weight by lakambini sitoy

another cute story. the girl was kind of insecure, but she never let that insecurity get to her. or maybe her love of food was greater than the insecurity. it was also mentioned that she was dealing with a lot of things like deadlines, broken friendships, lovelessness, among many others. and she turned to food, something from which she derived extreme pleasure, for comfort when things became too heavy to handle. often she was berated for her tendency to indulge in food. and his male officemate came to her in a form of fresh air. he was just so kind to her. he would tease her in an adorable way and he made her feel not that she wasn't less heavy, but that she was what she was and that's cool with him. the guy in the story was the nice, artsy fartsy type who went with the flow. he was so kind to her. he didn't have intimate feelings for her but he adored her and knew she was vulnerable. he kind of even took care of her. and she admired him with greater fervor. his brown skin, his long hair, and his ability to entrance her even with a joke, which, if cracked by another man, would have definitely made her snap.

this is really cute. i like it the way the guy made her feel better..like take away all the weight on her shoulders and make her feel dazzlingly light, as if all problems evaporated into thin air. haha. even fat girls do deserve some respect and loving from hot rocker guys.

some families, very large by jose dalisay

the father is a big liar! haha. i wonder what was able to sustain that charm with which he ensnared his son. maybe it was that the child was still, after all, a child, and was therefore too trusting and gullible. the father tried to provide for his son, but his efforts were hardly ever enough. there was a time when things were better, as suggested by the television set and the transistor radio, but fate washed away the good times and replaced them with a reason to struggle. the mother, who was active and was used to working, left them. the father continuously lost jobs and money to other gamblers. he was generally a failure. and i don't like it that he was the kind who would formulate excuses as to why he was failing all the time. there were a lot of excuses, but none of them were about his being at fault. surely most of his failures can be attributed to his deficiencies in certain fields. and the son was just like an answering machine that took in everything his father said without questioning. he processed all the information and marveled at the greatness of his father and that was it. such poses a great risk. the boy will be older, and a part of me believes he'll be mad at his father for being a great liar. he maybe he will be like okonkwo from things fall apart and he will dislike his father for being very marginal and for lying and he will aspire to be nothing like him.

and as for the last scene, i guess misery just loves company. both parties were not at a loss that night. the woman needed someone to talk to, and the boys needed money. i guess it went both ways.

the bread of salt by nvm gonzalez

cute story that reminded me a lot of araby. maybe it was inspired by it? anyway, i like this. it entertained plus showed that in the old times there was an unbridgeable gap between the rich and the poor. it was amusing the way the boy would do a lot of things to impress the apple of his eye. he was inspired by her, and his every move was fueled by the desire to be noticed and to be good enough. he did everything but then again there were rules one cannot violate. there were things one cannot alter. and one of them is his being poor, and the girl's being rich. i kind of detest that system where the poor, try as they might, could never be able to reach the admirable stature of the affluent. they may have had the cash but that's simply not enough. they had to have the reputation and the surname, too. no self-made entity was ever welcome. if there were one, then he must have been exceptional.

in the end, the boy had an epiphany. he really wasn't in love with the girl. i think a lot of us can relate with him. we'd be really embarrassed if we would be caught by our crushes doing something like that. and the way aida behaved with him, i think it was just kindness with a tinge of deprecation. the kind of thing one would show to someone from a lower class. he probably realized that. and at that moment in the lucullan feast his dreams of being an elitist hopelessly slipped through his hands the way the egg-yolk things failed to conceal themselves from aida's eyes. after that, he went back to the bakery with the pandesal not yet ready, but in the morning it would be and he would be the brown boy again, simple and poor, and things will be the same again. but he's fine with it. after all, he willingly went to the bakery hoping to reclaim the bread that he thought he threw away but in reality would forever be his.

generations by ninotchka rosca

the author wrote of the people as if they were comparable to animals. that was something noticeable. it could be that it was the author's way of saying how some families lived when martial law still loomed over the entire nation. the members of the family in the story lived desolate lives. the father was a drunkard. the mother was physically abused. the grandfather was always left mumbling in some corner. and the kids had nothing to do but endure the dreadfulness of their lives. the girl, for example, was beautiful. she could have been an actress. but she was not able to properly utilize her God-given resources for her own sake. instead, she was obligated to help her family the best way she could. but what about herself? what about her own future? surely, the family was not normal. they were not like those families whose portraits hung proudly in a large room in a gargantuan house. luck was not on their side. as if their life was not terrible enough, the father found himself in trouble, and the girl was forced to have herself desecrated by men in whose hands the fate of her father lied. in the end, the father still died. what was weird was the way the family members took it all too lightly. the children's taking a bath after the news was divulged was a sign that indeed, after the funeral, the laundry. they knew they couldn't dwell on the sadness because there was life.. life they must fix if they wanted it to be so much better. their eating together including old selo was a sign of solidarity, and so was the children's taking a bath. they went through things together, and that's what's important to them. and maybe the title says that the problems get passed from one generation to the other. the problems could get worse, have the same intensity, or better yet, be remedied in the future. but i think the children of this family will be encumbered for a long time.

