I melted some butter on a pan, added some sweetened/condensed milk, and made some toasts. I cooked some hams too and my favorite eggs--sunny side up! It was a delicious breakfast! I especially liked my toasts.

Pretty soon I ended up deciding to wait for my brother to wake up instead and help him get up in time by 7am. While he was eating my specially-made breakfast, we chatted about the most pleasant sleep. For him the best sleep was the kind of sleep that when you wake up, you don't want to sleep anymore. I disagreed. I believed it was when you wake up and you didn't want to get up yet, so you sleep again. That is the best sleep.

My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. -Ps. 73:26

The Wand That Chose Me

Please note that this content contains spoilers from Pottermore beta.

Probably one of the most fun part of the new Pottermore is wand shopping. The process of choosing a wand (or letting a wand choose you) is actually a quiz that's kind of like Kokology. People are usually happy with their wands (unlike their sorted houses) and they're usually very accurate. It's fun to learn more about the different kinds of wood and wand core and how your wand matches your personality very well. I'll share with you Mr. Ollivander's thoughts about the characteristics of my wand:

HornbeamMy own wand is made of hornbeam, and so it is with all due modesty that I state that hornbeam selects for its life mate the talented witch or wizard with a single, pure passion, which some might call obsession (though I prefer the term ‘vision’), which will almost always be realised. Hornbeam wands adapt more quickly than almost any other to their owner’s style of magic, and will become so personalised, so quickly, that other people will find them extremely difficult to use even for the most simple of spells. Hornbeam wands likewise absorb their owner’s code of honour, whatever that might be, and will refuse to perform acts - whether for good or ill - that do not tally with their master’s principles. A particularly fine-tuned and sentient wand.

Dragon
As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. While they can change allegiance if won from their original master, they always bond strongly with the current owner.

The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental.

As for wand flexibility and length...
Many wandmakers simply match the wand length to the size of the witch or wizard who will use it, but this is a crude measure, and fails to take into account many other, important considerations. In my experience, longer wands might suit taller wizards, but they tend to be drawn to bigger personalities, and those of a more spacious and dramatic style of magic. Neater wands favour more elegant and refined spell-casting. However, no single aspect of wand composition should be considered in isolation of all the others, and the type of wood, the core and the flexibility may either counterbalance or enhance the attributes of the wand’s length.

Most wands will be in the range of between nine and fourteen inches. While I have sold extremely short wands (eight inches and under) and very long wands (over fifteen inches), these are exceptionally rare. In the latter case, a physical peculiarity demanded the excessive wand length. However, abnormally short wands usually select those in whose character something is lacking, rather than because they are physically undersized (many small witches and wizards are chosen by longer wands).

Wand flexibility or rigidity denotes the degree of adaptability and willingness to change possessed by the wand-and-owner pair - although, again, this factor ought not to be considered separately from the wand wood, core and length, nor of the owner’s life experience and style of magic, all of which will combine to make the wand in question unique.

I am Magical!

"Lightning Bolt!"

The Dragon Nest (DN) beta version has recently been launched in the Philippines. I'm used with full support characters when playing MMORPGs so it was natural for me to make a Cleric for my first character. I then chose to be a Priest for my 1st job advancement―and I'm loving it! ^_^

Priests are formidable allies and a must for every party. However, DN Priests are not your typical support types. They can be the secondary damage dealer in a party and they're the most able class to solo even the meanest dungeons or nests.

DN gameplay has been structured in a way that Priests are really essential in a good party because potions have lengthy cooldowns. But I still prefer playing Priests solo.

One thing about Priests is their slow speed. They compensate by having large health and mana pools that can more than afford to take some damage. They also have skills like Paralyze Bolt and Relic of Hold that can temporarily immobilize the enemy. You'll be surprised how much damage a Priest can do with just 1.5 sec. of paralysis. So in the end, it all comes down on how well you play regardless of your class.

Lunch Battleplan

We'll be going back tomorrow at Makati Shang. This time we're there for a buffet lunch at Circles. Last time I tried their buffet, I just tasted a bit of a few chosen dishes from every section of food. There were so many that just tasting some (not even all) had me surrender from eating. I was so owned I barely tasted the dessert table even though I wanted to, but I just couldn't eat anymore.

This time, I'm ready! I ate a whooping lot of lunch today to establish my food toleration level. Tomorrow, I plan to eat no breakfast (or maybe just a light wafer) and drink 2 tablets of vitamin C. I shall eat a humongous lot of crab, sushi, eclairs, and more! Roar!

Nagasawa

  

A friend of mine once referred me a book I would never had read otherwise. It's called Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. It's surely un-mainstream. It isn't a page-turner and I doubt it's the kind of book you'll instantly like. When my friend first read it he thought it was boring, now he's a fan of Murakami and he has been collecting Murakami's books ever since. 

It's not a favorite but I liked it on my first read albeit I skipped some explicit parts. The novelty of reading a book outside my comfort zone was intriguing to me. I alse liked it's rythm, it read like a slow song. The characters were different and complex and somehow, I still haven't figured what makes them tick. They're oddly baffling and cliche at the same time. Years after I read it, I still remember quite clearly the characters, their stories, and their names which rarely happens even with my favorite books. My favorite among the characters is Nagasawa. He's such an arse.

