Happy New Year to all!

We used to light firecrackers and other pyrotechnics come New Year’s Eve.

The operative term there is “used.”

In New Year’s Eve, 1987, at an outdoor street party in our village, my mother was a foot away from being hit by a stray bullet. From that time on, we don’t buy firecrackers anymore.

In 1995, the year I was to take the bar exams, I was a New Year’s injury statistic.

Right after the revelry and after eating, I just went out to retrieve something outside. Then I felt a very fast object hit me in the head. After a second, I was still alive so it was definitely not a stray bullet (because I was still alive).

But after another second, my eyeglasses curtained blood red. And I was bleeding profusely.

So I was rushed to the hospital. Some photographer wanted to take my picture as a “casualty of the New Year.” But I declined.

Gave me a tetanus shot but I didn’t need stitches.

Turns out a firecracker exploded nearby cause a small rock to hurl towards my head at great speed. Hey, at least it was not a bullet.

Now, I never go out this time of the year.

So folks be careful out there. Happy New Year!

Don’t ask me why…

Set my alarm clock (read: celphone) for 2:45 a.m. and my TV to turn on at the same time early this morning because I wanted to watch I’ll be there, the debut movie of Charlotte Church, then showing on HBO.

I don’t know what is it about this movie that I love. Is it the story that is about a rock star father coming to grips with his 16-year-old daughter he just met? Or is it the 16-year-old Charlotte Church and her angelic voice that peppered the movie?

Whatever it is (or was), it must be compelling because I rarely make efforts to wake up that early on my vacation time just to watch a particular movie. What surprises me even more is I even bought the DVD this afternoon, which I rarely do anymore. For sure, there is something about this movie that I want to watch it over and over again.

Try catching it. It’s a good yultide movie. Or am I just such a Charlotte Church fan?

Your loss, our gain

For those of you who had missed the PinoyBlog Christmas party last night, there was really nothing to miss, if your goal was to meet other Philippine bloggers. Some mix up caused this one to fizzle out, attendance-wise. Attended only by four bloggers: Yuga, La Vida Lawyer and myself, with Jeff Vergara making a brief appearance. Borcee was missing in action for unknown reasons.

First, I finally met the man who breathed new life into my blog template, Jeff. Again, Jeff I can’t thank you enough for what you have done to this blog.

Now, for your loss:

1. You missed the chance to stuff yourself silly with Dads/Saisaki/Kamayan’s Ultimate Buffet.

2. You missed the chance to see if we’re real people and not just bots (heheheheheheh!)

Our gain:

1. We got to spend quality time with THE future multi-billionaire Philippine blogging mogul. The tips and tricks we got are PRICELESS.

2. We’re now considering an entire and separate career in blogging because of this… But of course, we will not give up our day jobs. We’ll leave that to the proper night persons.

You (yes you) should have been there. Jeff has the photographic evidence.

The after-birthday entry

To those who greeted me on my birthday, be it by a text message or through a post in this blog, thanks. The small party went well, the food and non-alcoholic drinks were enough and I think there are still some leftovers…

Just fifteen years away before my warranty expires. You see, with my lifestyle and diet, I figured I’m good to last to 50 years. Anything beyond that will be a blessing…

That’s long enough to put my kids through school; seeing them married and with kids is a bonus…

Anyway, those who offered me advise for my dilemma, thanks also. It’s time to put in more details:

1. Yes, I was invited, by both the bride and groom. Both of them are college batchmates and still my friends and we (as in me and my kids and the couple) do meet sometimes.

2. Not only was I invited, I was likewise asked to play the flute at their wedding mass (the mass songs and the filler songs during the “picture-taken” event and thingies).

On the one hand, I don’t know if I have the heart to attend, much less play. Then again, I’m saying to myself, “What is this couple thinking, inviting an old flame of the bride (mutual firsts, if I may add) to their wedding, much less giving a significant role therein?” Or more specifically, “What is this girl thinking?!?!?!?”

On the other hand, I’m through with the “Jedi Mind games” and over-interpretations of actions with this girl and I should take this for what it is: an invite of a friend to attend the most important part of her life/their lives. Plus, it’s a chance to jam with the likes of Lionel Valdellon, a very rare opportunity.

What to do, what to do? Well it’s still in June and I really don’t like to be pressured into deciding at the spur of the moment.

I’ll keep you posted. But if you still have some advise for me, I would still welcome and appreciate it.

xxx

In another front, I just waited until after my birthday to have my digicam repaired today. But let me tell you first about my trip to Makati. It was fantastic! Just a few minor buildups along EDSA and the whole “OPLAN: DigiCam repair” took less than two hours (i.e., I left the house at 9:30 a.m. in QC, got to the shop in Pasay Road, Makati and got home before 11:00 a.m.).

My camera model was subject of this defect advisory. I thought my camera was not affected (I’ve been using it for two years) until I used it extensively this month. So I had to bring it in.

If you have an affected camera, I think you should bring it in already. Parts and service are free. It’s not everyday that traffic was this light.

That’s about it. Now get back to work!

