15 books

My cousins Lala and Rain and my very bright inaanak, Yuan, tagged me on Facebook. Yes, I'm on Facebook and whilst I'm a wee bit disappointed with myself for signing up, I take pride in the fact that I only have 58 friends (more than half is actually family) compared to others who has thousands of random strangers whom they refer to as "friends". Being popular was never really a childhood dream. Eating a whole lechon with the crispiest skin and not having to worry about cholesterol and hypertension, now that's a serious head trip.

But I digress, here are the rules of the game.

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag fifteen friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the note.)

1. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2. The Rosales Saga by F. Sionil Jose

3. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

4. The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling

5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

6. A History of Violence by John Wagner

7. Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus

8. The Books of Abarat by Clive Barker

9. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

10. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

11. Girlfriend in a Coma by Doulas Coupland

12. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

13. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

14. America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan

15. The Stranger by Albert Camus

rey de la arcilla

Forgive me for stating the obvious but Rafael Nadal is superb. The Spaniard was in supreme form as he demolished Robin Soderling to win his 5th French Open title.

Soderling looked like a thief trying to break in to Nadal's house. The former was doing most of the offence but he was worn down by the brilliant defence of the latter. There's an adage that I read somewhere that goes like this: "No-one beats a fully fit Nadal, especially on clay."

And to think he suffered from tendinitis in both of his knees last year. It may have taken him some time to get back from the pit of despair but he completed it in style to win his 7th Grandslam title so far and cementing his status as the greatest player on that surface- worthy of the title, King of Clay.

weekend mayhem

I have at least half a dozen bruises all over my body, a couple of bumps on my head and my legs hurt like hell.

Last Saturday, I went paintballing with 6 of my friends. It was a lad's day out - a group of "young" blokes from work go out every now and again to get a break from our sad little jobs. This was the first time we had done something physical, apart from chugging down pints of lager, and the experience was nothing short of brilliant. We spent the whole day running, ducking, shooting, getting shot and having a good laugh.

My mother, bless her, nearly fell off a chair when I told her that I was hit by a gun last weekend. Paintball gun that is. But even then, she still couldn't understand what it was and was proper telling me off. Good thing my sisters were with her and had to explain to her that it was just some "harmless" fun young people do.

Here's a photo of the nastiest battle scar. It hurts but I would definitely do it again. How was your weekend?

sampu

Graydon Carter said, "Those who can't teach, write. Those who can't write, write about themselves".

I've been tagged! And yet another excuse to big up myself. But before anything else, the rules:

1. Each blogger must post these rules.
2. Each blogger starts with ten random facts/habits about themselves.
3. Blogger that are tagged, need to write ten facts about themselves. You need to choose ten people to tag and list their names.

Here are the 10 Random Facts/Habits About Me:

1. I was born an hour after midnight on the day after Christmas hence the name Jose Emmanuel. Maria would've been a second first name but my parents deemed it too long and difficult for a young child to learn write his name.

2. Most Punctual was the first award I ever received. I was in Kindergarten. And although I don't remember a time when I was late, I was never the earliest either.

3. For two consecutive years in grade school (grades 3 and 4), I was the school representative to the Provincial Science Quiz Bee. I loved science and dreamed of taking up Medicine. At least that was the plan until I was formally introduced to Chemistry.

4. In what could be a case of life imitating art, I portrayed a Martial Law activist in the school production of Kasaysayan ng Lahi. 11 years later, I was a staple at every rally calling Erap's resignation. I never missed a single demonstration until he stepped down.

5. This is probably the most cringe-worthy. I was a member of an all male dance group in high school called, Junior Motion. The name was in homage to the most succesful male dance group of that time, the Universal Motion Dancers. We debuted in my second year and danced in every special ocassion including the town fiesta. On our fourth year, we changed the name to Alpha Connection and went on to win first place in a dance contest in Sablayan- my hometown.

6. Although I have a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management, I didn't learn to cook in university. In all of our cooking classes, I was always the dishwasher. Because it meant that I can come to class 2 hours later.

