Obama is the choice of the world

I’m not in DC so I just watched the whole inaugural ceremonies on CNN at home and waited for Obama’s inaugural speech with much anticipation.

I was not disapppointed.

Despite daunting challenges the President describes as “they are serious and they are many”, he continues to convey a message of  hope with a caveat of great and heavy reponsibility lying ahead.  It was full of promise.  Big promises that are equally big to keep.

Millions in America along with billions around the world watched President Obama sworn into the most powerful office in the most powerful country in the world.  He’s not only an icon of hope in this country he leads.  He’s become an icon of hope in the countries this country touches.

Thousands upon thousands are blogged about this man who is a phenomenon in America’s history.  But here’s an article about a self-published book about him that really caught my attention.

Philip Ephraim published Barack Obama, The Audacity of Being A Global President.   The book author highlights the President not only as the choice of America, but of the world.

I checked the book and I’m so glad to know that it is available online at Xlibris.  And it’s print on demand.  That means it never runs out of copies.

I looked at the pile of unread books on my bedroom floor.  They will have to remain unread for a few days.  And boy, I haven’t even opened the last one I bought!

There’s a new published book I  urgently need to read.

The success of the Obama’s administration doesn’t lie on the bigness of his inauguration or on his usual eloquence.  Everything depends on how he delivers his promises.

The whole world is watching and waiting.

coffee or gelato?

A friend invited to me to a cool treat in a popular uptown bar to celebrate his 30th birthday. But I could only turn up for dessert since our company president called for a very important meeting last night.

They were finishing dinner when I arrived but I was just right in time for the gang to hop to the nearby ice cream parlor. We indulged in several scoops as we enjoyed watching my friend trying so hard to blow the single sparkling candle on his black forest birthday cup cake prepared by his girlfriend as a surprise.

We moved to Starbucks after and had a really strong coffee around 11 in the evening.  The caffeine was actually enough to keep me awake the whole night. I could finish reading The Catcher  in the Rye tonight, I told myself.

I was home a little after 1am, took a warm bath and I tried to read a few pages of J.D. Salinger’s published book. I  was too tired to proceed that I dozed off a few minutes after.

I never thought caffeine would keep me from reading the witty and humorous book author.

Or maybe, it was because of too much gelato.

crisis in the middle east

I planned to re-read The Art of War when the Gaza news hit me on the first working day this year.  But when I visited a local bookstore to check if the books I reserved have already arrived, my reading plans changed.

Instead of re-reading Sun Tzu in an effort to understand what’s going on in Gaza, I found myself re-reading The Catcher in The Rye, J. D. Salinger’s revolutionary book published in the early 50s.

It was a must read in college and I enjoyed the book author’s wit, candidness and spontaneity. I read it in the university library but thought of buying a copy a few years after graduation.  It was always out of stock until I literally forgot about it.

I’m grateful for my never ending book rearrangement and cleaning up project.  It made me realize that the number of classics in my bookshelf is diminishing and slowly replaced by contemporary writers.  So I made a list of my favorites and did a reservation at a local bookstore.  The Catcher in The Rye is one of them and I now finally have my own copy of the published book.

This morning, I was doing my usual routine of checking the news.  Same highlights.  The crisis in the Middle East.

It still somehow worries me a bit but  I’m neither a political analyst nor a war strategist: I’m a book lover.  And I’ve got several new books to read and re-read.  Not to mention those I’ve bought before that I haven’t touched yet.

There’s so much good reads that get published everyday.

It’s crazy, but I really wish to read them all!

a book on war

It’s the first day of work after the wonderful Christmas holidays so I took a quick look at the BBC News before going back to reality and embracing the corporate world again this morning.

The war going on in Gaza is still the main highlight with the Israeli ground troops advancing to the city.  I switched to CNN hoping that they’ll probably showcase Obama’s inauguration or any other news except war.  But the same story is being told.  Israel doesn’t budge and the Hamas militants are willing to die no matter what.  The never-ending war goes on.

I still had time but I decided to stop watching the news.  When I was about to press the power button of the remote control my eyes traveled to the pile of books lying beside the television set, and fixed on Sun Tzu’s published book titled The Art of War.

There’s another book author to re-read.

I’m just starting to read Follet’s World Without End. This means I will have to set it aside.  After all, with a drop of a bomb, even the most mighty of cathedrals is easily blown to oblivion.

But will this conflict in the Middle East come to an end?  Who is willing to throw in the towel?

The truce negotiations are failing.

I left my pad with a heavy heart.   If people only give in and decide to co-exist.

re-reading Follet

My book cleaning up spree isn’t over yet because every time I stumble upon a good book, I stop cleaning and start reading.

Last night, I started to re-read Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. I think this is already my seventh copy. I either gave away the other copies or they were simply borrowed and not returned.

