Another blog entry about Gwen again. I know, creepy, right?
The idea was, I'm going to bookend 2011 with blog entries about the same thing. So happened that the first blog entry I wrote this year was, well, about Gwen, and the fact that we've been trying to arrange a second meet-up for ages.
Last year she gave me a vague idea of a calendar date: the middle of January. It did not happen.
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12/31/2011
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12/30/2011
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For some reason I had a good think about all the people I've met over the past few years.
Inevitably, I'm not in touch with most of them. There are just a lot of them. (And I don't have as many "friends" as the others.) But I'd see a few of them now and then - online, of course - and I'd notice that our interests don't exactly match.
Not anymore, perhaps. And sure, it's possible that in all the years that passed we have drifted apart. Nothing new. (Nothing I want to happen, but still, nothing new.) But what if we never really had that much in common in the first place? How come we had friendly relations with each other?
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Inevitably, I'm not in touch with most of them. There are just a lot of them. (And I don't have as many "friends" as the others.) But I'd see a few of them now and then - online, of course - and I'd notice that our interests don't exactly match.
Not anymore, perhaps. And sure, it's possible that in all the years that passed we have drifted apart. Nothing new. (Nothing I want to happen, but still, nothing new.) But what if we never really had that much in common in the first place? How come we had friendly relations with each other?
Read more »
12/29/2011
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I don't usually write film reviews here - they always go on my still mostly active Multiply page - but I have to write something about Manila Kingpin: The Asiong Salonga Story.
There's always one relatively artsy film when the Metro Manila Film Festival rolls by - one that looks different from all of the other, more unabashedly mainstream releases. This year, it's Jeorge Estregan's retelling of the story of the 1950s gangster, whose story has been immortalized as early as the 1960s. It's an action flick. It's shot completely in black and white. It's a period piece. Never mind the issue about director Tikoy Aguiluz wanting his name off the credits because of certain scenes added without his permission. (He got his request, by the way.) Never mind the fact that this might be Estregan's way of putting his name back into public consciousness, perhaps in preparation for the upcoming elections. (He is governor of Laguna, after all.) The film's got to work, right? Somehow?
Well, it doesn't. It's crap.
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There's always one relatively artsy film when the Metro Manila Film Festival rolls by - one that looks different from all of the other, more unabashedly mainstream releases. This year, it's Jeorge Estregan's retelling of the story of the 1950s gangster, whose story has been immortalized as early as the 1960s. It's an action flick. It's shot completely in black and white. It's a period piece. Never mind the issue about director Tikoy Aguiluz wanting his name off the credits because of certain scenes added without his permission. (He got his request, by the way.) Never mind the fact that this might be Estregan's way of putting his name back into public consciousness, perhaps in preparation for the upcoming elections. (He is governor of Laguna, after all.) The film's got to work, right? Somehow?
Well, it doesn't. It's crap.
Read more »
12/26/2011
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"Sana magkita na tayo soon!" was Tonet's reply to my second wave of Christmas greetings - on Twitter, mostly for people who I don't have the numbers of, to say the least. For good measure, there was a heart at the end.
I thought, were we that close?
Okay, maybe we were. You know my definition of close on this one: the people I end up confiding in, for some reason. In her case, the peak of our closeness, so to speak, came in a blog entry she wrote almost four years ago, one that took off from an online conversation we had about certain people and certain feelings.
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I thought, were we that close?
Okay, maybe we were. You know my definition of close on this one: the people I end up confiding in, for some reason. In her case, the peak of our closeness, so to speak, came in a blog entry she wrote almost four years ago, one that took off from an online conversation we had about certain people and certain feelings.
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12/24/2011
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Here we go again.
This year, I was sending my Christmas text messages while in line at a grocery store. I didn't want to be a Christmas crammer, and we tried our best not to, but when it turned out that we forgot a few things it came to be to drive to the grocery, try to find a good parking slot (nowhere), and brave the aisles to buy the few items I have to buy, and then some. I am, after all, in the grocery, not them.
Before the phone lines get longer than the grocery I'm in, happy holidays! Applause for dropping by in 2011, and fingers crossed you'll hang on in 2012.
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This year, I was sending my Christmas text messages while in line at a grocery store. I didn't want to be a Christmas crammer, and we tried our best not to, but when it turned out that we forgot a few things it came to be to drive to the grocery, try to find a good parking slot (nowhere), and brave the aisles to buy the few items I have to buy, and then some. I am, after all, in the grocery, not them.
Before the phone lines get longer than the grocery I'm in, happy holidays! Applause for dropping by in 2011, and fingers crossed you'll hang on in 2012.
Read more »
12/19/2011
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I had this conversation with Gwen a few months back - maybe a few years back, even; this was the time when she showed more interest in me. Err, when we talked a lot more.
I don't remember exactly how we got there nor why we got there, and I obviously don't remember what exactly was said. But we were talking about that time in a person's life when he feels like breaking all the rules.
"I never went through that stage," I told her.
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I don't remember exactly how we got there nor why we got there, and I obviously don't remember what exactly was said. But we were talking about that time in a person's life when he feels like breaking all the rules.
"I never went through that stage," I told her.
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12/14/2011
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"Masaya, pero nakakapagod."
That's Alvin Elchico on DZMM last night, talking about how reporters like him see political coverage. A texter suggested that the latest circus unfolding on our television screens will have reporters happy. Sure, Elchico said. They will be happy, but they will get really, really tired.
