Author: Rochelle Sy Chua

Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On November 30, 2009

Taipei Fine Arts Museum
181, Section 3, ZhongShan N. Road, Taipei 104, Taiwan
886 (02) 2595-7656
admission: 200NT

——————–
You know what I find sad? That there was a place that I visited in Taipei that I could only appreciate because I saw it for myself but am unable to share it with you. See, we were not allowed to take pictures 🙁

Anyway, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum started on December 24, 1983. This museum showcases modern art work. I’ve heard that it is the only museum devoted to promote & display such art pieces. The Taipei Fine Arts Museum features works from the permanent collection as well as exhibits that change every now and then.

3941294148_29a40e35d9

When we visited last time, the exhibit was Pixar: 20 Years of Animation. Yep that Pixar company that was started by Steve Jobs. This exhibition featured over 500 items that includes paintings, storyboards, sketches, short films, multimedia presentations & details of the production process.

The flow of the exhibit goes like this:

Pixar History
Concept of the Characters
Creating Believable Worlds
Animated Film Special Features
The Art of Pixar’s Short Films
Zeotrope (Journey of Life)
Meet the artists, how is a Pixar film made? Interactive Kiosks
Artscape

I was very impressed with the exhibit but was extremely disappointed that we couldn’t take pictures. It sucks that this will only be a memory in my brain instead of pictures that could really lasts forever…

Other exhibits I have visited are the ff.:

Lai Chuan-Chien: 80th Anniversary Retrospective
Jewel of 25 years Museum Collection
The Rhythm of Forms & Colors – Yin-Huei Chen: A Retrospective Exhibition

We kinda wasted 1.5 hours in the place as I left my phone with my mom who opted to just wait for me to finish. I was looking for her at the lobby but she was waiting at the basement. I went to the reception desk to seek for help. I asked if they could announce my mom’s name and ask her to meet me at the reception. The personnel declined and said that they could only help people who have missing children! What the hell right? I was extremely disappointed and ended up waiting at the lobby for almost 2 hours until my mom finally decided to go up to the lobby and look for me there 🙁

3941292290_329c2da8e0

Well, lesson learned. Don’t be too naive to follow the rules. Their rules stated that camera phones & cameras are not allowed. I should have brought it with me. We could have used the time to go to nearby museums. Such a waste of time. tsk tsk!

Not much pictures in the photo album I made for Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

PicPanda.com

Confucius Temple

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On November 29, 2009

Confucius Temple
275 Dalong Street, Datong District, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.
886 (02) 25923934
admission: free

——————–
This is a very famous temple in Taiwan that replaced the original 1879 temple that was damaged during the Japanese occupation. Confucius is known to be China’s greatest educator & you could see all his teachings at this temple.

Reconstruction started in 1925 and was funded through donations by the followers of Confucius’ teachings. In 1971, the temple was donated to the state of Taiwan and the Taipei Confucius Temple Governing Board was setup.

Let me share with you some highlights from Confucius Temple when I visited:

Hong Gate (Gate of Learning) & Pan Gong (Side Gate)

The gates names refer to the names of a school during the ancient times. It implies that all who entered would start learning in school.

Li Gate (Gate of Rites) & Yi Lu (Path of Righteousness)

To show respect to confucius, all who enter must do so by these side entrances instead of the main gate.

Wanren Gongqiang (Wall of Supreme Knowledge) & the Pan Pond (Half Moon Pond)

The wall got its name from a quotation of Confucius analects: “If one does not find the door & enter by it, one cannot see the ancestral temple in its beauty.”

The pan pond is shaped like half-moon & where a bridge is arched by the stone pan bridge.

Lingxing Gate (Main Entrance)

Yi Gate (Gate of Ceremonies)

East & West Side Buildings

Enshrined in the side buildings are 154 tablets representing the disciples of Confucius & past scholars who promoted Confucianism.

Dacheng Hall

You’ll find a plaque with inscription of “Education knows no class distinction.” in the Dacheng Hall. This is also where you can find an inscribed tablet that represent the spirit of Confucius.

