Destination Unknown

Hey all,

I placed a few new pictures on my Boracay Travel Journal posts.

May 28,
2007
Morning
Final morning. The very dreaded day. Nearly everyone woke up feeling
woozy, as if tossed out from a centrifuge.

We ate without tasting our food. We drank without being quenched of
thirst. Everyone was frowning as the time back to Manila drew
nearer. I still hadn’t claimed my prize shirt.

Thankfully Joana was there, and we hanged out with each other again.
This time we took a much longer time being in each other’s company,
conversing about a lot of different things, almost like the
conversation I had last midnight, except I was dumber and less wittier
today since I didn’t sleep too well. It was funny that although we
did speak to each other a few days ago, we were usually just talking
about my food. But today, we discussed plenty of things that were much
more interesting than simply what satisfied the gustatory senses.

Being with Joana gave me a realization. I had traveled many places
but I had never made new friends on foreign lands with people outside my family’s
social circles. In Taiwan the people I get introduced to were my
cousins’ friends, and in Manhattan it was my sister’s boss (who was
terrific! He’s Bob Dylan’s friend too!) But Joana, she’s unique.
She’s the first I’ve ever befriended while I’m on a foreign land, and
thanks to her I now know how that feels. She made this vacation
more special than it already was.

Take a picture. Will last longer.

Current mood: Blissful
Current
song: Pennies from Heaven – Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes

Everytime it rains, it rains,
Pennies from heaven,
Don’t you know each cloud
contains,
Pennies from heaven?

Noon
The inevitable came. We had to leave. It was time for me to go
separate ways from Joana. I actually felt sad about saying goodbye to
her, although I tried not to make it too obvious to anyone. But gee,
Joana was, literally, clad in diaphanous draperies as I waved goodbye
to her. She looked exactly like the muse that I described 3 days ago
(based on my imagination, as she wasn’t wearing an angel outfit then). Thanks to how she looked,
she will become permanently etched in my psyche, as the
representation of the ubiquitous girl who would appear and make
writers/musicians/poets/artists feel euphorically inspired.

Lunch was just as insipid as breakfast, though the taste was probably
more affected by sadness rather than the ineptitude of any kitchen
crew.

We still had a few hours of wait before we finally check out of the
resort and go back to Caticlan. But there’s no more Joana this time;
her group went home to Manila 2 hours earlier than us (she works in
Manila, by the way). Deciding to spend the last few hours enjoying
the beach, I stayed while everyone else went back to their respective
rooms.

On the beach, I sat down under the tree, staring into the horizon and
just vegging out. I gathered my scattered thoughts of what had
transpired on our vacation. Then I started to think about what I’m
going to do next. Reality will come back to send me its threats as soon as I step
on Manila. Moments of happiness are fugacious, and only by what I do
after it can I determine when the next moment of happiness will come.
I was truly happy about exploring new places, getting to know few of
my colleagues better, meeting new friends, and having moments of
quiet reflection. Most of all, I thank God for giving me this
opportunity of reassessing my priorities and rediscovering myself, by
giving me my much-needed vacation.

And so, the time finally came. We checked out of Patio Pacific and
took the jeep. Going the same route as our 2 hour biking from 2 days
ago, all of us who had biked then recalled the memories of such day,
smiling at the tacit reassurance to our great achievements. Again, I
declare, that I wouldn’t trade mountain-biking to banana-boat riding.
By this time, all of us understood why biking was a fantastic idea.

The rest of our trip back to Caticlan wasn’t as special anymore.

About to leave…

I hate saying this, but we’re really leaving on a jet plane.

Current
mood: Quiet
Current song: Desafinado – Stan
Getz and Charlie Byrd

Love is like a never-ending
melody
Always have compared it to a symphony
A symphony
conducted by the lighting of the moon
But our song of love is
slightly out of tune

Night
We boarded on the Sea Air flight back to Manila. Plane ride
still blows. This was the few moments when everyone was together yet
was quiet. A few people fell asleep, and a few looked outside the
window, probably still reminiscing the times gone past. I looked out
of the window too doing much the same thing. And then I looked at the
clouds, observing what their formations resembled. One particularly
scenic formation looked like a group of pilgrims going to a promised
land. This image left a very strong impression to me, because its
mere presence was like a parable to our company. We were all just
lost souls, finding answers to a lot of our worldly problems. Boracay
was our pilgrimage, and it served a good purpose to us all. Our
company finally got more comfortable with its own people, and we’re
no longer crippled by awkward reticences. Maybe tomorrow, our company
will never be the same again. Or maybe it’ll stay the same.

What’s certain, is that the four days in Boracay will be a memory
that I’ll forever cherish.

Beautiful. Just, beautiful.

Current
mood: Self-assured
Current song: Where the Streets
Have No Name - U2

I wanna run, I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls
That hold me inside
I wanna reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name

THE END

May 27,
2007

Morning
Yesterday’s relaxing evening strolls managed to detoxify me from
worldly anxieties and pessimisms. I started the morning feeling quite
refreshed. I was bent on making the most of my final night in
Boracay, so I won’t waste any minute being unhappy or doing anything
detrimental to my enjoyment.

