Mind Travel

Phats and Tats

In my addicted opinion, AI7 is turning out to be the best season so far in terms of talent. I am having a heart attack admitting this since I utterly loved AI5 and Cris Daughtry specifically. But this season has a lot of peeps that have actual star potential.

Heading my list is David Cook. This was the guy that Cowell said has no personality on the first (or was that second?) week in Hollywood. This was when he said he’s a word nerd. I like a guy who can throw hifalutin words in a conversation now and again. It challenges the senses. The trick? Context clues baby. Hahaha! When he sang his emo version of Hello I was sold. Hook, line and sinker.

Next in my fearless forecast is Michael Johns. He is soooo commercial. AI or any other recording company would have no trouble selling records of this guy. They’ll earn buckets of green. And I think he came in at the right time. This’ll be prob’ly sound a little insensitive, but with Heath’s death and him being an Aussie who’s a hottie (Like Heath-ie), people are giving him a bit more attention than they normally would.

Then there’s Carly Smithson. I fondly call her Tat Girl. It’s kinda obvious why. I get a kick every time I see her hubby in the audience. Tat Boy seems so shy. With his face all rockin’ with fearless tats and his soulful eyes. I was instantly drawn. (Is it soooo obvious that I’m into Miami Ink also? Miami ok, never LA. Too skanky for me. I still love my Ami) Oh, and she can sing too.

Hope this is what the TOP 3 would look like. Ratings will be in the record books I’m sure. At this point in the game, it’s just a matter of who gets eliminated first. We all know they’ll sell records and shoot lotsa videos anyhoo.

Except (please!) for Kristy Lee “Patriotic-Barbie-Doll” Cook. Gawd forbid.

Reminiscing with Dennis and Brian

I had a gay friend spend the weekend at my house. I invited him over to introduce and educate him on the finer points of gay cinema. I still cannot believe he has not seen the best gay movie ever. My all time favorite and in my opinion the gay counterpart of Steel Magnolias. It’s none other than the genius called Broken Hearts Club. I dug it out of my treasure chest after seeing Timothy in Catch and Release. (Thanks Via!) I still cannot get enough of that smile. Then couple it with Zach Braff’s blonde hair and gym bunny outfits, Dean Cain’s perfect good looks and then you have a gayer than gay cinematic orgasmic experience.

After crying over the cheesy ending, which had me clutching my breast and wishing I was a gay man, we went on and loaded Season 1 of QAF. I got addicted to this way back 2003. We were all passing around our copies of pirated VCDs. One disk for every eppie. (So low tech, thank Gawd for condensed DVDs!) Stewie, Teens and all the other fags and hags had Brian, Justin and Michael as wallpapers, screensavers and posters in our stations, cell phones and computers. It was bigger than Marimar and F4 combined. (In the gay community at least) I remember there was even a quiz that profiles you and checks if you have a Brian, Justin, Michael, Emmett or Ted personality. It was a golden time when Bed and Gov’t were just opening up and the beautiful folks were all hanging around in Absinth looking for their next f*ck. *Sigh* those were the days.

So, we tried to relieve it all, (Well, I did anyhoo) in my new humongous king size bed, while eating chips and drinking hordes of Coke light. For the whole weekend. We giggled over Emmett’s misadventures, laughed out loud with Justin’s blind courage being a newbie, cursed at Ted for being stupid enough to bring his twinkie home, and of course had a love-hate (mostly lust) relationship with Brian Kinney. It was so totally, ultimately, fabulously DIVINE! I never really realized how in-lust I was over Gale Harold’s puny butt. The magic was still there. It was stronger than ever. It was like being transported to the world you know you SHOULD have belonged to if only your wicked fairy Godmother didn’t curse you at birth and made you bisexual instead of a full blown fag. So unfair. To a higher being: "I've always known I was a fag, trapped inside this female bisexual body." Calling Tyra! I'll be purrfect for your show!

So, I got to finish Season 1 last night. Since I have an intense training schedule for this week, I had to lock the other 4 Seasons in one of my treasure chests, gave the key to my Mom, with instructions to only give it to me when the weekend hits. Or else I would not get any sleep and I’ll be in danger of keeling over and dying in the middle of explaining to my trainees what world class customer service is all about. Or I might fall asleep standing up and (egawd!) snore. There’s a lot of possibilities. But as the quintessential faghag, Gloria Gaynor, would always belt out, I know I WILL SURVIVE.

On another note, this is something to look forward to. I haven’t had that for the longest time.

Anyhoo, cheerio! I have go back to reality and earn a living now. Ciao!

Ok, I went on introspective mode halfway through my “me” time. Took the Lenten season to de-stress. I’m having the shortest vacation weekend of my 1st quarter of 2008. It’s funny what a quote can do for your mind and not to say your mood.

