i had a very early flight this morning for hawaii, to catch a lunch meeting with the president of a big corporation in manila. hehehe. hawaii is 3 hours behind cali, so technically i'm still in cali time.
first day's kinda hectic. honolulu is beautiful. it actually feels like i'm in another country. and that's good. i'm staying at this nice hotel in waikiki, a few minutes away from the hustle and bustle of the conference site. hilton hawaiian village is one huge hotel. i got lost looking for the registration. the entire hotel, or village, has about 5 buildings and an entire shopping area. love it.
i'm paying $10.95 a day for my internet access. better than the $15/hour at the business center downstairs. although it's kinda expensive, i need to access my mails so i can send my stories and photos as well. sigh. and it's from 12 noon to 12 noon the next day, not the 2 am till 2 am the next day stuff. which i find unfair. like i started getting online only around 130 am here (430 am cali) and my one day expires at noon. if i need to send stories later, i need to pay another $10.95 plus tax. oa.
covered fidel v ramos earlier as he spoke about 100 years of filipino diaspora. saw some familiar folks and met new ones, too. i haven't gone around yet since the day was filled with activities. just like tomorrow, and the day after and the day after that. i can probably go around waikiki beach and honolulu sunday afternoon or monday morning. dang.
Friday, September 29, 2006
high in honolulu
Thursday, September 28, 2006
off to hawaii
i'm flying to honolulu tomorrow for business, but before that, let's continue.
so we went to pechanga. i pledged to myself that i was going to gamble a hundred dollars max. no more, no less. i'm proud to say that i stayed true to that pledge. i played black jack for almost six hours (2 different tables. the first one was $10 a hand and my 40 bucks got screwed in a matter of minutes. five to be exact, the other one was $5 a hand and that's where i stayed really long.) of course, i was winning at first, but when greed happens, shit happens as well.
this is where the 'i-should-have-stopped-while-i-was-winning' shtick is inserted. i had my twin towers (more than a hundred bucks per tower of $5 casino chips) but then two terror planes (my friend's analogy, not mine) hit my twin towers one by one, i was devastated. the first one was named jim, and the other one was gary. of the two, i preferred gary. jim was really bad. his first 3 hands as a dealer? black jack. his fourth? 20. his fifth? 21. five cards! unbelievable. one of the players shouted, 'can you change the dealer please?' out of exasperation.
we got home sunday afternoon after some window shopping. yes, this is where we all were saying (while looking at the gadget of our choice) 'i should have bought this instead!' hah. anyhow, i had a great time. pechanga's really nice now, and it's just like vegas.
i've been terribly busy since monday since we were all agog preparing for our 15th anniversary supplement. tuesday night, got home shortly before midnight. wednesday, finished some of my pending articles, blessing of our new office in orange county (yeah! OC represent!) and bought some stuff for my trip tomorrow.
yay! i am going to hawai'i. my first time, so i'm kinda excited. it's gonna be work work, work but then, it's freaking hawai'i!
i'll try to update this, if i have internet access in my hotel...
Saturday, September 23, 2006
off to pechanga
pechanga is an indian reservation hotel and casino aboout an hour and a half drive from los angeles. ogie alcasid had a concert here last night. i don't know how many people watched. gary v will be having his shows here on november 3 and 4. on november 5, it's nick lachey's turn.
my friend r had a free room this weekend and he invited us to join him. since i had nothing special planned, i decided to join. we're now here at the hotel, and thanks to the free internet offered, i can update this little bloggy.
got home quite late last night because i had to attend a function with speaker jose de venecia as the special guest. we were there at 4 pm and he arrived 10 minutes before 7. almost 3 hours of my life i'll never get back spent on waiting. damn, god knows i despise waiting.
anyhow, he talked about the possibility of the philippines shifting to the parliamentary form of government next year. who's gonna run for prime minister? guess who...
Friday, September 22, 2006
asians rock survivor
hah! for the second straight week, the asian team finished first in survivor, therefore, they have avoided being sent to the tribal council.
i found the hispanics' decision to drop a competition because they wanted to get rid of one of their members plain stupid. there's strength in numbers, or did they forget? they had a problem, the logical solution would be to talk about the problem and look for solution, not throw a competition so you'd get a chance to take him off the team. i just don't get it.
and yul. wow. color me impressed. when the hispanic team lost, they had the right to send someone from the opposing teams to the exile island and they chose yul. the guy showed his intelligence and did followed the clues to the T. he found the immunity idol, which means that he will be exempt from being voted off, if and when the asian team gets sent to the tribal council.
will the asian team win for the third straight week next week? we'll see. my guess? most probably.
grey's anatomy premiere
i had a conversation with a couple of some college friends before about being overwhelmed, and its opposite, well, being underwhelmed, and the possibility (if at all) to feel just whelmed. one feels overwhelmed with information, or underwhelmed when he has too much expectation, but can one ever just be whelmed?
