m35b - where collective thought & action germinates

R.I.P.

2009-06-30T16:13:00.002+08:00

To most it would seem ironic that I've opted to close down m35b on the day that I celebrate the start of my life.

I remember writing 5 years ago that this blog serves as:

my personal Book of Eccleciastes where I would start out with the pondering of the meaningless of it all and where I would end it with the exhortation to, "remember our Creator in the days of our youth." So as to voice out a positive statement to live our lives fully in light of God's grace and gift of salvation but also of encouragement to make something out of our lives while we still can because truly life is for us to live.

I believe it has served its purpose, in such a way that it has catalogued a good 5 years of my online life.

But as with all things good one has to move on to other things.

Thanks to every single one of you who have been gracious enough to read, re-post and comment on the things that I've published in this blog.

A wise man once said: “endings are mere beginnings that are looked at the opposite direction."

Here's to new beginnings ;)

x.s.
for those who're still interested with what I'm doing I will every now and then post some stuff on the following blogs/sites

Greenpeace, Nukes and Militants

2009-02-03T22:52:00.002+08:00

This page requires a higher version browser

Perhaps most of us are already aware of the issue on nukes. Above is a good video from the Philippine Inquirer covering the protests from Greenpeace and other groups at the Philippine Congress yesterday. YOu can read more about it by clicking here

cool video about clip arts

2008-12-16T16:39:00.001+08:00

When I was a kid I was a fan of clip arts as I always use it to create digital paintings and this video brings back fun memories.

9-mile

2008-12-01T14:27:00.007+08:00

I haven't written a blog for a long time. Frankly, because since Jeanie's left I have somewhat lived a very uninteresting life. And maybe last Saturday would have been the same, if not for a gig that I played both as part of my longtime punk band, PayItForward, and as DeathToPuberty, Ellen Degenerate was also supposed to make a debut in that gig but our last practice at Albertos made us realize how we are yet unprepared as a musical unit to perform.

But just the same Ten and Jen decided to watch the gig (and also to sell Shinda Ningyo dolls), and it was not only them but also Roni and Luwi and most specially Leyza whom I last saw the day before Jeanie went to the Netherlands.

Before I would go further I would also like to express gratitude to the kind folks of Zero Mass Productions, for accomodating both PayItForward and DeathToPuberty and for patiently bearing with us that night.

Punk and Disorderly
To sum it up it was a night of fun filled punk rock courtesy of Bad Omen and Albert Ascona's side project with Aji Adriano (of The Wuds); that played those very cool classic punk rock covers of The Clash and Stiff Little Fingers, and The Wuds.It was really good to hear those guys and not to mention to see the forebears of the scene make an appearance in a gig where you're playing, imagine seeing members of legendary pinoy punk bands like that of Betrayed and Private Stock. Kieth Dador was also there to take pictures, maybe soon I can post some of those images here.It's also noteworthy that I'm The Bridge, one of my favorite Q.C. punk bands weren't able to join, (too bad...)

DeathToPuberty
The original plan was for Ellen Degenerate (a punk rock cover band that composes of me, Reggie, Ten, Mark and Jen),to ditch DeathToPuberty and play DTP's supposed set, but we're not yet ready I decided to honor my previous commitment to play a set there, but since we've focused on pumping up Ellen Degenerate, to play I've altogether took forgranted practicing with the rest of the members of DTP, so I decided to just play solo, which I've done before on a number of occasions. All in all I think a played a fairly decent set, (I mean its just plain stupid to play a sloppy set if you're alone…)

PayItForward
This is a different story, we were supposed to play right after Bad Omen, but as I was about to bring my bass onstage the bassist of The Wuds brushed me aside saying that its 11PM and that's their preferred time play their set so I asked Mark and we both agreed okay, cool after all they're punks. Too bad though we're not that much of a fan of their music basically since they played their newer songs which were already a way to far departure from the punk rock music they played that I for one come to love, so I decided to step out of the room and have a chat with the nice folks of Bad Omen.Once The Wuds played their last song Inosente Lang Ang Nagtataka (a song which was recently covered poorly by River Maya,) we stared to make our way into the room but Joe of Ginseng the gig's organizer asked if its okay if Oh Man Oh God, would play their set first since that's only fair to them since they were the first band to arrive in the venue.So we said okay, after all, they're DeathToPuberty's friend in MySpace, and once they started I can't help but feel a bit weird at their set basically since for starters they don't have a bass player and they're a freakin' 3-piece unit; another was the fact that they played this eerie hardcore/grind/thrash whatever kind of music that maybe I'm just too old or happy shinny to appreciate, (I really am no fan of aggressive, and angry music).Oh Man Oh God's set was quite quick with each song they basically played lasted only for about 2-minutes max.

So again I tried to make my way onstage with the rest of the band outside Laix decided to call them again as I and Peejay (of Slumber Army Productions) who was helping me carry the other guitars to the stage were making our way there those douchebags from Purple Chickens stepped in with their guitars and started their set to the astonishment of Joe who was about to introduced us.I stepped out of the room pissed of basically because they elbowed their way around the lineup, and that's plain wrong. Outside we had a chat with Peejay reminiscing the good old days of Slumber Army. So after those assholes played their set we stepped on stage and played a very sloppy set which you can read in more detail at PayItForward's blog.

Purple Chicken Kups
Under normal circumstances I don't ditch other bands even those whose genre of music I do not fancy, for them I would like to make an exception.First off, I am not a fan of plain old rockn 'n' roll, hard rock, pop rock or whatever cheapshot rock genre it is that you play. I don't like your music plain and simple.Another is that you act as though like you're rock stars.

Reality check: you're not rockstarts. Dressing up like one or acting like adolescent assholes doesn't make you a rockstar.

Let us be clear that there is a lineup, and provisions as to the bands who get to decide about their place on the lineup are given to those established bands who already have proven themselves, namely The Wuds and Bad Omen.
What about you?

Maybe you already get paid on gigs or whatever, but plain and simple you're not underground legends like Bad Omen nor are you counter cultural icons like The Wuds. You're just an obnoxious band that play in obscure productions like this one.

Think about it?

Because you have messed up the lineup schedule K.D. Sistema and another band walked out off the gig altogether.

Has anyone among you experienced being bullied?

Well, I have and the way you acted there reminded me of the good old high school days when I was a geek in a world of basketball-playing jocks. Or of the numerous times that our band was forced out of the stage by Rap-Metal bands and fans because we chose to play MxPx rather than the manufactured angst of Korn and their contemporaries.

I don't know where you came from during that time but like you I supposed we were all tired as well and would have really loved to go home early as we also have our own schedules to meet the following day, and I think we pretty much deserve to play ahead of you since we did our damn best to be on the venue on the preferred call time.

What about you?

You haven't even spent more than 30-minutes in the venue and there you go, stealing PayItForward's set on the schedule, and right at the moment we've set stage you step out of the bar like the assholes that you are.Thankfully, the organizers are smart not to invite you guys again. Douchebags….

Bad Omen
Bad OmenOne of the highlights of that night was also the release of Bad Omen's new album entitled God is Everywhere, which were sold there along with Ginseng and All Wound Up's split EP.Personally what I find special is that Bad Omen's bassist Albert Sy who was kind enough to put me and Gato in the album sleeve's acknowledgment, which made the night worth it...Thanks guys...

Thanks
Gracias! also to Joe and Joel of Zero Mass who invited DeathToPuberty and PayItForward to play, also to the nice folks of AWU and Ginseng

Here's to more gigs to come!
Cheers

whatever...

2008-09-30T20:59:00.000+08:00

"sometimes your loyalties are put to question when the ones you love are made to experience of the unjustness of the institution you serve..."

New Media Douchebag

2008-09-26T16:18:00.001+08:00

What I like about Chuck Norris

2008-09-18T18:46:00.000+08:00

There are no races, only countries of people Chuck Norris has beaten to different shades of black and blue.

Chuck Norris doesn't actually write books, the words assemble themselves out of fear.

Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter.

A picture is worth a thousand words. A Chuck Norris is worth 1 billion words.

Chuck Norris can divide by zero.

When Chuck Norris talks, everybody listens. And dies.

When Steven Seagal kills a ninja, he only takes its hide. When Chuck Norris kills a ninja, he uses every part.

Chuck Norris doesnt shave; he kicks himself in the face. The only thing that can cut Chuck Norris is Chuck Norris.

For some, the left testicle is larger than the right one. For Chuck Norris, each testicle is larger than the other one.

Chuck Norris invented black. In fact, he invented the entire spectrum of visible light. Except pink. Tom Cruise invented pink.

In the beginning there was nothing...then Chuck Norris Roundhouse kicked that nothing in the face and said "Get a job". That is the story of the universe.

Chuck Norris grinds his coffee with his teeth and boils the water with his own rage.

Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.

Chuck Norris and Mr. T walked into a bar. The bar was instantly destroyed, as that level of awesome cannot be contained in one building.

The show Survivor had the original premise of putting people on an island with Chuck Norris. There were no survivors, and nobody is brave enough to go to the island to retrieve the footage.

The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Chuck Norris Roundhouse kicked one of the corners off.

When Chuck Norris is in a crowded area, he doesn't walk around people. He walks through them.

Chuck Norris once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink.

Guns don't kill people. Chuck Norris kills People.

The chief export of Chuck Norris is Pain.

There is no chin under Chuck Norris' Beard. There is only another fist.

The leading causes of death in the United States are: 1. Heart Disease 2. Chuck Norris 3. Cancer.

If you ask Chuck Norris what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds 'til." After you ask, "Two seconds 'til what?" he roundhouse kicks you in the face.

The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris' fist.

What was going through the minds of all of Chuck Norris' victims before they died? His shoe.

Someone once videotaped Chuck Norris getting pissed off. It was called Walker: Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win. Forever.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool Chuck Norris once and he will roundhouse you in the face.

Chuck Norris has two speeds: Walk and Kill.

Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is based on a true story: Chuck Norris once swallowed a turtle whole, and when he crapped it out, the turtle was six feet tall and had learned karate.

Chuck Norris doesn't shower, he only takes blood baths.

Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas.

When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down.

Chuck Norris eats beef jerky and craps gunpowder. Then, he uses that gunpowder to make a bullet, which he uses to kill a cow and make more beef jerky. Some people refer to this as the "Circle of Life."

Chuck Norris doesn't step on toes. Chuck Norris steps on necks.

Ninjas want to grow up to be just like Chuck Norris. But usually they grow up just to be killed by Chuck Norris.

The last thing you hear before Chuck Norris gives you a roundhouse kick? No one knows because dead men tell no tales.

When Chuck Norris was denied an Egg McMuffin at McDonald's because it was 10:35, he roundhouse kicked the store so hard it became a Wendy's.

Once you go Norris, you are physically unable to go back.

Chuck Norris once pulled out a single hair from his beard and skewered three men through the heart with it.

Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.

more

happy birthday jingjing

2008-09-17T13:37:00.003+08:00

It's that special time of the year again when we celebrate God's gift of life. Happy birthday jinging.

remember these posts?
I'll simply make mention of solidified independent sentences that speaks of...
A Testament To Romans 8:28
Happy birthday Jeanie!
I love you

memento mori

2008-09-12T12:30:00.002+08:00

Below is the words of a Never Forget The Cause (its an electronica collaboration that I'm doing with Ten Derillo and Jen Tuazon) song entitled Memento Mori (Latin for the phrase: 'remember that you must die') at present it is still in the works all I need to do is have Ten (a.k.a. Ellen Degenerate) sing the stanza parts

Life is a banquet and death is the buffet
Life is but a cycle of waking, walking and dying
Life is like a day you wake up, work and then die in slumber

Life is a banquet and death is the buffet
Remember that you must die

Life is but a cycle of waking, walking and dying
Life is like a day you wake up, work and then die in slumber

Life is a banquet and death is the buffet
Remember that you must die

Waking, walking and dying
Wake up, work and then die in your slumber

Life is a banquet and death is the buffet
Remember that you must die

Death rides on a coal-black horse
He wears an invisible cap...
Death can step along smiling with the dancers
He drums hard and he drums soft
Die, die, die you must

Life sucks we'll all die sooner or later

Life is a banquet and death is the buffet

Hopefully this song will be finished before the year ends... in the meantime you can listen and download some of Never Forget The Cause's songs in myspace by clicking this link

notes from Disturbia

2008-09-05T13:05:00.000+08:00

I was watching the movie Disturbia the other day and after having been cramped up at home for a few days already I cannot help but feel affinity with Kale Brecht, the central character in the movie played by Shia LeBeouf.

