holy crap on a cracker

In a few hours it will be 2009, and the year we knew as 2008 will be over. Over. So what have you done with the past 525,600 minutes? No, I won't wax nostalgic about the past year, or make up some half-assed resolution which we all know I won't be doing anyway.

This New Year we're down to three. It's just my mother, baby sister and me celebrating the coming year. My brother will spend it at their house, with Abby the Cute Terrorist who once threatened me with "Don't touch my toys, bugbog kita". My sister and her family hauled their overnight things to her in-laws, all the while tearful over the fact that this will be the first time she will spend New Year away from us. I say, dude, you got married. This falls under the clause "and other things that may be requested from time to time, that if you refuse your conscience will bug you forever" in the marriage contract.

I picked up some Asti and Bailey's and told my mother and sister we're getting pissed drunk later. Hey, she will eventually discover alcohol, why not learn at home, right? Now we'll know how she is when drunk, so that in the future when she comes home sauced she won't be able to deny it.

I guess we'll just crank up the volume later while passing the champagne bottle around. Happy New Year, everybody. Don't be stupid and blow your hands off from those firecrackes.

(Sinabi nang wag magsusulat pag walang maisip, pero minsan kailangan talagang magsulat kahit walang laman ang utak. Yun nga lang, basura din ang lalabas. Tapos magsisisi ka, na sana, di mo na lang tinuloy. Kasi binabasa mo ulit ang sinulat mo, tapos mandidiri ka. Parang hindi sayo nanggaling.

Minsan din, nakakatamad magpanggap na may alam ka, na puro may kwenta ang sasabihin mo. Kasi minsan, wala talaga. Minsan, masarap lang tumunganga. Yung nakatingin sa malayo, pero walang nakikita at naririnig. Walang iniisip.

Minsan, naiisip ko, totoo yata yung sinasabing masarap maging ignorante. Kawawa ka nga lang, pero siguro ang ginhawa ng wala kang alam. Lolokohin ka at pagtatawanan, pero kung hindi mo naman alam kung bakit, pwede na rin.

Pero ayoko naman yatang maging engot. Oo na, ako na yung nagtatawa sa mga medyo nawawala. Pero ang pinagtatawanan ko lang, yung mga nag-aral naman eh bakit tanga pa rin. Yung mga hindi nakapag-aral, syempre di sila kasali. Kasi hindi naman talaga sila tinuruan. Pero yung kumpleto ang edukasyon mula nursery hanggang kolehiyo, tapos bobo pa rin, eh ibang usapan na yun.

Eto, eto ang basurang lumabas mula sa utak na kumuha ng sustansya sa tyan na masyadong madami ang nakain kahapon.)

I've digressed a lot and I was a lot distracted also from the STML thing, and this is another manifestation of short term memory loss, right, that I forget what I was going to say.

So anyway, that mountain trip left me with a sprained knee or knee ligament or something, that after three weeks still hurts. In the mornings when I stretch, I get an unpleasant jolt from that side of my leg. So what really happened was, we were getting down that mountain that took us 2.5 hours of heaving and climbing (after finally ditching our packs to the kids living in the area), but only took us less than 30 minutes to run down.

It was a slippery slope on the grassless parts, as it had tiny pebbles that served as mini-wheels for our shoes. I felt I was rollerblading down the hill on some parts, as the incline would force you to actually run down because of gravity. We were near the murderous cemented road, I could see the sari-sari store, and maybe I got a little too excited to finally sit down that my left foot slipped on those pebbles again and traveled quite a distance while the right stayed where it was.

I literally hugged a tree before the force throws me to the cemented road without due process. And I stayed on that position for a while, hugging the tree, while whinging about how my leg hurts. The people hanging around the store saw everything and were laughing at me. Of course. It was funny if it happened to someone else. When we got to Tagaytay for dinner I was trying not to let the little tears of pain creep up, but damn it hurt really bad.

Now I'm still taking it easy, but I'm relatively ok. I still haven't uploaded the pictures but watch out for it on my Flickr site. Come to think of it, I still have the Zoobic, Lomolove, Gulugod Baboy, and whatever on my memory card. Thanks to Columbia Sportswear for the climb.

