Pounding The Keyboard

       Like movies and TV shows, many songs are based on or inspired by true, often tragic, stories. Here are some of my favorite songs that were inspired by true events:      Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy”: In 1991, a fifteen-year-old boy named Jeremy shot himself in front of his classmates.      “Jeremy spoke in class today…”     Fastball’s “The Way”: In June 1997, an elderly couple rode their car and left their home to attend a festival, two weeks after, they were found dead at the bottom of a ravine.     “You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere, they won’t make it home, but they really don’t care…”     Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb:” Pink Floyd’s bassist and singer Roger Waters, feeling ill before a 1977 concert, was injected with tranquilizers so the show could go on.    “Can you stand up? I do believe it’s working, good, that’ll keep you going through the show, come on, it’s time...

  December promise you gave unto me December whispers of treachery December clouds are now covering me December songs no longer I sing…        Today is December 1, so Christmas Day is just twenty-four days away. Famous celebrities whom I am a fan of who were born on December include Larry Bird (7th), Manny Pacquiao (17 th ), Jake Gyllenhaal (19 th ) Samuel Jackson (21 st ) Eddie Vedder (23 rd ) and Denzel Washington (28 th ).      Nostradamus was born on December 14.      On December 19, 1843, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was published. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. John Lennon was shot dead on December 8, 1980.      I had an uncle born on December 8, a nephew born on December 10, my favorite former colleague was born on December 26. Coincidentally, on December 26, two of my siblings and a brother-in-law would travel to Europe and would stay there for a week to be with a nie...

       So, courtesy of current US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr, I learned a new word, and it is, as netizens label it, horrifying. Lol. The word is “felching,” a sex act that is so disgusting it will scar you mentally for life once you learn it. Lol. So don't ask Google or your favorite chatbot. Allegedly, Mr. Kennedy Jr had an affair with a female journalist, and that act was part of their sexual routine.      I don’t know, but if you watch any interview of Mr. Kennedy Jr and see him speak and articulate an idea concerning health concerns, you’d instantly come to the conclusion that he isn’t fit to lead any government agency that deals with health. The man surely doesn’t sound and look healthy. And he once admitted that his brain was once infected by a parasitic worm, which literally ate a part of his brain, causing him to suffer from cognitive difficulties and memory loss. So, anyone who’d appoint him as health secre...

  "We’re caught in a trap I can’t walk out Because I love you too much, baby Why can’t you see What you’re doing to me When you don’t believe a word I say?"        It was only last night that I learned that my favorite Elvis Presley song, “Suspicious Minds,” is just a cover. The original was sung by Mark James, who also wrote the song. He released it in 1968 while Elvis released his cover in 1969, which quickly went to number one, with critics hailing it as one of Elvis’ best works. Rolling Stone ranked it 91 st in their 2003 list of best songs of all time. Needless to say, Elvis’ version is miles better than Mark’s.      Elvis performed “Suspicious Minds” in his 1969 Las Vegas concert, showing him still in top form, and I probably have watched that video 1,485 times on You Tube. It's perfection: Elvis, the drums, the bassline, and the background singers.      Here are other famous covers that are considered bett...

       Whenever the second floor of our house is without humans, a cat, owned by the neighbors, would sneak through our windows and stroll inside our house like it owns it. The amusing visits started almost a year ago. Sometimes, I would see it lounging in front of the TV, like it’s waiting for its favorite show to air, and sometimes, it would stay near the cage of our lovebirds. I don’t know its plan, it’s probably wicked, like wanting to eat them. Anyway, it skedaddles out the windows whenever it sees us coming.      Then a few nights ago, around two in the morning, I opened the door of my room to pee, and saw this said cat, it’s white, by the way, sitting outside my room. As soon as it sensed me, it glanced at me and stared at me sternly, looking straight into my eyes, like it was summoning my soul, to where, I didn’t know, maybe, it was trying to control my mind. “Hand me the birds, hand me the birds and a sachet of ketchup…” I thought I heard a ...

       “Is there a perfect day to die?”      That is a tough question, so, I asked Microsoft Pilot, and it told me that it was sorry that I was feeling this way, and that I wasn’t alone and that there were people who really loved me and cared for me that would love to help me. It then gave me some hotline to suicide prevention sites. Lol. I was just trying to write a blog entry.      Anyway, some people would say that maybe, the perfect day to die would be when you’re celebrating your 150 th birthday, as it is sort of awesome to be born and to die at the same date. And also, you’re already 150 years old, so it’s probably more than okay to die already. Lol. Christmas is also the perfect day to die, as it’s the day Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior was born. Maybe, Jesus would be in saving mode that day and save your soul. The eve of New Year’s Day, at the time when people are exploding firecrackers to shoo away all the evil and bad s...

