Category Archives: Life Oh Life

Desktop as of March 20, 2012

20 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by in Geekdom, Life Oh Life

≈ Leave a Comment

The North Remembers — Wyman Manderly, Lord of White Harbor

—

Whoa, it’s been ages since I’ve updated this. Goes to show that I absolutely have nothing to say or ramble about eversince I (finally) got out of Japan (omedetou, self). I’ve just been thoroughly immersed into street photography though, going as far as to meeting one of the famous ones (oh my goodness, I met a Magnum photographer, it was so totally awesome, almost as awesome as talking to Sara Bareilles after her concert a few months ago in Shibuya). But anyway, I still have a lot to learn and a long, long way to go so … I dunno, I’ll just turn this blog into some sort of behind the scenes thing for when I do some shoots or whatever.

By the way, oh, I also managed to catch Wicked here in Singapore — oh, if I somehow forgot to mention, yeah, I’m now currently in Singapore. Anyway, back to Wicked, so … yeah, I finally got what the fuss is all about. I mean, sure I’ve fangirled about it for ages and caught some vids over youtube and listened a gazillion times to the score but the actual show is a totally different thing.

So there.

Gah.

Okay, enough word vomit.

—

Age++ in a few hours.

NO ME GUSTA.

t minus 2 weeks

05 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by in Japan Stuff, Life Oh Life

≈ 2 Comments

At dahil nalalapit na ang aking paglisan (dalawang linggo na lang anubah), susubukan kong alalahanin ang pinaka-interesting na nangyari sa kin sa around four and a half years ko todits sa land of the rising sun and eternal office hours.

1. Mag-slide paibaba ng bundok dahil nilipad ng hangin ang isa kong glove. Saklap.

2. Muntik na mawala sa bundok sa Zao dahil super foggy at di makita ang harapan.

3. Ma-sprain ang dalawang paa. Nang sabay.

4. Ma-crack ang pinkie toe habang naglalakad with the bike (at marami ang version netong kwento na to).

5. Ma-attach sa isang upuan. I miss you Cher the chair. Sana buhay ka pa pero feeling ko hindi na.

6. Mag-hibernate nang isang buong linggo (golden week) without going out. Hibernate nga eh, shempre no going out. May pagka-redundant din pala ko no?

7. Mag-bakasyon (!) nang 2 months sa isang hospital.

8. Naadik mag-online-shopping. I will defo miss you Amazon and Rakuten.

9. Photography. ‘Nuff said.

10. Magcollect ng napakaraming scarf (scarves?). Ano kaya gagawin ko sa mga yun no?

11. Matutong magluto (level up from boiling water and *cooking* pancit canton). Pwede na ko ngayon mag-nilagang-B (bubuyog? bisekleta? bentilador?). Kaya ko na ata mag-grill ng steak at maggawa ng sinigang. Pero siyempre pinakamagaling akong magpipindot ng keys sa microwave at mag-type-type sa keyboard para umorder na lang.

12. Sara Bareilles concert. Yeh! Best concert ever! At asa video pa kami ni Benny hahaha. It was an awesome show. Kahiyuuuuh.

13. KT Tunstall concert. Yeh! Napagod paa ko sa kakatayo pero prime position kami ni Benny as in sa harapan. PS parang kamukha niya si Jolens. Hmnnn.

14. Maroon 5 and Aerosmith concerts. Yeh! Ang lalayo nila (Nippon Budokan and Tokyo Dome ang mga venues, respectively) so ang hirap makita ng pilantik ni Adam Levine and bibig ni Steven Tyler. Nevertheless, enjoy to the max ever.

15. Sakura Tulip Festival chuchubelles. Very special mention ang Meemax ahaha. Memorable talaga yun. Pero I don’t want to make lublob myself in the putikan and damage my camera haha. Traumatizing siya.

16. Sprint to shuuden galore. Kelangan abutan ang last train sa gabi. Buti na lang hindi ito parati.

17. Sprint in the morning para habulin ang tren na naman. OA na yang train na yan ah. Parating hinahabol. Five seconds lang naman ako nalelate di pa ko hintayin. Imbey.

18. Snow. Masaya pero nakakairita. Bakit ba kasi ang lamig-lamig niya?

19. AUTUMN — ang walang kamatayang autumn. I love autumn.

20. Kafunsho. Siya na, siya na talaga. Hanggang ngayon di pa din ata ako naka-recover sa damage na ginawa niya sa sinus ko.

