I found an article in the newest issue of TIME magazine interesting. Not that I read it regularly, since I don't subscribe to it (and I'm RARELY at any hotel or airport--ok ok, I'm stereotyping. Ha ha), but it was interesting nonetheless.

You know why?

Because A Person of the Year is You!

And, well... me too.

No, seriously.

In the midst of all that has been happening to Philippine politics in the past few days, you can very aptly describe these series of events as [read the title].

Imagine the Lower House doing their best and damnedest to push through with amending the fundamental law of the land—in the dead of night! They circumvented their own rules to facilitate railroading charter change via a Constituent Assembly. At the forefront of these moves are two congressmen—Reps. Edcel Lagman and Luis Villafuerte, in all their repugnant, corpulent glory, trumpeting this sordid cause in lieu of a much nobler one—to help their OWN CONSTITUENTS who were ravaged by a tropical storm only days before! Irony of ironies!

And through it all, imagine the gall that no less than Satan himself (we know him as Speaker Jose de Venecia) exudes when he thinks, nay, asserts, that through sheer force of numbers, the Lower House can do away with the Senate in this process! Suffice it to say, the chain of events that transpired is a load of bullshit.

A load of bullshit, also, is how some of these representatives act during the whole process (or ordeal). Representative Douglas Cagas reacted violently to hecklers at the hearing last Wednesday night, bellowing “You are not Representatives of Congress!” You could say, though that he got his ass handed to him by Rep. Teddy Casiňo, who retorted that the hecklers “were the ones who appointed us here, to represent their interests” or something to that effect.

Which is exactly why one person stepped up to the faces of the congressmen and told them what they represent—beings bereft of decency, honesty and integrity, and thus are unfit to lead the country. Former newspaper columnist Renato Constantino Jr. berated the coterie of Satan Saturday, when the latter was announcing that, due to the public outrage that their unilateral wet dream has caused, they “buckled down” and are now asking the Senate to convene in a Constitutional Convention instead of the earlier Constituent Assembly. To top the off the shit cake, they gave the Senate a 72-hour period to iron out their concurrence to their own whims!

Constantino was met with angry remarks from Philippine Star columnist Carmen Pedrosa and Belinda Cunanan, with the former shouting “Respect the Representatives!” With all due respect, ma’am, wake the fuck up. What is there to respect with those congressmen, the way they parade about, like they own the Legislative branch of government, throwing their weight around in the face of a co-equal part of that branch? It’s about damned time for any self-respecting person to show his outrage with the unilateral havoc that the demons in the Lower House are wreaking. Were it up to me, I’d give the verbal equivalent of a pie-face to each and every motherfucking one of those administration legislators. The consequences be damned. And if I get thrown out of the press conference for speaking my mind? Let me just echo this particular line:

“Middle finger is the flag that I wave when I’m silenced!”

That ought to wake up a few sleepy sectors to the smell of the bullshit happening around us.

Ha ha. I'm back where it counts--here on my LJ page.

Not much going on lately, just workin during the day, and busy with stuff at home during the night. But hey, a lot more might happen during the holidays. And when things do happen, I'm gonna be on the thick of them, for sure.

Here's a little something that I'd like to share. It's a song by Brazilian power metal band Angra, and the name of the single is "Time". This is a very old cut from the guys, and they have undergone a HUGE lineup change since, but the song still is a keeper. Enjoy.

This time I wanna know what life means...
... to live it again
I'm looking forward, feel the light shine in my eyes
And now I know, my instincts were not wrong
And many things can be done
I don't believe now
That I'm dreaming alone

Oh, we're searching for the love
that everyone's got, but can't see
Oh, beyond the flesh and blood
there's so much hidden behind
as so much more we've gotta give...

Sanity brings up the sadness
that keeps your illusions locked in a little box
Fright comes, you find yourself lonely
in a cage of conclusions crowding your mind
You sit back bowing your head
Every answer - yes
Why don't you trust me and shed out your fears,
Running over the tears you've contained
now cover up your eyes
- Is it good for you?

I will be here when fire burns!

Welcome on board
over here is the ship of your life
So rotten that will cast away
I'll be your sweet lullaby all the night
And if you get lost you can hold my hand...

