We had so much in common that reading about her tragic and untimely death gave me such a profound sense of sadness. Her name was Allison Noelle Crews.
This was her essay (I only read the last few sentences because I think the last sentences are the most important in an essay) and these are the letters for the little boy she left behind.
May she rest in peace.
.
I love Canada and every time I say this to my aunt or my grandparents, I see them throw icy stares at me, as if to say, “You were raised here in the Philippines since you were a wee little baby, now where is your loyalty, young woman?!” (my heart and loyalty resides in the Philippines….the Philippines is beautiful [but tragic]….the Philippines is home…but that’s another story…)
Today I will blog about why I love Canada… in a nutshell…the Canadian government really truly cares for its people…. In Canada, they have a very progressive educational system there where gradeschool and highschool tuition is free … their health care system is excellent and you won’t have to pay for your check-ups, your medical operations and medicine because it’s free too (except for vanity-related plastic surgery)….they are very environmentally-conscious and believe in respect and equality for everyone…they do not have any terrorist threats because they have always maintained a neutral stand waaaaaay before all those historical wars began and they have a very diverse, multi-cultural population there so you get to meet a healthy mix of interesting and wonderful people with different backgrounds and nationalities…(I remember attending some college classes back in ‘98 and making friends with a Japanese who colored her hair a shocking orange-red, a Caucasian who sported dreadlocks, a Punjabi who wore the traditional Indian turban and a Fiji national who was about to get married to someone she had never laid her eyes on yet… I don’t think I’d get this kind of cultural education from any other classroom in the world…)
Anyways, I have just read another reason why Canada is such a great nation… today, the government of Canada passed a bill that legalizes same-sex marriages…this is a big important thing because gay people are everywhere (they may be our our aunts, uncles, friends, people we know and people we love) and they have rights and needs that need to be acknowledged, recognized and not just heard and ignored… just like straight people, it’s only fair that gay people should have the right to marry the one they love. (Though homophobes may argue that this will only promote promiscuity and the disintegration of family values, straight people aren’t exempted from falling out of relationships too y’know?) While I am currently straight right now and I don’t think I will be availing of this privilege at all, I think about all the people out there who must suffer in silence because they cannot tell the world about the love they share with someone else because they have been socially-conditioned to feel ashamed on the grounds that it is unnatural to love someone of the same gender.
Not all my friends know that I was born during a winter snow storm in Canada and only some of them know the real story behind the lovely railroad track on my arm too…if some people have American / Spanish / Italian or whatever foreign blood running through their veins, I’ve got a Canadian bone in my system …the scar on my arm is a remembrance of a bone transplant I had 6 years ago in Canada… so no matter where I go, no matter how long I’ve been here in Manila, a part of me will always be proud to be Canadian for the many reasons I’ve just mentioned above.
"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc. and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons."
Too many things happened these past few days that my whole weekend was just one big blur…But to keep to keep this blog happy and healthy, here I am trying to keep it updated …
How would you feel if our little blue green planet had to be demolished to make way for an intergalactic hyperspace highway? What a strange thought huh? But it’s possible right? …or am I getting spaced out here? =)
I watched The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with a friend this evening…. It was crazy, mind-boggling and profound. Seriously. The whole thing was so silly and bizaare but I just might even lose sleep tonight trying to figure out and sort out my feelings for the movie. (I’m the type of person who seriously analyzes stuff no matter how inane it is. But my friend says I should just take it as it is. Right =)
Not only was it amusing to see giant flabby aliens torturing their hostages by reading them poetry, I also got to see a babelfish in action =) In this movie, it’s a slimy, slithery, fat and puffy yellow fish you force inside your ear so it could translate alien linggo into something more understandable right inside your ear. Isn’t that neat? =) …it was hilarious!
