innocent children are what threaten israel

i couldn't help but sneer upon hearing the news that lebanon refused to welcome condi rice for her planned second visit to the country, allegedly to work out a deal for an immediate cease-fire.

serves her right. serves america right.

i believe america has forgotten the true definition of immediate. 19 days since and 600 plus deaths after, the world has yet to see an upcoming resolution to the crisis.

"sustainable peace" is what they want before a cease-fire. how can one achieve "sustainable peace" if they can't begin with the first step of a cease-fire?!

somebody stop me. i might just enlist myself with a neo-nazi group. israel is getting on my nerves.

i am filipino. catholic at that. i live thousands of miles away from the middle east and yet i find myself harboring the mildest feelings of hatred for both america and the israelis. i have no relatives there (in lebanon). nor do i have any acquaintances to write to. aren't those whose families are being torn apart, massacred and wiped out therefore justified to raise their fists and retaliate?

america wonders why terrorism thrives. israel cries at anti-semtism. are these two governments just going to sit and scratch their heads within the comforts of their missile protected palaces as they give the world more reason to breed greater hatred against the west?


civilians are being slaughtered in cold blood. there is no excuse, no sound argument that would justify the prolonging attacks of israel. i detest them. they are arrogant. downright contemptuous. america watches on proudly and silently as its pet bulldog, israel, rips the life out of innocent children and peaceful citizens.

they are asking for big trouble...

here are some pictures from this site, showing israeli kids signing missiles intended to kill the "terrorists" in lebanon, which they have all but accomplished to obliterate.




the UN has, for the second time in this century, failed to maintain the peace (the first time being the US invasion of iraq). one should ask if the institution merely represents the core practice of two-faced diplomats whose own agenda merely probe beneath the surface of pleasantries, cabernet sauvignon and foie gras parties. they are impotent fools whose choice of words matter more than the soul of their statements.

somebody open a bible to revelations... we may be approaching the end of days.

24 hours in a day

last friday, dozens of people were killed... shot. blown up. gassed. poisoned.

from unknown passers-by to a former US president, lives were ended aggressively. it all ceased at 7:00 am. however when i glanced at the clock, it was actually half past midnight (saturday) and i had spent the last 11 hours in front of the tv, watching the season 5 dvd of 24.

for more than a year, i survived without having to bathe in the radioactive light of a television. and i never missed it -- not once. perhaps it's because i was hardly home. or maybe i just never bothered to compete on selecting channels with my siblings who'd had the remote controls cuffed to their wrists anyway. (whoever has the remote is dictator.)

for more than a year, my sources of information were the internet and news magazines (as well as the unconfirmed gossips of chismoso / chismosa friends). and what i did instead to kill time leisurely was to read a whole pile of books which (due to the sheer number i had bought, borrowed and inherited from other friends) had been collecting dust to mingle with the words inscribed on its covers. (i am a hardcore bookworm, and i do not deny it!)

for more than a year, this has been my lifestyle... until i got the flu about two weeks ago.

so now the tv is back in my life. not that i intend to make up time with it. although its gripping magic had me transformed into a couch potato for a day last week.

24 is one of very few tv shows i do look forward to watching. and the latest season had me spinning in my seat as i witnessed a variety of murder, treachery and politics, all in one show. well, it really wasn't only one show since i did a marathon of about 20 episodes... so i guess i should say that these were all present in 20 shows.

a superman contender and modern-day mcgyver, jack bauer has again saved the day (for america). this time against a russian separatist group and ... a powerful political figure in the white house (i dare not spoil it completely for those who have yet to watch the season). with no opportunities to rest or take meals, jack was amazingly equipped with an unlimited supply of energy and a bladder that can hold the crap of six elephants (not having to go to the toilet once). alert, mindful and sharp, he managed to figure out solutions and strategies that got him accomplished in his mission. he continued to prefer working underground occasionally, despite the times he was completely backed by authority, and his friends remained unwavering in their loyalty and confidence in him. i wouldn't be surprised if towards the final final end of this tv show, they reveal that jack is actually a super cyborg. luck is incredibly on his side.

