Raw

You see the edge of a blunt blade as you slowly bring it to your wrist.

It starts with a dull sensation as the blade goes back and forth across the thin skin. 

Then comes the searing pain; the skin finally rips.  You know it is coming, yet a part of you is still caught off-guard by the immediacy of the sensation. 

The Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty – I So Don’t Get It (A Re-Post)

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

- old French proverb

Call me staid (read: boring), and old-fashioned (read: inflexible), but change isn’t my cup of tea. Really. I dunno, but I’d rather prefer the sun to rise every morning I get up. Not that it hasn’t risen at all (knock on wood), but I imagine if it doesn’t, then my whole ordered and predictable world will come crashing down. Of course I’m exaggerating, but it brings me my whole point: why change your status quo when there’s no assurance that the precipitating change will be for the better?

The Guardian

Copied from Lukayo. I gotta find my H.S. and College Meyers-Briggs, so I can see how much I've (been un) changed since then hehehehehe

25 Random Things About Eternal Wanderer, Redux 2

13. Eternal Wanderer still cannot eat ampalaya, okra, saluyot, and alugbati. He has traumatic memories of being force-fed pinakbet and dinendeng when he was a kid, and for his life, will not touch the vegetables associated with those dishes within a mile. Except for kabalasa, sitaw, and occasionally, talong.

14. Spice is not the first taste of a long distance relationship for Eternal Wanderer. His first was actually with Carinderia Kid. Eternal Wanderer was based in Manila, Carinderia Kid was in Los Baños. And they met in the geekiest way ever possible: an e.b. for Advanced Dungeon and Dragons in Megamall.

15. Eternal Wanderer’s earliest memory of his Erpats was in the old International Airport before Erpats’ flight to Sweden for further film studies. But that was when Eternal Wanderer was about 5 yrs. old. Now he wonders, where could Erpat have been for the first 5 yrs. of Eternal Wanderer’s life?

16. Again, contrary to popular belief, Eternal Wanderer actually had a girlfriend for about a year. This was when he undergoing a sever phase of identity crisis. Good thing he snapped out of it.

17. He was addicted to chatting in the late, lamented G4m. Ting Ting Cojuangco kept on complaining that Eternal Wanderer was glued to the monitor for hours on end. But because of this, he found his tropa of Cubao Boy, Totoy Mola, and Glasses. Now, even Ting Ting Cojuangco hangs out with them, too.

18. His idea of a gimik with his tropa is dinner, coffee, and an occasional movie. They have frequent drinking sessions at his place, but since he doesn’t drink alcohol, he usually inebriates himself with Coke Zero.

19. Eternal Wanderer class-hopped in high school. He was a B-boy for two years, got moved to the regular I in 3rd year, and was still in an I class when he repeated his 3rd year. But he considers his repeated I as his real class. And yes, he still maintains his straight barkada from that class, too.

20. He first tasted American white meat in 1997, and European weissfleich in 2000. Nonetheless, he will prefer to eat adobo anytime over the imported variety.

21. He still keeps the rose a famous Italian soprano gave him from her bouquet when he had a snapshot taken with her after watching an opera in Hamburg. He wanted the underwear of the yummy, beefy, hunky Tenor as a souvenir, but that would’ve been too much to ask.

22. Eternal Wanderer has a tita who has been a tito for a good 30 years or so. Tito’s claim to fame is that he was the first Asian transsexual operated on. Eternal Wanderer still hasn’t mustered the courage to ask if Tito can get it up, though.

24. He flirted with the professional stage for a time. He did the usual rounds of auditions for various theatrical companies, and even managed to snag a big role in Tanghalang Pilipino. But he eventually returned to his first love: singing classical stuff.

24. Eternal Wanderer did a courtside announcer/commentator gig at the Shakey’s V-league. What he wants though, is to be a TV commentator for the volleyball games. Yes, he is that addicted to the sport.

25. With 49 things already written about him, Eternal Wanderer thinks he may have a tad overshared things about himself already hahahahahaha

Related Links:
25 Random Things About Eternal Wanderer, Redux 1
25 Random things about me, or how I succumbed to this meme

25 Random Things About Eternal Wanderer, Redux 1

1. Eternal Wanderer is a closet nerd. When he was in grade school he used to vie in those quiz bee shows on TV and in an assortment of national level quiz competitions. He was considered the resident expert in science and Philippine history in the team.

2. Contrary to popular belief, Eternal Wanderer is not an unico hijo. He actually had a younger brother, but the Anthony was born blue, and didn’t survive 3 minutes out of the womb. He would’ve turned 28 this year.

3. Eternal Wanderer has been to one of his dream cities: Moscow in Russia. He still wants to go to Athens, Cairo, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires though.

4. He used to dish out opera arias like it was nothing. Eternal Wanderer was even able to sing with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra at the CCP Main Theater as its soloist, doing an operatic duet with another soprano and a Filipino kundiman by his loneself. But nowadays, he fancies himself retired from that stuff. Even so, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t listen to opera anymore. He loves to pump up the volume at 2 a.m. onwards, waking the whole household with Turandot , Tristan und Isolde, and Lucia di Lammermoor.

