Project Gutenberg 1:12 AM

Most people don't know that I've been volunteering as a proofreader for Project Gutenberg for around a year now. I've been doing it on a casual basis--whenever I have some spare time on weekends and such.  This online volunteer community where I belong is called Distributed Proofreaders, and our task is to proofread and convert public domain books into e-books. After multiple rounds of proofreading, formatting and post-processing, these books are finally submitted to the Project Gutenberg (PG) archive to be preserved--forever, we hope!

I infinitely prefer the sensation of holding and reading a book in printed form, but I have to admit that the idea of preserving a literary work--into something even as terribly modern as an e-book--is still a task both sacred and profound.  Although we don't see ourselves regressing into a book-burning society (God forbid) anytime soon, I secretly would like to think that Project Gutenberg exists not just to make books available to everyone for free, but to ensure that there's a Plan B in the highly improbable but not completely impossible event of the printed book becoming extinct or outlawed some day. (Hey, if you've read Fahrenheit 451, you'd be paranoid, too.)

Distributed Proofreaders (DP)'s concept is simple: to speed up the conversion of thousands and thousands of books into digital form, volunteers can work together on a book at the same time.  That way, a book can be proofread and submitted into the PG archive faster than if it were just a one person-one book assignment.  Workload is divided into pages; all the community asks of you is to edit at least a page a day.  More than one, if you can.  My best day ever was when I did 15 pages straight.  One can't proofread too much in one sitting (unless you're used to it) due to eye fatigue and a subsequently increased likelihood of committing proofreading errors.

Just some really nice overall stats found on the site

The objective isn't to correct or change the meaning of the text at all (what a big no-no) but to proofread and format it in such a way to make it ready for e-book conversion.  We're not talking about just exporting books into PDF and such.  The e-book formatting process isn't as simple as that.

This online project is such a completely organized system, with all the proofreading and formatting guidelines listed down.  There's even a handy one-pager guide for quick reference. Every newbie starts off at the Proofreading Round 1 (P1, for short) level, and has to work his/her way up to the next levels.  To graduate from P1 alone, you need to proofread a minimum of 300 pages AND pass a proofreading quiz.  I like how I can see my personal stats on the DP site--stats such as my overall ranking (my kingdom for a top 10 spot in DP someday!), how many pages I've completed per day, which book projects I've worked on, and how many more pages to go in order for me to move up to the next level.

But the best thing about this project, really, is that I get to read while editing.  DP volunteers are encouraged to work on just around five pages per book and then move on to another book. This is a wise strategy, because you need to have everyone focusing on getting batches of books ready for e-book conversion. Plus, one needs to try out different types of texts in order to be more exposed to various proofreading challenges. But even if editing five pages per book would mean just literally reading snippets of a text, I find the task enjoyable.  It's like reading all these mini stories in one sitting.

Besides, volunteers have the freedom to choose which books they can edit. I normally go for the English novels on the list, with a history book now and then. An unforgettable piece I worked on was Edmund Spenser's poem 'The Shepheard's Calendar.' What a handful. (Click on the screenshot below for a better view.)

It's a nice feeling to get an email notification from DP every time a book I've worked on in the past has been submitted to the Project Gutenberg archive.  Not every person downloading and reading that novel on his/her e-reader device would realize that dozens of individuals actually proofread and transformed it into an e-book that he/she could enjoy.  I always feel like I gave birth somehow (along with the rest of the volunteers) and sent a book out into the digital space for it to be forever preserved and appreciated.    
   
I like to think it's the romantic modern-day equivalent of monks copying and illustrating these manuscripts commissioned by kings and influential individuals in their time.

A labor so sacred and profound.

Joseph Campbell's The Mythic Dimension 1:41 AM

A year has passed, and I've managed to read more than a dozen books since my last blog entry in November 2010. (Note to self: Reading only a dozen or so books in a year is a hideous all-time low record.  Must improve in 2012!)

So.

