I'm smoking my last pack of cigarettes.

Sorry, Chris. Had to stop by Caltex for a pack on the way home. Then I had to stop by some tinadahan along C5 for a light because apparently, I think I left my lighter in Zeno.

I don't think I'll be able to finish this pack. I'll probably leave it in the foyer for my family to smoke. I'm going to jog in Alabang when I wake up later, and i mean 5k. my goal is jog 5k under 30 minutes. And when I can run for 3 hours around Alabang again, then that will mean that I'm healthy, and that I'm back to my usual non-smoking self.

I'll miss smoking, though. So I'm now going to be a social smoker. Hehe. But I'm going to quit eventually. Maybe when I get married or get pregnant or something.

To all the smokers! Quit smoking! You can do so much when you're nicotine and smoker's cough free! :)

Good night. ZZzzzz...

Just spent the whole day revising my resume. The final result is 2 pages long. Is that too long?

And I've never written a cover letter before. Am I supposed to make yabang or something? That sounds horrible. I think that advertising yourself is the hardest thing on earth. Can I just skip the cover letter? Please?

Anyway, here's one of Meg's creations and I think it's really cool. :)



I wish I had time to make works as nice as this.

*Funny tip. She was listening to Sandwich's Butterfly Carnival when she made this. Hehe! Go visit her blog. She's got a really nice collection of sketches over there.

>GO GAMEPLAN! WOOHOO!!!

GAMEPLAN was nominated for 3 awards this year and has already won one of them.

We are one of the winners in the list of the South East Asian Foundation for Chidren's Television. Cool, no? I'm so glad that we can also cater to children. 5&Up, another Probe Productions show, also won this award. It's a great children's show and GMA cancelled it, but as you can see, it's still winning awards even when it's not on the air anymore. Please pray 5&Up comes back.

We are also one of the nominees for Best Sports Show in The Catholic Mass Media Awards for our SEA Games Primer from last year. The awards night will be on October 22 next Wednesday in the Ateneo and we're going up against Sports Unlimited. God, I hope we beat them.

And finally , we are one of the nominees for Best Sports Programme in the Asian Television Awards. The winners will be announced on December 4, and the selected GamePlan episode was the Carrera Habagat Adventure Race coverage, but I don't know if they picked Carrera 2 or 3. Camille and I worked on both, so I feel really nervous and excited at the same time. This is amazing.

***
>Next on GamePlan: 10.19.2002

First up, teen cheer power fills the air as 14 schools compete in the biggest nationwide cheerleading tournament of the year—the 6th Johnson’s Pure Essentials Teen Cheer Competition. Watch your favorite squads and see the best of them claim the top 3 spots in the Division 1 eliminations, their ticket to the grand finals this November.
*The dances are not as good as last year's, but this is only Division One anyway, and at least more schools are joining.

Next, GIRLS show their mettle on the court as they bring indoor football to new heights. The action continues in the All-Women Futsal Grand Prix and for its 3rd straight year, the growing number of girls participating only proves that in the world of male dominated sports, the game of futsal is an exception.
*This is my segment, and Alexis has 2 cameos here. :)

For our profile, take a look at the life of the adorable Sean Michael Azucena, a 7-year old Filipino living in Europe and an active member of the world-famous Vienna Boys' Choir.
*You have to watch this boy! He's so cute!!!

And last, a tribute to a special breed of athletes… Winning the gold in the recent ten-pin bowling competition in Malaysia, this group of special athletes are out to invade the bowling lanes once again, this time at the National Games and Special Olympics. For these special guys and girls, the road to glory awaits.
*Very inspirational. If you know anyone with disabilities, please get them into sports, art or music. You'll see the difference it makes in their confidence and their smiles.

And that's the GamePlan!
Saturdays at 7pm on Studio23.

>Going home the long way.

Today didn’t go so well.

I was supposed to catch a ride home with my Mom at 6pm, but I had to work ‘til 630. So I resorted to hitching with Nikki, but I had to get to her office in Ortigas by 7.

