Carolina : The Movie Review

I got up early today because my husband is working early. Naturally, I had to get up when he is in the shower to prepare his breakfast and pack his lunch. This is usually our routine when I am on vacation and he had to work early. By the time he is finished dressing up, my breakfast for him is served. Complete with toasted bread or oatmeal, it depends on his mood and of course his coffee. He used to not like coffee and just lets me drink them He said I drink a lot of them for the both of us. But now, he is used to having them in the morning.As soon as he steps out of our apartment, I had this urgent thought of going back to bed and savour the empty bed for myself but instead, I sat up in bed, switch on the laptop and tv in one swift motion and waited. The computer took longer than the tv to come on so I browse the channels looking for shows that I thought is interesting. Bummer, no good movie is on at this early. Most are news or early morning talk shows. I flipped through the remote control like a maniac until I come to a movie channel. I can't really remember what channel it was but the actress caught my attention. Julia Stiles. I love her. She has this look about her face that I have always love. The girl-next-door attitude and style. I first saw her in 10 Things I hate About You where she played the lead role. I was enchanted with her there but not so much as I saw Mona Lisa Smile. She was brilliant in Mona Lisa plus the fact that Julia Roberts was one of the character. I thought she handled herself very well inspite of the all-star cast of the movie.

So we come now to the movie. Carolina. She played the main character. A young woman trying to find herself and her love inspite of all the drama going on around her and her family. It was just a simple movie perhaps even a low budgeted one but I thought it was a great one. It tells mostly about Carolina (who is Julia Stiles, obviously) and her relationship with her family particularly her grandmother and of course the boy next door. It shows how family supports each other inspite of all the differences and issues. How simple life can be and that we complicates things with our never ending need to search for fulfillment. And that one person we are looking for, the right guy, the perfect guy... is just literally the boy next door! What I love the most about this movie is when that guy finally decided to tell Carolina that she is the one... he handed her a manuscript. She thought it was one of his books (a romance books) written under an assumed name. But as he pointed out to her his real name under the title "Everyday Magic", a smile crept up her lips. And as she turn the page, it says For Carolina. She looked confused... stunned... and almost smile a bit. That was it for me. I was really hooked by Julia's charm. I just love her! Its a must movie for those who love real romance, not the cheap ones. It is a must see for those who likes simple, light hearted but completely deep family movie. Because this is about family, a need to find oneself and the ultimate search for your one true love. Enjoy!

My suggestion to all you folks out there, try to watch one of her movies. I have a list for you that you might want to check out.

1. Mona Lisa Smile

2. The Bourne Ultimatum (She is in all 3 of them but I like her character more on the last one)

3. A Little Trip To Heaven

4. 10 Things I Hate About You

5. Save The Last Dance

6. Down To You

7. A Guy Thing

8. The Prince And Me

And of course

9. Carolina

And I read somewhere that she is also appearing as a guest in Dexter, the cable series. I wonder how she'll look in a dark murder series like this one.

Morality Compass

No body can say that they have high standard when it comes to their morality. I myself cannot say I am the moral one. I am not a saint nor I have the intention to be one but I have also my own standard when it comes to morality. I guess each of us have their own standard and that there is also the standard for the standard morality if you catch my drift. Let me give you one great example... as human beings we believe that killing another person is bad. Whether you are a Christian, Jew, Buddist or any other religion killing is against our human nature. Now that's what I call the morality norm. Lets go to a little controversial one... gays and lesbians should be allowed to legally marry their partners. Now that would make you wonder and reflect on the issue. Is it morally correct? Personally, I believe they have the right to be legally married as all other human beings have. It doesn't matter who they are in love with but what matters is that they love one another enough to promise each other they will be together forever. Right? Some people may or may not agree with me on this matter and thats where we draw the line. Each person has their own opinion on this topic based on their religious belief or just plain "morality compass".

Morality compass is where you search your feelings. You know how a compass always points to the North? Comparing that, its like your morality compass is always pointing you to the right direction. Is this right or wrong? Do I trully believe that I can live with this decision I am going to make? Its not about religion. It is about how you feel. Will I hurt someone for making that particular decision? Will I be able to inspire other people to do good things? Am I stepping on other peoples' dreams to get what I want? Those are just a few questions that you must ask yourself if you want to find your morality compass. If you do things against the standard norm but still believes that you are right. If you can live with that decisions without feeling uncomfortable or guilty. When you don't care how others feel in the things that you do. You don't care if you hurt someone in the process of getting what you want in life. And you don't care about others but yourself. Then it means you have no morality compass at all.

Believe it or not, there are people like that in this world. I have met a few who doesn't even know that they are without morality compass. How did they become like that? I trully dont know. But somehow I symphatize with them. For one thing they don't have any feelings at all. In everything they do, its just like a robot. They do everything automatically. They sing the song but they don't know the meaning of the words. They dance step by step to the music but they don't know how to sway to the tune. They eat food but they don't know the taste. They pick up the flowers but not bother smelling them. They draw the picture without color in them. Its like blank pages of a book. What kind of life is that? A life lacking the essense. I pity them. They don't know the value of family. They don't know the meaning of friendship. And they don't know the feeling of being loved and be loved by a person.

How about you? Do you have a morality compass?

