Nobody’s Perfect – Even Pinoy Superstars!
Pinoywood icons, Blockbuster celebrities, professional basketball stars, and Filipino award winners are very much adored and highly respected in the Philippine society. But things are not always what they seem. The reality: Nobody’s perfect – even distinguished Pinoy superstars!
Bong Alvarez
Ex-cager Paul “Bong” Alvarez was criminally charged for allegedly mauling a taxi driver and an ABS-CBN female reporter. The Mandaluyong City Prosecutors’ Office told Bong Alvarez to pay P4,000 for bail. The deputy director for the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility added that Alvarez violated press freedom when he prevented the reporter to interview the taxi driver at the police station.
Nora Aunor
Nora Aunor, labeled as Superstar in Philippine cinema, was arrested for possession of illegal substance at the Los Angeles Airport in 2006 and was sentenced to “18 months of deferred entry of judgment,” according to a clerk of court of the Superior Court of Los Angeles in California. Nora Aunor once again shocked the Filipino community when she got married in Las Vegas but not to any of the men who came into her life—but to a woman, her talent manager Norie Sayo.
Are you a Josh Groban fan?
I’m not but my Cebu-based friend Leah is. She texted me early today to ask me to find out how much tickets to his Manila concert this October cost. Tickets started selling today at
Marocharim.com
I was checking my e-mail today when I came across a legitimate e-mail from the good people of PinoyBlogosphere.com notifying me that because I won the Participants’ Choice Award in the recently-concluded Wika2007 Blog Writing Contest, I have the prize of a free domain name and webhosting service for one year. Yup, the project of Marocharim.com is now a reality. I’d like to thank everyone who supported me in that cause: the 17 people who voted for my entry, and of course the participants who chose me as their pick to win the contest.
Yup, Marocharim.com exists. The only problem is I don’t know how to use HTML.
My idea for Marocharim.com is not the shameless self-glorification that there is in The Marocharim Experiment. Basically, I’ll still do my blogging here. I envision Marocharim.com to be a lot of things:
- A repository for the things I have written that are still “alive” in my home computer. This includes everything from term papers, short essays (what I like to call “non-experiments,” constructs, drafts, and so on and so forth. It’s all a matter of compiling stuff into convenient PDF’s (protected to ensure that nobody passes off any paper I’ve written as his/her own) and such.
- A repository for the things I have written that are found in those moldy notebooks in my bookshelf. In retrospect, those scribbles make a lot of sense. Some kid out there would deem my one-liners to be what Edmund Husserl was to Martin Heidegger (just an example: just because I consider myself Husserlian doesn’t mean that I’m a synoptic extension of Husserl). Besides, all my best thoughts are written in those notebooks.
- A repository for the things other people have written that may find a good home in the public space that is the Internet. Consider those students, faculty members and such who have written so much in the way of great ideas, but don’t have a place to make themselves heard. Here’s a great chance for them to do so.
Which brings me to my problem: I don’t know how to use HTML, and I don’t know shat about this “webhosting” thing. So I’m asking goodwilled bloggers everywhere if you could teach me how to get around having an appealing site for these objectives. Drop me a line.
And again, thank you: without you, Marocharim.com would never be a reality.
Myanmar: protests against junta escalates
From the Irrawaddy: Burmese Army cracking down a mass protest in 1988
It all started with a series of protests in the usually quiet capital city of Myanmar over oil price increases in the latter part of August.
The Pinoy Blogopedia needs YOU!
We would like to invite all pinoy bloggers to join us in contributing contents to the on-going project of PBS – The Pinoy Blogopedia. You may add any notable information about pinoy blogging, pinoy bloggers, pinoy blogs, pinoy blog groups, pinoy blogging news or anything about pinoy blogging in general.
The Pinoy Blogopedia
http://www.pinoyblogopedia.org
This project is currently hosted at
http://blogopedia.pinoyblogosphere.com
but will be moving to http://www.pinoyblogopedia.org soon.
See you there! 
Apathy: The Most Cold-Hearted Murderer Of Them All
During the past few days, there has been an increase in the number of posts on graduating U.P. student Cris Mendez, who allegedly died of hazing injuries during the initiation rites of a well-known fraternity. Most of the posts expressed indignation at how a fraternity can use violence to discern which individual deserved to be treated and called as a “brother” or “brod“. Many were dismayed at how the fraternity members are keeping quiet about the whole issue. And people are enraged at the doctor who had the gall to just leave Cris at Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) and disappear, while the young man slowly died.
With all these emotional posts, it was a bit of a surprise to read a post written about the young man’s death that seemed too cold for comfort.
The blogger has limited access to her site because of the number of commenters who expressed dismay at what she wrote:
the access to the previous post is now limited because there are people who keep on reading it, end up getting hurt and blame me. As if I forced them to read it. And so just so there would not be any temptation to read it, I have limited people’s access to it.
