2008 mtv asia awards - let's vote!

i've successfully ignored my yahoo inbox for several days now, and it just occurred to me that i might want to check it out. good thing too, because i got a message that prompted me to look up the mtv asia website.

the mtv asia awards is on again, and we have four excellent bands vying for favourite artist: chicosci, sandwich, sponge cola, and urbandub. personally, i'm supporting urbandub, which is one of the most underrated bands in the country. but if you don't quite dig them, vote for the other three acts and let us show our appreciation for their contribution to the local music scene.

you will find voting links to all four artists here, and even widgets and email links to get your friends to vote as well. the winner will get to perform in malaysia, and while i'm really pulling for urbandub to have that honor, all four bands deserve to show the world what we've got.

(at the risk of excessive fangirling, i have to declare that lalay lim is one of the best female bassists ever. she can give myrene academia a run for her money, not to mention a lot of the male bassists out there. that's how good she is.)

housekeeping

just one day short of my first month on last.fm, i'm doing some cleaning up. in fact, i'm writing this post while taking a break from deleting scrobbles. there can only be so many plays of foo fighters' the pretender that i can honestly admit to. i don't think i can own up to having 700+ plays of the foos on my ipod since i bought the ipod, let alone since i joined last.fm. but i'm getting tired of the intense mouse-work deleting entails. we shall see.

i wonder, since i've finally re-synced my ipod with the itunes, if the multiple scrobbles will stop. again, we shall see.

i've also been organizing my 80gb disk over the last few days. though i've actually been adding files more than deleting them. which probably means i'll be using the wd my passport pretty soon.

email inbox has been a bit busy, with a few missives from my classmate on graduation-related activities: getting the cap and gown, paying for the grad fee and the alumni fee and the yearbook, getting photos taken. i thought my multiple strama enrollments made the biggest dent in my (parents') pockets; defense and graduation seem to be coming in at close second. hay, just to get a degree...

speaking of classmates, spent wednesday evening with girlfriends from strama (and also the prof) at redbox. all part of my vow to enjoy my life after strama. except that there's still that teensy problem of going home late and catching the last trip. and me wishing i still have a place in manila. wonder what i'll do if i had to go on "dates". if that ever happens.

finally, i'm still struggling with the "read more" modification here at blogger. not that i've already tried it, but i'm thinking of the 200 posts that i'll have to modify as well to set the viewing right. oh whatever. basically the internet's too slow here and at the office for me to really work on it. i think i'd do better just sorting through my mba things this weekend. time to throw out some trash. and me a hoarder. what fun.

current playlist:

mariah carey, touch my body. i love the video, which features the geeky guy from 30 rock, one of my favorite comedies. i'm not going to admit to anyone that i have a girl crush on sexy mariah. nope, no way.

sting, ...all this time (the live album). i accidentally hit play on one of the songs and it all came back to me. this is one of my favorite albums ever. i have to look for the post (way, way back) that says why.

ne-yo, because of you. unlike my classmate rain, i can probably stand a guy who doesn't know ne-yo. as long as he loves either sting, u2 or radiohead. preferably all.

who the...

picked up another meme from sciathan_file

You know how sometimes people on your friend's list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you *should* already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy mine below, erase my answers putting yours in their place then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration! One-word answers seldom help anyone out.

1. First Name:
kristin. everyone pronounces it "kristine" so i'm tickled pink whenever i hear the american/british pronunciation. my "trying to be fly" name is xtin.

2. Age:
29. must not spoil it by saying i'm almost thirty.

3. Location:
living in los baños, working in the city of manila, but my heart is in makati :D

4. Occupation:
actuarial student who just finished her mba coursework and is at a loss.

5. Partner:
no boyfriend since birth.

6. Kids:
maybe. but i don't have the maturity to deal with them yet.

7. Brothers/Sisters:
none. unless you count my dolls.

8. Pets:
none. i never learned to have them.

9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life:
- just finished my strama paper, three years in the making. it was my one waterloo during my whole mba experience. and i'm graduating in august. wheee!
- something's brewing on the work front and i don't know the outcome.
- planning a trip to somewhere. and i hope everything falls into place for it because it's not easy to cancel.
- trying to jumpstart my social life, so i'm more open to hangouts. please. please take me out.
- i'm turning thirty. need i say more.

