This blog may eventually move to Wordpress

You may see me at aldrinft.wordpress.com until Google decides to improve Blogger. I've already got a few unmirrored updates there as we speak, and I may or may not mirror them here ever.

If you decide that I am still worth following, best you be updating your Google Readers (which is also going away #sniff) with my new address.

A Happy and Prosperous 2013! May you always have good food, good company, and a good fire.

KFC is serious with their "manning up" bullshit

Because one ad apparently isn't enough to spread vile, stateside heterosexism to the unsuspecting, burger-crazy indios, they had to make a second ad of rivalling stupidity. As if this country needed more brain damage.

But hey, you can be cheap, heterosexist cretins if you like, KFC. Eat your fucking hearts out. In private. Don't feed it to people. You're not authorised to poison us. (That's somebody else's job.) And, even if I were to believe in this appalling misogyny, what the fuck does it have to do with the fucking burger? Sick.



PS: You disappoint me, KC. You disappoint gender sensitivity. You disappoint human decency.

Well, someone obviously wants to take the path of Colt .45 in making the stupidest, most sexist, most homophobic commercials

Thank you, KFC, for making Philippine advertisement a stupider, more sexist place for men to feel awkward about their honest-to-god intimacy. Not to mention, you've just estranged an entire sex with that stupid tagline. Man up? Really? In 2012? This is stupid and absurd, KFC. Really.

These guys have probably never watched a real football match in their entire lives or met a woman with a titanic appetite for flesh. Human up, wankers.

I is still here.

Greetings! 

Just to let you know, I'm still here, a bit busier at work, but still on fire for the world. I still immensely care about the issues that affect us and the wonders that keep us going. I just can't write about them so much as I used to because of time and all that shite jazz. I do tweet about them whenever I can, though, and I post pictures on Facebook quite often. If we're already contacts, you should know.

BTW, I started a new blog, focused on modern polytheism and ethnic religion. I'm keeping it separate because it targets a specific audience, namely the modern polytheist community and our fellowship. 

If you're interested (and you better be), come and visit me there: undertwotrees.blogspot.com.

Sometimes, one needs an unbreakable oath to start a change in one's life

By Excellent Apollon and Swift-footed Hermes, Gods of the Gymnasium, I swear this oath, on the 3rd day in the 9th month of the Gregorian calendar, 17th in the month of Metageitnion:

• To pursue P90X to glorious victory
• To preserve this oath in honour and care

Under the promise of priceless reward at its accomplishment, yet under pain of punishment in reckless failure, unless released for reasons judged necessary and dire, may it be so.

By Unerring Apollon and Unfailing Hermes, and by the human body in its magnificence, for the next 90 days, it shall be so.

Update: 16.9.2012
Programme on hold until modified appropriately for skinny, underweight dedicant. Oath paid with seven days of sacrifice.

Update: 15.11.2012
Oath fully paid. Programme slightly modified for lanky, energetic lads who travel 4 hours a day, sleep 7.5 hours of daylight, and are conditional pesceterians. Sort of. New oath is as follows:

By Excellent Apollon and Swift-footed Hermes, Gods of the Gymnasium, I swear this oath, on the 15th day of November, 1st in the month of Maimakterion:

• To pursue the well-being of my body and mind in the best way known to modern science, to the best of my capacity

By Unerring Apollon and Unfailing Hermes, and by the human body in its magnificence, until the day I change form, it shall be so.

Now wasn't that a lot easier?

All dogs go to heaven

The passing of a loved one is never easy, whether you get a year of saying goodbye or a day. Little Walker's passing broke my heart today. I wept as his tiny body withered in my arms; I wept as I returned his body to the Land.

Farewell, baby brother. You will always be here in my heart, well-loved and well-remembered. I will miss your cuddling the most. Thank you for the short but well spent time together. 'Til we run together again.

On the never ending flame wars on [same sex] marriage

Every now and then, somebody finds the courage to marry the person they love, and others open their mouths in disgust. What the fuck?

It is all too simple, really: it is none of our business what people do with their lives as long as no one else's rights are infringed.

I am not at all disturbed by two people in love who want to get married, be they man on woman, woman on woman, or man on man. It is within their fundamental human rights, it picks no one else's pockets, and it steps on no one else's shoes. What do you care if I marry the person I love and that person turns out to be man? How is that going to affect your indoor plumbing? How is that going to burn down your house?

