chiaroscuro18

and for a moment there i thought i lost my blog forever. it's been so long since i last posted an entry that when i tried to log in the other night, i typed in a wrong username and password. i even had the gall to reset the password. and when i checked my email i was surprised that no new password was sent. this morning, i tried adding the number 18 to my username and voila!!! it worked!!! to the person whose password i reset, i'm so sorry. if you don't mind the extra time and effort, just manually reset your password. it won't happen again, i promise

chiaroscuro18

attended my high school's grand reunion last saturday. it was held in the school quadrangle and the setup was kinda lavish, with a large stage, spotlights and speakers. the tables were draped in immaculate white and the food was catered. beer was also overflowing. there were also invited performers and guests. i guess i can say that the event was a success. i saw a lot of familiar faces, classmates and batchmates from my elementary and high school days. and while the program went on, we continued swapping stories and exchanging updates on each other's lives after graduation. the two giant screens also flashed pictures from yesteryears like the old church and convent and batches from the 60s, 70s and 80s. it also featured interviews with former teachers. a moment of silence was also observed in honor of all those former students and teachers who had already gone on to that great school in the sky. i was kind of shocked and sadenned to know that six of my batchmates and four of my former teachers had already passed away. i could still see their faces and hear their voices. after partaking of the delicious food and the sumptuous lechon and after downing our share of beers, we all called it a day at around 1:30 am and around 30 minutes after the program had ended. am looking forward to the next grand homecoming. a batch reunion is also in the planning board. i really couldn't linger as i had to run another killer course early the next morning. until next time i guess...

chiaroscuro18

i'll be on vacation leave for 2 days, feb 11 and 12. i'd most probably get a lot of sleep and if time permits, catch up on my reading. it seems like it's been ages since i last finished reading a book. the last book i read was "boys from the barracks" and i can't believe that this was around 4 years ago. sometime last month i started reading a book about the exploits of a young marine during the vietnam war. i haven't even gone beyond the 1st chapter up to now. i know i still have the time to read books, it's just that i feel too sleepy sometimes or i'm just plain lazy mot of the time.

the moon looked spectacular the other night. captured it on my nokia cam-phone. i guess i'll have to contend with this for now, hahaha. perhaps by june or july i could shop around for a decent camera. i heard digi-cams are a lot cheaper nowadays, well, cheaper than they were 5 years ago. but in the meantime, i have to work my a** off just to save up for this something which i intend to gift myself with. that's life i guess.

chiaroscuro18

don't know where to start. it's been over a year since my last entry and i feel like i'm a beginner. a lot of things have happened since, some good, some not so good.

i went back to running middle of last year and i'm just starting to get the hang of it. i make it a point to run every weekend and yesterday, i ran some 6.6 kms and my whole body is sore all over, hahaha... good for me.

i visited baguio twice last year and i still can't get over the beauty and grandeur of the place. was last there nov 15-17 and during the wee hours of the morning, we recorded the temperature at 14°. will probably be back around july of this year.

the whole first floor of our house was submerged in floodwater during typhoon ondoy, damaging a lot of appliances and furniture. out in the garage we measured the flood at 10 feet high. the floodwaters first threatened to enter the garage at around 3 am, prompting us to move our old honda accord to much higher ground. we thought this was enough. after the waters had subsided, we found it covered with mud and all kinds of garbage.

was in and out of the hospital last year due to bouts of bronchial asthma. and i don't even smoke. i gave up smoking during the last century. pollution must be really bad these days.

got bypassed for a really much coveted position in the office latter part of 2009. still haven't gotten over it but i've managed to put it behind for now. i've promised myself to move on and just keep doing what i do best. but sometimes, i just can't help noticing how the entire system sucks and how some of the people around me just play dumb and blind. oh well..

well i guess that would be it for now. just hope i can keep these entries coming...

chiaroscuro18

a childhood friend of mine recently went home from the states. that was two weeks ago. i haven't seen him yet. we were supposed to go out that night along with the rest of my other childhood friends, majority of whom still live in the same old neighborhood we grew up in. unfortunately i already had a previous commitment, that is why i wasn't able to join them. as usual, they partied til the morning light. well, some things never change. my childhood friends are all professionals now and all are still based here, except for that one who recently came home. we seldom see each other as all of us are busy with our respective careers and family lives.

the last time we all got together was five years ago when that same friend first came home after leaving for the states in 1995. it was an unscheduled and emotional trip back home, he had to attend to the wake and burial of his father who had just passed away.

