Left handed classical guitarist, is there one?

I have been a guitar enthusiasts, a casual player, since my high school years,  and any music that has guitars in it catches my attention whatever the genre from blues, heavy metal, folk, reggae, to Jazz, and lately the classical guitar. 

With YouTube and Spotify (thanks to my daughter's subscription), I was able to download some Jazz guitar music by Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass hoping I would develop a taste for it but jazz was not my thing though, too abstract for me.

I listen to Wes Montgomery once in a while because of the guitar and I sometimes catch a glimpse of comprehension but generally, I don't know what the heck is going on. WTF, it seems there are no wrong notes! Its like they are just fooling around with their instruments and having mindless fun, but somehow, it all seems to fit together. That's what makes Jazz mystifying to me.

Of course, behind the jumble of confusing polytonal, polyrhythmic and abstract mishmash of aural algebra are advanced and  sometimes experimental musical theories that are accessible only to the few who have reached a certain degree of musical divinity.

Wes Montgomery

In my forties, I started to listen and learn classical guitar music out of frustration. I cant sing in tune! I can sing, though, if croaking is counted as one. Finger style guitar lets the guitar sing for me but its not easy especially with  knuckle breaking spread and broken chords that sometimes span three to four frets. But I get by with my short and stubby fingers.

There's a misconception that classical music is on the top of the hierarchy of musical taste. Maybe this is true a hundred years ago when classical music was for the consumption of the noble, aristocrats, and the cultured rich and middle class because of the fact that its an expensive form of entertainment back then with live group of musicians performing the masters' compositions.  

But today, the social media age, when classical music became accessible to everyone through the internet, it's now just another musical genre to be enjoyed, appreciated and studied by anyone who wants to. 

 And also, anyone can now enjoy and learn the pieces since there hundreds of free scores, arrangements, and performances available for free (or for a fee) to anyone who is interested in it.  Of course, a real music school is important for structured and systematic study , but virtual lessons are the next best thing for the hobbyists and enthusiasrs who cannot afford tuitions.

Today, it's not unusual for heavy metal music to be played and enjoyed by classical musicians and vice versa. Philharmonic Orchestras now record and perform popular music from heavy metal to shitty ballads.

 I think one video that made this crossover  popular to ameteur guitarists was the electric guitar cover of Pachelbel's Canon in D by this guy around 2008:

Can you play Canon in D? What the hell is that?

After this guy's video went viral, Pachelbel's Canon in D became the Stairway to Heaven of 2010s. I was asked many times by young guitarists (who thought I could play everything) if I could play it, which of course I couldn't. It was a big thing then. After that video gathered millions of views, electric guitarists followed and uploaded their videos playing amped and effects driven classical and baroque music. 

Anyway...

I am a Jimi Hendrix guy and Jimi was considered the GOAT of electric guitar for his musicality, creativity, and on-stage antics. He also had the added mystique of being a left handed player, and of course, of dying at the "cursed age" of 27. 

There's this idea that left handed artists are better or more gifted with their skills than the normal, average right handed human being. There's Jimi, Paul McCartney, Manny Pacquiao, Sting, etc.

But there's one guitar music genre where it seems there are no left handed players, of note at least: the classical music. 

So, I posed the question to an FB Classical Guitar Group with members from all sorts of musical levels,  from professional concert players, teachers, students to hobbyists and casual players of different nationalities to see if there are any lefties.  Also, I was wondering if left handed classical guitar students are corrected to play right.

Surprisingly, there are a lot of left hand dominant classical guitarists but they play right handed with no problem at all. The reason?

In the classical guitar both hand share almost equal amount of work just like in the piano. Both hands and fingers are doing their work independently and there is no need for one of the hands to be dominant over the other at all.

 In rock, jazz, folk, etc. guitar one hand is doing more work than the other, usually the dominant hand, and this determine how the player holds the guitar's neck and which hand does the strumming and picking.

This does not mean there no classical guitar player who play their guitar inverted at all. 

I mean, there are white crows.

What the heck...

I need to cut down on coffee...

Time Relativity and Old Age and nonsense

I have this fascination with mathematical formulas and I thought about or rather wished that I could have the facility to understand or at least catch glimpse of what all these symbols and how they operate. But no, they are and will continue to be hieroglyphics to me.

