Super-rantings?

Soon as I published the previous post, I was asked "Why dont you answer your own blog?" It usually comes to that doesn't it, regardless of my blog title being simply ramblings and musings. But hey, I'd much oblige ....

Part 1:
Keeping focus on what you really want. What do you really want? what's your focus?
What I really want is to live the simple life of retirement. Doesn't everybody? The challenge is how to experience that in the here and now by managing your opportunities. I've got time share that gives me a weeklong opportunity every year to take a vacation anywhere in the world. So far, I've actually taken those breaks. However, work does follow and you compromise a little. During this weeklong period of supposed adventure, its supposed to be quiet time to reflect on the beauty of life and be pampered by being loved. Unfortunately, my agenda of tranquility and laid-back wandering doesn't really fit those of others who'd really like to explore the sights.

Part 2:
Focus on being married to work/career or for life? Which one?
I specifically mused that for those of us who love family, as I surely do, then we all know its not that simple. Its complicated, particularly if there are things left and right that you have to jump to. Sandler's character had much of the same issues, and very nicely put it in the movie to his wife, work is a means to an end.

Family oriented should not be sidetracked by work. Like living your life?
Yep, there are components to families. The smallest group being father, mother, brother/sister. At this point I'm "father". For all the years that I've toiled, wouldn't it be nice to be good to yourself first? After all, you can't love others unless you can love yourself.

What if your family is far away?
Assuming that family is what I really want, and truly it is. I just don't want to be stuck in the "motions of family", thats quite a different thing from living. Admittedly, I've not called my son much. Then again, its just not my nature -- nor was it my father's. But its sure that when he was arround that we'd be off to lunch somewhere, singing at the karaoke, watching and playing billiards, meeting clients and making deals. In retrospect, its acceptance of the distance as a fact and making up for lost time. Now if only both sides realize this fact. Here's probably what catches my goat --- that I'd not paid enough attention and time to my Dad while he was alive and around by assuming he's doing his thing and was too busy. Who the hell cares about being busy? If you want your space, and its important enough like a nice long hug and heart to heart talks, then by gosh take that opportunity. Don't waste time online or on the phone arguing some moot and stupid point when you could be encouraging each other and professing undying love and happiness.

Make time for what you really want. Goes back to the same question... what do you really want?
Here are the things that I've done so far this week: watched two movies at the spur of the moment; went to the grocery and took all the meat I wanted; filled my fridge with Corona, Cerveza Negra, IBC original rootbeer (twist open crown), brie cheese, salsa for Tostitos; took the highways instead of the safer roads; turned off my GPS for the route; slept in late; slept late; wrote on this blog first; read my pocketbook; initiated discussions at work; indulged myself in Japanese cuisine. For all these things how many would be difficult and full of sidetracks if I let someone tell me what to do?

In retrospect through the first and second season of ABC's LOST there's a line that keeps being repeated enough. "Don't tell me what I can and can't do!" Lovely. And if you watch each episode it actually shows different aspects of life and the motivations for each one's actions due to the past experiences. Right now my hair and beard says call me Sawyer or James Ford. Then again my wild side is like Kate who just wants to start a new life but is held back. And perhaps its Jack who's got a pragmatic look at life and disbelieves miracles and its totally driven. Or could it be Desmond whose out to proove to others that he's worthy of respect. Then again isn't it Hurley who's just so bullet proof even at the loss of someone who truly understands him. Perhaps Charlie who's really trying so hard to change habits but people just won't trust him and give him a break. I'm hooked!

Enjoy living, enjoy life!
Ah, I need to get out sometime. Thats the only thing thats missing. A social life. But alas, my Xbox and surround sound provides me enough entertainment at the moment. Now if I could only get that laptop to run the media center....

Part 4:
An example of maintaining a goal vs. timing. What about getting what you want?
Is it what you want or what you need? Those are quite different things. Wants are excess and I've learned for all the disappointments in life to stick to things you really need as they are the ones worth the hell of a lot fighting for. Its sad truly that for all the things people want in life, say for example your original dream of wanted occupation growing up, sometimes it just won't happen the way you want it and you're shoved into a state of parallel where its close enough. A Filipino man, speaking English without an accent, growing up in the midst of American culture and friends, and I wanted to be an astronaut. Did it happen? Like duh! From the 70's you had to be either Russian or American born to opportunities and proximity that would allow such.

