A glimpse of Mort

Horrible is Funny

2008-12-23T13:37:00.004+08:00

If you were a big fan of Doogie Howser MD in the 80's and was extremely delighted to see Neil Patrick Harris ressurected in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and its sequel Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. I have a very good news to y'all folks... Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog... and you can download this 3 part act musical on iTunes. This was conceptualized/penned during the WGA writer's strike. Loads of fun to watch Neil Patrick Harris... and the music and lyrics were really great! I've been watching this 43-minute musical film four times in the span of less than 24 hours... talk about LSS... more like musical last song syndrome woohooo! Quick go to iTunes and download :-)

Genocide

2008-12-07T06:04:00.004+08:00

I slept earlier than the usual last night. I usually sleep past 12 midnight but last night I was already sound asleep around 8 in the evening. After eight hours of sleep I was already awake and it was around 4 in the morning. To kill time I decided to turn on the TV and go to CNN. I found myself crying all throughout the TV program. The program is Christiane Amanpour's documentary on Genocide Scream Bloody Murder.

I learned from that documentary that the word Genocide was coined by Holocaust victim Raphael Lemkin when he campaigned for the international recognition of a law that will define and prohibit Genocide. According to the UN convention Genocide is defined as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

As we all know after the Holocaust mass killings because of ethnic cleansing have continued. Millions upon millions of lives were destroyed in Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, and the most recent one in Darfur, Sudan. Watching the documentary have once again stirred me to be an advocate for the acceptance and respect of diversity in culture, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

I think one way of helping Genocide from not happening again is ackowledging that it happened. This is also a way of respecting the people who were victims of Genocide. Having the death of the Genocide victims mourned and acknowledged is the least that we could do. I hope that you will all find time to visit the Scream Bloody Murder link or better yet look up the screening schedule on CNN and watch the documentary.

30 Something

2008-09-12T13:48:00.003+08:00

I have a toothache and the pain is killing me.... while trying to kill time before going to my appointment with my dentist... I decided to do some inbox cleaning. I have approximately close to a thousand or so unread mails. It's a slow and tedious process because I would like to read and allot time to each email... figured it's the least I could do... to show respect... it's slow... but I'm getting there.

I came across this forwarded email dated January 2006 and the article tickled my fancy. Probably because most of my friends of the opposite gender are in their 30s. So without much further ado I hope you also enjoy reading the article below ....

THIS HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY A MAN.
This is for all you girls 30 years and over.... and for those who are turning 30, and for those who are scared of moving into their 30's...AND for guys who are scared of girls over 30!!!!...
his was written by Andy Rooney from CBS 60 Minutes. Andy Rooney says:

As I grow in age, I value women who are over 30 most of all. Here are just a few reasons why:

A woman over 30 will never wake you in the middle of the night to ask, "What are you thinking?" She doesn't care what you think.

If a woman over 30 doesn't want to watch the game, she doesn't sit around whining about it. She does something she wants to do. And, it's usually something more interesting.

A woman over 30 knows herself well enough to be assured in who she is, what she is, what she wants and from whom. Few women past the age of 30 give a damn what you might think about her or what she's doing. Women over 30 are dignified. They seldom have a screaming match with you at the opera or in the middle of an expensive restaurant. Of course, if you deserve it, they won't hesitate to shoot you, if they think they can get away with it.

Older women are generous with praise, often undeserved. They know what it's like to be unappreciated.

A woman over 30 has the self-assurance to introduce you to her women friends. A younger woman with a man will often ignore even her bestfriend because she doesn't trust the guy with other women. Women over 30 couldn't care less if you're attracted to her friends because she knows her friends won't betray her.

Women get psychic as they age. You never have to confess your sins to a woman over 30. They always know.

A woman over 30 looks good wearing bright red lipstick. This is not true of younger women.

Women over 30 have more tricks up their sleeve in bed. Once you get past a wrinkle or two, a woman over 30 is far sexier than her younger counterpart.

Older women are forthright and honest. They'll tell you right off if you are a jerk if you are acting like one! You don't ever have to wonder where you stand with her.

Yes, we praise women over 30 for a multitude of reasons. Unfortunately, it's not reciprocal. For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed hot woman of 30+, there is a bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants making a fool of himself with some 22-year-old waitress.

Ladies, I apologize. For all those men who say, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free". Here's an update for you. Nowadays 80% of women are against marriage, why? Because women realize it's not worth buying an entire Pig, just to get a little sausage

Barangay Election 07

2007-10-29T18:09:00.000+08:00

I almost missed to take part in the latest elections. I decided to take a cat nap after lunch but ended snoozing for a full hour. My mom woke me up and she was saying something like we are going to miss the elections because the precints will close at 3pm. I jumped off my bed and immediately took a shower and in a jiffy I am spiffy :-D My mom's pretty excited with this whole Barangay elections business... she knows most of the people running for office. She has her favorites and the names of these annointed people were like a mantra that she chants to me and my brother for more than a month already! On our way to the school my mom was in her elements... greeting people... waving... and I have to tug her with more vigor lest we really miss to cast our vote.... my wristwatch shows that it is already 30 minutes past 2pm. The elementary school building housing the precints were teeming with people..mostly volunteers/poll watchers of the candidates. They were wearing either red, blue, green, and yellow shirts the colors of their respective candidates. The floor was dusty and littered with flyers and empty styrofoam containers that probably contained lunch of the volunteers. After a couple of minutes me and my mom casted our vote. We made a quick detour at Jollibee for some take out burgers and fries. We found my dad waiting for us at the porch and I wheeled him inside... we munched and mom amused my dad with her latest tales... after an hour my dad asked me to wheel him to their bedroom... my mom joined him and after a couple of minutes they were both sound asleep.

By the way I voted in favor of my kindergarten classmate and mommy approved Popoy for Barangay Captain :-) and he won...... Mabuhay si Kapitan Popoy!

Buffalo Rules!

2007-10-29T01:37:00.000+08:00

Watch this awesome video guys....

Weekend Wanderers

2007-10-07T22:28:00.000+08:00

A couple of days ago Joan asked me over the phone if I would like to join her, Cat and Father Dane to a road trip to Quezon. She said that we are going to Ugu Bigyan's.... I muttered to myelf ...hmmmm.... that place sounds familiar.... then I realized I just read about it in Sunday Inquirer Magazine... it is one of the "Top 10 Awesome Restaurants of the Philippines." So without hesitation I signed up for the road trip :-)

Joan suggested that we should sleep at her place the night before our trip because we need to hit the road very early in the morning. So we met in Shangri-la around 4pm and Cathy requested that we go to Greenhills because she would like to buy a bogus bag that she will bring to France.... along with the bag all the three of us ended buying Pashminas as well.. I bought two for my mom so she can have something to wrap around with when she feels chilly inside the church ;-) Jong bought some as her pasalubong for her friends in the US when she goes to Illinois and NY on the third week of this month. After more than three hours of shopping... we decided to dine at Via Mare Cafe... as if the dinner was not enough we dropped by at a Supermarket on our way to Joan's place and bought aligue and white wine. As soon as we reached Joan's place she immediately whipped up a pasta with aligue sauce.....uncorked the wine ... then we watched Cathy's wedding video.

Joan warned us that we need to hit the road before 6am but we only managed to sleep around 2am. Nevertheless, Cat and I saw no problem with it as we both intend to sleep inside the car during the whole journey :-) We were like zombies when we woke up a little past 5am however we quickly dashed to the bathroom for a quick shower. A little past 6am we were already at Father Dane's seminary to pick him up. Father Dane was considerate enough to give as a huge bar of chocolate knowing fully well that we haven't had breakfast yet.... hahahahaha. SLEX was a mess... the on going construction renders the super highway almost useless. Surprisingly we were able to reach Ugu’s Pottery Garden Restaurant in Tiaong, Quezon a little past 8am despite the SLEX traffic.

This place is really nice.... there are so many huts where you can just lay back and read a book... or sit back relax and just let the time pass by.... or you can also place a reservation and have lunch at one of the huts for dining. We went to this place primarily to buy potteries... well Joan actually... she bought I think almost 7 thousand pesos worth.... Cat also had a few thousands worth.. and I a few hundreds worth :-) I think Father Dane knew that they're having a very rare 30% discount sale hence we went to this place. He is the one who frequents the place. There is a wide variety to choose from.... all shapes and sizes... ornamental... kitchenware... etc.

When we noticed that it was already almost 10am, we informed the Ugu people that we wished to place a reservation for lunch. Unfortunately they have to decline our reservation because they can't accomodate us anymore! So if ever you decide to come to this place I strongly advise that you place a reservation at least one day in advance. According to Father Dane..... Ugu Bigyan is the one personally cooking the food.... and probably the reason why they were quite unflexible with last minute reservations. We just waited for Joan to finish her business with her loads of purchase then we headed towards San Pablo, Laguna which is just a few kilometers away.

Joan and Father Dane suggested Kusina Salud and to my delight is also included in my venerable :-) Sunday Inquirer Magazine 's "Top 10 Awesome Restaurants of the Philippines" The place has an aviary and pretty decent garden... we opted to have their buffet which cost only 399++ per person ... drinks not included. We really had more than our money's worth... with the variety and quantity of food at the buffet table... there's a pinoy salad bar with paco, itlog na pula, tomato, eggplant, .... etc. There's also a wide array of very Pinoy salad dressing to choose from... bagoong alamang, bagoong balayan, kalamansi, vinegar...etc.

There's a wide variety of food to choose from..... after gobbling my salad I immediately headed to the place where they were grilling pork barbecue and tilapia... being a legitimate jologs that I am.. and the smell of grilled pork is like an enchanting aroma that reverberates sinful sensation from my nostrils to hypothalamus .... I immediately picked 3 skewers of pork barbecue... I also had "laing" which had a very unique creamy texture and slivers of gabi. I also noticed the adobong kalabaw.... but opted not to have it.. I couldn't bear the thought of eating our national beast of burden... It's just me really... Joan said it was pretty good though. There were a lot more food on the buffet table but the 3 skewers of barbecue really made me full to my stomach's brim. I did not even bother to have a taste of their purple ginataang bilo bilo for dessert....

We decided to stretch our legs a little after the heavy lunch.... and Kusina Salud has pretty wide stretch of garden that will allow you to walk and enjoy the flora... After a couple of minutes we decided to head back to the metropolis... Upon reaching Manila we made a detour to the video enclave that sells foreign flicks... I reached home around 8pm and found 8 humongous crabs on our dinner table.... yummy :-)

Loot of the Week!

2007-10-06T06:02:00.000+08:00

Whoa! I bought a hardbound illustrated film script of Neil Gaiman's Mirrormask. The original price is 1,750 bucks and I got mine for only 500 bucks... woohooo!!!

Fun Friday

2007-10-06T02:52:00.000+08:00

Phoebe and I were going to meet her friends Chatchie and Lexi to foray at Quiapo for some precious videos. The meeting place was at Jollibee between the church and Mercury Drugs after lunch . We get off the Carriedo station and started walking to the direction of the Quiapo Church. There were quite a lot of people because it was the first Friday of the month..... and many devotees of the Black Nazarene were there to hear mass. When we got to the plaza in front of the church we started to survey the area to look for the Jollibee in between the church and Mercury Drugs. After some minutes of craning our neck and squinting under the 12 noon sun we finally found the Jollibee restaurant.... it was located at the 3rd floor of a building at the left side of the church. There we found Chatchie waiting for us.... we waited some 15 more minutes... before Lexi arrived...while waiting I took some snapshots of the devotees below.... they already spilled at the side of the minor basilica... because there were so many devotees hearing mass.

When Lexi arrived we immediately proceeded to the video enclave.....We spent more than 2 hours and loads of money scouring the area. Afterwards we decided to head to Cubao for dinner... good thing there is the LRT2 line.... the commute from Quiapo to Cubao only took us a couple of minutes. We had our dinner at Hap Chan... as usual it was a very dependable resto for a decent chinese food and it is very affordable. After our sumptous dinner we decided to stretch our legs and head towards Cubao-X (Marikina Shoe Expo)... there is an attempt since last year to revive the place and turn it into some eclectic mix of art galleries, shops, and cafes.

The first shop that we visited was a store carrying mostly graphic novels.... Frank Miller's, Neil Gaiman's, etc... Actually I found a graphic book of Neil Gaiman's Stardust and I promise myself to comeback and buy myself a copy before Neil's visit here in the Philippines this coming November. I really need to save myself money to be able to buy this book because it is quite expensive.... donations accepted :-) The person who owns the place and tending the shop was a young man possibly in his late 20's.... and he was very engaging to talk with. He really knows his merchandise and his shop is definitely a good source for hard to find graphic novels.

The next shop we entered was Heritage... the place is filled with Filipinianas... and I tell you the place is filled with various artifacts, curios, trinkets, publications, prints, artworks, sculptures., etc. The collection also comes from various circa such as pre Spanish, Spanish, Japanese, American, 60's, 70's, and even 80's. Looking at the various artifacts and whatchamacallits is such a source of fun and even information. You can find yourself lost with amazement with the various things you will find in this shop.

The next shop we entered is quite colorful... the name of the shop speaks for itself "Vintage Pop" so as expected there were lots of items from the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's... This is a pop culture collectors' haven. Looking at the items on display brings back fond childhood memories. The owner was even there and gladly answers inquiries.

The next shop we entered was Halo.... the place is on their first day of soft opening. And I tell you the owners of this cafe/resto is the most friendly and accomodating host I have ever met. Just look for Ces.... then again you don't have to look for her ....she will definitely greet you once you entered their cafe and really make sure that you get the coffee or slice of cake that you want immediately. The nice thing about Halo is that all they serve is organic... they even have a vegetarian burger....nah not the TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) variety... it's made of something else and it is very filling. Their cakes and patries are all sugar free .... the coffee they serve came all the way from Bohol...

After all the walking that we did our feet finally started aching...we dont have to look far because right next door is a brightly lit cafe "Happy Turtle". The decor was fantastic.. they have two big aquariums mounted on the wall and an aquarium in the counter. They serve coffee, tea, fruit shakes and cakes. I decided to have fresh strawberry shake....and dude it is really fresh.. not the creamy milk shake with a tinge of flavor that you'l find in most cafes these days... The place is really such a treat to sip coffee or fruit shake ....because the aquariums dude... they really RAWKS! especially the turtles... watch the video I recorded and embedded in this blog to see what I mean.

The shops here are usually open between 6pm until 9pm... I am a bit tired of going to posh shopping places like the Bonifacio High Street in Serendra... well... hmmmm... not really... but you see... Cubao-X is a definite welcome change... the owners are very accomodating... and the place has a lot to offer... there were some art galleries and cafes that we have yet to visit... plus there's also the ever dependable Bellini's if you are into authentic Italian food at a very affordable price.

Kitchen

2007-10-02T10:21:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was the third time for the Monday Marauders to meet however because of the changes in her working schedule at a call center our friend Alma was not able to join us. Cathy texted me earlier if we are still pushing thru with the supposed date because aside from the fact that a fourth marauder is not available the weather is not actually good. Its been raining for a couple of days already and yesterday seems to be no different from the previous days. But because I still have to go to the metropolis anyway and return the CDs I borrowed from my former Quorum colleagues at Eastgate in Mandaluyong I told her that we should still push thru with our date. Besides, I don't want to have a rainy days on Mondays always gets me down moment.

So my first order for the afternoon is head to Eastgate and meet with my former IT colleagues. We met a week earlier to pay respect at the wake of my former boss' father and our former colleague Helen's wake. This time I will just return the music CDs I borrowed and engage in some small talk. I always enjoy getting in touch with my former colleagues...afterall I've spent almost 9 years? with them day in and day out. I love my former Quorum colleagues and I have a lot of respect for them they are not only an intelligent bunch of people they are also very hardworking. I went inside their 3rd floor office quarter past 4 in the afternoon. Jing said that she will treat us for dinner.... unfortunately I have to decline the offer because I have to meet the other Marauders. Time passed so quickly and before I knew it the time on the wallclock strikes 6pm and I have to bid them goodbye.

