Happy Birthday Mama!

Image: Mother Dearest and I with my newly birthed baby brother.

As a birthday present to my Mother this year I was supposed to take her to Hong Kong. Certain circumstances have changed those plans, so we are spending her birthday on opposite ends of the world. Lame.

As compensation, I will share a little limerick she's passed down to me from my grandfather. It's pretty awesome.

Bakit malaki ang galit ni Bayag kay Uten?

Araw gabi'y magkasama, ayaw papasukin.

Sumagot si malditang Tilin,

Diyan ka na Bayag, magpa-bitin-bitin.

Do it while you're young.

Image: Moab, Utah. One of my photos chosen by the DIWYY ladies for their site.

Check out this travel site, Do It While You're Young, where a couple of my photos have been chosen to be featured as photo of the week. The site itself is geared towards young women (18-35), but their Resource Center is awesome regardless of whether you are a girl or a boy, young or old.

The ladies behind this site definitely know their stuff. They cover everything from teaching abroad to volunteering abroad to a site dedicated to photography as a form of diplomacy. The pictures for peace thing is true. I promise. The site is called Dog Meets World.

Check out their site if you're planning a trip. Check them out even if you aren't planning a trip, just to see what other travelers are up to these days. Pretty interesting stuff.

Blogging at dusk, jogging at dawn.

Image: A fishing boat somewhere in the demilitarized zone of Subic, Philippines.

Again, I haven't posted in a while. The following are a few of the reasons why:

• Someone plugged a 110V adapter into a 220V outlet, causing the modem to blow out. I want to say that it was liberating to be deprived of internet access, but it wasn't. It was mostly just annoying.

• Had to fulfill the duties of a best man at a wedding. I had no idea what I was doing, plus, I had to give a little toast/speech in Tagalog. This took quite a few brain cells. Beautiful ceremony.

• Scheming up a successful financial empire. Hopefully I will be a rich motherfucker soon and I can do whatever I want. Meaning, funding this insane, transient soul of mine. Also, cupcakes. Lots of cupcakes.

• Selling cigarettes to children. Calm down, they buy them for their parents. I hope.

• Trying to find a way to get to Singapore, which it turns out is pretty hard to do. At least for me. I blame island time. And rap.

• Making ice which it turns out I also find pretty difficult to do.

• Plucking duck feathers.

• Training for a marathon, which is most likely killing my lungs with all this third world smog.

• I recently discovered that I have relatives in Australia. Naturally, this spawned a few days of daydreaming of Sydney and Perth and all the marsupials in between.

• Poaching iguana eggs. Poaching as in boiling in hot water, not illegally hunting. At least, I don't think it's illegal to hunt iguana eggs.