Stardust

Finally my favorite Gaiman book is being made into film!

Does Claire Danes make a worthy Yvaine?

Ask Neil for your Stardust questions here.

When Hell Breaks Loose..

little devils come up to PaRtY!

Life After College

College friends are such troopers!

Yeah, we only see each other when the moon is red,

Or when the tide is low..

But when these 4 chicks converge from

all points of the compass..

time dissolves and

all hell break

loose

What you get when you channel Woody Allen..

I've a sudden urge to hug a pig today.

My friends gave me that look.

Like what kind of socio-cultural norms do I subscribe to? For some reason, I thought it a perfectly reasonable, very human-being kind of thing to do. What's not to like hugging a pig? They're pink. They're fat. They're cute. They have that little smudge of mud on their noses. If they could talk, they could almost be a nice pet you can take out to for lunch.

Party Like It's 1985!

It was a time when leg-warmers were high fashion, shoulder pads were a-shakin' and when Frankie told you to RELAX!

It was a blast when people started to come in their most baduy and most inventive outfits. From Hagibis, to Edward Scissorhands, to pop group groupies (that's my costume by the way!), to, get this, Marge Simpson! The FCB group are a dang fun group who partied like it's 1985!

So yeah, we've been warned about this super storm 20 hours before landfall. And I sit here typing away wondering what'll it be like. We survived storms before and I'm sure we can all get through this one -- roofs intact and trees unuprooted and all..Fingers crossed..

Here's my checklist for surviving the worst huddling in my foxhole:

a. Candles (lotsa them)
b. Fully charged MP3 player
c. Fully charged mobile
d. The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James (i don't know why a horror story would feel like the sanest thing to do at this time..)
e. Water, water and water

and..

f. Prayers (yeah, contrary to popular belief i really do talk to God, in this case, we'll need a barrage of it)

Why not birthday cupcakes instead of just a cake for a change?

Plenty to go around for everyone..

Yum...

This was Kat's by the way. La Cabrona mia had a birthday and doled out these wonderful creations like party favors. Tasted like childhood in carbs ;-)

Lovely

Songs to soothe a busted soul..

Lookit me puppy ;-)

ain't she a pretty dog?

A Revolution Against Heels

"You should wear heels more," a friend told me matter-of-factly. "It makes you look sexier."

I can't do heels 50% of the time, I say back. I looked at her pointy-toed, fashionably high stilletoes and thought, naah.. I'm doing fine with my comfy, yellow flats.

Why must we have to subject ourselves to pain to cheat looking fab?

I can be pretty with my soles closer to the earth, right?

Let's propose a revolution against heels.

Comfort over pain. No more pretense. No more calluses.

Beauty minus pain..

Closed For Business On Sad Days....

A couple of my friends have a shirt that says:

they lied to us
this was supposed to be the future
where is my jetpack
where is my robotic companion
where is my dinner in pill form
where is my hydrogen fueled automobile
where is my nuclear powered levitating house

where is my cure for this disease?

-- New Light On The Drake Equation, Ian R. Mcleod

I can't remember feeling this unmotivated before. The lethargy, the overwhelming desire to not get up from bed.. That overpowering urge to skip the bus and to head on somewhere except my office cubicle.

I should blame it all on this wonderful London weather we're having. Gray skies, damp, wet, and somewhat mucky -- the hanging promise of misery and tragedy. I love it. This is exactly the type of weather the Bronte's were so fond of writing about. The one thing practically missing is a moor.

Except instead of that, I have a cubicle farm. Sigh.

Coffee can do wonders, don't they?

Aside from skyrocketing your blood pressure,

it can actually poke a hole

in your brain

and drain all the stress

all the heartaches

and all the angst

to make the soul pleasantly empty

again.

We should do this again, Kitty-pot! :-)

5 Reasons Not To Get Up To Go To Work On A Friday Morning

1. The probability rate of running into Johnny Depp is nil.
2. The ozone layer has a hole as big as South America and the risk of getting skin cancer is
reduced if I stay in bed.
3. Exerting too much physical effort may lead to brain aneurysm.
4. The North Koreans are launching a missile anytime soon. I'd rather be home if doomsday
happens.
5. Taking lungfuls of air in EDSA is not in any way beneficial to anyone's health.

life could be so frustrating at times...

you just want to punch someone in the face

"Face and heart"
by Francisco Alarcon

may our ears hear
what nobody wants to hear

may our eyes see
what everyone wants to hide

may our mouths speak
our true faces and hearts

may our arms be branches
that give shade and joy

let us be a drizzle,
a sudden storm,
let us get wet in the rain

let us be the key, the hand, the door
the kick, the ball, the road

let us arrive as children
to this huge playground: the universe

If I have a single song to make my week, it has to be Dancing In The Dark...

"I ain't nothing but tired.... Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself... Hey there baby, I could use just a little help.."

