so many books, so little time

Jess Abrera's illustrations

2011-02-25T00:35:00.000-08:00

The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. In this case, punk musician and Kikomachine Komix artist Manix Abrera is the son of editorial cartoonist and sometime book illustrator Jess Abrera who came up with the iconic Guyito (carabao mascot) of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. And these visuals for the Nick Joaquin story "Sarimanok vs.Ibong Adarna" (apparently posting the photos of "Lilit Bulilit" hit a chord with some who remember it as a gruesome and scary story :D)

(pardon the black and white photocopy look...this actually was supposed to be material for a final thesis I was supposed to do...but most of my index cards were thrown out my my mom back then. was in a major funk after that.)

the whimsical story is about how a bunch of kids in one neighborhood started a crazy game of one-upmanship with fantastic pets (live bears, snakes...) which had some kids making up their own super-cool "pets" like the Sarimanok that could disintegrate people with death rays shooting out of its eyes, and the Ibong Adarna whose singing could put the listener into a deep sleep (and if you were unlucky enough to get pooped on by the mythical bird, you'd be turned to stone).

Things get out of hand and the pets escape and wreak havoc (siblings disintegrating or being turned to stone...something that would get you into trouble with the parents if they found out).

So the owners team up (against their will) and capture the beasties and set things right again.

Sorta. :D

Bookworm:1, Chickenzilla:0

2011-02-22T21:43:00.000-08:00

One of the lovely things about having a chef for a neighbor and friend is being treated to interesting and delicious food. It also leads to almost-hilarious situations such as an encounter with a jumbo chicken.

The week before Chinese New Year, Chef E decided to gift my family one evening with Birdzilla, a hefty specimen initially mistaken for a small turkey.

Having opted to get an early start on a good night's rest, I half-awoke to frantic knocking on my door and heard the words "there's a big chicken outside! Kitchen area!" Hence the thought that Metro Manila was being ravaged by a supersized version of Gallus domesticus. Confronted with the still-frozen beast, I did the first thing that came naturally: put it in a bag and into the freezer. Before I was allowed to go back to sleep however, I was told to decide what to do with the poultry.

The debate: cut it into smaller pieces and fry it (my thought: what a waste!), adobo (sure, but still...how often do you encounter poultry this size?), grill (risk burning it?! no!!!!) and the last: roast it (while consulting my favorite cookbook found in a second-hand shop in Bangkal, Makati). And seconds after the recipe was approved, a comment from the Asian Food Channel viewer: "what. no lemons? Jamie Oliver puts lemons in his roast chicken."

After consulting with Lori (who recommended that I stuff TWO lemons in the bird's cavity & grate the zest on the bird prior to roasting), I marinated the bird with salt and pepper, reviewed a few other recipes online (and watched the Alton Brown roast chicken episode), gathered/borrowed the equipment, got my ingredients together, and...(after many hours roasting at temperatures hovering around 400 degrees). My Home Ec teacher would definitely wonder what got into me (I was definitely a middling student who wanted to be in the school paper more than the high school home economics club).

We ate chicken for next few days. I swear, just carving off one thigh, drumstick and one breast was already equivalent to one of those "little" rotisserie chickens. Chef E was pretty generous in praising the result (he liked the tarragon, which was part of the Union Square recipe for herbed roasted chicken). If I ever get to tackle jumbo chicken again, I'm going to try "butterfly-style."

The verdict: it really takes a village to roast Birdzilla.

Pop Stories for Groovy Kids :)

2011-02-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

A book from what I consider the best-illustrated and subversively written (in a good way!) stories for kids back when Love Buses plied the roads and EDSA1 was just a dream.

Bought this for Php5 (five pesos, which can't even pay for jeepney fare these days) at Alemar's Cubao (they already were in their death throes back in the early Nineties).

patalastas muna

2011-01-30T17:51:00.000-08:00

...from RockEd Philippines (follow them on Twitter @RockEdVolunteer click here for contact details):

The books that people donate to Book Bigayan are stored at UP Diliman. Before sending them out to public libraries and schools, we sort through all the donations and box them up nicely — separating preschool, grade school, high school and college books.

Our first book sorting soiree for the year :

FEB 6, Sunday. 9AM – 4PM, in Quezon City.
Why sunday? so we don’t bother offices and students as sorting is done in the corridors.
You don’t have to be there the whole day. Volunteers can come in shifts.
Bring your own water and baon If you have extra boxes and packing tape lying around at home, do bring them along.
Will send exact details to volunteers.

bookworm & mom

2011-01-27T16:39:00.000-08:00

so what does my mom read, apart from the Chinese (or English) newspaper, owner's manuals (for assorted appliances/gadgets), the occasional serial novel (if you see the books "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was based on --you really have a feeling that not everything was put into the movie. it would possibly be like making Harry Potter books 1-7 into a 2.5 hour film) and travel magazines?

anything about orchids, BUT it has to have practical applications. She bought this book at Fully Booked when it was on sale (after considering another book on orchids at NBS, which was more expensive and didn't have anything practical for her, what i understood from her was that "other orchid book" was geared more for the types who have greenhouses and gardeners who do the dirty work for the reader).

i ended up buying Kikomachine Komix at NBS :)

and this at FB (yay for discounts!)

stalking a star(fish), part 2

2010-12-06T15:47:00.001-08:00

yup, beached starfish patrol again. not complaining one bit at all, hehe. met some interesting characters...
...leonardo? donatello? mikey? raf? where's the pizza?

when Cartoon Network had their "ordinary turtle vs. Ninja Turtle promo" the sprout asked me which I'd prefer. Answer: the ordinary turtle (para walang kaagaw sa pizza, hehehe)

while there's tons of beautiful beaches, people have got to learn to take better care of them...

(kind of evokes D-Day in Normandy...no? Or the Leyte landing gone wrong in an alternative history...Totally found it this way on the shore, not staged)

lest you think i've strayed far from the reading-themed nature of the blog...these are what i've been reading --just not at the beach :)

think of them as guides, one through the city, and the other through the ups and downs of life :D

stalking a star(fish)

2010-10-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

tsk. what do you expect from something without brains...they never know when too much sunbathing will kill them...

patreeck istarfeesh...isdatchu?!

ay! eets aliiive!

back you go...go on, get away from the shore if you know what's good for you!

Maikling Patalastas

2010-07-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

Para sa mga na-Ondoy sa nakaraang taon, may mga nagbebenta ng libro na "on sale." Kasama dito ang iba't ibang Powerbooks branches, at ang bodega ng Books for Less sa (loob-loob ng) Pasig. Kung kaya niyong mag-dyip o fx (kahit galing Shaw) upang makamit ang iba't-ibang mga diskwentong inaalok dito, saludo ako sa iyo. :D

how to kvetch...

2010-07-14T03:49:00.000-07:00

this horrible storm (Basyang) reminds me of Milenyo, a howler of a storm that knocked over plenty of power lines. if going without electricity for 16-24 hours is agony for you, imagine going without it for almost two weeks.

despite reporting the situation several times to customer reps at Meralco, it really grated on our nerves to see neighbors have electricity and we didn't (eventually the servicemen discovered that part of our line had been stolen)...and it got so bad i didn't want to see another candle, not even on my birthday cake...so i emailed every Meralco branch in the area with this letter (result: we had servicemen by the end of the day) :

Imagine if you will being without electricity for more than a week
since the onset of Milenyo. Imagine the utterly ridiculous situation
of your neighbors having electricity -left, right, front (even the
squatters nearby have electricity) and YOU DON'T. Imagine the surreal
and frustrating experience of following up this situation with
apathetic customer service reps who don't log in your complaint. Then
again, why don't you try coming over to (street address deleted) in QC and SEE FOR YOURSELF? I and my family do not have the luxury of checking into a hotel when we don't have electricity. And it is obviously useless talking to a customer service rep when they don't
bother to log in a complaint from paying customers.

What kind of amends can Meralco make other than a lame "we'll schedule someone to check
out your situation but right now we don't know when we can service
you..." Wow. How about making up for our discomfort by waiving our
electric bill for this month? No? It seems your company is quite
content to allow us to go without electricity for another week, maybe
a month if your people seem inclined to do so. We have an invalid
96-year old grandmother we can't even check into the hospital so she
won't have to suffer from the heat and mosquitoes.

If your people cannot even inform us when someone will actually
restore power to our home (preferably this century, thank you), please
do us the courtesy of informing us if we should bother paying your
company for not doing a thing or if we can switch to alternative power
sources like solar energy, wind power, maybe hook up 100 hamsters to
exercise wheels to power an electric fan? 10 days without electricity
in a very populated and almost-commercial area is a pretty long time
to do without this urban necessity.

But then, I doubt your company CARES. Your neglect speaks volumes.

Sincerely,

(name deleted)
(etc deleted :D)

They did it again, and again, and AGAIN...

2010-07-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

Pardon me as I lose my temper.

