Welcome to my humble abode! I've added some new features such as the Facebook "Share" and "Like" buttons in each post. Feel free to click on those. Also follow me in Twitter. Enjoy reading!
The term 'amalgamation' pertains to a combination of two or more. This is a personal blog which is a combination of musings of my activities, thoughts, inspirations, ideas, and everything that happens around me.
As a personal blog, there are articles written not just for the sole intention of writing but are also directed to share experiences to uplift and inspire the downtrodden.
Life won't have meaning if everyone turns blind and start to see no hope. There is always hope, just waiting to be lit. Read through articles filled with hope.
Every once in a while we come across an advocacy too compelling to ignore, specially when it comes to matters of humanities.
There is a simple mission here, to make the name Joseph Kony, a household name.
He might as well become some kind of a celebrity, if it was the only way for the world to know him so he can be stopped from abducting children making them soldiers or sex slaves. Over the course of 20+ years, he has abducted over 30,000 children.
And as if Kony's crimes aren't bad enough, he is not fighting for any cause, but only to maintain his power in his army called "Lord’s Resistance Army" or more commonly known as the LRA.
The perversity of Kony's crimes made him number 1 in the International Criminal Court's list of the world's worst criminals.
I urge you to not only listen to this story, but to also take some kind of action to put a stop to this monstrosity, not just because we have a duty to protect the children of the world, but also because it's the right thing to do.
It's been an unbelievably long blog hiatus and I terribly miss blogging!
I looked at my last entry -- December 5, just a few weeks before Christmas. Where do I even begin to start writing again?
Well, the biggest reason of the extended hiatus was tropical storm Sendong that drowned the city of Cagayan de Oro. Between helping with the volunteer works, trying to continue to keep working, fetching water from far sources, it's been really tough trying to balance everything much less to even try and get a decent sleep while friends are going crazy looking for their drowned relatives and friends.
Many things had to be done because of the wide impact of the storm.
Thousands died.
All the while, I watched heroism at work coming from familiar faces, persons I see everyday right across the street, simple neighbors who stood up and did anything to help.
It was a rare opportunity that I am very honored to be able to see and be a part of, where people opened their homes to strangers whose houses drifted away with the raging flood leaving them only the clothes they wore.
I felt the strength of prayers binding everyone to hold on because there's hope pouring in from all over the globe. It was surreal.
Three months later, people have picked up the pieces and have begun reconstructing their lives. The loss of a friend, or a family member is heart-breaking, but people here have opened their eyes and have seen that despite the difficulties and the trials, hope is not something that can be washed away by a destructive flood or storm.
It is something far greater and bigger.
And for me, through it all, one great bestfriend opened the door to keep the positive attitude despite bad things that can happen. A bestfriend who listens and does not talk back, who loves unconditionally and with no limit, who looks at me everyday without fail having a sense of belonging and connection.
This is Jonah Mowry. You'd want to know his story.
I was deeply moved by his video. At 14 years old, he showed bravery in sharing his story to the world, recounting how difficult bullying was for him and revealing his struggles with it. I was watching his eyes all throughout the video and saw pain and loneliness.
I did not have to see exactly how he was bullied, what I saw was far worse. I saw how broken he was. No one ever deserves to be treated like that. It's sad. The fact that he couldn't use his voice, and had to come up with flashcards, could the message be any clearer?
I did a little research and was relieved to find out the amount of support Jonah has been getting is overwhelming.
It's a great message of hope for the down-trodden. I can only imagine someone who's going through the same thing he did, taking comfort in the fact that they're not alone. Oppression doesn't have to be an option. One can put his/her voice out there. There's no reason to be alone if only one reaches out, just like Jonah did. Suicide is not the answer.
Jonah is doing very well and is happy.
He's also getting some counseling.
Share Jonah's video with your friends and spread the inspiration.
Life gets better for everyone. You just have to stick to it, and believe.
On a very strong recommendation from a good friend, I was curious to watch this one. This was my first time to watch an Indian film in full length, so I didn't want to have any expectations. But from what I heard, it broke all box-office records in India in its release.
The 3 Idiots is a 2009 Indian comedy film directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with a screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It was a loose adaptation of a novel called Five Point Someone, by Chetan Bhagat. 3 Idiots stars Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Omi Vaidya, Parikshit Sahni and Boman Irani.
“School is not pressure cooker.”
Is a quote from Ranchoddas Chanchad, played by Aamir Khan, who enrolled in one of India’s finest engineering college called the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE), and challenged the traditional learning system of the institution.
His direct-to-the-point character pushed off most of his teachers who always saw things in one dimension.
Viru Sahastrabuddhe, played by Boman Irani, runs the school like a factory and treats learning as a competition.
His view was that “Life is a race. If you don’t run fast, you’ll get trampled.” In order not to get trampled on, students need to run fast. Those who cannot endure the pressure, either quit or lose and some even go as far as commit suicide.
Rancho's view and passion for learning made him see things in different perspectives. And since day one, he had become a pain in the ass not only to the director, but his teachers as well who disliked his idealogies that contradicted their traditional ways of teaching.
If Rancho wanted to pass his subject, he must stick to what the books say. These are situations easily observed in learning institutions we also have in the Philippines. This style of teaching will teach the students to “cram blindly” as the character of Ramalingam shows in the movie.
Students memorize the book without understanding what it means for the sake of getting “good grades" which defiles the purpose of learning. You can top your class yet end up unable to apply what you've learned, to the real world.
The movie also showed how the two courses namely, Engineering and Medicine were the only courses considered to be acceptable and that the “other” courses didn't matter if you wanted to be viewed as socially successful.
In the later parts, I thought it was fascinating and interesting how the movie came out emotionally strong to bring out the message that there are other courses out there, no matter how seemingly insignificant, can make one tremendously successful and live a happily fulfilled life.
“Do not chase success, be good in your field and success will chase you.” And the first step to do that I think, is to realize what you are most passionate about. That way you never get pushed into any negative pressure of doing things because you love what you’re doing.
The 3 Idiots is a movie worth watching not just for students, but the parents as well. It provides a perspective that not all professions that are considered “big” are what's going to necessarily give happiness to a person, that it must ultimately be giving in to one's interests and passions that one can live a happily successful and fulfilled life.
