I Wonder... Plus Other Ramblings

I said in my "25 Things About Me" post that I'm thinking of moving to a different country. I wonder what that would be like.

The countries I'm considering are Singapore, USA and the UK. I'm leaning towards Singapore because of its proximity and most of its people speak English. Their funky accent will take some getting used to but the heck with that. How about the USA? I've lived there for 5 years and I have tons of relatives scattered from coast to coast. But it's so faaaaar and I'm gonna miss my mom and dad and my friends :c Bah, I know I'm an old fart but that's the way I am. The UK? It's a long shot but it would be interesting just to try.

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I know, I know. Why don't I blog regularly anymore?

I was busy lately. 50% busy with my brick and mortar business and 50% with my online gigs. Brick and what? My mom handed me her bakery business about 3 years ago. In all seriousness, handling a bakery is 27 times more difficult than managing a website or blog. It's because we're dealing with real people everyday versus online traffic from anonymous people that I don't really see. Admittedly, business has suffered because of the troubled economy and competition springing up everywhere. What to do? I strongly believe that our pastries and cakes are our forte. Our apple pie (P450) is the BOMB. Please don't hesitate to order in my comments section hehe. Last Thursday I went around 5 coffee shops to give out samples of our baked products. I'm 100% certain they'll like them but the question is will they bite? One cafe that liked our apple pie ordered one the next day. Swell. I hope tomorrow will be a better day. The pressure to keep the business afloat is on my shoulders. It's been with our family for decades so I'm not giving it up without a fight. And seriously, my shoulders are hurting! I need a massage!

I'm gonna make a more detailed promotional blog post about our goodies soon :P

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Yesterday was Valentine's Day. Thus, I treated myself with a new pair of Sanuks coz I needed something comfy for my perpetually tired feet. I was a little shocked about the price (P2,990). I thought they were only about P2,000-P2,500. They are ridiculously comfortable but I feel short wearing them and they sort of look like clown shoes (think Ronald McDonald).

I also got a pleasant surprise when my 4 year-old niece Mavis called to greet me a Happy Valentine's Day. Part of the surprise was why the hell does she have a cellphone?? But she was cute and I miss her so much.

I know a lot of couples who look forward to Valentine's. Honestly I don't care about Valentine's and it's not because I don't have someone to celebrate it with. I've been in love before but from what I've seen through the course of my life -- myself falling out of love, cheated on, my own parents separating, aunts and uncles separating, cousins divorcing -- I conclude that love is not a many splendored thing. LOL

I have a cousin who has the most convoluted view of love. She's bright and beautiful but has an ogre of a boyfriend who's cheated on her twice. His most recent affair with a trashy nurse lasted a year and 3 months before she found out (through Friendster!). But still she insists that he loves her and he will change for the better. Even if she denies it she is worried about not finding someone else, which is insane because she is, like I said, bright and beautiful. Not to mention a successful and respected pediatrician. That only proves doctors aren't exactly the most intelligent people around. Ok, I said "bright", right? I take that back. To my cousin: If you're reading this, I want to tell you that you're crazy. If you choose that ogre over us, I respect your decision. But I reserve the right to call you a dumbass from time to time.

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Movie recommendation of the week: "Push" starring Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning. 4 out of 5 stars. Too lazy to write a full review, hehehehe. Just take my word for it and watch it!

25 Things About Me

I was tagged five freckin times on Facebook for this meme! Twice yesterday, twice the day before that, once today! Because two of my mom's sisters are my 'friends', I decided to play safe by answering the meme here. Ok, 5.. 6.. 7.. 8.. Getting to know you, getting to know all about you... lalalala LOL

Here goes.

1. I'm the youngest of three. I have two older twin brothers named David Christopher and Dennis Edward.

2. Andrew is my middle name. My first name is Joseph. Please don't call me Erap or Joe.

3. I live with my mom in Davao City. My dad is in Manila. They're separated. :c

4. I studied in the USA when I was in second and third grade. For the first 1 1/2 years I studied in Santa Clara, California. My school's name was Pomeroy Elementary School. Then I transferred to East Prarie High in Skokie, Illinois to finish the semester. After that the whole family moved back to the Philippines for reasons unknown to me. =\

5. We had a bakery in the states called "Golden Croissant".

6. When I was a kid I thought babies were conceived merely by kissing.

7. I've been punched only once my whole life. By David. He got pissed because I wouldn't lend him my new stereo hahaha.

8. I have a Bachelor's degree in Management Economics. It has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm doing now.

