Monthly Archives: September 2010

Dimakya Island, Palawan

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Words are not enough to describe the beauty of Dimakya Island located at the northern tip of Palawan.  This gorgeous patch of paradise is so beautiful it annoys me. 

 The sky is too blue, the sunset is too amber.  The breeze is too fresh and the animals (fruit bats, turtles and various birds) were too free to live their own free lives. The sea water is too clear and too aquamarine.  The schools of fish are too gracious they don’t mind a monster like me would snorkel atop and around them. The corals underwater are too colorful.  The foliage is too lush, in fact the green is so green and the flowers were too flowery. 

 The island is too perfect, it disturbs me.  I thought I was dead and gone to heaven.

Kinukurot ko sarili ko para mapatunayang di pa ko tsugi.

Alpha Kenny Body

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To prove that I am such a horrible monster and my demeanor is despicable read this fast and aloud! Actually, this will get your mind off things… Now read it.  Aloud!

Alpha Kenny Body, Alpha Kenny Body, Alpha Kenny Body

Alpha Kenny Body, Alpha Kenny Body, Alpha Kenny Body

Alpha Kenny Body, Alpha Kenny Body, Alpha Kenny Body

Yung mas mabilis pa! Eowww!

The Tragic Sales of Nail Cutters and Key Chains

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nail cutter-cum-key chain-cum-bottle opener coutesy of edwin santos

While cutting my fingernails I suddenly realized that sales of key chain and nail cutters are most probably on its peak here in the Philippines and may be at its lowest ever in Hong Kong history.  This is maybe because there are few Pinoys who would dare visit and go to Hong Kong now since the wounds from the recent Manila August 23 hostage tragedy has yet to fully heal.

Very few Pinoys would have the courage to tour Hong Kong now, thus, there are few Pinoy tourists who would buy the two of the cheapest yet most popular souvenir trinkets available in the streets of Hong Kong.  These are either the key chain or the nail cutter or the two-in-one nail-cutter-key-chain kind.  I have been a usual recipient of these pasalubong-s (presents) from friends who had short visit to Hong Kong an astonishing reason why I don’t need to buy it here in the Philippines.

O sha na.  Mahaba na ang kuko ko.

Remembering BangBang

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BangBang and I were born in the same year and grew up in the bucolic city of Pasay.  BangBang is a second-cousin whom I consider to be a super playmate.  The most vivid memory I have with her is cooking “yema” (a Pinoy custard cream) in their kitchen (with the assistance of Ate Oye) whom we enjoyed eating one happy afternoon.   

She may not be my closest cousin but I don’t remember any particular incident of having a disagreement with BangBang.  Possessing the right amiable attitude I was actually never surprised to know that she became a fine young woman, a loving wife and an awesome caring mother.

I was sad to know that one of my super playmates passed away and taken the journey we all must take.  But one thing is for sure a mortal being here in this earth will always remember BangBang.  That’s me.  Though I’m sad I will not cry for she left because I know she didn’t left but instead arrived.  She arrived in eternal love now wearing shiny wings and gleaming halos…

from the Facebook Wallpost of Ate Oye

A big rownd op aplos para sa ‘yo pinsan…

Just Like Cake

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mango tres leches of cafe adriatico

Can anyone be unhappy while eating cake?  Like instinct, we have all craved for cake in our happiest moments.  People actually serve cake when they’re happy. Why is it so? Because life is a cycle of pain and bad memories or perhaps like the bitter-sweetness of life, we try to make our joys even sweeter.

Like instinct also, we feel joy and the sweetness of life when precious people are around us.  Just like being served with cake.  So be still and open your eyes.  Look around you so you may realize that you are not actually sad and lonely.  Just like being surrounded with cake.  You’re surrounded by people who make you happy.  These perhaps are the same people that help you in realizing that life is a piece of cake.  You may not know, but maybe, you’re the most precious cake for somebody.

Here’s a slice of thought from a genius but defunct Pinoy band…

“There’s a fruitcake in everybody

There’s a fruitcake in everyone

There are b-sides to every story

If you decide to have some fun

Just take a bite, it’s alright

Taste the taste that sent all mothers giggling in sheer delight

Take a bite, it’s alright

A little lovin’ and some fruit to bake

Life is a piece of cake”

Tinapay? Puto? Mamon? Ano ba Tagalog ng keyk?

In Between Slam Book and Facebook

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After the advent and fame of Slam Book, a notebook bearing questions to be filled out by the keeper’s selected friends that is later to be passed around for other invited contributors to write down their respective intimate answers.  And before the genesis of Slam Book’s virtually formatted type – i.e. social networking sites like Friendster, Multiply and Facebook – a conspicuous hype came into being in the pop culture of young Filipinos in the late ‘80s until early ‘90s.  A lot of people think that after Slam Book has depleted its popularity among the youth it was right away replaced by the web-based social networking sites.  Let me insert, inject and connect what transpired in between these two Herculean cultural revolutions.

