You don't say?

The Quiet World
by Jeffrey McDaniel

In an effort to get people to look
into each other's eyes more,
the government has decided to allot
each person exactly one hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.

When the phone rings, I put it
to my ear without saying hello.
In the restaurant I point
at chicken noodle soup. I am
adjusting well to the new way.

Late at night, I call my long
distance lover and proudly say
I only used fifty-nine today.
I saved the rest for you.

When she doesn't respond, I know
she's used up all her words
so I slowly whisper I love you,
thirty-two and a third times.
After that, we just sit on the line
and listen to each other breathe.

What Rivalry?

UAAP Season started early this month and La Salle, my alma mater, finally came back. oh happiness, after a year of suspension. Today was the first ADMU-DLSU game of the season, and the first one since DLSU got suspended last year. Most of my blockmates, classmates, Lasallian friends have attended and sad to say, we lost to Ateneo today by 3 points (80-77). No last minute miracle 3-pointers there.

The last time I went to a UAAP game was the first time, a ADMU-DLSU game. I was a college freshman and it was the first game of the semi-finals, if I remember it right. Me and my blockmates cut our Religion One class (it was a Thursday) and went to the game at Araneta. It had the works: the blues and the greens, the Mentos clappers, the Globe flags, the Smart banners and other paraphernalia. I forgot if I wore green at that time, though I think it's unlikely. You see, I was not cheering for La Salle, but for the rival team, Ateneo.

Other than the fact that Ateneo was my dream school, I was a fan of the Blue Eagles since I was in 4th year high school. It was in that season when the Eagles won the championship for the first time in 14 years. I watched every single game and saw how they won it. My favorite player was Larry Fonacier. I love him! He was the coolest (still is) and makes the best three-pointers. And he hardly misses his free throws (70%). Even when I was in La Salle, I loyally followed Ateneo at that time. (That is, until Fonacier got an ACL injury two or three? years ago and stopped playing in the UAAP.)

Taksil? Oh, hardly. Just because I like the other school doesn't mean I like my school. This kind of logic is faulty. Who said I can't like both? It is highly amusing the way people take this Ateneo-La Salle rivalry so seriously. Especially among freshmen, who think school spirit only exists within the walls of Araneta, where the other side is in blue. I never hated Ateneo just because I'm a Lasallian. If I did, then half of my high school barkada would have to be my enemies, I must not speak to two of my closest friends and my sister should be ignored. Yeah right.

The fact is that there is hardly any difference in both schools--both are competent and excellent in their own right. Who cares about rankings in the world and in the country when the only people who say their school is the best are those students in that same school? The point is, the other side will always say they're the best and the others are losers. So it's all the same! Besides, no one has the right to say what the other school is because they never knew the students there. It is all a never-ending argument that is a waste of time. That's why I quit reading the UAAP page in PEx because all of the arguments there are all the same--pakupalan lang sila.

I will always be grateful I went to La Salle--if I didn't, I would never know Manila and Quiapo would be a distant planet for me (speaking of, I miss Quiapo!). Nevertheless, I still keep my logic in check and think what really matters--and it's not what school you came from. It's like in photography: it's not the camera, it's the photographer. (I hope that analogy worked. hehe. ^__^)

Backlogging

Yesterday was the lucky 7-7-07 day and it was right that it was on that day that I reserved the last book of the Harry Potter series. olrayt! I went to Fully Booked at Gateway just for that. Then I went to Farmer's and visited Booksale, because I was feeling lucky. I got Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pigris, both for 105 pesos. The other day I got another Agatha Christie novel, Murder at Mesopotamia and a compilation of four short novel of DH Lawrence.

Now if only I have time to read. I seriously don't have time to read now, and when I do, I can only read a chapter or two. I still haven't finished reading all the books that I'm supposed to finish when I was a bum:

Collected Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Passion by Jeannette Winterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 2 edited by Dean Francis Alfar
Aklat Likhaan 1995 ed. by Jun Cruz Reyes and Joi Barrios
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Mens Rea and other stories by Lakambini Sitoy

I also have books that I want to buy. I really need to build my Filipiniana collection. Unfortunately, while most bookstores are heavy in foreign titles, they sure supply lousy Filipino ones. I have to know how to get to UP Press someday, or have time to visit Datelines bookstore at Cubao Shoe Expo.

