Commencement & Other Excercises

This post is a copy of my now defunct Friendster blog. Friendster blog just isn't good, so I migrated all my posts from there to here.

Part I.

Commence means to start or begin. So why are graduations called commencement exercises? Let me clarify that I have nothing against the use of the term, but I’m really wondering why it has to be this term and not something else, say, culminating.

Oh yes, Umberto Eco, semioticians, and all you literary geniuses: It’s got something to do with symbols and all. The students’ confinement at the "four walls" of the "alma mater" will have ended (which makes them now gentlemen and women), but are now actually "set" to "march" out to the "outside world." A "harsh" world, but a world they were prepared for, thanks to the dearly loved alma mater.

Disclaimer: Spoiler follows. If you do not want to read what is obvious, then do not read the next few lines.

"So schooling ends, and f*cking up with the world begins."

Part II.

Today the University of Iloilo will hold its graduation ceremonies. It’s the second time that I attended a graduation ceremony in this university, and the first time that I participated. I am not graduating from this university though: I am the marshal of the College of Arts & Sciences. Rather, I will be this afternoon. I had no idea what I was supposed to do when Engr. Hampac asked me to be the marshal. But I didn’t know what ‘no’ is when he did, so I instead said yes. So welcome back to the world of first timers.

"Like a virgin (Heeeeeey!). March for the very first time."

Part III.

Another first time for me. So I am, today, a virgin twice.

Today I shall also be wearing a toga. Abi ko kun masuksok naman ko barong kag sablay. Hay ambut. Indi man bala, ti indi eh.

A few surprises every not so often is unsurprisingly surprising.

Thought Trains & Migraines

This post is a copy of my now defunct Friendster blog. Friendster blog just isn't good, so I migrated all my posts from there to here.

PART I

I am a person of no focus.

I think I think, and I even think of my thoughts, and I end up having thought trains as long as my DNA strands stretched from India to Indonesia. But somewhere between tracks (or bonds), links break loose, and the trains collapse. And I end up realizing that I managed to lose myself in my thoughts somewhere.

PART II

Two months since my migraine attacks siege. Migraines have gotten the better best of me. Migraines have become my condition rather than an exception. My head is getting heavier and heavier everyday, and my thoughts get pressed between roaring train tracks and extreme pain (extreme must be an exaggeration since I have a high pain tolerance level). Now, I suffer migraine even in my sleep. And I even dream of migraines that smell of green, thick phlegm that clings to my throat and have a hard time "expectorating" when I wake up. Ironically, though, the sight of phlegm blobs that I manage to expel in the morning gives me a relief, even pleasure. How I wish the blobs were the pain I suffer. How I wish I can spit the pain I suffer each and everyday.

In the Beginning

This post is a copy of my now defunct Friendster blog. Friendster blog just isn't good, so I migrated all my posts from there to here.

I think there are, somewhere out there (or down there) — perhaps under 10 feet of desert sand, or on the floor of a 10,000 feet deep sea — still uncovered scripts of ancient times waiting to be found. And the day these scripts will be found will be the day that the secret of the creation of the world will be revealed; Divine Words that have yet to be included in all the world’s Holy Scriptures:

"And God was bored."

After 10 billion years of doing endless summersaults (or perhaps merely floating?) in the abyss between space and un-space, God realized that he had nothing else to do. So with all the powers and omnipotence He had, He thought of playing a game He never yet had thought of: creating a universe, where a conceived earth (because God first had to think about it in His mind) and conceived inhabitants of this planet had to be included. "Oh what fun this game would be!" God must have thought. And so this was God’s Master Plan. And so it was written, and so it was done.

The rest is history.

Boredom is the father of all creations, Divine or human.