I finished watching Project Runway Philippines this past weekend. It was a good show, but I was irritated with the contestants for a couple of reasons. For one, they were a little too timid for my tastse. There was no “killer” gusto - if you will. There were many excuses, lots of crying, and lot of “playing nice.” I guess I’ve been living here in America for so long - because these are very typical Filipino traits - the not wanting to say anything negative, or not confronting conflict head on.
In any case, the finale was superb! I initially loved Phillip Tampus’ collection when I saw it during the build up to the finale. It was very romantically feminine - very high couture romantic. Veejay Floresca’s was nice - a very modern, sleek and marketable collection - but to me was blah. I’ve seen it before. No new point of view. I was on the fence with Aries’ collection during the pre-runway build up. On one hand, I could see the very high concept of his - a space woman from another planet crashing into earth. But I couldn’t see how his collection was going to work.
That all changed when I saw the final runway show. I immediately picked Aries as the winner - his collection, when seen in its entirety and how it played out - just blew my mind. I could see it getting raves in New York or Paris.
In a week and a half, it’s going to be Thanksgiving. And currently - it’s 80 degrees F outside. What the hell?! If there was any doubt about global warming, then today should really erase that notion. It is very warm here in the Bay Area today - unusually warm this late in November. I wonder what Thanksgiving will be like.
I am not complaining - I’m enjoying the warm weather. It’s just that I was starting to get into the fall mood when all of a sudden - BAM! I’m hit with this warm weather out of nowhere.
In other news, I had a little bit of a surgery last Wednesday. I had a subdermal abscess that needed to be drained. It was in the same spot where I had one drained about 2, maybe 3 years ago. My brother the doctor did the work. He found it very unusual that I had a repeat in the same area, since he also operated on the last one.
There was a lump that formed beneath the last abscess I had. I had asked about it from my brother, and he said more than likely it was scar tissue from the operation. But lo and behold, last Monday, that lump - which I had for a couple of years - now turned into a stinging red blob the size of a silver dollar. It was tender and hurting when a little bit of pressure was applied. I knew then what it was, and that I had to get it treated.
It seems it’s worse this time around, per my brother. He was able to get it out, but told me that if it recurs, that I should go see a surgeon - so that they can probe deeper once they remove it - so that they could check to see what was happening underneath the spot.
I’m hoping it doesn’t happen again. It ain’t pretty…
On the nice side, I had to take pain meds to dull the pain when I slept. That vicodin put me to bed like a log, and I’ve had the best sleep the past few days because of it.
The one silver lining behind all this economic slump is that the price of oil has dropped considerably. From an all time high of $140/barrel, it’s now hovering in the $65 range. This means that for the first time in about a year (maybe more), it takes me about $35 to fill a tank of gas. My gasoline bill has been halved. And this is with my hybrid Camry. At least my wallet is feeling a little bit of relief.
I’ve taken up borrowing books from the library and reading again since I started the new job. Sadly, I’ve been neglectful of my reading hobby throughout the years - even though I derive so much pleasure for it. Kind of stupid, on my part - not making the time to enjoy books (or rather - maybe I filled my time with too many things to do, and reading was the easiest one to toss out doing - whatever…).
Anways, I’ve borrowed about 4 books since April from the library (yeah, my batting average is still low - but it’s better than nothing). And I must say - I’m frustrated because I’m not happy with the books. I’ve only liked one out of the four books I’ve borrowed.
The one that I’ve liked thus far is The Boat by Nam Le - it’s a book of short stories from an up and coming author. Brilliant. I’m wow’ed by his prose. Each story is set in a different part of the world - Medellin, Columbia, present day…Hiroshima, Japan just before the A-bomb…some hick town near the Australian coast…all the stories are painted vividly, and the characters are thoroughly fleshed out…all this from a new writer whose initial road in life was that of a lawyer (albeit, what his parents wanted him to be).
The three other books were extremely disappointing. I started them, but never did finish them.
One was a Victorian mystery novel, whose title I now forget (I’m sure I can figure it out from my online library account, but I’m lazy to do that at the moment).
The other two I would classify as Gay lit. And both are disappointing. The first one - Changing Tides - is as slow as molasses. I was sucked in by the premise - a history student out to prove that a never before found manuscript belonging to John Steinbeck indicated a possible gay connection in Steinbeck’s life, while serving as a backdrop to both a coming out realization and a love story. All these elements were intertwined. There was a lot of extremely descriptive narrative - but the minutiae of it all bogged the book down for me. There’s good narrative minutiae - like Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose (which is leagues better than the movie attempt). And then there’s this - totally laborious - the minutiae put me to sleep, and in the end doesn’t really contribute to the story in the end.
