Coffee 1.1

Coffee, that bitter brew extracted from burned seeds from a coffee plant. For the uninitiated, that is coffee. A utilitarian drink to keep oneself awake and to jump start a slow morning. Coffee, it seems, is like fuel for our cars. You use it because you need it. It doesn't matter if its premium or regular, E10 or performance grade, as long as it burns in our engines.
But coffee is not just fuel to start our day.
Like wine, coffee is a connoisseur's drink.
Coffee, in the hands of an artisan, can become an exquisite work of art.
Let our coffee adventure begin...

Acid Test

Face-offs and duels bring out the best and worst in people. The unstoppable drive to succeed fuel the hearts and minds of those who compete for riches, honor, glory, DESTINY.
This is how I characterize two new restaurants setting up shop near our place (actually quite far if you count in the traffic). One is Mang Inasal and another is Chic-Boy. Both located at Molito Compound (At Madrigal Park, Alabang).
LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!
First off, Mang Inasal:
Who doesn't know Mang Inasal? Who doesn't love Bacolod Inasal Chicken ? As a matter of fact, tasting Bacolod Inasal Chicken at Manokan is the ONLY REASON why we went to Bacolod. Just imagine...chicken marinated with soy sauce and spices...grilled to perfection...moist tender meat paired with spiced vinegar and hot rice…(cue for your mouth to water)...and finally devouring it with bare hands (cue for your hands to wipe away your saliva fountain)! For a moment, you'll think you're eating ambrosia!!! So it's not surprising Inasal chicken is a hit anywhere you go in the Metro. Just look at all the restaurants selling Inasal Chicken, it's fast becoming the next Jollibee! There were even rumors that Inasal Chicken gave Jollibee a scare and forced them to come up with Jollibee Chicken Barbeque. That's how BIG Inasal Chicken had become. But, like most good things uprooted and thrown into the grinder of commercialization, it transformed into something that's entirely different. Take Mang Inasal, I had several experiences from several branches wherein the chicken I got was barely edible at best. The chicken I got was either dry, burnt, or rubbery (I thought for a moment I was eating a table display). Worse, the meat felt and tasted like its cured rather than marinated (more like embalmed than marinated). I'm not kidding! Once you've tried the Inasal Chicken at Manokan, instantly you'll agree with me! Therefore, in my humble opinion, Mang Inasal failed to give justice to our beloved Inasal Chicken!
Next, the underdog Chic-Boy:
Chic-boy? Hearing it the first time evoked images of Ramon Revilla, Erap Estrada, Jorge Estregan (the list goes on and on!). But when you see their billboard you'll immediately get it (CHICken-baBOY! Gets?). Ok, so what's new with chicken and pork? Every Tom, Dick, and Mang Andok's does it and its consumed as our national take-out food. One quick stroll to the grilling area will reveal it's dark, delectable secret. LEMONGRASS! The same thing that makes Lechon Cebu so damn good! At this point, your taste buds starts tingling and wondering, is this as good as it looks? Sitting down and actually eating it is a different matter.
Just think…perfectly grilled pork belly...placing one piece on your mouth...you start to chew...ccrruunncch!!! Damn!!! Grilled pork belly with lemongrass and a crunchy skin, it makes you go...what's your name again? That’s only the pork belly, the chicken is another thing. Lets do the routine again...Just think…perfectly grilled chicken...placing one piece on your mouth...you start to chew...moist meat with crispy skin!!! Damn!!! It makes you go…grrrr...stay...away...if you want to live…
Need I say more?

Pinoy Love Flicks

Tell me what you think...
Young mestizo leading man, groomed as a debonair, paired with a beautiful leading lady...
Problem: his lipstick is pinker than the girl's lipstick!
Go figure...
Another one:
Same young mestizo leading man, groomed as a debonair, paired with a beautiful leading lady...
Problem: On his earlier works, he has more scenes SMILING than talking. Apparently he's better at smiling than talking.
Gone are the days of cinema that is at par with Hollywood in terms of story, cinematography, and acting.
Before, you don't need special effects to make a good movie. Now, out of desperation, they copy the storylines of successful western movies with uncanny similarity! Worse, they settle for popularity than talent in choosing actors/actresses.
Nowadays, if you want to see QUALITY Filipino movies, you go indie.
You'll never go wrong.

Butthole Chapter 1.2

Pepe was standing at the corner of Forbes and Espana in the dead of night, waiting for a cab.
"Taxi!"
"Where to boss?"
"City Hall."
"At this hour?" asked the cab driver, bewildered.
"Just take me there." Pepe quipped.
Pepe hoped on the cab, clutching his bag tightly on his side.
Along the way, Pepe looked out the window and saw remnants of a once glorious city.
What it is now is a mixture of dirt, grime, and rubble brought down by greed, drugs, and corruption.
"What a waste..." he muttered.
Suddenly a convoy of heavily-tinted cars w/ police escorts passed by recklessly.
"Damn corrupt politico, he'll sell his soul to the devil just to quench his insatiable greed." said the driver while pointing to the black Mercedes.
Pepe nodded in agreement.
"Why are you going to city hall at this hour, you have a death wish?" queried the driver.
"I'm doing one last job." Pepe said.
"Last job?"
"Yeah...one last job."
At City Hall's east entrance, Pepe waited near a pillar, a full moon giving it an eerie glow. He waited patiently, mindful of every movement around him. "This will be my last stint, I had enough of this. Too many screw-ups happening, I can't afford to blow this one up" he thought. At the same time remembering his family back home. With a wife and 2 kids, 20 years in the force isn't enough to support them through college. He needed money, not only for the kids but also for their own comfort. Greed, it seems, is slowly creeping in to him. But he always manage to reject the idea. He believed in his principles, he believed in his ideals despite his contemporaries getting it easy with bloodied hands. All he wanted was a decent life and a good future for his family. Maybe this is his way out, "I'm not greedy, but I needed this. It doesn't seem wrong. I'm not breaking any law, I'm just sharing what I know. They're all corrupt anyway, they had they're reach all the way up the Ombudsman's balls. So it's not wrong to have someone whoop their ass, even if it's the mafia out to settle a score." That's how Pepe rationalized it. "Maybe, just maybe, this viscous cycle will end up erasing both the mafia and the corrupt politicos".
Suddenly, headlights broke his chain of thought. "Here he comes" he muttered.
From the car, a young guy wearing a silk gray suit came out along with 2 burly body guards, one of them missing an eye. The trio approached Pepe, cautiously, as if they're being watched.
"Mario, you're a mafioso now?" Pepe asked.
"You like it?" Mario responded while strutting his stuff, "pays well if your loyal. You got the goods?"
"Yeah, you got the money?"
Mario showed him his duffel bag, stuffed with bundles of money.
Pepe showed his clutch bag, containing a folder thick with documents.
"That's all of it?" Mario asked while reaching out for the clutch bag.
"Yeah", Pepe answered while picking up the duffel bag.
"Nice doing business with you, as always" Mario quipped while walking back to his car.
Pepe didn't answer, he stood there waiting for them to leave. After they left, he walked towards Taft Avenue and hailed a taxi ride home.
"It's done. All hell will break loose...Got to disappear for good." He said to himself while looking out of the window of his cab.
He called his wife, "Honey, pack your things now, we're leaving. Inform the kids. You know what to do." He hang up. He needed to ensure a clean getaway before his shit hits the fan.
He needed to get away...NOW.

Departure

Change, in any form conceivable, is not always welcome. The routine that constantly reminds you of your worth and purpose, familiarity with environment and persons, the comfort that it brings almost similar to being home.
Change, in its desirable form, is necessary for growth, for maturity, for progress, for advancement, and for achievement.
Change, in its horrendous form, is destructive for human relationship, brings about instability, degradation of order, or descent to pits lower than hell itself.

That is why change is both proposed and opposed by people with either noble interest or self-serving greed.
Therefore it makes you think...change depends on what you choose, change is an act of independent assertion of your own principles and morals. Change is beneficial to the person of greatest benefit.

But then again, too much change (like too much of a good thing), CAN BE DEADLY AND DISFIGURING. No need to mention examples...
Look around...
Boys becoming girls...
Girls becoming boys...
Old becoming young...
Young becoming old...
Black becoming white...
White becoming brown...
Brown becoming beige....
You choose...

