if you believe they put a man on the moon

is a line from this classic REM song.




on this day we remember Neil K. Armstrong, who will always be a significant person in history being the first man who took the first step on the moon which is more famously now known as the first giant leap for mankind. note that his middle name starts with k. and he did the moon walk in July 20, 1969, which a 9 years and a day later would be my birthday. today Aug 25, 2012, he passed away. and this day is for remembering.


imagine that! in the hippie sixties, they put a man on the moon. it must have been amazing watching that live television feed and hearing and seeing for the first time, how a human stepped on another celestial body other than our planet. that was the benchmark for science, the unwavering totem of discovery, invention, and genius enveloped by the triumph of the human spirit.


and now in 2012, 43 years later, another leap. we put a rover on the surface of mars! that is just remarkable. not only did we develop the machine, the artificial intelligence, and the powerful computer that make up this wonder, we managed to actually study, expound on theory and calculate risks and manage them, to make it possible to send this invention of genius to land on a planet we know nothing about. to see that in my early lifetime is a treat because i know that a few more years from now, another human will step on that new planet. aptly named `Curiosity`, this marked our first venture to explore and eventually conquer space.

as a tribute to this amazing event that will be forever etched in our minds and history, i named my new blog `k for curiosity`. i am definitely rooting for it to succeed. not only to bring us all the only fresh new data and thousands of photos, samples and test results on mars but somehow in the deepest recesses of my gut, i want it to prove that other beings live there too. that somehow in this day and age of the internet and social media that proved the earth to be`a small world`, Curiosity will be our first try of being paparazzi to the martians. haha.


i feel like in this point in my life, i am like Curiosity too. 2 years ago I embarked on a long journey and traveled trans-Pacific to move to a foreign land. i left my love, my family, my home country and my comfort zone, to try out something new and to try what it was like living at the other side of the world. and 2 years later, i still struggle to belong.


this blog will be my companion on this journey. like Curiosity, i will slowly and timidly ease out and explore the facets of life here, i will take thousands of pictures and run all kinds of tests. i will inch my way into better knowledge and understanding on similarities and differences. i will venture out to make a footprint and experience things that were once deemed impossible. every day i will learn and i will share what i learn. there will be triumph to find and mistakes to be made. some days i will be wide-eyed, happy and amazed. some days i will feel lonely in my solitude from being thrust upon a cold, unfamiliar place. Like Curiosity just slowly moving along a red, barren, dry land, not knowing what it will find. and what i find, i will write about. as so too will Curiosity some day bring home all the answers.

as always, the common denominator is hope. and faith. hope in a new beginning, faith that this happened for a reason. there is always a belief in me that is strong.

i do believe they put a man on the moon. and for me that can only mean one thing: i shall live my life and push it far and wide. there are no limits.

thank you mr. armstrong.

hello people, i am back...

after more than a year hiatus in blogging, i am back.

the odd thing was how i find myself again. for the first time since i moved to this lala land up north (read: canada) , this is the first time i got up early and actually had enough motivation to jog. it was mainly brought about by not only trying to get in shape, but also re-awakening parts of me that are true to my core.

no. 1. i`ve always been sporty.

i played morning until night when i was a kid, whether it be `taguan` (classic run,hide and go-seek), `patintero` (philippine tactical children`s game of crossing lines), `piko` (hopskotch), `jackstones` (doing tricks and picking up stones with your hand and a small rubber ball), `pinoy football` (pretty much like baseball except you kick the ball with your foot and run for the bases), and `chinese garter` (it`s not even chinese but filipino), where we jump and cross and do all sorts of tumbling with rubber bands made into ropes.

all of you who grew up in the philippines in the 80`s know about this. This was before technology, this was before the internet, this was before the time everything kids know how to play is from a touch-screen device. we lived like little olympians. fun was based on skill, and how much you can push yourself to do unsupervised acrobatics and shenanigans, and still came home in one piece. that was the good all days when your troop was limited to the neighborhood kids. and if you`re bad-ass, you are the leader of that troop. haha. i got to decide what we`ll do for the day. so i had to be fit, and i constantly worked on my skills.

i fell in love with basketball when i was 9, and i ended up playing for my highschool`s varsity basketball team who won a school division championship. i played forward in my classic no. 9 jersey and swag, and i had the time of my life. there are so many life lessons you learn from sports. and that`s why i love it.

flash-forward to 18 years and 50 excess pounds later, that little sporty person is trapped inside a person that watched the amazing 2012 London olympics every single day for 2 weeks when it was on, loudly rooting for the athletes that always give their best and challenge records. My life for this year can be summarized in this simple timeline: watching my favorite nfl team, the NY giants, win the superbowl in february, and then watching my favorite German football team compete in the world cup in july, and then watching the olympics in august. Why has it all become watching sports for me???!! that is so sad. where is the person who loved to do these things, who was addicted to tennis in college, who played soccer with friends in the mud on a rainy day?

So this summer I bought a bike for 25 dollars and a helmet to make me feel like i can livestrong like lance, and started to exercise again. this morning i did a 6.39 km snail pace of trying to jog and miserably failing.

as you can see, my pace is a flatline. I saw a 92 year old granny overtake me on a 5mph scooter. At least it`s the beginning.

All credit goes to my best friend, who can not be possibly anymore wiser. When i messaged her that Friday is my second favorite `F` word, she said, `No!! You love football more!`. And that is soooo true.

Like the way this morning when as I was telling her and celebrating with her my day`s early morning accomplishment, and my beautiful self re-discovery that i was: no. 1. sporty, she said: `No, that`s no.2...


...you are a writer, that`s no. 1.``

Thank God for her and all her wisdom and knowing me better than i know myself.


This is for you and thank you for being that person in my life.


I am back. K is back. Both no.1 and no.2.

Cheers to this new blog and to exercise!