juOnTech: iPod Shuffles in Color

Apple Inc. releases on Wednesday, 31 January 2007, in the US the Shuffle in 4 other colors. It’s about time! Choose your pick: pink, green, blue, orange, or the original silver.

juOnFood: Pancake Sandwich

You know how they make food look better in pictures, right? Well this is what you’ll get when you order the Jollibee Pancake Sandwich. Who needs a good-looking sandwich? You’ll eat it anyway. And with this one, the taste makes up for the lack of aesthetic appeal.

Ang sarap! Yun lang. What is outstanding about this Jollibee breakfast meal is the sausage. It tastes very Filipino—semi-sweet native longganisa without the excess fat.

Wait Up

You are running too fast. Don’t. I might not catch up. I don’t want to run. I want to walk. I don’t want to run because I’m afraid to trip again. Wait up for me. I want to run, or walk, traipse, promenade beside you. Wait up for me. Hold my hand and walk with me.

juOnBox Music 18: The Dreamgirls Love Song

It’s 24 days (or 3 weeks and 3 days) before the Philippine premiere of Dreamgirls. There’s no better way to count down the days but with the outstanding music which made the movie extra special. I’ve been listening to nothing but the soundtrack since three weeks ago and I never get tired of it. Here are two versions of the song When I First Saw You. Read the lyrics and listen to the songs then tell me what you’d feel if somebody sings them to you.

Click here to download the songs.

When I First Saw You Lyrics
By Jamie Foxx

When I first saw you
I said “O My,” I said “O My”
That's a dream
That's my dream
I needed a dream
When it all seemed to go bad
Then I found you
And I have had the most beautiful dreams any mans ever had

When I first saw you
I said "O My", "O My"
That's my dream
That's my dream
I needed a dream
To make me strong
You were the only reason I had to go on

You were my dream
All the things I never knew
You were my dream
Who could believe they could ever come true
And who would believe
The world would believe
And my dreams too

When I first saw you
I said "O My", "O My"
That's my dream

When I First Saw You Lyrics
By Jamie Foxx and Beyonce Knowles

{Jamie}
When I first saw you
I said "O My"
That's my dream, that's my dream
O, I need a dream when it all seemed to go bad
Then I find you
And I have had the most beautiful dreams any mans ever had
{Beyonce}
When I first saw you
I said "O My"
That's my dream, that's my dream
I needed a dream to make me strong
You were the only reason I had to go on

You were my dream
All of the things that I've never knew
You were my dream
Who could believe they would ever come true
And who would believe
The world would believe
In my dreams too

{Jamie}
Before you appeared
My life was only a game
And day in
And day out
Were the same Oh
{Beyonce}
Now dreams
{Jamie}
The dreams
{Beyonce}
Coming true
{Jamie}
Coming True
{Beyonce}
Like a star
{Jamie}
Like a star
{Beyonce}
See It shine
{Together}
A dream
{Beyonce}
That is yours
{Jamie}
That is yours
{Beyonce}
That is mine
{Jamie}
That is mine
{Jamie}
You were my dream
{Beyonce}
Now I've got dreams of my own
{Jamie}
All the things I could never be
{Beyonce}
Dreams you've never known
{Together}
You won't take my dream from me

{Jamie}
When I first saw you Oh
{Beyonce}
I said "O My"
{Jamie}
I said "O My"
{Together}
That's my dream

[Fade Out]

Click here to download the songs.

Flashdance... What a Feeling!

The horror stories about my new job don’t stop. Am I fazed? Uhm, my mind gets hazy right after I hear the stories. When people tell, no, warn me about certain things that I should’ve done and that I should watch out for, who wouldn’t? I lose some moments of clarity alright. Perhaps even lose my bones and turn into flimsy paper. And then certain things happen, as if by fate or by Divine intervention, that shakes me back to what I really am and focuses my vision toward what I originally set out for. Things suddenly don’t seem to be that bad.

My moment of clarity came after watching, uhm, Flashdance. The movie is the 80s (1983 to be exact) dance musical where the likes of Centerstage and Step Up took after. Flashdance was made more popular by its Academy award winning theme song Flashdance…What a Feeling sung by Irene Cara and the chair dance sequence which resonated in several other movies, television shows, commercials, and MTVs, most recently in Jennifer Lopez’s 2003 video for I’m Glad. I remember watching this movie when I was younger but the details aren’t clear anymore so watching it again felt like the first time.