       So, the first thought that came to my mind after finishing the Monster: The Ed Gein Story on Netflix was: "What the fu*k did I just watch?” Lol. I liked Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer story (the lead actor here was great) from the same creators, and I like serial killers, er, okay, I have to rephrase it, I like documentaries and movies about serial killers (and infamous criminals, in general), but this, this series about Ed Gein, it took so much artistic liberties, it’s a fictionalized account of Ed Gein’s life. You see, Ed Gein (who became infamous and notorious in the 50s) was a murderer and a body snatcher. He killed a few women and he dug graves of random middle-aged women (he had a fixation with his deceased mother), took their corpses home, dismembered them, skinned them, and made masks from their faces and lampshades and chairs and bowls and leggings and whatnot from their skins and bones. Horrific, right? But the series didn’t focus on his life and his ...

       A few days ago, I saw this Facebook post about the Eiffel Tower, claiming that the popular tourist spot in Paris would be demolished next year, citing maintenance costs, public complaints, and structural fatigue as the reasons. It turned out that the post was just satirical. What a relief because I was still planning on visiting the tower, I just don’t know how. Lol. That night, probably because of the said satirical post, I dreamt of going to the Eiffel Tower, with a twist, with the twist being the Eiffel Tower was just located in a plaza just a few hundred meters from our house.      And then this morning, my sister told me that she’s been trying to get a visa to visit Europe this year. She would actually visit her daughter who’s currently based and working as an engineer in a country in Europe, and who has a nice apartment there. And I was reminded that this daughter, my niece, who is like a daughter to me because she practically grew up wi...

       I was watching season 2 of Peacemaker (starring John Cena), which explores metahumans (individuals with superpowers) and I remembered reading a Stephen Hawking interview where he said that in the near future, genes would be edited and enhanced, allowing super humans to be created. I’d like to have invisibility power, so people I owe money to wouldn’t be able to see me. Scary, because what if these super humans had criminal mindsets. Mr. Hawking also warned that Earth might be destroyed by an asteroid, just like what happened to the dinosaurs. And unlike in the movies, even super humans will be no match for an asteroid.      Conversations between officials and supporters of US President Donald Trump were leaked and it showed how they loved and adored Hitler and his gas chambers and how they fantasized torturing, raping and killing their political opponents. They called black people as monkeys and expressed their desire to bring back slavery. S...

  "Love is the answer And you know that for sure Love is the flower You gotta let it, you gotta let it grow... Yes is the answer And you know that for sure Yes is surrender You gotta let it, you gotta let it go..."       This is my favorite John Lennon song.           

         So, after many years, I bought a newspaper again, a tabloid, which is a necessity to conduct some official business on someone’s behalf. A friend first read the tabloid, a wholesome one, not the sleazy type, and saw another proof that he really shouldn’t believe in horoscope. His horoscope for today, 8 th of October, 2025, says: Taurus: Magiging masaya ka sa larangan ng pag-ibig. Mag-ingat sa pagpapahayag. Baka hahantong sa hindi pagkakaunawaan. Lucky numbers at color for the day ang 1, 17, 32, 40 at orange.      The last time he was happy in love and had a girlfriend, he said, was two and a half centuries ago.      I told him that horoscope probably works for others. I am also not a fan of horoscope, but there was one time, while reading a newspaper, I got curious and looked what the horoscope had in store for me that day. It said: You would meet a sweet and pretty girl today, who would be very submissive and obedient...

       Roger Waters (former Pink Floyd frontman) and Thom Yorke (Radiohead frontman), two of my favorite songwriters of all time, continue to feud with each other. The quarrel started a few years ago, I think, when Roger wrote and asked Thom not to perform in Israel, which Thom ignored. Roger has been protesting Israel for a long time and asking his fellow artists no to go and perform there. He called Thom “damaged and not very bright.” Lol.      I learned that a friend had recently undergone surgery for myoma, which was a common benign tumor in uterus, and wished her well. I really don’t know what causes it, but no, long-term celibacy doesn’t cause it. Lol.      I have an Instagram account which is empty and pointless and thoroughly inactive, but despite that, one account had the temerity to follow me. Lol. But a few days ago, my one and only follower deactivated their account. I don’t know if it’s a fake account, but if not, I hope...