"You sit around getting older... There's a joke here somewhere and it's on me.. I'll shake this world off my shoulders ..come on baby this laugh's on me."

Springsteen got that one nailed! Too bad, it's too danceable to be depressing.

Prestidigitation.

Fun word isn't it? Prestidigitation.

I like how it rolls in my tongue.

It means "performance of or skill in performing magic or conjuring tricks with the hands." That or " a show of skill or deceitful cleverness."

I like the meaning better. Deceitful cleverness.

Prestidigitation.

How deliciously villainous.

The Kama Sutra of Kindness: Position No. 2

should I greet you
as if
we had merely eaten
together one night
when the white birches
dripped wet
and lightning etched
black trees on your walls?

it is not love
I am asking

love comes from years
of breathing
skin to skin
tangled in each other's dreams
until each night
weaves another thread
in the same web
of blood and sleep

and I have only
passed through you quickly
like light
and you have only
surrounded me suddenly
like flame

the lake is cold
the snows are sudden
the wild cherry bends
and winter's a burden

in your hand I feel
spring burn in the bud.

Manila, My Manila

Feeding the intrepid soul could do you wonders. This I swear.

I found out how the old, the quaint, the charming, and even, the abandoned, could be a soothing balm for the battered spirit. The heady mix of the old and the new is strangely rejuvenating and uplifting.

I re-discovered Manila, it's hidden charms and little secrets in one fading afternoon -- when after rubbing elbows with a Spanish culture club of sorts at the Instituto for the Book Fair, I had a sudden flash of inspiration to go exploring and to happily get "lost" in the streets of the city. Enlisting fellow pilgrims -- Fretti, Des, and Jo -- was easy, likely companions eager to find little gems along the way.

We took off like Don Quixote to the windmills. Passing through and staring in awe at the streets inside this city bathed in the afternoon's rose colored hues -- old streets, quaint architecture, cracks in its old walls, cobbled streets... and other lost and rather obscure yet pretty things..






Manila is not that ugly when you come to think of it. Its charm comes out when you least expect it.

Here's to finding more beauty in this city we would all love to hate (thanks Jo of Manilarat for the quote)..

I've always had a theory that Mondays were invented as a torture device designed to keep the human race in place and iremember that all is not supposed to be peachy keen.. that pain is a necessary element... yada yada..

Like most corporate peons go, I started mine with a bang. My boss -- the harbinger of doom and a looming presence of malevolence -- felt the need to put me in place and remind me that I am merely bottom feeder in this office, or otherwise in my opinion, this howling wasteland of abject misery. I had to keep my foul mouth in place lest I lash out and find myself in a slew of trouble.

Why is it then that Mondays are so despicable? Bosses, deadlines, gossipmongers, rush hour traffic.. Mondays are the black holes of the week. Every possible dilemma slash whatever-shit-hits-the-fan-drama happens on this day. 24 hours is a torturous, arduous stretch between the pull of the sun and the moon. Not to mention chucking in the boss factors.

This leads me to another theory that Mondays and Bosses are twins and are born 5 minutes apart in the lower bolgias of the corporate inferno.

I hate. I loathe. I despise. Me odio Mondays.

Channeling Sylvia

"there is no way out of life but to go through it"

Don't it feel that sometimes the voices in your head are real?

"I believe in many things." John Locke, Lost

I'm afraid I'm turning into a tv nut. Despite what everyone is saying and all that flak about how most tv shows being nothing but trash, I still think television is one of the best man-made inventions other than sliced bread.

I fiercely disagree. Watching Lost will definitely put your faith back in television. Forget the reality show crap. Lost is television content at its finest. And it's not your run of the mill story either. What starts out as a typical plane-crashes-into-a-remote-island-with-a-handful-of-survivors storyline, it soon develops into subplots and seemingly implausible situations that will leave you confused, piqued, curious and rattled at the same time.

A favorite character, John Locke seems to be the resident philosopher. Small wonder that he's also named right after a great one greatest British philosophers. The real philosopher John Locke, believed that the universe as made up of material bodies, which in turn are made of "insensible particles," which interact mechanically. There are also immaterial substances associated with human bodies. These bodies have sense organs, which when stimulated produce "ideas of sensation." These ideas are operated on by our minds to produce "ideas of reflection." These two types of ideas are the material of our thoughts, perception, and consciousness, which are all derived from experience; we can have no knowledge beyond our ideas. In perception, according to this view, we are not directly aware of physical objects; we are directly aware of the ideas that objects "cause" in us and that "represent" the objects in our consciousness. Our ideas of primary qualities of objects, or the mathematically determinable qualities of an object, such as shape, motion, weight, and number, actually exist in the world. Secondary qualities, those which arise from the senses, do not exist in objects as they exist in ideas. According to Locke, secondary qualities, such as taste, "are nothing in the objects themselves but powers to produce ideas in use by their primary qualities." When an object is perceived, a person's ideas of its shape and weight represent qualities to be found in the object itself. .

