flippin’ pages, munch punch, & whatever else

Poor budgeting skills equals no Alice in Wonderland [3D] treat this weekend. I’ll just have to endure people around me buzzing about it, FB posts quoting the Red Queen, etc.

The Hours|Michael Cunningham @ P45

My Life in France|Julia Child @P10 (yes, a meager ten pesos for a hardbound edition)

The Bell Jar|Sylvia Plath @P115

Bummer, I only have enough moolah for sustenance. I wish i could just flip a switch in my body & I won’t need food to function.

Shop name: Hearts & Crafts - HNC.

We had dinner at the Colonial Grill. It’s fast becoming one of my fave munch punches because of the Tinutong-flavored ice cream. [I still have to muster enough gastronomic courage to try the Malunggay-flavored & the Sili-flavored ice cream. negotiations with my taste buds are underway]

*     *     *

(I also got this dyslexia on this name: Ross Gavindale ~ Gavin Rossdale) lol!

I just love the Robert Downey Jr. - Tina Fey presentors partner-up.

*     *     *

Mom baked banana cake topped with almonds AND walnuts (nuts purchased in Qatar possibly shipped from elsewhere & brought here by Ate Tin. my new friends at the office loved it. Too bad we didn’t have enough time; I told Mom I’d teach her how to blog. It’d be cool for her to post about her baking powers, I just tipped her to never reveal her secrets

V (R) loved mom’s banana cake! yey.

*     *     *

Back to work, err… training… err… Free surfing minus the *goodstuff.

* otherwise known as Facebook.

Tatou trivia

 French actress Audrey Tatou is in the habit of photographing every reporter who interviews her.

Tautou turned around, pulled a small camera out of her bag and told the assembled scribes: “I hope you don’t mind, but I do this with every interview. So I can remember.”

She took the photo, smiled and waved goodbye.
Source: The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

I think that makes her a very grounded person. I love these little details with celebs. Let’s not get sucked into the maelstrom of Hollywood’s fame+fortune formula.Really, I cannot, for the life of me, decipher why the general public is interested with Paris Hilton’s diamond-studded car or whatnot. back then, the real celebs were ‘artists’ & icons & people whoactually contributed something significant. But I digress…

Tatou was also quoted saying,“The attention was painful, like a tumour. As for the movies, I knew that I had to make the right choices – and that meant not doing what was expected of me,” after Amelie’s success & the onslaught of public attention. I just loved Amelie…and am easily falling in love with Audrey too.

i maintain that men are just sub-species & women are the real homo sapiens

if your name is Ramon & your last name is B–, & we’re acquainted…congratulations, you’re the exception to the rule.

malleable

From E.L Doctorow’s editorial (2004)|Easthampton Star

 The president we get is the country we get. With each president the nation is conformed spiritually. He is the artificer of our malleable national soul. He proposes not only the laws but the kinds of lawlessness that govern our lives and invoke our responses. The people he appoints are cast in his image. The trouble they get into, and get us into, is his characteristic trouble. Finally, the media amplify his character into our moral weather report: he becomes the face of our sky, the conditions that prevail. 

~I’m not a registered voter. At age 24, that’s really embarrassing. But this here is a very good piece & my man Doctorow has got it down to a science. read the full article here.

the weekend flick weather report

The flicks we copied from Ate Tin’s Dell Inspiron mini were a disaster. If you’re flippin’ through DVDs I warn you not to even bother with I Love You, Beth Cooper & Four Christmases.

Ok, I’ve reached my quota on complaining.
Over & out.

up in the air

…ate Tin is coming to town.

vai con duole

This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.

Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won’t. We’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.

 ~Fight Club

crossbody

The trouble with anticipating your next paycheck is that whatever remaining cash you have, you feel entitled to spend it to the last cent. I should seriously consider changing my pov on that. I need to start looking into my financial health. Over three years as an employed person, I still don’t have a savings account. If I die on the job, I’d burden my family with expensive memorial services. [Another One Bites the Dust~requiem] Oh man, I’d hate for that to happen. Jeez. how can I crossover if the last thought in my head is regret over money I never earned, or rather, saved?

On that note, I’d like to justify my need for a new bag.

The last one I bought from F&H was tagged PhP900 but I got it for PhP300 less. that was sometime last year. it’s beginning to peel off on the parts where the handles are attached. I can still use it, but it doesn’t really go well with corporate wear. It brings to mind a scene from Gilmore Girls where Lorelai says to Luke: ‘that’s not a bag, that’s a rag tethered together by dust.’

