THE NEXT ACT

What pays to be a judge of the on-the-spot painting contest? This is my second year judging competitions in Baliwag Associations of Water District. “Suki” was what they call us. The emcee introduced me to be a Senior Engineer now detailed in Congressional Support Staff of Public Affairs Department and a freelance computer graphic designer, flash and 3D modeler and animator and web designer. What’s tiring really is the waiting for we have to just to roam around for two hours until the contestants have finished their pieces. The thrill comes when I got to make a thorough scrutiny of the finished products with matching photo shoots here and there. My excitement is the combination of at-last-they’re-through kinda excitement and the delight that I got to see masterpieces of young artist. Being the chairman of the panel, I got to make a speech before I announced the winners. One of my spiels always includes an encouragement to continue improving theirs craft while they are young, while they ...

Unguarded moments. The real you. Most likely mornings are the best time to catch unpleasant stuff inside the package. As time ascends to noon and to evening, facades may get in the way. Morning breath, pillow marked cheek, uncombed hair, long face are in the showcase after waking up. Some say that your wife-to-be has to be examined in the morning right after waking up. If you would still stick to her after finding out what’s inside her morning closet, it simply means that she’s the one. Her wholeness was so enticing to you to cover up the morning mess. It is a wrong notion that the morning personality is the real personality. I mean a whole day does not only constitute mornings. A neighbor always witness a fellow neighbor to be have a long face every morning right before going to work. And he judges him to be a snob. How is he in the evening? Maybe he is till recovering from her early rising. A butterfly can not be judged when it is still a worm. The beauty about life is ...

Traffic was infuriatingly heavy yesterday. Driving along EDSA was so frustrating as I was in the lengthiness of the heavy jam. I finally pass by Santolan and I immediately knew the reason of the dilemma. MMDA was dismantling all the billboards in the universe. I heard on the radio that the dismantling would take weeks. So good luck to all the commuters. Grab a book, I-pod, Gameboy or anything that would distract you from hating MMDA. Can’t you just do it at night when fewer cars are on the road? Make the most of what you have. That must be my line when I tend to be dissatisfied. I don’t have to complain when situations are out of hand. That means I can’t do anything about it. In that case, why waste time crying? Let it be. What’s wrong with complaining with small stuff? Because that is BULLS! That just small stuff, man. Does it deserve to be bull horned at? Gosh. Your attention is divided into complaining and dealing with it. Why don’t you just do away with complainin...

Why is it not easy to think of something good to anything? Why do I have to make a big fuss on something that will give me a headache? It’s like I own a crown but I don’t see it on my head. It’s like I am surrounded with beautiful roses and all I can see are thorns. Is the glass for me is half empty? I may be surrounded with fantastic people in their own rights but I don’t see them that way. I may be in the midst of blessings but I won’t notice anything. The world has so many tricks on its sleeves. It makes my happy thought disappear where in fact they are always there. I envy those people who are grateful of meeting fantastic friends (Hi Bernice). Andrew Matthews said in his book that people who think too much of disasters are most likely prone to disasters. I used to think that the book Think Positive was a terrific book. I lost my appreciation to it simply because I am already one of the zombies who are programmed to just see the thorns in roses. People who read my blog would think ...

I am destined to places where I tend to avoid destruction. It was proven so many times. The divine hand of mercy is upon me. Milenyo stroke after we moved out and transferred to another house which is more convenient than the previous one especially during brownouts. I wonder what happened to the previous one which is an old wooden anay striken house after Milenyo can really wipe it out when it has its way. Sigh. My family was lead away from worst situations. I am thankful. Amen and amen. Light came out after a day. It is a good thing our new house is near Batasan which is within the priority area. I am definitely guided. It is because my baby is a blessing. Amen.

There's nothing on my mind. Random Thought is in the slow mode today. Blank wall. Colorless surroundings. Sipping coffee is unnoticeable. Pen was lost. I don't dare to ask the one who borrowed it. I want everything to freeze. Any movement might cause to destroy me. Freeze. Silence. Quiet. Don't make any remark. Don't make any gesture. I am here to just chill. But chilling might get to be interpreted wrongly. Paranoid? Maybe. What do you think?

