Destination Unknown

How many times can you honestly say you’ve been in love?
>> probably not so often though I’m glad you didn’t ask how many times i thought i fall in love, but didn’t. what? i’m supposed to answer that?

Do you believe that everyone has a soul-mate?
>> it’s hard to tell. there’s this particular girl i always dream of that i really don’t know that much personally, and i don’t even have a clue what that alludes to

Do you think that you should become friends with someone first? why?
>> hey, everyone has their own approach to courtship but if this style works for them, who am i to say "that’s not how it’s done"?

Have you ever had your heart broken?
>> in my opinion, your heart only gets broken when you get hurt by the people you’re in love with, and so far that has never happened because i don’t think i’ve ever really known that i’m in love with someone. savvy?

What do you think about long-distance relationships?
>> it will work if someone gets around the gap

Your thoughts on online relationships?
>> the ratio of that turning into a conducive relationship in the long term is pretty minimal… i dunno, i’ve never been into one so i wouldn’t know.

Would you rather date someone five years older or five years younger? why?
>> five years younger. i don’t really enjoy being lectured by an older, less interesting person

Have you ever seen a friend as more than a friend?
how many?
>> unless that friend is someone with the mutant power of being a multiple person at once (like that character in X3), I don’t think I’ve ever seen a friend as more than a friend, or say, 100 of a friend.

Do you believe the statement, "Once a cheater always a cheater"?
>> I hate cliche more than anything, so let me rephrase that "A cheater’s gene come from a cheating vector, so find the vector and expunge it."

Have you ever loved someone so much that it hurt & you cried?
>> No. Plain and simple.

How many kids do you want to have?
>> Maximum of three kids

Is there someone who you like at this moment?
>> Probably. I’m not sure. I haven’t even seen her for approximately 3 years.

Do you usually fall for a wrong guy/girl or the right guy/girl?
>> I fall in love with the left girl: never the conformist, always the creativist (which is a word I just coined. :P)

What is your favorite color?
>> Green, White, Black

What are your views on gay marriages?
>> To each their own

Have you ever broken someone’s heart?
>> What can I say?

Have you ever given or been given roses?
>> Yes I’ve given roses. What is the followup question?

Are you the one who makes the move or do you wait for them to make the move?
>> I have no idea how a girl would suddenly decide to want to make the first move to someone so reticent as I.

What is your all time favorite romance movie?
>> You know I really have no idea. 50 First Date was good but I don’t want a girl who forgets me everyday. Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind is also good but I don’t want a girl who would efface me from her existence. Seriously, my messy love life probably reflects my preferences of what love movies I watch. And God forbid I’d ever find a Francine of Le Robe. That was just plain awful!

Imagine you’re 79 & your spouse/wife just died, would you remarry after they died & you were married for 60 years?
>> If I’m 79 I wouldn’t even be wasting time answering this survey.

Is remarriage betrayal?
>> I don’t think so

At what age did you start noticing the opposite/same sex? and who?
>> 14

What song do you want played as you walk down the aisle?
>> "Waltz for Debby! This Foolish Heart! La Vie En Rose! Let’s Get Lost! Talkin’ About You! Body And Soul! C’est Si Bon! Blue in Green!"  and I’ll revive Bill Evans to play just for this event. Sigh! If only that can happen.

Are most high school kids infatuated or in love?
>> Most of them are narcissistic. I’m not kidding. I mean, it sounds funny but it’s worth pondering on, right?

Who was your first love?
>> I have no idea if I actually even have the first

What’s the longest you’ve ever liked someone? and who?
>> Like, you say? I still like that person until now. Love? No idea.

Would you give up everything for love?
>> That’s gross exaggeration. An overused hyperbole.

Will your life be incomplete without love?
>> I guess so

What do you notice first in a guy/girl?
>> THere are two kinds of girl I’d notice: beautiful in the tomboy nonchalant way, or beautiful in the glamorous, classy way. In both cases, girls that are overly noisy and refers to boys as "boylets" are a huge turn off to me.

What do you like most about your crush?
>> That she appears in my dreams?

Do you like someone?
>> I guess

Want to get married?
>> Probably

To?
>> Too early to say

Last person who hugged you ?
>> I don’t remember

I stand even stronger now on my opinion about Filipino media being very flaccid to utter words about fellow countrymen who would actually go great lengths as to exercise creativity. I actually heard of this in Yahoo Movies today, as opposed to not hearing it at all as if it’s obscure in Filipino News Channel. What a shame, because it’s actually released last year.

