First Love Encounter

Raoul Pascual, July 10, 2026

Joke of the Week

Thanks to Don of New York

Raoul’s 2 cents. July 10, 2026

If you don’t want to ponder, move on to the Jokes below.

Old Flames. Strange Encounters

Bob was my Math classmate in my freshman college in the University of the Philippines. Two years later, I was crossing the street in Washington DC and I see this familiar face headed towards me. I stared at him. He stared at me. Nah! We didn’t kiss or did anything yucky like that but we both stopped in the middle of the street and incredulously, it really was Bob! Of all the places in the world, we both wound up in the same crosswalk. Naturally, we rekindled our friendship. We became best friends. He even married my cousin. Pretty wild, huh?

I don’t think I’ll ever experience that kind of coincidence again — especially now that age has changed people’s faces. Why, I don’t even recognize the face in front of the mirror. Even when old friends send me their photos, most of them are strangers and I can’t even remember where we met. If it ever did happen we’d just stare and wait if anybody remembered anything and then walk away like dogs who bump into each other and smell each other’s butt: “Sniff, sniff! Smells familiar … yup! familiar … see you around buddy! Woof!”

PAST LIVES

I recently watched the American-Korean movie “Past Lives.” This Oscar-nominated tale starts in Korea with a boy and a girl who are best friends. Sadly. the girl’s family moves to America and that’s how their friendship ends. Years later, they reconnect and this is where the movie gets interesting because as I was watching the movie, I had flashes of Déjà Vu: “Strange … did I see this movie before? Why is it so familiar?”

The next day, I thumbed through my library of music sheets to play on my guitar and came across one sheet that gave me pause. It was a draft of a song I had heard a long long time ago. I was fresh out of college and sitting in my desk in my first official job as an Art Director for a small guitar company in New York City. Michael Dadap, a well-known Filipino guitarist came to test some guitars. As he played some classical pieces, he said he was working on a Tagalog song about two former sweethearts who bump into each other in the middle of the street. Although unfinished, the song and the story played like a movie and lingered in my head for days … for weeks … months. No wonder Past Lives sounded so familiar.

Over the years, I’ve tried to reach Michael to find out if he ever completed the song but he disappeared from the face of the earth. In time, I decided to finish the song with fresh Tagalog and English lyrics and even tried to sing it with some friends. But somehow, I just couldn’t find the right mix of musical talent to produce the arrangement in my head.

As I held my squibbled song sheet I decided I’d use SUNO AI (the most popular music-composing app) to help me create the soundtrack. It wasn’t easy. SUNO couldn’t understand many of my “prompts” (ie. AI commands). It took me eight versions to get close to what I had in mind. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised how good SUNO was (you should try it) … it even sang Tagalog phrases with the proper accent and intonation. (BTW, if you subscribe to SUNO, you now own the rights to your creation).

Click on the video below to hear the song in YouTube. Turn on the closed caption option for an English translation. Let me know what you think. Someone said it was sentimental and sweet. If you like it, give me a thumbs up and please share the video. I think many people will relate to this.

REALITY CHECK

Romantic as these old encounters may sound, in real life they may result into sticky situations. Back in the days, I was part of a troubadour band and we had some fans. Recently, after singing in front of a crowd, a lady came up to me and she had this big expectant smile. “Remember me?” she said. I stared at her and nothing clicked. Then I saw her face begin to wither. I realized she must have been one of my fans. What was I to do? Tell her the truth that she was an insignificant part of my life? I smiled back and said “Of course I know you. You used to watch us every time we performed, didn’t you?” Her smile came back and, whether she believed me or not, she walked away with hearts floating in the air and holding on to her dignity.

I rarely go to Facebook. I don’t like the way Zuckerberg has access to people’s lives and how he manipulates the algorithms to our subconscious. Did you know that everything you post in social media (even pictures and videos) belong to these social media companies? It’s the price you pay for their free service. More than the spying, FB is a tempting playground because I heard it connected many past relationships which sadly resulted in several broken marriages. Stop playing with fire, kiddo!

I do remember meeting and dating the prettiest woman in the world. Once I met her, I never let her go. Hard to believe that, out of all the people in the world, my wife chose me. And, by the grace of God, we’ve stayed together for four decades.This for me is the most important encounter of all.

TGIF people!

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Quotes of the week

“Can we go back to using Facebook for what it was originally for – looking up exes to see how fat they got?” — Bill Maher

“Just the way it never rains when you have an umbrella, you’ll never run into people if you look fantastic. But go outside in pajamas, and you’ll run into every ex you have.”— Tim Gunn

“If you don’t leave your past in the past, it will destroy your future.
Live for what today has to offer, not for that yesterday has taken away.” — Anonymous

“I’ve written songs about things like burning my ex-boyfriend’s pictures… I’ve written songs about the times that I’ve been hurt by love. But then one day I woke up and realized that I had hurt somebody… And so, I wrote this song to tell him I’m sorry”— Taylor Swift

“Sadly enough, the most painful goodbyes are the ones that are left unsaid and never explained.”— Jonathan Harnisch

“If you take the ‘L’ out of LOVER. Its OVER” — Anonymous

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” — Ephesians 5:25

“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.” —Galatians 5:14