http://rogue.ph/blogs/james-gabrillo

Are we human or are we Sex Bomb Dancers?

The Economist and its first Asian column. The comments are fun.

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13446191&source=hptextfeature

Taking a break now from my current daily cycle of swim, baseball, Rogue, sleep, Flight of the Conchords, swim, sleep.

This morning on the way to Mike’s house, I bumped into Mr. Falgui, my brilliant American Lit prof two years ago. His class was one of the best I took in collage (it’s nice to talk about it in the past tense). Ultra difficult. Bloody to say the least. Dude’s first assignment was a 2000-word essay on Henry James’ novella “The Turn of the Screw” AND Gertrude Stein’s “Three Lives.” We were given two days.

He returned our papers the week after. On the lower right side of my essay’s last page, in the now atrociously legendary red Falgui ink: 4.00 – FOR EFFORT.

I’ve had the pleasure of sitting inside the classes of uni’s best teachers: two National Artists, a slew of renowned critics, a lot of mad geniuses, and a handful of the bad boys of Philippine art, lit, and film. But Mr. Falgui was something else.

Mr. Falgui never smiled in class, never called us by our first names, never showed any sign of intention that he wanted to know us beyond our student numbers and rickety essays. But this morning, when we saw each other, I saw a different side of the man I used to reverently fear: We chatted like good old friends, talking about the ordinary and the mundane. He offered a smoke, I politely declined. I offered a drink, he said yes. And that my friends is the highlight of my week.

Here’s to a mentor.

The Guardian on commuting.

Visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2009/apr/04/commuting-readers-pictures?picture=345501001