It’s only recently that I finished building my EDC kit, and it all started when I scrapped that awful clone knife and decided to get a real one. Again, as always, budget was the main problem here. I learned from being a Batman fan that superpowers don’t come cheap. And the same could be said for our everyday gear. Even the so-called budget lines are still far more expensive than cheap clones. Yet it’s all worth the pennies as you are assured that your gear won’t break in times of need.

And after almost four years, I still have my very first quality EDC gear with me.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that anything with a Leatherman name will last a lifetime. And for four years, my Leatherman Crater knife is still in a great condition. I carried that thing everywhere, from hiking, test laboratories, warehouses and even in self defense class. And among my small blade armory, the Leatherman Crater is the most used knife thanks to its extra feature. True to its multitool roots, the knife has folding screwdrivers, carabiner and bottle opener.

Right now, I decided to leave my knife in my working kit after discovering its hidden feature. Well, not so hidden as some of my friends already know it. We just found out that you can use cheap generic tool bits on the knife.

With little records of the precolonial Philippines, I know how Filipinos today longed to learn more about the past. I mean getting to know how our forefathers lived, without the influences of Spain will bring a new dimension to our national identity. The search for bits and pieces of those missing records is an ongoing process, and slowly we learn more. From the Copperplate Inscription to the Golden Tara, we are starting to build a picture of a far more sophisticated Pre-Hispanic Society. Our hunger for the past did inspired some outrageous claims of a lost Filipino kingdom that turned out to be a hoax. To be honest, the Philippines back then was not the romanticized and fabled fairytale that those claims propagate. In fact, Philippines was non-existent back then. It was never a whole nation before Spain, but a collection of archipelagos with scattered kingdoms, villages, and tribes. It lacks a central leadership and it took painful colonialism to groom it into a nation.

But again, going back to those important discoveries like the Copperplate Inscription, lacking a central kingdom was never an indication of a stone age culture. Those scattered civilizations boast far more sophistications and who knows what discovery may still be unseen. And in the beautiful and peaceful mountains of Batanes are structures that proved just that. The Ivatan people once lived in castle-like habitations known as the Idjang.

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, or simply Jose Rizal is revered as a national hero, a truly deserving honor for many. He never fired a shot, or wielded blades like Emilio Aguinaldo, or Andres Bonifacio to incite an armed uprising. But his works awakened nationalism among Filipinos by exposing the corrupt practices of the colonial government officials and Spanish friars. Together with his fellow illustrados, they strived for equality during their stay in Spain.

Rizal’s approach to nationalism rejected violence. He favored peaceful means, and we could say that the freedom we are enjoying right now is his fitting legacy.

But then as I skimmed on the life story of our National Hero, it makes me wonder if Rizal would receive the same honor if he lived today. The question came in the back of my mind based on the current situation in the Philippines. But more importantly, how would he react if he meets the president of the Philippines. By the time this article is written, Philippines is headed by President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte never shied away from admiring Rizal’s heroism. The problem is Rizal won’t be too happy if he learned that the Philippines had a man like Duterte as a president.

By the time I wrote this article, it is the year 2020. And what a year this had been! It had a fiery start, literally, when Australia nearly got incinerated thanks to their wildfires. If that’s not bad enough, Iran and the U.S. almost started World War Three when they thought it was wise to bomb each other. And did I mentioned the pissed-off Iran won the blunder of the year when it shot down its own plane? But how about in Southeast Asia when volcano in a tourist spot blew? It destroyed a lot of properties and good thing that few people died. And then there is the world-wide pandemic that basically sent the world into a stand still. It started somewhere in China, and now it is sickening scores of lives in this planet.

The year 2020 is now earning its reputation. It maybe the year of the Apocalyptic plague, but I’m still hoping for the best. Maybe the rest of the year got better surprises, like alien invasions perhaps?

Hopefully, it won’t end up like that, as recently the U.S. Navy declassified a video recording showing strange flying objects. And in case you are wondering, the U.S. Navy admitted it was a UFO.

Rizal is one of those national heroes we like to know more about. In fact, we could say he was followed like a big-time celebrity today, but for a good reason. He was an important figure during our struggle for national independence back then. His works and books opened our eyes to the abuses of the Spanish colonizers, at the same time teaches us a lesson about our own shortcomings as Filipinos. Yes, he met a bitter end in the rifles of the firing squad, but his death was never seen as senseless.

But as much as we revere him as a hero, Rizal is just an everyday guy just like any of us. He had all the weaknesses of a normal youth. We knew that he gets drunk like any of us (remember that picture of his drunken friends), gets in a fight like any regular guy, and fall in love like the rest of us.

And you would be surprised that Rizal harbors a dislike towards the Chinese.

We knew how Rizal spoke against the Spanish and was not afraid to criticize the Catholic church. But Rizal also dislike the Chinese, up to a point where he refused to buy their products. In fact, we could say that he hated them more than the Spanish colonizers and the Catholic church.

Discussing how one wants to go is not a desirable topic. Nevertheless, things could turn hilarious if you got this person in the group who takes death lightly. I knew this girl who is not afraid to voice her desire to go in the most bizarre way. Once she planned to donate her corpse to science, and she fancied being displayed as a preserved plasticized cadaver. We are not sure what’s so pleasant about being exhibited as an oddity, and we find such prospect disturbing. But the disgusted look in our faces never stopped her from sharing her morbid fascinations, like how she will look like in her coffin, or if mummification works for her, or how it felt to be stabbed in the stomach (much to our disgust).

But even a hardcore goth like her will flinch at a prospect of being ripped to pieces before burial, or even turned into animal feed.

And yes, there is a form of burial, or disposal as what it looks like where the dead is basically mutilated, defleshed, butchered or be fed to waiting scavenging birds. It might look extreme, or even defiling to outsiders, but these forms of burial has deeper, or even more practical purpose.

The Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union produced an inventory of grotesque and somewhat devastating weapons. Their attempts to put on the scarier face prompted them to come up with technologies that would make Ian Fleming’s character proud. We have seen it all, from armed space stations, Mach 3 jets, nuclear subs, and even man-made UFO. Nuclear weapons were not the only concern here, but the emergence of this apocalyptic machines of malice coming from both sides. Most of the technologies developed during the Cold War have lasting impacts on modern-day weapons. But there are those curious inventions that were destined to stay in the confines of hangars, warehouse or any forms of storage that captured the imaginations of many.

And one of them is the strange maritime vehicle that rattled the U.S. upon its discovery—the ekranoplan.

At first glance, people are not sure what it is. The thing has wings that seem too short for its massive frame. It could fly, or at least that’s what people call it even though it could only do so at a few meters from the water's surface. And judging the overall shape and outside appearance, it’s an aircraft, but used as a ship. A terrifying ship!

Meet the ekranoplan: arguably the strangest vehicle that came out from the Soviet assembly line.