have been roommates with roz for 4 months now, and she's some roommate!

the horror - she's able to make me watch sadistic thriller horror movies. i always always avoid watching these kinds of things. for some reason, she's able to convince me. prom night. then the latest one, eto the best talaga - the last house on the left. grabe! when the genre said sadistic horror, it really meant sadistic. nanghihina na kami sa kalagitnaan nung movie. hay nako. in fairness, it wasn't like other pointless no-purpose killing spree movies. read the synopsis :D

the perks - eating really gooood food. hehe, galing ni roz magluto! spaghetti, lemon chicken, carbonara, sweet and sour pork, garlic and herb seasoned fried chicken, kahit corned beef masarap! thank you thank you roz!

i am a couch potato. to tweak the term and make it more apt for me, i am a bed potato. at home, i rarely leave my bed except to eat. so, i aim to be able to do my favorite pastimes without getting up from bed. watch movies in bed. surf the net in bed. read books in bed. play games in bed. there.

hail the (jailbroken) ipod touch for enabling all those. and the apps that make them possible.

Ebook-to-Images (PC)
converts ebook formats to a set of images which you can then load as a photo album in touch. page turning is as easy as swiping to next picture. and you can manipulate the font size and font and background colors to suit your reading preference.

Files
reads office documents, pdf files, media files, etc.

Rotation Inhibitor (Cydia)
the touch's accelerometer is a wonderful thing. however, there are times when you don't want orientation to auto-rotate, like when reading a book while lying down and you twist and turn for a more comfortable position.

YM

Backgrounder (Cydia)
allows apps to run in the background (e.g. YM) so you don't lose your session if you need to switch apps or lock the touch for a while.

So many games

Remote
controls your PC's iTunes over wifi. no need to stand up to skip a song or lower the volume.

VLC Remote
movies and series episodes are still better to watch on a big screen. controls your PC's VLC player over wifi. open files, pause, and switch to full screen without leaving the bed.

Remote Pad
like having a wireless keyboard and mouse. time to go to sleep after watching a movie? shut down the computer with a few swipes and taps on the touchpad.

thanks to the geeks who developed these apps. it's like that episode in Big Bang Theory when they switched on and off the table lamp and controlled their stereo through the internet...
penny: why??
sheldon: (with a "duh" look on his face) because we can.

indeed. and it's so cool. i got all giddy when i was able to control my mouse cursor through the touch. oh what fun! :)

in case you don't watch local tv, this is the latest tagline of the new set of enervon commercials. sobrang perky ng pagkakasabi ng line na yan, especially the one with kim chiu. wala lang, naalala ko lang because that has been my state of mind for some time now - HAPPY.

hoping for something better is different from being unhappy due to dissatisfaction. this was one point discussed in our BS session in the office - God not wanting us to carry the burden of discontent.  and so i count my blessings, and indeed, i am happy. and i am grateful to be happy. even just the past couple of weeks were filled with both big and small happy happenings, for which i say thank you, Lord!

thank you for dan, whose patience i cannot begin to measure. i guess in my being too comfortable with him, i let out freely my tantrumatic side. but he endures.

thank you for star trek xi. hahaha, i am not a star trek fan and aren't familiar with the story and characters, but this movie i can say was the most interesting and entertaining i've watched in a long time.
thank you for hot water, which makes a shower upon waking up in the morning one less dreadful activity for the day.

in this time of economic uncertainty, thank you for my job. issues will always be present and some days seem hopeless, but i love my work. thank you for the wonderful people i work with and the company i work for.

speaking of company, roz, welcome to Globe! see you on monday :)

thank you for gadgets, especially when they're free! free to me, at least. hehe =P i appreciate well-taken pictures, but i'm not a photographer. now i'll try and learn to be, with the panasonic lumix lx3 dan gave last wednesday. he says it's an investment in my being more interested in his hobby. me thinks it's maybe so next time i won't roll my eyes when he mulls over getting another lens.
thank you for my very responsible dad, who never ceases to amaze me how he is able to provide for us sufficiently, not just physically but also in wisdom.

thank you for bonding times with my mom. we exasperate each other, but in times like window shopping, getting a pedicure, or even deciding how much tip to leave, we could not agree more.

thank you for selecta gold series ice cream. pag kumain kaya ako nito every week, tataba na ko?
thank you for answered prayers, for eula not getting laid off in the US and taking charge of a major project while her boss is away in the next weeks. euls, i love and miss you so much! see you in september!

