Missives from the teacher

De Quiros on description, because all roads lead to this place:

IT is Sunday afternoon. Outside Quiapo Church, on the sidewalks and part of the street itself, a motley crew of men, women and children stand guard over stands that could be packed up at the first hint of trouble. Roots and herbs and plants dot their wares but the thing most prominently displayed on them is a row of bottles proclaiming, "Pangparegla," or "menstruation inducer." It is especially effective, an explanation says, for "1 to 2 months delay." The concoction, or medicine, means to abort pregnancy.

The bottles sit among a slew of other bottles that proclaim "miracle water," "snake oil," "pure oil," and various elixirs, along with rocks and stones of various sizes for pounding laundry and rubbing the body. Religious articles co-exist with the bottles of "Pangparegla"-rosary beads, scapulars, icons of the Sto. Nino and the Virgin Mary, scents, pieces of cloth that had been rubbed on the figures of saints and candles everywhere. Candles of all shapes, sizes and colors, many of them burning brightly in a gray late afternoon on the candle stands, the wax dripping down the candle holders to the pavement. A pool of red has collected below them.

The sellers of "Pangparegla" do not attempt irony, putting the abortive liquids beside icons of the Virgin Mary, nor do they lay puny siege on the fortress of faith with the banners of micro commerce. They are just trying to meet a compelling need. Inside the Church, a priest is intoning, to a swell of echoing voices, "Panginoon, maawa ka." That is the translation of "Lord, have mercy on us" in Tagalog. But here it sounds more like "Lord, have pity on us."

Merry Christmas everyone!

Questions of the day

This came in the mail:

Mam,
Do we have to pass another index card if we change our topic? And can it be later than Dec 17?

To Jennifer and everyone else taking up English 10,

I'm going out of town after the 17th. So all things related to classwork will have to dealt with via email or the web, if there's a web connection there.

But yes, you may change your topic. Try to pass your index cards with the thesis statement on the 17th. If that's not possible, then at least inform me of what your proposed new topic is going to be. Do that via email. If you sneak your index card under my office door, I might not get to it until January and by then you will be tearing your hair and gnashing your teeth and cramming for the report that'll be due the following week and you still have no approved topic.

Outlines for the report will be due the 1st week of classes in January and the report itself in the 2nd or 3rd week, so I strongly suggest you try to finalize that topic outline by the holiday break.

And this is our runner up question of the day:

Ma'am, What's the blog website again? Thanks.

Obviously if you're reading this already then you know what the blog URL is. But in case you're wondering if there's anything you're supposed to submit, or if the teacher has been abducted by aliens and therefore will not be able to attend school, then you dig out the info here:

http://missivesfromtheteacher.blogspot.com

If you are not wired, then you may rely on the good old note cards posted outside my office, FC 1080. If you're telekinetic, then try to read my mind, because I sure cannot read yours.

That's all. I hope you all had a good view at the Oblation Run.

Consultation day

For English 10 TFX
We will not have class anymore since the English Department is holidng its Christmas Party tomorrow afternoon, and it's highly unlikely that I will suddenly gain powers of omnipresence. What we'll do is have consultations regarding your report topic. You should finalize your outlines over the holidays so it'll be ready by January. Your film review is also due in January. I trust that you can already do that, since I know you can already formulate kickass and intelligent opinions and elaborate on them.

If you still have questions about class work, if you still do not have a finalized topic and have not submitted any index cards, your last chance will be tomorrow.

For English 1
No meeting tomorrow.

Your class work during the holidays: write in your journal. Your narrative essay is due the 2nd week of January 2004, so it'll do you good to practice telling your stories during the break. Make your own 12 Tales of Christmas or something. Journals will be collected when classes resume.

For English 10 MHX

People who still don't have finalized topics, I will be available for consultation tomorrow.

Those who do have not picked up your index cards yet, they are in the brown envelope with the English 10 label outside my door.

Journals will be collected when classes resume in January. What should be in there: the history of your name, what was happening around the world when you were born, holiday notes.

Other than that, enjoy the holidays y'all and I will see you next year. :)

Now showing this Friday

English 1 TFW
We're tackling the various ways you can narrate a single event. So it's "Twelve Tales of X-mas" for us. Hope you read it.

English 10 TFX



We're meeting at the Arcellana Library at the Faculty Center today, 2.30 pm. We're watching The Talented Mr. Ripley in preparation for your module on film review and criticism. Please arrive on time. If most of you guys don't have classes after 4pm, maybe we can all stay and finish the film.

English 10 MHX.
We won't be able to use the Arcellana Lib on Monday so we can't really finish the film. I will try to get us a venue so we'll all have closure. But I suggest you just look up what happens next, although there's really just 20 or so minutes left on the next disc. You can get that from the review by Zafra, which we'll be discussing Monday.

