I know I should be talking about the Hostage Drama that took place last night, placing Manila erasing whatever's left of Manila's shine in the international and Asian tourist scene. But it seemes like everyone has already said his two cents worth on the matter. I will comment on it later.
Meanwhile, Miss Venus Raj....
She didn't fall off the stage, there was no wardrobe malfunction..unfortunately, the international press already named her answer as the only notabe glitch that happened on stage.
For someone who appeared so confident and smart, Miss Venus appears to have suffered from a bad case of stage fright. I think that she over-analyzed, over-prepared, and pressure cooked her brain before the pageant night such that when the spot-light was finally on her, she could only answer whatever popped into her brain.
She should have taken a deep breath, and listened to the question. I wonder if she was coached on how to handle these things. Of course she was. Perhaps her preparation for the question and answer segment was to practice fielding as many probable questions as possible and to memorize some standard answers, along the lines of "i would like to thank my family for always supporting me...". Geez.
I do not blame Ms. Venus, nor am I putting her down. How many of us have actually been on the Ms. Universe Pageant stage stading in front of millions of viewers? Gloria Diaz and Miriam Quiambao aside, not very many.
And speaking of Miriam, she suffered almost the same fate. Her graceful handling of an embarassing stumble placed her as one the the crowds early favorites. But her answer to the final question.... that was even more traumatizing because she came so close, and she had an early advantage.
So, moral of the story? Why the heck are we still watching beauty pageants? I thought they're so passe and have reached their peak until the advent of the reality shows? Well, because beauty pageants are the precursor for modern-age reality shows.
But before I delve into that other topic fully, which I will not because I feel dizzy just thinking about reality shows, I think that beauty pageant contestants must be trained how to listen to the question, analyze the underlying context of what is being asked and be confident to speak her own mind, not what her coaches told her what the "best" answer shoudl sound like.
Or let's just stick to beauty and scrap the question and answer portion. Then let's have a Nerd pageant where all contestants know how to listen to the question, ananlyze the underlying context and give a totally nerdy answer to please the audience. If there is anyone listening other than the contestants' mothers.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
New Home, New School
It's the peak of summer and we all have the heat-stroke stories to prove it.
Since we are moving to a new home to be closer to my place of work, my son Ched is also moving to a new school. We are both excited since he was officially admitted to his new school. He's sometimes concerened about bullies and about making new friends, but Ched is a bibo kid and i know he'll fit-in in no time.
Like many parents all over, it's tough thinking of ways how to keep my child from becoming bored since school is still out. We are done with our mini vacations visiting cousins and taking out-of-town trips. He's just about to finish Swim Clinic this April, and there lies my problem. A curious kid like mine, with his overactive imagination didn't need much time figuring out all the orgami tricks in his origami books. All the old calendars, old T-shirts, old cabinet doors have been painted on. I'm worried he might do some painting to our ceilings and walls due to boredom.
Since I spent much on our new digs, I have limited cash to spend on any more vacations or trips to the beach. Ched is getting bored. I can almost hear his internal boredometer ticking overtime he looks wistfully at me as I get ready to go to work. He has watched all the shows on cable and is down to reading his old Children's Encyclopedia. He remains entertained for now, but I'm not sure for how long.
There is still an art, taekwondo and drama class that he could take but we have already resolved not to take anymore martial arts classes for him. I also dont encourage theater workshops lest he pesters me again to bring him to auditions and VTR's (he picks up a lot of these showbiz ideas from friends at these workshops). I try to veer him away from that for now. Showbiz, if that will still interest him later, will just have to wait.
I have to check the art workshop if they offer classes for intermmediate levels. Ched will only get bored with the basics since his arts teachers in his previous school already placed him in advanced levels in drawing and painting. We also skipped any sports activity this summer since he is scheduled to have 4 tooth extractions starting the 1st week of May.