I was reading through my Stewie’s blog and came upon this little gem:

“Life is a series of departures and arrivals”. So apropos. Life has been good to me this year. There were a few bumps and bruises due to me not getting what I want, but I’ll chalk that all up to bratty-ness. I departed from my mental state of continuous disappointment last year and arrived at the state of mind that I can honestly say makes me happy. I am generally a happy person. But thinking back on Q1 of 2007, it was all so screwed up and confusing that I am counting my blessings this year.

What is this insight going to do for me? In adult learning, to get the buy-in of participants you would have to base the delivery and methodology by preparing to answer the most basic of question when composing your catch phrases. The question is: WIFM. What’s in it for me?

If I’m going for the macro level I would say that I am now arriving at the time that decisions have to be made that would change the life I lead. Nothing drastic. But if I’m going to base it on one Trainer’s Kabala reference, everything that happens in the future is based on decisions made in the past. Makes sense. But he goes one-off and says his belief is, once the die is cast, there’s no turning back. Not that I believe in that crock-a-shit. I was never a fan of “Pre-destiny”. But it does make you think.

Life has been a series of misadventures that in retrospect I am a bit embarrassed. I have arrived to this conclusion after reading my offline journal. (Yes, the one that’s hand written and would burn the instant I die.) I have been the brunt of all good things and I think I wasted so many opportunities in my 30 years of existence. One glaring excuse is my habit of being afraid to commit. It stems from thinking there might be something better around the corner. Now, I’m at the corner. And believe me, there is nothing better.

Now I am thinking of taking a plunge into the abyss. I am now telling myself to commit. Commit to take risks and make mistakes that I have consciously put on my path of self-realization. On a micro level, a start to this resolution would be to decide what things need to be done at this moment. I am not going to enumerate it for your viewing pleasure but I am listing it down in my mind.

One thing’s for sure. I am now taking over my life. I will no longer be a victim of misconceptions, miscalculations and misadventures. I am now mistress of my destiny. Trite, but true. And if I make mistakes along the way, I am going to change my delivery. I am not going to be a slave to pre-destiny. What’s in it for me? No more late nights (or in my case early morning) deliberation with myself. No more what ifs. No more needing “me” time to think about where my life is going. I’m taking the bull by its horns and plowing through the crowd.

Ok, now done with that…. On to other things. I was browsing through my friends’ blogs that I haven’t really had time to look at these days. Gawd, some of them got maudlin in old age. It’s all doom and gloom. Or worse, it's full of platitudes. What happened? It’s like mid-life-crisis-meets-quarter-life-crisis-and-i-want-to-kill-myself-now entries. I know were all supposed to mature as we grow older, but it was never written anywhere that we needed to let go of our fun side. I know we all have bigger responsibilities now, but it was never stated that we needed to sermonize our way to meeting it. It’s just plain mind boggling and disturbing. These are the folks who used to know and say that we can take on and solve anything that are thrown at us. (With panache and while wearing high heels too.) It’s sad.

Anyhow, that’s it for the meantime, have a happy Easter Sunday everyone. May you and your family be blessed!

I swear ang hina ko talaga sa Whodunit and The Who moments. There’s this one officemate of mine whose blog is feeding my inner pagka-tsismosa. He blogs about the great moments of PS history. Pero not on the work side, but on the juicier things. (Kaya di ko masabihan tungkol sa confidentiality thingy that they are lately imposing sa office eh.)

He talks about who’s sleeping with whom, who’s screwing who and who’s being screwed. The only thing is, it’s all in code. Sometimes feeling ko he aims to frustrate. (Love you Buquee!) At akala ko marami akong alam. Hahaha! He has surprised me time and again. And the funniest thing about it is, he doesn’t confirm. He just puts it out there, people talk, and then when I ask him if it’s true, he gives me his trademark naughty smile that seems to say “mamatay ka sa kaiisip.” Hay.

So last week, sa sobrang inis ko, (or likas lang akong tsismosa) I had about 10 folks decode the stuff for me. (I was in training, had nothing to teach anymore for the day. They are all vets. I figured, they would know.) Now I know why it confuses me. Di lang pala account ko yun. I mean, LOB. Meron palang nakahalong iba. I just realized na ang liit ng mundo namin. Ang clannish ko. Meron pa palang iba. Hahaha! Feeling ko, our LOB rules and wala nang iba. Anyhoo, I got some confirmations here and there. But for the most part it’s still like decoding a gawd-darn puzzle. Hay naku, one of these days, I’m gonna kidnap Pumpkin and tell Buquee the ransom is a list of all the codes, DECODED for my viewing pleasure. That’s it!