The other book - Blind Fall - is by Christopher Rice. Yes - that Rice…Anne Rice’s son.
The book is a murder mystery with a gay-straight acceptance angle. The first few chapter were very promising, and it hooked me. But then towards the middle, the story just got more incredulous - to the point where my suspension of disbelief was totally gone. I wasn’t buying the situations that the characters were in at all. In the end, I just gave up.
I hope the next book(s) I get is something that rivets my interest. I need something satisfying…badly (kinda like a man, hmm ;-))!!!
I fail to fathom how people who voted for Obama voted for discrimination at the same time by voting yest to proposition 8. I’ve been hoping that the tide will turn with all the absentee ballots, but unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case.
I am outraged - but at the same time, I am hopeful. There already is a backlash against the proposition’s passing, and that legal avenues are being used to repeal it. In the end, I think we’ll see the Supremes (aka, the US Supreme Court) decide this one way or the other.
The arguments of the Yes on 8 folks mostly focus on protecting marriage, on children being raised “better” by a mother and father, and that marriage by virtue of history, has always been defined as something between man and woman.
First off - where in heaven’s name does it say that children are better off with a mom and dad? They argue that they have better role models - that somehow, homosexuals will raise homosexual children.
Well, I have news for them - where do you think all these homosexuals came from? That’s right - from straight parents. Secondly, don’t imply that my parents didn’t do a good job of raising me. Hell - they did a very fine job, I must say - having raised two kids (one gay and one straight) who are now successful in their careers, and are extremely well adjusted - oh, and I might add - contributing to society’s betterment.
Churches may say that marriage is traditionally defined as between man and woman. That’s not what gays and lesbians are after. What were after is that piece of paper - that gives us rights to be in the hospital without question when our spouse is ill, rights to make decisions on behalf of them when they’re incapacitated, rights to survivorship when our spouse dies.
Right now, any gay couple needs to spend thousands of dollars just to create hopefully iron clad legal documents that spell each of these provisions out (and more). And just by having these legal documents doesn’t guarantee anything - some homophobic doctor can throw out a partner in the emergency room since they don’t see a person as a blood relative or spouse, or some vindictive relative can contest a will and tie up things in court for ages.
For only $35 (more or less), straights get this bundle - with no questions asked. And this argument that gay marriage will force churches to perform gay marriages is bull caca - I sure as hell will not plan - or even pay - a church for a wedding that they don’t want to perform. Why financially support a place where my presence is not wanted?
All we want is equality. The preamble of the constitution states “…and liberty and justice for all.” What part of “all” do people not understand?
I’m sitting here, a little bit teary eyed, to hear that Obama has won. He’s giving his speech right now.
There’s a whole flood of emotions going through me. To finally see this Bush presidency (and what a disaster it has wrought upon the world) replaced with something hopeful, something positive, something unifying.
Black, white, asian, latin; gay, straight; old and young - all walks of life have voted for Obama. He is a unifying force of hopeful change - something that the US…and the world…needs right now.
I’ve heard a lot of folks say America would never elect a black president.
We just did. And that’s just the beginning. The future is looking very bright.
The place where I work right now is very social and homey. There’s a good deal of camaraderie and caring going on - and they come with matching activities.
Like for instance - the company cookbook that is being collated as a Christmas memento for the holiday party. Everyone is being asked to contribute a recipe - dish or drink - with a little blurb about the dish.
And so, here are my contributions:
JF’s Banana Buster
I came up with this drink at one of my infamous Christmas parties. I throw a Christmas party every year (except this year, unfortunately - I’ll be in the Philippines celebrating my grandma’s 90th birthday), with a white elephant gift exchange as the centerpiece. But I run the white elephant gift exchange a bit differently - I have a theme that people need to adhere to when it comes to the gift. One year when it was rainy, my theme was “Slippery When Wet,” and another year, it was the refrain from the Black Eyed Peas song, “My Humps.” The gifts ranged from the very cute like a Hello Kitty towel set, to the extremely suggestive and raunchy (I’ll leave that to your imagination).
