and yet again, another week has passed..

another week has passed. how time flies by so fast! i barely even noticed. it had nothing to offer much this time but more work. at least the latter part was a bit fulfilling. yesternight, together with a work colleague who celebrated his birthday, we treated our officemates to a little kainan in the office. we had pancit malabon, beef stroganoff with kanin, siomai, pichi pichi, puto, some desserts and soda. i even brought a six-liter red wine por da boys. later that night we headed to Saguijo Bar + Cafe at San Antonio Village in Makati for some more alcohol. take note we have work that time huh ;p oh i so love Fridays wherein production issues are so rare. well, since it was Saguijo's second year anniversary, they showcased a handful of good bands, of which my favorites were Imago and Sandwich (sayang di sila dumating hindi ko tuloy narinig ang Sugod ng live). it's evident how everybody loves Imago, everyone was singing along to their song Akap! "...sabihin sa kin lahat ng lihim mo. iingatan ko..." other bands like Soapdish and Pedicab also had their way to put on a good show. btw, we saw some celebrities hanging out that night: Anne Curtis, Danica Sotto and her boyfriend. there might have been others we didn't notice since we're busy looking out at the ladies :)

i went home this morning holding on to my aching head. i think there my heart was pumping blood which has too much alcohol in it hehe. just had enough time to take off my shoes and then i dozed off directly sa sala haha. i was awakened by the alarm i set and the four-hour sleep seemed so short. parang kakapikit ko pa lang. i was still tired to get up so i had to drag my body to the bathroom. actually sa labas na ko ng bahay namin naligo para mas malamig ang tubig. i was invited by my good friend koolitz to a photoshoot. man, i'm beginning to love my new hobby. kahit may pagka mahal ang mga gamit, nothing compares to the satisfaction it brings especially when at the end of a shoot you see that shots taken were fabulous. i'm still a newbie but with experienced people around me, i know criticisms would be handy which would lead to quick improvements. adding to that satisfaction is, you know, meeting a lot of people and new friends.

this was taken by a fellow photog while i was scanning the pictures i took myself. parang tunay hahaha. i will post some of the pics nung model namin later in my flickr account..

antok na talaga ako..

a shot from the past

i don't exactly know why but the recent days have caused me to be loony (adj. informal or slang for mentally irregular). i watched two movies in as many days last weekend. that's insane on my part. why? i'm a promdi kid and growing up we were not used to watch movies in cinema houses or even on TV. simply because we can't afford to. if my memory still is not failing me, the first movie i watched together with my kuya was a Tito, Vic and Joey film Shoot That Ball. we actually sneaked out of the house without my tatay's permission knowing the dire consequences of this suicidal act. after watching the movie with my cousins and some other relatives, we headed home just the way we left: go back unnoticed. however we were still about a hundred and fifty meters away from our apartment gate, which we used to live in and still fabricating our alibis that it was actually our Uncle Datun that persuaded us to go with the assurance of his words "ako ang bahala sa tatay niyo!" only to realize that the blurred figure we see from afar is our dear tatay, waiting impatiently holding a meter-length stick maybe as thick as half of an inch. what's worse it that our uncle is nowhere in sight for our defense. it's funny (back then believe me it wasn't, we were trembling) how we already cried knowing we had little chance to escape hahaha. where will i go? i think i was in third grade then so just imagine the juvenility of my mind. anyway, back to the story. i remember our tatay berating us as we head to our area in the apartment stressing that giving in to things like that (movies, sugal, or anything that you spend your money into that he thinks in worthless) would eventually destroy us and our character later in life. we cried harder and louder. but that didn't move him a bit. he needs to discipline us that night. he needs to make sure the pain reminds us throughout our lifetime of that discipline he instills. and he actually did. he made us lie (face) down on a chair and started whipping us with the stick, me first and then kuya. the rest was a sore puwet and history.

