“No publicity is bad publicity.”

Is this true?! I mean yeah, if you want to be technical about it. The more people talk about you, whether it is good or bad would still amount to the same thing which is to make you famous.

I guess this is the strategy of some of the attention seekers in Hollywood.

One good example is Paris Hilton. Although I’m not gonna talk about her, I’m just trying to prove a point.

Another good one is Lindsay Lohan

These people are intentionally creating trouble for themselves just so people would have something to talk about them. (like what I’m doing right now. another point.)

Then locally, here in Singapore there’s Steven Lim. My good friend Princessa introduced him to me during our birthday party and I was quite amazed really.

They were thinking I will recognize him. But I didn’t mainly because I am not Singaporean. As more people turned up, it occurs to me that some people actually knows him.

This is when I started to ask them questions why he is popular. I asked is he an actor, a comedian, a talk show host or just someone who appears in TV.

Some say I can say that he’s an actor, I can say that he does appear in TV every here and there. Then at last when I forced someone to spill it out, whatever makes him famous, someone finally told me that he is not actually famous.

It is at this point that they told me he is more of the infamous kind. Although the publicity about him is very bad, it doesn’t matter to him. As long as he is well known, that’s the only thing he cares about and I guess he couldn’t be bothered with anything beyond that.

He even invited me to appear in one of his videos. In doing so, he promised me a whopping 60K of traffic coming in my blog if I agree to work with him in a video.

I was thinking, do I really want to be famous in such a way that he is famous? Hmm… probably not. I will just slowly slowly write in here and be known by people as someone who is friendly (but not overly), someone they can really talk to and as someone they can actually laugh with. (not at) hehehe!

So to end it, check this out. haha! I have to say, this is soooo hilarious! I don’t know where he’s getting his ideas. The only thing I know is that I’m not getting close to wherever that is. hehehe! (peace!!)

I like to believe that that I’m a faithful person. I’ve been to a lot of arguments regarding this matter. Both with the religious and the non-believer. I am neither of the two.

I don’t believe that I need to go to church to be able to talk about God. For me a church is an institution made out of people and stones and concrete. They are here to help those in need of guidance and show those people who have no God find God, and know more about Him.

Me, on the other hand have never been without a God. My family introduced me to Him and I never once did lost him. I questioned his existence because I felt it is my obligation to use my mind.

I was given the capability to think and decide for myself. That is exactly what I did. I thought about His existence, it’s rationality and theoretical soundness. I mixed science and religion to come up with my own theories.

Then I decided.

I decided to believe in Him with all intensity and humility. He can never be proven real nor a product of man’s vanity.

God for me is the most mystical and at the same time the only reality. He is what he is. I refuse to define him, or search for Him, because he is definite.

One more thing is, I can not possibly search for someone who has always been with me the whole time.

I was browsing through Channel News Asia for some light reading when I came about this article:

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie house hunting in Europe

MADRID - Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are looking for a house in Europe so that their four children and future offspring can have a “broad vision of the world,” the actor said in a interview published Sunday.

“While we are very nomadic, we would like to have a base in Europe. More attention is paid here to what is going on in the world and it is easier to get to Africa and Asia from here,” he told XL Semanal, the weekly magazine supplement of the ABC newspaper.

At first glance, people would definitely find it inspiring. I mean a couple who adopts children and actually brings them to the spotlight. Then claiming, and I paraphrase: giving them a broad vision of the world.

I know it’s not really my business and I don’t even like talking about celebrities and their supposing private affairs. But I find this preposterous!

For a person like me who has been raised in a very happy and simple family, I can’t imagine asking myself why I don’t look like my parents and travel the whole world and not having a roots firmly on a single ground.

Ok the first one is shallow I have to admit. But shouldn’t any child have at least some resemblance to their parents? To be able to identify themselves by looking at their parents. You may say that I’m being superficial, but this is how I see it.

