As I was saying...
Sorry for that not so brief hiatus. I tried, and dismally failed, to ensure that I post a blog at least once a month but as you probably guessed, my lack of access to a reliable connection prevented me from being in the mood to write.
Which of course does not translate to losing my appetite for reading and ingesting as much (albeit, subjectively determined as worthwhile) content as I could the entire period I was lacking in output.
So what have I been doing lately? Let me make a rundown: I have been attending 8am to 6pm sessions of Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) lectures in SyCip which, though is not a formal educational institution, I have grown to consider as having a very significant participation in shaping my career in law and for moulding me to be the lawyer, nay not only that, it has moulded me to become the person that I am now. And I am grateful for that. Precisely the reason why I wanted to take my MCLE in SyCip is not only to see old friends and mentors but also to keep abreast and take part in the wealth of information that they have as a consequence of their varied and thorough practice. Readers should not be misled that I was spared of suffering while I was with the firm (for which reason some ex-SyCip seem to fail to dissociate the firm from feelings of anguish and hurt) but I see it differently: I see it as going through fire and emerging a phoenix. Lest I start sounding mushy this very minute, let me return to that point where I digressed. As I was saying, the MCLE seminars surely is a venue for content overload. Not since my law school days did I had to endure a sore bottom, struggling to keep listening to a lecturer (minus the hassles of law school recitation sessions, of course). Many opinions are afloat criticizing the Supreme Court in implementing the MCLE which requires lawyers to, every three years, take 36 units of subjects selected by the MCLE committee. I am not particularly against it since one, I'm not paying for the seminar fee (hahaha!); and two, and more seriously, the MCLE satisfies that part in me that wants to go back to school. That is why I was very particular not to attend lectures done by lecturers who will conduct run of the mill lectures or attend lectures by lecturers I have attended before and for certain, would not be in a position to effectively convey substantial updates, if any. I still have one last Saturday to finish the MCLE and and I'm looking forward to this Saturday's lecture as much as the end of it. Yehey!
Aside from required activities, I also have been doing some reading. I promised myself a few months back to cut down on my book-hoarding tendencies but efforts were in vain. Since my frequent trips to Fully Booked in June, I have acquired several other titles, namely, Paula by Isabelle Allende, A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester (same author as Krakatoa) and the Philippine War: 1899-1902 by Brian McAllister Linn. Of course, another valuable addition to my collection is the Philippine Securities Regulation Code Annotation by Rafael A. Morales, given and autographed by Mr. Morales himself, who I used to work with while I was in SyCip. I have started reading and it is a delight that finally, there is an annotation on the seeimingly difficult subject of securities regulation, with much insight of course from Mr. Morales' vast and varied experience in the field.
I actually have not been reading as prolificly as a few months back but the few books I have read the past few months were Paula and A Crack in the Edge of the World:America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. Paula is a memoir written by Isabel Allende at the time when her daughter Paula fell into a coma until her death a year after. The memoir was poignant in that Allende, through her writing, struggles to cope and straddle between hoping for her recovery and resigning to her and her daughter's destiny. Written as if she was, day after day, telling stories to Paula, Allende reveals her inspiration for her characters as well as events which apparently actually happened to her and which are perplexing beyond reason except the mystical. I initially bought the book as a gift for my friend who loves Allende's novels but ended up getting a copy for myself. I simply cannot part with it after having been moved and mystified, and I just have to have a copy of my own cause I'm sure, reading it sometime in the future would elicit different emotions from me as my other favored, twice or thrice read books have done.
A Crack in the Edge of the World is another book by Simon Winchester who is fastly becoming on of my favorite authors for the simple reason that we share the same interests: geology and history. After being fascinated by the thorough description of the Krakatoa eruption, Winchester this time brings his readers from the East to the West Coast of the United States, historically and geologically depicting the factual millieu pre and post 1906, the year when the great earthquake happened. He discusses the factual antecedents to the founding of the City of San Francisco and the effects of the 1906 earthquake and resulting conflagration, which virtually unseated SF as the primary Californian city, paving the way to the rise of Los Angeles. Based on Winchester's discussion in his book, the next big quake due to the San Andreas Fault can happen anytime - very soon. The key to the future is in the lessons of the past indeed.
