Sabay2x tayong maging...SAKSI!

Got this video from my sis.




Ano dawwwwwww??????

Review: Lucky Number Slevin

Since Ice Age 2 just opened last night, I chose to have me and the missus watch Lucky Number Slevin since we can still watch the former next week.

I initially thought that the film could be one of those "big stars, no story" type of flops but this movie turned out ok.

The plot was flowing steadily until a twist made it more interesting. Nice movie.

Gondola

After my previous blog on seatbelts, I started scouring the 'net for pics of my long lost Gondola. I tried looking for it in Philippine buy n sell websites but to no avail ---baka sakaling may makita eh baka bilhin ko na with the missus permitting, of course.

The pics I found were from a UK-guy selling it in e-Bay for UBP510.00.

Looking back I really regretted having sold it last 2001. I would've spent most of my earnings in "pimping" it a la Xhibit in the Pimp My Ride series.


Someday, somewhere, we'll meet again my sweet Gondola.

Why you should wear a seatbelt

The first car I considered "my own" ---despite the money coming from my Mom--- was Gondola. The missus, then my gf, christened it with that name. It was a classic 2-door 1979 sky-blue Opel Manta with 2.0L engine. The LTO issued a law for all vehicles to be installed with seatbelts so in the interest of cost-saving my Dad was able to install these low-class type seatbelts wherein the only purpose is just "for show" if in case I get flagged down by the MMDA.

Several months after I sold it for P30,000 last 2001, my Dad and I read a news article mentioning a "1979 blue Opel Manta" being involved in an accident along the EDSA underpass southbound just after Ayala Avenue. I'm afraid that was my Gondola.

I hope the guy involved in the accident was unhurt, unlike the unlucky chap in this video who should've considered wearing his seatbelt ---low-class or not.

Review: Inside Man

I watched this last Friday with the missus. Denzel, like in his previous films "The Siege," "Man On Fire," "Training Day," & "Courage Under Fire," had a great performance. He's probably one of Hollywood's most bankable actors these days as "Inside Man" is currently #1 in the Box Office.

Although there've been a number of movies about bank robberies, this movie has a totally unique plot.

Kudos to Spike Lee who did a good job on the directing.

Well recommended.

Trailer: Scary Movie 4

I can't wait to watch this one!

Parinig?

"My resignation will not be the right answer to the protest. If I resigned, this would mean that democracy is meaningless. This will create a new standard in which every prime minister will have to step down whenever a group of people protest."

---Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra
Mar 06, 2006

Doormats

The Company Chairman is arriving today so everything is being spruced up in the office, just like the day when Bill Clinton arrived in Manila and all the squatters/shanties had to be "re-touched" (i.e. hidden) so that everything looks bright and shiny.

For 3 years in this office I've NEVER seen these blue-doormats before. You can actually find them in ALL the doorsteps today.


Hmmm, I wonder if they'll still be there tomorrow or was it just a case of pagpapakitang-gilas to the head huncho?

We'll find out tomorrow. ;-)

9/11 Conspiracy

After Michael Moore's film, Fahrenheit 9/11, here's another documentary which dwells on the conspiracy-theory on the events of that fateful day.

Here's the film (1hr, 22mins). Very disturbing indeed.

The Ride

I attended an F1-party yesterday courtesy of one of our main vendors to the company. It started at 1pm but I came only at near-3pm since that was the start of the race (plus the missus and I had to go to our usual Sunday Bah-Kut-Teh + Cendol lunch ---rapsa).

There was this F1-race simulator in the party-venue where you sit inside a 1:1 scaled model of the front-half of the McLaren car, with steering-wheel and gear-pads behind, plus gas and brake pedals. This was the closest I could get into F1-racing. Apparently there was a prize to be awarded to the guy with the fastest time on the simulated Malaysia-F1 track in Sepang.

I felt an eagerness to play it since I know the track well: I've been "racing" on the whole F1-circuit via the same EA-Sports F1 Game at home on my laptop. This should be a cinch, I thought.

Well I had to get used to the gears since I only play auto gear-change on my laptop. The time to beat was 2 minutes and 3 seconds. I only managed 2 minutes 8 seconds since I spun off twice in the track. Until now those spins keep playing on my mind since I am fairly certain that I would have lapped under 2mins if it weren't for those mishaps. Oh well, hope there's another F1-party next year (if I'm still here, of course).

Anyway the compensation was that I was able to ride the Mercedes 2005 SLK-series car that the vendor brought in to treat us for a free ride in the highway. The ride, as those characters in "Dude Where's My Car" would say, was SWEET! We were flying at 160kmh on the national highway but the drive was all smooth. Damn, I should buy one of those when I become CEO, or something like that. Hehe.

