Someone's Cooking

Yesterday, I was talking to Zaldy and Cyla on Skype when something dawned on me and gave me a sense of looming reality. Six months from now, our long-stalled wedding will take place, and up to that point, I thought that there’s just a lot of time left but I realized that we don’t. On the other hand, I may be worrying too much. Whatever I should be feeling right now, it doesn’t matter.  Prepare early then, you get everything in order.  My overriding principle in life is - If you can start today, do so. I was never a fan of procrastination. And besides, my beautiful fiancée must be worried 10x more than I am right now. So I’m giving her more favor than I am doing myself any help.

Honestly, it’s not really the wedding I am worried about. It’s the day after, and the decades that will follow. And I am not even certain that this anxiety is not that gee-I-can’t-wait feeling whenever I am waiting for my turn to sing karaoke (that is if I jam with people I just met or barely knew). There is just this truckload of questions. But one thing is for sure, there’s nothing more I would want than to grow old with my future wife.

I’m feeling what my good buddy, Mike Gadia, must have been feeling when he was just counting months before his wedding over a year ago. Whenever we got the chance to chat on Facebook, he’d just blurt out how frantic the preparations were. Back then, I didn’t get it. I had this impression that the brouhaha over weddings is just a girl thing, but I was mistaken. You’d really want it to be perfect, not because everything must be brilliant, but because you would want to start this married life perfectly.

Well, I called Zaldy and Cyla to discuss the choir’s preparation for the ceremony. We’ve got a list of songs that include those that will be sung for the first time by my beloved Sto. Nino Choir. Just as I had expected, I am hearing complaints of how difficult the songs were. But the dedication, of course, is there, and I admire how everyone is working hard to make sure that they’ll sing their parts perfectly. Included in the repertoire are:

1.     Beati Quorum Via – C.V. Stanford

2.     From this Moment – S. Twain

3.     O Magnum Mysterium – M. Lauridsen

4.     The First Time I Loved Forever – (Phil Madrigal Singers’ arr)

5.     When I Fall In Love – (Phil Madrigal Singers’ arr)

6.     Runaway – (Corrs, arr by my friend, S.E. Pacamparra – if he finishes it)

7.     Parent’s Prayer (Christian Song) – Steven Curtis Chapman

Passion in music is one of the few things that I and my fiancée share in common. As an accountant, I am in no way professionally related to her work as a nurse, so there would be a lot of dead air and one-way talking going on in our daily calls, but a topic on music would usually keep my Skype and phone bills climbing, LOL.

With six months to go, how do I consume my time prior to the date I will fly home to don on that tuxedo? Well aside from my buwis-buhay work here in Kabul, there’s three things I’ve found really fun to do:

1.     Watching MasterChef Australia

2.     Imitating those dishes I saw in MasterChef with the burner plate I’ve got in my room.

3.     Eating what I cooked and discerning if I can use it as an audition entry should there be a MasterChef – Afghanistan edition.

What if MasterChef hits NATO Bases in Afghanistan?

And of course there’s three things I’ve found not fun to do, and yet I still have to do them:

1.     Running (or brisk-walking) 2 kilometers a day on the treadmill to shed off extra fat I gained in eating my MasterChef entrees and main courses

2.     Running 500 meters more to shed even just a bit of my belly flabs accumulated over years of eating in US dining facilities, which would always serve supersized meals buffet style.

3.     Stepping on that weighing scale and seeing that I’m just losing a thousandth of a kilo after an hour of excessive sweating and leg-cramping exercises.

At 23 minutes,  I have walked/jogged  2,205 meters and burned 177 Cal

Doing all these things gave me two realizations. First, things you do for fun aren’t really as easy as they seem to be, you just don’t notice the difficulty as you are enjoying them. And of course - things that are not fun to do are never easy.

Even if the task is just to wait, it is never easy. 

It’s already 1 am and I gotta hit the bed. See ya. 

Not So Far Future..

Something that will get me going for the next five years (or less, I hope)
http://goo.gl/maps/SZlh

Tong-its, atbp.

Tong-Its, et al.

