ODE TO THE OLD BEACH HOUSE

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Old Beach House location, UP Diliman

If there is one fond memory I have of my graduate student days in UP Diliman (yupielbi girl forever here), it’s this: eating outside the small canteen called Beach House adjacent to the UP Diliman Main Library. Brought my classmate (whose undergraduate school was Letran, hence, her ignorance of the place) here to eat after our Anthropology class (something that I regretted taking because it was just an utter waste of time). Two barbeque sticks, veggies, rice and soup for less than PHP 200. After that I usually went to the library to do my thesis (when I finally buckled down to work on it after leaving it to stew underneath my aspirations to become the best business reporter my newspaper had–but failed on that front, i guess). Or sometimes pretended to do my thesis. I have slept with my head on the table among the musty copies of theses that I painfully had to read. Then I would go out here again at the Beach House, by that time it would have already been closed for the day, to sit and ponder my future.

I haven’t been to this spot for a long time. Probably time to visit.

THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES

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I have been reading Brian Welch’s autobiography Save Me from Myself: How I Found God, Quit Korn, Kicked Drugs, and Lived to Tell My Story for two nights now. Although our roads were different, we had the same feelings, the same realizations, and same reactions to how we found God. What struck me the most was Brian’s account of startling “coincidences” that pushed him to go back to Him. I have experienced similar (albeit different in the sense they’re not replicas of Brian’s) “coincidences” that were sooooo weird and yet–these were messages that I couldn’t dismiss. And whenever I ask Him to tell me something, to answer some difficult questions, He answers back with “coincidences” so stark, so in-your-face that there’s no way you could ignore it. Reading Brian’s words–no flourish, no drama–of how he felt about it at that was comforting to me because now I know that when “coincidences” like those happen, I know it is God who is talking to me and so I must pay attention. I’m still halfway through the book though. If you are a fan of Korn, you should read this to be able to understand why Brian “Head” Welch quit the band at its height. If you are a Christian looking for inspiration and wanting to know how unlikely people can turn around 180 degrees, pick this book up. You’ll be surprised at how God can be persistent and really, really crazy in His own way of letting you know He got your back and you can rest easy forever.

THE FIGHT OF THE UNDERDOG

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I remember my journo cousin asking me why Pacquiao is very popular here in the Philippines and why is he revered as a national hero (Interview became an article for a US publication).


Clash of the Titans: Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao finally fight Photo: GETTY IMAGES

I told her that Manny is the epitome of rags-to-riches story that all Filipinos can relate to and aspire for. He literally fought his way out of hunger and rose up the economic and power ladder with sheer determination without having to earn a college degree. His English is stilted at best but he manages to grant interviews even in monosyllables.

Pacquiao embodies every Filipino’s hopes and dreams. He represents the downtrodden–the underdog that overcame the odds. He is a reminder that good things happen to the poor and the oppressed. To maids being maltreated by their Saudi employers; to the seafarers away at sea for 9 months; to the caregivers receiving pittance of a salary washing bedridden old people; and to boys hitching their carabaos to carts in the ricefield at dawn before walking to school on empty stomachs.

Manny is not only fighting for himself but for a whole country that looks up to him for inspiration, for citizens that seek reasons why we should be proud to be Filipinos when it seems like there’s nothing for us back home except corruption and poverty. And that is a very heavy burden to bear.

No, Westerners cannot understand. Rich people cannot understand.

So, go Manny! May God be with you always.

MALL FOOD

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Had been in Singapore for 8 days now. Flying back to Manila tonight. I didn’t plan on blogging too soon but the horrible chicken rice somewhere in ION Food Centre (or whatever it’s called) has prompted me to say something about it.

I had been spoiled by good food for a week now, mainly courtesy of hawkers centres or those hole-in-the-wall restaurants near the business district where no white guys dare go. A co-worker brought us to Maxwell Hawkers Centre one day for white chicken rice since I had been hankering for it for days. SGD25 for 5 of us was not bad at all.

Then came the white chicken rice at the mall that I just had earlier today for SGD7++…It had my blood boiling. What a rip off! Tasted like—nothing! It was just like chicken boiled in water and I had to drown it with that gooey dark sauce, some chili oil and lots of garlic paste just to make it palatable. For the life of me I can no longer remember the name of the vendor but I’m sure I will not be coming back. I was just too hungry at that time to go searching for something nice to eat so I had to settle for mall food. Should’ve known better. *sigh*

SOLO FLIGHT

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Here is my workstation nowadays. I’m half-home telecommuter, half-digital nomad. I work solo about 90% of the time and the rare moments that I get to share a table with fellow journalists is when i get to go to one of the government banks in Makati that miraculously still maintains a press office. Most of the time I interact only with avatars and my main means of communicating with the outside world, aside from mobile phone texting is through Skype and Facebook Messenger. If I need some kind of human interaction, I go to a coffee/milktea shop.

Welcome to the world of the international correspondent.

DOWNRIGHT VICIOUS

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Spinbusters used to be amusing. Vicious but entertaining. Entries give you something akin to schadenfreude, especially to media insiders. It had the ability to cut down holier-than-thou news teams or people to size.

However, they have begun to go downhill when (it seems like) blog management changed (thus the change of blog url). They have become too mean. Really mean. No longer funny.

And this validates my observations

How to be a real journalist, according to experts at Spinbusters

The Spinbusters, a website run by professional journalists who have received awards in spelling and grammar, recently posted a blog entry entitled Human of the Year: The Newbie Journo. [See: Spinbusters]

The blog entry criticized younger media practitioners by saying that they were not the experts they proclaimed themselves to be, a status conferred only on “working journalists,” referring obviously to their delusional selves and their other multiple personalities.

Without intending to, the blog entry came up with several rules regarding the practice of journalism in the Philippines, which, unfortunately, didn’t cover the use of rock, a useful tool in journalism.

Here are five tips on becoming the next big thing in Philippine journalism, according to the Spinbusters.

See the rest of Boojie Basilio’s blog entry here