Just this morning before going to school, I overheard our neighbor talking about their dog. They had several dogs by the way, maybe because they had too much gold on their turf and they didn’t trust that gigantic green gate they had for the whole compound.

My neighbors talked about that old brown dog. They said it was too old and had too much fungi on its skin so that they planned to kill it before dawn.

This really disheartened me. I have never pitied animals before (I don’t like pets, you know) but the thought of seeing the old brown dog getting killed just because it had skin disease was totally inhuman…. well… in-animal-ish. *whatever*

I remember our dog before I left for college. Blue, our golden retriever was probably the smartest dog in town. You know why? Because she won’t pee inside the house. She won’t eat something you throw into her (you should put it right inside her mouth) and she won’t respond if you call her plainly by her name. There should be full energy. BLLLLLUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

When I left for Manila 3 years ago, I have never heard of her just until this summer when I went home for 3 days. Now, when my mother left abroad too, and my stepfather soddomized someone, we never had any news from the dog. She was just left on our slightly-abandoned house alone. This made me think, is this how humans value life? Do we really think we are way above everyone else that we think of animals as inferiors?

I realized that moment that life is not something we just play around with. In the ecosystem, there should be deaths, I admit. But the main reason for killing a felow living thing is because we need to survive and not because we just feel like killing them. Be it a dog, an ant or whatever that doesn’t do harm to us, I guess we have no reason to take their lives away. Let them enjoy the sunshine, the coldness of the morning that I enjoyed that moment.

I’m not asking you to be vegetarian, I myself can’t live life without liver, ha! But let’s be more passionate about animals. Let’s think of them as friends, as part of the society.

I pity our neighbor’s dog. He died minutes ago. I heard the howls. But I pity our neighbor more, because he doesn’t know how to value life.

I miss BLUE. ^^,

Oh yes, I’m quite preoccupied this past few days. But then, it didn’t stop me from checking out what’s happening in the cyberworld. Look what I found out on Youtube! It’s so sweet and beautiful that it somehow cleared up my mind from all the problems. I love it. This is compiled by Daniel Gardner from hundreds of video responses to his call entitled “Show Your Smile”.

And as a sign of gratitude and support to Mr. Gardner, I made one myself together with some friends. Why don’t you make yours too? Let’s all show our smile.

Wow, once again, Filipinos proved to the world that there could be more of us than nurses, caregivers and nannies.

We COULD write, actually.

Many thanks and congratulations to Miguel Syjuco for winning the Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel “Ilustrado”. According to the news, the story is a fictional account of a young Filipino investigating the life of his mentor Crispin Salvador, a real-life writer and thinker, after the man’s death.

It examines the disappearance of Salvador’s manuscript about the corruption behind rich Filipino families.

Syjuco beat off competition from fellow Filipino Alfred A. Yuson for “The Music Child,” Indian writers Kavery Nambisan for “The Story that Must Not be Told” and Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi for “The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay.”

I first saw Mr. Syjuco at the Palanca Awards Night last September after he was awarded the grand prize for the same work. He works abroad, if I’m not mistaken and has worked for several American newspapers and Canada’s Montreal Gazette(as far as I can remember). He really looks well composed when I bumped into him, mind you. (haha! ang babaw).

To Mr. Syjuco, Congratulations!

Oh, good, my brother just ruined my education. I was supposed to pass my 3-page assignment on Accounting today (which I wrote almost all night) and present our proposal for the class’ booth for the Foundation Day on December.

2:10 A.M. (Talking to my bro through text)

Allen: Hey, booger, where are you?
Kuya: I’m here sa ministop. I’m still with my friends.
Allen: I didn’t know you have friends. lol. Buy me an ensaymada ha. Bavarian.
Kuya: …
Allen: By the way, the alarm clock’s not working. I need your phone. Set the alarm at 6:00 A.M. May class ako ng 7.
Kuya: OK
Allen: The loudest volume please.
Kuya: OK
Allen: Make sure you put it right beside my ear!
Kuya: OK!!!!!!!!!! Kulit mo ah!

A few hours later, I woke up at 8:49 A.M.!!!!!!!!!! Sh*****ttttt!!!!!

I knew he’d ruin everything! He forgot his phone was on silent mode! I was supposed to meet my classmates at 7! Huhu! I ended up trashing my proposal! By now, I’m sure they would’ve decided on something else. My Chinese pagoda booth proposal is a goner. Fok!

I’m so dead to my partner, Rubie. She’s the girl on the pic with me. She’s our class president and I guess I will have to explain everything to her. She was so enthusiastic about the Chinese Pagoda and I wasn’t able to present it just because I overslept. This might be the end of our friendship! Ugh!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH DEAR BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!