Me as Obama

Economy

“Many Americans have lost their jobs. Because of this, they don’t have enough funds to buy foods. This will surely lead to hunger. Mr. President, what do you think will happen on our economy this year? Will it go back to normal and stabilize or will it worsen?”

The truth is, most Americans aren't asking for a lot. They don't need overseas tax shelters; they don't need a long list of loopholes. All they want is a fair shake, and they could stand a break because most Americans have simple dreams: a job, a place to raise their families, a secure retirement, and a chance to create opportunities for their kids that might extend a little further than their own. After all, the wealth of the nation is rooted in the work of our people.” I am warning the Americans now because our economic crisis will deepen this year. I already revealed some details of a massive stimulus package that could ultimately exceed in $1 trillion. We, as Americans, will face this economic crisis. I will call for a cabinet meeting tomorrow to discuss this growing crisis which affects the whole world. We already lost 1.2 million jobs inside the country. Millions of American families are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in their home. This is very alarming. This will result to a deeper problem. I and my cabinet is planning to launch a project to help these people who lost their jobs. Sec. Solis and Sec. Geithner, prepare some plans for this problem and we’ll be discussing it tomorrow. I promise this cabinet meeting will be transparent to everyone.

Me as Obama

On Iraq

“There are some rumors that you are planning to add more American troops on the Middle East. How true is this?”

"I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil.” As I have told you in my electoral campaign, I said that I will pull out ALL of our American soldiers in the Middle East to promote peace not only between America and Iraq, but between all nations. I already asked my security adviser, Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, to prepare plans in pulling out our troops in 16 months with the help of Secretary Robert Gates, our secretary of defense. The rumor is a false rumor.

Me as Obama

Financial System

“The US of A is having a great economic recession. People are loosing their jobs. For sure, some of these people would like to help on this problem for them able to gain back their jobs. How would we, the people, help restore our good financial system?”

“In order to restore our financial system, we’ve got to restore trust. And in order to restore trust, we’ve got to make certain that taxpayer funds are not subsidizing excessive compensation packages on Wall Street. We all need to take responsibility. And this includes executives at major financial firms who turned to the American people, hat in hand, when they were in trouble, even as they paid themselves their customary lavish bonuses. As I said last week, that’s the height of irresponsibility. That’s shameful. And that’s exactly the kind of disregard for the costs and consequences of their actions that brought about this crisis: a culture of narrow self-interest and short-term gain at the expense of everything else."

My Perception in 10 years

“Fear not for the future, weep not for the past.” – Percy Bysshe Shelley
As a teenager, I cannot afford not to think about the future. I often daydream about the things I want in the future, the positions I want to hold, the experiences I want to experience and to fulfill the plans I have made.
I want many material things in life. I want to own a luxurious black car, a house, a laptop, computers and a manual-digital camera. Pheow! That’s a lot of things.
But before all of that, I want to live in the simplest form and peacefully. I want to spend quality time with my family and my best friend. I can’t deny that she is included in my future plans. But I see my future beside her, as we, being friends.
It’s really difficult to predict, especially about the future. But in my own perception, I see myself as a successful BS Computer Science graduate, working on a respectable field of computer technology. I also see my self as a photographer by pastime capturing every momentum of my life. I also see my self going to different places of the world like Paris, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and many more with someone I can spend my whole life with. Someone whom I can share the experiences waiting for me in the near future.
In ten years, lots of things can happen. The future has a way of arriving unannounced. No one could tell what will happen next. No one can predict the things which are supposed to happen. It is only Him who can. I never fear that these things wouldn’t happen, because I know, I can make them happen with the help of Him.

Best Friends

The two of us
was like paper in glue.
Even though we had other friends,
it was only us two.

We have little fights
but didn’t really matter.
As long as we knew,
we will always be together.

If ever we would split,
I would cry a river and
I would go outside,
in the cold in shiver.

I love you so much because you are my best friend.
Together we can beat a strong wind.
I hope we stay friends to the end,
even when we grow up
we will stay as best friends.

A Sonnet

Keeping the warmth inside my heart
Another secret appears in the dark.
Thinking of what may happen
Helps me what to hasten.
Reaching that unreachable star
Inspires me to do the best that I can.
Nothing can make me stop loving you
Always think that even in hue.

Every time I feel your embrace
Seems like it can never be replaced.
Come here in my soul, my heart
After the day, I promise, we’ll never be apart.
Never say the words you don’t like to happen
Open your mind, and feel the mysterious breeze.

Personal Writing

“Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.”

I live my life to the fullest. I don’t waste a single moment of it. At present, I think about the past and plan for the future. Well, its not death who fears me, its life itself. I always fear what may happen tomorrow. The challenges I may face and the problems I may encounter. But thanks to God, I always have the courage to go on.

