gyllenspoon or reesanhaal. whatevs.

all the current third world drama has taken too much space on my blog. so to balance the negativity (oh wait, was there anything positive about GMA's administration? LoL!), let me rave about this:

feel the amore

su-weet!

jake gyllenhaal and reese witherspoon were spotted together, in various levels of PDA, in rome after the premier of rendition.

so they still are together.

so jake ain't really gay.

i think i'll place them as my current favorite hollywood couple.

(nevermind if jake looks four months pregnant.)

i. don't. want. to. blog. about. this.

The wild fire at Schwarzenegger's domain left at least three people -- and possibly as many as seven -- dead, and razed about 1,700 homes. Estimated total damage is pegged at a staggering 1 billion uncle sam dollars.

***

here at my wicked third world republic, sparks have been ignited, which i hope will burn down malacanang and its occupants.

i promised i will stick to being a full blooded technocrat. i promised NOT to talk about philippine politics ever again. at least not in this blog.

but this one is a little bit too much...

i stayed away from the computer the past three days to keep me from writing about this. but the proverbial fire in the belly that my journ professors back in college talked about must have been blazing inside of me.

and so i break my promise and rant.

gloria macapagal arroyo granted executive clemency to erap estrada who was convicted of plunder by the sandiganbayan, about six weeks ago.

erap signing his freedom papers at tanay

malacanang spin doctors insist that there is nothing wrong in granting executive clemency to erap.

to begin with, GMA being president has the power to do so.

that erap being 70 plus should be granted pardon.

that with donya mary's condition it is but human to allow the convicted former president to be by his dying mom's bedside.

that pardoning erap would heal the wounds of division, inflicted by dirty politics in society.

so noble right?

however, looking behind enemy lines, this is what i see:

GMA granted erap executive clemency because she knows that anytime soon, the minority block together with JDV's loyalists will finally have the numbers to have her impeached. she knows that if the articles of impeachment go beyond the fences of batasan, she better start packing and sending her CV to prospective employers, because given the executive's relationship with the senate, she is likely to bid malacanang adieu.

gaad... her administration is in deep shit. scandal, after scandal, after scandal. and just when you thought you've seen the worst scandal, comes another one.

palace strategists must be thinking that by granting executive clemency to the titular head of the opposition, allies of the deposed president will be pacified and will think twice about supporting the impeachment project.

both GMA and erap camps deny there's any concession. (yawn.)

if i were JDV, i'd be scared. but it's just the speakership he'll lose anyway, it's not as if they'll kick him out of batasan.

(can JDV do a manny villar in nov2000 and send the impeachment articles to senate in one breath? i'm not sure.)

on healing the wounds of division, may i just drill this into your small heads: the resentment that the masses feel towards this government is not mainly rooted on seeing their icon treated like a criminal (albeit, a very special and powerful one). the resentment stems from the people's despair--they are hungry, they are unhealthy, they can't go to school. they don't feel the gains trumpeted by the government. they don't see hope.

the division is caused by people's resentment towards this government, that continues to trample on their rights as humans, that perverts the justice system to serve its interests and that disregards the rules to save its skin.

(i just wish they all burn in hell.)

wilderness moment

i got my first pay check from the government today.

after a month of hard work, i got this much... err.. this little...

i squeezed the accounting department dry of their patience this afternoon.

coming from an international donor agency, the deductions were a bit too disconcerting.

fine, when i went back to government, i knew the deal-- and that is, i will not be exempted from paying social security and health premiums --and that wicked item known as income tax.

the final figures, their answers to my queries and my upcoming expenses triggered an anxiety attack.

sheesh, i have to get a grip on my spending.

and start praying for miracles.

prayers. i wonder how many people still pray.

i do pray.

now that i think about it, i wonder what God's reaction was this morning when i started whining about this paycheck fiasco. i was going (in a panicky mode): "God, HEEELLLLLPPPPP!!!!! look at my paycheck. my take home pay is so liit. i might go hungry. i won't be able to buy shoes anymore. i'm poor--- boooohooo...."

yes, i talk to God that way from time to time. i mean, He understands. and i believe He can help me with my dilemma. after all, He is this same God who sent manna and quails from heaven for 40 years when the israelites traveled in the wilderness right?

surely, even with my meager salary, He can keep my body and soul together. i mean, what's a few thousand pesos for my monthly bills, some pairs of shoes, and a dozen krispy kreme doughnuts?

nini said that faith is like a muscle. you have to work it to make it strong, to keep it from atrophizing.

i am exercising right now.

unfair

monday.

it's 8:28 in the morning and i am not in my office.

i won't be in the office indefinitely because i volunteered my hidden expertise as forensic psychiatrist in the investigation of the explosion at glorietta last friday.

