DAVAO CITY — Jerry agreed that there should be nothing reprehensible about a poor boy from Dadiangas doing a stint at the MGM Grand for the money. He went on to say he found it refreshing that a female wrote something good enough to be stacked among the male-dominated offering of featured articles on the Manny Pacquiao website.
Intrigued, I googled for “gail ilagan” + “many pacquiao” to find the link. Jerry was right. There was my piece sharing space with those written by Al Mendoza, Quinito Henson, Ronnie Nathanielsz, and others. Giddy.
Mac walks in to catch me at his computer. I gave him my news and he goes like, “And did you write something that made sense?”
“Made sense to me,” I retorted. “And good enough for this site obviously. Look, Mac – no other girl, indeed, except this one named Recah Trinidad.” He he he.
I like working with Mac. He keeps my head from inflating.
Seriously, we in the academe are highly suspicious of information on the worldwide web. In fact, many of us still won’t accept Internet citations on the papers we require of students. It’s not that big a deal to have one’s article posted there. Ah, who am I kidding?
Landing on the Manny Pacquiao website was more than a tad flattering.
Especially since instead of watching that much-vaunted bout, Liane and I had gone swimming at Jack’s Ridge.
That article seemed to have gone over in a big way to many readers.
Hubby makes short work of conversational overtures that begin with the other guy saying: “So your wife watched Pacquiao?” He automatically nods in acknowledgment of being spoken to and of having a wife.
I surrendered Mac’s computer to him and booted up mine with a prayer that my ancient monitor would pick another day to die. It had been showing signs of mortality lately. Anyway, I’d picked that day to read through my email and it sure would have spoiled my schedule had the thing upped and died midway. Oh, well. I could always hijack Mac’s after I’d have convinced him that he needed to edit his Palanca entries one more time. That shouldn’t be too hard.
Back on the net again, I scrolled past press releases and egroup digests. From the MindaNews Co-op, I caught the thread of last week’s discussion over UK-based BoxingAction’s posting of my Manny Pacquiao article on their service. Publisher said it deserved an international audience so they posted it before they emailed MindaNews a request for permission and congratulations to the author, identified as a certain Miss Gail Ilaga. Hey, where does this Limey get off calling me a rat?
Carol was initially pleased with the treatment. The MindaNews logo was displayed prominently. But Boymordz was alarmed over the lack of protocol. Walter was concerned about charging fees and disclaimers.
I understand that there indeed is an issue here, but I guess I continue to view it from a devalued perspective on articles on the web. Since I’ve been writing for MindaNews, I’ve received requests for permission to link the articles I’ve done on topics ranging from Lord of the Rings and Keanu Reeves to Freemasonry, sea travel, the Philippine military, environmental issues, Philippine history, and child abuse. Always, I’d reply with appreciation for the interest, gratitude for the courtesy, and nodding consent to post. I figured if MindaNews has it on the web, then anybody could take it and run away with it, but it would still be there.
Ever so often, someone emails me about reading my article from hitherto unknown sources. Like that email from Jerry, for instance, that clued me in on the Manny Pacquiao website. So this stuff happens. I’m resigned to that. It’s all part of going public in the realm where search engines work faster than the female corpus callosum.
I hope that explains to Boymords my cavalier attitude towards the monetary value of my opinion. If Walter really forced my hand on the matter, I’d probably ask for two cents. (He on the other hand can ask for more in my behalf. Isn’t that what a business manager is for?)
Heck, I’m just so relieved to be able to say what I want said because I can’t always trust Mac to make sense of what I say. Someone else out there might. I hate to admit this because it sounds like bragging, but the truth is I wouldn’t want to disappoint those guys who tune in. They’d push my inbox’s load limit demanding why I’ve been quiet for sometime if I’ve been mum for longer than a week. At least, that’s what I glean from the rest of the emails my monitor generously allowed me to see.
I’m back, okay? I hope that makes your day. Because, like, your reactions have kinda grown on me, too. It’s disconcerting, but not a totally unwelcome novelty to have been missed by people I only know through web communication. Sometimes, I still don’t think they’re real, you know. Jeez, this might be senile dementia setting in.