thank you for good news. after 5 years of waiting for this, i'm going to have my first niece. so excited! congratulations to my cousin moe and her husband mike.

hay, marami pa, pero nagugutom na ko. time for more ice cream. berry strawberry...heaven.

was at dlsu last thursday for the career talks of ayala group of companies and globe telecom. haven't been to the school grounds for a looooong time. it was nice to be there again and see what's changed since.

for a brief trip down memory lane, miko and i decided to visit gokongwei building. and we see tables and tables of students with laptops. no one with a desktop, not even one! it isn't that surprising really, considering how much less laptops cost now. miko remarked that before, only the rich chinese had laptops hahaha! so that's how it is now in gokongwei, 3 years after.

ganun na ba katagal yun? it's so amusing to remember how we carried our desktops to school, fought for table space and the DO's ridiculous policies that just don't make sense for us ccs people - confiscating unattended desktops in the lobby (what were we supposed to do? like miraculously shrink and place them in our pockets while we go to class?), offense for playing solitaire (really, what were they thinking? that we willingly suffer the hassle of bringing our huge desktops JUST to play solitaire? can't we get a break??).

hmmm...we're getting old.

thought of sharing this blog entry from demonbaby - very insighful and relevant for us generation ipod people/download maniacs/music lovers...

my dad showed it to me yesterday. it's dated over a year already and is a long read, but i hope you endure it coz it's a really good piece, i promise.

---

When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide.

[Currently Listening To: Music I Didn't Pay For]

For quite a long time I've been intending to post some sort of commentary on the music industry - piracy, distribution, morality, those types of things. I've thought about it many times, but never gone through with it, because the issue is such a broad, messy one - such a difficult thing to address fairly and compactly. I knew it would result in a rambly, unfocused commentary, and my exact opinion has teetered back and forth quite a bit over the years anyway. But on Monday, when I woke up to the news that Oink, the world famous torrent site and mecca for music-lovers everywhere, had been shut down by international police and various anti-piracy groups, I knew it was finally time to try and organize my thoughts on this huge, sticky, important issue.

For the past eight years, I've worked on and off with major record labels as a designer ("Major" is an important distinction here, because major labels are an entirely different beast than many indie labels - they're the ones with the power, and they are the ones driving the industry-wide push against piracy). It was 1999 when I got my first taste of the inner-workings of a major record label - I was a young college student, and the inside of a New York label office seemed so vast and exciting. [read the rest of the entry here]

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From E! Online:
ABC has canceled Pushing Daisies, executive producer Bryan Fuller has confirmed...

Why oh why oh why?? :((

According to Fuller, the facts are these: "It's very likely that Pushing Daisies will end after episode 13, which as you know, is a cliffhanger. But we are talking to DC Comics about doing comic books that will wrap up our storylines, and I already have a pitch for a [big-screen] movie ready to go."

Wah, sana nga matuloy!

Kristin Chenoweth (Olive Snook): “Pushing Daisies will probably forever be one of my most happiest times of my career. I loved being apart of that show, such quality, and I’m very sad."

I couldn't agree more! This show was so so so nice, so unique and very fresh. I'll miss it. Just when the characters are developing...ugh, sad sad sad!

not the jedi...but of

1) wilson in house m.d. season 5, episode 4
after three episodes of making me sad because wilson doesn't want to be house's friend anymore and has resigned from the hospital (the third episode didn't even have wilson in it, i thought there was no hope!), wilson comes back! oh, i just couldn't help but smile. he's so adorable :)
"i guess nobody gets to choose who their parents are. i'm not even sure anymore we get to choose who are friends are." - wilson

2) bryce larkin in chuck season 2, episode 2
ah...bryce, chuck's nemesis. i was intrigued after the first few episodes of season 1. developed a crush by episode 7. after episode 10, i was in love. hahahah!!! but chuck's loveable, too. tough, sarah, tough.

visited scott westerfeld's blog and the news is bogus to bubbly will be coming out this october 21. finally!


