Hello everyone! I just want to share with you this cool exercise that my professor, Prof. Orlino Rabago, forwarded to me after the end of our classes last summer. Most of the people close to me how crazy I am about grammar and pronunciation, if not the English language itself. I already tried it and I'm happy to realise that there is still so much to learn. So, go ahead and try it for yourself, friends! Have fun!


If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native speakers in the world. After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labor to reading six lines aloud. Try them yourself.


Bert Christensen’s

Truth and Humor Collection

English Pronunciation!

6
Dearest creature in creation, study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. Just compare heart, beard, and heard, dies and diet, lord and word, sword and sward, retain and Britain (Mind the latter, how it’s written). Now I surely will not plague you with such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak.

8
We say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Pauper does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; dull, bull, and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific. Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed but allowed, people, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the differences, moreover, between mover, cover, clover: leeches, breeches, wise, precise, chalice, but police and lice: camel, constable, unstable, principle, disciple, label.

7
Petal, panel, and canal, wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, senator, spectator, mayor. Tour, but our and succor, four, gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, area, psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian, dandelion and battalion. Sally with ally, yea, ye, eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie. Face but preface, not efface.

2
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Large, but target, gin, give, verging, ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. Ear, but earn and wear and tear, say break and steak, but bleak and streak; cloven, oven, how and low, script, receipt, show, poem, and toe. Hear me say, devoid of trickery, daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, exiles, similes, and reviles; scholar, vicar, and cigar, solar, mica, war and far; one, anemone, Balmoral, kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel; Gertrude, German, wind and mind. Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
5
Billet does not rhyme with ballet, bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet, blood and flood are not like food, nor is mould, like should and would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, toward, to forward, to reward. And the pronunciation’s OK when you correctly say croquet, rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, friend and fiend, alive and live. Ivy, privy, famous; clamor and enamor rhyme with hammer. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb. Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, neither does devour with clangor.

1
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, and then singer, ginger, linger, real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, marriage, foliage, mirage, and age. Query does not rhyme with very, nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loath. Job, knob, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little.

3
Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even, hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen, monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work. Pronunciation (think of Psyche!!! ). Is paling stout and spiky? Won’t it make you lose your wits, writing grouts and saying grits? It’s a dark abyss or tunnel: strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, housewife, verdict and indict. Finally, which rhymes with enough, though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? Hiccough has the sound of cup.

My advice is to give up !!!

Sunday Special

We ordered pizza at Jugno’s Monster Pizza last night. The pizza was good and left us all stuffed for the next two weeks. I am thankful that I have the Sun-Mon off, now that I am in the morning shift since I now get to spend time with my family over dinner and movies. I wished this schedule would be mine for good, but, of course, I know I can only wish.

Anyway, Ceasar finally bought the Globe Tattoo prepaid kit and so we can now surf the net from the comforts of our home. The connection can be slow at times but we can still watch videos and download songs with no problem. I can now check my Facebook account and update my blog at home. Guess, I no longer have an excuse to not have the pictures uploaded in my site as soon as possible, but I know my friends, especially my Uno Animo team won’t mind since they’re already used to the delay. Tamad lang talaga ako. I spent almost five hours surfing the net. At heto, hindi pa rin nagsasawa. Naaaliw talaga ako kasi hindi ko akalain na ayos din naman pala kahit prepaid.


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Ceasar and I went to the mall today to hang out and look for a new pair of jeans for him. We took Josine and Kmart with us, to spend some time with them, too.

Though there were a lot of people hanging out in the mall, I still found it relaxing to visit my favorite bookstores and window shop for stuff I want to buy in the future.

Ceasar and I got a pair of jeans and a new shirt respectively. We also bought our favorite Zen Zest scents. Josine bought another shirt for school (it’s her first day of school tomorrow) and a charm bracelet on sale.

