Anger is Not Just a Strong Word

I’m not an angry person though I spit out angry words a lot. The last time I thought I was angry was when I was still at work and I felt betrayed with our team’s schedule but it turns out it was not really what I thought cause I was still able to act with reason. All reactions were calculated and necessary precautions were carefully laid out.

A few hours ago, at around 1, Manila Time, a neighbor’s niece got drunk again and went through her regular stunts. She opened up the house, which I earlier locked per orders from her aunt as she does not tolerate how she turns it into a motel and occasional drug den, she started shouting on the top of her lungs like she’s back in the middle of the jungles of Cansirong, and worse, she kept banging the wooden wall which separates her shanty from our boarding house.

I should just have left her alone since I go through a similar stunt when I get drunk sans the banging on walls. I sing Insy Winsy Spider or cry over the one who got away until the sandman takes me to lala land. I tried telling them to let others sleep but still she went on and on and even told me to fuck off. At that point, my anger took the best of me so I took a bottle of Tanduay and smashed it just outside the back door but she kept on doing her thing and then banged harder, I could not really take it anymore so I opened the window, and said “Hoy Saba kay naay natog”. I said that using my macho tone, by the way. I can’t really remember what she said but I took it as personal attacks and she even said, no one can stop her because she’s at her house. I took it as a challenge so I hurried to get the assistance of barangay tanods.

Two of them came, and as we checked the house, they were already silent until the drunken 19-year old lady came out and started screaming again. We politely asked her to go back to sleep but she just had to throw a feat. She reminds me of myself that way and I was really amused with her in a way. But then she started pointing fingers at me and accusing me of oppressing her because we are better off and that I am more noisy than her cause I use the Internet and my friends come over. I just had to rebut and do it with sarcasm even though I knew it’s unwise to pick a fight with a drunk woman. She then turned her attention on the boarders and went inside the house and refused to get out and I got furious! She pointed a finger at me one more time and it landed on my upper lip and I thought it would bleed since her fingers were sharp so I punched her on the arm. I don’t really know if it was hard but I hope she’s alright. She started picking bottles after that so the Tanods decided to call up the police.

The police came and took her in cause they too can’t control her. She was really wasted but she said she isn’t as 6 bottles of Tanduay can’t get a woman drunk. She must have started drinking at age 10 for her to have that alcohol tolerance level. It all ended at around 3 AM but I still can’t sleep. My BP was 140/110 when I checked and I just had a hard time sleeping. I was also blaming myself for all that happend. Had I risen above her challenge and took a walk, it would not have blown out of proportions. I’m used to drunk neighbors. Riza’s dad used to do it a lot when we were just a door apart and I just let it pass in the hopes that they would also be as tolerant when I get drunk and noisy but this is different, I had to be a good care taker for the boarding house and I take responsibilities seriously.

I still regret getting violent even if it was retaliatory. I loath the fact that I have violent tendencies when I am angry but I also feel better in knowing that I can still feel remorse for doing things out of anger.

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What’s Cookin’?

Took another break from blogging in order to pursue cooking and baking. Had I mentioned this in the 90’s I would easily be branded a sissy since cooking and baking was generally a girls hobby back then but thanks to career opportunities for chefs and cooks abroad, it’s not so gay anymore. I don’t really mind being labeled for anything now that my skin has grown protective scales.

Since the last time I’ve been detailing how certain I am that Maasin City, Southern Leyte will not be hit by the Tsunami which was over-hyped by the media as well as my paranoid neighbors, I’ve been spending more time reading other blogs than writing here in mine. I was into food blogs specially those that caters to the Pinoy palate and was able to make spring rolls, vegetable lumpia, pork siomai, cheese sticks, pastillas de ube, yema tropicana and baked a very moist banana cake which involves freezing the cake after taking it out of the oven. I’m cannot really consider myself a novice on cooking and baking since I’ve been raised in a home with a sweet grandmother who took up home economics in college and has a knack of practicing culinary arts up to the day she passed away. My mom cooks too and bakes when she has time  and I can turn the worst dish into ambrosia. So much for tooting my own horn. I earn cents from these culinary adventures as I let mom sell the extras at our farm.

The blog is still generating steady income which is the reason why I still am in-between-employment right now and refusing to look for a job but it all changed when a former colleague called me up and offered me one. I’d be working for the government again and this time for the tourism office. I don’t really know when the start date is but I’m already excited. The pay is not that much though but it’s not a problem as long as I have Internet access.

I guess I have to end here. Gotta clean up the house. Mom is coming.

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Tsunami from Chile to Hit the Philippines

I’m from Southern Leyte, a province in the Philippines included in the list of places that the Tsunami from Chile could hit. Like me, a lot of my Facebook friends are still up thanks to a text message that has been passed on since they heard the news that Southern Leyte is a possible tsunami target. Unlike them though, I’m now calm after I sought for information from the various corners of the Internets.

According to the news, the tsunami from Chile would hit the Philippines from 1 to 2:30 PM so I’m confident that if it actually happens, a lot of people would be spared as they are conscious. The news also mentioned that the government is not admonishing people to evacuate as the height is still yet to be known and is expected to be just around 1 meter to 3 meters which is not really a big deal.

