a tribute to david poarch

its almost a year ago when i started maintaining a blog. surprisingly, with the type of personality i have, i never thought, i am still maintaining it up to now.
it was also the same year when i bumped into this blog site that gave me the inspiration of writing my blog and continuing life with a distinct perspective. this guy has everything one would dream for: a good education, good profession, good looks and a promising future in the modern time land of flowing milk and honey, the united states. but he turn his back against all of these to prove something: that the best things in life are not on what you luxuriously have but on the simplest things that you wouldn't expect.
thus, my highest respect to him, david poarch or commonly known in the blog community as the coconuter.

here is a video documentary of his life as shown in nagmamahal kapamilya.

holiday vacation

i have been for a week long holiday vacation for work last week and i just kept on posting pictures to substitute my supposed written updates. excuse my laziness and stubborness.
anyhow, after my last shift, i went to UP diliman's lantern parade and met some of my bedan and baguio friends for our exchange gifts. we proceeded to one of my friend's place after the parade for a party. while we were waiting for our trip to baguio to attend the annual pasiklaban (its UP baguio's counterpart of the lantern parade and the campus version of the mardi gra). compare to the previous pasiklabans' that i have attended to, this year's event was quite passive (due to lack of the appropriate word to describe it), since the campus implemented a stricter rule for booze and smoke (which UP baguio is quite known for during such event). previously, 3 in the morning was just the start of the main highlight. but for this year, you could actually notice the drastic difference with regard to the number of people during that time. since, most of the people either opted of drinking outside the campus or find the event quite boring and went home after the oblation run. though i wouldn't really say that my trip there was a waste, since i have met some old faces from college and even my closest friends. i've stayed there for a couple of days and savored the nostalgic feeling of being a free-spirited and care-free individual(?!) again.after the event, i immediately went back to manila to catch my 6pm trip to bicol. it was already around 11 in the morning when i got into a bus. when it passed beside my former university, flashbacks of college memories just flew in my head and obviously it made me sad. well, college years for me would probably be the best part of my life. i have learned a lot of things even beyond what are thought in the academe. i have met a lot of wonderful people that i still cherish up until the present and even the worst that you would wish you don't meet. while the best part of it all, i have experienced the best and worst things life could offer that better equiped me of what life has stored for me.i've arrived manila 5 in the afternoon. unfortunately,. there were still some important loads that i need to fetch back to my pad (for christmas, obviously). it took me another 10 minutes for me to be able to pack them. i have also unloaded my soiled clothes and packed new ones. just my luck, the taxis in katipunan were as scarse as stars in a stormy night. 25 minutes were wasted just for me to get a crabby taxi and a very opportunist driver who was asking for additional P20 just for a cubao ride. since i was really in a rush, i have no choice but to agree with the deal. but it doesn't stop there. i suggested to take the xavierville avenue then turn left to anonas, so that we'll get to the bus terminal faster. but we where just about to turn right coming from esteban abada, there were already a long pile of vehicles blocking the entire road. so we've decided to turn left instead hit katipunan avenue then take aurora boulevard. although there were quite a number of waits, atleast the road was wider compare to xavierville. but when we reached anonas, my eyes almost fell upon looking how the traffic was. it was undescribable. it took me almost an hour before i have reached the bus terminal. aside from being anxious missing my trip (since there will be a lot of people going to the provinces and i might not get any more trips), the driver doesn't know how to get to cubao from katipunan. argh! yes, i missed the trip. but fortunately enough, since the owner of the bus company was a relative (with all modesty), the driver and conductor were kind enough to offer me the conductor's seat or the seats at the back of the driver's seat. i have reached sorsogon around 10 am already and basically spent the entire christmas holiday.

