Fine, I’m fat, and I suck at euphemisms.

I truly believe that New Year’s resolutions are nothing but made of fluff and bullshit, but I would always make it to a point of making one (last year, I haven’t made one though, and I don’t know why I came up abandoning such a crappy tradition) or two, or more of them.

• Diet. GAD I HATE THIS PART.

Dad was telling me that I’m three months shy of eighteen, and that I should at least think of–well, not really body-building–but at least be “fit”, which might be a euphemism for my being “not-so-fit” or being “fat” (though again, my friends would always tell me I’m not fat, just chubby–JUST chubby, for chrissake). I don’t know. I mean, of course people wouldn’t really care if I’m fat or not, and it’s even great when people would always tell me not to slim down so bad, so “rehab-eligible” since I’m “big-boned” (another euphemism, I think) and that they’re used to my being chubby.

Anyways, I don’t know how to fix a proper, balanced diet. That’s one problem, though I do have basic knowledge in that field.

Another, the craving part is really hard–especially if the entire house and the entire dorm you live in are teeming with voracious people.

I’ve never tried being so goddamn serious with dieting. I admit, fine. I’ve never. Anyway. I’m not really dying to be slim or to trim down my excess fats and everything–never. But I think I’ll try. I’m not really desperate to please everybody, who the fuck cares if I’m fat anyway? Though I know someday, I’ll think about my health and all.

• Read more novels/books

Yep. I’m even planning a one-novel-a-week but that might just be.. abusive, and very demanding as well. Just more novels than I’ve read this 2008 (a total of twenty-four: 30 books minus 6 unfinished books).

• Earn MORE

I bought two Team Manila shirts, another Team Manila shirt for that someone I’ve been slightly intimate with, and each of us another Analog Soul shirt. Plus two books from Fully Booked (Rant and A Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao). And a lot more expenditures. I halved the contents of my ATM account during this Christmas vacation.

You, do you have any plans of making crappy, ambitious resolutions?! I did three. :)

This entry was written by Kevin, posted on December 30, 2008 at 8:15 pm, filed under IRLs, Slang and random. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Waiting for you, everlong.

A girl I’ve been slightly intimate with (for the lack of an exact single-word term) and I have planned to meet at Trinoma at around 2 PM yesterday (December 26, that is). It was succinctly planned: “I’ll-meet-you-there-at-around-two” and that was it. Even if she would be coming all the way down from Subic and endure a four-hour battle with the gravity-defying buses, (their records are off-the-hook; some of my friends who frequents Baguio mostly for the chilly air would always say that the upchucks and the nausea attacks they feel after landing in Cubao are from the buses) she said she was cool with it.

(The time frames are rough estimates.)

1:32 pm: I asked her location while playing DoTA, and she said she didn’t know, that she’s inside the bus and she had no point of knowing it anyway. I advised her to look for some hardware outside, or some sari-sari store, or some local law firm or porridge house. “They usually have headers or something like Linda’s Lechon and the address goes right below the huge name, though usually it’s really small.”
1:40: She said she’s at San Fernando, Pampanga.
1:42: I left the game (my Rhasta died a few times anyway) and took a shower.
1:59: “I think we should meet at Trinoma at around 3 pm? I need to unload my duffel bags and stuff in our house (somewhere in Anonas) and take a bath and all.” I said okay, it’s fine with me. I have all the time in the world anyway.
2:10: I told Dad I’ll be going home before eleven.
2:21: I walked from our house to the highway, a good ten-minute walk in the shades of mahogany trees.
2:22: She said she’s somewhere along the expressway. I asked, “where in NLEX?”
2:23: “Valenzuela, as the sign said.”

This isn’t really a date, but it’s embarrassing to be late with meeting her, or any other girl. Also, if there’s one thing I wouldn’t like to hear, which I always hear from my friends, is that treat-me-since-you’re-late kind of talking.

2:40: Walked to Trinoma from the MRT North Ave. Station.
2:41: I told her we’ll be meeting at Trinoma, at the very umbilical cord that links Trinoma to the trains, with the hotdog stands and loading stations and smokers filed besides a “this-is-a-non-smoking-area” sign from the management. Ironic.
3:01: My trigger finger suddenly itched for a gun to kill the (the head counts were astronomical) crowd at Trinoma. They didn’t stank, good, but finding my way to Powerbooks has never been so difficult since the crowd was blocking everything–everything from shops to mentally-considered landmarks–that I lost my sense of direction and went circles around Stoked. Inc and Tag Heuer.
3:02: “Where are you anyway?” I texted.
3:20: “I don’t think Tag Heuer has replaced Powerbooks,” I told myself, doubtful, distrustful. No way. I can’t find the goddamn shop. It’s supposed to be here, for chrissake.
3:23: I then realized that I was on the wrong floor. Shit. I’m so confident with my navigating skills I even averted my eyes from the goddamn site map nearby. I felt the fear that people would think of me as a newbie or someone who usually gets lost, though I know I don’t really look like one, and that I know for myself that I’m not, but the fear grappled me from looking at it anyway.
3:30: “I’m at Powerbooks. Reading. Killing the time.” How about sending a text message saying you’re somewhere, some place nearby?
3:35: The cellphone battery died. I almost cried. This isn’t good, I told myself.
3:39: I keep on finding the Anthology of Short Stories and Poems by Nick Joaquin, the blue one, at their Filipino Literature section. Tons of Zafra and F. Sionil Jose barricaded the bookshelves.
3:40: I tried to remove the cellphone’s battery and snapped it shut again to its place, hoping some hocus-pocus would somewhat recharge the battery just enough to text her that I ran out of battery and that I’m waiting at Powerbooks.
3:42: The hocus-pocus wouldn’t work. The battery was completely drained. How timely.
3:50: I went out of the goddamn bookstore and went to our meeting place, at the MRT, hoping she was there, passing the time with one cigarette stick in hand. No, she wasn’t there. There were a bunch of look-alikes but they were just look-alikes. Perhaps she’s on her way.
4:02: I went back to Powerbooks.
4:14: Crichton, Kureishi, Marquez, Murakami, where the hell is Palahniuk?
4:21: I haven’t seen a trace of Palahniuk. They’ve probably missed it.
4:31: I then went to the Art and Architecture section since my knees were tired from standing.
4:49: While standing, I was reading something about pencil strokes and the art of sketching and pencil-drawing…

It was very informative: it listed out the different kinds of erasers (putty and plastic), papers (rough, smooth, in-betweens), pencils (graphite, charcoal, colored, technical) and some other weird-looking drawing paraphernalia. It also has tutorials on how to draw landscape, portraits, still-life and the works, even pointillism, cross-hatching, and all kinds of shading and erasing. It suddenly flared the artist inside me. I think I need to draw. I used to draw back then anyway, having been enrolled in painting classes…

5:09: After much preoccupation with pencil-drawing, I stumbled upon a gallery of love-hotels in Japan, or “love-hos” as how Murakami puts it; or locally, motels.

It features notes left by couples. “It was my third time here and it was super fun,” said one. “The Hello Kitty motifs are super cute,” said another. Another note said “Girl: I met him through an online-dating site and we agreed to personally meet here. He was great in bed, though he slept afterwards. He sucks.” It cracked me up! Anyway, the gallery primarily focuses on love-hos, bondages and chains installed in the rooms, even role-playing paraphernalias (LOL at the student-teacher role-playing room!!!)–the kind of stuff in a motel (though I have never been to one, seriously). What I really liked with it was its bravery to shoot and photograph a topic that’s a taboo for most people.

