on the last day of October

Last day of October. Time flies. Been having too much fun, I guess. Can't believe 2008 is ending. It has been a really good year.

Bad tummy
As I stay home and nurse an ailing tummy, serves me right for eating to much at lunch today. I had spaghetti, canton, dinuguan, duck, kare2, lechon, chicken with ubad and dirty ice cream. Sing with me! Perfect combination... :P So, I get what I deserve. But I don't regret every sinful bite. Bwahahaha!

In the wee hours of the morning with Larissa
Chatting with Larissa right now. Dreaming, making plan for their visit next year. I'm so looking forward to that since I barely get to see them, much less all of my cousins together. The last time was during Larissa's wedding in Dallas. Eva's 2 already. Wish we could do a quick run around Asia. My feet are itching to get my passport stamped again. It's my addiction.

This is the 2nd day in a row that we chatted at 3am their time. Gotta love YM!

My baby is coming home!
Thank you, Lord! My camera is finally fixed! I've been with this camera through thick and thin. I was so happy when I called the guys fixing it when they said they finished it na and only for P2,800. In Manila it was supposed to be P8,000. Araguy! But I got it cheaper in Iloilo instead! Wuhu!

A pledge
When I get my camera back, I pledge to take more pictures of anything and everything. I won't take my baby for granted anymore and to be more faithful in my blogging. So help me, God. :D

Christmas is too close for comfort
I've always been a bah humbug type of person but this year is completely different. I used to dread this time of year. Lists to be filled with gifts, panic buying with a very limited budget, prices of anything remotely interesting continually rising, people I didn't expect to give me anything give me something hence I end up having to buy them something in return with whatever is left in my atm account (which isn't much). November is the month wherein my Christmas traffic light turns yellow. So get ready to brace the Christmas rush.

But this year, I am better prepared and with a bit of a skip to my step. I get to appreciate the glorious Christmas breeze coming in and the Christmas senti songs don't bother me anymore. I'm cured! Finally!

Random facts...

This is when you have nothing to do but ponder over useless things about yourself. Sometimes its fun, sometimes its annoying. Whatever mood you're in at the moment. So for now, am in the mood ;)

1) I CAN'T... eat bananas. I hate bananas. Blame it on a traumatic childhood. I can eat banana cakes, ice creams or whatever, as long as I can't see the banana in its full glory. Banana qs are ok when there are no kamotes available.

2) I HAVE ... not yet finished unpacking my stuff from the boxes I stored them in from last year's rennovation. hahaha i am still so matamad and I don't know where to put some of them but I hate to throw them away. I'm pretty sentimental. BWHAHAHA!

3) I LOVE ... to sleep. Among other things :D I dream of dreaming. Maybe its because I automatically wake up at 6:30am regardless of what time I sleep at night (or after a gimik or something). I try to make up for it further in the day but it is so frustrating at times.

4) I'M DEATHLY AFRAID OF ... needles, heights and cockroaches. Enough said :)

5) EVERY LITTLE THING AMUSES ME/MAKES MY DAY ... when I'm with the people whom I love and treasure most. Chars! Corny gid ya paman!

6) I WANT ... a new point and shoot camera. My ixus i7 died on me. Rest in peace little one. Rest in peace. You served me well. You will always be remembered.

will wonders never cease?

is that almost a smile?

missing jose gabriel

never thought i'd actually be saying this, but after 7 days, i miss my wicky boy... :-( but i'm glad he's gaining more insights and experiences. hay... i know that after a few more days things will get back to normal. but as of today, i can really say for certain, i miss my brahder!

Snippets of news

1) Sharon Buizon (one of my favorite students) and 5 others graduates are leaving for Brunei today. Praying for all the best for them. She deserves it. After all the things she has been through. Go paka! :)

2) Cathy Garcia gave birth (normally) to a healthy baby girl. Welcome to the world Amaya Sophia B. Garcia! Born Oct. 12, 2008 (ok, I know I'm a tad bit late haha news travels slow in my part of the world).

3) I actually have finally reached my goal, financially. Had a little help. But still! I'm so happy! Wuhu! I'm actually worth a bit more! Haha

A new dose of Amy Tan

Dropped by National Bookstore to buy a gift for Jenny's birthday from Pam and I. Like any normal compulsive bookworm, instead of 2 books, I left with 6 books. Hay... Nothing like your heart leaping with a great new find.

I am an Amy Tan addict and this one I have been hearing about for months but never really got the chance to visit a bookstore. Finally!

masskara fever --- literally

The last time I actually experienced Masskara goes back so many years ago. I think it was 2002 pa. Since then, I have been in Bacolod for the past few years during the festival but was always cooped up in the badminton court. From 8am to unholy hours. The worst was probably 12 midnight. Was too tired to do anything anymore and probably had dinner at about 1am already. Never even got to see the plaza, let alone the fun. That was how much of a badminton addict I was. Stress on the WAS.

