heto na naman ako, walang magawa. kailangan lang mag-ramble tungkol sa kung ano na lang. hay…

ang emo ko ngayon. ganun ba talaga? nakakahawa ba talaga tong si Bella sa emo-ness? well, ibang level kasi tong si Bella eh. jusme, may-i-emote siya to the max over Edward leaving eh tapos natatahimik naman ang loob pag andiyan si Jacob. grabe, ang “user” talaga niya. naiinis ako na naaawa. teka, bakit ba ako apektado? di naman ako maka-relate sa kanilang tatlo ah?

right.

“mind cheater…” -Morgan, Chuck TV Series

it was one of those ‘bonding’ times again when we went to megamall and, of course, getting tired from all the window shopping (coz it wasn’t payday yet. all we could do is salivate and ogle at the stuff on shops in megamall) we were famished. and it has always been my thing to try out places we’ve never been to before, but A sticks to her ’sweet spaghetti’ places. t’was a good thing then that i convinced her to eat at Eskimo Bob. maybe it was the ice cream that got her attention. hehe…

the place was small and was easy to miss if you looked at the other stores around. it was bright and nice inside and the LCD TV (for the diners’ viewing pleasure, perhaps?) was thankfully turned off. i wasn’t in the mood for noisy places that day. and honestly, it looked kinda out-of-place. unless they were showing ads, maybe, so it could easily catch your attention. i just thought it could be like the ones in Burger King where they had a frame or case to put it in. it just looked weird in the diner.

A and i ordered a full meal, thinking we were really really hungry. I took the grilled porkchop thingy which had a signature drink — mango iced tea — and she took the spaghetti with meatballs, predictably. of course, i just had to try their pizza and soup of the day which was pumpkin soup. funny that it was a week before holloween and we were having pumpkin soup. baka ginamit yung ’shell’ para sa decors sa ibang bansa. yung kinayod sa loob, pinadala dito at ginawang ‘gourmet’ soup. But i loved it! really! nice and warm when served. creamy and smooth and just enough ‘bits’ to let you know that it’s the real thing (or at least i was convinced that it did come from real pumpkins. )

First off, the mango iced tea. i know it sounds weird. and it tasted weird too with my first sip. but after that, i thought of getting another glass! nasanay agad? i don’t know but i just enjoyed that one. iniisip ko nga kung pwede siyang gayahin or they kept a secret recipe for that alone. we’ll see.

The porkchop thingy (ok, i forgot what it was. sorry! i lost the receipt!) was just OK. the meat slice was too thin for me but what were you expecting for a P150-ish meal with drinks and 2 sides, right? the meat was not as tender (read: difficult to slice) but the sauce was strong and fragrant. the mashed potato was a joy to eat, even without the gravy! just because it was made out of real potatoes (i reckon) and not just made by mixing milk with powdered instant starch or something that turns it into a ‘mashed potato mush.’

A wasn’t happy with her spaghetti. just because it was the sour kind. LOL… she mixed some ketchup in it (gasp! the horror!!!) and she forgot she disliked it in an instant. but the pizza… OMG… the pizza? *thumb and index finger in an “O” and ‘kissed’ by lips* magnificent!!! or that could just be because i love cheese pizzas. hehehe…

only down side were the meat balls in the spaghetti. it was still raw on the inside! <insert loud scream and shocked face here> hay naku… i honestly didn’t know what to do. the 2 meatballs were already in shreds because i told A to just eat the outer ’shell’ of the meatballs. i swear, the meat in the middle was still bright pink and really tasted raw! blech! we were almost done anyway so i didn’t think it would be a great idea to notify the manager of this incident anymore. but now that i’m writing this, i guess it would have been just OK so they could get their kitchen do the meatballs right next time.

and after all that eating, being in an Icebergs diner, we shouldn’t miss out on the wonderful ice cream deserts they had in store… but unfortunately, we were too full! and we only had a slice each of the pizza we ordered! grabe… amazing how what i thought was generally ‘konti’ was actually super filling! so i’d say Eskimo Bob was a bad experience that way. they were cruel enough for us to get too full before we could get to their deserts. that’s not just bad… that’s evil!!! (lol)

of course, the tag was from FB. kaso naisip ko, matagal-tagal na din ako hindi gumagawa ng ganito sa blog. time to spread out again!

Thanks to Iska for tagging me. hmmm… sino kaya may gusto gumawa nito? ah basta, bahala na kayo.

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Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 20 people and include me. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s actually a lot harder than you think.

