Poem for Spongebob Squarepants

We used to hate you and your cartoon show,

Until Marcus made us fall in love with your color, yellow.

He has stuffed toys, yes, more than one,

But he always looks for you more often than anyone.

You’ve made him laugh when something, or someone, made him cry

We know, therefore, he wishes that you’d never die.

Happy 26th Birthday,Yaya.

***

Trivia: Our son, even until now, calls Spongebob Squarepants as Yaya (that’s nanny in Filipino)–not because he is always with him like any yaya should be but it’s from the yeah, yeah, yeah expression Marcus hears from this cartoon character.

***Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Thanks Berocca!)

Spider-Man or Spiderman?

 

 

 

“Seeing a spider isn’t a problem. It becomes a problem when it disappears.”

— via Twitter.

While Peter Parker had to face problems such as when to be in the right place at the right time to fight crime and whether he should give up his hero status to have a normal life with the girl he has been longing to be with, I on the other hand has begun thinking when the character who I’ve used to know as just Spiderman became to be Spider-Man. Thanks to the grammar OC in me, I made an extra effort to actually send an email to the folks of www.grammarphobia.com, an email which I never expected would be taken seriously but I was wrong; A couple of days after, I received an interesting answer.

Here’s what I wrote to mailbox@grammarphobia.com1:

Good day! This latest Amazing Spider-Man movie made me realize that I have been spelling Spider-Man wrong but I am wondering if there’s any difference between Spiderman and Spider-Man (while I’m typing this letter, the red wriggly line of spell check tells me that the non-hyphenated word is incorrect).”

And here’s the answer: Hi, Cris,

Spider-Man’s name has a hyphen because Stan Lee, who created the comic character with Steve Ditko, apparently wanted to distinguish him from Su- perman.

In a Feb. 24, 2010, comment on Twitter, Lee wrote: “Spidey’s official name has a hyphen—’Spider-Man.’ Know why? When I first dreamed him up I didn’t want anyone confusing him with Superman!”

However, Lee’s memory may have been playing tricks. His superhero’s name appeared as two words, “SPIDER MAN,” when it first showed up in 1962 on the cover of the final issue of Amazing Fantasy (a magazine previously known as Amazing Adult Fantasy).

 


1mailto:mailbox@grammarphobia.com

 

 

We’ve also read online that Lee, a former president of Marvel Comics, may have wanted to avoid infringing on the DC Comics trademarks for the un- hyphenated “Superman.”

(“Stan Lee,” by the way, is the pen name of Stanley Martin Lieber.)

Interestingly, the word “spider-man” had been around (with and without a hyphen) before the Stan Lee character showed up.

The first published reference in the Oxford English Dictionary is from the Britannica Book of the Year (1955): “Spiderman, an erector of building structures.”

The OED‘s entry for “spider-man” (Oxford uses a hyphen) defines the term as “one employed to work on high structures; a steeple-jack.”

We’ll end with a 1958 citation from the Radio Times, a British magazine that features broadcast program listings:

“These spider-men and steel-erectors work at great heights, often where there are no means of protection. They walk along girders at dizzy heights as though they were strolling along Piccadilly.”

And by the way, be skeptical of those red, wriggly lines. There are lots of words that spell-checkers don’t know.

Thanks for a great question, and all the best, Pat O’Conner & Stewart Kellerman”

To learn more about these guys, follow @grammarphobia on Twitter.

***

 

 

 


 

In the real world, Spidey is a Krispy Kreme donut. He did not survive Marcus.

This past weekend, Marcus finally got to watch his first Spidey movie on the big screen though he has been watching over and over and over and over again the Tobey Maguire-starred Spider-Man DVD we have at home.

The Amazing Spider-Man is rated PG13 and not surprisingly it shows sev- eral scenes when we had to cover our son’s eyes to keep him from watching Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy make out. We realized though that he has had enough of seeing hands and jacket in front of his face when he protested and exclaimed, “Not Again!”

