Corona judgment blah, blah,blah

Now I was expecting CJ Corona would be acquitted. Of course, I know that this is kinda weird, but I was thinking that the senator judges would be thinking about the precedent that they would making. With the judgment they passed to CJ Corona it is now possible to impeach high government officials on the basis of their SALN, and to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, the senators have made their assess vulerable to the same possibilities happening to them.



Learned his lesson the hard way: you don't quarrel with city hall.



I was wrong. It seemed the senator-judges voted for what is right. I mean, if a simple court translator lost her job and other benifits because she did not disclosed her store in the market, why not the chief justice who withheld millions of dollars from his SALN. Forget all the evidences and the pizza pie (according to dear Senator Lito Lapid) and the anonymous persons, the admitannce of the CJ that he did not disclosed his "co-mingled" and dollar accounts in his SALN was enough, for a simple teacher like me, to convict him.

But the impeachment judgment did not prove that CJ Corona stole or illegally obtained his money because according to some lawyers and financial experts, this money is earnable by a lawyer of his calibre. CJ just made the mistake of not disclosing his all his money.

Anyway, water under the bridge. I am just hoping or even looking forward to more judges and justices,  congressmen, senators, local government officials, administrators, etc, being sued to court for their incomplete and inaccurate SALN.

NKOTBBSB: The problem with boy bands

I heard that two boy band, or to be more accurate, two old boy bands will be having a concert here in the Philippines: New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys. They were being announced on TV as  the two of the world's famous best boy bands.

Now what is wrong with this?

NKOTB 2008

Hell, they are not boys anymore. They are old now and seeing them perform their hits on the TV teaser is kinda painful. They were famous during the 90's and this era is kind of memorable to me because this was the age of alternative rock. The 90's saw the birth of great Filipino seminal bands like Eraserheads, Yano, the Youth etc. also the divide or the rivalry between metal and hiphop was kinda strong. So, their music was treated with contempt for they were pop and commercial (as opposed to the alternative-grunge-indie  music of the era). Also, they took advantage of the young girls and gays hormonal imbalance.

These boy bands were considered corny and childish or girlish and no rocker was ever expected to  listen to them. Now they are coming here to...weird. Of course, the rivalry between the hiphop and the metals are gone and all the nonsense... guess we all grew old, matured,  and became men and women. Still they call themselves boys? 

Backstreetboys 2011

They should rename their band: Old Kids on the Block and Backstreetmen. Anyway, hope to see them in 2080.

Princess and I: Gretchen's face

My wife and daughter are avid fans of Princess and I. My daughter watch it because of Daniel Padilla and my wife watch it because she loves watching TV especially prime time telenovela. Me, I'm a passive watcher of the TV since I really don't like telenovelas for reasons too many to mention.

Now, even passive watching, I cannot help but notice Gretchen Barreto's face and her facial expressions or the lack of it. She looks like one of Mdm Tussaud's wax figures. I mean, it seems that it is only her eyeballs that are doing the acting because her face is too tight--too tight that it shines and literally glows with reflection from the lights. I wonder what cosmetic operations and maintenance she goes through everyday but,again, none of my business. 

She doesn't look old and she doesn't look young; she looks beautiful but...lifeless.  

Fish stuff: Martiniko and the dragon fin

My  dragon fin with the martiniko and janitor fish. They love to tease each other.

I have a dragon fin in my aquarium. I bought a pair but the other one died. I made the mistake of mixing the dragon fin with goldfish and bubble eye fish in the same tank. Of course, I didn't know then that dragon fish were carnivorous, so, I was shocked to wake up one morning to find my one of my gold fish missing an eye and a bubble eye missing half its head. 

Anyway, I had another fish tank for the dragon fin. Unfortunately, I couldn't find another dragon fin, out of stock according to the pet shop owner. I could not bear to see my dragon fin alone swimming in a 20 gallon tank so I asked the pet shop owner what kind of fish I could mix up with a dragon fin; he named a few but they are quite expensive like arowana. I settled for the Martiniko which I got one for free because the caretaker of the church catch them whenever the church's ground floor is submerged in flood water. She had a number of them kept in an aquarium. Martiniko...who keeps them in an aquarium?

