At least once a week, usually on a Monday, there's bound to be someone who attempts to, supposedly, seize the day - or the week, more likely - by declaring that nothing will bring her down, by declaring that this week is her week, by declaring that she chooses to be happy, and so she will.
Arguably it makes some kind of sense. If you just overlook the bad things and focus exclusively on the good ones, the world has to be a better place, right?
I mean, if you just think of not waking up to an alarm, staying in your somehow perfectly-lit bed once you do, and going, "well, isn't this swell?" it makes everything immediately ahead of you seem worthwhile, right? Yeah, arguably, that could happen.
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8/31/2016
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8/23/2016
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It's not often that I'm the last one to sleep.
A particular dread sinks in when that happens, though.
It's quiet. It's quiet, save for the whir of the electric fan.
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A particular dread sinks in when that happens, though.
It's quiet. It's quiet, save for the whir of the electric fan.
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8/15/2016
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This weekend, I rediscovered Jamba Juice.
I mean, I wasn't living under a rock or anything. I just haven't had it in years. A couple of days ago, though, I decided that Shalla and I would have a couple of their drinks while watching Suicide Squad.
"Anong sa'yo?" I ask.
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I mean, I wasn't living under a rock or anything. I just haven't had it in years. A couple of days ago, though, I decided that Shalla and I would have a couple of their drinks while watching Suicide Squad.
"Anong sa'yo?" I ask.
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8/14/2016
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"Why don't you talk to someone about it?"
Okay, sure, let's give it a try.
They always say you only really need to talk to someone to feel better, at least for a little while, at least for a little bit. Nobody, however, talks about how most of the time there really isn't somebody you can talk to about things.
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Okay, sure, let's give it a try.
They always say you only really need to talk to someone to feel better, at least for a little while, at least for a little bit. Nobody, however, talks about how most of the time there really isn't somebody you can talk to about things.
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8/11/2016
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Perhaps one of the most important takeaways from Rodrigo Duterte's first State of the Nation Address - at least when it comes to defining what we can expect from his six years as president - is his vow not to blame the past administrations for the problems he has, well, inherited.
Arguably, it's a good thing. Sure, he still has the propensity to say outrageous things - and, more scarily, nobody knows whether he means what he says or not - but at least they're different and fresh every time, or something. Noynoy Aquino spent his six years lamenting that he has to clean up the grand mess Gloria Arroyo left behind, and he did it so often you can set your clock to it. This is when he paints himself as a messiah. Done and done.
But, at the very least, it shows that Duterte would rather get down to work than get stuck on sentimental vagaries that, admittedly, have indeed bogged the country down. Then again, that's his rationale for allowing the body of Ferdinand Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani - and that is not going well with a lot of people, for obvious reasons.
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Arguably, it's a good thing. Sure, he still has the propensity to say outrageous things - and, more scarily, nobody knows whether he means what he says or not - but at least they're different and fresh every time, or something. Noynoy Aquino spent his six years lamenting that he has to clean up the grand mess Gloria Arroyo left behind, and he did it so often you can set your clock to it. This is when he paints himself as a messiah. Done and done.
But, at the very least, it shows that Duterte would rather get down to work than get stuck on sentimental vagaries that, admittedly, have indeed bogged the country down. Then again, that's his rationale for allowing the body of Ferdinand Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani - and that is not going well with a lot of people, for obvious reasons.
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8/03/2016
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A couple of years ago I began writing, in my head, another essay about how people are perceived in society, how people are expected to act in society - that convoluted umbrella, gender relations.
Specifically, I wanted to write about rape culture.
This was the time when the term was gaining traction, at least on particular corners of the Internet, the very corners I happen to find myself in. I'm hearing it from friends. I'm hearing it from the people whose posts my friends were sharing. I'm hearing it in columns from writers, mostly, but not all, feminist. And I get it: I get that we're asking females to act a certain way because males act a certain way. I just wasn't sure if we are supposed to call it a "culture" - that term meant "universally accepted" to me, and I wasn't sure if we all really agreed to that.
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Specifically, I wanted to write about rape culture.
This was the time when the term was gaining traction, at least on particular corners of the Internet, the very corners I happen to find myself in. I'm hearing it from friends. I'm hearing it from the people whose posts my friends were sharing. I'm hearing it in columns from writers, mostly, but not all, feminist. And I get it: I get that we're asking females to act a certain way because males act a certain way. I just wasn't sure if we are supposed to call it a "culture" - that term meant "universally accepted" to me, and I wasn't sure if we all really agreed to that.
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Niko Batallones writes The Upper Blog.
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Some photographs have been edited using post-production curves from Shalla Yu.
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