Pick Your Artist:
Eraserheads

01. Are you male or female?
Pare Ko

02. Describe yourself:
Walanghiyang Pare Ko

03. Describe your significant other:
Ligaya

04. How do you feel about yourself:
Toyang

05. Describe where you currently live:
Para sa Masa

06. If you could be anywhere, where would you be:
Alapaap

07. Your favorite form of transportation:
Torpedo

08. Your best friend is:
Shirley (the song describes her but her name’s different. lol)

09. Your favorite color is:
Maselang Bahaghari

10. What’s the weather like:
Fine Time

11. Favorite time of day:
Sembreak (everyday? lol)

12. What is life to you:
Magasin

13. What is the best advice you have to give:
Shake yer Head

14. If you could change your name, what would it be:
Hey Jay

15. Your favorite food is:
Fruitcake

16. Thought for the Day:
Huwag mo Nang Itanong

17. How I would like to die:
(when my) [Ang] Huling El Bimbo (comes)

18. My soul’s present condition:
Overdrive

19. The faults I can bear:
Alkohol (nyahahaha!)

20. My motto:
With A Smile

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anybody game? you’ve already been tagged by somebody else already (on FB) but i’m tagging you anyway:

witsandnuts, sheng, rachel, blue rose, caryn (+ p-chan ), jeanny, ibyang, upto6only, car, jhun, kimmy, hmmm… sino pa? basta, volunteer na lang yung may gusto.

sige na, sige… nobody’s perfect. ako din, i make spelling errors very often. minsan nga yung THEIR and THEY’RE napag-papalit ko pa ng gamit eh. pero i just couldn’t help it…

was on my way to meet A in Boni so from Katipunan, i take the LRT going to Cubao then take the MRT from there to Boni station. and i usually pass by some tech shops along the way inside Farmer’s cubao. syempre, kaka-silip, kaka-window shopping, nakita ko to. and i knew i had to share it.

pinipigilan ko sarili ko tumawa noon. i was merely chuckling when i was taking a picture pero nung nakita ko pa yung isang item nila on display with a label, i just had to let a big laugh out. isang malakas na “haha” lang naman and then i covered my mouth. i didn’t get to take a picture though kasi by this time, i was drawing some attention from the CD-R King customers doing some window shopping as well.

what i saw was another item labeled “VEDIO converter”. honest mistake, i thought. but another item had the word VEDIO in it, too! too bad i didn’t see an item labeled VEDIO ADAFTER! ay nako, tatambling na talaga ako noon! lol! i had quite some exercise laughing then. i wonder kung andun pa mga yun ngayon… hehehe

CD-R King Farmer’s Cubao, spell check naman jan!!!

what funny signs have you seen lately?

everybody has one — a gift that they would never ever think of using. makes you wonder how well one person knows you because he gave you something that is (a)pretty much useless to you or (b)you would never think of buying for yourself because you don’t like it! friends sometimes do that. i once got a sando with some artwork reminiscent of Tribal Gear designs from my grandmother and i just had to flash a wide smile and say, “thank you!” i just couldn’t break her heart by showing a shocked face asking, “kelan ko susuotin ‘to?”

but a few days ago, one of my office-mates finally decided to pursue religious life as a nun. extreme as it may seem, she started to give-away her earthly possessions. i was one of the few “blessed” with her generosity. i say blessed with quotation marks because i can’t really be certain that her gift was a blessing. this is what she gave me:

not the white mug.

she knew i was into photography and i owned a digital camera… and it’s not that sophisticated, even! i own a 6.2MP point-and-shoot, low-end camera. perhaps, yes, i was attracted to lomography before but after seeing the price of maintaining the hobby, i eventually shied-away from it. plus there was too many choices. i just knew i would WANT ALL of them…

and so, the gift becomes a wonderful punishment. it is a blessing and a curse, so the cliche goes. nevertheless, this looks like a hobby i’m inheriting and bound to explore. let’s see how long this will last… probably as long as i have rolls of 120mm film from her.

120mm film is P200 a piece. (doh)

sitting in front of the PC at 4 o’clock in the morning at the office, while the rain keeps pouring down on the metro and northern luzon, it takes great effort to work. specially because you’ve been staying up late for the past 3 days primarily because you are thinking of other people’s welfare. that’s the downside of being involved in studying disasters. kaya kung employee ka at pinapa-uwi kayo kapag umuulan, pasalamat pa kayo at kapag bumabagyo at may lindol, makaka-uwi pa kayo!

undeniably, this ‘tragedy’ has proven how low some people can go just for political ambition and how some risk and even at times give their lives, literally, for others. the latter just gives me enough pride to say loud and proud:

yes. you do what you can. nothing is too big or too small. although you can argue some are doing things for personal gain but most of us do what we are doing because we believe in humanity, in compassion, in our fellow Filipinos.

so, how are my fellow heroes?
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*yung mga makasarili, may vested interest at may maiitim na budhi, hindi kasali. *belat* lol

image taken from TPC Ondoy thread. nice idea for a shirt noh?

