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Today’s pet peeve: Filipino time
I hate the notion of Filipino time, and the expectation that it’s okay to be hours late to a social gathering, or meeting a person. I am not one of those people who can just show up at my own leisure to something I know started at a certain time. It’s demeaning and disappointing that the “Filipino time” concept is an acceptable, even expected in our culture. Why set a time when no one will be there? I have actually set fake times, 2 hours early sometimes for things, and people still show up three hours later. I know of people putting fake times at their wedding invitations because they know that…
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There’s a funny thing about touch
A thought came over me today, as I was hugging a colleague goodbye. Touch. We as a culture, are very careful about it. We’re not a touching culture. Shaking hands, hugging, are foreign concepts to us, that we took on when we absorbed other cultures and became more global. And I get it. We’re very conservative. The Catholic roots, the idea of propriety and the horror of a misconstrued gesture. Of jealous husbands or wives seeing their significant other with their arm around a friend and thinking there must be something funny going on. Even standing too close can be the start of an argument, since it’s not just their…
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Sometimes, we need a little crazy
If you’re in the Philippines, you’ve probably spent hours and hours in traffic getting to places. This year, the traffic is a different kind of struggle, and the malls, like a zombie outbreak. We’re stressing out on an extreme level because everything is taking three times as long, and it’s scary going out there. Crimes against motorists, commuters are on a record high, and the average Juan can’t catch a break while the imprisoned rich are living 200% times better than us. I do think there is a lot to be thankful for. For the fact that we actually have people to meet and places to go to that…
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I think you should listen to Fiona Apple’s Hot Knife today
It’s so simple. Fiona Apple’s Hot Knife is one of the simplest songs but so good. Stay smitten. Hold on to the someone who makes you melt like butter. If I’m butter, if I’m butter (I’m a hot knife, I’m a hot knife) If I’m butter, then he’s a hot knife (I’m a hot knife, he’s a pat of butter) He makes my heart a cinemascope screen (If I get a chance, I’m gonna show him that) Showing the dancing bird of paradise (He’s never gonna need another, never need another) I love it. And it’s not extremely cutesy, which I admit I tend to be sometimes. So thank you…
