Uncomplicated Me

I would like to believe that I am a very uncomplicated person. Just give me my laptop, an internet connection, kuryente (xempre), a book, and food and I'm set. I can sail to the ends of the world and back, just by myself (just make sure my laptop has its 9.9GB (newly downloaded) ebooks on it plus the movies and the song...and yes, I am totally a happy camper (or sailor or whatever).

I am fairly uncomplicated.I am single. I am a teacher earning the basic teacher's salary every month. I have simple tastes in life. I am not fond of brands and labels and all that. I am your typical provinciana when it comes to stuff like fashion and style and all that.

I am uncomplicated. I don't go out often. I don't have vices (well, except for food, especially "street" food and yeah, books, of course books. I even do the spicier ones).

I am uncomplicated. I am twenty six, a certified NBSB (and yes, I planned it) and I have no plans for the future whatsoever. Aside from the oft-dreamt of cottage on top of a hill overlooking the sea...

I am uncomplicated. Hurt me and I forget it. But be kind to me and you'll forever be remembered.

I am uncomplicated. I am simply uncomplicated.

But thinking about you complicates me and I don't like it especially when I have so many complicated things to do. But I do not want memories of you and those days to fade...because they make me smile. How do you do that? I don't smile a lot, except in irony or just to be polite...but you make me smile, a lot.

You complicate me.

However,  I think, I really think,that  you are very uncomplicated yourself. You and I just ...complicate things, that's all.

To Read (Definitely to Read)

Here are some books I intend to read before this moth ends.

I am definitely looking forward to reading this particular

piece from Teresa Medeiros.

And these, by the way, features not your usual heroines. Happy reading (to myself, that is).

The Freedom Writers' Touch

I have just finished watching the Freedom Writers last night and it has made a radical and definite impact upon me.

What the teacher of Room 203 has done is unparalleled. We, teachers, keep seeing our job as something to do to earn that salary we need to support the life we live. We keep everything clean, organized and within their little compartments.

I admire those teachers who have the guts and the courage to challenge the system. To make it face its own inadequacy in catering to the real needs of people.

Filipino students are not like the students of Room 203. Nope. Our students are still nice and good and neat and decent and well-behaved. Those who have issues never make it into the schoolroom. At the most, they would spend a month or two in school and drop out of the system to return again next year and the next and the next.

And what do we feel once they leave our classrooms? Well, sometimes, it’s good if we discover they are gone. Then, we go sympathetic and sorry or sometimes self righteous and angry – but after talking about it with a colleague or two, we conveniently forget them.

Watching Freedom Writers has reinforced my belief that every learner counts and every learner matters. The system wants mass education for the masses, not really taking into account that each individual is special and unique. In college, our professors kept hammering and yammering on about individual differences. But, once you leave college, the system makes sure you get the chance to take not of individual differences during trainings and seminars – which is not often.

I am glad there is a teacher like  Ms. Gruwell showed that teachers can truly make a difference.

That movie also convinced me that for a teacher to really focus all her energies in teaching, she must not have a family. Gruwell’s husband divorced her because he wanted to live a life he does not feel bad about…that he cannot be a wife to her…Funny. Husbands expect wives to do that. Why can’t they give wives the same courtesy. It simply means sharing in each other’s life.

I have met several successful men who do that. When their wives have to go on trips, activities and all those things, the husbands come and show their support.

But then, it will only happen if you are quite lucky to have a husband who shares the same sentiments and beliefs you have.

What the teacher did was cool. What she did was show us that if we care, we can make a difference. Do we? Care, that is.

Target: Tim Tebow

I am not an NFL fan nor am I a sports enthusiast. But I like stalking certain types of human beings.