A Birthday Dilemma

Today I celebrate my 35th birthday. Planned nothing much today. Some relatives are coming over this afternoon and we’ll have some spagetti and barbecue (and probably some cake and ice cream). It will be a real children’s party, to awaken the inner child in me, as they say…

Reunion went well yesterday but I feel some sorrow because a lot of my relatives already migrated, with some more leaving next year. Anyway, this one was still fun and I will post some pictures over at my Flickr account.

Anyway, back to the point of this birthday post. Let me ask you some hypothetical questions.

Would you attend the wedding of your first love, invited or not?

Even assuming you would, would you even consider playing at his/her wedding?

Me? I don’t know. Still in this dilemma.

The Work of Christmas

(by Howard Thurman)

When the song of angels is stilled
When the star in the sky is gone
When the kings and princes are home
When the shepherds are back with their flock
The work of Christmas begins

To find the lost, to heal the broken
To feed the hingry, free the prisoners
To rebuild nations, to bring peace among brothers
To make music in the heart.

A proper holiday greeting!

As you may notice, I chose the safe greeting “Happy Holidays!” as I made my rounds through the blogosphere. I was concerned as I wanted to be politically correct, gender-sensitive, religiously tolerant in my greeting. And this is the best I could find:

Bea and Nico with cousins Merphi and Milka

Insert non-offensive, gender sensitive,
politically-correct, religiously-tolerant
holiday announcement message here
(– from macosxhints.com)

Night Flight: Live in Digital

Currently listening to some songs from the Night Flight: Live in Digital music compilation of Carlo Santos, the veritable Bukas Palad Online webmaster. Well, he’s not just its webmaster, but he also sings in Bukas Palad, too. And his voice is not that bad (Kidding, Carlo! If I had half your voice quality, I would be surrounded by wooed women…). The songs are only released on the web and they’re all free downloads, all 11 of them.

It’s an interesting experiment. It was an attempt to… oh well, let’s just get his take on this from his own words:

I call this collection of pieces “Live in Digital,” as it reflects my pursuit of achieving the effect of live instrumentation through digital means. I know I’m far from achieving this (and I have yet a lot to learn), but it doesn’t hurt to try =) So as you will hear soon enough, only the guitars and vocals have been recorded live, the rest are through the use of software synths and tone-generators.

I tried (or died trying hehehe) to apply varying musical styles to add diversity in the songs, basically cuz I don’t want to be “categorized.” To me, music is music, there may be genres, but I never subscribed to the notion of “musical preference.” Of course I have my own preferences, but that is a trait which I wish to abolish in the long term. I want to be immersed in music as much as possible, and be able to produce different styles and textures . . . not to please the market (but it would be a bonus if I could), but to appease my appetite, and to develop the ability to make music in its purest sense.

I particularly like “Act of Imagination,” because of the flute rifts (albeit the flute portion is synthetic) and the over-all theme of the song is cruising, slowed-down type of music, the type that I particularly enjoy listening to driving home from a long, tough day.

I like “Addicted to Your Smile,” despite his claim that is it a sell-out song. I know the beat, the lyrics and the melody is formula but hey, it’s catchy.

“Your Majesty” interests me because of our common roots in choir and music ministry.

I’ll leave the ecclectic rest for you to discover for yourself.

And to think, borrowing from Eli Buendia, “He did it all by himself,” he certainly did a good job.

Hope he has time to do some more. Or he gets to do it commercially (as if he needed commercial success).

Christmas Work

Whew! The last working day before Christmas and I’m still working.

Just only goes to show that problems pop up and don’t observe holidays or have any holiday spirit whatsoever.

Still had some trouble over at my government consultancy. Two, as a matter of fact. Had to work on both on them but most of the tasks shall be finished after the break. That’s good news since I want to enjoy the holidays and my birthday (which is the day after Christmas).

Our choir will be playing the last dawn mass tomorrow. And I thought our duties were already finished.

Not complaining, though. I do like choir and that’s my stress release.

I’ll make my Christmas post for all of you tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ll try to get some rest.

Waaaaaahhhhhhh!

This day taught me a simple rule: Obey and trust your iMac.

Lindsay told me not to disconnect my iPod while updating. I disobeyed. Not only did I disconnect my iPod, but I also forced Lindsay into a hardware reset, because I thought iTunes already hung.

I was wrong. So what was my punishment?

Nothing much. My iTunes library file got damaged so when I synched my iPod again to it, I grew pale when I discovered that I lost 5/6 of my songs and all my video. And all this hapenned when I was just about to leave the house.

Had to manually reload my uploaded music files to the new library file and re-download some of the podcasts. That took a good hour and a half–an hour and a half I did not have.

So I was late for a friend’s holiday party. But it was alright.

And it appears that I still have to work tomorrow. Something urgent came up in my government consultancy.

Oh and I am officially the first blogger to receive the La Vida Lawyer Coffee Mug, according to him.

Anyway, a good thing came up today. I think the die has been cast. My career will take a significant turn next year. It is, more or less, a done deal.

I hope it is for the better. Wish me luck.