Cramming

No, I don't have an exam-- my last was 2 sems ago. Besides, classes have ended March 23. And that was the day Dr. Georgina Encanto emailed me, then asked the Journalism Department to call me. My, I'd been visiting her 2 weeks in a row and she would just tell me she's a little busy to check on my thesis' first draft. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) it's end of the road. April 4 is deadline for submission of grades and I'm just revising my first draft. Miracles. Yeah I still believe in miracles! Believe me, I'll get my grade on April 4.

Padayon, Comrade!

I had this mixed feeling of sympathy and admiration when I first heard that Gemma Bagayaua was arrested on libel charges because of her feature story on Chavit Singson. Gemma, the online editor of hard-hitting Newsbreak magazine has been exchanging mails with me months past while she was setting up the online publication of Newsbreak. I was seriously asking her to consider me on part time job uploading online their past articles but she insisted I was kind of over qualified for the job. Nevertheless, I relented, proud with the fact that indeed, Gemma is now on serious business of truth telling. I remember her to be the reserved but determined applicant of CNS (Center for Nationalist Studies of UP Diliman). When I tease her about anything or anyone she would always blush, her cheeks would literally turn reddish but with a ready smile. We had a college life sated with political discussions and integration (some call it immersion, but we agreed that integration was more thorough and experiential) with the depressed communities around UP and the Payatas.

Gemma has carried out her convictions well, and her arrest yesterday was an honor-badge for a vocation she was willing to die for. To Gemma, your CNS comrades is proud of you! Padayon Comrade! Here's a link to details of her arrest.

Organic Salt "Tultul"

I felt nostalgic when I read this article about "tultul", an edible salt-rock painstakingly made out of discards on the shore such as coconut husks, twigs, broken coral—anything except things made of plastic.

For me, it was synonymous with poverty because it was the usual pair for rice every time we run out of delectable viand. But it was fun rolling it on rice plate and nibbling where it's thicker until you taste the powdery salt. Here's another feature about one of Iloilo's original but vanishing trade.