I've spent the majority of last weekend out of town. And It was fun because I usually just stay home when I'm off work. Quite boring but it works for me. But going out of town every once in a while just takes a lot of the stresses from work, which I really badly need.

Anyway, so last Friday after work, I went back again to UP Diliman (not really out of town but I've always considered UP as not just the school that I spent 5 college years in but more than just a school... it's another world on its own.) to watch the annual Lantern Parade which is held on the day before the start of the Christmas vacation, which I wish I still had. The last time that I watched the Lantern Parade was way back in 2004. But even so, I didn't think that there will much difference.

Or so I thought.

First of such changes is that the parade is no longer done around the university academic oval (which, if I'm not mistaken, is about 2.2 km. long) but is now held at the university amphitheater, which somehow surprised me because for one thing, I didn't know that such a place exists. Maybe I just never had the chance to go there. It's located at he back of the administration hall of the university, where the world-famous Oblation statue is also located (actually, the statue is located at the front of the building). So I went there, and was a bit surprised to see lots of people. And I arrived a bit late because the parade ended about an hour later. But it was ok since the best college to perform came in last. It's the best because it was the College of Fine Arts and that's what they do every time. And their lanterns were big and very beautiful, as always and as expected and they wouldn't be perennial favorites for nothing.

Anyway, after the parade of many lanterns, one arguably better than the preceding one (topped by 2 big lanterns in the shape of Manny Paquiao and his mom, Aling Dionisia, much to the delight of the crowd), the parade was ended by a fireworks display which lasted for about 10 minutes long. It was really cool and dazzling and everyone was on his toes with "oooh's" and "aaaah's" after every explosion of colorful lights.

After that, I met with some college friends and we had an "after party event" at a local bar near the university, called Pork Barrel. It was my first time there, and I was a bit surprised to see the place jam-packed. Luckily, we were able to find a table. We stayed there until about 4am, where we talked about lots of stuff: from campus stories to socio-political issues to the  Tagalog counterparts of English terms. It was probably the most fun inuman session that I've ever attended. Unfortunately, it has to end, and I look forward to the next inuman session with those guys.

I reached home at around 5:30am. I slept for about 2 hours, took a bath, ate a very light breakfast, and then off I went again to another place.

LAGUNA, BABY!!!


After quite a long bus ride from Quezon City, my writer friends from Filipinowriter.com and I finally reached Los Baños, Laguna, where another writer friend of ours was waiting. We bought some food and water and other stuff and then we went to this amazing place near the top of Mt. Makiling, called Pook ni Mariang Makiling, after a local goddess of the mountain. The place is filled with lots of plants and it is so serene and peaceful. We ate an abundant lunch there and stayed for about a couple of hours and then we went to another place, a hot spring resort called Laguna Hot Springs in Calamba, Laguna (apparently, the people who created the names of places there lacked creativity, haha!), also situated near Mt. Makiling. There we had our dinner, and then we had some "getting-to-know-you" session that allowed us to know more about each other, since some of us there only saw one another for the 1st time and there is much anonymity on the internet to really know a person well. That was really fun, and we enjoyed asking questions to one another about this and that in each other's life.

To wrap up the evening, some of us took a dip on the hot spring pool (it looks like a big swimming pool with gravel and rocks floor, but the water in it comes directly from the hot springs of Mt. Makiling). I didn't spend much time swimming since the others did the same, some of them even refused to swim at all. But that's ok, since we spent the next few hours drinking and laughing and sharing stories (again! but I don't complain since it was also very, very fun).

We left Laguna early the next morning, taking with us the lovely memories that we created during our stay there. I hope to see those guys soon.

So, that's it. What a wonderful weekend. Next weekend, I'll be out of town again, this time with some friends from high school. I'm pretty sure that that will be very fun too. Can't wait! :D

Ciao! Ü

I have to be off from work today because I have this nagging cough that I've had since last week. Due to the nature of what I do, I need to have some time off to rest and hopefully be able to get rid of this cough. So I just stayed home today.

