I'd come up with a better title eventually

Planeta Pilipinas

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 06:44:00 -0700

Visit my new tumblr site.

what is your ideal kind of summer fun ?

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 03:02:00 -0700

While just sitting there and sipping something cold from a bendy straw is something anyone would dream of, I like going out there and look for something new until I run out of something to write about, which, by the way, would never happen. I'm planning to write about the history of churches in Bicol this summer. Mindanao's at the end of the list. Wish us luck at the 71st NSPC. :)
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Breeze and Peace

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 20:27:00 -0700

Like an empty AA battery, I'm useless. Like an ink-empty pen, I'm useless. Like an unloaded gun, I'm useless. Like a non-sticky masking tape, well, you get the idea. (What's even more useless is that metaphor, and I'm glad something is more useless than I am.)

It is not easy to just sit there all day at the terrace. While I am enjoying the breeze and peace, I am also wasting seconds, minutes and hours of my summer.

It's refreshing, the breeze and peace at the terrace. I can at least feel the summer heat. The feeling of just watching the sun come back to the horizon as the night nears is something I can never explain. It is the same sun that see everyday but that time, the feeling is not the same. However, it is not the kind of breeze that I want and certainly not the kind of peace that I was hoping for before the the school year was over. What I want is the breeze coming at me from the window of a bus or from at the deck of a ship. And peace, I don't know just what, yet. But I'm not sure it's not that peace, let me just repeat that.

That's why I thought I needed to come up with a list of hdow I'd like to spend my summer, no matter how crazy it seems.

Apart from my plan to join the College Editors Guild of the Philippines' 71st National Student Press Convention, there are plans I would like to do before the event on May 11-15. While on a bus ride yesterday, I thought about making a series of blog posts about old establishments and buildings.

First on the list: that church that has shown majesty, great dignity, and has been worthily given attention, the Saint John the Baptist Church of Tabaco City.

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Gaiatsu: The Cove and Blood Dolphin$

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:48:00 -0700

"A dolphin's smile is the greatest deception.

It creates the illusion that they're always happy." – Ric O’Barry

Japan. Slaughter. Dolphins. They don’t seem related, but they are. Use them all in one sentence and you get the whole idea.

I never thought anyone who’s Japanese cannot do anything that will put his nation to shame but the fishermen of Taiji, Wakayama are doing just that.

The dolphin slaughter in Taiji was brought to light by a 2009 documentary film that later won the 82^nd Academy Awards despite controversies and the mixed reactions. The film attracted a wide media attention. It was described to be a Gaiatsu, or foreign pressure, for the Japanese whaling authority.

We know, the movie is so 2009, but we’re thinking it’s still worth writing about, after all, people are still talking about it. As a matter of fact, while I was writing this article, I saw events on Facebook, both happening in the US, of screening of the film in universities organized by vegan groups and Asian associations.

Bicol Organization of Neo-Journalists (BONJOUR) in partnership with the Earth Island Institute – Philippines and in cooperation with YOUTHink, United Nations Youth Association of the Philippines (UNYAP) and Rotaract Club of Legazpi Central organized a special documentary screening of the internationally-acclaimed documentary at the Pacific Mall Cinemas 1 and 2, Mar. 10 and 11.

“[Dolphins], too, have rights and we must uphold them. After all, we consider ourselves as the superior species,” Jovic Maurice Yee, project head and BONJOUR external vice president said.

BONJOUR President Jessa Mae Jarilla expounded, “We are not the only ones who deserve to live in the world.”

So, what’s so peculiar about it?

If you thought Ric O’Barry is the least likely to be in opposition of dolphin captivity, least of all become a marine activist, you haven’t seen the movie.

O’Barry, the author of (breath in deep, this title is long) Behind the Dolphin Smile: A True Story that Will Touch the Hearts of Animal Lovers Everywhere, is the dolphin trainer of the five dolphins which played the part of the possibly most famous dolphin in the 1964 National Broadcasting Company television series Flipper, a show that lasted three years with 88 episodes. He worked for Miami Seaquarium. He was even the highest paid dolphin trainer in the 60s. So what made him quit his job and do things that would make all dealers guilty of wanting to get him arrested or killing him?

