I moved

Elvin is now blogging at www.elvinluciano.blogspot.com.

:)

Because we all want Willy Wonka teeth

Taking some more baby steps towards blogging actively again - now blogging everything I do haha.

Well, it's better than nothing right? Ok so let me write something about our day at the dentist' clinic. The picture on the left shows my sister and I nervously waiting for our turn on the dentist' chair. Ok, not gonna lie. It was just me who was very nervous.

I have feared dentists ever since I was little. I see anything related to them, like their shiny sharp tools, and fear creeps in. I am most especially scared of the big white van that visits our public Elementary school once a year, to bring in dentists who'd pull out teeth and stuff cotton in my classmates' mouth.

Last Friday, I scheduled an appointment with our neighborhood dentist, to have her check what I call the erosion of my gumline lol. Turns out, it was not my gum that's receding but my teeth getting "abrasions". The dentist said I brush too hard (true, I think, cause my brushes don't last for more than a month. I either break their handles or cause their bristles to fall off). So she vulca-seal-ed these abrasion with something called Beauty-Fill (LOL) and then, my abused teeth were whole again.

I don't know if it's a dentist thing, if it's in their dental practice code or something to do this, but most of the dentists I've seen said I've a good set of teeth. Two even asked if I had braces. And I think they're just pulling my leg (they like pulling things) because I have a gap between my two front teeth.

But really, it feels good to have your teeth professionally cleaned once in a while. It's like being so clean in there, you don't wanna eat or drink anything for fear of getting your chompers dirty again.

Also, I can say I'm slowly conquering my fear of dentists. When I'm brave enough, I think I'm gonna get braces for real. Then I'll be like dude pare tsong conyo.

If I had an invisibility cloak

This post, also known as my baby steps towards blogging actively again haha.

So I saw this thing inside SM North Edsa's Fully Booked and look at what's inside:

All seven books, in one real chest. Although it's just cardboard, it still sturdy and hard enough to carry these J.K. Rowling hardbounds (Did you notice how Ms. Rowling seemed to have had a grand time writing the last four books? Those can be used to hurt people).

I want this set really bad! Never mind that no one wants actual paper books these days. I'm still crazy about paper books (e-books do not have that wonderful fresh paper smell, ok?). But this set costs P8,000 so unless I win the Lotto or maybe Showtime or Pinoy Big Brother, I think it is going to hurt me really bad should I get this. Maybe there's a cheaper paperback version? None? Ok.

By the way, SM North Edsa's Fully Booked branch is now half its former size. :( But good news is, they improved the store's interiors and the shelves are now very close to each other, literally surrounding you with books, wherever you choose to stand.

And the books smell nice.

What? No Spider Web and Trust Fall exercises?

We're spending the night here at MMLDC Antipolo. It's our department's team building/strat plan, and we'll be here until tomorrow afternoon. It's my first out-of-office activity with this group since, you know, I'm last year's new guy (new girl came in a week after I did though so my newbie privilege, if there's any, vanished quickly haha).

So yeah, we had the usual team building things like introducing ourselves rather cutesy-ly, eating fish fillet, doing things involving Manila papers, markers and colored papers and doing after-lunch games they call ice-breakers, and listening to lots of whirring noises coming from the laptops, the projector and the air-conditioner.

Of course, we also did the Myers Briggs test, my second time to do so. I am happy to announce that my test results have been consistent - INTP. LOL. I'm introvert y'all. And a little special too. Where I came from, there were only two of us out of the 60+ people who fit in this profile. This time, there are just three of us. So yeah. INTP for life.

Pardon the journal-like, what-I-did-today entry but here are the other things we did haha. We went to the aviary and I expected a little serenity and zen cause you know, doves represent peace. But they weren't doves. They're noisy parrots and cockatoos and they stressed me out lol. We walked around the hilly slope of the place, got lost several times. I ate a lot. But I do that every day so that shouldn't count. We also had SM Lights while watching Willing Willie haha. And oh, I watched bits and pieces of 127 hours, which I still haven't finished till now.

But that's ok cause I already got the GetGlue sticker of it.

And there's always weekend. Or team building Day 2, after-lunch downtime.

Twenty Eight

I must do this before the last day of January ends.

You see every year, I revive my blogging interest every 14th of January. That's my birthday. This year, I just let it pass by. I blame the microblogs like the Twitters and the Tumblrs. Those made my attention span at its record-breaking shortest. In fact, sometimes, when I read things on the Internet, I just skim the first two or three sentences and then I move on to the next. That happens to when I try to write a blog entry. You can just imagine the effort I'm puttin in this right now, just to write something after the third sentence. But I'm trying. And it's a start.

In contrast with last year, my 2011 birthday was so uneventful, but it's my favorite so far. True. Two days before THE day, I almost fainted inside the car I'm riding home because of a powerful combination of fever, flu and an unstable stomach. That car ride felt like the longest car ride I've had in my life. I didn't know If I should ask for help or I'd just keep quiet and wait for the discomfort to go away. Knowing my extraordinary interest in suffering in silence, I chose the latter and patiently wait for the hellish EDSA vehicular crawl to end.

