Beybeh

Congratulations to my cousin Clarisse Punzalan-Trinh! She, Khoa and Maliah have another baby girl (I'm assuming girl ha--Kaylani ang pangalan e. Is that Hawaiian?)! Yikeee, a new baby girlie in the famileee.

Congrats din sa isang kapatid--he oh-so-casually texted a day before his wedding that he was getting hitched! Hahaha...only you men, only you can do that. Ipagpaumanhin ang aming rush na regalo. :-)

I Miss the Tea-With-Milk at Kha's.

It's such a relief when you can be comfortably silent with someone. :-) Thank you Gladys.

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Cine Europa! (Huhu. I hope I can watch)

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I'm still agonizing over my paper for AS 245. I fear an incomplete is in the offing. It's a good thing I'm not as grade-conscious as I was when I was an undergrad (who am I kidding).

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I suddenly remembered that I attended my first mobilization as a curious sophomore 5 years ago yesterday--September 21. I remember walking around Liwasang Bonifacio with Jaime and Jeff Evil (who was then actively recruiting for Alay Sining). The anti-Erap campaign was beginning. I remember Guingona giving a particularly fiery speech. I remember the effigies, the heat and the people. Armed with my beloved Canon A-1, we climbed trucks (I struggled), snapped photos and watched the programme. I was particularly excited about that roll of film I had, because I took it with me to the Libingan ng mga Bayani when I went there with my Dad later on that week. I had a lot of shots I was eager to see. But when I got to the dark room to develop my film, I tragically discovered that the film wasn't properly placed, and so it didn't advance. None of the photos were recorded. And all the while I didn't notice the film wasn't advancing! Hindi kumagat. I felt like crying.

Tough lesson.

Sometimes Moon Moment

I was listening to music last night when all of a sudden I remembered the full moon in Palawan. We were walking home from the shop where we borrowed our snorkeling gear. It was nighttime. It wasn't that late, and the streets of sleepy El Nido were just that--sleepy. Not much night life except for a couple of seedy-looking bars and good old Squido's with the satellite TV. We decided to walk along the shoreline. Stowing our slippers on the steps of one of the beachfront houses, we waded as far as we could without getting our clothes wet (we happily failed there). There was a moderate surf, just enough for your toes to tease the breaking waves for a moment before running back to shore, laughing and shrieking while the waves sigh at their inability to follow. We waded once again, this time holding ground against the waves. We just stood there, facing the full moon, holding hands and soaking in the moment--the wind, the sound of the surf and the smell of the sea. The sky was dark, but everything seemed to reflect a certain luminescence--the coconut trees, the beached fishing boats, the houses with their fading lights, the froth of the waves and the powdery sand. It's a poem of a memory I have yet to translate.

Otso-otso

My lola lydia celebrated her 88th birthday early this month. Huwaw. 88. My mum had me make a powerpoint show for the party. I learned how to put music into a powerpoint presentation. Hehehe. Many thanks to Kris and his dad for the music. Here are some pictures of the party. Wish I was there.











(L) Six out of ten of lola's kids--mum's in bright orange; (R) 2/4 of the lovely Nadal kids (shet, ang gaganda ng mga kapatid ko)











(L) Lola Lydia! (R) Hindi ko kaya. Nag-magic sing sila gamit ang projector!

Photos courtesy of Clarisse.

In the meantime, I'm trying to relate my remembering my dreams (my other self trying to tell something to my waking self, according to Dang) to my PMS. I'm going for a mystical-psychic-powers-triggered-by-that-time-of-the-month kind of angle. Isn't too far-fetched, huh?

I Like Being Sad

We celebrate sadness. And happiness. Not to worry though. This is probably just PMS. :-P Daytime scribbles to a good friend.

gusto ko ang sinasara ko ang mata ko kapag nakikinig ako at pinapakinggan ang kalungkutan ng kanta... i figured sadness sometimes moves me more than happiness. maybe it's because sadness is something that has to be wallowed in. happiness is a cloud-mist-bliss type of feeling--best when shared. sadness is your own. my own. and my own to expel--by painting, writing. happiness has never moved me to paint or write. happiness is something to enjoy and savor--and take pictures of. sadness is something to look back at in some processed form you expel. you release it from yourself, give it away. it becomes a creation, something foreign, something other (forgive me ma'am datuin for using the term out of context. i just appropriated it and made it mine)...

