Nina Live

Nina rocks! Today, I listened to Nina's live album for the first time and I loved it. With a great selection of songs, and Nina's pleasantly powerful vocals that just fits the songs very well, I couldn't help but enjoy the music and sing along!

Different

I had a feeling while driving to work at the start of the day, as I was trying to manage the busy road of buses who are supposed to stay in the rightmost lane but keep hogging the middle lane, unpredictable jeepneys that are speeding one second and lurching to a stop with nary a warning the next (no thanks to their ever-absent brake lights), and rushing cars determined to pass them all, when, amidst all these road rage-inducing madness, not to mention the tangles of free for all intersections, all I was feeling was a great need to close my eyes and doze off, that for this day, getting on the ball at work will be tough indeed.

True enough, despite having tons of important work to do, I was still sleepy most of the day. And spaced out. Something's wrong. I hope it's only a one-day thing.

Fancy Gem Biscuits

Came across this photo in flickr, and immediately, I was transported back to the time when I was still playing agawan-base with my elementary school friends. After school, I'd have these and eat the biscuit part first, then have the sweet colorful tops for later... just like saving the best for last.

I wonder if I could still get me some of these...

crazy taxi

Nearly had a car accident this morning. I was already inside UP, and was following a taxi. But as the taxi was about to turn left going to ISMED, it suddenly jerked to a stop! Vehicles are supposed to make a full stop at intersections and I was fully prepared for that. But the taxi's sudden change of speed would catch anyone off guard.

Good thing I reacted just in time, and was able to stop immediately, while quickly glancing at my rearview mirror to check if anyone was following (no one was). Then I blasted my horn to show the idiot taxi driver that his sudden stopping nearly caused a collision.

Then something flashed on me. Suddenly, I remembered my previous car accident, where a crosswind I was following suddenly reversed and ruined my hood. Something told me the taxi was going to do a crosswind. Without hesitating, I quickly checked my rearview mirror again to make sure I wasn't going to hit anything then I reversed my car in an instant. And surely, as soon as I had moved a couple of inches, the taxi was already lurching backwards!

Realizing that the taxi driver's still unaware of my presence or something is very wrong with him or his situation with his passenger that he's stupidly ignoring me and my close distance, I backed up some more. And then his car was reversing again. This was really puzzling - and kinda alarming - because in front of him was a clear and obstacle-free road but he seemed like he's trying to wiggle out of the corner by jolting his way backwards without any regard if he'll hit anything in the process.

Finally he managed to move forward and quickly took the opposite lane - must be to stop eventually at the other side of the road.

As I went pass the taxi, it hit me that I had just barely avoided certain disaster. And as I breathed a sigh of relief, I knew, God saved me again.

dialled the dentist

After nearly a year now of daily enduring bursts of painful sensations that one busted molar has been giving me, I've finally made myself do something about it. I know, I've waited six months. But the pain wasn't so bad six months ago. Unfortunately, I've allowed it to evolve into the kind I cannot live with anymore, for the busted tooth been giving me pangs of the most unwelcome and excrutiating pain I can feel down to my toes.

So just now I made an appointment with the dentist, and tomorrow I'm heading to his office so he can end this misery. I can't wait!

jump for joy

Hats off to Jonny Hat, who apparently loved my jumping shots just enough to donate real Euros to my flickr account, now making me a pro Flickrite! Cool! And of course, my jumping shot "models"--Tid, Khen, Peejay, Pita, Von--have a lot to do with the great pics. So thanks all!

Now I'm *really* missing my camera, which is currently touring Europe with my sister.

Oooh, when it lands in my hands again, it shall be on fire! Mwahaha!

thankful

I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.
Psalm 118:21 (NIV)

Couldn't have done it without you. ;-)

Lunch

I joined Tid, Khen, Peejay, and Ades earlier today for lunch. I already had my usual packed lunch with me but could use some change of atmosphere so I decided to go with them to Casaa. We learned soon enough, though, that U.P. was in the thick of enrollment, so we found Casaa crowded--way too crowded to be risking waiting for a table given our limited break time. So we immediately transferred ourselves to Khas, which, albeit much more crowded than usual, still appeared to be able to accommodate us.