But apparently not everyone woke up refreshed. Some could hardly wake
up at all. Assembly time was supposed to be on 900 AM yet there I was
swimming on the pool (which was next to our meeting place), all the
way to 1000 AM, with almost nary a single colleague on plain sight.

It was really weird, but everyone’s been greeting “good morning”
to me. I’ve got a feeling that I’m the person the staffs in Patio
Pacific remembered the most. It’s quite peculiar having to go around
places and being greeted by warm strangers everywhere; the last place
where this happened to me was in Manhattan (but that was Manhattan).
Anyway, the staffs probably knew me as the vegetarian guy who was
very inquisitive about the ingredients of the foods that they were
serving, or maybe as the guy who would say thank you for however
small services the staffs had brought out. It’s pleasant both ways,
and I was actually able to chat with quite a few of the staffs, and
learned that some of them spoke the vernacular that I have
assimilated before.

Team building activities resumed from yesterday. Rankings indicated
that our group came in second, and the activity coordinator promised
great rewards for whoever came in first at the end of today’s
session. Winners would be given certificates that they would have to
show Joana, so that they’d be given a t-shirt. “With any luck,”
joked the coordinator, “you might also get Joana’s phone number.”

“Yay!” approved most guys. Rrright. Also, there were new
instructors that led our morning exercise activities. These dudes had
Greek god’s physique and they were introduced as fresh and single.
Cue sound of girls getting giddy. Here we go again.

The first activity consist of running around in blindfold while doing
silly things like eating bananas, crawling under tables and twisting
on hula hoops. The second activity had us filling up 20 packets of
pool water in the shortest time. By themselves the games were pretty
basic, but they were sufficient in establishing rapport and teamwork
among group members. Most fortunately, our group got in first place
on both events, making us champions. Woo!

The coordinator had one more task left for us, which was to discuss
and to reflect on what has happened. The coordinator cited various
observations from the games such as how some groups were nasty to
their opponent on their first game, how some groups love to create
strategies, how everyone was good sport about everything, etc. Some
of the topics brought up had people arguing back and forth about
competitiveness, sportsmanship, teamwork and chuva. Or that’s
how it sounded like anyway since I wasn’t really paying much
attention. It was just so weird being within earshot of assorted
paraphrases from Sun Tzu, Michael Porter, Dale Carnegie and Justin
Timberlake while the radio played Black Eyed Peas’ “bebot bebot
bep… PILIPINO!!!”. I was almost nonexistent from the whole
discussion with the exception of answering a question of if anyone
knew what schadenfreude meant. I knew. I was praised for my
extensive English dictions, I guess. Of course, no one knew that
schadenfreude is one of my many hobbies. Hah!

What immediately followed was the (mandatory) moment of gratitude for
a job well done. This moment of inspiration was like those times when
people held hands and sang “If we hold on together” in unison.
Ick. Well, at least the bags given to all of us were all kinds of
awesome. To quote the McDonald’s catchphrase, “I’m lovin’ it!”

And thus the team building ended. We spent the rest of the morning
swimming on the private pool.

I should be thankful they didn’t ask us to jump, or else we’d look like monkeys

Half the team had to fill up packets with pool water…

… which they had to throw to the remaining half opposite of them.

She’s teaching Confucianism!

Current mood: Happy
Current
song: Summertime - Billie Holiday

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high
Oh! Your Daddy’s rich and your Ma is good lookin’
So, hush little baby, don’t you cry . . .

Noon
Lunch in Vanilla Lounge. Zzz.

At noontime, we didn’t spend a lot of time outside, partly because it
was so hot, and partly because everyone wanted to have a good rest.
Eventually, by around 3 pm, we all went out. As it was before, we
were again divided into two groups: the first one of those who wanted
to spend the noontime on a bar, the second one of those who wanted to
bathe in the beach. I was among the second one, though I didn’t
really swim for too long when compared to others. It was quite
thrilling to be swept away by constant streams of tides; however,
seawater was a little too irritating for my facial skin, so I
couldn’t last long being at the sea. Maybe a reason to this was due
to heavy UV rays brought by global warming. Yeah, I remembered The
Inconvenient Truth even if I was at a place where I wouldn’t watch such
documentary.

On our way back to the resort, we went to buy a few souvenir clothes.
I managed to snag a few good bargains too, so, yipee!

Somewhere between going from this place to that, I passed by someone
I’ve unmistakably seen before. It happened so fast that, by the time
I realized that it was actually Ley, she was already too far away and
it would be silly to chase her. Shucks, it would’ve been cool if we
could hang out with each other on Boracay. What’s worse was that I
was reminded again that I missed this Saturday’s Web Design class
(Ley was our HTML instructor in First Academy; I’m now taking up the
next subject, Photoshop). Oh well, I guess I just have to make up
when I go back to Manila.

Tayo na sa beach… at tayo ay mag-swimming…

Current mood: Bluesy
Current
song: I Let A Song Go Out of My Heart – Andy Bey

I let a song go out of my
heart
Believe me, darling, when I
say,
I won’t know sweet music
Until you return some day

Night
One of the items we were required to bring for this company outing
was a white clothing. On this night we were to wear our white clothes
in participation of this activity called… err, what was that again?
Luau? Lualu? Luaualalalilolelelolipops? Lulu… oh, I give up.

