my thoughts on 'of tongues and thoughts'

can't make a detailed review at the moment. i just got the cd this morning. as of now...all i can say is "it's worth the 8 year wait". get it at m1/tower. 200 pesos. how cheap can you get?! ;)

updated: 3/30/2006

ok, ok! this freakin' album's on my player for the past couple of days. it's on repeat!!! if asked to describe it: it's ETHEREAL!!!

to do list and my balikbayan box

It's less than a week before my US trip and I'm not yet done with my pasalubong shopping. My sister, as usual, has her last minute "bilins" even though she's now in San Francisco for their own vacation. I just opened my yahoo messenger and there-she left a message to get some medicines. But I'm not complaining, this is actually fun, but tiring I must say. Last week, I was out almost everyday looking for stuff for my friends and family in the US. You know how we Pinoys are-we never fail to give even the simplest gifts to our loved ones.

I made a list of last minute "things to do". So here it goes:

1. Prepare tax documents and ready them for filing.
2. Pre-register car. (coz it ends in '4')
3. Rip mp3s for player. I might miss pinoy bands, so just in case, I'll be ripping some of my new CDs. I'm thinking Daydream cycle, Saydie, Wolfmann, Urbandub, Paramita and Datu's Tribe.
4. Get Randell Bamboo and Urbandub CDs.
5. Get Randell and Reden Bench shirts. These guys even though they can afford the foreign brands, still prefer Bench. I guess that old Richard Gomez rowing commercial got stuck in their minds.
6. Visit dermatologist for Jay-jay's medicines.
7. Copy Janet's wedding pictures. Janet got married a few months back in Tagaytay and I haven't given her the raw files of my shots.
8. Copy ---&---'s wedding pictures. This is actually a project I'll be working on. It's a surprise so I won't name the couple. Hehe.
9. Copy Gawad Kalinga materials for distribution. Working for GK is a lifestyle I adapted when I made my commitment to support it, so even on holiday, I'll make it a point to be as productive as I can be. Come on, dollars are usapan dun noh?! ;)
10. Buy that Bono book so I'll have something to read (besides Mabuhay mag) on that 12 hour flight to SF, 12 hour stop-over and 4 hour flight to Dallas.
11. Should I include this? Prepare turnover documents for Nuts. Man, this is work related. It's not part of the "fun" things I mentioned. Hehe.

If you've been to the international airport the past year or so, you may have noticed the trendy balikbayan box covers that people carry. Packages no longer have to be that old crappy box with your name and address splattered all over it. You can now wrap them in colorful and stylish bags with name tag slip-ons. I remember my sister coming home last year and I was kidding her being a jologs because most of their co-passengers had fashionable balikbayan box covers. So before going back to the US, they got one too. Hehe.

Anyway, we have two boxes already filled with delata (century tuna, laing, sardines, etc), chips (chippy, granny goose, kirei, etc), instant noodles, chocnut, boy bawang, cook books, vcds, etc. I just hope immigration does not hassle us for bringing the local sari-sari store. Haha!

Snapshots from my previous trip four years ago:

the real race

if only all "amazing races" were like this. :) now i'm dying of envy that i'll not be able to join these guys. ingat mga titos, titas, bros and sis. padayon!!!

GK 1MB BAYANI CHALLENGE
A RACE TO BUILD A NATION
(APRIL 24-30, 2006)

Full Description of Mechanics
Mechanics:
1. Form a Bayani Barkada of 15
a. Open to ALL from ages 15 and above
b. Multi-sectoral teams encouraged
2. Your objective: Build a house in Southern Leyte. Build it within 5 days from April 26 – 30. Fastest team to build a house in the most excellent condition wins!
3. Registration fee: Php 750/team (Php 50/person).
4. Teams, on their own, will take care of the following for their own team :
a. Transpo to and from site (information on various routes will be provided)
b. Food to eat
c. Cooking and eating implements
d. Tents for sleeping
e. Clothes
f. Toiletries and necessary medicine per individual
g. First aid per group
h. Documentation, primarily camera and if possible, including video
5. The venue will provide the following :
a. Male and female toilets and bathing stalls
b. Area for tents and additional space for each team for cooking and fellowship
c. First aid and primary care facilities
6. Fill up and submit application forms.Deadline of application is on April 10, 2006.

death by drinking water

In 1992, the UN General Assembly designated March 22 as “World Water Day” to draw international attention to the critical lack of clean, safe drinking water worldwide. It is a time when we are encouraged to pause and consider the largest public health issue of our time – the global scarcity of clean water.