While waiting for my turn at the embassy, I overheard an ongoing interview at the window nearest to me:

Consul: So why do you want to visit (first world country)?
Old woman: TO SEE THE BEEYUTIFULL LAND OF (FIRST WORLD COUNTRY)!

I swear, if she said "to see snow" I would have gone there and probably smacked her.

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I'm currently typing this in some godawful internet shop across the street, and people here have apparently no eardrums, hygiene, and consideration. They all shout at each other over very loud music, sneeze at the keyboards, and they read over my shoulder. Everybody is also below 15.

I am so getting Globe Visibility or Smart Bro tomorrow.

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I've been sick for more than a week now, and it's not fun at all. I've been heaving my lungs and it's embarrassing, and my nose runs faster than you can say diphenhydramine. But then again, anything is faster than saying that word.

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I just had a Flaming Chorizo on Piggyback for dinner, and it's not a metaphor or a name for something dirty. It was a dish from Terry Selection. It was good, but small.

After much deliberation with my other personalities, we finally decided to team up with Rockstar (after deliberation with his personalities too) and came up with this. Cinemalomo 2008 on December 20, Mogwai at Cubao X. Our personalities will see you there.

EDIT: Replaced the poster because it doesn't say anything about the movie. Watch out for the Cinemalomo 2008 entries on Saturday's issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

I held off doing it because I felt it wasn't time, and I wasn't ready. I just listened to other people's tales of crossing over - sometimes it was great, sometimes it wasn't. Truth be told, I don't have the dream. For me it was just another one of them stories I can tell when I'm back home, like how we got lost or the bakery at the corner sells the best bread ever.

I've learned that in life we should never force things our way, because even if it eventually gets done you're never really happy with the results. So I didn't, and waited for the right moment. I'm glad I did, it saved me a whole lot of energy, time, money and getting over from being rejected.

Now I have it, and frankly, the first thought that crossed my mind was what store to hit first when I get there.

The Havaianas thing at Anawangin is showing at Studio 23's News Central right this moment and I'm three rides away from a TV. Dammit.

UPDATE: Ok, I wasn't anywhere in the segment. Gah.

The Pinoy Icons Pop Art Exhibit is currently ongoing at the 4th Floor of the Shangri-La Plaza. Exhibit runs until December 11 only.

Parokya Ni Edgar
Musical Artists

No other band has fervently put the quintessential Pinoy humor as a staple in the music industry than Parokya ni Edgar. Starting off their careers in the ’90s by shocking the audience with their cross-dressing acts, their chart-topping songs are bound to make fans smile or laugh, thanks to their witty lyrics, backed with music videos and live performances that prove to be anything but a bore. Parokya’s effortless ability to make music that transcends all ages and classes is reason enough to regard them as one of the most highly respected bands today.

-Diona Valdez, Writer

Brain cells do not regenerate and brain cells die from one or more of the following: a) overuse; b) stagnation; c) listening to Celine Dion and Air Supply (accidental or otherwise); and d) trying to calculate the trajectory of a free-falling body leaving Station A at 140 miles per hour on a 60-degree circumference.

You know when you’re in the middle of something very, very bad and you vow never ever to be there again? And then you survive it, good things happen and you forget about it. Then after a while you find yourself right smack in the middle of it all, again. Then you ask yourself why do you willingly volunteer yourself head first in these kinds of things. I suffer from short term memory loss, or STML.

I’m not talking about relationships, although it might be that too, but it’s not. I’m talking about climbing mountains. Over the weekend Team Porter climbed Gulugod Baboy in Anilao. They said it was a beginner’s climb. Yeah, if you’ve got legs of steel and lungs up to your neck.

I packed very light, as light as I can go because I didn’t want to experience what I went through in Pulag again. Also because they didn’t have porters in Gulugod Baboy. When we got there, there was a cemented road leading up to a steep trail. Notice I used UP and STEEP in the same sentence? Dear God, I thought my smoker’s heart was going to explode right out of my ribcage.

The cemented road was like 45 degrees inclined and every pound I was carrying seemed like ten. I would have very much liked to pass out but I don’t really have the right to, because I was with two people who had no sleep and were carrying much bigger packs than mine.


To be continued...