the point of this rant? that's how i felt about grey's anatomy's premiere a few hours ago. i didn't feel overwhelmed (not at all) but i did not feel underwhelmed, too, because the show somehow delivered, but not quite.
it seems like i am not making sense but loyal grey's fans probably know what i am feeling right now. season one and two of the show were both solid, and the third season premiere somehow did not show that it has the potential of being as big, if not better, than the the first 2.
so finally, mcdreamy has told mer about his true feelings, and dr. yang has shown her soft side, and george can't somehow say the words 'i love you' back to joy viado (hah! everytime i look at sara ramirez now (the actress who plays the role of callie) i cannot help but be reminded of joy viado, no thanks to one of my co-workers who pointed their uncanny resemblance.
with that said, i was not also underwhelmed, which means that there is a huge possibility that as the season progresses, i'd be hooked more and more and more.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
happiness in the mail
i seldom don't regularly open my mailbox at home since i only get a ton of junk mail and my bills. hahaha.
however, i was expecting something to arrive in the mail so i checked it this morning, and true enough, it was already there. not one, but two! hehehe.
i'm talking about the cd/dvd copies of all the photos we took in virginia/washington, dc a couple of weeks ago. krol and imee were kind enough to send me copies of the pics they took with their cameras. woo-hoo. i'll update the photo album later, okay?
Monday, September 18, 2006
live-blogging the amazing race premiere
hah! it's the season 10 premiere of the amazing race, my all-time favorite reality show on earth.
it's on for about 90 minutes today and the 12 teams are in seattle, en route to beijing china. among the 12 teams, some have created an impression on me.
on top of my head: the coal-miner and his wife (very middle america); the asian guys, the beauty queens (miss california and miss new york); the black single moms; the muslim guys; the indian couple; the father and daughter team (daughter's a lesbian); the gay couple; the cheereleaders..and i am missing 3 pairs! oh, the disabled girl and her boyfriend; the engaged couple and one more.
they are now in forbidden city and so far, i've been getting really hilarious snippets from the contestants (i.e. the beauty queens/or the cheerleaders saying 'do the muslims worship buddha?' and the coal-miner and his wife asking the driver to 'go fast! quack! quack!' )
wow. that was a shocker. there were twists and turns and surprises! and one of them is the early elimination half an hour after the show. it's the muslim brothers. awww. the asian guys (they dropped harvard, uc berkley and nyu during their introduction; quite a way to say, we've got brains y'all).
and yeah, the 'one more' i forgot earlier -- the hollywood models who were former drug addicts who met during recovery. how could i miss them? hah!
holy crap! the addicts turned models arrive at the great wall first. they get $20 k for that? damn. and the indian couple arrives last. they're eliminated. i like the way they made this first pit stop. the contestants need to climb the great wall of china in order to step on phil's mat. i'm impressed (very, very impressed) that the girl with the prosthetic leg was able to make it and i'm amazed that the coal-miner's wife and the larger single black mom from birmingham made it too. this is what makes this show very, very good.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
friday the 15th
i flew to las vegas after lunch because of an emergency coverage. i had to interview atong ang. more on that later.
took the southwest flight that left burbank at 1:50 pm and it has got to be the shortest and scaries flight i've ever had in my entire life.
i took the window seat and dozed off for a couple of minutes but i was jolted by the turbulence that rocked the plane. i never blinked after that specially since the rocking became consistent. it didn't help that there were noisy sorority girls at the back who seemed to be convincing each other that the unusual rockings were normal.
it was really scary specially when i looked outside and saw that we were flying low i was scared the wings were going to heat the mountainside. sigh. i was nauseous after we landed and it felt as if the flight went on forever. probably the longest half an hour of my life. and one of the two scariest too. (the boat ride from hell to siargao while typhoon rosing was on its way to wreak havoc in the philippines (1997?) is the other one)
thank god we arrived in one piece (no pun intended). the interview went well (although mr. ang was quite circuitous in his responses) and i had to write the story so i can send it to LA so they can include it in this weekend's issue. whew.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
post 9/11 activities
i made a quick trip to washington, dc last friday to meet up with some friends who are gathering together for the first time after about 6 years (on the average).
freddie and i met up at the los angeles airport last friday night and we bought took american airlines flight 74 en route to washington dc's dulles airport. it was a red-eye flight so i just slept my way through it. we arrived in dc around 6ish since the flight was delayed for about an hour. after about 15 minutes of waiting, carol & steve arrived and we went back to their house to refresh and pick our other friend, imee, who arrived the day earlier.
i had a lot of fun. we took a lot of pics (which will be soon posted in my multiply account). on the first day, c & s took us to mount vernon (formal name is george washington's mount vernon gardens and estates), washington's (the person) home before.
it is considered as the most popular historic estate in the united states today. it is 16 miles south of washington, dc on the banks of the potomac river. what's amazing is the fact that visitors can see 20 structures and 50 acres of gardens as they existed in 1799. hah. such history!
next stop was the national shrine of the immaculate conception in dc where they are keeping our lady of antipolo.
