Contemplathings XI

1. the sweet feeling of finally having patched things up with mom
2. whether I closed my windows when I left my apartment yesterday or not
3. a super-post on Natalie Portman flicks
4. why I can't add Shelfari as a widget
5. mermaidman and barnacleboy, and why things will never be the same again

O, tatayo yata 'to!

Palindromes are so silly you cant get enough of them ("No, sir, away! A papaya war is on!" and "Yo, banana, boy!"). But I didn't know tagalog palindromes are delightfully sillier. I chanced upon these on the net while I was looking for some catchy phrase I could use as a blog URL. Check them out:

"Ano ka ba? Ako na!"
"Okra ba? Barko?"
"Paspas, sapsap."
"Aba, lata sa talaba."
"Ani Tatay: nasa bayabasan yata, Tina."
"Sila, aalis."
"Para sa mansanas na masarap."
"Totorotot!"
"Okay ako."
"O, tatayo yata 'to!"

It gets even sillier when these are translated to English:

"Hey, my turn!"
"Is it an okra? A ship?"
"Faster, slipmouth fish!"
"Oh, a can in the oyster."
"Father said: it might be in the guava fields, Tina."
"They will leave."
"For a delicious apple."
"Will trumpet!"
"I'm fine."
"Hey, this might stand up!"

Anyone know any more funny palindromes?

Random Desires

Nothing beats Christmastime when it comes to exciting hopes and desires. And it certainly doesn't hurt to desire worldy things especially when you've just received your 13th month pay; heck, for the first time of the year, I have dough that's not meant for the bills. Unless I spend everything on a getaway vacation to Seychelles, I think I am more or less inclined to splurge on any of the following:

1. A Nikon D40 DSLR

Back when I was still writing news for the Philipine Collegian, I had always secretly envied our photographers. Not only because deadlines mean little to them (they tinker with their photos with Adobe photoshop for most of the press time, then write the caption at the last minute).

But also because they are all awfully good at what they're doing; they have to be, unless they screw up at that precise instant a moment has to be captured in print.

So I'm getting a camera. If only for the opportunity to have a bulkily impressive SLR slung around my neck and pose as someone who's awfully good at what he's doing.The Nikon D40 looks fine for me, cheap (P21,000+) and good enough (6 mp) for a beginner.

2. A new electronic keyboard

I can only play three complete pieces on the piano, but I intend to learn more. I know, right. I have this inexpensive keyboard at my mom's house but I don't want to relocate it to my apartment, just in case my siblings have a fit and decide they want to learn playing.

So I'm looking into getting a new keyboard I can have at my own place. There's this cool Casio at Metro Market! Market! and it fits perfectly into my budget (P9999).

I already know where to put it, just beside the window.

3. A violin set

One of the reasons why I want to be more than a mediocre pianist is because music is supposed to be therapeutic--and I need therapy, for more than one reason.

As for time for practicing, I have heaps. There is one little hiccup, though--I am always somewhere else. And I can hardly bring my keyboard wherever I go. So I think a violin might be a good thing, since I can handle music sheets already anyway, and I've been hearing you don't need a life-changing character shift if you used to play piano.

There's something I found on Ebay that's worth around P4000, and the seller accepts PayPal, but I'm a little bit uncertain as to whether the instrument is made of wood or plastic.

Right now, I'm inclined towards the camera, since I've never owned one before. Though I'm sure once the novelty wears off, I'll be soon pining for something else. But I can worry about that later.

To end on a self-gratifying note, I quote from this lovely cafe scene in Before Sunset, one of the most beautiful films I know.

Ethan Hawke: You know, to be in the moment, and I just feel like I'm... designed to be slightly dissatisfied with everything... You know, I satisfy one desire, and it just... agitates another, you know? I mean, do you think it's true that if... if we never wanted anything, we'd never be unhappy?

Julia Delpy: I don't know... Not wanting anything, isn't that... a symptom of depression? Yeah, that is, right? I mean, it's healthy to desire, right?

Oui, Julia. You smoke like an incinerator and you used to have huge arms, but I will marry you any day. Please give me a ring.

Contemplathings X

1. mermaidman
2. how he sweats a lot when he's angry
3. enrolment at school
4. mermaidman
5. my "birthday project"
6. pork and beans for lunch?
7. what to wear to work for tonight
8. toilet caddies
9. mermaidman
10. being barnacleboy to mermaidman

A Pure Woman, Fatefully Presented

When my high school English teacher first recommended to me Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles, it was only because she thought I would love the Trantridge "sex scene." She had so much faith that I would finish it in one sitting so that she could finally have someone to talk it over with.

In a public school such as ours, which is best known as being named after Kris Aquino's father, I was considered a bit of a book geek. But at the time Mrs. Nuguid pressed Tess into my hands, I had already started my romance with JRR Tolkien and JK Rowling. I kept the book, and it gathered dust on my shelf.

Four years later (which is a week ago), I was to move out to my own apartment. I had no TV, no radio, and naturally, since I was alone, I was bored to bits. And then I realized I still have Tess. Yosi in hand, I started reading the book.

Hardy is considered the master of tragic novels, as Shakespeare is to tragic dramas. Tess Durbeyfield, a handsome peasant girl, finds out she is a descendant of the ancient line of d'Urbervilles, a long-forgotten, once-powerful clan. Tess's mother then sends her to the remaining d'Urbervilles in Trantridge to claim ties, with the hopes of securing for her a "profitable marriage" with perhaps one of her cousins. Tess's story unfolds, towards her ultimate destruction.

I wish I could share insights into the book's brilliant arguments about pagan morality and the hypocrisy of the prevalent Christian tenets at Hardy's time, but when you have been a call center thrall for more than a year, parrotting the same lines over the phone again and again, day after after tedious day, you tend to lose not only your sanity but your originality as well. Of course, it's a petty excuse. Big smile.

Unless I appear trying hard too much, I'll just say I enjoyed the narrrative, the cliffhangers, the foreshadowings. I have always admired good storytellers, and abhorred those who murder otherwise interesting stories by screwing up the narration.

But the novel's main delight remains Tess, however superb the telling of her story is. She gains your sympathy and pity, yet you cant wholly accuse her of being just another damsel in distress. In her own words, she is someone who accepts her fate as the fruit of her own actions.

It's just a shame that Tess of the d'Urbervilles isn't usually on high school reading lists (owing perhaps to its dissenting views on Christian morality); but then again high school reading lists are just high school reading lists, at least in the case of substandard high schools.

I was surprised though that Tess would make a cameo appearance in that Sharon movie "Caregiver," which is of course just another Sharon movie. It was the book Sharon would choose when her English employer asks her to read to him something out of his bookshelf. You would of course wait patiently for an explanation why of all books, the director would choose Tess to appear in the movie. The eventual reappearance of the book at the end of the film is a tearjerker, provided you do not claim to be above such things, but if you were waiting for a more epiphanic realization of the book's significance in the movie, I am afraid you will be disappointed.

Then again, Hardy's Tess had been both popular but always misunderstood from the first day it was published.