“Leoncio P. Deriada”

Do you believe that to become a writer you must be a good reader? Addicted in reading books and reading articles is my thing. When I was a child I was so addicted to reading I wanted to write a book. My imagination was so big I don’t even know where to start, but when I grew up I’m still addicted to books but then I realized that when it comes to writing articles or story, you don’t have to be a book worm, you only need to open your eyes and see the things and happening around you. Observation is also the key into writing a good book not only reading. 

Leoncio P. Deriada is a Filipino writer that graduated from Ateneo De Davao University where he earned his BA English degree as a cum laude in 1959.  He later received his MA in English from Xavier University in 1970 and went on to receive his PhD in English and Literature with a specialization in creative writing from Silliman University in 1981 where he later on served as professor and chairperson of the English Department. He is a writer that knows how to speak in different languages like English, Filipino, Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a and Cebuano. He wrote thirteen books in different translations. "The Day of the Locusts" (Short Story, 1975), "Mutya ng Saging" (Dulaang May Isang Yugto, 1987), "The Man Who Hated Birds" (Short Story for Children, 1993), "Medea of Siquijor" (One-Act Play, 1999), and "Maragtas: How Kapinangan Tricked Sumakwel Twice" (Full-Length Play, 2001). These stories won awards first price award and the rest are Planca awards. Aside from these awards he also won other prestigious awards such as Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas, Asiaweek, Gawad CCP, Graphic, Focus, Yuhum (Iloilo), and Blue Knight Award from Ateneo de Davao for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. In 2002, he was one of Metrobank's Outstanding Teachers. Leoncio now works as a professor in University of the Philippines in Visayas and also the head of Sentro ng wikang Filipino at University of the Philippines Visayas. He is also an associate of the University of the Philippines Institute of Creative Writing.

I may know a little about Leoncio Deriada, but my observation about him is that he is an observer not just a reader.

“Filipino authors”

There are lots of Filipino author that are famous due to their incredible works. Below are some of them:

Francisco Balagtas also known as Francisco Baltazar is widely considered as one of the greatest Filipino writer. One of his works is the infamous “Florante at Laura” No original hand written story survived in the time of balagtas.

Francisco Arcellana was a Filipino writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and a teacher He is considered an important progenitor of the modern Filipino short story in English. Arcellana pioneered the development of the short story as a lyrical prose-poetic form within Filipino literature. His works are now often taught in tertiary-level-syllabi in the Philippines. Many of his works were translated into Tagalog, Malaysian, Russian, Italian, and German. Arcellana won 2nd place in 1951 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, with his short story, "The Flowers of May." 14 of his short stories were also included in Jose Garcia Villa's Honor Roll from 1928 to 1939. His major achievements included the first award in art criticism from the Art Association of the Philippines in 1954, the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan award from the city government of Manila in 1981, and the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for English fiction from the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipino (UMPIL) in 1988.

Our last and very famous author is the infamous pambansang bayani ng bayan : Jose P. Rizal. Dr. Rizal was not just a doctor and a hero but he is also a writer. A writer that opened the eyes of the Filipino. He wrote two of the novels el pillibusterismo and noli mi tangere. The two novels were based on the life story of other heroes and the cruelty of the Spaniards in our time.

These Filipino authors opened our lives to a whole new level of literature. As we Filipinos what we need is to gain knowledge in these and appreciate it. 

“Parasyte the maxim”

Parasyte is a science fiction, horror manga series written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki, and published in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine from 1988 to 1995. The manga was published in North America by first Tokyopop, then Del Rey, and finally Kodansha Comics USA. The manga has been adapted into two live-action films in Japan in 2014 and 2015. An anime television series adaptation by Madhouse, titled Parasyte the maxim.

Parasyte centers on a 17-year-old male named Shinichi Izumi, who lives with his mother in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo. One night, worm-like creatures called Parasites appear on Earth, taking over the brains of human hosts by entering through their ears or noses. One Parasite attempts to crawl into Shinichi's ear while he sleeps, but fails as Shinichi is wearing headphones, and enters his body by burrowing into his arm instead. In the Japanese version, it takes over his right hand and is named Migi, after the Japanese word for 'right'; Tokyopop's version, in which the images are flipped horizontally, has the Parasite take over Shinichi's left hand and it is named Lefty.

Because Shinichi was able to prevent Migi from travelling further up into his brain, both beings retain their separate intellect and personality. As the duo encounter other Parasites, they capitalize on their strange situation and gradually form a strong bond, working together to survive. This gives them an edge in battling other Parasites who frequently attack the pair upon realization that Shinichi's human brain is still intact. Shinichi feels compelled to fight other Parasites, who devour humans as food, while enlisting Migi's help.

By the end of the movie shinichi had a battle against the parasite that used his mother’s body as its own weapon, the battle last for moments. At the end shinichi won and went to the hospital to visit his friend. Also shown at the end of the movie was other parasytes that’s been hunting shinichi for quite some time.

Shinichi showed courage and conquered his fear of almost everything. Shinichi is a good example to other teens about courage and made things possible.

