Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Big Three-Zero (Part 1)

When asked what my birthday wish is, I immediately answer...”world peace.”

But I have thought about this and of course I won’t say it here. It’s between me and the auspicious birthday candle. I have one major, one minor wish. The major wish involves a life-changing decision. The minor wish is a smoothening out in one dimension.

***




Thanks to all the people who have been sending birthday wishes...since October! I don’t know who started the trend but greeting a person at 12:01AM of his birthday is really saccharine. So sorry I had dozed off by then.

Of the flood of pre-emptive messages, I remember those of MM and BM. MM’s is gently sarcastic (joke lang!) while BM’s teems with apologetic sincerity.

Anyway, I have a radar for sincerity. I would know if a simple “happy bday, bday boi” is earnest... or French for “I had to greet you just for the sake of.” (Sorry, but there is no respite from bitchiness even on my birthday).

The best birthday message I received came from another B (through YM):

B: you there?
Me: yes, bro
B: how does it feel 2 days from now?
Me: more pressure lang...to be more mature and take all the shit
B: some shits are good. read all ur blogs already. I'm happy somehow u got over some of the bad stuff. Anyway, just want to greet you in advance...Happy Birthday! to one of the best persons i've known. that’s sincere.
Me: thanks bro. i can forget all that's been said and done by others. as long as i am on the good side of the people who matters. people like you.
B: I appreciate ur friendship, bro.


The most creative one came for SA, also through YM and inspired by the Morning Rush Hot 10. I already got her copyright to publish this on my blog. So here goes:

10 REASONS TO CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY

10. Syempre, may magpapakain mamaya...
9. Another year to enjoy life...
8. Another chance to make up for previous (lousy?) year/s
7. Another year to be wiser, hopefully, nicer too…
6. It’s that once a year chance to sneak a hug and kiss from the untouchable bday boi...
5. You’re still alive… It’s enough reason for YOU to celebrate.. Right?!
4. No crap today... ALL people are supposed to be nice to you on your birthday. Next day they’ll be back to normal...
3. Another year to do the job you LOVE, and work with people you LIKE… day in, day out... (sarcastic ba?)
2. Another year to spend with your wonderfully great friends….. (that’s us!)
And the top on the list:
1. You’re another year older… That means you’re still older than me!


Bonus entry: More blogs, more books, more Flat Tops for us…. Hehe. It’s your bday, bawal magsungit!!!

***


My birthday wishes to CD who is celebrating her birthday a day after mine. Sorry for suffering the tailend of my festivities. Joke!

Kidding aside, I wish you all the best (especially where we Scorpios are cursed at…you know….the “L” word). We’ve had a lot of meaningful chinwags and you’ve been quite a revelation. Thanks for the warmth and for putting up with all the facets of my work and off-work personality. In the short span of time that I’ve known you, I am surprised by our level of connection and life parallelisms (damn Scorpio curse). I am looking forward to more days of stress (pauso ni Hagrid to!), bickering, ruckus and hilarity, sentimentality and cerebral moments.

Happy birthday, baby! (said in an OMC tone…hahaha!)

Fragments #1

Writer's Note: The Fragment series now replaces Hodgepodge. These are bits and pieces of musing, information and anything that comes to my polluted mind, that deserves to be immortalized in blogosphere.

***

A week after I blogged about the unreleased tracks that I have discovered, my dear cousin told me that she heard I Stay In Love on the radio. True enough, I checked MC’s official website and there it was “Mariah Announces I Stay In Love As Her Third Single.”

The video was directed by hubby Nick Cannon. I’ve seen it on youTube and though it was classy and sexy, it borrows heavily from the video of Breakdown (one of Carey’s most memorable songs) and Don’t Forget About Us. Still, I can’t erase the beautiful sight of MC driving in a lonely highway in all her black-and-white glory.




***

I have this personal curse that my bet in a competition always ends up as just the runner up. And this happens every time I campaign heavily about my bet, be it vocally or blogwise.

Classic examples will be the Frat Boys in Amazing Race 8, Mark and Rovilson in TARA2, Elliot Yamin and Chris Daughtry in American Idol, Bye Bye as a sure 19th Number One for MC and Al Gore in the last ill-fated US elections.

So I pretended I didn’t care about the recent US elections even if the downfall of the US economy spells worldwide doom (one of the saddest realities of life, right?). But at the back of my mind I was rooting for Obama and dismissing McCain as another Bush clone.

And holy five cows… Obama won in a historic landslide victory! Finally, we see the dove in the Pandora’s box full of Bush’s faux pas.




***

Last week I heard that Michael Crichton passed away. I checked yahoo but news on his demise was immediately overshadowed by all the US election hullabaloos.

