Foot and Fire

On 17 December 2022, I was standing as one of the Ten Outstanding Alumni of La Carlota High School, La Carlota City High School and Doña Hortencia Salas Benedicto National high School. I was in awe with the accomplishments of my fellow awardees and as the youngest among them and the one acknowledged for my poetry and writing, I feel I have to sculpt in words my admiration for each of them. This year's awardees are mere representatives of what a public school like Doña Hortencia Salas Benedicto National High School, often dubbed by other schools as having the "longest name" or the "San Juanico bridge" name, can nurture and send out to the various fields of endeavors. This batch of acknowledged men and women are filled with public servants, entrepreneurs, philanthropist, educators, artists and an engineer and a scientist.    Teachers are always our first role models when it comes to careers and this year, it is only apt that two educators m...

DHSBNHS’ 75th Founding Year Revisiting our alma mater through Gabaldon Buildings By Gerlie M. Uy Have you visited your alma mater lately? If so, your eyes had surely feasted on the newly-painted old buildings of the school, and such a visual feast surely turned into walking back to the memory lane. This happened to me twice this year when I requested for my high school diploma in August and saw the main building of Dona Hortencia Salas Benedicto National High School and then later in October when I accompanied my mother who is a current PTA officer to a meeting and saw the HE (Home Economics) building. The latter is located behind the main building so I haven’t noticed it the first time. What are Gabaldon Buildings? The Gabaldon buildings are school buildings built under the authority of Act 1801 of 1907 or what is called as Gabaldon Law as it was authored by then Philippine Assemblyman Isauro Gabaldon. The said law appropriated P1 million for the construction of modern pub...

Gerlie's Lasagna Lasagna is a good pasta to eat but a tedious one to prepare. This is my own take of this favorite pasta dish. I don't use cream and condensed much these days but you can add some to yours. I also love the Clara Ole chunky tomato variant because it is not soury as its Italian variant and not too sweet as their Filipino style, plus of course, I can see some chunks of tomatoes indeed. If not for the words NO BOIL in the Ideal lasagna package, I wouldn't buy this because I know, it is a long procedure to complete a lasagna pan. And I admit, after the first try, that this still needs some boiling. It just didn't work out for me, the no boil texture. But I enjoyed my lasagna batches which I boiled... so im sharing my latest prep with pesto... i so miss the the basil scent!!! 1. PASTA: Boil as per package instruction ( still boiled, though I used Ideal Gourmet No boil) 2. SAUCE: 2T olive oil Garlic, minced Onion, chopped 1/2 kl Beef 1 cup S...

In Part V, it is all about resilience. In education, we have to accept that change is the only constant. Meaning, Life is not a story to be told but to be lived,  it cannot be told or summed up in a simple slogan because it has to be lived along with the uncertainties.  Meanwhile in Meditation, it invites us to just observe how everything progresses so that one can think how to adapt. Just like the recent job lay offs of tech companies. all along tech companies are what we are thinking to be our direction to progress. But through meditation, we can pause and think for creative solutions or alternatives or answers.    (P.S. This is part of the series I was making in 2021. Please check other post for complete picture of what this book offers to us...)

One of the dubbed tourist attractions which I could not bring myself to excitedly go was the Ground Zero or the place where the 9/11 happened. It is now a park complex with museums on the side, the Oculus World Trade Center and the National September 11 Memorial Museum.  Above and below are the photos of the site where the names of the victims were written. Since I visited a week before 9/11, I found many flowers beside the names.  Actually, I was hesitant to really go over the place since the atmosphere is sad, really sad, like in any site where death occurred, and also I felt that the grieving families or the surviving families should be given their own space for privacy despite the fact that 9/11 happened in 2001 or roughly 21 years ago. I felt my presence was an intrusion.  But still i passed by twice without going inside the museum. I also felt that my presence should be a reminder that we are humans with the same aspirations and no one deserved to d...

Having a moment with the DAMBANA SA PASKO (1982) was priceless to think of it now. A Napoleon Abueva inside PICC was a treat given our hectic convention schedule for a week and it was a consolation for me for missing a museum on a Philippine museum month of October. Here, I am sharing with you some photos I took trying to capture the intricate details if this wood carving.  So far, this is the second piece of his that I saw. The first one was in the National Museum, and it was an intricate wall sculpture that deserves a second closer look. This is the transcript that accompanies the sculpture: "Napoleon V. Abueva (born 1930) Dambana ng Pasko 1982 Molave and metal 450 x 479 cm His childhood memories of life in Bohol are realized in his recurring fascination with the carabao, the workhorse of the Filipino farmer. As a child, he would create carabao sculptures in clay. As a man, the sculptor, he would keep on returning to this subject in wood, metal, and stone. In competi...

During my wanderings in the Museum, I found some great pieces, pieces that do not reflect the "image" formed by the media in our minds. For example, I found some Picasso works which are not cubism as we usually know him with. I also found Marc Chagall in MoMA when I thought I need to see some Jewish galleries before I can meet it. I also liked the Klimt piece there when Neue Gallerie was where I thought all Klimt were. I will share them with you in due time and in separate blogs.  For this blog, I found a Jackson Pollock at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington D.C. and I was so pleased to see his creative father figure Thomas Hart Benson and learned about their story. I have seen a biopic of him and this side of his story was not touched.  Jackson Pollock has persevered in his quest to being an artist and succeeded in having his "drip" technique accepted in the American art world.  He was not a strong figure painter as I would surmise. Bu...

  Having a selfie with the unfinished Cyclamen of French artist Henri Matisse, just to mark the fact that I had been to MoMA or the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in the early week of September this year. Actually, I am no admirer of this particular exhibit called The Red Room, a collection of Matisse's paintings and other articles related to the house where he painted most of his works.  I think this is the main exhibit the time I visited with a friend (We went there for Van Gogh's Starry Night).  As I walked through the gallery of Matisse, I could not help but only ruminate on a question my nephew asks me every time I tell him about art. Why is it so expensive? I would tell him, it's a property of the humanity already, it is invaluable. The money tag is not what matters anymore, it is the passage of time and the inspiration it could give the new generation at present and to come.  But, honestly, seeing the style of Matisse, I just could not r...

I am sharing to you today my Top Three Favorite Noodle Houses which happen to be all located in New York and all deserve a rave review from me, and one flop in Washington DC as it happens to be the only one I went to which has to be called out by me (haha!) for them to improve.  TOP THREE: VIETNAMESE PHO IN QUEENS There is this Vietnamese Pho in Queens, NY which serves a big bowl of noodle soup with a very simple broth which I could not detect if there's some fish sauce in it, fresh ingredients of mung sprouts, herbs and beef pieces, and with the usual flat rice noodles we associate with Vietnamese Pho.  The sauce is sweet and spicy and are served for the optional drizzle by the customer which I find weird because Vietnamese Pho is just simple. But I believe the resto served Thai dishes too, thus the Sriracha.  Hunt for this Vietnamese and Thai noodle house and you will never say no to their piping hot bowl. Check my video here . TOP TWO: K...