Allow Me to Digress

Whenever I hear these songs, I am reminded of someone.

Power of Two (Indigo Girls)

Now the parking lot is empty
Everyone’s gone someplace
I pick you up and in the trunk I’ve packed
A cooler and a two day suitcase
‘Cause there’s a place we like to drive
Way out in the country
Five miles out of the city limit we’re singin’
And your hand’s upon my leg

So we’re ok, we’re fine
Baby I’m here to stop your crying
Chase all the ghosts from your head
I’m stronger than the monster beneath your bed
Smarter than the tricks played on your heart
Look at them together then we’ll take them apart
Adding up the total of a love that’s true
Multiply life by the power of two

I know the things that I am afraid of
I’m not afraid to tell
And if we ever leave a legacy
It’s that we loved each other well

‘Cause I’ve seen the shadows of so many people
Trying on the treasures of youth
But a road that fancy and fast ends in a fatal crash
And I’m glad we got off to tell you the truth

So we’re ok, we’re fine
Baby I’m here to stop your crying
Chase all the ghosts from your head
I’m stronger than the monster beneath your bed
Smarter than the tricks played on your heart
Look at them together then we’ll take them apart
Adding up the total of a love that’s true
Multiply life by the power of two

All the shiny little trinkets of temptation
Something new instead of something old
But all you gotta do is scratch beneath the surface
And it’s fool’s gold
Fool’s gold

Now we’re talking about a difficult thing
Your eyes are getting wet
I took us for better and I took us for worse
And don’t you ever forget it

Now there’s steel bars between me and a promise
Suddenly bend with ease
And the closer I’m bound in love to you
The closer I am to free

So we’re ok, we’re fine
Baby I’m here to stop your crying
Chase all the ghosts from your head
I’m stronger than the monster beneath your bed
Smarter than the tricks played on your heart
Look at them together then we’ll take them apart
Adding up the total of a love that’s true
Multiply life by the power of two

"Gustung-gusto ko talaga yang kantang yan!" she would say.  Actually, attached with this song are bad memories of sleepless nights for our network project, especially when the "monster" part is sung. It is her favorite song, but it will never be my favorite. haha

Another song, from Toy Story, which we watched together:

You’ve Got a Friend in Me

You’ve got a friend in me
You’ve got a friend in me
When the road looks rough ahead
And you’re miles and miles
From your nice warm bed
You just remember what your old pal said
Boy, you’ve got a friend in me
Yeah, you’ve got a friend in me

You’ve got a friend in me
You’ve got a friend in me
If you’ve got troubles, I’ve got ‘em too
There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you
We stick together and can see it through
Cause you’ve got a friend in me
You’ve got a friend in me

Some other folks might be
A little bit smarter than I am
Bigger and stronger too
Maybe
But none of them will ever love you
The way I do, it’s me and you 

Boy, and as the years go by
Our friendship will never die
You’re gonna see it’s our destiny
You’ve got a friend in me
You’ve got a friend in me
You’ve got a friend in me

The only Japanese song we’ve memorized, Nagai Aida:

Nagai aida matasete gomen
Mata kyuu ni shigoto ga haitta
Itsumo issho ni irarenakute
Sabishii omoi wo saseta ne

Aenai toki juwaki kara kikoeru
Kimi no koe ga kasureteru
Hissashiburi ni atta toki no
Kimi no egao ga mune wo saratte iku

Ki zuita no anata ga konna ni mune no naka ni iru koto
Aishiteru masaka ne sonna koto ienai

Here’s another one, this song was very popular then, back in 4th year college, by M2M:

Mirror, mirror hanging on the wall

you don’t have to tell me
who’s the biggest fool of all
Mirror mirror I wish you could lie to me
and bring my baby back
bring my baby back to me

Mirror mirror lie to me
Show me what i want to see
To meeee…
Show me what i want to see

We had our philo version inspired by Dr. Ibana:  Meno, meno hanging on the wall… (Was it you who came up with that or was it me? Or was it your weird "feeling close" seatmate whose name I still remember but I won’t mention? hahaha

