REUNION

Had I known corridor would be that busy

During significant time of my study

I should have rehearse more on my accuracy

Before going to classroom fifty two that day

Relief was in me as I saw familiar face

Our ten o’clock class is like a reunion

Reunion of friends and emotions is what I trace

Hoping I can portray it using a crayon

Or sketch it with Da Vinci’s hairy stick

When suddenly a man older than us walks in

He who speaks authority no one should break

He who acknowledge essence of time discipline 

WAITING POINT

She is riding on the same route

She is in haste to catch up with time

Speed up; slow down no need to be rude

Drivers knew where they’ll be stuck

She knew it exactly like the other days

Hands on stirring wheel, foot on brakes

Sixteen miles ahead she awaits a post

A leaning post of three shining colors

A hand pointing opposite her direction

It is everybody’s way of giving

It is everybody’s waiting point

A part of human system

A way to keep her world going

DISCOVERY OF A CIGARETTE VENDOR

The right hand threw the empty cup, a cup where he enjoyed summer’s refreshment a while ago. But the cup did not rolled far from him the reason why he kicked it like a soccer ball. The empty cup reached to the cigarette vendor. At first, the man in his middle age ignored it but after he entertained a customer he picked it up. His left hand turned it around. He inspected it like a scientist that had discovered a new specimen.

MY FIRST VIVA!

Yesterday, January 19, 2014 I acted like a kid. Yesterday I had fun. The nation celebrated the feast of Senior Santo Niño. Yesterday we shout, VIVA! VIVA SENIOR STO. NIÑO! It was my first VIVA. Lucky for me, our parish patron saint is Senior Santo Niño de Praga.

MY PENCIL

My pencil does not fit for duplication

It cannot lead itself to its destination

It cannot stand in neither curve paths nor straight paths

All day in my blank paper it will just sat

                        

But, when I think of telling sweet memories

It will sharpen itself even to never meant stories

And when it feels that I am out of question

It will dance with the tune of inspiration

When it breaks, it can be at ease with strangers

Without a shame it will lead a sharpener

Unconsciously, it will get a pinch of lead

Which help me do the curves and straights of shades

MY UNFORGETTABLE MOVIES

  

            I would like to share my unforgettable movies so far, before I start watching new shows. You have to know that whenever I watch movies I focused on the story itself, the banter of the characters, the lesson it teaches me. Unintentionally, I failed to remember the names of the directors, actors, actresses, producers, writers, and the rest of the production team. Whoever they are kudos to them. They created movies that strike through my heart and mind.

            There are many of them but I have deduced the list according to reasons.

Forrest Gump – the story started from little Forrest and ended with daddy Forrest.

It was narrated by Forrest himself while waiting for his bus to Jenny’s address. He told his life story to strangers – who are also waiting for their bus. He is a man with many accomplishments despite of his disability. He became an important player of his college football team, received honor after saving many lives in the battle field, became a goodwill ambassador between China by playing ping pong, and a successful business man. The gratifying success in all of them is due to running.

BULFINCH’S MYTHOLOGY

Front cover of Bulfinch's Mythology

Bulfinch’s Mythology is a modern abridgment by Edmund Fuller. This contains three volumes of Thomas Bulfinch’s three books: 1. The Age of Fable, 2. The Age of Chivalry, and 3. Legends of Charlemagne.

QUOTE: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

“There will come a time, when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There was a time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows what everyone else does.” -          The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

WHERE DO THE GOOD ADS GO?

I’ve been seeing this TV commercial in a local channel which is operated by a religious group for a month now.  In fact, one sure reason I click back to the channel because of the TV commercial itself not the daily programs. Unlike any other commercials running in the other stations, it does not require TV enthusiast to spend a centavo. Surely the company or the organization that put up the ad would not be able to measure the effectiveness of the campaign through consumer’s rating. They probably pour out their unerring trust upon us to recall the things that we might have forgotten.

The advertisement is divided to different series according to a value. The first time I saw it I thought it was a teaser for one of their program. I was not always on that channel so I let it deliver.

   

A group of football players enter (I think they are, because they are big guys carrying that helmet easily associated to a football player and they a have a paint of stripes on their face.) in a locker room talking to each other loudly, certainly about their game. Then the camera pans to an old man answering a phone call, he turns to the group and handed the phone to a big guy. Big guy get the phone.

Big Guy: Hello.

  

Pause (The caller is talking.)

Big Guy: Right now?

  

Big Guy pauses and started singing Itsy Bitsy Spider (If you ever been a kid of course you know what Itsy Bitsy Spider is.), while doing the action – you know. Other players stopped talking and walked towards Big Guy. Then the scene shift to the location of the caller. It was her sweet little girl, giggling because her daddy granted her request.

Little Girl: I love you daddy.

Big Guy: I love you baby.

At the end of the phone call the other players started teasing him. But it was good teasing. They all started laughing – real happiness. In fact one of the guy, laugh showing of a missing tooth. In which, I think added reality to the story.

Big Guy: What? That was my little girl.

It ended with a text that encourages everyone to pass on LOVE.

Now, that was something I did not see often a father passing on his love to his daughter without feeling awkward. The love was presented in a manner that we already now but in a different situation. It was in a TV commercial. Flicking back to the regular channel I watched I wonder where the good ads go.

I am very well informed on how an advertisement should be. The very first it was conceptualized by the creative team either from the company’s marketing department or a creative agency. The moment it was approved and waiting for the feedback of the consumer.

I am very much aware what works in public consumer. Those are the advertisements that run on the popular channels. They are very effective. The endorsers are worth paying for, the tag line is good in which I adore the creative team for such thinking and good execution. In fact, I buy some of the products that I used because it was well presented and explained in an advertisement.

Well of course, we see ad that manifest love and other values in the popular channel. But what I am missing much are the ads that do not worry about the return of the investment (ROI). An advertisement that would simply reminds us of something we have forgotten. An advertisement that would make our money’s worth. An ad that strikes us unintentionally on whatever we believe.

Perhaps, it is timing I am failing to see.