Little Miss Apple Pie

Twelve-year-old Amanda Perritt is pitched head-first into adult responsibilities when she has to quit school to care for her newborn brother and invalid mother. She gets an excape, she thinks, when she's offered a trip to stay with her grandmother and her sophisticated Aunt Laura in Memphis. But during the visit, she discovers unexpected parallels between her mother's childhood and her own and comes to understand her own individuality as well as what it means to be part of a family.

Read this book when I was is the fourth grade. I didn't understand it well back then, all I knew about it was it's about a young girl that was forced to stay home, manage a household and take care of a newborn baby. Nevertheless, I loved it. Here's the summary from GoodReads.com:

Twelve-year-old Amanda Perritt is pitched head-first into adult responsibilities when she has to quit school to care for her newborn brother and invalid mother. She gets an excape, she thinks, when she's offered a trip to stay with her grandmother and her sophisticated Aunt Laura in Memphis. But during the visit, she discovers unexpected parallels between her mother's childhood and her own and comes to understand her own individuality as well as what it means to be part of a family.

Years later, I decided to look for a copy and finally found one. I've decided to re-read it and I was surprised that my perspective and understanding changed. The story seemed too complicated to me before to find sense in it, but right now I can tell that it's little complexity showed nothing more but a pre-teen's perspective about a complicated life situation she suddenly delved into.

This book tells the story of 12-year old Mandy Perritt and how she became a mother instantly to a newborn baby and how she sacrificed her love and thirst for a good education when her mother fell really ill after giving birth to her little brother.

This book is worth reading. Might even take you back to that old pre-teen feelings you had when you felt deprived of something but at the same time instills the value of appreciating whatever you have instead of thinking that you're being deprived of for other people might have experienced worse than you did.

Great story! Four cookies!


   

So after watching Iron Man 3 with hubbie a couple of weeks back, I found out that another superhero movie is coming out in the theaters again! This time though it will be everyone's all time favorite superhero: SUPERMAN. Also known as Man of Steel. Yup another man made of iron, but probably more classic than Iron Man himself.

I was actually looking forward to watching this new film but I was not quite sure when it will come out yet. Thank God for Nuffnang and Schick!

Schick. Free Your Skin.

I just received an e-mail promo from Nuffnang and they're giving away two (2) free tickets for the movie screening of Man of Steel this coming June 14 at the Shangri-la Cineplex. How awesome is that, right? Here's the cool promo banner:



I highly encourage that you join their blog contest if you want to win tickets for the premiere, too! It's actually pretty simple, just answer the question:

“If you had the powers of MAN OF STEEL for one (1) week, how would you use it?”

Well, here's my own take on how I would use Superman's powers:

If I remember it right from the Superman comics I've read when I was younger, Superman had the superhuman intelligence, superhuman breath, x-ray vision, combat skills and of course, how can anyone forget the superhuman strength and solar battery that he possessed?

Using these powers in particular would actually help me in my personal mission to help the NBI track heinous criminals and their masterminds to help eliminate crimes in our country using all of the mentioned superpowers.

With the superhuman intelligence I could easily help the authorities to track down petty criminals to big time, mafia-like chieftains, especially those who are involved so much in the drug business.

Along with it, is using the physical superpowers in defying those who would try to fight back to the authorities.

I would totally kick-ass. IF this DOES happen, I would make sure that I have my own tight and hot superhero outfit. LOL

But these superpowers should not all be used in fighting crime (and looking hot haha) but it should be also used in helping solve other issues such as using the superhuman intelligence to help scientists and doctors find cures for various diseases such as cancer, lupus, polio and AIDS/HIV.

Also, helping in assessing and assisting the children with special needs and the mentally challenged would be of great help to those who needs it for free, since assessment and caring for our physically, mentally and genetically challenged brothers and sisters costs so much. I guess the super strength would also help me train batch after batch of volunteers that would also like to help in caring for our brothers and sisters in need, as training is also pretty expensive for the volunteers.

Apart from these, I'd use my superhuman intelligence to figure out a process that would help extract solar energy from my body so that people who are not fortunate enough to have electricity would have one from my solar powers.

Last, but not the least... I'd fly all the way to Mindanao to talk to the rebels and try to make them understand that violence isn't the only key to protect one's land, heritage or to show off their powers. It is about the things that they can do to make their place a safer place to live.

And those are the things that I would do if I were given the powers of the Man of Steel for an entire week. I hope you'd participate in this too, I would love to read about what you can do. :)

Per DTI-NCR Permit No.1843 Series of 2013.

With the rapid growth of technology it is impossible for kids and teenagers to keep up and focus with their studies, especially with the new video games that are coming out of the market frequently.

Computers made it impossible to force children and teenagers alike to pick up a book especially when they can always Google all the information they need, but although it is good that information is just within reach, there is still a negative side to it.

The down side of this is that children and teenagers would lack the real skill they need with their studies such as social interaction and being inquisitive. They might even fail to develop enough learning skills if they just depend on searching for quick answers.

Another is that not everything we find on the internet is credible enough to be a source of valid information as anyone can post anything online these days.

So is there a solution to this?

