disconnect

a friend attended some new age conference where she learned that for every evil thought/action (or its milder equivalent) you have, you get disconnected from the flow of good karma. i suppose that explains the bad luck that's been happening the past few months, internetwise, for being a nonpaying and unrepentant user. not only was i deprived of free internet, my modem also gave up on me. for a whole month i did nothing but play sims (who needs to study?). thank god, i have internet access again. i wonder what i did right?

deprived!

i haven't posted anything for while. why? BECAUSE I'VE BEEN DEPRIVED! horribly but justly deprived of my free and unlimited internet account.

really. i never knew how dependent i was on the free internet until my illegal account was cut off. *oh the pain!* i spend 10 hours a day on the net for heaven's sake. what would i do with the free time? study? blech. for days, i lounged around the house lethargic and morose because i couldn't bring myself to pay - legally - for internet access. but then the withdrawal symptoms were getting worse, so eventually i did bring out the cash. *OH THE PAIN!!*

wala lang. just a totally senseless rant on the ability of the world to actually produce karma.

do not mix butter and whipped cream....in the way i did

i am an amateur cook. hell, i'm less than an amateur; i am ignorant.

this morning i made pancakes. remembering the creamy butter usually served with pancakes in most restaurants, i attempted to recreate this by mixing butter with whipped cream. after beating the butter -its already creamy texture slipped by my notice-, i dropped in a dollop of cream that i whipped earlier. immediately, white liquid which, in hindsight, must have been part of the condensed (if that's the proper term) cream, started to slosh around the bowl spraying my shirt and the kitchen with white splotches. dammit.

my sister says my cooking can only be described as comedy. i suppose that implies i should have my show in foodnetwork with an appropriate name like Bad Eats by Rubybox. This remark was made after i told her a story of how i had mistaken dark fish sauce for soy sauce, making my giniling virtually uneatable. i ate every bite of that giniling with large helpings of rice and gulps of water.

now i wonder how long it would take me to be a passable cook. a year of nonstop cooking? 5 years? a decade? in the meantime, i guess i should be resigned to and grateful for the fact that only i will be forced to eat my dishes. it saves me from being sued.

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yesterday, a friend texted me asking if i had been swallowed by my computer since they haven't seen me for quite a while. reflecting on the amount of time i spent in front of my computer, i thought: no wonder my culinary skills are terrible.

added:
i changed the title because now i know the secret!. my friend told me: whip the cream, then add the microwaved butter.

jeepney rides
-i posted this originally at barrio alimasag

i love jeepney rides. they're a good barometer for the current trends of the filipino society, as well as a good source for amusing anecdotes. behavioral patterns abound!

here's what i've noticed so far:

1. pinoy rap - jeepney drivers, especially those of patok jeeps were the first to patronize these homemade demo tapes. some were good, really good - i won't mention names since i don't know them, just heard them. some were bad, really bad - i.e saldakuta(sp?)

2. the yuppie is more likely to take up more than his/her fair share of space while the urban poor is almost always willing to give up their seat to those in need (pregnant women and lolas). why is that? i need 12 more jeepney rides to ponder on this one and come up with an answer

3. when you're in a jeep full of manangs and their pinamalengke, be at ease. you're safer with them. i once rode a cubao jeep with them, and another passenger (the only noncriminal male) was heldup. the unlucky guy, who was sat near the entrance, sought refuge behind these manangs--good move, i thought. the holduppers, faced with an angry mob of manangs, turned tail and ran.

4. the myth that riding a jeep in the wee hours of the morning (1-3am) is just that.. a myth. most of the petty and not so petty crimes i've witnessed and heard about happened in broad daylight or early evening. the one i mentioned above happened at around 10am. i don't know, maybe i'm just cautious, but the worst i've experienced was a drunk leering down my shirt. most the time, my copassengers were either just kids or tatangs going home from their lasingans and gimiks.

pagsesenti ko

i'm currently listening to Landslide, both the Fleetwood Mac and the Smashing Pumpkins version, and it's on continuous play. i love this song (thank you, mar, for introducing this to me) and it never fails to sober me up.

i can't articulate. the lyrics says it all.


Landslide
by Fleetwood Mac

i took my love, took it down
i climbed a mountain and i turned around
and i saw my reflection in a snow-covered hill
till a landslide brought me down

oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
can the child within my heart rise above
can i sail through the changing ocean tides
can i handle the seasons of my life

well i've been afraid of changing
cause i've built my life around you
but time makes you bolder
even children get older
i'm getting older too

oh, i'm getting older too

take my love, take it down
you climb a mountain and you turn around
and if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
but the landslide will bring you down

and if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
well, the landslide will bring you down
oh, the landslide will bring you down

microfilipinas

i was walking home just this evening from an exam (argh!), going right around Sunken Garden. it was early evening so, as usual, several health buff pretenders were jogging the acad oval. several groups of joggers have already gone by me before i realized that each group spoke a different dialect -- well, i think it's dialect since they look like pinoys (co�o pa!) and i still couldn't understand them. i started to get weirded out, thinking Huy! Nasa Maynila tayo! di ba? DI BA?, when i stopped. i realized that i was in a state university, the public place for gathering and learning. what else could i expect?

i'd like to introduce myself

hello, my name is ruby and i am a message board addict.

i am also a LURKER. yes, that dreaded entity that most board administrators loathe. netizens (i hate that word) whose screennames hover menacingly on the who's online table. so why do i lurk? i don't really know. i usually go to a board with the intention of participating and thereby proclaming my stand on various issues abound like *what's your favorite depressing music?* or *LOTR Poll: whose cuter legolas or aragorn?* but somehow, someway, i always wander into boards that are either extremely serious with philosophical debates galore or extremely lightweight ones with emoticon debates galore. and i feel its a waste of time to post. hmmm.... i wonder what's wrong with me?