sisig pasta - an experiment

i wanted to prepare kung pao noodles this evening...i was so bent on cooking it that i felt disappointed when i didn't see the flavoring i needed....but not to disappoint my housemates who heard i was going to cook pasta, i decided to continue with cooking spaghetti with a unique sauce....i didn't know any unique sauce so i thought of experimenting....then i thought of sisig....i'll use sisig as the sauce....hmmmm.....pork....check....onions....check....garlic....check....seasoning.....check....whatelese.....if i only use these it would be boring....ah.....carrots....check....zuccini (how do you spell this word?)....check....cauliflower....X...puregold has no cauliflower....arrrggghhh....peanuts....check....

its now time to cook sisig pasta.....will they like it?.....i'll keep you posted....wish me luck.....

the sisig pasta

okay.....it wasn't really easy preparing that....i was kind of unsure of how it will taste so i went easy on the onions.....it turned out well....it was plain looking though....it was pale.....but the good thing is they said they liked it....which is enough for me.....

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observation....eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin

observation....one science book defines observation as a process of using your five senses....

i love observing people....whenever i am in a coffee shop i make it a point to look at other coffee drinkers...i observe how they sip their coffee....how they stir their coffee afte putting sugar....if they will add sugar first or cream...i observe how they react when their dates come late...i observe how they greet friends who arrive later than them...i try to see how they call waiters...do they just wave their hands or do they call them out loud...i try to see who looks at name plates of servers and call them by their names...i try to find out who smiles or says thank you when their coffee is served...i try to see who leaves tip....

by observing i learn a lot of things...i learn how certain actions are received by others...i learn why people react like this or that...i learn what makes other peple smile...i learn what makes others raise their eyebrows...

i observe these things not to invade their privacy....i observe because i want to improve my own behavior...i know i already my own set of values....values that have been inculcated by my parents....my teachers....my friends....some i learned from books.....but even then, i believe it is still important for us to continue to learn new things so we can adapt....so we can improve...i don't know about but i really enjoy watching other people's behavior.....

oh...i forgot...i also like looking at others because a lot of times they make me laugh...no, i just do this in secret....

i'm not making sense....i know....anyway, i would love to see how you would react when you read this...hmmm.....if only i could....wink 

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EQUUS - live in manila

i had the chance to watch the preview of EQUUS last night...yes, that play where Daniel Radcliff did a full monty in the west end and broadway productions...i was lucky i got invited to the preview whose audience was composed mostly of members of the press, theatre actors and family and friends of the cast members...what made it even more special was that ms. lea salonga also watched last night...we were on the same row although she was at the lower orchestra - center while i was on the right...anyway, the philippine production of EQUUS will officially open tonight (onstage, greenbelt 1)...

the play is about the encounter of a psychiatrist named martin dysart and a 17 year old boy named alan strang...the way i understood it, dysart is a respected psychiatrist while alan is a behaviorally challenged boy, to say the least...alan did a horrible thing with the six horses he was taking care of in the stables of harry dalton...he was brought to dysart after the lawyer (magistrate) who represented him succesfully dodged the possibility of him being brought to jail...dysart tried to unearth the reason behind alan's actions...the result was a psychological thriller that surely awakened/shocked/bothered/excited everyone in the audience including me...

