Life and the House

My sister's got a baby, and my fiancee's housemate's dad died. It does make you think. We're gonna be replaced by someone else sooner or later. I am really happy for my sister though. I think the whole being a parent thing made her and my brother-in-law grow up all of a sudden, or so it seems. I feel more younger now with them. I am not sure if I am gonna be a dad. I am excited and terrified of the idea at the same time.

We visited the house that we're gonna be moving into, to take some measurements. My girlfriend studied Interior Design in college, so she has ideas in her head of what to do with the house. The budget we have is gonna be her biggest deterrant. The expenses of acquiring the house is big enough plus the rennovations, there is not much to buy after we move in.

Breakfast at Scrapyard

It was a nice Sunday morning. I woke up early, and I was famished. As soon as my girlfriend woke up, we went to eat out. May gotohan sa Angono na napuntahan na namin ng tatlo o apat na beses (so this is not a food review or anything). It's Scrapyard located in the Highway in Angono that leads to Binangonan. It's the road you pass before you turn to Balao-Balao (the really nice place that offers exotic food that is probably the most blogged restaurant in Angono).

I guess what I like about Scrapyard is that it's like the old-fashioned gotohan that I grew up with. I mean the food, of course. It is also nice they have all these wonderful movie paraphernalia and posters on their walls, ranging form the  Scarface to Marilyn Monroe. The owner must also have been a Beatles fan, coz I think there were three popular Beatles posters there.

 The food is not bad. If you're expecting something special, go order congee at North Park or some other more fancy-pansy place. The goto they have is tasty at least that one is consistent. We left happy and satisfied.

 I think it turns into a bar at night, and I have not had the chance yet to drink there. Maybe I will one of these days.

The weekend

It's been a tiring weekend. Last Friday, I had one additional day off from work, but I had to do so may stuff. So by the time I finished, I was spent. I did wake up early, way too early, and spent unproductive time browsing the Internet checking Facebook and other stuff I could not remember. I think checking people's inane status and insipidness on the Internet is more wasteful of time than watching TV.

That Saturday, I picked my girlfriend up at work, and we actually spent some badly needed quality time. We decided to not go out and watched DVDs. I finally saw Inception and Wolfman. Social Network bored us. I think him making a website mentioning codes and algorithms that I do not understand is more interesting than how the movie was picking up, and we stopped watching sometime after 25 minutes. Good casting though. I think I am not in the mood to see it at that time, and may decide to dedicate some quiet time for the movie soon.


 Then by evening, over Jollibee, we watched ballet on DVD. Yes, ballet. While Meow does not want to watch The Black Swan, she wanted to watch Ondine. Maybe I am narrow-minded. I was bored. I told her, I cannot be in a live ballet, either I'll sleep or laugh out loud. I think it's a cultural thing. I tried to interpret it, but I failed. Thank you, Wikipedia, for enlightening me of what the story was about.

When I got home, I found a copy of Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. I bought it sometime ago. I have read  an e-book, until now, I have not reread it on this book. I read the Introduction and realized it was supposed to be funny. When I read it, I found it sad. Maybe I knew it was sad, so I was not able to take it as funny. That's the problem I guess when someone told you the ending of the book. Maybe I would read it again soon with higher spirits to enjoy it more.

Working on stuff

Sometimes growing up requires you to make decisions for yourself and for others. I am not very good at this stuff, and almost makes me wish to be a kid forever. Sometimes I have to rely on myself a lot.

I am loaning a house, which I will be living in with my girlfriend. It's scary coz I am afraid of what would happen to us.

I am excited because it is like the independence I was yearning for. It might not be coz I am not completely alone, but still, it's my/our own home.

I want to write, draw, do whatever when ever I feel like it, and not care if people are looking at it.

I am excited, but like all things we need to make some sacrifices. In this case, it might be a lot of sacrifices. Scary stuff.

Artist chatter

I love Artist A Day, a website that features one artist once a day everyday. Similar to Every Day Fiction that has one flash fiction everyday, I have them sending me email everyday to my inbox. It's refreshing to see art work from different people from different places using different media, but it's funny and sometimes torturous to read the things that they write about themselves. So I prefer just looking at the art.

The accompanying text just makes me confused.

For example:
Scale and palette vary tremendously, from small, intimate, and subtle, to large, grand, and dramatic. In all he strives to capture a meditative spirit that is unique to his approach*

Now that one was a bit verbose. But once in a while, you'll get something like this:

The literal destruction of an object is secondary to the overall effect created by color (dis)harmony and the overall aesthetic of the reclaimed and reinvented object/experience. I openly play with the allure of foreign and aggressive new colors and forms into otherwise familiar and traditional settings. Barriers and obstacles are thereby created between the viewer and the object through which one must negotiate an understanding of what is both present and hidden...*

*all text from the website

I always thought it is better for the art to speak for itself. I am not saying all the artists. I mean, It's not to say I don't like their work. I enjoy being exposed to different forms of art, but sometimes I prefer to leave to the viewer to get his own ideas. A description is nice as sort of a guide, but too much makes me feel like an idiot understanding where the heck I could see what they were talking about.

I think that is the problem with being an artist -- or anybody, for that matter. Sometimes it is a requirement for people to talk about something you did, or be good with people. I am not really quite good at it. I can be when I really put my mind into it, but it's a bit of an effort.

Random talk

Meow, who was awake for 24 hours, was on a diatribe about how much she hated the last installment of Harry Potter. Thank God I did not have a strong desire for either books or movies. She read the book and she hated the movies, and now she is hating Rowling for being a sellout.

I woke up to check my email and saw a Shibumi  prequel, Satori. It was not be written by the original writer, Trevanian, being dead and all.

I looked for the reviews of people who read the original, who may think like me. I read the reviews which were good, but it seems the plot seems too weak for me. Thankfully, Amazon still has its share of people who are unapologetic.

You see, Nikko is to me who Holden Caulfield was for others, or any popular Bildungsroman characters.

Hence, I won't touch the Satori book with a wooden stick.

Moving Houses

We are moving again. For the past two years, it feels like we're nomads. Maybe because for 16 years, we've been in one place, another ten in another house. So when we moved to three houses, and in my case, going to four, it's a bit confusing. Long story.
The house that we are in the process of leaving is a nice one, not minding the nosy neighbors and neglectful parents and their irritatingly obnoxious kids.We have stayed there for a year.
My sister is mortgaging a house. I've been there a few hours ago, and it was nice. It's big, but old. I like the tiles. It looks unique. I don't think they sell tiles like that anymore. It has thick oldy-shaken swirls like marble in earth colors.
Both of them are in the same subdivision that has to pass through some grassy spots away from the town proper. I prophesize that it will not be as grassy in the next two years. I am not a big fan of urbanization.
I particularly like the current guard of the subdivision. He's like a stout Filipino version of Charlie Chaplin, who swears a lot. I am thinking Hitler but he's too goofy to be a Hitler, and not so bad.
Tomorrow, I'll be in Makati to submit some papers, so that I could have my own house. That would be nice. I hope it pushes through, coz the house is up the mountains with a nice view. Although small, it would be nice. And it's just a walking distance away from an art gallery, which houses really nice artwork.