The last entry is dated over a month ago. I have no excuse.
Actually there is one. Notice how cluttered the Multiply interface has gotten? Yeah that's all I got.
This isn't an alcohol-induced post, by the way. For those you need to check Twitter.
Anyway. I still do want to write but there's really nothing that comes to mind that's coherent enough to be seen in print. Not that coherence is a requirement or anything, but I do want to read these stories at some point in the future and not have to do all the work of putting together these fragments and figuring out the point. I'm sure I will be too busy figuring out the present/future.
You know what I think I should've done? Stopped right after the Cincy posts and started a different series/blog. That way there'd be no pressure of trying to keep it running. Oh well.
So until I figure out what the heck I want to say - or another story worth writing comes my way - this site is on hiatus.
(While I was thinking of something to write about the thought crossed my mind that maybe like the other blog this thing has simply taken its course. I was half-serious about the interface thing. Maybe I should try out Tumblr or something.)
My brother and I toured Europe with some family friends and a group of Australians on a tour package in 2003. During one of the nighttime visits to a wine bar/restaurant (I'm thinking this was just outside of Venice but I could be wrong) everyone was just hanging out after dinner enjoying glasses of wine when one of the elderly Aussies suddenly shouted:
"Where's my camera?!?"
She began to shout hysterically. "It was just here!" Everyone started to help her look around for it while her husband was trying to clam her down. But she still went on, "where's my camera?!?"
This went on for around ten minutes when someone finally pointed at her arm and said, "There it is!" Sure enough, her camera was slung around her elbow and she said sorry and everyone had a good laugh afterward.
Later when everything died down my brother whispered to me, "I swear, we were like, five seconds away from 'I'm sure one of you Filipinos took it!'"
2004. Looking at the photos I had from 2004, I guess it was a weird year and maybe not exactly the year my career "went to hell". On one hand, it was the year me and my brother went to tour Europe for two weeks, and on the other (and just two weeks after my European tour),I went to the US (Salt Lake City, Utah) for work. The Europe trip deserves a review all its own so we'll leave that for later. As for the US trip, well, on the very first night I was there I got a fever and skipped the very first day of work, and had to self-medicate with whatever they had at the gas station next to the motel. I'm not sure I was staying at a motel but it sure as hell was not a hotel.
On the other hand, I discovered the awesomeness that is Krispy Kreme a few weeks before the first branch opened here at The Fort.
My three-month long stay was cut short because I decided to start a long-distance hate affair with the office back home. I'm partly kidding. But the ending of all this is covered in this post. I spent the last two months of the year unemployed and well, happy. Started this blog in November that year.
Other notables: Fete at Eastwood in the two weeks between the two major trips. Talking with Donut Girl over YM because she was the only one on the late shift back home. Boracay for the first time. Christmas at Alabang Town.
2005. I was unemployed for most of 2005. The personal projects I promised myself that I'd get into never really materialized except maybe for one: finally studied art at the Vargas Museum in UP Diliman, where basically I was surrounded by five-year olds and Kathy Tan.
When all my savings dried up, finally looked for work and ended up having a record five interviews with eTelecare. I guess they couldn't tell if I was applying to get a job or a girl. Eventually one of us gave up on the other, and I'd like to think it was me.
Finally got in contact with one of my old companies sub-contractors and got a job with them. On the first day they assigned me to RCG, and for better or for worse, that reminded me that I could still do this job.
2006. Quit RCG (why of course, everyone does) to work at the big, bad top-10 Forbes-listed multinational company, and I guess, here I am. Everything (well, mostly) is here in this journal. It's kind of slowed down because of Twitter but some stories can't be told in 140 characters no matter how much you cut it up.
I need to tell better stories.
Was there a point to this review? Maybe not. But there's no point to anything, really. I am drunk.
I'm not really good at introductions (and you could probably tell that from the first sentence), and I don't know why. Maybe it's because introductions eventually lead to first impressions and I suck at that even more.
That's how this journal started way back in November 2004, a month after I resigned from my first real long-term work assignment. So most of the decade is actually on this thing anyway.
But for some reason I'm still compelled to make a review of the 00's. (What were they called again? The Aughties?) I don't know why. Maybe it's because by the time you turn 20 there are a lot of things about oneself that stop changing. I mean, you don't, but there are going to be some things that stick.
So here it is, a year-by-year play-by-play, looking back at the decade I went to work. Or pretended to, anyway.
(Might have to break this up into smaller pieces or this will never get "published".)
2000. I was disappointed when the Y2K big didn't hit because that meant I had to start looking for work. I started writing for a local newspaper...in Tagalog. That lasted all of three months before it was clear that I sucked at my native tongue and decided the only thing left to do was to just go back to school. Studied Java at IBM-ACE and never looked back. Well, I am right now, but you get the point. Played in a band that played almost exclusively at weddings.
Late 2000, got an interesting phone call from Her saying we would never see each other again. But we did, didn't we?
2001. Finished my courses and took a job at an software development startup company. That lasted (AGAIN) all of three months as the internet bubble-burst caught up with me/us. The company that was supposed to buy us out just, well, bought me instead. I suppose I got hugely unpopular to my officemates right about then. Three months into the new job I was convinced that I hated it. I ended up staying for three and a half years.
Oh yeah, 2001 also included that awesome night on Valero street, but that's another story that comes up in bits and pieces whenever I play "I Never".
2002. That was a steady year I guess. Went on my first plane ride, to HK, not realizing I would be on quite a number of plane rides in the future. Got into my first car accident after celebrating the 1st Ateneo basketball championship since 1988. Another friend dies in another car accident a couple of months later, coming home from our own Christmas party. I guess I'm lucky this blog post doesn't end here.
2003. Another steady year; I'm going through the pictures and it's all pretty much vacations and birthday parties and weddings. Which is basically what there should be photos of anyway. I guess we were all pretty somber that year following that tragedy. Oh, played in the ABL for the first time and registered basically one point. One point on one made free throw. One made free throw...after I was fouled...on a three-pointer.
(Well I didn't want to spend all afternoon thinking of a clever title and never get to the actual article. I won't even bother with a picture.)
(Then I also realized I had no such summary for 2008. I had one post each that January and that previous December. So why bother with this at all? Eh.)
Most everyone on these internets hated 2009, what with the floods, tragedies, celebrity deaths and personal losses. And we've got more than enough record of that. I guess I just wanted to point out the best of '09. At least for me.
I saw more rock shows in '09 than any other year I can remember, maybe more than all the other years combined. Top five bands seen the most number of times, in descending order: Taken By Cars, Us-2 Evil-0, Techy Romantics, Up Dharma Down, Turbo Goth. Yes there's a pattern to all of that, and it's exactly what you think. And mostly because they all show up in the same night anyway.
(I also bought more albums this year since 2001. Why 2001? We'll get to that in the Decade in Review, if we ever get there.)
We also played live to an audience not made entirely up of officemates, so that has to count for something, too.
Discovered and rediscovered the awesomeness that is Distillery for a record 8 straight weeks, and moving to McKinley Hill winning me over in the end.
Work was still blah, but then again in that regard no news is good news. But I did get promoted this year, although I'm not really counting that as a highlight. Would've been a highlight if there was some money involved.
This is also the year I started living by myself. I almost wrote there "living alone" but it sounded depressing. Well in a sense it didn't last, but it's a start. As far as chances to start living independently I'll take it. And in probably the most awesome corner of Makati too.
I've written about record bad-five-day stretches before. 2009 gives me its candidate with one of the worst 4-day stretches I can remember. But this is a best-of so we'll leave that for now. Besides I got over that pretty quickly because...
2009 had the best 6-day stretch in recent memory. It starts with the Thursday that Ateneo won its back-to-back championship up to the Tuesday that following week. I shan't elaborate on any of this.
So I guess this is thanks if you were somehow involved with any of these, and if you weren't, you can make it up to me in 2010.
Taking a break from the guitar inventory series to bring you what's become a yearly tradition: the Christmas wish list. I understand that it's been a few evenings past Christmas Eve, but would it have made a difference? I thought so.
Let's take a look at last year's list:
Mac - Typing on it as I, uh, type
Clae McQueens - didn't get this, but only because I procrastinated until it ran out of 7's. Got Creative Recreation kicks instead.
Guitar effects and cables - Digitech Grunge and Planet Waves cable, check
Broadband internet at the Condeaux - this was inevitable anyway
An abundance of free time - Oh, so close
So all in all, not a bad percentage of "success" for the past year, if that's how we keep score. But I did retail therapy myself through 2009, so all this isn't a surprise. More on this in the Year in Review post, when I get there.
It hits me that one reason that I didn't post a wish list is because I don't really need anything right now now. Nothing tangible, at least. But here goes:
Absolute Death. The book, not, you know, the sweet release of.
Strangers in Paradise Omnibus, when it comes out. I understand there are only 1,200 copies but it is a wish list.
A Lego Hotel.
A Blackberry. Ok that was quick
A guitar case, and a pedal board.
A Vox amp.
A Les Paul.
A gig to play the Les Paul at.
To still fit in all my clothes.
A decent vacation, with indecent company.
Obviously, I've set my targets a bit higher in 2010.
I took an inventory of all my electric guitars earlier. Of course, it was only an inventory of four so that took all of five minutes. But it got me thinking about the stories behind each of them, and that took a wee bit longer.
I'm excluding acoustic guitars because I went through probably seven of them very quickly in a few years since I couldn't take care of them very well. That's what happens when you always want your amps to go up to eleven. Besides, only one of them is still with me or in working condition, and there's no stories behind it. So far.
So where to start? From the beginning, of course.
Where did you get it? I got my first electric guitar in 1993 (1994?)- a fake Gibson SG - from a classmate whose specialty was playing Gin Blossoms covers. He sold it for the princely sum of P1,200, so he could buy what I assume were car speakers. I remember making the transaction in the Ople household - I have no idea why.
He first played (what else) "Hey Jealousy" to show me that it was working and in tune. But the deal was closed when he played the shred part of the solo for "Sweet Child". (The tab and friends call it Fill 1, it's the part of the solo that scales up the neck really fast and is actually played by a second lead guitar on the album. Wooo.) Oh how could I resist.
The SG wasn't as popular then as it is today but I was thrilled regardless. The most popular SG player was and still is Angus Young from AC/DC, and it was also the main guitar for indie goddess Juliana Hatfield and Soundgarden's Kim Thayil, so that was enough cred for me.
There are a couple of things that bugged me about it though. For one, the Bigsby tremolo was a bit out of place on a guitar known more for metal. Second, it hardly ever stayed in tune - mainly due to the trem - and the low E string was hell to keep in pitch.
It's also the only guitar I have that came with its own hard case. Which me and my friend dutifully vandalized one drunken night. I can't understand some of those hieroglyphics now either.
Where has it been? In college I was part of a band that played songs that had acoustic rhythm parts, so our rhythm player used an acoustic guitar while I used his electric. So instead of using the SG I used our rhythm player's Yamaha super-strat, which was a bit more mainstream and was more likely to stay in tune throughout "These Are Days".
My dad's friend used to come over and play Ventures songs on it for hours on end, which made me wonder how he made it sound so good. He died a few years ago and I never got to hear it played that way again. May God rest his soul.
The SG did make it on stage to one gig: Kampo in 1995, opening for Passage. Yes, Ira Cruz probably saw me die of embarrassment. And after that failure of a show I was convinced to get a new guitar if I am in any way going to play in front of people again.
Who was the girl you named it after? I actually don't call the guitars by name, but they do have names. Of course they do; I'm just that type.
I didn't know any girls in high school, so the SG had to wait a couple of years before it got its name. And no, I'm not telling because I've already died of embarrassment involving this guitar once and I won't again.
But the guitar (and the girl, for that matter) did change my life so it's fitting that they share their name.
Why aren't you selling it? Because it's my first. And you never forget your first.
It's not true that all my stories occur in 1995. Here's one from 2004.
I resigned from MPI in the middle of a huge project after doing everything I could to save it. Some people will have a different version of that sentence, and theirs may be more accurate, but that doesn't really matter anymore. I was a kid then and a bit idealistic about how companies and projects are run (still am, I suppose) and basically I had enough of office drama - I think my exact sentence was "This is no longer fun." As if that was the point of working in a multinational corporation.
Anyway, people had already known my intentions for a while, so when I tendered in my resignation it was immediately followed by the exit interview even if I still had 30 days to go. In fact I had two interviews: my team lead who was at the project site in Ortigas when I got to work, and in the afternoon with his boss who was in the Makati office. So after lunch I left my car in Ortigas, took the train southbound to talk to her.
The second exit interview took over two hours. Where she found the time out of her busy schedule I don't know. I'm way too honest at these things, and I can't stop talking.
This was on the 1st of October, and I had a night out planned in Metrowalk for the first day of Octoberfest. So by the time that the exit interview ended it was 5:30 PM on a Friday in Makati and I was without my car. And this part I remember quite well. I ran to the station and somehow (on a Friday afternoon) ended up on an empty train car. I made it to Ortigas in fifteen minutes. I asked permission to leave early (everyone else was doing overtime) and when it was granted I kissed my functional consultant thanks and good-bye.
I got my car and made it to Octoberfest with time to spare and got seats on the second floor balcony away from the crowds and spent the evening with cutest thing I've ever seen.
Now that was an awesome day, but somehow it's a day I don't want to happen too often.
In that second interview I had a gem of an answer to my boss' question: "What makes you happy?"
"The perfect Sausage McMuffin on the perfect Tuesday morning with the perfect girl listening to the perfect song."
(I said it was a story, I didn't say there was a lesson.)
Because I refuse to admit that Twitter has taken over my life, so I'm trying to write something with more than a couple of sentences.
Also, it's the tail end of a long weekend and I realize I haven't written anything all month that's longer than 140 characters. So here are the highlights for August.
Fully Booked on Serendra celebrated it's anniversary and these are the stuff I scored:
Daredevil: Yellow
Spiderman: Blue
I realize I enjoy Jeph Loeb's reimagination work than Frank Miller's. Hmmm. Yeah that means nothing.
Gorillaz Rise of the Ogre
Sticker Bomb
Yes, it's just a book of stickers. In preparation for my Stratocaster hard case.
Saw Taken By Cars live around five times or more this month, including both of their performances during Manila Design Week. I'm not complaining. Also saw The Dawn at Clubb Dredd and feared for my life.
Tragedy struck my former classmate's wife while giving birth to her fourth child.
Yellow fever took over the country with back-to-back Aquino memorials.
Ateneo won over DLSU in basketball on consecutive Sundays. Saw both games the same way: in Fridays High Street, in the same booth. One-track mind, much?
Work is still work. Bleh. But I did manage to get Sun-certified in the process and basically turned every chapter in the review book into an excuse to drink expensive coffee and stare at girls in Starbucks.
By the way, realized that cross-posting is working again; but that means there's a stretch of posts that are on Multiply but are not on Blogspot. So if you're reading this on Blogspot you missed out on my valuable life lessons and outrageous hi jinx for three months. Which is like four posts, total.
(Just saw options in Multiply to copy to Facebook and Twitter. Be still my lazy, geeky, heart.)
Reposting from the distant past because words fail me in the present. But that doesn't make any of it less true. Originally published August 12, 2007.
When You Left I Was Last To Know
It was 1995. (Most of my stories start out with that sentence, I've come to realize.) September 11 or 18, I'm not so sure anymore. Pretty sure it was a Monday at least, because Mondays are notorious for these things. That was the day I saw you holding his hand. To be fair, it wasn't like it was side-by-side-walking-in-the-park; he had his behind his back and you were holding them behind him, as if he was taking you somewhere. Somewhere fun. Would things have been different if it had stopped there? Probably not. But.
Days later, perhaps it was that Thursday, or the next: there's a narrow set of stairs at the corner of the foyer that maintenance people use to get to the air conditioning boxes outside the second floor. I've never seen anyone actually go up there.
Anyway, it's a pretty secluded hiding spot, except maybe if you took the shortcut from the campus' main artery to the foyer, or turned that corner coming from the library. And that's exactly what I did when I found you (plural) there.
Maybe I was coming from class, or just walking around aimlessly because that's what I do when I'm angry or depressed. No, I'm lying: I was looking for you, and I guess it worked. I muttered something under my breath while I walked past and picked up the pace, something along the lines of "Fuck".
Now I didn't think there would be another 5-day stretch that would hurt like that did. I was wrong.
Haven't put anything here in a while because I don't know how to blog over 140 characters anymore. But really there's no excuse; sometimes if what needs saying needs the entire length of this page then that's what needs to happen. Fuck McLuhan.
And I really should learn to write things in the moment. Not Twitter-in-the-moment, but to not think too much of what words. That usually takes a long time for me, especially if I'm trying to not offend anyone, or reveal too much about myself. But what does art do except to offend and reveal anyway?
This has nothing to do with the content of this post: a review of Transformers 2. Actually it's a review by virtue of a proposal. I refuse to think that in the time it took to produce that movie, better ideas didn't come up. Don't get me wrong I love the franchise, but there were too many plot holes to thoroughly enjoy it; I found myself rationalizing some of the parts too much.
Here's the sequel that I wanted to see, taken from parts of the Generation 1 storyline, just to show you how easy it is:
Millions of years ago, an alien ship carrying robots bent on world domination crashes on earth. They either crash into a volcano or the humans they try to enslave trick them into the heart of a volcano; doesn't matter. Either way, the robots are in suspended animation until a construction team in the current time accidentally activates the ship's onboard computer, which repairs the robots by copying the nearby construction vehicles. Oooooh.
Meanwhile, other robots "hiding in the stars" reply to Optimus' "challenge" at the end of the first movie. They live with us in secret. They do NOT team up with humans (nothing to do with the plot, only because it's corny), except Sam and Mikaela, who they're obviously taken with. Let's say we introduce some of the classics: Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, Hound, Prowl, Mirage. No Arcee, please. Throw in Hot Rod to throw off the fanboys. Have Judd Nelson do his voice; he's not doing anything. Throw in a minor scene where Hound and Mirage show off their bonus skills: intricate holograms and invisibility. Sam: "Invsibility? That's the best disguise of all!". Meanwhile, Megan Fox does something sexy. Ahhhh.
Constructicons pick up where they left off. They destroy everything in their path, which gets the attention of the marines, and of the remaining Decepticons and their new leader, Starscream, who finally gets his chance to prove he's a better leader. Don't need to resurrect Megatron just yet, save it for the trilogy. Battle scenes galore, and Michael Bay can earn his keep.
(Since the studio probably wants us to put in Josh Duhamel and Tyrese again, they're tasked to defeat the new robots "because they've faced this menace before". Ooooh.)
Starscream contacts the Constructicons leader, Scrapper to help him with the task of getting the remaining piece of the AllSpark so they can revive Cybertron and come back for Earth.
Big battle for the piece ensues between the Constructicons and Decepticons versus the Autobots and the marines. Lives are lost. Kill off Prowl and Ironhide a la Transformers Animated Movie. Decepticons win.
Next is the build up for the climax: the Autobots regroup: "If we can't stop them now on Earth, there's no way we can stop them when they get to Cybertron". Meanwhile, Decepticons prepare the alien ship to blast off into space.
Climax ensues: all-out battle to stop the ship from launching. Michael Bay can go wild. Constructicons show their true nature and turn into Devastator. The Autobots eventually find a creative way of killing it, but not before it holds off the heroes long enough such that the other Decepticons get to fly off in their ship. Prime follows in a jet pack but is shot down. Game over, almost.
Inside the ship, Starscream celebrates, but is interrupted when Mirage, who sneaks into the ship undetected, materializes and shoots the command console, etc. Throw in Hound who's been disguised as Decepticon jet Thundercracker since the battle started. (This also means at some point earlier in the move you'll have to introduce Thundercracker and Skywarp, which would be awesome.) The fight in the closed quarters of the ship result in its losing control, and crashes into the sea. The two heroes jump out just before it crashes.
Everyone celebrates. The end. Epilogue, there's no sign of the Decepticons inside the alien ship, which means they've managed to escape so they can show up in Transformers 3.
(Added sequence in the title because this isn't likely the last time.)
Needed to put a post that's a bit, uh, secular, to avoid consecutive emo posts because believe me, it's coming. So here we are, a series of reviews of some stuff I got in the past month to keep my mind off things.
Scrapbook, Uncollected Work 1990-2004 by Adrian Tomine. Really good collection of artwork and short slice-of-life strips from the graphic novel artist. Sort of an impulse buy at Fully Booked but well worth it; reading him gives me almost the same satisfaction as reading Strangers in Paradise. Probably the best buy of the lot and that means I'll probably go ahead and get his ongoing series Optic Nerve. Argh, impulse buying is expensive.
All-Star Batman and Robin by Frank Miller and Jim Lee. A retelling of the Dick Grayson story by two of the best talents in comics. Which is actually kind of unfortunate because I expected more from it. I mean, the story is OK and the artwork is great as usual but I think Miller is at his best when he's illustrating his own stuff (Sin City) and I'll always link Lee to his X-Men days, which means I think Chris Claremont should always write for him. And for some reason I think Black Canary, Wonder Woman, Vicky Vale, etc only make cameo appearances so Jim Lee has an excuse to draw women. Not that I'm complaining.
Eric Clapton The Autobiography. Life story of a rock and roll survivor. I appreciate Clapton's victory over drugs and alcohol but focusing on that doesn't really make for a good read, I'm sorry. Probably because Clapton doesn't remember the years when he was under the influence, hahaha.
Also, the most interesting part of his life story isn't even given the treatment it deserves: his basically stealing George Harrison's wife, Pattie Boyd. While Clapton does devote a number of chapters on their relationship, he sounds, uh, technical, for lack of a better word. For example, when he calls her the "love of his life" it sounds matter-of-factly rather than anything he actually feels or felt.
Then I realized, he's happily married to someone else now, whom he met by the time he was already the elder statesman of rock and roll, which explains why he doesn't stay too long or too involved in the past. Which beggars the question: is a love story only interesting if the storyteller is unhappy?
So much for a non-emo post; maybe I should just stick to tweeting.
Could also have called this "Emo Post of the Now", except I was thinking about all this a couple of nights ago.
I would've written it then when it was still fresh but the other night I was busy playing around with the OS X settings and forgot about the time and slept at around 5 AM, and then last night I got smashed on P500 bottles of wine and slept at a relatively early 1:30 AM, except that it was with all my night-out clothes still on. So no, wasn't able to put anything down in writing, and whatever eloquence I had has been dissolved in 3-year old Shiraz. And this is what's left:
Does whatever I do count for anything (anymore)? This is the tough question that faces me tonight. It's almost as tough as What makes you happy?.
I'm writing this on the new MacBook. Now there are tons of reasons to get a Mac (probably just as many reasons to not get one), not the least of which is because it's pretty. And tonight, pretty is all I want.
This is my Angels & Demons review: "Hey, this is actually pretty good....Ohhh, so close."
Next, the Cleveland Cavaliers go down in six games to the Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals, denying LBJ another chance to win a championship. The Magic actually controlled the series from the word go, despite the Cavs having a better overall record and losing like two games at home all year. I actually almost feel bad for this guy. Almost.
As for the upcoming Finals, the Lakers have to be the favorites to win having the better record and having been on this stage last year. So I'm staying in character and rooting for the underdog Magic, but it's more than that. A team that lives and dies by the three? Sign me up.
Orlando in the Finals is also great news because it takes me back (again) to 1995, the last time this team was here, with Shaq and Penny. And this year's games will no doubt replay Nick Anderson missing four consecutive free throws (annoyingly not on YouTube) that would have put 1995 Game 1 out of reach from the Rockets. Why is this significant? Because I was studying combinatorics at the time under Professor David, and figured out that the probability of a 70 percent free throw shooter missing four consecutive from the line was 0.81%.
Yes, this post should be and is cross-posted on Bekshoot, where hopefully someone analyze the matchups a bit deeper. It's been a while.
This journal needs a major reboot, a la Star Trek. But that's not happening today. But I do need to write, even if it's just going to be in bullet points.
Has it really been a month? Let's see in that month, I have...
Been to Boracay and rediscovered motion sickness
Had the most frenetic work month in a while, and that's saying a lot where I come from
Seen Star Trek but not Wolverine nor Angels and Demons. Which I hear sounds about right.
Sang the best of Gin Blossoms to complete strangers
Seen Pupil and Sandwich live
What-passes-for-dancing at Ascend
Had Belgian beer again. And killer Bagnet. And nuclear Buffalo Wings.
