Pick up as you go

What scared you as a child? I was so scared of Howard the Duck. Dear Lord. One sight of the goddamn duck and I’d cry. I don’t know, I was young but I freaked out all the time. Just take a look at his bill. And his eyes. I can’t say much about this, but when my dad brought me to the cinema, I cried like brat and my mother had to carry me out of the cinema.

Another thing that freaked me out big time was The Neverending Story.

I don’t remember much about the film because the start of the film I just cried and well, I basically pooped the thing for me and my brothers. The song freaks me out big time too. The chorus. The chorus.

I wonder what my kid will get scared of once he reaches about six years old. You know, up to now, I still won’t make time watching these things. I guess I never will!

I guess I miss my Lola. I’ve found myself talking about her a lot these days. My grandmother is asian – she’s from the Philippines. So when I was a kid, she would let me try all these dishes that I enjoyed a lot. I had Adobo for the first time I was six years old and by god I could swear that I loved it. She also served some sticky rice and made us halo-halo for dessert.

Though one thing I couldn’t forget was when I first visited Manila when I was 12. It was the first time I had ever tried balut. Balut is basically a chick enclosed in a shell that they cook for you to eat, as is. Yeah. So when you crack the shell open, you’ll find a chick in fetal position waiting for you to eat it.

I threw up in an instant. I mean I’ve never seen such a thing before. But you know now, it doesn’t seem to taste as bad. This is I speaking and leaving that traumatic period behind. Things will change the moment I sit in front of a balut and I’m guessing I’d probably cry a tear or two at the sight of one but I’m trying to be a man about it because 12 seems a little too long ago. Among others that I’ve tried so far are frog and snake and well, they tasted more like chicken to me than the balut.

In China, they serve Monkey Brain as a delicacy in some provinces. Some say that they have tables that have holes in the middle, for the monkey’s head to fit in. The chef later on swiftly cuts the head open and then the brain is served for the diners. Some people also pour liquor into the brain to add some flavor. In some provinces, the tables are designed to hold just the head and the extremities of the monkey that while the diners ate the brain, the rest of the body would shake and rattle. Some people are fond of this because of the unfounded positive effects of monkey brain to cure impotence.

Personally, I’m not a fan of this news because I think it is cruel, but to state facts, here they are.

In Central America, Iguanas are also considered food. Cruelty is a big issue as the tendons are cut off their front legs and are tied behind their backs so they don’t get to escape.

In Venezuela, they serve spiders that originated from one of their tribes, and in Cambodia they serve fried Tarantula.

I guess with all this information on exotic food, I might as well just eat balut. It doesn’t seem to appear on an endangered animals list, nor does it tickle me weird. Its just a little bit out of the norm but it certainly ain’t monkey brain.

Personally, I’ve nothing to share as of yet, but I can’t wait until I see my son. My wife and I were at first resenting in finding out if our child was a girl or a boy, then one day she said, let’s go check. Well I’m exhiliratingly happy because I’m going to father a boy. I’ve always wanted a baby boy because I personally missed out on my dad because he worked too hard. Eventually the marriage between him and my mom got rocky and me and my siblings had problems trying to get things together because of this.

All I know is that I’ll be the best dad in the world for my son. One of the entries in this competition I liked in particular, it was the one about picking up his son a bit earlier from school to go take a look at cars and what not just for a father-son bonding time. I really liked that. I was never close to my father that’s why… but I’ll make sure that my son gets close to me, and get the things I never got to have.

Now that my wife’s getting close to giving birth, I can’t help but ask myself some questions. I’ve gone from funny to ridiculous just because I spend too many hours thinking of things — anything related to family, fatherhood and what not

So I remembered some of the things my parents told me. Of course they were lies. One of them was, if I get a cold and if I don’t cough out the phlegm, I’d fly up the ceiling and never come back down. My god, was my mother creative or what?!

Among the few other lies I had been told when I was a kid were: If I get a big cut somewhere then whatever I ate for lunch would come out there. My grandmother was half-Filipino so they had all these superstitions on everything. One of them too was if I made an ugly face, chances are an evil wind will brush through me and my face would get stuck that way, forever. Hell I was so freaked out when I was a kid.

