Maya Moments

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all the males of the species that have been able to pass on their genetic material and produce offspring! Kudos. If you're a male black widow spider, well, this day might also be your funeral, but I digress.

Since it's Father's Day, we spent the afternoon with my parents over a late lunch. My parents got there before the missus and I. When we got there, my dad introduced us to his friend that was by chance celebrating Father's Day with his family in the same restaurant. We said hello, exchanged polite smiles and sat at our table. Later, they stopped at our table on their way out and we were introduced to the rest of the group. My father introduced me to his friend's son, Mark. As we were shaking hands, my mother said 'Mark is with Rivermaya'. The statement caught me by surprise and the only response that I was able to put together was 'Talaga?' (Really?). He smiled back at me and I was embarrassed for myself. This was Mark Escueta. Although I'm no fanboy, I love Rivermaya's music and have been listening to them for more than a decade. They are definitely on the list of best and most respected groups the Philippines has ever spawned. The family were all nice and we waved goodbye as they left. 

I have a few Rivermaya moments in my life, but I think that takes the cake. Let's countdown the other top 3:

Maya Moment #3: There was a week when I couldn't get one of their songs out of my head, You'll be Safe Here. I didn't have a copy of the album where the song was featured so I decided to ask one of my co-workers, who was a known Rivermaya fan, if she had a copy I could borrow. When I went up to her, she was chatting with a friend. I asked her if she had a copy of Rivermaya's latest album. She said she knows someone who does and asked if I was looking for a particular song. I said yeah, You'll be Safe Here. She and her friend looked at each other and giggled, 'That's been out around a year now and they have a new album'. I suddenly felt old and very un-cool. I know, petty and trivial.

Maya Moment #2: I have blogged about my singing abilities before, the gist of it is I have no talent for it and the world would be better off if I avoid it altogether. But there was one time that I was singing and the missus turned to me and said 'that actually wasn't all that bad'. That's probably the best compliment I'm ever going to get. I only sang a portion of it and quit while I was ahead. The song was Rivermaya's Bring Me Down.

Maya Moment #1: I played guitar back in high school. I never got good at it. I could never tune my guitar without an electronic tuner. I did get to a point where I could play the basic chords, and with a lot of practice, I might learn a whole song. There were people in our  batch that were good and could play songs by ear. I, on the other hand, needed chords from Songhits or a similar magazine to be able to play. A group of them sometimes got together to jam during weekends. During our senior year, they were asked to perform at the last event for the seniors before graduation. They needed another person to play on guitar, for no other reason other than we were friends and I had the right equipment, they asked me to join. They certainly didn't asked me because of my talent. It was fun jamming with them and eventually playing in front of the batch. I sucked of course, but I had fun. One of the songs we played was Kisapmata by Rivermaya. One of the coolest things I have ever done.

Mother's Day

To all mothers, Happy Mother's Day!

First thing the wife and I did when we woke up this morning was call our mothers to greet them. We were going to visit my mom later in the day. We had her on speaker when we called her, here's how part of the call went:

Me: "Do you want us to pick-up anything on the way there?"

Her answer was quick, there was no pause and it seemed she was just waiting for me to ask. She pounced on the question and answered with a snap.

Mom: "Jollibee!"

She sounded a little too excited for junk food so it made me laugh. After we all recovered from chuckling, we asked her what she wanted us to get her.

Mom: "Fried chicken and that big burger they have."

Me: "Champ Burger?"

Mom: "No, not that one, the other one."

I looked at the missus puzzled.

Missus: "Aloha Burger ma'?"

Mom: "Yup, that's the one."