This drink was a hit - for one, it tasted really good - but more importantly - it really gave you a good buzz before you even knew that it had hit you!
1 scoop vanilla ice cream
1/3 cup dark rum (don’t get Bacardi - get something better)
1 to 2 jiggers banana schnapps
Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a tall glass.
Adobo with a Twist
Every Filipino has their own recipe for adobo, the national dish of the Philippines. The recipe boils down to the combination of soy sauce and vinegar and other spices. This recipe, however, strays from the soy sauce-vinegar combo. Instead, it makes use of fish sauce.
I got this recipe from my uncle, Gene Gonzalez, who is a well known chef in the Philippines, from his book, The Little Adobo Book. I modified it with some interesting things of my own to even add more twists to the traditional recipe.
Once you cook this, you can serve it over fresh steamed rice. But it would be better if you let the adobo sit in the refrigerator for 2-3 days or longer - aging makes the dish taste much better!
2 tbsp. canola oil
1 lb. pork or chicken, or combo of both, cut up in pieces.
6 tbsp. vinegar
2 tbsp. fish sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 to 4 medium to large bay leaves
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. Szechuan peppercorns
1 tsp. soy sauce
Toast the Szechuan peppercorns in a skillet over medium heat, until they start to dance in the pan. Set aside.
Heat up a medium to large dutch oven on the stove over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the canola oil. Then saute the garlic, stirring continuously so that it doesn’t burn.
When the garlic just starts to turn golden, increase the heat and add your chicken and/or pork pieces. Brown the meat on all sides. When the meat has suitably browned, add the vinegar and let simmer until you no longer detect the cooking acid smell.
Add the fish sauce, Szechuan peppercorns, soy sauce and bay leaves, and reduce the heat to medium. Let the dish simmer until the meat is cooked and fork tender, about 15 minutes.
Optional:
Take the meat out of the pan and set them on broiler pan. Without straining anything, pour all the sauce (including bay leaves, peppercorns, etc.) into a serving bowl.
Move your oven rack as close to the broiler element as possible, and set your oven to broil. Put the pork and chicken that you’ve set aside under the broiler, and carefully monitor and turn the pieces as they start to crisp and turn darker under the broiler.
Remove the broiled pieces and add them to the serving bowl, stirring the bowl to make sure that the sauce coats the meat pieces.
Variations:
For added twists, you can try either or both of the following:
Add another 2-3 cloves of raw minced garlic after adding the fish sauce.
Add 1/4 tsp. cinnamon after adding the fish sauce.
Notes:
If you’ve noticed, the recipe has a 3:1 ratio of vinegar to fish sauce. I like my adobo saucy - I usually do 1 cup vinegar and 1/3 cup fish sauce. If you want your adobo more savory, use a little more fish sauce. If you want your adobo more sour like I do, use less of the fish sauce, or add more vinegar.
Last Saturday, my chikas from work - Elizabeth and Rosie - and I went to see the new home of Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. It just opened recently after a 7-years (I think) of constructing the new building.
In a word - magnificent! The building itself is both a technical marvel and architectural wonder for all things green. For instance, here’s a living California landscape that serves as the room, which provides energy insulation, aside from nurturing native plants and being very bee friendly. The roof has a number of “hills” - basically bubbles, each with a number of large holes that concentrates light and lets it shine through parts of the building inside, to provide daytime illumination. Surrounding the roof is grid of solar panels, providing it w/ energy.
Inside - there’s a multilevel tropical rainforest biosphere - filled with various trees, orchids, bromeliads that serve as homes for tropical butteflies, insects, birds. It was definitely humid in the biosphere, but all the color and vibrancy was worth the trip.
Gone is the old planetarium with the cheesy San Francisco skyline as a backgrop to the dome - a vestige of the 1950s ancestry of the old Academy of Sciences Morrison (although remnants can still be seen as part of the museum’s exhibits). In it’s stead you will now find a full dome that envelopes people, and sits closer to the audience, with full digital projectors (anyone that stands up while the show is going will basically cast a shadow on the screen).
What impressed me most was the Philippine coral reef - it was breathtaking to see 225,000 gallons of pure living coral reef filled with tons of fish, anemones, and the like
And the old academy favorites - the animal dioramas, the pendulum - are back as well.
We all felt like kids again. And just like a kid - I want to go back!
