From an Alien’s Perspective

It’s very heartwarming to know that despite the corruption that envelopes the political scene in the country, somewhere within the far corners of the country, there are still some people worthy of the word "Honorable".

Yesterday, my husband was almost in panic because he dropped his wallet in the tricycle.  They got off the tricycle within the market area so we were so sure that it’s "bye bye wallet" for us.  Of course, you know men’s wallet contains a lot of valuable cards.  His is no exception - 2 credit cards, 3 ATM cards, drivers license, SSS ID, 2 health cards, and of course, cash.  Good thing he had enough money in his pocket to buy the things that he need and return home.

It came as a big surpise when he saw the driver at the entrance of our street (he did not even remember the tricycle he was driving, much less the driver, but the driver remembered him).  Apparently, he was waiting there hoping to see my husband again because there is where they board the tricycle.  As soon as he saw my husband, he returned the wallet - no questions asked.  So surprised was my husband that all he can do was say thank you.  I told him later that he should at least give the driver a reward for being kind enough to return the wallet with everything in it.  My husband plans to give him a useful item as a token of appreciation.

Now it’s our turn to look for the driver to return the favor.

Last week I started using my company-assigned PC.  I didn’t notice it then, but when I sat on my chair today and started my PC, I felt a bit refreshed…  Now I don’t have to go through the ritual of taking out my laptop and setting everything up on my desk before finally starting up my computer.  Today, I just sat down and pressed the Power-On  button, and VIOLA!!! My computer is up and running…

I rarely watch TV nowadays because I’m more often in the office than at home.  Last night though, I got a glimpse of the news in ABS-CBN and heard about the rants of movie producers regarding the controversial rules on the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).

Frankly speaking, I the producers are just sour-graping because their movie was not able to earn as much as they expected it to.  And what better way to escape the guilt feeling than blame it on the the MMFF authorities for making such "commercialized" rules.

Looking at it in an objective way, the movie industry, in whatever way you look at it, is still a business.  And as such, one of the main objective, if not the primary objective of that business is to earn money.  Why else would any producers invest on it if they do not plan to profit out of it?

There are directors, writters, artists, and other people behind the production of any movie, whose main objective is for people to appreciate their art/craft/work.  The more people watching the movie, the more appreciation they will get.  The other upside to it is the more profit the producers will make out of the movie.

But if the movie is not patronized by the public, the only reason is that it does not appeal to the audience.  From an artist’s perspective, the movie is not a good artwork because it did not connect to the target market.  From a business standpoint, the movie is not a good product because the target market did not buy it.

Remember, the target market of any movie is the public who goes to the movie houses to buy the ticket, not the movie critics - whose written criticism are sometimes more "artistic" than the movie itself for average person to understand -, nor judges of any award giving bodies - whose judgement are sometimes based on their personal preferences/taste in art. 

Endpoint, you do not need any political influence or an award to make your target market watch your movie.  An award is just an icing on the cake of a box office hit.  To sell your movie, what you need, aside from a good product, is good marketing strategy.  They don’t call movie trailers a "teaser" for nothing.  A good case in point - Blair Witch Project.  You’d be surprised at how much a good promotion can do to your product.  Just look at Manny Pacquiao.

For the first time since 1995, I did not enjoy watching the fireworks that I setup for the new year celebration.

No, its not the fireworks.  In fact, it was great as what our neighbors, who were able to watch it, said..  Its our other neighbor. Well our neighbor’s bahay-kubo to be exact…

Apparently, the wind was blowing to the direction of our neighbor’s bahay-kubo so when the fireworks display started, the sparks that shoots out are blown to their yard directly.  I was watching while the our neighbor is washing out sparks dropping on their car while my husband is trying to figure out how to mitigate the possible damage on their newly built bahay-kubo in case the sparks dropping on it are big and hot enough to set it on fire.  I tried to move the fireworks box away from our neighbor’s house (while the fireworks are shooting out of it), but it only resulted to more sparks dropping on the bahay-kubo.  At least no more sparks were dropping on their car.  Hahaha, like that’s a relief.