One thing I realized though, with all the drama of the “socialites-wannabe-posers”, I still love reading Buquee’s blog more. The posers’ problems seem so un-realistic for me. Coke, Gucci and Dollars. I’m lost. At least in Buqeez world, its TMs screwing Sups, Sups screwing agents and agents screwing….hmmm…TMs?

XoXo

It’s that time of the year. My addiction. AI Season 7! I have been glued to the tube for the past 2 months, plus some. Following the auditions, the eliminations, the booboos, the tears, the triumphs. *Sigh*. This is my drug. And I only get a dose roughly 5 months a year. But it’s worth it.

After the last two seasons you would think Idol would have saturated the market of voices that can wow, but this season shows how universal the program is. The ensemble is so diverse this year, in race and music genre, and they are all ready to rock.

There’s one factor missing though. Every year for the last 6 seasons they always had this token someone who's kinda mousy, nerdy or weird in the mix. Not really bad, but deffo not good either. But surprisingly this year ALL the TOP 12 contestants are strong. They have they’re own styles but everyone can carry a tune and sing in rhythm. You’ll notice that during the “critique” portion because most of the comments of the judges are about song choice and performance, not the voice. Maybe they’re finally realizing that “commercial-bility” comes in different packages nowadays.

I am doing fearless forecasts for the past two days since the first elims happened. I think David Cook, Carly Smithson and Michael Johns should be TOP 3. I know a lot of folks would hate me ‘coz I didn’t pick David Archuleta or even Ramiele Malubay who’s a “kapwa” Filipino. Here are some of the reasons:

1.David is not so commercial.
2.David would shoot to stardom anyways even if he gets eliminated next week.
3.David is too cute and too young for the cut-throat world of the music industry.

I am now turning into a mother hen. He just kicks my “mother-ing” instincts in gear. I always wanna cuddle him and shield him from big-bad, Cowell. Just imagine how I felt when he forgot his lyrics. He had this lost look in his face, I wanted to swat the producers who came up with the theme. And I love Lennon and McCartney!

As for Ramiele Malubay. Honestly I don’t understand what went wrong. I saw her during auditions and elims and she had these really power house performances. Then everything went downhill from there. And gawd, I am getting pissed with her attitude. She seems so conscious when she sings. I imagine her asking herself when she’s on stage: “Is my blocking okay?”, “Does my hair look good?”, and “Should I turn this way or that?” Really disappointing lately. She would really need to concentrate more on the singing and just not think about anything. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t know what’s going on in her mind when she pouts at Simon Cowell (!?!?!?). But I won’t be surprised if she’ll be eliminated in the next three weeks if she doesn’t show why we Filipinos should invest our hard earned money texting and calling to vote for her. There are deffo better singers in the group.

Ok. So I’m off to my long weekend. I am planning to hibernate this Friday ‘coz I have been on the go for almost two months now. I need some “me” time.

By the way, I tried reading all the brouhaha with the Gucci Gang and all that stuff. Via and Aubs have been talking about it and I couldn’t relate. (And it's only fair to be updated since Via watches AI just so she can relate to my addiction) But as for the whole Brian, DJ and Celine controversy:

I would rather watch American Idol over and over again.

That’s it. -ISH.

I’m gonna be stuck in a classroom again for four weeks. I am honestly getting tired of teaching client specifics but I’m okay. I look forward to meeting my trainees and seeing what kind of folks HR hired again. And I have this game I have going on with myself where I don’t smoke for a day when I have a TFO. (Training fall out for you) Kinda keeps me motivated. And it’s always nice to meet new people. So, I should be excited with this batch right?

Not so. And it’s not because of the batch itself. They can give me 40 trainees, all with ADHD and I’ll survive and have fun. I won’t even mind the occasional outbursts and the crying and shaking that goes on when it’s assessment time. I can deal with it.

The one thing that I have been dealing with but don’t want to EVER again is the crappiest of all crap. The most inefficient tool ever created in the face of PeopleSupport. The most overrated, most overestimated and most frustrating.

It’s called the S-r----d--k +. (Edited for confidentiallity purposes)

An illustration of what I wanna do, EVERYTIME.

There is no + about it. Unless they are talking about plus 10x the normal amount of work you do because of all the crap it dishes out. I love my IT guys, some of them are the best alcoholics God has ever put on the face of this earth. But dang! This tool is definitely a TOOL! If it has a physical presence I would have killed it on its first breath. It’s hard enough to communicate with these guys (Hangover anyone) but to do it in an application like this is beyond frustrating I kid you not. For the first time I am actually thinking of using the V---- just because of my mounting blood pressure. I need to really take a deep breath and count to ten when I think about the thought of dealing with all this shit again.

