Backpackin' Extravaganza

It took me 1 hour to pack for a 3-day stay in Cebu city, 15 minutes to prepare for a stat medical mission in one of the oldest barangays in my hometown, 10 minutes for a 2-day run off Roxas City for the 2nd One Visayas event, 5 minutes to pack for an overnight emergency overtime at work. All these happened within a period of 30 days, one of my most travelled month in my personal history. Each time my backpacking experience adds over, the time I take to prepare for another one dwindles. If the Negros getaway hadn’t been cancelled, it could have broken my previous record on travel preps. Me thinks it’s because I don’t unpack after arriving home from wherever work or the need to learn takes me. My toiletries are never taken off a Ziploc plastic bag. Because of these trips, I’ve learned to keep at least two of my personal necessities: two soaps, two toothbrushes, two toothpastes, two lotions and doubled number of undies. That’s why since the first trip it has been increasingly easy to pack for travels.
The only thing I feel I always miss in my travails is a camera. My mind can only take so much inputs. It doesn’t have enough vocab to describe many things even with my magic notebook though it is advisable to keep a notebook and writing material in your things for E purposes, whether it’s in your back pocket or huge bag. Cameras nowadays are as popular as facebook whereas before it was considered a luxury for many common folks. To have a single picture in ones lifetime then was an achievement but not anymore. If one is up for record keeping etc, a camera is something one must have in hand. But then again that’s just me.
My boss, one of the most elusive of people at work because of his many work-related office disappearances brings a huge sturdy backpack wherever he goes. Even in normal days no travel days, I’d sometimes get a glimpse of his shave and toothbrush as he opens his bag to bring out a file. From him I learned one way to lighten ones load: bring only a pair of footwear that is sturdy that it can be used both for rough treks but with a form fit for Church. That’s a safe one. Usually it’s a leather sandals in his case. The idea of a Havaianas is okay but only if you’re sure you’re itinerary doesn’t go beyond malls, beaches, parks and the likes.
Depends on your pleasure, priority or purpose, worst cases differ. For busy or plainly techie people its reading from their gadgets “battery exhausted” or for sea sick others, forgetting a dose of Dizzytab thirty minutes before riding on that boat /ship. For me it’s both. Health conscious ones usually faint at the idea of leaving their 99.9% guaranteed germ-killing hand sanitizers or 70% isopropyl alcohol. Well we’re not perfect, devastating as it may be, we often forget. Just dot forget that which defines the pain or pleasure of your travel. (Advice here: Be OC about the things you cant live without. Bring two batteries and a charger and double check belongings before leaving).
Another advice came from her that popular dictum says is always right—moms. And this advice of my mom is quite cool in my opinion. According to her, if you have seven pocket as in a cargo pants, you should put money to all of them, not one missed. Why? Well you never know which pocket gets slashed by thieves lying around. Lol. But actually it’s the idea that in case you get lost (for example in a group trip) and you left your bag back at the hotel, you have some money tucked there somewhere.
New to a place? Grab a map from a bookstore or information desk or go to their Tourism Office. Have hotline numbers with you in your phone and on a piece of paper. When asking people for directions, ask at least two (apart). Want to enjoy? Ther e’s no advice for that. That depends on you. But maybe the advice take some calculated risks is passable lol.
Travelling is divine. Many people are travelers. Perhaps every human has that inner drive to move about whether from short distances or as far as their heart or budget can take them. For me, travelling even with work is something more than having all I need. It’s about leaving the usual and reaching to the unusual. It’s about enrichment. It’s about contemplation. It’s about discovery not just of things new to you but of the old that is in you, that is you.
They say that when you will have seen everything, you will be more certain of what you want. Right now, I know that travelling does good to me. In a personal note it has taught me the value of saving for something as worthwhile as this interest of mine (it’s different when you pay for your own adventures), the importance of knowing how to talk with people of different backgrounds and beliefs and most of all it has taught me freedom—of owning it and letting others have it.
My next stop, Negros for a seminar. Oh I forgot I ran out of toothpaste. Gotta go buy one now.
See ya.

GenuinelyStreetFoodTrip

Along Taft street, just behind the big circle of Roxas City where the Church, the Museum, main Park and Capitol are situated is a strectch of vendors selling street food. Nope, not just barbecues and the likes but a hardcore domestic cuisine in the very form of "Binakolan".

Steaming hot binakolans are cooked on the spot and sold for P 30.00 per serving from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm in the street (with tinapay to match with as desired).

You wanna know what's in it? Hmm. The sweet middle-aged owner who is an heiress of the business/of the binakolan I ate in told me.

iba
kamyas
sibuyas
kamatis
sili
tanglad
luy-a
bainakol na manok
beef
atay/liver

Hmm you may imagine it spicy just by looking at the ingredients. ANd you're definitely right. Halfway thru my order, I was perspiring so much I had soaked my new hanky. But who cares, it was the best streetfood I have ever had in my life....

the Enchantresses and You

I’m on the rush to see your name pop yellow from that miniscule of a window as I chat the minutes away. (tick tock).
As I wait, my mind drifts to another dimension as I am secretly jittery about work transpo and awfully disturbed by a cacophony of high frequency voices amazingly emanating from one and only one person only minutes ago.

When I woke up, I was met by an irksome situation from no less than my mama. Oh I don’t know what’s with Mama and nagging. Almost as if the plain human and idea was doomed to co-exist and every inhabiting female who becomes one, becomes one. Get it?

She had to drag me from the bed and order me around the screen, clicking here and there. Who can reason out with her? She’s the queen, the ruler and the enchantress of this home-world I live in. With my tired eyes I had to squint to type the words on the keypad as she sat behind me rambling on and on about every person who comes within a meter radius.

Makes me thing it’s a good think she has a hubby ten years her senior. Or maybe that could even be the reason why she’s tight as a petticoat worn by eighteenth century women.

Could it be that one day I’ll be like her? Obssessive about notions, compulsive about actions. One time, her own mama, my grandmama, gave everyone a long and tedious lecture in a voice and pitch that could only come from an old mistress in the home. Everyone was subject to her scrutiny; from Bords who didn’t brig his glass to the kitchen, to Charles who left his wet towel hanging on a chair, to Mimi who didn’t kiss her even as she offered her money, to Aunt Cherry who’s son skipped class, to the maid who didn’t wipe the table before lunch and to me who’s only wrong is to have a boyfriend. But the unexpected wham of a reaction came from my mama.
Suddenly she was pensieve and inconspicuously (on one corner) she remarked how she could possibly end like grandma one day so that we’ll just have to put her on a nursing home. (Just great).

Are all women like this? Ill answer my own question, "Well not really…"

It takes too long for him to come online. I’m running out of thoughts and getting more restless every minute as the seconds speed up mercilessly.
I should go….

(I’ll wait for you at work.)

After all (it ends in you.)

I’m lying on my stomach in this room they call an executive lounge I happened to be in because of work. I’m glad. After a long time I’m alone again and thus am able to contemplate on my thoughts. They’ve been repressed for so long because of the necessity to relate to others around me---the plethora of personalities at home. It feels like being caged for eternity. Ive checked my emotions and the real ones seem distant. In this time of solitude I am hoping to bring them to the surface once more. P said I need a specialist because I’ve been bothering him for so long now—longer than he was able to bother me—but he seems more distant to me than he should be at this point of our breakup. Perhaps because I’ve cried for him for a long time already that almost all the tears have fallen (mostly for the wrong reasons) and my heart has gone weary while his fancy has passed.

It’s 10:15 in my watch and I just got out of a meeting in prep for this big event. My body is tired but my mind is more alive than it ever was for weeks. These series of music emanating from the laptop coincides with my emotions. But my real intention for writing has shifted, perhaps out of the need to express myself as a person than as a woman in love.

(Somebody talked to me and now I’m distracted. I’m resting awhile.)
The setting of our meeting was unusual. We were on the rooftop of a two-storey house they call the HQ. I’ve never been to an HQ before, not with real people at least. The time was within twilight hours, breezy, the view of verdant forests. It couldn’t be compared to Twilight the movie scenery but it was enough to have made me think of you. You told me that night that I still imagine you drunk that you wanted to watch the sunset with me lying in your arms. It sent a caress of sadness in my heart for it’s right now simply a mere idea, uncertain as ever seeing myself reflected in your eyes. But there was gladness too my dear. For I know that it is this distance that keeps us longing, that keeps me going. Without you I would have drowned to insanity as I was drifting back and forth before. Once again you made me smile. You sowed in me hope. You gave me love. Only your words and I feel I could live again and face every fear and every weakness I own as human as I am, as hard as this world may seem to be.

I am glad that you love me. Only this and nothing more. If I’m jealous at times, I dare not speak of it. From pain in love I’ve learned one thing atleast: that to keep love, you have to stay away; that you love but you do not ask; you give but you do not tell all. If I’m wrong then blame it again on my humanity. I will accept. That’s all there is to say. My thirst for expression is quenched (for now).
I realized in the end, tonight is about you my...

