October 2008

Witty Brit writer Nick Cernis offers a simple paper-based productivity and time-management system in his e-book Todoodlist.

Cernis says that complex systems and electronic devices such as PDAs “only add to stress levels.” He explains, “Technology often increases the problem of being productive. It doesn’t always solve it.”

Inspired by methods he developed “to be more productive with less based on my own experience as a fallen gadget geek,” Cernis wrote Todoodlist as a guide for the rest of us. It’s an e-book that “teaches fun ideas and productive methods to get things done using simpler tools that help reduce stress, not compound it.”

What’s in the book? Nick says:

The full contents are split across three handy sections for quick reference:

Part 1) Seven punchy, light-hearted essays exploring our complex lives that tackle the question: “Why’s everything so complex, anyway?” Includes Zen Kitten in a Box and Parrots in Space.

Part 2) Five fun, unmissable, paper-based systems that will change the way you look at pen and paper forever and help you simplify your life. (Don’t miss the story of how I ended up swapping my PDA for a banana!) Features the Todoodlist – a fun way to get things done on paper, and the Sudoku Calendar - another of the deliciously low-tech ideas I use every day.

Part 3) The Five-Step Guide to reduce complexity in your life. Practical advice to help you live simply that you can put into practice and get results with today. Part Three also includes the blueprint for launch, a beautifully simple, one-page printable list of questions to help you launch new projects faster and turn your pipe dreams into reality.

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Power Plant Mall, being delightfully cozy and intimate, is your best bet for a shopping experience that’s both relaxing (no crowds) and exciting (choose from a wide variety of goodies).

Located along Rockwell Drive in Makati City, it’s the ultimate in urban leisure and pleasure.

Here’s the latest news on what’s happening there this weekend:

Rockwell’s Urban Bazaar Holiday Series: October 24-25

‘Tis the season to go shopping! Power Plant Mall invites you to part two of Rockwell’s Urban Bazaar: Holiday Series, a fabulously hassle-free Christmas shopping experience happening on October 24 & 25 (Friday 12NN-8PM & Saturday 10AM-8PM) at the Rockwell Tent.

Get a head start on your holiday gift buying this month with over 80 booths that offer you nothing but the best. Delight yourselves in a relaxed stroll through each booth and discover the wide variety of unique gift items, handmade goods, handbags, accessories, baby products, and many more.

Find the perfect gift for everybody and anybody-from babies to oldies, for your friends and family!

Babinski Baby will surely give moms & moms-to-be pure joy with their one-of-a-kind items such as “almost shows”, cute footwear for newborn babies, “babi pillow”, an essential item for new breastfeeding moms, and a lot more!

INDIGOBaby products will surely enhance a mother’s relationship with her newborn with the snugbug belt bags & summer baby pouches!

Personalize your gift and create a special style for your loved one in Make Your Own Flipflops! Vintage inspired and handmade accessories are also available at Julena’s Lockets & Cameos and Sundari.

Spread the love with U&I, known for their cute gift items that are perfect for couples. These items will surely make your loved one feel extra-special during this season!

Men won’t have to worry about not finding anything at this bazaar – Hello Lulu offers stylish laptop sleeves and canvas bags that suit any mood or season. DRU & NJ Sneaks will definitely help men dress up for upcoming special holiday occasions.

Don’t miss this exciting event at the Rockwell Tent. The Urban Bazaar Holiday Series is scheduled on October 24-25, November 28-30 & December 12-14. For more information, please call 8981702 or log on to powerplantmall.multiply.com.

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I’ve been tagged! Hey, this is fun, I love making lists.

From writer/editor/heartbreakee Sarah Grutas, this meme:

Here’s the rule:

Click copy/paste, type in your answers and tag four people in your lists! Don’t forget to change my answers to the questions with that of yours.

1. Four places I go over and over

MARHO office
Fully Booked at Powerplant
National Bookstore
Philracom

2. Four people who email me regularly
Fountain Pen Network Phils. penfriends
Annie Merginio-Murgatroyd
Gigi Tejada
Kites Cayetano

3. Four of my favorite places to eat
Zaifu at Powerplant
Pancake House
Crustasia
Le Souffle

4. Four places you’d rather be
On the beach
In a spa, having a massage
Any branch of Barnes and Noble or Borders
Kentucky

5. Four TV shows i could watch over and over

The Ghost Whisperer
Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone
CSI: Miami
Star Trek

6. Four lucky winners (of this tag)

Alex
Adelle Chua
Leigh Reyes
Ik

Image: banner illustration of Sarah’s blog.

