Untitled...

It all sounded like a soap opera from the TV.





A young male college student fell in love with a girl who was also his distant relative.





The girl returned his affections, and so they both decided to get married...





It could have been a perfect match...but





The girl's parents found a wrinkle...the boy wasn't of "pure" blood.





His mother was not of his father's ethnic group and therefore that made the children from that union, mixed.





And "mixed" males weren't thought of as good matches to pure blooded girls...





So the girl's family said "NO".



To make things worse, they forcibly engaged her to a "pure" blooded guy for exactly the same mahr that the first young man's family was offering...





The young man was understandably distraught.





So what if he was "mixed"? What was wrong with that? He did well in school and soon he had a prospect of a job waiting for him.





The girl's engagement to the other man became official; the young man increasingly became more withdrawn. He wouldn't talk to anyone.





"He'll get over it, " they all said. They would never know the extent of his anguish. Until much later.






Then one day, weeks before the wedding, he made a decision.





If she could not be his, then let no one else have her.





He decided to go visit an aunt, when he heard that the girl was there too. It was a chance he couldn't afford to miss.




So there she was. It wasn't a comfortable situation.




He looked at her with all the love and longing that he honestly had for her. Could he do it to her, could he? He knew it was all uncalled for, but he knew he didn't want anyone else to have her.



He had to act. Now.




The aunt went to the kitchen to attend to the cooking, and left the pair in the living room. She didn't suspect anything. She trusted them.




Then he suddenly grabbed the girl's arm and took her to the nearest room and locked himself and her inside.




He took a long look at her for the last time, as she pleaded him to stop what he was about to do.






It flashed in his hands. A gun wouldn't do in his circumstance. So he chose this. A grenade.




It all happened too quickly.





They found the couple too blown up to recognize them. The walls were splattered a gory red. They all gathered up what was left of the two. Two small body bags filled with bits and pieces of flesh and blood and bones.




The story would go round the university as an urban legend for years. If I would ever hear anyone mention "The Romeo and Juliet of the University," I know it would definitely be them.



It's creepy but I live with the knowledge that my cousins were the victims of a selfish society.

Beads...and yet more beads....

I'm a person who swears by a good filling breakfast. Although there are times when I have to leave home without it, I still make it a point to start the day with something in my stomach somehow. A good breakfast to me is a way to jumpstart an otherwise blah morning, a ritual somehow sacred to me. In fact, one way of telling my family that I'm angry is avoiding breakfast at home that day, since I wouldn't want to spoil my day by eating with people who had dared to stand on my neck. A good hearty breakfast is also my antidote after a sleepless night or when the world seems to spin too fast for me.

My favorite breakfast? Anything heavy and hearty, and of course, don't forget my glass of milk and fried eggs!

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So MJ's finally dead...I'm not exactly a big fan of his but I like many of his early hits (when his skin was black hehe) like "I'll Be There", "Ben", "She's Out Of My Life", "One Day In Your Life". Although I repeat, I'm not a big fan of his, MJ's passing somehow made whole generations of people feel that they're getting older. He's been around when my mom and dad were still about to get married and I grew up knowing him as a household name. RIP MJ.



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On another note, my laptop keyboard finally gave up by not registering M,N,shift, and ,. Either I get an external keyboard (and end up lugging it around too) or buy a new laptop. The second option, of course, is more tempting!

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Beads....and More Beads....

I was sooo amazed at the amount of homework my youngest sister brought home one day. Third grade, and 11 subjects! In my time I had only seven subjects and I had fun at school. Nowadays school seems to be a place where you dump kids to be forcefully injected with tons of stuff they can't absorb anyway and they come home burned out. They get choked at school and so it's no wonder they seek comfort in computer games, hanging out more than they should, and all other forms of escape. By the time they get to high school they're too tired to learn. Shouldn't they put the fun back into school?
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I love spending rainy days in total silence, with a cup of something warm and a cozy window seat. Just me and cocoa and the rain washing the earth's face.
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From my work buddy: "Don't look at what others do. Just do what you're supposed to do and that will speak for you."
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Stuff I just realized lately:

My parents are human beings, with shortcomings and issues left from own childhood.

I need not take responsibility for whatever it is that they may have done.

My life is MY responsibility. I am financially independent, I can make major decisions on my own.
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Later...

I don't know if you're familiar with the band Fra Lippo Lippi but they were around during the late 80's up to the early years of this century. They were a Norwegian band that whittled up to a one-man entity today. I'd like to share a favorite track from the band from way back in the year 2000. Just click on the link. Lyrics are at the bottom if you want to sing along. This song really gets you...well, I'll leave it up to you!

