Identity
I first started blogging under the guise of SevenOfNine, influenced by the caterpillar late in 2004. Back then I wasn’t so sure if it was “safe” to blog under one’s true identity. But then I realized that if one were to put forward one’s own opinions, the opinions may hold more water if they were issued from a known source.
So I started blogging as me by the end of 2004. I had my space in blogger, which gave way to wordpress and our own domain, kusangpalo.com. I was once hosted with Ploghost but have moved to Bayanhosting where I have been sitting comfortably for the past two years.
Although I may alternately rant and rave about people, things and situations, I usually try to get both sides of the story, to the point of pointing a finger at myself for hasty comments I may have made even in private. So when I posted this “comparison by experience” between Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and MMDA Chief Bayani Fernando I thought that I had provided enough information, pro and con, for both.
So it is sad when I realize that there are people who comment in haste without properly reading what has been presented.
On these hectic days, I reply to comments on my blog via email, as I get to read my mail more often than I can look at my blog. I usually reply to hasty comments via email to avoid a word war on this blog. However I can only do that if the commenter puts in a valid email address. The people who do comment on my blog know that I do reply — sometimes very much delayed but I do. If my reply bounces for some reason, that’s when I post my reply on the blog.
In a curious occasion of life imitating blog, Sam and I were in a cab earlier this evening, on the way home from Mega Mall. I was telling him again about my run-in with Mr. Fernando, since it was still so vivid in my mind. I recounted this story while we were cruising on EDSA heading south. We then spoke of other things as we passed through the Magallanes area, on to the left going up the Tramo flyover, straight ahead and then left on Nichols road, then the quick but tricky left on the improvised rotonda at the intersection of Nichols and Domestic Roads. When were were nearing the intersection of Domestic and MIA Roads, some vehicles behind us cut in to the left, driving on the opposite lane towards the traffic light ahead, an ill-conceived practice that leads to further traffic on the left turn when the light turns green. At this moment, our driver who had been silent all throughout the trip began to speak.
He said “Iyang pag o-overtake sa kaliwa, mali yan kasi counterflow na yan. Lalo tuloy nagkakaron ng traffic. Yan na ang sinasabi ni Chairman BF na dapat iwasan.”
I smiled and said to him, “Maka BF ho pala kayo.”
“Oo,” he said.
I said, “Ok lang ho yun, kanya kanya naman tayo ng opinion, lalo na kung nakasalamuha na natin yung taong pinaguusapan natin.”
He was silent after that, even after he had let us off by the gate to our house. I suppose he felt he had to stand up for his hero, and I respect him for that. BF is lucky to have such a follower.
Some of the best things in life are still free
A little over a month ago I had put in a CD request at Ubuntu.com. I was having problems downloading the 7.04 iso file. I was also having problems burning the iso I had downloaded, as I had mistakenly bought a bunch of blank cd’s that had only 750mb file capacity. The ISO needed 800mb to burn successfully.
While browsing the Ubuntu website, I found this request link. I had to signup for a launchpad account, but other than that everything else was OK. And now here it is — an Ubuntu Feisty Fawn live CD/installer plus 4 ubuntu stickers direct from Breda, The Netherlands. Free.
FREE.
I’m saving the CD for when I come across another old system I can move to Ubuntu, although two of the stickers have served their purpose. One is now on the refrigerator where our sticker collection is stuck. The other is on my laptop, having replaced the ubiquitous WinXP sticker.
Blast from the Past
from left: Noel Comia, Armando Paguio, Jean Canlas-Bernardino, Victoria Kapauan-Gaerlan
Last I saw any of them was in 1975. Well, except Jean who I visited late in 2003 on one of her balikbayan trips. Some time in 2002 we had another small gathering with Danilo Fernando, Christopher Inductivo, and Emerlinda Villapando, but I can’t remember where I put the pictures.