For 15 years, I occasionally stalked Prince William, until he married Kate Middleton. Prince William was the embodiment of a childhood fantasy - becoming a princess and living happily every after. Reading his mum's biography discouraged me though. Along with Prince William were Jose Rizal, Mateo G. (before he became famous), Josh Groban, and  many others.Two years ago, I have been a Demi Lovato fanatic and still is even after her fall from grace. She was able to soar up, like a broken phoenix anyway. Last year, I discovered Joel Houston and Hillsong United.

And through him, I learned who Tim Tebow is. I don't care about NFL as I have said. I do not even know what it means, honest. National Football League? (fingers crossed). But, a young man who is into Jesus, is intelligent (no brain damage yet?, oh yes, I have heard the football=brain damage joke in movies) and has a great body too is fascinating and entertaining. Makes you want to go dig deeper. Why?

My reasoning is simple. I want to believe that God makes beautiful people not just from the inside but the outside too. I want to prove to myself that beauty is not only skin deep. I want to believe that persons in that kind of limelight are not shallow ponds but deepwells of wisdom too.

We will see won't we? For one so young (he's 24 right), he is prone to all sorts of beautiful experiences and temptations that may or may not rock his spiritual foundation.

Well, the crap above is from the point of view of the good girl. The bad girl in me wants to be fascinated, titillated, and shocked by the possibility of corruption. Oh well, wicked me.

If he is indeed not a phony but a true blue whatever he wants to present, good for him. If not, he will be just one of the many disappointments I have uncovered along the way. I can always go back to Joel Houston. I have not yet uncovered any dirty secrets online about him and I have been watching for 4 or 5 months now.

Demi Lovato has disappointed me in a way but she has earned my respect. She has tried to live a life in this broken world, a life without the pretensions of a goody-two-shoes image but a decent one anyway.

But these guys, we'll see.

The Kind of Books I Sometimes Read

Should I label this post, good girls gone bad? You can never really know someone as well as you thought you know them. And yes, on your regular intellectual point of view, I am a voracious reader. I read everything and anything under the sun.

I even write anything and everything under the sun too....but, one thing you do not know...I also do the same under the moon....

This year, I think I will be sharing some of the books and authors that affect me. My reading life has always been a big part of who I am. What you see, with me, is not always what there is....Usually there is more, but then, at times, there is less...

The above is just one of the books I read. This one is a most recent ebook I discovered. It's very intriguing, a concept over explored yet not as explored as one would think.

Anyway, I will be writing my thoughts regarding this book sometimes soon...sooner I hope....

Be the Solution

Solution
(Hillsong United)

It is not a human right
To stare not fight
While broken nations dream
Open up our eyes, so blind
That we might find
The Mercy for the need

Singing, Hey now
Fill our hearts with your compassion
Hey now
As we hold to our confession
Yeah

It is not too far a cry
To much to try
To help the least of these
Politics will not decide
If we should rise
And be your hands and feet

Singing, Hey now
Fill our hearts with your compassion
Hey Now
As we hold to our confession

Woah-oh-oh,
God be the solution
Woah-oh-oh
We will be Your hands and be Your feet.
Yeah, yeah

Higher than a circumstance
Your promise stands
Your love for all to see
Higher than protest line and dollar signs
Your love is all we need

Only You can mend the broken heart
And cause the blind to see
Erase complete the sinners past
And set the captives free
Only You can take the widows cry
And cause her heart to sing
Be a Father to the fatherless
Our Savior and our King
We will be Your hands, we will be Your feet
We will run this race for the least of these
On the darkest place, we will be Your light
We will be Your light

We will be Your hands , we will be Your feet
We will run this race for the least of these
In the darkest place, we will be your light
We will be your light 
We'll sing

Woah-oh-oh,
God be the solution
Woah-oh-oh
We will be Your hands and be Your feet.

Woah-oh-oh,
God be the solution
Woah-oh-oh
We will be Your hands and be Your feet.
Yeah, yeah

We will run we will run
We will run with the solution [2x]

We will be Your hands we will be Your feet
We will run this race for the least of these
In the darkest place we will be Your light
We will be Your light
We sing

****

I can't get over the song.