ID4 (The Annual Banter)

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!!!
Happy Independence Day.

Why ID4? Isn't this the American Version of Independence Day? The 4th of July extravaganza?

No, this is not in reference to the American Independence Day on the 4th of July. I just used the ID 4 since this will be the 4th time that I'll be wasting your time on my Independence day blog. The 4th Installment dating back as far as when I was still at 1st blog site.

It is also a Yes, since for the lack of better understanding on the issue, I am one of those who believe that technically our Independence Day should have been on the 4th of July, from the Americans. This is in conjunction with the beliefs of many historians, philosophers, rockers, hip hoppers, constitutionalists, artists, scientists, yuppies, and rapists. (see my previous blogs if you can, to understand what I mean)

But what the heck, do we really still care about these things anymore? Or do we only see these times of the year, as the time of the year wherein a lot street vendors are selling flags and flag lets. The TV shows are flooded with movies about Rizal and Bonifacio, starring Cezar Montano, Joel Torre and Gardo Verzosa. Your local variety shows singing patriotic OPM music and dancing the folk dances to the tune of Lady Gaga's music.

Worse, do we even know what is the difference between (as oppose to who) Jose Rizal and Tony Stark, they are both distinguished lover boys, right? Or Andres Bonifacio and Wolverine, aren't they both fearful and savage fighters? Or Lapu Lapu and the Prince of Persia, aren't they both with royal pedigree?

Like many of us, I also "don't really" know. All I am sure about is that all of them are superheroes. One is real, the other is not. As for who or what is real, well, another hazy issue for me.

Just bear in mind that what they went through. Just for you, and me. In order for everyone of us to enjoy our condition right now.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!!!

M.O.S 09

"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection into eternal life"

The departure to the better of world of EARL SAAVEDRA, one of my two best friends, a founding father of MOSTECH, came as a shock to all of us. For one, everything came without a warning. He wasn't sick because that guy was as healthy as a horse. Nor he got beaten by people with grudges or something, because he was a very good person. He tragically died due to an accident. Everything was so sudden.

As certain as death is, lies the uncertainty when would it exactly come. Hard to accept as it is, I have to say goodbye to to an exceptional person. A caring son to his mother, a loving and supportive husband to his wife Flordy, was, is and definitely would have been, a sturdy and excellent father to his son Mikko. A friend to us all. My best friend.

Rest in peace MOS 09
Eternally missed, never will be forgotten...

Whine Time

I unusually get tired a lot earlier and easier these past few days. It is probably due to thinking, no, make it considering problems that have yet or not even sure that would occur.

It is hard when you are told be like this, then hear through a grapevine that you might be doing this and that. Complaining is among the farthest of words in my relatively short line of vocabulary. Yes I observe and often I critique, but I seldom, no, make it very200000x seldom complain.

This is one of those very200000x seldom times. This is one of those times wherein I feel like I am one of those toys that I have.


Or Am I not.

Yun lang!!!

ELECTION DAY - An Ode To A Successful Defeat

It has been a tradition of mine to listen to a particular song every election day, since 1998. I found this song as early as 1995, a 45-rpm vinyl record, stacked along with so many many "plakas" as it is called, in the then house of my grandparents in Kidapawan.

You have probably not heard of this song since it is not really that popular. It will never become popular. It is not catchy, lyrically weak, musically awful. But for nostalgia and the heck of it, I just need to play this every time of the season.

Some members of our family, for reasons unknown to me, are into politics. Some gained success, while most did not. Not really a big time politicians, but I would say, trying hard to be one. So the election of 1998, is one of the most memorable times of my adolescence-maturity (does this beginning to sound like Xerex? hahahaha).

In 1998, my grandfather, old and weak (relatively compared before) decided to run as councilor . Unlike before, It is obvious then that no party is interested on him anymore, none took him into the slate. So he ran as an independent candidate.

It meant making a campaign funded by our personal and limited pockets. It meant the absence of "professional" campaign groups and mga bayaran to actually do the campaigning. It meant having to do the campaigning, a family affair. This is then, where all the fun started.

Me and my brother went to Kidapawan only for our annual summer vacation, as we thought. We went there to get wild with our cousins and of course to help for the campaign sparingly. But as fate would have it and due to limited resources, I ended up as the campaign manager for the group. We were composed of the cousins, all unregistered and unqualified voters with ages ranging from 7-17 years old. I myself had no knowledge and experience campaigning except when I ran and won as President of the Student Council in High School.

We tried to be resourceful then. We were so proud of our election posters made of up old and used calendars, bond papers and manila papers with the name of our beloved candidate (our lolo) manually written using ballpens, pentel pens, crayons and water colors. Only to be dwarfed by the expensive and attractive paraphernalia of the seasoned politicians. The final product, our posters can barely be seen and noticed.