i better understand my tatay now than before. it was partly brought about i think by his lifetime which mainly was earning a living in a (very) hard way. btw, he was the eldest among the boys in their family. more often than not i hear from him that at a young age he was exposed to do farm tasks like tending carabaos, plowing the fields, harvesting and threshing palay, and others that a grown up should actually be doing. or at least someone whose body can already take the toll of these heavy tasks. when their father died, he was compelled to make sure his younger siblings finish school. so he had to give up his own schooling just to work for them. mind you, he was a top student from primary to secondary level. if he has gone to college he would have passed it with flying colors. in some way i got my wit from him, no kidding :) going back to the story. he entered into being a construction worker. coupled with this tiring job is the loneliness he had to bear since it meant going away from his family. i imagine going through years of hard labor and at the end of each day you just have enough money to put food on your plate will make you come into realization the value and worth of every centavo. they say, "ang perang pinaghirapan, hindi basta basta ginagastos." which in fact is very true. so he brought this philosophy, or should i say discipline, along until he had his own family. he was in a construction project then i think in Samar as an electrician when he and nanay met. he also became a fisherman since our lolo (mother side) had fishing boats before. he taught us how to work hard and of course not neglect the people who helped us one way or the other through circumstances. and as i have said earlier he was profoundly against gambling, spending money on unimportant things like satisfying your vices, etc. and yes that includes watching movies. "you can always do something more important with your time, something that would benefit your mind" was his always reminder. that was why. he stressed importance on education more than anything else. if there's one thing nobody can take from you, it was it. education.

but the above is actually not the reason why i'm gloomy. we're just having some family problems which made him lonely. i guess i've never seen him so lonely and lost than when nanay passed away about four years ago. throughout his life, tatay always finds a way to give his family a good welfare. there are times he thinks he's a failure on his son/daughter when he doesn't see his personal plans materialize in him/her. as a son trying to comprehend where he's coming from and feeling his pain, i gently remind him, "hindi lahat ng gusto natin sa isang tao eh susundin niya. there are times when he wants what he wants and he'll actually do it." it was a family decision to have him migrate and live in the U.S. to just enjoy life after so many years of hardship. he's turning 70 this year. though like that, he never fails to prioritize his family's welfare among other things. we're six siblings and the youngest is 19 but he still treats us as kids, not kids as childhood kids but you know the loving father that he is he just wants to make sure we make the right decisions in our own lives. and at times it pains me to hear him comment "failure ata ako sa kapatid mo eh." feeling his pain, i always reassure him that it is not the way he thinks it is. there are just things in life that we do not have control over and we need to learn to let go. acceptance. knowing when to hold on and when to let go (in a good way).

an emotional person as i am, matters like this break my heart. aww.. look at me, getting gushy and shit. see this is what i don't like about me. im sooo emotional. i'm supposed to be tough!.. well, i hope some day when i have a family of my own, God would give me the courage to change things i can, accept those that i can't and have the wisdom to know their difference.

to my tatay, it's not the end of things when we fail to see our expectations on those we dearly love. let go and let God. i'll treat you to a movie when i go back to L.A. don't worry, nobody will spank us in the puwet. we'll just enjoy and be kids once again. i love you..

b2b2b and a little bit of history

not business-to-business-to-bankruptcy wehehe ;).

the successful Filipino ascent to Mt. Everest is something that swells national pride in the same way as when Manny Pacquiao KO’ed Erik Morales a few months ago.

Friday, May 19 at about 1:20PM Manila time, Romi Garduce has added yet another accomplishment to his impressive resume: reaching the summit of Mt. Everest. this capped a weeklong attempt for our pinoy mountaineers making it a triple-treat. no other than Sir Edmund Hillary himself of New Zealand, the second man (technically, yes. i'll tell you more about this later) to climb the top of the world's highest mountain, conveyed his congratulatory remarks to all three for their historical feat:

“I have nothing but the greatest respect for the [Filipino] expedition, for the determination and the will to battle on and go to the summit,” Hillary, now 87, said in an interview yesterday with GMA 7.
“My heartiest congratulations to Leo, Romi and Erwin for their success in getting to the top. Very good luck to them. They must have been strong and determined,” he said.