kaso baka dito sa pinas wala pa :( sana dito din!!! pag di ako makaintay, bibilhin ko na online...err dan, early gift for TEN? =P

i'm really healthy...so long as no sick people are around me. hehe :) so when dan and i met for dinner last wednesday and he was virus-stricken, no surprise i got sick myself the very next day. i drank lots of vitamin c and pineapple juice and even went home early, but too late it seems. when i woke up friday morning, my sore throat was worse, i had a headache and fever. grr...i hate sore throat. i begged off from work and drank lots of vitamin c again and just slept the whole day. i wanted to get well IMMEDIATELY...because we were watching the opening of stages' west side story that night. argh, this virus had cursed timing!

at 4 pm, i got up and got ready. i thought i was feeling good enough. by 5pm, my mom and i were on our way to meralco theater.

traffic!!! by the time we got off the bus at ortigas, it was 7:45pm already! no time to eat dinner :( we walked...YES, WALKED...all the way from galleria to meralco theater. we thought of taking a cab, but looking at the state of traffic, we would be even more late if we did. we arrived at meralco theater exactly 8pm. my throat felt so dry and i knew my fever was lurking near, ready to return. bought the souvenir program and got to our seats. front row, woohoo!

the set was more elaborate than stages' high school musical last year. made the stage look bigger than it is. it was fantastic - the lights, the choreography, the smooth transition between sets in relation to the scenes, the cast, the orchestra...

the show must go on
there were times when things didn't all go well, so i admire the actors for being so professional and dealing with it.

• jake macapagal's (bernardo) lapel went off at one scene, and to have himself heard during critical lines, he positioned himself nearer the other cast members so their lapel can pick up his voice. tricky, since they were dancing all the while.
• someone's lapel (i'm not sure whose) kept giving off static during the turning point scene of joanna ampil (maria) and rowena vilar (anita). and though i was starting to get annoyed (and gerard salonga who was conducting the filharmonika orchestra seemed to be getting irritated, too, as he was shooting daggered looks at the stage), i soon got over it coz joanna and rowena just performed it off, as if nothing odd was happening. (i have a theory that it was joanna's lapel and that it got messed up during her brief bed scene with christian bautista the scene before hahaha!)
• i'm not really sure if this was a booboo, but the garbage can toppled over while the drugstore set was being pushed into position, making some really loud noise. i don't think it was meant to happen coz it looked awkward lying open and empty at the center of the stage. christian (tony) made it look like part of the scene though by pacing nervously and kicking the other props, like he was throwing a tantrum from impatience.
• the fence prop slid while christian was climbing over it as the audience gasped with concern. finally, his feet were on the ground and i was able to breathe with relief.

special mention

• jake and rowena were sooooo good. really, they were the spice of the evening.
• whenever riff was onstage, my mom would keep whispering to me..."familiar to ah, sino ba yan?" "si gian magdangal yan" "ah! yan ba si gian? ang galing!" yes, ang galing niya talaga.
• joanna ampil...what more can be said of this wonder from london west end? she was exceptional, of course.
• christian bautista, nako, hahaha, ano ba masasabi ko...
• i could hear the girls in the audience fighting off their kilig once he appeared onstage. SWOON MATERIAL TALAGA! it was only his first scene. he hadn't even sung or anything, just walked out from one of the set's doors and was having some conversation with gian. then when he sang something's coming...aaaahh!!! i had to consciously remember this was a musical play and not a concert where i could scream with adoration. well, i had a sore throat anyway and couldn't actually scream if i wanted to.
• i'm grateful that tony's part requires him no rigorous dancing in this musical, almost no dancing at all. we all know christian CAN'T DANCE...he just can't, ok? that's why he was booted out in star in a million the night the top three was decided.
• he was able to hold his own opposite joanna ampil. no note out of place, no shaky verses, every line was certain and hit well. i still wish though that he attacked the songs using his modulated voice, the way he sang say that you love me, she's out of my life (duet with nina), basically how he sang during his star in a million days - more operatic than pop, which suits him better in my opinion.
• the gun shot sound effect during the finale was so sudden and believable that most in the audience yelped with shock, then couldn't help but laugh over their nervousness while it was obviously a tragic scene. no, i wasn't one of them. i was too distracted by my headache at this point to produce a reaction.

overall, it was great. worth getting myself sicker. though i would have enjoyed it better if i wasn't. good thing i have a chance to watch it again *clap clap clap* next month! i hope it's karylle playing maria on that night so i get to see her do the role. though her voice wouldn't match joanna's for sure, i have a feeling her maria will have better onstage chemistry with tony. that would make the duets more loveable.

now back to drinking lots of vitamin c...