another disaster upon us...

Am sure by now most, if not all, of us have heard about the Earthquake that shook the impoverished country of Haiti on Tuesday, Jan 12th. The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles west from the Caribbean nation's capital of Port-au-Prince. No confirmed DEATH TOLL count as of yet, but listening to BBC radio this morning, I heard that it is already in the Tens and thousands... so the as soon as some kind of DEATH TOLL appears, it will go down in history as another disaster where countless lives were lost....
So, I was talking with a few friends about the horrors of it all... swapping stories of the BIG Quakes: in San Francisco ('89) and here in Taiwan ('91) - both of which I have managed to experience and survived... of course everyone has a different opinion... Act of God, Mother Nature, and so on... and at times like these, one thing is always sure to be questioned: "WHERE IS GOD?"

Am not really a religious person, but I do hold on to my beliefs... I do believe in God... I believe that he will not give us anymore than we can handle.... and God is everywhere you see/find Love... and in the case of Haiti - God is where the VOLUNTEERS are...

God is where the countless Medical volunteers; the soldiers; the firefighters and the trained sniff dogs; the countries extending a helping hand and sending relief aids, money or otherwise...

God is where the many regular people, such as you and me, who will donate their time, money, material (clothing & food) and whatever else we can that we feel the the victims will be needing...

and God is where the Haitians who suffered from these calamity and still managed to get back and help one another... not take advantage of the situation to loot and cause more havoc....

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still in Holiday Spirits...

Gotta hand it to my MOM, even amidst all the tragedy she has gone through over the recent barrages of TYPHOON that hit the northern part of the Philippines - she is still very much into the HOLIDAY spirits...

Typhoon Ondoy touched my Mom so much more that I had expected and known... her home was actually submerged, chest deep with water..all her belongings floating in the flood, with some being washed away... and the thing that broke my heart most, I learned that she was even in a SHELTER for a few days - as my half brother felt she is safer there while they wait for the water to subside.... My MOM worries so much about me worrying, she asked that I do not get informed... my first reaction was UPSET at first, but then I understood how my MOM was feeling/thinking - and I love her even more for it... she basically felt that I am going through enough right now, that she did not want me to just drop everything and fly to see her at once... she insisted on waiting for me to arrive on the date I said I would - my monthly scheduled visit...

I do not think anyone can even IMAGINE how I felt upon learning all this? what she has gone through? and what she has seen? Nor can I IMAGINE what she was feeling while going through it all... all I could do was break into tears upon hearing her tell the story... and even on my own, when I think of it all and try to IMAGINE - what comes into my mind haunts and breaks my heart...
anyway, am SUPER GLAD she is moved to a better place.... and to see her still in GREAT SPIRITS and FEEL SO BLESSED having SURVIVED it all - just gives me so much joy... she is in such Great spirits that the first thing she even did once moved is put up an XMAS TREE already... to signify that there is still so much LIFE & HOPE to be THANKFUL for....

hEaRt

"Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tries and a touch that never hurts..."

"Love Actually" - A New XMas Tradition

12 more days till XMAS!!!!
Well, most of us are probably watching the classic movies that gets re broadcast year after year during the Holidays: "White XMas", A Christmas Carol", The Sound Of Music", and so on... or Newer XMas Classics: "Home Alone", A Christmas Story", Scrooged", etc...

One movie that has become a tradition for me is "Love Actually"...  The movie follows 8 interrelated couples - all dealing with their own kinds of LOVE -- set during the frenzied month of DEC...  culminating on XMAS DAY... 

It is one of those movies that has everything and are all well told, well paced, and each with its' own HAPPY ENDING -- even when the couples do not really get together in the end... It is both heartwarming  and REAL....  Below are the two STAND OUT story arcs in my opinion... 

The BEST STORY LINE:
This Kiera Knightley one is one of the sweetest pay off in a love story movie...even though the GUY does not get the girl....

The MOST HEARTBREAKING one:
Midlife Crisis at its' most devastating....  knowing that your other half is having an affair....  the look on Emma Thompson's face upon opening up her XMAS gift of a Joni Mitchell CD is so heartbreaking.... 

...The other stories are just as GREAT and TOUCHING... this is truly one of the BEST Holiday movies for the MODERN TIMES.....  and will Forever be Timeless.....

Thankful!

I see myself as basically a nice guy.... simple.... friendly... helping in anyway I can, here and there.... and most of all, I ALWAYS TRY SEE see something GOOD & BEAUTIFUL in anything and everything.... no matter where I am... who am dealing with in life.... and with all the things that happens, not just to me but in this world we LIVE in....