ayus diba? i'm proud to be pinoy!

i did a bit of research and lots of reading and realized that Romi indeed is the Philippines' most accomplished mountaineer. he has scaled many mountains from before including Aconcagua in South America, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Elbrus in Russia and Cho-Oyu in the Himalayan range - all peaks ranging from 18,500 and above. to date he has already scaled four of the Seven Summits, or the highest peaks in each continent. mountaineers who have scaled all seven are considered world-class. as if that was still not enough of an impression, Garduce has climbed and trekked on 15 other mountain ranges around the world - a feat unmatched by any other Filipino mountaineer. way to go idol!

as i had blogged the other day, ABS-CBN again (well, there’s nothing new about this) ignored the achievement Romi has achieved yesterday. while GMA-7 openly congratulated, acknowledged and even covered the ascent of Oracion and Emata, both backed-up by their rival network, EBS-CBN (pronounced as ebs-C-B-N) didn’t even lift a finger to cover or at least announce Romi’s achievement. as pinoy rickey has put it in his blog, shameless. are they afraid their sponsors would cut a portion of the profit when Romi’s recent accomplishment, let alone his face on TV, appear on their obviously biased news program? i expect, at the least, from them the modesty of not trying to brag as if they were responsible for the First Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition (FPMEE) team’s feat. wala naman silang ginawa gaano kundi mag-kober lang nung event. they only served as the media. simply put, a means of communicating widely to the public what has transpired on a particular event. quoting pinoy rickey, “This is similar to how ABS-CBN and Gloria tried to capitalize on Manny Pacquiao as if they were responsible for his win.” come on, balanced and un-biased news programming, will yah?

touching base with a little bit of history and trivia, did you know that on May 29, 1953, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, made the first successful attempt to scale the roof of the world. unlike what we have seen the last week, there were no TV networks that covered that event. thus, no biased reporting. no satellite phones yet. totally no communication. the news was suppressed for another four days to add spice to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (since New Zealand is a British colony). kung mataas ang iyong IQ, o cge pwede na rin kahit katamtaman lang, maitatanong mo sa sarili mo kung sino ba sa kanilang dalawa ang talagang nauna? just like the recent claim of a fourth Filipino climber, Dale Abenojar, who said through his wife that he actually made it first before Leo Oracion did. when you ask Mr. Google, Hillary who headed the expedition naturally claimed to be first but technically it was his guide, Tenzing, who presumably went ahead, set up the ropes and pulled Sir Edmund up, ought to get the credit. but when asked the same question, Tenzing in characteristic Asian politeness answered that they ascended “as a team.” thus, Hillary had to wait till Tenzing’s death in 1986 to restate the claim that he was the first.

so what does it have to do with us pinoys? aside from the fact that they have proved that it was humanly possible to reach the top of Mt. Everest some 50+ years ago, did you know that Tenzing’s daughter Nima actually lived in the Philippines. like her famous father she eventually became an accomplished mountaineer herself yet when love called she married the least athletic of persons in the late graphic artist and book designer Noli Galang. di ko alam kung saan sila ikinasal but it was Prince Peter of Greece who took the role of giving her hand to her Filipino husband when she got married since her father was not around. something that we can grin and be proud about. iba talaga ang bangis ng pinoy tsk tsk ;p.

see, a little more research could have added a little more spice to last week’s events. it’s sad nobody among the newsroom people knew this bit of info..

tulog na ulit. tapos na ang Walang Tulugan with Master Showman ;).

highs and lows in life

nothing much today. i'm sleepy at work. kapoy. the effects of lack of sleep maybe. ok i'm bored..

low:
i was surprised (a grade lesser than shocked) to find a message in my yahoo mailbox yesterday coming from a very dear friend: who i haven't heard anything about in eight months already; who is now residing abroad; whom once i hoped and imagined will be my companion for life; but eventually caused my heart and world to stop for some time. without getting much into the details i realized upon reading her message that i still wasn't resolved of how things ended up between us. that i had been and continuously blaming the circumstances (and partly myself). no wonder i had a hard time moving on. i still have those extra baggages within me until now. i need to be free. i want to be free. how else but to deal with them head-on: say what needs to be said, do what needs to be done, if it makes me feel any better then scream out loud, mend and then really move on. i do not intend to wallow on these things for long i still have more to accomplish. enough is enough. but if there's any consolation, it led me to focus on other things i like doing and discover some aspects of my life i haven't uncovered before. i know in the end i'll be a better man..

high:
Erwin "Pastor" Emata conquered Mt. Everest summit earlier today, barely twenty four hours after Leo Oracion. another glorious day for the Filipinos! something to be proud of, wherever you may be in the world. i am doubly proud :). tomorrow, Romi "Garduch" Garduce is expected to repeat the feat as he starts his climb from camp 4 later today. aside from having to achieve his personal conquest of the highest peak, this will also set yet another record for Filipinos. three climbers in as many days was able to do it.

i liked what FPMEE leader Art Valdez said, which resonated the spirit of a true mountaineer: "The Philippine expedition to Everest in 2006 will not be complete if Romi will not make it to the summit and back safely. All Filipino mountaineers should be able to accomplish their objectives. We would like Filipinos to be in good safe hands." yan ang tunay na diwa ng pagiging isang mountaineer. walang bahid ng kumpetensya bagkus ang kapakanan ng sarili at ng iba ang nasa sa isip. karangalan sa bayan bago ang sa sarili.

these historical feats only but more prove that no obstacle is unsurmountable for us Filipinos. angat ang Pinoy! mabuhay tayong lahat!!

mt. everest, the climbers and this ridiculous tv network

for a typical day, i usually wake up at 6:30PM, watch news for about forty five minutes then prepare for yet another graveyard shift (starts at 8PM). but today was different. i barely had sleep during daytime. i was excited. not because Dallas Mavericks leads their series against the San Antonio Spurs. i guess that helped a bit but not quite. why? because my sister welcomed me home with the news that any hour from that moment one of the Filipino mountaineers attempting to reach the summit of Mt. Everest will be able to finally reach it. of course, makabayan as i am, i felt proud. at long last, may Filipino flag na rin na maiwawagayway sa tuktok ng mundo na magpapatunay na kaya rin ng Pinoy!

come 5:30PM here in Manila (3:30PM Nepal time) Heracleo "Leo" Oracion became the first Filipino to reach the 29,035-foot-high mountain top. in a country where no mountain reaches 10,000 feet and the only ice is inside freezers, Leo is being hailed as a hero, together with the other climbers (Garduce, Emata and Abenojar). tomorrow it's Erwin "Pastor" Emata's turn to aim what his fellow mountaineer has accomplished. meanwhile, the day after tomorrow, it'll be Romeo "Garduch" Garduce's turn. make us proud gentlemen! may the Lord be with you each step of the way.

what i didn't like while watching the news programs (24 Oras and TV Patrol) though is the evident partiality ABS-CBN had in its coverage of this historical feat. it is known to all that both giant networks, ABS-CBN and GMA, televised the groups' preparations from the start until their recent accomplishments. Leo, who is part of the First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition team, sponsored by the Lopezes, Lucio Tan, Fidel Ramos among others is identified with, of course, channel 2. but for the sake of balanced programming, 24 Oras expressed their share of pride on his feat. they even confirmed that Leo has indeed reached the summit. in addition, there were reports of their families as they too were glued on the TV for updates as they happen. knowing that Pastor Emata is still with the "other side", they did not hesitate in showing photos of him, his family, his attempt to climb tomorrow and how the Filipino people collectively is be proud of him. i mean, that is balanced programming! aba paglipat ko sa TV Patrol, the climber identified with channel 7 wasn't even mentioned. naitanong pa ni Ted Failon, "kamusta naman yung ibang kababayan natin tulad nila Dale at Romy Garduce?" i was surpised at Abner Mercado's response, "si Dale wala tayong balita kasi sa kabilang side siya umaakyat (Tibet side). si Garduce, tatlong araw ang lamang natin sa kaniya." i nearly threw the remote control at him. ridiculous! this attempt to climb the highest mountain in the world wasn't in the first place a race. in case he doesn't know, which clearly resonated through his comments that he doesn't, climbers adhere to a certain code of ethics: that mountaineers don't race against each other but just their own self. their own limits. wasn't Mr. Mercado aware that there are already public criticism from some sections of the local mountaineering community that the TV networks' sponsorship of the groups' climb, which prompted them to climb way ahead of their previously set schedules, could get the three climbers killed? this is not for their network's glory. phew! this is not even considered the personal glory of Leo Oracion! this is for the whole Filipino people. for ALL of us..

it's sad how institutions today infuse competition to people included in such events, which primarily had goals of instilling self-discipline into one's self and testing personal limits. for what? to boost their market profit? to highlight their share of the event? which later eventually lead to envy and sadly to our (Filipino's) disgrace. please stop such acts.. upon saluting Leo, Erwin, Romy and Dale, i salute GMA-7's continued pursuit of balanced news programming. walang kinikilingan. walang pino-protektahan. serbisyong totoo lamang.

mind you, i'm not a solid Kapuso viewer. all i'm after are programs that show no biases. just my two cents for the day..

to do and to go

i have so many things to blog about lately but just don't find the time in between production issues, aka work, to do it. that's how toxic my work is and i'm beginning to hate it. the toxicity and not the work itself, mind you. eh bakit ko naman kamumuhian ang trabaho ko eh this is where i get almost 90% of my income (10% pa lang ang raket) kaya kaakibat ng pagdada-dakdak ko at reklamo is to make sure gihapon no production issue is at pending status at the end of the day. period. reklamo comes after. or saka na lang pag 90% na yung raket ko :D.

i don't know what's with year two thousand and six that it brought a lot of cravings within me to try and do more things that are new to my adventure-laden system. coupled with going to places i haven't been to in the past. i'm not speaking about Paris, New York, L.A., the great Europe, mental institutions or even the solitary-confines-after-an-emotional-breakdown places. on one occasion or another i've been to those places, some of which i have enjoyed my stay, especially the latter ones haha ;). these are what i'm talking about:

to do:
1. karting - this is rather easy since i live near The Fort
2. surfing - not the net. yep, on the beach! i don't know i just had the sudden urge of riding a surf board and
3. bungee jumping off Macau tower - this is rather expensive. imagine one jump off the tower's 233m aboveground outer rim costs $868 (plus photo and DVD of "your jump"). but this is one hell of a test of your adrenaline rush :). saka na toh pag mayaman na ko..
4. sky diving - this is cheaper from what i've heard. siguro mga ten thousand pesos lang. saka na rin pag mayaman na ko..
5. blog more often - i think this is doable this time. or is it?
6. photography - i bought my first DSLR already, had been practicing whenever i find time, contemplating on whether i have enough money to buy a wide-angle lens. so this should rather appear in my has-been-partially-done list. but seriously i'd like to be a professional photographer.
7. diving - oh i love to see the underworld! sunod na lang pag dato na ko..
8. go to the gym - heheh this has been in my list every year but the excitement fades too soon. this year. this year :). i'm a surfer wannabe so my body should compensate my sport haha feeling!
9. sleeping - this is mainly the reason why item# 8 is always nullified hahaha ;p. i don't know if i'm sick pero this past couple of months there had been numerous times i woke up only to find plenty of laway drooling from my mouth hehe. do you really think i should see a doctor?
10. swimming - either on the pool or on the beach basta i wanna be a very good swimmer. it's never too late.
11. swim some more
12. badminton - for a change, i wanna learn how to play this sport. i'm one of those who critique this sport before because i felt this is very queened, but hey, most of the ladies flock into a badminton court rather than a basketball court. if there are, they're probably the amazonas of our time hehe just kidding ;p. peace y'all. i think it's high time to be matching up with the ladies ;p.
13. reaching the Everest summit - yes people! after Romy "Garduch" Garduce, there is "Temyong" hehe. too ambitious?! who knows..
14. manalo sa lotto - is this being planned or what? i guess this is more of a stroke of luck.
15. magpatayo ng bahay - pag dato na ko.
16. meet up with Iya Villania and Kimberly Sue Yap Chiu - haaayyyyy
17. vacation in the U.S. - mainly because i miss my family. hoping to be there again this year.


to go:
1. Batanes - tops my destinations list for 2007. i heard from others that there is only a 3-month (or is it 4-month) window time within a year for people to visit this haven on the north coast of Luzon. therefore this trip needs to be solidly planned. alam niyo bang nagtatabi na ko ng five hundred pesos kada sweldo for my budget? come February next year pwede na! just do the math. sometimes at the onset, you only need excitement and the rest will follow :).
2. Malapascua Island, Cebu - as of this writing, it has already been 21+ years since i last stepped on the island of Cebu. but come July 1st that record will be history. i have, along with some friendly friends, already bought a plane ticket to Cebu for a 5-day vacation. what a better way to gratify my becoming-a-beach-person persona than to visit this islet in the north coast of Cebu. according to a website "...it has a blindingly white bounty beach. time stands still as soon as you step into this 'Pacific Island Dream'...." enough. i just hope it really lives up to my expectations.
3. Bohol - Chocolate hills, Loboc river, Panglao island, other beaches, tarsiers. just some of the things worth looking forward to in this island. hopefully it can be squeezed into our July itinerary.
4. Siquijor - a friend suggested this infamous island has white sand beaches that will shove Boracay into the bottom of the world-class list of beaches in the PI. mala-pulburon na buhangin.
5. Camiguin - i'd love to see this island as well. a work colleague has their house situated in the island so i should be persuading her right now to schedule a trip there.
6. Siargao island - their is an affinity between surfers and this tear-drop shaped island in northeast Mindanao, which hosts one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and home of wave surfing. that includes a surfer-wannabe like me. pag marunong na ko sigurado puntahan ko toh..
7. Amanpulo - am i dreaming or what? hoy gising! naglalaway ka na naman!
8. Palawan - kahit saan doon. Coron, Dos Palmas, Crocodile farm. basta hindilang ako maki-kidnap ng Abu Sayaf.

some of these i may see happen this year. some maybe in due time. some may continue to be in this list. and for some, budget is what stands between the eager me and it being achieved. but heck, libreng mangarap hoy! let's see what happens. excited na 'ko!!

see i told you i don't have the extra time to blog. now i'm sleepy..

fresh start and my nanay

and yet again, a new blog for a new year. this is already what.. my 4th? 5th? hehe ;p. well, 2 days ago i turned 27 and felt one of the things i need a fresh start with is my web journal. promise this would be the last. or will it? ok, then this will be the longest ;p. btw, i have added a ton of things on my things-to-do list which i would like to discuss through my next entries..

in the meantime, i want to greet all moms a happy mother's day! truly, mothers are to be honored for the love and care they shower during their lifetime. i miss my nanay. how she gets mad at us siblings (haha, matitigas kasi ang mga ulo). how she laughs. and take note, how loud (i'm certain i got both qualities from her). i miss being woked up by clanging kalderos and kawali sa kusina while she prepares our breakfast meals. i miss hers and tatay's talks about how they met; what came up before and after that ;p. my nanay even knows my tatay's last girlfriend before they met each other haha. and how she teases us that tatay should have opted to marry that other woman instead and at that time we'd all be in living in Canada.. i can't help but marvel when i realize the enormous sacrifices she had to go through in giving birth to six children, raising up two girls and four boys. it is undeniable that no one can love you like your own mother does..

though now that she's already with the Lord, i still love her much in her presence as now in her absence. i miss you but never a day passed by that you were not here in my heart. happy mother's day nanay! you're the best in the world :)

kaya mga dudes, love your parents while they're here. make it a habit to create a moment to just express how much we appreciate and love them. totoo talaga yung kasabihan na we never realize the value of someone/thing unless they're gone.. just a friendly advice :).