My Ultimate Dream

I want to discover a breakthrough in Counseling Psychology 

and be a part of the Psychology Hall of Fame.

I want to build my own Psychological Services Center here in the Philippines

to cater the needs of my Kababayans.

I want my clinic to have a nice and welcoming ambiance. 

I want to be equipped with an ambulatory Psychology Clinic 

to cater those who are in far-flung areas and cannot go to the Center.

Ms. Earth 2011 Candidates @ PWU-QC

The Ms. Earth 2011 Candidates visited the Philippine Women's University-Quezon City Campus for a school tour and tree planting activity to promote their environmental advocacy for a greener earth. The candidates planted seedlings in the garden along with the boy scouts and girl scouts, then they went to the college building to check the high school students' Greek inspired exhibit, afterwards they had a snack and picture-taking before they left the campus.

They are friendly enough to have photo-op with us and smiles are all over their faces despite the heat and the tiring activity. I was lucky enough to have a close encounter with them, I enjoyed walking along them while they tour the campus. It was a fun activity and an eye-opener for us to take care of our environment more. I hope that more activities like this will happen at the school in the future.

HOW TO MAKE A SKY LANTERN

Materials

There are many different ways to make one of these flaming love balloons, but I went with the simplest possible method, using easily-available components that you should be able to get at your local craft store. Here's what you'll need:
Tissue paper
Glue
A ½ inch artist’s paint brush
Thin wire
Birthday candles
A bamboo or balsa wood hoop (or equally light alternative)
Scissors
An X-acto knife
Wire cutters
I also ended up using old newspaper, a tape measure and a ball-point pen. Other optional items include watercolors and brushes, an 80’s-era boombox playing The Greatest Hits: Power Ballads on CD, and a bottle of sake.

Building the Balloon

Cover your work surface with plastic to avoid future unneeded backlash from the person to whom you are dedicating your balloon.
Next, take four pieces of large tissue paper. I used sheets that were 20” x 24” for my first attempt, but the final product proved too heavy, so the next time I cut these into 12” x 20” and went from there. Fold them in half, length-wise. Trace half of a bell pattern on the top sheet, from the bottom with an opening that is 1/8 the circumference of your hoop. (four sheets will go around the circumference, you’re tracing half of one of those sheets, hence the 1/8 figure) all the way to a point at the top. Cut out your shape.

Unfold the tissue paper. You should now have four large bell-shaped tissues.

This is probably the best time to write messages of love, wishes of prosperity, or angry political slogans on your balloon. Since tissue paper is so fragile, your best bet is to use watercolors to speak your mind.
Once your wit and wisdom is dry, pour some schoolhouse glue into a container and thin it with water. Lay the first sheet of tissue on your work surface message-down and with the paintbrush, spread your watered-down glue all the way along one edge. Lay a second sheet on top of the first, gluing them together along one side.
Lay a newspaper over the glued half and fold the top sheet over. Then spread glue along the new side, lay a third sheet atop the second. Repeat the process with the fourth, then fold the forgotten half of the initial sheet over and glue it to the fourth sheet.
Let everything dry for a few hours. After a time, you may need to come back and glue the top of your bell to ensure that you have a completed balloon that is only open at the bottom.
NOTE: Some suggest that you treat your tissue with a flame-retardant spray and hang them overnight before cutting out your pattern and starting the process. This is a great idea, but flame-retardant spray is hard to find except over the Internet, so I omitted this step. I didn’t flame-proof my balloon, and it did not catch on fire.

Attaching the Hoop

Now that your balloon is drying, you need to create something to attach it to. I took the inner ring of an embroidery hoop and used an X-acto knife to dissect it in half (so it would weigh even less). You can also use balsa wood, a bamboo hoop, or even tape a series of straws together. However you get your stable, lightweight ring is up to you.
Next, wrap one end of a wire around the ring, string it across, wrapping it around a cluster of birthday candles (I used four), then affix it to the other side of the ring, holding the candles in place in the middle. Take a second wire and do the same perpendicular to the first, also wrapping it around your candles, so that you end up with a wire cross in the center of the hoop with candles snug in the middle.

Once you have your finished hoop and your dry balloon, glue them together. Let it dry. Have some sake and enjoy the musical stylings of Whitesnake while you wait.

Flame on!