Recently, we have SUFFERED a GREAT LOSS.... no one DYING - mind you... more like MONETARY LOSS.... a little over US$20,000 to be exact.... in these trying times, losing this amount is enough to drive anyone crazy or into a deep depression.... It would have been OK, I SUPPOSE, if it was just due to the flailing economy happening all the world.... but it was more DUE to TRUSTING TOO MUCH and being TAKEN by the EVIL PEOPLE of the world....

We have been PONDERING and yes, I CRIED over this for weeks.... and we are basically just now regaining our FOCUS ONCE AGAIN -- DRIVE and DETERMINATION.... Thanks to FAMILY, FRIENDS & LOVE ONES -- we are able to LOOK BEYOND all of this and GAIN BACK OUR POSITIVE OUTLOOK in LIFE...

As friends lovingly reminded me.... there is such a THING as KARMA... and $$$ can be gained once again with hard work and perseverance.... I do still have my HEALTH, my FRIENDS, & FAMILY -- and for this am very THANKFUL.... they are what MATTERS most in LIFE!!!
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So HUG LIFE! HUG your LOVE ONES!! and MAKE every MOMENT COUNT!!!

Bernardo Bertulucci's Little Buddha

Little Buddha, inspired by a TRUE STORY, is moving drama from Academy Award-winning director Bernardo Bertolucci. It tells the story of a Tibetan monk known as Lama Norbu (Ying Ruocheng), living in exile in Bhutan, and is searching for the reincarnation of his teacher, Lama Dorje. His quest takes him to Seattle, where signs indicate that a boy named Jesse may be the lama. Cultures collide when we meet the boy's American parents (Bridget Fonda and actor/singer Chris Isaak), who are understandably skeptical about Lama Norbu's excitement. Ultimately, Jesse and his father are curious enough to travel to Nepal and Bhutan (as did Bertolucci's crew), where other candidates have been identified. Throughout the film, Bertolucci cuts to episodes in the life of Siddhartha (Keanu Reeves), whose voyage of discovery 2,500 years ago led to his enlightenment as the Buddha. Bertolucci shoots Siddhartha's journey in rich reds and golds, while the scenes in Seattle--where the Americans seem morose and lost--are muted in cool blue. LITTLE BUDDHA is an intimate story in which an ancient system of belief holds its own in the modern world.

This beautifully filmed, little movie filmed mostly in Thailand, is sooooo moving - and such a cinematic experience for me especially seeing the SIDDHARTHA story line come to life in the big screen... Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is one of my all time FAVE books...

So this movie is really a story within a story of a movie... subtlely and beautifully told -- on all counts. And as an added BONUS, Siddhartha is played by a very young Keanu Reeves.

who says he is NO GOOD anymore???

One day as I was walking from my home to run a few errands, I happen upon this dirty snowman on the side of the street... not too sure is he is being thrown away... or put out to dry to get cleaned up??? I can only hope that it is the latter as he is still pretty much in good shape... with just a bit of washing and scrubbing - he would be as good as new... and will display nicely for the Holidays...

Anyway, seeing this snowman made me think of one of my favorite Children's Book ever, The Velveteen Rabbit. The tale of a stuffed bunny rabbit that was given to a boy one Christmas, loved, and then over shadowed by other fancier toys, and eventually thrown to the side and forgotten. In the end of course, the stuffed rabbit was granted by a magical fairy his wish - to become real.

The book was written and originally published in 1922, written by Margery Williams and illustrated by William Nicholson. I did not become aware of it though till the mid 80's when, for Christmas one year, I was given the Video recording version of the book, narrated by Meryl Streep. I remember loving the story so much that, not only did I play the recording over and over, I also made it a tradition to read the book every XMas from then on.

To this date, I do still have the book, and I do still re-read it each and every Holiday season. It still gives me that same warm & fuzzy feeling each time -- just as all toys of mine will always have a place in my heart... even after I have passed some of them on to friends and loved ones, or donated to children's charities... I can only hope they do love them and take good care of them -- as much as I did....

..it's beginning to look a lot like XMas...

Okay, even before Halloween it was already starting to look a lot like XMAS' And I could not be HAPPIER - after all, those of you who know me well, knows that this is my MOST FAVE Holiday of all!!!

Department stores & Shopping malls, both in Taiwan & The Philippines, have already made ways for their XMAS shops: started putting up their XMAS decors.... lining up major streets with XMas lights... and even started playing XMAS carols... Heck, even Nanay was playing Jackson 5's XMas music over and over, throughout our ride to see my MOM...

