The Comfort Rooms

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Mr. Evil Grin girlfriend-puncher must be grinning from ear-to-ear right now. He got away into having his sweet and innocent girlfriend into marrying him a few months from now.


He won the battle over me. And yes, I'm a sore loser.


I was never the mum-of-the-girlfriend's pick. I was never given that chance. Mum even stood by Mr. Evil Grin at the expense of her daughter. Daughter loved me cos I loved her without anyone forcing her to feel the same.


If I thought love was jaded, now I think love is a grain of sand. Not the best thing to hold onto.


"Jerick, I'm getting married in February" will definitely one of the things I wish I never heard ever."

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I haven't blogged the past 6 weeks (and not regretting it). Tired of blogging. Tired to type down and finish posts. Tired to check on other peoples' blogs. Tired of thinking about what things to blog about. Tired about everything that involves blogging - to the point of feeling sick looking at pictures of bloggers, their events and their blog posts and reviews.


Well screw away that feeling anti-blogger blogger. (That's what I call myself).


I'm just happy with this piece of news (a quotation actually) I received thru twitter a few hours ago:


According to Shaq a.k.a. Kobe's erstwhile bitter teammate, "based on what he's done, he's probably the greatest Laker of all time. If he gets another championship, he'll tie with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. That will put him up there."


On a television interview on KTLA as part of the promotional tour of his book "Shaq Uncut: My Story", the former basketball Superman shared what he thought about his former teammate.


With this pronouncement, I hope all Kobe vs. Shaq flame-baiters out there will stop flaming in new arguments as to how Kobe couldn't have done it without Shaq (all of their arguments were like that). 


This I think should be enough to close the storied rivalry between the two.

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No matter how much I love my adobo, I think the vinegar/soy sauce/garlic mixture is too bland for my tongue. That's why at home, I've been adding a few more stuff to intensify my adobo experience. I add coconut milk, ginger and more garlic. Sometimes, I add fresh red onions in for a stronger kick. And more recently, I've been flaking my adobo to make it more special.

I once spoke with a Singaporean restauranteur and I shared to him my thoughts on why I thought Filipino cuisine paled in comparison with its Southeast Asian neighbors. Of course being the non-Filipino that he is and the fact that I was  inside his Singaporean/Malay restaurant, he whole-heartedly agreed with what I said and even made mention that Filipino food is bland.

Let me explain why we both think Filipino cuisine is bland.

We lack the kick that other Southeast Asian cuisines have. Let's take Malaysian cuisine for example. While sauteeing, they include this paste made from chillies, curries and other stuff. It's not enough that the food being cooked is already great tasting, they include a few stuff more to make the experience even better. They add stuff like galangal leaves, kaffir leaves, more chili, ginger and top it all of with coconut milk. Having said that, I think Filipino cuisine really pales in comparison to its neighbors.

Don't get me wrong - I love my Filipino cuisine. Tapsilog is my ultimate comfort food. Kare-kare, Bulalo, and Tinola are among my favorite dishes. No trip to a Filipino restaurant would be complete for me without tasting their pancit there. But comparing the Pancit Canton to the Char Kway Teow (or the Pad Thai), or the Sinigang na Hipon to the Tom Yum Goong, or the localized Chicken Curry to the Thai Green Curry Chicken, we do pale in comparison to our neighbors. That's why all foodies at home should start thinking of ways on how they can revolutionize the way they cook their Filipino dishes.

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Nothing's much worse reading than an article laced with a ton of negative vibes. Who wants to depress themselves by reading through paragraphs-long rants anyways? I guess there are types of people who would want to read that: 1.) a friend or a family - of course they love you. 2.) a mature individual who's interested to read through people's thoughts. 3.) a curious cat who wants to read because he just wants to and 4.) a fellow emo who understands what ranting is all about.

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Waking up early on a Friday wasn't too bad of a chore after all. For a person who pretty much is in-charged of his time and schedule, I was compelled to be up a little bit earlier for an engagement I committed to accomplish that Friday morning. I was invited to cover the launching of iProspect Philippines at Robot in Makati City. And honestly, I thought it was a simple gathering of people from the industry, much like any other ordinary blogger events I refuse to join all the time.

I was wronged.

Though Robot pretty much was an over-rate to me (I can't understand where all the craze was coming from), the ostentatious edge of the place pretty much underlined how significant of a digital marketing product launching it was, actually. To any all-knowing blogger who loved to go to every single event there is, attending the product launch of iProspect Philippines was something he/she missed big time.

So, what is iProspect Philippines after all? It falls under the umbrella (-ella, -ella) of Aegis Group, one of the biggest media companies in the world (that's short of saying they're a majjjjor company). iProspect Philippines will cater to the digital marketing needs of companies based here in the Philippines. When (almost) all of the internet marketing practitioners in the country cater their services overseas, iProspect Philippines will serve the Filipino netizen (which is a big market if we could only think about it).

I enjoyed the product launch (it was my industry so I liked everything about the new company). I enjoyed the food over at Robot. I enjoyed handing out my business cards (for career advancenment purposes, haha!). I enjoyed watching Chico Garcia (the RX DJ was the emcee) make a complete douche out of himself. I enjoyed meeting new people (marketing representatives of some of the biggest companies in the country were there, underlying what kind of significance this company has in the Philippines). All-in-all, it was a Friday morning well-spent.