Media are the avenue for mass communication. What media say, much of the populace take into heart. This means information that gets bruited around a newscast gets a reasonable amount of credence, and information as such has a great influence on other people’s line of thinking.

In other words, what newschannels choose to broadcast will affect others opinion on what issues we should be passionate about. TV programs tell us what kind of culture we’re promoting. All the spectacle appearing on TV has a subliminal impact on those witnessing it.

This is why sometimes I have the strong urge to turn off the damn TV at the bus, because there are three issues recently being a hot topic that I want to actually discuss right now.

First, it’s about Filipinos climbing Mt. Everest. Almost since time imemorial have mountain climbers dared to undergo the perilous journey to reach the peak of world’s tallest mountains. The first who climbed the mountain certainly deserve recognition. The first who reached the peak in the shortest amount of time also deserve recognition. Indeed, word is that as more and more people reached its peak, less and less its word got spread, because people have moved on to more challenging things. Why GMA and ABS, two major TV companies of the Philippines, choose to hype up the event is downright disturbing. Let me tell you I have nothing against people scaling the cliffs of Mt. Everest but with this amount of hype surrounding an event that’s supposed to mark "The first Filipino to climb Mt. Everest" mediamen are unaware that they are marketing Filipinos as people desperate for attention. Frankly, props should be given to our countrymen’s industrial undertakings when we have achieved something no one has done before, not when we’re just imitating other’s success. Blind men have already scaled the cliffs before us. Why all the fuss?

Speaking of imitation, a new sitcom just premiered last week, and it’s titled "I Luv New York". Personally, I’d rather call it "I Luv Ripping Off", "Milan 3" or "Big Piece of Trash". Just how many "soul-searching in foreign lands" stories should Filipino producers and directors be adorning the silverscreen/TV with before they realized that frankly, we’re tired of seeing the rehash of the same formula and that "Milan", "Dubai" was not even a foundation where a good storytelling should be built upon, because they’re mainly prosaic formulaic love stories that happen to have unfamiliar sceneries. None of these three have even come close to emulating the critical acclaim of "Lost In Translation" so why not do something different? Why repeat the same tired idea over and over? And just how long did it take the producers/directors to think up of the title? I’m willing to bet it all sparked from their buying the glut of "I Love New York" shirts of different varieties found in nearly all New York souvenir shops. Copycats!

Lastly, I’m perplexed at what’s so worth broadcasting about Captain Barbell’s costume, a no-personality variation of justice-serving ubiquitous comic superhero, being tailored by the same person as Batman’s of Batman Begins? What’s that to be proud of? Hell, yeah, I own a pair of shoes tailored by the same group of people as Shaq’s. Should I appear on the news now? Why not come back when Captain Barbell actually has a plot as deep as "The Long Holloween" or "Superman for All Seasons"? Whatever happened to "sitting down to think it over"? Is it so much to ask that a director of Filipino cinema to actually write a story? I guess it just may be because far as I know, there are many Filipino creatives receiving glory among the esoterics while the vicious copycats basking in mainstream’s glory.

Oh woe is Filipino TV!

I just wrote a friend of mine (need you ask what her name is? See title if it’s not painfully obvious!) a testimonial saying that I declare today World Rache Day.

Hey, I’m just plain weird, so shut the hell up >.<. In fairness, there’s a nice ring to the name "World Rache Day". I like how it rolls off your tongue pretty nicely! It’s funny though: I don’t know for what particular reason I derive amusement on such a prosaic little thing as simply viewing her profile and dropping her a simple thoughtful testimonial, but I’m just plain happy that I have her as a friend. And were you to ask me four years ago whether I’d actually get to know Rache well, I’d probably scoff it off and say "I wish!"

Let me get this point accross: I’m not her boyfriend. Each of us are living lives of our own. Heck, we haven’t seen each other for nearly 4 years now and the only form of communication we have for each other is by instant messaging through internet, cellular phone and sometimes friendster messages. The funny thing is that I didn’t even know her that much while she was still in the same school as I. We talked, yeah, but our conversations have never gone beyond answering the commonplace questions of "how are you" "what’s been up" and "got test". She graduated when I was in my second year of college and I thought that’s it: the day when I hear of her the last  has pretty much gone to pass.

