la belle dame sans regrets

dansons tu dis
et moi, je suis
mes pas sont gauches
mes pieds tu fauches
je crains les sots
je cherche en vain les mots
pour m'expliquer ta vie, alors
pu ments, ma Soeur
tu brises mon coeur
je pense, tu sais
erreurs, jamais
j'ecoute, tu parles
je ne comprends pas bien
la belle dame sans regrets

je pleure, tu ris
je chante, tu cries
tu semes les graines
d'un mauvais chene
mon ble s'envole
tu en a ras le bol
j'attends, toujours
mes cris sont sourds
tu ments, ma soeur
tu brises mon coeur
je pense, tu sais
erreurs, jamais
j'ecoute, tu parles
je ne comprends pas bien
la belle dame sans regrets...

happy holidays

before i start playing with this new version of blogger i'd like to happy holidays to everyone. please safely enjoy the season.

peace

the season's rush

i feel that the season's rush is here. everyone wants to do 47 things at a time, go to everywhere where there's a sale, squeeze more money from anywhere and generally just walk faster.

i want to get off the rush. today. now. i'm not exactly a stranger to frenzy but things really get frantic in december. and one of the hardest parts of the day is getting out of a cozy warm bed while the sun is still out.

anyone of you want to sit still with me and just have coffee?

wassum

in the immortal words of mutley, "wassum fassum wassuum fassuum."

which roughly translates to, "me no like mondays. i no like."

crappy day

has anyone of you reading this thing ever had a day when you felt that the whole planet was conspiring against you for the past 364 days and you're now beginning to feel that it started its dastardly plans against you?

well, i'm having a week of it. a whole seven days. gaaackk!

i feel like i'm a bad vibe black hole which sucks up all the wayward bad luck within a two kilometer radius. not fun, really.

and i have this gut feel there's more to come.

i want to sleep for the rest of the year.

the deodorant

i just saw my 8-year old son put on deodorant.

its nivea's deodorant (whitening). his armpits doesn't smell bad nor do they need any whitening. he's white enough as it is.

the funny part is that he began rubbing his armpits with his arms (like when you're running) to spread the deodorant around. much like what his father does.

soul candle

i wasn't able to visit the graves of my brother (dennis), my lola and my tita last november 1. we had to go back to manila on the 31st of october. so i decided to just put a candle up and say prayers for each of them.

something different

i took a bath in the rain today. not intentionally at first. but i still stayed out and got really, really wet. soaking.

it was cool and fresh and relaxing and fun. its been quite a long time since i did that.

when was the last time you took a bath in the rain?

no more coke

i have stopped drinking coke in all of its two varieties — lite and original. for about four weeks now.

no pepsi, diet pepsi or pepsi max either.

no colas.

i drink c2 every now and then but not regularly. and only buy it when i need a bottle. i reuse their bottles kasi.

i do drink plenty of water though — about 3 liters a day. or there abouts.

no. no doctor told me to stop. i just wanted to. and i also have been saving quite a lot because of it.

now, if i can just find an easy way to stop smoking...

a good morning

i just had an early morning earthquake greeting. it felt like it was around intensity 3.5. and its robin's last exam day and start of a two week vacation. yey!

update: something's up in mindoro. they've had three earthquakes in the last two days. first thing that comes to mind is underground nuclear testing. ha!

escolta 10.2006

my girlfriend and i went to escolta yesterday. sorry no pictures yet. i was there more than 9 years ago and things are a bit different today. the place looks generally cleaner. there are sweepers at almost every corner keeping things tidy. there's a school — city college of manila — where the philippine national bank used to be so college students in uniform lend a "young" attitude to the street. there are two or three empty lots turned into parking spaces where buildings used to stand. there's less traffic now which i think is a good thing. people can walk. the street still has a lot of its character eventhough some people think or say that its time has passed.

there's a nice coffee shop near the end of escolta where you can have some brewed coffee and hopia among other things. polland is its name. its a good place to rest after a walk in escolta.

stormy weekend: part 3

30 september 2006, saturday
its strange waking up in a dark room and all is quiet. i got used to waking up with robin's night light on and some music or news from our neighbor's radio. but this time its all quiet. and dark.

cherry and i decided to trim some plants in the garden. they're thick with extra leaves and small branches especially the santan bushes.

i heard over the radio that there's another storm coming. neneng's the name they gave. ugh. i hope that thing doesn't hit us directly.

its been more than two days without electricity. it heard over the news that meralco asked for help in clearing up fallen trees so they can bring up the eletricity much faster

hmmm... how come when they can't give you electricity they ask for help. but you miss paying for two days and they immediately send you a notice of disconnection.

