Happy Halloween!
My loot so far:

• a handful of lollipops
• a bag of ChocNut
• 4 tubes of Nips
• a bag of Keebler Soft Batch® Cookies
• assorted candies that my nephew gave me

I’m getting more later when I take my nephew around the village. Yum.

I’m not sure who said this, but I love the message: “Find a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” I have a friend who seems to have found such a job - she says she “pay[s] for the fun and fulfilling moments at work by installment, through monthly salary reduction.” I’m still looking.

I’m sick of my job. I can go on and on about why I want to quit, but I won’t do that. I believe I gave the most important reason already in a previous post - I need a mentor.

We Filipinos, in my (not so humble) opinion, are a superstitious people. Old wives’ tales seem to carry as much, if not more weight than articles found in the local papers. I’m making a generalization, of course, but forgive me - it’s too early in the morning for me to get my creative juices flowing. I needed an introduction, and that was the best I could think of. Now…

Myths, legends, superstitions, and the like are as much a part of our daily lives as anything else. Most of us have heard, at one time or another, that going to bed with wet hair would lead us to go blind, go crazy, or otherwise suffer some horrible fate. I’m sure we’ve also been told never to make a stupid face, lest a gust of wind come and freeze that expression in place. Last but not least, we’re probably all familiar with paglilihi, that pregnant woman’s inexplicable craving for green mango, chicken, fish, or any other item that later determines her child’s characteristics.

Just recently, I read a short story by Nick Joaquin that depicts one such myth. In the story, it is said that the first night of May “was a night of divination, and night of lovers, and those who cared might peer into a mirror and would there behold the face of whoever it was they were fated to marry.” To do so, one need only to stand alone in a dark room armed only with a candle, stand in front of a mirror, then close one’s eyes and utter a spell. Should everything go well, the face of one’s future spouse would appear above one’s left shoulder. Should things go wrong, the devil would appear.

I shared that because I want others to share other tales found in our culture. If you have a story that explains the origins of the manananggal or tiyanak, please share it. If you know of any other folk’s tales not mentioned here, say so. Heck, if you have an explanation for the Filipino’s desire to cover everything in plastic, share that too - the existence of plastic covered sofa sets and beds could be worth writing stories about.

What story do you want to tell?

I just spent the weekend with Bundi, Joaq, Ria, and my two favorite girls (a.k.a. Laurie & Sam) on a much needed trip out of town. Thank you, Laurie, for allowing us into your place again (around the same time last year, the six of us, along with a bunch of others, spent the weekend in the same house). Thank you, Sam & Bundi, for the bedside entertainment (and you all better get your minds out of the gutter, you hear?). Thank you, Ria, for taking over the kitchen when I started getting lazy. Thank you, Joaq, for the countless games of foozball, table tennis, pool, and whatnot. Thank you all for all of this and more.

Is it obvious I’m grateful for this weekend?

On a related note:

• A weekend trip doesn’t have to planned in advance. A bunch of late night texts is enough to get people organized.
• In just a couple of days, I took almost a hundred and fifty pictures (149, to be exact), not counting those I deleted.
• The song Ever After by Bonnie Bailey is now stuck in my head.
• Driving around Tagaytay & Batangas is fun - even if you have no idea where you want to go.
• Not only am I the driver ng bayan, I can also be the kusinero ng bayan. I might also be masahista ng bayan, but I don’t quite give out massages so freely.
• Sam has superpowers. Proof is in the pictures.
  
• Taco Bell is ok… expensive, but ok.
• It’s a jungle out there.
  
• One of the following pictures is from last year’s trip. The other is from yesterday’s. Can you guess which is which?
  

I’m not sure if it’s obvious, but something has been weighing heavily on me lately. I could try and explain it here, but that could lead to a very long entry. Instead, I’ll steal somebody else’s words: “I’ve reached the ceiling and I need someone to show me the second floor.”

In 5 hours, I could be on my way out of town again. I just found out about this trip half an hour ago. I should get some rest… but instead, I’m blogging. Matalino talaga ako.

I’m blog-happy today, aren’t I?

Which File Extension are You?

Which OS are You?

I can’t remember the last commercial film I’ve seen. I know I haven’t seen any in the past couple of weeks; and I’m not even sure if I’ve seen any in the last few months. Heck, I don’t even know what movies I’ve missed anymore.

I’m not saying I haven’t seen the inside of a theater recently. I can name the last five films I’ve seen, but I don’t think any of them would be considered mainstream. They are, from the most recent:
1. Historias Minimas (Simple Stories)
2. 800 Balas (800 Bullets)
3. Tasogare seibei (Twilight Samurai)
4. Ana y los Otros (Ana and the Others)
5. El Viaje de Carol (Carol’s Journey)

Notice the absence of commercial hits like Sky Captain and Shark Tale. In less recent times, I’ve also missed Catwoman and Spiderman 2. I’m not totally sure, but I think the last hit I caught in the theater was The Terminal. Believe me - for every hit I see, I’ve probably missed a handful of others.

I’ll say it again - I’ve missed so many movies, I don’t know what I’ve missed anymore.

So help me out here. Just answer one question: what are the last five (5) movies you’ve seen. If you can name more, that would be great, but five is fine. Name your movies, and if you’d like, I can tell you whether or not I’ve seen them. Just drop me a note and help me figure out what I’ve managed to miss.