Translating Bob Ong

One of my favorite Filipino authors is Bob Ong because of his wit (er, satire?), his conversational tone in writing and most especially because of the words of wisdom (and a little sentimentality) he shares on his books.

A friend emailed me some popular quotes from BO's books and I chanced upon to translate them for you. For the original quotes in Filipino, see here.

*Update (01/23/09) - If it's really Bob Ong who commented below, he is clarifying that the quotes from where these were taken from aren't really his. Hmm.. got to do some research. I have to re-read all 5 books then. ^^;

Even if you're dense and have no feelings like stone, be careful. Even if you can't feel pain, you are capable of inflicting pain.

Why is it that children hate sleeping in the afternoon; don't they know that when they learn to love they won't be able to sleep even if they want to?

If you love someone you shouldn't love and got hurt, don't blame your heart. It only beats to supply the blood in your body. Now, if you're good at anatomy and you blame instead your hypothalamus which controls your emotions, you're still mistaken! Why? **** Don't blame your body organs for your heartaches in life! Remember: You can only be happy if you learn to accept that it's not your heart, brain, liver or intestine that caused everything that happened to you, but YOU yourself!

It's not sadness or fear that's difficult with loneliness but it's accepting the fact that among the billions and billions of people in the whole world, no one fought for the chance to be with you.

If you're in love with two people, choose the second one. You couldn't love another person if you really loved the first one.

Do you know how great the distance is between two people when their backs are turned against each other? You need to roam around the whole world just so you can face the person you turned your back on.

Let go of the things that hurt you even if it makes you happy. Don't wait for the day when all you feel is pain and your happiness left you.

Love is like a manhole... it's frightening to fall into... and when you do, it's either by accident or you're just plain stupid.

Go and eat siopao with a stuffed cat inside or walk through broken glass on your bare feet, but never never try drugs. If you can't avoid it, seek help from your parents. They know where the cheap suppliers are and they won't cheat on you.

Use your heart to take care of the people you love. Use your head to take care of yourself.

Don't let go of something that you hate to see being held by another person.
Don't hold onto something that you know you'll let go of in the end.
[And] never never hold onto something when you know you're already holding onto another.

If you're not loved by the one you love, don't complain. Because there are people that you don't love but love you.. It's just fair.

I don't like to get used to things that I can live without.

Not everything you can't understand is a fallacy and not everything you understand is truth.

Dream and reach for it. Don't blame your dysfunctional family, your failed relationship, your crippled puppy, or flying cockroaches. If your parents have their shortcomings, you can blame them and be a rebel. Stop your schooling, get married, use drugs, color your hair in the armpits. In the end, you're also the victim. A rebel who haven't proven anything and haven't the sanity to live.

I learned that final exams are not the passing rate of life. It's not a test of multiple choice, identification, true or false, enumeration or fill-in-the-blanks that you answer but an essay that you write everyday. It won't be judged on right or wrong answers, but on the sensibility of what was written. Erasures are allowed.

It's better to fail on doing something than succeed in doing nothing.

***
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Love This Line

I didn't do anything. I was just standing there, looking delicious.

Nothing beats this! XD

If you know better lines than this, speak out! Why not make a one-liner contest? Haha. ^^

100 Blessings

It's my 100th post here in NER! Woohoo! *fireworks and trumpets please* ^^

In line with my blessed 100th, it rained all of a sudden this afternoon. So I totally enjoyed my strawberry jam-filled crackers and warm milk tea. Yum yum ^^

For all the other 99 posts, this blog has gone through a lot of my rants, idiosyncrasies and meditations. And of course, a different layout and theme once in a while. (Once in a while daw oh :P)

Looking back at all those previous 99, I came up with my favorite 7 posts. It's nice that my favorites came out with my favorite number. (If you notice, my name has 7 letters also in it: N-E-R-I-S-S-A.) So here's my fave 7, in no particular order:

1. Yakult Litro. May kwentong Yakult ka rin ba? For me this was the most fun post I've ever made in this blog. It was real fun because me and my officemates were laughing while reminiscing our Yakult moments. It was funny and endearing at the same time. Yakult is an integral part of my childhood, I tell you. Haha. XD

2. The Dash by Linda Ellis. Among all the inspiring stories I shared, The Dash sticks out most because of the simplicity and profoundness of the poem. I wish I can do masterpieces like this kind.

3. Silang Lihim (Them Secrets). I haven't done any poem recently and this is by far my latest reflective poem on humanity for which I'm kinda proud of.