The second one, every child should be able to have a place to call home. These children can not possibly call the whole world as their home! Home by right is that single place where you have fond memories of you growing up, making mistakes and owning up to those mistakes.

Home is something constant… where you feel safe and secured.

I know it’s not a very good thing to question kindness and humanity in its face and I also think it’s weird for me to find these things as very fake.

I could be wrong. Maybe it’s just me thinking so much of something that should be taken as it is. Whatever it is, I still believe that something is not quite right with this picture.

This time around, I wouldn’t mind to be wrong. After all, if what they’re trying to portray is true then I will forever be at awe for their contribution to humanity itself. Until then, I’d rather stop commenting the moment I type out period.

This is the end result of princessa’s hard work. Today was our joint birthday celebration. When we woke up, it’s as if we didn’t want to push it through.

Why? Because we were both lazy to do the preparations/logistics for it. We don’t know what to bring, how much or where to buy things.

The only reason why we were able to drag ourselves to the grocery store, buy stuff for the party is because our sponsors already gave us money and liquor to be consumed for the party.

We got lost, trying to get there and when we arrived, well… let’s just say that we’re late for our own birthday party!!

Then again, it turned out to be just fine. There’s not that much people who attended, but at least the people we wanted to come actually came.

Some got drunk, others arrived drunk (that’s apple) while people from entirely different worlds try to find as much in common with each other.

Come to think of it, our party actually turned out to be quite fun!

My birthday was on the 24th of October. It took me a long time to write about it because I was waiting for the pictures to come so it would be easier for me to describe it.

It wasn’t a extravagant day, really. (Especially since I already celebrated it on the 20th. But I’ll go to that on another time)

What happened though, was very sweet. It is something that happens to a lot of people in their birthday, it’s just that I tend to appreciate small things… a little bit more than usual.

Apple, my flat mate who also happened to be my colleague called me, asking me to come up the second level because she needs my help with something.

Grunting, I agreed and went up to the pantry. Then, I saw all my friends in the office huddled in the pantry table. In the middle of the table was a cake and a teddy bear.

I was surprised even if I already expected it. Actually I almost cried.(But of course I didn’t because I don’t cry in public since 1st grade)

They sang the ‘happy birthday’ song, I made a wish and blew the candles in my cake.

I cut my cake…

and ate the message that goes with it that says, “Happy Birthday Misscel, Love ya lots”

The love yah lots I only noticed today when my friend Pei Qi gave me the pictures today (by the way)

After that, we just continued on clicking the camera and taking photos.

A simple day, celebrated in a simple way, with very special people celebrating a moment that is special to me and everybody who cares for me.

Life really isn’t that bad.

Every day, something is happening in all places around the globe. The world is changing, as well as humanity itself along with nature. Political views, economic policies and all sorts of upheavals are happening concurrently.

In all these changes, I feel left out. This morning, I was early for work so I decided to read the newspaper for a change. There’s the news about the fire in California. Seven people died and a lot lost their properties.

Recently there has been an explosion in one of the popular malls in the Philippines (Glorieta). There were speculations of terrorist attack but the authorities said it was an accident. Nothing more to it.

These are just a few. At least the few that I know off. Then I made this comment about the article 377a as my way of reaching out and trying to be a part of what’s happening out there.

Some appreciated my post and there were some who thinks voicing out my opinion contradicts my view of letting the matter rest. I don’t mind though. In the very least, someone else read my post.

Going back to current events, I still don’t know what’s happening around me. On the other side of the world. I don’t even know what’s happening in my own country.

Time is flying right past by me and I can’t do anything about it. There’s a lot of things I want to do, a lot of things that I still need to learn and I’m not sure how I am going to accomplish all these things.

In trying to console myself, I realized something. The gravity that world issues poses does not amount to my insignificance. Rather, it just means that the world is big. I am just human.

Thinking about it, I still know something. I am still a part of my family and friend’s lives. I know what’s happening to their lives. I am still a witness to their history.

