I like watching feel-good movies. I realized that the common denominators for liking them are: actors does not necessarily have to be famous, crisp dialogue, and cinematography plays a big role.
So here are my favorites:
1. Jeux d’enfants or love me if you dare
2. Nottinghill
3. Midnight in Paris
4. Under the tuscan sun
5. The holiday
6. A Good year
7. Chocolat
8. Amelie
9. As good as it gets
10. Somethings gotta give
11. A room with a view
12. Il postino
13. Priceless
14. Breakfast at tiffany’s
15. A big year
16. Howl’s moving castle
17. House of flying daggers
18. Vicky cristina Barcelona
19. Like water for chocolat
20. Summer hours
21. Salmon fishing in Yemen
I’m still in search for more of these type of films. What’s your favorite feel-good movie?i
While packing away my son’s toys, I realized that for the past four years we have accumulated an estimated Php. 50,000 worth of toys (including baby toys and the ones worth 500 below).
Yes, a whopping Php. 50,000!!!
What i am trying to drive here is the business on consumerism. These toys may bring “joy,” but new/better toys will be marketed in the next months, especially nearing the holidays.
When we were kids, there were no Toy Kingdom or Toys are Us that time. Babyland, COD, or SM were a long excursion away. Toys or games were simple then: jackstones, palayok for a kitchen set, or tanzan to make mudcakes made us happy. Thus, we are what we are today.
In applying uses and gratification theory in this situation, the media is used to supply the kid’s specific need to feel happiness. But what are the repercussions on buying endless new toys? Are we teaching our children to be materialistic? Are we teaching them discontent? Are we filling the void of being an absentee parent? Or are we, parents, keeping up with the Joneses?
With all the available technology, toys, games, the parents’ direction is a big influence that stirs the kids future.
So be careful parents on granting a child’s desire on toys. The bible warns:
“And all that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. Thus I considered all my activities which my
hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes 2:10-11
Amazing! That’s all I could think of while watching Miyoko Shida Rigolo’s performance art. A circus performer can actually do this, even with a “cup on a cake, and a book on one hand!” But Miyoko puts elegance into it that takes you beyond the show. She makes you realize three things:
1. Anything is possible if you just concentrate
2. Never take anything for granted, no matter how small, just like that feather, take it away, and it clutters your life.
3. Balance = peace
So ask yourself after watching this video: Is your life balance- physically, emotionally, and spiritually? Are you focused? and most of all, are you at peace?
At my end, I realized I have a lot to work on for now
While we were preparing for a dinner party on a Friday afternoon, my father-in-law received a chilling phone call from his nephew, who informed him that his 10-year-old grandson had been missing for 48 hours in Passi, near Iloilo city. Their suspicion was that he was kidnapped. The child was on his way home when the incident happened.
Although this is not part of their job description, military intels were dispatched by another relative to gather leads and information on the whereabouts of the child. Two days later, the kid was rescued in Capiz province. They captured the syndicate that kidnapped him. We were informed that he was forced to steal, and if he does not do it, the gang would physically hurt him.
This happened in Iloilo, Manila is worse!
Kidnapping is so rampant nowadays that sometimes we would only get to watch it on television, in the comforts of our own homes, feeling immune. In 2010, I blogged about a kidnapped child, and micro blogged two weeks ago about a two-year-old kid who was kidnapped in Caloocan by a 10-year-old boy, who turned him into a beggar (the syndicate is still running loose). I prayed every night for the child’s safety, thank God he was found!
But God is good! In this life, there is no coincidence. I believe that there is a reason that the child was kidnapped! Most of the kidnapped children came from poor families, who doesn’t have any resources on saving their child. And it just so happened that the recent victim was well-connected. I still feel that the incident was a blessing in disguise after all. Because of that, other children were rescued as well from that syndicate!
