THE NEXT ACT

I spent Christmas different from what we used to do in the last couple of Christmases. It was less tiring and less acquaintance with some people whom I have no idea how I am related to. Spending quality time with loved ones has to be the essence of celebrating Christmas. To me as long as my baby is happy on Christmas, I am doing fine.

I got runny nose. Why do I feel like I can’t just concentrate on anything when I got runny nose?Why does my runny nose make my whole body aches? I feel like I don’t want to do anything. I just want to lie down and hope that this down feeling will pass soon. Gosh, I felt terrible. I hate the feeling when the runny nose is about to start. It’s like breathing water underneath a salty sea. I wanted to forget the feeling by getting myself busy. But the more I move the more I lose my energy. I just have to lie down and just wait till the feeling is gone. May the angel help me to get by.

Doing favors sometimes is not worth it. I know. I know. I should think that doing favors is really good for ones soul. I mean it is something that is done for the love of doing it. Somehow the deed has worth in it. However, I began thinking that it has to depend on the beneficiaries of the favor. I mean I am nice in doing favors to others. I have nothing under my sleeves in doing things for them. No ulterior motives. I do it just for the heck of doing it. However there are people who have malice over these favors. Do you think the deed is worth to these people? My God! You are trying to be kind hearted and they are just thinking the opposite. You took extra effort for what? For being intrigued in return? Yayks. Even then, it is a nice feeling doing favors to others especially when it is reciprocated by even a pat on the back.

THE MIND As much as working out is an exercise for the body and vocalizing is an exercise for the vocal chords, reading is one of the forms of exercising the brain. I may not explain how it works. I leave that to the neurologists, psychiatrists, neurobiologists, and whatever deals with the brain. I just knew and I just believe they are making me equipped in maximizing my brain’s capability. There are times I would find myself slow to respond. Those circumstances arise when I got to shelve the potentials of my brain and just to let my whole understanding float nowhere. In other words, when I wonder nonsensically which is not a good habit. It’s like treating your brain like a pig feeding it with lots of minerals being stuffed with fats all over until it can not move and function anymore. As much as the body muscles need a lot flexing and the vocal chords needs a lot of vocalizing, definitely the brain needs to get its motor running. With this realization, reading in a way becomes...

FRIENDLY BOOKS There are so many ways to win a friend. A lot of books would expand the discussion in line with making friends, winning friends, being friendly, keeping a friend, and so on and so forth. And mind you, many publishers go for this stuff because they know readers will buy these. The condition of being with someone is a treasure to keep and you can bet your life. Having no one is like no life at all - no man is an island. WAYS OUT OF THE INSECURE Admit it, human beings with the right minds and hearts possess insecurities, big or little, and sometimes are haunted by the thoughts of being deserted. Many responses to keep friends under their wings are sometimes generated out of these piercing thoughts, intentionally or not, serious or light, with dark or not so harmful schemes. We long for company. No doubt about it. However trying to gain friends out of the insecurities of longing to have someone may not really gaining friends in the long run. Here are some of the sch...

THE MOVIE In the movie “Head Over Heels”, Bob Smoot played by Freddie Prince Jr. asked his girlfriend, Amanda played by Monica Potter, “Do you believe in Love at First Sight?” Amanda replied, “ It is too easy. I believe in taking a DEEPER LOOK.” Love at first sight is idealistic to those who are hopeless romantics or to those singles who are still waiting for a magic that comes on their sight once their soulmates would appear in midst of the enticing mist ala Hollywood effect. That’s not bad after all. In the case of Amanda, she does not wait for the magic. She does something to acquire the magic and that is to take the DEEPER LOOK, to get to know the person she is interested with, to see how far she will get to be enticed by knowing more of the person, to search the goodness in the person. Amanda is an artist. She is a dreamy restorer of Old Master paintings at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. That figures why she has this kind of character. Artists are into venturing various inte...

Friends come and go. People leave you and you will leave them. Changes have to be embraced for they are bound to happen whether they are sudden or they will take years. No matter how you take refuge to your comfort zone, fate will forced you to get out and find another stroke that needs to work on. Who move the cheese? You dare not ask this question when you are aware that not all the time the usual system works. Everyone has to grow and has to adapt to what is suitable. Milk for babies. Not all the time you are a baby. Where am I? I am bound to a greater glory. If I stick to where I am now, I might not get there on time. Sometimes risk is an ingredient to take. No matter what guts I have here and no matter what decisions I have to make, I should carry FAITH in order to go on. I am in the verge of changing pace. May God bless me!

I do not have control of every one. I don’t have control of the malicious doings of people around me. They may just shoot you dead. I don’t know. No matter how friendly you are, no matter how you get to spend lunch or breakfast with everyone, there are really people who have that talent of destroying for the sake of just destroying. People who are insecure realize the advantages of cultivating the talent of destroying. If they know that others are better than them in a certain area, they use the talent of destroying. And since people who excels in the area where the destroyers are poor, do not have time to cultivate wicked talent, they are prone to destruction. Mrs Huber was insecure over Mrs Van de Camp in the area of refining their landscape. Mrs Van De Camp always has a greener and more flowery landscape than Mrs Huber’s. And because Mrs Huber has other talent, (wicked that is), she found a way to destroy Mrs Van de Camp’s. A scene in Desperate Housewives. I began thinking of what I...

I visited Special Word hoping that God would speak to me through it. And God said, Dear Jet, First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. God My partner and I were in Tropical Hut in Quezon Memorial Circle one morning. Many joggers mostly middle aged folks were taking their breakfast. I noticed first the middle aged lady parading, sashaying and displaying her sexy jogging outfit in front of men. The costume consisted of a leafy mini skirt stolen from Tinkle Bell with green tights underneath, with body hugging t-shirt inside a yellow green bolero. I began to deduce that the reason that she was standing while talking with men was to just show off. She would have just sit still and conversed. The mean thought did not stop there until I mentioned my observation and comment to my partner. I injected bad thought s to my partner. I realized my malice afterwards. Bad. God speaks in many ways. Special W...

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!