Compilation of short MORNING THOUGHTS.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

Michael Jordan's jersey from 1998 NBA Finals Game 1 sells for a record $10.1 million. Sports money! But that’d be “less astounding.” Any memorabilia from famous guys could sell millions$. But the salary level, then and now? The great (late) Bill Russell’s salary at the peak of his Celtics years was $100k (or “only” $600k today). Not a million$. Today’s highest paid NBA player per salary: Stephen Curry, $92.8 million. Salary + endorsements: LeBron James: $528,992,480. 🏀💰🏀

Per Covid Left/Right murkthrow, this side muzzles that Science is absolute. Science is never absolute. Experiments and more experiments are conducted before a degree of certainty. Then there’s the FDA skepticism per annual list of product recalls. What is absolute? When Arrow barks, per decibel or tone, I know what’s up. Cyd also reminded me of the certainty of the weather forecast and newbies Ching and Fizz? They can tell if a cat chow is up for FDA recall or not. Uh huh. 🐕😜🐈

Influencer Marketing. Social media endorsements and product placement from influencers, or people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or influence in their field. Example: Go to Google without typing a word, the first on-line is Alexandra Daddario. Know her? Many would ask, who? But she has a huge presence. Pretty much how the Kardashians got rich and famous. Market economics via steady “influencing” and focused (re)branding. 😒📲😏

Notice how Republican women politicians are shamed, dissed, and maligned. The favorite target these days: Marjorie Taylor Greene. Worse than how Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann were trashed in the past. Per my Homepage, that’s what I see, dished by obviously Democrat minions. But not much from GOPs. I read 1 or 2, from time to time, versus AOC or Nancy Pelosi, but not as nasty as those vs Marjorie. Can we criticize like grownups sometimes? 

       OF course, the men are ridiculed as well. Tops murkthrow recipients: DeSantis, Ted Cruz, Giuliani, Lindsey Graham, McConnell, and oh well you know the undisputed #1 as the most shamed, spat at, demonized dude. LOL! 🤨😏😟

Today’s journalism language: “Kelsey Plum brings the dawg out in Game 2 win after A’ja Wilson told her to ‘get her s*** together.” In my days, we were barred from typing up words such as s*** after we have already conveyed the message of a quote. I may sound conservative? LOL! Yet that’s the no-brainer media stylebook in those days. Not anymore. Language evolved. Maybe reason why people simply throw s*** and f*** Is it their primal language? 🗣👥🫂

Asheville crime is up 34 percent from 2021. I first got here from New York City in late 1999 and decided to stay right after 9/11. Had a 2-year sojourn in Los Angeles (from 2017); returned in 2019. Most of my years in WNC were spent organizing events/concerts and publishing a newspaper. Having lived in big cities as a journalist, crime doesn’t jar me much. It is the divide that is pushed by political hate that bothers me. We can’t solve crime as a divided community.☮️☮️☮️

People castigating people in public about something that they don’t (politically?) agree with. Current life. A dad drinking beer with his kids at an open-air rock festival. A neighbor grilling steak wrapped with aluminum foil. Woman gassing up her SUV. Etcetera. And me wearing a Duck Dynasty shirt. Pure personages are compelled to chastise you and so proud to declare that it is their hooman right to do so. Don’t you ever drink Coke in public, okay? Pepsi is it! 🤨🧐🤪

What is wrong with employees these days? Yesterday, the young Amazon guy didn’t even smile back or say anything when I said “Thank You!” after he dropped boxes here. The general feeling when I head out and face humanity. Basically. Asheville wasn’t like this when I first got here, 2000. I still experience niceness though, from time to time, but from what some stereotype as “rednecks.” They are old school nice. “How are you? I like your hat! Have a good day, Sir!” 🤨🧐🤪

I can proudly say that despite my self-imposed recluse personality, I created so many friends than the average old dude my age. So it follows that I am interested to know people on Social Media. Why don’t you talk about yourself? I mean, not the TMI drama. But less anti Trump, anti  Christianity, anti Conservative? Talk about you beyond the anti. Probably, you did advise LBJ or Kamala? A degree in Cultural Anthropology at UC Berkeley? Love paella? Bee Gees? 👈👀👉

I mostly post old, old songs. Not only those songs that I enjoyed as a young man but also those that older people used to listen to when I was a little boy. Turntable music was a leisure staple in our house when I was growing up. I used to spin records for hours on a weekend. I’d crank the volume up so everybody, including neighbors, would enjoy the sound. They did, and even requested their favorites. So on my FB Page, I share music (also) to remember the good old days. 🎹🎸🎼

Anger within. Love without.

Previously posted on my Facebook page. Or written years ago, unedited/not updated.

ALL the anger from without but where is the love from within? I opted out of two election-related Facebook groups (in the Philippines and the US) because of obvious reason/s. There is so much negativity in there. I don't need to be reminded how horrible the past was. The Martial Law and post-ML years (1980s mostly) back home, yet the young need to know somehow without ramming `em down their throats. They are not dumb either. Yelling those grim memories of days gone over and over and over won't help. 

       We need to pose solutions and remedies so that the ills of yesterday won't be able to find cracks to seep through the system again. The same with some political groups in the US. So much spewing and spitting to the tune of “My candidate is god and yours is Lucifer!” / “You don't know shit, you are a Communist!” / “Damn Rightist freak!” mud-throwing. Goodgollymissmiley! Chill, superhomeys! Grab some chamomile tea and simmer down. 🙂🥰🙃

WHERE are the issues? Where are the facts? Let us discuss economic platforms and foreign policies. What have presidents done on the good side and what do these leadership aspirants got so that a light of hope gleams in the horizon somehow—than a pall of rabid cloud swarming the glade? Some people got really intense precautionary blahblah than the optimistic taps on the shoulder. I observed and covered elections in the islands and in the US for years. 

