Le Prince et Sa Rose

Aside from the certificate delivered to my house, I have no other proof that I studied French. There are problems in my schedule presently but as soon as everything's sorted out, I'll enrol in Alliance Française de Manille once more just because I want to fully understand the upcoming Le Petit Prince film without needing subtitles. What? That's a valid reason, right?

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” 

Dress: from Hong Kong | Coat: from London | Tights: Topshop | Ankle boots: H&M

I'll attempt to write an entire paragraph in French because I'm a pretentious girl who insists she's slowly becoming multilingual. Hahahahaha.
  On y va!

C'est comiqe quand je vois les articles dans l'internet quelque leçons j'aurais dû quand je plus jeune. 
Parce que quand vous etes nouvel, vous preferez le faires votre façon. Il y a ne pas de consequences depuis vous croyez vous avez tout le temps dans le monde. Certainement je ne aurais pas ècoutè. J'etais dix-neuf une fois aussi. Ja'i fait le plus grandes erreurs de ma vie puis. (Oh my gosh, if there's any way that I can use the numbers from one to a hundred, one thousand, and one million, I would have done it. I had to memorize them for a day's activity then) 

“Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.” 

Avec mes favoris garçons dans le monde: mes deux freres et mon pere

Ma conjugaison est terrible. Aussi ma grammaire. J'ai pour etudier francaise immediatement. Qui vous déjà savez si vous comprenez cela. J'ai essaye ne pas utiliser les apps dans mon telephone et le Google Translate. J'ai utilisè les notes dans mon cahier. C'etait difficile. Mais je veux faire ce à nouveau. 

Since I only know the basic, I normally always try to identify the standard form of the words in Le Petit Prince. It's the first novel I'm reading that's not written in either English nor Filipino. I cannot fully converse even if I'll only have to listen to the other party because I only pick up a few familiar words. I'm starting with reading but hey give me time and I might be able to babble and rant endlessly one day! For now, I'm leaving these photos which I worked on (and my professor, Ms. Yolie, corrected) months ago. The activity was to assume a different personality. Try to extricate the vrai from the faux. Bonne chance!


Je suis passionnèe par l'art et ses reprèsentations mètaphoriques.



Told you so, there are French who actually chanced upon my blog Hahahahaha Je suis très heureux, merci beaucoup!! :)

All quotes are from The Little Prince. I'll write about my thoughts on both the book and the film after watching it.

The Times They Are A-Changing

Of all the topics my humble mind can conjure, it's probably religion that I will opt not to talk about. I don't want to sound too preachy because I am anything but. Still, I'll try to piece out my views on the subject as generally as I can as a way to be in one with the elation of every Filipino for having The Pope in our midst at the moment.

Top: Topshop | Shorts: Collab MNL | Necklaces: Pull and Bear | Shoes: Adidas | Bag: Longchamp

On a side note, let me do a quick lip service for my friend Ver Guiyab. Along with her two classmates from DLS-CSB who took up Fashion Design too, they set up an online shop where they sell clothes they have designed. I bought a few articles because aside from liking majority of what's in their present collection, they use quality fabric (which is the main reason I support the brand Zara, really. Quality of material!). If you want to see a clearer and more-detailed photo of the shorts I'm wearing, check it out and the rest of their collection HERE.

There are different ways to look at a thing - be it scientifically, philosophically, psychologically, aggressively, passively, theoretically, prejudicially, receptively, morally, or all other adverbs ending in -ly. We are all simply wired to have varying opinions and principles causing us to look at a single phenomenon through arthropod eyes like those of a fly's. It's no one's fault. Our beliefs should not be a cause of further rift among us because we are all after betterment - be it on a personal, national, or global scale. Cultivating our beliefs only become a problem when we impose that what we believe in is more important than our neighbor's.

Perhaps one of the reasons the number of the followers of the Church is dwindling is that, it's remained stuck in its traditions. Everything around it is changing but it's let its nose to be held high in the air. Until a Pope of the New World came in like a wrecking ball. (Too much for a witty attempt? Oh okay then. I won't do it again!)


My faith is on a personal basis. Whatever relationship I have with my God is between Him and me. I don't believe that two people revere the same God similarly to a fault because no two people underwent the exact same things in life. Our faith is shaped by what we face which is, amazingly, relative from person to person. So who are we to declare that others are wrong for believing in a different principle? The world would have been a better place if everyone is tolerant. Pope Francis easily became a most likeable person by everyone regardless of who they believe in and where they come from because he is someone whose tolerance is exemplary. Not to mention that he seems to be devoting his papacy to the care of the poor instead of propagating strict observance to the 'Church Rules'. This is not to say that he's neglecting addressing the moral problems prevalent in our times. It's just that, he's open-minded. He knows that there are ambiguities in Gospel interpretation and that this same Gospel does not exclude anyone so long as the person strives to be a good one.