In my grade school days, I thought I was good with math, or at least not that bad at it, that was until I graduated from grade 6 and had my first encounter with algebra, then geometry to trigonometry and from then on, I gave up trying to figure out what all these symbols were about. Happy enough to have the arithmetic skill to count change.

But the fact that I was bad at it did not stop my fascination at the concept behind these seemingly powerful numbers and symbols, which are really nothing but shorthand for something that will take too long to explain using the English alphabets.

 As one of my former math professor said, "the shorter the formula the more difficult or complicated the concept behind it is", which didn't really mean anything to my numerically challenged brain, at all. NOTHING!

I guess the most famous formula is Einstein's E=mc2. Which I don't know what it is all about and all my introductory understanding of are from science fiction movies and stories.  From which I gathered that underneath the letters are stuffs that changed physics how we view reality from space, black holes, Uranus, etc. and of course time.

Time for us mere mortals (who are not given the magical powers to understand the mathematics of physics) is the passing of moments, the rotation of the earth, the passing season, ageing, white hairs, rheumatoid arthritis,  etc. It is fixed and only moves forward, according to common sense and classical Newtonian physics.

When Einstein came along and shocked the physics world with his theories, time became another dimension, space is not space anymore, it is now space-time. Time can be slowed down with velocity. Also his theories opened up the possibility, at least theoretically speaking, of time travel. Here I will stop because everything else from here is dark matter, as in dark. I have no idea about.

Philosophically, there is the idea by Immanuel Kant which says that time has no objective reality: "it is subjective and ideal, and originates from the mind's nature in accord with the stable scheme, as it were, for coordinating everything sensed externally." Simply put, time is not real, it is just how our brains are programmed to understand reality. 

But for all its mystery time is very real, at least the passing of it. I can feel it in my bones, in my mind, and in my heart (the organ, I mean). In my youth I was unmindful of its passing. its like a blur. time seemed so slow back then. I want to skip my teens, the restrictions, and the awkwardness that came with it and jumped right into adulthood, job and freedom.

That was until I reached the age of 30. The days had shifted to the high gear, everything seemed to be twice as fast as before, days flew by so fast.

I am now into my late forties, two years short of my fifth decade, and things are starting to get blurry with speed. Its been that long? How long has it been since I freaked out my elderly neighbors by riling up their dogs and have the snarling beasts go and chasing after me and my friends? 

Now, I am the elderly neighbor who is freaked out when my dogs are teased by children.

I cannot slow down time but I can do things slowly.

Walk slowly.

Eat slowly.

Sit down and stand up slowly, aside from the fact that my joints hurt now.

There's an old Indian proverb that says, "sitting down is better than standing, lying down is better than sitting, sleeping is better than lying down, being dead is better..."

I guess as I grow older I am becoming less and less attached, more detached to things I can not control.

Or maybe, I am just a highly functioning depressed individual who has lost interest in everything except guitar, gardening, art, music...maybe not that depressed, just lazy.

But whatever the case maybe, I have always taken comfort to the fact I am still alive and trying my best to be in the moment as much as possible wherever I am, whatever my situation is and whatever mood I am in.

Walking Away Your Worries

These past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster. I will not go into the details but February 2021 I think was one of the, if not  the worst period of my life. 

A lot of things were going on in my head, I was catastrophizing resulting to anxiety and insomnia.

The bombardment of worries are about things that I actually have no control of, useless and futile, yet seemed uncontrollable. 

Negative thoughts, and even positive thoughts for the idea that tomorrow everything would be better was just as bad as thinking that tomorrow things would get worse for both produce anxiety and stresses to the mind in somewhat the same way.

I had to keep reminding myself that I am thinking needlessly about things I could not control and that I should focus on what I can do.

Of course not thinking is impossible. To think about nothing is self cancelling it just does not happen that way. thinking about nothing is thinking about something. it occupies the mind, it requires effort.

To lessen the anxiety and stress, I walk. Walking helped disperse the thoughts, it lessened the hyperactivity, I guess its a physiological thing, the action lessens the flow of the blood and oxygen going into the brain because it is needed somewhere else, in the feet, the arms, the torso.etc, and the physical exertion promoted sleep.

Though I guess people may find it weird that I walk going to the public market when there is a talipapa in our street, or when I walk to buy fruits at high noon...I walk when I feel anxiety is creeping in. People have asked me what happened to my motorcycle, or my bicycle, I guess they are not still used to see me walking almost all of the time.

Anyway, life goes on.

