Finally back in Manila after a grueling 2.5 day workshop in Cagayan de Oro. We finished with a bang, as always, with Cheche's Facing the Media talk (which is always a workshop highlight because she delivers it in such a funny, entertaining, self-effacing way) and the adrenaline pumping situationers for the participants, wherein they have to experience the media pressure from REAL media people. Suffice it to say it was a success. Everybody seemed to enjoy the workshop, and some went as far as to say that it was the first real seminar they enjoyed and really learned from. For workshop-givers like PMFI, that's a reward in itself. And rightly so, after all the hardwork they always put into their activities.Good and grueling. I say it's grueling because being the workshop facilitator/moderator/chief picker-upper is so darn exhausting. In fact, by the second day, my voice was horrible: all squeaky and hoarse. By then end of the workshop I felt like my throat was constantly being stuffed with hot charcoal. Add to that the fact that my cold manifested itself.And it's the awful kind of cold: the stubborn type, where you cough a constant dry cough but nothing is expelled. Ugh. I couldn't wait to go home and rest. And most of all, bask in the care of my loving husband.My missing him I guess was also due to the influence of the book I was re
ading: The Time Traveller's Wife. I haven't read such a book in a long time...the kind where you easily drown into the story and you're constantly thinking about what happens next. Sometimes I even forget that the characters are characters in a book and aren't real people. And you couldn't wait to go back and see what happens next.I like the story because though it uses the age-old time-travelling theme, the spin is quite refreshing. And the love story is far from cliched. Haha, most of all, the protagonist, Henry reminded me sooooo much of Benc. It's creepy. He and Henry even have the same birth month. :) The characters were very real, despite the surreality of time travel. It's fantastic how you willingly suspend disbelief and then let go and then know it isn't real but believe it anyway because you think you know the characters. It's enough to drive you crazy but it's a heady kind of crazy...sort of like being in love in fact. No matter how crazy it may seem, you persevere. It was so romantic without being cheesey. And even if it was, you wouldn't mind so much because you knew love gets the better of you in real life. That made the story fun and heartrending at the same time. And that's something everyone can relate to. I highly recommend this book. Read it read it read it! Now! Before the movie comes out (scheduled in 2008)! You won't regret it. I guarantee you'll fall in love with the story, the characters; and the feeling will linger. I promise, it will be sweet!
as expected, today was exhausting. And now I am almost hoarse, and coughing from the heat-cold-heat of our seminar room and activities. phew! keeping 36 people interested is no joke. and these are not ordinary people: these are old-school government agency staff who need to be perked up so that they pay attention.
i know this isn't easy on them either. there are a lot of new ideas and volumes of new (sometimes alien) concepts they have to wrap their heads around in only three days. this is pmfi's and vicky's and grace's (our speakers) combined 50 years of experience going into their heads in a short three days, and which we expect them to get, understand, execute at the same time.
it's difficult. it's challenging but very enriching. i am learning as well...it's nice to learn and even re-learn concepts you know you know but haven't really thought of in a certain context. and it's nice to revisit these after years of experience and realize, oh yeah. that's what it was.
i had to keep everyone going and on that train of thought. so far so good naman. but i am bushed. i didn't get much sleep last night: i kept waking up in the wee hours. probably because namamahay ako, or because i had a cup of brewed coffee before bed.
in any case i'll probably sleep like a log tonight. I hope i will! i'm soooo tired, and it will be another looooong day tomorrow. i hope to be able to get a foot spa then too.
so, bon nuit!
I'm both exhilarated and miserable. Here I am, fulfilling my wish to travel to a new place every year, but my hubby is not with me. And won't be for four nights. :-( I miss him already. But I try to focus on the good things: that I am with old friends (Yas and Nancy), doing something I really like (workshops) in a new place (Cagayan de Oro) meeting new people (CCTAG participants). It's a good opportunity to network too. So I plan to make the most of it.Honestly, CDO surprised me. This hotel surprised me. It's pretty posh: it has its own badminton court, gym, rock climbing wall, etc. It has a business center (where it takes 10 minutes to boot the dang computer)! Hehehe. And most of all, an almost junior-Olympic-sized swimming pool! Yey!There's also a spa. Nice no? Hopefully we get to avail of the services in the coming days. Hopefully we're not too tired or spent. We have to play a little.I'll have more to report tomorrow, hopefully. I'm praying I will be able to help pull this off. GOSH! 46 adult participants. It's scary, to say the least. Wish me luck, ok?
