Gossamer

Au Revoir

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:09:00 +0000

Just moved to a new blog!

Reason: none.

But I'm blogging again. For real. Not like this blog was all make believe.

Aaaarrrgggghhhh!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:56:00 +0000

Meme from Karen.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was a 16-year old sophomore in U.P. (naming mahal) Diliman then. I probably was finding a million reasons not to study.

2. Five things on my to-do list today:
run a class with Carl

reply to emails (I know that email is supposed to be a noncount noun)

wake Ivan (unsuccessful, so far)
eat, eat, eat
make sure my former trainees will be paid right

3. Snacks I enjoy (for the moment; just because I eat almost anything, have the weirdest eating habits, and crave for a million things all throughout the day):

Gasp! Ho hos!

Krispy Kremes New York Cheesecake

Cream cheese on crackers (toast, or bagels)

Chips and

blue cheese dip

Fruit (because Ivan and I vowed to add more fruit and veggies to our diet)

Muesli without milk (crunch, crunch)

4. Places where I've lived:

Polomolok, South Dakota (da Cotabato)

Cotabato City
Davao City

Santa Rosa, Laguna

Quezon City, Metro Manila

5. Things I'd do if I were a billionaire:

Make sure that Koy gets to go to a great school and gets all the therapy he needs.

Build an animal shelter.

Travel.

6. People I want to know more about (I took note of the presence of the preposition):

George Carlin. His death hit me really hard.

Proof That I Am Above Average

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:24:00 +0000

According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.

2) Italicise those you intend to read.

3) Underline the books you LOVE.

4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6. The Bible

7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare

15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20. Middlemarch - George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen

36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41. Animal Farm - George Orwell

42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50. Atonement - Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52. Dune - Frank Herbert

53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72. Dracula - Bram Stoker

73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses - James Joyce

76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78. Germinal - Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80. Possession - AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte's Web - EB White

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94. Watership Down - Richard Adams

95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I got this from Gab and I am very thankful that my mother not only taught me how to read, but how to love it. Like I always say, I hardly watch television and can be found with my nose in a book. Reading not only expands your vocabulary and is a good way to while away the hours, it also helps you write and speak well.

Life is still long and I intend to read everything in this list and more. (I know, I'm a nerd.)

The Faery Who Was Kissed By The Pixies

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:29:00 +0000

This is my card for the day. I picked it from Freda's Faerie Oracle deck (artwork by Brian Froud), which are the most beautiful tarot cards I have ever seen.

This is Morna, a faerie who is gifted with the magic of love.

This is my reading:

Love given. Love received. Metaphorical open-heart surgery.

Starter Reading: Oh, wow! What can I say here? Love, sweet love. Accept it, burnish it up, add to it, and pass it on. The presence of the Faery Who Was Kissed by the Pixies suggests giving and receiving love and intimacy in any of a wide variety of relationships. She gives notice that this is a time to open and heal our hearts. Different aspects of life may well be flowing happily together, healing separations and hurts from the past. Bonding may take place and deep feeling emerge. Changes for the better may occur in all aspects of life, but especially in relationships, which may be deepening and becoming richer. You may be experiencing love therapy for opening the heart as new relationships begin and old ones develop. Enjoy!

You can also get yourself an online reading from the World of Froud website.

Too Much of Something

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:08:00 +0000

too loved
too spoiled
held and kissed too much
too gazed at
told that I look great too much (that I believe it)
too looked after
too pampered

A girl can get used to this, you know. Because too much of something is wonderful.

Generic-Looking

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:58:00 +0000

They say I look like:

1. Aiza Seguerra

2. Criselda Volks

3. Tetchie Agbayani

4. Anna of Shaman King

Looking Away

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:45:00 +0000

Would I rather be a sinner or a saint?

I'd rather be a sinner because I think it is better to look up to others rather than to look down on them.

Anyhoo, I'm actually neither. I have always been a work in progress.

Missing

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:14:00 +0000

I miss Koy. He's having the time of his life at my parents' place. It was very difficult to send him away and it is still difficult. It is something that I do not want to examine too closely because it hurts too much. I want him with me but the best thing to do sometimes is not the easiest.

In the larger scheme of things, he is better off with my parents. Mama and Papa love him to bits and he gets all the attention that he deserves. He also gets to go to regular therapy sessions and my mother is always around to assist him with school. It is also more cost-efficient to have him there. Koy also gets to do a lot of activities that he can't do in the city (i.e. trips to the zoo and frequent swimming).

Mama told me that Koy now has regular sleeping habits and better eating habits, which pleased me to the extremes.

I miss the "MOMMY!" when I get home from work everyday, falling asleep with him beside me, the tickling sessions, how he smells after bathtime... everything, including his tantrums.

**********

I also miss Ivan. His shift is from 7:45PM-4:45AM. My class for the next two weeks is 6AM-2PM. Since school and the rainy season have started, travelling in the city has become a nightmare.

Spending a couple of hours everyday is not enough, especially when it is just to snuggle and to sleep. Mealtimes are also crazy. I get up in the middle of the night to cook. Having no household help is about to wear me out to nothing.

***********

If only I had all the time and money in the world, I would have Koy and Ivan around all the time. Plus an animal shelter and tons of shoes.

Two's A Company

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Mon, 26 May 2008 09:08:00 +0000

Life is great when you're single - you get to do everything that you want. Now that I found the person with whom I want to spend the rest of my life, I find that joy becomes doubled when shared with someone. Every time I experience something great and Ban is somewhere else, I always wish that he is with me.

Here are some things that we enjoy (doing) together:

1. Breakfast. The top item in our list is toast with cream cheese or butter and jam or peanut butter. He also likes kapeng barako (Thanks, Cong) and I love cold champorado.

2. Listening to the wind blowing through pine needles. It's such a pity I don't live in Bel Air anymore. The week we left, we were conspiring to uproot four trees to take with us to the city.

3. Housework. I know, chores suck but we love keeping house.

4. Observing or playing with our pets. There's Migo, my dog, Pags, the turtle, and our four gouramis and the janitor fish. We used to have a bunch of sillver and black-speckled silver mollys but they bellied up from the chlorine shock of water in the city. They became food for the turtle. (Rest in fish.)

5. Sleeping. Ivan and I always find that we sleep a lot better when we're next to each other.

6. Going to the market or supermarket. The market thing is still about to happen, but I look forward to it.

7. Eating out. So long as it involves food, count us in. We both love Amici, the restaurant in Don Bosco, and the adobo flakes sandwich with kesong puti in Cafe Bola. We intend to go Thai pretty soon.

8. Chess. We just bought a pretty glass chess set. I have never finished a chess game and I conceded in the middle of a match with him. I know all the rules but I have never heard of openings and whatnot until he told me that they exist. When I was about to fall asleep, Ivan placed his arms around me and said, " I love how you suck at chess." Le sigh. I can lose any day.

9. Word games. Most of the time, I win, even with a handicap. Tee hee. We both celebrate our differences. I think with the right side of my brain and he with the left.

10. Loafing about and falling asleep in the middle of watching movies. Ivan's supervisor asked him a few days ago if he'd like to render some overtime hours. Overtime hours pay quite well. He said no because he wants to spend quality time with moi.

To Ban: I'm so glad to have you in my life. I highly enjoy being with you. They said that when you marry, you have to marry for companionship and conversation. You're someone I'd like to be with forever because you're my happily ever after. I love you a lot.

Faith

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:00:00 +0000

I like this postcard that someone sent to postsecret.com. I visit their website every week and this one, in particular, caught my attention. I think we all would be achievers if there is at least one person who believes in our capabilities.

Penis Envy

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:48:00 +0000

Every time we talk about Taboo topics in class, we always have a good laugh over gender and gender-related issues.

I happen to be a feminist. Well, not your hard-core Gabriella. I do believe in equal rights and opportunities for everyone but I also have to agree that there are some things that girls can't do or that guys can do better.

There was this story about a couple of girls in the University of the Philippines in Diliman. They were on their way home at around four or five thirty in the afternoon, which is the rush hour, and all the jeepneys were filled. Both of them hung on to the jeepney. A guy, of course, offered them his seat. They yelled expletives at the guy and called him a sexist.

Now I am not as extreme as these girls. I believe that we are the stronger sex just because we are weak. Men fall all over themselves just to do things for us like opening doors, carrying our stuff, etc. Why not use this to our advantage? I don't even have to struggle when opening the jam jar. I just hand it to my hubby. He goes through the hassles of changing the light bulb, declogging the drain, and lifting heavy objects.

I happen to love him, you know, and I don't believe I abuse him. We're even - I cook and do the laundry (but both of us clean the house and the yard, and we give the dog a bath), which are also pretty difficult chores.

