Salamin

Aya loves to sing. She learned her very first songs from us - Bahay Kubo, Leron Leron Sinta, among others. We made it a point to teach her Filipino folksongs and lullabies which we had also learned when we were children.

We even taught her to sing "Bayan Ko" (My Country) - just the chorus, though, the one that begins with "Ibong mang may layang lumipad..." Yes, really, seriously! Quite surprisingly, she learned to sing that song when she was only about 2 years old! Unfortunately, now she has difficulty recalling some of the words in that song, probably because she has learned many other songs, most of them from the daycare where she attends. I guess we should sing that song more often so she would never forget it.

I got this article from an email sent by a friend. This comes at an opportune time, because I have been thinking of making a personal list of all the wonderful things I love about the Philippines. How often do we come across positive viewpoints like this?

As the title says, this is my first attempt to podcast in this blog. Pardon the "ahm, ahm..." in between words and the uncontrollable laughters. Obviously, we're just a bunch of crazy people having a cool time experimenting with the media.

I got tagged again, this time by Prab. I've already seen this meme making the rounds of the blogs I frequently visit, and I was actually hoping that I would get away with this. Not a chance.

So let me see, what has blogging brought into my life?

Tell me what your toilet habits are, and I will tell you who you are.

I was in the ladies' room, minding my own business, when I heard someone flushing in the next cubicle. Whooosh, whooosh, whooosh! It's the sound of flushing, and the flushing lever had been pulled down three times in succession. Three times! How many times does one need to flush human filth down the toilet? Inspite of myself, I couldn't help but count how many times the person had already flushed, thinking of all the volumes of water going down the drain.

Last weekend, I happened to watch "Constantine," starring Keanu Reeves, over the Movie Channel in Skyperfect tv. Actually I have already watched the movie on DVD, but it was fun just the same watching it all over again.

Watch a clip from the movie here:

So long, and thanks for all the sausages.

 

Interesting read from Nature, written by Jeff Crook. "Adam" ponders about the existence of life in other planets, interplanetary travel, and their effect on religion in his conversation with a "Nordic man."

 

Consider this monologue from Adam:

 

On with our adventure in Kamogawa Seaworld. The aquarium is located right at the coast, and you can see the Pacific Ocean stretched before you in all its beauty. This was one of the reasons why we came here! We took in everything...filled our lungs with salty air and enjoyed the tranquility of the scene before us. We lingered there for a while before going inside.

After more than ten years of living here in Japan, we have practically visited most areas of interest: Nikko, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, Sapporo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, etc. -- you name it, we've been there (ok, maybe except for Okinawa, hehe). Lately, especially during business trips, we don't even bother to check out the localities anymore. We're already way past the "tourist" mode. Been there, done that. Yes, even naked public bathing. But that's another post.

Last December, we found ourselves with a six-day holiday, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Tsukuba is great, but we decided that we've had enough shopping at Q't (this is pronounced as "cute," and this is a small shopping mall here in Tsukuba). Now's the time to relax. But where to go?

I was surprised to find out that the photo of the women's networking lunch I participated in last ASC has been posted at the website of the Cryogenic Society of America. You may find the link here. The photo was taken using my camera, that's why my name is included there. You'll have to scroll down to the middle of the page to find it. Be patient. It's really there. I'm the second one from the left.

Out of the 1,000 plus participants in the conference, only a handful of women participated in the networking lunch. This reflects the disproportionate number of women who work in this field compared to men.