President of the World

During the run up to Barrack Obama's Presidential Inauguration, I heard a phrase which struck me as odd. He was called the "President of the World." I guess it must be true. And Obama's predecessor certainly proved that moniker.

I've been a hermit since the start of the US Presidential campaign, and didn't really care one bit whether it went one way or another. I was just happy that the election would mean that George W. Bush's presidency would be about to end.

But in a big way, Pres. Bush really was the "President of the World." His Presidency was felt by the whole world. When the US economy melted down, the rest of the world teetered on the edge of the abyss, looking down at where the US was taking them. I all fairness, it was not his fault that 9/11 happened, or that Iraq didn't have any weapons of mass destruction (which he admitted just before he left office), or that the housing loan and financing meltdown happened on his watch. He can't even be blamed for winning against Al Gore. (The last is definitely true. Al Gore lost Tennessee! If he had won his home state, he didn't need to win Florida, where George's brother was Governor. But I digress.)

Another aside, tt's too bad that Bush was the butt of jokes from day one. But everything was there, From his daughters' driving under the influence, to his mispronouncing "nuclear." Bill Clinton may admitted to taking a whiff of marijuana when he was in college, but George W. Bush was called a cokehead in some media.

All in all, George W. Bush will be remembered for the worse economic recession since 1964, and for the worse military record since Vietnam.

I guess that in that sense Obama really is more, or should be more of a "President of the World" than his predecessor. For one, he's an African-American and not a WASP. Another is that he seems to have a bigger grasp of world issues than Ex-President Bush. And he also seems to be more of an intellectual in the mold of JFK. But time will tell if he will live up to it. Meantime, the world is fueled by his messages of optimism. The world is really excited about this one.

I'm just happy it's him. But it's just too bad that the McCain campaign was one of a self-destruct example, imploding upon itself. At one point it looked like an Obama-Clinton race, rather than McCain vs. (Obama or Clinton).

Good luck to the new US President. The rest of the world is watching.

And a Jump Back to theReality of the Tropics

For a while there, I was hoping that the cold weather would last a while, even if only for another week or two, or till the end of February. But no luck, Since last week, the temperature has been steadily going up, and as long as the sun was showing, we had summer weather for the better part of the day.

Oh well, it may be low single digit temperature for Germany, for instance, but I'm okay with the more normal 26 degrees Celsius here in Marikina.

--Andoy
22 January 2009

And The UPCAT Results Shows

Well, Darwi didn't pass. That's according to the online listing. That's okay. At least she already has a choice. And she may decide to take the entrance exam at PUP.

Darwi Passed the USTET

Yup, she passed the UST Entrance Test. She applied for the Hotel and Restaurant Management program. And she passed. At least I won't have to worry where about where she'll study. Some consider the HRM program at UST as being the second best in the country, with St. Benilde on the top of the list. This comment was from a UST student, so I would tend to believe him. (Besides, he's got a good rep, he's running for honors in his course.)

Part of the admissions process for the UST HRM program is an interview. Darwi asked if that meant that she was not yet accepted into the program. I think UST has the interview more to get to know the student than for anything else. (Kenneth had an interview before taking the exam at St. Scholastica's College Manila. But that was to see if he really had the aptitude for music and to see if he really wanted to enroll in the course.)

It shouldn't have come as a surprise, but she still wanted to take the exam at PUP, still for the HRM program. Still, I was surprised, though. But she wanted to take the exam at PUP because her classmates were going to take it. Opinions vary about the program, but the majority place PUP in the top 4 schools for that course. I got that opinion without taking into account that I have three brothers who graduated from PUP.

Now, I just wish Darwi also passed the UPCAT. HRM at UST may be good, but UP is UP. And besides her ninang was graduated from HRM at UP. Will have to wait for the results of the UPCAT then.

--Andoy
15 January 2009

Coldest I can remember since...

This has got to be the coldest start of the year I can remember since the early 1980's. That's a lot, considering I'm comparing Marikina weather to UPLB during the early 1980's.

In those days, there was real strong north wind and the people in the campus walked a lot more weird than normal. Either they walked slower -- because of the cold they can't move fast. Or they moved fast -- really fast -- maybe to get the blood going.

Kenneth gave a weird comment the other day. He said that he's glad to ride aircon FX to the Katipunan LRT station, because it's warmer inside the vehicle. Even Darwi agrees, and she sometimes rides the (very slow) buses.

On my desktop, it says the temperature is at 22 degrees Celsius. Yesterday the numbers didn't go higher than 24 degrees. That's almost like Tagaytay weather during March or April. It's been hovering from 21 to a high of 28 these past few days. But that's according to the internet server. Reports on the news, however, say that the temperature has gone down to as low as 18-19.

Maybe it's old age, but I wear sweaters most of the time. And I spend almost all my time indoors. There was a time last week when I found myself wearing a thin jacket on top of my sweater. When it's cold, I usually wear my tie-dye pants. I've been using it as a pajama for some time now. I need to get myself some sweat pants to go along with the sweater. I remember Lilia reminding me that that's the reason I won't migrate to the US, Canada, or anywhere where they have four seasons. I get easily cold.

One thing though which hasn't changed, I haven't been heating my bath water. I still enjoy the (very) cold water streaming out of the shower. hehehe

Galit galit na kapag bumaba pa ito ng 16 degrees!

--Andoy
15 January 2009

Storm crow

It's 3:30 in the morning, I'm wearing boxers and my legs are cold. I should be wearing pajamas or my tie-dye pants. I have a malong here somewhere (it's actually Lilia's) but I'm not sure if I want to use that just yet.

I'm not complaining about the cold. It's December and January and it should be cold. In fact, it's colder this time around compared with the past couple of years. It's cold because it's raining and been raining or cloudy since New Year's Eve. The weather for the whole of December was funky. Not "changeable" nor "unpredictable" but more like "out of the ordinary." The reason I say that is because, although the weather is cold, strictly speaking it's not cold because of the North wind. It's been cold because of the cloudy weather with drizzles and rain, and wind blowing mainly from the south.

There are a lot of reasons for the cold weather, except for the wind blowing from the north.

Twenty five years ago, I was wearing jackets and sweaters for December till early February. There was a time I was wearing denim pants when crawling to bed with the windows shut.

This is really funky weather. And I guess the concept of global warming is true. Global warming leads to freaky weather. This time, there's practically no cold north wind to speak of. For all the typhoon damage last year, there was a drop in the number of storms.

If all of these changes happened during the last 25 years. I don't want to think about what changes might happen during the next 25 years. Or ten years.

I'm going to bed.

--Andoy
9 January 2009

The Kid and the Princess (and if she had a choice, she would have wanted to be a Jewish Princess)

I received a text message from a friend of mine this past New Year's Eve. I thought it was an ordinary text message. It came from a long time friend from UPLB and truth is, we don't really try hard to keep in touch. A text message every few months is all we can come up with. Sometimes, I send a text message for an invite to coffee or something, and the reply is along the lines of, "I'm sorry but I can't come because I'm in the _______ (fill in the blanks: Mindanao, two time zones away, etc.)

There are times I wake up in the middle of the night after having a dream about her. The dreams border on nightmares. And I force myself to wake up, and I do. I wake up with a scream, a shudder, sweating, and shaking.

I admit I have carried a lot of emotional baggage because of her. All 25 years of baggage.

Somehow the latest text message was a pleasant surprise. It was an affirmation, or a recognition of what I am to her. It was a good day when I received that simple line she sent.

Now I can stop pining.

Yup, roses are black... sometimes.


--Andoy
5 January 2009