real life ordeal...

so far, i have 72 friends on my list, a few more needed to complete barely two pages. i know it's not much when compared to some of my friends who averaged 180... nonetheless, you call me a friendster fanatic and i won't budge. ok, that maybe too much to say, i could even hear dahon crying out "huwaaaatt???" :) but peeps, let me iterate first how i have come to the point of claiming i dig friendster or at least the concept behind it. :p

at first, i was a complete schizo with the whole idea. on subtle term, hesitant... not too keen into posting everything about myself, much more my most-coveted,sought-after picture [bow!]. see, i have a severe case of chronic paranoia. i thought or should i say i doubted, that everything i post can be used against me...that by merely knowing my name, gender and status, all my nemeses can conspire and plan my ending in whichever way they want it to be... been watching too much "alias"? i agree. have i been listening too much on bin's conspiracy theories? i'm more inclined to agree on that. :p

but then my curiosity won the best of me... who would not after getting about 5 invites from friends? i gave in and joined the friendster wagon. of course, that didn't happen without my utmost precaution [naks!]... no pictures, new email add and too few, to the point of boring, info. yeah, i was later on convinced that my name, gender and status can't say much about me :),or have i been wrong??

i started adding friends of friends that i know, officemates, classmates in college, the next thing i knew i was taking down all my defenses [drama queen!] by giving more info and attaching pictures. anyway, what could they get from knowing what i want to listen, read or watch? i just eventually started to frequent the site... ansaya e!

now, i'm having a grand time touching base again with friends i met along the way whom i somehow lost contact with... from my highschool classmates to my long lost pinsan. the latest on my list? a kinakapatid who i haven't seen in 9 yrs! galing no?!

and for christy fermin wannabe like me? friendster's the easiest way to be "informed". sometimes i just have to know the basic arithmetic, you know, putting two and two together and voila! :) i'd rather not elaborate on this though, friends might delete me from their list hehehe...

on serious note, i see friendster breaking the social structure. [o ha? ano say mo sa claim na to?] you'd figure that somehow you are in same "circle" [with unlimited R in piRsqrd] of friends with an ayala or zobel or any artista you can think of. of course that goes without saying that their friendsters were not put up by impostors or die-hards ha! [try searching for jolens and you'll find 20 matches, so far! hehehe] have you watched jologs or love actually? you'd understand my point better if you have. :p

oh yes, there are bugs and bugs and bugs... it may explain actually why they are forever "beta" as one friend puts it... but as soon as i can complain about my pictures in friends list not appearing, or a testimonial not refreshing, i go back checking for updates. what can you say, adik e :p

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disclaimer: this is not a paid advertisement of friendster... actually i'm checking out orkut this time, i wanna be an elitist for a change :p

read it...

i don't read novels a lot. it's tedious and i'd rather read my "other" book. actually, i just read about two novels in 27 years, and just finished reading one of that two recently, the catcher in the rye. i am no book critic but i find it funny. i couldn't help but grin when i come across that "...and all" immortal line of holden. i even forgot to getoff at higashi rinkan and went all the way to sagamiono. that's just one train station away though. it is full of bizarreness yet close to reality but you feel pity for him though, as you go along. it's a good toeic book and easy to understand.

now, i am about to finish "the sicilian". it seems i'm watching an action movie. the 80minute-round-trip train travel from dorm to office seems so quick. it seems my brain is beginning to appreciate. it exercises my brain's comprehension and imagination. indeed, lessons can be learned. the fondness seems just spudded. what's in your bookshelf rish?

will guiliano salvatore be given a pardon and can emigrate to america? can michael corleone save guiliano? or will he save him? what about aspanu pisciotta?
well, i will find out all the answers later.

celebrating the 35th...

bin and i always make it a point to treat each other out every 23rd. it is some sort of celebrating each and every month that we spent together... i.o.w. monthsary :P. however, the irony of it comes from the fact that 24th is our payday, which means several days before that, we are at most scrimping every penny. but, whatever is left of our budget, we see to it that we stretch that for this "celebration"... so we could say that we are in constant lookout for nice, definitely not expensive(!) places where we could dine and talk.

last night was no different... off we went to a pizza place just near where we stay, the "old duck" [a spinoff of its real name, i am not taking chances on libel suit hehehe]. i didnt expect much from this place. although i knew that it's another western style dining [at least with the food], i couldnt remember any particular dish i raved when i first dined here almost a year ago ['twas my teammates "welcome" party for me]. since it is only about 7-min walk from our place, and it was getting late, bin and i decided to try it this time.

from the outside, the place may seem like a red-painted house. but with dimmed lights, one could say that it is really conducive for, how should i say this,ummm... dating :). but because the location is not so-strategic, in a sense...since it is situated at higashi rinkan's corner, we didnt have to wait to be seated and we even got to choose where... :)

prices are quite steep though, we both agreed on that the minute the waitress handed us the menu. since it was almost 9 and we're both really hungry, we just ordered what we thought are "safe food" right away... and those were vegetable soup, caesar salad, seafood paella, mixed pizza and two glasses of apple juice. from my calculation that's about the same as it would cost us had we decided to go to outback and order a serving each of ribs-on-the-barbie[with unlimited supply of super-sarap-mainit-init-pa-bread] and tasty buffalo wings, 2 orders of buttered rice and 2 pineapple juice. with few more yen we could have had sumptuous "chocolate thunder from down under" ... see, this is the reason behind my at least 2 additional lbs every month :D but because we already spent our three consecutive 23rds there, we just decided to strike our favorite outback off our dining choices last night.