I had
no idea what we were supposed to do.

Dinner was served on the garden (the natural one, not the Garden Cafe
one) and bad trance music was played. I happen to have an intense
dislike for house and trance music, so I instead listened to my iPod,
and then I realized that the battery was near dead. So I left my seat
and attended to my iPod’s needs; gee, I love that stuff far too much. On
my way back to my room where I can charge my iPod, I saw Joana, and
she invited me for a cup of coffee. I declined because I was supposed
to be present in the Lu-whatchamacallit event. And so I went back
there, finished my meal, and wondered what on earth was supposed to
happen next. Then I got bombarded and beleaguered by questions of how
it must suck being a vegetarian, how meat tastes great, how I should
try it to have a more complete life, yadda yadda yadda. You know what
occurred to me right this very moment? I probably should have just
hang out with Joana. I was liking the idea more and more, and so I
excused myself again. This time I agreed to have a coffee with Joana
along with her company of friends.

Gee, the coffee tasted terrific! I was so curious about what blend it
was but I didn’t get any answer. Too bad. What’s even better was that
the coffee was actually ON THEM, that I did not have to pay anything.
Wow! I was quite amazed that people were being so generous to me. Joana
and her friends chatted with me about various things, especially asking about what
has happened during our stay. I found it very entertaining to be at
her presence too because she and her friends had a way of keeping our
conversations very lively and interesting. I got her call card, and
later on I realized that hey, I was the person who actually won
Joana’s number, and to think that I was also the person who had initially
despised the idea of objectifying Joana as a prize of some sort.
Hahaha. Sometimes irony just loves to bite people in the ass.

We look like human toothpastes

Current mood: Lively
Current
song: I Feel The Earth Move – Carole King

I
feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down
I
feel my heart start to trembling
Whenever you’re around

Midnight
Everyone knows what it’s like the final night of every excursions.
Most people would choose sleeping on the wee hours of the morning.
Some wouldn’t even sleep. I was one of the people who planned not to
sleep.

Four of my colleagues and I waited until 5 AM so that we could watch
the sun rise. It sounded like a good idea anyway, except it rained on
5 AM and the sun didn’t actually rise on the beach where we were
near. We were on west side. And so we learned that we would’ve sucked
as sailors since we didn’t know squat about heliacal and celestial
arrangements in relation to us.

The overlong wait was, in fairness, quite entertaining. We talked on
a lot of subjects (like office life, life’s philosophies, us,
politics, love, etc), mostly expressing our point of views on certain
situations and sometimes even debating with so much passion. Too bad
the plan to see the sun rise was foiled by our ineptitude to constellations, further worsened
by the inclement weather.

(No pictures here)

Current mood: Pensive
Current
song: Mood Indigo – Tony Bennett

You ain’t been blue; no, no,
no, you ain’t been blue,
Till you’ve had that mood indigo.

(CONCLUDED HERE)

May 26, 2007

Morning
I woke up at 730 AM. I don’t know if I was earlier than most people
but thankfully I wasn’t so late that people had to call me tardy
(that distinction did go to someone though).

Breakfast is usually the most convenient for vegetarians.
Particularly for lacto-ovo vegetarians, which is my kind. Also, I
have a penchant for hotel’s or resort’s breakfast buffet, and the
selection in Garden Cafe (the same place where we had yesterday’s
supper) looked quite good. So of course I made a mistake of taking
more foods than my stomach could handle. I cleaned plate being so
full, that I got dizzy. Blech. I don’t like the way this feels.

Later in the morning was the beginning of the heart of this trip,
i.e. The Team-Building events. Yay! There was an activity coordinator
who led the gist of the team-building games and tasks. We started
with morning exercises to get warmed up, led by two exercise
instructors who were introduced as some sort of “gigolos for hire,
single and available”. Eww. Of course the girls were all
giddy-giddy. Not to be unfair, Joana was re-introduced to the boys in
much the same way. Double eww. Gee, can’t people ever stop doing
this?!

We were then divided into four groups, and then we played a couple of
weird games. The first one involved getting around an obstacle course
while picking fake eggs. We lost this game, much to the anger of some
of my members (but the loss was something I didn’t care about). We
did better on the second game. Coins were thrown to the pool and each
group had to assign one diver who would pick certain amount depending
on the answer of a problem the rest of the group was to solve. Math
nerds revel. Wee. We came in first. Double wee. Guess math nerds
belonged to our group.

We want to get funked up!

"Bora-bora" is how we spell "awesome" (our team)

First game

Second game

Current mood: Funky
Current
song: Mothership Connection (Star Child) - Parliament

And if you hear any noise,
It’s just me and the boys
Hit me, you gotta hit the band

Noon
We had lunch on a different place, but it’s still an establishment
from the same resort. What’s different was that Vanilla Lounge was a
lounge, which meant that there were comfortable chairs, house
sommeliers and audio equipments. And karaoke machines too for people
who like to bring out the singer in them. Our colleagues sang to the
tune of Air Supply, Barry Manilow, James Ingram and their ilks. Hmm,
I thought the preferable ambiance to a lounge was standards. Anyway,
people had so much more fun than I did, because karaoke isn’t my cup
of coffee.