We only have a single jeep at our arsenal, a colored blue owner type jeep with a sitting capacity 7, there were 12 of us. Our gasoline allocation was sourced out from the tipok2x of our respective uncles and aunts, relatives, friends and supporters (this one I doubt). Despite it, we tried and were able to roam around the city, and actually went to places I never knew existed in Kidapawan.

We were able to meet and greet lots of interesting people. As in guapa, pangit, humot, baho. There were some who finds us cute (the team, not me) and there were those who would remark, "pila gi bayad sa inyo?". There were those whom upon given a fact sheet would remark "dili lang ko dong, di ko mo boto", and there was a time we gave someone a fact sheet and just smiled at us strangely, only to be told by a bystander, "ngano gi hatagan mo man na, buang man na".

But still every so often, the kid in us would also surface then. There were times wherein we didn't wanted to campaign. Instead, watch the cartoon network or just play computers and basketball. There was even a time, during the final meeting de avance at the public market that we were not able to hear and watch our lolo speak. The reason, we were at the other side of the palengke. Busy and fixated with the street magic2x salamangka, with all its bitin2x (as in snake) and what have you.

Despite the odds stacked upon us, and even if the obvious are staring on us, we never really felt that we were at a disadvantage. Such youthful optimism and probably innocence and ignorance made us believe that somehow, we are going to pull this one out.

The result? Since I am the campaign manager, what would you expect? Of course, we did not win :0. But the good thing is, we did great. We were number 13. The magic number is 8. There where more than 13 candidates, 35 to be exact. We gained notoriety as the cleanest group (ok we were neat and had good smell), and the only candidate who did not spend more than allowed, mainly because we have nothing to spend.

We did not win, yet the experiences and the memories made us all feel like winners. The bonding we shared, the many times that we were chased by dogs, the drunk who made fun of us, the laughs and other intangibles that makes us feel good to be alive, the things that we still talked of today whenever the cousins get together, thanks to the election.

There were other campaigns that came after 1998, for my other relatives. We still got involved and this time came up with relative success as far as getting the win goes. But nothing beats out defeat in 1998.

As for the song, I did play it on the old turntable at my grandparent's house , the first thing I did during election day of 1998.
Let's enjoy this if you can :)

1998 Campaign Team

Splitzapper
Jiveman
Forge
Reibach
Wild Kanapian
Kenot
Brenz
Karl
Kwek
Adette
Ace
Kiko - Ni apas ka pa

RUNNING COST

While I am at it, I will be making of list of movies that I liked this year. This list will go on as the year progresses.

MOVIES THAT I SAW THIS YEAR THAT I LIKED (Regardless when it was originally released)
not in a particular order.

1. Memento
2. Silence of The Lambs (I saw this already when I was in Elementary, but it made no sense then)
3. The Usual Suspects
4. The Blind Side (my gf loves this also)
5. Where The Wild Things Are
6. Ironman 2
7. Serbis
8. Tokyo Sonata
9. Up In the Air

THE INEVITABLE

Yes, this is about a movie.
This is about Tony Stark.
This is about:
That's gotta be one of the crappiest intro of all time. How ironic since Ironman was and is the only hero that for me is cool and possible enough to become a reality. To become an IRONMAN, you just need intellect, charm, and much money. All of which, I do not have. But I could always buy a cobra energy drink and become the other "IRONMAN" if you know what I mean.

I watched this movie more than a week ago, last Sunday to be exact. I went out with my gf, a Downey fan I supposed, while I am not really a Robert Downey fan. The only movie that I can recall that starred RDJ is Only You with Marissa Tomei. Yet, I still mistaken him as Patrick Demsey on that film.

As expected, the cinema houses were full. We went earlier, even earlier than the next scheduled show, only to find out that the best seats on the Red Carpet are taken already, even up to the last full show. So we just settled with the next best thing, the best seats on VIP. It is obvious by now that I am referring to the cinema house in Victoria Plaza, right?

Justin Hammer, Happy Hogan, Pepper Pots, Obadiah Stane (not in this movie), the arms race, Crimson Dynamo, Whiplash. These are the reason why I was not really interested in IRONMAN the comics.

IRONMAN's armory, the Mandarin, his battle with alcoholism, the Avengers West Cost. These things what's makes its comic book runs, quite intriguing. All of which were not in the movie. Ok, I concur that you cannot put everything in a cramped up movie. But IRONMAN without its armory is like peanut butter sandwich without the peanut butter. (WOW!!!)