I don't get all this hoopla over feminism and how we gripe about how difficult it is to be a woman. It's true, menstrual cramps are painful and having a baby is, by far, the most excruciating seven hours of my life.

Here's a wake up call: It's difficult being a guy, too. Our, ahem, packages are all inside us. For the guys, their packages are all a-hanging out between their legs. It's not a pretty good thing to be carrying around - all those nerves and two very sensitive testicles.

Imagine sitting inside public transport and someone telling you to scoot over and to sit properly. Shucks. Getting hit in this area is bad, bad, bad. Having them mishandled, too, is evil to its extremes.

Men, being the visual creatures that they are, get stimulated by a flash of skin. They get erections at very inappropriate times. It's like the guy down there has a mind of its own. Now, erections are not always a good thing, especially when your dick is not in the right position. Adjusting it to the correct position also takes a lot of skill.

I guess having a penis is as bad as having your period. Sometimes it's even worse because you only get your period once a month but you can get erections many times in a day. Penis envy is truly a myth.

Another thing I want to talk about is how we glorify mothers too much. I think it is well deserved but the celebration isn't as elaborate during Fathers' Day. Sure, we carry the little kid around for nine months and giving birth is like having a foot inside the grave.

But being Dad is difficult too. What keeps men up most nights is the idea that they will not be able to provide for their families.

Women go through extreme physical exertions during pregnancy and labor but men go through physical exertions once the kid is born. Games with mommy are usually tickling, soothing, and cuddling. Games with Daddy are wrestling, lifting, and grappling. Daddy also carries all the things during trips to the beach or camping. They're also expected to do the driving and everything that involves the use of sinew.

Being a woman is hard, that's true. However, we can whine about it. Men don't. They just don't. That's why I took the time to whine for them in my blog. When people talk about gender-related issues, all I want to say is that no one is really stronger or weaker, we just break even.

Silence, Anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:32:00 +0000

It has been pretty quiet here for the longest time.

I'd like to say that my life is so full and rich, and that's why I don't get any time to rant and fume in my blog. But that would mean that most of my friends who blog don't have much of a life, which isn't the case.

I have no training schedule for the past three days and I have exhausted all means to be productive and useful while being in detention for nine hours a day. So here I am, telling everyone that I am still alive and have the capability to write.

Blog Blackout

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:01:00 +0000

I miss writing in my blog. I always log on to my blog's URL everyday but I can't find time to write.

One, work keeps me busy. The company I work for has rolled out a new system for timecard punches. Not only is it repetitive and redundant, it is also chock full of bugs. I don't mind putting in long hours in the office even though we do not get paid for overtime so long as I spend time not because of something that is sucky and ineffective.

Two, I am generally on cloud nine (despite the new system's additional ten million atmospheric pressure on my workload). The best feeling in the world is what my hubby and I share. No room for real angst here. Even he has stopped being emo. That and the fact that I hurry to spend time with him every day.

Three, my muses are gearing up for something really big. Oh well, it has been so many years in the making.

Tee Hee

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:39:00 +0000

Here are my recent class' Taboo bloopers.

1. Carnation - a kind of evaporated
2. Paw - the hand of the dog
3. Burp - it explodes in the body
4. Waffle - breaded hotdog; breaded cheese

Things You Have To Quit Saying (A Quick Grammar Lesson)

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:33:00 +0000

1. ADD ME UP

When you want someone to be your friend in Friendster, don't say "Add me up."

"Add up" is an intransitive verb that means to come up to the unxepected total (i.e. Your bill doesn't add up.) or to form and intelligible pattern (i.e. The witness' story does not add up.)

The best way to say it is, "Add me."

2. HE IS A GAY.

Gay is an adjective. Imagine another adjective; say, handsome.

Is it correct to say, "He is a handsome."?

If your IQ does not consist of one or two digits, you know that the answer to this is NO.

When judging or remarking on someone's sexuality, it's best to say, "He is gay.".

3. YOU ARE SNOB.

"Snob" is a noun and not an adjective. Therefore, if you want to use "snob", you say, "You are a snob.".

The adjective is "snobbish". Thus, "You are snobbish.".

4. WILL GONNA

A good (or bad) example of this is, "I will gonna go to the beach this summer.". Can you hear me gnashing my teeth?

Will + (verb) = Future Tense
e.g. Will + go
I will go to the beach this summer.

