Ang Tambayan ni Mang Danny Boy

Dear God,

I have been wracking my brains out for the last couple of days just to be able to write something here that shows how much, now more than ever, I believe that everything happens for a reason. Because, looking back at a lot of my past experiences (especially in recent years), well...it does.

The fact that I'm even here, right this very moment, in the early hours of my 26th year on this earth, should very well prove that already.

And as always, I'm happy that I'm here. Never mind if I'm still single and loveless, or back to being jobless after a 3-week part-time stint, or unintentionally becoming witness to some drama in and around this household now and then. I love this life You've given me. And I'm thankful--as I always am each day and each year--for that and for everyone who was, is, and will be part of it. Thank You, because I know that with Your blessings and grace, I can look forward to yet another exciting year--and two, and three, and so on--to come.

You know what I pray and wish for, especially on this day. And I believe that they'll all be granted in Your perfect timing. Though You know that I STILL have to work on my patience. Well, I try. :)

And one last thing, dear God...as in previous years, while I celebrate my life, I remember those who risked theirs in that ill-fated day back in NYC 9 years ago. The world hasn't forgotten the scare. That's why we all pray that something like that won't ever, EVER happen again.

Once again, thank You, dear God. I don't think those two words are even enough. :)


Love,
D.

The song is "I Believe": Canada's anthem for the recently-concluded Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Here's the official music video (from CTV, the country's lead broadcaster for the Olympics), featuring the singer, 15-year-old Nikki Yanofsky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP9IQuz-jlk

"I believe in the power that comes from a world brought together as one...I believe, together we'll fly...I believe in the power of you and I..."

It has been weeks since the Olympic torch in Vancouver was extinguished, and this song still plays in my head often--and I actually like it. Compare that to just before the big show that was the Winter Olympics, when I couldn't even give a damn.

It was January 16, 2008 when most of my friends-cum-former mentors at the old WLS-FM, by then already reformatted into a "masa" station, were given the boot without even having a chance to say a formal "goodbye". Three days later, January 19, here's what I wrote about that topic. In April that same year (to be exact, on Easter Sunday), some of these ousted DJs resurfaced at a reformatted DWRT-FM (which became "99.5 Campus FM", then "Campus 99.5"), only to be given the boot again four months later as that station reverted to their former, more recognizable "99.5RT" branding.

Fast forward to January 19, 2010. First thing when I got up, I, along with many other people here in the Great White North, found out that something similar happened to what was already my favorite local television station in this city, Citytv. Last Monday, a massive layoff was under way over at that station, as well as its four sister stations in the other Canadian provinces, involving both on-camera and off-camera personnel. One of them was 6:00pm weeknight anchor/reporter Anne Mroczkowski, who was with the station for more than 30 years. I once talked about her briefly here. What made it even sadder was, the previous night, she anchored the supper-hour newscast solo (minus longtime co-anchor Gord Martineau who was off that night), and ended it the way she had always done for the last handful of months: signing off with the words, "We'll see you back here tomorrow. Good night!" Who would've thought that she wasn't going to be back the next evening?

I never really knew these people the same way I knew the guys at LS. But one thing I've realized from my almost three years in this country is that local television personalities that you watch everyday become like friends or a part of the family. And with Anne and several other fellow reporters gone, it was just like losing friends or family. That's when I thought of the sort-of "deja vu"--and incidentally, just like at LS, it had to happen on a January.

And then, another realization: perhaps, no one is really that indispensable in the broadcast industry--an industry that could either thrive or wilt amid changing viewer preferences and audience types. And this same industry, like any other business, is not totally immune to the effects of these economic times. It's a bitter pill anyone, perhaps, has to swallow. And for both viewers and broadcast workers alike, it's a fact that we should accept, even if it means breaking habits or breaking relationships.

Don't get me wrong, though. It will be hard to get used to the after-effects of an event like this. But...gano'n talaga, eh.

"Idol Watch" 2009, Take 1:

Alexis Grace and Jasmine Murray were previously sent home. Last night, Megan Joy (nee Megan Corkrey) was booted out. Lil and Allison are the only women left in what seems to be an already testosterone-laden AI final round. Yikes...reminds me of how the last "Canadian Idol" season ended up--at one point, there was only one woman left in the group, and there were still about five or six of them finalists by then.

And, honestly, the lookers among the females are all gone, too. Boo. :(

Anyway...on another note, I love the whole voice-over thing during the Tuesday show open. Saves time introducing the judges at the start of the show, even before introducing Seacrest.

My bets? So far, I'm torn between Danny and Adam. Allison's also worth a listen. Sayang si Anoop--was impressed with him at the start, but since the finals, he doesn't seem to be consistent. Then again, he's still there--p'wede pang makabawi.

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On to the local scene...

