Mom and Bianx are in Batangas right now. I pretty much woke up at 6:30 am to bring them to Alabang to meet up with their companions.

In the meantime, today I attended John's aerobics/Pilates class and did the grocery shopping all by myself.

I never quite thought that grocery shopping could actually be tough. I had a list in hand while I was browsing SM Bicutan's supermarket, true, but the unfamiliar layout of the place and my own unfamiliarity with the task kinda took me longer to get it over with. Sure, I accompany my mom when she shops for groceries pretty often, but this time I was alone.

List in hand, I was even making a running tally of the prices of the things I plopped into my pushcart. When I saw things that weren't in the list but I wanted anyway, I listed them down on a different column with their prices. That's a little better than what my mom usually does, I guess.

When I arrived at the counter to pay for my load, I was a bit surprised to see that the final figure was a bit cheaper than what I'd haphazardly computed, but I was happy it was pretty close.

I oughta do the grocery shopping more often. By myself. It's a mighty good way of teaching myself how to keep track of expenditure.
===

Lsat week, Mom was complaining about the increasing frequency of my visits to the gas stations. Couldn't be helped I guess, since three times a week I've been driving to school, driving to Villamor AFB, driving back to school to fetch Bianx and Bong and driving back home. As fuel-efficient as my D15B7 engine is, such frequency of trips will need gas.

So this week, with a full tank of gasoline, I tried something else. Instead of going to Villamor AFB on Wednesdays, I'd go to Robinsons Place Ermita instead and play Dance Maniax 2nd Mix. That way I'm still exercising and I use much less fuel for the trip.
===

I left for RP after the Parokya ni Edgar concert, and to my surprise Helene was there in the arcade as well, with a likeable chap I was introduced to, Richard. It seems they'd seen me playing DM2, and Helene wanted a go at it too (and she was pretty good at that).

Nice meeting you two. :D
===

So...how's my fuel consumption?

After a typical school week and a few side trips (going to Avon's Taft office and bringing Mom and Bianx to Hillsborough) tallying up to 180 km, my tank's still a bit over half full. Considering how much harder I drive and how judiciously I blip my Honda's throttle for frequent downshifts, that's a respectable result.

I might still be doing 9 km/L. That's certainly nothing to complain about.
===

I'm exercising harder than ever, but I'm actually gaining weight. Yikes.

I wonder what's wrong with me.
===

I came clean with Denise this Friday. I told her everything---how I was so bitterly jealous---and apologized for being such an ass. I was surprised that she had still asked me about what I had to apologize for...does that mean I wasn't as much of as ass as I thought I was? Maybe so.

But when "being an ass" involves taking it to the highways...ehhh, maybe that's just my head working overtime.

With MARKSAM out of the way, I figured it's about time I straighten things out so that I can work on the thesis freely. Having a bone to pick with a fellow thesismate obviously isn't the smartest thing to do, considering Denise, Erica and I are on the same thesis boat for at least 5 more months.

Selling Avon products is probably going to be my way of supporting the thesis production financially, although I still don't know how much I'll be able to raise selling just Avon. Getting a 25% sales commission by default is comparably huge, yeah, but I gotta sell a lot more.

Right now I'm just taking it easy, I guess. I should start on the darned script.

I miss Cher.

I've been calling her, sending her SMS messages and buzzing her on YM all week, but she hasn't replied. Not even once. I'm more than a little worried about my Leyteña friend. I know it's busy times for her, what with campaign season and everything, but I still worry.

If you read this, Cher, please text or buzz me.

Take care always, my friend.

*HUGS*
===

Had my driver's license renewed today at the LTO remote office close to the Parañaque City Hall. I didn't enroll for LEAP class so I had today free. Bong tagged along.

It didn't take too long. Despite having to wait for the doctor's signature on my medical exam results, the whole procedure didn't take me more than an hour and a half and PhP550. Not too shabby, despite having to come back by the end of June to claim the card itself.
===

Parokya ni Edgar performed in school the other day at U-break. Man, what an experience. Chito Miranda was game right from the start, mouthing off wisecracks and basically having a grand time---even lying down on the amphitheater's lawn.

But what was more notable for me was their front act: a band from school called Bloomfield, made up of what I believe were lower-batch Engineering students.

These guys are seriously good.

They specialized in 1950s-1960s rock and roll tunes, playing "La Bamba" and "Twist and Shout" like they wrote them. (Finally, a band my mom would approve of.) Particularly amazing was the drummer; he practically stood out with a 4-minute-long drum solo complete with complicated fills and rolls. Bong and I were astounded by this guy's skill.

Bloomfield...I'll look forward to hearing them play again.
===

I learned from my medical exam at the LTO that my blood pressure was lower than was usual.

The nurse asked me, "Hindi ka ba nahihilo? Hindi ba sumasakit ang batok mo?" ("Don't you get dizzy? Doesn't your nape hurt?")

I shook my head.

Turns out my blood pressure registered 90/70 mm Hg.

