Sit back, put your feet up and enjoy the ride.
This is a poem I wrote in 7 February 2002. I’m amazed how GenAI can easily interpret this into an image and a song.
Dreaming, unconsciousness
Subconscious, loneliness
Though the world
is fully in a bother
I guess I would rather
Sleep with the dead
Living in a dream world
Where good stories are heard
Good but unreal
Better than reality
Where pain shows severity
I’ll sleep with the dead
https://suno.com/song/cb5762aa-756f-48fe-8de0-a8417469134a
Here’s a bonus:
There were many nights when Bryce was younger, about a couple of years ago, that our imaginations ran wild through bedtime stories. We took turns in continuing episodes of adventures of multitude of characters, starting from X-Fighter-X — which was Bryce’s brainchild. It starred him and his classmates in Cascades, where they battle otherworldly creatures in a cave, sky, space, and even in a transdimensional wormholes.
After one of our Chinese New Year celebrations, Cucu-Toofoo & Juju-Loo — the catfish and little girl whose bodies and heads were swapped with one another — were birthed along with an ensemble of fabled characters. Those were priceless moments that I believe shaped and expanded Bryce’s imagination, not to mention our father-son bonding moments — made stronger by gestures in the air and a shared vision of what transpired in our very own tales.
Depending on our life events, stories presented themselves to us while already lying in bed trying to capture nightly yawns. Just like each turn of a page of a newfound book, stories unfold like apparitions — only that they linger longer until ho-hum storylines cue us to end it right then and there and say the mandatory, “to be continued…”.
Jaycelle herself have countless stories in her mind, in her dreams, that she wanted ultimately inscribed on paper as books. She invited me to join the How to Write A Book & Self-Publish It Workshop by PaperKat Books. We attended and were introduced to self-publishing. There were several authors that we’ve met who have realized their own dreams in writing and publishing. They were such inspirations that with effort and hard work, every day, it can be done.
A year is what it takes for Earth to complete a trip around the sun. We can say that we’re back to the point where we started — predictable seasons and collective celebrations of recurring events. We are passengers of this giant spaceship hurtling through space and time — we’re going ’round and ’round and only the journey can be described and the destination, unknown.
The measurement of a year is in our minds. Is there really a point in space and time wherein nature will tell that “this is the the last second of the year, the next is a new one”? There are many meaningful implications of knowing a year that will end and a year that brings inspirations anew. But if we are waiting to change something within our selves, for the better, why wait for a new year, or a new month, or a new day — why not now?
The disintegration of the concept of prepacked time — as in, how time are neatly wrapped into seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years — also breaks down the structure of what enables us to be in sync with the rest of the world. I remember a time in college when I lost track of time (or rather didn’t care about it) and found out that I was about to join an accounting class with only a minute left. I opened the door and the professor wasn’t surprised because that was the nth time a did it. In a business law class, I wasn’t so lucky as I joined it two-thirds along the way. As I sat down, the professor booted me out, deservingly. It was an embarrassing moment.
Why did I do it? It may be established that a session wouldn’t be complete, or better yet, worthwhile, when you’ve missed some thoughts from the teacher and the students. But as they say, better late than never. I was still able to squeeze what ever meager drop that I could in those instances, however that would mean to me and my own goals. Admittedly, that was my younger self who didn’t know any better.
To those of us who will be syncing with the rest of the world, and especially with someone we care about, it’s better to be at the right space and the right time with them. For ourselves, in getting better in any aspect, the time to start is now.
I admit, I am amazed by technology when it can bring photos to life. Decades ago, I scanned my paternal grandparents’ wedding portrait with the purpose of restoring it. It was scanned in four parts and the best restoration that I could do was stitch them together and remove some blemishes using Photoshop. I thought that I needed some painting skills if I wanted to restore the cracked part (which I didn’t).
Fast forward to 2021, my mind was blown to discover that technology could make animated portraits. Literally, it could make old stagnant photos come alive. If you want to see it for yourself, upload some pictures at MyHeritage Deep Nostalgia.
Here are they in their wedding day. Nanay, as we call our grandmother, survived her husband, Tatay. She’s now in her mid-80s, still as witty and beautiful as ever.
While I was at it, I also ran their portrait in MyHeritage In Color to somewhat colorize and enhance it. Amazing!
Update: 3 April 2021
Sabagay nung teenager ako, nanalo ako sa beauty contest. Kinukuha ako mag-artista ng tauhan ng Sampaguita Pictures, ayaw ng stepmother ko, baka raw mapariwara lang ang buhay ko. Sa Castillejos, Zambales yun, year 1949.
Nanay Carolina
I said that if ever she took the offer, she would be alongside Susan Roces in Ang Probinsyano. She corrected me by saying that her colleagues would be Tita Duran, Pancho Magalona, Rogelio de la Rosa, and, Carmen Rosales. And that we won’t be born into the world. But she reassured me that all of us, my brothers and I, would be actors as well.
The first time I’ve been at Avaloq’s office at Philam Life building was during my second interview. I was impressed by the interior design of the pantry. There by the couch were some company brochures in the style of a newspaper. I took one home to familiarize myself with the new company that I was planning to join.
Fast forward to almost a year, I was back to this office to get a Macbook device which was an official issue for UX designers.
While waiting, I hang out by the pantry and had some coffee. There were wine bottles and glasses on the wall but only as decor (they were empty, I checked).
Outside, during lunch, it was a typical workday — only that everyone’s wearing face shields and masks. There were many people lining up at Dunkin’ at Paseo Center. I went to Yellow Cab for a grub.
I was oblivious to the fact that some companies have their employees back on site until I went to the office myself. This was also evident on the road, by the number of vehicles going somewhere. Life goes on, indeed, with the pandemic still as dangerous as it started — we just managed to become familiar of how to stay safe in the outside world. I hope complacency in being careful does not get the best of anyone.
It was a Friday — a celebratory day wherein just last year when my officemates / friends would go out for dinner and some drinks, and sometimes the office turned on its party mode. Now, I had to rush home to avoid the heavy traffic in EDSA.
What permanently changed, we’ll only know as we’re putting old normal things one by one into the new normal.
[ntt_percept page=”avaloq-open-positions”]
It was more than 10 years ago since I bought a Swatch watch called Something New. It was tiny classic black and white watch that had a plastic strap that cost one-third of the watch’s original price (and it breaks every year, the strap). This is what really deterred me from buying from Swatch. Metal and leather straps were me when I was 14 years old but not anymore. Durability and style require delicate balance.
After that, I switched to Casio, with another classic — an F-91W which is a cheap ₱999 watch whose strap also breaks — but this time, every six months. Again, the strap cost a third of the original price. After around 3 strap replacements, it is now again in a brink of breaking. Planned obsolescence for “bottom-of-the-line” products — these watch makers have perfected a ploy.
Just a couple of days ago, I couldn’t leave the mall without taking home this greenish-looking watch called We in the Khaki Now. With it, I partnered another watch for Jaycelle as a surprise — Sunblush (Swatch has a really fun way of naming their watches).
Of course, after eyeing these two awesome watches, my first question for the salesperson was, “What kind of straps do they have?” I was glad not to hear “plastic” or “rubber” — but “silicone“. It’s time to give it another try.
When I got home, I searched for more information regarding the straps and found out that We in the Khaki Now has a “bio-sourced material” strap. I just hope that this time the straps would last for years.