“Jon Santos”

Jon Santos is a strong and independent person, how you see him on tv is very different when you see him in personal. Jonathan Adriano Santos (born January 18, 1966), more popularly known as Jon Santos, is a Filipino comedian, actor, and impersonator who has done more than fifty different impersonations such as Ate Vi and Juan Flavor, probably two of his most famous impersonations. He has been impersonating famous and infamous personalities for more than 20 years now. Jon Santos had many different considerations in life. His course when he graduated in the University of the Philippines was economics. He never thought that he will become famous in impersonating many famous artists. After walking the roads of fame, Jon Santos got married secretly in the state of Canada a few years ago where gay marriage is legal. Sometime later the news about his marriage came out in the public. He did not deny it, and he had a reason why he hid his married life, for he wants a to keep that side of his life private, that issue was not a big deal for him anyway.

Jon Santos experienced many things in life, but the hardships never stopped him from moving with life, he never gave up and he kept his way straight towards the road of success.  He experienced different problems that were not a big thing for him. You may think that Jon Santos is as funny as he is when he is impersonating an artist, but if you have met him in personal he is just a quiet person.  

Anti-smoking

 Anti-smoking campaign are seen almost in any campus in the world. It is self-explanatory. The word itself signifies and gives the idea. We should not smoke. But why do people keep on smoking? Why do smoking companies keep on creating cigarettes when they know it is bad for people's health? Ofcourse the answer is so obvious. People keep on smoking because they got addicted and their body keeps on finding it. Companies ofcourse still produce cigarettes because it's what they do. If they stop producing, they stop providing. If they stop providing, they stop profiting. And that's when they will go out off business. I'm really curious on people who keeps on smoking everyday. And I'm really more curious on how some people empty and use a pack or more of cigarettes a day. Is their lungs still working? Are they still breathing? Well, maybe they can relate to the lyrics "Still alive but I'm barely breathing". I am so sorry for lungs of chainsmokers. And I am much more sorry for my lungs because being secondhand smoker is in more danger than firsthand smokers. Secondhand smokers are more prone to diseases caused by smoke. Going back to anti-smoking, Asia Pacific College has their own campaign. To fight for what is right. To help people who smoke stop smoking. But it's not that easy. Especially if people make it their habit. I always look on the poster of the anti-smoking in the school. There's a poster of a disease in the neck. Somewhat like of a goiter which is caused by chain-smoke. I believe a more catchy poster is the idea I saw on Facebook which is the ads put like an "Imagine you could buy an iPad for the 15 cigarettes". Something they can regret or could hesitate them for a moment or so. Well, I believe and I know that every smoker knows the effects of smoking in their body. They also know that it is bad for their health. So why keep on having anti-smoking if they won't even listen? Well, it's the thought that counts. Until the world is still standing, there is hope for everyone. Hope for a change. Hope for a better future. Hope that smokers would realize that smoking is up to no good.

Plagiarism

 Plagiarism. As we all know is a bad thing to do. This problem can often be done or committed by a student in schools. Students tend to copy and paste something they saw on the internet without even crediting the owner. This is a thing of lazy the students, students who does not put an effort to their school works. Students who submit their requirements for the sake of completing the work that their professor gave them. These are the students who don't take the consequences of plagiarism seriously. Other people thought that it's just a normal thing especially in students. Just like copying an answer in a test or copying homework. But it's not that simple. Plagiarism is an act of stealing. And stealing is against the law. Plagiarism is a crime. A crime that people don't take seriously. A crime that doesn't scare people or set the mind o a person that he or she might go to jail.. But in reality, it can send someone to jail. I remember the speech of Tito Sotto. It's funny that a politician will do such a thing. I mean he's a politician! He should know that plagiarism isn't a thing that politicians do. Well, corruption spreads like virus in the government. And we see the resemblance. Corruption is stealing money and plagiarism is stealing a person's idea. It all comes down to one thing... Stealing. The thing I'm saying here is that plagiarism should never be practiced and should never be a habit when doing school works, speeches, or anything related to that. One should turn on their creativity and have their own originality. It should be something unique that they can come up to. It should be something that is not against the law. Something you should never be ashamed of.

“Chants and cheers”

 Last term of the school year came and it’s an all English term, when our section enrolled the term we got shocked because we are merged to the other section, then after a couple of days we were told that the English department will hold an event that will be called chants and cheers.

  When our professor told us that she needs two representatives from each section to lead our section automatically said it should be me. I was surprised, nervous and a bit out of the world. It is a big responsibility to lead two different sections. First section is my block that I’m comfortable to work with. The other section was a group of people I don’t really know. I’ve ask myself can I really manage to make this project work, can I push the two sections and have a bond not only as classmates but to the point of us being friends?

 We need to make the lyrics for the competition, bragging about what kind of a section we are, our attitudes, what make us different from the other sections. Since we do not know each other very well we decided to have a get to know each other lunch, a bonding for us to work together and create a chant. The bonding had made progress with our relationship .After I created the lyrics and my partner made the choreography, we taught it to our section. Working with them was kind of fun, they are funny and jolly people. They are easy to work with and they have many different ideas that we actually use.

  After days of practice the day finally came for us to present. There are a lot of tough competitions and they are really hard to beat. After we performed we expected that we will not win, and we are right, but even if we didn’t won we are still happy that we got to perform, besides gaining friends is much more better that gaining a trophy.