~* NOW I KNOW WHY DAN BROWN ROCKS *~

Since last year, I haven't been really interested at all to read any of Dan Brown's work. Not even during the months when there was soooo much buzz about The Da Vinci Code that its copies were all sold out at National Bookstore and Powerbooks. One look at the thick book and I told myself that I'd just wait for it to come out in the movies! :P I'm too lazy to read books as thick as those :P (I never even read a single Harry Potter book! I just refuse to be Potterized despite the worldwide phenomenon over Rowling's books :P Oh but I watched all three HP movies. hehe.)

So anyway, I was wondering what the big fuss was about so I just asked my officemate to tell me what exactly Da Vinci Code was about. I mean yeah, I heard that it was highly controversial on a religious angle and all but I did not really know exactly why until then. Upon hearing her "long story short", I understood why everyone wanted to read the book. BUT, I still did not bother to read it. No burning desire at all to read aaaaalll those pages! But then, after quite awhile of mentioning to me how Dan Brown's books were really good, my sister lent me both her Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code books. So I said to myself, "okay, why not give it a try..."

I started with Angels and Demons last week. And WHOA. Astiiiig. Kaya pala. I read the book practically in two days! I started a coupla pages last Tuesday but went full-blast in reading it virtually non-stop last Saturday and Sunday. It was hard to put down the freakin book! It's also cool how I learned about Roman art pieces and tourist spots (Bernini's sculptures and all those obelisks! I am so intrigued with Bernini's works that I have started googling the images already... Syempre, I googled The Ecstasy of St. Teresa first!:P). Catholic rites of electing a new pope. The Vatican City's inner workings. And all those Illuminati ambigrams and interpretations...! Conspiracy theories!

Oooh, and another good thing is that I'm learning new words while reading it :) I always had my dictionary by my side coz whenever I see an unfamiliar word, I get way too OC that I couldn't resist the urge to look it up even if I could understand it in context. Imagine, I was sooo engrossed in the book that, by 9pm, I realized I hadn't taken a bath at all! Haha! I read on and on until I finished the book around 1am. (I could not bring myself to sleep without finishing the damn book! I just HAD TO finish it!).

Grabe. Dan Brown is clever. His twists are so mind-blowing. Totally ingenious. Now I know why he rocks!

I can't wait to start reading The Da Vinci Code! (bad trip though coz I know na the gist so it won't be as surprising... but still, I'm sure the details and how he cleverly crafted his story will still blow me away.)

~* AND THE OSCAR GOES TO...*~

'Have just caught snippets of the Oscars. I'm so fond of Adam Sandler :) That Catherine Zeta shtick of his with Chris Rock was funny! Now why is Beyonce all over The 77th Academy Awards???? Why oh why oh why? I saw her doing the Phantom of the Opera number... Hellllooo. She looked like a freakin' chandelier wearing all those chunky earrings, necklace AND bracelet all at the same time. Excuse me, whoever the heck was responsible for that garish ensemble, it is not the Bling-bling Pimp My Accessories awards night! It's just way too... blinding. Classic minimalism was probably not in her stylist's dictionary.

... eureka! i've found the missing chandeliers!!!

I'm disappointed that Natalie Portman did not win Best Supporting Actress :( I really liked her role in Closer (one of my fave movies now!).

Shameless plug: THE WORLD'S BEST MOVIES ARE SHOT ON KODAK FILM :) All nominees for Best Picture and Achievement in Cinematography were shot on our films :) For the 77th consecutive year, the Oscar for Best Picture has always gone to a movie produced on Kodak film. Yey! :)

~*IF I COULD ONLY SPEAK THAI & OTHER RANDOM STUFF *~

I spoke to Thai people all day at the office. I have been calling Hard Rock Cafe in Pattaya, Thailand, this certain company who is organizing the upcoming Asia Pacific Ad Fest and Royal Cliff Beach Hotel. Our Thailand office was way too busy and understaffed to help us with logistics so I had to do the arrangements myself. I must've racked up quite a lot of overseas call minutes since it was not easy speaking to Thais. They don't pronounce end consonant sounds... their "r"s are missing... and English is not exactly their second language. One time I found myself saying "No, no. English! English!" when someone greeted (I presume?) me and started speaking to me in Thai. I tried to use basic/simple English words and repeated myself a few times just to make sure we understood each other correctly. The Thai dude from Hard Rock kept addressing me as "sir". Do I sound like a man over the phone?! I am pretty sure my voice is high pitch enough to be female! :P

I remember about a year ago, I was speaking to a Hungarian lady from Hungary's immigration office over the phone. I was trying to check if the visa of this U.P. film student whom we sponsored for a Budapest summer internship was already approved. We could barely understand each other! Finally, it was just a matter of me asking her if it was "Okay or Not Okay?"... "Problem or No Problem?". That was a funny cultural experience for me. Basically, the key to communicating with people who are not well-versed in English is to use extremely simple and universally-understood words: Okay/Not okay, Yes/No...

