Tidbits for the Week

Busy busy busy.

I'll say it again. Busy. Busy.

Busy.

---

Pumpkins' Smashing Return!

Billy Corgan took out a full page ad in a newspaper and said: "Now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs and my dreams. In this desire I feel I have come home again". It wasn't really clear in his ad about the who, when and where of the reunion, but I feel the rocking good times with the Pumpkins are finally back.

Although some people weren't that happy with this impending reunion.

Some of my favorite Smashing Pumpkins' songs:

Today [Today is the greatest day I've ever known]
Disarm [Disarm you with a smile]
1979 [We were sure we'd never see an end to it all]
Perfect [Perfect strangers down the line]
Tonight, Tonight [Time is never time at all]
Ava Adore [You will always be my whore]

---

Eek. I went to Sherbee's dance class last Tuesday, and I felt like an out-of-place bull in a china shop with all the dancing bodies there. Hahah.

Good thing I learned some shoulder and arm movements for J.Lo's Get Right. The arm movements were easy enough, although my feet are having a hard time catching up :P

---

I've been obssessed with these websites ever since I stumbled into them a few weeks ago: PerezHilton, A Socialite Life and Defamer. All the celebrity gossip, together with pictures (!), that you'd ever need to know, from Lindsay Lohan's frightening slimdown, to TomKat conspiracies! It's all there! Woohoo!

---

Aargh. I'm so frustrated with my weight!!! I need to lose around 10-15 pounds before September. How the hell am I going to do that???

Good thing there's Lindsay Lohan's Emaciation Proclamation. Hahahah.

Or maybe I should try her Extreme Diet Chamber? [Warning, gross factor very high!]

---


The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wonderfully weird movie. Although I don't think everybody will appreciate H2G2 (there were only a handful of us watching in Robinson's Metro East). After the movie, Dar scratched his head and said, "Ba't parang walang sense?" Wahahaha!!!

I tried reading the book first before watching the movie, but alas, the e-book version I got was not complete. Crap. Oh well, there were a lot of things that I really didn't *get* while watching the movie, so I'm definitely going to look for the complete series of Douglas Adams' books. [Some guy in the movie house was *really* laughing out loud in some of the scenes. I'm guessing he'd read the books already :p]

Want to know more about the answer to life, the universe and everything? The ultimate answer is discussed in Wikipedia, while Google computes for it.

---

I've been doing progress regarding my wedding preparations! Woohoo. I'll be updating this one of these days, ayt!

---

I met up with some of the old DSP peeps last Friday at Mang Jimmy's. Ramil was our special guest of honor, as he's back from Japan. Dean Gev was also there and she was the first one to arrive, and I was freaking out while Drei and I were stuck in traffic in Katipunan hahaha! Reghz, Machacon, Jor-el and Franz were also there, and we devoured Mang Jimmy's fare -- tapa, sizzling squid, sisig, bangus and kare-kare. Yum.

It was so nice to be with this group of people again! They're the only people who gets how it is to live and breathe EEE. I heard DSP terms again like 'fricatives, sinusoids, image processing, MatLab, language model'! It was so surreal!

The best part of it all was Dean Gev's reply to my "Thanks for having dinner with us!" message: It was good seeing you folks again, you all turned out so well, am proud of you.

---

I can't believe I slept for more than 12 hours this weekend! I slept around 4pm yesterday, Saturday, and woke up around 5:30am, today, Sunday. And I'm still feeling sleepy! Hahahha. Well, at least I feel like I've rested well enough from the week before's haggardness. I hope it's enough for this week, too, hehehe.

Toodles!!! ^_^

Quotation Marks

AFI just made a list of the top 100 movie quotes.

Rhett Butler's "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" from the movie Gone with the Wind won the top spot.

From E! Online:

Frankly, my dear, even those who have never seen Gone with the Wind can still identify Rhett Butler's final words to Scarlett O'Hara.

The level of instantaneous recognition inspired by Clark Gable's final line to Vivien Leigh--"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"--led the American Film Institute to deem it number one on its list of the top 100 movie quotes.

The listmakers extraordinaire over at the AFI revealed the latest compilation in their 100 Years series--100 Movie Quotes: America's Greatest Quips, Comebacks and Catchphrases--in a three-hour CBS television special Tuesday hosted by Pierce Brosnan.

The winning lines were selected by 1,500 jurors from a list of 400 nominees. Voting criteria included a nominated quote's cultural impact on the national lexicon and whether it was used to invoke the legacy of the film in which it appeared.

