Whirlwind

I just came from Singapore with a bunch of friends...but I will not be blogging about that here. I will, however, talk about how I was sitting in the foyer of the 'hotel' that we were staying in one morning and reading through the news. I know it's pathetic to be on vacation but greedily soaking up what was written on the Straits Times, leisurely looking at the news.

You have to understand, I left Thursday night, February 21, at the height of the best telenovela I've ever seen, otherwise known as the ZTE-NBN deal. It had been two busy months for me since the start of the year, and it looks like it's gonna be that way for the next few weeks or months (at least until I get a tagteam, or else by the end of this quarter, I'd be almost stoned with work, either because of stress or numbness). It doesn't also help that there is this political movement going on, and no matter how much I want to spend time watching the whole Senate hearings live, I can't do it because I'm busy working. I'm actually torn sometimes. We would turn on the TV or radio at work, and sometimes, I'd stop what I'm doing to view the drama unfolding on screen or hear it on the airwaves. To be fair, following this whole fiasco is also part of my work. We are actually excused from it and encouraged to join protests against corruption and evil leadership.

So there I was, on a Saturday morning. Browsing through the newspaper, checking out the news over here in the Philippines...and there's nothing there on the deal. Sigh. Such disappointment.

What was more pathetic was, when I got back here at 5:45 in the morning, I texted my friend and asked, "So what's the news?" almost fearful that a big thing happened and I didn't get to witness it firsthand!!!! I remember the unspoken words that coursed through thousands of Filipinos when the Impeachment Court decided not to open that controversial envelope...I was afraid that I missed a similar event while I was away. So after being assured that nothing really changed much when I left, I hibernated for a day, despite the fact it being the EDSA Anniversary ( I half expected something happening on that day too, but of course, nothing really did).

Well, that's a chismosa for you.

Anyway, for those of you who belong to the legal profession one way or the other, if your choice of expression is to join the walk of the lawyers/law students/paralegals on friday, please do so. A lot of people out there are waiting for the legal profession to take and make a stand. After all, it is this profession that got the country into this mess in the first place (which is I know, open to debate).

Lawyer kamo?

As expected, in every controversy -- like this NBN deal -- not only the star players of the controversy become household names...along with them are their lawyers. Some of these lawyers I know from my school days or professionally. I think it's sad to see some of them in TV and have some of their dirty laundry aired out in front of the masses (I think my schoolmates would know at least one who I'm referring to here)...but then again, I can't help also but think, well, they deserved it. Live your life that way, one of these days, you'll get bitten right on your ass.

It's also pathetic to watch these lawyers, supposedly having prestigious positions in the academe or by virtue of the length of their legal experience, who have sputtered incorrect BASIC legal principles as if they won't be found out or nobody else would understand, as if they're the only lawyers in this world. The legal profession being inherently litigous, it would be expected that there would be different interpretations with regard to one particular theory or story. However, there are just some truisms that you cannot pull some BS stunt. I cringe while watching them.

As an obiter...

I am currently reading this book, one that my friend has strongly recommended. Maybe some of you have read it (especially when some bookstores no longer have any in their stock). The title is "48 Laws of Power". It's a book that's suppose to teach you how to be at the top of your game, by hook or by crook. I'm reading it now because I want to understand, or at the very least, peek into the minds of people who are just simply evil and mean.

No wonder some people in power are gluttons.

Pathetic Phonebook

A friend of mine slept over last night. And she's depressed over some guy. I told her to forget about him and i'll check my phonebook for possibilities...lo and behold, all the guys that i have in my phone are: married, with a girlfriend, or single but either has no time or a player. Sheesh. Is that the way things are now? And to think there was a time that I was setting up people left and right! Now, mostly girls names are stored. It doesn't help also that the decent men that I do know are gay. I mean, I haven't had my share of decent guys for a long time. It must be that the population for singletons are really shrinking at this age bracket...or because the new age guy/girl wouldn't really want that kind of commitment.

I need to expand my circle I think. If not for myself, then for my altruistic bugaw-ism.

FLAGS FLAGS FLAGS!!!

I cannot believe that Marc and Rovilson, after winning soooooo many legs, has lost the Amazing Race Asia!!!! sheesh! over flags!!!! but then, i'm glad that the SIngapore guys won. They were my bet anyway...but to come in last after the girls??? well, that's great for the girls too! GO GIRLS!!!!

In any case, Marc and Rovilson won so many legs, their winnings would almost amount to a hundred thousand dollars as well. Guess that's poetic justice for the guys who some thought as arrogant. hehehe...

Bah Humbug!

From the outset, let me greet Grace, Howie and Nicky a happy birthday tomorrow!!!

