Poem

I MISS HIM

I miss the times when he was so sweet,

The times when we’re about to meet

I miss the one, who made my heart leap,

The one who wouldn’t make me sleep.

I miss the days when he cares about me

And the instances he said sorry to me.

I miss his voice, his touch, his everything

And to whom I am but nothing.

I miss the guy, whom I trust,

The guy I thought he was.

I miss the one, who made me fall

But suddenly changed after all.

A Letter To My Father

To my Papa,

          Today is my day of making a letter to my beloved father. A day to give expression and appreciation, for the love and care they have received and are receiving, from my father. Knowing  you care little for a lot of sentimental or emotional praise, I will limit my words of praise by saying  I have, in my life time, meet and known many fine fathers, and have read about many great men , yet, I can truthfully say I am glad  I am your daughter.

There are several reasons why I am glad you are my father.  First, you made my years of childhood and youth a period of life delightful to live over in my memory.  A pleasure I engage in perhaps more than I would if I could see you more often. My memory of my fellowship with you during my childhood and youth are crammed with vivid recollections of delightful experiences we had together during those years.  You may not have had the money to give me everything I wanted, but I don't remember about that.  I do remember you giving me something of greater value, that father-to-daughter fellowship between father and daughter that money cannot buy at any price.

Second, you taught me more by example than words the principle of honesty which you defined as always telling the truth, never telling a lie about anything, paying your just and honest debts, fulfilling all of your promises to other people, and never taking anything that didn't belong to you.  

Then you made me conscious of the reality of God.  That is, you made me believe there was a God.  This you did not by sermons or pious words, but rather by the calmness of your personality, which radiated daily that faith and assurance about life that makes others God conscious.  The God you taught me to seek after, and prayed I might come to know, was a God to be trusted and obeyed, rather than some kind of king in heaven to be worshiped by anthems and long prayers on Sunday, only to be ignored when dealing with one another.   You made me realize you worshiped, and fellowshipped, with a God who expected you to be true and faithful in all your transactions with your fellow man.  Long before I knew, in a personal way, that God expected as much from me, I knew that you expected it.   I do not remember ever hearing you say you had the faith and confidence in your sons, that they would behave themselves, and be honest and dependable.   But as far back as I can remember I felt you expected as much of me, and took it for granite that I would. Wherever I went, whatever I was doing or planning to do, the consciousness that you expected me to do the right thing was, and is, ever with me. 

                I know that were not with you. And we know that you always did your best at your work there at Kuwait for us. That’s why I’m very happy that you’re my father. You’re the best for me. Take care always there for us. We love you and we miss you so much.

Roxanne Mercado

MURO AMI

(Reef Hunters)

Production:

Direction: Marilou Diaz-Abaya
Screenplay: Ricardo Lee and Jun Lana
Cinematography: Rody Lacap
Film Editing: Jesus Navarro
Production Design: Leo Abaya
Art Direction: Bonna Fajardo and Mannix Mateo
Music: Nonong Buencamino
Producers: Butch Jimenez, Jimmy Duavit, Marilou Diaz-Abaya

Cast

§  Cesar Montano - Fredo

§  Pen Medina - Dado

§  Amy Austria - Susan

§  Jhong Hilario - Butong

§  Rebecca Lusterio - Kalbo

§  Jerome Sales - Filemon

§  Teodoro Penaranda Jr. - Tabugok

§  Ariel Estoquia Mijos - Bahoy

About the Movie

Muro Ami (Reef-Hunters) is a Filipino film that depicts one of the worst forms of child labor in the illegal fishing system. Fredo is the ruthless captain of 150 Muro Ami divers. The illegal fishing is done by pounding and crushing corals underwater to scare the fishes and drive them towards the nets. With a high quota to meet, Fredo forces the divers, who consist mostly of children, to accomplish at least eight dives a day to meet their goal before the millennium. Tired and harassed after the burdensome task being given to them, the children have to make do in subhuman conditions in the Muro Ami boat, The Aurora. They sleep in rat-infested bunks and are fed only twice a day. Life above the water in the boat is much worse than the suffering the children encounter beneath the sea. For every dive, a child's life is perilously in danger.

