50th post and still loving it!

This is my 50th post. For the past few days, I've been thinking about a topic for this milestone. I never thought I'd reach this far this quickly, almost writing once every two days. For many of us bloggers, writing every other day may not be a big deal because they write every day or even more than once a day. But to me, its something. You see, a few months ago, I never saw myself doing this but now I'm glad that I did. As Vayie (my blog buddy and elementary batchmate) once said, "it is therapeutic". She's right. I found writing to be my respite from the pressures of work and even family matters.

And why not? Where else can you rant, rave and even make fun of yourself and others all at the same time, without sounding like a lunatic? In this virtual world that we blog in, I can say whatever I want to say without thinking about what others will think.

In life, we may find that we have many masters, but here:

I am the master of my blog.

I am the master of my world.

I am the master of my universe.

I may sound like someone who doesn't have any control of his life. Quite the opposite actually, but of course there are some things that we cannot control. That's the beauty of blogging. Everything is under the blogger's control.

I won't stop on my 50th post. I've decided to continue blogging about anything that fancies me and I hope some people would find whatever I put here interesting too.

If not, oks lang :-)

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Thanks to all of you who have read and commented on my blog! Cheers!

:-)

Much Ado About Blogging

I found this blog from my friend Ted Reyes' website. It talks about how Emily Gould, a blogging celebrity, was given 10 pages to blog about her life by the NY TIMES on their website . Ted entitled his blog as "A Record of One's Existence".

Ted's blog reminded me of two movies that I recently saw on HBO: 300 and Meet Joe Black. Both movies, as you know involves death (the death of the 299 Spartans in 300 and the death of Bill Parish played by Anthony Hopkins in Meet Joe Black). In both movies, the lead characters, knowing their impending deaths, wanted to leave a legacy to the people that they will be leaving behind. King Leonidas sent Dilio, one of his warriors, back to Sparta so that he could tell the story of the 300 (299 because Dilio lived to tell the tale) who willingly sacrificed their lives for their countrymen. Bill Parish who is a media mogul, changed his mind with a merger that his board was working on because he wanted to leave a legacy behind.

I've actually thought of blogging because I wanted to share my thoughts to people who are willing to listen. I also thought to myself "what would Sophie say if she read my blog years from now?". Of course, I want her to read my blog so that she'll know how I felt at a particular moment of my life. Its kind of eerie to talk about but I also think that blogging is one way of leaving a legacy behind for the people who know you and for other people who are just there to listen to your story.

I've been thinking about the word "legacy" since I read (some parts) of the book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. In the beginning book, the author said "begin with the end in mind". This means that you have to have a perception of your own life; how you would like to be remembered; how people will describe you in your eulogy. This in itself is a legacy. The way people remember you is a testament to the life that you have lived. I always have that in mind whenever I interact with people, be it personal, business or whatever.

Blogging takes the word "legacy" to a different level. People who know you will not be the only ones who'll remember you, potentially, the whole world will get to know you, long after you're gone. People who you don't even know will know you as a person inside and out. Its very difficult to put your heart on your sleeve. That's one of the reasons why I started blogging this late. I always thought about it, but I never came to grips with it 'till now. That's why I admire people who blog. Bloggers are brave enough to say "this is who I am" to everyone.

Everyone wants their story to be heard. Everyone wants to leave a mark in the world. Everyone wants to be remembered. Blogging is our way of telling the world that we exist.

Wouldn't it be cool to know what John Lennon was thinking about when he wrote a particular song? It would've been possible if blogging was available back then. We wouldn't have to read it on a book or some magazine that interviewed him. We would have heard it (or read) from the horse's mouth.

*** Thanks for the nice read Ted. It inspired me to write this blog.Just putting in my 2 cents worth :-)

Jump Start

Since starting this blog, I've felt a lot better and more energetic. Maybe its because now, I am able to express myself more freely than before. I've haven't felt like this in a long while. Getting feedback from people about the things I write about is so cool. Sometimes I get sms messages, emails, ym / meebo messages and some people even talk to me about my blog. THANKS FOR READING BOYS AND GIRLS!

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As part of this "jump start" feeling, I've been listening to a lot of music lately. I find myself watching MTV. I actually played the guitar at the house, which I haven't touched in a long, long time. There was this one night when I came home late and there was a power interruption. Sophie was still awake so I decided to play with my kid. She wasn't really in the mood to play 'coz it was dark and a bit warm inside the house. Rather than agitate her and make her cry (which she often does whenever I suddenly grab her and smother her with kisses hehe) I grabbed the guitar and played some chords. Now, Sophie has seen the guitar in the house but I don't know if she knows the sound that it could make. So when I started playing, she laughed and went near me. She wanted to strum the guitar so she can also make the sounds. Of course I told her not to because the guitar was a bit dirty since I haven't used it in a long while.

As I was playing the guitar, a thought entered my mind. I had this urge to play a song that I would never, ever would have played even if it was a matter of life and death. I wanted to play Barney's song "I love you, you love me . . . " for Sophie. I didn't know the chords of the song but due to the daily dose of Barney (who I still hate by the way) shows that I get because of my little princes, the melody and the lyrics stuck to my mind. So I started "widowing" the chords until I've had (to my mind) the right chords for the song. I sang the song to Sophie while playing the guitar and she laughed and started hugging me. Haaaayy the things you do for your kid.

Here's the song. Sana ma-LSS din kayo like me. Torture! hehehe

After that, I was even started my widowing for Barney's song "Mr. Sun" (please click) but Jan came home and to save me the embarrassment and another kaltok moment, I stopped.

Now every time I sing the song to Sophie, she runs towards me and hugs me. Sweet!

By the way, the chords for "I Love You", just in case you have the urge to play it, is: D - Dm/Dm7 - G - Em (1st line) D - Dm - A - G - D (2nd line). At least yan yung na-kapa ko nung brown-out samin :-)

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Nowadays, I'm finding myself watching MYX and MTV more often than before. I have a TV set in my office that I use to monitor our competitor and during afternoons, I tune in to these music channels. I've found out that I've missed a lot since I haven't been listening to the radio for a quite a while now. Now I watch new local and foreign bands play on TV and I have to say some of them are quite talented. I also listen to www.odysseylive.net so I can stream music while working.

Some of the local bands that I listen to are:

1) Urban Dub
2) 6 Cycle Mind
3) Sinosikat?
4) Kamikaze
5) Kiko Machine
6) Imago
7) Kala
8) Join the Club
9) Chicosci
10) Sandwhich
11) Parokya ni Edgar
12) Callalily
13) Session Road
14) Narda
15) Sugarfree

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One basketball team that needs a jump start is the San Antonio Spurs who fell to the Lakers 89 - 85. They were leading all through out the game when Kobe took over and led a scoring rally. The Spurs turnovers also led to the Laker's rally and they couldn't make crucial shots that they normally make. Oh well, its a 7 game series and I'm sure they'll find a way to bounce back.

Manu Ginobli reading about their game loss to the Lakers

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Oh yeah, by the way, David Cook won in American Idol which will surely jump start his career to rockstardom just like fellow rockers Chris Daughtry (who's coming to Manila in July) and Bob Bice (who sounds a lot like The Black Crowes). I actually thought that David A may win because of Simon's comments to Cook but fortunately his fans rallied together and voted for the Idol rocker. I myself wasn't crazy about Cook's performance during the final performance night but I think his previous performances was enough to make him the American Idol this year.

DAVID COOK

CHRIS DAUGHTRY

BO BICE

AI rockers ROCK! hehe :-)