A bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die. It comes from the term "kicked the bucket".The movie by Rob Reiner called "The Bucket List" featuring two terminally ill men (played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson) go on a road trip to do the things they wanted to do before they die.

Inspired also by Nikki Tomines, a friend I met in twitter, I am making now my own list to accomplish before my hair turns grey.:)

1. learn how to swim
One of the MUST things to do since the succeeding lists are all about water! I really feel I'm a mermaid incarnate (because I love love love the sea!) but the punishment for my over kakulitan is not knowing how to swim! Haha! Well..i do know how as long as my feet can touch the sea floor.When I can no longer feel the sands on my feet, I panic. Need to get over the trauma soon!

        

2.Learn surfing in San Juan, La Union and have hottah hottah Luke Skywater as my teacher. (He promised already. I hope I won't be distracted. Might end up drooling at his abs. haha!)

          Managed to get his autograph instead. haha  Soon LU and Lukey. Soon.

3.Swim with the pawikan, butanding, and/or dolphin.

4. Explore Palawan esp. Coron. Culion and Cuyo!

5. Go to Bongao, Tawi-tawi.

6. Make my inter-island trips: Cebu-Bohol and Bacolod-Dumaguete-Siquijor.

7. Go bungee jumping, skywalk and scuba diving.

8. Climb Mt. Apo and Hamiguitan bonsai forest.

             Reached the peak of Mt. Apo last May 12,2012 at 11:40AM.

9. Watch Azkals football match live. (done last Dec. 3,2012. Seeing David Beckham in flesh was a HUGE bonus!) 

10. Watch FIFA World Cup. 2014 in Brazil. 2018 Russia. 2022 Qatar. :))

11. Watch Cinemalaya premier night.

12. Buy a domain for my blog.

13.Buy DSLR.

14.Get my photograph(s) published.

15.Help friends make their coffee table books (Heads up for Kuya Julz and Eli! Hanap na tayo ng sponsors.:))

16.Organize another birthday school supplies giving for the kids.

17.Study MA abroad.

18.Have my own library.

19.Donate blood.

20.Get inked! :)

21.Learn to play the guitar.

22.Wear a Filipiniana terno. (wore one during the last day of class in a two-week training at Wageningen University). Here it is:

Who's the walking sun?! HAHA!

23.Do this stunt:


24. Relearn playing the kulintang.

25.Witness a meteor shower.

26.Dress up for a costume party.

27. Brush up my cooking skills.

28.Learn ice skating.

29.Act in an indie film.

30.Fly in a hot-air balloon.(To fly I just learned is very very expensive! around 7k each. But I did go to the 17th Hot Air Balloon Festival in Clark Airfield last Feb. 12,2012 with the Happy Freaks!)

31.Learn poi dancing.

32.Ride an elephant.

33.Learn a new language (still torn between Italian or Spanish).

34.Be a licensed massage therapist.

35.Travel Europe. (Blessed to travel a small part of it, Netherlands and Belgium last Feb. 19-March 12,2012).

36.Experience Sakura (cherry) blossom festival in Japan.

37.Visit Cuba and Curitiba, Brazil (one of the best eco-city. it's mantra? A city for people, not cars! Awesome!)

38.Retrace Che Guevarra's motorcyle journey.

39.Visit Wizarding World of Harry Potter themed park.

40.Visit Jerusalem.

41.Walk the Great Wall of China.

42.Explore a castle.

43.Fire a real gun.

44.Visit Africa.

45.Organize a surprise party for someone.

46.Stand at a border of 2 countries. (The closest I got is standing on the bridge delta work at Oosterschelde, Netherlands which is at the boundary of Antwerp, Belgium. Locally, traversing Samar-Leyte in 20 minutes is one of  the best trips I made. First feeling of being in 2 places at the same time.) 

at Oosterschelde

Tacloban-Samar in 20min

47.Go on pilgrimage in India. Aside from Taj Mahal, I would love to visit this new Star Wars-like building in Mumbai (and wear Padme Amidala-like dress.weeeiiii!)

48. Write an autobiography.

49.Develop ancestral home. Probably have an orchard.

50. Find someone who is God-fearing to share my life with.

The solid moon watched the death of night

The ocean groaned, straining to push the tide

Dew wet, clutched by the trembling hands of time

The blanket of dawn fell

So slowly to reveal Mother Earth

Silhouetted against the horizon- in the throes of birth

The crowning glory peeped, blotching the sky fire red

In the symphony the trees swayed

To the hearing of waves….

As if on cue awoke the birds

I wittering in confusion, heralding

The arrival of a new day.

~mccapili, eons ago


Sunrise at Quadra Eco Resort, Sumpong, Malaybalay City, Bukidnon
March 20, 2009

Sunrise is the beautiful sign of hope and was created by God to let us know that life does not end after sunset.

Morning rush in Panabo on our way to Governor Generoso (July 27, 2011)



A new start in Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur (February 14,2011)

We sleep, but the loom of life never stops and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up tomorrow.~ Henry Ward Beecher

Ending the day with joy in Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Lanao de Norte (February 15,2011)



I wish I could paint the sky with colors like this. Sunset in Gutalac, Zamboanga del Norte (February 14, 2011)

"Itong frontal nudity, Check! Itong sex scene na may actual penetration, Check na check! Gagawin ko ang lahat… wag nyo naman akong palusungin sa tae.”

The attention grabbing line of the hilarious Eugene Domingo in the Cinemalaya 2011 winner Ang Babae sa Septic Tank. One would wonder, will she do it and be shown on screen? :)



I was invited by my sorority sis Emyat to watch the movie. "The movie is hilarious sis!"she assured me. I went without any idea what it is all about except that it won awards.

From Cinemalaya's website, here's the synopsis of the movie:

"It chronicles a day in the life of three ambitious, passionate but misguided filmmakers as they set out to do a quick pre-prod at Starbucks, a courtesy call to their lead actress, Eugene Domingo, and an ocular inspection of their film’s major location, the Payatas dumpsite. Director Rainier (Kean Cipriano), Producer Bingbong (JM de Guzman) and Production Assistant Jocelyn (Cai Cortez) are well-to-do, well-educated film school graduates who are dead set on making an Oscar worthy film. They believe they have a winning script, the energy and the drive to make their dreams come true. Like most filmmakers they know, they have devised a screenplay that will show the real essence of our culture: poverty. In the course of one day, they brainstorm and exhaust all possible treatment of their project: the story of Mila (Eugene Domingo), a mother from the slums, who out of desperation to survive, has sold her child to a pedophile. As they discuss the possible executions of the story, the movie-within-a-movie gets reborn in Jocelyn’s imagination several times. As a gritty no frills neo-realist film, as a glossy musical, as an over-the-top melodrama and as a docu drama using non-actors. For their last task of the day, they visit the dumpsite for the first time. As filmmakers gunning for authenticity, they get excited with the ”beauty” of the squalor around them. Soon enough, they are faced with reality as they come face to face with the real effects of their chosen subject. Babae sa Septic Tank is a comedy about misguided ambitions, the art of making art and the romanticization of poverty."

Coming from the writer of humorous Here Comes the Bride and Kimmy Dora, this is humor on another level. A parody. Uge (Eugene Domingo) played a larger-than;life version of herself. She played a caricature of herself; a celebrity who wants to do " something for the soul", an actress who wants to make a movie that will not earn her lots of money. This is a parody of many celebrities who feel that they are worthy of being called as "actor" when they appear in an “indie” film regardless of how bad the material is.

The story revolves about three friends who goes through story-telling process of wanting to tell a story about poverty but knows nothing about the subject itself. Poverty is how they see it in "indie" films. Poverty that abounds "indie" films and being picked for international festivals because that's what the festival organizers wanted to see.

As Cris Martinez said in one of the interviews, the idea came up when he do rounds of "100" (another indie movie he directed) about a 100 things a middle class woman wants to do before she dies. The woman was played by beautiful Mylene Dizon, lives in a posh condo and owns SUV. The audience abroad was surprised to see "beautiful" things about the Philippines. They expect movie of poverty porn! It's the movies that filmmakers do because it's those kind of movies being picked up.

Harsh reality here is, you'll never make it here in the country not unless your film/s is screened abroad!


And Babae sa Septic Tank showed these ironies. Budding filmmakers dream of making it big by writing about poverty. Except they really know nothing about poverty, Poverty for them is like what they see in the news and "indie" films they wanted to emulate (or even surpass! Oscar material, they say!). These people who talked about poverty in the comforts of Starbucks, whose problems are about iPad charger and fellow directors who made it to Venice festival yet could not differentiate "expresso" from "espresso", new famous director colleagues making the rounds international festivals abroad yet doesn't know where Vesoul is. What these filmmakers want is just to be famous abroad. To f*ck with poverty and depression of the poor!


The movie started with seriousness that you'll ask, "did I come to the right movie?" but as the story unfolds, the moviegoers howled with laughter at the right parts and feel silent while pondering at the parts that made us wonder, "what is the state of the Philippine cinema? What is "indie"? " Indie films wanted to break away from commercialism of mainstream movies only to be trapped by new set of conventions.

