incessant rambling

bones a-pop during a cremation, dewy eyed students getting ready for graduation, people looking for jobs in a mall, hulking muscle-bound men dancing to "careless whisper", juvenile dancers doing the slow waltz. no, not another sequel to the twilight series. just another bizarre weekend for me. i started my weekend by attending the cremation of my friend's dad. a bit surreal, considering that she was soooo relaxed about the whole situation. turned out, she popped a couple of zaynor tablets earlier in the day. she even got the courage to look at the bleached bones before they had it all ground up. the following day i had to wake up at 5am so i can go and prepare my material for a job hunting seminar, speaking in front of hundreds of kids hardly faze me anymore. who says we have unemployment? we're at this stage where jobs are looking for people, qualified people, not the other way around. towards the afternoon i drove off to SM for a job fair where our company h...

i'm a little disappointed. aloo paratha, soto ayam, murgh korma - dishes that reminded me of my oh-so-short stay in south asia but forever seared my palate with the flavors of exotic spices. unfortunately, these memories are still relegated to a dusty corner in my mind as i struggle to find any decent place in Cebu that can come close to the experience of eating in a mamak stall in kuala lumpur, or the street food in thanon suan plu in Bangkok or the hole in the wall restaurants in colombo, sri lanka. dusty roads and car smoke emission probably added more flavor to the food set out on the table, but the flavors definitely made its mark on my palate. it is understandable then that my anticipation ran high when Zayka opened in juana osmena, downtown cebu with its promise of indian, mediterranean and indonesian dishes. well, as cliche as it may seem, promises are meant to be broken. aloo paratha is the indian flatbread made from whole wheat and stuffed with potatoes f...

caught this snap in leyte heading to san juanico bridge. found it unusual that the horns of this carabao swept in opposite directions. para syang AC-DC. top or bottom. left or right. i'm guessing he'd have a hard time wooing the ladies. ----- visit incessant rambling for more.

sometimes you have to stand still and let life pass you buy, just so you appreciate the beauty of your own existence. rushing through life means we get to the end that much quickly. ----- white gold, cebu city visit incessant rambling for more of my random thoughts on anything and everything.

don't ask why but i ended up in this looney crazy new-dress-a-day blog about a lady on a mission: 365 dresses in 365 days at $365 dollars. something like the julie julia project. brilliant, simply brilliant concepts. i am still waiting for that shred of inspiration that will take me to blogosphere celebrity status. as it is, i'm just enjoying this for myself and have gathered a few followers - not counting the chinese and russian blog spammers who jam my comment and chat boxes with offer to sell anything and everything from erection pills to nuclear warheads - both designed to end in a HUGE explosion. hint, if you aren't following my blog then click on that link on the right side, yes the one that says you're selling your soul to this blogger. weeeellll well well, enough of the rambling and back to the original subject of this entry: 365 days etc. there was one entry that curiously published a cake recipe alongside the usual deconstruction of a horrid outfi...

willie revillame's head gotten so big he needs tanks to break down TV5's doors so he can get in. kudos to ABS for cutting this fellow to size. i hope MVP realizes what sort of trouble this fellow brings.

read through the inquirer today and came across a line where erap said "kalokohan iyan. ano makukuha nila sa akin? saan ako kukuha ng pera?" related to the USD 120M case filed by the daughters of Bubby Dacer against erap and six other individuals. inquirer, a predominantly english paper translated the line as: "That's bullsh*t. what will they get from me? where will i get the money?" if anyone is looking for a filipino-english interpreter to represent us in the next international competition, then cynthia d. balana should be our top pick. she managed to turn a completely bland filipino statement into something "exciting", "colorful" and utterly fantastic. maybe venus raj would have won the title if she had cynthia as her interpreter.

