iPod Leather Case

It has been four long years since I got my old, green iPod mini, you know the one without the screen. Since it broke, I’ve been using my phone, a P990i, which I got as a discounted unit for my Smart retention plan, to play music. I didn’t even get to buy an iPod leather case before it stopped working. In a few days’ time, I can avail of another retention plan again, another 24-month contract to be exact, and I’m keen on getting Sony Ericsson G705 this time. I did not look for too many other brands and models because I might be tempted to buy something out of the budget (the said phone would require me to add Php2200 for the unit as bundled with the new subscription plan). I was intent on getting a cheap mobile phone and even downgrade my current monthly subscription but since I’m relatively a heavy texter anyway, plus I use my cell to call landline numbers a lot of times, not to mention using the 3G internet capability whenever my broadband fails me, I decided to just keep it that way. I’m thinking of scouting for iPhones because they really are very popular these days and quite frankly it would be a dream come true for a music lover like me. To have one in an iPhone leather case must be something very cool. Truth is, I’ve also been looking at those Blackberrys on display with the Blackberry case and I do want to try using one just because they look elegant and chic, but I’m not very sure about them being user-friendly or even if I’ll have so much use for them other than the usual text-and-call. Well, I guess I’m sticking with the G705, then.

Banner Stands

Cue Power

I’ve played several sports in my life and I’m interested in watching a lot of others but aside from chess (is this a “sport” per se?), pool or snooker is something my mind cannot really comprehend. I know, that sounds awfully stupid but that’s the way it is. I never wanted to spend that much time analyzing these games. They kind of bore me. Especially watching them on TV, ugh. But I’ve got to admit it looks like a beauty and “hotness” point for a lady if she is good in pool. I mean, just look at how many commercials of alcoholic drinks or cigarettes, targeted specifically for men, feature women holding a snooker cue. I call that cue power. Personally, when I see pool or snooker cues, I think of those fight scenes from movies using them as weapons. One or both of the fighters will break peradon cues in half and use them on each hand to attack their opponent. That’s a kind of lame image but it is how I envision it. Sometimes I do enjoy watching pool players do their tricks but I can’t really spend an entire hour just watching or waiting for one of those “magic tricks.”

I tried once, when a friend who owns a bar tried to teach me how to play, but my hands were simply not made for peradon snooker cues. They slip into my hands and the way I push them is certainly not pretty. I’m sure professional players can claim on the art of playing pool and I can say with complete certainty that this is the kind of artistry that is lost on me. Which is a pity because I think it would be cool if I can learn to be at least capable.Oh, well. I guess you just can’t learn them all.

Those Exit Signs

I am, quite strangely, fascinated by Exit Signs. Those you see inside cinema houses, especially. I think they’re of the type of Self Luminous Exit Signs. They do distract me even from movies I’m watching. I really can’t explain why. As you know, those signs are not even the real exit doors. They are for emergency purposes only. But the Photoluminescent Exit Signs, sometimes in red and sometimes in green as I see them, are just attention grabbers. Well, that’s not their purpose and I’m sure I’ll have no use for them personally, but if  you have an establishment or if you’re managing a building that needs those types of signs, there are online stores that sell them.

Exitsigns dot net is one of those companies distributing exit signs and I their web site pretty much has everything you need. You’d think all exit signs are the same but this site claims that their signs were “designed to save lives.”  Their product categories are easy to navigate, and you can easily find your choices depending on type or pricing. I didn’t know there are that many types of signages, to be honest! As for any other purchase, quality and value for money are the most important things to consider and I think this site deserves some looking at.

Wedding on a Budget

E-X-I-T

Watching a movie alone inside a real, huge, dark movie theater is something that I intend to do someday. I don’t know, it seems so simple. Well apart from the usual dangers of doing such a thing, which are pretty much the same dangers you face outside everyday, everytime, buying the tickets and sitting inside a cold, darkened room with plenty of people whose eyes are all fixed in one direction shouldn’t be too complicated, right? Yeah, I figured as much. Yet I still have apprehensions.Evenwhen I have company, I still anticipate trouble and look every nowand then in the direction of the Exit Sign.

You see, a few years ago, I disregarded warnings of bomb threats on Manila malls and went ahead to meet a friend to watch American Beauty at the Megamall. I’ll never forget that movie. I never got to finish it because a few minutes before it was all over, the ground shook as if there had been an earthquake, and when I heard the sound of something exploding I know at once what it was. I remember that I was jolted from my seat, looked at my friend, stood up, and was frozen for a bit while I watch the other people start to go out of the theater, slowly at first then with frenzied haste when the thing began to sink in. Everything was blurred from then; I didn’t even know how we managed to find the exit; we just went with the flow of people, everyone telling each other to keep calm to avoid a stampede. I was too scared to watch a movie for a few  months after that. Even now, I always keep an eye on the Exit Signs everytime I am inside a moviehouse. Well, I’m generally afraid of the dark actually, but that is one major factor why this “goal” is going to be a hard one for me to accomplish.

Despite my paranoia, though, the luminous EXIT SIGNS inside theaters do calm me in a way. And I’m sure they have emergency lighting there so no worries about being kept in the dark in case of power failure. I still may need to prep myself, though, despite these self-assurances. But I’ll go through it, because I can always go out anyway. There are times when I don’t chastise myself for being a quitter (more on this later).

