7 Minutes to 3 am

It's Sunday. Seven minutes to 3am. Might as well be a time to think about what I really want.

Here I am sitting in my bed in my small room in our apartment in Mountbatten. 13 months ago I was in a pretty similar situation; at a fork in the road, being utterly confused about what to do and where to go. As much as I would like to think that I'm a year wiser, I'm really still having a hard time making a decision on whether I should go back to Manila or have another go here in Singapore.

I have a lot of doubts and worries right now. I would just have to face up to each one of them one by one until my head is clear.

Maybe a trip somewhere where I can go offline and unplug from the rest of the world will help me. Or maybe that will make me go psycho. I think I should just watch Up In The Air and Midnight In Paris again.

Life in a duffle bag.

Life in a duffle bag. Eating pancit canton cooked by my mom. Emo at 4am.

In about 13 hours, I'll be leaving Manila and will be moving my life to Singapore. I should be excited, and to be honest, I think it's fair to say that March 2011 has clearly been one of the most awesome months of my entire life, and I can't wait for what April has in store for me.

But I just can't help myself from not feeling a bit down when I look at my now near-empty closet, and look at the two small bags that now hold all the carefully chosen stuff that I'll be bringing with me. I think it's the realization that I can't take the most important stuff in my life with me and put them in those two small bags.

The reason why March 2011 became a clear highlight in the timeline of my life wasn't really because I've found a job in a nice and shiny city, but because in the last two weeks, I've managed to reconnect with all my friends from most points in my life in a more profound way. We weren't just drinking because we wanted to get drunk (but yeah, that too...) We were drinking because we knew that the distance that was gonna exist between us after April 2 will surely affect our relationships, even if we try as hard as we can to convince each other that we'll be keeping in touch and nothing will change. We set aside a time to have dinner together because we knew that it's gonna take a long, long time again until we get to sit down in front of each other and just talk about our lives, and get what each other is saying without much explanation.

I can't help but feel down right now, at 4 in the morning, because I'm realizing how much I love these people (you) that I'll be moving away from, and your lives will move on, and my life will move on, and maybe when our paths cross again, we've already gotten used to not seeing each other, not getting drunk together, not eating together, or not understanding each others' jokes.

Fuck it. If you're still reading this up to here, could you do me a favor and not let that happen?

Also, thank you.

Things You Think About While Taking A Shower

Things you think about while taking a shower:

1. What to eat for dinner.

2. The awesome things that happened to you in the past week.

3. The complete lyrics of that song that's been stuck on your head for 2 days now.

4. Your career path.

5. What you should look forward to for the rest of the month.

011110, or 30 in Binary

So, 11th day into the new year...

I just moved into a new room. Except it's not actually a new room, it's the old computer/study room that no one uses anymore since no one in our household bothers to study anymore. It's also the room where an unfortunate incident happened.

Pros: My room isn't in the attic anymore, I've got a brand new, nice-looking sofa bed, and a nice desk for my laptop when I'm working at home (it's right in front of the TV.)

Cons: This room is smaller. And have I mentioned that sofa beds are a lot less comfortable than conventional big beds?

I just moved into a new role. Except it's not actually a new role, it's just a new version of an old role that no one wanted to take. (Oops, did I say that out loud?)

Pros: Flex time, and I get nice sum of on-call pay that makes up for my unfortunate stagnant salary.

Cons: I'm on call. On weekends, holidays, and the wee hours of the morning. There are others, but we can discuss that offline. ;-)

I wonder what the 12th day will bring.

The Big W

Wimbledon is on the TV right now... (at last, a Grand Slam tournament that my cable provider covers!)

Earlier, I caught the the Roger Federer-Yen Hsun Lu 1st round match, and Fed played a good match there, showing some flashes of genius especially in the 3rd set. Rafael Nadal isn't defending his title here because of an injury (tendinitis on both his knees), but just because Rafa's not playing this year doesn't mean it's gonna be smooth sailing for Roger. The main contender (in fact, the only main contender) to Roger winning his 6th Wimbledon and a 15th Grand Slam title is local hope Andy Murray. After winning his first grass court title at The Queen's Club last week, Murray has Britain all hyped up, as he might finally end the drought of British champions in Wimbledon since Fred Perry last won in 1936.

I think the final will be between Murray and Federer, and while I want Federer to win #15 in two weeks' time, I wouldn't mind seeing Murray win against Federer, as long as he challenges Fed the way Rafa did in last year's epic final.

