Riding on the back of Beasts

What's wrong with this photo? A friend emailed this earlier and her theory is that this military officer might just had his toenails pedicured. Or athlete's foot? Hernia?

This is not an issue of feudal relations but bothersome, all the same.

Jesus walked on the water and turned water into wine.

This officer enjoyed a piggie ride on the back of a working man.

No Mystery (Part 2)

A postscript to the importance or non-significance of mystery in a relationship from Jonathan Carroll's latest book. If I'm not mistaken, the title is "Ghost in Love":

The first great real intimacy between two people begins when secrets are told. The time you stole the money from the candy drive when you were a boy scout. The time you slept with your brother-in-law after their marriage dissolved. The lie you told your boss that changed everything and burned every bridge you had at the time. The secret about your parents you thought you would never, ever tell anyone.

But suddenly you do—to your new partner. No matter what happens to you two after that, they know these things now. You can never take them back. They have the goods on you and you on them. At that point your life together shifts on its axis permanently. You have begun to let them into your soul and often we don't even know ourselves what the result of *that* will be."

(Illustration from www.explodingdog.com)

Cannavaro still can

Canna! Casa Lippi scored a crucial victory against Bulgaria. 3 goals, tigol. Forza Azzurri!

After that heartbreaking loss from Ireland and the brutal punch of Brazil, people easily dismissed Italy's chances to defend the World Cup.

I am still not thinking of victory. One match at a time. What is more important is that Canna is playing and slowly getting back to form. Never mind his stint with Real Madrid. Playing for the national flag is different.

Cannavaro, one of heaven's factory's best walking this earth.

Catalano!!!

"I know a dirty word - hello, hello"....Jared Leto is walking on sunshine. White out. Jared is beautifully strutting on a sunshiny morning. What a sweet distraction to the dull ache on my left leg.

And I was imploring - is my near end, O Lord? This pain is nothing to what you suffered for our redemption but let it go away, give me some relief, and some cussing.

I will take emotional pain any day. With emotional pain, you can rationalize your way around it. Even argue with it. Box it in its proper perspective. Shelve it and do things to keep your mind off it but with physical pain, there is no escape. You cannot focus, sleep is a hard commodity to bargain, and you are pratically rendered unproductive and useless....just feeling rotten in one miserable corner, in my own corner of the sky where cats don't fit on the window sill.

No pain, no gain, some quarters say. Well, you can have them all. Just let me be a happy loser.

WeeeeeeeD

Ganja in a funkier package, yay! Leaves a bad taste, these corporate jocks who prefer designer drugs actually conceptualizing, glued to their story boards, hatching up plans to market this sacred herb. Dread and trepidation.

But if this is a necessary step to make it more accessible and acceptable, who am I to disapprove? An alternative painkiller, it should be available in our suking tindahan soon. Make it faster than soon.

Mar Shifts Gears

"Fruits of a good tree," that's how Jovito Salonga, the best president this country never had, described Mar Roxas and Noynoy Aquino.

Mar Roxas is being lauded for the supreme sacrifice of withdrawing from the presidential race and giving way to Noynoy, the reluctant Noynoy, to become the Liberal party's standard-bearer. An act of statemanship, everybody seems to be in accord.

I truly believe there's no spin here, no gimmickry at all. It is but pragmatic to ride on the coattails of the Cory magic while it lasts. But to overstate Mar Roxas' supposed sacrifice is a bit off. I mean, sure it must be painful to give up something you have worked and spent millions for but one can also look at it in a different angle.

His numbers were not going up despite the barrage of infomercials. "Ramdam ko kayo," he assures but the case is "Di niya tayo nararamdaman." Not in very encouraging figures so we can also say, Mar is in fact cutting his losses this early. Early on, talks of an Escudero team-up was rife, Escudero being quite popular in some surveys but that seemed to fizzle out. Noynoy is a more viable tandem, let's see how this plays out after Noynoy's spiritual retreat.

Rafacious

A new haircut. The arms, still to kill for. Rafa!!! He is futbol's loss and tennis' gain - the ruggedness, the tenacity, the boyish imperfections. Charming.

The Fed and Rafa represent two schools of thought. People who root for them are profiled and said to belong to a different spectrum. Since Rios left, I lost interest so I am not in the thick of things.

Maybe it's like Barcelona and Real Madrid. Barca is perceived to be progressive and run a more scientific game geared towards victory while Real Madrid, despite its stable of talent is pereived to rely more on divine providence to win.

Whatever it is, I look at these athletes as fascinating machines.

George and Vicky

Milan Kundera: "Dogs are links to paradise. They don't know evil or jealous or discontent. To sit on a hillside with a dog on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where nothing was not boring, it was peace."

Our Georgelablab, no one makes me worry more when he's not eating well or have some sort of fever. With him, all defenses are down Sometimes, I think I am unfair by not sparing him my own kitchen sink drama but he seems to get it. He revels when he's told that he's God's gift to us and that Jesus loves him. He actually smiles at the declaration. Of late, his favorite song to sleep to is "Con te Partiro." When I stop playing the song after 6 repetitions, he would stand up and silently beg. What's in this song?

Speaking of dogs, I couldn't help but admire Vicky Morales several notches higher, with the dogged persistence she demonstrated covering the Liberal Party press conference at Club Filipino last night. Mar Roxas was admonishing "Vicky, masasagasaan ka" quite a number of times but relentless to get the soundbites, Vicky showed everyone that passion still rules a seasoned journalist like her. No let up. It was very humbling - an awarded broadcaster of her stature who has certainly paid her dues showing us how willing she was to lose her poise to get the news.