Nearly one year later came the advent of friendster. Now if you think this is a "true-friendster-inspirational story" article, this isn’t. I’m not vouching for anything, or anyone. In fact, I wrote this entry almost purely on impulse, with little to no thought of the words I type. But where was I? Oh yeah, friendster. Anyway, it took a while before I expanded my list of friends where eventually I found my friend who has Rache as a friendster friend. What great wonders network community have for bringing friends back at tab with each other’s life!

But there are only so much you can do with adding a person in your list of friends. Regardless of what network community you use, a friend (in cyberspace, that is) is just a virtual identity where you just so happen to be able to see his/her face and smile for being  lost in nostalgia (or complete lack of) while reading his/her profile. You won’t suddenly become close with those people by just looking at their picture in the internet. Good Lord, if that were true, then Angel Locsin would’ve been my best friend now! Heaven knows I have no idea what kind of person Rache is. No, heaven knows I have no idea what more than half of my friendster friends are like (although most of them I have met personally)

So I decided to do something different, and to put it bluntly, it was daring. In one of those days when I felt dreary, I started sending short messages to some of my friends. Most of the message I send are something among the lines of things I write for my blog. There were few who were amused at what I’ve written and Rache was among one of them. She was also among those who retained constant communication with me ever since I first hit the send button. The exchange of messages started until eventually I grow so fond of hearing from her.

It’s hard to believe that just 3 years ago, Rache was someone I can only look at from far away. That is still probably true, but at least I am so happy now that she has become someone who I can constantly send thoughtful messages to or have instant message conversations with. Whenever I see a new message in my inbox that comes from her, I am guaranteed to have a moment of smiling in elation.

I used to think that developing friendship by things you do in the internet is nigh impossible. But Rache has proven me wrong and I’m glad she did. Come and think of it, most people just see internet as a place to have their leisurely walk to a gateway of different sceneries, or maybe get match-maked into someone completely anonymous. Not many have thought of wanting to cultivate friendship with internet acquaintances, especially those done without selfish intentions. With people like Rache, I’m reminded as why there is still beauty left in the internet. I don’t just mean it literally too. She’s the muse who opened my eyes to the new possibilities of the internet and this possibility states that while the internet is commonly known as superhighway, it’s also a ground on which long-time passive friendships becomes active again and acquaintances evolve into friends. All you need to have is a penny for thoughts, an open mind, courteousness, and altruism.

At this point I would also love to mention other people whose friendship I developed in a similar manner as Rache, but I digress. After all, today is World Rache Day! :grins:

I think it got lost
somewhere among all those spectacular events that happened in my life in
yesteryear, but I didn’t chronicle one of my 10 final days
before we all departed 2005 - unless you’re like my friend, Patrick, who still
live in 80’s. Haha!. This day wasn’t particularly the best, but it did
give me quite a few insights that I’d like to share with everyone.

I actually studied in Bacolod during my high school years. Some of my classmates from my previous school - Chiang Kai Shek College -  which is located in Manila were a little curious as to where I have been in all those years. They
wouldn’t have known the answers too had I not come back to Manila
to pursue my college degree, but apparently, I spent a thousand days in Bacolod, including those
days when I have to further my high school education.

There were many factors as
to how I ended up living in Bacolod
in the twilight years of the 90’s, and one among these is due to my hatred for
teachers. That’s right: I detested a lot of them in my school in Manila, and had hoped
that the school where I transferred to will have a better staff of educators.
They were, but I’m not too slow to point out their petty flaws and I’m quite
notorious among the bunch of teacher lampooners. Even during college, this habit nearly didn’t subside.

For 5 years, I haven’t visited the school (Bacolod Tay Tung High School) where I
am an alumnus.

It was the 21st of December,
2005 - Chrisjane’s birthday, might I add - when I revisited my high school. My
purposes of setting foot inside the school were not merely to relive my high
school days, but also to visit my high school teachers.

The now unfamiliar corridors were quick to remind me that I haven’t come back to this school for too long. Nothing remained the same. My high school classrooms were no longer how it used to
be. The library was moved. In no way does the school
resemble how it looks back when I was a student. In no time, I find it harder and harder to fulfill my first objective.

As the ominous sense of
unfamiliarity start to overwhelm, I was only left with one more thing to do
before I head outside the school’s gates: and that’s to pay my old teachers a
visit.

The search took long,
but I managed to find their office just when I was about to give up. There I
was, at the door, greeting my History, Math, Science, Filipino and Chinese
teacher, and they reciprocated with familiar smiles and a series of
questions one would ask a longtime-unvisited-friend.