Over the loooooooong break, I was able to peel myself off the bed to watch 
two movies on DVD: Stranger than Fiction and An Inconvenient Truth.
The first was a really engaging film that (nerd alert!) tackled dimensions of the simulacra. What is real and what is made up? Where do the real and the simulations merge? Are they still real then? Was Howard Crick real in the first place? Hehehe. Mind-melter, but very entertaining. I think the writer was the same one who did Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. So
for those of you who like stories like these, I'm sure you'll stay awake through this one. Though the ending was a bit off, I enjoyed the "chase" all throughout. A lot of moviegoers were a bit disappointed about the ending too. But I wasn't THAT bothered. Ok na siya for me.
What else I liked: the cast! Maggie Gyllenhaal, Will Ferrel, Emma Thompson (yey!), Queen Latifah and Dustin Hoffman. Ang saya!
Now, An Inconvenient Truth: COMPELLING! This is another film that people MUST watch. And I mean all people. Of all races, of all classes, of all educational backgrounds. EVERYONE! The issues Al Gore presents in this documentary are going to seriously affect everyone, the same way we all contributed to the impending catastrophe. Think about it: if not
hing is done to keep the Earth's temperature from rising to 3 degrees, polar ice caps will melt, most coastal nations will be under 20 feet of water, the world map will have to be re-done and we will all have to deal with massive displacement, loss of livelihood, waste and disease. The polar ice caps and (super thin) atmosphere kasi act as mirrors that reflect the sun's rays and keep the Earth's temperature stable. Kaso because of the green house gasses, numinipis yung atmosphere, lalong umiinit, and di nakakayanan ng ice caps yung heat. (I'm not sure if I explained that properly). Those gasses come from burning fossil fuel, vehicle emissions, garbage, etc. This causes massive shifts in climate -- hence, climate change.
And while some places are experiencing extreme cold, others are experiencing extreme heat also. The sun tries to cool down by evaporating water from the sea (did yo
u know that the Aral Sea in Russia is all but dried up? The Colorado River is drying up too!) it also inadvertently sucks moisture out of the land, hence drought. It just proves again how everything is connected. Al Gore really knows his material. Scientists all over the world were consulted, and actual before and after photos were shown...the effects were astounding!
Think about it: it took the Earth hundreds of thousands of years to reach a certain manageable temperature, which we were experiencing in the early part to middle of the last century (1900s to 1980s). But it only took the last two decade to raise that temperature nearly 200% (I think! This is why everyone has to watch this talaga). If
we don't change our ways we'll all be frogs sitting in a flask of slow-boiling water, not realizing that we're slow-cooking in our own fire. But the good thing about this documentary is that it insists we can still do something. What we did to the Earth in the last hundred years may not be reversible, but we can achieve a stable temperature again if we all work together. He points out the last big thing the human race did to avert a catastrophe: the healing of the Ozone layer. Because nations acted to ban CFCs, the Ozone layer is actually healing! See? That's good news, right? We can still do something! So now, I feel I have a mission. I guess it's because I know that no matter how small my actions may be compared to the rest of the 6.7 billion people in the world, that's still one person doing something about the crisis. The first step is to create awareness. I know I have resources for that, it's just a matter of harnessing those resources and and making these work.
So now, it begins.
photo by Ian Roxas
And I'm glad I took the plunge, hehe. Change is good. And healthy. So here's a sleeker, more uncluttered (at least I think so) version of the Muesli Bowl.Come back for another visit!
ading: The Time Traveller's Wife. I haven't read such a book in a long time...the kind where you easily drown into the story and you're constantly thinking about what happens next. Sometimes I even forget that the characters are characters in a book and aren't real people. And you couldn't wait to go back and see what happens next.
