macaroons and the old man

i just had to write…err…type this. earlier this day, i went to dmc (a government hospital) to accompany jids and ivy. jids had to pass (finally!) her papers for IV Training while ivy was there for some labs which was a requirement before the start of her hospital training. it took ivy FOREVER to get a single piece of paper called "request slip". it was almost lunch so while ivy waited for eternity inside the room, jids and i decided to grab a bite. we went to the canteen and since we didn’t want to ruin our appetite for lunch, we just ordered a tasteless takoyaki, a shriveled tempura, and 3 macaroons. (HALATA BANG NAGTITIPID?) we sat down at a table and bitched about how hot the weather is and stuff. then, ivy joined us a few minutes later.

while ivy was whining and endlessly complaining about the nurse at the laboratory, a man sat next to our table. an old man in his fifties or sixties. he looked scruffy and had a long beard. the man was medium in built and was about 5′-5′4" tall. he was wearing an old blue cap, a stained cream shirt, worn out pants, and dirty slippers. he was carrying a bag and he was also carrying his lunch-a clear cellophane/plastic with soup.SABAW. from his bag,he then took out his tupperware half-filled with rice. got up, took his spoon and washed it from a faucet nearby. he sat back down, opened the lid of the container and he slowly poured out the contents of the plastic onto the rice. that was his lunch. his LUNCH. rice submerged in sabaw. then he scoured thru another plastic sitting atop the table. there were leftovers from someone else’s lunch. he took it and it was part of his lunch.   

jids and i looked at each other. "palitan nato siya’g sudan kurmz…" i remembered ngohiong and pork ubod at the canteen. it only costs 6pesos each. SIX PESOS LANG. we wanted to buy him a decent meal but we were concerned as to how he would react or feel. i looked away from him but as i do, tears were starting to well up my eyes. this was poverty looking straight at me and IM NOT DOING ANYTHING. i couldn’t do anything.

mababaw lang luha ko. as we got up, i was not able to hold back and tears were just streaming down my face. jids told me that the old man looked at us when we left the table.  i wondered what he thought of us. it was by far, one of the saddest experiences ive had. i dont know why but it really got me thinking about how blessed and ungrateful i am at the same time.i hope and pray that i will NEVER forget this experience. i almost did until i got home and searched my bag for my celfone. then i saw the wrapper of the macaroons i ordered. sounds like a scene from a movie? hell yeah. but it was that piece of trash that made me remember the whole situation. and made me cry all over again. now im sure ill never forget this. 

bless the old man and yey to macaroons that helped my bad memory.

its just amazing how the simplest things can affect you the most.

forgive me for the flight of ideas and wrong sentence constructions. i HAD to blog this sans the errors.

friendster bulletin board

  Just before this entry, i spent a good 30 minutes reading the posts on the bulletin on my  friendster account. I dont normally read or care what’s being posted but i decided to waste my time to find out. True to what I had in mind, it was chockfull of junk. I know there aren’t any rules as to what or what not to post but do you really have to post how angry you are at Leslie? Im sure she’ll feel your wrath but as for the rest of us, we really dont give a rat’s ass about it. And please, DO NOT POST IT A GAZILLION TIMES unless you dream on becoming Friendster’s Next Professional Annoying Spammer.

Another thing that I found out was that, there are still a handful of mentally incapacitated people who still believes in chain letters. Make that chain-posts. Is this still uso? Anyone can make it up and make it sound like a really bad curse. Here, I’ll make one:

"Since you opened this post, you must turn around 17 times, jump up and down the stairs, wear your shirt backwards and post this as TURTLES ARE AWESOME. If you fail to repost this within five minutes, your dog will kill you tonight at your basement with a pitchfork while you are making out with your gym teacher."  Dont think anyone would believe this? Think again.

Finally, this is the reason why i DO NOT READ POSTS on the bulletin board. For friendster users, have you been curious of one entry post that read: Girl Raped in (some school) or Urgent: Programmers Needed. And when you open it, this is the message you’ll see: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Hand me my pitchfork. Now!!!

 Maybe my scythe will do. =p

roomatik girl

sounds like a monicker for a new-age superhero?nah. its my new name for choco.=p anyway, i came up with the name since earlier today, i accompanied her to the hospital for an echocardiogram. She was scheduled for 2D Echo to rule out the diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease. its basically a condition wherein the heart valves are damaged due to rheumatic fever which usually starts with a simple strep throat.

it was my first time to observe while the procedure is being done and it was AMAZING.<nerd moments> i finally saw choco’s distorted heart! <awesome!> it was so cool since the monitor shows you each chamber of the heart which looked weird to me. it was almost alien-like until i realized it was a zoomed image of the left ventricle with the mitral valve flapping with every beat of the heart.<duh.> at first, it looked like a nasty alien showing its mouth and its tongue(the mitral valve) resembled to that of a snake…or something. as the machine does cross sectional scans of the heart, i got more and more confused as to what i was looking at. but the sound of "lub-dub" brought me back to my senses that i was looking at choco’s heart and not her….uhmmm…..womb.=p 

tip: the procedure takes about 30-40minutes so you might wanna tell your friend who’s waiting at the lobby of the hospital to wait PATIENTLY… or you can just treat her for pizza! right byang? =p

the Oscars

    The much-awaited Oscars awards ceremony has just concluded its 80th year earlier today. Although I am not a big fan of awards ceremonies, i can not help myself but find out who wore what dress, who was on the best-dressed and who was unfortunate enough to be on the dreaded worst-dressed list. There was a handful of ladies who were stunningly gorgeous on the red carpet while some of them looked blah. For instance, Tilda Swinton whom i adored as the angel Gabriel in Constantine, looked unkempt as she wore a black ensemble that resembles a toga. But fortunately, she won the Oscar for best supporting actress for Michael Clayton.Yey to the lady angel! But it got me thinking. Who decides who’s the best and worst dressed lists are in the ceremonies? I found myself watching shows such as the "Fashion Police". They had a grand time lashing out harsh comments on celebrities but the thing is, they don’t look good themselves either. One looked like Mr. Todd Sweeney minus the horrendous makeup. And no, he’s not in theatre either. Mirrors please! But you have to admit, one can not and will not forget what Bjork wore to the Oscars in 2000. Remember her dress which had a dead swan wrapped around her neck? tsktsk. I adore Bjork, but that was truly a horrible dress. I wondered if PETA was outraged by that piece. She should fire her stylist if she had one.

    Enough of the fashion blah and on to what could have saved the event from being a totally forgettable show- the host, Jon Stewart. With the writers at strike for months, people wondered if the show will push through. Because honestly without the writers, there’s no point in holding the event. The organizers might as well pack the prized statue and send them to the winners on their doorstep. But alas, they managed to have writers just in time for the Oscars plus they got Jon Stewart to host the show for the second time. His wit, sarcasm and political satire is just what the show needs to add some chutzpah to a rather boring event. I thoroughly enjoyed as Jon dished out some quotable qoutes that night. In one of his spiels, he said that with upcoming Presidential elections, credit should be given to Sen. Barack Hussein Obama. He said that the senator must have gone through a lot since the name "Hussein" is the same as the political tyrant of Iraq and "Obama" rhymes with "Osama". He then went on to say that the same fate must have been felt by one "Gaydolf Titler". xD     

my 1st stencil/vector art

 i stumbled upon stencil and vector arts when one summer i got bored and decided to edit photos of my friends. since i had no idea how to use photoshop, i opted to a less complicated and user-friendly editing program- ULEAD SYSTEMS. its the program that comes along with the installation of the PC camera. i liked the outcomes of my first few edited pictures and i had shown some of them to my friends and thankfully, they liked it as well. but as i edited more pictures, i wanted to do more complicated styles and effects. so i went back to photoshop and had Larry, my boyfriend, taught me on the basics of the program. he also sent me copies of tutorials  that were "easy" to follow. apparently, "easy" was an understatement. i spent hours and days just to get the same outcome as stated in the tutorial. but after my 1st "decent" photo, i got hooked.

ive been wanting to do stencil/vector art. for those who do not know what it is,these are the illustrations we often see printed on shirts, on music videos and on print ads. think of the video of GNARLS BARKLEY’S "Crazy". hey, im no art student. that’s just my own perception of what it is. =) most of these illustrations are popular among the youth. if you want to know and learn how to create your own, click on this site: http://www.melissaclifton.com/ their tutorials are easy to follow.

here’s my 1st stencil/vector art that ive created for 2 days. trust me. once you’ll get the hang of it, it will take you hours just to decide which color and effect will suit your taste. enjoy. thanks to larp for letting me tinker with his photo.=)

 original photo.

…used a few effects and tricks…

tadaaahhh! my 1st mediocre stencil/vector art.

kat visits makati city

 I recently went to Makati to take an examination. The last time I visited the place was when I was in high school to attend a conference in Batanggas. After the conference my friends and i decided to stay a little longer in Manila and we got around the city. I personally liked Makati as it is an urban escape somehow. It seems like a different place with all the things that an upscale city would exactly look like. But the one thing that i did not like was the traffic. Even if it is a 10minute ride, you’re probably going to get to your destination in 30-45mins. Its so annoying. I was almost late and i cringed at the thought that i might not be able to take the exam and so my mom and i got off the taxi in the middle of the street and walked up to the testing center. Like a scene from a cheesy teen movie, I was the last to arrive and it was 10mins before the time. I was shaken up and gasping for air and my outfit was totally out of synch. I looked like a korean with no sense of color coordination. As for the examination part, im suppressing the whole ordeal. I dont want to remember anything about it. Enough said.

Due to my inept ability to take good photos of the place, i had to search for images that would show a clear picture of the area near the testing center at the Trident Tower which sits next to the rather prominent RCBC Plaza. take a look.

 my only complaint in this city was the endless one-way streets that makes it difficult to get around and the traffic. but never the less, i’m still looking forward to go back and experience the mayhem all over again. =)