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This is one of the best R&B songs I’ve ever heard. It was included in a CD called “Light and Easy” ballads that I was either given or had bought, I don’t recall which, perhaps four years ago. I had never heard this song or of the artist – Ephraim Lewis – before.

(Image here.)

Lately I’ve been putting on the album every night as I write articles for a horseracing magazine to be released next month. As I listen to this smooth, smokey, silky voice, the knots in my muscles loosen gradually, I take deeper breaths, and words start to rise from deep inside, flowing from my fingertips onto the keyboard to appear upon the screen coherently arranged, almost effortlessly.

It was only tonight that I thought to search for a music video and find out more about the artist.  He died young, after having cut only one album. Many say he could have been a superstar; but with this just one song, he lives forever.

For me, a song is always both the words and the music. The lyrics are a hauntingly perfect match to the melody. Yes, I have drowned in someone’s eyes. Haven’t we all?

DROWNING IN YOUR EYES (1992)

Ephraim Lewis

Feel the ground it’s slipping away
Like a sigh that greets the close of day
Feel the water’s welcoming arms
Embrace me in their quiet calm
I can’t hear what you say anymore
Just the sound of trees on the ocean floor
Irresistibly drawn from the shore

Chorus
I’m drowning in your eyes
I’m floating out to sea
Helpless on the restless tide
That flows between you and me

Moving slowly as if in a dream
The colours change from blue to green
All around me reflections of you
In forests deep I’m passing through
In the swell of the storm we’re as one
We’re dancing in the morning sun
Could it be that we’ve only just begun

Chorus

Lying here beside you
I try to reach you but you’re so far…

Chorus

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Starbucks rolls out the best designs for their collectible Bearista Bears during the holidays – Valentine’s, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. That’s when I usually choose one to add to my daughters’ collection of these adorable stuffed bears wearing costumes.

This October sees the release of the Owl Bear and the Pumpkin Bear. I saw them first at Starbucks Sucat a few days ago, and thought the Pumpkin one was cute. I figured I’d get one for Ik later on.

A couple of days later, I saw another one – just one – at the Glorietta “Make Room” branch. Again I put off buying it.

I told the kids about it and Ik was intrigued. “When can we get one, Mama?” “This Sunday,” I promised. So when I got back to Manila from Cavite (where I attended the Klub Don Juan de Manila Derby at San Lazaro Leisure Park) at 6pm, we went to Starbucks Rockwell Drive…

…where the shelves were bare of bears.

Disappointed, we crossed over to Powerplant Mall. The Starbucks there didn’t have any left either. After an hour spent browsing in Fully Booked and getting Alex a Belkin case for the iPod Classic I got for her birthday, I suggested we go home.

“But Mama!” Ik wailed. “We can’t go home without getting a pumpkin bear! You said it was cute!”

“Babe, they’re out of stock,” I said. “Okay, here’s what we can do – let’s go back to the Starbucks at Rockwell Drive and ask if they still have one left in the cupboards.”

When we got there, we asked barista Mhon if they had any bears out back. “How many do you need?” he asked. “Just one,” we said. Mhon and Ginger, another barista, called nearby branches. “There’s one at Yupangco,” Ginger told us. “We can have it sent over here, if you’re willing to wait.”

It was the first time that any merchant had offered to fetch an item from a store that’s not in the immediate area. We said we would wait, and ordered a slice of banana loaf and a Hot White Chocolate for Ik as we settled down.

In less than half an hour, Ginger slipped over to Ik’s chair and handed her the bear.

Ik bounced up and hugged the bear,  jumping up and down in her seat. Ginger’s eyes lit up and she smiled, glancing at me. I smiled back at her, as much to say, “You’ve just made one kid very happy!”

Punkin Bear now joins the other Starbucks Bearistas we’ve collected through the years.

Many thanks to Ginger of Starbucks Rockwell Drive for service above and beyond. She went out of her way to make a child happy, and that’s major good karma.

It doesn’t take much to lift a child’s heart – sometimes it’s just a little bit of extra care – yet that could be enough to show that there’s always goodness in the world, somewhere, and that goodness will always influence the child for the better.