On the women's side, Venus and Serena are the obvious choices for the final, since every other top player is either coming from injury (Sharapova), or are having trouble finding their form (the Serbians), or are just generally chokers (the rest of the Russians.) On the other hand, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka are two young players who could sneak through the semis. I've been waiting for these two to have their Grand Slam breakthroughs first at the Aussie Open last January, and at the French Open earlier this month, but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe they're just waiting for Wimbledon to come around, nothing like making the big splash at the most prestigious tournament in tennis after all.

Caroline just won her first grass court title over the weekend, and she has won Wimbledon before (albeit as a junior), so she know her way around the grass. Vika on the other hand, essentially has the same power game as Sharapova, and that power game is bound to bring her success on the grass, just like it has for Masha. Unless she goes the way of Nicole Vaidisova...

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I just came back from Gumaca over the weekend, to attend my grandmother's (on my mother's side) funeral. She suffered a mild stroke a week before, then suffered another one last Friday. The second stroke took her. Before going to Gumaca, I have to admit that I was feeling really numb. I wasn't sure how to react, so I started writing a blog post (that I won't be publishing), about the sad things that happen in life, and how I generally deal with them. I just had such a hard time articulating how I felt at that time, and I thought writing about it would calm me down and help me understand what was going on.

Once we got to Gumaca however, I started to feel much better. There's just something about being in my hometown that grounds me. And when we got to my grandparents' barrio, the mood at the wake was actually very good. The whole family was in good spirits, and my aunt was even telling us some funny things that happened while they were at the hospital, in between the days of my grandmother's two strokes. That's when I realized the wake was there to celebrate my grandmother's well-lived life. And in a way, it made accepting the facts easier.

Side note: One thing that bothered me though, was the gambling that was going on at the wake. I guess gambling is traditionally part of wakes especially in the province, but man... when I die, I DO NOT WANT PEOPLE GAMBLING at my funeral. I guess that would be one of my dying wishes (also: no cheesy dramatic ballads on the procession to my final resting place.)


Our Inay was 83, lived a very humble life, and I'm nothing but proud to be one of her many grandchildren.


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Now playing: Dave Matthews Band - The Space Between
via FoxyTunes

I Am now The Jack Bauer Power Hour

So yesterday was an awful day to have a birthday... After getting an allergic reaction to the pain killers, I went back to the hospital to get treated. I went to the ER where they gave me two shots (on my arm and on the vein in my hand.) After getting the shots, I fell asleep for a bit till the doctor woke me up and signed my release form, along with the advice that I can't eat seafood, chicken, dairy products, and chocolates. I also can't drink soda AND BEER for 1 week. dammit.

Good thing my mom cooked spaghetti and adobo and my dad grilled some ribs. My favorite comfort food. ;-)

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Another set of (former) office friends got engaged last weekend. Congratulations Camille and Marlon! I smell a Baguio wedding! :D

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So the good news (about me, of course...) is my eyes aren't swollen anymore, and even if the pain killers made my eyes swell, it actually worked because I got to sleep without being woken up by the pain from me rubbing into the rashes. AND I get to work from home until I'm not contagious anymore.

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Finally, in honor of my 24th birthday, I'm changing my byline from:
Random Spittings of a frustrated musician/writer/tennis player who has yet to meet his quarter-life crisis (or if he has, then this frustrated musician/writer/tennis player has a terribly short life.)

to:
Random Spittings of a frustrated musician/writer/tennis player who has yet to meet a quarter-life crisis he didn't vaguely blog about.

(It's the truth!)

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Now playing: Portishead - We Carry On
via FoxyTunes

Previously on Anatasia Pavlyuchenkova just rolls...

So Federer once again loses to Murray... Right now, Fed is looking like the number 3 player in the world (and no, Djokovic isn't the #2.) The young guns (and his age?) are catching up on him, I guess.

After beating Fed, Andy Murray then lost easily to Rafael Nadal in the finals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. This win shows that that Aussie Open isn't a one time thing, and that the US Open isn't far off from Rafa's reach. Rafa has really honed up his hardcourt game.

At this rate, Wimbledon is looking to be really interesting. Rafa will be the defending champ for the first time, Murray will get a high seeding and will be expected to make at least the semifinals, and thus will have to deal with even more pressure from the Brits than Tim Henman ever had to on his best years, and Fed will try to win his 14th Grand Slam title to tie Pete's record. Really interesting. (Of course, I'm expecting that Rafa will simply sweep the whole clay season and the French Open, so there's really nothing to analyze there.)