9. My cousin Pauline doesn't know this but I began dabbling in web design because I got jealous after seeing her personal homepage on Geocities. And the rest, as they say, is history.

10. My first "major" website was Textcentral.com, a community for text messaging fanatics lol. It's gone now.

11. I'm quite hard to please. I spend hours and hours designing something and I end up hating it.

12. I like helping people but I hate asking others for favors.

13. I can't stand snorers.

14. My favorite TV show of all time is LOST.

15. I like all sorts of music. Britney Spears, Les Miserables, Fall Out Boy. You name it. Ok, maybe except heavy metal and rap.

16. I have a vast collection of karaoke mp3's that I sing to while driving.

17. If I was down in my luck I'd probably be a chauffer by now.

18. I got my ear pierced in New York City. My classmates said I looked like a Backstreet Boy. Sadly my ear got infected, forcing me to take it off. My dad would have killed me anyway.

19. I'm very protective of my first cousins on both sides.

20. I'm bad at recognizing faces. Worsened by my poor vision and memory.

21. I don't smoke or drink. If I do drink, I go for cocktails or hard drinks. I think beer is awful and that's why it's cheaper.

22. I'm good at bowling and badminton but I haven't practiced for a long time.

23. I hate all animals except fish and turtles.

24. Three years ago I figured in an accident that involved a tricycle falling into a canal. Not my fault!

25. I'm thinking of moving to a different country.

Fuck My Life

Today I woke up at 10am to go straight to my computer to check if my websites are up or not FML

Then, I played some Asian guitar music, stripped off my clothes and... took a shower FML

Today I debated whether to go to the gym or not. I didn't FML

Today I hung out at Caffe Firenzo, the same boring place I went yesterday and the day before that FML

I spent two hours working on an API for a website project. After which I was smiling like a big nerd FML

Today I received a total of 4 text messages. 3 on my Globe phone and 1 on my Smart phone. The 3 on my Globe phone were spam messages for get rich quick seminars. The one on Smart came from Smart FML

La Core Cafe

As I shuffled through some photos on my N82 phone, I recalled my group's misfortune of visiting a new cafe owned by Korean immigrants. It was hilarious really. It happened sometime in early November last year. We had finished dinner and was willing to try a new place to grab a cup of coffee or perhaps a slice of dessert. Somebody, I don't remember who exactly, suggested we try La Core Cafe near Victoria Plaza. The place looked decent from the outside. We were about to back out because they looked packed. But the waiter person insisted that we come in. So we did. To our chagrin, he led us to the most appalling sofa set we have ever seen in our life. It was bright green and the cushions were almost non-existent that we felt the friction between our asses rubbing against the chair's frail aluminum body.



The ambiance was further marred by a weird janitor who was dutifully playing cheesy organ music. Apparently, the organ was doing all the work for him. The acoustics and background music were presets, and he was just playing along using one hand.



Last but not the least, La Core's owners thought of going along with the Christmas tradition by putting up a Christmas tree of their own. A Christmas tree with a gigantic gift ribbon on top.



I wonder if they gave it away as a present.

My Virtual Office

I can say that I have officially transformed Caffe Firenzo into my own little office. I love how the place is set up. The ordering area is on the ground floor while the main dining area where the comfy seats are is on the mezzanine. Gives me a sense of privacy somehow. The food is nice especially the whole wheat sandwiches. The drinks -- well, I've heard complaints that they taste like cough syrup. But if you know me too well you know that I like gross medicine-tasting drinks. I dunno but I'm weird that way.

Today I had a nice Raspberry Iced Tea (P75):



Tastes like Robitussin mmmmm :P



After an hour I had my all-time favorite Corned Beef Sandwich on whole wheat bread (P60):



Freckin' delicious!

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My friends invited me to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Or rather, I invited them. Ok I don't remember lol. Anyway we saw it at the NCCC mall near our house. NCCC is the best place to watch movies in Davao IMO.



The movie was long and dragging but I enjoyed every bit of it. I was simply amazed by the makeup effects that made Cate Blanchett look like a teenage ballerina and eventually into the old woman on her deathbed. Not to mention the effects applied on Brad Pitt, who through time was made to look younger and younger. There was one point in the movie where he looked like his prime when he was just starting out as an actor in the 90's. Wow, I have to applaud the makeup artist. Or the CG artist if he was responsible for it. Or whoever. A guy who sat 2 seats away from me was in total awe that he commented, "Ang gwapo ni Brad Pitt!" (Brad Pitt is so handsome!) Hahaha. And he said that to his girlfriend.

