I’m sure you all know how much I like reading. I have this (maybe obnoxious) belief that not reading really takes away a certain kind of quality from your life. Of course, people who exercise or sing or take care of children can say the exact same thing to me about what they do that I don’t, so I guess that’s neither here nor there.

The point of this post: A-HA! Learning Center Needs Volunteers!

What is A-HA!, you ask. According to their Facebook page:

A-HA Learning Center is a free tutoring center for street children who belong to communities living in the South Cemetery and Catholic Cemetery along Kalayaan and Reposo Streets in Makati. The center started in May 2009, and currently services 65 school children from grade 1 to 3rd year high school, offering English, Math, Science and computer classes.

A-HA Learning Center also takes care of the yearly school supplies, tuition, and shoes of the children, along with educational fieldtrips.

A-HA Learning Center is a partner of Binhi English Literacy Foundation, and is currently using the Binhi English Literacy Program for children 6-12 years old. It is also a partner of Got Heart Foundation.

Basically, my friend Jaton, his sister and a bunch of other good-hearted people have been tutoring children and helping them with their education. While they teach them much more—I think they also hold other alternative classes—I think that helping children read is incredibly important, because it will help them along with their schoolwork, and also their futures.

I have been asked by Jaton a few times to volunteer, but I haven’t found the time to, yet, but I figured that this is the least I could do, while I haven’t been able to help out as a volunteer yet. If you are interested, or know of someone who would be, please contact Jaton at 0918-979-3629.

Please also feel free to re-post and spread the word. :)
Poster is by JP Cuison.

Volunteer sched is M-TH, 4-5pm, and Sat from 8:30-10:30 AM,
10:30 AM -12:30 PM, 1:00-4:00PM.

A-HA Learning Center is located at 9708 C Pililia St, Rizal Village, Makati.

Meritxell, Marikina has been housing marginalized and abandoned girls ages 3 -16 years old since 2007. Those who are old enough to study are sent to private schools for education. Ateneo has recently listed them as one of their NSTP areas. In order for them to further improve their studies, they need more educational books for review. This Saturday, there will be a book swap event to collect books for the girls. If we gather more than 200 books, 3 more orphanages will benefit.

What is Book Swap?

• To participate you need to bring at least 1 educational book or children’s book + your unwanted books.
• The educational books go directly to the abandoned girls of Meritxell
• You may choose from books other people bought and you can bring home the same number of books as the amount of unwanted books your brought.

When? October 23, Saturday, 10 am – 6pm
Where? “The Balcony” 110 Dona Angela Bldg., Carlos Palanca St., Makati City

See you there and Spread the word!

Today, my mom and dad went to the seedling bank to get some anti-mosquito plants and other plant-y things, so I asked them to get me some soil so I can plant some pretty flowers. I got two packets of marigold seeds in the mail, along with my Field Notes loot, and I was pretty pleased to learn that marigolds thrived well in well-lit places and died bitter deaths in from frost and cold weather. We have an abundance of sunlight, and not a lot of snow in the Philippines, so that boded (Omg ‘boded’ is a word!) well for me and my (future, maybe) marigolds.

I’ve always wanted to try gardening, so it was perfect timing, really!

Because we don’t really have a garden, we put pots on the balcony.
Mama to me: “Don’t you have any slippers?” LOL. I do, I am just lazy.

Putting in the potting soil.

I helped a little!

Watering them.

And then we wait.

Or, you know, still fat.

I hate diets. I hate exercising. I hate most kinds of physical exertion. When I was still in school, other people lived for P.E., while I prayed for it to miraculously go away. Out of the four required P.E. subjects we had to take in Ateneo, my favorite was P.E. 101, which was basically an afternoon class where we sat in an airconditioned classroom and looked at Powerpoint slides, listening patiently at the lecturer’s recycled stories.

