BBBayli mode-ing

At the risk of sounding like an advert, let me just say that I love love love having a BlackBerry phone. Mightiest best buy ever grabe sobra for this year, gadget-wise hehe. Super ang superlatives teh. Ganung levels kasi eh.

Got it under a prepaid plan under Globe, then enrolled in an unlimited BB internet usage scheme, 

giving me the chance to go online all the time, especially with that BBM messaging scheme thingie. 

Wagas siya teh. Wagas. (April 2012 at the Globe Business Center SM Marikina)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am a fan of communication -- and also the reinvention and enhancement of it, I should add. Now I see the appreciation of onsite journalists who praise the usefulness of such gadgets in coverage situations. Even if I'm not a hard news journalist, sometimes I treat the gadget as if I am one. But of course I use it merely to inform my family and friends of what's happening to me and what I'm doing and such via the various social networking sites we're on. Well, mostly Twitter and Facebook for us.

 Oh yeah, but I did use it as a journalist once na nga pala. In an impromptu walk with an interviewee 

for a magazine I'm going to write for, I wasn't able to get to my recorder gadget in time. 

But since my BB was already in my hand, I just used it to access the voice recorder and 

take pictures for reference. Useful! (May 2012 at Enchanted Farm Cafe along Commonwealth Ave QC)

Well, basically, I got this for a specific one-track-mind objective, to tell you the truth. It makes messaging with my heart a bit faster, more economical (ang buhay ay economics FTW heheh) and, er, let's say better, sweeter, and, um, hotter? Hahaha figure that one out! :P

Wala, ako na inlab haha.

Even in hibernation from the world, the BB was able to connect me to my world, 

and my world to me. Especially to my heart. :) (April 2012 in Puerto Galera)

Yeah, it's not such an awful waste of space after all, Carl Sagan. Even with miles between us and oceans keeping us apart, invisible particles honed in pretty gadgets make long distance relationships easier to manage, and bridge.  Yeah, we're not complaining. If this is as good as it gets for now, then we'll grab it and cherish it. Anything to preserve the love. ;)

Ako na talaga inlab hahaha! Chos.

P.S. Miss you. :)




[All images processed through Instagram]

archiving, gadget dyke-ing and tomato salad-ing

new posts are up. i began archiving the last two months' worth of columns ko for Manila Times sa new Silid-Aklatan leaflens horcrux blog heheh. meron ding latest post sa Karinderya ni Leaflens horcrux featuring my experimental gourmet tinkering featuring the french tomato and egg salad chorva i occasionally prepare. 'yan kasi ang kinain ko kanina. may recipe dun hehe try niyo.

para ngang nagkaroon ng maraming horcrux ang leaflens, aney? if you're not familiar, a horcrux is what voldemort did to his soul sa harry potter - tore them up to like 7 pieces yata if i remember and stored them in different items. remember "HP and the Chamber of Secrets?" ang isang horcrux niya ay yung diary ni tom riddle na nakuha ni ginny weasley sa book na ito. tapos dun sa huling film na The Half-Blood Prince, ito yung nilakbay nina harry at dumbledore sa may dagat-dagatang factor na locket ek. more of the horcruxes in the last book, The Deathly Hallows, which i just finished reading via ebook mga 2 weeks ago yata. can't wait for this film, although irita ako kasi yung chakang director na naman ang magdidirek. oh well...

kaya ayan, inspired ako sa horcruxes heheh.

speaking of ebooks, grabe at naaadik ako sa procurement ng mga ito hehe. ever since i decided to upgrade my cellphone into a smartphone, winner na winner na ako dito. pampatulog ko ito e, kasi di mo kelangan ng ilaw o lamp para magbasa. my new cellphone is a palm treo pro na nabili ko sa ebay. US-made at para rin siyang blackberry pero cheaper and way better ang design kesa dun sa nokia e71 series na muntikan ko na ring bilhin. at dahil windows mobile ang platform niya, marami ka ring puwedeng ma-install na software, tapos may micro sd card slot pa, at sa binili kong 8gig card, aba e buhay na tayo sa storage niyan hehe. hay umiral na naman ang pagka-gadget dyke ko hehe.

sample shot from the treo pro
built-in cam. not bad, eh.

tapos my superfriend xe taught me to download this ebook reader software called mobipocket, which converts any kind of files into the mobi format *.prc yata if i'm not mistaken. so if you download msword versions of ebooks or kahit text o notepad lang and lalo na pdf, you convert it into mobi to enjoy reading it. grabe panalo talaga ito. kahit nakapila ako sa bank, nasa jeep o fx, basta di magulo ang kapaligiran, puwede ako sumaglit na magbasa hehe. ayuz.

xe even bluetoothed to me (talagang ginawa siyang verb aney? bluetoothed hehe) some contemporary titles, kasi nga puro classics ang dina-download ko (kasi safer, part of the public domain na kasi) pero may nakikita rin nga kasi kaming new titles na libre, di mo bibilhin. he just gave me the complete anne rice vampire novels and i'm excited to start that as soon as i finish this kinda sucky paulo coelho biographical novel he wrote, the pilgrimage. nasimulan na e, so tapusin na lang. basta ang dami pang titles. grabe tuma-tumbling talaga ako sa teknolohiyang ito hehe. super-enjoy siya ha.

oh well. o siya, yan na muna.

fixing the fix

if you follow this blog, you could see some changes. well, i decided to fix the site further, to the best of my limited tech capabilities.



tanaaan! haha parang ang laki ng change, hane? onti lang naman.

i updated the header thingie there but the photo size kinda varies depende sa pagbukas mo ng window. i still have yet to incorporate the findings of my more tech-savvy html-literate jowaers kung paano ayusin iyon. ganyan na muna for now heheh. the sunset photo is mine, taken mga 2006 yata when i was in lipa, batangas for my first directorial gig for television.

i also updated the links at the left navigational side there, removing links and updating them. i also listed my new spurts, my other blog projects. when i was looking for other free blog hosts in the early 2000s kasi, blogger was the happiest of the lot. i didn't like the other sites because they are too techy nga kasi, including wordpress. but since they have an alternative now from their .org days to an easier .com model, i decided to give wordpress a try. but of course i'm not letting this one go. i still like blogger's simplicity, and i'm staying here perhaps of loyalty baga. it still works for me kasi, so there.

so i am now sharing with you guys my other sites. since mid-2009, i've been meaning to create a more varied blog pero ayoko rin naman kasing magkakasama ang lahat ng engagements ko sa iisang lugar lang. sometimes it also tires me to trawl through other people's sites like that, so ayokong i-apply sa sarili kong site iyon. kaya i decided para mas focused, gagawa na lang ako ng separate sites for my different chorvas of writing. saka gusto ko rin mag-experiment sa wordpress kasi. my friend told me i should get my domain name na lang tapos link all of these there, pero eh... this works for me na naman, e. well, isipin ko ulit in the next decade. saka ayoko na rin yata ng konsepto ng portal ek masyado, kasi nga trawling through again ang drama dun. but i'm still keeping a couple of my multiply.com sites just for storage talaga. it's really useful din that way, e.

so like i listed there sa kaliwa, other leaflens offshoots are these buds:

TAKILYA NI LEAFLENS - ito yung film review site ko. basta pelikula, nariyan. diyan ko na rin ia-archive ang mga dati ko pang film reviews mula nang magsimula akong mag-post ng reviews online. sayang nga at di ko malalagay riyan ang old old old (1999, pare) localvibe.com film review column ko entitled Cut To Cut, pero i'm still trying to trawl through the internet graveyards for stored caches of some posts. i saw some kasi e kaya kakaririn ko yan soon!

