Thursday, October 25, 2007
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Thursday, October 25, 2007
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Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. ~ Mark Twain
Yesterday (October 24) was my twenty tooot (figure it out yourself) birthday. I know I’m “getting” older but I don’t really feel getting older — mentally, emotionally or physically (sigh). I can still play physical sports you know, although I may need to get myself some practice and exercise first to beat exhaustion and hard breathing. I have matured greatly in a lot of ways, but believe me when I say that I’m still the same person I was in college days (did I see eyebrows raising?). How fast time flies. The next thing I know, I’m already a husband, a father, a grandpa, an oldie and god knows what else? The only comfort I get in knowing this truth is that each and every one of us is going to be like that. Sooner or later, everybody will have to cross that road called geezerhood. ^_^
Posted by
Nutty Boy
Labels:
geezerhood,
getting old,
Mark Twain
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
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Tuesday, October 23, 2007
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My opinions in religion, culture and even politics some years ago were very different from today. At present, there’s no way I can all fuse them into a single unified belief without contradicting itself. I can say that what my views yesterday are almost, if not totally, opposite of my views today. Say for example, my thought about homosexuality. Before, when people asked me if I viewed homosexuality and sex change as “bad,” I would, without a blink of an eye, say “yes!” and would go on explaining how God made just two sexes and anything else outside this are unacceptable, nasty and immoral. Lately have I just realized that homosexuality has nothing to do with immorality. What is really nasty about becoming your true self?
The cause of homosexuality---which some described as a trait, disease, behavior, desire, mental illness, perversion, political identity, lifestyle and even sin---is still undetermined. My sister and a cousin, who were both psychology graduates, said that there have been no proven tests stating that this abnormality stems from psychological or biological problems.
Many believe that gender is hard-wired in the brain before birth. Most homosexuals said that they have been bakla and tomboy since the beginning, ‘trapped’ in men’s or women’s bodies, so they claim. Our gender is, according to them, can be more determined by our brains and not by our bodies. Most of them argue that because mental gender cannot be changed via psychiatric means, the only alternative left is to change the physical body to match the mind.
It must be depressing for a guy who had just undergone sex change operation to become a woman when “his” petition to change his name and gender was denied by the Supreme Court of the Philippines. It’s not that the SC was glued to conservatism; there aren’t enough laws recognizing sex change, and the gender of somebody registered at birth — derived from physical body — is still immutable. Unless, some new legislation about sex change are passed, which I highly doubt, people who have gone sex transplant may not get their desired gender.
As expected, some conservative people would rebuke this as a work of evil. But is there more evil than cutting the thin hope of people who only wish for completeness and happiness? What injury will it cause conservative people when a homosexual corrects what s/he believes is wrong with his/her body? How many more of them does God have to create in order for these conservative people to realize that He actually wants them here?
Thursday, October 18, 2007
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Thursday, October 18, 2007
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It was sudden and unexpected. None of us were prepared for it. But then, all things shall inevitably come to an end. That’s precisely what happened to Duday, our dog, our pet who had been with us for years. She succumbed to a mysterious illness we don’t know where she contracted from. She was 9 years old.
Some often view the death of a pet to be of no consequence or importance — particularly by those who are no pet lovers. Honestly speaking, I’m not much of a pet lover myself and most of the time I only attend to our dogs when I feel like it. In fact, I even play pranks on them on some occasions. But when I received the news last Tuesday evening after coming home from work, I was shocked and felt weak. Tatay said that Duday had waited for him before she passed away. It was sad. Duday had become an integral part of our lives. We valued her as a companion, a trusted ally and an intelligent pet. She was like, as one may say, a family member.
We buried her at our yard on that very night. We dig a decent hole two feet beneath the ground for her tomb, taking us almost two hours before we got the depth. It was tiring, but for a family’s pet who died, its the least and the very last sacrifice you could do.
Goodbye, Duday. Thanks for the memories. We’ll miss you...
Posted by
Nutty Boy
Labels:
blog of a dog,
death,
dog blogs,
Duday
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
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Tuesday, October 16, 2007
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I can’t remember the last time I really listened to FM radio. So when I tried tuning in to an FM station that plays both contemporary and old-school songs last Sunday evening, it was so relaxing. It wasn't long, however, before something snapped inside me. How’s our local radio today? They were very popular in the 90s, when personal computer was not yet a household name as it is nowadays. I'm part of those generation of people who could list down the names of each FM station, from those that were disliked to those that were preferred. FM radios were popular among schools, houses, malls, taxis, jeepneys, etc., and disc jokeys were idolized as mysterious sweet-talking cool folks who could command a huge following. But then, when Bill Gates started making money out of his Windows, FM was suddenly driven out of spotlight, pushed to the edge of death by the more powerful and more convenient Mp3s. I have no idea if the younger generation of today would still find it worthwhile, as we once did, to listen to some newly-reformatted FM stations that dish out corny jokes, poorly-made songs and stupid contests.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
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Thursday, October 04, 2007
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The title of my entry has nothing to do with what I am thinking at this moment whatsoever. It just proves boredom's still tailing me.