Noontime = sleeptime. Again. The sleep was shorter though as I really
wasn’t that tired. Afternoon, a number of people from our company
went to mountain-bike while the remaining went to ride the banana
boat. I prefer mountain-biking, so I went with the former group.

Mountain-biking was a lot of fun, and I can imagine that it was more
so than banana boat riding.  The common percept is that beach is what
represents life in Boracay; step on the pedal and follow the
Boracay’s different roads, and one can see that Boracay isn’t simply
about beaches, and that the locals in comparison aren’t actually very
well-off. Their life is actually pretty basic, especially for our
standards. Banana boat riding was just an experience of ephemeral
thrills not too different from the kind you get when dropping from
great heights to a loop de loop on a roller coaster; mountain-biking
was a great workout and an actual sightseeing. It was also an
activity that taught important life lessons: with highs come lows;
slow and steady wins the race; with hardship come great rewards. And
rewarding it indeed was: the end point of our journey was actually a
near-derelict beach (Manoc-Manoc) which was every bit as sightly as
our resort’s yonder beach.

Of course, every workout comes with sweat, and sweat comes with
thirst. After 2 hours of mountain-biking, we went to a beverages bar
inventively named Juice *rolleyes*. But don’t let the uncreative name
fool you, the drinks they serve are actually very, very good and
refreshing. I would recommend it to anyone who passes by.

Singing their hearts out

Cue battle cry!

To the other team: this is what you missed!

At Juice

Current mood: Worked-up
Current
song: You Bring Me Joy – Mary J. Blige

It’s not hard
To say what I
feel

Night
Supper was meh. Nothing too memorable. It was still in Vanilla lounge
but at this point people had become bored with karaoke.

And so I went back to my room to read Ubik.

Ubik is a book about alternate realities. People who clamor in The
Matrix’s philosophy of the world should know that the concept actually originated from Ubik. Of
course, being a sci-fi novel meant that Ubik had a lot of technical
jargons that I struggled to understand. There are psis, people who
has telekinetic powers. Anti-psis, people who counters psis.
Precogs, people who can predict the future, much like those trio from
Minority Report, which was unsurprisingly a short story written by
the same author.

But wait, this isn’t a book review article, and at chapter 5 I was
starting to get quite distracted with this notion: if I was thrust
into an island from far away then why was I wasting time-space
continuum answering home-proclivities? Besides, Boracay wasn’t exactly
the entity that inspired ideas of the parallax of reality to
pseudo-reality. I had a cognitive shift, finally cognizant that
reading garbled science and philosophy jargons while imagining
space and satellites wasn’t a good way to spend time in Boracay.
Enough reading. Enough sci-fi geekspeak too. ^_^

I walked to the yonder beach. This time I decided to explore on my
own. I always wondered about how it’s like to have a quiet stroll on
the beach, and I’ve read from various places that it’s a very
romantic experience. Well, I can’t say if I felt romantic since I
didn’t take the stroll holding hands with a loved one, but I did feel
that it was quite relaxing and that it did put me in the
contemplative mood. Standing there, being touched by the evening
breeze, smelling the salty air, hearing the music of seawater rinsing
the shore, and appreciating the unperturbed serenity, while putting
all of the world’s worries on the back burner, is actually the kind
of sensation that puts me on a high. I don’t need to be intoxicated
to feel euphoric.

I came to a realization that I’ve not been making a very good use of
my vacation time, and so I had a change of heart. From this moment I
made it a point to savor every minute I could spend experiencing
Boracay.

I went back to the resort so that I could go out again with a group
of colleagues. We just walked around the beach, sightseeing. There
was a chance meeting between me and one of my high school best
friends, Vincent Tiu; so Rache (my friend) was correct in telling me,
weeks before, that it’s nearly impossible to go to Boracay without
meeting someone I know of. After briefly chatting with Vincent and
his companions, I went back with my companions and we chose a spot
near the sea, where we had small talks and where we made good-natured
fools of ourselves (despite being near an untalented band performing
tacky renditions of The Beatles’ songs). I was finally enjoying this
vacation and I feel like I was at the beginning of a new season of my
life.

Night talks around the fireplace (really?!)

We leave our mark!

Current mood: Introspective
Current
song: My Sweet Lord – George Harrison
I
really want to know you
I really want to go with you
Really
want to show you, Lord
That it won’t take long,
my
Lord Hallelujah

(CONTINUED HERE)

May 25, 2007

Dawn
Flights. Yeah, tell me about how gruesome such experiences can be.
The schedule, the ear-shattering noise, and the food. Our company had
planned a four-day, three-night trip to Boracay, and today was our
departure date to such place. Apparently, this was the umpteenth time
I had to ride on a plane, and after not being on a flight for over a
year, today I was reminded again of how unpleasant the experience can
be.

Waking up early proved to be the most irritating. Our plane was
scheduled to fly on 6 A.M. I had to force myself awake at 4; no small
feat, considering I had slept later than midnight. The schedule by
itself was enough to make me dread the whole idea of the trip; it
didn’t help that after all the efforts, the flight was eventually
delayed, which caused me to feel grumpy about all the troubles I had
gone through. Oh well, at least I finished reading Charlotte’s Web
while I waited for boarding time.

