Saturday, October 18, 2025

2025: Goodbye MTV

Did we even know you were still around? Oh, well... Thank you for those fun times in 1981 with my young brother in front of the TV on weekends. He would laugh at the funny dance moves but danced with me anyway. MTV transitioned us from the 70s vinyl player which had given me and my little siblings happy times singing along and dancing to every record my father brought home. Later in high school, I would get some of Michael Jackson’s and the Bee Gees’ with my piggy bank money. My Sharona by the Knack and We Will Rock You by Queen that we belted out still ring in my ears. With MTV in the 80s, all these songs came alive in our color TV set.

Also became popular in the 80s were cassette tapes which I played in my Sony Walkman, my weekend companion in the dorm after long nights of pounding on my portable typewriter. I kept this player during long trips to and from the refugee processing center where I taught in the 90s, and I think I haven’t disposed of it. Only in the summer of 2025 while vacationing in the Philippines did I dare put my cassette tapes in the garbage as no one would take them anymore, along with the DVDs I’d collected while in North America. Neighbors no longer have DVD or cassette players while their children and grandchildren have earbuds on all the time. As much as I also love music, I hope they discover the magic of silence, too.

Growing up in a home filled with music, it was hard not to have a portable CD/cassette player with AM/FM radio while in Moldova and the US for teaching jobs in the 90s and 00s. In North Carolina, I got my news, tornado warnings, and country music by tuning in to 95.9 on low volume, so I was shocked to see these loud boomboxes or ghetto blasters resting on the shoulders of some subway riders as they walked from car to car in NYC. I thought I’d see them only in the movies! I had to cover my painful ears until they got off the train. I don’t mind people sharing music in public spaces while others share their phone conversations, but it shouldn’t hurt so much, should it?  

At home, my father and sister would play the piano, my brother his electric guitar and drums, and another sister, her recorder. Sometimes, my mother would beg my sister to stop playing the creepiest, most terrifying classical pieces, saying “I can’t focus on my food!” Luckily, no neighbor complained when my brother’s band practiced some of Guns N’ Roses’ and Bon Jovi’s on weekends. My mother and I were the unlucky members of the family who didn’t play any instrument, so we would just belt out a song once in a while, not really knowing whether or not we have a pleasing voice. This reminds me of my grandma who sang in church and at a fiesta in her soprano voice. I thought that all our drinking glasses and mirrors were breaking that night. Family members have either moved to Heaven, moved out, or stayed in our house built in the 80s, but whenever I visit, it’s the sounds that make it feel like home still.    

My boombox came with me during my four-day drive from North Carolina to Alberta and became useful in my Kindergarten classes during movement breaks and work periods before the cassette player died, followed by the CD player. Now do I still have music CDs? Well, well, well... A used 2010 Honda Civic didn’t disappoint when I got it in 2019 for it had, and still has, a working CD player, so I’m still keeping John Denver, Tina Turner, Kenny Rogers, Whitney Houston, the Beatles, ABBA and the likes alive with me on long drives during summer breaks. Of course, their music brings nostalgia for memories of happy years (or decades) gone by, with friends and loved ones. It’s been a good ride really, literally and metaphorically, and I won’t forget ABBA’s Thank You for The Music lyrics:    

So I say thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it? I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance, what are we?
So I say thank you for the music, for giving it to me.

To MTV: Did the video really kill the radio star? AM/FM radio remains alive in my boombox. As I’m not a fan of earbuds, I guess it’s coming with me to my nursing home. Thank you for the music indeed. MLJ17102025GoodbyeMTV

King-Free Since 1776

 



Friday, October 17, 2025

Water or AI? How about some balance?

 




SUPPORT PUBLIC EDUCATION

 FELLOW ALBERTANS:

Phone your local trustee to let them know that student-teacher ratios are a key tool to address the class size and complexity issues that teachers have been struggling with for years.



Balikbayan Box

Overheard in a playground:

Nanny on the phone: O, dumating na ba? Nagkasya ba yung mga sapatos? E yung mga t-shirt at pantalon? Branded lahat yan ha. Ano pang kelangan? Ipon muna ko ha. O sige, babay na. O yung Spam at tsaka mga chocolate tipirin nyo. O sige, babay na ulit at nagbabantay pa ko ng mga bata. Yung sabon at toothpaste, tipirin nyo ha. (Has [the box] arrived? Did the shoes fit? How about the t-shirts and pants? They’re all branded, you know. What else is needed? I’ll start saving again. Okay, bye. Oh, the Spam and the chocolates, go easy on them. All right, goodbye again as I’m still looking after the kids. Economize [don’t waste] the soap and toothpaste.) MLJ/17102025/OnBalikbayanBoxes

Thursday, October 16, 2025

Bienvenue à Paris!

Bienvenue à Paris!
Attention aux arnaques et aux pickpockets.
So, tiny as a mouse you make yourself
As with a purpose, you walk quicker!
Dodging dog poop on the way to Tour Eiffel.
(How about mentioning Maurice Koechlin,
Émile Nouguier and Stephen Sauvestre?)