Gonna = slang/contraction for "going to"
Be verb (am, is, are) + Going to/Gonna + (verb) = Future Tense
e.g. Am + Going to/Gonna + go
I am going to go to the beach this summer.
I am gonna go to the beach this summer.

Go figure. Math is logic.

5. I have nothing else to place here to make it a really good, solid list. I am filled with so much angst to think. When I think of new ones, I'll let you know.

Green-Eyed Monster

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:11:00 +0000

Do you get jealous?

I do.

It is perfectly natural to get jealous. You know, you just bitch about it once, and you get the reassurance that you need and you move on. Not the clinical, psychotic, delusional kind of jealousy that I was subjected to once.

I do not get jealous of other women flocking around a guy I am seeing. Hell, I am so self-centered to think that anyone from the opposite sex would forsake others just to be with me. That when it comes to marketability, I'm at the top of my species.

I am almost always jealous of a guy's past. It's funny, considering that my past is so varied and colorful, beating two Scarlett O' Haras. The skeletons in my closet can probably fill up several cemeteries or satiate dogs in a hundred animal shelters.

Some questions that run through my mind are: Does she cross his mind when he's with me? When he says sweet nothings to me, is he merely repeating them? Is one of his past loves a meterstick for what we have together?

So every time I run across a photo or a goddamn Friendster comment, I breathe, letting my green-eyed monster run its course thorugh my veins.

Then I think of a line from Walt Whitman's To You - I have loved many men and women, but I love none better than you.

Go F*ck Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:37:00 +0000

Every time there is someone new in the office, we always ask them about their preferences. It's some kind of a ritual everyone goes through. However, it is a really mean game. We give the newbie a choice between two people and ask him who he'd rather sleep with. We do this until we have exhausted everyone in our depatment.

There is someone who is the last person everyone chose to sleep with. He happens to be mad at me just because I said that the two commercial models he dated dumped him. There was nothing wrong with what I said, considering that everyone knows his story since he has been whining about it for months on end.

It's pretty sad since he and I used to be really close.

Our stations are next to each other in the fourth floor minipod. I know that he cannot stand to breathe the same air as I do and each time I work there, I can feel hate waves emanating from him. I don't hate him at all. I feel, well, pity. I happen to be the only person who could put up with his whining and wishy-washiness. Oh well. His loss.

Let's call this guy E.

Last Friday, the other trainers and I were at Amici in Don Bosco. It is one of our favorite Italian restaurants. Over pizza, sausages, pasta, and gelato, the new trainers were grilled.

Apart from the Who Would You Rather Sleep With Game, there is another question: Would you rather do E. or be E.?

Suddenly, Glory realized that I have never been asked this question.

After some thinking, I answered, "I'd rather be E. so that I can do myself. He really needs it."

Well, Then

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:08:00 +0000

In lieu of my Sunday rendezvous, I have had bouts of self-doubt that occur in closer and closer intervals. I even sent Niki a message that said, "Here's a guy who thinks I'm wonderful. Hindi kaya nagkamali lang siya? (Don't you think he made a mistake?)".

But everything went pretty well.

Dum dee dum.

Plunge Into the Blue

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:44:00 +0000

I am meeting Moe's mother and two of his brothers, Patrick and Benedict, on Sunday. Yes, I am nail-bitingly nervous. Nothing else has occupied my thoughts for the past few days.

It started out when I jokingly told him that I will skip class and hang out at his place in Cainta instead. He mentioned this to Inay and she said, "Ipakilala mo naman sa akin si Kodi."

Of course his family knows about my existence. One, he spends some nights at my place. Heck, even he spent New Year's eve with me. You know how it is in the Philippines. Every holiday must be spent with the family. However, I pouted and said that I have no one to kiss at midnight and he suddenly decided to stay with me. He reasoned, "I can't kiss my brothers, Kods." Two, he walks around with this grin plastered on his face. Three, they saw the Joe Satriani signature guitar strap that I gave him for Christmas. Four, as our relatonship progressed, he told them about me.

Men are afflicted with poor story-telling skills. They only give you a general idea of what happened. Women, on the other hand, go into detail and can even quote everything that was said. So every time I squeeze Moe for information about what he and Inay or any of his brothers talked about when they were discussing me, he sums everything up in a sentence.

To give you an idea as to how good I am at quoting people, these are some of Moe's one-liners:

"Sinabi ko na meron na ngang Koy at sabi ni Patrick (his brother) na, 'O, di na pala ninyo kailangan gumawa.'"

