Yes, I am getting married. My fiancee and I met last May 27, 2005 through a common friend. We started going out about a week or two after our first encounter. Then we decided to get married about four months into the relationship. A lot has been put into the preparation of the wedding, and it took a lot out of me more than I expected, both physically and emotionally. Money matters were not an issue since we had some very generous benefactors, our parents. You have one guess when the wedding is. Undertaking this new venture, I learned a lot about myself, my fiancee, my parents, and life in general. These are just some of my thoughts and lessons which I think will help others prepare for their own. I am not here to preach, but to share what I have learned from this experience.

More money, lesser worries
If I had more money, I would’ve hired someone to worry about the flowers, the giveaways, the invites, etc. I would have asked that person, which people call the wedding coordinator, to do all the legwork processing the necessary papers and other miscellany. That person would’ve saved me and my fiancee some time and a whole lot of aggravation from all the people we had to meet up with to complete all those (un)necessary requirements.

Go there? NO. You come here.
There were a lot of things that should and could be done without going to the shops, like the invitations. We could’ve corresponded via email and they could send us the mockup of the invite by snail mail. Online banking transactions could have also made things easier, but most of the shops don’t accept credit cards. I guess that’s the trade-off of getting inexpensive suppliers. The Pre-nuptial photo shoot could’ve been much easier and less stressful for both parties also, if we asked the photographer to come over to our place instead of us going to their studio. Well, it’s easier for us – er, what do you call people getting married? Anyway, it’s all good. We had a great deal with this photographer. So great, you might as well think we were robbing him. I love family connections.

Where the heck is my Milo?!
Heat, traffic, and Running around Manila, Quezon City, Navotas, and other parts of the NCR, not to mention going to Tagaytay for a quick RnR, will really take its toll on you physically and psychologically. I think I lost some weight over the past few weeks doing just that. Lack of sleep, exhausted at work, and vendors that are not so competent, all of those almost made me suicidal. Or at least, refusing to move. I wanted a Segway(TM) so badly so that I don’t have to walk to the bathroom, to the elevator, or anywhere for that matter. If only someone would have rolled me over to my destination while I lay down, I would feel much better. Really. At the end of the day, or night, I sometimes would end up sleeping on the sofa, my head hanging from my shoulders with the TV on, my ID dangling from my neck and my belt undone. Wearing half a pair of shoes, I startlingly wake up to the screams of the Turbo Tiger being demonstrated on this weird channel. I didn’t know my cable provider had this channel. Then I realize that I fell asleep for about half an hour and that I couldn’t go back to sleep anymore. I hate power naps. I feel so powerless after one. Powerless to sleep, that is. Oh, how I miss my bed.

Fastfood? Not if I can help it.
I sometimes miss a meal or two, because my schedule was so swamped with things to do. For the past two years, I’ve been a regular customer of fastfood chains like Billy Joe’s or Mickey Dee’s, or the freckle-faced girl’s or the Colonel’s. Heck, I’ve been a regular delivery customer. But when my fiancee and I started planning for the wedding and getting those plans going, I realized I wasn’t getting any nutrition from those food chains. Everything from those stores were frozen, then blasted with a blowtorch, then served a la carte. What were those little pieces of flour they call “nuggets” made of? Anyway, eating the right food definitely helped by giving me energy to do everything we needed to do. Do I miss Mickey, et al? Not in a any sense of the word.

A Boy or Girl Scout, you will never be.
No matter how much effort you put into the preparation, no matter how much time you’ve allotted to do all the things you need to do, no matter how rich you are, there will always be something nagging at the back of your head that you forgot something. And most of the time, it is TRUE. You did forget something. You forgot to brush your teeth. You forgot to put on socks. You forgot to take a bath. You forgot to confess your sins to a priest. You forgot something. You forgot to set the alarm so that you won’t be late and now you’re running late because you forgot to set the alarm. I know I’m forgetting something. I just hope it’s not as important as the wedding ring.

Here comes the bride. There goes the groom. Both crawling.
So the big day is coming, is here, or has gone. Are you still alive? If you can feel a sharp stabbing pain in your thigh, a pulsing and throbbing pain in your temples, and if your eyes sting and water whenever you see something that shimmers from a distance, then yes, you are still alive. Be thankful. And I am immensely grateful for everyone that helped us newlyweds to be together, finally. My soulmate. Finally, together.

After all the commotion, the whining, the pushing ang shoving, after a bunch of stuff happening and not happening, after saying I do, I learned a lot of lessons. And quite honestly, they’re very simple.

Learn to live with what you have.

Life is as easy as you make it.

Something freaky happened last night. Not the kind of freaky that will gross you out. It’s kinda creepy, in a freaky way.

