Power Rationing

This already happened a coupla years ago, and I guess it comes with living in an old house. While getting some cake I saw heard what sounded like a firecrackers popping inside a Pringles can. When I looked outside the dining room window I saw smoke and sparks coming out of the electrical panel on the wall. We immediately turned off the power. After a few misses of trying to get the wiring fixed (while it was raining, no less), 3 hours later we only managed to get power to the ground floor outlets working, w/c is why I can use the PC but not the ceiling lights.

Yeah, who cares if I can't get hot water for showering? I have DSL!

Facq- iao

Manny Pacquiao won over Erik Morales? Wow, I haven't heard that bit of news in over... 2 minutes.

GMA 7 vitually dedicated its entire news hour earlier this evening to the boxer, like nothing else happened anywhere in the world. Bad timing for "Mr. Knowledge Power" Ernie Baron, who died this morning of a heart attack. Talk about a story being buried...

Happy as I am over his victory (I hope that moment I felt my eyes well up when they stopped the fight and declared him the winner was because I hadn't blinked inna while), am I the only one who finds it disturbing that this country's media (so, by extension, this country) is celebrating the fact that one of its citizens legally beat another man senseless?

Just a thought. Won't be invited to any MP parties anytime soon.

Salmon Steak Saturday

From Left: Catchu, Felix, Lyndon, Me, Jacq & her BF Moe

(This happened last Saturday, but I'm not apologizing for the delay. So there.)

Met up with some old and new Beijinoys for dinner at Fish & Co. in Greenbelt. Jacq and Christian were in town but he couldn't make on account of being in Ortigas. What surprised me more than the new faces was seeing old faces that were there with a different party. It used to be that Greenhills was the place to see the familiar Tsinoy faces, now it's Greenbelt. Joanne Co, Michael Yiu, Reena Leechiu, Joelyrose Tan, among others. It was like an improvised SJCS alumni reunion. Hell, even the waiter at F&O (Boni) was a friend of Felix!

The food was shared, and we even played the Bill Pool (20 bucks each, and whoever guessed the amount closest to the bill wins), though I didn't join on account of my having done the ordering and knowing the prices. Catchu won by less than 800 bucks. Yet we didn't pay the huge freakin' bill right away and decided to wait for Dennis (and more importantly, his discount card that would shave off 20 percent). Earlier in the day he was already in the shopping area but he still went home (accompanied by Arlene, Anthony Ang's sister) to get dressed.

After dinner Dennis and Arlene finally showed up (but not before Felix's sister Marj(Orie) stopped by to say Hi. The five of us left had dessert at Cafe Breton (okay, I only had agua) where we spotted a gay (by rumor) former senator who dropped in for crepes (perhaps). First time I virtually ignored pleas to come home by midnight.

Writer's Blocked

As of last month I am a published writer, at least now in hard-print. Before that all my previous (paid) written works used to be online. If anyone out there wants a complimentary copy of the premiere issue of City Beat magazine, feel free to ask me, though I hope only 2 people ask since that's all the copies I have left. Mebbe I'll even bookmark page 7 for the sake of ego.

Voices Off

Went to another meeting yesterday to hear about more plans about forming a formal organization for voice talents. Think Actor's Union in audio. This song was sung before by Univoicesal Productions (the first one I joined but have not gotten a gig from), and now in an ironic twist this tune was remade is by one of its founders, VO veteran Pocholo Gonzales (if you've watched enough TV you've literally heard of him.)

Pocholo's career in voiceover work is probably the one I would've wanted for myself had I actually pursued it hard enough (Sucks how the work ethic of Tsinoys of generations past isn't hereditary, but baldness IS). During the meeting he spouted figures and self-promoting anecdotes, but my bull$#!+ detector wasn't buzzing, save for the usual marketing buzzwords you see in a MS Powerpoint presentation (and he had one). Still, better that someone do something about the sorry state of the VO industry in this country. I just want the work. He seemed impressed with my portfolio and invited me and other VO pros and rookies to join his group Creative Voices. After the meeting at McDonald's (guess when you're starting out fastfood restos are the boardrooms of choice) we all went to an audition for an upcoming Chinovela, where once again my apprehension to unrehearsed reading of Tagalog scripts proved to be my downfall. And I was one of the "pros." I miss reading English scripts.

