Acquiring Satellites...

When you find yourself in a fork on the road, ask for GPS guidance from Above.

I came up with that as a tweet reply to @jenlaceda not too long ago.

In my case, I'm in the middle of nowhere--so I need far more than mere GPS guidance. I also need roadside assistance.

[Night Driving at the Toll Plaza in Baltimore, April 2009]

Videoke Venue

Whenever there's a family gathering or Filipino party at any of our friends' houses, I'm usually at the videoke area. It's usually in the living room.

This photo is from my cousin's birthday party last March, and we like to exercise our larynxes after all the food consumption by singing. The venue is the family room.

These folks are our family friends: Tito Dominic, Christine (who's camera-shy when singing), and John.

When we have guests over at our house, the videoke venue is in our basement's entertainment room, where all the wailing and gnashing of throats happen.

I'm sharing my "favorite space" to join Caryn's Birthday Giveaway which ends on July 22nd. What's your favorite space?

Studio MME Stuttering's Chelsea Rose Art Print Raffle

Stumbled upon this art print giveaway sponsored by Studio MME Stutterings. Three lucky winners get one art print from Chelsea Rose at a random drawing to be held on July 17th. How do you enter? Just by blogging about this giveaway and leaving a comment with your post's URL on the contest page! If chosen, you'll receive one 5x7" art print by Chelsea Rose!

Something Furry, Something Blue

STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTCHHHH!!!!!

He was the very first character we saw after we gawked at the Giant Golfball-Thingamajig at Epcot, so my companions and I squealed and queued for his autograph right away. This celfone image from my Samsung phone is the only photo I have of him, because the camera I used to pose with him got lost in Universal Studios two days later. This was back in April.

He was so adorable! When I posed with him, we held out our arms and bent our knees a bit like we were surfing. He also liked how I wore a hibiscus flower in my hair (a happy coincidence, because I had plucked that flower at the hotel before going to Epcot that morning). Therefore, I got to be Lilo sans the Hawaiian dress. When he signed my friend's autograph, he pretended to lick the page so that when he handed it back to us, his "signature" was actually smudged with moisture.

Ah well, perhaps we'll meet again, Stitch. Hopefully with Lilo, too.

Beautiful Banaue and Boracay

The Banaue (pronounced "ba-NAH-way") Rice Terraces is a natural wonder and I'm proud to say, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Cordillera region of my native Philippines. My pal, Gingmaganda, mailed me this postcard: a beautiful reminder that I should really visit this place someday. When I visited the United Nations Headquarters in New York earlier this year, I saw the Philippines' gift to the UN which is "The Philippine Skyland" painting featuring these very same rice terraces.

What I really want to show you are the stamps she used, so here's the back of the postcard. It costs 13 pesos to mail a postcard from the Philippines to anywhere abroad, so she used two 7-peso stamps to cover the postage. They've released some new stamps featuring some of the famous tourist spots in our 7, 107 islands. What a trip that I have a Banaue postcard with a matching stamp! And below is the Boracay Beach stamp, showing you a world-class beach destination which I've been to. I hope they create more touristy stamps like this! Hear me out, Philpost!

Calvin, Gael and Hayden

This is what happens when they turn your laptop sleeve into a Calvin Klein men's suit.

This is the god-like Gael Garcia Bernal partying with Grey Goose L'Orange.

Hayden Christensen (NOT Kho!) for Lacoste Challenge. Smell ya later, alligator!

[Eye candies brought to you by the August 2009 issue of Details magazine]

I'm The Type Who Gives

I'm about to do my routine "good deed" tomorrow, that is, donating blood. Did you know that you can donate whole blood every 56 days? I signed up for another blood center about 56 days ago, the Blood Center of New Jersey. I'm also a registered donor for the New York Blood Center's NJ Division.

Donating blood is an intimate gift to a stranger in need, whether it's a child or an adult who might be bedridden and is on social security disability. I'm a type O+, which means I'm a universal donor--I'm compatible with any blood type. It's literally giving a part of yourself so that someone can go back "in the pink of health." Well, it helps that I'm getting a $20 mall gift card in return!

Meanwhile, my father will undergo a procedure next week and I'll make sure that I will be there with him. Family comes first. I'm praying that everything goes well.

This post is dedicated to witsandnuts' Blogoversary/Birthday Giveaway which asks us to share how we're going to brighten up someone's day--specifically, someone we already know AND a complete stranger(s). It wasn't so hard to comply with the instructions.

Pimp My Purple Ride

What makes a car a real head-turner? It could be a lot of things. It could be the model, the spoilers, the halo headlights, the shiny rims, or simply the bold paint color, such as this purple ride I spotted at Ottawa’s Byward Market in Canada a few weeks ago. It reminded me of eggplants and grapes. And Eng Bee Tin hopia.

By contrast, this petite smart car I saw parked beside the Notre Dame Cathedral near the National Gallery of Canada was bloody red. What it lacked in size, it made up for in its sheer scorching shade. Hey, if you owned one, you never have to worry about squeezing into any parking space!

All That Glitters

The last book I read was Paolo Coehlo’s “The Devil and Miss Prym.” It was a story about temptation, how one man, driven by the demons of his tragic loss, travels incognito to a rural town to offer a dangerous bargain in exchange for gold bars. In order to earn the gold, innocent blood had to be sacrificed. Will greed prevail over virtue?

I was so engrossed with the rather titillating encounter between the stranger and Miss Prym that I finished the book within a few hours, in just one sitting.

I am not particularly fond of jewelry, but the precious few I own I do regard as special because of the sentimental value attached to it, such as the gold camel necklace that my mom gave me. I'm not too conversant about financial matters or investing either, so when I heard about gold IRA, I was curious about how to put gold in an IRA as an alternative way to invest on one's retirement.

The Aurum Advisors from the Gold Coins Gain website seek to enlighten the skeptic investor about gold 401k, the shining alternative to an employee's 401k plan that has fallen victim to our current dwindling economy. Their goal is to promote 401k gold as the new 401k choice. This may just be the start of an era of IRA gold, where your future is literally etched in gold.

Litratong Pinoy#57: Basa (Wet)

This product is designed to keep you wet and cool at the same time: it's a water fan sold at Disney World for a whopping $15 each! (Seen last April)

It holds water and you spray yourself with it as the fan rotates. You don't drink the water, you spritz it onto your face. I didn't buy one, because I knew I was going to get wet in some of the rides anyway!



Nakakita ka na ba nito? Water fan! Babasain mo ang mukha mo sabay ikot ng elisi. Mahal nito! Kinse dolares! Kaya naman hindi ako bumili nito! Tutal, mababasa din naman ako sa mga rides!

I Wasn't Imagining Things

The American flag at the mall which I saw on that Monday immediately following Michael Jackson's death was really flying at half mast. Now, they don't do that unless it's Memorial Day, Veterans Day or the 9/11 Anniversary.

Michael Jackson is an American hero--nay, a king--whose loss is being mourned by the whole world, and today, his memorial at the Staples Center in Los Angeles will be a big farewell event.

Rock in peace, Michael. Or rather, moonwalk in peace.

This Way "Up"

I'm a big Disney Pixar patron. That's why I kept a mental note to watch their latest movie, "Up" on the big screen and not let it lapse into DVD or BluRay-hood before I see it. Well, Fourth of July was my chance to catch it before it went up, up and away.

I even love the featurettes they include before the main film starts. This time, it's called "Partly Cloudy." It's clever how they stick to the theme of the main movie, which involves the sky. I confess, I got teary-eyed at this featurette! Who knew clouds can make me cry? Thank goodness the movie theater was nearly deserted! It's a touching story of finding true friendship despite being the "cumulo-nimbus" type, and it also takes the baby stork myth high up into the stratosphere.

"Up" is an uplifting story of fulfilling that one adventure you always wanted to experience. For balloon salesman Carl, it was a childhood dream he shared with his beloved wife Ellie, who more than anything wanted to live in a house on top of Paradise Falls in South America. The movie makes references to its being in Venezuela, but it's obvious that they modeled it after the real Angel Falls. Sadly, Ellie predeceased Carl, leaving him to explore the exotic Venezuelan wilderness on his own...that is, until overzealous wilderness boy scout Russell comes knocking on his door and becomes the unexpected stowaway on his flying house.

How did he get his house to fly? Helium! Lots of it! I think it's many a child's travel fantasy: to go high up in the clouds with a balloon. As a child, I used to think that balloons could travel to faraway lands when you accidentally let them loose. I didn't know then that they could deflate and fall on the ground. Balloons would be one of the things I instantly doodled on my notebook as a student. I also grew up watching that Biblical time-traveling cartoon "The Flying House," which I thought was an awesome way to teach religion to kids.

Carl and Russell seem like the most unlikely of travel partners, but in the end, they were what each other exactly needed. They saved an adrogynous, mystical bird from being a trophy bird in captivity by Carl's childhood-hero-now-aging-bird-predator. They also found Dug, an adorable, multilingual hunting dog whose loyalty turns to them after realizing the evilness of his former master. The dogs' talking collar is just hilarious. When will they actually manufacture collars like that?

And my tears welled up again countless times through this movie, right from the start actually--when Ellie and Carl just grew old together in their little house, their Paradise Falls fund always diminished whenever things came up, how Carl eventually bought plane tickets to Venezuela to surprise Ellie, only to end up losing her. Life itself is an adventure, and Ellie had it all documented in her scrapbook called "My Adventure Book," which Carl continued.

How wonderful it must be to share life's adventures with someone, because I've always believed that it's who you're with that makes the journey memorable and worthwhile. And who knows, you just might be upgraded to first class, zeppelin-style, like Carl and Russell were, from mere helium balloons.

I've seen the "Up"-inspired luggage tags at the Disney Store. Cute, but pricey. I hope the price will go from "up" to "down!"

[movie poster from disneydreaming.com; luggage tag image from disneystore.com]