4. City of Sorrow. Since we came upon my former passion of poetry, this poem is also one of my latest works that delved into bleak sadness. I liked how it came about because this is a new style compared to my other poems.

5. Loneliness is a Friend. Perhaps I was really sulking in sorrow at this point of time, since both City of Sorrow and this reflection (my most emo post ever) were posted at the same month. Don't worry, I'm not depressed anymore. :)

6. When I Die. This poem is not as morbid as you may think. If you've read it, it's actually contrary to #4 and #5 because it sees death in a more optimistic perspective. I've done this poem when I was in college and only posted it in line with the coming All Saints last year. I'm touched that a lot of people appreciated its meaning.

7. Pabaon. This is just a short post that wasn't meant to be blogged. I was chatting with Chen then when she left ASC and I gave this piece of advice, which I thought was really good. Thus I posted it so I won't forget my little gem of truth. The post is in Filipino and in my haste, I haven't injected the translation so I'll put it here.

Wherever you may go, whomever you may be with, whatever happens...
the decision of who you will be in the end still lies in your hands.

I still have some things to write but it seems that my post is already long. Reflecting on my whole journey in this blog, it seems that I haven't fully given you a worthwhile stay here. So my resolution will be to give more sensible posts. Or if not sensible, at least, more of me. :)

Thanks, my dear readers, for dipping your eyes into my life. I know that this blog's public audience isn't much but I'm happy to have shared myself to you. Cheers to more blessings! ^^

Ei, do you have favorite posts here as well? Wouldn't mind if you let me know. :D

"When God Doesn't Make Sense"

Let go and let God.



That's a powerful adage. Why? Because you think it's easy but actually it's not. It's hard letting go of everything that you think you can and should do. Even if, in the end, it's better to let God's will be.

***
Didache, May 29 '08

Then I read a book entitled, When God Doesn’t Make Sense. There, the author shared how trees grow. The roots of trees planted in arid land tend to deeply stretch out to seek water for nourishment. And because of this, flood waters can’t easily uproot it, unlike a tree planted in rich soil.

That's a good title: When God Doesn't Make Sense. Perhaps you've asked, even for once in your life, how God makes sense out of all the catastrophes around and within us. But what is "sense"? Is it us who makes sense out of things? Or what if God also wonders how we don't make sense? Haha.

Read "The Road"

The Road by Cormac McCarthy




What's the bravest thing you ever did?

Getting up this morning.








Describing The Road

Imagine there's nothing to look forward to. Nothing to hope for. Dreams are all but useless. And memories of the past are the only remnants of happiness.

What is important is not today. Neither this hour nor minute. But this very moment that decides if you'll survive another moment to simply exist.

No safe shelter. No food available. No heat from the sun. No one to trust your life to. Only you and your child.

Would life still be worth living?

Experiencing The Road

I had to continue reading despite the urge to stop, to breathe, to escape the bleakness and desolation. It's as if their lives (the father and son) depended on me, as well as mine on them.

At first, I was thinking of I am Legend's set based on the beginning of the story. The aloneness, grayness, hopelessness. But as the plot progressed, the world became much darker until pitch black of the night.

I can feel the fear of such darkness, the blackest black, since I recently experienced wading in the beach on a rainy night. It was as if darkness will swallow you with its entirety spanning the whole horizon. It was frightening.

The slow pacing made me want to turn down the book and not finish it. But since a friend recommended it as a very good read, I waited for the story to unfold further.

With the first scene of sentiment, my heart was pierced to the very core and tears hung strongly in my eyes so they won't roll off. And as the tension for survival thickened, the pace became much slower but my heartbeat getting quicker. A slower pace due to the terror enveloping the heavy air, that I have to make myself stronger to read on. The word "gripping", true to its essence in this book.

As much as for the style, the author did a very fine job of cutting down into the barest necessities, may it be dialogue or punctuation. It's as if the writing itself was part of the story, in simplicity and grayness. Making the characters more vivid, the emotions more raw.

Perhaps my note to Jonat best describes my experience with The Road:

Thanks, Jonat, for sharing this book with me. I just finished reading it and I was deeply moved. (Thus the letter.)

Yet I cannot include this in my favorites because of the heaviness and sadness in my heart. I don't know if I still have the guts to read it again.

Nevertheless I do agree with you that this is the best novel I've read so far. It is the saddest yet most beautiful story that made me weep so painfully. I couldn't stop crying even after I closed the book and held it in my hands for a long time.

Thanks again and I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

Ner

Life has no Map

I woke up with this SMS in hand.

"It's okay to get lost - you really don't need a map. Sometimes it's enough to know that what you believe in will take you there."