Here's the ride, but the one I rode yesterday was in black.

It's a....

Well it was "showtime" for our baby this morning. Time to find out what exactly he/she is. The missus was constantly talking to the baby on the way to the hospital, "Baby gising na."

When the baby appeared in the ultrasound screen it was initially trying to cover its genitals again. "Oh no don't tell me we'll wait for another month?" I told myself.

"Do you want to know the sex of your baby?" the ob-gyn asked.

"Yes," the missus replied.

"I was hoping you'd say 'No.' Now I must patiently look thru this screen."

Before I continue, let me give you a breakdown on how everyone voted:

My family: 4 boy, 1 girl
The missus' family: 2 boy, 4 girl

6-5 in favor of a boy. It was pretty close.

Well after a few minutes of finding the baby's head, then legs, the ultrasound-pointer had finally found the area between the legs.

Fortunately, this time, our baby didn't disappoint. The baby proudly showed his balls and pototoy.

Yup, it's a BOY!

I feel that getting a son is a big bonus. I was already excited when we found out the missus was pregnant late last year. That was enough for me. Boy or girl, I will take it any which way.

But having a son? I'm definitely pleased.

"Ang galing galing nyan eh!" the missus said to me as we left the ob-gyn's clinic.

Well, all the credit goes to my "soldiers." They made a gallant offensive better than the Allied Forces on D-Day to deliver the valued Y-chromosome against the theories of Chinese-calendars or Science-watchamacalit. It was all guts n' glory for my troops. They have delivered.

So, Lucas Elijah, we'll be seeing you soon.

III Sides To Every Story

Dawn wakes the silence...of a fainted lullaby
Day breaks the eyelid...from a song sung in my eye

--- "Rise N Shine" by Extreme

1992. I was in college then when I came across the band Extreme, evidently famous for the acoustic love-song "More Than Words." The song had inspired me to learn the guitar since Nuno's tapping on his 6-string on the music-video looked so cool. Plus playing it in front of people made them thought that I played very well. Their belief would only be stopped abruptly after the first 8 chords since I only learned the intro then.

I consider III Sides To Every Story, their 2nd album, a true masterpiece ahead of its time. It is one of my, how should I call it, "sulit albums" since I loved all the songs. Hence, sulit.

There was no radio-hit for any of the songs on the album unlike their 1st, Pornografitti, which housed "More Than Words." It's a good thing, actually, as the true appreciators of their music was able to sit quietly with their then walkmans and cd-players, digesting the carefully-crafted songs in III Sides, away from the masa and the media who might ask the hosts of ASAP or SOP to sing it, out of tune.

Among these fans was myself, having borrowed CM's cassette-copy and dubbing it on our Multiplex cassette-player (TapeA to TapeB) to make myself a duplicate. Ah yes, grabbing music was such a hassle then. But it was worth it. Listening to Gary Cherone's vocals and Nuno's chops was a feast of masterful song-writing. They had taught me not to dwell in the More Than Words hype. "III Sides" had more to offer for it had their best work. A pure masterpiece for any alternative-rock lover. Sadly I lost that copy when we moved from Makati to Paranaque. Since then I only had faint parts of the songs here and there in my mind. I truly missed it. Damn I should've stored my tape-collection with more organization.

Fastforward to 2006, I was able to find the said album listed in Bit-Torrent. Needless to say that I have downloaded (and still downloading as of this blog's writing) all the songs in the album. Whoever invented MP3 and Bit-Torrent, wherever you guys are, thank you talaga!!!!

I can't wait to burn it to a CD and turn up the volume in the car ---of course I'll be providing the extra vocals while driving.

I am currently listening to the songs that have finished downloading, with earphones plugged to my laptop.

Ahhh yes. It's like 1992 all over again.

Yup you can give me an original CD of it for my birthday (meron sa E-Bay, hehe).

Parent Kiss

Isn't this little girl so cuuuute?

Ang bibo-bibo eh!

Boy or Girl? (The repeat)

The missus is scheduled for her monthly trip to her ob-gyn (a.k.a. Baby Tsina) this Saturday so *hopefully* we'll know thenafter if it's a boy or girl.

So what do you think? Boy or girl?

AR9: Mga manok ko

Here are my favorite teams for Amazing Race 9:

The Dating Nerds (inspite of their "nerdiness" they're the sweetest couple in the race)

The Hippies (coolness)

The Frostees (reminds me of my Aunt-A, who'd often shriek in any funny situation; too bad they're already eliminated)

Danielle & Dani (no need to explain)

Bullet-proof (The Return)

Back from my 2D/1N trip from Singapore, I have returned to my office-cube this morning browsing my 150+ unread emails when I saw a bald-headed guy walking past my place. It was AP.

