Sharks beat up the Avalanche 5-2

Double Yay

Warriors win 111-109 over Dallas

Yay

Here's my version of "Bading-Bing" :-p

Got Tickets

On wed. the 11th me, the Donger and Rokkstar will be going to the game between the warriors and the Miami Heat. Of course we are going to enjoy what should be a good game. But the ones on the left should be fun to watch too.

Ode to the music makers

Almost porgat dees two

China and of course Las Islas de Filipinas

The groups that performed in Nova Prata

Thailand

Lithuania

Brazil

South Africa

Easter Island

More Brazil Photos

Merry X-mas

To everyone that is. May it stay safe and enjoyable for you and yours.

Rock stars of Brazil taking a break from rehearsals.

Wanna be Wai Mar Lau's





Party on Filipinas

Pau and Bing?

More Brazil Photos

x-mas get together.

Here's the crew that partook in the festivities last sunday. Thanks to Ernie for hosting

Saturday night fever?

I'll let you ponder this picture.

"Liberty" is moving

During our whole stay in Brazil, we were always assigned a bodyguard to always be there wherever we go during our performances and mini town tours. I never got to know this particular man, but he was always the one that was with us, even when we were on our way back to Porto Alegre (about 2 hours away from Nova Prata) he was on the bus to accompany us. So whoever you are, thank you for keeping us safe.

Capoeira

During one of the rare nights that we didn't have to perform, we got to watch some of the local groups go up on stage and do their "thing". When the capoeira group came on, they asked that each country from the festival send a representative up on stage. Kuya Rudi chose Christian and he didn't disappoint. He represented the "pinoys" and did us all proud by busting a few good moves reminiscent of the old breaking days

Loiterers

Passing time while we wait for performance time.

Fishing

Me, Bing and Ewa looking for fish in the lake at Serrafina Correia.

Wai Mar Lau (2)

Check out OJ at the end. I think he was on the verge of falling off his chair. It looks like Randy wants to hurl too. hahaha

Wai Mar Lau (Drunk)...enough said

This is pretty much what we did at each and every Nations night party. No complaints (until the 9 am rehearsal call came around)

Headlines

This was the picture that was plastered on the front of every newspaper in Nova Prata. Upon seeing this, is when I realized how big the festival really was for this small southern Brazillian town.

Brazilian Surprise

No one had a clue that (except Christian, 'cause he was the one that got replaced) that Kuya Rudi wanted to dance Paseo. It was funny 'cause i didn't even realize that it wasn't Christian dancing until I heard the stomping and I knew that it wasn't Chris doing it. (I wasn't paying attention to the dancers, I was just listening to the music and watching my fingers on the fretboard.)

My dream garage...part 2

Has a very nice rear end..

.................I'm talking about the car now, get your head out of the gutter. HAH

BRRRRRR

The boys posing for a quick pix on a very cold day in Cotipura, Brazil.

My Dream Garage........(Sigh)

Ridin' in style. (This one's for the donger)

Hi-Tek in the Barrio.

China

I know a lot of people didn't quite get along with them, but here are some of them. I think they were cool, except for their lead musician. He was arrogant.

Brazil

Since OJ and Gary are posting pictures from Brazil let me show one from when we were eating ice cream at the town plaza.

Go Sharkies...Go Sharkies

Sharks on a 5 game win streak since trading for Super Joe Thornton...Double Woo-Hoo

Go Warriors

Warriors beat the Sonics. 110-107 in OT. Woo-Hoo!!!!

Fun times

Yesterday I decided to be a good ninong and skipped my x-mas party to take my god daughter to watch Narnia at AMC bay st. in Emeryville. The movie was long (over 2 hours) but I liked it and was written well. Not your typical disney film where some things are not even remotely believable, this one was, in my opinion, is similar to that of the Lord of the Rings movies.

Sunday, after practice, we had a little get together at the SFO pizzeria for a little ending of the season/x-mas party. It was nice to have dinner with everyone from the company and it's good to see that everyone had a good time this year. Hopefully we can carry the momentum for next year as it will be busy again.

Lastly, for anyone that wants to put up house x-mas ligths, check out this link video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8933241944346625063

UPSerr

As the title implies, that's who I am and it's x-mas season. Meaning I'm hella busy at work and has nothing to blog about, except 12 more days of madness and it will be over. nuff said Peace out

Warriors Beat up the Kings

Double yay. Best team in NorCal!!