I need to catch my breath. I need to pause and just be still for a moment so that I would not be caught up with the whirlwind in the workplace. The best place for me to catch my breath is inside the chapel. And so I dropped by the chapel. Whew! So peaceful. So serene. It is easier here to unload and forget everything and focus on one thing. There is empowerment in silence. I earnestly believe that. Reenergizing is staying still. Silence is effective for me. I don’t know with others. I can have a lot of achievements when done in silence. It is easier to absorb the stuff I read or study in silence. I am more efficient in silence. Music helps once in while as long as the tune makes me peaceful. There are danceable tunes that get me on the groove at the same time provide joy and peace in me. What’s with silence? I guess because when I am not destructed by any noise, I tend to work inward or to work inside the core. I learned that the core is where God started me. So there muse be purity in...

Wednesday is not always my day. I don’t look good wearing my office uniform on Wednesdays. I got to wake up early, go to office early, go home late unless I take the MRT since my car is color coded on Wednesdays. I pray to God that this day is my day. I am having my breakfast while doing this. A cup of rice. Boiled eggplant. Four pieces of okra, ginisang bagoong with calamansi. Perfect except for the drink I ordered. This breakfast has to come with hot chocolate, not Fitness Water. Anyway, I was still full after consuming them.

APO is in the rebound. They deserve it since they really made a difference in the OPM industry. They have been hibernating for a long time after several trials of making another score in the business. They even made an album which flopped I guess. Jimmy made an album of his own not really for any reason but for his own delight. I guess he was just establishing a legacy just like the books he has published. Buboy made several movies and TV appearances. Danny has his Pidro shirts. Now that the younger bands are redoing their music and made me listen again to their songs, I realized that APO made an impact in me personally as a young composer. I grabbed some of their styles. Come to think of it. My music did not make any noise in the commercial scene. But they are big in my own consumption. Nice APO! I am glad you are picking up again.

Where am I? The question is always filed in my senses signifying that I am not really contended with where I am right now. I am not really complaining or anything since I know and I believe that everything that is happening has its purpose for me. I believe that when I pray that God would take care of me, the answer is always for my own advantage. Hey, I am here. I question it. Though I may not want the present setup, I just have to make the most of it hoping that I end up with a better place. Unfair? Sometimes I think about it when I am observing that there are bad guys who can get away with their evil actions. Undeserving people get what they want. People with good intentions were ditched out by those people who have to be affected by the said intentions. Sigh. Survivors kick butts! They protect their greediness!!! Hahahaha. Wild life!

Let’s focus on one thing and one thing only. Why is it so hard to focus where in fact grabbing the simplest thing is an effective method of focusing? Take some time to smell some flowers. I may not be able to catch my breath in this hurried working environment. But what the heck am I being so engrossed with routinely work? It is not worth it when I know I have been losing something. I may not know what’s missing but deep inside there is. Hmmmm. Sigh. Focus! Where! Maybe I am too much into negative energy. Look at the brighter side. Smell flowers! Here I go again. Figure of speaking! It just means, take time to appreciate life as it enfolds right before my very eyes. Sometime it’s hard to appreciate life specially when you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, when you will find out that your office uniform is not yet ironed as you get to wear it for the day, when there is no creamer stocked in the shelf as you are preparing you morning coffee, when you get to leak when your yayaâ...

Sometimes it is not important who’s right or wrong. Small debate is waste of time and does not have to be brought in the fighting arena. Why bother contradicting when you know the battle will be messy and you end up ….. where? Ruined territories: that’s what you get in order to prove your …point? Not worth it. Principles are worth fighting for. If it is just proving who comes first – the chicken or the egg – forget it!