The movie made me reflect on myself. Why do I fuss about my appearance when I know that it will all be gone when I'm old and wrinkly? Why do I try too hard to earn a decent living when I know that I can't take it with me when I vanish from the Earth? Who created the buttons on my shirt? LOL

For now I can't come up with a convincing answer to these questions. But I guess I'm only making the best out of my life. I'd be doing myself an injustice if I allowed myself to be fugly and poor at the same time. Life is a great thing. I'll enjoy it to the fullest. That's why I'm going ziplining this afternoon :P

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Sorry for the abrupt ending^^. Let me end this post properly. So I went ziplining yesterday with 11 other people. The surprise of the day was my friend's 50-ish mom tagged along. She turned out to be the bravest among the twelve of us. Talk about living life to the fullest!

New Domain! Woot!

Recently I decided to purchase a domain for my blog -- http://www.yeahdrew.com/!

Please update your bookmarks! If you like my blog, feel free to link to me too. Hehehe.

My Chinese Grandfather

Surrounded by the Chinese in Macau

I dunno about you, but my family never celebrates the Chinese New Year, despite us having authentic Chinese roots. Our heritage traces back to my great-great-grandfather Lim Chuan Juna who as a teen left China during the 1800's to try his luck in Mindanao. I found out that he's way way cooler than I thought. He started out as a pearl diver and fisherman in Jolo and later made a living trading pearls. Comparing him to myself -- he easily beats my web development profession 10 to 1 on the awesomeness scale. I mean come on, he owned practically all of Davao City when he got here. He owned ranches, coconut plantations and hectares upon hectares of useless real estate LOL. He was such a big rockstar that he changed his name to Francisco Villa-Abrille. Ok. But he was a nice guy at the same time, coz he freakin' gave away most of the land and left us with nothing! Just kidding. He left us a good amount of commercial land but my family thought that by selling them they were actually being shrewd businessmen.



*Ducks* Yes gramps, they sold everything!

I feel bad though because only 1/16 of gramps is left inside of me. I'm sure that had we met, we'd get along pretty darn well. We're sooooo similar. We're both goodlooking (as proven by the pics above), athletic (I'm a gym bunny, he dived for pearls for crying out loud), enterprising (I make money online, lots of it; He was just a plain filthy rich bastard). If I had a chance to meet someone who's dead, he'd be the first person on my list of most desired dead people to meet. Ok, please don't show up in my room without prior warning!

To my gramps: I apologize for not caring about your country of origin's excuse for a New Year. The non-Chinese one was more exciting.

Gong Hei Fat Choy!

Cei Tenks Bai!

My Diet

My friend RJ asked me to email him my diet.

I'm not sure if you'll agree with it but it works for me :D Here it is:

1. Avoid eating too many rice. Half cup for lunch, half cup for dinner, better if brown rice.

2. Drink green tea to speed up metabolism.

3. Avoid eating fatty parts of meat. Go for the lean parts of beef, pork and chicken. Eat any part of fish :P

4. Don't drink sodas -- including diet sodas.

5. Don't drink 'fad' drinks such as Vitamin Water or Gatorade.

6. Drink 100% juice (e.g. orange, grapefruit or pineapple), don't drink artificially sweetened juices.

7. Preferably, drink water. Lots of it.

8. Don't drink frapuccinos or milkshakes or slurpees.

9. Avoid salty foods like potato chips, fries.

10. Secret hehe

11. Eat cheese only sparingly; avoid butter

12. In between meals, if hungry, eat a handful of raisins, prunes or dried cranberries. Fresh fruits like bananas, pomelo, apples, oranges, grapes are also good.

13. Eat something sweet after each meal to lessen cravings (see #12 for examples)

14. Eat dinner early between 6-7pm. Don't eat anything heavy afterwards.

15. Do vigorous cardio (jogging, running or spinning NOT walking) for an hour, 3-4 times a week. If you're working, you may exercise at night. You actually burn more calories.

16. Sleep at least 7 hours. You gain weight if you lack sleep.

17. If you eat chocolate, don't buy white or milk, go for dark. If you don't like dark, don't eat chocolate!

18. Take multivitamins like Centrum. Also take a probiotic supplement (acidophilus/bifidus) and/or an enzyme supplement (check Healthy Options) to aid in digestion. B vitamin supplements help you lose weight but make you feel hungrier. L-carnitine supplements help you burn more fat if you exercise.

19. Don't hesitate to splurge on weekends, but ease up on the rice, bread, sugar and fat intake.

20. Try to keep a diary, journal or blog to record what you've been eating. It makes you more self-conscious about your diet.

Let me know if you have violent reactions!

Dos and Don'ts in the Restaurant Business

Restaurants are a key part of my daily diet. I find it exciting to try new types of food and cuisines. That's why I'm often "in the know" when a new restaurant has sprung up in the neighborhood. People call and ask me where to eat and what to eat. It feels good that they find my advice valuable.

With that I've taken note of the most annoying things I find in a restaurant that will make me promise to myself never to come back:

1. Don't offer items on the menu that aren't available. On one occasion, I encountered a menu where most of the items were unavailable. I told the manager why bother giving us the menu? An early warning would have sufficed.

2. Similar to #1, don't take orders for something that isn't available. My family was eating at an Asian Restaurant that was ill-prepared to handle our group. My brother and cousin ordered the same dishes. The spicy pork ribs if I'm not mistaken. Only after 30 minutes did the food start to trickle in. Exasperated to see that all of us were eating except them, they asked what happened to their orders. Turns out that it was not available. Seriously, they were pissed!!

3. Don't send out waiters that don't know a thing about your menu. More often than not, your customers will ask about your food. Two days ago my mom asked a waiter what kind of suka (vinegar) was being used in a salad that we were eating. The waiter scratched his head and said "vinegar sya mam" (it is vinegar). Well, duh mister, my mom didn't ask for a translation!

4. Don't use "lang" (only) in explaining what's inside a dish. In one of my favorite Japanese restaurants, a waiter was attempting to explain what a Shoyu Ramen is. He said in Filipino: "noodles lang sya sir, pati sabaw" (it's only noodles and soup). The worst thing you can do is reduce a dish into something so basic such as noodles and soup. After hearing that, would you still order a Shoyu Ramen? I didn't think so.

5. It's common courtesy to give customers a full or partial refund when something goes awry, like when a waiter spills soup on a customer, or an alien life form is found swimming in the food. Restaurants here rarely honor that practice. These refunds mean a deduction to the manager's and/or staff's salaries. But then again it is the right thing to do.

6. Don't stop customers from taking pictures of their food. The worst sin is to piss off a food blogger. Blogging is a great way to promote your restaurant. Leave them be -- they're not trying to steal your trade secrets. If you read nothing great or nothing at all about your establishment on the Internet, that means only thing. Your restaurant sucks.

7. Having lots of flies, roaches or rats inside your restaurant is never excusable. I was eating at a place that specialized in grilled baby back ribs. The problem was a bunch of fruit flies was hovering above it while I was trying to eat the damn thing. I complained. The manager said "matamis kasi ang sauce nyan" (it's because the sauce is sweet). Lamest. Excuse. Ever.

8. Don't serve cooked food that's older than a day. Odds are that food will taste not as good than if it were newly cooked. Moreover, it could be already spoiled.

9. Use realistic pictures on your menus. Too much bells and whistles in your pictures will leave your customers "underwhelmed" when they see the real thing.

10. Print ample amounts of menus. Count the number of tables in your restaurant. That's the minimum number of menus you should have ready. To be safe, double that.

My Awesome Nieces

Times like these, I miss all the people who matter to me. But out of all of them I miss my nieces the most.



They both are the daughters of my brother Dennis who's based in Manila. His family didn't come home to Davao for the holidays because his wife was having pregnancy issues. This bummed out everyone in my clan but it was for the best, I guess. My mom was the most bummed out.

Each of them has her own personality.



Mavis (aka Maria Venice) is the shy and sweet one, but there's another side of her when she's not in the mood. One moment she's adorable and another she's like the queen of the damned lol. But as she got older she's toned down a LOT and now she's a pleasure to be with 24/7. Mavis also has a natural sense of humor which she probably got from me (hmm) and a great love for animals (definitely not from me). She loves to dance like my mom. When she's all grown up I'm sure she'll break a thousand adolescent hearts haha. And I'll be there to break their skulls!



