musings

BUMMER BUMMER BUMMER! I SPOKE TO MALU YESTERDAY AND THE TRIP TO APO REEF GOT CANCELLED. BUMMER. MALU’S TOE HASN’T HEALED. SHE ACCIDENTALLY FRACTURED HER TOE WHEN SHE WENT TO THE BATHROOM TO PEE. SO SHE CAN’T DIVE YET. BUMMER

SINCE MALU HAPPENS TO BE MARRIED TO THE OWNER OF THE SARANGGANI, ROY, SHE CALLED IT OFF. SINCE WE ARE ALSO VERY GOOD FRIENDS, I GAVE HER A PIECE OF MY MIND! LOL. HERE I AM TELLING THE OWNER OF THE YATCH THAT SHE RUINED MY PLANS.

I CALLED BUNNEE UP TO FIND OUT IF THEY WOULD LIKE TO DIVE THIS COMING LONG WEEKEND AT PUERTO GALERA. I’M ALSO CALLING MY GAY DIVER FRIENDS. IT MIGHT BE ANOTHER SCUBADING DIVE FEST. HAHAHA.

USUALLY, WE STAY AT OCEANA. OCEANA IS LOCATED PASS ESCARCEO POINT/SABANG GOING TOWARDS VERDADERO BAY. IT IS FAR FROM THE HONKY TONK BARS OF SABANG AND FURTHER THAN THE GAY SCENE AT WHITE BEACH.IT IS A PRETTY RESORT WITH A NICE CABANAS AND ROOMS, GOOD FOOD AND A NICE SWIMMING POOL. IT HAS GAZEBOS WITH CUSHIONS THAT YOU CAN RELAX IN. THE PLACE IS REALLY GEARED TOWARDS DIVERS BUT I’VE SEEN A COUPLE OF “EXCURSIONISTAS” AS WE DIVERS DEROGATORILY CALLS NON-DIVERS, USE THE FACILITIES OF THE RESORT.

MAYBE WE’LL LEAVE ON A MONDAY AND BE BACK ON TUESDAY TO CAP OFF THE WEEKEND.
Tags: http://www.oceanadive.com/

Saturday was a relaxing day. Thad and I had our weekly massage at South Spa. We ended up having drinks at Grappa's with our straight diving friends, the soon to be married Leo and Nikki and the old married couple Bunnee and Mike. Our conversation centered on Leo and Nikki's upcoming wedding and the bachelor party and shower party. Thad and I are dressing Leo up (like Carson at Queer Eye) and we're helping throw the shower party of Nikki.

We've been gaining this reputation as the shower party queens of the rich set. The thing about it is that we don't charge them and I can't even sample the boys! Thad wouldn't let me. Bummer.

I ran the Adidas King of the Road 10k run early Sunday morning. My trainer and gym mates were there and so was my AMCI buddies. ialman, pisceantears and mosscake were there too! The sisterhood was well represented! Hurrah hurrah!

Running a 10k race is a barometer on how fit I am. I finished with a time of 1:18 better than the 10k New Balance run of 1:19. I actually did better since I took a wrong turn to the finish line and had to backtrack and that cost me about 3 to 4 minutes of my time. Bummer. But finishing the race is satisfaction enough for an old lecherous old man like me.

hahaha... buti na lang i didn't go to de la salle. is this what a lasallite este lasallian education does to you? encourage you to cheat so yu can play basketball? http://news.inq7.net/sports/index.php?index=1&story_id=53150 read all about it!

saw Marc, a climbing buddy and a Lasallian, at the gym. I needled him about La Salle losing to FEU. And you know what he showed me? A text message that read "CONGRATULATIONS TO FEU. YOU DESERVE TO WIN. WE WILL MEET AGAIN. WE KNOW YOU WILL END UP WORKING FOR US."