So, I did a little googling: Fish facts

LOCAL NAME: Martiniko

SCIENTIFIC NAME - Anabas testudineus

ENGLISH NAME - Climbing Perch

SCIENTIFIC CONFUSION? - With several slight colour and morphological differences in Climbing Perch found throughout their natural range it may well be that, in the future, we will see some of these given alternative scientific names.

NATURAL RANGE - Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Southern China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines.

DESCRIPTION - A torpedo looking, perch shaped fish. The body is elongate, the dorsal fin has a longer base than the anal, dorsal and anal reach backwards to the beginning of the caudal and that the posterior edge of the gill cover bears two strong spines. Colour is of a 'muddy' appearance of olive-grey. Young specimens have a dark spot on the caudal peduncle (point at which the body ends and tail starts). Young are often confused with Ctenopoma species.

DANGER? - The gill covers are equipped with various spines that are used as a defensive mechanism and are said to cause pain (if my experience of badly swollen fingers and large blisters caused by the ventral fin spines of Synodontis species 'Nigeria' is similar to this then such contact is best avoided and only plunging my hand into extremely hot water took this swelling down) if they catch a fishkeepers hand.

FIN MOVERS? - These fish are capable of moving from pool to pool by using their pectoral fins, caudal peduncle and gill covers as a means of locomotion. As a means of protection these fish are said to use the cover of darkness in order to move around doing so in groups and not as individuals.

HOW DID THESE FISH GAIN THEIR COMMON NAME? - Climbing Perch came about due to a 'myth'. Because certain individuals are said to have been found in tree tops a 'myth' has spread that these fish are the 'Tarzan of the fish world' able to shin up tree trunks with ease but this has yet to be scientifically proved so it is more likely that fish eating birds actually dropped or left catches of this particular fish on tree branches.

AQUARIUM CONDITIONS - In his Tetra published book Labyrinth Fish - The Bubble-Nest-Builders, Anabantid expert Horst Linke recommends that these fish be maintained in aquaria of 70x40x40cm with a temperature of between 20 and 25 C. Linke recommends keeping these fish in a well-planted aquarium. From a conversation with well-known aquatic photographer Mr. Kevin Webb, maggots and large sized commercial aquarium fish food pellets make good foods for these particular fish. These fish have a predatory nature so are NOT for the community aquarium. The two Climbing Perch I care for live fairly peacefully alongside large Loricarins, Synodontis pardalis, Sajica Cichlids, Doradidsand a Garra species.

Please remember that these are labyrinth fish so leave a gap between the water surface and condensation shield (in order to keep the labyrinth organ working properly) and watch for signs of velvet disease.

BREEDING - The sexes are told apart by girth, as that of the female is larger (particularly when in spawning condition). Males may be darker in colour and have more of a knife-edged anal fin than females. Use a large aquarium with plenty of floating plants. These fish do not build nests spawning in open water. Unlike their Gourami relatives they do not entwine in a full embrace. Spawning is said to be a very vigorous affair.

Eggs are clear in appearance and rise to the water surface. Once spawning is complete remove the adults, as they are prone to eating their eggs. Any fry which hatch (said to be from day 3 onwards) would be very delicate and require either green water or egg yolk paste as a first food with newly hatched brine shrimp to follow after the first week or so. The fry would be tiny and prone to velvet disease.

REFERENCES

Labyrinth Fish - The Bubble-Nest-Builders by Horst Linke, Tetra Press.

Labyrinth Fish by Helmut Pinter, Barron's Publishing.

Star Animals Series - See & Discover Fish (English edition) - Elsa editions.

Dr. Axelrod's Mini-Atlas, TFH Publications.

Gaga is done

Guess the rallyist watched the concert on the second day because they disappeared outside the MoA.  Lady Gaga owed Pastor Benny Abante and his group advertising and promotional  fees for effectively promoting the concert and making people interested with her and her music.

