Sana maulit muli

They say that life is a game of destiny and that love is a matter of fate. But what if destiny seems to be playing a trick on you? Will you change your destiny if you were given that one chance?

Now that I'm done watching the first five seasons of 24, I now have a few extra time to watch something else on television or to read a book. One of these "else" is Sana Maulit Muli, the newest drama series on ABS-CBN. I can't talk about the plot without spoiling anything, so just read the first paragraph (and quote) of this post. It pretty much sums up what you can expect from this drama.

I like this drama, especially the first two weeks of it. The story unfolds relatively faster compared to the usual slow-moving Filipino television drama. What I don't like about it, and about Filipino TV drama in general, are the paper-thin, underdeveloped, supporting characters (villain or otherwise). It seems that the writers focus on what the main characters are all about and then just surround them with predictable supporting characters. In the episodes that I've seen so far, for example, there's only one supporting character (Camille, the fake Poknat) that hints of being more than a flat, straight out villain. So aside from the Travis/Bokbok and Jasmine/Poknat characters, only Camille is believable.

Right now, I'm interested on what will happen next. I'm just not sure for how long. I'm not sure if I can sustain the interest.

24: Jack Bauer's longest days

On the day that this year started, I had nothing else better to do. Actually, I did not want anything better to do. I just wanted to sit on the couch and watch TV as a reward for sitting on the couch and watching TV and then listening to music for the first three hours of the new year. Anyway, I happen to stumble upon "24" season 4 marathon on channel 23 (Studio 23) and got hooked. What a beautiful drama! It got action and it got story and plenty of characters trying to make a difference. Days later I bought the DVD's (seasons 1 to 5). Right now I'm in the middle of season four. Yeah, I know I've already seen this season, this is the first season that I watched, but still the DVD version is much clearer. For the last few weeks I've been sleeping at around 1 o'clock in the morning due to this unhealthy craving for at least an episode a night no matter how late I come home. This is one well-written series. I'd say it's better than Lost, the other well-written series shown on AXN and Studio 23. It keeps me on the edge of my seat with its suspense, and has me fighting back tears with its drama. It has plenty of heroes and villains that are real people with real emotions with real dilemmas while being true heroes and true villains. You prick them (literally and figuratively) and they bleed and cry.

24 is mostly about a day in the life of Jack Bauer of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) Los Angeles Domestic Unit trying to save America from an imminent terrorist strike. Each episode corresponds to one hour of the 24-hour period covered by each season. Each season is Jack Bauer's longest day. And it is the reason for my longest nights of this first month of the year.

2007 is here. Now what?

This seems to be my question at the start of every year. One week of holidays. And then it's over and a new year begins. Now what? I don't want to make any new year resolution, not because I'm confident that I won't achieve them, rather because I still can't think of any. I'd rather spread my resolutions throughout the year, every time I feel like resolving something.

What I'd like to do is the Consciousness Examen, explained by Fr. Jboy in his blog. I don't want to re-explain it here, but here in a nutshell are the steps in this examination:

1. prayer for enlightenment (prayer to see one's life as God sees it)
   
2. prayer of gratitude (thanksgiving for blessings received)
   
3. survey of actions (what areas in our life are deficient and need change)
   
4. sorrow and contrition (realization of our sinful tendencies and deficiencies)
   
5. hope for the future (see in the deepest part of your heart how you now face the future)
   

I'd be sure to write about the things that I come up with this exercise. It's meant to be done daily not just at the end or at the start of the year.

Letting go

For the better part of last December I have been trying to salvage a friendship that I now doubt really existed in the first place. It's very tiring. No true friendship can be this hard to save. It's time to let go. I believe I have done every humanly possible thing to try and save it. Again, I now doubt whether there was something to save in the first place. It's time to let go and move on. I'm taking positive steps to repair the wound inflicted on my soul. It's time to divert my efforts to true friends, those friends who wouldn't abandon me in a blink of an eye. Living in her fairytale for a few months had been wonderful, but every tale has to end. I have reached its end.

It's all in my hands

I worry too much. Sometimes too much that it rules my life. It's not good to dwell on one's worries. Sometimes it is easy to forget that it's all in God's hands. I'm not going to solve this problem soon. But I hope, from time to time, I'll be aware that I'm worrying too much so that I can tell myself, "Carl, stop worrying. Don't think of the problem. Think of the solution."