Facebook has just informed me that my FB friends have liked my posts at an accumulated 20,000 times. It is a proof that my FB friends are indeed friends!
like me!
It is so unlike this blog. This blog is already more than eight years old (considered an adult in the blogging universe) yet it has to reach even a hundred like. Hahaha!
Don’t forget to press like!
Huy, i-layk nyo naman.
Canadians must be very pleased and delighted with their Prime Minister. As seen in the news, Justin Trudeau with his family joined (for the 2nd year in a row) the march and walked the streets of Toronto to celebrate Pride Month causing the internet to swoon over such a cool world leader.
cool Canadian PM (photo from the news)
Canada has indeed gone so far ahead as compared to my country in terms of respecting sexual diversity, equal rights and self-affirmation. It is sad to note that the present President of the Philippines (my president) – dubbed as the Punisher by Times Magazine and known around the globe as an iron-fisted ruler – joining a Pride march and the rainbow procession on the streets of Manila or Marikina seem very unlikely.
Watching the news about Canada makes me drool… Happy Pride!
Happy Pride!
‘Di ko ma-imadyin!
I was once a big fan of the Filipino edition of Big Brother reality show. I was such a huge follower especially during the pilot season, I once wanted to audition and be part of the show. But due to very long queues of people also wanting to live inside the house, I never had the courage to enlist myself or tryout for a possible slot as a housemate.
Years after, on a night that I had the opportunity to watch an episode of the latest edition of Pinoy Big Brother (now on its 7th season), I got to view the face-to-face nominations among housemates. And from the present and remaining housemates, the majority of their reasons for nominating another house buddy to be evicted from the house was because they find this housemate as a big threat from their winning. These housemates would further explain that the ultimate reason why they chose to nominate their nominee was because the concerned housemate was very good during physical challenges.
Physical challenges inside the Pinoy Big Brother house are mini-contests or activities in which chosen nominees for eviction battle it out to win the activity. Physical challenges would require physical stamina and mental cleverness. The housemate who wins the physical challenge shall be saved and will not be included in the week’s nominated housemate for eviction.
the weaklings… i’m not surprised everybody are still inside the house
the under performers on the safe zone… i’m not surprised the deserving dude in this group has been evicted
the strong, witty and deserving…. i won’t be surprised that this group will soon be totally evicted, only 2 strong contenders in this group remain, they are subjected to physical challenges week after week
And true enough and due to such prevalent reasons of the present crop of housemates during the nomination night, the possible evictees on this week’s elimination are those who seem to possess huge personalities with competent mental and physical capabilities.
This makes me sad for the show because if all personalities with proficient skills, talented flairs and brilliant cleverness would be kicked out, then the Big Brother house would end up with weak, futile and absurd inhabitants! And true enough the present crop of housemates who were saved for this week’s nomination are a bunch of weaklings, dense and dimwitted lots.
If I am a housemate, I would nominate the weaklings inside. I will nominate the spineless and the doormat. I will propose that the weak and feeble be kicked out from the house. They don’t deserve to win! I will let the strong and clever stay. It is because I wanna be surrounded by people with tough and stalwart personas, I wanna be hemmed in with people with brilliant minds and clever thinking. These are the types who deserves to be the Big Winner!
what happened???
In the past season, Pinoy Bog Brother was a big deal because you are viewed as the earthling who has the impeccable wit, the amiable social skills and the agreeable personality that represents what a true Filipino should be. But if the present reality show would continue to slant the show on how weaklings are gonna win, then I would no longer want to be the Big Winner of the Big Brother house. Winning is like saying you’re the weakest housemate and that people commiserates with you. The reason why you won is because people feels sorry for you! That sucks!
Thus, if this is how the game is gonna be played and how the show is gonna turn out, I’m pretty sure, those who has been evicted from the Pinoy Big Brother house are so very happy that they have gone out. This only means that these should-be-glad evictees are not the weakest link of the show!
And for me, I am as glad as that of the evictees, because I am no longer hooked by this show!
Hala! Labas ka na dyan! Daliiii!
Kiss January goodbye and welcome to the dreadful Valentines month of February. It is so awful the level of ghastliness (especially the 14th day) can be compared to Black Saturday when Jesus is dead, the Halloween, the Day of the Dead, the Bombing of Pearl Harbor and the day the Jews were burned to death by the Nazis rolled into one.