What did Pastor Abante and the other Christians accomplished with their rallies against Lady Gaga? (aside from hitting their own heads with their own fists)

Hmmmmmmm....hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmm...hmmmmmh....hmmmmmh....hmmmmm....hmmmmmh.....hmmmmm..hm...

The rallies and demonstrations boosted ticket sales by 2000%. They also made many people, even the uninterested like me, search and listen to Lady Gaga's music.

 If you don't like then don't, but please...other people have the freedom to. 

AI, Fil-Am Serial Killer

As expected another white guy with guitar won this year's American Idol. I was expecting Joshua Ledet to win because he got the most number of standing ovation but again, it was the American voters who decided who would win and they have voted for Philip Philips.

Anyway, my problem with Jessica Sanchez was that she was a diva. There's is something about diva's that make people sick: exhibitionist display of vocal range, ear splitting volume and power, irritating vibrato, and orgasmic facial expression. I mean...I think the Americans had enough of divas; me too.

Philip Philips is not an outstanding singer. Even I, a tone deaf, could hear when he is out of tune, but he is different: weird and awkward.

___________________

The Filipinos, as always when they hear news that a person with Filipino blood--from 50% to .00000001%--is doing well in singing contests or any international event of some sort, roots for their "countrymen." I myself, sometimes does not understand this especially when my countrymen felt ashamed of  Andrew Cunanan. I mean, he's a Filipino serial killer and if we are proud of Filipino-American singers, we should also be proud, I mean its not as if we expect all Filipinos to be just talented in singing or dancing or boxing...we should be proud that we also have a world class serial killer.

Background information
Birth name	Andrew Phillip Cunanan
Born	August 31, 1969 National City, California,United States
Died	July 23, 1997 (aged 27) Miami Beach, Florida, United States
Cause of death	Suicide by gunshot
Killings
Number of victims	5
Country	United States
State(s)	Minnesota, Illinois, New Jersey, Florida

Andrew Phillip Cunanan

August 31, 1969
National City, California,United States

July 23, 1997 (aged 27)
Miami Beach, Florida, United States

Suicide by gunshot

5

United States

Minnesota, Illinois, New Jersey, Florida

Gaga over Gaga

The more she is maligned and called anti-Christ, the more record she sells.  Isn't that obvious?

I heard and seen from the news that Christian groups in the Philippines violently opposed Lady Gaga's concert. Biblemode a group led by Politician cum Bible Baptist Pastor Benny Abante who by the way believed that only Bible and Fundamentalist Baptists are true Christians and other Baptists (guess we Southern Baptist are heathens) and other denominations are bound to go to hell, is organizing rallies and demonstrations (hmm... aren't rallies and demonstrations the same?) to show their opposition against Lady Gaga's concert. This guy's organization is calling to all Christian (my gosh, he is joining hands with evangelicals, a denomination he denounced in his Biblemode TV program) to support his cause!  Ow come on...

Don't you people have something productive to do like...  For heaven's sake, try to have a mind of your own.

Didn't we learn anything he, he,he...This kind of thing,. the moralizing, Bible Verse throwing, the anti-Christ name calling, hell, judgment thing does not work. And to tell the truth, the attention generated by the anti-christ- bruhaha serves  only as the best free advertising for the concert. If these Fundamentalist Christian people, especially their youth, just stuck to talking about it in their pulpits and in their cell group, the concert would just pass by without a fuss. 

Who cares about Lady Gaga! Why be afraid of her?   I mean, we the Filipino People should be more afraid of fundamentalist groups out to destroy freedom in the name of their religion. The freedom, which by the way, is also being enjoyed by them. 


Pastor Abante should go to Iran and discuss the matter with his fellow fundamentalists there. No disrespect meant, just plain disgust coming from a heathen Southern Baptist.

Magrally ka mag-isa mo!

Revilla enrolled at IAME/ Why o why?

I saw the impeachment trial yesterday and there was an embarrassing moment for Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. when witness Emmanuel T. Santos, the owner and founder of International Academy of Management and Economics, revealed or bragged that a son of Sen. Revilla studied in his school.