And I was wrong about AP (Anya? Nastya? Pavy? Pavlyuchenki?), she lost to Ana Ivanovic in straight sets. AI then lost to Vera Zvonareva also in straight sets, who won her biggest tournament yet. Vera has been on a great winning run the past 6 months. It's so strange, considering that she was usually the butt of many jokes because she used to cry on court, IN THE MIDDLE OF A MATCH, when she starts losing.

Up next is the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. My picks to win? Serena and Rafa.

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Mahirap ang maghintay sa wala. Pero mas mahirap ang mataimtim na paghihintay para sa isang bagay na hindi naman pala para sa iyo. Ganito siguro ang sasabihin ni Andres Bonifacio kung emo sya.



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Now playing: Nine Inch Nails - Somewhat Damaged
via FoxyTunes

Owned In the Head

I don't know what's gotten into me lately, but my musical mood has been pointing me to the direction of these 4 artists who fall on the folk/soul/blues/jazz genre...

Amos Lee:


Duffy:


Adele:

Ray LaMontagne:


They're all great, right? I don't know what it says about my current state of mind, or if it's just completely coincidental. But it does make me want to start thinking, except that involves too much effort.

I was talking to my friend and former teammate Karon to make sense of some things, and well, I still don't know. I'm not that good with introspection, my mind always sidetracks me.

...

After The Jump

As Paolo Nutini sang it: Where'd the days go when all we did was play? And the stress that we were under wasn't stress at all, just a run and a jump into a harmless fall.

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Big typhoon last weekend, and while I love the rainy season, I kinda felt sorry after reading my teammate Mich's accounts of what happened in her hometown.

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I'll be going on a trip around Southeast Asia with some friends next week. Everything has been planned out well for several months now, but damn, mofo Cebu Pacific strikes again. I guess it really is true what they say about Cebu Pacific giving no value for your little money. Unfortunately, I still have to deal with them some more in the future because I've also booked another flight with them to HK with my F/OM/FTM*. They better not fuck that up.

*friends/officemates/former teammates
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Why is a convenient excuse so hard to come by when you most need it? I guess now I really have to do something. Then again, the excitement of jumping off of cliffs or planes or skyscraper rooftops is in the falling. It's the landing that ends the thrill and begins the thirst for the next jump.



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Now playing: radiohead - jigsaw falling into place
via FoxyTunes

A Flaming Red Horizon

I studied in a Catholic school my whole life, from kindergarten to college. But I don't think I really grew up to be religious at all, as much as I just simply grew up to be afraid of being unreligious.

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I don't remember when the last time I heard mass at church was. I think it was at Christmas eve last year, since I remember how annoyed I was that the whole thing was taking way too much time. Not that I found hearing mass during Christmas eve an inconvenience to my well-fed soul, but I just remember how annoyed I was with how they managed to make MASS at CHURCH so overwrought like it was some cheesy Sunday afternoon variety show. What??!? Since when did we need to have kids dancing in front of the altar, or old people singing barely tuneful songs that was only tangentially related to the whole point of why we were there in the first place, or various announcements about who won some community raffle and how to buy raffle tickets for the next self-serving one? Why make a supposedly solemn one hour of inherently personal time of worship for God into an annoying two hour extravaganza filled with unnecessary fodder?

Now that I think of it, I think that was what drove me away from going to mass at the church I've been hearing mass from ever since I was a kid. I hated how they made it so contrived and overdone and overly elaborate.

Or maybe I was just looking for a better excuse to stop going to mass on Sundays.

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Now playing: Jeff Buckley - Eternal Life
via FoxyTunes

It's Not Like I Was 21 For Two Years.

About the same time last year, I was doing some reflection about myself. So I'll do it again today. Ooooh, I guess I have a new a tradition.

The thing is I don't really know what to reflect on. I still like tennis, watching The Amazing Race, The Simpsons and Family Guy, listening to Damien Rice, Jeff Buckley and Modest Mouse, food tripping, traveling and beach bumming, Daniela Hantuchova, Natalie Portman and Neil Gaiman, and I also still have the occasional bouts of angst like I'm stuck in the 90's.