Warriors win over the Hornets

'nuff said.

Thanksgiving Holiday.

Thursday, a lot of my relatives came over the house for a late lunch. It was really nice to see some of my cousins as we all are living in different places now (SoCal and NoCal). It was especially nice to see my niece/god daughter Alexa (yeah I have 3 god daughters and 2 of them are named Alexa) She was so cute, albeit a little grumpy in the beginning as she just woke up from her nap ride in the car.

Friday I get a phone call from Ledge at 3:45 AM!!!!! Asking me if I wanted to go shopping with them in Roseville, WTF!!! I don't even wake up that early to go fishing. So I politely declined and aptly went back to bed. I did get up at 5:30 to try and go to Target to get a couple of things that I was eyeing. I got lucky, since I wasn't there to clean out the store I managed to be in and out within 15 minutes. The rest of the day I just lounged at home, even took a 4 hour nap. Finally some rest.

Saturday I hooked up with the David's and went to the outlet stores in Vacaville, where I ended up buying a shirt and running pants from Nike (like I run). And a pair of shoes from Rockport. Afterwards we headed back to Vallejo and just relaxed.

Since there was no practice, I decided to continue my holiday shopping, this time heading out to the Napa store outlets, with the David's and the Laxa's and a couple of other friends. I did some damage on this day as I bought 2 pairs of shoes from Cole Haan, a couple of sweaters from BR and a travel wallet and some shoe care products. Then I went to Old Navy and bought outfits for my nieces and nephews so at least I got them out of the way. All I have left now are the god children. Afterwards we had some good old fashioned rib eye at the David's residence. Good eating with good friends equals good times. Now my stomach hurts...uugghh.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. (US only)

Racing

I went gokart racing with some of the guys tonight after work. I was really tired before I even got there and in fact got there late that I missed the first session. So I had to wait until for the second session before I can even race. But it was all good and fun. I had fun with the guys and will do it again. It actually felt good to race again since I haven't done in a long while.
Afterwards some of us went to Steelhead Brewery for some food and drinks. It was alright, but the stroganoff I ordered was a little too salty and it "jacked up" my stomach after. I think it was the cream sauce. Hmm..I guess I'm not ordering that again.

Fraktis

I started my day today by meeting up with the Donger for good ole breakfast at the home of the chicken and waffles in Oakland.
Man it was grubbin' and they give you a lot. The sweet potato pie was good, and the chicken was cooked just right. Good thing I loaded up because during practice we (the musicians) played non-stop for the whole duration of practice, and we even had to do a dance routine. Now a lot of dancers might say, "how can you be tired when all you did was sit and play music" well, I would counter by saying that I would like to see them beat down on the gansa with your bare hands for a good hour and a half and see how you feel after. I mean my hands were so beat up that they were bloddy red by time we stopped playing. Only to realize that we had to go out and do dance of the seven gongs. Man I was so tired at the end that I was glad that no one wanted to hang out and I just went straight home and just chilled. Hopefully the blister that popped under my feet will not be a cause for concern tomorrow at work.

I just found out that our good friends the Reyes' might be having their baby tonight. Congrats to them and I would like to welcome a new member to the family.

Movie review

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Good movie, jumped around a lot (if you read the book, you'd know what I mean). Overall it was good decently filmed movie. I'd give it 3 1/2 stars (out of five)

no love

Last saturday, my buddy Phil called me up and said that he was on his way towards my side of the bay to bring the boat for service over in Dixon. Seeing as that I don't have any plans, I decided to go with him as I wanted to fix some of my fishing gear that was stored with the boat. After dropping off the boat at the dealer, we decided to make a little side trip to Cache Creek Casino.
At first it was good, as I was waiting for him to get out of the washroom, I proceeded to win $45 at a slot machine nearby. We then proceeded to the breakfast buffet and indulged ourselves with some longanisa, tocino, garlic fried rice and of course some eggs, and other yummy stuff.

Afterwards, my luck changed, I played the video poker machine in the high limit section and proceeded to lose money after about 45 mins. Then I decided to play blackjack and the dealer cleaned me out after a while. I then went on to check on Phil and he was up and down. So I played some more and donated more money to the establishment. When I finally met up with Phil he got cleaned out as well. So we decided to call it a day and went home.

On the way home I forgot that my phone was off, so when I turned it on, I had 2 voicemails, one was from drama queen, asking, oddly enough, directions to the casino because her parents were in town and they wanted to go. It was pretty funny how we filipinos are attracted to gambling on the weekends.

Sunday was rehearsal and it went well. Even 7 gongs wasn't as tiring as it was in previous weeks, but man, those short guys need to move 'cause one step from me equals to 1 1/2 for them and there were times where I almost ran over manok who was in front of me. It also caught me off guard when Kuya Rudi pulled Tadek out of the blue, I had to scramble through my memory to figure out the beat as we haven't done it before and I heard the music back in 2001. Talk about coming up with something on the spot.

After rehearsal some of us went to Hahn's Hibachi in Jack London Square, man was it grubbin'. I especially liked the flaming peaches dessert, where you can still taste the brandy....yum-yum.

This wednesday I'm going to the Sharks game against the Canucks, with Tina, Ed, and Ernie. We better win 'cause if we don't Tina-maan will never let me hear the end of it (being that we are the only two that really follow hockey over here). Go Sharks!!!!!!!!!!

Is this still on?

Okay, so I haven't been blogging lately, and I apologize for all who kept checking to see and find no updates were up. I just haven't been in the mood to write anything, add the fact that we are short staffed at work and everyone had to pick up the slack just hasn't made things any easier.

So anyways, this past weekend was eventful, we had a fundraiser at PUSOD in Berkeley, there was a good turnout and it was nice to see some of my batchmates there. It sure is tough to get the batch of '92 for a little get together as everyone is busy with families and careers. Heck some of them I've lost contact with already and don't even know where to begin to look for them.

Sunday was a full house at practice, thank god for the huge studio space, otherwise it would feel like were sardines in a can.
Ading Liza and John and Msteen decided to come back , it was good to see them again. Oh and then Kuya rudi yells out "seven gongs" oh you should've heard the collective sighs from the musicians (ok, just from me) and we proceeded to go over it like 50 million times, I think a few of us developed blisters under our feet. But today at work, my legs weren't sore at all and the blisters didn't really bother me, so it was a good day.

I'm still tired so I'll cut this short.

Shopping

Today I decided to not go to rehearsal since I'm not performing for next week and I wanted to just hang out and relax and do some errands. So I took my truck for an oil change in the morning (actually late morning, since I didn't go to bed 'til 3 am and I woke up at 10:30) Afterwards I updated some drivers on my laptop so that I can start using my burner once again.

I then hooked up with Damomoo at around 2 and we went to the Vacaville outlet stores.
I ended up picking a pair of golf shoes at the adidas store for $20 and another pair of shoes from Nike. Damomoo extended his shopping spree for his "metro-sexual" outfits for work. He ended up getting a pair of pants, 2 pairs of shirts, a tie, and a pair of Nike leather flip flops. He actually outspent me this time, but it's all good, I didn't have money to spend anyways.

We then proceeded to Baldo's to get some food for us and Laurie as whe was in Vallejo waiting for us. We got some Carne Asada fries, quesadillas, and a California Burrito. Suffice to say that quelched my hunger.

It is now 7:30 and we are waiting for Ledge to get ready as we are going to watch the 9:40 showing of Doom. He is still coming up from L.A.

Oh well, I guess I can go to Target to pass the time.

Laters

"started with nothing, and still has most of it"-anonymous

Kaarawan ni titser Ed

Nung byernes ng gabi, pumunta ako sa Fremont para iselebra ang kaarawan ni ginoong Edward Cruz, at para magpraktis ng rondalla para sa gaganapin na sayawan para sa mga matatanda na nakatira sa isang convalescent home sa Walnut Creek.

Masaya naman ang aming pagselebra at hanggang hating gabi na usapan ang nangyari nang matapos na ang pagtugtog namin.
Inabot kami ng halos apat na put limang minutos para lang maalala yung isang pangalan ng tindahan sa Emeryville na kung tawagin ay "Headlines" . Nag usap kasi kami ng mga iba't ibang tindahan na pinagbilhan namin ng mga kadamitan nung bata pa kami. Si John kasi ang nagsimula ng pagdiskusyon nito.

Ito lang ang susulatin ko at sumasakit na ang ulo ko at wala na akong maisip na isulat na tagalog. Walang praktis kasi.

"Started with nothing and still has most of it"

Busy weekend

So Friday, I missed a great party, at least it sounds like. My parents decided to pass by California on their way home from Europe, and Friday was their last night here so I decided to go out with them and eat dinner at Outbacks here in Pinole. Afterwards, I felt lazy to do anything else after eating their scrumptous ribeye steak. So I decided to just stay home with them.

