Pounding The Keyboard

  Never been near a university, never took a paper or a learned degree And some of your friends think that's stupid of me But it's nothing that I care about Well I don't know how to tell the weight of the sun, and of Mathematics, well, I want none, and I may be the Mayor of Simpleton But I know one thing and that's I love you...                                   "Mayor of Simpleton," XTC        It happened in India a few weeks ago, it was an arranged wedding (a common practice in the country where the bride and the groom barely know each other or will meet each other for the first time on the day of their wedding) and the wedding ceremony had started but before it could be consummated, the bride took one last hard look at her groom and thought, He really looks like an idiot!     ...

        So we’re trying to sell our house in Manila and thinking of relocating to, possibly, a far-flung province, hundreds of miles away from Metro Manila, like someplace in Mindanao or in the Visayas, where hopefully I can finally fulfill my dream of being a low-key farmer, planting some fruits or vegetables and taking care of some goats. I don’t care if the place has no Wi-Fi or Facebook, as long as I can go to the nearest town once in a while to update this blog. Lol. Then, I’d go back to my small farm, sit under a huge mango tree which leaves are rustling in a gentle breeze and meditate or think of names for my goats. And maybe, I can meet a pretty lady farmer there, I don’t care if her skin has been burned by the sun from working overtime in the field or if her hands are rough and calloused or if her hair smells of onion, as long as she’s willing to plant chili peppers and tomatoes with me and is willing to share her produce with me, and that she do...

       Last month, somebody (a cousin’s husband’s cousin) offered us a puppy (Golden Retriever) and we agreed to acquire one (the seller was insisting that we buy two but we didn’t think we could afford to take care of two Golden Retrievers). Maybe, if it’s a Chihuahua. The owner promised to bring the puppy to us last week of May and started to update us about the puppy by sending us its cute photos and videos through Messenger, which helped psych us up into really welcoming it into our home.      But then, a development straight out of a tearjerker movie occurred—it turns out that the seller’s husband ( a young man of 35) is dying (of some kidney disease) and he has grown attached to their puppies (all of which already have owners waiting for them) and decides to cancel all the deals they have made, with the news reaching us just this morning. He has grown especially attached to our puppy (which we already have given a name) which the ...

       So I was about to make another entry on my blog when lo and behold, I was greeted by a message on an ominous red background (resembling the photo above), telling me that my website is deceptive and dangerous, that it may install malicious software or steal some information or passwords from the visitors. First thing that came to my mind was the safety of the computer of hundreds of thousands of my readers. Lol. Okay, three readers. Okay, two, the third just got tired of my boring contents. But how could my blog be dangerous? It contains nothing but mediocre stories and poorly-written anecdotes. Yes, I borrow some photos but Fair Use allows me to do that as I don’t use those photos to earn me money. In fact, I use them to (*coughs*) inform and educate. Ooohh, maybe they are deemed dangerous because mediocre stories and anecdotes stagnate and harm the mind. I looked at the details of the message in red and it said “No harmful content was found in this si...

       I went to this small but popular restaurant yesterday morning and ordered some takeout. Food cost 290 pesos, I handed the cashier three hundred pesos and she gave me my change in the form of two coins (which I assumed were two five-peso coins). From there, I went to a milk tea shop and ordered two cups. Price is 260, I handed the store attendant five-hundred peso bill. Off she went to the store to get the milk tea (their store really is inside this huge building but the virus forced them to decide to just take orders from outside the building and not allow customers inside their store).      After a few minutes, she returned to hand me the cups and the change—250 pesos. She said she miscalculated the price and overcharged me with ten pesos, but she realized it in time.      When I went home, as I was emptying the pockets of my shorts, I realized that the two coins that I got as my change from the restaurant, w...