Plantation Bay, Cebu.
at the airport there was this group of three foreign males and one female. they were smoking outside the smoking pen as if they owned the airport. my hate hormones started to spread through my body.
there was something different about the foreigners. their english did not have a twang but neither was it intelligble as they seemed to swallow their words. one of the flight attendants of the flight asked their female companion if they were egyptians. she said they were americans.
their female companion was a filipina. it was obvious that she was not born into the language but she used it well. interestingly, she was reading what seemed like a highly intellectual magazine in the plane. the article she was reading was entitled, “sexual abuse”. it didn’t seem consistent with my impressions and opinion of the group.
the foreigner who seemed to be the most senior in the group was balding. he also seemded to be in command. by all appearance he must have been who the filipina was with. he was also the most juvenile and the noisiest. as the plane leveled and the seat belt sign was turned off he asked for blankets and eventually dozed on three adjoining chairs not before showing his companions, and, most likely, the other passengers of the plane - us - that he could depress the call button with this sandals as he wore them on his feet. the other things he did with his feet while laying on the seats were evidence of how civility should be redefined when tourist dollars are a nation’s priority. one wonders if this was the kind of man that would gain nietzche’s commendation.
somewhere in the middle of the flight peace reigned as the foreigners were all in sleep mode and the two persons beside me were busy with a pdi and some papers. i now believe that the adage, “patience is a virtue” still has currency.
as most everyone lined up on the aisle awaiting the door of the plane to open, the foreigners did not fail to meet my expectations. they dropped a few names of american entertainers speaking to indicate they were familiar with them and the balding one tried to get a smile from a child of one of the passengers.
but i had overcome my hormones. happily.
*words lifted from blef fc3019
(after) cooked in kombu (kelp) and shredded bonito stocks and soy sauce. This Japanese dish is called Nishime. 
(before) shiitake,konyaku (devil’s tongue [yikes!]), eda mame, carrot and lotus root. 
tarako (cod roe) 
Taramo (Tarako and Jagaimo) - potatoes with tarako in a mixture of mayonnaise, butter and sour cream. 
eda mame - good with beer or osake 
chips for everyone 
life’s promises in the flowerbed of pag-ibig (hayyy…)
The greater part of the day was spent doing a wedding photo session for a friend and her groomy groom in a nearby park, somewhat similar to New York’s Central Park, which is plopped right in the middle of a major Tokyo city called Tachikawa. Just the four of us: Luiji, I and the newly hitched 2. It was all my idea to have a separate photo session apart from the actual formal wedding ceremony kodakan (which they did 3 weeks ago) because I thought that way they would have more interesting pictures kasi the atmosphere and the disposition are rather relaxed, natural and spontaneous. And lo and behold, we came up with really, really great photos!!! (maybe I should change career and become a wedding photo conceptualizer) It was such a perfect day, blue sky, cool breeze and the flowers in Tokyo are now in full bloom: azaleas, hydrangeas, camellias, wisterias, dandelions and a gazillion wild ones - they’re all over the place! and the trees are just so wonderfully green and fertile they provided us with the color contrast that we needed.
Chin Chin !!!
omedetto !!!
rikki & leslie
lovecycle
V !!!
happy
Study: Meanness in Girls Can Start at 3
SALT LAKE CITY - Meanness in girls can start when they still are toddlers, a Brigham Young University study found. It found that girls as young as 3 or 4 will use manipulation and peer pressure to get what they want.
“It could range from leaving someone out to telling their friends not to play with someone to saying, ‘I’m not going to invite you to my birthday party,’” said Craig Hart, study co-author and professor of marriage, family and human development at BYU. “Some kids are really adept at being mean and nasty.”
They regularly exclude others and threaten to withdraw friendship when they don’t get their way.
The “mean girls” are highly liked by some and strongly disliked by others. They are socially skilled and popular but can be manipulative and subversive if necessary. They are feared as well as respected.
The study is the first to link relational aggression and social status in preschoolers. It appears in the current issue of the journal Early Education and Development. David Nelson and Clyde Robinson of BYU are the other authors.
Researchers have long known that adolescents, particularly girls, engage in this sort of behavior, called relational aggression, to maintain their social status.
In fact, a number of books and movies have come out recently exploring this phenomenon, including the best-selling “Queen Bees and Wannabes” and the movie “Mean Girls.”
“But it is striking that these aggressive strategies are already apparent … in preschool,” Nelson said. “Preschoolers appear to be more sophisticated in their knowledge of social behaviors than credit is typically given them.”
Hart said other research has found that about 17 percent to 20 percent of preschool and school-age girls display such behavior. It also shows up in boys, but much less frequently.
“The typical mantra is that boys are more aggressive than girls, but in the last decade we’ve learned that girls can be just as aggressive as boys, just in different ways,” he said.
The researchers asked 328 preschool children to rate their peers.
They asked which children were most likely to start fights, which were most popular and which were most physically aggressive_
The surveys found that even in preschool, a social hierarchy exists.
“You have popular kids, you have average kids, and you have kids (whom) others don’t like to play with. Then there are some kids who just fly below the radar,” Hart said.
Other research at BYU has shown that physically and relationally aggressive children are more likely to have parents who discipline with psychological control and manipulation, withdrawing love, avoiding eye contact and laying guilt trips on the kids.
“With relational aggression, we are early on in trying to tease apart these relationships,” Hart said.
One thing researchers do know is that childhood slights can have lasting impacts.