LEAFLENS KARINDERYA - ito lang sana ang isa pang offshoot ng leaflens na talagang kinarir ko before ondoy. pero since ondoy hit, nabitawan ko na nga ang mga blog projects kong ito. kaya lahat sila, ngayon lang nabubuhay talaga. at ayan na nga. bale photo blog ito dapat, pero dahil madaldal ako hehe, may kuwento na rin. weird kasi ako, mahilig akong mag-piktyur ng mga pagkain. suggestion ito ng aking faculty colleague na, noong bago ko i-devour ang sofitel buffet plate ko, piniktyuran ko muna, at sabi niya "you're really an artist" heheh. at mag-start daw ako ng food journal. huway nat! kaya eto, online. parang 'yung kakilala kong talagang food blogger at sumikat dahil doon, si lori baltazar na officemate ko once upon a time sa isang IT company, na nasa dessertcomesfirst.com ang food blog. ganda ng cam niya kaya ganda din ng food photos niya.

LEAFLENS MEDYO-MEDYO MEDIA - my media and communications blog, na puwede ring maging repository ng mga formal and informal writings ko related to media industries. pang-mass comm baga. huway nat, di ba? pero again, like all my other blog projects, hindi ito academic-style writing. hehe allergic ako sa ganun e. kahit na dapat e nagsusulat din ako ng ganun, kasi academic ako. struggle 'yan, pare. oh well.

THE DIVINE MISS L. CHAR! - eto ang multiply site ko for my students and professional contacts na gusto akong ka-network. i don't really blog here anymore kaya ginagawa ko na lang student-oriented ito, kung may announcements for classes i teach, mga ganun na lang. easier kasi to track people that way.

SILID-AKLATAN, SILID-SINING-SINING-AN - eto naman ang repository ng book reviews ko, in an effort to excite myself more sa pagbabasa. nitong nakaraang dekada, nakakapagbasa lang kasi ako kapag may kelangang i-review for work/raket, o kaya required sa MA class, mga ganun. kaya i vow to read more this coming decade. tapos dito ko na rin ire-repost ang mga manila times column entries ko para di siya mawala, archive baga. ayuz. wala pa masyado laman ito pero lalamanan ko na sa mga darating na araw, tulad ng ibang sites.

o siya, bookmark-bookmark na kung interesado ka. ipo-post ko rin naman dito kapag may bagong entry ako sa mga sites na iba. so ayun.

as for this original Leaflens space, this will remain as my personal blog. but not too personal na rin siguro. some of those musings i keep somewhere else, and some i share rin naman here. and as always, this will be my space to talk about LGBT issues and stuff. personal and LGBT-oriented na ito. lagi namang ganun e, so ipapagpatuloy lang.

o siya. farmville muna hehe.

haggard na me, tanga na u?

...also known as the globelines epic saga repair...

hay at last, my continuing saga with globelines' idiocy ended this week. it's supposedly my first week of classes but i decided to push it back to next week, also to give time to the kiddies to polish their projects, as i know, from experience, that the first week back after the yuletide holidays are the slooooowest sa kanilang katawan at lalo na sa utak (iyon ay kung hindi pa given na slowness talaga ang utak-utakan nila, but that's another angst post).


right before ondoy hit, mga 2-3 days before, i reported that wala kaming makuhang internet connection kaya supposedly, that saturday when ondoy hit, a repair crew were on their way here from mandaluyong. they called once to say they are on their way, and then after 3 hours, they called again to say they cannot make it due to the rising flood waters in mandaluyong. and of course, after that call, the rest is philippine natural calamity disaster history.

come october, i received my latest billing for the september cycle (my cutoff date is every 12th of the month) and i checked if i am being billed for the time i had no service (our condo buildings were all victimized without phone lines the rest of 2009 since september ondoy). we were all ready to take the consequences because we understood the enormous amount of time, effort and of course money the repairs would take. nag-swimming kaya lahat dito sa ground floor, na umabot hanggang kisame ng lobby ang tubig-baha, leaving the gym, day care room, the admin office, all elevators, function rooms, mailboxes, electricity and phonelines thingamajigs under the sea. ayuz. so kaya october and november passed and we still didn't have any phone lines, although the electricity and water supply came back and normalized mga within two weeks after ondoy so bet lang. the phone lines are a different story.

my dad has been a longtime manager of pldt all his working life before he retired and he knew about repairs and stuff like that, and he found a lot of anomalies both the building admins and globelines were doing which made subscribers like me suffer unnecessarily. in the end, globe had more problems than the admin side, as i found out the masaklap way.

two months and a day after ondoy, globe gave us all love letters and said that repairs are still ongoing and part of it is that we all need to have our phone number changed, a move which my father says is unnecessary because those are merely numbers assignment. during that time, we monitored the phone and found out that there was a dialtone already by november 26 but we cannot make outgoing calls or receive incoming ones; you just hear a recording from globe saying calls still cannot be made chenelyn. we also had to sign a form that we are okay-ing the new number reassignment and so i went to globelines in sm marikina to submit that form. that was december 4. they said in 2-3 days' time, my new phone number will be operational and thus my old package of phone line+broadband will resume automatically. in addition, a repair crew will visit my place and check my internet connection which i originally asked them to do before ondoy.

of course, hindi naganap iyon. nasa pilipinas tayo, remember? inept customer service land.

december 7, i discovered that i already have a working dialtone and i can call outside na. but the incoming, wala. so i called globe to ask about it, plus the internet thingie. may darating daw na crew in 2-3 days' time to see the problem. lumipas iyon at walang naganap. so tinesting namin. i asked my mother, who lives in a faraway and higher place village here in marikina, too, where i grew up, to call the new number and old number i had, just to see what's working. the old one isn't working, pero sa new one, may sumagot. aha, at ang sumagot... kapitbahay ko. sa higher floor than me. aba teka, malabo. so i reported this to globelines at least twice, and they have a term for it: interchange of numbers. so now, i don't know what number is working sa akin sa outgoing calls. i told them that i don't care if they give me my old number or another number, as long as i have a number and an internet connection!

again, hindi naganap ito... kaagad.

eto na. nakaka-apat na yata akong tawag sa globe at nakaka-tatlong bigay na sila ng customer reference number, dahil ilang ulit palang kinansela ang repair crew visit dito sa unit ko dahil may "ongoing system maintenance" sa buong building daw. ang bilin ko lang lagi, sana sa cellphone nila ako tawagan dahil di ko alam ano'ng phone number ang gumagana nga sa telepono ko. oo daw.

mapagpasensiya naman akong tao kaya dinedma ko na ulit ito, until i found out na may repair crew palang pupunta sana dito, at ang tinawagan nila ay ang phone number kong bago na sa kapitbahay ko bumabagsak. and what's worse is that nung hanapin daw nila ako doon para sabihing may system maintenance pa rin kaya di pa rin sila makakapunta, ang sagot ng isang taong nakausap nila na itago natin sa pangalang nicole eugenio ay "wala po siya rito" (meaning me, dahil they asked for me) at nang tinanong kung sino si nicole, sabi niya ay "pamangkin po niya ako." TUMBLING!!!!! dahil ang nakatira lang sa unit ko ay ako siyempre at ang girlfriend ko, at hindi nicole eugenio ang pangalan niya. HAGGARD!!!! at wala kaming paranormal resident by the name of nicole eugenio na kayang itaas ang telepono at sumagot. nubah!