Anyway, I recently stumbled upon a site full of beautiful art works and when I saw this (the picture above), it immediately reminded me of Nagasawa. It's somehow like how I imagined him to look like. The artist, Dahlia, got his aura right on too. When I browsed her other works, I noticed that her other characters were glowing with their own unique personality too. It's kind of realistic, in a figurative sense. I love those kinds of art: the ones that tell a story.

Lounging

I had a fun and tiring day today at Makati. I did some shopping! I bought some make up, a princess earring, and shoes.
The splurge i'm most excited for is my first liquid eyeliner! I have no idea how to use it. Heck, I haven't even got the hang of pencil eyeliners. But i've heard that once you get used to liquid liners they're actually easier and faster to apply. I can't wait to play with it.
I don't know what's happening to me. I'm spending my time playing with makeup, surfing the net, watching YouTube videos, anything but studying. I'm getting distracted again. I hope I don't pay for this later.
But I don't want to rant or ruin this day with worrying. Enjoy each moment. And right now I'm enjoying chilling at Makati Shangri-la with my mom.

"Aha!" Moment

I know now what to do with this blog. It's gonna be my happy blog!  I'll be blogging about happy things and whatever makes me smile. Once in a while I'll post some Happiness Zen stuff too. I'm kind of excited. This would help me focus on the good stuff too because lately the dark clouds have been coming often.

Let the sun shine in!

Bullying: What to do

I never thought I would like rants, especially vlog rants. But it turns out, it can be quite amusing too. Here's a vlog which I absolutely love. It's by Blair Fowler, you might have heard of her. She's also known as juicystar07. In this video, she talks about issues that are personal to her, but she was brave enough to share it. I was really inspired by her talk, especially the part where she's doing something she loves even if other people are hating on her, but she keeps doing it because of the people she makes happy with her videos. It makes you wake up and ask, what am I doing with my life?

Listening to her story is not only inspiring, it also teaches you how to deal with bullies, haters, and down-right mean people. When you're young and you feel scared, you don't always know how to deal with these people. It's not like in the movies or the TV at all. The following are tid-bit tips I got from her story by reading between the lines:

• Let people with authority (those who can do something about it) know about your problem, like a well-trusted teacher. When you tell a school personal, it doesn't mean you'll be a telling tom or that it'll just end up in the principal's office with each other's parents. When Blair told two of her teachers, they helped protect her from the bullies. If you don't know who to talk to, the guidance counselor is a good place to start.
• Let your family know, they're a big support. When you can't lean on your friends, know that your family is always there for you. 
• Have extra-curricular activities. Blair's job and YouTubing gave her something to be happy about and also friends who accepts her as herself. Making videos helped her a lot in dealing with all the bad vibes she gets from school.
• Do something you love and enjoy and don't stop to please anyone. If you don't have a hobby your passionate with, try something new! Don't let your fear stop you. Try skating or take some music lessons. Getting a pet would be a good idea too.
• Stay classy. Don't go down to their level. I know its hard, but turn the other cheek. Always be nice and sweet even to those who doesn't deserve it. This is a true test of character. 

This kind of reminds me of reality shows like America's Next Top Model. There would be this girl who seems like she's ahead of the pack because she takes good pictures. The other girls would then see her as competition and try to bring her down. Only when this top girl let others get to her did her performance suffer. Once she let others bruise her confidence, so did her shine. Keep smiling. Keep your head up.Don't let others dictate who you are. At the end of the day, your perception of yourself is what determines who you are and how others see you.

Here's some further reading to help you deal with big bad bullies:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/nov/14/classroomviolence.bullying
http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/problems/bullies.html
Jessica Alba to the Daily Mail on how being bullied affects you
Michelle Trachtenberg to Complex magazine on getting revenge on her high school bully

Now what?

My email inbox is in order. My position paper has been written. My Synthesis case has been emailed. Sounds like a productive day!

However, I still don't know what to do with this blog. I'm rather doubtful if I can keep it or if I should, because I'm always busy and I should really focus on my studies. But I want to do something different with my life. All these studying is too much. I wanna do something I enjoy and is lasting.

So far, I think I'm keeping this. Let's see how it goes!

Life in Rose Hues

Je vois la vie en rose 

I see life in rose hues

Bienvenue! This blog's name was inspired by the song, La Vie En Rose which in English meanse Life in Rose Hues or Life in Pink. You know the idiom "to see in rose tinted glasses" means to be optimistic or to see the happy positive things in life. Well that's how I see life. It's easier for me to smile than not. Happy is my default mood, not neutral. And yes, I see the glass as half-ful and speculate that it might even be flavored like raspberry skittles.

Now don't get the idea that my life is a perfect fairy tale. Far from it. But I do believe that happiness is not just a feeling, it's a choice. Much like love.

Bonjour, I am Elisha and welcome to my personal blog.