Maddi (aka Maria Danica) is the feisty one. She knows what she wants and makes sure she gets it! Being the second child Maddi follows on her older sister's footsteps. When you first approach her she's extremely shy. But when she sees that Mavis has opened up to you, she'll follow suit. She likes to bully Mavis around because she knows that Mavis won't fight back. Wait till their new baby sister arrives! As you can see Maddi is also quite easy on the eyes. Wow, I can already imagine the headaches coming our way when they hit puberty. :\

Maby, the upcoming third baby, will be born in April this year. I can't wait!



To my three nieces: I love you a lot! Hope to see you in February!! (ok maybe just two of you)

Rainy Days

Today is a rainy day in Davao, both literally and figuratively. Literally, the rain hasn't stopped pouring since this morning. The streets didn't flood that badly, fortunately. I drove my Pajero instead of the usual Toyota Vios, in anticipation of stronger rains tonight. Here, when it rains hard, it floods almost instantly. When I'm in my Vios I feel like the car is sinking and it's taking me along with it.

Figuratively, I am having an awful day because my server stopped working and my webhost said there's a chance that no data can be recovered. Worse, no backups were made. I'm kicking myself now for not making any backups, not even one. But I also can't believe that the webhost didn't care enough to back up my files. I mean, I'm paying for a dedicated server and they took no prerogative whatsoever to make backups. One tech support guy whom I've hated from day 1 said "it was out of their control". That's pure bullshit because unless a lightning struck their server farm, everything is within their control to prevent such disasters form happening. Good news is I'm leaving them in a month or so unto greener pastures. Ugh, at the same time I'm also dealing with an advertiser who hasn't paid me for two months. Could this day be rainier? Is 2009 the Year When Andrew's Life Will Suck Ox Balls? Coz it seems headed that way!!

* * * * *

A friend from Manila suddenly called and wanted to meet for dinner. Where will I take her? Hmmm.

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Listening to "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire. Nice song but better not sing it in front of prostitutes LOL

My Cheap Style

For several years, my personal style philosophy has been: "If you can get away with it, fake it". You'll be shocked to know that most of my clothes are knockoffs of popular brands :P But people tell me that my clothes look expensive. Whoaaa! What a nice compliment! Props to Structure and Quick Change stores (found at Greenhills Shopping Complex in Manila) for having balls of steel to sell such quality black market clothing without getting caught! Seriously, spending your own money is waaay more difficult and it makes you think twice, thrice, fwice (?) before you let go of it. That's the reason why I've gone cheap on my wardrobe selections.

I like to dress up casually. I hate wearing formal clothes like long-sleeved shirts, barongs, coats and slacks. Ugh. I hate them because for one, the weather here in my country is damn hot. The only place where I like to sweat is inside the gym. Secondly, I don't like formal events. They usually bore the hell out of me. My daily attire is a shirt plus a pair of jeans or cargo shorts.



When I go shopping, I look out for basic crew necks with nice prints. I avoid colors that look awful on me like yellow, light blue and green. I love black shirts because they go with anything. The shirt sleeves have to be 4-5 inches from my elbow and length has to be just below my waist, or else I won't buy them. Gone are the ghetto hip-hop days of oversized shirts and torn jeans lol. I still like my jeans pretty loose. I wear a size 32 although my waist is a 30.



Two days ago I got concerned about using wax on my hair everyday. My Style Sensei says it's fine as long as I wash it off at night. That's the problem. I don't take showers at night and to think I exercise vigorously late in the afternoon! Am I gross?! Answer! Now that I know, I'll be forced to clean up in the evening before I sleep :x I promised to myself to apply wax three times a week tops and wear my hair normally for the rest of the days.



I take good care of my face by washing it with a facial wash that my cousin Gwing gave me for Christmas. I checked it out at Skin Food to see if she was cheaping me out but boy was I NOT disappointed! That place is crazy pricey! Thanks Gwing :P I use a toner afterwards and apply an exfoliating cream from my mom. You can say I'm vain :P It's ok hahaha.

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Last night I was talking to a friend over YM about losing weight. He and his group of friends are *trying* to undergo some bootcamp-style diet program that involves eating brown rice, veggies, lean meat and avoiding sugar and carbs altogether. He asks why I'm so conscious about my weight since I'm already thin. I said it's because I'm not young anymore and I carry my dad's genes (he's diabetic). My dad's a good guy but sadly he's doesn't care about his health T_T Next time I'll give him another one of my lectures and hopefully he'll listen.

