i.am.air

i am everywhere and nowhere. i fill up my container. i can be a sigh, or a song; a breeze or a storm. i am nothing, and everything.

For you :)

I’ve never realized I had it in me. 

I was never the romantic type. Yes, I appreciate, as an observer, grand gestures from people who are drowning in affection. I’ve always had a practical, (which borders on twisted, I must say) view on how one should express the overflow of emotions in their hearts. My love language, had always been different. I’ve always expressed my love through quality time and words of affirmation.

But this week taught me that there’s always a significant ‘turning point’ one shouldn’t miss. And I must say I tried to go the extra mile and didn’t just turn left or right but went for a whopping U turn.

If you remember, our original plan was simply to have coffee after our respective  meetings. But when Monday came, an opportunity gave birth to an idea which I figured would not be very easy to execute, but should be worth the effort.  I was thinking to myself, perhaps this was one of the impractical things I should do but I’d do it because it made perfect sense anyway!

On Monday, when your appointment got canceled, I took the opportunity to invite you to watch Upside Down, which turned out to be a visually stunning and a very lyrical film on love, and how it helps you conquer the impossible. We had a good laugh at some scenes / elements of the movie but at the back of my mind, I already started thinking of ways to make sure we are able to spend the whole Valentine week together, impossible as it may seem given our tight schedules.

Tuesday, we embarked on a road / food trip to UP Diliman. It was beyond nice to see you all giddy and excited about eating fish balls and we ended up enjoying the ‘fair’ ride and the various games. Sure you got me beat in target shooting, but you shared your prize (2 pieces of Mentos) with me. After watching some performances, we decided to head out to Something Fishy and have our Fat Tuesday there. We ended up having a very meaningful (and should I say definitive) conversation over good, cheap food. I thought it was the best Fat Tuesday I’ve had in years :) 

Wednesday, since you were coding, I saw an opportunity to pick you up and it was great that we were able to attend the Ash Wednesday mass together.  The bed shopping was an excuse because I wanted to get you a pre-Valentine gift from Cupcake Lab.  After your office event, I did pick you up right? But that was before I ‘tried’ driving to Dangwa so I could already buy my gift for V Day. Traffic was epic and I was 40 minutes late but I knew I needed to drive back to Makati already or else I might spoil the surprise. I hope you didn’t find the excuse too lame. ;p 

So Thursday came and I was already a bit stressed out. I made sure that I wouldn’t have an appointment beyond 4 pm so I could finally brave the big Valentine rush. With *****, we started our journey to look for the perfect Valentine gift. 

I scoured the shops, but the stuff were either overpriced, or looked cheap. My goal was to get you something unique, but traditional. I wanted to strike that perfect balance between traditional, and awesome, for lack of a better term. ;p 

With time running out (I needed to be at Fort by 730 so I could still catch you in your office – otherwise, I would have to ask someone else to hand over the stuff to you in your action group meeting venue and I wouldn’t like that)  I uttered a short prayer to God so he could lead me to the right shop. 

I did my usual shopping habit of walking really fast, skimming through what seemed like endless pages of a book on failed Valentine efforts, until I saw this unassuming shop with a smiling ate to ask me if I wanted to have some flowers arranged. I knew this was the shop where I could buy my Valentine present for you. 

To backtrack a bit, earlier during the drive to Dangwa, I saw a guy who was carrying such nice, heart-shaped balloons and I thought to myself, I should get you some. But there were no more balloons in sight when we reached Dangwa so I gave up on the idea. But lo and behold, before we reached my car, there was a guy selling the balloons I saw earlier, and so I bought three!

So I finally got my gift and the bigger challenge was how to get to the Fort, from Dangwa, at 730 pm.  It was already 7. Traffic was bad. We prayed. 

At 730 I was already in Makati and when I got a text from you that you were still resolving some issues and would only be able to leave by 8, I said to myself, wohooo! Talk about little miracles!  When you told me that you needed to buy cake for ***** and *****, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to surprise you so I volunteered to buy the cake and wait for you at Red Ribbon. I reached the cake shop and I suddenly felt silly. I was telling ***** that the balloons could be too cheesy but he encouraged me to go for it! So I got out of the car, with the bouquet in one hand and the balloons in the other, and I was shaking all over.  As if I joined a contest and was about to be judged.

As I entered Red Ribbon, the guard, the crew and some customers started having their pictures taken with the bouquet. The guard and the male crew members even said, ang perfect ng regalo nyo sir!  That was such a morale booster!!!

While waiting for you, girls and boys who seemed to be on their way to their prom started flocking to me to have their pictures taken with the bouquet. When you arrived, I gave you the chocolate and picked up the bouquet. I was glad to see that you were kindof surprised! When the kids go, uy ayan na date ni kuya. Picture-an nyo sila dali, I was blushing and getting shy from all the attention but I still thought it was worth it.