I would be a terrible, terrible father if I took that happiness away from my child. That joy of marrying the person you love only comes to us a few times in our lives. Why would I want to stop my child from being who he is and from doing what will make him a happier, healthier human being? If you think that is twisting what is wrong to make it right, then I think you have a twisted understanding of love, decency, and humanity.

Pagans for RH?

I am Aldrin and I am a Filipino-Lebanese naturalistic pagan in favour of the immediate legislation of the Reproductive Health Bill. But, where does one start in talking about the 'pagan" opinion on reproductive health? Nowhere, to be honest. We are not a church, nor a tribe; we're not even a single religion. 'Pagan' is an umbrella term (a very LARGE umbrella term) for various religious paths from the fairly modern Wicca to the indigenous religions of our non-industrial neighbours that stretch back thousands of years into prehistory. How united are we, really? Not so much, last I checked. We love our autonomy, and it's exactly this love for self-rule and free thinking that got our pre-colonial ancestors into trouble with the forces of cultural hegemony. Hundreds of years later into the age of portable computers and 3-in-1 coffee, here we are again, in another 'clash of cultures'. A clash between those who look past religious differences to work together for the benefit of our people, and those who wish to impose their 'sectarian' dogma on a secular, multicultural nation.

We, of the neglected 'minorities', wish to remind the "Dámasos" of our age that -- though they are free to stand by what they claim to be 'true' -- it is up to the conscience of each individual, Christian or otherwise, to decide on what to do with one's own body, and how each should go about one's life.

We, of the neglected minorities, would like to remind these self-declared "holy" men that they can no longer bully families into being 'good sheep' rather than free thinking, rational human beings.

Coming from a life-affirming, celebratory religion, I not only uphold the importance of life, but also the quality of life. Couples, and especially mothers, should be able to choose how many children they can afford to sustain, or if they want to have any children at all. Consequently, our children should not be denied of their right to proper education about their bodies -- a right long denied to our people by our backward cleric-run hierarchy.

All that said, I come here before you as one pagan, not as a representative of many -- however similarly inclined we are. To declare full representation would be contrary to the pagan spirit of autonomy. But this, I can say: I will not be silenced, and neither should any of my brothers and sisters. To be defeated by silence would be against our values as pagans; an insult to our ancestors who bravely fought and died for liberty.

So, I urge those of you who walk similar paths as I, honouring our ancestral gods and celebrating the cycles of nature, to stand up and step forth from the shadows of indifference and passivity. We will neither be silenced by others nor allow ourselves to be silent. As we speak, our pro-RH brothers and sisters within the Catholic Church have voiced out their support; I likewise urge other pagans to do the same if they truly care.

We are a secular, multicultural democracy, guided not only by our noble ancestry, but also by modern science and reason. But, all this is babble if we do not stand up for it; if we do not live by it.

I, as a Filipino pagan, but more importantly, as one who strives to be a decent, rational human being hereby sign my full support to the RH Bill. If you truly care about our women, our children, and our future... you will, too.

[Written originally for the Interfaith RH Forum, 22 March 2012]

A Traveller's Prayer

Guardians of our family,
Keepers of our dwelling and land:
hear my prayer from afar;
sweet and clear, may my words reach you.
Look after my family and our home today;
my friends and theirs, too.
Avert all evil and danger from them,
and keep them safe and happy and healthy.
With these words to you,
may all be well in our house and land,
and with our people.

Spirits of this place and Gods of this land:
we make the same prayer for us here;
as travellers and foreigners,
I give you your dues.
Be kind to us, Gracious Ones,
as good hosts do to their guests.

Hail the All-seeing and the Traveller!
To you, we pray for your sleepless watch on home and way.
And to the Gods of this land,
we pray for your affection,
that we may remember our journey here
with only joy and nothing less.

May it be so.

Special thanks to Ian Fernandez for the photos and Evernote for making it possible to jot down my prayer without a computer in Cambodia. 

