plug!

WATCH!

Filipino independent movies rarely make it to the big screen but when they do, they don't disappoint.

Sa Aking Pagkakagising Mula sa Kamulatan (My Awakening from Consciousness) is an independent film directed by Ato M. Bautista. It is a film unafraid to show violence, rage and sex.

Violence in movies especially foreign movies like Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and even American History X affects me though there is a certain amount of detachment. This film gets too close to the truth because of the familiar settings.

Im hoping that it gets noticed by International Film Festivals to show the world that Filipinos can still make quality films that can rival their own.

The characters are well written, the editing superb (hehe yehey Carding!) and the flow of the movie suits it well. I found myself hating and loving the characters while watching the movie.

The film is showing at Glorietta 1 from May 5-11, I wasn't really paying attention yet so I might have the dates wrong. Watch it and tell your friends to watch it. It has an R18 rating so don't bring your younger siblings and grandparents.

I promised myself I wouldn't post today. I hate promises.
I was supposed to either read another book in the Ender series by Orson Scott Card or at least write something other than a blog post.

We wanted to watch a movie so I checked the Alabang Town Center movie list. I work in Alabang, my car forbidden to go on the road earlier than 7pm, I don't like the traffic and ATC is the closest mall with a decent cinema. I'm just trying to prove I'm not a snotty rich girl -- hehe.

Although rich would be a nice change...

List of movies for this week are :
1. guess who (comedy)
2. the interpreter (suspense/action)
3. the wedding date (romantic comedy)
4. ring of the nibelungs (fantasy)
5. the jacket (suspense/horror)

I gave the list to neal with brief descriptions, list of main actors/actresses (except for ring of the nibelungs) and asked him to choose.

Of course he chose the chick flick. -- wedding date.
I would rather watch the jacket or guess who. my third choice would have been interpreter.

Why am I not a chick flick fan? *sigh* oh well.

By the way my friends and I are attending a premier next week for an independent film one of my friends, carding, co-produced. I'm not exactly sure how much of it is sponsored by ABS CBN but the actors are known and the movie should be great! Yehey filipino indie films.

Blogspot has a nice autosave feature now ^_^ which is why you're seeing this blog post instead of a rant on how I lost this blog post.

I just had fun with the paintbrush. I'm using Adobe Photoshop for my pics unfortunately don't know what to color the leaves with and how to do it. I think Sakura blossoms would yield a nice result as well.

a few good things and a few bad things.

I wasn't really sure what to post. I've been blog hopping and reading and doing 5 things at once because I have nothing else to do.

Yup, once again, our project is done. So unless some major bug is found I'm free to do anything as long as I'm not downloading stuff using bittorrent.

Speaking of which, these days, bittorrent is the cause for 35% of the internet traffic. It has even surpassed Kazaa and other P2P file swapping protocols in terms of traffic and number of users.It was also the cause of some major traffic here in our office which made our boss mad. Good thing I haven't used bittorrent in ages.

Doing 5 things at once is hard on my emotions. If I could just look at all of them without feeling, it'll be easier but I'll find it harder to write about it.
Currently I'm : 1. reading Megatokyo
2. Reviewing CSS and HTML
3. Finding the right color combination and making new pics for my blog layout
4. Testing the web part of our project
5. Writing my blog post and blog hopping.

I checked dawnie's blog and she found this amazing tour guide who gives tours around manila. His blog is also a delight to read.
Dawn and I love travelling. I never pass a chance to go anywhere no matter how bad I may be feeling.Even if I have to go with total strangers I wouldn't mind as long as I get to travel. Lately, climbing mountains has brought me to different parts of Batangas.
I would love to be able to go to Visayas or Mindanao though. I've only travelled in Luzon.Trips to different parts of the country has been my main agenda for this summer. I'm just waiting for my sister to come back from the States so we can go to Palawan or Sagada or Singapore or Malaysia (courtesy of the super cheap flights some airlines are offering).

