Thanksgiving Delight

The follwing pictures should have been posted last year. David and I were invited for a Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house. Ms. Joyce P. (my auntie Joyce) and her daughter, Barbara, were wonderful hosts. They made sure that their guests were well-fed and satisfied with the meal.

Ms. Joyce P. and Barbara are wondeful and sweet human beings.

Here I am playing with the well-behaved Moor, a handsome great dane.

David wasn't feeling well that day, but Moor made sure he's comfortable while resting on a couch.

Confronting Kathy Griffin

Tonight, David and I will head to CMAC to watch Her Highness Empress Kathy Griffin.

One complaint though: we want Maggie Griffin on stage, too!

Marketing the Jonas Brothers

It is not the nice hairs (chest hairs included via RollingStone magazine) nor the nice comely smiles...


It's those darn tight pants baby (as what I've read somewhere: cucumber-choking pants).


Here's why such "fashion" sells [reading from an article in the recent edition (The Denim Edition) of Nylon magazine]:


"A whey-faced indie-boy in crotch-crushing pants is the very image of a sexual androgyny, yet those same tight pants can be read as a declaration of hypersexuality." (So much for the altar boy image)


(No wonder those girls are screeeaaaming out so loud).

Suddenly Susan

Thank You

I would like to extend my appreciation to the following persons who gave me my recommendations when I applied for the Barnes and Noble/BASC scholarship (in no particular order):

1. Mr. Mark Gardner of Union Square

2. Dr. John Balikowski

3. Ms. Michelle P. So of Sun.Star Network Philippines

I wouldn't have made it without your help and guidance.

and of course


Mr. David W. Smith


for his encouragement and undoubting trust.

This award is dedicated to my father, Mr. Anito Fajardo Rodriguez, my mother, Erlinda and my grandmother, Leonisa Camento.

Roy and Kevin

I was kidding Roy, above, and Kevin, below, yesterday to take their masks off and show their true identities. Do you think they should?

Who me? Ahh, my name's Kevin (after the famous YouTube video).

Hold it girls. They both have blue eyes.

The Widowed Bride and Cohort

Heather rocked the house yesterday by wearing her gown complete with a black veil. The pose makes overall impact, too.

Cheryl, the widowed bride's cohort, slices some cukes to feed her hungry children. Watch out for that huge knife.

Halloween at Brockport

My friends at the Seymour Union Food Court were all game to pose for pictures. They wore their fantabulous Halloween costumes.

All chic and sparkly.

Steven as a pirate ready to fry anybody who gets in his way.

Joel, left, goin' bananas and Steve, the sailor who is on alert for Steven's invasion.

Peter Pan with the pans.

Fact(s) George Bush can't accept

If Arun Gandhi thinks George Bush will listen to his words, he must think a billion times. Not that Gandhi, the grandson of the benevolent and famous Mohandas K. Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, has been invited to the White House to speak before Bush on issues concerning how to achieve peace in the Middle East. No, Arun Gandhi spoke with Tim Louis Macaluso of Rochester's City Newspaper (on its July 3-10, 2007 issue) about achieving peace and understanding through nonviolent means.

The younger Gandhi was mentioned to me few weeks ago by an American friend at a Church-organized picnic. Gandhi, he said, gave a talk at a college just walking distance from David Smith's house. David, my sponsor, and I were enormously frustrated by not having attended the event, especially that it was open to the public.

The City Newspaper reported that Gandhi relocated his office, the Mohandas K. Gandhi Institute for Peace and Nonviolence, to Rochester after his wife died this year. They had been in the city since 2005 "to be close to their daughter," the report added.

Here's what Arun Gandhi told City Newspaper that might give Bush a fit (and might urge him to commit suicide if his advisors repeat it to him):

"There is nothing we can't accomplish, no problem so great, that we can't learn something from sitting down and talking to one another."

To make Bush come back to smoking pot, Arun Gandhi continues:

"Resorting to violence as a way to resolve differences in an act of desperation that destroys the individual who commits the violence as much as it inflicts pain and suffering on the victim."

Let me simplify that thought: "The American troops should vacate Iraq." At least for my own sense of understanding that is what Gandhi's words mean. But will Bush ever find the heart to "listen" to anybody? No! My conversations with Americans for the past months prove that Bush listens to only one person -- his vice-president. That is why Dick Cheney will not be "persecuted" as long as Bush gets in the way. I believe by the time this write up gets noticed by the White Intellegence I will be monitored.

