Pornography of My Inner Universe
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Environmentality: The Earth Hour

By Wild Ice
Rubber wristbands are becoming common these days because of the Election coming this May. Take your pick: Yellow, Green, Orange, etc. You have them with of course the names of the candidate you are rooting for. Just a few weeks ago, my student gave me this black rubber wrist band. I'm a big fan of black. And when I checked out this wristband, it contained the word "Environmentality" and the word "think". I am also a huge fan of the Environment and at the same time, the act of thinking. These are two things I guess we should vote for, or consider, before anything else.
Being part of saving the environment is a big thing not just for our safety but also for the safety of generations to come. The Earth Hour happened here in the Philippines from 8:30PM to 9:30PM in the evening of March 27, 2010. I attended this tiny gathering at a mall which was part of sponsoring the event. There were three artists on stage as we waited for the hour that the Filipinos would be "united" in taking care of the only place we live in; The Earth.
The countdown started and as the clock struck Eight Thirty, there were cheers everywhere (although cheering was not part of the activities planned when the Earth Hour begins, it's just that people thought probably they should behave the same way as New Year's Eve when countdown ends).
I looked around, with my cellphone recording the video of the event. To my surprise and disappointment, the establishments around only turned off a few lights; just one or two in the outside and most of the lights in the sidewalks ONLY.
And they claimed they support the Earth Hour.
Just a few minutes after the countdown, I left the place and rode myself home. That's when I somehow lost the feeling of disappointment; the lights in that certain avenue I was in was almost zero. Yup. The huge buildings rising above me barely had any light on. Even the sidewalks had none. Only the cars were illuminating the roads. Now, this is what I call SUPPORT.
I somehow understand that the mall I was in had the wisest mind not to turn ALL of the lights off because they had some business to deal with. But, if you truly support the Earth Hour, you'll offer that one hour---that ONLY ONE HOUR----that the world is asking of you. It's a commitment. It's the only time in the year that you get to contribute something big (actually, small because it happens once a year in a country) to the world. Imagine if you make money today yet have no place to live in tomorrow because the world is doomed due to Global Warming. Imagine you can go anywhere because of the money you made but tomorrow, there are no more beautiful places to go because the Earth is damaged. Imagine.. Think... Think... Environmentality.
How stupid our humans are nowadays? They don't care, unless they get there. They don't care unless they feel the pressure of the world's end. It's very frustrating.
Close-minded people.
I came home and in our compound, only our house had no electricity on. As usual, only my side of the family was participating for the said event. When it was already somehow thirty minutes after the Earth Hour began, my little brother turned the lights on. My father asked if isn't it was supposed to be an hour-long activity.
My stupid little brother answered, "If we go on for an hour, do we get any money for it?"
I hurled some mud and vegetables over his mouth and pulled the sun back to the sky to let him burn with his bird brain toasting in futility. "DON'T YOU GET THE POINT OF PARTICIPATING THE EARTH HOUR?? IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT MONEY, YOU INSIGNIFICANT CARBON-DIOXIDE PRODUCER!!!"
Of course, I did not really do those. It was all Environmentality with a twist.
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Pulang Nihirang

By Wild Ice
Pinoys are very addicted in reviving songs. We have revived many songs that our modern artists make album as if they're just singing in videokes. Just let them take a mic in a videoke and they make an instant album. If asked if they were able to popularize a song, please shoot them if they think they own that song.
Maybe this was in the mind of Arnel Pineda when he sang the national anthem. He thought he owns the song, so he had to make his own version, just like the bigger number of "Original" Pinoy Music artists we have now.
We need to have great respect for our country, the heritage our heroes entrusted to us modern pinoys. We need to respect the song as it is. The problem is, when Arnel Pineda sang the National Anthem "Lupang Hinirang" before the fight of Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey, he wanted to end it with a very high note that would mark in the minds of Filipinos. Well, it sure did, in a different sense.
You see, I have nothing against Arnel. And I totally agree with his passion in being "artistic" when he claimed that it was for his "artistic freedom" to sing the anthem that way. You get the greatest privelege to sing the anthem in front of the whole wide world, take the opportunity. He's the biggest star in music at that moment---everyone is, once we step out to pull our lungs out with the patriotic lyrics drooling out of our tongue. But you see, this proves how much we want things to go our way.
We're not dignified as ONE filipinos. If we want to sing it this way, who the hell can stop me? I just want to make an impression. But let's not forget, WE ARE A SLAVE TO THE ANTHEM WHEN WE SING IT; The anthem should not suffer to our own will.
We want to make it more beautiful. WHY? It's already beautiful. Actually, the anthem may end in a different note, the one sopranos in most choirs do when they do the voicing. It was accepted, I heard either Regine Velasquez or Sarah Geronimo use that note at some special event I can't recall. The anthem may end in a high note, but still it is the one approved by the National Historical Institute.
NHI is not overreacting. They are trying to preserve the dignity of our National Anthem. They just want to set things straight---they are not trying to grab our attentions far from any other issues. They just want to prove that there is still a group that secures our history, and everything involved in it, will never be altered because it should be WHAT IT REALLY IS.
Forgive Arnel Pineda. Singing "Lupang Hinirang" in front of billions of people worldwide is a huge pressure. What he should realize, and every artist should also, is that the National Anthem will always be as it is. That is what Julian Felipe, the composer of the song but not the Filipino lyrics, composed for the Filipinos in all generation as a symbol of our freedom, our dignity, and our undying love for our motherland.
Let's be united, us filipinos. We keep on wanting our own desires to be the one accepted by many people. It's time we act as one, and by acting as one, we need to be firm. And singing the national anthem is one way of staying firm. It never changes in time, because it is what it is... And it is one heck of a magnanimous composition that painted the Philippine air,and the whole world, through the years of filipinos free from the grips of foreign claws.
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Students

