The ties that bind

String.

I saw a piece of string lying on the floor and for some reason, it just grabbed my attention. Aside from the nasty reminder that I really need to do some serious room cleaning, what did this piece of string tell me?

It reminded me of how all of us are bound to someone or something. That no matter how far we go, no matter how large the number of people we meet over time, there's always a piece of string that binds us to what we were or where we were before those major changes took place. It can be the place where we grew up, it can be family, it can be childhood friends, it can even be something as intangible as a memory.

Still, it's there. And whenever we're in trouble, or lonely, or just feeling lost and disconnected, all we need to do is grasp that piece of string and follow it. And it'll bring us back to that place in our minds where we feel safe. To those times when our worlds were more carefree. To when we were still whole.

Then again, that piece of string could just lead to more confusion, as this passage from a poem (whose author's name I forget) shows:

"Bind me or set me free
Or love me less or love me more
And play not with my liberty
Either take all, or all restore
Bind me, at least
Or set me free"

I have a weird knack for remembering random bits of poetry and whatnot. :-) Except for authors' names.

Mindless. Celebrity. Fun.

My mind is being more than its usual black hole self today. So I'm going to be vacuous (like some celebrities) and indulge in a few funny movie star-related online thingies.

And these are the results:

CelebMatch.com uses biorhythm patterns to calculate compatibility, and according to that site, I'm compatible with the following celebrities (none of whom particularly appeals to me):

And the next one comes courtesy of Jessica who writes La Bella Flor. Thanks, Jessica! I got a good laugh out of this one because they're way off the mark.



Celebrities and the Internet, God bless 'em. They do their best to entertain. :-) Have a good day, everyone.

Edit: I don't see the graphic anymore. I don't know if this is a Blogger.com issue or not. I'll remove it if it still doesn't work properly within the next few days.

Some other sunset

"This too shall pass" is a quotation that both inspires and depresses me. (Kind of like another one, which I heard years and years ago, about operating systems: "When God closes a door, He opens Windows." Hahaha!)

When you're wallowing neck-deep in [insert name of large animal of choice] manure, it's comforting to think that you won't be standing there forever. That the day will come when you'll climb out and that the problems you used to worry about will become but a distant memory, if at all.

Still...

Doesn't it work both ways then? Isn't it sad to think that any happiness a person feels now could be just as temporary? That "this too shall pass"? Ah, the comic tragedy of human existence. Sometimes I'd like to throw it all in and just become a [insert name of lovely animal of choice].

But then, trials and tribulations can be good things for some people too. They can bring out a person's inner beauty, their hidden strengths. Problems are sometimes likened to sunsets; maybe that's why many people think a sunset is so beautiful. I myself find sunsets to be enthralling (I used to wish that the planet of Antoine de Saint Exupéry's Little Prince was real, just because it had 44 sunsets). Sunsets can be sad in a way because they affirm the passing of the day, but they can also bring hope. It really depends on how each person looks at it, I guess. But whatever the sunset in your part of the world looks like, whether or not it's like this or this, I hope that it finds you well.

Now in this part of the world, it's lunch time. So I gotta go eat if I want to live to see another sunset.

Crustacea stupidosa

Crabs are fascinating creatures. And get rid of them funny thoughts in your head...you know I'm not talking about those crabs that make your sensitive places itch.

According to Wikipedia, crabs are decapod crustaceans, and that only those belonging to the taxa Brachyura are the true crabs. Instead of skin or scales, crabs have an exoskeleton, which I find to be totally cool. I'm still hoping for the day when animators/cartoonists come up with a sexy-looking crab-inspired superhero.

But crabs can behave strangely sometimes. You can see this for yourself. Go to your local market, buy a dozen live crabs or so, and place them in a bucket or tall basket. Inevitably, one of them will try to make a getaway by climbing up the container. It's like he's thinking, "I don't want to stay down here in this dark, crowded place, with all these other crabs. If I try a little harder, push myself just a little bit more, I can do this. I see the light up there! Just a few more inches and I'm FREE!"

But the crabs below him have other things in mind. Instead of being happy for their fellow crab, instead of trying to help him reach a better place, their crab mentality kicks in. "Look! He's trying to get away!" they whisper amongst themselves. "Who the fuck does he think he is to deserve any better? Is he more crab than any of us? Doesn't he have ten legs just like the rest of us? If we can't leave this hellhole, then by golly, nobody else should get to, either! Grab those legs of his! Pull him back doooown!"

God, I just hate it when animals act like humans.

Giving it your all

Watch this short TV commercial for a snack here in the Philippines (you don't need to speak Tagalog to understand this one)



Moral of the story: if you're going to do something good, don't do it in a half-assed way! :-D

Blogworld Saturday

First of all, a big warm WELCOME to all the people who are reading this blog for the first time. Whether you're on this page because of The Bestest Blog of All Time, A World of Bloggers, the Next Blog button, or whatever, thanks for stopping by. I do hope I get to read YOUR blogs someday...I just hope they don't talk about a certain purple dinosaur.

I've enjoyed many blog entries this past week, as usual. Here are some of them:

1. Prometheus, whose blog I just love, posted an amazing Honda ad. I had seen the commercial before, but watching it again on his site made me shake my head in wonder at the amazing creativity of people.

2. Jessica has an interesting entry about fashion. I'm not much of a fashion plate at all; I wear clothes that make me feel comfortable -- but I agree with her; dressing modestly doesn't automatically translate to dressing badly.

3. The status of Pluto (the celestial body, not Mickey's friend) has been discussed in many blogs this week. I got a great chuckle out of Yaxlich's and Gumby's posts on it. Justin also wrote a very informative article on the issue, and left a very interesting suggestion in Gumby's comments box on how to teach children the planets' names.

4. Doc is an American woman who lives with her family in France. In one post, she describes how she did "nothing" all day. Boy, just reading that entry exhausted me. :-) She is superwoman -- the witty version.

5. I enjoyed reading Julie's post about the exhilaration of feeling challenged. She really opens up in that entry, which I really admire. Julie's got a lot of things going for her -- professionally and personally. I wish her the best of luck. (NB: Julie's also the first person to be featured at Weight Loss Tips, a new site that my friend Vic and I have.)