After one of the dolphins, Kathy, committed suicide in his own hands, O’Barry said in the film, he finally saw the infliction of pain and suffering to the dolphins brought by the captivity. He said that dolphins can commit suicide by ‘not taking the next breath.’

Dolphins, like all other cetaceans, are voluntary breathers. This means they can decide whether to take or not take the next breath. Because of this, they are sometimes called conscious breathers, constantly being conscious in order for them to continuously keep breathing, even when asleep. So unlike us, they can just commit suicide whenever they feel like everything around them is going wrong, something I wish we can do, too. Kidding.

This made Ric O’Barry decide to be a defender of the ocean mammal. And for a number of times after that, he was unremittingly going back and forth prisons. The first time was when he let Charlie Brown, a dolphin that he himself captured, break loose in Bimini, Bahamas just the day after Kathy died. Getting in prison didn’t stop him in his advocacy. He promised not to quit until every dolphin in captivity is free and enjoying the wild where they really should be, their real environment.

In the film, O’Barry and Louie Psihoyos (the film’s director, a former National Geographic still photographer) formed a crew of free divers, marine biologists, adrenaline junkie, marine activists (that include Isabel Lucas who previously took part in an attempt to stop the hunt in 2006 with 29 other Surfers for Cetaceans members), and an underwater cinematographer. O’Barry and the others had to go James Bond during nights in a series of missions to and fro the national park and their hotel.

In the location where the slaughters happen every year, cameras are banned and tourists’ view is blocked. This is in spite of the fact that the place is a national park. The film’s crew had to use cameras that looked like rock in order to film the dolphin slaughter with the help of a motion picture visual company (the one that provided the visual effects for those fan favorites Pirates of the Caribbean , all of the first four movies, and where Adam Savage, Grant Imahara and Tory Belleci of Mythbusters all worked for).

After screenings all over the world, the documentary brought many activists to Taiji, most of them were no-Japanese, thus the term Gaiatsu.

Watch the film. You will forever be thankful O’Barry and Psihoyos decided to make a documentary about the dolphin hunt. After that, you’ll surely change your impressions on dolphinariums and sea parks.

Blood Dolphin$

The television series, Blood Dolphin$, does not only focus on the Taiji dolphins.

O’Barry is in a mission once again, but this time with his son, Lincoln O’Barry (the series director), Kate Tomlinson (still photographer), and Pete Zuccarini (underwater cinematographer) with the help of Lawrence Makili, a Solomon Islander who is also a dolphin activist.

The title refers to the blood trade of dolphins happening in other parts of the world.

After the first episode about Taiji, O’Barry and Lincoln travels to Solomon Islands where dolphins are killed for their teeth (used as currency and dowry), and hunted for dolphin dealers, an industry in Solomon Islands that Chris Porter introduced to the locals.

The mission was launched by an invitation from Chris Porter (not the basketball player, nor the footballer, nor the standup comedian. God!, there are too many Chris Porters in the world), who said he came up with the project called Free the Pod, a move to release 17 dolphins that were held captive in Porter’s pen. In other words, Chris Porter, a dolphin exporter, is turning his coat over to side with the dolphin activists.

Someone would think it’s far fetched to stop dolphin hunting in the Solomons because it’s part of their tradition and all, right? But later in the series, the O’Barrys learned that the tradition of killing dolphins has long stopped and was again re-introduced to the locals by Porter. Otherwise stated, Porter is responsible to all the slaughters that were once again happening throughout the country.

Porter is O’Barry’s long time resistor. They have clashed before regarding the dolphins in the former’s enclave in Gavutu Island.

In the second episode, Lincoln goes undercover in the nation’s capital, Honiara, where he discovers captive dolphins swimming in pools filled with their own feces. Those dolphins remained unrescued but were transferred to a larger offshore pen.

The talk with Porter, just like their previous meeting in 2006, released no dolphins.

They were successful, on the other hand, in dealing with the people of the village of Fanalei to stop dolphin hunting, something which led to the agreement of other villages to the deal. At the end of the episode, a video of Porter releasing the 17 dolphins was shown. The Solomons mission lasted for two episodes, ending the series. Yup, there are only three episodes. Maybe they should have made an episode at Subic.

