of faith and work

I haven't posted anything since early April. I started a post, but it's still in my drafts folder. It has been so long it has come to a point where I seriously wonder whether there's a point in even finishing the piece. I probably will. One of these days. But this piece isn't it.
---

It's almost 8pm on a Sunday and it's dawning on me that the weekend is about to end. Time to mentally prepare myself to face the week ahead. Although the sentiment isn't new, the Monday-morning dread has definitely been a lot more pronounced lately. On more than one occassion, I have wondered if facing those Monday mornings are worth it at all.

I'm not even exactly sure what happened, or how it happened. Up until Holy Week everything seemed to be happily moving along. And then, for some reason, the time-space continuum collapsed and I suddenly began to wonder when 24hrs became too short for a day. Work took up a majority of my time and what little was left was split between church obligations, social obligations, and my personal life. For a moment, I had the distinct feeling that my personal life was getting the raw end of the deal.



where does the time go, does anyone know?

I felt out of balance. And I wasn't quite sure how I was going to regain it.



That's where God came in.

In the worse trial of this season I came face-to-face with desperation. I had painted myself into a corner and could not find a way out. And in God's ultimate sense of humor, the risk of failure was happening on the weekend when we were holding the Singles Encounter Weekend and where I was assigned to do Sunday morning worship.

Can you imagine how hard it is to pray when all you can think about is s**t hitting the fan?

In my room that Friday night, I said a lot of "please" in my prayer. But it was only when I stopped saying please and instead started saying, "Your will be done" that I felt my heart start to calm down. Beyond the solution, I asked the Lord that if I were really to fail, then may He be with me in my failing. There was comfort in knowing that no matter what the outcome He had a plan for me.

2 days after SE Weekend and 5 days before the deadline, God revealed His plan. In the most unexpected way, He opened the window I needed. And one by one, hurdles started to fall. I didn't fail. But that's only because God didn't fail me.

Who said miracles no longer happen?

 

a bright spot in the middle of the rain

Two weeks since, God continues to be in the business of handing me miracles. Which is not to say that the trials have ended. If anything, I am acutely aware of the work that lies over the horizon. At odd moments of the day I stare at that horizon with a feeling of dread. During one of those times, this is was the gospel for that day:

"Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you." Jn 16: 20; 22

I admit that after reading that my first thought was, "Sabi mo yan ha, Lord. Sisingilin Kita." hahahaha...

If you're wondering if I've managed to regain my balance I'll have to honestly say not quite. But one thing is for certain. I've regained the strength of my faith.

Happy Monday!


Disclaimer: I understand full well that in blogging I give up a certain sense of my privacy. My picture and name is plastered in a public forum for the world to see and my thoughts are no longer just mine to think. Like all things on the net, these pictures and thoughts can travel and where they go is beyond my control. What is in my control is what I say. So, from time to time, this time being one of them, I self-edit and refrain from giving too much detail. Which, if you ask SE3, isn't really all that hard for me. ;) If you'd like to know the full story (in detail), ask me directly. hahaha...

Read More

Good grief, what a great show!

This blog post is late. Very late. If I were to have been any use to the Philippine theater community, this post should have come out months ago. That's because there is no use talking about how great a show is when it's no longer running and your readers no longer have the chance to see it themselves.

But I write about it anyway not because I want to make you people jealous (that's just a bonus) but because I believe all good things must be shared.

I've been a fan of Peanuts since I was a kid. One of my first blog posts on Passionately Pretending was about Peanuts. Don't be fooled by the simplicity of the comic strip. Anyone who has ever read a Peanuts strip knows that behind those child-like drawing is wisdom and insight about human nature.

Take this for instance.

So when I heard that the musical You're A Good Man Charlie Brown (herein referred to as YAGMCB) was going to be staged in Manila, you can imagine how excited I was. After all, I loved Peanuts and I loved musicals. This was like the best of both worlds.

