For those who wondered why there was a “Part One” included in my previous post, read on here to find out why. 😉
Happy Birthday (Part One)
It’s February 18 today, and I’m happy. And it’s a big deal.
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| With Daddy (beaming with pride, I believe!) on my wedding day (January 6, 2001). |
You see, it’s my Dad’s birthday, and today I remember him with happiness in my heart, instead of sorrow and grief. This day is unlike the previous birthdays which had been punctuated by sadness and longing for the man who left us some four years ago. This day, I feel more alive than ever, and grateful that he had been a part of my life.
Had he been alive today, he would have been 69.
Compatibility Test for Bloggers?
Well, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and as they say, “love is in the air.” 🙂 Of course, come February 14, in Japan it would be women giving out chocolates to men, not the other way around. Years after living in this country, I still find this to be a rather strange custom. And I’ve never handed out chocolates to anyone, not even my own husband. But I’m sure he understands. He has gotten chocolates from the secretaries in his lab group, by the way. 😉
What Cartoon Character Am I?
Speaking of cartoon characters, I think I’d like to be Bubbles of Powerpuff Girls. Soft and cute but could knock ’em monsters down. 🙂
Found this interesting meme about personalities and cartoon characters at Bernard Chan’s blog.
Intro to the tag :
Everyone has a personality of a cartoon character. Have you ever asked yourself what cartoon character you most resemble? Apparently, a group of investigators got together and analyzed the personalities of well-known, modern cartoon characters. The information that was gathered was made into this test.
Rules of the game :
Answer all the questions (only 10) with what describes you best, add up all your points (which are next to the answer that you choose) at the end and look for your results.
Okay, here goes :
Misconceptions
Sometime ago, I asked Aya if she knew exactly what kind of work we do. Turned out that she didn’t. So I told her: “We’re scientists. You know, I do experiments everyday, just like the experiments we do at home. Tatay does stuffs on the computer. We’re both hakase.” Hakase (??) refers to someone who holds a doctorate. Aya knows this word because she watches Powerpuff Girls on TV, so I thought I’d use the word to give her an idea. In the cartoon series, the girls refer to Prof. Utonium as “hakase.”
Aya laughed out loud and said: “Eh? Hakase si Tatay? Ikaw rin? Pano ka naging hakase eh babae ka?” (What? Dad is a PhD? And you too? How could you be one when you’re a woman?)
Thanks a lot to the people who created Powerpuff Girls. You’ve inadvertently given my daughter the erroneous idea that for someone to be called Dr. or hakase, that someone has to be a man. But for now, I’ll reserve my rants about gender issues in another blog entry.
I couldn’t forget that incident, because it illustrated perfectly how many of our misconceptions could start early on in our lives, no thanks to the crap that we are inevitably fed by the media, friends and families, the very environment we grow up in. The images we see on TV or movies are very powerful in influencing our perception of so many things. (Image taken from www.tv.com)
Why I Love my (Old) Honda
I was walking back towards our office when I saw a BMW car pass by. I thought, wow, what a really nice car, I wonder who’s driving it? Must be one of the guys on the 9th floor (the powers that be, the ones who run this institute). Then I saw the driver. To my surprise, I recognized the person driving the car. It was one of the janitress whom I occasionally see walking around holding a bucketful of stuffs for cleaning.
Another car drove by, not as stunning as the BMW, but it looked fancy just the same. And just as I thought, I recognized the driver to be another janitress who cleans our toilet. Both of them probably just got off from work and were on their way home. I couldn’t help but smile to myself. In this country, the people who clean the toilets get to go home earlier than the rest of us schmucks, and they get to drive those fancy cars. Only in Japan.
Revvin’ Up
No, I’ve not abandoned this blog. Fortunately – or unfortunately – for you, o faithful readers. What have I been up to lately, you ask?
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| Well, I’ve also been busy doing a lot of experimenting in my kitchen lately. Here’s my futile attempt at recreating the party atmosphere back home. Food, glorious food! 🙂 |
Why, I’ve been taking my sweet, sweet time savoring the first few weeks of the new year. Got back to Nippon right smack on New Year’s Day. Spent the first day of the year cooped up inside a Boeing 747, amidst flight attendants whose glazed eyes betrayed their longing to be elsewhere except on that flight. But perhaps that bodes well for the rest of the year…I mean, traveling on the first day of the year…perhaps this year will be another year of travel for us? 🙂
Bakasyon!
Here in Japan, the nights are getting longer, the days unbearably colder. We have unearthed our thick coats and jackets for the winter season. It’s almost hard for me to believe that the year 2007 is almost over. It seemed only yesterday when we went to Kamogawa to celebrate New Year’s Day.
But boy, oh boy, I’m SO excited. We’re going home next week. Times like these, I feel grateful that I live in neighboring Japan, because it is relatively easy to go home. It’s just a mere 4-hour plane ride to get to Manila from Narita airport. I haven’t been home for about two years now. So naturally I’m excited, and not even the news of the recent coup attempt, imposed curfews, and bombings in the Philippines could make me feel any less enthusiastic. Weird huh? But homecoming always gives me a sort of adrenaline rush, you know. As soon as I get off the plane and the familiar sights and sounds assault my senses, I feel that rush.
Posing with the carabao (who was named “Rosalinda”) during our visit to Villa Escudero in 2001. Loved that place. 🙂
Moving out, Moving in
Moving out is always a painful process, no matter how convenient and easy the moving companies make it out to be. In retrospect, they probably did the easiest part. They only had to lug the big stuffs from Point A to Point B. The new settlers, meaning us, have to do everything else from a) packing, b) unpacking, c) arranging, and d) decorating the place. Well, of course they also have a “plan” where they do everything from a) to d), but it will definitely cost us an arm and a leg.
But oh, what a price to pay. I’m so tired. So dead tired everyday. We haven’t even begun with b) yet. So far we’ve only opened boxes that would allow us to function normally in our day to day lives. I shudder to think of the weeks or even months ahead that we have to spend to make this place decent enough to live in.
My Most Favorite Tree in Autumn
When I was in the university, there was a big tree near our cafeteria that turned bright, golden yellow each autumn. It stood alone, apart from the other trees, as if in embarrassment because of the stinking smell of its seeds which fell on the ground. But its striking color easily made it my most favorite tree of all, and it became something to look forward to every autumn season.