Unbelievable but my trip from Eastgate which I think is less than 1Km away from Galleria took one whopping hour! So as expected Cathy and Joan were already waiting for me at the restaurant.....

The first thing that I noticed was the water that they serve in this restaurant... they put it in a big bottle with mint leaves inside..The water tasted minty :-)

Joan's food was served first... a few minutes before I came....she did not touch her food and waited for me to arrive.... sweet.... Anyways the adobong pusit tasted great... you know this is the kind of food that I prefer home cooked... but amazingly they did a pretty good job... It somehow have a different taste. flavor, and texture to it.

Cathy don't want to have anything heavy hence she opted for a fried salmon dumpling? and ceasars salad. The salmon tasted great I had two pieces and the wrap was crunchy and the salmon was not overcooked. The salad have some twist though...not your typical ceasars salad...which Cathy did not like. I on the other hand liked the twist... I find the inclusion of pesto a welcome treat... something different.

I on the other hand had "Barbie's Cue" it was a skewer of pork, vegetables, shrimp, and sausage.. and it tasted great! very yummy!

Cathy and Joan did some shopping... so what else is new? They seem to be buying clothes every week...unbelievable... and expensive clothes at that... women.

Too Cute For My Comfort

2007-09-29T02:18:00.000+08:00

Here's the story... yesterday I heard the phone ring...picked it up...and on the other end of the line... a familiar voice started... Hey! You told me you are not busy this week... how come you are not answering my calls!!!!.... I muttered uh-huh...!@!##$$%%&.... then she said Oh my God I sound like a nagging housewife .... I muttered again uh-huh.... Then she went on...lets meet later and go to a special screening of "No Reservations" at Greenbelt 3....I have already informed Cathy.... then I said OK... end of the phone conversation. It was Joan :-)

We met around 630pm in Greenbelt.... According to Joan there will be cocktails around 7pm prior to the start of the screening..... she suggested that we just grab a bite first before we head to the bar where the cocktails will be served. We decided to go to a nearby restaurant.... Cafe Bola... For appetizers Joan ordered for toasted bread with puso ng saging dip....it tasted great.

Cathy opted for a spaghetti with carbonara sauce....it was sprinkled with lots of crispy bacon bits. The sauce was creamy and flavorful....

On the menu I saw that they have entrees indicated as health friendly food... so being a health buff that I am... really I am... I chose the pasta in olive oil and basil... and wow dude it may be a healthy concoction but it tasted so bland I ended up eating the food of the two girls :-)

Joan ordered for the very sinful spaghetti with aligue sauce... dunno why... maybe to strike a balance... they sprinkled it with some asparagus bits... and it tasted soooooo good. I finished half of the plate...the other half went to Joan :-)

Quarter to eight in the evening we finished our dinner and headed to the new Tropezze Bar (formerly Tavern) for some cocktail drinks. Upon entering the bar we realized that we should have gone there straight instead of dining at another restaurant. Caltex the host of the event was giving out prizes...there was a raffle promo... and since almost an hour have passed since the start of the cocktails our chances of winning anything is slimmer. Another thing is they were serving food... not just hors d’œuvre and drinks... but real honest to goodness mouth watering and chow down to your delight kind of food!!!! Joan's contact person was so accomodating... immediately ushered us to the VIP lounge and offered lots of food to be delivered to our table. But since we were already filled to our stomach's brim with the pasta we had earlier... we have to decline and just ask for drinks. Joan asked for a San Mig Light, Cat for mineral water, and I for an Iced Tea. Within a few seconds our lady host arrived with two waiters with our drinks and two huge platters of Crispy Kangkong and Calamares.

Our lady host keeps on insisting that we try some more drinks.... the bar is overflowing with drinks.... Cat and Joan decided to have a bottle of Raspberry Vodka each... and being an altar boy that I am I asked for another glass of Iced tea :-) Joan can't finish her vodka anymore... and they were both complaining that they can't taste the alcohol as the drink just taste like some sweet juice. So I stared at Joan's 3/4's full of raspberry vodka bottle.... it looks pretty in pink... picked it up and gulped to the last drop... yeah it was sweet and icy cold...refreshing...ahhhhhhh
After a little while it was already quarter to nine in the evening and we have to go to Greenbelt Cinema upstairs for the screening of "No Reservations". I got up from my seat and Whoaaaaa!! I felt dizzzzzzzy... but I don't want to cause any commotion with my two lady friends... they will definitely tease me to no end if I told them that I am a bit dizzy...so I walked slowly and straight as I possibly can.... whew!!!!... and with lots of effort... I made it to my seat without anything embarrassing happening to me.

OK now with the business of the movie "No Reservations".... The movie started extremely well to my opinion... heart warming .... however...my only problem with this movie is when the extremely respectable actors like Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart started acting like they were in a Kim Chiu -Gerald Anderson flick.... now that's a problem....I like the story and the actors were very adequate... It's just that when Catherine and Aaron's character are geting too cute and were like teenage lovers that makes me cringe in my seat. Abigail Breslin's character is the most consistent in my opinion...her character suited her age..and the child actor is deifinitely an actor to watch out for... a very good rival to Dakota Fanning. Minus the cutesie to the max it was still a good movie as a whole.

Domestic Partnership

2007-09-25T21:59:00.000+08:00

It's the 2nd time for the Monday Marauders to meet... the group that was conceived by Alma and which was christened by me. The idea behind the group is that we shall be meeting every Monday while Cathy is processing her travel papers and before she flies to France. It was Monday because Alma and I both have no work/classes on the said day. The usual meeting place is at Figaro in Galleria because Jtt holds office at one of the office towers in Robinson.

I was the one to arrive last...hey I came from the far North..and the pesky contsruction of the small Tullahan River bridge is still not finished.... hence a trip going to the metropolis spells a thousand and one detours. I found the threesome sipping coffee at Figaro but I am already famished hence suggested that we munch some real food before watching a movie.

We had dinner at Chef d'Angelo, we tried the Tuna Pesto Pasta which was surprisingly good and the spaghetti with rich meat sauce. We also had pizza but I forgot what kind we had.....hmmmmmm..... come to think of it I don't remember if it tasted good or not. Well one thing for sure it was not worth remembering and must be not good.

We all agreed we need some good laugh that's why we decided to watch the Adam Sandler and Kevin James starrer "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry". The movie as expected made us laughing out loud inside the cinema. The movie was extremely hilarious and made me forgot that it is wrong to stereotype people. Watching an Adam Sandler flick is always a guilty pleasure for me. And dude Jessica Biel......whoa!!!!!! she was HOT..... lucky bloke Adam Sandler get to touch her all over all in the name of art.... some guys have all the luck.

Well in a more serious note... I am all for domestic partnership.... In my opinion the state/government should recognize that any two person who have committed to live together should be accorded the same status and benefits of people in a conventional partnership. Taking religious convictions aside I am all for the equal treatment of citizens as far as the government is concern. The government should not have any prejudice. I understand the prejudice of religious institutions because that is what their doctrines dictates as far as that issue is concern but the government should not have any prejudice of what kind.

Elliott Yamin Live

2007-09-23T03:49:00.000+08:00

I am a huge fan of the TV show American Idol. I enjoy watching the show from the very crazy audition process up to the grand finals night. I never fail to watch a single episode. Last season 5 my favorite contestant was Elliott Yamin... I was floored when I heard his rendition of Moody's Mood for Love at AI and immediately became a big fan. I also liked his very humble demeanor... and later I learned more facts about him such as he is nearly deaf in his right ear, he has type 1 diabetes, he had no formal voice training, he is very close to his mom.... that made me more interested in him as a person and a performer. I was extremely disappointed when he was eliminated at AI and did not make it to the finals... his voice in my opinion is far superior than the other two finalist. I just have to console myself and hoped that he will have a recording deal. I even promised myself that I will definitely buy his CD.

When I learned that Ayala malls is going to bring him here in the Philippines I really hoped that I will be able to see him perform in person. I later learned from my friend Alma that tickets are limited and we need a ton of luck to have one. I was already feeling bad about the fact that we missed to secure tickets for the Avenue Q musical a few days ago and now it seems that I'll be missing Elliott's gig as well. My original plan was to watch his show in Trinoma but I missed it. Around past 12 noon and am just lounging at home after having lunch I received a txt message from Alma "You still wanna see Elliott? Meet me at exactly 550pm at mcdo Glorietta. I have an extra ticket . We have to be there by 6pm . Seats will be given to others if we are late." I jumped out of our couch and immediately headed to the bathroom to take a shower. I came around 545pm but Alma was nowhere in sight.....there were already alot of people lining up to be seated. I was so worried that we'll lose our seat....around 630pm Alma finally came.

We were seated at the 5th row right of the middle and it gave us a good view of the stage. The Glorietta crowd was a really great audience... they cheered, screamed, stomped their feet, and even sang along with Elliott. Elliott sounds much much better live in person. I've got goosebumps all over with how awesome he sings his songs. He was also profusely sweating despite the pretty cool AC at Gloriettea... must be the heat from the spotlight. However this did not matter a single bit with the way he performed on stage.... he sings like Yamin it :-) sorry.... I can't help myself. Elliott performed for more than 45 minutes.....

Elliot sang around seven songs and one of my favorite was his rendition of "I'm the Man'. I recorded and even posted it in my youtube account....

Baggy Banned!

2007-09-18T23:47:00.000+08:00

I have just read this news on Yahoo about outlawing wearing saggy pants! I've always referred to it as baggy pants I never knew that it was a.k.a. saggy pants... which I think is a more funny alter name... bwahahahaha. However, I find it unbelievable that a person could be sent to jail because of his fashion sense or lack of it...bwahahahahaha. Seriously, I really find it disturbing that because your undies peeped you are considered an offender of the law of the land..... even if lets say we go to the extreme and your butt cleavage showed.....so what... I always believed that the person who see things maliciously will always see things maliciously no matter what. To some people if your ankle shows you are already offensive.... Well to each his own.. but for me... I really don't care.

Coming Soon

2007-09-18T23:40:00.000+08:00

Whoa! I am very excited and extremely looking forward to the silver screen adaptation of two of my favorite books Prince Caspian and Love in the Time of Cholera. Prince Caspian is the book four of the Chronicles of Narnia series of the great C.S. Lewis. The first film adaptation from the series was The Lion , the Witch, and the Wardrobe which is actually the book two because the book one is The Magician's Nephew. However, I am a bit wary with this latest Chronicles of Narnia series adaptation because the first one The Lion , the Witch, and the Wardrobe was not exactly a great movie. Especially with the great Peter Jackson's film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's LOTR series the Book Two of Chronicles' film adaptation seems lacking in imagination and magic. I doesn't help to contain my fears the fact that the director of Book Two which is Andrew Adamson is also the director of Prince Caspian. I just hoped that he would improve immensely. Well despite all these misgivings I am still excited to see on the silver screen Prince Caspian... basically because I remember pretty well how much fun I had reading The Chronicles of Narnia..... and I hope that all the kids in the world get to read this series of books as well. Anyways, according to the latest news this movie will hit the theaters sometime May of next year.

The next movie to watch out for is the film adaptation of one my favorite authors' Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. The film adaptation was directed by Mike Newell, he is also the person who directed Four Weddings and a Funeral and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The screenplay was written by Ronald Harwood, the same person who wrote the screenplay of The Pianist. This movie is slated to be shown in November of this year in the US... an Oscar bait perhaps... I just hope this flick will be also shown on the same date in the Philippines. See ya at the movies :-)

I Know Who Killed Me

2007-09-18T15:07:00.000+08:00

Alma, Cat, and I met at Greenbelt 1 primarily to buy tickets for Avenue Q. I was the last to arrive and saw the two munching fried squid and fried dumplings at Tokyo Tokyo. Since the two girls were already comfy seated we decided to just have lunch there, anyway it's been quite sometime since the last time I dined at Tokyo Tokyo. After I finished my Chicken Tonkatsu lunch I realized why I never bothered for a very long time to eat at Tokyo Tokyo.... For starters I ordered for a big plate.... well the plate I had was not big at all... and the chicken tasted like cardboard... I dunno if it is just because my taste bud improved or the food at Tokyo Tokyo deteriorated....

I am a very in touch with my jologs upbringing and not really difficult to please... I love eating kwek kwek and could be very satisfied with a bag of Lapid's Chicharon, vinegar dip with lots and lots of garlic and chili, and cold rice. I just want value for my Tita Leonie's hard earned money! I used to love eating at Tokyo Tokyo especially in the late 80's when the sole branch was in Makati Shopping Center now Gloryeeeetaah. I still remember my very first Tokyo Tokyo meal... Beef Misono... back then I was not as deft as I am now using chopsticks.... my very first Beef Misono was really good ....meat was ever so tender almost melts in my mouth... and the serving was enormous and it fills my hefty teenage appetite. Times like this you really wished there is no such thing as franchising.... it ruins everything.

After my not so nice lunch and loads of talks with Cat with her honeymoon details at Bora and if she's pregnant already or what.... bugging her to no end... We decided to go to Ticketworld for the golden Avenue Q tickets.... yesterday Alma made an inquiry and she learned that the only available left were the 1,200++ bucks tickets. Although the tickets were a bit pricey at least for a poor bloke like me I still blindly decided to buy them precious tickets. The reviews were very good and also the last musical that I saw was eons and eons of years ago..... RENT. Unfortunately when we approached the Ticketworld booth the clerk told us that there were no more tickets available for next weekend's run.... our only last hope now is that they would extend their run. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed:-)

Part of our plan was to watch a movie, hence we proceeded to Greenbelt 3. Alma suggested that we watch the Lindsay Lohan flick I Know Who Killed Me and I suggested that we should watch the Jodie Foster starrer The Brave One instead. Alma won and we bought tickets for IKWKM, somehow I feel like it is not going to be money well spent. The movie's opening scene saw Lohan pole dancing, which turns out to be an imaginary character of a budding teenage writer Aubrey Fleming (also Lohan).... There's a serial killer on the loose and after a few scenes Aubrey was missing and presumed abducted by the serial killer... the story goes on.. and very predictable. It was so predictable that halfway through Alma guessed who is the serial killer and Cat knew the supposed twist that the movie is yet to reveal....

At the very first few minutes I was kinda expecting the movie to self destruct and burst to oblivion .... but the pain of watching this movie lasts for 105 minutes. The screenplay was unbelievably full of loopholes and cliches. And wow... man... the director Chris Sivertson is like trying to do a David Lynch but not creepy enough to be one... And Lindsay Lohan... why is there so much buzz about this girl... her acting sucks...

Unbelievable as it seems ..... lunch was a big dud..... the tickets were a big disappointment...and the movie was a huge disaster.... I still had a great time. Lessons learned.... franchising spells disaster.... never procastinate.... never ever watch a Lindsay Lohan flick... and it is always the people you are with that matters regardless of the place and situation that makes life enjoyable.

Opulent Dining Experience

2007-09-10T23:43:00.000+08:00

I received a txt message from my friend Cat asking me, Alma, and Jtt to join her and hubby Thierry to a dinner date. Cat just got married 9 days ago and had just been back from her honeymoon in Boracay. Thierry will go back to France on Saturday hence Cat would like to have a get together before weekend. We are supposed to meet around 530pm at Galleria. Unfortunately because of the heavy traffic towards NLEX I was only able to arrive at Galleria around 730pm. They were all waiting for me at Figaro, Cat told me that we should just have dinner at any resto within Galleria since it is already a bit late and they still have another commitment to attend to. I said NO I did not travel all the way from far North and endured more than two hours of traffic just to eat at some restaurant I can find in every mall in the metropolis. And yeah I am fully aware that she is going to foot the tab. Cat and I were arguing as usual and I forgot that her French hubby was with us.... I wonder what he must be thinking? har har har.....