But how wrong we were.

Obtaining a table was easy enough. The frustratingly difficult part: getting through to even one waitress. It took us ages--at least three times asking for the menu and then three times being acknowledged that "yeah, it's coming", before having our tiny request pushed at the back of their minds so we had to ask them again--before we were finally able to get hold of a pair (which we realized we didn't need anymore because the waiting has made us recall our usual orders and that's what we're going to order to save precious minutes). And then we had to endure another millenium of waiting before the orders arrived. (A few minutes after our orders were taken I was so hungry already I went ahead to munch the bread that I'd brought along.)

Good thing the food seemed pleasant enough. Well, I really couldn't tell for sure, because I brought my own lunch, but everyone was instantly busy devouring their meals the second the food was put on the table. Could just be the hunger though...

Another plus was the food was cheap.

We could be definitely be back at Khas again, but definitely not during these kind of days.

a welcome weekend

Shuumatsu ha dou deshitaka? (Musta ang weekend?)

I had a good one.

Friday night found me, Khen, Rose, Pita, Tibo-san, Mam Ken, Jon, Von, Peejay, and Tid at Tid's new crib, seven floors above and more than twice bigger than her previous residence. Tibo-san provided the junk food and drinks; everything else--guitars, songbook, playstation, violin, the couch, spectacular nighttime view of Katipunan Ave.--was courtesy of our gracious host.

Upon getting ourselves settled, the drinks were prepared, a tekken tournament was initiated, and the first song in the mellow rock songbook was played. As there were hundreds of songs, and since we were going through the songs one by one--yes, page by page, skipping only the overly boring ones--our night didn't end until 4:30. Our competitive spirits also didn't help to shorten the night, for the tekken fights stretched out until everyone was ready to admit that Pita was the best among us.

I tried tekken too, but against Peejay, Von, and Tid and not Pita because he'd gone home already and he'd already built up his mean reputation that I didn't dare play against him for fear of some major butt-kicking.

A lot of times I can be found strumming one of the guitars, but mostly what I did for the night was lots of singing (surprised? hehe). I also tried my hand at creating decent music with the violin. But alas, I realized that decent violin music are not created by first time violin players. The violin was such fun, though, and I don't mind learning it at all.

When everybody has left, I remained behind and crashed on Tid's couch only to be woken up with barely an hour of shut-eye. My dad was calling and urgently needed me back at home because he just got into a car accident (again!) and he'll be needing two vehicles so he could still go around while the damaged one is being fixed.

So *right away*--which surprised my dad--go home I did, and then continued my interrupted rest, and then learn, when I woke at around 4pm, that I'd nearly missed another day! But what a restful sleep that was...

The rest of my Saturday afternoon I revisited the piano, and tried Pachelbel's Canon in D. Oh, how frustrating it is to play the piano when one's not good at it at all! But I love Canon in D so much I just know, with tons of practice, someday I'll be able to play it. It'll be my latest piano masterpiece -- mwahahaha! (Tin, you're probably laughing up your sleeve at me right now!)

Then, a short while later I arrived late for choir practice. It seems I've been terribly oblivious (for this was supposedly going on for three montsh already) that Saturday choir rehearsals have moved its starting schedule one hour earlier. So, I was an hour late. (Too bad, I would've been just right on time by the old schedule!)

After choir practice was another rehearsal, this time for the band for tomorrow's praise and worship. I was supposed to be the drummer, but ended up as guitarist because nobody else was available. Hmm... I probably have already sensed this all along, because I didn't go through my usual practice session at home and actually forgot to bring my drumsticks with me. Good thing I had some sort of practice from the previous night's songbook session.

I got home around 9 with the house still almost empty. So with almost nobody to bother with very loud music, I hit the drums.

So that was my Saturday.

