wala lang.

took the 430 pm bus from manila yesterday. veteran traveler that i am i had a blanket with me, a bonnet, a warm sweater, and thick socks in my bag for back up.

it was still warm when we left manila but i had a blanket out. to my surprise, the young lady beside me had a blanket too, which made me smile. we got comfortable and as i am wont to do when i travel, i slept.

the bus got colder as the night wore on. at some point i took my socks out and wore them, and covered my head with the blanket because it was freezing in the bus. with all my covering i was still cold and i could feel my face getting colder by the minute.

i took a quick glance around the bus and saw this guy and his girlfriend, huddled against the cold. i couldn't help but tsk tsk when i saw that the guy had no jacket on, and the girl was wearing a tiny thin windbreaker, which is useless in mobile freezers like the one we were in.

i felt a tinge of envy, though, because frankly, i would have preferred a warm body to snuggle up to. instead, i had my winter clothing keeping me warm.

oh well, at the end of the trip he was still freezing, and i was a bit warm. can't win 'em all.

badong, the latest victim

sab told me about teddy te's post.

my first reaction was, 'tangnang mga 'to.

wasn't it bad enough that under raul's deanship the better professors left the college? wasn't it bad enough that they put dean agabin on instructor status?. wasn't it bad enough that they installed professors who had no idea what "teaching" entailed?

dean badong is well loved. he taught us so well that even now, off the top of my head, i can answer questions about public office and administrative law. we have such fond memories of his stories in class, of him whistling "stella by starlight," of him teaching us what it was to be good by example, all the while teaching law in the grand manner.

these professors make me almost ashamed to be from the same college. the only saving grace is that people like badong and agabin come from the same place. like someone once said "up law has had its share of heroes and scoundrels."

go figure under which category those people on the public statement fall under.

do the math

the government subsidy for each inmate in the city jail is 10 pesos or roughly .23 cents per day.

that covers their food and who knows what else.

10 pesos for 3 meals. 3.33 pesos per meal.

i couldn't even begin to imagine living on that kind of budget.

get this. inmates are charged 10 pesos for every call they make or take. if their lawyers need to call them 3 times in 1 day, they pay 30 pesos.

i'm just a lawyer. mahina ako sa math. pero 'nyeta naman. kahit ako kaya kong i-compute yan. at kahit paano ko bali-baliktarin ang mga numero, hindi tatama.

what a fucked up system.

all work and no play...

makes you, well, you.

hmm. you probably don't even read this, but i suppose it's applicable to all workaholics out there.

you miss meals, breaks with your colleagues, and only manage to squeeze in coffee and cigarette breaks. you stay in the office late, you wear a permanent frown, you have practically cut yourself off from the rest of the living world.

but you know what? work will always be there. it will never go away. when you wake up tomorrow, it will be there waiting for you. you may manage to make a dent in your work load, but it will still be there.

but life? life is passing you by.

don't let it.

i'd take the jugs over the fox any day

"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is commonly believed to be the only English sentence devised to include all the letters of the alphabet. However, typesetters and designers have alternatively employed "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs."

-www.arcamax.com

the last time i checked...

i was still pinoy. so why is it that i've been receiving mails from people who claim to have added me as a friend on siliconindia which claims to be, and i quote:

"an invite-only career Indian community. You can use SiliconIndia to find a job or internship, network, and access valuable career information from peers and industry professionals."

what's this world coming to?

overheard

man 1: pang-ilan ka sa pamilya?
man 2: ah. second...second to the first.

what is my second language?

i was making burger patties earlier when i overheard a tv patrol host reporting about some guy named kimmel who made another comment about the Philippines. according to the report, this abc host said that filipinos probably don't speak english. you can read about that here.

i was taken aback. it's nothing new, really. i've heard this comment so many times, couched in different tones and tenors, and accompanied by various expressions. i have found myself explaining why i speak not just english, but GOOD english, all the time feeling outrage that these idiots who probably speak and write lousy english dare ask the question. (it's my blog. :D)

it's nothing new. but i was taken aback because for the the past 6 weeks i have been lamenting that my nephews and niece speak lousy TAGALOG. or as it's referred to now -- filipino. oh, they have the english language down pat, with one of them even using the word "minions" in an ordinary conversation.

i get pissed at the teachers who berate the children for speaking filipino. i get on my sister's case because she insists on talking to her children in english, even when they're at home. they probably couldn't speak filipino to save their lives.

and it's not just my sister's children. i see it everywhere. children who speak perfect english but who get tongue-tied when you ask them what "kisame" means.

where does that leave us?

