we woke up this morning with another bitter pill to swallow: the terrorist attacks in london.
this afternoon, i got a chance to chat with a college friend who now lives in the uk, and in her words, an "eerie feeling" pervades. we had a lot of catching up to do, and thanks to her blog, i need not ask her every freaking detail. thank god for blogs. it turns out that this friend of mine (of 15 years, can you believe it charl? 15! well, we became friends when we were 10ish. hahaha!) got to see live 8 in london. i'm green with envy. [i'm glad that you're okay sis!]
my bosses and their daughters were on their way to a family vacation in london and i heard they were about to board their flight when they heard/saw the news. they cancelled.
it's another different day and a lot of innocent lives have been lost once more.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
brazen attack
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
london 2012
sorry new york, not 2012. sorry paris, for being snobbed by the international olympic committee for the third time -- first in 92 (barcelona) then for 2008 (beijing). this year's race to host the olympics is considered as "the most glamorous and hotly-contested bid race in olympic history."
when the dust settled, and after the fourth balloting was over, the winner emerged: the games of the 30th olympiad will be held in london!
aside from paris and new york, moscow and madrid also placed their bids to host the biggest gathering of sports heroes in the world.
please make it stop
the f*cking beeping sound is still there. i got home last night hoping that when i got to the office today, i won't be hearing any of it. i was wrong. dead wrong.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
alarming
for almost six hours now, i've been listening to the alarm sound in the office. after a co-worker disarmed the alarm this morning, she realized that the entire alarm system has gone awry. she calls the alarm company and she was informed that they cannot send someone to fix it today.
hate it, hate it, hate it. it's giving me a headache. i tried to listen to music but the incessant beeping keeps me so distracted. i am quite worried that i am going home this afternoon with the beeping sound in my head. darn!
Monday, July 04, 2005
panunumpa
photo via reuters
if i remember it right, weren't we taught in grade school to pledge using our right hand?
what's the right/proper way to pledge? here's our new mayor, pledging using his left hand, with his right hand on the bible.
i'm just confused. that's all.
[edited to add...]
because this ap photo also shows him taking his oath with his left hand. and also this one. take note: his left hand's ring finger has a ring; the same left hand he used while taking his oath. thanks for taking time to flip the original pic, mr. hanger. i still think he used his left and i am still confused.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
sore muscles
after a hearty lunch of dimsum at our favorite dimsum restaurant in chinatown, my friends and i decided to drive to the beach. venice beach to be specific. not santa monica, not huntington, not redondo, not manhattan, not newport. venice beach.
we were in two cars and p, my companion and i, had a little detour: gas and carwash. then we went on our merry way. after about a twenty-minute drive, we reached venice: the city, a few blocks away from the beach and the boardwalk.
we were on the phone most of the time, checking each other's locations. since it was hard looking for a parking spot, we decided to just see each other on the beach. and did i mention it was hard looking for parking? we headed to the paid parking area and forked out six bucks. at least it was a few steps away from the beach itself.
we started strolling and enjoying the sun, the sand and the view. yeah, baby. then the other party made a call, asking us where we were. they were still a few blocks away from the beach because they parked along the street. we decided to meet each other in front of the blue life-saver station (just like in baywatch and no, i don't know what they are called) number 26 because they informed us that they were on 21 and we were on 28.
you'd think we'd reach number 26 faster than they would. wrong. we were halfway between 27 and 26 when they called and told us that they were already there. we rushed as fast as we could to reach 26 and when we arrived, they were nowhere to be found. we asked each other to describe the 'environment'. when my friend started describing his environment, i had a strange feeing that he was describing an entirely different place.
and he was.
we found out later that yes, we were both on venice beach. on opposite ends of the beach. we decided to rent bikes at our end to go and see them. it was fun biking along the bike lane, with the breeze of the ocean gently touching us. hehehe. when we reached them, they probably got envious that we were enjoying our little bike ride so they decided to rent bikes themselves.
we then went back to our side of the beach (the better side, i dare say) and beyond, which made us reach santa monica beach and this our three friends did not want to let go. they said we were on santa monica, not venice. but we know where we were, and it was definitely not santa monica. the pier was about as far as the "bridge-looking thing" that they had on their side from we were originally located. that pier was santa monica, and we were not there.
anyway, we had a good laugh about it afterwards. fun, tiring day. something that was capped by a hearty dinner of lomo saltado at our favorite peruvian restaurant: mario's.
