Sleeping on the job

So I come home from a night of pre-Christmas partying (mostly death by videoke) last 21 December, Wednesday, to catch the local rerun of Rock Star INXS only to find out that they show the episode which they aired the week before. There were six rockers left last week and now they're still six. What the f*#k?!? Someone must have been sleeping on the job. Yes, it was nice to watch Marty sing WISH YOU WERE HERE again but I was excited to hear TREES. Cheap thrills. I'm still debating whether it was worth letting go of the magic mike when I was on a roll with an average score of 95 (80's music rocks!).

Selective reading

I am sure that I have read at least 20 books this 2005: Harry Potter books 1-6 two times each, The Dark Tower book 1 twice, and The Dark Tower books 2-7. Not bad for a whole year's haul. I think I must broaden my reading selection in 2006 :) Although, I would like to read the revised Dark Tower book 1 next year ...

Happy Holidays

Look, it's Schnauzer Claus :)

Family ties

I LOVE traveling.
Unless we're going to Divisoria
(requires major psychological preparation).
I enjoy the ritual of packing your bag(s), riding a car/bus/plane, taking snapshots here and there, meeting new people or catching up with old friends, trying out the food, assessing the accommodations, making a journal entry about my day...the list goes on and on.
I think it's in the blood.
Here is a photo of my father that my grandmother's sister recently gave me.
Talk about a juvenile global jetsetter.
Anyway, happy travels to you wherever you plan to go this weekend!

Christmas is coming...

Something to think about during the holidays from Jeanette Winterson:

Christmas is about celebration and contemplation.

Christmas is too good to waste on miserable shopping, endless guzzling, and frequent drunken collapses. Parties are great, and gifts are important, but it’s good to know what we are celebrating, and why, and it’s good to pull back and find the peace and reflection that Christmas can offer.

The Sunday funnies

The local Recruitment Office of a prominent call center, that takes pride in its English campaign, placed the following ad in the paper today:

To suceed in life, you need the right tools.

Umm, spell check? ;)

Immortality...Take it...It's yours!

I read on Neil Gaiman's blog that there would be an Ebay auction to become a character in upcoming novels of some prominent authors. I was green with envy upon knowing that one of them would be CELL, a novel by Stephen King. The description was a female who was going to die at the hands of people who became zombies because of cellphone signals. Since the auction was in US dollars, and I don't earn in that currency, it was a lost cause.

My dear friend, Nini, though sent me a text message of what could've been the excerpt from the book, "...the zombies closed in. And hapless B is attacked, while lounging in the jacuzzi of her mediterranean home."

I told that maybe my character should be more pro-active so she edited her text message to read, "She lashes at them with her champagne bottle. Her screams of courage echo as she goes down fighting."

Ah well, I'll just have to read about the lucky chick who shelled out more than US$25K for her name to be immortalized in a 2006 Stephen King novel, sigh.

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came

I'm currently in the middle of Stephen King's The Dark Tower books, a kinda western story set in another world that was inspired by a narrative poem of Robert Browning. I closed Book 5 last month and am suffering withdrawal at present because Book 6 is only available in hardbound locally = Php 1430 (Bummer!) Even if I purchase it within the month, Book 7 is sold out until further notice. Maybe I just need to check out other bookstores around the city. I must admit that I admire Stephen King's character development. Someone may be a child or a young professional in one story then come out as an older man or a prominent community official in another. I also have a new found respect for his play with pop culture. Here are some cooky excerpts from Book 5 that take things up a notch...

"Roland Deschain and his ka-tet are bearing southeast through the forests of Mid-World on their quest for the Dark Tower. Their path takes them to the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis. But beyond the tranquil farm town, the ground rises to the hulking darkness of Thunderclap, the source of a terrible affliction that is stealing the town's soul. The wolves of the Thunderclap and their unspeakable depredation are coming. To resist them is to risk all, but these are odds the gunslingers are used to. Their guns, however, will not be enough..."

"...The two Wolves on the end have light-sticks. They raise them. The two in the middle draw back their fists, which are clad in green gloves, to throw something. Sneetches...Eamon strikes the neck of the horse on the far left. The beast gives a crazy whinnying cry and staggers just as the Wolves begin to close the final forty yards of distance. It crashes into its neighbor horse just as that second horse's rider throws the thing in his hand. It is indeed one of the sneetches, but it sails off course and none of its guidance systems can lock onto anything...The other sneetch flies true, striking Eamon Doolin square in the face. His head explodes in a spray of blood and bone and mealy gray stuff..."

"Into Jake's hand Eddie dropped a couple of balls about three inches in diameter. The surfaces looked like steel, but when Jake squeezed, he felt some give--it was like squeezing a child's toy made of hard, hard rubber. A small plate on the side read

'SNEETCH'
HARRY POTTER MODEL
Serial # 465-11-AA HPJKR
CAUTION
EXPLOSIVE

To the left of the plate was a button. A distant part of Jake's mind wondered who Harry Potter was. The sneetch's inventor, more than likely."