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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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!