Hmmm...can't really remember when i spent valentine's with somebody 'special'. Last year, I found myself walking the small town of Kampong Cham, Cambodia (as in small, you can walk the whole town in ten minutes) with a bunch of guys and girls, then finally converging in one expat restaurant that serves great Tiger Beer and Carlsberg. If i remember correctly, around this time last year, a server in that restaurant was flirting with Sean and asking stuff about him. She found him the most attractive among the men i was with. Meanwhile, the rest of us were just watching the exchange. She couldn't believe that he was Asian.

It was also around this time that I had the pleasure of meeting Colin -- my grandfather turned father -- who has always been wise and kind.

As we passed the stores in town, there were plastic hearts and flowers all over. What do you expect, it's a very earthy place (as in red earth). Not much flowers there.

Tomorrow, i'll be celebrating valentine's in a two-day meeting. Never really got immersed into the whole valentine thing anyway. It's such a headache to go out into the streets and see the traffic. Last time i went out to celebrate valentines was, hmmm...when i was in college, i guess. Law school valentines were spent with a special person, of course, with the name of grace since it is her special day as well.So it wasn't really to celebrate valentines, but purely to celebrate my dear friend's birthday. And that beat any valentine from my younger years.

I'm more actually excited to celebrate February 15 in Quiapo with buddies of mine.

So what's so special about valentines? If somebody tells me it's to celebrate the day of lovers, i'll punch them in the nose i swear...because seeing the couples these days, you'll KNOW that they're celebrating valentines EVERY SINGLE DAY with their public display of affection (myself included). Besides, true romance should be celebrated everyday.

Valentines instead is like Christmas in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". For others who didn't get to read the book, it's actually a story of commercializing a holiday, to the point that people have learned to relate Christmas not with values, but with material stuff...or so until Grinch stole Christmas and got proven wrong. But for Valentines, i still believe that it's really an opportunity for stores and establishments to cash in the dough. Because, contrary to what others might believe, St. Valentine has nothing to do with romantic love. He was actually a martyr, like all saints are in one form or the other. However, February is the fertility month (but how come a lot more people have birthdays on October, it seems?) It is also the day that women, in the olden days, had their day in court.

Anyway, i'm not making sense anymore. So to end this, and to greet everyone a happy valentines, I am stealing the text of my friend that she quoted from another source because it made me laugh...(sorry Rods)

"IF two eventually fell in love, despite the disparity of their ages and academic levels, this only lends substance to the truism that the heart has reasons for its own which reason does not know" (Chua-Qua vs. Clave, 169 SCRA 117)...

(Although I would have loved it more to post Justice Cruz' discussion in one case about star-crossed lovers in one crim case, which I don't have any strength anymore to remember, much less look for it. Maybe next year...)

Of Mistaken Identity and Slinkies

I have been getting texts and calls lately from strangers, especially since Fr. Suarez came back to town. A lot of people have texted or called, asking his healing prayer schedules, or have asked for blessings, thinking that my number is his. Of course I have to reply and say that it is not his number, especially when they have texted me some seriously personal stuff.

Anyway, this morning, I got another text from a stranger. I asked for the name, but s/he never replied. The reason why I'm sharing this is because the text, though coming from an unknown, is not a chain text. But the best part there was that the message came at a very apt time. It said:

"Share with me this beautiful prayer:
God, enlighten what is dark in me;
Strengthen what is weak in me;
Mend what is broken in me;
Bind what is bruised in me;
Heal what is sick in me;
Straighten what is crooked in me; and,
Revive whatever Peace and Love have died in me...AMEN."

And that was it. What really caught me was the last line.

Anyway, last Saturday, I was with an old girlfriend of mine who I haven't seen in YEARS! Spent some good nonsensical quality time together, catching up and breaking doors, blinds, and glasses. She then read to me a very cute text:

"Some people are like slinkies. They don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs."

How evilly true.

Hehe.

Dr. Seuss - The Activist

Last week, i was in a meeting. Before the meeting started, one of the guys mentioned that one of the best environmental awareness books was Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax." He had me read it, and I couldn't believe that the children's books that I grew up with was actually a political work of art. Just last year, I bought a compilation of Dr. Seuss books for my nephews, but I didn't have time to read through it, except the first story "To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street."

After the meeting, when i went home for the weekend, I excitedly grabbed the book and read through all the stories, and what a revelation it was to read it again after twenty years with different eyes and realizations! I know for a lot of people out there, they have always known that Yertle the Turtle was actually Hitler, and Dr. Seuss have always taught about anti-discrimination. He taught about environmental responsibility and accountability. He taught about globalization and commercialization. So very belatedly, I realized the lessons in these story books -- and they are the best I've ever gone through, without the play of hifaluting big words.

So now, these are my favorit-est books of Dr. Seuss: The Lorax, Horton Hears A Who, Yertle the Turtle, The Sneetches, and Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Read to your kids, better yet, go back to those times when Eggs and Ham were Green. Enjoy!