My entry was supposed to be about something else, but then Steve Jobs died and I cannot not write about that. Yesterday felt heavy, and I think the weather agreed. I was in the car with my husband and baby listening to the radio when Delamar from RX 93.1 started delivering the sad, sad breaking news about Steve's passing. It would be the news that would trend all day from Facebook to Twitter and everywhere else significant and insignificant in the blogsphere.On my personal Facebook page, I changed my profile pic to this:
CNN was all about Steve too. Last time I saw something like that was when Michael Jackson suddenly died. But he was King of Pop, a phenomenon for the past 40 years. He was controversial, had huge personal issues, fodder in tabloids for years... Steve Jobs in comparison started creeping into the world's consciousness just fairly recently; he also lived a much quieter life, not much was known about his personal life but every time there was an Apple event he was the crowd-drawer (and of course his gadgets). In these events, he spoke about his inventions like he literally gave birth to them. Such a passionate man, that Steve.
He was known for his idealism (his wish was to create "a $10 billion company without losing its soul"), his relentless pursuit for excellence, his eye for art and design, and of course his creations that are truly the most beautiful gadgets we've ever seen. He was also stubborn, abrasive and mercurial, by some accounts, but in the face of genius those he has worked with cannot argue with his talent. He was also famous for answering randon emails by fans and critics alike - ordinary people like you and me inquiring about his products. His email address - sjobs@apple.com - is probably the most famous email of any CEO. And a CEO of his stature that answers emails? Truly he is rare, that Steve.
And so we are left to grieve this man we barely knew (personally), but somehow the feeling is that you've known him all your life and there's now this huge, gaping hole in the universe you walk around, trying hard to cope with this event you're not quite ready to address. End of an era, some say. I'd have to agree.
Goodnight Steve, game-changer, icon and genius. Thank you for leaving your beautiful legacy, for the snippets of wisdom, for living an example of a life well-lived.
Cheers to you, crazy one.
P.S. Many tributes have sprouted around the net, but this one for me is the most poignant, written by Steven Levy for Wired.
It has been more than a year and so many things have taken place.
But most major of all is that I have become a mother. Total life change. Read about it here in my new mommy blog.
Check out the cutie!
Apart from that I think it's time to resurrect this blog. :)
It's been too long since i last wrote on my blog. Grabe, was that 7 months ago?! Many things have changed and to make a long 7-month story short, I've made a random list. The dark dirty details can follow later.
1. We got married! It was pretty, happy, emotional. Happy times! ( we still have a lot of photo and video backlogs) 2. Got settled into my new job. Now I am hating it (kidding!) 3. Moved to a new apartment. Again. 4th time in 4 years. Lol 4. Lolo broke his hip when he fell randomly at home back in March. We didn't know it was serious until a few days later. Since it happened, things have changed again for our family. The strongest people you know get old din pala. Sigh. I keep thinking "Everyone is the age of tbeir heart." Truthfully that makes a little bit of the worry go away. Just a little bit. 5. We're talking about babies now. Excited. 6. Mostly it has all been abut work work work for both L and I. Someday i wish we could go on a vacation where the thought of work does not even enter the picture. Pwede kaya? 7. I keep thinking (like once a week) how much I want to go home. How do you get the best of both worlds? 8. "Tough times don't last but tough people do." How true. This keeps nagging at me because I dislike someone at work. 9. I still live for the weekend (some things don't change). 10. Wanderlust. Where to next Alice?
I just looked at the Ampatuan massacre pictures. This time it wasn't just out of "curiosity", in fact I've been avoiding looking at them since I heard of the massacre. Often we prefer to keep our eyes closed especially when we know that the reality we'll see is gruesome and difficult to take. But today I made the decision to look because i needed to. I think everyone who feels and is angered about this issue should see it. More than that, those who feel indifferent and think it's just another conflict in Mindanao should see it. Because someone must remember these images. You know how time sometimes makes things blurry? We can't allow that to happen. We must look and we must remember. We find it painful just looking at them - what more if you were actually the one MURDERED and tortured? Totally unprepared, did they see their life flash before their eyes? In the brink of death and with heightened sense did they see demons that day instead of humans?
I find it difficult to look but imagine if you were one of the loved ones who were looking at those pictures? To see your father or mother butchered that way? To see your husband or wife or child so helplessly and brutally killed? To see your sister or brother, die a violent death in the course of doing a job or going about his/her normal day? How painful would that be? Will the years ever dull the pain? I don't have an answer. I don't know and can't even imagine how it will be like to be in their places.
This time we simply can't look away anymore. They say Ampatuan cries in his jail cell and is afraid of ghosts. What a small price to pay. His ghosts will haunt him until the day he dies. Unlike them however maybe he will even die a decent death.
Words fail me in the lethal mix of anger and hopelessness I feel over the tragedy and how the Philippine government of Arroyo et al are "handling" the crime of her friends, the Amputuans. Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, things just did. 2009 has been painful and difficult for many people, but in comparison to this everything else seems small. I pray for all the 57 souls who lost their lives. They each had a name, families, histories. Let's never forget.