Kmart had a blast at the many stores we visited particularly at Fully Booked and Toy Kingdom. It’s so much more difficult to have him along among the crowd as he can easily get lost in the sea of people. It took a lot of energy to run after him or keep up with him whenever he gets excited but it’s all worth it, thinking that in a few years, he may never want to spend time with his Tita. (*sniffs)

We then had an early dinner at Burger King. As usual, we felt like we couldn’t breathe after eating. (Hahaha!) We decided to hunt for more books to burn some of the calories. We also went looking for a watch. Hopefully, I will have a new one tomorrow.

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We’re halfway through the month of June and I want to send my birthday wishes to the following people:

June 8 – Auntie Medy

June 9 – Mahmu

June 10 – Albert Mallorca and Wilbur Quimba

Happy, happy birthday!! ♥♥♥

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For the past 3 days, I’ve been singing the song, “Thinking of You” by Katy Perry almost everywhere. Thanks to Tin. Because of this song, we got to share some of our feelings and it’s a relief to finally have someone understand or at least, listen to what I feel.

I am not sure if actually talking about it helped since I’ve been trying to suppress the feeling and stop entertaining any more thoughts to silly ideas. Every time I feel I’ve gotten over it, there would be times when it would hit me the way it did the first time and I would have to start all over again to gain the confidence I worked so hard for.

Talking to Tin made me feel like I should really take things slow and not force myself to simply shift from one to the other. I think I really need to be careful about myself as I may end up crazy or something.

I know I am not making sense now and I won’t force myself to do so. I think I owe to myself to take my time and be kinder to myself.

Have a great week ahead of you!!

liking the unlikeable, bearing the unbearable

I’ve watched the TV series, House for a week now and I’m starting to have a huge crush on Hugh Laurie’s character. Dr. Gregory House may be the most cynical and insensitive person I have “known”, but he is the true person in all of us. We all sometimes think the way he does but we are just not that brave to express what we feel.

His candor endeared him to me. I may find his words a little hurtful (maybe because I am not used to that kind of bluntness) but those words are what most people need since we spend too much time sugarcoating feelings even though we already feel like blowing up.

I know I am not ready for Dr. House’s kind of honesty but I feel this kind of honesty makes some situations a lot easier to deal with. (right now, I couldn’t think of an example. Anyone?)

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Last December, I said that I’m giving myself two months before I decide if I leave my present job. Guess what’s my decision? CLUE: I’m still here. Ha!

Believe me, I wasn’t bluffing when I said that then. I just couldn’t think of myself at this point. Of course, I’m part of the reason why I am not resigning. I don’t feel like going through interviews yet. I fear that if I ever answer another question from an initial interview, I might win a title, a crown and a chance to represent our country in a prestigious pageant.

However, I’m starting to feel the stress again. My new teammates are nice and very accommodating. I still get to spend time with my friends (former teammates) during lunch. I just don’t know why I’m feeling this. A migraine is not helping at all. (Kahit hindi ako nagsusuka – sariling version ko to nang migraine)

Now that Vayie is gone, I feel like it's getting worse. Today, I was chatting my day away like a zombie, no desire to make any human connection unless I have no idea what I'll be doing with a particular member's concern. I even found myself shedding a few tears here and there whenever I am not looking at myself. I realized my behavior is almost to the point of being pathetic but who cares? I am alone on a Saturday and I feel it's my right to simply wallow in whatever emotions I have. I feel like a lost a part of me and I'm still notm over the loss.

I'm bluffing when I said I would leave the company. I don't have the guts yet, I can still bear with whatever hell "they" want to throw at us, agents and I still can't feel the kick leaving a bruise. So there!

Happy birthday, mahmu!

It's my mom's birthday today. It's a wonderful reminder of the years she spent with us -- loving us, taking care of, nurturing us and stopping us for doing what we usually want to do.

This day is also a reminder of her absence since she went to heaven two years ago. The feeling of losing her is still fresh but the pain seems so far away. Everytime I or we experience hardships, I'm relieved that she's no longer with us today -- to worry about us, to cry or to feel frustrated when she feels helpless. I'm happy that she's out there praying for us and loving us in her own way God has allowed her to.

