i have a new crush

you know how i love CSI. i've been watching it since the first season, and gil grissom's character will always have a special place in my heart. but i had a huge crush on george eads, who plays nick, since i saw him on "savannah" with jamie luner. that series had just 1 season.
anyway, so for the longest time, i was loving george's smile, his accent. and when we were watching season 4, my sister pointed out that "that archie guy", the tech person is kind of cute. i agreed, but didn't really give it a second thought. well, i just finished watching season 6, and archie kao is so cute!!!

there are 2 episodes where he has this "clean rocker" look with the tight shirt and sort-of anime, pointy hair. and his smile is so cute! so i searched for info on him, and, oh my gosh, we are so meant to be! his birthday's 3 days after mine AND he's 4 years older. haayy...ito pa, his favorite movie is dead poet's society too! here's what he says about it in an interview:
"My favorite movie of all time in all the right sentimental ways is Dead Poet's Society. It's a terrific movie."
*kilig! kilig!*

i will always love superman

stolen off rye's blog:
The Myth of Superman

Wonderful news!

Today, I got a wonderful surprise. Last night, rye texted me that I might be getting a writing job from gissy’s mom. And I was so happy upon checking my e-mails, to find that it was so. It’s such a worthwhile, plum writing job, that I’m raring to do. After all, I find those kinds of pieces most fulfilling. Sure, writing about fashion and products pays the bills, but really meaty pieces about important persons who have changed the world in their own way—those somehow make me feel like I share in their success too…that I have somehow contributed to society as well. Arigatou gozaimasu, gissy and rye!

Badly-needed major bonding

Being around familiar people makes me feel so secure and comfortable. Nanie, Cely, and I finally had our bonding night and it was, as always, a blast. With a LOT of laughing, sharing, and encouragement (epiphanies for some of us!). We had bulgogi at kaya--where we stayed for almost 2 hours!--a sure sign of a great time. I do hope they finally push through with plans to come up to baguio, so we can all go to sagada together. We went to timezone to do some shoot-'em-up games (the best!), and won some tickets at their quiz-show-type game. but it was bitin!!! So we're definitely going back within the week. Miss playing at the arcade!

Yikes, just realized that I am so much thinner now. And I'm possibly darker than Nanie. Yehey!

Got Tagged

20 years ago I...
1. helped, in my own little way, topple a dictator.
2. cried when my dad refused to take me with him to camp out at Crame.
3. was still caught up in the post-EDSA high.
10 years ago I...
1. was enjoying college life.
2. was going home late, tired, and hungry from shoots, but feeling fulfilled nonetheless.
3. was solidifying friendships with college friends Pam, Laddie, Kai, and Trix.
5 years ago I...
1. was working as a writer/producer for E! Philippines.
2. met Nanie at work.
3. went on my first out-of-town work-related trip to Cebu.
3 years ago I...
1. changed jobs from Broadcasting to PR.
2. “ended” a long distance non-relationship.
3. went on a trip to HCMC, Vietnam alone.
1 year ago I...
1. learned to ride a motorcycle on a dark avenue in Dumaguete. No scrapes!
2. was getting restless at work.
3. started bonding with LL.
So far this year I...
1. went to Sagada, Mt. Province TWICE.
2. went on land travel alone from Baler, Aurora to Vigan, Ilocos Sur.
3. lived on my own for the first time in beautiful, breezy Baguio.
Yesterday, I...
1. went to Summit and bonded with Summit friends.
2. saw Kat again after a long time and managed to catch up in just a few minutes.
3. baked some brownies. Yum!
Today, I...
1. met up with Nanie and Cely for some major bonding.
2. made plans with Ma’am Lynette to tour Benguet when I get back to Baguio.
3. played at Timezone!!!
Tomorrow, I will...
. visit a pregnant friend I haven’t seen in a long time.
2. meet up with MA friends bing and connie and eat at silungan. Yey!
3. finish a book.
In the next year I will...
1. travel abroad again.
2. take more photos with my SLR.
3. focus on truly making the most of every moment.
In the next minute I will tag...
1. Mems
2. Cely
3. Gwen

anhyong ha se yo

i haven't been as avid in my korean culture appreciation in the last months. blame it on the distance from my everything-asian-loving friends. but i've been wanting to visit this "wow korean snack bar" along session road for some time. and finally, i prevailed upon joy to come with me.