so finally, nakarinig sa akin ang globe, thrice yata, reiterating na please, ano ba ang mahirap intindihin sa "tawagan niyo ako sa cellphone kapag pupunta kayo dito" dahil nga sa hindi sa akin bumabagsak ang landline calls kundi sa kapitbahay!!!! by that time, tinubuan na ako ng aking unang set of white hairs. pramis teh!!!!!!

ang ending, nagpunta dito ang globe once, right before christmas, kung kelan naman sumaglit kaming nag-late lunch sa mall sa tabi, and we were gone for like 30 minutes lang. no, they never called my cellphone. the next visit, right before new year, may dumaan daw ulit sabi ng lobby guard pero wala daw tao. e ang jowa was in the banyo naliligo dahil susunod siya sa akin sa riverbanks mall at kasalukuyan akong may student consultation meetings doon, kaya di naman alam kung ano'ng katok ang ginawa nila. again, they never called sa cellphone. hay... okay fine, baka nga naman di narinig dahil nasa banyo, so sige lang...

so eto na, nag-taning na ako. i called up again and dictated na, na hindi ako papasok sa opisina for them from jan 4-7 kaya dapat lumanding sila sa haybol ko sa days na iyon, kundi, i was already set on getting skycable with broadband, and a wireless bayantel landline. okay na ko, naidulog ko na sa universe, at ayoko na sa globe. pero jan 4, aba dumating, isang gusgusin-looking repairman at 6.30pm, naka-tsinelas. okay, inayos niya naman ang phone, at di ko talaga siya pinaalis hangga't di ko nache-check lahat ng kelangan i-check: incoming, outgoing, internet. all go. sige, lusot, alis na siya. all is good. farmville ako buong magdamag.

until the next day.

dahil nga sa gabi siya nag-repair at ang phone line box ko ay nasa loob ng kuwartong dark-colored walls, aba, nung umaga ko lang nakita na ang pag-yank pala niya sa aking phone box ay hindi maingat, at sa kasamaang palad, natuklap ng bonggang-bonga ang malinis at makinis na paint job ng wall ko. punyeta talaga. madilim kasi yung wall na iyon nung gabi dahil nasa gilid ng kama, kaya ayun... hay. naglunod na lang ako sa sine, chocolate mousse at isaw para mawala ang bad trip ko.

pero di pa diyan nagtatapos ito. dahil kinabukasan, biglang nawala naman ang net connection ko sa kalagitnaan ng aking surfing. at mga 2-3 days ko ring kinalabog ang aking techie friend na si roda for help, na nakatulong naman nung una, pero sa paglaon, pareho na kaming namisteryosohan sa prublema (pero i still love you roda just the same!!!! ililibre kita margarita sa susunod na pagkikita!)... until i tried to do a simple thing kanina right before this post. yung internet cable na naka-rekta from globe modem to my wifi router sa lan1 slot, i tried to put sa lan2 slots (kasi hanggan lan4 ang slots doon), wala lang, nothing to lose, and tatataaaaaaaaaaaaaan! eto na. tanga na me. haggard na u? okay na ang broadband life ko. kaya makakapag-blog na naman ako ng walang katapusan.

hayyyyyyyyyyst.

but wait, there's more!!!!!

aba hindi pa tapos ang pagtutuos sa globe!

as soon as the globe gusgusin guy fixed our phone last monday, i immediately went to sm marikina the next day with my mom to ensure that i will not be billed for the past month that they activated my phone (dec 5-7) until the time they actually repaired my phone (jan 4). too late kasi, dahil naka-receive ako ng automatically-generated phone bill covering november to december 09 asking me to pay my bill package worth 1k something. e gago ba sila, wala ngang phone line that time, e. ano babayaran ko? this is war!!!

in fairness naman to them, by november, right after we received that change of number letter, we received a billing statement enumerating their Globe Bangon Pinoy rebate package, and they gave us rebates na binawas-bawas sa supposed bills namin at the time na walang serbisyo, at ang sumatutal nga ng sa akin, may extra pa akong 400 pesos na sobrang binigay sa akin bilang rebate. tinawagan ko pa ang globe twice to check and recheck this, and to ensure na wala na talaga akong pending amount to pay, aside from studying and scrutinizing the itemized rebate billing statements they gave, which all looked proper and in order. wala naman daw akong utang o babayaran. so happiness, right? wrong!!!

when i went to sm marikina last monday, this newbie-looking customer service guy was assigned to me, at eto ang sample conversation namin.

siya: how can i help po?

me: kahapon lang ako nakabitan ulit ng linya kaya gusto kong ipa-adjust itong latest billing statement ko dahil wala naman ako dapat bayaran during this time.

kalikot siya sa computer, take notes-take notes, for 7 minutes. then...

siya: mam, eto po ang mga billing statements ng account ninyo, at may utang pa po kayong 400something pesos, dahil hindi niyo po nabayaran sa cut-off ninyong sept 12 to sept 26 na nag-ondoy.

me: huwat??? e ilang beses kong tinawagan ang globe, a, at sinabing wala na akong pending payment.

siya: ito po yung nakalagay sa account niyo, o (hinarap ang computer monitor sa akin).

me: e may rebate nga ako that time e, at may extra 400 pa ako sa inyo, so dapat mag-zero balance yun, kung may utang akong 400 at kayo may binigay na 400 sa akin, di ba? e wala naman yang utang na sinasabi mo sa any of my bill statements.

at this point, inulit-ulit kong tanungin kung nasaan yung sinasabi niyang utang at itinuturo niya ang isang accounting scheme na hindi lumabas ever sa mga statements ko. ever.

me: bakit ngayon ko lang nakita iyan? bakit wala iyan sa past two bills ko? saan niyo hinugot iyan? bayad na ako sa lahat, a!

siya: mam, i-disregard niyo na lang po ang last two bills ninyo dahil ito po ang mas tama. mali po kasi iyan.

me: ano????? paano naging mali ito????

siya: masyado pong mataas kasi ang naibigay sa inyong rebate kaya negative 400 pesos ang nakalagay sa account ninyo, kaya tignan niyo yung latest bill, nagdagdag sila ng 600 pesos na positive, para mawala yung negative.

true enough, may 600 pesos additional service doon covering nov-dec 09, basic phone package amount daw ito -- sa panahong walang teleponong gumagana sa akin!!!!!! nubahhhhhhh!

me: huh???? ano???? e bakit nila ako bibigyan ng mataas na rebate tapos babawiin din later?

eto ang tumbling niyang sagot.

siya: mam kaya nga po kami nandito para itama ang mga mali sa statement ninyo at para sagutin ang mga concerns ninyo.

me: ano??? ang sinasabi mo, may mali kayong ginawa, tapos kayo din ang tatama sa mali ninyo???

siya: opo.

me: ano'ng logic nun? e bakit kami ang magsa-suffer kung may prublema pala kayo!

siya: kaya nga po i-disregard niyo na lang ang last two statements ninyo kasi mali yun. ito pong nasa computer ang tama.

me: alam mo, parang walang logic ang explanation mo. bakit mali ang binibigay sa aming statements?

siya: hindi po perfect ang system.

ay naku, teh, makailang ulit kaming umikot sa mga ito, kaya after 30 minutes, i simply gave up, paid the damn 400 pesos daw na utang ko, and just made sure they won't bill me again for an absent phone service.

potah, sa bata ko pang ito, dahil lang sa kanila kaya ako tinubuan ng white hairs! tangeeena.

asar.

tapos ang pagtatapos, di pa pala nila in-activate lahat ng features sa package ko, namely the direct distance dialing, so i can't make calls to cellphones and long distance calls.

hay buhay sa pilipinas, hangsayasayaaaaaaa!

kaloka.

parang sarap tuloy mag-migrate, hane? parang masaya talaga sa vancouver...

ewan.

siya, iwan ko na muna ito ang magcho-chocolate mousse muna ulit akoh.

ay, happy new year nga pala.

tracking leaflens online

it appears as if this blog is quiet. it feels as if i'm not blogging lately, from the looks of this blog.

not quite.

i've actually been blogging endlessly, but in other venues, particularly in my multiply accounts. i set up both accounts to funnel posts here. i don't understand why it's not funneling lately. i'm not much of a techie as you can see, so that glitch is beyond me.

so what i'll do is just to do it the old-fashioned way -- to blog it here first, if possible. well, it depends on the posts.

since i've become a public school teacher, i became a bit careful about my blogging. at first, i debated about this with myself, weighing what online publishing is for, and stuff like that. but in the end, privacy still matters. i don't want to share too much out there anymore, especially to kids i will just encounter maybe once or twice in this lifetime in a class or two. thus, i filtered my secondary leaflens account in multiply, leaflens perspective, beginning 2009. that blog is the one for my friends, some close contacts, relatives and other peeps from my lgbt networks, primarily because i blog most of my lgbt musings and personal musings there. the ones i can share to the world, i funnel out here. alas, i may have to do that manually, but i don't mind. i actually missed blogging here first, because of all that cross-posting technology. from now on, we do it the old-fashioned way. if you're in these networks of mine, feel free to add that account if you have multiply.

the ones i filtered out from leaflens perspective, i transferred to my more public blog, the divine miss L - char!, also in multiply. that one i retain for my work colleagues, professional/business contacts, and students. it's convenient to segregate things in the digital age. i track stuff faster this way. if you belong in these networks of mine, feel free to add me up. yes, you can add both accounts, why not? like the other multiply account, i've also been funneling the contents of that site here, all content actually. alas, the crossposting also went haywire with that one, so i'm just reposting from scratch just like the other one.

i would also like to jazz this site up again because this is the one i hooked up to rainbow bloggers, the network run by yffar and other like-minded lgbt peeps in the country. if you want to hook up with us online, please contact one of the administrators. even though i'm technically one of them, well, i don't really run the site. i was invited by yffar to be one of the authors, and i haven't really sat down and looked into that lately, these past 3-4 months. but i will do that, soon.

i've also been remiss in blogging about a lot of things, because of personal things happening with me, especially related to my acads, teaching and work posts. they're just eating up my time lately. but now that april is gone, and i am now officially divisible by three (i turned 36 last barbra streisand's bday), time is on my side lately. that's why i can also watch movies again now, on a more regular basis than the past two months.

so sige, iisa-isahin natin ang buhay. maraming oras, maraming kuwento, maraming gawain. who says nakakabagot ang life? ikaw lang. chos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wat da fraaaaaaaaaak!

that crossposting thing haywired again! yung blogger to multiply ek. potah! sorry kung nawarak ang inboxes nating lahat. nangyari din ito sa libaycantor.multiply.com site ko. potah!

moving on is a way of life: a friendster chronicle

friendster was fun during its inception. but the birth of newer social networking sites gave it a run for its money. no matter. being original or perhaps a pioneer is no reason to stay with it. life goes on, and we move on with it.

no, i'm not deleting my friendster account. i'm just going to trim it a bit.

when i first signed up for it, it was june 2003. i was working for isis international manila, and they had 24/7 internet connection, being an international feminist media NGO -- comes with the work, and the territory, much like networking. that was the time we first tried this thing called friendster, and it was addicting, much like how facebook is addicting to pinoys these days. but i have to admit, facebook is better.

regardless of the updates in features and cute and techy stuff, it's rather taxing to put it all in there. so i just let it sit there for people to find and connect to.

of course, as years moved on, i added small stuff and revisions to the ABOUT ME section, the latest being this:

• About Me:
  

  i like watching films (good or bad, it's always nice to talk about them with friends), listening to good music (preferably live performances), sampling great food from all over the world, except those with ginger. i love to dance and i'm glad i had occasional outlets before such as latin/hiphop aerobics and bellydancing (but i miss these sessions now because, dahil sa globalisasyon, our bellydancing teacher fled to hong kong to work in disneyland bummer). i also miss disco/club dancing so just feel free to pull me to an exclusive party or any het-oriented place with good dance music because i regret not doing that lately and i wanna change that. i enjoy the solitary confinement of being a writer, but i do seek out person-to-person communication (still the best for me), preferably over coffee, tea or alcohol. and i love to discover new places, travel with friends and kindred spirits. and yes, i am a lesbian feminist but i don't consider myself a wannabe man. i'm what they call a 'lipstick dyke' although i've already shun make-up since this new decade began. but that can still change... (the make-up, i mean. the sexuality is there to remain, and there to define me). however, people say i look androgynous lately in a [code name] cutie butchie kind of way hehe (must be the clothes), but i don't mind. patience is a virtue for me, and i think siddharta got things right, so i'm trying to take cues from there. taurus here, born in the year of the ox...does that tell you something? :P latest incarnation is as a film school teacher so kelangan bang maging kagalang-galang na ako dine? idontthinkso. :) sabi nga ni maricel soriano noong 80s sa show niya, "i am what i am, i am my own special creation." tama ba? :P wala lang. oo nga pala, paminsan-minsan nagdidirek ako ng video and tv stuff pero saka ko na lang ikukuwento sa yo.

it's strange how an ABOUT ME entry could trace transitions and phases in one's life...

but the WHO I WANT TO MEET section never changed:

• Who I Want to Meet:
  

  er, those who want to meet me? make contact. it's an awful waste of space if you don't. if you want to talk, listen, be heard, have fun, play around without the hassles and drama queen modes, then tara!
  
  everyone is welcome as long as you are not a racist, ageist, classist, elitist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, moralistic, bigoted, back-stabbing, insensitive, idiotic, assholic, full-of-yourself, religious-text-wielding fool

because it still stands up to this day.

some favorites changed and some remain.