Years ago, my car was broken into, after making the common mistake of parking it in what I thought was the safest possible place: a guarded parking lot in a busy business district. Turns out you don't pay for "secure parking" --you just pay for that bit of land your vehicle sits on, and the succeeding hours fund those fancy attendant uniforms, computers that keep track of how many minutes you went over your alloted time, and that mechanized arm that swings up and down to set you free from the damned place after you pay through the nose.

As much as possible, I avoid any parking lots managed by that company, thanks to their shoddy handling of the situation. And now I learn that someone else recently had his car broken into IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. Where are the rent-a-cops when you need them? It's as if thieves view these places as their personal candy jars, to raid whenever they please.

One blog post pretty much summed the experience for many who were victimized. While there were those who had plenty to say about leaving one's personal belongings or parking in unlit areas, this reply did the job. (Thanks Annie)

books, glorious books...

2010-06-25T04:22:00.000-07:00

go follow @PenguinBooks on Twitter, get a chance to get a bunch of cool reads (if you're too lazy to join the Fully Booked book grab this year :)

say cheese

2010-05-31T02:49:00.001-07:00

interesting specimens eh?

not a museum.

it's an orthodontist's office.

wall of fame/shame? you decide.

signs of the times

2010-04-29T15:46:00.001-07:00

we interrupt the long silence with this news bulletin...

2010-03-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

in between deadlines and odd jobs, I've been hunting for a reliable postpaid broadband provider.

Brand S has been my default prepaid provider, but there's a point when you get a bit tired of scratching those cards or getting load...plus, when service gets iffy, it's not even worth a 15-minute call to get a refund...

Brand G had been my first choice, since we were using their landline service. After being assured that there was an (oh-so-precious) available slot, I applied for account modification, was told to expect their crew in 7-10 days.

...and didn't hear a peep from them. And to make a long story short, after three weeks and four frustrating phone calls to their customer service reps (and the unbelievable excuses they came up with), I told them to cancel my application for modification. If they were already giving me such a tough time BEFORE I got their service, I could easily imagine the hell I'd be going through after signing a contract with a lock-in period. Gah.

so I inquire about a trial run with Brand B...and lo and behold, I get scheduled for a demo within the week, their staff was very professional (and even confirmed with me the day before about the appointment) ...plus they delivered the goods, in a simple and efficient manner.

Ironically, Brand G's tech support called up a couple of times after I sent in my cancellation request (kulit!) saying they had an available spot, and would I like to push through? My eyebrows were already doing loop-the-loops. Sure, I said, if they could manage to guarantee installation within that very same week, I'd consider. (and with their spotty service, I seriously doubted they'd make good)

Thought that was the last I'd hear from them, but apparently they bamboozled someone else into saying yes --and the last I heard from Brand G's reps was that they'd be sending a crew over (the same day Brand B was scheduled for a demo). Well, Brand B's rep did the demo, signed me up and I've got broadband, easy peasy. It's not uber-fast, but it gets the job done.

I think Brand G's people rang the doorbell some hours after that. Tsk. If they had delivered on what they had promised all those weeks ago, I may have been a happy subscriber. Instead, they pretty much demonstrated what kind of service their subscribers get. Imagine paying three weeks for broadband you can't use?

Brand G has been getting a lot of flak in the past year for spotty service, and their people should focus on the actual products' performance, instead of trying to push the products. Offer the world all you want, but if your customer can't even get decent service, you'll lose your battles on the home front.

meet my little (electronic) friend

2010-01-06T03:45:00.000-08:00

still in the getting to know you phase with this gadget (because someone forgot that i don't read Chinese, which was the only language the owner's manual came in. pfft.)

takes decent shots, but i have to configure it properly, apparently images still come out grainy (so says the layout artist at one of the mags i write for) --which i have to agree with (but hey, you rush me, i send you photos, you don't like it, find your own then, right?) (seriously, i'm not being paid extra to take photos for this piece, so just a little credit to the right people would be nice)

so far it's performed decently (as long as i remembered to tweak the settings) and i can't complain really.

now if only i had the guts to submerge it! it is supposed to take to snorkeling depths...

Tres Bien

2009-11-16T22:11:00.000-08:00

things come in threes, they say...and it seems for some publishers, compiling three books into one is a splendid idea, especially if it's a trilogy, like Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials." (this series was so darn sad i wanted to cry, but kept holding it off because i wanted to see how it ended)

other times, it doesn't make sense, unless you want a crash course in popular lit, like the Sookie Stackhouse novels.

both paperbacks are as thick as phonebooks (and just as heavy too) but i seem to have zipped through the latter quicker than the former.

thankfully, Harris is more fun to read than Stephanie Meyers (I read Twilight and wanted to cringe, ew, hehehe) --and reading her short story in the vampire/birthday themed anthology (Many Bloody Returns) was a good look into her storytelling style.

definitely saving up for the next three-in-one in the Sookie Stackhouse series (mentally plays corny Selecta 3-in-1 plus 1 jingle).

two magic words

2009-11-06T22:02:00.001-08:00

books.
sale.

Christmas Showroom Sale

Our books will be going on sale from November 16 to December 29 at the Adarna House Showroom — up to 70% off on selected items! Storybooks will go for Php 50.00 each. Come visit us at 2/F FSS Building, 20 Scout Tuason corner Scout Castor Streets, Barangay Laging Handa, Quezon City. We are open from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Mondays through Saturdays. Call Dang at 372-3548 local 102. Maligayang Pasko!

after...

2009-10-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

it's been nothing but catch up work, figuring how the laptop works (having it fixed when the USB ports & flash card reader couldn't read anything for some reason).

we finally took time to go to the Manila International Book Fair, which was pretty crowded on a Saturday. because of the impending rain and distance (at the cavernous SMX next the humongous Mall of Asia), i decided not to chance possibly submerging a certain small silver car in floodwaters and we commuted via MRT/jeep instead, a pretty pleasant trip despite the crowds (hoping to get early bargains at weekend sales? most of them disembarked at the Cubao and Ayala stations).

after checking out the FB MoA sale and scoring paperbacks of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy (which the sprout finished about two-three weeks ago) and "Howl's Moving Castle" we moseyed on to SMX and wandered the aisles, getting halfway through the exhibits (and purchasing another "Trese" volume signed by the affable Budgette Tan & Kajo Baldisimo) before we got a text that our friend Aina had just arrived.

while waiting in the lobby, we noticed that the crowd had suddenly shifted and gravitated towards a man with thinning hair and eyeglasses, looking very much like Noynoy Aquino (on his way to laud some educators at a conference above the bookfair). the sprout wanted to get an autograph, i told him to just do a handshake and if he's lucky i could snap a picture with the camphone. we debated for a minute, and *poof* the moment was gone as the tide of well-wishers carried Mr. Aquino away. (Aina & the sprout spent a little time later trying to stalk the senator for another autograph/photo op --no success).

ever the expert shopper, Aina ended up buying autographed copies of Pugad Baboy from the Anvil booth and a Moleskine edition of Sense & Sensibility (she plans to get a Moleskine P&P soon) from NBS. I'd been hoping to score P&P and Zombies, or S&S and Seamonsters, but no luck. (besides, I still have a backlog of books to read, and a few others to review)

some weeks later, the sprout agreed (w/ an uncle) it was high time the fishpond was cleaned (plenty of inbred tilapia died, they couldn't take the clean and chlorinated water, hehe) and it was a good time to see how Turtlee (originally my sis-in-law's pet) has been doing.

that's the sprout's size six foot next to the very much grown up Turtlee (whose was about the size of a cupcake sometime in 2001 or 2002 when sis in law got her with a male turtle of the same size who died about a few months later. the sprout was just starting preschool then)
now he's catching up to me too (haha) --those are my Crocs he's wearing (in-arbor na nya). and that's about 2-3 inches of floodwater in the front garden during Ondoy last September. our neighborhood is pretty elevated but we had floodwaters turn our street into a river, and the drains couldn't take the volume of water raining down, so we had a couple of inches of water creeping into

(and out of the house)

compared to the others who spent the night above floodwaters in no electricity, we were pretty damn lucky, but we found out later that the sprout's school was inundated in a flash flood when the wall blocking the nearby creek gave way.

*swoosh* whatever cement/asphalt job was on the driveway, it was gone. the classrooms were in AT LEAST 4ft of floodwater (bless those volunteers who cleared the water with a bucket brigade). kids who left their schoolbags/books over the weekend found them a sodden unusable mess when the school reopened a week and a half later.

(see that brown stain on the white corkboard? that was the flood/tide line in the sprout's classroom, damp when i touched it)

even the makeshift wall bisecting the property gave way (those nasty real estate people should foot the repairs this time, i wish)

the library was a mess... bags of soaked and unusable books had to be thrown away before mold or mildew got 'em.

oh, yeah...and i got a year older (i feel that way with the back problem & the cane, but hopefully exercise, phys therapy and a couple more sessions with the chiropractor should set me straight, nyahaha).

wonky tech

2009-09-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

the pc died, i'm getting used to this laptop (which can't read usb's for some reason) and finishing a backlog of stuff that was pending when the computer up & crashed on me (damn you mercury retrograde)
the sprout is having exams (we now have eyebags that qualify as carry-on luggage) please pray he aces all his subjects.

read-aloud time ;)

2009-08-12T18:18:00.001-07:00

i'm still somewhere in the middle of the J&J audiobook and am really enjoying it (liberally peppered cuss words and all, hehehe) and wonder if agents or audio book editors (if there's such a thing) can tell if an author is able to read his/her own work and reel in an audience without putting them to sleep.

great examples are Neil Gaiman (who reads like he's talking to a friend or doing a bedtime story for a slumber party of 4-5 guests) and Roald Dahl (playful tone of voice when reading Charlie & the Chocolate Factory) --yes, Julie Powell is included. Honorable mention for Lynn Reid Banks for doing a colorful reading of The Indian in The Cupboard.

not so good examples are Lemony Snicket (whose reading style has been described to me as someone utterly bored with reading his own stuff --and i did fall asleep while listening to his reading of The Miserable Mill from "A Series of Unfortunate Events.") and possibly any author who's penned those entrepreneurial bestsellers or self-help titles (who fail to translate their enthusiasm from print to audio)

hence, hiring actors who have (preferably) done voicework. Tim Curry tops my list (hello, Mr. Nigel Thorneberry, or is it Dr. Frank N Furter?) as the narrator of The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket (I actually wanted to finish the whole audiobook in one sitting, never mind if it took hours)

Miranda Richardson (the Missus from Chicken Run! the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland --and let's not forget that b*tchy terrorist in The Crying Game) is nearly toe-to-toe with Tim Curry in the vocal characterization department. I love how she brings Horrid Henry (scheming and somewhat misdirected) and Perfect Peter (whiny and weak) to life.

the sprout has his favorites too: from a spectacularly-read Anthony Horowitz's Granny;

to the imaginative Dick King-Smith's The Crowstarver

Runners-up are Anthony Horowitz's Stormbreaker (Alex Rider rules for the sprout);

and the somewhat funny Viking at School.

I've yet to give this a listen, it's still in its cellophane wrapping. But I like Sue Townsend's wry wit (The Queen & I and the Adrian Mole series) so what's the harm?

eh?

2009-08-10T02:30:00.000-07:00

...it's so boring (he says about the first chapter)

...wait till he gets to the really good parts (riches, revenge, redemption!)

small blessings

2009-08-10T02:12:00.001-07:00

the sprout is now a year older

he won a couple of books, thanks to the book blogger challenge :D (you made his day FB! Thanks!)

Pepper Lunch Shangri-la gifted me a free Pepper Rice Meal :) (which the sprout enjoyed...and i managed to treat my mom to lunch as well out of my own pocket, hehe, worth it naman.)

i ended up with the Murakami book i (really really really) wanted, thanks to a generous author who was getting rid of part of her book collection.

an amazing book :D (still reading it)

just glad this didn't grow to the size of the garage (it's a ball of pure sticky cellophane tape i found when cleaning the sprout's junk!)

syaping-syaping

2009-08-10T01:47:00.000-07:00

yes, it's about that four-letter word: SALE
just kidding. i love discounts, am a sucker for them, and in fact am in hot water thanks to some scam artists who decided to sell NFA rice under the guise of jasmine rice (the con-man had quick hands and almost convincing patter --and i forgot to put on my sungit face that day, dammit).

so in the span of two days i go to nbs & fb to indulge in some bargains and get what i wish for (and a discounted Steve Martin paperback, woohoo! More on that next time.)
the sprout gets his Alex Rider fix with Ark Angel (so exciting he snuck it into his schoolbag! and he's so grounded! i hate doing this but it's been impounded for the rest of the week...and i get to read it! *evil laugh* ...but seriously, i hate it when that happens)

what every nerdy parent needs to know, backed by scientific proof.

found an audiobook (battered cardboard, but otherwise scratch-free CDs) of Julie & Julia which i'm currently listening to on my mp3. Thankfully the author is no Daniel Handler (sorry man, i love your books, but your reading voice needs a lot of work, it's great that Tim Curry took over that job though), and I'm looking forward to finishing it within the week.

yes Aina, if you're reading this, this is what i'll be lending you soon (once i'm done reading it of course)

and who doesn't love an Italian man who adores wine, women and song, can solve mysteries, whips up a meal like breathing? unfortunately he's fictional, hehehe.

shhh...

2009-07-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

some people have to hide their shopping bags of clothes or shoes from family members. i have to hide one or two (small) bags of books because i still have quite a backlog.

but i couldn't resist these (hehe)

ever since their Nov 2008 issue, I've been on the lookout for WIRED. their artists make the covers great (look at that solarized effect and oh, the metallic ink they use for the pages, lovely! the special ink use is even restrained in a Zen art sort of way --spot lamination is now so five years ago, hehehe)
also helps that this particular issue helps me jumpstart my research on an article i'm working on...

After reading Tietam Brown, I couldn't resist picking this up. Mick Foley, possibly one of the few wrestlers who do the sport with the most heart, throw everything they have into the ring, and miraculously walk out with their brain cells intact. And writes amazingly well! He can do the claw on Danielle Steel any day, hehehe (unfortunately he's too much of a gent to do so).

Never read anything by Camille Paglia, so i figured this would make an interesting start...

Same with Terry Pratchett (as a standalone author, not as co-author on Good Omens)

and...

George Carlin...nuff said :D

hannah & gus make a (food) porno

2009-07-20T17:57:00.001-07:00

during someone's former life as a managing editor, she had the pleasure of meeting gus-gus, the unofficial mascot of the magazine she worked for.

foodie, raconteur and all-around travel buddy, gus-gus lived for adventure (although he's retired from all that now, content to sit in his lifeguard's chair somewhere near the editor-in-chief, dreaming of beaches and babes in bikinis to save, preferably a nice half-polar, half-grizzly mestiza who likes to frolic in the waves and is utterly cool. rawr.)

of course he could not say no when invited to be a judge at a tuna culinary competition about 2-3 years ago in General Santos (now famous for its other export, Manny Pacquiao). guess who gleefully accompanied him on this food trip.

the guy who did the inviting? none other than chef Ed Quimson.

(freshly filleted tuna sushi)

(no, gus wasn't arrested, they really had armed military people roaming the malls --unless there was a buy-one-take-one sale going on at the army surplus shop they didn't know about)

as part of the tour, the group also checked out the Saranggani Bay operations, a huge facility that could easily make a decent military base (think Subic). Fishponds galore, even in the bay itself, harvested regularly and processed for sale locally and internationally.

(some of the best Spanish-style bangus/sardines ever)

and of course you have plenty of fish, a chef on hand and an available kitchen. what to do? cookfest!

chef came up with tocino-style fish, sweet-and-sour white fish, sinigang and a very memorable baked codfish buried in salt. gus' companion came up with the steamed lapu-lapu with ginger and green onions. everyone was pretty much in a food coma after that.

analog vs digital

2009-07-20T17:41:00.000-07:00

remember mixtapes? friends would copy from other CD's or cassettes onto a blank and give them to friends (this was before Tower Records/Music One and better stocks at Odyssey/Fully Booked) --spread the love for music, share the joy, that sort of thing :D

when my mom finally bought herself a mini component in the early 90's, she loved the fact that she could play 6 CDs, two cassettes (not all at the same time) as well as listen to AM/FM. well, that component finally died (mitigating factors include meddling from the sprout during his toddler/grade school years) and my mom thought of buying herself a small radio. the fast talking saleslady was pretty good, because ma walked out with an expensive lemon that promptly chewed up one of her precious cassettes. so before the week was over, i brought her back to the appliance store, made sure the return was made, and waited for my ma to choose a replacement, without interference from salespeople trying to make their quota.

wouldn't you know it, she ended up buying something that was almost three times the price.

to console her (pun intended), i taught her about the USB port. apparently she didn't get it, until i brought one pre-loaded with a few bits of Frank Sinatra and Ray Conniff. and once i noticed the "record to USB" button, i casually remarked that it was possible she could use it to record tv/radio shows, as well as CDs onto it, maybe even her precious tapes. (which was confirmed after i read the manual)

that got her eyes sparkling. the following weekend, she brought out an array of tapes which we spent an afternoon recording (boring the sprout to no end). matt monroe. jack jones. nat king cole. and, God bless them, the platters. yup, golden oldies weekend. and i had to drink cups of caffeinated tea to keep awake after a heavy meal at Cookbook Kitchen.

and...eek! the stuff i had from High School! mercy me. no, those weren't put into the USB, i'm still looking for my "Off the Deep End" by Weird Al.

gone too soon

2009-07-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

will miss the guy first introduced to me as "eggy" (even though all the other siblings have the same initials!)

this is the guy who misses him more. they grew up together, as playpen buddies (i've seen the home movies where eggy peers around his playpen and some diapered kid scoots around with that weird and very familiar feet flat on the floor short-but-quick shuffle butt-tucked-in, tummy-and-chest out position --yes he still scoots around that way, sans diapers)

rest in peace, even if i don't agree with people who say that the good who die young are needed more in heaven --that's just b.s.

surreal interview

2009-07-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

it was a pleasure to interview Bob Blumer yesterday with the other foodies/journalists :D
and reading through the cookbook was so much fun, especially when Blumer has suggestions for "music to cook by"

Dude, barely 48 hours in a country isn't enough to sample Pinoy cuisine, y'know?

la, di, da.

2009-07-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

you learn new things everyday. for instance: fan belts on washing machines do get worn out by frequent use (especially when one always runs a full load), but this is the first time i've seen a toothless fan belt!

down to the gums. Sheesh.
Now I have to catch up on a week's worth of laundry. Excuse me :D

It's raining books! (sorta) :D

2009-07-13T02:19:00.000-07:00

www.worldebookfair.com

apparently, for a limited time only, bookworms all over the world can get their hands on e-books galore thanks to the generous people behind the world e-book fair. i'll probably get a few books after i get over the "whee! i'm raiding the candy store!" giddiness.

i think the first free e-book i was able to download was "little brother" by cory doctorow, thanks to a link from neil gaiman's website. never managed to finish it (i was reading it to keep awake during deadlines at the office) ...come to think of it i should finish it, hehehe.

so, what will you download for yourself?

88, 85, 75!

2009-06-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

the five-and-dime concept has always been around but it took a place called Japan Home Store (where almost everything is priced at Php88, 66 or 55, depending on the item) to get me hooked. ok, so 99.5% of the merch actually is manufactured in China, it just makes it easier for me to decide if I really need whatever I'm picking up.

like little deodorizing shoe inserts, in the shape of stuffed animals. or organizers. maybe even a kitchen knife or cutting board.

then along comes a store called Saizen (with items priced at Php85) and although I spend about 1-2 hours trawling the aisles, I leave with about 5-6 items in my small basket. this is one shop where you should never bring your credit card, and it pays to know the going rate for certain things. for instance, sidewalk chalk in New Hatchin grocery is Php30 cheaper than Saizen.

last week, after picking up a check at an office in Makati (which required crossing the South Superhighway on one of those rare pedestrian crosslanes), I decided to reward myself with a non-Japanese treat: gelato from Amici's :D

--then hopped over to Choto Stop to see what goodies I could pick up at Php75 an item:
the melon-flavored cream soda that tasted more like bubblegum
Japanese alcopop, called chu-hi
curry-flavored noodles (although the sprout later found good sausage-flavored ones) and furikake (stuff you sprinkle on rice, mostly chopped seaweed with sesame seeds and egg or salmon or somesuch)

i really like this shop :)

confessions of a library 'fugee

2009-06-16T16:36:00.000-07:00

libraries are havens. period.

in grade school, they were where you would find the kids who couldn't play (because people were hogging the swings or something) or the ones who would browse over the selection of new books (if there were any) wondering when the librarian would let them take one home for the weekend.

in high school, apart from those who needed to study and research, you'd find the daydreamers and the occasional sleepers (who couldn't get enough naptime in their noisy classrooms) and the refugees who wanted to be left alone with their Tolkien or comic books.

despite the books that opened your mind in college, the librarian there was not called "conan" for nothing --she confiscated personal items left on your spot at the table, all bags were to be left outside at a designated "package counter" and anyone who wasn't reading or researching had to leave at once. (thankfully, library refugees are a resourceful lot and discovered a few other places to go find better books and facilities)

and even after graduation, there's nothing like getting lost in a forest of books and lanes of shelves to find a gem to read.

Eoin Colfer, when are you coming to Manila?

2009-06-10T01:01:00.000-07:00

Because I'm sure the sprout will write about you like this:
[note that the event was two years ago :D --though both of us don't really care for the title of the article, hahaha, what can we do, the sprout's editor is just as rabid a Gaiman fan :)]

Not many of you know him, but Neil Gaiman is a famous author (among
older readers) and he has made many books from inspiration like The
Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish which was inspired by his son
Mike, The Wolves in the Walls was inspired by his youngest daughter
Maddy and other work like Coraline, Neverwhere, Anansi Boys,
Stardust—the Sandman series, and many, many more.
He's made over 75 books, and joked at the Fully Booked event that
Mike was able to go to college because of the money from The Day I
Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish, and he supposed that maybe Maddy can
go to college too because of Wolves in the Walls.
The event was held at Bonifacio High Street last Sunday, which
supposed to start at 3:00pm, but it started at 4:00-5:00pm. The hosts
came onstage and after introducing themselves, announced to the
audience that Neil would not be autographing any books. The huge crowd
that had gotten together (even though it rained a bit, because there
was a typhoon on the way) said together in disappointment: AWWW! My
mom already warned me there wouldn't be any signing, but I brought my
copy of Coraline, just in case.
After being called a "prestidigitator" (someone who does sleight
of hand) by the hosts, Mr. Eric Mana did some amazing tricks like
teleporting coins and then he worked his way up to the stage. My
favorite trick was when he made 2 rubber bands pass through each
other--he is a genius. It was sooo cool he did some funny tricks and
finally got Neil Gaiman to be onstage (everyone was yelling in
excitement, and my mom says I was yelling too, like at a rock concert)
for the last trick, where different audience members gave random
numbers from 1 to 9, and he had added them up, reversed them, got a
number (109), got the Mirrormask book, turned onto page 109, found the
longest word (quintessential) and when Neil Gaiman reversed the large
cardboard he was holding, the exact same page was there with the word
"quintessential" circled and in big letters.
It was really exciting to see this guy who had written many books
that I like to read. And it was great to hear him say that the
Philippines has great artists and many fantastic stories that need to
be told. Then he let the hosts take over and ask him a few questions
asked by the audience. The most interesting question was "what is the
most important thing to making a scary character?" He answered the
most important thing is that it has to scare you too, like when he
wrote Coraline.
After they gave out the certificates for the first batch of
winners for the Fully Booked contest for story writers and comic book
artists, Neil went to rest for a short time then they showed a weird
short film (about a strange guy who ends up reading in the bookstore
surrounded by tons of books), then a band took over, using mostly
household items and showing off martial arts skills accompanied by
some strange background music that was kind of cool.
We had to leave at 6:00pm because I had to have my dinner and
wake up early for school the next day, but it was all fun!

My rating is 5/5 Neil Gaiman is the best!!!

the sprout's first book review (in 2007)

2009-06-10T00:51:00.000-07:00

THE KING IN THE WINDOW (Adam Gopnik, Miramax Books/Hyperion Books for Children)

“The King in the Window” is about an American boy called Oliver who lives in Paris, France. Strange things begin to happen on the Feast of the Three Kings (Epiphany), when he and his family have the traditional King Cake, and his cake slice contains a prize: a gold key. His mom gives him a paper crown and he gets mistaken for a king by beings living in a parallel world: window wraiths, who are the reflections of real people. After some small adventures, Oliver ends up leading an army of window wraiths who are fighting against the master of mirrors (a wicked character with no face, because he steals them from people who stare into mirrors for too long and uses them as disguises), because he discovers his father’s soul is trapped in this other world and fights desperately to free him. In the real world, he is helped by Neige (a slightly older French girl who is a crystal gazer), Mrs. Pearson, an author who is good at solving riddles and bad-tempered Mr. Theodore the balloon seller. Oliver also gets help from the homeless old men called clochards, who help protect him. In the other world, the window wraiths who help him out are Francois, Moliere (who is wise), and Racine (who likes to use metaphors)

Outrageous things happen in the story. In the parallel dimension or mirror world every thing is reversed: soft is hard, and hard is soft. Which means if you are in there you could get killed by a feather and the Eiffel Tower bends over like a rubber toy! One of the characters gets sucked into an ice cube in the story while Oliver almost gets strangled by someone in the mirror. At another point in the book, shadows leave the side of man and help fight the war.

If you were to read the book in one day you better start in the morning and go on reading nonstop and you’ve got to read quickly. Read everything, it might sound boring but if you read long enough you will feel as though you are there and you can also picture it in your head and read at the same time which proves that it is all worthwhile and in my opinion it is more fun than GBA or Playstation.

My rating is 4/5 because it is a nice book.

