Friday. I wento to Cam's Graduation dinner last Friday (Congratulations, hun! Welcome to the demographic!). I bought her Pamie's Why Girls Are Weird as a present (to her surprise). Actually her surprise was more of 'You bought the book!', instead of 'You bought Why Girls Are Weird!' Anyway, it was at Casa Armas in Podium, and I got there just in time before the paella ran out. Sorry Jam! It was really great seeing Grace, Dudj, Millie, and Gracie again. Merrymaking turned into fright and concern when Cam's grandfather suffered a mini-stroke in front of the restaurant, but that's not my story to tell. He's okay now.

Saturday. Community outing at Batangas. I've been there already, so I mostly caught up with my sleep. Mostly I ate, slept, read, slept, ate, read, slept. There was actually one physical activity that I did. I played Volleyball. Some new hires joined in, and I've recruited them already for the Volleyball league in September. Yay!

Sunday. I came home from Batangas. My little cousins were at the house.

Pao: Si Tita?

Maid: Namanhikan.

Pao: HA?!

Maid: Magkakaroon ka na ng bagong pinsan.

Pao: HA?! Sandali. Namanhikan ba dahil may bago na akong pinsan?

Apparently, my uncle's girlfriend was prego already. 6 months! Jesus! I'm not too crazy about their age difference either. He's pushing 30, she's 21. And it's not like he can support her financially! He doesn't have a stable job. He owns and runs a billiards place, but it barely breaks even. Anyway, maybe this new cousin of mine would make him get his act together. Oi.

...and if it were physically possible to conceive a child through that method, the offspring would be Jon Peter Lewis.

Seriously.

He has a gap between his front teeth like Frodo, his hair is like Sam's, has a good singing voice like Pippin, and is wacky like Merry. Wow. I just said 'wacky'.

I caught the replay of the wildcard show of American Idol last night, and I was totally amused by John Peter's performance. He sang A Little Less Conversation, and he did a mighty good job. Gutsy play to sing an upbeat song that won't show much range.

He was dubbed "The Pen Guy" during the auditions, but then, I didn't really watch the auditions. Now that the final 12 are in, I can start watching American Idol.

Due to the fact that my brain has been fried all week, and that I do not have time to form a coherent post, here are some random spits:

- Gavin DeGraw, you sound like Maroon 5's Adam Levine.

- I love you Yahoo! Launch, but why the hell do you consider Avril Lavigne an 'adult alternative' artist?

- Watched 50 First Dates last week. Sean Astin has no more Hobbit fat left in him.

- My vision is blurry today. I am very concerned about my eyes now.

- I found someone with the same compulsion to count how many times water is gulped, when drinking from a water fountain.

- Yahoo! Launch is now playing Vanessa Carlton's A Thousand Miles. Summer of 2002. Aw fuck.

- Cam will be graduating this Friday! Congratulations, honey.

Our air conditioner is officially broken. In the past, a good cleaning would do it, but now, there is no hope. Even our latest technique, skipping the 'low fan' and 'high fan' settings and going directly to 'low cool', does not work. Now I have to bear extremely hot nights. And not in the good way. Hence, I decided to volunteer to buy a new air con. My mother saw one that costs around 10K. Terms of payment: deferred. I guess one year to pay is quite alright. I figured if I can fork over a thousand plus on clothes or books every payday, I can totally pay for an airconditioner.

Unang pagkakataon na magpupundar ako ng gamit sa bahay.

Because here I go again:

Tuesday, March 8.
Bought The Hobbit, paperback edition, when I already have the Collector's edition.

Friday, March 12. I went to Powerbooks GB4 to look at some stuff last Thursday, and I found a whole display of Tolkien's books. Almost everything that Houghton Mifflin has published. I saw a lot of stock of the hardbound, illustrated (by Alan Lee!) trilogy. I went back to Powerbooks, Friday (since it was the Ayala Malls' midnight madness sale) and saw that the display was almost bare. I then went to customer service and saw a lot of the hardbound, illustrated trilogy reserved! I asked if there was any stock left in the store. None. Asked if there was any stock left in other stores. All reserved. Customer service guy then asked if I would take it if he found one. I said, "Is there a Metrobank ATM near here?" Of course, there was none. He said that there was one that was reserved, but the person wasn't notified yet. "I'll be RIGHT BACK!" I replied. I zoomed over to the nearest BPI ATM, thanked the Lord that I still had a thousand left in it, emptied it, went back to Powerbooks, took the books, and at the cashier, pooled together all my money. P1000 from my BPI account. P1000 from Metrobank that I withdrew when I left the office. P600 worth of gift certificates (were given as a present from my friends). P200 from my allowance money. Also, thanked God profusely that it. Was. On. SALE!

Monday, March 15. Bought The Silmarillon, paperback edition. Eyed the hardbound copy with lust and wanting.

Wednesday, March 17. Bought the Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide by Brian Sibley. Felt a pain in my gut brought about by guilt.

I just found out that I was publishing on the wrong path in my server. That's why my recent post wasn't showing up (that was supposed to be posted, Tuesday). How that happened, i do not know, since the paths were perfectly fine before. Anyway, I'm back! Yay.

Last Sunday, the FF people met up at Megamall to watch Hidalgo.

