A child's lament.

By Gener

The words we say, the acts we do
They say define our being,
But wait til' you hear the folks declare
You are a child that's all.

You can't explain nor try to go
We tell you what you are,
You cannot like, you should not lie
We know the things you do.

In truth the child sees beyond the rule
And lives only by the love he's shown,
He brats away and spoils dad's days
'Cus he learns the angry way.

His tears are dry, his palms are closed
His jaw locks into rage,
Yet his heart melts for the pet he strokes
But his eyes shut tight for a bully's prank.

The lovely curls of movie youth,
And dimpled cheeks that also smile,
Are boon or bane that's hard to take
In simple minds of kids that fake.

Without yet a voice nor face to show
These tykes will be hardened to grow,
But the hardest pill there is to swallow
Is the babe in the womb that's doomed for gallow.

Pushing the envelope.

James Gandolfini who gained fame as mob boss, Tony Soprano in the hit HBO series, The Sopranos

I lived in Jersey City for two years and thus I could say I was neighbours with James Gandolfini who starred as Tony Soprano in the hit HBO series, The Sopranos.  He was born and raised in Park Ridge, Bergen Country, New Jersey.  Gandolfini died the other day while visiting Rome.

Another celebrity I'd like to claim as neighbour was Frank Sinatra who grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey, which is about five minutes from Jersey City.

Other stars who were born and lived in New Jersey include Seinfeld star Jason Alexander who was born in Newark, Kirsten Dunst of Spiderman, who was born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, John Travolta, born in Englewood, NJ and Mary Streep, born in Summit, NJ.
 
This photo of Jersey City is courtesy of TripAdvisor, view of Statue of Liberty in Ellis Island, from Jersey City.

Then I moved to to other parts of New Jersey, to Piscataway and then to Sayreville. The last time I was in Jersey City was in 2010.

Journal Square subway station  in Jersey City. Here, one can board the PATH train going to Manhattan, New York

If a Hollywood movie deals with a mob story, it's almost always situated either in New Jersey, New York or Chicago.

But the romanticized lives of the mob just adds to the excitement of living in the Big Apple and its neighbour, New Jersey.

I Love New Jersey.

Nightmare after the wake.

A nephew shouted at his facebook account how he got caught in Araneta Avenue during a heavy downpour last week, how flash flood suddenly happened and that he started to panic. His warning, "avoid Araneta Avenue." Remember last year's Habagat which completely submerged the Centerpoint?

Yesterday we had to be in Araneta Avenue despite overcast skies; we were visiting the wake of my godfather. Then, just when we were leaving the funeral home, rain poured cruelly. Non-stop for almost an hour.

Rainy night merienda, hot champorado at Tapa King

We avoided going back home via Ortigas Avenue and had to drop off a sister and a cousin so we took the seemingly easy route via San Juan and out to Kalentong and on to Boni Avenue. Mistake.

At the cemetery near the church, vehicles were turned away by traffic enforcers; the road leading to Boni Avenue was flooded. We decided to take Shaw Blvd. And the nightmare began.

An incline at Shaw Blvd, just after the Jose Rizal University was also flooded and we followed a detour which led to Addition Hills. There, traffic grounded to a halt.

It was like we prepared for the event; Earlier, I'd loaded a grocery bag with bottles of mineral water and biscuits: Rebisco, Skyflakes and Marie-type biscuits and we bought "ensaymada" (Philippine sweet bun) at a local bakery. The only thing missing was a commode to make life easier.

We were at Addition Hills for one hour. Both private and public vehicles used the re-route and some public utility vehicles abandoned their jeepneys by the side.

We got back to Shaw Blvd and a humungous traffic jam greeted us and stayed with us up until the brink of Pasig City. It was sorry state as commuters waited for cabs and utility vehicles to no avail; more people decided to walk home carrying their shoes and doing it barefoot.

We ended up at a Tapa King ordering bistek Tagalog (shredded beef steak on white rice)  and a hot champorado, (Philippine porridge).

It took us three and a half hours to reach home which normally would take us an hour or less.

 Philippine beef steak (bistek Tagalog) on white rice at Tapa King

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over Rated.

We were at Bonifacio Global City (High Street) yesterday for a peek at how the rich celebrate Father's Day.

I saw families lying at a patch of ground which I suppose is a parkette. One Dad had a water mug, one Korean was flying a kite, some had their dogs.

There were various sales tents. I got drawn into the tent displaying two new models of Mini Cooper and to another, showing off several models of the Vespa bikes. There were a few old cars on exhibit and people lined up for a photo op;  I saw some Mustang.

There was a tent of glistening BMW bikes, and a Nikon tent, and others I didn't care much about.

A prized BMW bike

Our stomachs were still bloated from lunch but we still opted to have Brother's Burgers, and the fat man who sat beside our table  had his Ipad to max volume while he watched a movie. He didn't have nobody with him so I suppose he's not a father yet.

