Wil's Press Release

© Joselito Briones

I am, of course, being coerced to relay this launch. OK! Wonderful. So here it goes.

It's supposed to announce to the world (I think) his current available status. Available for what, you might ask. The website, a I'm-such-a-worldly-guy-I've-travelled-the-whole-world-I'll-make-such-a-great-boyfriend declaration masked as a photography website, is supposed to show the prospect (read: victim) how wonderful his sensitivities are.

If you ask me honestly though, it's all rubbish. He doesn't need such a site. He's a great guy and that's all there is to it.


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A New Beginning

© Joselito Briones

Floren announced that he's quitting work and putting up his own biz, a gallery in Hollywood Road, in Hong Kong.

Isn't that great news? I'll press him for details and will keep you updated.

I also don't mind that all these friends' announcements and birthdays keep giving me excuses to post photos I took of them.


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A pause

© Joselito Briones

I took it easy today, knackered from all the cooking the past two days.

Our new cleaner also came today for the first time. Cathy Rose, nice as she is, is a bit clumsy and is always dropping things. This new one is called "Näke" and is local (Cathy Rose is originally from Cebu). She ironed clothes and cleaned today. I hope it works out with her.


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The picture is of one of Inay's orchids, in Carmona, taken last month.

How do I melt this snow?

© Joselito Briones

This is just an extra photo of the past snow weeek here in Erlangen. The snow has since melted, of course. It's bright again. Luckily this kind of snow reacts to changes in the weather. The other kind, the personal kind, it keeps one cold long after it's melted.


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I guess it's never easy walking in somebody else's shadow

© Joselito Briones

Well now, I get low and I get high,
And if I can't get either, I really try.
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes,
I'm a dancin' man and I just cant lose.
You know it's all right, it's OK,
I'll live to see another day.
We can try to understand
The New York Times effect on man.

- BeeGees, "Staying Alive"


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This bird has flown

© Joselito Briones

Just as Eric's representation of a perfect world can be found in a Mall, an SM Mall to be specific (he observed that it's the one chain-mall consistently well-maintained), I suspect partly because his current buying power in these places sufficiently compensates for all the times he felt underprevileged in the past, Itay’s is his caged birds.

What Itay (literally, Filipino for "father") is trying to compensate with, I can only guess. Let's see, he's the head of a big family with a lot of male members, and he's aging. He's even made a request (albeit jokingly) on how he wants his funeral to be when he dies. It's getting more and more difficult for him to show power and insist his will on others. Gone is the time when his word meant the law to everybody else. I think it started with Norie, in California. She's the eldest among my siblings, and most willful too. He must've felt rather powerless when it came to dealing with her, and as a result they were always at odds with each other. Now that he's gone back to the Philippines, it's the same show-of-will game, only now it's with his grandchildren. Hit hardest are Joie, who's gone so far as to now avoid going to the family house altogether, and Jaycee, who recently snobbed the family Christmas party. If only my dad would realize that he's respected no matter what, and that he doesn't need to show his power anymore, the atmosphere within the family would be a lot more peaceful. But maybe boring, too. I say let the man be who he is.

Oh yeah, the birds... they're always happy and singing as long as you feed them, and they don't care that they're kept in a cage.


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P.S.



Today is Jose Rizal day - the day of his execution by the Spanish who occupied Philippines during that time, and against whom the revolution started 110 years ago today. Dr. Jose Rizal is the national hero of the Philippines.

© Joselito Briones

I flew to Hong Kong today. The photo above shows the view from the window of the plane. The body of water shown is the Pasig river, one that prominently featured in Jose Rizal's novel, "Noli Me Tangere".

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In passing...

© Joselito Briones

We are loved and at times lucky that we, too, love... We share a part of ourselves to those we are with, to those we'll eventually leave behind, until they, too, make their own transit. It's a wonderful cycle that, luckily, we all have to go through.

It's a sad day... I learned that a good friend's father passed away recently.


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You know you're in the pits when..

© Joselito Briones

...what you're used to walking two blocks for, you now have to go to the next city, by train, to look for, and be informed when you do find a store that carries it, that you have to pre-order it, and that you'll have to come back after 3 days to collect it.

The item in question is a pack of matte-finish heavy stock A3 size photo paper. Fortunately, one of the shops I inquired from recommended one other shop that might carry this item. The name of the place is Saturn. I had to ask for directions at least 3 times, and use what little German I know in trying to understand whatever directions I was given, to find the place. It turns out they do carry the paper, although not the double-sided kind that I was looking for. I bought a pack anyway.


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P.S.
The picture, again, has got nothing to do with anything else written here. This isn't even what I wanted to print on the paper I was looking for. This is just another experiment in post-processing images taken with a digital camera.