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I think I'm getting fat. I am not imagining. I have noticed that every month when I am about to get my period, I tend to pig out. I crave for salty junk foods, chocolates or even spicy siomai. I pigged out on Cadbury Break Bites this afternoon. It seems to be a new kind of Cadbury chocolate. It's like little squares of KitKat. Yummmmy! While I was falling in line at the terminal on my way home, I ate some left-over garlic peanuts I got from our office cafeteria and then I ate Henlin shark's fin. I have mastered the art of eating siomai while standing up in line much the same expertise as eating fries with ketchup (while also falling in line).

I can feel my tummy getting marshmallowy. I could hardly breathe in my size 25 jeans. My office pants are tight while the other slightly big ones are suddenly snug. In a digital pic taken last Sunday in the province, my arms look bigger. Ugh. If only all fats went to my boobs then I would not mind at all. I have yet to check if I still fit in my Speedo. I'm pretty sure I won't fit into my board shorts anymore coz the velcros were already half-way stuck last year. This year, I might not be able to overlap the velcros at all. (Note to self: Good luck on that.) I must lose weight by Holy Week (we're going to Subic!). It's cheaper than buying a new Speedo swimsuit.

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I still had SM gift certificates from our company X-mas party last year. I tried to look for office pants or shoes but I could not find anything nice so I bought 3 CDs instead. I will always be happy with CDs! =) I got Maria Mena's White Turns Blue ( I soooo love "Sorry". Gee, it's my song...), the Full Volume compilation (because I sooo love "Broken Sonnet" by Hale. There's another nice track there... a rock remake of Sade's "No Ordinary Love". Of course, Stonefree's "Kapag Nawala Ka" is there too.), and the first Bridget Jones's Diary soundtrack (because my pirated one skips already! Ugh.)

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It's a long weekend! Hurray! My sister lent me her Dan Brown books (Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code). I will read as much as I can this weekend. I wonder what's the big fuss about Dan Brown's writings...

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I have been meaning to post my "things to do before I die" kind of thing and another "anger management exercise"... If I'm not too engrossed in Angels and Demons, I will try to blog about it over the weekend.

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I'm sleepy and my email is full of unread messages. Labooo. Good night, netizens.

~* PIMPING IS CONFUSING *~

Pimping my PC (think MTV Pimp My Ride!:P) is confusing the hell out of me. I am lost in the technology of DVD-ROM vs. DVD-RW. The DVD+R, DVD-R and DVD+RWs confound me. I was almost set on buying an Asus 16X DVD-ROM along with 512MB RAM and 80GB HDD but my dad suddenly wanted me to check out the DVD RWs-- he's even gonna shell out some moolah (IF it's WITHIN his budget) to add to my "pimping" money. I remember reading from somewhere that you gotta have a gargantuan memory to burn DVD movies and such. I think that's why I gave up on the idea of getting myself a DVD burner. Plus, it's freaking expensive. And what the f*** are Blu-Ray discs and HD-DVDs??? And that region-locking thing. Gee, I took quite some time researching about it. Apparently there's hardware-based and software-based region counter thingiemajigs. I forgot which one is easier to hack. Downloading firmwares... flashing bin files whatever. Arghhhh. *pulls hair in frustration*

My Googling abilities have been way too tested with researching about DVD-ROMs and DVD-RWs.

~* ANGER MANAGEMENT EXERCISE NO. 2 *~

Bitter
by Jill Sobule

I could slip, I could fall
In that mean and awful hall
With the other jealous bitches
And the bitter grumbling men

I could sneer, I could glare say that
life is so unfair And the one who
made it, made it `Cuz her breasts
were really big

Well I don't wanna get bitter
I don't wanna turn cruel
I don't wanna get old before I have to

I could bitch, I could moan
Say I want to be left alone
But that's not really true,
Because I like my time with you

Till you rant and you rave
Wishing fat folks to their grave
But I feel sorry for them
You say they get what they deserve

Well I don't wanna get bitter
I don't wanna turn cruel
I don't wanna get old before I have to

I don't wanna get jaded
Petrified and weighted
I don't wanna get bitter like you
Like you, with the darts in your eyes
Like you, with disdain for mankind
I was charmed, now I wonder

Well I don't wanna get bitter
I don't wanna turn cruel
I don't wanna get old before I have to
So I'll smile with the rest
I'll wish everyone the best
And know the one who made it,
Made it cuz she was actually pretty good
Well I don't wanna get bitter
I don't wanna turn cruel
I don't wanna get old before I have to

~* MUSICAL TAG *~

I've been musical tagged by Abbie and Mitzi!


