A Holiday Well Spent

Not only is a holiday today due to the commemoration of the EDSA People Power Revolution, it was also a day when the public transportation groups are on strike. Nevertheless, it never stopped Me, Chubby & Clemente from meeting at Sports Complex this morning for a jogging session. Well, we actually didn’t “jog” the whole time coz we’re not your typical “exercise” dudes. I mean, we still look like slackers even when we’re treading the jogging oval. Treading…? We were just brisk walking….Okay… JUST walking then. But I bet we lost calories.

After that we went to Jollibee for breakfast and coffee, headed to StarMart café for some nice flavored tea. The city was quite sere from the usual traffic jams, say for the loudspeaker of angry protesters who cry for the oil price hike. There were times when the kickass rock in the CD stereo playing in Chubby’s pick-up coincided with the angry verses of the activist on loudspeakers. We just zoom by, and left me to imagine how cool it would be to make a music video using scenes of those protest rallies.

By 11 am, we were speeding to Guimbal where Nick and the Pisay dudes were having a beach party.

Music is always a vital mood-swinger when you’re headed to a party. It is the vitamin that sets one for any mood that is reflected off the music. And Chubby has a seemingly infinite collection in the tracklists he has. We were definitely in the mood for this morning’s party. We brought along the drinks.

When we got there, I was freakin excited to splash into the sea. I love the beach. How I wish I would live near one. But it better be a nice pollution-free beach though. It pisses me off slightly whenever I see pieces of pollutants in the water, like the blue plastic and empty shampoo sachet that was floating in the sea where we were swimming. I am a sucker for beaches. And stuff that spoils it annoys me like a baylihan near a library.

Nick and the dudes, and the only dudette: Ayn, was already there a couple of minutes earlier and they were already cooking the sinugba na baboy. I just remembered it was Ash Wednesday! Oh well, too late for that now. We’re already here. Might as well eat, and resolve not to eat dinner later on. Damn the sinugba na baboy was just damn delicious, juicy….and FAT. Fat you cannot resist. Well, there goes the diet!



Aside from me, Clemente, and Chubby, the dudes we hungout in the beachparty were college level dudes and they were into this mock sword fighting wherein their swords were made of plasticrods wrapped with foam around it. It’s like a combination of kendo and boxing. Instead of being hit by a fist wrapped in foamy gloves, you are being hit by rods wrapped in foamy skin. In kendo, one wraps himself in body armor. What my friends do is that it is the mock-sword – the rod which is wrapped in foam covering. It look a bit geeky at first, but it really is enjoyable, rigorous, and you really get to try to apply a bit of real sword techniques in this little counter-culture sport that they indulge in. They bought along their “swords” and dueled at the beachside. Nick was convincing me to join their “dules”. So I did. And damn, it was fun. Daw sa gin-hapo man ko hampang. “How I wish they had this ten years ago!” was what I exclaimed.

Afterwards, I just laid back at the cottage benches with the other dudes who didn’t make use of the basketball court at the resort, and relaxed to some tracks of CAKE like “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” and WEEZER’s “Island In The Sun”.

“When you're on a golden sea
You don't need no memory
Just a place to call your own
As we drift into the zone
We'll never feel bad anymore
No no”
-Weezer, Island In the Sun

We headed home at around 4 pm with some groovy acoustic music which really was a fitting road music. The nice wind that was made from the speed of the trip. I asked Chubby if he has a SMASHING PUMPKINS cd with him coz it would have been perfection. Later, when the 311 song “I’ll Be Around”, we began bopping our heads inside the pick-up and began singing along.

“I’ll be around
Aint goin nowhere!”
-311, I’ll Be Around

Over and over again
that after the song, Chubby repeated the track, and we continued singing along all over again, bopping our heads, and at one moment, Chubby even released the wheel and danced a ska move as the vehicle was running. We were like fuckin teenagers again. The effects of a vacation day well spent.

To complete and to make up with my little Christian obligation, I headed to the Jaro Cathedral to attend the Ash Wednesday Mass, but damn, it was crowded, it was like Mecca. But I did get my forehead ashed.

I headed home. I’m pretty tired, exhausted, and I still have home work (a secret project) to do. But as I said, it was a vacation day well spent.

stillness on a monday

today, i am lost
forever in moments
it is just a feeling that
bothers me like an oracle
awaiting doom
i just hope and pray
that my palantir is wrong



[music: "new world" by BJORK]
i watched the PELIKULA AT LIPUNAN film festival this weekend. Just 2 movies actually. Last night, me, Cemente & Chubby watched "ASTIGmatism" which is an independent film by Jon Red which is about a hitman who has astigmatism. It was PRETTY DARN COOL that I was asking around where I could get a copy of the dvd of it.

