i have only been 33 for over a week now and i have been neither under pressure nor under the impression that i should be making any profound statements about growing a year older. i had already done that when i hit 30, and also tried it a year later (check my birthday series), and maybe the next slew of realizations would take place when i'm closer ( Read more... )

so i've realized that i cannot fit more than 24 hours into a day, or more than seven days into a week, and that my body needs at least 7 hours of sleep everyday, and many more hours just doing nothing ( Read more... )

it is an unmistakable sign of my approaching an ancient age that i begin to wax sentimental over the past, so i am happy to have touched base again with old classmates, who show absolutely no traces of the years gone by. over the past week, i had a lunch with a number of girls from my UP law block, and just last night, i had dinner with them again ( Read more... )

the best-laid plans can still go awry, and no amount of careful coordination can prevent nature from getting in the way of great fun. it was providential that i had made many contacts in daet even prior to brewing this little trip to calaguas island off the town of vinzons in the province of camarines norte, and as early as wednesday, they had ( Read more... )

so people have been turning to twitter and FB and plurk and even gmail to constantly keep other people -- even those who aren't necessarily asking -- about what they're currently doing. it's actually micro-blogging: status updates are after all telegraphed entries: installments of an autobiography: the slow unfolding of a life. i have been doing ( Read more... )

my friend honesto franz maximillian nuqui who was the valedictorian of batch 1997 of UP diliman (he was one of 7 summa cum laudes from my batch) tagged me over on facebook in his 25 random things survey. the instructions are to write 25 random things about yourself, then tag 25 of your friends to do the same, including the person who tagged you. i ( Read more... )

i had a very lazy weekend, and divided my time between reading and visiting the gym. i finally finished mcewan's "on chesil beach" and vonnegut's "bagombo snuff box". now i'm a bit eager to get my next vonnegut short story collection. his style really isn't much to my liking, but i'm particularly interested in his explorations of working class and ( Read more... )

helen has been brewing up quite a storm in northern parts of luzon and it has also affected parts of manila. which explains why my suunto core black yellow has been giving me these alarms, indicating that there has been a massive drop in air pressure, hinting at souring weather. so the suunto core is a really cool device, although i'm afraid that ( Read more... )

my friend glenn complained profusely about my refusal to add him as a friend on facebook. i have to confess that although i was hooked on warbook -- one of facebook's game applications -- for a time, i very quickly grew tired of it. it rarely serves a purpose now, although recently, i used it a few times to send a message to my friend who purchased ( Read more... )

while i was at baguio last sunday, i received SMS which roughly read: “hi alman, your friend from canada is back...” i had to look up and think about any friends who have recently returned from overseas, and i had to drop an anvil on my head since it took me a few seconds to realize this friend is actually lowell, who had just finished his LlM from ( Read more... )