After chuckling a bit more (she was laughing too), we told her we would be there in an hour or so with the food. We later found that Jollibee no longer sold Aloha Burgers, so we just got her a Champ (aww). We also bought her a cake. When we got there, we had a nice junk food meal together, and then had cake and ice cream. It was a menu for a children's party. Dad was out of town on business so it was just the three of us. He probably would have something to say about the food we were eating. He regularly point's out that it wouldn't hurt the three of us to lose some weight. Of course, he does it out of love, or so he says. We spent the rest of the day talking and watched a couple of videos. The missus and I brought "Hairspray" and "The Bucket List" for us to watch. We all enjoyed both movies. Mom especially related to Hairspray, she used to style her hair the same way as the women in the movie. We really needed no convincing as both the missus and I have seen tons of her photographs during that time. In this post is one of those photographs. This was an old worn-out and damaged photograph which I scanned and did some restoration on, so if you see that she has six fingers on one hand, an extra pair of legs or eyes, that was my fault. Mom's perfectly normal and won't be joining the X-Men any time soon. Well, she does have high blood pressure, but I don't think that will qualify as a special ability.

She was also familiar with some of the dance moves in the film. Mom's a good dancer. If there are any researchers out there on the subject, I am definitive proof that dancing is not hereditary. I'd be happy to take part in any case study, especially if you're working on a cure for awkward dancing. That reminds me, even though I live and grew up in the Philippines, there are lots of foreigners who come to visit. I can offer first hand knowledge to the fact that white men can't dance. Not only can't they dance, they frequently inflict injuries to people unfortunate enough to be next to them on the dance floor. That fact should soon be in the science books. Hmmm, that seems to conflict with my earlier statement that dancing abilities are not hereditary, so much for consistency. Seems like we've digressed here, what was I talking about again? Oh yeah, Happy Mother's Day!

Life Resilient

We have this little plant growing in a little hole between our garage floor and wall (pictured left). The floor is some type of marble and the wall is concrete, yet this plant found that little source of light and broke through the surface. I'm totally amazed by it every time I walk by it in the morning. The little seed that could, a show of how resilient life can be.

That little plant (we don't know what it is) reminded me of the Narra tree in front of my parent's house (pictured right). That tree was a project back when I was still in primary school. I think we were asked to bring different kinds of trees. Back then, it was still a sapling when I brought it to school. After we presented it in school, I brought it back home and forgot about it. No one really paid attention to it and it was not watered daily. One day, my mother came to visit, she noticed the tree. It was in an old tin can and most of the leaves had fallen off. The thing was sickly and looked dead. She took it home with her and planted it in an empty lot in front of her house. Amazingly, it recovered and after a couple of decades, it is huge and I would not be able to wrap my arms around it if I tried. It is a magnificent tree. A friend of my father who is reputed to have a third eye (e.g. paranormal sight) once came over to visit and paused in front of the tree. He told my father never to take it down as there are good spirits who live in the tree that watched over it and its surroundings, including their home. He said that this was one of the reasons why my parent's home has been safe in spite of the fact that their place is one of the oldest in the area and almost all of their neighbors houses have been burglarized.

Also, when the missus and I were driving along Pres. Quirino Avenue, we saw a tree that was planted in the partition that separated the north and south bound lanes of the traffic (pictured right). It must have gotten too big than what the partition could handle as it was cut down leaving only a stump. But growing from the stump was two fresh but thick green branches. It the middle of the Manila traffic where pollution was so bad that most of the other tree's branches had turned black this tree, that was cut down, is surviving and bursting with new life.

Savoring Puppy Tears

For people who are Robinson Malate regulars, like yours truly, you'll know that they've expanded the mall. I would say they increased floor space by 30%. I like the new wing, it's arier. But what I'm most delighted about is the opening of a Savory Chicken Restaurant, woohoo! You see how delighted I am? I went "woohoo". You know, to show how delighted I was. Right. Clear and redundant. Gotcha.

The place isn't actually part of the new wing but it opened the same time the new wing did. Savory is where my chicken addiction began. My dad used to bring some home every weekend and we all looked forward to it. And every time that he did, we would have to take turns trying to solve the mystery of "who ate all the chicken and didn't leave some for me". I have to admit that I was part of the usual suspects, and rightly so in most cases. But hey, I was smart enough to be home when dad arrived. After being told off a number of times, I learned to leave my brother's share of the chicken alone, but still, I always failed to do it for the gravy. I was a Savory chicken gravy junkie. "Keep the chicken! But I get all the gravy!" *manic laughter* As far as I'm concerned, Savory has the best chicken gravy in the world. Even if it turns out that they squeezed cute and lovable little puppies to get puppy tears and put that in the mix as their secret ingredient, I don't think I would stop having it.

