Deep Fried Tonight

Weekend is starting to get distasteful. I've been here at home since Thursday and never left the house since. Plans of visiting the National Museum and catching the late night screening of Twilight yesterday with Dominique were cancelled due to some minor mishaps on her side. I cleaned the living room earlier this morning to get myself occupied. Enjoying a longer sleep was ruined by the neighbor's loud stereo. It's stupidly loud, I nearly had a heart attack when they blasted the volume as early as 7 this morning. Ayos lang sana, kaya lang sa tapat mismo ng bintana ng kwarto ko nakatapat yung speakers. The radio is always tuned in to Love radio where the DJs annoyingly reminds me of the local Perya. The freakin' loud noise had always bothered me and my brother on most weekends. I asked my father to talk to the neighbors about the noise, but he thinks that we should just let them be.  But...but...but..

Anyways, enough ranting. Drop by tonight at Saguijo for GrooveNation's Deep Fried event if you do not have gimik plans yet --

Friday At Home

I only have engagement rings to write about. There was no internet connection for a couple of hours so I shifted to reading Kate Morton's The House At Riverton. I started Chapter Two. There's not much on the first chapter. The two-sentenced flash back lingered on last night that I sort of had a dream similar to it; muddy hands and flashes of what looks like a messed-up wedding dress. Creepy. Yes. Well. Not really.

I accidentally removed the virus scanner installed in our desktop. I am trying to restore it since last night, but was unsuccessful. Internet connection was restored around 1pm and resumed on writing pending blog tasks. A friend of mine send me an SMS asking if I am interested in watching a movie later tonight at a nearby mall. I still haven't replied. I don't want to half-heartedly give a 'Yes' if I wasn't sure. Hmmm... I need to get out of the house evenutally to pay my phone bill, which I am super late. 4pm, super late for bill-paying tasks, but super early for a late-night movie. What to do...

Tempted to drop by 6Underground later.

Death Cab For Cutie and Postal Service - inspiring.

Camp Mossy, Bellini's and Marc Jacobs Part 2

I had to cut the first part of this post because I am way too tired and sleepy. The vintage Marc Jacobs dress costs Php 3000++, by the way. I regret not taking pictures while Dominique and I toured Cubao Expo, especially when we had our dinner at Bellini's. I was so enchanted by the place that I just concentrated on looking around and forgot to take pictures using my camera phone. We found interesting items on each and every store we went into. There's one store where they sell old photographs that dated way back from the 1920s. Some of the photos even had a dedication written at the back. Black and white photographs gives me chills sometimes, thinking how many hands and eyes have touched and looked at those phtographs. My friend and I went back to Pablo gallery after dinner. We only had the chance to see the paintings on the first floor because I had no idea that the exhibit extends to the second floor of the gallery. Free beer and barbecue were offered in the launch, plus Kuya Jason invited three bands to play that night. Dominique and I had to leave early because it's already 10 in the evening and we still have a long travel going back home. I am happy that my friend enjoyed out tour of Cubao. :D

First Christmas

A friend of mine just gave birth to beautiful baby girl. She had been dreaming of having a child of her own for three years now, and is now thankful that she'd been blessed. My friend named her baby Daphne. She's now excited because she'll spend her first Christmas with Daphne and her husband. I will give Daphne a set of crib bedding as a welcome gift on her baptismal next week. They asked me to be a god mother, and was thrilled when I accepted their invitation. 