I've been taking medication and it seems that they don't work. So I have to resort to my good ol' pal that I have proven time and again to be really effective. And it hasn't let me down yet. Behold: the great oregano.

Yeah. When I was a kid, whenever I get cough or any mild respiratory ailments, my mom would tell me to drink oregano juice. That's what I want to call it, haha, and practically, it is oregano juice. That's the liquid that come from squeezed steamed oregano leaves. A couple of leaves can yield about a teaspoon of juice. So anyway, a teaspoon or two usually does the trick. But this time around, I'll take in not just a teaspoon or two, to make sure that by tomorrow, this cough is already gone. Hopefully.

Today, I made a nice tea out of oregano leaves, picked from a neighbor's plants because for some reason the oregano plants that my dad planted some years ago have disappeared from our garden. Anyway, I learned from the web that dried oregano leaves are more effective, but I don't have dried oregano leaves. I only have fresh leaves, plenty of them. So anyway, I still made my tea. I crushed about ten big leaves of oregano and poured boiling water on them and let it steep for about 10 mins, and voila!  I made meself a nice cup of oregano tea. It's not really tea because oregano doesn't belong to the tea family but is related to the mint family but it looks like a cup of tea so it is oregano tea. I added some sugar and fresh milk and it's refreshingly good. I'll make another cup later.

Ehem. Hopefully I'll be able to go back to work tomorrow.

Or will I?

Haha. I'm considering missing another day just to be sure, anyway I have a lot of sick leaves to spare.

Until next time!

Yesterday, I had my first "real" haircut in more than 7 years. "Real" because previously, I would just ask the hair stylist to shave my head, and did that since 2005. For those who knew me in college, I sported a long, wavy hair hair from 2002 until I graduated and had my first work in 2005. So the last time that I had someone really styled my hair was back in 2002. So, anyway, it feels a bit weird to have this kind of hair style. I feel like I'm back in high school, haha. By the way, this is just the start because I'm planning to let my hair grow long again so I won't have my hair cut in the next 6 months or so. I did it before and I'd like to do it again.

Ciao.

PS:

what I've been up to during the last few weeks:
- played lots of video games (PC and PSP)
- downloaded and watched lots of movies (most of them at the office (shhhh!))
- enjoyed weekends with friends, playing basketball and badminton
- bought a new 500Gb External hard disk to back up files from my PC
- went back to UP to buy some shirts and eat fishballs and other streetfoods (yum!)
- went to gym on weekends, to get myself ready for the holiday season


Until next time.

Okay, I have decided: I will let my hair grow again. I'm not sure if I can make it grow really long again like I did way back college. Damn, that was hard. I dunno. I'll see how long I could let it grow, or when I'm going to have a haircut again. I'm not sure, maybe I'll change my mind again in a couple of weeks or so, but for the mean time, I'll just let my hair grow.

In other news... well, there is really no other news. Same old boring shit.

Oh, I'll start writing again before this month's over, and hopefully, I'll be able to write 2 to 3 stories before the year ends. And also, watch out for my new poetry collection coming by the end of the year, yey!

Just pretend you care, ok? Thanks for reading.

Ciao!

I finally saw the video of Boxxy, the infamous crazy-cute/attention deficit girl that rocked the interwebz early this year. And she just vanished soon after, for her own good, probably. Yeah, so I guess I'm bit too late already, haha. I'd like to meet her personally someday.

Anyway, aside from that, here some stuff that I've done during the last few weeks:
- attended the book launch of 2 of my co-writers in FilipinoWriter.com. Met them for the first time. And I still haven't finished the book, unfortunately.
- became part of a fund-raising poetry reading even early this month for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana). I was with some members of FilipinoWriter.com, Km64 poetry collective, and Bayan Muna party list. That typhoon killed more than 250 people, displaced thousands of families, flooded almost all of Metro Manila, and destroyed billions worth of crops and other properties.
- attended an EB with some Peyups.com members and met some new people. I needed that, because I so fucking sick and tired seeing the same faces day in and day out, both friends and just casual acquaintances alike.
- went to San Pedro, Laguna, to be part of a fiesta there. Ate a lot, yey!
- spent the past weekend at my aunt's place in Cubao, QC. Ate lots of pasta, pili nuts, and chocolates, and at one point, became shit-faced with beer.
- downloaded lots of movies and songs. Thanks for the fast internet connection.


