So long Dragon, Hello Snake

Rumors were true.

2012 would be the "end of the world."

The year was such a blast for me that I would've easily concluded I either have died in this dreamy abundance 

or just utterly lived my 2012 to its fullest. 

Or both. 

Truly, 2012 was the Armageddon of drought, fears and misfortune.

As one article claims, 

"Snake is the Yin to last year's Dragon Yang," 

I am looking forward to strike the forthcoming balance 

with equal strength, health and affluence. 

To possssssssitivity, hello Snake.

Dark, Cold Day

My Uncle Roque died 3 a.m. today.

Also today, my bestfriend Vanessa left for Singapore for, needless to say, the greener pastures and perhaps, for good.

Dark.

I'm flying to Taiwan. Today, too. For lovelier pastures.

Cold. The weather there, that is.

Such phases in life: Death. New Life. New Love.

God bless us all.

A Dose of Love

Dose - Spanish for 12.

12 days before my birthday in 

'12, at

12 a.m., I got this really special surprise.

AMALAYER

It's not how simple the situation is, not how small or big a deal a predicament appears, not who takes on the role of the underdog or the aggressor, or not who we can sympathize (or empathize) with or against in the picture.
 
Crises have their way of putting a person's character to the test. HOW WE REACT to them tells much of our UPBRINGING and of our VALUES. 

And SPECTATORS ARE NOT EXEMPTED from this measure. Why or how we share a story taken out of context likewise conveys a sense of our personal MORALS. 

While most of us detest trial by publicity, how come we, ourselves, by virtue of social networks and self-willed democracy, inadvertently seem to be a WALKING CONTRADICTION?

If you believe I am mistaken, then tell me #AMALAYER

Music Therapy

I enjoy and am soothed by music from various genres, various sensibilities, various sexes, and various forms. 

Even the choric undulation of the trees palliates me. What am I saying? I'm hungry, tremendously late for breakfast, a tad early for lunch, and damn excited for midnight (forget dinner; sure to have it even if all the hours in the world perish to a nanosecond or two).  

Going back to my soul-palliating musing, my newfound and old catalogues below are but a part of me allayed, if not satiated:

Take Over

This is the point when COMFORT FOOD has to take over.

Speaking of taking over, this epiphany's just in:
"Having to deal with a controlling leader should be more than enough reason to kill yourself and leave no one the chance to control you. But what good is taking your own life when someone will surely be controlling you how to do it, what to do after life, do this, do that, blah blah blah!"
LOL

Undo

This is one of those days you want to press UNDO.
But of all the "misses" that happened today - misleading, misunderstanding, misalignment - it's calls from friends I truly miss who seemed to have an iota of familial intuition to ask me, out of the blue, if I'm okay, that make me wanna press REDO on the other hand. 
This shall pass.
Don't know how soon but what good is a rollercoaster ride without the highs?
Had enough lows lately; time to piece things back together and spring into the light.
Maybe I just slept on the wrong side of the bed or woke up to a wrong day. 
Hello night, replenish me.

Sold!

Sanctuaryo.
Tamarind.
Mini.
Peri-Peri.
Happy Lemon.
Ahavia.
Sold.

Spiderman's Amazing!

Okay, I admit it: I was initially skeptic about watching The Amazing Spiderman. Thought twas too early for a remake (or a "reboot"). But after finally giving in to growing raves, I was simply swept away by how AMAZING the DIRECTION is (fittingly helmed by Marc Webb), how AMAZING the SCREENPLAY is (well-timed humor, sensible drama & rollercoaster ride-like plot points), and how AMAZING an ACTOR Andrew Garfield is. In a nutshell, the movie HUMANIZED Spiderman - got drawn more to how feasible Peter Parker's story in real life is than to how high-tech effects make a movie one whopping visualfest. 8.8 out of 10 stars!