• Schools (Other):

  university of the philippines diliman quezon city philippines asia planet earth solar system milky way

• Affiliations:
  

  up sappho society, task force pride, isis international manila, university of the philippines film institute, gma7

• Hobbies and Interests:
  

  literature, creative writing, films, photography, chillout music, good food, great company of smart women and mature men, queer issues and concerns, lesbian-themed stuff on earth and out there in the cosmos and everywhere else, and reconnecting with kindred spirits

• Favorite Books:
  

  lots, but carl sagan's CONTACT is up there as well as gabriel garcia marquez' ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, toni morrison's BELOVED and jeanette winterson's THE PASSION as well as all her other works, some works of virginia woolf and all works of douglas coupland especially LIFE AFTER GOD, classic lesbian novel RUBYFRUIT JUNGLE by rita mae brown, DOGEATERS by fil-am writer jessica hagedorn

• Favorite Movies:
  

  lots, but CONTACT and GIRL INTERRUPTED come to mind and everything with JODIE FOSTER and ANGELINA JOLIE in leads/second leads and a bunch of european films and movie musicals and lgbt indie flicks like GO FISH

• Favorite Music:
  

  OSTs, chillout/lounge music, also triphop to a certain extent, not so much the loud music, latin beats, old school jazz/blues, alternative poprock, putumayo world music collections, TORI AMOS, INDIGO GIRLS, BILLIE HOLLIDAY, and a lot of women singer-songwriters both local and foreign like alanis, suzanne vega, natalie merchant, dido at iba iba pa

• Favorite TV Shows:
  

  THE L WORD!!!!!!!! (it's cool! it's hot!), queer as folk (labs ko pa rin mga badingers dito pero sorry, the L.A. L-word gels rock!), csi orig/csi ny, the apprentice (life lessons learned here: saksakan sa likod blues and all that jazz - don'tcha love it?) and yes aaminin ko na smallville kasi mukhang bading si clark hihihi...

but the occupation stayed the same.

• Occupation:
  

  observer of life or in layperson's terms: writer

up to this day.

it's just strange because some indonesian person cut a huge portion of my ABOUT ME and pasted it in his/her own site. and it's like a porn site. weird. so this is one reason why i'm trimming it.

friendster is effective advertising, that's why i'm keeping it. other than that, you'll see me here in multiply and on facebook most times.

snip snip.

cyber-stalking is a crime!

panalo. puwedeng landmark case na reference ng future similar cases.

cyber-bullying is a crime. crime does not pay. parang si judas. god knows. hahaha. sorry kaka-inhale yan ng katipunan-UP jeep fumes at kakabasa ng basta-driver-sweet-lover palamuti and all.

-----------

Woman guilty in cyber-bullying suicide
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 08:19:00 11/27/2008

LOS ANGELES -- A 49-year-old Missouri mother was Wednesday found guilty in a landmark "cyber-bullying" case stemming from the suicide of a teenager who killed herself after being sent taunting emails.

Lori Drew was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of illegally accessing computers without authorization but jurors at federal court in Los Angeles could not reach a verdict on a more serious charge of conspiracy.

Prosecutors say Drew faces up to three years in prison and a $300,000 fine although no sentencing date has yet been set.

Drew, who showed no emotion as the verdict was read out, was charged following the tragic death of 13-year-old Megan Meier, who committed suicide in 2006 at her home in St Louis.

Prosecutors said Drew, her daughter and a family friend who were not charged, posed as a fictitious 16-year-old boy named "Josh Evans" who befriended Meier via a bogus account on social networking site Myspace.

Meier, who Drew suspected of spreading false rumors about her daughter, hanged herself after receiving a message from "Josh" which said the world would be a better place without her, the trial heard.

The case was the first criminal prosecution in US legal history relating to allegations of cyber-bullying.

Federal attorney Thomas O'Brien said during the trial that Drew targeted Meier even though she knew the teenager was vulnerable.

"The defendant knew Megan Meier was depressed, suicidal and boy-crazy," O'Brien said.

Nevertheless Drew set out "to tease, embarrass, humiliate, make fun of and hurt her," he said.

Drew could have stopped at any time but chose not to, the prosecutor said.

"The only real adult in all this -- Lori Drew -- said, let's keep going," O'Brien said. "She was told it was illegal, but she just shrugged it off."

Drew's defense attorney Dean Steward had stressed his client was not charged with Meier's death.

"This is a computer fraud and abuse case ... not a homicide case," he said. "This was a deeply tragic case for everybody -- most of all for Megan Meier."

Steward told jurors his client was not responsible for the email from "Josh" in which Meier was told the world would be a better place without her.

Prosecutors in Missouri declined to bring a case against Drew. The case was prosecuted in Los Angeles because Fox Interactive, the owner of MySpace, is based in Beverly Hills.

Drew faced illegal access charges on the basis she lied on the fake MySpace profile created to taunt Meier, violating the site's terms of service which requires users to provide "truthful and accurate" registration information.

angie loves me, and i love her

hanep sa pamatay-oras ito. tama ka koya hahaha!



well, i've always wanted to be an astronaut. kaya lang di ko kinering mag-shift sa BS Physics from B Fine Arts before. kaya naging BA Film na lang. so i just filmed my dreams heheh. chos.



and yes, i also want to be a jedi knight. until now. and my name is...

Cast off your old name! Your Jedi name is CANLI FOMAR of the planet prozac! Find your Jedi Name!

ayuz!

more facebooking: status messaging

hahaha naaaliw ako sa imbensyong ito. tama ang former isis-mate kong si necta, maaadik nga ako dito! hahaha. although yung isa kong former isis-mate din e di niya type hehehe. ayuz lang.

yung isa kong faculty colleague, si edlej, nag-comment about my status messages daw. na-shock ata ang lola mo hahaha! wala lang, kasi pinaglalaruan ko lang yun e.

sa facebook kasi, may small comment bubble doon indicating kung ano ang feel mo. ang standard template ay [yourname] is ___. so for me, "libay is ___ (something, kung anuman nais kong ilagay dun). sa friendster din may ganun sa profile page, yung literal thought bubble. sa downelink, headline naman ang tawag dun (at, er, dun nga nakita ni germaine ang aking latest ["yes, i'm dating. make contact. i'll do the rest."], na memorya niya! talaga lang ha, ati. heheh).

yes, believe it or not, masaya naman ang may buhay online no. get with the times, girlie. laos ang hindi marunong ng mga ganitong usapin, sa totoo lang. hahahaha!

anyway, back to my preoccupation. yung status sa facebook, na-se-save pala. eto ang rundown ng akin since i began signing up for this service last month. i plan to make a story out of this someday hahaha.

minsan, ang mga status messages mo e puwedeng komentan ng ibang friends mo. at yung iba, nag-comment nga sa ilan sa akin hahaha. isasama ko dito.


in order of first appearance ito:

Libay is wishing that the rains will stop so she could go home.
- obviously sa opis ko ginawa ang facebook account ko hehe. mas mabilis ang internet dun kasi.

Libay is looking for non-sinful food to eat. in manila? wish her luck, man.

Libay is wondering why the heavens are crying so much in manila. it's gloria's fault!
- walang katapusang rainy season kasi

Libay is reeling from eating too much samosas... urp.
- opening ng global lens filmfest ng asia society sa bernal

Libay is lost. what happened here?
- tangina kaka-sign ko lang, nagnago bigla ang interface design!

Libay is wondering why she even fell for that girl. weird.
- biglaang muni-muni kung bakit, bakit at bakit nga ba binaba ko ang standards ko para sa isang babaeng di naman marunong magsukli ng pagmamahal. borne out of an iuman session ito kasi hehehe
- to which my lezfriend ly in ny commented: "lol. ah, sweetie, i totally understand. i've wondered the same thing too! :)" miss you ly!

Libay is enjoying the sunny afternoon window view with brewed coffee and carole king music. yebah!

Libay is craving for cheezy pops, cheezy pops, cheeezy pops pizza...

Libay is going brisk walking, so ta-ta!

Libay is a gay man trapped in a lesbian's body. as in.
- bakla nga talaga ako e. devah? :P

Libay will be dreaming of someone later... wishing... hehe. ching!
- wala, landian mode lang ito :)

Libay is fed up with neurotic pa-artist kuno people. buset.
- hay nakuh, lalo na yung mga tipo na nagpapaalaga dahil hindi sila biniyayaan ng basic motor skills of common sense dahil "artiste" daw sila. pweh.
- to which my writer friend joel commented: "But, there are a lot of them right? ;) Sila na ata ang bagong status quo (shivers...)." korak!

