Reblogged from Emmanuel BC:

The room was bare except for my parents’ double sized bamboo bed, a Narra dress cabinet, a baby cabinet for our youngest, and several chairs. The times were tough and many people have settled for simple living. It’s the Martial Law years, btw.

One alights a low flight of stair, about four steps from the living room to get there. There stood a pair of free standing panel door jambs as one enters the room, one on either side of the person. Each one is supposed to lead to the individual rooms. But since there were no interior walls installed, the two door jambs stood like two monkey bars; without the bars, that is. But I count my blessings; each had a flush door and from the living room, it looks like the doors actually lead somewhere.

The room, with its wooden jalousie windows was unpainted, but looks very warm and cozy because my mother has many sets of tasteful curtains from our previous home. A modiste herself, she has a fine taste for fabrics and our home curtains were simple and stylish, while the lumber and decorative wood works were handled by my father who at that time had a sash factory.

In spite of a bed, my parents usually slept with us kids. We all sleep on a large buri mattress which resembles a flying carpet for the uninitiated, and covered entirely by one rather large mosquito net. The wooden (tongue and groove) flooring was unpolished but was perfectly and smoothly laid out. We kids would occasionally play, err, pull each other while riding on dried banana leaves to keep the slippery smooth finish of the wooden floor.

There was a switch panel on one corner and a couple of outlets for ironing. I remember  once, my father rushed in the room, his face all flushed in the haste to yank the cord of our smoldering electric iron I forgot to pull off. All the while I was reading in the room, unmindful of the imminent danger four steps away. What was I thinking?

What else? On the rear side of the room was a sliding window that serves as passageway to the “media agua” (lower roof), and eventually to the top roof. The room has much to be desired but we were so happy to have moved in our new house, a cool split-type bungalow in the province.

Don’t Look Back (movie)

Just the other day, as I was finalizing chores for my bedridden mother, stretching her bed sheets, it happened. Déjà vu! I was a hundred per cent sure my elder sister will be opening the door, at the same time admonishing Pepe (my Labrador), stationed by the door, to behave as she passes by him. And she will be carrying a bag of groceries for my mother. In a moment, I even believed that certain happenings repeat itself. But after about five minutes, and not seeing any gleeful reaction from Pepe, who usually stands on his hind feet when my siblings come to visit, I realize, Déjà vu played its trick on me again. There are many instances through my entire life that déjà vu gets me. It’s fascinating, thought-provoking, and sometimes, disappointing.

How does this phenomenon happen? Well, I’m sure one can easily google this one. But I already have a hunch that’s it’s all in the mind, or more precisely, the brain. It’s just so convincing, sometimes I even bet–without shelling out any money, of course–that certain things would happen; or should I say, recur.

I thought it’s somewhat similar to dreaming, where upon waking up, one slowly realizes it’s but what it is, a dream.

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I received a wonderful birthday gift from (and many thanks to) my long-time friends Ramil & Che. They gave me something I really need in my line of work. The sleek black iPod Nano made my eyes go wide upon ripping the plain-looking gift box handed to me by CeeCee, their youngest. I learned later that it is the 7th generation iPod Nano. Cool! Whatever it means is beyond the low-tech me. Upon the advise of my more techy friends, I set up my iTunes account and synched my gadget. Voila, a blissful listening journey on a 16-gig of space.

This pretty thing got its baptism of fire of sorts last month as my Salmo Chorale presented a concert coinciding with our church’s jade (35th) anniversary. Dubbed “Ride the Chariot,” we sang more than a dozen A Cappella songs from different albums. The Nano however, was used only once, as we only got one song with mp3 accompaniment, given that the event is actually an A Cappella concert, hello. Just to break the series of unaccompanied line up, I inserted Jerusalem; which is backed up by a wonderful mp3  minus one. I was very impressed by the powerful and awesome sound of so thin and tiny a gadget. I have used it with my choir’s worship special numbers and some other singing engagements outside the church. I also discovered that it has built-in bluetooth so it can be used wireless with amplies with bluetooth. Wonderful, I should say. It looks handsome too. Mine is black but I think silver is as cool.

Recently though, I encountered some problems, not with the Nano itself, but with iTunes. I have converted several of my laptop videos and uploaded them in my Nano. After a few days, iTunes suddenly ran into unknown trouble and “stopped working.” When it did, I realized after my last 3 synching that some movies uploaded earlier were missing.  Too bad, I put some mini-series in my Nano. What is left on my Movie Playlist are 5 items, Parts 5-9 of a 9-part series. All my previous uploads are gone.

But I’m pretty sure though that the problem is with iTunes rather than with the Nano. In fact I’ve enjoyed at least 3 full-length movies in my tiny gadget very recently. I tried viewing the movies via my iTunes (on my laptop) and the poor App hangs each time. It really is the iTunes, not the Nano. that is the problem. However, I was relieved to see that my music collections are left untouched and intact.

The earpieces and the USB laptop charger look and feel durable too. Unlike other earphones I’ve used, it looks more sleek and stronger; looks like it is capable of enduring more than its share of spills and pulls.

The iPod Nano 7th generation also has apps for health (running, walking), photos, and podcasts, although I enjoy looking at pics on my PC rather than on this gadget for obvious reasons. Besides I have poor eyesight;  maybe that’s why.

It’s not too sleek for images but it is surprisingly entertaining to watch movies with. Of course, I highly appreciate the high quality mp3 playback. All in all, I give the Nano 3.5 stars with 5 stars being the highest.

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This morning, I realized that snowflakes are (once again) falling on my WordPress blog-this blog, and it never fails to put a smile on my face. Many thanks, WordPress! Christmas brings its enigmatic magic once again. We are so blessed God gave us this Season; and for good reason.

And I’m looking forward to a most wonderful Pasko family reunion. Welcome, Christmas! And thank you very much Lord, for all the blessings.

Cinemagraph Credit: highlowlights, Tumblr

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I recently discovered a public domain site via Josh Wright, a great piano man, where you can download music scores. Composers obscure and well renowned alike can be found here. Great, big library of music pieces. Thank God for sites like these. Play on!

I love you, Marc! Happy birthday and God bless.