Friday, July 01, 2005
viva villaraigosa!
i spent my entire morning (and some parts of the afternoon) covering the inauguration of the new mayor of los angeles.
the latter part of the afternoon was spent on writing and re-writing my article about the festivities. lots of personality-sighting! i haven't been to a presidential inauguration in washington but i think this was quite close.
mayor villaraigosa and his wife corina led the thousands of angelenos in a procession to the city hall from the cathedral
arnold schwarzenegger and wife maria, antonio and wife corina, al gore, jesse james, natalie cole were all onstage to witness the historic oath-taking
former vp al gore was there, and he was greeted warmly by angelenos. [that's how residents of los angeles are called. angelenos.] so were former mayors james hahn and richard riordan. so were former california governors jerry brown, pete wilson and gray davis.
enough said. anti-abortion activists chanted while the procession was ongoing
there was one person that was not greeted warmly by the audience. on the contrary, they even booed and jeered when his name was mentioned. that happened twice. i pity him but people perceive him as an anti-immigrant, especially with his policies on reform. governor arnold schwarzenegger was booed. loudly.
i looked at the poor man onstage as the audience booed him. i somehow felt shy embarrassed that my fellow angelenos did that but then again, they had all the right to do so. in the philippines, it was (still is) rude to boo someone. specially someone who has the stature of the governator.
what's an inauguration (specially of a mexican mayor) be without a mariachi?
wow. day 1 as mayor and he already has a banner that says: Mayor Villaraigosa: Hard at Work in the Community
enterprising individuals were selling inauguration shirts for ten bucks. yes, ten freaking bucks! all photos by me, thank you very much. hehehe.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
histrionics
or probably not.
just one quick question: where does this blistering rage in susan roces come from? i mean, did you see the news? (tfc, hello!) i caught tv patrol on tape late last night and i saw her, still regal, if i may add, and she was there, raving mad.
my goodness. and the way she treated those poor reporters? wow. i don't think that was nice, ms. roces. mrs. poe. woe to the poor reporters who asked impossibly senile and stupid questions anyway. she could've just shrugged the questions off, but now, she had to make a side comment to each and every single one of them. tit for tat?
on a totally unrelated issue...tom cruise was on the view this morning and boy were the five hosts (including barbara walters!) eating on the palm of his hands. he was in his usual self, he even tried to do what he did in oprah -- including the requisite shake, which he did to star jones. damn. makes me NOT wanna go and see 'war of the worlds.'
but then again...
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
not-so-blind item
A famous actor, who we’re not going to name because he likes to sue people who accuse him of what in the next paragraph we’ll accuse him of, and his recently obtained fiancée, with whom he is very, very, very much in love, have a five-year contract regarding this relationship, and she is to be paid $8 million for fulfilling her end of the contract.
The deal was arranged and the engagement announced in a very short period of time because the wife of a certain, and rather adorable, pop singer found her husband in bed with the abovementioned unnamed actor, and said actor wanted to have this new news out as soon as possible so as to overshadow any new rumors about his sexuality.
Okay, so who are the characters in the story? Hehehe. The paragraphs above pretty much summarizes the e-mail that has been forwarded like crazy in this city called Hollywood (i live three blocks down) so it was but normal that i got hold of it too.
