***
The metaphor wouldn't make sense without the original meanings of the terms. Actually, the metaphor simply wouldn't be. This should have been posted much earlier. Else, analogy-making would be futile huh?

I thus dedicate the following entry to all those visitors who really just wanted something too eat.

***
Bopis

Bago nga pala ang lahat, baka magkalimutan, heto ang isang luto ng bopis. Ngayon ko lang nalaman na ang taguri pala dito ng mga Kapampangan e pulutuk. Iniisip kong dagdagan ito ng konti carrot tops (yun bang nasa chicken soup ng Kenny Rogers). Pero baka pangit ang dating. Nakakatakot. Heto na lang ang beysik. Saka na ang mga baryasyon.

1/2 cup pork heart
1/2 cup pork lung
1 cup pork liver
1/2 cup diced pork kidney
1/2 ginger root cut into strips
1/4 cup water
3 table spoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 medium onion, finely minced
3/4 cup chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
1 can coconut milk
1/4 cup red pepper, diced
1/4 cup green pepper, diced
2 hot peppers, diced (optional)

Boil the sliced lung, heart and kidney and ginger root until tender (about half an hour). Set aside to cool, then chop fine. Chop sliced liver fine and combine with the lung, heart and kidneys.

In a wok heat cooking oil and saute garlic, onion and tomatoes for approximately 2 minutes.

Add the boiled chopped lung, heart and liver, season with salt and pepper to taste (optional: add diced hot peppers.) and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the coconut milk and the diced red and green pepper and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Mmmm! Naglalaway na naman ako! Tama ba naman yun!

***
Isildur's Bane

The One Ring knows only one lord. And he does not share its power.

Sound intimidation. I should have listened. Now I'm caught in the damn thrall too. I want to get my hands on those copies! Guys in my e-groups ar talking about Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and other Tolkien ouvres. The discussion only draws me closer to a crazed state.

My problem is, when I'm this way, I won't stop till I've been all over J.R.R. Tolkien's words, work, and even his autobiography. And back. When I'm in, somebody would have to reel me in to get me out. And I can be very stubborn even as dead weight.

I watched it a week ago. Last Fool's Show. And that's weird because I'm not a stranger to the fantasy genre. Harry Potter, for one, is not such a big deal to people that have already been to fantasyland. But why compare anyway? HP is just HP. LOTR is LOTR. That's that.

Among some contemporary titles, I've finished the six-book Thomas Covenant series (an uncanny merging of roles as a leper in the world as-we-know-it and a hero in the world as-we-don't-know-it). It was such a great read that I thought no other series would come close. I thought then that that was that. Great read, that's that. I thought that I would leave the genre for good then.

I was right, I think. As reviewers called it, Covenant was the War and Peace of the genre. But then, I just realized, I never really read its bible.

Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in! I had my hands on The Return of the King last Saturday. I had to resist. I just had too! I bought Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged instead. Not really a Rand fan. But my sister needed it for an Economics class. Around a hundred pesos more! Just to get myself out of the King's way! Aargh.

I even stopped to check out the LOTR Cliff's Notes! How pathetic is that huh?!

My list of dilatory tactics does not end there. Earlier last week, I dwelled on "progenitor" forms such as Chanson de Roland in the Legends of Charlemagne and Le Morte d' Arthur from the English Round Table. That was a great ride too. But that didn't work.

I opened Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and created this hardcore paladin named "Aragorn." I deleted him before he even got to his "Gandalf," Deckard Cain. I loved watching Balrog chasing the questers in LOTR. Balrog looked like Diablo.

I tried the net too. I've been reading other blogs to escape the Ring. But alas, they all have something to say about it! What's more problematic was, they were interesting!

And then, of course, there's this blog entry.

Damn Isildur. He should've thrown that accursed thing in when he had the chance.