The Grand Saint of Pinoy Rock

2009-06-10T00:47:00.000-07:00

(Pepe Smith by Wig Tysman, woohoo...when are we gonna see Mig Ayesa do the biopic?)

munchmunchmunch {or book love in the time of a(h1n1)}

2009-06-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

we got our flu shots a couple of weeks back, thank you very much.
meanwhile, the sprout has been going nuts gorging on books (Eoin Colfer, my kid is making you rich buying your hardbound books at full price --yes, this is the stingy horrified parent metaphorically tearing her hair out despite being happy for the voracious little reader who's now chewing slowly through the collected Narnia works).

and now, whilst shopping for school supplies at our friendly neighborhood bookstore, a treasure trove of Dr. Who* books at Php30 each! yay. Yes, and the Artemis Fowl novella called "The Seventh Dwarf" --a steal at Php20.

*addiction begun thanks to the Easter Special, plus three audiobooks that gave him nightmares involving zombies and a huge tentacled creature ripping the windows off his room.

busy having a life :D

2009-05-25T21:03:00.001-07:00

(happy nephew with his Narnia set, thanks to Auntie Ruth from the UK :D)

numero uno: hurrah for the destruction of the great book blockade of 2009!
if predictions are correct and Customs attempts once more to extort moolah from non-taxable cultural items in another 50 years, i hope i'll still be around to picket those douchebags.

(yes, it's Manny from "Black Books" with his very own CD, found at National Superbookstore in Cubao --one of those mega structures which was a mecca for books till Fully Booked High Street came along...but you still can't beat NBS Cubao for accessibility and the top floor chock-full of bargain books. Estela Sales should try shopping here for cheap thrills, but then again, if i were Nanay Soccoro Ramos, I'd charge her full price plus tax...hang on, Mrs. Ramos is too nice to do that...hmm, how about i wax off her upper lip and eyebrows in the most painful way possible? Does the "so sue us" challenge still hold?)

completed enrolling the sprout at school...he has yet to finish wrapping his books/notebooks in plastic :P his grandma went all out and bought him what i'd call the "pang-eskwela showcase" that had him grinning from ear to ear --i'm just praying nothing falls apart within the first three months.

the sprout got to watch Night at the Museum 2 at SM Mall of Asia (read: the portal to the black hole of retail, where you may possibly never see your hard-earned cash again, as there are too many damn tempting things to buy), did the review for his editor (thank God he didn't have to prompted or didn't do as much ass-dragging) and we even caught JJ Abrams' Star Trek (despite the unwanted annotator who liked to declared obvious stuff like "ayan, patay na ang tatay ni Kirk" or "si Spock yan, o ayan" --our friend Aina turned around to make sure his companion wasn't blind, nope she wasn't, her only handicap was that she married a doofus). yo dorko, save the commentary when you watch pirated dvds at home, wilya?

i miss the days you could just pay and walk into a movie theater and stay there all day if you wanted to. of course it was just a matter of time theater owners wised up and booted everyone out after one showing. sigh.

saturday in the city

2009-05-03T16:03:00.001-07:00

i finally got my foot out of the cast because there's only so much immobility that i can take. of course, after a few days of driving a bit, i finally got the confidence to drive downtown and do a few errands. after part 1 of said errands were accomplished, i decided to see what was new around the area. and not too far from a regional/tourism exhibit, there was this (by pilipinas street plan, i believe?):
this stuff was more interesting than the exhibit (which at 10.30am was still not open and the guard couldn't tell me how long it would take before the gates would open for visitors). thankfully the wait was short (enough time to play a canned version of the Philippine National Anthem), and so was the visit because there were very few exhibitors who bothered to show up and open early.

so i bought a few things that i knew would be appreciated at home: a small container of puto (mini rice cakes in white and orange-red colors), a humongous bag of ultra-light chicacorn (tasty, lightly seasoned with garlic and best of all not stressful on the teeth) and a bottle of adobong mani.

next stop: a short walk to pick up a magazine from carlos celdran's shop, la monja loca, a little place packed to the gills with fantastic stuff.

my favorite hatbox bag --except i don't have a hat and the bag itself is really heavy. so i'll just be happy to admire it, hahaha.

(this should've been my #teapix for my "tea & armageddon" entry on twitter, hahaha --shot at the home of a chef who had too many favorite gadgets...and we managed to not shoot one item, a pan that keeps food warm for 4-5 hours. of course that meant i had to hunt down the thing and shoot it at a shop.)

after heading home and picking up the sprout for his appointment with the doc, i decided not to tell him about my plans to go to rockwell mall to see a friend and get a few other things done. (i did warn the husband that i'd be home around 7pm). suffice it to say he was wondering where we were going till he saw the building...and then he was bouncing in his seat, chanting "fully booked! fully booked!"(said bookshop was on sale and he was dying to get the latest artemis fowl book)

i should be happy he wasn't chanting the name of the toy shop. so after a little dawdling around the mall (had to explain the faint acrid smell was left over from a fire that happened a week before at sumo sam), we scored the book at 20% off (yay!). and i managed to spot, then quickly chat up my old photography instructor from ccp (there for the sale and to watch wolverine) and introduce him to the sprout.

while waiting for my friends to drive over, we snuck out to defrost (cold mall aircon + really cold Lulubelle smoothie made of yogurt and six scoops of FIC) and went to the deli to snap pictures of the pan. mission accomplished, and food purchases were made: corn muffins (a hit), biscotti (more of a miss in my opinion...it's gonna be a chore finishing them off this week) and pretzels.

all in all, a pretty busy saturday. i'm amazed the drive wasn't terrible (except for a couple of jeepneys and buses that wanted to pick upand and let off passengers in the middle of the avenue)...must be the long weekend (less cars on city roads since people are vacationing?).

if you can see this bumper sticker you're too close!

2009-04-23T17:26:00.000-07:00

used to amuse myself taking pictures of other cars on the way to work (don't worry, this was when traffic was at a standstill).

holy cow that one huge sticker almost takes over 1/3 of the rear windshield

"keep your distance" na lang p're. nobody cares about your load.

is this supposed to be a coded message to other visayan drivers?

o-kay, so how are tiny metal pellets supposed to run the car? you mean the driver pimps himself out for gas money? yikes.

Hmmm...

2009-04-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

found at National Bookstore near the house [the sprout claimed he had run out of reading material and was itching to read the next installment of the 39 Clues, which confirms my belief that Scholastic is not really in the education business...more like rip off the book-buying public because c'mon, paying over Php1000 for the new Harry Potter book in these times is nuts, so is paying almost Php500 for a book that barely has a story in it (c'mon, I can buy several local comic books with better art and stories for Php500, new editions with the author/artists signature pa)...mas lamang pa yung Eoin Colfer/Artemis Fowl]

you would have thought that a best selling series of books should have the budget for its own cover art?

summer fruit

2009-04-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

this almost-ripe santol specimen is sitting on my desk. unfortunately it's only twice the size of a pingpong ball, while the rest of its green siblings are still in the tree...am hoping to harvest a lot without interference from the construction workers (lord knows, they could've helped themselves already). hopefully the rains in the past couple of days will help plump up the fruit.

here's a belated RIP to the balimbing tree...the kaimito trees are also gone (no more thumping fruit on the roof...anything heavy landing on that roof will have to be avian or mammalian, unless the nutty neighbors decide to hurl a coconut or something)

burp

2009-04-18T03:44:00.001-07:00

something pointed out to me today: seems that the places i enjoy eating out at involve puttanesca on the menu (for the sprout) and a nearby bookshop. makes me wish pasto had a little bookshop next to it (silly idea but that's what wishes are for!)

cheap eats and cheap books preferred, but if we have to splurge, the eats and books had better be worth it. strangely, i've never had any pasta at that cafe at fully booked rockwell (starbucks at the high street branch doesn't seem to have pasta) or at powerbooks megamall (or greenbelt). now i'm wishing there was a really good bookshop right next to any galileo enoteca (unfortunately a bookshop next to the mandaluyong enoteca may be a bad idea, while the hypothetical bookshop next to the pasong tamo enoteca may thrive if it stocked on interior design, art and photography books)

i miss going to national bookstore cubao...and hey, there's a cibo nearby or even cafe bola :)
makes me wonder what would happen if miz gaita fores focused her taste and talent on having a bookshop...which might end up being stocked full of interior design, food and/or floral related books, hahaha
too hot nowadays to walk to the italian resto at cubao x :P

too much drama for a little toe

2009-04-14T19:00:00.001-07:00

stumbled down the last two steps of a small set of stairs early yesterday morning and bashed the little toe (which look very crumpled/dislocated...and i popped it back into place figuring no harm done right?)

i had plenty of people telling me to go have it checked, so off i went for an x-ray and checkup at a lab, when the doc tells me she's worried about a teeny little hairline crack that showed up. so she sends me off to the national orthopedic hospital (15 minutes away by car)...and the sprout gets his first encounter of being in a government-run hospital: Php20 consultation fee, Php105 x-ray fee, a waiting room full of people coming in from different parts of the city with serious injuries ranging from the kids who get hit by cars, fall out of trees, play superman (jump off a roof) spiderman (hang onto a washling line) or adults with work-related injuries. the occasional cat that would walk through (personally i think they're a nice touch since they're calm and not feral).

kids were wailing in pain, someone was being drilled into (no curtains in the cramped ER) so they could put in pins,

compared to them, i was just a fluff case.

had to buy my own supplies and wait for some guys to do a "slipper mold" for me at this room. nope no casting couch here (bah dum dum!)

the "slipper" looks more like an unfashionable open-toed boot. am currently hobbling around with an aluminum cane after taping on one of those cheapy giveaway hotel slippers so i don't dirty up the elastic bandages. definitely have to improve my improvised footwear.

one. effing. month (?!!!) and i can take this off. meanwhile the leg (yes, the leg) has to be elevated as much as possible.

all for a little fracture on a little toe.
doesn't help that it's a bloody hot summer. haaaayyyyy.

snippets

2009-04-09T23:59:00.000-07:00

Pinoy donut math: ang apat nito ay halos katumbas ng isang Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut, and dalawa naman ay katumbas naman ng isang Dunkin Donuts jr. donut :D

MU nina Spongegirl at GrayBob :)

ang pinipili na pamputi ng mga binibini na taga Balete Drive :P

set the fake furbies free!