I finally got a chance to have dinner at the new place this weekend. I was happy to find that both the chicken and the gravy tasted as I remembered them. But the new place is small, there was a line of people waiting to be seated when we got there. Normally, we would just find another place that's less crowded, but this is Savory and I've been looking forward to eating here since I found out it opened a few weeks ago. So that's my only beef (or should I say poultry?) with the place, it's too small. I think this is the first time they've opened in a mall though. All the places I remember were stand-alone restaurants (those restaurants are so emo). But still, I'm glad they're here and accessible. I must have asked the missus ten times if she liked the chicken and gravy.

If you're beginning to be suspicious, the answer is 'no', I was not paid by anyone to make a Savory endorsement. I'm just a fan boy. Some people have Star Wars, I have food. But if someone from Savory stumbles upon this post, well, it would not be below me to accept free meals for life.

Following is some literature I took off their table mats:

The Juicy Story Behind Savory Chicken

The years following the end of World War II proved significant not just for the Philippines but for the four Ting brothers as they moved to start a fresh life and establish their livelihood. By 1950, the brothers had put up a "panciteria" in the busy district of Quiapo serving mainly lomi. Over time, as their little panciteria grew in popularity and as the brothers began to discover other dishes they could solve their customers, they were able to create a 'special' recipe for fried chicken and gravy that became so popular that soon not just members of the local Chinese community came to partake of the special tasty, juicy and tender chicken treat but also a number of Filipinos who would come to the tiny restaurant with their family to 'savor' this 'savory' fried chicken dish.

And thus the popular Savory Chicken House was born and its first branch opened in Escolta. The menu soon expanded to include other Filipino and Chinese dishes. Now, after over 50 years of existence, the third generation of the Ting family who launched Savory are re-launching the Classic Savory Chicken and you are part of this momentous event as you enjoy your Savory chicken with us.

We thank you for your unwavering loyalty and look forward to serving you the best and juiciest fried chicken for many more generations to come.

Remembering the Aratiles

When I think back to my childhood, it seems that the Aratiles tree (a.k.a Alatiris, Alateris, Aratiris) is an omnipresent fixture. Back then, when there was no Internet or cable, and Atari consoles were rare, I spent most of my time outdoors. I would run barefoot in the hot asphalt pavement playing with friends. We hung upside down from the monkey bars, stood up and jumped off the swing sets, ran up the industrial grade aluminum slides, played in construction sites, and rode our bikes as far away from home as we dared. Basically, everything that our parents would tell us not to do. But it seems that at the end of every day, we would end up under the Aratiles tree. It was a common tree and it could be found all over the neighborhood. We were all very fond of climbing it and eating its berries while sitting on its branches and resting in its shade. Of course, everything would end up being sticky and it would always stain our clothes. I also remember once getting caught with a couple of friends climbing a neighbor's Aratiles tree without permission.

Even when our family moved from our old neighborhood into the Metro, the Aratiles tree was there. The new place was smaller and the gray cement dominated everything except for a triangle shaped patch of soil where a lone Aratiles tree stood surrounded by the tightly packed and narrow two storey houses.

I gained new friends in our new neighborhood and we spent most days playing in the shade of that lone tree. But as the years passed by I noticed it getting weaker, until one day, when I came around the plaza I saw people had tied ropes around it and had pulled it out of the ground. I don't remember why they did that, but I do remember being saddened by the sight of it being hauled away. For a while it wasn't the same and we would talk of how we missed the tree. But as certain as the sun shines life moved on. Children are fickle and they forget easily; to a young mind there are many distractions and there are always new things to love.