6. Egypt is one of the countries that I want to visit someday. That's why I was pleased to discover Morgen's blog, where he describes highlights of his 2001 trip to that land. The pyramids, the Sphinx, the Valley of the Kings...they fascinate me.

7. Yours truly was one of the topics of Mike's post yesterday. He's really green with envy happy that I got the Bestest Blog thingy. and is probably climbing the walls because I got it before he did He's also planning to make a video blog or "vlog." Oh, in the name of all that's sexy, spare us! I can hardly wait!

8. Sidney is a Belgian photographer who lives here in the Philippines, and his pictures of carabaos (that's water buffalo to you, western readers) as living billboards made me laugh.

Happy weekend everyone!

...

I am speechless...almost.

THUNK! is the sound that my jaw made when it dropped to the floor after reading Bobby's e-mail. I never expected to be honored with Bestest Blog of the Day, what with all the great blogs listed at his site (The Bestest Blog of All Time). So please accept my heartfelt thanks, Bobby. It pleases me that you deem my weblog worthy of your award.

My main reasons for blogging are simple: to let off some steam and get things off my chest by writing about things that are on my mind at any given moment. As the patient visitors to this site have seen, these thoughts can range from the ridiculous to the depressing. I'm very fortunate to have come across many other bloggers who, like-minded or not, appreciate my posts enough to come back regularly -- to tolerate my mental diarrhea, as it were.

This very savory thought now leads me to my next expressions of gratitude, which go out to…(drum roll)

Justin Mahida!

Tainted Female!

Rhys Postlewaight!

(standing ovation) (rah rah rah!)

Justin himself is a recipient of the Bestest Blog of the Day award, and I give him major credit for introducing me to a host of fantastic blogs out there -- and for introducing them to moi.

I came across Tainted Female's blog (and other wonderful blogs as well) through Expat Interviews, a Web site that my dear friend Vic created. It was through Tainted's site that I got to know about other great UAE-based bloggers.

Rhys runs A World of Bloggers, where he kindly let me have the Philippines slot. My blog is hardly representative of what goes on in my country, but I do try to relate at least some aspect of Filipino life in some of my posts to what went on/is going on in some other part(s) of the world. After all, the world has indeed become smaller, yet even more larger-than-life somewhat, because of the Web.

These four people (including Bobby) can be likened to cyber pimps, come to think of it. :-D And I do mean that as a compliment, since they've played major roles in enriching my blogging experience by leading me to all sorts of wonderful weblogs.

Also, I'm a blog stalker, for those of you who don't know. I skulk around other people's blogs a lot. So please don't be alarmed if I appear repeatedly in your stats monitors. It just means that I really like your blog and that I'm anticipating each new entry. :-)

Maraming, maraming salamat po (many, many thanks) to my newfound blogosphere buddies. My undying gratitude to my offline friends (especially LAR). Much love to my wonderful Genius for my Maggot Brain. Now I have one hell of an excuse to imbibe tonight, lol. Cheers, everyone!

A different kind of protest

There's another thing that I remember about my college days, so bear with me.

Each time the month of December rolls around, an air of excitement permeates the air at the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines, our state university (Henry has some nice pics of the campus over at his blog, The Expat. The halls are decked, not with boughs of holly, but with students and the media. Nobody, but nobody, cuts classes. And it isn't just UP students who are there either; people from other schools make a special trip to be there on that day. Everywhere you look, your eyes behold a sea of anticipative humanity. They've come to experience one of the ways public protests are done in UP. But it ain't your typical rally or demonstration, oh no sirree.

It's the annual Oblation Run.

The Oblation is UP's most recognized symbol, and the annual Oblation Run is one of the university's most famous traditions.

To protest against certain political or social issues, some members of one of the university's most well-known fraternities, the Alpha Phi Omega (APO), streak buck naked throughout the campus. Everything (except for the running men's faces) is hanging out for all the world to see. This tradition will never die out because in UP, people are always finding something to complain about.


The atmosphere is festive. People jockey for the best positions; everyone is craning their necks; the cheers and shouts of support are deafening. It happens every year, and the Run's popularity shows no signs of abating.


I wasn't there, but I heard about the added twist to last year's Oblation Run: two women, wearing nothing but masks and flip-flops and holding their protest posters, posed for the media by the Oblation. These women's appearance wasn't sanctioned by APO, and I don't think they were affiliated with the fraternity. They didn't do the Run, but they caused quite a stir nevertheless. Go girls! LOL! I wonder what this year's Run will have in store for us.

Filipinos. We're crazy, and I ♥ us. :-D


*Photos courtesy of Peyups - "where bright minds meet."

Youth is wasted on the young...

...or so they say (who is they, anyway? How come they seem to know everything -- even without the benefit of hindsight?)

Justin's post sometime ago about beerpong reminded me of something some folks and I used to do when we were in college -- Depth Charge! Basically, you just drop a full shot glass of tequila in a stein of beer -- and drink bottoms up as fast as you can! The folks who introduced me to this drinking game were going to another university, and since I was the only one from my own university at that time and place who could "compete" (because the GF of the host had chicken pox, and I being a girl at that) I had a lot of support -- even from members of the other university. "Go, U.P.!" were the cheers I heard from the others. Shit, isn't that pathetic, when the only thing for which you could represent your school is an informal drinking contest? :-D

Here are some pictures of me and my best college buds. We didn't do Depth Charge during the evening the pictures were taken, though. Two of these people were the ones who taught me how to smoke; the funny thing is that both of them have quit smoking a long time ago -- and here I am still puffing away like a chimney.

These pics bring a smile to my face...perfect examples of carefree youth -- when even just dancing in the rain could bring so much fun. Keep in mind that these photos were taken half my lifetime ago: in the late 1980s. So pardon the quality.

My friends are dancing in the rain

The guy swigging the vodka is a teacher. No wonder we never learned anything from him! LOL

I DON'T do karaoke. But when others look just as stupid, I can belt along with the best (or worst) of them. Besides, a combination of Stoli and San Miguel frees me from accountability for my actions. :-) The girl towering above some of 'em (2nd from left is me, btw). Drunken jerks, all of us.

