Finally

After months of painful waiting, I finally got myself the DVD set of what is probably the best TV series in the planet (next to Lost, of course), Freaks and Geeks.



Yipee!!

Mga corny stuff

A new year for new peekaboos.
Don't get eaten by the bed monster!

*

It's just right to start the year with a good dose of excitement and therapy. So here are some ways to welcome 2006 with a bang. Channel your inner insane self, and spread the new year joy!

Disclaimer: Though there's a slight risk that you will be jailed and / or stoned to death after doing doing these deeds, don't frown. At least you had a fun new year's eve! Go rebellion!

1. Claim you're the real savior of the earth.
2. While on the dinner table, pretend you suddenly have amnesia.
3. Move to Chile and don't tell anyone.
4. Declare war to a foreign country.
5. Give all your belongings to your youngest family member, the one who probably needs it the least.
6. Invade another family's house, eat dinner there, and sleep in their beds. Very Goldilocks!
7. When the clock strikes twelve, release all the animals in the nearest zoo.
8. Speak extra loud to people with names beginning in C.
9. Kidnap a cockroach from your neighbor's kitchen and make it your new pet.
10. Perform exorcism on a random person walking in the street.
11. Call someone from a foreign-language speaking country and even if you don't understand a single thing, converse for six hours!
12. Go to the nearest police station and tell them you're the criminal they've been looking for.
13. At midnight, announce to everyone you've just won the lottery.
14. Sing everything today! Every word, sentence, and piece of conversation! Be a musical! Exclamation point!
15. Promote cannibalism. Screw the ham, and serve your younger brother.

Marvyn & RJ

It's 1:48 in the morning here and everyone's still up to celebrate my twin cousins Marvyn & RJ's birthday.

We call Marvyn the toughest fighter in the family, who's been facing everythin armed with a truckload of courage. He also has an ultra-big heart.

RJ's the smartest one in the clan. A while ago, while driving on the road, the younger kiddos kept on asking us the capitals of countries around the world, and he was the one who knew all the right answers.

And last week, the girl he's been going out with for two years finally answered him with a yes. It's just for formalities sake, since they've been together for a great deal of time, but still. Go RJ!

When both of them were still living back home in Pinas, the three of us were classmates in Prep. During recess, they'd always share with me their baon. Nice kids.

Randall

My cousin Randall bosses me around like crazy, and kicks me in the ass whenever I don't do chores.

When we were little kids, it was the total opposite.

I'd punch him in the face and make his lips bleed whenever he refuses to give me the remote control, and point the blame on him whenever I get caught doing somethin nasty.

What never changed is how much we secretly care for each other - so much that we'd literally kill anyone who gets in the way of the other.

Back then, when he was really small, I'd read comic books lying on my stomach on the bed, and he'd sit on top of me, on my back, and read over my shoulder. Most of the time we ended up dozing off to sleep. Recently I discovered that there are photos. But I'm shy.

Until now, we've kept our ties, partly 'cause of our all-time favorite piece of dialogue. Whenever I'd ask him, "How much do you care for me, cousin?" He'd reply, "One billion, five hundred twenty-seven trillion, four hundred thousand, six hundred thirty million dollars!"

Holy-weed

I, the cousins and some chums from way back in grade school went around Hollywood today. Strolled around Desperate Housewhatever's Whatever-tyria Lane, watched shows, ate loads of chow, scored free tickets to Universal Studios and kicked it off with four consecutive rides at Jurassic Park, and took loads of photos, and bought tons of candy.

Cute Kid of the Day Citation goes to my six-year-old cousin Marella, as she displayed utter honesty and sincerity of expression when she was called to be a volunteer in the Animal Planet Live show.

Animal Planet Lady Host blindfolds Marella, and then with the help of two assistants, places a snake on her lap. Then they let Marella feel the skin of the snake.

Animal Planet Lady Host: So, what does it feel like?
Marella: (immediately) It feels just like my mom's purse.
Animal Planet Lady Host: ...
Audience: ...
Animal Planet Lady Host: (clearly flustered) Let's give it up for Marella!