That event seemed to coincide with when as a kid, I decided that I was going to be one of the adults; Entering that phase where you stop bragging about your latest toy and conversations with your friends start to change. I sometimes wonder if that was a mere coincidence or if there was more to the Aratiles tree. Could it be that the child was hauled away with the tree? It seemed that something shifted in the world, that the lens had changed. From a soft focus where things seemed to glow and the background was blurred, the image suddenly sharpened and things were suddenly clearer. Whereas before the blur allowed for the imagination, now the world became hard and rational. Those empty houses we passed while out on our bikes were no longer haunted, but merely abandoned. The rustling tree at night was no longer due to its giant guardian shifting in the branches to light his thick tobacco. Tall grasses no longer hid gnome villages, but dangerous snakes. You realize that you will never stumble upon a portal to another world in those thickets. You stop rubbing anything that remotely resembles an old oil lamp in hope of getting wishes. It seems as if that fruit was the source of childhood innocence and wonderment.

What if the berry of the Aratiles is the anti-thesis of the Forbidden Fruit? While one takes away innocence, could the other impart it? As the Tree of Knowledge is hidden away, the Tree of Innocence is everywhere. As men search for Eden to behold the tree where dwelt the Serpent, this humble tree will grow wild in the most barren of gardens. As Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat The Fruit, this will be offered to the children. But then, the child eventually tires of the fruit, and visit the tree less and less. He will forget. His young mind will discover other things and learn to love something new. Still, unlike first man and woman who were well aware of what they lost after being casted out of the Garden, the children will never know the value of this fruit and they join the world of Man willingly.

Sometimes when I come around that plaza, I can still see the outline of that tree. Like a phantom limb of a dismembered arm, it feels like it's there.

Just to be safe, I think I will put this down on my "Father To Do List", for when I have kids:

Plant an Aratiles tree.

In the Realm of Dreaming

Okay, first of all, I'd like to say that in the first draft of this post, I was at 1,300 words when I decided it was getting too long and I started over to condense it.

As Filipino book readers, we rarely ever get a chance to see or meet our favorite foreign authors. So it was a joy to find out that Neil Gaiman is having an event at El Centro, Subic Bay. There was going to be a book reading, Q&A, and book signing. Awesome.

It was a 9 AM event (morning, not so awesome). We were told that the drive to Subic is about 2 to 3 hours long. That meant that we had to leave about four hours before the event, you know, allocating for time to get lost like we always do. Estimated time of departure, 5 AM. The problem with that is that Friday night, I got back home from the office around midnight, five hours before we have to leave. When I got home, I ate dinner, planned the trip, and looked at updates on the approaching typhoon. When I looked at the clock again, it was already 3:30 AM. We have to leave in 90 minutes. Sleeping and then getting back up in an hour is just going to make me feel miserable. So I decided to stay up.

By the time we left, it was already 20 hours since I last slept. I was tired. We got to Subic Bay with no problems. We got there an hour early. It had been announced that only the first 100 people would be guaranteed to get a book signed. I didn't expect to be part of that hundred as the last time Neil was here, several people had started lining up four to five hours before the actual event. But when we got there, we were told that we were in the first hundred. Great! I guess the fact that it was a paid event and it was in Subic made it inaccessible to a lot of his fans. We later found out that some people had actually started lining up at 12:30 am. I'm pretty sure those are the Sandman fans.

They started letting people in. Two huge guys in blood red shirts with 'Security' printed on it were patting down everyone. They had a bomb sniffing dog there too. When we got in, they tagged us with stickers on our chest. We were labeled Mrs. 85 and Mr. 86. Yey! As part of the tickets, we also got a signed copy of the Beowulf Script Book written by Neil Gaiman himself and Roger Avary. I also purchased a hardbound copy of Interworld for Neil to sign. We were then ushered to our designated seats. Very organized. After a few minutes, a guy comes up to the stage and says, "Hi, I'm a gay man but not the Gaiman you came here to see". The crowd gives a polite laugh. He then proceeds to tell us that if we wanted a dedication on our book, we should write it down on a Post-It together with our name. Then, right when I was thinking people could take advantage of that, someone raised their hand and asked, "You mean he'll write anything we want?" The guy said yes, and only instructed people to be brief. Wow, I thought. Lots of damage can be done with a brief signed message.

