Sunday, October 21, 2007

The Catcher in the Rye

Peole call me Rye; and Rye is a cereal. At least my life-long identity crisis has been answered simply by a grass-grown grain. I am not alone, since barley and wheat are my cousins. I also happen to be useful. According to Wikipedia (copied verbatim; hence plagiarism)

"Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskies, some vodkas, and animal fodder. It can also be eaten whole, either as boiled rye berries, or by being rolled, similar to rolled oats."

So I guess you now know who I really am. If the title seems familiar, well I got it from the title of A.J. Salinger's book (plagairims again).

The book is about a youth who was afraid of adolescence. He was expelled, bullied, beaten and finally was taken to a mental institution. His mission in the book was to catch children falling from the rye baseball field; thus the title of the story.

So I guess I should be thankful that people call me Rye. Wait till my friend Phallus (Aris) hears about this one.




Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A Matter of Common Sense

If all people are children, then earth would be heaven; Not literally, otherwise we would be having sequels to the "Children of the Corn" books and movies and earth would be hell.

If all people are children, having a naive philosophy in the way things are perceived, then we can easily see that the problem in the world is simple. We can easily see that the street kids are hungry and homeless. We can see that the old people in the streets need shelter and comfort.We can build a world based on common sense. But that's far-fetched from what we have right now; however I saw a small glimmer of hope one Saturday evening.

Like other Saturdays, My wife and I brought our son to a video rental shop. We rented a Dora vcd and my little boy asked if he can play in the McDonald's Playhouse just beside the shop. As we got out the double doors, my son was greeted by an Aeta boy.

The little boy, like other unfortunate Aetas, seemed malnourished. He wasn't alone, a few steps away from him is his family; His mother begging for money while feeding a baby in her bossom. Three sleeping children, whom I assumed to be the little boy's sibling, shared the spot.

Innocently, my son greeted the little boy back with a smile. He walked towards the little boy patted the little boy's head (he does that a lot to babies) and asked why the boy wasn't wearing any slippers or shoes. The little boy did not reply, but looked at his feet instead.

Imagine my surprise. My son saw beyond the difference in skin color, hair and language. He saw what was necessary.

If an adult sees the little boy asking for help, his first instinct is to either check his pocket for coins or to ignore the call for help. But to my son's point of view, the little boy needs a slipper because the pavement is cold and his feet might get hurt; common sense.

I told my son to give the boy some coins as for the moment. I handed him the coins and he happily gave it to the little boy. In the back of my mind, I've decided to add slippers to the things I will give to the poor beggars this coming December. I Will bring my son with me, since his vision is obviously keener than mine.

My son bade goodbye to the little boy. That night, as my son played in the playhouse, I was playing with my thoughts of childhood and innocence; and have decided to live young again.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Messy Mushiness

I call it the rule of 20. Everytime I walk Jody back to her boarding house, after hours of enjoying talking about everything, I would simply wait til she gets in. That's when the moment of mushiness would come in. The moment I would wait and count up to 20. If I'd be lucky then she'd go out to check if I was still there. She would smile; and me, smiling back, would pretend to move as if I was planning to leave.

I would walk 20 paces, then head back to where I once stood. 1...2...3..

----

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity." - Einstein

Sunday, October 14, 2007

The boy who was ahead of me

He was 4, I was 3. He started reading, I learned the alphabet. He turned 8, I turned 7. He knew how to add and multiply and subtract and carry one and borrow one from two; I just learned that the small letter "l" isn't the number one, and that the letter "O" isn't the number zero.

But yesterday I just turned 26 thinking that he could have been 27 by now. Yet he chose to be 20. As my age adds up every year, I will always think of that person who's been my guide to the next step in life.

To my friend Tristan. The friend who made the choice.

----
I wrote this last March, in memory of a good friend who took his life after learning that his girlfriend died in a car accident in Bagio.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

The Day I Died


I asked a friend how he managed to be calm after receiving the news that his Brother died. He muttered a smile, took out a cigar and remained silent for a few seconds. I was waiting for his response but at the same time relieved with the quietness of the moment.

He played with the smoke for a while. His cigarrette slowly detonating his response.

"I am calm" he simply said. He was struggling for words. His face forming into an unreadable expression. He puffed a large smoke and for moment his face was painted with pain. My vision cleared as he swallowed to clear his throat.

"I am calm...", he paused as if waging a battle inside his mind. Before I could provide a comfortable response he continued "...for I've seen my brother died before".

My mouth dropped waiting for a clear explanation. He looked at me and simply said the following; "Everynight, before going to sleep. I close my eyes and imagine a funeral. I imagine people in black clothing; children playing and old people crying. I imagine the smell of the flowers sent by friends. I taste the finger-food served to visitors. I see old and familiar faces. I see myself silent sitting near a coffin. I always see myself calm." He paused and inhaled a puff of smoke.

"I usually end my imagination by walking towards the coffin...and see different people I love inside the box..everynight."

"Every night?" I asked. "Yes. And I always cry myself to sleep".

He smiled and said "I even saw you last night."

We were silent for the rest of the day and I pitied his calmness.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

An Ode to Marie - FICTION

I was on my way to the mall. She was on her way to somewhere I forgot to ask. I easily reconized her smile. "Musta?" we both said."Mukhang masayang buhay natin ah" I asked. She answered "Hindi", and then she laughed. We mumbled and parted ways. Both time and space were moving fast.

She is happy, and so am I. Nothing can be happier.
---
Reference: Shortcut by Jody
http://jodyism101.multiply.com/journal/item/2/fiction_SHORTCUTS)


Sunday, October 7, 2007

CSS-- CSI

One of the perks of being a webdeveloper is that you can customize the look of your 2.0 applications ( friendster, multiply, esnips, blogspot) because of css modification. I've changed my header background and repositioned the multiply header so it won't be a visual distruction to my site. It's still a work-in-progress though. Enjoy!