Analysis

With what I saw from the film, I realized that I was fortunate in my own way and I should be thankful for a lot of things. Moreover, man should not allow himself to be consumed by his anger and anguish. Despite all the terrible things that he encounters in his life, he needs to do his best to mend himself and make himself whole again because life must go on.

The movie gives a good impression of the gruesome child-labor practices—even though the truth is even more horrible—and the destruction brought forth by the illegal fishing practices. The movie includes a lot of impressive underwater scenes, and makes a good piece of drama.

To sum it all up, the movie was good and I recommend for people to watch it.

Ibalon Script

IBALON

A long time ago, there was a rich land called Ibalong, the land is said that there are monsters so no one attempt to plant anything then here comes Baltog. He was a young man who was strong, kind and very handsome. He came from the brave land of Lipod who decided to stay on Ibalong t cultivate the field with gabi. One day, in the middle of the night Tandayag, the monstrous, wild boar saw the field filled of crops and he destroyed it. Batlog know about it so he decided to go in the field and fought the monster Tandayag.

Baltog: “Hey, monstrous, wild boar! Why are you destroying our crops?”

Tandayag: “Who do you think you are? You can’t talk to me in that way, you should respect me!”

Ibalong pin down the monstrous wild boar and break apart its show and Tandayag died  after the fight Batlog decided to displayed the big jaws infront of the house of Batlog and the dead boa became an attraction for everyone.

The second hero who came to the land of Ibalong was Handyong, a mighty warrior of the neighboring kingdom, happened to pass by Ibalon. Appraised of the plight of the people. Handyong came to their rescue. Only one monster escaped Handyong’s mortal wrath, this was Oryoal, the serpent who could transform itself into a another. Handyong decided to find Oryaol in the forest.

Gapon: We need to kill that monster immediately.

Handyong: Don’t worry, we can kill that monster, we need to make plans first to be ready of what will happen.

          After several minute, they decided to attack the monster

Oryol: Who are the you? Your not allowed to pass through my territory. I’m going to kill all of you!

Handyong: You don’t know us, think before you speak. I’m going to kill you.

Oryol: What are saying? I don’t know something. But I will give you what you want.

Handyong won the fight and after that he build a city in Isarog, Ibalon and he governed it. As a praised for Handyong the people started to plant only one kind of palay. And the people started to discovered and invent different technology to make their work more easier and faster.

One day, a heavy rain came in the city, the streets were flooded . They experienced earthquakes. The people have nothing to eat because of the different phenomenon that they were experiencing. Then giant Rabot appeared. Half-man and half-beast. So Handyong commanded Bantong to fight the giant Rabot. Bantong found out that Rabot loved to sleep during the day and stayed awake at night.

Bantong: You’re the reason why our city were experiencing different phenomenon. You need to die.

Rabot: Grrr. You cannot kill me. I’m powerful and stronger than you

         

Rabot died. Bantong get the giant’s golden teeth to prove that the giant is dead. People in Ibalong were learned that Bantong killed the Giant and make the place peace at once more. They celebrate and Ibalong grow and develop.

Short Story

A Date Starts on the Net

True to Jhay’s habit, he checked in that night to the TTC chat and all of a sudden a girl wrote to him.  As it turned out she only wrote to him because she liked his name.  He used the nickname Porkopyo and she speaks Italian.  At that moment neither one of them suspected what will become of this simple conversation.  They "spoke" until 5 a.m.

The following morning and during that time he have drawn a picture of himself on the Paint program - you can imagine how that turned out. 

During the conversation he found out that she was to go to the amusement park with her girlfriend the following day and they agreed that they would meet there.  He went there the next day with his buddy, but for some reason they never showed. 

Evening came and he signed in to TTC.  He told her what had happened and there were profuse apologies that she did not expect them to really go there, etc.  They ended up speaking until 5 a.m. the next morning again. 