I got there early, so I went straight to Starbucks, and had a grande iced caramel machiato. It's so nice to feel the caffeine course through your veins at 9:30 in the morning. It was actually very pleasant, sitting by myself in a coffee shop, on a Sunday morning. I had with me Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, which I contemplated reading, but ended up not doing so. It was more fun to people watch.

So came 10:30 and I was the first one at Powerbooks, but Kit came just a few minutes after me. Chika ensued. Then came May, and we went to McDonald's, because Kit was starving. Cam dropped in to say hello. Reese arrived. Cam left. She had a christening to attend. It was Reese's first time to attend an EB, but she got along fine. Especially with Kit, who's another Potterhead. I am amazed at these two girls' fandom. Really. And I thought I was a fan.

Met up with Teena and Lot (adopted FFer), bought tickets, had lunch at El Pollo Loco. Andie and Abby arrived soonafter. It was Andie's birthday. Happy Birthday Andie! Much talking ensued. A lot. A. Whole. Lot. It was really chaotic. Apparently Kit and May loved my euphemism for jacking off: "helping one's self". Great. Now I'll be receiving hits with the search words "jacking off". ...Damn it!

Hidalgo. It's about a cowboy, Frank Hopkins, who enters this race to prove that his horse Hidalgo, in spite of being a half-breed, could win it. Parallelism with Frank's Native-American lineage, which, at first, he hides, and then comes to accept towards the end. So, yeah, horses, race, sand, Viggo Mortensen, Viggo Mortensen's stubbly maw, Viggo Mortensen's tight pants. And of course, there was the package. What? We were at the Deluxe section. Quite close to the screen. It was hard NOT to stare. At such magnitude. Seriously, it wasn't really anything special. Another good performance, though, for Viggo.

After the movie, we met up with another FFer, Gay, and she showed us her Viggo DVDs. She had Indian Runner! DVD! Zoom function! After that, we headed off into different directions. I was supposed to go to mass too, but it was already halfway through. I just went back to the cinema, and bought a ticket for Love Actually. Reason being, I was going to have dinner with a few friends at 7:00 pm. I had time to kill.

Love Actually. I got bored in the first part, when I watched the DVD (bought from our "Local Friendly Neighborhood DVD Store"). It was a crappy copy. It was quite enjoyable, though, when you're watching it in the theater. It's basically fluff, so I won't attempt to dig deep. Storylines that I liked were that of Colin Firth's character, Andrew Lincoln's character (so as not to spoil any readers, all I can say is, "Who knew?"), and Laura Linney's character. Funny, funny movie. I'd actually see it again to watch my favorite bits. Now where's that DVD?

I bought Camp from our "Local Friendly Neighborhood DVD Store" last Sunday. When I first saw the title, I already knew that it was a double entendre. It's about a camp for the performing arts--Musical theater, particularly, and it's campy kids: theater geeks, fag hags, and gay boys, particularly.

There's nothing to say much about plot, really, except for the fact that all event lead up to a predictable musical performance in the end. Notable scenes include the opening sequence, talks about conforming and not conforming to the mainstream, a washed up director giving the kids a dose of the struggling actor's life, and Daniel Letterle in his undies. Okay, that last one's notable, at least for me. I'm very very fond of that scene. There's even an appearance by Stephen Sondheim himself at the end of the movie.

These kids are amazing. And they're actually kids! Not some actor in his or her mid-20s (Hi cast of Dawson's Creek! I love you all. Well. Except Katie Holmes.). From the cast bios, the average age is 17 or 18 years old, but they're voices do not sound young at all. Notable musical numbers are How Shall I See You Through My Tears, Here's Where I Stand, and The Want Of A Nail.

I'd say this movie is rough around the edges, but amusing and enjoyable nonetheless. Just don't expect much from the plot. Draw your joy from the characters and the music.

Oh hi! See the title? That just about sums up how my week went. Save for Monday of course.

It's just really been a busy week at work, and I able to do anything or watch anything or buy anything. Hence the emptiness of this blog. See, this was how the week went:

Monday. Oscars. Work. Lunch with a friend. Work. Had a call at 8:30pm. Went home.
Tuesday. Work. Lunch at cube. Work. Got home miraculously.
Wednesday. Got to work at 7:00am. Work. Lunch at cube. Work. Went home.
Thursday. Got in at 7:00am. Work. Bangs head on computer. Mutters, "Fuck you SQL Server," under breathe. Lunch at cube. Work. Went home.
Friday. Got in at 7:00am. Again. Work. Was supposed to have lunch at cube, but ran into very good friend, and friend at the cafeteria, so had lunch there. Work. Frustrated with code. Was supposed to have dinner at 7:30. Everyone cancelled. Stayed at office until 10:00pm.

I just want to document that it was a miracle that I got home yesterday.

All throughout my MRT ride, I was asleep. With book in hand. My heading almost leaning to the lady next to me. I didn't miss the final stop.

All throughout the bus ride, I was asleep. I missed my stop, but thankfully, with it's route, I can still get off at another point.

Also, I've managed to walk 2 blocks to my house.

And starting tomorrow, I might just do that everyday.

I guess it's time to befriend the Starbucks baristas again.

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won all 11 awards that it was nominated for!

Finally. After two years. Best Picture!

Very incoherent. Will try to elaborate in later posts.