The entire "Beauty and the Beast" soundtrack reminds me of her:

Belle:
Little town
It’s a quiet village
Ev’ry day
Like the one before
Little town
Full of little people
Waking up to say:
Townsfolk:
Bonjour!
Bonjour!
Bonjour! Bonjour! Bonjour!
Belle:
There goes the baker with his tray, like always
The same old bread and rolls to sell
Ev’ry morning just the same
Since the morning that we came
To this poor provincial town
Baker:
Good Morning, Belle!
Belle:
Good morning, Monsieur.
Baker:
And where are you off to, today?
Belle:
The bookshop. I just finished the most wonderful story
About a beanstalk and an ogre and a -
Baker: That’s nice. Marie! The baguettes!
Hurry up!

She can be any of the characters in the song on her own, which amazed the Japanese during our conquest of Disneyland.

There are many other songs but I have to stop right here and get back to work.

I didn’t hear any of these songs recently. Maybe I have to fix the first sentence of this post. 

Lalyn reminds me of these songs. 

She is a song herself, a happy song… (mwahahahahaha…. tama na trying hard na ako? Corny!:) Lalyn, basta yun na yun!)

I’m looking for a picture of Lalyn and me to post here, but I can’t find a decent one! Considering she’s one of my closest friends in the Philippines, in Asia, in the world, in the universe, that is weird, isn’t it? Weirdox!

Happy birthday, Rariinsan!

My so-called retreat to privacy is postponed for now.  I’m back to blogging. Sadly =(  I will not write about something too personal - I would not want to write about my love life, whether it exists or not. (I’m not telling if it exists or not! Hehe :)  Nor do I plan to write about people I loathe, if there’s any.  I will write nothing about my "extreme" (can’t think of an adjective - real? true?) joy, sadness, excitement, frustrations, anger, hopes, and others that will expose too much of myself.  I wouldn’t elaborate on my plans of conquering the world, too.  This is as far as I can share myself to the world wide web - another of my "journey of the stomach" entries.       

Enough of my ex-unwritten rules on blogging.  Yesterday, I was craving for pesto. Badly.  I forgot to have some when I had the chance. 

I asked a couple of friends who love to cook, Clara and Aimee, and asked what basil leaves are in Filipino.  It’s just basil leaves, Clara said.  Aimee said they’re called dahon ng basil. That’s what I thought too Searched the internet for the recipe and found out I have almost all the ingredients Olive oil - check!  Parmesan cheese - check! (Two essentials I brought with me this time - Parmesan cheese and low calorie non-fat salad dressing.) Garlic, pepper, salt - check!

The only missing ingredients are pine nuts (can be substituted for pili nut according to a Filipino website) and of course, basil leaves.

I have vowed not to eat nuts and chocolates, two of my favorite things in the world, for my entire stay here.  I had a chocolate binge two weeks ago and just before I left, I indulged in pili nuts.  A friend ventured to buy those for me from Bicol, despite Mayon Volcano eruptions.  (Thanks, Ate Jeny! Hehehe:) So good-bye chocolates and nuts - for now.    

Oh,  it just dawned on me that I did have pesto before I left.  But it wasn’t pasta, I wanted pesto pasta yesterday. I had it with bread.  Lately I’ve noticed how the information retrieval process of my brain is delayed for some reasons which I don’t know.  Getting old?  For instance, when something reminds me of someone, a student or a friend whom I haven’t seen for a long long time, I spend some time recalling what his name is!  Memory delay disorder. Is there such a thing? But good thing is, I still remember in the end.  Better late than never. 

Ok, so back to my search for basil leaves.  I went to the market looking for "bah-sil leaves," not knowing what they really look like.  I tried "bey-sil" too, but to no avail.  The website says fresh basil leaves!  But then too bad I just have to settle with McCormick basil leaves in those little bottles, as Aimee suggested.  Looking for that was not easy too, in this place.  Finally, in the third grocery I visited, I found one little bottle with bits of  - not fresh, of course, but dried basil leaves.  33 pesos a bottle.  So can I make pesto sauce for my pasta with that?  Would it taste even half as good as pesto made of fresh basil leaves?  On the bright side, I didn’t have to put those in the blender. 