And you know what? When sadness moves me to create, I love it.

the blower's daughter
damian rice

and so it is
just like you said it would be
life goes easy on me
most of the time
and so it is
the shorter story
no love no glory
no hero in her skies
i can't take my eyes off of you
and so it is
just like you said it should be
we'll both forget the breeze
most of the time
and so it is
the colder water
the blower's daughter
the pupil in denial
i can't take my eyes off of you
did I say that I loathe you?
did I say that I want to
leave it all behind?
i can't take my mind off of you
my mind
'til I find somebody new

Lumpiang Ubod and a Strange Dream

I remembered my dream, I remembered my dream!

I took a nap last night upon getting home--that was around ten. I was quite shocked when I woke up and looked at my watch--almost seven in the morning! I tried to remember if I set my alarm clock and celphone alarm...I vaguely recall doing so. Then it came back to me--running, running, recalling the look and feel of the neighborhood I was running in. I remember making my way through a neighborhood, one I was familiar with. Nice, well-kept houses. Big ones too. Upper-middleclass neighborhood. Family members spending time outside on their front lawns. I was running, the way I used to jog around the village. But somehow the way I was running felt the way you feel when you try to run underwater. A kind of slomo, exaggerated kind of running. I recall being puzzled at this resistance to my movement. But I kept running. Then I remembered I was running out of time, I think I had an appointment or something. Then I got lost. For some reason, this neighborhood reminded me of my village, and yet it wasn't. It's a neighborhood I've been in before, maybe in another dream (haha, may parallel universe na ako doon). I got a little panicked, and put in more effort in trying to reach my destination (wherever that was). I even remember asking for directions. I just had to get to my destination, and time was running out.

Then I remember meeting up with Dang (yes, you were in my dream! Along with some of your siblings and relatives--weird noh?). We were submitting entries to a competition. I don't know what kind, it wasn't a painting competition. From some urban commercial district where the world outside seemed to have the quality of scratchy celluloid film, we took a cab and met up with some of your siblings and cousins (that is soooo weird). We were all gathered in a room, and we were informally talking about our submissions. Agh. I have nooooo idea what that can mean. Too fragmented.

Maybe it's all of the lumpiang ubod I consumed yesterday. I had one during lunch, I had three for dinner, then one for breakfast this morning. At least fresh lumpia is healthy. Hehehe.

German English

This post on the Stand-Up egroup from Jpaul made my Monday morning.

News Flash:

European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboardskan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent"e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vilfinali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted inze forst plas.

So, How Do You Want Your Women?

Driving down the South Superhighway with my brother last Sunday evening, I couldn't help but notice the huge Dove billboards on their Campaign for Real Beauty. Challenging the stereotype of beauty shoved down women's throats through different media, they try to show that real beauty is skin deep through a series of events and awareness materials. A laudable effort, really. But why was I bothered by the huge billboards showing women, and then the tallied options of dichotomized physical traits (such as fat or thin--okay, okay, they didn't exactly use those terms, but you get the picture)? On the website, with all the explanations, and complementary information on "real beauty," it didn't seem as weird. But up there, on a billboard surrounded by other billboards of waif-like models, the photograph of the woman and the tallied options looked more like a menu to me. So, how do you want your woman? Fat, or thin? On that billboard in that particular location, the woman seemed objectified. With the tallied options there indicating the number of people who prefer fat or thin, you couldn't see past that--fat or thin. You couldn't see past her physical appearance, because that is precisely what is being served up to you on a silver platter. It seems like an alternative campaign on physical appearance. Up there on the billboard, that is exactly what it is. I don't know anything else about this plus-sized woman, apart from the fact that she is plus-sized (and attractive).

Their other events, like their essay writing contest for teens (in the US), are good efforts of instilling self-esteem beyond physical appearance in young women. But their ads for me are something else. With anonymous women gracing billboards, and people voting on options regarding appearance, it doesn't go beyond the physical. I don't know anything else about that woman. I only see her physical traits. So, sino ang ahensyang namamahala sa kampanyang ito?