many twists kept me gripped. a lot of complex relationships among characters revealed. there were flaws in some of the solutions to situations, although if the director had the best solution made, the story would have ended in less than the 24-hour setting. so i guess, i just have to accept those flaws as less remarkable efforts to keep me entertained longer.

although, kudos to the writers... 24 continues to be in my (very short) list of tv shows to watch.

between humanity and aspired divinity

oh, the irony...

so the office declared work suspension today after lunch. normally such news would have me packing up in a blink, but since i'm meeting friends at mall of asia (5 minutes away from where i work) tonight, then i guess i'll have to spend the lazy afternoon in the office just the same. oh joy, oh joy (with two lumps of sarcasm). if only the suspension could wait till tomorrow...

the ocean seems to be calmer now. i wonder if the storm has already dissipated.

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was disappointed to find out this morning that an old college friend, ms. philippines-universe 2006 lian ramos, had not made it to the top 20 in this morning's competition in the US. several sites have recognized her as one of the potential contenders in this year's pageant. and she's constantly been in the favorite lists of many online forums. it's a shame the judges overlooked her exotic beauty (and i mean exotic in a good way here) during the actual run. she was, however, able to garner the ms. photogenic award (which i had believed that recipients of such special awards end up in the top 10 or 20 somehow).

just the same, congratulations, lian! the experience alone should already be a priceless reward for you!

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i have a generic face and i guess i just have to accept that...

it gets annoying to have to put on someone else's face. younger or older, it doesn't matter who came on this earth first -- it is I who gets compared to the other person. "hey, has anyone told you that you look like (insert name here)". they should try this instead, "hey, has anyone told you that (insert name here) looks like you?" haha. i guess it's an ego thing for me.

T texted me last night regarding this look-alike game i've been playing. it got me thinking on some of the recent comments i've received, and i had to do a mental count on this interesting feature i've just come to embrace (sometimes with flattery, mostly with embarrassment). i will add to this count as they come (from memory and actual finger pointing) -- obviously a bored man's activity.

BA = 1
JH = 2
DO = 3
BR = 13
JG = 20ish

but yes, D, i finally got promotedfrom you-know-who. hahaha. and proudly so. :)

claustrophobia

no windows. tight space. jammed doorknob. the smell of mothballs pinching the edges of my brain. eerie silence. i feel the darkness creeping down my throat, filling my spirit with confusion and fatigue. makes no difference if my eyes are wide open or shut tight. faint white stars are hovering about. i'm in a vacuum of contradictions, absorbing both east and west, positive and negative, past and future. have to get out of here...

i don't think we're in kansas anymore, toto

today at the penthouse, ten thousand boiling kettles just landed from mars. i had a symphony of whistles and wheezes accompany me through the lazy afternoon work, as i daydreamed of halloween masks and shrieking kids. manila bay was restless and i was half expecting the water to recede and reveal its filthy rock bed prior to the violent arrival of a deep-impact-type tsunami. (it'd be totally uncool to be hit by a manila-bay tsunami -- garbage, oil leaks, body parts and what not.) i know there's a storm coming, but it was ridiculous... booms, bangs and whees made me believe our floor had been torn out from the rest of the building, hurtling towards a distant country like panama or costa rica.

as office mates increased the volumes of the rock music and jazz rhythms that blared silently in their ears, the walls groaned with the banging of doors and windows. the ghosts were awakened and were not content with listening to the eerie music the wind was brewing. they joined in, rattling all the earwax out of the crevices and caves in our heads. it was like a cut scene from the movie, twister.

of unnecessary head-butts and trophy have-not's

congratulations to italy for garnering the prestige of being the world's best football nation -- this year! though between the two teams that fought for the coveted cup, i had my hopes for another french victory that would see the streets of paris celebrating as it had eight years ago.

exiting captain, zidane, disappointingly had to leave a graceful football career with a red tag tied around his neck after he threw materazzi a head-butt. a questionable way to bow out of the world stage. i wonder if he ever imagined the curtains closing -- around him instead of before him -- when he envisioned this inevitable day.