By Wild Ice
The fun part of teaching is that no matter how many times you shout at your students, as long as you still show respect and care for them, they will stay with you... Unlike that someone whom I shouted only once in my life left me for blah blah blah blah.. What was that again? Okay, about my students...
Some of them (especially my advisory class) already have an idea that I'm about to step out of the career. At first, it was touching to find my advisory class keeps on sending me letters and messages telling me not to go, that they will miss me, that they will never have another "father" there. But I told them this, "Amen, I say to you..."
Just kidding. This is the real dialogue, "You will move on and become children of other advisers, but in my case, you will forever be my ONLY children in this school."
Some of them already wept. Some of them claimed that they will not study these anymore if I wouldn't be around (not sure if they are certain they will do this, but the proclamation seems touching). Some of them even dreamed of me already having a new but ODD job.
But they are my advisory class--well-known for their (great) lack of sense of responsibility. I told them to do me favors before I leave, that they do their tasks well and perform good at school but they only improved approximately ten percent better.
There's this student who talked to me last week. He was not from my advisory class. But he opened his problem about not going to school next year. The choice was either he go to a public school or he stops schooling because of some problem.
The case was pretty much similar to mine before I entered Junior highschool.
Clyde (not his real name), the student I'm talking about, sought for an advise and I told him that if he were to be enrolled in a public school, it's better than to stop. He is such a smart boy and I don't want him to stop studying. I told him the consequences and the essence of graduating.
After that, he became close to me. He's a very nice boy and very smart, talented even. He started talking to me more. Then, he found out somewhere that I would be quitting being an educator. The nice part is that he didn't want me to quit, and he said something that echoed all that day from other students as well. There were students who told me that I'm "the only one who understands them".
I don't want to question other teachers for this. Maybe the students just found me being opened minded a bridge to wipe out the gap between teachers and students. Of course, they know when to pay respect to me. But I also go down the throne to get to know them more.
We don't teach to show off we know something that they should know, but we teach to let them feel that they can be how we are. And by being able to understand their situation will really pull them closer to you as a teacher.
But, sad to say, I can't stay. I'm looking forward for something more. But I can't deny the fact that the STUDENTS ARE THE BEST PART OF BEING A TEACHER, no matter how terrible their behavior is.
They keep our job from being static, from being boring, from being stagnant. This is my hobby ever since I was young; to get to know different walks of life. And by being a teacher, we don't just know them, we walk with them.
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I Indeed Babysat

By Wild Ice
Whether the title has something to do with what happened or not, the main purpose of the title here is to remind you that this is the past tense version of my very first post about the relationship of me and my Baby. It's in the past tense for the reason that the greatest paradox we ever committed to is that forever ended. Immortality died.
I'm not here to mention the happenings just so that I could make you agree with my own side of the story. No, that's not what I do. And I will spare the person I loved from any judgments. But of course, I can't help but spill a bit of general information here.
I just need to let it out to feel a little better. Catharsis.
Sometimes, in an argument, we all don't need to hear explanations when someone does us wrong. All we need is that one word to make it all okay: "Sorry". I just wanted to feel better by that very very very simple word because nothing was a big deal and all considerations were considered--I'm a person who does his best to understand the side of others. You need not to explain, I already know if not all partly of what you will say. All I wanted that time was to be understood that I just want to be a bit comforted, cared of.. Just a simple wish which turned out to be for some as a challenge to break the relationship.
Of course, the rest is history. I don't want to say more.
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The feeling is true: When you have no more chance to be with the one you love, the memories will flash like the montage on movies. It was happening to me the whole day--the images ran through my head every second without warning. And the thought of that person makes your chest heavy, as if your heart is loaded with dirt that you can't bring yourself up anymore.
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Yes, so many regrets. But we both agreed it's for the better. We have come through A LOT of people who tried to bring us down but now, here we are, half due to my mistake, half yours. Oh, well.... Life goes on. I'm not sure if I were to love again soon enough, because I keep on searching for that CERTAIN love I had for more than a year.
If it's sweeter at the start, then it's bitter in the end.
But before I go, let me share this wonderful text message I received from a friend named Ghie:
"The person who really loves you sees what a mess you can be, how moody you can get, and how hard you are to handle.. But still wants you in his/her life."
"How would you know the mark of a person worth keeping for the erst of your life? It's when you become impossible to deal with.. Yet, they stay."
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