Yes folks he has returned from his Philippine-trip and I was excited to hear his feedback. So I called him and immediately started my "interview."

"So how was your trip?"

"It was great man! The people are soooo nice, warm and welcoming. Everywhere we go we would get a pleasant greeting. Like when I enter a store the guards would open the door and say 'Hi Sir! Hi Mam!' and when we pass by a stall with a saleslady we would hear 'Hi Sir! Hi Mam!'"

"We also went to Greenbelt like you recommended. We watched Capote and it was sooo much better than watching it from here (Malaysia). The theater was big and the slope of the rows was not as inclined as here."

"I see that the young people there are really fashion-minded."

"You mean vain?" I smirked.

"No not really. Compared to the young people I see in KL, they have a keen sense of style. The people look cool."

"So how about the food?"

"Man! There's no chili!" (Anyone who's been in Malaysia will observe that many Malaysians prefer chili to be with every meal ---similar to the famed patis in the Filipino dining experience.)

"But man, Pizzahut was soooo (with two joined fingers on his lips) SUPERB! It has pork man!!! Wooow! (Since Malaysia is mostly populated with Muslims, most of the restaurants here don't serve pork)."

"So that's why you (and the missus) always go for Bah-Kut-Teh (a sumptuous 'ugat-tasting' Chinese pork dish)!"

Asked if they went to another of my recommended restos, Jollibee, in which I mentioned that it was the only resto that McDo hasn't beaten: "Oh man....the burgers in Jollibee....man...they tasted sooo great! Superb man!"

Yup, AP was in pork-heaven.

"So how do sum up the whole trip?"

"Well I'm a simple person man. What's important to me is how the people are. The people in Cambodia, Bangkok, and Manila are so warm and welcoming. Among the 3, I would rank the people in Manila as the best of all (naks)."

I guess AP and his fiancee had a good time. If he were alone and stayed in a hotel in Ermita, he might've had a better time, hehe. He's off to Phuket in 2 weeks ---much to his relief since there not much places for his fiancee to shop around so he'll have most of the time to relax by the beach.

*Sigh*

I suddenly missed Jollibee.

Bullet-proof

My officemate, AP, is in Manila this week on a 4day/3night vacation via Air-Asia. They were able to book the "zero-airfare" tickets last December so they were raring to go for the trip ---then came the attempted coup on Feb.24. To this he asked,

"Do you think it's safe for us to continue with our trip?"

AP is one of the cool guys in our office. Shaven-head, always wears black outfits, sporting a moustache a la Color Me Badd, he's a tall guy who's claim to fame was having survived a freak motorcycle accident and has lived to tell the tale. We'd always have these brief conversations on life and office-life. Throughout the day you could see a calmness radiating from him, uncaring about the stresses in life ---except for this trip that he will face.

“Yes I think it should be ok. Let me lend you my bullet-proof vest when I get back from lunch,” I said jokingly.

Since the Feb.24 incident most of the fellas here have been asking me how is the Philippines going, or to be more specific,

"How is Prisidint Arruyu?”

To which I would just sigh, “Oh it’s normal.”

“What is happening there exactly?”

Forgive me for my lack of knowledge of Philippine-politics, but this was how I answered them:

“In the Philippines, whoever controls the military controls the country. Seeing that the country is progressing (in terms of Peso-Dollar exchange rate), these sore losers during the last elections have decided to bribe some generals to lead their men in staging a coup against Arroyo. Well, of course, the head of the military didn’t like the coaxing of one lieutenant asking him to join their rebellion so the coup was thwarted. Arroyo had no other choice but to proclaim a state of emergency to calm things down.”

(Yes, my views are different from yours. Go build yourself a blog if you don’t like it.)

Anyway, AP arrived in Manila today and I asked him how things were. Here’s his sms:

“Hi bro. It’s a lovely country. The people are so warm n welcoming. What do you think of a visit to the [Taal] volcano? The taxi ride here is quite expensive.”

Well their guide is asking them for a “warm n welcoming” price of P7,000 for the trip to Taal volcano. Too expensive I said. Better go to the Tagaytay Picnic Grove and admire the volcano from there. Just in case it erupts, you’ll have enough lead-time to run.

Tomorrow evening he and his girlfriend are having dinner at the Boardwalk in Roxas Blvd. So if you happen to be there and see a tall, bald guy wearing black, tell him that I said not to forget to zip up the bullet-proof vests I handed him last week...

...and of course, don't forget my box of Goya Flat-Tops.

Power Nap

I saw this on a program on Discovery. There's a company in New York that provides 20-minute "power naps" to rejuvenate the body. So may dahilan pala yung ginagawa nuon sa office sa 'pinas na pinapatay ang ilaw during lunchtime.

Read this article while I go off on my powernap.