Thursday, April 29, 2004

i am the next clay aiken!

(or whoever is runner-up this year)

Your Go at Becoming the American Idol! by arkadyfolkner
Your Name
Your Gender
Your Age
Your Song
What Randy SaidI wasn't feeling it dawg.
What Paula SaidYou did good, be proud!
What Simon SaidWell done.
How Far Did You Get?Runner-Up
Created with the ORIGINAL MemeGen!


More about Idol: Now that Camile's gone, there's only one Filipina left but honestly I don't think Jasmine has the makings of an Idol. Meanwhile John Stevens, although cute, can't seem to break out of the Rat Pack mold. At least I think he'll have a career as a lounge singer or something. I think it's going to come down to the African-Americans. Fantasia, Latoya and George Huff have had such strong performances. Sayang JPL (Jon Peter Lewis) is already gone. Kungsabagay, the show isn't American Psycho Idol...

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

t minus 4 days

Till DnA's wedding. Have not had the time to meet up with JojoBee to tweak the AVP. I learned the basics of Adobe Premier Pro in 4 hours! Wowee.

our boy jim
Crushy-wushy Jim Caviezel is playing Bobby Jones in a movie opening in the US tomorrow, a champion golfer afflicted with syringomyelia. He has blod hair though. Yikes. Am looking forward to another wonderful performance by Jimmy Boy--now a.k.a. Jesus Jones. Teehee.

taking down the Save Angel icon

because Angel is past saving, but like Buffy will live in our hearts for ever. Okay, so maybe not forEVER... but a long time... fondly remembered the way my father remembers M*A*S*H...

At least the DVDs are available, to take out and reminisce through when nostalgia strikes.

Goodbye Angel, Wes, Cordy, Fred, Lorne and Gunn. And belated goodbye to Lindsey, you're still the most papa-ble of the lot. Teehee.

Monday, April 26, 2004

ang mamatay ng dahil sayo

Paid homage to the Philippine flag and stood to the Philippine national anthem twice this weekend.

the island fortress
Maybe Corregidor can be likened to Helm's Deep--symbol a desperate defense in a forsaken land. It seemed that way during that battle in 1941-1942, I guess, when Japan's Gen. Homa stormed the Philippines, and Bataan and then the vaunted island fortress Corregidor both fell to the marauding Japanese.

We visited Corregidor for our company outing last Sunday. The ferry ride was smooth--heaven-sent for me, the perenially motion-sick. While touring the island though, the heat was oppressive; the last few tour stops we deigned to alight from the tour bus because of sheer heat fatigue. My "wards" on tranvia #1 were all quite cranky come lunch time. Oh well.

I was able to snap up a few shots though:
RuinsWater

CannonLighthouse and Directions

It was a first for me, having been outside the Philippines quite a number of times but never having seen Corregidor (nor Bohol, nor Vigan). It made me promise myself that I should visit various parts of the country before having my passport stamped again.

graduation day
My sister has graduated with second honors from the Ateneo de Manila College of Law. Sounds imposing. You bet she knows it. I don't know, maybe I'm really biased, but in the atmosphere at the graduation there was a distinct weight of haughtiness. Oh well. All you Arreneow dudes can kill me now. (And I haven't begun on the idea of hubris yet!)

I finally saw the distinguished Fr. Bernas in person (even took his picture with Nins) though; he read the honor graduates' names with what sounded like a tinge of a Brooklyn accent.

Dinner was had at Chateau 1771 at the nearby El Pueblo for convenience. I had to entertain the titos and the titas for around an hour and a half because most of them (so un-Filipino) arrived on time. I think a good time was had by all.

Thursday, April 22, 2004

de-stress

We are at work and Maleen is blowing bubbles.

Apparently she has recycled a particular bubble five times.

Ah, de-stress of it...

launchcast

The Yahoo's LaunchCast streaming from Maleen's PC (it's the Corrs fan station, although I haven't heard a Corrs song today) seems to be playing a lot of the songs that I sing at videoke--there's Manic Monday by the Bangles (my officemate said I was better off singing this song--apparently because it's basically just one or two notes), That Don't Impress Me Much, and Sweet Child of Mine. Oh well. I'm been annoying dear cube-neighbor with my singing. Bleh bleh bleh. Back to work.

