I can’t believe it has been 7 months since I have updated this blog. Could it be because nothing exciting has been happening into my life these past months that I didn’t even bother to post anything on this personal blog of mine? I sure hope I’m wrong.

My main reason is that I have been busy maintaining and updating my other blogs: my Sagada blog and also my website writing, SEO writing and copy writing blog.

I hope I get to revitalize this blog which I started back in 2007.

Yesterday, I decided to have a long-needed haircut. At the same time, I wanted to try this barbershop near our house. There’s nothing really outstanding about the place, it’s just that it’s the biggest and seems to be the most complete barbershop in the neighborhood. At P100 per haircut, it should be.

So I entered the shop and the receptionist motioned for me to sit on the empty barber’s chair. I only had to wait one minute before the barber she assigned to me approached and asked what cut I would prefer.

“Just barber’s cut,” I said.

The barber prepped me up starting with wrapping a clean white towel around my neck. Then when he reached for the pair of scissors, I saw that his whole right arm was heavily tattooed.

Images of prisoners, of riots, of gangsters quickly flashed before my eyes.

I asked myself why do I always stereotype people based on just superficial things, like tattoos. Just because a guy has a tattoo, does it mean he’s all bad news?

I knew that I had to get that wrong thinking out of my system, especially since the barber turned out to be one of the most polite and, quite surprisingly, gentle barbers I ever encountered.

I had a memorable stay with Trixan. It’s not because of the work, but because of the friends I gained. 

…then I’d look like this.

This is Papa Ces the Cartoon. My illustrator friend, Haridas, did the drawing and I colored it myself using Photoshop. The blank eyes are Haridas’ trademark, I’m just wondering why he gave me a flaming ball with a face.  :)

This is a usual, every day occurrence for me whenever I buy something.

CASHIER: Sir, may 50 cents po kayo?

ME: Sorry, miss. Wala eh.

Even though I have a coin purse filled with 50-centavo coins, I always say that I don’t have any.

Cents is to the dollar while centavos is to the peso. I hope people will learn the difference.

Rachiel called us and invited us to a mini reunion at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Trinoma. Hazel was absent (which terribly disappointed me because I miss her) but I had a great time with the guys present. I brought Nhil with me and I believe she was the one who took this shot.

Left to right: Rachiel, Lynda, myself, Rainne with her very cute and smart son, Anton, and lastly, Paulie.

Rachiel will be leaving again for Dubai in a few days. But before we parted, she got to try Nhil’s EEE PC.

I wish her a safe and happy flight.

I haven’t used Photoshop for almost a year now. Back when I was with Sterling Paper, I used that software in my everyday work as I was then handling six graphic artists and supervising their creative output. Of course I wasn’t near their level of proficiency, but I was able to learn enough to make good use of it.

And so today I tried my hands at it again. I just wanted to know if I could still use it. I sat almost for an hour thinking of what graphic or image project should I practice on till I noticed my blog header. The previous header was just a painting of a futuristic city. I got to thinking, “Why did I use this sci-fi pic? I’m not blogging about sci-fi. I’m blogging about my life.”

So I created a header depicting my life as it is today. And it is fitting.

For she is my life.

When I see an open window I want to…

…jump and fly away like Superman

…look out and observe life as it happens

…imagine a beautiful girl pass by and glance at me

…listen to the sweet noise of kids playing patintero, tumbang preso or taguan—something I haven’t seen in a decade

…stare at the sky and imagine what it’s like to be a cloud, always changing shape and moving away

…open it even more and let the elements flow in

…shut it and feel all alone in my little space.

What would you do if you see an open window? Would you be sentimental and daydream like I do or be pragmatic and close it to avoid the draft?

I often wondered why airport food is exorbitantly priced. The first time I flew, that was when I went to Cebu, I didn’t eat breakfast then so I was very hungry when I entered the passengers’ lounge. I wanted a quick bite so I went to this stall and was surprised when the lady manning it told me that the thin tuna sandwich I was pointing at cost P80.

That’s too much for a pitiful, malnourished couple of slices of bread and a few tuna pieces in between.

Then Seth Godin enlightened me on this when he said: “The closer you are to the point of need, the more you can charge.”

I guess that explains everything.

And by the way, I went for a donut instead.

My officemate, Acey, wastes at least two spoonfuls of rice every lunch. I think it’s such a big waste of food. I’ve pointed this out to her but she says she can’t eat a couple of bites more of the rice. I wish she would just offer a part of it to us before she starts eating so nothing gets wasted.

Study shows that an American family of four wastes that much food as stated on the photo. That’s approximately 122 pounds of food thrown out to the garbage. That’s a lot of waste!

I’m deeply concerned here not because I love food, but living here in the Philippines where there’s currently a rice shortage plus the fact that I read news of starving people in places like Africa and Bangladesh, it makes me think how could anyone have the heart to waste that much?

I eat everything on my plate. It’s not gluttony. It’s just putting God’s graces where they rightfully belong.

In my stomach.