Sunday, April 8, 2018

Capture the Joyous Moments in Photographs

Moments of joy, moments of suffering,
they come together in ease and strain;
nostalgia the happiest state of mind,
sweet is sweeter after pain. ~

Dr Abe V Rotor
Posing with a baby elephant, Thailand
Moments of joy, moments of sadness;
they come like a moving wheel
every day, all the time in our lives,
on the road of trial and will.

Moments of joy, moments of loneliness,
they come like a rolling cloud
in light and shadow, bright and gray,
fall as rain and clear the shroud.

Moments of joy, moments of suffering,
they come together in ease and strain;
nostalgia the happiest state of mind,
sweet is sweeter after pain. ~

Wild pigeon (bato-bato), pangaw (Ilk)

Philippine Hawk, Avilon Zoo San Mateo

Taking pride of ones craft.

Apple mangoes, Don Antopnio Subd, Diliman QC

Floating lotus flowers, Thailand

Baby rabbits

Bronze sea lion, Thailand

Prize catch to market - siriw

Fruit cart, Darwin, Australia

Vegetable market, MM
Fish sauce (patis) for sale in a wet market, MM

First to see dragon fruit. Origin: Vietnam

Friendly owl. Avilon Zoo, San Mateo, Rizal

Bunny at home, QC

Garland of Dioscorea, relative of the ubi, at home QC

Listening to the sea with tambuli shell, MM

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

"Blogs hailed as agents of change, relevance, hope." - INQUIRER.net

Living with Nature avrotor.blogspot.com 
wins Best Web Log (Blog) for Nature and Environment

"... We, the bloggers in Nature and Environment, are all winners in the great quest of saving our Mother Earth.  We are pioneers in today's revolution - environmental revolution - the greatest movement ever that involves every citizen of the world to carry out all means of taking care of our only home - Planet Earth. Congratulations to other blogs as well for their support to this great cause; and to the organizers of this awards night." 
 - Abe V Rotor, quoted in an interview with Inquirer.net


Blogs hailed as agents of change, relevance, hope
(See story below)
 Dr Abe V Rotor expresses gratitude to the judges, organizers and audience after receiving the award of Best Blog for Nature and Environment 2015 during the Philippine Blogging Awards night at the SMX Aura, Taguig last November 22, 2015. With him is program's dynamic master of ceremonies, Mr Cris Urbano.  
Blogs hailed as agents of change, 
relevance, hope
By: Yuji Vincent Gonzales
@YGonzalesINQ  INQUIRER.net

Whoever said that blogging is only for the young?


For 75-year-old Abe Rotor, age is not a hindrance to make the most out of the digital media. In fact, at his age, Rotor is currently maintaining three blogs, and has a total of about 5,000 posts since he started blogging in 2008. “I tell you, I enjoy blogging even in the middle of the night, or wake up early in the morning to finish a lesson or two,” he said.

Rotor, who won the best nature and environment blog in the Bloggys 2015 Awards for anvotor.blogspot.com, told INQUIRER.net that blogs should be used as instruments of compassion, interconnectedness and universality.

“The blog is one avenue you can express many things—you can express your creativity, your thoughts, your feelings, and things we think that the computer may lack like love and compassion. That’s not true. Use the blog and put your feelings there,” Rotor said in an interview during the Philippine Blog Awards Night at SM Aura in Taguig City on Saturday.

“Have compassion with people. Have your advocacy, just don’t be moralistic. Blog is the modern way of publishing. And you are always right when you blog on the condition that you are truthful and you do your research,” he added.

Rotor, award-winning author of “The Living With Nature” handbook and a former professor at the University of Santo Tomas, said bloggers should be guided by “universal values” and channel their emotions in telling their stories.

“You’ll see that the blog creates universality. So you have to be guided by universal values if you want to maintain your blog and appreciate it. You must not only address your blog to Filipinos, to your friends, but to the whole world,” said Rotor, who also served as scientist at the Department of Science and Technology, director of the National Food Authority, and Senate consultant on food and agriculture.

“You know how to blog, you know how to use social media, but don’t make it as a robot. Make it alive. Make your blog speak—speak of truth, speak of happiness, speak of sorrow. But in the end, it will have to show some kind of hope, a new determination, a new life. Don’t stop your story by being tragic at the end,” he added.

