Life, Take 2

December 13, 2008

Cinemalaya Indie Film Festival’s ‘100’: How to Live — and Die — with Meaning

What would you do with what remains of your life if you knew you were to die soon?

I cannot remember the last time I purposely went to a cinema to watch a Filipino movie. But after reading Cathy’s review of this film, something prodded me very strongly to go see it. And I did tonight — with my yogini friend Chona. It is one of the most moving films I have ever seen and what makes it even more special is the fact that it is a Filipino film.

‘100’, I just learned tonight, won 5 major awards in the recently concluded Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival: Best Actress Award to Mylene Dizon (Joyce), Best Supporting Actress to Eugene Domingo (Ruby, Joyce’s best friend), Best Director to Chris Martinez, Best Screenplay, as well as Audience Choice Award.

Joyce finds out she does not have long to live. She faces her impending death with bravado and determination to make it the most meaningful days of her life. She organizes her death with such order and calm as though organizing an event. With her loved ones beside her, including best friend Ruby, she fulfills her “bucket list” (the 100 things she most wanted to do before she died) one at a time. There are also points in the film where she gets to have closure in her life with some people (no spoilers here!).

The film effectively portrays Joyce’s many relationships. Foremost here was her special friendship with long-time best friend from school, Ruby. Their solid friendship through thick and thin, their adventures together as they go through Joyce’s bucket list, made me appreciate true friends even more. Then there is her relationship with her mom (played by Tessie Tomas). Joyce did not know how to break the news to her newly widowed Mom, eventually does, and they go through their personal grief and finally, acceptance, of Joyce’s fate. Also, there are the loves of Joyce’s life with whom she had to have closure.

I found myself in tears at many points of this movie for many personal reasons. For one, I have gone through life events that have made me truly wish for a meaningful “rest of my life”. Two, I started a bucket list of my own several years back and have had friends help me fulfill some of them (though some were not even aware they were doing so). Three, the plot and acting (Mylene’s and Eugene’s most specially) were downright real and very convincing. They truly deserved their acting awards!

Chona and I, over dinner, chatted about how the film impressed certain realizations on us. We both planned to blog about it, that’s for sure. I promised myself I would go over and review my bucket list and continue working on actually DOING what remained and add to it as well. She promised to start hers. We resolved to be a little “naughtier” and “freer” and “less serious” about life next year. We shared a little more of our lives in the past (and actually found several more connections between us in terms of life events) and how we could make life ahead better, purposeful, memorable, lovable.

Try to catch “100”, which is on an extended run in some theaters. It will make you think more deeply about your life, appreciate WHAT and WHO matter most in the end, and hopefully get you started on your own bucket list to make your life that much more meaningful.

Here is a sample trailer I got off YouTube:

December 1, 2008

Jupiter + Venus + Moon = Smiley Face!

In astronomy-speak, it is called a planetary conjunction — when the planets seem closest to each other. The National Geographic News article ” Planets, Crescent Moon to “Frown” on Skywatchers Dec. 1″ said what we would see is a frown but lucky, lucky us here in Metro Manila tonight because what we saw in the skies was this (I only had a digicam so I leaned on a window ledge to steady my hands while taking these using the slowest exposure my cam had):

Tonight we saw the 3 brightest celestial bodies — Jupiter being the largest planet, Venus being the closest planet to Earth and our own moon! Some historians even think that a similar conjunction could have been the “Star of Bethlehem” source.

Whatever it was, so many bloggers took pictures tonight, blogged or Plurked about it and shared a special moment together. What an amazing happy night tonight was!

Special thanks to a special friend who gave me a heads up to look up into the sky.

November 30, 2008September 29, 2013

My 2008 Thanksgiving Day

No, I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving Day the way it is done in the West.

But on the eve of Thanksgiving a few days ago, I had some things I had to be thankful for and gratitude always needs to be expressed.

In 2007, I found out that I had a kidney stone 1cm in diameter. It was lodged at the entrance of my ureter, too large to be flushed, too lodged to be pushed back into the kidney. During an operating room procedure where they inserted a camera into me, the doctors also found my ureter was crooked so putting a stent in was also impossible. The only solution was to blast the stone near the ureter — a 75% chance of success compared to over 90% if blasting was done to the stone in the kidney.

A post-operative ultrasound showed that the stone was blasted to smithereens but fragments were left in the kidney. Flushing had to be done so they do not start more stone formations. I was drinking up to 2 liters of water in the office daily.

This week, I visited my urologist again with some concerns. A follow-up ultrasound last January 2008 showed a tiny calcified cyst . My blood test also showed that the iron stored in my body was twice the normal range. My late dad had an uncommon blood disorder called thalassemia and I had myself tested for it with results coming out this week. Thalassemia shows up like anemia but thalassemic people cannot eliminate iron from the body. Iron overload, if not corrected, leads to heart and liver damage.