I browsed online & this caught my eye:

 I asked ate Tin if she can check if they have this model in Qatar. i hope they do. and more than that, I hope I can afford it. Haha! 

Adams, Streep, Ephron

I googled up these pieces of info succeding my after-shift movie dosage; last night/rather, at 2am we watched Julie & Julia–from the same writer/director who gave us When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail & Sleepless in Seattle.

~Amy Adams stands 5′3″ She’s 35 but looks anything but. I first saw her on ‘Enchanted’
~Julia Child stood 6′2″; Meryl Streep is only 5′6″ tall. Jane Lynch, (the cunning Sue Sylvester in Glee) plays Julia’s sister, Dorothy.
~Lynch is a gigantic 6ft flat.

weekend reels

Avatar
Genre: Sci-Fi
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana 

It’s Complicated
Genre: Comedy
Director:Nancy Meyers
Cast:Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski, Lake Bell

 Over our unexplained fresh addiction to Cheese Curls we watched these flicks on our waking moments. I’m loving the eat-sleep-catch a movie-routine.

autumn rhythm

  If we had autumn, it’d be as beautiful as that: a multitude of leaves escaping and falling on little hands and heads. These children finish their lunches hastily and heads to the open courts lined with trees. The winds were incessant, so was their laughter.

They were to be scolded by the homeroom teacher, what with all the soiled uniforms, sweat, & hair in disarray. They were to be lectured on Religion, and how, by believing that you can wish upon a leaf caught before its fall, you are insulting God.

The teacher will not think of the consequence of her words.

The children will be men, and know the meaning of crisis.
 

bottom of the food chain [repost]

Where do the roaches go?
My shoes are wet from the rain,
soaked socks to airdry on a drafty September morning.
The rain has the clemency of a typhoon, but it never was reported. Where was I? Oh, the roaches
that merrily crawl
in & out of the sort-of sewers in the eskinita
I tread every night to work, where do they
go when it rains?
We are a nation of lychnobites. Poor countries reverse
their clocks & aim for wealth, at the expense of
health,social life, slumbering in a makeshift night.
Where do the roaches go in the morning?
Off to a dark crevice; manufacturing
nighttime. In a curtained room,
like myself. 

~New job, taking the mid-shift now.

                    Is that progress?~

down

Regina is always in my head. How can I possibly think up a poem?
There has been a general shortage of literary brainfarts, forgive me. I have flashes of scenes from a movie, morsels of lines from a song, and it’s so beautiful & painful these pangs of borrowed vision & breathed words… I am overwhelmed & I can’t function this way.

I’m feeling down. It’s the not knowing that kills me.
*             *             *

I run the water very very very hot
And then I fill the sink to the top with bubbles of soap
And then I set all the bottle caps I own afloat
And it’s the greatest voyage in the history of plastic 
`Music Box-Regina Spektor

What if there’s nothing more to us?
We’re just carbon-based.
We’re just pixie dust.
What if life is a magic trick?
Some quick slight of hand just to make us think.
What if consciousness can’t expand
And we fool ourselves with absurd demands?
What if there is no point at all?
We just grow up to fade away.
~Skin & Bones|Motion City Soundtrack

I had a dream
Crispy crispy Benjamin Franklin came over
Baby-sat all four of my kids
~Chemo Limo|Regina Spektor

Somewhere between the cobblestone floor and the slated wooden ceiling
Cuddling my semi-automatic, what a very fuzzy feeling
Oh…there’s nothing like emptying a cartridge at the sun
`Uh-merica-Regina Spektor

It went from no good to fucked up and over.
a total distortion of lifelong disorders,
barreling headfirst through fresh open wounds.
This, I was not used to.
~Worker Bee|Motion City Soundtrack

So we made our own computer
Out of macaroni pieces
And it did our thinking
While we lived our lives
It counted up our feelings
And divided them up even
And it called our calculation
Perfect love
~The Calculation|Regina Spektor

If I stand too close I might fall in
But if I’m too far gone I’ll never win
If you believe in me I might just want to spend some time with you again
I’m afraid I tend to disappear into an anxious state when you draw near
There is no reasoning it’s quite a silly thing
But it’s the way I’ve been for years
So I will understand if you don’t stay
They say I’m great at first but then the magic fades
Into an awful hue of dismal views and pessimistic attitude