mt. bulusan

" the misty bulusan"

out of empitness and boredom

12/26/2007

7:01 am

kahit ang luneta madaming sinasabi

"dapat ipabatid ng malayang

pahayagan sa pamahalaan ang

tinitibok ng damdaming bayan"

luneta park, manila

november 2007

up diliman: lantern parade

la musikero "the musicians"

the oblation (of course)

this is really really witty: bencab it is surprising that many UP students don't know ben cabrera,
considering his one of the most highlighted national artist for visual arts.

his tiring work and his solemn resting place

"padyak"

lrt pureza station

12/03/2007

10:46 am

the picture of a forgotten poverty.

once, i've heard a story of a little boy who lived in a very remote barrio. no electricity, no potable water, no means of communications and the road is only passable by foot.
everyday, this boy walks atleast five kilometers just to reach the nearest school. the trip comprises the cliche scenes of countless rivers, stony terrains and rigid mountains. he wakes up earlier than the roosters to prepare for school. then he immediately leaves school to wash the very same uniform to use in the next day.
the boy carries a small dusted bag bigger than him. inside the bag he only has an inch of an about to run out pencil and thin paper pad. it was given to him last year when an outreach program was conducted in there place. after that nobody attempted to go back.
one day, his teachers noticed how the paper pad becomes thinner and thinner everyday. he was often scolded because the teacher claims that he was so stubborn in taking down daily class notes. the boy then, would just remain quiet. this aggravates the teacher more. he was spank by a long stick and forced to write down the entire lesson for the whole day. the boy held his tears with all his might and wrote on the paper the smallest letters he could.
after a while, the teacher announced in the class that it is already their break. the boy immediately went outside and headed at the back of their classroom. then curious teacher cautiously chased him.
she found the boy at the back of their classroom, where all the scrap rusted roofs and scrap wood were piled. she saw the boy sitting on a corner covered with plywood scraps. then, she was surprised on what she witnessed. she saw the boy pulling a piece of paper on the pad and tore it into small pieces. then he put it into his mouth, gently chewed it to moisten then forcefully swallowed it.
the teachers immediately approached him and asked him why is he eating the paper? the boy was silent for a while then confessed that he haven't had a single meal for the past two days. he admitted that his parents weren't able to provide him anything for 'baon' because his parents earnings weren't enough to sustain even his studies. so for the past months, he kept himself from writing into his paper pad. afraid of getting starved again, once the paper ran out.
the teacher just can't help bursting into tears.

just a thought: repression

there are people who can't control themselves that is why,
its fine for them to be repressed.
while there are people who can control themselves that is why,
they revolt when they are repressed.

*while walking along gateway in a scorching hot december afternoon.

in response to kiddo

awww,, it is quite difficult to answer since i am an agnostic by choice.but i have a proposal, i could discuss the probable argument that could be thrown against you. then from that you could just try formulating a rebuttal.in reference with taylor and morgan(anthropologist), they argued that primitive religion, being the earliest and source of all forms of religion, was basically brought about to answer questions of events and phenomena in nature that could not be answered by primitive minds. furthermore, the creation of deities or god could be held extremely illusional because early societies have formulated beings beyond our senses to answer absolutely anything. following the logic, to respond to an unknown is to answer an unknown. as time passed by, rationality began to flourish. although men are still enclosed on the concept of religion, since his knowledge is still limited, they have began to concretized images of gods at the very least with the aid of arts and literature (which was probably at that point was just beginning). in a way, the illusion had materialized. but come to think of it, these images were still mere representations of men's naive illusions. although they were embossed with social values, veneration and importance, it is still a lifeless object.on the other hand, marx(sociologist) stated that religion is the opium of a society and this was supported by weber when he said that religion was used to sustain the status quo by propagating the doctrine that the oppressed will be blessed. suppressing them from revolting against the oppressive order. making men (specifically in the lower class) passive against the hostilities that are being brought to them by society (or the status quo) for the promise of paradise in the after life. to conclude, illusion is simply define as something to make somebody to believe for the existence of absence. regardless of the purpose, men should live in the reality to survive. they need to believe to themselves in order to acquire knowledge and survive his ever changing society.

