Now/here no/where woman

... you will need these two essentials to survive new year's eve with your insanity intact. Although I would really much rather have this ALL TO MYSELF, without crowds, firecrackers, gunpowder smoke, or karaoke (how un-Pinoy somebody said)... May the new year bring us something wondrously new (though this is doubtful for as long as GMA is in power). Don't be a bore with a mobile phone when the midnight hour strikes. Be a person among loved ones. Look into their laughing (drunken) faces -- not into the screen of your mobile phone!!! And remember, make eye contact when saying cheers and clinking glasses. Cheers!

What stands out the most in the re-photography of Baguio in the Then and Now exhibit? The billboards of Juday, Robin, and other pale-faced matinee idols of the Philippine entertainment industry, enticing you to buy clothes, sunglasses, and tsinelas. Baguio people used to pride ourselves in being immune to the shallow fame of Manila's starirays. But now, theirs are the faces of Baguio as seen from the air. Our Mayor, Peter Rey Bautista, no longer needs to spend millions of pesos on another one of his stellar ideas: to make Session Road into a local version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The city as seen from the sky is already as baduy as it can get. But before we declare that there is no way Baguio can get any uglier, let us not underestimate the capabilities of our imaginative city government. Sao Paolo recently did things differently, but people can't seem to agree on whether the removal of billboards uglified or beautified the city. What do you think? Don't miss the...

I went to church today for the baptism of my inaanak, Armstrong. At the sermon during the mass prior to the baptism, the priest preached against divorce, contraceptives, and abortion, because "God wants all Catholic families to be just like the Holy Family." He said, "Even if 300 congressmen say that divorce is good, God still says that divorce is bad! Huwag natin pansinin ang mga conressman-congressman at senador-senador na yan!" Be afraid. Be very afraid. I felt a burning sensation in my skull, early warning signs of an oncoming migraine. I left early, thereby blowing my cover. Now everybody knows I'm the evil fairy godmother.

Or the next time you wrap a gift, consider furoshiki ! Image credit: Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan. Follow the links! Look at Japan's Minister of Environment in 2006 , having a go with furoshiki. Oh Atienza , you've got a lot to learn about your post, baby!

Is a Christmas without presents and all the accompanying garbage so mind-boggling? The only thing I really wish I could buy for xmas is a ticket to a country where xmas isn't forced down every orifice of the human body. There is something strangely liberating about this thought: Consider the possibility. These people did. If a Buy Nothing Christmas is too much to ask, how about a Zero-Waste Christmas then?

The exhibit could just as well be called, "What we have lost, and what we have replaced it with." But that's too wordy for an exhibit title. The show can be viewed in SM from today until January 30, 2008. For inquiries email: baguiobenguetstudies@gmail.com

Could we do this in Baguio? Would people be interested? I'd love to give it a try. My first guest would be the Nashman, who could tell us all about unanotechnology ! But first I have to get my life back from this #xxxsblgr@%*#grrr dissertation. Photo credit: Cafe Scientifique (first link above).

The Champion raced in full battle gear: pancake make-up and jolens-sized pearl earrings. So who says kikays can't kick ass on mountain bikes? She sure did! But does that mean I should start wearing make-up when I ride? Eeeeeewww. I'll leave that to those who can carry... MEEEOWWRRR! Photo by FGSLP. Thanky!

A text message came out of the blue today. Kumusta na, padma? regards mula sa coron island. And so I replied... Good a.m. po! Kumusta na po kayo dyan? Kumusta na ang coron island? And so I got this text dispatch from Coron Island: Mdjo ok lang kami d2 sa coron island. Kulang nalang ikaw at ang regalo ko sa pasko. hehehe. Mdjo malaki ang improvement ng coron kaya lang mdjo talamak ang bilihan d2 ng lupa. Grabi lalo na mga pulitiko. Kung d2 ka lang dami ka masulat sa news. bigas d2 ng NFA rice 23 ang kilo. Wala ka pa mabili kc ginagawang commercial rice. Ganun pa rin ang nangyayari kahit ancestral domain ang coron island? Ang coron island d nila kayang galawin kc napa title na namin kaya galit mga pulitiko. Inggit sila sa coron island. Ngayon ay TTCIA name ng coron island. Tagbanua Tribe Coron Island Association. TTCIA. At registered na rin kami sa SEC. Mdjo lumaban kami kaya titulo na buong isla padma. Buti naman. Naalala ko nung bumisita ako CADC pa lang po at hinihintay nyo pa title. ...

Reading a dictionary as material culture can tell you a lot about a society. karya means 'work' or, depending on the context, 'opus' in Bahasa Indonesia. One of the root word's affixed forms is dikaryakan . It means to use a possession as a means of earning money. The example of usage in the Indonesian-English Dictionary by John Echols and Hassan Shadily goes like this: Mobil dinas mereka dikaryakan. Malam-malam dipakai sebagai taxi . In English: They are earning money with their official cars. They use them as taxis in the evenings . In conversations with Jakarta taxi drivers and Kalimantan villagers I was often told, not without a hint of pride, that in 2003 Indonesia was the Number One corrupt country in the world and the Philippines was only Number Two. (I wonder where they all got the figures from.) When I ventured that things were just as dire in the Philippines as in Indonesia, they countered that nothing could be as bad as korupsi in Indonesia. Apparently ...