How To Remember Names

One of the many things I bad at is remembering people's names. Yes, sue me if you will because in the social dynamics, this is a major let-down. That's why I never leave a lasting first impression with others because the first thing I always forget is not sharing how awesome it is to shop for outdoor furnitures on a Sunday, but their. Very basic but somewhat very rude, right? I found these simple tips on how to remember people's names:

1. Repeat, Repeat Repeat.
2. Find name associations.
3. Word play.
4. Say the name in conversations.
5. If your name is hard to pronounce, have other people know it.

Destination Branson

Branson vacation packages have been really posting some pretty great deals lately. Vacation is a luxury for me unlike those that I know that can go on a vacation on a whim. Of course, for some who has limited budget when it comes to get-aways, I am always on the lookout for these great deals. Now, what to get for my spring vacation….

Lame Workstation

Come on, you guys would definitely think that this is the lamest work station you’ve ever seen:

Guilty as charged. The part of me who doesn’t want to leave the room ended up suffering a severe back ache after spending some 8 hours of writing prototype 37c and other blog-worthy topics in front of this set up. That’s my laptop on top of huge and heavy encyclopedia and dictionary stacks. I needed to elevate the laptop since the bed is really low, and the mattress is not that good.

Now you ask why I’d rather do that than get my self a decent table or work here in our bahay kubo like I’m doing right now. Too lazy, I guess. HAHA. I mean, it’s a Sunday and I don’t want to get out of my room…

What's That Word?

A friend of mine sent a tweet asking this:

english majors on twitter, what's the word for a person who doesn't like learning new things?

I Googled it immediately, thinking she meant the fear of learning. I found the words and replied to her immediately. But then she said it’s not the one that she was looking for. Then I sent her a lot of words that relates to not wanting to learn like uncurious, arcane, archaic. I even thought of the word colonix but that doesn't count. Then I gave up.

She tweeted just now. The word that she was looking for was OBSCURANTIST.

Los Banos Trip

Super late post.

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I went on a roadtrip with friends three weeks ago to Los Banos, Laguna, I am happy that the Documentation team is a growing family. Well, I am just fond of calling these group as such, but honestly they’re like my extended family. Spending 8 to 10 hours of your weekdays and sometimes weekends for four years had been a blessing. And our little family is growing. The group had the same trip last year with just me (well, that version of me who's not near to considering diet pills, LOL), Olive, Rey, Gene and Sherwin. This year, we were joined by Anthony, Sir Nicko, Sir Jun and Sandy.

The plan was the same as last year; start our day going to to the UPLB Botanical Garden, go to the aviary and swim in the nearby pool in the afternoon. But to our dismay, of all days, the Botanical Garden was closed the day we went there. The garden was within the university and almost everyone’s in their respective summer vacations, hence the decision to renovate the area. Anyways, we were all sad at first because our plan was sort of ruined, so we’ve decided to just drive around the campus and to check the other museums around. It was a holiday when we went to Los Banos so everything was closed.

After driving around for almost an hour and failing to find an open museum, we all decided to head to the nearest pool resort and commence our second activity of the day. The resort wasn’t a fancy-schmancy type. Actually, the resort was university-owned so they only have an Olympic-sized pool open to everyone who wants to take a dip or practice their swimming skills.

It was really a long day for the group, but we had loads of fun.

Rainbow is Bahaghari

Last week, my brother and I passed by Cubao on our way to Eastwood for the ETC Glee Launch Party. It was rush hour and as expected, a lot of people are walking through and from the walkway going to Araneta/Gateway to the MRT station and vice versa. A lot of them were busy window shopping for random things like costumes and outdoor décor. Everyone was so busy with everything around them that they fail to notice this:

I never fail to notice and be amazed by things like this. And to my surprise, my brother said he hasn’t seen a rainbow. O_0. Maybe he was kidding because it was impossible for him not to see a rainbow in his 20 years of existence. Or maybe not.