Bespren J's birthday gift

She and I became the same age again a couple of weeks ago. Dropped by their house; she didn't have a party this year because she lost her phone and spent most of her extra money buying a new one. Anyway I got her the following in a gift bag for her birthday:
  • a couple of bottles of Ruby Red grapefruit Snapple - memories of the time that we went around all the Starbucks and Ministops in the Ayala area looking for this, which no one had on stock.
  • watermelon and apple lip balms
  • Running in Heels by Anna Maxted
  • two CDs I put together, see below


Bespren J's Mixed CD 1 - "Up"
1. Come on Eileen
2. I Say A Little Prayer
3. Walking Down Your Street
4. This Kiss
5. Don't Tell Me
6. Can't Fight the Moonlight
7. Because the Night
8. The World is New
9. Runaway
10. Roam
11. When I Grow Up
12. Celebrity Skin
13. I Want You to Want Me
14. Look at Me
15. Searching My Soul
16. Not That Kind
17. Let's Get Loud
18. Overload
19. Whoops Now

Mixed CD 2 - "Down"
1. Old Friends
2. Rainy Days and Mondays
3. I Just Don't Know What to Do With Mysel
4. Jealous
5. I Only Want to Be With You
6. Neighborhood
7. Lose Your Way
8. Baby Don't You Break My Heart Slow
9. Forgiven Not Forgotten
10. Shakespeare in Love
11. Power of Goodbye
12. You Don't Know Me
13. Remember Me This Way
14. Hands
15. Don't Know Why
16. 32 Flavors
17. Stranded
18. Rain
19. Landslide
20. Not In This Life

Am quite pleased with myself about the "Up" and "Down" thing. I couldn't decide if it was going to be fast-paced (well maybe driving music) or sentimental so I did both. My favorite song on either disc is Not In This Life, of course. Hasn't told me if she likes them, though.

Monday, April 19, 2004

to bittersweet endings

Before putting together the long entry about my short trip, here's some news on Angel designed to at least work towards giving some closure to all Angel fans:
E! Online's Kristin says: it's really over for Angel--from the people that know, including James Marsters and Amy Acker. The cast and crew seem quite inspired by the Save Angel campaign, but they are, however, ready to move on. Kudos to Joss Whedon and what turned out to be a wonderful cast (wasn't really sold on Angel at first but when Wolfram & Hart showed up...)

After all, all good things must, in time, come to an end. The world would be perfect otherwise.

Thursday, April 15, 2004

forgot to post this

Am doing this in the sweltering heat of 7AM office. I can't believe how I've gotten acclimatized to constant airconditioning already. The past few days, being in the "real world" has been quite uncomfortable.

My officemate Luz was right--after the Holy Week, we'd all have no more moolah. Well apparently I really needed an overdoor towel rack, hooks with concrete nails and of course Easter eggs for the kids. They had a great time doing the Easter egg hunt, though, although my sisters fondly remember when I hid eggs for them (they did the hiding yesterday for our nieces and nephew)--I once did a scavenger hunt when we were late getting Easter eggs and could only buy one for each kid. Oh well.

I watched The Passion of The Christ again on pVCD and I still cried when Jesus stumbled and Mary rushed to him with a flashback to the stumbling of the child Jesus and Mary's soothing statement of "I'm here".

something from ger:

Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. write down what it says:
Or Call....................527-6423 / 527-6431
(hey this is the book nearest me!)

Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. what do you touch first?
Maleen

What is the last thing you watched on tv?
Hula-Hula Who on Unang Hirit

Without looking, guess what time it is:
3:30pm

Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
3:25pm

With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
the printer. and nothing else. it's really quiet here in the office.

When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
last night. heard mass.

Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
my blog

what are you wearing?
ger said, corporate slave wear (i agree)

Did you dream last night?
yes, i don't remember it though.

When did you last laugh?
a while ago, discussing a gay officemate's exploits with another officemate over the chat client. very very useful indeed this chat client.

What is on the walls of the room you are in?
bayanihan painting, painting of three girls with vegetables, windows, doors (ok so there's no room. it's a whole floor)

Seen anything weird lately?
my nieces. they're *quite* weird

What do you think of this quiz?
something to procrastinate with, yipee!

What is the last film you saw?
the passion of the christ (again, last saturday night with mommy)

If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
Major: A nice sprawling suburban bungalow in a subdivision with water supply for my parents.
Minor: The new leather-bound LoTR edition.

Tell me something about you that I don't know:
What *doesn't* everyone know about me? Let's see.

If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
make everyone considerate of each other. i think that's one major problem in the world today.

Do you like to dance?
not really. also, depends who you're with ;p

George Bush: is he a power-crazy nutcase or someone who is finally doing something that has needed to be done for years?
right now i don't think bush is worth my opinion--haha! don't really care...

Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Right now I'm vacillating, between Alexandra and Amalthea.

Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
was thinking along the lines of Gavin, Edric or Edan--Celtic names

Would you ever consider living abroad?
i've considered it, believe me. somehow i still love it here. i don't know why. must be in the blood. (hinahanap-hanap kita manila...)

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

what, me, blog?

Took a short breather from blogging because of (a) work; (b) pretending to work; (c) DnA's wedding preps; (d) sheer katamaran--utter sloth.

work
We are launching a new product and systems support hasn't particularly been quite error-free. Technically the launch is on Monday but systems testing is still ongoing. It looks like we're working at least through tomorrow, which is a national holiday. Not for us, of course. Wonderful.

pretending to work
I've been doing some work on the side, sometimes here in the office (during lunch and outside office hours of course). It helps that we have free internet access. I've been able to churn out articles for Cosmo (three over the last ten months--and the last one was a cover story! woohoo!) and Badminton magazine (two for the last issue).

DnA's wedding preps
Met up with Coordination W. Funny girl. Very noisy. Told our Melrose Place story, of course. Never fails to elicit varied (and usually aghast) response. Have volunteered to do the bouquet/garter game. Tried on our dresses. A little disappointing but Bespren D has already chosen new material and we're psyched that it's going to look a whole lot better.

utter sloth
Am eagerly awaiting at least the four-day weekend (was supposed to be five days but since we're working tomorrow...). Will get some much needed rest, meditation and clutter-busting in. Probably just the rest and meditation. Been going home early the past few days, and I've only succeeded in (1) new high scores in Nins' Twin Fruits PDA game and TriplePop on my phone; (2) exercising Paavo; and (3) watching Justice League, Buffy, That's So Raven, Lizzie McGuire, etcetera, etcetera. How unproductive. Promise, will really get something done tonight and hopefully during the Holy Week (my penance).

Can't wait to leave for HK on Thursday next week. Will see G-boy, unfortunately, will not see the pad as he would decorate it, since the other (better) half of one of my favorite couples C will be flying out next week and (most probably) be straightening up his pad. Maybe by some quirk of fate C will also be assigned to HK so that they can be together.

and then some
Finally got the orders from the supplier: copies of the LoTR Two Towers soundtrack (no longer in stock) and the two Moulin Rouge soundtracks (hey I didn't really want to shell out that money for just that one song...). JP wanted a copy of the original Moulin Rouge soundtrack right away, for the Ewan McGregor-Alessandro Safina version of Your Song. Am really glad I have a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive right now... hope we don't have to return the laptop right away! (At least not until I can decide what kind of desktop to get.)

it's the end of the world as we know it
Work tomorrow. Wonderful. Am really looking forward to it, I am, I am!

Thursday, April 01, 2004

the x factor

Humor me...

1.Name one of your ex-boyfriends
Ziggy (hehe)

2.Why did you break up?
I really don't know. It was after his father died and he said he couldn't go on.

3.Who called it quits?
Him

4. What would be your break up song for him/her?
White Flag by Dido

5. Of all your ex's, who did you love the most?
At the time I was with each of them, I was totally in love. So all the same, totally. But only one "lingered"... ;p

6. Do you regret what happened?
Of course not. I think I became a better person because of each.

7. If there would be a chance that you will be together again, would you still say yes?
Most probably. (Uy hoping pa yata!)

8. Are you still hoping that he/she will get back?
How can I say yes without seeming desperate? Haha! Seriously though, I may be hoping but we seem to have grown too far apart.

9. Do you think he/she hates you?
No. Can't say we're good friends, though.

10. Do you think he/she has moved on
Definitely.

11. What did you do after the relationship ended?
Walked all the way to A's house and cried. Then made a fool of myself--roughly lasted three years until I got knocked to my senses. I'm still recovering, actually.

12. do you hate him/her?
No, I never could.

13. Do you still communicate?
Sporadically.

14. What would you tell him/her if you guys crossed paths?
"How have you been?"

15.Do you ever regret loving her/him?
Never did, never will.

16. Does he make you cry when you're still together?
Aak, I wouldn't humiliate myself so!

17. What was the most unforgettable WORDS/STATEMENT he/she told you?
"I have these feelings for you..." complete with sheepish grin
"Thank you for making my life complicated."


18. If youre gonna die tomorrow, what will you say to your ex?
Ay sus! Baka maiyak ako dito!!!