...On Growing Up, MiRC, Letters, and Coors Light...

Peter posted an album filled with our faces of two years ago. It was fun to look back at those days, but one thing became apparent to me: we grow taller as we grow older, right? So does it necessarily mean that we have to grow wider if we've reached our peak height?

In two years (well, time is according to the post), we've all grown.."wider". Heck, Robert and him losing like 50 pounds now still looks "slimmer" in Peter's pics.

As I look back in the pictures of old, I see that I've progressively turned fatter and fatter. And now I'm a pig compared to how I looked like back when I was in 3rd year high school, when people were still wondering where in my body do I place all the food I eat.

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MiRC - #DALnet, #undernet

Kids, before there was Friendster, Multiply, Facebook, Twitter, and whatnot, there was MiRC. It was a freeware to be installed and it would work like a conference in Yahoo! Messenger. You could enter in random rooms or create your own ones. There were bots who you could program to be the "server" of your channel to make it legit, I think. And these same bots you could actually program to make quizzes for you and your friends in the channel.

I was a late-bloomer for this thing. I learned it mid 4th year high school, and stopped by summer going to college. Mainly because nobody's online anymore.

But this was the thing back then for online interaction. What started out as a mere outlet for passing assignments became a regular nightly habit for channels #410 and #dbsmanila. I got to meet the people most of my classmates already knew from before. We didn't need the school-sanctioned "interaction"(1) because we had MiRC.

Wala lang. Naalala ko lang. I met friends there who I would eventually grow close to. And would later lose in touch with. But it was fun while it lasted. Who knows, maybe me and my Multiply and Facebook(2) contacts would eventually lose touch too, but I'm enjoying this while it's here.

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Letters from the Box

I was looking through my drawers and saw the letters I've kept from people who wrote to me. In this day and age where a three-page handwritten message would probably be unheard of, what with all the means of communication (text unli, call unli, email, homing pigeons), these letters have turned out to be somewhat rare. And it made me feel.. significant.

At the same time though, it made me realize just how temporary everything is.

I dug up some retreat letters from high school friends. Most were really more of a group message thing, but some actually tried to make sense. I was probably close to a couple of persons, and I don't know why I don't talk to them anymore. Heck, they probably won't even read this, as it happened pre-Multiply days.

There was a 3 part colorful letter from my crush back then who later chose this really good-looking girl-guy (she's a handsome girl. And tall. Really, tall.). It was insignificant, really, the stuff she wrote, but because of the effort, the folds, the paper, the colorful pens used, it was special to me back then.

There was a really long letter from my grad ball date. I think we were close. But I haven't got a clue how she is now.

Then there was one from a person I don't know how I met, actually, and I don't even know how we even talked, nor do I have any idea how she air-mailed a greeting card for a birthday of mine. Yes, air mail. Such a thing actually existed.

There was a letter from my ex filled with grammatical errors and just plain funny kid stuff. Considering she claimed to be good in English, reading it made me feel like Einstein.

I also found a letter not addressed to me, but was about me, and handed to me by the person addressed on the letter. It was "emotionally filled" with a bit of profanity, some threats, and frustrations, which she later revealed in the letter, was caused by Sta Lucia's defeat to San Miguel. This was back when I was in 2nd year high school, when I didn't even watch UAAP.

There were Ynee's letters there, some glittery, all had her own lettering as intro, and mostly related to running for SDP, and some random stuff too.

I dug up a letter from Mina and a couple from Tina, with the latter's letters actually making more sense now than it probably did back then.

Then there were Issa's classroom boredom letters, filled with her "confused" state for this "po-wet" guy. (3)

I didn't read all of them. I just looked. And tried to remember the circumstances we were in during the time those letters was passed on. I tried to remember how close we were to be doing such efforts to write such letters.

And the one thing that I realized, is that everything has it's time. It won't all be short, not all will be really long, but during the time that it's happening, I just have to enjoy it. It may seem like I was a significant person in one's life at one point, and now I'm nothing but another name in the contacts list, but at least I happened by one's life. And at that point I was significant. I existed.(4)

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On Beers...

