It was a Good One
Its not everyday that I feel awesome despite the eight hours plus that I’ve been working. Today was one of those few great days where things just feel like they are falling into place little by little… like random puzzle pieces forming the picture that I envision – my goals, dreams and aspirations. There are days when I wonder if I’ll ever get there. There are days like today that make me feel, yes, it can happen and that, yes, I can make it happen.
There was nothing extra spectacular about todays events. They were basically the same things that I do – work tasks, the little things we need to do to live, a little enjoyment here and there… except that today, I do realize how much I enjoy pitching, especially to big bosses who are said to be challenging. I had a meeting with the big boss of a big local company and it went pretty well. This is not the first time I ended the day feeling awesome because of a good pitch which I strongly feel will lead to some good business. Its just that I realize today how much I actually like it.. and its only lately that I’ve been feeling this again. The last time was…. well, 2007.
Aside from this, I just feel little by little lot of things in this life becoming clearer… and it makes me feel great. Life is good.
Read MoreGoodbye 2009 and My Thank You’s
Its 2:00 am 4th Jan 2010. In a few hours, the world will start beating its busy pulse. Its back to work and back to school. Yes, the festivities of Christmas and New Year are now over. It’s been a good two weeks. But before the wheels of 2010 start to turn and accelerate, I want to make my own personal adieu to 2009.
Goodbye 2009. It’s definitely been a crazy ride. I still can’t believe how much happened within the 12 months that have passed and also the changes and surprises that happened along the way. The odd events around me, travels, the changes in career, the new people whom I met along the way, the old dear friends outside the Philippines whom I got to see again, the farewells I had to make to people who decided to leave the country, the new things I’ve learned, getting the courage to little by little step out of my comfort zone, the humbling experiences, the realizations and shedding of old baggage.
There’s a lot to be thankful for and I truly am grateful.
Inspired by my colleague Carlos, I want to send out some love to all those who were part of my crazy 2009.
To my Malaysian friends (and Pinoy friends in Malaysia). Thanks for the warm welcome I always receive from you guys whenever I go there. It’s partly what makes Malaysia feel like my home away from my home. You guys are an awesome bunch. I hope to see more you of in the future. Congratulations to the those who wed last year and are now mommies/daddies and mommies/daddies-to be! Time flies doesn’t it. I still remembered how we partied back in 2006/2007.
To my three closest friends – Alex, Joan, April – there’s just so much to say. Even if we don’t see each other every day since Alex, you are in KL; April, you are in Vancouver; Joan, you are back studying and busy taking care of your juniors… it doesn’t change anything. We always seem to pick up we’re we left off. Its a rare thing.
To Ayka. Thanks for the nerd attacks, the random whatevers, and the rocking at out gigs while you were here. You finally got your SG dream which may not as dreamy you would’ve imaginel. But hey, the good things will roll in. Trust me. If you believe it will come, it will. I do miss hanging out but that’s all part of having to move away. Don’t worry woman, we’ll still see each there
To Nikki. Damn it girl. Why do you have to leave too? Who will be my clubbing buddy? Who will be my random chika session buddy? Your flight to Australia is around the corner. It’ll be a couple of years before our threesome (you, me, April) will be complete again. Those were good times. Nevertheless, I’m happy you were still able to come back here to the PH, albeit briefly.
To Katie. My cool, hot cousin who returned to NYC after a not so brief visit to the Philippines. Too bad we didn’t get to hang out that much while you were here. Blame it on work. At least we got to hang out a bit. Good luck in Polesque! (Did I spell that right?) Show ‘em your pole dancing prowess. I promise, when you come visit again, I won’t be so darn swamped with work. At least we got to hang out for a while.
To the friends from the college Polsci days. So we’re drinking wine together now? What happened to cheap alcohol and beer? I can’t help but be amused at this. I guess we’re all “growing up” now and getting more serious (really?) therefore our “preferences” are evolving. Haha! Right. Good luck to the graduating lawyers and politicians to be and congratulations to those who are doing well now! You guys are awesome.
To family. Oh wow. What to say to a big crazy bunch of people whom I call family? I love you guys.
To the Nuffies, my colleagues. So guys, it has been an interesting 2009 hasn’t it. It was far from perfect but it was great. Thanks guys. I’ve been learning a lot from each of you. My hope is that things get better for the whole team. Let’s kick ass this 2010!