In Baguio a year or so before the Big Earthquake. I've never been back since then. I've been told that the view behind us in this pic (that's me, 2nd from right) isn't of a mountain anymore, but of houses. Baguio is in the mountains, so it's cooler than it is in Manila. You can see that I'm not too cold-weather-proof. LOL


Yeah, that's me in my dorm room. I think I was wishing I didn't have to read the stack of books on my table...that I could go drinking and dancing in the rain instead.

Ye gods, how the ghosts of yesteryears can haunt us...especially the ghosts of weird haircuts.

Not Your Usual Boy Band

I am so pathetically behind the times when it comes to most new singers in today's music scene. That's probably why I never heard any of the songs of the quartet Il Divo before today (and they've been around for two years already!).

Boy bands have been around for a long time. And while their songs may be popular and are generally chart-toppers, it's not the type of music I enjoy listening to. But I think Il Divo is a boy band I can like, even if it was created by Simon Cowell (infamous judge at American Idol, a show that I loathe).


My friend LAR (she's a good person) let me hear a copy of their album Ancora, and I really liked it. They're kind of like the Three Tenors, only younger (and plus one, of course). They're also cute, but not really my type.

My taste in music encompasses a very wide range, and the music of this tenor quartet fits neatly into that niche in my musical preference for Italian and Spanish love songs (case in point: Josh Groban's Si Volvieras a Mi and Per Te). I don't care much for some of the "crossover" songs on the album, but Si Tu Me Amas tugs at my heartstrings. It's a sad, sad love song; it's just beautiful. And Senza Catene, their version of the Righteous Brothers' Unchained Melody, makes me want to take up pottery-making.

I remember the movie A Fish Called Wanda, where Jamie Lee Curtis' character is reduced to a mass of quivering, horny female flesh whenever Kevin Kline's character would speak a foreign language. I can identify with Jamie Lee somewhat in this sense. What is it about European accents that's so damn sexy?

Saint Tom's Mental Diner

First off, if this guy really did do what they say he did, then his huevos should be sliced clean off and stuffed down his throat. I'm willing to lend the authorities my machete for that purpose. He admits to having had a hand in JonBenet's ("accidental," he says) death, but people are saying that his confession seems to have inconsistencies with what really happened. One of the things that disturbs me about this thing is that the guy was a primary school teacher in Thailand before he was arrested there, for crying out loud! It's like getting a wolf to watch over the lambs. Child abuse is one of the worst evils in this world, in my opinion.

I think it was Thomas Aquinas who said something like when you get to the heart of evil, you'll find nothing there. Or that evil can indicate the lack of good, BUT that not every absence of good is necessarily evil. For example, having a good singing voice is good. I, however, can't sing to save my life. That doesn't make me evil, does it? Good old Saint Tom. His philosophies mess up my head sometimes, and I'm not even Catholic!

But there's one saying attributed to him that I like: "It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes." In other words, take some time out to relax and have fun, baby!

So I'm stealing borrowing an art idea from Mike...just for fun.

By the way, I never realized that some of the world's greatest artists drew dirty pictures.

WOMEN & THEIR PUSSIES

COCKS IN ART

And for me, a thought-provoking one by Vermeer:


I also wanted to include van Gogh's Starry Night and Monet's Water Lilies: Green Harmony, but I couldn't come up with anything dirty to associate them with.

Blogworld Saturday

I have been having Internet access problems the past few days (either my connection was choppy or it went kaput altogether). Me going through Web addiction withdrawal symptoms is NOT a pretty sight. So I had to zip through the blogs in my Fave Weblogs list and feed list in case I lost my connection again, instead of going through my usual practice of leisurely(?) reading and re-reading each new entry and comment. By the way, I'm usually a fast reader (for which I'm eminently grateful...otherwise I wouldn't be able to read all these great blogs regularly and still find time to work).

Some of the things I learned this week from a number of the blogs that I visit regularly:

1. Yaxlich is in danger of suffering an evacuation problem of catastrophic proportions. Looking at his Clenchometer (an invention that's potentially as useful as the Richter scale) makes me nervous for him. I hope Pant Aid has raised enough funds for you, Yaxlich.

2. Prometheus is beloved by Darth Vader. And that his Medusa looks like an 80's-era cartoon character. Does she speak Latin too?

3. Tainted is standing up for the rights of non-spellers in her usual, feisty way. And that some doctors in Dubai give their patients some strange medicine.

4. Justin speaks French. He had fun on a recent visit to Prague (in spite of the fact that he had to maim his Prada wallet just to board the plane). He has just made his 100th blog post. Yay!

5. Humvees remind Gumby of bananas somewhat. Or more specifically, the act of eating a banana. He's also taking a weekend trip to Kentucky with a friend.

6. Sony is also traveling. He and his friends are on a road trip to Texas. His description of the sights they've been seeing along the way makes me want to sing "Country roooaaad...take me hooooome..."

7. Doc is having salivary gland problems from thinking about how she'll be pigging out when she goes home for a visit. Also, her B&B in France is off to a good start.

8. Rhys is learning a hell of a damn lot about blogging -- more than I could ever learn. I also found out that he flies airplanes in his offline life.

9. Last life in my universe is having a skin problem that might have been caused by eating durians. Also, that she's a shaved, self-taught artist.

10. Mike has an aunt who's pretty well-respected in the art world. Maybe someday his videos will command the same prices that his aunt's work is being sold for.

11. Sir Dirty Joke is a man who loves sex and women. How can anyone who goes to his site miss that fact? Alert: he has an adult-oriented site.

12. Lest it be said that I take but do not give, here's a little factoid about me. I can be an unreasonably jealous bitch sometimes, especially when it comes to the people who matter to me. It can be over things like a friend talking to somebody else, not me (pathetic, I know). It can also be over something very trivial (when we were kids, I used to get jealous when my younger brother got more Christmas presents than I did). Other than this, I'm pretty harmless...I think.

Have a good weekend, everyone. :-)

Balls & eggs

Balls. Kids enjoy them, but adults like to have fun with them, too! Oh, yes. Many big people, both men and women, love to play with balls, no?