He’s on house arrest, for assaulting his teacher.

I on the other hand feel like I am also on house arrest because I'm advised by the doctor to take a week off and rest in order to recover from my recent bout with dengue fever. It has almost been a week now that I am staying at home with my parents eating, taking afternoon naps and watching DVD, with the occasional follow-up visits to the doctor, (just this afternoon I had blood extracted from me so that the doctors could determine if I have already fully recovered).

Like Kale I also feel limited, helpless I long for freedom, but the irony of it all is that while I am here at home spending time with my family I long to go out and the only place that I can go to right now if indeed I could choose to go out is to go to work.

Sadly, I don't want to come back to work right now. I'm jaded with whatever it is that's taken hold of my precious work at Greenpeace, sometimes I feel as though it has lost its soul, it's hardly the organization that I became a part of 3 years ago, and I welcomed the idea of getting sick because it meant that I could get away with doing web work, for the meantime. Maybe I'm just exhausted with work, or maybe with life in general.

I've been through a lot lately, for starters a couple of weeks ago I cried my heart out because Jeanie's going to be gone for a year. I had just finished preaching to the youth congregation of Grace Bible Church. I have gone to what I feel is an unfruitful trip to Indonesia. I cannot help but feel pain whenever I'd see how unfairly treated my friends at Greenpeace's fundraising department are not getting the same benefits that I am getting for my tenure of work for the organization. I am still agonizing whether I should take up a course in theology. And right now I am still somewhat sick and tired of the fact that I do not have a clue as to what it is that I want to do with my life.

If only life was as simple as that of a movie, like in Disturbia everything went back to how it is, by the time that the next door serial killer has been done with. I'm going back to work on Monday, again I'd be off to Greenpeace cyberspace, off with the accumulated paper work that needs to be filed, the unread emails aching to be replied to and the thought that again I am back to work, regretting that I have not really exerted much of any 'quality time' with my family during my short tenure here at home.

The only consolation that I could get is that with easy access to the net means a more efficient way of getting in touch with Jeanie who's at the moment studying Communication Culture at Maastricht.

Perhaps this is just a phase that in God’s time will build up character and reap a harvest of blessing on my part. But as for now I feel cold and still exhausted...

Several things to do in the absence of Jen

2008-09-03T16:34:00.000+08:00

I realized that I will be spending almost a year alone, without Jeanie.

Here are some things that I’ve thought of doing just to pre-occupy my attention from the lingering loneliness of her absence:

Kill Boy Abunda – This is a no brainer, this fag has gone way to far in telling people how they ought to live their lives it’s time for his appointment with the Grim Reaper.
Tell Kris Aquino that nobody gives a crap about her and her opinions – Perhaps this would require me to join her crappy game shows just so I could give her and her idiot opinions my 10 cents worth.
Strangle Bamboo with a microphone cord – I’ve had enough of rock stars like this moron, (I mean isn’t Axl Rose, Fred Durst or Jon Bon Jovi enough?!). As a musician I’d like to reveal to the world that rock isn’t about being cool on stage while holding a microphone, it’s about playing an instrument on stage and about writing songs. In his case he lacks both, good thing once upon a time Rico Blanco had the right mind to fire him from Rivermaya (which by the way is the best example of a poser rip-off band).
‘Fire’ Donald Trump – I hate this asshole. His hairpiece is a monstrosity and common having to copyright everything related to him is downright cheapskate. Perhaps I ought to join The Apprentice and introduce him to my fist and his hairpiece to the garbage and then I’ll rip-off his catchphrase: “you’re fired”. Serves him right for being the capitalist scum that he is.

Crawling from the wreckage…

2008-09-03T16:14:00.000+08:00

Jeanie is gone.

I remember closing the taxi door with tears dripping down my eyes, knowing that for a year there will be a void in my heart because its better half would be somewhere in the Netherlands.

I cried.

I was lonely.

Up to this point in time I’m still missing her.

Thankfully, technology has enabled me to hear her voice again.

It’s something that helps me keep my sanity…

Back from the brink…

2008-08-30T16:20:00.000+08:00

Thank God it’s over.

After a grueling week of dextrose and having not a lot to do I am finally free!

The blood platelets are now stable.

Praise God.

Dengue has now been defeated. I am again well and good if not for a wedge of emptiness in my heart that right now continues to bleed…

my usual day...

2008-08-15T10:14:00.000+08:00

Some thoughts on veganism

2008-08-12T17:28:00.002+08:00

Most of the people who read this knows of my work at an environmental NGO and I think there's such a big fuss about how environmentalists ought to be vegans. I for one am not vegan because I believe in biodiversity and in symbiotic relationships in the ecosystems, if veganism is really the natural way of how things work it would then be tantamount to saying that lions behave 'un-naturally' because they hunt and eat meat of their prey (hence there's a symbiotic relationship between the lion and the prey). Just now I stumbled upon another insight about veganism and why I am not a vegan, another is that veganism is a consumer activity here's a portion of an interesting article about veganism from Infoshop:

Thus, a vegan diet may be seen as a sensible response by people who want to minimize their involvement with the meat industry in an industrial capitalist society. But this is not a universal context, whereas veganism markets itself as a universal solution. PETA has declared that you can't be a meat-eating environmentalist, and most vegans believe this line or toe it explicitly. What vegans have failed to think out is that industrial capitalism has not existed forever, nor have human societies always been ecocidal or abusive towards animals. In fact, to avoid eurocentric conclusions vegans must admit that the first and the very best environmentalists eat meat. I refer to a number of indigenous societies, past and present, that have the best track record of living in harmony with the environment and seeing other species as their extended families. Especially since vegans put so much emphasis on the impacts of an individual's lifestyle, they (being nearly all residents of wealthy countries) are deluding themselves and the broader communities to which they advertise their image as the preeminent environmentalists, considering that these omnivorous non-capitalist societies had a much lower ecological footprint and a much deeper affinity for animals than anyone socialized in an industrial society can ever gain in their lifetimes.

if john meyer's a pervert...then jack johnson's a douchebag!

2008-08-07T17:49:00.003+08:00

I know I'm treading on dangerous ground here but to be honest I feel like I can no longer hide the disgust that I feel whenever I'd see those two on television or hear their music. Plain and simple I hate them I hate the way John Meyer disguises his perverted look at ladies by calling their bodies wonderlands, I hate Jack Johnson plainly because I think the world has had enough of the likes of him.

Funny thing is that I think people would expect more of me when addressing these two artists they'd say: "give them a chance and they'll grow into you..." but I hate them. Come to think about it I also hate Incubus and Jason Mraz but not as much as I hate John and Jack. I hate them in the same way that every Irish person that I meet hates U2 and Bono. They suck in my book plainly because I think they suck. In fact I found more reason to hate them when my bandmate, Ten mentioned that she saw a photograph of Jack Johnson wearing no socks to a pair of what seems like Sperry topsiders, I mean what year is this 1992?(!), maybe he just stepped out of his Mitsubishi Lancer or something.

I hope they die soon. I hope more people would choose to listen more to Bright Eyes, Rocky Votolato, Bob Dylan, Pedro the Lion or even Dashboard Confessional...

As for John Meyer I remember this episode in Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy where Chris under the influence of his living zit vandalized Goldman's Pharmacy with the phrase: "THAT'S ENOUGH JOHN MEYER"

Indeed that's enough John you're a pervert and I know it.

Maybe its time for everyone to start thinking that these two doesn't represent intelligent music.

They're just lousy posers.

being away from home sucks

2008-08-06T18:01:00.002+08:00

i know i've only been here in indonesia for a day, but i already feel like its been years. i have a flue right now. my teeth still hurt. i at a lost with my work. i don't have anyone to talk to. i miss the philippines especially jeanie, i can't imagine a day without her and right now as i live life without her i feel pretty much at a lost. i miss my family. i miss my friends. thankfully with each night that i'll go to sleep i'm a day closer to being home again.

a good question for multiply.com users

2008-08-05T17:56:00.000+08:00

people say they like multiply.com because its like having your own website to host all your contents. so a good question perhaps that we should ask them is that whether they need a website or not. because if they answer 'no' its all but logical to conclude that maybe the multiply.com user doesn't really need a website... ;)

one helluva toothace!

2008-08-04T17:59:00.001+08:00

i got one helluva toothache... good thing there's pain killers

thought for the day

2008-07-16T17:47:00.001+08:00

Bakit sa panahon na ito, tila ata lahat pwedeng malugi pwera lang sa mga kumpanya ng langis?

Multiply.com sucks!

2008-07-16T17:44:00.000+08:00

Multiply is for lousy posers who want to have their own websites!

emo, punk and other whatnots

2008-07-15T17:14:00.004+08:00

"wouldn't it be more of an act of rebellion if you didn't spend so much time buying blue hair dye and going out to get punky clothes? it seems so petty. stop me if I'm being offensive. you wanna be an individual, right? you look like you're wearing a uniform. you look like a punk. that's not rebellion. that's fashion."

- slc punk

"Today's emo kids are nothing but androgynous poser punks..!"

- chuck baclagon

what happens when you're editing web content in a hurry...?

2008-06-10T16:05:00.003+08:00

....you end up with a messed up website...

my bloodshot eyes

2008-06-10T16:03:00.003+08:00

i suppose the image says it all...

2008-06-07T20:26:00.007+08:00

for more worthwhile stuff that please checkout the Quit Coal blog here

the story of my life...

2008-06-06T14:38:00.003+08:00

There's a very irritating feeling when your sweaty skin rubs against plastic sheets on humid nights and you’re far away from home.

I am tired I could barely stay awake at idle moments (which is very seldom…) I miss the people I love... and all I can think of right now is coal...

filler

2008-05-02T11:49:00.000+08:00

Strangers down the line
Lovers out of time
Memories unwind
So far, I still know who you are
But now I wonder who I was
Angel, you know it's not the end
We'll always be good friends
The letters have been sent on

So please
You always were so free
You'll see, I promise we'll be perfect
Perfect
- The Smashing Pumpkins, Perfect

Never Forget the Cause

2008-03-17T19:21:00.001+08:00

check out this new cool techno project of mine!
http://www.myspace.com/neverforgetthecause2008

on hindsight

2008-02-28T17:30:00.000+08:00

looking back at where i am now i begin realize that i'm too old to act youthful and too immature to accept the responsibility required of my age.

something for the proletariat

2008-02-22T17:33:00.001+08:00

something to think about...

2008-02-22T13:00:00.002+08:00

"when no one out there understands start your own revolution and cut out the middleman!"

- Billy Bragg
waiting for the great leap forward

Greenpeace: Action Speaks Louder Than Words

2008-02-04T11:55:00.000+08:00

here's an interesting video that you should watch if you plan on volunteering for Greenpeace. this serves as an introductory video to the Greenpeace Actions Unit edited by Jeanie Derillo, with music from The Offspring and DeathToPuberty

Archbishop - care for environment teaches us about God

2008-01-30T13:43:00.001+08:00

A couple of our new songs are available for download

2007-10-11T19:35:00.000+08:00

hello,
well, technically their not really our
songs as they are covers but please do
find time to listen to them or download
them if you like and also find time to
give feedback since we really value your
opinions. anyways their on our
purevolume site the link is
http://www.purevolume.com/deathtopuberty

thanks
Chuck
DeathToPuberty

Happy birthday Jeanie!