And when that child grows up, and it’s her turn to run the world, then perhaps memories such as these will push her to also take that extra step when it matters most.

So this story isn’t just about acquiring this elusive stuffed bear. It’s about much more than that.

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The other day, I hitched a ride with a friend who had to pass by his family’s mausoleum at Manila Memorial Park in Sucat, Parañaque. He had to check on some painting and maintenance work he was having done on it in anticipation of the All Saint’s Day visits.

As he peered up at the mausoleum’s ceiling, which a painter was covering with pink pigment dripping from a roller on a long stick when he had specified beige, I knew I was in for a bit of a wait so I took a stroll around the area.

I found this simple white tomb right behind the one beside that of my friend’s family. While the other mausoleums were closed affairs with gates and locks, this was the only open one in the vicinity, consisting merely of a roof and four pillars.

I wondered who could have been buried in such simplicity amidst the grandeur of the other edifices. There were no flowers, candles, statues of saints. Nothing save a small pot of purple and blue flowers in front of  the tombstone.

Coming closer, I saw that it was the tomb of a hero.

How many of the Filipinos who wore yellow ribbons during the People Power revolution of 1986 know that the man who was their inspiration rests in a plain white marble tomb, starkly unadorned, devoid of the usual signs of grief and affection, while the adversary he spent half his life battling is embalmed and on display in a climate-controlled chamber, surrounded by guards on solemn vigil, memorabilia, and an eternal flame?

This was not the original plan for this hero’s tomb, my friend told me. The family wanted to build it on a lot on the main road of the cemetery, but none were available save for this one that is set back behind a row of other mausoleums. It was also planned that his remains would be moved to a permanent monument in his hometown, Tarlac; but twenty-five years have passed and still here he stays.

Yet, somehow, this humble resting place is more meaningful and spiritual, befitting a hero who lives on in his countrymen’s hearts.

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As a busy but usually disorganized writer and manager, I’m always interested in ways to manage my time and tasks. The last thing I want to happen is to let down a client because I forget to send reports on time, or lose my newspaper column because I keep missing deadlines.

I tried the PDA route for about a year and a half, but discarded it after a while. The device was cumbersome (an O2 XDA) and I couldn’t carry it in small handbags or in my pocket. I would also forget to charge it and would often be dismayed to lose my work when the device died on me.

I went back to the old-school paper-based method, and I now use a Hipster PDA and Moleskine Weekly Diary for data collection.

But I then realized my system was incomplete – how could I be reminded of birthdays and other similar occasions? I also needed a backup plan just in case I lost my notebooks.

A web-based system was ideal, but I wanted one that was based on the David Allen GTD (“Getting Things Done”) philosophy, which has helped me increase my productivity at work.

Luckily, I came across the web-based GTDagenda. I checked it out, and here’s what I found:

1. It’s based on the GTD system of Calendar, Projects, Tasks and Next Actions, and Contexts.

Screenshot of the GTDagenda tour

2. It incorporates other time-management principles such as Goals (career and personal).

3. Because it’s flexible, it can be used to implement other systems such as ZTD (“Zen to Done”) and Covey’s “Seven Habits”.

It takes some getting used to, but if you’re aware of GTD basics, you can feel your way around the user-friendly system. Starting out, you can take a “tour” of GTDagenda’s features and how to adapt it to your specific purposes.

The interface is stress-free, using simple fonts in cool blue and green. The layout is minimal and clean, no clutter, making navigation easier.

Once you open your account, you’ll be taken to your page, which has a menu bar at the top – “Goals”, “Projects”, “Tasks”, “Next Actions”, “Checklists”, “Schedules”, and “Calendar”. You’ll see the list of your Tasks immediately, while sidebars contain a Calendar, your Contexts, and Projects.

GTDagenda also helps you prioritize your Goals, Projects and Tasks; links your Projects to Goals; shows if your Tasks are still active or completed; and provides you with a timeline reminder to check if you are still on track.

The “Checklists” option lets you list things that need to be done weekly – “exercise”, “update blog” – with tick-boxes for each day. “Schedules” lists your routine. I don’t think I’ll be using these, but it’s nice to know that they’re there for those who require such structures.