the two lead stars were for me very good...miguel faustmann who played the role of dysart was convincing...on stage he was really a psychiatrist...marco manalac was really good as the young boy full of angst...the moment he entered the stage singing the jingle of a mint gum fom a tv commercial with clenched fists, you would already know that the role he is playing is that of a broken person...his acting was consistent...he can smoothly move from a person who is angry to someone who is frustrated to someone who just wants to mask his true emotions...you could tell whether what he was saying was a recollection from alan's recent past or from some five years ago...he was intense...every time marco tenses up his muscles i could feel it as if was he standing right next to me...and his stare...penetrating...i particularly liked the scene that capped off the first act...there was so much emotions coming out of the boy...i couldn't understand what he was saying anymore because of the loud sound but i could understand how or what alan was supposed to be feeling...of course the scene where he blinded the horses with the hoof pick was also thrilling...one more thing that made the scene memorable was the fact that marco was naked thorughout this scene...this is probably the longest nudity i've ever seen in a play...around 10 - 15 minutes if i'm not mistake...pheona baranda who played jill, his partner in that scene was also naked for a long time...there was even a part where marco was on top of pheona...such brave souls they are...the nudity was much talked about during daniel radcliff's stint in the west end production of EQUUS so i thought that the nudity in the local production would be a stealer...but you know what, because of the intensity of marco's acting, and pheona's as well, you would almost forget that their reproductive organs are there totally exposed for everyone to see (or critisize)...

the other actors were also good...tami monsod who played marco's mom dora strang was good as expected...the guys who played horses, especially the one who played the lead horse nuggets, should also be given credits because it's not easy walking on stage on high horseshoes...

i think audie gemora directed the play really well...lighting design (by john batalla) was also good...the red lights prominent during the last scene of act 1 was really effective...set design (by denis lagdameo) and set excution (by adul lasin) was also good...they used just a few pieces but the overall effect of the stage was not left wanting...the sound design (jethro joaquin) was also okay but it is the sound system which i think they need to improve on...there were a few times where i didn't understand what the actors were saying especially during the early parts of act 2...


EQUUS by the Repertory Philippines has a limited run

July 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24 - 8:00 pm
July 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, - 3:30 pm

onstage, greenbelt 1
makati city

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CATS with Ms. LEA SALONGA -- Live in Manila

I have always wanted to watch a play or musical with our very own Ms. Lea Salonga in it. I was not lucky when Miss Saigon was shown here in Manila. I got to watch it but it was not Ms. Salonga playing Kim. Anyway, another chance is here......CATS.....I hope I would see Ms. Salonga this time even if she will be on stage for a few minutes. Even that short time would already be great for me. Great! Purrrr....fect!

Anyway, here are the details for the show.

CATS

with Ms. Lea Salonga as Grizabella

by T.S. Eliot
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
based on "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats"

showing at Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo, CCP
starting July 24

Ticket Prices:



Matinee

SAT (3:00pm)

SUN (2:30pm)

PhP7000 PhP5000 PhP3500 PhP2000 PhP1000



Evenings

TUE, WED, THU (8:00pm)

SUN (7:30pm)

PhP6000 PhP4500 PhP3000 PhP1500 PhP750



Evenings

FRI, SAT (8:00pm)

PhP7000 PhP5000 PhP3500 PhP2000 Php1000



Ticket Prices are exclusive of Ticketworld fees.



SHOW DATES (as of April 2010)

SAT July 24 Matinee

SAT July 24 Evening

SUN July 25 Matinee

SUN July 25 Evening

TUE July 27 Evening

WED July 28 Evening

THU July 29 Evening

FRI July 30 Evening

SAT July 31 Matinee

SAT July 31 Evening

SUN August 1 Matinee

SUN August 1 Evening

TUE August 3 Evening

WED August 4 Evening

THU August 5 Evening

FRI August 6 Evening

SAT August 7 Matinee

SAT August 7 Evening

SUN August 8 Matinee

SUN August 8 Evening

TUE August 10 Evening

WED August 11 Evening

THU August 12 Evening

FRI August 13 Evening

SAT August 14 Matinee

SAT August 14 Evening

SUN August 15 Matinee

SUN August 15 Evening

for more information, visit the following

http://facebook.com/catsinmanila
http://catsinmanila.tumblr.com/

Hope to see you there!

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waiting

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we cannot do anything but wait. We are left with no better choice but to stay where we’re at and wait for whatever is going to happen next.