I see what he means. Sure, the closest I have to political coverage is a blog that goes to life during school elections, but there is a thrill in following the campaigns, talking to people, trying to figure out what they really mean when they speak, and being on the pulse about something. When things get more heated than they should (and they have), it gets much more exciting. Seeing two sides outwit each other, and trying to figure out who has the advantage or not? That really puts you on the pulse.
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That's Alvin Elchico on DZMM last night, talking about how reporters like him see political coverage. A texter suggested that the latest circus unfolding on our television screens will have reporters happy. Sure, Elchico said. They will be happy, but they will get really, really tired.
I see what he means. Sure, the closest I have to political coverage is a blog that goes to life during school elections, but there is a thrill in following the campaigns, talking to people, trying to figure out what they really mean when they speak, and being on the pulse about something. When things get more heated than they should (and they have), it gets much more exciting. Seeing two sides outwit each other, and trying to figure out who has the advantage or not? That really puts you on the pulse.
Read more »
12/11/2011
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I'm done with my Christmas shopping, but not everybody else is. My sister's just getting started, and since she's busy at work lately she only has the weekends to do her shopping. Which meant I have to do the driving.
I didn't really mind. I had the itching to leave home anyway - you know, change the scenery, distract myself and all - plus the fact that I had to pick up a couple magazines along the way. But I spent most of my time with my sister at Rustan's, going through the toy section, trying to pick out gifts for our little cousins.
It's a setup we barely stumbled into. I didn't think of giving gifts for my cousins. She didn't think of giving gifts for our grandparents. She's not taking credit for my gifts, and I'm taking credit for hers, although we're definitely sharing credit on a gift we're giving to the daughter of one of my dad's colleagues - just so freaking adorable. But, since I was around and I felt like proving that I've done Christmas shopping for four years now, I helped out.
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I didn't really mind. I had the itching to leave home anyway - you know, change the scenery, distract myself and all - plus the fact that I had to pick up a couple magazines along the way. But I spent most of my time with my sister at Rustan's, going through the toy section, trying to pick out gifts for our little cousins.
It's a setup we barely stumbled into. I didn't think of giving gifts for my cousins. She didn't think of giving gifts for our grandparents. She's not taking credit for my gifts, and I'm taking credit for hers, although we're definitely sharing credit on a gift we're giving to the daughter of one of my dad's colleagues - just so freaking adorable. But, since I was around and I felt like proving that I've done Christmas shopping for four years now, I helped out.
Read more »
12/07/2011
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For anybody who lives in what I'd like to call "further south" - you know, folks like me - Daang Hari is a bit of a godsend. It used to be that, to get to the Alabang area, we had to drive westward to the other side of Bacoor, then northward through Las Piñas, then eastward towards your destination. Now we just turn left and go straight.
In the early days a significant chunk of the road was just two lanes wide - more an issue of land rights, if anything. You'd go past Ayala Southvale (or, in our case, get out of it), drive a quarter of a kilometer, and then see the four-lane road, complete with center island, shrink to a two-lane side road sitting beside the perimeter fence of Ayala Alabang. It would go for a kilometer or so before opening up again. Just a little quirk.
In recent years - maybe five years back, I can't recall - the road was expanded. You used to go straight to the two-lane part; now you turn slightly to the left and it remains a four-lane road, at least until the very end, when you return to the two-lane part. (I know, it sounds confusing, but there is no good way of describing this in words alone. Call me ridiculous, but I'm getting to something here.) Anyway, the two-lane part, now just a quarter of a kilometer long, stayed because there is a house at the point where the road expands. Again, I assume it's more an issue of land right. Who'd want their house be replaced by a road anyway?
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In the early days a significant chunk of the road was just two lanes wide - more an issue of land rights, if anything. You'd go past Ayala Southvale (or, in our case, get out of it), drive a quarter of a kilometer, and then see the four-lane road, complete with center island, shrink to a two-lane side road sitting beside the perimeter fence of Ayala Alabang. It would go for a kilometer or so before opening up again. Just a little quirk.
In recent years - maybe five years back, I can't recall - the road was expanded. You used to go straight to the two-lane part; now you turn slightly to the left and it remains a four-lane road, at least until the very end, when you return to the two-lane part. (I know, it sounds confusing, but there is no good way of describing this in words alone. Call me ridiculous, but I'm getting to something here.) Anyway, the two-lane part, now just a quarter of a kilometer long, stayed because there is a house at the point where the road expands. Again, I assume it's more an issue of land right. Who'd want their house be replaced by a road anyway?
Read more »
12/04/2011
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"Gusto mo bang ibili na kita ng polo?" my mom asked me a couple of days ago.
"Hindi, ako na," I replied.
She and my dad were headed to Greenhills to do some more Christmas shopping. I was supposed to go with them, planning to buy a laptop, but schedules moved around. Now, I could go with them just to experience Greenhills again - the only time I was there was when I was... I don't remember. But I was so young. And I felt so hot and bored.
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"Hindi, ako na," I replied.
She and my dad were headed to Greenhills to do some more Christmas shopping. I was supposed to go with them, planning to buy a laptop, but schedules moved around. Now, I could go with them just to experience Greenhills again - the only time I was there was when I was... I don't remember. But I was so young. And I felt so hot and bored.
Read more »
Niko Batallones writes The Upper Blog.
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