I have the bad habit of not paying attention to the troupe that stages a show and look only at the material. I say this is a bad habit because the quality of a company has a great impact on the theater experience. This particular theater company was, I would find out later, 9Works Theatrical, a local company with stars like Robbie Guevara, Carla Guevara-Laforteza, Tonipet Gaba and Sweet Plantado-Tiongson. I had already seen most of these actors in other shows so I knew that this was a show I wouldn't regret seeing.

I only knew of three songs in the YAGMCB musical: "Happiness", "Beethoven Day" and "My New Philosophy". You've probably heard "Happiness" too, except you didn't know that was it. Here, give it a listen and I'd bet you it's familiar to you.

True enough, I was smiling throughout the entire show and not just because of the songs. When a literary character comes to life on stage, you always wonder if the reality will ever be as good as how we've envisioned them. But the cast of YAGMCB obviously loved Peanuts as much as we did because they took great effort to capture the essence of the classic characters. They treated the heritage of the comic with respect, acting not like adults acting like children, but instead being children with adult-like wisdom. (go ahead.. read that sentence again... it's confusing, I know, but I really can't put it any other way...)

From the moment Charlie Brown sat on the bench, lunch bag in hand, pining away for the little red-headed girl to Lucy leaning on Schroeder's piano to Snoopy fighting in World War I vs the Red Baron, the show was everything I hoped it would be. Robbie Guevara, in particular, was wonderful in the title role. He was Charlie Brown in all his earnestness, sincerity and insecurity. He was a joy to watch.

What did surprise me though was Schroeder. As an artist with an obsession for Beethoven, I expected Schroeder to be quiet, sullen and aloof. But Tonipet Gaba's portrayal was a young boy with a playful heart who not only loved Beethoven, but tried very hard to avoid Lucy's infatuation. His shining moment was the number "Book Report", where I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.

If you've read enough of the strips you'll recognize much of the material that played out on stage. The show followed no strict storyline, but narrates the world of the Peanuts gang much in the same way the comic does: short snippets of witty truth that resonates both in your heart and in your head. It was a wonderful escape into a world that was simplified yet wise.

I'm glad I finally got to see this on stage. Who knows, they might even bring it back. If they do, I strongly encourage you to see it. Until then, I'll just be humming the songs.

with Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Linus

the fans of Schroeder

Sally Brown and friends

She's a Lucy, I'm a Lucy. Are you a Lucy too?

Read More

Show me the money

disclaimer: not a real ad

I was listening to the radio a few nights ago on the way home from work. As is my usual habit, I was tuned in to the Disenchanted Kingdom on 99.5RT (love, love, love that show!). Onboard that night together with the regulars was Kell (Kel?), one of the unoffical members of the Kingdom's court.

Although not a regular, I like Kell (Kel?). He's both intelligent and funny, which makes him a good contributor to the show. I think he's been friends with the rulers of the Kingdom for a while, because he falls naturally in sync with them. He sounds good over the radio too.

Anyway, that's not the point.

It turns out that Kell (Kel?) works for Nuffnang. If you've been around the net world long enough and you read other blogs (which I'm sure you do because seriously, mine cannot possibly be the only one you read. If it was, I'm grateful to you... but I might also be secretly judging you...) then you would have at least heard/seen Nuffnang, even if you're exactly sure what it is.

I'm not exactly sure of it myself. But looking up their website I can see a descriptive phrase underneath its logo. It is a "blog advertising community". Right. I see. Ok. Now, from what I can gather, Nuffnang seems to be where bloggers get together to form the mass and scale they need to be taken seriously by advertisers. I think it's kind of like a collective where Nuffnang is the Borg Queen. Nuffnang takes the ads, then distributes it among its members, placing it in blogs where the ad is most relevant, ie. an ad about diapers in a mommy blog. Or an ad about a clothing store in a fashion blog. They also send out bloggers for different marketing events where brands and companies are trying to generate word-of-mouth.

Some people make a lot of money from blogging. Some people make some extra money from blogging. And then there are the some people like me, who make no money from blogging at all.