This Neo-Byzantine structure completed in 1959, is made entirely of, brick, stone, concrete and tile. It is the largest Roman Catholic Church in America and one of the largest in the world. Includes an extensive collection of art including a large collection of 20th century mosaics.it's an experience that's quite overwhelming. words can't seem to describe the beauty of this place so i'll just wait until i have the pics.
we picked up onie in dc, then went back home to rest and a lot of catching up ensued.
the next day, steve dropped us off at the washington monument in dc where we walked towards the lincoln memorial to meet up with hazel & francis. francis took off immediately after since he had a meeting. it was an endless walk afterwards as we made our way to the white house and strolled along pennsylvania avenue. had a great lunch at this french restaurant called les halles. went to the national gallery of art after the late lunch and it was time to bid goodbye to onie who had to go back to new york.
went to the nation's capitol and stayed there forf a great amount of time reflecting at the the reflecting pool. hehehe. had quite a few reflections myself.
just a quick update on the stuff that i follow: mike boogie won big brother 7. oh well. i delightfully agree with one of the early evicted contestants who said that janelle and will should have been in the final two instead of those two. again, oh well.
there's a new show on tfc called crazy for you. it stars luis manzano and toni gonzaga and it was shot in spain. wow, spain. i'm watching it because of the fact that it was shot in spain. hehehe. so far, so good. there have been loopholes, but then. well, we'll see how it goes.
Friday, September 08, 2006
oh blake!
[caption: James Blake, of the United States returns a shot to Roger Federer, of Switzerland, at the US Open tennis tournament in New York, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)]
roger federer continues his dominance over the other players at the u.s. open, defeating number 5 james blake. i wanted to be in the minority and cheer for blake to win (not that federer didn't deserve it) because he's also good and federer has been winning like crazy this year that he needs to share his blessings. besides, rafael nadal didn't even make it past the quarter finals. it's not gonna be fun roger.
anyhow.
so that's goodbye blake. and goodbye janey also on bb7. mike boogie wins round 2 of the 3-part hoh and gets a car for that win. he battled erika during round 3 and won, so he had the power to evict one house guest and bring the other one to the final 2. he knows he's not gonna win over janelle so he evicts her and keeps his ho-mance with erika.
now, the 7 members of the jury will vote. at this point, i don't really care anymore. bring survivor and amazing race on!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
manhattan/brooklyn vs. los angeles?
saw this in one of the LA sites that i frequent and i found it really funny. nice colors, no? apologies to my friends and relatives who have decided to call new york home. i can't help it.
goodbye will kirby
big brother 7 (all stars!) has been my summer's guilty pleasure and i must give credit where it is due. janelle rocks!
in what is considered as a 'shocking move', janelle decided to send dr. will home after she won the power of veto. hay. long story. bottomline: janelle and will and erika and mike boogie are in the final four. mike boogie and will belong to this alliance they call 'chill town' (and this was born five years ago, during big brother 2, which was won by dr. will, who is the only big brother winner in this season's all-stars).
mike is 'showmancing' (root word - showmance - show + romance) erika and it felt like erika fell for mike boogie hook, line and sinker. will is 'flirtmancing' (you get the drift) janelle and it felt that janelle was putting this relationship ahead of her alliances in the house. it was because of this that howie and marcellas (both close to janelle) and danielle (erika's best friend) got evicted and choll town sailed on to the final four.
left photo: that's will sandwiched by erika and janelle while right photo shows chicken george and the two ladies.janelle evicting dr. will is classic reality tv and mike was well, surprised (and it's too lame a word to use) and shocked and pissed and it's good television. hah! i liked dr. will and his evil, manipulative ways in season 2 and i was almost expecting him to win this but thank god for janelle for clipping his wings this early (or this late).
finale is next week, september 12. the jury (the evicted houseguests, like survivor) gets to decide who is going to win the half mil. there's a 3-part competition ongoing among the final 3. part 1's winner will meet part 2's winner in part 3. the winner of part 3 will then decide which co-competitor s/he is going to bring to the final 2. enter the jury of 7 who will decide the winner of big brother all stars. whew.
two days later is the premiere of survivor. and amazing race. hah. my reality tv fixation continues.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
2 cents worth
the long weekend allowed me to bloghop like crazy. i was able to read a lot of good blogs and a few that weren't quite there.
something led me to the site of mlq3 (i wish i had a 'cool' initial like that. very trademark-able), and to the uninformed, he is manolo quezon.