MY CURRENT RANDOM SONGS:

The Scientist by Coldplay/Natasha Bedingfield - one of my ultimate faves

"Nobody said it was easy. Oh it's such a shame for us to part.
Nobody said it was easy. No one ever said it would be this hard.
Oh let's go back to the start."

The Blower's Daughter by Damien Rice - super poignant. Hearing it played in Closer (starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law) made me like it more.

"And so it is just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me most of the time.
And so it is, the shorter story:
No love, no glory.
No hero in her sky.
Can't take my eyes off you... "

The Trouble with Love by Kelly Clarkson - one of my fave tracks in the Love Actually soundtrack.

"The trouble with love is it can tear you up inside
Make your heart believe a lie
It's stronger than your pride
The trouble with love is it doesn't care how fast you fall
And you can't refuse the call."

Here with Me by Dido - ahh, the Max and Liz song from Roswell. I even have the version with sound bites from Roswell spoken by the lovers. The song offered an entirely new perception to me when I heard it in Love Actually -- that scene when Kiera Knightly saw the wedding video shot by the groom's best friend. "To me you are perfect..." *sigh*

"I won't go, I won't sleep
I can't breathe until you're resting here with me..."

Walking After You by Foo Fighters - the only Foo Fighter song that I like. I think it was in the X-Files soundtrack. I love the breathy vocals and lulling melody.

"I cannot be without you, matter of fact..."

Firewoman by Hungry Young Poets - still having a Barbie Almabis hang-over.

"Coz I've seen the world from down there
and it wasn't a pretty sight.
Now the circle is turning
Are you armed for the fight?
I wanna be a firewoman.
I'll water down your desire.
Coz I know this love is a killer."

Soon by Moonpools and Caterpillars - always nice to hear

"How was I to know
No one told me so
I just landed here and struggled to get by
Nothing much to see
Oh so naive
and then it hit me like it has 1,000 times

One day soon its going to happen to you
And when it does it wont be pretty."

Sweetest Goodbye by Maroon5 - two different versions from Songs About Jane and Love Actually soundtrack.

"Dream away everyday
Try so hard to disregard
the rhythm of the rain that drops
and coincides with the beating of my heart.

How does it feel to know you never have to be alone
when you get home?"

WHAT IS THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF MUSIC IN YOUR PC?

My Music folder is 5.67 GB with 1,832 files. Plus My Shared Folder for Kazaa which contains newly-downloaded songs and incomplete DLs is 437MB with 270 files.

THE LAST CD I BOUGHT:

Keane's Hopes and Fears - I bought it because of the song This is The Last Time

THE LAST SONG YOU LISTENED TO BEFORE THIS MESSAGE?

Texas' I'll See it Through. Track 9. The Love Actually OST is currently playing on my CD player.

5 SONGS YOU LISTEN TO THAT MEAN A LOT TO YOU:

1. Wish You Were Here by Incubus - it's a hero song
2. You Won't See Me Crying by Passage - the bullsh*t duet song
3. Out of Reach by Gabrielle & ...On the Radio by Nelly Furtado (tie!) - asswipe songs
4. Let Me Be the One by Jimmy Bondoc & What If by Babyface (tie!) - T2 songs...
5. Strange and Beautiful by Aqualung - most fave Wicker Park song that gave me the quote "Sometimes the last thing you want comes in first. Sometimes the first thing you want never comes. I know that waiting is all you can do sometimes."
   

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE YOU'RE GOING TO PASS THIS ON?

Tin
Charo
Fay
Kiko
Teena
Mic

~* ANGER MANAGEMENT EXERCISE NO. 1 *~

Please keep in mind that I am only a biatch when provoked.

TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU

1. I hate your being an asswipe. It's unbelievably appalling coz I thought you have grown up. Apparently, the vodka sprite impaired my judgement.

