as a person who bask in the dazzle of hermitary lifestyle, spending time on my own or with my nearest next of kin is a joyous moment. not being a people person though is hardly socially crippling. i just limit the convivial stages amongst my kindred spirits.
and aside from watching tons of crap tv, i try to read. practically my whole life, i've been a highly-delinquent reader. i should read more than i what i'm doing presently. i should add to my reading items everytime i'll be in transit rather than ramble and mutter under my breath for the eternity i have to loiter in airports while waiting for my flight or the confounding hours spent boarded in the plane crossing the oceans of the earth. i've also been trapped in queues, lots and lots of queues. the dizzying capsule i try to consume by foaming in the mouth and lingering in limbo before an appointment or the ordinary activity of sitting stagnant in the tube, i should be perusing a classic paperback.
spending time with the written word, no matter how shallow, or whether or not the mixtures of vowels and consonants, sentences, gerunds and phrases are fluid and rhetorical, is simply bliss.
More than six years ago (2002), I wrote a piece on the jagged landscape of philippine soaps. Just like any other observer, my commentaries were not devoid of impartialities. A mere decade earlier in 1992, soaps were merely afternoon staples on Philippine tv. Then came La Traidora from Venezuela on RPN. After valeria and Morrel tied the knot in the jungle, primetime on Philippine television, which was dominated by news programs and sitcoms, changed its algorithm in 1996 with the vengeful and confrontational Mexican soap Marimar (played by Thalia) still on RPN 9.
With Marimar thrashing the competition, ABS-CBN moved the diary riddle of Mara Clarato primetime. The ever-suffering Mara then transformed into the good-natured Esperanza and the rest of the wannabes followed suit. But even before Mara Clara made its presence felton primetime, GMA-7 was already showing Villa Quintana with Donna Cruz as the lead. At that time, I couldn't feel Villa Quintana's impact at all, as though nothing was happening so we'd rather watch the news.
In the present landscape, soaps dominate and the foundation of a showbiz career. Cinema is too costly, relegated to second fiddle status. Viewing a soap is hardly an exercise in brain function. There's always a love triangle, a love twist, a love so endearing it travels through time. More than likely, we know how it is going to end. Most story lines are highly incredulous. Some writers indulge on too much whim, too much flair rather than keeping it compact and simple. The tube is inundated with too many remakes and fantasy series. the scenes are replete with confrontational acting -- characters bawling, slapping, drowning in shouting arguments. I don't believe in the manifestation of bad manners, even on this escapist pursuit. It's high time to bring out to fore the practice of values education, learned and inculcated in school or taught to us by our elders.
Like the weather, soaps are a conversation piece amongst one's peers. But I solely focus on JAS whenever I'm able to receive transmission. While a peek of Iisa Pa Lamang was to marvel on how Gabby C. could be passed off as Claudine's childhood contemporary, so it shoudn't be offered to me as part of my entertaining snack. One of these days, TV's movers and shakers will realize that the pinoy mind isn't made of rubbish and local television will come up with something substantial, not just the main meal ticket for the great pretenders.
For the Philippine remake of Marimar, it's the role of a lifetime. I'm not a fan. But I would look back at the video above with fondness. All the girls who auditioned will carve a successful path and those with talent and charisma will prevail.
i love michael phelps and kept tracked of his remarkable accomplishments from the sydney olympics, the world's in '03, the olympics in athens, the world's in 05, the world's in 07. unlike ian thorpe's predictions, i knew the phelp's is an immense achiever. usain bolt and the jamaicans are a revelation, although the trash talk is quite off-putting. nevertheless until now, i still can't shake off the image of marion jones falling from grace. didn't she have the all clear back in the sydney olympics?
ma lin finally won a major title while the lanky frame of wang liqin snatched up the bronze medal. i don't get a lot of table tennis fix these days as i did with espn-star sports asia days except for an odd broadcast here and there in eurosport. if there's one discipline i favor a chinese win, it's definitely pingpong, in contrast to the manufactured divers, weightlifters or boxers. zhang yining against wang nan for the gold medal, nice.
for every michael phelps or kosuke kitajima, there was laura manadou or katie hoff or even brendan hansen, swimmers whom i thought were going to win but didn't. it's been fun to acquaint myself with the likes of chris paul, carlos boozer, tayshaun prince, dwight howard, chris bosh and even dwyane wade -- one amazing player. lebron james, simply lives up to the hype. i have to mute the commentators against the matches with spain and argentina as they were hoarsely screaming for the underdogs. the gap is now non-existent between the NBA players and the europeans as the likes of wade, james and kobe bryant were still on the floor in the closing minutes just to fight off the pesky spaniards in the highly-competitive gold medal match (photo:getty images).
