Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. Although I've read only four of his books so far..... American Gods, Coraline, Neverwhere, and Stardust and I am still hoping and praying to have a copy of Anansi Boys and Fragile Things..... I am nevertheless quite impressed with the diverse texture of his work. Last July 2005 Mr. Gaiman was in the Philippines hence I decided not to miss the opportunity of meeting a world renowned author in flesh :-) Although this video clip is almost 2 years old and the quality is quite poor because I only used my cellphone to capture the whole thing I still decided to share it with you folks and enjoy a glimpse of Neil's visit here in the Philippines.

Rain

It is so HOT.....blistering....scalding.... and I am dreaming of nothing but vanilla ice cream or rain. And speaking of rain my niece sent me this youtube video of Stephen Colbert about Korean pop idol Rain. Woohoo Rain is legitimately big now huh!Making it to the Time magazine's The Most Influential People in the World and being mocked at Colbert Report as well :-)I think you'll enjoy the parody even if you are not into K-pop. It made me forget for a moment the heat of summer.

Election 2007

Together with my brother and my mom I went to the polling precint to cast my vote. Our names were registered at precint number 376A. I never missed an election ever since I became eligible and a registered voter. It's the least that I can do for this country. I love the Philippines.... this is my one and only country. Sure, there are a lot of things that makes me want to pull my hair or bang my head on the wall out of frustration with this country. But here is where I was born and raised, brown is the color of my skin, I am most fluent in my native tongue, and my sensibilities is very Filipino.

On my previous electoral participation I always have a list of candidates that I will vote for finalized or completed days or even weeks before the election day. But today, I am already at the polling booth yet I am still struggling on which senatorial candidates to include in my ballot. I ended up choosing..... for lack of better words the "lesser evil". We all know that our politicians (and I will never call them public servants.....the nerves of these people) do not have any clear ideology, advocacy, or principle that they stand for. Political parties are as good as the last election. Our basis of whom to vote for is the perceived "moral integrity" of the candidate. Yet even under this basis alone I can't choose from the field of 37 official senatorial candidates.

Most of the candidates are there because their showbiz careers are already on the decline or they would like to replace the vacated position of their kin. Some even have the audacity to run even if their sibling, parents or relatives are already seated in the senate and hoarding pork barrel money..... they obviously would like to double the hoard. That is why I would never ever vote for anybody no matter how well their spin doctors have painted their image if they already have a kin in the senate. Dude there are 88.7 million Filipinos and there are only 24 seats in the senate, it is ridiculous to have 2 or 3 seats to be taken by only one family. That is too much!

Anyways after almost 15 minutes of languishing whom to vote I was able to complete my ballot and cast my vote. The almost 100 meter sweltering trek from the precint to the car was almost unbearable because of the intense summer heat. But then again it is the least that I can do, I made myself counted and I did my part.

I Love You Chit

There are a very very few reasons why I am still keeping on with living.

For the longest of so many years I am feeling so tired.

It would be ever so easy to dismiss that life is but a big joke.

Making it not so hard to quit and give up....

But when you know that there is someone who has given more just for you.

Who would give everything even if she has nothing.

Who considers you as one of her source of pride and joy.

Then you try to be strong... believe that it is worth it.

I don't know what my life will be without her.....

I love you mommy

Happy Mother's Day

OR Duty

I woke up early this morning because I am pretty excited with my first OR duty. My duty is from 7am to 7pm. Around past 7am I found myself in OR #4 one of the resident doctor is a gym friend and waved at me to join him. The case is a 39 years old multigravida with diagnosis of breech presentation necessitating CS. The first cut was done at exactly 8:07am and the baby was out at exactly 8:23am. During the whole procedure I was thinking of my mom who have undergone 4 CS operation. Makes me want to go home to hug and kiss her. After the procedure my CI tasked me to assist the intern in providing post-operative care. Around past noon I helped in the transportation of the patient to her room.


After my lunch break I was told to observe and assist in the Optha OR. Most of the cases were Mature Senile Cataract. It was funny assisting the elderly along with their quirks and apprehensions. It also made me realize how much money these Opthalmologists are making.... dude they are really making a lot of money! There were more than 40 patients that was listed for the day. Actually it was already 7pm and I was preparing myself to go home but there were still around 4 patients waiting for their Opthalmological procedure. I went home seriously considering a career in OR nursing :-)

The Lovely Bones

I've read this book about 2 years ago upon the prodding of my niece PG. I was then a bit hesitant about reading this book because I am afraid that it will just make me feel bad and sappy after reading it. But despite my apprehensions I still ended up reading this book. And boy am I so glad I did. This book gave me a new perspective with revenge and justice. You see I am the kind of person whose sense of closure with a conflict is by getting even.... an eye for an eye. I've always believed that true justice also means equality in everything..... But sometimes as I learned with this book vicious things happen to allow us to know our strengths, weaknesses...... that by mourning we shed not only tears.... but also our naïveté.... we learn to live with life's big punches.... learn to be more accepting.... Just read this book guys if you haven't yet.