The use of the word balls as a figure of speech is interesting. If a man doesn't have the guts to do something, we say he doesn't have the balls for it. Interestingly, the term is being applied to women as well. What I find a bit puzzling is the use of the word balls to denote strength, derring-do, bravery, guts -- when we all know that they're probably the frailest part of the male anatomy. I mean, give a man's family jewels a hard, swift kick and watch him fall like a tree. Doesn't matter how how big his biceps or rock-hard his abs are. A well-placed karate chop will be more than enough to make him crumple and crumble.

In my language (Tagalog) one of the most effective ways to insult or ridicule a man is to tell him "Wala kang bayag" ("You don't have testicles," if we're translating literally). In Spanish, the term cojones is used (which is a vulgar term, they say). I don't know how balls is used as a figure of speech in other languages. In Argentina, however, where Spanish is also spoken, they call it huevos, which means "eggs" (I got this bit of trivia from somewhere in Robert's blog, Line of Sight).

Eggs have been called the perfect food. Think of all the possibilities: huevos rancheros, huevos fritos, even huevos verdes con jamón! :-D I'm starting to get hungry now. Personally, I like 'em either hard or soft-boiled. They're delicious; nice to nibble on sometimes. And they're an excellent source of protein, too. Perfecto? Oh, sí indeed.

Negatives, the Genius, and The Secret

Film negatives. While they won't be going the way of the vinyl record or Betamax anytime soon, it's a fact that many of us have done away with them due to the ubiquity of the digital camera. We can take pictures anywhere now through cameraphones, for crying out loud!

Anyways, remember how ghastly/ghostly images look in film negatives before they're processed to reveal their colors in all their Kodak glory? We know that they're images of real places, things, or people. Yet somehow, they look unreal...eerie even. I used to look at life like that -- in the negative. I was a closet pessimist; I wasn't surprised if bad luck befell me because I was expecting it. If something good happened to me, I'd blame it on luck. To me, the world was a shitty, negative place that had only a few pockets of color.

Until I found out about The Secret. It was introduced to me by the Genius several months ago. If memory serves me right, that fateful conversation went something like this:

G: Lizz...
Me: Yep?
G: Do you know The Secret? (Dumbass that I am, I failed to notice that he was speaking in Capital Letters.)
Me: Nope. What's the secret?
G: I'm a genius!
Me: I know that already. So what else is new? STFU and hand me a beer.

Hahaha! I'm kidding. The Genius would never say anything like that (btw, he's a smartass who's a tad shy, and for all his ingenuity,he would prefer to remain anonymous). But he did lead me to The Secret, and for that (among many other things), he has my undying gratitude.

If you believe in the power of positive thinking, if you believe that the mind can affect and effect changes within and without, then you already have an idea of what The Secret is. In my pre-Secret life, I actually looked forward to wallowing in self-misery. Is it any wonder then that the bad things I expected to happen did happen? The Secret reveals to us that the way we think changes the way we live; that how we think can actually be a major part in making our dreams come true. If this sounds like an out-of-this-world concept to you, you'd be right in a way. Because it involves the universe. It's related to the concept of synchronicity, but not serendipity. If your dream falls into the realm of health, relationships, wealth -- it doesn't matter. No job is too big or too small for the Universe to answer. Oooohhh, it's hard for me to explain it. Richard does such a better job at this.

Let me give just a couple of personal examples.

Like I mentioned before, I used to be super negative about myself and the world in general. I felt that I was never good enough for anyone -- even myself. I sucked at everything, or so I thought (and stop smirking, DJ Sir! I mean another thing entirely). Post-Secret, I've become not only more accepting of myself, but more appreciative. Does that mean I'm always in the pink of everything? Of course not! I still suffer from that voice of insecurity inside my head. The difference is, now I'm able to stand up to that terribly beautiful Medusa/Galadriel. She used to be able to reduce me to a pathetic, whimpering mass of sniveling fecal matter; now when she assails me with claws unsheathed, I can stand up to her, do battle, and say "I'm not as bad as you make me out to be." And I can say that with conviction. I can even laugh at her sometimes now.

Come to think of it, I guess I've been practicing some aspects of The Secret on a subconscious level. I used to work as an abstractor (look it up; it's NOT related to art) and I did that sort of thing for the same company (and its reincarnation) for about ten years. I liked the job and the working hours; but during the latter part of my final year there, I found myself becoming increasingly dissatisfied with it. Let's just say that it was becoming increasingly evident that it was a dead-end job -- plus the fact that the brown-nosers and the big-fish-in-a-little-pond syndrome were making me dread going to work. I started having thoughts that went something like "Fuck this, I can do better for myself given the chance." I can do better than this. These thoughts were constantly running through my mind at that time.

I had been doing freelance work for several individuals at the time, and before I realized what was happening, I began getting assignments left and right. So I happily bid adieu to the pathetic ego-trippers and the brown-nosers at my workplace and immersed myself in freelance work. It was through freelancing that I came across the Genius (or, as he likes to remind me now and then, he was the one who found me).

Be open to receiving what your heart desires. That doesn't mean wishing for something and then doing nothing but sit on your ass all day, just waiting for the universe to deliver it to you. You have to know how to receive...and that's kind of a difficult process, in my opinion.

But I'm getting there. :-)

Memes on my mind

FINALLY!!! Mike's long-anticipated meme has come out. Fair warning, though: it's unlike the usual meme that circulates online. It isn't even a Q&A meme; it's a video meme, one that had me laughing out loud! (And if you've read his blog, you'll know that there's some sort of rhyme and reason behind the meme's title.) I realize that his type of humor isn't conventional (for want of a better word) but I found it funny! Dave! Will you open up the goddamn door?! Tragic and funny at the same time.

Second meme on the agenda...MD, in a recent post, has tagged me! First time I've been tagged since starting this blog. :-) Here are my answers (take them with a grain of salt, as I'm giving them under the influence of someone I haven't seen in a long time -- a golden friend who goes by the name of Jose Cuervo. Haha)

1) If you could have dinner with any three people (except Mohammed, Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi) then who would they be? (don't say Mother Teresa either)

Hmmm...I'm thinking of three people who are out of my circle of immediate acquaintances/relatives/friends. So I'd pick these:

A. Virginia Woolf (because she heard voices in her head too)
B. William Shakespeare (to find out whether he did write everything ascribed to him)
C. Christopher Marlowe (to find out whether he did write everything ascribed to Shakespeare)

1a) What would you eat?