Anyways, I won the battle..... all five of us crammed inside Jtt's Toyota sedan and off we went to a place I have no idea where.... The resto we are supposed to go to is just nearby according to Jtt, only Cat and Jtt had the pleasure of dining there...for what I can remember Jtt's been raving about the place years and years ago..... but we have not gone there as a group until now. When we get off the car I immediately noticed that the restaurant's facade was not very impressive... however... once you stepped inside you'll be in for a big surprise. The place is teeming with curios, trinkets, antique furnitures, potteries, chinas, and much much more. It is like inside a huge kaleidoscope and the burst of colors is simply overwhelming.... in a very nice way.

We came there primarily because according to my companions the food in this restaurant is really good. Cat and Jtt were the ones who took the reponsibility of placing the orders to the waiter. The first food to be served was the Catfish with Mango salad and boy oh boy the catfish is like a swirling flake of a snake.....it looks soooo good and taste equally good as well. The catfish is crunchy and the dressing and mango compliments the taste of the cruchy fish very well.

The shrimp dumplings is also very good...... it tasted great and I had mine without dipping it in chilli sauce. The wrap almost melts in your mouth and the shrimp is very succulent.

The shrimp gambas is also good...... the spiciness is not overwhelming... just enough to enjoy the heat without scampering for a glass of water.

When we were still on our way to this restaurant Jtt mentioned to me about this particular sinigang that they serve at this restaurant. At first I find the main ingredient to be a bit weird and I am a bit unconvinced about the whole thing. However, the moment I tasted the Corned Beef Sinigang I realized that using corned beef makes sense if not a genius of an idea. The meat as expected was very tender and the soup was sour enough to make one cringe in delight.

The spring rolls' wrap was crunchy and the filling was nice and chewy, also the dip compliments the taste of the spring rolls.

Cat was looking forward to tasting again the Lechong Kawali with Bagoong and I can't blame her. The pork was crunchy yet it was not dry and the bagoong had an equal balance of sweetness and saltiness that enhances the flavor of the deep fried pork.

The Fettuccini and Maya-Maya with Pesto Sauce was likewise excellent.... the fettuccini was al dente and the fish was neither rare nor overcooked. The pesto sauce was creamy and flavorful.

The only entree that did not impressed me favorably was the Osso Buco. I've heard so much about this Italian dish and I was looking forward to tasting my first Osso Buco. The meat was very tender but the taste was so bland. From what I've heard it should be a braised veal in olive oil, white wine, stock, onions, tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, carrots, celery and lemon peel. Well I guess I'll have to try my next Osso Buco in some other Italian restaurant.

The last entree was the Bistek Tagalog and it tasted great.... the beef was very tender and the flavor of soy sauce is very mild that allows you to taste the beef.

We were all quite full and not sold to the idea having any dessert.... however there was one small voice in our group of five that insisted that we should try even just one dessert that we are going to share to complete the whole dining experience. I don't remember who it was but it was definitely not me. Anyway, we decided to have Creme Brulee in honor of our French host. As we all know creme brulee is a custard with caramelized sugar crust. Thierry took the first crack and tasted the creme brulee.... and he said it was excellent... just like what he usually have in France.
To quench our thirst we either had Dalandan Shake, Dalandan Juice, Watermelon Shake, or Beer.

My dining experience in Cafe Juanita was a great adventure..... it was a visual and gastronomical delight. I will definitely go back there over and over and over again.

Chinese Food

2007-09-09T23:28:00.001+08:00

We went to church early today and attended the 11:15 am service. I noticed that there were more people compared with the 5pm service. Anyways the theme for this month is "Heroes" and the bible hero was the lady who helped Joshua and friend in their scheme to capture Jericho? I'll get back at this post and verify if I got it right and hoping that no UP-VCF people is reading this....har har har

The service ended around 1pm and my dear brother decided that we just have lunch at the farflung MoA. He is also probably sick to the idea of going to Trinoma this time as what to we have been doing for the past decades (figure of speech folks). Anyways since it is Sunday there is not much traffic in the metropolis and we were able to reach MoA in less than an hour. And dont worry my family is big on late breakfast close to brunch actually hence late lunch is not as "gut wrenching" as it seems.

Anyways we decided to have lunch at Mann Hann...... we have not been to a chinese resto for a couple of months already. We almost gave up on the idea when we saw the long line of people waiting to be ushered to their table. However our laziness to find another resto paid off because after a couple of minutes we were already seated. And to add another bonus I bumped into some of my former colleagues from Quorum.... they were celebrating because one of them passed the recent nursing board exam.

Anyways we already placed our orders while we were waiting to be seated hence food were almost immediately served when we were seated. The first plate to be served is the Spicy Squid. I am not a big fan of squids mainly because most restaurants are not able to cook it without turning it into like rubber. However this one is not that tough but not spicy either. This is the only plate served with lots of left over.

The next plate that was served was the steamed fish with garlic... this particular dish was my suggestion. I forgot to ask the waiter though what kind of fish it was? In my little experience in dining out steamed fish with garlic always taste good and they all somehow taste the same..... I have yet to taste something with a different punch.

Another all time favorite is the broccoli with garlic in oyster sauce,

my only complaint with this one is that some of the stem is quite tough... it should have been steamed or cooked longer to make it more tender.

The fourth food to arrive at the table is the soup... which in my opiniom should have been served earlier. The soup we ordered is Ho To Tai ... I dunno if I messed up the spelling yet again, but that is how it is pronounced :-) It was piping hot and tasted great.... and I loved the various ingredients of veggies, egg, tofu, mushrooms and taste and aroma that it gives.

The next items that were served was Lechong Kawali and Fried Chicken.... I have no big expectations with these two entrees and true enough it tasted without much difference from the other resto that I have gone to. It tasted good but nothing great either.

The last to be served and rather extremely belatedly was the Shrimp Tempura, this too is my suggestion in exchange to my original order of Fried Scallops, they run out of scallops or something. The shrimp is quite big... I dunno if it should be called prawns because it was quite big and still succulent even though it was fried.

We also ordered for two big platters of chinese fried rice..... the fried rice is flavorful... however I find it extremely greasy.... makes me pray for my dear old arteries for every spoonful of rice I shove in my mouth.

Overall I was a bit disappointed with my Mann Hann lunch.... I used to remember how worth the wait to be seated was once you started eating in this resto.... that was in Megamall though. I dont know if it is because the crowd was so big that they somehow sometimes slip on the quality... We were in Mall of Asia afterall... the biggest mall in the land. I'll try to eat there again but not when the crowd is big.

Loot of the week!

2007-09-04T18:14:00.000+08:00

Wupey! I got myself a copy of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner for a measly amount of forty bucks..... ahuh!!! that's like more than 10 times cheaper than the usual price found at the bookstores in the metropolis. As usual I found my copy at my all time favorite store.... Booksale!

I don't mind if the book's cover is torn and have lots of creases, stain, and what not.... I think of it as something like the book have acquired some character :-) Well almost half of my books came from Booksale so they all have some value added character in them.... Sometimes I even have books with notations at the pages and it tells something about the previous owner. I also look at it sometimes in a quirky romantic angle..... like..... you know..... because most of the time these books have changed owners, been from other countries, have either gathered dust for so many years or have been read by so many people and in the end the book and I found each other's company....harharhar....

Anyways..... I am excited and can't wait to start reading this book... I hope I wont cry a river....like how Butch described the effect of this book to him... well... will see....

Moooooooooo

2007-08-29T23:19:00.001+08:00

I went toTrinoma to buy a pair of pants that I will use for my best friend's wedding. I was really making the rounds of all the shops selling men's clothes in search of a pair of black pants at a very very low price. It took me almost 2 hours to find a pair that will fit my large waistline and my small budget. That's how difficult shopping for a simple pair of pants is when you are as poor as a rat. Anyway, I ended up buying a 65% Polyester and 35% Rayon pants from Arrow for two thousand bucks. The whole enterprise left me with an aching feet, grumbling tummy, and depleted wallet.

A couple of days ago I received an overseas call from my friend Tuding of Texas and she was excited about some blog/review of a restaurant in Trinoma. I do remember this restaurant because everytime I go to Trinoma somebody would hand me a flyer of this resto. The name of the restaurant is Five Cows (Resto and Ice Cream Bar) it is located at the same level where the cinemas are. Since I am already in the same neighborhood (so to speak) I decided to give it a try. The place is really nice....it has a quaint comfy country feel.... the walls are painted white... the lighting of the place makes it aglow.... warm and cozy.

I immediately placed my order and after a couple of minutes they dimmed the whole place and they started chanting/singing.... and then they set a cake on flame at the table of two ladies next to mine...whoaaaa... after the commotion... I asked the waiter the name of the white puffy cake they served flambe... it was Flaming Alaska.... now I tell myself I will definitely go back to this place even just for that :-)

For starters I decided to have their Five Cows' Asian Salad. It has a very generous strips of crab meat and they also included what appears to me as nori cut into strips... the lettuce were crispy..and the salad was sumptous... actually the salad alone immediately made me feel full.

Good thing I opted to have a Primavera Panini as my main course because I wont be able to have any room for my dessert if I had some pasta. They serve the panini with some chips and garlic mayo dip. Halfway with my panini I exerted effort to pace myself... I dont want to be too full and not be able to apreciate my dessert.

I had Blueberry Rumble ice cream for dessert...and it tasted great... I can't wait to try the other flavors...concoctions they have... there's even one named Monkey Business..now after the Flaming Alaska thing... can you blame me for wanting to try this one too.... They also have almost a dozen variations of ice cream cakes... I haven't tried ice cream cakes for decades... I'll definitely go back to Five Cows. Moooooooooooo

The Bourne Ultimatum

2007-08-23T23:40:00.000+08:00

It is almost a record of some sort for me.... I have only seen one movie for almost a month! I usually average 3 movies a week... and this does not include movies I saw via DVD or cable. When I say movies I saw... I meant movies I saw at the theater. Anyways, I decided to squeeze in a time to watch The Bourne Ultimatum..... Matt Damon afterall is one of my all time favorite actors. I've been a big fan eversince Good Will Hunting. I went to the cinema and watched GWH 7 times during its run in the metropolis!

Anyways I love this movie.... the "chasing scenes" were unbelievable... may it be by foot... motorcycle... or car. The movie starts off where it ends from the last Bourne movie... Bourne is hot on trail to find out why he became an assassin. The exotic locations of Europe adds allure to the mersmerizing glimpse in the world of CIA. I'll stop here so as not to end up a spoiler to those who have not seen this flick yet.

Sing it like Yamin it!

2007-08-21T03:12:00.000+08:00

Cachalot

2007-08-20T09:53:00.000+08:00

cach-a-lot - [kash-uh-lot, -loh] n. Any of several large, toothed whales of the family Physeteridae, especially Physeter catodon or P. macrocephalus, of tropical and temperate oceans, whose massive head has a cavity containing sperm oil and spermaceti and whose long intestines often contain ambergris.

I stayed up late watching the replay of the 2007 Spelling Bee Competition shown at ESPN. Cachalot is one of the words that caught my fancy and caused one of the contestant to be eliminated. I cannot help but marvel at the abilities of these kids to spell. You see I am very terrible when it comes to spelling..... well actually I am not very good with languages. If you'll continue reading this entry you'll definitely realize that. As a nursing student I am having difficulty remembering the correct spelling of those pesky scientific and medical terminologies. In my examinations I usually struggle with spellings and more often than not my incorrect answers are because of incorrect spellings.... sometimes I protest and tell my professor... isn't it that the thought that counts? ;-)

I am not a smart or intelligent student or a person at that if you must insist. I knew about this early on in life..... that is probably one of the reason why I usually stay quiet in one corner most of the time....especially when I was a young kid. I learned to hang around smart people and keep quiet and just listen to what they have to say. I learned a lot of things by doing that ;-) Also, if you stay quiet you'll get to know the person better.... actually because of my being meek and silent I've learned to discern if the person is just a smart aleck or really intelligent.

In my previous job of 9 years in an IT company... I had the opportunity of working with so many people of various academic, social , and sometimes racial background. Some of my colleagues are really smart and there were also quite a number of pretentious pompous smart a**. My immediate boss is a magna cum laude Creative Writing graduate from UP...imagine how long it takes for me to reply from her e-mails...bwahahahahahaha. My best friends from this IT company were my former supervisor Cat who later on decided to teach English in China, my former HR manager jtt who is now a very successful HR practitioner and have worked in various multinational companies.... and yeah she is 2 years my junior and she now owns a 3.4 M house, 2 cars, have obtained 2 masters degree one from DLSU and one from UP, and 2 laptops...bwahahahaha and my other close friend there was Yul who finished his Economics degree in UP in 3 1/2 years and later on went to speak in front of statisticians from around the globe in Germany where his masters degree paper was chosen in this convention .

Close to home I have a niece who just recently graduated from UC Berkely with a degree in Biology and another niece who early on was handpicked by Che Che Lazaro to host the now defunct children show 5 and Up... graduated from Philippine Science High School and went back to UP to study Biology. Being around these people have made me realize my place under the sun.... where I stand in the general scheme of things.

I have always been good in drawing... in pre-school..... I remember that aside from coloring my coloring books I also take joy in drawing the pictures in the coloring book.... I dont trace...I draw the pictures. When I was in my pre-teens my dad would like me to be tutored by his painter/ fine arts professor friend. It never materialized because I already have my piano lessons to keep me busy then. I am also an above average student in math... I am pretty good in imagining things and I used it to understand mathematics :-) But I suck in memorization... I cannot even remember the names of people... and to make things worst... my mom is also extremely forgetful...My genes are working against me :-(

One of my problem as a student and a person is my complacency. I also do not have any sense of competitiveness. I just always wing it in school and work. I have simple dreams and very happy with my anonymous existence. I even find it extremely absurd with the amount of energy and emotional stress my former co-workers put into their work and upon themselves just to be noticed by the powers that be. I hope by now they have realized that it was not that worth it at all. Some relationships were even strained just because of the slightest typos or stupid words.

Next year hopefully I shall be graduating from Nursing School. This is why I am now a bit worried because with graduation includes the impending School Qualifying Exam, Local Board Exam, CGFNS, and NCLEX that I will have to take. I am not very good with memorizing hence my general plan is to start reading all my books beginning next month. I am hoping to read all my books at least 3 times. This mean that I will cut down or altogether stop reading non academic related books :-( Wish me luck ....

By the way, Evan O'Dorney, a 13-year-old California eighth grader, was the Spelling Bee winner. The winning word was....

serre·fine [sâr-fn, sr-] n. A small forceps for clamping blood vessel.

Authentic Italian and French Chef

2007-07-18T01:27:00.000+08:00

My niece have been telling me for the longest time to try this sort of hole in the wall Italian restaurant tucked inside the Marikina Shoe Expo. I don't even know if this complex/compound is still called as such because I have never gone to this place since I was in grade school. The place was then more famous for custom made shoes.... and yeah I used to have my shoes custom made when I was in grade school... because that was the norm then ok...and it was eons and eons of years ago. She's been raving about how good and affordable the food and also that the chef and proprietor is Italian.

Anyways since my best friend Tuding is in town for a brief respite from her nursing responsibilities in College Station, Texas I decided to bring her to this place. The place is not that great but not bad either...also, I didn't go to this place for the interior design anyways. For appetizers we ordered grilled sea food... actually the menu is written in Italian with an English translation unfortunately I forgot to note down the Italian words. The grilled sea food tasted great... I did not taste any spices to enhance the taste. I liked it that way because sometimes the spices tend to overpower the main ingredient... in this case however you can really taste and somehow feel the fresh flavor of the sea... and it is quite tasty and serves it purpose as an anit-pasti.

