Wednesday, November 09, 2005
downtime for my brain
am doing undergrad CW advising in my office right now. or at least i should be. students drift in and out my room sporadically so i get to do other things like update my syllabi and reading lists (which involves reading byatt and dalisay and calvino), check my mail and (haha) fill out stupid memes (as geek friend #1 calls 'em).
Ano'ng student number mo?
93-14724
Nakapasa ka ba o waitlisted?
duh.
Paano mo nalaman ang entrance-exam result?
my tita who's a prof in CHE called me one evening when my high school classmates happened to be at my house. i think i was hysterical for a full 5 minutes.
First choice mo ba ang U.P.?
yeh. my dad told me it was UP or nothing. di daw ako mag-aaral kung di ako pumasa.
Alam mo ba ang UPG score mo?
wha dat?
Ano ang first choice mo na course?
creative writing
Second choice?
journalism
Ano naging course mo?
creative writhing
Nagplano ka bang mag-shift?
yeh. to european languages, french. but i gave up when i discovered i can't conjugate to save my life.
Nakapag-dorm ka ba?
i live behind sm north. it woulda been dumb to do that.
Naka-uno ka ba?
ja.
Nagka-3?
nein.
Highest grade?
uno, too many to mention. nyahaha!
Lowest?
5, PE 2 skindiving. can't swim kasi. heh.
Worst experience sa U.P.?
most bad experiences were work-related. napag-initan ng snitty colleague who was having a bad day. she pretty much threw a hissyfit while observing my class.
Lagi ka bang pumapasok sa klase?
yeh. but generally late, to my everlasting shame.
Ano'ng org mo?
shet, AI. lots of bad memories there. a few good ones.
May scholarship ka ba?
ngayon meron, as faculty.
Pinangarap mo bang mag-cum laude?
gawd, yes. i'm such a loser.
Kelan ka nagtapos?
October 1997. was at the april 1998 graduation.
Fave profs?
franz arcellana (dead poet-fictionist whose dentures flew out of his mouth in class), jing hidalgo (spiffy dresser, brilliant teacher, still scares the hell out of me), jimmy abad (who i once compared very favorably to kermit the frog)
Worst teachers?
some lecher named tapales for soc sci 2. oh and the bastard from filipino who gave me a 2.75. wrecked my average.
Fave subjects?
a lot of my writing and lit classes were really brilliant. any nonfiction class under hidalgo, whatever level. i'm such a brown noser, i try to enjoy any class i'm in.
Worst subjects?
soc sci 2 and that really boring filipino class. oh and PE in general was hell for me. haha, lampa.
Fave landmarks?
that bench near the AI tambayan where people went for "privacy" and "serious talks". on top of that pozo negro overlooking the sunken garden where as idiot freshmen we used to have CASAA takeout picnics.
Fave building?
i misspent many many hours at the main library, because the AI tambayan was there. perfect place for ogling the hotties from UPMountaineers. i especially loved it when they held triathlons because the sinewy sweaty guys would go running by in their wet swimwear.
Paboritong kainan?
beach house, casaa. but when i had food issues, no more favorites.
Noong estudyante ka pa magkano ba ang binabayad mo sa jeep?
1.25 for ikot, 2.50 going to SM. am still a student but now the damage is 10 bucks for sm and ikot is 6.50
Lagi ka ba sa lib?
yeh. see above.
Nagpunta ka ba sa clinic nung minsang nagkasakit ka?
nope.
May crush ka ba sa campus?
yeah... peds, that jopson guy, and eng.
BF/GF:
i started iniquity rather late. days after graduation, actually.
May balak ka bang mag-Master's o mag-Ph.D.?
am doing it now. watch me..
Anu-ano ang mga naging P.E. mo?
swimming, skindiving, fencing, weight training, hydrobics. i spent too much time in that swimming hole of death (so murky-filthy, they couldn't find the body of a varsity swimmer who drowned. they had to drain the damn thing). all really horrible, best forgotten.
Kamusta naman ang block ninyo?
there was one really creepy musclebound martial arts guy who thought he was bruce lee; brought various killing implements to class. he's a lawyer now at the country's top firm. i'm still good friends with two of em: one is my semi-roomate at the faculty center, the other edits summit media's gaming zine.
Nakapanood ka na ba ng graduation sa U.P.?
too many. i've even helped put one together.
Memorized mo ba ang alma mater song?
uhm. snatches of it. it just kills me when i see kids sing it at graduation with raised left fists. sooooo cute. i'm sure they flock to call centers the day after to mimic rednecks.
Member ka ba ng varsity team?
nyahaha.
Naka-perfect ka na ba ng exam?
a few times. the first one was difficult: we pulled an all-nighter at my house and kept ourselves awake with the most vile coffee-cream-and-strawberry wine concoctions. my hands shook so hard during the exam, i could barely write.