Don’t but a ticket

So what makes us all different to the 5% population of Taiji that knows the slaughter activity if we still buy tickets and get excited over dolphins jumping on air, playing with big balls, throwing people on air, ? Nothing. By watching and buying a ticket to dolphin shows we are constantly demanding dealers to still buy and import dolphins and arousing them into continuing what they are doing. *Enter dolphin suicide*. *Enter more work for O’Barry*. *Enter more activism*.

O’Barry must have given an understatement saying that the dolphin industry of putting them in captivity and making on them while they’re on large aquariums is like prostitution. The least we can do now, as ordinary people engaging in activism towards the issue, is to not buy a ticket in dolphin shows.

Dolphins in captivity exhibit abnormal behaviors, unlike when they are in the wild. The dolphins you see in dolphinariums and aquatic parks are nothing similar to those ones in the wild.

The whale watching industry in Donsol made the town 1^st-class from being a 6^th-class municipality.

You might wanna try whale watching, or observing the cetaceans in their natural habitat. Year round, here in the Philippines, dolphins are observed at Central Visayas, Batanes, Palawan and Davao Gulf.

Painting 23, 000 dolphins all over the nation

If you think that’s not possible, sorry to disappoint you, but someone was able to do just that.

For eight months last year, Amado Guerrero ‘AG’ Saño painted dolphins in memory of the 23, 000 dolphins killed in Taiji each year. This he did in campaign against the hunt in Japan and the dolphin shows here in the Philippines. During that time, Saño had hundreds of volunteers helping him.

So what now?

I cannot deny the truth to anyone, before The Cove, I thought the dolphin smile tells that they’re fine in captivity while in fact they’re all straining to survive from all the stress of all things happening inside sea parks (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s it, you need to watch the film!).

When they all need to be out there, catching fish, living in their real habitat, here are the dolphin dealers being their horror and all.

I’ve frequently asked this question: What can we do now?

Well, the first thing to do was already mentioned. Two, What you can do is, tell your friends about the movie and the television series. I’ve done my part writing this, but this surely is not the last of it. I am most willing to hand you a copy of the movie. Find your way into our office.

Three, if you have a blog, you know what to do. It won’t hurt to blog about it. Four, follow @TheCoveNews on Twitter. Five, visit TakePart.com/TheCove. Six, roll a dice, if you get three consecutive sixes, you saved a dolphin. (Sorry, I can’t help making that up). Six, this may seem remotely connected but it helps: help preserve out aquatic resources. Dispose of your waste properly and fix any leaks at your home. Seven, write. Write to politicians when you come up with any idea that has something to do with helping preserve the environment.

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Surely, you don't wanna read this.

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:48:00 -0700

There's something terribly wrong about you. You shouldn't be reading this post because, like that other post, this wouldn't be an interesting read. This all about me. You may think this is a vanity post; I call it "my blog post." In here, I choose what I wanna post, so click on X.

A Facebook note was tagged to me with this rule: Since you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. at the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. I didn't write this because the rule says so. I wrote this because I love this gimmick.

1. If you start liking what I like listening to, i'm done liking it. But you can't make me stop liking The All-American Rejects.

2. I wanna be a Palanca Awardee, a Pulitzer Awardee (but that's impossible because i'm not American), and an Oscar Awardee (I wanna make/create/be a part of a good documentary).

3. Touch the straw, i'm not sipping from that straw again. Drink from my glass, forget about giving it back.

4. I can make twos into one.

5. I have blogs you can't count on your fingers. And I don't if I should really use 'on' because I suck at prepositions (there you go, two facts in one number; manifestation of fact #4).

6. I don't drink coffee. I am insomniac, thus the seemingly malnourished body.

7. I love reading Thomas Harris, Jessica Zafra, Anne Rice, Sydney Sheldon, Clive Staples Lewis, Chuck Palahniuk and Joanne Kathleen Rowling. That makes you un-ignorant about what to give me on my brithday. Here's the two in one: I am a self-proclaimed polymath.

8. My writer's cradle was Robert Lawrence Stine's Goosebumps, so I guess you can say that I was made to be a creative write, not a journalist...

9. But, hell, I love journalism!

10. I was born on the 13th of October and I'm telling this in response to any question that arose and because I wanna increase the mails I'd be receiving on that day.