But what about the children that will be kidnapped in the coming months? Kidnapping nowadays is notfor ransom anymore! These syndicates are taking our children and turn them into future criminals, have them adopted to foreigners, or worse donate their organs abroad! When will these stop?! When will the police, our government, put an end to these ruthless crimes?!
Parents, be aware: no one has any immunity on kidnapping! Always watch over your children! Never let your child go to a public place with a yaya only- hindi nila ilalaban ang anak mo ng patayan! Remember that!
1 million people use this same sentence on the net. And because of the Philippine Cyber Crime Law, I am guilty of libel already- that’s a decade of imprisonment!
Better luck, este, better train HARDER, next time!
When you win an Olympic medal, it’s the result of the rigid training, right nutrition, strength, and endurance.
While watching the interview of Filipina weight lifter Hidilyn Diaz on Abscbn this morning, I really wanted to cringe when she cried. Not out of pity, but of embarrassment! She should just have just held her head high, and accepted her defeat with class – just like Manny Pacquiao.
In another write-up, she was quoted “I have been doing 123 kilos and I knew I could easily lift 118. But it was not what I expected,” said Diaz. “I don’t know why I couldn’t lift such a weight.”
“It was very cold out there, it really didn’t help me in my final preparations,” she said.
In weight lifting, it’s all about who’s the strongest! In training: rain or shine, you practice in whatever weather condition. Everyone knows the Olympics would be held in London when it won the bid in 2005. Everyone knows it’s cold there! Did she expect the Gods to change the weather condition for her benefit?
But perhaps it was genes that US weight lifter Holley Mangold– whose brother, Nick, a pro in US National Football league- that got her to lift those barbells. Or perhaps it was her training, maybe her whopping 350 lb weight – whatever the factor, she qualified. She lifted those barbels. She deserved it!
Then here comes Pinoy shooter Brian Rosario’s interview. Again, he blames the weather (read here), saying the wind was chilly when he was about to shoot the target, thus, missed. And swears on Abscbn interview that he’ll practice and train harder for the next 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Finally, Rosario hits the spot: PRACTICE and TRAIN HARDER in all weather conditions! I hope next time they would prepare more. I hope next time, they won’t blame the hot weather in Rio by then!
And to the Pinoy boxer who didn’t blame the weather: Mark Barriga, a big CONGRATULATIONS!
If you love watching Koreanovelas, I hope you are aware that most of the good ones were based from Japanese Manga stories. The famous ones are Boys Over Flowers based on Hana Yori Dango, City Hunter, and Kimi Wa. Sometimes, I wonder where these comic writers get their imagination from because they are beyond awesome!
There was one cartoon I watched on Disney Channel that really amazed me – Howl’s Moving Castle. It tells a story about Sophie, a young woman who fell in love with a man/wizard, who turns into an eagle that fights a war. Sensing the attraction between them, the Witch of the Waste got jealous and turned her into an old lady. Unable to tell anyone about the curse, Sophie heads out to find solace. There she saw a castle-unbeknownst to her that it’s owned by Howl- where she became a housekeeper.
The cartoons is just breath taking! It even earned $231million worldwide in 2004, and was nominated in the Oscars in 2006 for Best Animation. If you haven’t watched it, it will be shown again on Disney Channel on July 27, at 7:30 pm.
Anyway, if you like Manga cartoons or amovie, the Japanese Embassy will be showing 11 of its Art films in Shangrila Cineplex from July 6 to 15. There will be only one Manga cartoons to be shown called Colorful.
Colorful is an animated sci-fi and fantasy film that tells a story about a deceased soul that was transferred into the body of a high school boy Kobayashi Makoto, who just committed suicide. With Kobayashi’s body regaining life, the soul inhabits him and journeys deeper into the boy’s story, eventually uncovering the truth behind the suicide.