1. *blank* gets everything when I die.
2. I have sold my soul to *blank*
3. I disinherit all my kids and adopt *blank*
4. I stole all my stories from *blank*
5. *blank* is the Forgotten God in American Gods.
6. *blank*'s break-up with Delight turned her into Delirium.

Imagine all those ending with Neil's signature.

So, Neil comes up on stage to loud applause. He starts the event with an introduction to the book he was currently writing, The Graveyard Book, and reads us the first chapter. The only problem during the reading was that I was really tired. There were a couple of times that I nodded off for a second or two. I hope he didn't see me. It wasn't that I was bored. It was a situation where the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Anyway, I loved what I heard and I'm looking forward to picking up a copy. Transcript of the talk and a recording of the reading can be found here (courtesy of Charles Tan).

I think the bit he wanted to do most was address the audience. This is the second time that Neil has come to the Philippines. The first time was two years ago, through the efforts of Fully Booked (So thank you Fully Booked. You guys are pricey but you have a great selection). After that last visit, he felt that there was a lot of talent here in the Philippines that needed an outlet to showcase their work. So he initiated talks with Fully Booked and organized a graphic novel and writing contest. So there was a contest and there are already winners. One of the reasons for him coming here was to launch the book containing the works of the winners from the last competition and to judge the entries for this year's event. This makes me admire the man more. He's giving a lot of his time to nurture Filipino artists and give them a shot at making a career out of their passion.

We line up for the book signing. After maybe half an hour, the wife and I are close to our turn. I run everything down in my mind. Camera, check. Books, check. Post-it, check. Then, I stand beside him. He says 'hello', takes the Post-It to read my name and then pauses. I had written down 'Echu'. He doesn't know how to pronounce it. He shakes it off, and starts writing down my name on the book and the dedication. I had written down 'Finish things.' He writes it down as 'Echu! Finish things!' and signs it. So now I had a mandate from Neil Gaiman to finish what I'm writing. What I had asked him to write came from the talk he gave before the signing. He tells us that aspiring writers often ask him what advice he can give them. His response is 'Write'. I understand what he means. A lot of people say they dream of being a writer but don't actually work on it. Write. No one is going to come up to you and give you a contract out of the blue. Write, send it in and try again. Okay, what if I already am writing? His response to that is "Finish it." Right. Guilty as charged. I have tried to write before, had ideas for a story, but haven't seen them through. Only a couple of pages have ever gone down to paper. So that's what I asked him to write as a dedication. After signing it, he hands the book back to me and I said 'Thank you Neil', very casually that I surprised myself. And he said, "You're very welcome". Then I got a picture taken with him. Lovely.

We get down from the stage, and sit down. Done. We look over our books. Show each other what he had written down. Now, we begin to feel the weight of the day and what we had to do to get back home. Too much. Let's get something to eat first. We had lunch in Jollibee. We were in Subic Bay and we had lunch in Jollibee. People go up here for weekend retreats and we eat at Jollibee. Why would we do that? Well, we were already too tired to make a decision where to eat or look for a good place. So we just went with our default place. Yes I know, we're not ten year olds, but hey, what can say, I love their chicken and palabok. After lunch, we looked at each other. We're in Subic. People come up here for weekend getaways. They have duty free shops. Nah, let's just go home.

Driving home was terrible. At this point, I haven't had sleep for almost thirty hours and I had three hours of driving to look forward to. Doubted if we could make it back. Discussed staying. Too expensive, can't afford it. We decide to push on. Started driving back, but I was struggling to stay awake. Micro slept a couple of times. It was getting too dangerous. An hour and a half into it, we stopped at gas station. I napped for ten minutes. I felt better, but still terrible. We start again. Doing better this time, I stopped nodding off and just felt like hell. Sped through the highway at an average of hundred miles an hour (which is the legal speed limit). I'm guessing though, my speedometer is broken. Twelve hours after we left for Subic, we were back home.