Moral Dilemma

Late last night I met up with my friends Christine (aka Chicklet the bubblegum) and her husband Mac for coffee, 'coffee' being a misnomer because not one of us ordered a thing that had coffee as an ingredient. Yeah, ok.



Chicklet lent me a DVD of the first few second season episodes of the TV show Chuck. And for about ten minutes she couldn't stop gushing about her crush on Chuck. She says Mac can do a great impression of Chuck having a 'flash' if that's the right word. He looks something like this:



Fotunately she likes Chuck Bartkowski, and NOT this jerkoff:



I said why don't they train Chuck to be a spy so he can defend himself? Chicklet agreed, but we sort of realized that that would ruin the premise of the show. It's like Ugly Betty becoming pretty all of the sudden, or like that silly show Prison Break where all of the main characters are not in prison.

* * * * *

After the Chuck talk I suddenly had the urge to tell my friends about an incident at the gym I go to. As I was running at the semi-outdoor track, I saw an uncle of mine with a girl. A girl who isn't his wife. I dunno what to make of it. Are they friends? Or clandestine lovers? I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. I wish I never witnessed it because now I carry this burden of whether to tell my aunt or not. My friends say I should shut up until I'm sure the affair is real. So yeah, I'm keeping my mouth shut and not risk putting my family and/or my life in shambles. What do you think? I hope none of my relatives read this lol too late.

* * * * *



Tonight I'm eating at a Japanese restaurant called Tadakuma with my mom and her sister's family. It's a bit on the trendy side but the food's good. They have an old branch across the Central Bank that has an authentic Japanese ambiance which I prefer. Nevertheless the food and prices are the same. Oddly enough, they didn't print a trendier menu to match the trendy branch. They use the same authentic menu that doesn't belong in a restaurant trying to be trendy. Perhaps I'm bitter that they always run out of salmon. :P

New Year and Old Stuff to Resolve

The day before New Year's my family and I headed off to the Eden Nature Park where we'll be partying and parting ways with 2008. I was a tad pessimistic about the scenario because 1) we've been doing it for 2 years 2) it was getting boring 3) my cute nieces Mavis and Maddi weren't around 4) the rain was pouring 5) means we'll be stuck in our cottages instead of going fishing or ziplining aka non-boring activities.


(Taken the next day; Failed to catch anything. PHISHING PHAIL!)

The trip was quick. After watching one episode of Gossip Girl on my PSP, we were about 3/4's there. But that doesn't change the gloomy outlook -- it was raining a lot harder in Eden than the city that we left behind. To make matters worse, we were assigned to a tiny 2-bed room that was farthest from all the other rooms where my cousins are staying. I forgot to mention I was with my mom and my brother, both of whom I can't stand because of their heavy snoring. After much grumbling from my mom, we were moved to a much bigger room, one with 4 beds. Ah, good job mom! I also learned that my cuz Ria will stay there too. Ok, that time it was around 4pm and the four of us were becoming restless in our room because of the rain and the lack of things to do. My mom decided to take us to the cafe where there's free wireless Internet and food to eat. On cue, Ria and I took our Nokia N82 phones from our holsters and logged on to our favorite website -- Plurk.com. Ria was flustered because her phone couldn't get a decent signal. I, on the other hand, was able to access to site, albeit intermittenly.

I ordered a regular ham and cheese sandwich, while my big brother had himself a club sandwich. Mom and Ria ordered banana fritters. The folks at the cafe got my drink wrong. I specifically asked for a mint iced tea. They gave me a Nestea. I pretended to be in shock after drinking half of it and realize it had no trace of mint in it. They promptly provided me the correct replacement drink. :P



Afterwards we headed back to our storm shelter and waited for another hour before the New Year's mass. I'm not the religious type and I admit I dread going to church. That's why I suggested to my mother that I wait at the cafe to reserve seats for our 25-member clan. My bro and cousin liked my idea and volunteered as well. My mom thought it was a marvelous idea too and allowed us to skip mass.

At that same cafe we were at that afternoon, we were surprised to see the number of people already there and exploring the buffet tables! We left our jackets on our reserved tables to get our plates. There was hardly a line yet which was good because I was already hungry as hell. Ok, in retrospect, I wasn't a fan of the food at Eden, but this year they went above and beyond my expectations. The appetizers were great particularly the toasted bread slices with dried tomatoes. Out of the main entrees, I liked the pasta that had dried tomatoes and olive oil in it (or pesto? I don't remember LOL) For dessert I had a spectacular slice of red velvet cake.