Conquered by Zombies

The last thing any sane person wants is the grotesque that can be found in movies, street accidents and intentional torts and even in his wildest dreams. But how was “Saw” able to conquer many?
I have a faint recollection of a line I read from somewhere that said of how humans are subconsciously attracted to the things that scares the hell out of him which again is only proven true by the popularity of “Plants vs Zombies” that seemingly uses the same psyching as suspense thrillers only, it’s a game; thus putting the person in a more participative role in his journey to his own pleasure or doom or to his saving his brain o r feeding it off to the munch-sounding brain eaters.
About the game, plants vs zombies is as the title shouts, a battle between the plant species (cabbage, corn, potato, nut, cherry, lily, watermelon, pea, mushroom etc.) and the zombies of various fields of interests brought to the grave from their life as humans before (diver zombies, miner zombies, zombies with catapults, gargantuan zombies etc.).
Each of the characters in the two opposing sets is categorized according to its ability to withstand offensive attacks/toughness as well as to inflict damage to its enemies. For example, normal zombie without weapons or any kind of armory, who just walks like a zombie and looks like a zombie has low toughness and can be beheaded by a pea shooter whose damage class is normal in approximately ten pea shots; while a bucket head zombie, a highly tough class of the undead cannot be brought down by a normal pea shooter but something much tougher as in a repeater (which is actually a pea shooter only that it fires two peas at a time). But, another tactic to bring down the hard-headed bucket head is by taking off its metal bucket gear through a magnet-shroom (magnet mushroom). In that way the zombie’s toughness would spiral down to that of an ordinary zombie.
There are other features of the game that are also appealing to the girls such as a garden of plants given as gifts that must be constantly watered and fed and sold to the game master “Crazy Dave”. But don’t be too excited because one can’t grow villas and mansions in it unlike in Farmville and Farmtown.
The game is actually about tactics which is exactly why it’s fun and worth writing about. You are provided the weapons and the choice is yours. You get better in every battle you win or lose. It gets even more fun as you go through the levels and even after you’ve won the golden sunflower (which is given to you if you pass all sub-games) because you can experiment with combinations of plant weapons in a choice of 48 (or 49 plus the imitater which has the ability to imitate a plant of your choice as the name suggests).
Amusingly, I’ve unearthed certain behaviors from my six boy housemates (brothers and cousins) between the ages of 12-18 out of just observing them play the game (all are addicted). One of them, the eldest played the game based on tactics and skill approximation of his chosen plant weapons. Sometimes he fails, but more often than not he is able to conquer each sub-game with ease that he has earned the highest regard from the rest (in terms of this game). Another only follows his lead with weapon choices while another resorts to restarting the game every time he thinks he’s going to lose.
It might too personal a conclusion, not to mention too little subjects at that, but I think it is fairly evident that computer games can determine ones IQ level as well as EQ level. As an experiment, I played various games in front of all of them. First, I used sure-win weapons and observed their reactions. They talked loudly and cheered on. None left the game. The second time, I experimented on really lousy plants (like the corn which has a light damage to opponents). Suddenly, one walked out of the room saying “Byebye to you!” while others shouted, “Restart! Restart!” Only two stayed with me and helped modify the tactics. In the end, we won. The rest, who said we couldn’t win, all shut up leaving me something to ponder on---“Some people are just afraid to take risks, even just in games.” But as I said, many are still attracted to danger, the grotesque and adventure that they’d crowd around it like swarming bees.
Honestly, I don’t know where this rambling is going. I only know that obviously, I’ve been conquered by zombies.

(suggestions?comments?email me @ pau.dom.cu.tar@gmail.com)

