fohtangeena

On the radio at work this morning: Backstreet's Back
It's in the other department but since it's Saturday, they played it louder.
My other officemate is playing Beatles songs on his Media Player.
Fohtangeena
They're both giving me a migraine.
But then I don't have migraines.
So they're actually conspiring to make me go insane!
Grr Argh!

(FYI, that "F" word is a bastardization (?) of a cuss word here in the Phils roughly translating to S.O.B. but used in a much wider context)

Everybody... ye-ah...
Rock your body... ye-ah...
Everybody...
Rock your body right...
Backstreet's back alright!

Yeah right.
__________

Annoying officemate is at it again. Complaining that his feet are painful, saying ouch in an affected, OA way ("awwwrtch" -- I swear! that's what he said!). Talking to himself (hmmm does he think I'll comment on his insipid comments?) about the peanuts + garlic that he bought. And now singing along to the radio. Wonderful.

Fohtangeena.

Haha! He's actually looking at some porn pics, I think. He's looking up at me from time to time to check if I'm looking. Mwahahahaha! This person is totally pathetic! Any more of this and I'm actually going to get a migraine!
__________

I know. Am such a bitch!

friday five

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not?
Yes! There's a thrill in finding the perfect shoes, or the perfect gift... Also, there's that wonderful challenge of bargain-hunting.

2. What was the last thing you purchased?
Underwear at Wacoal.

3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why?
At an actual store. Especially for things I would wear. I want to see the real thing on me. And also for gifts. I like being able to hold the real thing and check it out.

4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it?
Yes. Twenty bucks a day (at the time it was twenty pesos to one US dollar).

5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing?
These cheap shades. They seemed like a good idea at the time. Although it wasn't really all a waste because my sister liked them so I gave them to her.

Visit the friday five website.

taffy stuck and tongue-tied

Been a busy week. Even the holiday last Wednesday was busy.

And even if there's been so many things happening, I've been blocked. Writer's block. Taffy stuck and tongue-tied, as the Counting Crows sing on "Color-blind". "I am folding and unfolded and unfolding..."

Been to a bridal shower, was official photographer. It was a clean bridal shower, mind you. Had performance bonus (yipee! even if it's just a pittance, it helps). Am swamped with work. Behind on my Christmas shopping (who isn't? but I started shopping in August!). Depressed about Christmas shopping because this may be the last "happy" Christmas for the Phils with FPJ running. (Argh! Yes, no more talk about politics.) Going to miss Ger, who is going to HK to work for three years. Preparing for three weddings. Gaining weight. Looking for a sideline. Making new friends from old acquaintances. Missing old friends who turned into acquaintances. Ruing change but not resisting it. Feeling fine.

"I am folding and unfolded and unfolding..."

road trip

11 of us from our department went on leave and on a road trip last Friday afternoon to Maleen's house (dislocated knee-cap girl, remember) in Balayan, Batangas. Traffic on South Superhighway slowed us down but we were able to make the 120 or so kilometers to Balayan in about four hours, including stopovers.

It was really nice to see Maleen after a week; also was nice to be out in the sun in the "country". I'm looking forward to Joel's birthday celebration in Sta. Rosa, Laguna (about 80km from Makati) coming up soon. These day trips seem to be good for the soul somewhat--away from the hustle and bustle of life among the skyscrapers...


Shots from around. Poor me, I only get out of the city on really rare occasions.


Nice old house on the corner of Maleen's street.


Group pic! The IT peeps. Maleen is in the blue housedress with a cane.

Now if only traffic wasn't that bad...

Happy birthday Mommy!