We were just laughing our heads off as we walked to your car. And when you said it was the first time that you got a bouquet that had balloons in it, I thought to myself, that was divine intervention right there! J

When you got home and sent me that thank you message, I had such a huge grin on my face. I slept well knowing it was all worth it, and was convinced that God’s best is within my midst :)

And so, this blog entry completes the 5-day ‘plan’ to spend the Valentine Week with you :)  I really hope you had as much fun as I did. And thank you, thank you for spending time with me and allowing me to serve you in little ways. I really appreciate the fact that you are giving me a chance to do these things.  I hope you’d continue to allow me spend more time with you in the days to come.

Happy Valentine’s Day.  Thank you for being such a big blessing in my life :)

1

April

If you’re reading my blog for the first time, I beg your indulgence ‘cos I’ll be flooding this post with stuff that might annoy you. Here goes:

April 2012 was PACKED to say the least.  First weekend was spent in Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro. It was a splendid long weekend filled with good food, rough adventure and breathtaking sights!

The next weekend was (very) well spent because I got to visit Our Lady of Manaoag and went straight to Baguio, where it was chilly, while Manila was registering 36 degrees!

Third weekend was a visit to Matabungkay. Beach was crowded and the van we rode had an awful A/C system. But hey, fun is what you bring with you, that’s what I learned.

Fourth weekend was spent in Vietnam and Cambodia :) Ahhh, this is the life! Hehehe

And oh, I managed to start with my new job mid-April.  What an eventful month! :)

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Singapore 2012

Singapore 2012

An Open Letter to DOT Secretary Mon Jimenez Dear Sir, First off, I would like to congratulate you and your team for the wonderfully thought out slogans meant to enhance our country’s branding. I believe you have an army of geniuses who truly understand our essence as a people and what we can offer to the world. Secondly, I would like to make it clear that this open letter is not meant to pre-empt any of your roll out plans. I am just bursting with ideas and couldn’t help but feel involved in this initiative.  Over the past years I have grown jaded and apathetic over what’s happening in our country, which is such a shame considering the fact that I was an Iskolar ng Bayan (a scholar of the nation). However, this campaign you’re spearheading has enflamed my dying spirit, if I were to become melodramatic about it. Apologies for that digression and back to the original purpose why I decided to write this open letter - I’d like to throw some ideas that could form part of your rollout strategy, just in case they’re not yet included in your design. I suggest you solicit the support of some of the famous bloggers we have in our country. I don’t have the statistics to back this claim up but I believe these real people are the ones who are able to connect to a larger segment of your target market.  I believe that these bloggers could be commissioned (pro bono, hopefully) to give insider information on several clusters of activities that are simply more fun to do here in the Philippines! For instance, you could assemble a platoon of food bloggers to write about the best places to sample famous Filipino dishes. They could also write about the best fusion and international restaurants that would highlight how ‘safe’ we are as a travel destination, even for those who are not so adventurous when it comes to food.  These bloggers could provide helpful tips on how one can navigate through the streets of Manila and experience the best food that we can offer. It would also be very helpful to assemble bloggers who could give all types of traveler a low down on the best places to visit, and where to stay, depending on their budget. Travel blogs have proven to be very helpful whenever I am able to save up enough money to travel. I read about these unbiased and un-commissioned write-ups before I head out to my destination and have never missed a mark, so far.  There is a handful of credible bloggers in the area of fashion and beauty who could feature our great shopping areas and help in boosting medical tourism, respectively.  You could also get bloggers to give tips on the exchange, taxi, jeepney and other rates one could possibly think of. I can go on and on but I am quite positive you’ve already gotten the drift.   It would also be very helpful to have as many organized tours as possible.  I went to Vietnam last year and was amazed by how organized and affordable the tours were! I was actually shocked by the fact that there were so many foreigners inside the bus, and some of them didn’t even speak English! However, the tours were so organized, the language did not become a barrier at all! Of course I hear those who say we have to clean our act up, fix our infrastructure and other support systems that will enable a smoother rollout of this campaign.  I believe there’s a need as well to find ways to make traveling to the Philippines a lot cheaper.  I found out from an Australian friend that going to Bali is around four times cheaper! Of course the distance could have played a significant factor on the cost difference but the point is, from a common traveler’s perspective - since they see Asia as just one big chunk of land – Bali seems to offer more value for their money.  And friends and family who have visited Bali attest to the fact that our beaches are a lot better. Given that, I know you can see that there’s just way too much wasted potential. Sure we do have a lot of problems like corruption and a myriad of other things. Others could argue that the influx of foreigners could be a gateway to a nastier flesh trade. These are all beside the point and must be addressed separately.  However, we also have a LOT to offer. For instance, a lot of us can communicate in English, and most do not discriminate foreigners. In fact, I’ve observed that Filipinos adore foreigners like crazy! I firmly believe that this campaign could be the best way to get all of us working towards a common goal while strengthening our national identity.  This could also crumble down our strong sense of regionalism, which in my opinion is a little divisive – quite possibly a function of geography and must be taken up in a separate forum.   This is a good start to rally every Juan to be 1 for fun and help our country become the #1 tourist destination in Asia.  I am hopeful that this could be THE initiative that will finally put to good use our uncanny (and sometimes misplaced) resilience and our ability to find humor in almost everything. I am not sure if you’ve reached this part of my letter but if you did, thank you. To anyone who gets to read this, I beg your indulgence. You may disagree with some of my points but before you start hating, a food for thought: where else could you find people smiling for the camera while crossing a raging flood?  Forgive me as I take dibs to use the various slogans but truly, it is amazingly and incredibly more fun in this side of this truly Asian nation (and we’re kindof the oldest one, right?). May God bless your initiative, Sir.  Sincerely yours, John Calica