I also still don't know if I've already gone through or have yet to meet my quarter-life crisis. On the positive side, I can say that my sleeping, eating and drinking habits have gone to the complete opposite direction to the one that's probably classified as "good". It's a positive because I know how people say that admitting you have a problem is the first step to solving them. Ha!

Here's to hoping that hitting strides and kicking asses will never be things of the past.

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Now playing: The Killers - Everything Will Be Alright
via FoxyTunes

Habits of The Highly Disaffected

Earth Hour a few hours ago. My mom didn't want to turn off the lights because she was watching TV.

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Earlier this week, I attended the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People seminar. I definitely learned a lot from it, but I can't say that I'm an effective person now. After all, they were called habits for a reason. I think I have a lot of gritting of teeth to do before I finally can declare myself to be highly effective.

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There are days when I wake up and I just declare the day to be over, that it's gonna be bad. There are times when I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm wrong, and there are times when I can satisfy myself with the fact that I can say "whatever" and really mean it.

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I'm addicted to this show Damages. It's being shown on AXN a lot, with 4-episode marathons on Saturdays. It's seriously good. Season Finale is on Tuesday.

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This week, I was extremely and unexpectedly stressed out. I felt like I was scrambling for no apparent reason. I think it might have been because of the long holiday, followed by the three day out-of-office training I had. E-mails and tasks piled up, and instead of having the positive, I CAN DO THIS! attitude (I don't), I simply became overwhelmed and just tried to zone out as best as I could the two days I had work at the office. Being stressed out and anxious and overwhelmed has been nagging at me for a few weeks now. I think it's because of finding out and understanding the notion that I may not be standing on grounds as solid as I thought.

---------------------------------

I don't know what it is about going home from work late at night that gets my mind so riled up and I start arguing inside my head. Not arguing violently, but just... debating why things are. I think I do it sometimes because it makes things clearer for me. The sad part though is when that clearer perspective makes you see that things aren't going great for you.

Just thinking out loud.

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Check out the song on the Now Playing link below... It seriously kills me each time I hear it.
Or better yet, check out the live performance here

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Now playing: Biffy Clyro - Machines
via FoxyTunes

Sobering Facts

The world is a vampire...

I can't believe it's time to bust that song out again.

Then someone will say what is lost can never be saved.

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So I missed the Aussie Open finals (but I missed it because of my El Nido trip, and it was totally worth it), just to recap, Daniela reached the semifinals (her first in a Grand Slam) where she lost to Serbian Ana Ivanovic, who then lost in the finals to Maria Sharapova, who takes her third Grand Slam title (after Wimbledon and the US Open). On the men's side, Serbian Novak Djokovic takes his first Grand Slam title after beating Roger Federer in the semifinals. It was the first time Fed didn't reach a final of a Grand Slam in 3,273 years.

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TK and Rachel won TAR12. Woohoo! This is the first time a team I liked from the very first leg actually won the whole race. (Remind me to do a geeky post about my TAR lists)

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And finally, El Nido. So I posted a few pics on my previous post. And I mentioned how awesome El Nido is. Well, I'm gonna do it again.

We went island hopping El Nido has the most beautiful islands, beaches, lagoons. We went kayaking in the snorkeling and kayaking in the Big and Small Lagoon in Miniloc Island, and we saw baby sharks! with our bare eyes! swimming right beside our kayaks! We also stopped by Entalula Island (it's the last pic on my previous post) where we tried some rock climbing. It was awesome! I have short arms and legs, so getting to the top took some effort, but it was still awesome. Most of the pics are in Charmaine's cam so I'll probably post some once I get a hold of some copies. We also tried some scuba diving (there was a free introductory course, just like every freaking activity you could do in El Nido). I've snorkeled a bunch of times and but scuba diving was a totally different, and a whole lot cooler experience. You could actually see fishes and corals and sea creatures right in front of you! It was amazing. Definitely one of many highlights of the trip. We also had lunch at a private beach. A speed boat dropped us off a private beach, with our lunch all prepared right on the beach (baby back ribs and grilled salmon, shrimp kebab, shrimp sinigang, baked potatoes, salad, and a bunch of fruits) and left us to enjoy ourselves.

Speaking of food. The food was fucked up great. It was buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner (including desserts!) I'm not sure but I probably gained a few pounds in those three days.

And it was an awesome three days.



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Now playing: The Postal Service - Nothing Better
via FoxyTunes

Welcome, 2007 + 1

A couple of hours more before the new year comes in...

