I’m only a C?

Boo, I only have a grade of C in my own country.  How much more for the entire world?  Waaaaa!!!

But then again it’s not really a surprise.  What with the geographic and political conditions of the Philippines.

By geographic I mean just look at that map below.  That’s a total of 7,000 and 100 islands there.  The major ones are still, well islands…  albeit big ones.  The interesting ones are the hardest.  They’re smaller islands where you will find the whitest, softest sand, the clearest sea waters, amazing fish and coral reefs, the perfect beaches!  Airports?   Yeah they’re in all major cities and most points of interest, but not all.

And there are several political issues in the country, particularly isolated in the lower-most group of islands in the south-western part, where travel would be a bit unwise.

My Lakbayan grade is C!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

To My Friends

My Friends,

While you never really asked me the reasons why I left, I feel that I owe you an explanation nonetheless.  It has been over a year already.  It is long past due that you should hear my side of the story.  So I am writing this now to tell you why I have to go on my own in this big city.

Back from where we originally come from, our beloved little city, fate brought us together.  Those were fun times. Great times.  The crazy moments that we shared together were ones that were filled with laughter, adventure and of course, “spirits.” There was so many a day, or more like night, where we would be holed up in a place downing some shots, watching videos or just playing around with computer games.  And when we were not doing either of those things, we made sure we were off to another place doing something else.

But like all things in life, everything must come to an end.  Yet with every ending, another door opens.. .  A new chapter in life begins.  We started the new chapter full of excitement, hope and optimism.   Deep down though, we knew that sooner or later we might not be seeing each other too often.  It is one of the inevitable things in life.  I guess we never accepted that fact.  So as much as possible we tried to slow it down.  That was the plan.

It wasn’t that long.  Eventually, we found ourselves in the same big city.  Not everyone could come.  But most of us are here.  Was it not wonderful that we started another chapter of our lives together in a strange new place?  Again, the very same things that we left behind in our little city, we were doing it here in the big city.  This time though, it is far from the comfort and security of our own homes and families.   This time, it is with the addition of many new things.

As with every new beginning it is always something different.  Along the way we met several faces.  With each step made, we learned new things.  It is not alone that a man does great things.  There is always that group of people behind him.  However, you do know that you are not there just to depend on them.  You don’t let the group carry your weight.  You do realize that the group is you.

I never left you my friends.  I merely tried to see the world in a different light.  You should try it sometime.  For when we tread together we seem to overcome the impossible, how do we know that we are strong enough to be on our own?  How will you know that when you are not with me or him, you will overcome the challenges in life that sometimes you must face alone?

I am still here.  The times we had is something I am very glad I have shared with all of you.  There will be more of those times.  I am quite sure of that.  After all.. .

Friendship is not made with the exchange of names.  It is made through moments and experiences. Friendship is not earned by seeing each other too often.  It is earned through sincerity and trust.  Friendship is not kept only in the fun times.  It is also through the sad moments.

Sincerely,

Your Friend

the filipino mis-directions

after tonight’s ordeal, now i can really sympathize to non-filipinos and how they really criticize the way we give directions.  this is not a baseless criticism to filipinos by the way.  i am a filipino too, and i love this country no matter its shortcomings.

the story is that i tried to get to a friend’s birthday party.  everyone would be there, including a lot of my friends too.  being not a cebuano, i can go my way around the familiar parts of  cebu city.  but when it comes to other places, especially the heavy residential zones, i’m gonna have to say, i am still a noob in cebu.   my more than 3 years of stay here in cebu didn’t help at all, since i can only recall common and popular places and streets.

generally, this is where we fail in giving directions.

1) it is common for filipinos to use their mouths when giving out directions.  how?  for those who are not familiar with us, we often form an `O` with our mouth and extend it as much as we can from our face to point to a direction.  yes it is easier and more convenient to use ones hand (or both) to point to a direction.  i don’t know why we use our mouth instead.  it is really funny.

2) our streets are named but we seldom use it to get to a place, or to tell someone how to get there.  instead we use landmarks and the name of a zone.  while landmarks aren’t bad, street names would be better.  but then again the  street signs are not prominent everywhere in our cities.  sometimes it is there, or hidden, partially or totally, by something.  and because of this, everyone here has gotten used to giving out directions by saying for example, “7-11 of  zone X.”  good thing if there is only one 7-11 store in zone X.

3) not giving out an estimated distance to how far this point is to another point.  is it walking distance?  is it a 100 meters?  we often generalize and say “it’s just up there, look for  a big tree,”  when the truth is, that big tree is more than a kilometer away.  this will not work always.

i was laughing at myself  tonight, all sweaty after all that walking.  my god i didn’t even know it was over a kilometer from a popular mall in this city to the province’s capitol office until i saw the road sign that said – “capitol turn right 1km ahead.” what the fuck?!  going from my apartment alone to this mall, is almost,  if not over, a kilometer as well.  that makes it 2 kilometers of walking already. this is just going one direction.

in that part of the city where the party was being held, that’s another story.  it’s beyond the capitol of cebu.  it’s a big zone.  not all of the streets are lit by lamps.  we generally don’t have city blocks here to make it easier.  so it’s just a maze of streets turning left, right and in odd  directions.

