Reply ASAP?!

I have friends who send quotes daily, or rather hourly, with the usual dose of jokes and greetings. Whenever the message starts glumly, in an uncommon manner, and blatantly unimportant I tend to just mark them as read and not even bother opening them at all. I’m irritated with such texts. Well I do read a few but only if I feel like replying to them.

  

I’m not a “cellphone” person. Gems, one of my duty group mates, noticed this when we were having our make-up duty at FEU hospital. She noticed that I just checked if I had received any messages. I read them and then pocketed my phone. I really am lazy in responding to messages. Unless it’s imperative or urgent I’d just shun the text but I never delete any messages except, of course, my inbox is full.

   

What I can’t figure out, however frequent text messages are, is when you really need them to reply—and they don’t. It’s hard to understand how you need to include “Reply ASAP” when you text them and you need an answer at once. There are of course a few people who are really smart. These people are very few. They are reliable despite the lack of symbols of urgency in your message. What I mean with symbols are capitalized letters, question marks with exclamation points. When I text them they understand what I’m asking. A few of them know me for being lazy in texting which makes them aware that I won’t send a message unless it’s important.

    

Some people who don’t know me that well but still manage to reply instantly are those who are aware of their to-do-list. They know that they’re the only ones capable of addressing such things that they provide answers in a snap.

   

It just pains me to think why people tend to have a difficulty in replying to important matters when they have the capability to be “emo” for everyone to know during needless times. I’m not against it because it serves as a gauge of how my friends are doing. I’m not an insensitive jerk who doesn’t know how to ride the social wave. I dig it. I get it when people feel sending quotes and jokes because I’ve been there before. But people need to be informed when they ask something, especially if it’s your responsibility.

   

Summer is like an open season for group messages since more free time means more GMs. Oh yeah I’m complaining. It’s not that I want to be disconnected, though I’d wish I was occasionally, It’d just be a relief if they could be as persevere when something crucial comes up.

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Maroon 5's album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long

Yes I will buy Maroon 5's album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long. I just love listening to their songs. They've been around for a while but I never bought their album because I would like only one or two songs. Oh yeah I didn't like their song for Spiderman—Woman.

But now their songs are just damn fine like I Won't Go Home Without You, which is better than She Will Be Loved (which I also like). When it comes to the composition and arrangement I'd really go for Makes Me Wonder. It's got this wait-for-the-song-to-finish-before-you-change-it effect.

For easy listening they've got Sunday Mornings which have excellent vocals, of course their other songs have that too but Levine's vocal capability to go slower is more evident with this song.

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A Stand

At the height of the NBN-ZTE deal controversy, that has become the latest “teleserye” of the Philippines, FEU has not released an official stand. From my knowledge, FEU is not a political school that meddles with national issues unless affecting tertiary education. This is why FEU has not been visited by star witness Lozada.

   

University hopping has been Lozada’s activity triggering a more forceful and empowered youth. Student involvement in rallies wasn’t as evident and common since the Marcos regime. What has gripped me into blogging now is the recent involvement of few FEU students in a pro-PGMA rally.

   

This IABF (Institute of Accounts, Business, and Finance) student appeared right in front of a photo published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) in a pro-PGMA rally. Since FEU students have no clear stand of the issue, this was somehow viewed or rather inferred as the stand of the rest of the students.

  

This is not so. FEU students are also present in anti-PGMA rallies but they do not carry flags of the University or wear their school uniforms during the rally. Instead, they are in civilian and walking behind the flags of LFS (League of Filipino Students) and CEGP (College Editors Guild of the Philippines) which is probably why they remain unidentified. And appropriate too, since FEU really has no stand.

  

Despite the declaration of a stand by students of a particular university, it doesn’t mean that the rest of them acquiesce with that opinion. A student may be pro-PGMA because of economic developments or he or she just wants to be pro-PGMA. A student may believe that Lozada is telling the truth but wouldn’t want PGMA ousted. A student may not believe in Lozada but would want PGMA to step down. A student can also be apathetic. One's schoolmates may be out in Liwasang Bonifacio but thinks Welcome Rotonda is the place to be. A political organization can make an official statement but a community as diverse as a university cannot shout in unison.

  

One can say that I am anti-PGMA and yes I am, and yes I want her to step down but no I won’t take it to the streets and no I don't want her ousted. Mob rule is not exactly what I consider appropriate democratic practice.

  

Originally, I didn’t care. I didn’t have an opinion of her taking the position of president from Joseph Estrada. I actually wanted her seated as president when she ran for president. I believed PGMA ‘had’ more qualities as president than other presidential candidates. But I started to regret that after electoral anomalies arise.

    

Moreover, I became anti-PGMA when the “Hello Garci” controversy exploded. I was nauseous when she expressed her apology on national TV. It was nothing short of grim and plainly horrendous. I was more disgusted when she managed to stay in position without a satisfying resolution of the issue.

  

I believe in Lozada. He is not your typical pinoy “bida” who is perfect and ultimately good. He admits taking a bite of the corrupted apple which makes him more real and even more credible. But this is not the reason why I want her to step down.

   

Whatever the truth is, she should resign. Simply because of the doubt and the distrust that has clouded her term. Why rule a country who doesn’t believe in your capabilities anymore? Yes she was able to do things for the economy and she may still have concrete and beneficial plans but why bother? Why bother trying so hard when the people are rallying against you?

   

What the country needs is a person that they trust. One cannot govern a country well when the people do not give support. It's not their sin to see that the president's integrity has been compromised or rather severed. Just step down, let someone else take over because however good and significant her plans are, it won’t matter because the doubt is there. And yeah, it's there to stay even after her term as president.

  

Surely, PGMA may not be remembered as one of the “loved” presidents of the country but she is surely one of the most controversial.

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No to Homophobia!

NO TO HOMOPHOBIA!

I am the boy who never finished high school, because I got called a fag everyday.

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

I am the man who fears that I will never be able to be myself, to be free of this secret because I won’t risk losing my family and friends.

We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the woman who died when the EMTs stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didn't have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don’t believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

I am the person ashamed to tell my own friends I'm a lesbian, because they constantly make fun of them.

I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight men wanted to “teach me a lesson”

—IF YOU BELIEVE THAT HOMOPHOBIA IS WRONG, REPOST THIS ON YOUR BLOG!

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