How can we cast our judging eyes on others when The Pope already did and said the most liberating and all-encompassing statements?


Lastly, let me borrow Obama's accurate description of The Pope: “In particular, I want to thank His Holiness Pope Francis, whose moral example shows us the importance of pursuing the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is.”

I've seen and read almost all the magazine articles in the past 

two years bearing the incredible stories about Pope Francis.

 Among them, I liked the title Rolling Stone came up with

 so I'm using it for my title too. 

Folk In Those Stories Had Lots of Chances Of Turning Back, Only They Didn't

I wasn't supposed to write an entire post about my obsession with Middle-earth but then just like how junkies of whatever sorts undergo closure to treat their obsessions, I've to put a dot on my month long The Hobbit - LOTR movies and books marathon by quickly gushing over them here.


Top: Zara | Necklace: from Bangkok | Shoes: Skechers | Skirt: Zara | Sunglasses: Ray-ban

These photos were taken last 8 December. Almost all classes all over the country were suspended then leaving the streets bereft of the usual Manila traffic, which my Dad and I took opportunity of. We drove all the way to Clark to oversee some of his pressing projects there. I tagged along because I'm an opportunistic little daughter who saw this chance as a way to sweet-talk my Dad into buying me all the stuff I believe I need (but really do not. As he said, "I'm not working so hard just to buy you your fur vest when it's not practical in the kind of climate we have" but as always, I got what I wanted.) hahahahaha


It emotionally drains me just thinking of seeing the end of The Hobbit. (Come on, admit it. We all probably have a fanclub we've sworn allegiance to.) Long before I became a fan of the Harry Potter series, I was already obsessing heavily on J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. All my brothers, my uncles, and my boy-cousins dragged me to the cinemas to watch the first three instalments and successfully turned me into another Middle-earth geek. When the great Peter Jackson translated The Hobbit into movies two years ago, the fans club in my family was resurrected. For purposes of this post, I'm focusing on the films over the books. I've read all 3 of the LOTR and The Hobbit but when I saw Jackson's idea of them, I was completely won over. The books were great, what with all of Tolkien's lovely words and ideas that are difficult to translate into action, but Jackson's was legendary on its own as well.

As if hearing Pippin's song in the Return of the King played as the background music for the trailer of The Battle of the Five Armies wasn't enough to get me emotionally invested, the movie used Pippin's voice once more to sing the final farewell song played at the end credits of the last movie. By then, I was already sobbing in the movie house, to my brother's dismay.

On a scale of 1 to Stephen Colbert, I'm not really sure where I stand as a fan. But I can lengthily explain why the wise Gandalf couldn't do the missions (... quest... thing) in both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings or why the eagles only showed up at the last minute. Or the name of Gandalf's horse and sword. Or the riddle behind Gandalf's famous "Fly, you fools" line. Or other not so obvious occurrences and objects concerning not only Gandalf but the other characters as well. I'll gladly discuss themes in the books and films with anyone, seriously. There are plenty of conventions where fans gather in the US and UK and I'm very positive that if I ever get the chance to be there, I'll proudly wear a costume. No, really.


I understand why there was an uproar amongst the Tolkien fans when the character of Tauriel was introduced in The Desolation of Smaug (which, by the way, is my favorite among the Hobbit trilogy). She didn't spring forth from Tolkien's mind, instead she came from Jackson's interpretation of Tolkien's Middle-earth world. Nonetheless, I like her and how substantial the films made her character out to be. Seeing a female persona in an otherwise male-dominated world is empowering. Not to mention, her existence provided a romantic plot to the story.  Besides, I believe the main plot wasn't altered substantially and some of the poignant scenes and lines in the books of all the Middle-earth stories were included. Every battle with the Orcs and the Goblins were theatrically orchestrated injected with Legolas and Gimli's humorous competition against each other (in LOTR), that instead of my usual recoiling response to war scenes, I enjoy every death on the battle field (The battle of Helm's Deep or The Battle of Hornburg is my favorite sequence from the 6 movies but I used a photo from The Battle of Pelennor Fields as emphasis).

Knowing that the character you've rooted for from the start will eventually get killed doesn't lessen the impact once you actually see it. Although the circumstances of the characters' death were different from what happened in the book, the end-result was the same so cut Jackson some slack, you high and mighty Tolkien fanatics. I wasn't so invested in Kili in the book but who wouldn't like Tolkien's version of Kili?




images from Iconic Fictional Characters

The thing with epic adventures is that, they leave a mark. Sometimes it completely intertwines with the rest of our lives, other times it becomes a constant reminder in a form of a scar, tattoo, or deformity of what we've underwent at a certain time. Very seldom does it leave us. And very seldom does it not make us evaluate where we currently stand.

