a series of unfortunate events

In an earlier post I mentioned how I lost my debit card. Or rather how this bitch bartender lost it for me. Sobrang malas kasi sobrang hassle on my part. Well it turns out my week was full of kamalasan.

Friday I had another malas episode. Well this one was more funny than malas. Lately I've been using my Shure earphones in the office since the stock earphones on my iPod conked out on me. For those unfamiliar with Shure earphones they look like this:


As you can see they come with detachable plastic or foam plugs which you can interchange depending on what size your ears are. And since these are IN-EAR ear phones and since the plugs are detachable...well you can probably guess where I'm heading at.

True enough the left plug got left inside my ear when I took the earphones off. At first I thought I could get away with taking them out myself and not have to let anyone know. Alas, this turned out to be impossible and I only succeeded in embedding the plug deeper into my ear.

I had to enlist Con's help. You can just imagine his amusement at my plight. So he tried taking the plug out by fashioning tweezers out of a paper clip. He was able to reach the plug but the tweezers lacked the grip to fish them out.

Having that approach rendered useless, we decided to go to a doctor to have them taken out. It was a slow day anyway and this gave us an excuse to get out of the office. Of course, we had to inform our team lead, Valli, what we planned on doing. Once he found out then it was only a matter of time before everyone else knew about it. Needless to say I was the object of kantyawan and ridicule in the office.

Turns out I didn't have to go to the doctor. Valli got the plug out himself using a small pair of scissors that Kate lent him. He was laughing while taking them out and I was scared that the mofo was gonna injure my ear! Buti na lang hindi.

That was not the end of my misfortune. And while I was able to laugh at that particular piece of misfortune, I was not so fortunate with the next one (pun intended). Me and Jody were supposed to watch the 49ers vs the Seahawks play in Candlestick park yesterday. Alas, I woke up to the vision of the bedroom ceiling spiraling before my eyes. The next scene had me kneeling on the bathroom floor and unloading the contents of my stomach into the toilet.

Suffice it to say that I was unable to go to the football game. I had my friend Paul proxy for me since I already bought the tickets. Ang mahal pa naman nila: $64 each. The rest of my day was spent alternating between my bed and the bathroom, between trying to get some sleep and unloading my stomach acids into the toilet drain. I guess you can tell where I would rather have been. Sayang the game was close pa naman kwento nila. It came down to the last play of the game. A 2 point conversion attempt by the 49ers that would have tied the game had it been successful.

So there you go. My very malas week. Hopefully this week will be better. Its Thanksgiving week and I'm off to Florida to spend it with my relatives there. Hopefully all the bad karma is gone and only the good ones will be left.

on NHL games and retarded bartenders

Saw my first NHL game yesterday with the guys at the office. Hockey is the north american sport that most resembles futebol so I like hockey.

And you can't go wrong with a sport that has melee scenes like this happen frequently:


Afterwards we went and hit up a couple of bars. It would have been a good way to end a nice night but the stupid ass bartender at Blowfish ruined it for me by losing my debit card. Fucking hassles man! I had to have it blocked and replaced. I rely on that card for all my expenditures. It serves as BOTH my ATM card and credit card and now I am tied down while the replacement card arrives. Blow me you fucking stupid Blowfish beeyattcch!!!!

aborted jump

group picture at the skydiving hangar

So yesterday was the day we were going skydiving. I must admit that leading to the event, I was awash with nervous, giddy anticipation. And the feeling would get stronger as the day got nearer and nearer. It was like the feeling you get while waiting in line to get on a roller coaster, only multiplied a thousand times!

It turned out I got myself all worked up for nothing. Sometime ago I wrote an entry about how I was trying to lose weight since the skydiving charged an extra dollar for every pound over 200, as indicated on the skydiving company's website. Well, what the website didn't say was that aside from the extra charge there was actually a weight limit. I only found on when we got to the skydiving site itself. Unfortunately, I was over that weight limit. Hence, no skydiving for me.

