Unintentionally, one forms practices that eventually become habits. They may or may not work for you, but they become somewhat of a trademark that people know you for. Most of the time though, it is a conscious effort people do because it’s “in” or they think they’re amusing. I’m trying to think of habits (other than cursing) that I may probably have, but really, I’m just trying to understand the phenomenon of “conscious habits” as I want to call them.
Gay Lingo
Chorva, chenes, keber, echos, and chaka, are but a few words that came to fruition around the same time the “third sex” became accepted. It’s not that bad actually, and being exposed to a lot of them since high school, I think I’ve developed an understanding to this type of language. A bit of it is kinda ok, but too much of it in a single sentence is overdoing it. There are gay guys out there who I can stand listening to when they talk “gay”, but there are some that are just plain irritating, precisely because they talk with too much of this lingo.
=P
Smileys have become a constant part of our written text. Be it through text messaging, through emails, blogs, and the like, we always put something like Ü or (“,) to express how we’re feeling at the time that text was being made. I am guilty of this, as I constantly insert those “emoticons” whenever possible. I know it’s really evident because at one point, this happened through text messaging:
Me: Mei globe na po pala ko. =P
Kuya Ags/Ate Puch: Volt? Kaw ba to?
Me: Yup! Ndi ba ko nakapagpakilala?
Kuya Ags/Ate Puch: Ah ok. Ndi eh. Naisip ko lang na ikaw dahil sa “=P”
I’m just expressive. Waaay too expressive, I think, that every period must have an emoticon, especially if I’m in a good mood.
-ish
Apparently, there’s a new article that’s being widely accepted, and that’s “-ish”. It’s not entirely new, we’ve all heard of “reddish brown” or “bluish purple”, but what’s new is the use of it in telling time. “I’ll be there by 10:30-ish” is a phrase that’s becoming more and more common. Frankly, I hate it. You save a millisecond by saying “10:30-ish” rather than just saying “around
The Absurdity of Sports
I’m a sports fan. I watch basketball a lot, taken a liking into watching American Football, occasionally watch boxing, began to like watching the UFC (Manny Pacquiao got nothing on Lyoto Machida), watch wrestling when it’s on (it’s my violent telenovela), appreciate watching college volleyball, have constantly followed F1 seasons since Mika Hakkinen-Micheal Schumacher days, make it a point to watch big tennis matches (largely due to Ryoma Echizen’s influence, but because of Nadal’s interesting chase, and eventual reach, of the no.1 world ranking), and have recently began actually watching full-length football games (and what a way to start that habit, watching Liverpool beat Manchester United 4-1 in Old Trafford).
But there were a couple of times this past month that I suddenly had this weird feeling of enlightenment that made me think that sports are not as good as I thought it was. I use “enlightenment” because I remember the Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. It’s like, I’m in this cave (sports) and I dwell on it. Then all of a sudden, a ray of light shines and shows me truth. At that moment, I ask myself “what the hell are these people doing?”.
This is what happened. I was watching a basketball game, and was enjoying it. Then for a split second, I wasn’t appreciating what they were doing. I was thinking “why the heck are they bouncing the ball when they could just let it roll? Why do they have to fit that ball into that ring, what do they want to accomplish by doing that? Why don’t they just kick the ball away from the idiot who’s bouncing it? Why does the guy have to jump and throw the ball to another person and not letting it through the white line on the ground? Is it going to blow up if it touches that white line? Why do they jump and run around with that ball when they could have their own ball?”
Same went in the middle of a football game. “Why are they constantly kicking that ball? Why not just pick it up and run?”
I don’t know what got into me, but I was asking those questions for a brief moment of my life while watching the games. Eventually, I turned back to my sports fan mode and just shrugged off the questions.
Turning away from truth? Probably. But if I turn away from that life which I find enjoyable, and that which I know, what else would be left of me? I already have a chocolate cake right in front of me to enjoy, why must I pick “mystery item” over that cake?
Absurd as these people we call athletes are for doing what they’re doing, I’m still a fan. Call me a fan of absurdity, but my life without the appreciation of sports would be hell on earth.
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