5:16: A picture shows a room with nude Japanese girls as wallpapers (like a mosaic). Amazing.
5:20: Something in myself wants to go to Japan. I think they’re artistic, and they’re good with what they’re doing. I mean, the designs, not sex.
5:31: I was at the MRT Station again. This is getting hopeless. I scanned every face and I still haven’t seen her.
5:40: All the expletives were floating in my brain. I don’t know if I’ll blame my battery or her being two-hours late. I just felt hopeless. I crossed my fingers to bump into someone I have known for quite a long time–a close friend perhaps, or some friend whom I could ask for favors–and would be asking if the friend could do me a favor (for formality’s sake), if I could text someone. While texting I could have explained the inopportune happening, that this is a matter of extreme urgency, else my thirty-minute trip from Bulacan would have gone all down the drain, and that my energies would have been drained for nothing, and that I should not have left home in the first place.
5:59: I haven’t encountered a single familiar face.
6:10: I refrained myself from going inside Powerbooks. The guards (though I haven’t seen one) might become suspicious of my going in-and-out of the bookstore. I stayed outside, waited for her for five minutes. I thought of going home.
6:21: Right before I planned to go to the MMDA bus terminals, I then thought of the Internet shop at the topmost floor. I could ask someone over my Y!M to text her.
6:31: “Sir, the minimum rental rate is 30.00 for half an hour. Number 31, please.” 30 pesos an hour? Gawd, that’s twice the usual rate in Bulacan–in the province (LOL province)! What on earth do their computers have anyway? But just for the sake of texting her, I proceeded to station number 31.
6:32: Friend number 1: I don’t have any load eh. Sorry. :(
6:39: Friend number 2: Na-text ko na. Ba’t hindi ka mag-Chikka?

Me: I don’t use that. And besides, the registration requires a password they sent in my mobile phone. How am I suppose to get the password they sent me if I can’t even turn my phone on!

6:49: Someone pinched my right shoulder. It was her.

“I told you we’ll be meeting at Powerbooks! ARGH I hate you. Grrr!” I said, my hands unleashed, cueing my hatred with virtual squeezes.
“I’m trying to reach you but you’re phone’s dead.” I was paying for my fifteen-minute rental worth thirty pesos.
“I’ve been warning you ever since I got my ass at Trinoma that I’m running out of bat. Where have you been?”
“Traffic kayaaaaaaa!”
“Goddamn traffic. I’ve waited for three–”
“And I waited for you at Fully Booked!”
“Who told you to wait at Fully Booked?”
“You did. In one of your text messages.”
“I told you I’m in Powerbooks, reading.”
“I only remembered that it’s a bookstore so I thought… well, I’m sorry since I thought it was Fully Booked. I waited for you anyway.”
“Gawd, I really almost thought of going home! Swear.”
“I hate your goddamn phone.” She said with a sense of finality.
“Don’t worry, I hate it too.”

This entry was written by Kevin, posted on December 28, 2008 at 8:18 pm, filed under Pensive shits, Stress ball narratives. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Pesto love (and movie reviews as well)!

I cooked Pesto today and it was awesome. It has lots of parmesan and ground garlic and it’s just strong that it kicks your taste buds and makes you ask for a second helping or something sweet (like fruit salad with maraschino cherries, yummeh) to dissolve the herby, tangy pesto sensation. Haven’t got a picture of it, though. I used whole wheat spaghetti instead of the normal, white ones, though I know it’s a wrong move since whole wheat and pesto are both bland, and mixing them together isn’t really a wonderful chemistry but I don’t really care anyway.

What I’ve been doing this Christmas vacation:

• Beer-drinking with friends: aside from the “Blogger’s Inuman Session” Jhed and I had planned last Saturday (and was cancelled since there’s only four of us, and at Drew’s we usually go in crowds), I also drank with my village friends (or friends around the neighborhood) for a couple of nights (four nights, I think). They usually leave our fridge devoid of frankfurters (gawd, they love it so much) and whole wheat breads and pistachios! I don’t know, they’re just really made of gluttons like that. I have to admit I’ve been enjoying those nights since it was my first time to drink with them, and the fact that they were my playmates when I was young and that we used to play Counter Strike and even baseball back then, and now that we’re teenagers and everything, it’s just nice to see the progression, the reality that time just blew its way on us so fast we didn’t even remember how it all began.

