Spaceman Spiff Has Landed

Hello Sg, we meet again.

We landed in Singapore 7:35PM and went straight to the hotel for check in. Thank God for the fast and efficient check in that more than made up for the stressful trip. The flight was delayed for a good hour, the plan was small, and we met a good number of turbulences. I was air sick the whole time, I had to ask for a barf bag just to be sure.

I was dizzy but I oddly kept stuffing my face with food. But yeah, even in my air sick state, I do know how to appreciate good food. Thumbs up for the awesome shrimp and yummy ice cream! And well, even if I felt foul the whole time, I couldn't really complain because we flew Business Class, baby! and the fun doesn't stop there, here's a peek at the snazzy hotel we were billeted at:

1000 Awesome Things!

I got a link off of Twitter from @RaisiaRojas that Says 1000 Awesome Things. I clicked and found this awesome blog listing exactly that, 1000 awesome things! I'm taking a few things from the list and making my own list of awesome :)

#498 Long comfortable silences between really close friends
# 501 Picking the fastest moving line at the grocery store checkout
#502 Fully justifying whatever terrible thing you're eating
#507 Roding on someone's shoulders when you were a kid
#511 The moment on vacation when you forget what day of the week it is
#517 That clicking sound of winding anything up
#520 When a baby falls asleep on you
#523 When you learn a new word and then suddenly start seeing it everywhere
#527 The night before a really big day
#529 Finally peeing after holding it forever
#538 Laughing so hard you start crying
#539 When you open a book to the exact page you were looking for
#548 The moment in the shower when you decide to make it a really long shower
#554 Staying in your pajamas all day
#557 When you fold a piece of paper so it fits in the envelope perfectly
#560 Putting on your most flattering pair of pants
#568 Your mom's love
#569 Sharing your stories with friends
#570 When a little baby gives you a hug before it leaves

I love it how the things on the 1000 list hit home really well, it kinda feels like I wrote them myself! I will visit this blog again another time and pick another set from the 1000. Awesome, awesome :)

Because It Doesn't Get Any More Vain Than Quoting Yourself

I have this weird habit of rereading my own writing -- school essays, blog entries, and circa-Friendster, testimonials I wrote for other people. Sometimes when I read again the stuff I wrote very long ago, I feel like reading a whole different person altogether. It's surreal and unnerving at the same time. It's always interesting to revisit different versions of yourself via the things you write

Here are some snippets from old blog entries that made me laugh at my crazy ideas, reminded me of the things I hold dear, made me cringe at my poser sophistication I thought I was pulling off, and thankfully, some that made me go, hey I'm pretty cool. Hahaha. So here it is, pure, unadulterated vanity.

• On high school: Forgive the cheese, but love then was refreshing, uncomplicated, and intoxicating. Naivete was fun and forgivable. I miss being 15 and stupid (Scratch Paper Thoughts, 28 September 2008)

• On unwittingly sabotaging relationships: Oh and on another random thought, you can't blame people who leave when you keep pushing them away, can you? It sucks when it's such a bad habit you can't shake off. Pushing people away is addicting (The Holidays, 24 December 2007)

• On screwing comfort zones: Sometimes I wish life was as easygoing as a sitcom -- booze, good friends, funny problems -- and over in under 20 minutes (Scratch Paper Thoughts, 28 September 2008)

• On taking the last minute hosting gig: I'm a secret superhero, at least in my head. Super kid saves the day (Stories from the (Delayed) Gap Months, 11 March 2009)

• On people and boundaries: You know how there's an imaginary fence you put around yourself when you're with people you just met. Inside the fence is your little comfort cloud. If the new people try to walk past the fence you drive them out by, I don't know, saying something weird or making a funny face that says, "Whoah! Stepping on the the Line!" and then it's kind of like an understood signal to backoff. And regular people know they have to back off because it's the polite thing to do (Stories from the (Delayed) Gap Months, 11 March 2009)

• On being different: Sometimes it felt like the world held this Life Orientation that everyone turned up for that I was not told about. So I walk around feeling like this kid from a parallel universe, quietly looking if there are any in my circles who are part of my people (From One Weirdo To Another, 29 January 2010)

• On crazy love for How I Met Your Mother: I would have bad days, bad weeks, and bad months when all I look would forward to was catching the latest episode. Yeah, my life got really lame sometime in my very recent history. At some point, in some twisted way I was living vicariously through Ted, Marshall, Lily, Robin, and Barney (Couch Potato Picks, 26 January 2010)

• On breaking the ice with writing: The thing with me is that in times when my life presents pretty interesting things to blog about, my writing shuts down. I am too happy to write. I am too mopey to write. I am too busy to write, or at least I think I am. But yeah, maybe for the most part, I take this blog a little too seriously for my own good. I don't you know, 'drunk write.' Not that I get drunk, or write in the hypothetical drunkenness. Think drunk-dialing, only this time writing. And um, non-drunk. Okay, I am abandoning that train of thought (Hullo Again, Writing, 26 January 2010)

Now that I think about it, this may have been inspired by the SNL production "Best of" series. Consider this my Best of Kat Cruz. Hahaha. And like the SNL Best of Will Ferrel, I can tell this has a Volume 2, and more!

Screen grab and transcript credit: fytinafey.tumblr.com

Liz: There's alcohol in that sauce. You've been drinking alochol.

Floyd: Tryin' to get me drunk? Squeezing in one las drive at Six Floyds Amusement Park? Well, we're closed. Sorry.

Liz: No, Floyd. I just wanted you to get food poisoning to mess up your Today Show thing. Look, you're drunk. It's my fault. Let's get you back to the hotel.

Floyd: No. I would never do that to you! Get you drunk on salmon? Or any fish! I thought we cared about each other.

Liz: yeah, I did, too! I thought the only thing keeping us apart was that you wanted to live in Cleveland but you'll move to New York for Kaitlin!
Floyd: Yeah, I will! You know why? One: BLONDE! Two: She's alive! Like a deer! She runs, and sniffs, and jumps, and stares! She's not like the badger with its glasses and its rules about week-day sex.
Liz: Those are good rules. People have work in the morning!
Floyd: How are you still single, Liz? There's so many guys out there that wanna be poisoned and yelled at!

Liz: yeah, well... have a good night. Enjoy your salmon. 

- 30 Rock, 4x16 Floyd

***


Frickin stings.

This Jimmy Fallon phase is insane. Oh yes, still not over. And much as I am embarrassed to admit, on crazy repeat on my VLC player is Fever Pitch and the SNL special Best of Jimmy Fallon. I am cringing as I type this. Even in this insane state of the weird phase, my brain still recognizes the stupidity of all this. Heehee.

Anyhoo, after all those disclaimers, we still see plastered at the top of this post a Jimmy Fallon photo. Yehess, taken from Fever Pitch by a kind Jimmy Fallon fan on Tumblr, which I um, filched.

This hands down is my favorite scene from Fever Pitch :) Yeah, the movie was a drag, yeah the plot was ~meh, and Jimmy Fallon saw better days on SNL acting-wise, BUT it's Jimmy Fallon! That probably didn't make any sense, but yeah, at least in my head that's how it works. Hahaha.

This scene was when Ben Wrightman, the Jimmy Fallon character, wanted Lindsey, the Drew Barrymore character, back. Ben blew it with Lindsey when after spending a really nice evening together,  Ben threw a fit when he found out he missed an historic game of the Red Sox. Lindsey naturally was hurt at finding out how much of a massive tool Ben was. Ben, after realizing how much of an idiot he is trooped to Lindsey's to apologize and ask for her back.

With the tears on Ben's face in this photo, you know Lindsey didn't want her back anymore. She told him off and poor little boy cried. I loved Jimmy in this scene. It was like having your heart broken too as you watch him cry. Aww.

Rules to the Grown-up World

One of my favorite opinion columnists from The Philippine Star is Federico Pascual of Postcript. Today he repeated on his column some very basic truths on life and the world. Obviously in reference to the recently concluded elections, but also useful to life in general. Read and find yourself nodding in agreement at the simple, yet oft-overlooked rules of the grown-up world:

• The world is not flat. Neither is it black and white. The landscape has an irregular contour, and is suffused in grays and a kaleidoscope of colors.

• The just-concluded election was not a cataclysmic battle between good and evil. It was just a pro-forma process of asking the people to elect their leaders for the next three/six years.

• No one man nor group has a monopoly of vice or virtue.

• In politics, whose core is human relations, it is not wise to speak in absolute terms, to stereotype people, to view actuations as either black or white without conceding anything in between.

Read the full article here.

Photo credit: ifonlyyoulovedme.Tumblr.com

The Jimmy Fallon Dip

Kid's on a weird (and insanely protracted) Jimmy Fallon phase. I recount the many embarrassing things that I'd like to attribute to this phase: following about 5 different Tumblrs on JF, downloading (really) old SNL eps when JF was still cast member, painfully pouring through iheartjimmyfallon.com (yeah, that really is the url) to see the JF's photos and old videos, AND getting me a copy of Fever Pitch. AND Watching Fever Pitch to the end. AND Rewatching Fever Pitch to the end, again. AND planning to watch Fever Pitch again. Multiple times.

Photocredit: iheartjimmyfallon

Jimmy Fallon is just so cute and adorable. The man gets away with mediocre acting, corpsing through every sketch in SNL, and giggling like a girl. You see him do all those and you're still sold he's amazing. His charm is insane.

I thought a few day's worth of pictures and headaches from all the pictures, I'd be able to shake JF off. Wrong. I also thought after getting through with Fever Pitch I'll be done with the cute/stupid phase. Also wrong. The movie sucked but I just kept watching. Jimmy was THAT cute I soldiered on until the end of the hour and a half.

I've also seen a lot of Late Night and you have to give it to Jimmy Fallon. The man will do ANYTHING to sell the show. It's the adorable kind of stupid. He gets into costumes, dresses in drag, basically makes fool our of himself, and comes out still the most adorable man you love him anyway.

To add to the unbelievable charm, he appears to be an awesome awesome husband. He's married to an older woman whom he adores like crazy. Here's what he has to say about his wife. I melted like chocolate in the car on a hot summer day in the Philippines (extra long metaphor but I love it!)

This guy got it bad and his wife is a lucky lucky woman. I'm still squealing inside as I type this. What Jimmy says when asked about his wife,

"It's phenomenal. I love being married. She's the coolest. I really lucked out. It was awesome. I got to meet a beautiful girl. I got to date her. and I got to get married. Thank God she loves the sense of humor. I'm not good in the looks department."

I am reduced to mushy goo as I think about how much he loves her! It's awesome to find out about love like this today :) As if this isn't perfect enough, Nancy his wife says of him,

"I have the biggest crush on him still."

That's the dream! I cannot stop squealing inside :p And as if we haven't been reduced to mushy gooes already, Jimmy talks about his proposal to Nancy,

"It was serious. I did the one knee thing. I tried not to cry before she did. I was definitely breaking down a little bit. I don't even remember what I said. I'm just really excited right now and just happy. I'm the luckiest guy on earth. She's the coolest girl in the world."

Okay, collective swoon :) I want me my own Jimmy Fallon. Someone who will say he is crazy lucky to have me and that I am the coolest girl i t he world. Someone you can be both stupid and smart with. Someone who makes you giddy because "you have the biggest crush on him still". Someones who's crazy adorable he makes waiting for him til you're forty very much worth it and more. Oh, the dream :)

The Focus Issue

I've always known that focus was never my strongest suit. It's always been a struggle for me to keep my attention in one place. It doesn't exactly help that all forms of distraction are at an all-time easy access with the internet and it's slew of The Distraction Squad, the Facebook-Twitter-Blogger combo.

It doesn't help too that my EQ is at an all-time low especially when it comes to self-control. Everything is one click to Safari away and I have in my hands an amazing number of new things to waste time on. Ugh.

In 3 weeks time, (barring the imminent Thailand Civil War) I'll be flying to BKK to represent the Philippine distributorship for our malt principal. Yes, my eyes light up at the prospect of shopping and exploring a new country (I've never been to Thailand) BUT as far as reality is concerned, business trips always come with the inevitable pre-conference preparations. Double ugh.

I've been struggling for over a week now to sit down in quiet and finish ALL the reports required. But as with all important things to be done, it somehow feels like the universe is conniving to not make you finish. That's the thing, the urgency of a job is indirectly proportional the enthusiasm to do it, which in turn is indirectly proportional to the number of distractions that surprisingly present themselves. It just feels right to end this paragraph with another, ugh.

This is what all-nighters are made of: consecutive weeks of available time with an insane amount of distractions and zero work done until the day before deadline. Oh ADD kid, you never learn.

Now I go back to (trying to) work. Hello focus, let's be friends.

Happy Long Weekend :)

Work has been crazy lately. In a nutshell, 1) my work Macbook crashed and news from 2 excellent repair shops (one computer doctor and a data extraction specialist) said my (un-backed up) files are forever gone, 2) my brand isn't taking off and my stocks aren't exactly flying off the shelves, 3) I have a conference in 3 weeks' time and I have to recreate all my data from thin air, and 4) a whole slew of other drama not fit for online public consumption. These are the kinds of stories personal, handwritten journals were made for.

So there, life hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. My saving grace lately has been TV and more importantly, (old and new) friends :)

Thursday night was Out-On-A-Work-Night with Rach and Raf and P. Quick Grams dinner and then drinks at Rue Bourbon. Odd mix for a Thursday night with Raf thrown in, but I was surprised at how much fun I had. I'm pretty sure the alcohol helped, hahaha. I had an amazing time :) Too bad we have no photos to show for this. But yeah, starting long weekends on Thursdays is always a great idea!

(Left to right: Tin, me, Mahal, Pao Jorq, Dan, and Neng out for a few beers at Pasto)

Last Saturday was Iron Man 2 night with grade school friends. My usual Dan+Lai+Tin+me group became Us 4+Mahal+Neng+Paolo Jorquia. It was a bit odd mix at first, with everyone feeling their way through the new group. Add to that, we had a 4-hour window to crumble in awkwardness before our movie started. Extra long dinner and some beers maybe did the trick.

(The new, amazingly fun mix: Neng, Tin, me, and Mahal)

Iron Man 2 night turned out to be a great night :) We eventually broke the ice and before we knew it, we were all laughing like crazy. It was insane! I just loved it how mixing circles worked so well for this one!

Two awesome nights in one long weekend! I think I may just have dealt with all the hassle of the past week! Hahaha! Thanks Rach and P and Raf for a really fun Thursday night, and Tin and Neng and Mahal and Dan and Paolo for an awesome Saturday night!

***

Ooh, I'm also sending love to that awesome Robert Downey, Jr. cocky charm that worked so well with all that facial hair! Even with the story all over the place, I'd say my ticket was sulit if only for Tony Stark. And how can I forget, THAT Scarjo ass. That betch killed it on screen! No lez love, just cute hatred for a beautifully shaped woman that's not me :p Haha, hello Blanche, share the love!