Since my mom doesn't want me posting any pictures of her anywhere, here's a picture of a bouquet sent by my mom's friend who owns a flower farm (not THE Flower Farm, just *A* farm) somewhere. Nice. Flowers were apparently affected by fungi so they're not as big as usual. These roses are usually around 4 inches in diameter.

signs of the times

FPJ or Ping. There is no lesser of two evils.
__________

Two of my closest friends were at Planet Badminton on J. Victor street when it was held up Thursday night. Robbers were in and out in five minutes max, as their companion put it, it was really "wham bam, thank you ma'am". It was a good thing that no one got hurt and they were especially lucky that they were in the farthest court so none of their belongings were taken. The poor people in the courts nearest the door lost all their stuff--cellphones, wallets, entire badminton bags and even the rackets inside the bags...
__________

When our agency system had its first run in May this year, the peso-dollar rate was PhP52.07 to US$1. The peso-dollar rate for this run is PhP55.29 to US$1. All in the span of 7 months. Depressing.
__________

Betty Chua Sy was kidnapped last week and it seems she was accidentally killed by her kidnappers. I was disturbed but it was no longer that appalling because people were (are) being killed and kidnapped left and right. However, I found out that she was the eldest sister of a good friend of mine, Walter. Walter was my co-teacher and I used to ride home with him constantly (after WarCraft matches) because my house was on the way to Ayala, where he would pick up his girlfriend. Countless afternoons and conversations made us fast friends. Although I lost touch with him in recent years after he got married, his eldest sister's brutal and senseless killing still got to me, that someone so close to me would be so hurt. To see his father distraught upon losing his only daughter was also heart-rending because I know my father would react the same way if any of his daughters were lost that way.

Crime on one side, criminal politicians on the other. Am so glad that I am a Filipino.
__________

Forgive my once-in-a-blue-moon rant against the government. Need an outlet for burgeoning depression at the state of Philippine affairs. Need a therapeutic massage. (Ha!)

sensitive shmensitive

I suddenly checked my blog if I had disseminated any "sensitive" information (yeah right) about our company that might warrant my termination, because Microsoft fired an employee over his weblog, because he allegedly revealed sensitive information. I do talk about work but I've always been vague about where I work, right?

(backtracking through previous entries)

Yup, I think that's just about right. Although I can't say that I'll stop talking about work. Hey, this is supposed to be about my life and work is about 75% of my life right now! All I DO during weekdays is work (and work at being a couch potato). Oh well. Gotta get back to work...

M'leen

My former cube-mate (now next-door neighbor) Maleen is down for a three-week period at the least. There was a freak accident involving her leg and some metal part of the van she was riding home to Batangas and she dislocated her knee-cap. The doctor says it would take around one and a half months for it to truly heal but she can probably go back to work in three weeks' time.

Three weeks of no work for Maleen?! That girl's gonna go insane! Not to mention that fact that since our company's workforce is quite lean, no one's going to be working on some of her projects. Which probably means more work for the remaining BA's, including myself. Less time to post? Hmmm maybe not; although at this rate, I might be spending Christmas in the office. Bah, humbug!

Why "M'leen"? I dunno. It sounds like something from a fantasy book, you know, the ones with sorceresses and dragons and high courts and little people. Huh?! Am going crazy. Poor M'leen.

pakyaw ni pacquiao
Manny Pacquiao is on top of the heap! He beat crowd favorite Marco Antonio Barrera in Barrera's sort-of hometown in Texas. Read the full story for more details. Me, I just want to say that I'm glad that he won. Aside from the fact that he's brought glory to the Philippines and shown our "fighting spirit", the bugger's also getting a hefty paycheck. I just hope he spends most of it in the Phils, maybe that'll boost our economy a wee bit. Haha, right.

oh yeah
Another article in Cosmo. Under a pseudonym nga lang. Page 194 of Cosmo Phils Nov issue.

bazaar season

Funny who you run into at all these bazaars. Now that it's Christmas season, the bazaars have started sprouting here and there. My friend Cris sold me a booklet of tickets to this charity bazaar at Makati Sports Club over the weekend. I sold some to my officemates and my family; was there both Saturday and Sunday. It was the usual bazaar thing, except Cris' chef-boyfriend Rommel had a booth selling pasta and a heavenly panna cotta, yum!