Anong ayaw mo sa finals week?
checking. back then, it was the lack of sleep. i'm a hideous procrastinator.
Dito ka ba natutong uminom ng beer?
technically, no. our drinking places were always off-campus (malate circa blue cafe/third world/penguin, tumbang preso, 70s bistro, sagada, baguio, el amigo in dumaguete)
Ano'ng gusto mo sa UP?
where to start? the trees, the size of the place. the red things that fall from the fire trees in the summer. many of the good things that have happened to me can be more or less connected to this university. heh, feel-good moment yata.
Ano'ng ayaw mo?
bobong classmates, bobong estudyante. oh and walang gwapo. lalo na sa MA & PhD level.
Maganda/Guwapo ba ang ID pic mo?
my faculty ID scares the hell out of most people. i lost my undergrad ID walking from STS class in october 1997. someone found it and it's been creepily on display at the CS atrium ever since. check it out.
May ginawa ka bang illegal sa loob ng campus?
yes. many times. never mind what that was.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
the moron from coron, part 2
posted this as a comment on a friend's blog because i was too lazy to log into this one that day. written late september. i think i was trying to mimic the valley patois here. ick. je suis tres tres desolee.
i'm back from palawan and i'm sunburned--hooray! it actually rained the first three days we were there so we were this close to being miserable.
spent our first night in coron drinking at a faux reggae bar that played bad hiphop. the cute guy we were with downed four windex-colored martinis. B & i just had 2 beers each. we losers.
day 2 -- we went snorkeling over a shipwreck and hiked to Barracuda Lake. B & i injured ouselves. we losers.
day 3 -- we banca-ed to culion the ex-leper colony. walked around town and whined about the horrid weather. sang really bad karaoke where cute boy insisted on singing tony bennett stuff & My Way (we almost stabbed him but he picked up the tab so we didn't na lang). we losers.
day 4 -- was da bomb! sunny day spent at a tiny island & we have pictures & tans to prove it! yay! i ate 2 kilos of crab & inflated my waistline. i'm such a loser.
day 5 -- hella hot! banca-ed back to coron & saw stinky french bistro owner berate people from electric company because of the brownout. watched them disinterestedly over lukewarm glasses of cloudy pastis and rum cokes. not much to do on a hot day in a sleepy fishing town but get drunk. yeahhhh...
Monday, October 10, 2005
brain dead
you know you've been working too hard when you take a short break, go online ostensibly to do research on john cage's one-minute stories and edwin morgan's wacko concrete poetry, and end up spending three hours trawling through other people's blogs. you haven't had breakfast save for an almost stale blueberry muffin and a square of mint-flavored dark chocolate. you change your blog's template and post three really pointless entries. yay.
not the lava lounge
tired from a night of reading translation theory (delving perilously close to linguistic esoterica), i decided to take a break and fiddle with my blog. i thought the dotty look would suit me but it just feels really pa-lounge-y faux-70s trendoid. the strong colors and star motif of the previous template worked really well with the whole sairo idea. will keep this for now and see how it feels on my next login. if there are actual people reading this (and not just those wacko marketing types), do tell me what you think of this renovation.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
songs for when you kiss someone for the first time
it can be a little funny. you're not sure how exactly to tilt your head and whether his mouth will fit yours and vice versa. it can be like thumb wrestling--a kind of fumbling to see who gets to lead the way. and then there's the question of how much pressure to exert, open or closed, and that inevitable weird moment when you wonder if you should even be doing this. then you say what the hell and close your eyes and just enjoy yourself.
1) This Strange Effect by Thievery Corporation - for kissing someone you really really like but you know you'll hate yourself the morning after for giving in.
2) Angelica by Lamb (or is it Lamb by Angelica?) - for kissing someone while you're on a boat and skimming over waves as smooth as glass.
3) Teardrop by Massive Attack - for when you're sunning yourself on a deserted island and the sky is a blazing blue and there's a beautiful man sunning himself beside you and you look at each other and suddenly all you can hear is someone's heartbeat and you're not sure if it's yours or the other person's.
4) Heaven's Gonna Burn Your Eyes by Thievery Corporation - for that moment when you first close your eyes.
5) Northern Lights by Lux - for kissing The One. enough said.
1) This Strange Effect by Thievery Corporation - for kissing someone you really really like but you know you'll hate yourself the morning after for giving in.
2) Angelica by Lamb (or is it Lamb by Angelica?) - for kissing someone while you're on a boat and skimming over waves as smooth as glass.
3) Teardrop by Massive Attack - for when you're sunning yourself on a deserted island and the sky is a blazing blue and there's a beautiful man sunning himself beside you and you look at each other and suddenly all you can hear is someone's heartbeat and you're not sure if it's yours or the other person's.
