Sakses!

[caption id="attachment_2366" align="aligncenter" width="510"] The book is published by Central Bookstore.[/caption]

A law student's life is filled with drudgery. But, as Blas Ople said, "Every one of us has his proud moments that seem to recapitulate all past struggles---that lift us from our plain and humdrum lives to an exalted state."

I just recently have one such moment. In August this year, the Philippine Association of Law Schools (PALS) organized a nationwide essay writing contest for law students.

Out of the participants from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, ten finalists would be chosen. Of the ten, three would be declared winners.

Why I said I recently have my proud moment? Lest you be misled, I didn't win. Here are the winners:

• 1st Place: Archimedes D. Suganob of St. Mary's College of Law, Tagum City.


• 2nd Place: Julius Caesar Domingo of St. Mary's University, Bayombong Nueva Vizcaya.


• 3rd Place: Euangeli P. Doromal of Cor Jesu College, Digos City.

I'm proud that two of the winners come from Mindanao. I think they all deserve to win, for how can a lowly man like me beat a mathematician/physicist, a Roman Emperor, and an angel?

Seriously, though, I'm proud because PALS has this little book called "In The Eyes of Law Students: The Secret Formula of Teaching Law," which contains, among others, the essays of the winners and ten other finalists.

What of it?

Nothing, except that I'm one of the finalists and my essay is in the book. If you're someone who has a literary pretensions, seeing your work published  is like releasing the feces that have been inside your stomach for quite a while.

No wonder, people say "Sakses!" after defecating.

Erich Segal, 1938-2010

[caption id="attachment_1579" align="aligncenter" width="293" caption="Erich Segal"][/caption]

The one who made me buy a VCD copy  of "Love Story," read "The Class," "Doctors," and "Man, Woman, and Child"----the one who made me do all that died of heart attack.

'Twas a blast

I spent most of my two-week Christmas vacation reading Twisted 6 by Jessica Zafra, who, in fact, didn't like the way people celebrate Christmas. And it was a blast.

But if you're looking for a feelgood book, look for another writer. Refrain from any of Jessica Zafra's book because her books don't make you, well, feel good. Jessica Zafra is that type of writer who vexes you, who doesn't make you sleep well, who disturbs you, and, most importantly, makes you see things in a new way. She doesn't "pander to the morons," to use her expression.

To give you an idea of what I'm saying, a few sampling from Twisted 6:

On Christmas

Christmas. I'm just glad it's over. Christmas is a wonderful concept completely ruined in the execution. Grand notions like peace and love somehow translate into vein-popping stress, frantic mobs in shopping malls, massive traffic jams, and mass hypocrisy as you feign camaraderie with people you'd rather push off the building. Christmas has become a holiday of obligation, underscore obligation. You have to give, give, give, and even if everyone says it's the thought that counts, the terrible truth is that no one really wants another scented candle.

On showbiz personalities entering politics

Unlike those who bewail the influx of showbiz personalities into politics, I see it as a natural development. The more movie and TV stars get elected into office, the closer we will get to the solution to our problems. Are you sick of patronage, mediocrity, corruption, cronyism, abuse of power, aimlessness and all that? Then let's forget this nationhood thing and turn the Philippines into an entertainment center: the Las Vegas of the East!

After all, we've had far more success in entertaining than in governing...

On Miriam Santiago


We know that in politics, allegiances change, loyalties are reassigned, and fighting words are sucked back in. Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago is not the only person to change her mind---politicians do that every thirty seconds, assuming they have minds. But Miriam was supposed to be different. I kind of miss the old Miriam. call me a nut, but I do.

On the yuppies in the Philippines

It should be noted that while the Philippines quickly adapts to the latest trends from the United States, the yuppie phenomenon is a fairly recent development. It did not really occur on these shores until the late Eighties and early Nineties. Therefore while yuppie is a derogatory term in the rest of the world, in the Philippines it is still considered glamorous.

Spending Christmas with...Jessica Zafra

People before had a hard time guessing what their manito or manita wants. Hence, they invented the Christmas Wish List. I don't normally write there what I really want lest I be accused of avarice. Plus I've had a bad experience before. Once I wrote in the wish list T-shirt, but ended up receiving a photo album.