2007-09-17T16:27:00.000+08:00

It was a couple of years when a blog was written as a testimony to God's manifold grace in the life of Jeanie Derillo.

That was then

A whole lot of other things happened in between. There were a lot of new friends. There were numerous 'productions'. A lot of growing up. There were times when relationships were put to the test and there were more than enough disappointments than one could ever shake a stick at.

But through it all we can both testify that God has been faithful. In times of plenty and scarcity. When we have shown grace or our lack of graciousness. In spite of how we feel or how the world has constantly treated us. We could always look back and smile at how God has seen us through.

It has been years now since that blog entry poured earnest emotions and thanksgiving. And we've hit rock bottom a lot more times that we did during the precedent time before the blog was written.

But still there is more than enough reason to celebrate God's goodness.

There is Ten, Ley and Jen.

There are great plans with Freddie, Epoy and Cris.

There is the smiling faces of Cindy, AC and Beybi.

There are the the sweet dogs who've always wagged their tails upon your entrance to your room.

There are people praying for us.

There's this burning desire for personal growth in the form of education.

And ultimately, there's God who is the author and finisher of our faith. In Whom we can still claim Romans 8:28 as a reality.

Happy birthday.
___
note the mysterious blog post is on the link below
http://m35b.blogspot.com/2004/09/testament-to-romans-828.html

There must be something about the rain that brings out the worst in people.

2007-09-09T22:15:00.000+08:00

A few minutes ago I accidentally struck a guy with my bony pointed elbow.

All because of the rain.

This sudden downpour that got us wet and trapped in a sea of stranded people in a church hall in Project 3. I was with Jeanie and time is of the essence and there's a possibility that she might not be able to catch the last train to Sta. Mesa, and getting left out by the train in a rainy night is no walk in the clouds. So I decided to cut through the crowd, with a broken, wet umbrella and a backpack carrying a Mac Ibook. With my voice in a high tone crying: "excuse me" to deaf ears who made it difficult for us to cross. Accidentally I struck someone with my elbow, whom Jeanie told me cursed me for doing so, while I responded with irritation upon hearing of it and eventually gave a dumbass remark about Roman Catholics.

Eventually we got through and Jeanie was able to ride the train and I lasted long enough to pass through hard rain and flood. Feeling like such a jackass for doing it and for being irritated, basically because I am at the moment very tempted to point out that we’re after caught by surprise by the rain and we all have nowhere to go and that we’re all in a hurry and the walkway is supposed to be a public passage and being caught inconvenienced by the rain is no excuse to be an obstacle to someone’s path. Oh well, up until now I’m still pissed of at the situation.

Well nevermind...

This wasn't such a good day: I’m broke; I caught ire of overzealous security guards twice today.

Thankfully, tomorrow's another day.

Goodmourning

2007-08-31T13:52:00.001+08:00

an indigo sky intersects with the crimson horizon and sun's glare ripples over a signage that reads: 'Destiny Memorial Chapel' perhaps this is a glimpse of life's zenith as we begin a new day.

For his witness and worship

2007-08-31T13:32:00.000+08:00

It is with such grief that I have learned of the passing of Robert E. Webber whose works on worship and the early church has become such an inspiration as to how I would view Christian worship.

I am not that quite eloquent to give such a recounting of his witness. But it is with great remorse that I am blessed to have been touched by his life and writing.
_____
below is an article from Christianity Today

Robert E. Webber, Theologian of 'Ancient-Future' Faith, Dies at 73

Author of more than 40 books on worship, Webber was criticized, then lauded, for emphasizing early church practices.

Robert E. Webber, a theologian well-known for his work on worship and the early church, died of pancreatic cancer on April 27 at his home in Sawyer, Michigan. He was 73. At the time of his death, Webber was the William R. and Geraldyn B. Myers professor of ministry at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Ill. He was also the president of the Institute for Worship Studies in Jacksonville, Florida, and professor of theology emeritus at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.

Webber, the son of a Baptist minister, received his bachelor's degree from Bob Jones University in 1956 and went on to earn a divinity degree from the Reformed Episcopal Seminary in 1959 and a masters degree in theology from Covenant Theological Seminary in 1960. Eight years later, he received his doctoral degree in theology from Concordia Theological Seminary.

Webber began teaching theology at Wheaton College in 1968. Dennis Okholm, a student of his in 1970, remembers Webber as avant garde. "Unlike all the other professors, he had long hair, wore an ascot, which was the trend then, had us sitting on the floor, and instead of reading Augustine's City of God (he never did like Augustine) had us reading Dooyeweerd and Schaeffer and the existentialists."

Okholm returned to Wheaton in 1988 as a member of the faculty. He says Webber remained a "great lecturer—the best lecturer that Wheaton had in our department," but by then, Webber's focus had shifted from existentialism to the early church. At that point, Webber had written Common Roots (1978), a book that examined the impact of second-century Christianity on the modern church's life, worship, witness, and spirituality.

He had also written Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals Are Attracted to the Liturgical Church, a 1985 book in which he described the reasons behind his own gradual shift away from his fundamentalist/evangelical background toward the Anglican tradition. Phil Kenyon, Webber's colleague at Northern Seminary, says Webber faced an enormous amount of criticism in response to that book. "It was like he had left the faith. He definitely went against the stream of current evangelical thought," Kenyon said.

Nevertheless, Webber's work was highly influential, and his ideas grew in popularity in evangelical circles.

In recent years, Webber sought to show the increasing relevance of patristic thought in a postmodern age. His more recent books include Ancient-Future Faith, Ancient-Future Time, Ancient-Future Evangelism, The Younger Evangelicals, and The Divine Embrace. In 2006, he organized and edited the "Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future," a document intended "to restore the priority of the divinely inspired biblical story of God's acts in history."

Edith Blumhofer, director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College and affiliate professor of church history at Northern Seminary, says of Webber, "If you stand back and look at his life, he represents one of the ways that evangelicalism has changed and unfolded, [especially] if you think about [his journey] from Bob Jones University to the Episcopal Church to all of this focus on remembering the ancient as we move into the contemporary."

During the latter half of his life, Webber took a special interest in Christian worship practices. Webber wrote more than 40 books on the topic of worship, focusing on how the worship practices of the ancient church have value for the church today.

"In many ways, Robert Webber paved the way for many Protestants, especially evangelical Protestants, to take worship seriously as a primary occupation both in the church and in the academy," said John Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College and Calvin Seminary. Witvliet called Webber "an inspiration" and "a real pioneer."

Kenyon, who serves as a deacon in an Anglican church, says he often uses Webber's works, such as Worship as a Verb and Worship Old and New, in book studies. "These books have just been excellent," he said. "They're scholarly, but you don't have to have a master's degree from Notre Dame in liturgical history to get through them."

Webber also received praise for his work as editor of The Complete Library of Christian Worship, published in 1995, an eight-volume series created to serve as a comprehensive reference for professors, students, pastors, and worship leaders. The series draws on several thousand texts and publications and covers topics like Old and New Testament worship and contemporary applications for music and the arts.

Webber founded the Institute for Worship Studies in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1993, which offers doctor of worship studies and master's of worship studies degree programs. It is the only institute in the country to focus exclusively on worship education.

Charles Hambrick-Stowe, professor of Christian history, vice-president for academic affairs, and dean of Northern Seminary, says when they met three years ago, "Bob Webber struck me immediately as a person of deep faith, intellectual curiosity and depth, and spiritual vigor."

He says that Webber was a key faculty member during his seven years at Northern Seminary. "In faculty meetings, he would sit there silently, letting the discussion unfold, waiting until the right moment, and then he would say a word," Hambrick-Stowe said. "It was often humorous, but it was always right on point, and often just pointed us in the right direction, or clarified what the issue really was, so that we could move to a resolution."

Webber also had a keen sense of humor. Okholm recalls, "One day I came in on a real slushy Chicago winter day, and I said, 'Well, Bob, this is the day the Lord has made,' and Bob said, 'Yeah, but he's done better.'"

Many remember Webber for his gracious spirit. "He was very generous and very gracious in acknowledging people and letting others know how they'd helped him," Kenyon said.

Webber is survived by his wife, Joanne, four children, and seven grandchildren.

It is there that I looked at the electric sky and wished to kiss the rain

2007-08-30T16:07:00.000+08:00

"So this is it. The painful realization that all has gone wrong..."
Dashboard Confessional

It was dark.
The room was damp and there was this spine-tingling chill that I am feeling inside my bones right now. My neck still aches from perching towards the phone.

I must be getting old.
I just realize that my mind has long been racing with all those unrealized dreams and longings that I've never seemed to keep up with from the time I turned 18. That rock star vision; that literati phase; the hopes of a revolution and the time spent in whining as to why things never seemed to make me feel assured of the person I am today.

If only life was a twisted emo song. Or a medieval fairytale where everything climaxes in an substantiated 'happily ever after...'

But it seems that those days were gone.

This must be how it feels in the zenith.

Terminus: it sucks!

I guess it wouldn't hurt to pop a razor and slash skin for the thrill of knowing that I might have died but I didn’t. Instead I’d wake up the following morning living with the regret that I have to live this crummy life as it was before.

Oh how I long for the time when in the act of writing, words and emotions come into place like lovers entwined by a perpetual adoration of thought and emotion.

2007-08-30T14:43:00.000+08:00

It is with your smile that I found solitude.
If only it were that simple I'll hold you
In my arms and never let you go.

Better of dead

2007-08-13T14:37:00.000+08:00

If not for asphyxia I would have

Lived long enough to watch

My heart bleed dry...

Dry...

Drained...

Dead...

These words reverberate like drones

Buzzing on an open graveyard

Circling pass my funeral

In bitter shock and awe

I watch from the sky

As no one mourns this passing

I'm dry.

I’m drained.

Maybe I’m better of dead

Forget about it

2007-08-12T14:12:00.000+08:00

It is with all hope that I look forward to the rainbow's arch over a yellow sun-lit sky.
Green grass moist with dew gazed by black and white cows just like the ones that I used to see in the can of a Birch Tree powdered milk can at home.

Forget it.
There’s no rainbow.

Just a blood red sky at twilight foreboding an impeding downpour that's bound to drench us of water and of misery.

There's no green grass.
Only an artificial lime green grass on some elitist golf course where a caddy gets cursed Spanish style by a church skipping tycoon who'd rather tee off with his buddies on a Sunday morning.

There aren't any black and white cows.
After all we're not in Holland. There's no pasture to gaze. There's no grassland here for them to roam. No healthy grass for food.
Just a waiting axe from an over-eager butcher waiting to milk her dry and cook her for hamburger patties.

How long has it been since the rainbows arched, or the grass has been green or the cows been free to roam?

It already seems forever.
I miss this dead picture that somehow has encapsulated my childhood.

I miss my old self.

It is with nothing but a sigh that kissed this night goodbye.

2007-08-11T13:20:00.000+08:00

It is with nothing but a sigh that kissed this night goodbye.

I can't remember when...

When was the last time that a conversation ventured into something that's beyond my mundane life, beyond the usual whines, and of funny stories at the workplace?

It has seemed forever that a talk has veered unto something that I would deem as a 'eureka' moment. It has been quite a while that a movie has been a part of a conversation, or a good book or a cool unknown band or whatever...

It seems that I've almost lost my humanity, say my youthful optimism to a unknown future that I seem to be dreading to face. It seems like winding roads that lead to dead ends and spiteful tears within grasps.

Its really hard when things don’t go as planned. And I would always wish that things could have been better. I'd always dwell on the possibility of 'what ifs' without ever pausing to consider that what's done has been done.

I’ve forgotten the songs of my youth.

Songs that taught me to look forward to what's beyond.

It’s a sad fact that supposedly 'mature' things have made me put my dreams on the backseat of this ride that I'm taking to traverse our lives.

Tonight there's no guitar music on the background.

Just the meaningless tapping of frustrated fingers on a plastic keyboard.

