caterpillar talk

“Meet me tomorrow night. Or any day you want.
I have no right to wonder just how, or when.”
– from Morning Theft

when the 1st of september set in, christmas songs played on piano and sax blared from our neighbor’s house the entire morning. as early as now, there’s already a big christmas tree all-decorated and displayed on their veranda. clearly, he is not that excited… hahahahaa!

anyhoo, this week, i made a video. no, no, it has nothing to do at all with our christmas-crazy neighbor or of christmas for that matter. it’s my own seasons of love video — 22 snapshots i took during my stays & travels and 29 photo files of me & my friends… here and there.

here it is, a smorgasbord of snapshots and moments with friends and one fave song…

it’s time now to sing out, though the story never ends…

video profile: 320×240 pixels
length: 3 minutes and 2 seconds
content: 51 photo files and 1 song (seasons of love from rent)

“Look at this trove, treasures untold
How many wonders can one cavern hold?”
– The Little Mermaid

i collect…

books. i love books. i adore good reads. i collect them. i like owning them. i check out book shops even in unlikely nooks and corners just to find the books i want to add to my collection. it’s my dream to have my own library. i already have a mini one. i have 200+ books to date and i’m still keen on acquiring more.

piled up to the ceiling: how come there’s no more space?

lest you think i only stack ‘em up for mere display, let me say for the record that i do read them. see, i like reading. no, not like, love. i love reading. i can forego eating, drinking water, sleeping, and going to the cr when i’m soooo into finishing a good read. i can be so obsessive when it comes to reading and books. i sometimes think that it’s not me who owns my books. it’s probably the other way around — my books own me.

i intend to add more comic books to my collection. i dig those works by filipino graphic book artists. i also want to own those pcij books, too… and more of calvin and hobbes!!!

movies.

they all come with stickers. they’re not pirated.

postage stamps. during my elementary years, i was into philately — collecting stamps. aside from reading, collecting stamps was my way of discovering and appreciating other countries.

i only managed to put a few of them in an album. most of them stamps i kept in envelopes and i still have to mount them. now, there’s something for my to do list. i have to keep that in mind.

i re-discovered my old stamp collection two weeks ago while i was looking for my ’still-missing-in-action’ unicorn cross-stitch pattern.

stationery. i’ve been collecting stationery since grade school. scented ones, colorful ones, simple ones, small ones, big ones, medium-sized ones, those with people and those without, nicely illustrated ones… i have them in various colors, shapes and sizes. i also have a collection of hotel stationery. i keep a lot of them in a stationery holder i designed myself. some of them i already transferred to a clear book for easy viewing.

some of the sheets in this collection are more than 15 years old

even back then, i knew i won’t be writing on them. i only wanted to collect them… and the ones i have in duplicate, i’d be willing to trade with what other stationery collectors have in duplicate — just like what we girls used to do in grade school.

key holders. i dig key holders but since i don’t have many keys to call my own, i don’t usually use most of them. i simply collect them. sometimes, i use them to adorn my bags… but most times, they’re just hidden somewhere. i treasure them because a lot of them are gifts/pasalubong from my friends.

key holders minus the keys

when i left home for my graduate studies, my younger sisters didn’t know what to do with the pile of key holders i left behind so they pushed pins on the wooden panel in the girls’ room and displayed them there.

the ones that are still inside the packs are reserved for future cars, future houses, and future whatever. hehe.

stickers. a lot of the stickers in my collection date back to my elementary years and were given to me by my classmates and friends.

what will i do with them? just keep them.

trinkets. dangling earrings and hoop earrings. chokers. necklaces with weird-looking pendants. bracelets and bands. hair accessories. i have those.

the dangling and hoop earrings? i won’t survive wearing them. i simply collect them. no, i’d like to think that i buy them para pang-asar, as one of my friends put it. i prefer wearing simple studs.

candy wrappers. back in college, one of my classmates kept lots of coins in his backpack’s pocket. his bag was always heavy but it was never because of books. it was always because of his coins. as for me, i kept lots of candy wrappers in my backpack’s pocket. they weren’t heavy to carry around but they were really many. kanya-kanyang ka-weirdo-han.

…and you know what? it’s been four years since i left college but the said candy wrappers have not found their way to any of the trash bins yet.

yes, the candy wrappers are still with me. no, not really. they’re inside one of the bags i no longer use. i put them there because, while i no longer want to carry them around, i don’t want to really part with them yet. memories, you know. i figure i’ll make a throw pillow and stuff them candy wrappers in it.

aha, another addition to my to do list.

i also collect unused disposable table napkins from food shops and restos (i usually make my friends sign them — the disposable table napkins, not the shops/restos), letters and greeting cards (even those from people i don’t like), travel brochures (for scrapbooking purposes and future travels), quotes (why do you think i keep posting quotes?), travel tickets (for scrapbooking purposes, too), gift wrappers, art materials (i pile ‘em up first before i put my heart into using them), souvenir shirts (wherever i go, i have to have a shirt from that place), movie/concert tickets (that is if they find their way back into my hands), coins, event IDs/name tags, and colorful socks.

i collect nothing and everything. teddy bears, too.

“Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, prepare to die.”

play. pause. resume. increase volume. play backward 2x. play backward 4x. resume normal play. pause. water. tv food. play. increase volume. vicarious adrenaline rush.

all those episodes of prison break have successfully meddled with the normal processes of my brain. even when i go to sleep, i dream about the escape plan and the strategies involved. it’s as if i’m one of them and someone’s so badly after my beautiful throat.

i’m definitely addicted… and when i stop, it’ll take a long time for this addiction to wear off.

knowing i have the tendency to be obsessive, i shouldn’t have allowed my interests to be awakened in the first place. kriminetch.

“Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.”
–Jessamyn West

consider yourself warned. there are potential spoilers ahead. well, the warning’s applicable only if you haven’t watched the movies or seen the scenes i’m talking about in this post.

if you don’t want to risk encountering any spoiler, stop reading here and just come back another day.

“big brother” moment
movie: ang pagdadalaga ni maximo oliveros
the jeepney scene with maxi crying his heart out to kuya bogs

move over, big brother of reality tv. the “big brother” award goes to kuya bogs!

kuya bogs was portrayed oh-so-well by ping medina. when kuya bogs saw maxi sad and crying, he led her into an empty public jeepney and, there, allowed the tears of her young broken heart to fall down. maxi’s heartbreak was made more convincing because of that scene. kuya bogs was there to cushion the pain.

i could still remember the words he said so kindly… “tama na iyak…” i bet i’m not the only one who likes that scene a lot. maxi’s envied for having a caring brother like kuya bogs.

“just chill, ok” moment
movie: reality bites
that moment of tension between leilani’s BFs: michael the boyfriend and troy the jealous best friend

michael: have i stepped over some line in the sands of coolness with you? because excuse me if somebody doesn’t know the secret handshake with you…

troy: there’s no secret handshake. there’s an IQ prerequisite, but there’s no secret handshake.

ahahah. i looooove troy’s reply. it’s something still civil but ascerbic enough. uppity actually.

“this is love” moment
movie: march of the penguins (documentary)

this. i’ve said this before, i’m gonna say it again: the penguin love scene is the best love scene i’ve ever seen!

“mother and son” moment
movie: the passion of the christ
the “i’m here” scene

remember that scene where the mother rushed to her son when she saw him fall on the ground one playtime? that left quite an impression on me. the scene illustrated very well the mother’s love for her kid. it was on the expression on her face. it was on the way she said, “i’m here.” it was on the simplicity of the scene.

i believe every mother’s love is like that. it doesn’t require grand gestures to be felt.

another “mother and son” moment
movie: crying ladies
the scene with stella and her son preparing for sleep

have you seen this movie? stella was portrayed by sharon cuneta. though morally weak, stella’s a loving mother to her son. during their quality hours together, she and her son played and clowned around a lot. they also prayed together.

the mother and son scene in this movie that stood out for me was this hilarious sequence where stella was saying their prayer and, suddenly, the room started shaking. her neighbors who lived just a floor above her were doing it wildly and noisily. in her attempt to protect her son’s peace and innocence, stella matched the shaking and the noises by saying her prayer louder and louder while hugging her son. she prayed frantically and incoherently, she invoked the lyrics of her favorite videoke song.

laugh trip.

“she broke his heart” moment
movie: casablanca
the bleeding letter scene

first, he got stood up. second, he received her goodbye. then, the rain fell. the words of his lady-love got smeared. very heartbreaking!

rick blaine waited for ilsa at the train station. she didn’t come. his friend, sam, came and handed him a letter. it said what it said. i love you, goodbye. you know, that kind of thing.

the sadness of the moment got doubled because the rain fell and the raindrops caused the farewell note to bleed.

“mean girl” moment
movie: mean girls
sugar and spice, think twice when she’s being nice

regina george, the high school queen bee, saw lea edwards wearing a skirt. she blurted out, “oh my god, i love your skirt! where did you get it?”

thrilled that regina liked her skirt, lea answered, “it was my mom’s, in the ’80s.”

regina said, “ah, vintage! so adorable.”

lea was doubly thrilled so she thanked regina. when lea was already out of earshot, regina, in her mean girl tone, announced to her friends, “that is the ugliest effing skirt i’ve ever seen.”

haha. mean girl, indeed.

moment of truth
movie: pirates of the caribbean: the curse of the black pearl
captain jack sparrow living up to his character

captain jack sparrow: me? i’m dishonest and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. honestly, it’s the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly… stupid.

captain jack sparrow and his run-on sentences and confusing sensible statements. savvy?

“If you stay beside me, I might break your wings.”

i can’t believe i succumbed to goong addiction. what can i say? with princess hours, resistance is futile!!!

goong a.k.a princess hours
with joo ji-hoon (JJH) as crown prince shin
and yoon eun-hye (YEH) as chae-gyeong

goong (palace in english), which is also popular as princess hours, is a high-budget korean teledrama and is based on a popular comic book series of the same title. its story revolves around a 19-year old korean crown prince and a young-and-bubbly common beauty who find themselves in an arranged marriage they both did not want but nevertheless agreed to. the tv series had its successful run in korea during the early part of 2006 and has since created a huge following in other countries.

so what’s with goong?

is it the confusing romance between the main characters, prince shin and chae-gyeong? his indifference? the way he hides his true feelings? his disarming smiles? her eccentric but charming ways? her free-spirited personality? the love triangles they find themselves in? the intrigues? the cutie cute cute portayals? the elaborate sets? the musical score? the comic twists? the colors? the sights? the dressed-up, cuddly teddy bears? i say, all those… and something more.

when i first saw the princess hours teaser, i got interested in the series right away and i decided not to settle for the dubbed version. my sisters and i must have noisily conspired about it one day because the day after that my father brought home a dvd copy of, yes, princess hours!!! ain’t my father cool?

…and so it happened that my sisters and i ended up spending much of our time in front of the tv set, watching a marathon of princess hours. we became such goong addicts, our dvd player gave up on us twice.

i became such a goong addict, i resolved to start my own teddy bear collection. in fact, i soooooo want to own a replica of prince shin’s alfred teddy bear. i don’t care if it’s expensive and has to come all the way from south korea, I WANT IT. i want to get hold of the manwha, too!

p.s. i’m far from getting over my goong addiction. last night, i started with episode 1 of 24 again; i watched with my mother — i think she’s our new recruit to goong-camp. yiheee!