Libay wants to get laid na, to destress. hahaha. puwede ba yung ganito dito? :P.
- dito nag-mega-tumbling ang edlej! hahahahaha. ang dali i-shock ng vaklerz.

Libay is so fucking tired. spa! spa! my queendom for a spa massage!
- centennial fest blah

Libay is burrowing. yoko lumabas ng bahay! aaaahhhh.
- ibid

Libay is afraid of lightning. so offline muna akesh.

Libay is being visited by the monthly curse. i hate this!!!
- you know what that is

Libay is hating the UP Centennial right now. parusa perpetua. pagod na p*p* koh!
- yan na nga

Libay is off to malate for the lgbt business magazine launch. it's yay to be gay!
- invoice itey

Libay is freaking tired. lesson of the day: never write a script with motorcyles as props in action sequences. horror idirek! aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!
- shoot! reason no2 kung bakit wala ako sa galang launch. reason no1: see centennial angst.

Libay is wondering, why 18? why 19? anubeh.
- hahaha ito natawa ako. i was commenting about, er, girls who are, er, like, basta, making contact. na-haggard lang ako sa age. pero natawa ako sa interpretation ng isang fellow writer. ito exchange namin:
siya: You lost the lotto, ano?
me: some kinda :)
siya: Try jueteng for a change...LOL!

Libay is positive that she needs her beauty sleep na for tomorrow's shindig. yebadudi!

Libay is ready for her close-up, mr. de mille. it's showtime!
- finally. the centennial film fest!

Libay is excited: yehey spa massage later! wahoooooooo.
- courtesy of a write-up for mega. times like this i love being a lifestyle beat writer hihihi.

Libay is adamant. sasali ba ko? sasali ba talaga ko? hmmm...
- adamant talaga. you know what this is. to which my friend brigs commented "go, go, go!!! ;)" at sgaot ko e "hmm... tinatamad ako e. hehe :P"

Libay is apologizing to kuya: sori di kinaya ng powers(/ego :P) ko. sushi na lang tayo. tas malate. cruising.
- pack rat mentality namin ni kuya x: "kung di ka sasali, di ako sasali! kung di ka pupunta, di ako pupunta!" oo para kaming high school girls. GIRLS! hahahaha.

Libay says: pasaway ako pukesah. fine! submit kung submit! lech!
- yeah, we did it.

Libay is pasaway. ayokong umalis sa bahay. ayoko! ayoko! ayokooooo!
- cmc alumni grand homecoming that day. wala ako sa mood for homecomings. i just wanna come in my home hahahahahahaha

Libay is happy about goldstars. about a particular goldstar. :) :) :).
- see jellyfish poem :)

Libay is having one helluva day, shyeth labu-labo ito!
- to which tita aida commented "bakit?" at sabi ko e one of these days, i'll blog about it. when i'm ready. i'm not yet ready e. saka na.

Libay is hungry. i want lamb. suggestions? anything but cafe provencal pls.
- of course, my undying quest since the 1990s is to taste diff lamb specialties in the world.
dami replies. will taste test one by one.

Libay is in like. super in like. good enough, for now. :P.
- um, yeah, see jellyfish poem again ehehe

Libay is enjoying the stormy holiday with a cuppa java.
- and this is about today.


la lang. kinarir talaga e no? wala, may naisip na nga kasi akong kuwento about this. i'm just warming up my fingers for more writing... :) e yun naman talaga ang purpose ng blogging ko e. writing warm-up.

keri! more later.

weekend warbler: rainy days and weekends do not get me down

there are times that the sound of rain splashing all over could calm me. i don't know why.

there are also times that the sight of rain pouring down all over everything could calm me as well.

yes, i am an audiovisual person. i need to see and hear, and i also need/want to be seen and heard... i suppose.

personal is best.

so yes, i am calm. now.

for now.

*

i like what the stars are reminding me.

----------------------------

Taurus Horoscopes

(Apr 20 - May 20)

Saturday, Aug 2nd, 2008 -- Just when you believe that your feelings are under control, someone says something that gets you all worked up. Feeling anxious about how others might react to you could prevent you from speaking your piece. But keeping your emotions to yourself won't help either, for they will likely build up and explode later on. It's better to be in control and let it out little by little than to be at the whim of an unconscious outburst.

Sunday, Aug 3rd, 2008 -- You have a rather pragmatic way of turning your day into one filled with pleasure. But you may be so concerned with making sure that everything happens just as it should that you inadvertently exclude yourself from the enjoyment. You may feel fully responsible for everyone, but you are only one person. If others don't want to share in the work, perhaps they shouldn't share in the fun.

---------------------------------------------

accurate.

need to remind myself that sticks and stones may break my bones but words do not affect me, especially when mouthed off by unreliable people who have nothing better to do but make grandiose claims about themselves that they are far better mortals than the rest of us folks.

in short, mga mabababaw na papansin.

in the end, who's sitting where? and who's with whom? and who's doing what?

ganyan talaga ang life. daming tanong.

dedma lang mga ati. remember, tayo pa rin ang byuti. chozzzzzzzzzzz!

and i love you all. mwah!

*

farewell my concubine took place earlier. my friend finally passed by to pick up my desktop computer which she bought. well, that's it for me, i guess. end of an era.

welcome to the ultra mobile world, libay.

*whoosh whoosh whoosh*

i wish my new baby would be here with me soon. can't wait! excited mama ako. cheka! bagong bubutingtingin! hehehe.

in the meantime, i posted some old archival pix there at the pitik section. enjoy!

are we in the mood?

no, not really. to blog, that is. or review.

just came from the first night of the cinemalaya runs at UP. saw BABY ANGELO and CONCERTO. hm. will try to watch all na lang muna bago ako mag-cine chichirya. saka gabi na. yoko na magkasala muna. chozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

hihi.

saw some old friends. nice to see them. happy naman. at ang walang kamatayang hirit na "gumawa ka na kasi!" bakit niyo ba ko pine-pressure gumawa ng pelikula? ha? hehehe. chozzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

when i'm good and ready, i will, pramis.

but first, nobela muna.

*

hay nakuh. usapang gadget dyke naman. need insights on some things.

ang weird lang ng experience pero lumobo pala yung baterya ng cellphone ko. overcharging daw, sabi nung guy sa nokia megamall. hm. meron palang ganun. nangyari na ba sa inyo yun? strangeness siya!

but heniwey, okay na ulit ang phone. baterya lang pala. pero ang strange pa rin! ewan. ang taba niya kasi! parang na-overfeed. this is so sci-fi to me, sobra. basta.

browsing at the nokia store, i saw a new model na parang synthetic leather ang finish. kewl siyaaaaa! arte ang name. as in literal, "arte." at tumataginting na 50k siya. pesoses. shiyet. ganun kasi ang gusto kong models e, yung iba ang design, not all metallic and not rubbery ek. basta. kaya bet na bet ko yung textile finish phone ko e. sana gumawa sila ng cheaper version nung arte. panalo siya.

tangina 50k? labo. bili na lang ako kotse, second hand, pang-down na yun noh. shet.

