i hope you don't mind my holiday recycling (wrappers, that is)

I forgot to buy giftwrappers this year.

Fortunately, I tend to keep the ones I get. And not just giftwrappers, but paper packaging, plastic bags, brown envelopes, even tags from various stores.

So here, a Starbucks brown bag meets a wrapper of a gift I received in... oh, I don't know, maybe 2011. :D

No re-gifting, just re-wrapping.

Oh, and happy holidays, everyone! :)

escape: Samal Island

Let's make this clear right off the bat: I'm a cheapo traveler. That means you can tuck me in the corner of a jampacked jeepney and I won't complain, as long as it's much cheaper than an air-conditioned van.

But that also means I will rummage through 50 pages of Google search results just to find that perfectly priced getaway when I need it. And that, friends, is how I got to stay in the famous Samal Island for less than Php4,000.

the camouflage man

This is not my poem, but the sentiment in it reflects mine -- and maybe yours.

going, going, gone: 'Before Midnight' is a story about love

Maybe I was too excited. Maybe I was drunk on kilig. Maybe I trusted too much on Richard Linklater's ambiguous endings. Whatever it was, I sure as hell got my rude awakening after I watched Before Midnight.

Why? Let me borrow the tagline of another movie, because it aptly describes this one.

Before Midnight is not a love story; it's a story about love.

"Still there... Still there... Gone."

5 reasons i'm missing CdeO's night market

It never really occurred to me before that many hated Cagayan de Oro's Friday and Saturday night market/café. I knew they dreaded the traffic caused by the transformation of two of the city's busiest streets into... well, a marketplace. I knew they hated the stench and the garbage that came with it and lingered after it. I knew they would rather steer clear of the laidback -- even rowdy -- masses that flocked to it.

But the Divisoria night market had always been full of people, even on rainy evenings. I was one of those who actually loved it. And now that the city government has finally suspended it, I'm already starting to feel a little nostalgic.

'street' blog

original post from my Multiply, dated 22january2009

i love walking along divisoria in the afternoon. the diversity of people, the action, the noise -- everything is just so thought-inspiring in a strangely beautiful way. and maybe you might laugh at this, but honestly, it's almost like a spiritual experience for me.

so one afternoon, i got to compose a -- how do you classify this? essay? poem? whatever -- in my head while walking from XU to LC. it's really personal, but i'm posting it here for 'preservation' -- and maybe for future inspiration.
:)

words of summer

June has begun, and in this tropical little corner of the world that is the Philippines, that means summer is officially over. And while I am almost-tearfully saying "So long, sweet summer; I hardly saw you this year", there's Pinterest, just starting to bloom with sunshiny posts from the Northern Hemisphere. Every bright, sunny pin makes me die with envy. Why can't summer last just a little longer?

My summer this year had been short and bittersweet, and when I think about it, three favorite words come to mind:

Heliophilia - love of sunlight

Sprezzatura - a studied nonchalance

Ephemeral - lasting for a very short time

So long, sweet summer. Until we meet again. :)

define kilig: Before Sunrise, Sunset, and Midnight

I was chatting with my lovely friend Joyce today, and as girlfriend chats usually go, we spent so much time discussing boys and relationships. Inevitably, we landed on the realm of kilig.

You may not encounter this term everyday (and maybe never in your entire life if you don’t speak Filipino), but kilig is one of the best, sweetest, most positive feelings that anyone on this earth can feel. Or maybe that’s just the closet romantic in me.

Let me try to define and illustrate it with the help of a notorious kilig-inducing weapon: romance flicks. But because I’m very cautious of anything saccharine, I’ll use the subtle kilig factor of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight.

[Minor spoilers ahead!]

From Before Sunrise. "I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away."

whoa! the new Paramore is a long way from 'Falling'

Ever noticed how these days, our favorite rock bands are dishing out albums that are lighter, perkier, even… pop-ier? Examples: Incubus came out with the lush If Not Now, When?, then Coldplay warmed up (pardon the pun) with their Mylo Xyloto. Now, it sounds like Paramore is getting their feet wet in the evolution pool as well. And with surprisingly good results.

concert-goer: 2012 in the backyard

If 2012 is any indication, CdeO’s starting to look more like Cebu’s, Davao’s, and imperialist Manila’s little sister in the music scene. Not that I’m actually in the scene (I am so not), but it doesn’t take an insider to see we’re beginning to live a little in our own backyard. And I’m not just talking about TJ Monterde.

I’m talking a great turnout to events like the T5 show in July: