everybody’s free…
Monday, October 23, 2006Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.
I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
You’re not as fat as you imagine.
Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you.
Sing.
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse, but you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy. But be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia; dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen.
Baz Luhrmann (Was an article published in the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1997 by columnist Mary Schmich)
i feel the earth move under my feet/ghosts
700 aftershocks recorded since Friday
The Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on Monday said it has recorded 700 aftershocks after a 5.2 magnitude earthquake shook Mindoro province on Friday.
PHIVOLCS Director Renato Solidum said the tremors were caused by movement on the Lubang Fault. He said more aftershocks could be felt in Marinduque, Mindoro and southern Batangas.
"The public should not be scared about the earthquakes because these are less than magnitude 6, mostly magnitude 5 or less, which cannot destroy buildings," he told Magandang Umaga Pilipinas.
He said the tremors are decreasing.
On Friday and Saturday Metro Manila and Southern Luzon were rocked by four earthquakes and three minor aftershocks.
PHIVOLCS recorded a 5.2 magnitude earthquake, with the epicenter located offshore between Mindoro province and Boac, Marinduque.
Seismologists said that the tremor was felt strongest at intensity 5 in Marinduque, Naujuan in Mindoro Oriental, Batangas City, and Bauan in Batangas, on Friday night. They said that an intensity 4 quake jolted Manila, Lipa City in Batangas and San Pablo City in Laguna.
An intensity 3 quake shook Makati City, Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro, Talisay in Batangas and Lucban, Quezon, while an intensity 2 tremor was felt in Quezon City, Tagaytay City and Guinayangan in Quezon province, PHIVOLCS added.
On Saturday dawn, seismologists said they recorded three minor aftershocks.
A fifth earthquake was also felt Sunday in Metro Manila and southern Luzon. PHIVOLCS recorded a 3.7 magnitude earth at 2:23 a.m. with the epicenter located 31 kilometers southeast of Calapan, Oriental Mindoro.
The tremor was felt strongest at intensity 3 in Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro, and the cities of Makati and Taguig in Metro Manila. An intensity 2 quake also jolted Quezon City.
The Philippines is part of the "Ring of Fire" of volcanic islands along the western rim of the Pacific Ocean that sit on unstable earth plates and are prone to earthquakes.
Although about 10 quakes hit the Philippines every day, few are felt. Only three major, destructive tremors have been recorded in more than 30 years.
*****
so it wasn't only 3 or 5 times. it was more than 700 freaking times.
i remember one time that i was asleep in bed when i felt the ground shaking and the glass doors of my bookcase were shaking as well. i leapt out of bed, woke up my family members, and ran out into the street in my sleepwear and no slippers. that was in 1999, i think, because i was still in law school.
*****
don't look now, but i think there's a ghost in my room. or ghosts. or whatever.
i've felt it (or them) sitting on my bed more than once already. it's like, i'm lying on my side, facing my side table, then i feel the bed sinking beside me, as if someone just sat there or lay down beside me. and this happens at all hours of the day, not just at midnight or 2am. it happened once at around 4pm, while i was taking my nap.
when i was still reviewing for the bar, i used to keep late hours, and i sometimes slept at 3am. during the time i was reading, i only kept my desk lamp turned on so i can concentrate. i also kept the radio turned on, playing softly, since i cannot study in complete silence. then i would feel a presence behind me, like someone (or something) just walked or whizzed by. no shadows, just a presence. or presences. this happened more than once.
at first i was a bit scared, but then i got used to it, ever since i moved into that room almost a year ago. my brother used to sleep in that room before he left for the states, and he also has felt presences, and one time he even woke up in the middle of the night because he heard, or thought he heard, someone whispering his name. he couldn't sleep in his room for days after that time, so our helper at that time made up a story that it was she who was calling his name from the window.
when the room was vacated it was used as a guest room. my lola, before she died, slept in that room whenever she came to manila. she was lying on the bed before she got up to go to the bathroom, and had a stroke which claimed her life.
i'm not scared anymore, because i know it's lola who's watching over me, especially since she knows my penchant for staying up late all the time. and if there is more than one entity there, then it must be lola, her husband, and good angels and white spirits who guard us our house every day and every night.
visitors to our house, especially our boyfriends/suitors/male friends have often told us that they felt an unseen presence watching them. i tell them those are the guardians of the house, the good spirits who make sure that nothing bad happens to us.
*****
Currently reading: the well of lost plots
Currently feeling: sleepy