Tuding had a late merienda that's why she just opted to have caesar's salad. I on the other hand had pasta with pesto sauce. Previously when I am trying out a new Italian restaurant I usually ordered for Carbonara.. if the carbonara is not good then it is not worth a second visit. However these days I am pesto crazy.... I love the color green and also the taste brought about by the fusion of basil, olive oil, and nuts.... it wouldn't hurt if arugula is added to the concoction. Anyways the pasta with pesto sauce tasted excellent... kudos to the authentic Italian chef of Bellini's.

After enjoying Italian cuisine we opted to watch a movie. Tuding rarely watch a movie in the US. In her more than one year and a half's stay in Texas she had seen only one movie. We watched the advance screening of Ratatouille at Gateway. I enjoyed and loved the movie's color and animation. The lead character Remy is so endearing... the movie's song although in french was surprisingly enjoyable and really pleasant to the ear. Bon appetit!

Transformers

2007-07-02T10:32:00.000+08:00

Woohoo! I just saw Transformers yesterday and the movie rocks big time. I have seen all the sequels of previous years blockbusters like Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Carribean 3, Ocean's 13, Fantastic 4 and they have somehow failed to measure up with my expectations. But dude not with Transformers..... the movie is packed with action and the screen blasts with awesome visuals. This movie is my favorite popcorn flick so far for this year!

Standard Room

2007-06-30T10:57:00.000+08:00

I was at Shangri-la Makati yesterday for the send-off/slumber party of my former colleague in Quorum. Che is going to try her luck in Israel, we all wished her bon voyage but more than anything else we also prayed for her safety once she is already in this unstable country. Quite a number of my former colleagues in this IT company are already scattered around the globe in pursuit of better living condition. Some are in Europe, Middle East, but most are in the US. I hope that they are all in good health and doing well in their new endeavors.

Anyways, I had lots of fun. It is always great to get in touch with friends and former colleagues. This particular group that I had party with are from the "Archive Dept." It also helped to make it more memorable that the venue for this get together is the posh Shangri-la Hotel in Makati. I now rarely step inside the 5 star hotels of this archipelago, unlike before or some 4 years ago when I was still connected with Quorum. I was then usually the one tasked by my superior to the guest relations assignments for our counterparts from the US. The task usually involves touring the guests in and out of the metropolis, dining with them, and doing activities even as mundane as taking a dip in the hotel pool. Our guests are always billeted in EDSA Shangri-la and I had the opportunity of soaking up on all the amenities the hotel provides from having daily breakfast at the cafe to having a chauffeur driven car take me home.

The slumber/send-off party was held in a "standard room" which is quite impressive in size. The room has a bed that can accomodate 7 people, it has a shower and tub, pretty decent bar, and a nice view of the Makati Shopping Center. The party started around 630 pm and ended in the following morning. Shalom ;-)

Haircut, Orson Scott Card, and Halo Halo

2007-06-19T22:03:00.000+08:00

Today I was supposed to go to my former school to process the release of my TOR. I would like to know how many units have been officially credited to me a year before my graduation in nursing school. I have heard that some students learned belatedly that they are not qualified to graduate because of some uncredited units. So you can't blame me if I am scared as hell and really need to have my academic credits evaluated immediately. Unfortunately I was only able to escape from home around 2pm and was stuck in traffic for almost an hour via McArthur Highway. I decided to scrap my plan and transfer ride and take a bus ride to SM city via NLEX.

While in the bus I just decided to go and have a haircut at SM city so as not to waste my whole afternoon. The moment I got off the bus I immediately proceeded to David's to have a haircut. Unfortunately the salon was full of clients waiting for their turn to have a haircut. I was quite disappointed that my plans for the day seems to be going awry. The front desk clerk of the salon told me that I have to wait for an hour and a half for my turn. I decided not to list my name and just headed to The Block and go to Fully Booked.

I usually go to Fully Booked to torture myself...... mainly because the books on display are really nice but very expensive and I feel bad because I can't afford to buy even one book. So why not go there today when it seems that Murphy's Law is bound to happen for me today anyway. Why not cap it off with another depressing situation. So there I find myself scanning books one by one, shelves after shelves. I saw Cormac Mc Carthy's The Road... hmmmmm... I muttered... would like to read that one... Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss... yeah that too!.... Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.... uh huh this one too.... Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys and Fragile Things.... by the time I reached Terry Pratchett's.... I find myself smiling and daydreaming. I am imagining that I am a security guard assigned in graveyard shift where everynight the book store is mine and I have all the books to myself.

After almost half an hour of lingering in an almost transcendental imaginations I decided to exit the store. But lo and behold I noticed a table filled with books on sale... checked the titles and the price... nah cant afford them either. However, I noticed that there were books underneath the table and piled on the floor. Went down on my knees and alas found three Orson Scott Card books and they are on 50% discount sale and I can afford them! Woohoo! The three books are part of a five volume "Homecoming" series. I bought volumes 1, 3 and 4, The Memory of Earth, The Ships of Earth, and Earthfall. I just have to scour all the Booksale store for the two other volumes, The Call of Earth and Earthbound.

Feeling somewhat victorious of somekind I decided to go to the new mall across The Block. Buoyed up by my precious purchase I felt like walking on sunshine even though it was already around 6pm. I have not yet fully toured Trinoma even though I have been to this mall thrice. It was a big surprise for me to find a David's salon right smack near the 2nd level entrance across the Block. To make things even better there were hardly any customers inside.

I was immediately ushered by an assistant to have my hair washed and shampooed. After washing my hair the stylist asked me if I would like to take advantage of their 50% discount on hair treatments. She advised me to have an oil treatment since my hair is pretty dry and coarse. It will only cost me 275 pesos.... by the way, the stylist is extremely pretty and her name is Beverly. So without hesitation I acquised with her suggestion. Her assistant...a very tall guy treated my hair with some paste like substance and then he wrapped my hair with a plastic wrap. He then started massaging me.... I am not quite sure with what he is doing... but it felt like he is squeezing me too much... my proud and mighty biceps and triceps seems to be losing the muscle tone I have tried to achieve with years and years of sweating it out at the gym. After 20 minutes or so... my hair was once again washed and the pretty stylist starts cutting my hair. After 30 minutes more I am already sporting a shorter do. By the way the discount is good only until the end of the month!

By time I left the salon I am already famish hence I immediately looked for a cheap place to dine. During our previous visit in Trinoma my brother saw a Razon's booth at the foodcourt and it has a long line of customers. I also remember my friend jtt telling me that we should try driving to Pampanga and try the pancit luglog and halo halo at Razon's. She swears with how good the food albeit the cheap price. I decided however to have the tapsilog and halo halo instead of the more famous pancit luglog and halo halo because I am extremely hungry. Anyways, the food was great the halo halo was extremely creamy.I will definitely go back there and try the other variations of sinangag at itlog, sisig, etc.. Big thanks to Trinoma... we dont have to drive all the way to Pampanga to dine at Razon's. Wooohoo! I had a great day despite the slight detours ;-)

Wanted: Vision Impaired Lady

2007-06-10T02:46:00.000+08:00

Aha! Now I know what to look for in a lady to be attracted to me. She should be more importantly have a poor eyesight... then I guess she'll look at me in a different light...bwahahaha. I happen to stumble into this celebrity-look alike program/website and I used my blurry picture and the result were bewildering. I have never in my wildest imagination ever thought that I have anything similar in facial features with the celebrities that were selected. Geez I should also always set a date in a very foggy place.

Neil Gaiman

2007-05-21T23:38:00.001+08:00

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

2007-05-15T14:37:00.000+08:00

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

2007-05-14T22:41:00.000+08:00

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

2007-05-13T20:22:00.000+08:00

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

2007-05-12T20:50:00.000+08:00

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

2007-05-11T08:54:00.000+08:00

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

2007-05-10T00:49:00.000+08:00

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

2007-05-05T03:14:00.000+08:00

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

2007-05-01T18:48:00.000+08:00

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....

Tagaytay Food Trip

2007-04-29T23:23:00.000+08:00

Once again my family decided to venture out of the city for a change. Because of logistics we just prowl the city most of the time. However, this time the intense summer heat provoked us to travel to the nearest and cheapest destination outside the metropolis. Around past 10am we were all cramped in our sedan cruising the SLEX towards Tagaytay.

Around 1130 am we were already at Tagaytay and comfortably seated inside the dining hall of the Antonio's Restaurant's "The Grill". For appetizer we had"Chicharong Bulaklak" and we concocted our own dip out of the available selection of various condiments on the table. The Chicharon is crunchy and tastes good making one forget for a moment the cholesterol and saturated fat one is going to digest for every piece.

To guzzle down all the food and quench thirst both my old folks opted for a Buko juice while my niece and I opted for a refreshing watermelon shake. Out of curiousity my lil' brother ordered for a mango shake with sago and his girlfriend had soda. I am always partial to watermelon shake I really find it refreshing. I even remember having 6 glasses of watermelon juice while eating at the buffet of Shangri-la Hotel Cafe unmindful that it will do me no good since it is eat all you can.

The entrees we chose have no theme at all it was purely based on what seems interesting base on the menu. We had Nilagang Bulalo, Crab Rice, Grilled Stuffed Bangus, Grilled Squid, Fried Chicken, and Ginataang Kalabasa. I enjoyed the nilagang bulalo, the meat is very tender and full of flavor. The only mild setback is it was not hot enough because I like it piping hot close to scalding my lips. I find the Crab Rice nothing extraordinary I can taste the egg more than the crab meat in the rice. The Grilled Stuffed Bangus is good ....I dont think you can't go wrong with bangus anyway for crying out loud. The Grilled Squid is a bit rubbery for me... this is the reason why I do not ask for it most of the time...I rarely find a restaurant that can serve a squid that is not rubbery. The most disappointing though is the ginataang kalabasa. It was served like a very gooey mashed potato... which I find very weird. Surprisingly the fried chiken is really good... the meat is very tender and the skin is crunchy.

One thing great about the whole business of driving to Tagaytay for lunch is the great vista that the Taal Lake and Volcano provides. If only for the scenery it was all worth it.

After lunch we dont know where to go and what to do. My brother made a little ocular inspection of the vicinity and found a Starbucks along the slope of the mountain with a great view of the Taal lake. We spent the rest of the afternoon idling at the two large couch reading YES and Time magazines that we brought with us. My dad had a large tea, while my mom opted for the Strawberry Frap, and the rest of us had their new drink Java Banana Chip Frap. We read, gulped coffee, ate cake, enjoyed the view and each other's company.

When we have read all the magazines we brought with us and drinked our coffee, we decided to call it a day in Tagaytay. On the road we can not help but be enticed to stop and buy some fruits at the fruit stalls that lined the side road. I always enjoyed gawking at these stalls I think they add color and rustic charm to the whole idea of driving out of town. Anyways, we ended up buying ...what else...watermelons and mangosteens.

We were already along the SLEX around 6pm and we decided to exit at Alabang and go to ATC. We stretched our legs and walked about in the mall. After a couple of minutes we decided to have dinner at Italliani's. We had Sicilian Chicken Salad, Pasta Cippiano, and Pizza. This time other than my dad's penchance for hot tea...we all had "bottomless" iced tea. After the sumptous dinner we brought some bread at Bread Talk and checked out the sale at Power Books. We then once again hit the road and reached home around 10pm.

Pan's Labyrinth and The Host

2007-04-27T09:59:00.000+08:00

Hah! I finally was able to see Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. I've been waiting to see this movie on the big screen for the longest time. There were lots of opportunities for me to see this flick via DVD but I know that this kind of movie is best seen in wide screen hence I've been waiting like crazy the past months.

The long wait and anticipation did not disappoint me ...It was all worth it. The screen was richly and lusciously painted with images of a child's imagination. The story is very relevant and current even though the setting was during Franco's Spanish civil war. It is amazing to watch how the stamina of a child to endure the adversities of life is thru a whimsical world. If only we can all see the world thru the eyes of a child I wonder how more interesting and magical life would be.

The second movie I saw yesterday was "The Host". This is a Korean movie directed by Bong Joon-ho. I learned about this movie last year from my niece. This movie premiered during the Cannes Film Festival in May last year and received very good reviews. It is also noteworthy that the movie broke all box office records in Korea and won several awards.

I enjoyed watching this movie.... I guarantee you that it will make you scream, laugh, cry, and think. The movie has a very obvious political undertones regarding the current international political issues. Also, Korea have been churning out countless excellent movies for almost two decades now and I suggest that you guys start watching these flicks and catch the Korean wave. Watch these two movies if you haven't seen them yet.

Slumber, Organic, and the Reaping

2007-04-15T09:26:00.000+08:00

Last thursday Cat told me that we are going to sleep again at jtt's place this weekend. I was a bit surprised because we were just together last weekend for three days. This time the plan was jtt will cook us dinner then slumber then wake up early because we are going to take a dip at the clubhouse's swimming pool, visit the organic market at Salcedo Village and then go to Quiapo. The meeting place is Rob's Galleria around 6pm and I came around 7:30pm :-) As usual there is a change of plan and a telltale sign of what will happen to our planned itinerary. We decided to just eat at Chef d' Angelo because jtt is already too tired to cook for dinner. After gobbling a tummyful of pasta and some small talk we headed to jtt's abode. Before I knew it I found myself again snoring at this bedroom.

I woke up early and started surfing the net...... jtt's uber house is wifi hotspot...did I say it right? I am not a tech geek. Anyways around 8am I went to take a bath and by 9 am jtt took her turn at the bathroom and afterwhich went down to prepare our breakfast. Cat was the last to wake up and bathe. We went downstairs to find the dining table with eclectic mix of corned beef sauteed in garlic, onions, and potato, Japanese rice, and Soba. After breakfast it was already past 10am hence we decided to scrap the plan to take a dip at the pool because we dont want to miss the organic market at Salcedo Village. So off we went to Salcedo Village around 10:30am. The place is teeming with vendors with all kinds of trade. I particularly enjoyed gawking at the vegetable produce for sale.

I noticed that there were a lot of expats hanging around the market and the place is filled with conyo people. Well at least my presence have turned the conyo barometer a notch lower :-) Anyways, other than fruits and vegetables, there were also some cooked foods, pastries, breads, spices, fish, meat, plants, and various crafts and trinkets for sale. I ended up buying a butter cake, suman of various flavor (i.e. mango, cassava, langka, etc.) and vegetables for salad. One stupid setback though.... I later realized that I forgot to buy lettuce.

Around 12 noon the heat was already so intense that we immediately decided to go inside the nearby Starbucks. Fortyfive minutes later and after guzzling my venti vanilla drink we decided not to continue the trip to Quiapo because of the intense summer heat. Left with nothing else to do we decided to watch a movie, we then drove to the nearby Greenbelt 1. Cat suggested that we watch The Reaping with no other options available and a bit apprehension we ended up watching The Reaping. My initial inkling about this movie did not prove me wrong. I can't understand why Hillary Swank did this movie in the first place. The two Oscars she have garnered should make her more choosy with the kind of films she makes. I dont like this movie at all. It has its share of scare but that is all it has to show. After the disappointing movie Cat suggested that we look for a wedding dress.... she plans to get married this year and would like to have a wedding dress off the rack. After doing the rounds in all the boutiques and department stores in Glorietta and Greenbelt. Cat ended up realizing that the options is probably not even better off from what she would find in Divisoria. She resolved then that she would either just buy from Divisoria or Hong Kong for her off the rack wedding dress. After this we all felt so tired and decided to go home.

Sun-kissed at Potipot Island

2007-04-08T22:57:00.000+08:00

Sometime last February my friend jtt was raving about a nice beach in Zambales. That's why this lenten week it was no surprise that she suggested that we spend the weekend there. Cat and I slept at jtt's new and uber nice house so that we could embark early for the long drive to Zambales. Jtt woke me up around 3am and I immediately took a very quick shower (30 minutes tops) then Cat and jtt took turns to the bathroom and we were on the road around 4am. It was quite a thrill to drive around the metropolis in the wee hours of the lenten weekend morning. There is hardly a vehicle but the car we are in.