So getting into the SPIRIT of things - I made my first XMAS purchase for the year... this Paper Mache' Holy Family done in Green -- as XMas will be all green for me this year...

How is it in your neck of the XMas woods???

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Blood Is Thicker Than Water, Indeed...

I thought I had LOST this email from my brother... he sent me this email back in the SUMMER of 2007.... am sooo HAPPY to have found it filed in one of my folders.... and not LOST after all... the email included something he had written and was published a month prior to me getting the email, during the annual Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month...

I remember feeling back then, after reading this, how though we could be as different as Night & Day -- we still hold the same feelings for our childhood memories, family & friends, and the country we were both born in.... This feelings of longing is even more intense and rekindled now that I have been going back a lot, to look into our MOM....

We left The Philippines together at a young age and moved to the USA to be with our father... like all siblings, we had our fun times... our quarrels... our differences... and the last time we were really together, prior to our DAD's Funeral in 2006, was before he left for the US Air Force -- many, many years ago....

I am soooo PROUD of him for this article and thought I would share it with you all..
My Kuya Benjie: Taken back in late 2007 during the last weeks of his stint in Iraq.

Stranger In My Own Country

By: SMSgt Reuben P. Teruel
United States Air Force
51st Logistics Readiness Squadron

So many memories…

I miss my country, where everything is so different yet so familiar at the same time. I miss my relatives, the people who taught me never to forget where I came from, because it is a part of who I am and always will be. It is this fierce pride in my heritage, my culture, that has kept me devoted to my motherland.
I know that I do not belong in America. I do not belong in a place where I am supposed to be obsessing over superficialities while people in my country are struggling to survive. Nor can I ignore the yearning inside of me to go back home, to the people and places I love and miss so much. I cannot simply go on with my life and pretend that I am still the carefree person I once was, because nothing is the same.
It has been so many years since I left. There are some things I can still remember, having thumbed through the same old pictures many times in my attempts to hold on to days gone by, but other memories have been lost in the dark recesses of my mind. Images of what I have left behind greet me at every turn, making the wait seem even longer and the longing even stronger. Though it was only last year that I was talking and laughing and mourned with my relatives, it’s really been more than 30 years that my life is filled with tears and the sorrow of goodbye. The dull ache of homesickness still remains and it never goes away.
I want to go back. Back to the chorus of the roosters at dawn, the sound of jeepneys and tricycles rushing by on the street and the familiar ring of a vendor's bell as they pass by. All of that is gone now and there is nothing more to do but go on with my life here in America and wait for the years to pass until I can return once again.
I have already missed so much.
I wonder how different my life would have been if I had grown up in the Philippines. Sure, I would not possess most of the things that I have now, but would any of that matter? Time has passed by so quickly and going back, I felt like I was a stranger in my own country. I have been away another year but what is a single year after so many have already come and gone?

Nothing can ever replace what I have lost.
There are times when I have to remind myself how blessed I am to be here. I carelessly spend money on trivial items and proceed to whine about not having enough. I do not want to forget all that I have seen and yet it is starting to form a hazy picture in the back of my mind.
And so I sit here helplessly and watch as my country slowly deteriorates. Unlike so many others, I need not worry about where my next meal will come from or have any fears about my future, simply because I grew up in the United States. Yes, I have greater opportunity than many can ever hope to have but there is no escaping the irony and the guilt that comes with it.
People tell me that it is hopeless, that I should follow the example of the millions of others who stayed abroad and send money back home. Help the economy, they say. But if everyone were to leave, who would be left to help the others that have no choice but to stay? For the simple reason that I can, I must go back. Do I think that I as an individual can make a difference? Not only do I believe I can…but I must make a difference. I have had more than enough ease and comfort in my life and there are others who will never know what it is like.
I speak for Filipinos everywhere, whose lives and families have been torn apart by distance and time. I speak for those whose dreams have been smothered by the weight of reality and for others who have left in search of an illusion and who may never return.
I weep for my dying country, where hope itself has grown weary from hunger. I’m longing to one day return home for good in the land of my parents…the land of my birth. To live amongst my people once again. I know life maybe harder but there is no denying…home is where my heart is. After all, you can take a Filipino out of the Philippines…but you can never take the Philippines out of a Filipinos heart.
One day I shall return. Someday…I will be home…

Halloween Comes Early.... a tad bit anyway....

