nice! pfft.

You two would have hit it off, like old friends, once you had picked a topic to geek over. Probability being like 99%, the 1% I surrender to Fate. Unassuming geeks, both of you, though Nald's always a dead give away for geekiness. Pfft girl isn't so noticeable, but her eyes light up in a certain way when she hears some particular keywords, and she wouldn't be so silent anymore. It would have been so great, wouldn't it, if the two of you met.

I miss my two punny friends, yes, major pun intended. I miss them terribly and even more because the world wide web has that distinct way of reminding me of both your presence and absence at the same time. I would have liked to hear both of them laugh at the same time, and tell them after, that they laugh louder now more than ever, though Fey's still do need a little work; and thank God, that men didn't acquire that habit of slapping your arm when they are laughing, Nald has big hands, you know. Fey can slap my arm all she wants while she laughs. She has small hands.

Facebook, in particular, is certainly insensitive, when it suggests that I say hello to both of you, when it suggests that I reconnect or that I should catch up with any of you (I'll pass on that last suggestion, of course). Come on. I am still not okay, truth be told, of accepting that you are both now memories that I would never get to refresh again with new ones. I guess, I could comment all I like on your past notes or say something on your wall, but the thought that I would never get an email notification from any of you is, I guess, sadder than hell. It's a bad idea to go rereading over both of your blogs, really a bad idea when I miss you both. Even if both of you write so well. (that I know, and hundreds of other souls know that as well.)

They both wanted to learn the violin. Only one of more than a hundred paths that they would have shared, given the chance. The two of you had so much in common that I wonder why despite the relative distance, your friends (me included) overlooked the singularity of the two of you knowing each other.

Like me, you two loved the reassurance and the freedom of walking aimlessly, of taking our souls for a breather when Life happened too much in our lives. I cannot begin to imagine where our conversations would go if we all had a long aimless walk together. Plus some rolls of film and cameras. And for you, Pfft, I will have nothing against lomography if you were the one taking photos.

I have the two of you to thank for, for certain obscure films, authors and indie bands that I wouldn't have known despite myself, if the two of you haven't told me. I also think that you two would be the quietest moviegoers I would ever be with, and the most loquacious after the movie. Thanking you though for that part is almost trivial if I think about how we were part of each other's lives despite the vastness of this dissociated world, that the two of you are among the few people that also share those same passions that I have, and gave me more reasons why passions are better if shared among souls that you call friends, and know that in your passing, I will continue to write, not only for my own reasons but also because you'd want me to.

And also because it's not really easy when you two visit me here in the office during times like these and there's really no defense but to write, or tear up miserably, enough for my officemates here to notice.

- for Fae and Nald; my two sorely missed, loved and iyo, parehas kamo corny, friends, who both loved words; the spoken, the written, the painted, the photographed, the filmed and most importantly, the unspoken. And this is also for me; for that elusive catharsis that I need, to see you both woven already in the fabric of my memory.

Ma Fae Clarisse Badilla Barandon
Ronald James Paglinawan Panis

boy, you two sure have long names palan.