To my former colleagues from Marcus Evans Philippines and Malaysia whom I got to see this year. I’ll never forget my Marcus Evans days.. ever. It was you guys that made the experience worthwhile. One can go insane working for Marcus Evans – the stress, the crazy demands from the big boss… Thankfully, I stayed sane because I had to you guys to make me laugh until cried. I hope we can manage to in touch.
To my other great great friends. Thanks for helping me out when I need help. Thanks for enduring the drama. The clubbing, the gigs, the hangouts, the travels and all the random whatever’s. Thanks for the stories, the laughs and teaching to become better every time.
(Special mention) To airports. I’ve stepped into you a lot this year. Every trip has been a milestone in my 2009. My Bali trip with the family last March, my trip to Malaysia to attend Zak’s wedding, going to Vigan when April visited the Philippines, going to Singapore for the Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards, and then going to back to Malaysia for some training (and seeing friends in Malaysia). What can I say, I’ve got a mole on my sole. There has been a lot of drama because of you. Its been good.
Oh.. and I just have to say, its not every year you have cars exploding a few meters away from you office!
So many more people to thank… if only I wasn’t sleepy…
2009 has passed for what its worth, it was a good year. I want to welcome 2010 with open arms, an eager mind, and an open heart.
On the eve of 2010, we had full Blue Moon which was right above us when the clock stroke 12mn. It’s a good sign and a good omen. 2010 is going to be awesome.
Read MoreLucky to be safe. Lucky to be alive
This is lieu of the Serendra car explosion that happened the other day in front of Fullybooked.
To put it simply, I missed two explosions here in the city, twice. In these two instances, I could’ve been at the blast sight during the time of the explosion and could’ve gotten hurt. Or worse..killed. All because of simple decisions such as when to eat, I avoided being in the danger zone.
Lucky instance #1
The first one was the Glorietta 2, explosion back in 19 October 2007. I was in Makati with my friend April. About 15 mins before the blast, she asked if I wanted to go for lunch already. I remember looking outside and saying I was lazy because it just seemed too hot. But then after 5 mins, my hunger got the best of me therefore, I told April that, yah, we should go.
Our usual route : take a jeep along Makati avenue, get down at Landmark, walk a little and enter Glorietta 2. It normally took us about 15 mins to get there.
As we rode the jeep that day, the traffic was abnormally bad and there were sirens all over. There were police on their motorbikes and firetrucks rushing in the same direction – towards glorietta. Something was up. Amidst the mounting chaos, I received a call from my mom. “Where are you? A bomb exploded in Glorietta. You better stay clear of that area.”
My hair stood up. If it wasn’t for our laziness, April and I would’ve been at the area of the explosion site when it blew up.
Lucky instance #2
Some of you have heard about the car explosion in Serendra just the other day (15 Dec 2009). For those of you who don’t know, you can check my previous post about it.
I work on High Street which is right beside Serendra. For lunch, my colleagues and I usually walk from our office to Market Market, passing by area where the explosion happened. On the day of the explosion, I would’ve been walking along that area if not for a proposal that I had to finishing.
About 12nn, I was thinking of finishing the proposal after lunch but decided against it. Whilst typing away, we at the office heard that thunder-like boom and wondered what it was. When we looked outside the window, we saw guards rushing towards Fullybooked. My colleagues and I went down and discovered that a car had exploded.
Though the blast was not strong enough to kill anyone more than 5 meters away, there may have been shrapnel or other little pieces of whatnot that may have injured the bystanders. Have I gone out for lunch earlier, I would’ve found myself in that area. I may have potentially gotten hurt.
Bottom line
These stories aren’t really dramatic. Yet, the possibility of my presence at the explosion sites during those events makes me think… “damn I’m lucky”. Who would’ve known small decisions such as “I want to eat now” or “I’ll eat later” can change things. This does not apply just to those two incidents but rather, to things in general.
How many instances in our lives did we avoid danger by just making one little decision? Unless the avoidance of harm was as obvious as my experience, we’ll never know. Maybe because you decided to make one turn too early, you avoided a lurking stranger with malicious intentions. Maybe this and maybe that.
The bottom line is, if you are safe and alive… thats something to be thankful for.
Read MoreSerendra Car Explosion Near Our Office on High Street!
Bang! The office shook. It was like thunder.. very strong thunder. We all looked up and wondered what that was. Outside the sky is bluer than blue and there is not a cloud in the sky.
We peer outside the window and see guards running towards Serendra. Something is up.
Judd rushes down with his camera. I follow shortly after and see people walking towards the direction of where the sound came from. There was an explosion.