The movie is good but not great. Good enough to entertain you, but not that great as to have a profound effect on me after I went out of the cinema house. It has humor, drama, impressive special effects, respectable acting, even though with not so intriguing of a plot and less action than expected. This is still IRONMAN. It was still fun and worth the cost, the time and the wait.

Anyway here are my findings, mostly not directly related to the movie, quite a mouthful, but I avoided sounding like a geek as much as possible.:

1. The sexiest comic book heroine ever in the universe is Psyclocke, my high school crush. The black widow cannot hold a candle to her, when it comes to hotness. In the movies, Psyclocke is one of the ugliest characters ever. More so compared to black widow in IRONMAN. This is unfair. This is injustice. Here is the proof:



2. Whiplash is actually just a secondary villain. Despite so, he was really cool in the movie. He appeared formidable.

3. The only good thing about Gaisano Cinema Malls are its sure seats. The screen is mediocre, the sound is bad, no, terrible.

4. There is an alternative ending/ epilogue to the movie. The one you saw probably involved the discovery of Mjolnir (Thor's hammer). The second one has screen caps as found below:


As parting shot, I will give to you the best IRONMAN MTV out there. The 1960's cartoon classic.
Enjoy!!!

The Crazzies

I've been commuting a lot going to work in recent days. It means waking up extra early in the morning. Riding tricycle and jeepneys going to work and back home and to everywhere I go. Not that I am not used to commuting, I've been doing this for more than half of my existence here on earth. It is just that I observed something while doing so.

One night, while on my way home, I saw some substantial number of crazy, insane, buang na tao in Davao. I saw one in, R.Castillo, 3 in San Pedro, 1 in Mc Donalds MTS, 1 in NCCC Mall, and 1 in Ulas. Mind you, this is on a single night. Then there are ones I regularly see. The running man of Toril, the walking man of South, and the respective resident buang of the Churches in Davao.

When I was young, I only knew of two. This is because, mao ni ang pang hadlok sa ako mama and papa sa una if mag binugoy ko. Na kuhaon ko nila, not seriously though. These two by the way, goes by the name of: Django Buang and Pansit. They can be found back then in San Pedro. God knows, where are they now. No plans of finding out for myself either.

Seeing them made me asked myself, what might have caused them this situation? I don't want to second guess, but statistics shows that, wait, I really have no statistics to back me up on this one.

But conventional wisdom would suggest that they are probably suffering thy fate due to kawad on. Ok, sige na, extreme kawad on. Probably depressed due to kawad on. Or nalipasan ug kaon tungod sa kawad on. Na depressed tungod gi bayaan sa uyab, asawa tungod sa kawad on. Dagahan mahitabo na di maayo tungod sa kawad on.


So its poverty pala ha. Then how would you explain the insane, na anak ug datu? Well, could you find them on the streets? Maybe, but probably not. Malamang sa malamang they are in a "mental institution", rehabilitating, because wala sila problema sa kawad on.

I really have no point to make here. I am just shocked to have observed this. Is Davao getting poorer now? Is this the trend (as if naman getting insane is cool). Is this the final phase of human evolution? Or this is a norm that I was not able to recognize then, due to kawad on (sa care ug time to observe). Whatever is the case, how I wish I have the strength to be optimist for them. For now, all I can give them are my prayers, and probably a little buck or two from time to time. Not that much I can do, that I do recognize.

Mahirap maging mahirap. I agree. Pag may hirap, may ginhawa. Yes, I also agree. But most of the time, ang gumiginhawa ay indi yung dating mahirap. It is just a statement of parallelism. That the poor and the rich exist. Not necessarily the poor will become rich.

On a lighter note, here are some fun facts (if you call it one) about our ill fated brothers and sisters:

Their favorite song is of course: Crazy
Their favorite male singer is Julio Iglesias for his song Crazy
Their favorite female singer is Kim Chiu for her song Crazy Love
Their favorite movie is One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Their favorite color is the Rainbow
Their favorite food is Beef Insanity, sadly they cannot afford it due to kawad on
Their favorite blogger is not me. :-) (though i am not sure about it)

and a Pampagana oh:

101

Somehow, I already had a hunch about it. But was not really a firm believer. More of a wishful thinker in fact. Somehow, I am lucky, more appropriately; blessed, to have lived to witness and experience it.



Again, I am talking in what it seem is trance. But not deliberately trying not be understood. Nothing here that is cumbersome, not to be understood though. In its simplest term, all I am saying is that; what I have been hoping, wishing, thinking and knew all along, can, will and did happen.

