Monthly Archives: March 2002

food trip, musings

today had been a good day. despite the intense heat i really had a great time. around 10 in the morning faisal alih came by the house and we went out to brother’s burger to eat their coño burgers. my friends from FA came to the house to resume work on the book we currently want to get off our hands. we did much today, and the book’s almost done except that we dont have money to have it printed. anyhow that didnt dampen my spirit today although it was still something we thought about the whole day. in the afternoon tootsie came home after getting her yearbook (she’s graduating earlier than i am — sigh) and we had a fun time looking through really great creative poses and okra-izing the really crappy ones too.

i left the house at 6 to meet up with pk and ronnie and we had a short meeting of sorts at the church. although before i left the house i cooked dinner pk, ron, and i went out to eat. butch later followed at the khas food stop where we ate. i had keema with chicken (they ran out of squid) and three cups of rice. then when we were heading for home and i was about to queue in for the katipunan jeep gemini texted me obviously wanting companionship for a lonely friday night. ron had to go to his frat’s party so gem was my date tonight. we went to gayuma and had coffee. i “unburdened” to gem all my travails in the past two weeks of work and play. later on ron caught up with us as we left the cafe. we hung out at the expresso in the strip (bad bad benjamin) and heard an earful from ronnie about my career options. now im home again, tired but still working. and still hungry. however i have to work on this graphic novel project. nevertheless im taking this break to “unburden” my baggage for tonight so that tomorrow i can fully enjoy life’s new blessings.

gracias ginoo

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musings

ghost

the patrick swayze movie, “ghost,” is currently being shown in hbo. although we sat through that a week ago, we’re still watching it. i really dont know why. it’s actually one of those movies that you loved as a kid then find out much later in your life that it’s really crappy, kinda like kevin costner’s robin hood. we really went crazy over that movie thinking kevin of locksley was one cool hero and patrick swayze was a really cool, romantic ghost movie person thing. after 10 years or so you go back and watch these films and think what the…? the acting of kevin costner was really crappy as is patrick swayze’s. all is not lost though.

there are still things about those movies that make them worthwhile to go back to– at least on those moments when they actually appear onscreen. whoopi goldberg is really great in ghost, she’s so funny and made her character so memorable that even years after i saw i still remember that the account number of rita miller is 926-31043. she deserved that oscar she got in ghost. as for the robin hood film, morgan freeman was great. then again, he’s always good in movies he is in despite of kevin costner or some other leading actor he has to contend with. here’s a quote from ghost for you:

“Name, please?”
“Rita Miller.”
“And your account number?”
“(whisper)926…”
“926,”
“(whisper)31-0-43.”
“…31-0-43.”
“Well, Ms. Miller. It looks like you’ll be withdrawing four million dollars today.”
“Four million dollars?!!!”
“Is that correct?”
“(whisper) Say yes. Say yes!”
“Yes….yes….”
– Bank accountant, Rita, and Sam,
“Ghost”

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food trip

i decided to change some things in my diet. a few weeks back a friend got sick. although it nothing to do with relation to the cause of his sickness i was pushed to reflect on what im doing to my body. im really an unhealthy eater, i eat at way-off times in the day (4pm for lunch and 9 for dinner with no breakfast) and am a confessed carnivore, kung sa bisaya pa karne gyud. i only eat pork if i could help it. i never bother to eat other stuff even for just variety’s sake. now im trying to change all that. im not getting any younger and although im thinner than most people i might die first of a high cholesterol-high blood combination than, say faisal alih.

thus i am now eating my veggies and proud of it. im also now eating chicken and fish than just looking for baconsilog or lechon kawali. ive stopped eating the fat off my pork years ago but now im eating less of the meat itself too. im adding a little more fiber in my diet. i make it a point to have some greens. on some days i eat a fruit during my supposed breakfast time. it’s getting more expensive but i do think the rewards will be worth it. i was even surprised myself when on the morning after i decided to change my diet i ordered chopsuey rice and enjoyed it. i now buy oranges and apples and my favorite bananas for munchies instead of junk food (anyhow i dont really look for junk food).

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musings

it’s thursday and i found time to do my laundry. on account that i couldn’t be in the house long enough to do it, my pile of dirty clothes has now reached a peak of a meter and it’s been about a month since my last washing day. congratulate me on this; it’s not easy balancing out domestic chores and really wild, time-consuming, mind-boggling, physically challenging, emotionally stressing academic requirements. grabe na.

we’re rushing the artwork of a comic book my group is doing, hoping to meet the midweek deadline we’ve set next week, and we have to do it in dennis’ house since he’s the one who’s got the scanner. then the files we’ve scanned are sent to mike’s so that he could color them in adobe. then later it’s in my house where we’ll layout our pages and burn it to cd so that we could send it to the printer’s in psd format. the creative and production process sounds easy but the logistical considerations are a nightmare and we don’t even have money to fund this venture yet. none of the companies we’ve contacted have returned call. and i as group leader, will have to carry all this and some as part of my responsibilities. heaven, help me.

