One Year...

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since we lost our beloved Tita Cory.

Goes to show how fast time flies. Within that time span, a lot of things have happened;

A year ago, we had this lady sitting in Malacañang, driving this country to hell;

Today we have a President whose leadership allows us to hope again.

Our country had its first computerized elections, and I'm glad that I was proven wrong, it was successful

Ondoy and Pepeng showed how strong and awesomely heroic Pinoys can be.

A little lady became the epitome of "garapal"; as did her sons. (pwede din kup..)

As for me:

I joined this singing contest in school;

My heart was broken;

I lost my faith, only to find it again;

I cheered on my friends who took the bar;

I rejoiced with those who succeeded, wept with those who did not.

I can enumerate countless things, both good and bad. Point is though, a lot of things can happen, in a year,2...3...years.

A son can continue the legacy of his parents or destroy it;

Storms can shatter a country's spirit or further galvanize it;

A little lady and her family will redeem themselves or further establish their take-over of hell;

I finally reach the status of "guitar god'';

My law school friends and I set up a successful firm;

I finally find "the one"...

We can either choose to be hopeful or not.

I choose to be hopeful, Tita Cory's legacy taught me that hope shatters tyranny. That a shield of people armed only courage, can block armored juggernauts bent on destruction.

Tita Cory, please pray for your son, may he make you and his dad proud, may he never blemish your memory. Pray for us too, may we stand by him to protect him, may we have the strength to correct him when we have to.

(P.S. please say hi to my dad after his round of golf with Ninoy)

Gone too soon

This morning, while doing my usual study-avoidance-ritual (Facebook...) I happened to come across a post that bothered me. A friend of my friend passed away, she was 35 weeks pregnant and the baby died too, she was only a year younger than me. I may not have known her, God knows that the only time I've encountered her was through that post, but it will be something that will stick to me none-the-less.

Our initial experiences with death will definitely not be our own, but rather through the death of someone else. Unfortunately, most of the time the ones who die are the ones we love...

I have to admit that there are times that I wish that it was someone else who died instead of the good people like Joey Velasco, Refdord White, my friend's friend...

Sana si dating FG na lang o yung isang anak niyang 'sikyu' daw... But I feel that sometimes, it's better that it is the good that die... This gives the bad an opportunity to seek redemption... Mr. Former FG this means you... You've been given countless times to seek redemption... don't piss it all away... (not unless you're planning to go to hell and take over the place...)

Reflections on faith...

I have to admit, I have not been okay for the past several months. To say the very least, tons of things have been burdening me, so much so there were times that I had begun entertain the possibility of embracing atheism. But, ironically, this near slip into Godlessness helped me understand more things about faith.

One's faith experience does not necessarily mean that one oh so passionately declare that "God is so good all the time! He never abandons me, I've never felt abandoned!" (plastic...) If there is one person we should not be plastic to, it's to Him, He sees us behind all the masks we have learned to wear, He sees us for who we are. We owe nothing more to Him than to come to Him as we are.

In the past, I would have to admit that my prayers consisted of telling God how bitter I was towards the things He has given me. I still am as to certain things like the condition I am afflicted with that will eventually disfigure me... But through it all, I know that He has a plan for me, so despite all that bitterness I have, I still carry on. I still believe. And even if there are times abandoning my faith would seem like the best option, I refuse to, because even when the clouds of doubt arise in the horizon, there is Something greater beyond...

Random Reflections on love and remembereing..

Memories are funny things, they have the power to trigger emotions you have bottled up inside... For the longest time, all I've felt for those who have broken my heart in the past were feelings of bitterness. Like my first heartbreak: I was around 6, I had this crush on our neighbor, I wrote my first Love letter... and got my first rejection from her... she liked my brother...

Right now I actually laugh at that moment but sometimes attribute my fear of rejection to that moment...

Like I said, memories are a funny, they can also be powerful...

For the longest time all I've been feeling for a certain person were feelings of bitterness and resentment. This girl broke my heart... For thge longest time, all I could remember was how she broke my heart, but time can heal... Why should I spend my life being bitter?