So its a child's dream. You take that expectation down a notch and hope of being an aeronautics engineer designing these planes and crafts blowing in the wind tunnel as a stepping stone. Nope, getting enrolled in flight school was just not possible. It would have been expensive for my parents.

So you take it down a further notch, and hope to design the systems being used. And thats where I was. Right now, my work protects all these systems that could launch Apollo or another Challenger into space. My analysis has helped protect companies that build commercial jets and experimental vehicles. I jet set around the globe and speak at conferences on security and threats. Some of you have even been brought around at some point of other to places as a result of the ride. :-)

Life is complicated, we all have our excuses. Sometimes those excuses makes the other person wait longer and in return gives hope to that other person holding on to that promise.
Truly. Perhaps the question was false hope? I've waiting long times in the past for miracles to happen and sometimes it just doesn't cut it if whats holding you back is that other person's negativity. Its a team effort, don't kill the goose that shits gold. Moreover, don't shoot yourself in the foot and nag me about things that I plan to do on my own time for my own reasons. I've been nagged most of my life as a child, and sorely thats probably to my dad missing in action and me being the eldest. So hey, I'm not taking it anymore. Thats 20-odd years of it and no more crap. As my bro used to say and paraphrased from Linkin Park (who's got a Pinoy decent member?) Its my way, its my way ... my way or the highway!

Click! on Superman -- a movie review

Part 1:
- Summary of the movie similarities in genre
- Review of Click! starring Adam Sandler
- Keeping focus on what you really want

Part 2:
- Focus on being married to work/career or for life?
- Career people have no time for anything else
- Family oriented should not be sidetracked by work
- Work is a means to an end
- Make time for what you really want
- Enjoy living, enjoy life!

- History of Superman and the Return
- Why there's a big emotional link to real people

Part 3:
- Everyone needs a saviour
- Things change when you loose focus
- Life is worth living if you have a goal
- Everyone has some need to be fulfilled
- Life is a vicious cycle
- "the son becomes the father, and the father becomes the son"
- the role of the Father in the family

Part 4:
- a personal experience of fatherhood
- an example of maintaining a goal vs. timing
- Life is complicated, we all have our excuses

Motto: Avoid Regrets, Live each day as if it were your last!
(sign first seen in my childhood at the entrance to the Camp John Hay Pet Cemetary)

LESTAT: Die Young, Live Forever

I love musicals, and for that matter broadway shows. Once my extra hard disk is restored and I can get to the images, I'll start back posting some of the great stuff of my involvement and attendance.

Leicester Square is no stranger to my presence. On the rare occasions that I've graced London, my first stops have always been to see whats playing. To date and in my reckoning, so far I've watched Les Miserables (sadly not with Leah Salonga as Eponine), King and I, Phantom of the Opera (or was that on DVD), and hmmm .... the list is somewhere together with my memorabilias.

As part of production at the SLU Cultural Center for the Arts (CCA) I was in the Sound of Music (together with Hannah Romowac of SessiOn Road); in West Side Story as Tony during our high school play.

Maria*, I just kissed a girl named Maria, and suddenly that name will never be the same to me ....

Hmm, how much are tickets to New York anyway .... 

Let's hear it from the boy ... today's special

Missed me?

Its late in the morning and breakfast awaits ...

the Combo has arrived!

After months of seeking opportunities to borrow someone else's washer and dryer; weeks of shopping around, making wrong size choices; No more side A, B, C, D or E.

The next thing now is to call my landlord and have him bring his plumber and connect the gas.

Yep, this baby uses around 340 kWh which more or less amounts to 20$ a year with 8 washes per week. At least, thats what the manual says. 

Disneyland California Adventure

California Screamin' was a surprising touch of induction. As a rollercoaster it did well but not as extreme as last week's trip. The lines were quite short and it took about 10mins to line up.

Did you notice I had several shots? Yeah, I came on it again and just sat back and enjoyed the second time. Hmm, nice headlights eh?


David took me on the Tower of Terror first thing after lunch. His friend Russ gave me a park hopper pass which allowed me access to D'land and DCA. Unfortunately I hadn't thought of using my VGA cam to capture a snap of it.

Well, being as I hadn't really done much in the park today, I took another stab at the tower and the wait times were again really short (where is everybody?). I'm having so much fun.

Uh ..... OMG .... aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!

Secured but still Insecure

Well, checking my transactions I saw the debited amount for the card. It arrived today (much to my final relief) together with a couple of other things.

First class mail coming from a certain "CCA" in Las Vegas, NV promising me $6,500 pre-approved credit. Reading the fine print says it assures purchases from a catalogue (will it work elsewhere then), and no other phone number but the 800 number for activation. It promised "high limit spending", "available cash", and "credit establishment". Those keywords will usually pull-in dozens of people who've had either bad credit or at all no credit history. Online sleuthing shows more than 700+ complaints from this company, and other companies registered and linked to it such as "CCS", "First National Card", etc.

Its a merchant card, probably like the old BookPerks Plus or PowerBooks that I once tended to back home. But this would be my first encounter out of Manila. Judging from the various complaints ... I unfortunately won't risk it for more headaches.

And there's finally a rebuttal on what they are and clarification. As I suspected, its a merchant card and alot of fine print. Hey, back in Manila there was also a call center that was rumoured to be cramming.

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A few hours later someone else calls claiming to be from Fidelity Credit Services in Clearwater, FL near St. Petersburg. The phone number as per my phone is "727 544 0047" which incidentally registers to Pinellas Landscape Contractors, yet the phone book lists it as Nhe Lawn Service, owned by Nhe Nguyen. This doesn't make sense! My sleuthing mode kicks in again and I find another site that lists this as another scam.

What a day!

UPDATE: Is that you, TATSU?

Finally home from a long drive to Valencia, CA. I am like so exhausted and can barely eat and just want to sleep. But first, let me tell you how the day went.

We drove through CA-134 (Venture Highway) and merged onto the I-5 which was a stand still. Good thing we were close to the Lancaster exit, which we took thanks to proper alternative route provided by my GPS. Yes, the pretty expensive multi-function Garmin.

Arriving at the park something like 40mins later, we parked out fronting a huge white rollercoaster structure (later identifed as the Colossus). Entering the park at around 10:30am we had some time before noon-time lunch and tried to lineup for Tatsu -- the newly opened amusement just this month. Alas, the line stretched forever and the toss was probably quality vs. assured quantity. Hey after all, the other rides used to be the top at one point.

We headed off to Dejavu at the back of the park. Turns out due to some mechanical failure that a couple of people leave the line. Thats fine, we're patient and I remember waiting in line 30mins for fixing Stealth a few years ago at Great America. Finally getting onto the ride, we were pulled back up vertically, released, it was a blurr, lifted straight up in the air with my feet up, released, another blurr, arrived back vertical and slowly lowered. Coming out of my seat, I was pretty unsteady. Turns out, this was one of the craziest rides in the park. Just our luck for a starter!

The closest next one was Psyclone which we rode. It was my first wooden roller coaster and the extra shock of it almost coming off the track was an added treat. Pretty nice ride, except for the fact that I was mostly struggling for my shades not to drop off into the yonder or my wallet and keys. One of the rides I'd recommend again and again.

Lunch time and we took a quick one at Panda Express where the prices were about twice the usual from outside the park. Next real meal is around 3:30pm at the Picnic Grounds.

Did we want to lineup for Tatsu at all, or proceed elsewhere? The lines were still huge so we turned left looking for X but ended up finding Revolution. Nice ride, one the classics and the first one to ever have a vertical loop.

Walking back looking for X sent us to Viper, one of the longer rides. We never realized it actually had several loop-the-loops. A nice long ride surely.

Back near Tatsu again, we figured its not really going to work. So off we were and turned left into Goliath. Too bad we didn't have a camera, the wall markings were just too cool to have missed. Lined up for that, a pretty long wait going around bends, up stairs. Appears this was one of the longer rides, 3-minutes by calculation. Several spins, and a nice centrifugal turn left sent us spiraling down into a cave and up again. You can tell I'm not as excited anymore, yeah?

Its past 3pm and we find ourselves near Batman and the Riddler. Walked into the picnic grounds, had some food and watched entertainment. Nice MILFs, with the one in red totally perky, if you know what I mean. Had an ice cream bar, had a sofa, another ice cream bar. We left the grounds heading toward Viper and looking again for X. We found found X, the entance must have been elsewhere.

After going around again, we decided to try Ninja as a finale. It was getting late and yours truly driver hates driving at night. Waiting in line, a bunch of BMW come walking through the line. How come no attandant pulls them out? A line is a line, no matter if you had a few other friends ahead of you! Reaching our turn, "Enjoy Ninja ... hiya. Haya. Hayy-yah!".

All day, not a puff at all. But walking down from the top of the mount I wasn't waiting any longer. Soon as I saw the smoking section and the rest room, I settled down to rest my acheing feet.

Coming out of the park and looking for the exist we got lost. Finally finding the exit, we forget where the heck the car was. Totally disoriented, we probably walked 2 miles left and right lanes. Until finally I spotted it 4 rows back from the front.

Driving out, we got some gas at Arco where I paid cash. Ronald's aunt Chona calls and asks where we were, they were still in the park after all since their eldest decided to skip the 8th grade party in favor of the lights. Well, too bad but no way am I driving back. Besides, we didn't get ourselves stamped to be able to.

And so I drove ... fast!

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Arriving at the appartment I figured to borrow the vacuum cleaner. I may as well cleanup and save myself from all the junk on the carpet. Reached home and did just that. Sipped some Guiness Stout and relaxed on the love seat....

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I ended up dozing in the sofa last night. Moved to the bed around 4am in the morning.

Is that you, TATSU?

I'm not feeling so well this morning. Didn't sleep much last night after send Yna off at the airport. Must be the emptiness of the place without her (naks!). One other thing that makes it difficult to move my butt is that am kinda' broke until payday.

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Its almost 9am and still waiting for Ronald or Francis to call. We had planned to take a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain today and to have bought the tickets supposedly from Ralphs at discount, yesterday. But since we were stuck at work all afternoon and they'd disappeared ... Ah, now who would be calling now....

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So, Ronald just called and says Francis isn't feeling well. Thats fine and says we're both still going with his relatives. Tickets are free, food is free, hey even parking is free! All right, that means you've got a car and driver. Figured, if the scare won't kill me, boredom would :-)

More on this later ....

Road Trip: Santa Monica Prominade and Pacific Palisades

It wasn't long before I realized that skipping the I-110 was lots better and that the backstreets actually take routes quite familiar during my daily drives to Marina del Ray. I've always thought that Hollywood and Beverly Hills were one and the same -- on the way to the pier and the village entrances changed all that. Its a very laid back culture on this route and many drivers were just totally lost and obstructing the regular flow of traffic. Well, if you're that filthy rich wouldn't you take some more time to smell the roses, too? :-)

June 04, 2006

Road Trip: Ikea Covina

Slept in a bit late today. By around 4pm we were enroute further to the South Pasadena area. We finally found the coffee table model that would fit the living room and took an extra clothes rack for good measure. Darn these people, I was taking an exit when this white sedan sneaks behind right into the carpool lane aiming to take the through street after all. The nerve of this BMW to honk. What an idiot! To add insulat to injury, there's cars weaving in and out, crossing the street without checking for oncoming traffic. One thing about this area, stay clear due to apparent road range tendencies. Sheesh!

June 03, 2006

Movies: The Break-up

Watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith one more time, knowing the main actors got hitched together, at the time Jennifer Aniston was with Brad Pitt. Its surprising to realize that Vince Vaugn was his agent in the movie. So what happened here, while the main actors were getting cozy, sneaky agent was saying "it'll be ok" to real life girl friend? Good one. Teehee!

Oh about the movie itself, reminds me of a previous one with Uma Thurman and Bryan Greenberg in Prime. Both endings were breakups due to complications. Lets not care about the process, put more focus on the result after the breakup where its a shy "hi" and "hello" and promises to catch up sometime. Its doubtful that both sides will meet up again under the same circumstances and the most logical thing to assume is to move on in life .... separately. Too bad love sick lubbers (and that goes for the noisy biatch behind my seat at the cinema).

June 02, 2006