Archive for September, 2009

X-List: Top Entries

X-List: Top Entries

No, this is not a contest, and there is no prize… hmmm…

For something that doesn’t make me money, I write a lot of blog entries.  The bulk of this blog is glorified semantic abracadabra, but there are quite a few entries in here that would probably make the cut as the “best I’ve ever written.”  Well, sort of.  This is just my blogging year-in-review, since I’ve been blogging in this space for two years now.

I’m not really sure if I made enough blog entries that are justifiably good, since this post is anything but objective.  Yet for now, I’d like to list ten of (what I think to be) the best entries I’ve written since September last year.

September 17, 2009 0 comments Read More
Sensationalism is Not Journalism

Sensationalism is Not Journalism

The moment you append the word “journalism” into your role – whether you’re a journalist or a citizen journalist – you need to live up to a few standards.  The moment you profess to the public that you’re broadcasting “news,” then you need to follow a few ground rules.  It doesn’t make you a “rebel” or a “revolutionary” to violate a few standards and rules that make up the essentials of journalism: tell the truth, state your sources, and disclose your purposes.  If you profess to be a journalist, you have to be journalistic.  If you profess to publish news online, then the expectation is that you publish news online.

Sensationalism is not journalism.

Usually I don’t like taking the holier-than-thou sanctimonious road where I tell people how to write, if only because I am not in a position to do it.  I am no expert in journalism or in writing, but I think I have been doing this for quite a while now that from time to time, I do live up to the standards I preach.  Unfortunately, this is NOT one of those times.  On the road to 2010, though – or on the path to some controversial issue where everyone wants to put their two cents in – some people have the tendency to play hero, cross the line, and violate those essentials.  It is wrong, it is despicable, and personally, it makes me sick.

Yes, this is one of those days… and just in case, pardon my Latin, because I’m going to vent and violate my own rules.

September 16, 2009 2 comments Read More
Cicatrice II

Cicatrice II

I could only imagine the pain as Christ was being flogged, as the heavy hammer drove the heavy nail down His Hand, piercing through skin, muscle, and bone.  His wounds exposed, His flesh dies for every minute he expires on that cross.  The sacrifices of the mortal Christ are beyond comprehension and imagination, especially in modern times.  No amount of self-flagellation and self-mortification will ever equal the kind of suffering Jesus went through.

Perhaps it is not the crown of thorns, the heavy nails, or the flogging that presented and represented the most suffering for the Son as he was being hurt and killed.  Perhaps it is to hang from that cross, and ask God why He hath forsaken Him.  I’m not a theologian or anything, and I’m not the most religious or spiritual person in the world, but I guess the questions are as apt as they come, especially if you’re being executed.  What has He done to suffer?  What has He done to deserve the pain?

Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?

Could it be possible that, at the moment of extreme pain, Jesus examined His life, and found a pain more intense than a crown of thorns?

September 16, 2009 1 comment Read More
All Grown Up (The Second Year Anniversary Post)

All Grown Up (The Second Year Anniversary Post)

Today, Marocharim.com turns two years old.

Technically, The Marocharim Experiment was “born” on November 9, I-don’t-know-when, but I like to think of it as all grown up.  A couple of years ago, I really didn’t know what I can do with my blog.  I wasn’t interested in making money or being famous – after six, seven years or so of blogging, I haven’t got either or both – but I’d be lying to myself if I said I didn’t go places and I just remained where I am.  Or was… I really should watch my grammar.

Or at the very least, a sense of fulfillment.  While my comment forms will never be full of the thoughts of readers and admirers (if I have them) and the mantle wouldn’t be full of accolades and awards, there’s nothing like the sense of fulfillment that comes with getting through the day, making it out alive, and having something to write about in the evening.

It’s 7:09 PM, September 15th.  Here I am, writing on a space (of the virtual kind) that has been around for a couple of years.  Nothing to be proud of, really, in the grand scheme of things we should be proud about.  Heck, for some people, it wouldn’t even be worth whatever.  Things like girlfriends, for example.  LOL.

A sad, boring, miserable existence for some, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

September 15, 2009 1 comment Read More
Light

Light

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I stood near the floodlights  stared straight at them.  I stared at them like a child would a birthday cake, like a criminal would his victim, like a lover would his swain.  I wanted to ruin my eyes.  I wanted to watch those little glowing dots dance when I close my eyes.

I wanted to go blind.  I wanted to burn in that light.

I stared into the light to enjoy the darkness beyond… then I realized that light doesn’t kill.  Night – the only guarantee of complete darkness in nature – is still bathed in it.

To embrace darkness is to embrace light.  There is no escaping the glow.

September 14, 2009 4 comments Read More
Collaring the Presidency

Collaring the Presidency

There’s a theatrical term for it: gravitas.

Fashion statements are political statements, and political statements always come across as fashion statements.  I don’t believe in dichotomies and binaries, but I do believe that the pool of facts in the realm of the political and social have more similarities than they have differences.  There are more things that bring us together than keep us apart, and for 2010, that has to begin with something usually considered inane, asinine, absurd and irrelevant: collared shirts.

Manny Villar almost always wears an orange-colored collared polo shirt.  Noynoy Aquino’s “smart casual” is the collared shirt.  Noli de Castro wears checkered collared shirts.  Francis Escudero may shed the hoodies and the round-neck tees in favor of collared shirts, too.  It’s all about building the “Presidential image:” to be taken seriously, you have to look serious enough to be the next President.

September 14, 2009 7 comments Read More