Happy Halloween
Just a quick ‘Happy Halloween’ to all you out there.
You know a man really loves you when he puts on a Tigger outfit and lets you take pictures!
Comments are Back!
Comments are back - for the latest 10 entries only!
I’m pretty scared to see if the spammers will be back or find some way around my workaround, but we’ll see. If this site isn’t here tomorrow, you’ll know what happened!
10 Things About Filipinos
Today is a pretty busy day for me - I’ve got a wedding to go to AND I’ve gotta bake some stuff for Halloween tomorrow. Question: Anyone know any good hard boiled egg peeling tricks?
Anyway, here’s a post that I never put up here…I don’t talk much about being Filipino here, or much about the history or quirky things we do…but here’s a little intro into my culture!
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The age-old question: Who are you people, anyway?
10. We`re a unique Asian mix. So many people have often thought - what`s with Filipinos being Catholic and having the Spanish surnames? Over the years, Filipinos have suffered the stereotype of not being “Asian” enough. While our culture has more similarities to Spanish cultures and American culture, it`s because the Philippines was a Spanish colony for 300 years and a colony of the United States for almost half a century. But in our ethnic mix, aside from
the Spanish influence, is also a background of Malay and Chinese. Filipinos are the specialty chefs of culture. We have takes all these different cultural flavors and mixed them into our own special recipe of what makes us uniquely Filipino.
9. We are the Drama Queens. Filipinos don`t necessarily partake in the stereotype that all Asians are emotionally reserved. Many Filipinos will attest on how ma arte ma arte (melodramatic) we can be. In our culture, we love family feuds, soap operas, and balling our eyes out during Filipino melodramas. We love to take center stage in the spotlight and hog the mike during karaoke (further information on this subject on #5 of this list). For example, a little known fact is that the artist Prince is a quarter Filipino - the movie Purple Rain definitely has a flavor of Filipino melodrama.
8. Oh, do we love to tsismis (gossip)! To gossip is an age old family tradition in Filipino family circles. Like tabloid journalists of the oral tradition, Filipinos love to be the first one to tell a juicy scandalous story or event just to spread good news like wildfire. If you tell your mother at 5pm that you`re getting married, by 5:30pm your fifth cousin removed living in a small village in the Philippines will know the news.
7. To Filipinos, nothing says I Love You better than a new DKNY t-shirt bought on sale at Marshall`s. We love to express ourselves in consumer ways. My childhood is filled with memories of escorting our visiting relatives to outlet malls because it was always more important for them to buy souvenirs for the extended family than visit the White House in D.C. Also consider the Christmas season in Manila, which will be begin as early as September. My family from the Philippines has often told me you will start hearing “Silent Night” blaring through the malls right around Labor Day, a nice reminder that you have four months more to shop for the season!
6. Filipinos are the Party Animals. Filipinos love nothing better than throwing a party. As Erwin Falcon of A Partnership so appropriately describes it, “They`ll come up with any excuse to throw a big shindig. If Lola just got brand new dentures, it`s time to throw a party and invite every single person on the planet, buy a big fat lechon (roasted pig), and drink San Miguel beer.”
5. We are Karaoke Kings. As performance artist Rich Kiamco says, “The Japanese might have invented karaoke, but the Filipinos RULE it!” Many Asians will find this statement highly debatable, we really believe we have the best pipes and will prove it to you by hogging the mike for the rest of the night and belting “Wind Beneath My Wings” with all our melodramatic fervor.
4. Filipinos will dance anywhere to anything. Young or old, you will always see Filipinos dancing at a party. From the young Pinoys break-dancing to the latest Jay Z to the oldest Lola in the room line dancing to “I Will Survive.” Filipinos will find the rhythm in any song to dance to.
3. Filipinos discovered how the eighth wonder of the world is the Roasted Pig. The very best Filipino occasions will have the big fat luscious lechon to feast upon. We love the curly tailed animal so much that we will eat anything on it from its crispy ears as a snack after lunch to pouring dinuguan (cooked pig`s blood with pork) over rice. The pig is really the tastiest animal in the world.
2. Filipinos love to exercise their faces. Without words, we creatively use all aspects of our face for different forms of communications. We say hello by lifting our eyebrows or nodding as a greeting. We point at certain objects, not with our fingers, but with our mouths. If you see a Filipino pursing their lips towards you, they are not trying to pucker their lips for a kiss. Most likely, they are pointing at you and gossiping about you.
1. We`re progressive and inventive. Not many people know the Yo-Yo was brought to America by our very own Pedro Flores. Not many people know that the Philippines is one of the few nations that has had not one, but two female presidents. The nation received an award from the Nobel Laureates Foundation in 2001 recognizing People Power; a non-violent movement that peacefully overthrew the government.
Making My Voice Heard
So today I found out that I am going to be sent to Columbus next week, meaning I would miss election day.
Fortunately, they were having early voting downtown, so I headed over to the location and got in line. There were a lot of people, which I guess is a really good thing. And the thing that I loved about being there was that it was people from all walks of life - white, black, latino, asian, old, young, well to do and not so well to do, cops, businessmen, hood rats. It seemed like everyone took a little bit of time out of their day to make a difference in how this country is run!
I was a bit nervous casting my vote, checking and double checking who I was about to punch the card for. But 60 or so punches later, I submitted my ballot and walked out proud that I let my voice be heard. Sure, it may be an insignificant one vote, but as we learned in the 2000 election, every vote counts!
So get out there and vote on Tuesday, people!
Site Back Up, Comments Down
Due to the insane amount of comment spam I’ve been getting over the last few weeks, my site had been using up too much CPU power on the webserver and my provider was forced to take my site down. *cries*
So my site was down for I don’t know how long this morning.