Yeah, as usual, I'm too lazy to blog. Because it's easier to post stuff on Facebook. So if you have Facebook account and you know me, add me up!

Cheerio, biatches. 'Til next time, woowoot! :D

It rained the whole day yesterday.

I went out of the office at around 4:30PM yesterday and was really surprised that it was raining hard. I didn't know how hard it had been going until I saw lots of people stranded outside the mall because of lack of public transportation like jeepneys and buses because there were floods almost everywhere. Luckily, I was able to get ride on a public (or possible a colorum) FX. The seats were soaked wet, apparently because the people who rode the vehicle some hours prior were also soaked wet due to the heavy rain. I was able to get home safely. And there was no flood or power interruption or anything that would make me really mad here at home. There was no water, though, but that came back early this morning.

There was nothing on TV but news about typhoon Ondoy (that's the name of the typhoon). I didn't know that Bulacan (that's where I live) was under typhoon signal #2, which means bad but not really bad. There was no flood here, because this part of Bulacan is situated maybe about a hundred feet above sea level and this place is nowhere near any body of water, so it's really pretty safe here. But some other places are not as lucky, like most of Metro Manila, which, if I remember correctly, is below sea level and naturally a swamp or a floodplain so flooding is a norm whenever there is a storm and the like. And yes, there was flood there, in some areas the water would be 5 feet deep. Lots of people had to climb on top of the roof of their houses and wait for rescue as they brave the rain and the cold of the night.

This morning, I found out that more than 50 people have already died and thousands of families displaced by the floods. I feel sorry for them and at the same time thankful that my family is safe and my friends and their family are also safe.

I don't pray much but I hope that things will become much better in the coming days.

...that I didn't win in the 59th Carlos Palanca Awards for Literature for any of my submitted works.

Damn. Fuckingdamnbitchmotherfuckingdamnshit.

Well, I guess I'm really not that good. At least for them judges of the competition. I'm just a fucking nobody, and nobody gives too much shit for nobodys like me.

Hmmmm.... where to go next? What will happen next? Should I try again next year?

Well, life goes on, as usual.

Actually, somehow, I feel relieved that I have finally found out the results. It would have been much better if I won, of course, but what I mean is for the past 5 months, I had this lingering thought on me head about the competition. I wanted to win, God knows I did. I spent literally sleepless nights just to finish my submissions. My eyes were dead-set on the prize. But, poof! Dream's fucking over, mate.

I guess it's just my illusion of grandeur. I wanted to win the most prestigious literary award in the country (if I'm not mistaken) and be among the greats in Philippine literature. Who doesn't want fame and greatness? I do. Everybody does, in one way or another. It's just that it doesn't come too often. Being great is a once-in-a-lifetime event. And hopefully, I'd still have a bite of that event in the future.

Anyway, that's a chip off my shoulder now, or something like that. I feel very disappointed but that's ok. My time will come. Hopefully soon.

It's supposed to be released today here in the Philippines but it seems that it's not yet available here. I've been waiting for it for months now and I have actually saved up some money to spend, but to no avail: I still don't have it. But I will get it soon.

Yes, I'm referring to the new Remastered Stereo Box Set of The Beatles. Since it's not yet available here in the country, I'm now contemplating whether to get a credit card so that I could buy it online, which is actually sold at a lesser price, or so it says. I'm expecting it to hit around PhP10k-15k here, but on Amazon.com, it says that the box set is being sold at around $180 from the usual price of $260. But, of course, there will be some added expenses for the shipping and handling.

