5 is The Number of the Week.

I got five (5!!!!) new shirts as gifts last Christmas. Is that a subtle sign that the clothes I wear suck? If so, noted, and LOL.

The other thing I enjoyed doing last Christmas was buying gifts for my godchildren (I've got 5 so far), mostly because they're all kids/babies/pre-teens and it's always fun to look for the coolest toys and other baby items. My oldest godchild is actually around 10 or 11 (or 12?) years old already (I don't think I was even a teenager yet when he was born) (his name is Denzel btw, and yes, he was named after Denzel Washington), so instead of buying him a toy, I gave him 3 Hardy Boys books instead, since I was about his age when I started reading books.

Yep, those Hardy Boys paperbacks (and Archie comics) were the main reasons why I got into reading.



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Now playing: Newton Faulkner - Foundations (Live On The Live Lounge)
via FoxyTunes

(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.

Another Round of Aimless Spitting

1. The Chicago Deep Dish White Cheese Pizza from Sbarro is really good. That fish fillet thing in some sort of sauce that's put on top of the spaghetti is pretty good too.

2. Rachael Yamagata.

3. I don't know who I'm voting for yet. This is an election year right? Theres a lack of political ads these days. Maybe those politicians got the good sense of reallocating their millions to some other effort than putting up stupid ads on primetime tv.

Oh, wait.

4. I just remembered that I need to call my ISP to upgrade to a faster internet connection.

5. A couple of months ago, I was browsing through Powerbooks Alabang when I saw a copy of:
It has since disappeared from where I saw it... so it was probably their only copy?

6. Speaking of Works of Neil, did you know that Stardust is coming out soon?

7. Stewie Vs Fiddy

Stewie for Govarner!

Settembre?

1. August 31 was my teammate Vlam's last day at the office. I have to admit that it was sad to see him go because he wasn't just a great co-worker, but is also a great person. Last September 2, he invited us for a weekend trip to Fontana. Fontana was awesome, unfortunately, despite a weekend out-of-town trip, I still had to work all night till early morning :(

Good luck on your new career as a businessman, Vlam! :D

2. Our bundle, BI/DW(Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing), had our off-site team building last weekend at Lagos Del Sol in Lake Caliraya, Laguna. Lagos Del Sol was really beautiful. But despite the fact that it was our team-building, I again had to work (at midnight!)

3. Just got myself a cd of John Mayer's Continuum and Snow Patrol's Eyes Open. I am right now reading The Sandman Volume 2: Doll's House (it's one of the books I bought during Powerbooks' month-long sale). I spotted a hardback of The Wake (Sandman Vol 9) at Bibliarch in Glorietta 3 that I'm tempted to buy too. It's really expensive though, but The Sandman has always been my favorite indulgence, so I might just get a copy :D

4. I'm in the middle of a four-day break from work right now. It's so tough to shift from being a midnight DM to a regular working hour routine every week. I officially hate it.

5. I became a 1-year-old professional last Tuesday.

6. Two teammates of mine recently came back from Warsaw, Poland. Their trip was related to our (sub)team's transition to 24x7 application support hours.

The next few months should be interesting.

Het Augustus?

One thing I like about August?

August = month-long Powerbooks sale! Woohoo!

I'd post a wishlist here, but it's not even close to my birthday so I think I'll just let this one pass for now. (But hey, if you're up for giving me a gift for no apparent reason, then go right ahead!)

You know what else is coming up this August? Rockestra II! Last year, bands such as Imago, Cambio, Sandwich, Silent Sanctuary, Sugarfree, and Twisted Halo signed up to perform their songs with the Manila Symphony Orchestra. This year's event happens on August 18 at the Folk Arts Theater, featuring bands such as The Dawn (woohoo!), Hale (meh...), 6cyclemind(umm..), Itchyworms (woohoo), Urbandub (woooohoooo!) and Up Dharma Down! (wooooohoooooo!!!) 4 out of 6 bands is not so bad... and MSO should rawk the house fo sure!

Now all I have to do is look for people to come with me.


Ooooh, and to be on the safe side, if you are going to buy me something at powerbooks, something (anything) by Kurt Vonnegut or Irvine Welsh would be good =P