funny how just a few days ago (while watching tfc), i came across a teaser for a show on the anc (the abs-cbn news channel) and it was about manolo quezon and his show called 'the explainer' and i'm like, 'what? the explainer?' didn't they have anything better? like 'the manolo quezon show' or 'manolo explains' or 'manolo reports'. that's probably the best their creatives can come up with, 'the explainer'. i can't watch the show even if i wanted to because i only have tfc on cable. i don't have the satellite dish and i am not a directv subscriber.
anyhow, reading through his posts and following a lot of links, i came across one controversial topic, the one where he wrote about his objections to the isagani cruz column 'don we now our gay apparel'. he called it 'the grand inquisitor.'
Retired Supreme Court Justice Isagani Cruz says that his vigorous and vicious condemnation of gays, lesbians and transgendered people is not supposed to incite hatred and intolerance—or to be precise, that he is not invoking a blanket condemnation of all gay people. He only objects to some, not all.it's a great read, so if you have time, digest the entire article. and in the spirit of fairness, the link to the article by the former supreme court justice.
He would have me, and everyone else like me be a slave, a fugitive, a hypocrite and, most of all, a coward. And I find that disgusting. I find it neither reasonable nor acceptable. I do not even find it understandable. Cruz does not understand us, does not want to, would be unwilling to. Yet he says he hates only some, not all, of us, and expects “some of us” to embrace and thank him?For what? That he reserves his scorn only for hairdressers and fashion designers? That he respects me, the writer, but heaps abuse on someone else because that someone uses slang I don’t use, speaks louder than I do, wears what I don’t wear—and those superficial differences are the things that guarantee me (and those who behave otherwise) Cruz’s respect?
I will not embrace him, not for that, much less shake his hand or offer him the opportunity for civilized disagreement. For he is blind to the civilization to which I belong, and to the fundamental identity I share with those he despises. Whether we have a little learning or not, whether we speak in the same manner or not, regardless of what we wear and what mannerisms we choose to exhibit, we are the same, for in the fundamental things—those we choose to love, to have relationships with and with whom we aspire to share a life marked by a measure of domestic bliss and emotional contentment—there is no difference. To permit Cruz to make such distinctions is to grant him and all those like him an intolerable—because it is fundamentally unjust—power to define myself and those like me.
where's my 2 cents' worth? mr. cruz should not have written that piece in the first place because it revealed how ignorant he is about the issue and he shouldn't have stirred the hornet's nest because while some people may have respected his opinions before (him being a former supreme court (supreme court!) justice), in one fell swoop, he lost readers (this one included) and corollary to that, respect, the one thing that he took away from all the homosexual people he maligned in that article.
Monday, September 04, 2006
philippine idol
thank you youtube for philippine idol. the long weekend has been quite long and it made me realize that (a) i can sleep from 3 am to 1 pm the next day (b) talk with a friend on the phone while in the middle of sleep and forget about it (c) there are a lot of things to be seen (gasp!) on youtube (d) no matter how i try to clean my room, well, i can't seem to finish.
anyhow, i was surprised to see this guy on philippine idol. his name is gian carlo magdangal and he is in the top 24. i saw him last year in the musical 'footloose' in manila (the one with jay-r and iya villania) and i was quite amazed with his musical talent. for his first official performance at the semi-finals of philippine idol, he sang, what else, footloose.
hope he makes it to the top 10!
farewell andre
(moratorium on my previous statement that i am moving to multiply since i can do cross-posting from here. for now, i won't, but i am keeping multiply as my photo/video site. we'll see...)
today marks the day when tennis great andre agassi bade goodbye to the sport he embraced 21 years ago. it was a bit emotional and andre couldn't help but shed a few tears after his last game. some guy named becker took the responsibility of beating andre in 4 sets, thereby effectively ending his career. andre has made it clear earlier that this is going to be his last year.
i wasn't really a big fan, just a fan who admired the way he played the game. actually, i was more of a pete sampras fan and i followed their rivalry from the moment i realized i enjoyed watching tennis games (and this was probably around 1994, after my graduation from college). hah. darn, i feel old. the players i idolized in this sport have all retired. well.
speaking of the us open, andy roddick's doing well and today he moved to the fourth round. had andre won his match against becker, he would have faced roddick in this round and it would have been a great match. oh well.
some friends picked me up today and we went to the outlets in ontario to do some (window) shopping. went also to the victoria gardens, a mall similar to the grove and paseo colorado in pasadena.
happy labor day!
Saturday, September 02, 2006
thank you blogger, i'm moving
for more updates about me and the people around me, please visit my new home at multiply.
i'll keep some of my files here so i'd still have reason to come back.
ciao!
(and how auspicious is it that this is my 400th post? hah!)