2009-04-09T23:24:00.000-07:00

just kidding...had a very surreal sunday last weekend accompanying the sprout to his assignment for the paper: a whole fun-filled afternoon frolicking in an amusement park. in sweltering heat. whee. the mini furbies in the picture (above) were from a crane game in the arcade.

and to the highlight of the evening: amusement park entertainers performing bits of "Jesus Christ Superstar" (if Andrew Lloyd Webber had a peso for every performance done in the Philippines, he'd be richer than the Marcoses :D) --suffice it to say that the person singing King Herod played it straight (i hear gasps of "blasphemy!" from the theater aficionados), the guy who played the Son of God was more like Buddy Christ (Kevin Smith, look this guy up when you decide to try for a "Dogma" prequel ;P) and the chorus had enunciation issues (took me a few minutes to realize they were singing "what's the fuss...tell me what's happening...what's the buzz?" --for a moment i thought they were lost and looking for a bus 8D)

thankfully the sprout was still able to declare the previous afternoon's performance of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" as the superior production...whew...but he says he wants the role of William Barfee (oh yikes...but mom-in-law says that's a pretty good role, hahaha)...the actor doing a cameo as Jesus was cool as a cucumber :D joskopo the sightings of the Son of God one week before Eostre! at least those were more pleasant than the crucifixions in Porac, Pampanga (a performance which proves that people still want their share of live blood and gore because c'mon, who constructs a VIP section for people to sit and watch some dudes get nailed to a cross...but hey, by this time, they could be selling tickets because last time i heard admission was for free :P)

supermarket silliness

2009-03-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

wonder if consuming these improves a foul mood, or if the eggs were euthanised (ya know, kinder butchering practices) prior to processing, hehehe

so much for reproducing the old fashioned way (pistils, stamens, and all that)

gone green

2009-03-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

decided to not drink soda during lent (cafeteria christian that i am) and opt for fruit shakes and juices...or plain ol' H2O.

unfortunately i discovered preserved GREEN mangoes at Robinson's Supermarket (ordinarily not a problem for me since the nearest one should be at Galleria, but they've just opened one just 15 minutes away from where I live)...and they sell those "Melona" Korean honeydew melon ice cream popsicles too...aaagh!!! unlike the regular sweet dried mangoes, these have a nice sour bite to balance all that cloying sweetness (from sugar and preservatives, i imagine).
what did Oscar Wilde once say? something about avoiding temptation just by giving in to it? wah.

rip: the hot tin roof

2009-03-05T16:35:00.000-08:00

...sorta.

after enduring a leaky (you should see the number of basins and pails set out when there's a downpour), rusty roof, it's finally being replaced.

all we have to do now is endure all the walking, tin thumping and loud cutting/drilling tool sounds on these sweltering days. not to mention off-key singing of badly done love songs by the workmen (i assume they do this to keep sane, but wish they had something better to warble, i fear LSS --last song syndrome).

go fish

2009-03-03T16:44:00.000-08:00

the nice thing about visiting an art gallery every so often is finding works you like, no matter how crazy they seem. this guy's stuff stood out for me in a sea of technically good (but seemingly lackluster) work whose painters still had a just little more to go (forming their personal manifesto and believing in it).

after coming in from searing post-10am heat, climbing up several stairs (which explains some of the wonky camphotos, haha), and heading for what i thought was bookshop, i found a buffet spread of paintings in different styles...and these particular works were the ones i zoomed into for a better look.

turns out nemo aguila is a member of pilipinas street plan, a talented bunch of graffiti artists whose works can be found all over the metro (my favorite so far is the series done on g.i. sheets at a construction site on ortigas ave near santolan rd.), check out their work at pilipinastreetplan.blogspot.com

a little more extra in that mural

2009-02-28T01:26:00.000-08:00

heading home from a doctor's appointment in the cubao/new manila area, we saw this uber cool mural by weewilldoodle in a residential area --even the gate has art!

beats mmda's silly pink and blue geometrical nonsense any day. check out weewilldoodle.com and see what these crazy creatives are up to (apparently i missed out on getting my very own uratex foldable mattress with the wwd designs all over it)

oh yeah, check out that article that says doodling helps you remember things better :)

swing shift

2009-02-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

this week, a covered swing had to be moved to make way for a front yard project...so far it's doing well in its new spot, under the shade of an avocado (leafy but non-fruit bearing)...i've been told i can get wifi (from a nearby room, not the tree) so i'm doing some research on netbooks (imagine those aliens from sesame street: "net...book! net...book. netbook, netbook...yip, yip, yip!")

looks like a good place to read a book this summer.

eight books

2009-02-27T15:26:00.000-08:00

as is typical, the sprout announced at the last minute he needed to create 8 books made out of 4 sheets of cartolina each for his english language project. after my usual lecture, he had to do some research to get the stories he wanted. it was assigned more than 3 weeks ago and had to be submitted by Feb 27...thank goodness the day before that was a half-day so mr. i-can-cram-this-really! could do his work before i stressed out.

my personal favorite: his illustration of the cyclops going after the greek crew in the odyssey (hehehe)

the crow and the pitcher

left brain, right brain

2009-02-27T15:08:00.000-08:00

pop quiz: after not buying magazines for quite some time, you see a stall selling late 2008 issues at two for Php200. what would your immediate two choices be?

these were mine...i'm just as happy checking out what's new at True Value (or any mall hardware store...the occasional trip to the well-stocked warehouse hardware is also a great diversion for me, hahaha...you can take the kid away from the downtown area, but she's still gonna check the prices of latex paint and brushes :P yup i was one of those kids who watched the store on weekends or went from customer to customer to collect money --those were the days when kids weren't being snatched off the streets...the only thing you had to worry about was if they were canny enough to cross the street on their own, and i never went solo till Gr6 or Gr7. it's a "strength in numbers" thing...look at EDSA One...mass up enough people and you can stop a tank :D)
...as for the VOGUE, aside from having food critic Jeffrey Steingarten on board (I think Ted and the other QE gays should give him a makeover), I still love the photography and the writing. Hay naku...found myself wading through ads and whatnot till I got to the staffbox queened by Anna Wintour after more than 80-90 pages (!!!) (note: in my former life, the magazine i worked for had 100 pages, including the free poster that came with it, and the staff box only took up half of page 2 because we used a lot of space, haha.)

the slipper throwing capital of the world?

2009-02-19T16:04:00.000-08:00

in the footwear-throwing scene, when you think about it, any pinoy with shoes or slippers should be considered a potential threat...we have childhood games involving throwing slippers at tin cans! (of course this game was probably invented by an adult who wanted to train kids who could unerringly kill cockroaches with a properly aimed flipflop)
when presenting a used pair of shoes (even when worn once) as a "gift," it has to be thrown (as if the owner were discarding them in a huff?) and then exchanged for the token fee of one peso (it could be 10 now, what with inflation)...can you imagine the jemaah islamiyah or comrades from the communist party taking a side course on footwear hurling in r.p. from the pros?
and when you take into consideration that we have wooden clogs (bakya)...it makes you wonder if pie-throwing at rich industrialists and people in power has become passe in favor of shoe hurling. think of the branding possibilities (nike: just throw it!)
...and then our choices of footwear suddenly become severely limited at press functions with important dignitaries as the Secret Service computes your throwing speed, your known accuracy/aim, the type/weight of your footwear (red alert on stilletos!), the trajectory your shoe will take based on where you will be sitting/standing...similar to guests checking in their cameras and cellular phones at events that ban pictures, guests may be checking in their shoes and wear paper slippers at public speaking engagements or press conferences.
forget shoe phones, daggers built into clunky footwear, and other exotic means of assassinating someone...you're going to be red-flagged one day at an event with a VIP if you wear chunky wedge sandals or platform heels made of hardwood.

happy karter

2009-02-18T15:56:00.000-08:00

with the wife swap brouhaha surrounding the brit who called anyone "beneath" him a podunk redneck (as if he was a prize worth having, ha!), plenty of things raised my hackles, but denying his kids the pleasure of karting? what kind of narrow-minded a**hole would do such a thing? this is where F1 drivers get their first taste of racing, and gives us everyday folk a chance to take it out on a race track, instead of fueling our road rage.

with gas prices going up again, i can only look at these pics and just...*sigh*

can't wait to get back to the track :)

never kill this bill (please?)

