Fireworks at the Mall of Asia

So I was walking around the MOA yesterday while waiting for my dinner with the Man Blog people when I hear loud explosions. Ok, ok, exag. For lack of anything better to do, I recorded the spectacular fireworks display (although you won't see it as such, having a thousand other people in front of me) that night.

Holiday Happenings

Aside from working on my thesis and that one week in Sagada, the only other thing that I've been doing since coming back home is meeting up with old friends. There are actually more meet-ups coming up in the next two weeks so this is just the first batch.

Also, click here for another Christmas get-together (that I wasn't able to take pictures of): http://thejonastory.multiply.com/photos/album/47?mark_read=thejonastory:photos:47

More pictures (where I'm actually present in them) of the Man Blog (last group of pics with the sleazy-looking men :p) are here: http://adez23.multiply.com/photos/album/18?mark_read=adez23:photos:18

Keep Away From Fire

I turn on the computer, transfer new pictures from my camera, delete
those that may be detrimental to my person, organize those that pass
the quality control test, decide which ones will go up my site. Then I go
to the kitchen to drink a glass of water, see the dishes on the sink
and decide to wash them. I go back to the sofa where I have my laptop
set up, realize if I want to have my clothes dry by tomorrow afternoon
I have to do the laundry now. I do the laundry. Since I already am in
the bathroom, I might as well take a shower. After the shower I am
already hungry so I heat a cup of water for a meal of yakisoba. I wash
the dishes again. Finally, I sit down in front of the computer and
think of something to write. And I think. And think. And think.



I look around me. I see my phone and think of who to text. I text my
friend Tin what time we are meeting at Shang tonight. I look at my
shirt and realize I haven't read its label so I took it off and see
this (refer to picture on the right):




I am amazed at the wealth of information this little piece of cloth has given me. One of the most important is that I have the body of a 13-14 year old. Thank you so much, barely-there breasts.

But guess what really catches my attention (um, maybe because it is meant to catch people's attention, being written in red, all caps). This leads me to ask why they don't put other shirt-saving tips as well:
1. Keep away from dogs/cats/birds/children with pentel pens/scissors, etc.
2. Keep away from sharks/crocodiles/tigers, etc when in the zoo.
3. Do not drop from an airplane.
4. Use a bib when eating.

Feel free to add more. I believe we may be saving the clothing industry.

Happy Slip Productions

http://www.happyslip.com
I found out about Christine and Happy Slip Productions from a Multiply contact, TheTrueasiatic. Just this afternoon, Nuna and I watched her videos one after the other and giggled to our hearts' content. Christine's smart and pretty and funny and does not hesitate about making fun of herself. She gives a distinctive Pinoy flavor to her videos. The mere reason for her production's name is a taste of the Pinoy humor in her videos.

She almost reminds me of Rex Navarete. Almost.

I'm Still Here! And a Christmas Greeting...

I don't particularly like not having an active cyberlife. I miss it. I do. I miss reading about other people's lives, I miss the cyberdiscussions, I miss googling about anything and everything, I miss blogging... I suppose that's understandable since for a time, a cyberlife was all the life that I had.

But well, in life there are sacrifices that had to be done... *nods head wisely

I checked my email yesterday after almost two weeks and found almost 300 messages. And that's only my main email account. I haven't checked my "side" accounts yet. Then I had to catch up on 16 pages of Multiply! 16 pages! And what about Friendster and Myspace and Tagged and a host of all those virtual network sites that I'd accumulated over the years?

And now with Christmas coming around, I actually have more social life
than normal. Which means even less time for the cyberworld. Which means the next time I'll get to go online is probably in January. So I'm greeting everyone a merry Christmas now: Merry Christmas! I'll probably have close to 500 unread messages come January.

But hopefully by that time I can also report on the progress of the you-all-know-what.

