Christmas In March

i've been listening and singing to Michael Buble's version of "Grown Up Christmas List" for about an hour now. geez, weird! hahaha. dunno if it's the rain, the boring saturday night or my eternal plea for world peace. what do you think?

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might go to shanghai tomorrow for a day-trip. want to eat somewhere different and have my caffeine fix.

Ancient

kymn and i are listening to Ne-yo's "So Sick". haven't heard that song for the longest time. when she said that this song is from 2002 it made me feel sooooooo old. 2002 is already 6 years ago but it feels like it was only yesterday. haaayyy....suddenly i feel so ancient! hahaha

New Phone

my current phone is already showing signs that it might die on me anytime soon. this resulted me to contemplate on getting a new one. years ago, it would have been easy to get a new one. just choose the latest. but now, with mobile phone manufacturers launching 2-4 models almost every two weeks, choosing one is as hard as going through life's ups and downs! hahaha

here are some of the phones that i'm considering:

Samsung F700

- touch screen with a qwerty keypad, 3mp camera with flash

Sony Ericsson Experia

-touch screen with a qwerty keypad, 5mp camera with flash, wi-fi capable

Samsung i780-touch screen (stylus), 2mp camera

what do you think is better?

Observing Lent

in lieu of the holy week, i decided to download "The Passion Of The Christ" so i can watch it again.....while eating a mcd's quarter pounder! hahaha....but seriously, i need to do some reflecting...seriously.

Do It The Japanese Way

My authentic japanese name is 中島 Nakashima (center of the island) 大輝 Taiki (large radiance).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

The Last Days of Heath Ledger

bored and got nothing to do, i surfed the internet and checked out the sites in my Favorites.

while browsing esquire, i stumbled upon an article titled "The Last Days of Heath Ledger" by Lisa Taddeo. it is a fictitious account of Heath's last days before his unexpected death. the writer tracked down Heath's last whereabouts, asked around, read as many accounts and rumors about his death then wrote a conceivable chronicle of Heath's final days. like how taking a peek into a famous person's life is always interesting, this article is also a nice read. as to what Heath really felt or thought the moments before his death? he, alone, knows.

"Kid, he says, forget what the world wants from you. Go live out your own fucking sueño. "

- stop living your life on the account of what people want and expect from you. live out your sueño (dream) and make it happen

"My official last meal is a banana-nut muffin. It's not even a particularly fresh one. Some advice: Look at your next muffin. Really fucking look at it. Imagine that muffin is the last bit of food you will ever stick in your mouth. If I could do it over again, I'd make sure everything I ate was an endangered animal's heart on toast with foie-gras crumbles and black-truffle shavings. I mean, fuck. A goddamn muffin."

- live each day as if it is your last. because, who knows? it might be.

"It's just like that. I don't know how it will be for you, but for me, you wake up one more time and everything is really bright, like a flashbulb. Everything is clear as vodka. And then you go back to sleep again. One last punch-drunk opening of the eyes is what you get, and guess what--it's enough.

So hey, buddy, why so serious? Chin up. It's all part of the plan."

"It Is Time For A Love Revolution"

Lenny Kravitz's new album "It Is Time For A Love Revolution" may not be rockin' the Billboard Album Charts but it is still worth to listen to. i've always liked his music, and with this new album, i'm sure you guys will like it too. or learn to kinda maybe sorta like it too! hahaha

Whew!

just got back from shanghai this afternoon. i sooo blew my budget. crappy! i bought these:

i loved the movie, so i decided to get the book too (as novels are waaay better than movies); the pair of jeans, i got on sale (justifying my purchase. hahaha); so as the t-shirt and white dress shirt (not shown...in the laundry. hahaha); i finally got my hair product (i also had my haircut); and a wallet (seven years na yata yung lumang wallet ko). hhmmmm....what else? also got my Starbucks bottled frappuccinos, bought three bottles of mocha and three bottles of coffee frappuccino.....that's the best i can do since the nearest Starbucks is two hours from here! hahaha

"Across The Universe"

just finished downloading the soundtrack of "Across The Universe", one of my favorite movies. it is superbly dope!! hahaha. a must-hear!

"Sleep Through The Static"

i've been listening to Jack Johnson's new album: Sleep Through The Static and i'm really liking it. i like track 6: "If I had Eyes"

and track 11: "They Do, They Don't"

Flushing

i do not understand how it is so hard for people to flush the freakin' toilet twice!! how can they be fine with leaving their remnants of the past for the next user to see and experience?!

Sidetracked Again

this afternoon after work, kymn and i went to a nearby park to supposedly jog and sweat a bit. true, we jogged......for about three minutes! hahaha. then leisurely walked the rest of the time. after about 30 minutes of walking, we had dinner at the park's restaurant.


i've always wanted to check out this restaurant. but because of the language barrier (hahahah), it was only this afternoon that i got around to finally trying it out (with the super mandarin skills of kymn! hehehe). they serve H.K. cuisine. the food is good and the ambiance is really nice. but as expected, it also comes with an expensive range of selections. a regular coffe is about rmb35 = php210 (@6)!! that's already a venti drink in starbucks and maybe a pastry! hahha. our dinner damaged us by rmb200+. whew! but it is a welcome change from the four or five usual restaurants that we always dine at here in zjg.

Wanted: Barbero

i'm soooo needing a haircut. i'm trying to look for a nice salon (don't want to go to the shabby salons nearby. think sweeney todd! hahaha). initially, was planning to wait until i get to manila. but then, this is a matter of life and hair! hahaha. since we're going to shanghai again this weekend, might as well get my haircut there na lang. i'm thinking of going to toni & guy in nanjing xi lu. magkano kaya? anyone has an idea how much a haircut in toni & guy is? please help.....as i'm in dire need of a haircut! hahaha

Quotable Quotes

read the following quotes from chico garcia's blog (the top ten)

“Never let the things you want, make you forget the things you already have.”

- sometimes we got lost in the world of desire that we overlook the blessings that we already have.

“Whenever you are stressed and about to give up, remember: ’stressed’ is just ‘desserts’ spelled backwards - so it’s just a piece of cake!”

- no matter how big your problem may seem, that too shall pass. everything will eventually be better.

“Never explain yourself to anyone because the person who likes you doesn’t need it, and the one who dislikes you won’t believe it, & the one who doesn’t care about you won’t care what you say.”

- don't fret too much about what other people say/think or might say/think. life is too short. as long as you are not hurting or deliberatley offending anyone, go live your life the way you like it.

Pig-out Saturday

having been deprived of some REAL food, we went to shanghai for a daytrip yesterday as we also had to fetch a new colleague at the airport. we had lunch at T.G.I.F. and had coffee and cinnamon roll at Starbucks after. it was soooooo good!! hahaha. at about 5pm, we were already back in zjg. not wanting to waste a saturday night, huey and i went to a nearby chinese cafe to play scrabble (seriously, scrabble on a saturday night! how dorky right?!! hahaha). we were only supposed to order fruit drinks as we plan to eat at another restaurant. i ordered kiwi and huey ordered the mixed fruit variant. half-way through our first game when our orders arrived. woah!! it turned out that the things we ordered are not drinks but some sort of a fruit platter....a big fruit platter at that! hahaha. we ended up eating two big bowls of fruits and skipping our dinner plan! talk about a healthy alternative! hahaha

Vultures

currently, i've been listening to John Mayer's "Vultures" from his album "Continuum" a looottt!!!

Stuffed Wednesday Night

i am sooooo stuffed!! rex, my housemate, cooked a menudo-like dish for dinner. i had two generous servings of rice for dinner at 6pm. then at 8pm, together with my malaysian friends, we went to the only italian resto in zjg (zhangjiagang). had a plate of penne pesto, two slices of pizza, some fries, a little bread and a cup of cappuccino. gluttonous! and oh, i forgot to mention the m&ms in between. hahahah

Taro Chips

yesterday i was sooo bored, i called huey and asked her to have coffee. we ended up going to the walk street, think bonifacio highstreet only instead of the high-end shops it is populated with chinese stores (i'm in china right?! hahaha) and is not posh...at all. we discovered a small grocery on the 5th level of a department store. and i bought this: Taro Barbecue Chips

a healthy alternative to my weekly grocery staple that is lay's and doritos munchies.

one thing lang, hindi sya masyado masarap! hahaha i'd probably won't buy this again...siguro if i'm feeling healthy lang! hahaha

Chona's

i stumbled upon this blog. this is a must-read. this blog is as socially-relevant as howie severino's and as enlightening as jim paredes'.

http://chona.blogspot.com/

The Kite Runner

i watch movies a lot (as you might have noticed from my posts). this morning, i just finished watching "The Kite Runner". it is indescribable! i will not post a synopsis this time as i want you guys to watch it. the movie is about 2 hours long but you will not notice it.

i'm a modern guy, i always want to see a technology or a thing that is familiar to me. something that is new and up to date. that's why i don't like country music. it's so, country. boring. makes me feel that i'm in the provinces or in a farm. this movie, though set in early kabul in afghanistan, did not bore me at all. aside from the fact that what was shown is a totally unfamiliar culture to me, hence my curiosity, the actors also did a believable job in giving their characters life and depth. overall, this movie succeeds in giving us a peek into the lives of muslims. i've always been curious about how intense they are when it comes to islam and their religious beliefs. i still find it refreshing that some people can be so passionate about they're spiritual conceptions amidst all the new sciences and morals that are surfacing.

but ultimately, this is a movie about love. the love of a father for his children, the love of a child for his parents, the love of a citizen for his country, the love of a person for his spouse and the love of a friend for his brother.

as the movie's tag line goes: "There is a way to be good again."