John Mayer Manila Concert Moved To October 01

This is Channel [V]’s first official statement about John Mayer’s rescheduled Manila Concert:

As conveyed by our agent Music Management International (MMI), through Ms. Rhiza Pascua, John Mayer will be rescheduling his Manila concert slated on May 16 to October 1 of this year due to undisclosed reasons. As advised by MMI, John Mayer’s Management will provide Fearless Productions and Channel [V] Philippines with the official documentation. As of Press time, Fearless Production and Channel [V] Philippines are still waiting for such.

We wish to inform the General Public that all tickets purchased for the John Mayer Live in Manila concert tour shall be honored on the new concert date or returned to the respective outlet where the ticket was purchased for a full refund. Kindly wait for future event detail announcements through Channel [V].

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

Believe it or not, I am happy that the concert was moved from May 16 to October 01; that means I still have a ton of time to save up for the tickets. I am guessing the concert was moved because of the coming summer tour that Mayer will be having starting June. Or maybe he just doesn’t feel like it…or maybe not.

Thirty Eight

Yesterday's temperature was the highest to date for this year: 36.8 degrees Celsius. I still can feel the aftermath of that heat as I am writing this entry. The news article said that the reading was recorded around 3pm. I was inside of our fully-air-conditioned room so I wasn't able to experience it, but the heat was definitely unbearable. A dose of wrinkle cream reviews will be helpful come payday because the electricity bill will be once again on it's all time high. I would know because all of our electric fans have been on the whole day and while we sleep to survive this heat. Plus I know Meralco had a price hike recently so that’s another thing to worry about. Boo. 

Glee Does Madonna

The most popular cast on TV today don't have to worry about admin jobs; it's only their wit, charm and talent that matters.

Glee is back again after five months of hiatus with fresh episodes to complete Season 01. They kicked-off their comeback with every song that has Hello in the title. Next week, they’ll be doing songs from the Queen of Pop, Madonna. Here are the cast doing their own Madonna strut in this month’s Vogue magazine.

I cannot wait to see how they will interpret “Do You Know How It Feels Like For A Girl”.

Team Manila Tee Music Shirt Launch on April 23

Was looking for tv stands to buy for my uncle when I received this e-poster. Team Manila will be launching their “Tee Music” line on April 23 at the Trinoma Mall in Quezon City. The shirt designs will feature top Filipino band’s guitar chords on shirts. Yep, guitar chords on shirts. How awesome! Tee Music launch will also feature a live acoustic performance by Sir Raimund Marasigan of The Eraserheads/Sandwhich.

Tara?

Cruiser Bikes

My birthday is a few months away. Of course, I am thinking of buying something for myself. At the start of the year, I badly want an iPod since I broke my old one. Thought I would save up for the 160GB player. Apple gadgets are really pricey so I expected that it would take a long while for me to have that. I also thought of buying myself a DVD player for my room since I always wait for my turn in the one that is in the living room. I am heavy tv series and movie couch potato that having my own player would be nice. But then I started to gain weight…hehe. So I decided I would buy myself a bike.

The idea seems pretty cool since I love to bike around with my cousin’s 2-wheels. But I really wanted my own, so I decided to look at online stores. This particular bike caught my attention:

I never thought of cruiser bikes until I bumped in the CruiserBikes.com website. The website is the best online store for cruiser bikes that you can find on the web. Their user-friendly website gives its customers the top 8 reasons why to shop cruiser bikes from their website:

 

Top 8 Reasons To Shop CruiserBikes.com:

• Best selection of cruiser bikes online!
• Fast & friendly service from people who really know cruiser bikes.
• Safe & Secure Internet shopping experience. (SSL Encrypted & Authorize.net verified)
• Place your order 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Our website never closes.
• Don't waste time driving around trying to find a bike! Buy it online at CruiserBikes.com.
• We offer some of the lowest prices you will find...anywhere!
• CruiserBikes.com is an authorized dealer of each and every product we sell.
• We're a cool, down-to-earth, small company. We actually care about you!

CruiserBikes.com accepts payments from all major credit cards.

I Want It With Bathtub

...and the coziest bathroom lighting. How elegant it would be if I were to have a bathroom just like in the picture. I love the cabinet and sink embellished with Oakwood. And of course the grand, king-sized bath tub! With lots of bubbles and foamy, lavender-scented tub water. Aroma candles would be great too to calm the mood. Perfect before bed scenario, eh?