Details:
12:00 noon, 15 December 2001 (today)
Serendra, right in front of Fullybooked
A car exploded while entering the Serendra carpark. There was a person inside who perished in the explosion. Can’t distinguish if its a man or woman. They should find out very soon.
(update) We now know that the car is an old Hondo Civic with plate number TNM 865. It belongs to Remegio Ang, one of the owners of a Serendra condo unit. This is according to Jorge Marco, head of corporate communications of Ayala Land.
Was the explosion a bomb? Was it an accident? Was it terrorism? I have no idea. It would be very scary to think it was a bomb. If it were an accident, that was one strong explosion for a mere accident.
No adjacent buildings were damaged but I heard someone got injured.
Please see the picture below (c/o my colleague Judd)
Guards rush to the scene with extinguishers.
There is a person inside.
Everyone seemed a bit scared and confused. Sales ladies stepped out of stores, restaurant patrons left their tables to see what caused the sound, cars were being rerouted, and there were sirens coming from different directions.
Scary points:
1) We walk by that area practically everyday to go to Market Market for lunch.
2) The car was entering the basement parking of Serendra. If it exploded inside the car park, the damage would’ve been bad. It would’ve caused a bigger explosion due to the proximity of nearby cars. Worse, it is located underneath condominiums.
3) It had to happen at lunch, when everyone goes out to eat. You have families that go to this area to dine.
(update) Here are some videos after the explosion
Read MoreYellow Bees and Diapers
There’s a lot to be done. I hailed a cab and I was off to run errands.
I got down by the mall and entered the drugstore to buy cough medicine for my asthmatic dog when something bright yellow caught my attention. It was a woman dressed in a bulky bee mascot-like costume. Complete with the bee antennas, she was covered from head to toe except for her face which was bright candy pink from too much blush of the obviously wrong shade.
She approached me a bit hesitantly and said, “Ma’am diapers po? Baka may baby kayo?” (Ma’am may I offer you diapers? Maybe you have a baby?)
I smiled politely and said, “Wala pa akong baby.” (I don’t have a baby yet)
I walked away. “That’s such an embarrassing job.” I thought.
I looked at the people around. There were the women at the cashiers dressed in their crisp uniforms. On the other side stood, looking all glammed up, the women at the make-up counters. Scattered around the store were the other nonchalant customers browsing through the aisles and going about their business. In the middle was that girl in the big bright yellow bulky bee costume promoting diapers to passers-by.
“Ma’am, sir, diapers po?” Her voice was timid and unsure. It was obvious that she didn’t want to be there.
I felt a bit bad for her. Why should anyone be subjected to such embarrassment? But then again, I guess we all have to do what need to do to earn our keep. At least she wasn’t begging on the street.
“There are other things that she can do. Of all possible jobs, she chose this. What’s her story….?” I wondered.
I made my purchase and walked out of the store.
Read MoreThe Killers in Manila 2010 + the good ‘ol times
I’m probably one of the last to blog about this but what the heck. I love The Killers! I was pretty psyched when I saw a facebook post last week from World Wide Womb asking about a survey on who would want to the Killers to come to Manila. I guess the response was overwhelming because they are coming here to manila 31 January 2010!
Click here for the World Wide Womb Facebook page to get updates and more info..
I got this from the World Wide Womb facebook page:
TheKILLERS Limited Premium Tickets now available at WWW & Saga Offices
call 384-0239. First Come First Serve (No Reservations) . Other ticket
prices will be out Dec 4 at all Ticketnet & TIcketworld outlets.
Click here to go to Ticketnet for ticket reservations
And December 4 is… tomorrow. The premium tickets are probably all gone already. Now will I buy the regular tickets? Maybe. If what my friend promised is so… no, no need to buy tickets. Let’s wait and see. (Keeping my fingers crossed).
Its a given that I like their music but what puts them high on my list are some good times that I associate with some of their songs. My favorite of these good time are two events which happened at a rave and while clubbing with the same group of people in two different countries. One in Malaysia, the other in the Philippines. One in 2006. Another in 2009.
Mr. Brightside
- Velocity 2006 @ Sunway Lagoon, Sunway City, Malaysia
That’s my good friend Alex and I. We were with a bunch of our other good friends back in Dec 2006 at “Velocity”, at rave held at Sunway Lagoon at Sunway City. The DJ who mixed for that event was Judge Jules. I don’t remember most of the stuff he played but I do rememeber the last song of the night – Mr. Brightside.
