Tonight I Write

... because I haven't written anything... serious... in a while.

And I thought I'd be able to write something now... but Kim's Fairytale Wedding is distracting me.

Idiotic guilty pleasure. Grrr.

You will be mine

Lela Rose Summer 2011 for Payless

 I am absolutely obsessed with this design.

Yeah, yeah. I know I fall in love all too easily with shoes but MAN when I saw this one at the Trinoma branch... it was love at first sight.

I swear! I keep thinking about it. I worry that someone else might have gotten my size already. I check and make sure its still there in every branch I visit (Rockwell and Megamall still had my size in my last trip to the mall). I put it on just to make me feel better. I LOVE IT! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

*sigh*

Lord, someday, I hope to write something similar to this post, but hopefully the subject of interest will be a living, breathing person of the opposite sex. Wish ko lang ma-in-love na. Please. Let it happen soon.

Ktnxbye.

The Good

I took a cab home late one evening. I was coming from a late night in the office and followed my mom's advice to take EDSA-Q.Ave instead of the shortcuts we normally use to avoid traffic. Smart move; apparently, EDSA's empty when its past 11 o'clock on Thursday nights so my trip home was nearly "stop" free.

There was a bit of a build-up on Q.Ave-Araneta, though. That danged bottleneck of an underpass construction can cause a jam even in the wee hours of the morn. Sigh.

So there we were, Kuya Driver and me. Him humming along to the 90's OPM of his station of choice, and me slumped on the backseat, too tired to make small talk. I was looking out my window, trying to figure out how we could advance in the bottleneck faster. I may not drive, but I do know how to get ahead in the world.

Then I noticed a man in a "wheelchair" on the road's shoulder, just about beside my cabbie. I place "wheelchair" under quotations because the shabby, rickety old thing he was on barely looked like one, with a few parts missing here and there. He was rolling himself along with only one hand because he was trying to steady the small rack of wood-made bracelets atop his lap with the other. His wares, obviously. He was probably a vendor, on his way home from a long day of work, too, and one-handedly struggle to get there.

But observant me wasn't the only one who took notice of Kuya Vendor. There was a bunch of thin, rugged looking teens on the sidewalk almost beside my cab. There were three boys with hoodlum-looking hairstyles and tattered shirts, and a girl with a wild laugh and shorts that show almost everything. They didn't look like the best crowd to be around on a bad day, what more at past 11 on the road? Those who pass through this side of the city know its riddled with the slums.

One of the teenage boys took notice of Kuya Vendor likely around the same time I saw him, and he slowly swaggered up behind him, his friends following only with a squinted gaze.

I was about to protest and call Kuya Driver's attention for help when the boy took the wheelchair's handles and started to help Kuya vendor push himself on the bumpy construction of Q.Ave-Araneta.

In my head, his intro was "Para makauwi na po kayo agad." ("So you can get home faster.")

Kuya vendor himself was obviously startled at first, but the smile that lit his face after a half-second later than made up for the jolt. The boy had no bad intent at all. He was only lending a helping hand to a weary man on his way home.

The world is awesome and filled with the good. We live in a world full of good people, they're found even in the places you least expect. I am honored to have witnessed that moment.

In memoriam: The Man In Black

I'm not related to him. I never worked for him. I'm just a fan. A fan in mourning.

I know very little about Steve Jobs. I just know him as the college drop out who challenged the world to think differently, opened minds to take risks, built the Apple empire and came out with the most beautiful, sleek, I-don't-care-what-you-think brand in the whole universe: Mac.

Veering away from PC's functionality (though there's absolutely nothing wrong with functionality), MAC brought beauty to the world of technology. It was the first brand to proudly say, "Look at me, I'm pretty and pretty smart all at the same time." and it was brilliant.

MAC brought back the power of the niche. While everyone else was going for the masses, Mac took on the market no one dared mess with: the innovators with the buying power. They're the damned hardest crowd to please and they all fell in love with the brand, and with the man who brought the brand to life.

My real marketing career started with the Mac. Back in '05, I was this silly little girl with a dream to be an influencer, and the brand makers of Beach Hut took me under their wing. They had an amazing passion the brand they'd created and it stemmed from the inspiration of Steve Jobs. Dennis was already a Mac user, he had purchased the giant 3rd gen iMac for us office minions to use and get creative with. Myles taught me the wily tricks of the trade on that iMac; how to force-quit, how to tab thru applications, how to scroll with the amazing mighty mouse, how to appreciate the wondrous simplicity of technology as the Mac does everything else for you behind its pretty white frame. Kelvin introduced me to the wonders of other Apple products, namely the iPod. It plays music without CD or cassette?!? AMAZING!

They were my Mac godfathers: Kelvin, Myles and Dennis. And I'm superbly lucky to have been mentored by three of best apple users in the country, because they didn't just teach me how to use the mac; they taught me its roots, what it stands for, how something so simple can be so beautiful all at the same time, and about the man behind the genius of it all.

They were the first three people I SMS'd when I heard the news.

Rest well, Sir. You've done an excellent job and you deserve your peace. Thank you for everything.