You may not know who Crichton is but you surely know his works and contributions to pop culture. He is the creator of Jurassic Park (altogether now…Ah sya ba yun?!). Congo. Disclosure. E.R. (the groundbreaking TV show that predates the Grey’s Anatomy of this generation).

I remember back in the early 90’s, we have this circle of friends/reading group composed of five people. Usually three of us would gravitate towards one author and the other two would totally snub that author. I was part of the Michael Crichton trio.

I initially didn’t pick Jurassic Park (the novel) as it was too textbook-ish for my reading pleasure. All because it has data printouts and computer screen captures! But once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down. I was surprised at how it was so comprehensible and so accessible. It was one of the best literary escapes I had experienced. For a while there, my sad world disappeared and I was in Crichton’s world.

And who can forget the heavy emotional turmoil and stifling tension of Disclosure. Sadly, pop history credits Demi Moore and Michael Douglas for Disclosure, because of their strong performances in the movie. As always, the writer takes the backstage.

Like the dinosaurs he immortalized in Jurassic Park, Crichton’s legacy will surely fascinate this and many generations to come.




***

Everyone knows that Men’s Health has become my bible of sorts. Men’s Health is far from joking when they claim that it has HUNDREDS of useful tips per issue.

Just sharing some useful nuggets of wisdom from the recent issue.

* If something’s beyond your control, why worry about it?
* If beer tastes bitter, it means you’re happy and problem-free. Otherwise, it tastes sweet. Drinking ‘til the beer tastes bitter won’t help.
* If you think you need help, you sure do.
* If you fall hard, bounce back harder, and swing back at the one that put you down hardest.
* If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
* Great things are accomplished by cooler heads in the midst of a battle.
* If you can dish it, make sure you can take it. Sometimes, with interest.
* If you fear dying, then you are already dead.
* Contrary to popular belief, you need sleep if you want to lose weight. Lack of shut-eye may disrupt the hormones that control you ability to burn fat.






***

Just a tip for those who have iPods or iPhones: as much as possible, try charging through a wall electrical outlet and not through your laptops. My first iPod’s battery got busted because (as Apple said) I was always charging through the laptop…which is true. This charging is already “secondary” (the charge from the laptop is transferred to the iPod) and it ultimately shortened the battery life of my iPod.


***
Here are some pop factoids that I recently discovered or are back in season:

- The vocalist of band-of-the-moment The Script is the vocalist of that second-rate boyband called Mytown. I only know one MyTown hit...Now That I Found You. But the icky part is we have a Mytown CD at home (remnants of the pop explosion in the early 90’s that spawned the boybands and the blond divettes).

BEFORE:



AFTER:





- Where Are You Christmas?, the theme from The Grinch, is composed by Mariah Carey but interpreted by Faith Hill. Rumor has it that erstwhile husband Tommy Motolla did not allow MC to record her song. How Grinch-y!

- Have you seen the live video for Just Stand Up? It’s the charity song in support of cancer which brings together the top female acts from this generation (unfortunately, it included Miley Cyrus who single-handedly ruins the song). Now, who is in the video but is not on the recorded track (studio version)? Answer: Sheryl Crow sings in the track but is replaced by Nicole Scherzinger in the video. Don’t ask me why. [My funny imagination thinks that Nicole went to the producer and says…My name is (slight pause)...Nicole”]

***
Last Thursday’s Hot 10 in Chico and Delamar’s Morning Rush features the Hot 10 Invented Jokes. I was laughing through the skin of my teeth at the corniness and hilarity of some of the jokes. It’s not yet posted on Chico’s blog but here’s what I remember:

- Q: What is the first name of Janno? A: Edumann
- Q: What is the surname of Dulce? A: Enggabanna
- Q: How do you win a nurse’s heart? A: Just be patient (said in a tagalog twang…pey-shent)
- Q: What did the fart say to the sanitary napkin? A: I am the wind beneath your wings.
- Q: Bakit hindi pwede magsuot ng maroon ang maiitim? A: Kasi baka pag nagpunta ka sa Quaipo, buhatin ka ng mga tao at iprusisyon.- Q: Ano ang sabi ng sad na medyas? A: Life socks.
- An apple inside a ref said: Nyiiii…ang lamig naman dito. The orange said: Nyiiii…yung apple nagsa-salita! (Shame on the sender…this is an old American joke and was even featured in a survey of the most hilarious US jokes)

Talking about jokes, here are the jokes that never fails to cheer me up when I remember them:

This is one of the best jokes I’ve heard:

A cono girl was asked: what is the difference between a penis and a camote.
The cono girl answered: Yuck, I don’t eat camote!



And I don’t know why but I find the caterpillar/centipede jokes highly amusing.