Another acquaintance from school was also there selling jars of tsokolate (rich chocolate), and I ran into some old friends, former students, and what-not. Was able to buy some small gifts and charity Christmas cards from Museo Pambata, although am reserving part of my Christmas budget for a trip to Greenhills. What's Christmas shopping without going to Greenhills' tiangges after all? Divisoria is out of the question right now because I don't think I can stand the crowds anymore, although the really cheap stuff would be there. Sigh.

defined by x
No, not a nerdish post about math (although I've been tempted to in the past--teehee). It's just both funny and annoying. In the bazaar mentioned above one of the organizers is someone I know from a few years back named Mike. Here's how my conversation with Mike went:

Mike: Hey I know you!
Ri: Hey I know you too!
(exchange pleasantries while I dig up his name in my memory banks)
Ri: Mike J! (on a whim) I bet you don't remember MY name...
Mike: Uhhhh...
Ri: Hmmm...
Mike: You're LM's ex!
Grrrrr!

So there. I have been defined by my ex. That's happened more often than you think and it's sometimes annoying. I feel like I wasn't able to establish my own identity; something I'm working on right now sans boyfriend, and having a hard time at it. Oh well.

conversations with someone to whom i don't give much credit
I always thought X was a two-timing jerk and playboy whose sole mission in life was to flirt with all the babes in the office. When he and his longtime girlfriend broke up around last year I thought that it was just karma on his part. But they've gotten back together and I think that he's happier now. He's also one of the people that I consider my friend but it seems that that "friendship" was based on mutual friends, shared gimmicks and occasional lunches.

Last Friday night (early Saturday morning), was just really glad that he was there, even if his girlfriend was still looking for him. Apparently he sensed that I was feeling rather low despite the happy facade. "You miss having a boyfriend," he told me. True, true. I don't miss the boyfriend after all, maybe just the thought of having one. I miss having someone always there with me for every gimmick and event in my life (every single thing)--hence the frustration over not having anyone to watch Matrix Revs with. But other than that I don't really miss much about being in a relationship. Minor downside. Right now I'm more frustrated at not being able to be more happy with just myself.

Anyway, I can't thank X enough for insightful conversations over coffee and for holding my hand (of course in a non-romantic way). It's the little things like these that keep you fine. And sane.

letting my hair down

Literally, not figuratively. Figuratively was last Friday night with the six or so shots of Desert Rose and TGIF Mudslide. (Hair was in a bun, didn't have time to fix after cooking.) Literally was today because I looked at some old pictures and noticed that my hairline now is much higher than it was in high school. They say that pulling your hair back everyday does that to your hair, so there. Hair is down today.

The officemates seem quite stunned because I've only once come to work with my hair down (ONCE!), on a Saturday that I was on call, and only because I was going to a party after. I sort of think that my severe bun or severe ponytail are more business-like. However, almost everyone here says that I look better with my hair down. Of course they could also either be (1) getting used to it; and (2) pulling my leg--more probable.

mom finds out about blog
Saw a link to this article on the Blogger homepage. Hahahahahaha! Hahahahaha!

Am sure glad my mom doesn't surf the internet. Egad!

a (temporary) rich feeling
Got 13th month pay yesterday. Wow. Have enough money to buy the cellphone I want (Nokia 6220) but then I wouldn't have any money left over for Christmas gifts--not to mention for paying the credit card bill for the gifts that I've already bought. So after I pay the credit card bills, buy my parents' and sisters' gifts (which are the most expensive), I still have to set aside money to buy dresses for the three weddings I'm attending in December... so no more moolah. Sigh, I just have to enjoy the next few days that there's actually money in my bank account.

a night at home

aldo's pictures from last friday night (the clear ones at least)

Hey all smiley-faces!
L-R: The boyfriend of my girlfriend, the Atenean, Madr of all, de nephew, KH (partly hidden by de nephew), celebrator, celebrator's sister (hiding behind Desert Rose bottle), (partly hidden) Piaya, bespren Jen, mah girlfriend, Marielle and Jun (the badminton-ers).