So once again like a good freelancer I wait for any good news (i.e. progress) that might come out of Pocholo's latest endeavor. Fingers not crossed, breath not held.

Comin' Down Wit' the Sickness

What's worse that catching a cold?

Coughs. Hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em. Hell to suppress, even bigger hassle to cure. Cough's been bugging me for a better part of the week now. Astringosol mouthwash used to help when it was just starting, but then a lot of sick relatives started hanging around the house too long. Immune system held out as long as it could.

One thing I've learned is I'll take Bisolvon over Robitussin anyday, sine the former wants you to stop coughing while the latter encourages it.

Busy Weekend (So Far)

Friday: Met up w/ Beijinoys (pix to follow as soon as the internet connection in the office gets fixed) at Congo Grill in Makati. As always attendance was less than hoped and more than expected (if you can wrap that idea around your head you have my gratitude). Old and new faces, particularly in the form of Joanne's Korean-Legazpi posse and Hy-C's boyfriend. Recognized (aside from Jo's BF Kim of course) the Legazpi ladies, since Cathy (Dy) was my groupmate in my Taiwan tour and I'd seen Giselle around La Salle (LIA-COM, as in OrgCom and Finance).

With the buckets(!) of San Mig Lite that followed fabulous food it was like being at the No-Name Bar all over again, only with a band. Face flushed so red after the first bottle even my eyes were bloodshot. (Damn Asian physiology.) Failed to bring my discount card but David (Lee, who's currently in Shanghai but talked to her sister who's the manager of this branch of CG) managed to get us a 10% discount.

Got home relatively early only to find that no one waited up for me. Rats. Should've followed the Beijinoys to the club after dinner.

Saturday: quiet afternoon, so I decided to have Karen (Chan) over for a brief internet/e-mail tutorial. With the computer in her house on the fritz I pray these lessons won't go the way of the short attention span. A hour and a half later we had bread 'n' butter (and Nestea) for snacks. After driving her back to her place I rushed back to mine to get dressed for Carol's mom's birthday dinner at the Harbor Prince seafood restaurant.

(SIDEBAR: Being invited to a Tsinoy birthday party would imply wearing red attire or bringing a gift. Carol insisted her guests do neither. Seems her folks didn't want guests to be pressured but didn't tell Carol to tell guests to just come to an ordinary dinner soon enough. Obviously we found out. Mebbe we were invited as an afterthought. Ah, well, free Chinese food is free Chinese food. Yes, I'm kidding on that last statement.)

I've always said that every time I'm in the Greenhills area I'll spot at least one familiar face. This time the coinkydink counter broke its needle as a lot of familiar faces showed up at the restaurant. Marilyn & Marinette Uy's folks. Kendreck. Evett, 5-Kim, 6-Ku and Kim. Though only Auntie Lily and Uncle William (Uy) and I (and Eileen) were there for Carol's party.

Ten courses of Chinese food later Eileen and I had a nightcap at Starbucks.

Okay, Now That I've Calmed Down...

Here's some pix.

PISSED

Last night I had a good time going out with some Beijinoy friends. I'm supposed to post pix but I'm just too pissed to do that right now.

This afternoon I got a text from one of them basically accusing me of taking a picture/s of her cousin's girlfriend from beneath the table (I'm assuming from the restaurant where we had pizza). ME. After the ludicrousness of the idea wore off I get another text from her threatening me and chastising me for my "actions." And she's supposed to be my friend. Despite the fact that there was more than one camera present, and that the "red light" she saw was probably from the red eye reduction light, my current resentment comes from the threat and chastise text.

GOD!!! Never knew being accused of being a pervert could piss me off so much, but, yeah, I'M PISSED OFF!!!

That Time of Year

Food, relatives and explodos have come and gone. Spend the last parts of the evening (or first parts of the morning if you wanna be picky) choosing the better fireworks shots.






I particularly like the palm/coconut tree effect on this one, or if you just looked at the green portion it's as if someone went into warp speed.