Now I know the gene for hypertension runs in my family, but I never thought I'd have such low BP. Then again, anything above 90/60 is supposedly still normal. The nurse told me to take ferrous sulfate anyway.
===

This is a hauntingly beautiful song...
===

Yoru no machi wa shizuka de fukai umi no you
Tsuzuku michi ni tada ATASHI hitori dake
Tooi koe wo tayori ni aruite yuku no
Zutto sagashiteru sotto hikaru aoi hikari

At night, the town is quiet like the deep ocean
All alone on an endless road,
I walk following a distant voice
Always searching for the soft blue light

Nee ATASHI wo mitsukete
Soshite yonde KOKORO de
Donna ni hanareta to shite mo kikoeru kara

Please find me
And call me with your heart
Because I'll hear you no matter how far apart we are

Gin no akari ga tomoru sorezore no heya
Kitto dokoka ni wa iru to negainagara aruku

A silver light shines in every room;
I walk on hoping you're somewhere out there

Nee ANATA wo mitsukete
Soshite nido to wasurezu
Donna ni mune ga itakute mo soba ni iru no

I'll find you
And I'll never again forget you
No matter how much it hurts, I'll stay by your side

Tsunaida te wo
Hanasanai kara

Because I won't
Let go of your hand

ATASHI ga ANATA wo mitsukete
Soshite nido to wasurezu
Donna ni mune ga itakute mo soba ni iru no
Zutto zutto

I'll find you
And I'll never again forget you
No matter how much it hurts, I'll stay by your side
Always... always...

--- "Ningyo Hime," second ending theme to Chobits

I had to drop MARKSAM. It turns out I still have to take MARKCU1, and to do that, I'd have to pass MARKRES, which I'm taking now.

No matter what arguments our block will present about how the flowchart isn't being followed, we are still subject to it. So, somewhat dejectedly, I went online and dropped MARKSAM right away.

At least it spares me from the obligation to sell PhP20,000 by April.
===

Progress report: As of yesterday, I sold a smidgen under PhP3,500, and two-thirds of that came from Avon products.

I guess Avon doesn't give a shit about whether I'm enrolled in MARKSAM or not. At least I considered sticking with doing business with them. More or less, any authorization to sell their products won't be affected by my dropping of MARKSAM.

I just feel bad that so many of us made the same mistake, and it left only 7 legitimate students in my former MARKSAM section. That's not enough to maintain the section; it'll have to be dissolved. Those 7 legit students have to go to other MARKSAM sections.

Oh well...MARKSAM, see you in a year's time. By then, I'll be ready.
===

I think I'm improving in my badminton game. Now I can make proper smashes in a game.

Still have to improve my ball control though. That's something I still lack.
===

When I think about it, at least I can focus more on making our thesis with MARKSAM out of the way.

Damn. I feel like I'm not a Communication Arts major anymore.

I think I played pretty well this Friday. Played 3 or 4 games and I won two of them.

Friends suggested getting a towel grip on my racket so that it doesn't slip in my right hand, and I think it's working. Didn't stop me from accidentally throwing my racket into the other court while attempting a backhand return, though.

Still have to work on my drop shots...
===

ANIMAX opened this week and I'm so enjoying it.

Thanks to this channel I finally get to watch some of the best anime. GTO and Chobits are currently my favorites. Both are commendably funny for being unapologetically honest...such leaves me laughing like a fool every night. Plus, I get to watch 2 episodes of each every weekday.

The only problem's that it can interfere with me doing my homework...
===

Most of those scabs that dotted my face this week have fallen off. Thank goodness.

I hate acne and the inconvenience it represents.
===

Gong xi fa cai!

I confess to not being very fond of tikoy (that staple of Chinese New Year's), but when Mom got home with strawberry flavored tikoy from Eng Bee Tin, I couldn't resist trying.

It's good! Too bad it's such a rich food...
===

My mom's been urging me to limit my computer use, as one of her employees got seriously sick. Something with the guy's blood and how radiation from long-term exposure to his computer made it toxic.

Seriously...does she think staring at a computer is all I do? Does she not know I do all sorts of things besides using a computer?

I appreciate her concern for my health, but I am disappointed with how she thinks of me.

After training for quite some time, my badminton game still sucks. Basically I'm too tense in a game to actually apply anything I've learned from training, and that includes ball control and legwork.

Sigh...must train more.
===

My face hurts. It looks like someone took a pen-sized firebrand and poked it at my face at random. No thanks to the facial I got this afternoon.

What was supposed to be a 20-minute session lasted more than double that. And God knows I hate the masochism I have to subject myself to in the name of looking presentable. Tell me, who wants a dermatologist systematically pressing the shit out of their pimples?

Imagine my reaction when the derma told me to come back in two weeks to have another facial cleaning session.

Riiiiiiight.

I'm so looking forward to it.

Not.

My head hurts, my nose is stuffed up and I feel sleepy.

Shit.
===

Sometimes I just wonder what would become of me if I used my head less and my emotions more. Ever since I was six years old, I've felt I've become a puppet to my conscience---one that unfortunately works on overtime too often.

Just wondering about it makes the beast in me tingle with excitement.
===

Is this an effect of watching "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers?"

Man, I remind myself of Gollum. Yikes. Seriously, yikes.

I came pretty close to getting killed this morning.

While crossing the street to school on the pedestrian crossing, an oncoming red bus didn't seem to give any regard to my safety, much more other pedestrians. Bong told me I was one foot away from being roadkill.

Such a shame I was too shocked to remember taking note of the fool's plate number.
===

My body hurts. No doubt a result from all the badminton I played yesterday, as well as my new morning jogging habit on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I haven't felt so depleted of energy in a long while.