11. Before this week, I thought the nouns after 'zero' don't go with 's'. Yes, not knowing they should be in s-form is stupid, but it's not that late to know that, right?

12. I'm keeping a journal. I burnt my 2009-2010 journal.

13. While writing number 12, I couldn't decide whether to use burned or burnt. Damn English can't make up their minds. Dreamt or dreamed?

14. My classmates almost killed me during my second year in high school for liking emo music. Now they're the ones going crazy over the genre.

15. I like to pretend i'm not there when they're saying good things about me. But that rarely happens.

16. I planned on writing nothing on number sixteen. The plan didn't materialize. See?

17. I'm not close with my classmates in college. I choose not to be inside the classroom for most of my time in college. It's fun to get lost in college.

18. I usually 'try', as much as possible, not to pass my projects. Mainly because I think it's not academic - those note writing and designing stuffs and buying things not needed inside the classroom. I used 'try' because I'm doomed to passing them if it's a group project.

19. So, I really hate group works.

20. I have written many fake books with fake ISBN numbers since elementary. They're on notebooks of different sizes and colors and brands. That's how I love writing.

21. I love writing because I have no talents.

22. You can't catch me playing guitar, or playing dota, or reading twilight saga, or buying condoms.

23. I've been an anime addict since the day I learned they're cooler than watching drama, which are, by the way, too predictable for me. I hate spoiling my self.

24. I wanna build a library, a school for creative writers, a school for journalism, and a glass lake house for my family. But it's too early to be thinking of that so i'd just enjoy getting lost before the right time. I was actually writing my resume the other night. I bet you found no connection in that. (two in one again)

25. I love THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY and i'm very vocal about wanting (since my elementary years) to work for them, if not for the magazine, for their news site.

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Philosophy of Man

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 12:39:00 -0700

Man has always wanted to be perfect, but it seems man has been straying away from what he really wanted.

After thousands of years of walking on Earth, choking each other, poisoning other mammals, spearing other creatures, inventing our own demise and downfall through technology and polluting everything, we have emptied the perfection meter.

True hopefuls would hire necromancers to bring back the philosophers back from the grave to teach us once again the lessons we never learned from the beginning, that is, if that’s even possible.

But it’s NOT possible.

So it all comes down to this: Rizal was not lying, we are the hope of the fatherland.

Man would always pass the burden to the new generation and pray to God that they raised us well.

So while they are here, and while we are not so left out in the world that they have created, we might as well learn as much as we could from their faults and the victories, because that’s all that matters, learning and expanding our knowledge.

We still have time to refill the already emptied meter and make up for the times we have lost true knowledge and for the times we have strayed away from the things that will bring us near what we ever wanted.

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noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:18:00 -0700

The Freedom Writers mise-en-scene 2

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Get Spammed

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sat, 5 Mar 2011 08:44:00 -0800

You can't go online and not meet spam links on social networking sites, mails, and advertisements. If you haven't, believe me, you will be coming across one or two anytime soon.

Wikipedia defines spams as 'the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.'

Just now, three friends sent me private messages on Facebook bearing the same spam message: LOL, check this out http://on.fb.m*/gDIhS*. It annoyed me. Three people fell for the obvious spam. Who knows how many all in all were they in the whole Facebook universe tonight and the nights before this?

I didn't wanna click the link. It was the worst spam to ever hit private messaging. I can say that because I have met more hundreds of spam messages and I know how they work. They make you think you wanna click their links, and they use shortened URLs. This one is old fashioned. No internet-smart person will ever fall for that. Clap you hands if you raised an eyebrow upon receiving the same message.

I asked one of my friends who sent me one spam message about it, and he said that the link sent him to a Facebook fanpage where, when you click Like, the spam who sent the message to all of your online friends. So if ever you come across with a page with "Photographer Committed Suicide 3 Days After Taking This Photo" on it, you know where to not point your mouse pointer, unless you wanna get spammed.

And, right now, my Yahoo!Mail account has a staggering number of spams. You don't wanna know how many. You're gonna bleed your nose until you drain out of that red liquid. Luckily, Gmail receives only few spam mails so I don't have to worry myself about receiving unneeded mails and deleting them every time I open my email.