1 october 2006, sunday
we finally got the electricity back on by 5 pm today. i'm too tired to catch up on news. i'll probably do it within the next few days. i have to check my mails first.

stormy weekend: part 2

29th september 2006, friday
there was still no electricity in our part of the city. robin and i decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and take some pictures.

there's one uprooted tree in front of centro escolar university (ceu) but most of the trees in the area just suffered broken branches.

most of the new lamp posts that mayor atienza had installed a few weeks earlier in mendiola were still standing except for one.

a large branch fell on top of the guard house of la consolacion

mendiola on the holy spirit side was relatively passable

but the sidewalk on the la consolacion side was not

branches that fell in a creek behind holy spirit

more photos in my flicker thingy.

we had to get some supplies from the supermarket so we went so sm manila. bad idea. the trip was, to coin cherry — a disaster.

the mall was running on generators so there was no aircon. most of the people were fanning themselves which means its been warm inside. we tried getting money from the atms but there were long lines on every one. ugh. and there's a three-day sale going on which meant tons of people. we decided to just get what we needed from the grocery and go. no window shopping on this trip.

the supermarket wasn't accepting credit card transactions because they couldn't connect to the card companies. that's because of the storm. there were abandoned cars of groceries within the the supermarket area.

its been more than a day of no electricity.

stormy weekend: part 1

i got caught with the sudden power outage — more than three days without electricity! ugh! since i couldn't blog online, i went analog and wrote things down...

27th september 2006, wednesday
a storm is coming. they gave it the name milenyo. its storm signal #1 over metro manila which means robin doesn't have classes tomorrow.

28th september 2006, thurdays
the storm was expected to pass north of manila but this morning's news said it changed tracks and will hit the metro around lunch time. storm signal #3 is raised over metro manila.

the electricity goes out at around 11 am. this sucks.

winds are getting strong now. the eye of milenyo arrived around 1pm. well, at least it felt like the eye of the storm. winds were really strong that it started to tear away one part of the neighbor's roof. small billboards on the fence of a nearby school was torn off and sections of the gym's roof began peeling off.

the house is holding pretty well eventhough its around 40 years old already. there are some leaks but nothing serious.

we have a eucalyptus tree that's about a year old and around 4 - 5 meters high. it was riding out the storm. the topmost tip of the tree would touch the ground with every strong gust of wind.

by 3 pm the winds have died down and i went out to the yard to assess the damage.

the eucalyptus tree didn't break but the guava tree was lying down on its side. good thing it was still small enough (4 meters) that i was able to prop it back up with a thick stick.

there wasn't any other noticable damage to the house. everything was still intact.

time to clean up.

i just saw

on the way back from school with robin, a frigging ferrari. i said, "wow." robin said, "whoah!"

its not like the street in our neighborhood is lined with them. i've only seen a modena once in a posh neighborhood. but this is the first time i saw one in our area.

bad day

its been a bad day. i felt sluggish and tired for the most part. and it was pretty hot and humid during the middle of the day.

and robin's not really cooperating. well, he is a kid.

i'm tired. i'm going to turn in early.

for rain, wash car

its confirmed. everytime i have the car washed, it rains within 24 hours. everytime. well, probably 95% of the time. in the other 5%, it rained within 48 hours.

but still, do you know what this means? if i have the car washed then there will be a 95% chance of rain!

i'm not kidding. maybe its just my luck.

or that birthmark.

or i just don't get to wash the car that often.

xmas songs na

would you believe, they're playing christmas songs already?!?! i actually heard the first song at around 6 am on the 1st of september! they were playing the whole ray coniff christmas album.

aaawwww.

it seems they're really trying to to squeeze everthing they can get from the xmas season.

brings back memories though. mom still has that album somewhere. its just hard to get a cheap turntable these days.

start of the ber season

and everything seems to be happening one after the other.

