The Mail Box

[switlips_25]

Dear Diary,

 

It's another gloomy day today.

It's raining most of the time

Sun is peeking just for 5min and it's gone.

[Sequenenre Tao]

ano tukmol? ano ba talaga balak mo? manlulumo ka nalang ba jan, mag paka bangag at mamuhay sa pantasya na babalik pa sya? ulol! anadami mo dapat gawin, ni isa wala kapa nasimulan. bakit mo ibabase sa kanya ang takbo ng buhay mo? iaasa mo ba sa kanya ang kinabukasan?

 

ano tukmol? san ka pupunta?

[OpunHeimen]

I have been staring at this blank page for I don't know how long, trying to figure out what to say. I have been trying to form sentences in my head, but I can't think of anything smart or witty to say.

 

So I start with nothing.

 

No, I am not stumped. I wasn't shocked at the revelation. You saying yes isn't really far from the horizon, and nothing I say will change that. I have accepted that possibility since the last time we were together. That was the reason why I was so desperate to get you back that night, if only to be able to hold you, and hold on.

 

But it seems, I didn't have to. We both know it.

 

I will love you from a distance. I have been used to loving someone like this, albeit unrequited, with no chance of reciprocation. And I know somewhat, you will do the same as well.

 

Despite the things I've said, despite my anger, despite you being you, we never really let go, and we never really lost each other. We never stopped loving each other.

 

The last is never the last, not when the bond we thought broken became stronger still, despite the distance. And this has to pass, for you to realize who I really am in your life.

[teio]

you said... "letting go is sacrificing what was yours... and giving up is forgetting what was never yours since the beginning..."

 

i replied... "i gave up"... with a smiling face... "Ü"... at the end...

 

hoping that you will read between the lines...

 

you answered back... with a frown... telling me that it is not anymore nice to be a martyr... asking if i'm currently wooing someone... that i can get over it... to spend my energy through work...

 

you thought that i was talking about someone else...

 

but the truth is... i was talking about...

 

you...

[LadyMariko]

i'm an adult you know.

i can think.

stop patronizing me.

 

go away if you want.

disappear.

when you come back, hopefully i'm still here.

[bluegreen717]

 

DREAM WITHIN A DREAM

Edgar Allan Poe, 1827

 

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow --

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

 

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand --

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep -- while I weep!

O God! can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?.

[Guest lemon]

nothing. just wondering how long this... "infatuation" will last before the real conversation begins. not that i'm complaining, just that i wonder if you ever get tired of it? then again, i think i've been at it for far too long, i fear i've forgotten how to start one. a real conversation, i mean.

 

ah, well. maybe this is just how this game is played out but i sure hope this isn't all just a game to you. coz if it is... then, i guess, we now know i just lost it or did i? and if it isn't, then i give up... now can we talk? i mean, really talk.

 

hay naku...tired lang siguro.

[LadyMariko]

i love you. i still love you. come back. please.

[Icee_1]

I'm tired; I'm confused; I'm hurting. But I move on in the hope that things will get better very soon. I've been through this before, so you would think that I wouldn't get affected anymore. Yet it would appear that nothing can really prepare me for the pain of a loss.

 

I hope and pray that things will get better soon. They have to do, because there is definitely nowhere for me to go but up. Everything seems so bad right now, yet there's nothing I can actually do to make it better, except perhaps to just accept things as they are and be contented about them.

 

Maybe someday soon I will be able to accept whatever I have to accept, to deal with the cards that fate has dealt me. Til then, I pray that I get through from day to day, without bungling anything up further.

 

I pray that tomorrow will be so much better than today and yesterday.

[bubuy]

ayaw mo man na sa akin, dito lang ako kaibigan mo.

[WHY]

i wish you are still here with me.

[WHY]

assh*le assh*le assh*le!!!!!!

why? why? why?????????

 

i'd rather die than be in this situation again.

[umd]

kailan ko ba masasabi ang aking nararamdaman para sayo....... hindi ko na nga maalala kung kailan ko ito unang naramdaman ...... nalimutan ko na ..... natabunan na rin ng panahon ...... pero sa tuwing magkikita tayo ....... kusang bumabalik ang alaala ...... sana ...... paano kaya ..... gaano kaya kasarap ang makapiling ka? ........ paano ..... sana hindi na lang kita nakilala ....... paano ko pa kaya masasabi sayo

[WHY]

hey a-hole

 

major, major a-hole.