All the hurts, failed expectations, crestfallen moments and total disarray were just preparations, to fully appreciate a gift so grand. Because you, me, we deserve more than the best, more than 100%.

And everything I left behind, means nothing now. No longer in a disarray. Blazing and reaching new heights. Simply happy and blessed, having you.

You are unlike anything I ever seen, felt and experienced. You're more than what I want and what I need.

God loves me, He sent me you...

Ship of Tissues

Symmetry

Supposing a person is made up two components and is divided equally into its left and right parts. One day, the left part literally did what it is named at, went away and left its right part. Will the right part be alright, after all, it is the right part. But will it be enough, what's left of it, that is? What would then happen to the left part. It left its right part, right?

My Final Stab At The Hammer

An old joke, unsa sa bisaya ang "I Miss You Like Crazy" ? Unsa man? eh di, Gi mingaw ko sa imo buaanga ka. Ngyeeee :p

Yeah yeah, probably heard this crappy joke already, and yeah, it was crappy then and is still now. February is the love month. This gives me an excuse to share to you all, my thoughts on the highly anticipated movie of the month. Even if you don't really need to hear it from me. I am referring to the movie; Miss You Like Crazy, starring the man of my gay (as in happy) neighbor's dream and the woman of my office mate's dream.

As always, going to these kinds of movies for me, is like an inevitable exercise. This is one of those movies for me, wherein I would normally not watch but I must, since not watching it with your "officer" would get you into trouble. (those who understand, will get exactly what I mean). I went to the cinema house prepared, meaning with jackets and everything, only to find out that it won't be needed since the movie is full packed.

Early on, I was already bracing myself on the fact that I could already see where the whole thing would go. The hardworking but unsatisfied in love yuppie meeting a free spirited immigrant working returnee. Will fall in love, will be separated but eventually will go back to each other arms.

All in between are just garnishes. On the second thought, garnishing would seem inappropriate since the movie was filled with so many cheesy lines, that I am sure were exported from New Zealand and partly from Malaysia. Thank God I remember only one (which I will share later).

The predictability of the movie prompted me to tell my "officer" that if this movie will go as I expected, I am going to throw the bottle of mineral water I am drinking to the screen, as a sign of disgust. But as the movie progresses, I was glad, because I thought that the movie will take the road less taken. That it would prove me wrong. That whoever made this movie actually have the guts to stay close to reality and sensible enough to portray what would most likely happen. That one bottle of mineral water will be saved.

But after all, this is still a movie. A movie that is suppose to make us forget the real world. A movie full of cliche, that it is almost or well definitely impossible to deviate from the obvious.

As the hand of Bea closes in on John, oh John, so is my desire to throw the bottle of mineral water (and spit on the faces of the team who made this one, bwahaha!!!). But again I know, they knew better than I did because for all its worth, the movie made a killing on the box office.

But still, the one line that I remembered on the movie could very well give justice to the movie, having a different ending. A more sensible and less crappy ending I suppose. OK, so the line goes like this, or kinda like this;
Love is not the only reason why we end up or leave the one we love, or something to that effect. Not really good with cheesy lines that are not my originals. (awwww!)

If there is one reason to see this movie, then it must be for the acting. As early as now, I will make a fearless forecast that this movie will rake in awards for acting. This can be emphasized by the performance of Bembol Roco. I bet, he will sweep all of the awards available, for his brilliant, realistic and superb portrayal. The on screen chemistry of the main actors, also was awesome. I am of course referring to Jun Urbano and John Lloyd Cruz.

My realizations on the movie:

-I am not really a fan of Bea Alonzo, but through this movie, I realized that yeah, I should start liking her. This is because she has the same family name with my favorite action star; Anthony Alonzo. (R.I.P.)

-This movie should have been rated R-18, due to breast exposure. Unfortunately, it was John Lloyd's.

-If you have nothing good to say, write it on the stones so that you won't hurt the object of your hurting words. Precisely the reason why I am writing this entry.

As a parting shot, would you be able to guess who is the original artist of the song, of which this movie's title was taken from?

When I Was Young # 1

One fine evening, while doing the usual stuffs during this time of the day, I received this txt (sms) message, which is quite a mouthful actually:

note: i translated it to full version instead of the sms version so that it might be understood by many. On the second thought, it is written in our local dialect so good luck na lang sa inyo ;)

"Proofs that you enjoyed your childhood:

nag bye2x sa eroplano and helicopter na ni agi
nagdula ug chinese garter hantod hands body
nagdula ug lupa langit, PSPS i love
pog, tex, dampa, tumba lata, tigso ug piyunganay
nag balay2x, tinda2x na ang kwarta kay madre de cacao ug play money
dili ganahan matulog sa udto
naga dakop ug butiti sa kanal, pati alindanaw sa sapa
nakig sumbagay or kumotay ug buhok
maglabayanay ug bato tapos mu kanta ug nyen 5x, wala man nay sakit"

This somehow made a curve on my face. Well what you know, i literally, figuratively,and whatever ly you could think of, did all of the above mentioned things, in places such as Bolton, Kidapawan and Talomo.