I had two backpacks and a video cam to bring home with me, so I decided to take a cab. The first cab rejected me, and while I was still talking to him, he started to drive away. Since I was already in a bad mood, I kicked the side of his cab. Kind of pathetic because it wasn’t really a kick. More of I lifted my leg so my foot could touch the cab. Great. I didn’t leave a scratch, a dent, a mark of dirt that said all cab drivers who reject passengers are evil.

The second cab driver was reluctant to take me because he was headed for Marikina (Only in the Philippines do cab drivers pick passengers going to their turf.), but I was in such a rush that I offered an extra 50 to the meter. So he drove me to Ortigas...VIA CUBAO! I’ve no idea why! He turned into Aurora and I realized shit, I’m in hell.

I was still in Cubao when Nikki had to leave. So she went ahead and I asked the driver to bring me to the Podium instead (yes, I was headed for the most useless mall ever.). The meter said P85, so I paid him P105 and he gave me a 20. As I was getting out of the cab, he started bitching about the extra 50 I had offered earlier. My bad. I said sorry, gave him back his 20 and started looking through my wallet for change when he shouted kulang ‘to! What an impatient jerk. Binabalik ko lang yung bente mo! He fell silent. Idiot.

I went to G-Force in Podium to make use of the Oakley GC I won at the Oakley event last night. I thought I’d buy something that’d make me feel extremely cool and happy. But alas, the GC was only honored in G-Force Rockwell. Darn it! Why didn’t I read the fine print? So much for boosting my morale.

8pm and I’m dragging myself to Mega Mall. No cab would take me all the way to the south at this time! I felt terrible about commuting, and I was hungry, tired, and really ugly lookin’ with my buhaghag hair and the smell of smog all over me. I went to Starbucks looking like this. So naturally, the yuppies stared at me. One even made me irap. Bitch. I cursed her mentally: Sana magka-allergy ka. (She was eating a tuna sandwich.)

I bought a mocha frap to break my 500 bill for the cab ride to Makati. Man, I haven’t had a mocha frap in ages! Mocha frap is luxury to me. I walked over to the taxi bay in Mega Mall and fell in line and I was enjoying my yummy coffee and cigarette combo when this old lady arrived and stood beside the people in front me. She stared at me for the longest time, as if she was using her mental powers to convince me to let her cut in. Um, no! I’m sorry, but just because we’ve to respect the old, it doesn’t mean you can disrespect the young. And there were other old people lining up behind me. So fall in line! I’m not in the mood to be a martyr.

Pero galing a! When 2 cabs drove in, she cut through the people in front and just went inside the first cab, leaving the second cab for the legal-to-ride people. She was pretty quick for her age! And she was lucky that there was no guard.

While waiting, I was getting irritated with the cab drivers who weren’t driving into the driveway, but more so with drivers who WERE driving in but REJECTING the riders. What the hell?!

When it was my turn, I went up to the driver and said Makati. He shook his head and waved his hand and when I asked why, he just said trapik. Shit. Fine. Then he asked the people behind me where they wanted to go and when they said Guadalupe, he also rejected them. One middle-aged lady got very angry and started asking the driver why he drove into the bay in the first place. He started asking the other people in the line, but everyone was already angry because apparently, they all wanted to go to either Makati or Guadalupe. The lady was still giving him a piece of her mind, and when he told her to shut up, I yelled at him. Umalis ka nga dito! Walang gustong sumakay! I was still standing beside the cab at this point. So when hed reached out to close his passenger door, I slammed it, hoping to sprain one or two of his fingers.

Finally, I got a taxi. But instead of relaxing, I got pissed with this driver as well. He was complaining about my lining up in the Passengers Headed for Monumento line. Hello? I didn’t see any signs that said Mega A-Monumento and Mega B-Makati! Mapapalayo daw siya dahil sa akin. Grrr.

In the end, though, I thought, at least he still took me to Makati.

A migraine hit me on my way to the Ayala Shuttle Station in Park Square. I started to feel really heavy, as if my bags were filled with problems instead of clothes and scripts, a camera and a bunch of tapes. I had to do something happy. So I bought a really pretty necklace from one of the stalls at the station and thanked God for life little pleasures. I love abubuts.

The shuttle drives to the main road of our village everyday, so it’s very convenient. I got off at my street and started walking to the house when I heard this Pssst! Miss! Miss! I jerked a bit, looked to the side and saw two people laughing in the car beside me. Dang, it was just my sister and her friend. I gave them a bad sign as they were parking in front of our driveway...and then I smiled. Miss, miss. Haha! Sigh. That made my day.

It's nice to come home to some good ol' Lasallian slash Vargas humor for a change. Actually, it's so nice to finally come home, period. I think I hear my bed calling me.

>Yes, tonight is cut and paste night!

My favorite's the FIAT.

AUDI - Accelerates Under Demonic Influence
BMW - Bought My Wife
FIAT - Found In A Trashcan
FORD - Fix Or Repair Daily
HYUNDAI - Here's Y U Never Drive An Import
JEEP - Just Empty Every Pocket
KIA - Keep It Away!
VOLVO - Very Odd Looking Vehicular Object
VW - Virtually Worthless.

*Got this list from AnP whose man just bought a new Volvo. :)

***
I believe that most women will do anything to blame men for their problems. Although that's sad and I don't exactly agree with such therapy, it's also really funny!

It all makes sense now. I never looked at it this way before:
MENtal illness
MENstrual cramps
MENtal breakdown
MENopause
GUYnecologist . . .
And when we have real trouble, it's a HISterectomy.

Ever notice how all of women's problems start with men?

*From the dlsz97 mailing list.

***
Top Ten reasons why there'll never be a Filipino-American US President:

10. White House is not big enough for in-laws and extended relatives.

9. Not enough parking spaces at White House for 2 Honda Civics, Toyota Celica, 1985 Mercedes Benz Diesel, and MPV (My Pinoy Van), 2 Stainless Steel jeepneys.

8. Dignitaries generally intimidated by eating with fingers at state dinners.

7. Too many dining rooms in the White House. Where will they put the last supper picture?

6. White House walls not big enough to hold giant wooden spoon and fork.

5. Secret Service staff won't respond to, "Psssst, psssst."

4. Secret service staff uncomfortable driving presidential car with rosary hanging on the rear view mirror or the statuette of Santo Nino on the dashboard.

3. No budget allocation to purchase karaoke machines on every White House Room.

2. State dinners do not allow "Take Home".

AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON WHY THERE'LL NEVER BE A FILIPINO-AMERICAN US
PRESIDENT ...
1. AIR FORCE ONE won't allow overweight balikbayan boxes.

*From the barkada mailing list.

Got this from Ernan.

I am 8% Punk Rock

It's not a fashion craze, or even a cool thing to do. I should just swallow it, get Lost, and take my friends with me.

Take the Punk Rock Test at fuali.com

Hahaha! I'm a poser! Hahaha! Hay, heeheehee. Was hoping for NOT PUNK but ok. Hehe.

Anyway, what was really funny about this test was the disclaimer:

*** DISCLAIMER!!! *** Love or hate labels and stereotypes, they exist. So why not make fun of them! These tests ARE NOT SCIENTIFIC MEASUREMENTS of what kind of person you are. If you don't get the joke, go to somewhere really warm that the Christians think is the place people that don't believe in Jesus go.

I got this from Daphe. I feel a bit better now.

	You are Rowlf! You don't draw attention to yourself much, preferring to keep your cool and stay in the background.
Take the What Muppet Are You? Quiz!

Good night!

When someone chooses not to respond to you, that's a response right there.

*Aaaah, the beauty of babbling nonsense.

***
I have many things to feel happy about today, but now that I'm alone, I feel depressed all of a sudden. Don't you just hate it when that happens? Hmmm, maybe I'm just sleepy.

