Brace yourself for a pretty bad rant...
Men and women have always been at odds. It's mostly because neither understood the other. And that's where all the problems spring from.
My personal experience with men? They usually think they know better when it comes to what I want. Imagine that... someone else tells me that I want something, even if I have already said I don't or would have said I don't IF asked. Get the picture?
Take, for instance, one incident at home when the guy sees me coming into the room on a hot summer day. He's on his way out and turns off the fan (aircons are far too much on the electric budget). When asked why he turned off the fan, he says it was because I just got into the room and he immediately assumed I wasn't staying in the room. He could have asked!
Another instance was a time a friend of mine got asked about if she would have a pizza by a guy (who appears to be interested in her... appears to me at least). Being a pizza-non-lover, she scowled and said "no, thanks." I thought that was pretty clear, right? Given that it was almost lunchtime, maybe he was overly concerned. Maybe, he was just thinking that she should get some form of sustenance. She wasn't starving though. A few minutes later, two slices of pizza were given to her by the same guy. Wow... how dense can a man be?! There were other kinds of food available.
Oh there are a host of other instances whne men simply took it upon themselves to decide for me. Like when a boyfriend decided I wanted to break-up without asking me. (Oh, we got back together but he did it again. Go figure.) Or a boyfriend deciding that having a kid together wasn't a good idea, even if we had talked about the possibility before. As I said: go figure!
The only exception, I think, is my dad. But he's another story altogether.
I think, in the end, it's a just a matter of communication. So guys, please, find it in your heart and mind to ASK first, ok? It's not that this means you're being inferior or something. It's just plain old consdieration.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Will and Grace
| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
This show holds a special place in my heart. Why? Because it is sooooo gay. The only straight people in this series were the characters played by Woody Harrelson and Harry Connick, Jr. who were both involved with Grace. Ok, maybe some of the neighbors were straight too, but you get what I mean. They ended their run after eight seasons of flambouyant geity. I look back at their episodes and still laugh at their antics, especially Jack's.
Thankfully, their episodes are online at http://www.tv-links.co.uk/show.do/1/118.
Man, I miss those people!
Danton Remoto: A fabulous run for Congress
Danton Remoto: A fabulous run for Congress
By Ricky T. Gallardo and Photos by Jessie Laureta
Sunday, May 06, 2007
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/may/06/yehey/weekend/20070506week1.html
Since he filed his certificate of candidacy for Congressman of Quezon City's Third District (the area around miriam, ateneo, UP, la vista, balara, kamuning), Danton Remoto has never stopped running. And because the family of incumbent representative Matias Defensor has been in the district for twelve long years, Remoto had to muster his wit and persuasive powers to cobble together a team supported by a group of strange bedfellows. Gays and lesbians as well as the Christian groups, students and senior citizens, young professionals and matrons, as well as the urban poor and the upwardly mobile in his district have formed alliances to support his congressional bid.
For this interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, Remoto had to rush from his campaign sortie in the two public markets on 15th Avenue and Camarilla, Cubao. He said both remain literally wet markets despite the scorching heat of the summer sun. He dashed to the elf truck lent to him by senatorial candidate Nikki Coseteng, went home to shower, then took the same elf truck to go to EDSA Shangri-La Hotel where this interview has been arranged. In his signature pink get-up and with eyes blinking while entering the lobby, he observed how this posh and lovely place is so different from where he was just 30 minutes ago.
"The Philippines, really, is a country of many countries," he begins. Even though a smile was brightening his face, the conversation animated, Remoto's eyes seemed sad.
It has been a whirlwind six months for Remoto. After filing the party-list registration of Ang Ladlad (the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender group he chairs) with Comelec, he was suddenly besieged by media interviews. Reports of his historical run were also reported in newspapers and TV shows in Canada, Italy, Japan, Korea, Qatar, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, and the United States. And when Comelec thumbed down Ang Ladlad's accreditation on the dubious basis of "lack of national constituency" and "the group not being marginalized and under-represented," Remoto became even more sought-after in the tri-media.
"I have to thank Comelec chairman [Benjamin] Abalos for making me the underdog politician of this year's elections. They turned down Ang Ladlad, they thought Victor Wood was a more worthy candidate than me as a senator, so I had to run as a Congressman of the Third District of Quezon City to prove that I could win in an election. We want to show the power and strength not only of the Pink Vote but of a candidate who is brave enough to face up to a rich candidate." His smile then turns impish. "When people see me, they say, you are so young, you should have run as Councilor first. But when I tell them I am 44 years old, they say, ha? So I wear eyeglasses now, and have stopped applying color highlights on my hair."
