Blogs from Jupiter

A lot were surprised when I posted my high school graduation picture as default photo in my Friendster profile. Also, I changed again my account name from my Christian name to my Chinese name “Xu Chang Mao”. The change generated a lot of profile views, and elicited funny messages, and of course, violent reactions. Who wouldn’t especially if you have a foreign name and a black and white picture of a juvenile delinquent in a bowtie in your friends list? Your natural reaction would be: “I don’t recall approving any friend from China?!”. And then there’s this spooky shoutout: "Youth is a disease from which we all recover.–Dorothy Fuldheim".

Well, it pays to get some attention sometimes. And it’s also nice to shock people sometimes =)

I had my pre-school in a Chinese school. That is why I know my Chinese name. When I was in Shanghai, China some years ago, I told my Chinese acquaintances in a pub that I have a Chinese name; it sounded like “Koh Tiong Bio”. They did not understand what I was saying so I wrote it. They understood my poor Chinese calligraphy and they told me that I was writing the old fashioned way. The bartender, who was an expert in Chinese calligraphy, re-wrote my Chinese name and taught me to pronounce my name the modern mainland China way: “Xu Chang Mao”. I also learned that my name’s literal interpretation has something to do with magnanimity and greatness… Xu Chang Mao.

I was looking at my high school photo. I remembered, of course, my days at UST High School. It wasn’t smooth sailing; it wasn’t really easy growing up in the first place. I don’t consider myself a loner, nor was I the type who would go around getting people’s attention, trying to be popular. I would literally go around because I just enjoy walking. Probably, I was a semi-geek. Thinking about it, I would say that I was the plain normal typical boring high school student.

I don’t really study that much because I love to read what I love to read. Dad has a lot of good reads at home like his books on New Age stuff like astrology, metaphysics, parapsychology, that Greek stuff. We also have a collection of religious and spiritual classics; and those children classics and juvenile coming of age books. Yeah, I was one voracious reader then. Dad taught me the value of reading.

I live in a different world then. I guess I was trying to protect myself from the harshness of the world outside my books. If I was not reading, I would just play ball inside my room, throwing the ball from the other wall to the other wall, imagining stuff and making my mind work. At a young age, I started to tinker with the typewriter and attempted to write my first novel. I had Dad see the first few pages. He just laughed at me and discouraged me to continue. He said I should consider writing “serious” stuff.

I was growing up. I later realized that I was to become a man.

I remember submitting this poem I wrote during Mr. Carpio’s English class when I was in second year:

I do not know what to say for innocence was asked
By the old bearded man
Patting my head
Huffing his pipe
While he whistles on his way.

Eager of my life
My mind astray
I pondered.

I was then a child.