Easy like a Sunday morning March 8, 2009
Posted by bobbetrevilla in Comfort Zone, Family, Here and Now, Memory, Visuals.2 comments
You woke up after an eight-hour sleep and felt breezy. Spotted two wild birds resting on the fence just outside the screen of the dirty kitchen. Wasn’t that a good sign of things about to happen during the day?
Maybe yes. When you have all the time in this world, you can literally smell the flowers and blend the fruits. That I concretely did this morning, one Sunday when Summer began to unfold like a seasonal guest.
Went to LB after late mass this morning to pick up some fresh flowers Mommy asked me to buy for our altar. I bought some too for empty vessels waiting for fresh blooms. I love Summer! Because flowers bloom and smell extra good.
On my way home I dropped by a fruit stand and bought some fresh mangoes and bananas to have them processed as fruit shake, good sip while working this hot day. You know it’s summer…
Summer reminds us of good old days. When chimes get swayed by the wind. When we can literally eat lunch outside under natural canopy. When reading gets the best out of us in the lull of afternoon with nothing but your book, rocking chair, and pillow to transport you to the thrill and riveting flow of life.
And the day isn’t enough to read, frolic, and laze around because it’s Summer and to be idle is guilt-free.
Cool Monday February 23, 2009
Posted by bobbetrevilla in Travels, Visuals.Tags: Local Sites
3 comments
Again, pardon me for the too personal, journal-type, tone of this entry. I could hear again my niece Cielo telling me “Tito Bobbet, you’re turning your blog site into an online diary!” That’s quite understandable since she only writes for her blog when an earth-shaking, angst-full event strikes in her life. Like her very recent “downfalls” entry that sounds too post-modern for me, hehe.
Anyway, let me start from the beginning. Expect an intersperse of photos in this textual narrative. It would make the story more vivid, graphic.
I started my day early. Call time for our Lipa trip was 8.30 a.m. but I was there at the meeting place, Jollibee Olivarez, before 8 a.m. I told Yuri, our group leader, I was there waiting for them. Yes, I was too early; more so when it turned out that the vehicle picked me up a few minutes before 9 a.m. What did I do while waiting? Read the interview guide. Went through our class plans. Read, maybe re-read, my notebook filled with things to do and post-it reminders. And my most favorite part: observing the setting. The few early risers taking their breakfast at this fastfood stop, including nearby bank employees and travelers who dropped by for take-out food. The day started too early for us this partially-declared holiday. From the glass panes, I captured this early scene of the road going to UPLB. Scarce vehicles plying, but this sight eventually got crowded, doubling the number of jeepneys and cars, telling me, it’s getting late, I’m there waiting for almost an hour.
We went straight to Lipa City picking up at certain points two more classmates. Our destination: Papel Lipa, a private enterprise engaged in hand-made paper production. The purpose was to interview its owner and workers as part of our Cleaner Production Technology (CPT) promotion for our Environmental Communication class. We were joined by the FPRDI Project Leader to explain CPT concepts to one of our intended audiences or stakeholders to whom our ECP or environmental communication plan is meant to be delivered. We had a tour of the manufacturing plant, which although in a cottage-industry scale, was impressive and could be accommodating to our proposed project. The scenes we’ve captured could speak about colors that may be featured in Reader’s Digest Unseen Asia.
They produce orange- and green-dyed paper as these are dubbed to be the colors of the year. A multiplicity of colors can also be seen in the display stall where finished hand-made paper crafts are being sold to local tourists like us.
The entire place is like a tourist destination. No wonder, throngs of students on a field trip include the site as part of their iteneraries in coordination with the local tourism office. Colorful flowers and green plants surround the place, too. My cell camera couldn’t help but document these bonus sights.
It was a nice trip. It was a quick visit to our data site, made quicker by light, fun talks on the road there and back home. But I brought home a bonus: a new native craft for our collection. That wrapped up this Monday’s research cum cool travel. But the work has just started.
The latest about my Christmas lamps December 8, 2008
Posted by bobbetrevilla in Comfort Zone, Family, Visuals.Tags: Interior Design
5 comments
After posting here and in my Facebook site the Christmas candle lamps hanging on the arch dividing my study and our dining area, a recent change took place for the better.
This positive change was influenced by (1) a blog comment from one of my most admired blogosphere writers and (2) literature advice ["real home ideas"]. I hope I am able to do enough justice for these elegant native hanging lamps. I’m not sure about the artistry of my arrangement. Maybe I can do better. Meantime, here’s how things look now…
Just like in a thesis, I’d like to cite my references, ehem, hehehe. 
Making a difference [in interior design] December 7, 2008
Posted by bobbetrevilla in Comfort Zone, Family, Visuals.Tags: Interior Design
3 comments
At the height of Pacman euphoria, there I was at the Kutitap candle | crafts stall at Robinson’s LB grabbing hanging lamps on sale from 10 to 50% off. Funny I must be at home watching the dream match, but I took that rare opportunity to visit the local mall when more people were glued on TV.
I bought three items on sale: one in orange, another in light blue, and the last in my fave shade of yellow. Now, they are hanging on the arch dividing my study and the dining area. My impulse to buy these hanging lamps was triggered by yesterday’s edition of House Life in Q11. The resident interior designer mentioned that hanging lights or lamps can accentuate an area or provide a focal point. Very true, now my arch is given more emphasis by the hanging lamps which is further accented by the Christmas garlands center of the arch.