5. He never was a big fan of video games. However, he installed an Age of Mythology in his desktop, and found himself engrossed with it for 4 straight days.

6. Though he did a Tina Paner with Cris Villanueva, Eternal Wanderer considers Varsity Player his first true love. They got hot and heavy for about three years, till he was dumped for a girl that Varsity Player met in college. Eternal Wanderer opines that Varsity Player and he should’ve gone on to an all-boys college instead hahahaha

7. He wants to be a southpaw since it’s very useful when playing volleyball. Unfortunately, he was born right handed, and has to settle with what nature has given him.

8. Eternal Wanderer junked science in favor of math when he was in high school. But that was after he was almost kicked out of school. Good thing his teachers and school teacher saw fit to give him another chance. He repeated his 3rd year and did a 180 degree turn. At the end of high school, he was a mini-math geekzoid, and managed to get into the courses he wanted at the only two schools he applied for in college.

9. Between cake and ice cream, Eternal Wanderer would choose cake. But either isn’t really much of an option, because he has type-2 diabetes.

10. He is a jack of all trades. Since Eternal Wanderer loves trying to explore the how-to’s and workings of anything that catches his fancy, he is able to do a lot of eclectic stuff. From teaching a beginner to receive a volleyball serve correctly, to tinkering with the innards of a desktop, to examining the intricacies of a Beethoven sonata composition, name it, he can prolly do it. Or at least is very much willing to try it out.

11. Eternal Wanderer is a sucker. For sausages. The kielbasa and bratwurst kind, you dirty, dirty-minded reader you!

12. He started trying to drive around the tender age of 15. One particular night, he snuck out the new car and managed to bang it up into Lite Ace while reversing. Needless to say, he still didn’t have a student license at that time.

Related Links:
25 Random Things About Eternal Wanderer, Redux 2
25 Random things about me, or how I succumbed to this meme

25 Random things about me, or how I succumbed to this meme

1. I love the house in Kamias. I can’t picture living anywhere but in it. There’s nothing like home!

2. Call it geeky, but I never outgrew my love for comics.

3. Ditto for the Dragonlance series. I read the first novel when I was ten, and I keep on re-reading the main books even until now.

4. I put a premium on friends. They are family to me.

5. All my years in the Ateneo College Glee Club and the Madz have been integral in shaping the person that I am today. The 14 or so years with them weren’t just music-making; it was character-forming. I may not be verbally demonstrative about it, but lemme just say it for once: I love you guys.

6. I get a kick at analyzing a good volleyball game. I’m serious.

7. Once I’m focused on something, I never let up on it. Of course, how to get me focused is another topic altogether :P

8. I learned to read books because when I was a kid, my mom took away the TV for about four years. Thanks Ma. That was one of the wisest decisions you made for me.

9. I’m close to both my dad and mom, but on different levels. With my dad, there’s an easy-going thing between us because that’s how he is. With my mom, it’s a more formal and intellectual type of relationship. But I love ‘em both, nonetheless.

10. When there’s good conversation going around a-plenty, it puts me in the mood.

11. You can never talk to me until I’ve had my first stick of cigarette in the morning. Never. Yes, it’s that bad.

12. I want to learn how to bake a cake. Soon.

13. I have a Rhodesian ridgeback. He may be a grumpy sonnavabitch, but Musa loves me to death. Even if occasionally growls at me hehehe

14. I regret not training as a setter when I was a kid.

15. At this point in my life, I try to stay away from anything that’s a vexation to the soul (TING TING ALERT). After all, wallowing in negativity isn’t really a pleasant fixation, is it?

16. Speaking of fixations, I am prone to being addictive.

17. I value peace, silence, and solitude. That’s why I love the wee hours in the morning when everything is in repose. The stillness is balm for my spirit.

18. You can dispense with the TV, but under no circumstance can you take away the internet from me.

19. Believe it or not, I am introverted by nature.

20. Cororally Corollary (thanks Deeps aka Mistress Helga) to that, it has always been easy for me to be aloof, distant, formidable, and guarded. But my closest friends know it’s all a façade.

21. Being a “people” person is a skill that I’ve been trying to hard to work at. I envy those who are naturals at it.

22. I have manic bouts of extreme chirpiness and hyperactivity. Conversely, I also can have serious black modes, as in the don’t-even-try-to-talk-to-me-if-you-know-what’s-good-for-you kind of modes.

23. Binge drinking is something I’m very familiar with, so that’s why I’ve been staying away from alcohol as much as possible since 2001.

24. I’m not really one to wear my heart on my sleeves, but for some weird reason, I cry whenever there’s a book passage or a movie scene that strikes a personal chord with me

25. Writing doesn’t really come easy to me, but since I was already tagged twice with this meme, I might as well try it out ;)