Next time fellow bloggers, when iProspect plans to host another event, make sure to grab the opportunity to be invited because who knows, it could be an opportunity lurking for you.

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If there is one basketball player who single-handedly defeated the Philippine Basketball team today on its FIBA Asia Championships semifinal match-up against Jordan, it was this man. Rasheim Wright. A naturalized Jordanian originally from the United States.


Three years of preparing and hoping for a London Olympics stint ended with a tough-to-accept semifinal defeat from the hands the Jordanian team, Rasheim Wright, and his teammate Sam Daghlas. As all basketball lovers know, the Smart Gilas team spent three years creating a cohesive and competitive squad composed mainly of collegiate players.


If you watched the match, Jordan for sure knew how to enlarge a wounded team's wound. They celebrated, they cheered, they rejoiced. Well, they deserved it.

It was still a gallant effort by the Smart Gilas team. They can still win 3rd place on a battle for 3rd place match possibly against Korea.

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In the most masculine of movies, there I was, sobbing and reminiscing about my life. THE Ely Buendia, on a cameo, appeared to Odie (the character Jason Abalos was playing in the movie Rakenrol) and taught him a valuable life lesson: Not everyone's been given the chance to do what they really wanted to do in life. You can get stuck inside your office cubicle doing the exact same thing your job tasked you to accomplish or do the thing that you were really passionate about. Those given that rarity of a chance should grab hold of it and cherish it.

I know every single person has his own calling. We were all predestined to do something that we all were designed to do and it is only us who can tell if we were reaching that predestination or not. Some accept the fact that we all had to be contented with a corporately-defined life of an employee who gets paid twice a month to help pay for his bills. Some are happy to be on a loving family and raising children to the best of their abilities. Those acceptances are decent, no questions asked. But there will always be those who are searching for something that will satiate their soul's hunger to satisfy itself. And I think that's what separates artists from the rest of humankind.

Rakenrol to me is more than just about accomplishing your dream. Above that of what money supply you with, it is the satisfaction and fulfillment knowing that you spent your life well. Odie and Irene (Jason Abalos and Glaiza de Castro) never gave up on their dream to create their own band. What was just a passion when they were teens grew into something a lot more serious as they entered college and beyond.

Watching Rakenrol wouldn't be too bad of an idea. It can be a discovery of what your soul was yearning for. It can be a reminder of the things you were really passionate about. It can be a trip to nostalgia as you would be reminded of the days when as a teen, you were once part of a band. It can be a reminder of the fan that you were once was, almost kind-of-worshipping the rock gods you idolized back then. It can be a celebration of your life, no matter how distorted it has become.

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I admit, it can be worry-some and lonely. Sometimes, to the point of being paranoid about it. Whenever friends cross the ocean to tread on unknown but promise-filled waters, I'm left with no choice but to stay on my dry ground.

Throughout my life, I've been taught to tread that ocean as soon as I get the chance to. To me and my world, treading that ocean is like crossing the great divide. Crossing it is like a baptism of fire, with those still walking and toiling on dry ground left behind. We get cheered, motivated and most of the time pressured to cross that great oceanic passage. It can be rude that some who got stuck with their toiling on dry ground are being ridiculed and made fun of, insensitive to how those left must be feeling inside.

One by one, friends and loved ones took that path. To some, crossing the waters seemed easy. Some, rushed by it but eventually got through. To those left behind like me, friends seemed to get fewer and fewer and I don't want to be left behind completely, with another batch of weary travelers getting into my dry ground as well.

Everybody wants to cross that ocean I included. It's tricky, it's difficult, it is something I can't do alone. If there is one life-goal that would be really satisfying to accomplish, it is crossing that ocean definitely. It is sad because the seemingly easy steps to cross it seem difficult to follow in person. Why was it really hard for me to cross that ocean?

I need help.

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Like almost the entire human population, I'm afraid of angry and barking dogs. I've never been beaten by a dog, which makes that fear double. I remember getting barked upon and chased by my grandmother's huge Rotweiler and German Shepherd and that proved to one scary stuff I endured as a kid.

However, I love friendly dogs. The types that are socially apt and are nice to humans. I love cuddling them, talking to them, play with them and look really stupid in front of them cos it was hard for me to contain myself. They're just really cute! The day my favorite dog Dexter (R.I.P.) came into our lives, I was really happy. To some degree, it felt like I had a brother back then. He loved me and I loved him back.

Anyways, back to my story. I can believe dogs can actually do that to their human. According to Reuters, seven starving dogs were abandoned for 2 weeks while their human left. He was suspected to have been "eaten" when a neighborhood guard saw luggage lined up at the front of the human's house, days after he arrived home. He approached the house and smelled something foul and called up the police.

According to police reports, the human's skull was found on his kitchen and his body was found at the front of his house. Report also mentioned that two other dog bones were found, signifying the possibility that the seven dogs ate two more dogs earlier.

Read the news from this link if you want a source that's more authentic.