i ordered spicy chicken, she ordered sujebi. and my, it was a meal fit for 5 persons at least! but it was delicious, and we were treated to "my boyfriend is type b" on the widescreen TV. i've missed LDG!:O
over-all, we went home really, really full and happy and giddy. hehe!

lucky cely!

i'm so happy for my friend, cely, who has known dennis trillo since she was in high school (although they weren't close), and has, long ago, believed in the guy. their paths finally crossed again recently. they look so cute!!!

now if only robert downey jr./seth macfarlane/michael vartan made their way to me...hehehe!

someone's getting old...

i had a very interesting, but very disturbing class discussion just the other day.
we were talking about how cellphones have enroached on our face-to-face communication. case in point, people at a table in a restaurant who text rather than talk to each other or worse, people who talk, but would text periodically during a conversation. i try my best not to do these things. though admittedly, sometimes, i resort to them. but think about the friends we should have made or ideas we could have shared if we weren't constantly texting!
anyway, so i asked for my students' input about the topic. and it was so surprising for me to find that a good number of them found it commonplace to get to know people of the opposite sex just through texting!:O okay, call me old, but whatever happened to good-old spending time together, engaging in conversation? of course, the guys acknowledged that it was a "safe" way to relate to a girl they liked, because there was less at risk. but i say, why not take the risk? but that's just me.
of course, they pointed out that sometimes they would get sad when no one texts them throughout an entire day. or the text they're waiting for never comes. but they acknowledged, grudgingly, that they had a choice not to feel that way. not to let the technology "control" them. i'm all for technology--love it, as you know!--but we are people, we should be able to be masters of technology that we created, not the other way around. but maybe that's just me.

mama's day from far away

i wasn't able to go home for mother's day--first mother's day i've spent away from my okaasan. but i did share in the expenses for a bouquet of flowers. of course, being there personally is different. i talked on the phone for a while with mama instead.
i also went to a very solemn mass at "home sweet home". the chapel is so quaint and feels like such a refuge! then, went for breakfast to PNKY. yummy!

had a god mother's day breakfast in behalf of my mom. hehe! then napped, read, watched a DVD.

beautiful film

finally watched "a man and a woman", a french film circa 1960s that bingx recommended. it's beautiful! it's not a typical love story, for sure. the screeenplay is good, the cinematography is awesome, the editing is engaging.

it kind of reminds me of "falling in love" with meryl streep and robert de niro. i love the part where the man is in his car, driving from monte carlo to paris to see the woman, and he has an internal monologue about what he's going to say, what he's going to do when he sees her. beautiful!

i love the rain!

i have always loved the rain. most rainy days growing up were spent outside my window, reading or writing from my cozy room's nook.
it's been raining here since friday, and the winds are really strong. but that didn't stop us from going out and having fun!
had dinner with mimsy, leslie, and gigit (our token guy) at volante along session, before heading to bliss to meet the swami, then to ayuyang to watch katti's band "repolyo revolution" play. the place was jampacked, and the energy was great! just wasn't able to get pictures though... oh, i did, but they're in my phone, so i'll upload them later on.
saturday was a lazy day. despite the rains, we were able to make it to tam-awan for the opening of john sabado's exhibit. we missed the performance art, but made it still for the canao and the food! hehe!

met some really nice people there, but had to rush off to ayuyang (love it there!) for chin chin gutierrez's performance. she has such a positive vibe and uses her art (she has a good voice!) to spread messages of peace, harmony, and love. we met her after the show, and she was so appreciative, nice, and beautiful!

they were over-all good gimmick nights, except for the fact that there were much too many men somehow gravitating towards us. i mean, talking and getting to know each other is ok, but having mercenaries (haha!) ask for #s is creepy. don't worry, that last bit happened not to me. good thing!

patron of the arts

i bought my first painting recently. it's by gelo, a co-teacher's boyfriend, and the title is "shock absorber no more":

i took the photo mid afternoon, thus the beautiful rays of light streaming in through the window. i loved this painting immediately--and i don't fall in love at first sight, you know. so even if the price was a little steep, i was able to haggle for installment. and now, fully paid, it hangs in the room i share with my sister.
i also got another painting, this time by one of my students this summer, kat. she's a graduating FA student who begged to be admitted to my media studies class. i told her i would, but only if she gave me a painting of hers. ang whoa! she brought this on the first day of class:

i'm still not sure what to call it, as it's untitled, but i've already had it framed. and it's beautiful! i'm taking it home when i go to manila next week. oohh... i love being a "patron" of the arts!

masahista

after having heard about it from different sectors for months, i was able to wrestle (well, borrow for a night) a copy of "masahista" from mr. eli guieb. and no wonder the film has made the rounds of filmfests! the editing is fantastic (trivia: the supervising ed was my professor in college, nonoy dadivas). i thought it was clever to cast alan paule, of "macho dancer" fame, this time as a gay customer. how the tables have turned but times still have not changed! the "aquarium" scene is reminiscent of many 70s films about the objectification of men and women. notably of course, one of my bernal favorites, "aliw". i liked the ending, which, knowing me, is very real and open-ended, of course.
oh, and coco martin is cute!:P

new book!

leslie (of baguio and the buddhist temple) lent me this book, and i haven't been able to put it down yet:

i like how it doesn't purport to be a cure-all, but reiterates that, "step one: stop pretending we're all on the same staircase".

a poem a day...

subscribed to poemhunter, and got this nice poem:

A Broken Appointment

You did not come,
And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb.
Yet less for loss of your dear presence there
Than that I thus found lacking in your make
That high compassion which can overbear
Reluctance for pure lovingkindness' sake
Grieved I, when, as the hope-hour stroked its sum,
You did not come.

You love me not,
And love alone can lend you loyalty;
-I know and knew it. But, unto the store
Of human deeds divine in all but name,
Was it not worth a little hour or more
To add yet this: Once you, a woman, came
To soothe a time-torn man; even though it be
You love me not.

Thomas Hardy

do a double take

whoa! who's that with me? funny story, i was walking in SM, and what do i see? a standee of you-kno-who! haha!:P

i'm still in love with him!

i thought it was over, that it had waned and died a slow but appropriate death, but as i was watching a jdorama lent to me by my tomodatchi cindy, i found that i'm still in love with my nao-kun!

smart, talented, and kawaii! how could i not be? haayy... just a few miles separating us. so there's still hope! he's looking as good as ever, though a little thin on "1 litre of tears". but i love when he smiles! haayy...

"il mare" reminiscing

i watched the korean film "il mare" (or "siworae") once again recently. i first saw it about 3 years ago, it was the first korean movie i saw outside of school. it was also the first movie starring jeon ji hyun that i saw. my friends and i borrowed the VCD from our chinatown suki, solely based on the cover and the owner's reassurance that it had english subtitles. we loved it immediately! the story, the actors, the cinematography, and that amazing house (including the mailbox)! i think we downloaded all the photos, wallpapers, and different versions of the OST in just a matter of a week. it satisfied our search for a "realistic" (in the sense that it's not all happy and sunshiny) love story, but also, not too-depressing ending. the characters are so well-developed, and really, who can resist rooting for them to find their way towards each other in the end?
i didn't watch "moments of love", but i think it was inspired by this film. and i just found out that hollywood is finishing a remake of sorts--starring sandra bullock and keanu reeves (sorry, but eeewww!). i'm not a fan of keanu, obviously. and hello? what is this, "speed" without the bus? i just know hollywood is going to ruin it. which reminds me, hollywood was also supposed to remake "sassy girl" and "infernal affairs", weren't they? i hope they've given up on them. they ruin too many good, original asian movies.

cam-crazy

i neglected to mention in my previous post that for the first time, last saturday, i was able to not only touch, not only hold, but use, not just one but two digital SLR cameras (Thanks very much to sir martin!)!!!
this is what they looked like, more or less:

of course, of course, i still love my manual SLR, on which i learned "to see". but i must admit that there is a certain ease and convenience to the fact that you can get great photos, and actually immediately rectify errors (that is, reshoot) when you find that the photo you took didn't turn out the way you wanted. then you can just delete the previous photo. though i'm not anywhere near buying one of my own. but you know what? these last few days have made me realize what i really want to do: write and take photos. now if only i didn't need money...