Anyway, I'm committing a big, big sin right now... I'm currently downloading the entire box set mp3's via torrent. I... just... can't...help... it... I just wanted to check out if the mix used in the remasters for "I am the Walrus" is the same one from the LOVE mash-up remix album. And the answer is no: the remasters still has the same mix used in 1967 where the 2nd half of the song still switches to fake stereo, but since it is now remastered, it sounds much, MUCH better. Ad then I went ahead to download the entire box set...

But I WILL most definitely buy the box set soon. I promise.

And hopefully, I can get the Mono Box Set, too. It's much more expensive (around $300, ouch!) because it's more of a collector's item. But unfortunately, I don't have more money to spend on it. But I also want that one. So, hopefully... yeah.

I've been a big Beatlefan since time immemorial and I am still crazy about their music.  I would listen to other bands and other forms of music but at the end of the day, so to speak, I would still come home to the music of the Fab Four. They are still the best.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. :D

OK... I promised myself that I'll be blogging more regularly. So I will try to do that, even if not a lot of stuff happens in my life. Haha. Yeah, whatever.

Anyway, I really don't have much to say. But that's ok.

Oh! yeah... go The Beatles re-mastered catalog boxed set will be coming out on the 10th of this month. I hope to get my hands on that ASAP. I'm not sure if it will be readily available here in the Philippines. Hopefully it won't cost me too much. Maybe I'll ask my cousin to go buy it in the US and I'll just pay him later. I can't buy it online because I don't have a credit card. I refuse to get one because I have a tendency to buy a lot. Although normally, I don't really shop a lot. I only buy stuff when something's on sale and whatnot, but with a credit card on hand, I might just spend a lot. Like I'd like to buy a keyboard, you know, the musical instrument, because I'd like to learn how to play it. And also I'd like to buy a new DVD player. And a widescreen LCD TV. And a new celfone. And a PS3.

See? Credit cards are evil.

That's all for now. Don't vote for Noynoy or Chiz.

Ciao! :D 

If I remember correctly, I just accidentally saw the trailer for this film on YouTube a month before it got released. Before that, I have never heard anything about this movie nor seen any trailers and whatnot. And it's like love at first sight after seeing the trailer. I told myself that I will definitely see this film.

So by mid-August, this film was finally shown here in the Philippines. I watched it on its second day of showing. Not a lot of people were in the cinema, probably because the movie itself is not what one would consider as a blockbuster hit, such as the overrated but bland Transformers 2 or that overrated shit HP6. Anyway, so I was there, and enjoyed the movie.

And it's the best film that I have seen so far this year.

The movie is about an alien spacecraft that got stranded over Johannesburg in South Africa. The story revolved around the aliens form that spacecraft getting racially abused and discriminated, mirroring the apartheid times in that country during the 80s to the early 90s. Yep, racial discrimination. And this time, it's worse because people are against the the aliens in a segregated, walled area called District 9.

The protagonist of the story is an field agent from the MNU (Multinational United, a fictional military contractor) named Wikus van de Merwe (awesomely played by first-time actor Sharlto Copley). During a military operation to relocate the aliens (rudely referred to as "Prawns" because of their appearance) to a newly built site called District 10 some miles away from the city, Wikus accidentally got contaminated by some alien liquid while searching inside an alien shack, and from that point onward, his life was forever changed...

So... this great film was shot in a documentary film style with shakey camera techniques reminiscent to another great movie Cloverfield, though to a much lesser degree since multiple cameras were used, and Borat, though this movie is NOT as funny. The narrative used interviews of various other characters, providing background information and opinions about the whole issue at hand. And through all that, the visual effects reigned supreme. The photo-realistic CGI that was used to render the aliens and other things in the movie was just pure awesomeness. Add to all of that the melodramatic sci-fi story that also touch social issues in the real world and voila, you have a must-see masterpiece.

If you still haven't watched it, do so ASAP. And you'll for yourself why it's the best film of the year.


(yeah, it's a late review... but it's still being shown in theaters so it's still not too late)