Bisdak Babbles

There have been a lot of changes in the Friendster layout lately. But what came up in my page a while ago had me L.O.L…

I have always wished getting on a limousine. It must be very comfortable sitting on one of those cars while drinking champagne.  Well, I still don’t know how champagne tastes like!  Anyway, I am more curious about recreational vehicles (RV). My family loves to travel but due to some limitations, we could just be content getting on the jeepney and drive to places near my hometown.  It would be much cooler to own an RV.  Then my family would not mind driving from Iligan City to Manila! Of course, it would be a lot cooler if Philippines has rv parks.

My parents had a wireless broadband connection installed at home more than two years ago. Because of that, I was able to cut back on my long distance call expenses. At least I get to hear them almost daily. They could also see me through my web camera if I am up to it. But, they could not do the same. Each time Shaynna wants to show me something, I would just to play along and pretend that I could see it. Why? Because the computer at home has only a 700MHz speed and a 128Mb RAM. I could hear them fine but each time they attempt to use the web camera, the computer would shut down. I hope I could get through this employment problem so that I could at least buy my family a faster computer. And if my finances allow it, I would also get them an lcd monitor.

I’m having shortness of breath and pain in the chest right now. But all these are not because of Mesothelioma. I think I did not have much exposure to asbestos throughout my lifetime that I am not at risk of contracting such disease. However, I have experienced so much heart-wrenching and nerve-wracking events in the past few years, and before I could even take a sigh of relief, another big wave is trying to topple me down.

The recent issue of recession has once again put me in a difficult position in this roller-coaster-like life. This afternoon, our manager sent us an email trying to infom us of the great but bad changes that are to come.  We had it coming but we never thought that it would still give us such a big and negative impact.  The economic slowdown has finally taken its toll in the small company where I am working.  Right now, I am still in shock.  I am now desperately searching for alternatives but could not find a viable one.  Gotta remain calm.  I guess the best first step I have to take is to pray…

Lately, I’ve been busy searching for my highschool batchmates in the internet. As expected, I’ve seen many of them in Friendster! I sometimes do this because I have nothing else to do. But this time, we are trying to gather everyone to make very early preparations for the Grand Alumni homecoming. Each year, at the La Salle Academy in Iligan City, we have the Grand Alumni homecoming annually. I’ve never attended a single homecoming yet but I hope I could join the next one.

Anyway, each year, a class sponsors the big event. Our turn will be in the year 2021. It’s still more than ten years away but it would be great to keep in touch again with the people whom I’ve shared my teenage days. Everyone is so excited, many people have joined our Yahoo Group, and my highschool memories have kept popping up as if they have happened just a few days ago. I was really timid back then, but I had fun. Some of these highlights and most embarrassing moments were:

• being hit by a soccer ball in my face while passing by the soccer field
• being hit by a volley ball in my face (yes, I’m a ball magnet) while during our Physical Education class
• wearing a pink and oddly-styled dress for our prom. All of the girls wore pink and all of us hated it. But we couldn’t do anything about it. It was part of our Physical Education class!
• stumbling down while I was running to catch the flag ceremony and a few people witnessed it

There are more but I just can’t share them here. Ok, I didn’t just make myself as a laughing stock. I also had crushes and even wrote poems for them! Haha! But I just kept them to myself or let my closest friends read them. Now that I think about it, that was also very embarrassing. Well, it was part of the younger me so I’ll just bear with it.

Along this quest of finding my highschool batchmates, I’ve also gathered my favorite songs at that time. When I listen to them, I feel like a teenager again! Now I understand why my parents love listening to the songs from 1960’s and 1970’s.

Here’s the playlist I made. Enjoy!

You have read it right. You can now leave an audio or video comment in this blog. A million thanks to Kuya Ro at Nispiros Portal for sharing this very cool plug-in.  May it be in English,  Tagalog, Cebuano/Bisaya, or Japanese, I would be more than glad to listen to your comments.  So, please do try it out.  Hope to hear from you all!

I was nine years old when my brother brought home a male puppy.  My brother and I begged our parents until they let us keep him. I think we gave him the name “Virgo”.  We took turns in giving him a bath.  We were so diligent in keeping him healthy. We didn’t know anything about pet supplements but we gave him milk everyday. That puppy grew up to be a healthy dog but he suddenly became ill.  His health deteriorated until he could not even stand.  In the last few days of his life, he just spent lying under the tables and chairs at home.

One night, I sat on a chair with Virgo lying under it.  After a few minutes of sitting on that chair, he bit my ankle! Maybe I hit him somewhere.  Because he was dying at that time, and died two days after he bit me, I had to take anti-rabies shots.  It was not just one, but eight shots around my navel! Because of that incident, I could endure holding a puppy, but I could never get near a full-grown dog, even if it’s just a chihuahua.

From first to sixth grade, I went to a public school about a kilometer away from our house. At that time, there was still no uniform, so the students could wear anything and go to school wearing rubber slippers. The nearest city, Iligan City, is about 30 minutes away by jeepney. So, for the first 12 years of my life, I did not much have opportunities to go to “The City”.

When I entered highschool, my parents sent me to a private academy in “The City”.  But growing up in a rural area made it difficult for me to adjust to the new environment.  Throughout my highschool life, I’ve struggled with my timidity.  Often, I was seated in a corner, oblivious to everything around me, and so absorbed in reading novels I’ve rented somewhere. Even so, I did manage to gain a small circle of friends.

College days was a big step, too.  I was sent to a university in a bigger place:  Cebu City.  I thought that I became less timid, having been exposed to a more diverse environment, a place where the male students outnumbered the female students.  I had to shake off a little bit of my old self, or so I thought.

Some of my highschool batchmates also went to universities in Cebu.  I often went home on holidays and I occassionally came upon them in either the ferry or bus.  But in all of those encounters, the old me never failed to resurface.  Believe me, I tried hard to fight, but to no avail.  To cut the conversations short, the best excuse I could come up was:  motion sickness!