I may feel vileness in the air this time of the year but the whole world loves February. It is the month the world’s population observes the ultimate celebration of love towards someone they adore. But for me, I find February to be something gruesome. It is because it is the month when I am kept reminded of my heart’s, seem to be perpetual, default setting: solo, alone, by myself, solitary, unaccompanied, SINGLE.
solo
Though I don’t like February, I would still like to believe that Love at any day or time of the year and no matter what its form is an antidote to all the bad stuff that life throws at us. Perpetual singlehood may be harder and my default setting for quite a considerable time already, believe me, I still consider Love as a great source of happiness, comfort and safety. It eliminates fear. Everything else fails in comparison to love.
Sige na! Kayo na ang maganda! Kayo na ang maligaya!
Like the rest of the Filipinos, I’m excited and anxious towards the result of the annual Miss Universe pageant. There must really be something in the waters of the Philippines that makes almost all of the Filipinos become so eccentric and loony about this pageant.
And what is so weird is that we only get so thrilled and so tempestuous only for the Miss Universe title. We are not as crazy and as zany towards the results of other international beauty pageants like Miss World, Miss International, Miss Supranational and other out-of-this-world beauty titles. For us Filipinos, Miss Universe is the ultimate beauty contest. Miss Universe for the Philippines is like the SuperBowl of USA, the FIFA World Cup of Latin Americas or the Eurovision Song Contest of Europe.
But unlike the previous years, my being anxious, excited and prayerful that Miss Philippines makes it to the top 3 spots this year is a little bland, vapid and nondescript. It is because this year’s pageant was held here in the Philippines.
miss universe (from france)
I agree with the opinion of the very opinionated Gloria Diaz, the 1969 Miss Universe. She believes that except for USA (who owns the Miss Universe franchise and where the pageant is usually held), no host country should win the title. I am actually a little glad this year that Miss Philippines just landed in the top 6. At least no nation who joined this year’s contest would accuse the Philippines for holding a rigged pageant.
Filipinos I believe has the same sentiment as that of Ms. Diaz but with the exemption of course for the Philippines as the venue. Since Miss Universe is the most prestigious title that any Filipina would want to have, we Filipinos would want our girl to win the title may it be held in the Philippines or not. But if the candidate of a different host country where the pageant is held wins, then we Filipinos would construe that the pageant was doctored.
Can you just imagine a Miss Universe pageant held in Beijing and the crowned winner is Miss China or Miss Colombia winning the title when the pageant is held in Bogota? Except for the Philippines as the venue, we Filipinos would most probably dub that year’s pageant as the best “cooking” show in the universe “with 3 Michelin stars”!
And because I agree with the opinion of Ms. Diaz. I just hope that this is the last time Philippines hosts the pageant. I am saying this because I want our candidate to win fair and square. We know that it is more pleasing, magnificent and majestic if Filipino brings home an accolade that was gained and bestowed from different country.
miss philippines maxine medina
And because we are known to be the craziest fanatics of this pageant and we can seriously mock a country for being fraud, cheats and deceitful, no country then would dare host it and have their candidate win. And since all participating countries wants to win, no country then would want to host it. This results to a predicament of the Miss Universe Organization on where to hold the next pageant.
My suggestion? Try holding the contest in a neutral country. A nation that does not participate in the pageant for reasons their country would only know. Countries like Syria, Yemen or Iran could have been great neutral places but due to some folks with their radical Muslim beliefs, holding the pageant in these countries may be life threatening for the ladies and the organizers.
I guess the best venue for Miss Universe then would be the Vatican City. A city state that has diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world, a country that does not have a prison system, and a tiny government run and enriched by some of the most religious people in the universe, Vatican City would be the most neutral, most friendly and most appropriate venue for the next Miss Universe pageant. I would like to believe that a lot of people including Gloria Diaz would agree with me on this.
Kongrats sa nanalo…
It is shocking to learn from the news that a group of businessmen as well as the government of Palawan has plans of putting-up a Nickelodeon-designed underwater theme park. This indeed is very disturbing.
These builders of artificial theme parks must be made to realize that Palawan itself is one big and breathing park. A park built by no one but nature itself. A natural park where people can thrillingly commune with nature.
Palawan in so many times has been voted as the best island in the world. All human beings who has been to this heavenly place dubbed as “the last frontier” can attest that this island is one of a kind. The environment is serene, the air is fresh, the waters are crystal clear and the wildlife is healthy.
An underwater theme park is the last thing that Palawan needs. Owners of Nickelodeon obviously has not gone diving or snorkeling the beautiful waters of Palawan. They have yet to know the richness of the marine wildlife found in that beautiful island. Thus, there is no underwater feature of Palawan that is needed to be enhanced. The clearness of the water and the vastness of marine wildlife in itself is one blissful natural theme park already.
booo!
