In Your Dreams | Visions

Imagine.Mankind sending massive solar panels to float in the sky. The size of a small town, the arrays are capable of harvesting sunlight enough to power a machine that creates clouds. Think of the solar arrays being positioned into orbit; into places across the planet that are in desperate need of water. With the rain maker high in the atmosphere, (carried there by balloons the size of jumbo

The Martha Stewart In Me

I used to be that little boy who could grow plants at will. It's the green thumb, people say. But I pay no heed to their suggestion. Left under my own device, I scoured the city for herbs and tiny shrubs for my small garden. I pick them from someone's green corner (often without their permission) with the plants' roots still intact. The thumb-sized plants are then carted home in plastic cups

Mariposa

FictionThere was a loud crash, a thud he would hear for the last time. The propeller hurled into the sky, while his body jerked forward, slammed his head into the metallic skin of the ill-fated aircraft. The blow left him unconscious. Unaware that his time had come."No, you will not be consumed by the sea..." A soft, feminine voice had spoken. "You have earned your place not only in the hearts of

Bucolic Days

Know that in a few years, this article will disappear on the online pages of Inquirer. And so is the memory of Malabon and it's fishponds, in the senses and words of Neal Cruz. After reading his column yesterday, I wish a part of me had lived through his childhood.With the great bay spewing trash every time a storm passes, and the silted rivers taking with it remnants of makeshift homes hastily

Baywalk

The squall that brought the city to its knees is no more. What lingers are the howling winds and rain showers, that remind the earth of the storm's monsoonal grip. The sun occasionally peeks between the marching clouds, bathing the moist ground of precious minutes of sunshine. But when the stubborn nimbus, always on the lookout for changing winds hover over the weary metropolis, darkness cast a

Playing God

Companions the creator seeks, not corpses, not herds and believers. Fellow creators the creator seeks - those who write new values on new tablets. Companions the creator seeks, and fellow harvesters; for everything about him is ripe for the harvest. Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke ZarathustraAnd tinker these scientists did: the Caltech and Harvard bio-engineers, whose work was inspired by the

Pain

Trees ready to be cut down in SM BaguioAsk not, why cities simmer; lowlands get flooded and why people die when mud tumbles down from the mountain. Whine as long as we want about the hellish weather or the insane monsoon, but the thing that keeps the ground cooled and the earth from churning is the very thing we cut down with impunity. The next time the planet strikes back, I'd embrace the pain

The Megamall

I was at the SM Megamall the other day to get something. JC plans to replace his plastic hangers with wooden ones. Since my partner's demanding job eats up even his free time, I thought of buying the hangers myself and giving it to him.It took me less than an hour to find the hangers and buy them. It did help that I got my leads online. Stepping out of the Julia Vargas overpass, I went straight

Bipolar

It was raining yesterdaywhile it was scorching hot the other day.The weather bureau said it was the hotteston record this year.Daybreaks are chillyHad to turn off the fan and cover myself with a blanket.And when I woke up a while ago,the sun was up. And it hints of another polarity again.So it is no surprise that a lot of people at work got sickAnd I too had a near miss.It's the weather, I saytoo

Remember Us

Rock Paintings, Tadart Acacus, LibyaOnce upon a time, the Sahara was green and animals such as giraffes, elephants and wildebeests grazed in the savanna. Men lived in caves, others in thatched huts made of wood and reed. They fashioned tools with flint and bones and spent the day hunting animals for food. At night, perhaps after their meals were eaten and they get tired of sitting by the camp

The Treehugger

In the pit of the city, I found sentience.Every day, I wake up and open my eyes to the sight of a window shrouded with curtains.A pallid landscape awaits outside.There is not much to see.Corrugated roofs and wooden walls of houses block the view. Sunlight hurts the eyes, as I am more accustomed to the ethereal beauty of darkness.Dust floats in the air, carried over by the toxic wind from the

Warp and Weft

In a big city often covered in thick smog, there was once a family who owned a very large junkyard. The junkyard is full of rusted cars and trucks that were thrown away when their owners bought new automobiles. These cars will be then sold for scraps.Alas! A time came when the junkyard hardly makes any money. The old cars that used to pile up in the vacant lot now directly goes to the factories

A Sad Children's Story

“Wake up my fledglings!” Eden said. The graceful Cattle Egret stood up from her moist nest not far from a rice field to gather around her three babies. The young Cattle Egrets had just learned to fly.“Today we will go on a vacation.” The young birds started jumping upon hearing the news. It was the last day of November, and the breeze has become colder. “Where are we going mom?” Tony, the eldest

Backpacker: Santa Ana, Cagayan

First Part: A Traveler's Tale"Baabaa! I have something to tell you ..."It's past 7 in the morning and I was standing outside the Eastern Hawaii Hotel in the town's Centro district. Robbed of sleep, I was waiting for the security guards to let me in so I could speak at the front desk and ask about their room rates."Balak sana kitang i-surprise at sabihing nasa Cagayan ako, kaso I'm in a bit of

Tagpuan

Salcedo ParkMakati Central Business DistrictThere  is something in this open space that calls us back to its gates. It might be the kids at the playground with their  hearty shrill filling the park with boundless glee. Some swing back and forth on suspended seats while others run with their hands flapping in the air around monkey bars and over sand boxes. Ladies with hijab covering their heads

Into The Light

What  force draws me, I do not know. Something within urges me to find out. While remnants of bad blood hinders me from my journey, there's no denial, I've been called. Though fear claws me back to my cocoon, a time has come to seek some answers.  This has been my nature all along, and now that I have found some kindred spirits, perhaps,You feel different, alienated or separated from others; you

Solace For The Forsaken

Fear is that I am already sedated by the horrific scenes continuously being aired from Japan.  The wall of  mud, debris and  sea water - the  first  TV footage of a country  rocked by a powerful earthquake - swallowing acres of  farmland embeds itself in my head.  There was a sailing boat under the bridge carried by a torrent towards the city, scores of  spectators shell-shocked from the earlier

Evergreen

There is something about Diliman that keeps me returning.  It is not the academic upheavals, or rubbing elbows with the demi-gods. The sublime attraction goes beyond fame or intellect, and rests at the belly of one human need we tend to overlook these days - trees.Growing up at  the heart of Manila, where every spot of earth spawns the construction of  apartment buildings, I was robbed the joys

Spirit Of Ondoy

The latest news bulletin reports that super-typhoon Juan has changed course and its new direction now puts Manila within range. Earlier yesterday, CNN plotted the path of the weather disturbance and its trajectory will hit the Cordillera Region.  If liberal estimates are to be followed, Signal Number 2 could be raised in the capital region by six in the morning.  If we are spared from its

Monolith To Stupidities

Across the convent of Santa Clara in Katipunan lies a verdant realm undisturbed since time unremembered. Cut across by a concrete highway, which obstruct the sanctum of the women in habit, the stalemate between holiness and progress settle in uneasy peace. The nuns, whose day to day affair include supplicating and accepting generous offer of eggs as means of bribe to the almighty remain content