Last Christmas party, however, was different. I said to myself, it can't hurt if I wrote in the wish list what I've been wanting to be had. So I wrote there: Any Twisted book by Jessica Zafra. My friend was surprised that I was actually wishing for a book. I was surprised that she was surprised. In fact, I should be surprised because she wrote there...I can't remember it, but I know it's something trivial. People wish for trivial things every Christmas anyway!

Perhaps she didn't want to banish from the face of the earth or she just had more money to boot, the one who picked my name gave me...Twisted 6 by the venerable Jessica Zafra.

Thanks, Mr. Zinsser

Last year, I won. Won where? In the Best Humorous Essay Writing Contest sponsored by Crossroads, the official student publication of our school, HCDC.

Of course, I must---nobody else joined the contest. Nobody, nobody but me. Therefore my winning essay, I told the folks at Crossroads, is not the best choice. It's the only choice.

I suspect the reason no one dared to join the contest, besides me, is not that I can write; the rest cannot. It's more basic than that: Nobody knows just what humor is.

I, for one, grappled with its meaning, so that I have to ask Rowell, the editorial consultant of Crossroads, what do they mean by humor. He isn't of much help either. Did you get me?

Then I remembered I have a copy of William Zinsser's On Writing Well, which has a chapter devoted entirely to humor.

And so, the prize went to me, although until now, I haven't received it yet.

Like truth, books shall set us free

[caption id="attachment_1436" align="aligncenter" width="399" caption="Photo by blog.mariyamakiling.com"][/caption]

(The essay below was adjudged as third in the Essay Writing Contest sponsored by the Learning Resource Center of our school, HCDC. Which means this essay's only worth a hundred pesos.)

Books have many purposes. There are books that entertain. There are books that teach us how to cook and plant. But books as weapons for independence? Probably a far-fetched idea. But once upon a time, in the Philippines, books were not just ornaments that adorned the library. Books, which are carriers of ideas, were once used as weapons for independence.

According to the historian Ambeth Ocampo, during the Spanish regime, the Philippines was sealed against liberal ideas. The Filipinos, who were then called indios, were not allowed to read. The Spaniards were so afraid that Filipinos might be enlightened they established a Comision de Censura. Its task was to censor all the books coming in the Philippines. This kept the Filipinos in the dark for well over three centuries.

Fortunately, we have such audacious heroes as Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, and Apolinario Mabini. All were voracious readers. All acquired liberal ideas, which later spurred them to fight for independence from the Spaniards.

Books shall set us free

This week is the National Book Week. This year's celebration has a theme "Kaaya-ayang Magbasa sa Kalikasang kay Ganda."

All the libraries of the Holy Cross of Davao College---Grade School Lib., High School Lib, Learning Resource Center (College Lib. e-Lib, IMC)---have prepared several activities for this week: essay writing contest, poster making contest, etc.

***



Today, I'll be joining an essay writing contest. The essay, the mechanics said, must be 150-300 words. It should revolve around the theme: "I need. I value. I love my library." An excerpt:

Books shall set us free

Books have many purposes. There are books that entertain. There are books that teach us how to cook and plant. But books as weapons for independence? Probably a far-fetched idea. But once upon a time, in the Philippines, books were not just ornaments that adorned the library. Books, which are carriers of ideas, were once used as weapons for independence.

What do you get when you read 'The Pelican Brief'?

I'm having sleepless nights these days. It's been two nights already. No, I wasn't crying because I was jilted by a woman. Firstly, I don't cry over a woman. Secondly, I don't have a girlfriend right now, and I don't have a plan of getting one. At least, not now.

It doesn't, however, mean I wasn't sleeping at all. It only means the hours I allot for sleep have been slashed. I normally go to sleep at eight. But lately, I reached until 10 before I dozed off.

And that's all because of John Grisham's "The Pelican Brief," which I bought at Bookshop---where else, there is a dearth of bookstores in Davao City---last Sunday when it finally opened after undergoing a month-long face lift.

