This is probably the only time I plan to write about the recent elections in our country.

Most of the people I voted for didn’t win, so I understand the frustration of other people who have been posting on Facebook. However, some of the opinions I’ve read are in bad taste. While I think it’s okay to critique (constructively) a candidate’s qualifications, insulting your fellow voters’ choices isn’t something I find acceptable.

Just because someone doesn’t share the same political beliefs as you does not automatically make them less intelligent… and it doesn’t automatically make you more intelligent. Calling them “stupid” and/or mangmang isn’t the way to make them see things from your point of view, if that’s what your objective is.

A person who takes pleasure in insulting other people’s intelligence and opinions is someone that I wouldn’t call concerned. I would call that a person with a superiority complex the size of Alaska.

Filipinos, we can express our opinions as much as we want, but we need to watch our words and the way we express them.

I have a very unhealthy relationship with junk food. I work out regularly and still stay within the normal BMI range, but I love junk food. This was proven true a few weeks ago, during a walk with a friend.

He was telling me a series of funny office anecdotes from his workplace. They were interesting. Really funny. But then I had to cut him off midsentence.

“This is interesting and all, and I would love to hear more about it. But there is a pressing, urgent matter I need to attend to. So walk faster with me now, in that direction,” I said heading to the left while I root around my bag for my wallet.

He keeps up with my pace and asks, “Why? You need to pay a bill or something? Go to the restroom?”

“No,” I say, taking out the wallet. “Doughnuts, my friend. Doughnuts.”

…would ever melt awayyyy.

I’m probably a little late writing about this, but The Hush Sound is back! :D I remember being really bummed back in ’09 when they announced their hiatus. I thought that was the end of The Hush Sound. Fortunately, it wasn’t.

I remember bookmarking this article about The Hush Sound in the AV Club almost a month ago, promising myself I’ll give it a listen when I’m not up to my ears in tasks anymore. That was today. It led me to buying the songs online. Scavengers is good, but Not a Stranger is even better, which you can listen to in the AV Club.

…Aaand here’s Scavengers.

While I loved Stamps and Gold Motel (Bob and Greta’s other projects, respectively), I believe there’s really something different when these four get together to make music. Maybe it’s just me, but they produce such a unique sound that keeps evolving.

Now if only they’d come visit the Philippines.

For weeks, I’ve been writing down my Better Late Than Never list. This is my version of a bucket list. I just don’t want to call it a bucket list. But it is one. Some of the items in this list are very ambitious and somewhat unrealistic, but I can dream right?

• Write a book (a novel, a memoir, whatever) and get it published.
• Be a music supervisor for a TV show (at least one episode) or a movie.
• Spend a couple of months living in these countries: Bali (so I can visit some good friends there), Singapore, Timor-Leste, and Japan.
• Write a screenplay.
• Design and set up a home library with floor-to-ceiling shelves and rolling ladders.
• Have a short stint as a record producer or PR person for an independent band.
• Visit my grandmother and step-grandfather (is there such a thing? I have no idea how to refer to him here, but I normally call him uncle) briefly in France, then tour Scandinavia. In the process, see the aurora borealis, climb a mountain in Norway, see Swedish design…
• Record and maintain a successful humor podcast with Miz Katarina.
• Be completely, utterly, happy.
• Get a tattoo. Even just a small one. Just for the experience.
• Read Nietzsche.
• Get a Corgi.
• Make a difference in someone else’s life.
• Stand in the middle of a downpour… and just soak it all in.
• Write a whole manuscript using an antique typewriter.
• Make at least five lifelong friends.
• Own a fully functional, antique, rotary dial telephone.
• Bungee jump. Anywhere. As long as it’s safe.
• Speak Bahasa Indonesia fluently.
• Have tea with Susan Cain – author of Quiet (I would have said coffee, only I don’t drink coffee).
• Meet and have dinner with at least one favorite author. Preferably Haruki Murakami. Or Kazuo Ishiguro.
• Own a rare book.
• Experience street photography in New York City.
• Spend an entire day in solitude. No internet, no cell phone, no social interaction. 24 hours.
• Reread The Castle in the Pyrenees by Jostein Gaarder and actually understand it this time.

…you wake up on a hot Monday morning with a debate going on in your mind: “Which is the better European boyband from the 90s: Westlife or Blue?”

Yeah. I think I need a new hobby or something.

Westlife won the inner debate, by the way.