The Fat Man Today

Boom! said the kuwitis. Damn! That's just kuwitis. As I type, fireworks are blasting away just outside our house, courtesy of the rowdy party palace this neighborhood of ours turns into every time the New Year comes around. We have thick concrete walls and good windows with metal bars, but all that padding seems to be doing very little in keeping the blasts at a minimum, since every subsequent explosion is enough to rattle the wind chimes hanging on the inside of the front door. I don't know what they're putting in local fireworks these days, but we could start a war with some of them, methinks. I almost had to celebrate New Year's eve with a bum leg due to a traumatized callus on the sole of my foot, but a quick trip to the hospital took care of that. Now I can positively hobble faster than a tortoise, which means that I don't need a cane to move about the house - which makes this a pretty damn good way of capping the year. Happy New Year to you folks, and don'...

Just to fill in dead air between now and New Year's eve, I'd like to talk a bit about my recent geekery. My Satoshi Kon addiction aside, and that brief Kemonozume high, I've been watching - and in the case of I Am Legend, anticipating - several other geek-worthy programs that blow a hole right through my I-am-not-a-geek proclamation. (Just to make sure nobody forgets, though: I still maintain that I am not a full geek.) Although I like to stress that I am pretty much a self-made man, sometimes evidence that my geekery is something built up by my two sisters, Yeyey Cruz and Caridad Cruz-Salonga, pops up. The list is long and almost endless; from Fraggle Rock to Lord of the Rings (I read the entire trilogy by the time I was ten three times thanks to my sister), I owe most of my tastes to the years wherein my decade-older siblings sat me through films and shows like A Christmas Story (which I still, for the life of me, cannot remember), Ghostbusters , The A-Team , and the...

It's amazing. Christmas always has that really amazing vibe (Anna D. calls it that citrusy, zesty smell in the air) that somehow makes sure things all end well in the end. Exhibit A: my friend, Pao. Read his recent LJ / Multiply to find out why. Exhibit B: me. The past few week(s?), I've been more or less sick and unable to do anything short of filter feed and breathe. Things worsened last week when my throat decided to squeeze itself close to shut, so much so that the very act of swallowing water was torture. I spent the better part of the week fast asleep, shut away from the rest of civilization, eating the occasional bowl of arroz caldo. Due to this, I wasn't able to join the Christmas shopping crush during the last week before Christmas Eve, up until the 24th itself - which was, in a hilarious act of God, when I did and completed my Christmas shopping for the insular family. Seriously. I went to Robinson's Place on Christmas Eve to get a check-up (didn't make it...

It sucks entering the holidays when you're as sick as a rhinoceros with dysentery (resurgence of the word courtesy of Jon). Just to clarify - I do not have dysentery. What I do have, however, is a bad case of engorged, pulsating (albeit pus-free so far ) tonsils, that have been messing with my body both physically and mentally. Physically, because I haven't been able to work out at all since the damn thing hit me, not to mention the confabulous headaches and fevers I've been having. The word confabulous is taken from Bruce's stint with desktop widgets with the same name; the name sounds very condescending in a grand way, and should be used as sarcasm. So I command it, so shall it be. Anyway . Mentally, because the fevers have been giving me the most amazing dreams that are mixing my days back in high school with my days in Cagayan de Oro and marketing. Just now, before I woke up, I was discussing purchasing planning with a bunch of long-forgotten friends from LSGH in a...

Man was meant to fly Icarus was just an idiot. After seeing this video, I now want a wing suit. I've always been fascinated with flying. I'm one of those few people who were given the chance to take their first flying experience alone, and I enjoyed it - and each subsequent experience - immensely. You won't catch me looking over the edge of some precipice, since I still have that annoying case of acrophobia, but I'm more than willing to try something that's liable to make me shit in my pants but will give me more than enough of that adrenaline rush that you just can't find in daily living. I wonder what material they use for the wing suits. It'd have to be something really sturdy to survive something close to re-entry - at least I'm assuming it'd be somthing like re-entry, since I can pretty much see the curve of the Earth in some of the shots. Is kevlar sturdy enough to survive re-entry? Urban legend says that the older - and less reliable - wing su...