*

nasa ospital na naman ang laptop ko at this time, i hope it'll be cured for good. although i'm still reearching about the UMPCs. may term na palang ganun, short for ultra mobile PCs, smaller than laptops but not exactly the tablet pc models. although happy rin yung pero uber-mahal. i need one na pang-labas-labas at travel kasi mahirap yung standard laptop na ilabas e.

any suggestions?

or shall i go the blackberry(sp?) way? di ko alam kung bakit sa ka-gadget dyke-an ko e di ko matipuhan ang palm pilot chever. parang yung ipod, di ko bet. well, design-wise siguro kasi. pero what's the chever kung mag-palm ako? sige nga, convince me.

*

a friend texted and said today is the last day/night of 70s bistro. grabe marns, gulat ako dito. i will miss their lengua ang carabao tapa. :(

somehow, miss ko rin living in that area. the house i rented last, i was a few feet away from bistro. kung gusto kong pakinggan kung ano'ng type ng music ang tumutugtog, bubuksan ko lang ang bintana sa second floor and listen. saya.

well, the end of another era... saan kaya sila lilipat? hm...

that place really played a significant part at certain stages of my life. strange...
love-hate relationship siya in a way, but well... yeah. whatever. adios na lang.

farewell to my concubine...

...of ten years. or so.

the desktop.

yeah, i'm junking it. i need the space and a friend offered to buy, so i sold. of course reduced to more than half the price. but life has to go on.

as a writer, it is important for me to have a companion for moments when i need to record thoughts on tangible things. the trusty paper notebooks are still there, but there's nothing like the immediacy of this technology run by zeros and ones. different. digital.

ever since i lived on my own more than ten years ago, the project was to have this digital companion. my first fully-owned desktop computer. we had one at home but there was no way i was taking that with me, so i asked my cousin to create one for me. and he did.

that first model served its purpose. it became my music player and my connection to the world wide web. it produced drafts of manuscripts i published and other stuff that mattered. it was 1998. i was happy. life was simpler then. i was single, and had decadent friends, and trusty partners in crime. life was sweet.

and then came this old guy, my father's high school classmate or something, who also assembled better units. since my father was starting to get engrossed in the technology himself, he asked his friend to assemble a newer one, with a faster cpu and all stuff technically more modern. he then gave that model to me, and got my old one so the guy could chop it up (down?) or something. i was happier. there was a new OS happening that time, a higher pentium number, and more shebangs to play music and video. cool. that was 2001. i was happier. life was starting to get a bit complicated, due to a new presence in my life. again, i had a partner, and it was another chapter of my life being written. life was kind.

along came 2003. i suffered my very first computer crash. i was on my way to a new (revisited) gig when it happened. when i got home, it totally died on me. i wasn't able to save most of what i had from that first model in '98. i felt like i was robbed of property -- intellectual property.
eight month's worth of digital journals were gone, unrecovered. it was like i never existed for eight months, with my words just gone to digital limbo just like that. that was 2003, the time i was reassessing a lot of things in my life. i wanted out of a relationship, and was trying to find my self that got lost in limbo for the past years. things were not that happy. life was tricky.

but we manage, as always. the old unit gets rehashed, given a newer OS, and a newer lease of life. it served its purpose. it was great. still is. that was 2004, and now, 2008, i bid it farewell.

i know it'll be in good hands. stripped it off of things not going to be needed. retained things that will be needed, and enjoyed. a bonus for a friend.

this day and age of the ultra mobile lifestyle, i've decided to rework how i work things around here, to have better efficiency, to get best results, to have a happier time. this shift will serve that purpose. i know it will. still zeros and ones, but not alone, and definitely not lonely. excited is more like it.

we all have to move on, sooner or later.

and this is me, moving on, sooner than later. now.

farewell to a piece of me that never was.

online slave+message from above

that's it. finally. it has happened. i have withdrawal symptoms of not being online for lotsa days. malala na to.

i remember life before internet boomed. it was more personal. but we spent more time decoding and encoding in person, face to face, breath to breath, or skin to skin. frankly my dear, i preferred those days. i prefer feeling silences from fellow warm bodies than reading them online. basta.

these days, it's just me myself and i in front of a renewed blank page made up of zeros and ones, of blinking pixels and retina-damaging rays. my veins are so plugged. so are my brain cells.

weird.

but i'll admit it. it's good to be back online again. after 5 days of absence. welcome to the newer world, me. you're not in kansas anymore toto, so stop barking.

arf.

*

EKSENANG BAHAY...

isang araw na nakaratay ako sa sala habang nagpapahinga sa sakit ng asido sa tiyan, may kumatok sa pintuan ko.

IT: [soundfx: tok tok tok]

ME: ...hm? (kagigising lang)

IT: [soundfx: tok tok tok]

ME: sino yan?

IT: ...

ME: sino YAN?

IT: ...

ME: [thought balloon: punyeta to a.] SINO IYAN???

IT: (in a deep manly authoritative voice of god-type narration) may mahalaga akong mensaheng iaabot.

ME: [thought balloon: hello hiro nakamura, ikaw ba yan? peter petrelli kaya? message from the future ba yan? save the cheerleader? ano kaya yun? creepy. sino sha??] (habang nag-iisip kung bubuksan ang door o hindi) ANO IYON?

IT: mensahe mula sa kaharian ng diyos.

ME: [thought balloon: punyeeeetaaaa, natutulog istorbooooo!] IWAN MO LANG DYAN.

after an hour, i opened the door and found one of those religious recruitment leaflets in my makeshift mailbox.

poonyetah. san nakakabili ng pepto-bismol?

asar.

technoranti + spidermush

and i thought i could turn in early earlier, feeling a bit sleepy already by 1030ish pm (and that's still early in my nocturnal creature book) and i actually fell asleep na despite of the freaking heat, only to be awakened by text messages of little or no import past midnight. arrrrrrrr!

sometimes i really want to turn off technology, just for a while, to experience life as it is, here and now, to just get in touch with nature and with someone by natural means. but i think that's really hard to accomplish in this day and age, especially in techno-crazy manila, where most people carry a cellphone and a digital camera while the rest carry laptops and work on wifi mode and stuff like that. with all the static going in in our stratosphere, i'm not surprised if new diseases get invented every other day. i swear i can already feel a different kind of migraine whenever i go out to an area where people text and wifi to death. haaaay.

that's why living in a semi-cosmopolitan place seems like a good idea to me now, somewhere where there's still an active city-center/s and quite bucolic remote areas that offer fresh air to breathe and frequency-free atmosphere, not to mention an abundant supply of healthy semi-vegetarian food. wow. that would rejuvinate my skin and my health problems ano, not to mention finally exorcise my asthma out of me, even my sinusitis problem. the best yun if ever.

kaya nga migrating to baguio is not a farfetched idea for me. the cooler climate would really be great, only if i didn't stay in the tourist areas. grabe rin pollution rate doon ha; think of it as being trapped inside an airconditioned room where people smoke inside! yep, that's the effect. pero kung sa gilid-gilid doon e puwede na. masarap pang magsulat sa cooler climate. the best. tapos andaming gulay sa palengke, di ba? yum. hm...

yeah, not a bad idea after all...