i guess times like those one couldn't really afford to severe his ties with the last few bony shoulders to cry on.

the cries of children... by gregorio brillantes

there is something creepy about this story, and the way it was told casually, as if the topic weren't thought-provoking. the future makes us think of a lot of things. is it really set? are things predestined? or are we given the power to orchestrate the forthcoming epoch? my personal stand on the matter is still rather vague. maybe we are bound to reach a certain place, but what we don't know is the way we would feel once we reach that final destination. will we be content or will we be full of regrets?

what struck me most here is that we never really know what the future holds. it doesn't matter if it's set or yet to be created. the thing is we don't really know. there are just a lot of possibilities in this world, all of which can unfold at any given time. it's amazing how time makes clueless fools of us all. that's what the story made me realize.

and with the regard to the story per se, i liked it. the way the author described the first scene was astonishing. it was like capturing the afternoon glow in its full glory. it gave a clear picture of a typical summer day in the province where one would dreamily lie down to do something relaxing, like read a book or stare into nature's pulchritude. the story started out as somewhat happy. one would think it was going to be about laughter and summer and dry leaves on the ground. but then it was about the future and our being oblivious to what it holds. it painted a beautiful picture of what's happening in the present, then zooms into the bloody things of the forthcoming days, and then we simply realize that there's a stark difference between the two periods of time. the present hardly spells what may happen in a few years' time. it's true that it's often deceptive, like in the story, everything was so carelessly serene, but then years passed and deaths, divorce, sickness plagued the people's lives. the story may be fictional, but the situation isn't. we never really know what will happen. it's scary, i know, but we have to live with it.

midsummer by manuel arguilla

this is a story about the meeting of a man and woman at an area that cradled the well. i want to ignore other facts, like how it was in a bubble because it ignored the dilemmas present in the age in which it was crafted. i mean, who cares right? people have the right to write whatever they want. and readers need to be entertained once in a while, even when the world has turned dark and gloomy. and mind you, arguilla never forgot his responsibilities as a writer. he wrote of socio-political issues, and with those compositions he was able to "vindicate" himself as a writer who knew he also had an obligation other than to amuse people with his words.

anyway, i think what was most evident in the story was the sexual tension. it was really there but nothing was crass about it. it was even made palpable in a most subtle way. or at least that's how i would like to interpret it. it was obvious they liked each other. it was seen in their moves, how they were dealing with discomfort, and how, by some twist of fate, they eventually got over that discomfort and started talking to each other. it was good that despite their raging hormones, they still managed to let their conservative side get the best of them. they made a few, considerably forward moves but those were not particularly aggressive. they were within the boundaries, so to speak. the desire for each other was really there, and subconsciously both of them did something for that desire (like not letting each other slip away immediately) without thoroughly compromising what they believed in.

this story is kinda cute. reminded me a bit of a short story that made a parody of the first meeting of romeo and juliet. the author of that story portrayed romeo and juliet as teenagers in a party. they liked each other but didn't really know how they'd approach each other and the confusion translated to discomfort but in the end the desire prevailed :D

the things they carried by tim o'brien

the author first began to describe the tangible things in the story. he recounted how terrible the war was, how the men arduosly walked through savage forests, and the things men had inside their pockets and their backpacks. looking at those things the men carried, one would know what they needed for the time being. some men carried extra rations. slowly the author went beyond the vestige and wrote of the issues the men truly faced. everything they carried, from things that could be touched to those that could only be felt, was ingrained in them by the war. i think what they carried literally are reflections of what they carried inside. jimmy cross, for example, had letters from and picture of his beloved martha. and every night he would peruse those things and constantly think of martha. this is an indication of a very intense feeling he was keeping within himself. he longed to be next to her. another man also carried a bible. what that man carried inside was faith. he turned to it at a time where despair seemed inevitable.

i think this story was able to show how war ravages not just nations but more importantly the people who are involved in it. the war deeply affected the soldiers. they suffered physical and emotional injuries. they had to bear the brunt of having countless blisters and gunshots while simultaneously dealing with personal issues. they really had numerous issues. i can assume they were forced to risk their lives, for who in his right mind would lovingly leave his home to live in makeshift houses, not knowing if he will still be alive tomorrow? they had lives before the war, and they made an untimely departure from those. they had dreams which they couldn't fulfill with the aid of guns, murky water and cold ground to cushion their backs at night. and every single day they put their lives on the line. at night all they ever thought about was uncertainty. they also mulled over the past and wished of better possibilities for the future. but what was most prevalent was the issue of manhood. there was this fear of blushing. and as the author aptly put it, men killed and died because they were embarrassed not to. the story exposed to the readers what it was like to be part of a homogenous unit and the internal conflicts that arose within those who were part of one. this story is yet another testament to what people generally believe : that the pride of men is somewhat indestructible. i don't say i believe that... i'm just stating what the general public perceive.