Saturday, my dad and I ran some last minute errands in the morning as they were leaving that night. We went to Fry's in Concord and a couple of other stores in the area. Afterwards, they spent the rest of the time with my grandmother as i proceeded to fix a few kinks iut of my laptop (pc based). then on to the airport where there was a million filipinos at the terminal. I have a question, why is it that when someone is leaving for P.I., there's like 30 people that go to the airport to see them off? Is it a filipino tradition to do this? Anyways I was there 'till 11 pm as the flight was delayed, but it was all good.

Sunday was our first practice at the new studio, as most of you already know, it is H-U-G-E. I mean it's at least 5x bigger than John Sims studio 3. It's also a lot closer to my house AND I don't have to cross the bridge. I mean it's enough that I cross it mon-fri already.

Monday, work was just Blah. Nothing exciting like friday where a co-worker of mine aprehended a shmuck who was stupid enough to run into the UPS truck and try to steal something, WHILE my co-worker was inside. So when he tried to run away with his backpack and a package, my co-worker punched him from behind and slammed his head against the windshield, cracking it.
then he threw the shmuck unto the street and told him to get lost. Word to the wise, Don't FUCK with the UPS guy.

Chillin' like a villain.

Busy weekend

So this weekend was busy as heck.

Saturday we had a show in livermore for some association (can't remember which one though) We had to put on an hour show and so we did. The day started at 12 noon which was the time that we are suppose to show up. My carpools (Mur and Ledge) and I arrived at about 12:50, so we were right on time HAH. The show went well, with a few "hiccups" along the way, like a glass falling from someone's head, and people not having the presence of mind to PICK IT UP. One rondalla player looking lost on certain pieces and not even trying to fake it off. But overall the music was on, especially mountain, OJ didn't have to endure the "stare" from Ed and I during his drum solo (unlike during practice). Afterwards some of us went to Armadillo Willy's for some good ole fashion BBQ.

Sunday was a marathon of b-day parties. first off I went to Vallejo for my god daughter Alexa's birhtday. Lots of food, but then again, this is Ledge we're talking about, he will never have a shortage of food at his parties. Next up was Natalie's b-day, ading Liza's youngest. again more food and more good company. the last one was my little cousin Camille's b-day. I passed by for only an hour because it was getting late and I had to get up early for work the next day. Whew, what a weekend. Fun but tiring.

PS you can now comment even if you don't have a blogger account. Just leave your name pls.

I guess I'm not as observant as I thought I was.

C

You tend to notice the big things in life... But the details aren't exactly your forte

How Observant Are You?

I'm Back

I'm back from vancouver.

Congrats to Jeanette and Rodney on a very beautiful wedding. The settings were nice and the weather was gorgeous. I am truly honored that they asked me to be part of their very special day.

I had a lot of fun.

will update more, gotta catch up on sleep now.

Oh Canada

Well, Ledge and I arrived here thursday at 5:30 pm. We had to rush quickly from the disembarking the plane, through customs and then meet up with the Correia's and head straight to the church for the wedding rehearsal. We made it with about 15 minutes to spare, thank god that traffic was not bad.

After the rehearsal, we went to Victoria's for dinner. It was good food and it was good to catch up with some people at my table. After dinner, I was arm-twisted into joing the rest of the guys for some "community ballet". It was a little tamer than what I'm used to,but then again, Vegas can make a lot of places look tamer. When the show was over, we all ended up heading out to River Rock Casino, where everyone, excluding myself, donated money to the River Rock Foundation. I walked away with $100 extra in my pocket. Not bad for a half hour play.

Friday, we all woke up late and proceeded to have lunch at Shabu San restaurant. Yum, it was all you can eat sushi, which is what we always love. Afterwards we went up to Grouse mountain and rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain. We watched the lumberjack show which was like the competition you see on ESPN but with humor and just 3 people involved. In fact tiny bubbles Sam even wanted to take one of the lumberjacks home as a souvenir. HAH. I then went to Cactus club with the groom, bestman and a groomsman to further hang out with other people and see our friend Mark R. who was the manager over there. We ended up eating and drinking for free (we did a lot of drinking) Thanks Mark, I am sure that Nick is thanking you too.