4) Heaven's Gonna Burn Your Eyes by Thievery Corporation - for that moment when you first close your eyes.
5) Northern Lights by Lux - for kissing The One. enough said.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
the moron from coron
actually, there isn't one. or there is one but i've never actually met him/her/it.
went out with the gatula boys last saturday night to celebrate J's first prize palanca for poetry in english over warm beer at this dive called purple haze somewhere in marikina. (past the bridge from riverbanks and right at the intersection, if i'm not mistaken.) E's and J's and C's band (actually they're all in it together, haha) has a regular gig there two saturdays a month. they were going to call themselves The Forces of Evil but apparently some ska band in the UK or the US had first dibs to the name. so now they're thinking of calling themselves Bayaw. as in, "Dude, mukha ka namang bayaw ngayon." as in, mukhang tricycle driver with greasy sando, good morning towel and those chinelas things na suot ng mga lola. good luck to them.
E opened the set with a cover of Here's Where the Story Ends by the sundays, except it sounded like harriet wheeler was tripping on barbiturates and/or had a case of demonic possession. it was sooooperrrrssssslooooowed dooooooowwwwwwnnnnn the way morissey sings then E jacked things up a bit by screeching during the refrain. it was hilarous. they played the usual bastos songs like Caloocan, Ambing, Vibrator, Satan Rules, Maling, Buko Juice and some sweet little power ballads like Shiela Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Rockets (whose refrain still sounded semi-bastos). there's one that really bothers me because it seems to mask a misogynistic streak behind creepy surreal images (Patay na Babae sa Loob ng Bahay). they also did a cover of weezer's Say It Ain't So that had me singing and growling the guitar riffs in my head all day yesterday. mighty distracting, especially while trying to teach grammar at 8 in the morning.
so who is the moron from coron? some idiot british guy that friend L used to rave about a while back. some dive master yata sa coron who seemed like the hottest thing ever, if you went by L's descriptions. anyway, when I & E finally saw him, they were like, "Yan lang?" enough said, mwahahaha. at least when i go all googly-eyed over someone, he's usually smart or cute/drool-worthy or both.
this is all just to say that i'm leaving for the beaches of northern palawan tomorrow with B and supercrush R and a couple of other people. hope the weather down there's better as i intend to be toasty brown when i get back.
went out with the gatula boys last saturday night to celebrate J's first prize palanca for poetry in english over warm beer at this dive called purple haze somewhere in marikina. (past the bridge from riverbanks and right at the intersection, if i'm not mistaken.) E's and J's and C's band (actually they're all in it together, haha) has a regular gig there two saturdays a month. they were going to call themselves The Forces of Evil but apparently some ska band in the UK or the US had first dibs to the name. so now they're thinking of calling themselves Bayaw. as in, "Dude, mukha ka namang bayaw ngayon." as in, mukhang tricycle driver with greasy sando, good morning towel and those chinelas things na suot ng mga lola. good luck to them.
E opened the set with a cover of Here's Where the Story Ends by the sundays, except it sounded like harriet wheeler was tripping on barbiturates and/or had a case of demonic possession. it was sooooperrrrssssslooooowed dooooooowwwwwwnnnnn the way morissey sings then E jacked things up a bit by screeching during the refrain. it was hilarous. they played the usual bastos songs like Caloocan, Ambing, Vibrator, Satan Rules, Maling, Buko Juice and some sweet little power ballads like Shiela Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Rockets (whose refrain still sounded semi-bastos). there's one that really bothers me because it seems to mask a misogynistic streak behind creepy surreal images (Patay na Babae sa Loob ng Bahay). they also did a cover of weezer's Say It Ain't So that had me singing and growling the guitar riffs in my head all day yesterday. mighty distracting, especially while trying to teach grammar at 8 in the morning.
so who is the moron from coron? some idiot british guy that friend L used to rave about a while back. some dive master yata sa coron who seemed like the hottest thing ever, if you went by L's descriptions. anyway, when I & E finally saw him, they were like, "Yan lang?" enough said, mwahahaha. at least when i go all googly-eyed over someone, he's usually smart or cute/drool-worthy or both.
this is all just to say that i'm leaving for the beaches of northern palawan tomorrow with B and supercrush R and a couple of other people. hope the weather down there's better as i intend to be toasty brown when i get back.
Friday, September 09, 2005
goodbye phone
i was so distraught yesterday when i realized that i had lost my phone that i almost lost my beautiful purple wallet and i definitely lost my right contact lens. but i'm getting ahead of myself. as always.
was hungry and had no packed lunch from home so i decided to eat a huge bowl of veggie monster at khas, the persian place at the UP arcade, that rundown building beside the university's infamous Swimming Hole of Death. spitting distance from the dome of the catholic church and the shopping center. checked horrible papers while eating, liberally sprinkling both food and papers with spicy patis. it was a hot afternoon and so against my better judgment, i took a TOKI jeep back to the faculty center. i usually just walk.
anyway, so i rode the jeep and once back at my office, i unloaded my bag as always: umbrella, sweater (haha, yes, on a hot day), palm, wallet, coin box, pen, bad papers and nothing else. no phone with kitty's picture as wallpaper. it was a shock that lasted well into the night.