"Alam naman nila na masaya ako kahit nakaupo lang ako sa isang tabi at walang sinasabi."

"Sabi ko kay Inay na napakasaya ko kapag kasama kita."

"Nakita kasi niya na tumitingin ako sa dictionary. Sabi niya na mag-aral ako para mahabol kita."

"Sabi ko na napakagaling mo."

"Sabi ko kay Inay, "'Nay, si Kodi na yata."

Pressure, pressure.

Yes, I love Moe. I've looked hard and waited too long to find a guy like him. And I know how important these people are to him and it only makes sense to have things come full circle. I'm still thinking about what to wear and what (underline the correct answer: cake, sushi, wine, flowers) to take to his place. Most importantly, what will they think of me? My friends told me to be myself. However, I have always been an, ahem, acquired taste.

The anticipation is worse than that psycho thriller movie that I watched last Saturday. I'm the kind of person who jumps off a ledge and plunges headfirst into freezing water instead of submerging herself inch by inch. I wish it'll be Sunday soon so that I can get this over and done with.

One-Oh-One

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:18:00 +0000

Five Courses That Can Improve My Existence

HNTBB (How Not To Be A Bitch) 101. For close-to-hopeless cases only. This includes learning how to keep your mouth shut when you want to tell your manager that you can't work with him because you dislike him, making good first impressions in select cases wherein the reputation that you want to get rid of miraculously did not precede you, knowing how to crack jokes and making people know that you are joking and not bitching at them, and showing that you really care even though the person that you are speaking with has an IQ that is still less than yours even though it has been multiplied by two. Course may be repeated a number of times until you have accepted that you were wired to be Public Enemy Number One.

HNTLF (How Not To Lose Friends) 101. A co-requisite of HNTBB 101. This includes keeping a running poll and journal of how many friends you still have, tips on what to say about your friends and stories to tell when talking about them to strangers or his mere acquaintances, ways to avoid sleeping with your friends and/or people who are important to them, knowing where to draw the line and not crossing it deliberately or by accident (i.e. being the key factor to a taboo topic such as gender and sexuality), and how to keep in touch with those you have not offended yet but live in a galaxy far, far away.

Nutrition Facts 101. A rigid course that includes really watching your carbohydrate intake while on a low-carb diet, not going for that eleventh cocktail drink, sticking to water instead of that sugar-laced drink in a bottle, knowing why a bag of chips cannot be considered a meal, finding the correct pill cocktail to nurse different degrees of hangovers, losing all that flab around your waist without relying on a laxative to work instant but short-term miracles, and reasons why just having sex or walking around the office is not an effective exercise program as enrolling in a gym or jogging every morning.

CDOC (Cutting Down On Covetousness) 101. Includes exercises on talking yourself out of buying that aquamarine Levi's shirt with a cow printed on it and that Nike braided Brazil Futbol belt when your closet is overflowing, drawing the line on buying just one pair of Steve Madden shoes instead of five, buying clothes at shops like Hang Ten or Human and liking it, daily exercises on learning how to categorize material things into the following categories: Needs (e.g. food), Wants (e.g. Cole Haans), and Irrelevant To Existence (But Can Certainly Make Life Worth Living <----- please erase this!!! e.g. four handcuffs and kinky dice), and not to think about shopping at all because covetousness takes place in the mind.

SILYIVW (Saying I Love You In Various Ways) 101. A crash course for you to keep the guy/girl that you have (if you have one to begin with) until Valentine's Day, at the earliest. This course will help you come up with innovative ideas on different types of kisses and hugs that you can send online or through text messaging, the right things and the right gestures at the right moment and not to rely on your instincts, fresh and naughty ways to turn him/her on, the correct gift to give his/her mother when you are invited to dinner for a Kodak moment with his family, being beautiful in the morning or after a long day at the office, and saying "I love you" in millions of other ways so that he will not get bored. This course will not allow both people of a relationship to enroll in one class because this might lead to the dissipation of the magic we are trying to create.

It's fun to have classmates. Do you want to join me?

C'est La Vie

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:02:00 +0000

They said that you need to be careful what you wish for because it might come true.

For the past three weeks, giddy, elated, enraptured, delighted, overjoyed, excited, inspired, stimulated, uplifted, gratified, gladdened, and pleased are just understatements to describe what I have been feeling.