Twisted Fairy Tale

I grew up reading fairy tales. There are wholesome magical stories with Prince Charming and happy endings. It remained at that until this morning when I read an article at Cracked.com about the weird and shocking truth about the original ending to some of the beloved stories. I am just thankful that these stories were tweaked, else I would've had nightmares...

5. Little Red Riding Hood: Inter-Species Sex Play, Cannibalism

The Version You Know
Mention the words "fairy tale" to someone--if they don't think of gingerbread houses, or possibly a certain bar they know, they think of this story. Little Red on her way to grandmother's house meets the Big Bad Wolf and stupidly tells him where she's going. So he gets there first, eats Grandma, puts on her dress and waits for Red.

She gets there, they do the back-and-forth about what big teeth he has, and he eats her. Then, a passing woodsman comes and cuts Red and Grandma out of the wolf, saving the day.

What Got Changed
Most modern versions of fairy tales come from two sources: The Grimm Brothers from Germany, and Frenchman Charles Perrault, the collector of the "Mother Goose" tales. The big change they made to this one was the ending. That woodsman showing up seemed a little like a third act re-write of a movie due to bad test screenings, didn't it? Where the hell did the woodsman come from?

Well, the woodsman was a later addition to the tale. In the early versions of the story, Red and her Grandmother are dead. The. Goddamn. End. Also, in most versions the woodsman cuts the pair out of the wolf's belly, where they're mostly none the worse for wear despite being eaten, which implies to us the wolf in that story world eats like some sort of python, by unhinging its jaw and swallowing prey whole. Suspension of disbelief only goes so far.

Much earlier versions also liked to spice up the sexuality angle of the story, by having Red outwit the wolf by performing a striptease for him while he's lying in bed dressed as her Grandmother, and then running away while he's "distracted" (Note to any young girls out there: if you are ever abducted and menaced by someone, DO NOT DO THIS).

Wait, it gets worse. This is the most horrifying bit that got filtered out before the tale reached both the Grimm's and Perrault (and in fact, only made it into a few written texts). In this version, the Wolf dissects Grandmother, then invites Red in for a meal of her flesh, presumably with a side of fava beans and a nice Chianti. Then he eats her, too.

Story's over! Sweet dreams, little Sally

4. Snow White: Prince Pedophile, More Cannibalism

The Version You Know
Well, you've all seen the movie, you know how this goes. Evil step-mom hates that her daughter is prettier than her so she tells one of her men to take out to the woods and kill her, and bring back her heart as proof. He can't follow through, so he tells her to run away and never return.

Snow White flees, and she falls in with seven friendly dwarves. The step-mom finds out and sneaks her a poison apple. Snow goes into a coma until a handsome prince rescues her and they live happily ever after.

What Got Changed
In the Disney film the wicked step-mother winds up dead (she falls off a cliff). So that's pretty hardcore we guess. It's got nothing on the Grimm version, though, where the step-mother is tortured by being forced to wear red-hot iron shoes, and made to dance until she falls down dead (you can picture the puppet thing from Saw spelling this out for her over a closed-circuit monitor).

The issue of Snow's actual age is a point of contention as well. The Grimm's explicitly refer to her as being seven years old when the story starts, and while there's no firm indication of how much time has passed, it's no more than a couple of years. So unless that's an eight-year-old Prince Charming who comes along and rescues Snow, we're backing away from this one before we become the subject of an NBC reality show.

The biggest change, and the bloodiest, is step-mom's ... unusual eating habits. Namely, when she asks her man to bring back the heart of Snow White, she isn't just after proof the girl is dead. She wants to eat it. Depending on the version of the story, the Queen asks for Snow's liver, lungs, intestines and pretty much every other major internal organ, up to and including one gruesome version where she asks for a bottle of Snow's blood stoppered with her toe.

And if you think the fairy tales were gruesome back then, you should have seen the merchandising tie-ins.

3. Rumpelstiltskin: Dismemberment, Dead Toddlers

The Version You Know
There's never been a Disney version of this one, but you've probably heard it before. A miller has a beautiful daughter who he claims can spin straw into gold. A passing noble decides to call the miller on his shit and takes the girl and locks her in a tower and tells her to get spinning, presumably hoping to cause a collapse in the precious metals market.