This year, everything just fell into place and was able to enjoy being there for 2 weekends! Got to do so much and I need the break. A lot of first this weekend, too. The best part about great experiences is that you get to share it with the people who matter most to you. It just elevates the experience to a higher level.

Best parts about this year:
1) Uyyy... unang dalaw. Channeling Sprite at the moment. haha
2) Got to hang out with Mike, Paul, TP, Tonito, the other TP, Malou, Biboy, Paul's boyz (hahaha!), Tina, Joanie, Tita Sonnie. Who else did I miss..?
3) Got to see friends unexpectedly: Andre, Anton, badminton people (who, like me, were glad that there wasn't a tournament this year so we could all let loose and think of other things that a shuttle cock. Pass the Gagita, TP!)
4) Seeing new faces and just people watch. With even more Gagita :-D
5) Can't get enough of Kaisei and Bob's. Inaka, too.
6) Golf cart joy riding around the subdvision.
7) a whole lotta firsts!!!
8) oh yah! and having a doggy crush on hanoi. a handsome german shepherd who i met last friday. almost as cute as his new daddy. ALMOST ;-)

Keeping my fingers crossed for another trip soon with the same cast of characters. Sipalay maybe? ;-)

'Til then, I deserve the sore throat, cough and clogged nose I have right now. Oh yeah, and the headache. But it was sooo worth it.

mixed emotions

There's no denying that the iphone is probably the best phone on the planet at the moment. In my opinion, anyway. It's so versatile! You can practically do almost anything and everything (whether during rational and irrational moment of the day). Some applications are like heaven sent. Things you could never do in other phones. Some, just blow your mind. I often ask myself, "How bored do you need to be to think up these things?". But it works! It really does. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anybody.

But here's my dilemma. For one, I am not that computer savvy. I'm not the worst of computer users, but I'm not that good at it either. Paddling leisurely in the middle of the river, so to speak. So here I am, infuriating my brother to no end, time and time again. I try to make up for it in other ways. Cook... cook... cook :D

2 things that I've been dying to get my iphone to do (others are already doing it but it takes sooo long for me to get anything done on it, period): 1) be able to forward messages (deeply apologizing to my sun textmates. This is the reason for my "snub". I just couldn't forward anything!). 2) send mms. Still working on the second one. But its just right there, waiting for me to actually exert more time and effort. Hay.... :)

But I love love love it still. Right now, I'm addicted to the hold 'em, koi pond, Bible reader, tetris, iDrink, snapture and bubblewrap applications.

a shot of soju and sake

i really have to thank day2 for this because she referred me to this site.

what can i say? i love my koreanovelas and movies! i don't deny it and i'm not ashamed of it. i've converted so many people already and i have no intention of stopping!

for those who are into it or just plain curious, this is a great site. so take a step into the dark side.

another party

considering that me and my friends have semi-abruptly faded out of the gimik scene in roxas, it was surprising to see how it has completely died down! that is, for our "age group". the kids will always be there but at the stage where i am right now... errr... d na carry :-D

had a fun friday night. gave our basketball team another victory party. this one was to make up for their lack of recognition. can you believe that until now we still haven't received our trophy? tisk tisk.. people can be so petty. it is a "sport" after all. some people just can't let go, apparently.

it was not a serious event to say the least and i was laughing so hard at most parts. the guys were game and even had a song number (courtesy of taquio n jeffrey) and the rest of the guys gave a dance number. uhhh... their gonna regret it on monday (most of the audience had video cams with their cellphones). sir tinapay (mr.wonderbread) gave a short speech and sang as well. it was fun and unlike any other victory party. a good way for them to show their appreciation to the people who have been behind them all this time.

of course, lechon was present and they stayed up late dancing the night away. they deserve it. proud for what my brother did with them. my brother is officially a single dad now hahaha

Sniff sniff

Counting the days, hours, minutes, seconds 'til Sunday 3pm (hopefully... as long as PAL doesn't mess up. Precious cargo on board). 'Til then, what do I do when I wake up at 1am? What do I do Thursday, Friday and Saturday night? Hmmm...

OA! How did I become such a cornball? :-P

David finally conquers Goliath

A few months ago (December 18, I think), I wrote about our basketball team. A few months ago, a championship was a far dream. So near, yet so far, time and time again. It eluded us so much that I have actually memorized the words of comfort I needed to say to get these kids going. A smile to go along with the words that I hope could give even just a bit of comfort after doing all they could.

It's one thing to talk to kids to try their best. To tell them that if they want something they should work for it. That if you try hard enough, practice, inevitably, you may get to orphwhere you want to go. But it is another thing when so many factors are unfairly thrown in their path.

That has been the case for so many years. The same struggle that others endured long before we even came into the picture. It just got this way because we were the closest to ever come to that level and finally, to surprisingly succeed.

