my christmas day
i'll wake up at 6:30 in the morning (GMT+7), pump some iron for 3 or 5 minutes, then hit the lukewarm shower.
i'll choose the most pressed-looking shirt i have. put on my dolce tie and a lambswool sweater. trust me, it's chilly here in northern thailand.
i'll find the car waiting for me outside the hotel room.
i'll arrive in the office 5 or 10 minutes before 8, fix myself a light coffee, have a short meeting with the staff for 15 minutes to round up the week's schedule.
i'll check on my boss' arrival from japan. he's supposed to come by the office at 10. we'll see if our surprise post-birthday greeting stuff will be enough to, well, surprise him, or at least have that miranda priestley-esque smile on his face. he won't speak English because he can't. well, he's Japanese, an antiquated one, so no English for him from his 60-year old elementary education.
he'll leave by 4 in the afternoon, and all of us will have a breather.
i'll roundup everything we're scheduled to do for the day and ask a few questions for next day's timetable.
i'll make sure that everything will be OK, or at least manageable, before the year ends. we're on tight rope here on our hands that we do not want to fail.
i'll wait for the car to arrive from the airport (the driver had brought my boss to the airport an hour ago) and i'll climb up to head to the hotel.
i'll take a refreshing lukewarm shower again before having my usual thai dinner, hit the keys for some chat with friends who will remember me being alone on christmas evening, then hit the sack before the clock ticks 11, so i'll be ready for the day after christmas.
gosh, how i miss christmas back home.
miss me blind...
i still can't believe the fact that i am not coming home for christmas this year.
and this will be the first time ever. oh, well, everything has a first time; and more often than not, first times are painful, sometimes, tainted with droplets of blood ha ha ha!
i also had my very first birthday away from home.
i missed summer. i missed all the birthdays and the parties. even my sister's 18th (oh, that was last year). and my bestfriend's 28th.
this morning, when i woke up, feeling the chilly breeze of december in northern thailand (yes, it's unconventionally chilly here at this time of the year-im grateful to the cold spell in China he he he), i asked myself why did i have to miss all those things?
and why do i have to miss christmas (for the very first time ever) for some Hs (as opposed to the American Gs--because that's just the much I get for being away for christmas)?
i couldn't answer my own question.
can someone tell me why?
Happy Christmas and a More Prosperous and Fabulous New Year to all of you!
PS: missing christmas does not mean i'm missing new year, ha ha ha!
a day without my wit and glamour--ef kerz, i am filipino!
A DAY WITHOUT FILIPINOS
(Author Unknown)
Let's imagine then, not just California, but the entire world, waking up one day to discover Filipinos have disappeared. I'm talking here about the six or seven million Filipinos currently working overseas in countries with names that run the entire alphabet, from Angola to Zimbabwe.
Let's not worry first about why or how the Filipinos disappeared; in fact, it becomes academic whether it's a day or a week. Just imagine a world without Filipinos.
Think of the homes that are dependent on Filipino housekeepers, nannies, caregivers. The homes would be chaotic as kids cry out for their nannies. Hong Kong and Singaporean and Taiwanese yuppie couples are now forced to stay home and realizing, goodness, there's so much of housework that has to be handled and how demanding their kids can be and hey, what's this strange language they're babbling in?
It's not just the children that are affected. The problems are even more serious with the elderly in homes and nursing institutions, because Filipino caregivers have provided so much of the critical services they need. When temporary contractual workers are brought in from among non-Filipinos, the elderly complain. They want their Filipino caregivers back because they have that special touch, that extra patience and willingness to stay an hour more when needed.
Hospitals, too, are adversely affected because so many of the disappeared Filipinos were physicians, nurses and other health professionals. All appointments for rehabilitation services, from children with speech problems to stroke survivors, are indefinitely postponed because of disappeared speech pathologists, occupational and physical therapists!
Eventually, the hospital administrators announce they won't take in any more patients unless the conditions are serious. Patients are told to follow their doctors' written orders and, if they have questions, to seek advice on several Internet medical sites. But within two days, the hospitals are swamped with new complaints. The websites aren't working because of missing Filipino web designers and website managers.
Service establishments throughout the world -- restaurants, supermarkets, hotels -- all close down because of their missing key staff involved in management and maintenance. In Asia, hotels complain about the missing bands and singers.
In the United States, many commercial establishments have to close shop, not just because of the missing Filipino sales staff but because their suppliers have all been sending in notices about delays in shipments. Yup, the shipping industry has gone into a crisis because of missing Filipino seafarers.
