incognito

A letter I wrote and emailed today out of angst:

To Mayor Jejomar Binay
Makati City

Dear Sir,

I wish to commend you for the great work you are doing for the city of Makati. For the past three years I have seen a lot of great improvements in the City. Although I am not a resident of Makati (but used to be), I still go to this great city everyday for my daily work and recreation.

Moving forward though, I wish to bring to your attention a bad experience I had with some of the people working for your good city government. This handful of people belong to your environmental police, the city's sanitation, the ones that linger in the corners of the city, catching those who break the city's anti-littering ordinance. I have nothing against this ordinance, I even appraise it for it is best to discipline those who go out of hand when it comes to our environment. I admit I also had made a mistake of throwing a tiny piece of litter two years back because I was unaware of it (for I was new to the city) but I accepted my penalty and even paid the fine of P1000 in your office, with no hesitation.

What really irked me to send you this letter was the fact that just today, I was accused of doing the same offense by one of your people, but I DID NOT LITTER. This happened around 9AM today, when I was just sitting along the steps of Burgundy Corp. Tower, along came this city officer wearing a gray "barong-like" Makati uniform, approached me and a colleague of mine, and suddenly asked for our IDs. I asked for what reason, and he bluntly said that we littered, pointing to cigarette butts that was already on the steps before we sat on it. I asked him why he accused us of such thing, even he had no evidence of it, but he fell ignorant and just asked for our IDs. I hesitated to give my ID because I committed no offense, although I showed it since it was already hanging around my neck. The officer took my name and wrote it on his ticket booklet, and I was appalled by this action! In the first place I did not do anything wrong and he insinuated that I littered, then was about to write me a ticket. I still did not give my ID nor sign the ticket because I wanted to uphold my innocence and dignity. A person from your good office was making a mockery of the city and your good name by doing this kind of tactic. The security guard of Chinatrust bank in Burgundy told me that from his day to day observation, these officials choose whom to catch and sometimes ignore people who are either, foreigners or pretty ladies that litter their cigarette butts. For me, it is injustice. As he kept on rambling on my hesitation to sign his ticket and give my ID, he threatened to call the company I worked for, and he said that my name will still be written on the ticket and still pursue issuing it even if I did not sign. Because of this, I exchanged with him a few "non-pleasantries" for his actions. He in turn, called some of his elder colleagues, and his so-called "Boss" to back him up. For I was the only one refusing to give in, the group of officers pounded me with threats of arrest and shouted at me in public. With this I called my father thru cellphone to seek some assistance, for he is knowledgeable with the law. He advised me to get the names of these officers since they should not have any problem showing their IDs and giving their names if they are representing your good office. When I asked them for their names, they hesitated and asked me to sign the ticket first before they give out anything! I even requested them to speak with my father on the cellphone, but they also refused. At this point, my father asked me to get the Philippine National Police, because they were being unprofessional as claiming to be government officials, but sadly no police officers were around to mediate on the issue. The debacle went on for almost 15 minutes when suddenly, the younger officer who started it all asked me to back off and leave. I took his heed for I was already disgusted with their rudeness and how they were acting unprofessionally. I took a few steps away, conversed with my father on what to do, and all of the sudden, these officials took off, saying nothing to me nor advising me about the ticket they wanted to issue me.

During the long argument I had with your officers, they said that even though there is no physical evidence of what was littered but as long as it was witnessed by them, they can still issue a ticket. But what if this official is lying? If I really am to blame, then I would not waste time making a debacle with them in public and I would not waste time writing you this letter.

Now, I just want to inform you about this occurrence, which I sadly experienced from your officers. It is up to you and your better judgment, on whom to believe and what action to take in order for an issue like this not to happen again. I look up to the city of Makati as the most clean and disciplined city in this country. And I wish that this perception won't be tainted with rude officers, who unjustly blame the innocent.

