this is one hell of a good laugh..credits to renaissance girl.

A Rhose, By Any Other Name
By Matthew Sutherland
"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches" --(Proverbs 22:1)

WHEN I arrived in the Philippines from the UK six years ago, one of the first cultural differences to strike me was names. The subject has provided a continuing source of amazement and amusement ever since. The first unusual thing, from an English perspective, is that everyone here has a nickname. In the staid and boring United Kingdom, we have nicknames in kindergarten, but when we move into adulthood we tend, I am glad to say to lose them.

The second thing that struck me is that Philippine names for both girls and boys tend to be what we in the UK would regard as overbearingly cutesy for anyone over about five. "Fifty-five-year-olds with names that sound like five-year-olds", as one colleague put it. Where I come from, a boy with a nickname like Boy Blue or Honey Boy would be beaten to death at school by pre-adolescent bullies, and never make it to adulthood. So, probably, would girls with names like Babes, Lovely, Precious, Peachy or Apples. Yuk, ech ech. Here, however, no one bats an eyelid.

Then I noticed how many people have what I have come to call "door-bell names". These are nicknames that sound like - well, doorbells. There are millions of them. Bing, Bong, Ding, and Dong are some of the more common. They can be, and frequently are, used in even more door-bell-like combinations such as Bing-Bong, Ding-Dong, Ting-Ting, and so on. Even our newly appointed chief of police has a doorbell name - Ping. None of these doorbell names exist where I come from, and hence sound unusually amusing to my untutored foreign ear. Someone once told me that one of the Bings, when asked why he was called Bing, replied "because my brother is called Bong". Faultless logic. Dong, of course, is a particularly funny one for me, as where I come from "dong" is a slang word for... well, perhaps talong is the best Tagalog equivalent.

Repeating names was another novelty to me, having never before encountered people with names like Len-Len, Let-Let, Mai-Mai, or Ning-Ning. The secretary I inherited on my arrival had an unusual one: Leck-Leck. Such names are then frequently further refined by using the "squared" symbol, as in Len2 or Mai2. This had me very confused for a while.

Then there is the trend for parents to stick to a theme when naming their children. This can be as simple as making them all begin with the same letter, as in Jun, Jimmy, Janice, and Joy. More imaginative parents shoot for more sophisticated forms of assonance or rhyme, as in Biboy, Boboy, Buboy, Baboy (notice the names get worse the more kids there are -- best to be born early or you could end up being a Baboy). Even better, parents can create whole families of, say, desserts (Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, Honey Pie) or flowers (Rose, Daffodil, Tulip). The main advantage of such combinations is that they look great painted across your trunk if you're a cab driver. That's another thing I'd never seen before coming to Manila - taxis with the driver's kids' names on the trunk.

Another whole eye-opening field for the foreign visitor is the phenomenon of the "composite" name. This includes names like Jejomar (for Jesus, Joseph and Mary), and the remarkable Luzviminda (for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, believe it or not). That's a bit like me being called something like "Engscowani" (for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Between you and me, I'm glad I'm not.

And how could I forget to mention the fabulous concept of the randomly inserted letter 'h'. Quite what this device is supposed to achieve, I have not yet figured out, but I think it is designed to give a touch of class to an otherwise only averagely weird name. It results in creations like Jhun, Lhenn, Ghemma, and Jhimmy. Or how about Jhun-Jhun (Jhun2)?

There is also a whole separate field of name games -- those where the parents have exhibited a creative sense of humor on purpose. I once had my house in London painted by a Czechoslovakian decorator by the name of Peter Peter. I could never figure out if his parents had a fantastic sense of humor or no imagination at all -- it had to be one or the other. But here in the Philippines, wonderful imagination and humor is often applied to the naming process, particularly, it seems, in the Chinese community. My favorites include Bach Johann Sebastian; Edgar Allan Pe; Jonathan Livingston Sy; Magic Chiongson, Chica Go, and my girlfriend's very own sister, Van Go. I am assured these are real people, although I've only met two of them. I hope they don't mind being mentioned here. How boring to come from a country like the UK full of people with names like John Smith. How wonderful to come from a country where imagination and exoticism rule the world of names.

Even the towns here have weird names; my favorite is the unbelievably named town of Sexmoan (ironically close to Olongapo and Angeles). Where else in the world could that really be true? Where else in the world could the head of the Church really be called Cardinal Sin? Where else in the world could Angel, Gigi and Mandy be grown-up men? Where else could you go through adult life unembarrassed and unassailed with a name like Mosquito, or Pepper, or Honey Boy? Where else but the Philippines!

Thirty Things A Woman Should Have and Know By Thirty

here is something i read from one blogger, renaissance girl:

By the time she’s thirty, every woman should have:

1. One old boyfriend she can imagine going back to and one who reminds her how far she has come.
2. Enough money within her control to move out and rent a place of her own even if she never wants to or needs to.
3. Something perfect to wear if the employer or the man of her dreams wants to see her in an hour.
4. A purse, a suitcase and an umbrella she’s not ashamed to be seen carrying.
5. A youth she’s content to leave behind.
6. A past juicy enough that she’s looking forward to retelling it in her old age.
7. The realization that she is actually going to have an old age and some money set aside to help fund it.
8. A set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra.
9. One friend who always makes her laugh, and one who lets her cry.
10. A good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family.
11. Eight matching plates, wineglasses with stems, and a recipe for a meal that will make her guests feel honored.
12. A resume that is not even the slightest bit padded.
13. A feeling of control over her destiny.
14. A skin care regime, an exercise routine and a plan for dealing with those few other facets of life that do not get better after thirty.
15. A solid start on a satisfying career, a satisfying relationship and all those other facets of life that do get better.