After 100 miles of driving, 36 hours with no sleep, and 6 hours on the wheel, I was exhausted and brain functions were minimal. But still, I was grateful for the day.

Right. So the second draft wasn't short either. Hey, can't say I didn't try.

1st Anniv: Crack Shot, Cracked Voice

Today is the first anniversary of this blog (yey!). There have been a few title iterations, the first one was Pitik Blog (baduy!), then Kastilyong Buhangin, and now Pinoy Pie. And just because, here's a link to the first post.

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Blogger introduced a new feature last month: video uploading. When you want to put an original video on your blog, you don't have to go through a third party service such as YouTube, you can directly upload on Blogger. Very cool, so of course, I felt obligated to use it. The following video is my first time in a live shooting range.



I guess all that money spent shooting plastic ducks and toy soldiers paid off. So don't mess with me. I keep a gun in the car. I don't have a license to carry a firearm, so it's a water pistol for now. To make it more lethal, I have filled it with soap water. You hassle me, I'll shoot you in the eye. Believe me, it's gonna hurt. Maybe it's not too late to change careers. I always wanted to be a cop. It shouldn't be hard to transition. I already have the body type of the average Manila policeman.

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Warning, the following paragraph contains several references to undesirable bodily gas emanations.

My darling wife, who tolerates my burping during meals, who can stand me farting in the car with the windows rolled up, and who can give me a kiss even with morning breathe - draws the line at my singing. I always thought I was a bad singer, but never really appreciated how bad until now. To think that once upon a time, someone actually asked me to sing a duet on stage.

Bearing Fruit

This blog reached a milestone today. Now I know that it was not an idle task and that it was not an entire waste of (cyber)space. I'm glad that it's here. Thanks to those who made that so. Anything good that comes from this from now on is just gravy.

So, as a tribute to this blog (not me), here's a graphical representation of it:

Here's a link to an animated version. You will also see a legend for the graph at that link. To see a graph of your own blog, use this link.

I Melt With You

I don't go outdoors in the afternoon 'cause I'm afraid I'll start to sizzle because of all the lard trapped inside my body. April 18 has been the hottest day in Manila so far and it doesn't sound (or feel) like things are going to improve. From inq7.net:

Temperatures shot up to 36.8 degrees Centigrade in Manila Tuesday, the hottest recorded so far this year by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

Pagasa chief Nathaniel Cruz said the coming days would even be warmer.
...
Cruz, however, pointed out that people felt warmer than the actual temperature, and more uncomfortable because of the high humidity in the atmosphere.
...
"There are two seasons in the country. The wet and dry. Either you get wet or sweat,'' he said.

I think 'warmer' is an understatement. Also, I can think of other words that rhyme with 'wet' and 'sweat'. It's a Tagalog word that starts with a 'p'. Clue: It can also gets sweaty during these days.

I wanna be so rich I can install centralized air conditioning in Manila, both indoors and outdoors. Moving to a cooler climate would make more sense but that would be taking the easy way out and it's just too obvious.

Somebody, blot out the sun! Suck out the humidity! Tilt the globe 20 degrees and takes us out of the equator! Somebody do something! It's hot! I'm fat! I'm sweaty and sticky! This is not right! (sexy imagery huh?)

Syet na mainit!

I Love You Like A Fat Kid Loves Cake

Update: For all things "i love you like a fat kids loves cake" click here. If you came through a search engine, that's probably where you want to be.

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Geez, no new post for more than 2 weeks. I'm slipping.

I just realized that I have some form of subconscious obsession with bread and pastries. I was going through previous post and I found that several of them talked about such things:

• Weeding Out the Stupid
  
• Donut Expect
  
• The Donut Journals (Day 6)
• The Lone Donut Motel
• Better Than Sliced Bread
• Easy As Pie
• Delusions of Grandeur and Meat Pies

Quite a strange discovery since consciously, I'm not too fond of bread or pastries. I'd rather have my hotdog on a stick and make it a Salisbury steak rather than a burger. I’m also not big on pastries or pies either. I'll eat it if it's given to me (true for almost anything edible), but I would rarely order one for myself. Speaking of steaks, look what the missus made for dinner last night. It should give you an idea why I'm fat - I mean weight challenged.