The shipping firms begin to look into the emergency recruitment of non-Filipino seafarers but then declare another crisis: They're running out of supplies of oil for their ships because the Middle Eastern countries have come to a standstill without their Filipino workers, including quite a few working for the oil industry.
Frantic presidents and prime ministers call on the United Nations to convene a special session of the Security Council but Kofi Annan says he can't do that because the UN system itself is on the edge, with so many of their secretarial and clerical staff, as well as translators, having disappeared from their main headquarters in New York and Geneva, as well as their regional offices throughout the world. Quite a number of UN services, especially refugee camps, are also in danger of closing down because of missing Filipino health professionals and teachers.
Annan also explains that he can't convene UN meetings because the airports in New York, Washington and other major US cities have been shut down. The reason? The disappeared Filipinos included quite a few airport security personnel who used to check passengers and their baggage.
Annan calls on the World Bank and international private foundations for assistance but they're crippled, too, because their Filipino consultants and staff are nowhere to be seen. Funds can't be remitted and projects can't run without the technical assistance provided for by Filipinos.
An exasperated Annan calls on religious leaders to pray, and pray hard. But when he phones the Pope, he is told the Catholic Church, too, is in crisis because the disappeared include the many Filipino priests and nuns in Rome who help run day-to-day activities, as well as missionaries in the frontlines of remote posts, often the only ones providing basic social services.
As they converse, Annan and the Pope agree on one thing: the world has become a quieter place since the Filipinos disappeared. It isn't just the silencing of work and office equipment formerly handled by Filipinos; no, it seems there's much less laughter now that the Filipinos aren't around, both the laughter of the Filipinos and those they served.
I know, I know, I'm exaggerating the contributions of Filipinos to the world but I'm doing what the producers of "A Day Without Mexicans" had in mind: using a bit of hyperbole to shake people up.
As their blurb for the film goes: "How do you make the invisible, visible? Make them invisible."
As I wrote this column, I did realize I was doing this not so much for the Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwanese and Singaporeans and Americans who don't appreciate us enough, than for us, who as Filipinos, are pretty good at putting ourselves down, at making ourselves invisible.
kurama G-Files: Fan #4,5,6
they love me, too, err three...
kurama G-Files: Fan #3
he loves me as well.
kurama G-Files: Fan #2
he loves me, too.
Kurama G-Files: Fan #1
he loves me.
lookie, lookie, big, big jellie!
i went out on a very very short vacay in Koh Chang (in the province of Chonburi) with some friends just to see the elephant island's wonderful wonder-feel sunset and, of course, to have a quick escape from the big bad city of Bangkok.
we went for a walk along the beach at around 4 in the afternoon, and look what we have found! a very very big jellyfish, dead jellyfish!
it's not exactly the biggest in the world, but this was the biggest that i had ever seen! look at that size, compared to my teeny weeny weaner-like index finger!
i think that when a jellyfish of this enormous size stings you, it will not just be a local paralysis you'll suffer from--you will be in for a very very very looooooong vacay in the hospital.
ha!
get well soon mareh...
mwaaaaaaah!
whatever-makes-me-cry-makes-me-real
here i go again...
i found this in a g4m thread. thanks jaeger1021 for posting it in.
i promise you, this one is really good. nice point to ponder. sulk in! drink in! sip in!
Cups for Coffee?
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old University of Notre Dame lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."
"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change."
"Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."
lights, camera, trans-action... -- incubus
i was in great need to be back in bangkok after my short stint in manila. but since the thai rak thai party was defeated by the nationalist (and better) military-backed coup d'etat, with Mr. Thaksin not returning from NY, i got afraid of the then impending hot waters of political thailand.
i couldn't even bear the thought that they still want to open the new Suvarnabhumi Airport on its agreed date of September 28, while still testing the new martial law regime all over the country (although 'seeming regularity' went back on after October 1st).
my first plan was to get back to bangkok from manila, then from bangkok to proceed to tokyo for a short business trip, then back to bangkok to stay till the new year.
but the steam of martial law in bangkok and its environs (but not excluding the Muslim South), prevented me to do just that.
instead, i waited until my flight to tokyo, coming from manila. then back to manila after 6 days, and flew to bangkok after 3 days. that way, i saved some money and saved my ass from sniffing the burnt ashes of the ousted TRT prime minister.