The first thing I realized
about my high school teachers is that only a few of them remained. Some retired. Others died. In fact, had I come at the same
time next year, I’d probably be missing a couple more.

But that did not stop me
from conversing with all who remained. And in fact it was fun, because
suddenly my high school teachers were asking me questions they wouldn’t
normally ask in classrooms, such as how my college education went, what my
plans were, how I live by, how long I’m staying in Bacolod, how I
got around in Manila, etc. Heck, they even amused themselves at guessing who my high school
crush was, and my answer was: whoever it is you thought I “admired” or
“loved”, know that it is a past tense. It took quite a while before I
head home, and by the time that happened, I suddenly perceived my teachers
under a whole new light.

As students, especially as
high school students, we’re either always too eager to win the teacher’s
approval, or become overtly rebellious. It may be our aversion towards
their high expectations. We see them merely as a means toward achieving our
diploma, and when we had attitudes, we actually hated our teachers for telling us
off instead of reflecting on our wrongs that will eventually take its toll once we graduate.

But we forget that, as
imperfect as they can be (and trust me, in my life I saw quite a lot of
assorted kinds of flaws a teacher can have), teachers are,
as the cliché goes, merely human. They have jobs to do; wages to earn; ends to meet; stresses
to cope with; frustrations to curtail; reputations to live by; families to feed;
and principles on which to stand. Their life stories are not always a beautiful
sight. The fact that it’s severely tiring to stand and lecture
for hours make teachers deserving of at least a little commendation. While
we’re ultimately responsible for our greater
learning, they bear responsibility in laying the foundations. Even though they
may constrict us with their ideologies, we have to acknowledge that it may be
for the best of us. On what basis should we shamelessly lampoon our teacher
when most of the time we’re not any better?

So once again, I’m not
against you speaking badly of your teachers, as long as it’s founded on a good rationale. However, we should also not forget that teachers also face
the pressures of juggling life in and outside work. As we end this entry I ask you this
question: would you be happy to receive the same backlashes when you grow up?

I’d wager you probably
won’t. So start respecting your elders and take the rudimentary steps by
treating your teachers properly.

I don’t originally intend to add this entry to my blog, but since I received a series of e-mails regarding information about Taiwan, I think its fair I post a response to the country of which I carry a citizen card.

Before anything, let’s take a look at the emails:
—————————————————————————————————
Anthony Pena wrote:
 

—————————————————————————————————

autocad.. as in autodesk?
—————————————————————————————————
Anthony Pena <(info withheld by author)> wrote

I
guess so… autocad as in autodesk… yung ginamit sa mga cad subjects ng
engineering sa lasalle… I think yun yun. Interested? Let me forward
your number to my aunt. Ano number mo?
—————————————————————————————————
Indrabudhi <(info withheld by author)> wrote:

is the 26T is net or gross?? and then, how much is the living expensess
in Taiwan? coz so far i know is not cheap to stay there ah..
—————————————————————————————————
Darlene Li <(info withheld by author)> wrote:

hope this helps
—————————————————————————————————

Indrabudhi <(info withheld by author)> wrote:

Thank you for your info… it really help..
—————————————————————————————————

NOW, OFF WITH MY REPLY:

(OT: Hello Lindsey, it’s been a long time since I last heard of you. And you too, Anthony.)

As someone who’s carrying a Taiwan citizen card, I think it’s time for me to speak.

Indeed, Taiwan has a high cost of living. This is the rough list of expense for your daily needs:

• 1 hearty meal from vendors, where it is cheapest but not necessarily awful in its taste: At least   NT50. Now multiply that by 3.

• Commute: Normal Bus: NT15-30, varies with distance. Metrotrain (subway): NT20-50. Train: NT50-way up.

• Clothes: Night Market’s: NT200+. Designers: God knows how much more expensive

• OPTIONAL: EasyCard, (sort of like MetroCard, for those who are
  familiar) the card used for Metrotrain and bus: NT 500 for initial
  purchase, with capabilites of being "reloaded" with optional amounts.

Unfortunately, I can’t say anything about the rent because I live with
my cousins whenever I go to Taiwan, so I don’t know. Lindsey’s info
should be pretty accurate.

