:: Tears of the Moon ::

:: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 ::

New Books!

Went to Gateway mall last Monday, had lunch there. I really must restrain from going to Fully Booked. I always leave with a book. Let me correct myself: books. I got me a copy of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Futuristic boy genius, alien wars kind of book. Much celebrated, very good reviews. What's surprising is that it's not even new-new. It's been around for years, I think. I caught a really good book review of it on a radio station that I listen to. The book really is good (although much of the angst thoughts there are too mature for a seven-year-old boy genius, but hey, he's a boy genius after all, right?). Also got a copy of Gail Carson Levine's other take on fairy tales (she wrote Ella Enchanted. And another book about Moses and his sister. All in all good book choices. Was tempted to get Book 5 of the Sandman series, but I forestalled in favor of payday coming up (yeah!)

My recent book buys involve mostly young adult/children's books. They're good writers, good characters. Mostly I also pass them along for teenage friends.

MP3 Player

Okay, fine. I got myself the Creative Micro mp3 player from Nani. He needed to unload some of his stuff, so I got his 2nd hand. I don't mind. I've been planning to save up on it. Five. Gigs. Of. Space. Dudes. All the possibilities! :)

Problem is though, the touchpad thing's driving me NUTS. I can't seem to get to the subdirectories I want because the touchpad's more sensitive than.. your tongue. It feels damn near everything, even the brush of the headphone cord.. from Duncan Sheik to Usher and I didn't even touch anything *headdesk*

Wireless

We have another scheduled visit from Chi's officemates to install the wireless internet thing. Which would save us a whole lot on prepaid cards and stress (no more restarting because the dial-up thing froze up!). Problem with that's I have to stay up later than I should because Mom's out and Dad's still sleeping. Also not a good idea to have Dad face the technician guys. He's do his "I'm The Architect Here You're All Underlings" thing again, which is both annoying and embarrassing.


Funky Parents

So Mom's doing the going-out-with-friends-unknown thing again (and we thought we didn't know where Chi gets her going-out-with-unknown-friends thing), and Dad's doing the MineSweeper thing for hours on end (you'd think he was using the comp for something else but being, you know, Work). I mean, we've survived Mom's menopause, when will the fucking drama end? Do men also have menopause or is it a phase that my dad's going through? Why do they need to go through this entire dialogue freeze thing? Why does he have to be so stubborn? Why does it feel like he's totally self-contained and refuses the possibility that he has some sort of interpersonal ineptitude? Why is it so alien to him, the notion that the problem might be him, not the Entire World?

:: D said @ 5:33 PM [+] ::
...

I feel kinda off. Maybe it's the hormones. I've been trying to figure out if I felt this way last month - last month I was stressed out with the work thing (still stressed out, come to think of it). Now it's.. I don't know.

I do have several things I want to do tomorrow, though:

1) Filipiniana-inspired table setting for Bonnie and Jeff's wedding. Jeff and Bonnie are our clients, and they recently married last May. We were thinking of getting them some sort of belated wedding present. They have a Filipiniana theme at the Rustan's department store in Gateway.
2) Neil Gaiman books (I heard Bibliarch's on sale). I want to check em out.
3) Margherita at Burgoo's. Been craving for one the past few weeks.
4) Maybe a movie-? Haven't seen Mr and Mrs Smith, Madagascar, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

So, mostly tomorrow I'll be heading to Gateway mall. Also basically I want to get out of the house long enough to get back to sleep so that I can wake and go to work. I really don't want to deal with my family much right now - the parents in particular - for reasons I find hard to articulate. I feel a sick sort of panic.. something that I can't express in words. Which is a shock considering I talk and write a lot.

I went out to post-work drinking thing with co-workers and the clients yesterday. I didn't get drunk, although I got myself a bottle of Vodka Ice (that I only finished about halfway through). I simply don't like the smell and taste of beer. Or wine. Both have that weird yeasty smell and taste. One thing I discovered though, was I get pink/warm cheeks fairly quickly, but I don't get that weird drunk state that others seem to have. Well, I only drink one, so I don't think I'll ever find out.

ANYway. Had a good time. Nani dropped me off at the corner of Shang mall at 5:30am. Walked two blocks to church, found out mass would've been thirty minutes later, took another two-block walk to McDo to pee.