Probably inihaw na pusit (grilled squid) or almost anything inihaw (grilled). I really don't think I'd be able to eat anything, though. Give me a few bottles of red wine, tequila, or beer...I'll be fine with any of those.

1b) What restaurant would it be?

Ohhh, not at a restaurant please? Preferably at home (or their homes) where I could sit back, put my feet up, and relax. Oh, okay; I'll answer the question. If it were absolutely necessary, I'd like to go to some restaurant that's off the beaten path, where there'd be no other guests except us.

2) If you could force everyone in the world to read one book (except for the Quran or the Bible) what would it be?

I'm waffling between two books and two fairy tales. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach. Fairy tales: Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid (NOT the animated shit that Disney turned into a blockbuster! -- that movie doesn't tell the story I fell in love with at all) and The Happy Prince, by Oscar Wilde.

3) Is there a TV show you'd cancel dinner with your best friend for, if you knew that a new episode was going to be aired once only? What is it?

None. I like some TV shows very much, but not to the point that I'd cancel dinner with my best friend.

4) If someone told you that you could only have one hobby/favorite pasttime for the rest of your life, what would you pick?

Writing. And a certain bedroom sport (that can be performed in places other than the bedroom too!). 'Nuff said.

5) Which song is on the soundtrack of your life?

Hard question, this one. I don't have the soundtrack of my life yet, and I can't pinpoint to only one tune that would encapsulate my whole life; so I'll just name one song that sums up my mood/mind best at this point in my life: "Yakapin Mo Ako," by Joey Albert. Sorry, non-Tagalog readers; it's an old (kinda) Filipino song.

6) How old were you when you had your first crush? Who was it?

This is easy. Third grade. His initials are R.E. Good lord, I haven't thought about this guy in many, many years. LOL! I hope he's doing well, though. He was always nice to me when we were kids.

7) If you could read the thoughts of any one person, who would it be?

Vic

8) If you could block your thoughts from only one person, who would it be?

No one, really. I don't need to block my thoughts from anyone who doesn't matter to me; I can mask my mind from them. Besides, anyone would have a hell of a hard time trying to make sense of the black hole that passes for my mind. :-)

9) If you could choose between life on earth forever or going to heaven, which would you choose?

To go to heaven. This question kind of reminds me of that 1990's TV series, "Highlander." Poor Duncan McLeod got to live on and on, looking and feeling hot and eternally young, while the people he loved grew old or died before his eyes. Now that's one version of hell. What would eternal life on earth matter if I don't get to spend it with the people I love?

10) When you die, what will your contribution to the world be?

My contribution to the world? Depends on what this question means by "world." To the majority of the known world, I don't exist. To a handful, I'm something. To even fewer than those, I'm a necessary part of their existence. My contribution to the few individuals in whose worlds I mean something (or everything) is...my love, and the hope that I was able to make their lives better or more meaningful even for just a moment, just by me being myself.

Now it's my turn to tag. Anyone can do this little quiz, but I hope that Prometheus, Gumby, Life in a Limbo, Penny, Justin, Robert, Mike, Yaxlich, Doc, Freedom Glutton, and Tainted can find the time (and inclination) to play this little game. :-)

Taking a breather: Quiz time!

Which screwed up celebrity do you most resemble?

You most resemble Marlon Brando You are very smart, and very talented, although you don’t really enjoy social company. You prefer to live alone, go to movies alone, cry alone in the corner... Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

LOL! As long as I don't become Brando's look-alike in my later years...

Who should paint your portrait?

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch should paint your portrait. You are a very emotional person. You are always up for a good talk with one of your friends. You don't like to keep things bottled up. Often, you are friendly and outgoing, but that can change very easily to being introverted and cold. Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Hmmm...right, right, wrong, wrong, right (I think).

Okay, play time's over. Back to work!

Food for thought

I know this probably looks gross to many other people out there, and not the least bit appetizing. But I could actually feel my salivary glands going into overdrive when I was doing this early yesterday: stuffing several large-ish squid with diced onions and tomatoes.

The next step thing to do was to get a good, hot charcoal/coconut husk fire going. Once the coals were glowing brightly red-orange underneath a layer of thin ash, it was time to put the squid on the grill.




The aroma of squid being cooked on a barbecue grill is really something else. To me, it's reminiscent of summer... of trips to the beaches, pools, and other places -- where it seems as if every family and their neighbor and their neighbor's dog is grilling something: squid, pork, beef, chicken, fish, eggplant, among others. And what's great is that these barbecued dishes are shared among everyone; each person gets a bit of this and a slice of that and a slab of this, until everyone is as full to bursting as the one next to him or her. What fun memories some aromas can evoke!

To someone who is not accustomed to eating Filipino or other Asian cuisine, the idea of grilled squid might seem repugnant (it kind of looks like a giant insect being cooked, somebody said a long time ago; and it's true from her perspective, I suppose). But then again, I think every nation has unique dishes that people from other countries will find repulsive. I myself do not find some of my own country's specialties to my liking at all, like dinuguan (pork blood stew) and balut (boiled duckling egg...eeww, eeww, eewww), both of which are consumed in mass quantities here in the Philippines. It's a matter of personal taste, I guess. These two dishes just push my squeamishness button big time.

Some people might find that haggis in Scotland, roasted guinea pig in Peru, frogs' legs in France, and raw fish in Japan -- and countless others all over the world -- are just a tad too exotic for their taste (I, however, love sushi) and have a limit when it comes to pushing the culinary adventure envelope. That's fine; like I said earlier, it's a matter of personal preference. Nobody should have to eat anything he or she doesn't want to. If odd food like goat stew, fried bugs, or pickled herring causes you to experience the gastronomic equivalent of an orgasm, it's nobody else's business but your own. :-)

I can still taste my grilled squid, though.

Blogroll Saturday

I'm sharing some things I've found that I have in common with some of the new blogs I've discovered the past week. Thank you all for making cyberspace so much more interesting.