I went over to Tin's and Jo's blog and I all I could do was sigh at the pre nuptial pictures they put up that Pilar Tuason took. If I had any occasion lined up (and money) I'd ask her to take pictures of me too. (^-^)!

A Friendster bulletin gave me a link to a petition page against Japan. Last week, I accidentally saw news of China's protests against Japan on TV. Accidentally because I really don't watch the news, I prefer to read them and watch something else.Apparently China started protesting over the newly approved Japanese schoolbooks that "gloss" over Japanese cruelty during the war.

I think it was really sad and kind of scary when the Japanese commented that :

They admit that deaths and rapes did occur, but say they were on a much
smaller scale than reported. And in any case, they argue, these things happen in
times of war.

I haven't signed the petition yet. I'm confused because I like Japan. I want to go there, I like the culture, I like their history though only up to the Meiji Era. Japan is at fault too. Brutality during a war is real but it is not necessary. Though I'd also like to point out that Japan is NOT the only country who would rather forget their actions during the past World Wars.

I'm just glad we are not at war.
Well, not World Wars anyway.
Wars are great when they're shown in the movie screen, when huge armies fight against each other and we're all amazed by the armour and weapons while we're sitting on our couch. People die bloody deaths but we know that it's not real.

Real wars scare me.

For me no amount of money or power or belief is worth killing millions of people and destroying billions of lives.

Since I want to end things lightly I'd like to ask for help. hehe. I'm not that good with color combinations. I really want a green and dark violet theme for my web pages because I was inspired by the Dragons presentation at Animal Planet. Unfortunately the last time I actually did a layout for a web page was when I was in highschool and wow, that was almost a decade ago.

Arrgh! Back to work, or non-work.

almost 50

for my dad.

who used to watch japanese tv episodes of the Blind Samurai with me every night and Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai when I was a kid.
-- and now wonders why I love japanese anime and samurai movies so much. We still like Toshiro Mifune.

who used to buy me chocolate milk at 3 am in the morning because I couldn't sleep and talk to me till 4 am.
-- and doesn't understand I'm an insomiac.

who forced me (kicking and screaming) to my first ferris wheel ride. i cried until we reached the top where he just asked me, "do you still feel like crying?" and i realized i was already enjoying myself.
-- now he thinks i'm crazy that i like climbing mountains and going skin diving.

who taught me that if it's your fault, you should never cry.

he survived cancer, a major car accident and a dozen other problems.

believes that i'm just like him AND much much more...

happy birthday.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur

Latin is a wonderful language that is sometimes just used to sound intelligent. It is a dead language after all. Here's a website I found amusing.

I also liked these simple transalations:

Nescio quid dicas
--I don't know what you're talking about

Ita erat quando hic adveni.
--It was that way when I got here

Cogito ergo sum
-- I think, therefore I am

followed by

Cogito ergo doleo
--I think, therefore I am depressed

Vah! Denuone latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur.
--Oh! Was I speaking Latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips out.

Braccae tuae aperiuntur
--Your fly is open

Subucula tua apparet
--Your slip is showing

Sic hoc adfixum in obice legere potes, et liberaliter educatus et nimis propinquus ades
--If you can read this bumper sticker, you are both very well educated, and much too close

hmm.. far from carpe diem aren't they?

I really want to change the look for my blog. I also want to change my tabulas blog because it allows me more freedom in the design.

This means working out a layout and a scheme for a few days, then figuring out how to do it, then thinking it's really hard to do, scrap that scheme and the cycle starts all over again.

I did try several background possibilities when I played around with my Adobe Photoshop. SO I hope I find one that suits me very soon.

soft recovery

just got back from climbing mt. daguldol
had fun! will post pictures later. i'm still waiting for other people's pics coz i don't have my camera yet.

my sis informed me that she has bought one but would not tell me what she bought :) she's coming home this friday so i'm really excited.

i got the ebook of the last Star Wars movie that's coming out this year. I hope it's good. I'm really disappointed with the prequels but I hope he finds a way to redeem part of the Star Wars fame with the third movie.

