Random thoughts of a DJ

Over the past couple of weeks, my family here has watched numerous videos and saw countless pictures of the devastation caused by Typhoon Ondoy in the Philippines.

To say that we’ve had mixed emotions would be an understatement. Although we felt lucky that we did not experience the disaster, of course we felt concern for our friends and relatives and extreme saddened for those hardest hit.

The worst feeling though is the helplessness. If my wife and I were still there I know that we’d be on air promoting the heck out of relief efforts. I’m sure that our friends in the media back there have been doing a good job of that, but it’s still hard to handle.

In no way am I trying to compare what I’m feeling with the experiences of anyone who has had to brave the storm. I just wish I could be there to something, anything, to help.

The only thing we can do, i guess, is to continue donating to the recovery and praying for the country.

Over the past weekend I was listening to some recordings of my former a cappella show “The Blend”. It really took me back.  With my eyes closed, I was jamming to great music and talking a walk down memory lane at the same time.

Then last night I caught the third episode of Glee. It was about the music teacher reviving the glory days by starting an a cappella group called the Acafellas. (Funny how the Filipino group The AKAFellas were a huge influence to my show.) Watching the performances of New Jack Swing hits brought me back to my high school days.

It’s awesome how music is so powerful that in so many ways it can really get you reminiscing.

It’s been a year and a half since my wife and I left the Radio industry and moving to Houston, and we’re in a pretty good place now. We both have stable jobs, our son is settled into a nice routine in a good school, and We recently bought our first home.

Looking at our story, one might think that we’ve had it easy. But that’s not the case, by a long shot. I could list all the financial, personal and other problems we’ve had, but I don’t want to sound like I’m whining.

My point is that many Filipinos believe that things are handded to you the moment you step on US soil. The truth is that there’s a lot of hard work that needs to be done.

Of course, life is harder back home in the Philippines. But life isn’t a bed of roses here either.  You still put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

My wife and I have been lucky.  We’ve been blessed with friends and family who have been extremely supportive over the last year and a half.

Of course, life isn’t perfect for us.  There’s always room for improvement. But after all the struggling and perseverance, we appreciate more what we do have.

Another big thing that happened over the past year was that my wife and I joined Couples For Christ here in Houston.

My sister and her husband have been very active in CFC so, when we were staying with them, they encouraged us to join. We were curious about the whole thing, so we tried it out. Months later, I’m more than glad that we did.

We’re not “Bible thumpers”, not by a long shot. But we have found that we are trying to become better people, focusing on what’s important in life

One concern my wife and I had when we decided to move here was getting used to not having lots of family around. But with the CFC, there’s a large community of Filipinos that get together often. It’s almost like having family around.

If there’s one thing that kept me the most busy over the past few months it was the fact that my wife and I bought and moved into our first home here in the US.

By the grace of God, we were approved for a housing loan early this year.  We put the down payment last February and they were all but finished building by late May.  We ended up closing the deal and moving in on June 9.

Due to a bunch of reasons (housing crisis, low interest rates, government stimulus, etc.) it turned out to be the best deal ever.  It was a miracle that everything came together in order for us to get a new house the way we did.  We couldn’t have planned it better ourselves.

Now, we’ve settled in to a bit of a routine and are in another new phase of our lives.

I’ve been meaning to update my blog for months. But so much has happened that I’ve been having a hard time figuring out where to start.

So instead of one long post with lengthy updates, I’ve decided to just write several short ones which go straight to the point.

I’ve really missed blogging.  It was therapy for me after leaving Radio.  It helped me express some ideas that I was used to airing daily.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll try to post short ones here and there.  I look forward to it.

For the past week or so I’ve wanted to write about the effect that Francis M has had on my life. But somehow I just couldn’t put the words together.  Even when I met him backstage at an event I was hosting years ago, I couldn’t do it either.

Much like his persona and his influence, his effect on me can’t be explained.  The man was more than just his monikers of the “Master Rapper” he was a cultural icon.

Francis taught a whole generation of Filipinos how we could be proud of our heritage and still embrace modern influences.

I recently saw his cameo appearance at the end of the AKAFella’s video for their remake of “Kaleidoscope World”. It gave me goose bumps seeing him flash a peace sign as the camera pulled away and the picture faded to black.  I pushed hard to have that song on my CD “The Blend” and I never regreted it.

I know this blog is not well written. Like I said, I’ve had hard time finding the words. So I’ll just end it here.

Here’s to you Francis M, you’ll be surely missed.