JOURNAL | HOBBIES

HOBBIES

There is a saying that goes, "What we enjoy, not what we have, constitutes our abundance." True as it is, we can't have everything in life but there are simple joys that makes life worth living. Such are the hobbies that we do to amuse ourselves in order to achieve personal gratification. Well hobbies can be anything really so long as you enjoy it. If you can afford it then there is really nothing wrong with. An expensive hobby is not really that different from a cheap one it's just that we people have been so brainwashed into believing that others' hobbies are far better than us. As I have said, if you enjoy then there is no reason to envy anothers'.

In my case, I have a few usual hobbies. I enjoy watching movies and TV programs, listening to music and reading books. Depending on my mood, I prefer to watch funny movies when I'm down; romantic when love is in the air; action (especially martial arts) when I'm bored; mystery when I feel like thinking; sci-fi when I want some escape; fantasy when I feel childish; inspirational when the world looks like a terrible place to live in; and sometimes horror just for the thrill of seeing gross things on the screen. Just this week I watched one of my favorite movies, Notting Hill. It has been what, ten years since I last saw it but the feeling is still the same. I still get that breathtaking moment when Julia Roberts says, "I am also just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her." Sex and the City, Will and Grace, Heroes, Charmed, Friends, Buffy, and Two and A Half Men are some of the American programs which occupied me for some time. Well most of these programs have finally closed curtains but still worth watching over and over again. In the Philippines, I enjoy watching Filipino dramas. I don't like variety shows though. All those singing and dancing make me want to go to bed. It's just not my cup of tea. I'm also an avid viewer of news programs, well mostly Philippine news but if I'm interested to know some things about other countries I tune in to BBC or CNN. It reminds me that when I was in elementary school, news programs were aired late at night so when I hear that familiar opening song from the used to be popular Filipino news program, I go to bed. Take note, late at night during those time meant 10 pm. But now, late at night is 1 am. So different from the time I was young. Anyway, with music, lately I have been into Jazz and Classical. I have enjoyed the music of Norah Jones, Michael Buble, and Josh Groban. The sonatas of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky to name a few gives my mind that much needed break. I am old soul really so I find pleasure from listening to folk and country music be it American or Filipino.

When it comes to books, I am not exactly a book worm but once I get hold of one title, I make sure I finish it to the end without skipping a page. It is just that I feel really awful when I start reading a book and not finish it. It's like I'm hanging there, thinking of what could have happened to the characters. For this reason, buying cheap novels has become a kind of a hobby too. One may call it impulsive, but when I go to a bookstore and see a cheap book but with good quality, I buy it even though at times I don't have much money. The satisfaction of purchasing a book is truly unexplainable.

I am also into collecting photos. Especially when there are special events like my visit here in Korea. I try as much as I can to document all the things I have done, to capture on camera the places I have been. I think Korea is a very beautiful country and what a waste it would be if I don't take photos of it and save it for memory's sake.

Blogging, that writing on the world wide web is another hobby that keeps me preoccupied. Not religiously taken though but when there are so much feeling that I just can't contain, blogging becomes an emotional release. Once I write down some of the things that keep whirling on my mind, there is that feeling of relief add to that the fact that I can always go back in time and read what are the things that kept me crazy.

Also, I find singing in the karaoke truly a pleasurable experience (pickled or not). We Filipinos love to sing. I think our life has been chronicled through songs back to the time before the Spaniards set foot on our land. We have songs for planting and harvesting, courting, wedding, funerals and so on. Today, Filipino songs have been dominated by Western culture. Names such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, etc, have been common household names. Anywhere you go in the Philippines, you will find someone who can sing "Like a Virgin" or dance Michael Jackson's "moonwalk." And the Karaoke phenomenon has been taken to the next level. It used to be in ordinary houses only but now there are karaokes in restaurants, prisons, cemeteries, etc. It's funny that in the Philippines, there is one deadly song (literally) which is "My Way" by Frank Sinatra. Many a men has died because of this song. Why? Because usually this song is sung in bars that a few have voices not exactly the kind you would want to hear if you're really pent up and all that's why some decides to kill the singer. So in the Philippines, we have a saying that never ever sing that song if you love your life.

And lastly, I enjoy playing some sports like badminton and table tennis. Not professionally but I just enjoy sweating myself until I can't play anymore. I am very persistent and competitive so I don't stop until I beat my opponent. Such is my character that sometimes my friends get pissed off at me. But I don't find anything wrong with giving my best. To people games are just games. To me, games are a matter of life and death. It's either win or win. I have erased the word losing from my vocabulary a long time ago.

In the future, I would still like to do some other things like acting on theater, learning how to play the piano and violin, cooking and baking, photography, and painting. There are just so many things that I still want to do but because I have limited sources (e.g. time and money) I just dream of these things and hope that maybe one day I could also do them and know how it might feel to stand there in front of all the audience awed by my thespian prowess, or serenade my significant other with the song dear to us played by myself on my piano or violin, or fatten my friends with my amazing cooking skills, or capture life's best moments on photos, or express my feelings through oil, easel and canvass. I know nothing is impossible. I know I can do all of them. I just need to take things one step at a time.


The greatest pleasure in life is doing what other people say can't be done.

March 10, 2008