Joke 1: Galit na galit ang tatay na centipede dahil hindi pa umaalis ang anak nya na pinapabili nya sa tindahan. The anak na centipede said: “Haller, nagchi-chinelas pa ako!”

Joke 2: Bakit nagalit ang tatay na centipede sa anak na centipede? Sagot: Kasi nagpapabili sya ng sapatos sa tatay nya.
E bakit natakot ang anak na centipede sa tatay na centipede? Sagot: Kasi sabi ng tatay na centipede: “Gusto mong tadyakan kita?”

Joke 3: Bakit ginabi ng uwi ang anak na centipede galing sa nursery school, na ikinagalit ng tatay nito? Sagot: Pinakanta daw sya ng “I have two hands, the left and the right…the left and the right…the left and the right…”

Saturday, November 08, 2008

"Thirty"




I ran to the cemetery
I saw the crumbling tombstones, the forgotten names
I tasted the rain, I tasted the tears
I cursed the angels, I tasted my fears
And the ground gave way beneath my feet
And the earth took me in her arms
Leaves covered my face, ants march across my back
The black sky opened up, blinding me
I ran and I ran
I was looking for me


- Lifted from Ray of Light

***

In journalism, we usually write “30” or the number sign (#) at the end of an article to indicate the end… that nothing follows.

In a week’s time, I will turn 30. It is an age that I thought would be elusive to me. If you asked me a decade ago where I see myself when I turn 30, I will tell you point blank that I would die before I reach 30. That’s how morbid I was back then (and I only have Anne Rice to blame). I really can’t see myself this, well...old.

In a week’s time, I will be 30. And in writing this, I am saying that a part of me is OFFICIALLY DEAD.

Since the latter part of last year, I felt that I was a ticking time bomb. And though a small voice was already telling me to shift gears, I threw my caution to the winds and seized the moments as they came. So in no time at all, I was shattering.

Anyway, that was so yesterday. Here I am, entering a new chapter of my existence. A part of me has died, if only to give way to something better, more resilient and sprucely taciturn. The blueprint is clearer than ever and the stains of the past have become mere watermarks. I face this new epoch with a newfound wisdom and a thirst to live the life.

I realized this while staring at the tombstone on my father’s grave. The engraved name almost reads like my name, if not for two different letters. Maybe sooner, maybe later those two letters will change to reveal my name. And before that happens, I should have found the meaning to my existence. While I still have the time, I have to make the mark that will render me “immortal” . I can still right my wrongs and, with the lessons tucked under my belt, LIVE in cautious optimism. Why stress about my past when the future hold so much promise?

At 30, I am dusting it off and waiting for my real life to begin.


***

Last Friday was the start of my birthday celebration and I hooked up with one of the few “real” friends I have. We’ve had this strange connection since we crossed paths about four years ago. Our stories are so remarkably parallel that we usually end up bonking each other in the head just to knock some sense into our troubled minds.

In A, I saw my story from another perspective. She articulated the bitter truths and the personal lapses that I have come to realize lately. Underneath her expletives (at how I turned myself into a dimwit), her words of enlightenment and advice filled out the final pieces of my unsettling puzzle. And though the individual pieces of my puzzle are horrible, I was now able to stand back and realize the CLARITY in the total picture.

Thanks to A, my self-appointed talent manager and confidant extraordinaire.

***

If you don't know me at this point, then I really doubt you ever will.

Another Place, Another Time

Footprints in the sand
Colors are fading fast
Will the memories last
From far away?



***

It’s funny how a single object or a single incident can trigger distant memories to come flooding back. Of a time and place that is so far away. Tragic reminders of what used to be and what was swept under rugs.

Of how I gave myself away to a world that didn’t want it anyway.

The buildings know your names and they confront me with a tinge of mockery. But now I have the strength to scoff at their facades. They are mere steel-and-stone reminders that I don’t know anyone anymore.

Strange faces ask where you are but they fall on my deaf ears. Maybe that’s what you get when you hear too often the sound of reality crashing and bridges burning.

I accidentally see the pictures and they have lost their soul. They are just frozen slices of time that burns in triviality and severance.

Though the déjà vu can be irresistible, what’s more exhilarating is that I can go back and not feel anything. No remorse. No regret. No laughter. No anything. It’s like a visiting a lucid past from the third perspective... outside looking in.

So this is how moving on feels. Cathartic in a cold, self-seeking way.

I have come full circle. I sought redemption where I fell and found it. Now I just smile slyly at how my emancipation spells discomfiture for the so-called dementors. Hail to the incorrigible laws of nature.

The end is where I begin. Now I am alive and the ghosts are gone. Stand back… phoenix has risen (again) from the ashes.

***

So what will you say to me
If you can talk to me
You can ask anything, I will oblige
But you’re okay with this damaging awkwardness
So I’ll just play it safe
Keep it inside