"there is a certain desperate loneliness of two parallel lines that will never meet within the same plane.." --from a peyups.com member's sig

hay, sad...

Woke up early and decided to boot the pc before the web layout I was contemplating disappear from my mind, thus the extremely early blog inspired by a creamy cup of coffee and a ferrero from hny. I hate myself for trying to cram up the dozen or so things to-do when a group meeting or a class is scheduled on that same day. I was tinkering on a web layout since yesterday, and was able to primp the site a bit, I feel the need to take formal lessons in web development. I badly wanted to be on the conceptualization and design side rather than just being on the user-side. Argh, frustrations.

Another bad habit of mine is procrastination, which, understandably leads to cramming. And also, ningas cogon, starting something but not able or opted not to finish it due to procrastination. Talk about causal relationship and the cyclical nature of things.

I have two draft posts in my blog and decided to start on a third one. If you're able to read this, then I probably skipped the two, one about Jimi Hendrix and the other one about...I forgot.

I guess I'm not the only one frustrated this morning, I think I managed to piss off the people at Gmail. In a nutshell, I requested for them to host an account with an existing domain and then when I found out that things are not how I envisioned them to be, requested the management to delete the account. In a matter of minutes. But I hope they're mature and understanding enough not to ban my IP. =)

I got a lesson on karma and the philosophical interrelation of things. Please!

Rewind.
I love Indian food, especially the curries, the rotis and the naan breads. While in Johannesburg, I didn't pass up the opportunity to try out Indian cuisine (and Chinese too, oh well). One of my favorite places (since it's the most accessible from the workplace) me and my friends frequent is Bismillah. We'd have a bet on who's gonna use the f word while with teacher Per and the first to say it would pay for whole gang's next Bismillah meal. I'm fortunate that I have a housemate, J, who has lived in India for two years and taught me how to cook some basic Indian dishes. And how could I forget Mamu's fish curry!

I forgot to buy garam at the Oriental Plaza before heading back to Manila, I thought maybe it's easy to find it here since there's definitely an Indian community somewhere in this bustling metropolis.

I put off interviewing Indians in motorbikes as I thought they might be too busy doing their daily house to house debt collections. I inquired in a forum instead and somebody assumed I was Indian because of my nick, and told me that somebody named "krishnna" should know where to buy garam...connect.

****
Update: I've left this a draft ages ago and I'm too lazy to finish it now. Read in forums (fora) that one can find masala and other spices along UN Avenue. Haven't been there yet. Bought lots in Kota Kinabalu: dried chili, different curry powder, soup mix, etc. Also, I have seen a shop selling spices in Market! Market! at the Fort.

Am still very much awake listening to the hundredth repetition of the clearly enunciated and dispassionately sung "You" by Karen Carpenter. I'm reading two blogs: www.deadpan.blog-city.com which in my point of view should be renamed narcissism at its best (i love the blogger though) and the best page in the universe. I just downed hundreds of M&Ms Pirates Pearls. What more can one ask for, seriously.

Fin at 12.38

Very good rendition of Boulevard of Broken Dreams by the Gregorian Masters of Chant (Chap. V).

File shared here.

Gimme a nice pat on the back, I've hurdled the midterm exam last night. Determining the level of service of a highway 5 minutes before time is a total nightmare. I received an sms in the middle of deciphering what the hell AADT means. "Once you get the PCEF for each type, multiply with the given. Add the results, to get the capacity. For the volume, add all the given for each type." Verrry helpful.

It’s been a while and I wanna blog about a lot of things: work, current addictions, travels. But I decided to blog about what I love to do the most – bargain book hunting. I’m such a sucker for book sales! I was able to top up my Agatha Christie collection by going to second hand book shops way back when I was still in UP Los Baños. When I transferred to Diliman, I found a very good book shop at UP Village and discovered another tucked in an alley behind Greenwich at Philcoa. When I went to Johannesburg, I was able to visit one at Norwood, a really old shop with older books. I got one AC book and later found out that I already have it back here. Though there were lots of book shops in Melville where I lived, the chances to find an AC hidden amongst Afrikaan books is almost nil. Well, I got one (The Pig Book) which turned out to be quite interesting. Finding a really nice book amidst all the obstacles for me is such an accomplishment. Bliss. Well, we all have our own quirks.

Last Saturday, my constant companion in everything that I do (aka bunch) and I braved the ride to Shaw via the MRT and tried to find the Powerbooks warehouse sale in Pasig. Of course, we missed the turn and ended up breathing polluted Mandaluyong air and walked passed decaying industrial buildings while bunch entertained me with stories of the factories (i.e., on regular days, the place would smell of Jelly Ace because its factory is located there). This in an effort to shut me up because I was whining the whole time. I can’t believe we’ll miss a place we’ve gone to the first time and which doesn’t have a proper signage. Yadda, yadda.

We found the place eventually and there were a lot of yes, books and less than a hundred people. The sale was quite organized, books shelved according to genre and alphabetized by author. It’s a different story when you walk past through the door which says EXIT. The PB people added a small fenced space with tables, more shelves and banners announcing UP TO 90% off. Now this is critical, the words UP TO should be noted. This means that not everything is 90% off, only a selection and definitely not a new and shiny book about Che Guevarra (P675). But hell, I was excited and just put all the good books I found in my basket. I found Identity by Milan Kundera (P479), a very thin Richard Bach detective novel (P700+), Haruki Murakami’s Underground (P600+), The Official Fahrenheit 9/11 Reader (P39), The Corporation (P400), Gaitskill’s Veronica (P99), Brian Jacques’ Mattimeo (P79), Eco’s The Island of the Day Before (P249), and The Last Temptation of Christ (P349). A huge Lonely Planet Travel the Whole World sells for P3600+ so we didn’t buy it. There were tons of C.S. Lewis books (70% off, purple sticker) which we skipped, lots of hard bounds authored by unfamiliar names for P99, without stickers, which most books are, slashed by 30%. After three hours, we ended up with five quite thick and interesting books and paid P800. Still cheap considering that one book we got normally sells for P700.

My hands got so dirty from browsing through dusty books but the book buying didn’t end there. We went to Fully Booked at Gateway to look for the latest Pugad Baboy but found out that the distributor of Pol Medina’s books are chummier with the owners of NBS so FB only sells PB 3 and the Best of PB. To cap the day off, I bought One, Two Buckle my Shoe instead, and after spending years scouring through dusty shelves, avidly subscribing to book sale forums, and asking for friends for an AC book for Christmas, at long last my collection is complete.