The highlight of the night began when I took out my camera. Camwhoring times!! I'm the official family photographer during important events and that night was hardly an exception. Let the pictures speak for themselves :P

















For me, the photosessions were way more exciting than the countdown that happened downstairs. Everyone was going insane! I continued to take pictures because I'm not much of a dancer.

To end my obligatory New Year's post let me jot down a list of things I need to do and change for the year 2009. 2008 was a nice year. 2009 will be a year full of challenges. Good challenges I hope :p

1) I hope to stick to my diet and fitness plan and lose 5 more pounds
2) Remain tobacco-free
3) Blog more!
4) Go bungee jumping in Malaysia or Thailand or Macau or anywhere
5) Be a better friend to my friends
6) Become more sociable and meet more fantastic people online or offline
7) Work harder. I slacked a bit in 2008 because of laziness and Plurk :c
8) Become more financially stable (aka richer)
9) In relation to #8 I should stop being an impulsive shopper and use my credit card less often.
10) By hook or by crook, I'm going Hongkong!!
11) Learn a new skill, perhaps dancing? haha
12) Learn how to take better photos. Does that mean I'm buying a DSLR? We'll see about that!

PS - Did you notice my new layout?! :P

Bloggers Christmas Party

A few pictures from our Christmas party yesterday!!


[Me, Ria and Gwing]


[Jude(?), Angel, Jim, Chattee]


[Angel, Jim, Chattee]


[Me and Gwing]


[Angel and Dominique (who was also celebrating his birthday)]


[What are Chattee and Brendel doing?]


[Gwingston FTW]


[Andrew, Gwing, Ria, Winston]

The party was held at the World Palace, which is practically on the same street as my house, Gwing's, Blogie's and Ria's hahaha. Talk about convenient. The food was great particularly the calamares (squid rings) and buttered chicken. I could have stayed a bit longer had my tummy behaved appropriately. But I had fun! Till next time!

Merry Christmas and Then Some

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!

This year's Christmas has been the same for me for the last ten or so years. Boring, lame, lethargic. The food, although deliciously cooked up by my talented mom and aunts, fail to liven up the party. And I'm on a diet. The most exciting part of our celebration has to be the kris kringle part. A few weeks before Christmas my cousins and I pick our manitos/manitas using an online application I made up 3 years ago. It is simple: you login, click a button, and the system picks out someone whom you should buy a gift for. There's also a wishlist where you can put in what gifts you want from your secret santa. Since most of us are already in our twenties and thirties (ehem), working or out of town, we barely have any time to do this manually, that is, roll up our names in pieces of paper and pick one out from a jar. Some of my cousins wonder if I'm leading them to think that they are actually picking a name randomly but in reality they have already been assigned their manitos right from the beginning. They can think whatever they want. What's important is the app does its job and it does its job well!

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Leading up to the holidays I have been hitting the gym almost everyday. I am absolutely addicted to this group exercise called 'spinning'. You have an instructor in front of you, yelling at you and telling you what to do. There's very loud thumping music and ten other people on stationary bikes. Fun! One of the instructors named Jet tells us that an hour's session burns 500-700 calories. Whoa. That is a lot! That's why I've been so engrossed in it because I wanna lose my belly so bad. Like desperately bad. I know I'm not exactly the type that needs to lose weight, but despite my thin frame, my belly is disproportionately big. I get that from my dad. But anyway I am seeing some success with my regimen. I've lost about 2 inches around my waist and around 6 pounds. My belly still needs some work. So far I only have a "two-pack" instead of a six-pack. Haha. Gotta do more of those ab exercises I guess.

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Tonight we're having a Bloggers Christmas Party here in Davao City. It was organized by my friend Blogie. We're supposed to buy a gift worth P150 for another round of kris kringle. I bought a Melody Mouse worth P180. Problem is, I don't know who I'm giving it to. :] I hope to have a good time tonight.

Hottest Searches - December 20, 2008

Google:

1. rca dome implosion
2. a very brady christmas
3. paul rhoads
4. miss uso
5. ethan bortnick
6. paul rhodes
7. picower foundation
8. world gsm chip
9. gooey duck
10. miss uso mayra veronica

Yahoo:

1. sock and awe game
2. evan rachel wood
3. cheryl burke
4. rachel weisz
5. chace crawford
6. lindsay lohan
7. nfl
8. lisa rinna
9. hi-5
10. walmart

Big differences in search trends between Google and Yahoo. Google tends to be more relevant to current events, while Yahoo's users are more after pop culture than anything else.

