Pounding The Keyboard

       Five years ago, weeks before the pandemic, I thought I damaged a nerve or strained some muscle on my back. I couldn’t move my left arm well, I couldn’t raise it and it hurt when I put my hand on my back. I also felt pins and needles and some burning sensation throughout my body, which felt worse during the night. And I would wake with my whole body aching, like I was just mauled by a violent minotaur. It was an experience you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.        Naturally, I went to Google, not to a doctor, lol, and found some exercises to treat it. And after a few weeks, I thought I got healed, I could already move my arm well, I could raise it and move it to my back without pain and I could ride my bike without pain, and the pins and needles and burning sensation were gone. Only downside, I still could feel some minor pain when I tried to lift some weights. I wasn’t a bodybuilder so it was okay, I just avoided lifting some heavy we...

       I don't know, but if I had a few billion dollars in the bank, I would stop seeking ways to have more money, especially through politics or manipulation or grifting. I would just secure my loved ones’ future, buy everything I want, like a private jet with an amusement park inside, and a racetrack (for horses), and hold a private concert for Radiohead in the living room of my mansion, produce a Hollywood movie about Pink Floyd, lol, and then, donate the rest of the money to charities that help ease poor people’s lives, and build animal shelters (especially dogs), ones where there won’t be no need for adoption. What are you gonna do with so much cash? Eat it?      But alas, I don’t have billions in the bank. When I last checked my GCash, it only had 600, 500 of which I then donated to a rescue shelter for dogs and cats. The one hundred left, I’d buy some whole wheat bread.      Meanwhile, on my Facebook News Feed, a female conten...

       “What are the songs that instantly make you happy or feel good the moment it plays and what songs instantly make you sad?’      I saw this question just this morning on a Facebook page that I don’t even follow. I didn’t comment but I looked at the answers and saw lots of familiar happy and depressing tunes (for the feel-good songs, I saw The Turtles’ “Happy Together” a lot and for the sad ones, I saw, expectedly, “Alone Again (Naturally)” a lot.      For me, I had a lot of instant feel-good songs, but the first one that came into my mind that moment was Paul McCartney’s “Coming Up.” Years ago, that song always perked me up. I haven’t had the opportunity to listen to it again for months now, I think, but I think it still would have the same effect on me once I hear it again. I once read an article that John Lennon changed his mind from retiring from music into being active again the moment he heard “Coming Up.” “A good piece of...

       So our president, President Marcos, Jr. met with US President Trump in the Oval Office yesterday, and I really don’t care what they talked about. Lol. But I have always been (quite morbidly) fascinated with Trump, as he’s not much different from our previous president, Rodrigo Duterte. They both do and say the most outlandish and cruel things. Duterte ordered the massacre of thousands of (suspected) drug dealers and drug addicts in the country, Trump constructed a prison that looks like a concentration camp for millions of illegal US immigrants where they are allegedly being tortured and starved without due process.      My fascination with Trump stems from the fact that he acts and looks sleazy, and if you’d watch his interviews, you’d see that he’s not really smart (when he was president during the pandemic, he suggested injecting COVID-19 patients with disinfectant to treat them; he also thought that there were already airports du...

            Lots of interesting news on my Facebook News Feed this morning.      On the local front, there’s now a 20% tax on interest of all kinds of savings accounts, courtesy of Taxman himself, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto.      Rumors abound that Senator Bato Dela Rosa will soon be arrested by ICC. Yay!      Taal Volcano is threatening to erupt while the search for the missing sabungeros continues.      And finally, Sara Duterte’s impeachment will begin on August 4. Yay!      Abroad, USA President Donald Trump was diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI). People noticed his bruised hand and severely swollen ankles and demanded an explanation. CVI happens when your leg veins are damaged and struggle to efficiently return blood to your heart. Ironic, because just a few months ago, Trump, after a physical examination, boasted that he was the fittest and healthies...

  This is the end Beautiful friend This is the end My only friend, the end…        The world is probably ending.      Israel and Iran finally went to war with each other and are now bombing each other to kingdom come.      And the demented US president seems inclined to join and help Israel.      Russia’s military officials are saying that World War III is forthcoming.      Russia and Ukraine are still fighting.      Putin, Russia’s president, is threatening war on UK, which Putin accuses of helping Ukraine with the war, and an attack on UK is an attack on Europe.      And with all the nuclear weapons most countries have, the world will not survive another world war.      Hitler is happily tossing and turning and laughing in his grave.      And to make matters truly worse, my Instagram account, inactive except its messag...

  Chasing the clouds Forever trying to unveil a shroud It’s the perfect metaphor Like running after some elusive cure Happily Desperately Like searching for the Holy Grail It's always bound to fail Chasing the clouds You'd never be allowed Chasing the clouds You might as well attempt to kiss God...

       A few weeks ago, I was trying to create a (commissioned) concept for a planned comics for children, and as usual, I first browsed through music albums (mostly rock) to procure some ideas. Lots of my stories (I am, believe it or not, a published writer) come from song titles, and I mean a lot, (my first published komiks story was entitled “Brain Damage” from Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage”) and so while I was browsing some Radiohead albums, I saw “Paranoid Android” from OK Computer album. OK Computer is the band’s best album, IMO, and “Paranoid Android” is the best song in the album and, according to myriads of music critics, one of the best songs of all time. Its title comes from “Marvin the Paranoid Android” from the book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy . Thom Yorke, Radiohead's frontman, wrote it after an unpleasant encounter with some stalkers inside a bar.      Anyway, so I was trying to write a concept about an android which is, well, ...

