Monday, October 29, 2007

flicker

tagged by Dodo.

impending repair meant a drastic clean-up. docs and files in backup. icons in the trashbin. the porn on CDs. 

latest musing of Etchie at 07:14 0 comments

Friday, October 26, 2007

the others

i have a really weird feeling that something's amiss.

not because my tummy's stuffed with glucose-fest funnel cake that i overindulged earlier when we went to a parish carnival. but with metaphysical manifestations that Tobe Hooper would gladly jump at the gun if given an opportunity.

i might be wrong then--the mind's eye is bigger than it seems, they say. i don't know if it will suffice and silence the foreseeable deluge of qualms, but here are some incontrovertible facts from personal experience:

1. last night as I was working on the Panic in the Streets review that I posted at the review site, i sensed a pair of lurking eyes were staring at me---through the dim sliding door with the blind shutters pulled. although i am quite skeptical at the existence of some supernatural phenomena (other than, probably, believing Elvis is dead is a dead giveaway), it somehow made me think otherwise...

2. almost two weeks ago, i heard some heavy footsteps treading upstairs when nobody was even there (the wifey and the kids did their bimonthly groceries). i was not frightened of the fact that i might be hearing the reverberations of an otherworldly being, but the thought that someone might have had the audacity to scale the walls outside and into an open window of an upstairs bedroom. i checked every nook and cranny of our tiny abode (even thought of pulling down the attic covering just to be sure), but didn't find anything nor anyone.

3. the wifey had several encounters, though it would be a mouthful to list them here. thankfully, the kids are still oblivious of the things that go bump in the night (or in our case, even in daylight).

4. a turned-off AV Receiver that instantaneously went on with the remote control inside the built-in storage of the recliner sofa. i tried to come up with rational explanations for the occurence, but at the end i had to succumb to the obvious truth that we are not alone.

i can be a little uneasy, but as long as they keep themselves out of the picture (at least, visually that is), we'll be practicing whatever's left of the sanity and tolerance we still have.

maybe then it's just a Boo! Happy Halloween thing.

Labels: c'est la vie

latest musing of Etchie at 12:11 0 comments

Thursday, October 04, 2007

disparate home fries

okay.

so i'm not jumping into the racist slur brouhaha of Desperate Housewives, though I'd just like to point out the flurry of mixed reactions that came from Filipinos both in the native land and overseas.

first of all, i don't watch the show. for no particular reason, i just don't. well, i did adore teri hatcher when she was doing those string-strapped calisthenics backriding with dean cain. but aside from that, nothing can pull me to primetime boobtube except for Heroes and, maybe, According to Jim.

secondly, i'm not a modern day patriot who would dive headfirst into a cesspool of something worse than a hurled excrement. but I did march into Roxas Boulevard during the Independence Centennial, and somehow believed that we, Filipinos, are feigned nationalists--probably because our unity comes when needed, not because we are united to begin with.

anyway, the issue with the dialogue uttered at Desperate Houseives was, in my belief, a discriminating remark/comment against the Philippines, or collectively, the Filipino people. there was no question of its racist implications, though a lot of people, some Filipinos thought that it was a common blunder that should be taken lightly. it is not. it is tantamount to labelling Blacks as niggers as well as a modern day Kristallnacht for the Jews.

it is not a question of the capacity of Filipino medical professionals, but a question of the Filipinos in general: who are we as people that we are relegated as a supposed punchline to a tv show? we do commit mistakes, grave or not, but we don't deny that. i think that particular line maligned the country more than anything else. the petition that came with it was necessary, but the call to boycott was excessive. overkill, ika nga.

sometimes, i don't know how people react. the issue with Malu Fernandez was total condemnation. probably because Fernandez turned out to be a Filipino herself and the article crossed our boundaries of tolerance. now i ask why should we take this new incident as merely a fleeting instance? why shouldn't this snap our patriotic sanities and react the other way around? maybe some of us think that knowing the facts makes it okay for a person to throw derogatory statements against somebody.

now, so what do we do? nothing, i guess. ABC Network apologized anyway. but that's a good start. i believe that it is imperative for writers (not just tv shows, but every writer) should not create discriminating remarks or comments or dialogues even on the pretext of humor. there is still the moral and an ethical factor that exist on creative liberties.

we learned lessons in the end, but we will not see the finality of this. the complaints will be continuous. the only thing that we managed to reap out of this was the pitiful reality that we are not as united as we initially thought we are.

but then...

maybe, i would still be proud to wave my country's flag at them...

Labels: buhay-kultura, c'est la vie, pulitikol

latest musing of Etchie at 20:09 0 comments

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