Added-value
For e-commerce advocate and Bloggys 2015 judge Janette Toral, blogs are relevant in this day and age because they share additional insights and knowledge that “usually goes beyond what the traditional media would cover.”

“I think blogs are relevant the moment they add value to their readers. The moment readers get entertained, the more readers get informed and get additional insight, and at the same time they were also able to change the lives of their readers in one way or the other, whether in perspective or in the way they do things, I think that’s when a blog becomes relevant,” Toral told INQUIRER.net.

“It has to establish a niche and go beyond just publishing a brand story. It’s about how they put themselves in the story, their insight, and how they exert effort to become relevant to their readers. Their story should not be about them but how their story will help their readers make a better decision,” she added.

Torral said bloggers should see their interest or hobby as an opportunity to foster goodwill and to promote “ideas that will make our country better.”

“Sometimes bloggers are afraid to do certain things because they saw others doing it already and they don’t want to be accused of copying. At the end of the day we all have our different audience… A blog needs to establish a certain relationship to their readers and the people who believe in them,” she added.

Meanwhile, investigative journalist Raissa Robles, who won the award for best blog in the society and politics category for raissarobles.com, said blogs can be agents of change in the “crossroads” that is the 2016 elections, as she sought the support of her fellow bloggers for a special project.

“We have to choose wisely and we have to choose well. Freedom is very much alive in this country,” Robles said in a short speech after accepting her award.

‘Alive, well, and world-class’

Highlighting the “talent, passion, and impact” of the entries, INQUIRER.net editor in chief and judge John Nery shared how the panel had a difficulty in picking the winners because many blogs have world-class quality.

“The Philippine blogging scene is alive and well,” Nery said in his closing remarks.

“Precisely because of the quality, I think it’s important to stress that each of the finalist should be considered as a winner, too,” he added.

Bloggys, a nationwide blogging event, recognized the “most relevant and engaging” blogs owned and written by Filipinos. Bloggers and readers started nominating entries in September.


Aside from Rotor and Robles, this year’s Bloggys winners include googleygoeys.com for arts and entertainment, projectvanity.com for beauty and fashion, tycoon.ph for business and finance, asksonnie.info for corporate and brand, teachwithjoy.com for family and relationships, michaelsshadesofblue.blogspot.com for fiction and literature, pepper.ph for food and dining, pinoyfitness.com for health and fitness, wheninmanila.com for lifestyle and hobbies, thedailypedia.com for news and events, sawrites.blogspot.com for personal diary, two2travel.com for photo blog, pinoymountaineer.com for sports and recreation, backtogaming.com for technology and Internet, and biyaherongbarat.com for travel and places.
Pepper.ph was also awarded as the best designed blog and the overall Bloggys champion. TVJ

11:25 PM November 21st, 2015- See more at: http://technology.inquirer.net/45393/blogs-hailed-as-agents-of-change-relevance-hope#sthash.OGGaKwzq.dpuf

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Part 1 - NATURE Paintings with Verses

 By Dr Abe V Rotor 
DOVES IN THE BLUE SKY
Painting in acrylic ( 29.5” x 24.5”)

Fly high and spread peace
 before the coming of storm,
 truce in the battlefield,
brotherhood its norm. 

WHERE HAS THE PAINTER GONE?
Painting in acrylic by a child participant in an art
workshop conducted by the author in his residence
in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, 2016.  The abandoned
palette board was later discovered under a mango
tree where on-the-spot sessions were held.
 
 Work of art abandoned,
a brush with the paint dry
on a palette board;
“Where has the painter gone?
Had he taken the canvas,
in lieu of a masterpiece?”


 FIREWORKS GARDEN
Painting in acrylic (15.5” X 32”)

Celebration in foliage and blossom
In some corner of Eden, Behold!
 Green thumb has made to bloom;
Move over flash and thunder bold.

STILL LIFE
Painting in acrylic (24.5 x 32”)

Fruits from different lands and seasons,
gifts to man Ceres and Epicurus gave
for his health and many other reasons;
from which too, the best wines are made.

A HEART ON THE WALL
Painting in acrylic (16.5" x 18")
Oh, heart on the wall
     do you still feel?
Do you still throb -
     the throb of love?
Ivy, ivy on the wall,
     don't hide 


     a living heart.