Doggies

Chase (a.k.a. Tsako) and Tutets are getting used to running around the house. My brother said we've run out of pet supplies like dog food and shampoo. The two dogs are not really a fan of baths, but they've been rolling and jumping around the garden that they end up really grimy. My father learned some few useful tactics for the doggies to be still when taking a bath. :D

Camp Mossy, Bellini's and Marc Jacobs

Just got back from Kuya Jason's exhibit launch (Camp Mossy). I went there with Dominique, a friend of mine who had been here in the country for a while visiting from London. It was only the second time I visited Cubao Expo. The place was still as quaint as I remembered it the first time I went there for a segment shoot three years ago. But it seemed smaller, though. Maybe it's because the place is now packed with interesting stores. Every store has its own personality, even the owners. Dominique and I went inside one of the stores called The Reading Room. We checked out the vintage dresses on the store's rack. There's one particular dress that caught my attention. It's a long red patched dress with interesting pleats and details. I showed it to Dominique and wondered aloud how much the cost of the dress was. Rovilson Hernandez, the host of QTV's Ang Pinaka, was there at the store too. I asked the store owner if they're shooting for a segment for the show and said yes. She was really warm and friendly. She asked me if I was the one who's interested with the Marc Jacobs dress. Wow! I did not notice that I was holding a vintage Marc Jacobs dress. The store owner (silly me for forgetting to ask what her name was) then continued and shared that she has a strategy when selling her vintage clothes. She said that there are two kinds of vintage clothes buyers: the one that who plainly wants to own the dress and not wear them, and the one that buys the dress and plans to wear them. If the buyer is planning to do the latter, and the dress looks good on her, then the store owner gives a discount, and then raises the price if the buyer wants to do otherwise. Then she continued sharing other stories about how she got the clothes that she sells and how she plans on selling the dress that she is wearing as we speak. We wanted to stay longer, but we were really starving and we still need to find Pablo Gallery where Kuya Jason's exhibit launch will be held. We bid the store owner goodbye and said that we will definitely go back to her store.


I immediately recognized Kuya Jason from afar while Dominique and I was just approaching the Cubao X's street curve. I gave Kuya a hug and introduced my friend. The small gallery was inviting and was the perfect place for his paintings.  We went inside the gallery and checked out the paintings. There's one painting that resembled Rihanna and another that had "wongga ka" on its title. How very Jason :D We stayed there for a couple of minutes and approached Kuya and said that we will just go around the shops and be back later.

We had dinner at Bellini's, a cozy Itallian restaurant in a small corner of Cubao Expo. I was talking about the restaurant while on our way to Cubao and shared that I've been wanting to go back there since my last visit. I particulary shared about the story of the couple who owned the restaurant, but that would be worth another blog post, hehehe. I found out that Dominique also enjoy eating Italian cuisine. We were both excited and even joked that if the food is pricey, then we would transfer or we'll get in trouble not having enough money to pay for the meal. I was relieved that my friend find the prices reasonable. We ordered Pesto. We wanted to order pizza, but we do not have any idea which was the best one so we asked the waiter for a recommendation. He suggested we get the Quarter Pizza which was an 8-piece thin crust, four-flavored pizza.  The Pesto and the Quarter Pizza were amazing! My friend said that it tasted exactly as how the food tasted in Italy.

will continue tomorrow....

Plus Two For Edu

It was in the primetime news today -- Senator Mar Roxas proposed Senate Bill 2294 or the Omnibus Education Reform act that aims to add an additional year for Kindergarten and two years in the elementary curriculum. He strongly believes that graduates nowadays are not fully equipped to qualify for better opportunities because of weak educational background. Education is more accessible nowadays. Because of the fast-paced lifestyle, many adopt to different means of gaining knowledge. According to demographics, a big percentage of people graduating from high school are not fully equip to go to college. This indicates that they cannot even pursue higher degrees. Considered criteria are high, even in online colleges. Expect the same level of expectations from these online degree providers. One example is Capella University, an accredited*, fully online university and the leading online graduate school for working adults. The university offers graduate degree programs in business, information technology, education, human services, psychology, public health, and public safety, and bachelor’s degree programs in business, information technology, and public safety. Interested applicants can visit http://www.capella.edu or call 1-888-CAPELLA (227-3552). Adding two more years in elementary can be too much for the common Pinoy, but I strongly believe that it would do the future of this country some good.