I'm not yet ready to bid Middle-earth farewell. For now, let me go back to doing my LOTR marathon then cap everything off with Billy Boyd's The Last Goodbye to shed some more tears. Peace out!

Sentimental Man

To be fair, I'm not neglecting the blog because I'm lazy. It's just that, I've disappointingly crossed the border that divides interesting stories from sentences that are merely "a play on words without actual substance" (The quoted phrase is an idea that I've read or heard somewhere). No matter how mediocre I've been for the past years, there has to be a limit on how mediocre I can become. Haha!


Long cardigan used as dress: H&M | Belt: Topshop | Leather Pants: Topshop | Leather ankle boots: H&M

Maybe it's because I've seen some classmates back in college who were automatically given a 0.0 in their term grades after being proven to have plagiarized even just a paragraph in their reports that I'm a strict observer of citation. I try my best to give credits to others whenever I use parcels of their intellectual property. If there's anything that I can be proud of in all my posts here (which to be frank is not much), it's that, I try to be as original and creative as I can. Of course let's factor in mediocrity since it's slowly getting embedded in my system. Between the two evils, I'd rather be mediocre than an intellectual thief slash pretentious know-it-all slash "how on earth can you possibly jump from senseless ranter to a keen observer?" (the quoted phrase is mine this time).


Sneakers: Adidas
While shopping around Mong Kok, I couldn't anymore hold in the pain so I had to bully my Dad into buying me a pair of rubber shoes. 

I'm not the most sentimental person out there because farewells make me as sad as the next person so although I'm in my usual enthusiastic self in the company of others, I exercise restraint. I've learned long ago that we all end up disappointing someone dear to us at some point. It's inevitable. What we can do to counter it is to choose whom we'd like to invest in. Halt, stop right there! The thought I'm trying to drive at might sound familiar but it's only because there's a disclaimer in all creative and original pursuits. Often, a single thought is expanded and rewritten into different forms or wordings causing one to assert, "it's just semantics!" but always look closer as varying possibilities lie in the details. I don't want to get too technical now since I don't have enough sound arguments in this matter and I want to continue talking about me. Hahahaha!

Anyway, it's my birthday today so cut me some slack and just pretend you've read a rather amusing entry. My brain is failing me.

Title's from Wicked

In With the Old

Photos are starting to pile up in my Photo album so even though my brain is still on haywire, aggravating my already existing tendency to spout out incoherent thoughts, I'll try to be insightful.


Top: Bayo | Necklace: Aldo | Body Bag: Nine West | Shorts: Bench | Shoes: Aldo

First off, Happy New Year to everyone!!! I had a great holidays celebration spent with my relatives residing in the country and a few meet-ups with my closest friends in town so I hope you had an equally fantastic time.

Probably the reason a quality movie graces the Philippine mainstream cinema screen only once in a few years is that, the audience is not yet ready for anything that requires us to think, evaluate, and respond. No, really. It's the truth. The commercial aspect of producing a film outweighs its need of story depth. In a way it's understandable because sometimes, when our brains are too tired to function after a day of work, we want to see a film that will only make us laugh upfront and leave us feeling light-hearted. Who needs ideas that resonate, ideas that deconstruct, ideas that give birth to other ideas? This reasoning is exactly why we'll thrive endlessly on simple romantic comedies and rely on Hollywood films for more intellectual enlightening.


The Golden Rule in Criticizing: Don't criticise if you won't offer an alternative. I've no idea how movies are created but I know that in our country, their success is measured by the money they've generated, with reviews merely affecting a little percentage of the audience. Producers should make a pact. For every 4-5 hits they've produced, they should invest in a story-driven film. It's just fair, I think. Since they make money out of people who love going to the cinemas, they should in turn educate them. Give and take, remember? Last night, my Tito, brother, baby cousin, and I watched Bonifacio. It was great because it's the first film I've seen for so long that tells about the life of one of our national heroes, reminding me of what I learned in elementary. It had its flaws, of course. The tiniest of details were overlooked but I was willing to let it go.

Bonifacio reminded me of how rich our history as a nation is and at the same time frustrated me because I know more about other countries' history than ours.


Sometimes our closets are a big gift box. I was surprised to see a few stuff that I've long forgotten such as this green top. I wore it once in my frosh year in college and before that, during my retreat in HS. I didn't grow, did you notice?