The year started off with a bang, then mellowed down to below mediocre (there was a point when I felt like our office turned into The Office, without the humor, but with Dwight Schrute), but things started picking up, with the 3-month trip to Poland putting the icing on the cake. (Not everything is on the ups though... One of those things? My bonus.)

So instead using this space to deliberate whether 2007 was a great year or not, I've decided that I will use this post to list down the 20 most played tracks on my Creative ZVM :D

1. A Design For Life - Manic Street Preachers (If I was going on a protest, I'd sing this song on a megaphone, at the top of my lungs)
2. She Ionizes and Atomizes - Modest Mouse (this is a song from one of Modest Mouse's earlier albums, it's actually the first song by the band that I downloaded)
3. Worn Me Down - Rachael Yamagata (She has an awesome voice that I love listening to over and over again.)
   
4. Missed The Boat - Modest Mouse (from their latest album, a standout song. Also, check out the various videos for the song)
   
5. Run - Snow Patrol (Also from their older album. This is an awesome anthemic song)
6. Spitting Venom - Modest Mouse (Another one from the "We Were Dead" album)
7. Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley (I'm surprised it isn't on any higher, this is my absolute favorite song)
8. Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie - (Another one of my most favorite songs ever)
   
9. Us - Regina Spektor (A great, crazy vocalist)
   
10. Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens (This song gives me goosebumps)
11. Disarm - The Smashing Pumpkins
12. Charm Attack - Leona Naess
13. Samson - Regina Spektor
14. Silent All These Years - Tori Amos
    
15. Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae
16. A Long Walk - Jill Scott
17. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town - Pearl Jam
    
18. The Shining - Badly Drawn Boy
19. Hedonism - Skunk Anansie
20. Love For Granted - Phoenix
    

Happy New Year, everyone!



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Now playing: Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life
via FoxyTunes

And you were the places that I wanted to go

I've been away from home for 8 weeks now, so I figure right about now would be the perfect time for me to wax poetic about how much I miss home, how homesick I am etc etc... But I can't, because I'm not. I've just been having such a great time here enjoying every second of this experience that I have no time to be homesick. Of course, there are some things in the Philippines that I'm dying to see again. But I figure, I'll only be here for 3 months... Why waste those three months on thinking about how much I miss what I'll be going back to for the rest of my life? You know what I mean?

Anyway having said that, I do miss my family and friends. That's a given. Even though I've met a lot of friendly people here in Poland, those people back home can't be replaced. (Naks!)

And I do miss Filipino food. Luckily, we met the Filipino Community here in Poland (yes, all 9 of them) who invited us to a gathering last All Saints' Day holiday, and where there's a Filipino community, there's sure to be Filipino food :D There was adobo, lechon manok, lumpia, Pinoy-style spaghetti, and my favorite, caldereta! So that really helped ease out the "I miss Filipino food" part (and anyway, if you see me now, you probably won't believe I'm missing any kind of food whatsoever, haha. I think I've gained more than 10 pounds since I got here. waaaah...)

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Right now, it's 0 degrees outside. And tomorrow (at least according to Yahoo weather), it will be snowing in Warsaw! That's gonna be a first for me (experiencing snow, I mean) and as much as that may seem exciting, I really really really was hoping it won't snow until we leave. Because snow would only mean it's gotten colder. And it's already too coooold for my tropical ass!

I saw some pictures of my Boracay trip from last year and from earlier this year, and it really really made me wish for the sun and the heat and the general tropical weather of the Philippines. The sun barely shines here, and if it does shine, it doesn't even sting the skin like it does in Manila at 12 in the afternoon. I wouldn't have thought I'd miss that, but there you go.

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Last weekend, we made our way to the town of Malbork and the city of Gdansk way up north by the Baltic coast. We went to Malbork to visit its castle, which is the largest Gothic castle in Europe, and the largest brick castle in the world. It was the seat of the Teutonic Order in the medieval times, and walking through its grounds and halls, you could really feel the grandness of it all. Gdansk is a port city on the Baltic Sea and has one of the most beautiful city squares in Poland, in my opinion. I'll post pictures and talk more about them on my next entry :D

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On a side note: The latest season of The Amazing Race is now on! WOOOOOHOOOOO!

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Now playing: Sigur Rós - Hoppipolla
via FoxyTunes

The Science of Promotion

!!!NEW!!!

My flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bloodsportandriot/

=D

I also post the pics on my Multiply site.