21. Kyoto + Osaka + Kobe. Saya neto. Ang saya talaga.

22. … (Teka saka na yung iba, wala na ko maalala ngayon pero baka mamaya meron pa).

Hola!

13 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Life Oh Life

≈ Leave a Comment

Le Journal seems like it’s dead. But it’s not. It’s just that Tumblr has been getting the lion share of my attention lately, what with pseudo-maintaining FYSS and reblogging all the shit I’ve been seeing in my dash and you know, sometimes you just got to turn your attention elsewhere.

So anyway, what have I been up to these days?

# Seattle Storm going into the playoffs. I haven’t been posting in sf.org for ages because I’m been mostly hanging out in Twitter (and Tumblr). Anyway, I thought this year was going to be a disaster, what with LJ and her labral tear in the hip. But Sue Effing Bird came up big and dragged her team to finish 2nd place in the West. Seriously, how is she even real?

# A Storm of Swords. I’ve been slogging through the books not because I found them boring (The Red Wedding certainly is not boring. Also, damn it, GRRM), but because I had to take a break from time to time so I won’t get too invested in a character (because they’ll eventually die at some point in the series anyway).

# Went back to the Motherland during Summer Break. Love love love that we have a summer break (夏休み) in the company and love love love the fact that it’s a week earlier than the Obon (お盆休み) which means we get lower plane fares because it’s not the peak season yet. Anyway, so I shot some photos for my friend’s wedding. Holed up in the hotel for the entire time I spent in Cebu and watched almost the entire season of Australia’s Master Chef 2 and totally forgot about gallivanting around the city. So much for my vacation. I managed to gorge myself on lechon though. So I guess that made up for the lack of photos.

# Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles and The Lost Hero. They’re books on mythology. For kids, granted. But I like mythology and I like reading about them, especially if it’s YA. I love YA. Well, granted it is not Harry Potter and Riordan is now Rowling, but I enjoyed the books just the same. They’re perfect as distraction from the A Song of Ice and Fire Series.

# Warehouse 13. Eureka. Suits. And a host of TV shows out there that exist mainly just to relieve me of my boredom.

# Packing my stuff and trying to plan everything out so I can get out of this place as peacefully as possible. Gets on my nerves sometimes though.

Wassup World

11 Thursday Aug 2011

Posted by in Life Oh Life

≈ Leave a Comment

Wow, I almost forgot I still have this blog. LOL. I’ve been enjoying Tumblr way too much since the whole World Cup thing happened and I haven’t been able to get back to fixing my sites and adding photos to my main page.

But anyway, so what’s been going on with me? Well, I still haven’t found any kind of groove except when I’m zonked out so I’m afraid I can’t write coherently as much as I want to. Because of that, well, microblogging here we go.

# I’ve been hanging out in Tumblr and Twitter mostly. I’m so close to abandoning Facebook except that it’s the easiest way to keep in touch with people back home so I guess I’ll just let the account sit there. Also, Google Plus, but I haven’t explored that yet.

# So Japan beat the US WNT. I tried to follow the WPS, specifically MagicJack, but it’s kinda difficult and trying to follow the Seattle Storm takes so much of my time already.

# I really hate summers in Japan. Just two minutes out of the door and I am always already melting.

# Went home to Manila last week on an 11-day vacation. That’s pretty hectic. Loved it though.

# I had the chance to watch Ang Babae sa Septic Tank and I was too fcuking lazy to get up and cartwheel over to the movie house 😐

# Game of Thrones has possibly ruined any other TV shows for me. And the last Harry Potter movie, too. Tsk.

# I’m somehow in the middle of reading A Storm of Swords, the third book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I’m trying to barrel through it, possibly barrel even strong through A Feast for Crows before I get to the awesomeness that is A Dance with Dragons.

# While I was in Manila, I picked up a copy of The Lost Hero, the 1st book in Rick Riordan’s second series The Heroes of Olympus. It’s a welcome relief from all the seriousness of ASOIAF and I realized I kinda missed reading YA adventure fiction et cetera. Also, it’s mythology with a modern twist so I think it’s awesome.

# It’s Birdy’s 10th year in Seattle woohoo.

10 Things To Learn From Japan

30 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by in Japan Stuff, Life Oh Life

≈ Leave a Comment

1. THE CALM
Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.
2. THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.
3. THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.
4. THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.
5. THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.
6. THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?
7. THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.
8. THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.
9. THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.
10. THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly!

