Weekend Sleep-Over

It had been quite a tiring week indeed, last week. I went home at around 9 o'clock (at least) during most of the days of that week, thanks to a lot of issues to solve and a lot of tasks to be done. And, well, I wasn't the only one though. I think it was quite a tiring week for most of my team members in the big, loving family of DC. I was fast becoming a workaholic that even CK's given up on teasing me and calling me 'workaholic' just to coax me to going home early. Now she just walked pass my cube not saying a word knowing there was no use. Sorta miss the teasing, though.

Thank God that things had been getting very interesting thanks to the coming of more people from Jakarta office. The addition of Do, Pil, Awing, Bob, Haram, and Mul has been a very refreshing turn of event. At least then I wouldn't have to worry about having to hang out with a girl all-star squad most of the time. I was afraid that I would have to start wearing skirts if I continue being a guest star of that squad. Moreover, I wouldn't have to worry about talking in English most of the time. It's not that I couldn't speak proper English, mind you, it's just that when I talk or make jokes in English, most of the people here are not so fast in 'getting it'. But talking in Indonesia and making Indonesian-flavored jokes are so...welcomed. People here are such sissies when it comes to jokes. Even the guys. God.

Ahhh, thank you God. You always know what I need.

Thus, I welcomed with arms wide open Do's and Pil's idea of having a sleepover on Friday night. We left the office early that day, with me going back to my own apartment first to catch a quick nap to calm my tempter down a bit. Nearly bitten a girl's head off during the day, thanks to an incident involving an ice cream party and two other girls giggling behind my back. Yes, folks, lack of sleep make Hulk unhappy. Hulk unhappy not good for you. You see green. You don't want to make Hulk angry. You won't like Hulk when Hulk angry. And don't give Hulk puppy eyes. Hulk got enough of puppy eyes. Hulk crush puppy eyes.

Anyways,

Yeah, after that quick evening nap, I finally get my ass off my bed and walked off to Do's place. Took only 10 minutes to get there. And when I got there, almost everyone was there. There was even a member of the opposite sex, Put, one of the new additions from Jakarta office. Our (most of the time) permanent guest star.

Alright, when I said 'we', the people I'm talking about are: Dod, the de facto leader of the pack...sort of...the calm, serene, thoughtful guy who emanates wisdom,...

...not. Don't be fooled by his calm face, people, the guy has a lot of mischief in his head. He's just good at hiding it. And don't get him started talking bout Pil. I used to think that the guy is quiet, talk only at times. Well, he still does, but turns out that he could be quite a funny guy, and got a lot of funny ideas inside his head. Especially when it comes to Pil and some of his 'obsessions'.

Talkin' bout funny brings us to Pil. Pil's practically everyone's 'punching bag' when it comes to jokes. In other words, he's the butt of jokes. Gay jokes, lesbian jokes, sex jokes, jokes relating to the girls he has a thing for, you name it. You don't often get to see Dod making fun of someone and actually enjoying every second of it. And, in Dod's own words, putting Bob, Pil and Yayang in the same room provides a level of entertainment this project badly needs. But, really, we all agree that Pil has quite a good music taste and well, as for me personally, I find that most of his advices really worth the trouble listening to. We agree on most things.

Awing is the 'ninja' of the group. At one time he would be sitting together with us, talking, laughing, and getting laughed at for being the target of a certain lonely lady's (or two ladies') affections (the dumb-founded expression on his face is priceless). But later on, after we finished talking, we would suddenly realized that he's gone MIA. He's even better than a ninja. Ninjas usually use smoke. He doesn't. But he would later on return with his special technique called 'storm-bringer'. It's just a cool lingo for him bringing in 'breaking news'. Examples: "Shit, guys, I just lost a hundred bucks in my room! Somebody must have took it!" or "Shit, guys, I just lost a thousand pesos in my room! Somebody must have took it!" (notice the pattern here?). But of course these are just a few examples of the news he would bring in with him. It's just that his luck hasn't been so good lately. But that doesn't affect his ninja-disappearing act or his 'storm-bringer' jujitsu technique. Woosh!

Man, all of this bad mojo...ya gotta need a balance, right? That's where Mul comes in. Mul is the smartest among us, academically. He's also the nicest among us. Mul has a sincere and positive disposition towards everything and everyone. He gets along fine with anything that comes his way. Naive and nice (sometimes to the point of irritation), don't we all started that way? Or is it just me? That's why we're quite protective when it comes to him. We would call him up whenever he's still not back at the apartment at 2 a.m. in the morning, thanks to the workload he has in his hands right now. It is also worth mentioning that when it comes to Pil and Mul, it's like watching a comedy show with duo comedians. Mul would be the straight guy and Pil would deliver the punch lines. Oh yeah, learned a trick or two on how to iron my own tees from him. Thanks a lot for that, Mul!