Spams like that also exist in the microblogging site twitter. Last year, users reported a link that extracts their passwords, thus, hacking their accounts. Goodbye tweets. Goodbye mentiones. Goodbye everything. Enter mourning. Enter swearing. Enter risks.

What risks am I talking about here? One, it lets the spammers invade your account and trick your followers. And two, the 'tricking' is not just simple tricking, it involves money. You get the picture I guess. You're so gonna hate spammers after that.

The shortened Uniform Resource Locators are the main problems. Everyone's using it on Twitter because of the limited text space. Microblogging site have limited characters for each post. One of the only few ways of adding more characters than allowed is by using Twitlonger.

Guess what, there are ways to avoid getting spammed. And they are basics.

1. Change passwords regularly. If you don't have the memorizing abilities, ask your friends what are notes for. There are many ways of being reminded.

2. Familiarize the SNS and the sites you're entering. This enables you to judge the links cautiously. Just like in the real world, the wisest will always have an edge over the unwitting.

3. Always doubt shortened URLs. The most used may be the bit.ly, now, please, ask guidance from above before click. And, please, don't take what I said literally. I mean double check first.

reposted from my Scribd post

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noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:46:00 -0800

Losing friends because I had to run my mouth and express my opinions about someone is not new to me. It's one of those days that I want to say, "I don't care. I have more friends to gain than those I already lost."

Start The Machine by Angels And Airwaves

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 02:45:00 -0800

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A Valentine Tale 6 [Final]

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 02:26:00 -0800

Read these first:
A Valentine Tale part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, Part 5

A Valentine Tale is my first story that doesn't have a tragic ending. I don't know, but maybe this would be the last happy story I'd write.

A Valentine Tale 6 final

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Calling All Applicants

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 02:27:00 -0800

This is an article I submitted in our Feature Writing subject about the hiring of police officers here in the Philippines.

Calling All Applicants

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Re-Starting Business

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 06:01:00 -0800

Photo from CBS.com

If you're going to label a season with 'best season ever', it's going to be this season.

That's what I told my self when I learned about a second all-star season for The Amazing Race. The seventeenth season was predictable from the fourth leg onwards. But this season is sure to be the world-race business of all world-race businesses.

The Amazing Race Season 18, dubbed as Unfinished Business, will start airing on Monday. It is the first television series in the United States to use High-Definition (HD). And if you think you're not going to remember their names and faces, think again. They are all too familiar since they were all from recent seasons, the oldest being the 12th season.

Which teams will be back?

Ronald and Christina, the father-daughter team of the twelfth season. They are going to have another chance to get the win. They arrived second only in their season. They were three time leg winners.

The dating goths from the same season, Vyxsin and her boyfriend Kent (back then he was known as Kynt), are also back. They were the seventh team to be eliminated after arriving in last for two consecutive legs (seventh and eighth leg).

Margie and Luke, the mother and son team from the fourteenth season. They finished third in their race and have won one leg (seventh leg) where they won the fast forward after having the letters FF tattooed on them.

Amanda and Kris, dating from the fourteenth season, now engaged. They came in second in the third leg, then lost the whole race in the fourth.

Jaime and Cara are also back. The Former NFL Cheerleaders from the fourteenth season. They came in first in the first half of the double-lenght tenth leg. They were in the final leg and came in second.

LaKisha (then known as Kisha) and Jennifer, the sisters from the same season are hoping they won't get another U-Turn in the eighteenth season. They were the fourth team in their season and were one time leg champions.

Mel and Mike, the father and son team from the fourteenth season, are hoping there won't be any destination with elephants shows. They were one time leg winners.

Zev and Justin, the best friends from the fifteenth season, are the lowest place earners in this season. They were ninth placers in their season and has won no legs before they were eliminated. In their final leg, they arrived first. But after discovering that Zev's passport was missing, they had to leave the mat and look for the necessary document. They were unlucky in their search, and therefore was eliminated.

The Harlem Globetrotters, Herb and Nate are back (now they are known by their names, not by their Globetrotters nicknames, Flight Time and Big Easy) in business after losing the eleventh leg to the top three teams. They were two time leg winners in the season.

Jet and Cord, the cowboy brothers, is one of the three second placers in this season, but are the most promising among the three teams, having won four legs in their season. In their seventh leg, they came in last. They therefore had to perform a Speedbump in the next leg.

