A Quickie Christmas

Question: How does one manage to survive Christmas celebrations for 48-hours straight?

Answer: Celebrate it with numerous relatives and friends who haven't seen you for more than 10 years.

Just about everybody whom my parents and siblings knew in the New York/New Jersey area dropped by at my great-aunt's place and among other things, got to either shake hands, pinch my cheeks, pat my head or slap my bottom like a kid.

(to be continued)

Surprise Gift: a 'bad' post

This is a 'bad' post. 'Bad', as we all know, is the opposite of 'good'. Hence, this post is not going to be one of my usual tributes to a particular person or a narrative of a good thing I've done.

This is going to be about a 'bad' thing I did last night.

After some significant peer and holiday pressure, I conceded to attend our gang's Christmas party. I would be a liar if I say that I'm not in the mood to interact with the group --- the season has it's own magic which at least dampens some ill wills and grudges. Besides, Christmas is the only season that I really enjoy, particularly because of the gift-giving part to people I treasure. I feel privileged to be able to give gifts to such people, and thus I don't expect them to reciprocate.

I keep two sets of Christmas lists: the 'obligated' and the 'treasured'. The first list is quite lengthy with names of business contacts, casual acquaintances, some of my godchildren, cousins and aunts and uncles, and a selection of people who expect a handout from me this Christmas. The second list is short -- a favorite godson, parents and siblings, a few friends and a cherished godfather.

Buying and giving gifts to the names on the first list is a chore for me. But doing the same for the names on the second list is done with care.

Anyway, the 'bad' thing that I did last night is that I have to give a gift to someone that I'm obligated to (read: Kris Kringle). It so happens that the recipient of my gift is the singular person in our group that I wouldn't like to be with. His greatest fault is that he's a verbal bully, and in more than one situation I've found myself to be the object of ridicule in a crowd because of some smart remarks from him. Truth be told, nobody wants to be embarassed in public, right?

Last night at the party, in full view of all the other guests, I "playfully" shoved my 'gift' to his torso. My gift was 750 pesos worth of local coins inside a thick frosted mug. I'd say that the box weighed about 3 pounds at least.

Now, imagine someone coming up to you and without expecting it, he punches you in the chest with a 3-lb steel ball in his hand. You'd be sure of two things: pain and surprise.

And that's what I did last night: punch someone under the guise of (obligated) Christmas gift-giving.

It was a nice feeling. What I got in return was priceless: a feeling of satisfaction.

Ironically, I can feel that this is gonna be a Merry Christmas for me.

December Weekend Warrior, post #1

All these things happened in less than 24 hours, from 0900H Saturday to 0400H Sunday.

1. The Malarayat Company Party

On Saturday morning, I drove from Batangas City to Lipa City's Mt. Malarayat Country Club for the annual company party. Traffic was very bad, but the party was worse.

Malarayat is a good venue for golf tournaments, reunions and teambuilding exercises. It is NOT a good venue for company parties attended by more than 5000 employees and guests.

The vast property was a disadvantage to all the attendees. The activity venues were all scattered about, and it's a 20-minute walk from one venue to another. There were vans going about to shuttle the people around. If there were five thousand people who want to go from one place to another and there were only ten vans available, think of the waiting time you have to endure just to get a ride.

The program was lame.

There weren't any 'big' activities.

You can't relax, specially if you have kids in tow.

There are so many other things about the party that were unsatisfactory that I could point out, but to keep this post short, I concluded that this year's company party is the worst one I've attended so far.

And to think I endured walking and standing for 5+ hours there.

Beer count: zero


2. The EB Block and Ampons Christmas Party

Leaving Malarayat Country Club at 430 in the afternoon, I arrived at Tom's place in Cubao at around 930pm. (Had to pass by our house first to shower and change, then a quick stop at a Teriyaki Boy restaurant to buy some tempura...)

After 12 years of knowing each other, our college gang had a Christmas/Reunion Party on Saturday night at Tom's house in New Manila. Food was great -- tempura platter, fried chicken, pansit palabok, grilled spareribs, chocolate cake, mango pudding, nachos, wine and beer. I haven't seen a lot of the gang for the longest time.

Funny thing about the party is that about half of us turned up wearing black. Hehe. Anyway, black is formal.

JP, our batch's resident geek (not me, by the way) made a 10-minute AVP of our batch. It was a heart-warming AVP --- watching ourselves develop from totoys and inengs into the current cast of yuppies (young urban professionals) and yupas (young urban parents). JP spent a lot of time soliciting and scanning old photos for the AVP.

Now that was a Christmas feeling.

Beer count: 3
Time: 2340 H


3. Mike's Apartment, SAGUIJO

Quito and I had to leave the party earlier than usual (around 12 midnight) to catch his cousin Mikey play at SAGUIJO. Meeting up with a couple of other friends, we went to the place and cheered Mikey and his band (Mike's Apartment) at their debut performance in SAGUIJO. The venue wasn't brimming with people -- there were just
enough patrons in the place to consider it 'fully seated, standing room only'.

Beer count: 5
Time: 0145 H


4. ARUBA, Metrowalk

After Mikey's performance, Quito and I decided to bring a couple of our friends to Aruba at Metrowalk for some talk-time and more beers.

Can't remember everything that transpired there, because I was already drunk. Hahaha...

Beer count: 8
Time: 0320 AM

5. RUFO's, Makati

After bringing our friends to their respective houses (Quito was driving, we carpooled), Quito and I decided to end the 'night' at Rufo's over tapsilogs. Good idea with me (since I emptied my stomach's contents earlier, hehe).

I can vaguely recall what we were talking about then, but I do remember that both of us really sounded like a couple of drunks.

Beer count: 8
Time: 0359 H


Oooofff... got a terrible hangover when I woke up later.
I think I'm getting too old for this kind of escapades.

POSTSCRIPTS
Belated happy birthday greetings to Nikko (Dec 3rd) , Bettina (Dec 4th) , Geland (Dec 9th) and Tinters (Dec 10th) .

Kelan ang blow-out? Hahaha.

I wonder how my next December weekend is gonna be?

Porn Porn Porn!

Repeating the word 'porn' three times in a row in a Sesame Street-like video production must really have left quite an impression on the audience and judges.

Yesterday, our team clinched the Grand Prize and the People's Choice Award for our 4-minute music video entry to our company's Code of Conduct youTube-clone competition. Based on "The Internet is For Porn" segment of the Brodway musical "AVENUE Q", I and a small group of peers created a music video featuring hand-made puppets arguing on the use of the internet in the workplace (definitely should not be used for porn!).

The cost: 4 days of pre-and-post production, mostly in-house talent and video/audio editing skills, and puppet materials costing a little over five hundred pesos.

The prize: one glass trophy and sixty thousand pesos worth of gift certificates.

Hahaha... Tubong lugaw. I really feel sorry for the other teams which spent between 20 to 40 grand for their entries.

The cast:



At left: Biskwit Mamaw, the porn-addict monster. Top-left: Emp-One and Ging-ging puppets. Top-right: Emp-two and Ning-ning puppets.

Even Trillanes Can't Stop Me

... from taking a vacation this long weekend.

Got great photos at my first visit to Camsur Watersports Complex.

NEVER LET GO
Shutter priority
1/50s,panning
White balance: cloudy

Two days at the CWC resort wasn't long enough to convince me that I will take up wakeboarding as a leisure sport (hahaha... I gave up trying to stand on the wakeboard -- after two attempts only), but the resort is a great place for a hobbyist photographer.