The novel is one of the book author’s best books. I first read it in the early 90’s and re-read it probably 4 times since then.  The book always holds me that the moment I start reading the first page, I can’t put it down anymore!

It’s amazing how Follett allows his readers to get passionately involved in the world of Gothic architecture construction spiced by love, hate, greed and pride staged in 12th century England.

Reading the published book again brings me back to old memories full of almost lost but now rekindled passion for arts and architecture.  And being inside several gothic cathedrals during my trips to Europe makes the story more alive.

Pillars of the Earth has a sequel, World Without End, written by Follett for three years and set two centuries later in the same fictional town – Kingsbridge.

I will have a lot of re-readings to do and Follett is definitely one of the book authors I would spend the holidays with.

health is wealth

I had a quick chat with my life coach early this morning about wellness and how food intake is associated with diseases like cancer, which now attacks younger people. I thought of our conversation when I stumbled upon this published book about how boosting the immune system causes cancer to regress. Kindly click on this link to read the story: book author on cancer regression.

I lost a very close friend of mine to lung cancer. She was only 29 years old and never had a cigarette all her life. Just a few months ago, another very close friend died of breast and brain cancer after more than a year of battling with it and going through chemo and radiation treatments.

Cancer still sounds scary despite available advanced treatments. It’s even scarier to think when we read stories about the more dangerous side effects of these treatments.

The old adage that health is wealth holds true. Nothing can beat wellness and being good stewards of our health.

moments of emptiness

Last night, I finished reading the six books I studied in the last 3 weeks or so. Now, I’m finally re-reading Against the Gods with full attention!

This published book gives me so much insight especially when Peter L. Bernstein, the book author, pointed out how ZERO revolutionized the old numbering system.

It first caught my attention in December 2006. I was re-reading this book (I first read it in 2002) when out of the blue, my then four-year old niece asked, “Do you know that zero means empty?”

The question was very condescending but since it’s coming from a little child, anyone could be forgiving.

Of course I said “yes” and immediately she beamed with so much delight knowing that an adult actually understands something she does.

I simply shook my head and thought that I was probably like her as a kid.

Nevertheless, her question connects with what Bernstein described in the book I was re-reading then and am re-reading now. The book author explained that ZERO makes the whole structure of the numbering system immediately visible and clear – 0 to 9, and makes calculation a whole lot easier compared to the Roman Numerals – I, II, III, IV, etc.

WAIT! Don’t worry, this blog is not about mathematics. It’s about this thing I call ZERO moments – the times in our lives when we feel empty and useless.

It’s not easy when we are going through these moments. When we feel that it’s too much, we always want to give up. But we need these moments because they shape us and make us better persons.

I dunno what the world would have been if ZERO wasn’t discovered.   I dunno what my life would have been without the empty moments that break me and shape me up into a new whole.

There’s so much to write about ZERO moments.  It can be a whole blog site.

In the meantime, I’ve got to finish re-reading Against the Gods.

my management guru

I’m scheduled to have a meeting tomorrow with my management mentor to discuss a consultancy project on an expansion plan of the company where my sister works as a human resource specialist.

As I read a blog about a self-published book author who wrote her story as a mentor and a mentee, I thought of writing something about my own guru who, to me, is a legend worth sharing.

I call him Mr. A. And much of the way I am as a professional is because of what he teaches me by what he models. 

How to publish this legend is another story.  Blogging it is a good start.

Mr. A was once my boss and a consultant in several projects I was running when I was still spinning in the world of development work. He was also the guru I always put heads with when I took my masters in management.

He is such a man of integrity: he walks the talk, always honors his word, always comes prepared, never pretends to know everything and is never late.

I can actually write a whole book about him and the wisdom he imparts. Who knows one day the book can get published? That would then be a legacy.

But much time has to be spent in publishing a book. It’s a serious commitment and something I don’t have for the moment.

In the meantime, blogging would suffice.

busy with the lamppost

I was checking my bookshelf for books I can give friends for Christmas when I saw The Little Prince tucked between two hardbound Druckers.

The book is one of my all-time favorites.

I browsed through the pages and beamed at how Antoine de Saint Exupéry portrayed different personalities through the characters in this little published book.

My attention centered on the lamp lighter. He was busy turning on the lamppost during sunrise and turning it off during sunset. He does the same routine all his life.

The Little Prince told him that if he really wants to rest, he simply has to walk because his planet is so tiny that sunset is only a few strides away from sunrise. All the day will last as long as he likes if he only slows down.

The lamp lighter refuses to rest.  He refuses to see the beauty slowing down gives.

Looking at my own life, I could only say, “So much like me that lamp lighter is.”

How much precious time have I lost doing the less significant, if not the insignificant? Immeasurable.

But it’s never too late.

And for now, that assurance is enough.