I wonder how I'd fare in training tomorrow...that is, if I do train. Amazingly my allowance this week ran out on me without me making any significant purchases. Well okay, so I owed Ailyn PhP200 for last Friday's training and I paid for it this Monday. But other than that I was pretty stingy.

Hmmm. I'm saving nothing so far. Damn.
===

I got a subject in Salesmanship (MARKSAM) this term...which has me and my classmates selling stuff. Our quota's pegged at PhP20,000.

Yikes. I've never been great at persuading people, let alone selling anything to people. A PhP20,000 quota scares me, quite frankly.

At least I'm getting an early start though: I've found two buyers for the "magic wallet" I'm using now, at Villamor AFB. The wallet pretty much snaps folded bills into place with nothing more than folding motion and elastic thread, but it's a novel and convenient way of bringing bills. Only downside's that there's no provision for coins.

Anna was cheering me up, telling me I could do it. I sure damn hope so.
===

At least our MARKSAM prof, Mr. Carlos Maglutac, seems like a likeable guy. He's big, fat and nocturnal (he works in a call center and teaches our afternoon class without a wink of sleep for 18 hours plus), and he's the jolly type who knows how to make us laugh.

He says he can teach us to persuade people into doing what we want them to do. I always wanted that sort of ability. Bring it on.
===

Mao gave me an idea. Just thought of resurrecting an old poem I wrote four years ago.
===

[Serenade In Your Sleep]

You don’t know me, but I know you well
If I wrote your memoirs, like pancakes they’d sell
With every day, we often see each other
It’s just that with me, you never dared to bother

I know you’re so sick of capricious men
Who see you as a pretty face and nothing much else
And grow tired of you after all the wedding bells
I must confess though: I’ve been one of them

At this point in time I know I could’ve done a lot
Just to prove to you I’m worthy of your heart
I could’ve swooned you like so many men
Yet I remain aloof, seemingly indifferent

We won’t ever get acquainted, I know that by now
Perhaps it’s for the best, but I’m having my doubts
My friends tell me, all I can do is keep
You in my heart, serenading you while you sleep

Played a number of games of badminton today...and I lost all of them. Apparently my defense is nonexistent, as I hardly do any sideways movement on the court.

Must train...
===

My friend Mao's got a new blog now. I must say I admire the way she writes...most especially her poetry.

Methinks she should seriously consider joining the Malate Literary Folio. I mean, she can write poetry and take great B&W pictures---what more can MLF ask for?
===

I'm not feeling like much of a writing mood right now. Let's just say I don't want to see some people right now. I might as well bury myself in the Japanese novels I borrowed and the badminton training I have to do.

After almost a month away from badminton, I got to train again at Villamor and I finally got to buy a new racket, too. I now have a silver graphite Kawasaki Control 370 with blue Yonex strings, and it's usefully lighter than my old aluminum Wilson Aggressor 120. I didn't get to use it yet though, as it was being tensioned while I was training.

Now if I had tennis or badminton shoes to go with 'em...
===

I got someone new to train me.

Coach Rey was having lunch so he had Bart coach me yesterday. Apparently he was from the national team before, and he'd been training to get back in after a year's absence.

Let's just say that one month of inactivity, coupled with Bart's strenuous training drills, left me panting, weak and dizzy afterwards. This just showed me that there's still more to badminton training than what I've had with Coach Rey so far...and that my footwork still sucks.

Coach did tell me I could cope with Bart's training regimen if I regularly showed up at the courts. Hmmm...I wonder how long it'd take me to do so.
===

Mao, Zeri and I were talking after calculus class about the very near future. We all wanted to do so many things and buy so much stuff. Unfortunately time and money were not on our side, especially since the next 5 months or so will see us slaving over our theses.

I'd sure love to attend that 2-day Hollywood Film School seminar on the 24th, like the two girls do, but I'm wondering if it's worth the PhP4,000. As of now I have at least PhP7,000 on hand, and some more money in a vault, but I don't know whether to spend it on new tires, our upcoming feature video thesis or whatever else desirable creeps into my gray matter.

One thing I'm sure of is that I'll have to forego at least one of those major expenses, and it can't be thesis.

Times like these, I wish for a part-time job. But that'll have to wait until summer 2005. For now I have no choice but to bite the bullet and save up PhP500 a week.

These past two days of school opening have been filled with very tight driving situations.
===

Yesterday, when I drove back to school to bring Bianca, I had to park my Honda in one of the tightest spots I've ever been in. The usual parking lot at Leon Guinto St. was already full, save for one pretty cramped corner boxed in by cars and a concrete wall.

I came to within millimeters of scraping a green EK Civic's left front bumper time and again, trying to maneuver my City into the spot. Finally managed to wedge my car in with sufficient space to disembark. All the while I was maneuvering, I didn't realize I was still quite a ways from scraping my car against the concrete wall.

Extracting the car from the lot was pretty tight too, albeit with much less effort. This time I was a smidgen away from getting fresh new dents from an AUV's bumper.

The experience convinced me that I was pretty good with parking, and I could probably do the old car-driving Lasallites justice back in those days when parking was scarce. But I'd really rather not do that again.
===

The second tight situation happened on my way home today in Mom's Pregio van. I'd been tailing an old gray Mercedes-Benz 250TD station wagon who happened to be going the same way I was. The Merc had an AAK sticker on his back window, which meant the driver was probably a karateka.