i didn’t want to take a taxi because i’ve been taking a cab for 3 years now. it’s time i get on the generally accepted cheap form of public transportation which is the jeepney.

so there, i failed miserably into getting myself to that party.  when i was walking along dark street corners, poorly lit streets and passed many groups of people just standing or sitting there on the sides, that did it for me.  no way i’m gonna get mugged here.  this is ridiculous!   and so i hailed a cab and called it a night.  a cheesburger from McDonald’s sounds better instead of a broken bottle on my head.

another chapter

a chapter of this work-in-progress and not-so-bestselling book i am writing titled `Life` is about to end.  and soon Another Chapter will be written.  a new chapter. and i look forward into writing this new one.

this chapter, the one that is about to close, has been in the works for about 3 years.  yes, 3 not-so-long years.  it’s been Fun years.  a lot of crazy things have happened. as always, there were the ups and the downs.  oh yeah!  a straight line would have been too boring.  what with the first times, the mistakes,  the hesitations and a bit of recklessness to spice it up along the way.  but the number of successes and “yes i did its” is still heavy on the flavoring.

all in all, they were great years.  i look back at all these now and can’t help but laugh.

so what would it be like on the next chapter?  hmmm.. .

right now i really don’t know.  i feel like i should be frightened or worried.  but then i assure myself that, “hey,  it’s not like this is the first chapter.” there have been many chapters. and there will be more to come.  and the new one that is about to start is just another in this saga we call as life.  so i am excited. . . heart pounding, a big smile and all that.

by the way, it’s not my birthday.  hahaha!

pandas!

borrowed this picture from a friend in the office.  (thank you miss.. . you know who you are ). but i did see em fat, furry, white-and-black-colored creatures, live.  i practically had to run up on a few ramps, skip a step or 2 up some stairs, hop into a cable car, and go around a giant balloon just to see these furballs! uhmm.. . it was almost closing time and i would have kicked myself if i didn’t get a glimpse of these magnificent animals.

i thought they were as big as polar bears.  they’re not.  it would seem odd that they are called Giant Pandas when in fact they are no bigger than an oversized pig.  perhaps there are smaller ones?

it was my first time to see pandas up close.  these cute, lovable mammals look nothing but lazy.  not that it’s bad.  i’ll bet if you were locked up in a cage you’d be doing the same thing.

there were 3.  i forgot some of their names.  one was called An An.  a female one, obviously.  just whiling away the time  on her back.  one was taking his bath in a muddy pool and getting his woolly behind all dirtied up.  the other was greedily eating what i think were bamboo leaves, for i don’t know how long.  this chubby one was pigging it out non-stop, sitting on his behind, with all the leaves raked up to his big, round tummy.  hehehe.. .  he looked hilarious!

opportunities.. .

by the time i was on the vessel that was to take us back to the mainland, Joey was already seated.. . just next to where i found a place to sit down. well, it was really more like across the aisle, and a row in front of me.

**********

chances. they come and go. the very same way that night comes after day. but unlike the regular setting of the sun or the waning of the moon, the two events tightly woven into our lives, chance has to be realized and grabbed.. . or you miss it.. . or you just let it pass you by.

**********

the woman beside me is of blood. visiting her homeland every few years. the land of seven thousand and a hundred islands. the land where so many have died for its so-called freedom. her constant chatter always amuses me. it is amazing how her spirit could still be so high, despite her lack of sleep and jet lag.

**********

bubbly! that was her very word. happy. friendly. it is funny how you try to describe someone else, only to end up describing yourself. is it because that’s exactly how you make others feel.. . just like you?

**********

dried mangoes? she wanted to take some back to her family. somehow, word of this tasty and sweet delicacy most locals ignore, has travelled as far as the shores of her native land. it’s that island known for its symbol of a half-lion, half-mermaid creature. in a few hours on that same fateful day, she would be going home. she was on her return trip.. . in the same way that i was.. . from vacation.

**********

beads of water trickled down from the airconditioner vents at the center of the cabin’s ceiling, downwards to the overhead luggage bins, and down the sides of the plane’s interior. from time to time, the water droplets would just fall randomly from the ceiling to anyone or anything beneath it. i got hit twice. my seatmmate, Glen, who had his videocam rolling to record this funny characteristic of the plane, got his hand watered with a barrage of free-falling droplets. on defrost.. . like a refrigerator with its thermostat turned to zero. that is the best way to describe that moment. the foreigner to my right was ecstatic about this, while i was only slightly amused, and at the same time, terrified at the thought that this thing i was on might just fall apart in mid-air. but i got there safe and sound. i always hate flying.

**********

Joey was wearing a black dress with spaghetti straps. definitely very sexy on her. not too short, not too long. but seated, her dress would hike all the way up her legs. from time to time she would, unconcsiously, pull down her dress a little. like doing that would somehow cover the entire length of her legs. funny how she could be embarassed (yet still look bubbly) on showing her legs when @ the beach she was clad in the skimpiest 2-piece bikinis most of the time (?).
**********

on the plane coming back from caticlan/boracay to cebu-mactan international airport was something i will remember for a long time. the plane on the return trip looked better inside. water was not dripping everywhere. there were only a few people on that flight. and the one who was travelling alone.. .