"aw barf", as mandy always says.

the year feels like its been preparing since january and decides to start dumping events in september — a field trip by robin, humid days and really stormy nights, a twister over at manila bay, a drive to cavite to fix six computers, no money, diving into php and css hacks for different browsers, a friend had an operation in his gall bladder (gone now), a father of a friend passed away, an uncle (in-law) goes to the hospital (recovering well), chats with friends who migrated to canada, an 87 kilometer drive — to have the car washed, and my license renewed, multiplication tables (again), a candle for 9-11, a cell battery that went bum on me, a spontaneous dinner at cafe adriatico, scampi palermo (yum!!), plenty of coffee, getting off coke (the soda), growing coffee, blocking with stupid wanna-be hackers, a birthday party, a smoke, initial d and gundam seed episodes aplenty, new uploads to flickr (finally), blogger decides to mess things up a bit and improve itself, barako (fantastic local coffee) in the evening and not getting enough sleep.

and its still the middle of the month.

sheesh.

the character mandy is copyrighted by cartoon network

bye croc hunter

steve irwin died recently while doing a documentary. he was 44.

first time i saw him i think it was in discovery channel. i remember him having a wacky accent and that boyish enthusiastic smile. one can tell he really loved what he did for a living. one cannot help but be pulled in to what he was talking about and gather a good tidbit or three about real knowledge of wild animals. he was both entertaining and quite informative and educational.

thank you steve.

a museum for san pablo

san pablo city is pushing for their/our own museum and preparations are on the way. as a start, a member of the cultural society of san pablo put up a blog about the museum.

take a look. i think i have a picture somewhere there.

secrets

all people have secrets.

we have that handful of pieces of precious memories that is always kept in that special hidden space no one else knows. more often, these special secrets are shared memories. of a walk on a beach of pebbles, a bus or a boat ride, a sunset, a dance and a drink. a touch. a kiss.

it only has a special meaning to us. no one else.

we lie, say nothing or just smile to keep our secrets hidden how ever painful some of them may be.

once in a while our eyes glaze over at a sudden recollection of something and we're swept back to that park bench talking and laughing. and then everything else seems a little happier. or a little sadder.

maybe one of these days we can have coffee and exchange life stories. that would certainly be an interesting experience.

pluto is no a planet anymore

"pluto is dead." read here.

as of today, there are only 8 planets in our system. pluto is now considered to be a dwarf planet.

changes. sometimes these sort of changes make one look at things from a slightly different perspective. but if you really think about it, nothing's changed but the people's definition of a thing. the "object" is still there, circling its merry way around the sun, not really caring if we call it a planet or not. we're just picky about these things, i guess.

one of these days our definition of time will change from 60 seconds for a single minute to a decimal system where one minute will take a hundred seconds. time himself will not really care. but we will. we're picky.

there are more changes coming and all one can do is have an open mind.

bloggle

ok. i just got news that there's a new blogger that's coming out. unfortunately, its just limited to a few lucky ones. still, its good to know that work is on going to improve the system a bit (or maybe a lot). its not wordpress or movable type but its really easy to use and new-user friendly.

breakfast at tiffany's

the next chapter in the retro series is breakfast at tiffany's. this time with george peppard. i bought this one yesterday at one of the malls nearby. it was just sitting there on top of everything else so what the hey. i got the vcd at 100 pesos. i've heard that they're remastering the old classics for dvd media but i can't wait for that. besides, it'll probably be expensive.

haven't you noticed that this has been an audrey hepburn series as well? what other movies did she have?

its the eyes i tell ya. its the eyes.

my first roman holiday

well, i finally got to watch roman holiday. for the first time. no one told me about the ending. my girlfriend knew but she didn't see it fit to tell me. so right after i saw the "the end" of the movie all i can say was:

"what?!?! no! no way!! no freaking way! it can't end that way!"

it was the same reaction i had after watching pirates: dead man's chest. but this time there's no sequel to roman holiday.

and my girlfriend has a pretty good laugh out of it.

aawwww, bugger.

retro mode

ok. for the past few weeks i've been in retro mode. well, at least, in my taste in movies.

and i've been busy with work which i am thankful for. i hate idle hands, don't you?

i was able to buy a vcd (retro mode) of sabrina — the one with audrey hepburn, humphrey bogart and william holden. yup. the 1954 movie. on sale for 75 pesos (around 1 euro or us$ 1.5). although my girlfriend said i should also get the one with julia ormond and harrison ford. that's for later. right now i'm enjoying this one. i would probably try to get a copy of casablanca and/or african queen one of these days but sabrina is just one of those lucky finds. i was looking around and i just saw it. and its cheap and original.

why not?

last week, i also got a vcd of roman holiday. audrey hepburn and gregory peck. 1953. 100 pesos. but i haven't gotten around to watching it. gf says its a pretty funny movie. so maybe this weekend i'll lay back and watch it.

retro. and i think i'm developing a thing for audrey hepburn.

who wouldn't, i guess.