Contact info for Capella University on this blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Tilapia/Toyo Combo

Dinner was so far the best this week: inihaw na tilapia with toyo/kalamansi combo. It was a bit different from the usual inihaw my father prepares because it has chopped tomatoes and onions inside, and it's wrapped in banana leaves. The combo was such a hit, I ate dinner with my bare hands. Sarap! I finished everything in 30 minutes, and had 3 glasses of water to rinse it all straight to my stomach, hehehe.

Traffic was not that bad on the way home despite the rain. I was worried earlier this evening that traffic will be a nightmare especially in Floodway. But surprisingly, the trip home did not take a lot of time like the usual rainy day trips I've had in the past weeks. I met my friend Ivy at the terminal. She had plans of resigning to her job the last time I saw her. I asked her about that and said that she's got a new job and was having second thoughts about her decision. She also asked me for suggestions on what's the best choice of musical-themed production for their Singles night next week. High School Musical, Moulin Rouge and Chicago were already chosen by the other groups participating in the event. I suggested Rent first, but thought of the time it would take for them to learn the songs. I said they should try Mama Mia! because ABBA's songs are popular and they can focus more on the choreography. Ivy thinks its a great idea. I volunteered my DVD and my soundtrack of the film for them to use. She said she'll meet me this weekend to get it. Don't forget to text me over the weekend, Ivy :)

Have Yourself Hosted

I've had this blog for two years. It has been a place where I share my thoughts and opinions about the things I like and dislike. This site had also been a place where I post my photos and the stories that comes with it. My blog has also helped me to get in touch and know what's new with my friends by subscribing to their respective blog feeds. Having a blog had recently been the in thing among my friends. I like the fact that we all enjoy reading updates and leaving comments to each and every site. You can find my friends and the links to their blogs on my sidebar. Check them out if ever you'll have time. I recently renewed my subscription for my web host to maintain my .com status. Having my own domain name has its good benefits over the past year. Having my nickname as my domain name is one of the coolest parts; my friends can easily recall my blog address. All they have to do is to type my nickname and add .com. I am not planning to shift to another web hosting site, but if you are planning to buy a domain name for your blog, click the link and check out a comprehensive list of web hosting sites at webhostinggeeks.com.

Connected At Home

Finally, an Internet connection at home!! Weee! :D The technicians from Globe installed the broadband router yesterday afternoon. This was my father's surprise I blogged about a couple of days back. He applied for Globe Broadband's 995 unlimited Internet plan. The connection speed is up to 100Mbps, depending on the signal the modem receives. Not bad.


I went to Up Dharma Down's A.Shop launch gig at The Podium last Friday. It was a 45-minute set. The program was scheduled to start at 7pm, so I decided to do my errands early that day and left at home around 5pm. The 7pm gig became 8pm because of the pre-program where the host of the show raffle off some prizes to the guests. I stayed at Cinnabon during the pre-program. Ean approached me and introduced me to her lovely wife Denise and let me carry her daughter, Nea. Nea is the cuutest. She's got Ean's eyes.

They played Playground first, and a couple of songs from both the first and the second album. My father had asked me a couple of times why I insist on watching the same band over and over again. His issue was they will always play the same songs, and why bother and make a lot of effort? He continued his argument and said that I have the band's album and have seen all the videos they've released. I know, these thoughts came out of nowhere since I've been talking about the A.Shop gig, but the thing about Up Dharma Down and their live gigs is that they play their songs differently on each and every gig. They always put a new twist, arrangement and lyrics every time. It's like hearing their songs for the first time even though you've been to their gigs a hundred times.

Going back to the A.Shop gig -- Mayee, Chigo and other listers were there too.



*second photo by Jason Raval

Tita's Aid

I recommended a couple of websites for my Tita the other day. She asked for links on where she can find the best diet pills. Her research about the topic have been keeping her busy for a couple of months now that I was sort of surprised when she sent me a text message early in the morning. I just hope she will find the websites useful for her research.

Official Apple Store Sa Pinas

I just had my lunch. Nilagang baboy ang ulam. I am on vacation leave today and will be back to work on Tuesday. But I will be spending my weekend working on the program and the editing script for the Christmas party AVP. Good thing, it's not raining today. I will be going to the bank in a while to pay the bills, and then The Podium later tonight for Up Dharma Down's gig.