Ian getting a beauty sleep.

Current mood: Cranky
Current
song: Come Fly With Me – Frank Sinatra. 

Once
I get you up there, where the air is rarefied
We’ll just glide,
starry eyed…

Morning
In case you wondered, we didn’t take a direct flight to Boracay, but
rather, we went to its nearby island, Caticlan. We reached Caticlan’s
airport at approximately 8:30 AM. Then we took the bus, the boat, and
then the jeep, to Patio Pacific, the resort in Boracay where we
booked. I suppose this was probably the cheaper way, if not the only
way, to reach our place. Whatever the case may be, it’s not really as
terrible as it sounded, as the entire trip from Caticlan to Boracay
only took around 15-30 minutes.

The funny thing was that until now, I still was feeling quite
indifferent about the whole trip. Here, let me explain. I have a
certain notoriety in the office of being quite a recluse. I don’t
often interact with much of my other colleagues and I hardly ever
open up to people who don’t belong to my team. I fancy traveling to
a place that I’ve never been to before, and I’ve never been to
Boracay; however, I probably would’ve preferred a crowd that I’m much
closer to, such as my siblings, or my friends from college and/or
high school.

Anyway, our first activity was snorkeling. I like seeing what’s under
the sea, but sadly the last time I did any snorkeling was 10 or so
years ago when the world was quieter and people didn’t entertain
themselves by talking loudly on the cellular phone while watching
movies. This had, of course, been an activity that I looked forward
to for the longest time, and I was ecstatic of being able to immerse
with the sights of the corals, the schools of fish and the barnacles
(Ok, the last one was a joke).

I don’t know if the rest of my companions were as thrilled. What I do
know was that a lot of them can’t swim, so they could only snorkel
for a limited time wherein I could do it the whole day.

Or could I? While the rest wore life-vests, I was threading the
territories of bravery and foolishness by not wearing any flotation
devices. Little did I know that my lack of snorkeling experiences
eventually took their toll, for I spent a very long time trying to
get used to breathing on a tube. So hard was my struggle to stay
afloat and to keep my breathing intact that at one point I thought I
was going to drown. I was quite scared.

Eventually, I overcame all my fears, got used to all snorkeling
devices and was ready to see the sights of the underwater.
Unfortunately, time was up and everyone was about to leave. And there
was no camera that could take underwater pictures, so I was really
bummed about the brevity of the whole activity. Oh well, maybe being
short-lived was what makes each experiences of underwater
explorations so special for me.

Look at me hanging so tightly to the rope

Current mood: Bummed
Current
song: Seven Nation Army – White Stripes

I’m
gonna fight ‘em off
A seven nation army couldn’t hold me back

They’re
gonna rip it off
Taking
their time right behind my back

Noon
The boat that had taken us to the snorkeling spot also took us to
lunch, by going to a restaurant by another beach. Puka beach. I’m not
even sure if it’s part of Boracay. Anyway, being a vegetarian meant
that eating would be quite inconvenient, but thankfully this small
restaurant served generous amount of herbivorous foods. And they
actually didn’t taste like cardboard that I actually felt half-sorry
for not remembering the name of the restaurant.

While a few of my colleagues busied with looking at a few souvenir
stalls, a dog approached me. And, well, none of us knew this, but my
uncle had a dog that looked exactly like that. You know how sometimes
when you see someone that resembles your close friends, you kind of
want to treat the lookalike as your kin too? That’s probably what
propelled me to be friendly to this dog. I massaged his ears and I
let him lick my hands, which thankfully wasn’t overly gross like the
last time I let a Central Park Zoo’s cow lick my fingers (now THAT’S
disgusting). The dog seemed to grow so fond of me that he followed
all of us as we were leaving Puka beach. And then I get flashbacks of
my younger years when my uncle’s dog would play with me and accompany
me when I went out to Taiwan’s night market.

Gee, I feel quite sad about saying goodbye to the dog. Had it been
more convenient I would’ve taken him as my own pet.

And now we’re back to Patio Pacific — or the resort where we stayed,
for readers who don’t remember. It was finally free time, which for
me meant rest time. I needed to restore some energy after being
sleep-deprived on the day before.

The dog

Staring into the horizon.

Current mood: Sleepy
Current
song: Visions  – Stevie Wonder

People
hand in hand
Have I lived to see the milk and honey land?
Where
hates a dream and love forever stands
Or is this a vision in my
mind?

Night
There were probably others who have slept the whole afternoon. It
seemed that way to me since some people came to Garden Cafe — our
assembly area — while rubbing their eyes. I had rested well enough
by then, so I now had enough energy to comprehend anything. Or so I
thought.

What happened next got me so dumbfounded.

Our entire group was introduced to the event planner who was
responsible for a few of our itineraries and activities. This was a
company outing after all, and the entire purpose was for
team-building (a phrase with which the true meaning/s merits argument
of semantics, but whatever). Her name is Joana. She looked like that
lady in diaphanous draperies writers/artists dream of, and she had a
smile that could make warring nations consider signing truce and
peace treaties. If only George W. Bush had met her. The way your
smile just beams… the way you haunt my dreams… (gee, I’m
singing.)