Favorite tearjerker scene: The "He made you promise. Didn't he?"
Favorite comic scene: Stan Lee's cameo! 
Favorite scene: Stan Lee's cameo!!!
Favorite PBB Teens Scene: The "Don't make your promises you can't keep. Those are the best kind"

These Things

A lot of "things" have been going on in my life this month. I was able to bake my first pizza in years, got my first fatal taste of Starbucks Ice Cream, and an equally fatal taste of addiction to Diablo (III), finally received my Mini Cooper (S), and even got to guest with VFort on Ms. Sharon Cuneta's, yes the one and only megastar, new show Kasama Mo, Kapatid. I must say every candle I lit in Baclaran on my weekly novenas proves to be a light shining to and from the heaven. I mean, if God has orchestrated all these awe-inspiring "things" to make one unlikely person happy, then He must really be the most only perfect architect this world could ever have. Yes, I prayed, I claimed, but I never wished for the impossible; just things that can make me happy even in the most unlikely ways. And to share all these "things" with my loved ones is a blessing-turned-bliss. How unlikely is "unlikely"? Come June 3, we're opening the night for New Kids On The Block & Backstreet Boys on their concert here in Manila!!! How cool is that! I mean, I know I've been singing to their hits back in high school, even as far back as elementary days, but to be their Front Act, less than 2 decades later? Come on. But yes, it's happening. And it is LIKEly. These things indeed, are likely.

Dreaded Opportunity

I never thought singing the National Anthem on national TV would give me the longest, most nerve-wracking 1 minute of my life. 
Now I can sympathize w/ Christian Bautista wakeke ;-)

Then again, I thank God for eventhough I zoned out before (& during!) the performance, I still "survived" that much-dreaded "opportunity." 

Whatta way to realize how blessed I must've been to have had that once-in-a-lifetime chance to lead Smart Araneta Coliseum w/ the song we all thought we knew like the back of our hands.

Thank you PBA (the Commissioner congratulated me right after. Thank you sir!) & Viva for trusting me w/ that "dreaded opportunity" =)

Video below:

Bask In Love, Basketball

For so long, I have been travelling. 

You make me shoot you one for three (143) points.

No, you're no rebound. 

You make my heart dribble so fast how can I say foul when what I did for you was fall.

Oh how my love for you will never ever fade away.

When Music Listens

Last night saw me Bed Soundtripping yet again. That lull into the twilight when sleeplessness makes you ponder, reflect, introspect, brood, & eventually overthink things I shouldn't even be bothering myself with in the first place. But Adele, Alicia Keys, Beyonce & Mariah were simply an inescapable nightcap.

Could that set be any gayer?

The funny part was I was just playing Usher, Chris Brown, Ne-Yo & Bruno Mars days prior and boy was I so into the mood for love during such high time.
Could that even be a straight thing, dude?
Whatever. 

Thing is, when these ladies started filling my ears with their bittersweet music, instant schmaltz crept into me. Unwelcome musings began flooding my head: with my current "BTB" (boyfriend-to-be) status for someone, am I


a. being taken for granted? Put on hold because presumably not going away?
b. being a wait-there guy? Placed in a queue of priorities and only when I am worth a time or two will I finally earn my well-deserved turn?
c. being stupid? Held back by somebody who thinks I am too unassuming, too meek, too good (to be true), a lamb to the slaughter, a reserve, despite the explicitness of enamored feelings?
d. being tested? That if I make a single misstep, I'm automatically out.
e. being saved the best as I may be the last? Sounds the one I would want to be.


Heck, my music knows me better. And surely, Adele, Alicia Keys, Beyonce and Mariah all knew it wasn't my listening to them that mattered last night. Instead, it was THEIR listening to my every thought between their heartfelt lyrics, their pained words & affectations that did. That whenever we soundtrip to our favorite singers' hits, it's not us who really do the listening; it's them as they transform to become our biographers & therapists. And that notion relieves our hearts, knowing there is someone (or some star) out there who can retell our life story, a star who sees above us, who can translate our indescribable pains into words, and transmute our outbursts into glorious belting. Music therapy - Adele, Alicia Keys, Beyonce and Mariah as our best listeners in times ourselves cannot be to our own.