1. I've been lurking around xkcd for a couple of weeks now. It is a "webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language." This person's comics give me great laughs. The things I have in common with this blog? Romance and language. I have a pretty good ear for languages (when I'm not too lazy to learn) and I'm too damn romantic for my own good. Sarcasm I can do, but not really that often. Math? Hell no. I'm missing the math gene.

2. The young lady in Singapore who writes A Life in a Limbo is pretty cool. I can relate to many of the thoughts she puts out in cyberspace for others to read - but she's more articulate when it comes to doing that sort of thing. I like reading her posts.

3. Sony, whose blog Thwarting Complacency is one that I visit often, is a thoughtful, poetic writer. Something that I hope to be, but apparently, alas, am far from being. I just wish he'd update his blog more often, though. :-)

4. Rhys, who runs A World of Reeholio, enjoys reading other people's blogs, as I do. He graciously allowed me to take the Philippines slot in his A World of Bloggers site; sometimes I do talk about issues connected to my country in some of my blog entries. Thank you, Rhys!

5. Mike -- who writes in My Webbed Feat -- seems to be a great and cool geek, and I look like a geek. But we both started off cute enough. He has a sense of humor that I enjoy, and I love the video clips he has on his site (especially "All My Post Are Belong to Them" -- go figure, lol).

6. Andrew's site, To Love, Honor and Dismay, is another blog that I visit a lot. What do I have in common with him? I, too, enjoy learning about other people's interpersonal relations -- but that doesn't necessarily mean I want to live them, lol. Andrew gives well-informed yet humorous answers to relationship dilemmas that are presented to him.

7. Richard and I have The Secret in common. It's great that Richard has dedicated his blog Ask, Answer, Receive to the theme that The Secret espouses. I learned about The Secret a couple of months ago from the Genius, a great friend of mine whom I love dearly. If you've never heard of or seen The Secret, go visit their Web site. I will talk about The Secret in a future post; it's something that's so immensely special and precious -- it's hard to put into words just how much it has affected my way of thinking and my life. So to my Genius, thank you, sweet, from the bottom of my heart. I owe you one (well, a lot actually. But we're not keeping count, are we?)

There are many other blogs on my feed list. I've mentioned some of them before, the others I'll mention in future posts. You people make me neglect the work I'm supposed to be doing. :-D

P.S. A special THANK YOU to Justin, who thought of me in a recent post at More Cowbell. Happy travels!

And to a certain blonde, green-eyed young woman who lives in a sandy, cosmopolitan area of the world, who calls herself tainted (I disagree, for the record)...I'm happy you're back. I've missed your posts.

Friday silliness

My name is freakin' sweeeeettt!!!











Heh, then again...maybe not.

Have a great weekend everyone!

ISI:Blogspot Update...c/o Andrew

Andrew, the relationship guru extraordinaire who answers questions and dispenses advice to all who care to ask him over at his blog To Love, Honor and Dismay, has posted his response to my blog entry of a few days ago. It made me laugh!

Thanks, Andrew! I hope you learned some other useful stuff from CSI -such as if blunt force trauma can cause men to forget things like birthdays and anniversaries, or if extreme frustration can cause an artery to rupture. :-)

Elbow room

What a nightmarish image.

I like a bit of elbow room...actually, a LOT of elbow room. Generally speaking, I don't like crowded places - although I can brave the hordes from time to time if I really want to go to a certain place or see an event that I know will have lots of other people there.

I'd rather eat broken glass, however, than jump into a pool like the one in the picture. For one thing, I'm sure to injure somebody if I do something really stupid like jump into that can of sardines. Second, why do the swimmers have floaters? The pool is too jampacked for anybody to have enough space to actually drown in! Also, that pool must have been one heck of a big, warm spot...if you know what I mean. Shudder, shudder, and shudder again. Hand me some broken glass, please.

My preference for solitude and space is one of the reasons I've never really enjoyed going to popular beaches. The most popular ones here are beautiful, I'll give them that. But they're not my thing, really. Good thing there are so many other beaches here that remain relatively "undiscovered."

My own personal, physical space. I hold it sacred and inviolate. Any person who enters it unbidden runs the risk of experiencing indescribable pain and trauma (or a head butt at the very least).

Unless it's someone I love and trust, of course.

Using talent to touch others

This video clip of a woman making "sand art" filled me with wonder. The accompanying music is sublime, too! Seeing the beauty that another person creates with his or her talent is always amazing, I think.

Sometimes we may find ourselves reluctant to show what we do best -- for fear of being ridiculed or looked down upon by others. But in the greater scheme of things, so what? If there's something that you really love doing, something you are really good at -- then does it really matter that there's a possibility other people won't like it? Not all people will find another person's artwork a sight for sore eyes, or another person's songs music to their ears, but we really can't please everybody all at the same time anyway. So why not just please ourselves first and find satisfaction in what we do best? (Providing that no harm is done to others, of course.)

Besides, if you love whatever it is you do best, in all likelihood there will be people out there who will recognize your talent and skill, and appreciate it. I think that if what a person does can make another person smile, if his or her special talent can create a good memory for others, if their craft affects fellow humans in a positive way -- touches them inside, even just for a moment...then that makes everything all the more worthwhile.

A person's talent doesn't have to be a big moneymaker (but wouldn't it be sweet if it did?) or an award-winner. Just imagine. We can touch other people's lives, whether we're great at flower-arranging, cooking, developing computer programs, or drawing pictures with sand.

Kickass funny horoscopes

I'm a Pisces.
These horoscopes are so mean, they're funny. My tummy still hurts from laughing like a fiend.

Alter ego

"Your work really sucks. People won't want to read what you write. People like you are a dime a dozen."

Maybe. But I'm writing what I want to write about at the moment. There will always be worse and better writers than me. If they like what I do, many thanks. If they don't, they can always hire someone else. Or they can click on that X thingy at the top right corner of their browsers.

"You're really fat and ugly. And you're old. You should be ashamed to even step out of the house."

I know I have a snowball's chance in hell of ever making Playmate of the Month. Not that I ever wanted to. I know I could stand to lose a few extra inches here and there, but generally speaking, I'm fine with the way I look now. Thank you veddy fucking bloody much.

"They don't really appreciate you, you know. They're just using you because you're too fucking chickenshit to say no."