We play Tong-its almost every night. This Filipino poker-like game has been one my few addictions ever since my early teens. The first time I learned it was during one Christmas vacation when I have all the money to bet against my Mom and my brother, Jason, just to learn how to double your money if you are lucky. I would sing at night (not as a professional singer, but a caroler) and I will play in the morning, just before lunchtime. On the very first day I played – believe it or not, I won 18 pesos – 90% of my total capital (20 pesos – just in case you feel lazy to compute).  The second day, I still won. On the third day, after thinking that at long last, I had found something I would be proud of not losing ever,  I lost – and it had been that way until I learned something very, very, very important in life – don’t always count on luck.

I actually won this round, can you believe that?

(From L-R) Jonathan, ME, Marlon, Rowel

Isang araw nitong 2010, napag-tripan namin ni kuya na mag-Poker. Actually, I really didn’t know how to play it. The last time I played (back in 2007 in Iraq), I was having more trouble trying to hide my ignorance of the game than winning. Well I lost there small time – about 40 to 60 bucks. That time with kuya, I thought I was going to learn and would be at ease and won’t have to exert effort of faking a good hand (though I really don’t know if I DO have a good hand). But I was wrong. Learning the game cost me 300 bucks (can you believe that?). But my kuya was good to his younger brother and understood that his younger was just learning the game. He gave his younger brother $100 back and pinangalat sa buong opisina namin ang aking pagkatalo... Lesson learned: Never gamble against your brother.

So, I gambled against my ‘other’ officemates, bosses included. On the second time I played, I won $20. Third night – our country manager lost his 100 bucks to me, along with 50 bucks more from the others.  Fourth night I played, still won more than a hundred. This time, I already regained what I lost to my brother. On our succeeding games, I still won some more, until one night, for the first second time since I learned Poker by heart, I lost $20. Then I stopped

I stopped because I thought that my winning streak has come to an end and that it was a signal that a series of unfortunate events (meaning, mga gabing talunan) has commenced and that I will just find myself addicted to the game because I will always aim to regain what I lost the previous night. And you know how I did it? Simple, I just made an accounting of my “Poker” transactions ever since that battle against my kuya:

Beginning Balance:                                     $0

Add: Revenues from Poker

Day 1 (Donation Revenue)          $100

Day 2                                       $20

Day 3                                       $150

Day 4                                       $130

Day 5                                       $80

Day 6                                       $110                             $590

Less: Losses from Poker

Day 1 /with Kuya                      $300

Day 7                                       $20                             ($320)

Ending Balance:                                       $270

So in 1 week, I was able to make $270.00 out of Poker. On Friday, I went to Eggers PX (a military exchange store in Kabul) and bought a brand new X-Box 360 120gb with Kinect Sensors. Nice gaming console and at a good price too. $299.00 – just added 29 bucks to my winnings.

Well, I thought that from zero balance to $270 is not bad. Also, if I already thought I was gonna lose more, then I’m ought to lose more. So I decided to stop $270. But this thinking wasn’t the one that stopped me from playing poker.

It was a freaking X-Box videogame that got me really hooked enough to forget Poker and guess what - shower. Yes, even taking a shower gets compromised with my addictions. There’s only one addiction that motivates me to spend more time in the shower room – and that is my addiction to my girlfriend.

Pero since all videogames ay may katapusan (kung hindi man nakakasawa), nawala rin ang addiction ko sa mga ito. Natapos ko ang Naruto Shippuden pati na rin ang Assasins Creed – ay mali, nagsawa lng pala ako sa Assassin’s Creed – so sa Naruto lang pala talaga ako na-adik. Kaso, tinapos na namin ni Kuya yung storymode, eh sawa na sya mag laro ng 2 player versus, tapos si Ricky naman (yung isa naming kasama sa work) eh hindi naman ganon ka husay (walang challenge), hindi na rin ako naglaro. Nawala din ang addiction ko.

Almost all addictions leave our bodies, our minds, our hearts at a certain point in time. It may be when we don’t find happiness in them any longer, or when we no longer find reasons to do them. That’s why I believe, that it is utterly important to choose our addictions well – for sometimes they leave indelible marks on our personalities that make us regret for the rest of our lives. Some addictions just destroy us, take away our dreams, and lead us to our fall. Others would create us and bring us to the realization of our dreams. Discernment and discipline are the keys. I have always remembered that the worst addiction makes us feel good of ourselves, so good that we no longer feel that we are already crashing on hard ground.