explosion yes, we call it explosion for now. whether there actually was a bomb is not conclusive.

by the way, it's forensic psychiatrist, not scientist. that's different. forensic psychiatrist is edward norton in red dragon. forensic scientists are the guys at CSI.

i will be at the palace in a while and start working. as forensic psych, my job is to study a suspect's profile. what could she have been thinking, intentions blah blah.

oh, did i say palace? did i use the pronoun she? erase, erase.

better yet, disregard the preceding paragraphs as they are fiction. (red dragon is a tom harris fiction. LOL!)

anyway, i called in sick today because of stomach spasms since last night. remember, i've been checking and grading my students' exams and terms papers the past two days. lovely.

while checking, and reading, and grading, i stumbled on this photo on BB's website.





it's the november 2007 issue of vogue paris.

and it has a tranny named andre on the cover, together with carolyn murphy.

no make that, AND IT HAS A TRANNY NAMED ANDRE ON THE COVER!!!!!!!!!!

darn. it's bad enough that his legs are 100x more gorgeous than mine-- but for him to even be on the cover of vogue????!!!! that's just too much.

UNFAAAAAIIIIIIIRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

aaargh! stomach spasms.

still on glorietta

they've found another lifeless body at glorietta today, bringing the death toll to 10.

damage was estimated at 100M juan dela cruz pesos, and govt is offering three freaking million pesos to whoever can give infos, clues on whoever did this halloween-esque act.

so far, no group has come forward to take responsibility.

tsk, tsk, tsk....

more theories are coming out:

1. that the bombing was a strategy of the arroyo govt to divert public attention from the scandals rocking her regime. (shocks. how desperate. oh, i'm not referring to the people who came up with this theory-- but to malacanang if such accusation is indeed true. shame on you. )

2. that the public should actually watch out for more bombings since this is the season for local terrorist groups to show off to obtain recognition and funding from the al-Qaeda. err-- scary. really scary.

3. then there's the c4 RDX, was it a bomb or not mystery. if it wasn't a filthy bomb, what could it be? an invisible king kong must be lurking in the basement of the ayala mall. and he farted.

some people are already slugging it out in the media. ("no we didn't do it," " yes you did it," " you don't have proof," blah blah. oh the wicked and wonderful world of philippine politics.)

****
good thing, we have HEROES:

i'd like to give an applause and salute the regular people who rose to the challenge in the aftermath of the bombing. really-- it's the ordinary men and women on the street who always end up saving the day.








***

i didn't go to the mall today--err yesterday. not that i'm scared of bombs-- ummm...well actually, i got a bit paranoid after reading the travel advisory issued by the australian government to its citizens.

and i REALLY needed to stay home and finish checking my students' exam and papers, unless i want my head to be served on a silver platter to my bosses at the university.

shocks, i have 14 more papers to read. (yey! i love my job. err-- part time job.)

darn. i am super hungry.

will someone send me krispy kreme doughnuts? promise i won't count calories.

die another day

i was suppose to have late lunch at glorietta today.

but updating my blog took time this morning. by the time i was done with my jake gyllenhaal and jennifer aniston entries, i was having second thoughts on whether i should still go to my all-time favorite sandbox, or just go to megamall and check out the sale.

while i was in the shower though, i remembered the flats at sapato manila and decided to just go to powerplant. by the time i got out of the shower, my phone had four messages telling me that there was an explosion at glorietta.

i hurriedly went online to check the news. first theory was that, an LPG tank exploded at the kitchen of luk yuen. two people died. i thought-- it was just an accident and i had nothing to worry about.

so off to powerplant i went.

my phone was beeping and ringing non-stop. family and friends were asking where i was and if i was okay.

haha. my reputation as someone who has sold her soul to the mall tycoons has indeed been etched on many people's psyche.

i told them "i'm good. i'm not in glorietta. umm... i'm not home either. hehe. i'm buying shoes at power plant."

when i got home, new shoes, new book, and some pastries in tow, eight people had died, 80 were injured and my glorietta was a wreck.

it was no LPG tank. two kilos of C4 were found on the site.

theories are flying left and right. some say it could be a destabilization plot--i mean you know--with the current bruhaha that the GMA administration is facing.

or, terrorists.

i don't like it when people do these things. if they hate GMA, why not bomb malacanang? or the COMELEC?

****

the brownies that i got from mary grace are superb. i'm eating them now because i feel bad and i'm worried that something like this will happen again in the next days.

but i am also thankful that i am alive. this is about the third time that i was blessed enough to have dodged a mall explosion. first was at megamall in 2000, then at central plaza in siam square last new year's eve, and now this one.

****

a few moments of silence for those who died....