Chongsheng Shrine

Dedicated to the 5 generations of ancentors of Confucius, his brother, fathers of his 4 sages & fathers of Confucian scholars of later dynasties.

Minglun Hall (Hall of Moral Instruction)

Added in 1956 where classes are offered to visitors. Classes like calligraphy, Confucian classics, ancient music to name a few.

Exhibition Room

Ritual objects, sacrificial vessels, musical instruments, costumes used in Shidial ceremony can be found in the exhibition room.

Every year on September 28, people celebrate Confucius’ birthday at Confucius temple. The ceremony is called Shidian. On this day, the ceremony is presided over the Mayor of Taipei at 6AM. The entire Shidian Ceremony is composed of 37 stages. Attendants will go to the appointed places, welcome the spirit of Confucius & perform sacrificial rites.

It is too bad that I was only in Taipei from September 12-21 so I wasn’t able to catch this big day.

More pictures of the place here.

PicPanda.com
FEUXMNS4PM67

Guitar 101 Lesson – a much needed one!

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On November 29, 2009

I recently joined a free Guitar 101 session organized by a wellness circle in our office. They really treat this seriously and I’m glad I attended. Why? For one thing, I really like to learn how to play the guitar. Also, I bought my guitar way back in 2002 but until now, I still don’t know how to use it hahaha!

I learned a whole lot at this 2-hour lesson. There is soooooo much information!! Care to join me? I don’t know if you’ll learn anything from me but worth a shot right? So here goes:

There are different Types of Guitar:

Classical Guitar – uses nylon strings, has a mellow tone and is good for beginners due to its soft strings.
Folk/Acoustic Guitar – uses steel strings, has a bright sound and used for folk, country, rock, pop music.
Electric Guitar – has “pickups” to enable guitar to be amplified.

Well mine is a classical guitar. It was the best one I could find in the factory in Cebu where I bought it.

Guitar Parts:
Screen shot 2009-11-29 at 3.08.51 PM

There are 7 important letters to remember when learning guitar: C, D, E, F, G, A & B. They’re musical keys which corresponds to notes in a music sheet. The one in the image below is from a piano piece:

Screen shot 2009-11-29 at 3.15.01 PM

Things to remember regarding Notes/Music Alphabets:

One Octave: C (Do), D (Re), E (Mi), F (Fa), G (So), A (La), B (Ti), D (Do)
Notes Progression: C – C#/Db – D – D#/Eb – E – F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A – A#/Bb – B – C
there is no sharp/flats in between B-C and E-F

each fret is a half-step.
each open string in the guitar is an alphabet (Easter Bunny Gets Drunk at Easter)

There is a system of notation for guitar. It is called Tablature or the Tab.
Screen shot 2009-11-29 at 3.41.16 PM

You don’t just play a guitar. You need to maintain it too. Not just cleaning but you need to tune it. Tuning is the most important thing to learn & do when you have a guitar. Your guitar must be in tune in order to play beautiful sounds. This is also crucial for bands who play musical instruments together.

There are several tuning methods:

Reference Pitch from Piano
Reference Pitch from Pitch Pipe
Tuning Fork
Computer, iPod, iPhone, MP3 Player
Electric Tuner

So remember I mentioned notation & tabs? Well to play the guitar, you also need to know the Guitar Chord Chart. It is a list of chord diagrams that is a virtual presentation of a guitar chord.
Screen shot 2009-11-29 at 4.08.11 PM

horizontal lines are frets, vertical lines are guitar strings
a number beside the chord chart indicates the 1st horizontal line is on the nth fret
0 (don’t play), x (open string)
1st horizontal line is the nut

Too much information right? We do need to remember all of them though. Lastly, we ended the session by learning a very basic song for guitar playing: Happy Birthday.
Screen shot 2009-11-29 at 5.10.08 PM
Screen shot 2009-11-29 at 5.11.21 PM

PicPanda.com

Giving Help to Sitio Maislap

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On November 29, 2009

My time at Sitio Maislap is one of the most heartwarming experiences. Seeing my friend and pastors giving time to help out the people in need and knowing friends & former colleagues shelling out money to give out to the poor is just touching.