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The Siemens Sun Also Rises

© Joselito Briones

It's always nice that the Schlaffgutzimmer is filled with sunlight every morning, it's one of the things I like most about this apartment. Sometimes though, it gets confusing when, after leaving the sunlight-filled bedroom (photo, above), in the east side of the apartment, I see that the sun is shining just as brightly in the kitchen and dining area, west of the apartment (photo, middle).

© Joselito Briones

I've got Siemens to thank for it, of course, as the westerly sunlight in the morning is a reflection in their tallest building (photo, bottom).

© Joselito Briones

In the afternoon, it hailed. I was planning to go to Frankenlabor, I decided to just stay in. Goodbye golden October. Hello cold!


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How stupid of me

© Joselito Briones

...I just wade the tides that turned
Till I learn to leave the past behind...

...Press my face up to the window
To see how warm it is inside
See the things that I've been missing
Missing all this time...

-Beck Hansen, "Guess I'm Doing Fine"
(from "Sea Change")


How could I have mistaken this song for something from an eternal optimist? I guess it's not hard, if you just listen to it while doing something else, it's easy to see "It's only lies that I'm living, it's only you that I'm losing" as someone saying there's a lot worse that could happen, he could brave anything. I've been listening to this song for years without really knowing what it meant. Today I got tired of listening to my German Language audio lessons from my iPod and decided to switch to music, the song came up, I guess I was still in "pay attention" mode and heard differently from the other times I listened to it. It's sooooo depressing! How could someone who wrote such songs as "Sexx Laws", "Loser", and "Where It's At" write such a downer!

Hmmm... now that I think about it... maybe I just haven't been really listening to those other songs. I don't really want to find out later that they're just as tragic, so I'll just keep on listening to them while multitasking. Meanwhile I'll just keep on picking this one song apart, after all, who doesn't like lingering on miserable songs?


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P.S.

Googling Beck, I found out that he released a new album last month, "The Information"... and it's supposed to be as dark and moody as "Sea Change"... can't wait to get my hands on it!

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Roll Call

© Joselito Briones

I found out today that most of my 12 nephews and 5 nieces are now online, so I've put a link to their homepages... I looked at their profiles and my jaws just dropped. I haven't seen them for sometime, and the last time I saw them, they all pretty much spend all their time playing video games. Now in their profile - "status: taken". "10 Golden Rules in Drinking" Huh? I guess no matter how old they are, they'll always be these small kids in this picture to me. The boys: Don Don, Kevin K., Mac(second from right), Gio, Kevin B.(second from left), Louie, Neil, Chris, Gil, JC (right), Cez, Omar(left). The girls: JL (the eldest, married, with two babies of her own, Yuri and Sey), Joie, Jaja, Janelle, and Krisi.

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She should be glad...

© Joselito Briones

I dropped by Handelshof this afternoon on my way back to the apartment from Frankenlabor. When I was emptying my bag on to the merchandise belt by the cashier, I noticed that the bag was wet, and the contents of the oven cleaner that I wanted to buy was all over it. With the politest German that I know, I asked the cashier if she had some paper towels so I can salvage the other items I had in the bag. What did she do? She sneered at me and told me to twist the bottle cap tight. That freakin' beeatch! Like it's my duty to check that all their merchandise is properly closed. If I were fluent in German I'd have told her what a piece of contemptuous shitty twat she truly is.

Anyway... food update again: Pictured, left, was last night's dinner: farfalle in onion and cream sauce, with grilled shrimps (marinated in ginger, lemon rind, and coriander), plus butter and garlic baguette. I know, the sauce looks a bit icky.


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Here's something slightly amusing.

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Images from the upper deck of a tourist bus

© Joselito Briones

The stupid sun decided to come out today, now that I'm going back to Erlangen. Oh well...

© Joselito Briones

I slept the first couple of hours in the bus, and the rest of the time I decided to pass by taking pictures from the bus window. The best images from where I sat though, were the ones I thought best left undisturbed, even by my lens - the child-like joy in the faces of the much older passengers, when they alight from the bus to see friends and family waiting for them, and their careless hugs and kisses.

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones


© Joselito Briones


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What kinda hellish comedy is that?

Publicity photo for "The Breakup"

Sunday night Roxy night again last night.

So yeah, so I got to see "The Break-Up", you know, the one withJennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. Jen looked gorgeous. She should give the movie's lighting guy a bonus.

Anyway, the movie's really funny, I liked it a lot, until of course, when, close to the end, it got too close to home. I mean, come on! They might as well have recorded our conversations in the apartment and used them verbatim. So not funny. Damn fools.