I took a sick leave yesterday. I knew from the moment I woke up that it was one of those bad days. Besides, I wasn’t feeling well. I was struggling to get up and set up a working mood. It must have been caused by the bad weather that had given us a rough time the other day. I felt I was going to nurse a fever. Just “felt,” anyway. But I wasn’t feeling well yesterday, really (ows?). I said really! (ah, okay). You can think whatever you like (yeah, sure!). Asshole! (Bummer!). Except for a nice uninterrupted sleep, yesterday was such a bore. After watching Brothers Grimm and Dragon Tiger Gate (which made my headache even worse), there wasn’t anything more interesting to do. It freaked me out. I wanted to write a fiction, but then I wasn’t in a mood to do so. I also picked up my guitar and strummed some songs but it was kinda drab. I was almost at my wits end when I decided to try hitting the sack around 1pm. It’s crazy when you want to do something but can’t seem to find any interesting thing to do. What do people do when they feel like useless? Whoa, such a boooooring day...
Thursday, September 27, 2007
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Thursday, September 27, 2007
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Whatever happened to the 2007 Palanca?
I don’t even know if my entries to the 2007 Palanca Awards — a short story and a fiction for children (both in Filipino) — managed to get the attention of the judges. Many times I imagined how their jaws dropped in disbelief while reading the stories written by a pathetic guy who had had too much time in his hands to scribble trash and idiocy. Sorry to disappoint them, but I'm planning to send them another maisterpiece. That's how stubborn I am. If I lose again, no pressure and regrets at all. At least I tried.
I'm quite surprised myself at how enthusiastic I have become in this stuff. I can attribut this to my Creative Writing subject in college, in which my professor was Rogelio Ordoñez. He opened my eyes to the works of Filipino fictionists such as Edgardo M. Reyes, Rogelio Sicat, Dominador Mirasol and Efren Abueg who all co-authored the “Mga Agos sa Disyerto,” one of the best short story anthologies in the history of Philippine fiction. And that “emancipation” opened the door for reading more works of Filipino fictionists including Lualhati Bautista and Rosario de Guzman-Lingat, eventually introducing me to foreign fictionists such as Hemmingway, O’Henry, Chekhov, Asimov, Maupassant, etc. Perhaps to satisfy my ego, quench my literary thirst or just to express myself — I don’t know exactly why I have been drawn to write short stories recently. Anyhow, I take it as a good justification to my staying late at night and my harboring weird concepts after concepts — in short, pagtulala sa isang tabi (laugh). I have no idea whether this enthusiasm is for short or long term, but wouldn’t it be nice to write when you’re brimming with ideas? It would be a total waste not to put all those ideas into written forms — however bad one may think those are. The thing is, it’s fun to dream and create a world from your own viewpoint and then virtually “realizing” them through writing fiction. ^_^
Anyway, the list of winners for 2007 can be found in Carlos Palanca website, or you may go to the new Philippine online encyclopedia, Wikipilipinas. It’s an encylopedia that uses Wikipedia’s format under GNU Free Documentation License. I have already registered in the site and made some contributions (editing, writing, etc.), all for the glory of sharing information and knowledge. Like Wikipedia, Wikipilipinas is a cool and easily-accessible site; although one may find some information missing or inadequate, it’s only normal for a young site which is fed on information contributed by volunteers, so I guess some criticisms against Wikipilipinas are uncalled for. Remember that Britannica Encyclopedia once criticized Wikipedia for plagiarism and content issues, stating years ago that Wiki lacked significant information and authority. Wiki was young that time, barely a year old. But what happened after some years? It has now millions of articles that provide helpful information to everybody, nth times more than Britannica or any other existing encyclopedia for that matter! Moreover, Wiki decided to make its source program open, so others may copy and use it for educational purposes. Why did they do that? It's because they want people to use their software to spawn some new knowledge sites like Wikipilipinas, all for the sake of expanding an open and free online reference.
I believe that nobody has a monopoly over knowledge, and the question of redundancy of informative site only dwells in the minds of illiberal and envious people. Wikipilipinas is a fine and welcome addition. Besides, it is free!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007
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Last Sunday, Kuchi and I went to a Chinese restaurant in Cogeo to celebrate my godson’s 2nd birthday. Before that, we had had one of those heated petty quarrels that seem inscribed in BF-GF relationships. But just like always, we had patched things up so quickly that we forgot the whole thing when we got in the restaurant. In no time things’ become so mushy again. The affair was impromptu and the assigned host didn't come, so my godson’s mother---a single mom---needed to drag a teen to do the job. Without preparation and forethought of what she’s going to do with the improvised program written in a piece of paper, she tried to entertain the crowd, mostly children, with game after game, until she ran out of ideas and turned the affair into a singing contest (laugh). And then the owner of the restaurant tried to make the affair a formal one and convinced one of the godparents to give an inspirational speech, sort of a toast, and I was singled out to do that. Although most of my friends said that the speech was inspiring enough to get the attention of people, I realized that some of the things I said were ridiculous. Besides, I told the crowd that my message would be short; instead, it went long, about 3 minutes, with 1/3 of it went to a boring, corny introduction. Afterward, we went to the Robinson Metro East with some friends to look for something to give to another friend of ours, Hector, who is getting married on September 29. Most of my friends and classmates have been settling down lately, I notice. Well, Kuchi and I have already talked about it ourselves and have decided to do the knot-tying thing next year (yay!). We are now preparing for it, and we want to do it without busting our tight budget. But the cost of everything is really blowing us away. Well, that’s just the way marriages are, no matter how you try to make it simple and inexpensive. But we just hope that, in the end, money will not be a headache. We are now saving up. Remember the last time I said I might scrape a living and eat boy bawang for lunch? That may happen LOL. Anyhow, to all the people out there who are generous, the donation box is already open and waiting for you LOL.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
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Thursday, September 13, 2007
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Bank accounts and checks were presented, big-time witnesses surfaced, alleged accomplices apprehended, bail petitioned thrown out — one would indeed be led to believe that President Joseph “Erap” Estrada is guilty of the charges of perjury and plunder. I was led to believe that, too. So when the SandiganBayan issued the verdict just hours ago, finding Erap guilty of the plunder (acquitted in perjury), it didn’t came like an ear-splitting, roaring thunder to me. Or at least to me...
