Jun 2008

I wish I can have Angry John Seller’s life. I’d love to be angry all the time and be able to say it. Or write it down. That way, the sweet and really peaceful moments would be phenomenal.

On that note, I was watching CNN the other day and heard this ridiculous comment from Chris Danielsen from the Federation of the Blind. Apparently, the Hybrid and Prius (You know, the environment friendly cars? If you’ve never heard of this that means it’s time to get out from under the rock you have been living in.) causes a problem for the blinds since it’s too silent. They are now requiring the cars to make noise.

Hmm. Such a dilemma. I swear, if there’s no hunger, poverty, rising oil prices and overpriced commodities, this would be on everyone’s list as number 1.

And then I read Details and was subjected to John Sellers article about The Hollywood Gross-out Girls. I mean, it was nicely written, but I swear, the garbage that is/was/will be! And I like JS too. This was beyond tongue-in-cheek. It was too discriminatory to almost be funny. I know he was aiming for passé’ prose that would sound like a literary snot. But this one bordered on bad taste. With more than 90% of the world population being average looking, he goes and zeroes in on the Hollywood “IT” girls and their disgusting habits like it was status quo. I dunno if I’m making sense. I’m still trying to catch my breath. I’m too PO’ed. (I’m gonna find out the reason after much soul searching later, other than I’m part of the 90%. That seems too lame an excuse.)

I found a gem too in all this murk today. The list of Web’s 10 Most Hated People.

Number 10 is Rachel Ray. That was news to me. I know she can be irritating with her quips, but I really never hated the gal. Anybody who can cook in 30 minutes while talking a mile a second gets thumbs up from me.

Now, remember the Pinay who migrated to Hawaii and blogged about hating Filipino products like Eskinol? With her bad grammar and circa-late-1980’s photo shoot? Now… that one’s for the books. Or the polls. Whatever.

Speaking of polls, the primaries are over and Obama was declared as the Democrats’ bet for the 2008 Presidential run. With that said I want to share an article that had me chuckling, clacking (is there a word?) and heaving with dry laugh before I go home.

Here you go.

Background and Excerpts:

“As far as history goes and all of these quotes about people trying to guess what the history of the Bush administration is going to be, you know, I take great comfort in knowing that they don’t know what they are talking about, because history takes a long time for us to reach.” - Fox News Sunday, Feb10, 200

Guess who said that? Come-on guess? Give up?

It’s no other than George W. Bush, himself.

Now, another pop quiz: Did you get it? Did ‘ya? Did ‘ya?

HNN did a poll and asked what’s been the worst US Administration ever. It does not take a genius to figure it was Bush Jr’s. Here are some comments:

"Glib, contemptuous, ignorant, incurious, a dupe of anyone who humors his deluded belief in his heroic self, he has bankrupted the country with his disastrous war and his tax breaks for the rich, trampled on the Bill of Rights, appointed foxes in every henhouse, compounded the terrorist threat, turned a blind eye to torture and corruption and a looming ecological disaster, and squandered the rest of the world's goodwill. In short, no other president's faults have had so deleterious an effect on not only the country but the world at large."

One more time:

"Bush does only two things well. He knows how to make the very rich very much richer, and he has an amazing talent for f**king up everything else he even approaches. His administration has been the most reckless, dangerous, irresponsible, mendacious, arrogant, self-righteous, incompetent, and deeply corrupt one in all of American history."

Here are the graph for visual learners. I am a Trainer after all.

And another: (To drive the point accross)

Sorry auditory folks. Have a good friend read you the article. It’s a hoot! Good thing GMA only has the SWS do surveys here. And peeps don't pay that much attention to it too.

So that’s it before my 3 day weekend. Maximizing resources since my Internet at home is kaput. My nephew vacationed with me for a week and shot my phone bill to hell. I had to have the internet disconnected to teach everyone a lesson. (Including me.) I’m gonna get the Smart Bro kit later and go pre-paid. Better for my wallet.

For now, ciao bella! Happy Independence Day!

I read an article in Details that says telling people you’re tired is not nice. Then I guess I’m not nice then. I can live with that. Rather than tell people “I’m ok” or “I’m good” when I know and feel I’m not. What’s the point of answering them then?

Note to all: Don't ask if you don't want to know.

I think it was only last night that I told my Mom that I’m tired. So, that must mean I’m rude to my Mom. Fine. Again, if that’s the kind of rudeness that I can express, I can live with it.

Good thing it’s a long weekend. Time to re-group.

Do you know the adage: “When you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything at all.”? I am consciously practicing this. Sometimes there are lapses pero most of the time talaga naman pinid na lang ng bibig rather than comment. I try to do it pag mga little things that doesn’t matter naman ang mga usapan. Pero pag big things na, then I can’t help but spew really bad garbage. I swear minsan kahit ako gusto ko na busalan ang sarili kong bibig. Sana I can learn to just mentally and verbally say “No comment.”