Bob and Haram are guest stars to our own little group. Planning to convert Bob to full-time member, but not too sure about Haram because he seems to have his own little world most of the time. However, that's what makes him so funny. We encountered priceless Haram moments during most of our hang-out times, too bad that we didn't have our cameras with us at those times. The guy can be so gullible. But he's a good and funny guy. An entertainer in his own ways.

Put is the princess among the princes, a sugar cube in a really bitter coffee, the sweet among the sour, and so on and so forth. As is the case with Mul and Pil, in the usual comedy set up, she would play the straight guy (girl, in this case) and us guys would be the delivering the punch lines (with most being targeted at Pil). Though at times she would left early (1 o'clock in the morning is considered early for us), it's nice to have her around whenever we guys hang out.

So, that's the cast roll. And now to the main event: the Friday night sleep-over! (I'm so making it sound like a pajama party, but what the heck...). We didn't actually do anything much, really, all we did was went to the 711 across the road, get ourselves some bottles of Coke, a few packs of cigarettes, and talk until around 4 o'clock in the morning. Around 1 o'clock a new guest star came (we had to pick her up, though). Well, let's just say that now we have 2 princesses among the princes, 2 sugar cubes in a really bitter coffee, 2 sweets among the sour, and so on and so forth. It was fun.

Thus, the main event was 'talk'. We practically had what we call 'guys talk'. It's our way of saying that we gossiped, but gossiped is such a sissy word that I had to change it to 'guys talk'. But really, it's almost the same thing, but 'guys talk' is sometime laced with more dirty words and obsceneties. The one we had that Friday night was tame though, but still it was 'guys talk', and we practically 'guys-talked' almost everyone involved in our current project (we try not to be too vulgar because of the 2 princesses, sugar cubes, sweets, so on so forth). We talked about the men, the women, and those that are in between (wink wink hint hint). We finally retired to our beds at around 4 o'clock.

I only had 2 hours worth of sleep before I had to wake up. Bob, I, and several people are going for an early morning photo hunting session in Manila North Cemetery. I don't exactly count myself among these professional photographer-wannabes, but I would like to see what it's like there in the cemetery. My only equipment was a point-and-shoot Canon Ixus 65. It was good enough for me, for now at least.

I'm going to elaborate more in a different entry regarding the photo hunting session. It was quite an interesting session, in many ways than one.

I spent the latter part of that Saturday running around trying to find something that my mom wanted me to find for her friend, and returned empty-handed thanks to lack of information. The disappointment was remedied by a visit to the bookstore in Greenhill. Didn't really buy any books, but it helped lift my mood a bit. Dinner was a so-so affair, I went with the guys again to an area we dubbed 'the bandit's nest' ('sarang penyamun') due to reasons that are quite obvious: it's the red light district. Mind you, we didn't do anything...'bad', we just went to the KFC there. And we had one of the princess with us. The sugar cube in a cup of bitter coffee, bla bla bla yada yada yada.

There's another 'guys talk' session in the night, but it was not as good as the night before as we've ran out of topics for conversation. Everyone was also tired, especially me due to my lack of sleep during the previous day.

There was nothing special on Sunday. It was only Church, and spending the rest of the afternoon at Do's place finishing a game (which reviews will be coming out in the near future). There was to be a birthday party in the evening, and everyone must contribute food. We weren't really feeling up to it, but finally when the time came we managed to haul our lazy asses off the bed (or couches, or floor, or whatever) and went to the apartment where the birthday party was supposed to be.

Free food always contribute to more fun. Well, it wasn't exactly free since we had to contribute some ice and water, but still, food and party are always considered fun factors. And so, the event was, for lack of a better word, eventful. We laughed, we ate, we talked, we listened, we played and finally we left.

Shows you how much Sunday was a drag...

An honorable mention though: Pil getting caught by CS as we were about to leave the party as he was afraid CS was going to make him drunk again. Didn't happen, but it gave him quite a scare.

Overall, it has been quite a fun weekend, even though the highlight was only on Saturday night's gossip session. And I badly needed it thanks to my fly-back having been canceled for so many times. It was fun, guys, and I believe there will be many more of those sessions coming in the future. Even though we were only talking non-sense, but hanging out together sure is fun.

Goodbye, Dear Godmother...(A Tribute)

She was our house maid. She was a 'babu', as she would often called herself. She had been there even before I arrived in this world. She had been working with our family even before my mother got married. She served my family with sweat, tears and at times, blood. There was a period of time, however, when she went to the service of one of my mother's aunt. It did not last long. She went back to us, citing awful treatment. She then stayed on with us, loyal until the day she died. She was, in the end, a true member of our family.

