sidewalk miracles

today, i witnessed a city cop walk a little girl of about six or seven across a busy street. she was in her uniform and had an aptly small yet colorful backpack. he was in his blue and white uniform, an attire not always associated with gallant behavior.

though evidently not father and daughter, they held hands crossing the pedestrian lane; her head bobbing with each step, his strides wide enough to keep pace with her little ones.

once across, she looked up at him and raised her small hand, her bangs sliding out of her eyes. he raised his own rough palm as she gave him a cool high five for becoming her brave knight.

she continued on her way to school. he moved back to his post. and a thin ray of sunshine continued to gleam at the empty sidewalk of metro manila.

quote of the week

life is a roller coaster. you can either scream every time you hit a bump or you can throw your hands up in the air and enjoy it.

michael jackson IN CEBU!

found this posted in an american blog. hilarious! hahaha...

who can dispute now that the philippines is the world's number 1 supplier of entertainment? :P i am truly amazed this was accomplished in a prison.

enjoy!

glumbert.com - Prison Thriller

coffee connossieur (pretentious me)

i got invited to join a group in lipa (batangas) that's supposed to evaluate different coffee blends for a new brand, intended to be launched as a fundraising product. (i just had to state that last phrase so as to appease my old colleagues from nestlé.)

if i remember correctly we were served 7 different blends combining varied roasts of barako, robusta and arabica. just like in wine tasting, we were encouraged to follow the 3-S procedure: sip, swirl, spit. i believe nobody heeded the advice. we sipped and savored the coffee as if we were all comfortably seated in a starbucks, nonchalantly discussing the issues of the world.

i, of course, know nothing of coffee, save for what an average consumer would already be aware of. so i scribbled down my scores, comparing one blend against another. based my ratings on personal preference rather than unbiased evaluation. and enjoyed the privilege of having to gulp down free coffee.

after a while though, the bladder could only take so much. this is what got left behind on our table.


i had to regret my disobedience as my system short-circuited after a burst of caffeinated energy. the drive to manila was unpleasantly exhausting.

wala lang

positivism is the key...
but extreme positivism is the right key in the right hole...

apparently, my mind is cruising on a different plane again.

weekly quotes and fruitful weekends

my calendar has those weekly inspirational quotes that are supposed to somehow fire up one's passions and ambitions. for this week it says,

when you achieve your dream, pursue another dream. that's how to live a life of adventure.

tell me... has any of you achieved a dream? i mean, like a real accomplishment you can actually feel fulfilled about?

well... i haven't.

and this quote sucks.

'cause it either makes you dream small (also read: easily attainable), or simply trivializes your worthy accomplishment.

anyway... moving on... can't wait for next week's quote.


***

on other (much better) matters... just came from a very meaningful retreat this weekend. and that really fired me up. a million times more than that lousy quote had. so if you bump into me this week, head in the clouds, crazy smile on the face, feet gliding above ground, just wave. and say, hi.

i'll be sure to wave back. :)

glory and gloria

tonight, i discovered that i am not after glory for the sake of glory. i do not wish to reach the top too quickly and without effort. tonight, i realized that i do what i do because i'm willing to learn. and progress. at a good pace. and to take appropriate credit for what i produce. good or bad. to sulk briefly in failure. or to bask magnificently in victory.

this makes me both a proud person and a noble one (and doubly proud because i say i am noble). but really, it's an ego that wants its reward in the purest form. snooty for assistance. yet sincere in trying to achieve perfection--elusive as it may be. no plagiarizing. no lip-synching. no knock-offs.

***

i read in the inquirer today this distasteful caption (read the paragraph below the photo: "WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?")


you see, it's comments like this that further make us lose our dignity as a people. the inquirer is one of the top 3 newsprints in the country, and yet what you read on the front page today is someone's own and personal opinon about gloria's attire--using a figure of speech too! how fancy! for an institution that's supposed to report unbiased news based purely on facts!

while most will probably agree that the dress is indeed abhoring for a president, bringing the spotlight to it does not exactly make it look better. in fact it does the opposite, as such a mockery of our already trampled and tarnished institutions is printed on millions of copies nationwide. and we wonder why the rest of the world harldy respects us.

the media has a huge responsibility in nation building. and we've seen it serve as instruments of societal decay. example: bad english as popularized by jimmy santos, stupidity in noontime game shows, tasteless song and dance numbers. add to that all the government cover-ups OR destructive allegations that further divide the country reported in the news.

i wrote them and gave them a piece of my mind. how shallow, irresponsible and unnecessary.

gravitational pull

i have yet to read or watch the secret. but i am one of those who believe in the marginal (or overwhelming--depending on your stand) truth behind the laws of attraction.

i, of course, believe in gravity. demonstration: throw an apple high up, and you are certain to find yourself avoiding its vengeful and inevitable drop. it's because the earth is much denser (by an infentisimal amount) than the apple that we are to conclude that it's the earth that pulls the apple back, and not the apple pulling the earth towards it. physicists may argue that such an overly simplistic explanation of the phenomenon is hard evidence of the human intellect's impending doom. i couldn't care less.

following this logic, however, we find other evidences of 'denser' objects pulling smaller matter towards them albeit virtually at a stalemate at times. one example, the sun tugging at the planets. black holes sucking the life out of stars and systems. the corruption in government draining the citizen's morale (and money).

closer to home, i find that the same principle applies to my things. i organize my desk once every 6 months or so. as soon as it's all cleared out and functional once again, objects begin covering the white space. first a receipt from the grocery. then my phone bill. tomorrow, a calling card. a bit later, a pile of books i recently buy. along with the receipt. and the plastic. if i'm lucky, that goes with a free booklet on the month's hottest selection. coins. newspaper clippings. scratch paper.

give it a few weeks and that single receipt (coupled with the extremely 'dense' white space--i have to say, white space seems to be the 'densest' of all. just go and see where most graffiti and vandalism end up.) has managed to increase its mass to a whole melange of dusty rubbish, and several hours' worth of sorting and segregating, my desk hardly able to serve its intended purpose.

so today, in spite of my solid belief in the laws of attraction, we shall put this principle to the test. now, the desk is cleared out. its purpose, again offered. its destiny... to attract rubbish??

in less than an hour i've already managed to place a magazine clip about a parisian café and an african beach resort on top of my desk. we shall see if it's dense enough to attract others...

if this theory turns out correct, then i shall have a wad of cash waiting for the next attempt. perhaps over time it would attract millions! and i shall no longer have to count on the lotto. which by the way has recently declared a sole winner... for P 120 Million. that lucky bastard must be really really dense!

mount commie

bored one day, i decided to commemorate four of the world's most popular 'communists' on a setting that pays tribute to four of america's greatest leaders.