Sitio Maislap, Baranggay San Isidro is located at Montalban Rizal. Shailoh Church, Rock Church together with the help of my former colleague Agnes organized this charity event yesterday. We were able to reach out to 50 families with over 70 children.

4139846833_ea52dc49db

The day started with 4 very young kids sharing the word of God with 80 other kids. Mario, Paula, Verna and Charisse were there spending their time teaching the kids about how to be good little angels. They base their teachings on a book called, “Magagandang Katangian – Aking Tutularan”.

I was just so impressed and touched by them even though they are still in school themselves. They already know how to give back to the community. I’m sure their parents are proud of them.

4139852557_563076dcdd

We arrived at around lunchtime. So we started to provide lunch to the families & kids. It’s sad that there are so many poor families in our country. Seeing them so happy with the food we prepared is just humbling. Most of them had already lost their homes due to the Typhoon Ondoy flood. Most of them only earn Php100 a day from garbage collection.

4139846071_d15a322a4e

Our next activity was sharing of God’s word. The pastors divided the adults into groups and each of them shared the word of God like what Christians usually do during a bible study group meeting.

4139849587_ac94dc0ab5

While the grown-ups were doing their bible study, I spent my time talking with the cute kids! They love taking pictures hahahah! They kept asking me if I could take picture of them & there were just too enthusiastic when I was already holding my camera to take pictures of them. Here is a picture of me with the adorable kids of Sitio Maislap, Barangay San Isidro:

4140612370_4240002262

Lastly, we gave out the relief goods to the families there. The pastor concluded the event by prayer. This is really such a heartwarming event, I’m just touched by how good-hearted some people are & in spite of saddening condition of our government. It gives me hope that there are Filipinos out there doing these things to help out fellow filipinos.

4140614568_39e8026a35

Here is the group of volunteers who took time out and made this event a success:

4139855797_e95498df55

More pictures here.

Next stop is Pangasinan on December, if you wanna help out, leave a comment here 🙂

PicPanda.com

Wheatberry Bakery & Cafe

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On November 27, 2009

Wheatberry Bakery & Cafe
84 Scout Castor corner Scout Tuazon, Baranggay Laging Handa, Quezon City, Metro Manila Philippines
(02) 374-8470 local 107

——————–
Last Wednesday, I was able to catch up with a super long-lost friend. I was too hungry as I just finished my usual wednesday work-related conference calls. It was late and since there were too many cars along Tomas Morato Street in Quezon City, we decided to meet up at Wheatberry along Scout Castor Street.

I’ve been there before but only tried out their desserts then. I liked their desserts so I was a bit excited to find out if their meals were good as well.

Wheatberry didn’t disappoint. I loved their food! I’ll definitely go back to try out their other dishes 😀

Here are what we ordered:

Melon Shake (Php 85)

Looking at the shake’s color, I couldn’t believe that it was melon shake. I came late so this was already ordered by my friend. I said it definitely was either lemon or apple shake. Apparently, it really was melon shake! hahahaha.

Grape Shake (Php 85)

Of all the fruit shakes, I can say that grape shake has always been my choice. Whether it’s red grape or white grape, I just love it! I always order this every chance I get.

Poached Fish Fillet (Php 190)

I was definitely impressed & pleasantly surprised. This fish was served with sesame oil, soy sauce, leeks & mushroom. The serving was just generous and it tasted soooo good! 2 people can share this dish but I was able to finish it myself! That was how good it was. Healthy & Yummy! This dish is served with Plain Rice.

Brownies (Php 38)

Cupcake (Php 40)

As I’ve mentioned, I already know Wheatberry have delicious desserts. Cakes. Cupcakes. Creampuffs. Brownies. Heaven totally!

Chocopeanut Creampuff (Php 40)

Fruit Torte (Php 700)

This cake looked so yummy and I couldn’t help but stare. Later on, I just took a picture!

Good food and great customer service is just an awesome combination! Thankfully Wheatberry has both. Kudos to the operations manager for having such great staff and not only that, they serve good food as well.

4122541902_01d91e398d

More Wheatberry pictures here.