On a lighter note, my boss just got promoted. He’s still my boss but now he’s THE BOSS. He’s still the same demanding, vain and argumentative boss, nothing really changed. But it’s nice to call him OUR BOSS. It ties with other good and great news that I cannot discuss right now due to some ummm.... stuff. Just wait and I’ll definitely spill all when the timing is right.

I don’t think I’m gonna be able to update again anytime soon. I even have Saturday classes now. But it’s ok. I’m gonna be racking up CTOs. (Compensatory time off for you) and will be cashing in on May of 08 when I go to BKK. (Bangkok for you Becky. Hehe) so, ciao! I’m off to my last care-free weekend for about a month. =)

If I borrow trouble,
Do I get to give it back?

Hmmm....

I went to this party early part of the year dubbed "Death by Kasosyalan". It wasn't anything serious. It was just that they had to rent in Linden Suites and there was no beer. Yep... NO BEER! They kept on reminder everyone that they're dying from finding out their wallets aren't bottom less pits after all. Haha! These are two of my loveliest gay friends. At the middle of it all they suddenly all got up, scrambled to the middle of the room and did the full dance choreo of Spice Girls' "Stop right now, thank you very much, I need somebody with a human touchhhh..." There were some arguments over the steps but they got it right in the end. Gorgeous gay boytoys swinging their hips, all in rhythm. Hmmm... I wished callboi would have been there... or Amorsolo. Would have made their year. (Or at least started it right.)

I drank all clear liqour because according to my estemmed boss we shouldn't mix colors if were drinking hard spirits. Ok... so I contented myself with all the types of Absolut I can lay my hands on. I even went as far as hoarded all the chaser 'coz I really hate the taste of hard liquor. But all good. The food was great though. I still dream of the artichoke dip. Divine. (And here I am turning gay-er by the second...)

And oh.. what was the point of these ramblings? Just to show you the best pic I have so far... Here yah go. Eat your heart out boys!

Guess who?

Hahahahaha!!! On to the month of the heart...

I discovered My Chemical Romance when my 13 year old nephew bought the Black Parade CD for his birthday last year. I’ve been hooked ever since. So just try and imagine how I felt when I found out they were going here to play? Can you? Nah.. it was boundless joy. So simply amazing.

So, last Friday I went with my nephew and niece to the Fort Open Field to watch. It was really different than other concert I've been to lately. (Discounting the ones I went to when I was a kid myself) We had to wait for about an hour and a half after the scheduled time. (The opening act was really bad, we couldn't understand their performance, don't think we wanted to anyhoo.) So while we were killing time, I started people watching. First off, I didn’t even know what an Emo was. I remember seeing a lot of it in my nephew’s cell phone, but I really had no concept of it. It was surprising to say the least. It was Goth and punk all rolled into one.

But that wasn’t what amazed me with the crowd though. When I was looking around I saw numerous kids which from my estimate were over the age of 7 but under the age of 12. That wasn’t even the amazing thing. It was that they were with their parents… And they seemed to be enjoying themselves too. While we were waiting I can see little misses doing their mom’s make-up (i.e. lotsa eyeliner) I'm thinking this generation's 'rents are more aware of what's going on with their kids than society lets on. I couldn't remember a single concert that I've been to where I had my mom tagging along and liking my type of music.

When the band finally started, I could see dads and moms singing along. It was great. I though I was gonna be feeling old (Side note: Gerard is 30) but I didn’t feel out of place at all. And when the band started playing I didn’t even mind that I couldn’t jump as exuberantly as my niece and nephew. It was just great hearing them live.

But I digress. Here’s another reason to watch:

I am in-like. Hehe.

So, went to the PS Year Ender Party last Friday and had a blast. Lotsa beautiful peeps, great music and alcohol. Really great combination.

Then I went on vacation to celebrate the holidays with family and close friends. Got great gifts this year too. My sis gave me a huge abaca bag and Ralph perfume, my other sis gave me pillows, my brother gave me money to buy beer. My mom bought me this beautiful wooden vanity mirror. Jet gave me beddings for my new massive bed. Aubs gave me brownies I love, Raym a tea that lulls me to sleep. (It was funny, the packaging said: DON'T PANIC! IT'S ORGANIC! It was an artichoke flavored tea, go figure.) I love it when I get the gifts that I can actually use (or eat).

When I did my gift shopping this year I bought two of each gift. I was so into the stuff I was giving away that I had to have it too. (It's either that or likas na inggetera lang ako.)

Anyhoo, here are some pics of the party:

Bestest Boss Around

Previous Boss Too

Happy, Jolly Anywhere

Halfway Drunk (?)

That's it. Hope everyone enjoys the new year celebration. Have fun! BE SAFE!

See yah all next year!