****

UPDATE: 10/20/07

PNP's big daddy Sonny Razon (i dunno what to call him. director general? chief? head?) denied the blast was caused by c4 explosives.

whatevs.

as of last count, nine people have died, a hundred were injured, and of that hundred, around 15 are still in critical condition.

it's 67 days to go before christmas.

glorietta 1, 3 and 4 are open for business. i wonder how many people will flock there today.

anyway, lightning does not strike an object twice.

petty

so i was getting my daily required dose of hollywood chismax when i saw this shot of jake gyllenhaal with his bff austin nichols:

what does your gaydar say?

kainez ha. ang konti konti na nga lang lalaki sa mundo, bading pa yung iba.

recently, a sizable portion of bonding time with my girl friends has been spent analyzing whether a guy we're dating/ interested in, is gay or straight.

here's a portion of our recent analysis session:

me: okay, he wears soft pastels and striped shirts most of the time, sports that "yuppy" sleeve roll, has that gigolo belt, goes to the gym, spends time fixing his hair longer than i do mine, worries about his chapped lips and is really mabango.
auds: what does he drive?
me: a not so flasy sedan. and he has more shoes than i have.
auds: hmmm.... baka metrosexual lang.

the whole metrosexual concept makes the analyzing more difficult.

now i wonder why reese and jake broke up.

team aniston

oh. oh. oh.

first,there was pops fernandez.

guess who is spilling the beans on her split next?

jennifer aniston's stare says it all

can't wait to get my copy.

waiting for non-waitresses

for a change, i am not going to rant.
everything is shining, shimmering, splendid.

i'm entering my cave: i see:

sunflowers and julie andrews singing my favorite things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
brown paper packages tied up with strings,
these are a few of my favorite things.

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels,
door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles.
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings.
these are a few of my favorite things.

Girls in a white dresses with a blue satin sashes,
snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes,
silver white winters that melt into springs,
these are a few of my favorite things.

When the dog bites, when the bee stings,
when I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
and then I don't feel so bad.

OH SNAP!

darn. i can't. i just can't.
i need to rant. i need to get this out.
i can't afford to snap at my office this week. i'm too busy to even think of going amuck.

(which reminds me: i have two reports on MDG progress, on how we're doing in poverty reduction, policy brief on the cyber ed project, and that freaking situationer on access to safe water. told you, i won't have time to snap and stalk from cubicle to cubicle, firing an M16.)

last friday: (at my new favorite playground)
sarah: what are you buying here?
me: i dunno. perhaps, shoes. or blouses.
sarah: didn't you just buy a pair of flats two weeks ago?
me: yeah, i also bought a pair of naturalizer sandals last friday. and they're not on sale.
sarah: nye. really?
me: grabe, i dunno. i'm going out of my mind. i can't find a place to live near my office, so i might as well buy shoes.


this morning: (thru SMS)
me: hey, wat tym r u gonna be @ powerplant?
sarah: around 10. stil w8ing 4 tin's reply.
me: il go lang 2 church. myt join u. think i'm buying those flats at sapato manila.

aren't they lovely?

sarah: yey. cge. =)
me: i still can't find a house, myt as well buy shoes.

an hour later:
me: yikes, i dont think i can come with you. i'm bleeding to death, bka mag pas out ako. time of d month. sheesh.

****

so i didn't get to buy those sapato manila flats. and i still don't have a place to live near my office.

after almost a month of commuting four times a week from QC to pasay, i thought, i had enough. darn, i waste almost three hours each day in transit. oh no don't even talk to me about getting a car and driving. with the metro manila traffic and the 8AM time to beat, mass transpo is the way to go. now that i think of it, even with the trains--these suppose to be efficient mass transpo , it still takes me an hour and half to get the office and another hour and half to get home.

choo choo train

three precious hours that i could've spent praying (with my kind of job, i need megadose of divine intervention daily), blogging, sleeping, working on my facebook (yey! i love this online community) and building a relationship (fine-- dating. well nowadays, it's also called hanging out).

the past two weekends, i've been checking some studios/ apartments in some areas of makati that i didn't know existed. and oh gaad, they're so faaar from that "ayala-center-makati" picture that most of us know.

long story short, i'm not yet moving out of my blue room in UP village in the next i dunno, few weeks, few months, because i'm claustrophobic, i hate roaches, and walking pass men who work in vulcanizing/car junk shops give me the creeps.

i WAAAANT a condo in bel-air. however, paying the rent will eat up my entire salary from juan dela cruz.

haaay.

we were suppose to start a big ticket project last month (which can pay the rent for a bel-air condo) but thanks to chairman abalos, all foreign loans and contracts are currently on hold. kurakot kasi eh. grrr!!!!