the philippines develops its own rockets

news is trickling in that the philippines has just finished development work on its own rockets. two types of rockets are said to begin the testing phase within a few weeks. this may be in respose to north korea's missile tests. the philippine rockets are classified as medium and medium to long range rockets. they will be called kwitis 2 and kwitis 3. kwitis 2 is said to have a range of 1200 km and kwitis 3 will have a range of 2400 km.

fuel for the rockets are said to be manufactured in bulacan. the rockets themselves can be configured to carry different types of payloads similiar to the more common kwitis 0.1 which is usually lauched during fiestas and new year's eve.

development work on a longer range rocket called kwitis 4 will begin by early 2007. this rocket will be designed to circumnavigate the earth and could possibly carry bigger payloads.

i'll try to get you pictures as soon as i can get them.


ps. this is a work of fiction. take it with a grain of salt.

dvd: robots and i, robot

yesterday i was able to get a good bargain. a two-dvd package for php 350.00 — robots and i, robot. i think that's a good price already at about php 175 per dvd. there's no fancy printed inserts inside but both are originals and the i, robot is a 2-disc collector set.

better now

i'm a lot better now. antibiotics. but i still get cold sweats once in a while. i think its really because of the weather. pretty hot around noon and gets cold in the mornings. i still feel a bit weak in the knees but i'm slowly getting there with some help from vitamins, water and buko juice. that drink is really a micracle.

and taste buds are slowly coming back online so food should taste like food soon.

i'm sick

i've been sick since friday afternoon. ugh. some serious flu or something. temps are not that high but its been on and off and there's plenty of aches and pains to go around. add a runny nose, phlegm and an insistent headache and i'm good to go. to bed.

this time the usual medicines doesn't do much. i just started with anti-biotics and the thing with that stuff is that the toilet becomes a close friend of mine. at all times of the day. to pee.

have to get some sleep. if i can.

cable off

we had the cable taken out today.

we broke the news to robin last night and was sad that he won't be able to watch his favorite cartoons.

i feel sad for the guy but i also think that he's spending waaay too much time in front of the teevee. this also gives me an opportunity to try to make his time off the television more productive.

having no cable is fine with me. strangely, i'm having fun. i actually welcome it. there would be extra money for the house which can be put to better use. besides, i don't get to watch the telly that often anyway.

let's see what happens within the next few weeks.

seona dancing, more to lose

ok. you guys remember that song that 99.5 rt used to play a lot and once in a while still plays it?

ever wondered who actually sang it? how they looked like?

well, here's the answer!

elmer, gerry in the news

i saw my brother's face on the newspapers today (inquirer). nothing bad. it was about the new comic book that he made — elmer. its an interesting take on chickens. i don't have the promised copy yet because i have to get it in san pablo. which is ok by me since i want to visit the place every so often.


the comic book is currently available at comicquest (megamall), comics odyssey at robinson's malate and druid's keep in magallanes. get your copy now!

haircut!

i had a haircut today.

i used to look like wolverine on a bad hair day.

now, i just have bad hair. well, short hair.

very short hair.

dvc: the book and the movie

i just watched the da vinci code. three hours. i was distracted for the last hour because i wanted to go to the room where you can find comfort but i was in the middle of the row... ugh.

anyway, the book first; i always thought it was "cinematically written". as cherry pointed out, its a book waiting to become a movie.

and the movie; well, we liked the effects where "imaginary" people were flocking to the church. nice. i thought it was a puzzle movie like national treasure. it's a bit too long though especially if your bladder is not ready for it. i was thinking that maybe there should be a 10 minute break in the middle of a movie that long.

all in all, the story line is intriguing. some people like it some people don't. should you watch it? hmmm... why not? if you have 130 pesos and three hours to spare.

da vinci code banned in manila

ha! i just feel that a choice has been taken away from me. it not really about the movie anymore. in my opinion, its about a mayor that thinks that his constituents cannot decide for themselves so he takes it upon himself to decide for them.

well, i think i'm old enough to decide for myself. i'm not really in a hurry to see the movie but i'll spend my money and watch it in makati or in pasig instead.

