Congratulations to Ebe and the rest of Sugar Free for clinching the NU Rock Awards Best Album of the Year and New Artist of the Year awards last week!

"The Lord of the Rings" returns to the screen with the concluding "Return of the King" tonight in Wellington. Thousands flocked to the NZ capital today to take part in the red-carpet ceremonies. It is almost like a national holiday over there, from the sounds of things.

From articles, I found out about Royd Tolkien, a great-grandson of JRRT. Check out his web site.

World premier tonight at NZ, and then the rest of the world all the month of December. Paano naman ang Pinas?

if you haven't already, try this on for size. want to know a good porn name for when you decide to take that route?

combine your very first pet's name (first name) and the
street you grew up in (last name).

it's been circulating in e-mail and friendster inboxes.

i am - popsie fuentebella!

Hey! Have you Googled® me lately? :)
Type _marmalicious_ on the search field and what gets published up front? A dotcom by the same name!!
And i thought I was being original... :(

Happiness is tortang talong and Jufran for dinner!

EGGPLANT OMELETTE
8 Servings

3 med eggplants or 1.5kg total
5 T olive oil
2 large onions, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
6 large eggs
3/4c coarsely chopped fresh parsley
1 t caraway seeds, crushed
1/2 t ground coriander
3/4 t 3ml salt
1/4 t pepper

Preheat broiler. Pierce eggplants all over with fork. Place eggplants in baking pan. Broil eggplants until skins blacken and flesh feels very soft to touch, turning occasionally, about 25 minutes. Cool eggplants; stem and peel. Transfer eggplants to colander and let drain 30 minutes, turning occasionally and pressing with spoon to extract liquid. Transfer eggplants to bowl; mash. Heat 3 T oil in heavy large skillet over medium-low heat. Add onions; saute until golden, about 20 minutes. Add garlic and saute 4 minutes. Set aside.

Whisk eggs in large bowl to blend. Mix in mashed eggplant, onion mixture, chopped parsley, caraway, coriander, salt and pepper. Preheat broiler. Heat remaining oil in large non-stick skillet over very low heat. Add egg mixture, cover and cook until omelette is almost set, about 15 minutes.

Uncover skillet and place under broiler until top is set and pale golden, about 5 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Admitedly with a little prompting from a better-left-to-the-past ex-boyfriend, i came across a fictional work on the net that sounds suspiciously like my own life ten years ago.

while some parts were downright imagined, there were surprisingly accurate "predictions" (if you can call it that). there were also certain details that were grossly exaggerated, while other minutiae were tongue-in-cheek at best.

i've contacted the author, and the guy swears it all came off of the top of his head.

hah! and i'm helen of troy!

Xinhua: China Records Gigi's DNA To Avoid Inbreeding
HARBIN, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) - Chinese zoologists have launched a
program to test and register the DNA of Siberian tigers at the
country's largest breeding center to keep track of their
bloodlines and avoid inbreeding. Zoologists from the Chinese Academy of Forestry Sciences and northeast China's Heilongjiang Province are set to test more than 300 tigers at the Hengdaohezi tiger breeding center. Zoologists hope the development of the tigers' "DNA pedigrees and genetic management system" will help prevent inbreeding and thus genetic degeneration among the tigers bred in captivity. "We've discovered genetic degeneration among our bred Siberian tigers," said Liu Dan, the breeding center's general engineer. The degeneration symptoms included slow body development, blurry stripes, deformity and organ underdevelopment, Liu said.

i don't have blurry stripes, any deformity (if you'll exclude my convoluted brain), and i definitely don't have any organ underdevelopment! can i give this one a pass? :D

i recently watched Bollywood smash hit Bend It Like Beckham on DVD. Jonathan Rhys Meyers pala made a movie in 2000 with (another?) favorite face of mine, Rachel Leigh Cook.

i first noticed Cook as Lucy on 18th Angel, i think that was. Bagay niya mag-Italian.

Anyway, the Rhys-Meyers-Cook movie made three years ago is "Tangled." I don't know German, but this guy, Bjorn, reviewed the flick. I saw some of his screenshots, hahaha, it makes me wonder what the film is about.

Tangled, in English, here. Je ne comprends pas l'anglais!

there was this woman with three children seated across my side of the mrt on the way to work. I surprised myself by wishing i were as bold as other people are. I wanted, for a rare split second, to call out to her and tell her how adorable the kids were. And i did find them so. But not so much as a smile escaped from me. The urge was great, and the effort to shut up qreater that it brought tears to my eyes.
The first that caught my consciousness was the youngest of the three. Dressed simply in a summery shirt-and-short ensemble, the boy had cracker crumbs on his lips and a surly look - it was then that i noticed that his expression was entirely directed towards his brother on his right. His keeper, on his left, had just signalled the other boy to give him more of the crackers.
Older böy complies. Struck me as intelliqent and wise. I don't know why. It was his expression. It was obvious that he had nothing but sweet toleration for this four-year-old whose only interest consisted of his mother's (?) presence nearby and that darned plastic-wrapped biscuit.

I saw a mud brown (i wasn't sure, my poor eyes had little light to rely on) chicken running on the Road to Recovery at 530 saturday morning. Struck me as courageous, crazy, carefree, and funny all at the same time.

Happiness is a new pair of eyeglasses!

The government has just declared Dagupan City in a state of calamity.

Shoot.

I can't help but think that the gods are conspiring against me not to go there. I was supposed to Meet the Parents. And now I'll have to work myself up again some other time. :o)

Funny how PAGASA could time it so well that they'd declare storm signal warnings _always_ just a tad too late. I guess over there are a motley crew of special people. Its such a great talent.