I appreciate the beauty of nature so much. The greenest grass and the bluest sky amaze me. Sometimes, I dream of lying down a meadow watching birds above me fly by. That would be great. But as I see in my environment, some people don’t care for it. They don’t know the real power of Mother Nature.

Life without friends is a complete boredom. I laugh, play, joke and live with them. They make good company with me. I can be a nomad. I can join different circles. But they do match my best friend.

This angel was sent to me by heaven. Though she’s kind of dumb, I can deal with it. I’m a little bit dumb, too. We laugh at ones mistake at once learn from it. We laugh together, sing together, share secrets and experiences together and make memoirs together. We can’t avoid some quarrels, from the shallowest problems like what is the meaning of paranoid to the deepest like the issues about “jealousy” between us. Some think that I’m courting her, well, back off dudes, I’m not.

The end of high school is fast approaching! Friends will be separated. Many of us fear this. Many. I don’t fear this because I know; my best friend will not leave me. I have trust on her. Same here, I will not leave her.

I have passion on working with the camera and computer. My older brother brought me to this. He teaches me the ABCs and I learn by my self the XYZs. My subjects are usually backed-up by the blue sky. Why? I don’t know. Some of my shots are located on the next pages of this compilation.

In the photographs above, I look like my most serious man in the world. I’m not. I just love to emote in front of the lenses. Those pictures were just taken this school year. It shows the real me, somewhat emotional and serious though it doesn’t show that I am also a jolly person. A very happy one. Also, it doesn’t show that I am incomplete because of something. Something which makes my heart cries every night.

This is the deeper Zeus. In my blog, call me Yohann.

Very Punny

I dream of being asked to a dinner party were the hostess falls backward into your table. “Look out!” I shout. “You’ll burn your end at the both candles.” Or, I meet a sculptor in the street. “Hi, you old chiseler,” I say. “Still taking things for granite?”

Puns have been called the lowest form of humor, yet they are surefire attention-getters. There is a kind of comic glory in quietly slipping into a conversation such remarks as “She criticized my apartment, so I knocked her flat.”

Those who dote on puns vigilantly monitor conversation, listening less for sense than for a hook upon which to have a word perversion. If the person one talks to won’t oblige with key words like “goat” or “bread” punaholic may resort to fantasy. Someday I hope I’ll be asked to introduce an archeologist. I’ll refer to his as one whose career lies in ruins.

I have actually asked photographers to step in the darkroom with me so we could see what develops. The answer is always in the negative. And no wonder: That’s the oldest pun in the book; it’s enough to make you shutter.

I’m waiting to run into someone who’ll remind me that in the Middle Ages people wear bells around their necks to warn others of their disease. “Ring around the choler,” I’ll holler – and run for my life.

The pun has an honorable history. Shakespeare used puns, and I am not Avon you on. “Ask for me tomorrow,” Merticulo says gloomily, “and you shall find me a grave man.” Lady Macbeth shamelessly urges her lord with “If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt.

Businessman use puns. A diary brags, “You can whip our cream, but you can’t beat our milk.” And fishy businesses inspire names: Wholly Mackerel, The Contented Sole.” They do it, one supposes, for the halibut.

There are some puns so perfect, so gemlike, that the pun maker can but smite his brow and groan with envy. “Sticks float. They wood.” That’s impeccable! So is “One man’s Mede is another man’s Persian.”

My favorite Christmas card came years ago from one Rolando Antonio. It was fronted with a drawing of himself with his mouth taped shut. A magnificent and wordless pun. In A Voice From the Attic, Robertson Davies quotes critic Mac Beerbohm: “A good pun properly used is one of the best bells in the jester’s cap. Why its tinkles should be received in all places and on all occasions with groans of mock despair, I have never been able to understand.”

It’s envy, my dear chap, simply envy. Everyone who hears a good pun know that, given a few minutes, he could have thoughts of it first. Punning will continue as long as there are those who place double entendres above friendship, or who would sell their soles for archness.

Is there hope for the punaholic? Not much. Some even cry out of his punishment. Give him a long sentence, they urge – a sentence totally lacking words.

Others would simply banish him to Noman.

Noman?

Noman is an island.

Learning Life

Life is not learned
for life is and must be
experienced.

By “not learned,” I mean
that life is not a simple
puzzle of words,
that life is not simply passed
on by mouth.

Words of mouth
give an idea of life
but words of mouth
are not life.

Life is out there in the world,
waiting to be experienced,
waiting to be subjectively defined.

Life is an array of lessons
lived from one’s own experience,
from one’s own choosing,
from one’s own destiny.

