TFC's Sojourn

Months ago, I sent photos to TFC's Sojourn. I wanted to experience the feeling of seeing our photos on the screen, though I was doubtful that our photos would be chosen. To my surprise, they featured our photos titled Kyllenne and Darrielle( they misspelled my grandkids names, but it is okay with us.) We first saw the feature last Sunday evening and we were so excited in seeing our photos.

And now as I was watching TFC, they showed our photos again. What a nice feeling!!

Above are 5 of the 7 photos in Sojourn.

Thank you TFC!

John Grisham's New Book

I received an email days ago. I was informed that on 10 October, a new book of one of my favourite author, John Grisham, will be release. Hooray!!! Surely, I'll do my very best to have my own copy of the book, The Innocent Man.

The book is a nonfiction novel of John Grisham. As it is based on a true story, for sure it'll be a nice read same as his fiction novels like The Pelican Brief or The Summons to name a few. I am optimistic that this new novel of his will captivate me more than his last novel A Painted House.

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THE INNOCENT MAN—About the Book

In the major league draft of 1971, the first player chosen from the State of Oklahoma was Ron Williamson. When he signed with the Oakland A's, he said goodbye to his hometown of Ada and left to pursue his dreams of big league glory.

Six years later he was back, his dreams broken by a bad arm and bad habits—drinking, drugs, and women. He began to show signs of mental illness. Unable to keep a job, he moved in with his mother and slept twenty hours a day on her sofa.

In 1982, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress in Ada named Debra Sue Carter was raped and murdered, and for five years the police could not solve the crime. For reasons that were never clear, they suspected Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. The two were finally arrested in 1987 and charged with capital murder.

With no physical evidence, the prosecution's case was built on junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snitches and convicts. Dennis Fritz was found guilty and given a life sentence. Ron Williamson was sent to death row. If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you.

If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you.

Visit the official website at: www.jgrisham.com.

Are all children educable?

With the many EI( Early Intervention) approaches educators can avail or make use of to educate children especially those with special needs, I came upon this question in one of my readings; "Why bother with children who fail to make meaningful progress?"

And why should we? Why should I?

Ahh, with my personal and family commitments, why would I personally do my best to see a relevant manifested progress in a child and especially if he/she may be a special needs child?

The answer may vary but one thing is for sure it is passion or love for children.

Well, I've read this book, Exceptional Children by William L. Heward. Through this book, I've read about Don Baer, a professor of human development at the University of Kansas and a pioneer in the development of effective teaching methods for persons with severe disabilities. He offers this perspective on educability:

Some of us have ignored both the thesis that all persons are educable and the thesis that some persons are ineducable, and instead have experimented with ways to teach some previously unteachable people. Over a few centuries, those experiments have steadily reduced the size of apparently ineducable group relative to the obviously educable group. Clearly, we have not finished that adventure. Why predict its outcome, when we could simply pursue it, and just as well without a prediction? Why not pursue it to see if there comes a day when there is such a small class of apparently ineducable persons left that it consists of one elderly person who is put forward as ineducable. If that day comes, it will be a very nice day. And the next day will be even better.

What a meaningful perspective to contemplate on.

On Dave Batista

My family is fond of watching sports events on cable. Name it and my husband and daughters can discuss in lengths facts about those sports personalities. And so naturally, I was also encouraged to watch those sports events from basketball to wrestling and learnt to recognize those personalities.

It is heartwarming that my eldest daughter’s husband is also fond of sports. That is why he is also glued on TV watching sports events.

One time, we were all gathered in the family room watching wrestling. I saw Dave Batista on the screen. Based on his physical looks and the way he moves I observed something Filipino in him. So I blurted out loud, “Batista is a Filipino!”

My son-in-law David looked at me jokingly and asked “Mom, why everyone who is well known is Filipino for you?”

I just realized that my SIL was already irritated of me whenever I see on TV, personalities like Rob Schneider and or Vanessa Minnillo and was highlighting almost non stop that they are Filipinos.

Eh naku, patatalo ba naman ako sa kanya! So I answered that it was because Filipinos are talented and that they are everywhere. My SIL just shrugged his shoulders, accepting the fact that he just needs to bear with me.

The good thing is, Dave Batista went to the Philippines. He admitted that he is a Filipino and even showed his tattoo of the Philippine flag. Please read http://www.batistaweb.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=301

So, to my SIL David, it is confirmed Batista is a Filipino. Panalo ako!!!

Note: I wish to highlight that my SIL is very Filipino too. He’s trying so hard to speak Tagalog and bought books on how to learn to speak the dialect.

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I believe that a child's wish can come true. That is why I am joining the rest as initiated by the famous blogger CaT to be advocates in helping Pyro realized his wish in seeing Batista in person.

Remembering 911

Let us always remember the heroes of September 11, 2001.

This is a nice read: http://www.lifescript.com/articles/374.asp?BID=27200&SID=6366685&EID=C189073B-FA69-43D5-B38A-5E827B1F1144/">

Botanic Garden

Wow!!! My Mom would definitely be breathless with delight. Though, she already visited the Singapore Botanic Garden, surely she'll be ecstatic to see the orchids again.

This is the pond in the Botanical Garden. How nice it is to see such a pond and garden in the middle of the city.

Hmmm.. this caught my eye, so white and pure....

red and yellow orchids, what a delight!!!

Oh, I think this is not the Miss Vanda Joaquim for the real one is more beautiful.

So folks, how do you like the orchids?? Go and visit the Botanic Garden now.....

Let us free our creative spirit....

My daughter forwarded to me an email she received from her friend since tertiary days. And I particularly took noticed of this photo, a work of a graphic artist done when she was that bored. How nice it is to see a peeled orange transformed into a form of a frog. How creative that person is!!. Kainggit.

Now we may ask ourselves; "why I am not that creative? Am I creative? "

I just finished reading the book Free Your Creative Spirit by Vivianne and Christopher Crowley. According to them which I fully agree, we are all creative but most of us are unaware of it. To discover your creativity, you must begin with what is inside you. We have to believe that we can do it.

The authors pointed out some things to remember to free your creative spirit that I would like to share here.

Negative thinking is: only special people are creative, I am not a special person. I am not creative. Forget this.

Positive thinking is: humans are an extraordinary species with extraordinary talents. Humans are creative, therefore I am creative. Remember this.

Your inner child holds the key to your creative self; don’t be afraid to play. Once you allow your creative self to play, you will find that you are far more creative than you had imagined.

Give yourself positive experiences of creativity and they will rid you of the memory of the bad ones.

So come on people. Let us explore our own creativity in our daily living….