Our fictional philosopher believes that the island has powers and that they are sent there for a reason. The philosophy of the real Locke plays out with what happens to the characters' lives in the island. Their fears realized and represented as mythical and invisible beasts, polar bear attacks in an otherwise tropical island, a mysterious number that repeats itself..

This is my new obsession. Call it good tv or a story that could seriously mess up with logic and reason. What IS this island? Again it questions your archetypes, your allusions. Everytime someone asks me why they should see it, I go, "basta."

And no one seems to be disappointed yet.

You Are Psyche!

Eternally in search of purpose and insight.You're curious and creative with a total sense of wonder.Totally empathetic, you pick up on other's moods easily.Just be sure to pamper yourself as well!

What Goddess Are You?

I've never been to London to visit the queen

You Belong in London

A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock.A unique woman like you needs a city that offers everything.No wonder you and London will get along so well.

What City Do You Belong In?

Post St. Patrick's Day

It's a darn pretty shame that the only St. Patrick's celebration I could hope for in Manila is at a Starbucks. No guinness anywhere but a signature Irish coffee that comes in grande and venti.

Ah, the quest for a pint!

I haven't been drinking for quite a spell. My well is a shy dry. It's not the barley, the wheat and the added carbo of that fantastic brew that I miss so much. I guess it's the company. Like the Irish who fled the potato famine a century ago, my friends have gone on away in search for a better life, abroad and some, a few zip codes away. The era of the drinking buddies I've exchanged war stories, rants, and shoptalk with is on a plateau. They're not entirely gone but.... they're not exactly here either. You can't really share a few bottles of beer over msn and messenger.

Oh well.

I sound like someone with a melancholy hangover. Enough with the depressing thought.

In the spirit of a post St. Patrick's blog, I've recently just found out that Irish Americans in Chicago dye the Chicago River green (!) just for the celebration. Cool huh?

Wonder if we can do it for Pasig?

Interesting Social Phenomenon

There are very few things in life that are certain.

But one can always be certain that people will hate you for no apparent reason.

This is a fact and I can say this much, people are generally hard wired to be wary and resentful of things they don't understand.

You can never be tall enough, glamorous enough, crass enough or rich enough to merit someone's approval. So stop trying. The choice will always be the other person's.

No, I'm not having a bad day.

No PMS.

And no pessimism at work around here. I like Daria and find her perception uncanny, but eyeglasses are the only thing we have in common.

This is an interesting social phenomenon I've simply been a staunch believer of.

It's true, ain't it?

Anyone who disagrees otherwise is probably living in Pollyana-land.

Like my friend said:

Pretty costumes and pretty abs do not make a GREAT film. So listen up, Hollywood gods of (dis)illusion..

I will not extend nothing to you other than my big fat middle finger.

Throw away the eating disorders and get tapeworm instead.

And maybe something like inspiration and epiphany will come through.

While we're at it: Damn you Lindsay Lohan for ruining a perfectly great Stevie Nicks song. You should be jailed for blasphemy.

"That does not keep me from having a terrible need of — shall I say the word — religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars." — Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother

The night sky doesn't fall short of putting up a show whenever wonder hits me and I look up to see the stars. A dancing comet.. a shooting star... a faintly glowing planet that beckons from so far..

And I marvel at how vast the universe is and how the distance from the top of my head to that of another planet is so incredibly incalculable and immense, there are simply no words to describe it. The universe is an astonishing conundrum. Our knowledge of it can only extend until the next solar system a few light years from ours. But what is beyond that? What is beyond the beyond of the other beyond? It's almost infinite.

Scientists have tried to explain the unfathomable by their theories and studies. But, is there a mathematical formula for that unbearable lightness called the sky? Hawking's study of time satisfied this curiosity.. And if his postulations are right, and, when you think about it..

Our lives are just a fraction of a millisecond in the timeline of the universe.

"the greatest enemy to the self is mediocrity"

Because I'm a stupid silly girl, nature decided to play a cosmic joke on me.

Wielding and throwing words like they're crackers are what I supposedly do best.

Watch it come back like a boomerang..

Starlets

for lack of anything to do, the chicks of 4H2 hammed it up for the holidays and ended up calling each other VERY original hollywood starlet names.

go figure

When I was younger, it usually takes a lot for me to crack up. I'm the slow simmer type. But getting old (read: older) does a lot of things to the head and to my all too becoming fragile psyche.

I'm suddenly channeling the Irish.

Quick tempered, irrational, and yeah, a little glib when inspiration hits.

Maybe I don't know where I'm getting at but all I know is this:

I have a different timeline than most people, so I'm taking a little drama out of the first day of the year and treat it just like any other day. I will not make promises I know I won't keep and I won't write stubborn resolutions that would in the end just annoy the hell out of me.