Journalists have tried to expose the morbidity of Bush's platform on the Iraq invasion, but their efforts prove to be futile. This country needs serious muckrakers so Bush will realize that the American troops overstayed in Iraq. Most of the soldiers don't even know why they were sent there. What they know is they will be able exercise what they've trained for and spend the bullets they have. It is disappointing that Bush doesn't have a son. We could have convince him to send his son to Iraq and see for ourselves what he will feel about it.

Mr. Bush, we already know that Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction. Hussein is DEAD. It is time to move on. Mr. President, "hear the cry of your people."

***

Our American friend by the way, whom I mentioned above, was formerly connected with one the US's security agencies. He told me that he had been to the Philippines in the 60s. He said his Filipino friends took his group to places where "tourists were not allowed to see." That made me think about such places. I thought it might beaches or vacation hideaways. However, he revealed to me that they visited the slum areas of Manila. All that time, the areas were being concealed by huge billboards and streamers. He said it was a learning experience for him and his group. That experience, he said, lead him to give opportunity to a lot of Filipinos to work abroad so that they could alleviate their living conditions in their country.

One of my professors even told me last time that when his son had visited the Philippines, as a representive of a company, he was taken by his Filipinos friends to a dump site which proved to be a worthy place to live on despite the living condition. I said the place might be the world famous Smokey Mountain.

Imelda Marcos once said that she hated UGLINESS. She still does. Whenever she sees garbage she looks away and concentrate on what is beautiful. But there is beauty in trash, too, Madam. Even people who are products of an ugly, corrupt and trashy government.

Smokey Mountain, by the way, has become a tourist attraction.

Do I look like a Chinaman?

The banquet was over. Everyone was leaving the room, except for several who stayed for a little chit-chat. I saw an old lady trying to unknot a string from a vase. The balloon was bright blue with a nice print on it. I thought an old lady must think it nice enough to give it to her grandchild. After several minutes she was still trying to untie it. I approached her and offered help. I took me about two minutes to untie the string. During that time her husband came over. He said, "What a noble thing for you to do that." I just smiled.

I gave the balloon to the little old lady.

She said, "Thank you. It was nice of you to come here all the way from China."

Oops!

I told her I am not from China, but from the Philippines. And what a small world it is. Her husband revealed to me that they were in the Philippines years ago. He said he was in a conference, teaching ministers. I didn't ask him if he's a pastor or what. He said they also visited Mindanao, but were advised to leave the place because of threat to security.

Later, when I came home I told David about the incident. He laughed. But I cannot contain myself. I went to the bathroom and looked at my face in the mirror. I don't look like Chinese nor do I walk like one. I love eating at the Chinese buffet here, but that hasn't turned me into a Chinaman. I use items here that are made in China (well, most of the items here are made in China. When an American finds an item that says on the bottom "Made in USA" they jump as if they found an antique object).

Maybe I look like Mongoloid. I don't know.

'...my heart still belongs to the Philippines'

Lately, I bumped into a Filipino here in Rochester. Let's call him "Larry." It was David who talked to him and later learned that he's a Filipino. And you know David, he'll scream for my name and introduce me to his new Filipino friend.

Mang Larry has lived in Rochester for many years. His daughter had petitioned for him to live in the US. He's probably in his 80s. And what do you think we talked about? Philippine literature! He said he admires F. Sionil Jose's novels, particularly Ermita. When I told him that I met Sir Frankie years ago in a workshop in the Philippines, he got ecstatic. He said he had been to Sir Frankie's bookstore, Solidaridad, before he came here and he said it was as if he was in cloud nine that time. He also told me he likes reading Carmen Guerrero Nakpil's books and revered Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo's fiction. I told him to read Bino Realuyo, Jessica Hagedorn and all the new crop of Filipino-American fictionists who are re-envisioning the Filipino spirit in their prose. I also recommended that he read fiction written by Ian Casocot and Vince Groyon. I would have encouraged him to read Luisa Igloria, Eric Gamalinda, Rick Barot, Nick Carbo but he was into fiction not poetry.

Later he revealed that he is now an American citizen, but he said, "I swore my allegiance to the US, but my heart still belongs to the Philippines. Never forget your roots. Until now, I am still a Filipino by heart."

We should learn from our countrymen.