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Monday, December 5, 2011

Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year 2011




Dictionary.com is actually the largest and most trusted free online dictionary. One can quickly find words with accurate definitions as well as it’s proper pronunciation. It is a website featuring:
-Word of the Day             - Grammars & styles       - Translators       - References     
- Word Games                 - Daily Crossword           - Thesaurus

The editors are choosing a word of a kind per year in two ways:
1.       They can select common words in usage
2.       They can select a word that captures the character of the year.
And now, their Word of the Year pick? Well, most probably you’ve never even heard their chosen Word of the Year. I know I didn’t.


Tergiversate. Pronounced as “ ter-jiv-er-sate”.  It is a word from Latin tergiversor (turn one’s back or make excuses); from tergum (the back) & verso (turn). It is verb that means to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.”.  It also means to change sides or loyalty or to evade. Simply put it means to “double-minded’ since it means you like to change your mind a lot. Like women?  :D
Editors said they have chosen it since it is associated with situations rapidly changing which fits our political and economic times.
"We think that it's immensely rewarding to find existing words that capture a precise experience and this year tumult has been the norm rather than the exception," says the website's head of content Jay Schwartz in a Daily Mail article. "The word encompasses a sense of 'flip-flopping' but it also implies a number of other complicating forces."
Last year’s word of the year was ‘change’ describing the word becoming a different place.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Celebrating a Filipino Christmas



Proud to be Pinoy!

As Filipinos, we are well-known around the globe for being very accommodating especially to tourists and as being cheerful  people. Mix that with the merriest holiday of the year, Christmas, it would surely blow you off with glee!
Philippines was known for celebrating Christmas as early as the start of the –ber months which is September and ends on early January the following year. Believe it or not, Filipinos celebrates the world’s longest Christmas season.  It’s actually funny to see Christmas decors and toys on the malls being seen together with the ghoul masks as early as September for celebrating All Souls Day of November 2.

CHRISTMAS DECORS

Speaking of which, the holiday wouldn’t be complete of course without the Christmas decorations for setting off the holiday mood such as the parol. It is a lantern made of bamboo sticks shaped as a star covered with colorful thin sheets papers lighted up from its inside. It was actually inspired from the bright star which guided the 3 wise men to the stable where Jesus was born.
The belen is famously seen as well on this season. It is the Nativity scene of Jesus on a manger complete with the 3 wise men, angels, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, stable animals and the bright star of course.

CAROLS

Christmas carols were already played on radios and on malls as well as early as that. I’m glad I was able to experience going from one house to another singing Christmas carols, which is karoling in tagalog when I was a kid. We would then sneak off to a perya afterwards, which is a small carnival party famous as well during this season. I was actually the one always carrying the improvised tambourines which were actually just aluminum bottle caps strung in a wire. Our drum sets, tambol, were actually made of big round plastic containers topped with a stretched market plastics by an elastic band (goma). See? Filipinos are very creative. These instruments makes decent sounds too!
Today, it was a bit modernized. Carolers now carries portable guitars, amplifiers, mic and even a portable piano! And there are fewer kids who goes pangangaroling.

FOODS
And who would ever forget the very tasty holiday foods and bestsellers of this season? Bibingka and Puto bumbong!
My all time favorite is of course is the bibingka. It is a round rice cakes on a banana leaf made from rice flour topped with carabao cheese, and grated coconut. I specially liked it served hot with lots of salted egg  (pulang itlog) topped off with melting butter! Mmmm…. Yummy! You can compare it to a hotcakes or pancakes with lots of toppings.
On the other hand, puto bumbong is a purple rice cakes steamed in bamboo cylinders and topped of with grated coconut as well and brown sugar.
These two rice cakes are best served with a hot chocolate.
Speaking of food toppings, topping all of these is the time Filipinos spend with their families on this once in a year celebration. Balikbayans are pouring out of the airports and bus terminals just to be able to spend time with their loved ones. Truly, this season is magical…