Thanks, Tin!

***

Actually, I do believe that life needs no map to cross through the hedges and bumps along the way. It's always that you know what to do when you're not yet there but when you do get there, you're already lost.

I'm not making any sense here... so ciao! :D

Two Kinds of Success

“There are two kinds of success. One is the very rare kind that comes to the man who has the power to do what no one else has the power to do. That is genius. But the average man who wins what we call success is not a genius. He is a man who has merely the ordinary qualities that he shares with his fellows, but who has developed those ordinary qualities to a more than ordinary degree.” - Theodore Roosevelt

True. To that, I admire and respect more the successful ordinary man. As I've long believed, success is not where you are now but the journey you took to where you are now. It is not by wealth, power or fame that I consider one successful but the passion, integrity, happiness and love he has for himself, others and what he does.

Romantic Depressive

You don't wanna let go coz you "feel" there's something sweet going on
between the two of you.
Something beyond words.
Something that only your heart understands
and you wait and wait
but still and still
nothing happened, he is glued to the spot.

Problem is:
You just can't walk away
but you can't just stay either.

Got this SMS from a friend. Just now.
I replied with: Waaaaahhhh!!! How true! Huhuhu.

Just bear with me please.

Reasonable Optimism

“Optimism is most helpful when it is really convincing. So aim for a reasonable goal. I tell a boy to try to be sixth if I know he can do no better. If your friend is second assistant bottle-washer today, don’t tell him he can be company president tomorrow. If he doesn’t believe you, it will do no good. Get him working furiously to become top bottle-washer. If your son got a D on the last history test, tell him you’re betting he’ll make a C on the next.” – Dean Cromwell

This post (from my previous blog entitled Smart Reading) elicited a comment from Manila Bay:

Hi Ner,
Thanks for dropping the message.
Btw, I like this best... [quote]

So doable and really so useful (heh, am gonna say those things to my teen-age boy who does just enough to get him by when he can do much more to get a B…)
Thanks again.

Since I'm shutting down that blog, I'll be re-posting some of its posts here under the same filename.

Life is an Art

Life is an Art

Jonat placed a comment on my Friendster profile recently stating:

If literature is an art then Ner is an artist.

Well that sounded nice but after some thought this morning, I found some logic to connect it with. From my English III in high school, I learned that literature is life. Therefore if life is literature and literature is an art, then life is an art. Hehehe.

But this discovery isn't new to us exactly. Why not? Since we really paint the colors in our lives. We have the say on how it will affect and effect. God has given us the vast range of colors and we shouldn't just waste the easel using only the greys and blacks. :)

8 Secrets of the Truly Rich

At long last I've squished my budget to fish out the Php 350 to buy Bo's newest book, 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich. I really recommend this book especially for the common tao who don't think they could go beyond their means of survival.

It's just like Bo to bog down the notorious beliefs on money, similar with how he did it on love in his book How to Find Your One True Love. His books always enlighten not just the mind, but the spirit. A holistic approach, comprehensive and light --- a definite good read.

Some of the pointers I got:

• A definite goal. Yes, I do have goals but they're not too detailed, not really precise. The mind needs to focus in order to achieve.
• Bless the world. When I wake up, I do thank the Lord for another wonderful day but I picked up another good habit from Bo by asking myself next how to bless the world.
• Passive income like mutual funds. The magic of compounded interest. We need to work it for us.
• Maximizing our psychological wallet. We can earn more than we think we can. We only limit ourselves. This can be related to my recent thinking of boxing ourselves. Again: DON'T.

Here are online excerpts from the book's Cover and Preface, Dedication and Foreword, and Introduction.

All About Love

Watched a movie last night at the apartment: All About Love. Yup, the Pinoy 3-part flick starring the couples Bea-John Lloyd, Anne-Luis and Angelica-Jason.

The stories were good however not much done in justice due to the short duration of each sub-plot. Perhaps a little more minutes wouldn't do much damage.

Angelica-Jason's drama was quite exaggerated given the conflict of the video scandal. There were also scenes that needn't be included and scenes that weren't developed to fully grasp the characters' situations.

Anne-Luis' romantic comedy had its turn of laughs despite some of Luis' awkward acting and Anne's slip on her "unsophistication." I liked their quirkiness and wanted more wacky minutes here.

Bea-John Lloyd's story had the most substance (expectedly). They also had the best lines (and the best performance since they had the dramatic climax) in the whole film. I liked this particularly:

You have to have a hold of pain for you to let it go.

***
GTG. Sorry for the hang-up. Till next time.