so back to the old duck... we were first served soup and the salad. soup was a dejavu to bin. he just couldn't seem to stop talking about likening that soup to what they usually have for soup back home, that the "taste difference" [if ever there is such a thing] is just a measly one unit. so understandably, the soup was history in a minute. :D as for the salad, well it was a different story, a 1:10 in comparison to what we had in a chuorinkan okonomiyaki house, another resto we tried for this 23rd tradition [with chuo's being the 10 ha!], chuo's chicken salad is simply yummylicious! the best we've tasted! on the otherhand, old duck's was just tossed lettuce and walnuts in caesar dressing. anybody could prepare that in a sec, no sweat. nonetheless, again, blame it on our hunger pangs, we devoured it right away.

this pizza house placed second in the world's pizza making contest [or something], that is at least to my understanding... sorry, i could only make "second place" and "world" out of a series of kanjis proudly printed on their walls. since i love thin-crust pizzas, i enjoyed what was served to us at once, although i cant say it is really a "world class" pizza, it tasted greenwich to me [which i also love by the way]. toppings include bell pepper, cheese, tomato sauce and italian sausage, i didnt even know why it is called mixed pizza. maybe we should have tried the "less-safe" kind of pizza.

the biggest disappointment that night was the seafood paella. costing 1280 a plate, we thought it would at least worth the price. for one, the serving is not enough to at least appease any of our appetite. the rice was cooked [or baked] to the point of "tutong" and it was just too bland for my taste. to me it's only worth 500 yen, at most, no kidding.

as for the dessert, their vanilla ice cream is just that, plain vanilla ice cream, period.

although, last night wasn't the usual gluttony nights we had before, that's to our definition of "busog" and "sulit", i'm so happy that we had one of the most intimate, heart-warming, interesting conversations ever. i could safely say that last night, we've gotten to know each other a lot better... so interesting was our conversation that we lost track of time and the next thing we knew we just had to leave because the place was about to be closed... of course i will not divulge any specific of that conversation, my mouth is sealed on that, i just hope his too hehehe...

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to bin, my beybi and bestfriend, here's to years of celebrating 23rds... cheers!

first at bat...

and the bases are loaded!

here comes arubin, batting 4th...signed by the yankees this offseason... stirred the media after inking a lucrative 3-year $65M contract... now, he'll try to prove if he's worth every penny...

as i walked towards the plate, i couldn't hear anything but a loud chant of "homerun homerun arubin" and as i glanced around yankee stadium with a sellout crowd, i could see flashes glittering everywhere like grains of diamond scattered in the stands.

he is now on the plate...
aiming and preparing for his first swing in the majors...

this guy has a reputation of driving the balls out of the ballpark...
well, the power of his bat will now be tested...

as i stood on the plate, i could feel the pressure...
i know, irish, who is sitting right at the back of our dugout feels the pressure too...
it seemed my feet were glued to the ground and my bat turned into a 50kg-alloy impossible for me to swing...
but i needed to deliver...i needed to prove something...
aside from the thousands of eyes in the stadium focused to witness every swing of my bat, millions of my countrymen back home were watching and i don't want to disappoint anyone of them...

here comes the throw, the first pitch...
and here's the swing...a good one...
the ball is hit!...good hit...goes deep!...he's looking up...and up!...and see ya!....the ball is gone!...seeyanara!
a homerun, a grandslam by arubin!!!

as i slowly jogged towards first base, i could hear the cheer of the crowd...
i felt relieved, and i myself couldn't believe what i just did...
as i passed second base, the cheer went louder...
by the time i reached the third, everybody was on their feet giving me standing ovation...
but suddenly, i heard a voice, not from the stadium, not from a far distant source, but it's coming right directly from my right ear...
and at that same moment, i felt the pain in my left cheek and the voice clearly echoed in my ear saying, "bin! gising! gising!".

second attempt...

as a self-confessed procastrinator, the idea of keeping one blog for bin and myself is brilliant. see, i dont have now the pressure to write as many times as i had to when i was cooking up that adobo. and moreso, i'll get to write whenever i choose to, even after a long hiatus without getting comments after reminding me of how sluggish sometimes i can be... not that i am complaining, by the way. i was touched actually that people were waiting for me to speak, for the first time! [looking at it from a diff. perspective] :D

ok, so what are my expectations for this? [kapal no? me having expectations and all]. most probably many nonsense ramblings [such as this one], unsolicited advices and comments [still!] , but hopefully more positive thoughts and of course loads of tsismis [showbiz, pulitika o opisina haha]...

oh, i almost forgot, i'm sharing this with bin ngapala :D he can take care the more serious, sensible aspect... [oh really?] just to be safe, expect more major league baseball postings from him particularly on matsui, or basketball [ gee, dont know who's he rooting for these days... ], basically sports, because he is one [frustrated, as i fondly tease him] sports buff... hihihi

jaa, let's start the ball bouncing... :P