Out of my mind

The 2017 MMFF is officially over although one or two films continue to be screened in some theatres.  We went to Glorietta today and noted that Siargao was still showing, although it only had two screenings, sharing a theatre with a cartoon movie. I refused to write about the 2017 MMFF; didn't even make a reference to it in my FB account because I honestly believed - and I still do now - that the whole exercise has lost relevance.  I don't really know if the festival made money this year; I had this nagging feeling that it didn't because there was the noticeable absence of the usual drumbeating that the major studious used to make to entice more people to patronize their trashy (and usually more popular) entries. As usual, and as expected, the better films (Larawan, Siargao, etc) didn't make a killing at the tills.  In fact, there was this hullabaloo about the pullout of Ang Larawan in some theatres because it wasn't making as much money as expected.  Of cours...

Choosing a planner is a major annual undertaking for me.   Yes, I own an ipad and an android phone, both of which - I am told – offer more effective ways of helping me document and track my appointments and activities.   But habits are very hard to break.   I have always used a planner since I started working (and I need not tell you how long ago that has been) and has been dependent on those “reengineered notebooks” since then.   It’s just a little more satisfying to physically write down your thoughts and see them materialize on paper.   So thanks for the many suggestions about new apps that could “change my life” – but it’s still the old-fashioned planner for me. I will admit that there were two years in a row when I jumped into the bandwagon and drank a lot of designer coffee just so I can brag about having that overrated designer planner from that overrated but oh so indispensable coffee chain.   But those planners are not really meant for –...

A new year is always opportune time to start all over again.  A new year always offers a fresh chance - even if it is a chance to embark on yet another journey that is difficult to accomplish or finish. But then again, "try" has always been my middle name. It's been almost two years since I stopped writing my column for that daily newspaper.  I don't exactly miss writing for that paper - after almost ten years of slaving to meet deadlines in between three jobs, there were days when writing seemed like a chore, like simply filling up a page with words - some of them almost meaningless.  A large part had to do with the fact that there were political considerations that had to be "complied" with, which got tiring after a while. When do we know enough is enough?  When we stop. But I have had no regrets.  Writing that column helped speed up my maturity process, even if there were times when I wondered if all that was worth being bullied, insulted, mocked, r...

Michelle Obama  recently delivered what I believed to be the most convincing, most heartfelt, most authentic, and most credible speech related to the US elections. I have always been in awe of the US First Lady.  I thought her "when they go low, we go high" battlecry is particularly inspired.  And I love the way she always puts herself above the fray.  This woman defines class.  And is so good at it. I am not American, of course.  And I know that what I have to say is not particularly relevant because I am not voting in the US elections. However, as a citizen of the world, I feel I have a responsibility to point out exemplary conduct of a public official that is worth holding up as an exemplar.

To say that we live in an interesting period is a major understatement. I suspect that twenty years down, behavior science specialists will have a field day trying to make sense of the seemingly unexplainable phenomenon we are seeing today. I have been blogging and writing a column all these many years and I know what it is like to be exposed to all kinds of reactions to an opinion.  But I am completely floored down, thrown off the wall, and genuinely alarmed at the viciousness and the utter lack of restraint among those who post political comments and opinions out there.  It's like a Roman Coliseum out there, and everyone seems  poised to not just take down whoever stands in his or her way, but to maim, obliterate, annihilate. The level of violence in the discourse is alarming. This is one reason I have not gone back to column writing despite an interesting offer. It's the same reason why I have not been as active in Facebook.  The temptation to join the f...

I know -it's one of the oldest cliches out there, this thing about getting into a morose and reflective mode on New Year's day.  But I am a creature of habit (some of them really bad, bordering on the neurotic) and making resolutions has been part of the annual routine.  Last year I made an extra effort to ensure that at least some, if not most, of my resolutions would get fulfilled.  I made the list as the  wallpaper of the PC at work and wrote them on the first pages of my planner - I never got through a day when I didn't get reminded of the things I swore I would do in 2015.  Did it work?  To some extent, yes.  I did try to walk at least 10,000 steps a day and tried as much as possible NOT TO EAT MEAT, the operative word being "tried."  But hey, the results of the my blood tests have been consistently good, so I guess I did get some headway in 2015 insofar as sticking to the resolutions. I haven't gotten around to doing the list for 2016. ...