So that got me thinking, (insert Carrie Bradshaw-esque voice here) can I actually make money with my blog? And if I could, would it even make money at all? More importantly, is my blog even worth an advertiser's time? I'm not famous, I have no specialization, most of my readers are my friends... will companies really think I can bring them the target market they seek?

I've been told on a few occassions that I write well. I always say I write the same way I speak. Read any of my pieces and you can imagine me saying it outloud to you, gesticulations and all. But is a talent for writing enough to make yourself a worthwhile blogger? After all, if you're going to be followed the least you can do is give your followers something substantial, something... relevant.

Am I relevant? At most I'd say I'm good for a few laughs. Or wry smiles.

Maybe I should have a gimmick. Some fancy, creative, kooky idea that sets me apart and makes me more interesting. With a gimmick, I become more than just a blogger, I can become a brand. A brand means something. It stands for something. It's the symbol that says you're not just regular, but special. Yes, like that little red dot on top of the siopao that says, "same out the outside, different on the inside."

Everybody wants to be special, don't they?

Maybe.

But the truth is, I just want to be me. Me when I write. Me when I think. Me when I talk to you via my blog piece. I'm not built for fancy, creative and kooky ideas. I just like to think. And write. And hope that what I think and write about are what you wanted to think and read about too.

In the introduction of Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote of authors:

"When he casts his leaves forth upon the wind, the author addresses, not the many who will fling aside his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understand him better that most of his schoolmates or lifemates... to imagine that a friend, a kind and apprehensive, though not the closest friend, is listening to our talk."

It's exciting to imagine that I can get paid for doing this. The real question is whether I should.

Read More

It's all in the Mind

This is Manuel A. Blas II, one of Philippine Town & Country's 101 People You Must Meet Right Now. Well... I have not only met him. I am friends with him and his lovely wife. How do you like them apples? :P

I could name a million reasons why you should meet Manny Blas: for the intelligent conversations, for his genuine concern and care, for the wisdom he can impart and for the laughter that he can bring. But Town and Country credits him primarily for being the Managing Director of The Mind Museum, the country's first world-class Science Museum. Yeah, that's a good reason too.

The Mind Museum formally opens its doors to the public on March 16. But we were lucky enough to get our minds moved almost a month earlier than everyone else.

The visit turned out to be a mini reunion of sorts for the Singles Apostolate, with probably a little over 200 members coming in full force that day. Some still single, some now married and came bringing along their kid(s). Almost 12 years old, this Apostolate is proof that what relationship God has brought together, no man can rend apart.

SE threeeeeeee

SE siiiiiiiiiiiiiiix

The first stop at the Museum is Adei's corner, whose short welcome spiel prepares you for the scientific wonders you're about to see inside. Once she finishes, a human Mind Mover (more boringly-known as the tour guide), takes over to begin your journey of science.

Aedi is idea spelled backwards

new found friends

I normally like tour guides. I like that they are repositories of information that you'd never have known if you just did a tour by yourself. When I'm with a guide, I like to stick as close to him as possible so I catch everything. Plus, I ask them a lot of questions. Unfortunately, there were still technical difficulties coming from the guide's audio speaker and I couldn't understand anything that he was saying. I know the Museum people are working on that right now but for that afternoon, we just decided to slip away from the pack and dive straight into the exhibits.

this is me, getting at the good stuff

Majority of those on display were built for interaction. And nearly all of them come with instructions. But there is something about being in a place like this that just switches on the inner kid inside of me. That meant I deftly ignored all written things and just started poking around like a 5 year old hyped-up on sugar.

To illustrate, I entered room and saw nothing inside but a large timer and a green button. Not knowing what else to do, I snuck up to the button, thought for two seconds, then decided to press it. I then darted my eyes around the room waiting to see what would happen. The timer started its countdown, a flash went off... and there was my shadow on the wall! Woohoo!!! *grin*

look closely, my shadow is there!