And I'll be here when fire burns
(Inside your heart)
Climb up the hills and mountains,
don't forget what you've learned!

Life makes us feel the time we cannot hold
Time makes us live a tale already told
Time makes us heal a feeling inside
a feeling that lies in our heart
that we stole away...

And I'll be here when fire burns
(Inside your heart)
Climb up the hills and mountains,
don't forget what you've learned!

Life makes us feel (life makes us feel)
The time we cannot hold
Time makes us live (time makes us live)
A tale already told
Time makes us heal (time makes us heal)
A feeling inside
a feeling that lies in our heart
that we stole away...

IN MEDIA RES

Staring at these walls
I gawk, gape and am awestruck
living life out loud.

***

Nice quiz:

Which member of Dream Theater are you?

You are Mike Portnoy! You like to take charge of what you do. You are arguably the head of the band, and you direct just about everything. You have Obesessive Compulsive Disorder when it comes to making lists of your favorite music and movies. You only like the best. You have been a Tama drum lover since you were a wee lad. Your favorite restaurant is Taco Bell. You aren't Canadian.
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

“Someone take these dreams away,
that point me to another day;
A duel of personalities,
That stretch all true reality—

They keep calling me…
They keep calling me…”

I can’t help but be reminded of that song by Joy Division (entitled “Dead Souls”, for anyone who’s wondering) when I read an open letter by someone named Bong Austero. The guy is a human resources expert who is president of the Board of Trustees of the Remedios AIDS Foundation. The letter, in its entirety, can be read at his blog.

Today (this entry was composed at around 2.36 pm Philippine Standard Time), I write in response to Mr. Austero’s letter and to the reply that he sent to INQUIRER columnist Rina Jimenez-David about the furor that the open letter caused on this side of cyberspace.

Coming from a different perspective, I did find a few salient points about Mr. Austero’s two letters. The whole premise behind those two letters is that people who share the same opinion that he does, in light of all the tumult happening in Philippine politics, are being dismissed, in Mr. Austero’s words, “matter-of-factly”. I would most certainly like to point out that such is also true with the other side of the fence Mr. Austero is in. People who think differently from the satraps of the incumbent Head of State are looked at as destabilizers, hardliners, people who mean the country ill. Back on his side, Mr. Austero thinks that people like him are considered by anti-Gloria denizens as “paid hacks” by the government. It’s a question of semantics, really. Depending on which side of the fence you’re on, people will look at you as either visionary or apostate, as a revolutionary or a bandit (or, if you prefer a word much in vogue nowadays, terrorist).

The man says he is angry because people opposed to the current administration and all that it has come to stand for dismiss people like him as “immoral” and for “conniving with a thief”. He is angry because his emotions are being subjected to ridicule. He thinks that all this talk of who should run this country is moot—he just wants to move on because he is sick and tired. He says he does not need people to, and I quote, “…tell me why I am angry, or why I am so wrong to be angry…immoral, unpatriotic, naïve, and stupid simply because I happen to have a different perspective”. In a lot of respects, the same is true on the other side of the fence—that side where he decidedly is at right now. As I’ve pointed out in the preceding paragraph, it’s really a question of semantics. That and the question of which side of the fence you happen to be on.

Mr. Austero, for all the intellectual fatigue he is experiencing, not to mention the indefatigable manner in which he defends his stand, is forgetting the premise in which people like him are being derided. I will not say that he is “conniving with a thief”, although that is essentially what people like him are thought of as doing. I would say, however, that by virtue of his desire to “just move on”, he is compromising the quality of his life. Fact of the matter is, the point of view he is embracing is the split personality of the Filipino’s resilient nature. We are wont to attribute our resiliency to standing steadfast in the face of adversity, although sometimes we get by our daily problems by essentially stopping to care about everything else that is happening around us. We trap ourselves in an intellectual vacuum, blissfully ignorant of the chaos that happens outside. And when a radical idea comes, we see it as a danger, not to the establishment we find ourselves to be complacent with, but to the personal vacuum we have built for ourselves. Like it or not, admit it or otherwise, this is how the phrase “moving on” is being lived up at a day-to-day basis. This is the very premise that journalists like Conrado de Quiros and Randy David are warning us of.