To top it all, my yoga has been erratic so there went a great detox mechanism.

But after a repeat ultrasound ordered by my urologist, I received great news:

1. For some unknown reason, the calcified cyst could no longer be found;

2. Our family doctor who is an internist assured me that the high ferritin levels were of no concern now although I need to give him my screening results for thalassemia; and,

3. My urologist also cleared me of kidney stones (at least for now) and told me I just need an ultrasound every 6 months as preventive measure.

HOORAY!!!

This episode reminds me again to look after my health first — this in the midst of the holiday stress and yearend work and systems implementation work that keep me so busy that yoga is now self-yoga. In the end, good health matters more than anything. And yes, I need to get back to my regular yoga routine — SOON!

November 22, 2008

Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf’s 12 Cups of Giving

I love coffee. Period.

Last year, in order to get my 2 girls the planners they wanted, I was at this coffee shop almost daily ordering a cup of coffee. This year, though, I told myself I would not do that. After computing the cost of daily coffee at that shop, I figured it was an expensive way to buy a planner.

But I have changed my mind after attending the blogger event hosted by Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL) at Boni High Street.

I confess I had no idea what the event was all about except that I was drawn to the word “Giving” in the text I got from Geiser Maclang.

C1 came along with me. As we entered CBTL, we were surprised to see bloggers huddled around tables talking with people who had brochures laid out. That was how I found out that CBTL was launching its Christmas program, 12 Cups with The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf: Give in to Giving. At each table were representatives of each of the 12 organizations being supported by CBTL this Christmas.

img_3912-low-res

Here’s how it works. Every cup of coffee or tea you buy, which is covered by the program, gets you a stamp on a card. Once you complete the 12 stamps on the card, you get to choose your favorite cause/advocacy from the 12 supported organizations and CBTL will make a donation in your name. Not only that! For having completed the card, you also get one of the 3 CBTL limited edition commemorative journals specially designed by 12 of the most important Filipino artists in the country today — FREE! And if you get to donate to all 12 organizations (that means 12 cards x 12 cups = 144 cups), CBTL will give one year’s supply of coffee!

Whatever your advocacy is, there is sure to be one organization from this lot that you can help. Here are the 12 organizations you can help support via CBTL as well as the kind of support CBTL will donate in your name after you complete your 12th cup of giving:

1. Kababaihan Gabay sa Bayan (KAGABAY) – poverty reduction through social, political and economic empowerment of women. CBTL will donate P600/child for their education needs.

2. The Restorative Justice Program of Caritas Manila – service to prisoners and their families through formation, paralegal assistance and outreach. CBTL will donate P1,000 under your name for values formation class materials per school year for inmates.

3. The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) – animal protection and care. CBTL will provide medicine for animals under PAWS’ care.

4. Bahay Tuluyan – serves streetchildren. CBTL will give a birthday present for a child worth P250 under your name.

5. Haribon Foundation – conservation of Philippine biodiversity. CBTL will adopt a seedling under your name.

6. Cartwheel Foundation – education for the country’s indigenous people. CBTL will donate P8,000 for educational materials, curriculum development, tuition, teacher training & seminars, and school supplies for each student per school year.

7. Kythe Foundation – supports children with cancer; its Child Life Program seeks to alleviate the anxieties of a child during hospitalization. CBTL will sponsor an unforgettable kids’ outing for the kids and the volunteers.

8. Autism Society Philippines (ASP) – committed to the wellbeing of persons with autism spectrum disorder. CBTL will donate P2,000 for books needed for autism disorder awareness.

9. Philippine Cerebral Palsy, Inc. – aids cerebral palsy victims. CBTL will give a patient P1,800 per month to help in their medicine and rehabilitation.

10. Philippine Band of Mercy (PBM) – attends to indigent Filipinos suffering from cleft lip & palate, congenital cataract & glaucoma, hydrocephalus & meninggoceale. CBTL will give P8,000 for the operation of each child & become the leading provider of comprehensive craniofacial health services for the less privileged.

11. Resources for the Blind – seeks to ensure that blind students have access to the same information that sighted students have. CBTL donate P1,000 for the production of Braille textbooks.

12. Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) – seeks to improve the quality of life for Filipinos through corporate citizenship. CBTL will sponsor a child’s medical consultation worth P200.

img_3933-low-res — Representatives of the 12 NGOs with Paolo del Rosario of CBTL

I had the chance to speak with Coffee Bean’s Marketing Director, Paolo Del Rosario, who enthused about the program. I told him that I was very touched by their gesture to support not one but TWELVE NGOs. And Paolo assured me that this is going to be a yearly thing with CBTL and not just a one-shot deal. Much later, I also had the chance to meet CBTL’s Managing Director, Walden Chu, who was likewise very enthusiastic about their program.

