Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Favorites Series [Prologue]
And yes, I really like the current layout/design of my blog. My good friend aka goodlookingguy made this for me, and I really like it. The sight of a Monet painting always makes me feel glad.
This is a prologue of a series of "favorites". I would begin writing stuff that I love and crazy about. There's a lot, so I think I won't have trouble thinking about themes for it. I'm in the office and not in the right state of mind to write anything yet but alot of ideas are brewing inside my head.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Anniversary
Anniversary ng pagiging independent ko mula sa pamilya. February last year ng muntik akong ma-rape nung makitira sa isang akala ko kaibigan ko, kasi umalis ako sa bahay namin. March ng makakuha ng sarili kong apartment, ako lang mag-isa. Nakakilala ng isang masugid na pontio pilatong admirer, May ng patulan ang naturang pontio pilatong admirer. June ng ma-realize kong pontio pilato nga siya. Umiyak ng umiyak, July ng ma-approve sa isang bank loan na kasalukuyang delayed ako sa pagbabayad. At lumipas na lang ang mga buwan at araw na pare-pareho lang. Nagtatrabaho, natutulog, nakikipag-inuman…
Anniversary ng pagiging independent ko, pero napakalungkot ko. Ayokong makakita ng kakilala, gusto kong mag-isa. Ayokong gusto, ayoko dahil sadlak ako sa hirap at problema, gusto kasi pinapasaya nila ko. Masaya naman ang bago kong trabaho. Pero para akong tanga ngayon, naghihintay ng oras ng sweldo, walang makain, walang pang-yosi. Natatakot maputulan ng kuryente. Nagkukulong sa bahay, pinagtataguan ang kolektor ng bangko. Pagdating ng sweldo pambayad kaagad sa apartment, bank loan, kuryente, grocery ng mga kailangan, tapos trabaho uli… Siguro kaya malungkot ako kasi naisip kong anniversary pero walang kwentang anniversary.
Anniversary ng mga pinakamalungkot na pangyayari sa buhay ko. Anniversary ng nakakilala ng mga malupit na tao. Anniversary ng na-rewire ang utak ko. Hindi ko na mabalik ang dati kong sarili. Mahirap mag-isa.
Kaya nga independent eh, nag-iisa…tanggap ko pero hayaan ko muna ang sarili kong umiyak, malungkot. Kailangan kong iproseso ang kalungkutan ko sa sarili ko. Kahit gusto kong yumakap ng tao at humanap ng makakaunawa, pagiging makasarili ko lang pinapairal ko. Searching for intimacy somehow deludes me, parang niloloko ko lang ang sarili ko dahil ang totoo, hindi pwedeng maunawaan ng ibang tao ang lahat ng niloloob ko. Pero humans long for comfort even thru a mere embrace, and I badly need one right now, after all I’m merely human. Caught up in different intricacies of life, everything is so convoluted nothing makes sense why….gosh I’m not making sense.
Hindi ko man maalis ang kalungkutan ko, dadamahin ko na lang, tatanggapin.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Of satanic cults, LSD laced magic tattoos and backmasked tapes…
I grew up surrounded by aunts who just got converted as born again Christians then. But the rest of my family are devout Catholics. Those aunts of mine were iconoclasts, as in literally not because they broke stereotypes but they broke icons, literally hahaha. They smashed decades old religious icons from my grandma’s house. They threw out the statue of Virgin Mary out the window, followed by the cutie Sto. Nino, pulled the rosaries until the beads fell on the ground then ranted Bible verses condemning idolatry. Poor grandma, she was the one who witnessed all of that. It was just told to me in vivid detail when I was four because I was totally creeped out when they forced me to kneel and pray the rosary with them for my dead grandpa’s wake. They meant it as an explanation on why the statues were cracked. We were kneeling in front of those icons that were obviously put back together by rugby. Those icons were creepy enough before, old and faded, blank eyes staring at you. The cracked faces with dried out ooze of rugby increased the creepy factor.
There was a lot of drama when my relatives talk about their conflicting religious beliefs, I was too young enough to care. However, what caught my interest was their common belief that there are satanists about. It was the early 80s and brit punk rock and heavy metal abound, along with big haired, shoulder padded teeny boppers and glam rockers. The tabloids didn’t help either, with headlines like:
NATAGPUANG PUTOL NA PAA NG BATA, HINIHINALANG BIKTIMA NG SATANISTA
Kids like me were asked by parents to wear the rosary around our necks when we go to school. Looking back, I think it was just a lame attempt to cover up the real issue. Probably the kids who got kidnapped were shipped out in some remote province or another southeast Asian country to work either as sex slaves, sweat shop workers or soldiers for an extremist group. And those dismembered appendages were meant as an example to those who wanted to run away from the gang. Were the grown ups then too naïve? Was the press so scared to write anything about the government or our economy that they thought it was ok to entwine the supernatural with reality without trying to dig deeper on what’s behind all of it?
