light rant

stupid friggin’ allergy…

we were supposed to hit the gym last night pero hindi din kami natuloy because i came down with a terrible hankercheif-drenching case of colds yesterday afternoon.

i want to run.

but it’s wednesday. wednesday is movie night. walk hard is showing in greenbelt 3! hmmm… bahala nalang.

oh, and speaking of… me and mau saw "over her dead body" the other night in gb3. run-of-the-mill movie. anyway… when we walked out of the cinema and went to the lobby area, lo and behold, there were two guys there making out for everyone to see! hindi naman sila naglalaplapan, but that’s not the point.

i mean… wtf?! ba’t naman ganun?? i’m not homophobic or anything; but, why in heaven’s name don’t i ever see two hot ladies making out in public?! bat kelangan dalawang lalake??

hehe. wala lang.

dance dance dance

damnit, this is what i get for not bringing my book along.

i wanted to blog about certain quotes from the book but i can’t remember them in verbatim and i left my copy at home. the funny thing is that i stared at the book for a good ten seconds this morning contemplating if i should bring it or not before i decided to just leave it on the floor in my room.

"i wouldn’t have time to read it anyway. i’d be working most of the time (yeah right); and even if i wasn’t, it wouldn’t exactly be polite to my officemates to be reading a novel during workhours. then after work, i’d be with mau. i really can’t read books when i’m not alone so i wouldn’t be able to read then either. so i just won’t bring the book."

… way to go, Reason!

i’ll try to blog it anyway from memory and try not to get anything lost in translation.

right now, i’m around 1/3 into my second Haruki Murakami book: "Dance Dance Dance". what it’s about can easily be researched in wikipedia; so if you’re interested, you can go on and just do that (ang sungit ko no? ^_^). on the other hand, the feel of the book is something you’d really have to experience for yourself. it’s surreal and it’s absurd. it’s thrilling and slightly eerie. think a less kiddie Alice In Wonderland but set in modern urban Japan.

what i’m liking about the novel the most right now though is that i’ve seen a couple of similarities already between myself and the main protagonist. that’s one of the better bonuses when i read a novel (like when I read "High Fidelity"). when i read about a character that’s somehow a mirror of me, i get more enthusiastic about the book. it’s like this story (or a different version of it) could be my story. i like doing that… daydreaming about an alternate existence and imagining myself in different situations… call it escapism if you want. that’s probably what it is anyway. it also helps that the main character remains unnamed. it’s easier to put myself in his shoes that way. easier to imagine.

anyway… ah, similarities… right…

somewhere in the beginning of the story, the protagonist has this short chat with an older man about the state of the world. as he describes to the older guy how he sees things, the older man says that he could never understand these complex workings that the protagonist describes. at this, our protagonist thinks to himself that actually, he doesn’t really understand things also. he just recognizes things for what they are. and there’s a decisive difference between those two propositions. that was the first thing about the main character that really stuck to my head.

sometimes, there really are no deeper complexities to the things that happen around us. sometimes, maybe much more often than we think, things are just what they are and they have to be recognized as such. i must admit that this isn’t always the case though. the world is full of ulterior motives, hidden intentions and deeper meanings. but i also think that people have made life much more complex that it should be, and that has affected our perception of things to the point that we try to read too much into a lot of stuff. the sad thing about it is that when you start reading into what shouldn’t be read into, things might start to get ugly.

another thing about him that struck me (although to a lesser extent) was what he said that sometimes, people can’t tell if he’s kidding any more that when he’s serious.  suppose that struck me only because it somehow touches on how i often get misunderstood or misinterpreted. that’s all there is to that, really.

well that’s that. hopefully by next week i’ll be finished with DDD. it’s interesting how the protagonist’s story progresses "down the rabbit hole" and it’s equally interesting to see if there are any more similarities i’ll be able to see between the two of us. after that, i can move on the other books wasting away on the shelves.

running is addicting

i changed my gym workout a few weeks ago.

before, i would run on the treadmill for around 30 minutes… tapos buhat ng weights… then treadmill again for around 30 minutes kung di pa pagod.

now, i just run the treadmill straight for 90 minutes. \m/ i like it better. hehe. i figured if and when i get down 10-15 pounds, that’s the time i’ll start pumping iron again.

this running thing is quite addicting actually. the pumping iron thing was hardly addicting, but this running thing is. i step on the treadmill, plug the headphones into my ears, play the music, go on "otistik-mode", do some brisk walking to warm up, and then RUN FORREST RUN!!!!!!! ^_^ i’m in my own little world for 90 minutes.

true to the saying that "starting is always the hardest part", the first 10-20 minutes is the hardest. that’s the time when i’m most prone to stopping and giving up. once i get through that though, it becomes the opposite. once i get to around 30 minutes and beyond, it’s hard to get myself to stop. once i get to that point, i just go through the motions and that feeling of the heat flowing through your body and sweat dripping down gets to become a familiar and welcome sensation. i sprint and then slow down… i sprint and then slow down… i sprint and then slow down… for a good 90 minutes, that’s what i do. at the end of it all is also a fulfilling feeling that you did your body a lot of good.

this running thing is quite addicting. i actually want to go the gym later and hit the treadmill again, but i’ve been sleeping late lately. two "nights" ago, i slept at 9:30am and woke up at 4:30pm. hahaha. panalo. then last "night" i slept at 2:30am and got up 5 hours later to get ready for work. sooooo, i don’t think it would be good to run later. matutulog nalang ako ng maayos mamaya tapos bukas nalang ako tatakbo.

change

There are really no songs that stick to you more than those you listen to when you were young.

I’ve recently revisited an album that I bought (out of my own pocket! [in casette of course. hehe.]) just over a decade ago when I was 13 years old. The album is a double-album called "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" by The Smashing Pumpkins.

I was listening to it last night and this song somehow struck a chord. For me, it’s all about people changing… the pain that it consequently brings… and the hope that in spite of the many changes in life, love is one thing that is left constant.

"Galapogos"

ain’t it funny how we pretend we’re still a child
softly stolen under our blanket skies
and rescue me from me, and all that i believe
i won’t deny the pain
i won’t deny the change
and should i fall from grace here with you
will you leave me too?
carve out your heart for keeps in an old oak tree
and hold me for goodbyes-and whispered lullabyes
and tell me i am still
the man i’m supposed to be
i won’t deny the pain
i won’t deny the change
and should i fall from grace here with you
will you leave me too?
too late to turn back now, i’m running out of sound
and i am changing, changing
and if we died right now, this fool you love somehow
is here with you
i won’t deny the pain
i won’t deny the change
and should i fall from grace here with you
would you leave me too?

OMGWTF?!?

ladies and gentlemen… your binibining pilipinas 2008 winner is…

like i said… WTF?!?