Now, I am back to playing tong-its. And I have new playmates! Now that my brother was stranded in the PI for a long time, I get to play with new people in Project Controls department. I’ve known them for years and have been friends or acquaintances. It was good playing Tong-its with them. But unlike before, where I think of gambling as a way to quickly double your money, I think of it as a past time. With good friends playing with me, I always enjoy even if I lose. I don’t do accounting equation anymore, I just enjoy the company. When you have Rowel, Jonathan and Marlon playing with you, you’ll just laugh big time.

No dull moment in a Tong-its Night...

Playing Tong its with my Girlfriend's family

I was losing here.. at first

Kailangan na nilang magtulong kasi nauubos ko na ang pera nila bwahahahah...

Tong-its will be one of those addictions that will come and go. And I would even say that I am not addicted to it right now. I am addicted to the good company I have with friends and do hope that this addiction never ends – just as my addiction to God, to my girlfriend and to my family will never be suppressed. 

Ni Hao, Hong Kong!

"  I know, I know, pogi pa rin ako, pero ok sana kung may buhok ako sa noo "

It’s been almost two months since I last posted something on my blog. Well, it seems like i haven’t been following my schedule for blog posting religiously. Sabi ko noon i’ll post, mga two to three times in a month, pero mukhang tinatamad ata ako.  But here I am, thankful that finally, after being back from my last R&R a month ago, had the time to write again. Though, randomly, but still creating something out of a blank page of MS Word. 

6 weeks ago, I, together with my girlfriend, Len (opo, sinagot nya ako), and my family, went to Hongkong. It was really, really fun (as in hindi maitagong kasiyahan). We went to so many places, walked gazillion of kilometres, and ate tons of noodles there. My Mom and Dad, enjoyed a lot in Disneyland , which surprised me, kasi I thought pambata lang yung park. Exie, my youngest brother and Shane, my sister, had enjoyed shopping in Hongkong’s Divisoria – the Night Market. Hindi rin pahuhuli si Madam Cyla, who enjoyed being spoken to by a lot of Hongkong citizens  - in Chinese! San ka pa?  I enjoyed being with my family, but of course, I enjoyed being with my girlfriend all the more.  Right from the time na we met sa Dubai Airport to landing there in Hongkong, hindi ako nakatulog.. kulitan lng kami ng kulitan sa airplane.. I missed her a lot, and everytime i see her and spend time with her, I love her more and more.  (Ang cheesy!). I’m having the time of my life being with her. Sabagay, yung hindi nga kami magkasama, masyado na ako naho-hook sa kanya kahit sa telepono lang, yung magkasama pa kaya kami. I remember tuloy my post before about Mam Ophelia and her poem, A Kind of Burning. If I were to write a poem like that, she’d be the subject.

The difference is we’d only be hapless lovers in this wayward world for three months. Tapos for two weeks, we’d be together again and become inseparable. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I will not be able to go anywhere but to her during that time, but I’ll always be with her (there’s a difference). That’s the sweet thing about loving someone you don’t see often. The flame gets bigger and hotter, waiting to be quenched with the actual sight of that face, that nose, that lips, and that pimples you only normally imagine pag wala sya sa tabi mo... Problema lng, pag mahal mo ang isang tao, hindi talaga mapatay patay ang apoy. Solution? Hayaan lang, basta wag na wag mong paglaruan.. (ayos ba sa linya? Hehehe)

 

So, ipopost ko yung mga pictures namin sa Hongkong, hoping to give you some idea, guys, on how fast my freaking HAIRLINE is receding. I know, I know, pogi pa rin ako, pero ok sana kung may buhok ako sa noo.  Well, actually, I like to share how good the Lord has been to me, endowing me with blessings, a family that I love so much, a girlfriend (though not a millionaire) who gave me that feeling of hitting the lotto jackpot, and a chance to share my blessings and be an inspiration to many.  Sometimes, I would think that I don’t deserve a lot of this, but then again, I’m always reminded that it is not me who laid down the paths I walked on to, but God Himself... And as his child, the only thing I need to do is to walk through, walk on, and trust in Him – be it on the bumpy side, through dark trails, or on smooth pavements of this journey we call --- (di ko na tinapos kasi gasgas na.. baka mapakanta lang ako ng Next In Line). 

-champ020611

This is taken sa Tsim Sha Tsui, sa Avenue of the Stars. Every 8 pm they would play a musical tpos mayroong lightshow sa mga buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbor... astig.

Pero, there would be no brighter light for me but my one and only honey... Eh kung ganyan ba naman kaganda ang girlfriend mo, kahit laging brown out, ok lng!

Waiting in queue para sa first Hong Kong dinner date namin...

Arrival of my family in Hongkong.. As you can see, first timers sila sa pag-aabroad, including si Madam (leftmost).

Picture taking muna sa airport before going to the city.. Yung honey ko, una palang comfy na sa mga in-laws hehehe...

Still in the Airport....

With my sister, Shane..

With my sexy mother, Mami.. (Bwahahaha)

Pogi ng utol ko.. heheheh Exie

I'm so excited, i just can't hide it - Cyla

Ang hirap i kubli ng tsan...

Shane and Exie.. hehee

Pang international na ET&C hahaha.. kulang lng si Chon (di bale, next time)

It's good to see ang dalawang matanda sa taas ng bus habang umiikot sa hongkong hehehehe

Can't really discern if this was taken before or after the wedding LOL ( hon, baka batukan mo ko..)

Dos Mujeres de mi vida

Nandyan ka  na naman.. Tinutukso tukso.. ang aking puso...

Sino kaya ka text ni Daddy, eh hindi naman naka roaming phone nya???

Ang sweet hehehehe

Caught: Receding hairline..

Kulang na lng ng lata sa harap.. maglalagay nasana ako ng barya hehehehe

Spot the difference. hehehehehe

Nakakapagod.. umakyat... ng 500 steps

Poor sales lady.. nalugi..

Ma, hindi over na tayo sa baggage limit....

Cable Car going to Ngong Ping. at si madam, busy sa kung ano...

Ang tagal ko nang hindi nakitang magka holding hands ang dalawa.. este holding fingers pala

Habang kaming lahat ay pagod na sa kalalakad.. si Shane, posing pa rin.. ayos

Madam starts to discover her culture from the life before... heheheh

Wawa naman exie bebe.. napagod na...

 Abangan - Me and my honey sa Baguio (with her Family.. naku po!) and me and my honey sa Boracay -  on my next blog posts...

The Xbox 360 Degree Turn on Reality versus Mario Brothers

April 8, 1993

I’ve never been a fan of video games. The last one I’ve had much delight of was way back the Nintendo Family Computer times. Finishing Super Mario (or just Mario, so to speak) 3 times in 2 hours was my record, and I was very proud of it. So I went out to a computer shop in our subdivision to challenge anyone who thought he or she was good. You know back then, there are no internet cafes yet; just some random houses with 5 televisions (sometimes black and white) and 5 family computer units renting them out at 3 pesos an hour. So there I was, bragging about my Guiness Record of My Own Mind only to find out that somebody achieved the same feat – in 48 minutes! I was in disbelief upon learning such and even thought that the kid who beat me was just getting help from some unknown up-down-left-right-a-b-select-start cheat codes that made him jump to the final stage quickly. But he didn’t. I watched him played, he went through the same stages as I did, jumped on the same spots as I did, and made Mario leaped to each stage flagpole with the same grace as I did. I was devastated.

            

            I was a loser.

I was nine years old at that time and that made it worse because my nemesis (never bothered to know his name) was just six. And the worst of all, every possum nut there beat my time – except a girl who played “Ice Climber”. I went home, not telling anyone about it and feeling sorry for my 3 pesos that I thought would put me on our village map.

                March 20, 2011

                18 years after and here I found myself packing my things as I am going on R&R pretty soon. I just remember that heartbreaking day as I am putting back into its box this X-Box 360 that I just bought 3 weeks ago. Far different from those Family Computers whose joystick buttons I’ve raped non-stop, this machine impresses me so much. With internet capability, Kinect Motion Sensor gadget, High Definition graphics, and kick-ass controls, this is obviously a gazillion of miles ahead of that crappy Nintendo. Get this - I can even store up to a hundred games on this machine’s 250 gig hard drive! 

            Kewl!

Well I still suck in video games (was even wondering why I even bought it), but this Xbox made me think how much had changed since then. Well, I am not really that techie and have never been a fan of just-came-out gadgets, but I can appreciate how these contraptions evolved from their ancestors. And change is becoming a big issue to me lately, with lots of life-changing events happening in rapid succession and I can hardly keep up with all of them.  A friend once told me that the only thing constant in this world is change and as much as I would want to debate on that, I am starting to believe in it fully, with no exceptions nor conditions.

               

                I’m even changing how I view things! (It must be true then)

My youngest brother who’s still in college may really be excited to play with this new machine. I also think my nephew and nieces would spend more time in my house marveling on the dozens of Naruto characters they can choose from to “digitally” murder each other. And somehow I recall those times when I was the one sitting there in front of the TV, trying to practice on how I can beat my big brother Jason in battle games. Time had passed and you can’t help but wonder how when you were a kid, you never thought you’ll become an adult someday. I never thought that that control I once got using the steel plated joysticks will turn into control over kids I would stop from playing so they can finish their homework. That power I had in my hands to make Mario jump on turtles and toss them will become power to make another person become a friend or an enemy. Before, I was controlling Battle City tanks; now I am controlling my life.

        

        It’s a 360 degree turn indeed, and life had been a lot harder since then. This time, there are no cheat codes – you have to go through each stage and fight each opponent - be it a person who’d knock you down, a loss in business, a failed exam, or an ailing relationship.  And they’re always a tough battle. The main problem is, you only have one life you can use, and when you get hurt one time, it stops you and takes a while before you can get another mushroom or flower that’ll make you grow and have the power to stand a chance.

               

                 In video games, there are items we get that make our favorite characters a lot stronger, faster, or invincible. A star makes Mario look like a walking disco ball. A big pellet enables Pacman to freeze the multi-colored ghosts. These items are also present in real life – I call them opportunities. However, they don’t make things easy just like that. Instead, we work them out. And some of them don’t even appear as opportunities. Instead, they seem to us as challenges only to find out that they are blessings-in-disguise in the end.  And I think it makes life a little tougher, because not only you have opponents to fight with, you also got opportunities to work out. And, if you don’t grab these opportunities, you may never defeat your opponents ever. Golden rule: Pinaghihiirapan ang lahat!

                

                 Sh%t!

                

             And this is the reason why I find a lot of under-achieving students, out of school youths, even unemployed adults so hooked up to internet games (they even throw up their last penny just so they can build their kingdom for an hour or two). In the virtual world, they can be who they want to be, create the monster they want to appear, and kill their opponents with magical weapons and potions. And I will not blame why they would spend a lot of their time in front of those monitors, enduring the summer heat and sharing each other’s profanities and odors. – they want to live in the virtual world. I, myself, would always like to do the same - pretend I’m someone that can do whatever my mind wants to do in a very easy fashion.

                

                 But life, as we know it, will never be easy. And it really makes me ugghh!

                

               It's just different. But no matter how hard it is, I’d rather build my adventures and imagination on it than on a memory card. I’ve learned that computer games will only appear as real as how we think they are. 

               Also, I would always prefer the playing field of real life over the other: for in life, no matter what you do, no matter how you failed, no matter how you lost - there are no game-overs.

Unless you’re already six feet under.

But until you’re not, you have no right to give up.

I love the Lord!

Champ

P.S.

Some things never changed. For example, Jason still beats me in this computer crap big time. The difference, however, is that I lose at least 10 dollars every time (greediest bas*ard ever!)

Sidenote:

I'm excited because my girlfriend and I are going home this summer, and I'm even more excited because...

On my next Bora picture, I am not going to be alone.

And congratulations to my friend Jose Admiran Fabregas II for having been recently baptized into the Facebook world!