GIANT MONSTER CROCODILE VS LITTLE GIRL

You see it isn't everyday you get news like this. A 10-Year old girl was attacked and decapitated by a monster crocodile in Agusan del Sur. Her sled/boat was knocked over by a the crocodile and it attacked her. Her decapitated body washed ashore two days later. God rest her soul.

The news sources vary about the creature. It's either salt-water or fresh water, because one says its the Agusan Marsh, the other says its Mihaba Lake. It's length ranges from 7 meters to 9 meters depending on who you're reading. The point is, this is a daily fact in the Philippines--one minute you are enjoying the water, the next, you're lunch to croczilla.

Anyone who has ever had seafood from the Southern Philippines, knows things there get much larger than here up North. But those who think it's a hoax, here's video proof, the specimen here is only 6 meters long...

THREE ANTE MERIDIEM

ITS 3 AM. I must be lonely. Yeah, that must be it. I am simply lonely because of the time. Let us not consider the little aches and pains that I feel. Let us not take into account the pining I feel for you or the thousand knives in my shattered heart.

Nope, let's not consider my melodrama or my illusions. Let us all pretend that I do not feel this way. After all, it is futile for me to try and talk to anyone about it as I do not have friends. I have a lot of colleagues and work-mates, but that's about it.

It's not your fault, don't worry, I won't blame you. After all, it's me. It's all me. I choose to say these things, I choose to act this way. I choose to be this. Sounds selfish? Sounds wrong? Truth usually is.

It's always been that way you know. Everytime I see you my world just flips. Why did you never want me? Why did you never give me that time of day? Why did you choose him over me? Why are you so...

I saw you sitting at your office, you were wearing this fuschia blouse. You were always beautiful, no matter what you wore. Even if it was a simple white shirt and a blue skirt with cheap flip-flops. To what sophistication you were wearing today...You were beautiful.

Too bad for me that you have a happy life.

MY CHINESE NEW YEARS RESOLUTION

This is one of those rare times that I actually have a resolution that I am going to do. Well, for a few years now I have decided to finally be serious about my resolution about losing weight when I realized that most of my clothes don't fit anymore. So now that after three years I have lost 24 pounds, I decided to add another resolution aside from losing weight. I have made the resolution that I will take my writing seriously. Not that I didn't take my writing seriously then, but now I will not let a day pass that I did not write something. The least acceptable is in the daily entry journal I keep again, something I have not done even before the beginning of the millenium, and no maximum. I have decided that I will maintain three blogs from the 16 or 17 I thought of maintaining at the end of last year, and that I will not allow this year to end without at least one of my short stories being published somewhere.

It is more of finally considering my career as more than just the freelancing that I do. It's also more than making money, as I resolutely said that I will not think of the money anymore, if it comes, it does. If it doesn't then it doesn't. What is important is that I write, that I leave volumes of work before I die, that I become a master of what the fates have decided to be my curse. That I find the Zen of writing, be it electronically or even by pencil or pen. It doesn't matter. From now on I write whenever I feel like it. Tapos!

The reason being at the end of last year I actually looked at my blogs and I thought, how pathetic they looked. Then it struck me how I kept waiting for someone to pay me before I wrote anything. I decided that this isn't a good deal. If no one came forth to pay me for it, then I would have no legacy whatsoever. So here we are. I am building, I am making, I am creating. Hopefully, someday, my children at least will benefit from this endeavor of mine. I for one am like a Japanese craftsman now, endeavoring to find perfection in imperfection. Shigata ga nai.

QCSHS MALCONTENTS

Here we go again. Students from QCSHS spoke out against what they perceived as the stupidity and inefficiency of those who are in power because they are older than them. Those in authority, because they are in authority deemed that these "kids" cannot speak out because they are too young to know what they are talking about and proceeded to suspend them for ten-days. Huzzah! For freedom of speech! Huzzah! For truth from the mouth of babes! Huzzah! For democracy!

This little issue right smacks the side of my heart having been ejected from Miriam College coming to fourteen years to the day now. Funny how fourteen years later history has come back to rear it's ugly head. Since the law, the Campus Journalism Act, that was supposed to protect student journalists like myself then is as effective as a gauze condom, I found myself having had to begin my career in Professional Journalism a year and a half earlier than expected. For that I would sincerely like to thank those who penned this "mighty law" that will protect the "right to free speech" of young journalists. Please note the dripping sarcasm in my tone if you missed it.

So forward fourteen years later where in a blog, a personal one at that, these student journalists wrote their opinion of a person. True, it was on the social networking site of Multiply.Com which makes it as private as a Wall Urinal. So in short it skirts the issues of libel and slander. Again we are faced with a dilemma. Is posting in a blog considered public? Is posting in a blog considered personal? As far as the law is concerned, and this does not apply to electronic forms of media, because the law is still sadly trying to keep pace with the speed of technology here: libel is printing something false about a person or organization that is available for public viewing. Slander is saying something false about a person or organization.

The thing here is, what if it is the opinion of the person? Well according to our favorite lawyer, it does not excuse you from libel or slander. You should really keep your opinions to yourself, unless you can defend yourself by skirting the law on libel and slander which are very specific, and if even one of the "aspects" of the law is not fulfilled, libel and slander do not count.

Now I am not about to preach about law here, I am not a lawyer, I am a journalist, or so I believe, so I will expound on the truth. The truth here is that students have voiced their mounting dissatisfaction about the knowledge and treatment that they receive at their learning institution. They were dismissed for speaking out their dissent about said service rendered by their teachers and administrators. The question is, are they not allowed to voice their discontent on a service that they have paid for? Is that not the way to go about it, voice your discontent and hopefully, the place will do its best to improve itself. But instead of going the positive way, the establishment considered the critics as malcontents and did away with them in a draconian fashion. Is this what we wish to teach our children when someday they become the ones in charge?

Unfortunately, what was true fourteen years ago is still true until now. Those who complain in this country usually are branded rebels and are summarily exiled or worse. Malcontents are not welcome in the Philippines.