Finally read Runaways and half of Clapton's autobiography
Played guitar on a rooftop. Yes, there's no way I'd pass up the chance to do "Where The Streets Have No Name."
The quasi-shutdown is about to end and I accomplished about half of what I needed to do this week. This is actually an achievement.
Incoherent post starts now.
I was actually feeling a bit guilty that I didn't give anything up this Lent; but then I realized I went to the office four out of the five shutdown days even if it was just for a few hours each time, and spent mostly eating at Rufo's.
Said goodbye to Evil Peter Parker hair at the request of some of the people at work and settled for something shorter for the summer. This is at this place near the condeaux where I hear some rock stars get their haircuts. Hopefully it's not Bamboo.
Finally ate at Swagat. Eh.
Overcame trauma and played badminton again after a long while. Now considering renaming the sport "worseminton".
Found out Tuesday that I've lost three-point range. :( Or did I? :) Yep, pretty sure I did.
Saw this blast from the past on Wednesday evening at Cafeteria, who only appears to us during the Maundy Thursday. It's like our version of the Great Pumpkin, if the Great Pumpkin enjoyed tequila shots.
My brother is back home from the States and got me the Digitech Grunge effects pedal. I'm not required to play 90's music exclusively but that's what I end up playing on it anyway.
New band seen this week: Chubibo. Realized that the only way to get good seats in Route 196 is to go during the Holy Week.
Shows seen this week: the fifth season of The Office. It's obvious that the show is sponsored by HP; the logo is practically everywhere. But we also share the same model of Cisco phones. Must try the PA feature someday.
Will actually celebrate three years of working in this office tomorrow. I first entered SMPC on Easter Monday 2006. Season four of this Office starts tomorrow and it's off to a multi-layered, plot-twisted start.
I really should take more pictures and stop relying on YouTube for content.
I first saw Paramita at Fete in 2006 (not sure if it was 2006; whatever year that was when they held it in El Pueblo and some idiot smashed my turn lights in the parking lot), at the "alternative" stage. When Ria Bautista brought the house down playing kickass drums while singing, I actually felt bad for the next band, which turned out to be my friends from the band formerly known as Olympic Smoker. Sorry, Justin!
Anyway a lot of failed attempts, I saw them again Friday night along with Terno bands Up Dharma Down and Radioactive Sago Project. They're still pretty good live, and I still don't know how you can play drums and sing at the same time, even if I've seen the Hell Freezes Over DVD. I can barely keep time playing guitar.
Saturday was the three-way birthday party for some folks at work. Quite fun even if I did go to it alone and officially uninvited. Now maybe it's because I didn't get drunk or anything, but I still don't get the point of kicking chairs and spilling Coke off the roof. So much for your Russell Hammond moment. Left around the same time everyone else did, except those who were clearly not going home until morning. Pics, as usual, are with everyone else.
And on the way home, a wasted Drei sat on my copy of Cutterpillow. Just the reissue version, but still!
My arms and shoulders are sore, and have been since Friday. This is strange because I have not been to the gym in weeks. Am I doing push-ups in my sleep? Can I tell my body to quit it, or at least do crunches instead? Then I'd be unstoppable.
Not going out tonight because tomorrow Condura Run is at 5 AM, which is around the same time I'm usually in REM sleep. I'll be on the 5K track so which means I'll be done in time for lunch. I kid.
I had to buy running shoes because I realize I don't want to be the guy who shows up in basketball shoes for a running event. I went with Asics solely on the coolness factor of this video:
Yesterday was a bad day at work (actually, almost the whole week). Thank God for cake.
And I'm dead tired from all the late nights in and out of the office (more on this if some deep insight comes along; I doubt it though), and earlier today went to Gara's surprise baby shower at SM Marikina. And got lost looking for my car in the parking lot for the second straight night. Idiot.
Speaking of stuff that makes me feel old, one of my old friends from the old work got married in the US recently and I was going through this journal trying to find any stories about her because I'm sure there was a lot. Then I realized I started this blog after I resigned from that company. That's how old this news makes me feel.