I've been having lots of those lately. Walks, I mean. And being on my own. Kat once asked me why it seemed that I've been uncharacteristically quiet recently. I couldn't tell her something I didn't understand myself at that moment.

:: D said @ 1:39 PM [+] ::
...

Bill
Bill scares me. Bill is not a guy, and that's not his real name. But he scares me. He scares me because he's quiet and introverted and when you talk to him it sort of seems like he's not all there. That's his face-to-face life.

Fast forward to Bill's online life. Bill is very passionate about his movies. So much so that he develops an insane fannish personality. What does this mean? He's a post-freak: populating his posts with icons, pictures, going on comments that gush, etc.

Why do I find Bill scary? Coz it's like dealing with someone with a split-personality. Whenever I see Bill, I don't get to exchange more than three sentences with him, and most of that's hi-hello-how are you-I'm fine greetings. Where's the 'That movie sucks, Angelina Jolie's a beautiful woman' comments? In short, Bill's not WYSIWIG. That's a jarring realization because I expect most people to be who they present themselves to be, at whatever medium. So, I'd rather not deal with Bill. At all. Because I really don't know what's going on in his head. Neither do I know what he's really thinking about, versus what he talks about.

It seems that his real-life personality's the kind that desperately needs to cling to stronger personalities to be defined. Such as liking a certain kind of music or band. The moment a popular person talks about Maroon 5's incredible acoustic version of Songs About Jane, THAT's the next topic Bill will talk about. As if you ever heard him talk about Maroon5 in the past at all. As if he was ever heard to have said to be liking rock or alternative music at all in the first place. In fact, Bill admitted he was big on sentimental music (*gag* Kill me now), prior to knowing that everyone else in the community being big on alternative and rock bands. But now? He's a rocker. Right.

I Hate Friendster
Because they are so infuckingsanely slow to load. While I appreciate their attempts at putting your life, profile, friends, network all in one place, until they are able to run the loading portion of it a little smoother, there's no way they can make me switch from LJ and Blog to move my journal in there.

:: D said @ 1:31 PM [+] ::
...

Had a relatively better week than I had in weeks. Thank goodness it's over.

Also exhausting and draining as we have people - good people - deciding to leave or figuring if they should leave the company. I don't want them to leave, but if they want to, I'm glad that they have good opportunities elsewhere.

Oh well.

Parents!
Also wary because it seems that Dad's been angling to ambush me again. Got cornered by Mom yesterday, which made me get bummed out for the first half of my shift at work. NOT a good idea when I'm the person handling break schedule adherence: low tolerance for non-adherence and snippy with break adjustment requests.

I better hurry with this entry coz Dad's sitting in the sofa smoking and staring off into space again. Fuck. I'm getting the speeding heartrate again. Better make this a short one.

Bryan signed himself up for college entrance exams review. It starts tomorrow.

Mail!
Got my cellphone bill. No worries, coz I'm already paid. Got excited coz I have a credit card application! I know, I know, credit cards are Toys of the Devil. But, damn, I need to start building up a decent credit payment history.

Glasses
Getting used to the glasses now. Mixed reactions from all, but basically good reviews. I get dizzy at the end of the day - I think my eyes basically get 'tired' of looking through the glass. I have to rest them when I'm done with work.

:: D said @ 7:42 PM [+] ::
...

Relief!
Relief! I just found out that he's seeing someone else! He's interested in someone else!

Now, why the ecstatic reaction?

Now we can deal with it, and move on. Now I know.

And we are moving on. :)

Glasses
Used the med card and went to the eye doctor (finally!) to get myself checked.

Knowing that I was going to be diagnosed as needing glasses, also requested to have the glasses lens thing made asap.

Which caused me to end really late, and no time for sleep to go to work. Was also hit by dizziness and headache due to first day wearing. But also incredibly relieved that I am seeing things in sharp focus again. Ate a really late lunch, bought some shoes (it's true when they say things feel better when buying nice shoes - haha). Bought some stuff for work - all of which I'm going to have to pass on to a guy who lives near the house so that it'd be getting to the office. I hate leaving the office at a critical day, but I'm just freaking dizzy.