***
I will post something more substantial when I wake up. Hopefully it'll be a happy post. :)

One more edit to go. I will not procrastinate. I will not procrastinate. I will not procrastinate. Aaaaaaargh!!!

I will smoke, though. Yipee! Smoke break!!!

*If lunchbreak is one word, then should it be smokebreak? Hmmm...

>Senti at 3pm.

I used to have this really OC ritual of saving my emails into diskettes that are labelled and arrranged by months. Jan2001, Feb2001, etc. But I stopped that habit last June 2001 and so my mailbox is extremely full.

I'm saving my emails right now and I came across a lot of senti letters (Because we were still fresh from grad and missing college to death.). Well, I can't post my friends' letters, but here's one that I wrote to the little group that I called Alia's Carpool, the people who always rode and drove my car back in senior year college.

Subject: a thought hit me in libis... Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 09:38:30 -0700 dear alumni of alia's carpool, hi! i'm in the office right now making the most of the free internet hours! :) anyway, i left the house at 1030pm coz i still have some work to do here. i was driving alone and when i got to libis, i remembered so many tear jerkers. i imagined you guys riding my car, fred (the one with no radio, which made my sentimental moment even sadder). i miss bringing you guys home. i had no idea i loved driving you guys around that much. i was so lonely, i ended up singing "sam's diner" around 5 times. i remember how vida, amy and marelle pushed my overheated car down white plains...then some cute guy (according to them! i didn't even see his face!) helped us out in quickly. and when we got to shell, marelle was so aliw coz it was her first time to see steam come out of a car engine. haha! cute! then there's chris wearing my white cowboy hat while driving to mo's house, and that time we got lost and ended up in malate after our dinner in west ave. haha! ang laki ng naikot natin! i can't believe i was that disoriented! oh, don't forgot jomi's long goodbye's to krissy before going home. wow, when he says he's just going to say goodbye to krissy, don't forget to make baon some dinner coz it could take a long while. hehe! and there was that time marelle, leq and i went to sunken garden and disturbed a couple during their make-out session. then we went to goodah and left marelle in the car coz she was already dead to the world. i'm also proud to say that marelle and i actually brought amy home to marikina once! naks! what an achievement! especially since that was the night when amy vomitted on mo's...i'll shut up now! :P well, that's it! i just miss having you guys in my car! now that i'm getting settled in qc, i'm going to miss the car mismo. i hope that it won't take too many months before we get together again. your faithful horny driver, alia :) PS. sorry for being senti! this is what happens to me when i'm waiting in line for a machine in the office! i hate being a trainee!!!

*NOTE: Horny Driver means I make busina a lot. Hmmm, I just realized that if I say I blow the horn and I beep a lot, they can mean something bastos. Hehe.

>What's your CYBORG name?



Um...*gulp*...help?

*Test from GSM!

***
Hey, Stud Carlo fans! His blog's up and running again. No more comments, though, but what the hell.

Enjoy! :)

>What the fff...

Got a tip from Joey Brash that Al Mendoza wrote a shitty opening in the Inquirer.

BUSAN, South Korea -- The Philippines lost the gold in boxing but that was nothing compared to the Philippines' shock defeat to Kazakhstan on Sunday in the Asian Games basketball competitions here.

It was NOTHING?!?!

Bastard.

*For the full article, [click here].

>True lies.

Go over to Chris' blog and you will discover that according to Colleen's Pathology professor, Jaime Lee Curits is MALE!

Official medical diagnosis: Pseudohermaphrodite. This means that her karyotype is XY, therefore, she is a male. What happened is that she has a genetic defect on her androgen receptors (the ones that respond to testosterone), therefore the male genitalia never developed and she was born with female EXTERNAL genitalia (she doesn't have an ovary or uterus, but she DID have testes hidden withing her abdomen). Interesting fact: all embryos have a natural tendency to develop as females, but males produce a chemical that supresses the femal genitalia from developing, allowing them to have male genitalia instead. Since Ms. (Mr.) Curtis didn't have this, her external genitalia appear female.