Gary and Mallory, the father and daughter team from the seventeenth season are also back. After being eliminated in Oman in the previous season, they are taking no rest and are game for the all-star season already. They didn't win any leg in their season but they were second placers for three consecutive times.

The seventeenth season ended filming on the fifteenth of June, 2010. The eighteenth started filming on the twentieth of November, 2010. (According to Wikipedia.org)

Wikipedia also said that the first destination for the first task is Sydney, Australia. Japan is also reportedly one of the destinations for the season.

The previous seasons were learning and practice races for this season's teams, and it's sure to be a butt-kick to all the past seasons.

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noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 08:49:00 -0800

FlashFiction #2

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 09:12:00 -0800

He was walking home-bound. The cold February air made him shiver. He looked at his wrist watch. 12:56a.m. That explained why the street was so empty. It was dark but he knew the place so well he didn't need to get his cellphone and light the way. He had walked on that street since the start of his memory.

Then he heard footsteps. Heavy footsteps. He slowed down. He didn't wanna turn his head to see who it was. But the footsteps seemed to be walking at the same pace as him.

When he finally decided to turn his head, he discovered it was an old man. He didn't see the old man's face. It was faced down. The old man was wearing a red bonnet with holes on it. He didn't know who it was. He turned to face forward again.

After a few steps, the ones behind him became faster. He started to panic. But he calmed himself. He knew there was nothing to be afraid of. If one thing's scary in that street, that would be him and his gang when they need money.

When he turned to see the old man behind, all he could see was a blank street. The old man was gone. For unknown reasons, that gave him goosebumps.

He stopped for a while. There were no houses around so he wondered where the old man went.

Then he turned to face his destination again. But what he saw made him stop, and made his heart beat start racing. It was the old man's back as he walked with his face still down. He found himself looking at the old man's back while he was standing, eyes wide open and stupified. He didn't move.

Then someone emerged from the darkness in front of the old man. The old man stopped and raised his head and moved as if he was being held-up. The old man raised his hand.

The man that emerged from that darkness was about the same age as him. And the tshirt that the man was wearing was familiar to him.

From where he was standing, he could hear what the man was saying. The man was asking for money. "Any amount or you die," he said.

But the old man couldn't present him any money.

The man stabbed the old man. One. Two. Three. The forth stab may have killed the old man instantly

He then realized what he was seeing. It was his past. He was the man that emerged from the darkness. The vision of the old man dying and him running away was gone. He walked briskly.

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A Valentine Tale [part 5]

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 06:17:00 -0800

Read these first:
A Valentine Tale part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

A Valentine Tale 5 final

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FlashFiction #1

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Wed, 9 Feb 2011 04:33:00 -0800

He called. He said he's waiting for her outside her house.

After hanging up, she rushed downstairs and swung open the gates. There was no one there.

When she was about to reply to his text message, someone called her. It was one of their friends.

"You need to go to the hospital. He needs you," the friend said.

"Wh- He- He just called me. He said he was waiting for me outside."

When they arrived at the hospital, the doctor told them that her boyfriend didn't make it. He was dead on arrival.

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Untitled

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sat, 5 Feb 2011 02:07:00 -0800

untitled

A Valentine Tale [part 4]

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Thu, 3 Feb 2011 02:44:00 -0800

A Valentine Tale 4 final

A Valentine Tale [part 3]

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Thu, 3 Feb 2011 00:13:00 -0800

this is the crappiest part of A Valentine Tale. pardon the awkward scenes A Valentine Tale 3 final

A Valentine Tale [part 2]

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Wed, 2 Feb 2011 00:01:00 -0800

A Valentine Tale 2 Final

A Valentine Tale [part 1]

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Tue, 1 Feb 2011 00:01:00 -0800

A Valentine Tale 1 Final

Lick It Like You Own It

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:13:00 -0800

If you don't want to know anything about anyone's dream, this post is not for your reading. Because in this post, imma talk about my dreams. Go read FHM, or watch porn, or consult your chicken bones. You're not going to find something interesting here, only my dreams filled with ice creams and imaginary objects. (If that made you go, "What is he talking about?" let that be your final warning.) But if you're still willing to read this, here, you can lick my ice cream like you own it.