Check this out!

Hangover pa rin from my first lantern parade. Check out CJ's blog for great photos!

Monday Night Football

Christmas was loads of fun this year, and it's not just 'cause I was successfully able to cook the dishes assigned to me, and it's not just 'cause I got a Wicker Park DVD from my 14-year-old cousin.

It's 'cause although situations and atmospheres weren't close to perfect, things jived and everyone went to bed smiling. According to preachy books, and musical artist King Crimson, and Oprah, you gotta be happy with what you have. And what better time to apply that code of conduct than at Christmas. Jolly holy Christmas.

Aaand guidance counseling session over.

Gave The Mom an iPod, and the coolest Bang & Olufsen headphones and lots of other crapola used to fulfill the ultimate listening experience.

In true Parentals Gone Ballistic fashion, her first reaction after opening the gift was, "What crime did you do this time? Why are you bribing me?"

Love it.

Right now, I and The Cousins are watching NFL's Monday Night Football, which makes me dim the lights, sit quietly in the corner, reminisce, and shed a tear about missing the Rug league at home. Stephen, the team's El Capitano in Zobel's league, dubbed our Saturday Rug sessions as Monday Night Football in Alabang, which is rather puzzling. Hmmmm.

Meanwhile, it's pandemonium here. The Younger Cousins are sleeping here tonight and we've built a gigantic latag in the living room (where the Xbox is, of course) because we all have to get up early tomorrow. I and The Older Cousins maxed out our poor credit cards and chipped in to bring all the kiddos to Disneyland. Fun!

Holidaze

Two hours till Christmas here.

Woke up this morning relatively late after a night of drinks and catching up and confessions (aka telling each other every evil thing we've done ever since we last saw each other) with the titos and boy cousins and friends. Awesome. Haven't woken up that happy in a while.

Went straight to work when I got up. Tasked to do three dishes for the Christmas dinner, and got started in the kitchen with the Tray-baked Pork Chops with Herby Potatoes, Pears, Parsnips, which is a long name for a dish so my friend DJ nicked it "Herby Chops." Hookay.

Ran to the mall with the neighbor familia to get missing ingredients and last minute gifts. Then picked up my cousins and went back to the kitchen.

Second dish was Ravioli of Minted Asparagus with Potatoes and Mascarpone, which is dubbed as "Ravcarpone," a rather annoying-sounding nick. Much easier to do, and one of my favorites.

By 7:30pm, the doorbell wouldn't stop ringing. Family and friends galore. Was sorta panicking, tried to stay chill and rushed the third dish, Baked Ricotta and Mascarpone Tart with Chocolate And Orange, which DJ and his great mind named "Ricarpone." Mind-blowing, I know.

Wait! They're starting to watch Wicker Park and I have to stop this 'cause Wicker Park is, really, a film adaptation of the first half of my 18th year in this world. Cheesy!

Will get back at this later.

Merry Christmas everyone! Spread the love!

Development

Nagseselos ako. Pero konte lang a. 'Di ba Jay-Ar? Hahahaha.

Haaaaaayyyy.

eeeeeennnnnnOOOUUGGH.

I shall kwento more tomorrow.

Playdate

I shall get you when we return to class.

Breaktime

Tagged by Steboy.

Five Jobs You Dream To Have In The Future
1. Army / Navy / Marine officer. Gusto ko talaga lahat yan, para triple threat hahaha.
2. Astronaut
3. Chef
4. Pro-football player
5. FA28 Ultimate Crush's boyfriend hahaha

Five Short-Term Goals
1. Enjoy the break, catch up with family and friends
2. Sleep ... relax ... do nothing ... tumunganga
3. Drive WELL
4. Make FA28 Ultimate Crush happy
5. Buy Greg's expensive shat from A/X

Five Best TV Shows in the Universe
1. Lost
2. Takeshi's Castle
3. Oh Tokyo
4. Iron Chef
5. Jamie's Kitchen

One Thing That's Not Making You Happy
Credit card bills, and the fact that they're written in such a way that no one will be able to understand them.