ERAP IS GUILTY. But is it the END?
Before this verdict, I'd been thinking of two political scenarios why Erap would be found guilty. The verdict will be a substantiation — or nullification — of the Edsa Dos . Consequently, this will be a question of Arroyo Administration’s legitimacy. If the verdict is not guilty — and Erap would be acquitted — then it would mean that the military and businessmen-backed “revolution” was wrong. Why would you unsit a president because of false allegations? It would be a clear “power grab” by civil society, the Church and political groups. If the verdict is not guilty, then Erap should still be the president today.
On the other scenario, if he is found guilty, he would be “martyrized” by his loyalists who account for more than 50 percent of Metro Manila residents. Apart from that, if Erap do not accept presidential pardon, people who are not loyal to Estrada or those who do not consider themselves pro-Erap may easily switch support and give sympathy to Estrada. A mob with a huge number of pro-Erap supporters could easily “politicize” the AFP and, as a chain effect, could repeat the same Edsa Revolution used to topple Erap.
But the verdict has been issued. I'm no lawyer, but I believe an SC's reversal of the Sandigan Bayan’s decision would illicit legal consequences as it would contradict former Chief Justice Hilario Davide and the company’s acceptance and validation of GMA’s presidency in 2001. Therefore, it is either Erap goes to jail and serve the remaining reclusion perpetua punishment meted out against him, or he accepts presidential pardon GMA would give him. But Erap just stated in public that he will not accept presidential pardon if convicted guilty and is ready to serve his sentence in Muntinlupa. But would millions of Erap passionate supporters let him go to jail without a fight or show of force, in legal way or in mass actions?
Monday, September 3, 2007
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Monday, September 03, 2007
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Yesterday, I accompanied Tatay to the Riverbanks Mall where we bought a digital karaoke surround amplifier. He finally decided to return the other amplifier at home which we had just borrowed from my uncle. Honestly speaking, I don’t see the need to purchase an amplifier. I mean we don't have a mobile/sound system business or anything. Sound coming from TV or CD/DVD component is enough for me. But Tatay wished to have our golden voices heard hundred feet away from our house while we sing, and I figured it’s not bad an idea after all (laugh). The only catch was that he had me pay for the amplifier. He was just taking me for a ride! What a wise guy. Good thing we didn’t look for an expensive amplifier... or I’d be spending the next days eating Boy Bawang for lunch. “Basta maganda ang tunog at malakas, okay na yun,” my old man said. The one that we picked was a bit bigger than a car stereo and a hair’s breadth better than my uncle’s amplifier in terms of size and looks (of course, size and looks don’t really matter in sound quality). If I recall it right, the nutty brand is Meque. Of all names you could give to a piece of technology.
Friday, August 31, 2007
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Friday, August 31, 2007
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Hmm... that has been about two weeks since my last entry. Obviously, the rush was over and we've finally gotten over it with, thanks to our "long weekend." We're back to normal again and have just started writing (or scribbling) articles that will be put together for the next issue of our magazine. I managed to brush off the "twitch" left by the haste surrounding the previous issue by taking a leave and spending the next weekends with kuchi, doing the mushy thingy, of course (forgive me, April, we're really mushy ^_^). Unluckily, some things suddenly came up without a warning and spoiled the happy days. Oh, not the kuchi days, thank God. It was in the office where relocation happened, that is, from one room into another. Imagine the inconvenience to the extent that you couldn't work the whole day because of trying to locate all your belongings that were suddenly placed somewhere only the heaven above knows. Funny but when we're helping people out lift computers, chairs and tables, the song "Changes" by Black Sabbath (Ozzy singing it) queerly popped up inside my nutty head, prompting me to sing out the chorus of the song "I'm going through changes..." In any case, we're beginning to get used to the atmosphere of the room. In fact, I really think I'm absorbing and sucking up all the good vibes covering the room which we actually share with, guess what? With the librarian!!!
Yes, we're inside the company's library. That's our new room.
Posted by
Nutty Boy
Labels:
black sabbath,
relocation
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