english is our medium of instruction. according to our constitution, our national language is FILIPINO, but "for purposes of COMMUNICATION and INSTRUCTION, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English."

communication and instruction. filipino and english. it says "and" in the constitution. so why is it that schools employ one to the exclusion of the other? parents use one to the exclusion of the other.

why am i writing this in english?

shameful as it is to admit, i think in english. and i write english better than i do filipino. but like most from my generation, english was spoken in school, filipino at home (or ilocano for most of my classmates). it was an okay arrangement, i suppose. i mean, i still speak filipino well (and a smattering of ilocano), and i CAN write in filipino to save my life.

so why aren't things the same now? why does my niece's ate try so hard to speak english even though "look here" comes out as "look to here" or "shrimp" ends up as "shrim."

why?

i know my first language should be filipino, if not ilocano since i am from baguio. but i don't have the same confidence in my filipino speaking abilities as that of my english speaking skills.

going back to my opening paragraph, why did that kimmel comment not generate the same outrage as teri hatcher's comments about filipino doctors?

is it because it's true? is it because the so-called text speak is killing our language abilities (this is totally off topic, ano?). is it because we know that our english is declining, and in my opinion, so is our filipino.

so many questions generated by one comment overheard.

i laid down a policy in the house that the kids should only speak filipino when they are here. they are having a very difficult time of it, and mostly i relent when they talk to me in english.

i guess sometimes i would rather hear them speak english instead of having to listen to them murder the filipino language.

what is my first language?

...

do you sometimes wish that you were anywhere else except where you're at?

anywhere. but here.

update to the shelfari fiasco

yesterday i posted about the fiasco concerning shelfari.

i left a message on the feedback portion of the site, telling them about my (and karen's) dilemma. danny from shelfari replied this morning.

he said that he will add my email address to a list of addresses from which no reminders would be sent.

i figured it was best considering the circumstances. plus, he said that there's an option in the reminder email for the recipient to not be sent any more mail from shelfari.

sigh. that'll learn me.

can you hear me creaking?

i've been making pleadings for the past two weeks and i hadn't really realized how totally rusty i was when i typed this in:

highlighted italicized quote from supreme court...(emphasis HOURS)

hours? hours?? hours????

i went out to get coffee. to oil the brain.

sigh.

shelfari fiasco

okay. so there i was, happily putting virtual books on my virtual shelf when i thought i'd search for some friends who have joined shelfari too. so i let the thing search my contact list.

happy happy! i found some friends and their names were all checked. so i added them. only to find out that when i hit enter and scrolled down, ALL the people i've ever sent email to for the past 3 years, even that girl i picked a fight with for sending me the wrong item on ebay got sent an invitation!

hell i even sent myself an invitation to join shelfari.

the only consolation i got was that karen had the same dilemma. hahahah.

oh well. may i be forgiven for spamming. however inadvertently. :D

on hair loss and dandruff

i got a massage the other day and the masseuse noticed that my hair is thinning.

it has always been a cycle for me to lose hair occasionally, specially when stressed, or when my hormones are going particularly wild.

anyway, the masseuse said i should get calamansi and rub it into my scalp before i sleep. she swears by it.

so i thought i'd use technology (the internet) to research superstition (or so i thought). apparently there's scientific basis for her claims, which i will not get into at the moment. but i will quote a post in a forum of pinoys in japan. this is from user "puting tainga" and i quote:

Ayon sa isang doctor, if you have balakubak, it means you need more Vitamin B.
Corn, wakame (the seaweed), are the things you can get Vitamin B easily. (At saka mura. Mahal ang mga gamot o supplements.)

As for the hair loss, read the Bible and be comforted.
When the bad kids teased Elisha for his baldness, two bears appeared and killed them all. (2 Hari 2:23-24)
The hairs of your head are all numbered. (Mateo 10:30)

I hope this will help you.

made my morning. hope it makes yours. :)

un-anonymous*

i am officially un-anonymous*.

had a hearing last tuesday, the first i have ever had to attend in baguio.

up till last tuesday i was happily anonymous in the courts here. i can walk in and out of the hall of justice in shorts and a ratty shirt and no one would pay any attention to me.

unfortunately during the hearing i was interrogated by the judge regarding the fact that there are 4 lady lawyers in our family (i am the last one to ever show up), one of whom used to be a prosecutor. people stared and i felt sad that i became known.

now i can't dance around the grocery aisles (as i am wont to do), paint the town red, or drive like a madman.

sigh. small towns.

i miss my anonymity already.


*not found in dictionaries. just seemed appropriate for this post.

home

sweet home.

a host of problems welcomed me home but heck, i'm home. i will savor that thought. the problems can wait.

it's good to be back. :)