Last November 2, I went to Mount Carmel at New Manila (near Broadway Centrum along Aurora) to visit my dad. The space that housed his ashes is also shared with his brother and another space for his sister. Its been years since I last visited my dad, and months since I last went to a church. I know, I don’t anymore go to church and I seldom visit my dad. Although I still remember him, and always appears in my dreams at least three or four times a month.

They say dreams is way of communicating with the dead or even other people that are still alive. Others, tell that dreams are just thoughts that surfaced from the unconscious part of your brain. Whichever is true, I didn’t forget my dad. I believe that even when a person is already dead, if you still remember him alive then he probably is, not physically but just in our thoughts. I always remember him, specially when I’m watching a movie, since he and I used to go to the theater since I was a kid. We both loved Sci-Fi, action, and adventure genre. Sometime I wish he could see the movies nowadays, the movies he would have liked and loved. Movies based on science fiction and/or involving the future. Movies that are based from comics or books, movies that were recreated from old ones, movies that are a continuation from the past era (like the Highlander), and movies like Transformers which used the most modern effects technology has to offer.

When I watch a movie I know my dad would have liked, I always say to myself, “Dad, I wish you could see this.” I wished that he would have stayed and see the advancement of technology. The stuff that he could only see in the movies, and now in our reality. As for me, I get every chance I have to watch the latest movie, check out the latest gadget, read about the latest in technology. My dad is a man of science, and I am too. And I know that I won’t live long enough to see how much technology will evolve in the coming years.

I’ve learned a lot from my dad, and here are just a few “food for thoughts” I learned from him that until now I still remember.

• If you are not a celebrity or a popular person and you want a lot of people to remember you, you can do three things: publish a book, plant a tree, or create a church.
• In general, and average human only uses 10% of his/her brain, but there are two kinds who uses more than that percentage. They are the true geniuses and the insane. Geniuses typically use their intellect to improve (or destroy) the lives of humans. Their brain can handle the overload of using more than 10% of their brain. In the future, probably, humans who can use the higher percentage of their brain will initially develop psychokinesis talents like; telekinesis, telepathy, technokinesis/pathy, pyrokinesis, precognition, etc. On the other hand, people who can’t control (and full use) more than 10% of their brain becomes insane. Some of these people that have been branded as insane claims they can see the future/past or they can see ghosts, which I think they probably are telling the truth, it’s just not accepted as norms in today’s era. The mind controls everything consciously (like talking) and unconsciously (like our heartbeat), it controls our internal organs, and may possibly control external objects (mind over matter, telekinesis).
• If you want something done immediately, do it today. He always reminds me that, because I’m lazy.
• If you are going to point a gun at someone you’d better shoot it, else don’t bother pointing it at anybody. That probably didn’t helped.
• Don’t match clothes that are colored blue and brown. I don’t know the logic behind this fashion statement, but until now I don’t wear a blue shirt with my brown pants.

There are more, but I think this post is getting longer and I really don’t like long posts as I don’t want the reader (if there are any) getting bored.

Back to the story.

After visiting my dad, I had lunch with my mom at Gateway (Cubao) then I headed back to SM Fairview while my mom went to another place for some errand. I have nothing to do at the mall so I looked for a good movie to watch. I’ve already seen Stardust and Resident Evil 3; and there are no other good movie that day (unless you are suggesting I watch a Filipino movie, which I usually don’t). I decided to watch Balls of Fury, a movie about a retired ping pong player hired by an FBI to go undercover at an illegal ping pong tournament or something like that. It’s a good time and money waster if you have nothing to do. After the movie I browsed around the video store for a couple of videos. As I was going to the cashier, I was surprised to see a familiar face from the past…

It was my (2nd) ex-girlfriend, former classmate, thesis partner, and friend (?), Maricar. I was really surprised I saw her here in the Philippines, last time I heard news about her is that she was already in Singapore. She suggested we have a short dinner so we could catch up. We got a table at Shakey’s then exchanged stories.

Apparently, she said that she was only vacationing here in the Philippines and that she’s going abroad again before this year ends. I think she’s going to Europe or something. She had a business back in Singapore but eventually sold that to someone else. On a personal note, she already has a kid, a three year old boy. When she asked if I’m already married, I told her not yet and still don’t have plans about it. She was surprised that my girlfriend, whom she already met when we were still in college (we were thesis-mates), are already nearing 7 years of being together. She was surprised, since she knew that I couldn’t hold a relationship well over a few months or years. Maricar, back when she was still my girlfriend lasted (if I remember correctly), only 2 or 3 months. Haha. She still haven’t changed and still looks the same, last time I saw her was in late 2002.

She’s planning to have a mini-reunion with our common friends sometime before this month ends. So we kept a constant communication through text and with other friends to invite. If my trip to Puerto Galera goes through, then I won’t be able to show up at the reunion which will happen on the same day.

So that’s it.

The past still haunts me.

I wasn’t sure if I’m going to post the last part since I know my girlfriend, Joanne, is a very jealous girl and once she reads this, it will eventually lead to a “misunderstanding”. But since I’ve already told her the encounter beforehand, then its ok to share this with you.

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Tags: dad, ex-girlfriend, movies, past