To get into the habit of checking your GTDagenda daily, add the URL to your tab group favorites and click on it first thing when you fire up your PC. My Daily Tab Group includes my Yahoo email, Facebook, and Friendster sign-in pages; my website (jennyo.net); and now, my log-in page for GTDagenda. (Open them all up in succeeding tabs and click on “Add Tab Group to Favorites” on your browser.)

Anything that helps you keep track of things you need to get done, is a good thing.

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With anime conventions now a regular part of the teen scene in Manila in recent years, I went with Alex and Ik to one to see for myself what all the fuss was all about.

This con was held today at the Megatrade Hall of SM Megamall, Ortigas, Pasig City. Entering the mall at ground level, one sees groups or pairs of teenagers dressed in otherwordly costumes familiar to TV viewers and manga readers, flaunting outlandish makeup, prancing around in killer shoes. It’s called “cosplay” or “costume play”. While they might have attracted gawkers following them around before, now only the strangest costumes turn heads.

The event venue is located at the top floor of the mall. Up there, the place was packed with dressed-up teens and the occasional parent. All were well-behaved; chattering was kept to comfortable noise levels, and there was no pushing or shoving to get in.

The Megatrade Hall at SM Megamall was packed with cosplayers, events people, vendors, and performers.

Cosplayers as Anakin Skywalker and a Stormtrooper

Toys abounded, from these huge and expensive action figures protected inside lucite cases…

…to these teeny ones on bases that allowed them to be displayed…

…to these colorful stuffed cuties.

Cosplayers and fashionistas, including Ik, cram into the tiny stall of Baby Moon Lifestyle, purveyor of Goth, anime, and Lolita clothes and accessories. (babymoonlifestyle.multiply.com)

Ik tries on a Baby Moon mini-top hat…

…but ended up buying these polymer clay cupcake earrings from Mush Pomato.

I call this stall “The Wiggery”. I rather fancy the light pink one with ponytails.

The space in front of the stage was packed.

The cosplayers are the most interesting feature of cons. They love to have their picture taken. Just tap them on the shoulder and they will promptly pose, like this group of accommodating elves.

Costumes are usually homemade or “patahi” at friendly neighborhood mananahis and sastres.

A lot of resources, ingenuity, and planning goes into making these costumes.

Makeup and accessories play an important part in recreating a particular anime character.

Interesting staff. Weapon, or magical item?

“The Mask” comes to life. The dapper suit was mostly likely custom-created by a tailor. The mask is cleverly and painstakingly constructed from sponge foam material. This cosplayer kept patting it before being photographed to make sure all the different bits were still in place.

As performers of a sort, cosplayers are treated rather like celebrities, and fans like Alex here love to have their picture taken with them.

One of the more interesting activities at the con was the impromptu “on-the-spot costume making” contest. This gave participants a chance to show off their wicked creative skills.

This con’s a certified success! With the price of an admission ticket at one hundred pesos, anime cons are big business in Manila.

Being a Gen-Xer, I can say from experience that the anime wave swept Manila during my generation. It was in 1979 that my stepfather, Joseph Sellner, a broadcast blocktimer, brought in “Voltes V” and “Daimos” from Japan. He loved cartoons, and when he went to Tokyo to view these, he was smitten. He aired them on GMA-7 and launched the “robot shows” craze in the country.

I was in fifth grade at the time, and I remember being asked to watch each show to log the commercials and the gaps during which they aired. Not that I had to be forced; they were my favorite shows, along with the other shows Uncle Joe brought in later.

Let’s see – Mondays was “Mekanda”, Tuesdays “Daimos”, Wednesdays “Mazinger-Z”, Thursdays “Grendaizer”, and Fridays “Voltes V”. Filipino voice actors dubbed the shows in English. This was the age of “mecha”, and its unexpected popularity spurred other blocktimers to bring in Balatack, Danguard Ace, and other forerunners of modern anime.

But then-president Ferdinand Marcos saw a good thing and found he wasn’t in it. So he banned these shows, claiming that they were “violent” and a bad example for children. Today, the children who grew up brandishing laser swords and trading rocket punches in their games are now leaders like Francis Pangilinan (senator) and Chiz Escudero (congressman). They turned out okay, didn’t they?

Back then, we didn’t cosplay, but we did wear the shirts and buy the vinyl LPs of the soundtrack, singing along without understanding the lyrics, but having a fine time anyway.

The ban on robot shows disappointed Uncle Joe, but he rebounded. He returned to Japan and came back with “Candy Candy” and “Paul in Fantasyland”, also animes but in different genres. They also became hits, but never reached the height of popularity of Voltes V. “Knight Rider” was also his import, but that one he got from Hollywood.

Today’s generation has brought up the game several notches with the advances in technology and the changes in cultural taste. Yet when I see these cosplayers and anime fans, I see the reflections of myself and my classmates. Through the years, the shows may be different yet the enjoyment remains the same.

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Santa Ana Park is the racetrack facility of the Philippine Racing Club and was built in 1937. PRC was founded by American and Filipino horsemen and entrepreneurs in the late 1920s as a counterpart to the Manila Jockey Club, enclave of Spanish and Filipino aristocrats at its foundation in 1867 until its heyday in the ’50s.

There are three main structures on the twenty-five hectare property, all in a simple Art Deco style – two grandstands and an office building. There is a single dirt (sand) track surrounded by many stables that, over time, have mushroomed to far more than the area can comfortably hold. Stalls are built right up against the cinder-block walls that line the track.

The facade of Santa Ana Park on AP Reyes Avenue on an early morning last April

Races have been held continuously at Santa Ana Park since it was built, with a brief hiatus during the war. It is named for St. Anne, patron saint of nearby Sta. Ana town, Manila, although the racetrack itself is part of Makati. It has been the scene of countless challenging races and has seen the rise – and fall – of champion racehorses and horsemen.

View of AP Reyes Avenue on the other side

It is also “home” to me and my children. We have lived on my father-in-law’s compound behind the track since my marriage to a jockey in 1991. A racehorse trainer and veterinarian, my father-in-law maintains his property as a racing stable with stalls for twelve. We live with the sounds of soft neighing and hoofbeats as the horses are hotwalked in the mornings after ensayo (workout), the clanking of the tin labangans as feeding time approaches. The muted thudding of horses’ hooves on the sawdust is like the hammering of my own heart.

The parking lot is used by the community for group calisthenics

That’s the office building on the left

The Art Deco main building. The second level houses the parquet-floored ballroom and murals of champion horses from the ’70s and ’80s, as well as the broadcast studio, owners’ boxes, and VIP lounges

The parade ring with the finish line in the background

The home turn is on the far left

The first bend; Makati office buildings in the background were built many years after the track was

View of the left-side grandstand

The Stewards’ Stand. The Board of Stewards watch the track with eagle eyes (aided by binoculars) from the top floor; below that is the racecallers’ perch; a viewing area; and on the ground level, the jockeys’ weighing scales

View of the grandstand from the parade ring

A horse trots past the finish line during morning workout

Exercise rider Kiko Dilema asks, “Kinukunan mo na naman kami, Tita Jen?”

A groom leans against the rail, waiting for his horse and its ensayador to finish. One trot, two canter, perhaps?

Alex and Ik, tunay na batang karera – apo ni Doc Alcasid at anak ni jockey Oyet at ni Ms. Jen sa TV

As a young mother, I took my babies here nearly every day to catch the morning sun. When they were older, they learned to walk on the grass beside their track as their father rode by, smiling indulgently.

As a beginning broadcaster in this industry, this is where we shot many episodes of various incarnations of horseracing shows. As a former employee of PRC and of a horseowner who had two racing stables here, I know nearly every inch of this place, from the air-conditioned executive offices to the dusty stables that hug the track walls to the cockpit at the corner where the sabungeros were more vociferous in cheering than kareristas.

And all this will be gone next year, to make way for malls, condominiums, and other towers of glass and steel. The racetrack will be moved to a new, and bigger, seventy-hectare facility in Trece Martirez City, Cavite. There it can accomodate the growing number of horses in a sport that is gaining in popularity among players. It’s for the best, really.

Yet a rich part of history will disappear. Have enough photographs been taken? Videos? Interviews of old-timers who remember the place when it was still “Sampiro”, San Pedro de Makati, when the air was cool and you could faintly see blue shadows of the mountains of Rizal in the distance, before the high-rises rose up to obscure them?

But it is the way of things, that the old make way for the new, for old memories to be remembered and cherished even as new ones are created.

Read more about Philippine horseracing at gogirlracing.jennyo.net

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