 

ayoko na. go away. leave me alone. that's it. final straw. gave you so many chances but that's it. go away.

ayoko na.

[gen_g]

so where do i go from here...lost...dumbounded..lonely in my own realm

[misbyutiful]

anjan ka na, masaya na ko finally. kala ko di ka na dadating eh. lahat ng napagdaan ko bago ka dumating, worth it lahat..

 

ang sarap mabuhay no?

[LostCommand]

Kapatid,

 

The major battles now being fought in the political arena have the quality of a pathetic pinoy drama movie, the kind our parents used sniff at, like the ones featuring Julie or Heart or Pops or whatever. You know, the kind of movies we reserved for our maids and helps?

 

We should not be found cheering or jeering with the bakya crowd in these arenas, or even bothering to voice opinions or place bets. What for? Instead, we should be found in the gym, shooting ranges, in the classrooms, in the corporate corridors, overseas, networking, or otherwise in training.

 

Anyway, who did you think would find themselves on that arena someday, Juan dela Cruz? Asa pa. More likely it will be ourselves...

 

For now, just let those thin blooded gladiators with their skinny arms and thrashing chicken legs enthrall the masa crowds with their paper cutter swords and de lata armour. At least they keep the mob entertained and distracted while we plot and scheme.

 

Anyway, regarding your email yesterday on dealing with government agencies, I have three points to make:

 

1. Yes, corruption is all around us, but you must also realise the specific nature of the corruption we encounter. One characteristic of local corruption culture is that it tends to run after the weakest prey, and not the fattest prey. The corrupt tax collectors cannot go after the multinationals and top local corporations since these folks have batteries of lawyers, have top ranking government officials a call away, and since the amount of taxes they give out is so large that the government would not want to tamper in any way with that tremendous cash flow going their way with so little effort needed on their part.

 

Therefore the corrupt tax collectors always go after the entrepreneurs and the SME's. Which is why the Chinese are so allergic to BIR. Walang laban mga yun eh. For these folks, lagayan is the way to go. The right persons to lagay (not always the top guy), and the right times to lagay and give gifts (never too late) are the secrets.

 

So, study the patterns of corruption well. You are now dealing with government officials, learn to think how they think, and why.

 

2. Yes, criminal gangs backed by cops are all around us. Have you caught on their patterns yet? The local criminal gangs tend to be selective as well. They tend to follow the weakest prey (getting the pattern) and not always the fattest prey. The risk reward equation for them is much more favourable if they avoid any chance of injury to themselves. They are too well drilled to think otherwise, PMA mga yun eh.

 

A disunity in the afflicted industry means a disunited front against the gangs. Therefore if you for instance decided to arm your business, the gangs will move on to the other business operators who are not yet armed. However if you decided to unite the industry versus these gangs, this means that even if you are successful, the gangs may still decide to go for an arms race and outgun you all (easier for criminals to procure arms than for us) and so keep the extortion money flow going as usual. On the other hand, if you fail in the attempt, pag-iinitan ka nang husay.

 

So, study your industry allies well and decide if it is worth uniting them versus a common threat, or if it is better to be the very first one to buy an umbrella, such that you shield yourself while the cold rain will fall on your huddled mates on either side.

 

3. Yes, the drab lethargy of the government organizations and the milking hand of the rent seekers are everywhere. And yes, it will take generations to change this. Even if we brought in the idealistic graduates today, it will still take 20 more years for the last corrupt fossils to be bumped off and retired from government service.

 

Therefore, learn to think project term. Why did you think that we have such a fixation for Oplan this and Oplan that? Because it works, albeit clumsily, for short term results. If you need immediate results, do not waste time, energy, and money fighting the corruption and compromising the rent money flow of too many bigshots. Instead, focus your efforts on moving the project forward, on media connections, on good publicity and PR. Invite them bigshots to dinners and ribbon cuttings. Goodness knows they appreciate a bit of legitimacy. Don't disturb too many of their income sources. Did you think we built all of those flyovers with zero kickbacks? Don't you think, even with all the kickbacks, the flyovers were still worth the scarce government funds we bled for them, at the expense of education and social welfare? We did manage to avoid some kickbacks though through application of items 1 and 2 above.