You've been warned, you may stop licking anytime.

I don't know about you, but I'm sure back in you kindergarten graduation, you had to recite, "My name is (the name your parents gave you). When I grow up, I want to be a/an (the job your parents told you to say regardless of your knowledge about it)." I didn't say I wanted to be a writer, a journalist, or a blogger. Mine was a want-to-be which was impossible, laughable, when I think about it nowadays. I wanted to be an astronaut. I love astronomy back then.

Not now. Not anymore. Still licking?

My brother's? He said, "My name is Rey Francis Ostria... blah... blah... When I grow up, I want to be... What was that again, Pa?" In short, it was not his want-to-be. It was you-know-who's.

To date, I have a thousand want-to-be's. I'm just starting. Keep licking.

One. I want to be a television travel show host/researcher. I want to travel around the world, talking about and eating food, experiencing culture, meeting people, learning religion and other beliefs, going places, reliving history and trailing roads that are never trekked by any other travel journalist, or any known navigator in history. Seems impossible, isn't it? I wanna do the impossible. My only reason is simple: It's unforgivable to just die and never learn about the beautiful the world is. Of course you may see its beauty from magazine pictures or clips on television, but experiencing it first hand is a must. I want to work for the National Geographic Channel or join The Amazing Race. Just to travel the world. I always tell my friend that NatGeo's waiting.

Two. I wannna start a business that includes books, ebooks, or periodicals. One word: bookstore. My shelves are going to include books that are hard to find in your ordinary bookstore, i.e., biographies of navigators, books mentioned in Rizal books (I don't mean his books), Japanese books translated into English (because they are awesome). My bookstore is going to have a canteen in the middle where you can eat while you read (guards will be there to make sure you weren't shoplifting, too).

Three. I am definitely going to publish a weekly magazine. Pop culture will be the main subject and the target audience will be, uhmmm, let's see, any age! The subscribers will have a weekly dose of music trivia, films, travels, food, name them.

Before you stop licking, I'm going to stop typing. Maybe you should start eyeing on your goals, too. Let me lick on it.

If the Statistics Haven't Reached You Yet

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:45:00 -0800

Photo from http://blog.lib.umn.edu

If the statistics haven’t reached you yet, you know nothing about how many in earth’s population hunger kills at this very same hour.

If the statistics haven’t reached you yet, you don’t know the scarcity in food that applies to all living creatures, you and me, humans and pets, unemployed or employed.

If the statistics haven’t reached you yet, you didn’t hear that in 2006, almost five-hundred million people died of hunger. And every year, the number is adding up.

Hunger is a killer; the statistics will tell you that.

Now that you know, only one thing’s left to be branded – cause. You might wanna stop scratching your head ‘cause we both know the number one reason. Yes, the foe of the first of eight Millenium Development Goals (MDG), poverty. Unicef said that “more than 30 per cent of children in developing countries – about 600 million – live on less than US $1 a day” and that every 3.6 seconds, one person dies of starvation. Usually, the fund organization said, it is a child under the age of 5.

And the word poverty branches out towards other words. What am I saying? We all know that families need – in addition to food – shelter, clothing, education and medicine. So the families’ budget is divided among these. Then it all goes down to this: the budget for food becomes not as much if the others are gone, therefore, less food is bought. Less food is served over family tables. Enter hunger. Enter sickness. Add unemployment in the formula and you’ll get the real picture, or something near. Enter death.

Another thing, though it may seem too far a topic, climate change may also affect everyone’s tummy. Other than the fact that some farm food are produced in little amounts due to lack of farming skills, changing climate greatly affects production of food. Climate change affects the cycle of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. CO₂ is decreasing, and as one of the requirements in the process of food production in plants, this decrease affects us all. Enough with science. The bottom line is that hunger will never be eradicated for as long as climate change is felt.

If the statistics haven’t reached you yet, maybe your stomach can tell. Or mine.

Rayterista 3 (Updated 1)

noreply@blogger.com (the rei) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 06:21:00 -0800

I wasn't really wishing I was in the first and second Rayterista (portmanteau of writer and artist) because I was sure the third would be better compared to both of them combined. I mean, Puerto Vista in Sto. Domingo, Albay is just awesome! The resort's a perfect place for outing or family events. I was with my Budyong (the official student publication of the College of Arts and Letters) buddies. Here're my journal entries during the three-day regional press convention.

