Month: September 2019

When you read a lot of historical, princess-y books as a child (as I did), you’d be sure to encounter the term “embroidery” and wonder why everyone hated doing it.

Camp Princess by Kathryn Lasky and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine are ones that talk more about embroidery and these are what stuck in my mind since I was eight years old or so.

And those thoughts never left, so two years ago I began learning embroidery. I bought thread from Daiso, and my best friend acquired needles and a hoop for me for my birthday.

I love it.

Embroidery gives me such peace and joy to work on. If you want time and space for your brain to just let loose, I highly recommend it. It’s one of those focus activities like coloring for adults and stuff.

Here are some of the things I’ve done, and I haven’t learned a great many stitches but when I was still in college, I did try to.

Above is when I tried to embroider flowers: the left is an orchid, the right is a white poppy, and below was supposed to be a flower called the Asian bleeding heart.

I love KPop boyband SHINee and the year I got into embroidery was the same time I started listening to them. The Korean characters come from a song title called Beautiful Life from their 1 and 1 album. The colors of the thread I used were shades of “pearlescent aqua” which is their official fandom color. The diamond is their official shape, after one of their Japanese songs called Diamond Sky.

This was another attempt at SHINee, based on these special alien designs of them which were released for their View album. The first one is Onew, which I think came out the best, because I used a long-and-short stitch on his hair. Jonghyun, Key, and Minho did not turn out well as I had hoped. I like the work I did on Taemin, especially on his cap. I draw the designs on my fabric using pencil, so rather than a fault on stitchery, this was more of my inability to draw males.

This was my first major project, and it was inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion. I think this was supposed to be Anne Elliot looking all thoughtful at the sea, atop a cliff. It might also be inspired a little by Demelza of Poldark. I love seaside views, and I wanted there to be a little flower frame – so I took a small plate and traced out the circle.

This one was inspired by a K-Drama called 100 Days My Prince or Dear Husband of a Hundred Days. I don’t want to talk about the drama or else I’d be stuck here forever, but I really liked how the cherry blossom tree came out. The hanbok shape isn’t quite right though, and I couldn’t figure out how to stitch the hand, but I think the outline effect of using mostly back stitches worked okay.

This is a more recent work and I think I got better with flowers? I bought the threads for these in Daiso Korea for 1,000 won. The rose on the upper-right hand is my favorite, and the orchid below was inspired by Disney’s Mulan – which is one of my favorite Disney films and “princesses”.

This is the latest thing I’ve been working on, which I’m hoping will be very colorful and bright and East Asian in style. The center is supposed to be a baby phoenix but it came out looking like a little chicken. I still haven’t figured out what other colors to use, but I’m really pleased with the blue and gray threads from Daiso Korea!

I guess that’s all I have for now. I have other scraps of projects and trials and things, but I haven’t gotten around to doing those. It’s a time-consuming hobby but I think it’s rewarding and fulfilling.

Running Time: 92 minutes

If you dislike films about fast-talking, fast-paced films about journalism, ethics, and work-life balance, then this film isn’t for you. His Girl Friday however, was definitely for me. I think it just ranked as one of my favorite movies of all time.

The plot follows Hildy Johnson, star reporter of The Morning Post, as she tries to leave behind her career (and ex-husband/editor-in-chief Walter Burns) in favor of a quiet, homemaking life in Albany with (boring) fiancé Bruce Baldwin. Poor Hildy is tired of chasing down stories, and claims she wants to “live like a human being”.

Walter, of course, isn’t having it. He convinces (and I use this word lightly) Hildy to cover one last major scoop before she leaves, and half of the movie follows Hildy’s attempts to finish the story and leave for Albany. The other half is dedicated to the shennanigans Walter plots to win Hildy back. Boring Bruce spends most of the movie wrongfully arrested and confused. It is delightful, exciting, and rapid – truly a screwball comedy worthy of its ranking in the genre.

Hildy, I think, is a remarkable character. What she learns (and what I was reminded of through her) is that there isn’t anything quite like writing a story. No matter how stressful, how desperate you get while collecting information and writing, it gives you a high? satisfaction? fulfillment? like nothing else, and you’ll find you’ll miss it once you give it up. And though she is a respected female journalist in a largely male scene, she doesn’t give up that femininity either. She still wants a home life and a husband that will actually care for her and everything.

There’s much left to be desired from Walter (and really, the ethics of 1940s journalism as a whole) but Cary Grant plays him with such charisma that you kind of forget he’s actually a jerk. I really liked the chemistry between the main leads though, because the film showed that these two had long been partners before they were lovers, and you just can’t kick the habit of knowing the other person. I also liked the fact that their eventual reconciliation (don’t whine to me about spoilers from a 40s film) was devoid of physical affection or boring sentiment. They just get along with their life as usual, arguing with each other.