Here's what I'm plowing through right now.  Not the most accessible sort of reading out there, but Joseph Campbell will always be a favorite of mine. The Mythic Dimension is a collection of Campbell's essays on myth (as always!) and serves as a precursor to the heftier yet more elegantly-written four-volume The Masks of God. So if you're a fan of the latter, then reading Mythic Dimension is like going through Campbell's early musings.

The cover of the book is a detail taken from Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, which is an amazing 15th century painting housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.  I feel lucky to have seen this painting up close when I visited the Gallery back in March 2010.

Side note: I've just downloaded a copy of Werner Herzog's documentary 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams', which I think will be perfect complementary viewing while I read Mythic Dimension at this point.  Was reading Campbell's Primitive Mythology (volume one of The Masks of God) around 5 or 6 years back and I remember thinking to myself at that time how good it would be to see those Chauvet caves--which contain the oldest known cave art--in a NatGeo documentary or something. Hooray for wishes that come true eventually.

new Jurlique buys -- an unfinished post 1:23 AM

Wow, I really need to start writing in this blog again. I guess having Facebook and Twitter these days got me feeling super lazy to write something longer. My last unfinished blog draft (see below) was written back in November 2010. A whole year gone unwritten. Hope I find the time to blog again.
Why? Why can't I seem to drag myself away from the temptation of buying new stuff for my skin? This is an evil, evil addiction.

Just last Wednesday evening, I wandered into Jurlique, with the innocent intention of just checking out their hand creams. Then I happened to try Jurlique's Lavender Hydrating Mist and, well, I ended up reaching for my wallet to buy this product. Which is basically herbal-scented water to hydrate the face. Or to describe it in Jurlique terms: "A replenishing mist, rich in the living energy of lavender and marshmallow to hydrate, tone and soothe. Leaves the skin refreshed. Ideal for rebalancing dryness."

Not sure exactly how marshmallow root extract helps moisturize the face, but the nice thing about Jurlique products is that their stuff really works. It may just be lavender-scented water to non-believers of Jurlique, but this Lavender Hydrating Mist works like a charm.

Because I have very dry skin, I need to moisturize my face and body religiously. When I'm outdoors, I need to re-hydrate my skin by spritzing Evian or even just plain water; otherwise, the skin on my face would really feel dry and tight. But water and even the Evian spritz tend to evaporate quickly on my face, so I have to keep at it. But the Lavender

Life hanging by a thread 8:48 AM

Well, not in a morbid way, but at least in artsy terms.

Saw this in Swiss Miss, and was enamored. Like what Swiss Miss said, it's 'almost poetic how you're supposed to pull on the yarn as time goes by.'

kate spade every day 12:04 AM

If someone gave me the money to buy clothes from just one designer label for my entire life, I'm pretty much sure I'd go with Kate Spade.

But since I don't have that much disposable income to spend on myself nor do I know any crazy, altruistic soul who would fund my shopping spree inside a Kate Spade store, I just have to resort to ogling at Ms. Kate's beautiful designs online.

Since it's free to dream, I can totally see myself in these clothes. The style is so me! (And I realize that a few of the clothes I wear to work are somewhat Kate Spade-ish, but nowhere near as expensive, of course.)

This is what I look like on most days:

And this is the kind of meek, innocent, pa-cute look I subconsciously sport (until a colleague pointed it out to me recently) every time my regional supervisor comes over to Manila and I end up spending 3 hours reporting to him the results of my campaigns:

This is the kind of stuff I like to wear when I'm in the mood to dress up...

... and this is exactly what I look like on Sundays when I'm at my favorite friendly neighborhood Starbucks.
This is the kind of look I wish I'd sport more often...

... and this would be the kind of look I wish I can get away with.

And lastly, this is what I'd still want to be like when I'm in my 40s and beyond. :)

But all is not lost, and I've actually promised to treat myself and not to go Kate Spade-less my entire life. Sooooo... I've gotten myself something and it's coming in December, and it's nothing as grand and as expensive as a $500 ensemble, but it's still super lovely to look at, and I can hardly wait and I'm so excited, so much so that I've written a terribly constructed sentence.