The senators were smiling because the school was closed by the Commission on Higher Education for “gross and serious violations and continuous defiance, and non-compliance by the institution of CHED Policies, Standards and Guidelines (PSG). (What a Revilla in that school! Why not in Ateneo, UP, De La Salle, UST....why not. Maybe the guy didn't meet the academic standard of these universities.)  Santos also bragged that his school had alumni of eight generals, two billionaires, and other politicians. 

Maybe the CHED noticed that his school was just a diploma mill for graduate students especially for people in government that need to acquire graduate education for promotion that's why it was closed down. Anyway, Santos was weird.

Santos being cross examined by Roi. Unbelievable. I mean the whole thing was unbelievable.

The Chief Justice will sit in the witness stand next Tuesday. This will be the orgasmic part of the trial and many are interested on what the Chief Justice will reveal about his dollar accounts. I hope there will be sort of a literary-mystery twist that would somehow reward the avid follower of the impeachment trial. Maybe like the CJ revealing that his dollar account was used as an intelligence fund depository by the CIA for their Philippine operation, or the account was used by the CPP NPA, or by the NICA.

Anyway, Tuesday is the day.

_______________________________________

It is always the poor that suffered.

I mean with all the drama by Claudine Barreto-Raymart-Tulfo, the victims of their lack of self control, education and propriety are the security guards who were suspended from their job because they were found to be negligent of their job. The ground stewardess who was cursed, lambasted, embarrassed by Claudine (show how hypocritical actors really are) had to resign from her job because, maybe the pressure and the embarrassment made her resign or something (just a theory because Claudine is fine wrestler...errr...I mean actor).

Just because they lose their baggage, people are now suffering. Why is it that people's attitude problem, lack of education and propriety, violent tendencies, why should the poor laborer suffer for this! 

Do not watch these actors' movies.

Cocks

My neighbor's chicken coop.

My neighbor loves cocks. Every morning I see him petting cocks. Hmm..that didn't sound good.

My neighbor likes cocks. Hmm...that didn't sound good too.

My neighbor takes care of roosters for hobby and for additional income too. Sabong or rooster fighting is a traditional national sport of the Filipinos so its not unusual to see cjicken coops in the yard.  

Our dog cage. Behind it is mt neighbor's chicken coop.

Since his chicken coop is behind our dog cage, I see him every morning him feeding, petting, and exercising his roosters. During weekend, I see him sparring his birdss with the other neighbors'.  They congregate   analyzing and discussing  the moves, strikes, the strength and weaknesses of the cocks;  recommendations being made here and there.

Aside from the feeding, he also conditions the roosters. There's the vitamin regiment...just imagine the effort and the cost.  There are sayings that a Filipino man takes better care of his rooster than his wife. Naturally, emotional attachment to the animal also develops.  

I was feeding the dog when I happen upon my neighbor while he was mixing feeds. He was shaking his head. He told me that two of his roosters were stolen, aside form the other stolen a few months earlier. He was angry. Anyway, I sympathize with him. As usual, the suspects are minors. Many of these thieves, who are of minor age, has been caught but nothing could be done about it except to release them to their parents custody after the arrest. It's that stupid Pangilinan law.

Exasperated, my neighbor was left to posting this message on a coconut tree:

Translation: Hey you chicken thief. You forgot the feeds; the chicken may go hungry. We know who you are. There are more, steal them all. You left some.

Big fight at NAIA/Airframe

I couldn't help but give my ten centavos worth on what happened to NAIA, the Raymart-Claudine-Tulfo thing. What happened happened and there's nothing that could be done about it and all the charges and counter charges would not go anywhere.

Cebu Pacific was blamed.  NAIA was blamed.  Now the security guards and the airport police were also being blamed and their jobs were threatened. I just hope that these minimum wager earners would not lose their jobs because of this incident because faced with the situation of two famous personalities fighting, screaming, and rioting, these poor security personnel were overwhelmed and it was understandable how difficult it must be for them to decide who to hold, what to touch, what to say...I mean.