My take on the (non-)issue? Nothing.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
white flag?
is gma-7 waving the white flag with the postponement (some say cancellation?) of its los angeles launching scheduled for july 16? this was scheduled at the forum and was to go head-to-head against asap '05 to be held at the rose bowl stadium in pasadena.
they (gma network executives) called a news conference earlier tonight to tell the local media the official reason for the indefinite postponement of the l.a. launch. the presscon was facilitated by star media, and was held at the olive garden in glendale.
among the execs who called were joseph francia. the name rings a bell, doesn't it? yes, it's the same joseph francia i met more than ten years ago when he was still connected with abs-cbn. he used to be legazpi's station manager until he became part of the regional network group. last i heard of him wat that he got married and moved to australia.
until tonight. he's now the oic of gma international. hebigat! i also got to talk to wilma galvante, charo santos' counterpart over at gma. she had some heavy words against abs-cbn. woohoo, network war is raging.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
overslept
i slept kinda early last night, hence i woke up kinda early today. knowing it was still early, i dragged my ass back to my bed and slept. woke up after two hours and slept once more. the weather was very cooperative.
with a headache threatening to take-over, i opened my eyes and forced myself to wake up. time check: 1 am. i slept for more than 12 hours. i can't believe it. everytime i do that, i know that a headache will follow. and it did. my way to cure my headache? sleep? so i slept again while watching the sunday fare on tfc. did my head-ache disappear? yes it did. but the problem was i got all the more sleepy. what the hell's wrong with me? i know that if i sleep for yet another minute, i'd end up wide awake until 5 am the next day. then i'd sleep at 6 until 12 noon. it was not gonna happen.
yesterday was cook-fest for me. thanks to the internet (and the help of some friendships), i was able to cook a mean sinigang na hipon. my first-ever attempt at cooking sinigang. i know better now.
i used two packets of the sinigang mix and i think it was not enough. hindi siya masyadong maasim. in fact, it was kinda sweet. i think i can blame the shrimps for that.
i also cooked chicken wings adobo. i haven't cooked for a while and somehow i missed doing so. i finished around 11ish and i went straight to my room to sleep. for more than 12 hours. when i wokr up, it was time for lunch.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
i love you sabado...
aren't saturdays great?
sleep till god knows what time, eat something for lunch (roomie and i tried 'karihang pinoy' along santa monica boulevard. lutong-bahay talaga. hehehe. something different from those usual pinoy fastfoods here in hell-ey), replenished our water supply (goodness, those are really heavy. i am not whining, thank you much), did our grocery (woohoo, our ref has something inside, aside from water and some left-overs from weeks ago. ewww.), bought some soda (i miss drinking diet coke. lol.) by 4 pm, i was sleepy, so i caught some zzzzzs.
i wasted an hour and a half watching this stupid film called 'a day without mexican.' how could something be so mediocre get a chance to get nation-wide release? there was nothing in the movie save for trivial bits and pieces about mexicans and how the rest of america mistake all hispanics (including guatemalans and ecuadorians) as mexicans.
now, that's 90 minutes of my life i am not getting back.
Friday, June 24, 2005
wtf?
okay, so i checked my friendster account, after quite some time. hmmm, some new stuff, new messages from friends, new requests. then, i saw this list, popular searches in my network. okay, i have 155 friends now and except for about 15, i am positive that i have met 140 of them before.
so here's my network of friends' popular searches, and my corresponding comments (or non-comments):
1. Angel Locsin- Bold Video - wow, i did not even know that darna has a bold video circulating somewhere. And people in my network want to see it?
2. Filipino Men for Men - hah! no comment.
3. Calendar men - no comment uli.
4. tips on conversation - wow. tips? like don't eat your words? be confident? make it short?
5. cute japanese ladies - why?
6. true love quiz - awwwww. can you find it in the internet? really? call me once you find it.
7. handsome filipino men - another one. makes me want to think...
8. christine reyes scandal - who's christine reyes again? hehehe.
9. find happiness - another awwww moment. happiness in the internet?
10. naughty pinay celebs - what about them?
