SOME people will argue that I’m really not that popular.
That maybe I’m just deluded.
But whatever popularity I have now, that’s the thing that I will miss most in the future.
I also mean that how I enjoy my so-called fame right now is something that I may not really enjoy in say ten or 15 years.
Right now, I have loyal newspaper readers, and social media followers.
I have people who buy my books directly from my own distribution, and from Amazon.com.
I have people who go to my standup comedy shows.
When I announce a lecture tour, I fill up the venues.
People in Dumangas recognize me.
And I can safely say that whoever doesn’t know me in Iloilo, that’s only because they are illiterate.
I actually have fun saying that!
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Just because I am an influencer in social media, and because I make myself accessible to people, I am often asked to give advices, especially online.
I really feel that people easily identify me as someone they can go to.
Like someone they can ask, and would give them no-nonsense answers.
I’ve given a lot of relationship advices—when to grab someone’s attention, when to keep someone, when to let go of someone.
But one of the proudest advices that I have given to people in the last two years that really made a difference in their lives was about keeping a baby.
A teenage girl got pregnant.
I advised her to bring the baby to birth, and I advised her spinster of an aunt to adopt the newborn.
Three happy lives, right there.
I could also count the HIV and STI testing that my fans and acquaintances do now, but as the poster boy of HIV screening, I don’t think I’ve influenced enough to reach my target number of 3,000.
If I could just influence 3,000 people to get tested for HIV and sexually transmitted infections, I’d be very happy.
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Beach sounds—waves, birds, wind—are still my favorite sounds.
I still enjoy a variety of calming and relaxation nature sounds in CD recordings: ocean waves, forest sounds, music for healing, thunder and rain, wilderness stream and peaceful water sounds, relaxing rain, bird calls.
I often play them to lull me to sleep, or to accompany my morning prayer and meditation.
I hate the sound of news TV, especially those that talk about politics, and disasters.
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I’m not a karaoke fan so I would not choose any one person to sing karaoke at my funeral.
In fact, I don’t intend to have a funeral.
I have willed that if I die in the US, my body will be donated to science.
But my plan is that if I happen to be in full faculty at the time of my dying, I would actually like to go on backpacking in Europe or South America, and just die in some obscure forest area.
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I didn’t have a lot of toys growing up because we were poor.
But I remember owing a kaleidoscope, and a Barrel of Monkeys.
A godfather, who was also an uncle, gifted me Barrel of Monkeys twice.
Two years in a row!
And they were both with red monkeys and yellow barrel container.
To be fair, he gave the first for Christmas (December 25); the other for my birthday (Jan. 6).
I paid for my kaleidoscope when I was in the elementary grades.
When I immigrated to the US in 2006, a kaleidoscope was the first toy I bought.
I was 37 by then!
At this time, there are three kaleidoscopes in my living room. (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
