2010

"The point is, [he's] right, you know? It's not even just professionally -- in my personal life, I don't take any chances, either. I want to, I just...I can never seem to take that first step."
- J.D.

J.D.'s Narration: I guess it all comes down to what we're willing to risk.

J.D.'s Narration: For some of us, it's our feelings....

J.D.'s Narration: For others, it's our future....

J.D.'s Narration: For me, it was taking a risk, period. Even if that meant starting with my very first step.

[BACK ON THE SHELF] Bloom

5 syllables: nakakapagad. Story is told in the protagonist's POV. From start to finish all I did was hear her thoughts. A disappointing read. But, this book reminded me of the Love Stories series from my teenage years that I loved so much.

Talentadong bata

@find yahoooooo

On the bookshelf:

Bloom by Elizabeth Scott
Graveyard by Neil Gaiman
Alamat ng Gubat by Bob Ong
Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas by Bob Ong
Stainless Longganisa by Bob Ong
ABNKKBSNPLAko by Bob Ong
No Choice But Seduction by Johanna Lindsey
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

On how to "@find", click here (shhhhh :P)

Post-shout out (a.k.a. senseless late reaction): yeheyyyyyy

Surprise! (Dishes will not always turn out the way you want them to)

It's funny how I ended up serving a caldereta-tasting dish when I set about to cook menudo for today's lunch. During this holiday, I have been dabbling around the kitchen cooking our meals (but never pagsaing ng kanin), preparing merienda sandwiches (go, grow, glow present), breakfast pancakes or the no-sweat-pancit canton. Even our Christmas eve feast was concocted by yours truly. Anyway, there's the picture of my menudo -then assumed a caldereta taste in the end. I should probably start calling it "calderudo" or "menureta" (points! for originality :P).



Reasons behind the confusion:
1) I believe, with my heart and taste buds alike, the main culprit is the CDO liver spread. I saw it from the racks for the first time when I did our grocery and it was intended to be a... well... spread for tinapay. I didn't sample the CDO liver spread before putting it in the pot but I did smell it (I rely on my sense of smell when I season and to get an idea of the flavor) and it smelled sweet and of hotdogs or meatloaf. Weird :P. That whiff my nose inhaled at that moment was what I savored in my mouth an hour later.


2) I sprinkled more-than-the-average-menudo-pepper. The spiciness accentuated the richness of the tomato sauce and the other ingredients in the pot.
3.1) The CDO liver spread is paste-like and it messed with the thickness of the sauce. The dish turned out with a texture like that in caldereta.
3.2) While all that mixture was simmering, I did not place the lid fully-on. Liquid evaporated, leaving a thick sauce behind.
4) I added a spoon of sugar.

It turned out good, if you like thick, rich, flavor-punched sauces or if you're a fan of caldereta but wants to skip all the trouble of preparing it. My first ever menudo!... errr caldereta... calderudo/menureta!

Recipe:
1 small onion
4 cloves of garlic
2 small tomatoes
1/2 kilo pork, menudo cuts
1 can of CDO liver spread
1 large pack of tomato sauce
2 carrots
2 potatoes
bay leaves
salt
pepper
sugar

1) Saute garlic, onion and tomatoes. Sprinkle it with a bit of salt to extract the moisture - thus more flavor.
2) Add in the pork. Sprinkle again with salt plus pepper. It's important to season as you go along as this adds a layer of flavor to the dish.
3) If the pork has already lost its pinkness and has absorbed all that taste in the pot, add the CDO liver spread.
4) Pour the tomato sauce. Add water too. Let it simmer until pork is cooked.
5) Dump the potatoes, carrots and bay leaves. Season again with pepper. Wait until the veggies are done.
6) Ta-ta! Serve with a heart-skipping-smile.

Post shout-out (a.k.a. senseless late reaction): This is a free advertisement of CDO and their CDO liver spread. Pay me! Pay me! Pay me!

[BACK ON THE SHELF] A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning

I was on the mood for something akin to Harry Potter or Spiderwick so I sought Amazon's "Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed" (lame, i know, but it did the job :P) and it came up with this suggestion: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I distinctly remember this is one of those books I know I'll be reading someday.
The story is told in a somewhat "Nanny Mcphee", fairy tale (don't think Disney) tone which sets the this-is-a-children's-book air (plus there are sparse word definitions inside that you'll feel like a child being taught English words for the first time). But, as the tale progressed, I discovered that this book is not "one for the kids". I found some of the book's adults' behavior distasteful. There were a couple of scenes that was a bit rated-PG for a 8 or 9 year old and disturbing for a young adult/adult reader. Acts I talk of hints lightly, heavily stressing the word lightly (*whooops* talk about contradiction), on the topic of pedophile. I finished reading the The Bad Beginning two days ago and have been putting off the next book in the series. The antagonist, Count Olaf, and his theater troupe of ruffians, "the adults", left me with a feeling of agitation at the end of the book. I was shouting "hey, that's foul!" in my mind when sexual innuendos were thrown towards one of the Baudelaire orphan, Violet with the pretty face. Added to that, there were enough physical violence which will make you recoil and think that it should not happen to kids.
From the sound of it, I know I reacted strongly. It's probably because of the assumption I had prior to reading: this is a book for the little tots, intensified by two years of knowing it's a book I'll be reading someday. I was handed something unexpected (too bad that something had never bode in me well) and it snatched the fairy tale I was anticipating for. Nevertheless, I'll see the series to its end with faith in "good will triumph over evil".

Post shout-out (a.k.a. senseless late reaction): It's so unfair! I want it back!

Disclaimer: I don't do reviews. Never been comfortable in formulating the words/structure to give in-/justice to a subject. The keyword here is: objective. When I let the words flow out, I am prodded by emotions. And nothing else. I am not one: objective. Therefore, this is not a review of any sort. I contemplated, did some body stretching then gathered inspiration. This is the result.

All along I thought it was Ethan Hawke

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, 'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

- Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto

I first heard this in a Speech Communication class I attended. It's a good feeling to learn, albeit a pitiful memory capacity, that I still remember some things from the past - along with blunders such as the belief that it was Ethan Hawke doing the reading. :P

pick-up line ??

No one

"Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it is really worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass them on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It's okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise."

- Miranda July

Singapura

I just had a "drinking session" with my cousin. There was no Bombay Sapphire Gin in sight, nor beer or, for that matter, any of those beverage that can inhibit your better judgment. But it felt like we were drinking. And I got drunk. From personal stories of past's undertakings, this year's triumphs and future plans. This is the closest I've felt with my pinsan.

X

Nanghingi ako ng x'mas gift. Ang ibibigay: friendship. What the H! Flashlight ang gusto ko, flashlight!

Pick-up line # ??

J: ano pasalubong ko?
G: me?

*based from a true-to-life conversation between friends

A purpose driven life

Today, I received my first Christmas gift for the year. Thank you.

fanfiction

I remember days spent reading fanfics

Lawson Christmas Party 2009

Lawson goes back to the 70's
Held at SMX Convention
December 4, 2009

New Moon

Dinner at Friday's and watched Twilight: New Moon

I miss not the place, but us in it