By morning he felt as though he have known her for weeks or months.  She gave him her phone number and he was totally enchanted.  He has never before met anyone like this from the internet.  By the time they've agreed to meet, he has also heard her voice.  Although, initially he was not able to utter a word, they ended up having an hour and a half conversation on the phone.  Things were beginning to get more exciting.  They  talked about finally meeting in person and agreed that they would do it Friday afternoon.

Naturally, they were exchanging e-mail on a daily basis and during the week both of them succeeded in scanning a photo of ourselves and sending to the other.  Even this did not prove to be discouraging, on the contrary.  They could hardly wait for Friday to come around.  Finally the big day arrived, Makati at 2:30 p.m.  And they saw each other for the first time in person without the help of any modern technology tools.  It was a tingling feeling!  They sat out to discover for their selves the bench, sat in a salad bar with great atmosphere and virtually without stopping they've laughed and talked.  Finally, they went to, what is standard fare at a time like this, a movie, but before that we made room for an ice-cream.  After an afternoon like this it was understood that he would walk her home.  If they had precise plans for the day it could not have gone better!  Late at night they continued their date on the net, and the next day they saw each other again.  They still had a wonderful time being together and none of the magic from the day before had disappeared, although by the time they said good-bye that evening it appeared that Sheila was somewhat hesitant not being really sure what she wanted.  By this time he was hopeful and later that night on the chat he was able to favorably influence her.  Monday rolled around and there were the telephone calls again.  Saturday night came and it appeared that for a while their lives would continue on the same track.  It had been over two months ago that they got together and he don't think either one of them had regretted it, rather they get along well and are happy together.

“Sometimes I think about how the world has changed.  You don't even have to be physically present in order to meet someone.  Another positive aspect is that one can not make snap judgments about someone they meet based on appearance, because sometimes you could be writing to someone for months before actually meeting them in person.”

Animal Tales

LITTLE JAZZ

In a hot summer, Jazz and his brother were brought to their neighborhood by a man who was friends with their neighbor. He was raising them to be butchered & keeping them there temporarily until he found a more permanent place for them. After about a week, Clark and John couldn’t help but notice that they were screaming constantly. We went to see them and find out what was going on and saw two scrawny little piglets. They immediately went back to their house to gather up some food for them, thinking they may be hungry.

Well, needless to say they gobbled up everything they brought them. They had no water, just old bagels and stale bread in their pen, nothing more. For the next few days, they fed and watered them. They even cooked fresh veggies and gave them fresh fruits every day. The man who owned them found out that they were feeding them and he was angry that they did that. He insisted they be kept on the diet he had them on…. old stale rolls, bagels and rotten unidentifiable “stuff.”

After a few weeks, they were still sneaking over to continue to feed them as much as possible, the poor little babies were starving!! They decided to take it upon theirselves to call the vet and have him take a look at the pigs, but one of them ended up dying anyway.

Another week or so went by, and they were still sneaking food over to “Jazz”. Clark confronted the owner again and again to take care of this little pig or they would take him away and call authorities. The owner was reluctant to let them take the pig, he wanted to eat him the way he was!!!….. only about 2 months old !! Well…..they took him !

They provided the best possible home they could by converting one of our sheds into a pen. He had a pretty big indoor area and a fenced in outdoor area. Jazz kept going through the fencing and escaping into neighbors’ yards, of course, when they were at work.

Unfortunately, animal control got involved several times. They warned them that if they didn’t contain him they would have been taken to court, fined, and they would have taken the pig to be put down — or shall he say eaten! They put up an electric wire fence to contain him into a smaller yard. He was not happy and neither were them.

Before they knew it, they had many strange people knocking on their door to take the pig. Apparently animal control put out the word that they needed to find Jazz another home. These strange people all wanted to “take him off their hands”. They found out that every person that came to them had plans on either a pig roast, or butchering him themselves.

One guy told them that he would do them a “favor” and butcher him in their yard and share the meat! He said that it would be easy to kill him because the pig comes right up to people, without fear or aggressiveness. He wanted to shoot him in the head, hang him on their daughter’s swing set and slice him up before she got home from school.

Despite all this they were able to keep him for just over a year and it got to the point where it was clear he would be safer at farm sanctuary.