Welcome to My Life

What if you could live your life all over again? I was thirty-three, clumsy, frustrated with life and terrified of fatherhood. I went years without a steady job, which really ticked my wife off because she was forced to work 12 hours a day so she could give our daughter a better future.

Our apartment was a messy two-bedroom located on the third floor of a very old building in downtown Manila. It was filled with college kids and the landlord was accustomed to haggling over rents. She was fifty-two but looked forty. A skinny woman with short brown hair trapped in a boring, sexless marriage. I'd spent hours in that little burrow wondering if I could steal her away for a weekend.

Not very long ago, I looked at some classy townhouses down south fit for a young professional. I'd dreamed of working in a high-pressure environment filled with great minds. I was sickened and saddened by what I had become, and I was astounded by the speed at which I had fallen.

But I vowed not to give up. I told myself: "Sure it's a rough and tumble world out there...but I will prevail. Sit on your butt around here all day and you'll starve to death." I promised to do something different and reinvent myself. That's what I did.

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A Look at Karl Arnaiz's "Duality"

It 's me, not the artist. Karl Arnaiz's "Duality" (currently on view at Eskinita Art Gallery ) is an invitation to ponder the complexities of life and appreciate the balance that exists even in differences. This 36 x 27-inch piece in charcoal and watercolor isn't just art that looks pretty on a wall. It's art that makes you stop, think, and maybe even re-evaluate how you see the world. Karl Arnaiz paints a meditation on death and its contrasting yet inevitable connection with life. In Duality, he explores the darker corners of the human experience. There is a certain sense of psychological imprisonment that permeates his work, as he paints a woman confined in a room with a disconnected skull floating against the wall. It shows how powerless humans are in the face of mortality and how the imminent passage of time from the woman’s face to the skull is simply nothing but a straight line, a blank, negative space on the wall, showing how nothing can obstruct death...

Press Play Again

You know that feeling when you stumble upon an old movie you haven't seen in years? It's like finding a dusty photo album and flipping through the pages, only instead of bad hairstyles, you're greeted with hideous special effects and awful dialogue. Also, the dramatic tension I remembered as nail-biting was now… well, a little slow-paced. But the truly entertaining part of rewatching a movie is that you notice things you never did before. For example, in Midnight Cowboy , I didn't know that the guy who gave Joe Buck (Jon Voight) a blow job was played by Bob Balaban, who later became known for his role as Russell Dalrymple, the fictional president of NBC in Seinfeld . Released in 1969, Midnight Cowboy is a raw, sometimes uncomfortable, often heartbreaking, but ultimately deeply human. And seriously, the chemistry between Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) and Buck is pure gold. Rewatching a movie is like visiting an old friend. You know their idiosyncrasies, their stories, bu...

These ladies brought the chill.

The Philippines just bagged the gold medal at the recent International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women's Asia Cup in UAE. Yes, you read that right. Ice hockey. Champions. But let me tell you, what we lacked in natural frozen water, we more than made up for in heart, hustle, and teamwork. The ladies had a perfect tournament in Al Ain with victories against Kyrgyzstan (15-0), UAE (6-1), Malaysia (8-1) and India (4-1) before beating Iran (4-2) for the gold. They proved that you don't need snow to conquer the ice. You just need talent, determination, and maybe a little bit of that Pinoy magic that allows us to thrive in the most unexpected situations. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find the nearest halo-halo vendor to celebrate.

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