Ramblings Intérieurs

Philippine Daily Inquirer

100. Philippine Daily Inquirer

Finally, I reached the 100th mark for my list of reasons to be happy and thankful that I am living in this lifetime. Since this is a record, it is only appropriate that the 100th reason would cross all boundaries. And what more could this be but our newspaper for more than 15 years (if I'm not mistaken).

This broadsheet has been a very big help not only to me but to my family as well. The information that this newspaper has giving us for the last 15 years or so has been very, very useful to us. It does not only give us the latest news (very, very credible I must say) but tips on practically every aspect of life - personal, financial, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. It's an all-in-one paper.

I can give short examples about those as I grew along with PDI.

Personal: I grew up reading the advices of Robbie, Rissa, and Raya Mananquil (now all models and professionals) when they were still teens in the 2BU! section of Inquirer. The advices of Tita Dulce also made perfect sense as I heed her advices and gave her advices to my friends who turn to me for advices (shhh...that's a secret).

Financial: The Business Section of PDI has more that just business news. It has featured and is still writing stories about the inspiring and success stories of the best entrepreneur the country has produced. Of course, on those stories it is clear that the success stories of these CEO's, COO's and taipans were not walk in the park. They encountered a lot of challenges, difficulties, and pains but they continue and succeeded. How? Read the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Mental: The Opinion Section of the Inquirer is another gem. This is where I read the best writers that the country has produced. Conrado de Quiros, Michael Tan, the late Adrian Cristobal are just one of the few many writers that I read in PDI that got me hooked on reading the most widely-read broadsheet in the country.

Emotional: A lot of stories in PDI had made me emotional. The stories of the youth in "Young Blood" and their counterpart, the uhmmm, sixty-something in "High Blood." Not to mention the real stories that appears in it's front page. The not so-good-things about our country and how we and I are not able to do something about it. But what makes this truly special is that because the stories always end up with hope. Hope that we should not abandon despite everything.

Physical:
Of course the Sports Section of the Inquirer is a class of it's own. Almost always on time (sometimes PBA results yesterday would not be included in the next day's issue). But in general, I could rely on PDI regrading results of sports tournament I watch. NBA, US Open, Super Bowl, you name it they got it. They also have the best sportswriter in town, Al S. Mendoza and Recah Trinidad (who came back after a fling with retirement). The Tuesday Section of PDI about Lifestyle and Leisure also gave me tips on how to live a healthy and happy life with articles about the latest exercises and how to have a happy disposition in life through the articles of Cory Quririno.

Spiritual: This is the best part.

PDI has Fr. Jerry Orbos in it's Opinion Section every Sunday. Fr. Orbos column is my must-read column of Inquirer every Sunday with his jokes and anecdotes about life and his practical tips in life on how to live life as a Christian.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer also has what it calls "radical optimism" every Sunday. This means that every Sunday, it's front page only features good news. Yes, only good news. If you read a bad news or headline, you will see the good news inside it. I have another good news. It's not limited to Sundays anymore, as you can see in my previous blog entries.

Now, how's that for news?

Reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

Non-warning: There is no spoiler here. So if you haven't finished reading the book yet, it's ok. You can read on. I haven't finished the book yet also. Haha.

I don't know why I'm reading this Harry Potter novel now by the famous and now ultra-rich J.K. Rowling because I really didn't like the Harry Potter books and even the movie. Once, I flipped through some pages of one of the Harry Potter book series which the title I already forgot and put it down not even finishing one chapter. I also watched one of the movie adaptations. Again, I forgot the title of the only Harry Potter movie I watched (I think it's the first one), and fell asleep in one part of the movie.

Out of curiosity, I asked one of my officemate to send me the E-book of the "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" which he happens to be reading because I wanted to know if the rumor that one of the main character will die is true. It took me a while before I got engrossed with the story. I had to make full use of Google and Wikipedia to know some of the characters and understand some words in the book. Of course, I know who the main characters are. I know who Harry, Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, and Albus Dumbledore is. But I didn't know who Ginny Weasley exactly is. I don't know what Muggle means. I also didn't know what "Avadra Kedavra" or "Occlumency" means. And that is where Google and Wikipedia came handy. Hahaha!

Anyways, I'm more than halfway of finishing the book and I can say that I am hooked. One minor character already died. I don't know if he's minor because from the very first Harry Potter book, he was there. Two more reasons that got me hooked are because of two passages in the book. One, a passage in the Bible is in that book. "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" from Matthew 6:21. Two, one statement of a major character's dialogue hit me and it took me a while to understand it. "You could claim that anything is real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody's proved it doesn't exist." J.K. Rowling put two sides on the book - one believer and the other skeptic. It's up to you who would you want to be. I don't know for sure if J.K. Rowling is a believer or a skeptic.

The book is more than just about wizards, witch, and magic (which I don't believe in and one of the main reason I didn't like Harry Potter). Again, it took me a while to realize that. But in order to enjoy the book as well as the other Harry Potter books, you need to have a child-like imagination which I already lost but now got it back. Thanks to Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling.