A BROWN MAN'S JOURNEY

I guess not everyone is aware, this month of March is the Woman's Month, so I'm dedicating this entry to "the woman".

Let me start with the etymology of the term for some small bits of information. Most dictionaries will define "woman" as a female human being. Duh? Old english initially say wer and wif (wifman) as man and woman respectively. The wifman became woman and the wif became wife. Let's not bother about how wer was then translated to man. Wait, so that's why we call a half-man, half-wolf as a werwolf (or werewolf).

Anyway, there are only three most important roles that a woman plays in our lives. These roles are so important that they influence how a person grows-up and live. People who don't have any of these "roles" in their adult-life usually ends up miserable and unhappy. So now, let me tell you how these roles were played by women in my life.

THE MOTHER
I grew up without a mother, long story. I grew up with my lola (grandma) and my aunt, who was introduced to me as "mommy2". I didn't know why I was calling her that name until I understood that it's because my mommy1 or my real mom, was not actually with us. This didn't troubled my life as a small kid because I never knew what it's like to have one, or what could've been the difference. My lola taught me how to take care of myself at an early age, take a bath, put my clothes on, and go to school. Then reaching puberty and realized who was missing, I didn't blame any of my parents because I understood it's a grown-up "thing" and that they had their reasons. My mother never forgot about us at all. She visited us every once in a while because I knew she already had her own family. I even remember there was one time that she spent the night and cooked breakfast for us the following morning. The awkward actions and feeling of my father that morning was very memorable to me.

My mother was a beautiful woman, and eventhough we didn't had that much time together and I never really knew how she lived her life, I am very thankful for her. She carried and took very good care of me inside of her as a parasite for nine months, and brought me safely into this world. I now understand the hardship that she endured for being far from her children, and the awful sadness she felt when it's time for her to leave everytime she visited us. She died just before I went to college. Just in time when I was starting to understand my life. It was a sad day, we all attended the wake and carried her to her final destination. She was wearing a dress given by my father. That was the first time I saw tears fell from my father's eyes.

And that's about as much as I can say about my mother.

THE SISTER - not the gay term
Not everybody has a sister so I'm thankful to have one. She was the eldest among our siblings. Being the eldest, she assumed all the responsibilities every time my dad's not around. Without a mother in our new home, she took care of the most mundane everyday tasks for us. I knew it was hard, especially with my other two big bros. My father's job limited his time to go home. He only managed to drop by the house every Sunday, which always ended up being spent on replenishing our stocks and providing our allowances. My brothers eventually moved out of the house. There were some rough times living with my sister when she was starting to have her own family. It was not quite a good start for her. In fact, life was not so easy on her. But she was strong and managed to weather the big storms. I continued to live with them during my last year in college and early years as a professional. I witnessed how she took great care of her kids, her husband, and even me. Every morning when I woke-up, I will find my clothes including my tie and socks ready at the door of my room. During weekends, I will request her to cook for something special. At times, we sat together and talk about her problems, and my love life in some occasions. She did everything to support the studies of her children, especially her eldest son. Anything lesser than what she did would already be begging. If my nephew hasn't come to acknowledged that yet, let this blog be. Through her I saw what it takes to be a mother and caught a glimpse of what my mother would've done for me too if we were together. I'm glad that I am able to help her in my own little ways and I will continue to do so as much as I can.

THE WIFE - also known as THE ONE
Saving the best for last, there's nothing more that I can be thankful for than my wife. Of course I am also thankful with our children, but I can't be able to have them without my wife, duh? When we met, I didn't expect that she was the one. When you meet the one, you will just see your life changes right before your very eyes and there's nothing you can do about it. She's indeed the combination of the roles mentioned and a whole lot more: mother, sister, wife, bestfriend, buddy, critic, supporter, lover, and even sometimes my worst enemy. My wife is a beautiful woman both inside and out. Born an artistic wooden tiger, she's not so easy to understand by most people around her, even me in the beginning. I think she has the most advanced defense mechanism a person could possibly develop. Full of ideas and has very strong opinions on almost anything! One that you should not outright contradict, otherwise the more she will not listen. That's how stubborn she is, a typical Taurean trait. I know because I'm also one bull-headed guy, lol. Instinctively competitive, especially to me, which I find annoying at times, but endearing at the same time. She is full of life, loves to play computer games, and have lots of childish antics, which I completely adore in her. She brought out the best in me, but also the worst. What I lack, she complements, this is why I try real hard to complement and learned to accept whatever I find missing. Besides, imperfections are what makes us human and accepting these in a person is the very essence of your love. Perhaps one of the things I learned from her as well, because I know that I'm not easy to love too, I can be as cold as ice when I was still single. They say that somebody else's trash may be somebody else's treasure. Well, she was a diamond in the rough, and my treasure now.

She was a very gifted singer, a voice that you will not easily forget. This was her passion, which she gave up for our family because situation cannot permit anymore. She showed me the beauty behind the darkness of the night time, which was purely a time of entertainment for me at that time, that is if I don't have extra work. Life had become more colorful and meaningful, I'm so lucky I found my "the one".

This entire entry won't justify what she means in my life, so in order not to be too mushy, let me wrap this up.

The one I'm talking about

It may not be obvious but the order in which I discussed about the women roles also connote the time in which they have been or will still be part of my life. My mother for bringing me to this world, my sister who was always part of my growing years, and now my wife, who's the woman I will spend the rest of my years.

Friends, the world will certainly be dull and gray without them, we guys won't be able to live without these lovely creatures from Venus. Let's forget about the futile efforts to understand them, just love them with all your heart and you'll see what I mean. I usually play this song with my guitar to my wife, so I will leave this same song to all you women out there. A meaningful month to you...

It started when I was working in WHO and saw some of my office buds playing. It was around 1998 if my memory still serves me right. I was really interested in learning the game and captivated by the beautiful artworks printed on the cards. But my curiosity was cut short because I was too indulged with after-office gimmicks, mountaineering, and scuba-diving at that time.

Then one day after a few years, my nephews visited our house with their decks and started playing in our living room. It captured my curiosity again. So they taught me and my wife the basics of the game and we had some really great fun. Later on, we found ourselves looking for the nearest hobby shops in our place to buy our own starter decks. And from then on, I never stopped trading, buying, selling, and playing these collectible card game. My interest shifted to what we refer to as Vintage format where we collect, trade, and play with the oldest sets. Circa 1993 when it was introduced by it's creator Richard Garfield and released by the company Wizards of the Coast.

There were a couple of times before that our friends will come-over the weekend and we would play overnight in our dining room. Complete with pizza, drinks, and round-the-clock snacks. We had some really great fun!

Every now and then I also play competitively in tournaments being held in Manila or Singapore. But not as often as I want to. Since I cannot play much when I started working here in Singapore, I tend to trade more online. At some point I thought that being able to acquire the Power 9, a collection of the most powerful 9 cards ever printed, would definitely satisfy my addiction to this hobby. But NO, when I completed them, the trading didn't stop. It then moved to the next level, of power trading. Ended up with multiple copies of these power cards and selling them back in the Philippines, since most of them are in the US and Europe. Now, I have one of the most expensive legal card there is:

Black Lotus ALPHA

And since I managed to get my hands on some graded cards as well, the "mission" to collect also changed again. Here's the prime of my collections:

PSA-graded Power 9 cards

The good thing about this card game is that, if you know where to put your money, then you won't lose any. Sometimes, you will even gain because some of these cards usually appreciate their value over time. Much like Baseball and NBA cards in the US.

Recently, I've been selling a lot of the odds and rarities that I've collected due to the very first property that we bought. Some considerable funds are still locked in my collections though, but I'm intending it to be that way. At least for the time being.

Anyway, I'm guilty as charged. This is my hobby which I am addicted to, and I don't see myself quitting anytime soon.

I've been doing web programming and development since 1997, when the internet was still not part of every office. Ironically, long have I been asked to start-up a personal web space, but it didn't really felt like my cup of tea. And besides, I was too busy with my "career". Work, work, and more work... In my line of work, I had the chance to travel across Asia. I've been to Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and Singapore. I experienced spending nights in hi-class hotels in these countries, even in my own country, the Philippines, sometimes with my family. All expense paid for by my company. Stuff that I was just wondering how it feels like when I was growing up with my father. He was a very loyal family driver, and usually I ride with him in his service car. We often passed by the busy streets of the central business district of Makati. I remember watching people with classy business attires going in and out of beautiful hotels. My dad told me, "just do well with your studies and you will experience that someday"... And so now I did, many, many times over. It feels great! Then what else? My beautiful wife and kids.

Then I came upon a crossroad where I almost lost my wife and family because I was too busy "working" so I can provide. I realized it was not really all because I need to provide, but also, I forgot. I forgot to notice the little things that "snowballed" into a disaster. I failed to acknowledged what were really most important to me. It was a horrible experiece, but I fought and won them all back.

My professional work involves a lot of crunching numbers, logic, processes, computers, and people, everyday. I know I am hell-good with it. Then I thought, why not apply this great God-given "skill" in my life? I need to think of a logical distribution of my time and my world, a balance!
Love, Family, Spirituality, and Dreams - 70%
Personal Growth - 20%
Work - 10%

These are the numbers I will be trying to achieve. I need a ton of focus and commitment, but I know I can reach this balance. I am so blessed to be receiving these graces, and soon as I strike this balance, I will learn how to "give" back to life.

Here I am netizens, I will blog every single step towards the most important journey of my life. Along the way, I will post and share each step that I will take and things that I will learn.

Taking my first step.