It's her turn to be worry-free, just watch us make her proud of how we handle things. I could see her face cringe whenever we make certain decisions but I know that she trusts us that we make them for the best of everyone.

I still miss her -- a lot! I still do find myself cry at times when I feel alone and talk to her as if she's just right beside me, but in the long run, I am thankful that she's already at peace with herself and with our Creator.

I miss our laughter, I miss her fascinating stories and animated expressions. I miss how she takes care of us and how she always makes us feel loved. I miss how she reprimands us over the most trivial of things. I miss shopping for homewares with her. I MISS EVERYTHING ABOUT HER.

Mahmu, happy birthday! I miss you a lot. Don't worry, we'll be okay. Thank you for everything. Thank you for loving us always. I love, Ma. Happy birthday!

school's almost done --- YAY!

I'm almost done with my classes. Only a few more days left to deal with the exams. I'm so nervous. I don't really have that much time to study for all my subjects and I feel that my brain is about to explode due to information overload. It would be such a big relief to go through them without any problems.

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I got a call from Mitch, my supervisor regarding my new RDs. I will still be on the same shift, i.e. 10pm-7am with Thu and Friday as my RDs. I have no complains about it since I will still be working on weekends (which I like since there are less people on the floor). I just hope there is still a chance for me to be on the morning shift soon. I jus miss being with my sister and my nephew (of course, with Csar too) in the evening, just watching TV/DVDs or whatever. The idea to live a "normal" life for a couple of months is something that I always look forward to as it helps me get through the two months of GY shift. It is what I call the light at the end of a tunnel.

But with how things are going in the office, that little hope is slowly fading away.

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I want to thank Sir Mark for being so accommodating in changing my transition off from Tuesday to Monday, but all my hugs go to Kuya Luck who gave way. He gave me his Monday transition off and will be working 6 days straight so I have the time to prepare for a big day. Thank you, Kuya Luck!

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It's so sad to hear that some people would not accommodate two people's wishes for their own convenience. I may not understand the job that they do because I am not in their position but is it really that difficult to be considerate in this industry? It's not like they asked her to move mountains. I'm sure she can make the necessary adjustments, after all, it's not like she's going to coach that person everyday. She just doesn't want to. As we often say in Filipino, kung gusto, may paraan; kung ayaw, may dahilan.

I am amazed at how this world seems to be coming to. Powertripping is like an "in" thing these days. I always wonder why power is given to those who CANNOT handle it. Some people tend to forget that they are dealing with people not just with metrics and product knowledge and quality to be maintained or obtained.

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I sometimes forget that Kmart is growing up. I think I will forever be in denial that he will soon be a young man leading his own life.

He always expect me or Csar to bring home something for him like a large tumbler of iced tea or a chocolate bar. He would be show us a sad face (sad puppy dog eyes and pouty lips) when we don't have anything for him.

He has been like this for the past couple of weeks for some reason I don't know. He was never like this -- demanding. Hahaha! Yesterday, I decided to bring him something. I stopped by at the Hi-Top supermarket after class to buy him one of his favorites -- Hello Panda biscuits. He was so happy and all giddy. (Yes, Vayie, Kmart is a giddy kid too, but please note that Tita Jen is way giddier). =P

We watched TV while he happily munched on the treat. RJ, Josine and I were talking about how are we going to celebrate Kmart's 3rd birthday. No big party yet for Kmart, since most of our friends don't have kids that we can invite should we have a children's birthday. We'll just save the idea when Kmart is already in school. Hopefully, he'll have classmates and friends his age. =P

Anyway, going back to the discussion we're having about Kmart's birthday, I already volunteered that I will buy Kmart a cake for his birthday. To our surprise, he suddenly blurted out: "Salamat!" I found it really sweet that I immediately gave him a big hug. Siyempre, medyo naiiyak pa ako. Ang sweet talaga ng pampangkin ko.