[sigh] some people...

over the hedge

cherry, robin, jason (robin's cousin) and i went out to see over the hedge. its the first day of showing and i was hoping that by late afternoon there wouldn't be too many people in the movie house.

wrong.

there were lines across the board. da vinci code was showing in five out of the eight movie houses in glorietta 4 (thanks to the publicity). mi:3 and poseidon was in the other 2 and one was showing over the hedge. pinoys are really a movie going people.

over the hedge is a fun and enjoyable movie. if you have kids then by all means take them. if you don't, well, go watch it anyway. it really is a fun movie.

and yes, if i had the money, i'd probably get the dvd if they were selling them outside the movie house.

bed weather

its been bed weather mornings for the past three days. i'm guessing it will be more of the same tomorrow.

tomorrow is monday. and i have to report for work at a client. which means i have to wake up a bit early.

awww.

ah well, bliss is not always on tap. besides, its not like i'm not getting paid for it.

i just hope the cloudiness stays a bit longer. driving from makati on the way home this afternoon i saw the sun struggling to come out from behind the rain clouds. i just want the weather to be cool for a change. a for a bit longer.

let's see tomorrow.

summer's over

well, its official. summer's over.

the first tropical storm named "caloy" just arrived and i heard over the radio that we are the only country in the world at this moment which has a tropical depression.

ugh. only in the philippines.

the upside is temperatures are certainly on their way down. which is great! i look forward to getting a more comfortable sleep.

this also marks the time when i need to get some school stuff for robin.

he's growing up. give it a few years and i'll have a little bundle of ranging hormones. that would be interesting.

its drizzling already.

city stars

i was in san pablo last night. san pablo is a small city about 87 kilometers south of manila. my hometown.

it amazes me how many stars i can see there in the province. back here in manila, i can only see a handful of them. there are so many lights in manila that they drown out the stars.

i find it ironic that to see more stars, people have to turn their lights off. or that they see less with the lights on.

watering the frog

i was watering the plants this morning when i saw this guy.

we have a lot of those tree frogs in san pablo but i think this is the first time i've seen one here in the yard. its been really hot lately which makes seeing this guy really unusual.

i want to go to the beach

i want to go to the beach. its been a while.

i don't want to go to boracay anymore. i've been there so many times before. the place holds so many memories for me. the first time i went there, the island didn't have electricity and that little inconvenience greatly added to the romance of the place.

its different now. there's so many people there. there's so many people wanting to go there. although the beach is still fantastic, its a bit too developed for me.

other places i can think of is bantayan island just north of cebu. or maybe camiguin but that's a bit far already.

i want to go to the beach.

waking up

i'm tired.

i've been up late for the past two days working on some web stuff.

i've had a full day today messing with some computers.

and i'm still up putting proposals together.

it is good to know that i will not be waking up tomorrow to an alarm clock at 4:30 in the morning.

i saw mars tonight. or was it venus? not really sure.

holy week break

cherry, robin and i went on a holy week break of sorts. we went out of manila to san pablo city, 87 kilometers south of manila to visit my folks.

it was definitely cooler there since there's an abundance of trees and we're about five minutes walk from the city's biggest lake — sampaloc lake.

we also went to visita iglesya or church visit. we went to the underground cemetary in nagcarlan, laguna (there's a chapel there that used to be the town's church)

and to liliw, laguna.

in liliw, my girlfriend treated me to a lunch in this nice and very cosy restaurant called arabela. the food was great and the place is full of character. you guys should visit if you're in the area.

i am a

i am a romantic. a helplessly hopeless one at that. i've known for quite some time now and i'm comfortable with it so relax those eyebrows. every once in a while i just get reminded of it.

this afternoon as i was channel surfing i saw this movie that i haven't seen for years. its one of a handful of cheesy, romantic movies that i liked. its one of those movies that cradles me, envelopes me in its stories and makes me remember my own cheesy, romantic story.

it was the eyes. her eyes. and her smile. it always is.

v, the comic book

i was in san pablo for a couple of days and i got a chance to borrow the comic book where the movie was based on. thanks gerry. the general storyline was there but there are differences. there always are whenever the book gets transferred to film. the comic book is certainly not your run of the mill superhero thing that most everyone is used to. this is one of those comic books that are meant to be read my mature readers. the comic is dark as is the film. some parts of the the ending was a little different as well and it was nice to see evey don the mask...

you have to read the comic book.

cover to v for vendetta. art is by david lloyd.

new forehead

some of the regular visitors (if any) may have noticed that i did a bit of redecorating and changed the forehead of this blog a bit. its a little bit of javascript that i've been meaning to write for some time now. i'll probably change a few more graphic items but that comes later.

so how do you like the new "forehead"?

a conversation with robin

over a week ago while robin and i were walking from school we had this interesting conversation.

"dad, do you know i have a girlfriend?"

blink. blink.

ok. that stopped me. literally. right there. on my tracks. the mind goes blank for a moment.

robin just kept on walking, stops, looks back to me and says, "what?"

"nothing." i said, catching up to him.

my mind goes from a standstill to a fast series of images, videoscapes, sounds and finally i was able to blurt out, "you have a girlfriend?"