Yawns replace the hopeful smile.

Tears rolling down my cheeks has given way to that bright eyed stare that I used to have.

I remember how when I was a teen I'd always wanted to look like Sid Vicious. And now that I look more like him with these perpetual eyebags and disinterested sneer I can't even look at myself in the mirror without missing my former self.

I know that this is just a phase.

I know that way down the line this would be for my own good.

I guess I’m just lonely.

And the pain I feel is part of the growing pains that comes along with growing up.
I must be getting old.

Greenwashing Live Earth

2007-08-09T16:32:00.000+08:00

As I sat down and watched TV last night I stumbled upon the delayed telecast of Live Earth on MTV.

Now for those of us who's not quite in the loop as to what on earth is Live Earth let me first give you the run down on the event, basically it was a series of worldwide concerts held on July 7, 2007, that initiated a three-year campaign to combat climate change and advocate environmentally-sustainable living. The concerts brought together more than 150 musical acts in eleven locations around the world and were broadcast to a mass global audience through radio, television, and the Internet.

Seems promising doesn't it?

Well, I have said my piece regarding that when DeathToPuberty played at the Simple Lang, Save the Climate launch of Greenpeace.

But what astounds me upon watching the delayed telecast is that its principal sponsor is Petron, a company that as we all know is responsible for the largest oil spill in the Philippines.

Also its part of a climate killing industry that seeks to downplay the reality of climate change.

But a second look would evidently prove that its all part of the 'greenwashing' that several oil companies that come in the guise of Nuon and BP.

I don't like it at all

2007-08-09T14:40:00.000+08:00

I'm really cynical of this whole concept of love right now.

I don't know why, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I've been through a lot of stress because of it in the past years…

I don’t know about you people but I can honestly say that I have never known what stress was like if I have not learned to love.

It’s blood truth that I guess I have to learn to live with.

Just like the common colds.
Like circumcision when you're a boy.

It's a right of passage of sorts into something...

And as always it may just be a phase for me...

But one thing is certain.

I do not like the way I'm feeling.

Have you ever

2007-08-05T16:12:00.000+08:00

Have you ever felt

that unrelenting feeling

of longing for sparkle

A persistent wish

And a continuous recalling

Of how things could have been

If only you weren't so desperate

Or that game of 'what ifs'

Such things have been

Perplexing this head lately

I’m not sure but

I feel as though like

Sulking at my helplessness

In this twisted labyrinth of a life

That I've created way back

When I was young and stupid.

If only you knew how cynical I am

Right now at everything...

Emo: Where the Girls Aren't by Jessica Hopper

2007-08-04T22:23:00.000+08:00

A few months back, I was at a Strike Anywhere show. The band launched into “Refusal”; a song offering solidarity with the feminist movement and bearing witness to the inherent struggle in

women’s lives. It is not a song of protection; there is no romantic undertow. It’s a song about all people being equally important. Everyone was dancing, fanboys and girls at the lip of the stage screaming along—like so many shows at the Fireside. By the first chorus of the song, I was in tears. I have often been so moved to shed small wet tears at Strike shows, but this time was for AN entirely different reason—A mournful new awareness: I am here, at the Fireside Bowl probably 75 times a year for the last five years. The numbers of times I have genuinely felt, or even sensed my reality or the reality of the women I know portrayed in a song sung by male-fronted band— that number was at zero and holding. The ratio of songs/shows/expressed sentiment-to-affirmation of feminist struggle/girldom is staggering. This song was the first.

No wonder most of my girlfriends and I have being growing increasingly alienated and distanced from our varying scenes, or have begun taking shelter from emo’s pervasive stronghold in the cave-like recesses of electronic, DJ or experimental music. No wonder girls I know are feeling dismissive and faithless towards music. No wonder I feel much more internal allegiance to MOP songs, as their tales of hood drama and jewelry theft FEELS far less offensive than yet another song from yet another all dude band giving us the 411 on his personal romantic holocaust. Because in 2003, as it stands, I simply cannot conjure the effort it takes to give a flying fuck about bands of boys yoked to their own wounding AKA the genre/plague that we know as E-M-O. Songs and scenes populated with myopic worldviews that do not extend beyond their velvet-lined rebel-trauma, their bodies, or their vans. Meanwhile, we’re left wondering how did we get here?

As hardcore and political punk’s charged sentiments became more cliché towards the end of the ‘80s—as we all soon settled in to the armchair comfort of the Clinton era—Punk began stripping off its tuff skin and getting down to its squishy pulp heart. Forget bombs and the real impact of trickle down economics, it’s all about elusive kisses and tender-yet-undeniably-masculine emotional outbursts. Mixtapes across America became soiled with torrential anthems of hopeful boy hearts masted to sleeves, pillows soaked in tears, and relational eulogies. Romance of the self was on.

I think somewhere right around the release of the last Braid record, is where we lost the map. Up until then, things seemed reasonable, encouraging, exciting—thus far we were sold on vulnerability, there was something revivifying in the earnestness. New bands cast their entire micro-careers from bands we all liked: Jawbox, Jawbreaker, Sunny Day Real Estate etc. In those bands, there were songs about women, but they were girls with names, with details to their lives, girls who weren’t exclusively defined by their absence or lensed through romantic-spectre. Jawbox’s most popular song, “Savory” was about recognizing male normative privilege, about the weight of sexualization on a woman (“see you feign surprise / that I‘m all eyes”). In Jawbreaker songs women had leverage, had life, had animus and agency to them. Sometimes they were friends, or a sister, not always girl to be bedded or pursued or dumped by. They were accurate, and touched by reality.

And then something broke—And it wasn’t Bob Nanna’s or Mr. Dashboard’s sensitive hearts. Records by a legion of done-wrong boys lined the record store shelves. Every record was a concept album about a breakup, damning the girl on the other side. Emo’s contentious monologue—it’s balled fist Peter Pan mash-note dilemmas—it’s album length letters from pussy-jail—it’s cathedral building in ode to man-pain and Robert-Bly-isms—it’s woman-induced misery has gone from being descriptive to being prescriptive. Emo was just another forum where women were locked in a stasis of outside observation, observing ourselves through the eyes of others. The prevalence of these bands, the omni-presence of emo’s sweeping sound and it’s growing stronghold in the media and on the Billboard chart codified emo as A SOUND, where previously there had been diversity.

from Punk Planet 56

Heartaches are best served when time is not in your hands.

2007-07-16T14:16:00.000+08:00

6:45 PM LRT2 Legarda Station

Forecasting (or perhaps interpreting) the weather on the basis of clouds and the temperature is more complex than it seems when I was asked to give a weather report back when I was in kindergarten. Maybe its part of the effects of global warming & climate change, I’m not sure exactly why it is so. After all I am no scientist but true enough I know that there is something that’s definitely wrong with the weather, after going through an abrupt change of weather in the span of minutes as I traveled from my office in Quezon City to get visa requirements at the Embassy of Argentina in Makati and then to Manila in roder meet Jeanie at Adamson University.

7:00 PM SM City Manila

I’m experiencing a deluge here, as the relentless downpour of rain threatens to submerge SM Manila in floodwaters.

7:45 PM SM City Manila

The intense rain has turned SM Manila into an island of sorts as floodwaters engulf its surrounding street. Ultimately preventing me from getting to my destination, that is Adamson University.

9:58 PM LRT2 Araneta Center Station

It is with the knowledge that I’ve been from Quezon City, to Makati, to Manila( and possibly Argentina); through scorching heat and violent flashfloods and tempest that I am appalled that I am not sick or tired as I ought to be as I stepped out of the train wishing that I should’ve caught a cold or a flu I might be leaving my home and my loved ones soon and the knowledge of it makes me dread tomorrow.

DeathToPuberty & Live Earth

2007-07-07T17:04:00.000+08:00

July 7, 2007

I suppose this day would in a sense live in ‘infamy’ because it will no longer be remembered merely as a point in time where the day, month and year fell into place to form a perfect date which turns out into a 777. But more importantly because it serves as a culmination of a long road towards the attainment of a long standing campaign for us humans to own up to our responsibility on the issue of human induced climate change.

Heralded by the An Inconvenient Truth an Academy Award-winning documentary film about climate change, specifically global warming, presented by former United States Vice President Al Gore and directed by Davis Guggenheim.

Shortly followed by Live Earth which was a series of worldwide concerts held on July 7, 2007 designed to raise awareness about man-made climate change and advocate environmentally friendly living. The concerts brought together more than 150 musical acts in eleven locations around the world and was broadcast to a mass global audience through radio, television, and the internet.

Keeping all that in mind it is also with pride and joy that DeathToPuberty was there to join the ranks of artists and musicians who’ve jumped the bandwagon of an enlightened view concerning climate change.

It was an honor to perform on the same stage with Noel Cabangon, Cynthia Alexander, Jeff Pagaduan and Joey Ayala, in the spirit of solidarity in order to sound the alarm on governments to opt for an uptake in renewable energy but also to celebrate on the inspiring fact that individuals can also do their part, by pledging to become wiser in their consumption of energy.

Only the coming days would tell us if a true and genuine sense of urgency was raised by the Live Earth concert. By now most of you have already read about other likeminded articles pertaining to the Live Earth concerts or of climate change.

But it is only insurmountable if the inspiring feeling that we all had during that day of art and music would be translated into actions that would be our individual contribution to the global movement that’s dedicated to combating the climate threat.

for web nerds and the like ...

2007-07-06T13:14:00.000+08:00

Team Greenpeace

2007-07-05T16:25:00.000+08:00

“The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears.”

2007-06-28T21:04:00.000+08:00

i learned why rain forests are called rain forests this afternoon.

it was after a sudden downpour of hard rain, the one that gives you a sudden chill once it's particles hit you.

immediately a sunbeam appeared and cast a bright rainbow in the horizon beside the mountain. we were forced to get out of our seats in the meeting to catch a glimpse of the magnificent sight. some of us took photos but were unable to capture it in their digital cameras.

it would have been fun if the rainbow was also seen by jeanie and the rest.

too bad...

help me make it through the night

2007-06-27T21:48:00.000+08:00

it's really weird that i'm sitting here in the foot of a mountain enjoying the apparent comforts of wireless communication technology.

it's no secret that i'm really not as hyped to enjoying the trip nor the scenery as i should because i'm here in a state that could be best described in the line of an old ataris song called my hotel year which goes like:

"Alone, unknown... Yet fearing nothing but ourselves
Could be scarier than any crowded room.
I'm more alone with you than when I'm by myself. "

anyways it might just be an emotional outburst from my sick head that longs for the people i care for the people i love. i won't be here on my birthday, i'm almost broke and have a lot of idle time to kill...

...i'm missing jeanie. i miss my parents. i'm looking at the friendster profiles of everyone i love and have so far accomplished nothing but miss philippines all the more...

i won't be spending my birthday in manila as i have always done ever since i was born.

i can't be with my family; i've missed church; i miss my friends; my band and the pollution of the philippines, the slow moving jeepneys, the bad assed cab drivers, the noisy kids and everything in between.

it's almost midnight in manila. hopefully i'll make it through the night.

Some thoughts on the Feast of St. John the Baptist

2007-06-24T17:06:00.000+08:00

I wonder...

Today is Manila's Foundation Day. June 24, which also happens to be (according to the Roman Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar), the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, which is celebrated in various areas in the Philippines, highlighted by the traditional practice of people going out on the streets, dousing water at unsuspecting passersby, to symbolize the act of 'baptism' by which John the son of Zecariah and Elizabeth gained the name Baptist.

Here are just some thoughts that came to my mind right after I was drenched with septic water by an over-zealous crowd on the boundary area of San Juan and Manila:

John's baptism was of repentance, a call to the nation of Israel to repent as the Kingdom draws near upon the arrival of Christ.
If that is so how could a bunch of unrepentant sinners administer such a baptism to unsuspecting people who do not want to be baptized?
John's baptism is of water in the Jordan River. The baptism I got was with foul water from the drainage.
Lastly baptism is a matter of choice, as in the case of John the choice to turn away from sin. Thus, you can't baptize anyone who doesn't want to be baptized.

