Lim: Life extreme
I HAD to turn 40 for my life to really begin. Well, I didn’t really take up extreme sports and adventure activities till then.
As a child, I was a bookworm. My books and my imagination were my constant companions. My mother did not raise us to be athletic. She raised us to be erudite. Of...
Lim: Mother
I GREW up with the misconception that my mother caused many of my miseries. She presented an obstacle to many of my deepest desires. Looking back, I realize with deep regret that my mother actually only did the best she could under the circumstances and, in fact, saved me from a lot of trouble...
Lim: Going places
WHERE are you going this time? I say the name of some obscure country on the map. I don’t even know where that is. I laugh. Where is that? Africa, I reply. Why do you like Africa so much? I can’t even begin to tell you. You’ve got to go find out for yourself.
In my youth, Asia was my...
Lim: Dizzy
AS MY sister and I watched our niece and her fifteen friends move from one table to another in the game room—from the billiard table to the foosball table to the air hockey table to the ping pong table, we got dizzy.
The door to the game room was continuously open and shut. People came...
Lim: Crazy busy
I’M “crazy busy” as always. This is how a friend of mine likes to call it.
Truth to tell, it’s been a dizzying five months. It’s been like a non-stop speeding train for me. The last time I got together with my friends was October of last year and we meet regularly every five to six weeks...
Lim: Online bashing
THE advent of the Internet has unfortunately ushered in an era of unparalleled rudeness. The latest craze to hit cyberspace seems to be celebrity bashing.
Really, is there any justification for calling anyone’s baby ugly? If you think someone’s baby is ugly, why don’t you just keep it to...
Lim: Crucifixion
THE practice of re-enacting the crucifixion of Christ during Good Friday has long been frowned upon by the Catholic Church, yet the practice continues, tragically unfettered, in our country.
Though practiced by a small minority of Catholics, some radical elements of ultra-conservative...
Lim: Fury over a bikini
A 16-YEAR old girl uploads a photo of herself on Facebook wearing a bikini and holding a lighted cigarette. Her school, St. Theresa’s College, bars her from participating in graduation ceremonies.
Like most people my age, I frown upon inappropriate pictures and remarks that many young...
Lim: Go home, Jimmy
IN THE video,“20 Reasons Why I Dislike the Philippines,” Jimmy Sieczka rants about the lack of sanitation in wet markets, unsafe construction sites, “uncomfortable” comfort-rooms, incompetent security guards, traffic, “shitty drivers,” beggars, cockroaches and many more.
Obviously, the...
Lim: The folly of youth
GRADUATIONS make me nostalgic. I guess because they remind me of youth—more importantly, the folly of youth.
It’s good for young people to set goals but I don’t believe it’s good for them to be absorbed with ambition. When I was young, I saw ambition as a positive force. I was, after all...
Lim: Love what you do…
IT’S important that you love what you do but if you don’t, it’s not really cause for eternal despair.
In my wildest dreams, I never imagined I would end up majoring in Accounting. I never had an interest in business. But in a Chinese family, expressing that sentiment can be a death wish...
Lim: In pari delicto
I GUESS Vitaliano Aguirre II just about had it when he decided to put both his hands over his ears while Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago went about her usual tirade, berating the prosecution panel for their ineptitude.
No one is suggesting that Miriam did not have a point. Most times the...
Lim: Never stop thinking
WILL Marvin Reglos be another statistic? Filed and forgotten like the rest? Like Edward Domingo, Lenny Villa and so many others who have died in the hands of their so-called brothers? How many more young men will die in bloodbaths that purportedly separate the strong from the weak?
They...
Lim: Guilty or not
THE impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona, while not always riveting, is turning out to be educational, not to mention, entertaining.
When the puny efforts of the prosecution panel appear completely defenseless against the antics of lead defense lawyer, former Associate Justice...
Lim: Love yourself
I WAS restless, inattentive and hyper-active as a child. I had trouble sitting still or keeping quiet. I found school mostly boring. My mind wandered off constantly. And I chatted incessantly in class. This, understandably, irked my teachers.
One school year, I was moved to all parts of...
Lim: Dreamers
DURING his acceptance speech at the 2012 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards, French actor Jean Dujardin, silent star of “The Artist,” wistfully said, “I was a very bad student. I didn’t listen in class. I was always dreaming. My teacher called me Jean of the Moon. I realize now that I never...
Lim: Credit card promos
HAVE you ever been guilty of going gaga over credit card promos?
At no other time in our lives has paying at the cashier posed such a great predicament. Which credit card should I use? Is that promo is still ongoing? How much was the minimum spend for that promo?
I’d like to call...
Lim: CJ Corona
IS the man guilty or not?
Just a week into the impeachment trial, the public has already been apprised of the chief justice’s apparent guilt on some things he said he was most certainly not guilty of. Whether or not these violations will ultimately lead to his ouster, though, is for the...
Lim: The mob
THE blinding, frenzied mob—eight million by police estimates---poured into the streets of the nation’s capital last Monday to display their devotion to the Black Nazarene. Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle says, “To understand it, you need to be a devotee. Outsiders do not understand.”
...Lim: Dangerous
NEWSPAPERS report that the recent holiday revelry was the deadliest--four deaths and 1,004 injured in the two-week period beginning Dec. 21 and ending Jan. 4. They are dazzling and delightful, yes. But beware, firecrackers are dangerous and deafening as well.
What is this fascination for...
Lim: Past forward
TIRED. It’s been a very long year. Last year just seemed longer than all the years of my working life. But really, if I think about it, last year wasn’t really any longer than all the years before that. It’s just me getting older—faster than all the years before.
Sleep-deprived. It’s...
Lim: Scrooge
I’VE been called Scrooge a few times in my life.
My memories of Christmas as a child were all wonderful. I can’t imagine how and why, one day, I just woke up and found myself transformed into this unrecognizable Christmas-hater.
It might have been this thing called adulthood that...
Lim: Life
LIFE is short, fragile and fleeting.
Does it really pay to harbor hate in one’s heart? Do you know how much it costs you to hate? Much more than you really think. Hate costs you life’s infinite joys. It poisons your mind. It destroys your heart. But more than anything else, hate robs...
Lim: Gratitude
IT MAY seem odd, but it is actually through tough times when I feel most grateful to God. I guess, because in good times, God’s presence is not as conspicuous. In good times, we take God for granted because the reality is that in good times, we don’t need God.
Think about it. When the...
Lim: Thanksgiving
AS I write this column, America celebrates one of the most important holidays in their country-–Thanksgiving Day.
Celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving Day starts a four-day weekend that brings together families and friends to a thanksgiving feast. The...