The NLEX is really great because our ride the whole length up to our exit in Pampanga was very smooth. However, around 7am or 3 hours on the road we can already feel our stomach grumbling. Unfortunately we cannot find any open establishment and around 8am we are already at the part of our trip too far to have any fastfood joint. So it was such a delight for all of us three to see a signboard that reads Jollibee 5 KM ahead, we followed and waited for each signboard like crazy every kilometer. We cannot contain our delight that Jollibee have reached Iba, Zambales. We were like a bunch of kids drooling and jumping for joy by the mere sight of the Jollibee mascot. We all had a very heavy Jollibee breakfast inside the car...thank God for drive-thrus. Another hour or so we finally reached our destination and based on the map that we are using we are just one town away from Pangasinan.

We checked-in at the resort hotel and immediately booked a banca ride to Potipot Island. The banca ride was only 4 minutes long. From afar you can already see that the island is teeming with people. My friend jtt was a bit disappointed because when she went to the island last February they had the place all by themselves. I have to admit there was quite a lot of people in the tiny island but the sand and clear water more than compensate for the human density. We immediately took a plunge in the sea and worshipped the sun like there is no tomorrow. I even decided not to have any sunblock except at my shoulder because I would like to have some color.... jtt teased me no end that she haven't seen somebody as pale as me. It was already 10am when we reached the island and the sun is shining ever so brightly. Around 11 am we noticed that only the three of us are still basking under the sun. Most of the people are either preparing their lunch or hiding from the intense heat of the sun.

The three of us enjoyed the the sand and the sea until around 5pm then we boarded our banca back to the "mainland". The only food we have are chips, cookies, and candies hence we were starving by the time we reached our room. We immediately took a shower and headed to the resort's dining hall. The food and their prices are very similar to what you would normally have at a university canteen which I find quite odd. Anyway it was great because I am vacationing on a very tight budget and I can't have anything expensive. We spent the night playing the board game UPWORDS which is very similar to scrabble. After two rounds we all decided to call it a night. It was such a huge comfort to sleep in a comfy bed and air-conditioned room after a long day spent on the road and basking under the sunny sunshine.

Around 6am next day we are already awake and all made a quick dash to the bathroom. We had a quick breakfast of tapsilog and immediately hired a banca that would take us back to the island. Around 7:30am we are once again frolicking at the beach, this time though there's almost no other people at the island. Most of the holiday vacationers probably decided to head back to the metropolis early morning of Easter Sunday. We enjoyed the serenity of the island and it was beautiful as I have imagined it to be when jtt told us about the place. The place is perfect if you want to get out of the noise and dizzying pace of life in Manila even just for a day. We stayed on the island until 11am then headed back to the hotel resort. We had our shower and then lunch and around 12:30 pm we are back on the road towards Manila. We made quick stop in Subic and shopped at the duty free... the goods were very cheap! You can really appreciate the strength of the Peso against the mighty US dollar in places like these. After almost 7 hours of traffic and detours I finally reached home sweet home.

Good Friday at Baywalk

2007-04-06T14:20:00.000+08:00

Last night we decided to go to Baywalk just to walk about and resolved to wake up very early the following morning (4am) . Very typical of my family..... around 6:30am my mom woke me up and I hurried up to fix myself for the supposedly very early morning walk ;-) The four of us haven't "done" Baywalk for almost a year already... we usually just pass by the area on our way to Makati or MoA. We arrived around past 7am and the summer sun is already brightly shining.

There were quite a lot of kids and adults bathing along the breakwater. A couple of minutes later came a policeman and he asked the people to stop swimming for obvious reasons like.... dude the sea is polluted. He pointed out that the bay serves as a sewage dump and it is not healthy to swim at the sea. The people grudgingly obeyed him and this just made me feel sad. Here we have a shoreline and good beach front that should serve as a recreational paradise for everybody but because of our neglect and stupidity to take care of our natural resources we cannot enjoy what we have. Just imagine how cool it would have been to live in Manila because just a couple of minutes away is a beachfront..... just imagine that.

Anyway, kudos to Mayor Atienza there is still something worthwhile to do to enjoy Manila Bay. I really liked what he did for the place. I think the Shark and Dinosaurs are great new attractions and its pretty cool to see these things up close. After my mom complained that she can't do any more walking we decided to have brunch. Fortunately Aristocrat is open even on Good Friday! So we had a hearty brunch and went home with a full and happy tummy.

The Queen

2007-04-03T03:09:00.000+08:00

I finally saw the Queen.... and I became more empathetic with her in the process. I have never saw her in this light. Well ok it was just a movie..... but it made me think on how it must have been like to view things in her perspective. Helen Mirren definitely deserve the accolades that she received for her potrayal of the queen.

Mall and the City

2007-04-02T00:10:00.000+08:00

In the late 70's and early 80's as far as I can remember there were just three places where one can do malling here in Manila. My parents would usually bring me and my brother to Greeenhills, Ali Mall in Cubao, and QUAD in Makati. Every Saturday my dad would go to Makati for work and drop me and lil brother off to play at the ground floor of the then QUAD car park. The ground floor housed an amusement center where me and my brother would play various video games to our heart's delight and satisfaction. My dad will just pick us up for lunch and lunch is usually at Kowloon. After lunch if there is a good movie showing at the QUAD we usually watch a movie. After the movies me and my brother will have some fancy ice cream preparation at the nearby Magnolia Ice Cream House. Saturday was then my favorite day of the week.

Then came the very first SM mall. I remember in the late 80's and the early 90's my malling adventure changed a little bit. This time every Sunday you will find me, my mom, dad, lil' brother and my two nieces in SM City. We usually did nothing but eat lunch, watch a movie, do some malling (window shopping), and then have dinner. It's almost like a religious thing for us six. Way back then it was a big treat for my two young nieces for us to park at the topmost level of the carpark. Even when I was already working for an IT company in Makati I still frequent SM City usually with my buddy Tuding. Actually up until last year of February when Tuding migrated to the US, SM city was our favorite place to hang out. I can confidently say that I can navigate the place even if I am blindfolded.

This Sunday my whole family trooped to the MoA. I think this will be my 5th visit at this mall. Man this mall is gargantuan I still can't figure out where it ends and where it starts or rather where is the front or the rear side. I definitely have no idea where the north, south, west or east side is. The last time I visited the place was when we were touring my balikbayan Uncle Ed. My uncle heard from his friends in the US not to miss the MoA. Well I must say this place is a good tourist place if only for the sheer shock value of its size. Although this mall only has two levels I still can't navigate the place without consulting the location/vicinity map every now and then. However despite the mammoth size of this mall it is still packed with people. It took us almost half an hour to find a parking space! Filipinos are a bunch of mall rats.

If you ride the MRT I think you are bound to find a mall or two after every two stations! There seems to be no saturation of malls as far as this metropolis is concern. This is the reason why I can't imagine my friend Tuding's despair in Texas. She has grown accustomed to finding herself lost in the middle of a mall in just 15 minutes ride from her home. And that includes the ever dependable traffic condition in Manila. According to my friend one time she decided to drive her car and brave the freeway of Texas only to find herself in the middle of nowhere after almost an hour with no mall in sight. I have never imagined how the malls will one day become one of the things a Filipino expat will miss of his country. So pards until your visit in July try to enjoy and be contented with the pictures below.

Cat, Cheese, Cranberry Juice, and Chocolate

2007-03-29T00:31:00.000+08:00

Around 9am yesterday I was awaken by my buzzing cellphone and on the other end of the line was jtt and Cat, they were apparently on conference call. My friend Cat just came home from France and would like to meet us. Cat was gone for almost six months and have been travelling from...hold your breath.... Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany and France. We agreed to meet around 5pm at the Galleria.

Around 6pm I came to the Galleria and we went to Starbucks and I ordered Cranberry Juice. My first choice actually was mango juice but they run out of it so I opted for cranberry juice instead. I heard it is good for my dear old kidney. Anyways Cat gave me an Eiffle Tower keychain and a box of cheese. According to Cat the cheese is best eaten as a spread on a bread. Cat have loads of stories about her travels. She described Argentina as similar to Paris but of smaller and less grander scale. Also, Argentina is a shopper's mecca because the merchandise are extremely cheap! In Peru she went to see the Machu Pichu and Lake Titicaca. However, the place she likes most in her travel was Paris, surprisingly though when she went to the Louvre she learned that they do not have a gallery for impressionist artists! Soon enough we are already hungry and all raring to have dinner. The two girls bought some things at the mall first before we go for dinner.

From Ortigas jtt suggested that we try the relatively new cafe in Katipunan "Casa Xocolat". I later learned that the owners used the X to replace the “ch” in chocolate as is done in Catalan, the language in Barcelona. The moment I stepped inside the cafe I immediately noticed the bohemian ambiance reminiscent of the old Malate before it became "hip and trendy." Aside from Chocolate drink, they also serve sandwiches (Panini) and pasta. I ordered Spicy Tuna Spaghetti and a large serving of their hot chocolate drink. And boy you should try their hot choco drink you'll definitely go loco me amigo. The pasta was also very good and the prices are not hurtful to a peasant like me. So we enjoyed the rest of the evening talking and eating and eating and talking until the cafe closed shop for the day.

Children of Men

2007-03-28T04:09:00.000+08:00

I just saw this movie a couple of hours ago and I am still reeling with awe with the masterful direction of Alfonso Cuaron. Please watch this movie if you haven't seen it yet, also if only to see how Michael Caine looks like in long hippie hair. As usual Clive Owen is stupendous!

For the Love of Reich

2007-03-27T10:16:00.000+08:00

Yesterday at CNN's Larry King I saw Bill Cosby, Toni Braxton, and actor Gary Cole talk about Autism. The show featured the challenges of parents with autistic children. They were also throwing statistics that really surprised me, one of the guest said "1 in 150, 1 in 94 boys will be diagnosed with Autism. This is truly a national and a global epidemic. " To my further surprise apparently according to Larry King... "that they aren't teaching it in medical school? " What's going on here? I hope I heard it differently or something. I also learned that early diagnosis is very important so that proper intervention will be given and the child's development will be better.

The following may indicate that a child is suffering from autism according to the Autism Society of the Philippines. If the child exhibits seven or more of these traits a diagnosis of autism should be seriously considered. However the patient should also be given thorough medical, developmental and intelligence tests:

1. Difficulty in mixing with other children.
2. Acts as deaf.
3. Resist learning.
4. No fear of real dangers.
5. Resist change in routine.
6. Indicates needs by gestures.
7. Inappropriate laughing and giggling.
8. Not cuddly.
9. Marked physical overactivity.
10. No eye contact.
11. Inappopriate attachments to objects.
12. Spins objects.
13. Sustained odd play.
14. Standoffish manner.

There are numerous theories as to the specific causes of autism, but they are as yet unproven. But it is classified as a developmental disability that results from a disorder of the human central nervous system. Autism usually manifests itself before the age of three and diagnosis is possible as early as six months. There is a broad array of autism therapies for the development of kids with autism such as; Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Floortime Therapy, Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Sensory Integration Therapy, Relationship Development Intervention, Verbal Behavior Intervention, and the school-based TEAACH method.

I was not quite surprised when one of the mother interviewed in the Larry King Live show said that....." We're just judged more harshly and more constantly, and expected to do things that no human being should be expected to do." I gues the root cause of this is due to people's lack of awareness about autism. My friend Reich have an online journal of her son Dale's progress with autism. Also, the Autism Society Philippines have a website that can be a good source of information regarding the status of autism in the country.

By the way, Happy Birthday Reich!

Loot of the Month

2007-03-26T00:36:00.000+08:00

Last March 10 while I was aimlessly wandering at the mall I ended up as usual browsing at my favorite store BOOK SALE. I can say without missing a heart beat that I care no less about any other store and a mall aint complete if they have no BOOK SALE shop. My latest foray did not disappoint me because it yielded me a copy of Kurt Vonnegut's "GALAPAGOS" for a measly 70 pesos. The cover and spine of the book was in mint condition! Woohoo.

After a week my dear niece bought me a copy of the great Elie Wiesel's "NIGHT" for only 40 bucks also from BOOK SALE in North Edsa. I am looking forward to my very short summer respite... as I willl utilze the most of it reading books

Community Nursing

2007-03-25T09:51:00.000+08:00

Last March 15 I went to Caloocan Health Department for my Community Care Management rotation/duty. The first day is a requisite attendance to the general orientation provided by the Caloocan Health Department. If you failed to attend the orientation you will not be allowed to complete the 2 weeks rotation. The orientation is a mere briefing about what to expect in the area and the rules and regulation of the agency. They will also ask you to remember their Mission and Vision, which is actually almost the same as the previous areas I have covered. From the orientation I also learned that there were 188 barangays, 2 Districts and 40 Health Centers in Caloocan City. After the general orientation my group was herded by our CI in a corner and told us to be ready for the survey and ocular we have to conduct in Barangay's 69 and 70 the next day. Each of us have to survey at least five families. We were then allowed to go home.

The next day around 8 am we proceeded to Francisco Health Center, we had a short briefing and then immediately went to Barangay 69 and 70. The place is quite congested, the alleys were less than two arms length wide. The houses were either made of stone or mixed materials of wood and concrete. I am assuming that the place was previously a squatter's area because the houses were built with no consideration with the basic building code. The lot were probably granted to them in the end.

The families we surveyed have at least one of the family member earning 10k a month. The average size of the 50 families that we surveyed is 6. Almost all of the families are relying on the Health Center for their Health and Medical/Dental services. The Health Center is actively pushing immunization for all babies. All of them uses water sealed lavatories, and they are getting their water from the Water Company. Some of them are not drinking tap water but mineral bottled water. There were a lot of houses that do not have refrigerator, hence food storage for left over food is a problem. There were a lot of kids below 5 years old running, crying, and playing around the narrow alleys. You can also find some ladies doing their laundries along the narrow alleys. There were also a lot of teens, men and women who are simply idling and talking along the alleys. Most men are in their supposedly productive years but are out of work.

Two days before the end of our 2 weeks rotation we conducted health teachings concerning environmental sanitation. We distributed reading materials and trash bags to each families. After the health teaching we went to the house of one our groupmates to prepare the materials for our case presentation the next day. The presentation went on without a problem and our community rotation officially ended.

This is my third exposure to community nursing. My previous assignments brought me to the communities along the river bank of Tullahan River and the quaint barrios of Obando, Bulacan. I have to give it to the Public Health Nurses and Doctors their dedication to their work. All of the health workers I have worked with are really passionate about their work. They were able to establish themselves as an integral part of the community. I am pretty darn well sure that they are not getting the compensation that commensurate their hard work. But this does not hinder them in doing a good job.

Uncle Ed

2007-02-17T14:11:00.000+08:00

My uncle Ed is the youngest of my mom's original siblings of 4. According to my mom around 1966 he told her that he plans to go to the US. My mom paid no attention to her little brother's crazy idea. After a year my uncle Ed was then barely out of his teens bid farewell to his family to migrate to the US. He was the first in the family to venture offshore and seek his fortune. Life in the Philippines was much different then, it was afterall 40 years ago. Manila is cleaner and most Filipinos are able to eat 3 square meals a day. It is pretty odd during that time to go abroad to earn a living. However, my uncle Ed for his own reasons have decided to make America his new homeland. He served as the ambassador of everything "stateside" for his family.

After five years or so he married a white American named Barbara. They had two children Ed jr. and Severina. He came back to the Philippines to visit two years after the declaration of Martial Law. He convinced his siblings to migrate to the US, especially because of the uncertainty of the Martial Law. After a few years my grandfather joined him in the US. Soon after my Tita Leonie followed them in the US. In 1979, my grandfather died in the US and my uncle Ed accompanied the remains of my lolo to the Philippines. That was his last visit in the Philippines. From then on one by one all my relatives migrated to the US. In 2002 my cousin ate Jojo, her husband and daughter Jolet brought down the number of my clan/family in the Philippines to 5 when they migrated to the US. All of my mother's 4 siblings and their family have settled in the US. All that was practically left here in this archipelago is me, my dad and mom, my brother and niece Phoebe.