I got to tell about the Davao experience. It was my first time in Davao. From the window of the plane while landing in the runway of Davao Airport, I could see the colorful design of the window of the airport edifice. In the baggage waiting area, we were amused by some native dancers with Muslim costumes and all. Outside, while waiting for our service vehicle on our way to Malagos Garden Resort, a giant Duryan Monument was noticeable. I was hoping for a photo session at the monument but I did not have the control of the itinerary. Malagos Garden Resort is one and half drive from the airport. I should have taken a lick before the long ride. The service vehicle dropped us near the gate of the resort for us to transfer to a shuttle going to our cottage. The resort is really professionally designed although I got a creepy feeling when I look at the woods beyond the garden. This feeling was exaggerated when I walked at night from the cottage to the gate. The restaurant in the midd...

I felt nostalgic when I watched a film in HBO about the evolution of Mork and Mindy. I did not catch the title but I was so goo-ga-ga when I watched it because I am a fan of Robin Williams. The actor, of whom I did not catch the name, did a great portrayal. He is like a reincarnation of the persona of Mr. Williams. The actor has a partner who is a Pam Dawber look-alike. Although her voice does not match Pam Dawber’s, she would pass as the 70’s America’s No 1 Sweetheart. I got a good experience watching it. I wish to watch it again. I hope there will be a sequel continuing the life of Robin Williams after Mork and Mindy.

I have redesigned the animated GIF website. The previous one seemed to be too much of a giveaway. All you need was one click and this website would showcase all. The redesigned website would remove the buffet and would offer a menu that would leave costumers to choose their necessary delight. You may visit www.jonsaint.net.

Humility and inner peace goes hand in hand. It seems that nowadays inner peace is hard to find. And it made me realize that maybe there is something wrong with the way I live my life. There is wrong with my system that needs overhauling. I believe that we unintentionally take ourselves out of the inner peace because of extra baggage that we thought are valuable. One of those high maintenance is proving to others what you’ve got. Making sure that your accomplishments would come across to others is energy consuming. Why bother? Why do you have to prove anything? Sometimes the more you show off, the more people will not believe in you or the more people will avoid you or the more people will stab you in the back. Humility comes in handy in the long run. Just be humble no matter what achievements you’ve got under your sleeves. Bragging is taking you away to the pedestal however exact that you are truthfully belong there. I wish I could learn to how obtain a quiet and inner c...

I reread a portion of a book by Covey. The last blog reminded me about the wisdom of Covey about how you would gain faith in yourself. He was talking about Personal Integrity Account. It’s like a bank where you may have options to deposit or withdraw. Too much withdrawal would definitely lose your account. Breaking promises are withdrawal from the personal integrity account. Losing the account is losing your faith in yourself. Confidence is down in a dwindling faith. Got to recover. Got to make the promises fulfilled. Got to get up.

Respecting yourself lies in achieving what you have promised on doing for yourself. I promise myself to wake up early every morning for a good work out. I promise myself to refrain from eating pork and rice not for dieting but for pasting as a prayer for a certain concern. I promise myself to set a what-to-do list so that everything will be organized. I promise to be tidy. I frequently disrespect myself. How could I earn more respect from others when I myself do not respect myself by not being firm on decisions? I got to do something about this. I got to get to the bottom of this. What stops me from doing the essentials? Most of the time, I reason out in order not to achieve them. I got to wake up late because I unavoidably lacked sleep the night before. I am usually not in good mood when I don’t eat rice. There’s no time to clean since everything is in a rush. Baloney! Sometimes I think of refraining from making promises so that there will be nothing to be disappointed about. But...

I finally got to watch the Music Video of Kamekase’s Martyr Nievera as my curiosity was triggered by the notes of Bernice. It’s Kinda like Videos of Parokya. Are they related in some ways? Same manager perhaps. Nowadays I am always late with everything when we talk about watching. I watched Superman Returns just last Friday. It took me to have a spare time in my travel to Iloilo City for watching Da Vinci all by myself. All by myself literally inside the cinema since everyone has watched it. I watched a portion of Million Dollar Baby in HBO. I hope Brokeback will follow soon.