M happened to be snoozing on the banig on the floor of my/our office. i rarely see her now as she has an admin job that takes up most of her time. anyway, she had the presence of mind to call my phone and talked to the kid who found it on the jeep. he spoke in english, probably a student. i called him, got his name ("David Peterson Hernandez/Fernandez") but was still too stunned to do much else. stupid me. i didn't get his number or anything else.
asked him to come to FC and bring my phone but he said he had an exam at math. so i said i'd go to him but he said he didn't know yet where the exam room was. i said i'd call again in 30 minutes and i did but i couldn't contact my phone anymore. either the battery died or quote david peterson fhernandez unquote is a bad person who lied about giving my phone back.
awful awful awful day. tried looking for him using the people search function of the UP website. tried asking the records section of the university registrar's office. no matches found. apparently, he or his name is just a figment of his/my/the imagination.
to misquote anne frank, i would like to believe in the basic goodness of people but i find myself reeling at the evidence proving the contrary. i've sort of resigned myself to the idea that i am not likely to get my phone back.
there's a lesson here somewhere, even if it's just the one about not using that damned mesh bag ever again on public transportation. it kinda made me wish i had just used the 6k i spent on my 3-month-old phone and used it to buy that beautiful green leather bag at fino.
about losing my wallet (almost) and my contact lens: left my wallet on M's desk at the ICW because i was so upset/dazed/stupid about having lost my phone. i didn't even realize it was gone till she went down and gave it back to me. how i lost my contact lens is still a mystery. i remember putting it into the lens case when i got home last night but i after i put on the left one this morning, i just couldn't find its pair anywhere. haaaay.
let's end with another quote, this time from poet's poet elizabeth bishop: "the art of losing isn't hard to master. so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. lose something every day: accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour dadly spent... it's evident the art of losing's not too hard to master though it may look like (write it!) like disaster."
yeahhh.
was hungry and had no packed lunch from home so i decided to eat a huge bowl of veggie monster at khas, the persian place at the UP arcade, that rundown building beside the university's infamous Swimming Hole of Death. spitting distance from the dome of the catholic church and the shopping center. checked horrible papers while eating, liberally sprinkling both food and papers with spicy patis. it was a hot afternoon and so against my better judgment, i took a TOKI jeep back to the faculty center. i usually just walk.
anyway, so i rode the jeep and once back at my office, i unloaded my bag as always: umbrella, sweater (haha, yes, on a hot day), palm, wallet, coin box, pen, bad papers and nothing else. no phone with kitty's picture as wallpaper. it was a shock that lasted well into the night.
M happened to be snoozing on the banig on the floor of my/our office. i rarely see her now as she has an admin job that takes up most of her time. anyway, she had the presence of mind to call my phone and talked to the kid who found it on the jeep. he spoke in english, probably a student. i called him, got his name ("David Peterson Hernandez/Fernandez") but was still too stunned to do much else. stupid me. i didn't get his number or anything else.
asked him to come to FC and bring my phone but he said he had an exam at math. so i said i'd go to him but he said he didn't know yet where the exam room was. i said i'd call again in 30 minutes and i did but i couldn't contact my phone anymore. either the battery died or quote david peterson fhernandez unquote is a bad person who lied about giving my phone back.
awful awful awful day. tried looking for him using the people search function of the UP website. tried asking the records section of the university registrar's office. no matches found. apparently, he or his name is just a figment of his/my/the imagination.
to misquote anne frank, i would like to believe in the basic goodness of people but i find myself reeling at the evidence proving the contrary. i've sort of resigned myself to the idea that i am not likely to get my phone back.
there's a lesson here somewhere, even if it's just the one about not using that damned mesh bag ever again on public transportation. it kinda made me wish i had just used the 6k i spent on my 3-month-old phone and used it to buy that beautiful green leather bag at fino.
about losing my wallet (almost) and my contact lens: left my wallet on M's desk at the ICW because i was so upset/dazed/stupid about having lost my phone. i didn't even realize it was gone till she went down and gave it back to me. how i lost my contact lens is still a mystery. i remember putting it into the lens case when i got home last night but i after i put on the left one this morning, i just couldn't find its pair anywhere. haaaay.
let's end with another quote, this time from poet's poet elizabeth bishop: "the art of losing isn't hard to master. so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. lose something every day: accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour dadly spent... it's evident the art of losing's not too hard to master though it may look like (write it!) like disaster."