There was also another moment when almost every moviegoer was holding their breath as Spider-Man starts swinging from one crane boom to another, on his way to save the city from having more freaky lizards, when our son’s recent fascination with video games got obvious after Spidey disappeared from the frame and an immediate “Game Over!” from Marcus filled the dark cinema. Ti abi.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Under a nipa waiting shed, waiting for Spidey, I mean Marcus who is currently in the classroom.)

He Created Restless Children Too

“It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real
father.” – Pope John XXIII

How many times have we been in the church to hear mass and expecting it to be one that so solemn, it relieves us of the past week’s stresses and readies us spiritually for the next? But how many times have we been distracted by kids who have decided to make the pews and the altar their playground and tried testing whether they can generate an echo in every corner of the church? Much worse, how many times have we been the parents of these restless Sunday kids?

To answer the last question, it has been happening to us a lot lately. Thanks to our ever active son, whether he is sick or not, Marcus.

Because like karma proving itself true, I now realize that my past encounters with unruly kids and how I have secretly cursed them and/or their parents while I try to fake a smile and maintain composure as I do my Sunday prayers have finally caught up on me. I seem to now slowly accept the fact that even my most fervent prayers may not work to pacify one restless son. I am now among the helpless parents who can’t do anything but pray for divine intervention – and one that is less likely to happen at all. I think God doesn’t touch uber active children but rather he makes parents ponder what was done and what still needs to be done to produce one well-mannered kid inside the church (or any other place).

So please if ever you get to be one lucky church person, because you are
either single or married but still childless and whose only problem is if your
message to the mighty heavens gets across, please understand that if you
are annoyed by kids running uncontrollably around you, bear in mind that someone among those bowed head somewhere is a helpless and embarrassed parent of that kid and ever wondering if indeed God created restless children, too.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Dear God, Thanks for Sundays.)

Love in a jeepney

Late in the afternoon, the sky is overcast, western wind blows cold but two people still in their college uniforms don’t seem to care. Sitting tightly in a half-full jeepney, the girl’s left arm hooks from under the guy’s right with both hands closing the romantic loop. The couple stares outside as if wondering when heavy downpour will eventually happen, yet they’re not. The rain is the least of their worries.

Almost cheek to cheek, their eyes don’t meet but their body language, despite the reserved movement from time to time to shift from one straining position to another, suggests that there’s more to the warmth of their proximity. It’s Friday and they’re looking forward to doing things but school works.

“Young and in love, I was once like them,” Bani talks to himself as if influenced by the weekly radio show’s new wave music. These are songs from his time, songs from more than a decade ago.

The Cure’s Friday I’m in Love continues playing; this time the volume is a lot lower that it used to be back in his youthful days – just in the background, just enough to mask the monotonous purr of his vehicle’s engine.

Bani cherishes this advantage of being in an enclosed and air-conditioned car where air is pure which the rusty and annoying jeepneys outside him obviously cannot boast. The void, however, inside the comfy sedan cannot be denied. Bani is in deep thought. A part of him wished that he can just be young and in love and be in a jeepney.

On cue, the music transitioned from the Robert Smith classic to The Cars’ Drive – another track Bani used to enjoy even while inside a packed jeepney.

“Who’s gonna tell you when, it’s too late Who’s gonna tell you things, aren’t so great You can’t go on, thinkin, nothin’s wrong Who’s gonna drive you home tonight…”

Traffic has begun to move and he glances from left and right to check the mirrors and quickly returns his sight in front of him. Through his lightly- tinted windshield, he can see that the young couple has huddled tighter. The rain has started pouring hard. The road is starting to get wet.

***

Lyrics from Sing35.com2

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Half lies, half truth.)

Interesting Thirteen

If there’s one number that’s so common to us this month, it’s the number 13 and whether that’s a good sign or not, I find it interesting nevertheless.

