Pounding The Keyboard

Totoy Bato is one of my favorite Carlo J Caparas comics characters. I only managed to read few parts of the novels ( it was hard to find a copy until now) but I watched its movie versions which starred FPJ. I remember watching it as a kid in a seedy moviehouse (which showed two old films at a price of one) near our house where intermittent shouts of Balut! and Yosi! interrupted your pleasurable viewing experience. Yes, balut and cigarette vendors were allowed inside that movie house. My mother wanted to kill me when she learned that I entered that moviehouse. “’Buti’t ‘di kayo nabiktima ng gumagalang mga bakla ro’n!” she scolded me. When I heard that Robin Padilla was going to play Totoy Bato in TV, I vowed that I’d be watching it. I have always been a fan of boxing and anything related to it. And i have always liked Robin as an actor. But something disappointing happened on my way to watching its first few episodes, the other persons in our house preferred watching DVDs at

"What will you get if you crossbreed a bulldog and shih tzu?" "A bullshiht!" The movie Marley & Me reminded me of my former pet dogs namely Egan, Floyd, Bono and Relic. It is a film about a young couple and their pet dog, an oddly stubborn and troublesome but lovable Labrador retriever named Marley, who is called the world’s worst dog. Marley doesn’t just play or destroy things but eats them. Sofa, carpets, jewelries, tables, bed sheets, computer printer, answering machine, name it and he will eat it. My first dog, Egan, was already old when I got him. After a few years of being with me, he started showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease. There were times then when I’d talk to him and he’d only stare at me blankly like trying to remember who I was. Sometimes he wouldn’t bark all day and would just read the newspaper which always led me to think that he’d probably temporarily forgotten that he’s a dog. One day, he didn’t wake up anymore. Floyd came next.