Essays from the Weekend

I’m still shaken over the news of former President Noynoy Aquino’s passing. I admired the man and how he operated on pure integrity of character during his term. His appointees all seemed so principled, full of integrity, incorruptible. “Walang wangwang” - who could forget that, when people with connections didn’t really get ahead of the rest of us? The showstopping economic growth of the country? The “do the right thing” mentality that the government and the citizens rallied behind? I didn’t vote for him when he ran for president but he easily won me over, even though he was imperfect.   The Aquino nuclear family accomplished so much — his dad, incendiary opposition senator whose death sparked the EDSA People Power Revolution; his mom, who led the traumatized country out into a new democracy; and PNoy who again shone a light on the goodness of the Filipino people. The newspapers generally stop there but I’d like to add: Kris Aquino, the top individual taxpayer of the country for s...

Hi there! I wasn’t able to write this past weekend. I was too enthralled with where I was. Practically in a rainforest. I love looking at wild birds and there were many different birds where I went. I saw a hornbill (at least I think that’s what it’s called, it has a horn on its bill), lots of crows, a couple of mysterious blue birds. The whole weekend, I felt like I was in a Murakami novel. Many parked cars but no people around. Stray cats everywhere. Weird trees all around. Deserted, run-down, 60s style buildings. I’ll be writing about this place soon. It’s just on Airbnb. I just want to keep it to myself for a little while. There’s a fun video series on Youtube by GQ called 10 Things, where famous people like Shawn Mendes, Finneas, and Trixie Mattel list show and tell their 10 essentials. Here’s Dan Levy, whom I like: Noone asked me, but if I were to share my ten essentials: 1. Phone case wallet. A gamechanger. I used to worry about bringing my phone and my wallet all the time. Wit...

  I have a love-hate relationship with the news. I grew up seeing my dad read multiple newspapers every weekend. It was a habit that I wanted for myself too. It seems responsible to be on top of current events. I never did get into it consistently though. The news appeared to be constantly disappointing. It served me heartbreaking headline after heartbreaking headline, especially in the recent years.  Tim Ferriss gave me an idea back then that it was okay to stop reading the news in the name of focus and mental health. He said he didn’t read any news because there was no purpose in keeping up to date just for the sake of being up to date; and when there’s something we absolutely should know, the information makes its way to us somehow anyway. I subscribed to that worldview for a while, a little relieved that  Tim validated that. Then I subscribed to New York Times and only read that. It was foreign news, great writing, great drama, and it all seemed far-distanced from me,...