It’s rare that I enjoy a movie so much without a costume change or two, but here we have it. Hildy Johnson had only one outfit, but seeing her embody the madness of writing down a news story and struggle to live the life she wants was really a warm cup of tea for me. It’s always nice to be reminded of why we chose the kind of life we want, and His Girl Friday delivered exactly that.

Back in Ateneo, most organizations would go through PlEvSem, which is short for “Planning and Evaluation Seminar”. Each org would have its officers evaluate its efforts through the semester/year, then plan for the following semester/year.

(Of course, as Ateneans, PlEvSem was an excuse for the wealthier orgs to blow off steam as well, going on out of town trips under the guise of “team building” and “bonding” activities. But I digress.)

In lieu of writing for this blog tonight, I’m going to do an evaluation of my life and kind of, make plans for it so I can move forward.

I know it sounds a little robotic and unfeeling and that you can’t really prepare for anything in life. But I guess my headspace needs the time to organize my life priorities and goals.

I’m not sure if others can relate, but sometimes, we can’t approach our problems because we can’t correctly identify them? Like, we can’t directly pinpoint what bothers us, what troubles us, what we are struggling with exactly. So on the outside, it all seems okay, but internally, we’re confused.

And that’s kind of what I want to address for myself tonight. I just want to list down my concerns and find a clearer path to pass through.

NOTE: Am uploading this late due to some health problems last night, also uploading this from a tablet so apologies for the formatting. I’ll correct it when I get back on my laptop.

I’ve been a fan of Diana Wynne Jones’ (DWJ) Howl Series since I first read Howl’s Moving Castle back in high school.

Only recently did I come across the other two books. I read Castle In The Air, the second book, during my summer internship in college. The third book, House of Many Ways, I found in a bookshop in Seoul (please see the old blog entry about it), right after I began working.

The series is beloved to me because each book came at times I needed a measure of comfort. The way DWJ crafts her worlds and her words made a mark on my heart, and the timing of when these books came into my life is more than a little magical to me.

The three books can largely be categorized as children’s books – warm, vivid, and fantastic – but they have fairly mature themes amidst a colorful cast of characters. The three books, I think, are for people who crave to inject adventure and chaos into their humdrum lives.

I say the last bit because the main characters of each book lead such respectable and responsible lives, that it’s so fun to read about them getting tossed into wild situations. It’s a little Bilbo Baggins that way.

Sophie Hatter of Howl’s Moving Castle is famous for being an old woman in an 18-year old’s body – and for getting cursed to reflect all that. But while most people would freak out if that happens to them, Sophie just accepts it in stride, which I respect. Previously, Sophie had already accepted that as the eldest of three daughters, she would lead the most boring life. But she does quite the opposite and I love her for it.

Abdullah of Zanzib of Castle In The Air is a bit different as a lead character from the others, in that he is male and he openly longs for a more exciting life. Abdullah is this great daydreamer who has a silvery tongue, and his rebellion against the plans other people have for him win him a happy ending, eventually.

Charmain Baker from House of Many Ways is the most relatable character in literature for me, and I don’t love her as much as I love Sophie because she hits a little too close to home. Charmain wants to be left alone to read, loves to eat and never gets full, dreams of working in a library, and has a mother who never lets her do anything improper. She more or less describes me to a tee.

For the books themselves, Howl’s Moving Castle is the most complex book, probably because it has the task of explaining the mysterious Howl himself – his origins, his eccentricities, and his general dumbassery. The book is also distinct from the other two because it features an entitled female villain, rather than an entitled male one. Sophie as an old lady has to put up with Howl the “heart-eating” wizard, his antics, and his fire demon, on top of solving the riddle that would set them all free. Of course it’s a romance, but Sophie doesn’t exactly take it easy when she realizes she actually likes the flamboyant moron.

Castle In The Air is called “a companion to Howl’s Moving Castle” because the original characters are mostly transformed and only revealed towards the end. Chronologically, I would recommend to read this as Book 2, because it fills in some of the gaps that get skated over in Book 3. Abdullah meets Princess Flower-In-The-Night, who promptly gets kidnapped, so Abdullah has to find her. I can’t say much about it because I don’t remember it as well as the other two, and for that reason it’s my least favorite of the three. However, props to DWJ for filling the “castle full of princesses” with princess of different ages, shapes, sizes, and ethnicities – a closer reflection of real life monarchies rather than an imitation of the Disney Princess franchise.

House of Many Ways is called “a sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle” because it’s more directly connected to Howl and Sophie. Charmain has to house-sit for her wizard great-uncle but she applies to work in the palace library. (She’s 11-years old.) She also has to put up with Peter, an apprentice wizard her great-uncle didn’t get to warn her about. I think it hints at a bit more darkness because two preteens have to live together, there’s some discussion of a succession line plagued with bad *ahem* eggs, and the supposed heir to the throne is the son of a monster that likes to turn people into human carriers of its progeny. Again, props to DWJ for writing plot details that would make an adult like me say “big yikes”.

Maybe someday I’ll write a proper love letter to the series, but for now I just wanted to get some of my thoughts about it in order.