Fortunately she's helped by a little gnome who shows up and offers to help in exchange for a small trinket. This goes on three nights, and by the third night the girl is promising the little man her first born child in return for his help. On the third morning, the king decides to marry this pretty girl who can produce gold out of dry grass.

They inevitably have a son, and the little gnome shows up demanding him. Being nothing if not fair, he'll give the girl three days to guess his name. If she can, she keeps the kid. She tries everything but comes up short, until a passing woodsman overhears the gnome bragging about how he's so clever no one will guess his name is Rumpelstiltskin. He immediately tells the queen, who springs it on Rumpelstiltskin, who's so pissed off he throws a tantrum and runs away, presumably to ply his poorly thought-out scam in another town.

What Got Changed
In the Grimm brothers' version, taken from the oral tradition, the little man is so pissed off he stamps the floor in his little hissy fit, and gets stuck. And then, like some insane version of a Will Ferrell skit, he pulls so hard to free himself that he tears himself in half. Now, if our names were Rumpelstiltskin and some dizzy miller's daughter had just told the whole damn room, we'd be pissed too, but we don't think we'd get dismemberment-angry.

Not to mention, in the really early versions of the tale, Rumpelstiltskin launches himself at the girl in a rage and gets stuck ... um ... in her lady parts. Seriously. The palace guards all have to come and pull him out, which must have made for some awkward looks afterwards.

Also, in a depressingly large number of versions, the child is killed anyway, either by Rumpelstiltskin himself, or the guards, or someone. They weren't big on happy endings in the Dark Ages. Plague will do that.

2. Sleeping Beauty: Coma Sex

The Version You Know
Sleeping Beauty is the story of a young Princess who is cursed by an evil witch so that she will prick her finger on a spindle and die on her 15 birthday. The old woman does this because she wasn't invited to the party celebrating the girl's birth, where other good fairies/wise women are bestowing gifts upon her. Fortunately, one still hasn't given her a gift, and so tempers the curse--the Princess won't die, she'll just fall asleep for 100 years. We guess she did what she could, but still, a pretty major downer for the party.

Of course the King orders all spindles burned, plunging the kingdom into a fashion nightmare, but with the inevitability of fairy tale logic bearing down on her, the princess manages to find the one working spindle in the kingdom, and pricks her finger on her 15 birthday. She falls asleep for 100 years, until a dashing young Prince comes along in timely fashion and kisses her, breaking the spell. Everyone lives happily ever after.

What Got Changed
The first major departure in this from the version we know today is when the Princess pricks her finger on her 15 birthday. In earlier versions the Princess instead gets a piece of flax caught under her fingernail which pricks her and puts her to sleep. This might seem like a small difference but it becomes important when you consider the other major, and unsettling, change to the story.

Previous versions of the tale have the Prince who finds Sleeping Beauty think she's so damn beautiful he just goes ahead and has his way with her right then and there. Yes, while she's still comatose.

If that's not disturbing enough, the rohypnol-style coupling leads to a pregnancy, and the Princess gives birth to twins, all while asleep. One of the babies, without any birth announcements, seeking momma's milk, sucks on her finger and dislodges the flax, waking her, at which point we imagine she had a few questions

1. Cinderella: Mutilation, Sex, More Mutilation

The Version You Know
When they talk about "Fairy Tale Endings," they're almost certainly referring to this story. Or possibly some sort of football game. This is the dream of every little girl (and some little boys) that one day they too can rise up from the dirt and become a pretty pretty princess. You all know it; the step-mother and step-sisters who hate the beautiful Cinderella, and make her work all day, until one day a Fairy Godmother shows up and gives Cinderella pretty clothes and a pumpkin coach and sends her to the ball where she falls in love with the Prince.

But at the stroke of midnight it all ends, and she runs home, leaving only her glass slipper behind. The prince searches the land, finds Cinderella, the shoe fits, and they live happily ever after.