Last Friday was like the DLSU-ADMU game for us. Coming against what was already an institution. CPC has been the champion for the past 17 years. That's more than half my lifetime. Roots have been planted, ties have been made, then all of a sudden, we come in. Barely 5 years old. What did we know?

No fancy recruitment, no A list players drafted. Just kids who practiced so hard and for the longest time. Kids who never made it outside of Roxas. Kids who were so happy to get snacks after practice. An orphan, others homeless, another forgotten by his parents. But even through all that, grades were still the issue. The ones who were just in on it just for the game, didn't succeed in time and naturally faded out of the picture.

Together with a new coach who never coached anything before. With a funny last name and a cartoonish disposition. Who would have thought?

But Friday gave us something that we were used to so it came down to game 3 on Saturday. As it was on our previous match ups, the Capiz Gym was packed to capacity. I've watched other shows and games there but it was mind blowing how this beat them all. Not only were there students from both sides but spectators, politicians, people who worked for us, people who had no affiliation with the schools at all.

Saturday, proved to be another very close game. Experience has taught me that as long as CPC doesn't lead over 20 points, we almost always can catch up. Thats exactly what happened.

With an unbelievably close shave we actually won. Tears of joy finally came in the place of the tears of frustration that was a common sight for so many years already.

Unfortunately, a brawl broke out and the crowd got unruly. This resulted to a stabbing of one of CPC's players.

People get so worked up and emotions run high with these things. Not to mention so many people have other motives (betting was the big thing). But they fail to realize that this is still, after all, only just a game and there are so many much more relevant and important things to life.

On our part, I know our players had nothing to do with it. I've gotten to know them, shared stories and seen how they are. Not to mention the people saw what happened. It just hurts that so many other stories have come out. What had been a basic collegiate game has turned out to be one of the worst and best times that have happened to these kids.

I hope and pray that Espaniola gets better but God knows how that came about in the first place. But even then, these things should have never happened and I hope they find the guy who did it.

As for the rest, it still isn't important, winning. It's how you got to that point and how you prepared. Even if we did win, we still haven't received the trophy and honestly... it doesn't matter. Our lives haven't changed and trophies can be bought easily. Its finally getting the justification for what we have been telling them over and over and over. If you work hard and you do your best, you can achieve whatever you set your mind to.

It was also a matter of breaking something that was all wrong and proving that hard work and perseverance does prevail no matter how many factors try to get in the way. So regardless if we win or lose next year, more reason for us to do more and experience more. It's a lesson either way.

GO JAGUARS! To God be the glory victorious or otherwise.

Lovin' the Hockey Mom

I am such a huge fan. I watched when she was introduced as McCain's VP and she just blew everyone's mind, Democrats and Republicans alike. What a stroke of genius on the Republican's side to do this. It was so out of left field. Even Obama was beginnning to stutter.

She represents so much of what people have been hoping to have after so long. With a very deep rooted political machine in play, its like a refreshing new breeze. Wish we could have someone like her in our own political arena. But then again, that is wishful thinking.

I love news features on her. CNN, Fox, even on BBC. Although I have always found CNN to be a bit biased in more ways than one. KInda like the NY Times in some ways. Oh well.

Can't wait to see how things go in Nov. 4. But until then, there's gonna be so much drama and twists.

After a quiet phase

Its not like I finally ran out of things to say. That would be parallel to the ocean splitting into two. I guess I just went through a phase wherein all the new and exciting things that were happening in my life I just wanted to keep to myself. Each day became better than the next and so on and so forth. But I do wanna go back into the blogging world. I feel so out of touch!

So anyways, I'll try to keep up.

Remembering the Best Leading Man Ever

Born	Paul Leonard Newman January 26, 1925(1925-01-26) Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Died	September 26, 2008 (aged 83) Westport, Connecticut, USA
Years active	1952 - 2008
Spouse(s)	Jackie Witte (1949–1958) Joanne Woodward (1958–2008)

I grew up in a family wherein we were surrounded by movies (from the classics to the present), musicals, plays and everything else in between. I'm blessed in that sense that I got to see how things were and how it has evolved into what it is today. Most of us in the family were not just passive observers but we have come to a deep appreciation for such arts.

Paul Newman was always my favorite leading man. He was always consistent and his roles were so diverse and memorable. My favorite was, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with Elizabeth Taylor.

Not only was he the best leading man on screen, but also off screen. I remember years back he was quoted when asked if he ever had the urge to cheat on his wife, Joanne. After all, just look at him. Hello! Even during his last years he was still as dashing and handsome as ever. He answered, "Why eat hamburgers when you can have steak at home?"

His charity works have become so widespread that when you walk into supermarkets in the Philippines, Paul Newman products can be found. All profits after taxes from these products go directly to charity. I'm a big fan of his salad dressings, snacks and mints :)

If you try to type his name on google and yahoo, this guy has a biography like no other. He was the first. Before the Brad Pitts, Tom Cruises, George Clooneys. Paul Newman was in a league on his own. I don't think anyone can reach the height that he has set.