Potipot Island, A Gem

I personally welcome you to a two-day almost all-expense paid trip to Potipot Island and Dawal Beach Resort in Uacon, Candelaria, Zambales last October 24 and 25, 2009.

The resort’s coast was just a 5-minute boat ride to that glistening white island topped with lush trees. We enjoyed a splash-filled trip with those boats in the picture.

Upon arrival, people instantly shed their clothes and slippers and swam to the cold blue waters.

The island can be circumnavigated in an hour. The breakwater supports a healthy ecosystem of seaweeds, fish, eels, seashells, and small crabs. I had a lot of fun picking shells with different patterns on the backs, or fronts, I don’t know. The shells are still here inside the plastic bag beside me beside my lotion, powder, deo, and other paraphernalia. It’s a nice place for them, kinda heart-warming.

And we move on from shells to what tickles the palate, the most important part of the trip for gluttons. The food, I’d say it’s not the kind that you see in fancy restaurants served in the gourmet-ness of it all. What you’ll taste is the calming flavor of home-cooked food presented in the local barrio fiesta manner – simple but very inviting.

Of course, the nights far from home are never complete without a pinch of alcohol, a salty dog in this bit.

Potipot was an adventure I’ll never forget. It was my most needed savior from all the stress and pollution of the city. My life was hanging by a thread because of many forms of harassment, including physical in terms of lack of sleep, back pains, and headaches. The getaway was my little dimension of peace and I’ll be forever thankful for the inspiration it gave me from the day I decided to go and the many days to come from hereon.

Many thanks to Attorney Tuy Magsalin for the warm welcome and the two-day trip to this little gem of the Philippine Archipelago right in his very own cozy backyard. :)

Magic Eye

A stereogram is a 3D rendering of an image embedded within a 2D image. You need to cross your eyes to see it in 3D. I developed the skill of looking at stereograms in two days. My friends got it in just a few minutes.Well, I learned it at a very slow pace, which made my life very frustrating, but when I saw the pop-up-looking image of eleven groups of candies, everything switched back to normal, and better. Got this image from Magic Eye. Go on. Try it, too.

Here’s a link of a moving stereogram. If you got past the eleven candies, you may click here. If not, go to hell. Kidding. :)

Life Goes On

10 hours ago, I was making straight lines distanced 1 millimeter apart over a few pieces of tracing paper. I had my warm-up after the third set. Just when I was ready for the worst, my group mate told me that I did a great job. And the task was over. Heartbreaking, isn’t it? Just when you’re all spiced up for the big thing, fate tells you it’s not going to happen anymore.

There’s one Filipino word that captures the idea. Paasa.

Life is indeed unfair. You get your head high and get yourself ready because what’s going to happen is something you’re expecting to, not just hoping to happen. Then, from the moment you start expecting, it stops. Everything that should have been after that moment vanishes as if it was never there. You know something has failed yet you find no one to blame. Not the typhoon, not the dog manure you stepped on. Not even yourself.

I packed my stuff, waved good bye to my group mates, and walked out of the gate. It felt good. I didn’t care about life being paasa. I cared more about the time fate saved for me to do what was left undone. So, if you think all your expectations failed and a good span of time has been lost, think harder. Maybe, fate’s just around the corner waiting for you to accomplish what he’s been telling you to do from the start.

Cheers to good work, girls. Let’s hope our professors won’t be so meticulous next semester.

The Secret-Keeper’s Secret

Are secrets really meant to be spilled? There has always been a high demand for secrets. And secret-keepers are always drawn to the power of peer pressure to spill the beans.

I believe that I am an excellent secret-keeper. When I am sworn to secrecy, I close down my memory of having known that secret and shove it in to the deepest recesses of my mind, a place where access is only possible by threat, wherein I hardly remember what I was told in the first place.

There are also other types of secret-keepers. One kind is those who believe that secrets are a kind of celebrity status. Secrets provide the spotlight. You just have to take a few steps and bask in it. These people recognize the immense power of forbidden knowledge and use it for the purpose of self-promotion. They know the magnitude of these hurried whispers that when unleashed, bring about immeasurable damage.

I call them ill-fated gutters. There is at least one from every circle of three people at minimum, your high school circle of girl friends to your call center officemates to your mother’s chismax neighborhood. What’s with the terminology, you ask. They are gutters because they channel secrets to a wider audience, just as real-world gutters end up dislodging their contents to the sea. They are ill-fated because they look out forever to an ocean less magnificent than the day before.

My secret?

Sorry, I forgot.

Full Moon

My room’s a mess. Basket’s full of soiled clothes. Bedside table’s covered in dust. Workload’s piling up. What have I been doing these days?

A little volunteering. Downloading movies. Watching movies. Clicking on sites. Repeat.

Writing stuff out might serve me good, or maybe not. It’s like clicking on Google’s I’m Feeling Lucky and ending up on a dead site. Like me.

Life is pissing me off more often. And I have a feeling that there is something terribly wrong with me. It isn’t instinct nor paranormal. I just feel like I’m being choked at the heart by my own hands disregarding the thought that I don’t want any pain. Maybe, this is what lovers call a heartbreak. Unfortunately, I am not in any situation even slightly resembling that kind of emotional activity.

God, I think I’m losing my senses. Bring it back. Bring me back.