Guessing Game

Can you guess the things I got for my birthday? Not going to make it hard for you. Here are your choices:

• White/black Nike Air Flight '89
• Pay increase
• White 2009 Honda Jazz
• Nintendo Wii
• White 2006 Volkswagen Kombi
• No Treasure Hunts Matchbox VW Van
• Million Peso Bank Account
• Video greeting from a cute kid

Come on now, be realistic. LOL!

I Dream

I feel tired, yet it has been a slow week so far. The morning ritual is killing me. I need a holiday. Not a made up a holiday, a real one. One that involves plane rides, hotel room services, and currency exchanges. But, I would settle for a whole day of sleep on my trusted bed, with an untimed aircon.

You Want Some?

" Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
so dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. "
- Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay"



Come get some. ;)

Rak 'En Rol

I was there quite early, around 9:30. The place looked okay, quite intimate (another way of saying it was small). It reminded me of Mayric's, only smaller. I looked around for a minute. They had Fist Of Fury on the projector and Bruce Lee was kicking people's asses. Saw a few girls and I wondered to myself if Wolfgang was playing. All the tables were taken. I decided I would just stand by the bar, close to the beer, and a couple of steps from the door. The place was tiny enough to give a "live show" feel even from there. 

The crowd was amazed by Bruce Lee's amazing Kung-Fu.


Two more beers and half an hour later the band took to the stage. The music was good, a lot better than majority of the generic crap out there. It is surprising that this band is not getting more attention. The crowd was okay, I just could never get used to the audience singing along with the band as I like going to gigs because I like to hear the singer's voice live, raw, and pure. There was a pair that was constantly pecking at each other like it was a Valentine's concert that they were in (it is a darn rock gig, show your tatas or something!), and several drunk kids shouting requests in the middle of songs. They cannot handle alcohol, kids today, that is a fact. After getting their free Red Horse they would come back to the bar and ask if they can have another kind of beer. SMH. One downed a bottle and started screaming "more, more", this after the band finished their first song. Ah well, I have not been out for ages and I am just too old, I guess.

He is just checking the mic out.


And he approves, it is a high quality mic.


I left after the first set. Would have stayed to finish the whole thing but I knew Little Popot would be waiting. Overall, a satisfying night. The EP is on my heavy rotation. Go, grab one if you have a chance.

Enslaved

There is a new program head in town. He is mad pissed for getting a title that comes with additional work but no additional pay. People should be praying by now.

Financial Crunch My A.

Economic crisis? You got to be kidding me. There is no such thing with people who know how to "think" and prioritize. Fact, we just moved to a better bank, seeing that our previous bank cannot handle the kind of funds we are putting up. Little Popot picked our new bank.

Our old bank.


Our new bank.




Looks pretty stable to me. ;)

Risen

Hide the children, they are back!



Thursday. January 22, 2009. 9PM. 6underground, Pearl Drive, Ortigas. Php150 entrance. 1 Red Horse free. CDs at Php180 each.

Oh My God, They Killed The Swapmeet!!

I went to the DCPH Swapmeet. Quite noticeable was the low turn out. Normally the place would be packed hours before the actual start of the event. The online marketplace might have something to do with this. Why attend the swapmeet if you can buy items regularly via DCPH.com? I do not know if the execom sees this the way I do. Or maybe, people had no money just yet, coming off the Christmas season and all that. Anyway, they better start looking at it before the swapmeet becomes a thing of the past.

Top Kombi collector Mr. Boy Mariano.


Children should be the ones buying toys, right?


Managed to dispose some old pieces. Still, too many cheapskates out there. Haggling for an item that goes for $10 on eBay being sold for 100php?! (And there were some that did not register to avoid paying the 150 entrance fee.) My profit went to the single piece I was able to bring home- the Club Car Drag Bus. This is my very first Drag Bus. You might wonder why, seeing that I am a VW Bus collector. Only one reason, I think the DB is a bastardization of the Kombi! I only bought this because part of the proceeds is going to charity, plus it is the club car for 2008.







Philippine flag on fire.

This Is A Stick Up!

I might have worried a lot of people with yesterday's entry. My apologies. Here is Little Popot to save my big behind. Excuse the way she looks as this was taken during playtime.

My Kazakh Wife

So, I have a Kazakh wife again. Which, some may say, is not unlike having any other "kind" of wife. Yet, something feels very different with having a wife based in the city rich with apples.

Little Popot never got sick when I had a Vietnamese wife, or when I had an Iranian wife, not even when I had a Hungarian wife. I was thinking it just might be me, then Little P got sick again. The whole of last night was hard for me, and harder for the small one. Missed work today because of that. She is fine now. But I cannot help but think of a connection.