There were lots of other things that were not mentioned that also I had fond memories of, like playing with toys (got lots of it back then). Paaway damang, fishing, pakaon ang amigas sa baboy2x, maligo sa ulan dapit sa imburnal, circus2x and lots more. These are the times where Internet was still unheard of by kids. No network games yet. Pacman, contra and super mario brothers are deemed too cool and awesome and having an Atari or Nintendo Family Computer is quite a luxury. If you have none, then there is always the tag P 1 per 5 minutes or hulog2x piso as alternative.

But even if you weren't able to experience these things, it does not necessarily merit you an unhappy childhood. Jam2x lang jud ni sya. I would say that indeed,I had a happy childhood. Mainly because I was, is and will always be fortunate enough to have a wonderful parents. They may were not able to give us everything we wanted, but they gave us more than what we needed. :p

Optical Illusion

How's this for appetizer
LOLS!!!!!




One look and you may mistaken the headline as Saddam' sex-deputy Aziz in hospital. Imagine a nation with a sex deputy, right? That would be hilarious at worst and creepy at best.

But wait, don't go there yet. It is actually Saddam's ex-deputy Aziz. Candid humor brought to us by our local newspaper here in Davao. :p

whew!!!

Been away for a while. There are lots of things i want to say (write) but so little time, pending thoughts for the mean time. It was a tumultuous but enjoyable month.

To my Samus Aran, thanks for a nice meal/ dinner huh. Someone cooked for me, what a way to end my January. oi oi oi... :)

Once Upon A Time In Greece

"Love is patient; love is kind
and envies no one.
Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;
never selfish, not quick to take offense.
There is nothing love cannot face;
there is no limit to its faith,
its hope, and endurance.
In a word, there are three things
that last forever: faith, hope, and love;
but the greatest of them all is love"

- 1 Corinthian 13:4-13

A day apart, that seems like forever.
Now, you're back, back in your arms, in each others arms.
wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Raphael

I know what's on your mind. This isn't one of them. Nope, this is not one of those stories you've probably read on lit**ca.com or boy bastos, about one man's awakening. This has also nothing to do with my 17th god child (which baptism I attended earlier on the day), whose name is Raffaele.

For reasons unknown to mankind, I want to talk about Raphael, the ninja turtle. For those of you who just came from the other dimension, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles is one of the coolest things that happened in the 90's. It is equivalent to Mankind's Lunar Landing or the discovery of the metal adamantium. It became one of the many inspirations of great artists of the decade and it spawned new generation of creativity in the world. It's up to you if you believe me on this one. :-)

Raphael as you know by now, is the least favorite of probably everyone. Yeah, seriously, tell me someone who's favorite turtle is Raph and I'll show you 1000 who is not. He is the most under developed and who's character you can least relate with.

Leonardo is the leader and uses the Katana blades.
Donatello is the brains or the genius/ inventor and uses the bo.
Michaelagelo is the nunchaks wielding, pizza loving, cool turtle.

Raphael is what? None that you can easily describe. I bet, most of us doesn't even know the name of his weapon, which is a sai.

Now, above are just my descriptions, below are the official descriptions of its creator as expressed on its very touching and very inspiring opening theme lyrics:

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (3x)
Heroes in a half-shell
Turtle power!

They're the world's most fearsome fighting team (We're really hip!)
They're heroes in a half-shell and they're green (Hey - get a grip!)
When the evil Shredder attacks
These Turtle boys don't cut him no slack!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2x)

Splinter taught them to be ninja teens (He's a radical rat!)
Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines (That's a fact, Jack!)
Raphael is cool but crude (Gimme a break!)Michaelangelo is a party dude (Party!)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(3x)
Heroes in a half shell
Turtle power! "

Raphael was never cool, it was Michael Angelo. Even the creators got mixed up and must have confused the color orange from red. Having the color red mask is the only good thing about him. Since this color represents the courage, fire, aggression, among others, they wanted to make Raph, the crude one, the bad guy, the sort of enforcer. But they failed, no doubt.

Thus he excelled on only one thing. The only thing that he was great at. That is, becoming the least popular of the turtles.


Poor Raphael. If ever you meet him, show some love for the guy. ;-)


photo courtesy of: http://www.yankeepotroast.org