I know, I know, children nowadays are more sophisticated than those during my time. Summer breaks weren't so hard for my parents to figure out for us. Our limitless imagination kept us from being bored during those hot summer days. We didn't always have out of town trips or any fancy classes or hobbies to be busy with, all we needed were a few neighborhood friends and we were good to go. The games, the bahay-bahayan, and all sorts of gimmicks were aplenty to keep us busy.
Ched is not lacking for any friends in our old neighborhood. I still bring him there to be with his lola and lola a few days every week, but eversince I could remember, his neighborhood friends also had summer classes to go to. We all shared a common goal of making sure our children do not become computer zombies during summer, which explains our mad rush to enroll our kids in summer classes.
With our recent transfer, our desktop computer still sits in a box, waiting for my cousin Ding to assemble the whole thing. Like i said, Ched of late is seen reading his encyclopedia and books to pass the time. He misses his Facebook account, SF games and YouTube guitar lessons, but he is discovering that very interesting information about the world is just a flip away in the pages of his children's encyclopedia.
Hmmmnnn, I think I'm going to postpone Ding's visit next week. The desktop could enjoy a few more weeks resting inside its box.
Since we are moving to a new home to be closer to my place of work, my son Ched is also moving to a new school. We are both excited since he was officially admitted to his new school. He's sometimes concerened about bullies and about making new friends, but Ched is a bibo kid and i know he'll fit-in in no time.
Like many parents all over, it's tough thinking of ways how to keep my child from becoming bored since school is still out. We are done with our mini vacations visiting cousins and taking out-of-town trips. He's just about to finish Swim Clinic this April, and there lies my problem. A curious kid like mine, with his overactive imagination didn't need much time figuring out all the orgami tricks in his origami books. All the old calendars, old T-shirts, old cabinet doors have been painted on. I'm worried he might do some painting to our ceilings and walls due to boredom.
Since I spent much on our new digs, I have limited cash to spend on any more vacations or trips to the beach. Ched is getting bored. I can almost hear his internal boredometer ticking overtime he looks wistfully at me as I get ready to go to work. He has watched all the shows on cable and is down to reading his old Children's Encyclopedia. He remains entertained for now, but I'm not sure for how long.
There is still an art, taekwondo and drama class that he could take but we have already resolved not to take anymore martial arts classes for him. I also dont encourage theater workshops lest he pesters me again to bring him to auditions and VTR's (he picks up a lot of these showbiz ideas from friends at these workshops). I try to veer him away from that for now. Showbiz, if that will still interest him later, will just have to wait.
I have to check the art workshop if they offer classes for intermmediate levels. Ched will only get bored with the basics since his arts teachers in his previous school already placed him in advanced levels in drawing and painting. We also skipped any sports activity this summer since he is scheduled to have 4 tooth extractions starting the 1st week of May.
I know, I know, children nowadays are more sophisticated than those during my time. Summer breaks weren't so hard for my parents to figure out for us. Our limitless imagination kept us from being bored during those hot summer days. We didn't always have out of town trips or any fancy classes or hobbies to be busy with, all we needed were a few neighborhood friends and we were good to go. The games, the bahay-bahayan, and all sorts of gimmicks were aplenty to keep us busy.
Ched is not lacking for any friends in our old neighborhood. I still bring him there to be with his lola and lola a few days every week, but eversince I could remember, his neighborhood friends also had summer classes to go to. We all shared a common goal of making sure our children do not become computer zombies during summer, which explains our mad rush to enroll our kids in summer classes.
With our recent transfer, our desktop computer still sits in a box, waiting for my cousin Ding to assemble the whole thing. Like i said, Ched of late is seen reading his encyclopedia and books to pass the time. He misses his Facebook account, SF games and YouTube guitar lessons, but he is discovering that very interesting information about the world is just a flip away in the pages of his children's encyclopedia.
Hmmmnnn, I think I'm going to postpone Ding's visit next week. The desktop could enjoy a few more weeks resting inside its box.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)