Oldies But Goodies

While surfing the series of tubes this weekend I stumbled upon an old show I used to watch. I really shouldn't talk about it as it betrays my age, but I love 'em and I can't help it. Here's the clip I found:

Automan


I used to love seeing the car make those 90-degree turns (Tron-like, I know) and the way it changes to a helicopter without stopping. I think Manimal was shown on the same night. I'm not a big fan of that show, but I did catch a few episodes. I think they just milked the transformation from man to animal too much. The sequence took more than a minute and it gets really tiring seeing it every episode.

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Update (11/2007): More Automan Stuff
- Here's a weird one, Laura Branigan in Automan lip-syncs to her hit song Gloria. Automan is out during the day and flirting, Cursor turns into a guitar. I don't remember those abilities, but hey, it's been awhile. Also, the video features both spandex and leather pants, can't get more eighties than that.
- What ever happened to Chuck Wagner (Automan)? Well, he has his own website. His latest gig is as a ringmaster in Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Circus. You can also get him to give a talk at your school, Masterclass.
- Here's a link to a video of the full pilot episode. You'll see other full episodes in the related link section.
- And here's my favorite of them all, a parody of Automan. In this version, Automan wears black slacks with his blue plastic suit and Cursor makes crappy cars. Oh yeah, it's in Spanish, but still hilarious.

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After seeing Automan, I remembered a few more of the old shows I used to love. I did some searches on YouTube and found the opening themes for them. These are just the lesser known ones. Other's like McGyver, A Team, and Doogie Howser are pretty well known and actually got out on DVD, so I'm not talking about those.

Let's see if you recognize the actor from this series...

My Secret Identity


I was around ten years old when the show was on air. Every night after watching an episode of this show, I would kneel down beside my bed and pray that I would get super powers. Those were probably the most heartfelt prayers I've ever said.

Small Wonder


I think I got started watching this because it followed ALF, which was another series I used to love. Plus I think I used to have a crush on the lady who played the mom.

And finally my all time favorite show from the list...

Perfect Strangers


I still have the opening theme song in my MP3 list. I love it. It has great lyrics and you just feel like you can do anything after listening to it. Of course, reality sets in after a few minutes you sink back into depression (ha!).

How about "Parker Lewis Can't Lose"? It was a rip off of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" but I watched it all the same.

Getting Rid of the Old

I'm down to the last year of my 20s. I feel like I should be rushing for some deadline. I wanted to do something to calm me down. Hold your breath people this is a dozy - we went to Luneta Park. Yep, couples gone wild we are. Huddled together and sat on the grass by the Rizal Monument. Spent the day reading, watching kids play, people walking their dogs and posing for pictures in front of the monument. Nothing voyeuristic you understand. Those photographers offering to take pictures for a fee are apparently still there. They get into very spirited political discussions in between taking pictures - photographers/political pundits.

Its been long known that the QWERTY layout for keyboards is highly inefficient. The most frequently used letters are spaced out so that type bars in typewriters don't get tangled. Since we no longer mechanically hammer letters into pieces of paper, the format really no longer serves it purpose. But we still use it. Cause we're all basically whinny little kids inside. "I have to learn to type all over again?! Awww!" Honestly, I wouldn't be too excited going through the process myself. That means reverting to the chopstick style of typing again until I get a hang of it. It just bothers me in the way a painting hanging unevenly on a wall bothers me. You know, you're just aching to fix it. I'm a bit OC that way. A lot of layouts have been introduced that are supposedly more efficient. One of them is the Colemak layout, apparently better than Dvorak. Here's a link to a document discussing QWERTY and the alternatives. I didn't bother to read it, but you might :P

Who Killed the Electric Car is a documentary that shows another situation where something better is not being adapted. But in this situation, there's a little more sinister influence repressing it: Big Oil. Here's a link to the official website. Why was the EV1 discontinued in 1999 when they received such good feedback from the owners? Here's a trailer for the documentary. I've been looking for a copy in the local video stores but they're not really big on stocking documentaries. If anyone can lend me a copy, that would be awesome.