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A reunion of some sort

©Eric Olivarez

Oi Jimbo, I thought I'd share this with you, an email from Eric, after he and Cyntch (also a dear old friend) visited my mom in Carmona:

"finally squeezed this one to my sked..and im glad i did it with cyntch around...it felt like we're back in lsei days when we used to hang out in ur crib, except this time it's a bigger, better and more modern haus u have i almost felt like im in a resort of sorts ...took us a while to pinpoint d precise location, haus # has changed from d original 049 to something like 111xx...

©Eric Olivarez

so many changes in the neighborhood and yet ur mom has managed to stay all the same, still very accomodating and nice to talk with, i dont remember talking to her with much substance as now it made me feel really mature (translation: matanda na) now...felt a lil disappointed that she turns out to be mildly allergic to photo shoot, hehehe! anyways, here are a few pics we took of her and ur haus...definitely not as good angles as u would have done but i hope u like it even just for the effort, lolz! pls say thanks to ur mom again next time u talk...."

©Eric Olivarez

Isn't he just the greatest? He's the one in green polo shirt, Cyntch is the one in white t-shirt, and the one in "USA" t-shirt is my eldest brother, Kuya Toto, and that's our house in Carmona, in the bottom picture.





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Wanted: Kansas

© Joselito Briones

If it's true, what everybody says about home being where one's heart is, then I'm currently, officially, homeless.


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The Day I Realized It's Not Much Fun Being...

© Joselito Briones

... Antisocial Here in Erlangen Where I Don't Know Anyone, As It Was in New York Where There Was All These People in The City Whom I Could've Been With and Interact With But Chose Not To, Nor Answer Any Phone Calls Even If My Closest Friends Were Calling and Scared Shit That Something Bad's Happened to Me And Who Are We Kidding They're My Closest Friends So They Forgive Me Eventually

Hmmm... all of the above was supposed to go to the title, I don't know why there's a limitation on the number of characters.


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Pet peeves

© Joselito Briones

It's whine time!

I guess by now you already know, no matter how satisfied I am with something, I'd always find a part of it to complain about. Take this apartment for example. As much as I've learned to really like it here, there are still things that annoy me whenever I come into contact with it..

First is the front door lock. Simple - check. Clean - check. Very nice to look at - check. Secure - check. What pisses me off, though, is that the darned thing can't be opened by one hand. Normally, one can use a hand to fish out the key from a pocket, unlock the door, put back the key to the pocket, and then turn the knob with the same hand. This one's different. You'll have to turn the knob with one hand while turning the key with the other. Whenever I come home carrying bags upon bags of grocery, I always end up putting everything down to open the door, pick the things back up, carry them to the kitchen and then go back to the front door to close it. (To put them down again in the entrance hall while closing the door is just too stupid already). So much for German efficiency.

© Joselito Briones

Another one is the shower control. It's nice and simple, fine. Looks clean, perfect. Easy to turn on, check. Problem is, it's just as easy to shut off. Imagine yourself taking a shower in a not-so-spacious cubicle. You spend some time adjusting the water temperature, until you get it perfect, exactly the way you want it (it's very important for me, I'm very sensitive to temperature). Then you shower, soap yourself, wiggle, wiggle. Then invariably, a part of your body bumps into the control and shuts it off, or worse, turns it so that the water becomes freezing cold. Then you end up fumbling for the controls to adjust it again, while soap gets in your eyes. Really annoying.

Okay, that's it for now, I'm sure there'd be more in the future.


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The Mpemba Affection

© Joselito Briones

I'm sure you've heard of it, the Mpemba effect I mean, smart as you are, but don't you think it odd?

I wonder if it applies to people. I mean, when you're excited about something, your sensors are all hyperactive, any negative input can be easily devastating and put you in the very bottom of depression. If, on the other hand, you're indifferent, preoccupied with something else, any input, negative or otherwise, is more likely to be ignored just as much, and you pretty much stay in the same emotional state. Just a thought.

The photo above has got nothing to do with it, of course. It's just my aluminum chair in the balcony. Except it's the same aluminum chair I was so looking forward to enjoy my ice-cold watermelon drink in during lunch (I've shredded the melon pulp, checked that there's plenty of ice cubes, and made syrup out of water, honey, and vanilla) had the Mpemba effect not decide to intrude.

If it's perfectly OK for these physicists to put hot things in their freezers in the name of science, shouldn't it be alright for me to do the same (put the still warm syrup in the freezer to cool it down faster) for the sake of having the simple pleasure of drinking a home-made version of one of my favorite childhood drinks? What do you think? Oh well.


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trouble in paradise

© Joselito Briones

silence
rain. no, stay.
it's just resentment,
manifesting itself.
i know. you can't stay.
see?
you're ignoring it again.



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