Maybe. But whatever it is I give to someone I love, I give from the heart.

"You're nobody."

Correct. To the majority of the world's billions, I don't exist. But to a handful of people, I AM somebody -- and I love them perhaps even more than they love me. So up yours.

The quotes in italics are from someone inside my head, someone who won't leave me alone. She isn't some Medusa with an ugly visage that's horrifying to behold. On the contrary, when I visualize her, I see someone with a terrifying beauty, someone who has the power to overcome me.

Her name is insecurity, and I've known her all my life.

I've managed to keep her at bay, keep her from totally subsuming my entire psyche. But I think she will always be there, somehow. That she will never, EVER leave me alone.

If I disappear once in a while, it's because I'm taking time off to deal with her (mental mud wrestling, if you like) -- to do battle with this seductive demon who knows me all too damn well. And who has no compunctions about (gleefully) saying: "I told you so" whenever I screw up.

My cat is in your garden

I haven't been watching TV lately, but last night I did some catching up (if you can call enjoying a trifecta of CSI re-runs catching up). They were all good, but the CSI:New York episode I saw was particularly interesting.

It went something like this. There was a woman working as a hostess in an upscale restaurant. She'd get the calling cards that male guests would leave in the restaurant's card bowl. Then she'd call them up anonymously and start the conversation with the line "My cat is in your garden." Many of the guys were intrigued by her approach and several of them ended up having phone sex with her. She never told them who she was or where she got their numbers; she'd call them a number of times over a span of weeks until they became obsessed with those calls. She agrees to meet one of them for some nookie -- and is found dead shortly after.

Some of this sounds strange to me. I do understand that a guy who has anonymous phone sex over a period of time might want to take it a step further, to meet his phone lover personally and have honest to goodness, real sex with her. But what if when he meets her for the first time he sees that she's actually butt-ugly, or that she has halitosis, or that she bears a strong resemblance to a purple female dinosaur? Would the fantasy that he's built up in his head about her over the weeks be strong enough to override her faults -- would he still go ahead and screw her?

The idea that men can get turned on by anonymous conversations (even if it's sex talk) with women about whom they know nothing seems strange to me too. If I answer the phone and some male stranger feeds me a line like "My cat is in your garden," I'd hang up pronto. Men are from Mars, women are from Venus indeed.



I think I'll go ask Andrew what he thinks about this aspect of the difference between men and women. He's kinda like the Gil Grissom of interpersonal relations. I will update this post once I get his expert opinion.

They came and they conquered

I've seen a number of foreign acts in my day, especially when I was younger. Many Western musicians have stopped by to perform live in this little country of ours, and many are still including the Philippines in their world tours. Let's see. I've watched concerts done by performers like Alanis Morissette, Earth Wind & Fire, Swing Out Sister, Michael Jackson, Fra Lippo Lippi, Vanilla Ice, a boy band from Puerto Rico that used to count Ricky Martin among its members (I still can't believe I actually spent money on tickets to watch the last two, though), and some others I don't remember right now. I also wanted to watch Sting's and Linkin Park's concerts -- but didn't, for reasons that presently escape me.

Probably the foreign act that I enjoyed the most here was the concert given by Duran Duran years and years ago. I loved their songs, and I remember having a huge crush on John Taylor back in those days. So I'm pleased as punch to see that the band is once again making music -- with all the original members together again.

They're a lot older now, and you can see in the video clip that John's hairline has receded quite a bit. Heh, doesn't matter.

I can't put my finger on what it is exactly, but there's just something about certain bass players (bassists?) that I find soooo fucking sexy. ;-)

Blogworld Saturday

I heard someone say something like this: "Optimist drowns in half-full bathtub." For some reason, that sent me into gales of laughter.

Okay, no more non sequiturs -- at least for now.

Every Friday Saturday I'll mention something new I've learned about the bloggers I come across in this Web thingy. This time I'll dwell not on the places where they live, not their places of work -- but on certain things I've discovered about them (or those which they choose to reveal in their blogs. Or maybe things that I've inferred -- rightly or wrongly -- about them).

This week, I learned that:

1. Yaxlich suffers from a medical condition called Betty Swollocks (an unusual malady caused by the recent freaky heat wave in Western Europe). And that this person is "in lust" with Britney Spears (Lisa Simpson I can understand...but Britney?!?);

2. Justin hates wine connoisseurs. That he goofs off in the university lab when he should be doing Something Else -- something related to why he's there in the first place;

3. Gumby's penis name is Squirmin' Herman the One-Eyed German. That he really, REALLY loves Pokey's chocolate gelato;

4. The Happy Housewife is having a frigging good time when it comes to keeping house and all matters domestic;(Edit: A GRAPHIC ADULT-ORIENTED BLOG)

5. Robert is a veritable wiz when it comes to accounting in Argentina. That hail enthralls him;

6. Tainted is never too sick to write about the issues that move her. That, by her own admission, she can't spell;

7. Freedom Glutton is not afraid to reveal her deepest -- and shallowest! -- thoughts to the people who read her blog;

8. Corky will brave any kind of weather to indulge his addiction to RC'ing -- and that we are all never too old to find time to play;

9. Zoe is addicted to the TV program "24." That the Twat finds weird-looking animals funny (maybe he likes Barney too?);

10. There are dear friends who have blogs but don't want me talking about them. And that there are some other wonderful individuals who don't have blogs (but I'm still finding out new things about them in unexpected ways every now and then...lovely!)

Of unorthodox women in politics

Politics, no matter what country you're in, can be a godawful circus at times. Women in politics are a minority -- but they do dominate the news once in a while, and not always in a good way. Take for instance former Dutch legislator Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was accused of falsifying information in her application for Dutch citizenship.

Then there's Melody Damayo, a.k.a. Mimi Miyagi. Born in Davao, the Philippines, she moved with her family to the USA when she was still a child. She is presently running for governor of the state of Nevada. Behold her official campaign ad:


Mimi4Governor? Holy silicone implants!

"Mimi Miyagi" is the pseudonym that this Republican gubernatorial candidate used during her years as an international porn star (or as a worker in the adult film industry, as some so delicately put it). To raise campaign funds, she holds pajama parties and other activities with the help of her "Campaign Cuties." She has no political background; to help her prepare for possible election she reads things like "The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Government" -- although an article by A. Lin Neumann in The Asia Sentinel says that "she's no slouch at politics."