Yup, I know, I am totally nuts.

Hell Ride

The darn bus was literally flying, jumping off fly overs and swerving from side to side to avoid "slow" private vehicles. I was praying in my mind. The lady beside me was talking about how we will all be dead if our bus hit another. I can see the veins popping out of her arms, both her hands tightly gripping the handle bar in front of us. The guy to my left was cursing, whisphering something about a corrupt transport agency. He was trying hard to show he was not afraid. But the sudden turning pale of his face betrayed him. People say that their whole lives flash before them when they think they are going to die. All I was having were visions of splattered brains and innards, people milling around and checking if there are any valuables left for picking. 

The sun was barely shining when I got off at my stop. My ride lasted for 23 minutes. Something that, on the average, other buses take an hour to cover. Certain parts of my body are still aching, subjected to tossing and shaking they had not felt before. First time in a long while that I was early for work. Way too early. Darn bus!

Do Not Touch My Hot Rod

I was looking at some of my diecast cars, the Kombis. It felt like they were unhappy for being neglected. I have not been able to add to this line, my main, for quite some time now. The last piece, a Disney Store exclusive Fillmore, was acquired September of last year. I have actually bought several pieces since then, none of which are Kombis. I have a new "main" line. One that will remain a secret for now. Sorry, no Ferraris here!

Game Over

Holy! Turned out that LAIKA, the animation studio producing the movie version of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, is owned by Nike chairman and co-founder Philip H. Knight. Now, people have a chance to win a pair of Coraline-inspired Nike Dunks by going on some sort of scavenger hunt while they are watching the movie or browsing the official website.

To quote the man himself. "There will, however, be a limited edition of 1000 pairs of Coraline Nike Dunks, winnable from watching the film and through the website, though, and they will look like this, with black buttons and stitching and such..."



Just my luck! I am so bad with these kind of games. Hook me up, anybody??

Do The "Kawayan"

Here is another clip from Little P's Christmas presentation video.

Ritual

The alarm clock buzzed. I pretended not to hear it. It kept on buzzing. I was waiting for someone, anyone, to creep up and turn it off. Maybe, even throw it against the wall. Nobody did. Without opening my eyes, I reached out to put it on snooze. Just as I turned the fan let out a gush of air, hitting me straight on the face. It was cold, like the hand of an ice queen, caressing my face. It was seducing me, tempting me to go back to sleep, a lullaby. For a moment, it worked. The clock buzzed again. It was a jolt. It seemed louder than the first time. Angrier. Thoughts started flooding in from everywhere. The world kicked in. My brain, no matter how hard I tried, could not do anything about it. The world is hungry. Too quickly, I was getting eaten again.

Give Me The Ball

Going back to work in a few hours. My body, and maybe my mind too, is protesting. After a "long" vacation, I feel like I need more. I know I should be exercising as I can now feel the "extra" weight. I am fat but I have never felt heavy, until now.

Times like this when I start to miss playing ball. It is almost four years now since I did. No, I am not athletic, far from it. Very, very far. I could not jump or run (still cannot) to save the life of me. But I was quite good at shooting the ball, especially from the outside. I have people who can testify! LOL! One day, in the future, I will put on a pair of my sneakers and use them for what they were meant for. I swear, in the future.

It Is Alive!

The hardest rocking (and the best, imho) band in the Philippines is back with a new CD. Launch of the EP is on the 22nd.

The Way She Moves

Finally, I have managed to work on Little P's Christmas presentation videos. Here is a short clip. For a slightly bigger version, click the "Google Video" button and choose the "Go To Google Video" option.



The whole show is now available on high-defintion DVD. Cost is US$19.99 to North America, US$14.99 within Asia. Prices include standard mail shipping. We accept all major credit cards, Paypal, and bank transfer.

Hello 2009

We welcomed 2009 with a single kick-ass "tororot" (Yes, Little P calls it that). No firecrackers. No fireworks. I figured our neighbors can provide that kind of noise, and they did.

The food was great. Big Popot and ate did a fantastic job. My favorites would be the baked dory and the little bacon-wrapped chicken thingies. Ah yes, the Japanese Kani salad was awesome too.

Lonely? Or hungry?


The spread.


Yup, hungry!


We planned to view the fireworks from the top floor. So, when all the popping started we went up, only to be greeted by a non-visible Makati skyline because of all the smoke (smog). It was raining too. So, when we went down to check if people were lighting firecrackers there were none. Oh well, hearing them was good enough.