Gotta go, will let you know how the wedding went. Ciao Bella.

off to YVR

Well, I will be going to Vancouver tomorrow for the next 4 days. I will be attending my friends wedding. It'll be nice to see everyone up there again. I shall update after I get back as to how it went...eh.

see ya.

Weekend happenings

Last friday we had our last official rondalla practice at the Chateau in SSF. It went well, although the attendance was a little low. It was as usual the rondalla proper group (sans Herna) who was present. But a lot of the newbies weren't there. Hmm I wonder if any of them are still interested in playing.

Saturday, we played for the APAture festival at the South of Market Arts centre. We finally debuted the yet untitled Jota that Maestro B wrote. It was received well by the "book Fair-esque" crowd (The Brazil crew knows what I'm talking about).
After playing 3 musical pieces, Prof., Rockstar, Ms. Luzon and I proceeded to go to the SSF municipal bldg. where Likha was scheduled to perform asik and sinkil. Let's just say that performance deserves to be forgotten and be erased from all existence.
That's all I'm going to say about that.

Sunday we had our rehearsal at our temporary place for the remainder of the season. It's at the KSW office on Capp st. in S.F.
Parking was a bitch and there was homeless people everywhere. Oh well, at least it's only temporary. but the inside of the place is nice and I'm sure that once all the renovation is down, it will be a really nice office space.

Oh well, time to finish off a report for my work.
4 more sleeps 'til I go to Vancouver...woo hoo...... 4 day weekend

Trippin

To all you people that have called me a blog slacker (ok just Bev). The only reason why a post just came on today was the fact that blogger.com has been going cuckoo lately. For whatever reason, I couldn't published (or save for that matter) any entry for the last 4 days. So there ;p

anyways, last saturday, i went fishing and man was it tough. i caught a total of 2 bass. I mean we were marking them but they were lockjawed. Oh well, at least I had fun.

Last sunday, we had practice at Bev's parent's garage and Ed and I were commenting about how it feels so "barangay-ish".
You see, Ed and I used to be part of the Barangay dance troupe and we used to practice in people's garages back then. I guess you get spoiled after practicing in a studio for the last 13 years or so. Oh well, we found an interim studio 'til the end of the year. What a relief.

Work sucks

I have been working like crazy these past 2 weeks and I tell ya, 10 hour days will take its toll on you, especially if you commute like I do. Maybe it's time to relocate, or at least win the lotto (I like the latter)

On a lighter note, my parents are in town, albeit for only 3 days. They are on their way to their tour of Europe and they decided to pass by and visit my grandmother before going there. It's good to see them.

Moving stuff out

So today we had a window of time to move our stuff out of our storage/studio place. Since the landlord added a lot of additions to the bldg. and didn't bother to have it checked up to the proper fire codes, that the city decided to shut it down 'til further notice. So in essence we don't have a practice place, so we all got our stuff out of there and decided to store it temporarily at Manning's apt. bldg in the city. So it was good to see a lot of people help out with the move, although there were a lot of missing people too (shame on you, you know who you are.) We got it all done within a couple of hours and mangaed to get over and unload at Manning's place by 3:30. Then we had Pizza and watched the rest of the niner game which they won...WOOHOO.

So I guess we wait until we figure out where we are going to practice from now on. Oh well, I guess I'll go practice on my octavina at home for the time being.

On another note, my parents are going to pass by this weekend on the way to Europe. they are going to spend about 4 days here before they go on to italy and France. Hmm, maybe I can get them to do a little recconassiance for me and figure out which places have good deals on restaurants, hotels and the like.

Peace out

Three day weekend

Well I hope everyone is having a nice three day weekend here in the U.S. It's been kind of hectic for me.
Last saturday I went fishing up in Clearlake, man it so beautiful up there. It was really sunny but with a little breeze was blowing to keep you cool. It's days like that where you tend to forget everything and just live in that moment, as it just you and the fish you are trying to get.

Sunday we had a pseudo rehearsal at the "club chateau" because of a problem with our studio. i won't go into the boring details, but I think we are going to terminate our contract with the landlord as we feel that she is not capable of handling and taking care of our needs. With so many tours and shows planned already, we do not need to have problems with our practice studio. So now we are on the hunt for a new one. Hopefully we can find one soon.