yeahhh.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
yo momma's a good lookin' babe
did i ever tell you that my dog kitty's favorite song is "summertime" by the gershwins? when she was just a handful of dirty fur with the uncanny ability to bite with deadly accuracy, i discovered that singing (or in my case, caterwauling) that song a la janis joplin on crystal meth calmed her down.
she would lie on the floor ("summertime-tahm-tahm eh-hend thuh livin's eee-hee-zzeh...") belly up ("fish are jumpin' naaaaa-hoooowww...") and i'd rub her tummy ("and thuh cowwwtuhnoohown... cotton's haaaa-aah-high... oh so ha-ah-hay..."). by the time i sing about singing ("one aawf deez maw-nins... yo gawnnuh raaa-highs up seee-hee-ngin'...") my little dog is snoring like a middle-aged man in grave danger of dying from a bangungot.
i never thought i'd actually wake up at 3 or 4 AM desperately straining to hear her snore. you see, i was supposed to go drinking with a friend last night but right after dinner, when we were about to hie off and guzzle the first of many bottles, my dad called to ask how she was. we'd been on pregnancy labor alert for the past few nights now because as of last night, little kitty was beginning to look like a white hairy dirty watermelon with teeth, tail, legs and who knows how many nipples.
so i called kuya at home who said i'd better skeddadle back from wherever i was because she'd been hiding under beds all afternoon yesterday and asked to be put in her whelping box several times. she looked just about ready to burst. eek. very scary thought. so we rescheduled the boozefest to wednesday next week and i took a cab home.
when i got there, true enough, she was in her box whimpering and heaving. definitely the beginnings of labor. so i packed some bags and with the help of kuya, brought her to a 24-hour animal clinic on kalayaan ave. to make a long sad story short, she gave birth to 4 puppies, one of which died because it came out breech. they had to cut her open because even after 2 hours of heaving and straining, she couldn't make those damn puppies pop out. good thing we decided to operate because the vet discovered that her uterus was just about ready to rupture from all that straining.
in short, my baby could have died. am so thankful for the skill of the vet and the prayers of those who didn't think praying for a dog was a stupid idea. when we got home, kitty was still groggy and shivering from all the drugs they pumped into her. she was so doped up she didn't snore at all last night. all i could hear were the thin wails from the three puppies pushing against her wet dirty fur. i was so afraid the little buggers would mess up the stitching on her belly.
so it looks like kitty and i will have to wait a few weeks before we can sing/snore to that gershwin song again. she hasn't had a bath in since last week and her tail-end is still a bloody mess. still, this momma dawg is one good lookin' babe, mainly because she's still breathing. yay! ptl!
she would lie on the floor ("summertime-tahm-tahm eh-hend thuh livin's eee-hee-zzeh...") belly up ("fish are jumpin' naaaaa-hoooowww...") and i'd rub her tummy ("and thuh cowwwtuhnoohown... cotton's haaaa-aah-high... oh so ha-ah-hay..."). by the time i sing about singing ("one aawf deez maw-nins... yo gawnnuh raaa-highs up seee-hee-ngin'...") my little dog is snoring like a middle-aged man in grave danger of dying from a bangungot.
i never thought i'd actually wake up at 3 or 4 AM desperately straining to hear her snore. you see, i was supposed to go drinking with a friend last night but right after dinner, when we were about to hie off and guzzle the first of many bottles, my dad called to ask how she was. we'd been on pregnancy labor alert for the past few nights now because as of last night, little kitty was beginning to look like a white hairy dirty watermelon with teeth, tail, legs and who knows how many nipples.
so i called kuya at home who said i'd better skeddadle back from wherever i was because she'd been hiding under beds all afternoon yesterday and asked to be put in her whelping box several times. she looked just about ready to burst. eek. very scary thought. so we rescheduled the boozefest to wednesday next week and i took a cab home.
when i got there, true enough, she was in her box whimpering and heaving. definitely the beginnings of labor. so i packed some bags and with the help of kuya, brought her to a 24-hour animal clinic on kalayaan ave. to make a long sad story short, she gave birth to 4 puppies, one of which died because it came out breech. they had to cut her open because even after 2 hours of heaving and straining, she couldn't make those damn puppies pop out. good thing we decided to operate because the vet discovered that her uterus was just about ready to rupture from all that straining.
in short, my baby could have died. am so thankful for the skill of the vet and the prayers of those who didn't think praying for a dog was a stupid idea. when we got home, kitty was still groggy and shivering from all the drugs they pumped into her. she was so doped up she didn't snore at all last night. all i could hear were the thin wails from the three puppies pushing against her wet dirty fur. i was so afraid the little buggers would mess up the stitching on her belly.
so it looks like kitty and i will have to wait a few weeks before we can sing/snore to that gershwin song again. she hasn't had a bath in since last week and her tail-end is still a bloody mess. still, this momma dawg is one good lookin' babe, mainly because she's still breathing. yay! ptl!