The other sister and boyfriend. Note bottles of booze in the background. DaMike is making a detailed explanation of the Samurai X series for bespren Jen. Oh, and those are my blue walls. D. still maintains it looks like the color of bathrooms in the province (what the--?).


I thought they were going to do the three monkeys pose! Feh. Am disappointed. Are those supposed to be butterflies?! Note the girly-girl background for the macho men. Teehee.

Was a good night.

exercise in futility
Feeling badminton-ers.


What style! What form! So intimidating! Hehe...


Smile though your heart is aching... Teehee...

Was a good day anyway. Thanks to the Baddicts! More pictures is the Baddicts Gallery.

every beginning has an end

So says the Oracle to Neo, or so I've read and been told.

or, unmatricized
I still haven't watched Matrix: Revolutions. Okay so I know the basic story and everything already, but I still want to see it for myself. You know how despite the many times you've seen a multi-car pile-up on TV or in pictures, it's still different when you see it yourself. Is that weird or something? I wanted to compare it to the Eiffel Tower or Pisa's leaning tower but I don't think any Matrix movie is a comparable work of art.

So here's what I got from the people I texted/talked to earlier today asking if they'd already seen the movie and hinting ever so subtly (yeah right!) that I still hadn't watched it yet:
M: "Umm yeah I've seen it." (deadma, skirting the topic)
K: "Dwama!" (pa-cute but still doesn't want to watch with me)
Z: "Haha sorry to hear that" with smiley face at the end (thinks I'm pathetic)
P: "I already know the story and I don't plan on watching it." (taray!)
M: "Ok but I have to watch Reloaded over the weekend first." (now although it's positive I don't think I can wait that long! this person goes home to Batangas during weekend)
Bespren J: "I just watched it yesterday!" (then she went to take another call)
D: "I have a presentation this Friday, pwede next week?" (again with the timing, I wanna watch it THIS WEEK!)
A (my nephew): "Have to leave for the province tomorrow, let's watch next week." (Grrr! Argh!)

So there. Poor pathetic me. Will watch Matrix: Revolutions by myself Sunday morning probably just to satisfy my curiosity. Phooey. Though it's not like I haven't done it before. Examples of movies I've watched alone at the theater: One True Thing, Soul Food, Cousin Bette. Mostly gushy-mushy stuff, and mostly from late '98 to early 2000, the time that I used to go out with V. a lot. Since I was still teaching at the time I'd sometimes be done at 2:30, but she had work at a bank so I had to wait for her till 5. So I'd watch all these weird stuff while waiting for her. Well it beat risking my credit limit if I went shopping.

stuff from around

My Elvish Name
Órelindë Tinúviel

My Hobbit Name
Goldie Proudneck of Tuckborough

My Matrix Name -how timely! Me with a Matrix name but still haven't watched Matrix: Revs
Andromeda
[okay, now if only that weren't the title of a weird show by the creator of Star Wars with weird blue people]

Sigh. I wonder if the rallyists on Ayala Avenue have dispersed. Poor poor country of ours.

party-hearty

The last time that I had a party like last Friday's was four years ago when I was nursing a broken heart, but two guys were courting me (woohoo! those were the days) and I had a whole different set of friends invited, except for the one and only (or 25 or so) Glider Friends. This year I invited those people who were closest to my heart right now: the Glider Friends, of course; my office friends; former students who've remained close; and some of the nicest people I know, like my nephew, Kai, and Ger-ber and Charlie-girl (package deal).

My mom was the one feeling panicky for me. Meanwhile, I was recuperating from fever and some really intense muscle pains the day before, and was generally lazing around most of the day. Didn't take my LOMI, er, LOMA exam (goodbye US$65) because Thursday's fever seemed to erase everything that I had read about Insurance Marketing up till Wednesday. So I stayed home, went to the doctor, and then rested for the birthday thingy. Cooked a little pasta--I know that didn't turn out well because that was the dish with the most leftovers. Was just too tired and it showed in my cooking, hehe.