Sgd.
Domz

When I was a kid I used to watch WWF wrestling and my favorite wrestler then was "The ultimate warrior." As I grew up, I outgrew watching wrestling and didn't know what happened to him. Some of my friends even say he died. Recently, my boss Franco was talking about wrestling techiniques as being applied from his Jujitsu lessons, and so I asked him about whatever happened to the Ultimate warrior. Franco said that he's still alive and currently is a motivational speaker touring the US. Just today he came into my thoughts and I googled for more info about him and found this really funny video in youtube. The video showed that in those early days, the Warrior's rantings in front of the camera, didn't really make any sense! And to think he's a motivitaional speaker nowadays! Well I was a kid back then and I really didn't pay attention to the talking parts. Brains mixed with steroids and testosterone and what do you get? Ultimate warrior rantings.

A few days ago I revisited the town I grew up in. And in one morning I took off to take a swim at a local beach resort I often went to when I was a teenager. The place was running low on customers and the kiosks were old and run-down from use.
What struck me with surprise was the fact that the beach shoreline is now more than 10 meters closer to land than it used to. And it wasn't high tide. I remember when I was a kid of 7 years, the beach was wider for people to run around and play and build sandcastles, the water was so shallow because I could go further away from the shore without the water reaching my shoulders.
In the mid 90's the resort became infamous for dance and disco parties along the beach, that it hosted for the public just to copy the MTV Grind. So the beach was wide enough to accommodate a number of people. Now this wide sandy area of the beach no longer exists, for it has been consumed by the sea. Well, it may look normal to some people but for me, it's really alarming. The barangay area this resort is located in, had also been experiencing immediate floods after rain showers and water levels rising and consuming a large part of the beach areas. Not only that, the town has been hit with typhoons more often than usual last year than in previous years.

This brings in the issue of Global warming. A fact that is not really taken seriously by some people, especially from the lower classes since they are not that well informed or well explained on what causes global warming and how it can affect us. I myself was ignorant to what global warming was until I was able to watch Al Gore's documentary film on Global Warming, "The Inconvenient Truth." After watching it, my eyes opened towards being more conscious about nature. And I'm actually getting a little paranoid about it because of the fact that it causes abrupt changes in the world's environment, the El niños and La niñas, the melting of glaciers and ice in the north pole more rapidly than normal, sea levels increasing around the globe, more frequent and stronger typhoons, outbreak of new kinds of diseases, more hotter summer days and a lot more. I think that it also helped contribute to recent rice shortages and price increases of goods because of bad weather and lesser crops and produce, added with the non-stop increase of our population.

Global Warming for me, is the Apocalypse. God's punishment for us because not taking good care of the world he created for us. The question is, is it too late for us to stop it? Maybe. As long as we act fast. Spread the truth about Global Warming. Each and everyone of us has to act his/her part. Sadly, even media mileage about Global Warming is still not reaching the less informed or less educated. So word of mouth can help greatly...pass the message around like a chain letter. Save energy. Save water. Save resources. Plant trees. Use public transportation. Stop burning oil or fuel and start using alternative sources of energy. Start population control. All these things has to be done in order to stop Global Warming. If you need more info on it, then google it... you'll find a lot of sites trying to give out one simple message. Save this planet, because this is the only one we have, to live on. And that's a fact.

For now, we can only hope...

Does it make you happy to know how fast technology grows especially when it comes to wireless mobile phones? I remember having my first cellular phone. It was a bulky black box Motorola, and it was analog. Mobiline was the network (and if you don't know, today it is now know as Smart) and it was postpaid. It was so big, it looked like the steel ice shaver that tinderas use to make the streetside halo-halo. It was only for calls, no text messaging. There wasn't even an internal phonebook. But at that time, you can call anywhere as if you were in Star Trek. It felt that we were in the verge of space age. But that was the early 90's. More than a decade passed, and 10 cellphone units later, my new mobile phone, a Samsung D900i, is slimmer, lighter and smaller, but jampacked with a lot of crazy features unlike my first Motorola ice shaver. It's a little more expensive than the first one but one from the past can say that it's a friggin' bargain. Do you remember that the nokia 3210 was so "in" and used to cost around P12,000 but now you can buy them for less than a thousand pesos? I bought this new phone of mine just last year for the same price, and guess what? It's no bargain. Why? Because unlike before, cellphone models were less and there were fewer brands in the market. Right now, it seems that every month, a new model shows up and your new phone then becomes a thing of the past so quickly that it's bourgeois and it becomes cheaper as every day goes by, and you feel like you've been cheated with your money. Then you procrastinate that you should have waited a little longer for this new model to be in the market. Truth is, same goes for that model, even if you did wait to purchase it, it also depreciates like crazy. It's a never ending cycle. So my advice, don't buy those expensive phones unless you do have the money to, and just buy the phone that will make you a more productive, happier and content person. Good thing I find my new phone just as effective... but still I should have waited a little longer...