RED SUN IN THE FOREST
Painting in acrylic (11” x 14”)
  
Green umbrella against global warming,
man’s primitive dwelling;
he has all reasons to revive this craving
as it was in the beginning.
                                  
WATERSHED
Painting in acrylic (19.5” x 30”)
 I paint the stream laugh and cry,
     and hiss over the rock;
 the clouds on the mountain high, 
     down the sea and back.

Sun and rain the life of the stream,
     the hills and watershed,
music of the wind and sunbeam
     shining over our head. ~    

BOUQUET
Painting in acrylic (17.5” x 18.5”)
Bouquet - how fresh,
picked for vase or lei;
how withered and shy
at the end of day.

Bouquet - how missed
the bee, the butterfly
in the garden, the rainbow
in the sky.. ~

Part 2 - NATURE Paintings with Verses

 by Dr Abe V Rotor 
TOO SOON THE BUD OPENS
Painting in acrylic (12" x 17")

You come in springtime and autumn, 
    too eager a bud  ahead of your time; 
what promise of life awaits tomorrow
    from where you've broken through?

Whichever path you take from now,
    you'll miss the adventure of youth 
in summer, and stillness of winter,
    Oh, how could you live to the full?  

"For having lost but once your prime,
    you'll always tarry," so says a poet;
"It's now or never," so sings a bard,
    and I, I've neither a poem nor a song.
GRASS  
Painting in acrylic (18" x 21")   
Sway with the breeze,
     dance with the wind;
         Greet the sun with dewdrops
     clinging;
In summer turn golden, 
     and bow,
And die sweetly to feed 
     the world. 

A LOVELY PAIR IN A BOWER
 Painting in acrylic (11.5" X 16") 
 
                                              
                                 Let the world go by in their bower, 
lovers blind to the busy world,
away from the maddening crowd; 
fleeting moment is forever, 
to this pair in their lair.

Wonder in our midst who we are,
blind to each other, but the world,
strange this crowd we are in;
where's this lovely pair, 
where's their bower?    

SYMBIOSIS
Pisces and Echinoderms 
Painting in acrylic (8" X 10") 

Distant in phylogeny, yet live they together
in one community we call ecology,
ever since the beginning of our living world,
millions of years ago before man was born
to rule, to reign supreme over all creation; 
wonder what Homo sapiens means 
to true peace and harmony 
beyond his rationality.  

SEA URCHIN
Painting in acrylic ( 11"  x  13.5") 



You're all made of spikes,
     I can't see the real you;
in your invincible armor
     in any view. 

Wonder how many of us
     live like the urchin
in silent, unknown ways
     and never seen.

SECRET OF THE HEART
Painting in Acrylic (13.5" x 13.5")

Hidden, the heart throbs
     in deep silence;
two nails embedded,
     unseen in pretence
of living, loving, caring,
     the highest art, 
filling the five chambers
     of the heart.  

INNOCENCE IN NATURE
Painting in acrylic (17.5" x 21.75") 

Abstract over realism can you paint innocence,
     move over classics, you are too pure
to be true, and impressionism too assuming,
     with apologies to Monet's azure sky.  

Oh! abstract indeed is a child's innocence,
     buds in early spring, grains ripening;
heart of a true friend, pledge of real love,
     growing in the passing of time. 

Colors are mere symbols, wanting to behold,
     the magnificence of mind and heart,
triumph of the human spirit over our frailty,
     the most challenging of all art.~      
   
ART OF THE CATERPILLAR
Painting in acrylic (11” x 14”)

Caterpillar, when you are gone
two things come to mind:
the butterfly you have become,
and the damage you have done
and left behind.

Art, art, whatever way defined,
the subject on the wall,
or dripping on the floor,
art, art you aren't hard to find
after all. 
~
WEANING
Painting in acrylic (8” x 10”)

A trio in adventure weaned out
     of their nest too soon;
to explore the world beyond,
     like the Prodigal Son.

What lies in the deep and dark
     cavern with many eyes,
but monsters real or imagined
     lurking for a prize.

It’s inevitable stage of life,
     all creatures undergo;
weaning - crossing the bridge
     and cutting it, too.

FISH SWARMING           
          Painting in acrylic (9” x 17”)
 
I’ve seen jellyfish swarming,
Plankton in coral reefs glowing;
a myriad fireflies mingling
with the stars, linking us all
to a Supreme Being. ~