I'm gonna ride my officemate's spanking new VIOS tonight so I'll make this quick.

Firstly, I got to talk to High Beam last week about my resignation. It went pretty well. We promised to support each other even though our paths would be diverging in the near future.

Secondly, I have a new discovery: Airto Moreira. He's a pretty famous drummer/ percussionist in jazz circles but I only found out about him when I bought (just for kicks) a reissue of his Free album. This guy rocks! Check him out in the Tower nearest you.

Thirdly, I'm going crazy. But that's old news I guess.

Fourthly, this September will be a horribly busy month for me. Our project's delayed and I have a couple of mandatory seminars to attend. They're all crap if you ask me but I have to attend them if I want to get promoted. Sigh.

Fifthly (does the word exist?), I've realized that I could die anytime now and be fine cool about it. Not that I have an early death wish or something. It's just that at the tender age of 25, I feel I have done everything I wanted to do. I'm easy. Every good thing that happens to me from this point onwards would be a bonus. For now, I'm content.

Wait, *everything* does not include those things that go with having wife, like sex and having lots of babies. I want those too, but since I'm single now they're not a necessity at this point.

I wish that sometimes I could just make up my own damn mind.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

It feels funny.

So there, I made up my mind, took a gamble, and called her cell number.

Anyway, we ended up talking for a little less than an hour, over the company landline of course. I haven't punched-out yet so I got paid the whole time. Hah!

I made the bet and won something else other than what I had in mind. It's strange, how things worked out.

Of course I'll take my winnings.

I don't know if I'm happy because of the conversation or because I was able to fix the computer.

Dodgeball ROCKS!

An officemate said that the joke below came from me:

Q: Anong meryenda ang bumubula?
A: Champorado!

Sheez! It's NOT MINE!

Friday:
The evening was horrible at the start. I was supposed to be at Pantranco by 630 but I was still stuck at Katipunan by 645, waving desperately at oncoming cabs. No dice.

So I got left behind by the carpool. It's time for another adventure.

I haven't tried the Cubao-Quiapo-Intramuros route yet so I hailed an FX instead, rode through E-Rod, and got off at Intramuros. Melvin, Rico, and Shawie picked me up by the pedicab line.

I played percussions for Wasabe that night. We practiced somewhat the day before but we ended up ditching it and going improv instead.

I believe rocked the place that night.

Considering that I only took jazz seriously last July, and started studying Latin rhythms shortly after, I've come a long way, I think -- not boasting but an honest assesment of my skills. There's plenty of room for improvement though, not to mention a legion of other instruments to learn.

So the night ended well. Happy happy happy. I got to play!

Saturday:
The day was spent watching National Geographic and Discovery. We now have cable you see, and true to my expectations, it's highly addictive. I just can't get enough of those lions and elephants and what have you's.

By nightfall my eyes were about to fall off so I decided to get some moonshine. I went to Tandang Sora and got a double feature DVD: Conan the Barbarian and the Destroyer. I didn't see my favorite pirate that night. I wonder if she's still in business.

Sunday:
I was able to participate in a tract distribution for the first time. I got roasted and forgot my hankie at home, but other than that all went well. I pray that we'd see new faces at church next week. Yeah, I think that would be awesome.

Monday:
I punched-in. I worked. I punched-out. I blogged.

Now, I gotta go.

I have rediscovered Audiophile in Alimall Cubao.

Cubao used to be the place to hangout when I was a kid, at least for those in the northern areas. This was before SM Fairview and Ever Commonwealth. Audiophile Alimall was a standard 'stop' whenever I went malling in Cubao. Their display of electric guitars and stomp boxes just made me drool.

But since SM North was just a jeepney ride from UP and SM Fairview is practically just a stone's throw away (albeit a very looong throw), malling in Cubao lost its appeal to me. Plus the place became too, well, seedy for my taste.

But now that I work in Eastwood commuting through Cubao is mandatory if I want to save on taxi fare and travel time, and I do. I still think Cubao is seedy but last night I visited Audiophile again, on a hunch that they have the 12-inch djembe I have been searching for a long time.

The store just blew me away.

Not only did the have djembes with sizes from <6 to 12 inches, they also have rainsticks, congas, wood blocks, guitars, etc. etc. etc. in addition to the usual mixers and large-scale audio equipment. They sell mainly TOCA instruments, about half the price of LP's. A pair of congas cost around 17Kphp, which is cheap.

Whether the TOCA's can rival the LP's in sound quality is another matter.

Anyway, I did find the 12-inch djembe I was looking for and it costs around 6.5Kphp. It sounds great and looks great. The thing weighs a ton (it's made of a hollowed tree trunk, I think) though so I'm thinking it out very throughly before I decide to buy that monster.

However, I do think I'm ready to learn playing a new instrument and I so want to get that djembe. From how it sounds I think it will greatly increase my tonal range. My bongos are high-pitched so the deeper bass and mids of the djembe would be a good complement to it.

Maybe I'll just have to workout to increase my upper-body strength. That way I can easily lug that baby all across Manila. Right now, I can't imagine how I'll survive commuting with both my bongos and the djembe.

The things I go through for the sake of my craft.

Firstly, I want to tell you about a strange Friday that I had.

I went to the nearest McDonald's during lunch break. I fell in line and waited patiently for my turn. It seemed that my queue was slower than the others. When my turn came I found out why: the girl at the counter was an obvious newbie. Here's a snapshot of our one-sided conversation:

"Miss, I said that these are for take-out."
"Miss, my McNuggets don't have any rice in them. I ordered the meal."
"Miss, can I have a plastic bag for this (pointing at my drink)?"
"Uhm, can I please have a spoon and fork?"

I am not very patient man when it comes to my food. On a usual day I would have bellowed at her, or given her one of my famous razor-sharp glares. But this time. for some reason, I didn't.

I smiled mildly instead. Maybe it's the look of utter confusion in her eyes as she spun around the counter. I don't know. I was able to tap into a long-lost reservoir of mercy instead. It felt good.

I saw her again during lunch this morning. She was smiling this time. Maybe she already got the hang of the job. I hope so.

-oo0oo-

Secondly, a movie review.

I have been a connoiseur of B-movies ever since my teens. Finding a good one in the midst of the mediocrity has always been rewarding and worth the hours wated while sorting through the sea of scum.

Case in point: Boa vs. Python.

I mean, with a title like that, who would even think of spending 80php for the punishment of watching it. Again:

Boa vs. Python.

The concept is intriguing though: send a monster boa to hunt an equally monstrous python. It wouldn't be complete without the mandatory carnage, happily provided by an assorment of non-characters: dumb soldiers, dumb hunters, dumb bystanders.

If you ever come across this DVD while browsing in your favorite pirate, remember this:

DO NOT EVEN THINK OF WATCHING THIS MOVIE.

It is enough that one person suffer the pain of watching the movie in its entirety. Call it my Supreme Sacrifice for Mankind.