One Thing That's Making You Happy
That I know I got a chance!

I tag everyone.

Like, random love

Dear UP,

I miss you like hell.

Especially you, Beach House, and your son barbecue and rice.

I love you so.

Waiting

I just sent FA28 Ultimate Crush an anonymous letter, and left clues so that she'd suspect it's me.

I'm crazy.

And now ... the pain of waiting.

(I just found out she used to be a cadet officer in high school, and is a part of the Judo team. How perfect can she get!!!)

crrrAAAAAZZZZYYYYYYYY.

Ernest, you know all about this, and I swear I'd let you know whatever turns out of this kabaliwan once she hits a reply.

P.S. Sagutin mo na si * hahaha. Hirap na hirap na siyang ligawan ka e. Hahaha.

Family values

It's always great to see your family members again after a long time.

After a year and a half, I'm back here in the land of The Mom Side - here in Christmas Island, este - L.A.

OK, shucks I just googled FA28 I'll Bring You The Moon And Do Everything You Want Me To Do Just For You I Will Ultimate Crush and found photos! Excuse me, I need to take a very important break.

And we're back. Grabe, na-high ako dun a.

What I wanted to say before FA28's photos disrupted is that the past four hours have been just beautiful.

Played Xbox with cousins.
Ate loads of food and chips and drinks with the fam.
Watched the new version of Takeshi's Castle which is extremely hilarious.
Had non-stop chats with everyone, the ones with my younger cousins were my favorites.

While watching Along Came Polly on the tube with eight-year-old cousin Paolo.

James: Close your eyes, they're doing something yucky.
Paolo: Eeeewwwww.
James: Close your eyes, Paolo!
Paolo: I am!
James: No, you're not!
Paolo: Eeeeewwww, why is the French weirdo on top of the lady?
James: Ummm ...
Paolo: EEEEEWWWWW!!!

While playing Tony Hawk in Game Cube with Kevin, who's six.

Kevin: Do you get to play video games any time you want?
James: Yes.
Kevin: Unfair! Why can I play only two hours a day?
James: 'Cause you're a small boy. Now quit bumping the skateboard!
Kevin: If I go and live with you in Manila, will you let me play any time I want?
James: Yeah, of course.
Kevin: Really? Ok, I'll ask dad for permission!
James: Ummm ...

Will write a few e-mails now, then will decide whether I should write FA28 Ultimate Crush a message and send it through her Friendster account. Can you believe I created an anonymous Friendster account just to search for her? Haaayyyyy.

Thursday is Thirst Day

That's the worst blog entry title in the world.

Thursday was a big whirlwind.

Packed my suitcase in Pque noong morning, dashed to Inquirer to write stuff and then observe kiddos in the screening, then literally FLEW to UP for the lantern parade. I was 30 minutes late but thank you Lord one of the floats got stuck on the tree kaya medyo na-delay. Haha, bad.

Met up with the group mates, and wore my totally rushed headdress and mask, then went on and walked the entire oval whilst (whilst!) carrying a 500-lb. backpack with clothes, shoes, and other evil heavy stuff like books, my cousin's PS2, and the laptop. Why did I bring all these all the way to school and didn't consider dumping them in the house? Because time ran too fast leche!

The lantern parade was, in TinTin's words, REALLY O-SOME! Man, that was one of the best moments I've had in school so far.

And ... I have to talk about FA28 Ultimate Crush.

Well, she was with her "friend," whom she's always with, so I have a big big gut they're together. The whole time we were parading, we would steal glances at each other and it was fun and all, but ... damn I had the 9pm flight so I had to leave early and we never got to talk.

Fast forward to Amazing Race moment of the day. It was 8:20, and I was still on the road to the airport. Got just in time, and was even able to change clothes and shat. Lucky bastard.