Saturday evening, me, Clemente, Chubby, Kulas, and his sister Caroline watched The Lars Von Trier, Bjork movie "Dancer In The Dark". The film was DARN GOOD too...it should be, it garnered awards at the Cannes film festival of 2000 (was it the year 2000?? not sure)

It was a pseudo-musical drama... heart-wrenching drama to be exact...damn sad movie. I was humming the theme song of the movie the whole day today

LENT=BORACAY???

LENT=BORACAY???
by Reymundo Salao
Oftentimes Disturbing

This coming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, I guess that means that it is the start of the Lenten Season. Holy Week is almost an entire month away, yet people are already marking their calendars to go to Boracay on Good Friday. I cant freakin believe how people (even my closest friends, so sorry guys, if this article will piss you off… I just gotta write off my mind on this) have associated Holy Week with summer vacation. Can you people not go BEFORE or AFTER Holy Week? Boracay is such a wonderful place, but going there to party on a Good Friday??? Arent we supposed to observe Holy Week properly. Mamalandung man ta. That means that one should, in my own way of putting it, be extra-Christian-like. Observe the solemnity of the week. No big loud parties, no disco, no rave.

Sheeez, man! Let's try to be a "good" religious community for a change. Look at the Muslims. When they worship Allah, they're pretty serious and obedient with it. Good for them, not like some of us Christians who make laughing stocks out of people who make the sign of the cross before meals. The Catholic Church isn't very strict when it comes to practices, so we tend to intentionally ignore the simplest of religious obligations. One hour in one Sunday of one week. Is that too much your God asks of you? Even with that little amount of time, many of us fail to take time with God. If you can do your best not missing your favorite telenovela, if you can do your best not missing the big basketball, boxing, and football games, if you can do your best not missing the Sex Bomb concert, why can you not do your best in setting aside one hour in a week for your God? But when your wallet's empty, when the ATM is offline, when your fever feels like death, it's the only time you whisper in desperation "Oh God, Oh GOD!"

It is kind of stupid too, that many people, opt to go to Boracay every Holy Week. Have a tropical vacation, go to Bazura, chill out watching butt-cracks of forty-year-old Europeans. Shit, man! Aren't you supposed to do the opposite?! Instead of observing the solemnity of the week, some Christians go basking in the sun with the tune of Shaggy songs in their head. It's funny and stupid that many Christians specifically set aside Holy Week for vacation, they don't wait for Labor Day, they don't celebrate on their Araw ng Kagitingan holiday, no, they had to make Holy Week "Party Week".

I wouldn’t be surprised if the plagues of Egypt would emerge on this modern society of ours. I wouldn’t be surprised if a wave of locusts, frogs, and snakes would come out and overwhelm our modern living. I wouldn’t be surprised if the multi-horned beasts and the four horsemen of the apocalypse would come decimating the planet. Maybe we need that now to be aware that we do have a God, whatever his name is, and He’ll teach us a lesson in discipline and proper schedule management for our little vacations.

Yes, yes, I know that I'm beginning to sound like one of those angry TV evangelists, but hey, am I not right? I'm not hypocritical to say that I'm the moral one, I'm a jerk too. God knows I am no better than ten Nazi jerks combined. But heck, at least, I'm not the jerk who's dancing "Horny" in some resort, while the Siete Palabras is airing in AM radio stations.

Other people even go through the penitensya, wherein they inflict pain upon themselves as an act of penance. Some people give themselves whiplashes, carry crosses over hills and rocky terrain, wear crowns of thorns, and go through an actual crucifixion. The practice of experiencing the pains that Christ has gone through. Although the Catholic Church doesn't really sanction these kinds of practices, many people believe that this is some way of making up for the many sins that they have committed. Don't you feel that you too should go through such act of making up with the sins that you've done? If you wont do it to impress God, do it for yourself. Do it so that you can feel the pain which is equal to the sins that you have done. The errs that has caused a damage to others. I don't expect you to literally hang yourself up a cross and let some dude in a roman costume give you lashes, but at least try to go to Church and find time with your God, man!

What? You don't believe in God? You think that you can rationalize his non-existence. If science hasn't prove His existence, does it prove that there is no God? And you claim the superiority of man, taking up lines like "The Triumph of the Human Spirit", and crap like that? Wow, that is indeed friggin PRIDE, man! Who are you to claim there is no God? You are just a man. Are you sure that the mind of man is so sophisticated as to comprehend all that is in the universe. We are just humans. We die, we suffer, and although we have the right to think freely, there are just thinks that we are not meant to understand. God may not be explained by science. But God is above science. I'm not saying that you should live life the way ardent charismatics do, but at least give time, to have faith in something, rather than the pride of believing that you can handle your life and your fate yourself.

BINGKONG ASYLUM

February 14 is here. SHEESH! how pathetic can you get?