Friday, December 2, 2011

The Hunger Games



I’ve always been fascinated with heroines. Who doesn’t want to be a lady killer in looks like Angelina Jolie and be physically trained  to be  a killer of the bad guys? Well guess what, this is one book you’ll surely  love.  Hunger  Games is a novel by Suzanne Collins with an upcoming film of the same name to be released on March 2012. Yup, got really excited when I heard it’s going to be put on film!
It stars an unlikely heroine named Katniss Everdeen.  Without any training, just relying on her sharp instincts and survival skills, she played the very deadly and twisted Hunger Games. It was a survival game. It was a game of making choices based on your morals, your beliefs and understanding of what is right or wrong for you. You either come out of it either alive or dead.  Age, gender, appearance, wealth and skills won’t  matter. What matters is that you can use any tactics as long as you’re the only one to stay alive after the game.
The upcoming film cast includes:

Just don’t get it confused with the Twilight Saga since it was a very far cry from that movie although they were both novels put into films. Both movie and book of Hunger Games has a realistic approach and has a political appeal as well.
It was a very engaging book. A bit boring at the start, but a few pages more and you’ll definitely be hooked! 



Breaking Dawn



Great book, Stephanie Meyer.

The book cover was showing a black and white chess board with a white and a red chess piece. That picture cover was incorporated on the movie with Bella and Edward playing the chess game as a distraction on their honeymoon days on an island, with Bella always losing except on the last game on which she was able to won. Breaking Dawn is the last part of the vampire romance novels on which it was tagged as "Children's Book of the Year" in the 2008 British Book Award.

The books were made into a series of motion pictures by Summit Entertainment and Breaking Dawn was actually divided into 2 parts. The first part were mostly about the early stages of their married life which was a far cry from being as normal. It was on this movie that Bella and Edward were at odds with each other with Bella making her own decisions without consulting Edwards. Their disagreement stems out from Bella's mother instinct in protecting her unborn child. Great job too, since she was also shown here with a gaunt face other actresses will shy away looking like that from a camera. Excellent make up job on that one!

Highlights of this movie is the wedding ceremony and their honeymoon scenes. Really great chemistry on the on and off screen partners. The dress was simple, very tasty and elegant. Very demure looking at the front with a hint of naughtiness at the back details of the gown. I liked the part when Bella was trying to seduce Edward by trying out several revealing clothes. It was a funny break from the seriousness of the rest of the film.

Now the birth scene? Pretty sure we both wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. Very bloody.

Just make sure to stay till the last scene coz there was a short preview on what the part 2 was about. Stay tuned till the next movie!


Friday, November 25, 2011

Blackberry Anyone?? :D

Blackberry anyone?

The term blackberry originally, is a fruiit that is not a real berry that is edible produced by any of several species in the Rubus genus of the Rosaceae family. It has also been used on the following:

Places:
    * Black Berry Islands, Nunavut, Canada
    * Blackberry Township, Itasca County, Minnesota, USA
    * Blackberry Township, Kane County, Illinois, USA

Songs
    * "Blackberry" (song), by the Black Crowes
    * "Blackberry Way", by The Move

Now, in our modern age, where technologies are sprouting from one place to another, this term is now widely known on the line of mobile e-mail and smartphone devices. Research In Motion (RIM) developed and designed it since 1999.

They are very useful especially for internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more. Its like a personal computer in a handheld device.

Another term came up from Blacberry. The term "CrackBerry" is now being referred to Blackberry mostly in Canada and the United States, which is referring to the addictive and its excessive use by its owners just like in the addictiveness on a crack cocaine. The term 'CrackBerry' has become widely know became so widespread that Webster's New World College Dictionary named "crackberry" the "New Word of the Year" in November 2006.

A controversy arised though on October, 2011, wherein BlackBerry users was unable to connect to the BlackBerry servers due to a major failure. It was 3 days of interrupted service in many parts of the world. BlackBerry had amended by announcing in giving all its users free apps worth $100 as an apology for its service disruption. :D