Still no sign of Sin City here in the Philippines. I hate it. (T_T) I hate the delay. It's a great movie and I can't see it yet. I read the comics and I've seen clips of the movie. The movie is so faithful to the comic its impossible not to love it. A must see for all Frank Miller fans. It was also released in the states on my birthday. If I was with my sister I would have watched it. It probably is the best comic book adaptation ever.

I watched "The Village" again on DVD. I absolutely adored the love story. I like the lines. people might hate it because it wasn't scary but I liked it because he tried something else and it was well written. I think the people had something against the setting and the fact that the monster wasn't real.

Last weekend I watched Be Cool with my mom and neal. Had a great time. The Rock proved to be a really funny as the gay bodyguard/aspiring actor. Even my mom had fun. I think it's the first movie with John Travolta and Uma Thurman together after Pulp Fiction.

I'm counting the days till May 4 because that's when Kingdom of Heaven is showing. Since we change movies on a Wednesday here instead of Friday in the States, we get to watch it 2 days before them. hehe

Goodwill bookstore is really having a sale. I rummaged through the Megamall branch. I was a bit disappointed because I couldn't find a lot. I did buy 3 books though. Worth 800++ but I only paid 150.

The "Last Morpheus" painting by Micahel Zulli is now done and up for auction at eBay. Last time I checked, the price was at 3.8k. It's really good and very detailed. Reminds me of the artwork in "The Wake".

Finally, I wanted to post the link to "Space-time for Springers". A heart breaking sci fi cat story. I'm never looking at cats the same way again.

to eat or not to eat

I attended a birthday party / christening last month. It was a normal children's party with mascots, lots of food, lots of kids and even a mamang sorbetero

The best part about it was the giveaways: they were small cup cakes with candy on top. There were bears, cars, ponies, ice cream cones, ducks... It's a great idea though I think the person who made it all was exhausted afterwards.


the cake and giveaways

I already ate mine. It was really tasty but I was kind of sad that I had to eat it. I took pictures though :)
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Dawn sent me a link to show me how to fold a shirt. I know how to fold a shirt but my way does not even come near their way.

By the way, I am trying to find smileys for my blogs. I'm kind of jealous when I see animated emoticons on other people's blogs. I'm looking for free ones and trying different stuff. So far, the cutest I've seen are Japanese Kao Maji. Which are adorable.

just look at the cat :

I'm trying to write new stuff but I still have a project to finish. Will try to put up a whole story in tabulas before the week ends. I wrote it during a meeting hehe.

Gulugod Baboy Experience

finally got up a mountain... any mountain.
mountain climbing has been one of those sports i've always wanted to try but i never got a chance. mostly because my course always makes sure we are busy with exams and projects during the weekends when these climbing trips were scheduled... )4m\ 3c3! (i'm learning so bear with me)

So when leo asked me if I wanted to go ( i subtly let out hints that i was interested.) i jumped at the chance.

I even forced neal to come with me lol. He didn't want me to go but if I would force it, he would go with me anyway. Even if it is just to make sure I don't accidentally fall off the mountain.

So we bought shoes and equipment. We borrowed dawn's bag, cos' mountaineering bag and a carlo's sleeping bag. The rest of the stuff was bought. Water, I learned is really an essential on a mountain climb.

i was sick the day before the trip so i almost didn't make it. fortunately, i'm too stubborn for my own good and i still went anyway.

we decided to meet in alabang around 8am since it was just a short climb. a lot of people showed up for the trip. neal and i ate at jollibee while we waited for the others. leo was the first to arrive and we were next.

I've been to anilao several times. my aunt's company has a vacation house here and i've also gone skin diving here for my PE class ^_^ which was really fun. I knew it was kind of far.

after a long bus trip to batangas and two more jeepney rides to anilao, we finally got to the jump off point. Unfortunately, the jeep that took us there didn't want to go any further because there were so many of us. So we started walking up the road.