Mini Coopers on parade

To our left was a wholesome family and the tyke kept asking his mum for his picture to be taken.

Juicy Brother's Burger

We hied off to the nearby Metro grocery after talking about the Serendra blast with various opinions on what caused the accident, and I thought to myself why people would fork out millions of pesos for condominiums which seem very ordinary.

Slice of high rise condo at the BGC area

At Metro I found a barong to my liking which was a Father's Day gift to myself.

Disaster 101.

When I was a kid, I thought typhoon and its accompanying flood was fun - a time out from school, staying at home, wading in the cool flood water, eating canned food (sardines and pork and beans), and tuning in to transistorized radio for twenty hours while mother monitored the weather condition.

The cleaning part was fun too; as soon as the water started to ebb, our family and neighbours, like a unified symphony, took out brush and broom and pails and scrubbed the gooey mud left behind by the flood.

Teens roamed the flooded streets looking out for their teen crushes, and bakeries ran out of bread and convenience stores were drained out of their supply especially candles.

It was almost a yearly ritual in our place in Mandaluyong which was few meters away from the Pasig River.

Flooded street in Manila

Then the experts said climate change took place. So now in the Philippines, in most of Asia, Americas, Africa, Europe and Australia, flooding has become rampant and deadly.

Few days ago, Central Europe experienced massive flooding.  Swollen rivers in the German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein posed the biggest threat after flood waters caused billions of euros in damage and left at least 19 people dead across Europe.

In the United States, the major weather disturbance is the tornado. From January through June 12, 2013 alone, a total of 407 tornadoes has been recorded by the National Weather Service, according to wikipedia.

A killer tornado hit the town of Moore in Oklahoma on May 20, 2013 which caused a school building to collapse and claimed the lives of 7 school children.

Ghastly scene from the killer tornado which hit the Plaza Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, May 2013

Earthquake is often another deadly calamity which occurs in almost any part of the world.

The most recent one took place in Poland on June 14, 2013; it has a magnitude of 2.4. There was an earthquake in Tonga last June 13, 2013 with a magnitude of 5.0. Also on June 13, 2013, a strong earthquake jolted the island of Southern Java in Indonesia with a magnitude of 6.7. Also on this day, another earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 hit the Ryukyu Islands in Japan. 

Chile, a South American country prone to earthquake experienced a recent one last June 11; it has a magnitude of 4. 2 and occurred in Antofagasta, Chile.

In the Philippine Islands, the last earthquake took place in the province of Mindoro which has a magnitude of 4.6.

Tsunami is another global weather threat. Because of seismic and volcanic activity at tectonic plate boundaries  along the Pacific Ring of Fire, tsunamis occur most frequently in the Pacific Ocean but are worldwide natural phenomena.

Tsunami in Phuket, Thailand

Japan has the most number of tsunamis recorded in modern history. The most recent one, the 2011 Tohoku tsunami started off as an earthquake of 9.0 magnitude and caused the tsunami which took the lives of almost 16,000 Japanese and got almost 3,000 missing and a total loss ranging from US $14 - US $34 billion.

9.0 magnitude earthquake caused the deadly Tohoku tsunami of 2011 in Japan

Manila in the Philippines had its first taste of its 2013 typhoon season yesterday, June 13, 2013. Massive rain dumped by "habagat," caused street flooding in areas in Manila particularly in Espana and along Taft Avenue where various schools and universities are located.

As if on cue, Philippine stocks went on a plunge the following day, June 14, 2013,  the worst since 2008. Another disaster? This time, man-made.

Heavenly spirit.

I had pain last night so to take my mind off it, I tuned it to HBO and saw "Adventures of Tin Tin," and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I switched to the Children's channel and watched a cartoon.

I like children's movies. I've seen the last Toy Story movie several times already. And of course Back to the Future is my all time favorite which I've watched a hundred times, and counting.

I got invited to a Church ceremony in which I was asked to share. Right off I shared a story of a childhood event.

People who are old enough to be members in some organizations  I've joined but still young to be my age peers sometimes joke about older people; in the West this age discrimination is not acceptable.

Young at heart is not a cliche; there is no age limit to limitless smile, warm handshake, energetic mind.

A wondrous thing.

We hear people say " I can't carry a tune," when pressed to sing. Or sometimes, people tease others who can't carry a tune to just recite the song like a poem.

A song is like a poem;  some poems have been made into songs.

A lot of times, people who want to express their feelings of love, admiration, gratitude, atonement and other sentiment but who cannot create poetry turn to popular songs to capture and convey their emotion.

One of the many islands of the Caramoan Peninsula

Here's a timeless piece.

Our love affair is a wondrous thing
That we'll rejoice in remembering
Our love was born with our first embrace
And a page was torn out of time and space

Our love affair, may it always be
A flame to burn through eternity
So take my hand with a fervent prayer
That we may live and we may share
A love affair to remember

So take my hand with a fervent prayer
That we may live and we may share
A love affair to remember