It’s sad to note that tradition as an act without proper understanding is done by people for keepsake.

life sucks when everything is out of timming

2007-06-22T17:50:00.000+08:00

cool photo from deviant art

2007-06-18T17:35:00.000+08:00

Atrocities by ~MyDeadlyDepression on deviant ART

Simple lang, pledge for the planet!

2007-06-18T14:16:00.000+08:00

pondering time and soteriology...

2007-06-15T10:51:00.000+08:00

Living in your letters...

2007-06-15T10:34:00.000+08:00

I was rummaging through old notes that I've kept dusty in a battered Fido Dido box. I was looking for a long forgotten song that I wrote almost a decade ago.
I didn't find it there.
Instead I came across old letters, from Jeanie, my family, some friends from school and at Grace Bible Church. It's funny how a heart poured on a piece of paper could make you burst into tears...
As I am now...
It seems that letter writing is a long forgotten art that I need to re-discover...

Yoddelling at the top of Mt. Pinatubo

2007-06-04T14:39:00.000+08:00

A few weeks ago a handful of Greenpeace volunteers and a TV crew from GMA 7 climbed the top of Mt. Pinatubo and here's their story...

how cool is that...

2007-05-29T16:11:00.000+08:00

one of the coolest things about being a Greenpeace activist is to have your photo taken in action by very good photographers this one is by luis liwanag during our direct communication with the Asian Development Bank wherein we constructed a coal plant in front of their office.

while this one is at the office of the National Food Authority where Greenpeace slapped the National Food Authority (NFA) with a Notice of Violation for allowing the importation and continued sale of genetically-modified rice.

Spiderman 3

2007-05-24T15:32:00.000+08:00

There's really something disappointing about Spiderman 3...

I'm not sure if its the song and dance number that Peter gave to M.J. in that jazz bar or with the way he strutted down a busy New York sidewalk.

Maybe it's the way they portrayed Venom who was downright pathetic as compared to the persona that he has in the comic book. And for crying out loud: "He didn't pray for Spidey's death on the comic book!" He was repenting from his sins when I read it. How could the writers in the movie make him look like a pathetic peepsqueak that prays for the death of someone? There's also no remote posibility of Venom ever saying that he 'likes to be bad' in the comic book.

Maybe it's because the black costume sucks. A look at the classic version of that costume in the comic book would really convince you that the black one in the comic book is way cooler than the one that he has in the movie. In fact, it was cool enough for this old classmate of mine in grade school to repeatedly steal that piece of trading card from my stack of Marvel Universe cards.

Maybe it was Topher Grace's fault. He plays Eddie Brock an athletic journalist who has that has a very Roman Catholic background, but when I watch him he still reminds me of Eric Foreman from the 70's Show.

The soundtrack sucks as compared to the previous two. There's no inspiring emo song like Dashboard Confessional's, Vindicated, or a fun song by Sum 41 or a tune from Taking Back Sunday and Switchfoot. It's just lame indie pop and bad orchestral arrangements.

I hate the way that MJ is always portrayed as a victim. She's self-consumed just as Peter Parker that's why their relationship won't work without that constant need of her to be rescued from the clutches of a misguided supervillain.

Why wound the city of New York throw a huge parade for Spiderman? What's up with Stan Lee and Peter Parker talking?

Why didn't Harry die from his fall from the building, or from the explosion or from the beating that he got from Peter?

Wouldn't it be cool if the scar-faced Harry flipped a coin (ala Two-Face) right after Spiderman asked for his help to rescue MJ?

Perhaps it's because I'm more of a DC fan. Which suspends reality outrightly that it makes their universe more larger than life. I mean, I'm not interested with Peter's personal life much the same as I hate the way Clark Kent is portrayed the TV show Smallville (who's interested in Clark Kent anyways?). Don't you find it ironic that everyone related to Peter Parker either becomes a villain or another hero or dies because they're related to Peter.

Mayber it's because I'm such a continuity cop in terms of movie adaptations of comic books. But Constantine was out of continuity from his comic book version (he doesn't even look the same as the comic book version) nevertheless it was quite tolerable. But yeah sometimes movies tend to make idiots out of your favorite heros like what has always been done with Batman and in all his incarnations in the movie (except for the Bruce Tim animated version of course).

Maybe the main reason that I'm displeased with how Spiderman 3 turned out is that people who didn't waste their childhood and their reces money to reading comic books could now boast of being a Spidey fanatic without that in-depth knowledge or liking of the character, (similar to those fat snobs at that hang out and play Magic: The Gathering cards at Comic Quest).

Or probably I'm just getting to old for that kind of stuff...

May 19, 2007: PayItForward hits the stage again...

2007-05-24T14:24:00.000+08:00

After a long hiatus PayItForward once again got up the stage and was able to play alongside their favorite punk band Bad Omen as well as with their longtime comrades All Wound Up, Ginseng, Blue Martian Cookies and I'm the Bridge and not to mention DeathToPuberty it was truly an ecstatic feeling. Hopefully more gigs and probably a recording would follow.

all systems go?

2007-05-21T15:00:00.000+08:00

heat as everyone in manila knows is the worst thing about summer in the philippines. and it has taken its toll on my work. the airconditioning system in the office has been down for almost a week now and the heat is unbearable and my computer can't stand it as well it has been automatically shutting down every 15 minutes. and with a heavy load of work that's ahead of me working is quite a pain in the arse right now.

Please watch this:

2007-05-18T13:53:00.001+08:00

batangas

2007-05-15T13:43:00.000+08:00

the picture says it all...

We all have our foolish notions of love...

2007-05-10T18:02:00.000+08:00

I can only imagine the touch of your skin, the brush of your hair and the caress of your lips that would never be kissing me. For reasons way beyond that of individual bliss and romance.

It'll be aspirations written in the clouds, locked behind the mind’s eye. Like a Top40 melody that we've been guilty of liking. Or a teeny-bopper flick that we’re now ashamed to talk about.

But rest assured if not for this thought so forbidden I have been made halfway decent than I have ever been in my life. So as to realize that in every relationship there's stress and there's that longing to want things be better or to crave for feelings long forgotten because what we have now is but a specter of a former flame that has all but burnt out.

Save for the fact that love is not just a sudden gush of emotion. Like that feeling that you once felt when you first realized that you wanted to share your life with someone. Or have had butterflies in your stomach or blushed; or got excited when you almost touched someone's hand, or enjoyed a long walk because it is long.

Time would come when you'd arrived to the realization that love is but an active decision to stay true to the one you hold dear, in spite of whatever it is that would problem that might and would come your way. It is about thinking of the greater good. About choosing to not live a life of saving face and of initiating emotional flattery. It is a realization of reality that life together is pretty much like living with your present family with whom you may not be feeling handy dandy all the time but nevertheless your are bound to them in love and in blood.

At a first glance it might suck and it might make you squirm and cringe. But just like alcohol to alcoholics or ecstasy to drug addicts this bitter pill will be the cure, to that ailing feeling of loneliness and desperation and of that irreverent fear that we have of living alone. Desolate. Unloved.

Love is God and it is in His act of love that we were saved and have become adopted children in Christ by grace whereupon we must respond to in faith. It is in this act of love that he actively decided to be serious enough to die in our place for the wages of our sin. He is that darn serious.

Then if we too claim to have experienced this love from God what is it then that hinders us from choosing to love nobly and in purity?

We all have our foolish notions of love whether it is romantic, empathic or whatnot but rest assured love that’s given from above is the love that we should aspire for.

I know that this is all getting confusing and that no concrete thought has been presented right after I have written to almost a dozen paragraphs. So I guess it's time for me to end this and have you figured out love.

"I've heard stories of people doing soundtracks and they think they've finished a masterpiece..." - Martin Gore

2007-05-09T13:34:00.001+08:00

It was with this certain Cure song that I remember you.

It was called 'High' I first heard it when I was 16 and was on my way to college and was a point in my life that I have found the joy of new wave music a decade too late.

I remember hearing it on The Cure's live album called Show whereupon I preferred hearing 'Just Like Heaven' and 'Friday I'm in Love' where the former song by sheer liking became the first song that I ever tried to learn it’s bass line. I imagined playing it in the quadrangle in our high school, back before me or my so-called band ever got the chance to have a gig.

New wave was a welcomed relief for me after getting myself soaked on Greenday, The Offspring, Pennywise and all the other famous punk rock bands at the time all thanks to the sudden influx of cassettes from Epitaph records. It was with this certain Pet Shop Boys song that I still sing to that brightens up my day whereas Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' makes me eagerly await an impending doom that never seemed to materialize.

It was with New Order that I learned to appreciate the value of beats and bass lines it was with their song 'Regret' that I learned to welcome songs about despair and betrayal. It was with new wave that I learned to love ska, reggae and circa 77 punk bands whose names vibrantly ring a bell like: The Ramones, The Clash, The Dictators, Blondie, The Talking Heads, and The Sex Pistols etc. Whose sound made Nirvana seem like whining brats who always mess up their live performances.

And now here I am a decade after hearing The Cure I can’t say that I am as youthfully hopeful as I was when I first heard them. Certainly it’s no longer like the way Billy Corgan described it in the Smashing Pumpkin song ' 1979' which describes the joy of newfound teenage rebellion in the package of new wave music.

It's been a decade now and I have again found this joy in danceable music that wrings of troubled feelings and emotional despair. If you’re chic you'd say its emo if you’re a scenester you’d say that it's post-2001 rubbish mall punk that takes inspiration from the early 90s emocore band Jawbreaker who’s song 'Chesterfield King' has sort of become the standard sound of guitar playing for these new school emo brats who’d say sorry about not being perfect.

It's been a decade now and I still listen to The Cure though not as much to their lovely poppish radio friendly songs like: 'Boys Don't Cry', 'Just like Heaven', 'In Between Days 'and 'Mint Car'. But that of 'A Letter to Elise' where Robert Smith makes my heart pound and seemingly bleed with the songs opening line. Or how 'Pictures of You' bring certain inertia of undropped tears with the song being inspired by a literal fire that Smith personally experienced. Or how 'A Night like This', makes me "want to change it all". Or how 'High' right now reminds me of you.

And leaves me thinking that: is this what I’ve added up to?

A shell of flesh that talks in his third person pondering on rock and roll lyrics consuming them as though they were words of poetry... and thinking them of value enough to stuck in his head hoping that a mental picture of a line from a song would someday come true and hoping that the songs in time be the soundtrack rather than the screenplay of my life...

A simulation of reality

2007-05-09T13:08:00.000+08:00

For the past week I've been hooked to this game in my mobile phone called Miami Nights and its basically akin to The Sims except for the fact that it's a Javascript-powered game for mobile phones and its all about simulating your own reality as to how you want to live your life which goes along the lines whether you'd want to become a rockstar, an actor or whatever and that's how it goes you just have to live your life there in that screen. Thinking about it now as I write this it kind of makes me ponder why can’t life be as simple as a computer simulation?

Certainly in the game I just wake up and do whatever I please; I go to work and there’s no stress; you could get along with anybody by a mere compliment; you get smart by selecting 'yes' on the menu that pops up when you see a book.

I wish it was that simple.

Especially now that I'm not getting any younger and I must say that I am not at all that great of a person nor am I that good at being one...

A lot of things are circling in my head right now and as pathetic as it seems this game has been somewhat of an excuse outstandingly since I spent last week away from almost everyone I love. It was my anchor to stability and my escape from the tedious routine of everyday living.

I know you're probably thinking that I'm under the weather by thinking this but I just hope that time again would come and that this phase would again come to pass… or that I’d learn to play SecondLife in my computer...

as pathetic as it may seem...

2007-05-08T11:15:00.000+08:00

It is for you and the thoughts of me and you, that every scala and palm muted riffs resonate the frustrated feelings of love and lost, wreaking unspeakable havoc on my wits right now.

