The first day of May 2009 can't wait. I had decide last night to launch this blog that I had been doing for the past few weeks. Thinking for a name for this blog took me three days before I finally decided to go for PROJECT DENNIO.(For more information on what this blog is all about please click HERE before you think that this is my way of catapulting myself to fame.)
It was also due to a question raised by a friend (you know who you are, hahaha..) that made me finally to decide to 'launch' this blog. I had been blogging for almost three years but it had not been able to focus on a 'niche' and update it regularly.
But I decided to resume blogging because finally, I had a new PC and fast internet connection. I also cannot stop my hand from writing down my thoughts on paper. Then, I cannot stop it from 'pounding' the keyboard and start spilling all of my thoughts, opinions and 'experiences' so that others may really know what happened and that the same things won't happen to others.
You're going to see lots of new post here. I would also be resurrecting some of my previous posts from my other blogs. I'll also be resuming some of the series I've done in the past like that articles for the 'red legion' which had received much outrage from them.
Without further ado, I'm now presenting to you my newest blog - my only blog.
From this day on, I'm no longer frustrated. I'm just ready to fulfill my dreams and God's purpose for me - to Serve the Filipino people with Christ.
This is my life. I do hope you'll never live life like the way I did.
It had been more than eight months since I have written a good post here on my blog. Poems filled the pages in the past few months because of my 'failed' love story that I'd be going to tell you later. Those eight months were the longest days of my life. Everyday seems an endless and hopeless journey. My life is definitely ruined. I've got nowhere to run to but to choose among the three choices that had been running around my mind.
First choice: the escape route. Instant relief. But the choice would be like a 3-in-1 coffee mix. One, I would instantly get relieved of my problem. Two, maybe some would cry. Lastly, I'd surely end up in the boiling cauldron of fire down there.
Second choice: the bridge to nowhere. Endless misery. I just continue to fool myself in believing that this journey will come to an end even though I'd be doing nothing. I'd just go with the flow and let it be.
Third choice: the path that must be taken. Painful choice. I have to give up all of me. I have to accept the truth that it was my fault and I have to do something about it. Do something that would change my life.
What did I choose? The painful choice.
The road is not yet paved and it will remain the same for the rest of my life. But instead of walking barefoot, I had learned to wear shoes and slippers and right now, I learned to walked with a companion - Him.
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Things are much better than before. But I still got many things to do: clean up the mess I created and fix my life - till I could fulfill my dreams and God's purpose for me: serve others.
But why and how did it happened? A very very long story.
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I created this blog to tell my story. Let my family, friends and 'fans' (the term I prefer to call some of my detractors) know the REAL story. I never had the courage to tell them what really happened. All that I could tell them was that I wasn't able to survive college life at UP. But now, no single detail would be left out.
But what happens at the end of my story? A little hope that teenagers of my age would never commit the same mistakes again and that parents could learn how to cope with us who lives in a completely different world.
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Project Dennio is not a project about catapulting myself to fame so that I could become the president of this country someday. It is about addressing one of the most serious problems of our society today - communication gap.
That could be very surprising to you since we got all these high speed modes of communication like cellphones and computers. You could just literally be in any part of the globe through your webcam and let your relatives or friends see you.
But what had been left behind is not the advancement of the way we communicate with others but how we communicate with others - most especially in our families and how we interact with the real world.
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Project Dennio will do aim for change but change would be inevitable here in the world wide web. Despite the so-called 'blogging revolution' that forever changed the landscape of mass media and direct participation of the people, change in the 'digital world' would not necessarily reflect a change in the 'real world.'
Let's get real. The internet is just a tool to bring about changes. It is just there to inspire and motivate people from all walks of life to go beyond their comfort zones and engage in issues that are dear to them. But whatever you see here on the web, stays on the web.
Words cannot feed the hungry. But your words can rouse people to feed the hungry.
Online petitions cannot stop a bad policy or an imminent war. But these online petitions can help make people realize that there is a world out there that needs their help.
Change cannot be brought about by bloggers or by netizens. Change can only happen through real people engaging in real world problems through concrete actions.
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But how do we engage?Be one with the people. Choose an advocacy close to your heart. Then choose the path that you're going to take to advance your cause.
Project Dennio is all about that. Help make people realize that the real world needs their help because the digital world can fend for itself.
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We've all got three options.
But we have there is no other option but to choose the painful choice. You are powerful and you can brought about changes outside the web.
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Let me end with a text message that I had received last March 9 at exactly 10:58:27 P.M. (Philippine Time) from a someone whom I didn't know well.
"A sharp mind is useless without a fighting heart. In life's challenges, you make an impression with what you say. But you gain respect, credibility and dignity with what you do."
Who am I now? Matapos ang mga madrama at malungkot na tagpo ng aking buhay nitong nagdaan na mga buwan, sino na ako ngayon?
