sure. wait. what?

My friends and I went on a picnic at another park a couple days ago. The whole affair was pretty vanilla. We grilled some barbecue and ate them for supper along with ensaladang talong at kamatis na may itlog na pula.

The conversations were just generic kamustahan; no interesting discussions on pretentious topics or makapaso-dilang chismis. The most memorable part for me was when they called me out for using “jejeje” in text messages. I laughed and said that I am well aware of its “jeje” implications. “Parang meta-jeje lang,” I told them.

They didn’t know what “meta” meant, so I tried explaining it to them by using Edward Snowden’s metadata NSA reveal as an example. The US government tracks metadata, or data about data, about all things online. My friends didn’t know who Snowden was either.

Eventually I ended up just emphasizing the circularity (?) of the concept — meta, meaning something being about itself. Movie about a movie. Book about a book. Something like that.

The exchange made me realize two things. First, my grasp of certain concepts I thought I understood is actually pretty weak. Second, I seriously need to improve how articulate I am. I need to learn how to use the right words in the right order so I can explain myself better.

Meanwhile, here are pictures of trees.