This blog badly needs some updating. I had been frantically busy at the office the past two weeks, hence the silence. Because things are not getting any less hectic in the coming weeks, I decided to drag my self to this internet cafe near our apartment to post something for my 2 loyal readers out there.
This internet cafe sits near where I buy toron. Toron is my favorite food ever and it is a must for me that I have some of it during weekends. Near the cafe is where I also bought an old suitcase peddled in the Evangelista flea market (I just love Evangelista!). It cost me all P300 to buy the suitcase this morning, which I dragged for four blocks all the way home.
Last night I watched a series of 50-minute plays at the CCP with famous blogger Gibbs Cadiz and three of his friends. I have to thank Gibbs of course for the nice treat. I'm supposed to write about the plays, which is exactly what I'm doing later this week.
We left the CCP at around 11 in the evening. From there I took a cab to the 24-hour Cebu Pacific office at the airport to buy a one-way ticket to Bangkok. Thanks to horrendous traffic, it was already way past midnight when I arrived. Right when they were about to print my ticket their printer conveniently went haywire. I had to wait thirty minutes more for my tickets. So it's confirmed, I'm leaving 30 July, 10:35 pm, arriving in Bangkok at a little past midnight.
P.S. I finally finished The Ground Beneath Her Feet last Wednesday, which took a humiliating six weeks. No excuses. Anyway, I'm rapidly reading the hilarious Of Cats and Kings right now. No movies for me. Our TV decided to stop working last week. Gotta drag it to the repair man silom.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Busy
Working my ass off. For the mean time, here's my current desktop background at the office. Cute noh?
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Take Me All Over
My Lakbayan grade is B-!
How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!
Created by Eugene Villar.
Ang chaka ng score! While I've covered most of Mindanao, the same could not be said about Luzon and Visayas. Hmmm... time to move on perhaps? Maybe Baguio or Cebu? I've got chronic itchy feet, no? Barely two years in Manila and I'm already seriously thinking of moving to yet another city.
For the mean time, I'm planning to cover most of Luzon this year (if I can whore my self to the maximum); maybe visit the Ilocos Region in the coming months and much of Bicolandia later this year. After that I'd probably transfer to Cebu so I can check the rest of the Visayas.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Food is the Enemy
I lunched with my friend Levicel in Greenbelt last Sunday to discuss a business thingie, along with the latest tidbits of our lives (hers was exciting and mine was ho-hum). Lunch was pandan chicken, stuffed tofu, balut surprise (not my favorite), and a plateful of bagoong rice. Levicel is as skinny as hell and given all the food we ordered it was really a lot for both of us. After about a three-hour lunch, we completely finished the whole fare.
We walked the roughly six blocks to Makati Cinema Square where we bought a few pirated DVDs and CDs. After which we proceeded to the Evangelista thrift shops, with me acting as the guide to Levicel coz it was her first time there.
Whatever we ate for lunch I was hoping that all the walking we did would've been burned already.
At around seven thirty, while poring through old magazines, my stomach told me I needed to eat. I decided however that since it was pretty late in the evening already I had no right shoving food in my mouth. Dawn Zulueta supposedly stays fit by not eating any carbs eight hours before sleeping. It's rather a more extreme version of the before-six diet. The latter counts Oprah as one of its fervent adherents. And dahling, what Oprah says I follow.
Anyhoot, despite all the hunger pangs, I did not allow my body to dictate me. I gorged on mugs of water instead. Soda and fruit juice can deliver you to obese-dom, remember? Ditto for any drink with color.
These days I classify food as either deadly or not. Bread of course is carbs and we all know that eating carbs is the best way to die fat. Meat is just evil, it can cause diseases of the kidney, heart, liver, and perhaps every other organ in our body. Even vegetables and fruits are not created equal - some are more harmful than others. Mango is high in sugar. Beans and broccoli are high in uric acid.
My mantra for the longest time had been: "Food is my enemy. It is poison to my body". I repeat that like a dozen times before I eat and could you imagine what wonders it does?
