Lent begins on Wednesday, and as if my soul had an internal calendar, I feel myself slowing down ever so slightly. After the chaotic cheer of Christmas and the frenetic back-to-work panic of the New Year, the world begins to relax into a steadier, more somber stride.
Even the weather is in transition. Summer is creeping up on us. Summer: slow hot days with the sun beating down mercilessly on the arid land, reaching its peak on Holy Week, when most of the country grinds to a full stop.
Have a holy kuaresma, everyone. May the coming weeks still you enough, that you may hear your inmost yearnings.
"If you as parents cut corners, your children will too. If you lie, they will too. If you spend all your money on yourselves and tithe no portion of it for charities, colleges, churches, synagogues, and civic causes, your children won't either. And if parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out." - Marian Wright Edelman
From Mark's blog. The older I get, the more I realize (sadly) how true this is.
I'm changing my newspaper subscription. I've been an Inquirer subscriber for many years, and as recently as last year, I was telling M that I appreciated the fact that you could easily read the Inquirer from cover to cover.
That has changed in the last several months, though. More and more of the paper is being filled with mindless space-fillers trying to pass off as "feature articles." Many of the features are either lazily written or sometimes, just written badly (With awful grammar). Entire sections of the paper have begun to look like private journals of the exploits of a small group of spoiled teenagers, and frankly, I'm just not interested.
This week, the Inquirer raised it's prices to P18.00 a day. That was the last straw. No way am I going to pay that much when I often find myself only reading one section of the paper (the opinion columns) and just glossing over the rest. I still have the greatest respect for Randy David, Conrado de Quiros, and Winnie Monsod ... but frankly, I don't think I should be paying P540.00 a month just to read three columns amid a huge pile of fluff.
I'm considering keeping my Sunday subscription to the paper, just so I don't miss a single Randy David column. But for my weekday fare, beginning Saturday, I'm going to see whether I'll be happier with Today.
Still very busy. Took a quick trip to Boracay as M was wrapping up his event. Been studying rather seriously for my comprehensive exams (this weekend is the last one; hurrah!). Been trying to squeeze in a ton of papers to check while taking breaks from studying. Been computing how much money I need to cough up within the next three years for my Ph.D. And been sorting out several family-property-administration matters.
But I still managed to watch The Last Samurai before its run in the moviehouses ends. (As most of you probably already know: Wonderful movie! Except for the Spielberg-esque last five minutes.)
Three weeks to go before its international release. Am looking forward to seeing this film.
(Before I receive any comments about this .... I've read some of the commentaries critical of the film [many of which, I noticed, were written by people who hadn't yet seen the film] ... but I'm reserving my own opinions for when I've watched it. So please don't tell me what to think yet. ;P )
Comments by YACCS.
