the truths.

i was told that the japanese have two truths:

public truth and private truth.

a public truth is something that they will tell you because that is what you want to hear.

a private truth is something that they know is true but they will not tell you because that is not what you want to hear or that it is in contrast to what you believe it. 

telling a public truth does not necessarily constitute lying. similary, keeping a private truth is not also lying. it's a way of saving face and keeping a good relationship. 

I thik we filipinos also have that concept although it remains unnamed. In the office i also do not tell my japanese bosses that their filipino counterparts don't like them because that will ruin the relationship. I just suggest to them what their filipino counterparts think is better, the way that it will sound really good. 

i am also afraid of lying hence, this concept of public and private truths is very convenient for me. When i lie, or when i plan to lie, it usually takes me about an hour or two to make a script and practice it so i cna deliver it well.

right now, the jappy is talking to another jappy (the big boss) over the phone. the big jappy is in japan. the smaller jappy is here, in our little dusty cubicle in the philippines. 

usually, an angry filipino boss would come shouting to the subordinate over the phone and the subordinate would usually be left speechless, except for the sporadic "sorry" or "yes". but the little jappy is allowed to talk. and he talks. right now. 

so i presume big jappy is talking public truths to him. 

after 15 minutes they are done talking.

little jappy approaches me and tells me about their project in mindanao.

i tell him they have to pay me for hearing him out about other projects because my TOR is only for this project. he laughs.

and tells me about work.

public truths are very nice concepts. 

the deconstructivist

this is gogol's favorite activity of the late.
the tray he is trying to deconstruct is also his most favorite item in the house of the late, next to rice box.

maybe gogol will grow up like a chinese kid (cha-cha-cha-cha-chinese!!!).

maybe gogol, at 3 will do acrobatics like the chinese kid circus performers.

maybe gogol will be a champion gymnast when is 7.

or maybe an acrobat at 15.

BECAUSE>>>>>>

as early as now he is already practicing the trick...starting with our collapsible goods tray.

and he does not only do acrobatics with the tray.

he also tries to build skyscrapers...maybe just making sure he has something to fall back to just in case he doesn't get a good career at the circus. 

yeah.

how to eat a danggit

danggit is probably one of gogol's favorite foods, in addition to bananas and putos.
because it's his favorite and gogol is well-loved by his lolo, his lolo always brings him packs and packs of danggit as pasalubong from cebu.
but his parents are still wondering how he was able to acquire fondness for danggit. they recall that when gogol was just a baby learning to eat solids they didn't have much in their fridge except packs and packs of danggit.
that's how gogol got to like danggit.




step 1: take a small bite.
just enough to get a salty taste of the danggit.

step 2: take a bigger and harder bite.
which is usually the case if nanay fails to cook it well.

step 3: SHARE!!!!!!!!!!!
one good deed gogol has mastered.



the end.

how to eat a banana

this is how gogol eats a banana.
He likes all types of banana -- lakatan, senorita, rikondal, sab-a (cavendish), even mundo!
it's his nanay and tatay's best therapy for his diarrhea.




step 1: peel the banana to expose the tasty fruit inside.

step 2: take a BIG bite. chew well.
but gogol does not really do that.

step 3: if biting off won't work, try it with your hands or fingers.

step 4: yum yum banana!



THE END.

that's what i call gamuni-muni.

06 September 2008

Last night we said goodbye to a friend leaving and hoping to comeback, and said hello with lots of hugs and miss you’s to somebody who’s been away for 6 months.

Iloilo is always a sadly happy place…or a happily sad place and right now I feel so normally abnormal. Missing college and the singleness of being inside cramped rooms in college boarding houses. Missing even the 3 hour dusty trip back home. I feel like leaving and going home. Daddy has repeatedly asked gogol if he wanted to come with him to my hometown.

So now I’m so corny.

and listening to susanna hoffs, suzzane vega, joan wasser and the Sundays.

All the moody songs these ladies could muster. I thought of making that mix CD that’s long overdue. For alfredo. A HAPPY MIX CD for now.but this is such a depressing saturday and wet at that.  Well. Alfredo Diaz already has 2 and I still owe him a happy mix because everything I gave him was just moody and melancholic.

So. I won’t make one until I’m sure I feel happy. (when will it ever be?)

It’s funny, every time I get excited about giving somebody a mix tape/CD all the songs that come up in my list are moody and melancholic ones. I have been trying to forget about 1997 and 1998 but it keeps on coming back. All I had were these songs to hold on to. Then I crashed again in 2003. And these songs were already gone. NU was gone. My cassette player is a goner. I’d though I’d be a goner soon.

Now it’s much easier to laugh although but still a little hard to live. And from time to time I’d still feel so 2003. and I have been wanting wanting wanting wanting to write funny but I end up with this. It’s like the mix cds…been wanting wanting wanting wanting to give a happy mix and I end up giving something that could almost facilitate suicide.

If Professor Diaz was right, I still have so many things to settle. With the world. but I’ve made peace with the fact that the world never really owes me anything. I’m not as angry as I was in high school. And in 1997.

Maybe I need another of those weekend writing your pain sessions. Under the beautiful ficus tree in the enchanting garden of Dot. With pandesal ni paa.

Just maybe. 

ang lolo ko.

damo damo ko gusto isulat.

andami kong gustong isulat.

damo bi mapinsaran ko kung gasakay sa dyip.

andami kong naiisip pag sumasakay ako sa dyip.

galing pagabot sa opisina, pagtubang ko sa lolo ko

pero pagdating ko sa opisina, pagharap ko sa lolo ko

gatabog tanan nga mga manami ko nga napinsar.

(at hindi ko alam ang equivalent ng "tabog" sa tagalog) lahat ng mga magaganda kong naiisip.

hainaku lord.

hay naku lord.

CHROME.

this browser is so beautiful.

in the jeepney i tell him about entitling a poem chrome. in the august weekend writing your pain workshop. it's funny if you come to think how some things just sort of...fit in. perfectly.

now i'm digressing. which is something i'm used and loved to do.

as long as you follow me
this is what i do, like i do
i've been on the ride before
it never stops at all
it never stops at all

now i confide something to somebody and how she laughed and said how appropriate.

or how doomed we are.

or how how how how...HOW.

i'm tired and want to go to a rock concert.

have you been to a rock concert.

i'm tired and want to fall in love with this rock star i see on my computer screen. 

it's 5:18 and i have to go home but i wnat to listen over and over and over and over to this...

this rock song.

this rock. song.