13th wedding anniversary. This year we are celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary and to make it unique than the previous ones, I wrote the longest letter ever to my wife. If I’m not mistaken this too beats, in length and probably even in substance, the letters that I’ve given to her during our courtship days. Let’s just say that this is my way of making sure that we survive the 7-year itch — our 2nd set. By the way, we got married on a date that is equal to 2 multiplied by 13.

The warm trio and the cold Ortigas skyline.

 

13th floor, anyone? Wifey made a reservation for an overnight stay in Holiday Inn Galleria for our special day. On our way up to our room, I was trying to prod our son to read and count the numbers on the elevator’s level indicator when I noticed the red LED-lit display jumped from the number 12 to 14 – it skipped a number. I’ve been riding elevators for years and it is just now that I noticed that there’s no 13th floor. So the practice of excluding it is really true. Wow, freaky. (According to Yahoo!3, some buildings, like

the famous Empire State, have designated a13th floor.)


3http://ask.yahoo.com/20070207.html

Proof that Holiday Inn has poltergeists.

June 13. This is just some coincidence, nothing extraordinary. It is only the day when Marcus finally started going to school; Marcus, who became our son on November the 13th. Ti abi.

Marcus on his way to school for the very first time. He did better than expected that day.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Stuffed from last night’s food spree at the office.)

Goodyear Duraplus offers quieter ride


It’s no Goodyear but I know Marcus would love to see Guido live in action.

Concrete, asphalt, potholed, slippery, and a combination of these road conditions had me nothing but praises for my car’s new tires. Other than the confidence of having deep-treaded tires during this rainy season, I am starting to get the impression that Goodyear Duraplus tire offers quieter ride compared to my old Bridgestone tires.

I got our car out of the dealer’s shop with Bridgestone 185/80R13 as its stock tires and just days after that I began accepting that what I’ve heard and read about the Honda City 2008 model are true – that road noise penetrating the interior is one of its design flaws. I never knew though that friends and people in the forums could be wrong. Now it seems clear that it is not the car’s design that is the culprit but rather the factory installed tires. And why do I think so?

You will know that my car remains almost stock until now, no modification whatsoever except for the DIYed front speakers upgrade. Budget has stopped me from soundproofing by using sound deadeners
that most car enthusiasts would recommend for a quieter ride. Of course I have read about replacing (or experimenting with) tires as a solution to road noise but I’ve been skeptic about it because I have this notion that any tire would emit the same level of road noise anyway. Well, I was wrong. I recently learned that one of the cheapest Goodyear 175/70R13 size in the market is capable of lessening road noise to a noticeable level even if a quieter ride isn’t among those benefits explicitly stated on Goodyear’s website.

So now that I am free of that rumbling sound that I’ve gotten used to in the past four years, I can now put to good use my sense of hearing while driving. I can now focus more on incoming traffic, identify the sound of motorcycles approaching my blind spots, and hear pedestrians rushing to cross the road. Similarly, I will now be less distracted when I have people inside the car talking such as one little boy blabbering about almost every- thing that comes to mind while he is in the backseat. And yes, when all alone, I may now fully enjoy any music from the car stereo and sing along with it in the process. Well, there are annoying sounds that are even a good car tire just can’t handle. Ti abi.

***

Mood: 3/10 Honks! (Hot Saturday morning!)


Paulo Coelho is human after all

This quote inspires, at least until you spot the missing apostrophe.

Truth to be told, I have become Paulo Coelho’s follower only after I learned that he is on Twitter. But while I haven’t read any of his popular novels such as “The Alchemist” and “The Witch of Portobello,” his solid fan base tells me that the man’s writing skill and style has made him earn the recognition that he now shares with the best authors of the world — anyone who’s into literature knows Paulo Coelho. So rather than feeling disappointed when- ever I see him falter on Twitter and on Facebook, his writing errors tell me that he is just like any other good writer I’ve read about – they make gram- mar mistakes and their works have to be proofread and edited. Yes, in short, they are humans after all.

