Yesterday at church was awesome.

I got a lot of great feedback from churchmates who commented on my weight loss. Praise God for that! His grace is enough, surely, and I would never have survived three months and counting without His help, I tell you that.

I also got great feedback on Set Apart. Mickee, Joanne, and Gabe just blew the roof off on their versions of the song, and I was extremely happy with how it turned out. Mickee started the ball rolling by revamping the arrangement and turning Set Apart into some kind of all-out praise jam that worked! Joanne and Gabe soon followed suit, and I think it turned out to be a pretty good offering song.

Teri videotaped us, though, and while I may have dropped 22lbs, I am still 209lbs. My goal is 150lbs. On the TV screen, I looked like a blue whale compared to the other three worship leaders. No, sirree, that won’t do.

Regardless, God is great! Yea!

Last night’s appearance on The Edge Radio, a Philippine Christian radio station broadcasting online, was a blast and a half. I had a lot of fun laughing with Ron and Jaedee, and I got to talk about this website and blogging in general. They’ll be uploading the video soon enough, and I’ll be sure to post a link here taking you there.

Meanwhile, if you listened in and are visiting today, welcome!

On September 12, Friday, I will be a guest on The Edge Radio at 6:00PM. I’ll be talking primarily about what it’s like being a Filipino-Christian blogger, but you can also expect a lot of great information on how to set up your own blog, how to establish and build relationships with other Christian bloggers, and how to ensure that people can find their way to your blog. (Yep, I’m gonna give some insight into search engine optimization for free. Cheers to y’all.)

Of course, since it is me, you can expect a lot of joking around. You can listen online on their website, or swing by the station para interactive!

How many blogs do you maintain?

I’ve been a blogger since 1999. I started one blog back then. Today, I maintain almost 12.

It’s hard to maintain quality when you have that many blogs. It’s just too complicated.

Time to settle things down and simplify things. I’ve watered down my online - and offline - relationships with all this hullabahoo. It’s time to fix up my blog life, glue things shut, and put an end to the madness.

Two blogs: GannsDeen.com and Hyundai Getz Philippines: Life With Gina. Everything that I wish to blog about should ideally fall under these two.

If you’re a blog buddy, holler in my Comments box so I can start fresh and add you to a set of new links on the right sidebar.

I’m taking it back to basics, and it’s going to be so much easier. Please join me on this simpler, easier, more interesting ride.

Yesterday, the town of Molo in Iloilo celebrated its yearly town fiesta partly in honor of my great grandfather, zarzuela composer, novelist, and journalist Angel Merle Magahum. A 33-member choir, accompanied by an orchestra and organ, sang his Latin mass composition, Misa de 2 o 3 para Canto y Organo, a piece my great grandfather orchestrated for the high mass.

Lolo Angel was a champion of the Hiligaynon dialect, a Filipino language spoken by hundreds of thousands of Filipinos. In 1897, he wrote Benjamin, the first Hiligaynon novel; he was also the editor of the Makinaugalingon newspaper, the longest-running Visayan language newspaper in the Philippines.he also wrote a novel, Isa ka Bihag (The Captive); Euponiya sang Pulong Nga Binisaya (An Euphony of the Visayan Hiligaynon); and Palanganinawan (Reflection). Today, a street at the junction of Locsin-M.H. Del Pilar is named after Angel Magahum.

The Misa de 2 o 3 para Canto y Organo was the only one orchestrated during the fiesta of 13 masses he had actually written. It was first showcased during the Molo town fiesta in 1895, played by Lolo Angel himself. Thanks to the efforts of musicologist Ariel Bordon, the Misa de 2 o 3 para Canto y Organo was heard for the first time after 113 years. (According to my grandmother, it was no easy feat; Mr. Bordon has to reconstruct the libretto from Lolo Angel’s surviving pre-war manuscripts, which were given to him by my great aunt Naysol (Sol Magahum-Dideles), who saved them from the invading Japanese army’s bullets and bombs.

