Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Poorest Place in the US

...the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.

They need books for their schools. Donations and other support can be sent through the Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation website.



"They made us many promises,
more than I can remember,
they only kept but one; they
promised to take our land
and they took it."
--Red Cloud (Lakota) ca. 1900


The US gov't spend millions (supposed to be) "helping" other nations when its poorest places are equivalent to the least of the third world countries.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

First Visita Iglesia

Exactly one month ago, I had my first visita iglesia, with my mother, on my birthday hehehe. And I took some pictures... Happy Easter!!!

Five Davao City Churches...

St. Joseph altar St. Joseph wires
Both of these from St. Joseph's


Carmelite Carmelite hall
Carmelite


Redemptorist altar Redemptorist living and the dead
Redemptorist


St. Jude altar St. Jude lights
St. Jude. There was a wedding when we got there.


San Pedro
San Pedro Cathedral. I'm proud of this one.
This church has endured so much...huge fire, bombings and it's still standing.
Thank God for that!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Into the Wild

Into the WildYesterday I watched this movie by myself starting at 12 midnight. I had the remote control ready at my hand in case the sound suddenly bangs. Surprisingly, it was very quiet for an adventure, based-on-real-events movie.

Sean Penn's Into the Wild is the story of Christopher McCandless who, after graduation, left everything and gave all his money to charity. He had one goal in mind: to go to Alaska... into the wild. He had very strong views against materialism which as the movie showed, had deeper roots from the experiences he had with his parents. He wanted to be free of material things, which I think was good. Even I truly believe him. But being at the extreme is a mistake. He lived in the wild with little time to prepare, no maps and a few equipment.

The relationships he made with the people he met on the way were beautiful. The wonder in his eyes when he's alone and conquering and discovering nature and things on his own was contagious. It was pure and just beautiful that I wish everyone of us could be like that. Emile Hirsch did a wonderful job as Chris! He's easily becoming one of my new favorites.

Then he stepped into the wild and there wasn't a single time that I was not scared for him. Though I knew how it would turn out eventually, the movie has something in it that just keeps you wanting to see and feel with Chris. I knew that crossing what looked like a stream in winter is crossing way more than a stream after winter. This makes Chris sound stupid, but I can't call him that because he's brilliant. I say he's stubborn... and being brilliant just made him even more stubborn. It's only when he realized that he was trapped and can't go back that he got really scared... and acknowledged the mistakes he made too late. In the end he writes "HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED".

Chris McCandless is a free soul and an inspiration. It was a sad ending for a movie and a life. The scary thing is I can relate to him a lot. But I'm relieved I wouldn't have to go through all those. This movie made me learn a lot about myself. And I'm glad.

And it reminded me of John Denver's song "Sweet Surrender", which is a favorite of mine!!! By the way, Eddie Vedder's songs were beautiful in the movie.

Lost and alone on some forgotten highway,
traveled by many, remembered by few.
Looking for something that I can believe in,
looking for something that I'd like to do with my life.
There's nothing behind me and nothing that ties me to
something that might have been true yesterday.
Tomorrow is open and right now it seems
to be more than enough to just be here today,
and I don't know what the future is holding in store,
I don't know where I'm going, I'm not sure where I've been.
There's a spirit that guides me, a light that shines for me,
my life is worth the living, I don't need to see the end.

Sweet, sweet surrender, live, live without care,
like a fish in the water, like a bird in the air.


I couldn't find a complete version of the song in imeem, so I'll just leave you with a video from youtube. Hope you all like it.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Transfer Complete

Yey! Finished transferring the contents of my other blog here. I'm so happy. I got tired of maintaining two blogs and the other one was a lot of times irritating. It has its own domain and I used the Wordpress platform. There's just too much spam, you have to be updated all the time, and the sidebar is very limited. I'd have to code to get what I want. And I don't have time for that anymore. That domain is expiring this April and I have no plans to renew. Blogger is more hassle-free so I guess I'm staying here.