Burying the Dead

        It's been awhile since I have posted in this blog. There was a time when I thought I could do this on a daily basis but eventually the well dried up, it became stressful just to come up with a topic to write about. 

     I came to the realization that like everything else I do. I was in no competition with anyone not even with myself, I do things when I feel like it.

    I have been given an assignment by my school head to tend the school garden. I was having second thoughts when I was approached by her because I have a garden of my own which takes up a lot of time and effort and tending another one could be taxing. But I am an employee and this is better than doing paperworks, etc.

    I accepted the responsibility because I enjoy gardening and the physical exertions (or work out) involve in doing this involves all the muscles in the body. 

     I mean, instead of going to the gym paying hourly for the use of their equipments, or cycling to the provinces, or running for kilometers, this  for me is the best work out. I have nothing against the activites I mentioned above, it's just that gardening works best for me (I run and ride a bike too) each to his own. 

    Aside from the work out, there is also a return, not just the fulfillment of growing plants, there are tangible returns, harvest, food on the table when the time comes. 

    It's also a contemplative activity, if one thinks about it. It promotes hyperfocus especially if engrossed with the act of tilling the soil, or watering the plants, or sweeping the area, it's very relaxing.

      These are motivations enough. Anyway, when I get tired, I get tired. Just enjoying the enthusiasm, will it last? Depends but once things go sour for me, or it becomes competition oriented ( I abhor competitions, too f...king stressful) rather than garden oriented, I can always turn around and walk away.

    I have cleared the area and is now in the process of planting. One thing I noticed though is that the soil is mostly made up of ashes from the burnt paper, leaves, and trash, generally. It's high PH, alkaline or basic, easily get compacted when watered and has very little soil nutrients and putting chemical fertilizers will not help.

   To address this problem, I have started to bury banana trunks, dead branches and leaves in the raised garden beds so that when these organic materials get broken down nutrients will be released into the soil.

    This is the long term solution.

    

BOUNTY, E-WALLET, SPAGHETTI AND EDTECH

BOUNTY ON PD30S HEAD

     

      I don't know why there are people who would put a bounty on their president's head. Maybe it's to attract social media attention, or they are expressing their disagreement with the president and the administration, or they could just be joking about it unaware that their actions can land them in jail.

    A few days ago, public school teacher was arrested for putting a 50 million rewards for the killing of the president. A construction worker upped the ante by doubling the bounty made by the teacher. 

 

 

    I saw another guy on Facebook, this time offering to kill the president for free. There have been arrest and people are still doing it. 

  

     But, I think what is more interesting is that the law enforcers are taking these threats seriously, making arrests and charging these people with sedition.

    I am not against arresting these crazies it's just that's what they are. I am more saddened than angered by their actions, but seeing them jailed for this?

    They are not worth the resources and personnels the NBI utilized to track them down. There are other more important things for the Bureau to do.

  (Photos are screenshots from Facebook. Credit re to the owner of these photos.)

   

 E-WALLET

    I am not a fan of credit cards.

   I guess my greatest fear why I have this reservation about having and using them, aside from the fact that my pay barely make the monthly income limit, is that I may fall victim to impulsive or binge buying, which I have a tendency to.

     It's about discipline and since my constitution is weak, the best thing to do is to avoid what could lead to the temptations. 

  

  

   I am thankful that my daughter gave me her Robinson's debit card. It's the card where her company put her grocery allowance. So, instead of a credit card, I have a debit card, which according to financial gurus is better than the former.

     The money is not much but since there are only the three of us, it is enough to buy the essential supplies we need at home, mostly toiletries and condiments.

     The card can only be used with Robinson stores, fortunately there is a new Robinson's grocery at Cainta Greenland's main gate. I tried it today and I had this fear that it may be rejected or something, but it worked.

     I am not used to paying using cards, it feels weird. I am already into the cashless age. A bit late, but I am already there.

 I have been adapting a more active lifestyle, so for errands that is not that far, naybe up to five kilometers, which is about an hour of relaxed pace, I walk. Farther than that, I ride. 

    The grocery run out of ecobags, so my purchases were boxed.

    I don't know how old ladies do it, carry heavy loads on their head while balancing them at the same time, I tried it and it is difficult.

SPAGHETTI

Yesterday a group of people distributed spaghetti packs to the residents in our sitio, it's a half a kilo pasta with Filipino style sauce.