Estimates range that for a congressional run, the candidate has to cough up at least P50 million. Where did Remoto get the funds to run?
"Well, you need P50 million if you are a virtual unknown, since most of the funds will go to publicity. But, as I've said, thanks to Mr. Abalos, wherever I go in the district—from public market to shoopping mall, street to art gallery—people already recognize me. And since our posters are either being pasted on and torn to pieces by the other parties, we have to rely on the media, on word of mouth and on the few resources we have to make my candidacy known, especially among the informal settlers."
The Danton Remoto sa Kongreso Movement is funded by donations alone. "My yaya sold her carabao and gave me P10,000. Filipinos in Saudi Arabia—who toil long and hard under the harsh desert sun—sent mt me P3,000. We have book sales, flea markets, solicitations from Fil-Am communities. The lesbian group LeAP paid for my posters. My volunteers cut up the scratch papers I have accumulated from years of teaching—and stammped my name and 'Congressman' on the other side. The other donors gave funds for gasoline, food and poll-watching expenses. The Ramiro family, who owns the condo where I live, donated free space for my HQ. The money is never enough, but we operate on the love and charity of our many supporters and friends."
If there is one thing that Remoto can be proud of, it is the kindness of supporters, friends—and family. His father was a military man and hiis mother, a Music teacher. "My father was a strict disciplinarian. I got the spine of steel and the will to win from him. My mother is a gracious woman. Oh, you should see them campaigning for me week in and week out. He, with his military friends at Camp Aguinaldo; she, with her teacher friends in Project 2. If only for that alone, I feel I have already won,†Remoto gets a little emotional.
He grew up in Project 4—"where I have friends who came froom Escopa [a depressed area]"—and later studied at the Ateneeo de Manila University. He took courses in Legal Management and English Literature, then tucked in a graduate degree in English from the same university, and later took off for Great Britain, to study Publishing at the University of Stirling on a British Council Scholarship. “In Scotland, I learned to be alone. If you're Pinoy kasi, they will think badly of you if you eat alone; if you watch a movie alone, they take pity on you. But there, I learned to fend for myself. The training I got at home—”in terms of house work, cooking, knowing how to live well with other people—served me well in my more than one year in Scotland."
Remoto also took on other scholarship grants as well—a Fulbright aat Rutgers University in New Jersey, as well as Asian Scholarship Foundation grants to do research at the National University of Malaysia and the National University of Singapore. "I was unhappy in the United States because all I wanted to do was to read the news about the Philippines on the Internet. Rutgers was a great school and my classmates as well as the general student populace were kind and bright. But I just affirmed one thing during my stay in the United States—that I can only be happy when I amm back home, in the heat and humidity and the traffic and the unimaginable madness of our politics."
If so, why did he plunge—with wit and humor intact—into th the madhouse of politics? "Because you cannot just complain and do nothing concrete. We are great talkers but bad workers. Because government gives you access to resources that can be used to change people's lives. Like in District 3, there are health centers, but why do the doctors work only half-day, if at all? Why are there no medicines readily available? Why do five students share one textbook? Why do the barangay libraries exist when the shelves have no books? Why are the day-care centers closed? Why are the informal settlers mired in poverty and hopelessness? There is no energy, no dynamism and no vibrancy in my district. We should unleash the spirit of change that will animate the district and wake people up from their feelings of helplessness."
Remoto says he is an Aries, and as you can see by now, he hates life that unravels at a turtle's pace. "If I become Congressman, I will assign people to do spot checks of health centers, of schools, of day-care centers, to ferret out those who work well and those who do not will be kicked out of their jobs. I lived in Malaysia and Singapore for a total of two years, and I was consumed with envy at the sight of their streets lined with trees, at their schools well-stocked with books, at their health facilities and day-care centers that work. We are a bright people, a talented lot, and we should have fewer hours spent on chit-chat and more on work."
This workaholic has published eight books and edited four ones—inccluding the best-selling series Ladlad anthologies of Philippine gay writing. If he wins, Remoto swears to his writer-friends like Jessica Zafra that he will continue writing. "Anvil wants me to write a nonfiction book about my campaign. With the horrible things I have seen and the offers I have received to do this and that, why, I think it would read more like a book of fiction! I will continue to write. My congressional run has stalled proofreading work on Ladlad 3, a book of Filipino essays called Rampa, my Selected Poems in English and Filipino," and his first novel. He finished the novel years ago, at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland, again on a grant, but refused to publish it because "it read more like an autobiography than a novel."
But in this day and age when a “mere†English teacher is on his way to altering the political landscape of the country, a novel that sounds like an autobiography wouldn't be such a surprise.