I had a very interesting dream - one that I hope is a good omen of things to come. In this dream, I was attending a class - more like assisting or co-teaching - with my good friend and mentor, Gabby. In this dream, she and I were wrapping up the class (I think it was the certified Scrum product owner class), collecting all the evaluations after a retrospective. While she was filling in all the paperwork for certification, she asks me why I haven’t joined her yet at STI - Scrum Training Institute. I told her I’m in the middle of writing up my application to be a certified Scum trainer. She had responded with a smile, and told me to hurry up. And that’s where the dream had ended.
What makes it interesting is that a week before - when Gabby was here in the bay area teaching (for Wells Fargo), she and I talked about my getting a CST. I’ve actually downloaded and taken a look at the application, and have been considering applying. I guess this dream just reinforces my decision to just go ahead and do it! It would be great working with her again, doing training. I still reminisce about our training sessions (as well as my solo training) at Yahoo, and miss doing training very much. Definitely this dream is goading me to just do it. And hopefully, things do come pass that we work together again - I do miss working a lot with her.
On the flip side, I can’t believe that I’ve already been 6 months here at Animation Mentor. I’m having the time of my life working on helping the engineering team deliver (which we have), and getting them to the next level of excellence via the Agile methodologies that I’m mentoring them with. There’s a lot of work (and mind you, my day is more than full with things to do), and I’m seeing success. I’m hoping I’m able to reach the point where the team I’m leading becomes a very hyper-productive team.
The progress has been very measured - I can’t believe I’ve managed to start introducing the team to unit testing and having a test first mentality. We’ve gotten to the point of having a unit test framework up, and have tests running - and the engineers really do see the value of having these tests. One actually remarked it has cut down his development time having just a few of these tests handy, since he can instantly verify any code changes he’s made.
I can’t take all the credit - most of the work has been done by the team (well, considering that I haven’t programmed heavily in the past few years) - I just acted as the catalyst to move them forward, laying enough seed material to make something sprout and thrive. It’s funny, but at our retrospective today, one of the team members - upon seeing some of the things that we put up to try - quipped that I was pushing the envelope with some of the changes that we proposed during the retro.
I can’t believe I left for work not noticing that I had put on different sneakers - a grey one and a blue one. I managed to walk all day, do my work, and not even notice it, until I sat down at SFO while waiting for my flight. As I looked down, I gasped in horror once I realized what I had done unknowingly, and started laughing at myself.
Lordy - what a senior moment. I must look like a doofus to all who noticed.
A lot of strange incidents happened yesterday. An old volleyball acquaintance - Howard - happened to be on the same flight to L.A. He was heading down to LA for the annual Gay Days at Disneyland - which apparently is on this weekend. Had I known, I might have gone and gotten tickets! Maybe next year!
While on the way to the Virgin America gates at the international terminal of SFO, I happened to pass by the Philippine Airlines counters. It was still early, and before I entered security, I had to rummage through my backpack to get my boarding pass. I stopped at a seating area close to the PAL counters.
While I was futzing around, someone approached me - and he looked oddly familiar - but I could not place where I knew him from. He asked me if I remembered him, and for the longest time, I was trying - and finally he said, “Weren’t you on Celebrity Infinity? I’m Cyril.” Immediately - I knew! Cyril was our head waiter during the Brazilian cruise! What a small world - of all places to coincidentally cross paths!
He was heading home to the Philippines for a 4-month vacation, before going back to working the cruise ships.
I think this is a sign for me and Leonel to go on an Atlantis cruise again! In any case, I e-mailed Leonel to let him know, and he totally concurred.
I can’t believe it…our weekend getaway is all done. I can’t believe that the entire weekend went by just like that.
It was a fun weekend. A great weekend to renew bonds, to laugh and have fun, and to share life stories, to grow closer. Raymund provided us with a good dose of memories and entertainment - he created a time capsule of photos and videos captured through the years. It brought back so many memories of us having fun at volleyball, the Queen of the World contests, the Christmas and house warming parties. We were all so young then…and waaaay much thinner.
We are already planning our next trip - a week in Hawaii next year. And we’re putting a little Biggest Loser twist to it…whoever has the biggest percentage of mass loss - in honor of how we looked then - at our Hawaii get-together - wins the big pot.
We goofed off the entire day - just laughing, making jokes, etc. Call it crazy - if these house walls could talk!
If there was any doubt about global warming, then today should really erase that notion. It is very warm here in the Bay Area today - unusually warm this late in November. I wonder what Thanksgiving will be like. 