For midnight snack, I had pesto on toasted bread!

Here’s what I found out about pesto from wiki:

Pesto is an Italian sauce that originates in the Liguria region of Northern Italy, specifically in the city of Genoa (pesto alla genovese), although at least one other well-known variant exists: pesto alla siciliana, a sauce from Sicily that replaces the basil of Genovese pesto with tomato. Pesto has been known, in various forms, since Roman times, and probably was imported from North Africa.

I read in a website that "pesto" comes from the Italian word "pestare" which means "to pound." That was how pesto was made before, using mortar and pestle, not using food processor or blender.  Click here for pesto sauce recipe. 

Here’s how i made my pesto.  I just mixed the following:

2 tablespoons of Mc Cormick basil leaves

1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese, or as much as you want

1 or 2 cloves of garlic - minced

olive oil - You would know how much to put.  Trust your instinct. 

a dash of salt and pepper

The result?  Modesty aside, I loved it!  I must be too hungry.  Fresh leaves would have tasted a lot better, I’m sure.

The question prevails:  What are basil leaves in Filipino? 

What if I used kangkong leaves instead? Hmmm…..

Where can I buy basil seeds?  (I remember having searched for those two years ago for a friend in Beijing. Now I know why he wanted those!) I want to grow basil.

What is kangkong in English?  Questions seem never-ending, but I just have to accept that there are some questions in life that would be left unanswered, or sometimes, one needs patience to get the answers.  And by the way, it’s not having the answers, it’s about asking the right questions, they say.  Ok, I’ll stop right here.   

Just had a chat with my friend Aimee, who’ll be celebrating her nth birthday tomorrow!  With her birthday coming up, I rememer this quote that I really like, one I used to email to friends on their birthdays.  In case you’re feeling old, reading this might help you bring back your youth. 

“Youth is not entirely a time of life – it is a state of mind.  It is not wholly a matter of ripe cheeks, red lips or supply knees.  It is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life.  It means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease.

Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.  People grow old only by deserting their ideals.  Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. 

Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair – these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.  Whatever your years, there is in every being’s heart the love of wonder, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing child-like appetite for what next, and the joy in the game of life. 

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer and courage, so long are you young.  When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the moss of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and then only, are you grown old.” 

-  General Douglas MacArthur during his 75th birthday speech, quoting from Samuel Ullman’s (1840–1924) poem

To Aimee, happy birthday

To Walt, ikaw - forever "Young." Ayan may nadedicate na ako for you

Here’s something that I found while cleaning up my room.  Nothing original, must have paraphrased stuff from the books and handouts.

I remember my favorite philo teacher asking on the first day of class, "Why aren’t philo subjects offered to freshmen? Why does it have to be on your junior year?" It is because a freshman or sophomore, in general, wouldn’t have enough experience to make sense of those philosophical stuff or the phenomenology of things or whatever.  It does make more sense now than it did before. Beware: sleep inducing.  Excerpts from something I must have written 5 to 6 years ago in preparation for a philo oral exam:

Thesis statement:

Itinuturo ng damdamin ang pagpapahalaga, subalit hindi ito ang halaga mismo.  May lohika ang puso na iba sa lohika ng katwiran, bagaman hindi ito labag sa katwiran.  Nagbubunga ng kapayapaan ang solidaridad ng mga pagpapahalaga.