I honestly and sincerely wished for a successful hosting of APEC2016. I didn't agree with those who thought that the country had very little to gain from being host.  To begin with, I didn't think passing off on the opportunity was a wise option; it would have been like admitting we were not in the same league as the other countries.  Globalisation is far However, I did think that holding the summit in Manila was a wrong move on the part of the Aquino administration.  I get it - the summit had to be held in a city with adequate facilities to house the various heads of states.  The last time APEC was held in the country, President Ramos built villas for each of the heads of states inside Subic (the villas were later rented out).  If we stuck to the template  we could have brought  development to places like General Santos City, or Tagbilaran City, or Tacloban City, or even Puerto Princesa City.  Actually, I think APEC2015 could have been hel...

I am not sure there are still people who visit this blog; when I checked the stats, it says there were at least 35 who passed through today - not sure why, or how.  It's been more than three years I think since I last updated this blog, so much has happened since then. There's so much I want to write about. I started out as a blogger, so I guess I am just returning to my roots. I promise to start blogging again. But first, I want to rebuild the archives in this site pertaining to my column.  

My October 20, 2015 column. Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has always been a political gadfly.  She has never been known to conform to anyone’s idea of what is acceptable, consequences be damned.  She has also been renowned for never holding her punches, often spewing what many would consider outrageous statements.  She has never been known to have long-term loyalties, or to have a core ideology, other than looking at herself as a Messiah of sorts. It would seem as if Santiago’s main purpose in life is to challenge conventions and in the process, annoy or infuriate others.  Of course there are those who think the world of her, but it would be difficult to find someone other than her family members who has consistently been pleased with her actuations or statements.  Santiago is who and what she is; and it is unreasonable to pick the things about her that we admire and those we find repulsive. Her decision to run for President, therefore, should not hav...

My October 1, 2015 column. On the first day of the filing of certificates of candidacy for national positions last Monday, a total of 22 individuals trooped to the national headquarters of the Commission on Elections to manifest their supposed earnest desire to offer their lives in the service of country and the Filipino people as President. As of Thursday evening, there were close to a hundred presidential hopefuls! The number was astonishing because for a while back there, most of us were actually bewailing the utter lack of choices for the 2016 presidential contest.   Of course, we all know that the number of hopefuls would be decimated in a few weeks’ time when Comelec declares some, if not most of them, as nuisance candidates. Nevertheless, there are a lot of things that can be said about the surge in the number of people who actually believe in their heart of hearts that they could and should be President of the Republic of the Philippines. We can all take an optimist...

My October 13, 2015 column. The circus officially begins this week when those aspiring for national office start trooping  to the Commission on Elections at Intramuros to file their respective certificates of candidacy.  The whole exercise will be marked by all kinds of gimmickry which people will try to pass off as ceremonial pomp and pageantry.  There will be ati-atihan dancers, marching bands, cheer leaders, confetti, and hordes of placard-waving and shrieking supporters garbed in whatever colors the candidates have chosen to represent themselves.  What all the extravaganza has to do with the occasion baffles the mind. When we come to think about it, the filing of certificates of candidacy should be a solemn, if not sacred, moment.  It’s when a candidate declares under oath his or her sincere intention to serve the people.  It is supposed to mark the moment when the proverbial die is cast, when a candidate makes a date with destiny....

My October 11, 2015 column. It’s too bad there won’t be a box in the ballot in next year’s elections that says “none of the above” because I am sure there will be quite a number of voters who will choose to leave the slot for President or Vice President blank. Of course there is the possibility that some people will still have a change of mind as the candidates begin to engage voters more aggressively during the official campaign period, but there will be many who will not be swayed. I know quite a number who are firmly convinced, this early, that no one among Mar Roxas, Grace Poe, Jejomar Binay, and Rodrigo Duterte—who are considered the frontrunners for the presidency—deserves to become President of the Republic. I, personally, have not made up my mind on who to vote for President or Vice President in 2016. There’s just no one among the four putative candidates who inspires confidence in me. However, I believe that leaving the spaces blank in the ballot is not a wise option in ...

My October 4, 2015 column. The official campaign period for the 2016 national elections hasn’t started yet,  but the circus has already come to town. The circus acts are bound to be more risqué  and the gimmicks dirtier because of, first, the intense competition among the various  political parties, and second, it is just so much harder now to entice people to come  to political gatherings just so they can listen to some candidate regurgitate shameless  self-promotion propaganda.  Gyrating dancers clad in sexy attires; singers who slither onstage and flirt with candidates  and the audience; lewd and bawdy jokes and statements with double entendre  or laden with innuendoes­—these have always been the staple of political sorties  for as far back as I can remember. My earliest memory of a political rally happened  when I was a little boy and it involved a female singer in sequined shorts singing  “Saging ni Pacing” on...