Bed Detective

Once upon a time, in a bid to find out what was causing my upper back to be sore when I wake up in the morning, I turned over my mattress (and as anyone who's turned over a king-sized mattress on their own can attest, it can be a real backbreaker for something seemingly so soft).

I was horrified to find what looked like sawdust on the base of my bed. Naturally my first thought was termites. That night I swept up the up the "sawdust" and turned over the mattress anyway.

Cut to coupla months later. My upper back still hurt (suspicions now lay on old shoulder injury, but that's another story), so I decided to turn over the mattress again. Again, but w/ awe rather than shock, I saw sawdust. Got the vacuum cleaner this time. What I found odd was every time I lifted portions of the mattress to vacuum the bed the sawdust kept appearing. Just how active are these woodeaters? I moved the mattress off the bed and unto the floor until Ma could get her hands on the insecticide.

When she got up to my room the maids had inadvertently put the mattress back on the bed. They again removed it and we saw the same sawdust. Curious, indeed. I got the vacuum out again, and guessed that those yellow sediments must be coming from the mattress itself. But how?

While vacuuming the mattress itself I found tears in the seams. Further inspection finally found the culprit: dried up mattress foam that crumbled into yellow dust in my fingers.

Long story short: Wasn't termites eating my bed, it was just my mattress disintegrating on me. Neither conclusion was pleasant.

Batangas Beeyotches

Last Friday I got a day off of sorts and went w/ Liza and her dad to Batangas to try out their jet ski and banana boat. It was a triumvirate first for me on all counts. The beach was so-so, but what was important was we had the ocean to try out Uncle David's toys for the big boys.

At first he drove the jet ski, pulling a life-preserver from behind while I was riding on it. It was similar to my water-skiing experience in CWC in Naga, in that my butt hurt and it felt like I was being given an involuntary enema.

Later on he let me drive it solo. He barely finished giving me instructions when I turbo-boosted away, all the while inhaling game fumes and spewing seawater. The jet ski proved difficult w/ trying to negotiate a decent turn, but at high speeds it was exhilarating as it skimmed the top of the water, bucking like a racehorse, only w/ definitely more than 1 horsepower. My second ride on it had Liza on the driver's seat, w/c meant cruising on comfortable, safe (read: "slow") speeds. It freaked her out a bit when I placed my hands over hers and pressed the accelerator.

While lunch was tasty helping of pork chops, chicken and fish, it was a chore having to eat w/ only one utensil. But now that I think about it, it was just as well, since one hand had to be free to repeatedly shoo away the bangaws in our midst. (You'd think they'd wait til we finish eating our meal before considering it garbage and calling dibs.)

My last beach activity consisted of all 3 of us on the banana boat. While we apparently chose the DON'T-try-to-shake-us-off option, Liza still got the short end of the stick when she sat in the front and thus had to endure the full brunt of seaspray w/o the benefit of goggles.

After we left the beach we stopped by 3 more places (a beach-resort near Taal Lake to pay for the jet ski storage; speedboat storage place, and visited an old family friend in one of those exclusive vacation-home villages, respectively) before grabbing some dinner at Kanin Club in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. In a show a gratitude for all he did for us today Liza and I opted to pay for the meal. Loved their loaded fried rice.

While the trip to Batangas via Skyway was quick (I assume, since I slept a lot), the drive back was marred by traffic at the SLEX, no thanks to 2 cars breaking down and the surge of 10-wheeler trucks. Managed to make it home by eleven.

My TV Watchlist

My TV Watchlist started last year with almost 30 shows. At least eight have finished their run. Three new shows -- The Listener and The Unusuals - - I’ve tried to watch but gave up on after a couple of episodes. Castle was new but as innovative, so I gave up on that, too, Nathan Fillon’s presence notwithstanding.

The rest of my list w/ snap judgments:

My Comedy Central Staples

• The Daily Show and The Colbert Report - My 4x-a-week fun-filtered source of current events, although the latter as surpassed the former in The Funny.

• Lewis Black's Root of All Evil - Eight mock cases per season (my favorite being the pilot episode, The Case of Oprah V. The Catholic Church).
  

My Weekly Comedy Staples

• 30 Rock, My Name is Earl & The Office - NBC's Thursday Night lineup is deserving of the Must-See-TV tagline. Ironically my least favorite of the trio, Earl, has been the most consistent for me in delivering the laughs.

• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Think South Park in terms of over-the-top storylines and humor. Nothing is sacred, and it's all the funnier for it.
  

• Reno 911! - Each episode seems to be just a bunch of non-related comic situations tied together by the barest of main plot threads. It's almost as if similarly-themed "skits" (gay hustler, bridge jumpers, petty thieves, etc.) are shot in one day, then mixed together in post production. That said, the show's still improv funny. Somebody remind me to get the first 4 seasons online.
  

My "Background" Shows

• 24, King of the Hill & The Simpsons - By background I mean I could leave these shows playing on the TV or PC while I'm doing something else. (Though in the case of 24 I sometimes have to fast-forward it.)

• Burn Notice – Getting formulaic, but otherwise not bad, not that I can remember any of his lifesaving Spy Tips
  

• Everybody Hates Chris- Still funny, though.
  

My Premium Cable Faves

• Californication - David Duchovny gets all the best lines and best babes. (I think I just described James Bond…)

• Dexter - Lastest season wasn't as strong as the last, but it was still good. I always thought of Dexter as more cheerful and meticulous version of The Punisher.
  

My 1-Hour Dramas

• Chuck – Awesome 2nd season finish. Sucks if they cancel it. Saved the 3-D episode 'til I can get ahold of a pair of 3-D specs.
  

• Damages – Favorite (and only) legal drama I watched

• Heroes - Barely saved itself from crappy season 3.
  

• Flashpoint – Only way you can tell this cool show’s produced in Canada (specifically Toronto) is the fact almost every episode you can see everyone's breath.

• The Unit – Still the best Guy Show. I call it 24 done right. Sucks if they cancel it.

• House - Gave up on it a little past mid-season. It was getting repetitive for me. Might move it to my "Background" list.
  

My New Shows

• Better Off Ted – Quirky corporation comedy.
  

• Dollhouse - What if The Pretender was an unwilling subject? Cool stuff. Sucks if they cancel it.

• Important Things w/ Demetri Martin - A comedy central show by a Yale nerd graduate. Skits, large pad drawings and fake remote controls. HI-larious, seriously.
  

• Krod Mandoon & the Sword of Fire – Fantasy genre, ala Kevin Sorbo Hercules or Xena, only intentionally funny.

• Lie to Me – What if a Gregory House-like character (only this time the actor playing him gets to keep his English accent) leads a forensic-facial team?

• The Mentalist – More entertaining that Psych, less neurotic than Monk.

• Party Down – Funny like Seinfeld, in that the laughs come from the awkward situations the characters get themselves into, and no life lessons are taught (nor sought).

• United States of Tara – Fun and Dramedy w/ Multiple Personality Disorder.
  

My Cancelled/Finished Shows

• Battlestar Galactica - Ended too soon, and the ending wasn't all the coherent. RIP, anti-Star Trek show.
  

• Flight of the ConChords - Just as well they ended before the novelty songs stopped becoming funny.

• Life – Sucks they cancelled it, but if they followed through w/ the hint that

• Life On Mars – Better than the UK version. Even had a cheerier, more sci-fi tacked sense of closure.

• Pushing Daisies – Quirkyness in saturated color. Sucks it was cancelled.

• Sit Down Shut Up – Funnier than Dilbert, but not by much. Not surprised they gave it the axe.

Where No Date Has Gone Before

Today I became a blood donor for the first time. To commemorate the event I asked the girlfriend to willingly bleed w/ me, for w/c she was game. In a prick on irony Aissa, who initiated this early morning Red Cross activity (along w/ Sis and Raymond) was classified as underweight, thus unable to give blood.

After we had breakfast in Jollibee I kept telling my needle-phobic cousin that injections were just like ant bites. After seeing (and feeling) that larger-than-usual needle pierce my arm, I quickly reevaluated that analogy from ant to aah-JEEZUS-that-hurt bite. As 450ml of blood flowed into a plasic bag I distracted myself w/ cable TV, apple juice and a peanut-butter-flavored cracker sandwich.

Strangely enough I experienced a migraine after lunch. If this was a side effect of giving blood it's not exactly an incentive for me to repeat the gesture 3 months from now. It went away after Liza and I dropped dad off and went to SM MoA, but came back after we finished watching the latest episode of Lie to Me at the Coffee Bean. Good this the pain was manageable enough so that I made it through watching Star Trek on IMAX, enjoying it thoroughly. Possilbly the best film I've seen this year, but definitely the best I've seen on IMAX so far, even w/o 3-D.