Secretary Roxas was correct in saying that the whole thing was an attitude problem and the reactions and the finger pointing was unwarranted.  After the emotions ebb and the issue grew old, everything would be forgotten and everything would be back to normal.

That's how it is, things move on. I just hope that after all is settled,  no job would be lost. 

Anyway, to serious matter: here are some lucky numbers for the Santiago-Tulfo brouhaha. 

  Swertres lotto 4-4-1, 0-4-8,0-1-4,7-0-9

 4 Digit lotto 6-7-1-5, 1-6-5-4,0-1-1-0,1-6-6-0 

 Based on Birthday Raymart Santiago - July 20, 1973 

Swertres- 5-5-5, 4-1-5 4 digit- 5-4-2-8, 9-3-4-3

 Claudine Barreto 

Swertres -8-6-0, 2-7-6 4 Digit -6-5-4-8, 9-1-9-7

No, I do not gamble...just having fun with the issue.

__________________________

I have finished reading an old Crichton novel that has been lying in the house for almost ten years. It was my brother's book. I have read thirteen novels by Crichton that I thought I had enough of his novels, but I was bored so I picked it up. I read, and I was not able to stop until I finished the book.

Of course this was a work of fiction (Crichton's novels are well researched) but the book did present some  issues about the deregulated airline industry specifically about the safety of the old planes being bought, reconditioned and flown by small starting (budget)  airline companies and also about the danger of bootleg (pirated) airplane parts.. 

Anyway...makes one wonder how safe these budget airlines are.

So bad it was good: Nazis at the Center of the Earth

So bad it's good!

I watched Nazis at the Center of the Earth this afternoon and it was so bad that I could not stop from watching it.

Just before the WW II in Europe ended a group of Nazis led by Dr. Josef Mengele (an attempt at historicity)escaped from Germany to a secret base in Antarctica. These   Nazis survived by regenerating their bodies by harvesting organs from captured people.

Hitler being transported. Of course, at the beginning of the movie I did not think this was Hitler. I thought it was a bomb or a virus or something.

This guy's skin was ripped off and then transplanted to another Nazi.

Then there's a group of scientists in  a research station in Antarctica led by Dr. Adrian Reistad played here by Jack Busey, the only actor in the film that I knew, who was captured by the Nazi's. Unsuspecting, these group scientists later found out that Reistad was part of the Nazi conspiracy to revive Hitler or what remained of him, a head on a mechanical body, by injecting stem cells into the Hitler-robot.

The operation to get the brain stem cell was quite primitive, no anesthetics and no  sterilization. But the stem cell of an adult did not work.

Dr. Reistad found out that his girlfriend was pregnant. He got an idea, why not use a fetus' stem cells. So, here he vacuumed the fetus out of his girl friend's ovary  to obtain   the stem cells.

When Hitler was revived, the Nazi's fly out of Antarctica using the Orion (maybe with reference to Project Orion) the Nazi flying saucer (there were NAZI experimental flying saucers) to re conquer the world by releasing flesh-eating bacteria that Dr. Reistad brought with him to the Antarctica station.

Hitler giving a speech to the Fourth Reich composed of around twenty people.

The Nazi flying saucer: Orion

Of course, as expected: the breast exposure.

The Nazi flying saucer was destroyed by a grenade and Hitler was killed by injecting some chemical into his terminal or outlet or something.

Anyway, the plot was a spoof. The CGI was bad. But this movie had no pretensions of anything but fun.

Geometry: I should have paid attention to it during high school!

 I have been doing some reading and researching on some stuff that I hated in high school and one of them was geometry. Anything that had figures bored me, but now I am realizing that these stuffs are really cool.

Euclid.

Anyway, Geometry is one subject that never got through my thick head. I read some stuff about Euclid, the father of geometry. Euclid lived around 300 BC. He was famous for his book "The Elements" which was a book about geometry. The geometrical system described in the Elements was long known simply as geometry, and was considered to be the only geometry possible, that is until it was challenged indepently during the 19th century by three mathematicians Janos Bulyai, Nikolai Lobachecsky, and Carl Friedrich Gauss. It's amazing that the Elements went unchallenged for at least 2300 years--a testament to its influence.