Got an email from my dear friend, Mary today.... just our usual "dropping you a note" type emails - as we do on a regular basis... today she attached a photo of her Halloween themed desk at work - see above photo... gave me that excited feeling, warm fuzzy feeling as most calls it, I always do when I see displays of any sorts -- for any of the many Holidays I would normally go all out doing displays for...

Needless to say, it made me recall all the FUN Halloweens I used to spend in San Francisco... dressing up and hanging out with friends.... walking up and down the CASTRO St to admire all the costumes - elaborate or not so elaborate; and revel in all the excitement and festivities...

Aaaah.... Halloween, along with Dia De Los Muertos & XMas, is possibly one of the Holidays I miss most.... well, at least I have my very own little decoration here, all the way from San Francisco - courtesy of another good friend, Juliana....Thank God for friends who always remind me of all these simple things in life I love most....
PS: This one is Mary's Halloween display at home... Love It!!! Just got it today, Oct 23rd... brightened up a bit my otherwise GLOOMY DAY... Thanks Mary!!

Jimmy Liao - Taiwan Artist

The HIGHLIGHT of my weekend that just passed was finding the time to see and enjoy the exhibition, Never Ending Story. It is of the works and art of Taiwanese Artist/Illustrator, Jimmy Liao, whose international appeal has grown overwhelmingly and rightfully so. A third of his books have been translated into Japanese and, slowly but surely,into English, French, German, Korean. Also in simplified Chinese characters as used in mainland China where he is very much well known.

In the fantasy world he has created, a child can stroll with a moon, wings can grow on a man and a blind girl can set off for adventures riding the subway. His tales carries familiar themes such as, love, breaking up, serendipity and urban isolation -- but he does it all through his whimsical characterizations of his illustrations.
The first book he created is also his favorite of all, "Secrets in the Forest". It tells the story of a boy exploring a forest in his dream. Facing all sorts of terrible and scary things. It was a success when it was released in 1998 and dubbed that year's best children's book by major newspapers.

Through interviews, the illustrator has stated that he created this first book at the age of 40 when battling leukemia. He stated that: "At that time I was scared, fragile and in despair, I didn't know what would happen to me. Drawing the book everyday became a power to sustain me and gave me more faith."

Jimmy's style is whimsical and heartwarming and he paints in bright and bold colors -- so rich that they leave deep impressions. Though one would argue that picture books are mostly for children, Mr Liao had built an adult following, myself included. Credit it all to his vivid illustrations and very emotional story telling of stories that tugs at the heart.

His appeal first crossed onto the adult readers in "Separate Ways" about a man and a woman who live in the same building but never run into other for much of the book, until a chance meeting that sees them fall for each other. It was an instant best seller and was also adopted into a movie "Turn Left, Turn Right" with one of my FAVE heart-throb, Taiwanese/Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro and Hong Kong actress Gigi Leung playing Mr Liao's lonely lovers to be.

Another of his books, "Sound of Colors" about a blind girl venturing out in the city on the subway, was realized in film by Internationally acclaimed Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai. He produced the movie based on the book featuring Hong Kong star Tong Leung Chiu-wai and Miriam Yeung.

It is good to note that as his career soared, Mr. Jimmy Liao overcame leukemia to regain full health.
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The site of the EXHIBITION - ESLITE BOOKSTORE (the BEST Bookstore in the World in my opinion!) right next to the Taipei 101 Building.

LINKS of INTERESTS:
-JimmySpa
-Taipei Times Article

AAAAAAAWWWWWWW - Heartwarming!!!!

Funny how life works... 3 tiger cubs gets abandoned by their Mom, and through the miracles of miracles,Isabella, a Golden retriever who just happens to be pregnant steps in and nurses them....

Complete Story Here:
Dog plays mom to tiger cubs abandoned.



ADDENDUM:
My Good Friend Mary, after reading this BLOG, sent me this LINK:
Christian, The Lion
-the VIDEO is a bit dated but the message is timeless

LaLa - LaDiDa.....

the newest member of the Wu Family is this cute dog, Lala.... he is a strange & cute one... yes, you read that correctly - HE!!! not really sure why he is named Lala -- no wonder the dog is confused.... he is totally cute... knows a few tricks - like shaking hand - as seen on this video with me trying my darnedest to speak to him in Chinese.... and he knows how to play dead... you say Bang Bang and he drops dead on the floor....

so you would think he is a smart one.... then why oh why can he not find his way home??? and he has been living there for over half a year already???? hmmmmm.....
I really like this dog too... am normally scared of bigger dogs but he is just too sweet... follows you around and always loves to be petted.... makes me wish for a dog of my own again....