2. I hate you coz that was like "oops, u f***ing did it again" to me.

3. I hate you coz now I can't sing without ever thinking of OTB. And OTB memories are baaaad.

4. I hate that you come in and out of my life anytime you want.

5. I hate how I now can't wear my cool fuchsia Jamaican Dream Terranova shirt coz I friggin' remember you everytime I see that shirt in my closet.

6. I hate how we looked so good in those pictures on my fone. It kills me. Could've been so beautiful. Could've been so right. I'll never hold what could have been on a cold and lonely night.

7. I hate you coz you have made me lose my trust in the sincerity of men.

8. I hate you coz you have ultimately made me jaded.

9. I hate how I remember you everytime I see a black Honda car.

10. I hate it but I think I will still apply the law of superseding actions to you.

~* IS IT BETTER TO BE KIND THAN TO BE HONEST? *~

Sometimes it is better to be kind than to be honest. Operative word: "sometimes". I think most of the time, when it comes to serious vital information and heartfelt opinions, it is better to be honest than to be kind. In that context, I have always been telling my friends that I prefer the cold hard (albeit cruel) truth than sugar-coated bullcrap. I mean, don't bullsh*t me please. I may look fragile (well, I AM fragile still in a way...) but I can take the honest biting truth. Give it to me. I can handle it. You may break my heart to little pieces by saying it but I will surely love you more for being totally honest with me and not BS'ing me for fear of hurting me. What I don't know won't hurt me, right? But then again, I'd hate to be taken for a fool. Like, here I am living my days and there you are hiding something from me. It is sweet and thoughtful of my friends to think of sheltering me from further pain by hiding what they know from me. But thank God, they know me better than that! It's amusing that my friends sometimes secretly debate amongst themselves whether to tell me something or not. In the end, the side that says "Oh let's go friggin tell her" wins. I love them more for their total honesty. I am posting this to show my sincere appreciation for my friends. Ya know who you are dearies. ;-) You truly are friends for keeps. *hugz*

~ * ROAD TRIP! *~

Congratulations to my college friends Aga & Jovan -- brand new mom & dad to baby boy Keith Xander! :)

Got a text from Aga yesterday that she just gave birth to a bouncing baby boy last Feb 10 at St. Luke's. I texted my other friends She and Rose and asked them when we' re gonna go visit Aga. We decided to visit her after office hours. And so, that started our mini ala-Amazing Race road trip last night...

5:30 PM - 7:10PM: San Pedro, Laguna to Pasay Road, Makati. Since I was on vacation leave yesterday, I came all the way from our house to the central busines district.

7:10PM- 7:30PM: Pasay Rd. to Enterprise Bldg. in Paseo de Roxas. Being a Friday, traffic was (as usual) of epic proportions and taxi cabs were to kill for. Thus, I decided that I would get to Rose's office in The Enterprise way faster travelling by foot than by wheels (which one would manage to get after 10 years of waiting at the curb). So: hello walkway! So basically, I walked from EDSA to Paseo de Roxas via the walkway.

7:30PM-9:45PM: Paseo de Roxas, Makati to St. Luke's Hospital in QC. Around 8ish, we were still pretty much stuck in Makati traffic. We stopped for awhile so that She could switch seats with Rose. So from then on, it was She who drove Rose's car. We avoided EDSA like the plague and traveled through the inner streets of i-don't-know-where. Our objective was to go to Wilson St. in Greenhills wherein, from there, She knows pretty much which way to go to St. Luke's. Suffice it to say that we got lost along the way somewhere in Kalentong. We kept popping up in Shaw Blvd. after driving for a coupla minutes. There we were: She who was half-hungry (coz she snacked a bit when she got to Makati), Rose who was trying real hard to read the map and navigate, and me (at the backseat) who was absolutely famished coz my last meal was an 11am lunch. Good thing Rose had some Pringles left for me to stave off my hunger.

After some time, Rose quit on the yey-girl-power-we-can-read-maps idea. We stopped about 3 to 4 times to ask for directions. (Yes. When us women get lost, we know it is more sensible to ask for directions instead of driving around aimlessly feeling macho and pretending you actually know where you're going. hehe.) There's this cool manong (Manong, you're THA MAN!) who managed to give us detailed and really helpful directions. But still, after some point, we got sorta lost again. teehee.

