The Commandments of Cris

Cris has assumed (more of personally volunteered, as far as I see it) the role of my mentor long since I started working for my current company. Today, we shook hands to exchange thanks and good luck. Cris will take a leave from the company to pursue his MBA in the States while I take the mantle of the 'experienced guy' in our common area of technical expertise.

Naturally, he had a few last words for me. He "handed over" to me his 11th, 12th and 13th commandments.

The 11th Commandment: 'Wag magpahuli.'
The 12th Commandment: 'Pag nahuli, i-deny!'
The 13th Commandment: 'Pag hindi kaya ng pag-deny, mandamay!'

Loko talaga 'tong si Taga. But his words have wisdom in it.

Talo Kami

Shucks... Ateneo beats La Salle 80-77 in overtime.

Vertical Marathon

It was really so stupid of me to sign up for the first Vertical Marathon to be held in the country and not consult my travel/work calendar. I've paid the registration fee, but I didn't show up. Because I'm in another country. Sheesh!! Apologies to Keith and Zara for my no-show...

DLSU Outdoor Club and Adidas recently held the ADIDAS AKYAT ANDREW Vertical Marathon at my alma mater's Bro. Andrew Building. There were only 20 slots for alumni (total of 200 participants). It's a 20-storey up-and-down run on one of the campus' newer buildings. It's suppossed to be another one of my 'first-time' activities, and a chance to re-connect with the school that taught me the clenched fist in announcing my alma mater's name.


Shucks... participant's shirt lang naman habol ko hehe.

Anyway, thanks for pictures guys. Maybe next year.

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Something about running, Roms invited me to join him in the Putrajaya Marathon here in Malaysia on August 12th. Sus... I'm not ready for a full-scale marathon. Really tempting though for me --- I want to find out my official long distance running limit. I have three obstacles: my knee problem (badminton and wall-climbing related), my respiratory handicap (courtesy of my stressful work) and my endurance boundaries. Maybe after a year of training and cutting down on Winston Lights.

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It was raining heavily when we called it a night for the masterplanning work I'm doing with the team here at Petronas Tower. Stepping out of the building, I saw that it's gonna take me a long wait to get a taxi back to my hotel. So I decided to walk the 400-meter distance back to my hotel.

As I was walking unshielded from the evening rain, I couldn't help but notice the people passing me by, sans umbrellas or jackets, in a great hurry. Some had file folders or sheafs of papers placed over heads while half-walking half-running in the rain.

Maybe these people are unaware of the established fact that between walking or running in the rain, one intercepts more water droplets if you run.

Granting that, I pity them for letting their paperwork get wet and probably ruined just to reduce their getting drenched by a measly percent. Probably, those papers took them hours or even days just to write the contents. I pity the papers. I pity the people too, because they're not really aware of what they're doing and not doing.

There I go again, talking nonsense. Must be the rain's effect on me.

Undone

Sand castles and card towers are hard to build. All it takes to undo them is an ocean wave or a gust of wind.

and it is disappointing

Unless you're under twelve or haven't seen (and understood) more than ten films, you're sure to find something wrong with the latest Harry Potter film. The only way to stave off disappointment would be to come in with lowered expectations, which I did.

The only thing I looked forward to were the fight scenes. The Order clashing with the Death Eaters played like a big, Star Wars battle in my head while reading the book and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" didn't disappoint much in this regard (only that it was so short). The alternate forms of the warriors were cool, as was the resemblance to fencing, which has been the visual shorthand used since "Prisoner of Azkaban."

The rest was blah.

Unlike PoA, which made an attempt at being stand-alone, OotP just assumes you've read it and recalls the big moments for you. The Weasley twins' last hurrah before dropping out, Grawp, Kreacher, Tonks, LeStrange, DA, almost every major scene made it just because people would want to see them on screen. Their forwarding the plot in any way is simply incidental.

The problem is that the casual viewer would miss a lot of the nuances that they tried to put in. I'm not sure if anyone would notice that the prophecy was in Trelawny's voice, or that Fred and George dropped out of school, or Cho's betrayal and redemption in the DA's eyes, or even the significance of the Order (a roll call would've been nice).

That said I appreciated the small stuff: brooms sounding like motorcycles, the visual gags with Filch, the Snape flashback, the tabloid headlines; and glossed over the small things, which is how any Harry Potter film (even PoA, I guess) should be approached.

Books are still better than movies. Enough said.

Run

I needed to clear my head earlier. So I put on my running shoes and ran some laps around the compound.

Not bad. Did 4 laps non-stop in exactly 36 minutes. And one lap is about 1.2 kilometers.

I can't point out a singular reason which has pushed me to run recently. Maybe it's because I'm trying to compensate for my 4-month absence from the gym. Or that I'm looking for a stress-relieving activity. Or that I want to fit into my size-29 jeans comfortably again. Or that reading Carmela's livejournal inspires me to take up running. Or I'm psyching myself that running will strengthen my knee. Or that sweating it out while running somewhat clears my lungs of the cigarettes I smoked during the day and flushes the alcohol I've consumed in the past days. Or simply to pass boredom. Or just to challenge myself. Or to let my mind empty out the day's thoughts. Or reminisce a particular date, time and place.

Since I've been running almost every other day, I've set a target of bring down my lap time to 8 minutes per lap for 6 consecutive laps around the compound.

Pick-and-Reads

Because of my frequent travelling in the last couple of months, I've been picking up so many books at the transit terminals on my stopovers.

My recent pick-and-reads (from upper left, clockwise):


1. LADY IN BLUE, by Javier Sierra: From the author of "The Secret Supper", discover a fascinating theory on how the Virgin Mary-like apparitions are done and controlled by the Church and the State. 2. THE NIGHT WATCH, by Sergei Lukyanenko: Part 1 of Russia's most famous contemporary trilogy on vampires, warlocks and enchantresses. Who is good and who is evil is a matter of perspective. 3. THE DAY WATCH, by Sergei Lukyanenko: Second part of the Nightwatch trilogy. Narrated from the perspective of the "Evil Side". 4. INFINITE CRISIS, by DC Comics: The Earth that we live in is only one of an infinite number of parallel Earths, and a hero-villain attempts to bring his Earth as the one that should exist.

5 and 6. SHADOWMARCH, and SHADOWPLAY, by Tad Williams: a fantasy novel trilogy. So far, so good. 7. THE ALEXANDRIA LINK. by Steve Berry: One of the 7 Wonders of the World, the Library of Alexandria is thought to be lost. Historical clues though suggest that it has been preserved in a secret location.
8. GUNS, GERMS, and STEEL, by Jared Diamond: a recipient of the Pulitzer prize, this book has opened my interest in anthropology. Know what tools and societal conditions enabled the conquest of one nation over another.

Oh, and in case anybody knows where I can get the book "I AM LEGEND", please do let me know. Been scrounging the bookstores for that book in the last 3 months. =)

Week-Ender: July 6th

Goo Goo Dolls - Be...

I don't write much about music, specially in my blog. I guess that when things are part of your identity, or when it's always at your side day and night, I don't write about them much.

By clicking on the "PLAY" button of the cool-dude-at-the-right, you'll get to hear a new song from the Goo Goo Dolls, "Before It's Too Late". If you're not a Goo fan but you've thought you heard that song before, it's because you've most probably seen TRANSFORMERS the Movie. It's the music in the background of the lead characters Sam and Mikaela during their "moments". And yup, it's on the Transformers OST. Though the sound is not as edgy as what we're used to hearing from the Goo Goo Dolls, it makes for good listening on rainy days.

And I don't need to tell you that TRANSFORMERS the MOVIE totally rocks.

Happy weekend folks!

Local Tourist Grade

My Lakbayan grade is C+!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

I've seen a good part of the country, but I need to go out and explore some more. Hehe.

Tin's Happily Ever After

Once upon a time, in a land called UP Village, there lived a girl named Tin. She had big eyes, a cute smile and very curly hair.

Tin was happy, but like any other princess in any far-away land, everyone wanted her to be happier.

She went to various places, ate lots of food, drank lots of coffee, attended several parties and tried several sports. She had lots of friends. Searching, and the waiting, for what "happier" meant, or who "happier" is. It could be a good job, or a nice person, or even a pet bear.

And then she found out who "happier" was. So on June 23rd of 2007, surrounded by all her family and friends, she lived happily ever after with her "bear".

Congratulations and my very best wishes, Tin and Buddy!



Happily Ever After
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