...stupid impulses.

Recently I have been contemplating on cutting my hair short. Problem is, I have no idea what hairstyle to decide on. My hair is pretty long now and may be for the summer I'm thinking of cutting it way down to none at all...a fucking skin head. But I don't think it suits me. Vanity isn't really my cup of tea, and I don't really give a damn nowadays on what I look like. All I know is that my hair keeps getting longer and longer. The only thing that worries me is I don't wanna turn into a bald eagle at an early age, and I feel that putting a lot of goo in my hair just for maintenance will be the cause of it. I discovered I'm shedding more hair than usual... or maybe it's just paranoia... women friends tell me it's just normal to shed some strands here and then, but how should I know? They're women for crying out loud! It must be different for a guy... I think.

Oh well, if I cut my hair in the next few weeks, then so be it. This may be the second and last time for me to sport a long hair.

It's been a very long while.

As you noticed, I stopped blogging for a period of time and reason for it is, I had a lot going on in my personal life that changed me and I really had no time to login and write about it. For that I am sorry. But this blog is rarely read anyway so what the heck.

I am so happy tabulas did not delete my account because of inactivity. For that I am grateful I still have my old posts still available. Blogging has been my means of writing creatively. Forgive me for I may not be a very good writer, but I wish to be. So I practice by writing just about anything that comes in my mind, right here in this measly blog. If I experience some kind of writer's bloc from time to time, the cause could be that I may not have anything interesting to tell or say or share. I may have had a boring day or week, or I may have too much things happening...causing me to forget sharing it here. But I will try my best this time to keep things up to date.

So good luck to me in trying to post some articles...

...good luck in trying to bear with a disappearing and reappearing blogger.

'Life is like a box of chocolates... you'll never know what you're gonna get...'

Forrest Gump.


The fucking retard is right. Yipee. Give him a straightjacket.

I'm going to start blogging again. I want to keep my sanity. But now I'm just too tired and depressed to write anything significant.

Just when you think life is getting better, in one day it can be a disaster. Why do people make hasty decisions I cannot or maybe try to understand? I wish I can control everything or everyone around me. Life would be sweet if I had Adam Sandler's universal remote. I would control everything with a flick of a button. But reality bites. There's no way one can control his or her universe. There's no way you can control a person. You can intimidate or influence, but the decision is still up to them. And that sucks because in one instant, everything you thought that was going great, won't be going your way at all. And you find yourself back in the ole' drawing board.

Back to square one.

And you don't know where or how to start.

The dice rolls...

I recently became a chain smoker again. Marlboro Reds. What can I say? It's a bad habit I chose to make a comeback with. Thank you depression for making me return your cure. I hope I die young because life is not worth living anymore... scratch that, make it sometimes.

Coffee and cigars again. A dose of hyper and a dose of downer. I am now living in between their mercy. The funny thing is, my work is getting better. Is it because it feeds my sanity? Am I a better person with it?

I had asthma when I was a kid. Each time I burn a joint, an eerie voice in the back of my mind screams "no! stop! no! It'll trigger the return of your asthma!"

Well I don't care. Nobody does. This is my body, my lungs, I'll fill it with freakish tar and nicotine if I want to.

Burn. Burn. Burn.

I need a joint.