After 29 years since his last visit to the Philippines uncle Ed came home to visit. He is going to attend a reunion. He was billeted at the Manila Hotel for one week to attend the grand reunion and stay in our house the next two weeks. Most of my relatives have commented one way or another that my uncle Ed is more American than Filipino. I am not really that surprised since he spent most of his life in the US than in the Philippines. I know of some people who have changed their demeanor after a couple of months stay only in a foreign land:-) However, we have decided that we are not going to adjust anything to suit the taste of a balikbayan. The food that will be served will be purely Pinoy, even though we do eat cereals for breakfast most of the time because it is more convenient and easy to prepare.

Then my uncle Ed came to our house. He spoke in Filipino without a trace of American accent. He calls my mom "ATE" all the time. He ate everything served on the table save for the water unless it is mineral water. The one week reunion package allowed him to visit Pagsanjan, Laguna, Villa Escudero, and Corregidor. However he was surpised to see how crowded Manila and the suburbs have become. He also complains a lot about the fumes the vehicles were belching. One time he asked me to accompany him because he would like to ride the MRT and LRT. While waiting for a ride that will take us to the LRT station he felt dizzy because of the fumes fortunately we are able to immediately hail an aircon bus. He commented that the ride and trains were smooth and good, however the sights are really not nice. Uncle Ed is well travelled he's gone as far south as Australia and New Zealand and as far north as Iceland and a whole lot of other places in between. That's why I know better not to contradict his comment, and besides what is there to contradict ;-(

I was able to get to know my uncle better in his two week's stay in our house. I enjoyed his stories especially his first years stay in the US. I was particularly floored with his MO together with a Pinoy friend whenever they run out of money for R&R. When he was in NY they would usually look and check the Pinay sounding names of the people in the apartment/flat. they would ask if a certain Pinoy is living there. Obviously the Pinay would say no there is no such person living there. Then they would convince the Pinay to join them instead to play bowling since they come from a far place and would rather spend time with a kababayan. At first they would allow the Pinay and her friend to win, then they would convince them to play for a wager. The Pinays wont hesitate even though the wager is for the fee of the games they have played and a dinner. In the end they would ofcourse win and have a free bowling game and dinner by the end of the day.

There were also a lot of stories about overcoming prejudice. However, my uncle Ed is one tough person, in the end he became a director at his work. Two days before his depature to the US he asked us to bring him to Luneta. He had his picture taken beside Jose Rizal's monument. He is a Filipino afterall. He went back home to Nevada last February 7 but made a promise to come back after 2 years.

Green Tea

2007-02-16T01:29:00.000+08:00

My gym buddy Peter arrived two days ago from his Xiamen, China trip. He missed going to the gym for almost 2 weeks because of this trip. Yesterday he texted me and asked me to join him at the gym. I came around 6 pm and according to the log book Peter came 15 minutes earlier. I immediately headed to the locker room and before I know it Peter was already behind me. He gave me a packet/bag full of what appears to be tea bags. At a glance I noticed the words Almond and green tea written at the label. I stuffed it inside my bag and assumed that it is an almond flavored green tea. Peter and I worked the treadmill, lifted weights and did crunches like there is no tomorrow. In between gasps for air Peter shared his experiences on his latest trip to China. He marveled at the pace of progress and development China is undergoing. After 2 hours we left the gym and parted.

When I reached home. I immediately took out the booty Peter gave me. I was pretty anxious to taste an almond flavored green tea. When I opened the plastic bag I was kinda bewildered with the "tea bags". To my surprise and upon closer scrutiny the bag did not contain tea bags. The little square things were wrappers that contains to what appears like thin biscuits. And the label actually reads "Almond Snacks (Green Tea Flavor) ". The thin biscuits tastes good and light, you will definitely feel the texture and taste of almonds immediately. However you will not miss the subtle aftertaste of green tea as well. The ingredients were Almond granules, Egg, Sugar, Flour, Maltose, Butter, and Steamed Green Tea. This is something very new to me and another thing I will definitely asks my friends to buy if they happen to visit China :-)

Happy Heart's Day

2007-02-14T19:51:00.000+08:00

Woohoooo I am back....
I was gone for more than a month... however, my absence in the blogging scene is not indicative at all of a lackluster existence in this dreary archipelago. To summarize a bit... I have completed two duty rotations in two government hospitals, one in OB ward and one in Male Medical Ward. I hurdled the recent Mid-term exam, played host to my uncle from the US for two weeks, finished 3 books, watched at least 7 movies and frantically tried to keep myself sane when I received an SOS from my dear niece. All these stories you will read in full detail in the very near future.

I have just also learned from my friend Cathy who is currently in France that she have already travelled to Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg the past month after her South American sojourn from Argentina, Brazil and Peru. Geez I was that busy that I lost track of my friend's whereabouts. My friend Jong on the other hand have started blogging as well since January and I am just keeping myself updated with her by reading her posts. Pete my gym buddy have just returned yesterday from his two weeks visit in China... no wonder I cant spot him at the gym. I never thought that being away from a lap/desktop could cause me this much disconnection.

I also find it ubeliveable how much things can happen after just a month or two.... am just now updating myself with some of my friends whereabouts by reading their most recent posts. I have more time to logon and post as I have no hospital duty for the whole month of February. Woohoooo! Anyways, Happy Heart's Day folks.

Christmas Party slash Reunion

2006-12-09T15:37:00.000+08:00

My 2nd Plate of Japanese food!

Yesterday (December 8, 2006) I went to DADs Glorietta not only to binge on Japanese food but also to catch up on my former colleagues from Quorum Litigation Services. We are suppose to meet around 6pm but unfortunately I came in late around 7:45pm :-) Because I was already famish when I came, I immediately grabbed a plate and filled it with sushi like there's no tomorrow. This is the second year for us to have this kind of christmas party slash reunion thing. Surprisingly there were already 3 people missing from the last reunion. Marie and Alex both migrated to the US in Texas and Arizona respectively as Registered Nurses. Mel on the other hand is in Macau, China. However, I was very happy to see another colleague (Lyza) after almost 4 years. I had a lot of fun exchanging news and stories with my colleagues of almost 9 years. This is one of the reason why I look forward to this holiday season.

Common Courtesy

2006-11-25T23:57:00.000+08:00

I am fuming mad! Just a couple of hours ago I was in SM North EDSA. I was at the snack department/area of the store and grabbed 3 pouches of fish crackers. I immediately went to the nearest cashier to pay for my loot, in front of me was a woman of chinese descent in her mid or late 50's . The cashier clerk was already scanning the merchandise she was buying. After all the chips, chocolates, and other junk foods were scanned she asked the clerk to wait for some other item. Then came a teenage girl with a bottle of mineral water who appears to be the woman's daughter. I thought that it was the end of it....Apparently not.... the old lady asked the clerk to wait some more for some other items to be included. I think we waited for almost 5 minutes until some other teenage girls came with some junk foods to be included. They bought a total of almost 500 pesos worth of junk food. By this time I was already mad as hell. I was probably staring at the lady like I would like to kill her or something because her son a young man who appears to be fresh out of college stared back at me with "what's your problem?" written all over his face. I really would like to confront them and give the old lady a lecture that it is not proper to keep people waiting. I let it slide.... and just end up hoping that they would all choke to death with all the junk food they bought.

It is extremely frustrating that most people in this archipelago are clueless when it comes to common courtesy. I actually tend to overlook things when the culprits are the poor and the uneducated... I usually tell myself that these people do not know any better and usually place the blame on the institutions of this country. But when the misbehavior is committed by the rich and educated lot, I am extremely disgusted. These rich and highly educated people have no reason to throw their weight around anybody.

My Electrical Engineer cousin worked in Japan under a joint project with Meralco for six months a couple of years ago. When he went back home here in the Philippines he cannot help but talk and marvel about the demeanor of the Japanese. According to my cousin the Japanese are very courteous and gentle people. They go about their business around the office very quietly and according to him even inside the train the Japanese hardly talk to one another. They are very mindful that they are sharing the train with other people hence very respectful not to bother the other passengers. We then concluded that the good manners can be attributed with the high education level of the Japanese. However, here in the Philippines apparently no amount of money or education can make a difference.

See You at the Movies

2006-11-12T00:27:00.000+08:00

Last week I was able to see two movies. The first movie I saw was last Monday, I watched the movie World Trade Center. Everybody knows that it is the story of the two Port Authority police officers who were trapped under the rubble of the World Trade Center. The movie shows the harrowing experience of being pinned down by tons and tons of debris. The movie reminds me of the July 16, 1990 earthquake here in Manila and central Luzon measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale. I can still remember the images on the TV screen of people being pulled out of the rubbles or pinned down with no hopes of being squeezed out. Overall the movie seems so constricted, I dont know if it is just because of the claustrophobic setting. But there is something missing about this movie.

Last Thursday I watched Flags of our Fathers, from the poster alone we all know that this is about the celebrated image of the Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi for propaganda and fund-raising. I have been a huge fan of Clint Eastwood as a filmaker eversince I saw in 1992 the movie Unforgiven. Eastwood is a very good storyteller, he is also able to convey in the silver screen the subtle nuances of emotions. Whenever I watch his movies I feel like I am intimately involved with the movie's characters. The same thing is true with the Flags of our Fathers, you can feel the pain of lost, agony of surviving, and the distant flicker of hope. I hope that Adam Beach gets nominated for his performance in this movie. I strongly recommend that you all watch this movie as well.

As if these two movies are not enough I urge you dear friends to check out the two on-going film festival in the metropolis. The first one is the 8th CineManila International Fil Festival which runs from November 3 to 15. The movies are being screened at SM City, Megamall, Mall of Asia, and Greenbelt.

2006 Cinemanila International Film Festival Official Selection
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
1. 9TH Company, Dir. Fyodor Bondarchuk (Finland,Russia,Ukraine)
2. Climates ,Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey,France)
3. Citizen Dog, Dir. Wisit Sasanatieng (Thailand)
4. Everlasting Regret, Dir. Stanley Kwan (Hong Kong)
5. Heremias ,Dir. Lav Diaz (Philippines)
6. It's Only Talk ,Dir. Ryuichi Hiroki (Japan)
7. Kubrador ,Dir. Jeffrey Jeturian (Philippines)
8. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Dir. Park Chan-wook (South Korea)
9. The Wind That Shakes the Barley ,Dir. Ken Loach (UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Ireland)
10. Taking Father Home, by Ying Liang (China)

DIGITAL LOKAL COMPETITION
1. Anino ng Setyembre Dir. Briccio Santos
2. Gamot sa Pagkabagot Dirs. Ato Bautista, Jason Donato and Shugo Praico
3. Manoro Dir. Brillante Mendoza
4. Numbalikdiwa Dir. Roberto Bonifacio
5. Raket ni Nanay Dir. Lawrence Fajardo
6. Squatterpunk Dir. Khavn dela Cruz

DOCUMENTARY FILMS IN COMPETITION
1. The Gift of Barong,Dir. Benito Bautista (USA/Philippines)
2. Hors Le Murs, Dirs. Alexandre Leborge and Pierre Barougier (France)
3. Paper Dolls, Dir. Tomer Heymann (Israel)
4. Serambi, Dir. Garin Nugroho (Indonesia)
5. Storm of Emotions Dir. Yael Klopmann (Israel)

SHORT FILMS IN COMPETITION
1. The Ballad of Mimiong's Minon, Dir. Jon Ballesteros
2. One Man Show, Dir. Dohna Sarmiento and Glenn Ituriaga
3. Hopia Express, Dir. Janus Victoria
4. Misteryo ng Hapis, Dir. Mark dela Cruz
5. Embers, Dir. Marc Laureano
6. Sakdal Laya, Dir. Tey Clamor
7. Buog, Dir. Milo Tolentino
8. Grandma's Recipe, Dir. Imelda Betiong

The second film festival is the 9th Cine Europa which runs from November 9 until November 19 at Shang Cineflex. The great thing about this is it's free admission. Woohoo! The festival features the following contemporary and critically-acclaimed films:

Austria - Karo und der Liebe Gott

Belgium - Everybody Famous

Belgium - When the sea rises

Czech Republic - Zelary

Finland - One way ticket to Mombasa

France - Russian Dolls

Germany - Das Wunder Von Bern

The Netherlands - Simon

Portugal - Delfim

Spain - Cosas que hacen que la vida valga la pena

Sweden - Klassfesten (The Reunion)

United Kingdom - Breakfast on Pluto

See ya at the movies!

Taps

2006-11-11T13:53:00.000+08:00

I am one of those dorky people who loved watching CNN, the kind who would stay glued on days end. My mom can't even understand why I stayed glued on the tube recently awaiting the results of the US Mid-term election. I was more than overjoyed to learn that the Democrats finally after 12 long years secured the majority of the seats in the lower house and later would also secure the majority in the Senate. According to the polls the Americans are not happy with the way things are going in Iraq, hence the result of the election. I am never in favor of aggression and war. It seems so easy for the leaders of this planet to stage a war and send the countless hapless ordinary people to be slaughtered. I will however forever always put in high regard the soldiers that battle it out at the fields. While watching the result and aftershock of the mid-term elections I came across a story that was aired in CNN.

The story is about Sgt. Will Mock . He is a 23 years old soldier from Harper, Kansas. He is definitely very young, and once again I am stirred to anger because we send our youth to fight these various ideological, political, social driven wars. I think there is definitely something wrong with a society or a civilization as a whole when they send their kids to fight their battles. We are suppose to nurture our youth and give them bright future and not send them to be slaughtered. I just can not understand the logic of war.... I don't also want to say that these brave soldiers died in vain.... They definitely died because of their conviction that they are doing these for all of us...... ''To end or stifle terrorrism"....And even just for this, I think we owe them our deepest respect and gratitude.

Sgt. Mock talked about how the war changed him. I was particularly moved when he talked about how he felt whenever the Taps was played during memorial ceremonies... "Every time we lose soldiers and we have our ceremonies here for the fallen comrades and they play the taps for those men -- that's probably the moments that will stay in my mind more than ever," he said. "From now until the day that I die, every Memorial Day and Veterans Day when I go to the local cemetery in Harper, Kansas, and they play the taps, I am sure it will hit me pretty hard then."

Each war that is raging in this beautiful blue planet should be a concern for everybody. Every fallen soldier should be mourned..... everytime the Taps is played should remind us of their valor.....

House M.D.

2006-11-01T21:01:00.000+08:00

Woohoo! Thank God for DVDs, I finally was able to watch all the 22 episodes of House M.D.'s season 1. I did it in two days non stop with occasional bladder breaks and 8 hours of requisite nocturnal sleep. I missed some episodes during the show’s regular TV screening due to school and my hospital duties. But since it is semester break and my dear niece has a DVD copy, I wasted no time in making sure I get to watch my new favorite drama/comedy/action/educational teevee show!

Gregory House M.D. is a great character. He is the kind of person that you will either love to hate or hate to love. He is the kind of bloke that is difficult to love, and much much more difficult to understand but is easier to hate. I am very empathic with this kind of people…although I have to admit I will never let my self close to this kind of people even within a ten foot pole. I really understand it when some folks do not like people… you know, the kind of people who would really exert effort to avoid any interaction with the rest of mankind. I must admit I dreamt of becoming a monk once when I was a child but have eventually decided not to pursue it later in life…..huge sigh :)

Dr. House can almost always get away with his anti-social demeanor because he is a brilliant diagnostics doctor. On a personal note, therefore the reason why I can’t afford to be anti-social is because I am not brilliant at all :( His unconventional way of working… imagine albeit not personally seeing his patient he still manage to come up with the most accurate diagnosis…. Is not a hindrance at all in doing his job. House succeeded to more than accurately diagnose his patients to effectively heal them of their illness with the help of his crew of brash medical specialists. His team is made up of a neurologist (Dr. Eric Foreman), an immunologist (Dr. Allison Cameron) and an intensevist (Dr. Robert Chase). Uh… I am half guessing that an intensevist is an intensive care unit specialist? His crew is both unluckly and lucky to have him as a boss. He also has one loyal friend in the person of Dr. James Wilson an oncology specialist. To round up the people he usually have to interact with is his boss Dr. Lisa Cuddy.