For the past three months, my friend Del and I have been jogging in UP twice a week (until the rainy season came, hence it had been reduced to once a week). Everyday I try waking up at 5 a.m. to do some crunches using a gym ball and a bit of skipping rope too. Yoga is also a daily must. All these in the name of staying skinny, of keeping my neck and jawline.
Did I mention I'm smoking again? I read on Bryanboy that most models smoke. And you know me, whatever models do, I follow. Sometimes when I'm hungry I smoke instead. Viola any craving for food goes pffft. I do care for my lungs though… and smoking supposedly makes your pores larger. I'd worry about that next time. For now all I care about is that my clavicles show.
Photo credit: Model Couture
We walked the roughly six blocks to Makati Cinema Square where we bought a few pirated DVDs and CDs. After which we proceeded to the Evangelista thrift shops, with me acting as the guide to Levicel coz it was her first time there.
Whatever we ate for lunch I was hoping that all the walking we did would've been burned already.
At around seven thirty, while poring through old magazines, my stomach told me I needed to eat. I decided however that since it was pretty late in the evening already I had no right shoving food in my mouth. Dawn Zulueta supposedly stays fit by not eating any carbs eight hours before sleeping. It's rather a more extreme version of the before-six diet. The latter counts Oprah as one of its fervent adherents. And dahling, what Oprah says I follow.
Anyhoot, despite all the hunger pangs, I did not allow my body to dictate me. I gorged on mugs of water instead. Soda and fruit juice can deliver you to obese-dom, remember? Ditto for any drink with color.
These days I classify food as either deadly or not. Bread of course is carbs and we all know that eating carbs is the best way to die fat. Meat is just evil, it can cause diseases of the kidney, heart, liver, and perhaps every other organ in our body. Even vegetables and fruits are not created equal - some are more harmful than others. Mango is high in sugar. Beans and broccoli are high in uric acid.
My mantra for the longest time had been: "Food is my enemy. It is poison to my body". I repeat that like a dozen times before I eat and could you imagine what wonders it does?
For the past three months, my friend Del and I have been jogging in UP twice a week (until the rainy season came, hence it had been reduced to once a week). Everyday I try waking up at 5 a.m. to do some crunches using a gym ball and a bit of skipping rope too. Yoga is also a daily must. All these in the name of staying skinny, of keeping my neck and jawline.
Did I mention I'm smoking again? I read on Bryanboy that most models smoke. And you know me, whatever models do, I follow. Sometimes when I'm hungry I smoke instead. Viola any craving for food goes pffft. I do care for my lungs though… and smoking supposedly makes your pores larger. I'd worry about that next time. For now all I care about is that my clavicles show.
Photo credit: Model Couture
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Pinoy Akech!
Happy Independence Day everyone! Or at least to every Filipino (and Filipino-loving person) out there.I sense that Filipinos are having a hard to be proud these days. It might be our self-deprecating nature. Or we simply love to whine about and to criticize our government, our culture, and everything else. Or is this is a collective self-esteem issue?
Certainly there are a lot of things the Philippines can work on given the corruption and countless other problems. But there are innumerable other things that we should be proud of as well. Like…
- Adobo. I just cooked some adobo last weekend and it is definitely not the best adobo I've tasted but who cares. It just reminded me of home.
- Our smile. We can smile (and laugh) about everything even if sometimes a situation does not warrant it. But we smile nonetheless.
- EDSA. I'm not talking about the congested highway but the two (or three, depending on who you ask) bloodless revolutions that kicked the asses of two tyrants.
- Filipino films. We can wince at the Sheryl Cruz and Romnick Sarmienta movies that we enjoyed (aminin!) when we were kids. But hell, we also came out with Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag, Orapronobis, Kubrador, and Insiang. One movie that I'm definitely fond of, although quite flawed, is Oro, Plata, Mata. And who can complain about the requisite sampalan and sigawan in every movie?