:) :) :)

Don't those excessive emoticons say it all?




Photos are all from kate spade's facebook page.

The Illuminator 1:46 PM

Another find at Books for Less just this week.

The book's a bit of fanciful historical fiction, the cover's pretty hokey, and I'm really not into the romance part. But the reason I bought it were the following keywords I saw on the blurb at the back of the book: 'fourteenth century England' and 'master illuminator.' Even though I'm not familiar with the author, Brenda Rickman Vantrease, I figured my interest in feudal England and the history of book making would allow me to enjoy the book.

(Of course, I can't read The Illuminator at once since I'm currently still ploughing through Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale. And I'm pretty aware that several months of reading Ancestor is an inordinately long time to be doing so, but then again--who wants to rush through evolution anyway? But I digress.)

Because I don't know Vantrease's other works, I had to look her up online. Her niche really is on historical fiction peppered with some romance (jeez), but thank God the reviews are saying the history parts in her books are well-researched.

I'm also glad she's into historical accounts of books and book making, because I do read a good deal on that subject, whether fiction or non-fiction. Nicholas Basbanes' A Gentle Madness, for example, tackles the obsession of book collecting, and his Patience and Fortitude covers the great libraries of the past, starting with The Library of Alexandria (yay, Egypt!). And then there's a recent read of mine, Orhan Pamuk's award-winning My Name is Red, which is a murder mystery set during the Ottoman Empire, centering on a group of illuminators and miniaturists working for the sultan.

The period before Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press is always fascinating; this was the time when monks in the Western world and Muslim scholars in the East painstakingly created and reproduced books by hand.

Before my former officemate Alexis migrated to Canada with her family, she left with me an old copy of The History of Making Books from the Scholastic Voyages of Discovery series. The book must probably have been owned by one of her kids. It's this lovely little thing that talked about the ancient system of writing and reading in Mesopotamia and Egypt and such, and then how illustrated manuscripts were made in early A.D., and up to the age of printing.

It's a children's book, but I was more than thrilled to inherit it, because the book's subject is something I'm passionate about. I was touched by Alexis' thoughtfulness, for she knew how much I cared about books. This copy of The History of Making Books now sits on my office shelf, and I'm always on the lookout for any visiting children (who are, most of the time, the kids of my officemates) who may be interested enough to see the book, sit down beside me-- and hopefully, ask me to read it with them.

Egypt in 2011 3:23 PM

I want to go to Egypt so badly, it hurts. I mean literally.

My eyes have been aching from too much scouring on the web for the most affordable package tours to Egypt. My chest actually hurts every time I have this panicky feeling that my plans won't push through. That's just the worrywart in me, but yes, I DO plan to go to Egypt next year. I always believe that if I want it bad enough, I'll get it--and I don't intend to disappoint myself.

Ever since I got to see both Rome and Cambodia (two of my other dream 'ruins' destinations) in the early part of 2010, I've had a more positive outlook when it comes to traveling. Never think a place is too far, too impossible, too expensive to visit. If you want to see it, then just find a way to do it. Really.

I'm not one of the privileged few who can just fly off to wherever. I actually have to save for trips. None of that nonsensical Eat Pray Love, Under the Tuscan Sun stuff. Realistically speaking, it's only the rich, dissatisfied, slightly neurotic people who can actually afford to go on spontaneous trips to the other side of the world. The rest of us are left to make calculations on Excel, projecting how much we can save per month in order to go on that dream vacation.

So this is me doing those said calculations and planning a trip to the lost kingdom of pharaohs on May 2011. I'm very, very, very excited. The trip isn't cheap, but I know it's going to be worth every peso saved. My best bud Ryan and I have been planning this for quite some time (actually, it's more of me doing the research for all the tour costs, and he'll just shell out the money for his half of the expenses), but that's alright, because I'm the control freak and he just basically goes along with my lovingly crafted itinerary that reeks of obsessive compulsive-ness.