 

So, again, study your aim closely. Are you seeking to root out corruption in all its forms? Or do you just want to get this project lifted off and the momentum built up until it becomes unstoppable? Any corruption you managed to stop, being just incidental bonus?

 

What did you really want to do?

 

In short, sister dear, we who are asked to work with compromised institutions and even more compromised men, can not ourselves be compromised. We have to study the naked flow of power, the patterns of evil, the science of Dark Magic, the 20,000 thousand things regarding Practical Leadership and Amoral Management they forgot to teach us in those school case studies. Sad, really, but our schools do not teach us the mechanics of the Dark Side, of that often biggest roadblock to corporate, political, social, and personal success. One should write an MBA thesis on "Practical Management of Government Agencies and Political Parties"

 

Fortunately we had our family to help us with that, to teach us not to despair, but to understand.

 

Truth is a wonderful thing.

 

Mind you, there is the ever present pull to the Dark Side exerted on those who study it.... But that will be a different letter. However we have not succumbed in 5 generations, certainly, we can last 5 generations more?

 

Let the others save the world entire. We are more selective.

 

- L. Paz Benitez V

Edited March 12, 2006 by LostCommand

[Wolf]

I'm sorry if I acted weirdly.

Strangely, I acted as if I were your boyfriend.

Even stranger was that you reacted as if you were my girlfriend.

It's like we're on that level subconsciously... yet we both know that we don't want to go there.

We both simply can't.

 

Nampotah naman, daig pa natin ang magsyota kung mag-away a.

 

Things have been said. And now we're apart.

In the meantime... I'll just wait for you.

I'll hang on to your word.

 

'cause you said that's you'll be back, emphasizing that it is a "will."

As usual, I'm this stupid to believe you. :cry:

Edited March 13, 2006 by Wolf

[smaug]

BIG SISTER

 

langya... I thought this would be my safe haven, my emotional output, the bearer of my pain... pero im busted! BIG SISTER is watching, heheheh, kasupog tuloy... karen, aram ko nagpara ngirit kana jan, hehehe, I just want to thank you for starting this gig. kadakul tawoo an natabangan mo, salamat po...

 

-JJ-

[LostCommand]

Dear Bumbay customer,

 

What you are doing, in legal parlance, is called "forum shopping". But go ahead, I don't mind. No well trained technical consulting engineer in his right mind would approve of your "single safeguard" scheme, no matter what sort of consulting fees you pay them. That sort of scheme is fit for trucks and cars, certainly, but then how many people will die if a bus' brakes fails? 20? 30? Sure.

 

If that single safeguard scheme fails, in our business, thousands can get roasted in an instant, and hundreds more will die of injuries in the days after. Hopefully you and your ka-tribo will be among those who die "in the days after" (instant or same-day death is way tooo good for your ilk) All of this mess would be avoidable if you could just lay out an extra 30,000 USD line for a dual safeguard feature.

 

Ever heard of Bhopal, 1984? Maybe you were too young to remember? That disaster (you even know what that word means?) was a classic example of a single safeguard scheme failing in a big way. They should have shot the consulting engineers. Malamang ka-tribo mo yun, hayop kang Bumbay ka.

 

Sabagay baka mura lang buhay ninyong nang mga Bumbay. There are plenty more where you Bumbays come from. Anyway, damn, we could always use less stink around here.

 

happy "shopping"!

 

-your entertained consultant

 

P.S. I have it all on email too, just in case you mess up, you can't lay the blame on us for "faulty advice". Personally, I can't wait for the blow-up. I have always wondered if roasting Bumbays scream in any way different from the usual? May Bumbay tono kaya?

[orbicularis]

To hermie

 

I know we can never be I know I loved in vain perhaps I should have tried harder maybe friendship is all that you can give me I want you to know that I am moving on slowly without you

[misbyutiful]

get well soon mahal. can't wait to see you again. i still can''t believe i have you in my life. i thought i'd never be happy again. :heart:

[chinits]

missssss na kitah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gen_g]

now trying to figure what to do next........

[Guest Dennis®]

you want me to help you?

help yourself first! <_<