the road back to chinatown

the other day, a chinese friend was kind enough to accompany me to chinatown when she knew that i haven't been there yet. we've roamed around the entire place, with my camera on one hand, i looked like a complete tourist. chinatown was exactly what i imagined it to be except the undescribable scent of horse pee and shit. narrow streets, chinese scripts, lion and dragon images, streaks of red and gold, chinky-eyed people and lots of buddha monuments.melody, my chinese friend, was very well-versewhen it comes to her chinese roots. she 'sounds' fluent in mandarin and reading the language. i knew she was really getting annoyed the whole time because i kept on asking her to translate different things and read boards along binondo. but i really can't help it. chinese culture was beginning to interests me, bringing about the blood in me. yes, although it is not dominant in me because of my dark skin and round eyes, i have a quarter of chinese descent in my blood. my grandmother's father is an UY, a pure chinese merchant who made his way into the markets of bicol and married a chinese mestisa. they've raised a family of nine, my grandmother being the eldest. eventually, my grandmom married a filipino and needed to buy from a filipino cousin their last name for legal purposes. fortunately, i was still able to familiariaze myself with our chinese custom when i was a child. since my great grandparents were still living. when they died, nobody else in my father's side coninued the tradition.along the way, my chinese friend introduced me to her ama (grand mother) and her (uncle). she warned me to prepare myself and just ignored any unusual gesture that they might give towards me. so i just gave my best warming smile. fortunately, i didn't notice any unusual gesture from them. we were eating authentic chinese dumplings, (the ones that were way different from those served in chowking, for they were filled with bashful of herbs and minimal meat. suprisingly, you'll still be able to sense the strong taste of pork) when she told me about the last time she introduced a filipino friend and was discriminated by her relatives when she introduced him to them. her friend didn't know this since they've expressed it in mandarin. hence, my friend didn't bother informing it to her friend, in which i understand.from there, i really got worried believing they've alreadyy discriminated me. since i really looked filipino basing on my features. on the other hand, my friend assured me that they've didn't. i just took her word for it. thinking about it. it is surprising to know how each individual regardless of class and race, has there own prejudices against one another. for instance, the so-called upper class has one against lower one. while the lower class has their counter prejudices against those at top. same logic follows in terms of other contexts. it is like a survival apparatus in order to survive the vicious nature of our social life. it seemed like each individual or group of people needs to have something to keep in themselves in order to value whatever status they are at. these keep them from going through life.most sociologist and political scientist would actually favor the conflict theory, claiming that it is inevitable for conflict to be relinguished in a society. they've viewed this a vital impetus or driving force for societal survival. each individual needs to have something to conflict with to avoid staleness and to look for other means to go through with whatever problems they maybe brought about to them. probably, as i emphasized the value of conflict in terms of discrimination and prejudices in this post, you might be thinking that i am promoting racisim or sexism. please, don't get me wrong. actually these are the top of my list when it comes to my petpeeves. the point that i am trying to drive at is conflicts are everywhere. probably, when life was created, conflict was the primary ingredient they've mixed. nobody can't escape it. for it is not life if you are going to eradicate it. but atleast we still have the option of atleast minimizing it from each of our system.