I bet the gig would be wonderful. I heard they'll be playing a 45-minute set plus Groove Nation DJs will also spinning some tunes. The gig will be for the opening of A.Shop, the first official Apple Store in the Philippines. I am a fan of the iPod, MacBook and the iPhone. I think their gadgets are chic and cool, but waaaayy too expensive. LOL. I have my own, three-year-old iPod and it's still working perfectly. A new iPod video would be a treat, but not right now, hehe.

I better take a bath now and run to the bank before it closes. Bye for now.

Guinea Pig

The great thing about surprises coming from fathers is that it's predictable but you react the same way like when someone gives you the first edition of your favorite book signed by the author. This happened to me last night. Papa was so excited while on our way home. He first said that he has a surprise for me. My Papa is not really the type who would cook up something to surprise you on a daily basis. But when he does, the timing is always perfect. I already had an idea what the surprise was, but I was all smiles when he finally said it like he's won the lottery seeing my reaction. My father's THE BEST. I love you, Papa :D

My day was great. Had a few laughs with the people around me. I heard they're planning to make me some sort of guinea pig for the story they're writing. The story is a group effort. High hopes are set for it to reach the publishing level, which I bet would be in that level since these people are great writers and can vividly write everything that they envisioned. I am pretty excited to read it. I was listening to their brainstorming this afternoon, and they're excited about it too :D

I was eager about something today, but my eagerness was all flushed. Booohoo.

Somebody Loved

I love this song from The Weepies. I always hear a snippet of the song in ETC whenever they play the plug for the latest season of Married Away. I am a sucker for songs that falls into the category with the likes of Shawn Colvin and Aimee Mann. I am supposed to be sleeping right now, but I just had to get a copy of this song.

Rain turns the sand into mud
Wind turns the trees into bone
Stars turning high up above
You turn me into somebody loved

Nights when the heat had gone out
We danced together alone
Cold turned our breath into clouds
We never said what we were dreaming of
But you turned me into somebody loved

Someday when we're old and worn
Like two softened shoes
I will wonder on how I was born
The night I first ran away from you

Now my feet turn the corner back home
Sun turns the evening to rose
Stars turning high up above
You turn me into somebody loved

What To Do?

I am officially stuck here at the computer shop, huhu. It's raining so hard outside that I wouldn't dare to go out and risk the laptop from being soaked.

Downloaded Windows updates, check.

Updated the virus scanner, check.

Viewed and read all of friend's blogs, check.

Downloaded a copy of Twilight's official soundtrack, check.

So what to do? Nobody's online in YM. Wah.

Boohoo BRO

Smart BRO's down here in our area so I am now at a different computer shop that connects to DSL. La Plaza Cafe (which connects to Smart BRO) is the shop where I usually spend my weekend writing my blog tasks and system updates. Tita Au from the shop suggested that I transfer at the shop across the street with DSL connection for the meantime. So here I am. The shop is nosier (gaming people around clicking their mouse and shouting) and ventilation is a total zero. But I need to update our laptop because the virus software is out-of-date and the Windows system is currently popping errors here and there.

I checked my blog task Inbox and only have las vegas hotels to write about. I was able to finish most of my weekend writing tasks at home yesterday, but the internet connection was cut come 9pm. I called Globe and they informed me that there's a current glitch that they're fixing with their GPRS server since yesterday afternoon, hence the bad and finally cut-off connection.

Medyo nabitin ako sa teen flick movie marathon ko kahapon, so I made a list of the movies that I want to watch next weekend. This means a trip to MCS to hunt for these, hopefully not hard-to-find, titles:

• Ten Things I Hate About You (a.k.a. the modern version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew)
• Clueless
• She's All That
• Boys and Girls
  
• Now and Then
• Casper
• The Virgin Suicides
  

Local Online Shop

I created an account at a local online store. I am thinking of getting all the gifts that I'll be giving this Christmas from the store. Blog tasks just came in the mail a couple of minutes ago. First on the list is term life insurance. There are a couple of pending blog tasks on my other Inbox that I need to check out. I just hope the internet connection will be faster.