Now regarding the job offer, I’m sorry to berate and derail Peña’s
offer, but there are companies that offers the same job with much
higher salary. My cousin, for instance, is an AUTOCAD engineer, and he
earns nearly twice as much. Unfortunately, I don’t have his contact
number, and his English is way mediocre, so I don’t think I’ll be able
to help much in this department (but if you really want to, I’ll try).
To be honest, the Taiwan’s general populace have poor English, and
sometimes their forced English diction are downright obnovious: you
ever see "Now Open" and "New Arrival" in Philippines? Right there, even
5-star hotels carry the grammatically incorrect sign of "New Open" and
"New Arrived"! On the plus side, if your English is decent, it’s easy
to earn money by teaching, whether by being a private tutor or by
conducting English classes.

But that’s not to say everything about Taiwan is bad. In fact, Taiwan
is one of those countries whose beauties are unsung. To be frank, I’m
sick of people recognizing Taiwan merely as where "house of congress
are like boxing stadiums". If you look past the fact that Taiwan
government’s way of dealing things are a total embarrassment to even
the most anally-retentive spectators, there is much to like about
Taiwan.

For starters, if you live in Taipei, you can almost practically go to
any places you’d be needing to go without cabs or cars, as commuting
with the Metrotrain has become really convenient (and it’s going to
expand much further two years down the line). Then, there’s the food:
you don’t need to go to the most posh restaurant or the prosaic
fastfood chains (I’m looking at McDonald’s) to have a really hearthy
meal, as many night markets have vendors selling foods that would
satisfy your gastronomic pleasure just as much (sometimes even more).
You just need to know the right places, so pay no attention to those
negative feedbacks people may give you (and I happen to know the right
places too). Then, there’s the clothes. One trip to Shihlin and you’ll
find that you absolutely WON’T EVER BE NEEDING TO BUY designers clothes
since most of the peddlers’ smuggled/imitation clothes have just the
same quality. Worthy of note too: Taiwan is recognize as one of the
world’s most progressive in terms of electronics and the like
technology, so if you’re crazy about latest gadgets, laptops, media
players and cellular phones, and want to purchase it for lower prices
than in the Philippines, Taiwan is definitely the place to go. Lastly,
if you’re willing to devote yourself to learning Chinese, you’ll be
exposing yourself to a country carrying lots of richly written
literatures, artbooks, computer books, and mangas, for cheap. Of
course, there are also a lot of english computer books and some english
translated comics sold somewhere in Taipei 101, but those are regularly
priced according to American pricings: meaning, it’s expensive.

I hope this brief rundown for what it’s like in Taiwan proved to be
helpful. In any case, if you want to know more, contact me where you
can (and start from my e-mail, thank you)

Not a lot of people know that I
actually participate in fair amount of voluntary work. Most of the time I’m
requested by Chinese speaking people to be the bridge between their
communication to the Filipino’s they’re dealing with. In other words, I am a
non-professional translator, and I do this job for free.

Now that’s fine. I mean, I
work twice as much as normal people because of that, yet most of the time I
don’t begrudge such a fact. There are times, however, that I couldn’t
understand why people who requested me to do volunteer work show so little
generosity and even empathy.

For example, last week as I
was in a car with a group of people, going to Kaibiga, a province in the
outskirts of Calooocan, people inside communicated amongst themselves not even
saying a single word to me. Besides the fact that I already feel quite uneasy
being inside the car of someone who’s nearly a total stranger, these people did
not open up to me oblivious to the fact that I am doing all of them a favor of
taking a “translate-for-free” tasks. I’m not the most loquacious person and I
don’t beg for royal accommodations but attempts to speak with me would’ve been
appreciated.

Of course, I wouldn’t have
griped so much about this had it only happened once, but it happened multiple
times amongst different group of people. I know I may not be the most benign-looking
person of the bunch, but somehow there’s something disturbing about the culture
these Chinese are promoting to me. In similar situations where I am inside a car
with groups of all Filipinos, heck, even when in cabs with a total stranger,
people would open up to me before I could even say “talk”.

Meanwhile, I am going
through all of this while picturing myself looking at a glass window, watching
events unfold, with little to no involvement, from people who know me but won’t
let me know who they are. I wish these people can look past the fact that I can
speak more than 3 languages. I wish these people will realize that I, too, am a
person who wants to connect with others; that while I can do translations, I am
also capable of feeling lonely. I wish these people knew that I don’t give my darnedest about my reputation or who my parents are, and that all I want is to feel connected and not seen as a distant stranger. So please don’t treat me like I’m somebody’s
equipment, or some little insignificat detail that’s only meant to achieve a task; but treat me like how you would amongst yourselves.