Time wasters....

Got extra time? Visit these linked sites and see time dwindle away....

1. Tokyo Plastic's Drum Machine
2. The Meatrix
3. Orisinal - Flash Games
4. Kunstbar

Pinoy sounds

Sabi ko sa previous post ko na for my wife’s birthday, bumili siya ng iPod Shuffle at binigay sa akin. The past couple of days were spent ripping and cataloging my CDs to throw into this new plaything.

Tinanong ni Ka Uro kung ano and mga nasa playlist ko… Eddie Perigrina? Ate Guy? Let me see, there's MYMP, Nina, Session Road, Mojo Fly, Sandwhich, Paolo Santos, River Maya, Bamboo and Mishka Adams. Meron ding oldies like Side A and the Eraserheads.

Yes, puro sila pinoy and pwede nang panglaban sa western artists! Quite recently, there has been a renaissance of pinoy sounds. Singers and bands are sprouting like mushrooms after a heavy thunderstrorm! Ang dami talaga! Kahit sa radyo ngayon, anytime you turn the dial, siguradong tatapat ka sa isang pinoy song. There are even idie sites like fiestamundo where you can check out budding pinoy singers and bands. Punta kayo and check it out…

Makikita mo talaga ang talent ng mga pinoy sa sining at musika. Buti nga ngayon ay nabibibgayn ng break di tulad noon. I remember when I was working sa radio pa noon (yes, I was once a radio DJ and talk show host!), we were required by law to pay 1 pinoy music every 45 minute. Puro na kasi western artists noon and this law was needed to level off the airtimes with pinoy sounds. Hirap na hirap kami noon dahil there were only few pinoy recordings to choose from and we ended up playing a couple of songs over and over again… Pero ngayon, dami mga pinoy artists at ang dami na rin na genre to choose from!

Well, this is probably one of the few things that still makes me proud to say that I am a Filipino… Pinoy sounds rules!

Birthday gift

It’s me mom’s birthday last Friday. She is now 80 years old and still going strong, naglalakad pa to church and the market. Sabi niya, from this year onwards, bonus years na daw ang bilang, every year will be treated as a gift of life. We treated her to lunch sa isang restaurant. I must admit I pigged out… Given my penchant for food tripping, it made me wonder if I will ever get to count my own bonus years…

Anyway, while we were walking around the mall, I chanced upon a store selling a recent object-of-my-lust… the iPod Shuffle. I guess I was really drooling over it because my wife asked me to buy it. Nagulat ako! Sabi niya “tutal, malapit na ang birthday ko. Bilin mo na ‘yan para sa iyo, parang regalo mo na sa akin.” Given the "ubod ng kunat" person that she is, I was very much humbled by this gesture. It is one of the moments in your life that you get the fuzzy-all-over feeling that you are loved. Haaaay, sarap ng feeling! Loved ka na, may iPod ka pa!!! Kaya mahal ma mahal ko yun! (uuuyyyy…).

This gesture made me think on how rare people give gifts these days. What most do these days is to guard and keep. This probably is a sign of the times; sa hirap ng buhay, people tend to become greedy and forget that their generous nature. Practical lang siguro. But then again, as being generous is inherent the nature of humans, even in these hard times, we can still see random acts of kindness all around us. Just imagine kung hindi tayo tag-hirap… Ang saya siguro…

Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.

Jean de La Bruyère (1645–96), French writer, moralist. Characters,“Of the Heart,” aph. 47 (1688).

Tag-ulan

Tag-ulan na naman. Muli nanamang luntian ang mga halaman… Uso na ulit ang sumusinod:

1. Sipon
2. Trangkaso
3. Ubo
4. Sick leave
5. Payong
6. Kapote
7. Botas
8. Mga nakiki-sukob
9. Baha
10. Basura galing sa baha
11. Buni galing sa baha na may basura
12. Malakas na ulan
13. Loving-doving dahil malakas ang ulan
14. Bagong baby dahil sa pagla-loving-doving dahil malakas ang ulan

Ano pa ba? Post naman kayo....

Workday Halo-halo

You might be wondering why I had no (expletive deleted!) entries over the last three days starting last (expletive deleted!) Friday…

It is because we are in the tail end of a (expletive deleted!) social experiment by the (expletive deleted!) Philippine government, the (expletive deleted!) FOUR DAY WORKWEEK. Under this (expletive deleted!) grand design that spanned these past 2 months, (expletive deleted!) government personnel would work from only from Monday to Thursday, but working hours would stretch from (expletive deleted!) 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. This plan was couched up by the (expletive deleted!) Department of Energy to see if (expletive deleted!) government would spend less on electricity and fuel by slashing a workday…And working with an (expletive deleted!) international organization billeted in one of the (expletive deleted!) government bureaus, we have no choice but to oblige to this (expletive deleted!) scheme…

Many people perceive this as an advantage, as one would have Fridays off, with a 3 day weekend at their disposal. But as an (expletive deleted!) commuter who spends at least 4 hours in the horrendous labyrinth of (expletive deleted!) Manila traffic, this would mean that I would have to (expletive deleted!) wake up at around 4:30 to be able to leave my place at around 5:30 in the morning. Then, I would only get home only after (expletive deleted!) 8:30 p.m.

