Monday, February 25, 2013

I Want To Be Archy McNally

I couldn't help but sigh: I want to be Archy McNally...

I want to be rich, witty, and admirable - all at the same life. I desire to live in a world of wealth, lust and suspense. And the lure of fantasy wearing the shoes of Archy McNally never left me then...

My obsession with Archy McNally started back one summer vacation at my granny's home in the province when I was still 11 years old. I came across this novel in the shelf entitled McNally's Secret. It is one of the thirteen best selling novels written by Lawrence Sanders and Vincent Lardo.

Archibald "Archy" McNally was a former law student at the famous Yale University where he was expelled after nakedly rioting in the middle of a political campaign. After that incident he decided to go back home in Palm Beach in Florida where he was given an investigator position in a division of their family law firm.

Archy McNally brings each novel an exciting web to untangle with twisted plots, entertaining characters and superb styles in the themes of greed, suspicion, murder, theft, betrayal and lust.

I have seen how his enemies, opponents, and assassins suffered with his acidic wit and political clout.

I have seen how he used every word of wisdom to defend his principles, may it seem right or wrong for others.

I have seen how he willingly fell in the arms of each temptress that he always alleged to have seduced him. 

I have seen how he admitted to himself that he is a maze of contradictions - soft, loving, blithe, jealous distrustful and vengeful.

I have seen how he intelligently went through each puzzle, risk, luck, gamble, secret, chance, caper, folly and bluff.

Archy McNally is a very well crafted character of a smart and bubbly person. I can't just easily forget his social charm and introspective personality, his sunny temperament and lustful weakness, his acidic intelligence and political clout...

I couldn't help but sigh: I want to be Archy McNally...


Saturday, February 23, 2013

Emotional Fixations

I recently went for a neurological and psychiatric exam. And hey, don't get me wrong for this. It was not I was referred to the test because I have 'attitude' in work but because it was one of the requirements.

The test was composed of three parts. The first test was the usual objective type mostly employing logic, reasoning and analysis. The second was a personal sentence completion test about experiences, memories and preferences. The third was a series of drawing lines, objects and figures.

At the end of the exam, one of the impressions of the psychologist was that I still cling to emotional fixations at my age. I am amazed rather than surprised to unravel this mystery. After some self evaluations, I realized that I might actually have a lot of share of fixations in life. 

As far as I can recall, in psychoanalysis, fixation can be described as a process by which a person stays attached to a previous stage of his development. In a the parlance of mediocre person, it is an obsession to some objects or experiences or persons in early life.



The psychologist did not indicate specific instances to point out my emotional fixations and I don't know how the psychologist came up with such impression. But looking back at my answers in the test, I found vivid accounts of my emotional fixations although I am in question because I am not a certified psychologist in the first place.

I recalled and observed that most of my personal responses in the synonymous sentence completion items about memories were mostly about childhood nostalgia like liking to scribble anything, enjoying to read books, missing the study times, regretting the unproductive activities, etc. 

At the third part of the test, I was asked on the spot to draw a boy and a girl, to which I illustrated children ready to go to school. They were both neatly wearing school uniforms. They were also both having big smiles in their countenances. My description under the drawing must have confirmed after I wrote something like they enjoy going to school.

With these, must I be obsessed with the old school days when everything seemed just bright and happy? Honestly, I am. In my daily ramblings as an adult, it is inevitable to face mistakes, failures and disappointments. I always look back at my childhood days where I feel better; happy memories remind me to make good and sad regrets inspire me to do better.

Nobody is a superhero and we are doomed to meet failures - a lot of them. We fixate by looking for things inside us that make us feel secured. I believe that it is essential for humans to have emotional fixations in life. As the root of the term denotes, to fix means to set right and place securely.

How about your own fixations?


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Black Valentine's Day, Anyone?

Have you heard of a movement to paint the whole town black as a way of dealing the coming love day? I googled about this so-called Black Valentine's Day, but failed to find a good read regarding this queer celebration as a popular culture, hence this attempt.

Black.

I had a professor way back in college whose son was reportedly killed with no due justice. As her own way of dealing such loss, she wore all black dress for a year. I wonder now how much her mourning fashion cost her and how her wardrobe looked like.