Right now, I am blessed with memories of the awesome times we had, even if my relationship with her only lasted 6 months...

Rick and Ilsa had Paris...

I have those 6 months...

(Thanks...You know who you are... :) )

Malapit na pasukan...... hehehe no time for these stuff once school starts

Crisis Earth....

I recently gave up on my dream of owning my own car right now; mainLy because gas prices are ridiculously going up by the week. Imagine, a litter is worth around P 50.00, not a joke, considering that I remember once upon a time, yOu can get enough gas to last for a day or two for P20.00 (take into consideration that cars were less fuel efficient back then...) I would not be surprised if the price per litter shot up to 60 in the next month or so.

This problem is not isolated to the Philippines though, in fact the price of fuel is increasing globally. In fact, the price of fuel in the Philippines is still pretty cheap as compared to other countries.

This problem is not originally an economic problem... For me it can actually be rooted on two major problems.

The first of which is the more obvious one; it is an environmental problem. You can't deny that oil is becoming more scarce, and it is quite impossible for us to be able to replenish what we have already used within our lifetime. The scarcity of fuel can be traced to many things, but I believe you must connect it directly to the second problem: "Selfishness" ...

The second problem manifests itself in many ways.
This can be seen when people drive Gas Guzzlers, because they can afford it or they just do not care about the consequences of their actions...
This can be seen when big companies from dry out a limited resource, not thinking of the consequences in the future... Think about it, I am sure that these companies have always known that oil is a limited resource, and that they should have planned in the long run about the possibility of developing cleaner and a less limited source of energy....
____________________________________________________________________

The global fuel crisis is but the tip of the (pardon the cliche) iceberg... Unless we become more aware of the environmental problems we are facing right now; there will be no hope for people.

In the perspective of Cosmological time, we are actually killing our selves, not our planet, the passing of centuries will heal the planet, but once we are extinct...Well you get the picture...
Time to start caring...or as a very good friend of mine says... move to Mars...



(for CC,
you strengthened my passion to do what I can to save the Earth...)

Dude, where's my inspiration?

I have to write a 35 page paper, and it is due in less than one month… Only God knows if I can finish the task. What makes it so hard is that it should be a thesis caliber paper; (it took me 1 year and one sem to write my thesis…)

But sooner or later I know that somehow, inspiration will hit me and the words will soon start to flow. These are the tines I envy those who effortlessly write stuff…that make sense.

I don’t know why, but for the past years, I have been lacking the inspiration I need to write; and the cliché “there is inspiration all around you” does not seem to help. So, by the looks of it, my goal to write a Palanca Award winning piece of literature before I hit 30 is going down the toilet.

But despite all that, I will continue to write; maybe one day I will find the inspiration to write, one day I will write an award winning modern-day-novel, but before that, I have to finish my paper.

Blooper Reel

One of my favorite parts in a Pixar movie is where they show the out-takes. It's funny how the animators and writers create these moments where their characters commit these bloopers as if they were real.
I believe that people are so 'amused' by the mistakes of others that it becomes a source of laughter for a few months. Take for example the slaughtering of the song "Kiss Me" by a member of the Viva Hot Babes , or more recent Ms. Philippines episode. As funny as it is to see other people's mistake, we should be able to laugh at our own mistakes.

I remember back in prep, I was selected to run the hurdles during family day. The instruction was that when you reach the tire (which was the halfway point of the course), you must run around it and run back towards the starting line. I was leading by a huge margin, and would have won the race, had I actually followed instructions, instead I ran around in circles around the tire...

As funny as some mistakes may seem, there are those which are not laughing matters. Like how is it a condo unit was built in the middle of a rain forest or how the government failed to foresee the current rice shortage we are facing.

When the government commits certain mistakes, it will never be a laughing matter. These mistakes take the character of moral issues, since a lot of things are compromised. The sad part is, no one ever takes the blame. They always wash their hands and act as if they were more innocent than a new-born-baby.

At the end of the day, I would rather run around in circles again and again, than be those idiots in the government.