Joana was the goddess of goddesses, and to many, goddess of goddesses
meant that it’s someone with whom you fool around with by
objectifying. Grr. All I am saying is that I didn’t like the way she
was introduced: as someone with whom you can score for a “room
service”. Of course this was followed by streams of nasty comments
(or stares to some nether regions) from far too many origins:

“I want her number!”
“Let’s date.”
“Awoo!!!”
“Yeehaw!”
“Yeah baby!”

Puerile. Can’t there be more class to the way good-looking people get
introduced in a corporate environment? It’s like deja vu all over
again.

We had supper at Garden Cafe. Well, it certainly sounded fancy but it
was actually just the name of the restaurant from our own resort.
Foods here were edible but they’re not exactly the kind that would
make me go “Hey, did you know that [that restaurant] actually serve
awesome vegetarian foods? What say you we try it?” At least I’m
thankful that they actually have something I can eat.

Everyone has their own definition of nighttime. To some it meant
quiet time and to others, it meant acting like an epileptic monkey.
Me, I’m a teetotaler; and while I can be quite a social animal at
times, I still feel rather bored with what’s happened in the trip so
far. Not to mention, I was aloof from most of the crowd.

I wished my brother was with me. Being an intrepid traveler who would
spend every waking minute hopping from one place to another, he would
scold me until I have acquiesced to go out with him. He’s definitely
what I need now because if I didn’t have motivation then coercion
might be key.

Everyone got stoned on the room next to mine and, from the pictures
that I saw, a lot of them did a lot of crazy things. Frankly, I don’t
like the sight of drunks, but that’s just me. But have you wondered
why I don’t like getting drunk? Well, to me it just seems rather
pointless. I don’t need alcoholic drink to have fun. I want to have
my mental faculties on a lot of things that I do, one of which
includes chronicling accounts of my travels. Drinking could dull my
mind and I don’t want that, however momentarily. Also, I think that
recreational drinking is an activity that I could do anyway at the
local bar and that I do not need to do it on foreign lands unless if
I’m consuming an indigenous drink, which does not include bottles of
San Mig, the last time I checked.

Of course, I too did a silly thing I might as well do at home. I read
Philip K. Dick’s Ubik until I was sleepy. Ha, the irony!

Dinner at Garden’s Cafe

Stoned under orange haze

Current mood: Sober
Current
song: Our Love Is Here To Stay – Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

The way your smile just beams,
The way you sing off key,
The way you haunt my dreams,
They can’t take that away from me…

(CONTINUED HERE)

Few gripes out of the way first:

Pan’s Labyrinth can probably be considered one of the best movies of the last
year, and Bridge to Terabithia for this year so far, yet they
both lasted for only a week in the theaters of our country
(Philippines)?! Damn you big-budgeted Hollywood blockbusters for revolting and cobweb-bing
(if you catch my drift) theaters everywhere and supplanting movies
that
are far, far superior!

And Damn publicity! What’s with giving misleading trailers of Pan’s Labyrinth
and Bridge to Terabithia? Both of these movies focus more on the personal lives
and drama of their leads, and yet their previews made them out to be just another Narnia-cum-Potter
action fantasy Version 3.0? See, this is exactly the reason why my lazy "film
critic" friend had, so casually, cast off both films as just inferior
versions of Harry Potter (without ever seeing both; what an idiot!). Way to have no
idea what he’s talking about.

Anyway, I’ve been having a Walter Mitty movies fix lately. Who? What Walter
Mitty? Walter Mitty is a fictional character that has become very famous (and either
much beloved or much maligned) that his name has been included in the dictionary, and
is defined as an ordinary, timid person who is given to adventurous
and self-aggrandizing daydreams or secret plans as a way of glamorizing a
humdrum life. Snoopy from the Peanuts comics is a good example of
someone with a Walter Mitty complex. The protagonists of movies such as Big Fish
and Finding Neverland also display prominent Walter Mittyish
characteristics. I also used to imagine myself as a sort of secret agent
exposing conspiracy theories within the hallways of Chiang Kai Shek College.
But, well, enough self-aggrandizing; let’s veer the attention away from myself
for once.

The two most recent Walter Mitty films from memory are Pan’s Labyrinth
and Bridge to Terabithia. Unlike all those aforementioned films and
characters (including myself), both films include protagonists that use their
imagination as an escape, instead of simply a glamorizing, to their lives.

In Pan’s, Ofelia (the protagonist) is thrust into a Kapitan Vidal’s (her
stepfather) manor where both of them can monitor Carmen (her mother) giving birth
to Vidal’s child. Taking place on Civil War Spain, fascist Kapitan Vidal
defends himself from Republican resistance groups, while also being
irrepressibly cruel to everyone — including his wife’s doctor, and his maids
(especially Mercedez, the movie’s other protagonist).

Mercedez’s faces tremendous pressure as a maid who has to serve a master
she so thoroughly despises and has to keep watch of both Ofelia and her mom.
She tries to curb kapitan’s cruelty (with little to no success) while
cushioning Ofelia’s from tough times (again, with little to no success).