The story is about the ambitious Alexandra Owens who works as a welder during the day and a club dancer at night. I actually find that irony of grace and brute kinda funny. And I haven’t even factored in the big curly hair Jennifer Beals (Alexandra) wears. The main conflict in the story is her struggle to fight her own insecurities and try out in the prestigious arts school where she had always wanted to study dance. The main theme is about reaching for one’s dreams no matter what. This is also the motivation that drove two subplots of the story: one that centered on Jeanie, Alex’s bestfriend, who wants to be an ice skater and Richie, Jeanie’s boyfriend and a cook in the bar where Jeanie waits and Alex dances, who wanted to be a stage comedian and make it in LA. Ok, no spoilers here. Read here if you want to know the story.

The movie told me this: it is easy to lose sight of my dreams when I allow myself to get engulfed in fogs of conflict. It is easy to get discouraged, to be scared and not try at all. It is easy to just sit in the corner and wait for lady luck to come and feed me. But I never take the easy way. So I will never stop now and be a sissy forever. I am brave and I will take the world in my fold and all the blessings it can give me.

That’s a pretty profound realization from a not-so-profound movie. The simplest things indeed give the most pleasure.

Fun Phone!

I just love my new Samsung X820 phone, particularly what’s called the 3D vivid view mode message receiving option. It transforms ordinary text message like this

into a rebus. Meaning certain words are displayed as images. Look at this

The word hot is represented by an animated image of the sun. Cool no? I still have no idea of the extent of the animated vocabulary this phone has. So far, I’ve discovered it turns into animated images words like question, love, rose, and train. I haven’t tried dick or cock. Wahahahaha

Suffer in Silence

Sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Sshhhhhhhhhhhhh
Sshhhhhhh
Sshhh
Ssh
Shit

Break That Habit

It is hard to accept that relationships break. But try looking at it this way: the old one has to be finished before a new chapter begins. We should accept that what has passed will never come back. It is sad of course. But find comfort in the fact that there was a time when we lived without that person. And no one is irreplaceable. You miss that person because he became a habit, but a habit is not a need. So facilitate that closing cycle by getting rid of what no longer fits your life.

For the mentally challenged, here's what I mean in two words: lay off.

Dreamgirls!

Magnificent! Since I can’t wait for the 21 February 2007 Philippine screening of Dreamgirls, I bought a bootleg copy of the film. As expected, the copy was bad (It was dark and there’s clapping and laughing in the background. The bootleg copy was obviously taken from a digital video camera inside the cinema.) but I enjoyed the movie. It was Jennifer Hudson’s movie. She was great. No, really great! I especially like her And I’m Telling You I’m not Going solo and in the Dreams’ opening number Move. Man, they indeed moved my ass off the seat!

The funny part was, well, I was singing along with the songs while watching the movie. Believe me. If you listened to nothing but the soundtrack everyday in the last two or three weeks, you wouldn’t be able to help yourself as well.

And Beyonce? Uhm, she looked gorgeous. Beyonce looked so much like Diana Ross especially toward the middle and the end of the movie when she was asked to sing lead for the Dreams. But that’s it. Like what I said, Dreamgirls is Jennifer Hudson’s movie. And yes, I definitely will watch it again on the big screen.

So Little Time

I have so many things to say, but so little time to write. I’m doing this post in bed, which means I didn’t have time to work on this yesterday or today in the office where I usually write all of my posts. So if this looks worst than a crammed research paper to you, well it is. That is not an apology. That’s a warning.

I bought a new cell phone. After much internal debate, I got a Samsung X820 by virtue of the sleek form factor, the price, and my minimum features requirement. I call it my transition phone. I plan on getting the iPhone later this year so I was thinking of waiting up for it. But since my old one’s LCD died on me late last week, I had to get one fast. I didn’t want to invest on a high-end phone now especially since I’m getting a laptop also this year. Despite the steep learning curve I have to deal with after years with Nokia (and the raised eyebrows of some people who couldn’t fathom why on earth I decided to go rice on my phone), I’m loving Samsung.

I also sold my 1 month and a half old Nintendo DS Lite and the brand new iPod Shuffle I bought last December which was a gift I never had the chance to give. These gadgets had so many memories I’d rather put behind me so there, I sold them. The DS I sold to a nice young man from TipidPC named Erwin. Dude, thanks for dealing with me. You take care of your little sister. And when you get a job after college, you upgrade her DS as well. Thanks for the positive feedback (I hope you didn’t forget.). As for the Shuffle, my two brain hemispheres were debating what wise thing to do with such a tempting gadget. Imagine it was just sitting in the cabinet of a gadget junkie for weeks! The restraint I had to practice was unimaginable until I figure out what’s best to do with it. Well, yeah giving it to the person I bought it for crossed my mind but, nah, it was a crazy idea gifting somebody who dumped me, right? I mean logic tells me he’ll not want anything from somebody he trashed. So I sold it.