       Although I kind of “retired” a bit to work on book/s, I still get news/info feeds from the White House press relations and several media organizations in Manila. I like to read stuff and know what's going on around me. I sat down with political think tanks and listened and spoke. Alongside that, I've been known as a hardline activist almost all my life that it seems impossible to shake that persona. In Asheville I even devoted my little newspaper to anti-war ideals and the Occupy movement. 

       But somehow we gotta sit down and look at the eyes of our children or grandchildren—and the kids out there. What do we have to hand to them? Anger? We need to hand them plans rather than promises, you reckon? Let's lead them to the light of the field then pull them to the dark of our shell. The past that I tried to heal from was a past littered with deaths and mourning—yet I didn't hand these to my kids. They will explore and navigate life and build their truths based on what they got and not on what I had. 

       I needed to raise a more mature mind than an angry one, a heart that calms the storm down than one that provokes it. I still have so much anger in me but you know, dafuq with that. LOL! My love poems and the ethereal music of the Bee Gees get me by, feel me? 🙂🥰🙃

MEANTIME, I do enjoy recent chats with my longtime buddies back home. Exchange of views about language (we islanders got a lot!) historical puzzles, even origins of food, carrot man nose and music. I also talk/IM with friends in the US who offer objective discussion about Trump's economic agenda beyond the wayward motor-mouth and Bernie's brainstorm beyond the socialist pronouncements, and why Hillary's centrist stance got some points to ponder as well. I love these talks. 

       I continually learn from listening, especially with those that I seem to disagree with. The chants of the choir can be boring sometimes. In between, we got some cute cat videos, funny posters/stickers, family jokes, and those sweet sentimental songs like “Just When I Needed You Most” and “Sometimes When We Touch” by these dudes Randy Vanwarmer and Dan Hill, you know them? And yes—awesome blues-rock by Pinay rocker Sampaguita (who fondly calls me Sampogito) and “kundiman” songs by my idol Celeste Legaspi. Enjoy! Facebook is not a slogan chalkboard, right? It's all fun. Dig? Cool. Now I digress. 🙂🥰🙃

About Dogs and Cats and their Buddies. And some little jokes.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

CATS rely much more on other senses, such as hearing and smell, to understand the world around them, so for some cats it may just be the noises they hear and fast movements they see that attract their attention towards the screen. Ching and Fizz, especially Ching, binge-watches fish/bird videos on YouTube. They have their own laptops for that purpose. Fizz, however, doesn’t watch as much upon knowing she couldn’t catch the birds or fish, anyways. Fizz overthinks a lot. 🐱💻🐱

WHILE not all supermarkets non-organic vegetables and fruits are sprayed with pesticides, it is likely that the majority of non-organic produce sold in supermarkets has been treated with some form of pesticide. But I don’t get paranoid. Repeat Mark Twain: “Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.” 🍎😋🧀

THE signals and behaviors that cats and dogs use to chat are different and can lead to signals of aggression, fear, dominance, friendship or territoriality being misread by other critters. Dogs have a natural instinct to chase smaller animals that flee, an instinct common among cats. That’s what experts say to justify their research budget. But in my experience, dogs and cats are cool with each other. Little fights like what YouTube videos to watch are solved by giving them individual laptops. 🐕🥰🐈

WHILE an adventurous cat is more likely to roam, a scared cat may not trust their inner compass, get confused, and get lost. Who knows. Once a cat has wandered out of its comfort zone anything can happen to scare them further: Barking dogs, wildlife, loud traffic noise, anti Trump noise. Once their adrenaline levels have subsided, these cats will work their way back home, often showing up the next day or a few days later and tell you they just went somewhere to clear their head. 👈🐱👉

SHRINKS always ask the depressed personage. 1. Find someone to love. A dog or cat. 2. Find something to do. Watch a fine Netflix series. 3. Find something to look forward to. The new (upgrade) of iPhone. 🙂🙃😉

WHEN cats groom, their barb-like tongues stimulate the sebaceous glands at the base of their hairs and spread the resultant sebum throughout the hairs. Their self-grooming also helps rid the coat of dirt and parasites such as fleas. Remember those majick words: “Sebaceous” and “sebum.” Yes, you may also “groom” your partner via licking. Sebaceous and sebum. 🐱👅🐱

DOG and cat cognition differ due to brain size. Cats are independent thinkers and problem solvers; dogs are socially intelligent. Arrow can tell a fake news from factual news. Fizz has the “genius” brain. She figures things out: Source of laser dots, what makes the spring toy bounce etc. Ching knows where and when to get back rubs, with due respect to her hooman’s schedule. Meanwhile, hoomans are more “dog brain” and “pea brain,” that’s according to Fizz after reading FB posts, 24/7.

POWER-SAVE, a feature of a component or subsystem designed to actively reduce its power consumption when not in use. That’d happen to humanity when AI takes over humanity’s existence, 100 percent. We will be on constant power-save for the next streaming TV series or TikTok dance. 😴🔌😴

IF you throw a ball for your dog, her erratic movements mimic those of the prey her wolf ancestors used to hunt and kill, and even though dogs have been domesticated for centuries these instincts are still very much alive. Chasing things, hunting and retrieving is in their DNA as a means for survival. Those dogs though who don’t chase golf balls or bowling balls are trained by cats not to. Obvious. 🐕🏀🐕

WHY do cats stretch out their front paws when sleeping? It's when your cat lies on his belly and stretches out his back paws behind him and his front paws as well. It looks like Superman in flight. This sleep position is a sign of an extremely relaxed cat, and he can fall into a deep sleep in this comfortable position. Okay, of course, you may sleep that way, too. No one’s stopping you. 🐈😴🐈