It is with every pick scrape that gradually scars my pick that I almost burst into tears for knowing love too late, and experiencing it when innocence has been lost into lust. It is with every minor chord on a drop D tuning that I hum and phantom song in hopes of restoring childlike fascination and desire to do stuff that would make the person I love happy.

I know this is getting way to pathetic.

Allegorical comparisons to love and guitar playing would always fall short so as to speak the confusion that echoes in my cerebellum right now. It falls short knowing that I am as pathetic as this thinking out loud writing symbolically so as to serve as therapy to what I feel all for the world to see in this miniscule corner in the world wide web that the tech savvy among us call a blog.

Please pass it on...

2007-05-04T14:28:00.000+08:00

Summer downpours aren't normal for tropical countries like Thailand, where it has been relentlessly raining for almost a week, causing the flashfloods and the like. After hastily finishing a cup of coffee I ventured the rainy streets of Phaholyothin Soi 11 heading towards Ari where Arthur the offices' Communications Manager was waiting along with the media people whom the office invited to 'bear witness', to one of the horrid effects of climate change to coastal communities, in order to communicate the urgency of tackling climate change to the bureaucrats of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who are meeting this week in Bangkok to discuss ways to mitigate global warming.

It took us more than an hour to drive to the place where we'll be taking a boat ride towards the coastal community of Khun Samutchine, which is the first community in Thailand to suffer the direct impacts of coastal erosion caused largely by storm surges brought about by climate change. While on the boat I got to meet Aurelie Uricher, a Solar Generation member from France who along with a host of other youth from around the world who are part of Solar Generation which is made up of young people from all over the world who are taking action against climate change and calling for a clean energy future, which was initiated by Greenpeace.

From the boat we were told that we'd be taking a short hike towards the village, of which we were told that we have to take off our shoes because it was very slippery because of the mud and rain. As we were hiking it's very obvious that the narrow patch of land that we're walking in used to be a part of a larger portion of the land mass in the area. Walking there you'd easily notice structures of what used to be were houses covered in eroded soil.

As we reached the village center we were greeted by a host of hospitable kids who offered us Pepsi and clean water to rinse our muddy feet on. Later on we were greeted by this huge woman who was introduced to us as their mayor, (or was it village chief?) Samorn Knegsamut, who showed us old photos of the place as well as artifacts from an ancient Chinese-Thai community that they were able to dig up since the soil subsequently eroded years earlier. She also told us of her account of how the soil erosion has forced her and a lot from the community to move their house 8 times so as to adapt to the rising waters that seemed to be engulfing their village.

Soon after, we were again hiking passing thru a row of houses on stilts; mud covered dogs' half-buried electrical pylons; buried houses and water tanks; and a long wooden bridge that was very slippery which eventually led to a Buddhist temple that has been buried up in soil with barely its top windows and spire sticking up to the ground. It kind of reminds me of ancient buried temples that we often see in movies like Indiana Jones or in video games like Tomb Raider; but what sets this temple apart is that its not ancient it was built there only 40 years ago, and it was only 20 years ago since it started to become submerged into the Gulf of Thailand.

In fact according to Dr. Thanawat Jarupongsakul, of the Department of Geology, in Chulanlongkorn University:
_

The small coastal village of Khun Samutchine, in Samut Prakan province, south of Bangkok is the first community in Thailand, to suffer the direct impacts of coastal erosion caused by climate change. Samut Prakan province has the highest rate of erosion, officially at about 65 metres a year. The 200 households in the ancient settlement of Khun Samutchine has a profitable life living off the sea and enjoyed the bounty of a diverse natural habitat with wetlands, mangrove swamps, marshes, sloughs and estuaries that were home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. Unfortunately due to coastal erosion and advancing sea, most of these areas are degraded, deforested and devastated by the saltwater intrusion. 95 families have already been forced to abandon their coastal homes altogether, according to Samorn Kengsamut, village chief of Khun Samutchine "as most people cannot afford to keep building new houses again and again just to see them washed out to sea a few years later." The remaining 105 families have discovered that they cannot go any further inland without illegally intruding the land owned by other people. The most important landmark shrine for the residents of the Khun Samutchine is a Buddhist temple that was once was located in the forest many kilometers away from the beach front, but today it is claimed by the sea. As it is the community heart and soul, villagers made several attempts to contact various agencies to help and had spent their own money to purchase materials to save the area around the temple from further erosion. Stabilizing and rehabilitating the shoreline is a costly undertaking for villagers at Khun Samutchine. For them, the temple could be protected by constructing breakwaters. Samorn Knegsamut, the village chief pointed out that even the mangrove trees cannot spread their roots because the mud is not deep enough to allow the trees to grow before the wind and wave wash it away.

_

And as we presented our banners that read "don't drown our future" as a reminder to the delegates at the IPCC meeting it was clear to me that the threat of climate change is not something that we can just shrug our shoulders on and pretend that like its 'business as usual'. Immediate action should be done to curb the uptake of greenhouse gas emissions which causes global warming and while it is all good to talk about adaptation to impacts it is more important to resist the threat from the source which is our continuous dependence on fossil fuel and in the case of Asia: coal, which has brought Thailand communities like Mae Moh, where more than 30,000 people have been displaced from their homes, thousands have experienced severe respiratory problems caused by the inhalation and exposure to sulfur dioxide emitted from the coal mine.

So as we have 'bear witness' it was obvious now that we have moral responsibility to take action according by telling the story of Khun Samutchine and of the plight of its people who are at risk of the dangerous effects of climate change.

This is their story, please pass it on...
________
Here are some interesting links related to this story
Solar Generation's Aurelie Uricher's account of the island
Don't Drown Our Future by Greenpeace campaigner Abigail Jabines
Photos of the area

Greenpeace Rocks China!

2007-05-04T12:00:00.000+08:00

one wouldn't normally think that the photo below would be taken from a Greenpeace event . Click on the photo to see the photo feature of the event from the BBC website.
Click here for Greenpeace China's subsite on the event (be warned though its in Chinese...)

from baguio to bangkok

2007-04-30T14:17:00.000+08:00

after making the mistake of thinking that i'd be freezing my bollocks off on baguio i am again away from the people i love and cherish... work sometimes get into your nerves specially if you're working from some eglitarian cause that very few people take the time to understand or even care about. in my case its the environment. and i'm part of the ragtag group of activists here at greenpeace.

anyways recently greenpeace has brought me to baguio recently where i was by God's grace able to trek my way through 12 kilometers of rough terrain... which would have been better if jeanie, jen and leyza were there but sad to say duty calls for them and it was only me tina, ac and lynie that were able to go up north...

now i am here in bangkok in a damp conference room in an office space that's situated along a ring of bars, clubs and beauty parlors trying to work but ended up blogging...

now that was quite a very long introduction to a very short account of how i got here...

well it started yesterday afternoon after a teary farewell to jeanie, my parents and kuya benjie that i boarded the plane to thailand where after landing in their airport had a difficult time getting a meter taxi, thus making me end up riding a 700 baht limo service that's driven by a suspicious looking guy from lao who offered me with a brochure for thai massage which i refused because i'm really very sleepy and the thought that the guy driving the vehicle that's taking me to the hotel is a pimp is more than enough reason for me to get on my knees and pray.

waking up later in the morning i ended up lost looking for the new greenpeace office thus causing me to walk idly in the rainy streets of bangkok (which by the way sucks... because i didn't bother to bring a jacket because its already 40 degrees celsius in the philippines and i was thinking that its the same in thailand) well anyways i got a call from arthur telling me to go back to the hotel because the office was closed so i took a cab where again as with everytime i'm in thailand i was lost in translation and caused me to get lost even more...thankfully i still got to the hotel... where i took a nap and afterwards try to retrace my way to the office and as i walked pass a long row of closed pubs i was able to find the office building thus making me end up here in this table using a mac that doesn't support firefox and reminding me of how homesick i am already and i haven't even spent 24 hours in thailand... hopefully tomorrow's another day...

Baguio run

2007-04-20T15:55:00.000+08:00

this is before the run

this is while i was running

nothing follows

fun with gas masks

2007-04-20T15:04:00.000+08:00

...

2007-04-20T15:00:00.000+08:00

everything seems to be going out of spin and not according to plan... this sucks i'm going to a place that i don't want to go to without my friends and loved one... my head has been aching for a week now... i'm tired of waking up early... some people are acting like sods... and i feel as though like i'm living on a deadline... it seems quite absurd i'm off to the boondocks in a few hours and i don't think like i wanna live today...

nofx

2007-04-19T13:12:00.000+08:00

we just had pancakes for dinner when we arrived at the venue at around 9 pm. it started 30 minutes later and we went home at around 1am. i fell asleep soon afterwards and eventually woke up this morning wanting to write something about this gig.

nofx was one of the very first punk rock bands that i ever listened to during high school via the sudden upsurge of epitaph record releases that flooded music stores. but it wasn't until my graduation day in high school that i was able to get a copy of their 1994 album punk in drublic that got me hooked to their songs and the rest was history...

...but a couple of weeks ago urban dub sent a message to deathtopuberty's myspace inviting us to watch their gig with nofx, one of the bands that stands side by side with greenday, mxpx, blink 182 and rancid on the top of the musical influences of my previous band payitforward, (i mean our drummer mark virtually has almost all their albums in epitaph records!) not to mention that it was one of the first cassette tapes that i lended to jeanie when we first started talking along with pennywise's about time and epitaph's punk-o-rama 1 and who am i to refuse this offer...

and the story of how we were able to get our hands on those tickets was quite a story already...

too bad though that i wasn't able to get more tickets because as the day of the gig approached i learned that more and more of my friends were interested in watching and i think it;s also somewhat unfair that people like albert sy of bad omen; or my nephew gato or our friend ac; and mark and laix of payitforward wasn't able to buy tickets...that was poor judgement on my part and i feel like a total jackass for booking only 4 tickets which i gave to jeanie, tina and jen...

fast-forward to last night well i must say that it was cool to see a lot of old friends from the 'scene' like agee of acid cow art collective, the amazing keith dador together with his camera kit that he avidly calls his 'kabuhayan package'; jeremy of the band strap on 7-inch; mona of slam demockracy; tado of live tilapia norman of jeepney joyride and a whole lot of other familiar faces from the late 90s punk rock scene that i was once part of... and as you can see it served also as a reunion among post adolescent sceneters who've already moved on from punk rock to whatever it was that we're all individually up to...

at around 9:30 urban dub was already playing, followed by fastpitch and then the ambassadors who played an excellent set including their song 'chaotic world' which was also included in middle finger record's 2001 compilation entitled: up yours! they were soon followed by king ly chee which was also one of the most intelligent female fronted hardcore punk bands that i've listened too since tilt and the muffs (though kill ly chee is way tougher than the latter two).

then came nofx who made me sing my heart out when i heard "Perfect Government" from punk in drublic and later on to the bottles to the ground from pump up the valium and then to the brews and the medley of the quass and dying degree and lori meyers.

and it was not totally an enjoyable experience since fat mike would here and there make fun of asians including filipinos as to why we like metallica so much... or when he poked fun at organized religion which primarilly focused on christians...(which makes the incident that involved them and underoath's dropping of the warped tour come into mind.)

and there's a lot of hardcore jocks who love to spew their sweat on unsuspecting people, apparently some things never change, and beer and an overload of testosterone never helps.

but all in all i think jeanie, jen and tine enjoyed it and it was a cool thing to see folks from typecast (who'se singer's female companion walked out on him), hilera, the guy who drums for rivermaya, yasmin kurdi among others to be treated just like any other audience.

while there were also folks from mtv whom i think have faded into obscurity since no one of the crowd there watches their lame shows, and there was a PETA booth which was in a sense cool that the gig at least stands for something though i'm not at all a fan of animal rights.

so we left at around 1am and outside the gate we saw a lot of poser punk kids and nasty crusties bumming out with their gin and jutes, while some are grobbling at the gates to get in for free, while there are some drunken kids who're beating up an urban dub poster.

and after a long walk with them whereupon we ended up at quezon avenue right beside pegasus bar we all hopped on a cab and went our separate ways and as i sat on the front passenger seat of the taxi home i realized that a lot hasn't changed with punk and its scene and its also a reminder why i no longer attached myself to it: it's part of the growing pains that you experience when you're young and you've always had this knack to stand up to everything that's considered the norm.

something from the wonder years

2007-04-13T16:11:00.000+08:00

i was looking at laix's friendster profile when i stumbled upon this old testimonial that i gave him quoting Kevin Arnold from the Wonder Years and somehow i realized how much i missed watching shows that somehow spoke out what was in someone's heart...

"All our young lives we search for someone to love. Someone who makes us complete. We choose partners and change partners. We dance to a song of heartbreak and hope... all the while wondering if somewhere, somehow, there's someone perfect... who might be searching for us. "

2007-04-13T11:24:00.000+08:00

i was there that i stood and starred at the blinding light that was the sun of my selfish ambition and all wanted from that moment was to slash my wrist and let my bleeding heart pour out its last vestiges of life and lies that have long been supressed and place my self into reckless abandon. terminus.

from tragedy to triumph

2007-04-12T14:35:00.000+08:00

it's almost been a week now since the youth camp that was held by GBC. and i must say that i still haven't recovered sleep and my head still feels like it has been meshed in a blender. but it's all okay because everything's different and yet everything is pretty much still the same. a lot happened during the past week that was redifining. and through it all it was God who is to be thanked for starting out a rotten week that led to a meaningful lent that climaxed in an amazing musical of worship. soli deo gloria

Recovering God ’s Story

2007-04-04T11:49:00.000+08:00

It was pastor Ronald Frias who introduced me to Robert Webber and his works and I must say that the photocopied preface of his book Together We Worship has helped me put things pertaining to how I view Christianity and worship as to keeping things in perspective I hope you'll find it enlightening:

We live in a world where there are many stories—many ways that people interpret and therefore see the world. For example, just go back to the twentieth century and think about the stories that dominated
our world:
• Hitler created the story of Fascism and set out to rule the world through the Aryan race.
• Marx created the story of Communism and set out to rule the world.
• The Secularists created the story that there is no God and that we humans, left on our own in a cold and indifferent world, must learn to make our own way.
• Then came the new religions from the East. They said God is the world and the world is God. So they sought to narrate the world through a resurrected pantheism.

In the meantime, Christianity became increasingly privatistic. We stopped thinking about the story of God. The Christian convictions of Creation, Incarnation, death, Resurrection, and the return of Christ to establish a new heaven and new earth where Jesus is Lord over all creation as the story of the world was neglected. In place of the whole story we concentrated on this piece or that piece of the story. So the story of God as the interpretation of the world from its beginning to its ending simply fell into disuse.

Instead of focusing on God and God’s story, we followed the emphasis of the narcissistic culture and became interested in self. This concern for self was translated into the Christian faith, and into worship and preaching in particular.

For many the issue became “how can God help me?” How can God make my life better? How can I be filled with joy? How can I recover from a divorce? How can I get my life together and be productive? There is nothing wrong with these questions. People have to deal with these issues. However, the primacy given to these questions in recent years is narcissistic and not really what God’s good news is really about.

The good news is that God the creator has a plan for his universe. That plan has been revealed in Jesus Christ, whose incarnation, death and resurrection, and coming again constitute not only God’s story, but in reality the story of the world.

Now, here we are in the twenth-first century. We battle with contending stories of the world. Communism is still a way to view the world. Atheism lurks in the corner. Eastern religions are still attracting many people. And now the terrorists are saying, “We will take over the world and bring you all under Shira Law. You will become enslaved by our laws, and we will terrorize you until you succumb.”

In the meantime, the world is up in flames, so to speak. Europe is under attack. Africa is in a tailspin with Aids, poverty, and genocide. In a world that is disintegrating, somebody is going to narrate the world. Christians can’t narrate the world with a privatistic, narcissistic religion. So Christians must once again become united, not in whining about their pain and brokenness, but in a hope for the future because they are recovering God’s story.

In worship we reenact and proclaim that story. We tell and enact the meaning of the world because we proclaim the truth of the world.

The truth is, God created everything.

The truth is, we fell away from God through the sin of rebellion.

The truth is that God has become involved in the history of the world to rescue the world and restore it.

The truth is that God has rescued the world from the inside. He became one of us in the Incarnation. He died for us as our sacrifice, saving us from sin. In his resurrection, he destroyed death and began a new creation. He is Lord over all creation, and at the end of history he will destroy the presence of evil in this world and reign forever in the new heavens and the new earth.

When we worship together we are recovering God’s story. This story is much bigger than our individual lives. It is more than a narcissistic preoccupation with self. It is all about God who in Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit has won back the world for God. When we worship we reenact and proclaim God’s story to the eternal praise of God.

True worship puts you into God’s story. It changes your life because it puts your day-by-day experience of life—the disappointments and the things that make you soar—into the perspective of God’s story. It reminds you of the true story of the meaning of the world and puts into perspective the place your life has in the grand story.

Find your place in God’s story of the world which worship proclaims, and learn to interpret the struggles of your life within the big picture of God’s story.

Rediscovering the Cure

2007-02-22T20:15:00.000+08:00

Rediscovering the Cure

a couple of days ago i borrowed a best of the cure cd from jeanie so that i'll be able to rip my favorite tracks from that cd and after ripping i listened to it at work and have found such joy upon rediscovering robert smith's amazing songs among my two favorites now was High and Pictures of You.

check out the lyrics

Pictures Of You
i've been looking so long at these
pictures of
you that i almost beleive that they're real i've
been living so long with my pictures of you that
i almost believe that the pictures are all i can
feel

remembering you standing quiet in the rain as
i ran to your heart to be near and we kissed as
the sky fell in holding you close how i always
held close in your fear remembering you
running soft through the night you were bigger
and brighter and wider than snow and
screamed at the make-believe screamed at the
sky and you finally found all your courage to
let it all go

remembering you fallen into my arms crying
for the death of your heart you were stone
white so delicate lost in the cold you were
always so lost in the dark remembering you
how you used to be slow drowned you were
angels so much more than everything oh hold
for the last time then slip away quietly open
my eyes but i never see anything

if only i had thought of the right words i could
have hold on to your heart if only i'd thought of
the right words i wouldn't be breaking apart all
my pictures of you

Looking So long at these pictures of you but i
never hold on to your heart looking so long for
the words to be true but always just breaking
apart my pictures of you

there was nothing in the world that i ever
wanted more than to feel you deep in my heart
there was nothing in the world that i ever
wanted more than to never feel the breaking
apart all my pictures of you

High

Do do do do do do
Do do do do do do
When I see you sky as a kite
As high as I might
I can't get that high
And how you move
The way you burst the clouds
It makes me want to try

And when I see you sticky as lips
As licky as trips
I can't lick that far
But when you pout
The way you shout out loud
It makes me want to start
And when I see you
happy as a girl
That swims in a world
of magic show
It makes me bite
my fingers through
To think I could've let you go

And when I see you
Take the same sweet steps
You used to take
I say I'll keep on holding you
My arms so tight
I'll never let you slip away

Do do do do do do (x 7)
Da da da da da da

And when I see you
kitten as a cat (ow)
Yeah as smitten as that (ow)
I can't get that small
The way you fur
The how you purr
It makes me want to paw you all
And when I see you (do do do do)
happy as a girl
That lives in a world (do do do
do) of make-believe (do do do do)
It makes me pull my hair all out
To think I could've let you leave

And when I see you
Take the same sweet steps
You used to take I know
I'll keep on holding you
In arms so tight
They'll never let you go (never let you go)

Regarding Human Rights and the Revolution

2007-02-22T12:13:00.000+08:00

There's something definitely wrong when people like me who've been very much living out a 'counter revolutionary' life would agree with the radical Left that I've once been a part of.

Especially if there's someone like Professor Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in the Philippines.

Anyways I'd spare you the rhetoric and polemics that goes hand-in-hand with the general issue of human rights and counter insurgency, and dwell on one of his observations pertaining to the Police investigators who must be forensically trained, Alston says, and have the right to name suspects so that the current practice of denying atrocities is weakened.

Well I'm no CSI fan but definitely this is an angle worth focusing because it's already there and those who are supposed to be bringing the victims to justice primarily rely on scarred witnesses who easily back-out of their testimonies. Forensic evidence don't simply back-out nor are they infallible, but nevertheless is an effective means of deriving a clear story as to what actually occurred, and pursuance of such on the part of the police does gives them credibility when they say that they are after justice for the victims of the killings.

Enough has been said about the military I've long been convinced that the armed forces whether it is from the government or on the revolutionary left are blood-stained and will never be able to bring peace.

Call me a hippy radical but I would agree with Michael Franti & Spearhead when they say: "We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb the world to peace."

Bottom line is the military is in denial of the truth of the killings.

Palparan is a rabid, McCarthyist out on a witch hunt.

The left is torn apart and is in need of a shift to peaceful struggle.

And there is indeed a war for change in the Philippines. A war that has spilled into the legal activist sphere that's shared by various grassroots and sectoral organizations along with several unions, collectives, people's organizations, NGOs and civil society.

Some would argue that those legal activists that have been murdered are members of communist front organizations, true enough they're still engaged in legal struggle and even if they are membership in an ideological faction that does not agree with the established state does not make one an enemy of the state unless one is engaged in actual combat.

But the opposite is happening with the counter-insurgency polemics of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

So one would indeed ask why there is even a need for an armed revolution if the present state of things is fine, and the government addresses the needs of the majority of our population.

Extra-judicial, killings and militarization would always be the fan that would flame a revolution.

things that i should have done on valentine's day

2007-02-17T22:15:00.000+08:00

I should have gone to a coffee shop and ordered my cup in the manner below:
" I want my coffee black like my heart..."

I should have cut out my heart and yank it in a shinny metal chain and wrap it with a bow, with a dedication that borrows the line from a Dashboard Confessional song:
" My heart is yours to fill or burst, to break or bury or wear as jewelry, which ever you prefer."

I should have made a very emo public display of emotion whereupon I would act out the lyrics of Save's the Day's , A Drag in D Flat:
"I will pour out my liver, make a special potion 2 parts my blood and 3parts my heart..."

my post valentine whine...

2007-02-17T22:07:00.001+08:00

why is it that a lot of guys make a big deal of showing their affection on valentines day?

can't they do it every day with less show?

and by doing away with the roses, chocolates and all the other silly 'romantic gimmicks?

to love is an active decision that you can do daily.

not in a single spectacular exhibition of "love" that comes in a public display of your affection.

Updated blog roll

2007-01-31T19:48:00.000+08:00

Pinay Blood Rush - A blog about a pinay's point of view towards anything ...

Life's Emotion - The blog of mArk from brOken uniVerse

luified - 22 year old.emo kid.comic book geek.frustrated rockstar.single and searching.

RESET - ...your only one response is to make a decision.

Alix Dep - Blog of the person who introduced m35b to blogging

ghostwriter - meg gallo's blog

Buhay/Pelicula - Blog ng isang masugid na manunuod ng pinilakang tabing, at mga eksena sa sariling buhay, tunghayan!

The Buffet Intellectual - So, who do you want to be? This is a personal search for a place in the cosmos.

The Kamuning Republic - New essays, photos, aquarelles, commentary by Red Constantino.

mulatala - Name: que sara sara blah blah blah :)

Riverside Thoughts - A Group Blog of Sorts

Useful Christian Links

2007-01-30T18:02:00.000+08:00

Churches

Grace Bible Church - Grace Bible Church is a mission-oriented church in Nagtahan Manila

Victory Christian Fellowship - Victory Christian Fellowship is a Christ-centered, Bible-based, Spirit-filled, disciple-making, mission-driven church that meets in ten different locations in Metro Manila and has planted churches in forty other Philippine cities.