So now, I look like this:


I'm going for the Lisa Loeb-ish look, not-quite-Daria (I'm not that bitter, heh), which is why I chose the small oval frame thing. Don't mind the thin lipped smile there - I was still in denial and trying to (pleaseohplease) counteract the dizzy spell since I had only just eaten lunch. Also the line thing snaking out of my right ear is the radio attachment headphones to my phone.

Oh, the pic by the way was taken at this Mediterranean place I had been wondering about. I've been craving for a pizza Margherita. Have to say Burgoo's version is better so far.

Palm LifeDrive
Checked my email and I found a link to view the new Palm LifeDrive. Oh baby. All the things I wanted: more space for mp3, voice recording, docs and excel files, Bluetooth, WiFi, video and pictures. Only one catch though: no camera attachment. I think I'm going to have to stick with Lenny for a while longer.


New Shoes!
Bought a pair of nice brown pumps and another caramel colored slingback things. A pick-me-up for the glasses.

The weekend
Saw the Fete de la Musique last Saturday; mostly stayed at the Rock and Alternative stages (8pm-1am Rock, 1am-4am Alt). Chi got us really good seats with a fantastic view of the stage and moshpit. People who said that the Filipino audience is staid never saw the Filipino audience rock it out during a concert. Well, being wild and noisy at rock concerts is normal, I guess. It's the other events that I'm worried about (ie Jason Mraz, The Corrs, with the staid middle-income yuppie crowd) Got there in time to watch many of the local rock bands that I've been anticipating to see: Sandwich, Kjwan, Razorback, Chicosci. And a lot of other bands that I've only just encountered just now.

Was accompanied by one of my ex-agents (he resigned, and by chance we saw each other. He hung out with us. Good thing, coz we ended up having an impromptu bodyguard, what with Chi's boob-baring top and all that)

Switched to the Alt stage after 1am. Got to see Moonstar88, Session Road and SpongCola. Must say, the SpongeCola lead singer: drool. Uber hot. Nice gravelly voice that reminds me of a cross between Rob Thomas and Chad Kroeger.

Saw May; she came up to the resto where Chi and I were seated. Since she was into the World Music selection, we couldn't hang out together. Also, Her Guy was there, but he was with friends, so we weren't able to nag May to get him to come. Gah.

:: D said @ 2:38 AM [+] ::
...

Okay, so, Erratum: Every time I mentioned the book World of the Cup, it's supposed to be Cup of the World. Just goes to show that I devoured the book without really grasping the title. *rolleyes* And I'm too lazy to edit my previous posts.

Eyes! DAMMIT!

Looks like I will have to undergo the inevitable: I will have to set an appointment to have my eyes checked. It's not even a matter of denial anymore: my eyesight is blurred when I look at things in the distance. I remember being 20-20, and I'm a sight-reader, so it's a bit of a shock to me to look at store signs across the street and literally see them blurred. I'm beginning to understand what May meant when she said things look impressionistic whenever she doesn't have her glasses on.

And, the headaches are killing me. Literally can't think when they come on. One time at work it got so bad I downed four painkillers. The pain left, but my lower jaw was still trembling (meaning, the painkillers deadened the nerves that signalled pain, but the automatic pain reaction's still there). My coaches were so alarmed coz I couldn't control the trembling, and I walked around with my hand pressing against my temple.

So, I am going to get glasses. The question is, when. Fuck that. Anyway, I'll get it sooner or later, with the massive amounts of stuff I read, and me spending so much time in front of my computer at work. And me fiddling around with my Palm during my breaks.

Listening to Radio commercials

Is it just me, or does anyone else find Cindy Kurleto insanely annoying?! She should've just staying with modelling and someone should've stopped her from opening her mouth. And she hosts VH1 Video Collection now! *silent scream* A show that I really really liked the collection of! Now it's all pfft! I just wait for the videos to come, and then switch whenever she comes on. Never mind the interesting trivia that the host's supposed to say: hell, she wouldn't even know what she'd be talking about, she's so en-un-ci-a-ted. Good grief.

Shoutout to May: Have fun at Fontana, dude. I'll be texting you to keep you company. ;)

Fuck this headache. *bangs head on keyboard*

:: D said @ 6:45 PM [+] ::
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