From the packaging, there's a note telling that it came from our barangay's Sangguniang Kabataan.

    It's raining and I think with the weather, it's time to cook one of our favorite comfort food.

A little carb here and there is good for the soul.  

WEBINARS

     I have been tuning in to a series for webinars being conducted by the Department's Edtech unit. 

    I have learned a lot from creating e-books we are now into 3D designs. Though I would love to participate in the activities, unfortunately my laptop has low spec for photo and video manipulations. It is old and has only 20 gb of memory. It was really for PowerPoint, Excel, and word use only. I never thought that we would be doing technical drawing and photo editing.

  

I guess this is where it is really going. Teachers computer skills needs to grow and whether these skills maybe useful or not, imperative that we are up to date to the latest advancement in Ed Tech.

DAY 62: Community Quarantine

     END OF LOG: This is the 60th day of the ECQ , the last day.  Ecq was two declared two days after the Luzon wide community quarantine. 

    I think it's time to end this log. I created this log to document (sort of) what is happening here in my community and the surrounding areas and judging from whats happening now, I think the worse (not the worst) is over. The quarantine will be downgraded tomorrow and the worst thing that could happen is to go back to day 1. 

   But I think the chances of that happening is very small since the virus has been well studied now, health care system preparations are made, protocols and infrastructure s are in place etc.

  I believe that the authorities have done their homework and that they have studied the decisions based on sound scientific and mathematical models and they have anticipated the worst. 

    STUCK IN THE RAIN- I walk to the bank to withdraw cash form my daughter's account for our groceries, but it's offline. I have been to four banks already and the machines do not dispense cash. BPI ATM is running but it does not dispense cash to cards from other banks. It's payday and from experience, ATMs run out of cash. But it's too early for that...still here.

    MANHOLE- I don't know how these manholes got approved by the DPWH. Concrete disintegrate when exposed to tremors and vibrations created by the continous traverse of vehicles.

   The manholes caved in and pose a danger to motorists and pedestrian.

(I am moving back here to blog)

DAY 60: Community Quarantine

   SIXTY- Two months into the Community Quarantine and fifty eight days into the Enhance CQ and we are still surviving. On Friday the province's status will be downgraded into the General Community Quarantine.

  Even now I can see the relaxed restrictions. There are fewer volunteers that guard the entrance to the sitio. Q passes and thermal scanners are checked randomly, a far cry from strict individual checking done a few weeks ago. 

  I fear that the people will lower their guards thinking that the worst is over. 

  BOUNTY-  A public school teacher was arrested for putting a  50 million peso bounty on President Duterte' head. 

  Maybe the guy was an anti DDS or he might be genuinely frustrated with the way the president is running the country, but what ever the case maybe, what he did was in bad taste.

    He was disrespectful not only to the current president, he was also disrespectful to the highest office in the land.

  He was arrested, paraded around and made to apologize for his tweeter post. He was taken into custody by NBI agents for filing of charges.  

    I am no lawyer but is there probable cause to think that the threat to the president is real and imminent?  

   His action is tantamount to lesse majeste, which is equivalent to treason and is punishable by hard labor or death in an absolute monarchy. But we are in a democracy where freedom of speech is enshrined in our constitution.  Filipinos love to openly express their feelings passionately and this right is protected.

   Yes, there are laws that could be used to file charges against him but will it stick?

   I pity the guy. He was made an example of. 

   His arrest and public humilition sends a chilling effect to the administrations critic. He deserved it but...

  And here I will shut up...

    BILLS- I have summed up my accumulated bills, water, electricity, credit card ride, sss voluntary contributions, and my wife's Philhealth membership fee, and it added up to more than a month of my salary.

    I am blessed for I am a government employee with continuing monthly salary despite the lockdown.

   How about the daily paid laborers with five or more children living in a rented house, who have accumulated debts because they are not paid if they do not work. Add the utilty bills, just thinking about it,  how it is to be in their shoes makes me want to, I don't know, run amok or something. 

    But despite of it all, it is the lowly and hardworking people that inspires me the most.    They get through the day with very little and many get to see better lives due to their perseverance  and honest labor.

   COFFEE- I ran out of coffee yesterday, the last scoop. I was able to extend my supply for weeks by drinking weakened coffee. But starting today, nada.

DAY 61: Community Quarantine

     ECASH- I am not a techie guy. I think I have gone passed having the childlike  wonder and awe to gadgets and techs. I am into living things like plants, fish, and dog, just my dog.