So what, they’re not famous and influential? Well they mean everything to me. The rest of the world remotely affects me of course. But it doesn’t directly equate to who I am.

This is not my excuse for not updating myself with the news. For that, I have none. This is more of my reason for still trying to live the best way I can. And I’m glad.

Saturday night, and I don’t have any plan at all. My flat mate (Apple) has been bugging me the whole day. You know that usual “you’re 25 years old and you still don’t have a boyfriend. How can you have a bf if you’re not even going out?!”

These kind of litany. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. So as always, I thought - What the heck! If it’s gonna make you shut up then let’s go and have it done with.

(by the way this is apple)

We went to this newly opened bar which means there’s only us and a couple more of her friends. More or less, it was a pretty boring night out. I placated myself by calling my cousin who’s in Washington right now for a job interview and try to annoy him.

When we reached home we decided to continue drinking. This time with out other flat mates. It was like a bonding session for all of us. We talked about our lives before we went to Singapore. About how we decided to leave our country and try our luck here.

We we’re also cracking super corny jokes and lame stories. Just having fun talking about everything and anything under the sun. I guess you can say we learned a lot about each other and became much closer. Like friends…

So was it a mushy night? Supposedly yes. But lo! Our flat mates just had to end the night with a bang! Apple and I were too sleepy that we fell asleep in the couch right after the lot drop of alcohol was consumed.

So our flat mates namely Glenox, Mike & Alpha…

…decided to play a prank on us. You can say they had a sudden strike of genius and did this to us!!! (grrr!!)

LASING KA? = Are you drunk??

Fine, I have to admit it’s kinda funny. haha! Especially all the plastic bottles were mostly on Apple and they put more baby powder on her and lipstick all over her face.

Yeah, I know!! Our flat mates are so BAD! hehehe! Oh well. I guess we have a kind of nutty disposition. All of us. so please…

Help yourself with more of the photos they took of me and Apple.

I was supposed to go directly home and right something boring and insignificant. (hehe) Then princessa asked me if I’d care to join her to an event organized by the Creative Community of Singapore.

So you know, since I have nothing else to do and there will be free booze there I decided to join her.

The event has a nice multi-cultural crowd. Mostly from the PR industry. Free yoga vouchers were given, and an Indian kid gave a cute performance.

During all these time, I was drinking my vodka 7 and just taking photos with princessa and her friends. I think I drank 5 helpings of vodka 7, 3 glasses of white wine and 1 1/2 glasses of red wine.

When it was time to leave I couldn’t walk straight. I was bumping to princessa the whole time and giving this lame excuse that I’m trying to duck and prevent people I don’t know to bump against me.

Tipsy is OK with me. But then again the car was parked on the 5th floor!! Until now I can still remember the spiral drive going down. It was then that I felt nauseated.

I shouted, “stop the car!”. It took me about 5mins to open the car door and then I threw up almost half of what I drank that night. It’s so embarrassing! Well, I wasn’t really embarrassed. Throwing up needed all my focus, I didn’t have time for proper decorum.

Princessa stepped out of the car and went to check out the action (so to speak). I told her to take my photo so I can have something to remember that night by. haha! I know I know, it’s stupid and lame. But it’s fun though. She keeps on asking me to aim for the pavement and not her car door.

I’m guessing that took me about 30mins. Then I had to ask princessa to stop the car again after a few minutes back in the road. After that I slept. When I woke up, all my house mates are outside the car. One of them helped me get to the elevator and accompanied me.

The last thing I remembered before I drop in the sofa and just sleep in the living area was princessa telling apple (one of my house mates) to remind her to kill me the next day. That day should be today. So I better hide now.

My friend, Princessa was the one who opened up this subject. Apparently there is a group in Singapore who wants to repeal the section 377a which according to Wikipedia and I quote.