I started my wardrobe shopping too. I had to buy new clothes for the new job because I have to compliment my good looks with matching clothes! Kidding.  And what sweet smile lady luck decided to bless me with. I was window shopping and chanced upon Folded and Hung’s end-of-season sale. Man, the prices went as low as 70%! Imagine I bought several pairs of hot looking polos for 350 pesos each. They were originally priced at 800 to 900 pesos! But what I don’t understand with myself was that they are all in earth colors. WTF was I thinking? I also bought a pair of hot ribbed black pants. And as if I haven’t had enough, I bought a preppy suit jacket from Mint and a matching postman bag (sadly without the postman).

Here’s what I had in my shopping bags:

But I’m not yet done shopping. I’ll do part two this weekend. I plan to buy more clothes, another pair of pants, that hot yellow sando from Dean and Trent, and a pair of dress shoes.

Now Monday and Tuesday, I attended an in-house seminar on applied marketing research in my capacity as Marketing Communications Manager. I’m a totally newbie in marketing so you’d probably think that I was scratching my head all throughout. Thankfully, I started brushing up, no, studying marketing and marketing communications since the onset of the year. The seminar speaker Dr. Ned Roberto (more popularly know as the guy who washed Renato Constantino’s face on national television) talked about the benefits of research-driven marketing. It was perfect timing because that’s exactly what I wanted to do with my department because from what I have observed, most of what they call marketing and marketing communications plan are based on guess work, the hit-and-miss process. I guess now it will be easier to introduce the innovations I have in my head because of the precedence set by the seminar.

Contrary to the image I have of him because of the media attention he got from the face washing incident, Dr. Ned was hilarious, even lovable! And he had a lot to say about the topic, which are all backed up by his extensive experience in marketing and research.

Whew! My week started really crazy. And it’s just Wednesday! I hope this is not foretelling of the kind of life I’ll have when I officially take on my new job. But I bet this is. But you know what? I sort of like this busier life. It leaves me less time to think about DJ.

I Lust You

I’m talking to these gadgets. You know you lust after them when you can’t stop going back to stores and checking out if they’re still there, hoping that when you reach inside your pocket you have enough money to buy them.

You’ll notice that except for the MacBook, all of these are cell phones. I’m planning, no, I have to get one real soon. My old phone’s showing signs of impending death. But the choosing just giving me a headache!

SE M600i

Treo 680

SE P990i

MacBook

iPhone

N73

Samsung X820

juOnGrammar: Past EmphaticTense

Who doesn’t need a refresher on English grammar? My work as an editor exposed me to grammar pitfalls that most English-speaking Filipinos suffer from. I’m sorry but we editors can’t help but edit everything we read or hear. This is going to be a series that will hopefully help a lot of you guys to improve your English grammar competency. Of course, grammar is not everything. But if we want to make a good impression, grammar can make or break us.

Do you know what is wrong with these examples?

I did left my number.
He didn’t asked.

The italicized verb phrases are in the past emphatic tense. However, the form is incorrect. When you use the auxiliary verb did in a verb phrase to express the past emphatic tense, the main verb should be in the simple present tense or base form. Here is the correct way of expressing the two examples above:

I did leave my number.
He didn’t ask.

What the hell is the past emphatic tense anyway? We are all familiar with the basic or simple forms of the six tenses (past, present, future, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect) and their progressive forms (present progressive, past progressive, future progressive, present perfect progressive, past perfect progressive, and future perfect progressive). The emphatic form is the third form of verb tense. But unlike the basic and progressive forms, the emphatic form only applies to the present and past tenses. As its name suggests, the emphatic tense is used when you want to stress or underscore your point.

Yeah I know. Verb tense has got to be one of the trickiest lessons in English grammar. But the rule of thumb is that when you are in doubt, the safest to do is to stick with the basic or simple tense.

You wouldn't know unless somebody tells you. Now you know. Email me if you want specific grammar pitfalls discussed.