My friends and I played with different poses for a while but we had barely scratched the Museum's surface. So I left the room and went off for further exploration.

looking through the eyes of science

a hair-raising experience (one of my fave exhibits!)

ooooh. look at the pretty colors... (it's an illustration of the food chain)

A lifesize periodic table of elements! Galeng!

and they show you stuff that has that element in it! Here's a banana for potassium

I have to admit that in my excitement, I practically rushed through the first half the museum. Fueled by adrenalin, I was just darting from one exhibit to the next, trying to get to them before the crowds came and ruin my shot. Like the one below.

teh... sino ka? At ba't ka nasa picture ko? hahaha...

Oh well. If at first you don't succeed then try and try again.

me and my baby butanding

I was a little surprised at how small and compact the inside of the Museum was. Especially when you think about how big it is outside. I initially thought that we'd be able to finish the exhibits quickly. I was even afraid that I might get bored. But believe me, that would never happen. This place has got tons to do. If you're not careful, you can actually miss some of the smaller exhibits. Don't make that mistake. Otherwise you'd miss out on the really cool details they put into this place.

...like a tiny Lara Croft telling you about fossils

...or the really tiny dinosaurs

...and this tiny replica of an earthquake

...that comes with a straightforward warning

It's easy to gloss over the small stuff because of the huge massive stuff the Museum has. And it's not like the big stuff were just big for bigness' sake. They were quite enjoyable to interact with and you learn a lot from them (if you bother to read the signs... which I didn't... but I'm assuming they would have been very informative if I did. hahaha). It's the kind of stuff that makes you go, "wow..."

wow... a t-rex

wow... a huge human brain

wow... old people. like really, really, really, really old people

wow.. fossilized dinosaur poo (no. seriously. it's dinosaur poo.)

Besides, their being big just offered you the perfect photo opp moment.

me and my t-rex

me and the guy who walks in space

By the time I had reached the second floor, I started to lose steam. I stopped actively looking for buttons to press and when I couldn't figure something out with trial and error, I move on to the next thing on display. I still appreciated everything up there but I mostly watched other people play with them rather than do it myself. It was still fun and it allowed me the chance to catch my breath.

friends operating the primitive printer (at si kuyang hindi namin kilala...)

friend playing on a harp with no strings and yet plays music

At the end of it, 3 hours was probably just about enough time to see the exhibits and appreciate what a world class Science Museum has to offer. If you spend less time in there, I'd say that you really didn't get to know much of what was put up. Spend more than that, then I'd congratulate you for your thirst for knowledge. It's definitely something I'd love to go back to. I'll bring along my nephews. I'm pretty sure even after my 3 hours there, I probably missed an exhibit or two.

But boy do I feel smarter already!

can you read my mind?

On a completely unrelated note, I sigh unhappily at my pictures. I really should learn how to take better shots. :-S

Meanwhile, I'm not sure how this got into my cam...

The Mind Museum is located at JY Campos Park, 3rd Ave. Bonifacio Global City, Taguig , Metro Manila Philippines. Different ticket types are available: Adults at Php600.oo, Children and Private School Students (including college) at Php450.00, Public School Students (up to college) at Php150.00 and Teachers at Php150.00. Tickets are now onsale at their website at http://www.themindmuseum.org/.

Read More

Take a bite, it's alright

Introducing: (Fa)KAGAT
   ...or (Pha)KAGAT...or KAGAT...or Diner's Club...or... ay basta...

We are a group of friends gathered in love for food. Well, to be honest, I'm more in love with the company than I am with finding the food. The food just happens to be a happy by-product of hanging out these guys.

missing the two who went off to check out bread

I've been lucky to have experienced breaking bread with most of these people on previous occassions. But I have never gone out with them in a group this big. Most of the time our gatherings were a small-ish group of 3 or 5 or 8. A few nights ago, we were a whopping dozen.

