Sunday, June 29, 2008

What's your Passion?

Last night my friend Juliet from Manila and I talked for almost 2 hours (thanks to Yahoo voice). In person we can sit and talk all day. And yet, I never knew that she has a passion for photography. (That's what happens when you only talk about people and not about ideas).

I have always admired people who knows what their passion in life is and knows to go for it. For me, I always struggled narrowing down what my real passion in life was.
I love to travel and that I do more than the average person, but I am not one to go to another country and visit their museums and or historical sights. Ancient ruins never evoked anything out of me except ruin my day. I did not have the appetite for art or history, the only appetite I knew I had was for food.

But when I turned 50, I started viewing the world around me with an artistic lense. I began to appreciate paintings,photography and music. Probably why suddenly beyond my control, I was mesmerized by Arnel Pineda. And lately, to the horror of Chat, I told her that there's some chemistry slowly developing between me and Ross Valory too. Is chemistry the same as art? Oh Snap.

I really need to work on my knowledge of musical instruments because once, I read a review of Neal Schon and "his Les Paul" - I thought Les was his boyfriend.
Anyway, I was encouraged by Juliet's desire to pursue her artistic passion, that I thought, I would start pursuing mine too. Today, I went out and got my first kit.




My butterfly coloring book and a box of Crayola.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

11 Things I like, don't like and wish for

Here's an installment of the answers to some of your questions about me.

1. I like Americans because on my birthday I don’t have to feed the whole office; they feed me.

2. I love the simplicity of Americans compared to Filipinos. When an American invites me to some event, I only have to say, “ No, I can’t. I have other plans.” I don’t have to come up with “ You know, I cant because my sisters’ friend is in the hospital and my sister has to take care of her friends kids, and I have to take my mom to visit her friend in the hospital because my sister was supposed to take her but now she can’t. “

3. I love coffee. But I love it more when I am drinking it on a ceramic cup and saucer. Not Styrofoam cups. (Unless I am driving in a hurry to my real job.)

4. I love eating with my hands. But I don’t lick my fingers regardless how good the food is.

5. I don’t like people who are hateful and write hateful stuff. Unless you are writing about corrupt leaders and oppressive government in the Philippines.

6. I wish I could draw. But since I can’t, I have taken up coloring instead. But Clairol has this bad habit of discontinuing colors that works with my hair.

7. I love hot and spicy foods but less fiery than my hot flashes.
8. I wish to live in Spain or Italy. But since I can’t afford it.

9. I wish to marry a Spanish or Italian man.

10. I don’t like Spanish from Mexico or Italian from New York.

11. And as long as I am wishing, I wish Ross Valory will retire and elope with me to Tuscany.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Karaoke Crazed

I am so swamped at my real job and interview assignment for my writing class but I just had to share this Sunstar.Cebu news article with ya'll. It is not funny because a life is taken but at the same time, I find humor in it. Filipinos love to sing, regardless that some of us may prefer that they don't.
One case in point: Last night I had to get a quick-fix (been so long without Arnel)so I sneaked in to Youtube to see if I could find some video clips stealthily taken of Journey and Arnel Pineda in Europe. There are a lot, but,ruined by people trying to help him sing. Folks, he's fine, he doesn't need your help.

My 70-year old friend Jane called me the other day and suggested if we could just "kidnap" Arnel. And then what are we going to do with him after we capture him? She said, "We'll just put him in the corner and let him entertain us with his signature smile - he does not even have to sing." Oh Jane.
Anyway, let me stop my bad self. Here's the Sunstar piece.
---------------------------------------------------------
Sunstar.cebu.com
BECAUSE he couldn’t have his way, a man shot and killed his cousin in a Mandaue City videoke bar after the latter kept him from singing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”

Not knowing his end was near, Elmer Tantan, 38, reportedly refused to hand over the microphone to his cousin, NiƱo Monroid, SPO1 Reynaldo Inot of the Mandaue City Police Office told Sun.Star Superbalita.

Monroid then allegedly pulled out a .45 and shot Tantan inside the videoke bar in Barangay Omapad past 3 a.m. yesterday.

“Ganahan naman kaayo mokantag ‘My Way’ unya wa gihatag ang mike (microphone), mao tong gipusil (He was raring to sing ‘My Way’ but his cousin wouldn’t hand over the microphone, so he shot him),” SPO1 Inot said.

The slug tore through Tantan’s heart. By the time he was brought to the Mandaue City District Hospital, there was nothing doctors could do but declare him dead on arrival.
---------------------------------------end------------------------------------------

Sunday, June 22, 2008

It's All about Passion

I got so mad reading the article about Arroyo and her 59 marauders that I archived the article about Mike Arroyo and boxing and all that spending he does in Las Vegas during Pacquiao’s fights. Then it led me to thinking about boxing. I hate boxing with a passion.

Well, let me clarify myself here. In my apartment in Cebu I have a pink (yes, pink) Everlast boxing gloves and whenever I am there I go to ALA gym at BTC. I go there to practice the “moves” regardless that my personal trainer told me one time, “Ma’m, just go home and rest.” (before we even started) It was his subtle way of saying I was too old and brittle for the “moves” I should find another form of exercise.

I have an aversion to watching people hurt each other. I do not understand why people think it’s cool to watch someone bleeding and or have swollen eyes like the Tarsier monkey. But if you are one of those people who pays a lot of money to watch boxers on the ring, go ahead, whatever floats your boat.
So I ask myself what passion drives a man to hurt another person? Or get hurt themselves? Could it be the smell of the prize money? Or could it be the smell of blood?

In whatever we do, we have to have passion for it or there’s no meaning besides being paid to do it. Passion makes it worth doing; passion makes it worth starving for or dying for. It is what makes a job well done.
Take Arnel Pineda for instance, (I swear I did not want to write about him anymore) watch every performance he has that is available on YouTube. Not one of those videos showed that he was “just doing a job.”


On June 21 2007 it was past midnight, Arnel was in that cramped platform in some obscure bar in Olongapo singing without a hint that in 7 days Neal Schon would call him and in 8 months to the day on February 21,2008 he would be performing before 25 million Chileans-- live and TV audiences. Whether he was performing for pesos for 10 sleepy beer-powered Filipinos or performing for dollars for 10 thousand Monster powered Americans, Arnel performed just the same. He gave it his all.

I am reminded of the answer of Joe DiMaggio, the New York Yankees baseball player when a reporter once asked him how he managed to play so well and consistently. He said, “I always thought that there was at least one person in the stands who had never seen me play and I didn’t want to let him down.”

I think Arnel consistently performs his best because that is who he is. That is My Arnel. That is why Eden in Houston and Nanette in Canada says: He is my obsession; he is what turns me on. He is what floats my old and brittle boat.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Here's the recipe- cottage pie





The first time I was in Hongkong we stayed at The Peninsula and sure had great memories of it, but one place that I remember with fondness is the Ned Kelly's bar (yeah, I hate that word bar) where they serve cottage pies flown in from Australia. I don't care for pot pies or it's relative but my friend Chelsea, gave me another version of it, and I like it because I like spicy dishes. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients :
2 boxes of Jiffy corn bread mix,8.5 oz each ( I like more crust so I use 2boxes)
1 15 oz can ranch style beans
1 10 oz can rotel tomatoes
1/2 lb of ground meat - I prefer pork -but you can also use mutton or lamb
onion powder, salt and pepper -season to taste

Brown the meat and drain then add the beans and tomatoes stirring to mix it. Mix the cornbread according to package directions and line the casserole dish with half of the mixture. Spread the meat mixture on top then cover with the rest of the cornbread mix. Bake for 30 minutes and voila!! Good for breakfast too..yummm.

Arroyo and 59 congressmen to watch Pacquiao in Las Vegas

According to a Philippine Star article -59 congressmen are accompanying Gloria Arroyo to the US. Anyone who has the gall enough to read through the article here's the link: http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Headlines&p=49&type=2&sec=24&aid=20080620139

With the food and gas crisis in the Philippines, Arroyo and her cronies will be on a chartered PAL flight to come to the US. Let me see, is Pacquiao scheduled to gouge out someone's eyes again in Las Vegas? Is that why Ahab and Jessebel are coming with 59 marauders?
Here's part of the article.

