If you can’t surf more than one website on the World Wide Web without seeing your meme popping up, it can only mean one thing—you are insanely famous. This is exactly what has happened to the popular Cartoon Network show about a boy and his loyal dog doing heroic deeds in the Land of Ooo. Adventure Time is now considered a cultural icon, and the hordes of fans and cult-like following of made-up slang prove just how good the cartoon is. If you’re not addicted to the colorful series just yet, here’s why you should tune in to it right now:
Boy meets girl. Boy gets girl. Boy loses girl. Isn’t that the way that love works?
No matter who you are or what your age is, love will always—always—find you, and not in the best way you think. It doesn’t matter if you’re a revolutionary scientist who’s theory on human evolution has changed the way humankind views life on earth, the most famous detective the world has ever known, or even the creator of every single thing in this universe. One thing is for sure—a girl out there is just waiting to break your heart.
How do you know what’s real and what’s not? At the end of it all, does it really even matter?
In this hilarious dark comedy by award-winning author Libba Bray, readers are faced with one big question: if you were to die of an incurable disease, how would you live your life to the fullest? The crazy yet earnest journey of the protagonist will no doubt make you question whether you’re living your life the way you should, or you’re just wasting away one day at a time.
“One bright April afternoon in 1978, I attended a baseball
game at Jingu Stadium, not far from where I lived and worked,” writes Haruki
Murakami. “The satisfying crack when the bat met the ball resounded throughout
Jingu Stadium. Scattered applause rose around me. In that instant, for no
reason and on no grounds whatsoever, the thought suddenly struck me: I think I
can write a novel.”
Thus began the acclaimed writing career of one of the
greatest novelists of our time. In Wind/Pinball,
Haruki Murakami gives us a sneak peek into the early life and humble beginnings
of the eccentric author. “I can still recall the exact sensation. It felt as if
something had come fluttering down from the sky, and I had caught it cleanly in
my hands. I had no idea why it had chanced to fall into my grasp. I didn’t know
then, and I don’t know now. Whatever the reason, it had taken place,” Murakami
continues in his introduction, The Birth of My Kitchen Table Fiction. “It was like a revelation. Or maybe
epiphany is the closest word. All I can say is that my life was drastically and
permanently altered in that instant—when Dave Hilton belted that beautiful,
ringing double at Jingu Stadium.”
Just like Joey Tribbiani from FRIENDS, we’re all guilty of getting annoyed when somebody comments on our holiday weight. They do say that a moment on the lips will forever be on the hips, right? It’s tempting to eat mindlessly during the holidays especially when we’re celebrating with friends and family every single day, but making healthy food choices this season doesn’t have to be a hopeless battle. You really can beat the odds and indulge in your favorite food by keeping everything in moderation, and here are just a few tips on how to keep your calories in check this Christmas.
If you haven’t spent the whole of 2015 reading, then it’s not too late for you yet. Here are the most popular literary works in fiction for the year according to online rankings and critics, so grab your copies and get reading!
1.Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
This generation of readers probably doesn’t realize how lucky it is to witness the release of a sequel to something that was published about half a century ago. As a companion novel to the smashing success that is To Kill A Mockingbird, Go Set A Watchman brings Scout and Atticus back in a masterpiece by the one and only Harper Lee. Jean Louise Finch—or Scout as we all know her—is now twenty six years old, and she’s coming home amidst political turmoil to visit her father. The book beautifully chronicles the bittersweet, painful, and eye-opening journey of a young woman struggling to reconcile her past with her present. It no doubt brings justice to the American classic with the profound wisdom and touch of humor that only Harper Lee is known to bring. The novel may have been written in the mid-1950s, but Go Set A Watchman is more relevant to our current situation than we might expect.
Who says toys are just for kids? In this mobile world we live in today, Santa’s list will no doubt be filled with gadgets and gizmos our tech-savvy generation just can’t get enough of. Send out your wish lists and wait by your stockings with these most wanted tech toys this holiday season.
1.BB-8 by Sphero
It’s Star Wars mania around the world this Christmas with The Force Awakens coming out this week. Join the craze with this adorable BB-8 droid. Not only is it fun to see rolling around with that head balanced (with magnets) on top, but it is also educational for kids—if you want to use them as an excuse for buying this cutie. Controlled via smartphone with a BB-8 app, the creative Sphero toy can spin away on most surfaces to bug the members of your household with its cuteness. Best of all, you can also use voice commands to order BB-8 around and view holographic recordings, so it’s the perfect gift for any Star Wars fan. This truly is the Droid you’re looking for! Learn more about this sweet plaything in the official Sphero Facebook page for the Philippine market here: https://www.facebook.com/GoSpheroPH.