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i cant explain it, i cant give you details but here’s what i have to say: God is Good!!! you know i feel like im african american and am raisin’ my hands up to the sky and praisin’ an’ singin’ tha’ God is good! man, ah can feel it in mah bones an in mah head an in mah h’art ah know God is merciful and God is worthy to be praised and good ol’ God loves me and he loves ya too. he has delivered me from sin and from all my anxieties and now ah’m just floatin ‘roun those big dark clouds up the’e in the skah. mmmm mmm mmmm! God is good!!! hallelujah! 🙂

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faisal alih’s thesis

a few weeks ago i helped out my friend faisal on his architectural thesis. he and his group mate, jigs, were working on geothermal design, specifically on subterranean structures in the sierra madre UP campus. about a week prior to their presentation and defense before a jury panel i stayed nights over at their house.

i suddenly found myself in “arki” mode as i helped conceptualize and critiqued structures, drew perspectives (chamba perspektib) of hypothetical buildings, theorized on design concepts and stuff, working working working with only coffee and pancit canton keeping me up. all that i had left behind since i shifted to fine arts came back to me: getting all exhausted working out a good design, falling asleep and waking up to realize that your hand is still sketching that nth floor plan, the madness of theories and considerations of end users, getting all windang from too much of everything and talking nonsense to your fellow workers until you drop of exhaustion and then waking up early the next morning because you have to finish your work for that afternoon’s deadline, stuff like that. it was scary in a way.

needless to say i still had fun, people made all the difference. i met all my old classmates (most of who, by the way, have graduated and are now working in top architectural firms in manila). and of course largely because i was able to help faisal with his thesis. now ive my closure with architecture. i may perhaps have left arki hastily (in a way), i was desperate to leave lest i rot in the course just because i couldnt ‘do’ the math subjects. i found my place in fine arts and it’s great there. i never asked myself how i would have been if i were back in architecture but that opportunity to help in faisal’s thesis prodded me to answer it. i thank God im no longer in that program because i am now really sure i didnt want to be there in the first place. perhaps i could have pulled through it (faisal says problema ko lang talaga sa arki ay yung math) but i have it better in fine arts. ill leave arki to the arkiteks. 🙂

last note on that, despite everything id like to mention here the people who made my arki experience a memorable and endurable one: fai, buds, sammy, jerome, paolo, jing, suzette, addie, odie, cor, aida (sorry girls i missed helping you out in your thesis), mang charlie, jeck, nina, malaya, jet, nap, jigs, mickey, kitty (id), sir nick, sir joven, dean fernandez (dean parin tawag kahit hindi na dean pero yun pa rin ang tawag) and the countless others ive failed to mention. cheers!

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jehboy birthday

i just came from jehgirl’s birthday dinner earlier this evening (yesterday). actually she was born on the 29th of feb and so she didnt exactly had a day to celebrate technically this year. i text messaged her on the 28th greeting her advanced happy birthday. a half hour later (when midnight had passed) i text messaged belated happy birthday. it must be hard having to wait for the leap year event just so you could really be celebrating on the 29th. hap hap jeh!

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a week ago i went to see hibik at himagsik ni victoria laktaw, a filipino musical running in the wilfredo ma. guerrero theater in UP. the book was written by bienvenido lumbera and the play was directed by sir alex cortez.

it was great, im a sucker for most musicals by the way. the singing was great, but im just bowled over by the performance of aggie barredo who was playing a supporting role. i know her from church and she’s just amazing! nazer was also there playing her partner and they’re both fantastic together. the lead who played tianong and her love interest were good too but im still kinda hooked up on aggie’s performance. anyway i also love the set and lights of the play. the guy who did the lights, voltaire, is way cool. we used his equipment to light up our concert in church last year. the set by salvador bernal was really simple and really effective; it opens like a book and frames a lot of areas on the stage.

the staging was really simple and really effective. i just didnt like the americans with flags as masks on. the fil-am who played this certain soldier was a hoot! he obviously had the accent down pat and his delivery was good but he didnt know what to do when he wasnt saying anything. anyway i thought he was funny (in a good way). the singing was great, of course. butch de juan was musical director of that musical.

sir, congrats bai, salute ko nimo! 🙂 anyway, i was able to watch the gala performance so all the production people were there and at the end of the show they joined the cast on stage, including sir alex, sir lumbera, kuya butch kuya butch (suportahan mo ako ha?), salvador bernal (prod design), voltaire, etc. etc. in the audience present were laurice guillen, marilou diaz-abaya, johnny manahan, doreen fernandez, anton juan, tony mabesa and other luminaries of both stage and screen.

it was a wonderful night notwithstanding there was food also. i raided the buffet table and had two plates of pancit and even had the ‘honor’ of serving pancit to behn cervantes. 🙂 anyway that was my first meal for that day. needless to say i was still hungry afterwards….

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