Bastard spammers!
Fuckers!
It really pisses me off that people have nothing better to do with their time than generate scripts to go out and find websites to just harrass them, or to make sure that their links have a higher rating on google or whatever. What good is it for them if they use up so much of my CPU it shuts the site down? I mean, is sending out 30 comments in 10 minutes really necessary?
Fuckers!
I have mt-blacklist installed and for a good amount of time it cleaned most of that crap up, but then they started randomly generating IP addresses, email address and website addresses, so blacklist couldn’t catch them.
So I was given a warning by my web provider - they’ll let me have the site back for now, but if this happens again, they’re closing out my account.
So anyone know any good fixes for these spammers?
FUCKERS!
I’m so pissed right now!
If you’d like to comment, go ahead and use the tagboard to the right.
Still Life
Photo Friday: Still Life
Flowerbud - Long Beach, CA: June 2004
I could use pictures from the flowers outside my Long Beach apartment for the rest of the year! Such a photigenic flower!
Smile Time Angel!
For you Angel/Buffy fans, they’re going to be coming out with a Angel Puppet that was in the ‘Smile Time’ episode!
“SMILE TIME” ANGEL PUPPET HALF-SCALE REPLICA
A Diamond Select Release! From the imagination of series creator Joss Whedon came one of the funniest episodes in Buffy or Angel’s history, “Smile Time,” in which the brooding and ever-serious vampire with a soul was transformed into a puppet! This plush replica measures just over 21” high and is an exact ˝-scale version of the prop puppet used in the episode. Featuring a faux leather coat, boots and a mouth that opens and closes (for that full puppet brooding effect!), “Smile Time” Angel is ready to come home with you and protect your teddy bears from the creatures that go bump in the night! “Smile Time” Angel comes packaged in deluxe window box packaging and will only be available in specialty market outlets.
In stores March 2005.
Ohh, he matches my layout so nicely!
Guess what cute little guy with a removable nose and expressive eyebrows is on my 2005 Christmas list?
“”Medic! You’re going to make it Angel, just don’t stop fighting. Doctor! Is there a Gepetto in the house?”
Man, I miss that show!
Broken Curses and Packing Suitcases
So the Red Sox won the World Series, the first one since way back in 1918. Most of me is happy for them, but a little selfish part is a little sad - I would have loved to have a Cubs/Red Sox matchup in the World Series.
But it was truly wonderful to see them win. I admit to getting a little teary eyed watching them all jump in a pile and rejoice. I can only imagine how people are feeling in Boston, how those players are feeling, winning it for the city. Because those are things I envision every year when the season starts ‘Maybe this year we’ll see them win and have everyone pour out onto the streets of Wrigleyville, laughing, crying, not believing that it’s true.’
So many dreams, so many hopes, so many wishes were hinged on what happened tonight. All the support that they’d given the team, coming back year after year, today it was all worth it. Curses didn’t exist today, the lunar eclipse colored the moon red, almost forshadowing the Red Sox win. OK, fine, it could have been for the Cards, too, since they’re team color is red. But still!
It makes me wonder if we here in Chicago will ever feel that. Dave is happy for the Sox, too, because it gives him hope, a glimpse of something that he’ll someday experience when the team he’s followed, stressed over, cried over, and loved for all his life, finally wins the world series. When will our time come, dammit! When!?!?
When I get back to Chicago, I’m going to the Billy Goat Tavern and performing a Yano exorcism. Next year is the year, people!
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I’ve done a bit of shipping here in Buffalo/Tonawanda/Amherst/Niagra. Got two pairs of jeans, 3 tops, my halloween costume (which I’m wearing as I type), a dress to wear to a wedding thise weekend, and some Halloween decorations.
Haven’t done shopping like this in a REALLY long time.
But there’s a problem. I don’t think it’ll fit into my suitcase. I’m putting off packing, but I know it’s something that I’m going to have to do, but when I look at the amount of stuff outside of my suitcase and the stuff inside, I know I’m going to have to squash all that crap in there. Thank god for expandable suitcases.
Argh.
No more shopping for a VERY long time!
*shakes fists at clouds*
So I’ve been looking forward to the lunar eclipse. And I thought it was perfect that I was in Buffalo because there would be less ambient light coming from city lights and I was more north, which made for better viewing.
I forgot about this thing called weather!
Hmph. So I ran outside after forgetting what time zone I was in and almost missing the full lunar eclipse, and when I got out there it was already a little hazy. I called Dave on my cell to tell him to go outside and watch it, and I guess in Chicago the sky was clear. It kinda reminded me of the time right before we started dating when we were both on the phone and watched Hale Bopp in the sky. Distance may be between us, but we can look at the same sky!
Anyway, at about 97%, the clouds rolled in and spoiled my show. So I asked Dave to describe it to me, since I was missing it.
“We’re at about 99.5% totality. We’re at totality!!! Oh my god, it’s beautiful! The moon has turned a blood red and the light from the moon is spilling into the sky, and filling it up with a dark red color, and lights are starting to spark out from the moon and it’s starting to pulsate! I can’t believe it! And, wait, I think I see someone smiling up there!”
Jerkwad.
But he did enjoy it. But I was a bit miffed that I stood out in the cold in the dark side of the hotel parking lot, looking like a stalker for nothing!
What Kind of Blogger Am I?
Got this one from Luna’s.
| You Are a Life Blogger! |
 Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible. |
Hmm…I guess that’s true. I think my blog is a mish mash of a bunch of things. Daily happenings, memories, interesting links, social commentary, short track bootay, comic book geekiness, and photos galore! Much like my own personality is a mish mash of different, conflicting things.
Mish mash.
What the hell kinda phrase is that and why did I use it?