DaMike was the first to arrive, followed by Aldo and Raymar. Those three people saw me in my 'cooking attire', all sweaty and messy. Nice picture there, am glad Aldo's digicam batteries were with Denise. Quick change. Denise, co-celebrant, arrived soon after, as did most of the other guests. Someone told me it was a bit overwhelming, having around 35 people there. I don't know. I like having a lot of people around me. Maybe I'm compensating for my being boyfriend-less and a little lonely, but it's almost always been the case that I've celebrated my birthday quite lavishly, since I started working. This is my way of thanking my friends, who put up with my neuroses and my fits of insanity.

The theme was supposed to be 'cinema' but it was only manifested in the "game" and the prizes [aha! pirated DVDs!]. I admit I had a little too much to drink on a nearly empty stomach and ended up introducing everyone to everyone and shouting myself hoarse; so there. My excuse for being totally noisy and tactless at some point in time. Hey. My party. Take it or leave it. The quote on my calendar today says, "It is when we forget ourselves that we do things that are most likely to be remembered." Yes, I think I was in that zone last Friday. No regrets. Maybe some apologies--nah. None at all.

meeting kai
Hmmm. Was going for a title like Serving Sara or Boxing Helena--both box-office flops! Anyway 'Meeting Kai' didn't turn out to be that much of a flop. I have known Kai Huang for a little over seven years, I think. We started out at the MaxiBoard, the 99.5RT BBS system; then we all migrated to LiveWire (and played LoRD till we dropped or something). Unfortunately, the prelude to online gaming and BBS took a backseat to affairs of career and the heart (not necessarily in that order). But I still maintained my ties with some of the old fogies--CJSJ, Brian S, Eric Meim(+), and Kai. (I recently got in touch with Joty through friendster too.) Although I had met up with some of them (CJ and I were both from DLSU, Brian S and Eric were siblings of my friends), I had never met up with Kai. Until last Friday. I had actually set him up to date one of my friends, and they had met up, but I still hadn't seen the alien-er-person face to face! Haha!

Of course he always brings up that one time when we were supposed to meet in Glorietta, which was aborted because some person, who shall remain nameless, was insanely jealous that I was meeting up with another guy, never mind that I had (technically) known this person a lot longer than I had known him. Oh well. I'm glad we finally met after all these years. He seemed nice enough, although there was a feeling of him holding back a degree of wit and sarcasm. Hey, I know you're capable, dude. Cheers. [Too bad you didn't drink.]

cheers!

• Here's to dinner and drinking with wonderful people, and almost all the people I love with me all in one place. [After all, the next time might be at my funeral. Er, wedding?]
  
• Here's to it being a small world, after all.
  
• Here's to an early bird who was one of the last to leave (thanks Mader!).
  
• Here's to Desert Rose, much cheaper alternative to Tequila Rose.
  
• Here's to a great nephew who stayed till closing time (then hied off to an early-morning 'meeting', haha!).
  
• Here's to people gamely putting up with our weird (nerdy daw) party game.
  
• Here's to alcohol numbing your aching muscles until you wake up the next morning (oww!).
  
• Here's to lunches with former flames and exchanging pleasantries.
  
• Here's to badminton, the new shawarma (huh?!).
  
• Here's to life--sometimes you just really want out, but hey, things always look up eventually. Eventually.
  

tonight
Allan is listening to Incubus. It's now 'I Wish You Were Here'. Ah, to end the working day with visions of Brandon Boyd dancing in my head. Sweet.

Am still waiting for the party pictures from Aldo and maybe Kai. (Hehe.)

study time

I have horrendous study habits. I guess I grew up complacent in my ability to speed-read through stuff and retain a lot of information easily. It's not the case anymore as I've gotten older: I need to learn more complicated stuff and my mind, addled by lack of sleep, nicotine and too much sugar, isn't as effective as it once was, when I would step into the shower and emerge with the proof of a difficult geometry problem, or when I would breeze through a stoichiometry exam even if I was reading Sweet Valley High books under the table.

