Blog Posts on youth concerns

Bath by Going against the current on May 27, 2012Filipinos are wont to say “I took a bath” instead of the more accurate “I took a shower.” They both mean the same to us, but there’s a slight difference, of course. Taking a shower means having running water falling from...

Half-smiles by Going against the current on May 22, 2012I know. I know. This world is a sad one and my being sad now will not make it a little less sad. A sad company is still a sad company. It was raining today. I went to school, did my perfunctory role as a student, listened attentively, and sometimes g...

Intent by Going against the current on May 12, 2012Let’s break the ice all over again. I have been absent here for a time that I do not know how to begin a post anymore. Shall I begin by posing a question, posting a picture, quoting a famous person, or writing a sentence or two of gibberish? Mo...

Slow by Going against the current on May 8, 2012Today was cold. We lunched on reheated food from dishes of two nights ago. Lunch reminded me of those lunches I had back in the Philippines when I never really had to enjoy food, as the sole object of the act of eating is satiation of hunger. I didn&...

Reading series 3: Empires of the Word, A Language History of the World by Going against the current on May 7, 2012But the situation compares ironically with the contest of English and Spanish in North America in the same period, where if anything Spanish - in its version seeded to Mexico, Central America, Cuba, and Puerto Rico - is growing at the expense of Engl...

Another tattoo by Going against the current on May 5, 2012I would never imagine getting a tattoo before. Much less having somebody’s name tattooed into my skin. Nonetheless, for some ideas, thoughts, and emotions human language is incapable of succinctly articulating, we still got our body to express...

On old posts by Going against the current on Apr 30, 2012I do not disown them, but as you reread old posts written three years ago, let me give you a disclaimer: they were my thoughts years ago. Then. Some are kept as they are aspects of my core that years gone by simply cannot erase; most, however, were a...

Reading series 2: Genres of Discourse by Going against the current on Apr 26, 2012And yet whiteness is not a straightforward object of desire, any more than light is: blackness is desired, and whiteness is only the disappointing result of a desire that proclaim itself satisfied. Whiteness will be disavowed, as a truth that is eith...

Choosing to be happy* by Going against the current on Apr 25, 2012It has been four years or so since I graduated from college, and the past four years left me a bit disgruntled, dissatisfied, and aimless, even angry. At some point I began to question my motives for staying in Manila, teaching Literature (a subject...

Barok by Going against the current on Apr 22, 2012I am yet to figure out whether the word baroque which refers to “a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architectu...