2009-02-16T18:49:00.000-08:00

"I need books, a reasonable hat and prescription shades. I also need rain."
--Bill Nighy (on what he needs during a vacation)

Karen Kunawicz said it all when she wrote about this gifted actor in The Manila Times about a couple of weeks back.

what Php165 can buy...

2009-02-14T17:51:00.000-08:00

finally happy to have bought The Graveyard Book at the NBS (Php315) near the house, after asking FB branches kept saying they didn't have stock (they're selling pretty well at Php480)...after doing the math, you realize that's a Php165 difference (a bit over 5 liters of unleaded gas before prices went up during the weekend) and you can still buy plenty of books with that money.

before someone decides to challenge this claim, here are three purchases made this week (at Php20, that's not a typo, TWENTY PESOS each) at a bookstore in Greenhills...I would have bought more but I'd hate to have a huge stack of unread stuff (!!!)...and there was the matter of the cover art of some of the books being too darn cheesy...Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence" tarted up to look like a Mills & Boon?! (yuck)

mini fruit

2009-02-14T17:47:00.000-08:00

early avocados...just one of these can ruin Barbie or Ken's diet
I keep forgetting we don't have kamias in the garden :) maybe I should buy a sapling or something...

still cleaning up

2009-02-14T17:39:00.000-08:00

during the cleanup there were plenty of bits and bobs to make up a whole new cast of zombie/misfit toys (remember those from Toy Story?)...then I found a legless MegaBlock Spidey...and then this

the cutlass appears to belong to Capt. Jack Sparrow (there are 2 versions running around the house, the good and evil twins...I'm presuming the evil twin did this because I can't find either one -which means good Jack got chopped up by evil Jack)

not my pets

2009-02-11T02:37:00.000-08:00

at one point in my life i had one cat, two or three dogs, several parakeets and a tank full of fish (and a chicken that only laid one egg before being turned into soup) and ducklings. nowadays i'm content to admire other people's pets, maybe babysit them, but not keep them for myself.

exhibit a: the pomeranian with a fear of heights...this little guy once jumped off the seat of a dining room chair, then freaked out and started whimpering (i think it sounded like "omg, omg, am i still alive? am i now in hell? or limbo? or, or, could i possibly, actually still be ALIVE?!")

exhibit b: the tortoise that thinks its a dog. he filches food and water from the pom's dish, and if you offer scraps to it from under the dining room table, he'll snap at it and your finger too. unprotected toes are also bitten by this nearsighted creature

exhibit c: the dog that thinks he's cute. unfortunately he's dumb (compared to his more loveable askal companion)...one day i shall rename it "zoolander."

exhibit d: ninja chicken...actually not a pet but one bought from the market by a superstitious midwife who was advised by her albularyo to set one free in our garden (she had apparently offended a duende who wanted to be appeased)

and somewhere at home we still have a pond full of fish (with a turtle) and another fish tank with a couple more fish...at the moment i'm wishing for a smallish reticulated python to come along and eat the mice that have been hopping around the space between the ceiling and the roof...the neighborhood cats don't seem up to the challenge.

no man's land

2009-02-09T18:23:00.000-08:00

cleaning a little boy's room can be more difficult than cleaning a grown up person's domain.
we're talking about archaeological expeditions, sifting through bits and pieces, making judgment calls on what's junk and what's not.
after a while you get dizzy and have to breathe but can't (because of the dust!)
never ask how much stuff a little boy can have.

78 :P

2009-02-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction

Out of curiosity, I checked out a 1000-book list of recommended reads.
Sadly, despite years of reading, I only totted up 78 titles. (Aided mostly in part by reading Stephen King, Herge, Michael Crichton).
Is this what dedicated nerdhood gives me? 78 only?!
Must. Read. More. (if I had the time and the money)
I really should renew my library membership.

can happy days or team manila put this on a shirt please?

2009-02-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

one day at a t-shirt near you

2009-02-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

tickles trinoma

why billionaires get depressed about being millionaires

2009-02-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

JOE HELLER

True story, Word of Honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead,
and I were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island.
I said, "Joe, how does it make you feel
to know that our host only yesterday
may have made more money
than your novel Catch-22
has earned in its entire history?"
And Joe said, "I've got something he can never have."
And I said, "What on earth could that be, Joe?"
And Joe said, "The knowledge that I've got enough."
Not bad! Rest in peace!
(Kurt Vonnegut, The New Yorker, May 16, 2005)

:) not my headache any more!

2009-01-12T19:17:00.000-08:00

written a looong time ago by someone i once knew ;D

Lord have mercy...it's intern season again.

Most media groups welcome having interns during the
summer season, as it gives them an idea of people they
can hire in the future. Others can view it simply as
free slave labor.

I see it as a time when I need to buy more paracetamol
or more Advil.

The publication I work for is rather small and is now
going on its third year. It doesn't mean we get our
pick of interns though, and we'd rather go without an
intern if they fail in one way or another. It's funny
but some students forget (or don't see) that
internships are also a way for them to practice their
job-hunting skills.

We've had some interns who've become endearing, the
others who barely made the cut and the rest --well,
they're the ones who should enclose two aspirins with
every application they send out. *Sigh*

Tip#1: really READ what kind of publication you want
to get into. I've had cold calls from students who
just got the number of our office, and they've had
absolutely no idea what we do. Some get huffy when
informed we require a resume and three samples of
their work in the English language --because we don't
believe in getting people to make coffee for us. If
you want a writing gig, show your prospective boss you
can do the job. Otherwise, try Starbucks if you've got
what it takes to be a barista. (And I have great
respect for baristas)
I had to interview a student who supposedly
wanted to intern with us, but actually said she was
really eyeing a job with another company. Gee, thanks
for wasting my time, I thought to myself.

Tip#2: if by some miracle you pass someone's stringent
standards, show up for the appointed interview! Or
have the decency to inform them ahead of time you
can't make it. There IS such a thing as rescheduling.
One wannabe had some face time scheduled with our
editor-in-chief (NOT an easy thing to achieve, believe
me) and failed to show up on the appointed day,
calling only a week later to ask if he could
reschedule. His lame excuse? He had been waylaid out
of town with no way of getting back to the city.
Needless to say, the irate editor-in-chief refused to
grant another chance. (By the way, the out of town
location was by no means some backwater lacking in
electricity or cellular phone services)
Addendum to Tip#2: if you do pass the interview,
show up for work and don't leave people guessing
whether or not you will swan in to do your assigned
task. That's what calling in sick is for. Unless of
course you don't give a crap about your final
performance report from the people you're doing your
internship with.

Tip#3: we're a small company, we know we're not your
first choice, so please quit the crap and just be
professional (and don't be afraid to ask for help if
you have no clue about professional behavior).
Obviously, interns would love to put on their resume
that they worked for such-and-such company. If they
fail to land the big fish and have to settle for
whatever's left (or nearest their homes or schools),
treat the job with respect. You never know when your
co-workers can recommend you to another company.
Unless your parents can afford to buy you a job.

Thank God there's plenty of media groups for students
to choose from nowadays, giving them more variety to
exercise what they've learnt in college so far. I just
wish the teachers gave their students a crash course
in job hunting skills. Persistence pays in some cases,
but nothing beats having the common sense to do things right.

the year that was

2009-01-10T03:18:00.000-08:00

...or why i never had the time to post a single thing since setting up the blog

get a snack and a cup of coffee...lotsa s'plainin' (and possible complainin') and think of these as the highlights.

jan 2008 -after launching a magalog in december with the team, the pressure is on to complete the feb-march issue (and i double as pick-up/delivery person when there are items some messengers can't seem to bring on time to our far-flung office). we get a new editor-at-large after losing the very valuable copy editor in october. get a crash course in "led zep appreciation 101" and wonder why we never got this sort of education in high school, tsk. tried bikram yoga as an active participant (instead of a sack of potatoes armed with a camera) and liked it. oh yes, i also managed to piss off one friend and haven't spoken/emailed to her since --not a great way to start the year.

feb 2008 -my toyota fx gets broken into by drugged-out dumbasses who can't tell the difference between a laptop bag and a canvas bag stuffed with newspapers and other office crap (but no pricey hardware). i still harbor ill will toward those a**holes, but hey, if anyone can just line them up and let me kick them all in the groin, then in the cranium, i'll call it even. life goes on at the office and at home.