1.On Sunday, Arroyo will proceed to Fresno, California aboard a private plane to visit Filipino health care professionals at the Veterans hospital of the Fresno Community Hospital and Medical Center.
Me: Mrs Ahab -you can show you care about this Filipinos in Fresno by taking care of their families back in the Philippines. You want to make sure they continue to send more money to the PI, for your cronies to plunder?

2..From Fresno, the presidential party will take a chartered flight to Washington DC where they are expected to arrive on Sunday night.
Me: A chartered flight again? OMG!! you just don't get it, do you? But then again, I don't expect you to, like Ahab you probably watch too much eyes gouging and head banging.

3.Mrs. Arroyo will also meet with World Bank president Robert Zoellick. This is why the BSP governor is part of her entourage.
Me : Oh really? Let me guess, could it be for more loot?

4.The President will likewise hold a meeting with Millennium Challenge Corp. chief executive officer, Ambassador John Danilovich.
The STAR gathered that Philippine Embassy officials in Washington are still trying to arrange a possible meeting of Mrs. Arroyo with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who chairs the MCC board where the Philippines is seeking as much as $300 million in grants.
Me : 300 million? How much in Pesos is that? Would that be enough for 4SUV's,3 houses for the wife and same for the mistress if not more?

5.While in the US capital, the President will meet with a “select” group of American senators to formally express her gratitude for their support for the approval of US Senate Bill 1315 or the so-called Equity Bill on the equalization of pension benefits for Filipino veterans during World War II.
Me : Formally express your Gratitude? Haven't you heard of emails and Yahoo phone? Do you have to come with 59 hangers-on?
When people back home are lining up to get a kilo of rice, the sick being left untreated, public schools and hospitals unfunded you have the audacity to flaunt this blatantly?

Let me stop to clean up my vomit. Ya'll make me sick.
(This is what happens when I read stuff other than Arnelpinedafans.com, I get violent. Now can you understand why I bury my head in the sand and amuse myself with Arnel Pineda? What will I do when I run out of steam for AP? Ahhh, Ross Valory may just have a chance with me. Or is it the other way around?)





Friday, June 20, 2008

AP addiction or Internet addiction

Compare the symptoms of an Arnel Pineda addict to the symptoms of an internet addict stated below and it will scare your pants off. Ya'll read it while I go call my doctor so he can prescribe me the meds to wean me off the internet, but he must wean me from AP first. And middle aged women too? Dang.
.




Article by Andy Bloxham-Telegraph.co.uk



Obsessive internet use is a public health problem, which is so serious it should be officially recognized as a clinical disorder, according to a leading psychiatrist.
Sufferers spend unhealthy amounts of time playing online games, viewing pornography or emailing.
They suffer four symptoms:
1.They forget to eat and sleep
2.They need more advanced technology or more hours online as they develop 'resistance' to the pleasure given by their current system
3.If they are deprived of their computer, they experience genuine withdrawal symptoms
4.And in common with other addictions, the victims also begin to have more arguments, to suffer fatigue, to get lower marks in tests and to feel isolated from society.

Early research into the subject found highly educated, socially awkward men were the most likely sufferers but more recent work suggests it is now more of a problem for middle-aged women who are spending hours at home on their computers.
Psychiatrist Dr Jerald Block said some sufferers were so addicted to the internet that they required medication or even hospital treatment to curb the time they spent on the web.

He said: "The relationship is with the computer. It becomes a significant other to them. They exhaust emotions that they could experience in the real world on the computer through any number of mechanisms: emailing, gaming, porn."
He added: "It's much more acceptable for kids to talk about game use, whereas adults keep it a secret. Rather than having sex, or arguing with their wife or husband, or feeding their children, these adults are playing games."

Dr Block, of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, in the USA, first made the claims in an editorial for the American Journal of Psychiatry. British psychiatrists have previously reported that between five and 10 per cent of online users are internet addicts.

Just another day

Chat and I met for an Indian lunch today and food always tastes better when she pays. I filled myself with biryani and naan I almost could not walk back to the car. I was not feeling my best today but I managed to stop by H Supermart and bought this puny mangoes. I told myself to stay away from the computer long enough so I could cook something. I always love to try new recipes (new for me anyway), I was going to try making the shepherd's pie using cornbread mix instead of mashed potatoes. I live alone so I don't normally cook but every now and then I like to experiment with simple one dish meal. The picture below are the ingredients for the pie, except the ground meat should only be half of what's in the tub. I will post the picture and the recipe once I make it. But for now, I need a break... I need to watch my Revelation video--again. Who said I'm addicted?




Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Pop Corn popping cell phone

I must be very bored. Well, I thought I'd share this with ya'll.




Saturday, June 14, 2008

Hormones, Music, Fish, Base,Bass -whatever



I went to the Japanese garden yesterday just to temper down this hormonal ride.
Men,here's some tips: "hormonal" is the female version of a man going "postal". A postal man wants to kill his co-workers, a hormonal woman wants to kill everything that breaths.
Well, my daughter has been out of the country and I have been tasked to feed their stupid fish while they’re gone and I don’t like it. I like fish but only when it’s doing what it’s created to be- feed me, not the other way around. Another thing why I hate it when my daughter is not around (besides missing her) is because I get so much fun annoying her with my writing about Arnel Pineda.

See, I am repaying her now for what she did to me when she was a teen. At ten years old she believed she was Jon Bon Jovi’s girlfriend. Even without Google she knew everything about him and that his wife’s name was Dorothea. Oh, and he has a wife too? I didn’t bother to beat her up. I figured if she could imagine herself being Bon Jovi's girlfriend maybe she could also imagine her getting an “allowance” from him and not from me. She didn’t write about him, but she littered our walls with his pictures not to mention doctor’s bills for our blasted eardrums.

Everything I learned about music I learned from my daughter. She reminds me all the time to remember to pronounce “bass” player correctly. “Stop pronouncing it like it’s a fish, mom.” Lately,she strongly suggested I should divert my attention from Arnel and start falling over crazy with Ross Valory. I said, “I’ll think about it." But only if he lets me hold his base.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

When I feel confused about my life and I start to wonder -where do I fit in the big scheme of things and what am I supposed to do?" I pray and try to be still and know that God is still God. But Steve Jobs commencement speech that he delivered to the Stanford graduates 3 years ago, seems to always energize me. And what really brought this to my mind today is when I saw his picture. He has lost a lot of weight in this picture and I like to think that it's because he is vegan. I really hope he is ok. He has blessed us with his talent.


Here is the speech again--a very good read.

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered onJune 12, 2005 at Stanford University.


I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first is connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers.She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my Working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. It wasn't romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, soI slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town everySunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great.It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the firstMacintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac.It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, and karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parent’s garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over. I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together. I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was an awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love.

And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like this: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas.I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family.It means to say your goodbyes. I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now. This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited; so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.Everything else is secondary. When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. A fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park created it, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous.Beneath it was the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much
------------end------------------

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Dedicated to Journey and All OFW's Everywhere

Video Courtesy of Runner157 and DOBH- Thanks.





Journey is in Europe and Arnel with all the rest of the OFW's everywhere are away from their families. Money will not compensate for the pain of separation from your loved ones but I also understand the need to do what you have to do.
To Journey - I understand that as artists, money is not the main consideration. As Artists, you practice your art or you die. God created us with special talents unique to each one of us because as God said "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you came out I have set you apart (Jeremiah 1:5) Use the talents that you have been given and continue blessing us with them. Until I see you in Dallas, my prayers are with you. And Arnel, I am praying for your family back home too.

To All OFW's - I SALUTE YOU GUYS!!! Thanks for the sacrifice you do for your family and most of all for keeping the Philippines afloat with your billions of dollars in remittances. Keep your heads high, stay focused and dream big. Don't let the corrupt politicians and leaders in the Philippines hinder you even when they bleed you to death with their "pre-requisites" crap. Always do the right thing and you will sleep well at night.
And by the way, It's ok to holler at your friend sitting 10 rows back on board any airlines and it's fine too to put on the stinkiest body spray. And if Malu Fernandez faints because of it just step over her but make sure you apologize in English, ok?

Saturday, June 07, 2008

OMG! ARNEL'S SCARF COULD BE NEXT







Dunkin Donuts a 50 year-old company pulled their ads of Rachel Ray because of protests from a group of conservatives. Why? Because she was sporting a paisley scarf while touting a cup of DD coffee. Even if Anthony Bourdain maligns her every now and then, I love Rachel Ray…I mean her rainbow colored appliances. The paisley scarf worn and popularized by Yasser Arafat has become an insidious symbol of terrorism according to the article. Right here and now, I am telling you, I am PRO-ISRAEL and I wear on my neck a star of David pendant given to me as a 7th wedding anniversary from my late husband. But for the life of me I really did not think of this headgear to symbolize anything but to keep them Palestinians warm. I don’t know but do deserts have winter and snow? (I have been so busy ogling at Arnel Pineda I find no time anymore to research important stuff).
Here’s the link: Michelle Malkin » The keffiyeh kerfuffle
the complete article of how and why Dunkin D caved in. Which by the way, I believe is good. This journalist is syndicated in nearly 200 newspapers and websites. Her name is Michelle Malkin, a full bloodied Pinay. She has become very famous or infamous, that some creative blokes out there doctored her pictures to make her look not pretty. That’s why I am afraid to get famous; someone might feel compelled to photoshop my pictures. And make me look like me.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

After All These Years



Courtesy of the Jerry Channel-Thanks

I was talking to my daughter on the phone the other day and she warned me right off that she was hoping to get through another day without me talking about Arnel. So I said fine. "But isn't it cute that Jonathan Cain proclaimed on national tv that he "has become a better guy" because of ......?" I could tell she took a deep breath. She remembered what I taught her: When you get mad, take a deep breath and hold it.

Anyway, "After All These Years" was written by Jonathan Cain for his wife of 20 years. He wrote it in 40 minutes and after his wife heard it she was "touched" which made Jon believe he's got a winner of a composition. And it is. I imagine Mrs. Cain goosed to the bone and teary eyed - exactly how I feel too about this song and I don't even have royalties trickling to my bank account.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Journey's Revelation CD and old me

When teens get obsessed about something and they don't get it, they lock themselves in their room and put on their headsets with blaring sounds. But try depriving old people and they start asking for the manager. I walked in to Wal-Mart at 6:25 this morning and went to the music section expecting to see the shelf filled with Journey's Revelation album and the supervisor didn't even know who Journey is or the album that contractually is only available at Wal-mart. I was about to make a scene- "What do you mean you don't know Journey, I need to speak to the manager. And why is it not out and displayed?"
The guy arranging the shelf looked at me like I was small, then he walked towards the back and came back glaring at me like I was a distraction to his quiet existence. I'm not required to work I'm only required to stand here and breath kind of existence. He handed me the CD without a word. I rushed to the check out counter but calm and with springs on my step.
My boyfriend who lives 50 states away from me was still on my cell phone waiting - I forgot about him. He sounded annoyed, " Babe, you're embarassing me with that asking for the manager bit." Embarassed? Imagine if he was standing next to me.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Arnelitis

My BFF Juliet emailed me and told me that she too has now started humming "Faithfully". We are newcomers in this bandwagon powered by Arnel Pineda. Meaning we didn't know about him til 2 months ago. But my goodness, when Juliet starts telling me that when she hears Arnel sing -"it makes you fall in love with the guy sitting next to you" now that's heavy. Then today, after watching this video of the CBS interview she said she cried with Arnel too. We talked on Yahoo for almost 2 hours and all the time it was about Arnel. See? how can I quit Arnel when my BFF is also now sick with Arnelitis? This is going to be a long Journey.