Firefox 3

Firefox 3's download servers are on its knees. I gotta blog while waiting to get my chance to get through.

The reason why it feels good to surf through the web is because of Firefox. I came across it in 2006 just before its 2.0 version came out and.. OH, I got through now! See you

I am now seven and 3O.

For want of something exciting to do on my 37th birthday, I blog.

So, nothing unusual except I don't feel I am 37. I feel tired. I miss my stationary running for quite a week now. I've been losing a lot of sleep too in my obsession to read a lot on the Internet at night. Nothing also tires one than working at home doing nothing but sit and keep time. Boredom sucks not just energy but spirit, and enthusiasm, youth and the mind.

What bears down on me harder is the prospect that there is no foreseeable reprieve from my depressing lot any time soon.

So maybe you'd want to check this page again one year from now, when I get to become eight and 3O.

I-Nang's "Paalaala" Last Sunday

The first time I met my would-be mother-in-law was in their house in Gapan in mid-1993 when her daughter and I were already an item for more than six months. I was in my most polished self complete with a bouquet of flowers. "Ano ka ba ni Marlen," she queried right off even before i could wish her a good afternoon. "Kaibigan po," I lied ashen-faced. We never had a single misunderstanding ever. According to rumors she said I was the best son-in-law she ever had, the rest were just outlaws. Boy, I miss the grand lady.


Last Sunday, July 8, was my mother-in-law's third death anniversary. Reminding us the living of a departed loved one's day of death is customarily observed annually by most Christians (here in the Philippines, at least). Call it love and respect beyond the grave. Love, like hope springs eternal. Lovely.

As usual, we congregated at Ditseng Lita's place in Mahipon, Gapan City (Ditseng Lita is I-nang's youngest sister. Why we call Mother-In-Law I-nang was because my daughter Sem called her that way). I always look forward to going to Mahipon. It still has that ideal and idyllic remoteness that I long for as a respite to my stressful city living.

We had lots of food and pleasantries (Ate Ellen reduced the caldereta into gravy while Ditseng Lita's son-in-law Sonny reinvented the minatamis na kundol). Ditseng Lucy and her hubby Kuyang Peter came, of course. So did Kuyang Cezar, the venerable big brother. Sundry blood relatives to the nth degree were also there. My low-end digicam was catching its breath in capturing the moments. (Click my Flickr badge somewhere in this page for the pics. A silent movie is also a click away below).

Later in the day we paid I-nang a visit. We lit a candle on her grave. The kids marauded the cemetery bougainvilleas for flowers. We said silent prayers. Over at Discovery Channel a special feature was being prepared. It was about Hatshepsut, the grandest queen Egypt ever had. Long gone but still revered.

Carmelita Maniquis Sta. Maria
dressmaker extraordinaire
1936 - 2004

A New Look

It's been half a year since I last posted. My New Year's wish last January to be able to post regularly was not granted. I feel like posting again just because I feel like to since I restyled this blog (obvious, as in apparent, ain't it?). I stumbled upon this yellow pad template somewhere in the Wild Wild Web and I am suddenly all psyched up to blog again. Yeeahh-ha!

So maybe, I could really post something later on. I'm outta here.

rats rot after ratting on themselves

extinction of a certain species happens because such a species could ill adapt to man's ways, but as always there are exceptions (and even reversals of) to a rule, rats could easily be the most successful in adapting to human living, they are practically around just because we are



there is a periodic surge in the number of rats where i live, i would be comfortable to employ a couple of whiskered goons as cleaners but marlyn has psychological aversions to pets and the kids have clinical ones, i have no choice but to engage the vermin in a protracted chemical warfare

O!O
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my weapon of choice is the "Magic Blue Rice," we call it that way in going along with the sticky notion that rats are a smart-ass bunch and possessed of human linguistic understanding that we humans should better be communicating in codewords lest they overhear or sense what we are up to

O!O
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in the last week of 2006 i noticed an imminent "surge" once again, there were sounds of movements in their usual haunt - the ceilings, and in the dead of the night i could hear their gnawings and shrill shrieks, marlyn promptly acquired a fresh pack of Magic Blue Rice for my offensive, however the hoopla of the coming new year celebration distracted me from the warpath

O!O
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much to our bemused surprise last week our house was enveloped by a reeking stink of decaying rat flesh, the intensity of the foulness of the pervading smell was plainly telling of a large number of decomposing dead animals, i found a few corpses lying about in some nooks but the bad news was that the majority of the kills was apparently confined in the inaccessible ceilings

