(I gave a talk last Sunday (Aug. 15) in San Carlos Seminary College as part of the Special Lecture Series on Literature in celebration of Year of Madrid, on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Renato E. Madrid. Excerpts are published here in three parts–LPN)

This whole idea of paying tribute to an artist who is still very much alive may actually be a joke in itself, an exercise in black humor only priests and seminarians are capable of doing.

Outside, we don’t honor the living. We honor the dead. We extol the virtues of great men and women who are no longer around to enjoy the attention. Paying tribute to somebody who still has plenty of air to breathe is sending the message that we cannot wait to see him go. And that person will have his revenge: he will outlive us all.

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( 2nd distribution of children’s books to colonia elementary school, tuburan, cebu, february 22, 2009 )

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:: tsinelas update. please click here

WHICH takes more effort, smiling or frowning? Experts say it takes more muscles to smile than it does to frown. In that case, I’m suffering from facial muscle fatigue since I’m what you may call a frown person.

Admit it, you’re a frown person too. You know there’s more reason around you to frown than smile. You only smile because that’s what your kindergarten teacher taught you to win friends or to get along in life.

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I go for anything that’s cheap. For example, why would I spend P700 for that brand new shirt with the crocodile logo when there’s an ukay-ukay shirt at P100 and with a print that says “Sex is Overrated”? It’s hip, it’s practical, it’s cool. And more than just simply a statement, it’s pro-micro economy. It’s the ginabot-crazy people like us who sustain the livelihood of pungko-pungko vendors.

Of course, what we save in cash we more than pay for in non-monetary ways, like by allowing ourselves various forms of inconvenience otherwise not experienced by mall goers. The P600 that I saved from buying an ukay-ukay shirt is what I get in exchange for almost dying of suffocation inside the ukay-ukay store. For my P600 savings, I have to live with the thought that the shirt’s previous owner could have smelt like dumpsite in the armpit region.

And forget about food hygiene in a pungko-pungko corner. Surviving the experience is easy: if a thing is lying still, it’s lumpia; if it moves, it’s a cockroach.

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niadtong miyerkoles, si lamberto ceballos (sun.star superbalita language consultant), januar yap (sun.star cebu editor/columnist) ug ako ninglingkod isip judges sa first superbalita on-the-spot essay writing competition. atol kini sa ika-14 nga kasumaran sa pagkatukod sa maong mantalaan.

giinterbyu ko sa taga superbalita human sa judging, ug mao ni akong giingon: “Ang nakanindot sa competition, mga estudyante ang nangapil. Ug bisan sa kalinghod sa ilang panuigon, hait na ang ilang pagsabot sa mga butang nga may kalabutan sa Bisayang pinulongan. Nagpasabot kini nga kung hatagan lang og igong oportunidad, dako kaayo ang mahimo sa mga batan-on sa pagpalambo sa pinulongang Bisaya.”

From first batch of ten donors…

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I’ve a confession to make. Since I’m so into weepy stuff these days that I’m starting to doubt if I’m not gay, I need to tell you this: I’m an emo. Yes, you heard it right, E-M-O. I know my girl will kill me for this. But girl, I know you knew this all along, so this won’t come as a shock to you anymore. If this means goodbye, please send me back the eyeliner I gave you last Christmas because I actually bought that for me and my emo friends for our emo nights spent watching emo concerts on some emo parking lot under the gray emo sky.

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this is what i’m talking about.