I've never walked up a road that steep! It reminded me of Baguio roads. If it wasn't for my adrenalin rush from the excitement of being on a mountian, I wouldn't have lasted more than 5 minutes. I forced myself to stay at the top of the pack because I didn't want to lag behind. Neal followed me closely but he was having a hard time since his bag was so heavy. He tried it in the house for five minutes and decided he can carry it.

I think the rule should be: if you think the bag weighs ok, lessen the load. It should feel light.

The only way I kept on was in deceiving myself into believing that after this bend, the road will be less steep. Hehe yeah right, that road barely had any level parts. The angle was so steep sometimes I felt like if I could kiss the road if I just bent a little more (or maybe i was just getting too tired).

It was also hard on the feet because it was a hard road. I was so glad we bought nice shoes for climbing. they helped a lot.

we took a lot of breaks. most of the time people were too tired to take pictures during these breaks. our trailmaster noted at the campsite that we had climbed too fast and took too many breaks. we should have taken it slow instead.

after the long hard road we finally got to the trail where we were surrounded by trees and plants. The way was still steep but I felt better because I now felt I was climbing a mountain. Plus, I got to use my gloves hehe, though they got dirty pretty fast.

It even rained a bit so we all took out our raincoats and after aroiund 5 minutes of wearing them, the rain stopped and left us all sweating under the raincoats.

one of my favorite pictures were during our break on the side of the mountain.


i love the way we just seem to blend with the surroundings

i think we reached the peak after 3 or 4 hours of climbing. around an hour before that we finally got to the part of the mountain where there were almost no trees and the slopes weren't so steep.


taking a break.. finally smooth slopes

there were lots of dogs, cows, a goat and even a horse up in that mountain. which also translated to lots of poo scattered everywhere. we had to tread carefully.

when we got to the site, there were already two more groups who have set up camp. We think one of the groups may be the UP Mountaineers. The highest campsite was already taken and the mountaineers occupied the next one so we were at a loss. Since we wanted a better campsite, we scouted around and found another summit. the way towards it was fenced though the man who was tending to the fields agreed that we could use that summit as our campsite.

The campsite was huge! we had a lot of place we could go to (something that we found very useful later on). We had almost a 360 degree view on our surroundings except for the highest summit.


We were contemplating who will roll down the mountain faster

Actually, we didn't help to prepare dinner which made me kind of embarrassed. I promise we will help next time.


neal and i inside our new green tent :)

We bought this tent on sale in storeshop. leo bought a similar one and set it up right next to ours. We also set up a makeshift clothesline using my violet mountaineering string(?!) which I've had since I was in highschool when my cousin and i thought it was cool to have mountaineering stuff even when we didn't climb mountains.
For dinner, we had sinigang na baboy and beef steak. We also had plenty of rice so we were really full. Oh yeah, we also found out we should be more careful in choosing the right canned food to bring.
After that came the socials which can be translated to "let's all get so drunk we can fall asleep anywhere". It's amazing how much booze people are willing to carry up the mountain no matter how heavy they are. (It's also amazing how much booze people will drink up on a mountain.) Our trailmaster told us that alcoholic drinks in glass containers, though heavier are better to bring than the ones in plastic containers because the alcohol seeps out and makes the drink less potent. ^_^ we wouldn't want that.
We had gin with extra Joss. Go figure.