For most of us, black is the color associated with death. It is usually the symbol for emptiness, absence, negative, pain, end, misfortune, sorrow, and tragedy. White reflects lights and is a presence of all colors, but black absorbs light and is an absence of color.

Many of the expressions in any language associated with black seem to connote negative meanings such as black sheep, black mark, black propaganda, black mood, black heart, black eye, black out, and black market.

Valentine's Day.

I remember my high school days when everybody seemed busy making love letters with drawings of hearts and Cupid as the so called love season approached. I remember giving cards to some distant cousins, childhood classmates, and special friends.

The heart and Cupid are the most common symbol for Valentine's Day. According to this site, the heart may be linked with romantic love because the ancient Greeks believed it was the goal of Eros, known as Cupid to the Romans. Anyone shot in the heart by one of Cupid's arrows would fall hopelessly in love.

Our present Valentine's Day is commonly celebrated through exchanging of letters, chocolates, and flowers. It is a special opportunity to express one's love in a romantic way. The day is more special among couples and lovers who go out for a romantic dinner of two.

Black Valentine's Day?

Death and heart? Sadness and romance? Grief and passion? Emptiness and affection? Tragedy and love? Black and Valentine's Day are opposite words with different meanings. Combined as one phrase, it brings out an antithesis of feelings with a renewed meaning.

There is a growing popular culture, if it is, of Black Valentine's Day mostly among the uncommitted species. In common social networking sites, informal movements like wearing black clothes on the very love day is common. People usually show disdain by posting break up letters, venting their sad stories or sharing links of sentimental songs.

For me, a black Valentine's Day simply means loveless. I will probably just look around, head to the bank, eat outside for a treat, go home a bit late and light a mosquito coil before going to sleep!




Monday, February 11, 2013

Sabe!

I really had a good laugh last night while watching a rewind edition of Gandang Gabi Vice, of which one of the guests was the Thai superstar Mario Maurer. It was part of promotion of the movie that the Thai actor did with Erich Gonzales under Star Cinema and ABSCBN.

The Thai actor was as much fun trying to imitate the perfect utterance of popular Filipino expressionss that Vice Ganda introduced to him. One is the famous 'sabe' which is queerly pronounced by using a falsetto voice with stress on the final syllable.

One more time with more feelings. Mario Maurer uttering
"sabe" in his guesting at GGV. Click the picture to view video.


But how do we really know our colloquial expression 'sabe' as far as its origin is concerned? In the Filipino context, we know that the expression roughly means 'What can you say' or 'What do you think' or 'How do you find it'. It is, however, an informal expression that is used only in conversational speech.

The informal Filipino expression 'sabe' may have long roots to trace. Although debatable, my own gut and Spanish background tell me that it may have evolved from the Spanish verb 'sabe' which, in conjugated form, means 'to know' or 'to tell' or 'to find out' depending on the context of usage.

Thoughts on this? Sabe?


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Psychosexual

Last night, my usual Facebooking time after the dinner was shortly interrupted when my friend beeped me this sort of word guessing game.

Alzheimer's Test: How fast can you guess these words? Time yourself!
1. F _ _ K   
2. P U _ S _   
3. S _ X   
4. P _ N _ S   
5. B O O _ S   
6. _ _ N D O M

I had a quick time guessing all the items. My fearless takes were the following.
1. FUCK   2. PUSSY   3. SEX   4. PENIS   5. BOOBS   6. CONDOM

And I was laughing to myself as I scrolled down. The actual answers were the following.
1. FORK   2. PULSE   3. SIX   4. PANTS   5. BOOKS   6. RANDOM

In the famous yet controversial psychology theorized by Sigmund Freud, it is believed that humans, from the moment of birth, are sexually oriented creatures who unconsciously possess an instinctual libido or sex energy that goes through different stages of development. What's more interesting though is Freud's another idea that our unconscious drives may sometimes emerge in the slips of tongue, associations of idea, dreams, jokes, and illnesses. 

Whether the test was made to trick or I was just too stupid, I just have this naughty thought in mind. Must my hasty responses relating a rather clean teaser to sexual terms be a manifestation of that unconscious possession of libido?



As the usual thing that I do, I shall post a link of this topic in my different social sites. Let me see how many nosy Freuds will click the title.