Now that I’m going to have a kid too, I’m getting a bit conscious of what kinds of lies to tell him. Definitely the cut and the food coming out of it is out of the question, I mean that’s pretty graphic for a child to keep in mind, so No.

What about you, what were the lies your folks told you growing up?

I remember the time I was being bothered by my folks about the so-called career path I wanted to take. My late father was a great engineer, and had left a good reputation and name in the field that made him one of the best. It was like I had to take care of being the next engineer in the family but then I had other things in mind.

This was the part where I knew that I couldn’t just always base it on what other people thought. One is that its my life, regardless of what my mother might think, or everyone who saw me as the one who would pick up after where my dad had left off still did not seem to be enough reason for me to give up my dreams.

I think it really is important to know what you want and then do everything to get it. At present I do not feel any sort of regret, not one inch, and I kept thinking if I had listened to what other people thought, then I’d most likely be really miserable as we speak. Now I have a great wife who is going to give birth soon to our first born, reaping the benefits of this dream. I really wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Very uncharacteristic of me, but I went to the mall to shop for baby clothes with my wife today. Absolutely no idea what I was doing, but amazing what new things people have thought of to mooch out of babies. Well, I don’t really mind. I think its great, makes life easier for us parents and the children as well. Tomorrow night we have dinner at my mum’s place together with some cousins from up north.

So my wife and I went to this restaurant to have dinner for our third Anniversary. On our way to the restaurant we bumped into some people From college and well, we were in utter surprise to find two of the  unlikeliest of people to ever hook up in this lifetime. But I’m not new to this. I wasn’t particularly swooning over my wife in college, she was on affirmative side of the debate team and I was on the other. But yeah,
these things do happen.

What gives girls the right to make 50 rules about what they want about guys? Guys too, can make rules about girls. This way, it will be a two-way-give-and-take relationship that will make both sides happy and will make a successful relationship. Below are some basic rules.

1.    Having a very close boy buddy – We know that they are just your close friend. Some of them may be gay, but still that doesn’t mean that you can be very close to them. They still have their “thing” attached and that is a threat potential! They may make you laugh more than us but, we are your boyfriend, not them. Give us more time and priority in weighing in your decisions.

2.    Nagging – Actually, this should be the number one in the list. Nagging is just their way of expressing things because they think that guys do not understand what they said. Although it is said that guys are not good in multi-tasking, we can remember what you said for three times already. So quit saying the same thing more than that!

3.    Vanity- it is actually ok as she is putting effort in making herself presentable before you but, please! Do not take up half of the day just choosing what dress you wear. When we love you, whatever you wear will be okay with us. With or without clothes we still love you!

4.    Trust and faith – No, they are not the two girls you heard from me last night! Trust is the foundation and faith is the gas to keep going. Growing is a different thing. Without foundation, I don’t think your love will ever be created. You need faith because when you keep on doubting, it’s just like banging the foundation with a jack hammer. Being faithful is another thing and those three composes three qualities a relationship should have.

5.    Lie- last but not the least, do not lie. We all know that girls can sense when a guy are lying. Guys can sense that too! Girls might be better but, guys can have satellites better than girls. We have spies planted at several strategic locations when information is needed.

These are just some since girls made much more rules for us guys. Just remember, these are few rules but this would make a relationship last. Agree?

The cyclone that almost drew Myanmar out of the map just shows that mother earth is giving the most obvious signs and that death is just as ready to take away even the most innocent lives. And death is bagging more lives, with the delay in rescue and relief operations, the homeless go day by day without water or food or medicine. Plus there are still diplomatic issues about Myanmar’s “enemy” countries.

It is so unfortunate we have to experience tragedies and lives have to be taken in order for us to extend our help and realize that we have a sick earth. There have been a lot of documentaries about the effects of global warming, if this latest wrath of nature will not make us realize to use hybrid cars or preserve paper use, then I don’t know what will.

Woohoo! So I finally have my MacbookPro delivered and damn it looks great, not to mention it functions well, too. The commands I’ve yet to get used to, but I’m sure I won’t have a problem with it just shutting down whenever it feels like it. I’ve never raved about anything lately hence this, other than my wife’s pregnancy of course (she might be reading), and well my cousin finally passing the Bar exams. Oh yeah!