I come across a lot of odd signs in Japan. Some are just down right funny, some just don’t make sense and I guess some are just a bit creepy.

Found at Koganei Koen, Tokyo

Maybe I’m just used to the more familiar signs you see in parks like, “Beware of Pickpockets” or “Pick up your dog’s poop” that I find the  sign above a bit creepy. The sign above says, “Beware of Perverts”.

Something I will definitely take in mind.

I went to see my doctors at the East Ave. Medical Center last Saturday with my siblings and Kuya Caloy to have my knee checked. It was my first time to go to the said hospital and I just want to ask, why is the Orthopedic Department, for the love of everything good, located at the building’s 6th floor? I mean, it just doesn’t make sense. Does the administration get some sadistic pleasure from seeing their physically challenged patients limp, grope and struggle all the way to the 6th floor? Anyway, just a thought. For all I know they think the exercise would do us good.

Anyway, as I was saying, I went to see my doctors to have my knee checked. I was kind of embarrassed to tell my doctors at first as to how I got my injury in the first place (I mean being hit by a truck sounds way better than injuring your knee for lack of active neurons ). I mean, how’s sheer stupidity for a reason, right? But the good thing was my doctors were all good natured and understanding (stupidity does occur in the species) and such things do happen (to about .0000000000000000001% of the population).

They went through the routine of poking my knee, bending my leg to different angles and checking for my x-ray. After a couple of minutes of tests (and about 45 minutes of waiting for the x-ray), my doctors found… nothing. Yes, nothing. According to my doctors, it doesn’t seem like I have meniscal injuries since I could contract certain muscles in my leg and not feel pain and my x-ray showed that I have no fractures whatsoever. Ummm… so the pain was just like ummm… in my mind? “So I’ll just have to refer you to psych then…”, was my doctor’s reply. Great. I knew I was going crazy right from the very beginning.

Kidding aside, my doctors told me that I just strained my knee too much and gave me kick ass meds to relieve the pain and to aid me walking. They also told me to try to walk my left leg normally, else I’d be saying hello to atrophy next. I’ll be visiting them again in a week to give an update on my follow up check-up.

I could say that my knee feels better now and I could walk without any assistance. The drugs make me feel woozy but it beats the hell out of not being able to walk without benevolent souls around me. To my doctors, thank you, thank you, thank you very much

But I must say, there’s still this voice I hear every now and then telling me this is not the end to it. I guess I need a different doctor for that.

        I wrote this entry when I was still working for the very first company I ever worked for. Thank goodness I resigned else I would have been driven mad. I am now a happier, healthier person. I am now working for a company where the people I work with inspire me. ASTRA pips, you’re the best!

Customs have power, and only the truly brave, or truly dangerous, will defy them. – Cluracan, The Sandman

I have never been the ordinary, run-of-the mill, average person you encounter everyday. I am often misunderstood, even avoided because of my uncanny nature. Try as I must, acting “normal” just didn’t work out and going against myself was just painful. I never played tea with my dolls. I dissected them and threw them out our balcony.
And so after going through the turbulent years of a teenager’s life, I figured normalcy was just not for me and I learned to embrace the weird person that I am. It wasn’t long after, that not only have I learned to accept who I am, but I have learned to love myself for all my flaws and peculiarities. I am unique and that made me special. I also discovered that being different was much more fun. There is nothing like going against the norm for kicks

I studied in the University of the Philippines. An institution where the weirdest people on the face of the archipelago nurtured their minds. And so I was at home with all the freaks. I loved it there. UP taught me how to think and see beyond the lines society has drawn. Studying in UP made me want to live life on the edge and challenge everything I believed.

Being in the UP cocoon for 6, er… n! years , expressing my weird self had never been a problem. It was even encouraged. But when I entered the “professional” world, I discovered that being weird was actually not a virtue to be praised. God! Why did I ever graduate? (Now, I say this after n! years of torture in the halls of EEE – the destroyer of dreams, the smasher of egos, the valley of shadow and death. Talk about being an ingrate.)

Ok, ok. So being an Engineer entails logic and all the boring stuff that comes with the laws of the Universe, but I still want to be different. If I wanted to wear an aluminum tray on my head, I would. If I wanted to skip and hop along the aisles, I would. Try to stop me.

It just pains me that most people are just too comfortable in their bubbles that they miss out on the eccentricities of life. Life’s essence lies in the weird. It’s where the fun is. So sue me if I want enjoy life. Leave me alone. I don’t want to be stifled by you. And please, please, please, don’t have me explain myself.