Since the grownups at home were so stressed out about the satanist crap, at school I tried to know more about it. I read the Time Life books and those other hard bound book series like condensed encyclopedias that dealt with supernatural stuff. It scared and amused me at the same time. Same effect when I watch the Twilight Zone. [Hey don’t get the idea that I’m some sort of a witch/Wiccan/goth girl, I’m not.] I even read the Bible’s Old Testament and Revelation at home coz it was so gory, scary and just plain interesting for me, but my aunts thought that I was just being some sweet Jesus-loving girl.
People fear a lot of different stuff throughout their lives across decades and generations. Most have trouble adjusting to what’s new or what others are into if it falls outside the tiny box they comfortably snuggled into. But as kids that’s the point when our box is so big we want to fill it in as much as we could. At home my aunts were saying that there were some satanistic bands or rock stars, making the devil’s work easier, spreading the message of satan subconsciously and that we must be vigilant with whatever we do. You can hear those messages if you play cassette tapes backwards, they call it backmasking. Most of those backmasked messages were so garbled, you can hear anything that you want to hear. I really didn’t get the point with the trouble of backmasking those tapes anyway. Why can’t they just say it outright, it takes too much EFFORT to decipher it. And they say the road to hell is wide and easy…
Again I got interested with something they were warning me against. Punk rockers, their eyes, mohawks and weird hair and boots. I didn’t know the word “ cool” at that time to describe it, but I knew the feeling when you see something “cool.” Same with those metal bands, they sure are noisy, I could not understand the lyrics but I knew they were trying to say something. Their tattoos were so cool.
Enterprising candy and snack makers targeted kids with their cool freebie. Instead of toys from chickadees, some gave out magic tattoos. It’s like stickers for your body and it doesn’t peel unless you wash it off good. It was all the rave for kids, some feel that they were rockers, wrestlers, rebels or gang members. I thought it was cute and wow what an invention, kids won’t have to go through the pain of getting a tattoo. Boring adults thought we were having too much fun, maybe they thought we might actually get tattoos when we get old enough. So they generated this rumor that magic tattoos have LSD, a drug that will make you do crazy things. Will turn you into an addict and become a criminal. It didn’t scare me.
But I was obedient and just kept my thoughts safe in my head and never disappointed them, always looked the part of their nice little girl.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Call Center
Nung bata ako napanood ko sa TV yung pelikula nila Carmi Martin na Working Girls. Sa Ayala sila nagtatrabaho bilang sekretarya, Ayala girls. Corporate outfit, naka-make up, mage-elevator papunta sa opisinang nasa pang-ilang palapag ng modernong gusali. They speak perfect English if needed. Glamoroso ang dating kapag sa
Ngayon, hindi na big deal pag sa
Parang mga malls na nagsusulputan ang mga call center maging sa mga rural na lugar. Lumabas sa Metro Manila papunta sa mga probinsiya mapa-Luzon, Visayas o
Ang swerte ng mga
Sabi ng iba, pwede namang magkaroon ng ibang trabaho kung pipiliin mo. Pero napakahirap ng standard of living sa bansa, naglolokohan lang tayong lahat pag naniniwala tayong ang kailangan lang ng isang pamilyang
Ano ba naman daw ang umupo tayo sa isang malamig na opisina para kumausap ng mga foreigner. Mabait nga ang karamihang kausap, natutuwang natulungan sila. Malaki pa ang sinusweldo, nagkakaroon pa ng tirang perang pambili ng mga bagay na mayayaman lang dati kayang bumili. Ano nga ba ang kulang? Ano ba ang mali? Ano nga ba inirereklamo ko?
Iisipin ko pa sa sunod na lang siguro pag naisip ko na ipo-post ko dito.
mula sa isang kaibigan
Broken Dreams
At that point of my life, my new daydream was to die famous for something I have done for the society. Like be a scientist who discovered a breakthrough and win the Nobel Prize. Or have a kick-ass job that will make me and my family rich.
My sister was so sick of a disease that I did not understand. Yet I was envious of her because she didn’t have to go to school as often as I did.
