huhh? what the heck just happened at the Manila Pen?

after sleeping off the effects of staying up for more than 30 hours to finish a rush job, i woke up around 2:40am and munched my way through a late dinner/early breakfast meal. too full to go back to sleep, i began to surf for news, to check if anything interesting occurred while i was asleep.

when i checked the headlines, my ears perked up (usually i just scan through the first few lines, then proceed to the Entertainment section).

[shhh… i, umm, swiped this photo from the Philippine Star.] 

another political/military standoff in a Makati hotel? surely not? whatever else you want to call it, it sure grabbed my attention.

after reading the details about trillanes‘ and gen. lim’s (and the rest of their fun-loving retinue) latest caper, i broke up laughing. i know that sounds callous and cynical, but i guess laughter is one way of surviving in our chaotic ’situation.’

i mean, can you believe it? the whole thing came and went while i was asleep, and i still haven’t learned enough to form an opinion. *sigh* only in the philippines.

as political incidents go, it’s almost like a squeak out of nowhere. i don’t know. maybe i’ve seen and heard too many of these things to be affected by these antics anymore. sorry, but no matter how sanctimonious or concerned as many of these so-called leaders claim they are for us poor, trodden souls, if the best alternative they can come up with is more of the same b.s. — please, spare me. i’ll do just as well (and my precious vote) on my own.

despite all their self-righteous wailings, i have a feeling that trillanes, guingona & co. were doomed to fail (again!) for the following reasons:

• they don’t have popular support for this action (when have they ever?)

• it was too cold and rainy yesterday (people have the tendency to curl up and hibernate in their holes, not go out and stir trouble, when it’s cold)

• no specific rabble-rousing trigger (just background political noises) to galvanize public opinion

• your own opinion….

when disaster strikes…

after seeing my cousin off at the airport yesterday i was looking forward to a relatively easy day.

but when i got home and saw the mess in my small kitchen (we left hurriedly right after breakfast), i decided to tidy things up. i was depositing stuff inside the cabinet directly below the kitchen sink when i accidentally hit the pipe with a sturdy metal container. “Yikes!”

in a moment i was having my face thoroughly washed as water gushed out with a vengeance. spluttering, i stared aghast as the sparkling liquid began to fill up the cabinet, before spilling onto the kitchen floor. in a matter of minutes i was ankle-deep in water.

belatedly i sprang into action, stacking things up (clothes, boxes, etc.) in higher places as my benumbed mind kicked into overdrive. i fumbled for my celphone and began calling my landlord. it took me a while to realize that his celphone was turned off, so i tried his landline but no one was answering. i rushed down to his place, with my wet shirt and shorts flapping behind me like a battered sail.

“aaarrrgh! i don’t believe this!” i groaned in frustration when i saw his padlocked door. “of all days, why in heaven’s name did he have to go out today?” i grumbled despairingly as i ran back to my place. by this time the water has already reached my bedroom.

i tried stuffing the leak with a rag and tied it with rubber as a stopgap measure, but it was no use. i could hear my downstairs neighbor complaining distractedly about the onslaught of water in her front door. i was on the verge of calling the plumber when i suddenly remembered that there actually a unit switch in the top floor that i could manipulate to control the water flow.

whoosh… off i flew on the stairs (as if the hounds of hell were pursuing me).

in a few seconds the deluge stopped. after muttering a weary explanation and apology to my neighbors, i stumbled back to my kitchen and stared at the watery mess.

so much for my rest day.

the next hour passed agonizingly slow as i mopped and wiped the water off the floor, then put things back in their proper places. two hours later, my landlord arrived and after laughing heartily at my tale, he changed the busted (and rusty) pipe. being the tolerant fellow that he is (he didn’t even read me the Riot Act or charge me for the new pipe), he just cautioned me about hitting the pipe with metallic objects and left.

stretching my creaking bones, i muttered “my God, i feel as though i’d been put through the wringer twice.”

my garrulous neighbor, who was a bemused witness to my hapless fate, capped it with an apt comment: “well, you sure look like it. earlier you were rushing around like a deranged chicken trying to do the conga. we thought your unit was on fire or something.”

i don’t know if that comment was meant to make me feel better or to insult the chicken, but i was too pooped to care either way. “yeah, whatever. i suppose it could’ve been worse.” 

who goes to Ouran High?

apparently a lot of goofy and rich good-looking teenage guys with loads and loads of free time on their hands.

haruhi fujioka (the lone female lead) would seem depressingly normal in a "normal" setting, but when seen in the context of being surrounded by the hilarious tamaki, the devious kyouya, the uber-cute hunny, the reticent mori, the mischievous pair of troublemakers kaoru and hikaru — not to mention her harebrained cross-dressing (but not gay) father — she is blessedly and refreshingly sane.

forget logical. or sensible. just give in to your rollicking mirth as these guys (and one girl posing as a guy) go through lives and wreak havoc along the way. the added bonus of watching their respective seiyuus (you should see hunny-sempai's cute seiyuu) talk about the series will make things even more worthwhile. and who would've thought that the guy (Mamoro Miyano) who provides Light Yagami's voice in Death Note could sound so lighthearted and silly?

just watch it guys.

in passing

this is going to be a short post. after our whirlwind acitivites these past few days (i’m playing tour guide for a young cousin who’s staying in town for a few days), i suddenly find myself free for a few minutes so i thought i might as well squeeze in a few things while i still can.

we watched Enchanted early this week and i must say i was pleasantly surprised — mostly because of its engaging lead, amy adams, who plays this fairy-tale creature (giselle) who strayed into new york city along with prince edward (a charming, self-absorbed dimwit portrayed by james marsden) and several other creatures. i know its disney, but you’ll be surprised, too, i think. i’m hoping i’ll be able to see Hitman later, just to balance things out a bit.

i also seem to be in and out of malls these days (moa, glorietta, megamall, rustan’s, galleria, etc.). it’s like i’m making up for those weeks of hibernation. anyway, i gotta sign off now because my cousin is already here. see you guys.

beowulf

to mark my return to the world of the living, i watched Beowulf last night. i think i understand why robert zemeckis opted to make a 3D graphics rather (your best option is to watch this in an IMAX theater folks) than a live action version of this film. it would have been a logistical nightmare to film all those monsters and have human actors interact with them. 

the film deviates from the literary epic that i'm more familiar with (i remember struggling mightily to understand some of its difficult passages back in high school), but it does have an interesting take on Beowulf himself.

it was a little jarring to see ray winstone as this muscle-bound Viking adventurer. i guess i've been used to seeing him as Costello's middle-aged thug (he plays mr. french in The Departed). angelina jolie amps up the screen as Grendel's mother, but for some reason it's robin wright-penn's Queen Wilthow that lingers in my mind.