If Mercedez is Ofelia’s link to reality, then the faun is Ofelia’s link to
fantasy. Ofelia sees fairylike creatures and later careens to a deep labyrinth in
the forest outside the manor. A faun appears and informs Ofelia that she came
from another world, is indeed Princess Moanna, and has to fulfill three tasks
in order to come back.

The movie never tells you if Ofelia’s visions of fairies and frightening
creatures are real or not, and her actions in her journey never have any direct
consequences to the real world. What is clear is that this journey gives Ofelia
hope that she can receive freedom from all the havoc her stepfather is
responsible of creating. For each and every test, Ofelia learns a lesson that
bears a striking resemblance to the parables from world’s religions. Yes,
common sensibilities will tell us that living on a fantasy are a destructive
way of dealing with problems. Think of this for a minute, then: People — even
creatures — in this movie suffer in some of the worst way possible, like having
a feet sawed off, being killed by being hit repeatedly in the head with a water
container, and having the side of the mouth cut so wide open it had to be
stitched (consider this also a disclaimer at the movie’s violence; it’s
definitely not for the kids and the weak at heart). Can you, then, blame Ofelia
if you consider that she’s young, helpless, and lacks the ability and maturity
to make sense of her forlorn circumstances?

If in Pan’s the character’s fantasy is a defense mechanism for someone
subject to the most atrocious form of cruelty, then in Bridge to Terabithia the
fantasy works as a defense mechanism to the problems of everyday people. Unlike
Ofelia of Pan’s (we probably don’t live under a dictatorial captain’s manor),
Jesse’s problems are something most of us have experienced: bullies, annoying
siblings, unappreciated skills, finances and boredom with the world in general.
His life receives a turnaround when Leslie becomes his new neighbor and his new
classmate.

While Jesse is a talented artist, Leslie is a talented writer. In spite (or
maybe because) of their talents, both of them are actually considered the
school’s loners, cast out by classmates and bullies who are very likely not as
intelligent. They differ in their attitude and perspective of the real world;
Jesse allows the real world to bother him. And, well, we can all say that
Leslie has her own optimism, is very imaginative and probably slightly crazy.

Jesse is initially annoyed with Leslie when she tries to befriend him. One
day however, they race to a creek inside the forest and find a rope that Leslie
believes can swing them across to another world. When they have swung across,
Leslie lets her imagination run wild, by declaring a derelict tree house as
their tower, and that they are King and Queen entrusted with the responsibility
to protect their dominion, which Leslie
calls Terabithia, and to defeat some kind of Dark Master. 

Jesse starts to believe her, not because he sees with his own eyes the things
Leslie has imagined, but because he sees them with a shared imagination. It
gives him a good-natured kind of enjoyment. And why not? It’s not everyday when
we see someone creating his/her own imaginative world and has the will to share
such experiences with others. Leslie sure has (and I sure don’t). Never waste the opportunity to be with someone who thinks outside the box; the world is full of corporate-speaking, youtube-watching, iPod-listening,
Macbook-touting, Starbucks-drinking and reality-TV-gossiping dull duds.

Everyday, after school, Jesse and Leslie go to Terabithia to solve
different problems: sometimes mundane, sometimes fantastic. They try to fend
off annoying squirrels, find ways to stop their school’s bullies, and defeat
giant trolls. While all of this is happening, they have become best friends.
They also assimilate the positive traits of each other: Jesse being encouraged
to be more open about his artistic skills and to become more courageous, and
Leslie being encouraged to deal with her everyday problem with as much aplomb
as how she defeats giant trolls.

And this is the point where I have to stop describing the plot details lest
spoilers become aplenty. People who have read the book probably know what I’m talking
about. When denouement kicks in, one suddenly realize that any initial
predictions of the movie’s tone is untrue. The best quality of Bridge is that
it avoids Hollywood conventions and does not squirm from delivering what
reality really could.

Indeed, both movies have similar motifs. Both of them use similar
approaches in teaching sensible lessons that one could understand, perhaps,
only if they view the world differently. The characters
in both movies choose to view the world and deal with it by crafting an imagined one; by the end of both films, viewers might wish to be transported in the
same imaginary realms. This is not just simply because these realms are wonderfully imagined, but also because the experiences in them parallel the experiences in real world and, therefore, they are suggestive of a solution (because there always is a solution to any life’s problems). If this may justify the Walter Mitty complex, we learn
from both movies that fantasy has about as much to teach us as reality.

Besides,
aren’t movies a kind of an escape too?

A while ago when I was on my way out of work, someone, who supposedly will arrange foods for my trip to Boracay, wondered about how and why I have a special diet. It was then that I am reminded of just how curious and interested people can be about this particular idiosyncrasy of mine; a good confirmation of this can be felt when such topic could be bought up even by a person I’ve just met.

Most of my friends are already aware that I don’t eat meat. What, you didn’t know? I’m a vegetarian since way back when it was indy. I’m not just someone who converted simply because it’s a fad and it’s fashionable. I’m a vegetarian because I believe in animal’s right to live, among a host of other reasons. Anyway, my determination is very strong, so don’t bother trying to get me to eat meat.

Being a vegetarian certainly has many advantages that, I would argue, outweighs its disadvantages (For example, it promotes better health and greater compassion to all living creatures). However, convenience certainly isn’t one of its advantages.