You're Out

The Mating Game
By Bitter:Sweet

dance with me across the ocean floor,
sail away to heaven's open doors,
step right up you're the next contestant,
in this week's charade,
take a number wait while and twist your fate
on the mating game,
mating game,

on the mating game,
mating game,

hold me close enough to drink my rose,
the devil in my pocket turn to go,
sorry if you want it,
you're in a daze,
tonight I love you, but tomorrow go away,

step right up who's the next contestant,
in this week's charade,
take a number wait while i tease you say,
on the mating game,
the mating game,
on the mating game,
mating game,

the mating game,

on the mating game (the mating game),

the mating game (the mating game),
on the mating game (the mating game),
on the mating game.

Setting an Ex-ample

Jon: Masyado ka kasi idealistic! Sabi nga ng isang linya sa pelikula, gawin na niyang lahat nang gusto niya sa buong araw, basta pagsapit ng dilim, sa bahay mo sya umuuwi at sa kama mo sya natutulog katabi mo.

juOn: Madaling sabihin yan pero mahirap gawin. Pati pala ikaw naniniwala sa ganyang katwiran?

Jon: Oo naman. Malinaw sa isipan ko na iba ang pagmamahal at iba ang pagnanasa. Hahahaha

juOn: At tanggap ng boypren mo yan?

Jon: Naniniwala ako na kung ano ang di nya alam, di makakasakit sa kanya. Hahahaha

juOn: Ah. Paano kung ganyan din pala ang tingin ng boypren mo sa relasyon nyo? Ayus lang sa iyo?

Jon: Ah ibang usapan na iyan.

juOn: (Silence. A smirk slowly makes it way to juOn’s face.)

I had dinner with my good buddy Jon last night. It’s been a long time since we last saw each other. I like meeting up with old friends and catching up on each other’s lives. (This blog though has made it easier for them to catch up on my life.) Most of my friends don’t have their own blogs so I grab every opportunity to meet up with them if it comes. Jon and I go way back to 3 or 4 years I guess. Ok, to cut to the chase, he’s my ex. Well, he used to be my ex. He’s my friend now. One of the stories that he told me that surprised me a lot was that his last relationship lasted for 2 and a half years. I never imagined him capable of sustaining a relationship that long because I know how childish, no, immature he is. It’s not that he’s changed. He later tells me that the guy is 9 years his junior. So I figured that their relationship lasted because they were on the same maturity level. Hahahaha. They eventually broke up. Now he’s got a new boyfriend and he showed me their picture together and the guy is really cute. They actually look pretty together. And surprise of all surprises, the guy is 19 years old. Jon by the way is 30. At least Jon found a formula that works for him. The younger the guy he dates, the better for him.

Hey Jon, buddy. I’m happy that life is being good to you. Last night’s dinner was great, and your company was even greater. Cheers to more years of friendship!

The Weekend in Pictures

Killing Myself with Coffee and Yosi

Soaking in the New Job

Tinkering and Camwhoring Harvy’s New Laptop

Eating Arroz Ala Cubana at Pinoy Toppings

Working Out and Sightseeing

Typical Twenty Something Guy

This entry is a comment I left in a fellow blogger’s blog. You know you get to say brutally honest things when you think from the top of your head, just following your stream of thought.

Why are guy-to-guy relationships so disposable to some people? Why are there guys who seem to think that they are missing a lot on life if they get tied to a serious relationship? Why am I so serious about relationships anyway? Is there something wrong with me or is there something wrong with them? What is the “typical twenty something guy” anyway: the dog who sleeps around, partying like an animal or the guy with trappings of naivety and youthful excitement about love? I guess it boils down to the fact that there are guys who are relationship material and there are fleeting fancies. So I think it’s a matter of choosing the one that’s right for you. D (I will not give him the benefit of being called my ex. The “relationship” was null and void from the start.) was right about one thing. He is not and will not be the one for me. I am for long-term serious relationships. I’m the kind that will hazard to dream about spending tomorrow until God-knows-when with someone. I am lunatic, crazy, obsessed about love. I have big dreams and big dreams have to be shared with someone special, not with a stray dog. I deserve better.

It’s so hard learning about the dynamics of relationships hands-on. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t try learning at all. But the fun of it starts there. I’m sorry if I got carried away. Passion is a very hard habit to break.

More iPhone iCandy

This is going to be badly stretched so bear with me.

Love and Loss

A friend of mine tells me that he reads my blog because he thinks it’s fun. But he especially likes it when I bare myself by sharing my heartbreaks. Man! What kind of person will get pleasure from seeing someone else’s heart break? You perv you! I’m just kidding Elmer. I appreciate that you drop by every so often to witness my rollercoaster of emotions. Believe me, I’m still holding back a lot. You will not survive this day if I let out all that are inside my chest. That’ll be apocalypse unleashed. Anyway, to sate your craving for raw emotions, here’s a collection of raw emotions straight from my heart. One of these is a poem from WB Yeats, a few are text messages from friends, and most of these are text messages that I wrote myself but remained unsent. I guess this is the next best thing to actually sending them.

When You Are Old
WB Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

---

The hardest thing to do when you are in love is to realize that your love will never be enough and you have to let go. But when you think about it, accepting this reality means you’ve truly loved. That should be a comforting thought. And when letting go hurts so much, you could at the least rest assured that it was well worth it.

---

When does one stop loving? When he gets hurt? When he is jealous? When he doesn’t trust? When he finds someone else? When he is not worthy? The answer is simple. When you truly love, you don’t stop.

---

Swerte sa career maski malas sa love life? Nagkataon lang siguro. Di ako naniniwala sa swerte. Pero naniniwala ako sa hard work. Nagkataon lang na nagsipag ako sa trabaho at sa pag-ibig nagkulang ako. Next project ko siguro yun. Pero matagal pa yun. Di ako sapat.

---

Why do relationships have to be disposable?

---

I hate the feeling every time I hear my phone ring. I get excited, wishing it’s you. But I just hurt all the time because it’s not you and it’s unlikely that it will be you. You died. I have to live with it.

---

“There is a certain desperate loneliness about two parallel lines that will never meet within the same plane.” So we are parallel lines on a single plane. I’d bend the rules if I had my way. I love you but does it have to be this hard?

---

I feel so bad about the fact that you are not mine anymore just when I think I totally understand you. I’m sorry that I wasn’t worthy of another chance. I love you and I’m sorry that I still do.

---

If I had my way, I’d keep you in my arms. I’d kiss you tenderly before I sleep and when I wake up. I’d hold your hands when they are cold. If I had a choice, I’d choose you again anytime even if I know you’d shatter me again. I’d rather love you and lose you than not love you at all.

---

I call out in the darkness of the night, hoping that the ears of your heart hear what its eyes refuse to see. I love you. I am your sad and happy. I am your rich and poor. I am what your heart needs. I love you.

---

Mahalaga ka. Di ka damit na pinaglumaan na basta na lamang huhubarin kung napagsawaan na. Kung di ka nya mahal, ikaw ang magmahal sa sarili mo. Mahalaga ka.

---

When you fall in love, you just fall one way—flat on your face.


Note: Writing my feelings down is an effective outlet for me to manage my emotions. Some of these emotions, however, have expired already. I am blogging all these for documentation.

juOnTech: iPhone and Apple TV

I am so disappointed with myself that I have to learn about the release of the iPhone through a friend. Waaaaah! What a way to open the year for Apple. So rumor-mongers are right all along. Apple seers have been harping about the iPhone for some time already and finally it’s here. Get this: The iPhone (1) is a widescreen iPod, (2) a revolutionary phone, (3) a breakthrough Internet device, and (4) has mind-boggling multi-touch technology that claims to be the next big breakthrough since the mouse.

Read more about the iPhone here.

And for the couch potato, Apple has also announced Apple TV. This TiVO-like technology brings all your iTunes media to your television!

Read more about Apple TV here.

With the success of the iPod, it seems Apple realizes that the money is in consumer electronics. Apple is looking good these days. Sony better watch out.

Jeepney Hunk 14: MRT Papa

He is papa in the strictest sense of the word. JH 14 is father to this cute boy beside him. MRT Papa was taking his boy for a ride on the train one afternoon during the Christmas break. You don’t see no fatherly affection in this picture because the boy was seated more closely to his mother on the right. You can just imagine how close I was to capturing a photo of the three of them but I shot the idea dead lest I turn this into Seventh Heaven.

How to Eat Pancakes

Pancakes without the butter or the syrup or the jam is no fun. The joy of pancakes is in the eating. I learned that from… you know who you are. I don’t know if I did it right. You weren’t there when I did this.

1. Order the pancake breakfast meal with extra strawberry jelly.

2. Spread the butter on one of the pancakes.

3. Spread the strawberry jam on the other pancake.

4. Make a pancake sandwich out of the two pancakes.

5. Slice the pancake sandwich like a pizza.

6. You can enjoy it coffee or soft drinks or both. You can also top your pancake sandwich pizza with syrup. I’m hypertensive and borderline diabetic so I chose the sugarless preparation.

Hhhmmmmm. Do I look like I’m enjoying?

It doesn’t look it. Para kasing may kulang. Hhhhhmmmmm.