Apparently, this rumor has been going around for quite some time, but there's still no statement on the matter from the actress (Daw!!!). In one article, the author wrote, "We'll never know...As only someone who has seen True Lies can say, if that's not all woman, then maybe we need to rethink what is. And while we're at it, let's see if we can't rethink what's a fit topic for gossip and what isn't."

Oooh, strong words! But still, it's a great topic of conversation, isn't it? :)

>Like drinking Kryptonite.

Warner Brothers’ hit TV show Smallville finally premiered here in the Philippines last Tuesday. The launch party by Studio23 was held last Saturday and the party people were asked to come in superhero costumes. That was the same Saturday the Ateneo Blue Eagles won the 65th UAAP Championship. So with a championship high, my friends and I headed over to The Enterprise in Makati for what was aptly called KryptonNite.

When the elevator opened to the 27th floor, all we could see was white smoke and plastic-covered walls. We found this pretty aliw, so we walked into the party scene and to my horror, we entered a rave dance floor. God, I haven’t been to a rave in ages! The last time I attended one was back in Halloween 2000 in the late Sambo’s, Pasong Tamo. Last August, my high school friends and I went to Orange (where nothing is orange), but that wasn’t as wild as Sambo’s. For one, the people were just in gimmick attire. You know? Tubes, spags, etc.

Although I enjoy raves, what always frightens me is the presence of rave drugs. I find people in crazy getups interesting; but when they’re all high, they could be both funny AND freaky to watch.

Since I’ve never been to one with this certain group of friends, I went on a killjoy mother mode. I scanned the freaks and watched out for those who could be high on whatever rave drug is going around nowadays.

The music sucked, but the girls and I still danced anyway. Two of the younger ones were shocked to see me dance. Haha! Little do they know. :) Most of the time, though, we just lounged in the VIP section on the other side of the empty floor and waved at the Studio23 cam whenever the cameraman passed by. Three of our girls were in costume, and when more superheroes started coming in, two of our guys went around with their little cam to take footage of the freaks.

The beer wasn’t free, though, but all in all, it was a fun party. Well, only because I had fun with my company. Later on, however, one of our girls had a little too much to drink and we decided to drive to someone’s house to freshen her up. On the way down in the elevator, a girl offered our other friend a blue drink. She said something like you’ve gotta try this, there’s something in it. I had a really bad feeling about that drink, but I didn’t want to continue being a killjoy. So she sipped, liked it and drank about half the glass. By the time we got to our friend’s house, she kind of fell out of the car. We helped her into the house, but she was wobbling like hell, as if her feet had turned to rubber.

Apparently, our two wasted friends had the same blue drink, and I sitll have no idea what was in it. And that girl who offered the drink in the elevator? Well, it was given to her by a stranger.

This is what I hate about the rave scene. I won’t question why people do drugs. They have their own reasons. But I just wish that they didn’t have to pass it around to people who weren’t aware that their drinks were even drugged. That’s just not fair.

I also feel guilty because I didn’t say anything in the elevator. I think that I should’ve voiced out my concerns that night. Then again, you’ll never know what’s going to happen at events like this, and that’s the hard part. I’m glad that my friends are ok, and that the place wasn’t raided.

Lesson: Don't take mixed drinks from strangers. Mag-beer ka na lang. At least nasa bote o can siya, diba? :)

>Basketball’s where the money is.

A couple of friends and I attended the Bonfire in Ateneo yesterday to celebrate the new UAAP Champions, the Ateneo Blue Eagles. I even brought my “It’s Our Time” poster from Game 2 (Haha! The one we lost!) in the hopes of having the players sign their autographs on it. But no, we got to Ateneo and the Bellarmine Field was filled with people holding blue balloons and walking through mud from the afternoon rain and there was no way that I could get to the team without getting pissed.

Nikki and Carlo wanted to see the new Church of the Gesu and from there, Camille and I had a good view of the Bellarmine Field’s sea of heads. From a distance, we could also see the huge pile of bonfire wood in the center of the field. It was a pretty wild thing to see. I called it Ateneostock, a conyo version of Woodstock with people trying to walk through the mud with whatever was left of their poise, and rich alumni members talking about their business ventures and the drop of the economy. But surprisingly, everyone was so friendly! It was nice to be in such a festive atmosphere with gentlemen giving way for women and people saying excuse me, pardon me, and where'd you get your pepsi? It was a reunion for the young and old. One guy even brought his retriever and they were both wearing Ateneo basketball jerseys. Cute.

We positioned ourselves on the right side of the Church where we could see the back of the stage. The tribute videos were projected onto a huge, white screen and we were watching the from the backside of the screen, meaning everything was in reverse. I only liked a few videos, mainly Mang Tony’s “We believed” video. The others were too sappy. One video had Moulin Rouge music and I just thought that that was so wrong.

But people screamed anyway, especially when they saw Chia’s winning 3-pointer in the game against UE. Whoo! What a shot. I’m a Chia fan. Yipee! But I’m also a Tenorio fan and I hated the fact that there was so little video of him. They kept on showing winner shots, as if Tenorio’s running across the court wasn’t as amazing. Darn editors. Every time he runs, it’s a drop jaw highlight! Well, at least they showed Fonacier blocking Cardona twice. Mwa-a-a!

What really bothered me, though, was the fact that the event was such an overkill. All this for basketball. When the fencing team won, they didn’t get a party. Neither did the judo team, nor the soccer team where I think the selection process is less corrupt than that of basketball. They get a congratulations while the basketball team gets a huge party with a Studio23 host that I cannot stand (NOTE: I’m sure he’s a really nice guy, but objectively speaking, I don’t like the way he interviews.) and cheap fireworks (None of them were even blue. I’m sorry, but if you wanna celebrate with a bang, might as well get the best fireworks, right?). not that it’s bad. Just sad.

Other than that, the party was pretty swell. Former UAAP players from the 60s to the 80s went up on the stage, and everyone screamed their hearts out when the living legend Danny Francisco went up. The players went up later on with the Blue Babble on another little stage firing up the audience with cheers I still cannot understand (I really think that they should come up with new cheers. Yeah,t radition, whatever. They need more upbeat cheers! How many cheers do they use in the games? 4?). I screamed like a mad woman for Tenorio, Chia, Gonzalez, and Fonaceir; but when Villanueva was called in, I fell silent. The whole crowd went wild and I couldn’t understand why. One, I still don’t think he deserved the MVP. In all honestly, I think Cortez of La Salle played a better season than he did. And two, he deliberately elbowed Sta. Maria in Game 3. Sure, most players do that, but Villanueva was caught on tape and he didn’t even help Sta. Maria up or anything. Where’s the honor in that? And now he’s a god? I just don’t get it.

The best part of the party was seeing the bonfire blaze about as high as the trees! Wow! By this time, we had moved to the front of Bellarmine building and I was speechless. Everyone started throwing their arms into the air and singing the alma mater. It was a beautiful sight. The funny thing was that we couldn’t really hear the people singing. Maybe they were tired from standing and walking around getting their feet stuck in the mud. Maybe they were in awe and just wanted the band to do all the work. Or, as I told Nikki, maybe they didn’t know the words either. Hehe.

All in all, I had fun. I saw a lot of college friends and reminisced on the benches (and now non-existent benches). I even gave Alexis a mini tour and showed him who sat where. Ateneo is a wonderful school and I experienced many wonderful things there. I told Carlo that it was in Ateneo that I learned to absorb everything I learned and not just remember things to get high grades to maintain my eligibility to compete. But as a former athlete, I still can’t help but feel sad that most of the tuition money that’s meant for sports development goes to basketball. Correct me if I’m wrong, but really, that’s what it looks like. Ok, so a lot of the UAAP money comes from the rich alumni and not our tuition, but why not share the money with the other sports? I’m happy for the Ateneo and the basketball team, but really, the other teams deserve to be celebrated as well.