Yesterday, my wife and I watched Johnny English. It wasn't as good as I had expected, but it did have many funny moments. The whole thing just didn't click. While waiting for the movie's scheduled screening (we were late for the first show of the day), we did some window shopping. We also bought 2 VCD's.

I admit, I originally wanted to buy the Micheal Collins VCD. I had always wanted to start a collection of political dramas. This would've been a good movie to start with. I already had it in my hand as I made my way to the counter. But then again, I saw a discount sticker on the Samurai Jack VCD. This is the first episode and there aren't that many copies of this in the provinces. Well, guess who got bought? I gave in to my inner child and bought the Samurai Jack VCD.





We also bought a copy of Any Given Thursday, John Mayer's 3rd album. I was going for the Audio CD, but then I spotted the VCD in the same rack. The Audio CD was worth well over 400 pesos. The VCD was priced at Php249.00. You can't argue with a good bargain. I know one when I see one. Bought the VCD, watched it as soon as we got home.

After the movie, we went grocery shopping. My wife was giving me all these sighs when I told her I didn't bring her wallet. First of, let it be known that I did not know she had forgotten her wallet. She called before I left the house (she had gone to the office before we went to the movie). She then told me to get some money from the her purse. I found a bundle of money in her purse, took what I think was enough and left. I didn't notice that she had forgotten her wallet in her purse. She was giving me all that sighs because we had to go grocery shopping but we only had 300 bucks to spare. We could shop for more, had I brought her wallet, which unfortunately had both of our credit cards.

Anyway, we just bought baby food and a few Gerber silcone nipples (the fast flow variety for babies 6+ months) for our baby. That's it. We went home early and enjoyed playing the baby while watching John Mayer strut his stuff on stage. Perfect way to end the day.

Hey, Palm just came out with a new device that has a camera built in. I guess they're really facing tough competition from phone manufacturers. More and more phones now carry features that used to be exclusive to Palm devices. Color screens, organizers and email now form part of the feature set of most modern phones. Some phones are even coming out with expandable memory. Oh, and they have cameras too.

Wow! It appears Google is now available in Tagalog. This has been in rumors before. I didn't know they (Google) were serious about it. I'm adding this to my sidebar for you folks to use. BTW, found this on Petrol's blog.

It turned out they didn't have strawberry yesterday. I bought a tiny slice of blueberry cheesecake and a whopper of a slice of supermoist chocolate. They were both 62 pesos a slice. Darn! Blueberries cost that much. I should get into the blueberry business.

When I got home, we cooked some pansit for our baby's 7th month birthday. Here's a recipe I found online The last seven months have gone by real fast. A lot of things have happened (and not happened -- LOL). I'm expecting more to come. Hopefully, everything that will happen will make my fathering skills better.

It's my day-off today. It'll be another day of infamy for the cause of boredom. Anyway, I was sent off on an errand by the wife.Had to get up early, real early. It isn't like I had a choice. My wife got up early. She had to work early today. After she had roused me from my slumber to say goodbye, our baby decided that I should get-up. So he kicked me evertime he realized I had stopped talking to him or I had gone back to sleep. I grudgingly agreed with him after 30 mins of trying to go back to sleep.

I went to the post office to mail this magazine my wife bought for a friend of hers from Canada. T'was the special edition of FHM Phils. 200 pages of eye-popping photos collected from their different issues. Plus a very unique article on kama sutra.And because postage stamps don't come cheap anymore, I paid 746 frickin pesos to have it delivered by 2 weeks. If I had it sent by priority mail, It would have cost 960 bucks. Mercenaries...

Anyway, I wento to our pedia to give her the lab results on my baby's urine test. She said the values were normal, but the baby needed a heck of a lot more water. Must be the heat. This is one loooooonnnng summer. It is so hot! It rained last night, and guess what? No sun this morning. But the ground was bone-dry. Water must've evaporated all night. The moon must've shined so bright. LOL It's that hot. No wonder our baby's finding it difficult to sleep at night.