10. Where and for what did you go to school for?
- ateneo de manila, ateneo graduate school of business for my mba. university of the philippines los baños, applied math major in actuarial science. all just words. blah blah blah.

11. Parents?
- still living and still together. i'm much closer to my mum though.

12. Who are some of your closest friends?
- my very closest friends come from my high school barkada. my best friend is now in hawaii and married and most of my other close friends from that group are also married. my best bud is a college friend but he's also getting married soon. so that probably means i'll be the spinster godmother for some of their kids for a long long while yet.

to the theatre we go (but only for now)

best buddy mike has been bugging me about watching the farewell run of avenue q since more than a month ago. because i suddenly have all this free time, i agreed. but we didn't finalize the schedule until last thursday, and i had to get the tickets too (hmf). so despite the threat of heavy rains last saturday, i got on the very convenient bus going to cubao and got off at the ayala mrt station two hours later, eagerly anticipating the afternoon ahead.

i'm very tempted to expound on my inconsistent appreciation of the theatre, but i won't. suffice to say, i enjoy witty comedies, and this play really delivered it for me. i think i loved that i was a part of this audience. we all laughed at the right spots, and clapped after almost every song. the intimate setting of the carlos p. romulo auditorium certainly helped. not to mention the actors were very good, especially the puppeteers. i regret not seeing rachel alejandro portray her award-winning part (yes, she won a best actress award for this last year!) but i think carla guevarra-laforteza was very good at it. many people agree with me too. the thing that struck me most is the hip swing she does when she's playing lucy t. slut. it was the precarious mix of subtle and obvious that puts the extra ooomph into the character, and it's how you know you're dealing with a seasoned theatre actor (miss saigon, duh). and lei's favorite actor joel trinidad is just surprisingly endearing as nicky and trekkie monster - his voice is so versatile. aiza seguerra deserves to go to the singapore run to reprise the gary coleman role too. if for some bizarre twist of fate i'll end up in singapore in october, i'm definitely watching the show there.

one minor gripe, though, is frenchie dy's oriental accent. she's wavering between the chinese "l" and the japanese "r" and i think her character was supposed to be japanese. though as i haven't seen the script i'm not sure if it was not written that way. but she's cute, and christmas eve is adorable.

it wasn't for immature audiences though. besides the f and s words peppered throughout the script and the in-your-face references to subjects not for children's consumption, such as cough*porn*cough, one has to be very widely-read or updated on various subjects to fully appreciate the pop culture references. but i hope people won't think i'm too weird for being amused at the idea of two puppets doing the dirty. lol.

and because it's categorized as a musical, it has several songs in its aresenal that were very singable and easy to recall. my favorite would have to be it sucks to be me/but only for now (same song, different lyrics) followed closely by schadenfreude (snaps to aiza for the spelling lesson). mike, i'm still waiting for the soundtrack...

it's too late for anybody else to watch it on my recommendation, since the farewell run just ended, but do catch it if you're in singapore in october. and maybe i'll catch it if atlantis decides to put it up again later. but i'll need to get cheaper seats this time.

other reviews: by anton diaz

for further reading:
avenue q official site
avenue q on wikipedia

i broke my diet again

i've been trying to go on a diet since friday. i failed. i just don't know how to avoid carbs, they're my happy food! especially a nice, steaming plate of pasta. ohhhhhbrother.

whenever my best bud mike and i meet for lunch or dinner we usually end up going for italian. this time we tried cibo. and i loved it. i can't remember the names of the dishes we ordered, but show me the menu and i can point them out. we started with a mozzarella & asparagus something with toasted flatbread. the spread was being a little difficult and wasn't as salty as i really wanted, but still a hit. the bread was nicely done. then we had a something salad with arugula, yellow bell peppers, and pine nuts with some sort of vinaigrette dressing (which i initially thought wasn't there). ohhhhman, it was good. just the right amount and tartness. then i asked the waiter for a pasta dish with a mix of red and cream sauce, and was given this shrimp thing on penne. i could die right then and there, i couldn't get enough! but those three dishes proved to be enough for us after all, and we walked away happily full. not the buffet-gorging sort where you wonder why you ate that much. we were very very satisfied.

oh, and we were listening to urbandub live while eating. can't beat that!

the earphone dilemma

listening to music is one of the critical things that keep me sane and centered. i dream of the day i can append a music player to my ear (though the possibility of hearing degeneration is a scary thought). nope, an ipod shuffle doesn't cut it, nor does a bluetooth headset. so i'm weird. no arguments there.

so in an office setting (or even at a common area at home, though this is less critical), i yearn for a room all to myself so i can play my music any volume i want, even sing along to it, without bugging anyone else. but we can't always have what we want (besides, it's a bit impractical, duh). so we compromise, with a pair of speakers or a set of earphones. even then, we're not satisfied. speakers can get too loud and disturb the others, while earphones can cut you off from the real world. and when you're at work, it's not really advisable to be isolated, is it? worst case scenario has your boss calling you over and over while you remain blissfully ignorant. on second thought, having a disaster happening around you while you're spaced out in your own little world is much much worse.

one of my friends passed on something his boss said to explain the "no-earphones" policy in his office, which can be paraphrased as: if you needed music to focus on your work, you''re not really focusing at all. the man has a point, actually, but we audiophiles will dispute that till the day we die. but then, even i ignored the mp3 player a whole 30 minutes since it stopped, just because i was busy studying a blog tutorial. oh well. nuff said.

current playlist:
keane, under pressure
fall out boy, grand theft autumn/where is your boy
u2, i still haven't found what i'm looking for
the cardigans, erase/rewind

ignorance is bliss, but what you don't know may hurt you

x-posted on blurry landscapes

my dear aunt always warned me about showing off my gadgets while on public transport. there's the danger of getting my phone or my mp3 player stolen from right under my nose, or, like what happened to me once, dropping the device and sitting on tenterhooks waiting for the people to get off so i can search on the floor (thankfully that one ended well). and if she had known just how much i depend on my mp3 player while on the bus, she'd have warned me even more about paying attention to my surroundings. well, this time, she didn't need to. i found out on my own.

the problem with traffic in the philippines is that if the driver doesn't act like he's king of the road, he'd end up as the whipping boy. from buses to jeepneys to the tricycles (the frailest motorized public transport in the world), each has to assert its own supremacy on the road to the detriment of the unfortunate slow car that blocked its way. regular commuters on the provincial line can only shake their heads and hold on to their seats whenever the driver weaves in and out of the obstacle course that is the slex at full speed. so last night, while i was mentally bobbing my head to foo fighters' five songs and a cover, i barely paid attention when the bus made that unmistakable lurch that meant it was overtaking and had to abort. after that i got a brainwave, and decided to no longer endure the cold blast from the aircon vent so i put on my blazer. then the bus stopped at the intersection, i looked up, and i knew that something was wrong.

i used to hate sitting at the back rows of the bus because i had terrible motion sickness as a kid. but now that i've been commuting for nine years, i found that the only thing that beats sitting at the rear is sitting at front with no seatmates. and i just happened to barely catch the bus before leaving the terminal, so i was sharing the last three-seater with another woman and her little girl. and having my earphones glued to my ears closed me off from the world, so i was like "whuh?" when i noticed the commotion at the front of the bus. and however much i listened, i really couldn't get what was happening. after about five minutes the bus moved again, but all the people in front of me alternated between standing and peeking at the road ahead, and talking excitedly amongst themselves. i was still helplessly clueless.

the bus let off a few more passengers, and finally stopped in front of the gate of the military camp in my town. i knew something was up. i finally asked the guy in front of me what was happening. apparently, the bus tried to overtake an armored car and got into a bind, but the armored car wouldn't budge. luckily, the oncoming vehicle from the opposite direction gave way and the bus surged ahead, but the armored car still pulled ahead of us. at the intersection, which is an unofficial bus stop, the armored car blocked our bus and some guy with a rifle came out. and everyone who was supposed to get off obviously scrambled back in fear. i heard from a different witness the even the driver sprang out of his seat after locking his window and the door. it was unclear how the standoff ended, but eventually the armored car pulled away, and the people at front memorized the plate number to tell the police. presently the bus moved again, and my suspicions were proven correct when we turned into the town proper (which the bus never does on the regular trip) and headed to the municipality police station, where the passengers at the front as well as the bus driver and conductor gave their statements. the men in the armored car were detained.

all's well that ends well. ya think? my aunt made a comment about obnoxious armored car drivers who think they're king. i refrained from making my own case about bus drivers who should be driving for ferrari. but the sorry state of the world is that road rage is no longer uncommon. only a few weeks ago a bus driver was shot dead from a road skirmish at edsa. this is not the biggest reason why i'm still ambivalent about driving. i have to wonder, though, why i'm still indifferent about it. i'm worried that i've become so apathetic that i can only summon a token amount of fear when i found out what happened. it makes me wonder if this level of egocentricity (is that even a word?) is still healthy.

what? another one?

i have a new blog. yet again. yes, it's my sixth blog and my sixth platform.

check it out and drop a line: http://lasttrip.wordpress.com

btw, i really like the stock themes at wordpress. at least it's heaps more than the ones at blogger.

word of the day: tethering

thanks to the boy genius (www.boygeniusreports.com) for the word of thd day!

so that's what it's called. i've been using my mobile phone, a nokia 6170, for my mobile internet needs, even if i'm at home. our phoneline has a dinosaur 56K dial-up connection, and it can get messy if my dad has to use it or my mum has to make a call. we've been considering upgrading to a dsl plan, but for some reason we haven't made the big switch. which is why i rely on my company-provided smart line, and now on my personal globe line (which just recently offered the 5pesos/15mins browsing thank merlin) for connecting to the internets. now i'm making good use of my previously impractical high plan limit to waste countless hours composing (and not finishing) blog posts, or getting updated on my favorite harry potter fan fiction.

anyway, tethering is the term they use to describe that process of using the mobile phone (connected to the computer through cable or bluetooth) to make use of the phone's data connectivity. whew.

postscript: welcome to the solar system (snerk)

the big news of the day is the assignment of a new name for pluto, the little planet that wasn't.

it is now called a plutoid.

whoa what a big surprise. i so did not see that coming. where'd they get that name?

i wonder how baddie's post tipped the vote in favor of the "promotion". me sez if pluto had enough bollocks he'd have spat on their faces. hahahahahahaha.

in other news, some photos from the set of the new harry potter movie have been circulating the internet for several months already. but this latest one has all the fangirls squeeing in delight: a hug between harry and ginny. wooohoo. though we know what'll happen with those two in the future, it's still a great kilig moment. sigh. they looked soooo cute.

isang himig

maligayang araw ng kasarinlan!

naging maugong ang usap-usapan dahil sa patakaran ng kasalukuyang pangulo na ilipat ang araw ng bakasyon na dapat sana ay ngayon. hindi na ako sasali dyan. basta ang mahalaga ay maintindihan ng bawat pilipino kung ano ang nangyari noong ika-12 ng hunyo 1898 at bakit ito mahalaga sa ating kasaysayan. pwede naman nating gawin yon, ke me pasok ba o wala.

nakita ko ang YM status ng isa kong kaklase, at napaisip ako kung ano bang magandang OPM na kanta (kasi kadalasan ay titik ng kanta ang ginagawa kong status). naalala ko tuloy noong nag farewell concert kami sa glee club noong high school, kasi ang huling bahagi ay puro tagalog na kanta. at ito ang isa sa pinakapaborito namin na piyesa.

isang dugo, isang lahi, isang musika

nalito pa ako, kasi alam ko na hindi "isang dugo, isang lahi at musika" ang pamagat nito (kahit yon ang nasa loob ng kanta). ayon sa philmusicregistry.net, ito ay nilikha ni dodjie simon (medyo mabenta ang mamang ito) at kinanta ni richard reynoso sa album niya noong 1991. ayon naman kay eric (http://greyone.blogspot.com/2007/02/idilim.html) eh nanalo ito ng ikalawang pwesto sa isang patimpalak. basta ang alam ko, 1994 noong una ko itong napag-aralan, at ito ay ang version ng philippine madrigal singers. yata.

isang tinig ang aking narinig
minsa'y nanaginip ating mundo'y umaawit
isang himig, pag-ibig ang hatid
ang musika'y batid sa bawat puso at isip

ikaw at ako, tayo ay Pilipino
isang bansa, ba't di magkaisa?
isang dugo, isang lahi at musika
ang pangarap ko'y bansang mapayapa

isang tinig ang aking narinig
pag-ibig ang hatid sa bawat puso at isip
isang awit ang aking dalangin
kristiyano at muslim
magkaisa sa awitin

ang galing no? at sa totoo lang, parang hindi lumipas ang panahon. ganito pa rin tayo hanggang ngayon. halos dalawang dekada na, pero ang gulo pa rin ng bansa natin. sana naman ay matuto na tayo sa mga aral na dulot ng kasaysayan. bow.

salamat kay mahalamanda.multiply.com dahil sa kanya ako nakakuha ng kopya ng kanta.

aaaargh

still doing the revisions, which should be submitted by saturday... ohhhh brother. here i go again.

still obsessing on my (incomplete) ai7 playlist.

still unable to scrobble my ipod on last.fm. why why why why???????? the problem started when i upgraded my software, then the scrobbling became patchy until it stopped altogether, then i upgraded my itunes, then i downgraded my last.fm software. nothing. i'm holding off
upgrading my ipod software though, i tried it today but my connection gave up. whuh. so, that's the biggest annoyance right now, bigger than the revisions. lol.

just posted my summer movie wishlist on my blogspot. so it's no longer summer here in the islands, so what? this is the start of MY summer. i wish there's a portable widget for lists though. so that i can just put them in my lj if i so choose. heh. like i've already managed to configure the sidebar already.

i am sleepy. even if it was already monday (actually, it's tuesday already) i still did my sleepless sunday bit. hurray for long weekends! the next one is probably late august, oh dear.

so good night, i have to brace myself for the new day :D (and the new workweek, traffic is gonna be hell urgh).

techie questions

my latest object of obsession in the internets is the last.fm application. it's cool tracking everything i've ever played on my ipod and at the itunes at work. i just wish the tagging for past tracks is easier, my connection especially at work is spotty at best. and it's tiring to have to tag every single track one by one. i hope they put in a mass tagging feature soon. (if you're on last.fm, check out my profile from the link at the right. -->)

i also just bought a new hard disk casing for the 80 gb hard drive i got last year - the one that was in danger of expiring before its time. it turned out the problem was in the casing and not really the hard disk, though i guess its days are numbered with the several drops (oops!) i've subjected it to. and that's why i bought a new 160 gb my passport. with all the movies i'll be ripping for the ipod, i'll probably need the extra storage soon.

which brings me to my next problem, which is a FREE dvd ripper that can rip by chapter. it's for the sting concert videos that i want to rip by song. so, help?

and i just also got into del.icio.us, which is a wonderful tagging device since my firefox bookmark list is loooooooooong. but who knows when i'll eventually transfer them to del.icio.us. bahhhhhh.

it don't matter, it's over

i just surpassed the biggest challenge of my life, and i can't find words good enough to describe it.

after years of ranting, worrying, and even crying over my strategic management paper, i finally faced the defense panel yesterday. anyone who's seen me in the last few days know just how worried i was over it. to be more precise, it was a very irrational fear bordering on phobia. not without reason. though. stories about failing defense because of unsatisfactory explanations are part and parcel of every strama student's nightmare. especially mine, because i've always been non-confrontational, i've never felt able to defend my own opinions in real life and the idea that my own graduation depends on this skill is just incomprehensible. and downright scary.

this whole experience probably reinforced my sometimes shaky faith in god. especially with that irrational fear threatening to take over, it was my faith that kept me strong. and passing all those fears and worries to his mercy helped me a lot during the actual presentation. i managed to present an calm facade to my professor, and even chatted with him and my panel (who happened to be previous teachers of mine) while waiting to begin. even when i got stumped occasionally and had to defend several ratings i made (this was the one thing i was specifically afraid of), i found myself going through it without breaking down in hysterical sobs. anyway, obviously i passed. (there, i said it.) and even with the revisions i have to make, i have the license to get on with the rest of my life. finally.

so, many things i want to do. i've already done one, which was get my hair cut much shorter. (it's like a pledge or something with myself. no drastic changes until i'm done with the biggie.) i've also a few meet-ups on the drawing board with friends, movies and theatre to see (mike's been bugging me forever to see the farewell staging of avenue q), and driving lessons to finally get around to. and i swear to finally have a social life, and i mean the dating kind. no more excuses ;)

i don't know yet if i'm qualified for graduation this august (rules and stuff). to be quite honest, i don't care as much as i did before - after everything i had to contend with, i'm just thankful i'm actually at this point and i just wish there'll be no more problems standing in my way. but i still hope i get the chance to march this year, that would be really great.