Summary? The people in my network search (true) love and happiness in all the wrong places. Friendships, they're not in the internet. They lust after Angel Locsin and Christine Reyes, or anyone who looks Japanese. If they don't, then they're after handsome filipino men for men who have posed for a calendar. They need tips for conversation, which they hope they could use once they meet naughty pinay celebs.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
si kyla, bow!
i had a conversation with a friend over the weekend. the topic? future concerts in cali. conversation went like this:
me: yeah, i read somewhere that jay-r (a pinoy r&b singer) will be having a concert here next month.
friend: talaga?
me: yeah, kasama raw niya si kyla.
friend: (excited, surprised, lahat na!) TALAGA? KASAMA NIYA SI KYLA MINOGUE?
me: (sound of me falling off my chair)
wala lang. i miss posting humorous (at least for me) stuff here.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
rude woman
i was on my way to work this morning when a car from behind honked. i looked, and saw this white, middle-aged woman (wmw). no good mornings, no excuse mes. she went straight to what she wanted --
wmw: do you know where rowena is?
[me: concepcion? i don't know where she is but she sure knows where i am. hehehe. inside joke, sorry. moving on...]
me: yes, turn left on hoover, it's on your right, before you hit santa monica.
wmw: so i turn left, then right.
[she then continued driving. no thank yous, nothing.]
me: (to myself) thank you.
myself: you're welcome
i don't know, but i was not raised by my parents to be rude. i didn't mind (at first) that she just honked at me to get my attention but what irritated me was that she did not even bother to say thank you.
two words, rude lady, two words!
bebot
that's the title of one of the songs in 'monkey business,' black-eyed peas' latest album. a good friend (thanks, rod) gave me a copy and it has been playing semi-non-stop in my itunes since last week.
track 12 is bebot. it's an all-tagalog (filipino?) song by apl. it's a nice, catchy song. i hope they release it as a single someday so we pinoys can bombard mtv's trl so they can play it incessantly. we can dream big, can't we?
i admire apl for infusing his filipino-ness to his group's albums. the apl song from their last album elephunk was quite good, too. there, he paid tribute to asin, a band that he said he listened to when he was growing up in pampanga.
i wish i knew how my friend does it in his blog, so you could also listen to music files here.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
embarrassing moment
i am not one who finds himself stuck in sticky situations that may cause extreme embarrassment to everyone involved. say again?
i woke up this morning, hopped in the shower, picked my clothes for the day and put a little gel on my hair. as was usual, i plopped into my gray 'cariton network' shirt from spoofs and my tattered and faded blue jeans. to complete my nonchalant get-up, i decided not to wear shoes. slippers are now in, welcome summer!
while waiting for my bagel to be toasted, i got a call from my cell. it was nixon, one of our (company) drivers; he's indonesian. he asked me where i was, i said i was home. he said, "me too!" and i go, "what?" "i'm at the gate," he said.
naturally, i had to ask why. "picking you up," he quipped. "going to the office?" i asked. "you already in the office?" he asked back. "no, i'm at home," i replied. this was getting difficult.
i asked him to wait for a couple of minutes. i didn't want to leave any burnt bagels in my toaster. so i went out, and sure enough he was there.
i hopped in and we exchanged 'good mornings.' he said, "santa monica [boulevard] is there, right?" pointing to the right. i said yes. we went to santa monica blvd. and turned left, going west. we passed by vermont, then normandie, then western.
when we reached highland, i asked him. "where are we going?" "pacific design center," he replied.
me: why?
him: you have coverage.
me: i do?
him: yes
me: where?
him: iw group
me: really?
him: really.
anyway, so we reached west hollywood's pacific design center. i went into the green building and looked for iw group's office. fifth floor. and finally, i got there.
my nightmare was about to happen. i was about to enter into a room full off nicely-dressed ladies and gentlemen. i inhaled and entered the room. i picked the last chair by the edge of this really long conference table.
true enough, 20 plus people in corporate attires and power suits, plus me in tattered jeans. i looked around, desperately trying to look for someone who was not in a suit. god is good, there was one from across the table. i heaved a sigh of relief and smiled.
the speaker was late, she was, as she told us later, stuck in traffic. someone commented, 'welcome to los angeles!' there was no other space for her to squeeze her butt. she chose the space beside me. i had no choice but to give out a forced smile.