“Section 377A was introduced in 1938 to criminalize all other non-penetrative sexual acts between men. ‘Gross indecency‘ is a broad term which, from a review of past cases in Singapore, has been applied to mutual masturbation, genital contact, or even lewd behavior without direct physical contact. As with section 377, performing such acts in private does not constitute a defense. There is no law in Singapore equally specific to non-penetrative lesbian sex.”

It seems that this repeal has been causing a quite a lot of raucous nowadays. People are taking sides, and it’s not healthy.

Gays, lesbians they are the same as the next person. It’s just a matter of preference. For me what we should dwell upon is respect. This is something that is hard to chance upon these days.

Gay people are normal human beings who just want to live without people judging censoring them. As long as they’re not stepping on anybody’s shoes, there’s no reason for us to deny them the rights that heterosexuals have.

I myself am guilty of making them feel different by trying so hard to make them feel accepted. One quarter of my friends are gay and I don’t have anything against them.

So when I read the term gross indecency in how gay acts are being described, I was taken aback. I thought we’re living in a new age? Where now is freedom of expression?

I do not want to cause trouble, and neither do I want to put my friends in a compromising situation. I merely want to voice out my opinion.

Haven’t any one of us made any choice or act that most people deem as unpopular or bordering on morality and yet we feel that we have done nothing wrong? When people scrutinizes us, we feel violated right?

Let’s give people a chance to be who they want to be. At the end of the day, it’s still their lives to live. Try to understand other people as others try to understand us.

The world is big enough to keep us from stepping on each other’s toes. There’s no need to worry about someone else’s sexuality.

Before I conclude this, I want to leave three rules that I consider as my lifes’ mantra:

1. The Golden Rule: Do unto others what you want others to do unto you.

2. Machiavelli: The end justifies the means

3. Adam Smith: The invisible hand (the public will benefit as you pursue your own cause)

I didn’t really have all of these when I was a kid. Through the years, I have learned to go by these simple rules even if I’m not consciously thinking about them.

Think about these things together before you make your stand. I hope next time, judgmental people would actually stop and use their brain first before even uttering a single syllable.

(a photo of me with my best gay friend since secondary school)

_{Thoughts Aside:}

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I can’t believe it’s been more than 6 months since I left Philippines. Time flies soooo fast! It’s only October now, yet I’m already up on my toes anticipating my Christmas vacation.

This is actually the first time that I’ve been away from my family in such a long time. Although I don’t live with my parents because they still stay in the province, atleast I get to see them 2 weeks every other month.

Since I’m excited, I decided to check the airlines and check on the prices. Bloody hell! The prices shot. It’s more than doubled already, and it’s still 2 months before Christmas.

I asked around and my Filipino office-mates said that the prices were already high as far back as September. The real issue now is whether or not I’ll be able to get a seat.

I almost did a double twist flip right then and then. OK, I’m exaggerating again but hello! This is Christmas we’re talking about. I have no choice, i need to go back.

As a matter of fact, I have never spent a single Christmas without my parents. Yeah, yeah, I’m 25 year old and I’m acting very juvenile but I don’t care.

No matter what happens I will hug my mother and my father Christmas eve and play with my nephews and nieces. Then share high fives with my three brothers. This is the only way for me to spend Christmas.

Waaah! Writing about makes me feel suddenly homesick. I used to be very proud that I can live on my own and take care of myself but…really now?

I realized that wanting to be with the people you care about, wanting to be with my family doesn’t make me a dependent and clingy individual. It just means that I grew up with a tightly knit family. and I’m not being defensive about it!

Oh well. I better buy my ticket soon. Otherwise I’ll definitely regret not spending this year’s Christmas with my family.

Finally I’m going back to my home!! I can’t wait! I think one of these days I will definitely write more of my up and coming vacation.

There is no place like where my wacky family and my crazy friends are at. Although Singapore is like my second home now, Philippines would always be the place where my roots will always stay.

I’m going back!!! haha! I wouldn’t grow tired of saying this. I’m finally going back!!