Sunday morning found me unusually early at church because we were supposed to do some last minute rehearsals, this time with the drummer, Carlo. But the keyboard person, Tin, and the leader, Ate Darlene, were late, so Carlo and I practiced on our own first. When the band finally got its members all present, it was almost time for sunday school. So after going through a few of the songs, Carlo and Ate Darlene were off to their groups. Since my sunday school leader and classmates were all still in Europe, I spent the next 30 minutes in fun conversation with Tin.

So the morning proceeded with church activities. After lunch, Carlo, Moti, my Mom and I tried out the still-untouched Monopoly game board that I bought two weeks ago. We had a great time, although we had to end the game after only one hour of playing because my brothers and I had to go to the usual Sunday choir practice.

I went home right away after choir practice, but only to find out that I had been locked out of the house. I was alone and hungry. But I had transportation and good thing Tin hasn't yet left the church and was still jamming with Ate Bhoom. So I went back there to pick her up. But before we left I can't resist but to jam with them some first (the guitar was already locked away, and Ate Bhoom was already happily seated on the drum throne, so I was left with taking over Tin's other role as the singer! Hehe, no choice.) Afterwards, Tin and I went to starbucks and, over coffee and ham and cheese croissant (yum!--I always remember a certain person whenever I order this) continued our morning chat. I learned a lot about Tin, but despite her saying afterwards that I had been a good listener, I still think I blabbed more about myself than listened. I just hoped she enjoyed our little yack fest as much as I did. ^_^

After dropping Tin off at Bayan, I went home for a quick dinner and headed to the cinema to watch Madagascar. It was a fun movie, and had its hilarous moments, but the story was so plain. The moviehouse, though, is still the place to watch it because one would surely be missing the outstanding graphics if watched at home through the constricted frame of a TV.

After the movie, I went straight back home, and after only half a chapter of The Dawn Treader -- quite an interesting read, if only I wasn't so tired -- was off in dreamland.

decisions...

I'm sitting here, still at the office, but doing nothing in particular. I'm in a state of confusion, and have been the whole day, trying to decide on what I'm going to do this evening, tomorrow, and the future. And although I've somewhat reached a conclusion, I still can't say that I'm fully convinced of the choice I made.

See, I've decided to skip tomorrow's climb to Mt. Daguldol. Because of that, I don't need to go anywhere tonight to buy food and gear as part of preparing for tomorrow. And also because of that, my budget for the climb is now free to be spent on something else, like a pair of new rubber shoes, which is not an urgent need in at least four months but will only be available in its ultra super low priced form (that's a 70% slash) for just four days (and that's today until the end of this month!)

But a part of me still wants to go. I haven't actually told those who'll climb that I'm in, so I have nothing and no one to back out from. But mentally, I've been preparing for this climb. Now I feel like I'm backing out from myself, like I'm leaving an eager and expectant part of me in the air, leaving that part of me dissapointed and crushed.

And why the change of heart? Why, the rain mostly. The daily afternoon rains has been making me lethargic. And today its full effect was upon me. I can't even think straight.

But I've made my decision. I'm not going anywhere tomorrow. Now, I hope I can decide on where to go for dinner tonight.

Pangasinan behind the scenes

Yes, I know, this post is about something that happened ages ago. But somehow, despite being happily in draft form for almost a month now, this entry didn't want to stay like so forever. So here it is, better late than... Oh yeah, there's a reason it was hidden. It's boring.

As you can see, it's actually just more pictures from the Pangasinan trip. But not the usual ones. Just pics of trip's photographers caught on still camera while doing their jobs. OK, now I think it's a bit interesting. I just noticed that there was always somebody who manages to take behind the scenes shots of other people taking pictures of other people. Mostly it was PJ, who took the first photo, capturing me photographing other people. I also remember myself doing it once during the trip: shooting peejay while he was shooting... me (shooting him. That should count!) But there's one more person, I'm just not sure who, who caught PJ taking a picture of other people (me again, actually). Pics 3 and 4 illustrate.