Bring It On

It's breezy outside, which made me decide to just stay here at home and deal with the crappy Internet connection, hehe. I got an e-mail-slash-invite from Terno last night about a shop opening this coming Friday at the Podium. Here's the poster.



I tried uploading the poster manually, but as mentioned, the internet connection cannot even launch blogger's image uploader. Anyways, so if you guys will be around Ortigas or Megamall this coming Friday, Podium is blocks away so drop by at the launch and enjoy Up Dharma Down's music.

I watched a couple of movies this morning, and one of them was sort of a trip down to memory lane. Watching Bring It On, the orig one with Kirsten Dunst, brought back high school memories. Well, I'm not exactly a cheerleader, but the movie is one of those that I enjoyed watching with my best friend. Both of us are fond of teen flicks back in the 90s where Freddie Prinze Jr. made us swoon and Alicia Silverstone was our fashion icon. Bring It On came out in the early '00, but we still consider it as one of those girl-bonding movies. LOL.

Change Frames

My brother was complaining about his headache for the past two weeks. He first relates having a headache with his lack of sleep. Having irregular late-night shifts might have triggered it so my mother suggested that he dedicates his weekends to make up for the lack of rest. And so he did, but unfortunately the pain in his forehead is still there. My father asked him if he had been taking long walks lately since he’s guessing the pain might be an aftermath of fatigue, but my brother said it was all work-home routine for him over the past days. Then I pointed out that maybe it’s time for him to change his eyeglasses. Maybe his eyes changed preferences and the one he’s wearing is not compatible to the ones his eyes needed. I recommended these affordable eyeglasses from ZenniOptical.com. The online store sells Stylish Prescription Glasses Online from $8. He’s very particular when it comes to the frames, so I added that he will find a huge selection of frames, with single vision lens, sunsensor (potochromic) lens, tinted sunglasses lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens. The Secret to the store’s Low Prices is that they only sell frames that they manufacture direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget. Since my brother is a known kuripot, I know he’ll find these glasses a steal.

Frigid Days

Bipolar's in the background. We're not really swamped with tasks today, so might as well have a warm up and share a few things. I feel feverish right now. Actually, I have been feverish since yesterday afternoon. I cannot stop sneezing and I had a headache, which subsided after Bioflu and my head in-between pillows. I cannot say I've had a good sleep last night, but was thankful that I was able to because of my condition. Have you ever had that lost feeling when you wake up in the morning and the last thing you remember doing is closing your eyes? The usual for me is having a series of dreams in between, but last night was again one of those where the last 8 or so hours was blank.

It's getting colder. I cannot stand the temperature tearing my skin during morning baths. But I always refuse my father's offer to pour some hot water into the three pails of water I normally use. I like the shock the cold water gives to every nerve my body has. Plus, it gets my mind really awake. Morning bath is heaven, I just hate spiders or lizards suddenly crawling out of nowhere sharing the splash with me. I get up later than the normal 4am lately because of the cold, Christmas-y weather. I would adjust and extend my alarm clock to 4:30 or 4:45 just to have more sleep and more time under the sheets.

Some people are starting to follow the trends of the weather too. Good thing I know more of them who are warm and good to be around with, and only few frigid ones. Sadly, those frigid ones are the ones I have known for a long time. Sunlight is all they need, and they'll be back. Hopefully.

Kites

Jumping up and down, my nephew couldn't get enough of kites flying here and there when we visited our lolo's farm. He asked if the kids used air tools to make the kites look still up above. I said its all in the strings and the materials used for the kite. My nephew pointed the highest one. It was red and has a sturdy frame that makes beautiful noise when the wind slaps its edges. We left the farm with my nephew's high hopes that he can fly a kite someday.