At Place du Trocadero, you’re a graffiti reader
Amidst the calls of early morning hawkers
With China-made souvenir items on blankets,
Easily folded up when patrol cars appear.

They say in La Seine you can still swim!
It’s choking with boats up to Ile Saint-Louis,
Revealing sleepers under stone bridges.
On its banks, the Bouquinistes do business.

In massive crowds, you easily blend
At Musée du Louvre and Opéra Garnier.
In the Pantheon, you pay your respects to Victor
Thank him for his Jean Valjean and Quasimodo.

Arc de Triomphe stands tall on Champs-Elysées.
284 steps? No, thanks. On the Big Bus you stay.
The Assemblee Nationale has rainbow-colored steps.
Just as grand are Musée d’Orsay and Place de la Madeleine.

Second-hand smoke you breathe
As you hike, stopping at toilettes.
Tour Montparnasse, you climb.
Jardin du Luxembourg, a pretty sight.

You trek Av. De Suffren, Rue du Laos, Rue de Vougirard,
Rue de la Convention. Thankful for shops and restaurants.
Boulangeries et pâtisseries for breads and desserts,
Les Saveurs de Shanghai for your noodles.

There’s Biocoop Convention for your daily banana.
When missing USA, there’s KFC and McDonalds.
Lebanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Italian, Korean, Japanese,
You name it. It’s your Paris culinary experience.

On the 21st, Pope Francis leaves.
At Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris,
You queue with the faithful in the rain
And send him off with teary angels.
Bienvenue à Paris!
MLJ/24042025/SoakingWetInParis

Hingi pa ng Hingi!

 

Time to downsize?

Hardworking people who send money home to support their families usually lament about the fact that no amount is ever enough as families keep on asking for more as prices go up and new expenses come up. This reminds me of my mother who doesn’t really ask for more money directly but simply enumerates her spending whenever she phones:

I spent this much to fix the leaking roof.

I spent this much to unclog the septic tank.

I spent this much to transfer the AC to my room…

So what does a single daughter do? MLJ16102025NotMyMom

Overheard

Two merchandisers in a store:

A: Nagpadala ka na? (Have you sent [money] home?)

B: Ano pa nga ba? Parati na lang kulang! (Do we have a choice? And it’s always not enough!)

A: Oo nga. Hingi pa ng hingi! (So true! And they keep on asking for more.)

B: Akala mo pinupulot lang ang pera. ‘Di man lang mangumusta. Buhay ka pa ba? (They think that we’re just picking up cash off the ground. They don’t even inquire how we’re doing. Are we still alive?)

Title for this story: Never Enough

Theme song for this story: Never Enough

Reminiscence: A co-teacher from South America exclaims: “Perang padala, makakarating!” (The money that you send will be delivered!) each time he saw a Filipino teacher. It was something he learned from a Philippine-based remittance centre in town. Worldwide, millions of migrant workers send money home. These are the unsung heroes of globalization. MLJ/14102025LamentationOfHardworkingPeopleSendingMoneyHome

Every cent has a story: About people who endure isolation, discrimination, homesickness... and work multiple jobs to send money home. And the recipients? That's another story...


Saturday, October 11, 2025

Death and life by Woody Allen

 "Death is like colonoscopy. The problem is, life is like the prep day." -WA-

Woody Allen presented Diane Keaton w. the AFI award





Bernie Sanders

Who Owns America? Bernie Sanders Says the Quiet Part Out Loud 

Stop the rich, the oligarchs, the mega corporations, etc. from funding elections in exchange for favors like government positions and tax cuts. Instead, the government should fund every candidate to level the playing field.

Jobs, fair pay, housing, education, health care... Since when have these been elusive to everyone in the greatest country in the world?


Why do we make the rich richer?

 Tech billionaires seem to be doom prepping. Should we all be worried?




Where are the harmful materials? In the library or online?

 




Tuesday, October 07, 2025

Israel-Palestine Conflict

 Israel-Palestine conflict: A brief history in maps and charts

Growing up in front of televised news and nearing my wit's end, can I still be an optimist and hope for peace in this region in my lifetime?

I met an immigrant from Israel who speaks Russian, Hebrew, Arabic and English. As with the innocent and vulnerable ones left in Gaza, she was caught in the middle...




Monday, October 06, 2025

Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall: Discussing Chimpanzee Behavior (Full Episode) | Startalk | National Geographic

 "Why are we polluting and cutting down the rainforest, acidifying the ocean? Why on earth are we doing all this? So those aliens would look at us and shake their heads and say, 'They're not so intelligent after all. Intellectual maybe, but not wise.' We've lost our wisdom. We're making decisions based on how does it help me now?... Not as the indigenous people do. How does this decision affect future generations? There's a disconnect between this clever, clever brain, and love and compassion." - JG -