At the foot of the Buendia flyover, the Merc was attempting to move to the left lane avoiding the traffic going to the Skyway. I flashed my lights signaling that I was going through, but he ignored me and crawled to the left anyway, without signaling the lane change. Had I not braked and let him through, I might have hit his D-pillar.

Same thing happened on the on-ramp to the Magallanes flyover, still without him signalling and ignoring my headlight flashes. With the Merc effectively crowding my lane, this time I inched as close as I could get to the left-side gutter and sped through. Watching my right mirror, I avoided swapping gray Merc paint by a couple of inches, but the Merc driver was blowing his horn in protest.

Funny how he didn't realize that it was mainly his fault and he did the crowding maneuver to me twice.

Approaching the 3-lane off-ramp to Magallanes, I was behind a slow-moving light truck. The Merc flanked me on the left and tried to crowd into me AGAIN. He was trying to make me crash into the passing AE101 Corolla on the right lane, or the cement barriers on the right side. At this point I was pretty pissed at this wagon-driving asshole.

The AE101 went by, freeing up the right lane with a comfortable gap. I then made my move, moving the Pregio's tiller to the right and flooring the gas. Following the AE101, I overtook the light truck, returned to the middle lane and powered through clear of the maniacal Merc.

The Merc driver might have kicked the gut out of me out of the car, but when strapped to a steering wheel and pedals, I'm sorry to say that I am a better and more alert driver.

I will repeat my mantra: "Overtake decisively and responsibly."
===

Denise now has a boyfriend. The two of them were an item since the day after Christmas, and they were the last thing I saw before I went on home.

Honestly I was...shocked. Maybe it was pretty stupid of me to think so, but I always thought she'd be single and she wouldn't delve into a relationship anytime soon. Probably cheeky of me to say this but I thought she and I would end up together. At least now I can say "BLARGH! WRONG!" to that thought.

Right now I don't quite know how to feel---happy, sad, jealous, cheated or whatnot. At least I managed to act civilly in front of them. I know the latter two emotions I don't have any right to feel, but I can't help it.

Then again, in the back of my mind I knew she wouldn't stay single. Denise just knows too many guys.

To think she was pretty much the only person I was looking forward to talking to after the holiday break.

Sigh...
===

Pam wrote about attracting the wrong kinds of men. I wonder if I was the "fuckwit" in her life. Honestly, the realization hurt and I want to make it up to her somehow, immature as I may be.

Trying to mend my friendship with her is like talking to a wall, methinks. I know my attempts at it have been somewhat feeble at best, but I know it's pretty much all I can do when she's remained as civil but cold as she is toward me.

Guess I'll just have to swallow that bitter pill called futility.
===

Sigh...I don't know what it is with women. The more I try to win their attention, love and respect, the more they seem to run scared from me. What the fuck am I doing wrong?

What an overwhelmingly sad realization.

I might as well profess my undying love to automobiles.
===

By the way, happy birthday Cher!

Big news today on my sister's birthday involves the coming elections, since today the candidates rush to the Commission on Elections to file their Certificates of Candidacy for the elections in May.

I bet Cher's already filed hers as well, for councilor in her hometown. Whatever happens, I hope she comes through the campaigning and election happy and well.

A very happy New Year to one and all!
===

Yesterday saw me pretty much out of the house. Went with my mom to get my second chemical peel and buy some gifts for her clients in Makati. At that point Paolo texted me about his plan to go to Glorietta 4 as well, so I got my mom's consent and stayed behind to meet up with him.

While waiting for him I decided to take another whack at the Initial D ver.2 arcade game, which I had avoided playing all these months because of the prohibitively high price (PhP30 per race!) and the fact that these assholes just hogged the machines to themselves. Now that Timezone had an additional 2 cabinets...people still hogged the machines. Grrr.

Anyway it was lunch time and no one seemed to be touching the machines at that moment, so I decided to try my luck with "my car": my mildly modified yellow Honda S2000 roadster, after not touching it for so long. Needless to say, by the time Paolo got there, I had already spent PhP250 just on that game, bought at least 5 mods for the S2000, and cleared two of the game's six mountain passes (which I'm pretty proud of).
===

What can I say about Initial D ver.2?

Let's just say I didn't find it good or easy at first, having been so accustomed to an older game, Scud Race, that also emphasized drift driving. But that one has proper race courses with wide roads, so comparatively it's easier to drive in and perform big drifts. In contrast, Initial D ver.2 features 6 mountain passes as its courses---all very narrow and with increasing degrees of complexity, in keeping with the anime.

I found that while drifting is Initial D's focus, simply driving normally in the arcade game without bumping into the speed-robbing barriers was tough enough in itself. Good driving in most of the harder roads necessitated a few practice runs in Time Attack mode. Since weather and night driving also factor in the game, as well as the fact that the passes can be run either downhill or uphill...let's just say I'll have to be pretty fucking rich just to practice driving in all the game's possible race events.

Oh, and did I mention the setup of the driving cabinets was right-hand-drive? This made driving tougher, as I'm not very used to having the shifter on my left hand. I swear, every time I negotiated Akina's hairpin curves, my right hand never let go of the larger-than-expected steering wheel, despite my wrist already being twisted a great deal. As a result my right thumb now feels rather stiff from holding the wheel so oddly and twirling it so suddenly.

