kokak: my #2, #4 and #5 GESM page favorites [a repost from july 18, 2010]

it's not everyday that i get to think and re-think about my favorite blog entries in my one of my favorite blogsites. as i confessed months ago, i'm an avid reader of the candid-candy-slot-machine-type of page orman manansala has. not only because he's from gensan too but also because it fills my wishing-to-be-that-brutally-frank-not-minding-it's-published urges. last week, i came up with my top5 favorites, in time for his contest about such...but i was kinda having second-thoughts of joining, hence, it's 'piled' as draft. i figured i could just rewrite it (with no contest in mind) anytime soon.

rewriting (for the nth time) i'm now ready to tell him and the world [all of my lucky-19 registered blog-readers, my thousands (evilsmirk) of page viewers, hundreds of fans and who-knows-how-many friends (whew!)] my favorites (my 3 of the many).

#2 SILWAY IN MY MIND @  http://gandaeversomuch.com/2009/08/what-ever/silway-in-my-mind/ .
i so love the simplicity of this entry, reminds me a lot of how i feel everytime i think of that old street in my mother's hometown (somewhere in leyte). it's the knowing that once in your life, you have been a child of that street and the memories of the street in your mind keeps on haunting you everytime you see changes through the years. it seems like you can still feel the dust in your feet, can still feel that old familiar breeze and hear the once-loud chimes of a dear old church...

#4 MAGUINDANAO MASSACRE @ http://gandaeversomuch.com/2009/11/lungkot-ever/maguindanao-massacre/ . this is an entry with a negative material (figuratively). even as i am in manila, i felt the pain that my friends and people of the whole of soccsksargen  and the world felt hearing/reading this tragic news. my plurk timeline was filled then with expressions of sympathies and anger and pain... i kept myself abreast with everything about the incident and prayed prayed prayed. this page, is not one of my favorites because it was an instrument of shock but because it reminded me how life is fleeting and how it can be cruel at one time.

#5 LESSON IN HUMILITY @ http://gandaeversomuch.com/2010/01/serious-ever/a-great-lesson-in-humility/. as with my #1 and #3 (please don't ask me about this- *giving an evil-grin*), this page showed the human side of orman, and i love it so much when i read a page that's unafraid and ever-willing to let go of human emotions (what are blogs for?), one to share the deepest pains (joys too) and one with lessons to teach. one to remind me that i may not live long enough to make all the mistakes in the world (if lessons are to be learned from my mistakes alone).


so there. that's that. and that's why.

P.S.---thank you orman. keep writing. keep sharing. keep living (you know- say it the way pacman does). [ooops, pictures we're stolen from the webpage http://www.gandaeversomuch.com/ --- hope you don't mind. (cozy) thanks!]

mantra: ganda-ever-so-much I AM!

i have always been a wannabe-writer. but since (then president) fidel ramos wanted me (and other iskolars ng bayan) to study economics, i did. i figured i could still be a writer (in my own time/ in my own way) and an economics professor if i so think and want it that way. 'organized' as i am (no violent reactions please), i alloted to spend some of my free time online -- sharing my thoughts (even tutoring for free) to my students and friends. i even junked my old diary and shifted to this page... and sometimes i do what teeners call "surfing". oh my, that surely beats library time!!!

one fine day, i spotted a page with a picture of someone who looked familiar. was he the manager of my bank (well, not actually MY bank, but i have an account there!)? oh yes, he is the 'orman manasala'! he was all candid in his shots and ever darlingly-frank in his words. he was all he is even when i see him in my miga anji's office.

so i 'favourited' the page and since then have been craving (pardon my word) for not just his personal thoughts but of the happenings of my ever-beloved-adopted-hometown gensan (he's the usual fairy behind the fests).

fast forward: i got to know him better and somehow up-close (as with http://www.gandaeversomuch.com/)  when his ever-active kuya avel made me an official member of the soccsksargen bloggers, even as i am miles away from gensan (hopefully temporarily). the two sure is the duo that completes the circle of gensan living (huh, that line has a spark of genius!). thanks heavens for them!

super fast forward: i intended (for days now) to make a tribute entry for the blogpage that has been amusing and informing me for so long (it's the blogoversary!!!) but so oh oh, here goes the dreaded 'block' again (excuses, excuses)... so what i did was visit the page once more...and...woot! contests to the max! prizes-ever-fabulous-to-be-given-away. what a way to celebrate! ganda-ever-orman-style! beat that!

will i join? do i know how to? oh well, tech-idiots sure do know how to find ways. now, if only this tech idiot can find a way to at least make the page orman/lyle-readable before this week's contest ends . oh well, whatever happens, as inspired by ganda-ever so much --- ganda-ever-so-much-i am! (how's that for my new mantra?)

CONGRATULATIONS GANDAEVERSOMUCH!!!

pixs you see in this entry is my weird-almost-futile-attempt to promote myself to a tech-slowlearner from a tech-idot. (doh) failed!

pyesta at piYESta KTV - my stop in Sox Summer Safari

after the hustle and bustle of the election fever (that chapter of my life when i decided to serve the country for a week sundown til midnight to recount votes as a guilt-gift because i was not able to vote),  i decided to take a short break from school. but it wasn't a break at all...even before i went to the airport, i had a list of invits, nyay! oh well, life is short so i did my best to squeeze in time for those invits, in-between house-chores, bonding with my boys, preps for my paper when i get back to school and some lazy time watching (envying) wowa swim in a pro-pool (i feel like wonderwoman!).

one of those invits is the GRAND EYEBALL of mindanao bloggers at piYESta KTV (end of may 2010). the eyeball was just one stop of the Sox Summer Safari organized by gensan's pride-the manansala duo. 1. that was the first time that i attended an 'eye-ball' and met bloggers / plurkers of davao and cagayan de oro. 2. that was the first time that i visited pyesta ktv (gensan certainly changes so fast) 3. that was the first time i ate lechon (courtesy of then mayor now congressman engr. jun acharon)  without 'pyoooking' (jejeje).

that night was fun-filled - chatters, laughters plus slurps and munch munch of more than 30 people (age ranging 14 to 54?) in a cozy room (thanks donna dear, the syringe shots made me look like a yahoo messenger smiley!). that one night is one i surely won't forget. thanks to kuya avel (http://www.gensantos.com/) for always including me as part of the sox bloggers family and orman (http://www.gandaeversomuch.com/) too.

for pixs and summary of the entire tour (say, for moments of wanting to feel envious coz i didn't have the chance to join), i just visit the pages of sox bloggers, and here's one of them---
www.etcetera3x.blogspot.com/2010/mfat-mindanao-food-food-appreciation-tour.html

now i'm back to my usual to-the-neck writing schedule for school... i keep the memories of my short break in my mind for moments i need them- for whatever reason/purpose it may serve. whew!