- Filipino music. Who can beat Yoyoy Villame, the APO, and even Leah Salonga (bading ako, ano ngayon?)? I was in KL, a Filipino band is in Hard Rock Café. At the Hyatt in Kota Kinabalu, bang, another Filipino band. And we are everywhere!
- Overseas Filipino Workers. Speaking of everywhere. Filipino yayas are raising the next generations of bastards and cunts in Italy, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Thousands of hospital patients in Saudi, New York, Ireland, the UK, and Japan are in the loving care of Filipino nurses. Buildings in the Middle East are constructed with the help of Filipino engineers.
- Jeepneys. Nothing represents Filipinos better than the colorful, vibrant, and noisy jeepney.
- Fiestas. Lechon, street dancing, all-night drinking, beauty pageants.
- Catholicism. I'm not a fan of religion at all but I am proud of the way Filipinos celebrate their religion like life solely depends on it. Add to that the unique touch of folk beliefs on Catholicism, resulting to sharp contrasts. Think Quaipo.
- Manila. It's certainly not the cleanest and orderly city in the world but this is exactly where its charm rests. You have to dig deep - under the grime and chaos - to see it's beauty and surely it would enrapture you.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Thursday, June 07, 2007
From A Pile of Stuff
Meryl Streep devours me all the time. The Devil Wears Prada is just one of her films that totally consumed me. So here's a clip from that film, a scene that I'm watching over and over again. I grabbed the lines of this scene from IMDB. I read it before I sleep, trying to memorize it, mode of delivery and all.
Watch, watch, watch. Immaculate, is she not?
Watch, watch, watch. Immaculate, is she not?
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Back to School
Nearly 20 million students trooped to school last monday. Hay, to be a student. I'm not sure if I miss being one but certainly I have a mix of good and bad memories about going to school.
So let's backtrack a bit to the good old days of being a student, yes?
I have a very vague memory of kindergarten, or I simply choose to forget about it. I only remember my fear of the boy's washroom. It was as small as a closet and there's always a pool of water on the floor. Since we were occupying a very old building, the ceiling was pretty high (especially when I was like only two feet then). The glow of the solitary light bulb was not sufficient for such a high ceiling so it was always dark. With an imagination that just seemed haywire, I always thought that a monster was going to pounce on me. Perhaps I was not the only student who was dead scared of the toilet because I remember a number of my classmates peeing in their pants inside the classroom.
The six years of grade school were confusing. I never figured out where I was going to fit. I especially hated the Technology and Home Economics (THE) subject coz that's the period when the boys would transfer to another room for the drafting classes. As I said in a previous post, boys scare the hell out of me. So during THE I chose to keep to myself and try to draw straight lines with a ruler when all I really wanted was to practice the running stitch that my girl classmates were learning in the next room.
Ironically, I was actually in the team of Cub Scouts always sent to inter-school contests. And these were athletic-type of competitions ha, like sack races and stuff. That was the only butch part of my grade school years though coz the rest of the time I was in some freaking declamation or dancing contest. I also reached the zenith of my spirituality in elementary that for a time I seriously contemplated to become a priest. Que horror!
High school was fun, I don't even know where to begin. Simply, I was all over the place. However, I was marked for being the biggest cheater in the batch (or so I believe). Every year in high school I was caught cheating in the exams. But it was not only me who was doing it; I was the only fool to have been caught over and over again. Cheating was an odious culture during high school. A lot of times instead of studying the night before the exams we would be preparing creative "references" that we'd pull out the next day. Or my classmates and I would assign a chapter of the book amongst each other and we would sit together the next day so we can "share" our expertise. Of course I'm never proud of all the cheating I did during high school.
College was one hell of a ride. I was in a new city, new campus, meeting new people, and I was one of those financially poor students. Talk about adjustment galore. Luckily two of my best friends were in the same campus so part of home was still with me. On our second year both of them were sent back to Surigao (as in deported). What followed was a year of "depression" and solitude. The university's library and cinema became my refuge of sorts.