Another interesting Manga-adapted movie that I would like to catch is the Peak. It’s an adventure film and drama based on the popular comics by Ishizuka Shinichi. It looks like a love story based from its synopsis: “An adventure of Sanpo, who volunteers as a mountain rescuer in the Northern Alps after having conquered the world’s famous peaks. Despite these achievements, he strikes novice Kumi as far too easygoing—yet she discovers that he is actually someone she can rely on after observing him in action.”
Ernie Fernando Jasmin Sr, head of China bank security, killed by a gun man on a motorcycle in. Jasmin was walking home at around 8pm. Grieving in white is his wife, Lorecia
To keep fit, every Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, I run around the village at around 7:30pm. Last night, I was too lazy to run. If i ran , I would have witnessed the murder of Ernesto Jasmin Sr, Chinabank head of security, who was killed by a gun man on a motorcycle. He died on the spot, on the main avenue of our village where I usually take my running route.
The killing happened four houses away from mine. At around that time, I was on the internet- I heard shots, but I thought they were just firecrackers. My dogs were restless and were barking non-stop. I only found out about the incident when a neighbor sent me a text, and I went outside to check for myself.
Makes me think: How can assassins be so heartless? Is it because of poverty that they had to resort to killing just to feed their family? Or is it greed just to buy themselves the latest gadget? Is our lives just worth a Blackberry?
So many questions running in my head. Everyday I pray to God for protection, I would have witnessed this murder, or I would have been killed as well for being a witness. Tonight I thank Him that I got too lazy to run.
In the last French Film festival that ran from June 8-17 in Shangrila Plaza Mall, the only movie that I really sought out to see was Au fond des Bois (Deep in the Woods). It’s a typical poor-boy-falls-in-love-with-rich-girl-type of story set in 1865 in Southern France.
Timothee, a vagrant, fell in love with Josephine, daughter of a rich doctor. He saw her first entering a church. After spying her for several days, he then shows up at her home claiming to be deaf and mute. He was welcomed by her doctor father who sympathized to the boy and wanted to treat him. Over dinner, Timothee demonstrated an entertaining knack for illusions.
The next day he rapes Josephine, who is betrothed to a writer. He then brings her into the woods, where they did other the kind of exciting, nasty and satisfying things that lovers do. The problem is that as far as her family is concerned, Josephine has been kidnapped.
Timothee was then captured and was brought to trial for kidnapping. Josephine’s father remains to question whether his daughter was really under a spell, or she willingly followed him deep in the woods.
Although there were negative reviews, I really liked the movie. My husband who is not into art films had no choice but to watch with me, and below are our reviews.
Review:
He says: Josephine was the witch, not Timothee. She made him kidnap her, and in the end, she forced him to admit it, even if it was really what she wanted.
I say: Timothee was a fling-type, the writer was the marrying-type. Although Josephine liked the beggar, she knows that in reality she cannot live a vagrant lifestyle.
Over the weekend, I attended a seminar on Effective Communication Planning held at Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication. The seminar was conducted by AIJC president and UNESCO consultant Ramon Tuazon. He said that long time development projects have been doing awareness campaign for years, and yet the respondents still suffer the same problems. He cited the example on family planning.
The awareness on contraceptives campaign has been disseminated through out the years, and yet the population of the Philippines keeps on increasing. Most people think that the problem is the church, which apparently is not. Based on studies and monitoring and evaluation, people are aware of contraceptives, as well as the financial problems and consequences of bearing several children, and yet they still don’t respond to the need of family planning. The studies have found that these people are mainly afraid of the health consequences brought about by the use of contraceptives, especially pills. Therefore, they have concluded that awareness campaign is not the problem, but the need on the behavioral change and mindset of people. This was realized because science was applied to discover the source of the problem.
Behavioral change is needed not only on ongoing projects, but also future clients who does not believe on the methods of science needed to be applied to make their business succeed. If they look down on your methods, then it’s best to let them know that they have wasted your time already, and they will be wasting everybody’s time in the future if they don’t change their behavior first.
Imee B. Patiño - all rights reserved 