Here are five Euclidean postulates or axioms:

• "To draw a straight line from any point to any point."

infinite points: infinite lines

                                            

• "To produce [extend] a finite straight line continuously in a straight line."

to make the line/s longer, just extend; remember, lines are infinite

• "To describe a circle with any centre and distance [radius]."

• "That all right angles are equal to one another."  

• The parallel postulate: "That, if a straight line falling on two straight lines make the interior angles on the same side less than two right angles, the two straight lines, if produced indefinitely, meet on that side on which are the angles less than the two right angles."

Two parralel lines are intersected by the lines producing right angles. According to Euclid, if the angles  are equal to 90 degrees, the lines if produced indefinitely would not meet. Common sense tells us that this is a self evident truth.

Here we see twoo parallelel lines with angle A less than 90 degrees and angle C more than 90 degrees. According to Euclid's fifth postulate line 1 and line 2 will inevitably meet while line 3 and 4 will move farther away from each other. Well, this self evident too.

Euclid's postulates are simple enough to understand conceptually, except the math, maybe. But postulate number 5 was challenged and proven to be false during the 19th century hence a new geometry, a non-Euclidean geometry, was born. 

Anyway, Euclid's geometry works only on flat surfaces. The parallel postulate does notr work on curve surfaces.

On curve surface, the angle produced parallel lines and an intersecting line  are 90 degrees but the  parallel lines move away from each other. They do not stay parallel.

On a sphere, parallel lines meet.

The amazing things about Euclidean geometry is that it took 2,300 years before it was challenged. Many who challenged it was afraid to publish their work, Gauss for example, because they were afraid of the repercussions. Even the great Philosopher Kant himself considered Euclid's geometry (and Newtonian mechanics) as a priori knowledge--truth apart from experience. 


Of course, Eucledian geometry  is still valid and still works but only on flat surface.  

Geometry is interesting, sans the math, and I wondered why I was not interested with it during my high school days.

School, Mango

Panoramic shot of our school. On the left is the big mango tree. It must be around fifty years old.

I went to school yesterday. I met the principal and she humored me about the visit by asking if I still recognize her. Of course, I knew she was humoring with a little touch of sarcasm in there because she told the teachers that we should report to work because technically summer is not vacation, which, for a person as thick as me would not work. I smiled and replied: "Yes ma'am, you're the principal." I was with her for a few seconds, chat a little here and then. She was pointing to some improvements being done at the school. She was busy, as always.  

I then went upstairs in the classroom to find that a teacher from grade three has moved up to grade six. I don't know what it is about moving to higher grades as if there's this some sort of prestige or promotion or something.  Of course, teaching grade six requires a broader stock of knowledge because these pupils do ask some question that sometimes goes beyond the PELC*. So, there must be a little truth that grade six pupils must have a little more to it especially when grade six pupils undergo batteries of tests before graduation but the the pay is still the same. Anyway... This is similar to thinking that a teacher moving up to a higher section is sometime interpreted as a promotion of a sort. maybe, maybe not, coconut.

Anyway...I expect a rather interesting school becuase two master teachers were assigned the two lowest section in grade six. The move raised some eyebrows because many, well, seniority: the more senior the better hmmm....situation, I mean the station.

I was on my motorcycle, about to go home, when I heard a loud thump. I looked and saw a mango that fell from the tree. The janitor picked it up and gave it to me. I said thanks and put it under the motorcyle's U-box and forgot all about. So, when I opened the U box to get something, voila: the mango was all black.

Terra Nova

Summer, hot, with nothing to do...instead of dreaming of sand, beach, water, rivers, ice creams and other anti-summer-heat stuffs that needs (a lot of) money to realize, I chose to do the next best thing: electric fan, reading, blogging, and DVD marathon.

There's a new sci-fi series that I saw on my sister's cable TV titled Terra Nova. Of course, I could not stay in Baguio to watch the whole series, so I did what I always do, hunt for the DVD from my favorite vendor. To tell the truth, I am amazed by the titles being sold by my favorite illegal DVD vendor. I was looking around when, as if he knew, maybe he sort of like studied my preferences like Google's algorithm or something,  he showed me this.

