And all I taught her was everything
I know she gave me all that she wore
Now my bitter hands chafe beneath the clouds of what was everything
The pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything
Tattooed Everything
Tattooed Everything
The First Blog
The First Blog
Long weekends are boring. Imagine long years of boredom.
I wouldn’t begrudge Ninoy Aquino the benefit of a holiday, and I happen to agree with This Government’s idea of “holiday economics” (yes, that’s the sound of the seven seals). The long weekend – with one coming up next week – has turned me into a bored man on edge.
Centuries ago, though, a bored man turned to ink, paper, and a whole lot of free time, and wrote something forever immortalized in history as one of the best books ever written. So good, you probably never heard of it.
The Japanese monk Kenko spent his bored days in the monastery writing essays, and compiled them into the Tsurezuregusa, or the Essays in Idleness. I like to think of it as the first blog ever made. The story has it that when he was not meditating, Kenko spent a lot of time hunched over his parchment pieces and his inkwell, and wrote down his thoughts on whatever came to mind. The end result was 243 essays on his reflections and meditations on random themes about life, nature, and general mindfuckery.
Of course, this was the year 13-something-something.
H3lLuR h3LlUr
H3lLuR h3LlUr
There’s “perfect Englishes,” and there’s insanity.
In the so-called “blogosphere” (I hate that word), people almost always use PageRank and ratings to determine their influence and, to a certain degree, importance. I have absolutely no problem with people who think that way; it’s just that I’m secure enough with my talent in writing and skill in blogging that I don’t need numbers to affirm that for me. I don’t need to know how many people, search bots, and crawlers visit my site on a daily basis. I’m happy enough being a nobody for now because I have my whole life ahead of me if I want to be a somebody.
I get criticisms every now and then for “perfect Englishes;” apparently, some people don’t like you because you write in English. Some people don’t like you because you blog. Hell, some people don’t like you because you write. I do all three, so I guess I need the obligatory pat-in-the-back – no matter how trivial or irrelevant it may be – to make myself feel good.
For all my ranting about being a nobody (nobarreh, nobarreh nobarreh, ahwan nobarreh nobarreh batchoo), I seem to have found a rather telling factoid about what kind of blogger I am.
Juice Boxes and… Milk… Proteins… Yeah, Proteins
Juice Boxes and… Milk… Proteins… Yeah, Proteins
The operative word is “humor.”
Ah, the quirks of modern Japan. In the movie Lost in Translation, Bill Murray commits to a dry, humorous take on Japanese commercials starring American actors. It’s a great case study in diffusion and acculturation; while the Japanese have been very successful in diffusing aspects of their culture to other parts of the world, they have been acculturated as well. Take these examples:
- Whack-a-mole alarm clocks: to deactivate the alarm, you have to play a little whack-a-mole game.
- California roll: the nori is traditionally used to wrap sushi ingredients, but California fusion cuisine includes fruit in the roll, and is madeinside-out.
- Japanese whisky commercials: “For relaxing times, make it Suntory time” doesn’t really make sense, but it sells the stuff.
- Casio synthesizers: if you owned one, “Together Forever” by Rick Astley was in the “Demo” loop, and there’s a whole line of Japanese instruments including matsuri and shasimen.
- Karaoke: this one begs and demands no explanation.
So let’s talk about juice boxes and… milk.
Mamser President Enjoy Your Meal
Mamser President Enjoy Your Meal
I think we obsess ourselves too much with what the President eats. A sudden case of stomachache some years back was traced to puto at dinuguan, and now we’re talking steaks and wines at a fancy-schmancy New York restaurant and DC-area steakhouse.
Since media obsesses itself with the trivial (at least that’s what Cerge Remonde implies), ABS-CBN reported way back that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had breakfast some months back at McDonald’s as part of her itinerary to “spread goodwill.”
I doubt that Gloria would have been greeted this way:
Good morning Mamser President Gloria welcome to McDonald’s, ano pong order nila?
Then again, you never know. Miss Universe ang drama ng lola nyo. Congeniality and goodwill ang efek! Washuuu…
X-List: Party-List Representation
X-List: Party-List Representation
The goal of the Philippine party-list system has always been to give marginalized and under-represented sectors in the country the opportunity to have a voice in that karaoke bar called the Batasang Pambansa. However, I’ve always been under the impression that many party-list organizations are a) front organizations for causes already represented in Congress, or b) organizations that are are not truly marginalized and under-represented, or c) the Commission on Elections turns to an elitist conspiracy who monopolizes the people’s choices in their democracy.
Reading the news on how the COMELEC barred the “Alyansa ng mga Sabungero” from the party-list game, when RA 7941 is very clear on what qualifies for party-list organizations. So for the benefit of the grossly under-represented organizations and groups in the Philippines who are being denied their one shot and their one vote (I mean that in so many ways; a vote is still a vote, and you don’t call COMELEC Commissioners by their nicknames over the phone to protect a million of them), here are five under-represented organizations in the Philippines whom I believe deserve a shot at the party-list system.