Before the year comes to an end, it’s only fitting that we list down the most awesome movies that rocked the cinemas for 2015. From swearing teddy bears to the little voices in our heads, here are just some of the films that made our year.
1.Inside Out
Who’s your friend who likes to play? Yup, it’s none other than Bing Bong, right? With that rocket that makes you go hooray, and who’s the best in every way? If you’ve already seen this animated masterpiece, then you’re probably getting the sniffles by now.
The brilliantly creative minds at Pixar have done it again. Inside Out is an honest and heartfelt look at the emotions that drive us every waking hour of our lives, with a particular focus on Riley’s circumstances. The beautiful coming-of-age film is all about change and growing up, and about how we all need to adjust as we enter the real world. The personifications of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust are just too loveable not to enjoy, and as with any Pixar film, audiences should definitely get ready to cry their eyes out by the end of the movie. Don’t say you weren’t warned!
“Christmas now surrounds us, happiness is everywhere. Our
hands are busy with many tasks, as carols fill the air (Shirley Sallay).” Yes,
it’s true that we’ll never be as busy as we are now during the holidays, but is
that really what the season is all about? Instead of driving yourself crazy
with all the errands you need to run here and there, check out our suggestions
on what you can do to get some elusive peace of mind this Christmas.
Now that the hectic holidays are upon us, you’re no doubt
facing year-end deadlines left and right—not to mention all those family
reunions and barkada get-togethers
you just can’t excuse yourself from. Because everyone (including yourself) is
fighting for your spare time and your weekends, it helps to have some
life-saving productivity apps on your ever-reliable smartphone. Here are some
of the top picks that you should download this season for your own sanity’s
sake.
According to Harlan Coben, “Let me back up a little and tell you why I prefer writing to real life: You can rewrite. A novel, for example, can be cleaned up, altered, trimmed, improved. Life, on the other hand, is one big messy rough draft.”
While it’s true that writing can be revised, editing your novel to perfection is anything but easy. Now that we’re midway through National Novel Writing Month, do you already have something worth showing the world, or have you not even begun to jot down a single word? Writing your masterpiece is extremely difficult—we can all agree with that. But thanks to an editing master class I attended last month during the Asia Pacific Writers and Translators conference that our home country hosted this year, I at least got a glimpse of how editing actually works.
Award-winning author Sally Breen held a writing workshop last October 24th titled “What Editors Want”, and the class was just that—an insider peek at the publishing landscape so that we can finally find out what exactly editors want. She shared a bunch of do’s and dont’s on how to get noticed and how to rise above the so-called slush pile, so without further ado, here are some insider editing tips that I’m totally sharing with all of you (free of charge!):
Now that the holiday rush is upon us, expect EDSA to be your second home. Take your life back from intense traffic in the metro by using the GPS navigational tools available to us today.
Gone are the days when in-car navigation was tedious and only available to the most advanced cars. “If you want to update the maps in your car, it’s an expensive and complicated process of having to go to the dealership,” Strategy Analytics’ John Canali says. Now, with Web-based navigation, updates come easier than ever. “We’ve historically had these onboard, embedded nav systems. That’s just not going to cut it anymore,” says Tim Nixon from OnStar, the navigational service from General Motors. “The game has changed, and the bar has been raised by these always-connected devices that bring fresh information into the car.”
So, with everyone clamoring to mount devices on their dashboards and windshields, which do you think is better: Waze or Garmin?
If you’ve always thought that ball sports were too mainstream, then trading that ball for a flying disc might just be the perfect thing for you. Move over, basketball. Ultimate Frisbee is steadily growing more and more popular in the country today—because isn’t badminton or bowling too last season?
Where it all began
Who would have thought that when American toy company Wham-O popularized the Frisbee Disc in the 50s, it would spawn a myriad of followers and create a whole new sport of its own? And it’s not just about throwing and catching—Frisbee enthusiasts all around the globe will tell you that it’s so much more. If you’re looking to increase your stamina, enhance your agility, and improve your cardiovascular endurance—not to mention develop your body coordination—then this sport is all you’ll ever need. With Frisbee’s ability to help you burn a hundred up to seven hundred calories with just thirty minutes of playing, what more can you ask for?