The reason why I have this sudden surge of excitement after 2 years is because of the buzz I heard from E news. They said that filming of the book adaptation is already on-going and one of my all time favorite director Peter Jackson is on the helm! Wooohoooo... read the book first before the adaptation reached the silver screen.

Little Asia

Yesterday my mom turned 69 and we decided to have dinner outside. We went to Timog in QC to look for a nice resto to try. My brother's girlfriend suggested that we try Little Asia, she just recently read about it in a magazine and according to her the culinary critique was very good. One thing good about this restaurant is that they have valet parking. I suppose this is because it is so difficult even in an ordinary day to find parking there in Timog. The restaurant is not that big but I must admit I am pretty impressed with the interior design of the place. At the entrance is a circular foyer although small but have a very high ceiling... and you will find it gratifying to crane your neck and appraise the artsy ceiling.

We were asked to seat at the waiting area/foyer before we were seated to our table. The main dining hall at the ground floor also have a high ceiling, a paper (i think) lamp/chandelier, and a painting/sculpture/tapestry kind of a piece is on the wall opposite the entrance.

Ok, I am pretty sold with the interior design or ambiance if you must insist. But we came there for the food dude so it better be tasting mighty good. Their menu lists various food coming from Vietnam, Japan, China, and the Philippines. For appetizers we tried their Seafood Rolls and Gyoza. The Seafood Rolls were very sumptuous... the roll is crunchy and the filling is creamy. The creamy filling have bits of various seafood meat and has a sweet taste. The Japanese dumpling Gyoza is equally delicious.

For our thirst quencher or more likely to help us guzzle all the food my dad had his usual hot tea which tasted pretty bland. I ordered for a watermelon shake, my mom had buko shake, my brother had guinumis, and his girlfriend had a Vietnamese coconut drink concuction.

We ordered two kinds of soup..... Crabmeat Soup and Seafood and Vegetable Soup. I tried both soup and they both tasted good.



For our main course we ordered for a fried chicken, fish in sweet and sour sauce, fish in melted cheese and cream sauce, a Vietnamese eggplant dish and a big platter of Yangchow Fried Rice. We ordered fried chicken and fish in sweet and sour sauce just to play safe. It is going to be a gastronomical disaster if these two simple dishes will not taste good. Fortunately both food tasted good. To have a bit of adventure we had two dishes that we haven't tried yet.... the fish in melted cheese and cream sauce and the Vietnamese eggplant dish. The fish in melted cheese and cream sauce tasted great... the sauce is very rich in flavor. However, the Vietnamese eggplant dish is not good... all that I tasted was the cooking oil. Despite the miss with the eggplant dish the overall experience with our gastronomical adventure was great. We opted not to have anything for dessert anymore because we all feel very full and there is just no more room for it. On our way home we decided to visit Little Asia once agin in the near future.

Spidey 3

I saw Spiderman 3 three days ago...... however I liked the 2nd movie more. Will not get into details so as not to be a spoiler. But definitely still a must see movie for this year.

May One Merienda

Labor day finds me and my family in our house..... lounging and killing time by watching TV, sleeping, surfing the net, sleeping, reading, sleeping, eating, and sleeping. Around 4pm my mom woke up and declared that she is not in the mood to cook dinner. I was then by that time dreaming of a nice home made merienda. We are quite tired of having the usual delivery of fastfood meals. Hence, my lil' brother decided to buy palabok and sapin-sapin for merienda cum early dinner. Off he went and I dozed off. I woke up with my brother barging in with three boxes in tow. Alas, merienda wupey! The boxes contained Cassava Cake, Sapin-Sapin and Palabok.

I have always enjoyed eating palabok. I think of it as a pinoy pasta version of seafood spaghetti. When I was still working in a litigation support company some eons and eons of years ago there was a palabok haven in Makati from where we always have a palabok. If my memory serves me right the name of the small resto is Amber's. The palabok they serve tastes great! My lil brother got this particular palabok from Dolor's in Malabon.

Dolor's is also known for their Sapin-Sapin and I have yet to eat a sapin-sapin that doesn't taste great. Regardless from where it is coming from the taste and texture seems the same...I am not complaining though because I like the taste and texture as it is. I also love the idea of variety of kakanin in one big plate...yummmy!

The third box which contains Cassava Cake is quite a surprise. I am not that crazy about Cassava Cake but I don't exactly hate it either. The cassava cake tasted great as well and by the time I'm having my portion of cassava cake my tummy feels very heavy. I resolved not to eat dinner after the cassava cake. I love pinoy foods....