There is an orange on my desk. It is waiting for lunchtime. For want of a real post - since the past few days have technically been unbloggable, but not due to the lack of developments in my personal and social life - I will now post a couple of photos I took with my crap camera phone. A couple of days ago, this was how our living room looked like. My sister was fixing up an office for one of her clients, and she had to order a whole bunch of office chairs in the process. Since she didn't really have any place to store them in, the entire lot - around twenty or so chairs - were dumped in our living room in the meantime. The temptation to use one of them was rather great, and only the plastic covering the plush seats kept me from delivering weighty justice. My nephew and niece, however, weren't as easily dissuaded, and clambered through the aptly named "forest of chairs" as if the durned things were theirs. This photo is a winner, except for the obviously bad quality....

Title is taken from Adrian Arcega's status message this morning. And I totally agree with him. I didn't really like how the second season of Heroes spiraled out into its almost anti-climactic end; there were way too many plot holes, and some of the newer characters were just way too lame. Take the wonder Twins, for example; they were a horrible addition, although granted, their purpose as a device to bring Sylar back into the U.S. was pretty sound, but plot-wise, Maya and her brother could very well have been nothing more than bystanders who just happened to be a minority. I mean, they had to replace Mendez with another chicano. Status quo and all. The Takezo Kensei / Adam Monroe character was made of pure win, though; and now, both the heroes and the villains have an indestructible force - season three should be phenomenal , if you're going to have Peter and Claire on one side, Sylar and Kensei on the other. All Hiro has to do is teach Claire battojutsu, and they're al...

Okay, just a quick one: The Zeppelin's Mezzanine is now the 18th result when Googling for the terms "Martin Cruz" with or without the quotation marks. Take that, Martin Cruz Smith! Although the Yahoo SERPs are a different story altogether. I am also the 14th result when Googling for "Uwak." "Kilawinguwak" is a no-brainer, since the pseudonym's more specific than Jehovah. A meatier entry next time!

If you're the type of person who has the attention span of a goldfish, can't imagine stories without pictures, and generally are the type of person responsible for the slow decline of intelligence in the Pinoy society, then don't read this. If you are the type, but still venture forth to trudge through this text, then you are a visionary idiot, and any attempts to refute my thoughts will be met with equal - if not greater - force. If you are a kindred spirit, then feel free to trade ideas with me for the good of the written word. These are just my thoughts, not gospel truth. Dissect them, question them there is no right or wrong for those who know. I was never a fan of Butch Dalisay. Wait, let me correct myself - I was once a fan of Butch Dalisay, whenever I read his Penman articles on the lifestyle pages of the Star, but back then, I hadn't read any of his 'serious literature' yet. Which is to say, that I was just reading him as a columnist, not as a writer - ...

The title has nothing to do with this post. To those who opened this because of the title, you have been hoodwinked, haw haw. One day, Martin Cruz woke up and discovered that he had become a multimillionaire. Then he promptly fell asleep and began dreaming that he was underpaid. His rational mind decided that that was the state of all writers all over the world, and that photographers and painters who take very little time perfecting a single painting or a photograph - no offense to those reading this, and this statement technically breaks the fourth, fifth, and whatever walls of this story masquerading as a blog entry - but get paid more than a genius hack who sweats blood, tears, and alcohol for weeks to come up with a brilliant paragraph. Right now, in his dream, Martin Cruz is sitting on his laptop, typing out something, while the news is busy telling the story of a coup d'etat happening. The Peninsula Manila has become the barracks of Trillanes, whoever he is, and he is demand...

What Kind of Girl Will You Fall For? You will fall for the cutie. You like girls with a personality. She's got to have a nice smile and a sense of humor. Although she doesn't have to be a model, she has to be that girl-next-door. Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com This seems to be true. Yoink. Which Famous Artist Are You? You are Leonardo da Vinci. You are the "Renaissance man" and you live to be productive. Great at everything you put your mind to, you have great passion and drive. But of all qualities, your curiosity is your best trait. Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com Wow, a renaissance man. I wish. What Type of Drunk Are You? You are an Excessive Drunk. You drink to get drunk and you won't settle for anything less. Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com True, true. Which Springfield Resident Are You? You are part Ned Flanders. You see yourself as morally superior to most everyone else, and the absurdity of others can drive you nuts! Despite your kindne...