Yeah, despite all the backlog/unread books, I still want more. You can't get enough books, really. :D

Death by Jeepney

I must be wrong thinking I've seen it all in commuting. Four years ago, I was a clueless college freshman being introduced to the world of commuting by my father. I rode the LRT-2, MRT-3 and LRT-1 everyday for 2 years in going to school, and when Recto station opened, I rode LRT-2 and 1 until I graduate college. Aside from trains, I would ride a Cogeo/Masinag bound FX from Cubao to go home everyday.

In trains, I got mashed up by fellow commuters. It is both fortunate and unfortunate that I'm small. While I can fit myself in seemingly impossibly small widths, there is also the danger of being flattened by big bad sweaty men. I have no choice anyway, especially when you're going to be late and you don't believe it when the guard says "Sa susunod na tren na lang!". The worst I experienced was in MRT Cubao station. It was the usual morning rush hour, I was running late, nine trains went by (yes, I counted them) before I could finally squeeze into one. The worst part is that I could hardly breathe and some woman had her handbag digging at my ribs. It wasn't funny, gaah.

FXs are also prone to squeezing, but that's not really the worst part. At least you're sitting down. Passengers just get bitter at times, like arguing with the driver because they still think it's 10 pesos to Sta. Lucia when it's 20 pesos malayo malapit. There was a time when a guy was so furious when he got off, he kicked the FX's headlights. Ay, bad yun. Cool lang kasi.

Now, jeeps. I thought jeeps were okay. Jeeps in Taft were fine, they don't kill me (crossing the street, though, is another story). But jeeps can be deadly. I thought I've seen it all after that time when me and Shasta rode a Cogeo bound jeep that is full of bad, loud, jeering, ngayon-lang-nakakita-ng-babae kind of men (worse than the bad sweaty men of MRT). Not only were those goons loud, they also hit the roof of the jeep to signal the driver to do overtakes, which felt like it was going to be the death of me. I was able to escape that hell, thank God. But there was something worse?

Today, the jeep didn't do any overtakes, nor it was filled with bad guys. After Shasta got off to Katipunan, a rush of people came in the jeep. As the jeep was going downhill the highway at full speed, there was a loud scream from the back. The driver hit the brakes. Apparently, one of the guys hanging outside the jeep fell. "Nahulog yung isang nakasabit!" screamed a passenger. And the punch line?

"Wag na, wag mo nang balikan, wala na yun!" was the bitter retort of another guy, who himself was hanging outside the jeep.

Wala na, literally, or wala na, wala na, I don't know, do I even want to know?

Ingat kayo sa biyahe, ha. :P

Survey Says

I've always found it ironic, that these things are sometimes called "surveys" when no one really tabulates them. Bored people create questionnaires for equally bored people. While companies are paying people to answer feedback questionnaires and my sister, during her college days, was scrambling for respondents, we bored, vain people answer these surveys mindlessly. Yes, it is vanity that drives people to answer these things. Who wants to answer company or how-is-our-service kind of questions when you can answer more interesting (read: it is about you) slumbook questions? Some can be as dumb as "r u a m0ney sTealer?!" (ano baaa) but there are interesting ones too. These surveys/memes gives you an excuse to talk about the most awkward topic of all: yourself.

Here's a favorite survey of mine, a music survey/meme.

List the Top 25 from your Overall Artists list (in no particular order)
1. Garbage
2. Cynthia Alexander
3. Skunk Anansie
4. Our Lady Peace
5. Up Dharma Down
6. Pinikpikan
7. The Cranberries
8. Radioactive Sago Project
9. A Perfect Circle
10. Ok Go
11. The Corrs
12. Bloc Party
13. Muse
14. Sigur Ros
15. Queso
16. Eisley
17. Tori Amos
18. The Beatles
19. Nirvana
20. Tegan and Sara
21. Rachael Yamagata
22. Orange and Lemons
23. System of a Down
24. Rage Against the Machine
25. Wolfgang

What's your favorite song by 5?
Pag-agos, Maybe, Oo, Sleeptalk.

