SKIRMISHER

…is so tricky if you’d ask me, a person who has never had his own computer all his life, who’s still feeling his way into the world of web technology.

Uh-huh, humiliating as it may seem, I must confess that I’m not too familiar with Internet-related terminologies and other techie stuff.

I don’t know what a bandwidth is. I don’t know what a server is. I don’t know how a modem looks like. I’m not really sure if a byte does bite. I can’t even differentiate a browser from a web page. You might even laugh at me if I tell you that I don’t know how Bill Gates looks like. Although I have worked for a few months as a copy editor in a leading content outsources and solutions provider (whatever that is), my computer knowledge is still very limited. Local gayspeak has a word for this type of ignorance. I think it’s called chaka, if I’m not mistaken.

The only knowledge I have about computers is, you know, the usual software we use in the office: Microsoft, a little Excel here, a little Micropoint there (see? see?! I won’t even dare correct that slip-up I’ve done just to show you my point!). And of course, there’s yahoo. And google. And local hit friendster.

Simply put, I’m a computer-technology illiterate. ¡Qué pena!

Inspite of it all, I still have the nerve to create my own blog. Thanks to the master of this blog, who invited me to become a “skirmisher” six months ago, I was introduced to a newer world of writing, a world wherein a writer’s small voice can become unimaginably humongous. A new playground wherein a busy, corporate-slave writer can still cope up with the times.

I’m so amazed how powerful the web can be! Before, I didn’t know that blogs existed outside friendster, and that they’ve been around for a long time now. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: how shameful.

As I write this, I’ve been experimenting with a couple of blog publishing systems referred by JB Lazarte. I’ve been using my wife’s e-mail while experimenting on creating blogs (am I violating a blog policy somewhere?). But the results are still unsatisfying. You see, I’m on a self-imposed deadline, eager to launch my very own blog…

ALAS FILIPINAS.

It means Philippine Wings in Spanish. And yes, it will be written in the Spanish language. I plan it to be a blog mainly about the Philippines (my passion), its history, culture, art, histrionics, mixed-up folk, and what-have-you. Of course, from time to time, I’ll be writing about my sorry and happy self.

You see, I can’t write the usual way I write anymore. Ever since having my own family, life as an aspiring writer is so difficult to continue. I have two kids, and another one is on its way next month. Alas, 3 points!!! This means, no matter how seriously I abhor the idea, I have to apply for a promotion. And that will take up more of what little free time I have left… (from the immortal words of Spidey’s uncle: “with great power comes great responsibility”)

Nope, I’m not complaining with my life. Having a family is no doubt the greatest thing I’ve received from God. And without my family, I would’ve remained godless. My family –my wife, my kids– literally saved my life and gave it direction, despite occassional ADHD/bipolar/depression attacks.

But the itch to scribble never leaves me.

I haven’t even written anything “real” for a couple of years prior to joining this blog. And right now, I hardly have the time to read. And I don’t write very cool anymore.

In Tagalog, the process in which a person’s skills or even talent start to fade is loosely translated as “kinakalawang,” or getting rusty.

I am very much aware that I may not be a good nor a respectable writer like Ruel S. de Vera or Patricia Evangelista. I may not be as witty and cutting and “heavy” as Joe Bert Lazarte or Jessica Zafra. I may not have the soltada of baboy-hater Lourd de Veyra and Eric Gamalinda. I may not have the resources of Ambeth Ocampo. (I may not be as SILLY and CORNY as Bob Ong). I may not have the glittery words of today’s generation of Palanca winners. I may have even placed my writing skills in trouble for shifting from English to Spanish. But I sure damn know as hell that this is the only thing that I know how to do. This is the only thing that I like. And this is the only thing that I know I’d be doing during my last years on earth.

Today, everything is fast-paced. And I don’t intend to be left behind. Yes, the amount of information that arrives each day may be inundating, but I don’t plan of just being swept away.

I don’t know how to swim.

The moral of this sob story: parents, buy your kids computers!

ALAS FILIPINAS. 12 days and counting. But will Pepe Alas be able to launch it on time? Not even Pepe himself could provide a serious answer…

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