23 second boot-up time

23 seconds.  this is the fastest boot-up time i’ve attained so far, not including X-server + KDM start up time.  the 2 alone takes another 20 seconds, the latter taking up the most time to initialize.  bootchart only keeps track of the boot time before X starts.  give or take a second or two, my boot-up time varies between 23 to 25 seconds.  the total time until i get to my desktop proper is between 43 to 46 seconds.  way under a minute since i started optimizing my Kubuntu for a faster boot-up time.

below is my boot chart:

coffee addiction down to a bowl

my coffee addiction has hit an all time high in terms of peculiarity, today. or is it an all time low in terms of stupidity? errr.. .let’s stick to peculiar. my thirst for the dark-hued wake-upper has gone down to drinking it from a bowl. yes! and a cheap plastic bowl at that! like one would slurp hot soup from out of a bowl, i was already slurping down 2 bowls of instant coffee before i realized how silly it must’ve looked like! nyahahaha.. .

drinking coffee from a bowl is one odd experience. something i would really not want to do again, but i would not mind doing it for a second or third time either. so why drink coffee from a bowl? well.. . i would say it’s the lack of coffee mugs that made me do it. should i blame the office for failing to provide enough mugs to its coffee-drinking populace? is this ingenuity? for finding a way to drink coffee without using a mug.  or is it just plain laziness? when a lot of used mugs lie in the kitchen sink just waiting to be cleaned and i never even bothered to wash one!

endangered specie

the closest i ever got to an elephant and a leopard.. .

guess which animal is the endangered specie in this pic.

(oops! i have been to the Manila Zoo already. then again there were no leopards. or maybe i just missed em? but lions.. . just lions. big ones!)

note: Photo taken by a table using a Sony Cybershot DSC-P32 on July 01, 2007 hehe :p

yet another note: and if you look closely you will see, aside from the leopard, monkeys! yes look closely behind me, idiot! anyway, if you look more closely – like click on the image and enlarge it closely – you will see 2 cigarette butts lying harmoniously side by side on the pavement. and i would just like to tell you that those are not mine. well singapore is not as obscenely spic and span as one might have heard of in stories. occasionally, you will see candy wrappers and cigarette butts, like the 2 behind me, on the streets. but all in all it remains to be ridiculously clean even in the flea markets!

the yellow brick road to Lion City

it was around 7.10 PM when the wheels of the smallish A320 craft made contact with the thick asphalt tarmac of the runway. right on schedule as the captain promised. the rain was pouring heavily. the SilkAir Airbus fleet, which numbers to about 14, is composed of these small A319 and A320 models. quite small. it is the same type of aircrafts used by PAL (Philippine Airlines) in its domestic routes, e.g. Cagayan de Oro to Manila. i was quite surprised that i should be riding on one for an international flight. i was expecting a bigger plane like a Boeing 747, or those twin-aisled cousins of the A320s. the SilkAir flight, codenamed MI588, from Mactan-Cebu International Airport to Changi International Airport took around 3 hours and 40 minutes. this scheduled trip was packed to almost full capacity at over a hundred seats.

the flight was mostly smooth on the way to Changi. turbulence was less at more than 11km above sea level. but 30 minutes to its destination it turned into rocky road. the tiny craft was wildly making dips and rolls as it was maneuvering down towards the island city-state. and it continued to shake for several minutes until it cleared the rain clouds. “this is why i always hate to fly,” i thought. my hands were at my sides and one was gripping the armrest so hard. my eyes were wandering rapidly from out the window and then to the barf bag tucked at the back of the seat in front of me. “oh the chicken curry.. .it tasted good,” i closed my eyes and remembered. this time, also, as my eyes were still closed i realized that my memory didn’t fail me on the Our Father. a ridiculous grin formed on my face after that. i was not amused at myself for being a scaredy-cat, but on how quick i was to remember and how it had been such a long time since i last recited The Lord’s Prayer. i looked out the window again and this time i could see land. thank God!

down below the night lights were already on although it wasn’t that dark yet. still at hundreds of feet above ground, i could make out what seemed to be a very long bridge-like structure connecting 2 bodies of land. maybe it was the Tuas Second Link? if conditions permitted me, i would probably have been over it twice just to see the Petronas Towers. i could see a lot of cargo ships of different sizes and probably passenger ships going all around. a very busy shipping lane, obviously. as the plane continued to near its destination i saw 2 small boats speeding inland, its wake white over the still visible water.

water streaked on the clear window glass as the plane taxied towards Changi terminal. i could see several aircrafts already parked. huge boeing 747s sitting idly and wet from the myriad of raindrops falling endlessly over the Lion City. when flight MI588 finally grounded to a halt another Singapore Airlines giant was parking beside it. the people were already up and about, busily going over the overhead compartments for their luggage. while i was still looking out the window, relieved and glad that i was back on the ground. i really hate flying. it was the end of the almost 4-hour trip and the beginning of a weekend of fun.