I haven't seen "Zorro". Not necessarily by choice, though. Being a regular fixture of one of the kapuso threads in some online forum, I noticed that a lot of the thumbs-ups go not to the title character (Richard Gutierrez) but to the supporting cast--particularly Leo Martinez (who plays dad to Rhian Ramos' character, and an anti-Spaniard advocate) and that tyke, Robert "Buboy" Villar.

Maybe one of these days, though. I could sit through it, and try to get that whole brouhaha between GMA's Wilma Galvante and Richard's mom Annabelle Rama out of my head. :D

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Speaking of Annabelle Rama, who currently has her hands full not just on her talents, but on court cases too (one filed against her by Ms. Galvante, another one which she will be filing against entertainment website PEP.ph for an erroneous report about...who else, Richard?)...I've said my piece (at least on that online forum I regularly log on to) about her attitude, and how, at least based on recent events (involving GMA and her talents, JC de Vera and Heart Evangelista), she always bites the hand that feeds her (and her wards) and gets away with it.

I hope that Wilma Galvante still gets the last laugh. 'Ika nga ng lady exec, "Enough is enough." This, in spite of my perception that Ms. Galvante and, perhaps, some GMA execs, seemed to have created a bigger monster out of "Monster Mom" with the priority given to her talents.

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Curtains finally fell on "ER" tonight. I'm expecting it to be a big winner not just in US TV ratings, but here north of the border as well.

You know what the tough thing about watching US series is? Well...notice how our local artists stress that we (audiences) should be watching from the veeeeeeeery beginning whenever they promote a new soap or series they'll be part of...holds even truer for the Americans, especially with a series like "ER" reaching 15 years.

Why do I say this? Well, because for the last few years that I've seen "ER" on the TV schedule (either here in Canada or back home in the Philippines), the only time I actually watched an entire episode was...tonight, on its last.

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Akalain 'nyo nga naman, matagal-tagal na rin akong 'di nagpo-post. Over a month to be exact. Hahaha.

But anyway, I'm still here. Still the same old same old. Not that I like it entirely, of course (especially during the weekdays), buuuuuut...yeah, keri lang.

I'm still hoping to take a vacation leave one of these days. Buti pa si ermats. :(

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Yeah, speaking of Mom, she's off to the Philippines in about a week (with my tita and my cousin). They'll be there for three weeks, plus an additional three days with another tita of mine in Vancouver--where our family first stayed before heading out to T.O. back in '07.

She hasn't had that kind of vacation in a looooooooooong time. Well, at least since after she spent a Boracay weekend with my sisters back in the summer of '07. And it's a well-deserved one.

I just hope, though, that we can manage here at home while she's away. In any case, mabilis lang dadaan ang three weeks...and hopefully, we could finally plan a major vacation somewhere away from the hustle-bustle of Scarborough when she comes back.

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And speaking of coming back...my brother Dave's gonna be back tomorrow. Finally.

Selfish na kung selfish, pero sana, hindi na uli siya pabalikin sa 'Pinas nang gano'ng katagal for work. I dunno...five months without him (which wasn't originally what was supposed to happen, by the way) was too much. :(

Looking forward to this weekend finally having him here with us...we sure have a lot of things to catch up on--lalo pa't since we missed spending the holidays with him...

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Spring na pala rito. Finally, too. :P

It was a cold, bitter winter that I wouldn't mind not having for the next eight and a half months. Hahaha!

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Oo nga pala, remember back in January when I decided to see the doctor, have myself checked and what-not? All the tests I did that time turned out fine. Phew...and to think that for a while, medyo na-praning talaga ako about that! Thank You, Lord. :)

But I still scheduled an appointment with her anyway for two Tuesdays from now so she could explain the results to me.

And oh...a smoke-less two months now. And counting--going three by April 9. :) Nasanay na rin ang katawan ko. And it's a good thing. Medyo umiiwas na nga ako sa smoking area in our building whenever I go outside during my break...

Just a downside of it, though? I get really hungry, especially in between breakfast and lunch. :P But there's always my bottle of water. Or, 'pag hindi talaga kinaya, some treats from the vending machine--don't worry, medyo iwas na rin ako sa mga tsitsirya whenever I could. It's either cookies or chocolates--more on the former. :P

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Oh, speaking of my body and health issues...about three weeks ago, I got sidelined for just a day from work because of a very, VERY bad cold. Not the best way to get away from the office, of course (especially given that, aside from knockout ang katawan mo, 'di ka pa bayad for that day), but it's better than dragging myself to my desk feeling more sluggish than usual.

If it's any consolation, though, that Thursday na um-absent ako was the first time I was absent from work for an entire day due to sickness. That's an achievement for me, considering how much I've felt sooooooo lazy to go to work on most days. Hahaha! :D

So what did I do that day? Nothing much--except prepare my little sister's lunch in the morning (right before I decided not to go to work), eat breakfast, watch the local morning shows across the four timezones (yes, channel-surfing galore, straight from my bed!), sleep the entire midday, eat again, and down a lot of glasses of water and some cold/cough medicine. A bum's life...love it! Haha! :D

But, seriously, yeah...I hope that's the last time (this year, at least), that I'll be absent from work...