Aside from the fact that the show is full of drama about life, love, racial and workplace issues, it is also a rich source of medical information. At the same time, one can not help but be endeared with the great Dr. House despite his coarse behavior. Tsk tsk…I heard that some Pinoy doctors are proudly claiming that they are the epitome of Dr. House in the Philippines. I know that rude doctors abound here in the Philippines and it’s kinda sad that they found a new reason to assert their lack of tact. Whew, let’s forget about them Pinoy doctors for a moment I have another time to talk about them. I can’t wait to watch the season 2 DVD. I heard it is also good and packed with Dr. House’s antics. I’ll still try and find time to watch it non-stop even during next semester’s like when I watched Prison Break during my Mid-term examination last semester. Wooohooo!

Guimaras Grime

2006-10-21T17:32:00.000+08:00

Department of Tourism's poster picture of Guimaras before the oil spill.

Guimaras' coast line after the oil spill.

It's been more than two months since the tragic oil spill and yet according to Greenpeace the MV Solar 1 continues to sit in the bottom of the ocean, leaking an estimated one ton of oil every ten days. Before the spill the seas of Guimaras was teeming with fresh fish, shellfish, and lobsters. This is extremely frustrating, the environment is deteriorating by the minute and the livelihoods of the people in the area were destroyed. To make matters worst the spill continues as you read this post and the people responsible for the clean up seems to be taking their sweet time in dealing with this gargantuan environmental mess. I strongly encourage everybody reading this post to take an active part by supporting Greenpeace's effort to convince Petron to respond with more urgency.

No Pain No Gain

2006-10-14T12:46:00.000+08:00

First semester is over! I am already done with cramming and research papers for the time being. Last Wednesday without anything to keep me busy I noticed the weighing scale idly tucked under the coffee table. I ambled toward the scale and confidently weighed myself. The scale reads 165 lbs! I cant believe my eyes I gained 5 solid pounds. I realized then that I have not gone to the gym for almost 2 months. I am only 5 feet 10 inches tall, my ideal weight is only 155 lbs and according to the weighing scale I am 10 lbs overweight. It's official I am old, fat and ugly! I can't do anything about being old and ugly because it is basically due to the rule of nature and genetics respectively. But my being fat, I can still do plenty about it. I have always strived not to be fat. I remember when I was still working in an IT company my average weight is between 170-175 lbs. I always go to the gym during that time basically to prevent adding any more poundage on my weight. However, eversince I went back to school I have resolved to lose more weight and gain more hard muscle.

The following day I decided to head to the gym after my afternoon siesta. I immediately headed towards the treadmill for my cardio, before my hiatus I can usually stay running under level 8 for more than 60 minutes, but this day I was already huffing and puffing after 4o minutes under level 7! I am fat and ill fit! Peter, my Taiwanese and St Benilde educated gym buddy immediately went beside me when he came to the gym. Peter and I signed up in this gym almost the same time and we later became friends. However, if you will see Peter and I together you would conclude that Peter had years of head start compared to me, especially now.......I look lousy and awful. Peter is kind enough to tell me that I dont look fat at all.

After my miserable turn on the treadmill I went to the shower/locker room to change my shirt because I am already soaking with sweat. I decided to do chest and biceps for my weight training. I exercised my lower chest first with dumb bell fly, I started with 20 lbs the lightest and 60 lbs heaviest in 3 sets with 15 reps. I used to do 70 to 80 lbs in this exercise. The next two exercises I did were wide grip barbell flat bench press and inclined barbell bench press for my middle chest and upper chest respectively. The heaviest I was able to lift is only 70 lbs a very poor comparison to my previous 120lbs. I completed my chest exercise on the nautilus with butterfly.

Next on my gym agenda were biceps exercises. I only did two exercises for my biceps. My first biceps exercise was barbell curls and the second was alternate dumb bell hammer curls. I intend to focus more effort on my biceps in my next visit and I am getting pretty envious with the gains Peter have achieved with his biceps. I then concluded my visit with abdominal crunches. The very next day I feel sore all over. I promised myself to never go on a long hiatus with my fitness regimen ever again.

The Departed

2006-09-26T21:16:00.000+08:00

Early reviews shows that The Departed is a must see movie and most likely to be a major contender in the next Oscars. I can not help but imagine how great a movie this is. The movie's lead actors alone like Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg and the great Jack Nicholson will immediately hint you that this is a must see movie. We should not also fail to overlook that this flick was filmed by Martin Scorsese. Like all film buffs I will also be one of the hopefully throngs of Filipinos who would make a bee line to see this flick. However, unless you my friends haven't known yet this movie is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong flick "Mou gaan dou" (Infernal Affairs). This is one of the greatest crime/ action/ drama movie that I have seen. The lead actors Tony Leung and Andy Lau were so good. I strongly recommend that you all watch this movie first before watching the hollywood version.

A Philistine at the Ballet Theater

2006-09-19T00:20:00.000+08:00

The day before last Sunday I received a phone call from my friend Wildflower inviting me to join her and Prudence to watch a ballet show at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. She told me that I don’t have to worry about the tickets because it was already paid for. So without much trepidation I acquiesced to join them.

I have always considered myself as a “cultured person”. I loosely base this on the fact that I know Architecture because this was my major in college, I know music because I took up piano lessons when I was in grade school to high school, I am a voracious reader and have actually acquired almost 300 books in my collection, I am a patron (ehem) of theater and for the longest time a regular subscriber of the Repertory Philippines. I actually always make it a point to watch the major local theater productions from the likes of the all Filipino gargantuan production of Rama at Sita to the Lea Salonga starrer Miss Saigon. I am also an avid film buff and as early as in my teens have been acquainted with the works of Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick, and Alfred Hitchcock.

However, as far as dance is concern I am quite unfamiliar with it. Probably because I can not hold my own on the dance floor and I am what you may call a man with two left feet. So last Sunday with mixed feelings of dread and anticipation I went to the Cultural Center of the Philippines. My friends Wildflower and Prudence were supposed to meet me in Makati an hour before the start of the 3pm show. However, I was still to take a bath by 2pm and thereby advised my friends that I am just going to meet them at the venue. Around 3pm I was still aboard the LRT and sent message to my friends to just leave my ticket at the front desk. I was inside the CCP by 3:30 pm and immediately proceeded to the front desk to look for my ticket. I was a bit worried because my ticket was nowhere to be found in the front desk. I however confidently reiterated to the person behind the front desk that my friend left my ticket in the front desk. To my surprise they just gave me a new ticket and have me seated at the orchestra section. The usher told me to just look for my friends during intermission.

According to the programme, “The company celebrates 20 years of Philippine ballet in a repertory of PBT’s well-loved dance pieces re-staged, commissioned and created by world-renowned foreign choreographers, as well as cutting edge contemporary classical, neo-classical and contemporary masterpieces by Filipino former soloists and members here and abroad who have made their mark on the dancing stage.”

The dancers wore colorful costumes and they look like the Vinta’s of Mindanao. I noticed that the dancers jump a lot and they are very graceful. Half an hour have passed and it was already intermission. I immediately looked for my friends and alas they were nowhere to be found. The curtain was raised and Act 2 began, this time the background takes a medieval ambience. The dancers are garbed with coats just like monks when they marched or danced towards the center of the stage. I particularly enjoyed one number where the dancers were holding candles and they were dancing reminiscent of Pandango sa Ilaw. I noticed that there was not a lull during the whole presentation and the pacing of numbers were pretty tight. To my surprise an hour have passed without notice. Although, I cannot remember the dance numbers and they don’t strike me as very distinct I still found the whole experience refreshing and entertaining. Also, the audience in the orchestra section seems to be a very knowledgeable bunch clapping and shouting BRAVO after each dance number. There were even some Caucasian people in the audience. Being a relatively Philistine in this kind of art I just clap whenever they clap but stop short of shouting BRAVO whenever the audience do so. After the show I immediately went to the main lobby to hopefully see my friends. I saw them coming down from the staircase and found out that they were seated at the much cheaper Balcony area.

Reality Bites

2006-09-19T00:18:00.000+08:00

I am a certified couch potato… so if I am not reading a book you can definitely find me glued to the boob tube. Aside from the usual fare of action, drama, sitcoms, David Letterman antics from Late Show, news from CNN, and music from MTV. You will most likely find me watching reality game shows. I am such a couch potato and addicted to reality game shows that I even watch the lamest of reality shows like Beauty and the Geeks, Project Runway, and America’s Next Top Model. I even go to forums to rant and banter about my favorites and most hated participants. I spend time searching information in the net and even read blogs on end about my favorite shows. I have to admit it satisfies my intrinsic sense of curiosity and certain level of voyeurism. It is very interesting to watch how people react to situations when they are put into some sort of fish bowl slash pressure cooker. I could even imagine myself doing the same thing when put in similar situations. Although I watch these shows purely because of the entertainment value I get from it I can not deny that I do learn something from it as well. Like what I said earlier I tend to imagine myself in the shoes of these hapless participants and would probably commit the same mistakes. Hopefully I will learn from their mistakes so that when I am put in a difficult situation I will bungle less than necessary.

Having said all these you can’t blame me if I am extremely excited these days. The big guns of reality game shows have started their season last week. There are even two local franchise reality game shows currently being shown in the archipelago.

Let me first begin with the two local shows, Pinoy Dream Academy of Endemol and ABS-CBN and Philippine Idol of Fremantle and ABC 5. I am an ardent believer of the Filipino’s musicality and artistry. I think the Philippines have an unlimited resource of talented, artistic, and creative people. That’s why having these additional talent slash reality shows is always a big welcome to showcase the vast musical talent we have. Pinoy Dream Academy (PDA) is similar to Big Brother which is another reality game show from Endemol’s. All the aspiring participants also known as the scholars are housed in one dormitory cum academy and are being monitored 24/7. A viewer can even subscribe to the 24/7 telecast inside the academy and dormitory. Needless to say the scholars are under the scrutiny of the public from the time they woke up to the time they are deep in slumber. The selection process was pretty extensive in scope. There was not only a nationwide audition conducted for the search but there were also some selected major cities abroad where there is a large Filipino community where auditions were held. I think this was done to give the show a “global” flavor. The 20 scholars will be trained to become better performers. They will undergo physical fitness training, vocal/music training, dance lessons, and “performance training”. Each week will culminate with a recital. During the recital or gala show there are invited jurors from the entertainment industry. These jurors will make a shortlist of four scholars who have not performed well during the gala show. These scholars are then nominated for expulsion. After a week, one scholar will be expelled from this list. The other 3 scholars that will be saved are chosen either by the public audience thru the highest text votes, by the mentors assessment, and by their peer‘s selection. During the first expulsion last Sunday the scholar expelled was Gemma Fritsgerald a 20 year old native of Australia.
The headmaster of the academy is the Ateneo educated and Australia based member of the APO Hiking Society Jim Paredes, the vocal coach/musical master is Moy Ortiz , the dance master is Maribeth Bichara, the fitness coach is Gretchen Malalad.

Most of the scholars are in their late teens and early 20’s. At the first week of their internship the scholars are having a pretty easy life inside the academy. I was a bit disappointed because the trust of the show delved too much with the personal lives of the scholars and not on their potentials as a performing artist. I think this is also the reason why most of the people in the local entertainment industry are “stars” and not artists. More often than not the focus of attention is the personal life of the person and not their artistic talent. However, on the third week of their stay in the academy the mentors became more strict. The mentors became more quick to reprimand the slackers. I particularly enjoyed watching one of the added “mentor” at the third week of the competition. This particular mentor teaches grammar, diction, etc. He divided his class between the “global” scholars, which are basically half breeds or pinoys born abroad. These kids hardly speak Pilipino, and the goal of the mentor is for them to learn speak Pilipino without the annoying foreign accent. The “natives” on the other hand are taught to speak English with the correct diction. The teacher is quite strict and downright forward with his comments and pretty quick to nip in the bud any signs of noise or inattentiveness.

I have high hopes for this reality game show because I am hoping that the show will really harness the potentials of these very young aspiring artists. Hopefully there will be less emphasis on budding romances. I hope ABS-CBN will finally quit the extremely outdated formula of pairing up pretty young things for a love team.

The next show on my list is the long awaited Philippine Idol, I am not pretty sure if this should also be categorized under reality game show, but since Emmy puts it under this category so there it is. I thought all along that this was just another talent show, but what the heck I am a huge fan of the American version whichever category it falls and am extremely excited with the local version. The auditions were held nationwide Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. There were even some kids who came from different parts of the globe just to audition for the Philippine Idol. There was even this kid who came straight from the prestigious Julliard school of Music but unfortunately did not make the semi-finals cut. During the initial auditions alone I can not help but marvel at the immense wealth of musical talent our country have.

The local version of Randy, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell were Francis Magalona, Pilita Corales, and Ryan Cayabyab. The master of ceremonies is Ryan Agoncillo. This week the
final twelve contestants were completed and some of my early favorites did not make it though. However, the final twelve are still a good bunch. One thing I noticed during the semi-final round was some of the contestants were either close to tears or crying unabashedly when interviewed by Ryan after they have performed to ask people to vote for them. I don’t know if this is because Filipinos are very emotional or either very poor and see stardom as their only ticket out of poverty. Unfortunately, most of the contestants who made the final cut were from De La Salle and Ateneo. This Saturday is the first performance night of the final twelve and I can’t wait to be knocked off my seat with the immense talent I am about to witness.

Last Saturday I saw Survivor Cook Islands. I was excited to see how the new social experiment would pan out. As many of you may know by now the 20 contestants were divided into 4 groups base on ethnicity. The Caucasians belong to the Raro tribe , the Latinos form the Aitu tribe, the African Americans are the Hikki tribe, and the great Asian Americans are the Puka tribe. The Puka tribe won the first immunity challenge and I am not surprised. I figure they’ll end up winning one challenge after another. I truly believe that Asians are the smartest people in the world. The only problem with Asians is that we are a very gentle folks and most people tend to take advantage of our kindness and gentleness.

I am very impressed with the Koreans in the game, especially Yul Kwon he obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in symbolic systems from Stanford University and Juris Doctor Degree from Yale University. Definitely I am also rooting for the two Pinoys in this game, Jenny and Brad. Actually as long as an Asian won this Survivor series I will be very happy.

The next reality game show currently showing on the local TV network is my all time favorite The Amazing Race. This show never fails to stir my interest. Although I am a couch potato I am a closet globetrotter wannabe. I find traveling very interesting. However, I lack the financial resources necessary to fulfill this dream. Hence, I have to satisfy myself for the time being with watching The Amazing Race. This reality game show is very exciting, the fast pace and diversity of contestants, events, cultures that you get to see in the boob tube is the closest thing to the excitement that I figure I will get when I get to travel myself. Usually early on in the show I already know the teams to root for. I usually root for the elderly couple, parent and offspring team, and the funny gay couple. However, this season there is no elderly couple and no parent and offspring team. The gay couple in this season don’t seem funny or outrageous enough so for the time being I have decided to root for the Asian team.

Meryl, Woody, and a Monster

2006-09-18T23:36:00.000+08:00

The past month I was able to see six movies. Out of the six movies I enjoyed at least half of it and would strongly recommend that you guys go out and catch these flicks. The first movie on my list is The Devil Wears Prada. As you all may have already know by now this is the movie adaptation of the book of the same title that is based on the life of a person working under VOGUE’s Anna Wintour. I haven’t read the book and is not that interested with it because from what I have read it is not much of a literary find. However, be that as it may when the movie was released some three weeks ago here in Manila I immediately made sure that I would catch the first day screening. I am a huge fan of Meryl Streep and subscribe to the accolade that she is the greatest actress of our generation. And true enough with the reviews I’ve read Meryl’s performance was more than impressive. I definitely think that Meryl deserves an Oscar nomination even though it is still very early and most Oscar bait films are usually released in November and December. Anne Hathaway is also commendable and I think she is more than adequate in this movie, I think she held her own against Meryl.

