:biggrin: I finally received Mike’s birthday present and I love it! He told me last month that he’s sending over something from my amazon wish list but he wouldn’t say what it is. Well it turns out that he sent me Francesca Lia Block’s “Necklace of Kisses” as well as a postcard of Ireland and a cute greeting card. I’ll try to scan them tomorrow at the office. I can’t wait to read the book! Thanks so much, Mike. That’s so sweet of you :heart:

I think I’m coming down with something. Just colds or cough but I feel tired as hell lately. Maybe it’s burnout. Anyway, I asked permission from work and I just slept the whole day. I was very refreshing. I also had the grandest dream during my rest. So FUCKING AMAZING!!! I wish I never woke up at all

Fashion design this time. For real! I just found out that there’s a fashion design school in the building where I’m working so I’m taking that as a sign that I should get off my butt and finally learn this since I’m always telling my friends that I want to learn fashion design. I haven’t inquired yet but I will tomorrow when I get to the office. I hope I can afford this since I’m planning to give this to myself as a birthday present or I might get a DSLR, a secondhand one since brand new is out of the question. I’m actually excited! I haven’t felt this emotion for awhile.

Metro Manila took a direct hit from typhoon ‘Milenyo’ last Thursday. It came as a suprise to me because the typhoon was over Samar when I listened to the radio last Monday. I also didn’t know that it would hit the metro so strongly. I live in a low area so we didn’t feel the full force of the typhoon. Still, several trees were felled in my village. Also, an electricity post near my house was badly damaged.

The typhoon caused a Luzon-wide blackout because of the destruction. It took almost 3 days for the electricity to be restored in my village and there are still a lot of areas in the dark.

The government is trying to restore normalcy in the metro but there’s another typhoon spotted and it’s following the path of Milenyo so it’s likely to hit Metro Manila again. I just hope that the destruction we will face will be much less than the previous storm.

I had fun tonight. I went to Girlboy #5 which is sorta an indiepop gig. A few days ago, I was hesitant in going because I’ve been away from the scene for far too long. There were still some unresolved matters which I won’t discuss here.

Friday, I was decided to go. Scared but decided. I told myself that I need to do this for myself. I need them so I should just swallow my pride and let bygones be bygones.

Saturday noon, I was a bit hesitant. I have no one to go there with. I was worried. I was scared that I would feel out of place. 9PM, I dressed up and I was out the door by 10.

I think I arrived there at 10:30 pm. I was clueless. I thought it would be in a bar but it turns out that the event is in a house. I paid the entrance fee of 150 pesos then went to where the music was playing. I just watched the band play and looked around for familiar faces. There were a lot. I said a few hellos but I was still worried. The band finished so I approached said familiar faces. I became reaquainted with them and likewise. The next band played. And another. More reaquaintances. A lot of pats and hugs were exchanged. The most important was the pat I made to a particular girl. Then I felt relief. Not so relieved because there’s another person that I needed to “pat” but I didn’t. One step at a time. Maybe it will be alright someday. More bands. Booze was all over the place but I didn’t drink a single drop. By 1 pm, I was dancing. More chit-chats exchanged. Phone numbers too. When the event was over, I was still dancing as I walked out of the house.

A pleasant surprise I had today, hence this entry will end up in my “extraordinary” category. JB Magnus yahoo-ed (hey, nice word!) me out of the blue and invited me to become a skirmisher. I had no idea what he meant at first but I said “yes” hehe. After agreeing to it, I asked him what a skirmisher is and I learned that it’s a collaborative blog he made which he named after his first blog, The Skirmish of Dark and Light. I gather that it’s an “anything goes” blog with a preference for dark humor. Nice.

Right now I’m trying to come up with a short bio which will be used for my profile there. I was hoping that Sherwin can make it for me but he isn’t online. Bugger. I fucking hate making write-ups which is weird because I was a part of the yearbook committee (cos I’m a geek!) back in high school and writing those fuckers was part of the job.

I know I should be updating about my US trip but blah. I don’t feel like doing so. I was looking at today’s newspaper (PDI) and was shocked to see a picture of my former crush. He just got married! Waaaah. His name is Javy Olives and we were in tennis camp back in high school. I was so crazy for that guy. *sigh* He reminded me of Sean Astin during his younger years. Anyway, Javy married the vocalist of this band called Session Road. Lucky girl. In the picture, she was wearing chucks with her bridal gown and Javy was standing on his head so it must have been a really fun wedding. I’m green with envy!

Another eventful day for me. I actually went out again, this time to a gig in Gweilos, Libis. It’s a tribute to the label 4AD since it’s their anniversary. Jenny went with me and we met at around 9. We went inside the place an hour later but the fucking thing started really late. Like 11 pm so that was annoying. We just wasted time taking pictures of one another. Dammit I’m running out of things to wear.

The first band was…forgot the name. Some indiepop band which I didn’t like at all. I felt like I was being tortured while listening to them. I didn’t like the singer’s voice at all although the rest of the band was okay.

The next band was Soft Pillow Kisses which is much better. I’m friends with Allan, one of the members, but I’m not being biased. I think they played 6 songs.

The third band was Skies of Ember. I’m a fan and they are my friends. I think they’re really great. Again, I don’t think I’m being biased. If you don’t believe me, check out their myspace profile.

Hmm. The last band was Slavedrum. I didn’t care much for the band before but now I’m kind of a fan. They played a really good set tonight. I think the band has a myspace profile as well but…just search for them if you want.

I don’t know why only 4 bands played. There were a lot of bands in the line-up. I suppose they didn’t show up. Too bad. Anyway, some copies of 1980 Forward (a 4AD compilation) were given away to people who were able to answer some 4AD-related question. I was too shy to participate but I knew the answers. Nevertheless, Jerome gave me a copy of the CD. I don’t know why. I guess he felt sorry for me since I was alone by that time. Or maybe he knew that I know the answers to the questions. Whatever. I’m happy to get the CD.

The gig ended before 2am. My head still hurts but I felt like posting about it. There’s supposed to be another gig this Saturday but I doubt if I will go. I’ll see if I can drag a friend with me cos I don’t want to go alone.

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In other news, Max Thrane commented in this blog about a way to fight wordspew/shoutbox spam. I haven’t tried it yet but I just want to share this to those who are so fucking tired of spam like I am. Just go to this page and follow his intructions.

I had a strange dream last night. In it, I went to a supermarket but as I was going in, I saw a free arcade for mentally handicapped children. Suddenly I had a young son and I took him to one of the games and left him there. As I was leaving, I saw the other retarded kids playing games and that made me cry. I was sobbing as I went inside the grocery. Then mom woke me up.

I wasn’t crying in real life but I felt exhausted. I still wanted to sleep but mom wants me to freshen up because we had to go to a family dinner. I don’t think this dream means anything. Maybe it’s the new drug that my shrink prescribed.

Tonight was the “bon voyage” dinner for my uncle and his family. I thought it would be a sad night but we hardly mentioned anything about the trip. I guess in the back of everyone’s minds is the sadness or pain because they’ll be leaving for good. Maybe it’s not only me who doesn’t like to deal head first with saddening situations. Maybe it’s a family thing. Still, we had a good time. We separated into 2 groups: group one being the parents and group two, the kids. In our group, the latter one, we just talked about business, high school and college experiences, celebrity gossip, etc. Really light stuff so there were times when we were laughing a lot. I heard laughter from the other group so I don’t think they dwelt on anything serious.

I’ll really miss my uncle when he leaves. In a way, he’s my father figure because he took care of me since I was a kid. This is according to mom. My uncle never fails to make the family laugh because of this antiks. Will the fun stop when he’s gone? I’m afraid it will