What happened in between was the young populace’s visit to a photo studio.  During those years, if my memory serves me right, the most popular photo studio for the youth in Pasay and its nearby cities was “Dimension or Dimensione”.  Young people would schedule an afternoon wearing their most bewitching casual attire, sit on a high chair with a background or lighting of his or her choice and flash their sweetest smile in front of a camera.

The picture is not a group photo but a personal/individual close-up that is ordered to be printed on a wallet size photo-paper in abundant number of reproductions. When the photo in immense copies are already picked-up from the studio, he or she will then write a sweet dedication at the back which will be later given away and distributed to his or her friends and classmates.

Recipients then will collect all these photos and bundle it as part of their cherished possessions.  During those times they will not insert it inside a photo album since they enjoy reading the dedications written at the back from time to time.  They would not leave the thick collected close-ups in their respective houses but to be bizarrely brought along with them wherever they go.  The thickness of their photo collection would signify the degree of their social friendliness and congeniality.

Here are 2 of the amazing samples of my collection which up until now is in my possession…

marie & jhong, my wacky close friends now living in california and new york respectively

Para tayong mga ewan noon! Hahaha!

The Devil Inside the Church

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A friend’s friend told me a shocking story of a person who will soon be convicted of qualified theft in a grandiose scale and will soon spend the remaining years of his life in prison.  My friend’s friend told me that this mortal being is known in public as a Taong Simbahan (a church person).  Contrary to his true and authentic lawbreaking character and with his scheming lies and evil manipulations, he was able to project himself as a good-natured child of God.

He never misses to go to church and attend the Holy Mass everyday prior to going to his workplace.  He is a self-proclaimed devotee of The Lady of Manaoag and never misses the yearly grueling street procession of a beautiful and richly robed image of the Virgin Mary called ‘Nuestra Senora de La Naval’.  On Ash Wednesdays, he is one of the first mortals who display ash-laden foreheads making all people who cross his path early in the morning feel guilty of not having one yet.  If attendance is to be checked and awarded on the presence of the population who attended the Filipino Simbang Gabi (midnight mass) tradition during Christmas Season, he would receive the Perfect Attendance recognition on a yearly basis. He knows every mysterious mysteries of the Holy Rosary.  What was even so absurd to know was that he was an Hermano Mayor (a major sponsor) in a fiesta celebration for the feast of a certain Catholic saint in his hometown province.

With all these irrational representation of this person being relayed to me by my friend’s friend, I was left outraged.  I could not believe that such a bipolar and lunatic account could exist.  I was left shocked and speechless.   And all I could say was a borrowed line from a similarly lunatic TV series uttered by Vera Cruz of Vera Couture from the telenovela Magkaribal — “I thought the devil wasn’t allowed in church.”  Well, he may be allowed in church but soon this is going to be the church behind prison bars.

Kung din man yan makulong, may kanta si Boy George para sa kanya… Ol togeder naw! “karma-karma-karma-kamiliyon…”

HIGHlarious Product of Temporary Insanity

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Here’s a product of my temporary insanity last weekend.  I used pictures of my loving parents (Joe and Nengkoy) to create this video.  I initially posted it in Team Langit, an exclusive Langit Family account in Facebook.  It took me a couple of dollars to purchase the basic video where I super imposed the pictures of my mom and dad.

While pasting the photo faces of my parents during their younger years I couldn’t stop laughing.  And when the final product of the video was finished, it gave me pure joy and HIGHlarious feelings!  Don’t get me wrong, but I love my parents so much…

Aylavet!!!

Hooray To Mockingjay

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Mockingjay, the final book for the Hunger Games series continued to be just as versatile and absorbing like the first two books (Hunger Games and Catching Fire).  The depiction and development of the epic tale can never be taken anything for granted.  The genius writer, Suzanne Collins, was able to cultivate all characters splendidly, so much so that Ifeel concerned about them.  Actually, some of the characters’ brutal deaths can be a bit hard to take.

The book is an ultramodern war story that might distress some people since the battles and hostilities are depicted as horrible yet genuine.  But for me it was one of the strong points of the magnificent story.  Though I am a big fan of The Star-Crossed Lovers (Katniss & Peeta), Mokingjay definitely did not left me frustrated even if the love triangle story (of Katniss, Gale and Peeta) took a back seat because that’s how I guess it should be for it to be a brilliant novel.  The potboiler tensions in the story are thickly laid on, which makes it a real page turner.

Aside from the incredible cliffhangers, what I love most was the ending.  It left me with the consciousness that life should go on.  It was a realistic viewpoint that scars of past will linger in the present and the impact of the hunger games lived on with the remaining characters trying to face the future to live a more normal life.

What I have always fond of about series is its ability to inspire thoughts. It is just ridiculous to read one of these books and not contemplate the deeper value behind the events that occur on every page. Overall it has been an excellent series.  It is actually one of the best book series on this planet

Brilyant grabe!