Once while channel surfing I came across a documentary on the late Philippine senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, who was the leading figure on the fight against the Marcos dictatorship. His speech moved me so much and I couldn't imagine the extent of the danger he and his family was in at the time. He was opposing a fascist regime that claimed so many innocent lives, sacrificed in the name of greed and power. He didn't back down. He spoke the words with so much conviction, eloquence and so much heart, even though he knew those words would kill him. We salute you, Mr. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino!

I remember liking this movie so much as a kid to the extent that I actually made a lousy blueprint of our house using crayons with the entrances and the exits and the traps I'd set up in case of a burglary. I had lost the drawing, but never my fondness for this film.

And I think I also imitated that scream in front of the mirror thing. What? I was a kid then. Gimme a break.

I'd rather be super intelligent AND extremely good-looking. That's possible, right? Ok well maybe not. In that case I'd rather be super intelligent, because by then I can invent something that can make me - and only me - extremely good looking. Haha!

Need I say more? :)

SANITY! Well, it looks like I am the one doing a pretty good job at that. Haha

Once Around The Block by Badly Drawn Boy

I don't know why I thought of this song as perfect for the open road, but every time I hear it makes me want to drive around aimlessly or maybe get out of the city by bus without any idea where it's heading, just for the heck of it.

Michel Houellebecq's The Possibility Of An Island killed and resurrected me in ways I couldn't put into words. I'll let the novel's protagonist explain it to you:

"This feeling of exclusive attachment I had, which was going to torture me until it eventually annihilated me, found no correspondence at all in her: it had no justification, no raison d'etre; our flesh was distinct, we were unable to experience either the same suffering or the same joy, we were obviously separate beings. Isabelle did not like sexual pleasure, but Esther did not like love; she did not want to be in love. She refused this feeling of exclusivity, of dependence, and her whole generation refused it with her. I was wandering among them like some kind of prehistoric monster with my romantic silliness, my attachments, my chains....

What I was feeling, these young people could not feel, nor even exactly understand, and even if they had been able to feel something like it, it would've made them uncomfortable, as though it was something ridiculous and a little shameful, like stigmata in ancient times...

"They had succeeded, after decades of conditioning and effort, they had finally succeeded in tearing from their hearts one of the oldest human feelings, and now it was done; what had been destroyed could no longer be put back together, no more than the pieces of a broken cup can be reassembled. They had reached their goal: at no moment in their lives would they ever know love. They were free."

Because life can be unfathomable and hellish when you're a kid, and rock stars understand that. Or at least we think they do.

Achtung!

I guess my sense of humor would be the Monty Python + Bill Hicks kind of humor. Deadpan. Sarcastic. Ironic. Satirical.

Because from where I am one is constantly surrounded by hypocrites, self-righteous kneebenders, gossipmongers and tyrannical idiots with only the vaguest notions of democracy and self-respect while promoting banality and stupidity everywhere they go: online, schools, radio shows, television, tabloids, etc.

If you're the type whose sense of humor can disrupt the mediocre and malicious, terrorize the tyrant, create more avenues for alternative ways of looking at the world, then by god, thank you for existing. People who can display wit, creativity, irreverence and brutal honesty while making you laugh your ass of as they infuriate the so-called authority figures with questionable morals are much needed in a world where hypocrisy and ignorance rule. Period.

May God help me!

Why am I avoiding God? Simple. Because by then I would have to confront and accept His actual existence, after which my whole notion of human life and the universe will never be the same.