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
off the top of my head
stuff i like right now, and i use the term like very loosely here. just a random list of good things.
1) a meeting that ends earlier than expected/scheduled
2) nice weather, perfect for wearing my burgundy leather sandals (with the white stitching & the grommets) bought on sale at linea italia ages ago & which still look good even after years of walking/running to class
3) sipping a free can of coke lite on a hot day, looking out at trees, long shadows on grass, sunlight on bright green leaves
4) the purple butterfly cathy gave me that night we had dinner at bellini's and all the good thoughts it carries on its little yellow poster painted polka dotted wire-and-stocking wings
5) seeing a note from richelle and a banana-flavored fortune cookie from 6-yr-old nikita tacked on my office door first thing in the morning after 2 days of migraine, vomiting and awful awful menstrual cramps. the fortune: "Calm yourself in the face of adversity. You will prevail in due time."
6) knowing that i am blessed with a family and many many friends who love me & that i can count on Him who knows & loves me the most
7) a good workshop session in a CW class (everyone had useful constructive comments and suggestions to make) despite having the usual wanker reprobates showing up an hour late
8) that weird electric blue sheen on the surface of this water bottle that came free with my laptop backback
9) orange Stabilo highlighters
10) a bubble wand thingy that i got from my cousin's wedding last month (actually, i swiped four of those from the giveaway baskets they were passing around)
11) finding old treasure that's been in front of me all these months! wrote a CNF piece a while back about spending Christmas behind bars when i was fourteen or fifteen. i had included a detail about a balsa wood bookmark made by a man who is most likely still in prison right now. he could even be dead. found the thing in a black mug on my desk together with a slew of other bookmarks. crucial details in the narrative can be found on the back: my catholic high school had us visit lifers in prison on feb 2nd 1993, the man i wrote about signed his name as "NO2Y SALLE" and the note scrawled in that depressing hall at the new bilibid prison in muntinlupa goes: "PARA SA'YO KA BOBBY ROLDAN, / ISANG MUNTING ALA-ALA MULA SA ISANG KASAMA. / MABUHAY KA!"
12) nasty blogger bugs that make you lose forever certain parts of your post that you *know* you are better off not posting. i refer to the icky gushfest about a certain cute boy i had spent quite a few minutes writing and which just magically disappeared when i tried to publish this post five minutes ago. thank goodness for faulty technology!
1) a meeting that ends earlier than expected/scheduled
2) nice weather, perfect for wearing my burgundy leather sandals (with the white stitching & the grommets) bought on sale at linea italia ages ago & which still look good even after years of walking/running to class
3) sipping a free can of coke lite on a hot day, looking out at trees, long shadows on grass, sunlight on bright green leaves
4) the purple butterfly cathy gave me that night we had dinner at bellini's and all the good thoughts it carries on its little yellow poster painted polka dotted wire-and-stocking wings
5) seeing a note from richelle and a banana-flavored fortune cookie from 6-yr-old nikita tacked on my office door first thing in the morning after 2 days of migraine, vomiting and awful awful menstrual cramps. the fortune: "Calm yourself in the face of adversity. You will prevail in due time."
6) knowing that i am blessed with a family and many many friends who love me & that i can count on Him who knows & loves me the most
7) a good workshop session in a CW class (everyone had useful constructive comments and suggestions to make) despite having the usual wanker reprobates showing up an hour late
8) that weird electric blue sheen on the surface of this water bottle that came free with my laptop backback
9) orange Stabilo highlighters
10) a bubble wand thingy that i got from my cousin's wedding last month (actually, i swiped four of those from the giveaway baskets they were passing around)
11) finding old treasure that's been in front of me all these months! wrote a CNF piece a while back about spending Christmas behind bars when i was fourteen or fifteen. i had included a detail about a balsa wood bookmark made by a man who is most likely still in prison right now. he could even be dead. found the thing in a black mug on my desk together with a slew of other bookmarks. crucial details in the narrative can be found on the back: my catholic high school had us visit lifers in prison on feb 2nd 1993, the man i wrote about signed his name as "NO2Y SALLE" and the note scrawled in that depressing hall at the new bilibid prison in muntinlupa goes: "PARA SA'YO KA BOBBY ROLDAN, / ISANG MUNTING ALA-ALA MULA SA ISANG KASAMA. / MABUHAY KA!"
12) nasty blogger bugs that make you lose forever certain parts of your post that you *know* you are better off not posting. i refer to the icky gushfest about a certain cute boy i had spent quite a few minutes writing and which just magically disappeared when i tried to publish this post five minutes ago. thank goodness for faulty technology!
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
scaling walls and crushing ice
crap stolen from JP's vlog. gawd knows where he gots it.