"yup."

" do i know her? is she one of your classmates?"

"yup."

"who."

"secret."

grrrr... well, the thing is, at that time, he was just seven and will be turning eight in a few days. i opted not to pursue the "who?" anymore and just concentrate on being the "cool" father. although to be honest i was excited for him.

"well, that's great! really! so how is it? having a girlfriend, i mean."

"its ok," robin said with a smile starting to break.

what the...? he's not excited about it?!?! but he was smiling while we were walking so i guess there's a bit of excitement there.

i'm also excited about the fact that he's comfortable enough with me as a father and maybe as an older friend to confide in me.

uuuaaagghh

its been a cloudy day so far. it rained hard last night although only for a while. time enough to make sleeping comfy and cool. and as expected, the following day would be frigging humid. and it is. ugh.

there are dark heavy clouds above and i think they're still deciding whether to release the rain or not. i wish they would though. the city certainly needs some cooling down. i know i do.

agustin's rc stuff

a friend of mine — agustin v — sent me some pictures of his new ride. he told me he sold all his gas powered cars and an electric car and got himself a competition level electric car. for those who are a bit in the dark, i'm talking about radio controlled cars. the serious ones. these are not the double a powered thingies that you see being sold in department stores.


the one that gus got is a hot bodies cyclone. wow. speed controler is lrp quantum competition 2, katana 23-turn stock motor made by top, tires are by sorex (type 40 for day racing and type 36 for night) with hara hard inserts, batteries are nimh 4200 mah (already?!?!) and the stratus 3 body is by protoform. this is seriously wicked stuff. he didn't mention the radio he uses but i'm sure its pretty much serious stuff as well.


yup. the chassis is made from carbon fiber. and i'm almost sure that there's a sprinkling of titanium somewhere there. its 4-wheel drive complete with differentials. the suspension is totally adjustable with shocks and springs. camber, caster and some other thing that i forget are adjustable. sometimes i think that eventhough these things are about 190 mm x 395 mm in size they're almost as complicated as the real car!

i was and still am, although in a low profile kind of thing, into this hobby for quite some time. i have a race car and two trucks. all electric. my stuff is not really for competition like what gus has but they're still complicated enough for an enthusiast. all of my trucks and car are still in pretty good condition although i do have to get tires for one of the trucks when i get some extra cash (which is pretty rare these days). i'm cleaning the race car so i can play with them a bit in mendiola. i don't get to race because i'm not really into it but gus does and i heard he's pretty good at it too.

now, back to cleaning...

robin's 8th

24th of march. robin's 8th year on the planet. we think he's having fun. we had a small gathering of cousins. nothing fancy really. just a handful of balloons in light and dark blue, a chocolate fudge cake, chocolate ice cream, some spagetti, chicken, siopao, a square pizza, dalandan and orange juice.

the kids played first with go kart, bicycle with guide wheels, b-daman, whatever. they're kids and kids play. the chaos started at around 3:00 pm and everything was cleaned up my 9:30. the adults were all bushed but he keeps saying. "but i'm not sleepy yet!" well, with all that chocolate stuff he ate he wouldn't be!

if you want to see more pictures click over to my flickr collection.

v for vendetta

the wife and i watched v the other day. very good movie. i'd buy the dvd if i can. i don't know why but the movie had this "crisp" feeling to it and it made the whole movie very involving, in a matter of speaking. you guys have to go and see it on the big screen. its no fun watching the thing with a squanky pirated dvd (a bad thing) on a tv screen even if you do have those 6.1 surround-sound thingies. go to the movies and watch it.

i do have to read up on the comic book though. its been a while since i re-read the thing. my brother, gerry, has the complete collection i think. so i'd probably get the chance to go through the story again during holy week.

1 more day

one more day and finals will be over. i find it really hard for me to tutor robin. he's very hardheaded for a 7-year old. so i will be glad when final exams are finished and we can move on the summer vacation!

yes!

before finals

this is the week before finals and i have this weird panicky feeling that i should be the one doing the studying for robin. uaauuggh! i hate that feeling. and all robin wants to do is play with his cousins or play with his new b-daman with dhb gear. dhb is short for direct hit battle. pictures are coming.

the japanese have gone and created a totally complicated fun way of playing with marbles. complete with products, product upgrades, marketing and a cartoon show! amazing.

i wish i had these toys when i was a kid.