The key rule in Initial D ver.2 is to drive as fast as possible, but to avoid bumping or rubbing into anything so as not to rub off essential speed. To do that, you'll have to practice a lot, learn how to slow down properly before turns (engine braking and foot-braking helps a LOT)...and get used to the idiosyncrasies of RHD driving. FORGET PERFORMING DRIFTS, unless you're driving in Myogi or Usui. You'll be drifting if you drive well anyway...and if you fuck up trying a drift in, say, Akagi or Irohazaka, you'll lose a LOT of essential speed.
===

As I was saying, Paolo came along and we played even more games. All in all I spent PhP350 on that game, and I was lucky to get to play PhP100 free from Paolo's mom.

Paolo just got his own Initial D car card, and he chose to get a silver Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R. He seems to have enough points as he's managed to get a fancy exhaust and alloy rims on his 4WD supercar by now, and he's adjusting to the game pretty well. He told me the game wasn't the cheap cash-in he thought it would be.

I managed to pick up a left card as well...also an S2000 on it, and it looks like it hasn't been used.

At least now we got a good reason to go to Glorietta 4 now...although this means more saving to do. Blech. I'll never have enough money.
===

On the way to the parking lot I spotted Pam going down the escalators. Once Pao and I were outside the mall, I decided to give her a call and greet her a Happy New Year. She seemed fine and I was glad she and her grandma enjoyed the food for the gods I gave her.

Was nice seeing her again.
===

On the way home we got to ride in what seems to be their third Pajero. This newest one seemed like an automatic JDM 3-door from 1995-96, converted to left-hand-drive with surplus LHD dashboard parts. The conversion looked pretty good, apart from a deep scuff on the new right-hand dashboard, and the whole car felt like my dad's old RAV4 enlarged in all the right places. Paolo's dad got on the Skyway and gunned the 2.8L diesel lump to 140 km/h.

Damn...all their cars are diesel Pajeros! How cool!
===

Went to Nanay's in White Plains for the annual New Year's media noche buena. This being one of the few occasions that I drink, I pretty much took advantage of it.

I had three glasses of red wine, a glass of champagne and a Mule...and I was all red and tipsy afterwards. Damn, I am an alcoholic wimp. I suppose it doesn't matter much, since I'll probably end up being the designated driver for my friends if we ever go on a bar trip or whatever.

I'll admit it, I love driving too much to give a shit about getting tipsy or drunk. Besides, alcohol'll just screw up my driving skills. I feel there's more to life than drinking cocktails.

This year was pretty quiet in terms of fireworks...seems people have learned better. They seem to have resorted to some other form of thrill though. The TV had us witnessing some gay revelers in Binondo gyrating in front of the TV cameras, while some others got humiliated on national TV being dead drunk. Still, this New Year's seemed a bit different, a little more reserved. I can't really tell why or how.

Ah, it doesn't matter. It's 2004. I'll try to make the most out of it.
===

By the way, it's my sister's birthday a few seconds from now. Happy birthday Bianx!

My dad left for golf this morning with another one of his "JM, please read this!" articles. This one was particularly about marketing and how to swoon Juan dela Cruz (i.e. the Filipino everyman), which I thought timely as I had just finished my Marketing intro subject and was moving toward the majors.

This evening at dinner, he gave me a piece of his mind about the article. He told me that marketing was all about common sense, and that people who don't excel in specialist fields like management or accounting usually make it big as marketers. Then he told me that an element of mystery and curiosity must be maintained at all times to keep people interested, and this applied not only to products but also to the opposite sex. In other words he was telling me to be more mysterious, less open and available to others.

As much as I don't like hearing this advice, I think my dad has a point. People usually don't go looking for me because let's face it---I'm as easy to read as a billboard up there on a highway. I'm not in any way mysterious and I always make myself available for others...perhaps even to the point of saturation, where people just get their fill of being with me and get sick of me afterwards.

I guess in this sense, maybe it's my being overly nice that turns people off, and my dad was basically telling me that "nice guys finish last."

You know what? Maybe he's right.

Sigh...
===

Or maybe this was another way of telling me that taking up marketing isn't for me?
===

My car now has a plethora of scratches all over its dented left rear door. Perhaps this is a sign that I should save enough money to get the City's dents repaired and the whole car repainted.

Where am I going to get all the money for that? I'm struggling to keep what I set aside for new tires as it is. How much harder would it be to save up for dent repair and a paint job? I bet I'd need PhP16,000 for all that.

Must...save...
===

If there was one song that best described how I am with women, this might be it.

Beauty queen of only eighteen
She had some trouble with herself
He was always there to help her
She always belonged to someone else

I drove for miles and miles
And wound up at your door
I've had you for so many times
But somehow I want more

I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
She will be loved...

Tap on my window, knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful
I know I tend to get so insecure
That doesn't matter anymore

It's not always rainbows and butterflies
It's compromise that moves us along
My heart is full and my door's always open
You can come anytime you want

I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
She will be loved...

I know where you hide, alone in your car
Know all of the things that make you who you are
I know that goodbye means nothing at all
Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she falls...
Yeah...

Tap on my window, knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful...

--- Maroon5, "She Will Be Loved"

The sickness that afflicts me every time I go on vacation rears its ugly head again.

Yes, I am bored.

After getting sick of playing Gran Turismo 2, watching Initial D's first season for the umpteenth time, and reading my back issues of Autocar Asean equally as many times, I wound up bored.

So bored, in fact, that I woke up this morning thinking about starting the shooting script for our feature-video thesis. So far I've gotten the intro montage done, I guess, which is just one scene.

Better to have something done than nothing at all, methinks.
===

Our house seems to have all these little annoying quirks recently.

Besides the irritating piss-inducing cold of late, we've also been unwitting mosquito fodder. Just this morning I had to walk through a small swarm of them flittering outside our front door. Where are the ever-present lizards when you need them?

There's also this awful canal stench arising from the back. I have no idea why it's there. Let me just say the stench makes the full-on smell of Lysol all the more aromatic.

And have I mentioned the non-stop fart of the chainsaw making chop suey out of this old tree at the church across the street? I have to put up with it every morning these days...

Well, at least we don't get floods...that's always good.

Lately I've done nothing but drinking glass upon glass of water, and pissing it right out almost immediately after. Even now I'm still drinking water out of the green tumbler my grandma gave me---for God knows how many times already. At this rate I won't have any problems making the 64-ounce water requirement several times over.

I wonder why I'm doing this...probably best to think of it as detoxification therapy for all the excesses of the holidays.
===

Speaking of holiday excesses, food was a big part of that. (When hasn't it been?) I've gotten my weight back up to the "dreaded" 170 lb. mark, although I got it at a slower rate than I thought.

At least people still think I lost weight...which is no small feat.

Strange, really...when I tell people I lost weight, they tell me I gained it. When I do gain a little weight people think I lost it. There's no winning people over I guess...
===

I am disappointed with a lot of the new anime that's out nowadays. It seems anime has reduced itself into a convenient vehicle for introducing and selling stupid, useless toys to kids.

I suppose this trend started with "Let's and Go Mini 4WD," although I don't consider Mini-4WD car racing as totally useless. Let's face it, this is a good way to teach kids physics. I remember back in my last year of high school that our Physics teachers had an experiment for us that involved tuning Mini-4WD race cars, and it was a pretty good way of teaching us about gear ratios, acceleration, speed and other physics stuff. Besides, it's a good (but hideously expensive) hobby for any would-be armchair mechanics.

This "anime-to-sell-useless-toys" trend began in all honesty with "Beyblade." Seriously. The whole series is about competing with other players using fancy-shmancy high-speed tops. If that were the case kids could've just gotten a cheap, conventional wooden top and gotten on with it, as "beyblades" are (again) expensive. Besides there's no element of skill involved with so-called "beyblading." It's all a function of luck---and perhaps how quickly one can launch one's beyblade. Zero brain power involved, unlike Mini-4WD racing. And have I mentioned how easily these plastic beyblades can break? There goes your PhP1000...compare that expense to getting a wooden top.

And this morning I tuned in to a local TV channel only to watch "Super Yo-yo." Cripes. It's about doing tricks with fancy-shmancy yo-yos. I suppose this is the culprit of all those kids I see in the local malls playing with yo-yos with abandon.

The premise of the contests in the anime is pretty stupid: contestants come into this virtual-reality world, where they navigate and race in courses with virtual hoverboards, a la "Back to the Future." The way these players boost their speed is by performing yo-yo tricks. The faster and the wilder the trick performed, the more speed they get. I don't know about you guys but this sounds inane.

Granted, at least there's some element of physical skill involved in manipulating a yo-yo and doing tricks with it. God knows I never learned how to do any yo-yo tricks. But my point is that there are better things for anime to present to people than these stupid toy fads. It goes against my original brief of anime being something thought-provoking.

Maybe I should just switch off the TV and look for some other series with more "meat" into them...
===

Speaking of "Super Yo-yo," the main protagonist's name is Shunichi.

At least I'm pretty sure now that my alias "Shunichi" is a proper Japanese name, after nigh-on 5 or 6 years. Now if I only knew how to write it in kanji and what the name really means...

These painful-to-wear Aiwa earphones apparently broke down on me as well. The left earpiece isn't working anymore.

I feel like I've been ripped off.

Next time, remind me never to get earphones and to spring for headphones instead. And never to get anything from Philips.

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
===

God knows I'm not that religious, but I find it kinda disturbing that some of us seem to forget that this is a birthday party we're celebrating today. It's not just anyone's birthday---it's Jesus Christ's. We seem to be forgetting that in these materialistic times. I bet he ain't feeling too good having his birthday being used as some excuse for partying excess.

Here's a little question for all of us: Isn't he invited to his own party?
===

Christmas Day was mostly good news for me and those people that count in my life.
===

Cher managed to make it to her hometown in Leyte safe and sound, despite the recent landslides and choppy weather. First thing I did was call her on her cellphone when the clock struck twelve, and I was relieved everything was going well.
===

A lot of my friends took to their cell phones and texted me their greetings, most of them doing so "before the networks get all clogged up." As much as I wanted to reply to them, I'm not exactly rich in cellphone load. Thanks anyway though.
===

We were at Inang's in Caloocan having our annual media noche buena (midnight feast), and my uncles and aunts felt like going for a few rounds of high-stakes bingo after a long 'drought'. Either that, or drink a few glasses of red wine or Black Velvet.

This was the first time I served chauffeur duty both ways at night. Was rather impressed at my own smooth, speedy homebound progress at 2:30 am running down a pretty deserted EDSA. My speedo needle was constantly pinned at 60-80 km/h and no untoward incidents happened, save for this stupid clump of balloons a bunch of partying loonies tossed on the road while riding on a pick-up's bed. Instead of swerving to the left, I just ran the balloons over.

Considering that I just awoke from a catnap at 1:30 am, I think I'm all set for long-distance night driving.
===

Got just a few gifts this year, but that's no different from last year. No biggie.

Most important would be the aggregate PhP7,000 I got from my grandparents and other relatives, not to mention the PhP2,000 my dad gave me for spending on a new badminton racket (and I won't touch it for anything else). I'm thinking of spending on 4 new tires for my blue City, now that I've got PhP9,000 of savings all in all. I am NOT comfortable with my parents' theory that replacing just one tire will do the trick. Rubber ages even when not used.

According to some PEXers I've asked, good 185/65R14 88H Turanza rubber from Bridgestone would set me back PhP1,800 apiece. If my hunch is right, the new tires should solve the shaking that plagues my car whenever I approach 120 km/h on the Skyway. Even so, I'm thinking of saving at least PhP2,000 more come the start of the term. The extra dough's just for contingencies---say, my suspension and steering components might be to blame for the shake and not just the tires. I am, however, pretty convinced that replacing my OEM rubber will do the trick---and that's due for replacement anyway.

Got some new clothes: a black shirt and boxers from Auntie Be, one more pair of beach shorts from my mom (they had to be from Bench again, heheheh!) and this splendid pair of dark brown cargo pants from Tita Vik. Bagged a sealed drink tumbler from Nanay, a hairgel-and-bodyspray kit from Tito Joey...that's pretty much it for non-monetary gifts.

And Cher also told me that my copy of her publication The Freeman, where my little badminton article got published, was also coming to me via the mail---with something thrown in.
===

Gave myself a couple of gifts too, although I'm regretting buying myself my new pair of Aiwa earphones. They're shaped in such a way as that wearing them's similar to wearing spectacles onto your ears. My beef is that their rigid plastic mounts bruise my earlobes after a while. Otherwise the sound quality's good and they're actually identical to a pair Sony sells for PhP300 more. That sounds like shooting myself in the leg, being this painful to wear.

The other gift was a cassette of Maroon5's album "Songs About Jane." Great music---and they have surprising variety in their music for a rock band. All 12 songs are about relationships.
===

Last night I finally got a taste of Yellow Cab's notoriously good pizza.

For Christmas Eve dinner my mom ordered an 18" "New York's Finest" pizza. What struck me was that it tasted quite different from what we were used to. The condiments that came with the pizza were certainly interesting. No hot sauce, ketchup or all that gubbins---the packets that we got read "crushed chili pepper." Sprinkling it on the pizza made a good pie taste distinctively GREAT.

Just a shame I had to burn my tongue very badly when I tried eating the leftover slice for breakfast this morning. Apparently I forgot to take note that I reheated the damn thing to uncomfortably hot levels.
===

I have one qualm about tonight: the Christmas evening mass.

The Passionist Youth Ministry was hosting this one and frankly I was disappointed, most especially with their choir. I swear, I was singing better than those 8 or so voices combined---and I'm only an 'occasional' baritone, and by the time they sang "O Night Divine" for the communion service I was singing even louder than they were.

I'm no catechist or involved parishioner or anything...but come on, this is a Christmas mass and the choir sounds like it's singing for the Black Saturday Vigil. Ain't anyone in there happy that it's Christ's birthday today? They ought to be the first ones who sound the part!

Ridiculous...
===

Oh well, that ends it for me. Merry Christmas again to everyone. Happy birthday God!

Our phone line was out for a good five days or so. I missed being online.

I suppose that's the effect of hogging the phone line 5 hours at a time on unlimited Internet usage.

That ought to be one of my New Year's resolutions...
===

Haven't been able to blog for a while because of the sheer amount of stuff I had to do. Most of it was for our FILMMAN final project movie, a retelling of Denise's VIDPROD final project short film "Hallucinations." It didn't help that I also succumbed to colds, cough and even a slight fever, although I'm more or less recuperating now.

It also didn't help that Tantan and I didn't get to edit "Hallucinations" because of Gabriel's computer refusing to work with Tantan's SDRAM chips and the video-capture card we borrowed. By the time I had left Gabriel's at 6pm, Tantan was still tinkering with how to make the computer work.

He spent the next day borrowing a computer and editing the film till the wee hours of the morning. Poor guy. I'm planning to treat him somewhere when we get together after Christmas break.

Looks like all the effort was worth it though, because Miss Mai and our other classmates liked the final effort.

Got pretty good grades too, at least enough to keep me in the Dean's List again. Officially my GPA's now at 3.045. Stellar grades in Economics 2, Statistics 101 and Film Management pulled my GPA upwards. I got a 4.0 in FILMMAN, for crying out loud. I suppose Miss Mai's just kind.

Nicole texted me about her grade as she couldn't get her course card personally. She was thanking me about getting a 3.5 in Economics 2 as well.

I just got kind of pissed with our Statistics prof because we waited an hour and a half in J111 for her damn course cards and she never showed up.

And that wraps up my 8th term in DLSU. I got at least 6 more to go.
===

Watched a fair number of movies lately...I seem to have been on a movie binge.

Most intriguing was one of Miss Mai's stash, a French film called "Ma Vie en Rose" ("My Life in Pink"). It's the story of a typical French family in a conservative neighborhood save for one of their sons, Ludovic, who at the early age of 7 realizes that he's different from most other boys. In short, he's feminine and gay. Ludovic's 'extreme' preferences and orientation causes headaches for everyone and proves to be the biggest test for the family.

Truth be told I was intrigued by the entire film, but I wouldn't really know how I would react if one of my future sons turned out to be gay. I should say I'm pretty sheltered from a lot of life's realities and I am afraid I might not be sufficiently prepared for many challenges.

I guess I'll just have to look to the Eraserheads' song "Hey Jay" for inspiration on the subject...
===

Bianca gave me one of Initial D's audio CDs as an early Christmas present: Super Eurobeat presents Initial D Super Euro-Best. I've been listening to the green CD for days on end, even playing Gran Turismo 2 on my PlayStation with the VCD player hooked up to the mono-audio jack, so I could drive my virtual cars to the thumping Super-Eurobeat soundtrack.

Not exactly what I was looking for, but it's a great compilation of remixes and tracks from the 3 volumes of the Initial D Super-Eurobeat D Selection. I'm happy anyway.

Am just wishing I had a CD player in my car...or if I could slap the CD on a cassette tape.
===

Cher's excited about the coming Christmas celebrations.

Describing the atmosphere in the office she picks the words "Happy Chaos."

Quote of the year, my friends. Seriously. :D

Yesterday was a free day, so I didn't do much but YM with Cher, attend mass and work out after dinner.
===

Our little aerobics gang wanted to set two extra Monday-evening workouts because John, our instructor, was going to be out for a week or so come 3 days before Christmas, and everyone was amenable to setting it at 7:30pm.

Everyone but the Homeowners Association, that is.

The HA is responsible for taking care of the open-air Pergola where we hold our usual workouts on Saturday mornings. Last Saturday we tried arranging for the Monday evening sessions, so we wanted to reserve the place and ask for electricity and lighting. It looked like a done deal, but for some reason, the president of the HA, Mrs. Sugay, didn't want to give us the power and lighting at the last minute unless we pay the guard his overtime pay. This smells like a kickback scheme.

Anyway we made do with power from the guardhouse, channeled through 3 extra-long extension cords, for the sound system. Interior lighting was out of the question, so someone produced a compact-fluorescent desk lamp which fortunately gave enough light to work with. John borrowed a couple of my photo-alkaline AAs to power his portable CD player.

The session went pretty well and the colder temperature was a welcome boon. After getting used to seeing small spiders "floating" in mid-air in front of your face, it's pretty much okay.

After we parted ways and I took another shower, I looked outside and saw the Pergola lit up. I got jilted. Why was the Pergola lit up now? Who's using it?

Apparently someone who had "close ties" with the HA was using the place for rehearsal...and the lights were free of charge.

I don't know with you, but this seems pretty unfair.
===

YM has this "Doodle" IMVironment where one can use virtual crayons to draw anything on a medium-sized white canvas. Cher and I were playing with it the whole afternoon. I even made three little drawings for her. My best efforts looked like they were taken out of some coloring book, though, but she didn't mind.
===

I'm sleepy. Yawn.

I think I better get started on my SOCIETY paper. Procrastination rears its ugly head once again.
===

Just for kicks, I tried looking at my old PRINPRO website project, Manileño*Online.

I can't believe it's been 10 months since I finished that website. It feels like it's been longer as I don't remember much of my HTML skills. Seeing it again made me smile though. I remember I was pretty comfortable with HTML and I finished the thing before most of my classmates did.

Sure, there are some quirks (some pictures are missing, some pictures that do don't have captions) but overall I'm still mighty impressed.

This one ought to go on my resume.

I will never understand the lure of bazaars on women.

What started out as supposedly a trip to buy decor boxes for my mom's food for the gods holiday giveaways stretched itself to rummaging for clothes and food. My mom and my sis had even more of an excuse because I happened to win an additional PhP1000 to spend only on that day.

As much as I should've been tolerant of it, I was too sleepy to give a damn.
===

I'm getting better at heel-and-toe. I use the technique every time I drive wearing my sneakers, and it really makes performing decisive maneuvers and carrying speed smoother and easier.

Great. Now I need to practice on cornering...which I'd need a track day or two for. I might as well factor in the expense of a set of tires and 100+ octane aviation-grade gasoline.

Sigh...that's expensive.
===

Cher didn't meet her pare. Yet.

Apparently he had some travel troubles, and the soonest the two of them could meet was the week after Christmas and before New Year's.

It isn't too far off though. Am still praying for the two of them.
===

Mike's party went better than I thought.

It kinda helped that I was seated in the corner farthest from the hardcore RO players. I also met up with bubbly Raissa, whom I think is one of Beia's cousins. Unfortunately a lot of the people I was expecting to come weren't there yet by the time I split.

Great food though.

Thanks a lot Mike. Happy birthday again. :D