They are my classmates from elementary school. We went to Mater Carmeli School in D. Tuazon, Quezon City. Noel was our First Honor. Armando was one of the tough guys. Jean had light brown hair and was very quiet except when the boys were teasing. We’ve known each other since prep, which means we had started going to school a few months before man first stepped on the moon. We had taken sides on who would win the first ever match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1971. We had a vague feeling that Proclamation No. 1081 was serious, but enjoyed the months of no school. We could rattle off the names of the nine previous presidents of the Philippines in chronological order, but knew only of one during our time—Ferdinand Marcos.
We made field trips to the Nayong Pilipino, and the Luneta Planetarium, and Jose Rizal’s house in Calamba, Laguna. We had nutribun for recess. Sarsi was at P0.15 centavos a bottle, and your family must be filthy rich if you had P0.50 centavos pocket money on a school day. It was forbidden to go to any public place dressed in your school uniform, unless it was on a school sanctioned outing. We did not have malls—we had the Good Earth Emporium on Avenida Rizal. The girls wore perpetually shiny shoes called “charol”, and the “tex” cards the boys played with were the size of playing cards and had illustrations of comic book heroes, not the tiny ones for sale these days with actors from Jumong and Asian Treasures.
I could go on, but I feel my arthritis coming on. It was great to see you guys again.
Maria Victoria Kapauan, circa March 1970
MCS Batch ‘76 Master list — the list of students who were part of Batch 76 at Mater Carmeli School, D. Tuazon, Quezon City. Please have a look-see if you know anyone (malay nyo, nanay tatay nyo pala graduate ng Mater) and give me a buzz when you find a familiar name.
When Mother’s Day is also your “Mom’s” birthday
I spent my earliest years with my father’s big sister. Her name is Tita, which is short for Teresita. She is my Auntie Tita. She had a house in Quezon City, but it’s not there anymore, sold many years ago to a Chinese businessman who wanted the land but not the house. The house was torn down to make way for a bodega. I’ve never gone back there since the last time my Aunt and I cleaned it out early in the 80s. I didn’t want to see a bodega instead of the house that I grew up in. But I’m getting ahead of my story.
I believe that it is our earliest memories that shape us, that define our basic selves. It is by our memories with which we relate to our current surroundings, it is by what we remember of our past that we adjust to our present, and prepare for our future. I remember how my Aunt took care of her house, of herself, and of me. My Aunt shared her bedroom with me while I was growing up, and because of that I was witness to the skills and intricacies involved in taking care of one’s self. My Aunt would leave the house looking beautiful, work for eight hours straight in a government agency while looking beautiful, and come home early in the evening to take care of me looking exactly the same way she did when she left. I was witness to what was involved in making such a feat possible, but I never had the opportunity to practice it, much to my regret today.
My Aunt had her own car—a powder blue Ford Taunus, and drove it herself. This was almost unheard of in the late sixties and early 70s, and it may have helped seal her reputation as a woman who had worked hard for herself and had something to show for it, and was therefore was out of reach to the average male. She had suitors, I suppose, I was too young back then to know the difference between men from her gang and the ones that had other agenda.
My Aunt had a large kitchen, with appliances that I as a child were not allowed to touch, but I was always the first to sample the products. She baked cakes with butter icing, made embutido con sinsal the way my grandmother—her mother—made them, she made fruit salad and buko salad and potato salad, and my favorite nilagang manok at baboy with potatoes, and ampalaya guisado which I hated.
Maybe I would have picked up all of that, if I had stayed with my Aunt through my teen-age years. But my Dad had picked up the family to move to Cebu three years before I had graduated from elementary school, and now that I was to begin high school I was to join them. A year after I flew to Cebu, my Aunt left for the U.S., with a side-trip to Germany to visit her half-sister who was living there at the time. In the U.S. my Aunt found work, a husband, and a house at Outer Banks, in that order I suppose. She would come home to visit every few years, the last time was when one of her brothers passed on, almost 10 years ago.
I know she’s upset with me these days, as I have been remiss in a few of my obligations. I would like to tell her not to worry, I will catch up and make up.
Happy Birthday, Auntie Tita. And Happy Mother’s Day too!
About Me