Bolinao

Second day of the Pangasinan weekend was Bolinao day. 14 beach lovers in four vehicles headed out from a hotel which fronts the Hundred Islands in Alaminos, to Patar Beach, a long strech of almost-white sand which fronts coral-rich sea.

After waking up Sunday morning with far from enough shuteye (with the activities of the day past and the activities still ahead, three hours is never enough), I, with the rest of the gang, packed, checked-out, made a stop at McDonald's Alaminos for our packed lunches, set the plan to go to Patar Beach (ah yes, the actual destination was not known until right before we stepped onto the highway to Bolinao!), and then drove for more than an hour and a half through long straight roads and climbing zigzag roads, and then through a seemingly endless stretch of patience-testing dirt road to finally reach... China, er, Bolinao's Patar Beach.

The beach, though, was well worth the troubles. The place was a nice long and wide stretch of fine clean sand expansive enough for us--and many others, if them others had wanted to--to play frisbee and football. Sand also stretched way into the water, offering our feet soft ground to lazily wade on. And after just going a little deeper into the sea, the sand is soon replaced by lovely corals.

And the water. Cold but not too cold to make you shiver, the water had just the perfect temperature to give the perfect refreshment under the burning hot sun. Also it didn't burn my eyes much. Somehow, it wasn't as salty as ordinary seawater.

We enjoyed Bolinao till almost late in the afternoon, then it was time to go home... already. We were just happily playing and eating and relaxing and soaking up the sun and then it was time for the six hour drive back to Quezon City... already! I haven't had a decent night's sleep--not even a decent amount of daytime shuteye--in three straight days and yet I have to be driving--again!

Then a slight change of plans from some of my passengers. My brother and his friends, who travelled with us going to Bolinao and were going to ride with me again going home, weren't ready yet and needed at least a couple of hours more. (Some were so not ready they were postponing their departure until two days later.)

Turned out I could snatch a few hours of badly needed slumber before hauling through the highways again. And I actually got 5--just enough.

What a great day!

Hundred Islands

Ah, hundred islands--where the Astra gang spent its Saturday during its weekend expedition to Pangasinan last week.

After going around the islands, with Khen's friend the boatman bringing us from island to island and introducing each one to us (apparently, every tiny island has a name), we finally made our home on Scout island, a nice little patch of land with a mini cave and, more importantly, trees to shade our camp from the scorching sun.

But our tiny little island had more to offer, we soon discovered. Aside from its stone canopy that provided us shade while wading and swimming near the shore, its small patch of cream colored sand, we were delighted to learn and play with, was of the fine fine kind.

Beach bound

Well, it looks like I could be trusted to drive with the rest of the 16-wheeler trailer trucks and mountain-bound buses of the north luzon express way and the national highways of Pangasinan after all.

When I asked my dad again last tuesday night, he didn't say OK. But instead he just said the tires needed some checking first. Then, that's it. He said nothing much, and it was my turn to speak already. The way my dad was talking, it was like it's already set: I'm good, i.e. I can leave with his 2.5-L AUV and drive 600 plus km without his guidance. After that I remember telling him more details about the trip, like how many people have confirmed their participation (14 beach hungry guys and gals), and then the time we plan to leave (around 8pm). But it was like he didn't even had to hear them. After our short conversation, I was convinced he was convinced I can handle it. Cool!

So the gang's all set now. Pangasinan here we come!

Pangasinan plans

The office is abuzz today with talk about the coming trip to Pangasinan. The trip's this weekend already, and the plan is to go to Hundred Islands, then to Bolinao. Ades and Khen are cooking up the menus already. Pita's new snorkeling gear is on standby. BJ's new 7.1 megapixel camera is waiting to take fresh jumpshots. The hotel's been reserved, too.

The only thing that remains to be ironed out is the transportation, because my dad hasn't yet actually given me the full go signal to use his crosswind. He's about halfway to consenting: he said I can use the vehicle only if I'm not going to be driving at night. But we're scheduled to leave on Friday night.

Some persuasion is at hand. Gotta make full use of what remains of my safe and defensive driver image. Wish me luck.