I came to work the next day, then went home right after noon.

What's to like about a birthday celebration with sickness? Well last year was painful cause I crashed from a skateboard while trying to stop rolling on a downhill slope, but it was happy pain. The pain with sick leave, is not. Well I wasn't really in pain haha. I just don't feel well. But what made everything fun for me was that my entire family was there. My father who came from the province, my brother in the seminary, my mother and my sister who I'm living with (or they're living with me, depends on how you look at it) and of course my other brother who, at that time, was getting ready to jump into a new chapter of his life.

So there. My annual tradition. My birthday slash going back to blogging post. Can't really tell anything more. Well I've got lots more but I don't know where to start. Oh I also got a cake and a card from my co-workers in my new department. That's right I've a new job. If I were active last year, I should've written about that.

Anyway, I'm 28 now. There was a time in my lif when I thought 25 was ooooold. And 28 is like the age where guys start becoming husbands and fathers. But now I'm here and i don't feel any different. I'm still childish and immature. Though I've gone a little boring and sometimes when I have nothing to do, I'd rather lie down and sleep like a grandpa. I still like writing, I guess. I should love writing. Yeah, and I will still write, and make blog posts no one reads, and just type away and never bother editing.

I'm 28.

For your late-night stress-eating

This could be the place. It's called Chic-Boy, which stands for Chicken at Baboy. Like me, you must have seen this before while, maybe passing along Jupiter St. in Makati, deciding whether to go to Music 21, TopGrill or CenterStage. Haha. Anyway, I never really paid attention to this food place. I thought it's something... not serious. But then Jake and Anj tried it and they've been recommending this to everyone since then.

Chic-Boy serves a variety of grilled pork, chicken plus some soup, vegetables and desserts too. It's owned by Pier One, so the good news is, they also serve beer. Food's reasonably priced. My favorite, the Cebu Lechon Manok is priced a little below P100 and it comes with unlimited rice and all the spices and seasoning you would want. Haha. Add a little more, around P20, and you'll get unlimited iced tea as well. Here's a picture:

It doesn't look too good on this photo, sorry. But you see those things beneath the chicken piece (they make you choose the pieces by the way, which pleases me a lot cause I absolutely hate being served chicken wings against my will), those are bits of herbs they use to make the ordinary lechon manok become lechon Cebu haha. It's best with the vinegar mix served with it, but I also like eating it with their in-house sarsa. And also, I make sure my rice is drenched with that oil they serve in Inasal places and generously sprinkled with garlic bits.

Chic-Boy Jupiter, we're told, is open 24 hours a day. The place is spacious, with enough spaces between tables, making it not too annoyingly crowded. And the best part it, as Jake perfectly puts it, it's the only restaurant with servings that are bigger than those shown in the pictures on the menu board.

Maybe in the next few days, I'll be the foursquare mayor of this place.

Writers Gonna Write

I should write more.

I've had several jobs in my life and all of them involved writing, though in varying degrees. I have been given many titles and positions throughout my career but still, I consider myself basically a writer.

I did not call myself that right away, however. Realistically, I am not a perfect writer. Read through this blog and you'll find numerous grammar lapses and countless rule-breaking sentences. This very blog entry about me being a writer, ironically, will have typo and sentence construction errors. I know that. That is why growing up, even though I wrote a lot (I've been writing since I was six), I have accepted that the 'writer' tag is something one earns.

I started calling myself a writer when I started seeing my name in print for pieces that I got paid to write. That was in college. I am proud to say that I survived those four years partly through the money I received in exchange for the words I typed and sent. I wrote everything from children's literature, magazine features, religious reflections, news and lifestyle features to TV quiz show questions. And with the money I received, I even got myself my first ever gadget - a Sony Cassette Walkman. In a way, I was a working student. It wasn't hard for me though, cause I loved what I was doing and to a writer, nothing surpasses the thrill of seeing your work with your name in print.

And hundreds of printed articles later, I still get that same thrill, whenever I'm published by a newspaper, a magazine or a website.

But lately, I find myself having a little difficulty doing the kind of writing I used to love. This alarms me more than anything. But one of my mentors, a great writer herself said, once a writer, always a writer. When you feel like you're losing it, it's not the writing that's disappearing but the discipline.

And so that's what I should do. If I want to keep writing, I just need to keep writing. I need to write something or anything everyday. I should do this until it becomes a natural part of me once again, the way it felt when I was six, writing my first comic strips.

I should write more.

Bevel & Emboss! Outer Glow! Default Glow Color!

I remember having a conversation with friends about our government not giving much importance to "branding" and identities. While other countries have modernized the logos of their government offices, we're stuck to the traditional, obviously 'gobyerno' looking ones.