Bus

Where's your favorite place to sit in a bus?
Mine is the back corner, either side.
Why?
Two things:

1. I can easily spot a robber or some suspicious jerk way before he commits something terrible (if ever I spotted one, that's my cue to get out. No need to be a hero. No one remembers a dead hero, let alone an unknown dead hero).
2. It's a good perch to observe people.On one side, a young couple had their hands all over each other, conveniently ignoring several middle-aged men ogling at them. On the far side, a yuppie (probably call-center agent) banging his head to the beat of "soldier-of-fortune", eyes closed and head swinging every which way the bus sway. A couple of college students giggling at every picture they took of themselves with a DSLR (apparently it's the new thing after Ipod and Jejemon, will blog on it some other time). On occasion, an ambulant vendor would sell their wares (from candy to peanuts to mineral water to loads; everything seems to be sold in convenient sachets/packs) and a few "preachers" and teens asking for "love offerings". And also, depending on the time of the day, you'll get to ride with yuppies fresh from an all-night gimik to seaman applicants waiting for the nth time for their interview/deployment to college students cramming to study for their exam.

It is now the new jeepney. Whether new or second-hand junk from Japan/Korea, euro compliant or doomsday machines of death, it managed to become part of the new Manila landscape.

Butthole Chapter 1.1 (Genesis)

"Where the hell am I?"
"God, my head's about to explode..."
"What time is it?"
"Anyone here?"
"My eyes are burning..."
Detective Santos wipes his eyes, he saw blood.
"What the..."
Slowly he stood from the rickety bed, feeling his way up in the dark room. A small ray of light emanates from  a neon sign hanging across the street.
It was midnight, the room is filthy, smelling of death.
He reached for his gun, feeling only an empty holster.
"F*ck...what the hell happened?"
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a ghastly figure slumped on the floor. Blood oozing out of his head.
He moved closer, the stench around him getting stronger.
"Jones...shit...who did this to you?"
With his final breath, jones uttered, "Mario..."

Butthole

I'm making a story one bit at a time...

No particular subject, no particular theme, no particular story line...

Free flowing...like water from a stream ending up in the ocean...

Virtually an empty canvass...waiting for that first stroke...

Here goes...

Let's begin...

Birthing Pain

It's really hard to maintain momentum when starting out. One day you're brimming with new ideas that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, with plans made in such elaborate detail that your mind has trouble keeping up! But once the euphoria had subsided, we came crashing down like a brick falling in mid air. Suddenly, nothing of interest comes up, no new idea, no new plan, no nothing!

Feels like a washed up singer with a one-hit wonder...

Motorcycles

Its apparent on all of us the issues raised against motorcycles, let me enumerate them:

1. Riding-in-tandem robbers/murderers
2. Reckless riders attempting to balance another adult, a child, and an infant with several grocery bags to boot
3. Overly-confident men who rides on the fast lane @ 60 KPH
4. Riders who thought that wearing a helmet like a trucker cap worn hip-hop style is the new fad (in case you don't know "trucker-cap-ala-hip hop", basically it's a trucker cap placed ON TOP of the head rather than wearing it as it is)
5. Another overly-confident rider who rides on the opposite lane, in between lanes, at side walks, and crosses pedestrian lanes at the red light acting as if IT WAS THEIR RIGHT TO DO SO

The list could go on and on, but the million-dollar question is...what's the government doing about it? Surely mere ordinances nor a slap on the wrist won't do (Filipinos, by nature, resist authority). Concrete measures, like the ones adopted by our ASEAN neighbors, work better than the current system. Then again, the two-million dollar question is...would those bastards follow it?

Victim of technology

Doesn't it suck when you're using a new gadget or program the first time and you can't get around one damn problem?
Or you explore its functions and capabilities only to find out you're sinking deeper and deeper into hell...only to find out your better off skimming the surface?
Or you felt intimidated when confronted with a barrage of new options/gadgets/functions/blah blah blah?
Worse, out of frustration, you want to throw the damn thing out the window?...

Lesson for this experience...stick to the old and trusty...if you're resigned to it.

If not...figure it out...it's more rewarding that way.

Opening Salvo

This is my initiation to the world of blogging....

Critics...have mercy and god will reward you richly...when you die.

Others...keep on reading...you might pick up something worthwhile...

My dog...you'll get your treat later...stop licking...