I guess a part of me was relieved that I wasn't going to jump. But that was just a small part compared to the one that was disappointed that I couldn't go. And I'll be honest, I'm envious of my friends who were able to jump, especially since they were all raving about how great an experience it was.

I'm disappointed in myself too. Had I been focused and disciplined with my diet from the get go, I might have been able to jump since I was just a few pounds off of the weight limit. Especially bad was that I've been in a bit of binge since SoCal.

Di bale, this has made me more motivated to lose weight. I promised myself I'm going to get below that weight limit. My skydiving adventure was not cancelled, only delayed. Soon I'll be able to share in the wonderful experience that my friends had and that they could only convey to me. Soon.

Musical Legends week

I have dubbed this week as my 'Musical Legends' week as I have had the great opportunity to see two great, legendary acts perform live:

Paul McCartney @ HP Pavilion. Tuesday, Nov 8.

Went with Kate and her parents to see Paul McCartney at the HP Pavilion in downtown San Jose. Everyone who knows me knows that I am a big Beatles fan. So to see an actual Beatle perform live is a dream come true for me.

Sir Paul did not disappoint. He still looks great at 63. And the old man still knows how to rock! The setlist consisted of a blend of old songs and new. I must say the new songs he played sounded great. Not surprisingly though, its the old songs (especially the Beatle ones) that were most well recieved by the audience. Hearing him sing songs that are so familiar and so dear was like a wet dream to this Beatlemaniac. I was in a state of euphoric bliss that I wished would never end. And for a while it seemed like it wouldnt. He played for almost 3 hours and had TWO encores!

Alas, all good things must come to an end. He finished the show with a medley of 'Sgt Pepper's' reprise and 'In the End', a fitting ending to an amazing show:

'And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.'

U2 @ Oakland Arena. Wednesday, Nov 9.

Part 2 of Musical Legends week had me traveling back to Oakland Arena, sight of the Foozer concert. This time it was to see U2. Thanks to a stroke of luck and the u2 fan club members who I met while queing to get inside the arena, Ninya and I were able to get a position at the very front of the floor area, right by the stage!

Damien Marley, one of Bob Marley's offspring, was the front act. It was kinda wierd to have a reggae act open for U2. I didn't mind though. Reggae is always fun to hear live. Damien Marley was good, worthy of carrying on his father's legacy and name. It was funny as there was this Doug E. Doug-looking black guy in camos on stage with him who did nothing but bob to the beat and waive a Jamaican flag all throughout the performance.

Jamaica Mon!

Finally it was time for the main act. What can I say, U2 arguably is the best live act in the world right now. There was an amazing vibe between the band and the crowd during the entire show. The crowd was more energetic and animated compared to the Paul McCartney show the night before and was singing along all throughout the show to U2's plethora of anthemic songs. Bono even had the crowd sing entire verses by ourselves.

Between songs and even during song, Bono would speak about the various political and social causes that he championed. Truly there is no more hardworking man in rock than Bono and I admire how he uses his music to speak out to people and try to make a difference.

Bono and The Edge up close!

The show was short though. After playing an emotional rendition of 'One' following Bono's impassioned speech for support for, you guessed it, the One campaign, I was surprised to hear that it was to be their last song of the night. Maybe it was just an indication of how great the show and the evening was. As the tired cliche goes: "Time flies when you're having fun".

King Tut

Last weekend had me, Con, Jody, Hannah and Ninya travelling to LA to visit the ongoing King Tut exhibit in LACMA.

In queue to get inside the exhibit (from L-R: Con, Jody, Hannah, Pads)

The exhibit was, i guess, a bit pricey at $35. This was considering that King Tut's mummy wasn't really part of the exhibit and the whole thing could be finished in 2 hours max. But I still enjoyed myself. Its always interesting to see artifacts. They make me wonder what the persons who owned them were like and how they lived. And what lovely artifacts! Chairs with intricate inlaid designs, daggers of gilded gold...the Egyptians make everyday tools seem like works of art.