wikipedia defines "flower power" as a slogan used by the American counterculture movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance. this comes to mind when we review the classic edsa revolution pictures where nuns, children and civilians offered flowers to the soldiers who tried to remain impassive in the face of a peaceful revolution symbolized by a bunch of flowers. this was the same exact thought when i saw the garden of flowers growing wild and abundantly inside the ancient cemetery of boljoon church. children played hide and seek in the compound, a rather interesting juxtaposition of youth and death in a place that held the secret of the dead in colorful palates of reds, greens and yellows. the dead posed no resistance and passively tolerated the boisterous noise of the youth running around. flower power indeed.

when your friendly neighborhood chinese restaurant starts to serve sizzling porkchop topped with butter gravy and fried garlic then you know that along the way, a decision was made to expand its client base. it was an interesting surprise that red moon decided to change the menu with the addition of very western or filipino dishes. originally, we wanted to visit bop bernies as we were craving for the sizzling porkchop steak but got disappointed when we found out it closed down. left without any much options in banawa, we settled in red moon. the problem with cravings is that it gnaws at you, which of course made ron order the sizzling porkchop. though not as big as the one in bop bernies, it was a hefty thick slice with a generous portion of pork fat. tasty? yes. in a standard sort of way. everything tastes the same when it's swimming in butter gravy. i decided to order kiampong and pork spareribs and was pleased that the kiampong is as tasty as ever. i believe that kiam...

i've been down south of cebu a number of times. and every time, minglanilla is just a town along the way where the traffic gets busy due to tricycle drivers and jeepneys that convert the four lane road into their own private parking lot. that and the people who has made "dodging cars" a national sport and some that think of the road as an extension of the town park. minglanilla has never held any sort of interest for me except for the jollibee right in front of the main church that serves as a feeding station for people travelling further down south. the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) church is just too pink for my taste, never mind that it was actually set up in the mid 1800s and the town played a pivotal role in Cebu history. surprisingly, i haven't found enough information (online) regarding the structure and influences of IHM versus a number of more "popular" churches in South Cebu. it resembles the dual bell tower structure of the main churche...

for some reason, this picture of the layered mountain ranges in different hues broken by the pastel colored structure right smack in the middle of the picture and framed by the expanse of flat silver sea waters reminded me of some french / Mediterranean coastal scene. -argao, mahayahay

the only drawback to the beaches in the south eastern coast of cebu is that you don't get spectacular sunsets like that of manila bay or boracay. what they have though are gorgeous sunrise that kiss the red orange skies and gradually turn them into reds, oranges, pinks and blues. i just hate waking up at 5:30AM to catch this. -argao, mahayahay

the first thing that comes to my mind when i think of rice paddies and a bicycle is vietnam, or china. i chanced upon this set up in argao, a town south of cebu. the shades of green created contrasting layers in the photograph broken by the dilapidated bike. am not sure if it still works. country bliss.

kung ako si agua, ikaw naman si bendita. lahat ng ginawa mong pagsisinungaling, panlalait, pagmamaltrato at pangaapi ay babalik at babalik sa yo. ika nga nila, ang "karma" daw eh parang "shake, rattle and roll", ang daming sequel. siguro kasing ganda mo si etang, lillian, zeny, carol, celia, rosemarie, cherie, odette, agot, jean, eula at odette. buti pa sila may ganda, pero kung kaharap mo ang magic salamin ni tito boy, dun mo iisipin - "putcha, bella pala ako, bella!" at kung di mo kilala ang mga pangalan na binanggit ko, siguro naman kilala mo si senyora aguida. at kung di mo pa rin ma gets yan (naman, ilang taon ka na ba?!), sige ikaw ang clara sa buhay ni mara! ang itim ng budhi mo, kasing itim ng barako kape dyan ke manang trining. at kahit lunurin mo yan ng isang toneladang asukal at fresh cows milk, di mapagkakaila na ang pait, kasing pait ng ginawa mong ipagkanulo ang aking tiwala. syet, ang lalim ng "ipagkanulo", "betray...