Celebrating: the ‘pinoy’ style

It seems that every nationality in the world has something to contribute/show off to the global vocabulary/market. Is ‘The Pacman’ the only one for us Filipinos?
The Italians have their indispensable pasta; the Venezuelans, their bottomless stash of beauties; the Japanese, their controversial and mysterious geishas and quality tech products; the Hawaiians, the dreams of aphrodisiacal getaways. What of the Philippines? Surely, talented as we are by nature (lol), we have something to boast of aside from ‘pambansang kamao’ and more recently (though not that recent) Charisse Pempengco?
Trying to put in the limelight in this article is no less than the colorful, distinctly unique and lively festivities in the Philippines that showcases varied local cultures as well as our identity as a people.
Masskara Festival of Bacolod City for instance shows the creativity and gaiety of the Bacolodnons through the mask that they personally design as they make merry in the streets in October, Manggahan Festival of the province of Guimaras highlights through interpretative dances the way of life of the Guimarasnons as well as its being the island where the sweetest mangoes grow and of course the upcoming DInagyang Festival of Iloilo City, tagged as the Best Tourism Event in the Philippines for 3 consecutive years, exemplifies the religiosity of the Ilonggos as they offer dances in the beat of drums to Señor Sto. Niño.
All these festivals and many others (Ati-atihan of Aklan, Moriones of Marinduque, Flower Festival of Baguio and even our barangay fiestas) prove how in the midst of many trials the Filipinos are able to laugh, dance, give praise and offer their time to the preservation of culture and identity.
The quality of our festivals/celebrations in the Philippines, not to mention the quantity that supersedes that of other countries make us stand out in ways that are simply worth noting.
But what really is it in these Philippine festivities that those who experience them find unforgettable and special? Is it the colors? The music? The food? Well, maybe the food is one but there is one which I believe is most striking than the rest – we, the people ourselves.
The Filipinos have so much commendable traits that make us stand out everywhere we are put. Whether it be resilience amidst adversities, creativity towards work and play and in this case warmth that other races seem to lack and thus find in us irresistible and addictive.
In our every celebration/festivities is inherent always that feeling of warmth towards each other and our visitors. Everyone who knows and even doesn’t know each other connects in some spontaneous way through a simple smile, greeting or pep talk. Hosts make sure to keep their visitors relaxed, comfy and satiated showing them to every relative and friends like they’re going to live with them forever and serving them always the best of what the hosts have. We take care to inform them of every bit of info that can be shared to not let them feel left out.
In the case of fiestas, we tell our visitors “Pasensya because we only have lechon, paella, dinuguan, buko pandan, mango float, spaghetti, afritada, menudo, pancit molo and morcon for food.” We make sure they have the best of everything even if we ourselves would have to settle for tira-tira or as in the compilation of Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz, you will know you are a Filipino if…you’ll go in debt for a celebration.
We Filipinos always give an experience that is worth repeating again and again. Why? Because that is simply the way we are. And that’s something we can add to our contributions to the global market slash vocabulary aside from Pacquaio and Pempengco.
(comments? Feel free to share. Pau.dom.cu.tar@gmail.com)

Truths about piracy

To showbizniz, everything about piracy is disturbing and destructive; but to the average pinoy/pinay who has fascination for Kim Chiu, Coco Martin, the yearly entries to the Manila Film Fest, Lady Gaga and Wonder Girls but can only spare a hundred and ten for such a whim, a hobby or whatever it is to them and cannot wait for the new movies or to be shown in the channels of the boobtube or the orginal CDs to be distributed in stores, piracy is like manna from the heavens.
The only reason this type of activity is hyped is because it is patronized by the common people the way they patronize ukay-ukay over brand new designer clothes. And there’s one root to that behaviour---the cost.
“Why would I buy a 500-peso worth of shirt from B3***4 or P3*****3 when everyone already has it, when I can just spare a hundred of my salary/allowance and own a not-so-new but looking new B5*5*5 R39u871c shirt which has a slim chance of having a duplicate in my immediate world or why would I buy the original C45**3L or G***i if I can buy an imitation which looks impeccably like the original.” Hmm.
Actually, the word piracy has five definitions in the Encarta Encyclopedia.
1) robbery on high seas: robbery on the high seas, especially the stealing of a ship's cargo. 2) robbery on any form of transportation: robbery committed on board any form of transportation, especially an aircraft 3) hijacking: the hijacking of an aircraft or another form of transportation 4) use of copyrighted material without permission: the taking and using of copyrighted or patented material without authorization or without the legal right to do so. 5) illegal broadcasting: the unauthorized or illegal broadcasting of TV or radio programs.
The fourth definition was purposely italicized because it is the kind of piracy talked about in this article with a few analogies to the others here and there.
According to piracy.com, all forms of piracy are an offence to the universal laws of society. Yes, society, not nature because pirates violate established human order. Simply put, they are outlaws in that they rob in all the sense of the word and are feared and hated by the people. Just to inject though, there came a time when seafaring pirates were commissioned by belligerent nations to carry on naval warfare (referring to definition 1). Seafaring pirates still exist today but the more common type of piracy is that which a great many peoples don’t only accept, they patronize it for their financial and self-esteem benefits.
It bloats the ego to be the first to know what “He’s Not that in to You” is all about before it hits the big screen or Beyonce’s newest single even before the album containing it is launched doesn’t it? Not to mention it saves so much expense.
I personally am a movie addict (save the likes of Saw and Hostel). But I can’t afford to watch all the entries to the Manila Film Fest in the movie house. I can only spend a hundred with my every salary.
This December though I watched 2 entries to the film fest in the big screen, not to mention their names, because the tickets were paid for by friends (lol). After watching, I felt proud of the quality of some of our (Pinoy) movies.
In fact, one of my new year’s resolutions is to minimize my patronizing piracy #4 especially when it comes to local films; but stop it? Hmm.
If one looks closer, there’s very little bragging about who has originals of what nowadays. What matters to the people now is that they’ve seen it, heard it, know it.
Sad as it seems, this is one bad bug to show business. But what can we do? Can we really do something about it?