she introduced herself. she's from chicago and she's the VP for Communication of nielsen media. she then asked us to introduce ourselves and looked at me. 'i am momar and i apologize for being so overdressed today!' that broke the ice.
the meeting lasted until around noon. at least my embarrassing moment did not stretch for hours. lesson learned: was there any? at all?
food trippin' in the bay area
what's a philippine fiesta without food?
at the civic center, there were a lot of food choices, but when i am in san francisco, i make sure i find time to visit my favorite vietnamese restaurant in the bay area: la petite camille in millbrae.
why? because they serve the best porkchops ever. yum!
well, okay. noodle planet in westwood also serves great-tasting pork chops, but la petite camille's different. it's like they marinated the chops in secret sauces for a year. that's how good they taste. also, it doesn't hurt that they give you like 4 or 5 chops. not bad for $8.99!
to my vegetarian friend abe, don't you miss how good pork chops taste? inquiring minds want to know. hehehe.
[la petite camille | 170 el camino real, millbrae, ca]
summer solstice
summer officially starts tonight, at 11:46 pm. yay. summer's gonna last 93 days, according to the weatherman on tv.
also, it's the inferno II's season finale and i am happy that the good guys won over the bad-asses. sheesh, here's me being a juvie once more. damn. mtv shows are addicting. hehehe. and don't get me started on laguna beach (the real orange county! hah!).
it has been a long day. i was up as early as 5 a.m. my flight was 7ish and i had to be at the airport at least an hour and a half before the flight. went straight to the office. gee, that was one tiring weekend. i also had to finish a couple of stories. i so need a break. seriously.
i'm happy i had time to consume all the peet's coffee i could. i like their coffee concoctions. well, coffee bean's still better. i'm just saying that peet's is the one to beat in san francisco.
view from the hotel's restaurant at the lobby. planes take off and land at sfo, amidst the blue skies and the pacific ocean.
piolo from 300 feet away. wowowee host willie revillame couldn't make it because of his wife's delicate pregnancy. ok. so piolo and martin pinch-hit for them. marvin agustina nd janelle jamer were actually good hosts. i just wish they did not go into using toilet humor. i did not find it funny at all.
Monday, June 20, 2005
catching up, really
one nice thing about this latest trip of mine to san francisco was the chance i got to catch up with an old friend (a really old friend, pun intended. hahaha. joke!) of mine. he's turning a year older (and wiser) this wednesday. happy birthday, freddie!
the last time we saw each other was almost six months ago, at keena's wedding.
we had dinner in downtown san francisco, in an italian restaurant/café called segafredo. i dunno if this segafredo's the same with the segafredo in greenbelt 4. i had carbonara and he had fettucine. yumyum. (except for the almost one teaspoon of, i presume olive, oil i drained from my spaghetti. the garlic bread was cruncy and tasty while the bruschetta were quite delicious as well.
what to do after dinner? well, coffee but of course. i was in the mood for some peet's so we scoured a few blocks of downtown sf, reaching as far as the sony metreon. it was quite a long walk and i was beginning to convince myself that there was no peet's around. we passed by a starbucks and i did not even bother to look. (the anti-starbucks in me reared its ugly head.)
twenty blocks later (okay, i am exaggerating), i started hearing mother nature's faint calls (number one, not two). rush, rush, rush but we could not find a bar/resto/coffee shop that was open. i was left with a last recourse.
yes, thank you starbucks for saving me from a future kidney operation (and the possible embarrassment of peeing in my pants). and can you believe this? after ordering my venti white chocolate mocha, i asked the barista their store hours. 'we're open 24 hours,' she said.
wow. a haven for caffeine junkies such as me. heard there's also one in the valley. thanks.
[speaking of catching up, a friend spilled to me a few minutes ago the news that he just got married. yesterday. wow. congrats and best wishes!]
[segafredo zanetti | 235 powell st (between geary and o'farrell) | san francisco]