I'm a slow reader unlike Truman Capote who said he could read an average of about "five books a week." He said, "the normal-length novel takes me about two hours." How fast! A 400-page novel usually takes me four days to finish, so that's 100 pages a day. Before I read mostly during the day. Seldom do I read in the evening---evenings aren't reserved for reading, in our house they're for watching May Bukas Pa and PBB.

Today, I think I'll be reading more slowly, in the night, as the day will be dedicated to more pressing and stressful matters: preparing lesson plans, making visual aids, reading on the subject that I'll be teaching (I heard I will be assigned to third year (World History) and fourth year classes (Economics), and other things that make a single teacher forever single.

Back to “The Pelican Brief.” As usual, I liked it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bought it and read it in the first place. I liked it only because it involves lawyers and a law student, and I dreamed to be a lawyer.

Enough said.

'The Grand Complication'

The corner behind the Circulation section of the HCDC-H.S. Library is one place that's frequented by students. Their reason, I guess, is not so much to look for some good reads as it is to hide from the watchful eyes of the librarian and the student assistants.

One dull afternoon, I went there not to scold some noisy students, but to look for a book that could while my time away.

Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" is there as well as such literary gems as Gertrude Stein's "Lucy Church Amiably," Albert Camus' "La Peste" (The Plague), and Graham Greene's "The Captain and the Enemy."

After going over one book after another, I settled for "The Grand Complication" by Allen Kurzweil.

Is my taste so bad that I bypassed Camus or Greene or Stein for Kurzweil?

What a semester!

The semester is over, and I can say that this semester is by far the most productive semester that I've ever had. Not that I was slumbering the previous semesters or, as the Bisaya would put it, nagpadako ra ko'g itlog. It's just that this semester alone, I've done things I never did before:

The 10 Most Annoying English Grammar Errors by Jose Carillo (A Book Review)

If you approach a snake-oil vendor, he will tell you, without a moment's hesitation, that something's wrong with you, and that you better take his medicine. A medical doctor, by contrast, after performing a battery of tests, not only will tell what ails you, but also explains what causes your ailment. Then he will recommend the best cure possible.

Jose Carillo, the English-usage columnist of The Manila Times, is like the latter---he does not only point out the flaw(s) in a sentence, or in a paragraph, or in an entire composition, he explains as well how come it's wrong, and prescribes an antidote to avoid committing the same mistake again.

With a clinical eye of a doctor, Carillo diagnosed the recurrent---so recurrent that the author finds them annoying---grammar errors in his second English-usage book, "The 10 Most Annoying English Grammar Errors." (The first being "English Plain and Simple: No-Nonsense To Learn Today's Global Language"---which was given by the Manila Critics Circle a National Book Award.)

What are journalists like?

Journalists struck me as odd. I used to think of them as people who relished only in scandals and scalawags. It’s because when the government is in shambles, they’re frenzied. I couldn’t understand, too, why they’re often, if not always, critical on the government. Are they born to be the government’s adversaries? Are they being critical for the sake of being critical?

I drop by NBS, and look what I've got

The other night I spent an hour in NBS  going through the mound of books there. All the digging paid off. Just when I was about to leave, I espied a book that I thought is interesting. It's called "Watchdogs of Democracy" subtitled "The Waning Washington Press Corps And How It Has Failed The Public." It was written by Helen Thomas, a member of the Fifth Estate. The Fifth Estate comprises that rare band of people who maintain a critical eye on the media, the Fourth Estate.

[caption id="attachment_256" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Watchdogs of Democracy: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Failed The Public"][/caption]

For Php 99.00 I bought the book (Hardbound). Curiously, I checked it out in the internet to know how much it's usually sold. Amazon.com sells it for  $11.20 (roughly Php 526.00). At ebay, the price varies: from $1.00, to $16.00, to $50.00.

I somehow managed to skim a few pages of the book. For all its obvious reference to the press in the USA, I think it strikes some familiar chord in the Philippines. After all, the press, regardless of the country where it operates, has an ultimate task: To pursue the truth wherever it leads.

I have yet to read its entirety. Suffice it to say now that my lifelong dream of having a library myself is coming to pass.