More cheese please! :D

My married girl friend said that her husband never gets angry because he believes that the time spent being mad at each other is such a waste.

But I say getting mad at each other and putting an effort to make up after is an opportunity to fall in love with our partners all over again, so it's all worth it.

After a fight, food tastes better, jokes are funnier and shoujo manga are cheesier. Don't you agree? :D

The evidence that pointed out there's fire

It's been a day since we've since his giant blue head, when I said "No, you can't."

I'm going to ask you, even though I'll be better without knowing

Did you or did you not?

This Old Man

There's this Old Man from our neighborhood whose steps are like of a baby's.

Step, step. step, step. Pause. Step, step, step. Stop. Step, step. step, step. Sigh.

One, two, three, four, five up to twenty steps and yet he's just half way across the street, which people usually cross in three or four easy strides. Whenever he wants to sit, he has to lean on a tree, or on a lamp post or has to get a good aim and pray that his butt reaches its destination safely. (Or something like that.) I once asked Momsie about him and she recalled that this Old Man suffered from a stroke, which affected his motor skills.

The first time I took notice of this Old Man was during Popsie's wake. When everybody else was busy betting for their numbers on the Terembe table or was busy cracking pumpkin seeds, or was busy refilling their glasses with the blushing horse, he was there in his uncoordinated stance, clumsily cleaning tables, arranging chairs and offering more pumpkin seeds to crack to Pops' mourners. He touched my heart, he did. But I was so busy that I soon forgot about him until I saw him recently, not on our streets but in Quiapo. He was there, really! He was bravely waddling his way through the busy streets of Hidalgo. Doing the steps he has memorized since God-knows-when while dodging pedicabs and horse manure.

I know it's pathetic to draw courage from someone else's pain but forgive me if I already did. I am currently unemployed so I am also in pain. Sheesh, what a bad joke. I am sorry. Escaping from too serious topics about me is part of my personality, I'm a Scorpio, you see.

Old Man, you would always be part of my inspiration. Thank you.

But seriously speaking, I think I'm just like him. Clumsily waddling through life's manure. (Oh, hello euphemism, I missed you!) Pausing, stopping, sighing to breathe whenever I can so I won't find myself in the deeper compost of more sheeeet.

Or maybe I'm just making excuses. What the hell--? Whatever.

I blame you, Tiffany!

Ever since my friend Marichu got married, I've been bugged by my friends with the question, "Kayo, kailan?" like there's no tomorrow. I feel like an idiot every time I answer them with a "Naku, matagal pa!" followed by my much heard reason of us being too young, unready and unstable, which I think is true on most part. Though I refuse to believe that Arvin and I are totally unprepared for a lifetime commitment, I find it hard to imagine myself getting tied down (lovingly), developing a much bigger bump in my mid section and assuming the role of a housewife slash okaa-sama. There are still numerous roles I want to portray before settling down or getting messed up, whichever you prefer calling getting married as, haha like "photographer", "graphic artist" or even "sexy star", who knows right? And besides, I'm so not over with my manga marathons, anime addiction and cosplay fascination. Don't tell me to give up on that to make way for diapers and baby bottles. I know I'm associating marriage with babies instead of relationship bliss but I just can't stop myself from thinking ahead. *sigh*

Guys, come on, I'll get married once I've been proposed to and when that happens you are definitely invited! (Unless you're off to Timbuktu or somewhere mining platinum or something.)

Plus, this Tiffany is way too expensive. Maybe if Arvin could afford this then we could get married. Of course I'm not asking him to get me that overly expensive, over the top, disgustingly lovely you'll be my bestest best friend in the whole wide world diamond engagement ring. No way!...

..

..

..

... ?

I kid, I kid! Oh well, maybe. Haha..

Edit: I think some people misunderstood my tone of voice here. I really enjoyed writing this one because I think my sarcasm is, errr, improving? Haha.. Or maybe they simply don't get it.

I try~

I tried writing an entry about my Pops and Lola, but I guess it's still too early since I still don't know where to start. I guess I can compare it to Murakami's Norwegian Wood, when Watanabe was describing how hard it was to write about Naoko back when the memories of her were still too real for him. *pauses* (I suddenly heard the faucet running, even though I'm the only one here in our room.. Papa talaga o! O__O)

Anyway, we visited them last July 14 even though PAGASA raised the Signal No. 2 warning, we were utterly pleased of their inaccuracy. It was sunshiny.

We arrived at Papa's place, said our prayers then left. I still can't bear to take pictures there.

We sang Happy Birthday when we got to Lola's ground. (You see, Lola's birthday was July 12th. Two days after, Papa passed away. Then two months after, Lola passed away. Now I am afraid what's gonna happen two years after.) It was weird since everybody's singing a song to celebrate birth but all we can see were tombstones. It was the saddest birthday song I've ever heard.

Come to think of it, we lost 3 family members within the span of two years. Tita Janet, Lola and Papa but God is good, he gave us Rameses (That little kiddo in front, who was born 2 weeks after Papa passed away), Baleleng's second baby (I think she's going to name him Genesis since that's what's written on the Facebook page she already created page for him) and Neneng's baby (who was scheduled to come out that same day we went to the cemetery but for some reason he's still clinging inside his mama.. :D)

We're still a big, dramatic, happy family.

And remember that"Lost Ann" anecdote Papa used to tell? I took a picture of that legendary bricked path by Quirino's resting place.

Papa, I'm still lost. Hurry and save your little girl.