So the plan is to spend 8-10 days in Egypt and see the cities of Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, plus go on a day trip to the majestic Abu Simbel temple.


Oh my God, I can't even begin to describe how badly I want to see Abu Simbel and those monolithic statues of Ramses II. All those times I've watched documentaries on TV on historic Egypt while I was growing up really fed my desire to see the place. My brother Ramfis (Ramses, Ramfis--the similarities of the names are not coincidental; my parents wanted it) is even more of a geeky historic buff than I am, and he would love to see this place as well.

My top priority sights to see in Egypt are Abu Simbel, the pyramids of Giza, the Valley of the Kings (see photo below) and the Nile. And after I see those, I know I'll cry, because I've been waiting to see these places all my life. I don't know why I feel a strange sense of urgency to visit Egypt, but I know I don't want to wait for a few more years just to see it.

So, yes, I'll see you next year, Egypt!




Photo credits: Abu Simbel photo by Getty Images. Photos of the Pyramids and the Valley of the Kings are by National Geographic.

Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down 1:22 PM

Another great find at the Books for Less branch in my office building. I keep posting about many of these nice book finds, that I might as well have a separate blog label about it.

It's a little disturbing to find a Nick Hornby book in a secondhand bookstore--but I'm not complaining.

vanilla girl 10:49 PM

I'm known as the vanilla girl in the office.

People would kind of joke and say that they'd know it was me who had just passed by just because of the scent of vanilla in the air.

I think it's a compliment. I love all things vanilla. I have body sprays, a basketful of lotions, several bottles of body wash, and even a hand sanitizer that all have that fragrant smell.

So, not surprisingly, this is one of my new moisturizers (I have 3 more lotions in my bag). A yummy Boots product and now an official favorite amongst my teammates, who help themselves to it regularly.

Now that 1/4 of it is consumed after only 2 weeks, I realize I have to find a way to stock up again on this.

And next time I'm in Bangkok, I'm getting the same body butter in the larger pint-looking size.


***

On a different note, I really have to start on my Paris and Cambodia entries soon. Wrote a couple of notes while I was traveling at that time, and I hope I can properly reconstruct the memorable bits of those summer vacation trips. :)

This is real love. 12:25 AM

Oh, yes it is.

I requested a kind officemate of mine to buy a pot of Boots Original Beauty Formula Cold Cream for me while she was in Bangkok last week for vacation.

I've been trying this for cold cream three nights in a row already, and seriously, my skin looks and feels healthier and more supple. (Of course, my mom and sisters think I'm unhealthily obsessed with my skin. Sorry, I'm a skin care junkie.)

The product also has a vintage feel to it, and looks like something my grandmama would use. Well, older generations of women did use cold cream to remove skin impurities and retain that youthful look. When Kylie Minogue was asked about her ageless look, she revealed that her beauty secret was Pond's Cold Cream--and sales of that product in the UK soared in the next few days.

Well, I'm not a Pond's fan, so I'd rather go for something like Boots' Cold Cream. It's a bit heavy on the skin, but I don't mind; I have really dry skin, so I kind of feel that my skin is 'drinking' in all that cold cream. Heavenly.

Every time I'm in a Boots store in Bangkok, I always feel this mad urge to stock up. So whenever I get back to Manila, I have a load of Boots products in my luggage; I'm always afraid of running out of my precious supplies.

The skin balm and the lavender hand cream from the same Original Beauty Formula line are nice on my skin as well (perfect hand moisturizers while I'm working inside a deathly cold office), but this cold cream is turning out to be my favorite. Next time I'm in Thailand, I'm going to lug back some of that skin tonic and cleansing milk.

I suggested to my fundraising teammate Tintin (another Boots fan) that the next time our regional manager Yas comes over to Manila, we can ask him to bring our pabilin (purchase requests) from Boots. She said I was dead crazy, as she couldn't imagine our no-nonsense Japanese boss lugging around a bunch of beauty products for us.

Okay, maybe that was too much. It was just a suggestion, though...!