das himmel uber berlin

yesterday was a good day, capped by the fact that i finally found a DVD copy of wim wenders' "wings of desire". yes, it inspired "city of angels", but it's much much better than that. i watched it in college, and though some of the scenes i've long forgotten, the haunting quality of the movie, the acuteness of the script, and the beauty of the shots are as wonderful as i remember. even better! i love how it shows the loneliness of humans. but we are still blessed, because angels, despite the exalted view we have of them, cannot feel our emotions, our sensations, cannot feel pain or sadness or joy or excitement. they live in a "black and white" world, that can mean that they see the essential but also, drab. they can only observe, while we live. ah, God bless porta vaga (the place where i bought the dvd)!:P

here are some beautiful lines... courtesy of imdb.com (i'll copy down some others soon):
Damiel: When the child was a child, it was the time of these questions. Why am I me, and why not you? Why am I here, and why not there? When did time begin, and where does space end? Isn't life under the sun just a dream? Isn't what I see, hear, and smell just the mirage of a world before the world? Does evil actually exist, and are there people who are really evil? How can it be that I, who am I, wasn't before I was, and that sometime I, the one I am, no longer will be the one I am?
Marion: Longing. Longing for a wave of love that would stir in me. That's what makes me clumsy. The absence of pleasure. Desire for love. Desire to love.

photobug me

i'm back to one of my true loves: photography. i unearthed my manual SLR camera recently, had it cleaned (accompanied by my dad) at Quiapo, and it's now in spanking good condition again. and i put it to the test during a wedding last saturday afternoon. and what do you know, we still "click"! it didn't feel alien at all to adjust the aperture size or the shutter speed, and somehow, i still remembered how to "tantsa" the settings. i was so excited to have the contact prints developed the next day. and thankfully, there's a trusty island photo here. the photos turned out 75% to 80% well, which is a lot, considering how long i haven't held my SLR. but it still loves me, and i'm definitely taking it to more trips soon.

playwrights workshop

i didn't actually have a weekend, strictly speaking, because i helped facilitate the "women playwrights workshop for indigenous people" from friday to sunday. it was conducted by ma'am malou jacob, and reawakened in me a desire to write for the stage. i had spent some time exposed to PETA, and there was that Miss Saigon stint (yes, i was the voice behind Lea. haha!), but i had never been confident about writing for the stage. radio, TV, print, film, i know i can do, but stage is an alien arena. but through "eavesdropping" during the workshop, i think i'd like to try to give it a go again.

love the "spaceflower show"

the band we had originally wanted to catch at ayuyang finally played on may 2. they were amazing! the spaceflower show's music is ska. real, raw, and radical. imagine this: they made even me dance!!!

i didn't know much of the songs they played, some of them were even originals, but that didn't stop me! the beat and the enthusiasm of the crowd were infectious. most of them were fans, obviously, because they sang along with the group. i think the only songs they played that i knew were "irene", "more today", and "manila girl". the last 2 were the last they played, and made for a roaring finale too!
didn't find out for sure if the saxophonist was cute, but he sure can play the sax! there's something about really talented musicians...
interestingly, people from my "former life" were there: tim yap, chito and darius of parokya. it turns out, they were doing an episode of a MTV show (didn't bother to find out the title) on baguio, and one of the segments would be about ayuyang and spaceflower show.

zsa zsa beats darna!

2 sundays ago, i finally went to watch "zsa zsa zaturnnah" (thanks to abby), after having heard raves from friends for months. and it was well worth the wait. i saw it at the new PETA theatre, and expectedly, i ran into friends and acquaintances there. a LOT of them, too. of course, each one happily exclaimed: "you're here!"--which sort of made me feel guilty about not telling people when i'm in town. but the problem with that is, it's not humanly possible to meet up with them the weekends that i am in town. but i digress...

"zsa zsa" was such a fun experience. all the actors and actresses were fantastic, the music was great, and the story is "tight". the story delves into social realities (poverty, diaspora), personal crises (need for acceptance, love), and the nature of "celebrity" or "fame". eula valdez acted and sang really well. and the audience was very appreciative. i loved it so much! they're re-staging it at CCP in june, so try to catch it if you haven't seen it! or see it again!

fun hanging out with friends

2 saturdays ago, we did a "repeat performance" of our summit despedida--same place, almost the same players. i have yet to find a good chicken inasal place here in baguio, so going to JT's for authentic grub was a real treat. thanks to mems who convinced us to have it there. but more than the yummy food, i loved the company, that kept us, as usual, laughing like crazy. here's a photo to prove it:

i love my friends! eventhough it takes more time to plan out things: thanks for taking the time, everyone. love you!