Trip to Sagada (sidetrip to Banaue)

So I went on a week-long trip to Sagada, a remote town in Northern Philippines, last week. We were planning to take the Manila-Banaue-Sagada route but ran out of tickets so had to settle for the Manila-Baguio-Sagada one instead. This we had to do shuttling from one provincial bus terminal to another, scrounging for bus tickets and seriously considering going somewhere else should we not get tickets. It would be nice to go to the beach instead but then all we had were warm clothes (Sagada being one of the coldest places in the country). There was another group of friends who also ran out of the Banaue tickets and because we had an amazing race mindset, we didn't tell them of our plan to go via Baguio. What do you know, we met them again in Baguio and we even took the same bus going to Sagada. Travel time was roughly 6 hours Manila to Baguio, and another 6 hours Baguio to Sagada.

We found a wet and cold Sagada. There was a storm and it was raining nonstop for several days. I had a cold the whole time we were there and that wasn't so fun. The food and company more than made up for it though. Sagada was largely a farming village and the restaurants gave huge servings of fresh vegetables and other healthy delights that the trip would have been complete even if all we did was eat. Of course that wasn't all we did...

We went hiking...

We went in some caves... uh, just one, I think...

We went to the cemetery...

We talked about our lives, books, movies, random people over cups of tea...

We did yoga before bed...

And we took lots and lots of pictures... (still to come are the pictures from Artie, Daniel, Lolit and Maklet's cameras...)

Oh, we played Amazing Race. Only our opponents didn't know they were playing with us.

There was a different group of friends who always turned up in the places where we went (uh, sure Sagada was tiny but still!). We called them the "Foreign Friends" because they were made up of a Caucasian couple (whose nationality we never did find out. We couldn't make out what language they were speaking when they were talking to each other), and one Fil-Am girl. We first ran into them at the Yoghurt House where we had most of our meals. Yummy! Then they showed up at the Persimoon Bar and Cafe where we had beer two nights in a row. We also rode the same jeep going to Bontoc, the same bus going to Banaue, then they showed up at the Viewpoint in Banaue and showed up at the Autobus Terminal where we were waiting for the bus that will take us back to Manila.

It didn't end there though. One of my greatest fears happened.

I got left behind in one of our stop-overs. At midnight.

I went to the bathroom. I came out. No bus in sight.

Woman from the store cum carinderia: Naku, may naiwan!

Nuni: (looked at her, bit lower lip, looked for celphone in bag)

Man somewhere (I was too worried to notice where he was exactly): Naku. Anong bus yan?

Woman: (said bus number, which of course I don't remember)

Nuni: (found celphone. no signal. Muttered) Shit.

Man: Naku, foreigner pa naman.

Man from the street: Hinihintay ka dun sa gilid. Nandun o.

Nuni: (breathed a sigh of relief) Sobrang salamat.

Got on the bus, got a phone call from Akoh (through Artie's phone) wherein I related to her what just happened. People eavesdropping chuckled. Sigh. But I could laugh with them at that point. I was already safe on my way home.

Rambling on About THE Novel

And so the real work on the novel has begun. I just have to be at least 200 meters away from an active internet connection and it will get written. Ideally, I also have to be at least a hundred meters away from a living, breathing person.

And so I have actually done some work on it. And a lot of thinking. And even more talking to myself. Aloud.

So yesterday I realized that four of my characters are going to die. I find this very alarming. Sure, there's always an element of death in most if not all of my stories but, four people?! In just one story?! That's a bit too much, I think. But until I find a way to save one or two, well, good luck to them.

Granted that two of the four characters can be considered minor ones... I know! The major character's death will not have to be explicitly played out. It's merely going to be suggested. Ha! So I guess the other three can die now.

Believe me, it's not because I want to kill them but they really just have to go. I would want to let them live if it were really just up to me, which of course it isn't.

Maklet's Birthday

It's Maklet's birthday! And I forgot to bring her gift. I did not forget to bring the camera though.