Mahigpit ang ugnayan ng damdamin at pagpapahalaga.  Mahirap unawain ang damdamin dahil malikot ang kilos nito.  Ngunit sa pamamagitan ng pang-uunawa sa kaayusan ng mga pagpapahalagang itinuturo ng damdamin ay mauunawaan rin ang damdamin at pagpapahalaga.  Tinuturo lamang ng damdamin ang pagpapahalaga kung kaya sa pagsusuri ng damdamin, higit na dapat na bigyang pansin ang pagpapahalaga kaysa sa damdamin mismo.  Halimabawa:  Kamay na tumuturo sa buwan.  May katumbas na pagpapahalaga ang damdamin.  Kung may damdamin para sa isang bagay, masasabing may halaga ito sa isang tao.  Sa damdamin unang naranasan ng tao ang pagpapahalaga.  Halimbawa:  Katuwaan - pagpapahalaga sa aliw; maluwalhati - pagpapahalaga sa kabanalan, panghihina - pagpapahalaga sa biyolohiko.

May sariling katwiran ang damdamin, ayon kay Scheler.  Di tulad kay Kant na nagsasabihing ang damdamin ay isang magulong larangan ng mga inklinasyon,, ang damdamin para kay Scheler ay naaantas sa isang kaayusan.  Hindi naman nangangahulugang itinatakwil na ang lohika ng katwiran.  Kinakailangan ito upang mapaglinaw ang sinusuri.  Kung nais matuklasan ang larangan ng mga papapahalaga, sundan ang damdamin.  Kung nais patunayan ang mga halaga, gamitin ang isip.

Napapakiramdamang mabuti sa pangangapa sa damdamin, tulad ng isang musikero.  Ngunit hindi ito laging tama.  May mapangwasak - ressentiment, at mapaglikha na katangian ito - pagpapakumbaba at solidaridad. 

Magbubunga ng kapayapaan ang solidaridad dahil nagiging bukas ang isang tao sa pagpapahalaga ng iba at lumalawak ang buhay solidaridad.  Ang solidaridad ay pakikibahagi sa larangan ng pagpapahalaga ng iba.  Ipinagdiriwang, yumayaman, dahil sa halagang umiiral sa daigdig. 

So did I just bore you to death?  Ang pagkabagot marahil ay tumuturo sa pagpapahalaga sa aliw. Haha :)  Anong halaga ang itinuturo ng kagustuhang mag- blog?  Pagpapahalaga sa pamamahagi ng mga ideya o ng bahagi ng aking sarili sa mga kaibigan.  O kahit naman walang magbasa, maganda rin namang balikan ang mga sinulat ko dito para sa aking sarili.  Maaari rin namang ang pagbloblog ko ay pagpapahalaga sa walang hanggan, na lagpasan ang sarili - kahit na mamatay ako ay nandito pa rin ang blog ko, kung hindi mag sasara ang Friendster. 

Ay ewan.

Just so I wouldn’t forget, I need to share this… I heard this today in church.  I hope you get disturbed too.

Disturb us, Lord

when we are too well pleased with ourselves;

when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little

when we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess

we have lost our thirst for the Waters of Life;

having fall in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity;

and in our efforts to build a new earth,

we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly -

to venture on wider seas where stormswill show your mastery;

where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

We ask you push back the horizons of our hopes,

and to push us in the future with strength, courage, hope and love.

- Sir Francis Drake, 1577

Since I got home, I have lost inspiration to update my blog. First there was something wrong with our internet connection here - very weird - some blog sites were blocked (and I’m not even in China). But now by some miracle it’s back to normal.  Not having checked my blog for quite some time now, I’ve somehow lost interest in it and now I’m just trying to type away waiting for inspiration to come.

…

A friend asked about how I can come up with a blog (when I was in the province) when nothing’s happening to me there.  There shouldn’t be much to write about.  Now a lot of things are happening but I just don’t feel like writing about it. Maybe it’s because of my stomachache.  Or maybe now that I’m home and I get to talk to family and friends so I wouldn’t need a blog to tell my stories to. hehehe…

For me, there is an inverse relationship between company and blogging.  More company, less blogging.  Nothing beats good company.  I’m glad to be home.

This is my second 10-minute entry.  You are reading a dying blog and witnessing my retreat to the safety of my privacy.  Thanks for reading.