So my trip to the doctor, here I am serving my addiction to blogging. This net café is actually nice. Something a bit more classy, for a change. They even have latté. Hehehe. After blogging, I will be going next door to buy a slice of strawberry cake. My wife loves that. I will bring that to her, in time for lunch. That ruin her appetite and spoil her a bit more. She wants to go on diet and she loves sweets. Two birds with one tirador. Hehehe. Forgive the irony. That's the kind of humor my wife has to put up with. You'll have to put up with the same abuse if your going to read my blog.

Well, G2G. That's it, pansit. See ya when I ya.

There's this cool new tool for putting a 3-D model of head into (compatible) computer games, emaila and mobile phones. The service is called Digimask. Use a digicam to take pictures of your head, feed that into the software and voila! A 3-D version of your face is ready to be contorted, re-shaped, and played with at your pleasure. Practical aplications include putting your head into compatible RPG games, so you can get a more customized feel of the game. Another is putting it in your phone. Hmmm... What will they think of next?

Hmmm... The US has "found" a reason to justify future hostile action against Syria. A NY Times report says that an unanmed Iraqi scientist was forthcoming with information about Iraq exporting its chemical arms to Syria. Kind of makes you think there's something suspicious going on. First, they couldn't find any chemical and biological weapons, then they find an "unnamed" scientist that says, "Iraq has been exporting chemical weapons to Syria and has been cooperating with Al-Qaeda of late."

Next thing you know, The US will be pressuring Syria to disarm as well. Then what? A full-scale war against the whole Arab and Muslim world? Shit. A fourth of the world is Muslim. Bush is really pushing it. If anyboday had told me a year ago that Bush was the anti-Christ, I would have laughed at him. I even laughed at a picture they emailed to me showing Bush wearing the One Ring. Now, I'm not so sure I'd laugh at those jokes today.

Two nights ago Ambo, a friend of ours (the missus and me) handed me a CD he had burned. I had been asking him for weeks if he knew where I could possibly get old metal records, specifically Def Leppard albums. He replied that he could burn CD's for me since he had an extensive MP3 collection of late `80's and early `90's rock. I asked for the Hysteria album. He gave it to me three nights ago. I haven't stopped listeningto it since.

I'm a Def Lep fan. Been one since I first listened to them when I was still in high school. I even had my brother buy Adrenalize. It was the first album he bought with his own money. There is nothing like a rock band to bring two brothers together. Listening to Hysteria brings back a lot of memories, many of which I could not have lived without. Hysteria was special for Def Leppard, too. It was the last album Steve Clark played on before he died. Adrenalize was their first album without him.





To me this album represents my carefree days as a teen. Though deprived of the joys of material wealth, I enjoyed the company of my friends and my brothers. That was enough for me then. Bliss could be had drinking a bottle of pop and listening to busted up bootleg tapes of Def Lep albums. More precious was the time I spent arguing with my brother, discussing which bands kicked ass harder. LOL . Such were the times back then. Things were simple, life was simple. We found happiness in the trivial. Innocence lost is innocence missed a few years after, is what I say. I wish things could be simpler now. Maybe I'm listening to Hysteria in an attempt to reach the innocence buried deep within me, checkin' if its still a part of who I am today. Or I just enjoy listening to them. It could be as simple as that. :-))

I was watching TV last night when I chanced upon BBC's Correspondent (yes, oddly enough it bears the same title as a late night investigative journalism show on ABS-CBN). Don't know if you'll be able to watch it. So I spent the afternoon looking for the page so I could show it to you. The episode only proves racial prejudice still exists in places like Texas.

The story focused on how one undercover cop managed to put 46 people in jail. He went undercover for a few months and without any evidence, save for plastic bags laced with cocaine and his word, he managed to put all those people to jail. Most of them were impoverished black folk. Points of contention? The detective, "worked without a partner, without a tape recorder, without video back-up, without using finger print evidence and without a notebook."