What really surprised Remoto was the support he got from people from, as the vitamin ad says, A to Z. "The matrons in the rich villages talk to me after Mass, telling me it is about time somebody else ran. The out-of-school youth among the informal settlers work as volunteers for my campaign, using poster color to spell out my name and candidacy at the back of used bond papers. The soldiers and the activists, the gay waiters one street away from my house, the lesbian tricycle drivers—they all help."
Like the candidacies of Fr. Among Panlilio and Dr. Joey Montemayor in Pampanga, as well as the candidacy of Abang Mabulo in Camarines Sur, Remoto's run as Congressman of Quezon City's Third District reminds people of how it was 21 years ago.
In 1986, armed only with their faith and belief in themselves, the Filipino people banded together to overthrow a rich and powerful regime. In the Philippines, several candidates are like a band of Davids who wants to defeat the Goliaths in the elections of May 14, 2007. Danton Remoto—the bbright and fabulous Danton Remoto—is one of them.
By Ricky T. Gallardo and Photos by Jessie Laureta
Sunday, May 06, 2007
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/may/06/yehey/weekend/20070506week1.html
Since he filed his certificate of candidacy for Congressman of Quezon City's Third District (the area around miriam, ateneo, UP, la vista, balara, kamuning), Danton Remoto has never stopped running. And because the family of incumbent representative Matias Defensor has been in the district for twelve long years, Remoto had to muster his wit and persuasive powers to cobble together a team supported by a group of strange bedfellows. Gays and lesbians as well as the Christian groups, students and senior citizens, young professionals and matrons, as well as the urban poor and the upwardly mobile in his district have formed alliances to support his congressional bid.
For this interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, Remoto had to rush from his campaign sortie in the two public markets on 15th Avenue and Camarilla, Cubao. He said both remain literally wet markets despite the scorching heat of the summer sun. He dashed to the elf truck lent to him by senatorial candidate Nikki Coseteng, went home to shower, then took the same elf truck to go to EDSA Shangri-La Hotel where this interview has been arranged. In his signature pink get-up and with eyes blinking while entering the lobby, he observed how this posh and lovely place is so different from where he was just 30 minutes ago.
"The Philippines, really, is a country of many countries," he begins. Even though a smile was brightening his face, the conversation animated, Remoto's eyes seemed sad.
It has been a whirlwind six months for Remoto. After filing the party-list registration of Ang Ladlad (the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender group he chairs) with Comelec, he was suddenly besieged by media interviews. Reports of his historical run were also reported in newspapers and TV shows in Canada, Italy, Japan, Korea, Qatar, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, and the United States. And when Comelec thumbed down Ang Ladlad's accreditation on the dubious basis of "lack of national constituency" and "the group not being marginalized and under-represented," Remoto became even more sought-after in the tri-media.
"I have to thank Comelec chairman [Benjamin] Abalos for making me the underdog politician of this year's elections. They turned down Ang Ladlad, they thought Victor Wood was a more worthy candidate than me as a senator, so I had to run as a Congressman of the Third District of Quezon City to prove that I could win in an election. We want to show the power and strength not only of the Pink Vote but of a candidate who is brave enough to face up to a rich candidate." His smile then turns impish. "When people see me, they say, you are so young, you should have run as Councilor first. But when I tell them I am 44 years old, they say, ha? So I wear eyeglasses now, and have stopped applying color highlights on my hair."
Estimates range that for a congressional run, the candidate has to cough up at least P50 million. Where did Remoto get the funds to run?
"Well, you need P50 million if you are a virtual unknown, since most of the funds will go to publicity. But, as I've said, thanks to Mr. Abalos, wherever I go in the district—from public market to shoopping mall, street to art gallery—people already recognize me. And since our posters are either being pasted on and torn to pieces by the other parties, we have to rely on the media, on word of mouth and on the few resources we have to make my candidacy known, especially among the informal settlers."
The Danton Remoto sa Kongreso Movement is funded by donations alone. "My yaya sold her carabao and gave me P10,000. Filipinos in Saudi Arabia—who toil long and hard under the harsh desert sun—sent mt me P3,000. We have book sales, flea markets, solicitations from Fil-Am communities. The lesbian group LeAP paid for my posters. My volunteers cut up the scratch papers I have accumulated from years of teaching—and stammped my name and 'Congressman' on the other side. The other donors gave funds for gasoline, food and poll-watching expenses. The Ramiro family, who owns the condo where I live, donated free space for my HQ. The money is never enough, but we operate on the love and charity of our many supporters and friends."
