aya

This is a bit long. If you want to read it, you'll pick up some fun Filipino cultural points you won't find in travel books.

We filipinos have this thing about giving nicknames. The nicknames are barely related to the person's real name, but somehow always stick because they're endearing.

For example, a Ben becomes "Bing". A greater, yet common stretch is to take a emphasized syllable and stretch it to make a name. My aunt
Florence is called "Bingel" (not "gel" as in hair gel - more of a "guel" sound). They stretched it from Florence to Nightingale, and the "gale" became attached to the "bing" and bastardized.

There is a secondary point to this. Filipinos, being highly religious, either name children after saints or other religious symbols. Their names, however, can be awkward. My aunt Sionne's given name is Purification. The "tion" sound was taken, because it's a ton easier to be casual with a Sionne than a Purification.

There's also the names dealing with actual birth order. The son named after the father is always called "jun-jun" because he's the "junior". The youngest son is often called "boy" and the youngest daughter is often called "baby". Now these titles are given out quite arbitrarily- being "boy" or "baby" happens from birth, when the family thinks the child will be the last. This, however, is rarely the case. My mother who is a "baby" is in fact, the third youngest - with both a younger sister and a younger brother.

There.
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In other news:

I've been playing lots and lots and lots of NEOPETS. Alas, nobody of the SGCalgary crew came out to rescue me from my prison.
Luckily he was able stick a file in a cake and sneak it past the guards. My hero.

I'm going to try my hand at a shooting a set by myself, when I get back to Edmonton. It is going to be interesting.

I could really use some Krispy Kreme.

Ask me a question - I'll answer it.