I need to review my prepositions!

I found an old memo from my palm. I never got to post it, and it seems a trifle too dramatic now. But I promised someone I'd post it, and here it is, eventually.

"Too much introspection could kill. that's not so hard to imagine.
i've died a thousand deaths in this lifetime, 999 of which had occured in just more than a thousand hours ago. not too healthy, considering the fact that i just turned 27 last week.

still young, you might have thought. but learning that john lennon wasn't entirely telling the truth when he said ''all we need is love'' can truly make you feel old. especially when you've been deluding yourself for years that it was.

i've been too idealistic with love. it took just one person to shatter that belief. its not all flowers and hearts. he wasn't the type. but more importantly, its not supposed to take hold of everything you are. in giving all i've been found wanting. and in wanting i was dumped. [2/28/2003]"

another day, another link.

Way to go Amnesty!

http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/03.02/0212iraqkiddairy.htm
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/print/MDE140432003?OpenDocument

sometimes it only takes laughter
to convey a timeless love,
but you who has seen scores of seasons
has forgotten to even smile.
let this day free you
of the bonds that break you, as well as keep you.
let your heart soar; for all is not lost.
if there be moonshine, then there shall be the breaking of a new day.

psychosolitaire, introduced by Google while I tried looking for Sugar Free lyrics online (no luck there), quoted Chicosci's "Paris." The song had these words:

Could I be so affected
Will I stay on your mind
Why am I so infected
The way that we shine

Speak now or forever fall into pieces
I took you so fast
The way we are is just a movie sequence
I took you so

I didn't know their lyrics were that sensitive. Or that I'd identify with them. I think I'm gonna get one of their albums too. Whachuthink?

~O dito sa aking mundo
~Ay puno ng galit at sakit
~O di mo maitatago
~Ang mga luha mo sa malungkot kong mundo

~Kung gising ka na, 'wag ka munang bumangon
~Diyan ka lang dahil sa labas
~Umuulan ng dugo at luha
~Diyan ka lang ipikit mo ang mga matang
~Di makakayanan ang kanilang pagmamasdan

Sugar Free's album now out (they launched it last January 25 at Freedom). Buy one if you haven't already!

Ebe, ang galing talaga! :)

haha, it's funny how i could post about a trivial thing when i've been going through a lot more in the past month that i haven't posted here. here's to mysterious women (for once!)

cheers!

i've been nursing a tummy ache for the past three days now. i wonder what's wrong with me?

I got a new keychain bear! my mom gave it to me - a gift from her travels. she bought it at the posh store's branch in KL during a stop-over. the bear's a miniature of this pic from bearsuwant.com. minus the sweater. ma said it was to replace my old keychain sheep.

~Your love is better than Reese's® peanut butter bites
~Better than anything else that I've tried

finally, after a long time, i'm actually online at home. it has been awhile since i have used my own personal dial-up account. nothing beats surfing from home, but it's not as fast :(

i got home early tonight, thanks to Gari... who convinced me to get out of the sweatshop with a distant promise of a movie date later tonight. Hideo Nakata's Ringus. Please let it not be too scary for the likes of me.

Aaaah. I'm currently listening to my launchcast. Wanna listen in?

Note to self: When you going to do the other note?

My last real night out (my cigarette-toting, yelling-out-loud self alongside beer-drinking friends) of 2002 was at the Bistro. Cookie was obviously her usually self - expertly disguising jamming challenges as an excuse to drink away from the spotlight (wait, could I get sued for what I just typed?). But she did her share of crooning, of course. I liked her (insert fave CIR song title here). The company I was with played a large part in making the gimmick a special one, and its thanks to Riz and Ivs for sharing a few hours of serious fun with me - away from computer screens and mice. They were also a great cover for their non-drinking (but very sexy) chauffer, who would have chosen not to be caught dead at a bar just having a few smokes after having just devoured a very dead grilled pig in the dark.

Funny. I used to go to Pinwheel gigs all by myself. I didn't care what others thought of me then. I wonder what's happened to alter all that. When one gets older with age, does it mean you're wiser or does it just mean you've mutated into a replica of Courage?

Hey, Riz. Reminded of the picture that Bistro waiter took of us three. I wish I could post it here. Maybe if I finally get my very own domain (cross fingers)...

I found out a month ago that my employer, whom I have worked with for the past 21 months, has not been remitting my contributions to the government's social security service. I still don't know what to feel about it, but as my co-workers have said, we just have to ride it out and hope he'd pay us back, especially now that he knows what we know. Thanks to the SS online employee inquiry, you can now painlessly check whether _your_ deductions are being passed on to the proper authorities.

If he doesn't pay us back, do you think I'd get another google hit? :)

Thanks to Hec for pushing me in the right direction. I _did_ got mentioned on SNN.

My boyfriend, and lots of others out there I suppose, wonder at how I could understand the boys' musings, let alone their chaoscant. Hehe. I don't!

I found myself reading SNN again last night. As usual, it triggered a lot of long-dormant feeelings (and best-forgotten memories as well). I also tried testing the search feature. Entered "Gigi" as a search string and came up with variants such as "nanggigil" and "nagiging." "Nagiging," I found out, seemed to be used a lot. Tomorrow, perhaps, I shall try "match exact phrase" and see if I come up with optimum results. I remember being mentioned at least once. What does it matter if I have?

Lets put it this way. Before last night's nostalgic Promenade down "amnesia lane," I remember having lost sleep (read: slept at 7am) just re-reading through the e-mails. I guess ever since the first time I waded in to browse up until now, the lot of them have never failed to interest me.