For one, at least in the Philippines, not a lot of fastfoods, eateries and restaurants provide choices and amenities for someone with this special diet. It’s better than before, yes, but it still isn’t easy. There are a lot of times when I didn’t know what to eat because there isn’t any vegetarian food or because the vegetarian foods immediately available are scarce.

Also, I’ve been subject to prejudice and bigotry just because I eat differently. I know there is such a thing as a good-natured teasing, and I’m cool with that. However, back when I was in elementary, people derided me of being a vegetarian; and when I tried to get the teacher to protect me from these unrelenting bullies, she sided with them and joined in their contempt. For someone whose job is to teach, she sure doesn’t have an ounce of class.

All said and done, I think it is great to be a vegetarian, but I won’t guarantee that it will be easy for everyone. But think of it this way: vegetarian is called "special diet" for a reason. One will not reap the benefits of any diet if one doesn’t sow discipline (I sound like a Biblical passage). Once you get past those obstacles, I can assure you that you will receive all the benefits of being a vegetarian. And please dispel the myths that vegetarians are missing half of their
life. Au Contraire. Vegetarians have their substitutes for the meats
they couldn’t eat. Even without those, vegetarian foods taste great especially when prepared by great chefs. So why not give it a try?

Feel free to post comments if you have further questions about what it’s like being a vegetarian.

Spectacular Bloggers what? If you look to the left of this text, you’d see a column. One of the rows - the one just below ABOUT - reads Spectacular Bloggers. It’s the place where I post links to some blogs that I enjoy reading.

Now for those who have been constantly reading my blog, you will notice that some of the links have changed. Patrick Ty’s, Sam Oh’s and Ika’s blogs are no longer linked. This is because they haven’t been updating. It’s really quite a pity too because I really enjoy reading their work. Should they ever decide to post new entries on their blog, I will immediately put their links back up.

There’s a sort of Zen-like meditative vibes that come from saying good things to other people. Even if it can be challenging to write, thinking of all those positive things about my favorite bloggers proved to be a very a good way to reduce stress, particularly since I’ve been really cranky a while ago (you can read about it in my previous entry). Hmm, what I said about positive thinking got me into thinking. But yes, I’m in a much better mood now. Apparently a series of good things have happened after I posted that previous entry. So it’s safe to talk to me now ^_^

I really need to get this off my chest, but I’m in a very cantankerous state now.

I came to the office ready to tackle on projects du jour. I was, at the very least, mentally prepared to do a great job, and I expected to be busy and productive the entire day. However, the most unwelcome of all office debacles happened: the internet connection was as smooth as an epileptic dancing the chacha. Because my job and especially my project were practically crippled without an internet connection, I was practically frozen stiff at my own workstation. Of course, this is the one day when I didn’t bring the books or handheld videogames that were supposed to keep me busy in case I had some idle time. Now I’m stuck with being idle, savoring the pungent tastes of stagnation, minute per minute. And, oh yeah, my cellphone is also running low on battery, and I’m kind of not in the mood to listen to my iPod (it’s morning after all, and I’d rather listen to music at nighttime). Grrreat.

I had utilized the cellphone for a few minutes before it decided to, you know, become even weaker (yeesh!). Bastard whiny needy midget who can’t save its life without a charger plugged on its butt, this phone freakin’ cried on me whenever I sent a message! What’s with the over-proliferation of emo anyway that even my gadgets decided to evoke this just when they have started to become anthropomorphic? But anyway, I sent a few text messages to my good friend Rache, and I just learned that she’s given birth! Aww, shucks, congratulations! I’m really happy for her. I mean, just look at this pic and see if you don’t get cheered up.  Isn’t she lovely?

Now if only this wasn’t the sole good news for an altogether awful day, I would’ve felt even better.

Disclaimer: The baby isn’t my daughter! See, this is why I still am crotchety. Show a baby pic to your colleagues and they’d start thinking that you’ve become a daddy, and even if you deny it they still will insist that it’s true. Ugh! Now let me get back to sleep!

There was a time when people would send you long-winded testimonials. Nowadays, testimonials have also become known as comments, and they have “evolved” into a concise commentary on random things that may not even be related to the recipient. Anyone who still does that long-winded stuff will be laughed at being “so 2003!” Progress has a funny way of making people lazier. Being fair, I have to say some of those verbose testimonials were awful and cheesy, but I’m not going to deny that I miss receiving them despite their poor writing qualities.

And you know what? All these have nothing to do with what I’m about to post. There goes another evidence of sloppy and unprepared writing very prevalent in the internet. But what can I do when I’m so bored that I couldn’t think of anything thoughtful to say? I was so bored with my lack of tasks that, few minutes before posting this entry, I’ve been reading my friendster testimonials. That’s like, 15 pages of unmitigated waste-of-times (but, in an awesome sort of way). After going through ALL that, I kind of feel better than before, so I guess all those effort did not go to waste if only because they were able to bring a smile on my face and cheer me up.

Maybe this is a good time to reread all your testimonials. Yeah, try it. Might bring back fond memories. And while you’re at it, maybe this is a good time to send people a few comments too.