10 years ago: holy banana! this was 1995, undergrad, the AI years. most of it was a blur; too many things were happening. transition period from the AI friends to the years of debauchery with my gatula buddies. then again, things that i remember happening in 1994 most likely happened in 1995. does it really matter? could this be the year that A did his whole "run to the woods" routine? i remember having to hold his very sweaty hand for most of that year. muntik yata akong napasma. but he's still a sweetie and we're great great friends. oh yes we are.
5 years ago: Can EDSA 2 really be 5 years ago? shee-ite. what a mess that was. lots of fun seeing the same people (V, B, R and P) over and over again for three nights in a row. the biggest street party i've ever attended. got drunk among heaps of trash on the ortigas flyover going to rosario. saw and talked to P the super-cute classmate who drove me home every day one summer (1995? 1996?) right near the portable toilets. i nearly swooned and R said i did a shoddy job pretending i wasn't clappy-happy to see him. but my favorite part really was when most people had gone home and P (who i think wanted a bowl of goto) and i just sat there on the steps of the shrine waiting for morning and maybe some good news to arrive. it didn't take long. first it was dark and there was this tiny rabble with candles and stuff. then the light slowly changed until we could see in front of us again and then it was time to go home.
1 year ago: oh dear. this one has to be about the time i dated a peter jackson lookalike. yup, very hirsute. you could shave his back and there'd be stubble 5 hours later. but he did have lovely manners. let's call him the falcon and wish his girlfriend all the luck in the world. she'll need it.
Yesterday: Fell asleep in my office trying to read the oscar wilde Dorian Gray ebook on my palm while my dad used my laptop to check his team's latest scores on nba.com. Not as productive as i hoped. had merienda with P, B, G, J at CK. the sans rival gave me a migraine and so went home and watch crappy TV till midnight.
Today: had lunch with R at likha diwa. on his laptop, he showed me his family tree and some pics of our 2001 pinatubo and galera trips with J and R. had been checking my mail in my office with j lurking somewhere in the background when R called to ask how i was and that we could hang out while i had lunch. but not at default CK as he and the other R had just been there. needless to say (and embarassingly i say anyway), i went all giggly the second he ended the call. sheesh. quelle embarassing! but still. if you saw him, you'd have a crush on him too. cute kasi eh. am very tempted to post his pic here but i think i will allow myself a tiny shred of self-respect. for now. nyahaha!
Tomorrow: Dinner at Tajma with A, B and R. tsk. medyo pathetic yata. we all have a crush on him. even the other R does. he's super super cute and a genius and plays piano and says Charing! in the most hilarious long island, ny accent. ok i'll stop gushing now.
5 snacks I enjoy: cheesecake, sans rival, glazed donuts, pita with hummus, samosas!
5 bands/artists that I know the lyrics of MOST of their songs: dave matthews, the sundays, liz phair, jobim (english translations), easy and the forces of evil. this last one, i'm not very proud to actually mention here. note that such claims are rarely ever true.
5 things I would do with $100,000,000: put it all in the bank and live off the interest. use the interest to spent my days idling away on some island or other. will travel and buy all the books i want. probably blow some of it on nice little gadgets. will spend the rest of my days writing and consoling myself with shopping and travel in the times when the writing doesn't work out very well.
5 locations I’d like to run away to: the hypothetical island that R wants to buy somewhere in palawan, that cemetery in paris where victor hugo and jim morrison are buried, the lovely little cemetery on a hill in sagada (esp during easter sunrise and todos los santos), that cemetery in before sunrise where drowned people are buried, that deserted strip of beach in mindoro that E, L, S and I visited in 2000.
5 bad habits I have: i waste a lot of time. i flirt unconsciously with the wrong men. i drink too much when i meet new people. i yank at my bra even in public. i constantly check for the inevitable oil slick that forms on my T-zone.
5 things I like doing: reading, fiddling with my palm, going online to read junk, kissing my dog, eating out with friends.
5 things I would never wear: thongs. high-cut panties. bangs. pointy shoes with stiletto heels. those icky gladiator sandals that lace up to your shins. ewww.
5 TV shows I like: CSI. hey arnold. that wacko travel gameshow on national geographic. hmm, am at a loss here. ok let's add nigella and queer eye.
5 Movies I like: before sunrise, before sunset, next stop wonderland, in the mood for love, amelie. the first three i feel compelled to watch over and over again. they just kill me.
5 famous people I’d like to meet: Michael Ondaatje, Dave Matthews, AS Byatt, TC Boyle, Jesus. really really.
5 biggest joys at the moment: my laptop. my palm. my lovely pregnant dog kitty. Bizu. R (hee hee). actually just going out with people i like makes me feel pretty OK.
5 favorite toys: my laptop. my palm. my lovely pregnant dog kitty. R and E. not together though. i wonder what E's doing now... probably still in boracay.