The story was set in 2149. The planet was on the verge of death because of environmental catastrophe and overpopulation and the people survives on filtered air and artificial food and population control.  The people of 2149 discovered a fracture in time going back to 85 million years that can be opened and passed  through. Scientists sent a probe to explore and they found out that the time stream was different from 2149  time stream so it is possible to migrate and inhabit the time and place without disrupting the 2149 flow of time--the butterfly effect. There was  a catch though: the fracture in time goes only one way, it is not possible to go back to 2149.

There was waves of migration to the new colony called Terra Nova. (terra=land, nova=new) or (terra=left over, nova=grain chips). I'm in episode four...anyway...Terra Nova was a growing community of pilgrims from the future that have established a growing colony in the past.

Faced with the dangers of large prehistoric animals like dinosaurs and other prehistoric carnivorous reptiles, insects, diseases, parasite and other unknown dangers of an unexplored land, they survived by   being resourceful and living a spartan life. 

But the real danger was from the sixers. Sixers are pilgrims that came with the sixth wave of immigrants who are working with the industrialist from 2149 bent on stripping and exploiting resources from the past to be used in 2149  thus repeating the error of the future, the rape and destruction of nature. To realize this, the sixers are   working on a way to make the time fracture to go both ways but the Tera Novans are bent on stopping this.

So, there's this conflict between the sixers and the terra novans.

Anyway, still watching...

Why aswangs are (mostly) women? 2

I have never seen, which does not mean there never  was or is or will be, an aswang movie about a male aswang. All of the movies made and produced are about beautiful, seductive and hapless victims of circumstances- most of the times abused- maidens that suffer from identity crisis vent on revenge or in wait of their hero who will redeem them from their horrific circumstance.

Aswangs, manananggals, white lady, bruha,  mangkukulam, mangagaway, etc. most of these mythological (or folkloric) creature of the night are mostly portrayed as (beautiful) women that transform their selves into a ferocious fetus-eating or internal organ-eating vampire or an ugly devil worshiping witch at night. I supposed there is always that element of beauty,  mystery, romance, fear, sex and danger in our conception of night creatures--it's a universal idea that exist in almost all of folk mythologies.

It is easy to conclude (hey, who would not) that Filipino society is sexist or maybe there is some sort of Freudian subconscious-sex hang ups, which I supposed there always will be, that exists in our society. There maybe some truth in this, but generally, Filipino women plays an equal though different but not necessarily inferior role in our society: they have their own autonomous domain which is the family and the home. Men may be involved in the community decision making or politics but inside the home, the women are the mistress.So, women are mostly responsible for the safety and the well being of the family and any loss or any untoward incident in the home like diseases or deaths, it is mostly the women who are held accountable.

Traditionally it is also the women, hilots and the comadronas, who are responsible for facilitating birth. Any untoward incident like miscarriages and infant deaths would naturally be associated with the the actions of women present in the birthing. It may be so that these hilots or comadronas, to absolve themselves, would invent  stories  about beings that eat fetus and they may, by association, portray them as women. It is not difficult to picture a myth or story about fetus-eating or infant-life-sucking women vampire  that  passed from generation to generation because of the simple fact that it is always the women  who are always present during birthing; the husbands and other males are always told to be out of the house while the wife is in labor. 

Or maybe, it is simply because women or wives are hated by their in-laws hence they are pictured as evil creatures out to destroy or cause harm in the family. Rumor mongering, back biting, which are natural among in-laws, may have created, implanted or strengthened the idea of women aswangs in our minds.

Anyway, these are all stupid stuff that I thought of and read about. I think the most obvious reason is that women drive men crazy because of attraction, love or what have you; there's love, seduction and fear all rolled into men's tiny brain which sometimes cannot be processed thus driving men crazy enough to make stories about aswangs or other stuff.

The trend is changing: Aswangs are now associated with male homosexuals because they literally sucks the life out of....nevermind. Maybe there will be a future movie about male.....aswang starring Piolo.