Welcome to my website.

Thanks a lot for dropping by.

This website brings together the poems, essays, stories, commentaries, and research works I have written over the years. I am a teacher, writer, and lifelong learner with varied interests: literature, language, education, sports—particularly basketball, boxing, and MMA—and self-improvement.

Self-improvement is my main advocacy. Through my writing, I hope to encourage people to embrace it as a lifelong process of becoming better and reaching their full potential.

I engage in both creative and technical writing, and I use two logos to identify my works. The “MAD’S Workshop” logo represents my work in general, while the “Mukhang Poet” logo identifies my creative writing endeavors, particularly those written in Filipino.

I originally came up with the idea of creating this website just for fun. It was also a personal challenge: I wanted to find out whether I could still learn something entirely new. I am not a techie, have never taken a course in webpage development, and know very little about coding. Consequently, I built this website painstakingly on a “hit-and-miss” basis—and I am still learning slowly but surely.

I am 1,633 miles away from home, working as a teacher in South Korea. If I allow my mind to remain idle, it may become somebody else’s workshop. Teaching, writing, and maintaining this website keep me sane, productive, and my plate full. Consequently, boredom and idleness rarely find an available slot in my daily schedule.

I started building the website in 2014. More than three years later, in 2017, I decided to purchase the domain madligaya.com and officially introduce it to the public. Since then, it has remained a work in progress. As I continue learning the nuances of web design, I also continue correcting errors, reorganizing its contents, and finding ways to improve it.

I began taking the website even more seriously when I decided to turn some of its contents into videos and share them on YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. What began as a simple pastime has gradually become a larger creative undertaking.

Writing is one of my three passions, alongside teaching and self-improvement advocacy. It brings me immense joy and satisfaction, and I wanted a place to preserve my work. I could think of no better place to store it than online, where I could also share it with people who might find it interesting. I explained more fully why I write here.

My writing is simple, and I do not know whether everything here possesses literary or academic value. Others may be capable of producing far better works, and the website’s design may appear amateurish because of my limited technical skills. Nevertheless, these works are valuable to me. They are my personal treasures, and I intend to preserve them.

At the same time, I do not expect everything I write to appeal to everyone. I will not be offended if some readers do not find my work interesting. What matters is the immense joy and sense of accomplishment I experience whenever I finish a piece and read it afterward, no matter how simple it may be. To me, success is a journey, not merely a destination.

My blogs and commentaries cover literature, literary criticism, language, education, educational management, sports, movies, self-improvement, and, on occasion, socio-political issues. I have also gathered here some articles that I originally wrote for other websites.

I write in two languages: English and Filipino. However, I also dream of writing stories, essays, and poems in Korean. Learning the language has been a mighty struggle for me, and I do not know how long it will take for that dream to become a reality. Still, I believe that someday I will be able to write creative works in Korean.

Please feel free to comment on anything you read here. Criticism can be a catalyst for improvement; therefore, I welcome and value it. This website and its contents will always be works in progress. Whenever I discover errors, I correct them—but I am sure many remain. Perhaps you can help me find them, too.

To help you explore the website, I have prepared a short guide. Please click on the link below

Guide To My Website