---

another disappointment, but not entirely surprising, nadal was unable to defeat federer over the wimbledon championship. he started off very poorly, allowing the swiss to completely conquer the first set with 6-0. he recovered during the second set but hardly gave federer enough reason to give-in as he fumbled his way around the court during their tie-breaker. nadal skillfully took the third set for himself, although not without much challenge from the graceful swiss. the extended fourth set clearly defined the champion leaving the young spaniard still longing for mastery on the grass for next year.

on to the US...

genuine sick leaves distributed here!

so i'm a walking carrier... like you really mind!

forget having to come up with lame excuses such as diarrhea or visiting the dentist. i'm offering the flu -- for free! and with it comes a genuine reason to file sick leaves for long weekends that surpass the extended holidays this government has ever declared!

sit with me. over a cup of coffee. so much exchange is just waiting to happen. i'll talk, you capture the virus.

of green beans and cleaner basements

you'd think that after you religiously took your vitamins and worked out like crazy in the gym that the probability of getting sick would be reduced to nil.

in the dark, early hours of wednesday morning, my nightmares told me i swallowed a bean as big as a needle's point. and i awoke, shivering under two layers of blanket and comforter, convinced that if i retrieved the green-glowing stone which intruded my system then all would be back to normal. i was curled up the whole time, attempting to preserve self-generated heat by keeping my surface area minimized so that what i gave off, i absorbed back. the cold air blew down steadily and my bed continued to heat up as the nightmares persisted long after breakfast had been served and offices had considered in-transit employees late for the day. the stone remained unseen and i called in sick (which extended -- welcomely -- to the weekend).

if my memory serves me right, this had been the longest time i had to stay in bed, not counting the chicken pox and measles attacks of my childhood. the four days saw me fast asleep, watching TV or catching up on some overdue reading.

while it was terribly unpleasant for my body to experience rapid fluctuations in temperature throughout my brief vacation from work (swinging two degrees up and down as easily as punching the numbers on an a/c remote control), i was quite entertained and rather pleased to be in the company of harry potter, an ecstatic italian crowd, a rather disappointing portuguese football team and the superb lineup of finalists from wimbledon.

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moving to some good news, G is finally back. and we welcomed him to a much cleaner and organized basement this time. he returned last wednesday, the first day of my undesirable flu. so i had to watch them work together from a slight distance. he's still a bit disoriented, but definitely better. welcome, home, bro!

copo do mundo semis

so they were right in expecting an all-european semis for the world cup this year. i recall reading somewhere that there has never been a non-european country to actually win the cup when held on european soil. either that, or at least it's been decades since one succeeded. i forget exactly which. well... still holds this time.

adeus, brasil. i was looking forward to a match between the defending champions and their mother country, portgual. none of that now.

vai ganhar, portugal!

allez gagner, france!

we shall see which of my two favorite european countries will proceed to the final round.

trip to the moon ii

the moon turned out to be on earth. and while it still gave off the familiar, soft light that accompanied lovers during seaside strolls and illuminated the paths of thousands of lost travelers at night, it was less spectacular up close. there was always something higher... farther... and much, much brighter. in fact, there's still the sun. and there are billions of other brighter and farther stars separated by silence and the constant creation of time.

i stayed there briefly. yet longer than i had intended. i was nervous during the first few rotations, but soon got my balance on an environment of unusual conditions; gravity for one thing. luckily i didn't need a special suit for the occasion. so i walked on the surface unprotected. but i was not exposed to any kind of harm anyway. not even radiation.

i was informed that the moon will glide whole in september; its fullness revealed for the world to see. here's hoping my footprints will be visible enough to be noticed and appreciated, but not too visible to be scrutinized.

which reminds me. i planted a moon rock last april. i'm expecting it to bloom in september. seems there's a possibility of seeing two moons in approximately three months time. that would be a sight.