Well, it’s her right to do so. If she doesn’t want to be bothered by those whom she hurt with what she wrote, she’s entitled to put a limited access on her posts. So for now, only a few people have seen what she wrote that hurt some of those who were able to read it, which are actually friends or acquaintances of Cris Mendez.
What she didn’t know is that I have a copy of that post.
But since I do not intend that a mob go after her and wreak havoc to her site, I choose not to post the article. Not even snippets or a link to her site. There’s just too much hurt going around and I do not want to add to it. However, I want to say what I think about what she wrote. And since, I don’t think she’s open to such exchange of ideas (when actually she accuses her commenters for being close-minded on the issue of Cris Mendez but she, herself, does not want to read what they think of her post), I’ll just post my rant here.
In summary, she wrote (in Filipino) that she wasn’t at all affected by Cris Mendez’ death since she doesn’t know him that much and that she didn’t feel the impact of his existence in her life (they’re batchmates, though). She felt only a loss for a potential that he had. She felt no pity, though. Nor anger at what the fraternity members did to him.
Garcy, the slippery eel, & Abalos, the womanizer
I thought Senator Villar had Garcy’s subpoena signed to summon him in court today? But as it turned out, Garcy would attend Senate hearings on the 14th instead because his lawyer, Atty. Eddie Tamondong, said that Garcy is in an undisclosed hospital in Manila where he was undergoing a medical examination. If I remember it correctly, he also had a minor surgery back when he was suppose to be in court, right? And now, he’s in the hospital again? What, is he planning to have plastic surgery and smuggle himself out of the country to evade this scandal?
And the sad thing is, if the subpoena was delivered and he wasn’t able to attend it, Garcy would have been held for contempt. CONTEMPT. That’s the best remedy the Senate can come out with so far.
Meanwhile, Abalos is underfire for doing some magic on the ZTE/ National Broadband Network deal. Frankly, I do not know the whole story of this broadband thing with ZTE Corp. and why Abalos is even implicated here, but isn’t it weird that he would be in the news again for doing some ‘mysterious’ work that he supposedly shouldn’t get involved in?
And wow, I have to say that to whoever said that Abalos went to China to smoothen out the broadband deal with ZTE Corp in exchange for hot sex with two chinese women is a genius. That’s not something you read everyday and certainly not what you’d expect someone in his 70s to do. Kinda creepy but entertaining at the same time.
Writers Forum
I have been a member of Writers Forums for about three years now although I was active for only a few weeks.
Not much can be said about Writers Forums except that it is a straight up forum for writers. Writers Forum uses VBulletin. Topics are organized very well. There are places to have your works critiqued, ask for tips and advice on writing, discuss authors and books, and et cetera. Writers Forum allows good interaction among its members. They even have special sections wherein members can talk about how their week went.
My personal favorite in Writers Forum is the fact that they have these quick writing prompts which can easily break your writer’s block.
Writers Forum covers every topic a Writer might be interested in. There’s even a place wherein Writers could look into for freelance or full time writing jobs.
The Politics of Language in OPM
Last September 1, 2007, at the Nepo Quadrangle, Angeles City, San Miguel Beer, Kikoman Productions, and the Angeles City Tourism Office held a Battle of the Bands. In the event, the host said something that praises “Pampangueno Rock” (in Tagalog), and ironically, Kapampangan is never used in rock.
Some argue that anything produced by a Kapampangan is already Kapampangan music. Well, this is what they want us to think. I call most bands “Kapampangan People who make non-Kapampangan songs.”
And then the host also said something like (the host speaks mostly in Tagalog, by the way), “give the Pampangueno rockers a chance to play with national rock musicians (who are, duh, mostly Tagalog musicians.”
Isn’t it insulting and amazing at the same time, that we are placed inferior to our co-Filipino musicians, yet we feel as if nothing is wrong? This is because the ideology that we are REGIONAL/unofficial and they are NATIONAL/official has been injected in our brains. We have internalized downgrading ourselves as Kapampangans, to the point that the enemy is no longer the national language policy or the domination of Tagalog in mass media but OURSELVES.
Have you ran out of ideas to write on your blog?
Ever been in a state where you feel you have run out of ideas to write about? You feel that you have squeezed your brain into a pulp but still not even a single drop of idea leaks out? You might start to think, “Oh no! What should I do? If I don’t post today, I’ll be labeled as an inconsistent blogger and my readers will leave me!” Then you will change your schedule for today, “Today, I’m not going to eat, bath or even breathe until I publish a new article“.
So if ever you feel that you’ve run out of ideas, I’ve got tips for you!
Don’t Panic
This is the first thing that you should do. Do not panic! When you panic, you put a lot of pressure to yourself and you will not be able to think well. Remember that this is not a race. You should write at your own pace. Do not force yourself to write just because you have to. Do not be a slave to your blog where the blog commands you to “Write on me! or suffer!!!“. Do not compare this to schoolwork or your job where you have to meet deadlines or face the consequences.
More tips on what you should do when you have ran out of ideas to write on your blog…