• Reading: I’ve finished The Aquariums of Pyongyang (Chol-Hwan) last night out of frenzied reading. I’m hoping I could finish Nine Stories (Salinger) today, and I could read Light in August (Faulkner), Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (Fuller), The Chauffeur (Norman) before the vacation runs out. I’m thinking of reading the entire Twilight sequel (Meyer) too, but that would come after.

• Playing PC games: They’re not really PC Games. I’ve been playing Burger Rush and I got bored of it, and Crimsonland too.

• Cooking: I’ve cooked Thai Spring Rolls (my Dad gave two thumbs up at it), Spaghetti with Meatballs and Grilled Teriyaki Chicken (it’s just easy, heh). Also, I’m planning to bake potatoes and make Pesto this Christmas eve!

• Photo-editing: I think I want to resurrect my Deviantart account!



• Soundtripping: Newly-discovered likings for Coldplay (LOL I know, I’m such an alternative lover yet this is only the time to discover Coldplay), Head Automatica and The Early November! :D

MOVIE REVIEWS:

1) I’ve expected a lot about Transformers since everyone had ranted about it when it was first shown, and the reviews are most of the time positive and praises. Now, I have to say that if this movie were a hotel, it could even topple the one in Dubai. Really, it’s action-packed than Spiderman and even heart-breaking than most animated movies do (though I admit, The Monster’s Inc. for me is really made of cheese and that I’ve been wanting for a second installment since it’s really cute, but anyways)–especially the scene where Bumblebee looked at Shia (or what’s-his-name) when he was I dunno, thawed? or experimented by Sector 7, and his eyes were just yellow and almost briming with tears and it’s just emotional.

Also, I kind of identified the girl Shia’s been kissing with as the girl at The Hills, Audrina, but maybe I’m wrong. Now I’m starting to hate Shia since he’s not really that kind of a handsome guy but all the girls he’s been with in the movies were all megahot (especially that girl at Disturbia, omfg, if only I could rent a neighbor like that in a house that’s within my view).

2) Erin Brokovich is teeming with acerbic with and tons and tons and tons of humor and reflection. Julia Roberts’ character is just fierce, a badass fighter and a loudmouthed beauty queen as well. I kind of remembered my elder sister in her, since they’re both fighters who could have qualified for vicious, merciless roles. This movie also made me admire Julia Roberts as an actress–she play characters so well, you could even forget that she’s Julia Roberts, and that she won the Acadamy Award in that movie. I love her! She’s just fascinating and everything! I mean, she can be a real darling and powerless if she wanted to (like in America’s Sweethearts with John Cusack and Catherine Zeta Jones).

Also, she portrays every woman who could stand up on their own without masculine supervision. These women are tough, and they would pour their blood, sweat, tears and even time with their kids just for a job–they’re dedicated like that, but once you go the wrong move, they’d give blowjobs for days spit on your face every degree of loathing you deserve.

3) Good Luck Chuck was when my jaws fell again for Jessica Alba. Oh, she’s sexy in Honey, even hotter in that treasure-hunting movie with Paul Walker, and even fantastic in Fantastic Four! Now, she’s the sex empress of the penguins!! Really. Especially when–anyway. Moving on with the review, Good Luck Chuck is plain nice. I have this classmate in Literature class who said–after being asked about his favorite literature he has ever read:

“I know this isn’t really literature, but I guess it’s Good Luck Chuck since it’s really good” and the entire class looked stunned and reaction-less and looked at each other innocently since it didn’t even ring any bell.

However, I can’t see the point of the movie aside from the matchmaking thing and the I-want-to-be-the-next-guy thing. It was shown on HBO at around 1 AM, and I drank coffee just to watch it, and now I half-wished I’ve long killed my desire to watch the movie.

This entry was written by Kevin, posted on December 23, 2008 at 8:46 pm, filed under Books, books, books, Films, IRLs, Opinion, Slang and random. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.