That nite we had a performance for a wedding in San Rafael. It was a small wedding and man they were running late. We were supposed to go on at 7:30 and we didn't go on until almost 8:30. Talk about delays. The coordinator didn't even really tell us what was going on, Kuya Rudi was so mad that he ended up cutting the program by one dance. The dance he cut ended up being the dance that the bride requested especially for her wedding. I felt bad for her when I found out about this after we've just had performed. Oh well, I'm sure thats far from her mind not too long after the performance. I then drove the professor to American Canyon to meet up with the wife. Not a bad drive from san Rafael.

Well, gotta get ready for a BBQ today. Peace out.

Can't resist another one.

You Know You're Filipino When....

Your middle name is your mother's maiden name. Your parents call each other "Mommy" and "Daddy." You have uncles and aunts named "Boy," "Girlie," or "Baby." I DO. You have relatives whose nicknames consist of repeated syllables like "Jun-Jun," "Ling-Ling," and "Mon-Mon." Mine by the way was "Che-Che." You call the parents of your friends and your own parents' friends "Tito" and "Tita." YUP YUP You have four or five names. UMM NOT SURE IF I DO. You greet your elders by touching their hands to your forehead. I STILL DO. You always kiss your relatives on the cheek whenever you enter or leave the room. You follow your parents' house rules even if you are over 18. NOT You live with your parents until and at times even after you're married. You decorate your dining room wall with a picture of the "Last Supper." You keep your furniture wrapped in plastic or covered with blankets. You have a Sto. Nino shrine in your living room. You have a piano that no one plays. You keep a tabo in your bathroom. You use Vicks Vapor rub as an insect repellant. You eat with your hands. You eat more than three times a day. You think a meal is not a meal without rice. You think sandwiches are snacks, not meals. Your dining table has a merry-go-round (lazy Susan) in the middle. You bring baon to work everyday. Your pantry is never without Spam, Vienna sausage, corned beef, and sardines. You love to eat daing or tuyo. ALONG WITH CHAMPORADO! You prop up one knee while eating. ou eat your meal with patis, toyo, suka, banana catsup, or bagoong. Your tablecloths are stained with toyo circles. You love sticky desserts and salty snacks. You eat fried Spam and hot dogs with rice. You eat mangoes with rice--with great GUSTO! EEWWW YUCK You love "dirty" ice cream. You love to eat, yet often manage to stay slim. You put hot dogs in your spaghetti. Everything you eat is sauted in garlic, onion, and tomatoes. You order a "soft drink" instead of soda. You hang a rosary on your car's rear view mirror. You get together with family at a cemetery on All Saint's Day to eat, drink, and tell stories by your loved ones' graves. You play cards or mahjong and drink beer at funeral wakes. You think Christmas season begins in October and ends in January. Your second piece of luggage is a balikbayan box. You've mastered the art of packing a suitcase to double capacity. You collect items from airlines, hotels, and restaurants as "souvenirs." You feel obligated to give pasalubong to all your friends and relatives each time you return from a trip. You use paper foot outlines when buying shoes for friends and relatives. You're a fashion victim. You can convey 30 messages with your facial expression. You hold your palms together in front of you and say "excuse, excuse" when you pass in between people or in front of the TV. You ask for the bill at a restaurant by making a rectangle in the air. You cover your mouth when you laugh. You respond to a "Hoy!" or a "Pssst!" in a crowd. You'll answer "Malapit lang!"--no matter the distance--when asked how far away a place is located. Goldilocks is more than a fairy tale character to you. You refer to power interruptions as "brownouts." You love to use the following acronyms: CR for comfort room, DI for dance instructor, DOM for dirty old man, TNT for tago nang tago, KJ for kill joy, KSP for kulang sa pansin, OA for over-acting, TL for true love, BF for boyfriend and GF for girlfriend. You say "rubber shoes" instead of sneakers, "ball pen" instead of pen, "stockings" instead of pantyhose, "pampers" instead of diapers, "ref" or "prijider" instead of refrigerator, "Colgate" instead of toothpaste, "canteen" instead of cafeteria, and "open" or "close" instead of turn on or turn off (as in the lights). You use an umbrella for shade on hot summer days. You like everything imported or "state-side." You love ballroom dancing, bowling, pusoy, mah jong, billiards, and karaoke. You have a relative who is a nurse. When you're in a restaurant, you wipe your plate and utensils before using them. You can squeeze 15 passengers into your five seater car without a second thought. You wave a pom-pom on a stick around the food to keep the flies away. You always ring a doorbell twice, assuming that the first ring was not heard. You let the phone ring twice before answering, lest you appear overly eager. Your other piece of luggage is a balikbayan box. You use a rock to scrub yourself in the bath or shower. You're proud to be Filipino - and you pass these jokes on to all your Filipino friends!