Solution is probably a big word for this type of problem, but remedy is just the right one.

If the children cannot be easily taken away from the computer why not install educational softwares that they may find fun and interesting. This is very helpful for children whose age ranges from 4 to 10 years old and although this is just a temporary remedy, (as children would later on find it boring as they age) parents might be able to help their children develop some of their basic skills in reading and solving minor math problems.

Another remedy is that giving children 2 to 3 hours of computer usage per day. In this way, children will be disciplined enough to manage their time well between their chores, homework and leisure time. Doing this might also help your children to go out more and interact with other children to develop their interpersonal skill.

But if a child or a teenager is really finding it hard to cope with his or her studies due to excessive usage of the computer or other distractions he or she might have, it might be best to hire a tutor for the child as to have someone to guide them with their academics and also to have someone to constantly remind them about their schoolwork. Doing so might also develop the child’s skill in communication and expand his or her knowledge by having someone to ask information from.

It is best to hire a professional teacher for the job. When in doubt, ask for a resume and contact the character references the applicant listed. Parents may also want to consider hiring an online tutor for their children who can work with their children after school and even during the weekends as to not bother with having someone coming over and covering extra expenses such as transportation and food allowance.

This is also an ideal way to help children cope with their academics when their own parents are busy enough with work and house chores while still using the computer. This unconventional way of learning is in no way promoting excessive usage of the computer for children, but it is just simply to help children learn while being able to do what they like to do and that is be in front of the computer.

If you can't break them, join them!

Online learning is also a good way to help a child develop his or her's inquisitive skill as the child may have someone to ask and clarify details and information from. It also adds extra interaction with another person to develop their communication skills well.

Although it is still strongly encouraged that parents give their children limit in using the computer and let them play outside and interact with other children, still it wouldn't hurt to let the children learn while doing what they like to do.

If you are considering online tutorials and don't know where to start, send me an e-mail at miavenus[AT]hellokitty[DOT]com. I'd be very glad to send you my resume. :)

To Don Raymonde Aprile's children he was a loyal family member, their father's adopted "nephew." To the FBI he was a man who would rather ride his horses than do Mob business. No one knew why Aprile, the last great American Don, had adopted Astorre Viola many years before in Sicily; no one suspected how he had carefully trained him ... and how, while the Don's children claimed respectable careers in America, Astorre Viola waited for his time to come.

Now his time has arrived. The Don is dead, his murder one bloody act in a drama of ambition and deceit --- from the deadly compromises made by an FBI agent to the greed of two crooked NYPD detectives and the frightening plans of a South American Mob kingpin. In a collision of enemies and lovers, betrayers and loyal soldiers, Astorre Viola will claim his destiny. Because after all these years, this moment is in his blood ...

What is there left for me to say for such a capturing, entertaining, and page-turning, magnificent piece of literature? I don't mean to sound overrated here, but this book is just as magnificent as The Godfather itself.

Here's the summary from GoodReads.com:

To Don Raymonde Aprile's children he was a loyal family member, their father's adopted "nephew." To the FBI he was a man who would rather ride his horses than do Mob business. No one knew why Aprile, the last great American Don, had adopted Astorre Viola many years before in Sicily; no one suspected how he had carefully trained him ... and how, while the Don's children claimed respectable careers in America, Astorre Viola waited for his time to come.

Now his time has arrived. The Don is dead, his murder one bloody act in a drama of ambition and deceit --- from the deadly compromises made by an FBI agent to the greed of two crooked NYPD detectives and the frightening plans of a South American Mob kingpin. In a collision of enemies and lovers, betrayers and loyal soldiers, Astorre Viola will claim his destiny. Because after all these years, this moment is in his blood ...

Mario Puzo truly is a great author of mafia stories; with his knowledge of mafia stories, federal strategies and his creativity, he was able to make his readers crave for more of each of his works. I honestly find Omerta very compelling, and although I felt that there should still be more to it, I find its ending satisfying.

Each page is like a movie scene, reeling before your very eyes. This book made me want to make a movie out of it. Five cookies!

    

I was really surprised to have a couple of new foreign Twitter followers yesterday when I came home from church. I accepted their requests of course, but little did I know that my profile on Bloggers.com was already featured. It took me about two hours to finally see their tweets about me and well, as usual when I get shocked and excited, I screamed like a little girl--literally. :blush:

So yeah, it rattled a couple of living things in this huge box and it may be a little embarrassing but I was just so in awe because I haven't even accessed my Bloggers.com profile for weeks! Plus, I was not sure I was even getting votes let alone enough to be featured, but I did and I am just really thankful.

I've received comments from people I don't even know congratulating me and some were even telling me that they're glad I was finally featured. And I was just like, "Wow!" there really are people reading my blog after all and some of them really liked what I write about. And although the comments were not that many that it floods my comment box on Bloggers.com, still they're something. Oh no, scratch that, that's really something! :D

Thank you for all the people who commented, voted and liked my blog! I was honestly thinking of transferring this blog to my other domain because I cannot access it without a proxy, but with such honor, how could I ever do it? I might just stick to using proxies just to add some content. Cheers guys and Godspeed everyone! :D