BINGKONG ASYLUM
The Guardian, Iloilo City
Oftentimes Disturbing
By Reymundo Salao

You. Yes, you. Ask yourself. Why the p^ck are you reading this stupid column when you should be out texting somebody to go out with you today? Why in the name of JLo’s A55 are you not busy tidying up yourself, making sure that there is not speck of dirt on your face, not a chunk of meat between your teeth, making sure that you are a walking air freshener with the gallons of cologne that you bathed yourself in to a point that even the smell between your legs is that of sweet morning dew?

Why fate has not blessed you with the incidence of you stumbling into somebody from your past, perhaps, an old classmate from your elementary years that has turned out to be deliciously gorgeous and irresistibly unattached like yourself, inside the elevator, trapped for moments that seem like forever, providing you a time to catch up on each other. Or if you did, why did your braincells not let you make a move by asking his/her celfone digits? Why, oh WHY, you fool?! Why is fate so cruel to you? Why does it seem like your evil ex is watching you from afar with wicked jest, laughing with malice. Perhaps he/she is inside that tinted fancy car behind the jeepney you’re riding, wherein you’re uncomfortably seated in, immensely annoyed by a smoking seatmate and the cellophane window-cover that cannot hold back the drops of rain from wetting your back, something that will surely give you the flu. Why is it happening? Why must you suffer? Are you supposed to be in a movie where you’re a kind of Rambo who should expect a second-act portion of this big movie called Fate wherein you kick everybody’s a55 straight to kingdom come? If so, where, then is your fair maiden? Or where is your charming prince?

Seems they have all gone out. All them bastards. While you sulk in your solitary state of Crow Soundtracks and Scorpion ballads, everybody is in their overdecorized-by-red malls and marinated-by-mush restaurants. Will you roll up a nice big log of ganja, or to be legal, say hello to the Emperador? Will you be having your cassette player with you and all your Metallica albums? Will you play the “Kill Em All” album and headbang like it was 1996? Or will you desperately browse your celfone fonebook, looking for the first available bachelor/bachelorette you can find.

So when are you going to get a serious relationship? Or for virgins, when are you going to get laid? Is pre-marital sex really a sin? Or was it just something the priests added to the dogma so that they wont be jealous of the hedonistic bachelors? If you find yourself in the position (pun kato!) of shooting bamboo, would the theological beings be upset, or will they be happy over your current little success, like any proud parent whose proud of their child’s achievements? If she gets pregnant, would you be ready to be the father? Would you be ready to marry her? Would you be giving up days filled with PC Games, mallratting, getting stoned, getting drunk, hiking the hills of Mordor, and watching a Sexbomb concert, for a twist of fate into fatherhood? IF you’re a woman, would you be ready to be a mother? Are you ready to give up smoking, drinking, and freestyle flirting, and settle for an eternal monogamy?

As the whole world seems to be in some nice sweet screwy place on the same night, you wonder, are there really crowds of couples lining up for their turn to use the motels and lodges, much like how people would stand in line for a Sharon Cuneta movie? Would it be a wise idea to sell popcorn, ice water, chewing gum, and Stork to the couples lining up?

Which, at last, brings us back to our first question, what are you going to do with yourself now? Was the last 10 minutes of reading this column proved to be a waste of your time? Do you feel more miserable? Wla na ya kaso,bord, ka-OA, sa imo. Nugay na da drama!

(xhmbyw965.belt.flying.disc.web. tripxyde@yahoo.com)



soundtrack of the day:
Sex Pistol
The Misfits
Fear Factory
Cannibal Corpse

TV show of the day:
National Geographic Channel-
The Life of a Monitor Lizard

Like A Chicken On Steroids

[music: SETTING SUN - Chemical Brothers . mood: BUSY and UPSET]

the problem with a boss who is OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE is that everything MUST be in order. It was actually my fault that I didnt work on my LEAVE-OF-ABSENCE papers early on. Coz now that it is time to collect the papers for January, I caused a serious delay on the payroll process for the month of January because our boss wouldnt sign my papers because she wanted my MEDICAL CERTIFICATE to be PERFECT.

I was absent for 10 days. My Med. Cert. was dated 5 days after the 1st day I went on sick leave. Boss wanted a M.Cert. which covers the entire 10 days. I reasoned that I only consulted the Doctor 5 days after. She was stubborn even if it was allowable by all other standards. She's (my boss) is not the one who really processes the papers, but it must pass by her. And she wants the rules to be strict.

So I HAD to hussle the whole day and work on one thing: my damn papers for my sick leave.

I HAD to finish A.S.A.P. coz it will affect everybody else's payroll.

Good thing, I was able to end my day with a smile of relief, as I finished up my papers.

[ the simplest of stories are, oftentimes, the most honestly told ]

speaking of chickens on steroids....


...CHECK THIS OUT!

GENERAL GRIEVOUS

GENERAL GRIEVOUS. Is he the NEW VILLAIN of the 3rd Episode of STARWARS?
hmmmmm..............

SHEEEEEESH

#music: fake plastic trees (radiohead)#
i feel so damn sick today
damn colds
streaming down my damn nose
ACCCCHHHHH!!!!