random nothings

Alert. Alive. Awake. Enthusiastic?

Four in the morning. This is getting to be a habit. A bad one.

This time I can't sleep because of the huge dinner I had a few hours ago. Three pork chops and one overflowing plate of rice at midnight. Midnight.

Add to that the fact that my brain has been running quite hot these past few days. So much so that I couldn't get a handle on a lot of the ideas which randomly pop out in the most inopportune places and moments. Like while I'm taking a shower or crossing a busy road.

Times like these should be used productively and not spent staring out into the darkness. Rogue ideas should be caught and corralled; the rare light bulbs flashing must be put to good use.

Lady Gaga is screaming in my head. Beats the hell out of that damned campaign jingle asking me if I've ever had the privilege of swimming in a sea of garbage. I could write a bad romance about that. Hahaha.

Maybe I will.

catch up

It's been a good two weeks since I last wrote here, and a lot has happened since then. Time to catch up on some things. Hehehe.

I was bedridden for much of last week, thanks to the insane mix of tequila, margarita, vodka, and red wine I drank with my cousins during our overnight stay at Fontana. No more drinking for a very long time, or at least not that much ever again. It was the hangover from hell, and not even my brand new laptop could take away the pain I felt every time I moved.

Brand new laptop?

Yep. Since my desktop's graphics card got fried two weeks ago after over three years of nearly continuous use, I was forced to abstain from playing any computer games. No longer. Now I can play Modern Warfare 2 while lying down on my bed. Hahaha. I got my dad to buy my aunt's high-end laptop a week ago, and now I have all that my old desktop could offer plus more. Fingerprint recognition?

Yes.

No more passwords for me. A swipe of any of my fingers and my Windows Vista account opens up. Surfing the Internet while lying down in bed and munching on Milky Way chocolates is a far cry from alcohol-induced headaches and stomach pains. The hangover from hell had given way to a taste of heaven on earth.

Now this kind of lifestyle appears to be the very epitome of laziness, but contrary to what you might expect I was out of the house more often. Once my hangover cleared I went out to play Frisbee for my PE class. Unfortunately, it was too much and too soon, and I was forced to sit down after a few minutes of tossing a Frisbee around.

Just this weekend I went on a trip to Intramuros with my friends. Hehehe. we had been planning to do this for the longest time (I think it's been a year already) and when we finally did it we only got to tour one street. Just one street. There was so much to see and we were sucked into a gallery of antique furniture and paintings - too bad taking photos was not allowed inside - which took so much of our time that the museum at San Agustin Church was closing by the time we got there. Ditto Casa Manila.

After shooting a lot of photos of ourselves (see here and here) we had dinner at one of the many restaurants in Chinatown. Best pata tim yet. Hahaha.

Yesterday marked me and my gummi bear's 11th month together. Only another 30 days to go before we reach our first anniversary. To celebrate, we had lunch at Chocolate Kiss. Best. Chicken Kiev. Ever. Hahaha.

Last thing. Thesis. Groundwork is done. Revision and data gathering to follow. Hehehe.

the bright side

Sleep just won't come.

For some stupid reason I just can't sleep, hence this blog post at four in the freakin' morning. Insomnia? Too much on my mind? Thesis? Weird effects of the flu? A lack of sheep to count?

I just don't know.

So much for the first school week of 2010. I missed my Journalism 122 class because of the flu and got even more delayed in finishing my thesis. My desktop computer of three years finally broke down; the initial diagnosis is that the graphics card gave out. No more Modern Warfare 2 or Empire: Total War for a few days at the least.

Year of the Tiger. Hah. More like the year of the Scare-dy Cat. Where's all my good luck? Serves me right for listening to astrologers. I should know better, y'know? Argh. Drifting, spinning, digressing, annoying. ANYWAY...

Deep breath. Let's look at this from another perspective. This could be one ironic twist of good luck for me. Irritating, yes, but this could be the universe's way of kicking me in the butt while screaming GET SOME WORK DONE! Taking away that black hole that has been sucking up all of my supposedly productive waking hours and leaving me with this poor excuse of a computer is actually one way of forcing me to start working on the things I should be doing - LIKE MY THESIS.

There. No distractions. No problem. Now all I have to contend with is this DARNED FLU. Vodka, chocolates, and an ambient temperature of near zero is NOT a good combination. Hahaha. The other good thing with the temporary loss of the desktop is that I am now FORCED to get some rest. Some time away from the computer should get me back to normal sooner than expected.

That's looking at the bright side right there. Ooh. Here's another one. All of the things that have happened gave me this opportunity to write this blog! Yey!

Now I wish I get to write something better soon.

2010-01

To hell with the title.

That's what gets me stuck whenever I try to write. I spend a very long time just staring at the screen or at the paper trying to think of a good title for what I'm going to write. This blog is no exception. I must have spent over 20 minutes trying to come up with a flashy or catchy or relevant title.

Hahaha. Anyway, 2010 is here. Just a little over 24 hours ago I was cowering behind our front wall while rockets, star shells, and flares lit up the night, waiting for the stray bullet or errant rocket with my name on it to come and end my misery. No kidding. While there were less firecrackers in our area this year - this was the quietest New Year's Eve I've seen - what little there was was a little too much.

At least three rockets from our next door neighbors blew up prematurely within 10 meters from where I was standing. A fireworks launcher nearby misfired and sent shells into the house beside us and the street in front of us. I spent most of the time crouched down with only my head looking over the wall at the light show outside.

What a way to start the new year. Hahaha. About the only thing missing was the helmet, uniform, and the gun and I could be one of the soldiers in my computer games. Needless to say, the need to play Modern Warfare 2 at full volume died as the first misfired rocket blew up a few feet away from me.

2010-01. My first blog for the new year. I survived the festivities, and now I have a whole year ahead of me. 364 days more to live. 8736 more hours to spend at work, at play, doing nothing, procrastinating, sleeping, eating, writing, living.

It's the Year of the Tiger according to the Chinese (by February, at least) so this is my year. I don't intend to waste it.