Sunday, July 26, 2015

The Story Of The Peeled Pencil


I like wood. I like its pure form. I like its brown color that seems to pay homage to where it grew from. I like the dedication it needs from an artist or furniture maker to polish its roughness and enhance its beauty to its fullest. 

I like it so much that I spend time to peel pencils and remove their colored coating. It does not matter whether I get a cut from the blade (I use the disposable one for the razor) as long as I will get the smoothness I want.

My nephew saw me doing it one time. He entertained me with his stories and amused me with his never-ending questions about anything while I was peeling the pencil and he did that until I was done. Few days later, my aunt borrowed the same pencil because she forgot to bring one and she needed it as judge for the beauty contest in my place.

I am pretty possessive of my things, whether I bought them or they were given. If someone has to borrow them, they need to return them. And if I decide to give them away, it's only because someone want them so much, though it's painful to let them go. I can only hope that the new owner will take care of them the way I did. Often than not, I found them haphazardly tossed somewhere. Every time, it breaks my heart for the thoughtlessness, not realizing how I took care of them while they were in my possession. Having said that, my aunt did not return the pencil. Maybe she just forgot, but just the same, I lost it forever. In this case, it didn't really matter. It's just a pencil, I could peel another one.

I told my nephew about it the day after it was borrowed while we were in the terrace. He excused himself. When he came back, he brought a new pencil with him and a blade. I figured he would peel the pencil, so I volunteered to do it, fearing he would cut his finger. But he refused, and said he'd do it himself. So I just watched him. He firmly held the pencil with his little fingers and carefully, slowly worked it. I asked if he wanted the pencil like mine. He replied, "This is for you."

To replace the pencil I lost, apparently. I brought his labor of love with me when I went back to the city. 

My brother borrowed it. In the middle of drawing something, it broke in half. I was there and couldn't help but gasped and told him it was a gift from our nephew and told him the story. He stopped what he was doing, got up and rummaged for something in the drawer. He got a masking tape and then rolled it over the broken part. Instead of using it again, he put it in the jar, along with the other pens and pencils. 

It's the same pencil that's in the photo. You can see the rough and uneven peeling did by a seven year old and the masking tape rolled by a fifteen year old. And today, my sister used it for her drawing.

Sometimes, children understand more than the adults do. They know love, and value its importance in its simplest forms and take care of it (or the result of it) and see that it will go a long way. The beauty of innocence - understanding the obvious and accepting the simple.



Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Christmas in July



YES, there is such a thing. In my city. In the oldest street in Cebu. In one of the older department stores, Gaisano Main. Because I love love love Christmas, I like going there, if I'm in the country at this time of the year, to have the feel.

They have Christmas trees and decors on some floors. They also display Christmas products.

I don't like to stamp the date and time on my photos, but just this one, as proof of evidence. Lol.



The songs! The songs! Ugh, they're playing them.

Giddy yap, giddy yap, giddy yap, let's go...

I recorded them (again, as evidence, but I'm sorry they won't upload) while I was browsing through the racks of clothes. And I found some items that caught my fancy. Scarves!  The tag price got my attention. Teehee. Because I like cheapos, my heart went erratic (imagine that + bulging eyes) and sought the saleslady to confirm. LOL.




Let's do the math: Since, $ 1= Php 45, it's $.64 per scarf x 3 = $ 1.93. Original price was Php 129 for each. Saving Php 300 was a H-U-G-E deal. I was a happy girl. :) 

But since it's way too hot in my country right now (pretty much the temperature all year round, really), they won't adorn my neck. They'll be worn as belts, instead.

Next stop, kitchen wares. 

Oh, if you want to take me shopping and really want to make me VERY happy, lead me to this section of the department store. But if you want to avoid boring holes in your pockets, don't. LOL. 

Anyway, like I said, I went to the kitchen wares. I saw pretty tea sets AND red containers AND mason jars for the iced cauw-feeeee. *writing this part with feelings, like I'm saying it with crumpled face and eyes closed*

I kind of died. 

In multiple deaths. 

Because I want to have them all. 

But I can't.

I love and hate sales. Ha-ha.

Moving my lazy bones and presenting (drum rolls, please) Crown Regency Hotel and Towers.


Because I had more enthusiasm-some burst of energy which I did not even know where it came from and it's not even directed to anything-than my body can contain, I walked, under the mid-afternoon sun (yesterday, the 20th). I couldn't curb it sitting down, because it would just muddle my brain by thinking of possible things to do without doing anything. And THAT is more exhausting. Besides, resisting my enthusiasm is a disservice to my body and a disrespect to the moment, so I really have to let it go and set it free before it'll burn me from inside out.