Get Your Own "You Know You're" Meme Here



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old friends

Today i attended a Likha coco end of summer party over in Martinez. It was hosted by a good longtime friend of mine that I haven't seen in about 8 years or so. It was good to see her and her family and it was nice to catch up a bit on what has been going on. The Laxa's were also there and it was good to see the boys since I haven't seen them since before I left for Brazil.

Afterwards I headed out to Fry's to buy another external hard drive. It's a good thing I did cause they had a good sale for a 160gb hard drive that would cost $119.00 after all the rebates are done.

Last friday we had rondalla rehearsal again. It felt good, but then we were playing a lot in Brazil so the ones that went were conditioned to play a lot of songs and not get any finger cramps. Overall it was good. Randy and Beverly even tried duplicating the chocolate strawberry pizza that we had tried over in Nova Prata. It turned out pretty good, close to the real thing, if we can only match the dough that was used for the pizza.

Another quiz, courtesy of Ms Pernia

I know Maestro can relate to this one.

You Know You're Addicted to Star Wars When...

You can recite *all* the dialogue from the trilogy. You watch the entire trilogy at least once a month. You wonder why the SW theme never makes it into those "classical collections." Any time you pick up a walkie-talkie or two-way radio, the first thing you say is "TK-421, why aren't you at your post?" Whenever you went anywhere outside with your friends, you always walked single file, to hide your numbers. You've written several letters to the President recommending that he dissolve the council, put power in the hands of the regional governors, and let fear keep the local systems in line. In college, after several hours of poker, you got thrown our of the game for suggesting, "How about some sabacc?" When trying unsuccessfully to snare that last Cheerio floating in your cereal bowl, you remarked, "the Force is strong with this one." On Halloween, you would never dress as: Luke, Han Solo, Leia, Vader, Chewie, Threepio, Artoo However, you would dress as: Wedge, Porkins, Crix Madine, that spider droid from Jabba's palace that fat dancer from Jabba's palace, Sy Snootles, the Cantina bartender. The monster in the trash compactor, Boba Fett, An Imperial probe droid You've been pulled over by a policeman, and when asked to see your driver's license you replied, "You don't need to see my identification." And when he asks about your two friends in the back "They're for sale, if you want them." You have physically threatened anyone who referred to "Hans Solo" or "Dark Vader", confused Star Wars with Star Trek, or spellied Wookiee with only one "e." You have held up an onion ring and said, "Look sir...droids!" You've referred to Wedge Antilles or Boba Fett as "The Man." You've bought a white Isuzu Trooper, strictly because of the name. While sitting on the couch with your girlfriend, she comments about being cold. So, naturally, you slice open the side of the cushion and stuff her in. You insist on spelling Pizza Hut "Pizza Hutt." You dropped your religion and now live the way Yoda taught you. You recorded all the new Star Wars comercials. You frequently experience insomnia and, to counter this, begin counting nerfs. You answer the phone "Die wanna wanga?" Whenever you buy a new appliance, you make sure to get one that speaks Bacchi. You call your aunt and uncle Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. Whenever you catch sight of cars behind yours, you say "Fighters, coming in, point three five." Someone else in your car says "What about that tower?" You respond, "You worry about those fighters, I'll worry about the tower", and moments later your car slams into the water tower the passenger was referring to. When a cop catches you speeding, you floor it, saying "I've outrun Imperial starships, and not the local bulk cruisers..." When someone apologizes to you, you choke him and tell him that you accept his apology. You ride your motorbike through the forest at top speed, and survive after throwing yourself off just before it hits a tree. You've 'wielded' a flashlight and made humming sounds. You wave your hand purposefully and 'use the force' to open and close automatic doors or elevator doors. You go over to a friends, go to his refrigerator, and crawl in throwing food and stuff over your shoulder and grunting. You walk into an optometrist's office and shout: You will PAY for your lack of vision! You have a Yoda figurine replacing the brand symbol on the hood of your car. When accelerating your car to enter the freeway, you tell your passengers to strap in and prepare for light speed. Your significant other dumps you because everytime she/he says, "I love you" you always respond, "I know." You quote Yoda to defend your political beliefs. You have so many SW Trilogy GIF's, JPG's, MIDI's, AVI's, WAV's, MPG's, icons and text files that you're rapidly running out of disk space and have to buy a bigger hard drive just to hold them all. You have so many SW posters that you can't see