Sunday, May 30, 2010

Heartsick by No Vacancy

Heal me. I'm heartsick. I'm hungry and I'm broken.

I'm haunted, and weeping the blood of heaven flowing
like a river tonight. Tears I can't fight on my own.

I'm hung and barely breathing.
The drowning ocean. Snuff the sun in motion.
There's a pill on my tongue.
A shot from a gun, the bottle's bottom,
I'm lonely as a star

Heal me. I'm heartsick.
Hungry thought I could survive on you.
Hear my heartsick hungry cry.

A child of fury. Lost his way but don't worry I won't stop 'til the dawn.
I've been too long on the run.
I grow strong, and restless as a storm

Slippery When Wet

While I was riding with my friend last Friday after a heavy downpour, she noticed something. As a beginner driver, it was her first time to drive on wet road and she said she immediately felt the difficulty in controlling the wheel on these slippery surfaces.

Have you tried to hold on to something so slippery that you just can't hold on to it for even a few precious moments? Well, in our attempt to hang on, we will have our encounters with these types of slippery surfaces.

But then again, check again, maybe our hands are the ones slipping away not the surface we're hanging on to.


                   

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Disney Fever

When Fran and I were roommates and we didn't have morning classes, we watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast over and over again that we almost memorized every line and song in the movie.


It was the first and only (so far) full-length animated feature to be nominated for Best Picture in the Oscars.

Based on Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont’s La Belle et la BĂȘte, this timeless tale was our happy pill. It was such a refreshing breath of fresh air even if it was just in 2D. (Recently, I haven't seen any animation that is not in 3D, not that I’m complaining, they were all brilliant)

A friend told me that the difference now in animation is the story-telling. The animation think tanks, after probably exhausting the pool of stories that can be made into animation, resorted to their story-telling skills to turn even the simplest plot into an amazing piece of story-telling that can capture your attention from start to end.

So once and in a while, I try to watch Belle and the Beast throw those snow balls at each other because it makes me believe that in this jaded world, some love stories do come true not just in Disneyland.

Note: And it was worth to note that at the end of the Beauty and the Beast, it was dedicated to Howard Ashman who died of AIDS in 1991, with this line-----

To our friend, Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice, and a beast his soul. We will be forever grateful. Howard Ashman: 1950–1991.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Halalan 2010

A 234-year old democracy like the US, had two father-son tandems who became presidents. The Bushes and the Adams.

While, the Philippines, a 112-year old democracy (less than half the age of US) would soon have two of such tandems, father-daughter in Diosdado-Gloria and a highly probable mother-son team-up in Cory-Noynoy.

What does that say about our tendency to believe that leadership skills can be inherited? Or are we just suckers for certain family names which have nice rings to them?

Hmm…come to think of it, they could be names for airports. Oh, but wait……they already are.




---------here I am thankful for a generally peaceful and relatively "smooth" first ever automated elections.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Crunch Time

Only two days before the country's first automated elections and I don't think we are ready. The COMELEC has kept reassuring us everything will turn out ok. And I'm praying that it will be.


But after getting an SMS from my mom that the new memory cards haven't arrived yet. I can't help but feel doomed.

My mom always performs her duties (as almost all public school teachers do) as Chairman of in a precinct in our town of Ajuy.

Since she's technologically-challenged (she has a hard time playing solitaire in the PC), she was relegated as supporting staff for the upcoming elections.

Today, they're supposed to test the PCOS with the newly-configured memory cards, but the cards have not arrived yet.

Ajuy, despite its 87 km distance from Iloilo city, is a relatively accessible town. So if the cards haven't arrived yet in Ajuy, how about in Lagawe, Ifugao? I’m hoping the remaining two days will be enough for the final testing.

The recent hiccup must be a logistical nightmare for COMELEC but I'll be praying fervently that they'll be able to manage through this. I don’t want to think of the consequences if they would be unable to.

A successful testing was done in Makati yesterday. I'm thinking how many IT experts were there to ensure the flawless execution. And to replicate that thousands of times in all the precincts…. Maybe not all, but in most of the 76,000 precincts…

So, here I am hoping for the best on May 10. Not because I want that Subway free sandwich (for voters) on Monday, but a failure of elections is the last thing our country needs.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

China Lovin'

Ever since I read Pearl S. Buck's Good Earth in college, I dreamed of going to China. I was smitten by the landscape I imagined while reading the book.


It has been my dream to see a countryside in mainland China. In my imagination, it may just look like the rice field we have here, with certain mysticism typical of a faraway land.

My love affair with China started then.

I tried learning Mandarin but it was in vain since I wasn't able to practice speaking it. Not to mention that it’s quite a difficult language to learn with its four tones and gazillions of characters.

So here I am probably ten years after I read the book, my interest on Chinese countryside was rekindled after seeing Zhang Yimou's the Road Home.

I couldn't stop my tears from falling while watching this movie about a small village girl who fell in love with a young man from the city. The young man ended up teaching in the small village for 40 years. He dedicated his life teaching the children of the village hoping to improve their lives.

There are a lot of elements in the story which struck a chord in my heart, China, the small village setting, the old schoolhouse, teaching and undying love (I wish!). And probably because I’m working in a big city with the road home rarely traversed. However, those rare times I go through that road, I feel the countryside welcoming me with open arms.
a piece of China

But I wonder when I’ll be traversing a country road in China.