The whole duration of the fireworks display, we spent not watching it, but watching out for our neighbor’s bahay-kubo.  At least there’s the thrill moving the live fireworks box.  I mean our other neighbors who were enjoying the fireworks display were amazed to see me actually pushing the box away from our that bahay-kubo with my bare hands.  At least I can really say that the Dragon Fireworks are really safe.

You were supposed to be on leave today because your company "encourages" you to consume your alloted vacation leaves lest they be forfeited.

On your first day of leave, your boss requests you to go to the office to work on something which is not your responsibility anymore, but was assigned to you anyway because the client (a high ranking company official) requests that you do it.

Should you take that as a complement because you are a highly desirable employee?

Definition of terms (based on the Alien’s dictionary) :

Wife - the partner of the husband, responsible for fulfilling his, emotional, spiritual, and non-sexual physical needs.

Lover - the partner of the husband, responsible for fulfilling his sexual needs.

Housewife - the woman who ensures that the house becomes the home of the family.

Mother - the woman who takes care of the well-being of the children.

??? - a singular term which refers to a wife, lover, housewife and mother all in one person.

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As a lover and as a housewife, I would give myself a high rating. As a wife, there are lots of room to improve on. As a mother, I stink like a skunk.

Ten years into my marriage, with 4 kids as of to date, and I still do not know how to be a mother. Eversince I became pregnant with my fourth kid (fifth actually, but the official fourth died in my womb less than 4 months after conception), I have been wishing that I quit work so I can personally take care of my kids. I guess God really knows better. He did not give me that opportunity because He knows that I still have a lot to learn, especially on patience.

With 3 kids less than 4 years old, the youngest only 3 months old, I really had a hard time just maintaining peace at home when my yaya went on her Christmas vacation. Being a housewife is ok (although I did not attempt to wash the dirty clothes ‘coz I know somebody else will do that after Christmas), except for the part of maintaining sanity at home.

The bad thing is that I think I pre-maturely and harshly pushed my eldest daughter (she’s 10 years old now) to the "big sister" responsibility. She was never used to being the responsible person at home because I never forced her to. But when no one else is there to help me, and she was not able to do what I wanted her to do, I was quick to lose my temper. In fact, I’m afraid I might have said some things that would affect her in a negative way (I really have to do something about this…).

I guess my corporate life is taking more of my time that I do not have enough to practice being a mother. I should start learning time management (and follow the rules that I will impose on myself). That way I can slowly immerse myself to crazy but happy life of motherhood.

I almost cried this morning around 3AM when I came to the realization that no amount of effort I can do to finish making the gifts for my officemates and friends.  The wrapper simply looks hideous.  I cannot go on giving gifts that looks trashy.

Well, at least I was able to shop for gifts (toys) for the kids.

But I still don’t have gifts for my officemates…  WWAAAHHHHH!!!  Do I just buy instead???  But I love giving homemade gifts to them…  WWAAHHHHH!!! 

Wattudu??  Wattudu??  Wattudu??

So what if I did not win anything in the raffle…  The food was great and overflowing.  It’s my first time to see and try chocolate fondue (I only see it in Citibank Rewards Catalog).  I danced the night away until the DJs gave up on us and the security guards of the clubhouse hinted us to go quietly or else…

I think the dancing had a good effect on me.  All the pains caused by the frisbee game seemed to have vanished like the vodka in the shot glass being passed on by my officemate.  Hhhmmmm… Maybe it was the vodka.

What can I give you this Christmas?
Not a thing that I see will do
So I give you my love, my own true love
That will last the whole year through…

Aaawww…. What a sweet gift to give for Christmas… I could give a dozen of those to my husband…

If only that would be acceptable for the other persons who are expecting gifts from us.  I am really so tired this week that I don’t think I can have enough time to shop around for items in their wishlists nor make my traditional generic Christmas gift. 

But then again, if I don’t do my routinary Christmas shopping, I will miss out on the fun of wrapping presents, giving them out to excited children and see that joyous looks in their faces when they find that inside the box is the thing that they wanted the most…

I guess I better start shopping…

Two days after that envigorating frisbee game and my limbs are still aching like hell.  Just last night, while sitting inside the car, I can’t remove my shoes without a wince of pain.

Oh well… At least I can say that the pain was for a good reason…

Another game???  Yeah!!!