November is a time for holiday-themed houses, holiday movies, Undas, Bonifacio Day, and Christmas shopping however, not many people know that November is actually a special month. On October 8, 2008 Gloria Macapagal Arroyo issued Proclamation No. 1638, declaring that November as the National Consciousness Month for Punctuality and Civility as advised by the Organized Response for the Advancement of Society, Inc. (ORAS). 


Ponder on the bold and italic texts once more. Punctuality, a strict observance in keeping engagements; promptness. That is a quality not all Filipinos have. Ask a friend, "Pare what time ka darating?", he'll probably answer,"Siguro mga 8 or 9am". See? You must know what I mean right? Saying "mga" before a given time, what does that really mean? You'll get there 5 minutes late? 10 minutes late? 20 minutes late? You can arrive a minute before the hour for all I care, no sense of clarity, absolutely not punctual.  

I have a friend that scheduled a basketball game at 7pm, he told us that the schedule was 6pm just so that people wouldn't be late. What kind of people are we to have to be tricked into arriving early? It's a mentality that is clear within our culture, think about it; crowded commutes during rush hour, concerts that start 2 hours later than the given time, people rushing and pushing to get into LRT/MRT trains because everyone's late. We can't always blame traffic on our way to work or school that's a given.

Filipino time, a label that has been given to every single one of us. When I was growing up in the states, dad used to joke around what time my aunt would come, "Filipino time? or American time?" (If you were going to ask, my dad is American) I used to wonder what that meant now as an adult, I understand it completely. We need to develop a respect for time, as apart of our lives and a part of business. Think about highly developed countries, think of a characteristic they have in common. Punctuality, and a discipline to uphold that, every movement is precise and systematic, every minute is efficient and productive. If every Filipino would get this into their system a better Philippines would be over the horizon.

Lets practice this kind of mentality even if it's just for November, try waking up earlier to beat morning traffic, lets be all precise and get to where we are going on time. Lets respect time in our lives and in a business sense. Don't realize this fact before your time runs out.

You cant describe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence, thats all anything ever is, nothing more than coincidence. There are no miracles. There is no such thing as fate. Nothing is meant to be. These were the final lines of a movie about love, epic words that my brother and I found to be a lyrical masterpiece.


Last night I was watching 500 Days of Summer with my family, it's a refreshing look on how you interpret the events of your life. We've always believed that everything happens for a reason, whatever is happening around you or within you has a greater purpose. With that in thought I remember a ton of firsts, the first conversation with a friend, the first little league game, the first kiss, the first love, the first phone call we come to believe that all of those firsts all happen for a reason. What if all of that was a mere coincidence? I met my dear friends by chance on the way going home from school, my first girlfriend at a competition which I wasn't even a part of, my knack of writing because of an English teacher.This is truly a debunking of the whole "destiny" mentality people usually have with life, It taught me that when an opportunity comes you might as well grasp it with all your might. A definitely good movie.

"I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, start out dead and get it out of the way. Then you wake up in an old age home feeling better every day.. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day. You work 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement.

You drink alcohol, you party, you're generally promiscuous and you get ready for High School. You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a baby, then, you spend your last 9 months floating peacefully with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap, larger quarters everyday, and finally you finish off as an orgasm.
I rest my case."

Life can have its major ups and downs. Life can be forgiving and unfair, Life can have its rewards and have its shit. Well, life in general is infact a state of growth. '

That's the beauty of it though, life is a sporadic mess of tragedy and euphoria. There was once a boy who constantly indulged himself with video games and anime, a kid whom thought of a life making or designing his passion. Then ended up thinking of all the cynical things, provocative issues, having this urge to at least try and save the world the crazy idealism of being young being at such a tender, tender age and time. Ah time, no matter how cliche' it may sound the only constant thing in this world is time. It's always there, changing second by second, our heart is pumping and aging every nanosecond we live. The beauty of life is through time and age, the fear and ugliness of life are through time and age aswell.

Time could be crucial, time could be wasteful, time could be short, time could be eager approximately any kind of word could be associated with time, banana time, train time, sexual tendency time, time for me to throw up. You see? Like or not Time is an anagram of Life. If anyone bothered to read this and asked themselves, "What the hell are you talking about you douche!?" give me the next paragraph to explain myself. You see, it's more simple than it seems. Remember that bunny from Alice in Wonderland? The one that says ,"I'm late! I'm late! for a very important date!". He's right you know, everyday someone must feel like that, someone must've woken up later than the usual and went to work or school fearing to be tardy. Remember your quiz in a major subject? The one with the "time limit"? Or remember that time you wanted to switch up your processor because this one was faster and could do more in less "time". I could fill up this blog post with nothing but those kind of analogies. So, what does this have to do with anything? Everything.

We basically all live under an ultimatum, we don't have a clue when our timer stops ticking unless, you have something like this.



Well, as dumb as it may seem. We are constantly living and that doesn't last forever. I don't want to waste my time anymore, I took time for granted, like what I did to my thesis mates I procrastinated beyong stupidity, I held back a friend for nothing it was just because I was being relatively super lazy. I did my best to make up for it when we hurriedly finished it for graduation. Thank you Jho, Kevs for forgiving me, and to Mic and Ray thanks for all the help. I don't want to be that kind of person no more, nor be someone like my dad who wanted more money yet forgot that we, his kids grew up already. I don't know how long I have on this earth. But I still want to help change it, even if just sharing my thoughts with all of you I may come to achieve this absurd task, I'm truly grateful.