“Bulacan Day” By Kim de Ere.

Noong unang panahon, may dalawang magkasintahan na nagmamahalan. Talaga namang natutuwa sa kanila ang mga tao.

Lahat ng tao alam ang istorya ng buhay nila. Kung paano sila nagkakilala. Kung paano sila nahantong sa pag-iibigan.

Naglalakad si Leslie nun. Hindi niya alam kung saan siya pupunta. Basta ang alam niya, gusto niyang magliwaliw. Sa kakalakad niya, hindi niya namalayan na may nabunggo na pala siya. Isang gwapong lalaki. Napatitig siya rito.

“Pasensya ka na. Hindi kasi ako tumitingin sa dinadaanan ko.” Paghihingi niya ng tawad. Napailing naman ‘yong lalaki.

“Hindi. Ako ang hindi tumitingin sa dinadaanan ko kaya patawad.” Natawa naman silang dalawa ng mapansin nilang parehas silang umaako ng kasalanan.

“Para walang away, tayong dalawa na lang ang may kasalanan, ayos ba ‘yon?” pakikipagkasundo ni Leslie sa estranghero.

“Ayos lang ‘yon. Ako nga pala si Rick.” Pagpapakilala ng binata.

“Ako naman si Leslie.” Nahihiya niyang pakilala. Hindi nila namamalayan na patungo nap ala sila sa parke. Ni hindi nila alam kung paano sila nakarating dun dahil wala sila sa sarili nila sa mga panahon na ‘yon.

Parehas silang nagtataka. Hindi lang nila maitanong sa isa’t-isa dahil parehas silang nahihiya.

Instead, nagsaya na lang sila. Nagswing sila. Hindi nga lang sanay si Leslie na magduyan at napansin ‘yon ni Rick kaya naman siya na ang nagtulak ng duyan para kay Leslie. Kung iisipin niyo, ang romantic ng scene. Tama kayo. Ang romantic nga.

“Na love at first sight ata ako” sa isip isip ni Rick. Pero kaagad naman niyang inalis sa isipan ‘yon. Hindi naman kasi talaga totoo ang love at first sight.

Nagkwentuhan lang sila. Nag get-to-know-each-other. Marami silang nalaman sa isa’t-isa kaya naman simula nung araw na ‘yon, na-in love sila sa isa’t-isa. Hindi nila alam na parehas sila ng nararamdaman dahil nahihiya silang umamin.

Ganun lang din ang nangyari nung mga nakalipas na araw. Napapadalas ang pagkikita nila. Hanggang sa hindi na nakapagpigil pa ang binata at umamin na siya ng pag-ibig niya kay Leslie.

“Les, mahal kita mula nung una pa lang.” Nagulat si Leslie. Bakas sa mukha niya ang pagkagulat. Hindi niya alam kung paano magrereact.

“Hindi ko naman hinihiling na mahalin mo rin ako. Ang akin lang, inamin ko lang sa’yo dahil hindi ko na kaya pang pigilan ang nararamdaman ko para sa’yo.” Pagpapaliwanag ng binata. Para namang sinampal sa mukha si Leslie nun kaya bigla siyang nabalik sa mundo.

“Ano ka. Mahal din kaya kita.” Nahihiya niyang sabi. Hindi talaga siya sanay sa mga ganitong bagay.

“Talaga?” Hindi makapaniwalang tugon ni Rick.

“Oo. Ayaw mo ata eh.” Pangloloko ni Leslie.

“Siyempre naman gusto ko no.” tugon ni Rick.

Mula noon, nagging Masaya na sila. Bagamat minsan, nagkakaroon sila ng tampuhan, pagtatalo, selosan at iba pang pinagdadaanan ng magkarelasyon.

Nang makatapos sila ng pag-aaral nila, nagpasya silang magpakasal. Hindi lang sila isang beses nagpakasal, kundi, napakaraaaaaaaaaaaaming beses.

Hinangaan ng lahat ng tao ang istorya nila kaya naman napagpasiyahan nilang gawin itong holiday. Pinangalan nila itong, “Bulacan Day”. Bibihira lang daw kasi ang may ganiyan katinding pag-iibigan sa isa’t-isa. Maraming naghangad na magkaroon ng love storing kagaya nila Rick ngunit subalit datapwa’t hindi nila magawa. Isa lang ang ibig sabihin niyan, hindi nila ganoon kamahal ang isa’t-isa kagaya ng pagmamahalan nila Mr. and Mrs. Bulacan.

Kaya kung nagtataka kayo kung bakit maraming beses natin isine-celebrate ang bulacan day, dahil ‘yon sa sobrang daming kasalan na ginawa ni Leslie at Rick.

Skimming – will it improve your reading speed?

by Melvin Ng

A cornerstone of the ability to speed read is the ability to skim. However, many argue that skimming is in fact cheating – i.e. you’re not really reading at all! The following is a brief outline argument in favor of why skimming will improve your reading speed (and ability).

Basically, skimming is the most rudimentary form of reading. The object of skim reading is not to necessarily comprehend all that is being read, but rather to familiarize yourself, as quickly as possible, with the text being read. In this regard, skimming materials, by reading the index, subject headings and sub-headings, allows you to prepare yourself so that when the time comes, you can race ahead and speed read at pace – as you are already familiar with the text. Consequently, your overall reading speed will be vastly improved.

In addition, skimming allows your subconscious the chance to absorb the main ideas of a text. These are later cemented by your speed reading of the contents. The combination of these two methods allows you greater comprehension of what you are reading.

Conversely, if you are reading from cold, there is more chance you’ll miss certain points or issues. If you want, think of it as if you are watching a movie for the second time: don’t you always see parts of the movie the second time that you didn’t see the first, which makes the second viewing all the more relaxing and pleasurable?

How to Skim Read

Having ascertained that skimming will increase our reading speed, we now need to know how to skim read. Whilst there are many different methods adopted to skim reading, the following are the essential elements:

* read the index of a text – note that it is essential that you do this so that you get the general ideal of what the text is about;

* read the introduction paragraph of the text;

* read each heading in the text;

* read each subheading in the text;

* read the first paragraph under each heading and subheading of the text;

* (if you have time) read the first and last line of the first and last paragraph of each page;

* (if you have time) read the first and last line of each independent paragraph;

* read the last paragraph of the text – again, this is very important as it is usually in this section that you’ll find all of the main concepts of the text being summarized and concluded.

Moreover, when skimming, try using your peripheral eye vision to identify the main idea of the text, the main dates in the text (especially if the text relates to historical issues), and any illustrations/diagrams/graphs.

Finally, when you are skimming, start at the beginning and read straight through to the end. Do not go back over what you have already read before you have completed the whole text as this will defeat the purpose of your skim reading: in any event, you are going to speed read the text once more after you have completed your skim read!

Remember, skim reading is not intended to replace any reading of the material. Its intention is to familiarize yourself with the text so that you can be fully prepared to review it once again at a later time. In the event that you find yourself with insufficient time to both speed read and skim read a text, you should not confine your reading to a mere skim read as you may find that you miss out on vital pieces of data. Besides this, enjoy your skim reading in the comfort of knowing it will enable you to increase your overall reading speed!

Reference: http://www.epositivesolutions.com/articles/skimming-will-it-improve-your-reading-speed.html

Skim Reading Structured Content

By Melvin Ng

Structured content is information that has organizing elements such as tables of contents, headings, bullets, and other organizing clues in the text. Textbooks, business books and technical manuals usually contain structured content.

Skim reading provides a high-level view of such structured information in two ways. First, with this technique, you can get a preview or overview of new material so you can decide how you want to approach it in terms of reading strategies. (It's also useful in finding key ideas in new material.) Second, it's useful for reviewing material you've already studied. The benefit of skimming is that it helps you with the learning process and also aids in locating important information quickly.

Specifically, skim reading structured content involves searching for the main ideas in an article or text by looking for organizational "clues". In other words, an author organizes his or her material in specific ways that can help you discover the main points quickly and easily. The clues can include the following:

• Front and back cover
• Table of contents
• Major and second level headings.
• All headings in bold and italics and diagrams
• The first and last lines of paragraphs
• Summaries
• Other organizers (numbers, days, dates or times, proper names, etc.)

Let's look at each of these "clues" in turn to see how they can help you when you scan read them for information.

Front and back covers

Book covers can provide great summaries of the content. By nature, covers are designed to convey maximum information in the least amount of space. By reading these, you can get a quick understanding of the author's main ideas which, in turn, helps you decide if the book does or doesn't meet your goals on a particular subject.

For example, let's assume that you have an interest in learning how to save money, budget, and reduce credit card debt. You also want an easy guide to these subjects because you're not interested in a lot of theory; you just want the most practical guide possible. So, you go to the library or bookstore and pick up the following book. (Note: this book doesn't really exist; we've created it solely for this chapter to illustrate the techniques.)

The Practical Person's Guide to Saving Money A smart, easy guide to keeping money in your pocket

By scanning the text on the front cover, you can pick out words that fit the purpose of finding a book that fits your needs-"practical", "guide", "saving", "smart", "easy". The text on the front cover is promising so now you look at the back cover of our imaginary book to get a little more detail on the content.

The Practical Person's Guide to Saving Money Ready to get serious about getting control of your finances? We'll show what to do in the following areas: § Create an effective budget. § Save money painlessly. § Get control of your credit card debt. § Plan for the future.

The back cover text shows you that the book will explain how to create an effective budget, help you save money, and get control of credit card debt. So, based on your skimming of the text on the two covers, you can be reasonably sure that the book will give you the answers you need, and it's worth your while to check this book out from the library or buy it from a bookstore.

Table of Contents The Table of Contents gives you the author's organization of his or her subject matter. The table provides a general understanding of what that author feels is important to understand and remember. You can build on that organizational information to "read smart"; that is, concentrate your reading on the areas that will give you the most information in the least amount of time. Below, I've provided you with a partial sample of the Table of Contents for our imaginary book. Table of Content Chapter 1: Getting Control of Your Money..............1 Analyze your spending habits..............................1 Track expenses......................................................3 Sample budgets....................................................6 Chapter 2: Reducing and Eliminating Debt...........10 Debt overload..................................................10 Ridding yourself of credit card addiction...........12 Ordering credit reports from the "Big Three"....14 Finding help with overwheming debt.................16 Debt consolidation and bankruptcy....................19 As you can see above, the Table of Contents gives you very specific clues as to what's included in each of the chapters. For example, Chapter 1 will show you how to analyze your spending habits, track expenses, and provides sample budgets for you to use in your household.

Reference: http://www.articlesbase.com/motivational-articles/skimming-will-it-improve-your-reading-speed-45109.html