So, you know, all these preferences that come naturally to me? Not really agreeable when one of my Greatest Wishes In Life is to have a hot bod. Call me shallow, but I just want my clothes to fit better. Late last year, I tried going to the gym (I obviously quit). Earlier this year, I tried Jillian Michaels’ 30-Day Shred, which I quit before I even reached Level 2. On more than one occasion, I joined in on my church’s church-wide fasting program, with the hidden agenda of shedding a couple of pounds. Shameless, I know.

When I contracted dengue fever last week, I lost between 4-6 lbs. All of which I just gained back. Now, I have come to realize that if I want to get rid of my 4-year-old Food Baby, I am going to have to put some work into it. I would enlist the help of Nerd Fitness Master, John Green, using his new video, Fitness For Nerds. But I think I’m going to try and run on the treadmill for a little while. And then maybe do a little push-ups, et cetera.

Every time I think about exercising, I think of that hypothetical period as the Worst Twenty Minutes Of My Life, and then I end up just eating peanut m&m’s (which is blatantly counter-productive) or reading or going on Tumblr. I mean, I just really want my jeans to fit.

So, I’ve been toying with the idea of selling stuff I make online. I’ve been working on some badges/buttons (like the ones I used for my thesis, but also another new ‘set’ that, in my humble opinion, is pretty exciting), since people seem to love those. But then, I’m thinking of making some prints as well.

These are A5 in size (or half of A4) and 3/4 are references of things dear to my heart.

Yes/No? What do you think? Should I make more or should I just stick to my day job? (LOLJK, I don’t have a dayjob.) Let me know what you think, please. I’d really appreciate it.

Suggestions (of what else to make—as in, shirts, tote bags, etc?) are also most welcome.

Love,
Carina

P.S. Sorry for the stupid title. I haven’t even read that play.

… LOL not really. But this post is about a fantastic book, so the title half-counts! So, I’m sure that y’all have books that you love so frakking much, but come by so infrequently, that whenever you see them, you buy it and think of a wayward soul to give it to. A friend of mine buys Franny Billingsley’s “The Folk Keeper,” and he gave me a copy a few years ago. (It’s a gorgeous children’s book, really.)

While I do have a lot of books that I feel this way towards, I’ve only done it twice, and both times, I bought the same book. It’s not “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” because, while that is My Favorite Book In The Entire World, it’s not that hard to come by. Also, for some reason, it is expensive. But anyway. The book I am talking about is John Green’s “Looking For Alaska.”

“Looking For Alaska” kind of shot up to Internet popularity, when this particular quote invaded Tumblrverse. I was floored, and I wanted to read it immediately, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I found Green’s “An Abundance of Katherines” and “Paper Towns,” no problem, but I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for “Looking for Alaska.”¹ Finally, however, out of the kindness of his heart, Armando who is a Tumblr friend from the UK, sent me a copy of “Alaska” and okay, finally, I understood what the fuss is all about. It’s overposted, and has somewhat reached a “Perks”-esque² notoriety, but I get it.

Anyway. I gave the book away on this site, when I first found a copy here in Manila. (Still haven’t figured out what to get the runner-ups, oops.) And I found another copy of the book two weeks and sent it to Raymond. He got it earlier this week and has been reading it and is reportedly liking it so far.

Because it had a dinky, girly cover, I made a sort of book sleeve that I held back from posting until the book got to him. I’m posting pictures because I worked hard on it, damn it. Behold, my masterpiece!:

Looking like a serious craft project with a cutting board. It wasn’t. I just needed to cut stuff.

Close-up of the lettering! Kinda badly rendered, but at least it is not pink.

The back!

The quote on the back goes: “I’m not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they’re gonna do. I’m just going to do it.” And, you know, it’s a promise I intend to keep.

Anyway, I just wanted to ask if you had any books (or anything, really—albums, films, what-have-you) that you love so much, you’re willing to shell out a few bucks or spend some time to let someone know about them? Would love to hear about them, if you please.

———
¹ See what I did there? (back)
² Where haven’t you heard, “And I swear, in that moment, we were infinite”? Stephen Chbosky’s book, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” is really, honestly beautiful, so it’s kind of sad how this quote has turned into a little joke. I still love it, though. (back)