Of Corrupt Generals and Honor

I'd choose General Reyes over General Rabusa any day of the week and twice on Sundays. It is more honorable for a corrupt General to take his life than a corrupt General to turn state witness.

Dad

For the first time since his death in June 2006, I dreamt of my dad today. He was trying to tell me something but I still can't decipher it yet.

I miss you dad.

Successful Branding

During the 90's, a pop rap group called Milli Vanilli hogged the headlines by churning number one hits and winning grammies in the process. Unfortunately, during one of their concerts, it was discovered that they weren't the real artists who sang those songs. After the controversy, the real Milli Vanilli came out but after getting a single out, they were never the same again. But that's a good example of great branding. Pick two foreigners with weird accents that look and dance great and you'll sell albums. Just don't get caught.

However, on the flip side, Charice... a child prodigy with a great voice is also making waves in the US and even starred in a few episodes of Glee. Her music is cool R&B but she still looks like Alice in Wonderland trying to hard to dress up like Paris Hilton. I loved her song reset but when I found out that she was the one who sang it, I'm having second thoughts. Not to take anything away from Charice, she is talented, make no mistake about it. I just don't like the way she is packaged. That's probably a case of poor branding.

A Tale of Two Old Couples

A few hours ago, I was in the NAIA Terminal 3 getting ready to board my flight for Cebu when I noticed an elderly couple, probably both in their late 60's paying at the terminal fee counter. The counter girl asked why the payment for the fee was just for one person, the husband replied that he was just accompanying his wife to the boarding gates. That instantly put a smile on my face. After 30 or more years of being married, this elderly couple has never lost the romance between them. The husband was carrying the wife's belongings before he was finally stopped by the security guard because only passengers were allowed at the pre-departure area. He bade his wife goodbye and while his wife walked away, he was just standing there waiting for his wife to leave his sight. How sweet was that? One day, I'd like to be that old guy. Never losing sight of the important thing in relationships. The romance. When the hot sex is gone, the money is all spent, the body is weak and memory fails you... the romance should always be there.

In contrast, as I was in the tube, another elderly couple was just parallel to my line. I could hear the husband shouting at his wife about some misdirection or misinofrmation fed by the latter. They were traveling with another elderly couple and was also bound for Cebu. They obviously were irritated of eachother. Which is usually the case for most elderly couples. Having the romance well into your twilight years requires a lot of hard work. I began to wonder if this guy was a bad husband from the start and it snowballed and brought the couple to where they are now, both irritated about each other.

That guy can learn a thing or two from the husband who braved the hard parking, the long walk, the flights of escalators, the chaos of the airport and the check-in just to make sure his wife is safe and sound. I guess we can all learn from that guy as well.

Facebook Shutting Down on March 15- Not True

To those FB addicts out there, no man in his right mind who owns a company valued at close to PhP 50B USD will shut down a site just because it ruining his life.

The Elusive MP3

In this time and age of piracy, downloading songs from the internet, torrents and what have you, sometimes there are songs you hear somewhere and decide that you have to get that song whatever happens. But not to the point that you will actually go online and legally purchase it or even worse, go to the record bar and buy the cd copy of it.

So you search and search google, typing everything about the song just to get the chance to have it for free. You sometimes search for days, or even ask a friend from a different country to download it for you if the site is blocked in your country. And the feeling of having that song in your library is just... irritatingly sublime.

I've had my fair share of experiences and I wouldn't even consider myself as a music junkie. But I am proud to say that in my collection of over 1,200 mp3's, I have a selection of songs that can never be ripped off the internet again, such as:

1. "Bakit ba ganyan"- duet version of Vic Sotto and Dina Bonnevie's classic
2. "Little Paradise"- released by The Dawn sometime in the late 80's
3. "Loving You"- from the late great Francis M's first album "Yo", a classic tune sung by him and his wife Pia Arroyo
4. "Stolen"- by Dashboard Confessional the International version with a female singer singing some parts
5. "And So I Know"- a b-side from Stone Temple Pilots
6. "Either Way"- by the Generationals, the song played in the opening credits of "going the distance", nice catchy tune
7. "6 Underground"- umbrella girls remix, another hard find

I'll try to post more songs if I recall the mp3's I searched high and low for. If you need to download any of these mp3's just let me know.

Rave: What's the Deal with Underwear?

A little bit of history, I used to wear classic briefs until the end of gradeschool. As I entered highschool, when Mark Wahlberg was known as Marky Mark and when Vanilla Ice used to show off his boxer shorts while wearing oversized jeans, I knew I had to switch to boxer shorts to keep up. Fortunately, my dad has several pairs of unused boxer shorts in various prints. I got into boxer shorts well into my early employment. I used to love the feel of freedom and it seems like there was always a cool breeze down there.

A trip to the US changed all that. I was introduced to boxerbriefs in 1996 and started wearing them in 2003. It's a hybrid, I get the no non-sense serious underwear guy look of the boxer while getting the proper support from a brief. It was the best thing.

I still have my boxers though, but I only wear them to bed. My boxerbriefs, well, let's just say I can't get enough of them. I even set aside the good pairs for the weekend, and wear out my old pairs during the weekdays. I have different colors and patterns and ironically, even if I know that they won't be seen by the outside world, I even try to pair them up with what I would put over them (i.e. blue jeans would go well with my striped blue boxerbriefs, etc.)


Is it just me? Or do other guys do that as well?