The world’s strongest earthquake which happend in 1960 in Chile was around 3 meters to 13 meters high and killed 32 people from the Philippines. The latest Chile earthquake is not that strong and is just expected to wreck a lot of havoc in Hawaii. Don’t worry about Hawaii though as they already have a state-of-the-art tsunami warning infrastructure and is now evacuating lots of people to safer places.

I still feel a bit concerned about my relatives who are living in the Pacific areas of Southern Leyte which could definitely feel the waves, as well as Limasawa which is only a small island where most of it’s people are living at the coastlines.

Filipinos, specially the ones from Southern Leyte are religious and I may not be into that whole thing but I believe that if prayers were able to take down a powerful dictator in EDSA before, it also has the power to keep the Filipinos safe from this Chile tsunami. If ever I’m wrong though, then this might be my last post.

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New Credit Card Laws 2010

New credit-card rules may help consumers, but beware of new traps laid by some card companies

New pieces of the most-sweeping credit-card reforms on record kick in today, outlawing double-cycle billing, retroactive rate hikes and many other longtime practices of the U.S. card industry.

Yet even as the tougher rules ban certain practices that have cost card-using consumers billions of dollars through the years, card companies are assembling a new arsenal of fees designed to keep the revenue rolling in.

The industry refers to them as “unintended consequences” of the new law made more apparent by a job-starved economy in which credit-card defaults are setting record levels.

“This is the impact you’d expect to see,” said Paul Gregg, a former corporate executive who now teaches personal finance at the University of Central Florida. “There will be more annual fees, fewer promotions, more rate increases in future purchases, and less credit for risky customers.” (More)

New Credit Card Rules Monday: WSJ’s Take On Changes

The Wall Street Journal’s Robin Sidel gives its readers more insight about credit card rule changes going into effect Monday.

“A new federal credit-card law that takes effect Monday could erase billions of dollars a year in fees and interest charges paid by consumers. But card issuers are already deploying new tactics that could prove costly for even the most cautious cardholder.

“The law made some important changes. Card companies must now tell customers how long it would take to pay off the balance if they only make the minimum monthly payment. Customers can only exceed their credit limit if they agree ahead of time to pay a penalty fee. And unless a cardholder misses payments for more than 60 days, interest-rate increases will affect only new purchases, not existing balances.” (Click here to read the rest)

New Credit Card Rules – How the New Credit Card Laws Affect You

The new set of credit card laws that take effect February 22, 2010 include:

  • Telling you 45 days in advance if they raise your credit card rate, change certain credit card fees or make other significant changes to your credit card account. Credit card companies do not have to tell you 45 days in advance if you have a variable rate card or if you have an introductory rate credit card that expired.
  • Your credit card company cannot increase the credit card rate for the first 12 months of opening your account. The exceptions include variable rate credit cards, introductory rate credit cards and if you’re more than 60 days late on a credit card payment.
  • If your credit card rate does increase after the first year it will only increase for new purchases not existing balances.
  • You now have to opt-in for over-the-limit credit card transactions.  If you don’t, you cannot be charged an over the limit fee though your credit card transaction might be declined. If you do opt-in you can only be charged one over-the-limit fee per month. You can also opt-out at any time.
  • Your monthly credit card bill will now include information on how long it will take you to pay off your credit card balance if you only make minimum credit card payments. Your credit card statement will also tell you how much you would need to pay each month in order to pay off your credit card balance in three years.
  • If you are under 21, you will need to show that you are able to make credit card payments, or you will need a cosigner when applying for a credit card in order to open a credit card account.
  • Credit card companies are now required to limit fees and they cannot total more than 25% of the initial credit limit. For example, if your initial credit limit is $500, the fees for the first year cannot be more than $125. Late credit card penalty fees are not included.
  • Credit card companies must mail or deliver your credit card bill at least 21 days before your payment is due.
  • Credit card companies cannot double cycle bill, they only impose interest charges on balances in the current billing cycle.

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Requiem For a Dream : Lux Aeterna


The cult-classic film, Requiem For A Dream ( Lux Aeterna ), is considered to be Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece. The film captures the stunning performances of Jared Leto, Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans who were at their very best on this movie. Jared Leto and Ellen Burstyn should have even gotten the Academy Award that nigh if you ask me. Requiem for A Dream ( Lux Aeterna ) is an enigmatic, dismal and even despairing look into the dark corners of addiction.

Requiem for A Dream’s story revolves around the lives of four people who’s dreams and hopes were shattered when their addictions starts spinning out of control. The Story may be bleak and depressing but Requiem for a Dream is a brilliant look into superb cinematography and film-making. Aronofsky’s fast-cutting (editing) technique which he calls hip-hop montages is present from start to end to suggest mayhem and chaos and in Requiem For A Dream ’s context, it represents the repetitive nature caused by the effects of addiction.

There were times when I find myself pinching my arm to remind me that Requiem for a Dream is just a movie as the movie’s realism is geniune that you can feel that you embody  each character’s pain and agony as their lives come to a halt. This is how gripping Requiem for a Dream is, just like real-life addictions are.

Lastly, on the melodic side of things, Requiem For A Dream could not be what it is without Clint Mansell’s incredible orchestral compositions, mainly the beautiful main thematic song, Lux Aeterna topped off with strings courtesy of the Kronos Quartet. To say that the cinematic soundtrack did not play to the tone of the film would be sacrilegious.

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