The facts are mind boggling. More than 1 billion people world wide – 20% of the planet’s entire human population – lack access to clean, safe drinking water. According to the United Nations, this world water crisis leads to the death of more than 4,500 children every day and is a leading cause of poverty, disease, and social instability world wide.

(continue reading...)

underwater...taking a break (pig-out mania)

hole-in-the-wall food trip is my preference. cheap. unhealthy. but makes you come back for more, faster than jj redick shoots those 3s (cause it's march madness beybeh!).

aysee - i was with alan for the Bush gig at ULTRA when we chanced upon this two-storey house serving the best sisig in town. that was in the late 90s. from then on i got hooked on their butter filled, onion spiced favorite pulutan of Pinoys. some other favorites: sizzling mushroom with cheese, kalderetang kambing, papaitan and don't forget the texas bubblegum with your change.

last aysee buddies: jingjang and eric. eric left for milan this week to follow his wife working there. inuman ulit tayo pag balik mo dude. good luck sa iyong bagong buhay. jing...inggit ako sa 'one' baller id at 'coachella' shirt mo. grrrrr. :P

le ching - the first time i went here was way back in college. i ordered congee. not knowing that congee is what it is...lugaw. so definitely it was not love at first slurp!!! fast forward to my first few working months...i discovered that they served other tasteful dishes besides their "classic" lugaw. and so the love story began. as they say, chinese people don't waste time, that's why even during lunch hours they try to visit their loves. i'm not chinese but i usually do visit this place on lunch hours. at least once a week, one of my officemates,knox, would call out "may magle-leching ba?" while the sesame street OST was playing in the background (that's another story hehe). it became a ritual of sorts for us. you might ask, le ching 1 or too? we prefer 'too'. the stinkier the better. hehe. my usual order: chicken mushroom and mountain dew.

last le ching buddies: june and ay. june, i was really watching you eat. ayaw ko maunahan mo ako. haha! :P ay...bday mo nga ba nun? naka red ka eh. wala lang ako masabi. wink, wink. ;) hehe.

other hole-in-a-walls i'm dying to go back to:

almer's - sizzling specialties for the school kids of UST and other nearby schools.

aling rosy's - one of our tambayans in high school. arguably the best isaw in the world were kolehiyalas in their uniforms are frequent visitors. forget about UP isaw, go to panorama street, sss village in marikina.

mang jimmy's - sizzling specialties for the school kids of UP and the loyola/tandang sora area.

country side - well i was there last valentine's day before we went to the UP fair. prices are becoming steep though.

underwater...taking a break (movies and series)

yeh...i was out for a while.

was quite busy doing unproductive stuff i guess. things i used to do on a regular basis. here's a rundown:

movies:
mirrormask by gaiman, mckean - actually read the book first before i watched this fantasy flick. surreal and crafty as dreams should be.

brokeback mountain - the reason why i can never be a film critique. i hate this movie and almost everyone else likes it. the cinematography is excellent though. i'd love to spend a week on those mountains.

memoirs of a geisha - i was only halfway through the book but couldn't postpone watching it anymore. i just love how this turned out. the snow dancing scene was simply hypnotic.

fantastic four - yeh yeh, i know, i'm quite late on this. let's just say jessica alba wasn't as hot as i thought she was on this one. the movie? hmmm...i wouldn't really rave about it too much. but hey, the x-men and spider-man could be precedents-the first installment were a way of introducing the characters first, then the sequels turned out to be blockbusters.

corpse bride - tim buron + johnny depp + victorian setting + stop-motion animation. a wedding of creative minds and twisted perspectives turned the land of the dead to a colorful and "lively" place while the land of the living became a dark, gothic, boring, and eerie dwelling of sinister beings. if only weddings were always as unique as this one, then i would go full time on my other craft.

series:
24 season 3 - did a marathon on studio 23. bloody and action-packed just like the first two. season 4 started last week. i'm sure i wouldn't be able to watch it on a weekly basis. so, another marathon is in the works. hehehe.