If 17 could cover any song by 20 what would it be?
So Jealous? hehe

What's your favorite album by 22?
Both of their albums I like.

What's the first song you ever heard by 10?
Here It Goes Again. Their video's the coolest. :D

What's the best memory you have involving 13?
I was at the Malate office, Martin's downloading the video Supermassive Black Hole at Youtube. He played it and it sounded really good. The video has not finished loading when Martin commented "This is my new favorite song and it's not yet finished!" and I was thinking, "Yeah, me too." haha. :P

If you could pick another artist/band from your list, who would you want 2 to have a duet with one of its songs?
Eisley and Rachael Yamagata! That would be nice.

How many times have you seen 18 live?
Never. how sad.

What's your favorite lyric by 1?
Everything you think you know, baby, is wrong
And everything you think you have, baby, is gone.
- from It's All Over But the Crying

What song from by 24 makes you get up and dance?
Sleep Now in the Fire, but it's not really dancing..more of headbanging haha.

Is there a song by 3 that makes you sad?
No, they're more of angry than sad.

How did you learn about 11?
They're mainstream, who hasn't heard of them?

What made you like 8?
They're cool and astig. Louryd rocks! Alak pa!

If 6 could cover any song by 15 what would it be?
Wohohohoho! Pinikpikan covers a song from Queso? Any song then! That would be interesting. :D

If 25 were to change its music style, what would you want it to be?
Maybe jazz?

What was the first song you've ever heard from 4?
Superman's Dead, c/o Reggie.

If you could ask 23 a personal question, what would it be?
Ewan ko haha. (labo)

If you could pick another artist/band from you list, who would you want 12 to have a duet with one of it's songs?
Bloc Party duet with...anyone (wala akong maisip eh haha)

What's your favorite lyric by 14?
Patay tayo dyan, eh Icelandic ang lyrics nun. haha.

What's you funniest memory with 19?
I became interested with Nirvana because of the Moffatts. Weird di ba? hahaha.

What's your favorite song by 7?
You and Me, Animal Instinct, Loud and Clear, Copycat. and many more.

What song by 16 makes you want to sing your lungs out?
Ay nako buong album pwede ko nang ma-memorize haha :P

If 21 could cover any song by 9 what would it be?
3 Libras would be nice. :D

Speaking of music, downloading mp3s today is harder than before. Multiply search engine became unreliable for some reason, and Demonoid crashed so there goes my torrents. huhu. Plus my download rate went down drastically, it's now 2.3/kbps--anong nangyayari?! walangya.

On the bright side, I found Orange and Lemons' new album, Moonlane Gardens. yay! Hope it sounds good. ;)

On Death, Without Exaggeration by Wislawa Symborska

It can't take a joke,
find a star, make a bridge.
It knows nothing about weaving, mining, farming,
building ships, or baking cakes.

In our planning for tomorrow,
it has the final word,
which is always beside the point.

It can't even get the things done
that are part of its trade:
dig a grave,
make a coffin,
clean up after itself.

Preoccupied with killing,
it does the job awkwardly,
without system or skill.
As though each of us were its first kill.

Oh, it has its triumphs,
but look at its countless defeats,
missed blows,
and repeat attempts!

Sometimes it isn't strong enough
to swat a fly from the air.
Many are the caterpillars
that have outcrawled it.

All those bulbs, pods,
tentacles, fins, tracheae,
nuptial plumage, and winter fur
show that it has fallen behind
with its halfhearted work.

Ill will won't help
and even our lending a hand with wars and coups d'etat
is so far not enough.

Hearts beat inside eggs.
Babies' skeletons grow.
Seeds, hard at work, sprout their first tiny pair of leaves
and sometimes even tall trees fall away.

Whoever claims that it's omnipotent
is himself living proof
that it's not.

There's no life
that couldn't be immortal
if only for a moment.

Death
always arrives by that very moment too late.

In vain it tugs at the knob
of the invisible door.
As far as you've come
can't be undone.

Don't worry, it's just a phase

More Engrish goodness at Engrish.com.(yes berinice!)