A girl with magical ears. An ovine-centered photo. A Sheep Professor. A Rat gone missing. A dying corporate giant who may or may not rule the world.
And of course, at the center of it all: a mark shaped like a star on a seemingly innocent sheep.
What begins as a crippling divorce ends in uncovering a diabolical plan to plunge the world in anarchy. And when that happens, you can be sure that it’s one heck of a story. But then again, that’s how all Haruki Murakami stories are.
There’s more to November than Thanksgiving, so before you busy yourself with stuffing turkeys, here are some of the coolest days you can celebrate this month (yes, Black Friday aside).
•November 2 – National Plan Your Epitaph Day and Cookie Monster's Birthday
It doesn’t matter if you’re morbid and obsessed with death, or you’re just a curious little thing. On November 2(just in time for All Souls’ Day), you can go ahead and look far into the future into your own demise. It’s tough to decide how you want people to remember you by. After all, your tombstone can only contain so much words and letters, right? Planning your epitaph is so important that the world is giving you a whole day to figure it out—and if you decide to change your mind, you can always have another go at it next year.
Is it any wonder that the day of death also coincides with beloved Sesame Street character Cookie Monster’s birthday? We think not, because a cookie overload does indeed equal an early death, doesn’t it?
•November 3 - Sandwich Day
Speaking of dying young, the following day is a day of celebrating one of the most amazing and ingenious human inventions in all of history—the sandwich. Imagine: anything you’ve always wanted to scarf down between two slices of hearty bread? What an inspired creation! Today is the day to celebrate your fave PB and J with your best buds, or perhaps whip up your own concoction in the kitchen. Whatever you decide to do, just dig in and indulge—it’s a “holiday” after all.
Everyone knows that Stephen King has the genre down pat, but there are a lot of other bone-chilling horror novels worth losing sleep over out there. Now that Halloween is almost upon us, lock yourself up in your room and feast on these horrific delights—just be sure you don’t turn the lights out afterwards.
1.The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson (1977)
Why do people always fall for the huge, old house that obviously has its deep, dark secrets? Based on a true story (although that certainly has led to plenty of lawsuits), the book revolves around the horrors that the Lutz family encountered in a house where Ronald DeFeo, Jr. murdered his family in 1974. The Lutz family moved in about a year later, and because of the terrifying paranormal activity that surrounded the house, they eventually left after 28 days. After visions of glowing red eyes, demonic imaginary friends, and waking up at the ungodly hour of 3:15am every night, who wouldn’t run out of there screaming?
November might mean Christmas trees and stuffed turkeys for most people, but for writers, it’s something else entirely. It’s here—the dreaded month all frustrated authors have been waiting for all year. NaNoWriMo brings sweat, tears, and countless hours holed up in a room like a hermit with the sound of fingers tapping keyboards well into the night, but it also brings the irreplaceable triumph of finishing a 50,000-word novel by the end of the month—if you know what you’re doing. Instead of rushing through the 30 days unmotivated and unprepared, get that rotting old story idea from outside of your head onto actual paper with these NaNoWriMo tips for success.
Teachers are awesome—we all know that. They’ve taught us during our formative years and helped shape us to become who we are today. We have our favorite mentors, but there are those who, despite being fictional, have taught us life lessons we will never forget. Don’t you wish you had these teachers in real life?
1 . Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World
“But to me, a real hero is someone who does the right thing when the right thing isn’t the easy thing to do." Honestly. If all neighbors were as totally cool as Mr. Feeny, I’d be at my backyard, talking to him all day, too. George Feeny wasn’t just Cory Matthews’ teacher in school—he was also Eric Matthews’ life coach. Without Mr. Feeny, who knows what would have happened to Eric? It’s Feeny’s no-nonsense wisdom that made us walk out of every Boy Meets World episode as a bit of a better person than when we came in. "If you let people's perception of you dictate your behavior, you will never grow as a person," he says.
Besides, if there were no Mr. Feeny, there would be no Feeny call—and who wants to live a life having never heard that?
Stop me if you’ve heard it before: an alternate timeline, a future government where things are not quite right, and a young hero who rises to the challenge to change the world. Whether that future societal structure is desirable or not, there is always something that upsets the world order (or lack of order), and the protagonist becomes the catalyst of that. A steady trend of young adult blockbusters today is all about what happens in a world that’s not quite like our own but where current themes of society still remain. If there’s one thing that the success of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games has proven, it’s that audiences everywhere—the youth or not—have a taste for the post-apocalyptic, and that the lessons we can learn from them are applicable even today.