I obviously disagree and would not want the construction of an underwater theme park in Palawan. This opted me to sign-up to the “No Nickelodeon’s Underwater Theme Park in Palawan” petition/campaign. And let me ask all those who stumbled upon this post to join me by signing up at:
https://www.bataris.org.ph/petitions/no-to-nickelodeon-s-underwater-theme-park-in-palawan
photo from my most recent trip in el nido, palawan
palawan: heaven on earth
One more thing… SpongeBob SquarePants may be adorable but I don’t need to see or be with him for me to enjoy the most beautiful island in the world.
Nakakaloka!
The recently concluded Miss World 2016 beauty pageant shall be remembered as one of the pageants in history in which the best deserving candidate who gave the best answer was not bestowed the crown.
All top five candidates during the final Q&A portion of the contest – considered to be the ultimate component that will determine who shall be crowned as Miss World – gave pretty good responses to the question thrown at them by previous Miss World winners. These past winners including the lady host (Miss World 2013 from the Philippines) who carried the imaginary burning torch of the pageant were still impressively beautiful.
During the final Q&A, one lady stood out to be the best among all these pretty candidates. The whole world in fact loved the answer articulated by Ms. Philippines.
catriona gray: a big loss for the miss world organization
It was sincere, gentle and well composed. It was so damn good, genius and impressive. I could not see myself being able to organize such a metaphoric, to the point of poetic, type of thinking. Too bad judges settled for a shallower and simpler type of response. Thus, the crown goes to Ms. Puerto Rico.
I heard and read in social media, that Filipino netizens were truly upset about the outcome of this year’s Miss World pageant. A lot of Filipinos tagged the pageant as this year’s the best cooking show in the world.
I guess, we Filipinos have the right to feel such. I know we Filipinos will not berate or react this way if we know that the winner truly deserves to win. Cases in point were the close wins of Shamcey Supsup the Miss Philippines during the 2011 Miss Universe pageant as won by Ms. Angola and that of Ariela Arida’s time during 2013 Miss Universe when the crown was given to Ms. Venezuela. We Filipinos simply accepted the fact that these ladies were indeed deserving of their title and can indeed continue carrying the pageant’s flaming torch.
But we were similarly upset, annoyed and agitated when Miss Philippines Janine Tugonon who gave an impressive answer than Ms. USA but the latter was adjudged as 2012 Miss Universe.
And for this year’s version of Miss World, it was truly disappointing. And being so upset and putting a pinch of metaphor on my disappointment, I would love to grab the imaginary flaming torch that Miss Philippines was talking about and throw it so freaking hard at the judges so as to burn them to smithereens!
Booo! Nasaan ang hustisya?!
It’s been a week that I’ve been back in Manila and I have been struggling to identify what I dislike about New Zealand. Everything seem to be so likable in that country: the people, the culture, the color, the weather, the food, the sights, the fresh air. And finally I come to realize that at least I dislike something about the country whose slogan is “100% Pure”.
While watching a top ten scariest commercial flights in modern time video on Youtube, I suddenly came to realize that the one thing I hated about New Zealand is this…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5f7ha3Z7xY
Though it’s not bad, its definitely no good! Yeah Air New Zealand, though they offer really nice airline services and facilities, got a very tacky and seem to be tasteless type of an airline safety video. Though the video seem to have high production value and definitely thinks out-of-the-box in terms of catching a passenger’s attention, for me, the present NZ safety video is downright corny and at times annoying. Too bad, my recent Air New Zealand fight featured this safety video.
I was actually looking forward to this epic type of a video when the flight attendant told all passengers to focus our attention to the screen…
If it was this cool and iconic 2014 LOTR-based safety video, it would be the first time that I would clap so hard and shout “Bravo!” over an aircraft’s safety video right inside the airplane. Hahaha! I know that the idea of the safety video is to get across the safety information to people but passengers (especially those seated at the economy class like me) I guess also needs to be entertained.
But honestly, I love New Zealand…
100% pure
Ang kyut no. Sana ganyan din sa PAL.
Our word for the day is ‘Kafkaesque’. Meriam-Webster defines this adjective as “having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre or illogical quality”. And still according to Meriam-Webster, this word is “often applied to bizarre and impersonal administrative situations where the individual feels powerless to understand or control what is happening”.
The feeling of being Kafkaesque is what I believe is what majority of the Filipinos are at in the present time. This is most specifically exact with regards to the socio-political environment of the Philippines now that Rodrigo “The Punisher” Duterte, the president-elect, is about to head the country. The Pinoy populace has gone Kafkaesque despite the fact that the incoming head of state has:
kafkaesque ang peg natin dito kay manong
I don’t want to analyze and justify why he won the country’s presidential election and continues to be so loved and be so popular in this country despite all those atrocious and despicable rhetoric. And I know that my not trying to analyze and justify does not make things better. Maybe it is because like the majority of the Filipinos, I myself has gone Kafkaesque.