7. A time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time at all. I spent almost all my Sunday mornings back in college watching Magic Knight Rayearth on ABS-CBN every 9am. As a result, I wasn't able to graduate because I missed ROTC. Where is the joy in marching under the unforgiving Manila sun whilst holding a wooden rifle for 6 hours? I thought I was too bright for ROTC. Eventually, I was granted a degree after the government suspended the ROTC program as consequence for the death of Mark Chua.

8. It's been more than 4 years since I quit smoking. I've only been living a month here in the UK when I got sick. The cold weather and excessive smoking didn't do me any good. I decided to stop until I get better. Two weeks into it, I realised I spent almost £120 in fags from the time I arrived here until the time I was ill. And so I tried to quit and succeeded. I haven't touched a cigarette since.

9. I believe in monogamy. I haven't any issues with fidelity and have always been faithful. Yes, I am of a rare breed.

10. Unless I pray at night, I can never sleep. There are times when I'd be lying in my bed at 0230 in the morning wide awake, annoyed and wondering why I couldn't sleep only to realise that I haven't prayed yet. For me, prayer is the most effective sleeping pill.

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I'm tagging Nates, Bads, Eliza, Rusty, Boo, Ianne, Spanx, Pusa, Schumey and Hitori. C'mon guys, spill it.

game 2.0

Q: What breaks but doesn't fall, and what falls but doesn't break?

Q: What can travel around the world but always stays in the corner?

Q: What do a racecar and kayak have in common?

Q: What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a bed but never sleeps?

Q: What can you catch but not throw?

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Can you guess the words?

super dork and friends

Not that I owe anybody an explanation for not updating this blog. It's just that I've been a little busy lately. For two weeks, I worked day shifts. The Ops Manager asked me last week how it was like seeing the sun for the first time in ages. I humored him and answered, "it's been lovely although at first I thought, I'd melt." Hah! And since working days meant seeing a lot of the bosses, I had to work harder. I devised a training plan for my staff which will help them in their development. Now it's easier to track their growth.

And speaking of my staff, the four of us went to dinner last week with the boss and his assistant. It was alright. The food was good but I don't really enjoy dinner in fancy restaurants kasi hindi ako nabubusog. Food served in fancy dinners are only good to look at, pag kinain ko na, bitin! And then we went bowling afterwards. That was all right too. Nothing special really except for the soreness of my arm muscles the morning after.

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A very belated birthday greeting to Franny! I hope you had a wicked day. And advance birthday greeting to Tanya. Ingat ka diyan sa disyerto.

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Because I'm such a dork, let me share you what I've been obssessing lately. Eight Words is a an internet game where the aim is to gain points by creating words from the selection of eight letters given to you on-screen. Longer words give more points. Like Text Twist but this allows you compete with other online players.

Try it, nakakaadik!

brace yourself (8 facts about me)

I've been tagged. And because I have trouble following and understanding written instructions, I had to read and re-read this at least 20 times:

• In the 8 facts about [name], you share 8 things that your readers don’t know about you. At the end, you tag 8 other bloggers to keep the fun going. Each blogger must post these rules first.


• Each blogger starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.


• At the end of the post, a blogger needs to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.


• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So without any further ado, here are some random things about me:

1. Unlike most kids, I liked the dentist when I was younger. I looked forward to having my teeth extracted. And although the sight of the needle made me a little uncomfortable, I was never scared of it. I loved going to the dentist because my Nanay would always get me ice cream and ice cold coke after and because the dentist would always say, "Uy ang tapang. Hindi umiiyak". And that always made me feel real proud of myself.



2. Most of my shoes are size 11, some are size 10 and a couple of them are size 12.



3. As Artista 4 (a twenty-something pothead) in the Teatro Tomasino production of Sa Sabado, Sa Sam's directed by John Lapus; I was one of Piolo Pascual's two alternates.



4. Between 1994-1996, I cut news articles from the PDI almost everyday. The stories were from the business section and were mostly about positive developments in Philippine economy. I was so obssessed with those financial news, I considered taking up Economics in college. I kept the articles in at least two shoeboxes which are most likely gathering dust by now somewhere in my parent's house.
   