Oral EDTA Chelation

Totally not in keeping with my promise to self that I’ll try to have better sleeping habits, after all that talk about health and high blood pressure, clogged arteries, and oral chelation, I’m now still up at 2.30 am; eating a piece of apple I found in the refrigerator, which houses nothing else but that and a bottle of water; listening to Sara Bareilles; and thinking about the badminton game tomorrow. I’m also thinking about breakfast, which depending on what time I’ll wake up, will most probably be a cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. I hate the taste of that. Seriously. But it’s so easy to prepare and the health benefits are well published, so I’m trying to substitute it for my usual fastfood breakfast. A friend and I have been talking about being hypochondriac, me regarding being hypertensive and she regarding being diabetic (and still another friend ran to a clinic yesterday out of fear of urinary tract infection) that eating well would seem to be the wisest thing to do. And yet when the three of us go to the office cafeteria and each order our sizzling plates of liempo, adobo, or porkchop, we’ll all agree that there’s no way we can stay away from all these fatty foods all at once. Moderation is the key, although sometimes that can also get hard. Well, wholegrain oats are supposed to flush out toxins and help unclog arteries, a more natural method than chelation therapy, so I’m psyching myself about making it a regular part of my diet. Better start early before more drastic measures, such as oral EDTA chelation, become necessary. 
           

Federer Needs A New Coach

I vowed not to talk about tennis again (actually not to watch tennis again) until Roger Federer gets his mojo back and starts playing like the champion that he is. Subjective sentiments, yes. Unreasonable even. Not having cable TV to follow new tournaments definitely helps. I’ve been content on checking tennis blogs for updates, especially now that the summer madness (claycourt events leading to the French Open, which everyone knows is Nadal’s main turf) is about to begin.

I’ve always wondered how I would feel if I’ll get the chance to watch professional tennis in action. I’m sure it’s not going to be a bad feeling. I presume the closest I can get is Shanghai or Dubai. I’ve always been curious about Dubai because it seems to be a very progressive country and I once had a friend who always spends Dubai Holidays because his family is there. My sister even wanted to work there. Had she pursued it, my HOLIDAYS DUBAI scenario would have had a better chance of being realized. 

Going back to Roger Federer, he has a house in Dubai and he practices there whenever he needs to prepare for tournaments in countries with hotter climates. More reason for me to dream of HOLIDAYS IN DUBAI! His tennis results, though, had been disappointing of late, at least up against his usual standards. But I’m not really sure if it mononucleosis is to blame, his age or his failing confidence, or the brilliance of Nadal (as much as it pains me to admit, he is pretty good; cute, too).  Federer also had been without a formal coach since his fallout with Tony Roche about two years ago (I think). It has also been reported that a few months ago when he was in Dubai, he tried to work with Andre Agassi’s former coach, Darren Cahill. I’ve always read about Darren and how great a strategist he is. And if the Agassis loved him, then he has my respect (I’m an Agassi-Graf fangirl). Fans have been waiting for these two to team up, and for a while ithe prospect seemed  plausible enough. The two great tennis minds apparently tried to see if their personalities would mesh before they consider working together professionally. Whatever the answer to this looming question was, it appeared that it didn’t work out. Cahill’s side reported that he cannot accept the opportunity to coach the possibly greatest tennis player of all time because he has a family to attend to and cannot travel with Federer constantly on tour. If this is the real reason or not, we’ll never know. But I’m still hoping that Federer will get a brilliant coach soon.I fear how he will fare in the coming Frenchn Open.

Psychedelic Art

I was reading this book called The Secret History by Donna Tartt earlier and something about a ritual described there made me think of Psychedelic Art. In the book, a group of students, considered scholars, specifically of the classics, tried to perform this old ritual (called the “bacchanal”, performed in honor of the Roman God Dionysus) and in the process committed a murder that no one among the four of them remembers except for the proof of the body - the mutilated corpse of a farmer, killed in his own land, by the hands of four youngsters who claimed to have a sort of like an out-of-body experience. One of them related the experience as being in the presence of Dionysus himself, where each of them are sometimes a man or a woman, or sometimes is not even human. The group hid the crime, which remained unresolved until the end of the book. In the course of the events that followed, the people involved were said to have moved on quite well by blocking the “memory” of the tragedy.

Something about that kind of darkness, in the way that the book described that swirling emotions of guilt/non-guilt, shock, and revelation made me see the parallel with the pictures of UV Backdrops that I saw featuring psychedelic images. It’s the same with those Psy-Trance Clubwear you can order online. In those images, the colors, the texture and the overall impact is just surreal, almost dreamlike. One can interpret them in so many ways and yet I guess only the artist can really explain what they mean, if they do mean anything specific at all in the first place.

Well, the book is not really about being in a trancelike state or the hallucinations induced by whatever substance or physical or environmental stimulants. It’s actually a dark psychological thriller that deals with social structures and norms, and the people who, by choice or circumstance, live outside of them. It’s about friendship and how far one will be willing to go in order to protect that illusion of brotherhood and belongingness.  It analyzes the separation of fiction and reality and what happens when people hold on to literary beauty that it takes over and distorts the “reality”. Can an act like murder be justified? The book deals with two - one accidental while the other was carefully planned.

In the end, there is no excuse for a wrongdoing. Everyone pays, one way or another.