The Wily Filipino

Nice! I like your new logo! It helps provide color, and face, to a well-developed site. And it's very Filipino-esque in a way. I placed a link to your site from mine if you don't mind.

I'm confused. Your name is Benito Vergara and Bulletproof Vest's Benito Vergara is your brother? You have the same name?

CUTE! i want a cartoon mee too!

Moi loves the logo -- it makes me grin widely.

Hello Sassy,

Yes, we have the same name, not to be confused with this goofy-looking guy.

hehe, gumagamit ka ng likas papaya no? kasi mas maputi yung kutis ng galamay mo kumpara sa mukha.

Ah, ok. Were you two ever in the same school together? Eh, di, ang hirap?

Tatay nyo yun sa DOST? Kamukha mo eh.

Mahirap talaga! Nagkaron pa nang panahon na may daladala akong affidavit na pruweba na di ako either one of the two. In fact, sa bangko namin, kailangan kumpleto pangalan ko sa checke.

Paminsan naman e yung mga travel points ng tatay namin e napupunta sa akin. :-D

Tuwing may tatawag sa bahay -- "Puwede hong makausap si Benito?" -- ang palaging hirit: "Sinong Benito?"

So you mean Bulletproof Vest and Wily Filipino are by two different people? I've always thought it was just by one guy with different personalities. :)

Are you fucking serious, Mark? =)

yes! i love the logo. dont get rid of it! i wish we all could have cartoon mini-me's too!

Dear Mark (nang Mukhamo):

Nakikita mo ba yang pagmumukha(mo) nang kuya ko? aber? malayo yan sa itsura ko men.

Pero, siryus, kala mo talaga? (Sobrang nakakatawa yon kung siryus ka.) Actually, sabihin mo na lang siryus ka para nakakatawa.

Anak ako nang kapatid ko,

Benito

violent reaction! lol! kelan ba ko naging seryus? hehe. di ko lang natanong bakit pareho kayo ng pangalan sa friendster.

Barb, Aimee -- you two will have to talk to my brother (at bulletproof vest) if you do want logos. He's the nicest guy but he does do this for a living, so he might charge you money. =) But if you're really really nice...

When I first read this post, that crossed my mind too. Schizophrenic blogs he he he. Joke, baka bawiin ni Happy yung logo kong maganda.

Anak ng kapatid? Movie yun ah! Chinatown.

Wily, you said, "Puwede hong makausap si Benito?" -- ang palaging hirit: "Sinong Benito?" Before I got married, sa bahay namin, 'pag may tumawag noon at naghanap ng Atty. Santiago, automatic answer, "Sinong Atty. Santiago?" Tatay, Nanay, me or my brother. Pero di ako nakakahirit ng travel points. Sayang.

But seriously, bakit favorite yung name na Benito?

First theory: Well, for all the creativity that seems to be genuinely a trait of the last two Benitos, not a smidgen of it was there to inspire our parents to name us any other name but.

Second theory: We are all being punished by our parents, one way or the other.

Third (and real) theory: At that time they didn't have ultrasound, and my parents, feeling lucky, thought I would be a girl. (Wily Filipino is older, and is a boy, apparently).

So they had a name ready for me: Tessa. I come out and I was, well, a male person. So the nurse asks my mother, who was groggy from anesthesia and whatever they gave her to ease the pain, "It's a boy. What should we call him?" My, este, our mother (pala) responds, "Ask Benito" referring of course to our now anxious father.

Not hearing the first word clearly, and several keystrokes on the Remington later, my name on the Birth Certificate read: Benito.

Bow.

Oh, my gosh! But you both have second names, I hope? Just to, you know, draw a distinction?

I'm the "Jr.," and Happy is "the third" by default, but it's not exactly how it works -- Happy has a made-up middle "name." I put "name" in quotes but it's not really a name either, but made-up initials. He can explain this himself.

Our nicknames are our main distinction: I'm Sunny, he's Happy, and our sister Joy. (No, we were not kids of hippies; we were kids of... Filipinos.) Obviously there was constant familial pressure to be happy. All of this was somewhat ironic, since Happy was really rather dour in comparison to me, and Joy was even more sullen in comparison to Happy.

As much as we don't like to talk about it, Sassy is asking. So what Sassy wants, Sassy gets.

Well, imagine receiving a Christmas card from us: Merry Christmas! Love, Sunny, Happy and Joy.

My middle name is a two letter word that, to those who do not know me, is often mistaken as initials of the Jesuit piety. "Sj" actually comes from the first names of my two grandfathers.

As you can see, it's all very very very complicated. "Sunny" happens to be a given nickname. "Happy", on the other hand, happens to be the first word that my older, less dour, brother picked up. So, it could have been "Boomer", luckily it was not.

Ooohhh, this is getting even more complicated than when it first started.

Let's see, the nickname does not influence a person's personality later on in life? Kahit araw-araw, oras-oras, tawagin na Happy or Joy or Sunny, hindi rin necessarily happy or joyful or sunny ang projected personality? Apparently, the nicknames were not chosen to describe early personality traits.

Now, Happy, how can you add a made-up middle name? You decided to include it and it became part of your legal name? Kung pwede yun, I'll add a middle name too... say, saccharine? he he he

BTW, I hope your sister's real name isn't Benita. :)

Happy's made-up middle name wasn't made up by him, but cobbled together by my parents.

My sister's first name is Lina (not Benita), which is also my mom's name and her daughter's. Which, if you were counting, makes it a pool of two names for a family of six.

I think the "Sunny, Happy, Joy" trinity was wishful thinking on my parents' part, as if the names would make it so.

Gee, three Benito's in two generations; three Lina's in three generations. Wala akong masabi kundi.... unique talaga ang pamilya mo. Congratulations. :)