dear santa, i want a laser for christmas

 so i can cut out an apple logo on an apple pie.

photo taken from this site:

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/ApplePie

u.p. naman

so maybe i'm a sucker for anything UP. shirts, jackets, bags, etc. pero naman meyn, ampanget naman ng 

 UP swatch.

*photo courtesy of spot.ph. see for full article and other school designs: http://www.spot.ph/shopping/46929/top-philippine-schools-collaborate-with-swatch

now i'm a believer!

the car's battery died on me today. i've been around enough cars so i knew what to check. the guard at western union was nice enough to immediately provide me with a screw driver and a pair of pliers. the guys at the pawnshop next to western union tried to help. (hmmm. i should have taken their pictures). they fussed over me, gave me advice.

eventually our own staff arrived with jumper cables, and the next thing to do was hail a cab or a jeep to do a series. after causing traffic, it turned out there was not enough charge in the battery to even do a series.

i caved in and called motolite delivery. they said it would take 30-45 minutes. lo and behold, arnel, my savior, arrived in 27. :D

he replaced the battery, and while i was wondering if he brought a franking machine, he brought out a swiping-machine-thingy!  he promptly swiped the card.

 in a few seconds the receipts were being spit out of the swiping-machine-thingy.

then i was on my merry way. oh, the guard and the pawnshop guy are in the background. :) masarap pa rin talaga sa pilipinas.

on being irrational

i am, generally, a reasonable person.

or at least i try to be. i have a friend who said i am most rational during those times when i should be irrational. perhaps.

right now i feel anything but rational. i want to pick things up and throw them around. i want to slap somebody till she bleeds. i want to pound her into a pulp, and i know i can because well, she's half my size. and guess what? i don't even know her.

irrational, yes. crazy, yes. and all because she can do things i'm not allowed to. details are unimportant. she's lucky she's out of the country because right now the only thing stopping me from carrying out my evil plans is distance.

a loooooong day.

yesterday was a hectic day for me. had a hearing at 830 that was supposed to have ended by 10, and i was going to go home, take my sweet ass time, and then head to the bus station for the 1115 trip.

made it to court in time, only to find out that my case was the 13th case in the calendar, which meant i would have to wait for several cases to finish. i waited patiently and told my client to just relax, not panic and have some tissue on hand because she might be a bit teary eyed.

taking a quick break and being thankful

it's almost 830 in the evening and i'm still in the office. had a quick shawarma dinner then went back to work.

it's been a full day. woke up a bit before 6 am, tried to sleep again, failed, and eventually got up at 730. silent steady rain greeted the city this morning and i wanted nothing more than to stay in bed and just go back to sleep.

i'm exhausted. so exhausted in fact that last night i threw my whole family into a panic because i wasn't picking up my phone, the bedroom door was locked, and no banging on it could wake me up. eventually i got up to open the door and i swear my sister would have strangled me if she could. i had 14 missed calls. bad. this -- of someone who wakes up with the single click of a message. how could i have missed 14 runs of hawaii five-0?

paella fever

some weeks ago my brother in law had his __ birthday. my sister asked me to cook paella, a request i answered with a desperate "i don't know how!"

however, remnants of the conditioning  to follow my elders unconditionally remained so i decided to look for a recipe and cook the darned thing. it was almost a disaster, watery, and well... watery. but it was a learning experience and the next try, and the next was better:

seeing the dawn

for the past several days i have been waking up very early. so early that i wake up to full darkness. i would have thought because of the medicines i'd sleep longer. guess i was wrong.

but then i like waking up early. it reminds me of how baguio used to be -- quiet, nippy, still. except back then the stillness remained till full light.

if i listen hard enough i could hear the birds waking up and chattering, households beginning to stir. the cold carries the sound and it's really nice to just lie down and feel the world wake up. my only regret is that our windows do not face east but i do see the light creeping up.

i like dawn. it's hopeful. so what if i wake up disoriented and wondering where i am?

time and making time

time, as we know it, is a finite thing. there are 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute, and so on and so forth.

how many times have we said "there just isn't enough time!" with arms thrown up in defeat? how many times have we shaken our heads saying "there's too much to do and not enough time to do it?" how many times have we said "i was supposed to _____________ (fill in the blank) but i ran out of time."?

and so it goes. also known as another facebook post.

still on the self-adulation phase.

posted a  status message that said tinabee "is sure there's a billy joel or sting song to describe how she feels this morning."

somebody suggested "shameless" and i said that's for another phase of my life. well, here it is:

tinabee and on and on and on

so let's just say it's about time i had me time.

if you look at the sidebar it's a collection of slogans with the important words replaced with tinabee. (if you want to try it too check out the link at the bottom of the "me" part of the sidebar).

i posted that on facebook after being tagged and one reader said the title should be the tinabee effect. so... that's my new blog title. :)

call me vain, narcissistic, egoistic, and all that. it's my blog, and well, one of the few things i can really call my own.

first thing i did after i had decided on the name of my blog was look up tinabee in urban dictionary.

revamp

i've had this blog for almost 8 years, and over the years i have blogged less and less. i blogged so little i had to make it part of my new year's resolution to blog more this year.

apparently, i have not kept that part of my new year's resolution, as i have had exactly 7 posts to date.

this morning i woke up wanting to post. but before that i changed the name of my blog and changed my template. maybe this would get me out of blog retirement. :D

because i couldn't get this out of my head.

i hardly ever watch tv, and local tv not at all. i get my news off the net, or broadsheets, and watch dvds.

last monday, however, i was with a friend and he switched the news on. all local news channels were featuring the hostage situation at the quirino grandstand.

for over two hours i watched, incredulous, as the media, fully aware that the hostage taker had a television in the bus and was watching the news, focused its attention on the hostage-taker's brother being manhandled by other policemen.

the incredulity reached epic proportions as the first shots rang out, and eventually the unprotected policemen (they might as well have been naked for all the protection their uniforms afforded them) moved toward the bus, away from the bus, and back again.

all this time the media cameras flashed the position of the police around the bus, giving the by this time crazed hostage taker a very good idea as to where the assault team was. in front of the bus, at the side of the bus, and at the back. he probably knew exactly how many members of the force were there, what kinds of weapons they had, and the uniforms they wore.

when it was all over civilians swarmed to the scene, again, all on camera.

people lament that the swat knew nothing about hostage situations. people railed against the incompetence of the police force, and the apparent idiocy of the person who ordered the arrest of the hostage taker's brother.

that hostage taker was obviously unstable. add to this the pressure of seeing his brother being manhandled, which no doubt aggravated whatever emotions he was already feeling and most likely caused him to finally snap. i expected nothing less than violence from him.

but the media? the commanding officers? i expected more from them. responsible journalism from the media, competence from the commanding officers.

i felt sorry for the policemen who had no choice but to go to that bus and attempt to take it over, despite the fact that they had no visuals on the hostage taker, and practically no protection, not to mention no equipment. they were soaked to the skin, and were at the mercy of an obviously crazed man who had the higher ground and the advantage of the media coverage. i felt no pity for those who aggravated the situation by ordering the arrest and manhandling of the hostage-taker's brother.

my heart broke at the site of bodies being lifted out of the bus.

but i couldn't help feeling disgusted at the throng of people that surged to the bus after the tragic end of the hostage situation, and even more appalled by the media who had the gall to call these people "uziseros" when in fact they were no better.

responsible journalism from the media. competence from the people who have sworn to serve and protect. are these too much to ask?

...

I Wrote This For You is written by two lovers who respond to each other only through the blog as a way to hide their romance. Collectively, they refer to themselves as Iain Thomas, a character based on a friend they met while traveling in Africa, although sometimes they also refer to themselves as Jon Ellis, whom, it is assumed, is also a character based on a friend.

This was revealed in phone-in television interview on National Singaporean Television in December of 2009.

idiotic but somehow sensible thought for the day

how about in an effort to regreen baguio city i plant 1 tree for every guy i have ever dated? 1 tree for every guy who broke my heart? 1 tree for every guy whose heart i've allegedly broken?

all for love of mother nature.

pet peeve

one of the things i find very irksome is when writers lift whole phrases from other works without any acknowledgment whatsoever.

bwiset.

in this day and age...

saw this article and the following portion caught my eye and sent me into gales of laughter:

Marriage should not be treated like a rental contract that has an expiration. Marriage, according to the solon, is imbued with social responsibility that should be upheld by couples.

The proposal also goes against the provisions of the Constitution because the highest law of the land clearly advocates marriage and family. It is also anti-women because it would give men the opportunity to leave his wife after 10 years and easily find a new one, Maza said.

(emphasis mine)

did anybody ever stop to think that after 10 years the wife can leave her husband and find a new one? why is it that a statement defending women sounds so anti-women? or is it just me?


source and full story here

before the season ends

for everyone i know, love, and cherish.

a better new year to all!

hmmm. off the top of my head here's my initial new year's resolution - i promise to blog more, be kinder, eat less lechon and more veggies, sleep earlier, drink more water, procrastinate less.

there. happy new year!