Are You Listening?

Are You Listening?

Are you listening to me
When everything is calm
Can you hear the echoes
Of deafening quietness
Is amplified silence
Too much to listen to?

Can you hear my pleas
When it just drift into thin air
Can you perceive me speaking
When all you hear is a hush
Of my empty voice

Can you see my tears falling
When you’re blinded by your ideals
Will you shed a little light
On my pitch-black world
Where everything is dark
In an unending night

Are you listening to me?
Maybe you’re not
How can you listen to a shadow
When you got YOU?

If looks could kill

A man is measured by his accomplishments and worth, they always say. Well, we always look up to the great men of our soceity, that's true. But how can you size up someone whom you just met? Or not even met, in this case, you just rode the bus with, or travelled in the train, or just plainly see in the coffeeeshop. It's sad to admit but we always juge people just by how they look. Appearance always influenced the way we treat people. It's as if there's something in looking better that makes one a better person than the other sitting next. Maybe there is something. You just ask the guy who's heart got busted out by a former girlfriend because a better looking man came along. Ask marketing executives. Or better yet, ask advertising agents and beauty consultants. They will always say: LOOKS SELLS. Well, I can see that. They have profits laughing all the way to the bank.

Okay, then. I have no problem with that. If Anna Kournikova earns so much out of tennis marketing without even winning a grand slam, i have no objection. What makes me sick is how people look at someone who they think is somewhat inferior to them-- especially if its in the physical aspect. And this kind of incident always come in two packages-- Appearance and race.

This morning whie going to my office, i rode a bus with a fairly attractive lady sitting in the next seat. As the bus went on its route, the bus gets fuller until the seat of that lady was the only one vacant(we all know a bus seat is always sitted in pairs). One indian guy came up the bus after it halted on the next bus loading/unloading point, and seeing that the only seat is that of the young lady, he went on to sit on it. The young lady shrugged away, covered his nose and make all the "yuckie" gestures that she can make, and made sure their clothes dont even touch. Seeing this made blood rush to my head. Just because this lady thought that she's beautiful and pretty (well she is, i have no problem about that), she already made a judgement that this guy, who courteously and even reluctantly sitted next to her (even sitting just at the edge) was way below her par that she can have all the liberty in the world to publicly humiliate him. Never mind that maybe this guy is a physicist or rocket scientist (I'm just making a point, of course). What i really wanted to say is that it's sad to realize this. Because however beautiful one may look, it doesn't give him/her the right or even previledge to mock another person's appearance. It's a human being, for crying out loud.

We always hear the old saying " Don't juge a book by its cover". It's so common saying it even makes it sound corny already. But unfortunately, people don't really learnt from it. Especially the ones who thinks they're so special and much glorified by a bunch of suckers.

If you're reading this and you're one of them, saying "shame on you" at your face is an understatement.

An old poem

This is one of the hordes of poems i've made during my college days. Back in a time when we're all paranoid of what the goverment is doing. But i've always been an optimist. A guy who believes there's always something better that tomorrow will bring. Even now that my home country (the Philippines) is in tumoil and has a political crisis on its executive branch(again), I'm still praying for the best. I may not be there anymore but most of the people that i love(parents, siblings & childhood friends) are still there and i still consider it my true home.

Dreaming Nirvana
(1995)

Imagine a place
Where everything is free
You don’t have to work
For you’re just looking for a job anyway
Envision a time
When everyone share
A common goal
Of goodness amongst men
Where crime and hatred a distant memory
Visualize a moment
When government is no puppets
Where corruption has faded
And food is in every table
No one suffers for hunger
Dream of a perfect world
Where there’s no capitalism
And livelihood is parted
Equally amongst all.
Picture out a society
Where there’s no arrogant presidents
Or any wolfen leaders in sheep’s clothes
Just ordinary common men
United in harmony.
Envision a red flag flying
And my hand holding yours
Brother, we will make this future together
…and it’s coming near.

A smile a day...

There are times that you feel so down and the world seem to kick you more while you're at it. Then at that darkest, grimmest moment you search of something to hold on to. A reason to go on and stand tall. A motivation where you draw all your strength and good sense... a refuge. This is where i get mine. From the smiling faces of the persons i love the most. I know it sounds mushy but it's just amazing how a lovedone's presence made you afloat and keep your sanity intact. and your so-called problems just fades into oblivion... For a moment, at least.

Wolvie Inked

This is a drawing pencilled by my younger brother, Rio. he sent this to me and asked for advice. I think i liked it that much so i ended up refining and inking it.

what do you say?

Bless the beast and the child

I woke up today seeing my son flipping the pages of my "Ultimate X-men" comicbook. What awed me is that he camly say "beast" (actually pronounced bezt, with a baby slang). It's only now that i realize how perceptive my son is. I pointed to him some of the characters yesterday and maybe Beast's color stood out in his memory, and along with it the name i spoke.

Fergus' 2nd Birthday

And then comes 23rd of September. My wife and i were very busy preparing some meals for a small thanksgiving meal for the birthday of our son, Fergus Raye. Actually it's not only a thanksginving for Bogs tisoy's (we fondly called him that) birthday but also for him being okay now for a sickness that plagued him almost two weeks (on-off fever, flu & bronchitis).

Yanyan(my wife Jean) went to market at 8 a.m. to collect the meat she pre-ordered. She always like to cook fresh and the day where the food will be served. I stayed with Fergus, who woke up rarely early, and let him scan some of my graphic novels. He's a fan of Batman, spiderman and superman (and yes, he's just two years old today) and scans pages as if he's reading them, ocassionaly pointing to some figures he liked and letting go of a smirk. He could grow a wise-ass, i thought. Comics-reading wiseass.

At 10 a.m. it was my time to go out of the flat to get the cake which the kid will blow tonight, and buy some booze for the friends coming (mostly my co-workers and fellow filipino architects).

By two we have finished preparing the meal and we made sure everything's ok before we freshen up and made the kid ready for his big day. He was a bit skinny since he did not eat for 7 days and if ever he drink milk, he would vomit afterwards. This was the first day that he actually ate solid food and we were very happy.

Visitors started coming by four. Almost all have presents for the tyke and he couldn't wait to skin them all. Most, of course were toys and some are kiddie cds he's known to watch. He had children playmates who came, unfortunately only the females, four of them. But it was ok. He did enjoyed himself of his big day playing with the girls and trashing the hell out of our bedroom.