we all go way back. we have been together since we were eight or ten years old. as kids, we spent a lot of summers flying kites on rooftops, joining the annual summer basketball tournament and on warm summer nights, playing hide and seek and patintero under the full moon. in high school, we lit our first cigarettes, shared our first beers and walked home in zigzag fashion, much to the consternation of our mothers. i also remember getting so drunk in this friend's house back in 2nd year high that the older men in the neighborhood had to walk me home. and when i got home, i started throwing up right in our living room and in the presence of both my parents. i was grounded for like a month.

in college, we were still as tight as ever. one night i arrived late from school after a day of exams, projects, meetings and org activities. at around midnight, i was surprised to see this friend knocking on our gate. he and his girlfriend had just broken up and he was crying like a child. now this guy is around 5'8 tall and well built. i never imagined  i'd see him literally weeping. all he wanted was someone to drink with so that he could just let his "sama ng loob" out. and this was 12 midnight. tired as i was, i had to give in to his request. what could i do?

this friend will be leaving this coming aug 10th. they have already scheduled one last get together before he leaves. hopefully, i'd be able to join them. i'm looking forward to it in fact...

chiaroscuro18

it's been raining on and off for the past week or so. not a problem really if you're just inside the house, problem  is, i'm almost always out of the house. got stranded in the mall the other day due to the heavy downpour. aside from the fact that i never really bring an umbrella, (have never even owned one) it also would have been of no use even if i had one with me that fateful thursday afternoon. to make matters worse, i only had around 150 pesos in my pocket and not a damn atm was in sight. it's a good thing the rain finally stopped and i hurriedly went on my way home. and wonder of wonders, it wasn't even flooded in our street. our street usually turns into an ocean after a downpour and waist-high floods aren't uncommon.

i finally had my pc repaired at the shop yesterday. had the power supply replaced. i also added a memory card. it's working fine now but i'm thinking of replacing the motherboard sometime in the near future. i also have to  purchase another wireless card, add a couple of usb ports and further increase the memory. i've been using rory's laptop for seven months now and for some reason i still haven't gotten the hang of it.

i quickly assembled my pc when i got home and the moment my fingertips felt the touch of the old dell keyboard, it was like magic once again. my typing speed is like 20 words per minute, but yesterday, i felt like i could type 100 words per minute without making mistakes! i usually develop an attachment for things which have been with me for quite some time. i never realized i'd miss my pc this much. oh well....

chiaroscuro18

went out to see the premiere showing of the mist the other night with melai and tanya. i really wasn't up to it as i figured on just spending the rest of the evening in bed. i gave in though after some convincing. the showing was held at megamall which normally is just a 10 minute drive from where i live without the traffic. that wasn't the case tuesday night however. traffic was terrible it took me more than 30 minutes from our place to reach megamall. when i finally got there, i was relieved to find out that the movie wouldn't start as it was originally scheduled to. this was one instance i could truly appreciate filipino time. while waiting for the movie to start, i decided to head to powerbooks to do some reading. melai texted me to say she and tanya were having a quick snack at kenny rogers'. when they had finished eating, we proceeded inside the cinema and i noticed that it was already 75% filled up. the movie finally started at around 8pm.

the mist is a stephen king film which shares a direct connection to the dark tower series which he also wrote. being a stephen king reader for more than ten years now, i couldn't help noticing a painting of ronald the gunslinger from the dark tower series at the start of the film.

stephen king grew up and i believe presently resides in bangor, maine where the film also takes place. after a violent thunderstorm which knocks out power lines and causes a lot of destruction, david the lead character notices a strange mist on the lake. they think nothing of it at first, but later while they are at the local supermarket, a man with a bloodied nose comes running in from the mist which they notice has already drifted in from the coast. the man keeps yelling about something in the mist and tells them to close all the doors. the shoppers are all trapped inside with a sinking feeling of hopelessness and despair. this scene reminds me of another stephen king film, the storm of the century. i’m not sure if this film was shown on the big screen but i have a pirated copy which i just recently purchased.

all said, the movie is not of the faint heart or stomache should i say. not that it's particularly chilling or downright scary, it's just that there are a lot of gory and violent scenes that non stephen king fans might not be able to appreciate.

got home around 11:35 pm. quickly downed three beers to ensure a good night's sleep. i don't want my sleep being disturbed by blood thirsty creatures with long and scaly tentacles that are full of teeth and claws.