For example you arrive at the airport late and you miss your flight. You cannot do anything but wait for the next available flight and hope that it is not yet fully booked or wish that one of the passengers will also be late or will not show up. Well, waiting is not really the only choice left here. You can actually opt to just leave the airport and forget about leaving entirely. But if you do that you will never be able to do what you actually set out to do. Or you can take the boat or the bus. But that will definitely take you longer.

Here is another example. You applied for a job and the last person who interviewed you told you the line “Do not call us, we will call you”. Here you are also not left with any other choice but to wait. You cannot call them everyday to follow up your application status because if you do that they might get annoyed with you and reject you. You can actually look for other jobs while waiting but if you are really bent on getting this job, your only recourse is to wait for their call.

Here’s another one. You finally find the person whom you feel you are going to love for the rest of your life. Unfortunately you find out that it is not yet possible. Either he or she is not yet available or your situation is such that you cannot be together yet (he or she is still not ready, he or she is still too young, he or she is still busy with other concerns, etc). You cannot do anything but wait for him or her to be available (i.e. break-up with his or her present partner -- tsk, tsk…wag ganon) or wait for the situation to clear up for the both of you.

Sometimes waiting can be too tiring. Doing nothing can really be a pain in the butt. But if you think that what you are waiting for is really the best thing for you then go for it. It is always better to wait than to settle for the second best. The danger here, though, is that there is a possibility that you are waiting for nothing. But if that happens, do not despair. That just means that what you were waiting for which you thought was the best was not really the right one for you. Drop it! Come to think of it, if this happens, the second best now becomes the ‘real’ best, right?

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on loving too much

One of the nice things about facebook is you get to know where your friends are at the moment. By this I do not mean where they are physically at but how they are doing in their life or what they are experiencing at the moment.

An hour ago a friend of mine wrote as her status message the line “Nothing hurts more than realizing he meant everything to you and you meant nothing to him.” I feel for her because I know she is the type who really gives her all when she falls in love.

Sometimes we meet people who really make us go all out without emotions. Sometimes they consciously do things to make us really give our all but there are also instances when they do things which invoke the same effect without really intending to. I don’t know which is more painful because for me, either way we can get really hurt. So what do we do to protect ourselves?

I think the best thing to do is to prevent us from giving everything. It is for our own protection if we keep something for ourselves. But what do we keep, you might ask. For me it is definitely not love. We should love fully. It is the right thing to do. We should not hold back on loving. What we should keep is our dignity. We can keep this by not being to OA with the way we give our love. For example, I know of people who think that to show their love to another person they lavish them with gifts. You do not need to be a ‘sugar mommy’ or ‘sugar daddy’ just to show that you care. Don’t tell me you give gifts freely so you can’t be considered a ‘sugar mommy’ or ‘sugar daddy’. At the end of the day you still look as such. Also, I know of people who ‘stalks’ the person they love. They call every time. They visit every time. By doing this you will look desperate. You will look like a dog following his master. You don’t want that for sure. And lastly, I know there are people who give their whole being as an expression of their love. I do not think I need to explain this further. You know what I mean.

At the end of the day, if you give your all, you will not have anything left if that person decides to ignore you or dump you. It is like putting out all your money in one business. If your business fails, you won’t have anything to start with again. Think about it.

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a major change

now that the election fever is over this blogsite will take on a new look...starting today you will read blogs that are not solely related to politics...what you will read here are blogs that are based on what i see around, what i hear from people close to me or what my crazy imagination can conjure....

i'll start with a short post that you can interpret any way you want...bahala na kayo....here it goes.....


......

I have a friend who once told me that she is happy being single and that she has no plans of changing her status in the near future. She told me she is happy because being single is less complicated than being attached to someone. This is quite understandable because when you get involved with somebody you have to make a lot of adjustments. There are certain things that you enjoy that you cannot do anymore.

Unfortunately, fate can really be playful at times. Just when you thought that you are already decided on staying single, you meet somebody who will tempt you to break that resolve. When you meet that person, what is the right thing to do? Do you give in? Do you take the risk? Do you turn your back? Do you walk away?

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