O!O
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it turned out -to my unending amusement and awe- that this doomed generation of rats had either a suicidal streak or a curse of stupidity or both in them, they died because they snuck in my Magic Blue Rice hiding place (which is a steel locker compartment with an unreliable lock), ripped open the carton pack and the pouch itself and almost emptied the contents, i could picture them even fighting one another in a frenzied bid to "outmunch" each other

Tripping on magical blue rice: All that's left of a self-destructive binge

O!O
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what makes me grateful to those departed vermin was that they saved me the time in casting those Magic Blue Rice myself, even saved me some soap and water in rinsing my hands afterwards

O!O
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"This is me, I think it's apparent I need to rethink my life.
I just can't help it I like good food and... that's hard for a rat to find".

Remy, the Paris-based rat in Pixar's upcoming Ratatouille


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cousin edwin "gapo" returns to dust

In the mid-80's, Edwin was deeper into New Wave music than I and he had managed to get a pretty decent Walkman. He ecstatically came to me one night and he made me put the earbuds on with Modern Talking in full blast and he went: "'Yan Ever 'yung stereong-stereo na paghihiwalay ng sound, pansinin mo 'yung chorus: ""In my mind, mind, mind, mind.. In my soul, soul, soul, soul..'"


edwin was my my mom's little brother's firstborn in a brood of six boys, he was half a year my junior, we grew up together in valdefuente but our differences in a lot of things failed us to become close

O!O
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edwin and i cheated death late in 1994 when, together with 4 or 5 equally dead drunk buddies, we miraculously survived a car crash that was so violent the witnesses swore the vehicle rolled over twice before it rested on its top

O!O
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edwin was so glad when i took him as one of my daughter Semenelin's godfathers in September 1996 that he insisted on having us ride his run-down car to the church and back, he did not bother doodling in anything romantic opting instead to cruise the easy life of single blessedness

O!O
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edwin survived numerous and serious gunshot and stab wounds throughout his adventurous, albeit short, life but it was a killing kind of anemia that did him in last sunday, january 7 (curiously enough, edwin's father, Kuya Ed, survived the carnage of Jolo, Sulu in the 70's while serving in the then Philippine Army, as a boy i saw several of the bullet-bruised helmets he kept as testaments to his close calls with death, he died of tetanus in 1984, not from an infected bullet wound but from toothpick-inflicted gum injury)

O!O
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Edwin Puno Malgapo (1971-2007)
...pinsan, kalaro, kumpare, kainuman


...sleep well and tight, quietly rest..

Wolfgang, Cast Of Clowns

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nica's hitching

among the staples of my childhood radio was the one having a line that went "... this girl has turned into a woman.."

Nica & Romel: 'Til Death Do Us Part

marlyn's eldest sister's (the resilient Ate Bendeng) eldest daughter Veronica became a lawfully wedded wife to a Hagonoy-Bulakeño Romel Perez yesterday, i'm not into emotional human affairs but my fortifications gave way seeing the happiness of everyone from each of the families' camp as they have essentially been bound by the newlyweds' oneness

Ringleader: What's a shindig without T0n

O!O
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the event was also a reunion of sort for me since i hadn't seen Ate Bendeng's whole family in about five years, we were all together in Gapan in the late 1990's until marlyn and i moved here in Cabanatuan City and they left for Montalban, Rizal

All Out Support for Nica: Ischanan, Sandra, patEng & Roxanne (aka Usa or Uwak)

O!O
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the reception at the Perez' residence in San Pascual, Hagonoy, Bulacan was a warm and sumptuous one, i closed my eyes and dove into the sea of cholesterol and sugar, marlyn and her other sisters (Ate Inda nad Ate Elen) whose fixation is to fault food in banquets and feasts found the cooking surprisingly alright (just.. alright)

Seven On One: 'Wag na 'wag kang magkakamali, Romel

O!O
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one interesting note i have is the road to San Pascual which is disturbingly narrow, a claustrophobic would bolt out of the vehicle and run back, we got stuck several times just because a car or a tricycle ahead was stopping to load or unload, road shoulders are nonexistent, one could buy something from a roadside store without leaving the vehicle, i could not help but complained to my companions that firetrucks have a big trouble in navigating such a rat route in case of fire

Escapade: Homeward bound

ps - our cheap knockoff digital camera is way off date again

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