I got my free spirit back and the sense of adventure that comes with it in college. For the first two years, my course was Applied Physics, became a non-major on 3rd year, took any subject that caught my interest then by my 4th year I shifted to Interior Design. I still had worries and bouts of depression but the world didn’t look too big anymore. It’s okay to know more about the world outside books and docus. I gained friends, lost friends, then gained some more. Fell in love, fell out of love, yet longed for more love [haha]. I fell in love in art, fiction, literature and cultures and realized how artful a wisp of cigarette smoke can be when you look at it closely.
[* In the early 80s, presumed Satanic Cults hit the headlines, of tabloids at least, along with reports of LSD-laced magic tattoos. There was a fear of kids getting kidnapped and I remember wearing a rosary and scapular to school which I hid under my uniform.
** There’s this belief that blood reinforces concrete or stone structures, I think it’s some sort of a remnant from our paganistic past that requires blood offerings. If you would observe old school foremen/ construction workers/ carpenters, when they would begin a construction, say a house, they would kill a rooster and drip its blood on what would be the foundation is and roast and eat the chicken afterwards.]
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tucked in [ver 2.0]
Naranasan niyo na ba na mapunta sa isang lugar na pare-pareho ang itsura ng mga tao? Hindi sila magkakamukha or kambal pero nagiging magkahawig sila dahil pareho ang dating ng damit, ayos ng buhok, overall appearance. Halimbawa, makikilala mo si barbie kahit naka mermaid or fairy costume pa siya or naka-ball gown or naka-swimsuit. Kasi isa lang ang dating niya. Tapos pag napadpad ka sa lugar na iyon na pare-pareho ang ayos ng mga tao out-of-place ka talaga. Or ikaw ang pagtatawanan kasi iba ka. Ok lang sa kin yun. Halos iba-ibang dimension na ng twilight zone ang napasukan ko. Pero ngayon nasa twilight zone ako ng mga naka tuck-in at pare-parehong buhok.
Tucked in, redundant na daw ito, direct translation ay ipinasok sa loob sa loob, hehe. Pero sanay tayong mga pinoy na gamitin ang terminong ito [tak-in pag Pinoy na pinoy ang translation]. USO ang tak-in sa opisina namin, ewan ko ba. Parang ito ang kanilang fashion protocol. Pero kakaiba ang dating, hindi ko ma-explain. Babae, lalake, bading, tibo, matangkad, pandak, mataba, payat nakatak-in!! Kalayaan nilang gawin iyon, mystifying lang haha. Ako tuloy ay out-of-place, haha. Hindi naman ako mahilig makiuso sa mga bago sa fashion [victims?] hehe. Wala akong pakialam sa kanila, wag lang nila akong pakialaman. Pero nangingialam sila eh. Pasensya na sila hindi ako naaapektuhan sa tyranny of the majority.
Less angst, less okray tong post na to, pano nabura ko yung unang post about tucked in. Sayang ang saya pa naman namin ng mga kaibigan ko kanina, nung pinag-uusapan namin ang mga nakatak-in.
Loner
Loner ako na tipong kahit walang kasabay mag-lunch o magyosi, kaya ko. Kahit magbasa lang ako sa isang sulok, ok lang. Mag-isa ako sa bahay, masaya pa ko. Madalas umiiwas ako sa crowds kasi naiingayan ako. Nagsasawa din akong lumabas kasama ng mga kaibigan ko pag marami kami masyado. Pero minsan gusto ko rin. Hindi naman ako depressed, may kasama o wala ok lang pareho. Siguro ang gusto kong sabihin, aanhin ko ang maraming kasama kung hindi naman sila masarap kausap. Para lang accessories, hindi kailangan, pero magandang tignan. Nakaka-guilty kasi madalas napakagenuine ng kanilang concern saken, pero pag namatayan sila ng kamag-anak parang hindi ko maramdaman ang kanilang kalungkutan at ang need for me to comfort them. Empty words.
Marami akong tunay na kaibigan, hindi lang nagkakasabay-sabay silang kasama ko, paisa-isa, padalawa-dalawa. Madalas true friend + a horde of acquaintances. Siguro masisiyahan akong lumabas kasama ang isang tropa pag nagkasama-sama lahat ng true friends ko, pero malabong mangyari sa ngayon. So loner ako, nahihirapan akong maging sociable. May lump sa dibdib ko pag ako'y naka-smile while saying empty words. Hindi ko sila pina-plastik, nahihirapan lang akong mabuhay nang ganon pero hindi maiwasan.