the legendary british team was simply superb in the velodrome. as the documentary from the beeb states, a medal haul is a definite possibility when a sport is "well-funded. " it's quite odd because you only read about chris hoy and bradley wiggins during the olympics, not even during the world championships. Team GB has done well with their best olympics in the past century. we'll probably witness veritable knighthoods awarded in the days ahead. i still have time to play back the equestrian events, rhythmic gymnastics, probably women's basketball and all others, if i get free time in the hour, taekwondo. and after five years, i got the hang of michael johnson annotating for the bbc. matt biondi , janet evans writing for yahoo! sports were captivating reads, for me at least.
london gets its chance in 2012, a tantalizing prospect. would the same athletes shine? would there be a new breakthrough of stars? would the same nations flourish? it all boils down to resources and grassroots programs. china have 1.3 billion people. jamaica's population is only 2.7 million, several notches lower than manila alone, but collected 11 medals. while the philippines is aligned with pakistan and bangladesh as populous countries with no medals.
as the utmost armchair fan, i ask for nothing more than bronze for RP, any other hues is merely an extra special bonus.
the first week of the olympics wasn't exactly ideal for me. the tv in our bacolod abode only had one channel for the olympic coverage and only during the evenings with tons and tons of infomercials during the day. one cable provider in my hometown doesn't cut it for sports enthusiasts, making me muff watching the gymnastics events, one of my favorite things. i got the brunt of the hubby missing his team GB parade during the opening ceremonies and that's because of the adverts, one minute coverage for ten minute commercials. we were watching more product ads than the show itself and compelling us to sing the Coke pinoy jingle by heart. it's probably not fair to compare the RP's olympic broadcast with the beeb and eurosport coverages, their websites alone are olympic candy delights, but a UK IP address an absolute must.
it's gravely disappointing that my home country is not in the medals table, we've not been in the medals tally since 1996, not even close, not even a single filipino athlete was in contention. what happened to the boxers from bago? a city that has produced world-class amateur boxers? if a team from mongolia can win a boxing gold medal, what about us? is it so highly-imaginable for the philippines to mirror the sports program of vietnam? we're not talking china here or even russia or not even thailand or indonesia or malaysia. singapore has a medal. singapore? our ASEAN neighbors have sailed past us in the sports arena and our officials are still quite nonchalant. there's more to life than catering to the least common denominator.
i'm still in a quandary whether i made the right decision. should i have uprooted my baby album from our family house? heavily tattered by years of wear and tear, i had to re-package my first collection of photos into a new picture anthology, still preserving my mom's legacy by retainingher lovely captions. my baby book with all the vital informations is still with the youngins. the photo above was during my first birthday held at my lolas house. my titas one and two were starting grade six and tita ais was in high school. my lola cel and dels, my mom's aunts, took the place of my maternal grandmother who passed away two years before i was born. with the outpouring of emotions, i miss my lola cel and dels terribly.
a bit of nostalgia has bitten me when i was repairing my album. this is me with my tita jon, my mom's cousin. she's my brother butch's godmother. she was only 19 in this photo. the last time i can recall any conversations with her was during her wedding way back when i was eight. she has settled in new jersey since the 80's and and because it's not exactly next door, i can't remember seeing her again. but her kids, especially the younger one, i reminisce with remarkable fondness.
it's a long standing cliche that i've never ventured that far south of negros. the farthest i've been was isabela and that was only because it was my dad's hometown. i've conveyed through the north a few times. literrally in transit as it was, as escalante is the gateway to cebu and jomabo island, another offshoot of my white sand frolic.
yes, sipalay is a wonder and provokes one to forget boracay exists. from bacolod, the roads leading to district six are quite tricky especially when it's dark, lamp posts or any lights for that matter are not aplenty, driving very carefully is a must. as hazy as my memory is, i can only remember a few road towns and cities (i've got mention them officially) on the way to sipalay -- bago, valladolid, pontevedra, hinigaran, binalbagan, himamaylan, kabankalan and cauayan then there's sipalay, 173 km from bacolod, the farthest i've travelled within the negros island. not a keen traveller nor an ardent backpacker, i gaze at the travel photos of my friends with a hearty smile with nary a hint of jealousy and envy. but every few years, there are photo ops. i savor those provincial and regional encampments during the girl scout years and the solitary student writer's conference i attended outside of bacolod, in janiuay, iloilo.