* * *

Reposted from the 2.000.000 People To Support Japan Group on Facebook.

* * *

Photo gacked from here.

Shaken, Not Stirred

12 Saturday Mar 2011

Posted by in Japan Stuff, Life Oh Life

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

,

There’s something about experiencing massive quakes and aftershocks that don’t seem to end. I guess when we think about how we’re alive and safe and our houses not part of a massive misou soup due to the tsunami, that kinda puts things into perspective, and it makes you thankful, at least, that you’re marginally fine and not physically damaged or anything.

***

Still unable to form coherent thoughts. I’ll probably write more about this when the shocks stop. Whenever that is.

***
Update: March 15, 2011

So it’s currently March 15 already and today marks my 4th year anniversary of being in Japan. It’s been 4 days since the massive earthquake and we’re still experiencing tremors that it felt like our office building never really stood still. And yes, we went to work today even if it took two freaking hours just to travel from here to there.

***

My friends and I have been losing our heads over this nuclear meltdown thing and how radioactive particles released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant could reach Tokyo and/or Kanagawa. Lo and behold, radiation is present but they say it’s a really small amount. Our company president posted these values in our bulletin/news group/group page in Facebook:

Tokyo(Shinjuku) 0.809microSv/h
Kanagawa（Kawasaki)　0.209microSv/h

Comparing those with the usual levels they use for CT-Scan (6900microSv/h), these are still really low, right? I just hope those values won’t rise over the next few days.

***

It’s been, what, 3 days since I haven’t gone home because the train line that goes from where I am now (a friend’s place somewhere in the outskirts of Tokyo) to where I live (somewhere along the Odakyu-Odawara Line) has been cut off. I thought I could go back earlier since the line going to my station’s operational but the one connecting that line to the one I’m in just started at 2230H or something. I’m not sure when the trips will stop so I decided not to brave it out there and risk the chance of getting stuck somewhere that I don’t know the area of.

***

It’s March 15 and amidst the chaos and the hysteria and panic and whatever else shite there is, I almost forgot MarcT’s birthday. So anyway, before it’s too late — HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUDE!

***

When I was walking home from the forced overnight stay we did over at a hospital near our office, I was composing this blog entry in my head. I told myself I’d write those thoughts down when I get the necessary rest and time.

But then again, after 4 days, I can’t remember what to say anymore. I know that the terror I felt during the first 7.9 quake will never be erased in my mind and that will probably still be the most terrifying moment of my life (we were still inside our building during that one and we were on the ground watching the buildings sway during the massive 9.0 quake). I dunno, I’m not sure why I can’t exactly tell the story about that day. I’m pretty sure those people up north would blank out when they’re asked about their more horrifying experiences, too. Blank out or break out in hysterics or most likely just proceed about the whole thing calmly, like most Japanese people do.

***

I’ve never been more thankful about Japan’s strict building codes and their awesome earthquake engineering. Buildings swayed like crazy, yes, but at the end of it all, they were still left standing tall.

Exception to that are those up north in the coastal prefectures — Miyagi, Ibaraki, Iwate, Fukushima. The quake didn’t destroy their buildings and homes — the massive tsunami did. 🙁

Album Cover

25 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by in Life Oh Life, Meme

≈ Leave a Comment

There’s this Facebook Meme going around where you’ll create your own album cover randomly from everywhere. At dahil gaya-gaya ako kay Nikki, eh di ako din. So, here goes:

Make Your Own Album Cover:

1. Go to wikipedia and hit random. The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2. Go to quotationspage.com and hit random. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3. Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”. Third picture no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4.Use photoshop or similar (picnik.com is a free online photo editor) OR Paint OR whatever.

5. Post it with this text in the “caption” and TAG the friends you want to join in.

And voila:

Disclaimer: No, I don’t own that awesome photo. Just found it at the Explore page.

Blast From The Past

02 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by in Books, Geekdom, Life Oh Life

≈ Leave a Comment

I was sifting through my Google Reader feeds and came across Neil Gaiman’s latest blog entry [link] and saw the image below:

I was hit by this weird nostalgic feeling because, uhm, yeah, those words have a special meaning for me and it was probably one of my most favorite Gaiman quotes. I even used those words before to convey something I didn’t want to say directly [see this].

***

I still dunno if I really wanna get inked or not.