Hart said the study may help teachers and parents key into relational aggression and the psychological and emotional trauma it can cause. Just as they do with physical aggression, adults need to monitor such behavior and help children recognize the harm it can cause.
“We’ve done studies showing that reasoning with children, not just one time but taking lots of opportunities to reason with them about how their behavior is affecting others, can help diminish it,” Hart said.
Source: The New York Times
nabwisit ako sa mga estudyante ko kanina, ang tatanga! let me reword and rephrase that: hindi sila tanga kundi mga tanga ang nagtuturo sa kanila (kasali ako don minsan heheh). mga hs seniors itong mga ito at ‘in a way’ (read:age-wise but not maturity-wise) equivalent na ng college sophomores sa ating maderland. ang task na ibinigay ko kasi kanina ay mag-translate ng japanese proverbs into english. tapos napunta yung usapan sa paghingi ng apologies/forgiveness dahil lumabas sa isang proverb ang tungkol sa kahalagahan ng pagpapatawad. tanong ako ngayon, sabi ko: “does anybody know why china is so pissed with japan at the moment?” (this is due to the recent controversies involving japanese history text books and the japanese prime minister’s visit to the yakusuni temple which irked china), walang sumasagot. iniba ko kwestyon ko, sabi ko naman: “why did america bomb nagasaki and hiroshima, does anybody know?”, ayun may sumagot: “because there was a war”, kahit medyo hindi masyadong matalino yung sagot nya sabi ko at least pwede naming umpisahan from there. “does anybody know how did that war start?”; patay, walang sumagot! so sinagot ko sarili ko. sabi ko, kasi nananakop ang bansa ninyo sa ibang mga karatig bansa tulad ng korea, china, pilipinas, at iba pang mga isla sa may bandang ibaba. at dahil mahilig pumapel ang amerika na referee at world police na hindi naman pinakinggan ng emperor, lider, at iba pang mambabatas ninyo noong panahong iyon at matitigas talaga ulo at gustong mang-giyera at maghasik ng lagim (heheh)na tulad ng ginawa ni hitler sa europa, eh ayun napilitang bagsakan na lang ng bomba ang dalawang siyudad na iyon sa inyong bansa. tapos ikinuwento ko yung mga kalupitan na ginawa ng mga sundalong hapon sa mga bansang sinasakop nila noon. hindi makapaniwala yung mga engots na nakagawa ng ganun yung mga ninuno nila dahil akala nila simula’t simula pa eh peace-loving country sila na may deep respect for humanity and all living things (hah! and they used to serve whale meat for school lunches??!!). so obviously hindi talaga itinuturo sa kanila yung “history” na yon at wala naman daw silang nababasa sa history textbooks nila kahit isang katiting na ganon ang nangyari sa asia nung world war 2. in other words, talagang puro kalechehan lang ang laman ng history books nila at wala talagang isinulat ang mga historians nila at kontrolado ang data na ipinasulat ng mga simbergwenza tungkol sa atrocities na ginawa nila nung giyera. kumulo yung dugo ko bigla pero napigil ko pa rin ang sarili ko (poise ika nga). tapos sabi pa nung isang sutil na bata, “kung meron mang ganoon na nagawa talaga ang bansa namin eh di ba dapat ay kalimutan na lang at tapos na naman?” hindi na talaga ‘ko nakapagpigil. sabi ko, ayan, ganyan din ang sinasabi ng ilang mambabatas ninyo ngayon, at yung iba mas grabe pa at sinasabing wala naman talagang ginawang masama ang mga lolo ninyo nung giyera. yan, yan ang dahilan kaya minumura (kayo)ang bansa ninyo ng china ngayon dahil sa pagtanggi ninyong kilalanin at aminin ang mga nagawang kalupitan ninyo nung giyera. tapos nag-umpisa na ang dabate at nagtalu-talo na sila. sabi ko pa, tanungin ninyo yung history teacher ninyo kung alam niya itong pinag-uusapan natin.
note: kapag hindi na-update ang blog na ito ng mga isang buwan, ibig sabihin ay nasa bilibid ako ng hapon at nasintensiyahan ng subversion, sedition at heresy.
makuha ka sa tingin
In the restaurant where we had our dinner, no single spot in every nook and cranny was left unoccupied by these wooden dolls. They were all over the place and they were quite intimidating with their stern expressions and haunting eyes. It was eerie.
The curse of Kokeshis and a certain “member” (hehehe)
There were also wooden masks and drift woods that were shaped like genitalias. The food was great, mga dahon na ginawang tempura (I’m slowly metamorphosing into a cricket at salagubang sa kakakain ng dahon) and home-made soba (na naman).
Zen
Frosty mountain slopes in the prefecture of Yamagata, Japan’s Northern Region.
A Fertility God
I prayed and prayed and prayed.
Zen Tower
This place is called Yamadera (yama = mountain and tera = temple[buddhist]). There are several temples of different sizes perched on hills of rocks and boulders; these temples house different gods and goddesses. To get to the very top you have to climb a thousand and so steps, very steep but the view is spectacular and there are wild cherry blossoms still abloom. This place is a lot similar to the METEORA in Greece where monasteries were mounted on rock towers.
I guess all monks from everywhere must have had the same line of thoughts: they like to build their abodes and places of worship on elevated spaces. Perhaps this way they feel a lot closer to heaven and to Allah, and more importantly, being way above the ground helps them lessen the exposure to temptations and other earthly desires.