the mountain views in the chicks (cauayan, hinobaan, ilog, candoni, kabankalan and sipalay) area are a sight to behold. how i wish i would always have ample time to do my bit of exploring. once in sipalay, the concourse leading to the various sights and resorts is even more perilous than i expected, charting the route during nighttime requires a more intense concentration. but once we reach our destination, it was all worth it. the beach usually burns my skin and it did. that was what occured when i didn't dig deep to acquire the right sunblock. the island hopping was exquisite but my epidermis was already too distressing from the sun rays to even try spelunking. we enjoyed the spatter of history in campomanes bay and gawking at the opulent english divers in high gear at the resort makes me content of being a non-diver. if plummeting to the deepest oceans is for the posh and adventurous, then judy ann santos is posh with her diving endeavors. i'm one for sitting around the edge of the pool and swim in the pool for sissies.
there's also whale watching across the road in the oriental side of negros and a bunch of other beauties not only in cauayan nearby but all across the province. cauayan is huge. on the way back, i've noticed that we were driving for an hour and we were still in cauayan.
as a prelapsarian youth learning the ways of the world in bacolod, i was only accustomed to punta taytay. in high school, our farewell parties and day-long tidings to the summer consisted of a few miles outside the city--- taloc beach in bago sophomore year, balangigay beach in pontevedra in junior year and canonoy beach in hinigaran. those were already joyous moments. a few more in adulthood wouldn't hurt one bit.
i've come across pages from my psych assignment in my freshmen year in la salle avenue. it wasn't that awful. my sentences were mostly grammatically correct and the instructor was generous. but two years before that i was rebuked by a high school teacher for over-reaching on a paperwork -- i featured three topics instead of one with photos. i didn't compose it badly but was nonetheless announced to the class as an example of what-not-to-do for the subject task. in retrospect, i think the teacher was a bit backward in her approach. my words may not have been high-falluting or great sounding as written on the essay she gave the highest mark on but it was certainly far from the tedious outputs of some classmates.
during my schooldays and a couple of years post-grad the typewriter was my fantasy possession. getting through class would have been breezier if i owned just a compact word device but since we were hard-up -- that and the most advanced calculator for my high school trigonometry woes were not the top ranked priorities in our family's financial scheme. by the time i was able to afford and purchase a portable word processor, the laptop was all the rage and i have to slowly succumb to all things digital and its peripheries.
gazing through old photographs, my mom certainly had the words, especially with her captions. her handwriting were always top class as presented in our family albums and old letters. i grew up dusting and organizing her collection of books. she was an avid hoarder and a wide reader and a speckle of her good qualities rub off on me. so when i was thrown in the deep ends of the chiz pits in adulthood, i may have been grasping for breath and got categorized as highly-peculiar without the lenses but the view is bereft of uncivilized edicts of the snobbish ton.
some tiny ants though have attacked a copy of my jane austen classic and three works by dickens. they simply adore a taste of singapore paper. to utilize an overhyped slang, there's no use crying over spilled milk as i can easily avail of copies from an oxfam branch. a 1991 magic johnson paperback profile was heavily battered and needed to be thrown away but i found another copy untouched and all pages secured -- quite a charm.
perhaps there's more to life than to google judy ann santos. i don't really intend to find out, as i get bored with everything else. i try to analyse a few of my friends and confreres' imbroglios and just feel let down if they would rather not peer through outside the box. so i have to view their solicitude as a dramedy plot and acknowledge my outsider role to a tee. i've long accepted that the human race thrives on anxiety and it 's often more fruitful to listen than judge. if an opinion is not solicited, it might not be welcome.
now let's go back to judai. i saw a copy of ysabella on dvd. how come this dvd was not promoted and marketed? damn those powers that be. i hear about the lobo dvd all the time as well as walang kapalit and the quabbles that bespoke of the female stars of the aforementioned soaps. i don't like the ysabella ending anyway but i surely heart judy ann.
as a person who bask in the dazzle of hermitary lifestyle, spending time on my own or with my nearest next of kin is a joyous moment. not being a people person though is hardly socially crippling. i just limit the convivial stages amongst my kindred spirits.