See, with all that driving around, we came to realize why people in the Amazing Race bite off each other's head when they're navigating. And we came to accept the fact that it's just darn hard to read that stupid unhelpful map! *LOL* We managed to realize some of the benefits of our little comedy of errors:

1. We brushed up our people-skills! Ya see, all that stopping and rolling down of windows to ask strangers for directions sure put our lovely people-skills to test.
2. We exercised our mental faculties! Figuring out where we were by looking for clues like the jeepney sign boards, store signages, green street signs, arches and marquees... deciding whether to go straight, left, right or back... chatting while driving... our senses were on full-gear!
3. Patience is a virtue! Despite finding ourselves lost, we never lost our cool. We were cracking jokes and laughing at our predicament the entire time. Totally fun road trip talaga!
4. We learned how to survive! We were three pretty hungry gals inside the car. We only got to eat dinner at 11PM AFTER we visited Aga in St. Luke's.

9:45PM-10:30PM: St. Luke's Hospital. Finally! Just when Aga started wondering where we were, we arrived at St. Luke's. We watched the digital vid of her baby from the moment it came out into the world (naaaks!) until it was in Aga's arms all cleaned up and umbilical cord-free. Geez. It made me all terrified about giving birth. And whoa, we realized that we are indeed getting old! Yikes! Some of my friends are already married/pregnant/with kids! Can I just let out a little *eeeek!*? hehehe. I wonder IF and WHEN I'll ever get to that stage in my life... hmm.

10:30PM-10:45PM: St. Luke's to Thai in a Box at Tomas Morato/E. Rod (I dunno basta somewhere there!) Ahhh. At last! We peed (excuse me) and ordered our food when we got there. (Abbie: I suddenly missed our TIB days in Makati!!!)

11:45PM-1:AM: QC to Makati. We lingered for about an hour in Makati as we hopped from Dusit to Intercon to make an unscheduled stop. *secret!*

1AM-1:30AM: Makati to San Pedro, Laguna. Because, syempre, my friends love me *hehe* they brought me all the way home even if Rose lived in Las Pinas and She lived in Sucat. Geez, Rose probably got home around2:30AM.


So there--our little city road trip after not having seen each other for more than seven (or more?) months! These college friends of mine aren't that into cam-whoring though so even if I brought my digicam, they did not want me to take any pics! hehe, camera shy!;-)

~* MUSIC AT KM. 19 *~

Went out with my best buds from high school-- Abbie, Tin and Charu -- last night. Since I'm on vacation leave today, it was alright to have come home at around 3am this morning. Tin and I met up with Abbie and Charu at ATC and then together, we proceeded to 19 EAST at Sucat (the former Galo's grill back then). We got there around 10:30PM in time to watch True Faith and Barbie's Cradle perform.

strong ice, true faith

True Faith was good. It was my first time to see them perform live. I liked the songs they played-- 80's new wave genre and 90's rock (most definitely OUR type of music back in high school!). Can't quite fathom though the weird dance steps of Medwin (vocalist).


barbie's cradle (new guy on electric guitar?)

The next performer was Barbie's Cradle (the MAIN reason why we went all the way to Sucat). This was only the second time I saw them live. The first time was back in 2003 at Enchanted Kingdom (Charu, Mitzi: remember that? such fun!) . Back then, I was totally smitten by the angelic presence of pixie-like Barbie Almabis. Last night, I was still mesmerized by her. Gaaahd, my lesbian tendencies are showing! *LOL* Kidding, kidding!!!


there's something about barbie...

There's really something about her radiating warm aura that reminds me of dainty pretty little fairies. And her dreamy voice (imagine Lisa Loeb's but cuter) just lulls you to a sheer peaceful state. Basta, it's such an nice experience watching Barbie's Cradle perform live. I sooo like this band forever! I liked her style of singing even way back her Hungry Young Poets days. Funny though how I don't even own any of their albums...

Loved it when she sang Firewoman (my ULTIMATE fave - she was still in Hungry Young Poets back then). They had about 3 encores since the crowd just couldn't get enough of their music. She gladly obliged. Unforgettable was their great version of Unchained Melody. As in SUPER.

Of course, if we Forces gals are out, it's a sin not to snap any pictures. I brought my digicam and Tin also brought hers. Ergo, cam-whoring to the second power...

~* IN (DIS)HONOR OF THE BLAH DAY *~

Can I skip this friggin' month altogether? *gaaah*

Didn't I mention before that the soundtrack of Wicker Park rocks? Check out the sound bites at amazon.com. A wicked version of Against All Odds by Postal Service is one of my pleasant discoveries in the soundtrack. The trance/techno/hypnotic treatment of the song kicks ass.

~ o0O0o ~

Sometimes, the last thing you want comes in first. Sometimes, the first thing you want never comes. I know that waiting is all you can do sometimes. ~ Strange & Beautiful (I Put a Spell on You) by Aqualung, Wicker Park OST