i have been so stressed over this house hunting expedition that i had to go in for counseling. yeah, just counseling. my therapist is out of town.

counselor in church told me to hang in there. that maybe, God has a few more things for me to learn in the three hours that i commute.

of course i look back at the past several months of dramedy that has been my life and i am thankful that i now have a job that i love, i have family and friends and new friends. and i have beautiful shoes. now all i need is a nice place near my work. i am praying for a surprise. i'm thinking, maybe some philanthropist will take pity on me and give me a unit in one salcedo, or i'd win a three-bedroom unit at the residences in a raffle. or maybe, i'll marry someone from ADB or WB who will bring me to his home in urdaneta village.

all right God, my shoes and i are waiting...

anuva?

so you still hate teri hatcher?

here's something to distract you from the signature gathering and all the belly aching about the desperate housewives.

next to cindy, teri looked desperate

****

barely two weeks after ABC issued an apology to the flips who went up in arms against that remark on philippine medical schools, some flips are at it again-- this time against the Show with John Stewart.

the show apparently labeled cory aquino a slut.

talk about some people having so much spare time to wage war against overseas networks-- or anyone with acerbic wit.

we're so quick to draw blood when a dictionary defines pinay as domestic helpers, or when a food company in spain calls its biscuits filipinos.

we love to sweat the small stuff.

back here, there are things worse than racial slur and yet, we don't seem to mind as much.

when our fellow pinoys cheat in the elections, we merely sigh.

when our taxes which should primarily finance basic social services such as education, housing and health--find their way to the pockets of our public officials, we just grin and bear it.

when journalists and other government dissenters disappear or are killed in broad daylight, we only shrug and thank whoever that we are not them.

when our kababayans demand kickbacks in exchange for project contracts which we have to pay, we back off.

***

i'm starting to wonder if we pinoys have the slightest clue of what pinoy dignity is all about.

please, don't even say it's manny pacquiao-- because if that's what pinoy pride and dignity is all about, then perhaps we have to watch out for more slurs.

feathers galore

hey, guess who i am seeing at manila hotel tomorrow morning?

joey de venecia's president. eeeek...

anyway, so, i was going through the gossip websites when i saw this:

what the ef is that mrs. beckham?

robo posh reminded me of singer bjork's notorious fashion faux pas some years back:

talk about dressed to kill--err.. dressed with a roadkill

alright, fine i am being harsh... for all i know, LA is not being kind to vicky thus, the poor fashion choices.

err.. actually, her dress (?) wasn't as bad.

it is an upgrade of the pink dress (?) that shawn wyan wore in white chicks.

where'd my swan go, bro?

mun-dy

i usually am not too happy about mondays as i have to be at the office earlier-- as in 7:45 in the freaking morning to catch the flag ceremony.

flag ceremony. in college, i was rushing to my class in AS when suddenly the national anthem blared from the PA system of the AS lobby. since i was running late, i didn't stop and continued walking until this professor stopped me on my tracks. from the looks of it, i knew i was in trouble. she asked me: "didn't you hear, the national anthem was playing." being me, i answered stuttering: "thai. i am thai." she let me off the hook. haha.

bad i know. i wish i could do that now.

okay so i won't be in the office till tomorrow because i am attending an international conference on poverty reduction. boring/ nerdy i know, but it's my cup of tea. social dev yaddi yaddi.

i got the sched all messed up in my head over the weekend. i thought registration is from 8 till 9. so i left the house at 8:20, thinking i would get to ortigas in 30 minutes. i was so wrong. the program started 8:45.

and i didn't know that 7-9 is rush hour in the MRT.

in the past three weeks that i've been taking this mass transpo, i think i've developed the patience similar to that of job. i mean, considering the hordes of people who ride in it, MRT has very few cars, the cars are too small as compared to that of LRT, it has an unpredictable schedule-- sometimes it takes 3minutes till the next train--or if you're out of luck, around 15 minutes-- and worse, the trains break down often.

it was already 915 when the seriously disheveled, sweaty me got to ADB. as i was walking towards the conference area, i was checking my reflection on the glass panels. i mean, the place made me feel like a hilly-billy. with new shoes. (hehe, i bought another pair over the weekend-- someone send me to a rehab!!!!!)

before i was allowed inside the conference room, the secretariat took my picture for the ID.

over coffee, a colleague from the lower house looked at my ID and asked where my photo was taken. i told him-- right before i got inside the conference.

"eh bakit ka naka pose?"

"err... oo nga no."

"is that your best angle?"

zzz....

i have a gazillion things to write about since i started work.

i can't find the time and the energy to write them all. aaargh...

if you have a condo in makati, please lease it to me.

i have to move someplace near my new office.