Jobless

How about starting the year without a job? The company decided to cut down the number of employees due to the crisis faced by the oil and gas industry. I had a strong feeling that this will happen soon so I can't say that I am not prepared to hear the news. It's been great decade of experience and knowledge.  

Underworld

In the Philippines, November 1 and 2 are public holidays. We usually take this chance to go and visit the cemeteries, and pray for the departed. Of course, we also look forward in meeting our relatives during these days. It was always a sort of mini-reunion. When we were kids, I and my cousins would collect the molten candles and shape them into balls while our parents prepared some sticky rice and other traditional Filipino food. We would end the night with ghost stories and spirit games.

Aokigahara

Few months ago, I saw a documentary about Japan’s Aokigahara or Suicide Forest. It was an eye-opener and I have been thinking how a beautiful forest can be the final place of lost souls.

Aokigahara (青木ヶ原), also known as the Suicide Forest or Sea of Trees (樹海 Jukai), is a 35-square-kilometre (14 sq mi) forest that lies at the northwest base of Mount Fuji in Japan. The forest contains a number of rocky, icy caverns, a few of which are popular tourist destinations. Aokigahara forest is dense, shutting out all but the natural sounds of the forest itself. more here

Masks

Our city, Bacolod City, is known as the City of Smiles. But behind these smiles are a couple of tragedies. To hide the pain brought by the tragic events, the city decided to change the dark atmosphere into a cheerful one, thus the birth of MassKara Festival. 

The festival first began in 1980 during a period of crisis. The province relied on sugar cane as its primary agricultural crop, and the price of sugar was at an all-time low due to the introduction of sugar substitutes like high fructose corn syrup in the United States . It was also a time of tragedy; on April 22 of that year, the inter-island vessel Don Juan carrying many Negrenses, including those belonging to prominent families in Bacolod City , collided with the tanker Tacloban City and sank. An estimated 700 lives were lost in the tragedy. more here

Strange

When I was a kid, I always saw to it that the books I borrowed from our school library have illustrations. I found it easier to be a part of the story if the books have visuals. Of course, it changes as I grew older.

 

Soulless

So I guess I will continue to randomly pick books in the bookstore. This is the second book I bought which I never heard of but ended up enjoying every page. As long as it has a nice cover and a not-so-thick number of pages, I guess I will give it a try. Again.