The evidence he turned in was questionable. He turned in plastic bags lined with cocaine, with a purity of 1-3%. In most cases in other US states, confiscated cocaine doesn't go lower than 80%. Apparently in Texas that doesn't matter. As long as there is a trace of cocaine it's admissible. He had no notes, recorded conversations or any corroborating evidence. In the trials that followed, all there was was his word against the defendants'. The jurors were predominantly white in all the trials. In the end, 40 people were sentenced to long prison terms, all for selling cocaine.

His possible motivation? He was a wandering cop, working as a cop all over the Texas for short contracts in impoverished towns. When he landed a job in Tulia as a deputy, he was assigned to a county anti-drug task force. That task force receives funding from the Federal government. One of the criteria by which the Feds decide how much this task force gets in funding is their arrests. In one year, this lone detective put away 40 people. He was cited as the law enforcement officer of that same year. The task force got an increase the next year for being "effective" in their job. It's also worthy to note that the task force isn't liable to anyone in the State of Texas. They operate autonomously and they answer only to the Federal government. Local sheriff's departments only contribute manpower, nothing more.

Its such a pity that the world's strongest democracy is still rife with prejudice; where the people in the establishment care more about numbers, deadlines and budgets than they do about people. Pity indeed.

Done. I guess that's enough mind-numbing code crunching for me. Even simple HTML like that used to create a tables taxes my brain. Need to thank the guy who runs WebTerrace.com. I used his HTML tutorial as a guide. As always, the web is an invaluable resource of knowledge. The Web is good. The Web is benevolent. The Web sees all. The Web knows all. Say it with me . . . ohmmm, ohmmm, ohmmm.

I'm experimenting again. It's a part of having a male brain that always wants to see how things work. I have an HTML tutorial webpage open as I am blogging. I want to reduce the space being taken up by the merit badges in my sidebar -- LOL.

I also discovered BlogStickers.com, a great site filled with "bumper stickers for blogs". Found a link on Petrol's blog. A lot of witty Blog blurbs at Blog Stickers. I'm not sure if anyone can just copy any of the stickers without permission. I want to use soem of them on my blog. I will have to contact the site's owner to ask about that.

A friend of mine recently emailed me back in response to a question I asked about IP tracking. After a short reply to my question, he asked why i don't publish my weblog using Frontpage. Being a non-Blogger, he wasn't aware there are publishing tools out there specifically made for blogs. There's Grey Matter. You have the more popular Moveable Type. Then there's the promising Plog tools from Pinoy Blog. Come to think about it there's a slew of blogging tools out there, many of which I haven't heard of just yet. Hmmmm...I wonder what Petrol uses to publish his blog. He's been bitten by the opensource bug. He's gone gaga over Mozilla. LOL. Anyway, if I had my own desktop, I'd probably be just as obsessed by opnesource tools and software.

Of course, there's my choice for publishing my blog -- Blogger. Why? Three things. I don't have a computer at home, so I need a publishing tool I can access anywhere without the need to download. Blog from anywhere! That means web-based tools like Blogger are on top of my list. Second is I don't want to bother with FTP'ing my site updates. FTP uploads are tricky for the script-stupid like yours truly. I simply don't have the patience. If I get a computer of my own, I might develop enough to eventually learn code. Third, Blogger is self-contained. Everything you need under one roof ...Ummmm, correction, almost everything you need. And it's free, too. They give you access to a web-based publishing tool and they host your blog for free. I don't get image-hosting but I store my images on another free server and link them to me blog. Good thing they still allow that on my image host (linking, I mean), otherwise my blog will have to go bare.

In the end, it all boils down to when I get my very own machine that I can abuse till my eyes bleed. I'd probably be CHMOD'ing right now if I already did have my own machine. In the meantime, Blogger will suffice.

I sent a few Easter E-cards to my friends. As always, I've let the opportunity of mailing real greeting cards pass. I always remember special holidays on the last minute. If I were a king, they would've stuck a disparaging nickname to the end of my name. Not "the Terrible" or "Long Shanks", nor "the Lionheart" or "the Great". Rather, they would name me Ed, the Procrastinator.

Anyway, E-cards are quite convenient, easy to make and personalize. They're wonderfully instantaneous as well. Immediately after I send them, they're alredy available for viewing. Saves me big bucks too.

And since you're here, might as well greet you a Happy Easter as well. Click here, I've a surprise for you. Happy Easter! :-))

I tried this Relationship Tester found by a friend of mine. It's on iVillage. The test was a breeze, around 30 or so quetions about how me and my mate handle everyday situations. The results were surprising. According to the test our relationship's on "shaky ground" and not very stable at all. It did say that my intimacy skills were great, but it also said that I and my partner were, "most likely involved in an unhealthy sensitivity cycle." You can view the result of my actual test here

Anyway, I was already prepared to accept the facts that were outlined in the results when I scrolled down the result page. There was a recommendation, "if you want to improve on your relationship safely and successfully, this is how. Your Relationship Help Book gives you all the information you need. Your Conversation Preparation Session helps you make the right decisions." They even sent me email recommending I purchase a, "Detailed Relationship Analysis (which) include(s) one Conversation Preparation Session, REGULAR PRICE: $19.95, INTRODUCTORY OFFER: $14.95 (Limited Time Only)."

Mercenaries...

I finally got the article! Remember the Time Mag article I was talking about? I found the original page (not the paid one). The article is called "Predators in Paradise?". My memory failed me. It wasn't the Bahamas after all. It was Trinidad in the Caribbean. After reading the article, I found out that even Dominica fell victim to their predatory "business" tactics. It's quite complicated. Please read the article for; the details.

If for whatever reason the link above doesn't show you the Time Mag article, you can't reach the page linked above using this link: Busca AAAFlash. It's actually a review of the Time article. Most of the Trinidad info is in there too.

Well, after that refreshing read, I feel all the more resolved that I shouldn't support CitiGroup at all. That means not patronizing any of their products. You should think about doing the same.

Darn. I missed two days. How am I going to make up for that. Well, frankly nothing has been happenign the last 2 days. Still coughing. My baby's OK save for a slight fever. His front teeteh are already showing. My wife recently emaile me the pics she took of our son. They look great.

Oh, and I got this mystery call from Citibank this morning. My mom answered the phone since I was still snoring the time. They asked my mom a bunch of questions. Having had a short stint in a lending company, I was familiar with the questions. They were conducting a credit investigation. What's strange is that I haven't applied for a Citibank credit recently. I applied for one March of last year and got denied. I submitted another application by August. They didn't bother sending me an "application denied" letter the second time. Just as well. I've resolved not to use any product of being offered by Citigroup anymore.

Not since I found out they were part of a loan scheme in the Bahamas that charged exorbitant lending rates to an oil-producing nation (?) I can't recall the exact details. Time magazine reported it. Too bad Time magazine's archives are no longer accessible to non-subscribers. You'd have to pay to get most of the good articles. Anyway, that's just one of the many banking scandals Citibank has been involved in. There are other issues, as can be gathered in this Time article.

I'm not about to start patronizing a products of a company that makes its money through such dishonest means. The public should hold big corporations responsible for their actions. We should start by refraining from using their products. We start with that, then maybe they'll listen.

This morning, my wife and I finally watched I Am Sam. We bought the darn VCD three weeks ago but we couldn't find time to watch it together. We did this morning and I couldn't think of any other time in my life that I spent 150 pesos so wisely. Good movie, worth the money. If I finally get a DVD player, I just might buy a DVD copy. I'm also planning to get the soundtrack. All of the songs are Beatles covers. And what great covers they are, I should add. Sarah McLachlan did a wonderful rendition of Blackbird.

By lunch we were already in Clarkview. It was a reunion of sorts. It was my dearly departed Lola's birthday (father's side) and they were celebrating with 5-course buffet. One of my uncles dropped by the apartment to pick us up. They absolutely adored my son. He's good-looking, they say. The videocam making the rounds almost always found its way to whomever was holding my son -- LOL. He's good-looking, I tell you. I then ate a quick lunch with my wife and then went to work. My wife and mum stayed behind to chat with the relatives.

It'll be a long afternoon here in the office. I wish the day would go by real fast.

The Bush administration is apparently coming to terms with the costs of war. The Defense budget will suffer cuts in the near future. But the Pentagon had prepared for this eventuality long before talks of budgets cuts even came out. They've found alternative methods to defend the homeland, among them....

I back to listening to my old records again. Since last night, I've been listening to Bob Marley's Songs of Freedom over and over again. This particular collection is 4-albums' worth of songs from more than twenty years of writing. I just love the poetry of his songs that talk about religion, freedom, love and being human. His music has had a profound effect on the way I think, too. His music speaks to me. That's as succinct as I can put it. You see, to me freedom and love are worth fighting and dying for. That's what Bob Marley and his music stood for. That's what Bob Marley played for. Love and Freedom! And each song is crafted with the easy, carefree island beats of reggae. I don't have a bit of groove in me body but when me hear this reggae music, I get me a reggae fever and strut to island beat.

I've actually expanded my horizons too. In the past 10 years, I've bought albums from UB40, Big Mountain and Indio I (it's a local reggae band). I also have a bootleg copy of Jacob Miller and the Inner Circle. I even bought this compilation by Island Records that's full of great stuff from bands like Toots & the Maytals, Steel Pulse and Gregory Isaacs. I enjoy the roots stuff over dancehall reggae. It's melodic and full of the natural 'dread' of the bass guitar riffs that have become synonymous with reggae. The latest thing I've bought, around 2 weeks ago, was a Bob Marley Tshirt. Been meaning to get one for 10 years but I haven't found a design I liked. Two weeks ago I did find something I liked. Got it cheap too.

Too bad about the tapes, though. The ones I have (Songs of Freedom) have started deteriorating. They don't sound as clear as they did. I've been wanting to buy the CD's but they're only available in the US. The shipping charges are murder too. And with the exchange rates at the level they are now, that means they're too expensive for me. Well, no use dreaming an' hopin'. I'll just listen till I can. By the time the tapes finally get busted, the songs will be in my head for me to "listen" to everyday.

Yesterday was just another one of the usual humdrum workdays we have. I did see the company doctor. I asked for a prescription for my cough. Aside from the usual cough meds, he prescribed Loratadine. He thinks my cough may be an allergy. Must be all the dust that's been picking up because of the dry weather. It's been really hot these past few weeks. Feels like a heatwave comin' on. Weather feels more like a drought starting instead of summer lazily droning on. The only time of day that you'll probably feel relieved would be around 3 in the morning. By 5 am, the temperature starts rising again. Want to check out the weather real-time? Go to Manila Observatory's Climate Studies Division webpage. It' pretty kewl :-D You can view PI weather presented in graphs and stuff.

On second thought, something out of the ordinary did happen yesterday. I did meet someone yesterday. While brushing my teeth at the company men's room, the guys beside me asked out of the blue if I was "Ed". Now naturally I would be hesitant to reply, since I answer to the nick Edu most of the time. Only a few people called me Ed. Even the big great Nick Crawford calls me Edu, although it sounds more like "eeedoo" when he says it.

Anyway, I tell the guy "Yeah, I'm Ed." He then introduced himself as the person who recently left tags on my shoutbox. Man! What a small blogging world it is. Well, it was nice to be acknowledged like that. I mean, I'm a nobody here in the real world. I don't call attention to myself. I pretty much keep to my own company. But I'd say around 70% of the people here know me (at least by name). My wife's popular with everyone, that's why. She organizes company events and stuff. Makes her visible all the time. So, since we got married, you could say my stature changed. You could say I was almost famous -- LOL.

Gibbs, keep blogging man! If you would be open to some unsolicited advice, here it is: When you're blogging don't hold anything back. Just type away about all your thoughts. People who read blogs can't see your face, so they form an image of you through the personality that shows in your blogging. The more Au Naturel, the better. Keep it up, man. :-D

Hmmm.... Missed yesterday. I gots no entry or yesterday. I've got a lot on my mind.

Me and the wife finally saw the doctor last Wednesday. Me for my tummy prob and my wife for that liver situation of hers. The doctor extended my prescription to about a month. He put me back on Pantoprazole and Domperidone. Then my wife consulted him about her case. She showed him the result of her annual physical. He did the normal checks and he said there were no signs she was having any liver problems. But he did advise us to have these tests taken so we could be sure she's healthy. We would've had her blood taken that same afternoon but when we asked how much the tests would cost, they told us it would cost 3,300 pesos. Not a measly amount by any measure. So we opted to forego it in the meantime.

We then went to Nepo Mall for some window shopping. After tiring our legs out, my wife decided we should go grocery shopping. It was so nice shopping at Big R. They have fresh basil and parsley! We also bought a few things for our baby, mainly baby food and cereal.

Since we were low on cash, we used my credit card. It was my first time to flash tha' plastic. We only used it because of this promo they have. My wife gets 150 rebate points if I, the supplementary card holder, use my card before July. Plus, she gets a raffle number for applying for a suplementary card. Up for grabs is a mini-home theater. So there. I used it. We even got to join a Robinson's raffle for a Ford Escape. I hope we win! In BOTH raffles! HA! I'm jinxed in raffles, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

My throat is is going from worse to worst. Getting drier by the minute, is what it is. I think I need to see a doctor tomorrow. Good thing it's my off tomorrow. I have a swap. My wife was also able to file a vacation leave for tomorrow, so we're going to see her doctor. She needs to have her liver checked out. Just something that came out in her annual physical that needs to be confirmed. She inherited Hepa from her mother. She's had it since she was born, I think. We just need to confirm if its developing or something.

Anyway, wish me luck tomorrow. I plan to be as mundane as I can be tomorrow. Maybe watch a movie with the wife, dine out or something. Otherwise, I'll be tempted to buy something now that I have my own charge card. Here's to a credit-free day-off :-) :::crosses fingers:::

It's great being a father. I spent most of the morning entertaining my baby. At this point, it isn't a complicated stand up act yet. All I do is make faces and say his name in rapid succession. Easy. Doesn't take much talent. What does take talent is helping him sleep. You know -- holding him in your arms as you sway to the rhythm of a song your humming. It takes the patience of a saint to keep on swaying and humming when you've been at it for an hour and your baby wakes each time you try to lay him down on his crib. Try doing it with a when your on the verge of a cold and your throat's as dry as the Gobi. Each hum would send tiny slivers of pain right smack in the middle of your throat. It isn't easy. But it's even more difficult to just stand there and do nothing while your baby's restless in his crib or he's crying his heart out because he can't figure out why he can't sleep. The patience of saints can only keep you going for so long. A father's love can keep you going, as long as you need to.

Lately, I've been twiddling my toes before I sleep. My dad used to do that a lot before he went to sleep. Twiddling my own toes reminds me of him, and how he used to take care of me as a child. Everytime I recall those times, I know in my heart that I will forever rue the fact that I never got to say "I love you" to him. So I pray to God almighty every night -- that He wake me when my child needs me, that He strengthen me when my arms grow weary from carrying him, that He grant me the courage to tell my son how much I love him.

I think I'm coming down with a cold. For the past week, I've been feeling a bit sick. But my temperature is normal, I don't have the sniffles yet, and I don't feel so sick. I just feel a little off.

This afternnoon though, I started coughing ocassionally. My throat feels as arid as the sahara, even if I've downed about 3 liters of water (so far). If this goes on, I will have to keep a distance from my baby. I might be contagious, if this isn't one of those allergy colds. I don't want to take any chances, just in case it is viral. Better eat. I'm running to the cafeteria. I better ask if they still have any chicken noodle soup left.

I took a walk a while ago. I think I need to do this everyday, to keep my body sound. Since I stopped taking my meds about a week ago, I feel my stomach acting up again. And it's partly due to my weight. I haven't lost that much weight, and I do need to keep it off since it aggravates my stomach condition (called a hiatal hernia). My fault too. I stopped doing the breathing exercises the doctor asked me to do. They're supposed to help strengthen my hiatus. Since I've been pain-free for about 2 months, I regressed back to my slothful ways. Now, drug-free and almost two lazy weeks later, I am feeling the pain slowly coming back. Damn. I'm scared again. I don't like being in the hospital. Makes me feel helpless. I better start doing those breathing exercises again. I'd better do some walking on my breaks as well. Those 10-minute leisurely walks will give me a respite from almost 8 hours of keyboard-tacking sloth.

And I need to lay off the pansit for a while! All that fat is messing up my stomach!

I had a grand time listening to "old" music this morning. By old, I mean a year or older -- LOL. I listened mostly to The Goo Goo Dolls' Dizzy Up the Girl. Then I played some tracks from Pearl Jam's Ten Album (notably the tracks Jeremy and Release). Then I played a little of Lifehouse (yes, I listen to them once in a while). And then I noticed a CD that I haven't played in a very long while. So I picked out the Ramones CD from out of the dusty shelves. The last time I played this was New Year's eve 2002. I had this one copied, since it was a rare album that I had no chance of ever buying. An officemate of mine was fortunate to have an original CD. I was even more fortunate because he burned a copy for me! LOL :-)) I listened to Joey yammer away for the rest of the morning.

It was great listening to songs like I Want to Be Sedated, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend and Sheena Is a Punk Rocker. It was even more fun singing Needles and Pins and KKK Took My Baby Away. It brings me right back to my moshing days, when we moshed till the early morn in gigs held in the most obscure places. Ask anyone who witnessed and participated in the punk revival movement of the mid-90's and they will tell you that the Ramones were the single-most-influential band that was ever on stage -- even if they'd never seen them! Such was their influence that it was a sad day indeed when Joey Ramone died 2 years ago. It was a tragic day for all of punkdom. Here's to the memory of Joey -- OI!


P.S.
Take a peek at The Lone Gunmen site (these are the three geeks that help Fox Mulder ocassionally). Float your mouse pointer over the Ramones poster.

Last night, my wife handed me a letter. She sifted through the mail while waiting for me to clock out. When I opened it, it was the PIN to my credit card.

I got my first ever credit card last Tuesday. For months I tried applying for every single credit card that caught my fancy. I never got any of them approved. After months of trying, I finally gave up and asked my wife to get a supplementary card for me. She got hers around 2 years ago, before we were married. My card arrived Tuesday. She handed it to me, all excited. It felt funny opening that envelope. For months I anticipated that I would be excited to receive a credit card. When I finally did open that envelope, it felt like I was opening an ordinary piece of inter-office mail, or maybe like I was opening phone bills-- it felt ordinary, everyday-like stuff. It's true what they say -- it's human nature to want more.

The caveat is when you get it, you aren't as excited or as happy as you anticipated. You might even turn miserable as a result. Yesterday morning, I watched this film called Purpose. It was exactly about that, how we tend to want so much and then realize in the end that our greed obfuscates our sense of self and our joy in life. You'll have a better understanding of what I mean if you watch the movie yourself. Here's the schedule on Cinemax.

Bottomline, my credit card now lounges in the comfort of the soft leather sleeves of my wallet. I am hoping it'll stay there.

We have this tradition at the office. You need to bring food on your birthday. It's an unwriten rule, a golden one if you will. And you earn heaven's ire if you don't -- LOL!

Well, since I was on vacation last Sunday and Monday, I brought ref cake today. My wife made it last night. Temptingly delicious! I couldn't taste it though. It had milk and a lot of cream in it. It's basically your own blend of fruit salad alternately laid in between thin layers of graham crackers. The final dollop of fruit salad is then topped with grated cheese, cherries, peach halves and a thin layer of alsa gulaman to hold the top together. It is then placed in the ref overnight, hence the name ref cake. People at the office call it crema de fruta, which is actually the commercial incarnation. Goldilocks sells a popular version of it. They replace the graham crackers with softer sponge cake or taisan, obviously to please aesthetic purists of the cake-frenzied masses. They actually sell like hotcakes (excuse the deliberate contradiction of the pun).