Which of course does not translate to losing my appetite for reading and ingesting as much (albeit, subjectively determined as worthwhile) content as I could the entire period I was lacking in output.
So what have I been doing lately? Let me make a rundown: I have been attending 8am to 6pm sessions of Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) lectures in SyCip which, though is not a formal educational institution, I have grown to consider as having a very significant participation in shaping my career in law and for moulding me to be the lawyer, nay not only that, it has moulded me to become the person that I am now. And I am grateful for that. Precisely the reason why I wanted to take my MCLE in SyCip is not only to see old friends and mentors but also to keep abreast and take part in the wealth of information that they have as a consequence of their varied and thorough practice. Readers should not be misled that I was spared of suffering while I was with the firm (for which reason some ex-SyCip seem to fail to dissociate the firm from feelings of anguish and hurt) but I see it differently: I see it as going through fire and emerging a phoenix. Lest I start sounding mushy this very minute, let me return to that point where I digressed. As I was saying, the MCLE seminars surely is a venue for content overload. Not since my law school days did I had to endure a sore bottom, struggling to keep listening to a lecturer (minus the hassles of law school recitation sessions, of course). Many opinions are afloat criticizing the Supreme Court in implementing the MCLE which requires lawyers to, every three years, take 36 units of subjects selected by the MCLE committee. I am not particularly against it since one, I'm not paying for the seminar fee (hahaha!); and two, and more seriously, the MCLE satisfies that part in me that wants to go back to school. That is why I was very particular not to attend lectures done by lecturers who will conduct run of the mill lectures or attend lectures by lecturers I have attended before and for certain, would not be in a position to effectively convey substantial updates, if any. I still have one last Saturday to finish the MCLE and and I'm looking forward to this Saturday's lecture as much as the end of it. Yehey!
Aside from required activities, I also have been doing some reading. I promised myself a few months back to cut down on my book-hoarding tendencies but efforts were in vain. Since my frequent trips to Fully Booked in June, I have acquired several other titles, namely, Paula by Isabelle Allende, A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester (same author as Krakatoa) and the Philippine War: 1899-1902 by Brian McAllister Linn. Of course, another valuable addition to my collection is the Philippine Securities Regulation Code Annotation by Rafael A. Morales, given and autographed by Mr. Morales himself, who I used to work with while I was in SyCip. I have started reading and it is a delight that finally, there is an annotation on the seeimingly difficult subject of securities regulation, with much insight of course from Mr. Morales' vast and varied experience in the field.
I actually have not been reading as prolificly as a few months back but the few books I have read the past few months were Paula and A Crack in the Edge of the World:America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. Paula is a memoir written by Isabel Allende at the time when her daughter Paula fell into a coma until her death a year after. The memoir was poignant in that Allende, through her writing, struggles to cope and straddle between hoping for her recovery and resigning to her and her daughter's destiny. Written as if she was, day after day, telling stories to Paula, Allende reveals her inspiration for her characters as well as events which apparently actually happened to her and which are perplexing beyond reason except the mystical. I initially bought the book as a gift for my friend who loves Allende's novels but ended up getting a copy for myself. I simply cannot part with it after having been moved and mystified, and I just have to have a copy of my own cause I'm sure, reading it sometime in the future would elicit different emotions from me as my other favored, twice or thrice read books have done.
A Crack in the Edge of the World is another book by Simon Winchester who is fastly becoming on of my favorite authors for the simple reason that we share the same interests: geology and history. After being fascinated by the thorough description of the Krakatoa eruption, Winchester this time brings his readers from the East to the West Coast of the United States, historically and geologically depicting the factual millieu pre and post 1906, the year when the great earthquake happened. He discusses the factual antecedents to the founding of the City of San Francisco and the effects of the 1906 earthquake and resulting conflagration, which virtually unseated SF as the primary Californian city, paving the way to the rise of Los Angeles. Based on Winchester's discussion in his book, the next big quake due to the San Andreas Fault can happen anytime - very soon. The key to the future is in the lessons of the past indeed.
posted by wernicke at 9:56 AM
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