  “I know which side I’m spread, I promise The tantrums and the chitty chat, I promise Even when the ship is wrecked, I promise Tie me to the rotten deck, I promise…”        A small tragedy happened while I was inside a pet shop a few weeks ago, trying to buy our dog some food. The song “I Promise” was starting to play somewhere inside the pet shop or outside, I wasn’t sure, but it was abruptly stopped and replaced by a hip-hop song. It would have been a thoroughly miserable moment, if not for a Golden Retriever who was gently rubbing its head on my leg.      “I Promise” is a Radiohead song. It was slated to be included in the 1997 OK Computer album, but Thom Yorke and the band thought it wasn’t good enough, so they discarded it. Apparently, they had a change of heart regarding the song and decided to include it in the 20 th anniversary issue of OK Computer. OK Computer, by  the way, is the band’s greatest album.    ...

  Night and Day I dream of making love to you now, baby Lovemaking on-screen Impossible dream and I have seen The sunrise over the river The freeway reminding of this mess we’re in And the city sunset over me...       Today, Friday, May 9, 2025, is a very important day, yes.      Today, the Catholics have a new Pope, Robert Francis Prevost from United States. He is 69 years old, and the good news is, he’s a critic of the Donald Trump, current POTUS, who is presently destroying America, its economy, and its citizens. I’m looking forward to the Pope rebuking the demented Trump.      So, I was doing some cleaning inside the house, listening to some PJ Harvey music when a song (another PJ Harvey song, according to my phone) started playing, and my first thought was, it wasn’t a PJ Harvey song, it’s Radiohead. It was Thom Yorke’s misery-inducing voice singing, and even the instrumentation, especially the intro, sounded a lot l...

       It worried me a bit, those incidents where I’d be in the living room and then, I’d go inside another room to get something, and once inside that room, I would completely forget what I wanted to get. And it would take some moments before I could remember it. Or sometimes, I would go to the ref, open it to get something, but as soon I opened the door, I would complete forget what I was trying to take.  I was thinking, was it some kind of memory loss? Or worse, was it a sign of a future Alzheimer’s? And it added to my source of occasional distraction and melancholia.      It turns out that there’s nothing to worry about as it’s just a phenomenon called Doorway Effect, and it’s quite common. Doorway Effect, according to Wikipedia, is "a psychological phenomenon characterized by short-term memory loss when passing through a doorway or moving from one location to another. People tend to forget items or recent significance immediately after cr...

  The woman who loved coffee One day saw a star on her latte And it made her very happy She exclaimed, “I’m glad I didn’t order a frappe.” And asked the star, “Can you grant me a wish, Sparkly?” The star winked and said, “Yes, my dear, gladly.” “Tonight, make me sleep soundly, And that I dream of nothing but of the one who loves me dearly.”

       He smiled as he heard her utter his name, even though it wasn’t his real name, just an alias he used on a social media account. It sounded sweet, like her saying his name instantly made him a part of her, and her a part of him. His real name, he also had heard her uttering it a few years ago, in a socmed video. And because it was his real name, and although she uttered it casually, too, it sounded sweeter and slipped from her lips smoothly, as if his name had been in her mind for far too long, like she had always been meaning to say it.      The fact that he would never hear her say his name again, real or not, after today, made it bittersweet.      His smile grew wider, thankfully, no one was looking at him, when he heard her voice again, a bit tinged with melancholy, as she uttered his name again and spoke on how, even though they weren’t really close and hadn't met personally, she’d cherish the little interaction they had o...

  She doesn’t read anymore Maybe, the sad stories, the unhappy endings where the main characters die; the bad news, where real-life heroes perish; the sad messages in her inbox; the fierce arguments on her feed; those bleak writings on the wall; the negative minds she used to try to read have all exhausted her So, she seeks refuge from cats, from snakes, and wolves, and butterflies, the angels, turtles and swans Things that keep her afloat in the stars Away from trigger warnings Away from melancholy The words can wait... He doesn’t write anymore It is because his muse is missing He tries to search for her in libraries And in the pages of books with stories that have happy endings, where the main characters live happily ever after; in the news where real-life heroes triumph; in the inbox of jolly messages; and those auspicious writings on the wall, in the optimistic minds he used to try to read He calls for her He writes to her She doesn’t answer So, he seeks...

       I’ve always wondered whether those survey firms really go around asking people of their opinions during election season. Or do they just manufacture the results in the comfort of their office? Well, the question whether they go around was answered for me just a few hours ago—a representative from a major survey firm (probably the leading survey firm in the country) knocked on our door and interviewed me. I was home alone, so she had no choice. She couldn’t interview the dog.      Some of the key questions during the interview were:      “Do you trust President Marcos, Jr?”      “Absolutely not.”      “Do you trust Vice President Sara?”      “Absolutely not.”      “Who are you going to vote and why?”      I rattled off (from her list) the candidates I was going to vote (from local to national) and my re...

       We shop online quite frequently, and most of the time, I’d be named as the recipient as I’ve always been the designated house sitter, so when a package worth 73 pesos arrived in my name, I didn’t hesitate to accept and pay for it. I gave the delivery man 80 pesos and didn’t ask for a change. Yes, I could be quite generous sometimes. Lol.      But as it turned out, no one in the house had ordered it. Or maybe, I just forgot that I ordered it—so I opened the black bag and saw a panty inside (see photo above), which size was apparently for a teen-age girl—and I thought hard again: did I order it? No, I don’t think so, I don’t wear panties, and even if do, it wouldn’t be that size as it’s quite small.      So was I scammed? Or was it just a result of an unfortunate mix-up? If it was, then a teenage girl might be walking in the streets these days without an underwear. I know that there are health benefits in going ...