Texted and called the friends, and had a medyo OA yet enlightening chat with Jay-Ar. Feeling namin we'd never see each other again, to the point of telling each other random secrets, and bilins like, "Oi don't teach Greggy yosi a!"

Great flight, because of great someone. :)

Hahaha I know I'm getting pretty manyak, I mean - loving, 'cause every where I go I find someone I really really really like.

Okay, tired of typing. Time to eat!

Why I feel really happy right now

Woke up this morning in Ence's house, which put a smile on my face. Received messages and calls about our stuff in this week's Super! which really hyped me up a lot and set a pretty good mood for the day.

Ate tocino for breakfast, as always, along with Son who caught up. Son, who just broke up with her boyfriend an hour before that was sorta trying to control her tears as she blurted out stuff like, "I wanna go to his house, punch him in the face, and kill him!" Evil, but I understand. (I understand??)

Went home, and found a family member messing with my things in my room. I asked her what the heck she was doing and she said she was fixing my stuff. I know naman that she's just looking for my private stuff but my morning was too sunny that I just told her to leave and didn't went into the whole mind your own business fight sequence.

Slept for a bit, watched Chow Time Na and Wowowee which I'm starting to enjoy (after Dre' told me that it's actually kind of fun), slept again, then drove to Greenhills. Me and Pepe decided to treat our high school mates to dinner as we celebrate our first year in Super! this week. Food was awesome, and we ate around six servings of pasta, two servings of pizzas, loads of salads, appetizers, and desserts. And a fountain of dalandan juice. Saraaap.

Conversations with The friends were hilarious as usual, as we talked about who's dating/making out with whom, who's gonna win in all those crappy reality trash, personal "issues" hahaha and the usual latest cheese meese.

Full but still feelin scandalously gluttonous, we all moved to Promenade for dessert, and dropped by at Andrew's book launch in Fully Booked. Then went on to eat and talk about more personal "issues" hahaha, problemos which were creepily "pang-college kids" like flirting in class, and blockmates you'd love to kill.

Then went with Pep and The Tim to Magnet to hear awesome music and get drunk. I thought this would be a great end to this happo day but seemed like the tide loved me and decided to make things even better. Met someone, who's just way out of my league (awwww), and then an hour ago we were talking on the phone and it was nice (awwwwwwww). I'm a happy kid. Or I'm just tipsy and just blurting out things I'm not even thinking about.

On Monday is our last FA28 class before the Xmas break. I just want to say, special classmate, that if in some weird cosmic (cosmic?) reason, you're reading this: WATCH OUT. I am gonna approach you before the class ends, and introduce myself, and I don't care if you're TOTALLY out of my league (awwwwwwwwwwwwwww). You're driving me crazy. I just can't sleep. I'm so excited. I'm ... ay olats, tama na nga.

Basta FA28 special classmate, Monday is THE day. I'm even gonna bring Je for backup in case I faint. Ay pota torpe talaga.

Amazingly I feel

Saturday was spent playing Rug for an hour, then running to Zobel for league talks which was initiated by the village's team leader. Team leader loves to pepper his sentences with the word whilst, which in a strange way, kind of made me respect him more. I mean, there are like two people in the whole country who use the word whilst, the other one being Stef, who was one gifted with stares when she randomly blurted out, "I'm working so hard on this project whilst everyone's just lazy." Spectacular.

Caught Prime for the nth time with Je then met up with the Super! kiddos Milan, Gino, Pepe, plus Liz, gorged on dimsum in Gilmore, ate dessert in Promenade, laughed and drank at Fiamma, and then had great random talks at Embassy along with Tals, Lex, and Lex' students. Packed up at 4am, to the delight of my aching body.

Two hours of sleep later, found myself in UP running around the oval for two hours whilst chanting like crazy with the org, then commuted to Zobel, played Rug, got shouted out by TJ for being late and for missing a throw TWICE, then went to TJ's house to play PS2.

And now, I'm abusing the mall's Wi-Fi capabilities and still feeling energetic. And I feel like eating tocino. We're gonna take a bite then I'll see from there.