The link: http://www.imeem.com/trance24/music/f6-ooe-r/fra-lippo-lippi-later/


_=LATER=_

How could you come with me
when you knew all along that you had to go
How could you watch me sleep so close to you
pretending not to know
How could you memorize my name
and forget who i am
How could you think you're still the same
believing i can


It's too late to start pretending
It's too late for a new beginning
Later than the sunset, later than the rain
Later than I never to love you again

How could you ask for more with an innocent smile
trusting me to stay
How could you close the door and leave me here
supposing i'm ok
How could you breakdown my disguise
and uncover my fears
How could you look into my eyes
ignoring my tears

More Beads...

* It's official, my best friend and I got back together again---after three years! In fact, there's the possibility of her becoming my colleague at work. It's funny, but it did take us three years to do that.

* I got sooo tired this week since it was enrollment time at the university. Imagine keeping track of 12,700 students using a single computer?

* My hyperacidic stomach did its act again. It's like that when I'm very stressed. Maalox has become my closest buddy. I just pop it into my mouth, and instant momentary relief!

* Remember Eva Fonda? One of the professors took her home with him, and so she's not to be seen anymore. I'm sad :(.

* I got a new kitten, FB or Fur Ball. I have to teach her to stop nibbling at people's toes :P

Thoughts for Another School Year

Yesterday was the start of classes in my place, and so it was with no wonder that the streets are into "rush hour" mode by 7 am when I was commuting to work. You could just imagine the school bags, the kids, the parents, the cars, the whinings, the classrooms...

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I used to be a high school teacher, and I've seen so many things that made me glad that I have the background that I have, since many of these kids, in spite of the fact that they've been spoiled by gadgets and stuff by their parents, come to school without the skills needed to survive.

When we were their age(this is for us born in the 80's or earlier), we had no cellphones, iPods, mp3's, discmans; we didn't even care to know what was the Internet then. Life was that simple.

As little kids, we didn't care about hi-tech toys; we jumped rope, played sports, the simple things. We even knew how to make folded figures from pieces of paper (origami) and used that as toys. We soaked ourselves jumping outside when it rained For those who had strict parents like mine, happiness was a rare tall glass of coke or other softdrink or some candy.

TV was Sesame Street, Electric Company, Daria (in MTV, remember?)Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry,and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Nobody cared if Ernie and Bert were indeed a gay couple.

We knew the difference between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor and we knew how to make up our own stories and draw pictures on paper using pencils and crayons.

And the kids today?

They've got the Internet, so what's the use of going to the library, they tell you. Pencils and crayons? Adobe will take care of that. Games? They'll tell you that it's boring to play hopscotch on the sidewalk, and you get swine flu from cavorting in the rain. For TV they watch Gossip Girl, and God knows what else. Personally I think Dora the Explorer is pretty lame. Their parents shower gadgets and stuff as though they were giving tributes to kings and queens.

What does all these amount to?


Kids who don't know how to think because they've been conditioned not to use their brains. Kids who don't know how to respect their elders. Kids who get burned out by the time they hit high school since their families sent them to schools that cram kindergarten kids with an "advanced" curriculum. Kids who don't care what's going on around them unless the matter concerns their pocket money,their pimples, their cellphone bills, and new tracks on their mp4's.

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According to one of my favorite authors, Bob Ong, there's too much hype on bringing up "gifted" children. Milk formulas, schools, and experts seem to be so engrossed in making even ordinary kids become like Einstein. Schools boast of "science/math/language skills" programs that are meant to make kids able to manufacture nuclear bombs by the time they finish high school. Parents talk about how to make junior the next Nobel Prize winner or the next Einstein.

For God's sake, let these kids grow up at their own pace! The world needs the "giving" child, not the forcibly "gifted" one who has become apathetic to the ills of the world.

Stuff A Lot of People Don't Know

* Guys do dig SOAP OPERAS. Many of them won't admit it, but many men in my place would hurry home after school or work so they won't miss hours of melodrama on the TV. They're not comfy talking about the episodes with girls, but then they'd willingly tell Grandma what happened after X slapped Y or how A broke up with B after discovering they're long-lost siblings...

* The word "JUMBO" came from P.T. Barnum's star elephant, Jumbo way back in the 1900's.

* Dead bodies about to be transported by plane get into the plane's baggage compartments 2 hours before the passengers board so that they won't be aware that there's a body in the plane. The bodies also have to be packed in crates.