I feel like a kid, a lovesick schoolgirl, and a sinner that has been absolved of his wrongdoings.

The Queen and Her Spawn

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:51:00 +0000

Moe sent me this picture of myself and Koy yesterday. This was shot a couple of weekends ago when we traced our figures, like the outlines of bodies in a crime scene, on the street outside our house. We pretended that we were run over by our neighbor's van (the one that you see at the left part of the picture). And when we got tired, we drew pictures in front of our house. But that was before Koy latched on to Moe's camera and turned into a shutterbug, taking pictures of a stray cat.

Justice League

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:44:00 +0000

Moe and I work different shifts. By the time he's ending his day, mine's just about to begin.

One morning, he fell asleep while we were conversing through one of the wonders that a mobile phone has to offer - SMS. I really don't mind. I mean, I'm not the type of girl who detests the fact that her boyfriend will not tell her every single detail of his day, including the what he ate for lunch. Nor will I create a fuss if he falls asleep without saying good night.

I was surprised that my phone beeped after a couple of hours.

____________________________________________________________

From Moe Cow

10 January 2008

10:08:28am

Name: Van a.k.a. Cow

Crime: Sleeping without notice

Verdict: Guilty

____________________________________________________________

To Moe Cow

Hahaha! Back to bed, Van. Kiss you.

____________________________________________________________

From Moe Cow

10 January 2008

12:10:35pm

Name: Van a.k.a. Cow

Crime: Sleeping without notice

Verdict: Guilty

Sentence: Back to bed with kisses

____________________________________________________________

To Moe Cow

What a justice system, huh? Here are more kisses plus hugs for a more severe punishment.

____________________________________________________________

From Moe Cow

Your honor, can you raise my punishment to an exile with the judge?

____________________________________________________________

To Moe Cow

How long do you want your sentence to be? You can only be exiled with the judge for eternity or forever.

____________________________________________________________

From Moe Cow

I'll only ask for parole after eternity ends.

5 Milestones For 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:01:00 +0000

1. Calling It Quits. I ended a six-year relationship with my son's father. I guess that it lasted so long since we were parents to a sweet little boy. We did not have much in common except for the fact that we loved two things: jazz and Chikoy. I've read in Girl In Hyacinth Blue that if two people love the same thing, then it means that they love each other, even just a little bit.

Things were between the two of us were rough and whatever love we had for each other became diminished and neglected as time passed. And the fact that he was abusive - physically and sexually - did not help things. So given the general equation of things, I decided not to grow old wanting something more.

Like what Julia Roberts said in Steel Magnolias, "I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special."

2. Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire. In order for me to get rid of Koy's father, I decided to get into another relationship. Sh*tty, f*cked up idea. What made it even a lot sh*ttier is the fact that the guy, who happened to be someone I grew up with, turned out to suffer from psychosis - delusional jealousy. I was subject to a lot of mental anguish, which lead me to nearly punch the living daylights out of him and imagining myself hanging from the loft of my house.

Thank goodness the scars from that episode faded after a couple of months and the worst thing that can happen to me when I look back to it is to have some cold shivers running down my spine.

3. Schoolboy. My son started regular school. After over a year of occupational and speech therapy, Koy is now in kindergarten. He fell in love with his teacher and finally found writing actvities interesting.

The day my son started school, my mom congratulated me for being a school parent. She said that she hopes that she remembers every naughty thing I did back in high school.

What she doesn't know won't hurt her.

4. Trainer-Slash-Stude. No matter how a career somewhere else - may it be another department or another call center or another industry - or forsaking everything to be a farmgirl or to go back to school, I still am in the training room. So far, I still cannot picture myself elsewhere. I have decided to continue working here yet work on the next phase of my life. So it's back to the university for me while still working as a trainer this 2008.

5. My Something Special. Getting into a relationship was never part of my plan. So many things have happened in 2007 yet there are still so many loose ends to fix and I told myself that I needed to find me first. It's because my biggest sin is basing my self-worth on how much people value me as a person.

But one day last November, love meandered into my life. I've been ecstatic for close to two months now, which is more than anyone can ever ask for (it's supposed to be for just thirty minutes, right?).

Yes. Waiting can be tiring but it is such a good idea.

My 100th Post

noreply@blogger.com (Kodi) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 04:56:00 +0000

My hundreth post is a celebration of my life and my blog. A lot of bloggers have done 100 Things About Me so I decided to chop it into interesting (I think) posts for the month of January.