"daddy, ano ba'y ibig pa bang sabihin 'non?"
one of the stellar things i could count with E.T.'s fingers that happened to me while at araullo university was that of meeting my future wife Marlyn in 1991, the initial DNA merger resulted into an oversized baby girl i named Semenelin (after the concept album Semenelin by the then Makati-based hard rock band Wolfgang), back in 1996 Wolfgang was one the few (yes, you can only use E.T.'s fingers again) respectable local bands, i was totally hooked into them, as vividly told in the title track Semenelin is a gigantic cybernetic guardian of Earth buried deep beneath the bowels of the.. well, earth!, and when powerful earth-moving equipment used for mineral/oil exploration acidentally reach and rudely awaken the "behemoth" he goes into a kind of amok in slo-mo and the prospect is that its wrath will reduce our technoindustrial civilization into dust because humanity disregarded the delicate biosphere in building and maintaining such a civilization, (it's a disappointment Wolfgang disbanded sometime in 2000)
O ! O
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Marlyn and i were dessicated, err dedicated, public classroom teachers during Sem's childhood and we missed our daughter's company so much during the daily grind, Sem grew up under the care of her aunts from both sides and having us only during the evenings, Sem says her near two-year old brother T0n (Saulreever) is one lucky little devil for having us 24/7, her mom and i fled the DeafEd, err DepEd, in unison back in 2003
O ! O
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sometime when she was about four years old Sem scared the flying shit out of Marlyn and me when one night she moved in weird irregular patterns, alternately walking and crawling, forwards and backwards and sidewards WHILE STARING STRAIGHT AND UNBLINKING ON SOMETHING OUTSIDE AN OPEN WINDOW AND TALKING TO HERSELF ON AND ON SAYING "TINGNAN MO O, KANINA PA TINGIN NANG TINGIN SA'KEN 'YUN KAHIT SAAN AKO PUMUNTA" (Look, it has been looking at me for a long time now wherever I go), almost in perfect unison (again) Marlyn and i ran and grabbed her and the three of us almost hit the floor in our panicked and terrified reflex to remove Sem from as far away from that window as possible, Sem burst into a wail suddenly terrified and confused at what we did, her mom went "Anak, anu 'yun.. ano 'yung tinitingnan mo sa labas, ha!?" (What's that thing you were looking at outside), still wailing and almost passing out from it Sem managed to simply point at the window and say "'Yon.. bilog.. 'liwanag" ("There.. round.. shining"), the three of us inched toward the window and there in the cloudless night sky outside we beheld a beautiful full moon
O ! O
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Sem grew playing with imaginary playmates as there were no physical ones around, Marlyn and i got used to watching her produce, direct and act out skits with multiple characters whose dialogues were nothing but gibberish, she would meticulously arrange her toys and household what-nots in rows and stacks and played store owner,she would struggle to walk around in her mom's shoes saying "late na'ko sa mga co-chicher ko," she came to love Little Foot & Co. by watching the complete The Land Before Time series and finally, she learned to write with her left hand
O ! O
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Sem is now in grade iii and she never get past the fourth place overall in school, who knows but maybe she is not driven enough to go past that mark, academics is not the be-all and end-all of life especially of a young budding life (i waited for Sem to tell us when she was ready for school that was why she was already about six when she entered kindergarten) so nothing really drives her hard to wrestle with books, this early i just make her take to heart the basics of life: her decisions are what would make her feel happy or sad and that if she does not find happiness at the moment when would she?, she enjoys dancing and is in her school's dance troupe since grade i, she also enjoys electronic games mainly rpg's (role-playing games),
Marlyn and i also waited for Sem to tell us when would she be ready to give up her title of "Our One and Only Baby," on October 24, 2004 Sem finally became a big sister (Ate or Ateng, and later on evolved into Pateng, as is the penchant of my family to make words degenerate into something weird, funny or offbeat) when her brother Saulreever arrived (the second outcome of the DNA merger)
O ! O
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Happy Birthday, patEng!
O ! O
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"... a decade, big One O!" (Alex to Marty in Madagascar)
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O ! O
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Marlyn and i also waited for Sem to tell us when would she be ready to give up her title of "Our One and Only Baby," on October 24, 2004 Sem finally became a big sister (Ate or Ateng, and later on evolved into Pateng, as is the penchant of my family to make words degenerate into something weird, funny or offbeat) when her brother Saulreever arrived (the second outcome of the DNA merger)
O ! O
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Happy Birthday, patEng!
O ! O
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"... a decade, big One O!" (Alex to Marty in Madagascar)
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