       I have no doubt that our neighbors love music. As I write this, music (Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is You”) is blasting out of their speakers. They play music almost every day. From morning till night. There are days it would be so loud residents from ten miles away would complain. Sometimes, well, it ain’t so loud. They seem to always play a set list of a certain genre, for example, Tagalog hip hop/rap/reggae songs (Andrew E, “Shoot-Shoot, Gloc 9’s “Upuan,” Nik Makino’s “Moon.” These genres would play for hours. And then stop. And when they play music again after a few hours, a new set of songs from a genre (for example, OPM ( Roel Cortez’s “Sa Mata Makikita,” Claire Dela Fuente’s “Sayang,” or Freddie Aguilar’s “Magbago Ka.” Or mellow rocks, like Enrique Iglesias’ “Somebody’s Me,” Styx’s “Babe,” or The Carpenters’ “You”) will play.        YouTube’s algorithm is probably the culprit here. Yes, I think they listen to YouT...

       You can’t be a bigot, racist, homophobe, who says people being murdered is just okay because it validates your beliefs and opinions and suddenly, when you die, you’re a martyr. That’s not how it works.      Sometimes, karma isn’t consistent, sure, a lot of people get what’s coming for them, but sometimes, a lot of wicked people still get rewarded, thieving politicians get elected again and again, sexual predators get awesome career opportunities, there’s one who even became a president. Most of the time, it’s the good people who are being punished, maybe because they don’t manipulate people, or take advantage of other people that they remain poor and vulnerable. Yep, sometimes, what goes around, doesn’t come around.      One of the most annoying tropes in horror movies is one where the protagonist has the chance to kill the villain, like they are able to hit the villain in the head and the villain collapses, but instead of del...

    "There is no friend as loyal as a book."                                                       --Ernest Hemingway      Charlie Kirk, a hardcore Donald Trump supporter and a right-wing political activist, was shot dead yesterday. He was hit in the neck and died instantly. As of this writing, the shooter hasn’t been identified and arrested.   Mr. Kirk supported gun ownership and thought there should be a couple of deaths by guns every year so people would realize the necessity of owning a gun. Also, he said that he couldn’t stand the word empathy and thought that it was a made-up term that was damaging. Also, he hated gays and people of color.      A few days ago, a birthday card supposedly written more than twenty years ago by US President Donald Trump and sent to demonic pedoph...

                  I watched this documentary on Netflix wherein a 14-year-old girl is being cyberstalked and bullied. The stalker would send her numerous text messages every day mocking her, berating her, torturing her mentally, calling her ugly, a whore, anorexic, and that everyone hates her, and that she (the stalker) is having sex with the girl’s 14-year-old boyfriend (the text messages regarding this are thoroughly explicit and nasty). The stalker repeatedly tells the girl to break up with her boyfriend, that he’s about to leave her, and telling her TO COMMIT SUICIDE. This goes on for more than a year, the stalker is relentlessly urging the girl to kill herself. Meanwhile, a lot of students are investigated and traumatized. Then, plot twist of all plot twists, it turns out that the stalker is the girl’s very own “loving and supportive” mother, who before the revelation, has been persistent to iden...

       If not for these corrupt and greedy politicians, Philippines would probably be a first world country by now, at par with Japan or Singapore or some European countries, like Italy or France.       I have an unfinished novel on Wattpad, and this morning, I woke up thinking that I should finish it, that it’s my obligation, heck, that it’s my duty to finish it for my six followers. Alas, I have forgotten my password to the site and I couldn’t log in. As I wrote this, I was still looking for my password…      I’ve been wanting to grow a full beard, I mean, one that runs from ear to another ear, wholly covering my jaw but alas, I can only have a mustache and a goatee.      A few weeks ago, I made a vow that I’d only send another message to this person if I’d see a “seen” message on my last message. It’s clear that they don’t want any kind of communication with me and won’t ever make the mistake of reading any of my ...

       In the news these days and on my FB News Feed a lot are the wife and husband who own a construction company, and who, almost a   year ago, flexed their forty (yes, 40) luxury vehicles inside their mansion’s mall-like parking area. Why the hell would you need and want forty luxury vehicles? The wife was even heard claiming that they actually owned almost a hundred vehicles.      So, I have an FB friend who was so happy and excited to receive an email from a publishing company telling her that they were excited to work with one of her online novels, which means they would want to print it and distribute it. And printing it would mean shelling out money—specifically, her shelling out money and giving it to them. Yes, it’s more likely a scam.      Taylor Swift is getting married. I am not a fan, though. If I would be asked to name one of her songs to save my life, I’d fail and die.      A few days ago, I was ...

       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...