An Open Letter to DOT Secretary Mon Jimenez

Dear Sir,

First off, I would like to congratulate you and your team for the wonderfully thought out slogans meant to enhance our country’s branding. I believe you have an army of geniuses who truly understand our essence as a people and what we can offer to the world.

Secondly, I would like to make it clear that this open letter is not meant to pre-empt any of your roll out plans. I am just bursting with ideas and couldn’t help but feel involved in this initiative. 

Over the past years I have grown jaded and apathetic over what’s happening in our country, which is such a shame considering the fact that I was an Iskolar ng Bayan (a scholar of the nation). However, this campaign you’re spearheading has enflamed my dying spirit, if I were to become melodramatic about it.

Apologies for that digression and back to the original purpose why I decided to write this open letter - I’d like to throw some ideas that could form part of your rollout strategy, just in case they’re not yet included in your design.

I suggest you solicit the support of some of the famous bloggers we have in our country. I don’t have the statistics to back this claim up but I believe these real people are the ones who are able to connect to a larger segment of your target market.  I believe that these bloggers could be commissioned (pro bono, hopefully) to give insider information on several clusters of activities that are simply more fun to do here in the Philippines!

For instance, you could assemble a platoon of food bloggers to write about the best places to sample famous Filipino dishes. They could also write about the best fusion and international restaurants that would highlight how ‘safe’ we are as a travel destination, even for those who are not so adventurous when it comes to food.  These bloggers could provide helpful tips on how one can navigate through the streets of Manila and experience the best food that we can offer.

It would also be very helpful to assemble bloggers who could give all types of traveler a low down on the best places to visit, and where to stay, depending on their budget. Travel blogs have proven to be very helpful whenever I am able to save up enough money to travel. I read about these unbiased and un-commissioned write-ups before I head out to my destination and have never missed a mark, so far. 

There is a handful of credible bloggers in the area of fashion and beauty who could feature our great shopping areas and help in boosting medical tourism, respectively.  You could also get bloggers to give tips on the exchange, taxi, jeepney and other rates one could possibly think of. I can go on and on but I am quite positive you’ve already gotten the drift.  

It would also be very helpful to have as many organized tours as possible.  I went to Vietnam last year and was amazed by how organized and affordable the tours were! I was actually shocked by the fact that there were so many foreigners inside the bus, and some of them didn’t even speak English! However, the tours were so organized, the language did not become a barrier at all!

Of course I hear those who say we have to clean our act up, fix our infrastructure and other support systems that will enable a smoother rollout of this campaign.  I believe there’s a need as well to find ways to make traveling to the Philippines a lot cheaper.  I found out from an Australian friend that going to Bali is around four times cheaper! Of course the distance could have played a significant factor on the cost difference but the point is, from a common traveler’s perspective - since they see Asia as just one big chunk of land – Bali seems to offer more value for their money.  And friends and family who have visited Bali attest to the fact that our beaches are a lot better. Given that, I know you can see that there’s just way too much wasted potential.

Sure we do have a lot of problems like corruption and a myriad of other things. Others could argue that the influx of foreigners could be a gateway to a nastier flesh trade. These are all beside the point and must be addressed separately.  However, we also have a LOT to offer. For instance, a lot of us can communicate in English, and most do not discriminate foreigners. In fact, I’ve observed that Filipinos adore foreigners like crazy!

I firmly believe that this campaign could be the best way to get all of us working towards a common goal while strengthening our national identity.  This could also crumble down our strong sense of regionalism, which in my opinion is a little divisive – quite possibly a function of geography and must be taken up in a separate forum.  

This is a good start to rally every Juan to be 1 for fun and help our country become the #1 tourist destination in Asia.  I am hopeful that this could be THE initiative that will finally put to good use our uncanny (and sometimes misplaced) resilience and our ability to find humor in almost everything.