Puerto pics

Took this after doing some shopping on my third day at white beach in puerto galera last week. Went there this time with the whole office (on a trip where everything was paid by the office--yey!) This was the most colorful sunset during my stay there. Must be the on-and-off rain during that day, which only finally stopped falling just before the sun began to set.

Here's me with some officemates who are about to go snorkeling. I was only able to go the following day, because as of the moment this picture was taken, I was still having my period. Yep, the timing couldn't have been any lousier.

Ah, so what to do when the rest of them are happily checking out the corals and you're left alone with a friend who's not really into following fishes around but has a brand new digital camera and would gladly put the said camera into good use? You got it: snap away!

Sometimes, I just love it when somebody else is doing the picture taking. And in this trip, there were four others who brought their cameras along. Yey!

But behind the lens is a nice place too.

the view from halfway up mt. malasimbo

from my puerto galera weekend with my mountain climbing buddies last April 2-3

hut chairs flowers sky

Talipanan beach, Puerto Galera

Amos Lee

Heard his songs for the first time today. I only got to listen to three of them, but instantly liked them. I liked his laid back, jazzy sound. The lyrics are good too. Now I want to hear the rest of the album.

Pag mura ang songhits na nabili mo...

Got this from a yahoo group of mine, and boy, did it made me laugh!!
Let's start singin'... :)

I decided long ago, never to walk in edu
manzano...
(I decided long ago,
never to walk in anyone's shadow)

Cry by Mandy Moore - A walk to remember... it was
late afternoon!
(I'll always remember, it was late afternoon)

All My Life by K-ci and Jojo - supposed to be
you're like my mother,supposed to be you're like my sister
(close to me you're like my
mother... close to me you're like my sister)

Where's the Love - People killing, people flying,
children hurt an living,
crying...
(People killing, people dying; children
hurt and you hear them crying)

Leaving on a jet plane - so kiss me and SMAFFLE
me...
(so kiss me and smile for me...)

Usher & Alicia's My Boo - It started when we were
younger you were
NINE...
(It started when we were younger you were mine)

Eto pa: ...and you were my BEYBLADE... it started
when were younger
you
were FINE... hehehe....

(eto isa sa mga naging favorites, hehehe...)
If I Ain't Got You by Alicia Keys - "some people
want
TAMBOURINES.."
(diamond rings)

Britney's Baby One More Time - My ONLY NEST is
killing me... and I........
(My loneliness....)

Thumbthumping (Chumbawumba) - I get knocked down
by an elephant, my
mommas's gonna bring me down...
(I get knocked down, but I get up again...)

Crush by Jennifer Paige - "i-splash, a little
crush.."
("it's just.. a little crush..")

Red Hot's Californication - "Viva
Californication...."
(Dream of Californication...)

No scrubs, TLC - "A scrub is a guy who thinks he's
fine but is also known
as a BUS STOP"
(buster)

Waterfalls by TLC: Don't go JASON waterfalls...
(Chasin')

John Mayer - You're ALICE IN WONDERLAND... You're
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
I'll use my hands
(Body is a wonderland)

Baa Baa Black Sheep: "Baa baa black sheep, heavy
on the road..."

With A Smile by Eraserheads: "lift ur HAND.. baby
dont be scared..
of the things that could go wrong along the way..
(HEAD!!!)

Wag Na Wag Mong Sasabihin by Kitchie Nadal:
maaaaaaaaaag... ,
magdamag
mong
sasabihin........

two-trick pony by sandwich - i have been waiting
for you all night
under
the glow of INSECENT LIGHT
(...under the glow of YOUR SATELLITE)

On Bended Knees by Boyz II Men: Oh God give me the
reason, I'M DOWN...
ABANDON ME...
(I'm down on bended knee)

Red Hot's Zephyr Song: Fly away on my
CELLPHONE...I feel it more
than ever
(Fly away on my zephyr, I feel it more than ever)


ETO ANG "THE BEST!"

Nothing's gonna change my love for you... you know
NAMAN MY LOVE
how
much I
love you...