Good thing there are private entities that use modern design to strengthen the Philippine/Filipino identity and to make it modern and relevant (ex. Team Manila, 3 Stars and a Sun, etc.). But then, we have an overly sensitive National Historical Institute whose purpose seems to be just to make sure our colors are only displayed on a flag pole (and also, threatening to jail singers for singing the natioanal anthem without sounding like a rondalla).

Back to our government's designs. Here's exhibit A, an MRT ticket. I don't claim to be the best graphic designer there is but I'm being kind when I say it is "a little poorly designed :-(" (sad face, intentional).

I apologize, MRT card graphic artist. But you could have done better.

Also, I am not comfortable that some of these notes at the back of the card aren't even complete sentences. Haha.

Wet

I was in the province the entire weekend. I was still in the province when the heavy Manila rain poured Sunday afternoon. And so when we got into our apartment Monday morning, the smell of wet (and kulob) paper, rags, floor vinyl and just about anything else that touches the floor, well, floored me.

These are some of my books - among the lucky ones that wasn't dripping wet after that unfortunate flooding in our apartment. These ones I've just put to dry under the sunlight. The covers are fine, since most of them are covered in plastic, but their pages are going to be wrinkly forever, with discoloration in the parts that got wet (lower half, since they were arranged standing up).

The others, my The Far Side and The Simpsons books among them, weren't so lucky. :( They're very very wet that time I first stepped into the apartment, with pages stuck together. Now that they've dried a little, tearing the pages apart ruins the prints, especially for the colored ones! :(

After the apartment clean up that took me an entire day to finish, I bought two of these from SM Homeworld to keep my books in (and also my sister's college documents that she treasures very much). I plan to buy more for the other paper things in the house. Good thing these boxes were on sale.

This devastating thing that happened to my collection initially made me change my position in the great printed books vs. e-books debate. I thought, if these were all e-books, I could easily put them all in one safe place with one hand, and even better, I can take them all with me whenever I travel anywhere.

But then again, it had me thinking, if these were all digital files, will I still be able to call it my collection? I mean, don't books in electric format kind of detach the personality of the owner from the books he owns. I'm too sentimental and old-fashioned that way. LOL. In fact, until now, I'd still very much prefer physical CDs with all their labels and packaging over digital downloads.

And that point regarding CDs needs a separate blog entry to explain. Haha.

There are a lot other things that got wet of course, including some CDs (good thing only the pirated audio discs and data CDs are in the bottom shelf), shoes, the clothes in the hamper, documents and even our plantsa and our sack of bigas. The floor itself still has its dull chalky color, which must be waxed this weekend.

Oh. Did I mention we're on the second floor?

The Continuing Saga of the Cashless Weekend

Yes our office has this rule, a very heartless rule. You don't submit your daily time record, you don't get paid. Needless to say, I forgot to submit mine. And most of the cash I had, had to go to this institution called Sun Life. And of course there's rent. But hey, they're parts of my life as a responsible adult. But having missed DTR submission is very irresponsible haha.

And for Friday night, Brenda planned a Legally Blonde viewing party (party so it'd sound so fun). 2 hours before showtime at the Meralco Theater in Ortigas, and we're still in the office in Ayala, with no tickets, and I'm also without money and credit card (actually I have it but I'm personally suspending it after this month's big big purchase, after a retail therapy in SM Cyberzone haha). Traffic was bad, of course, that time being a payday Friday. Plus it looked like it's going to rain anytime. A minute before the show's starting time, the five of us were still in the car somewhere in Ortigas, with the gas meter blinking crazily. And we were already inside the Meralco complex, we couldn't figure out where to park because we can't find our way to the building that houses the theater.

Good thing (for us), these things do not start on time. Haha. We had time to fall in line for last minute tickets (thanks Mark for paying. I'll pay you haha). And we didn't miss anything at all. Brenda and Jenniffer even had time to have their photo taken with Billy Joe at the lobby. That's how NOT late we were despite arriving there at around 8:15.

The show was good actually. We did see the efforts put by the actors and the production people to put it together. Although I had expectations since I saw clips of the US version of the play on Youtube where Brusier was a real dog, who acts along real people. Personally, I cannot think of any other local personality who can play the part, so good job Nikki Gil. And yes, we have newfound respect for Geneva Cruz, who was like working out and being employed at the same time.

We ate at the Ortigas Home Depot right after, in this place called Berting's which Brenda recommended (the chicken was so delicious). A few minutes after midnight, I got a text from Val, who saw on twitter that, like them, I too was in Ortigas. See? Twitter is very useful. Mark, J & Brenda were kind enough to take me where Val and the gang were - at the Ortigas Banchetto. "Dito na yun," said J and I dumbly said, "Saan?" cause I was expecting Banchetto to be a European restaurant or bar or something. Haha. It was of course, a midnight street food market which could have been paradise for me If I hadn't stuffed my mouth with too much food from Berting's. But I was happy, just being there, making old and timeless Beyond jokes with everyone and sharing life and career inspirational words with Tin. What?

But I'd like to go back to the Emerald Banchetto one day. When I'm insanely hungry - that will be the perfect time.