So, here's my route, more than 30 minutes of walking the 2.5 km stretch. Should have been only 30 minutes if I did not make a stop in one of the department stores in Colon Street (the why will follow, in another post).

Courtesy: Google Map

Somewhere near Fuente OsmeƱa Circle (that green dot on the map) is located one of the posh hotels in Cebu City, the Crown Regency Hotel. From the street where I was yesterday, this is how it looked:

Crown Regency Hotel and Tower's the one on the right.

Yes, damn the ugly wires! I can play tic-tac-toe with the grid!

So, if I'm going to be the mayor (just hypothetically, because 1) i hate politics, 2) i hate politics and 3)i hate politics), I'll redefine my city by:
1.) burying all the live wires underground
2.) the city will have a day off - a day free of the vehicles' noise and carbon monoxide - and let the people walk, because hey, it's good for the health and we'll be helping save mother earth. (But this one's more on missing the past and once experiencing a cleaner city with less vehicles. Maybe, I'm stuck in the past. Or maybe, I'm transcending to want something purer and cleaner than what we have now. Loosely translated [since that becomes a wishful thinking with the rapid way we're destroying the earth]) I still want the bygone era. Lol)
Sometimes I wonder why the smarter people are not in the public offices and making the nation better. Hahaha. The #confidence.

Anyway, Crown Regency Hotel transforms at night. It becomes a Building of Colors! that can't be missed.


Photo: Flickr

The view from my apartment building at twilight.

So, I hope you're charmed by my city? I plan to, one photo at a time. Lol.

Rambling of a warrior.

I had been angry these last few weeks. I was angry on things and some people. Wait, I was angry at some people for the things they did. I know I should have confronted them, because little by little anger was screwing my system, and since I never felt it for so long, it was more intense and in a way, debilitating.

However, I'm not a confrontational person. I allow time for people to come out clean and own their shit. Unfortunately, only handful do that. They don't know it's waaaaay liberating to keep and own your truth no matter how screwed up it is. It frees the one you messed up with, and most importantly, it frees yourself.

Preach!

I know, I should have the same mindset about confrontation. To take action at the real time, that is. I do confront people, but only after I found my own peace, which means dealing with whoever with rationality, with less drama and no hurtful words spewing out from my lips. Sounds easy. Lol.

It should be. After going through an excruciating process of finding my own peace, tearing myself down and fighting my demons to deliver me to the state where I want to be, I should become insanely saner that ever.

The tragedy of being self-sufficient (or trying to be), is you fight your battles alone. Although you can talk it out with somebody, honestly, that's the farthest it can take you. You decide for yourself and fight for yourself.

The beauty of it, you find yourself on top shape, feeling invincible after conquering the stuff that fucked you up. And that's ONE. GOOD. SHIT. OF. A. REWARD.




Wednesday, July 8, 2015

In the age of selfie, what's your story?





"Beautiful."
"Hot."
"Audrey Hepburn resemblance."
"Mona Lisa smile!"

The pose was Audrey Hepburn, but it was only obvious when it was mentioned. 

Mona Lisa smile? The lips hardly formed a smirk to hint a mystery.

Hot, beautiful... the girl in the picture does not define herself that. She has a different concept of beauty.

They probably saw the long neck and admired the composure. Or they got attracted to the resemblance of an icon. Or were they soothed by the cleanliness of the lines and the classic chicness of black and white? Image. Aesthetic. 

They didn't know the whole picture was an ugly shot. They didn't know the girl in the picture loved arts and recognized the defining elements that made it redeemable - simplicity, lines, symmetry, harmony and subdued natural lighting - so she cropped it. I wonder if they knew she loved drama and stories and she found that in the picture. They probably didn't and wouldn't know. Maybe, a pretty picture is a story in itself, and there is no need to be curious and inquire and think deeper?

In the internet where almost everyone's absorbed with self-promotion, almost all the time it becomes a "what you see, is what you get". You click "like" on what please your eyes. 

You (the one who upload), on the other hand, bask on the gratification the likes make you feel, until, you get bored and post another selfie after what, 2 or 3 hours? You stress yourself what to post next, considering the pictures you've taken in one setting and discarding the ones you deemed less attractive. I get that part. The thing is, I do that on the shots I take of people, scenes and inanimate objects.

The frequency of selfies posted - obviously with the same face, same outfit, same setting - is the most grating. Vexing to the one whose news feed gets bombarded. I'm still weighing the concept of "muting" people because I am hoping some sense would knock into them. Also, some perverse curiosity is holding me back  to see what's next.

I wonder if they upload images of their face, just for the sake of something to upload. Whether they find themselves beautiful or not, always, people have something to say. And they have MORE to say when one's absorbed with the very idea of him/her.

What makes me wonder more, is if they have a story to tell behind the selfie. Anything, something.