This woman wasn't blood-related to me, yes, but I might as well had called her my second mother. She would be my replacement mother whenever my real mother was not around. She would soothe and calm me or my mother whenever we were having one of our arguments, in the end reconciling our differences. She would oft times listen to my troubles, even though I suspect that she might not fully understand the true meanings of my words. But at the very least, she was there. And she was sincere.

She would be the second person who knew everything about me: how I was born; my childish habits; my first, and a subsequent, head wound that net me two stitches on the scalp of my head; my true personality at home; and (almost) all the secrets to my family life. And knowing this, she guided me with advices. She was the second person whose advices I truly listened to (or force myself to listen to), no matter how cliche they were. I must say that it was quite a feat for her, knowing how hard-headed I could be most of the time.

She would also be one of the few persons who understands my mother the most: her personal life; her taking care of me and my brother; her true personality; her temper; her life's many hardships; and her life's many secrets, many of which I still don't know and might never will. She happened to be the one of the few persons whose advice my mother listened to. Again, quite a feat for someone whose daily work was only being a house maid.

It would seem as if I were everything to her. But I know where her true loyalty lies. And often times I suspected that her caring for me was only a mere extension to that loyalty. However, no matter where that loyalty lies, I have benefited greatly, mentally and physically, from that loyalty and I know that I should be grateful for that.

I had better.

I must confess, that I don't treat her the way I should at times. It was that master-servant mentality that took over most of my dealings with her. But after the fit subsided, I would look and realize that this woman had been with us since...forever. She had taken good care of me and my family. And whenever I felt that I had done her wrong, I would come to her personally, look her in the eyes, and apologize from my heart. My apologies, the true and honest one, the ones that come from throwing my pride away, come rarely. But the ones I gave her were always of that kind.

Swallowing one's pride is never an easy thing.

Like any person one meets in life, she wasn't perfect. She had her failings. It seemed that the women in my immediate family were riddled with quite short fuses. She often had her fits of anger and I could see it in her eye (she lost one of her eyes to a sickness) when the 'madness' took her. She would not do her chores, and she would often spit out loud, sharp words that would truly hurt even my father, who often didn't give a damn about what people say. The only member of our family who could stand her bickering and her sharp words is our dog. It may sound funny, indeed, but I highly suspect that that dog is the only soul who knows her true self and love her for who she really was. And in any case, she was the one who fed him.

Only later would I suspect what made her came about that behavior of hers. I am still unsure, but my suspicion of the cause of her behavior would cast a good light on her. I prefer it that way.

Have you ever have that feeling, that certainty, that the people close to you, your family and friends, would live forever? Well, prepare to be really disappointed: they won't. Life goes on, and life will teach you that the people you are close won't be around forever. Life would took them away, sometimes so abrupt that you won't have time to say good bye to them. To apologize. To say how much you appreciate them. To say how much you hated their guts at times. To say how much you love them.

That was not the case with her. Her passing from this world had been too slow and painful. We found out about her cancer when it was too late. We suspect that her sickness had been eating her body away for quite awhile (thus the cause of my suspicion on her behavior). My mother did not want her to go through all that chemotherapy mumbo jumbo, knowing that it would not help and would only prolong her suffering. And thus, the Sickness took her from us little by little, as her life faded away into the Unknown.

Her soul, the person we knew, was lost to us long before her body failed her. I considered her lost the day she looked for me twice while I was sitting right in front of her. Mother and I grieved for her long before she passed away.

The day her body shut down was uneventful. My mother told me about it over the phone. Her immediate family back in her hometown was the one who took care of her. She did not have any husband or children of her own. I was her child. Her god-child. And my mother her sister.

I would have thought that life without her would be different, hard-like. Yet it seemed strange, that the passing of someone you were so used to having around in your life felt so natural. Or...is it just I who don't give much of a damn? Whatever it is, life goes on. And so do I. The dead pass away, but their immortality lies in our memories of them. Thus her spirit will always be with me, and with the people whose lives I touch. This I believe.

So, farewell dear Godmother...
O, Guardian of our family's life and secrets,
May God find you true peace and happiness...

This is a final tribute from me to you.


The sun was shining bright outside the school. The sky was blue with only a little hint of cloud. The sound of children's laughter was ringing in the air, a sign that school was over. It was a good day, a beautiful day, a day none like the other day. But, what have we here? Oh, dear me! There was a little boy in the corner, crying, while his friends were laughing and jumping and playing about the schoolyard. School is over, school is over, so happy are we, can't wait to flee, the children would sing and laugh. But not the little boy, however. Away from the others, he was holding onto the schoolyard fence and sobbing, such a sad little boy. I want to go home, said the little boy, where is she? Where could she be, cried the little boy.