socials

It also got really dark that evening so we saw a lot of stars. Leo used his tripod to take cool shots of the surroundings and of different constellations. The best time to see that stars was around 2am though.
It also made looking for a "bathroom" easier. During the day you had to pick a faraway spot where you hope no one can see you. Of course being up in the mountain didn't help. In the end, you hope your only witnesses are the cows and nature. hehe.
At night it was different, you didn't have to go that far. Just pick a spot, turn off your flashlight and no one will know what you are doing. Though there's nothing like doing your business in the dark, in a field full of dung, while the wind is blowing faster than a hundred kilometers an hour.
I like to drink but I don't drink until I lose consciousness. I also get very quiet when I'm tipsy. Leo's officemates, (possibly the whole group as well) thought I was a really heavy drinker. hehe I usually just go relieve myself and I get clear headed again so I can on drinking. I also noticed I kept going near the edge of the mountain during those trips which is not a very good habit. Especially since everyone will be too drunk to notice I'm gone and I usually go alone because neal can't accompany me.
Around 9pm some of us decided to go to bed. The rest of the group stayed up till 2am and only stopped because there was no more booze. We would have slept well since we were all basically drunk if it hadn't been for the wind. The wind was so strong we thought we would be swept away. No wonder the earlier groups didn't pick our spot. The freaky thing about it was that the wind will be blowing so hard that you'd think someone was outside pushing your tent and then, for no reason, stop. It was these sudden quiet moments that made you think of alien spaceships outside blocking the wind or some other unnatural phenomena.


early morning

We woke up early around 6am though some people were up earlier than that. The line for the hot water was long and it took a while to boil water up in the mountains. Besides that, the water will be hot for about 5 minutes and after that it will be cold again.
Our drinking water was the only source of water so we had to be careful in using it when we brushed our teeth or washed our faces. Hopefully the next mountain, which has a good water source, will make our lives easier.
When everyone finally woke up and had breakfast, we all packed or stuff and took last minute pictures.


all packed up and ready to go back to civilization... and toilets!


everyone is in the shot courtesy of leo's tripod

We had fun. Neal even wanted to climb a mountain again even after if he had a hard time lugging the big bag up the mountain. The group went down by another route, an easier route. We got lost, went back, realized we were on the right track and went back that way again... I think we walked longer going down than going up because of it. We were lucky to hitch a ride on a jeep that was going down our way. We found ourselves in a town far from Anilao so we couldn't go swimming though some of the Accenture people still swam for a bit at the beach. The rest either ate, rested or found a way to take a bath.


last jeep ride

During the trip home we were so tired we kept sleeping on the bus. The bus we rode on had a terminal in Cubao which was lucky for us because my house was near so we only had to take a taxi home. I hope next time the bus we ride on has a terminal nearer to our place so we coud just walk home.

Hehe I know this is really late but at least I decided to post this before our next trip which is this coming weekend to Daguldol, also in Batangas.
Stuff I learned
1. wear something that will make you look cute in pictures (yes leo, same as yours)
2. bring a smaller jacket (wind breaker is too big, makes me look huge and i can do better with long sleeves under a shirt. cuter too)
3. buy a smaller sleeping bag. (ahh... carlo's is too big. neal and i can fit inside it and zip it too) --done
4. buy less canned goods.
5. more water!
6. more face/hand towels!
7. even if we will swim, don't bring towels
8. get neal to take more pics
9. get in more pics
10. if it's heavy leave it. (a heavy bag you carried for 5 minutes will weigh 20x more while being carried up a mountain)
11. get a new flashlight, one that needs batteries not rechargeable and one that doesn't cost just 50 pesos hehe.

1 c4n7 sp34k l33t

I think it started two weeks ago. Arf and I were chatting and suddenly she lets out a "w00t". which was fine because i thought it was a hoot until she started typing "ph34r" and stuff.I actually though her keyboard was missing a few vowels and she had to type with numbers. She told me it was l33t. l33t?! leet?
Apparently, though I have been using the internet for 10 years, since I have been staying clear of chat rooms and game rooms. I didn't encounter l33t.
Arf has been reading MegaTokyo (I've started too) It's a hilarious comic about two twenty something gamers stuck in Japan trying to earn money for a plane ticket home.One of the characters speaks l33t which is why she found out about it.
I nosed around the internet for resources and I found a lot. The Wikipedia entry is a great start as well as the BBC entry (the Guide to Life the Universe and Everything). I also found a Google search page that was in the l33t language. Finally, a HowTo page on l33t from linux reviews.
I was going to translate the entire post in l33t but people may suddenly get the urge to kill me so I didn't.

