A Ticket to Memories

What I valued during my childhood days came back to me thanks t a ticket. Friends invited me to the premier of the new X-Men installment. The movie just blew me away. It was not that faithful to the cartoon version but I did not care. The general plot was faithful but some happenings were not (I will not tell you though). I will not go through the technical aspects, I might end up crafting a movie review.

You see, I am a diehard X-Men fan. Well I did not collect comic books but I am sure that I used to be desperate not to miss any episodes in the X-Men cartoons aired in ABS-CBN Friday nights. My adoration is not because of the lessons of life (too cliche'). I guess it's more of the enjoyment it brought me. It did not offer only one type hero. It offered teamwork. It gives the underdogs a chance. The protagonists are not necessarily more powerful than their counterparts. The antagonists are not pure evil. They are not out to conquer the world. The X-Men showcases one ideology but carried out differently by the heroes and anti-heroes. Professor Xavier has his flaws, Magneto is not very bad. I guess what draws me into it is, although its fiction (you can't get any more fictitious than this world of mutants),diversity is preserved -- Although people are related by species, reality is there are differences in beliefs and ideology. It is not as simple as Tom out to get Jerry because it's the law of nature.

I could go on with this till tomorrow. It rocks!

Passion, Detergents and Laundry

I do my laundry.

It has become sort of a routine for me. A sense of achievement? No it is not. More of a sense of relief. You see, I do my laundry once a week. Imagine the pile of dirty clothes.

I guess this piece is dedicated to passion. Passion they say is something you devote yourself into. It is something not shared with someone. It is communing with yourself to become fulfilled. They say it could be sports, writing, school, art, or anything. It could be a big activity, extreme and dangerous, or it could be simple like doing the laundry (You had it coming :-)).

You actually become aware of details in doing it properly. You learn the art of using fabric conditioner. You discover why the whites should be washed separately from the colored clothes. And, there's the proper way of hanging the clothes, choosing the perfect detergent. The list goes on. You start to notice ads for laundry products and consider promos. Simply put, you learn to take care of your clothes.

This is a result of hours of doing my laundry. Whew!

Primetime Bida, Pizza & Maalaala

It's Growing. It's becoming a habit.

I am a primetime viewer. Last week and last night, I sat through the Maalaala Mo Kaya Special. Daisy is a mother of a child inflicted with cerebral palsy and a rare degenerative disease. Earlier that day, a colleague and i talked about how ABS-CBN has improved its offerings by harping on its strength - drama. And, it is working. Vilma Santos was amazing (I am not really a big fan of TV shows but hey...) Her performance was different from her mainstream movies where she also portrays a mom. With all those movies, she must really be getting the hang of motherhood.

MOTHER'S DAY is coming up. Everybody is reminding us of that day. Surf, PLDT and other commercials attempt to knock at our emotional doors and remind us of that occasion.

Come to think about it, it would not hurt to think about how amazing these women are. They have devoted their lives to us, stood by us everyday. I remember how my mom got into a fight because of me. Phenomenal, lovable and loyal... Happy Mother's Day MOM!

Oh Technology...

I must admit. I'm not techie. Sad... but true. I guess it shows... Look at this page.

But I'm not going to whine about it. I am currently working on a project which involves server technology. The pain of doing the interviews with IT people is excruciating. It is not them... clearly, it is me. I should have been a computer scientist.

I wonder why I was not that interested with technology. It's hard. Kudos to IT folks!

What was I thinking?

So many things have happened in the past year and I have not written about anything. O yeah, I forgot my account name and password. It must have been Bren pushing me to reenter the "blogsphere" (what a term). Thanks to my innate denial of having to do some proposals, I found myself retrieving my log-in name and password and toink! here I am writing this piece - an attempt to walk in the blogsphere again. Anyway, time to summarize the past year. Some key points:

• I am feeling the hard times! Big bills to pay and more work.
• I have finally joined the IIT forum. Well, technically I posted once or twice before but was not able to sustain the account. As usual, the same set of personalities lurk(s) in the forum. The IIT forum has become a mini IIT with characters ranging from the idealists to the plain stupid. Hmmm... come to think about this would be an interesting topic.
• Philippine politics is still tumultuous. New issues have sprouted out but its still the same old Filipinolandia - interesting and challenging.

More in the days to come (I have to think....)

It's time...

It's been three months since my last post. I can't say that nothing happened but probably the best thing was when I went home for the holidays. I saw people that are important to me and reassured myself that they are. But most of those three months were spent at work trying to be productive to get by and paid every 10 and 25 of the month (ooooh happy days). Today is different, I gathered enough courage to have my blood pressure gauged (it could be scary sometimes considering my size), sadly it is high as expected. Hence, it is time to be healthy!

It's a long and winding road (c/o Sahlee)...

What's in the news today?

Hmmm... another Filipino was kidnapped in Baghdad. In my mind? Will it be another Angelo dela Cruz in the making? Another tale about a modern-day hero held captive by bandits, was released and hurrah hurrah!!! became an instant celebrity. I hope not. Until now, I can't really explain how he got to be a STAR. What can I say, we live in a twisted reality driven by media hypes. I have nothing against the new victim. I hope he will be released. Let the people who are supposed to deal with the problem solve the problem!

Miriam's outburst. What went wrong? I guess she has become too emotional about the issue. Can we blame her? I can't really judge. About the issue, if the Senate would allow an increase in the University of the Philippines' budget, it should also increase the budget for other state universities. My point? Why not include the other state U's? Because they're not asking for an increase?

It's been going on the past weeks. More and more military people were found to have unexplained wealth. The let them explain them! Let every government official and military "mogul" (excuse the term) explain their wealth and maybe we can round up enough money to build new prisons (may be hotel type) to house these sleazeballs.

Our world is dreadful. But still, there are reasons to be happy.

Sometimes you just don't know...

In this world, does it really help to be polite, should we be very transparent about how we feel? Transparent in a way that people will immediately see your mood. Is there really a thin line between transparency, honesty, and being careful not to hurt or aggravate other people's feelings?

How fast does the world turn?

• Could it be that we are living in a fast (changing/ evolving) environment that we forget to be humans? Have we become creatures of change designed to follow the whims of people in media?
• On values- are we still in touch with the supposed good values taught to us when we were young? Just an example, I had a meeting in a big firm. We were squeezed inside a boss' cubicle and unfortunately all seats were taken so I had to stand up the whole time. Too bad. But then again, would I feel bad if it happened to a colleague and not to me?
• Do we really have a strong desire to become filthy rich to the point of becoming corrupt or steal from taxpayers? Would i feel bad about it if I didn't pay taxes?

The reason for writing this is that I tend to be apathetic at times specially when events don't involve/ affect me. Is this right or wrong? Is everything really about being good or evil? Or is living really about trying to be happy?