I am not sure if you’ve reached this part of my letter but if you did, thank you. To anyone who gets to read this, I beg your indulgence. You may disagree with some of my points but before you start hating, a food for thought: where else could you find people smiling for the camera while crossing a raging flood?  Forgive me as I take dibs to use the various slogans but truly, it is amazingly and incredibly more fun in this side of this truly Asian nation (and we’re kindof the oldest one, right?).

May God bless your initiative, Sir. 

Sincerely yours,

John Calica

In a world where everyone competes for 15 seconds (15 minutes have become way too long) of fame, we are all pressured to stand out in any crowd, make a dent on the public consciousness (or at the very least in our respective spheres of influence) or at the very least, get as many likes as possible on our Facebook wall. What does it take to stand out? To make a difference? How do we hit that spot that will pave the way for that ultimate crossover from being virtual nobodies to being the talk of the town (or the toast of the cyberworld?) If you ask me, I’d say there’s nothing wrong with wanting to stand out, as long as you’re fighting for your individuality; absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to make a difference especially when the act is clearly directed towards benefitting others; absolutely not evil to desire fame, as long as you want it so bad so you could positively influence the world. It all boils down to one’s motivation. It’s time to talk to the man in the mirror.

In a world where everyone competes for 15 seconds (15 minutes have become way too long) of fame, we are all pressured to stand out in any crowd, make a dent on the public consciousness (or at the very least in our respective spheres of influence) or at the very least, get as many likes as possible on our Facebook wall.

What does it take to stand out? To make a difference? How do we hit that spot that will pave the way for that ultimate crossover from being virtual nobodies to being the talk of the town (or the toast of the cyberworld?)

If you ask me, I’d say there’s nothing wrong with wanting to stand out, as long as you’re fighting for your individuality; absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to make a difference especially when the act is clearly directed towards benefitting others; absolutely not evil to desire fame, as long as you want it so bad so you could positively influence the world.

It all boils down to one’s motivation. It’s time to talk to the man in the mirror.

And So The Story Goes (And Why We Should Not Go To Sleep To Dream)

Note: This is an old entry which I wrote more than two years ago, after a heartbreaking episode in my life. I miss blogging, and the thought processes associated with it.

A story, or an event, especially when it involves two people, will have, at the very least, two versions. You and the other party, granted that the unfolding requires retelling, will then recreate from memory how everything added up, recollecting differing climaxes that led towards denouement, oftentimes bereft of objectivity, or at the very least, the desire to really come up with a final resolution.

As the two of you go on sharing to people your versions of the story, layers upon layers get added to the half-original autobiographical fiction that is your specific, shared life event, and people would analyze and empathize hugely depending on their level of intelligence, life experiences, or sense of involvement – a hopeless exercise that spawns a third, fourth and still incomplete versions.

And so the story gets retold in so many different ways, the actual feelings involved betrayed by the limited vocabulary, the real essence vanishing as the story gets twisted to suit one’s set of prejudgments.

A good friend shared with me a quote that goes a little something like this: sometimes, people believe they are already thinking when the truth is, they’re simply busy rearranging their preconceived notions. Whoever gave birth to this precious nugget of wisdom should be canonized. And so the story goes.

I know I have said enough. As a fitting ending, an epiphany: I shouldn’t have gone to sleep to dream in the first place.

Cheap Tricks: The Anatomy of Infamy

We’ve seen this happen one time too many. Some nameless, struggling writer makes a dent, no matter how small it is, on the public consciousness by being condescending in whatever way possible and people react. BIG TIME. Done in different styles - pa-intellectual, patawa, or pa-lait, which is a personal favorite, since it’s funny to see how people can pull a face-to-face kindof act, without even trying!

The problem is, when people react to nonsense, an iota of credibility is lent on whatever piece of garbage is out there in the web. And a person becomes infamous because of a cheap trick. Believe me when I say that infamy, especially in this day and age when everyone competes for several seconds of fame, is perceived as 10 times better than anonymity. 

Hence, I would like to urge whoever gets to read this post to think long and hard before putting another link to an already ludicrous chain reaction. The best way to express your disgust nowadays is by sheer apathy.  Never give any bozo the privilege of feeling like his brain fart matters. Never fall into their trap filled with cheap tricks!

Tagged: rants, infamy, brain farts, .
7

What truly is logic? Who decides reason? My quest has taken me to the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional, and back. I have made the most important discovery of my career - the most important discovery of my life. It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reason can be found.

Yown!

—A Beautiful Mind (via philphys)

(via philphys-deactivated20120616)

Tagged: a beautiful mind, logic, love, reason, .
57

Pumped!

Because tomorrow, I am going on a trip to meet the Merlion for the second time and watch Simba and Nala (right spelling?) do their thing. Get it?