Sifted from the Rolling Mist in My Mind

Hello World, The Barefoot Baklesa is back.

The Barefoot Baklesa blog has been experiencing its nth blog post drought since early this year. It's part busy, part procrastination, part hit-and-miss. He has many a draft for blog posts saved that never made it online. Although his goal has never been about an overwhelming number of blog posts, nor online popularity, nor about an overwhelming amount of readers, he does enjoy the dynamics of the blog phenomenon.

But of recent vintage, the Barefoot Baklesa felt as if blogging has lost its gloss. He never bothered to review anything he's seen in film or television recently, nor has he voiced his disapproval of what is being served at the places to dine around town, nor does he feel like being political with all this RH Bill hullabaloo. The most activity he's made an effort of is uploading photographs to his Flickr and Facebook accounts; the latter enjoying the added status updates more than the blog.

The Barefoot Baklesa is currently on an extended stay in Panay Island, letting the summer pass, some afternoons less productive than others with the book he is currently developing. Taking out his processional image for Holy Week, attending social functions, hanging out with friends until the wee hours of the morning, are among the many things he's been occupied with.

But for now, he has these things to say. They are short, but they make up for lost time -sifted from the swirling mist in his head.

1. Never allow people to fool, abuse, and make you feel any less than the wonderful individual you are more than twice.

2. Abuse comes in many forms, learn to acknowledge it actually happening and never allow yourself to be blinded by your compassion, understanding, or even love for someone who takes advantage of you.

3. Your inner child knows if you are happy or not. Yet maturity teaches you to quell the inner child to be practical, to say the least.

4. Forgiveness is one thing, but to expect things to be the same as before is another.

5. Blood may be thicker than water but the meat stays when blood finally dries out. An absurd thought, if you thing about it when the saying should apply.

6. Once you say someone is “Dead to me”, stick by it. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise. Christ has ascended into heaven and it's been two thousand years since Lazarus was raised from the dead; you're not one to waste resurrection on the undeserved.

7. Never sit idly by when you know someone is abusing a child. This is why sexual predators -some of them family members, get away with it. Take it from someone who knows, you would not want that baggage when you are older.

8. Never judge anyone's life choices against your own. You can have an opinion about it but if you're not willing to live their life then you better let them be. No matter your disgust, the best you can do is let them live the consequences.

9. If you make a living taking advantage of others, at least have the decency never to do it to your kin. To pull one under a close relative is just plain despicable.

10. To behave like nothing happened when one has been seriously wronged is to say that it is okay to be treated thus.

11. Social climbers can be amusing company, entertaining at best. But never make the mistake of calling their pretensions to their face. You might end up losing your next topic for gossip. It's their choice anyway.

12. Read a few pages of a book every night before you go to bed and stimulate your mind. Never allow your mind to drift to sleep with useless television. You might end up blaming Willie Revillame in your old age for your Alzheimer's.

13. Learn to differentiate Art from crap.

14. If you must make a spectacle of yourself, never display bad taste in your homes, there's only so much your guests can take. [Hahahahaha!!!]

15. Less is more. Just because you wear more than a few carats, does not immediately mean you'll make it to society -in the 19th century sense.

16. Sincerity is the hardest to fake. If you can't be yet you pretend to do so, people will see through it.

17. However, there are others who are just oblivious to their own masquerade.

18. From Lady Bracknell, “Never speak ill of society. Only those who can not get into it do that.”

19. The act of Generosity is marred by one's selfish desire to be acknowledged publicly for what should be a modest act.

20. When it's time for some people to go, some people will never leave without having the last say. Beware the rumors they spread blaming you for their personal misery -most of the time, of their own making.

21. Learn to be ahead of those who you know are capable of pulling the rug from under you.

22. Appreciation for the simplest things people do, goes a long way. Don't fail to let these good people know how much you appreciate their deeds and words.

23. You can protest all you want, and wax poetics on what there is lacking in this world but if you stay in your ivory towers still, then you are no better than those whom you protest.

24. Listen to the Jesuits, their brand of wisdom has done them good.

25. Understand first how the simpleton looks at life rather than impose your superior life view.

26. Copycats are the worst, they always say theirs is better but there really is no point in comparison. Let the work speak for itself.

27. Just because someone is a licensed career professional, say a doctor, does not mean they are above anyone else. The humble laborer is as important as the delusionally entitled.

28. Speaking of entitlement. The next great human failing next to hipocrisy is a “Bloated Sense of Entitlement” -some people may think that because they are of a certain profession, of a certain family, or even religion they are immediately entitled to a lot of things.

29. If a person is an acquired taste, then let them realize their flavor.

30. Rain may wash away the dirt for a while, but it does dry to be dirtied anew.

Thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa