STIMULUS (CONT.)

What goes up must come down. The cliche, of course, does not merely refer to a spinning wheel but also to some intangible things not otherwise affected by physics or gravity. Take the case of the dot-com balloon which went up so fast, nobody seemed surprised by its sudden plunge.

I heard this at a party, like some chronicle of a dot-com geek's own spinning wheel during the early stages of this millennium:

4 years ago I lived in my parents' garage
3 years ago I founded a dot-com company
2 years ago I owned a plane and a yacht
A year ago I downsized my dot-com company
Today I live in my parents' garage

to be continued...

stimulus stimularum

There was a comic strip I read a while back in The Herald called Pearls Before Swine which, as I recall, goes like this:

A duck is standing on a box when his friend Pig comes and asks, What are you doing, duck?, to which he replies, I'm standing on the crate of sadness.

But why?, the pig asks further. Because my girlfriend flew over a year ago and never came back, the duck answers forlornly.

The pig is intrigued and so he asks even further, So why are you standing on the crate of sadness?, and the duck's curt reply is a simple, Because this is where you stand when your dreams are not fulfilled.

On the strip's final frame, all the animal characters of the strip including the pig are standing on the crate of sadness.

That particular strip did not make me laugh; rather, it made me think. Not only was it so full of irony, it was also timely in the light of the current economic setting, so timely in fact that to a lot of people, the crate of sadness might as well be renamed America.

- to be continued

lebron ka pa jan!

nung isang linggo may nagbigay sa akin ng 2 tickets para sa concert ng cleveland symphony orchestra sa carnival center for the performing arts. sosi yung lugar na yun sa downtown miami, sosi rin yung concert, kaya syempre di ko alam kung bat ako napili ni kumag na bigyan ng tickets. kung naging sosi ako, wala nang jologs sa mundo, boring na tayong lahat, weeee!

latino-kano yung sponsor, maraming business dealings sa kumpanya. "i heard you like classical music", sabi nya sa akin habang inaabot ang 2 tickets na nagkakahalaga ng $250.00. "they're the best seats in the house."

"great, thanks, and yes, i do like classical", sambit ko habang nag-iimaginary kamot-ulo.

nilecturan ako ni kumag tungkol sa cso. "they're comparable to boston pops, among the best in world, yadda-yadda-yadda..." sabi nya na walang pakundangan. nung natapos na sya sa huling yadda, sumagot na lang ako, "oh, i know all that."

"oh yeah?"

"yeah!".

"in fact", dagdag ko habang nanlalaki ang mata na kunyari may alam, "i even know somebody who plays for them".

"oh wow, really?", nanlaki din ang mata nya.

"yeah", sagot ko, "his name is lebron james".

"wow!", gulat sya, "you seem to know them more than i do".
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ngayon, kung gusto nyo malaman, hindi po, hindi ako nanood ng concert. natakot ako kasi baka sa biglang pagyanig ng masigabong palakpakan e biglang pumutok ang bukol ko. binigay ko na lang kay utol. kinabukasan sabi nya, wow, the audience was like who's who in miami.

buti na lang wala ako, otherwise baka sumama ang loob ng grupo ko na who's who's not in miami.

super sunday

the stage is set in glendale, arizona. somewhere in miami, florida, the stage is set, too: buffalo wings, huge bags of lays salt & vinegar potato chips, olives, and pepperoncini.

there are people and things missing: tight end jeremy shockey (injured), superbowl partymates (jorge moved to miami beach, steve went back home to syracuse), healthy food, and beer (my lump is infected). all these aren't good, but who cares?

go giants.