march 2008 -the fx gets hit in the rear by some jerk who decides to walk away...possibly the first hit-and-walk committed by an abominable atrocity (good lord, yes, this country apparently has a few cryptids lurking in dark streets and alleys, the urban version of the yeti or bigfoot). reviewing in earnest for the beansprout's exams (!!!). on the other side, i get addicted to karting (apparently therapeutic, and yes, it is healthier to do this stuff than take out your rage out on an actual road). forced to fix headlamps after a traffic enforcer tries to extort money from me for having a busted light. (the money is better off when directed at getting a vehicle fixed than attempting to fix a traffic enforcer, because let's face it, many are beyond repair)

april 2008 -the sprout lands in summer school (because, his facility in the local language isn't up to par...the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, but it's a good thing some fruit can roll as far away as they can from the tree, yes?) . get my own surreal 20 minutes talking over the phone with masi oka (nice guy, his mom is probably very proud of him) for an article. joined a wacky road challenge with the office crew and would have won a spot in the top three but for an even wackier team of women who pulled out all the stops to win their challenges :)

may 2008 -for the love of "pushing daisies" i go to the heroes' cemetery for the local cable channel's premiere (and discover lee pace hates pies). a best friend has a food fete at a many-starred hotel i can't say no to, then thanks to an inconsiderate blogger who doesn't bother checking facts, gets into hot water with his boss (and it isn't even his fault in the first damn place)...and i miss 5 out of 7 courses of heirloom dishes thanks to an uber-late director with no sense of time for phone interviews (he made up for it by having a real sense of humor). and i meet a prius for the first time --great car, wouldn't mind having one after the political dust settles down and people can actually afford to keep one running here.

june 2008 -the sprout starts the next grade (thank heavens!) and the magazine team gears up for the annual toycon at megatrade hall...with a maze-like cave the color of bilirubin (when you think about it, they probably got the color right, if they based it on the discolored stalactites from palawan's underground river).

july 2008 - the sprout celebrates being a year older this month at chocolate kiss, and i manage to piss off a second friend (and yes, i'm not speaking/emailing/texting that person either, wow kalabaw) because i was late for an 8am appointment because i went home at 3am, woke up at 5am to prep the sprout for school (no maids for us DIY folks) then tried to get an hour of sleep (which became 2 hours, because i didn't set the alarm properly, galing no?)

august 2008 -the fx dies en route to sta rosa to pick up a test drive unit. thankfully, it got stranded in a neighborhood with a lot of auto supply shops and mechanics. the sprout goes on the school's annual field trip with an uncle (thanks to a note specifying that unaccompanied minors will not be allowed on the trip)...and exam preparations!

september 2008 -the infamous shoot with the not-so-flexible models (!) i get stranded in a flashflood in the fx (!!!) just to get some shiny doc marten boots for that shoot (stylist only uses one pair, firming my resolve to never get anything in extreme weather again)...we go speed shopping at the manila international book fair (whee!) and use a zipline in tagaytay (better than their cable car if you want an adrenaline rush)...plunk down a chunk of cash (i could've bought tons of books with the money!) to fix the fx's smoke belching ways (to no avail...if you read on)

october 2008 -i get a year older (but then everyone does, unless you're already six feet under) and don't mention a thing about my birthday, even as i'm trying to wrangle (and not strangle) anyone involved in an out-of-town fashion shoot. how many clowns can fit into a toyota innova crammed with props and photo eqiupment? apparently eight of them can, and if you're a very skinny photographer, you can make that nine. my birthday gift from my mom (bless her) is a trip faaar out of town to see relatives i haven't in ages (a cousin got married) and unfortunately the sprout couldn't tag along because of, ahem, academic and disciplinary issues. (time to get a tutor)

november 2008 -the sprout gets banned from doing articles for the local broadsheet's kiddie section, the law laid down by the other parent (not the one with button eyes). the fx engine DIES, and while i'm trying to figure what to do with it (junk it, get a new engine, etc) i still have a fashion shoot at a certain location to pull off, and must deliver clothes/shoes to the stylist, get food, request money, blahblahblah (it's fine, the shoot gets published, life goes on) ...and i decide to quit after getting a talking-to from the family (not the gottis or gambinos, just another surname with a "G" and heck i already have two of 'em)

december 2008 - the new engine gets put in mid to late this month, still awaiting the guy who'll fix the dings, dents and scratches...a pretty mellow month, with its share of crappy and cool cab drivers. the sprout becomes mr. congeniality during a holiday in palawan
(he's gotta work on those one-on-one skills though, haaay). and i learn never to trust someone who says it's plankton season when it's really nematocytes (jellyfish larva) season...rabbit season! duck season!

the voracious reader

2007-11-08T15:03:00.000-08:00

When my son was in his pre-reading stage, he'd always see me reading a book or the newspaper. One victim of his infant jealousy: a torn copy of Neverwhere. Those studies of babies displaying complex emotions are sooo late.
I chose a preschool that had a strong program to help kids develop their reading skills. But my son remembers that institution best as the place where he met his best friend. "He looks like me!" were his words, and soon enough they would be chatting over the phone at 10-to-15 minute stretches. What do 5-year olds talk about when they're not in school? Games, tv shows, jokes, but apparently NEVER about school or homework--kind of like Fight Club.
The audio tapes of stories that I had: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe--these were his alternatives to long boring afternoons when he'd used up his alloted TV time. Yup, and I'd read to him at bedtime (apparently that acting workshop paid off--I was in demand as an after-dinner performer for an audience of one. Unfortunately, I'm not that great as a poker player, I've been told.)
And the books I'd scrounge from garage sales, or the gifts sent by godmothers (the official and unofficial ones, bless them all) were aids in firing up his imagination.
If there's any downside to all this, it's that I find myself buying more books for him than for myself. But I don't mind, and just see it as an opportunity to read the stuff I wasn't able to find in my school library, like Charlotte's Web or Coraline. It's great to tease him about these stories, like: "You're not done with Charlotte's Web? Don't you know Wilbur gets turned into lechon (roast pig), which turns Fern into an animal activist?" He'd shoot back that he's done with the story, thank you very much, and that he knows "THAT'S not how it ends!" Or better yet, he plays on the same riff and expounds on the joke by saying "Yeah, Fern will be handing out stickers that say 'pigs are friends, not food!'"
And of course there are the inevitable discussions: why Hobbes persists in tormenting Calvin, how a certain protagonist manages to break the spell of Mr. Hood's enchanted home, if the Baudelaire children will ever be free of Count Olaf.
It's times like these I feel like Grendel's mom, saying to myself: I think I've created a monster. (cue thunder and lightning)

the book blog

2007-11-07T15:28:00.000-08:00

We have alcoholics, sex addicts, caffeine junkies, adrenaline fiends, shopcrazies, druggies--and booklovers are called by this respectable name: bibliophile. Unfortunately it doesn't mean they're any better than the rest of the lot.
Have you seen the manic energy of seasoned bargain book hunters on the first day of a sale? Scary. Most of them already have a list (in their head, or that scrap of paper), while the more spontaneous ones blitz from one pile of books to the next. I'm somewhere in the latter group, since I have absolutely no idea what'll be going for less than Php100 at the warehouse sale of a bookstore chain. Equally unpredictable: the selections at libraries run by The British Council or Thomas Jefferson Cultural Center, when old stocks were sold off to eager readers, many of whom would arrive early to ensure they'd have the pick of the lot. I've yet to witness a nasty scene akin to those catfights in movies where two women fight over the last dress in their size, maybe because booklovers seem to be a polite lot. The unspoken rule: you hold it, it's yours--let go of it and it is fair game for anyone else to pounce on. And if you don't want bad karma to befall you, never prowl around an unattended shopping basket of books.
Over the years, I'd accumulated so many books without thinking of selling them off or giving them away. My book budget has been cut into so many times, economics being the way they are now, if I were a smoker I'd be puffing through twenty packs of locally-made Winston Lights a month. (Nope, I don't smoke, there was enough of it when I was growing up--I tried my first and last stick at age eight. And there's still enough of it everywhere I go, so why buy your own smokes when you get secondhand for free? Kidding.)
But you grow up and things change. Books have to be sold to pay the bills (and here's where it pays to be OC about selecting a book in very good condition and keeping it that way). You find yourself emailing friends and strangers who will be buying these bargains, while you hope that they'll keep your treasures safe, now that it has become their property. The books that were most difficult for me to part with? My carefully collected Angela Carters and a faux-leather-bound edition of Seasons of Mist, the majority of the former purchased by a friend of a friend (who commented "You must really be in dire straits to sell these off." And I was back then) the latter bought by a dear friend who later had it signed by Neil Gaiman.
There are trade-offs. I've met interesting people through the sale of my books, who have widened my vista in a way some authors hope to do for their readers. And as for the books I've held on to, a certain someone has already begun working his way through the stacks and wants more reading material. He'll be learning the fine art of bargain book hunting soon enough.