So I was reading this electronic comic book last night. I was reading The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. These weren’t in graphic novel format but in issue format. Good thing there were no ads. Anyway, I was still in Preludes & Nocturnes and there was this issue wherein The Dream King was trying to recover his lost tools: the mask made out of bones from a dead god, the pouch of sand that are dreams, and the dream stone that is him. The pouch was taken, and consequentially lost, by Constantine. THE John Constantine, ass hole. Anyway, when Morpheus recovered the pouch, the issue ended. Next one is the mask made out of bones of a dead god. Morpheus had to challenge one of the dukes of hell to recover the mask. Halfway through the story, when the challenge was underway, I was totally engrossed in it. Then the lights went out. It was almost midnight. You can imagine how creepy it was for me. It’s a good thing I was reading using my notebook. So I did what any fan would do. Keep reading. After Morpheus recovered his mask, he then tried to get his dream stone. This issue involved members of the Justice League. The story was so compelling, I had a really great time reading it. I even almost forgot that the power was out. After Morpheus recovered his dream stone, and of course, that’s not really what happened but why would I tell what really happened. I’ll let you find out on your own. Anyway, once the Dream King has recovered everything he lost, as soon as I reached the last page of the issue, the lights came back on.

The lights came back on when I was done reading how Morpheus recovered what was stolen. Coincidence? Maybe. Freaky? Hell, yeah.

I had to read another issue before I went to sleep, hoping that the Sandman will come to me and give me good dreams.

The only thing I hate about dreaming is that I can’t remember a single thing when I wake up. I can only remember very vague images that I can’t even describe what it was originally.

I guess that’s how Dream works.

Almost with matter. Never unreal.

Mmmm. Barbecued pork ears.

We usually call it “tenga ng baboy” or simply “tenga.” What they do is the cut a pig’s ears and skewer them in small, thin bamboo sticks, then roasted over hot coals. It’s marinated with some soy sauce and some native lime that we call “calamansi.” Cooked the same way you would barbecue burgers or steaks. Then you dunk it in vinegar with lots of chopped onions, garlic and chili. Mmmm. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

And yes, I’m gonna have some today. It’s kinda high in cholesterol, but what the heck. You only live once, anyway.

Stephen Colbert, of “The Colbert Report,” gives a piece of his mind to everyone at the White House Correspondents dinner. Yes, including Dubya.

HR 5252 would provide the FCC with authority to ensure Net Neutrality. More Info here.

Taken from DRT.ph:

DRT, the premiere hard rock band from the Philippines was formed by the remnants of big name bands of the 90s. In the middle of 2003 while at Sanctum, a classy, artsy hang-out in the old Spanish fort of Intramuros, singer Jay Ortega noticed that he was in the midst of stalwart musicians namely Manuel Legarda, Miguel Ortigas and Paulo Pacia who were all at the time freelancing in the extensive local music scene. Jay approached Miguel with the idea of getting the guys together to form a new band and thus DRT was born. A few rehearsals later and the gang played venues all over the metropolis, namely the Rock Radio Cafe in Alabang, Peligro in Makati and even the 70s Bistro in Quezon City as well as Sanctum in Manila. Miguel on drums, Manuel on guitars, Paulo on bass and Jay on vocals, soon wrote and recorded a few demos which later mutated into a much larger sound with the introduction of Martin Jamora on the keyboards.

19 May 2006. Bela Bar, P.Guevara cor. Wilson, San Juan. 9 PM.

FREE RED HORSE AND JACK DANIELS FOR ALL ATTENDEES!!! NO ENTRANCE!!!

Now there’s no reason for you to not go. By the way, dress up. MTV, PDI, NU107 and others will be there to cover the launch. Imma gonna look you all up on next day’s papers.

I’ve been working with Carlo to get my new domain, which is this domain, to work a hundred percent. In the first few days of GORMFUL’s activation, there were no hitches. Links were loading, the theme was displaying correctly, even my AdSense was displaying relevant ads.

But then, something happened.

I was unable to view my domain. From home. So I told Carlo about this and he said he’ll look into it. Funny thing is, I can not view my domain and only my domain from home. I can view other websites fine, even the site where I got my domain. At first, we, Carlo & I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Then the following day came and I had to go to work. I tried accessing my site from the office. I was able to see it. So I assumed there was a problem with my connection from home with the nameservers related to my domain. We did some ping tests, trace routes, and other network-related diagnostics. Carlo ended up changing the nameserver of my domain.

And you might have guessed it. It works now. I can finally see my website from home. I can upload anything, write anything, and link anything in my home on the net again.

Now what?

Vista or Linux? It’s all up to you, my friend.

A good reason for coffee addicts to quit drinking coffee.

Death is certain for all of us. The other certain thing for all of us is taxes. They are two separate things if you’re rich. But sometimes, they’re both one and the same.

Consider this.

You pay taxes which would, someday, cause your death. How would it kill you? Simple. You’re more afraid of tax collectors than cancer or Aids. You would rather pay your taxes for fear of being audited. You’d give your money to the tax collectors instead of buying vitamins or medication that will help you perform your job better, if not remedy your illness. In effect, you get screwed by the government with the taxes their imposing on and deducting from your salary.

Upon your death, you would have to pay some taxes related to the procurement of the piece of land where you will quietly rot and decay. Well, YOU don’t have to pay for it. Or you already did. But you will still have to pay.

There’s this funeral practice that ancient Greeks and/or Romans observed. They put two silver or gold coins flat on your eyes when you die. The two coins are for the boatman who will take you to the other side.

One coin for the fare. One for the tax for the fare.

Death equals Taxes equals Death equals Taxes.