One by one the other children went home, and so the schoolyard grew quiet but for the sobbing of the poor little boy. Oh, poor me, poor me, no one came to pick me, sobbed the little boy. Even the sweet words of the teacher telling him that, your parents will be here soon, dear, now will you be a good boy and come sit with me, could not ease his worries. And when it seemed that all hope was lost for the little boy, when he felt the world was not a safe place for him to be, the school's front door opened and came barging in a lady with quite a heavy built.

Oh, dear child, stop crying! So sorry am I to have come at so late a time! Come, come, stop your crying! I will take you home with no delay, and I will make you the most delicious food you have ever tasted. Come now, you will meet your mother soon enough, dear child. Now smile for me, will you not?

And the (now) happy little boy smiled. He knew that he was safe. He knew he was coming home. It was a bright day, with blue skies, and it was filled with a boy's laughter.

In loving memories of Yati (19?? - 2006)
(She never knew her date of birth)

Need to Get the Poison Out...

Yes, it's another 'song for the occasion' (a. k. a. filler post), though the occasion has passed for quite some time. But I just heard this song and it struck me hard.

I only wanted you to feel
How I thought you deserved to feel
The way you always said you wanted to
You wanted all we have to be real
And every word we say to be true
Still after all I gave, it's not enough for you

Well I can't give anymore
So now I'm giving up
'Cause nothing's ever good enough
The more I try to pour
The less I fill your cup
'Cause nothing's ever good enough

I only wanted you to see
That you can be who you wanted to be
And fill the lonely void inside of you
I gave you evertyhing that you need
Did what you always wanted to do
Still after all I've doneI can't get through

Well I can't give anymore
So now I'm giving up
'Cause nothing's ever good enough
The more I try to pour
The less I fill your cup
'Cause nothing's ever good enough

Good enough

I've wasted my time
Go find someone else

Well I can't give anymore
So now I'm giving up
'Cause nothing's ever good enough
The more I try to pour
The less I fill your cup
'Cause nothing's ever good enough

Enough

Enough

Good Enough
By Hoobastank

A Colorful and Loud New Year's Eve

I never thought that my New Year's Eve here in Manila can turn out to be quite interesting. It started out a bit boring, really. I'd been spending my time at a friend's apartment, enjoying the hospitality of his PlayStation2 while he was away. The game 'Okami' had me hooked for awhile now (as always, a review after I have finished the game), and that was what I'd been playing for several days. When I wasn't playing, another friend of mine would use the PS2 to play Final Fantasy XII.

We were playing the whole afternoon on that December 31st 2006, then took quite a long nap. Around 7 in the evening, we woke up and decided to walk around Makati to see what festivities they have. We have been eyeing all the firework canons lined up in front of my apartment, and we had a strong hunch that they will fire it up at midnight...like duh, it's New Year's eve.

There were many people and lots of food stall at the intersection where they have Ninoy Aquino's statue. There was also a huge stage there. The singers were not so good, and the food, well the food was okay. But since most of them are made of pork and my friend is a Muslim, we decided to go somewhere else to have our dinner. After quite a long walk (and almost getting hit by an unfriendly taxi at an intersection), we ended up at a Pizza Hut near (well, not so near actually) my friend's apartment.

We went back to the intersection only to find more people yet only a so-so entertainment. About 45 minutes before midnight we decided to go to Makati Av., the road in front of my apartment. We waited anxiously for the fireworks, and after waiting for awhile, the first firework exploded in hues of white and red.

It was probably the best display of firework I've ever seen, right in front of my eyes. I was practically only 15-20 meters away from the stack of fireworks, sitting on the asphalt road, feeling like watching a movie while sitting in the front-most row seat. It felt great! Really great! Colors and deafening sounds exploding only 30 meters above me, showering down like rain of light on a cloudless, moon-lit night. The explotions lasted at least for 25 minutes, with the finale a barrage of red, white, green and blue lasting for more than a minute.

Everyone was clapping when the last firework explosion died down, and I was still sitting on the asphalt road of Makati Avenue, speechless. It was beautiful, and the best part was that I wasn't expecting anything so awe-inspiring happening right in front of my apartment. And unexpected New Year's gift. I know no matter how many words I put down in this entry, nothing could replace that moment in time. Front row (asphalt) seat, colors and sound exploding only 20-25 meters above my head, my digital camera (which can only store 1 minute and 45 seconds worth of video), my natural camera (my eyes), and my internal memory (my brain). Got videos, thinking of uploading it to YouTube. We'll see. Will update this post when I do. Anyways, Happy New Year 2007 everyone! Wishing us all the best in the coming year!