Anyway, the guys from my department were all praises for my wife's ref cake-cum-crema de fruta :-))

Last night, before taking my shower, I installed the shower curtain we bought. It was pretty, with daisy's set in a background of baby blue. It looked a little like this one I found, only ours had smaller daisies and had an all blue background.

Admiring my handywork, I showed the installed curtain to my wife. She was on phone at the time, but she smiled and nodded in approval. It was real pretty. It brightened up the bathroom a bit. It should! The darn thing set me back 450 pesos. The insidious frivolity of my impulsive buying got the best of me again, sad to say. I need to ask my wife to leave her charge card the next time we go to Robinson's. We're going back in a week or so to watch Rowan Atkinson make a fool of himself in Johnny English. Hopefully, I won't succumb to the allure of houseware anymore.

I forgot to tell you yesterday how I chanced upon that little internet cafe I mentioned. Well, I went to the local LTO (Land Transportation Office) to renew my drivers license. Owing to my habit of sleeping late, we got there by 10 am.

I was forced out of bed by my wife at around 8am, breakfast waiting for me downstairs. The yummy pancakes topped with blueberry preserve did lift my spirits somewhat. As I showered, I rehearsed our itenerary for the day. LTO, Doctor, Robinson's. I've never set foot in Robinson's. So we planned to spend some time together malling. After all, it was my birthday last Sunday. My driver's license incidentally expired the day of my birthday. So I figured why not fit a trip to LTO in our schedule. My trip to the doctor has been overdue by about a week, owing to the fact that it's been rather difficult to get vacation time lately.

After a shower that failed to wake up my senses, we were off. We got to the LTO branch in Angeles City around 10-ish. I surrendered my old license, submitted myself to a drug test and a medical exam, filled out a form, and got my picture taken in about an hour's time. (The drug test set me back 300 pesos, almost just as much as the actual cost of renewing my license! Damn vultures!). Then came the hard part. We waited our turn at the cashier. We waited, and waited, and waited... We waited for my name to be called for what seemed like a finite eternity. Then the announcement came. Lunch break. We were asked to come back by 1pm. My wife and I decided to eat lunch at a nearby carinderia. After lunch, we still had around 30 minutes to kill. In the intense summer heat, it was hard to think of something to do. While walking back, we saw a sign that said "Internet." We went in. The internet cafe was a wonderful compromise. I got to blog, my wife got to lounge in airconditioned comfort. We found respite from the harsh killer heat of the mid-day Philippine sun. Nevermind that the owner of the place was so comfy he didn't wear a shirt over his basketball shorts. Actually, his Calvin Klein briefs were showing - ugggggggghhhhhhhhhh! But I got to blog, so to each his own.

By 1pm we went back to the LTO office, where we waited, and waited, and waited... Fortunately, I took college in a state university. I'm a veteran of long lines and slow cashiers. I eventually got my chance to pay by 3:45pm. I paid and I got my temp license in just 5 minutes. We were on a jeep bound for downtown Angeles by 3:55pm. I missed my doctor's appointment. He was long-gone by the time we got there.

So we boarded a jeep bound for Robinson's Starmills. We milled around the mall for about 4 hours before the fatigue began to set in. We really didn't set off to buy anything. That's why I only brought along 300 in cash, and my wife 200 in her wallet. We spent that on food -- LOL. Not all of it, obviously. Otherwise, I'd be back in the hospital.

We surveyed the whole darn stretch of the mall first. Then we sat down for meryenda in a quiet corner of the food court. We talked a lot and watched the sun faded slowly in the horizon. This mall incidentally has a nice skylight view. We then went to the department store and milled around the houseware and toys sections. Bought a couple of things. We then bought a T-shirt at UnionBay before we had dinner at Chowking. What can I say? I can't resist their siopao and beef mami. Their siopao's one fo the best I've tasted so far. The bun is slightly sweet, slightly glutinous. Great dough makes a great siopao, I say. I was so elated I brought home siopao for my mom. What a long day.