If I had to spend my money on coffee, this is were I would plunk it down. Not only do I actually enjoy CBTL’s coffee and tea (Chai Latte and African Sunrise are my all-time favorites) but their food fare, for a yogini, is very healthy and tasty. There is a CBTL on the ground floor of my yoga center and we would often hang out here before or after classes over cups of coffee or tea. With The 12 Cups of Giving program, CBTL has earned my respect and admiration — not just for their good food but more so, for their generous hearts for the marginalized among our citizens.

A big THANK YOU to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for giving us good coffee, tea and food while giving us this rare opportunity to give back a little of ourselves to society as well.

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is located at TriNoMa, SM The Block, Gateway, Ortigas Park, Paseo Center, Bonifacio High Street, Mall of Asia, convergys Ayala Avenue, Salcedo Village, Alabang Town Center, Rockwell, Robinson’s Ermita, Greenhills Promenade, Robinson’s Galleria, Eastwood, Tomas Morato and 2 more branches in Cebu.

November 21, 2008

Bratpack Greenbelt 5 Opens With a Bang!

The flagship store of the trendy and sporty bag people, Bratpack, opened recently at Greenbelt 5.

I was there at GB5 for a lunch date with friends at Cibo and saw the Bratpack people setting up in the lobby area right outside Cibo. Seeing all the bags hanging on display made me recall my school days when I almost always went around school with a backpack. Truly, the contents and the type of bag one carries says a lot about the personality of its owner!

When my daughter C1 bought a backpack, we went for JanSport after seeing the other varieties around. JanSport was the one that met our standards not just aesthetically but functionally, with its wide, foam-padded shoulder straps which I found very good since the books she used to bring home felt more like boulders and I was really concerned about possible injuries to her shoulders and back.

To this day, this backpack is still here with narry a tear or damage. It has weathered all the use (and abuse) it has taken after being lagged all around C1’s school daily.

When I got to the Bratpack launch, people were milling around and getting some food to eat. I immediately spotted Noemi and Bong and joined their table. Much later, more blogger friends arrived and so I went table hopping to get some of them in photo ops.

img_3856-med-res

img_3861-med-res

img_3859-med-res

I also got a good look at the latest styles in bags that Bratpack was offering and noted that not only did they retain the functional look but they had evolved from plain colors to bright, spunky prints as well! And some of the bags were fashionable enough for the office (something I noted since I now work).

img_3846-low-res

img_3847-low-res

img_3848-low-res

img_3844-low-res

They had a contest going on to color some fashion templates as you wish so Noemi and I got right down to being as artsy as we could be (which was quite an effort for me as I had not doodled and colored in such a long time!). But it was fun and I must say, the outcome of what I did was not too bad. Even C1 liked it!

img_3849-low-res — My attempt at fashion designing

Another riddle contest had us guessing what the items were as well as in which Bratpack bags they were located. 10 bags were given away to 10 lucky bloggers who were able to guess correctly 3 times. I was lucky to be the 2nd winner and my bag was the pink & black backpack!!!! Of course, when I got home, who else would beg to have it but C1, the JanSport lover.

img_3882-low-res — I won the cute pink & black Jansport backpack! Here I am getting it from Brian Kong, Bratpack Marketing Officer

And here are the 10 lucky blogger winners!

img_3896-low-res

Whatever one’s lifestyle or personality, Bratpack seems to have just the right bag for you, as can be seen from the different types of bags, colors, sizes I saw. And yes, their Greenbelt 5 store is HUGE (designed by renowned graphic design house Team Manila)! Wide open space to move around and ogle the bags for whatever your sport or fashion sense dictates.

Their 3 major lines are JanSport, Timbuk2 and Hedgren. But at Greenbelt 5, they carry new brands that cater to more lifestyles: skate brand DC and Sector9, Sanuk the surfers and beachbums, Skull Candy for music lovers, as well as Eastpak and Life is Good.

I will be going back soon as it’s just along the pedestrian walkway from my office in Makati. Their laptop bags are worth checking out!

Bratpack has branches at Greenbelt 5, Robinsons Place Manila, Robinsons Galleria, SM Cagayan de Oro, SM Davao, SM The Block, SM Pampanga, SM Southmall and Ayala Cebu.

November 18, 2008

His name is MAX!

Yes, so now you’ve met my new love. But I never did get to tell you his name, right?

Well, his name is MAX. I have my own private pet name for him but for the world, this shiny, new hunk of metal is MAX – short for My Apple Xtreme! 🙂

I guess having the power of the earlier Macbook Pros makes my baby qualify to be called Xtreme (at least till the next more powerful model comes along!).

It was also as close to a man’s name as I could think of and quite close to “Mac”, which he is. And it also reminds me of Max Alvarado whom you would either love or hate for his contrabida roles in Pinoy movies till his death in 1997. I used to be amused when he did comedic roles as a bad guy and the name Max does conjure images of a bouncer.

Do you give names to your laptops? Do share them with me so I know Max is not alone…