*

finally succumbed to the lure of blockbuster film viewing earlier, of course with me mum, ang forever date ko sa movies like this. syempre, dahil may ridiculous monopolya ng isang pelikula ngayon, iyon lang ang napanood namin. SPIDERMUSH este SPIDERMAN pala.

third installment of the franchise. may fourth pa ba? sana after twenty years na lang. e bakit yung DIE HARD, o, may 4th movie na now, e yung una nito e alam ko late 80s yata or early 90s. pare ayos.

ewan ko ba why this third film doesn't totally fly for me. para kasing madrama masyado. too many people crying for all sentimental reasons you can think of: a love lost through jealousy and self-sacrifice, crying over the remembrance of a dead loved one, a parent trying to acquire money at all costs just to keep his child healthy, a mother frustrated about a husband's ways, a son discovering his unimportance to his father and his being blinded by revenge for honor, a frustrated artist losing the limelight, best friends turning enemies turning friends again, the death of a friend, the humbling of a fraud and his realization of it, revenge for the deeath of a loved one...sankapa!!! andito na lahat! kulang na lang may mag-out at bugbugin ng tatay para umiyak, and yun na!

cheap lang sana itong pelikula gawin e, kaya lang masyadong ambitious at maarte ang rendering ng special effects niya, kaya ganun. pero winner sa akin ang buhangin tao effect nung kalaban. ayuz. actually, yun lang naman ang spectacular--well, di p anga ganun ka-spectacular in that sense--pero hm...ewan...sayang ang pera.

and then of course, the very story of the good hero turning bad and liking it is, uh...lumang komik story na chong, complete with the costume color change. eto, umitim lang yung costume niya, na parang lumusot siya sa sewers or sa chimney siya dumaan. ayuz. sana naman medyo may konting imagination ang costume change, much like how the clean-cut gwapo look of christopher reeves' superman became a rough, darker shaded-costumed dude with a five o'clock shadow sa SUPERMAN 3.

ang saving grace lang yata sa akin ni spidermush ay yung sequence na nagsa-strut siya sa new york streets in his geek groove na talaga namang nakakatawa hahahaha na nakakainizzzzzz. parang konti na lang, kala ko mag-a-a la SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER ang lolo mo e. well actually, para nga siyang sinapian ni john travolta sa eksenang iyon. nung pumasok siya sa clothes store, kala ko naka-puti na rin siyang bellbottoms na disco70s mode hehehe. watch this film if only for this sequence.

what's with new york streets and non-walking? parang yung linya kay carrie sa SEX AND THE CITY na sabi "you don't walk, you sashay" or strut ba yung ginamit na word, kapag naglalakad daw siya sa kalye. flattered naman ang lola kasi nga kaka-recruit lang sa kanyang mag-runway walk sa fashion week. i like that episode, yung nadapa siya sa runway pero bet pa rin. ayuz.

at hindi ko alam kung bakit pero parang nakakairita si kirsten dunst sa pelikulang to. hm, lahat ata ng karakter nakakairita. kahit yung lola. aunt pala. masyadong madramaaaaaaa.

hay. well, on to the next blockbuster film na lang. patok! may SHREK 3. parang mas funny siya ever hehe. and SIMPSONS THE MOVIE! winner. pero ang pinaka-patok, TRANSFORMERS. pare, the cartoons of my youth itoh! bring it on! naaalala ko pa yung theme song nun "transformers/more than meets the eye/autobots raise their power to destroy the evil forces of/the deceptecons/"
sankapa!

new age, new year, new cycle, new hair, new blog

since it's my chorva today, methinks i will launch this today. so eto na.

this is my new blog na, ever. took me some time to shift the old stuff here, pero it was worth it. nag-iba na pala ng chenelyn ang blogspot kaya keri ko na siyang gamitin. kaya dito na tayo from now on. hane?

and this is fun! i'm in butter resto right now, and blogging this via wifi. i heart technology.

surf's up!

connectivity

amazing talaga ng power ng technology na ito, internet. sarap for research work. grabeh. loads of info talaga at your fingertips, literal. times like these naiisip ko talagang ICT4ME ang adbokasya ko hehe. dedma na sa tumutuligsa sa mga ict4d eks. it works for me, man.

been doing research on four topics (oo grabeh multi-tasker talaga akesh) simultaneously the whole day. productive naman. weird lang yung opac ng peyups. yung libro on literature, nasa masscomm lib. yung book on film and feminism, nasa cswcd lib. nubayan. wafung.

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abah interesting lately ang mga blog comments ko ha. ei, you can email this blogsterkid at my newly created blog email, leaflens@gmail.com. kung nahihiya kayong mag-comment dito. sa email tayo maghuntahan. dedma na sa spammers. magaling ang gmail mag-filter eh hehe.

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i stumbled upon this queer encyclopedia site and it's so great. however, as i was browsing their mainpage, may obits list sa gilid, mga notable queers na kamamatay lang plus description and background.

grabe lang yung napansin ko. puro "survived by her partner of thirty-three years" o kaya "survived by her partner of fifty years." ponyetah ang tatagal namang nagsama ng mga byaning na ito.

this gets me thinking again. parang afraid yung thought. i think the hopeless/hapless romantic in me died already because i can say these things now, pero i don't think i'm comfy with settling down with one person for that long! 30 years? 20? not even 10. parang i dread the thought. i really wonder why. pero i just do. siguro na-reinvent ko na nga ang outlook in life ko and  i really don't like the idea of depending on one person for that long. i'd rather be alone actually. or kung may kasama man, siguro hindi na kami aabot ng senior citizen status. at least ako, parang ayokong umabot ng ganun. ewan ko. baka naloloka lang ako or what, pero the thought of growing old scares me na nga, growing old with one person pa.  hm, siguro subliminally, alam ko kasing if i grow old with someone, i will be the one who will do most of the "caregiving" chores (based on my herstory).  parang di ko ata dig yun. i'd rather give care to myself. selifsh ba? ewan ko. basta weird lang ito sa akin. the concept of 'til death do us part.' ick.

not to say na i don't advocate for lgbt marriage. i do. we all have the right to enjoy civil liberties no matter who we are. siguro yun bang thought na you depend on one person for your happiness, sanity, eklat, chuvalulu, mga kantang "how do i live without you" chorva ang anthem. mukhang i'm rebelling on that. short of promoting polygamy na ba ito? hindi naman siguro. i still believe we shouldn't spread ourselves thinly like that, keeping multiple (steady) partners and all. taxing talaga yun at mga matatapang (at may datung) na tao lang ang may kaya nun. i'm not like that, i know. hm, maybe if i turn into a billionaire tomorrw, huway nat? hehe. kidding.

basta. yes, it's so sweet and so romantic, being with "the one" eklat. pero frankly, i don't think there is just one for you.  people never get satisfied; that's a fact. parang tattoo yan e. do you wanna get stuck with one design forever? masyadong mahal magpa-remove nun kaya you have to think hard about the design or if you really want one. kaya nga i settle for henna kasi ako, nagsasawa ako sa design. at least henna puwede mo ilipat lipat. you cherish the first half na malinaw pa siya. and then you just try to move on pag fading na.

henna tattoo and love. what an analogy.

well, i guess nasasabi ko na kasi ito dahil nakaka-ilang relasyon na rin naman akong matagal. as in, serial monogamy type, for as short as 3 months to as long as 5 years. so i guess i learn some things from those times. and the thing that i've learned is, hindi dapat tayo nagpapatali sa length of time. if it's  time to move on, we should do it.  saka it's nice to be alone sometimes. i'm valuing that now. hindi talaga natatapos ang saga ng pagkilala sa sarili, kaya kelangang di ito kaligtaan ninuman.

well, to each her own. violent reactions welcome. e me.

ps nood kayo nitong film.