What Got Changed
This one goes way, way back, having been told across cultures for thousands of years before being made into numerous Hollywood movies. The identity of the Fairy Godmother changes often, and in fact she only showed up in Perrault's version, along with the pumpkin coach and the mice attendants which were all used in the Disney version. There's even a Chinese version of the story from around 850 AD, where "Yeh-Hsien" is given gold, pearls, dresses and food by a giant talking fish.

A famous difference in many versions of the story is the "glass slipper." Authorities on fairy tales (who you tend not to see at parties) disagree about whether Perrault's slipper was made of glass or fur, as the words in French (verre and vair respectively) are pronounced almost the same. It's kind of important, because if the Prince was wandering the land looking for a lady with the perfect "fur slipper" ... well, it doesn't take Freud to figure that one out, and suddenly the Prince doesn't look so noble.

One thing Perrault left out that the Grimm's delighted in putting back in was the violence. The sisters, desperate to fit into the slipper, mutilate their own feet, cutting off the toes and heels all described in exquisite Germanic detail. When the Prince eventually realizes Cinderella is the one for him, birds peck out the sisters' and mother's eyes for their wickedness.

You can probably understand why Disney went with Perrault's version for an adaptation.

Glee Photobooth

Hear ye! Hear ye! Calling all Gleeks!

 

Been in the Glee photo booth? Yes, the good guys at Fox.com recently added a photo booth feature at Glee’s official page! This is your, well our, chance to be in the same photo set with Rachel and her sunshine smile, Finn’s melt-worthy stare, Quinn’s feisty demeanor, Mercedes’s cool swag, Kurt’s bubbly sigh, Artie and his geeky glasses, Mr. Schue’s master looks and even Sue with her testosterone booster. Upload photos from your archives, take a photo from your web cam or make a photo set with only all the characters of the hit TV show; all the photos are definitely wallpaper worthy.

I Would Choose Mac

That was my immediate answer when Dominique, a friend who's visiting from London, asked me what brand I would like to have for a laptop. Aside from the macbook memory having at least 1 TB of storage, my internet-and-photoshop savvy self will appreciate the wide screen and the processor. Also, most of then people I know boast about macbooks having no problems with viruses. Most of the “virus makers” are prone to create viruses for machines with Microsoft OS. Mac’s system is highly impenetrable that there are no viruses that can destroy its system. 

What more could you ask for?

Monday Meme

What are you grateful for today?
I am grateful for the beautiful sunrise that greeted me this morning. That alone is a sign that today is going to be a great day.

What's missing in your life?
A break, and maybe something that would push me to look for insurance quotes.

Has the conflict and harm religion has caused outweighed the good it has produced?
I do not wish to share any opinion related to religion because religion is a very complicated matter. There are things that I might share that would unintentionally offend others. So I leave this topic up to the experts. :P

Issues

My head will explode.

The world is indeed a better place for those who are privilege. Never in my life I have longed to be filthy rich until now. Been part of the workforce for the past six years starting to accept the fact that I will be doing this for the rest of my life; to work for money. First time in my life that I have faced something so confusing and crucial that the simple thought of it makes me vomit. To make matters worse, I alone is the only one who will carry this. Life isn’t suppose to be a burden like looking for the perfect life insurance lead and lay down everything for you. That may have lighten the load, but knowing that I am doomed from the start is bad. Disaster is spelled all over it, and I cannot do anything about it.

Who invented money anyway?

Of Laptops

I currently own a Compaq laptop. The specs is a little outdated since I’ve had this machine with me for almost two years. But the performance of this not-so-expensive, dependable machine have never failed me. This website have these really great laptop computers that I have been checking out for the past hour and had me thinking that it wouldn't be bad to want a new one. Some of the things I would love to have are the following:

Toshiba Satellite with an original price of $879, the website offers a pretty great deal for new customers with their rebates that one could get it for only $679.99.

Dell with an original price of $349.99, now only $299.99

Better make up my mind now as the promo only lasts until April 10.

Lost Basement

We would've had a huge basement right now if mother thought of that when she and my father decided to build this house that we're living in. I wouldn't mind buying a basement dehumidifier if that happened. But mother only thought about the huge space underneath our living room as a basement after six years. She even quipped that it could've been a great entertainment/guest space. I think that would be awesome if we really had a basement. Bu NO.