The Wheel and Axle

Timehop always brings back such wonderful memories and words of wisdom.

Why hello there, BGC.

At the rate we’re going, I’ll probably lose a hundred pounds in a week.

In two weeks, I’ll be benchpressing a small building.

In a month, I’ll be juggling three SUVs, an angry lion, and a can of rootbeer with my bare hands.

By February, I’ll be able to take down Doomsday with but a single blow.

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… and we all are like this. Don’t even try to deny it.

It was hard to get a good profile pic in the days of Mahmud I.

I’ve long known that I shared my birthday with the late, great Peter O’Toole as well as Eddie Furlong (yes, kids, you probably have no idea) and, oh all right, Dingdong Dantes.

However, I recently came upon a more comprehensive list, and I must say, I’m in pretty good company.

Mahmud I. 1696. Because one needs to throw royalty into this list. Mahmud was a Sultan of the Ottoman Empire who fought Persia, Austria, and Russia. He also wrote poetry because obviously one needs a soothing distraction from the occasional pillaging.

Constantine I of Greece. 1868. Okay, fine, just one more royal. Even if he was accused of being a German sympathizer during World War I  (officially, he advocated for neutrality).

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When you’re approaching forty and your 20ish boyfriend wants to go clubbing.

#titasofmanila #cougarproblems

Photo credits: Gay Times

Thank you, Gay Times, for this wonderful feature on LGBT athletes heading over to Rio for the 2016 Olympics. This year, we apparently have a record number of LGBT participants in the event.

Or perhaps, this might just be a year where we have a record number of out and proud participants, for I cannot imagine all prior events have had no (secretly) LGBTs amongst the athletes.

And so this year still marks a pretty good milestone for our community – for now we are diving headfirst into the pool outly and proudly without qualms.

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Andre, me, Robin

My besties and I have this habit of impromptu drives out of town. Sometimes we go to places nearby, sometimes practically Narnian. One of our absolute favorite destinations is the relatively close Tagaytay.

Since the past few days have been fairly cool because of the Cthulhu-conducive stormy weather, I had a craving for some hot bulalo soup, and what’s a better way to have that than having an impromptu evening road trip with the gang as we are wont to do?

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My years serving in Days with the Lord in Ateneo High School were some of the best of my life. Some people found it strange, considering it was a Catholic retreat and I’m a Methodist Protestant, but DWTL was a different experience. It was an inclusive experience, run by one of the most popular Jesuits of the school and supported by a diverse set of students that ranged from the jocks to the nerds to the gays. It had such an impact on me that in my senior year I even became rector for AHS DWTL Batch 107. My memories of this era are largely happy and quite uplifting.

So I could not help but smile (there may have also been some slight tears) when I recently came across this video:

A flash mob in a mall in Chile is singing a Spanish version of I Will Sing Forever.

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