Now all I have to do is find out what language carding (aka Lord Jacob) is using when he says wakeke.

^_^

god is dead. meet the kids

The title was taken from neil gaiman's journal.

His upcoming book is called Anansi Boys.
Anansi is a West African spider god. Some of his stories are online here. There are a lot of good links if you search for him in Google. He's a trickster god and Anansi Boys is a fun read. It's funny and I can't wait to read the whole book. Unfortunately it comes out in September.
I had hoped Gaiman will be able to sign it when (or if hehe) he comes in July but I will be contented if he signs my other books.
Neil Gaiman has posted a part of his new book at his site but if you really want to have fun and you have the bandwidth to spare, I suggest you watch him read parts of it instead.

All you need is real player :)

He's a great reader. I appreciated his story, Shoggoth's Old Peculiar, only after i listened to him read it.
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We now have a tv again :) my old big screen tv was too old (around 13-15 years old i'm not sure) and it retired. So we bought a new one yesterday and it is so cool. Now I don't have to watch DVDs in neal's laptop.

I also got my Extended version of the Lord of the Rings, Return of the King DVD (finally). I also have the statue of Minas Tirith which is so beautiful I put it back in the box for safe keeping while my room is still a war zone.
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I also spent the weekend celebrating my birthday.

Haha I declared it a 3-day weekend. Unofficial of course but fun nevertheless.

The first day was spent night swimming in 8 waves in Bulacan. Neal and I went with his siblings and most of their significant others. It was great since it was also the first time for me to go with them on an outing :) All of them live in Bulacan and I'm the only one too far away to go night swimming with them. Back at the house, neal's dad showed us a picture of neal when he was around two years old and he looked just like his brother George! I'll steal it someday and scan it hehe.

The next day, I met with my friends Dawn and Arf. We went to Greenhills and ate at Genji, the conveyor belt sushi place and we ate a LOT. We were celebrating Arf's and my birthday. I learned that Arians with credit cards and a love for Japanese food, should never be placed beside a conveyor belt filled with sushi, sashimi, nigiri ... :D Arf reacted the same way I did when I first ate in Genji: pick up lots of stuff from the revolving conveyor belt! We were so full we had to walk it off or fall asleep at the table.
We spent the rest of the day shopping. Arf and I bought some clothes. I got a skirt and my ultimate white polo :) It's so cute. I also got a girly girl (aka feminine) ensemble from Arf and Dawn as a present. I requested it from them and Arf pulled through and chose a beautiful pale yellow skirt and a sleeveless white cotton blouse. It's so pretty!
Ok, people who actually know me and know how I dress will be shocked to read that last part. Hehe, I usually dress in jeans and shirts. I own 1 pair of sandals, 1 pair of leather shoes, 3 boots and the rest are all rubber shoes. I also have only 2 skirts and I'm 25 years old. But I'm not really feeling boyish and I want to change my wardrobe again. Last time I changed it was 4 years ago. I can wear anything as long as I'm comfortable in them so high heels are still not in the list of possible footwear. :p
Then we decided to have a bit of adventure and look for Metrowalk. I've heard that Metrowalk is now the new haven for *ahem* pirated DVDs so I asked for directions from Tin. The guards or sales people I asked in Greenhills looked at me as though Metrowalk was not to be found anywhere in the country and I was seriously lost.
Metrowalk was a jeep ride away from Greenhills and it was so hot when we got there that we decided to take a break at Starbucks. We chatted for a while and cooled off before we explored the new mall. Most of the places in Metrowalk are food places. Misato, Starbucks, Iceberg... just to name a few. There's even one called Phi (the nickname Dawn and Arf calls me, every barkada I had gave me a new nickname) a resto and bar at the second floor.
The clothes there were nice. Arf liked the selection there better than in Greenhills. Dawn and I loved the DVD slection. We found a store that sold Korean movies and Akira Kurusawa movies! Toshiro Mifune looked so young in Stray Dog. I wanted to buy it but I had already bought Shaolin Soccer and Stepford wives. By that time I had 31 pesos left to my name and not a single ATM machine on sight.
Most of the DVDs sell for 70 pesos. My copy of the Stepford Wives was good.
Dawn splurged on DVDs :)
We separated after that and I rode a bus home with Arf. We realized that we had been walking for almost 5 hours that day and my feet hurt because I was wearing boots instead of sneakers. It was a great day.

