Nanny McPhee's five lessons

She comes when she's needed but not wanted and leaves when she's wanted but not needed. That's Nanny McPhee. She pops from out of nowhere although she swears she did knock.

Emma Thompson is Nanny McPhee who comes to the Brown household to tame Mr. Brown's (Colin Firth) seven bad-mannered children headed by Simon (Thomas Sangster, the lovestruck kid in Love Actually) who just drove away their seventeenth nanny. She introduces herself as a government nanny and is not associated with any agencies and promises Mr. Brown to teach his children five lessons.

But as the Brown children start to conceive plots to get rid of her, Nanny McPhee is way ahead of them. And with a magical tap of her cane, the lessons begin to unfold. Lesson no.1 - They will learn how to say 'please' and 'thank you'. Lesson no. 2 - They will do as they are told. Lesson no. 3 - They will learn to dress on their own. Lesson no. 4 - Learn to listen (which was really meant for Mr. Brown). And lesson no. 5 - Be prepared to face the consequences of one's actions.

But the magic does not end with the childrens' change of behavior. With each accomplished lesson, Nanny McPhee's face and figure changes as well.

This is a must-see movie for the whole family especially if you have school age children. Kids will enjoy the naughtiness of the Brown kids while parents, I'm pretty sure, will pick up more than just the five lessons Nanny McPhee taught the kids. You'll surely love Nanny McPhee, warts and all!


Help build the Church of the Risen Christ at Smokey Mountain, Tondo, the first environment-friendly and wired church in the world. For donations call (0632) 2562336.

Librarians: the country's next export?

There's this very interesting story over at CNN that lists 'Librarians' as one of five unpopular jobs in the US not because of the nature of the work but because of the waning interest of youngsters to pursue a career in librarianship. In the list of unpopular careers besides librarians are nurses, machinists, truck drivers, and pharmacists.

According to the story, by 2009 40% of library directors would have retired by then and 25% of all librarians would have reached 65 years old so there is definitely a graying of the profession. Will this en masse retirement open a market for Filipino librarians for the US just as it did for our nurses and teachers? If it does, what will be the implications on the country's library education in particular and on the profession in general?

Personally, it's worth looking forward to. For library schools, they could leverage on this to market the profession and increase interest that would translate to enrolment, get their acts together and deliver the contents of the new curriculum so that they will be forming truly world-class librarians. As for the profession, I wouldn't be surprised to see familiar faces lining up for applications.

Tapos pag isa-isa nang nag-aalisan ang mga librarians galing sa mga public, academic, and school libraries papuntang ibang bansa dun lang matatauhan ang pamahalaan at ang mga administrators na mahalaga pala ang mga librarians.

There were no early indicators that we would be sending our own teachers abroad and therefore it is not an impossibility that Filipino librarians will join the ranks of our manpower exports. Anong masasabi nyo?

Help build the Church of the Risen Christ at Smokey Mountain, Tondo, the first environment-friendly and wired church in the world. For donations call (0632) 2562336.

Build a church, build lives

Middle of last year I wrote this story about plans to build the first environment-friendly and digital church in the world which will be located at the Parish of the Risen Christ, Smokey Mountain in Tondo, Manila.

Last January, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for building the church but the parish is still in need of funds. While Fr. Ben Beltran looked forward to having the church built in time for their parish fiesta this coming Easter Sunday, I don't think the parishioners would have a finished church by then.

As my way of helping the parish, starting today and until the church is finally built, I will be placing an appeal for help at the foot of my posts. For donations, please contact the parish office at (0632) 2562336.

The parish is also accepting donations of used computers for its Sandiwaan Center for Learning, an organization helping out-of school youths get a decent education and financial support for one of its projects, the Educational Outreach through eLearning. Dr. Dylan Dizon, EDO Project Director, told me recently that their funds are depleted and that their staff, composed mostly of deaf programmers, continue to work on the interactive modules despite not being paid their salaries for the past two months. For your donations, please contact EDO at (0632) 7167716.

Living like the Jetsons

The Jetsons was a cartoon series in the 60s and the 80s set in the future where the characters traveles in flying saucers and homes were built high above ground. Around the Jetsons home were all sorts of gadgets for every concievable purpose, the robotic maid and the robodog.

This particular cartoon came to mind when I read this USA Today story on how manufacturers are putting smart technology into everyday things. But I'm pretty sure much of these gadgets won't be hitting our shores in the next three years or so.

PC in a bottle

Who would have thought that an empty whiskey bottle can be turned into a PC case? Well, over at Slashdot is a story of how Janos Marton was able to transform a whisky bottle into a PC case! A masterpiece I should say and practical at that.

Another story of an extreme PC experiment is the one by a group of researchers over at the THG lab in Munich. They wanted to build a quiet and cool PC minus the fans so they decided to submerge a PC in 8 gallons of cooking oil! Guess what. The system didn't short and they were able to achieve their objective of a noise-free and cool PC. The site includes a video of how the researchers were able to do this feat.

If you're using an optical mouse, someone has just found a new way to use it - as a scanner. By tinkering with his mouse and programming a source code, he was able to transform it into a black & white scanner. The source code is availabe for download and the bored student who made this possible is asking for feedback from those brave enough to try the experiment.


Nothing that enters one from outside can make that person unclean. It is what comes out from within that makes one unclean. (Mark 7:15-16)

The Bible is like a library

Last week was Bible week and it is but fitting to honor the best book that's ever written. The Bible has always been a best seller and contains the greatest love story ever told - God's love for his children.

Admittedly, most of us do not know how to read the Bible. The famous evangelist Billy Graham has this suggestion on how to read it, which was no different with what our priest said in his homily. The priest also warned against the literal interpretation of the Bible.

But more than just reading it, our life would have more meaning if we follow what the Bible teaches.