Now you’re ready to fly. Carefully take your creation to your launch facility. You may need to pre-inflate your balloon before lighting your candles, so use a blow dryer on low to blow hot air through the hoop, inflating the balloon.
Once you have room, carefully light your candles, which will continue to fill the balloon with hot air, and lift your sky lantern high into the air for all to see.
To be environmentally considerate, tie fishing line to the wire, so that your balloon does not float off into some farm field or down someone’s chimney. As soon as the candles die, the air within the balloon will cool, and your lantern will drift to the ground. If you’ve got it on the end of a fishing line, you can reel it in as it descends and reuse it another time if it hasn’t burnt up.

Happy Floating!

Original article and photos by David Neilsen.

HALLOWEEN

Pagan Progenitor

Halloween's origins date back more than 2,000 years. On what we consider November 1, Europe's Celtic peoples celebrated their New Year's Day, called Samhain (SAH-win).

The night before Samhain—what we know as Halloween—spirits were thought to walk the Earth as they traveled to the afterlife. Fairies, demons, and other creatures were also said to be abroad.

Celtic Costumes

In addition to sacrificing animals to the gods and gathering around bonfires, Celts often wore costumes—probably animal skins—to confuse spirits, perhaps to avoid being possessed, according to the American Folklife Center at the U.S. Library of Congress.

By wearing masks or blackening their faces, Celts are also thought to have impersonated dead ancestors.

Young men may have dressed as women and vice versa, marking a temporary breakdown of normal social divisions.

In an early form of trick-or-treating, Celts costumed as spirits are believed to have gone from house to house engaging in silly acts in exchange for food and drink—a practice inspired perhaps by an earlier custom of leaving food and drink outdoors as offerings to supernatural beings.

Christian Influence

Samhain was later transformed as Christian leaders co-opted pagan holidays. In the seventh century Pope Boniface IV decreed November 1 All Saints' Day, or All Hallows' Day.

The night before Samhain continued to be observed with bonfires, costumes, and parades, though under a new name: All Hallows' Eve—later "Halloween."

Animal Spirits Inspired Ancient "Halloween Costumes"

Ancient Roman writers recorded that tribes in what is now Germany and France held riotous ceremonies where they donned the heads and skins of wild mammals as costumes to connect with animal spirits.

The custom of wearing animal hides at bonfire-lighted Celtic feast ceremonies survived until recent times.

Ancient Halloween Costumes Celebrated the Dead

Samhain night was also a celebration of the dead—the one time the spirits were believed to walk among the living.

Again, the earliest rituals aren't known in detail, but in recent centuries families put out food and even set extra table places for their ancestors at Samhain.

It was also a night when people dressed in costumes to create mischief and confusion, according to Bettina Arnold of the Center for Celtic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

"The spirits of the dead were impersonated by young men dressed with masked, veiled or blackened faces, dressed in white or disguises of straw," Arnold wrote in an essay titled "Halloween Customs in the Celtic World."

These costumes were intended both to protect revelers from any malevolent spirits and to fool households they visited.

In Scotland and elsewhere, revelers masquerading as the dead would go around demanding food offerings—a forerunner to today's trick-or-treating.

Nilsen of St. Francis Xavier University added: "People put on costumes which frequently included blackened faces and so on, representing spooks, demons, or whatever."

Cross-Dressing and Horse-Heading During Halloween's Precursor

According to the University of Wisconsin's Arnold, on Samhain the boundary between the living and the dead was obliterated—as was the boundary between the sexes. Male youths would dress up as girls and vice versa, she wrote.

In Wales, for example, groups of mischievous young men in Halloween drag were referred to as hags.

In parts of Ireland, a man in a white horse costume known as Lair Bhan—an ancient Celtic fertility symbol—led noisy processions at Samhain.

Author Katharine Clark wrote in An Irish Book of Shadows that Lair Bhan was represented using white sheets and a wooden head.

"Some heads could be quite elaborate, complete with snapping jaws controlled by the man upon whose shoulders the entire structure rested," Clark wrote.

Grandfather of the Halloween Pumpkin

Many Samhain costumes were incomplete without the appropriate accessories: lanterns made with hollowed-out turnips and candles.

Later transplanted to North America with Irish immigrants, the tradition would be replicated in the fatter form of the pumpkin, a fruit native to the New World.

Word-Illustrations

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