Back to ranting~ :D

The sharing of good news! :D

1. Nodame Cantabile The Movie II (のだめカンタービレ 最終楽章　後編 / Nodame Cantabile Saishu Gakusho Kouhen) is a Japanese movie directed by Hideki Takeuchi. It will be released by Toho in Japan on April 17, 2010. It follows up the events of Nodame Cantabile The Movie I, which was released on December 19, 2009.

Me: With the manga ending, the anime on it's last season and the translation of the Opera-hen on hold due to lack of raws, (please, please, raws please~) this is definitely an oasis for the thirsty NodaChi fans.. :D These two are as adorable as ever.. ^___^ (Though I think Ueno Juri lost too much weight..)

Here's the trailer:

The new film picks up where the first installment left off—Nodame (Juri Ueno) and Chiaki (Hiroshi Tamaki) mutually decide that it would be for the best if they parted ways for a while so Nodame can practice for an upcoming competition. However, when things don’t go her way, she gets impatient and depressed. While Nodame is away, Chiaki’s former pianist Rui Son (Yu Yamada) returns to take her place. To make matters worse, Rui and Chiaki are set to play the song Nodame dreams of playing with Chiaki herself: Ravel’s “Concerto in G Minor”.

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2. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (時をかける少女 / Toki o Kakeru Shojo ) is an upcoming live-action adaptation of a manga by Yasutaka Tsutsui directed by Masaaki Taniguchi. It will be released by stylejam in March 2010.

Me: One of my favorites, I really love Ghibli Studios.. :)

Here's the trailer:

The film stars Riisa Naka (the voice of Makoto in the 2006 animated film) as Akari, the 18-year-old daughter of the protagonist of the original novel, Kazuko Yoshiyama (played by Narumi Yasuda). When Kazuko is injured in a car accident and falls into a coma, Akari leaps back in time to the 70s to seek out her mother’s first love, Kazuo Fukamachi. Instead, she meets a college student named Ryota (Akiyoshi Nakao) who helps her with her search

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3. BECK is an upcoming live-action Japanese movie directed byYukihiko Tsutsumi. It’s based on a manga by Harold Sakuishi which was originally serialized from 2000-2008.

Me: This is the only anime I watched with Arvin, so this is really special. We're looking forward to it. (See? I got his interest when I told him that there's a movie adaptation of BECK).. haha.. :D

Here's the trailer:

Through a chance encounter with a talented guitarist named Ryusuke Minami (Hiro Mizushima), an ordinary high school student named Koyuki (Takeru Sato) is encouraged to pick up the instrument himself. The two eventually form a band with bassist Taira (Osamu Mukai), lead vocalist Chiba (Kenta Kiritani), and drummer Saku (Aoi Nakamura), naming it BECK after Minami’s dog.

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4. Ooku (大奥) is an upcoming live-action Japanese movie directed by Fuminori Kaneko. It’s being co-distributed by Shochiku and Asmik Ace Entertainment and will be released domestically on October 1, 2010.

Based on a popular manga by Fumi Yoshinaga, the film is set in an alternate version of Japan in which a disease has drastically decreased the male population, turning the nation into a matriarchal society. The film will cover the Mizuno arc from volume 1 of the manga. Kazunari Ninomiya will star as Hiroyuki Mizuno, a young man from a poor samurai family who decides to join the palace harem to earn a huge amount of money. Kou Shibasaki will play a new Shogun named Yoshimune who inadvertantly involves Mizuno in a grim tradition.

Me: One word. Awesome.. :) This wouldn't win the "I-Forgot-Which-Award-And-Is-Too-Lazy-To-Google" award for nothing.. ;)

Here's the teaser, no trailers yet.. :D

Ooku is set in an alternate version of Japan in which a disease has drastically decreased the male population, turning the nation into a matriarchal society in which young men are treated as a precious commodity never to be risked in sports or war. Hiroyuki Mizuno (Ninomiya) is a commoner from a struggling samurai family who isn’t allowed to marry the woman he loves because he’s too poor to afford that right. To earn money for his family, he decides to enter Ooku (the palace), where young men like him are simply added to a harem as a status symbol for the wealthy and powerful. Mizuno quickly establishes himself as someone not be be trifled with, setting himself apart from the other men. However, when the unmarried Yoshimune (Shibasaki) takes over as Shogun and chooses Mizuno as her first consort, a long-standing Ooku tradition threatens to cut their relationship very short.

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5. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの消失 / Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoshitsu) is an upcoming Japanese animated film based on the fourth light novel of the Haruhi Suzumiya series of the same name. It’s currently being produced by Kyoto Animation and will be released in Japanese theaters in spring 2010.

No trailers though.. :(

So there, all the good movies I'm hoping to see this year.. :) I was sure that there's an adaptation of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood starring Ken'ichi Matsuyama as Watanabe but I didn't see any info on that yet except for this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Wood_(novel)

We'll wait and see then.. ;)

Back to my wormhole again~ Jaa ne! ^0^

** all from http://www.nipponcinema.com/

Dehado?

Everybody I know seem to get promoted these days to some higher position. Most of them have acquired some managerial/ supervisory role, upped to become an admin or dropped the 'Associate' from their title. It's somehow unnerving for somebody like me who started working the same time as them. Envy and jealousy. Yeah, I know these are not so nice emotions to harbor but heck more than being envious and jealous, I really am sad to see them leave me behind career wise. I am truly, from-the-bottom-of-my-heart happy for my friends and I won't wish anything but the best for them. They've worked long and hard to get where they are unlike me who has worked halfheartedly and yes, I am fully aware that the only person to blame is the same person who's writing this blog post. Argh, I didn't work hard enough Essiehime, so shoot me. @__@

Gotta run after them, get my ass off my chair and move it.
Easier said than done.
Where to start?
Here?