If there is one thing that Remoto can be proud of, it is the kindness of supporters, friends—and family. His father was a military man and hiis mother, a Music teacher. "My father was a strict disciplinarian. I got the spine of steel and the will to win from him. My mother is a gracious woman. Oh, you should see them campaigning for me week in and week out. He, with his military friends at Camp Aguinaldo; she, with her teacher friends in Project 2. If only for that alone, I feel I have already won,†Remoto gets a little emotional.
He grew up in Project 4—"where I have friends who came froom Escopa [a depressed area]"—and later studied at the Ateneeo de Manila University. He took courses in Legal Management and English Literature, then tucked in a graduate degree in English from the same university, and later took off for Great Britain, to study Publishing at the University of Stirling on a British Council Scholarship. “In Scotland, I learned to be alone. If you're Pinoy kasi, they will think badly of you if you eat alone; if you watch a movie alone, they take pity on you. But there, I learned to fend for myself. The training I got at home—”in terms of house work, cooking, knowing how to live well with other people—served me well in my more than one year in Scotland."
Remoto also took on other scholarship grants as well—a Fulbright aat Rutgers University in New Jersey, as well as Asian Scholarship Foundation grants to do research at the National University of Malaysia and the National University of Singapore. "I was unhappy in the United States because all I wanted to do was to read the news about the Philippines on the Internet. Rutgers was a great school and my classmates as well as the general student populace were kind and bright. But I just affirmed one thing during my stay in the United States—that I can only be happy when I amm back home, in the heat and humidity and the traffic and the unimaginable madness of our politics."
If so, why did he plunge—with wit and humor intact—into th the madhouse of politics? "Because you cannot just complain and do nothing concrete. We are great talkers but bad workers. Because government gives you access to resources that can be used to change people's lives. Like in District 3, there are health centers, but why do the doctors work only half-day, if at all? Why are there no medicines readily available? Why do five students share one textbook? Why do the barangay libraries exist when the shelves have no books? Why are the day-care centers closed? Why are the informal settlers mired in poverty and hopelessness? There is no energy, no dynamism and no vibrancy in my district. We should unleash the spirit of change that will animate the district and wake people up from their feelings of helplessness."
Remoto says he is an Aries, and as you can see by now, he hates life that unravels at a turtle's pace. "If I become Congressman, I will assign people to do spot checks of health centers, of schools, of day-care centers, to ferret out those who work well and those who do not will be kicked out of their jobs. I lived in Malaysia and Singapore for a total of two years, and I was consumed with envy at the sight of their streets lined with trees, at their schools well-stocked with books, at their health facilities and day-care centers that work. We are a bright people, a talented lot, and we should have fewer hours spent on chit-chat and more on work."
This workaholic has published eight books and edited four ones—inccluding the best-selling series Ladlad anthologies of Philippine gay writing. If he wins, Remoto swears to his writer-friends like Jessica Zafra that he will continue writing. "Anvil wants me to write a nonfiction book about my campaign. With the horrible things I have seen and the offers I have received to do this and that, why, I think it would read more like a book of fiction! I will continue to write. My congressional run has stalled proofreading work on Ladlad 3, a book of Filipino essays called Rampa, my Selected Poems in English and Filipino," and his first novel. He finished the novel years ago, at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland, again on a grant, but refused to publish it because "it read more like an autobiography than a novel."
But in this day and age when a “mere†English teacher is on his way to altering the political landscape of the country, a novel that sounds like an autobiography wouldn't be such a surprise.
What really surprised Remoto was the support he got from people from, as the vitamin ad says, A to Z. "The matrons in the rich villages talk to me after Mass, telling me it is about time somebody else ran. The out-of-school youth among the informal settlers work as volunteers for my campaign, using poster color to spell out my name and candidacy at the back of used bond papers. The soldiers and the activists, the gay waiters one street away from my house, the lesbian tricycle drivers—they all help."
Like the candidacies of Fr. Among Panlilio and Dr. Joey Montemayor in Pampanga, as well as the candidacy of Abang Mabulo in Camarines Sur, Remoto's run as Congressman of Quezon City's Third District reminds people of how it was 21 years ago.
In 1986, armed only with their faith and belief in themselves, the Filipino people banded together to overthrow a rich and powerful regime. In the Philippines, several candidates are like a band of Davids who wants to defeat the Goliaths in the elections of May 14, 2007. Danton Remoto—the bbright and fabulous Danton Remoto—is one of them.
Friday, May 04, 2007
What Is Your Daemon?
I found this test from Penny's blog (who got it from Tina...). The description seems ot fit but the deamon doesn't seem to sit well with me. I'm not so sure now... or maybe i'm just biased because the Chinese Horoscope of Monkey is not the ideal one for me... hmmm...
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