A Poet's Notebook: Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice

Cold nights never seem to end

They don't die.

They don't leave.

They shall linger.

Cold winds seep through my skin

As Darkness fills all parts of the room

'Til it no longer finds space

and takes refuge in my heart.

The absence of light

Is the absence of hope.

The absence of hope

Shall numb my senses.

I shall not see.

I shall not feel.

I shall not taste nor smell.

And I shall not hear.

'Til someday, somewhere

I shall experience death in silence.

It shall be a fine evening to you.

Not to me.

No, not for me.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wrote this last May 29, 2007 at 8:05 PM. That's what it said in my Multiply blog. This poem was written at the height of my hopeless battle with unrequited love. It won me a poetry slam contest, though. 

A Poet's Notebook: Magnificent Wings

Photo by iardacil @ deviantart.com

Magnificent wings--

We take flight among the stars

And reach for our dreams.

Author's Note: There was a time when I really loved composing haiku. This is one of my favorites.

Say Cheese!

I was getting ready to write a review about the restaurants we ate at during our Bicol trip last weekend, when I was called for merienda. The menu: Mom's home baked carrot cake, provolone cheese and coffee. I was pleasantly surprised that the cheese actually went perfectly well with carrot cake! A sudden inspiration to write about cheese suddenly hit me. 

I grew up in a home where everyone loves cheese. I remember one time when my mom and I were grocery shopping, we decided to buy different kinds of cheese we haven't tried yet. My best friend's mom is also a big cheese fan, so I get to eat goat cheese, provolone cheese, and other kinds of cheese from time to time. You can say, my love affair with cheese is starting to get serious day by day, so why not express my love for cheese by dedicating a whole post to it? 

[disclaimer: I am not an expert on cheese, and everything I am going to write is based on personal observation, experience, and encounters with cheeses]

There are over 500 kinds of cheese, but I will only talk about the ones that I have tried. Let's start with.....

refleksyowns..

KP, Tinlyn, Me, Mel, Merrill (?). Circa 2008.

I was actually looking for an excuse to post this pic, but couldn't find one, so what the heck. there it is. i simply like the pic. don't ask why. :)

+++++++++

Okay, so let's talk about this week and the week before that and more weeks before that. Let's just take this as my (very short) reflection or something about the year 2008. LOL

It's good. I mean, nothing major happened the past few days, weeks, and months, but I'm just happy. I learned to be contented with my life, my family, my friends, being single (hell yeah!) and with who I am.


I learned to be optimistic; learned to shut off all the negative erergies. haha! Keber to all the problems! Sure, I have had my moments. dramahan and all the chuvaness, but after a few minutes, i'm okay again.


So basically, 2008 was a good year for me and the people I care about. :D

From Stalker to Genius

I guess some of you have already read the article about Pablo Banila by Bianca Consunji in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (find it here).

Pablo Banila, or Pablo Bantolo in real life, explained his side via an email interview. According to the article, it's his bots that do all the "stalking". Apparently Pablo Banila is just a computer programmer who uses a software that can view thousands of webpages a day. And he only did it to exercise his right to view other people's public profile. And since he only views  profiles without threatening anybody, technically, his activities cannot be considered as stalking.

Perhaps the one thing that freaked people out, myself included, was his "scarecrow headshot". However for Pablo this is discrimination. He said that he viewed profiles using "stereotypical images of innocence (young, attractive and female) at the same duration" but no one reacted.

So now that all's clear, people are suddenly referring to Pablo Banila as the Genius. He is no longer the creepy stalker that he was. As for me, I'm just happy we now know this guy's real identity.