“I’m coming out of my cage and I’ve been doing just fine…”
I think we all went wild – me, friends, and 1000+ other people there at Sunway. That was awesome awesome night.
I was in Kuala Lumpur for a 3month training program with Marcus Evans, the first company I worked for (3 of the best months of my life) and that night was one of the highlights of my stay.
All These Things That I’ve Done
- Embassy, Bonifacio Global City, Philippines 2009
- Embassy, Bonifacio Global City, Philippines 2009
2009. I went to KL last May (‘09) to attend a friend’s wedding and visit the KL peeps. Alex, Vik (Vik took the picture back in 2006), and two of their of their other friends – Prem and Imran – flew back with me so they can visit and see the Philippines. On their second to the last night here, I took them to Embassy (now known as Encore!) because the boys wanted t0 try the clubbing here in Manila. It was pretty happening night as it always it on a Saturday.
So there we were with our drinks, dancing, and having a great time…when towards the end of the night, the DJ played a mix of All These Things That I’ve Done. That did it for me. I was already hyper to begin with but the song turned turned it up notch higher. What sealed that moment in my mind, despite me having a buzz that night was this – in the midst of dancing, out of the blue, someone (won’t name who! hahaha) started singing in a quite… un-animated voice -
“I’ve got soul but I’ve got a soldier, I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier…”
I stopped for a moment there, looked at the guy, shook my head and laughed out loud. I have to tell you, he may sounded like he could’ve used more soul there but I knew he was full of it. I knew he was having a blast but let’s just say, some people are not meant to sing certain songs. It was so hilarious that it was really cute.
(You know who you are, in case you read this, I don’t think I would’ve fared any better if I attempted to sing those lines as well!)
The only thing I didn’t like was that the night ended in an anti-climactic manner. In the midst of the music, the pumping bass, and the partying, the lights just suddenly went coupled with DJ saying his “thanks Manila” speech. Not to mentioned the bouncers herding us out of the club.
Nevertheless, it was a good night. We ended it with a late night after clubbing snack at Mcdonald’s. I the guys could join me this Jan 2010 to watch The Killers concert.
Ok, playing the songs on my laptop now….
Read MoreDrum n Bass and Dubstep Radio
When I need my dnb fix at work (and lately, dubstep).. I tune in to these sites. There are times when they play some wicked stuff.
If you are into DnB and/or Dubstep (or if you happened to drop by and are curious on how it sounds), check these sites out. (And if you know of other, heck tell me about it)
Dubstep Radio - http://www.di.fm/dubstep/
Drum n Bass Radio (BassDrive) - http://www.bassdrive.com/v2/
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I’m not exactly sure when I began liking dnb and dubstep… or electronic music for that matter. All I know is that when my uncle played Prodigy when I was about in my early teens and when I first heard the Chemical Brothers, I liked it instantly. I thought to myself “this stuff is solid”.
During high school, I bought my first electronically charged album – the OST of the Matrix. From there, things just followed. Since I wasn’t much of a music nerd, all I knew was that there was this certain sound that I liked.. and I knew it was synthetic. I didn’t know the difference between trance, techno, house (beach house, hard house…etc), drum and bass/jungle, trip hop, dubstep, jazztronica, post rock etc. Not until later on..
Later on, I met some music nerds/snobs in the college and when I started working. These guys educated me a lot on music. My music taste has always been quite diverse. They helped give some some structure, and form to my music taste.
It was through them that I sort of learned to distinguish the sounds. I still get confused, especially with electronic music. With the hybridization of genres and the birth or more and more sub genres, sometimes, I feel its a waste of my time trying to categorize them. All i know is, there is a lot of good stuff out there.
On Dubstep and Dnb, there is just something about breakbeats that get my fancy.The pumping up. The mixes. The progressions. The way it gets into your head and puts you into a dancy trance. Awesome awesome awwwweeesome. Bad ass
I’m still discovering whats out there in these two genres so if you happen to like this stuff and know some good sh*t, tell me about it.
So much music. So little time.
Some of the artists on the electronic-y side that I like : Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Roni Size, BT, LTJ Bukem, Adam F, Mogwai, Expolsions in the Sky, Ratatat, Nujabes, Uyama Hiroto, Nine Inch Nails, Zero 7, Nyko Maca,Thievery Corp, stuff from Nomad Massive (onlys seem ‘em once. I want to go again but my partner in crime when it comes to gigs like this has left the country…Ayka come back), …etc.
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