Work pa rin!

Made a site for my events updates. You may click on the Bombo icon to the left, or click here what I did in just an hour. Hopefully I can update pics in here from time to time.

Fleeting College Life

After a month of chasing egocentric clients and pampering the management of my new office with fresh sales, this one night came when I can still manage to sit on my dusty computer chair and turn on my grieving PC. Oh yes, I totally forgot my postpaid PLDT Vibe is running already, and I just don’t get it when they still bill me with the much slower connection. (I know, in this country, consumer rights are as trivial as food for its street kids.)

But online I went, and how I missed writing again. Everyday the itch of writing would haunt me. Of just sitting in one dark corner, motionless and soundless but my fingers, scrawling of things that are either tragic or orphic.

Once again, I opened my classmates’ journals and websites. Their written thoughts and digital images spreading on my computer screen conjured happy and nostalgic moments. A familiar feeling that swarmed me long time ago, maybe ten years back, of fresh faces that’s probably smeared now with the harsh realities of life. Well, I recently saw some, much older, plumper and acerbic.

College life is a concoction of tears and sweat, laughter and grief, some forever etched on dainty logbooks, others on the oft-forgotten blue books. A friend, Jerry Uy, has presented such thoughts on his website, with his own version of honoring the sweet passage of time that goes farther and farther along with the images of his (our) friends. If we could only capture time in a bottle, I would choose one from college, where life is kinder and people are truer. I like Amy’s angst, Nikki’s passion for pets, Arcie’s escapades, Angelie’s girlie notes and the many bubbly smart-asses I happen to befriend.

To them I take off my hat and wish them luck!

Moreau Rouge

Sounds like Moulin Rouge, that Oscars awardee movie starring Nicole Kidman (Satine) and Ewan McGregor (Christian) where the famous line of Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo) was uttered, "There was a boy, a very strange enchanted boy..."

But, hell no, it has nothing to do with movies, or outrageous sets and costumes, frantic choreography, or endless variety of camera angles and editing tricks. Moreau Rouge is a cheap table wine with 12% vol. of alcohol my friend-boss recommended me so I get to sleep earlier than my usual slumber. Sometimes I wonder why cheap wines are much bitter than costlier ones, like say Asti. I assume sugar in France, or Spain, is costlier than in Italy where Novellino tastes better, not bitter. I don't know how wine should taste to be authentic, but given the fact that any beer is less healthier than wine, I'd rather prefer the taste of the latter than die sooner.

So there, so you'll know why I have 2 bottles of different wines in my ref. I feel groggy now but why should I care, it feels better than absorbing all the annoying farcical scandals and politickings in the Philippine government. Whacking your TV with empty wine bottle is another way of protecting your sanity from the evening news.

For now, I just hope to wake up in the morning with our lost cat returning home alive.

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Btw, I feel flattered to be mentioned in Manuel L. Quezon III's blog (kahit link lang, at least nabasa nya) last December.

International Women's Day

March 8. Paseo de Roxas cor. Ayala Ave. International Women's Day.

Manong Guard and Manong Driver. Pasimple pa kayo. Sige na nga, Women's Day naman. Pero sino sa inyo?

Gabriela and Pinoy Big Brother? Mas lalong hindi bagay. Ok na sana, anti PGMA ang network pero pro-feudal and programming-- di ba pwedeng sunugin na lang ang bahay ni kuya?

Sino ang mas pikon?

My first thesis was "Content Analysis of Ninez Cacho-Olivares' Column About Cory Aquino in the Philippine Daily Inquirer" in 1992. It was an approved topic, and I was able to finish data gathering and classifying the words and phrases used by Ms. Olivares to describe Cory Aquino.
At some point, she called Ms. Aquino "coward who buries her head in the sand", "thief" and similar descriptions. As far as I can recall, Ms. Olivares has lambasted Cory Aquino far worse than Gloria Arroyo today in her columns. The only difference is that Cory was more tolerant with criticisms than Gloria. In fact, Gloria is more vindictive, to a point that she rejoiced when she learned that cases have been filed against Ms. Olivares and her two editors. See Daily Tribune's report on this.

Unfortunately, my stint as USC councilor and being chairman of the Popular Struggles Committee at the height of the campaign to oust the US Bases has deferred me to finish it and eventually drop the topic. My 2nd thesis topic is "Study of the decline of newspaper readers in the Philippines" (don't dare start counting the years!). I have not yet concluded my analysis but I still go with my theory that newspaper readership increases when controversial issues pop up. More so when the issue in question is the newspaper itself. To quote the Daily Tribune, "On the part of the Tribune, it was an unwelcomed free publicity, as publisher Ninez Cacho-Olivares has said in an interview, circulation of the newspaper has rocketed since the raid. " Taking that out as a variable, is the newspaper readership really declining?

Shall I answer that question next semester? I can afford to have Inc when the publishing climate is this messy. Then may I scream: "Kasalan ni Gloria lahat ito!"