if i were at home in Pampanga last saturday, i would just be fine. i would be ok. being home leaves a feeling of security. i don’t know. it just gives me that. so after sleeping-over at the office because of the rains and floods, and hearing of the terrible traffic on NLEX, i went home to Pampanga on Sunday. i was expecting some water but i thought most of it would have subsided after 12 hours or so. so after breakfast at Kenny Roger’s in katipunan (thank goodness they were open! Jollibee ran out of food since the delivery van couldn’t get through the waters the previous day and McDo was closed), i took the bus home and what did i see setting foot on San Fernando? this:

SURPRISE!!!

i was  riding a padyak driven by a manong holduper. P40 for a length of something i could normally walk on an ordinary day. ok, fine, he saved me from getting wet. wag naman holdap na presyo diba??? hay…

i got home, saw that the backyard was flooded about 10 inches to a foot. but it’s ok. no electricity and water. but it’s ok. i’m home.

pero siyempre, i had to come back to manila for work. but it’s ok pa din. i know they’re safe. we can manage. we’ve been through worse.

headache.

one solution is to take a pill and expect it to work and take the pain away.

another solution, bang your head against the wall, hoping that the rhythmic beat of your head against it would massage the pain away.

option three, have someone punch you in the stomach. by increasing the pain in other areas of your body, this would negate the pain you’re feeling on your head.

as a last resort, perhaps, try cutting-out the source of your headache. too bad i can’t cut my heart out.

it’s been so long since i’ve had a ‘fun’ post. shucks, sign of aging ba ito? only one thing comes to mind: jaded.

i’m not exactly a model Catholic so i guess i can’t be accused of speaking in behalf of the Holy Roman Catholic Church even if  i am one. i say that i’m not a ‘model’ Catholic because i don’t exactly agree with everything that comes from the Vatican. am i, then, a liberal? would it qualify for my excommunication? i don’t know. i may be relying too much on my own knowledge and ‘enlightenment’… maybe i just got too used to thinking about things that way, not reading up on stuff before making decisions. just thinking about it by myself.

what actually triggered this is a friend’s blog about why the Philippine government, taking care of a predominantly Catholic nation, should not force Catholics to observe non-Catholic holidays. this would seem fair as he further explains that if the country (or any country) is predominantly Muslim, all Muslim holy days should be observed as national holidays since most of the population would ‘participate’ — people wouldn’t come to work and it would greatly affect businesses, services and schools. Meanwhile, minor religions in the country could observe their holy days but still work (with additional compensation). so it’s basically a numbers game. but is it just about numbers?

my initial reaction, on a technical level, would be a resounding yes. businesses are being halted. schooldays are slashed. productivity is greatly affected if we observe each and every holy day as a holiday. and it would be right to ‘keep the engine running’ while most of the people are not affected by any holy day of a minor religion. this is simply economically sound to observe.

but on a more emotional human level, i must disagree. yes… in comes the irrationality of things. the declaration of 7 Sept and 21 Sept as non-working, national holidays are part of our government’s sensitivities to its citizens. i don’t know. i feel that it would just be equally justified that we observe holy days of other religions. moreover when a Church leader passes. i somehow think it is related(?) to a question during my tacloban workshop. how do you put a value on human life? another point, how do you put a value on biodiversity? our instructor, Dr. Kloosterman immediately said, “you can’t!” and i definitely agree. and that’s why (i think) 7 Sept was a holiday.

would it be that incorrect if we mourn and be sensitive about our brother in a nation but not in faith? would the death of 100 Catholic soldiers be a larger tragedy than the death of 10 Muslim soldiers? by sheer number, perhaps. but the grief and loss would be the same. lives were lost, period. considering one to be greater than the other would be a great error and sin, in my opinion. if this pride about our faith is above our compassion and ability to relate to other people’s loss, then that faith leads people into hate, not love.

it’s one of those things that make me despise religion. we condemn and judge people too much by their faith. religions divide people instead of uniting them. and that’s what saddens me the most. yes, perhaps people more learned in theology or religious doctrine would clarify things but as of the moment, this is what i think. this is what i feel.

my friend also mentioned how sad Mama Mary was (or could be) perhaps because of not being able to celebrate her birthday. could the school administration not select a different day, say Saturday, as a make-up day for the holiday? is it the fault of the government, then, if the institution itself disregards the holy day and turns it into a work day? shouldn’t they have more initiative in keeping 8 September a holiday considering they are a Catholic institution? why blame the government?

well, you could still argue that the moves are politically motivated. i will not discount that thought. 2010 election is coming and politicians want to gather as many votes as they can. by supporting and sympathizing with those who are ‘block voters’, they assure themselves a good 3 million votes. and every vote definitely counts. i cannot prove or disprove their sincerity.

but speaking for myself, as a Filipino who wishes for a united country and human being who knows that life cannot be quantified in any unit of measure, i could not agree with my friend’s propositions.

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image from here.