To the Ancestors

A prayer to the Ancestors authored by a dear friend and brother:

O Ancestors,
those who have tread upon this earth before us
those whose blood now flows inside us
those whose journey we continue
those who have seen the years of old, as we now see the new

we open our eyes to the time you have seen
may we now learn from the things that have been
we open our ears to your wise words and voices
you who have walked many roads, and named many choices

we ask that you lend us wisdom and light
when troubles and vices blur our sight
we ask that you lend us courage and desire
that no dark act can erase our inner fire

we ask that you lead us to our destinations
that we may not fall into resignation
to make decisions we were born to make
to choose the paths we were born to take

O Forebears,
those who have tread the soil that we now tread
those who have breathed the air that we now breathe
my gratitude I send across the Greatest sea
to the light in the horizon, shining endlessly
we remember and wish you well,
wherever you may dwell
a sound that never dies
an infinite bell

And the ship-burning offering that came with it:

Our ships sail to the Undying West bearing our gifts to those who've gone before us. Hail the Ancestors! Hail the Traveller! Hail the Liberator!

On Miriam Quiambao and ignorant, violent cretins

I support Miriam's freedom to express her beliefs, no matter how bigoted I think they are. If she thinks being a "true" Christian is all about following biblical morality, so be it. If she thinks all the absurd and barbaric customs in the Bible are God's absolute "Truth", so be it. She can have these beliefs for herself if she wants to. But, they are hers; other people don't have to share it, and we are not required to respect them, especially when they don't make any sense, or when they incite violence or espouse inequality.

Miriam's sugar-coated homophobia is only a speck of a larger problem: the rampant, barbaric homophia in our country. Look to any article where Miriam Quiambao's homophobic comments are discussed and you will find hordes of ignorant, violent cretins who call out for LGBT genocide.

I'm sure there were some people who wanted her dead for her repetitive, hypocritical tweets. But, only from the anti-LGBT wall have I seen self-identified "human beings" calling for the death of their fellowmen just because they are not straight. And they call themselves Christians? Jesus must be very proud.

In response to: theguywithablog.blogspot.com
Image from: filipinofreethinkers.org

A birthday prayer to my Daimôn

Eautou Daimôn, be thou increased in power
on this day; the day of my birth; the day of my naming.
As I step into another year of my life,
protect me and watch over me;
guide my feet and my way,
my thoughts and my speech,
that everything I do be according to what-is-right;
that my acts be just, be true, be pure;
that in all this, I may secure for myself and my family
the friendship of the Gracious Ones,
the protection of the Mighty Ones;
the guidance of the Wise Ones;
that in all this, I may honour the names
of my beloved father and our noble ancestors
today and tomorrow,
and for all the days of my life.

May it be so.

More love to you, my Daimôn!

Footnotes:

• The personal deity known as the Eautou (personal or "one's own") or Genethlios (birthright) Daimon is the guardian spirit who watches over the fate of an individual from birth. They are similar to 'guardian angels' in Christianity.
• Daimon in Greek, and especially in ancient Greek religion, means 'divine spirit'.

The only valid reasons for asking about another person's sexual preferences are if...

1. You're interested in them.
2. You want to stay away from them (because you're either homophobic or heterophobic).

That you're only-curious-but-it-doesn't-matter is suspicious. If it doesn't matter, why do you even want to know?

Atheist temples, why and how?

Today, I shared this on Facebook with a comparatively long commentary that I thought I should blog about it, too:

My first reaction was why? What for? What does an atheist represent? What does it accomplish?

My second reaction was how? I think building atheist temples is particularly problematic because atheism doesn't belong to any single culture (although many atheists, arguably, seem to engage in a particular cultural trend, "New Atheism", but that's another story). We know that atheists are found in virtually all cultures, and can really be anything from intellectuals to culturally illiterate trolls. How ever can you make a temple that represent such a variety? And, what do all atheists have in common other than nonbelief in deity, anyway?

However, whilst I do question the point to building an atheist "temple", I also disagree with the suggestion that atheists already have their sacred spaces in libraries, laboratories, museums, and the LHC. They are, to use the word loosely, "temples" of knowledge, art, history, and science -- not atheism alone! And, these temples belong to all humankind, no matter what their beliefs are. Are atheists more likely to hold libraries 'sacred' than theists? From a very narrow definition of religion (Dawkins' atheism vs orthodox monotheism), one might be tempted to say yes, but a narrow definition of such a truly complicated matter is ultimately undesirable.

Besides, I think atheists, in general, don't need religious temples because they either: 1. already have their own (religious atheists who pray at Buddhist temples or atheist Jews who attend synagogue, etc); 2. their respective cultures don't distinguish temple from library from grove (atheist pagans, mostly); or 3. they're simply not interested in enshrining their nonbelief.

Your thoughts?