Maybe we should no longer ask what differentiates "indie" from 'mainstream'? But rather filmmakers should ask, "what makes a good film"? We have to make compelling stories; good films that our audience can truly think AND enjoy! Babae sa Septic Tank is one of those films.



PS. I hope more Cinemalaya movies will be shown nationwide! Hail to the rebirth of Philippine cinema. Hail to more thought provoking films! :)

All work and no play makes one dull. So for this year, our office have our much deserved rest and recreation in Lake Sebu.This is one of the most memorable trips of crazy people.


Here's our iterinary prepared by our IT personnel, inhouse corny joker Kuya Jorge:


PS: Notice that our main stops in different municipalities are for resting and EATING!! Me gusta. :))


Day 1
8:00am Davao - GENSAN
9:00 Breakfast at MERS (Digos)

Try their hot choco and puto. Best way to perk up your day! :)


12:00nn Lunch at Nadie’s Chicken House (Tupi)


Must try chicken inasal.

Wala ng usapan during lunch. Tom Jones na sobra! :)

1:00pm Travel to Koronadal City
1:30 Break at Ojie’s Ice Cream Station (Banga)


2:00 Courtesy Call with Surallah Mayor

This not solely a trip. It is with a purpose. We met the Municipal Agriculturist and discussed Mayor Romulo "Mulong" Solivio's Program on Local Economic Development through Organic Agriculture and co-management (with DENR) of Watershed System. I salute Mayor Solivio for winning the 2009 Galing Pook with its Sustainable Agriculture and Alternative Medicine Program. I salute the Leaders who truly find innovative ways to connect with private sectors without compromising his/her constituents. Padayon Surallah! :)


we went to the Surallah Organic Center near the Municipal Hall ground and bought organic products produced locally. We call for support of small farmers. :)


Ate Tess supervising the planter. hehe. This is at the Surallah's vegetable demo farm.


Talking to several organic rice farmers and the struggles they have to go through like the resistance even of their own siblings on their advocacy to stop the use of synthetic fertilizers. KUDOS TO THE STEADFAST FARMERS! YES to HEALTHY LIVING! :)




3:00 Travel to Lake Sebu



6:00 Dinner at floating restaurant and Videoke at(Punta Isla)


The wacky AFRIM peeps at Punta Isla Resort.


Day 2
7:00am Breakfast
8:00 Trekking to SEVEN FALLS aaaaaaaaaaaaand ZIPLINE


At FIRST FALLS with Ate Lizzy. We've been here before!


At the 2nd Falls. The HIGHEST FALLS.



Overlooking 2nd, 3rd (hidden), 4th and 5th Falls!


ZIPLINE. THIS IS THE ONLY THING I've been looking forward to! Try the highest (1,200 ft) ride of your life! Pay P250 on weekdays (P300 on week-ends) to be scared and to shout your hearts out. Ate Lizzy, my perennial partner and I had the time of our life, watching Fall 2 to Falls 5. Exhilarating experience. Here's the proof! :))




12:00nn Lunch at 2nd Falls


Eat all kinds of tilapia dishes. Try the chicharon tilapia, deep fried, sinugba, paksiw, sinigang, fillet,nilasing na tilapia. After 2 days, you'll never look at tilapia again! LOL! Hey! Don't worry. They do serve other dishes. Try the nilagpang na manok. :)

1:00pm Boating around the Lake

Ang inulang boating na hindi nagpatigil sa kakiatan ng lahat! :)

6:00 Dinner
7:30 Midyear Assessment (All tired. But we have to do this. Or else! )



Day 3

7:00am Travel to Surallah
7:30 Breakfast at Kipot Hito Farm (Surallah)
8:30 Travel to Kablon Farm for exposure(Tupi)

We met Eunice, the HR/ Admin Manager of the farm. it was enriching talking to her experiences- about working in a corporation and going back to help in the family business. She's a young professional with a vision.:)

12:00 Lunch at Sarangani Highlands



Ang pag-eemote ng inyo pong lingkod! Patawarin naman. hehe

1:00pm Shopping for Tuna products/ Dried Fish
2:30 Halo-halo at Razon’s
3:00 Travel back to Davao for other staff while I went hoem again to attend the National IP Women Gathering in Koronadal City.


It is one of the best lakbay laag! :)) I'm still floating.

To my dear readers, you might want to use the above iterinary when you want to travel to Lake Sebu and Gensan.

BOOST LOCAL TOURISM. SUPPORT LOCAL ECONOMY! :)