    Yesterday I used e-cash from an e-wallet. I downloaded the app and put funds in it using a 7/11 kiosk. I think I have watched three video tutorials on how to do it. But at the store, I asked the cashier for help just to be sure I did it right. It was a cinch.

 

    When I was paying bills on my celphone, a message popped up telling me that I have to verify my account. I need to go through a verification process, and  taking picture valid ID, having my selfie taken, and filling up a form.

   I got the verifications, paid all the bills. This is convenient but I still am not used to transferring invisible money using invisible energy. I mean, what if they get lost in the transmission. 

   Lol, low tech me.   

    APPEALING TO EMOTIONS- An appeal to emotion ("argument from passion") is a logical fallacy characterized by the manipulation of the recipient's emotions in order to win an argument, especially in the absence of factual evidence.  

    ABS-CBN is paying actors and actresses (technically since they are employees if the network) to mainipulate the people's emotions into snowballing support against the NTC's cease and desist order.

     I think the networks lawyers know their case is lost and since they cannot bend logic, they attack the peoples emotions no instead.

     Three former justices have given their opinion based on the laws and the cases they have worked on and penned decisions to.

   1. Retired Justice Noel Tijam:

 "SC decision in the past is clear.

“Only Congress can grant a franchise.

“The NTC cannot extend an expired franchise and cannot issue a provisional authority to operate.

   2.  Retired Chief Justice Renato Puno:

"Itong ABS-CBN, if franchise expires, cannot get itfrom the National Telecommunications Commission the authority to operate after the expiration of the franchise."

   3.  Retired Justice Antonio Carpio: 

"I don’t think that the House or committee of the  has the authority to compel NTC to issue a provisional authority...there's separation of powers"

    Again, I'm pro sanity. The network is paying for what they have done in the past election. This is what it's all about. It's a reckoning. The speaker is talking about giving the network a 6 months provisionary franchise the reason is to give time for congress to straighten out legal issues haunting ABS.

Day 59: Community Quarantine

     ABS- CBN- I heard that 13 senators filed a bill giving the network a temporary provisionary franchise until June 30, 2022.

   What is this? I am not pro ABS nor am I anti ABS, I am pro sanity. This provisional franchise is insane. If congress and the Senate are against the shutdown as ordered by the NTC, and are for the continued operation of the network, then approve the franchise bill. That's it. Fine. Done.

    Why prolong the drama?  Why the two years? A period to think about it? Isn't six years enough? 

     If they are for closing down the network for whatever reasons, then do it. Close it down. Fine. Done.

    The Lopez subsidiary has been lobbying both chambers for six years to get their license granted yet nothing happened. The bills are shelved for reasons that are not really reasonable. The franchise expired and NTC released a ceases and desist order, no franchise no broadcast.

    The network, maybe tired of being passed around played like a ball, has finally filed a case before the supreme court.

   Out of respect for the legal process, it's time for the legislators to keep quiet and let the interpreter of the law decide.

     I think many politicians are taking their time, enjoying the networks predicament. They are secretly revelling at it. It's the revenge they longed for, but at the same time they also know that it is short lived. They can not legally deny the franchise because there never were reasons to. 

   It's a game. Everyone in government is in on it. The network knows that they are being power tripped on by the people that they have offended in the past.

    The network is not immaculate. I think it's also time for ABS-CBN to avoid dipping its hands into politics especially elections. Media are reporters, not king makers.

   As for me, with or without. I have Netflix.

   WEBINAR- Yesterday was the first day of our webinar on Open Educational Resources (OER).  The first topic was an instructional class on Kotobee Author, an E- Book app.

   It's not that difficult to learn because the menu icons are similar with those from Windows office apps and the lay out of the controls are not that far off either. Maybe the designers of these apps have some sort of architecture that they follow, like in how the hardwares are laid out. 

   It may take time to get the hang of it,  but it is intuitive and there are condensed instructional videos available on Youtube for reference. 

   It's just a software. It is garbage in, garbage out. The teachers' training and skills in writing and contextualizing learning materials is still what counts.

    CLASSROOM- Given the choice between teaching in the physical classroom and the on-line classroom, I am inclined to opt for the former. Of course the chances of catching the virus is high but I am more concerned that the clearly defined demarcation between work and home will disappear with online teaching.

   The home is the inner sanctum and should not be violated.