This is not the inaugural gathering of (Fa)KAGAT. I kind of missed that one. Then again, a lot of us missed it. The original (Fa)KAGAT movers were still feeling a little clique-ish when they started hahahaha... But they have since learned from their mistake and now know that good food is only as good as the company you keep.

Which is why they need me... um.. us. ;)

The task of organizing the Feb gathering fell to Joe, who seemed to be the most experienced at food gatherings anyway. His recommendation was a quant little Kapampangan cuisine place on the fringes of the Makati Business District, Villa Cafe. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a picture of the frontage, but it wasn't all that hard to spot. Just look for the big yellow(?) sign that said, "VILLA".

Because I'm so bad with directions, and terrified of parking, I made sure I got there early. It paid off because I was the first to arrive and got to park right smack in front of the establishment. Joe was right behind me and we kicked off this food fest with the complimentary starter bread and dip. Errr... I don't remember what the dip was (I think it was tinapa or something) but I do know that I was hungry and it was good. :)

early birds

bread and dip

We had a bit of time to kill since we were a full 30 minutes early so the staff was kind enough to show me the second floor even though it was closed. It serves both as an extension of the dining area and a potential function room for more private parties. I believe it can comfortably hold around 12 people to a maximum of maybe 20. They even have a second kitchen up there, for the exclusive use of the reserving group. I found that cool.

the second floor

Meanwhile, the kitchen downstairs was an open kitchen so you could see what your food is going through. Not that I looked, really. I was too busy socializing. 

kitchen confidential

pots and pans and things

The restaurant was quite simple in terms of ambience and decor. It felt too simple to be fine dining, yet a tad more elegant than casual fare. But I will say that the place had a nice comfortable feel to it. It's a place that encourages good conversations while eating. Which probably explains all the laughter at our table. It's rare that a table of 12 can carry on with just a single topic of discussion. Most times you'd have about 2 or 3 going on at the same time. But by and large, what was said on one end of the table was heard by the other. Or maybe that was just because we talked loud. Either way, I had a great time. Being at Villa kind of felt like being at home, except with fancier cutlery. Seeing as the place was decorated with personal pictures and knick knacks, I think that may have been what they were going for.

the cozy setting

the way up

the menu with built-in scribbles

Because we were a big group, we had to pre-order our meal. Thank you Joe for handling that as well.

dinner is served

My favorite was actually the Kampangan pizza. I love thin crust pizzas and this was just wonderful. It was thin and crunchy, but also soft to bite at the same time. I shamelessly took two slices for myself. Hahahaha...

longganisa on a pizza!

The lengua was my second favorite. Something about sausages in a dish that automatically make it better for me. I'm a little kid that way. :D

Pastel de Lengua

I'm a bit of a bangus snob so the relleno was just so so. To me, bangus is best served grilled, with a side dip of bagoong, calamansi and crushed sili. Nothing quite compares to that. It's my ultimate comfort food.

Villa's Rellenung Bangus

And what is a Filipino gathering without good ol' crispy pata? Except this was with a twist, being cooked with just the hint of kare kare sauce. It was delicious, a blend of the best things about two different dishes in one.

with or without the kare kare sauce, it's pretty good

Then we come to dessert. Hopelessly full yet needing to eat more we shared one slice each of two different cakes. Yes, we made a good-for-one cake slice last for at 12 people. We did that by taking really teeny, tiny bites. Hahahaha...

Dulce de Tsokulati

lechemon - ang mamon na may lecheflan. yuuumm.

Long after the last morsel of food was put away, long after we forget the taste of the food we had, we'll always have the memory of laughter and fun shared with friends. Which is really what matters most anyway.

ang saya. :)

Since I can't remember what (Fa)KAGAT actually stands for, I think I shall just refer to this group as "Chicken". ;) (you had to have been there...)


Villa Cafe is located at 7427 B Glory Building, Yakal St. San Antonio Village. Tel No. (632)4782659, http://www.villacafe.biz/. We ordered about 2-3 servigs of the main dish and spent approximately Php600 per person. The camaraderie: priceless.

Read More