More from E! Online - News - AFI's Top Movie Quotes

Some notable (quotable?) quotes included in the list:

8. "May the Force be with you." Star Wars
10. "You talking to me?" Taxi Driver
22. "Bond. James Bond" Dr. No
23. "There's no place like home" The Wizard of Oz
25. "Show me the money!" Jerry Maguire
37. "I'll be back" The Terminator
39. "If you build it, he will come" Field of Dreams
40. "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get" Forrest Gump
44. "I see dead people" The Sixth Sense
50. "Houston, we have a problem" Apollo 13
52. "You had me at 'hello'" Jerry Maguire
54. "There's no crying in baseball!" A League of Their Own
63. "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" The Graduate
76. "Hasta la vista, baby" Terminator 2: Judgment Day
85. "My precious" The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
94. "I feel the need--the need for speed!" Top Gun
95. "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary" Dead Poets Society
100. "I'm king of the world!" Titanic

Rock. Me. Hard place.

Caught in the middle and nowhere to go.

---

I feel so inefficient these past few days. I've been working so slow even though the threat of a deadline is looming over my head. I even brought home some work with me for the long weekend, but the only thing I did was to unzip the files, check some of the codes, and that's it. It took me less than 30 minutes. Pathetic. (Ang lakas talaga ng loob ko -- one of my bosses can be reading this right now :P)

It's so hard to wake up early in the morning. I usually set my alarm to 5 in the morning, but I get up from the bed around 5:30. Then, instead of taking a bath after drinking my coffee, I sit in front of the PC and surf. Whaddafuck? Instead of leaving at the idealistic time of 6:30am [to be able to get to the office waaaay before 8], that's the only time I take a bath. I know in my mind and heart and body that I have to be in the office before 8, but I still let myself be lazy. Aaargh.

---

He didn't even ask for the other side of the story. More than likely, the story he heard (or was told) was already an exaggerated version of an already highly convoluted conversation. For him, that version was enough for him to make his judgement.

What else can one say? There really is no fighting the mother's side of the story.

---

It's so hard being a secret-keeper.

Remembering who has what secret.

Keeping track of other people who knows the secret.

Of the person who knows that some other persons know of the secret.

And if the one who told me the secret knows if I divulged it already to somebody else.

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive

So true.

---

Living in somebody else's house can really take a toll on you.

You're stuck in one room in the house. You feel like you always have to ask permission to use something even if you've been living there for almost four years already. Everybody can enter your room, but you'd feel dyahe entering theirs. They can have an opinion of you, but you can't have an opinion of them. They can get mad at each other, but you can't get mad at them. They can talk back to each other, but I can't talk back at them.

And then, the reason why you lived in that house in the first place, just brushes you off. I feel like I am an extremely obese person stranded in an island full of cannibals.

Well, you know what they say about house guests: like fish, they stink after three days.

---

Rock. Me. Hard place.

A very uncomfortable position, I tell you.

Secrets

I just love this site. Really tugs at your heartstrings.

Some of my favorite heartbreaking secrets (from the site, not my own secrets, hehehe --> ba't ang defensive ko? Hahahah!):

---

[+] I used to be pretty.
I wish I had that secret.

[+] I'm in love with my best friend.
Awww... Sweet Dreams material :)

[+] I wish my parents could see me for what I am...
I'll try my damnest to see Darice for who she really is.

[+] I agreed to get an abortion...
Good thing I never had to make that kind of decision.

[+] I cut myself...
Sometimes, I do feel the urge to cut myself.

[+] I never told anyone...
I hope I'll never feel the guilt and regret.

[+] Sometimes I think my fiance isn't the one.
Especially when I feel the vast expanse of distance between us.

[+] I love you so much but I can't tell you!
I love you so much but I don't want to tell you.

[+] I'm still in love with her...
And I'm still in love with him.

[+] His temper is so scary, I've lost all of my opinions.
All I know now is that I'm scared.

[+] I wish I were a popular idiot...
Hahahha. Love the fact that the Fourier series is included in this secret.

[+] When my friends go on diets, I discourage them...
I don't want to be that friend.

[+] Sometimes I want to run away from home...
I just want to disappear.

[+] I miss feeling close to God.
I just want to feel protected by Him.

Monster

With his face inches from hers, distorted to an unrecognizable rage, she then realized: "I'm going to marry a monster."

And then she feels nothing.

---

The wound never healed.

That old thing about time is bullshit. It doesn't heal wounds. It just makes them rot.[1] And the bandages that barely cover it up are just there to hide the rot, the smell -- the constant reminder of a broken promise.

And now, salt in the wound.

---

She terribly misses him.

Him, who gave her roses when she was having a bad day.

Him, who comforted her as she cried herself to sleep.

Him, who wanted her so bad, he'd just pull over.

Him, who wanted to kiss her all the time.

Him, who was with her when they became a family.

Him, who told her "Kanina pa kita pinapanood matulog".

