25 Isn't Quarter Life When You're Crawling Fast Enough

I was trying to think of something witty to say about turning 25 but I just can't squeeze anything out of my brain right now. I guess I'm just thankful that I didn't spend my birthday at the doctor's clinic or in the ER like last year.

Oh, and my dad sent me a greeting and his birthday wish for me via text (and I quote): I wish u will find ur lifetime partner soon." HAHAHA. Jeez dad, I turned 25, not 40.

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In last year's birthday blog post, I was congratulating Camille and Marlon on their engagement. This year, I'm congratulating them for getting married last Saturday! It was a fun wedding and I had a great time in Baguio. I'll talk about that and post pics in the next few days.

Up next will be Mich and James in another destination wedding! Ang daming ikakasal! I guess my dad does have a point...

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I'm on training now for a new role, and I'm actually excited about it. I'll be managing a new application (you know, managing it in a technical way. Heh.) I just hope I don't bring any bad luck to this role/application. In other work-related news, I am now an OCA (Oracle Certified Associate)!

Gotta update that resume then.

I Am now The Jack Bauer Power Hour

So yesterday was an awful day to have a birthday... After getting an allergic reaction to the pain killers, I went back to the hospital to get treated. I went to the ER where they gave me two shots (on my arm and on the vein in my hand.) After getting the shots, I fell asleep for a bit till the doctor woke me up and signed my release form, along with the advice that I can't eat seafood, chicken, dairy products, and chocolates. I also can't drink soda AND BEER for 1 week. dammit.

Good thing my mom cooked spaghetti and adobo and my dad grilled some ribs. My favorite comfort food. ;-)

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Another set of (former) office friends got engaged last weekend. Congratulations Camille and Marlon! I smell a Baguio wedding! :D

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So the good news (about me, of course...) is my eyes aren't swollen anymore, and even if the pain killers made my eyes swell, it actually worked because I got to sleep without being woken up by the pain from me rubbing into the rashes. AND I get to work from home until I'm not contagious anymore.

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Finally, in honor of my 24th birthday, I'm changing my byline from:
Random Spittings of a frustrated musician/writer/tennis player who has yet to meet his quarter-life crisis (or if he has, then this frustrated musician/writer/tennis player has a terribly short life.)

to:
Random Spittings of a frustrated musician/writer/tennis player who has yet to meet a quarter-life crisis he didn't vaguely blog about.

(It's the truth!)

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Now playing: Portishead - We Carry On
via FoxyTunes

Happy fucking birthday.

Just a short summary of how my day has gone so far:

I woke up at 4 am because I was feeling pain from the rashes from my shingles. I had a hard time going back to sleep after that. Went to the doctor after having lunch (spaghetti that my mom cooked, since she knows that's my favorite) to get my shingles checked and got prescribed an anti-viral drug and pain killers by the doctor.

So I took the pain killers because the rashes (which weren't really rashes anymore but were blisters on my upper back and chest) were really painful... And it turned out that I'm allergic to the pain killers, so now my right eye and eyelids are swollen, just like what happens when I take aspirin and ibuprofen..

And the day isn't even close to ending yet.

Happy fucking birthday.

It's Not Like I Was 21 For Two Years.

About the same time last year, I was doing some reflection about myself. So I'll do it again today. Ooooh, I guess I have a new a tradition.

The thing is I don't really know what to reflect on. I still like tennis, watching The Amazing Race, The Simpsons and Family Guy, listening to Damien Rice, Jeff Buckley and Modest Mouse, food tripping, traveling and beach bumming, Daniela Hantuchova, Natalie Portman and Neil Gaiman, and I also still have the occasional bouts of angst like I'm stuck in the 90's.

I also still don't know if I've already gone through or have yet to meet my quarter-life crisis. On the positive side, I can say that my sleeping, eating and drinking habits have gone to the complete opposite direction to the one that's probably classified as "good". It's a positive because I know how people say that admitting you have a problem is the first step to solving them. Ha!

Here's to hoping that hitting strides and kicking asses will never be things of the past.

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Now playing: The Killers - Everything Will Be Alright
via FoxyTunes

Good Times Come

Had an extremely fun night yesterday with my friends/officemates/former teammates. We all got together to celebrate Mats', Karon's, Camille's, and my birthday. Woohoo!

The four of us treated our F/OM/FTM to dinner at La Maison. The food was great (especially the barkada-sized ribs) and since there were more than a dozen of us, they gave us a table at a separate section of the restaurant (I guess so that we won't disturb the other guests.) After that we headed to Masas for some after-dinner drinks (a few pitchers of Mango Mandarin, (which I kept calling Mango Madness, which kept confusing the waiter), a few pitchers of Frozen Dalandan Margaritas, and some bottles of Red Horse, San Mig Strong Ice and Lights.) After that, we headed off for Red Box to do some hardcore videoke singing. And by hardcore, I mean heart-felt ballads, American Idol-style performances, Britney Spears pop fluff, and the requisite Aegis dregs disguised as "songs".

Thanks for the great night guys! (Hey, I did say it was gonna be legendary, right? Hahaha)

[ ]
^
This is where our group picture would have been posted,
had I not forgotten to bring my cam.

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Now playing: Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better
via FoxyTunes

Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Ok, not to be cliche or anything, but today makes yesterday look foolish. What a difference 24 hours make.

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I just heard Chris Cornell's (hey, he's got a nice website btw) new single Arms Around Your Love on the tv. Is it just me or does it sound too... I don't know, 3 Doors Down? Rob Thomas? (ducks bullets and eggs)

His vocals are still great, but the whole song just sounds so... Adult Alternative? Contemporary pop/rock? Its weird. for a Chris Cornell song, that is.

But I should probably listen to the whole album first (or the whole song even) before really spouting sacrilege.


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It's my Dad's birthday today*. It's also the Philippines' national Independence Day*. But I barely felt it. No parades, no fireworks, today's not even a holiday! So much for nationalism.

For what it's worth, Happy Independence Day to all Filipinos!

*I'm writing this at 2:15 am, June 13; but I'm still considering now June 12 according to my frame of time-consciousness. Since I woke up at 1pm today. :p

(call it a non-sexual orgasm.)

I took my family out on the night of my birthday last Friday to have dinner at Melo's in Alabang. The steak there is just insanely great! I had the Angus beef rib eye. It was soooo tender and tasted frakkin great. The best steak I've ever had, without a doubt. (It also did not come by coincidence that that dinner was the most expensive meal I ever had to pay for.) Happy 22nd birthday to me!

Thanks to my friends from the office who gave me a copy of Alisa Kwitney's The Sandman: King of Dreams in hardcover(!) It's an annotation, if you will, of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series.

Thanks for a great great gift and Tuesday's cake, everyone!

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I remember that time when I met Neil (close kami, bakit ba?) almost two years ago at his book signing here in Manila. I blogged about it way back when (check the July '05 archives) and, man! Looking back to that experience, something that happened two years ago, when I was still in college... before I started working... when all I was stressing about was finishing our thesis (and defending it to our panel)... when I was still a lot less cynical than I am now... It still gives me a huge rush of excitement, an adrenaline rush that makes my chest feel like it will swell up and erupt (call it a non-sexual orgasm.) That. Was an amazing moment. It really was.



What? So I'm a fanboy.

What's with today today?

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I'm turning 22 tomorrow.

When things are not going as great as you hope, it's always important to put things into perspective. When you see things clearly, you are better equipped to move to any direction you want.

No bridges need to be burned. No walls need to be brought down.

Fuck off assholes. This is my moment of zen.