Her platform includes the following:

1. Decriminalization of marijuana
2. Reduce waiting time processing police reports for victims of crime
3. Tougher laws on domestic violence abusers
4. Remove newly added business tax laws on entertainers
5. Legalizing strip clubs in hotels
6. Against political corruption
7. Against judicial activism
8. For Free Speech
9. For reducing prices at the pump
10. For reducing youth gang violence
11. Remove newly added business tax/license laws on charitable organizations
12. Anti-stalking legislature enforcement

As you can probably imagine, she has her detractors and supporters. Some people say she would be a "breath of fresh air" and that she should be "given a chance." After all, if former prostitute Nicole Castioni was able to become a respected Swiss legislator, why shouldn't Mimi? On the other hand, aspersions have been cast on her family history, her earlier use of drugs, and of course, her choice of careers. She's been called a disgrace to women, to her race, etc.

Even if Mimi doesn't take the gubernatorial spot, she isn't giving up on the possibility of holding public office in the future. In fact, she's considering running for mayor of Las Vegas in 2007. If she still doesn't win that one, I guess she could always become a political advertising consultant. :-D


Oh, and she plans to tone down those 36DD's someday, too.

Concerts on my mind

The Black Eyed Peas and the Pussycat Dolls were in town recently. I didn't watch either concert but from what I hear, they were a roaring success.

BLACK EYED PEAS

Apl.de.Ap of the Black Eyed Peas is a Filipino-American; he was born here then moved to the US when he was 14. One of the things I like about this group is that they accommodate Apl's tributes to his Philippine roots -- like the apl song in the album Elephunk, and another song called Bebot. People who watched the concert here say that he spoke to the audience in Tagalog almost the entire time, which of course drove the crowd wild. Then there was Fergie, showing off her lady lumps. This woman has been criticized for her fashion statements, but there's no denying that she's one sexy lady (I would kill to have a belly like hers!). The Black Eyed Peas raised funds for the families of the victims of a February 2006 landslide here that left more than 1,000 people dead.

PUSSYCAT DOLLS

Kitty call time after BEP. Fans screamed and sang along to song after song belted out by the Pussycat Dolls (although I suspect that the menfolk who were there did not go just to listen to the music). Again, there was another performer with Filipino roots who was given a rousing welcome by the crowd. Pussycat Doll Nicole, who was born and raised in Hawaii, has a Filipino father. There's a video clip on YouTube of part of the Pussycat Dolls concert in Manila -- audio and video quality isn't the best, though. Still, it looked like the audience had a lot of fun at the show. Not surprising, especially for the guys. What with gorgeous, skimpily-clad dancing and singing chicks onstage.

************************************************************************************

Now, like I mentioned earlier, I didn't watch these two shows. But there's one that's coming this month that I definitely do not want to miss. My friend Mark sent me an SMS some time ago to tell me that my boy toy was coming to Manila. WTF? I don't have a boy toy. This guy in the following pictures doesn't fit in the boy toy category...or does he? Maybe he does. Maybe if I ask nicely, he'll agree to come out and play. :-D

Ye gods, what a fine, fine specimen of the male gender JD Fortune is. He makes me think impure thoughts sometimes. I've always enjoyed the music of INXS (musically speaking, a large part of my heart is still in the 1980s). I remember feeling sad when I heard about the death (suicide) of former INXS lead vocalist Michael Hutchence nearly a decade ago. But his successor isn't doing such a bad job, methinks.

I Hate Him

I really, really do.

I usually don't succumb to such a strong, negative feeling as hatred. I agree with the philosophy of a certain funny-looking Jedi (one who kicks major ass with a light saber, by the way) who said "Hate leads to suffering." I'm quite a tolerant, laid-back person, if I do say so myself. But I absolutely draw the line at purple, freaky, primitive life forms -- that have sickeningly disgustingly honeyed voices to boot! Why the hell is this misbegotten creature so beloved by so many?

I don't care if he has his own TV show or if he's popular all over the world or if he makes a gazillion bucks. He should go the way of all the other dinosaurs -- and the sooner the better!

Will somebody please do me a favor and find a way to kill this purple freak's sorry ass? And if possible, by coming up with methods that are more satisfying than these?

Things that go bumpity-bump in the night

image by lephilnet

I'm one of them. No, I don't mean I'm a manananggal (a staple character in Filipino horror) -- a woman who is normal in every respect during the daytime, but come nighttime transforms into a monster. The upper part of her body flies somewhere to find some unfortunate victim (usually said to be babes still in the womb). Simple to kill her, really. Just douse the stump of the lower part of her torso with salt, ash or garlic while she's out marauding; this will prevent her upper body from re-attaching to her lower body when she comes back. Sunlight is fatal to her while she's in manananggal mode; her death is inevitable with the arrival of dawn.

I'm a creature of the night simply because I work during the wee hours of the morning. My little ones are safely asleep in their beds, and it's quiet and peaceful. "Aren't you afraid to work at night? It's dark and you're all alone," somebody asked me once. Strangely, I'm not. And this is kind of unusual for me -- since I'm a certified chickenshit when it comes to many other things.

But should I be afraid of ghosts? Do I even believe in ghosts? I'm still not sure about that. Soon after my dad died many, many years ago, I had some strange experiences (my sister had one weird thing happen to her, while my brothers and my mother had none). Things like:

• the "Play" button on my music player suddenly activating, filling the room with song,
• my electric fan turning on without my touching it,
• being enveloped in the scent of kalachuchi (frangipani, a flower used in wakes and funerals here in the Philippines... this one freaked out some of my friends who noticed the sudden presence of the aroma -- we were at the university hangout I think, at the time).

Maybe it's because I was considered "Daddy's girl" -- I resembled him the most -- that I was the one who had the more unusual experiences after his death. I haven't had any of these things happen to me in recent years, though. But if something like it does occur again, I won't be afraid. After all, it's just my dad. I'd even invite him to have a beer with me if I (or he) could!

I still dream about my dad. And even after 17 years, I still find myself missing him.