True, the people who are categorically against the current tenant of Malacanang are not exactly saints. True, some of those people are abominable, then as now. That does not mean, however, that the cause they embrace with others is sullied by their mere presence. In ultimate terms, those who champion right must stand vigilant against anyone who dares intrude on the ideals our forebears have fought hard for, regardless of what side of the fence they are on. Then again, when you talk about ultimate terms, you come across as someone who lives his life in rhetoric. Keeping it real, if you love your freedom, your liberties, you will fight tooth and nail for them. You will give it all your effort, throwing everything but the kitchen sink. You will not be content with just moving along and minding people who brand you as some crackpot for thinking differently from them.

Whether Mr. Austero likes it or not, people like him have become the incumbent administration’s poster boys. While people like him find local politics to leave a bad taste in their mouths and would rather leave the whole topic untouched altogether, the incumbent government continues to play the games of patronage politics and trample on civil liberties under the pretense of “clear and present” dangers, both real and imagined.

(To be concluded)

BALLAD OF TWO CURSORS

In the beginning,
We were together,
Considered as one
Until words stood between us.
You never liked words
No matter how they were said
That's why you left.
But I prudently wait below,
Humbly clasping hope,
For you to come back
and touch me
And take me with you
Even if
We can't touch each other
We can't escape
From the damnation
of man's arrows and keys
Until everything is deleted.

Six weeks into life as a custserv trainee went before my eyes. Six weeks that felt like a million years—not because they were awful in any way, but each week was simply stacked to the brim with activity. Now, as the training phase has all but ended officially, I now find myself at another turning point in my life, post-college.

Come next week, I embark on life at the operations floor, not as a trainee, not anymore. I am now a full-fledged agent. In the course of six weeks, I have been exposed to numerous possibilities, numerous scenarios, and numerous calls of course. Well, the calls did not come until late in the training period—that phase which was appropriately named “nesting”.

The supervisor assigned to us was patient, but demanding. She knew what it was we were capable of, that is why she demanded that we give our all while under her watch during the nesting period. Well, yeah, her decorum kind of overshadowed the fact that she is attractive in a way, but that is another story altogether. At least, I thought she was attractive. Then again, that’s life at the office (at the very least, on the account I was assigned to). Lots of attractive women (most of them taken, mind you), and few guys to go around. Guess I got it made, in that light. Hahaha. I digress.

Going back, a lot has certainly happened, yet a lot more will happen, as our sup assured us. That notwithstanding, I thoroughly enjoyed being part of that class. I guess my co-trainees also did, in a way. Sure, there were times that we felt like quitting, but then it only took us half a second to notice that we’ve been through a lot, and quitting was just not going to cut it for us, no matter how tempting it sounded. Those times were there for a reason, I’d like to believe. They were there for us to take stock, to “wake up and smell the coffee,” so to speak. Every now and then the need to assess where one is on the road of corporate life comes, and in the industry I have become a part of, that need comes as frequent as the thought of sex as far as a man is concerned: every six seconds.

Once again I find myself echoing Socrates when he said that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Without a shadow of a doubt, those words ever ring true in my life, in my day and age. Without a doubt, I will find myself echoing those words for the days to come. Without a doubt, I will enjoy life after college for all it can bring, while taking stock and reflecting every now and then.

1. I lie down and wait
Petals falling from the sky
In deep crimson red

2. Marred by his Savior
he stands and convalesces
from a quaint sickness

3. Beyond the circle
In eternal shrouded mist
she is laid to rest

Well, so far I've made it past client-specific training. Now comes a different chapter altogether--but nonetheless the same--nesting. In a nutshell, I will be called on to apply what I've previously learned in the classroom (well, sort of a mock classroom, but a classroom nonetheless).

Learning to walk all over again. That has been my mantra for most of my life after college..so far. For all I know and would care, it would remain as such. ^0^V

Just thought of posting the lyrics of the song playing in the background as I update. Harhar.

"Memento Mori" by Kamelot featuring Simone Simons from Epica & Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir