When the songbird sings

Only you can make you wait. Nobody else can. Either you decide on what you want or what you have to give up to get it, and then you gotta be okay with that. Or you gotta be okay with waiting.

You don’t get anything unless you ask for it. And if you ask for it and you don’t get it, maybe it wasn’t worth having in the first place. Some things are just never meant to be no matter how much we wish they were.

–Gilmore Girls

Mewwrry Christmas

Dear Santa,

You already know what I want for Christmas, so please grant me this wish. Please, please, puuurrrrrrrrty please! Promise, I will be good.

Thank you,

Kaye

PS: I don’t usually keep a glass of milk, but please help yourself with the leftover pastries and the wine chilling in the fridge.

PPS: And yes, I want a friggin’ world peace too!

Appetizer
What is one of your Christmas traditions?

It’s usually big breakfast with my mom’s side of the family which we hold right after attending very early Christmas mass. This is one of the traditions that make me grateful for having a huge family. On the other hand, it looks like this Christmas will be slightly different since I’m not planning to visit Nueva Ecija but invite my mother and sister to our apartment in stead.

Soup
Who is the easiest person on your list to buy presents for?

More than one person, actually–Jane, Marian and Fat are among the easiest persons to buy presents for simply because I have a fair idea of what they want or will appreciate and on the case of Fat, she texted me her wish list so I know there’s little possibility of giving her the “wrong” gift.

Salad
What is your favorite Christmas scent?

Puto bung-bong and bibingka. Those rice cakes that vendors hawk at hungry churchgoers after early morning masses.

Main Course
If you could give a fellow blogger a Christmas gift, who would it be and what would you give them?

Hmmm…that’s a tough one. I guess anybody who blogs most often will be the one to whom I would give a year’s worth of blog hosting as a gift.

Dessert
What’s something on your Christmas wish list this year that you need (not just want)?

I already got my black coffeemaker, which is the best replacement for the one that I broke recently. I really need it because I need a strong brew of barako in the morning to jump start my day.

Survey from Friday’s Feast

Must. Post. These. irresistibly cute sleepy kittens.

“I…wwwilll…nohht…scshllleeeeppp…PLOP!”

“Mmm…eeeh…yowwhhhh…”

TIME Magazine puts web 2.0 on the spotlight by giving its 2006 Person of the Year recognition to the dissidents, demagogues and bystanders in the current stage of the internet’s “evolution” (and not revolution, as Read/Write Web points out): the Youtubers, bloggers, diarists, Wikipedians, armchair pundits and anyone who contributes, comments about or edits information on today’s web, whom the magazine aptly calls “You”. (Me? Yes, you!)

There is a major emphasis on the role that video sharing site YouTube plays in today’s web, as well as highlights on the relationships forged in social networks, the amateurs-vs.-pros race between bloggers and traditional media in creating and distributing information, the political and entertainment careers made and unmade via innocent blog posts and Youtube videos and how Firefox is, well, “outfoxing” Microsoft in the browser war.

As for the perceived importance and staying power of the interweb’s current state of affairs, Lev Grossman puts it nicely in his introductory essay:

“And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006 is you.

“Sure, it’s a mistake to romanticize all this any more than is strictly necessary. Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and naked hatred.

“But that’s what makes all this interesting. Web 2.0 is a massive social experiment, and like any experiment worth trying, it could fail…This is an opportunity to build a new kind of international understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person.”

On the flip side, I think there is too much emphasis on the content creation and sharing side of things that other services which “you” actively use were overlooked, such as tagging, RSS, digging, etc. It also doesn’t address the issues of splogs and the oft-skewed SERPs. These issues, I would dare assume, were also created by a lot of “you” on many occasions.

A Good Year is a film that could have delivered but failed to do so. The reunion of director Ridley Scott and Russel Crowe after “Gladiator” would have been like a vacation in Provence, the setting of the story, which is an adaptation of Peter Mayle’s novel, until they proved that they were wrong for the project. Scott’s forte is still in making believable heart-stopping battle scenes while Crowe’s is anything but a romantic lead no matter how well his physical presence makes the character he portrays more visually appealing. Throughout the course of the film, he looks more at ease as the driven and money-hungry stocks trader than as a lad who falls in love with a French chick…except for the torrid kissing bit, of course.

As the story goes, after nearly sabotaging his financial career in the London stock market, British Max Skinner (Crowe) heads off to Provence to manage the sale of the chateaus that he inherits upon his uncle’s untimely death. Sadly, the chateau is in a shocking state of disrepair and its surrounding vineyard produces wine that is almost undrinkable. To make matters worse, an American surprises him with claims that she is his uncle’s daughter and therefore the rightful owner of the property. It doesn’t help his plans either that the young American knows more about wine than he does, or cares more about the vineyard than he wants to admit. But amidst the rush to sell the property, he meets–and as expected, falls in love with–a local bar owner, Fanny (Marion Cotillard). What follows is a choice between the life he has always known in London and the one that he has left behind.

I don’t know exactly in which part of the story my mind started to wander off. There are films about “the good life” that hold the viewer’s attention with images of gorgeous settings, mouthwatering food and overflowing wine as traditional music plays in the background. And it’s unfortunate that this one doesn’t, for some reason. It could be that the story-telling isn’t tight enough, or that Crowe literally fumbles and tumbles a little too much on so many occasions to prove perhaps that his character is, after all, a slick city dweller. In addition to the British-vs.-French cliches, “A Good Year” fails to decide on which it wants to emphasize–the development of its main character or the beauty of Provençal life.

Still, when I grow up, I’d like to live in a chateau in Provence.

God, grant me patience for I have none.

This has been one of those days when I didn’t feel like hanging around much with anybody or talking to anyone. Carrying on a conversation took so much effort, proof that not everyday had to be bright and sunshiny, and that I did have my “off” days. I’m tired, sleep-deprived, nauseous, hungry and all I want to do is doze off for 14 straight hours.

* * *

So there was a huge rally along Ayala earlier. I’m not sure if the crowd is still there, and I am not sure either about what they are rallying against. Are they still fighting over Cha-Cha/Con-Ass/People’s Initiative? To be honest, I have practically stopped caring about Philippine politics or whatever political system that our trapos have come up with as long as my so-called constitutional rights are still being upheld, notwithstanding whether I practice them or not (i.e., vote). To me it’s all the same rotten banana and those in power are all the same twats.

* * *

I played badminton with the other group last Saturday. I realized that it had been weeks since I played and that if I didn’t hit the courts last Saturday, I wouldn’t be able to play until after the new year. So in spite of some trepidation, I went to PowerSmash and played good sets with people I had never had matches with when I was still active in that group. It was nice that Mike, Yoyo and Leio from our group were there too.

Appetizer
What was your very first job with a paycheck?

I worked as editorial assistant for a local magazine right after college. The job lasted for only four months. The paycheck, as expected, was a joke.

Soup
Did you ever lose something really important to you?

I guess a number of jewelry and watches are counted as important, so yes, I have. I’ve always had a tendency to lose such small articles–especially when I was growing up–which gave my mom fits on a few occasions.

Salad
What is the best Christmas present you ever received?

I’d count the small things that my grandfather gave me as the best. Every Christmas, he saves some items that he gives only to his favorite granddaughter (me, hehe!), like a bottle of wine, shirts, boxes of chocolates. Those things he always gives wholeheartedly and it’s a treat to see the warmth on his face whenever he hands me those gifts.

Main Course
Tell about a favorite “hang out” place for you and your friends when you were in high school.

I spent my high school years at a very small town in rural Nueva Ecija province, so there weren’t malls nor coffee shops around. However, we were friends with the owners of this eatery right across the street from our campus and that was where we usually spent after-class hours just talking about schoolwork, classmates, teachers, dance rehearsals, school paper, student body, competitions, our crushes and what-not.

Dessert
Name something that always brings a smile to your face.

Just the thought that my day was well worth the make-up brings a smile to my face hehehe!

Survey from Friday’s Feast

“It’s a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what.

The great thing about telling someone they’re dying is that it tends to focus their priorities. You find out what matters to them. What they’re willing to die for. What they’re willing to lie for.”

Dr. Gregory House, House MD