My first beer was San Miguel Pale Pilsen. I got a taste of it back in grade 2 I think, near my birthday.

Tito Nandy: Malapit na birthday mo ah!
Me: (shy type) ...
Tito Nandy: (Gets 100pesos from wallet) O..Pa-birthday ko seio.
Me: (head down) Thank you po...
Tito Nandy: Shot ka muna.
Me: Ayaw ko po...
Tito Nandy: Sige na. Mabuti pang matuto ka nang uminom, wag ka lang magkaron ng ibang bisyo.
Uncle Jer: Oo nga. Ndi naman maiiwasan magkabisyo eh, kaya ok na yan kesa matulad ka sa king nag-yoyosi.
Me: (sips) blech...
Uncles: (laughter)

Eventually, 1st year high school, I think, I started to drink a bit. It was "cool" in the ultra-testosterone filled school (5).

I got to taste San Mig Light and I liked it.

I tasted Red Horse with Uncle Owe, Kleng, Gae, and I don't know who else, but it was in Libis. I thought it was the same, probably tasted a bit different, but it was the same. But when I stood up after a couple of cold ones, boom! I couldn't walk straight. Yun pala ung "sipa".

Then there was San Mig Strong Ice. After tasting it, I hated San Mig Light, and reverted back to Pale when Strong Ice wasn't available..

Uncle Owe was also the guy who introduced me to Cerveza Negra. I don't know how I ended up in his car, but we had a detour in Shangri-La to meet a friend of his, and he treated us to some cold ones while they talked. I thought at that time that Cerveza Negra was a rare beer so I savored every bit of it. Now, I can order it in most bars I go to.

Tsing Tao, a Chinese beer, was introduced to me and to all of us, by Uncle Jun, at their place, at one Christmas. It tasted...well, Chinese.

Colt 45 was a bit of a mystery for me, but it took a while before I actually tried it, what with seeing my sister wasted by it when she was in her 4th year in high school. It was also one of my substitutes for Strong Ice.

Colt Ice was something I tried in Gutson's Morato with I don't know who.

And then there's Coors. Friends already told me it wasn't that good of a beer. Some people I know say it's not that bad, mostly of the female kind, and I'm assuming it was because it was free the first time they tried it(6). Then I saw it, and tried it. All I can say, is the best thing about that beer, is probably the picture of the mountain that turns blue if it's cold. Other than that, it's crap, and would make San Mig Light seem like Red Horse.

Beer drinkers should stay away from that crap. "Starters", though, could order this when their friends chug away at buckets of SMB products. That way, it may seem like you're drinking as much bottles as they are, but your 3 bottles are actually like just 1 SMB light.
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Sidecomment: I'm feeling a couple of PM's are coming my way upon these people reading my post. If not a PM, a text message with emphasis on certain said things may be coming. haha... I'm just saying, I won't be surprised.=P

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Footnotes:

(1) ineteraction - when one exclusive girl school meets with an exclusive boy school in a school sanctioned event meant for these kids to know the "opposite sex" through fun activities formulated by assigned organizers.

(2) Friendster's out. I check it about, once or twice a month. And only if I'm bored to my brains.

(3) Che's letters won't be dug up here. I have my "Bebeh Box", which is actually the box of the toy car she used on the best (and most elaborate) Valentine's day of my life.

(4) Originally, "I" was penned as "you", but considering Philo friends who might not share the existentialist perspective I have with the situation, inangkin ko na lang. hehe..

(5)  well, at least when I got there. Estrogen was filling up as years went by, and the highlight of it was a grade 5 group "desecrating" the "proving grounds" that was Mary Help of Christians plaza (the place to be when guys decide to settle their differences through pushing and an arsenal of "ano?") by holding a "meeting" of gay kids there. I don't know how "manly" DBTC is right now.

(6) CASA GA @ Warehouse, EJ's term as president