"a caterpillar doesn't just grow into a butterfly. a caterpillar must undergo metamorphosis, and a cocoon is where a caterpillar risks it all: enters total chaos, undergoes total rebuilding, and is born to a new way of living. only in taking the risk of entering that inert cocoon can the caterpillar go from dormancy to potency, from ugliness to beauty."

Saturday, March 24, 2007

what do you collect?

"Look at this trove, treasures untold
How many wonders can one cavern hold?"

-- The Little Mermaid

i collect...

books. i love books. i adore good reads. i collect them. i like owning them. i check out book shops even in unlikely nooks and corners just to find the books i want to add to my collection. it's my dream to have my own library. i already have a mini one. i have 200+ books to date and i'm still keen on acquiring more.


piled up to the ceiling: how come there's no more space?

lest you think i only stack 'em up for mere display, let me say for the record that i do read them. see, i like reading. no, not like, love. i love reading. i can forego eating, drinking water, sleeping, and going to the cr when i'm soooo into finishing a good read. i can be so obsessive when it comes to reading and books. i sometimes think that it's not me who owns my books. it's probably the other way around -- my books own me.

i intend to add more comic books to my collection. i dig those works by filipino graphic book artists. i also want to own those pcij books, too... and more of calvin and hobbes!!!

movies.


they all come with stickers. they're not pirated.

postage stamps. during my elementary years, i was into philately -- collecting stamps. aside from reading, collecting stamps was my way of discovering and appreciating other countries.


i only managed to put a few of them in an album. most of them stamps i kept in envelopes and i still have to mount them. now, there's something for my to do list. i have to keep that in mind.

i re-discovered my old stamp collection two weeks ago while i was looking for my 'still-missing-in-action' unicorn cross-stitch pattern.

stationery. i've been collecting stationery since grade school. scented ones, colorful ones, simple ones, small ones, big ones, medium-sized ones, those with people and those without, nicely illustrated ones... i have them in various colors, shapes and sizes. i also have a collection of hotel stationery. i keep a lot of them in a stationery holder i designed myself. some of them i already transferred to a clear book for easy viewing.


some of the sheets in this collection are more than 15 years old

even back then, i knew i won't be writing on them. i only wanted to collect them... and the ones i have in duplicate, i'd be willing to trade with what other stationery collectors have in duplicate -- just like what we girls used to do in grade school.

key holders. i dig key holders but since i don't have many keys to call my own, i don't usually use most of them. i simply collect them. sometimes, i use them to adorn my bags... but most times, they're just hidden somewhere. i treasure them because a lot of them are gifts/pasalubong from my friends.


key holders minus the keys

when i left home for my graduate studies, my younger sisters didn't know what to do with the pile of key holders i left behind so they pushed pins on the wooden panel in the girls' room and displayed them there.

the ones that are still inside the packs are reserved for future cars, future houses, and future whatever. hehe.

stickers. a lot of the stickers in my collection date back to my elementary years and were given to me by my classmates and friends.


what will i do with them? just keep them.


trinkets. dangling earrings and hoop earrings. chokers. necklaces with weird-looking pendants. bracelets and bands. hair accessories. i have those.

the dangling and hoop earrings? i won't survive wearing them. i simply collect them. no, i'd like to think that i buy them para pang-asar, as one of my friends put it. i prefer wearing simple studs.

candy wrappers. back in college, one of my classmates kept lots of coins in his backpack's pocket. his bag was always heavy but it was never because of books. it was always because of his coins. as for me, i kept lots of candy wrappers in my backpack's pocket. they weren't heavy to carry around but they were really many. kanya-kanyang ka-weirdo-han.