(by the way, the new airport is swell! concrete and steel. raw. very industrial. very forward. very political.
blue lights, electric blue.
and knowing this is thailand, there are malls (not just stores, malls) and day spas for the tired and waitsome traveller, like me. hehehe. )
futurama 2
this is my new computer. just five pens together and i'm on!
from left is the screen projector. you can point it on any surface where you can differentiate ember color from burnt siena.
next to it is the keyboard projector. you can point it on any surface where you can just pretend drumming with your lil' fingers.
the other three are: storage device, wireless connection device (bluetooth, IR, wifi) and pointing device, in their order.
and i am not kidding.
saw this actually in tokyo at the CEATEC exhibit 2006.
designed by NEC.
and these are actual pens you can use to finish off those bloody exams and sign that grocery bill.
futurama 2
this is my new computer. just five pens together and i'm on!
from left is the screen projector. you can point it on any surface where you can differentiate ember color from burnt siena.
next to it is the keyboard projector. you can point it on any surface where you can just pretend drumming with your lil' fingers.
the other three are: storage device, wireless connection device (bluetooth, IR, wifi) and pointing device, in their order.
and i am not kidding.
saw this actually in tokyo at the CEATEC exhibit 2006.
designed by NEC.
and these are actual pens you can use to finish off those bloody exams and sign that grocery bill.
futurama 1
i want this car, i want this car!
this is the epitome of individuality.
no annoying backseat drivers who just can't shut the (fill this with 'reasonable' cusses) up. no holier-than-thou passengers who throw everything out the window and backfires to you. no silly seaters who think they own everything on the dashboard and below it. nobody with you, woohoo!
i want this car, i want this car!
(let's go and get my license. now.)
waiting for my rocket to come
hahaha!
look at those two girls behind me-- they look so vibrant, energetic and glowing! they are having the time of their lives in narita, hahaha!
i did not know life could be this boring here in the land of the rising sun.
where have all those friggin' hot harajuku guys gone?!
oh, wait, have to rush to my room, the guys must be up by now...
RISE and SHINE, baby!
on the run
"what a beautiful little mouse would i be if i was a mouse..."
can you figure out what that castle was? i can't. i just see them whenever i see those fat-asses-on-the-couch-who-are-said-to-be-the-masters-of-the-house watch films from walt disney...
I AM A MOUSE! WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? I'M A MORON! i'm just supposed to sniff my way through existence. i am not supposed to think.
but, would you take me if i was a mouse?
I BET!
"what a beautiful mouse would i be... i wonder..."
paparazzi 7
"O M G! you actually are from Vogue Men Italia? ok, then, let's do it, as in right now... yayaaaaaah! where's my shu uemura?"
paparazzi 6
"... oh, pahleeeezzzz, this is not a photo op! yayah! cover me up! as in right now! yayah! yayaaaaaaah!"
paparazzi 5
"...now it's time to beat this autumn cold... ..."
paparazzi 4
"gosh, he really WAS thirsty... squeezed it to the last drop, eh?"
paparazzi 3
" d'ya-wunt-sum, dahlin?"
paparazzi 2
" thanks, hunny, i really needed a big gulp..."
paparazzi 1
"can you open my evian, pretty please...?"
what a big big ball!
yes, right you are! that is one big ball!
and there are lots of these balls scattered around Tokyo Big Sight--there's green, yellow, blue.... ochre, burnt siena, turquoise, aquamarine, coral, ember... ha ha ha.
seriously, there are red, green, yellow and blue balls!
can you guess what these balls are for?
hint: GEB, SEB...
booooooring.... next please!
look! i found an escort!
just as i was losing my way inside the grand entrance of tokyo disneyland, i found the MAN of my creamy pants! hahaha!
and when my friends found me, they clicked away!
sulk on that, ha!
dungeon-esque
lookie, lookie at this picture one more time and you will not feel like i was having breakfast in this dark sullen (but very very very clean and rustic) cafeteria near the hotel...
i lurrrrv the lighting, though.
let's don that kimono, shall we?
in the neighborhood
ok, i admit it. i'm such a lazy pig.
but as you know, artists like moi has to have a muse first before starting a masterpiece... ha!
so let's show you some pictures--starting with this garb. ha!
it's autunno in japan, so we can wear some coats, eh? im wearing a knee-length coat of light material i bought from the Theater store in Bangkok some months back.
don't i look like a cameo player in one of those Harry Potter films?
sip on that!