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As for life away the house and the office? Well...still, not too much.

But, thank God for grocery shopping and weekly markdowns on various items--something I personally look forward to on weekends (starting Friday night when we receive all the supermarket brochures). As in, ngayon ko lang naranasang gumawa ng shopping list na ultimo 'yung brand name and the price, kasama, to make sure that we only buy the items na bagsak-presyo. That's basically my "road trip" every weekend--even if it's only a good 5-10 minutes from the house (depending on which supermarket we go to).

But last Saturday, there was this garden show downtown. Now, I'm not really much of a gardening enthusiast, but I haven't really been to downtown T.O. in quite a while--since September pa nga yata, to be exact. Good excuse to be out and about with the parentals and my littlest sister on a weekend--and on the second day of spring, yet. I'll post the pics maybe tomorrow on my Multiply. :)

So...there. Hope life's treating you quite well too, ladies and gentlemen of the internet. :) Sa mga nasa 'Pinas, 'wag kalimutang magpalamig, okay?

Another great day for sports television it was today.

From the land down under earlier, there was the Australian Open men's final. Which Rafa won and left Federer teary-eyed, I read from some of my LJ/Multiply friends.

Then, come nighttime (US/Canada Eastern time), there was THE sporting event that keeps a lot of US and Canadian men indoors each year: the SuperBowl. The Steelers won the Vince Lombardi trophy this year--their 6th SuperBowl win--amid a major nail-biter. With my very, VERY limited knowledge of American football, I watched as Holmes partly sealed Pittsburgh's fate with a touchdown at less than a minute left in the game, giving them back the lead from the Arizona Cardinals.

On the side, I'm expecting a lot of YouTube searches for this year's commercials--especially for my fellow Canadian residents with cable or satellite who had to miss them due to stupid Canadian broadcast regulations ("sim-sub" or "simultaneous substitution"--simply put, if a Canadian network and a US network air one show at the exact same time [e.g., CTV in Canada and NBC in the US, which both aired today's SuperBowl XLIII], Canadian cable and satellite operators have to substitute the channel where the US feed is being broadcast with the Canadian feed, allowing the Canadian feed to be seen in two different cable/satellite channels), which in turn make them miss these ads...

Oh, well, it's past 11:30pm right now, and these two big championship events are over. Time to finish a special one-hour "The Office" episode on NBC. Good post-SuperBowl special programming right there.

And in other sports TV action today...talo na naman ang Raptors sa Magic? Punyetang Dwight Howard 'yan. Haha! :P

December 31 it is today, and another "changing of the guards" is on between 2008 and 2009.

And just like everyone else, I'm hoping it will be another great year ahead for all of us.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, ladies and gentlemen of the internet...Cheers! :)

Another year. Another Christmas. And tonight, for me, it's going to be a different one yet again. Mainly because, well, my brother Dave decided to stay another month (and, hopefully, not any longer) in the Philippines after accepting a supervisory position at our company's Philippine branch--thus making it our first Christmas na hindi kami kumpleto.

Different, as well, because, then again, after two Christmas Eves spent with extended family, we'll be spending Noche Buena at our house, kami-kami lang. Which, honestly, I prefer most of the time, kasi simple lang. Hindi masyadong maingay o nakakapagod.

And different because for the first time, I voluntarily excused myself from my shift tomorrow (Christmas Day), especially because it's our family's turn to host the Villanueva clan get-together that day. I was in for work last year, and on regular day-off the two previous years. Thank God, bayad pa rin ako, regardless. Woo-hoo. :)

Other than those, I guess, everything's still the same. I was able to shop for gifts for my entire family and then some (and finished early, too--more like Monday last week, to be exact). Plus, it's going to be really messy out on the streets again--yes, blame it on old man winter, as always. Most of all, it's still going to be great, that's for sure.

And I hope your holidays will be great, too.

Merry Christmas, everyone. :)

FROM BEHIND MY DESK

stolen glances and
unintentional stares.
in your presence but
away from your gaze,
i smile...but sometimes,
you catch me
red-handed.
and within a split-second
or more,
i have to decide on whether
i should look away and go
or stay on and say "hello"
and find out for myself
where all these
would lead to.


- 121008 -

*bow*. :D

Amidst that little impromptu conversation my Mom and I had a little earlier, I thought about how fast the years have gone by, how each one of us (in the family) has changed, what has happened all this time, and what might lie ahead.

I have to admit, sometimes, it scares me to think of the future, and how it always reminds me that not everything lasts--or at least, lasts as long as you want it to.