The last day was spent with my folks at Wasabi. Wasabi is a restaurant in Makati Avenue that serves Japanese food (of course). We came there for the Sunday buffet. The food was nice because they weren't common Japanese foods. My favorite was the Seafood Thermidor and the No. 1 special. I also kept coming back for the green tea salmon sashimi.
The best part of the buffet was the dessert table. Johann was right, it is funky. I had a mango crepe with Vanilla ice cream, Chocolate Marquis, frozen Tiramisu, Green cheesecake and mango creme brulee.

After that I convinced them to go to Metrowalk with me :) I got the Village DVD hehe I loved that movie. I watched it with neal and pauline last year and I was the one who told them when it was safe to look because I was the only one looking at the screen :p

Then we went to SM north to buy a table for the new stove but we ended up buying a TV.
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I'm now 25. Hmm... Arf posted a question. Quarter of a century old and what do I have to show for it?

late late holy week blues

holy week
i've always secretly hated holy week. as a child, most of my birthdays fell on one of the holy days. when it fell on an Easter Sunday, my birthday would be happy. I'd have a party and gifts. Most of the time though, it usually fell on a holy Thursday, black Saturday or when I'm really unlucky : good Friday.
I felt cheated. Sometimes it felt like the world was against me when I see my birthday printed with red ink on the calendar. Lately though, I've been having a lucky streak, the holy week is usually a week before or after my birthday which is ok.
on the radio, people were wondering if it was ok to celebrate your birthday even if it falls on a good Friday. Speaking from experience, I would rather not celebrate it on the exact date. First of all, it is a solemn event and it is very important for Catholics to realize that it takes precedence over birthdays. Besides who would want to celebrate your birthday when malls and restaurants are closed and you can't eat meat. Just do the celebrations on Easter Sunday and have an egg hunt.
I hate the holy week but I know it is important. I guess for the people who want to celebrate their birthday, just imagine what would it feel like if you just died and people celebrated? If its still ok with you, well, you certainly didn't die to save everyone anyway so anything goes.
my family used to go out to the province or the beach during the holy week. Blame my dad who dreads the catholic rituals and would rather run away. During the last few years though, we've spent it at home. Though we still go around driving in the car looking for "Jewish" restaurants and stores. They're "Jewish" or "Chinese" or "Muslim" to my dad who is kind of racist, but only for fun. Lately, more people have been spending the holy week here in metro Manila. Mainly because their are a lot of restaurants open and Cable TV doesn't take a holy week break. People now have things to do here during the Holy Week.
I managed to finish watching "Love Me If You Dare". I loved it. Those two lovers were crazy. Love should be full of passion. Though waiting for more than 10 years to finally get together is not a really great idea for me :p The only downside was the crappy subtitles. He of course it's pirated. They kept saying "Guarantee" instead of just "Promise" so the original is a good investment because the dialogue is good (well it sounds like its good).
I also finished reading Dogsbody. Wonderful book. I wouldn't put it down it unless I really had to. Diana Wynne Jones is now officially one of my favorite authors.
Last Friday was also the first Good Friday I ever spent with neal. I held his laptop hostage so that he would come visit me. He didn't go to the province because he had work.
We met and spent the afternoon reading parts of Dogsbody to each other. neal likes to use different voices so it's really fun to hear him read. I read to my sister but only if she wants to fall asleep. She believes the sound of my voice can put her right to sleep. It's true too. I barely read 2 pages of the Arabian Nights and she's be asleep. Ask anyone else and they'll tell you my voice is not calming enough to put anyone to sleep. Go figure.