By the time she’s thirty, every woman should know:

1. How to fall in love without losing herself.
2. How she feels about having kids.
3. How to quit a job; break up with a man; and confront a friend without ruining the friendship.
4. When to try harder, and when to walk away.
5. How to kiss a man in a way that communicates perfectly what she would and wouldn’t want to happen next.
6. How to have a good time at a party that she’d never chose to attend.
7. How to ask for what she wants in a way that makes it most likely she’ll get it.
8. That she can’t change the length of her calves, the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents.
9. That her childhood may not have been perfect, but it’s over.
10. What she would and wouldn’t do for love or money.
11. How to live alone, even if she doesn’t like it.
12. Who she can trust, whom she can’t, and why she shouldn’t take it personally.
13. Where to go – be it to her best friend’s kitchen table, or a charming inn in the woods -- when her soul needs soothing.
14. What she can and can’t accomplish in a day, a month and a year.
15. Why they say life begins at thirty.

while the whole world seems to be settling down-finding Mr. Perfect, marrying, having kids, earning money for the sole of reason of giving their family a good life, starting a totally different life from what the singles decipher to be the happy-go-lucky stage in their lives, i remain to be stucked in the singlehood of things. take these- malling...alone. watching movies....alone, well nearly, im always w/ my parents or friends. sounds super pathetic. wow, this is so not me... im so pathetic, i couldnt stand it. am i really blogging this? huh, what the heck, its true afterall. so let me just continue. you just know you're missing something when all your closest friends, are suddenly turning to be moms, carrying babies w/ them in the mall w/ a bottle of milk in hand, with their hubbies..oh how i miss my friends so much. the fun-filled days of just hanging out at ones homes, giggling at silly jokes that would eventually lead us to crying from laughing, cooking our fave pig out foods, fantasizing about some guy we like, going out of town for the fun or it. those days. sweet days. now bygones. i dont know what makes me sad. im still the same over the years. clueless. the libran, who holds the scales of indecisiveness. is it because im alone and they are not? and that they left me doing those things still? now with different friends though.. i dont know. its just sometimes, i feel some things are missing. and you're stuck to your same self 8 years ago. just like a teenager, that's what im feeling like these days. i know im in the office, becoming the professional that i am, but im trapped w/ "teenagy things". and there goes your smile. going down the drain of cheesiness, lost values, jealousy, being puppeteered, drowning in false friendships. and you just dont what happened. you dont know why..

Smile by Tamia


Sometimes I sit at home and wonder how it'd be
If he had loved me
Truly loved me yes
I learned a while ago that kind of thing
Never happens for me
And so I go around
And just pretend
Loving life for me
I play the circus clown around my friends
Make them laugh and they won't see
That you never let them see you sweat
Don’t want them to think the pain runs deep
Lord knows it's killing me

So I put on my make-up
Put a smile on my face
And if anyone asks me
Everything is okay
I’m laughing cause no one
Knows the joke is on me
Cause I’m dying inside
With my pride and a smile
On my face


Sing it la la la la

Sometimes I sit at home
By the phone hoping he might call me
But he don't call me
But then I realize
Dreams come true aren't for girls like me
Not like me
And so I go around with my head up
Like it ain't no thing
And when the boys around with all my friends
I’m into other things
Cause you never let them see you sweat
Don’t want them to think the pain runs deep
Lord knows it's killing me

And,so I put my make up
Put a smile on my face
And if anyone asks me
Everything is okay
I’m laughing cause no one
Knows the joke is on me
But I’m dying inside
With my pride and a smile
On my face

It’s not as easy (thing)
Sometimes it’s hard to (face the truth)
It’s not the life that I would choose (that I would choose)
But what else can I do?
If he don’t love me
If he don’t want me
I’m not about to sit around
Let myself go

So I put on my make-up
Put a smile on my face
And if anyone asks me
Everything is okay
I’m laughing cause no one
Knows the joke is on me
Cause I’m dying inside
With my pride and a smile
On my face

i treated again my mom and dad to a movie. they were so eager to watch the movie, "The day after Tomorrow." so that's what i did, we went for a last full show with ate aileen as well. the movie was okay. its the least that i could tell. i did not want to see it. i prefer "Shrek", but a ratio of 3 is 1? i lost obviously. so back to the movie.. it was okay, kinda freaky but okay. the use of special effects is impressive. it all looked real and that made it terrifying. but the story itself is somewhat exaggerated and silly. i dont know, it just doest seem good to me. nevertheless, here are some scenes in the movie.

who is your alter poet?


Way to go, your alter poet is Jack Kerouac, who is
by FAR the coolest!


Who is Your Alter Poet?
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