I know it's horrible, but leave me be - I seldom do flash fiction. :D He leapt out of the window just as the entire building collapsed into a million pieces, although the building was a metaphor; jumping was an arguable concept. The outcome was, of course, undeniably gritty.

Apologies for the ending - I needed to clear my mind It's almost been a week since my last update. I could blame the fact that I don't have readily available internet here (by readily available, I mean I don't just turn on the laptop and voila! Internet - I have to lug the machine about just to connect). It's been a week since I arrived here, and I've been at a stable 100 kilos, which I can hopefully maintain for the next few months. And since Christmas is just around the corner, we all know just how difficult that'll be, what with the food, the booze, the food, the shopping (which leads to eating out) and again, the food. I'll have to increase the amount of exercise I do just to keep up with the sudden deluge. It really has been a pretty good week. I miss the amazing mountain air of Buena Vista, and the walks I have to do just to get around the city, but other than that, it's been awesome. The beers have been moving (or to be precise, the alcohol's ...

i Maraming beses na kitang nilayasan Iniwanan at iba ang pinuntahan Parang babaeng mahirap talagang malimutan Ikaw lamang ang aking laging binabalikan Manila, Manila I keep coming back to Manila Simply no place like Manila Manila, I'm coming home I walked the streets of San Francisco I've tried the rides in Disneyland Dated a million girls in Sydney Somehow I feel like I don't belong Hinahanap-hanap kita Manila Ang ingay mong kay sarap sa tenga Mga Jeepney mong nagliliparan Mga babae mong naggagandahan Take me back in your arms Manila And promise me you'll never let go Promise me you'll never let go Manila, Manila Miss you like hell, Manila No place in the world like Manila I'm coming here to stay ii. Too, uh, cheesy to mention. Check the lyrics here . iii. I've been drunk or inebriated every day of this week since Saturday last week; since I'm holding an inuman party ...

Right now, there is only one thing I want. Yes. Just one thing.

Okay, the previous weekend was something else. It started out as a really small fault on my part (sloth, one of the deadly sins, is my best friend), but escalated into something really, really massive that lasted from late Friday evening and was just resolved a couple of hours ago. Orright. So let's own up first. I'm very, very lax when it comes to paying my bills, especially my electricity bills since the damn things usually don't go beyond PhP350.00, so to make it seem like I was actually using the electricity, I usually wait for two months before paying the entire shabang. Yes, it's a bad habit, I know, one that I need to fix, but that's not the point of this now is it. Anyway. The other day, the guys from CEPALCO arrived to cut off the line - something I was expecting, anyway, so I didn't bother none about it too much. I just finished dressing up, packed up my laptop, and headed to Cafe Ganaderos for a nice cup of coffee and free wi-fi. I passed by the CEPAL...

Okay; this is the desktop tag game, which KC tagged me to do. Here's the current desktop theme on my laptop; pretty simple, uses the default Windows XP theme. The background is taken from the anime Haibane Renmei , a pretty deep cartoon about death and rebirth. I usually don't like having a cluttered up desktop; most of the things you see here are quick icons, some documents I haven't trashed yet, some of the music from Paradise Kiss , and torrents. To the left is one of the most impressive developments in instant messaging to date, a nifty little program called Pidgin. The window docks rather nicely at the leftmost side of the screen without limiting the screen space, and it lets me connect to a multitude of connectivity services at will. When I'm working, however . . . . . . . the scenery shifts to something like this. You have the browser to one side, two other documents on the other. If I could enlarge the DPI size of my screen a bit more, I'd have four window...

Just FYI. My flight, due to a bunch of unknown reasons, has been moved to November 15 at 4pm. So that means that I get to work on the 14th and the 15th I get to work out on the 14th I get to take it easy on the packing and fire sale I have to stay here one more bloody day. Ah well. What's one more day, anyway.

When I first acquired the Motorola L6, I was so taken by its design and functions that I told myself that I wouldn't be changing models anytime soon. It had all I needed at the time, and so long as the machine worked the way it was supposed to, I was happy. But since I'm going back to Manila, I'm expecting a heavy storm of road trips and gimiks. But I've got work. From what I've been going through lately, lots of work. The client thinks I am inexhaustible, which is a bloody lie. So I'm thinking of getting a new handset. And, successively, a new line. Smart, this time around. Because the Smart 3G feature has caught my attention. Imagine! Working online at speeds of 25kph! At ten pesos per thirty minutes! The idea boggles the mind. Any ideas on a 3g-capable handset?

I SING the Body electric; The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them; They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them, And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the Soul. - Walt Whitman

Right now, pork is the only thing I can say. If that's the way you want things, then I'm all for it. If it means improvement, if it means the betterment of things, then I say GO! EDIT Well! I finished an entire bottle of Tanduay, and I'm still spelling correctly and not messaging anybody I don't know. Damn!

Three posts in one day? Me? I must be setting a new record! Well, maybe not. But since this is the first day of my last full week here in Cagayan de Oro, it felt like a good time to post some photos and reminisce. After all, tomorrow's Monday, and the gods of Advibe Media felt good enough to drop two more atomic bombs on my own personal Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which means that unless some miracle happens, I'll be stressed out by the end of the day for the next week. Anyway. Let's begin our trip down last year with photos from my village, the aptly named Buena Vista Village in Baranggay Patag, Cagayan de Oro. While this isn't exactly my street, Pearl Avenue is the one main street within the village. The avenue starts from the highway, where you will be greeted by an empty lot that always, for some reason, smells like someone had been smoking marijuana in it. The empty lot faces this pretty big townhouse and this small sari-sari store called Eddie's Place, where my fo...

Go to Google and type in quotation marks your name and then "likes to" (ex. "Tom likes to"). Type in the first ten things that come up and repost in your own blog. 1. Martin likes to pee on people (I do not . I know someone who does, though) 2. Martin likes to paraphrase G. K. Chesterton to show that he, too, takes his polling modestly: "A drunkard uses a lamp pole for support, not for illumination." (I don't know what this implies, but I love G.K. Chesterton. My dad says I'm his reincarnation.) 3. Martin likes to say that his factory tour helps to sell guitars. (I sell guitars? Really? I wish!) 3. Martin likes to tackle the higher peaks in Scotland and also plays the fiddle and bagpipes. (I'd love to do this one day. In a kilt!) 4. Martin likes to ride his scooter, an Aprilia Habana 125. (I'd rather have a 1992 Honda Civic Hutchback. Souped up.) 5. Martin likes to drink alllllllll the diet coke in the fridge (it's healthy). (Ogh. I h...

Now, I'm not one to remember most of my dreams. Ask my friends. Ask my cousins. They remember their dreams. Not me. But once in a while, I do remember the things I dream about whilst slumbering. Take last night, for example. I dreamt of a Degrassi episode, except that I didn't know who all the characters were. The main character, though, was this girl from Mirrormask , except that her name was Maxine. The story revolved around the trial of Mike Tyson. The defense attorney - the good guy Maxine and company was helping out - was none other than Kermit the Frog. The prosecution was Kermit's mother, who (apparently) was a more malevolent version of Hexus from Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest . I don't know where my mind got all that, but I'll have whatever it was having. I don't even watch Degrassi .

Hunger is your worst opponent. I am hungry. Very very very hungry. I only have oatmeal and rhum in the house. And I can't sleep . I'm going into town again. The problem with that is that today (and tomorrow) are actually holidays, so I'm thinking that the chances of me finding a motorela to take me to town are very very slim. So wish me luck, friends. Or else I walk. For two hours. In the dead of night. I'm brining an arnis stick and a knife, just to be safe. By the way, I'd like to greet two really fantastic people, who're both celebrating their birthdays today. The first is my graphic designer and artist friend extraordinaire Camille Del Rosario, who, up to this day, is one of the few people (women!) I know capable of downing twelve shots of tequilla; and no, she technically didn't make it out alive, hahaha! The second is my ultra-cool father, Vic Cruz, from whom I inherited the amazing Cruz legacy of imbibing enough liquor to fill a distillery. You - and...