The next movie I saw and had fun watching was the Monster House. This movie reminds me of my childhood days when I usually believe all the urban legends of my neighborhood. The lead characters in this movie are all adorable. It is amazing how different animation have become since my childhood.

My third favorite movie of the month is Scoop. This is a classic Woody Allen movie. I kept on laughing out loud inside the SM city cinema when I was watching this flick. I can really hear myself out loud because the cinema is almost empty save for some ten souls. This movie received mixed reviews, but if you are a huge Woody Allen fan you’ll definitely enjoy this flick.

Sonya's Garden

2006-08-10T00:52:00.000+08:00

More than five years ago, March 31, 2001 to be exact me and my two crazy friends Wildflower and Prudence decided to embark on a roadtrip. We were celebrating Wildflower's birthday, and Prudence heard of a place where the ambiance is great and the food is good. So off we embarked aboard Prudence's new red Ford Lynx. I was still then employed at an IT company and would never hesitate to feign sickness just to escape my humdrum existence in a corporate environ. Prudence made reservations and asked for directions from the proprietor thru SMS. With an empty stomach but bolstered with anticipation we left the concrete jungle of Makati around 10 in the morning. We headed toward the general direction of Tagaytay. Around 12 noon or lunch time we were still in the middle of nowhere and have no idea if we were anywhere closer our destination. Around 2pm we started doubting the intelligence of our decision to venture out of town because of word of mouth. We started chanting "This better be worth it." over and over again. Thirty minutes more or so we finally reached the place...... Sonya's Garden.... an enchanting garden nestled in a nondescript location. The place is more than worth the long drive. It looks like a secret garden.

Fast forward to August 5, 2006, more than 5 years since my first visit. Wildflower, Prudence, Starfish, and I visited Sonya's Garden again. This time we're aboard Prudence's brand new gray Toyota Altis and I am now studying to be a nurse. Sonya's Garden have also changed. They now have more amenities to offer. They have a gift shop, bakery, spa, and they now even offer bed and breakfast. There is now even a signboard that will welcome you to the place. Actually I even later learned that they now have a website. I dont know if should be happy about all this, our secret hideaway is not such a big secret anymore.

Matchpoint

2006-07-25T23:52:00.000+08:00

It's Wednesday and its been raining for almost a week already! The rain would not just let-up. To make matters worst I live in Valenzuela, where the mere gravitational pull of the moon would cause flooding. So more or less I've been stuck in our house for eons and am getting pretty restless. I have already watched almost 10 Korean movies on end for three days, watched more than my usual staple of CNN news, read 3 books (Nursing books not included), and have gobbled 5 large servings of mommy's piping hot arroz caldo. After lounging, yawning, and some occasional attempts to do cartwheel and backflips I decided to check the VCDs I have not yet watched. Alas! Matchpoint...

The movie opened with this narration of the male lead character Chris Wilton, The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life. People are often afraid to realize how much of an impact luck plays. There are moments in a tennis match where the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, remains in mid-air. With a litte luck, the ball goes over, and you win. Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose. I, in particular do not believe in luck. I always believe that we are all the product of our own decisions, its the choices that we make that determines our destiny. Well enough of my crude sense of philosophy. The movie is quite intriguing, witty, funny, and somehow gripping. The story revolves around the struggle and maneuverings of a tennis instructor who eventually married up and have to decide if he can afford to leave the affluent lifestyle he have accustomed to. The lead bloke is pretty lucky to have things really come his way. I cant believe that this is Woody Allen flick, probably because of the lame reason that the backdrop is not New York. The movie will make you think and chuckle at the same time. And wow! Scarlett Johansson is so alluring to say the least. Can't blame Woody to be smitten and be inspired with his latest muse.

The Squid and the Whale

2006-07-19T03:00:00.000+08:00

It's already 1am and I still cant sleep hence I decided to watch The Squid and the Whale. True enough from the reviews I've heard and read the movie is very good. The lead actors were superb, Laura Linney and especially Jeff Daniels essayed their roles excellently. The movie is based on the childhood experiences of the writer/director of the movie Noah Baumbach. I always enjoy watching movies that shows glimpses of the life of ordinary people. This movie shows the struggle of the two kids after their parents decided to separate. It is funny how the two kids were reduced to somewhat like mere properties of the two parents to be shared. I also liked the use of language in this movie...simple, believable, raw, straightforward. The movie showed tough situations when families are broken by divorce. The movie has a lot of sarcastic funny moments too. I feel richer after watching this flick.... another bout with insomnia not fully wasted!

Manny Mania

2006-07-16T00:28:00.000+08:00

This is extremely belated, but I would still want to write about the day Manny "the pacman" Pacquiao united the Filipino people once again! My dad was the first to notice that there was not a single vehicle passing the road in front of our house. The street was actually kinda deserted. All the people in our neighborhood were glued to their boobtube. I later learned that the ratings for this boxing match soared at all time high breaking all records. I suppose the whole populace of this south east asian archipelago held it's breath when Manny staggered during the first minutes of the 3rd round. But Manny's maturity and resilience as an athlete and more so as a boxer rose to the occasion. He dominated the match and showed that his speed and skills as a boxer is no match to Larios'.

However, I would also like to acknowledge the sportsmanship of Larios'. The man knows how to accept defeat with dignity and grace. If I am not a Filipino I would probably end up rooting for him. But fortunately for me I am a Filipino and very proud to belong to the same proud brown race that Manny Pacquiao came from! More than two weeks have already passed and I am still beaming with pride. Cant wait for the next boxing match of Manny against Morales. Well I guess his recent victory would be enough to tide me over the next few months.

Whenever a Filipino athlete achieve this much success I cant help but be reminded of the countless and nameless Filipino athletes who continue to dedicate their life for the love of sport and country without much funfare. We have to give it to these Filipino athlete's for their commitment to their sport and country. Hurray to Manny Pacquiao! Elma Muros! Lydia de Vega! Efren Reyes! Paeng Nepomuceno and countless nameless Filipino atheletes.

Buffet's Billions

2006-06-27T00:14:00.000+08:00

Whoa! this man blew me away! I guess you all know by now that this billionaire is planning on giving 85% of his wealth to charity. And he's worth around 44 billion! The amusing part of this is the lion share of the benefaction will go to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. So there is hope, people are not really greedy, most of them are just in the Philippines.

Turning Japanese

2006-06-25T19:43:00.000+08:00

I went to the reception of the christening of my niece's son today. There was nothing special about the restaurant, we had bird's nest soup, and 6 Chinese entrees afterwards. The nice thing about these gatherings is you get to meet old friends, acquaintances, neighbors, etc. and to my pleasant surprise I saw Totot. Totot finished Computer Engineering if I was not mistaken at Adamson University. I later learned that she was having difficulty landing a job after graduation in the late 90's and she somehow ended going to Japan to become a "Cultural Entertainer".

Totot was a very shy girl, the type you would not imagine entertaining people for a living. Anyways, there she was at the reception and she looked extremely different from the last time I talked to her. The last time I talked to her was at the Bus Stop more than a decade ago, we were both waiting for our ride on our way to school. She was a freshman and excited about becoming a Computer Engineer. It was fun talking to her then because she really seemed wide eyed for all the glowing possibilities of a future Engineer. However at the reception, you won’t easily recognize her from a decade ago, aside from the fact that she looks thinner, she seemed to have acquired a different fashion sense because she looks more daring. On a positive note she looks more assured of herself, exudes confidence, and ready to take on anybody.

Totot was able to provide for her family, her parents and 3 male siblings. I heard that she was able to build an apartment building. One of the reasons why Totot decided to try her luck in Japan was because of the success story of Angge. Angge’s story is closer to my heart.

Angge was a childhood friend and she is 3 years older than me. Angge became my friend and playmate because her mom would always tag her along in our house when she was doing our laundry. Our friendship goes way back pre-school. In our tender age I have noticed early on Angge’s strong personality. Why did I say this, well, for starters even though I own all the toys we were playing with, we always end up with Angge’s concept on how we should play with the toys. At a very young age she seemed to have a very clear idea on what she wants to be as a person. I distinctly remember how she would tell me that she would emulate Maria Clara until she becomes an adult. She will never wear make up and she would stay a virgin until she marries her husband.

Angge was a lovechild, her father seldom visits her and she was raised almost solely by her mother. I also remember how her mom would always ask for money from my mom for her enrollment at the public elementary school. It was not easy to raise a child solely from doing laundry. But despite all these Angge was able to finish a degree of Electronics and Communications Engineering from the PUP. We were all proud of Angge and her mom, against all odds Angge was able to finish school. Angge’s graduation from college should have been the start of their fairy tale ending of happily ever after….

Right after graduation Angge started looking for a job. I know that after almost 21 years of doing laundry, Angge would like to give her mom the rest she deserves. However, days, weeks, and months have passed and Angge could not land a job. The best job she could land is as a cashier at an SM department store. After toiling for years to send her daughter for school Angge’s mom was still doing laundry for us. I even remember the day I found Angge during her day off helping her mom doing the laundry when I got home from school. I could only offer a smile to Angge and her mom but my heart is breaking for both of them. They deserve more than this.

After more than a year of working at SM, Angge decided to join the bandwagon of young beautiful Filipinas who would try their luck in Japan as a “Cultural Entertainer.” After a couple of months in Japan, Angge’s mother finally retired from her laundry job. Years have passed and Angge did not waste the time she spent in Japan. She now owns several houses for rent, sends her daughter to Montessori and owns two cars.

These are my first hand account on how hard it is to make a decent living as a Filipino. Should you ask me the following questions, am I proud of these two Filipinas? I would say to you that I am very proud of them both. Am I happy for them? My answer would be a big NO, they deserve more than this.

Il Mare

2006-06-14T19:08:00.000+08:00

I have noticed that the movie "The Lake House" starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves is now showing in the local theaters. I havent seen this movie yet, but I do intend to see this movie because I have already seen the original Korean version (Il Mare) more than four years ago. Il Mare is one my favorite movie in the "romantic" genre. Il Mare's lead actress is Ji-Hyun Jun of "My Sassy Girl" fame while Jung-Jae Lee is the lead actor. I love the cinematography of this movie as well as the subtle way the actors have delivered the cocktail of emotions on screen. When I first heard that this movie was going to have a hollywood version I was a bit apprehensive because there are some things I find endearing in the movie that is intrinsically Asian. I am afraid that they will not be able to translate the Asian "culture" aspect of the film. Well, I guess that makes it more interesting for me to find out how a multi-million budget of a hollywood adapatation will measure up to a relatively low budget quaint Asian film.

I have seen the movie Lake House yesterday and I have to say that I like the original Korean version more. The hollywood version in my opinion gets too preoccupied with tying the loose ends of the peripheral factors of the story. The Korean (Il Mare) flick focused more on the budding relationship of the two lead characters. Furthermore, I really liked the way the cinematography in the original Korean version sets the tone for the mood of melancholy the movie evokes. Although I have to admit that the way the story ended in the Lake House is the ending I wanted when I first saw the original movie (Il Mare) . However, there are a lot of tweaking that the director/writer have done in the Lake House that the story's mystical spell in the original version is somehow lost. I highly recommend to those that have not yet seen the original Korean version (Il Mare) to watch the original version and see the difference for yourself.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

2006-06-12T13:04:00.000+08:00

Happy 108th Independence Day! Although our beloved country is still beset with the usual economic, political, and social quandary I strongly believe that we should always celebrate this day. We should never forget or neglect the sacrifices our forefathers have rendered to achieve our independence. The struggle continues… there‘s a trillion and one things to be done… we should bring down all the barricades that hinders us from achieving real democracy…. Unshackle our people from oppression of every kind. We should never be defeated by these obstacles and despite the general feeling of apprehensiveness and hopelessness. Let’s still take time to commemorate this day for the heroes of yesterday and the hopes of tomorrow. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

The Omen of a very bad flick

2006-06-11T16:05:00.000+08:00

I watched last Friday an extremely boring movie. I was not expecting much from this movie but I never expected that I will find myself fighting to doze off to oblivion. This is a horror flick to begin with, so I was expecting at least to be in throes of scare or dread. I suggest that none of you my dear friends will shell out any hard earned money to watch this flick!

However, yesterday I was able to watch "Inside Man" and was not disappointed with the powerhouse performance of Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, and Christopher Plummer. I agree with the observation of most critics that Willem Dafoe's talent was not fully utilized in this flick. He deserves a meatier role or longer exposure. The plot is pretty simple but the performance of the cast and overall execution of the movie makes it above the usual caper flicks. There is also another bonus from this movie that I liked so much. The song on the closing credits was a blast to listen to. The title of the song is "Chaiyya Chaiyya - Bollywood Joint" performed by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi, featuring MC Punjabi. Do check this movie.

Intramuros Snapshots

2006-06-11T11:21:00.000+08:00

Sometime last February my friend Tuding asked me to join her to an expedition to Intramuros. Tuding is slated to fly to Texas as an immigrant nurse in two days time and had a sudden surge of identity crisis and patriotism. It was a hot and humid Wednesday afternoon and our first stop was Fort Santiago..... I took a snap shot of this fountain and it looks so tempting to get drenched amidst the tropical heat. The old gate of Fort Santiago.....

Jose Rizal's footsteps from Fort Santiago to Luneta when he was executed.

Fort Santiago snapshots.

The view across the Pasig River.

Jose Rizal's gigantic bust, this bust is probably more than 5 feet in height. Notice the height of the door leading to the museum and the bust.

Jose Rizal's museum and the moat surrounding Fort Santiago. I noticed that there were quite alot of tourists visiting the place. We came across "Japanese sounding/looking people", Fil-Am's, and the cluster of people near the moat seems like Eastern Europeans, because they dont sound French, German, Spanish or Italian :-)

Outside Fort Santiago you will marvel at the imposing facade of The Manila Cathedral.

San Agustin Church which was built in 1586 is the Philippines' oldest ecclesiastical edifice. This church is also one of the finest Baroque church here in the Philippines. Believe me I know my architecture very well. Inside the church you will notice immediately the 19th century chandeliers. We were not able to visit the San Agustin Church museum because we came way past visiting hours.

Inside the Intramuros are many educational institutions, including my alma mater Mapua Institute of Technology. Viva Mapua!

Atop the wall of Intramuros you may sit and stretch your legs while you wait for the sun to set. Across you can check your timepiece against the Manila City Hall tower's clock.

Our tour started around 3pm and ended around 6pm, hence we failed to visit any of the museums. I definitely intend to revisit Intramuros time and time again and I also resolve to make sure that I get to visit all the museums inside the walled city.

First time ko!

2006-06-11T10:32:00.000+08:00

I have been forever mulling about the idea of starting my own blog. But the pessimist in me have been telling me otherwise. I have a million and one reason not to blog. To begin with I am not a good writer... lemme rephrase that.... I am not a writer! I am not very confident with my writing skills. I am afraid that people will always cringe and feel nauseous everytime they read my posts for some unforgivable grammatical lapses. I love reading books and quite a voracious reader despite of my being a bit dyslectic. Unfortunately, it does not automatically translates that I would be able to utter prose and be a poet.

Second, I dont lead a very exciting life..... I have a pretty mundane existence to say the least. So why would people bother to read something about a boring person with poor writing skills. Hence, I figured I am going to do this for myself not for anyone else.... hmmmmm not actually anyone else. My guinea pigs will be my friends/former c0lleagues, heck that's what friends are for, right?! Also, I promise to post lots of nice pictures (thank God for digicams).

This is it folks... welcome to my world.