Paranoia

Darn I got another junk email! I hate it when people send me junk emails. But this time its not exactly junk as I opened it. Everyday I probably receive ten to fifteen junk emails on top of all the ads from site I've visited and the regular emails I receive from family, friends and job placement agencies, membership sites and a dozen more. So basically I receive 50 to 80 emails a day... the reason why I always check my mail box everyday. Just imagine how many I will accumulate just missing one day of not checking my mail box! And so my routine goes... check my mail box in the morning and atleast once again in the evening before going to bed. Why am I complaining? It should not have to be this way but those junk mails made my life a little difficult. Ok? First of all, I don't mind getting a short email like just saying Hi or hello from friends esp. my family but getting those news about a new finding about smoking or warning about the food we eat, its just making me so paranoid! I got this email from a friend (don't worry I will not names here) telling me about the fresh fruits and vegetables we eat now a days. They have chemicals in them that are used by farmers which are potentially harmful to us. I understand the concern here, don't get me wrong but the truth is... if we follow all this precaustions, we won't have anything to eat which is really bad, you know what I am getting here right? I don't mind emailing me about certain electronics gadgets could cause cancer but telling me that a simple celphone, microwave or a wide screen tv can do that to a person... well, I am mortified! I have to admit, sometimes it could make sense but what are we going to do? This is part of our technology and progress in this world. Does these mean we are not to use any of those gadgets to keep us safe? Do we have to resort to planting our own vegetable and fruit gardens to be able to avoid those chemicals? I get it that we are just trying to be careful and prevent the spread of cancer and other diseases. But we are not helping our progression if we do. Why can't anyone just use technology to help cure cancer or other diseases instead of planting this insane paranoia in everyone? Promote the eating of fruits that is good for you like Guavano. Eat more green leafy vegetables. Ocra some says is very good in curing simple stomach problems. So, I can do away with those junk emails that could only make me paranoid in everything I love to do or eat. Send me those that makes me feel better and no chain emails either!

Cooking up Filipino

After years of living abroad, I still feel the great pull of home. I feel it in my guts and every fiber of my being longed for that sweet smell of hot pandesal in the break of dawn. The soothing sound of chicken crow in the morning. And the smell of my dad's coffee in the kitchen mixed with the smell of his cigarette. As I watched Anthony Bourdain in one episode where he chooses Philippines in his next travel, it made me wonder what to expect on this episode. Will I be familiar with what kind of foods he is going to eat and will I be familiar to the places he is going to visit? Attentively I watched skeptical of the tour guide he is going to meet. I was praying that it would be someone who is much more in-touch with his Filipino heritage than those who are as unfamiliar with the type of food to present. But lucky, the tour guide was a very educated and obviously not only very familiar with our type of food but had grasp of the history of how it came to be as well. Which makes me wonder of my own familiarity. I just know adobo either pork or chicken and thats about it. It turns out, each of our region has their own way of cooking adobo. Whether its chicken, pork or even seafood adobo. "As long as you know the basic ingredients of an adobo, you can do just about anything with it," says the tour guide. Which is exactly true, when you look at it closely. I have to honestly admit, am a novice when it comes to cooking. I think my mom had that one regret when I first got married, admitted to the bunch of our guest that she never taught me to be a cook (or perhaps domesticated is her polite words). And that Loi should forgive me if I don't fit the "housewife" he expect me to be. That's my mom! Taking the blame for not making me a person I am suppose to be. But let me assure her right now that after those long years (I should say very long years) I started to learn how to cook and loved it in a way. For one thing, I have to thank my husband for that since he made it easy for me. Never pressuring me into doing things I would regret later specifically about cooking. I know his mom is a great cook, she is Kapampangan and I don't have any aspiration to compete with her but atleast have the decency to cook for him a meal or two. I started with simple fried dishes. Fried rice which are not bad at all but the fried fish is a disaster. Suffice to say, I am done with frying. Thankfully, my husband would eat anything in support to my ever need to please him with my cooking. I learned through trial and error then I moved up to a little more complicated ones. Pasta like spaghetti, lasagna and of course my ever famous carbonara. Its a long shot to being a great cook but I am trying my best. My efforts is always rewarded by praises from my husband and friends. But since living abroad, I have tried making Filipino dishes just because I have longed desired to eat home cooked meals. Thus we come to the show Anthony Bourdain. The question that seems to linger in my mind (and Anthony's) is that where does the Filipino taste originated. We have diffirent region who interprets their own versions of adobo. Chicken. Pork. Shrimp. And even vegetables. The answer is that it depends on where you are at the time. We have seven thousand island, we have different ways to interpret, answers and sees ideas. We are regionalistic first before being nationalistic. For example, one is a Kapampangan first then a Filipino second. Which is understandable being a clutter of small islands. But that does not mean we are a Filipino less. So we are back to the same question, where does the Filipino taste originated? I believe it is originated to all the occupation years from the Spaniards which lasted for five hundred years. The Americans who later gave us our independence. The Japanese and Chinese who gave us the Asian flavor of spices. And everyone else who found Philippines as a good place to retire and find their own secret paradise in the almost untouched remote islands. So how do we define the Filipino taste? For me, it is the pride, warmth and love the cook put into every meal served, wherever a Filipino may be.