Mind you, the use of the word Kafkaesque is not the first time in this blog. I have utilized this word in one of my blog posts some three and a half years ago. Click this LINK (kafkaesque) to find out…
But seriously – as if the enumerated speechifying by Duterte are nothing but light, easy and cheery – the reason why I chose the word Kafkaesque is because of a recent video posted by New York Magazine in its Facebook page.
Watch this and be amazed by this stunning piece of art which commemorates Franz Kafka, the dude whose surname was the origin of the word of the day…
Parang pang sosyal naman yang word na yan!
A fanatic is someone who is enthusiastically devoted to something or somebody. They are the type whose supposed reasoning and realistic views are often clouded by their strong affection, uncritical adoration or excessive enthusiasm towards the object or person of their devotion.
filipino fandom
I for one is a fan. Lots of friends and relatives know that the person of my fanaticism is the Queen of Pop Madonna. I have done senseless things in the past on my being a fan of Madonna. That is, from hanging huge posters or framed photos in my room to cutting and collecting clippings of articles written about her to buying all her records.
I am a fan because whatever Madonna does, I still admire her. My reasoning, logic and judgement tends to get murky when it comes to Madonna. Whatever she does, whatever she says and whatever she thinks, no matter how bad, evil or crazy it is, such will just be fine, tolerable and acceptable with me.
I can always reason out or justify why she utter a thought or does things no matter how stupid it may be. I can even think of meanings behind what seem to be symbols in her wardrobe, in her songs or in her music videos. That is how fanatic I am about Madonna.
This is the very idea that led me to think about the new fandoms that has emerged in two countries where the presidential election campaigns are ongoing. I am talking about USA and the Philippines.
In US, it can no longer be denied the existence of hardcore devotion towards the Republican front runner Donald Trump. And here in the Philippines, we have the presidential front runner and likely victor Rodrigo Duterte, whose despicable utterances and vile conducts make Donald Trump look like a polite and obedient boy.
And since I live here in the Philippines, let me focus the fanaticism towards Duterte. Otherwise known as “The Digong Phenomenon”, this fandom is something new here in the Philippines. According to social analysts, this new fanbase crisscrosses the social status spectrum, i.e. from class A to E.
And despite the fact that he has gone fickle in admitting to have hidden wealth, he disrespect the elders, challenge the foreign allies, admitted to have killed thousands of people, joked about rape and death of a slashed neck woman, call the Pope a son of a b, and does not seem to have concrete plans about the Philippines, his fans still would not mind. The fanatics still profess to vote for him in the coming election. They would even threaten to fight and stage a revolution in case he loses.
Yeah, I am the same of a fan-tard of Madonna as what multitude of Filipinos to being fan-tards of Duterte. But what’s the disturbing difference? I can think of only one answer.
The big difference would be the effect of such fanaticism. My devotion or Madonna fans’ adoration would not shape or influence the future of a nation. While the Duterte fanaticism could actually affect everyone in the Philippines may a citizen be a fan or not. Madonna’s utterances, actions, triumphs and failures would basically affect her and her alone. But Duterte’s actions, decisions, would-be-achievements and most-likely-transgressions would obviously affect every Filipino may they be based here or abroad.
similar yet very different
And since I am not a fan, the thought of Duterte being my President makes me so anxious and nervous. The result of the upcoming Philippine election definitely is a very critical event. Whether I like it or not, it will be part of my life in the next six years. The future of the overall situation of the nation where I breathe is at stake. And the thought of Duterte being my President makes me shiver! That is why in my humble effort, I would try to dissuade people from voting for Duterte.
I know that (like my unbending illogical adoration towards Madonna) the Duterte fanatics will never, in any way reverse or even bend their fanaticism towards Mr. Duterte. And in case Duterte is proclaimed the President, I would just have to accept and assent to the impending menacing circumstances.
I will most probably lynched or will have to shower offensive slurs in the next couple of days because of this piece of writing – because Duterte diehards can somewhat be rude, insulting and odious – but I truly hope and pray that Duterte fans are outnumbered by voters who chose a different candidate.
Aside from being the same on being illogical, unbending and absurd. I just hope that Duterte fanatics are outnumbered, the same way that I being a Madonna fan is outnumbered.
Santa Maria!!! Hwag naman sana!!!!
Nengkoy 