01.21.2011

01:58 p.m. The participants should have left 58 minutes ago, but we're all still here at Bicol University. The bus' engine just started. We're about to leave.

01.22.2011

12:32 a.m. The first day of Rayterista 3 just ended. I'm assigned at room 204, the Education Deprived Beings Room. Names are named according to topics you may come across when you hear about the 8 Millennium Development Goals or the MDG. Kuya Franco's in Multiple Partners Room, Kuya Andrew in the Malnourished Room, Ira in the Purple Room, Edda in the Nursery Room, Kuya Eric in the Maternal Room and Ate Caryl and Ate Henor in the HIV-positive Room. For the groupings, I'm with Kuya Eric and five others from different colleges in the MDG #1 which is Eradicate Extreme Poverty. Tomorrow will be cultural night so we'll present something about MDG #1.

03:06 a.m. Sleeping time. Budyong buddies jamming outside the rooms. I had a lot of photos I'd be waiting others to upload next week. I'm sleepy. My roommates are all asleep.

06:05 a.m. All the others may still be asleep. The knocking on the door was our alarm. Though it should have happened 50 minutes ago according to the schedule of programs, the organizers are doing a good job. The view of the beach outside is just superb. The sun made me jump for joy, really. I'm telling this no matter how corny it is because it's true. Breakfast isn't served yet though. It seems it's me and Kuya Andrew who're up already.

08:38 a.m. I hope my roommate would be so kind and NOT step on my bed.

02:15 p.m. The morning talks were okay. My former professor, Sir Ephraim Aguilar talked about Feature Writing, Prof. Cet Dematera talked about News Writing, Prof. Raffi Banzuela talked about Column Writing. But this afternoon's talk is boring that I'd rather write here on my journal that listen to the speaker. Topic: Shaping Public Opinion Through Media Literacy. This must be the most boring talk in this 3-day convention. If something surpasses this, expect that I would commit harakiri from boredom.

04:05 p.m. I left the session hall. I'm sleepy. But the rooms are locked. So I'll just go back. Shit happens, that's what they say.

10:29 p.m. We just finished presenting for the MDG Night. We were group one so we had to present first. I had to pay a journalist who writes to let people know what the powerful do to the weak and the poor. I had to be the musical technician, too/ We had to act while Por Una Cabeza was playing. No scripts, just little narrations before and in the middle.

01.23.2011

10:30 p.m. I know I will not have a good relationship with my future Media Ethics professor when I'm in my third year. I know I will have to rebut with him everyday.

11:17 a.m. There's a film-showing at the hall downstairs. I'm not in the mood for a movie with bad acting. Who taught bad acting to those guys? Whoever did, he did a good job. Publication Awards later. I'm crossing my fingers for Budyong and the whole staff.

01.24.2011

10:13 a.m After the awarding ceremonies yesterday, I was just too tired to write something in here. We were nominated in eight out of twelve categories. And it was a happy ending. We won: Best Feature Story (BaranGAY BUPC: Out and Proud by Andrew Gahol and Carlo Jay Copada), Best Editorial (Myopia), Best Editorial Cartoon (by Franco Lasay), and of course, Best Campus Paper. I hope the admin was there to see us win and so that we can slap the certificates to their onion-skinned faces. They hated the editorial. The opinion of the judges (those whose opinions really matter) says it all. The judges are from all over the Philippines. There's nothing wrong with our paper after all.

The Budyong staff right after the arrival at the Puerto Vista Resort. There's me with the eyeglasses.

Edda and me at the second floor. The rooms behind us were the rooms where we slept.

From left to right: Franco Lasay, Caryl Gamis, Henor Gotis, Edda Mae Morata, Andrew Gahol, me, Ira Jacob, Jonalyn Fortuno, Sarah Moran, Raul (i forgot the surname), Pauline Dycoco, Earl Recamunda.

Budyong won Best Editorial. The presentors and I.

They said the three of us look like we're siblings. Deprived of food daw sabi ni ate Jev.

My roommates.

The rooms.

Photos from Earl Lim Recamunda and Renz Alvin Gabay.

-to be continued-