Paulo Coelho is also a victim of common Twitter mistakes: disappearing apostrophe and misplaced/missing period.

***

Do you think I forgot something here? Ah, yes. Followers (wink wink) of this blog know very well that I make sure I give credit to the sources of the images that I use here. This time, however, I will give it less priority just to make a point. You see, just like his controversial stories, Paulo Coelho’s stand on intellectual property rights shocked me and so you’ll know what I’m talking about, read his My Thoughts About S. O. P. A.

***

Before I forget, I can’t tolerate wrong use of ITS and IT’S…especially if you’re not Paulo Coelho. FYI.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (It was raining hard this morning and I thought Marcus’ class will be suspended. I was wrong. Sun’s out now.)

Tire(d) talk

It’s rainy season again here in the Philippines and for people especially those who drive cars (or any other form of wheeled transportation) this means being more aware of another hazard – slippery roads. On top of staying on alert during rainy season drive, it is also imperative that drivers keep a well-maintained vehicle and give extra attention to the tires which greatly affect critical driving factors such as maneuverability and braking distance. And so yesterday, I did just that and had my 4-year old tires replaced, all four of them — courtesy of the red plastic armless bandit.

***

There are 3 quick ways to determine when a tire needs replacement:

Tire gauge. Reputable car service shops has this measuring tool so leave it to them unless you want to pick one for personal use (though I have yet to see one being sold in stores like Ace Hardware).

Penny test. Howstuffworks.com offers a guide on how to do this using an American penny but do not worry if you don’t have one as Goodyear Servitek leaflets suggest using a 5-peso coin as an alternative so it should work just fine.

Tire wear indicators. Most automotive tires have tire wear bands that be- come obvious when the tire is about to be replaced. One can go for the quick visual check or the tire mark test but either way will tell if it is time to head to the nearest Goodyear Servitek tire shop.

***

The last time I was in a tire shop was more than five years ago and I noticed yesterday that technology continues to make a car mechanic’s life easier. Tire alignment is now wireless, thanks to high-tech cameras and software, any trained (take note) mechanic can now perform camber and toe diagnosis and alignment in a jiffy.

(Image from the web.)

The funny thing however with my recent Goodyear Servitek experience is that I have proven once again that technology alone isn’t an assurance of a satisfying work. I can tell all about it but then again this tire talk is already tiring enough. Anyway, to make a long story short, while technology has made the car mechanic’s life easier, irate customers remain a big challenge. Hmm. Can anyone from MIT solve this? I can be your guinea pig.

Drive safely folks!

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (In the next few days, I’ll be availing five free Starbucks frappucinos .)


Uniden Cordless Phone Battery

Image from owner’s manual.

Last month, I received a used cordless phone from my sister in the US and other than being a 110-volt phone, I had problems making the Uniden DECT2085 handsets work which I soon realized that its battery is already drained. I searched the internet for replacements but I got either local online stores — e.g., sulit.com.ph — that show phones instead of battery packs or sites abroad that do not ship Uniden battery pack to the Philippines (I assume that this is due to shipping restrictions of such product).

I have likewise searched mall hardware stores — Handyman, Ace, and True Value — but all said that the Uniden DECT 2085 battery pack is out of stock. Good thing that I was referred by someone in True Value Alabang Town Center to check Battery Plus Corp which thankfully caters to different kinds of batteries including Uniden battery pack replacement Philippines. So if you are also looking for one, Battery Plus Corp is located on the third floor of ATC right outside the elevators. I highly recommend that you being the old battery pack for comparison with the replacement part. Warranty for its Uniden DECT2085 battery pack is up to one month only.

Battery Plus Corp is also on Facebook. Check them out to see other outlets in the Philippines.

***

Marcus has learned how to call the ‘Wilsons’ because of our digital phone and any time in the future will likely be able to call the stored fastfood delivery numbers. Ti abi.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Just called my mother using the wireless phone. She sounds fine despite her recent car mishap.)