And just to reinforce the irony, there were reminders all throughout the movie for us to
Think Deep…
Don’t panic…
And that resistance is useless…
Need something translated? Try Babelfish
We’re kids but we’re living lives with meaning – cause we’re out with our goals, we’re doing what we love. And we don’t think we’ll ever grow tired of it. Super! is when you break the boxes society builds around you. When you make something of yourself – without wearing someone else’s gloves. When you follow what’s inside you – and know what it is without being told. A Super! Life is a life with no regrets. This is our world. This is your life. Don’t let anyone tell you how to live it. Break out! – taken from the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Super! June 18, 2005 edition
What do you want to do with your life? Here are my 43 things …
Happy Father’s Day to all the cool dads out there … of course this does not include those irresponsible little pricks who lost control and ran away after leaving their idiotic sperm cells as souvenirs to unprepared members of the female species (did I just hear someone say Ouch?)
Here are some inspiring Father’s Day stories today, courtesy of the country’s best news website of course =)
If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend Francois Ozon’s 8 Femmes…I watched this twice during the French Film Festival about 3 years ago and I still think about the film alot. I liked it very much and I appreciated my grandpa so much more after seeing this film (did I mention that my grandpa is the bestest dad in the world? love you pops =)…Anyhow, 8 Femmes, for me, is the ultimate Father’s day movie…of course some people might disagree with me, but this is just my opinion and my blog by the way =)
Speaking of French…the Fete dela Musique has been one of my most awaited events for the past 3 years already and this year’s musical festival, held last night at the El Pueblo, was certainly a huge hit. (Thank God that it did not rain like it did last year when it practically *poured* out there drenching thousands of music lovers, damaging a lot of the sound equipment and even causing one of the main stages to collapse! [imagine all the jologs scampering for cover! …I was one of them =) Anyways, going back to last night, I arrived at the scene with my school friends as early as 4pm yesterday (eager beavers, aren’t we? But I did see a lot of familiar faces from phphoto who were there as early as we were =)
Anyhow, we went straight to Pasto because I was hungry and hadn’t had breakfast nor lunch yet and that’s where I bumped into one of my blog’s readers, no less than Electronica Manila’s founder SilverFilter / Cyril Sorongon (Hi Cy! =) …turns out that Pasto was Electronica’s headquarters for the fete so we stayed there for some time before heading out to the Podium to 
catch Benj’s cousin’s band Nancy Drool….too bad I missed Nancy Drool though because I had to go to Watson’s to buy some bandaid coz my girly shoes were killing me (I knew I should have just worn my trusty rubber tsinelas!) …anyways, I did get out of the mall in time to watch Pinoy Stories perform and all I can say is that they rock =) This picture was taken in the middle of their performance ….that’s Mei and me posing for the camera…Benj did not want to smile for the camera because according to him, “may model ba na ngumingiti sa cam?”…ok fine Benj! =)
Walking back to the main venue, we watched World Music performers Nityalila do their thing as 
a male and female dancer meaningfully interpreted their Blusang Itim song…. We got to the Rock stage in time to see the vocalist of Shards of Ice introducing the band before their performance…the rocker had a certain English accent and I wasn’t sure if they were a foreign band…. He also seemed so happy and excited before the crowd – something very unusual of a rock band member who one would expect to be cold, mechanically aloof and just plain headbangin’ …it was only hours later that the reason for their enthusiasm became apparent… a friend told me that the members of Shards of Ice were very, very young (they were more or less 15 years old?!) …no wonder their excitement to perform was so obvious! Now that’s cute =)
If there was one thing that really caught my attention and made me unable to control my laughter and hide my disgust, it would be those stupid, kulang sa pansin skwaters who went the extra mile to be totally skwating during Shards of Ice’s serious performance…. these jologs who called themselves “PUNKS NG ANTIPOLO” formed a circle and started jumping around, headbanging and basically just tried to upstage Shards of Ice with their epal eksena movements. In the middle of the frenzy stood one punk who had a punk seated on his shoulders carrying a huge-ass sign that screamed “PUNKS NG ANTIPOLO”…how’s that for jolography? I don’t usually judge or look down on people but putek, these people were asking for it, sobrang kulang sa pansin…
Anyways, we headed back to the Live Electronica HQ at Pasto were we met up with other friends and just chilled there for a couple of hours with Daydream Cycle, Drip, Morse and Silver Filter playing their magic …looking back, Electronica Manila has certainly come a long way since I was introduced to the genre at my first fete 3 years ago… I remember how they did not even have a decent venue to play in back then…the group just set up their stuff inside a dark and abandoned restaurant that had gone out of business months before that so there were no lights nor seats of any kind …back then, we had to feel our way through the dark place and just settle on the dusty floor with our beers and cigarettes to enjoy the show…they did so well that night because they used their creativity and the complete darkness to their advantage by showing off some fancy techno graphics on one of the bare walls through an LCD projector as they spun their music. It was really cool =)…
Anyhow, going back to last night… it was a fun night despite the huge sticky crowd…my only regret was that I missed Imago’s and Hale’s performances …I was really looking forward to watching Imago sing their Akap song and Hale sing their Broken Sonnet but I lost track of time at that very particular time because I was caught between friends and between staying or leaving for another event…then I realized too late, tapos na pala sila…*sigh*….sayang talaga to think I was waiting the whole night for their turn to perform…
Ok I’m getting bored with this post na and I’m just rambling here…so I should end this na muna before I bore you to death too =)
Pardon me for posting the not so pretty picture below and just be happy for me ok? =)
I can kill cockroaches now. I know it sounds ridiculously ditzy but this improvement marks a milestone in my life, a huge victory for me.
If there’s one thing that can stop me in my tracks and leave me incapacitated, it’s the sight of a cockroach cruising along the bathroom wall. I don’t know what about it gives me the creeps but perhaps it’s a combination of the crunchy sound it makes and the green guts it leaves behind after it gets killed that gives me the goosebumps. I could not kill the damn thing even with a ten-foot pole. Furthermore, I think my fear stems from my bizarre and twisted belief that cockroaches are actually aliens visiting from outerspace…come on, what other creature has 2 brains, no blood, can survive a nuclear war and live for 2 weeks without its head? According to scientific gossip, only the cockroach can. (See the Cockroach Creature Feature)
Anyhow, I found out I could kill cockroaches the very night my car died a half-death when the flash floods almost swallowed it whole… as if somehow, the whole ordeal numbed me so much that I became a stronger person out of it. I used to wimp out at the sight of a cockroach, but I was so pissed with what happened that night that I didn’t even think twice about stomping at the innocent roach who just happened to be in the bathroom when I came in to wash the mud off my legs. Now the sight of a cockroach gives me such an empowering rush of excitement that I think slaying cockroaches just might be my next, errr, hobby (?!). I can’t wait to feel the satisfaction I’ll get out of wiping out my next prey 
(See this link from the Straight Dope: What’s the best way to kill cockroaches? )
Perhaps with a near-catastrophic experience to serve as a turning point, you, too, can get over your worst fear just like I did after my car got fawked up.
Felt creative so I decided to draw something inspired by an ad I chanced upon on a magazine. You like? Hope so…. Click here for a bigger view…
Anyways, summer is officially over with me going back to school again and miserably flunking an environmental chemistry diagnostic test just a few hours ago in class tonight. Looking back, I’d say it was a pretty good summer. The best I’ve had in years actually since I was free to do and go as I pleased with no obligations of having to report to summer class or go to work as in the past years. A trip to the northern most tip of the Philippines – beautiful Batanes – kicked off this year’s summer, followed by a weekend of introductory scuba diving with a cutie dive master in Batangas last April. We had our annual Baguio thingy with the family and I finally got to see the colorful Pahiyas Festival with other photographers this May after years of wanting to but not being able to go because of work. Spent a few days in Singapore during their Great Singapore Sale and came home with a new toy. Got featured full page in a newspaper and fell for this guy who was totally wrong for me (just like summer, he’s over before he even knew it and I don’t even care if he’s reading this now =). Looking back, yes, I had a pretty fun summer but now that it’s over and the school sem has begun, I must shift my energies to making sure I’ll really do my best this term. With a full time grad school sked (MWF 6-9pm and whole day Saturdays (though Saturdays are optional sit-ins), it’s only appropriate that I give it my full time gradschool-level concentration too…that means less partying and picture-taking, more scholarly books (and less colorful ones with pictures), and no more meaningless, pointless, nakaka-bobo pursuits like chasing frogs and collecting garbage of the figurative kind…at least not until the sembreak comes around =)
…may you always be polite, nice, healthy, funny, smart and happy =)..