When I couldn't land a job after I graduated because of the last recession (or at least I think it was because of the recession; it's probably just as likely I was a horrible job interview), I joined a nine-piece band, counting all four vocals. I don't actually remember what we were called; and since most of the gigs we had were wedding receptions of friends and family, I only know that group as "The Wedding Band". I don't remember ever us getting paid, but the food was always good.
It didn't last long, or at least I didn't last long in it (I probably played less than a year with them on and off), but what it did do was introduce me and my playing to songs and genres that I wouldn't normally do or listen to intentionally, but were still cool as hell. Since I'm feeling nostalgic (plus I have a bunch of one-liners I need to put into writing), I list some of the memorable songs we did from that uh, era. Breakout and Am I the Same Girl from Swing Out Sister. Probably the most well-known of the set, not counting one pop song (more on that later). The main riff of Breakout is pretty fun to do. One complaint is that we didn't get to do La La La (Means I Love You), which means no one got to shout "LA is a great big freeway..."
Promise Me a Carousel by David Benoit. Ridiculously hard to find a copy of this nowadays. Great guitar and bass intro and that's it.
Midnight at the Oasis, Spend Some Time and You are the Universe from the Brand New Heavies. Fun stuff to play, at least the parts you can actually hear guitar on. I also fake the solo on Spend Some Time. I only have one noticeable part in Midnight (at 0:26 in the video) and sometimes I even forget to do that.
Carnival by The Cardigans. Great song with a riff that goes on and on. Listen.
Fast Love and As by George Michael. I'm not sure if Fast Love went well with the wedding crowd, and I really didn't have much to do on As, unless you count doing the George Michael dance during the chorus.
If You Had My Love by J-Lo. WTF. There's an intro, and all of three notes after that. I think I skipped the only gig the band played that to an audience.
I actually wanted to delay this review post until I found a half-decent graphic or video to go along with it. But what the hell.
Eventful weekend just passed with the Watchmen movie and the Eraserheads: Final Set concert.
First off, the movie: I actually liked it, so much so that I don't get why some people didn't. It's a movie based on a comic book whose purpose was to explore the limits of the comic book medium. Naturally some parts of it won't translate well to the big screen, but I think Zack Snyder and Co. pulled it off as well as anyone could have. How many comic-book movies and movie franchises can claim even 90% accuracy with the book(s) they were based on? The Dark Knight? See: that Rachel character. X-Men? See: The Last Stand. Superman? See, uh, Kate Bosworth.
Comedian Patton Oswald sums it up well: "Tell you what -- before you go and see THE WATCHMEN, plunk down and watch CATWOMAN, GHOST RIDER and DAREDEVIL."
Before watching had dinner with Tina, Nikki, Paul and Pierre. This company should have shutdowns more often.
Saturday was the final finalEraserheads reunion concert with Arvil and his band of brothers. That night the E-heads showed us how it's done. (SMART and MTV and whoever was responsible for the audio, not so much.)
Video courtesy of some guy with a camera.
There's not a lot that needs to be said about that concert; it was a great end to the band that wrote the soundtrack to our lives. I actually get a bit teary-eyed on some parts. (I'll write more on this when I get a bit more articulate than "Wow.") Strange but I've actually never seen them live before that night.
Speaking of better late than never, I've finally joined Facebook. Tons of AJAX going on in those pages. I should know because I work with that stuff everyday so I know what it's capable of. One day after my 1000th search for the same name, I think it's going to pop me a message saying: "Just add her already!"
(Added sequence in the title because this isn't likely the last time.)
Could also have called this "Emo Post of the Now", except I was thinking about all this a couple of nights ago. 
The quasi-shutdown is about to end and I accomplished about half of what I needed to do this week. This is actually an achievement. 
My brother is back home from the States and got me the Digitech Grunge effects pedal. I'm not required to play 90's music exclusively but that's what I end up playing on it anyway.
When I couldn't land a job after I graduated because of the last recession (or at least I think it was because of the recession; it's probably just as likely I was a horrible job interview), I joined a nine-piece band, counting all four vocals. I don't actually remember what we were called; and since most of the gigs we had were wedding receptions of friends and family, I only know that group as "The Wedding Band". I don't remember ever us getting paid, but the food was always good.