It was absolutely beautiful, based on what my mother said via text message. I’m glad to be his great grandson, and absolutely proud of my heritage. Mabuhay ka, Lolo Angel!

(Acknowledgement to this piece which provides the information for this blog entry.)

Here are other resources on Angel Magahum:

Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Fiction of Angel Magahum by Rosario Cruz Lucero
Ang Sampaguita (A Hiligaynon poem by Angel Magahum), Our Own Voice

Late last week, I visited the 700 Club studios along H.V. De La Costa Street in Makati to do a brief interview on the topic of Superbook. I’m sure many of you have fond memories of Chris, Joy, Gizmo, and Ruffles entertaining and gently evangelizing to us back in the 80s; I certainly have!

Anyway, it was an interview that was short and sweet. I talked about the influence Superbook had in my faithwalk, how it influenced my decisions as I grew older, and how it eventually played some kind of role in where I am today and the many communications materials I generate for Joey Bonifacio and the Makati church in which I serve.

Unfortunately, I think this interview won’t air locally, as Celeste Endriga, the ever-accommodating, wonderfully funny, and tremendously insightful producer who conducted the interview, tells me it’s intended for an American audience. I hope I can get to see the rough cut though, para makita ko naman ang aking American television debut. Hahahaha!

It was quite an experience, and I praise God for it. Who would’ve thunk I would eventually make an appearance on a show I grew up on, talking about another show I grew up on? Wow, God, You really do rock my world.

I love my job, I really do. There is nowhere else I’d rather be. Because of this job, however, my online efforts have been haphazard at best.

It brings me to a turning point in my road: is maintaining this blog still worth it? I can keep one blog going - say, the one on the Multiply website, and, of course, Life With Gina - and then just let this one fade into obscurity, but I feel bad about all the effort I’ve put into making GannsDeen.com a PR4 website (not to mention it’s the highest-ranking Filipino-Christian blog on the Internet).

Its purpose in the past few months has been largely vague, focusing on several topics, including Christian music and politics, as well as some personal notes (which I’d previously reserved for the Multiply page). *sigh* With my job now, I don’t know how often I can update and all that. I need to focus on what is important, and right now, I’d rather do God’s work by building relationships here and regularly maintaining a maximum of three personal website presences (my Hyundai Getz and Multiply websites seem like the most viable).

I can still keep my hosting because it’s a great thing to have storage and all that, and I can just redirect www.gannsdeen.com to the Multiply website.

Pero sayang. PR4! What a waste! Ngr.

I’ve been online for more than a decade now, but I’m at a crossroads where I have to ask myself whether this is all still worth it. Until I get to that point, I hope y’all can bear with me. I’ll ask God this morning to help me sort through it all.

Meanwhile, God superbless you!

My family and I will spend June 2 to 4, 2008, at a resort in Zambales. Nothing but the sun, the sea, and the sand. This’ll be Nicki’s first trip to the beach, and Nathan’s first beach trip since White Cove. My entire family is psyched, as are many of the other people with whom we will be going.

Just the sun, the sea, the surf, the sand. I don’t know if there’s Net access, or soda cold water, or even cable television. I don’t know how I will survive. God, I dislike beaches.

Please, God, don’t let them throw me into the water. I will hug MacMac so tightly to my chest so they’ll think twice about throwing me into the water. It’ll be like a hostage situation.

Don’t come any closer! I’ve got this Mac in my arms and I swear I’ll throw him into the pool! Leave me alone, you beachcombing, sun-worshipping, fun-loving infidels! I have a Photo Guidebook to write, a Retreat handout to layout, and three days to design a video about Operation Overdrive. Stay baaaaaaccccckkk!

On February 25, 2008, one of my best friends, Jay Tan, joined our Heavenly Dad. On April 4, his family and friends celebrated his 40th day. (I’m not exactly sure why we do this. Is it rooted in Catholic theology? Can someone tell me?) So I joined my very good college friends Danny, his girlfriend Michelle, and Mic, for the celebration at his home.