Greenhills Christian Fellowship - An international church community in the Philippines affiliated with the Conservative Baptist Association.

Christ's Comission Fellowship - A Philippine based evangelical church.

Theology & Apologetics

The Bereans Apologetics Research Ministry - Evangelizing. Exposing false teachings. Equipping believers.

Christian Apologetics Research Ministry - CARM is a non-profit, Internet based apolegetics ministry

House Church Central - House Church Central is dedicated to the growing house church movement

Apologetics Index - Apologetics Research Resources on religious movements, cults, sects, world religions and related issues.

Answers In Action - Answers In Action is a dynamic non-profit, evangelical, Christian organization based in Costa Mesa, California, which trains individuals to think logically and reasonably about all things.

Christian Research Journal - The online ministry of the Christian Research Institute

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries - Stirring the imagination and impelling the mind to see the beauty and credibility of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Reasoning From The Scriptures - An Apologetics Ministry Centered on the Bible.

Theopedia - Online theological Wiki

Answers In Genesis - Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to enabling Christians to defend their faith, and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively.

Jesus Radicals - Jesus Radicals aspires to be a resource for those who believe that the Christian Gospel is primarily a message of love and peace, and that militarism, capitalism and the state are idols that stand in stark contrast to the rejection of power by Jesus in favor of a personalist way.

Ministries

Musicworx Ministires - Musicworx Ministries Inc. (MMI) more simply known as Musicworx is a Bible-believing, Christian music organization and singing group.

New Tribes Mission - An international evangelical Christian mission organization

World Vision - World Vision International is a Christian relief and development organisation working for the well being of all people, especially children.

Salvation Army - The Salvation Army is an international movement, sharing in the mission of Christ for the salvation and transformation of the world in over a hundred countries.

Campus Crusade For Christ - A worldwide, interdenominational Christian ministry committed to showing people how they can know and experience God's plan for their lives.

National Council Of Churches In the Philippnes - The NCCP is a respected institution for its trailblaizing efforts, spearheading ecumenical evangelism, new programmes, and taking on people’s issues.

Guidelines International - Guidelines daily commentaries by Dr. Harold J. Sala.

Word Of Life - The purpose of Word of Life Fellowship International is the Evangelization and discipleship of youth through various means consistent with the Holy Scriptures to strengthen and build up the church of Jesus Christ.

OMF Literature Philippines - After almost half-a-century of publishing in the Philippines, OMF LITERATURE remains confident in God’s power to touch lives, impart truth, and effect change through Christian literature.

Philippine Bible Society - The Philippine Bible Society is a non-profit, non-stock and inter-confessional Christian organization that exists to provide people with Scriptures.

Philippine Council of Evangelical Churces - PCEC equips churches in formulating effective evangelism strategies and strong missions programs for the evangelization of the Philippines and the world.

Back To The Bible Philippines - CONNECTING THE WORLD TO CHRIST

Way Of The Master - As a ministry, their sole purpose is to inspire and equip Christians—to teach them how to share the gospel simply, effectively, biblically.

Gideons International - The Gideons International serves as an extended missionary arm of the church: Our sole purpose is to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through association for service, personal testimony, and distributing the Bible in the human traffic lanes and streams of everyday life.

Online stuff on the works

2007-01-26T19:42:00.000+08:00

anyways this is somewhat a productive week for me since i've done a lot of online modifications to the Greenpeace Southeast Asia website primarily in the look and feel of the front page whereupon after getting some timely suggestions from folks here in the office i was able to make it less static and more up to date with the current web design trends in the Greenpeace planet.

also i've just jumpstarted my new online pet project called Buzz Light Year Terrorizes Toontown, where it features a homicidal Buzz Lightyear wreaking havoc on toontown and beating up Spiderman, the Justice League and a host of other super-powered and not so super-powered beings.

plus there's this DeathToPuberty MySpace account which i'm not yet good at troubleshooting since i'm a wee friendster patron. but please do check it out and please add us if you so happened to have a myspace account.

lastly the local church that i attend Grace Bible Church has officially given me the responsibility to become its webmaster and right now i've already migrated it with a CMS (content management system) hopefully this would make a good tool for spreading the gospel unto all nations.

i guess its time for this geek to log off and shut up...

see you again :)

2007-01-19T14:43:00.000+08:00

There was once a time when this blog spoke so much about how hopeful I am with everything.

But it looks like that aspect of this blog has died.

I don't know if I'm just being too darn whinny or ungreatful or pessimistic but I really can't find that push or that muse whereupon I'd be able to again write something hopeful, something inspiring, or something blissful as a good friend of mine puts it.

Whenever I'd get the chance, better yet the knack I'll again just be spewing out the usual vermin of whines, longings and alienation that I would usually put into words. It's very frustrating...

One of the most brilliant songs I've ever heard in a while...

2007-01-19T10:55:00.000+08:00

The Road to Joy
by Bright Eyes

The sun came up with no conclusions
Flowers sleeping in their beds
The city cemetery's humming
I'm wide awake, it's morning

I have my drugs, I have my women
They keep away my loneliness
My parents, they have their religions
But sleep in seperate houses

I read the body count out of the paper
And now it's written all over my face
No one ever plans to sleep out in the gutter
Sometimes that's just the most comfortable place

So I'm drinking, breathing, writing, singing
Every day I'm on the clock
My mind races with all my longings
But can't keep up with what I got

I hope I don't sound too ungratefull
Well, history gave modern man
A telephone to talk to strangers
Machine guns and a camera lens

So when you're asked to fight a war that's over nothing
It's best to join the side that's going to win
No one's sure how all of this got started
But we're going to make them goddamn certain how it's gonna end
(Oh yeah we will, oh yeah, we will!)

I could have been a famous singer
If I had someone else's voice
But failure's always sounded better
Let's fuck it up boys, make some noise!

listen to it here
http://www.blogmusik.net/?urlIdSong=69267

happy new year

2007-01-09T13:39:00.000+08:00

... And so goes the start of another year...

It's really weird how I always end up wishing that the previous year could be relived. Undoing the messed up decisions hoping that it would make a difference that in a way this year would be something to look forward to. But then again reality would jolt us and remind us that what's been done is done and it's up to us whether we'd either live with those mishaps and get on with our lives, stronger and hopefully wiser; or live in constant regret for those times when we missed the mark...

Merry Christmas !

2006-12-31T20:15:00.000+08:00

it's already new year's eve and as you can see this is a very late Christmas post you see I have no internet access so i hope you'll forgive me for posting this way too late anyways here's the post...

I was standing alone in an empty super market aisle when I thought of this...

Here I was a tricycle ride away from home. I just finished helping Jeanie check her test papers from school. Later on, I washed the dishes and did my laundry and this won't really be exemplary if today weren't Christmas.

I guess that's how it really is with Christmas, it will always fall short of its hype, (don't you ever wonder why the anticipation of Christmas is always more fun than Christmas day itself?) because we cannot replicate the incarnation of Christ who is the only reason for the season and behind all the gifts and celebration we'd always end up doing what we've always been doing which is to live (as in converting oxygen into carbon dioxide) which isn't really so bad...

But it would eternally be more meaningful for all of us if truly we've experienced Christmas in our hearts by putting our faith alone in the person of Christ and his complete and finished work of redemption which began in a manger in Bethlehem and ended in the resurrection.

And the good news about it is that it is being offered to us here and now as a free gift, granted that we'd be really honest to God and ourselves and admit that we're sinners and that we need Jesus Christ as our Savior.

I mean I am in no position here to preach or convince you to become converts to my opinion the choice is really up to you. Has the miracle of Christmas already happened in your heart?

"God became a man to enable men (and women) to become sons (and daughters) of God."
- C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity

Techno no?

2006-12-12T17:38:00.000+08:00

Things have been getting weird lately... I have been going beyond the bounds of what is supposed to be 'orthodox' within punk rock.

I've been mixing the demo songs I've recorded at home with drum and bass samples.

And I must say that it was a quite enjoyable mix...
--->click here to listen to the new track<---

anyways yesterday I also got a surprise from Gato who apparently has finished doing the cd design for DeathToPuberty's tentative EP

Malachi Ritscher: Dying for the sake of peace

2006-12-05T16:32:00.000+08:00

"My position is that I only get one death, I want it to be a good one. Wouldn't it be better to stand for something or make a statement, rather than a fiery collision with some drunk driver? Are not smokers choosing death by lung cancer? Where is the dignity there? Are not the people the people [sic] who disregard the environment killing themselves and future generations?"
read his obituary entry here
read more about Malachi here

Participate by non participation!

2006-11-29T18:10:00.000+08:00

where's chuckie?

2006-11-28T18:19:00.000+08:00

in the grand tradition of where's wally i challenge you folks to find me in this photo taken from the Pilipinas, Go Renewable! Bike, Run, Walk for Clean Energy event last Sunday

2006-11-22T11:46:00.000+08:00

2006-11-20T16:24:00.000+08:00

here's a probable casue why i might not be a good example to my nephews...

PayItForward: the story so far

2006-11-20T15:33:00.000+08:00

visit the website

Skateboarding anyone?

2006-11-20T12:40:00.000+08:00

Skateboarding has entered an era where top riders sign corporate sponsorship contracts with "anti-offensiveness" and "no disparagement" clauses, mainstream television stations like ESPN- Disney's sports division - show the X-Games and skateboarders shred at the Olympics. Thanks to corporations like Nike we can eat extreme pizza, drive Nissan's X-Terra SUV, wear extreme deodorant, hire extreme consulting firms and invest in extreme equity funds. But if we are all extreme now, then where have the real rebels gone? Disappeared in a haze of Ritalin?

Maria Hampton
How Nike Conquered Skateboard Culture
Adbusters #65 May-June 2006

The quote above echoes the same sentiments when I along with my girlfriend Jeanie, and her students shot a video of my skateboarding nephew Gato for an advertising project a few weeks ago. The shoot brought back memories a lot of memories including that when I along with other skate buddies rode our boards to a fast descent in at a bypass in Edsa during EDSA 2: Or when I would skip school to skate; or when a 'skate scene' flourished in front of our house in Teachers' Village.

Skate-punk no more

At that time we were having the time of our lives because it was rebellious, nonconforming and firmly tied to punk rock. It was uncool. People hate us and preppy kids made fun of us for sewing rubber pads on our busted sneakers. But nowadays skateboarding all of a sudden turned hip. Starting with the integration of skateboarding scenes in the videos of jock-core band Limp Bizkit, up to the anthemic 'sk8rboi' trash of Avril Lavigne. It seems that the tables were turned to those of us who skated before the advent of the present status of skateboarding culture in today's youth. It's no wonder why I'm no longer riding my board and play at the scene in front of our house; in fact none of the people I skated with still play there.

I guess the corporate-powers that have come to realize that skaters were a troubling yet alluring demographic for big business.

Light at the end of the tunnel

But as I look at how the skate-punk subculture has faded into obscurity with its marriage to corporate-consumer culture that caters to your average mall-going teen I still see a light at the end of the tunnel...

X-Games 2001 champion Bob Burnquist is an avid Greenpeace supporter and is a part of the Action Sports Environmental Coalition, in fact he's also an organic farmer and grass roots environmentalist. He and his wife had supported Greenpeace work in the Amazon, and were also instrumental in making the 2004 The Summer X Games: extreme and green.

Also skateboarding can be an art, hobby, sport or A METHOD OF TRANSPORTATION. It is common knowledge that climate change is a by product of our dependence in fossil fuels to get us power including to power to drive our cars. It's quite fascinating to think of how much power would be saved if we'd all try out skateboarding, in the same way that we've ride our bikes to school or work.

Thinking about it makes me stoked enough to grab my busted Vans shoe and to ride my board to work while listening to Pennywise or NoFX, how about you?

note: originally published in Cool the Planet