All this distance
Years of sweet resistance
Swirling over head
Like angry clouds of discontent
~Stand Too Close|Motion City Soundtrack

Outside the cars are beeping out a song
Just in your honor
And even though they do not know it
All mankind are now your brothers
And as the cathedral has spoken
Wishing well to all us sinners
And where the sight grew silent
Til next year’s big human winner
~Human of the Year|Regina Spektor

It’s like a bad dream, something from the back of a magazine
Black and white and cheaply put together
Like a slasher film
I’m torn in opposite directions
The plot sucks but the killings are gorgeous
~Pulp Fiction|Motion City Soundtrack

Let’s get a silver bullet trailer
And have a baby boy
I’ll safety pin his clothes all cool
And you’ll graffiti all his toys
I got a perfect body
But sometimes I forget
I got a perfect body
Cause my eyelashes catch my sweat
~Folding Chair|Regina Spektor

I’m inside your mouth now
Behind your tonsils
Peeking over your molars
You’re talking to her now
And you’ve eaten something minty
And you’re making that face that I like
And you’re going in, in for the kill, kill
For the killer kiss, kiss for the kiss, kiss
~Ode to Divorce|Regina Spektor

the ka-blagh episode

Don’t you just hate it when you can’t trust yourself? Here you are, thinking everything’s a-ok & sunshiny & shit …& then, ka-blagh, along comes a ‘whaddafuck??’ feeling.

I was under the pretense of peace, of glee, & this weekend, abruptly, I just lost it. I wasn’t as happy as I thought I was.
Wait a sec, let me dissect this shit:

Hormones. Maybe it’s just hormonal imbalance. My short patience was cut even shorter; I wasn’t in the mood for jokes or silly arguments. I wanted to be alone; or at least left alone.

Solitary Confinement. I kinda miss being alone. Sure the first few weeks I have no problem with him being there; but him being there ALL THE TIME gives no window for missing him; no opportunity to yearn.

Psychosocial Development. I almost wanted to declare a ‘cool-off’ but that’d be tyrannical given the circumstances. Just last week he thanked me for being supportive. This time, the cool-off thing played around in my head because I wanted him to focus on himself, his development. i just want him to shift his focus because in the end, his success will benefit US as a couple.

Good thing I wasn’t too hasty. This is just a bump in the road, I’ll wait it out before I put it on the table. I need to see progress, or I’ll have no choice.

But let it, for the record state, I still [ehem ehem].

the genius of spektor

“Consequence Of Sounds”

My rhyme ain’t good just yet, My brain and tongue just met,
And they ain’t friends, so far, My words don’t travel far,
They tangle in my hair, And tend to go nowhere,
They grow right back inside, Right past my brain and eyes
Into my stomach juice Where they don’t serve much use,
No healthy calories, Nutrition values.
And I absorb back in The words right through my skin
They sit there festering inside my bowels

The consonants and vowels
The consequence of sounds
The consonants and vowels
The consequence of sounds

Got a soundtrack in my mind, All the time. Kids-
Screamin’ from too much beat up And they don’t even rhyme,
They just stand there, on a street corner, Skin tucked in
And meat side out and shot, And I’d like to turn them down
But there ain’t no knob. Run into picket fences
Not into picket lines. All this hippie-shit for the 60’s
And another clich© for our time. But, But a one of these days your heart
Will just stop ticking, And they sorta just don’t find you till your cubicle is reeking.

The consonants and vowels
The consequence of sounds
The consonants and vowels
The consequence of sounds
Ahh ah ah ah ahh ah ah ah

Did you know that the gravedigger’s still Gettin’ stuck in the machine
Even tough it’s a whole other daydream. It’s another town it’s another world,
Where the kids are asleep, where the loans are paid And the lawns are mowed.
Whad’ya think? All the gravediggers were gone?
Just cause one song is done There’s always another one,
Waiting right around the bend, Till this one ends,
Then it begins Squeaky clean, then it starts all over again.