As a student in the university I did not bother much with grades. It was enough for me to pass one subject after another. I excelled in the humanities and social sciences though, but the total opposite could be said about accounting, natural sciences, and math. I also took a course that I did not choose so I had a sense of detachment from my college. I was filled with a strong desire to shift to the film program. When my father finally allowed me to do so on my second year it was already too late. Stuck to a course that I was ambivalent to, I trudged on. I would have to acknowledge though that my father chose a very practical course for me. So I made the most of my degree, as my career would reflect.
The last time I was in school was more than six years ago. I do not necessarily miss it but I'm sure I need some upgrading soon.
So let's backtrack a bit to the good old days of being a student, yes?
I have a very vague memory of kindergarten, or I simply choose to forget about it. I only remember my fear of the boy's washroom. It was as small as a closet and there's always a pool of water on the floor. Since we were occupying a very old building, the ceiling was pretty high (especially when I was like only two feet then). The glow of the solitary light bulb was not sufficient for such a high ceiling so it was always dark. With an imagination that just seemed haywire, I always thought that a monster was going to pounce on me. Perhaps I was not the only student who was dead scared of the toilet because I remember a number of my classmates peeing in their pants inside the classroom.
The six years of grade school were confusing. I never figured out where I was going to fit. I especially hated the Technology and Home Economics (THE) subject coz that's the period when the boys would transfer to another room for the drafting classes. As I said in a previous post, boys scare the hell out of me. So during THE I chose to keep to myself and try to draw straight lines with a ruler when all I really wanted was to practice the running stitch that my girl classmates were learning in the next room.
Ironically, I was actually in the team of Cub Scouts always sent to inter-school contests. And these were athletic-type of competitions ha, like sack races and stuff. That was the only butch part of my grade school years though coz the rest of the time I was in some freaking declamation or dancing contest. I also reached the zenith of my spirituality in elementary that for a time I seriously contemplated to become a priest. Que horror!
High school was fun, I don't even know where to begin. Simply, I was all over the place. However, I was marked for being the biggest cheater in the batch (or so I believe). Every year in high school I was caught cheating in the exams. But it was not only me who was doing it; I was the only fool to have been caught over and over again. Cheating was an odious culture during high school. A lot of times instead of studying the night before the exams we would be preparing creative "references" that we'd pull out the next day. Or my classmates and I would assign a chapter of the book amongst each other and we would sit together the next day so we can "share" our expertise. Of course I'm never proud of all the cheating I did during high school.
College was one hell of a ride. I was in a new city, new campus, meeting new people, and I was one of those financially poor students. Talk about adjustment galore. Luckily two of my best friends were in the same campus so part of home was still with me. On our second year both of them were sent back to Surigao (as in deported). What followed was a year of "depression" and solitude. The university's library and cinema became my refuge of sorts.
As a student in the university I did not bother much with grades. It was enough for me to pass one subject after another. I excelled in the humanities and social sciences though, but the total opposite could be said about accounting, natural sciences, and math. I also took a course that I did not choose so I had a sense of detachment from my college. I was filled with a strong desire to shift to the film program. When my father finally allowed me to do so on my second year it was already too late. Stuck to a course that I was ambivalent to, I trudged on. I would have to acknowledge though that my father chose a very practical course for me. So I made the most of my degree, as my career would reflect.
The last time I was in school was more than six years ago. I do not necessarily miss it but I'm sure I need some upgrading soon.
Sigh
Sadness… being waitlisted is tantamount to rejection after all. For now I'm saying goodbye to Budapest and The Hague.
But then, I might be saying hello to… (secret muna at baka maudlot, shet).
I need everybody's prayers.
Major, major, major change looming.
But then, I might be saying hello to… (secret muna at baka maudlot, shet).
I need everybody's prayers.
Major, major, major change looming.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Role Model: Agyness Deyn
OMFG, I'm bloody obsessed with British model Agyness Deyn! She's fresh, vibrant, and full of panache. And she's on the cover of Vogue UK this June. I'm so dyeing my hair platinum blond tomorrow.
Photo Credits: First two photos from Style.com; last photo Fashion Verbatim (must-check website!)
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