Bad and Good Email Subjects

“Good things comes to those who wait” - Anonymous

Today was almost perfect. But sadly another great creature passed away. Upon opening my email this afternoon, I saw this subject: Baby the Bulldog! 5/18/98-7/29/07. At first I hesitated, but then opened and read it nevertheless. It’s confirmed Baby died. The inevitable did come.

I’ve been a fan of this lovable bully since we had Styro who was also an english bulldog just like Baby. I’ve been receiving email updates and occasionally in contact with Dan (his owner) who himself is a great multi talented guy. Aside from being a good pet owner, he’s also a construction estimator, author and sculptor. He’s so fond of Baby that he dedicated a famous website for him (and the rest of his four-legged gang).

I just can’t imagine his sorrow right now after having Baby for 9 years. We “lost” ours after just a year and we we’re almost devastated. Please drop by http://bullybaby.com to appreciate their wonderful companionship.

Goodbye Baby.

****

Whew! After all that, it seems hard to for me to compose what I initially planned to write. Anyway, today was actually a very good day for me.

It started last week with an unofficial (I’d like to think so) SMS on my application update. “That’s good”, I thought, but I tried to be reserved. Then as if by coincidence the priest’s homily on Saturday’s anticipated mass mentioned about –“I’m not believing, until I see it”. Well, when I opened my email at work the following day, the subject - Congratulations! - Application Update almost made me jump out of my chair. That first word alone made my day.

Now I know that the maroon shirt’s jinx has been washed off indeed. When I was called for this position’s interview I was having doubts if wearing that shirt was a good idea as it was the same shirt that I wore when I got dumped by a supposedly good employer. (Am I getting superstitious or what?). But of course I know that wearing the black one would be sending a bad sign as well. Come to think of it, I only have two pairs to choose from. So, that leaves me no choice.

And so today, I started my training as a new leader. I’ve been waiting for this chance for so long and now at least my efforts (and my wife’s prayers) paid off.

Four more days of training. I can’t wait to start to meet my people.

Definitely not SSDD

One of the movies that influenced my life somehow, just a bit somehow was Dreamcatcher. I actually read the book (my wife gave it to me as a gift) first before I was compelled to look for its VCD (no “original” DVD yet that time). Other than the fantastic plot, story line, setting and characters, I love the word that it introduced me – SSDD. Same Sh#t Different Day.

You see most days lately have been SSDD. No choice, but its been like it. Work. Home. Work. Home. Off. Play. Mall. Those things even done in pleasure becomes SSDD, in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong though, as sometimes I’d just utter SSDD just for the love of saying it.

July 20, Friday, wasn’t meant to be.

10AM. After waking up late and a brunch meal at home, I was on my way to work. Driving my car for a quick trip so I could be on time for my 11AM interview. This has been one of the much-awaited moments in my career. Just another chance to step up. Hopefully. Fingers-crossed.

And just along the way, I was repeating on my head over and over again the answer to the question, “How do you deal with difficult people?” You see I dreaded this question, the last time I was asked this on an interview, I fumbled. I failed.

The interview came late but I think I did fine. The dreaded question didn’t came. Whew! And For the delight of it, I got my wife and I a to go lunch from Tokyo Tokyo on my way back home. Japanese food to go please. Namit.

Past 7PM. This was supposed to be a routine one. I was doing the weekly cleanup of our hamster’s habitat. I was almost done re-assembling his trails and he was the usual jumpy rodent eager to check it out. Surprisingly on his way out in the middle of the trails, he sled and looked stunned while resting on top of the stopover point – called the space explorer.

So I grabbed and raised him to see what went wrong. Once I laid him down though, my wife saw that he was panting, breathing heavily and just laid still. Oh oh.

I once again lifted him up and checked for pulse. There was none. My wife tried her luck. It didn’t work either. Hollie was gone. It was heartbreaking for us. I did shed a tear (It’s funny how a small creature can mean so much) while I was completing the whole trail. It’s empty now. No more running & cage biting noise for days to come. He was 2 years and more than a month old.

Past 8PM. Hating to leave home with just the recent event, I pushed myself to take a bath, get dressed and am on my way to a co-worker’s house. It’s his farewell party. He’ll be leaving for abroad by Monday to work at another company. It’s been like this at work. People leaving. Those left behind enjoying the party (farewell) while it last. And probably be leaving also anytime soon.

Well, that’s life. Sometimes it’s just the same things going over and over again. Sometimes new things come (and go). And often times I’d wish that it wouldn’t just be SSDD.

Die Hard on A Sunday

After a hearty buffet lunch at Cabalen, my wife and I headed for Festival Mall’s cinema ticket both and picked movies to watch. Out of the nine (or ten?) cinemas there are only three others not showing the latest Harry Potter.

Since I’ve never been a Harry Potter fan (my wife is, though) myself, we only have three more movies to choose from and those are Transformers, Die Hard 4.0 and Tiyanak.

Transformers. We’ve watched it already on its second day. We like it a lot, in fact we viewed it twice in a row. The last time we did that was in the movie Saving Private Ryan.

Tiyanak. I avoided it at first look. I knew CGI’s would rule this movie. And I have a thing about pinoy CGI’s especially if done on horror films - it sucks. I can count the pinoy thriller’s I’ve watched with my one hand.

So given the options and reasons, Die Hard 4.0 is it.

More often than not, I’d get sleepy on the first quarter of most movies especially when viewed right after lunch. Even then I knew it’s one good movie if it gets to perk me up out of anticipation and amazement. I even joked about it with my wife that I rate movies depending on how long I stayed awake during the whole film.

And so the fight versus the urge to have my weekend siesta started.

At first I was trying to convince myself that despite being shown in a movie house with hard and short seats, the story will somehow redeem itself. Just right after the start, the explosion and fireballs so typical of Die Hard series reverberate in the theater when some geek was blown out of his house as a super penetrating virus made its way into its PC.

Not bad. Good concept. Could be interesting. So I was now at this point beaming with anticipation. More explosions please! I was silently pleading and hoping.

However, as the movie progresses, the story turned ridiculous. I was starting to see the faces of Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savages of Discovery’s Mythbuster as if debunking the stunts every time one is shown. It started when John Mclane threw a fire extinguisher at the bad guys and guess what? I was right. It was meant to be shoot at to create far bigger explosion to throw the bad guys away. Damn. That one ruined my day. It changed my perspective of the whole movie.

After that one bit, I started seeing the movie as a quilt made from scenes from different past movies. I saw Matrix in the highway interchange scenes. I saw Crouching Tiger in the fight scenes. I saw Rambo superimposed in John Mclane’s face. Before I doze off, I knew I even saw Mr. Bean. I saw utter stupidity (no it’s not a movie, but I saw it) in the bad guys. And the last few scenes remind of typical pinoy movies where police would come in and one would knew the end is near.

It was that bad. It’s a pity because I knew the stars could have done better roles. Mclane’s daughter was hot. The Asian bad chick was foxy. Even Bruce Willis could have even made a better come back without having to appear in this poor Die Hard film.

Exiting the theater, I was wondering who’s to blame for all this? The producer? The director? The scriptwriter? Or the Mythbusters? Or the ginataang kuhol (Escargot in Coconut milk) I had for lunch. The latter’s not bad (it was actually very very good), but some one or some thing has got to pay for this mess.

The movie should have been titled “Sleep Hard 4pm”. Ti Abi.