   Of course, I can say this because my work is about ten minutes away ride from home, but if I were working in Makati or Manila, I would definitely be saying the opposite.

   GET ME OUT OF THIS TRAFFIC, I WANT TO WORK AT HOME!

DAY 58- Community Quarantine

     EXTENSION- There are signs that the IATF may be lifting the ECQ in selected areas. I am not an expert if I may say, but the way our countrymen are breaking every guidelines of the quarantine, might as well lift the ECQ and allow herd immunity to take it's course. 

    Also, I am starting to worry about the mental effect of confinement. I am well adjusted to being in the house all the time but I have a few square meters of lot space to work around with. But I am also starting to feel the weight the restrictions how much more to the families who are literally imprisoned in their solitary cell like houses. (I am also worried that the laughter I hear from around the neighborhood is starting to remind me of Dolores Clairborne).

 

 

  I am not denigrating anyone, but a family of six living in a 3 square meter tin house is torture, torture worse than the one they did to Rambo.

   Money is running out, and soon the balancing act of health vs economy will tip in the latter's favor.

    VLOG- I am into vlogging now. This is an activity I started a few days ago as a sort of training for the incoming hybrid classes for the coming school year on August 24.

    I don't know if my online communication skill is improving, but at least I am getting used to talking to a gadget. My eye contact is also getting better which is essential since I need to establish rapport with my pupils.

   Establishing rapport  in the physical classroom is very challenging how much more in an online class. 

    BOREDOM- Being bored is an activity I am good at. When I am thinking about nothing, that's the time I get think about something. A bit paradoxical, but that's just how my head works. 

   After high school and a few years bumming and drinking, I got into the guitar, tried my hands on keyboards (but did not get pass the basic chords becuase I have no keys), read a lot of books, dabbled into philosophy and theology, which I find too abstract for my limited English comprehension but I did get to learn a lot; kept aquariums, gardening, etc.

   I think I spend more time on hobbies than on anything else productive. 

   But at my age now, I realized the benefits of keeping hobbies. It keeps me busy physically and mentally.

   I dug a shallow at the back of the house where I get water for the plants and the daily routine of walking from the well to get water into each individual plant is a good cardio work out.

    Segregating plastic from the soil.

    Tilling the soil and dirtring my finger nails in the process sometime make me think about nature, etc.

   I mean, keeping hobbies forced my mind to meander into lots of subjects. It keeps me aways from thinking about heavy and sometime depressing thoughts that could lead into the abyss.  

  So, I don't know if I will be able to continue my logs, video and text, becuase my head would be occupied with work, but, I will try.

What the "F" is that all about?: My take on ABS closure

     I saw Kim Chiu expressing how she felt about the closure of ABS-CBN. She was very emotional and like anyone else whose emotions is on high gear, critical thinking takes a back seat. The intellect is overwhelmed and drowned by the fire and the smoke of the passion, overpowered, waiting for heat to die down, before standing up to clear up the head and extinguish the flash of insanity, and start the engine of thought running.

   The next day, Kim apologized for her poor analogy.

   I understand the anger, threatened with the loss of  income, I would rant too. But at the end of the day, nothing is accomplished. What has been set by the gods cannot be changed. 

    But what is the issue all about? To Kim and her peers in the industry, it's a personal and economic issue. To the believers of Quiboloy, it is the wrath of their appointed God brought upon the blasphemous Vice Ganda and the network.

   This cease and desist order have divided the Filipinos into different camps political, network loyalties, pro-poor anti rich, human rights, etc. as if their existence and subistence are umbilically connected to the network.

   I am no lawyer but my understanding of the law is simplistic and may even be naive to the more knowledgable in it's intricacies. But the law is blind (lady justice winked at me). The law is to be obeyed. It is written in letters, in black and white, becuase the letters do not have empathy, do not exhibit sympathy. The "spirit of the law" , in reality, is invented to break a law a little at a time to favor the favored.

   The issue here is how the law has been emasculated by wrong practice. The law is clear, no franchise, no boradcast. The defense made by the network and it's supporter is that in the past, other networks have benefitted from grace periods given by the NTC.

   The question then is, is the practice of giving grace period legal? Did it override the law? Former Chief Justice made it clear: tradition or practice is not law. It cannot supercede a law.  

   What happened to the network epitomizes what is wrong with our legal and justice system, inconsistent and discriminatory.