your ceiling or floor, either. You have so many SW toys that you can't see your SW posters anyway. When leaving a restaurant, you can't resist signing Boba Fett or Darth Vader in the guestbook. You went through a state of depression when Chewie died. You look at "big hairy carpets" with more respect than before. You speak Rodian. You punch out trekkies who say "Death star my ass, I'd like to see those losers take out DS9." With a blue-tinted plastic tube, a flashlight, two hours of a Saturday night, and 4 rolls of blue electrical tape, you finally complete your own working "Light-saber" You listen for Obi-Wan while attempting to parallel park 1Your father asks you how fast your car is, and you reply, "Fast enough for you, old man!" You could have sworn you saw bantha tracks during your trip to the grand canyon. Every time somebody sneezes, you say, "May the force be with you." The cinnamon buns in your hair start to grow mold. You call your friend who is a midget Wicket. You refer to money as credits without trying to. You respond to any mention of the legality of something with "I will make it legal." You start reliving the speeder bike chase on your motorbike. Someone tells you your car is old and beat-up, you reply "She'll do .5 past light speed..." You refer to getting off the freeway as coming out of hyperspace. You are POSITIVE you are force-sensitive and only lack the proper training. Someone says they will try to do something you automatically respond "Do or do not. There is no try." By intense study you have actually figured out the location of every gun implacement on a star destroyer. Your house robe is brown and extra large. You type in the terms for a search engine as if entering coordinates, then shout "Punch it, Chewie!" as you click on search. You argue about whether Star Wars is space fantasy or space opera. You're out looking for a Wookie for your school's wrestling team. You nickname your car the Millennium Falcon. The last time a cute guy tried to hug you, your hands were dirty. When your mom asks you to clean your room, you say "Leave that to me." Your friends share recipes for cooking Ewok. You have a long braid in you hair like Obi-Wan in E1. You call your boss/teacher "Master" You went to the nearest recruiting center and asked to be assigned to the 121st TIE squadren When asked if you want to be buried or creamated you say "I'll just vanish like the rest of the Jedi" You have a bad feeling about everything. While partying with friends, you do your Darth Vader impression. You try to get your car up to .5 beyond lightspeed, in a parking lot. You call your girlfriend, "your Highness." You keep calling your boyfriend, "Luke," "Han," or "Lando" by mistake. You believe John Williams is the best composer ever (which, of course, he is!), and George Lucas is a god (which, too, is pretty much true!) While listening to the soundtrack without knowing the name of the song you are listening to, you know exactly what's happening while it's playing. In foreign language class, you tell the teacher, "Hey! If I'm fluent in over six million forms of communication, then how come I'm getting such a bad grade in this class?" When your friends confide in you and tell you their deepest, darkest secrets, you say, "You are far too trusting." When your dad says, "I am your father," you begin to scream uncontrollably and shout, "NOOOO! It's not true!" at the top of your lungs. You have ever thought the world would be a better place if it were like the Rebel Alliance/New Republic. You now want to become an astronaut to see if there really is a Lando system. Obiwan Kenobi and Yoda come to you in your dreams and give you advice about tough situations you're dealing with. Yoda's little sayings have had a profound impact on your life, and you abide by them religiously. You've created lyrics to the songs in Star Wars. Instead of saving for college, you save up for Star Wars stuff you plan to buy. Anyone who doesn't like Star Wars you proclaim is an Imperial. When you are ticked off at somebody, you send bounty hunters all over the place to find them and then you encase him in carbonite for a new wall decoration. When your alarm clock goes off in the morning, your reply is, "Unexpected this is... and unfortunate!" When riding your bike, you look behind you and accelerate wildly by pressing down on the petal with your right toe. You've kept the "good" action figures stored separately from the "bad" ones. As a child, whenever you had broken something, your response was always, "It must've had a self-destruct mechanism. I didn't hit it that hard." You've refused to enter a cave/cavern/tunnel without a handgun and a large stick. When you waited for a friend to catch up with you, you told him to hurry up or he'd be a permanent resident. You've ever found yourself in a chat room, training Jedi. You've ever told your younger brother at the dinner table, "Use the fork, Luke." You've ever roped off your Star Wars Action Figure collection, claiming it to be an independent nation. You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends who are addicted to Star Wars.

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