The weather report keeps on Tossing and turning,
Predicting and warning, And warning and warning of,
Possible leakage from news publications and, Possible leakage from news TV stations.
That very same morning right next to her coffee She noticed some bleeding and heard hollow coughing and
National Geographic was being too graphic, When all she had wanted to know was the traffic
“The worlds got a nosebleed” it said “And we’re flooding but we keep on cutting
The trees and the forests!” And we keep on paying those freaks on the TV,
Who claim they will save us but want to enslave us. And sweating like demons they scream through our speakers
But we leave the sound on ’cause silence is harder. And no one’s the killer and no one’s the martyr
The world that has made us can no longer contain us And profits are silent then rotting away ’cause

The consonants and vowels
The consequence of sounds.
The consonants and vowels
The consequence of sounds.
Ah ah ah…

The consonants and vowels
The consequence of sounds
The consonants and vowels
The consequence of sounds

little boxes made of ticky tacky

It’s appalling how tv series have flipped in a disturbing three sixty turn… ten year old girls kissing, little boys jacking off, teens doing the deed, suburban moms selling weed. Nonetheless, I’d have to give it up for the show Weeds, for its bold & uninhibited depiction of modern America. I remember a time when the word ‘Hayop’ would entail a beating from the mtrcb censors. Now, we can freely curse & mock our heads of state. Haha

The theme song is appropriate too:

1. Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

2. And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there’s doctors and there’s lawyers
And business executives,
And they’re all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same

 I thought it was one of those folksy songs intentionally made to sound like an oldie. But Lord Google says it’s a song written in 1962 ‘that lampoons the development of suburbia and what many consider its bourgeois conformist values.’

[That’s a good LSS, relative to cheap korean pop, if you ask me]

*   *   *

We love Bejeweled Blitz.

We love Regina Spektor.

And oh, yeah… we love each other.

‘oh ten

This year I will be less angry.

you are Princess Fiona, but NOT the cameron diaz alter ego

This is a hate post so beware furry & fuzzy creatures I am unleashing the Ogre within.

I think as a rule, you wouldn’t want your little brother to have anything to do with a girl who’s unlike you in certain degrees…

And by unlike, I meant:

– she’s OLDER than you;
– she’s more than likely UNEMPLOYED;
– she may be girlfriend-material but she’s the type that metamorphoses into a monster once knocked up;
– she’s one of those types you can picture as a loving (& menacingly protective) wife but NOT a caring mother;
– her facial expression doesn’t spell Ambition or independence;
– she sees ONLY my brother & has zero socializing skills.

thaw & defrost

I’m not much of a caffeine fiend and my coffee consumption is limited to not more than 4 cups in an entire month. So this morning, with a runny nose & a full tummy I decided I just wanted a burger & coffee for lunch (3am Mla time). The end result? An unexplained nervous feeling…sort of like I have an anxiety disorder. But 1 small cup of coffee is hardly enough to give me that kick huh? And the hot drink didn’t do much for my runny nose either.

Our new fave for this week is Regina Spektor & we heard snippets of some songs. This one got my attention because..well, just check out my previous post.

And people make you nervous
You’d think the world was ending
And everybody’s features have somehow started blending
And everything is plastic
And everyone’s sarcastic
And all your food is frozen
It needs to be defrosted
You’d think the world was ending
You’d think the world was ending
You’d think the world was ending right now

I just got back from Legazpi & it’s no joke, really, travelling on a bus w/ the temp of Alaska with meagre clothing (and by meagre I mean 2 shirts & a seemingly ample TerraNova knit sweater). The travel time was around 12 hrs, by the way.

Anyway, it’ snap back to reality for me. I had a great time in my hometown. I left my heart in TonShingWa drive…

the famine of the right hemisphere

ive grown tired of eating out of styro plates, tired of the monotony of days. I’m tired of fragile plastic forks & deep fried chicken that taste like the convenience of manufactured society. Yet again I find myself in the isthmus of a quarter-life crisis & self-pity. Nowadays what sustains me is my new girl-crush Tina Fey & …. uhm, my boyfriend.

Haha. Not so funny when you’re in my shoes. I have always been morose, like, I take downers every six hours mistaking it for aspirin. And this three sixty turn towards the sunny side, injured my right brain, slightly, I guess. I had wanted to do a One-poem-a-day exercise but have been just circling around the idea. Now it’s all tangled up & I have NOT started.

…now I’m reduced to balancing a Parker pen on my desktop while I’m working; it’s a way cooler goal to avoid toppling it over than actually climbing the friggin’ steep corporate ladder; which is all bullshit, by the way. That’s general knowledge.