Depapepe

I was listening to a nice instrumental song at Kangaroo Cafe that sounded Christmas-y and eerily Korean, but I wasn't sure what it was. I asked a barista if he knew the title. He didn't know. He said it was an Mp3 file playing off of a USB stick, and generously offered to give me a copy. I scanned through about 200 songs in the drive. Ugh, it was not until the last 20 songs that I found it. It's a song called "Spur" by "Depapepe", a guitar duo composed of Takuya Miura and Yoshinari Takuoka. Honestly I was a bit thrown off by their name. "Pepe" stands for a female sexual organ in Filipino. Lol, now I see why they're not that popular here. But seriously I love the style and composition of their songs. To think they are limited to only two guitars, which is not a lot. Although some tracks have violins and pianos occasionally mixed in, the pair's superb guitar skills stand out in every track.

Depapepe's music is the type that you listen to when you wanna take it easy or simply "chill". You can say it's kinda what you hear in Korean soap operas (they're Japanese). Out of all their albums, my favorite songs, besides "Spur", are "Days", "Summer Parade", "Hoshi no Kazu Dake Negai Todoku" and "This Way". If you want to experience a different genre of music, Depapepe's worth a try.

Here they are playing Spur:

Money: Does it Make You Happy?

At the risk of sounding materialistic and sad, yes, money makes me happy.

Not always, anyway. It's the kind of happiness that is fleeting. It never lasts more than a day. I'm triggerhappy when it comes to my money. My bank account isn't quite the bottomless pit that I'd like it to be, but I like digging into it. On crazy days, very deeply. What the heck do I buy with my money? I like buying clothes, gadgets and expensive food (burp). I'm kinda high maintenance. These days though, I'm feeling the crunch of the crisis happening in the US. I earn in $$$. Anything bad happening in Uncle Sam's turf affects my financial well-being. Yeah, when I know I'm losing money, it makes me feel cranky. I guess money doesn't always make one happy, eh?

Money gives one a sense of security, but I have to stress the all-important mantra that money isn't everything. It just would be sad if your world revolves around money and nothing else and no one to share it with. But take the case of my office assistant. I talk to her all the time. I can tell her everything and she tells me her problems too. Unfortunately, she belongs to the large percentage of the Philippine population that is poor. She had her fourth child only recently. Her salary is minimum wage; her husband earns a little more than her converting swine waste into biofuels. Before she gave birth, I would take her out to Kopi Roti and Chow King to grab a bite. Our out-of-office trips were always interesting for me because she had lots of interesting stories to share. Oftentimes, she would tell me how difficult it was to feed her family. Aside from her day job, she processes government documents as a sideline. But despite that, the money was never enough. There were days when she couldn't come to the office because she didn't have money to commute. On rare occasions I see her beaming with a big smile on her face. She says it's a "good day", she even offers to treat me out to Kopi Roti. But I hate it when I see her crying because I know it's about money again.

Despite the monetary problems, I couldn't help but applaud her for her tenacity to reach her goals. She was able to build a comfortable house for her family and that was when her husband was for a time jobless. She is able to send her 3 elder kids to school. Though she borrows money from other people, she is able to settle them eventually. One time, while we were heading back to the office, I asked her if money made her happy. She says, without hesitation, a resounding "Yes!". I couldn't blame her. I would feel as depressed as her if I knew my family was starving. But I know in my mind that she loves her kids to death. And I know it's them that truly makes her happy.

Money, in the end, can make or break you. If you know how to manage your money and spend it on the right things, you will go far in this world. You keep the people you love and the friends you admire. If you squander money, deceive people and run away from bad debts, no question, you'll lose them all. My mom always said never to do business with relatives or friends. Somehow there is some truth to that. But ultimately it's the way both parties respect each other. With that, money becomes a non-issue. The moment it becomes an issue -- the personal relationship deteriorates into a mere business relationship. And we all know how chilly businessmen turn out to be when something's not right. It's all about trust and honesty. Without that any kind of relationship is doomed to fail.

Celebrity Lookalikes

And this is what happens when I'm bored:



I don't know half of the celebs I supposedly look like hahaha! And who the heck is Takizawa Hideaki?!