If you sum it all up, I would have (expletive deleted!) less time to spend with my family at home on weekdays. Plus, I now spend most of my (expletive deleted!) weekends sleeping to catch up with my (expletive deleted!) sleep deprived weekdays!!!

But as the month of May draws to a close, I have heard that we will be once again embarking on another (expletive deleted!) adaptation of the now bastardized workweek, the (expletive deleted!) version 2 called: the (expletive deleted!) 9 DAY WORKWEEK CYCLE. Under this (expletive deleted!) scheme, we would have every other (expletive deleted!) Friday off, but the (expletive deleted!) workday would now be from 7:30 to 5:30.

Come to think of it, this new (expletive deleted!) scheme might be better, as it will allow more time to be spent at home. But as now I have configured my circadian rhythm to the (expletive deleted!) timings of the last 2 months, I would have to make another adjustment!!!

Hopefully by version 4, I would be such a wreck that when I would have the opportunity to meet the DOE secretary, I would slap him silly!!!! Waaaah, give me back those moments of my life unaccounted for!!!!

Separation Anxiety...

No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)

As I mentioned in my earlier post, my family have impending plans to move and live in another country. With this intention, we began trawling the internet for what ever shred of information that could be useful for us. This led us to various websites, then to different forums, then to more personal blogs. These offered us valuable insights and knowledge on the different aspects that will be bundled with such a life changing shift. Perhaps the most feared aspect I have seen all over was the prospect of leaving a familiar comfort zone for the unknown.

It reminded me of a teambuilding exercise we did several years ago with my former employer. In the outer reaches of San Pablo, we were asked to climb up a 40 meter coconut tree. On top, 2 steel cables spanned two trees 15 meters apart. Donning safety harnesses, we were made to climb up the tree. With our hands on one cable and our foot on the other, we were instructed to traverse the cables, touch the other tree and come back to the middle. In the middle, we were then asked to JUMP down, with only the harnesses breaking the fall. With my incessant fear of heights, I told them “Sira ba ulo niyo!”. I kept holding it back until all of my colleagues have already performed the death defying feat. I then mustered all my strength (plus the fact na hiyang-hiya na ako dahil duwag daw ako!) and there was no looking back. Then, I did it… Siyet!!! Muntik na akong mapa-siyet!!! But then I did it and noong natapos na, I felt a strange tinge of relief and even to some degree, delight. Parang ang gaan ng pakiramdam mo dahil natalo mo ang fears mo. It was very liberating.

So that’s what its like leaving our comfort zones… We are all used to being on the ground that we sometimes fail to see the forest among the trees. And we are so used to having our feet on the ground that anything outside this norm is interpreted as an unknown area beyond the realms of understanding and even comprehension. In retrospect, our planned move may have brought me to the reality of going to uncharted territories, reminiscent of a cold dark abyss filled with unknown creatures. But making the move is probably the only way we can see otherwise and there is even the distinct possibility that we may even find the place of our dreams...

I recalled my world history and I reminded myself of Hernando Cortez. When he landed his fleet in Mexico in 1519, he instructed his men to burn all of his ships. One command, a few moments and it was done. The land before them might have been full of deadly creatures or it might have been full of hostile natives or poisonous water, but there was no turning back. He left part of his men there on the coast and took the rest to find Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City). There he found Montezuma and the rest, as they say, is history.

Gathering strength from this tale and by looking into the eyes of my wife and kids, hinga ng malalim, then go for it!!! Pikit na lang at dasal… Hopefully, we can find our own Montezuma in our own little spot of paradise… Lakas lang ng loob, mates…

To blog or not to blog, that is the question…

Blog - [a.k.a. blogger -or- blogrolling -or- weblog -or- Web log -or- blogosphere] A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominantly.

Why do it??? I ask myself… for one thing, I hardly have the time due to the mountain in my desk that needs to be done. And given my daily 4 hour commute, this will give me even less opportunity for blogging. But I discovered something I did not realize before…

Perhaps I can lay the blame on my cyber-mates, in particular si Ka Uro, Kiwipinay at pati na rin si Mr. Tanggero. I discovered blogging by accident, in my quest for more information about certain nuances of migrating to different countries. May balak kasi kaming mag-anak, but that story is for a different blog….

After “lurking” in different forums, I came across KiwiPinay’s blog, which led me to Ka Uro, which linked me naman sa beerhouse ni Mr. Tanggero, and it just goes on forever. ‘namputsa, 6 degrees of separation nga!

After spending sometime lurking, I suddenly find myself commenting occasionally to these blogs. Then I noticed na dumadalas ang pag-comment ko. I find myself getting up early to comment, then pa-singit ng konti sa work, then pag uwi…

It has become sort of a passion to write comments, then I realized it…. I have rediscovered the joys of writing! I rediscovered it at a time when writing has become drudgery, laboring to punch the keyboard in line with my work. Now, I enjoy writing so much that I finish my work in less time, which in turn now gives me more time to comment and even set-up this blog. The quality of my writing has even increased to the point that my bosses noticed (na very good nga ako kanina sa isang report na sinulat ko). Pag-nagsusulat ako ngayon, para akong lumilipad sa alapaap.

Well, I look at this newfound passion with the intention of sharing my life to all and I hope that you can find inspiration and meaning in it as I have from the blogs of other cyber-mates. I think that if at the least, I will be able to tickle your thoughts and dreams, then this blog will have served its purpose…