UPDATES!!!!! With PICTURES!!!

Almost a month has passed since I last updated my blog...*ducks to avoid the glares thrown his way*...and quite a LOT has happened since my last post. Here we go!

A Close Encounter with Cory

No, not in the ethereal sense. :)

I was on my way to see Gail during the day of Cory's funeral procession from The Manila Cathedral to Sucat, and since I take the SLEX heading to Makati, I grabbed my DSLR in the rare chance that I spot something nice enough to shoot. As I drove up SLEX heading to Makati, the people along SLEX kept getting thicker and thicker...so what the heck, I stopped a grabbed a few shots.

I then got stuck in traffic right be fore the Buendia/SLEX intersection coz Cory's funeral procession was near, so I decided to climb on a truck to get a better vantage...and whaddyaknow, she passed right next to the truck! That moment was awesome...right before she passed by, people were noisy, cheerful...a couple of moments before she passed by, people suddenly hushed up in a moment of silence...and as her truck came closer, everyone spontaneously cheered and chanted her name. Awesome, I tell you.

Ella and Paulo

No, they're not together...di sila talo. :P

Ella and Paulo have moved on to...er, greener pastures. Or "to pursue their passions." :P Ella is now working for a company that is uber top tier, while Paulo is now marketing director for a fashion company. We had official despedidas for them in the office, and since we're cliquish, we decided to extend the despedidas to an overnight in Tagaytay!

Dreams and promotions

For Gail, that is. :) She was just promoted and got all the benefits and perks that come with it...well, almost all the benefits and perks. :) Here's hoping the car swap happens! On top of that, she also got accepted to be a faculty member in DLSU-CSB to teach her passion...WINE! (woot) Congratulations honey, I'm so proud of you! You deserve every little bit of happiness that you're getting coz you worked so hard for it! (cozy)

Coron

Organized by the legendary Jillian Sze, a huge chunk of the MDO and our respective significant others went to Coron in Palawan for 4 days of fun! Tiring fun, but fun nonetheless. :) Swimming, snorkling, shipwrecks, hiking, twin lagoons, a safari...FUN!

Paulo also shot some photos of Gail and myself...beautiful!

Till the next update! Hopefully it won't take too long this time. :)

*image credits: Myself (large photos) and Paulo Tirol (small photos)

Icons and Milestones

[UPDATED] Included 2 photos of Cory Aquino's funeral procession as it drove by 6750. Apologies for the lousy images, I left my DSLR at home and had to make do with a lousy Nokia camera phone.

Aug 1, 2009. A day of contradictions. A day of yin and yang. Insert all the "polar opposite" cliches you want to describe this day - all of them would ring true.

The loss of a national icon - in a day and age where icons are so rare and so needed.

Aug 1 was the day that Cory Aquino, former Philippine President and icon of democracy, passed away due to cardiac arrest. She was 76 years old.

I won't spend time talking about the how's and the why's of Cory's passing, nor will I even attempt to compare and contrast Cory Aquino and her condition with Gloria Arroyo and her condition - Conrado de Quiros did an excellent job of it already.

What I will write about is this country's need - any country's need - for icons.

Every country has an icon - something that represents what the country stands for. The United States has the flag, the White House, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King; the Brits have the Union Jack, Buckingham Palace, the Crown Jewels, and the Royal Family; the Russians have the Romanovs, the Kremlin.

Icons are important because they provide a rallying point for the country. Try defacing an American flag in the US and you'll be lucky if you're not tagged as a terrorist; try denouncing the Crown Jewels in the UK and you'll be lucky if you aren't shot. Icons give the people something concrete to believe in as opposed to just an ideal which is amorphous and exists only in the minds and hearts of the people: to African-Americans in the United States, Martin Luther King was their icon for equality.

Without an icon, a country has nothing. It exists merely as a territory defined by international law filled with people who happen to exist in the same place. A nation without an icon is a nation of zombies.

The Philippines has three icons, in my opinion: the 1st EDSA revolution, the Philippine Flag, and Cory Aquino. And today two icons were merged as the honor guard layed the Philippine Flag - the icon of freedom won through hardship and battle - on the coffin of Cory Aquino - the icon of democracy won through prayer and perseverance.

We already are in danger of losing the icon of the 1st EDSA revolution through the corruption of it's idea and the banality of it being repeated. We are also in danger of losing Cory Aquino as an icon of democracy - icons live on after they die - should we let the people forget about who she was and what she did.

Should we lose these 2 icons, then our last icon, the Philippine flag, is in serious danger of becoming just another piece of cloth.

Aug 1 was the day that our icon of democracy died - but what she stood for and fought for will continue to live on as long as we let it. The day we forget who Cory is will be the day that democracy dies in this country.

2 months together!

On a more personal note, Gail and I celebrated our 2nd month together last Aug 1 as well. It may seem too much of a cliche to celebrate monthsaries, but Gail and I like to take this day as a celebration of us being together. Yes, our being "traditional" in this sense has evoked a lot of BWAAAAARK responses via PLOOOOORK, but I've always believed that it's nice to take a step back every now and then and celebrate the simple act of being together.

Gail and I also had a nice talk as the day ended and again I am humbled and awed by the amount of trust that she has placed in me. I always feel that I have been entrusted with something so precious that there I times I feel as if I don't deserve it. :) But at the end of the day (literally given we had the nice chat at the...er, end of the day!), I have a loving and true girlfriend whom I love completely and she also wants exactly what I want in life - both now and in the future.

And on top of that, she knows how to spell words correctly. :P Ok, I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

(woot)(cozy)