...and you know what? it's been four years since i left college but the said candy wrappers have not found their way to any of the trash bins yet.

yes, the candy wrappers are still with me. no, not really. they're inside one of the bags i no longer use. i put them there because, while i no longer want to carry them around, i don't want to really part with them yet. memories, you know. i figure i'll make a throw pillow and stuff them candy wrappers in it.

aha, another addition to my to do list.

i also collect unused disposable table napkins from food shops and restos (i usually make my friends sign them -- the disposable table napkins, not the shops/restos), letters and greeting cards (even those from people i don't like), travel brochures (for scrapbooking purposes and future travels), quotes (why do you think i keep posting quotes?), travel tickets (for scrapbooking purposes, too), gift wrappers, art materials (i pile 'em up first before i put my heart into using them), souvenir shirts (wherever i go, i have to have a shirt from that place), movie/concert tickets (that is if they find their way back into my hands), coins, event IDs/name tags, and colorful socks.

i collect nothing and everything. teddy bears, too.

17 comments:

  1. hahahaha. i bought like 28 books at once. then added 15 more, knowing that i would never have the time to read them. and i still buy more. sa lahat ng yan, tatlo pa lang nababasa ko. hahahahaah. if you wanted a book, what would it be?

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  2. grabe, hanep sa book shopping, 28 books in one go. plus 15 more. plus more. since di mo naman pala nababasa, pamigay mo na lang. hehe.

    ah, the book would have to be... teka, pagsinabi ko ba, ibibigay mo? wish ko lang noh?

    that's difficult; there are lots of books in my wishlist :) fit for a separate blog entry.

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  3. Ei I still have my stamps with me .... wanna exchange with your duplicates??? c",)

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  4. why not? but first, i need to organize them.

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  5. Wow. I’m seeing one of my favorite movies in your collection: City Of God.

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  6. books, stamps, staioneries.

    for books, i don’t keep them. i lend them to my sis, cousins… i don’t want to stock them gathering ashes. yong children’s book na binibili ko, i gave them away to my lil cousins.

    for now, i collect pirated DVDs, yong mga 12 and 18 in one. haha. =)

    my dream collection is to collect stamps on my passport. hahaha.

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  7. Abaniko, yep, i have city of god. it's one of my faves, too.

    kars, i dream of collecting stamps on my passport, too. however, my passport is non-existent. i still have to apply for one. :)

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  8. Oh, cool collections!! Do you have a LibraryThing.com account?

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  9. baby rockstar, as of the moment, i don't have an account there.

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  10. now, i have an account in LibraryThing.com: my username's caterpillartalk and, so far, i've added 87 of my books to the online catalog. i'll have to add the rest later.

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  11. Oh, cool!! Hehe. Isn't it addictive? I'm checking out your library. You have really cool collections.

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  12. hei!!1collecthing stamps? cool ….Now, i’m entering a stamp competiton. I do collect stamps but i need more. can anyone give me your old and unwanted stamp ?Plzzzzzzz

    -nabila

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  13. stamps (before). good books. quotes. coins. photos. various TV series episodes.

    when i was in grade 2, i also collected campaign materials (!). i also wrote down all the plate numbers of cars that would pass by our house.

    imagina ra gud.

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  14. hapit ko nakaliot da na hilig man diay ko magbutang ug coins sa akong bag.. hehe

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  15. hello, caterpillar! long time...

    i also collect boks, stationery and key chains!:)

    i'll try to check that mylibrary thing you and baby rockstar were talking about. maybe when i get the time, i'll get an accoun from there.:)

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  16. baby rockstar, it is. haven't updated my LibraryThing account yet but will soon do.

    bren, interesting. what happened to those campaign materials? and to your list of license plates? did you manage to keep them all these years?

    mic, buhata na sab to diha... this time, dimes and nickels. hehe. buhi pa ba to imo trusty brown bag?

    BabyPink, aye, you should get an account there. you'll enjoy it. glad to have you back here. :)

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  17. wow... almost all of your collections are like mine. I collect books, movies (yep. not those pirated ones..) stamps... stickers, stationaries... even those trinkets. wahahaha. from my childhood din... :P

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