I

I am crazy about everything,
all the things around me.
I can’t tell why,
because everything is just for the rhyme.

I am addicted to computer.
More than of that a gambler.
Also in lenses,
I have passion.

I never tire of playing games.
Every time I open one, it makes me exclaims!
It’s because I have an aim.
However, it gives me shame.

I can consume my time wisely.
I know life can be a little scary.
Even though we can be a little clumsy,
Just don’t be naughty.

I can wear many gadgets.
But I don’t have enough budgets
to buy these stuffs.
How I wish I had some magic staff.

I love to read a rhyming poem
especially those written on an album.
I have thoughts which are random
which you can find with ransom.

I like to play with words
but not with the nerds.
I’ll always move forward
And never be moving backwards!

God

God is not a thing to cherish

Nor a portrait to worship
But He’s more of a wind
That came from an unknown unknown
In an expected time
That only in the stillness of life
Can His presence be felt.

Best Friend

Into my darkness hours you were there

You are the lamplight, that brightens me anywhere
You are my pillow, that whenever I cry, you were always there
It only means, that you really care, and that I’ve proven, I swear

We’ve shared our lives with each other
And I realized, the way we’ve been together
Will be cherished and worth - remembering forever
Hope we do understand each other, that our buddies way will be flexible forever

I know it’s not easy to handle a best friend
Coz it takes a lot of trust, patience, inspiration to befriended
But, you win my applaud
And assure you both of us will be evoked

God gave me a special gift, and that is YOU
The heartfelt moments we’ve shared together
Will be a bridge that our intact relationship will not be blue forever
If you cry, I cry, but if you fall, I’m going to pull you up and cheer!

At 23 - Putting My Self at the Fututre

As a child, I felt so limited. There were a lot of things I could not do and understand.
During my teen years, there wasn’t enough time. There were a lot of things I wanted to do and understand.
At 23, I think about the future. I begin to look for a job; and worse, find ways to keep one think of how and when and with whom I will start a family; and where I will be years from now. Things are more complicated these days.
I am beginning to make sense, to think rationally. And the funny thing is, I kind of like the idea.
I work on my goals. While I day-dreamed then daydreamed more during my teen years, I now find myself working hard on my goals. To reach my aims in life – and this is for certain – I have to wake up, and real soon.
I now value family. Mom still nags about almost everything (my hobbies, my sports, my friends and even my haircut!) yet I don’t pick a fight like I used to. I just ignore her remarks and stay friendly. I remember everyone’s birthday and holidays spent with the entire family. I now understand and appreciate why reunions are necessary even if the clan lives on the same block and sees each other everyday. Family’s family.
I am accountable for whatever my actions deliberate or otherwise, may result to. I can always blame it on my ignorance or naiveté. This time, however, there’s no excuse. I miss the appointments not because of the traffic, but simply put, I failed to wake up early. Things could have gone the other way.
I have to be tough. Friends and families will always be there to support and help me alright, but I only have myself to depend upon most of the time. I want to be victorious over life’s obstacles and to achieve that, my only choice is to be strong.
I keep myself young at heart. Even if at times I feel like I’ve explored all aspects of life, relive my past remembering how excited I was watching Voltes-V or Mickey Mouse, or not missing a week of Barney and Friends.
I keep myself fit. I want to get all the baby fats out of my system. And cure all my post-adolescent acne. I play to keep myself in condition and not win like before.
I don’t know who hosts the Top Tenthese Days and who’s dislodging who at the billboard. No more pop ditties for me. Instead, I am getting acquainted with operas, jazz, country and broadway shows. And I am actually enjoying these.
I read the paper in its entirety. This time – front to back! I don’t fall asleep watching documentaries nor bored with ABC, CNN, CNBC and the Discovery Channel. I now know why Dad reads Time and Newsweek and still watches new nightly without fail.
I use my time wisely. Suddenly, there’s not a moment to kill. Not enough time to finish all the work and get ready for some more.
I start talking sensibly. I think a million times before saying anything. “Please” and “thank you” are now part of every conversation. Most of the things that come out of my mouth are new to me yet everything’s meant deeply.
Fads are passé. I am into classic now – watches, jeans and even my hair! Phones are strictly for business and essential matters. No more textmates. I’d rather talk to myself than over the phone.
I stay at home. Malls were haven years ago but not anymore. Sating in my room with my pet is more relaxing than strolling at Glorietta for hours. And if I have to go out, it’s gotta be museums, exhibit or galas. Concerts are replaced by plays and dinner shows.
I find myself attending engagement parties and weddings more than birthday parties. And that means no more come-as-you-are look. What I swore I would never wear is becoming a habit – formal suits.
At 23, I couldn’t believe it, but I am actually doing and understanding a lot of things now.