The first thing I thought to myself upon reentering the Tan residence was this: Wow, how often am I going to visit this place now? While I spent a lot of time there in the course of Jay’s and my almost decade long friendship, I’m not exactly sure how to feel about going there now that he’s gone. Unlike Mic and Danny, who were really tight with his family, I was just, well, Ganns, the guy who writes songs with Jay and takes him to the car wash.

Anyway, I came in and saw his urn. It was this white marble jar-type thing, and it was elegant and beautiful. On top of it, a rosary. Beside it, para hindi naman lumampas ng langit si Jay - ay, teka, nanjan na pala siya - were cigarettes and chocolate. I put a lollipop on top of his urn as a present from Nathan.

Of all the strange things to happen, I then ran into Architect Rose Marie Bautista, former dean of the DLS-College of Saint Benilde’s School of Design and Arts. Architect Bautista and I worked together for five years before I left DLS-CSB; she retired soon afterward. She was looking extremely well, and was there because she and Jay’s mother, Tita Evelyn, were schoolmates at Saint Theresa’s. (Lord, I hope I got their school name right.)

Shortly afterward, I sat down with Mic, Danny, and Michelle. Jay and I used to poke fun at Danny and Michelle, he for his awful singing voice and she for being taciturn verging on wallflower. Now that Jay was gone, I sure as heck wasn’t going to heckle Michelle alone, so I resigned myself to liking her. Hahaha. Truth be told, I think she’s perfect for Danny. (Of course, if Jay were here, we’d both laugh at their expense.)

After dinner, we escaped to Jay’s room. It was eerily clean. (His last few days had him confined there, so naturally, it had to be kept in immaculate condition so he wouldn’t get infections and stuff.) His DVD collection was still there, his magazines, his colognes. It was as if he’d just stepped out to smoke a cig on his balcony, or head off to the radio station for a Saturday night gig.

We were there reminiscing about our times with Jay - no tears, thank God! - when Danny and Mic announced they brought along the DSWS logbooks. I begged Danny to get them so we could reminisce further, and for thirty goshawful minutes, we were taken back to a time of innocence and virginity. (Well, at least for me.) The highlight for me, of course, was the comic series I created titled Kelvin and Rob, a spoof of Calvin and Hobbes, in which Jay featured prominently.

The night ended with us going our separate ways, and I drove home in silence. Upon my arrival at home, it was then that the floodgates opened. Heaven had Jay, and now, Mic, Danny, Michelle and I have each other. I said a quick prayer for the three of them, and asked Jay to keep an eye out for us. It was time to let go, and that night, I did my best to do so.

Mic, Danny and Ganns

Four days ago, I visited a modeling agency as part of a casting call for a television commercial. I was told they were looking for chinito-looking men to play a dad. I figured, hey, I’m chinito, and I’m a dad, nothing to lose, right?

Well, I lost. Or at least, I think I lost.

The minute I stepped through those doors, I knew I was in for a rough time. I promised myself I’d walk in and be friendly and confident, and I was. It’s just that the male receptionist looked me up and down with this look of disdain on his face, and when the female receptionist came in, she spoke to me as if I were the last person on Earth who would get this job. (Which I probably was.)

Well, regardless, I was there, so I decided to push through with it. The lady receptionist called me into this room - she actually just said my name out loud, without really coming to get me - where she would shoot my VTR. After a few questions, she took the full shots, and I knew my prospects weren’t good when she panned the full-body shot and smirked. They had tons of beautiful people working there; I was some Joe off the street who thought he had what it took to at least play a role he essayed daily in real life.

I was determined to walk out of there with dignity, which I did. After I exited the agency, I walked to my car and comforted myself with the thought that while I may never be a star in the media sense of the word, I was a star to God. God told me in Jeremiah, “before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer 1:5).

God knew me well before this receptionist, before Cathy, before I knew myself. I am important to Him, and I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I may not meet the standards of these commercial makers, but in the eyes of God, I am a star.

God, You’re awesome. Thanks for loving me. You rock my world, Lord, yeah, You do.