Tuesday, November 15, 2011

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 .

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

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.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

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.