For all English 10 students

The module on film review and criticism includes Zafra on Ripley and Pauline Kael on Bonnie and Clyde. We'll try to finish the discussion on Ripley before the Christmas break. So read the review by Zafra, and be prepared on your respective class days next week. We will open next year with Bonnie and Clyde. Kael's critique is a bit longish but contains very interesting arguments and how she structures them requires a longer discussion.

For all students: If you're borrowing the readings, please return them after you get them photocopied. You have other classmates who have yet to get their copies so don't take them home to browse or bring them to another side of the universe and never to be heard from again. Again, just be considerate.

NO CLASSES TODAY

Friday, 1-4pm. Go to the Student Regent selection conference or whatever it is that you have to attend.

For English 1 TFW, please just read the selections on narration.

For English 10 TFX2 as well as English 10 MHX, please read "Opinionated and proud to admit it." Interesting views on the etymology of the word "idiot." We will discuss it next week. There's a copy in the envelope outside FC 1080. Just return it afterwards. Thanks.

To English 10 MHX

Just a little FYI: Give it up for Dong Hee and Aya for actually finishing the activity last Monday afternoon and getting a really good number of answers right. Nice one, you two. :)

Let's chalk this up to a disturbance in the atmosphere of dialogue. See you guys later.

Literature database

I found this wonderful online database of Literature, Arts and Medicine. You can search for poems there, and some of it have readings by the authors themselves. Requires Real Audio. You might want to check it out.

Twenty Questions, v.2

For English 10 TFX2

Again, the same rules apply. Work this out with your groupmates. Try to answer as many of the questions as you can. Answers should be in before 6.30pm at FC 1080.

UP Naming Mahal

1. If Ateneo=Eagle, and University of the East=Tigers, then what kind of fowl is on UP's logo?
2. Francisco Nemenzo is the university's ___th president.
3. The RGEP presupposes that students will learn better if they choose their own courses, with equal focus on the Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences and Philosophy, and the Math and Sciences. This semester, how many RGEP classes from the DECL (English 1, 10, 11, 12, plus CW) are available?
4. The Oblation, with its outstretched arms and face up to the sun, is the symbol of UP's academic freedom. Fernando Poe Sr is said to be the model of this sculpture by Guillermo Tolentino. But the Oble outside Quezon Hall is already a reproduction. Where can you find the original Oblation statue?
5. According to the current academic calendar, on what day and date will the next commencement exercise fall on?
6. Rodic's serves arguably the best tapa in Diliman. What is the stall number that it occupies at the Shopping Center?
7. There are ten dorms in campus. Four of which are exclusive for women, five are coed, and one exclusively for freshmen. If you are a guy, you can stay at Narra. But if you are a girl grad student and you don't want to go coed, where can you stay?
8. The Online Freshman Guide likens life in Diliman to an RPG, and features Lara Croft in a UP tank top on its home page. Angelina Jolie essays the role of Lady Croft in the two Tomb Raider franchise movies. Ms Jolie is the offspring of a French model/actress and Jon Voight, who starred in **bleep!**, one of the two rare Hollywood movies given an X rating and yet won at the Oscars. What is the other film, which starred Marlon Brando?
9-10. December 1-5 is Writers' Week at the College of Arts and Letters. December 1 honors CAL Dean and National Artist Virgilio Almario. (9) December 2 is for which National Artist? (10) Can you name at least one work by that artist?

Whose line is it anyway?

11. Who said this: "Ba, be, bi, bo, bu. Perlas na bilog, wag kang tutulog tulog. Sabihin mo sa akin ang sagot."
12. According to the song Andrew Ford Medina, what is AndrewE's landline phone number?
13. What female superhero, also by Mars Ravelo, served as the precursor to Darna?
14. Who became the first Little Miss Philippines ever?
15. What is the name of the evil cat in Smurfs?
16-17. "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." Who said this, and in what book?
18. According to a Jonathan Larsen musical, aside from "five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes," you can measure a year in the life "in daylights, in sunsets, in cups of coffee, in inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife." What musical is this from?
19. Who is telling you to: "You've got to get yourself together / You've got stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it / Don't say that later will be better / Now you're stuck in a moment and you can't get out."
20. Finally, who bids you "our last goodbye / And you don't care so I won't cry / But you'll be sorry when I'm dead / And all this guilt will be on your head / I guess you'd call it suicide / But I'm too full to swallow my pride."

Again, first group to hand in their paper wins bonus points. Happy info gathering. :)

Twenty Questions

For English 10 MHX.