She never sees him anymore. He just left. But he did leave one thing with her.

He left her a monster.

---

[1] From Christopher Pike's The Visitor

'Yan ang Pinay!

The first time I learned about this was through Ramil. He searched for the keyword Filipina and got these results. Tsk tsk. Hanubayan.

And it's now a full-blown campaign to link the word “Filipina” to URLs and permalinks to each others’ blog posts that describe women of the Philippines as “excellent, smart and tenacious.” [Global Voices Online] Thanks to Drakulita and Jonas Diego, the campaign also has its own logos.

To contribute to this campaign, I added "Yan ang Pinay" links to my sidebar. These are the sites that we want to show up first on the list when somebody googles the word Filipina. We are more than mail-order brides or penpals. These sites, especially those from bloggers, describes the Filipina as "excellent, smart and tenacious".

I hope my little contribution helps. I'm planning to write a post about what it means to be a Filipina, but I don't have the time yet or the creative juices flowing as of now to write something coherent. I want to write a particularly inspired post about being a Filipina, not just a few bumbling words.

Let's all do something for this movement. Mabuhay ang Filipina! ^_^

Musical Baton

Total volume of music files in my computer:

17 GB: Thanks to around 4 years of mostly downloading MP3's over the 'net. It started with AudioGalaxy, then it spawned to the many peer-to-peer networks used today. Our music files ballooned especially during the years 2002-2003, when Dar put up a CD-burning service in his computer shop. Right now, I only get to download a song a week! So pathetic, I know.

Last CD I bought:

I really don't buy CDs. No, make that, I don't buy CDs. Period. Hehehe.

But the last time I bought one, and I think it was the first and last time I bought one, was during the Black Eyed Peas visit to Podium. Yes, I had to buy their CD Elephunk, so I could line up and have them sign it. Totally worth it, as I got to see the goddess Fergie up close and personal. Naks.


Song playing right now:

Name by Goo Goo Dolls

I'm checking out my blog, and so right now I have Name playing on my site. Again, a sad song, perfect for those really sad and lonely days. Like right now.


Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

Ang hirap naman, five songs lang???

All I Have by J. Lo and LL Cool J

Everytime I listen to this song, I remember the last few weeks of thesis, around March 2003. That was not a good month, I tell you. And All I Have was the perfect I-hate-you-goodbye song that I would sing just to let it all out.

The nights I’ve waited up for you,
promises you made about coming through,
so much time you wasted,
that's why I had to replace you...

O diba, ang tapang.


When We Dance by Sting

The first time I heard this song in high school, I was instantly smitten. For me, it's the perfect slow dance song, especially if you're dancing with somebody you truly love and adore. It even inspired me to do a rough draft of a short romantic love story, but I never got around to really writing it down. I grew up, and romance and dancing became an idealistic fantasy for me.

Come and live with me
We'll have children of our own
I would love you more than life
If you'll come and be my wife

Pamatay. Pakakasalan ko talaga ang taong maglakas loob na kantahin 'to sakin.


Magasin by the Eraserheads

Ahh the ultimate sing-along song. This reminds me of high school, of heady days fantasizing about Ely Buendia and being Eraserheads' groupie. When we got a new guitar, I immediately taught myself to play this song. So easy, coz 4 chords lang, well, sabi sa songhits na yon hehehe.

Iba na ang 'yong ngiti, iba na ang 'yong tingin
Nagbago nang lahat sa 'yo
Sana'y hindi nakita, sana'y walang problema
Pagkat kulang ang dala kong pera... pambili ...
Oooh...Pambili sa mukha mong maganda.

Anyways, the chords are C-E-Am-F, paulit ulit lang.


Head over Feet by Alanis Morissette

The angst-filled angry woman falls in love. It's so nice to see those really angry people soften up when they fall in love. And you know it must be something special, because this is the woman who sang "You Oughta Know" like there were no decent men left in the world.

You are the bearer of unconditional things
You held your breath and the door for me
Thanks for your patience

Kelangan lang makahanap ng kakantahan nito.


Waiting in Vain by Annie Lennox

Desperate and hopeful at the same time; a deadly combination. I love singing this song when I'm spiralling endlessly down into the deadly hole of my desperation (like today).

Is it crazy love, I wanna know now
For I to knock some more
In life I know there is lots of grief
But your love is my relief

Waaah... ba't lagi ko na lang kinakanta 'to?


Five people I'm passing this to:

Hmmm, wifelysteps, dontpanicitsorganic, purpledoilies, aggiedil and kilcher: I hope you guys have the time to do this and pass it on ;)


P.S. Got the musical baton from Abi. ^_^

P.P.S. PMS-ing heavily right now so forgive my melancholy mood. If I wrote this a week after, I would have chosen different songs.