Today's Date: January Happy

I once declared myself Jaded.
Debunking the possibility of that Hallmark-defined thing called True Love.
Heck, there are more divorces than marriages these days.
Adele is a hit. 
Heartbreak rhymes more with Chocolate Cake, Love with Dead Dove.
That is, every heartbreak seems a celebration of reunion with oft-ignored friends (gorgeous candle included), a liberation from emotional diet (extra poundage of tears and drooling included), a still time to capture sweetness in your Solitary Life's context than in Relational One (extra bitterness and betterness included).
Dead Dove? Do I need to redundantly shout "self-explanatory"?!


For all that, I lied. It's more than once I declared myself Jaded.
It's been a push-and-pull game between a rosy picture & a bitter graffiti of Love.
It's been "I love you...only you...now and forever" to each and every piece of emotive history.
It's been Love as a Music to my Ears and Music as an Ear of my Love.
It's been Heartbreak as a mere "break," not one's own life to take; and ah, Love that fits like a Glove.

This day may have seen me spoiling myself with my First Simply Thai, First Gelatissimo for the Year or First Sinfully Gift from Someone Who's Made A Mark in my Heart yet...


I still don't believe in Love unless we're describing my family, my faith or myself.
But I believe in that happiness so indescribable conventional people call them Love.
Yes, only the conformists could comfortably agree it is dubbed Love.
I can honestly say though that I feel ineluctably incomplete saying I ____ you without having to include Love.
Maybe I still rely on conventionality, conformity and completeness at times I feel my heart is blissfully happy with someone as blissfully happy. 
But only I can tell it is Like, Omnipresence, Vitality, and Endearment at the indistinguishably same time.

Now Playing:

"If this isn’t love, tell me what it is. 

'Cause I could be dreaming or just plain crazy"

"You try to fight it, don't even try to hide it,

emotions falling down like the rain.

I can't find the words to explain it.

Ain't it crazy how I fall

everytime you call my name"

Happy News Year!

Happy Anniversary!
Whew!
That sounds a lil better than mere Gong Xi Fa Cai.
All the same, this year and last appear to be no less than promising. 
In fact, 2010, according to one broadsheet, was "perfect."
Can't wait to grasp 2011's version of this perfection.

"Picture Perfect"

Photography: Joe Malicdem

Publication: Manila Bulletin

Date Published: January 25, 2011

Page: G-6

Not A Matter Of

"Timing, in love, is not a matter of time. 

Mr. Right or Ms. Right, in love, is not a matter of person."

- Kristofferson Guela

Bomb-Drunk-Love

First Alcohol in 2012: Choc-Nut Martini + Jaeger Bomb = ♥

Hard Humor

A mordant sense of _ _ _ _ _  - hard to find.








- hard to find a match in.


















- hard to find a match in this sarcastic world.

3 Kings, 3-Year-Old Epiphanies, 3 Poems

It's all about the 3 today.
3rd entry this year.
3 Kings.
3 Poems I have exhumed from my iTouch's Notes, safe-kept for 
3 years now.
While they may sound coming from a lovelorn heart, they do not necessarily reflect my undisputedly happy state these days.
3 words - I'm just saying.

U can ignore drugs but not addiction.

U can melt ice cream but not the flavor.

U can take a break but not forever.

U can cover with umbrella but not over the rain.

U can kill a charming boy but not that love.

Time has a clever way of healing pain in the sense Fate has a clever way of bringing back that pain…the feelings…the love…again

and again

and again

even in more Times Time will be able to heal.

Cut me nails; make me clean.

Net search me; make me wanted.

Drink my RTD; make me wide awake.

Cut the talk; you make me lonely.

Ban me; you make me aborted.

Dehydrate me; you make me drown in my nightmares…and daydreams of wanting you back.

Does this Picture really Fit?

Okay, I now get it. 

This Gym Ad is telling me to work out RELIGIOUSLY. 

I hope these nuns do not substitute their Amen with Hy***. 

Even worse, may the guy be not a fit priest, 

mistaking god for a body of one.

Resolutions, Not Promises

"Treat New Year's Resolutions 

NOT as Promises

so you won't break them" 

- Kristofferson M. Guela