10 years ago: holy banana! this was 1995, undergrad, the AI years. most of it was a blur; too many things were happening. transition period from the AI friends to the years of debauchery with my gatula buddies. then again, things that i remember happening in 1994 most likely happened in 1995. does it really matter? could this be the year that A did his whole "run to the woods" routine? i remember having to hold his very sweaty hand for most of that year. muntik yata akong napasma. but he's still a sweetie and we're great great friends. oh yes we are.
5 years ago: Can EDSA 2 really be 5 years ago? shee-ite. what a mess that was. lots of fun seeing the same people (V, B, R and P) over and over again for three nights in a row. the biggest street party i've ever attended. got drunk among heaps of trash on the ortigas flyover going to rosario. saw and talked to P the super-cute classmate who drove me home every day one summer (1995? 1996?) right near the portable toilets. i nearly swooned and R said i did a shoddy job pretending i wasn't clappy-happy to see him. but my favorite part really was when most people had gone home and P (who i think wanted a bowl of goto) and i just sat there on the steps of the shrine waiting for morning and maybe some good news to arrive. it didn't take long. first it was dark and there was this tiny rabble with candles and stuff. then the light slowly changed until we could see in front of us again and then it was time to go home.
1 year ago: oh dear. this one has to be about the time i dated a peter jackson lookalike. yup, very hirsute. you could shave his back and there'd be stubble 5 hours later. but he did have lovely manners. let's call him the falcon and wish his girlfriend all the luck in the world. she'll need it.
Yesterday: Fell asleep in my office trying to read the oscar wilde Dorian Gray ebook on my palm while my dad used my laptop to check his team's latest scores on nba.com. Not as productive as i hoped. had merienda with P, B, G, J at CK. the sans rival gave me a migraine and so went home and watch crappy TV till midnight.
Today: had lunch with R at likha diwa. on his laptop, he showed me his family tree and some pics of our 2001 pinatubo and galera trips with J and R. had been checking my mail in my office with j lurking somewhere in the background when R called to ask how i was and that we could hang out while i had lunch. but not at default CK as he and the other R had just been there. needless to say (and embarassingly i say anyway), i went all giggly the second he ended the call. sheesh. quelle embarassing! but still. if you saw him, you'd have a crush on him too. cute kasi eh. am very tempted to post his pic here but i think i will allow myself a tiny shred of self-respect. for now. nyahaha!
Tomorrow: Dinner at Tajma with A, B and R. tsk. medyo pathetic yata. we all have a crush on him. even the other R does. he's super super cute and a genius and plays piano and says Charing! in the most hilarious long island, ny accent. ok i'll stop gushing now.
5 snacks I enjoy: cheesecake, sans rival, glazed donuts, pita with hummus, samosas!
5 bands/artists that I know the lyrics of MOST of their songs: dave matthews, the sundays, liz phair, jobim (english translations), easy and the forces of evil. this last one, i'm not very proud to actually mention here. note that such claims are rarely ever true.
5 things I would do with $100,000,000: put it all in the bank and live off the interest. use the interest to spent my days idling away on some island or other. will travel and buy all the books i want. probably blow some of it on nice little gadgets. will spend the rest of my days writing and consoling myself with shopping and travel in the times when the writing doesn't work out very well.
5 locations I’d like to run away to: the hypothetical island that R wants to buy somewhere in palawan, that cemetery in paris where victor hugo and jim morrison are buried, the lovely little cemetery on a hill in sagada (esp during easter sunrise and todos los santos), that cemetery in before sunrise where drowned people are buried, that deserted strip of beach in mindoro that E, L, S and I visited in 2000.
5 bad habits I have: i waste a lot of time. i flirt unconsciously with the wrong men. i drink too much when i meet new people. i yank at my bra even in public. i constantly check for the inevitable oil slick that forms on my T-zone.
5 things I like doing: reading, fiddling with my palm, going online to read junk, kissing my dog, eating out with friends.
5 things I would never wear: thongs. high-cut panties. bangs. pointy shoes with stiletto heels. those icky gladiator sandals that lace up to your shins. ewww.
5 TV shows I like: CSI. hey arnold. that wacko travel gameshow on national geographic. hmm, am at a loss here. ok let's add nigella and queer eye.
5 Movies I like: before sunrise, before sunset, next stop wonderland, in the mood for love, amelie. the first three i feel compelled to watch over and over again. they just kill me.
5 famous people I’d like to meet: Michael Ondaatje, Dave Matthews, AS Byatt, TC Boyle, Jesus. really really.
5 biggest joys at the moment: my laptop. my palm. my lovely pregnant dog kitty. Bizu. R (hee hee). actually just going out with people i like makes me feel pretty OK.
5 favorite toys: my laptop. my palm. my lovely pregnant dog kitty. R and E. not together though. i wonder what E's doing now... probably still in boracay.
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