Rules:

1. Work with your groupmates. There should be 5 groups, and each of you should submit a yellow pad with the answers to these questions along with an index card containing your group members and the answer to "If you have a gun to your head, what song will you sing?" You should hand this to Sheena at the DECL office before 5pm. The goal is for you to answer as many of them as you can.

2. It is up to you what methods of research you will use to answer these questions.

3. I will see you all on Thursday, and please check your mail.

UP Naming Mahal

1. The Board of Regents is the highest governing body of the University System. It is a 12-man body, with representatives from the faculty and the students. It also includes the Chairman of the Senate Committee of Higher Education, which is currently held by the Honorable Francis Pangilinan. What was his undergraduate course when he studied in UP Diliman?
2. How many comfort room for boys are there in Bulwagang Rizal?
3. There are two "official" bookstores in campus. The first is run by the Student Union and sells long out of print books, and the other is the G Miranda bookstore at the Shopping Center, which sells "Great Political Thoughts" along with pink keychains and assorted school supplies. Where can you find the Student Union bookstore?
4. The RGEP comprises a set of GE subjects, with no prerequisites. The underlying philosophy is that students will learn better if they choose their own subjects. Now, according to the RGEP, students now have to take units of General Education subjects, equally divided in the domains of Arts and the Humanities, Social Sciences and Philosophy, and then the Math and Sciences. In this 2nd semester AY 2003-2004, how many courses in the DECL are for RGEP only?
5. The Church of the Holy Sacrifice is that flying saucer edifice across the Infirmary and a stone's throw away from the swimming pool. It also has the distinction as the masterwork of 3 National Artists: Leandro Locsin for its design, Vicente Manansala for the murals of the Stations of the Cross. Who is the artist responsible for the dual-sided crucifix with both the bloodied and the risen Christ?
6. Hardin ng mga Diwata is the landscaped zen and bonsai garden right outside the Faculty Center. How many diwatas are there and what do they stand for?
7. What is the official name of the Sunken Garden?
8. What is the official description for English 10 according to the CRS website?
9. What is the fastest route going from AS to the Shopping Center if you ride a jeep?
10. The UP Film Center's first director is Virgie Moreno, whose birthday coincides with the center's foundation day. When is it?

Go Pop

11. The Online Freshman Guide compares life in UP Diliman to an RPG, and even uses the icon of Lara Croft in a UP tank top. Angelina Jolie essayed the role of Lady Croft in the two film versions of the game. Miss Jolie is the daughter of a French actress/model and the actor Jon Voight, who starred in one of the rare Hollywood movies given an X rating and yet did well in the Oscars. What was that film?

12-13. "You are not your f*cking khakis," booms Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden in "Fight Club." Directed by David Fincher from the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club examines our fascination with accumulating material things which end up owning us.
The film is Fincher's follow up to "Se7en," which also starred Pitt and a black actor who was named after a novelist whose most recognizable work is "On Human Bondage." (1) Name the actor who played Pitt's almost retired cop buddy, and (2) Who was the novelist he was named after.

14. If we follow this songwriter's dictum, then _____ is "ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife."

15. That monkey on Shan Cai's bag is the creation of which designer?

16. What do the letters URL stand for?

17. If pi=3.1416...., then what is the zip code for Diliman?

18. If there are 7 days a week, 365 days a year and 25 hours a day that Goodah is supposedly open. How many hours in a year does that make?

19. "My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun," says Shakespeare and Gordon Sumner, who is known by another name and used to sing with a band. What is his rockstar name?

20. Finally, who said this: "I will see you in another life, when we are both cats?"

English 10 mhx research activity

1. The inauguration of the new CAL building will take place tomorrow, 1 December 2003, Monday. I will be participating in the program, which is why I won't be able to meet with you (again, my apologies with regards to that.)

2. In lieu of a proper class, we will hold an activity on how to do research. You will do this with your groupmates so I hope you still know who they are. Please go to to FC 1080 for your instructions tomorrow at 230pm. The completed activity sheet should be at the department pigeonhole before 5pm.

3. Please just read up on citing sources some more, plus the opening chapters of Eloisa Ventura's book, especially the part on plagiarism. That will be the topic for discussion once we resume class on Thursday.
The book is available for you to photocopy. Just go to the xerox girl outside the dean's office, CAL, 2nd floor, Faculty center and ask for English 10 readings under my name.

For English 11 mhy

I am hoping that the program will be done by 4pm so we can have class. We're still doing narrative poetry, so read up on ballads. Also, the lecture on formalism.

Just in case the program will go overtime, there will be instructions left for you outside FC 1080.

Readings are available for photocopying. You can find them in a red envelope posted outside my office.

English 1

Readings available with the xerox girl, 2nd floor Faculty Center, near the Dean's office.