I also hope that others would do this too. I have this friend who we’d call “Nega” na whenever you tell a story, di ka pa tapos, meron na agad syang negative comebacks or negative comments. For example, you tell Nega, “You know this gorgeous guy that I saw in this show, blah, blah, blah…” and then Nega would suddenly say “Ay, yun? He has really nasty breath and nasty yadda,yadda,yadda…” and the list goes on and on. So, I have no recourse but to just shut-up and not continue with the story. Kasi what’s the point? Wala na naman sense eh.

There’s this other friend naman na always on “up-at-arms” mode. We’ll call this friend “Shaun”. Every time you say something, si Shaun may comeback na agad na pa-bark. With matching voice inflection and taas pa ng kilay yan. Minsan ang hirap nang magsalita kasi alam mo naman na babarahin ka lang.

You might ask why they’re still my friends. Kasi Nega and Shaun didn’t used to be that way. Nega used to be so sweet and so open to kwentos. That’s one of the things I liked about Nega. Sobrang ganda ng mga bonding moments namin. Si Shaun naman has been a person who I used to tell everybody has a “good soul”. Shaun is always on the search to self improvement and always looks at the good things in life. Either sa personality ng isang tao, or sa situations. I used to love talking to Shaun about everything kasi Shaun makes me think. Ngayon, whenever I talk to either Nega or Shaun, napapapagod ako.

I know I’m really loud and sobrang brusko magsalita and gumalaw, so I wonder tuloy kung katulad din nila ako. You know… birds of the same feathers and all that sh*t. I really need to delve into this more. Baka mamaya, the same stuff that gets to me kanila Nega and Shaun, ganun din pala sa akin.

I told a friend these and he said maybe Nega and Shaun has been jaded in life na raw. I wonder if that’s it. Maybe they’re getting tired and can’t see the good things already. Maybe so many bad things are happening and they got tired of looking for the silver lining. ‘Coz eventually, they get disappointed. Is that it?

If yes, then I need to refocus. I don’t like people mentally and physically getting tired when they talk to me. I hope I never get jaded by life. I’d always like to believe there’s good in people, there’s a positive in every situation and that eventually, if you just work hard enough, things would turn out alright.

AMEN.

This made my day. And I badly needed the laugh too.

I saw the Sarah Silverman’s video with Matt Damon a couple of months ago. I though it was funny. But then I saw the revenge of Jimmy Kimmel and Ben Affleck and hand’s down it’s the winner. It was a big time production. Imagine having Brad Pitt deliver a cake with icing that read “Congratulations on f*cking Ben Affleck” on it. Or something to that effect. And Cameron Diaz making obscene gestures or Harrison Ford giving the new couple a flying kiss. It was hilarious!

That scene with Ben and Jimmy gazing out the window is class A, great script. And those hideous clothes! It was “Hagibis” meets “Freddie Mercury” meets “Richard Simmons”.

For those who have not seen it, go to YouTube now! Start in this order:

Where It All Started

Sarah and Matt’s Great Idea

Jimmy and Ben’s Revenge

Put it in you favorites, bookmark it and play whenver you need a laugh.

Enjoy!

Aubs showed me a trailer a couple of months ago of an indie film entitled Shelter. I finally got to watch it when I got this kick-ass link from Buquee. So here's the story. So for those of you who wants to watch, not read, don't continue down then.

It was about a guy discovering his first real love. The story is simple. Guy falls in-love with his bestfriend's brother, they get drunk, they kiss, he walks out, he comes back (couldn't help himself) they roll around the bed a couple of times and then when his bestfriend comes back from vacation, he suddenly got the scardy-cat running around his brains. It has all the cheesy twists and turns of another typical gay movie.

The differences though is marked in it's simplicity. First, he's one of two siblings and he is trying to be the father to his sister's son. He put's his dream of being an artist on hold to help his sister around the house. A sister who doesn't want the other guy around "influencing" her son. Another unexpected twist is when his best friend found out about the relationship it didn't suddenly turn into a tele-novela with fistfights and swearing. He actually started asking about their sex life after declaring it's weird that he's doing his brother. And then he gets jealous about loosing the friendship because they don't talk like before. He ends the conversation telling him they're still brothers, he hugs him and he fades out of the picture. It was a poignant moment.

I think the only character that I felt needed more dimension is the sister. She was bland and lacked the necessary fire. But it helped a little because she seemed unconscionable in her insistence that Zach’s (the lead) dreaming a pipe dream with his art. And that she needed to be with her man and if she needs to leave her kid behind for a year or so, then that’s what she’ll do. It really was a self-centered and selfish decision. But it woke up Zach into realizing that he won’t get anywhere if he doesn’t follow his dreams.

In the end, the dilemma hit too close to home. Setting aside the gay twist, the weighing scale of trying to decide with family on one side and dreams on the other is I think the biggest draw of this story for me. We as Filipinos take the family route more often. I don’t know if it’s cultural, but we tend to stand by our family through most decisions. They are THE priority. Love life and dreams be damned. But the end twist was nice. Turns out the sister wasn’t that much of a heartless bitch. She gave her son to Zach and his partner to be raised. So, all’s well that ends well.

Although I have to say we should all be so lucky when it comes to accepting our own sexuality as Zach did. It seemed almost too easy.

Well, (I have to remind myself) after all, at the end of the day, it is still JUST a movie.