where i grew up

san pablo city is the place where i grew up. its a nice small town about 85 kilometers south of manila known for its seven lakes. the city of seven lakes as it is often called. i like the city because it is a lot more quiet than manila, there are more trees so the air is definitely cleaner. and most of the time i find comfort just by being in it.

my brother, gerry, made a video about san pablo city and, with his permission, posting it here.

bida fire!

today i was a doting father to my son. robin entered a battle b-daman tournament with his cousin david. there was also a side event they called "king of direct hit battle (dhb)" where they get a chance to win raffle entries. win three dhb events and your name gets included in the raffle. robin lost in the first round of the tournament and david finished in the top 16. both entered the king of dhb also. david won raffle tickets twice. robin lost again and again. and again.

i found out something about my son which shall stay with me for a long while. robin does not give up. he just didn't. the chance for a prize didn't really matter to him. he enoys playing and he enjoys playing with other kids. oh yes, he gets sad when he looses. who wouldn't? but when he did lose and got sad he just shrugged it off and kept signing up again. and again. and again. and again.

and that already makes him a winner.

magnitude 5.5

there was an earthquake around 7pm. i was in sm manila with cherry and robin having dinner. it was a "slow wave" quake and it was short so no worries. i later found out that the epicenter was in mindoro. wow. cherry was just there last weekend. i hope no one got hurt.

a landslide, a coup plot and an earthquake. in a span of a few weeks.

ugh.

buzzed

i can't believe it. i've just been buzzed by a couple of bats! i think they went as close as two feet from my head! you'll feel the wind from their leathery wings and that high-pitched screech they make becomes really loud. ugh.

well, at least, bats are still in the city which means there's food enough for them to stick around.

oh. and i was able to have my chowking halo-halo. at last.

sarap.

quiet national emergency day

it is! no noisy vehicles outside. no pesky jeeps. but its sooo freaking hot! uuuuaaagghh. what i would do for a halo-halo right about now.

and chowking is about a five-minute lazy walk from here. hmmm. two scoops of ice cream with a handful of finely crushed ice, topped with leche flan, ube, sliced bananas, sweet beans... i think they said they have 15 sweet toppings in all.

yum!

sige mamaya...

fiesta season

did i ever mention that the first five months of the year is what i call the "fiesta season"? lots of things happening. well, officially, may is the fiesta month but it sort of spreads its wings ang infect the rest of the surrounding months.

there are lots of school fairs with lots of rides, booths selling lots of different and colorful stuff and, of course, music. lots of music. from the given "piped in" music while the fairs and fiestas are going on to the almost nightly concerts at each school. and let's not forget the ati-atihan bands with their thundering drums. stay too long and too near them and your ears will be ringing soon enough.

and if that's not enough there's the coup attempts. how can this be included in the fiesta season? well, the children usually doesn't have classes which means they can play or watch tv or play with the computer all day, the offices (except sm malls) are either closed or closing early which means people can go to malling early or the movies or go home to sleep early. either way its an incidental "unwanted" vacation time. ha! and you thought coups are all bad. ;-)

dreams

i had this dream a couple of weeks ago that i couldn't shake off.

it was late afternoon, the skies was a bit cloudly. i was over a cafe adriatico, seated outside on an antique chair and table by myself. i was reading the comic section of a newspaper which was particularly thick that day. suddenly, without warning, a japanese guy, in a coat and tie, pulled the newspaper down, crumpling it. he was shouting at me in japanese, which, i cannot quite understand and pointing frantically behind him. i looked over his shoulder and i saw other people, in formal attire, all japanese, running away in a state of panic. the japanese man started to shout at me again and, as if on cue, english subtitles of what he was shouting appeared above his chest.

"godzilla is here! run while you still can! run!!"

weird dream.

godzilla is copyrighted. someone else owns it.

valentine 2006

it feels like a holiday today except that people still go to work (but i don't think they will do any), students go to school (study? today? nah.). the only one's oblivious to valentine's day are children below six years old who are too busy playing. happy thought.

so have a great valentine's day! if you can't be good then at least be careful.

feb eighty-six

that was the time i got my left ear pierced. just my left with a simple gold stud. at that time it was a rarity for males to wear earrings. my mom said she wouldn't talk to me anymore. "anymore" took about a day. people on the street looked twice. they sometimes stared. people i talk to gets distracted by it. most folks thought i was gay. word spread that i wear an earring and... that i was gay.

i didn't care. i know what i'm not. i know who i am. and i'm straight. it took a couple of years for the rumors to die down and the mongers are eating their words until now. they can't even look at me straight in the eye.

people are people.

