Uglykidjones: Rants and Raves

I’ve always been considered tall by my country’s standards. At 5 foot 10, I often find myself sticking out like a sore thumb in a crowd. I’ve also been at the receiving end of giggles and snide comments whenever I ride a jeepney with a roof that seems designed for people under five feet.

It is said that being tall is an advantage in the Philippines, and a lot of people tell me I should be thankful for my God-given height. But honestly, I don’t feel any luckier, happier or smarter than my countrymen who are shorter than I am.

Now some study is telling me otherwise.

According to a study conducted by two Princeton University researchers, taller people are smarter.

Yeah right. Five-foot-ten me is smarter than my dwarfish math-whiz high school classmate who used to pass his test booklet around for everyone else to copy from. Conversely, five-foot-ten me is dumber than my six-foot-two college buddy whose idea of a good read is the 100 Sexiest Women issue of FHM Magazine.

Incidentally, the women who did the study both stand at about 5 feet 8 inches, four inches taller than the average for American women. Guess they’re pretty smart then, huh?

What utter crap.

To be perfectly honest, this blog’s name is nothing more than a ripoff of a 90s garage band called Uglykidjoe. That’s all there is to it. But people who do know me personally would probably say, "How appropriate" when they stumble upon this blog and learn who owns it. I am indeed fat, ugly, a kid at heart and named Jones. And guess what? I don’t care.

All I care about is committing my thoughts to paper (in this case, to cyberspace), and see if any of my writings would form a pattern that could be of use to my shrink. Just kidding. I can’t even afford to see an arbularyo for my gout.

My friends (or what’s left of them) often tell me I have an opinion on just about everything, from politics to movies to TV shows to sports. This blog is just a way of seeing if they’re right, that they really know me that well.

And oh, I plan too on blabbing a bit about my life, which was going nowhere in a hurry until I got married to a wonderful woman whom I’ve known since I was five. Now there’s two of us going everywhere, at our own pace, and I’ve never been happier.