Between four blogs, a Multiply site and around 4 other social networking sites, a pbase site (which I never use anymore), a lycos and an angelfire personal site, some message boards memberships, and this new flickr site, yes... I am a cyberwhore.

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Now playing: Modest Mouse - We've Got Everything
via FoxyTunes

To Cheap-Ass Time Machines

Sometimes I wonder why I write on this blog. After all, whatever I write here could be held against me no matter how much I protest to it. It could get me in some kind of trouble or another (or at the very least, in a situation filled with a lot of awkward silences.)

And then I read my older posts. The ones I wrote when I was still in college or when I was still new at my job. Back when I thought dropping f-bombs on each sentence would add a nice touch. I read them and it somehow makes my narcissistic ass feel good.

That's why I write on this blog. It gives me easy access to what I once was. To what I used to be like, to what I used to focus on and think about. It talks to me the way not many people can and teaches me things that even fewer can. (I've already mentioned the narcissistic part, right? Add some self-congratulatory ass in their. This is where it kicks in)

To cheap-ass time machines. May your servers always have a back up.

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Now playing: Rachael Yamagata - Worn Me Down
via FoxyTunes

I can't wait for the fourth one.

Traffic was insufferable last Wednesday. I left the office a few minutes before 11am, I got home a few minutes after 3pm. It took more than an hour to travel from Ayala corner Paseo de Roxas to Buendia corner Pasong Tamo. That's probably less than 5 kilometers right there. Waist-high flood covered most parts of Buendia from Pasong Tamo to the Pasay/Makati boundary. I was on the very first row of the bus and it was sort of surreal watching the bus go through the murky waters like it was a boat.

Right now, it's 7am. I'm almost ready to leave my desk, and the thick gray clouds outside are threatening to unload on the city again. The third typhoon to hit the country in two weeks is reportedly getting stronger.

I hate working past midnight and having to go home at 9 in the morning. But don't quote me on that.


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Now playing: Death Cab for Cutie - The Sound of Settling
via FoxyTunes

Entertainment While the Storm Winds Down

You know that specific instance when you just realized that you've bitten off more than you can chew, and you want to have to just stop because you're starting to feel rotten to the core, but you can't and you realize that you really, really, really have no other choice but to deal with what's choking your heart and soul but you don't want to because you don't have the slightest hint on how to handle it and you get so overwhelmed and anxious that it's almost easier not to breathe? Is there a word for that? Because if there is, I sure would hate to be that.

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Hey, look at that! Blogger has a new feature that lets you insert the signature of the song that's playing on your media player (I use Winamp) via FoxyTunes. FoxyTunes is a really cool Firefox plugin that let's you operate practically any media player installed on your PC via a small tab at the bottom of your internet browser. Nice!

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Now playing: Badly Drawn Boy - Everybody's Stalking
via FoxyTunes

An Extraordinary Machine

Things I learned the past few months (or a few minutes ago):

Worrying is counter-productive. Just because you declared on your resume that you're a person who "works well under pressure" doesn't mean that getting stressed out will automatically turn you into a well-oiled machine. There's still that part of the equation where you have to put actual effort in transforming the stress to something else more positive. Stress is no use if it remains a negative lump of knot in your stomach.

Most everything that rises to the top is the cream of the crop. There are exceptions though. There are times when you find out it's just scum.

Facing the truth is a lot harder if you've managed to build your path by lying through your teeth. Or by making excuses. Lies and truths are pulled out from the same hat.

Anxiety is brought about by stupidity, in a word.

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Just got back from watching Die Hard 4. That was a freaking awesome movie. Great jaw-dropping action and a pack of characters who just wouldn't die (I think Maggie Q is actually still alive at the bottom of that elevator.) Ironically, the villain died after one gunshot. The movie felt like a whole season of 24, minus the intense drama, packed into 2 solid hours of ass-kicking action. Bruce Willis' John McLaine is Jack Bauer with a good heap of humor (or is it Kiefer's Bauer is McLaine minus the wisecracks?)

Too bad it got lost in the Transformers/Harry Potter/SpidermanShrekPirates 3s muddle. Other movies I saw the past month: Transformers (asteeeeeg) and the 5th Harry Potter (Some people were disappointed by it. I actually liked it a lot. I didn't finish reading the book though, so I guess that could be one of the reasons I liked it.)

Finally... The Simpsons is opening this Wednesday! Woohoo! Can't wait! :D