The total effect looks like this. The entire arch with the hanging lamps provides a dramatic ambiance for the dining table that looks like ready, spruced and dressed up, for Christmas dinner. In P700+, I was able to create a difference in the house interior design. What can you say about this Tristan Jovellana? Wahehe.
Less talk, More visuals December 3, 2008
Posted by bobbetrevilla in Academe, Angst, Here and Now, Visuals, Work Life.2 comments
It was raining the whole day. So good to sleep at home. But there I was at the office, whiling the time away, sipping coffee, attending to a myriad of works that beg for my attention.
A welcome respite came mid-morning. A sweet surprise arrived in the form of a Christmas-tree gift box containing a sweety bunch of chocolate-coated biscuits meant as kris-kringle gift for this week. Nice! It brightened my dull, boring morning. The box now sits on my desk as a Christmas decor no less!
Waiting for 5.30 p.m. after office hours is also a test of patience for me. I’m all alone in my room. Browsing Smart Writing. Preparing for my sole writing class this semester. The office gets colder. Silence deafening. I can hear my mind talking.
Christmas comes early on November November 20, 2008
Posted by bobbetrevilla in Angst, Distant Past, Family, Here and Now, Metaphors for Life, Musings, Visuals.2 comments
For some, Christmas is associated to the mushy and melodramatic. It may be true but to most of us Christmas is the most joyful season of the year, and the longest celebration, in fact, for Pinoys. It is the object of sentimental editorials and essays and short stories. Yes, Virginia… Read O Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” and discover that Christmas is about making other people happy.
For a former Canossian like myself, Christmas meant acting out the Nativity during Christmas program or saving enough, to the point of having meager foods during Christmas Party, so we could give to the poor or the sick in the hospitals. That corporal work of mercy would earn us points in the form of putting hand-made poinsentia in a large branch of tree assembled by the good sisters in the school lobby. That early, we were taught that Christmas is being selfless and it could only be meaningful when shared to another.
As a grownup, when I began to earn my own money, Christmas would mean giving cash gifts to kids in the family and tokens to adults including my two sets of parents and other elderlies. Still, it lives to its true meaning of sharing. I couldn’t remember any Christmas done without giving a part of myself to others.
This year, Christmas comes early in the house. God gave me early gifts of a good new work, healthy family members, happiness and comfort shared by friends, and the hope for the future that looms large in the horizon. I couldn’t ask for more.
Tonight I dropped by my fave woodcraft stall and bought a wooden cart, which looks so like a child toy, with some greens of the season sporadically splashed around it. There I put inside it, in the cart, old gold Christmas balls kept from the previous seasons. This reminds of my Christmas as a child when that season was nothing but a genuine act of giving and sharing without expecting anything in return. Best way to look at Christmas is to view it through the naive eyes of a kid. Enough said.
The colors of Christmas are gold, red, and green. On our center table now sits a native basket where lie balls, bells, and abaca angels in gold, red, and green. This is homegrown Christmas at its best. When you’re tired from a whole-day work gearing up and decorating for the season eases the pains. It is the spirit of sharing one’s creativity and flair for colors that works here.
Signs of the time October 30, 2008
Posted by bobbetrevilla in Academe, Here and Now, Metaphors for Life, Visuals.2 comments
And so I was back at the UPLB campus this afternoon.
This scene greeted me: leaves falling from the tall trees like it was fall in October. There was serene wind seemingly marking the end of the month or the demise of a semester. I don’t know. The environ was so silent, sacred, shutting off any words or noise from ruling the moment. And from that inspired moment lingered this image of green, speed, and serenity. Savor the sight of UPLB’s Thai Pavilion captured in the silence and peace of semestral break.
Proof of Change. Yesterday, as a way of marking my work transition, I was asked by the Human Resource Department to secure a new identification card. That took merely 15 minutes to process. It symbolically represents my passage from a fulltime faculty to a research administrator. The joy of teaching consumed eight years of my productive life in the academe (Letran setting). Now I’m going back to my research roots.
Silent Words, Wild Images October 17, 2008
Posted by bobbetrevilla in Social Construction, Visuals.add a comment
I have to stay the whole day at house. Had to postpone encoding of grades. Instead, in between eating, watching TV, and curing my allergy, I worked on my PDM requirements due tomorrow. It’s draining. The materials are all there but jelling things together makes the process difficult. Maybe because it’s too quanti. No matter how I qualify the procedure, I always go back to the numerical system. There should be rubrics, scales, and criteria. This makes things tiring and uninteresting. If you are a regular reader of this site, I believe you can feel my dilemma. I would love it if what I’m doing would bring me to world of meanings and interpretations.
Let me try on some more. Last Wednesday night, I took the liberty of taking pictures fresh from my boob tube and study. Guess what I’ve got?
My empty cup bereft of coffee. My glass container and Poetika mug. All silent witnesses to a late night worker who is me.
Plus, bonus shots: Doc Ferdz BTW footages. For once in my life I’d like to be adventurous. I’d like to be born wild, not tied up to my desk. Virtual reality is provided by TV captured by my lens. Enjoy these images.
Images October 4, 2008
Posted by bobbetrevilla in Visuals.2 comments
This drizzling Sunday, allow me to go back to images most of them have adorned my cork board for almost a year. Tell me what do these tell about my mind, my philosophy, my vision, my world view. Peep through this array of visual prompts. Now.
