DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 Mar) – I was trembling a little, maybe because the room was very cool. Ironically, I was sweating a lot.

No, I was neither sipping any hot soup nor drinking hot coffee. But I was on the hot seat. I was facing the very difficult challenge of the night – to use a pair of chopsticks for the first time. Worse, all eyes were fixed on me, watching my every move, as the rest around the table were done with their dinner.

I came in late. Following the group to that “chopsticks only” Chinese restaurant was my greatest mistake and greatest regret of the night. I could have comfortably taken my dinner elsewhere.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 01 March) – I smile and chuckle, sometimes even when I am alone.

That is how stupid I may look like when my simple or “shallow” happiness strikes every time I hear the jokes of a duo of disk jockeys or DJs who call themselves “Idol Dagol” and “Inday Tanini.”

Even if others may brand their humor as nonsense and without class or elegance, I appreciate their jokes for two reasons.  First, they are delivered in the Visayan dialect, specifically Cebuano. And second, those DJs use terms which could be better understood and appreciated by people who grew up in the barrio.  They are “rural terms,” if I may call them that way.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 17 February 2009) – “Naunsa man ka attorney?” (What happened to you attorney?)

Surprised with that question from a former officemate, I quickly looked at myself – from my short pants, slippers and shirt. I even looked around for any mirror to see if there was anything wrong, like dirt on my face or anything embarrassing. But there was none.

"Why are you dressed that way?,” she asked. You’re a lawyer now, she said.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/10 Feb) – I’ve been bothered by pain in my right arm and elbow for almost two months now.

I remember experiencing it first when I shifted to a laptop from a desktop computer.  The desktop’s keyboard was positioned low enough to make me comfortable in typing.  With the laptop, I had to adjust typing with a keyboard on the table.  After a day or two, I experienced discomfort in my elbows and arms. Days later, the discomfort aggravated to a little pain.  After weeks of adjustment however, the pain was gone.

That’s how I would feel when my surrounding is totally dark, like during brownouts in a confined room.  I would panic, rub my eyes vigorously, thinking that I might have been blinded.

That’s how I felt upon knowing that the Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) – College of Law won over another prominent and high-ranking law school in the quarterfinals of a recent national debate. ADDU eventually landed second place in the finals, a great achievement for a debating club that is relatively much younger compared to those in other law schools. But as the underdog, its victory in the quarterfinals, to me, was more fulfilling.