Quite Random Things

Kim Lee at the Penn
Nope, it's no Korean pop idol concert, but it might be close. Congratulations to my good friend Kendy! It was a beautiful wedding! Although I wish I could have gotten smashed like in any good wedding. But it was a Sunday night and coming to work with a hangover is never a good thing. It was the Kim - Lee nuptial in The Penn. I just have one advice, if you ever decide to put up a restaurant together, don't use your surnames in naming it - it's a copyright minefield. Best wishes!

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Blog Matters
This blog has reached a couple of milestones this week. First, it is now 4 months old. Second, we're now at over 1,000 visits. Yey! Never mind that probably half of those visits is just me checking how many visits I've had. Yup, it's a pretty vain exercise. Just like the way McDonald's kept count of burgers. Of course, I intend to stop way before I reach a billion :P

Check it out, I'm the primary resource for "Pulis Oysters" in Google. Ha! At least this blog is good for something.

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Quite Interesting
I discovered a new show through YouTube. It airs on BBC2 and the name of the show is QI: Quite Interesting. It's a combination of my two favorite things: trivia and comedians. As the English would say - fantastic! Since almost nobody gets the right answer every time, they just give out points depending on how interesting your answer is, whether or not it directly relates to the question is irrelevant. An interesting answer gets higher points than the right answer :P It's funny watching comedians try to make-up something interesting on the spot. Here a clip from the show.

Blog Neglected

It's 10 days into 2-0-0-7 and this is my first post. Tsk tsk. Poor neglected blog.

Well there are a few things to blog about, but first of - I WANT ONE!

The missus and I went to see the World Pyro Olympics last Sunday. Apparently, thousands of people had the same idea. Families on jeeps, pick-up trucks, vans, motorbikes, and on foot. When I say families on motorbikes, I don’t mean Mom, Dad, Ate, and Kuya had their own individual motorbike. They would be in one two-seater bike with the kids usually squeezed in between Dad who's driving and Mom who's clinging for dear life in the rear. Looking from the back, you would only know there's a kid between them because their arms would be sticking out. Apparently this is the standard configuration for putting a whole family in a bike. The fireworks were magnificent. According to the website, Sunday's show was the United Kingdom and Germany. I loved the second set, which was apparently Germany. And as always during these shows, there were a lot of collective ooohhhs and aaahhhs. We didn't make it all the way to the back of SM Mall of Asia where they were setup. We stopped when we got to Blue Wave cause there were just too many cars, motorbikes, and people trying to get there and the Blue Wave area was near enough to enjoy the show.

Tuesday night, I was still at the office, working tirelessly and diligently late into the night (in case people who think that might be an important detail), when I got a text message from a friend. They were in Libis and asked if I could join them. I haven’t seen the guys for a while so of course I went. Would Batman ignore the Bat Signal? I think not. The only difference is Batman doesn’t have to ask permission from Batwoman, if you know what I mean. And so we got together. Including a friend I haven't seen in years. And we’re meeting a few weeks before she gets married. Another one down. She’s very happy to be getting married and we were happy for her. Especially since we got a free dinner out of it and will be getting one again on the wedding day :P Congratulations Kends! May you have a long and happy marriage :) After dinner, we went to a KTV (apparently there are wholesome ones as well) and there we sang the anthem - Gold by Spandau Ballet. This we always sing (or mostly yell in my case) with fervor, popping throat veins and everything. Yes, baduy. But if you've checked in here more than a few times, you would have already figured that out. It was just fun to be around the guys. Many things to catch up on: people in love, broken hearted, and some apparently have new pets. Of course, there are many others missing from the bunch, but it's been awhile since I've been with this number of the old guys. Come to think of it, some of us have known each other for 10 years now.