.
…may you finally learn to eat faster, write neater, brush your teeth better, like animals better and not be afraid of the dark anymore….
…may you grow up to be tall, strong, wise, responsible and not too dorky so you can defend me from the cockroaches, the purple monster and the bad people….
i love you always forever.
Shot some photos of the spa at the Westin Philippine Plaza for PeopleAsia Magazine’s September issue today…Since I’m not really used to shooting tight interiors, it was a challenge for me to compose shots especially since my camera’s built-in lens isn’t wide enough to show much of the place…I need to get a wider lens soon…but anyways, here’s a sneak peek of the spa photos ———————————–>
…. (to view my more decent photos, click here )
I think the best part of the whole shoot was the buffet lunch that came afterwards…. call me mababaw but a free lunch is always a good thing… but hotel buffet? What a treat! =) …everything was just so delish but I especially love, love, loved their Mango Bailey’s dessert….it was so damn good that I finished 2 tall glasses of the creamy sinful thing =)
BTW, I got to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith at the theater with a friend tonight….all I can say is Angelina rocks!….when I grow up, I wanna be just like her
Gosh, time flies so fast. It just seems like yesterday when Patty was just an adorable little furball. I would just scoop her up with my hand and pat her furry little back until she fell asleep on my palm. She shared her cage with a male pal, Zacky. I kept them in my room for a few weeks until my grandma started complaining about the fur and the stench that I had to relocate them somewhere outside the house (what stench? I couldn’t smell anything then…maybe it was just my grandma’s imagination….) Anyway… Zacky’s sudden demise from a dog attack in December left Patty all alone. She eventually outgrew her cage and for a while, it was a big problem for me where to get a cage big enough for her to hop and play in.
I finally found the right cage in a poultry store along Quezon Avenue one day. It was a cage that sabungeros used to keep their prized cock fighters. With the use of some plastic mesh to block Patty from escaping in between the wired open spaces on the cage, I knew the cage was perfect for Patty. Thing is, she was a lonely bunny in a big mansion cage.
I felt sorry for her because I felt her life was pointless with no one to play with and to make baby bunnies with. She was just going to grow old and die a virgin =/ … Anyhow…I was playing with her a little less than a month ago when something caught my eye as she hopped by … Don’t ask me what caught my eye, let’s just say that I got the shock of my life coz it turned out that Patty wasn’t a she! Patty turned out to be a male bunny! Dang! ….
Anyhow, I eventually recovered from the shock of discovering Patty’s true sexuality (tee hee) and finally got the chance to get him 2 younger companions – a girl and a boy named Mocha and Pringles. At least Patty (or Patch or Patrick, as the other people in the household now call him) wouldn’t be so lonely anymore. I don’t have a decent photo of Mocha and Pringles yet but they’re less than ½ the size of Patty…so they’re really small.
This morning I stopped, stared and gasped as I saw Patty humping on innocent little Mocha — and then Pringles! Good grief! It was outright scandalous! It was …child molestation! Rape! Pedophilia?! We borrowed our neighbor’s 2 grown rabbits (a male and a female who were slightly bigger than Patty by the way) and in no less than 10 seconds since Patty got introduced to them, he did the dirty deed shamelessly with both of them right away in the presence of all our household help who kept giggling and with me who couldn’t help but capture this shot …Damn! Talk about a bunny in heat!