I'm now a 19 year old'somewhat' enligtened and 'more' optimistic teenage soul that is still making his way out of the mess that I created. Am I happy? Maybe. I was born on the 10th of March 1990 at the Chinese General Hospital in Manila. Despite my 'Chinese sounding surname', I can proudly say that I'm about 99.9% Filipino. Bakit? Eh hindi ko naman maitatanggi na may kaunting dugong Tsino na nananalaytay sa aking mga ugat. Iyun nga lang nasa 0.01% na lang siguro at ang aking mga mata ang naging biktima nito.
I came from a 'middle class' family. We can still eat our meals three times a day. We have some of the 'luxuries' in the world like a TV, refrigerator, electric fans, radios and cellphones. I am the eldest of two siblings in the family. My mother is a high school teacher at Caloocan High School while my father is a recruitment and liaison officer at a ship management company.
Kasalukuyan akong nagtatago sa isang liblib na pook na 'di kalayuan sa Kalakhang Maynila. Ang maliit na komunidad na ito ay madalas na lubog sa baha tuwing tag-ulan. (Kung nais mo makita ang aming komunidad, i-click ang LINK na ito.) Ang aming komunidad ay matatagpuan sa isang bayan sa probinsya ng Bulacan na hindi alam ng lahat na may ganoon pala.
Ito po ang Bayan ng Bulakan: bayang sinilangan nila Gregorio at Marcelo H. Del Pilar at ni dating Senador Francisco 'Soc' Rodrigo. Ang maliit na komunidad naman namin ang sinasabing lugar na kung saan ipinanganak si Padre Mariano Pilapil na kilala sa kanyang nilikhang popular na bersyon ng Pasyong Mahal.
I love reading. And of course, writing. But it is quite unusual that I had first developed my love for writing than reading. Bu then I realized that I need to love them both so that I could write well. I have been able to read a few books aside from the textbooks that had been required to be read at school. Some of my favorites are "Viajero" which was written by F. Sionil Jose and the oh-so popular books of Bob Ong.
But because of my unusual love for politics and history, I have been much inclined to read non-fictional books like "Looking Back" (by Ambeth Ocampo) which was a collection of his columns that talks about interesting tidbits in our history. I have also read "The History of the Filipino People" (Teodoro Agoncillo) which provides a unique Filipino perspective in retelling our history.
Gaya ng aking nabanggit na, mahilig ako sa usapang kasaysayan at pulitika kaya 'di na siguro kataka-taka na mahilig din ako magbigay ng samu't saring opinyon sa mga bagay-bagay na may kinalaman dito. Isama mo pa diyan ang showbiz, relihiyon at minsan, pati buhay pag-ibig.
Oo nga pala, mahilig din ako magbigay ng mga payo sa buhay sa mga ilang kaibigan; kahit pa ako mismo eh hindi ko kayang gawin ang mga ipinapayo ko.
Sa loob ng halos tatlong taong pagpupumilit na magpakilala sa mundo ng internet, ito na ang kaniyang ika-limang muling pagsilang. Nauna na rito ang apat na blogs na tuluyan na niyang ibinaon sa hukay upang hindi na multuhin pa ng nakaraan. Nabanggit din kasi sa akin ng isang bumibisita na masyado daw 'madilim' at 'negatibo' ang dating ng aking mga blog.
Tama siya doon. Dahil naging repleksyon ito ng kalagayan ng aking sarili at ng aking buhay noong mga panahong iyon.
Maybe some of you would still remember the title of my former blog. The first word in that title aptly describes what I feel about life then: frustrated. But it has all changed when an 'angel' came down from heaven and told me that I should be more positive about LIFE. The angel scolded me like no one had ever scolded me before. Thus, the former blog had been finally laid to its resting place and now, PROJECT DENNIO is born.
My former blog had one good aim: to be able to write my own book before I turned 20. But because of the 'series of unfortunate events' that happened, everything was put to a halt - till now. I have already continued the journey that went flat six months ago. Last March, a few days after my birthday, I had resumed in achieving my dream.
As I continue trekking this perilous road called 'life', allow me to spill out my thoughts on everything about me and life.
For those who had missed out some of the most 'exciting' articles that I had written that elicited some violent reactions from my visitors, I would be continuing what I had started. Especially to the red people out there.. :)
(Haayy.. dumudugo na ang aking ilong. Tama na ang English, hahaha.. :D)
Nawa, sa pamamagitan ng bagong silang na blog na ito, magsimula at matapos nawa ng musmos na batang ito ang kanyang paglalakbay tungo sa kanyang mga pangarap at layunin ng nasa itaas para sa kanya.
AMEN.
Kung nais niyo akong maka-ugnayan, magemail lamang sa projectdennio@gmail.com.