Anyway, I have an exam on insurance marketing on Friday. And I haven't read a thing. Time to buckle down. Sadly, my mind and body aren't used to that. It's study time tomorrow. You'll hear from me Thursday.

a week of no blogging

makes Ri a dull girl? Well, I sure hope not. To think that I've been a bit proud about being able to blog 'most everyday... but circumstances have dictated that I would not be able to blog for the last week.

Tuesday. Two long meetings. Sometimes I think that meetings are the bane of corporate life: time is wasted, people get sleepy. However, I know for a fact that our team gets our information mostly from meetings so I can't really complain. We are coming up with a new product and we are trying to fit it into our systems because it's totally different from everything that's come before. It's really quite interesting when you think about it, but after you've been in a meeting for five hours--you're just really sleepy.

Wednesday. On leave. My dad got some of his people to paint my room today. It's a light blue that I picked out from a catalogue at the paint store. Am a bit high from the paint. (No pictures yet, I can't seem to find the rechargeable batteries for the digicam.) I also finally got my license. Of course your license picture is never flattering. Grrrr! Spent the last of my money for the month on that freaking drug test. Hope payday's tomorrow.

Thursday. Birthday. Lounged around and then panic-cooked in the morning. Treated officemates to lunch of Ri's famous spaghetti, Crispy Chicken McDo, cakes and ice cream. Payday is not today. How unfortunate for me. Am glad that am still able to "borrow" money from Mommy. Hehe. Got jogging pants from my officemates (well they do know I'm really into this badminton stuff) and some home magazines (well they do know we're renovating the house). Got some more badminton stuff (wrist band and jersey shirt) from DnA, while Pol had my racket re-gutted (restringed). My ninang and my mom both gave me perfume--was wondering, is it a message that I stink? Teehee. Well, I do like receiving gifts, but I also like giving them. What fun.

Friday. Shit hit the fan. Some agents' overrides were erroneously computed. And almost all developers are on leave. Spent the entire morning investigating this and explaining to higher management. They were totally level-headed about it anyway, so it wasn't that bad. Left work at 1:30pm. Time to rest. Am glad it's payday. And after paying all my bills and debts and setting aside money for the credit union, am left with just enough money to get by this month and have a little shindig next weekend.

I realize that my mom's real gift to me was allowing me to repaint my "pad" because she has never allowed me to touch the stark white walls before. Thanks Mom!

Weekend. Was supposed to study for my upcoming LOMA exam on Marketing. Of course I didn't get past the first 10 pages. Yes, I know it's bad study habits, but I was fixing my room (fumes are no longer oppressive), playing badminton, going over to Alabang, leafing through old magazines to see if there were articles worth clipping, etc. I realize that to overcome my procrastination of the past two years regarding uncluttering and really organizing my stuff, I need about a week's worth of leave. Maybe I can also unclutter myself by detoxifying and soul-searching at the same time.

tiffany blue
Nins' friend Lavs came over last Friday. Of course I showed them my newly-painted room. Advertising maven that she is, she asked what color it was and I said it was something Harmony, it being blue and all, relaxing right? She said, "Well I think it's Tiffany Blue, diba sosy?" Kewl. I've always thought those little blue boxes were the height of class, especially after I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's. Wonderful movie with pretty, pretty people.

and now there's Myspace
Thought you had enough of friendster? Well I got an invitation to another online community that has basically the same premise, MySpace. Okay Ry, I'll register and everything, after all they have a Privacy Policy. But I don't think I'll ever visit their website again...! It's interesting because it's like friendster but there's a journal feature--but then I have blogger and blogspot for that...

I have to get all this in by 8am... aaaggghhh... type faster... faster...

In my sister's words,
Ayt.
(What the heck language is that?)