Genalyn Tiamson-Mangudadatu+ Eden Mangudadatu+ Rowena Mangudadatu+ Manguba Mangudadatu+ Faridah Sabdulah+ Farida Mangudadatu+ Farina Mangudadatu+ Concepcion “Connie” Brizuela+ Cynthia Oquendo+ Catalino Oquendo+ Rasul Daud+ Henry Araneta+ Alejandro “Bong” Reblando + Napoleon “Nap” Salaysay+ Bartolome “Bart” Maravilla+ Jhoy Dojay+ Andy Teodoro+ Ian Subang+ Leah Dalmacio+ Gina Dela Cruz+ Maritess Cablitas+ Neneng Montano+ Victor Nuñez+ Macario "Macmac" Arriola+ Humberto Mumay+ Rey Merisco+ Ronnie Perante+ Jun Legarta+ Jun Legarta+ Joel Parcon+ Noel Decena+ John Caniba+ Art Belia+ Ranie Razon+ Eduardo Lechonsito+ Cecille Lechonsito+ Mercy Palabrica+ Daryll delos Reyes+ Wilhelm Palabrica+
Well I for one am not reading them anymore. How very crass. And no this is not just a hyper pikon Pinoy speaking. Read it and rage.
Corazon Aquino Aug 6th 2009 From The Economist print edition
Corazon Aquino, president of the Philippines, died on August 1st, aged 76 IF GREATNESS was thrust upon Corazon Aquino, and for a while it was, she did her best to parry it. The decisive moment came after eight hours of prayer at St Joseph’s Convent of Perpetual Adoration in Quezon City, the former capital of the Philippines. There the self-proclaimed “plain housewife” resolved that she would, after all, accede to the request of 1m petitioners and run for president in the election that the wicked President Ferdinand Marcos had just called. Days of humming, hawing and after-youing were at an end, and the people had a champion. She was the lady in the yellow dress, simple, bespectacled, plain not just in her housewifery but also in her demeanour, a contrast in every way to the stylish Imelda, who was still stuffing the boudoirs of the presidential palace with frocks and furs and shoes, shoes, shoes. The power, however, was with the people, and the people were with Cory.
It was a tumultuous time for the Philippines, a country that has never been easy to take seriously.
If you wish to continue reading this crap, click here
I read someone say something today and found it most apt. That your death was like losing a limb.
I've been gone for blogging for months now because I couldn't find anything meaningful to write. And then you die and I feel like I have to say something about it. I think everyone has felt that way too, the need to express their emotions in some form - whether it was to line up in the blazing Manila heat for 3 hours to catch a seconds glimpse of you, or sprinkle confetti from an office building, or sing Bayan Ko with much fervor for the first time again in years, or to tie that yellow ribbon on you facebook profile, or tweet in 120 characters. From far away here in Vietnam your loss is felt. I saw it in the faces of the Pinoys who went to church last Sunday wearing yellow. I greeted my friend all donned in your favorite color with a teasing, "Hello Tita Cory", and her response was tears welling up as she told me how she had cried the whole night, and when she called her family back in Manila how her whole family cried too. I saw it in the Pinoys gathering outside the church in a somber mood, understanding without words being spoken how each other was feeling and what that sad day meant. Yes, losing you was like losing a limb.
What is it about you, people ask that brings such magic? That arouses such emotions? You were not a rockstar who mesmerized loudly. You were not like Obama with his charisma overflowing you could almost touch it. Not even like Ninoy, in fact, you were the opposite of Ninoy - while he managed to stir raging emotions with his highly-charged speeches, you were the calm among a sea of distress (and there always was much distress). Your words were measured, diction perfect, you were more than once accused of being a boring speaker. But you kept on and as you grew older the more you looked stronger, became more unwavering in the things you believed in: God, Family and the Filipino. It was ironic that in your frailty, you exuded strength. You had become everyone's mom - the kind that soothes just by her mere presence. Perhaps we were spoiled in thinking that as long as you are there everything will turn out fine. After all, without fail, you were there when it mattered. But even super heroes need their rest. Even the best actors need their final curtain call. Even you needed to fly away.
And so we lost you a few days ago. But Cory you were ever so alive as you journeyed past the monuments in EDSA, in Ayala for the last time. Did we really lose you? Somewhere, somehow you would still be watching and I hope and pray that when the time comes when the Filipino whom you believed in so much needs to ignite that fire again (frankly i think it's way past due), we won't fail you but more importantly we won't fail ourselves. You were the most loved president and today that shines through even more as we see the stark difference between your grace and the arrogance of the one sitting in Malacanang. We need your magic more than ever in these gloomy times, but I believe most of us also understand that the time has come to make it on our own.
Thank you Cory for all the love, the grace, the faith and the promise that wherever you are you are still watching, waiting, cheering and believing in us. We promise that we won't be lost forever.
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” - Robert Louis Stevenson
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” - Martin Buber
She was so good and everyone else so mean that it was but fitting that she would blow them (us) away on her first note. Greying hair and all. And "I Dream a Dream" was the perfect song. I am sure most of us don't even half her talent or more so half her grace. But it's just too easy to be cynical of seemingly "ordinary" people. And that is why we were wowed.
I'm a fan, not just in Facebook - I mean I AM A FAN.
Like how Mr. and Mrs. Kutcher are twittering fans.
Like how 30 million other youtube watchers are fans.
Like how the guys from CNN are gushing about her. Fans.
The world is her stage now. She is gobsmacked about it.
Bloody hell, the world is gobsmacked with her too.
