incessant rambling

hapi berday to you, hapi berday to you! hapi berday hapi berday. hapi berday to you! sorry i don't have much to offer you on your berday. i've been bad and good this year. hopefully, mostly good. thank you for the blessings you've given me (and the rest of the world). don't give up on me (us) yet. that's me watching over your crib. yup, i fit right in the pic. i look like a donkey. errr.... a bearded (not-so) wise man.

if you ever find yourself stuck in the port of dumaguete waiting for a boat to Cebu, you may want to entertain yourself by watching the info-tv-board that flash bits of information, tips and trivia. I mean, do you know that the first recorded celebration of Christmas in the Philippines was 200 years before Magellan landed on our shores? Or the fact that "Silent Night" was composed in 1818 by Franz Joseph Gruber, an Austrian who came up with the ditty because the Church Organ had a malfunction, probably from disuse. (Church, Organ, Not-Functioning - makes sense eh?) other Christmas Trivia include the fact that Gloria is never sung in Advent Masses (and if you go by the signs of the times, that Gloria is really popular with the Church nowadays). It is an often forgotten fact that Advent Mass is not only to prepare for the Birth of Baby J but is also in preparation for the Apocalyptic Christ, or the second coming? That fact is emphasized by the gospel reading of the last and fi...

If you're reading this today, Christmas time, you probably should be out and visiting part of the real world luv! (this is a pre-posted, scheduled blog entry, so am entirely excused!) In any case, I just want to greet everyone the Merriest of Christmas. No long message, no deep meaning, no reflective thoughts. As I'm typing this piece, I am scheduled to sign a new contract tomorrow (24th December, 2008) that is a totally unexpected last minute Christmas gift from the Big J before I take my break. In many ways, there could have been instances where this particular deal could have gone kaput except that in every moment I felt I was going to make a big mistake I had an invisible hand pushing me along. This is one instance where I appreciated Someone being pushy. No matter what we went through this year, we are certainly blessed. We're here right? This very second is a blessing of "existence". The only man who can't achieve his dreams is a dead man. We're stil...

it was an interesting conversation with friends who are in town from london. you see, they can't help but shake their heads when they have that occasional conversation with a brit whose idea of the philippines is some backward mud-flat where people still live in trees. for the love of whatever is sane, how can they imagine such inanity when a third of their nurses are filipinos? show me a country who can produce tree-top nurses and i guarantee you their civilization would be the most advanced. hmmm, so i guess every opportunity i get, i try to snap a picture of them in the terraces in ayala, inside the gorgeous mall and most recently, underneath the gigantic christmas tree resplendent with gold, gold and more gold! at the very least, if someone asks them if filipinos still live in trees we can tell them we do: gold trees. hmmp.

September 1, monday, eight in the morning and the jeep was crawling through the traffic that started from fuente all the way to downtown. it was a good idea not to bring my car, the hassle of going through morning traffic and finding parking in UC is enough to induce anxiety attacks. my half-sleepy reverie was disrupted by the jarring sound of Oh da weder outside is PAYTpol, (with extra emphasis on the syllable just before the last) but the fire es so BELATpol, (i am sure i heard this one) and since hmmm.. hmmm... hmmm. hmmmm... (i think they forgot the lyrics at this point) LEEEEET EEET SNOW LET EEET SNOW LEEET EEET SNOW! (chorus SHOUTING) that reminded me that Christmas season starts the first day of the BER months and the horde of boys hanging by the backside of the jeep serenading the passengers with their delightful caroling. curiously, the street lights and decors are late this year. even ayala, set up their tree late into november. if you want a feel of a grand Christmas, don...

people jostled each other to get a good vantage point, patiently lining up so they can get a good seat. the crowd is so big that it actually spilled over the road. perhaps expecting a standing room situation, some people even brought their own chairs. when the music started people settled down and quietly paid homage to the biggest box office hit this christmas season: the simbang gabi (midnight mass). i spent my christmas in naga city, south of cebu. for some reason, the celebration is more solemn and heartfelt - never mind that i can not fully understand the mass as it was celebrated using cebuano, i felt the same feeling of hope as i bowed my head and prayed for peace for myself, my family, my loved ones and for all mankind. merry christmas to everyone.

If you haven't heard of the Big Brother franchise you're probably too uncool to read this blog, so go ahead and skip this one. Just in case you're one of those who got hit by this tv show (willingly or not), you probably have the feeling of being a perverted voyeur as you watch strangers do all sorts of idiotic things under the watchful eyes of Big Brother. ok last warning, everything after this line goes really colorful - if you know what i mean. so for the faint of heart, move along now and do some penance. you're probably familiar with the setup, the housemates are supposed to learn life-lessons or something, but somehow at the end of the day it is all about playing a game and planting a big boot to someone's behind during eviction night. Life aint a game, there are winners and losers in a game. If there's anything good about this show, it just goes to prove that even celebrities (the Celebrity Edition) are just, well... people. yup, their shit smells just l...