5. I don't eat chocolates because I find its smell repulsive.



6. Whenever I use the bathroom/toilet in houses other than my family's, I have this weird feeling that when I open the door, I will be transported to a magical place.



7. In 1992 when the Philippines was gripped by a power crisis, I wrote a long letter to the Occidental Mindoro Electric Cooperative telling them off. I was twelve.



8. To help save the environment, I don't use straw for my drinks. I also do other things but they should be in a whole new entry.

And there you have it. So to Ketty, Lala, Rain, Badie, Mithi, Al, Ade, and Chris, it's your turn to spill the beans.

game 1.0

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading Douglas Coupland's newest novel, JPod: Microsefs for the Age of Google. The book follows a group of twenty somethings working in a game publishing company in Canada as they face issues that defines our era. The plot is a bit ludicrous, but nevertheless possesses clever and witty lines. And just like any other Coupland novels, the characters are interestingly strange albeit almost unreal. There are word and number games too. Which inspired me to do this entry.

The following is a list of 202 cities. Only 197 of them are World Capitals (official, de facto, administrative, legislative and judiciary included). Can you name the other 5 cities not supposed to be in this list?

Sucre * Sarajevo * Gaborone
Brasilia * Bandar Seri Begawan * Sofia
Bissau * Georgetown * Port-au-Prince
Islamabad * Koror * Panama City
Port Moresby * Asuncion* Lima
Manila * Warsaw * Lisbon
Doha * Bucharest * Moscow
Kigali * Basseterre * Castries
Kingstown * Apia * San Marino
Sao Tome * Riyadh * Dakar
Belgrade * Victoria * Freetown
Budapest * Tegucigalpa * Reykjavik
Jakarta * New Delhi * Tehran
Dublin * Baghdad * Jerusalem
Kingston * Rome * Tokyo
Bujumbura * Ouagadougou * Phnom Penh
Ottawa * Yaounde * St. James
Bangui * Praia * N'Djamena
Beijing * Santiago * Bogota
Brazzaville * Moroni * Kinshasa
Yamoussoukro * San Jose * Abidjan
Havana * Zagreb * Nicosia
Tirane * Kabul * Algiers
Astana * Amman * Nairobi
Pyongyang * Tarawa * Seoul
Andorra la Vella * Kuwait City * Luanda
Istanbul * Saint John's * Buenos Aires
Prague * Copenhagen * Djibouti
Santo Domingo * Roseau * Dili
Quito * Cairo * San Salvador
Asmara * Malabo* Tallinn
Suva * Addis Ababa * Bishkek
Riga * Vientiane * Rabat
Podgorica * Ulaanbaatar * Maputo
Rangoon * Windhoek * Yaren District
Amsterdam * Kathmandu * Wellington
Niamey * Managua * Abuja
Oslo * Muscat * Beirut
Monrovia * Maseru * Tripoli
Vaduz * Vilnius * Luxembourg
Skopje * Antananarivo * Lilongwe
Kuala Lumpur * Male * Bamako
Majuro * Valletta * Nouakchott
Port Louis * Mexico City * Johannesburg
Palikir * Monaco * Chisinau
Pretoria * Paris * Tbilisi
Helsinki * Libreville * Berlin
Banjul * Accra * Saint George's
Guatemala City * Yerevan * Athens
Conakr * Canberra * Vienna
Cluj-Napoca * Dhaka * Nassau
Baku * Belmopan * Manama
Bridgetown * Singapore * Bratislava
Brussels * Minsk * Honiara
Porto-Novo * Ashgabat * Kampala
Ljubljana * Washington D.C. * Port-of-Spain
Mogadishu * Abu Dhabi * Tunis
Bangkok * Montevideo * Kyiv
Lome * Funafuti * Vatican City
Nuku'alofa * London * Tashkent
Ankara * Harare * Hanoi
Port-Vila * Cape Town * Lusaka
Caracas * Madrid * Sanaa
Bern * Colombo * Manitoba
Bloemfontein * Paramaribo * Khartoum
Mbabana * Dushanbe * Thimphu
Stockholm * Damascus * La Paz