100th post

i was in surprise earlier, when i was about to put in my previous post, it struck me to know that i was about to reach my 100th posts(this post being so). so i have decided to celebrate it the typical way---by commemorating it.
as a brief history of this blog, it all 'diligently' started last year when i decided to take a break from law school. if your going to browse back to my previous posts, you will actually read their the hardships that i need to surpass everyday for me to be able to juggle my time as a full time employee and a full time law student. unfortunately, i have learned that whatever push i might tried to myself for me to be able to hit two birds at one throw, there were still things that were beyond my control. that despite a wide array of options that may be laid into you and no matter how tempting those could be at the end of the day you still need to decide to choose and sacrifice one for the other.
i have decided to open up and maintain a blog in english for the reason of coping up with it up until the time i'll be going to law school again. in which, english is the primary medium in communicating. i was scared that time of losing the grip of it by the time i go back. i was very hesitant at first. since english was not really my forte and i am more into writing in filipino. i was really scared of showing my mistakes and gramaticall errors. but i still gave it a try.
what's with the blog name?
when i started this blog, i was actually thinking of either using my pen name which is pulang chico or my name attached with a distinct characteristic about myself. probably nostalgeric, like my very first blog site when i was in college. but at the back of my head, i thought of making it more detached from my old self. something new, something to start with like what was going on with me during those days. trying to cope up with an entire different environment: living alone, managing a very busy schedule, meeting new friends and especially memorizing streets. yes, memorizing streets!
honestly speaking, i am a big loser when it comes to directions and memorizing where to go. usually i would rather take my instict than following street signs and names. i know its my bad. but what i just noticed that even if i follow street signs, i always ended up getting lost. so it was already integrated in me to just follow what your heart says (just to make it more cliche---hahaha).
eventually, i found myself enjoying the habit of 'always' getting lost. i enjoyed it in such a way that i am learning alot among the streets that i haven't gave any notice before i even graduated. true as they say, that true education is outside the pages of our books and the walls of our classrooms. its actually the streets that teaches us real life and that was the time that i have decided to carry on the blog name, wandering commuter. and it proved me indeed that there are wonders when you wander.
as months swiftly passed by, i found myself religiously posting entries atleast twice a week. that despite of my still busy schedule, i was still able to make it a point to post something on my blog. it ranged from my thoughts, events and scenes in my life and among streets that were usually taken for granted. i eventually developed the behaviour of appreciating small and unnoticeable issues that lead to a more higher and complicated topics of discussions.
in effect, i also gained constant readers. although this was not my primary concern, instead it was intended more of a personal journal in order to track down my thoughts about certain ideas to remineace them whenever i wanted to, i am still grateful of having them. for these people in some point gave me the motivation of keeping my blog updated.
as of the moment, i am still thinking of maintaining this blog. because of some personal reasons. personal in a way, that i am still struggling and getting the hang of exposing my personal life to almost everyone. for i am not really a very vocal person in terms of opening my life even to my closest friends. infact, there were instances, in which i needed to edit my entries for several times before deciding to post it. there were even entries that were supposed to be posted here. but ended up being stucked on my email's draft folder because i find it very intrusive. although i know that i am the one who wrote them down. i am still on the process of gradually opening myself to everybody at least anonymously over the internet. then eventually, among my friends. thus, as of now, the wanderings of the wander will still continue to search for remarkable wonders.
happy centipostings for me!!

kabayan, batangas

last weekend, i went to kabayan, batangas with some of my officemates. despite the rumored bad weather we were still able to push through the trip. fortunately, it seemed like nature gave us a wonderful favor by making the sun peek visibly compare from the past days.
anyhow, it was almost a five hour trip, quite long than the previous trips i had before whenever we go to batangas. at the back of my head, i am thinking that probably we were lost somewhere in one of the towns of batangas as we went through to kabayan. it was already dark when we arrived in kabayan. with back and butts aches, it was still worth it when we saw the place.
as usual, after dinner we began our drinking session. surprisingly, i may say now that i already surpassed my alcholic stage. its been probably two months now, since i've last drank this much(with a stress to the word much---hahaha).

i wouldn't say that the place was a perfect paradise because it doesn't have fine white sand or clear sea water or smooth sea breeze. nonetheless, i commend its imperfection because it brings out the true hue of nature. most of the time, for our prime beaches we were often times overpowered with the scenery that all we tend to do is to appreciate it, stole a scene from it or just making a big fuzz of everything we see.

but for these kinds of beaches, where everything is not overrated. it gives us time to think clearly of ourselves and of life, of course. it gave me chance to breathe --- true life again. in which there are full of imperfections.

note:
this was my first time to try snorkling---a must see.