i still wear an earring every now and then. people don't stare as much. sometimes they even smile. once every blue moon, i get to borrow an earring from my mom or my girlfriend.

long time friends and stars

last night my girlfriend and i went to an exhibit opening entitled "hubog sa apoy" (shaped in fire) in sm megamall. its a one-man exhibit by carlito ortega, a metal sculptor who uses steel and brass in his pieces. the sculptures on exhibit were fantastic with each one showing a lot of emotion. my favorite was about a father and son. beautiful piece. you have got to visit if you're in the neighborhood. the exhibit is in gallery genesis on the 4th level of sm megamall.

anyway, while i was at megamall, i also saw plenty of stars enough to last me a couple of years or so. lucy torres and richard gomez, senator loren legarda, malang, jaime zobel (yes, in megamall) and i think patis tesoro. sorry, no pictures.

but the real news was that i saw a really old friend of mine — boots and his wife ann. it's been more than a year since i saw them last and seeing them there in good health and spirits was simply great.

fun night.

rainy afternoon

it been raining on and off. i like the rain.

the other red chick passed away this morning. i feel sad for robin. no more pets. and he so wanted one. he actually prefers cats. he told us so. maybe when he reaches eight.

the other one is ok

yes, the other red chick is still ok. happily chirping away. i've been giving it muesli. i don't know if that's really good for the chick but he seems to like it.

hey! blog*spot's up again. it's been whacked over the weekend. ah, c'est la vie.

one red chick

yesterday afternoon, when robin was out with his cousins, one of the red chicks passed away. its the one on the right. i was even able to take the two out in the morning, hunting for food on the yard. i think it hasn't been feeling all that good for the past two days. it finally took its last nap in the afternoon.

gifts and wraps

my son went to a triple birthday party yesterday — his uncle, aunt and cousin. cherry wrapped the gifts because she's always had a knack for it. the photos doesn't do the wrapped gifts justice. i really should learn how to take better pictures.

next blog?

does anyone use this button? i mean, i do but does anyone else? just curious because some blogspot blogs completely renovates the template and leaves it out. and when i'm browsing and the button disappears i kind of miss a step.

nothing. just an idle thought.

mother hen

do you folks remember those two red chicks? well, i think its official. after a week, i am considered to be their mother hen.

ugh.

i get to feed them, take them for strolls in the yard, clean up their basket (we don't have a cage or kennel or whatever you call those things), i tuck them in their basket during the night. and how about the little boy who bought them as pets? he's currently taking a nap.

sigh.

lola and i were talking about what we're going to do when the chicks grow up to be chickens. robin was listening intently. there was a suggestion to sell them to either jollibee or kfc (kentucky fried chicken). robin got really mad. but we all got to laugh at the joke.

i wonder how much they buy chickens at kfc...

peace

tired

sometimes i really get tired of things and i just want to stop and sleep or lose myself in a good book or daydream. its been raining on and off. bed weather. hot coffee, bread and conversation weather. i miss boracay. i'm glad that the week is closing but i'm not really looking forward to the weekend. i feel spaced out and low. maybe i just need some caffein. or chocolates.

ps. my father's pandesal, my mug of coffee.

feeling lazy

i feel really lazy today. after six days of waking up at 4:30 in the morning i finally get to get out of bed at 8:30 (still in the morning! 8D). but then again i slept really late last night at around 1:30 (also in the morning) so i still got the same number of sleep hours.

the point is i got to get out of the bed after the sunrise. ha!

peace

red chicks in the house

my son bought two chicks from school today. and they're red! its college week and they have rides set up in the grounds, booths selling food and drinks and trinkets and apparently red chicks. i sent my wife an sms message, "you wouldn't believe what he brought home today. chicks!" and she sends me back, "Whaaat?".

i'll put more pictures later in the week both here and in flickr.

peace

i got scrubs

a friend of mine gave me scrubs as a christmas present. cool!

now i can pretend to be an orderly. or a nurse. or a doctor. a mad doctor. a psycho doctor. a paranoid schizophrenic doctor.

or not.

but it does look pretty cool on a tech guy. ha!

peace

lake yambo, san pablo city

lake yambo is the twin of lake pandin. they call them twins because of they are very, very close to each other as you can see from the google sat photo.

the raft was taken to a point where its was nearest lake yambo. after a steep and slippery climb and a very short hike, a glimpse of yambo. the locals made a trail going down to lake yambo already through the thick foliage.








once through the foliage you'll see lake yambo. there are bamboo rafts there already. there is no road around the lakes so these rafts are used to go around.

i have more photos over at my photostream if you're interested.