My reaction though was at first "what arrogance and gall!" But if you really think about it, it is reality and it is the truth. In this country of ours, the powers in business and government are held by alumini, mostly (I didn't say all)graduates from FOUR major universities: University of the Philippines-Diliman, Ateneo De Manila, De La Salle-Taft and University of Santo Tomas or Universities from the US and Europe. I see it in everyday life: most members of the Rotary Clubs, FINEX (Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines), MAP (Management Association of the Philippines), MBC (Makati Business Club) and the PCCI (Phil Chamber of Commerce and Industry)are alumini of these four universities. The only industry grouping that does not have any domination from the big four universities is the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce. But the children of these Chinese business people end up in the big four universities. There are few UE or FEU graduates holding top corporate positions or owners of businesses but they are few.

Does it only happen here in the Philippines? I guess not. It so happens in the rest of the world there are what is called academic centers of excellence. In the USA, they have the so called ivy league schools or the top state schools; in the UK, Cambridge and Oxford comes to mind; in Singapore, the University of Singapore produces their leaders and in Japan, the University of Tokyo. What is facinating though are the alumni organizations that these top universities have. The alumni organizations are very powerful networking organizations and very powerful lobby groups. More so in this country of ours. If the alumni organizations unite within their organizations and cooperate with each other, they can bring change and sometimes even a change in government.

I attended a reunion of old gay friends last Saturday night. It was funny to see those old pictures 25 years ago. I had a very full head of hair and a svelte figure. Hahahahaha. Now I have this buffed body with a tummy. hahahahaha. It was fun though looking at the old pictures. Glen is going to email me those retro pics and I'm gonna post these pics in the this blog.

I ended up in Bed last Saturday. Bed had this closing party since it will be renovated soon. I can't wait to see how it will look like. doctony was taking pictures again. And I didn't come out in his pictures!

You Are 29 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

FEU WINS UAAP CHAMPIONSHIP! They deserve to win. De La Salle deserves to lose. After that cowardly hit on the back of Arwind Santos’ head by that Lasallite este Lasallian (that’s what they call themselves nowadays) Manny Salgado and the distasteful jig by Arana, La Salle deserves to lose. God is not sleeping.

It’s a good thing my parents had the good sense not to send me to that school system called La Salle and avail myself of that Lasallite este Lasallian education. My siblings though were not that lucky. They went there. That’s why I’m better. At least a Jesuit education builds character. Hahahahahaha!

i got a call from malou yesterday. she's inviting buttercup (thad) and me on oct 31 to nov 6 aboard their yatch, mv saranggani, for a dive trip to apo reef. she told me that jennifer, her stepdaughter and my good friend before her, is coming home. she said it is basically the tubbataha group that she's inviting. and to piss me off, she said she's inviting me because of buttercup. she's also charging for fuel which is reasonable. food's free anyway. hahahaha.

well there goes my mt. apo trip. i'd rather dive, sleep, get pissed drunk, smoke pot and watch the next season's deperate housewives and 24. the liveaboards charges 21 grand to apo. she's only charging for fuel and that should cost under 6 grand. plus i get to live the life of the rich and famous.

yeah, i'm having phone trouble.

last week, my 9500 was picked up by my infinity account exec, ryan, to have it repaired. i dropped it while i was in bacolod on a business trip last july. he brought me a sony ericsson phone to use but i declined it since i had to sync it with my laptop. i decided to use my old unreliable 6600. this 6600 is the 3rd 6600 that infinity has given to me. the 1st one lasted me 24 hours before it conked out. the 2nd one lasted me a week. this 3rd one (present one) showed signs of conking out last december when i bitched about it to infinity. they replaced my 6600 with a brand new 9500 communicator.

i love the 9500. the only drawback is that it does not have a dictionary or predictive texting. after getting my 9500, my 6600 conked out and i had it repaired. it is my weekend phone since the 9500 is kinda big for the weekend. lately, the 6600 started acting up again. then it finally conked out tuesday evening. all it said was "system error" whatever that means. so for 6 hours tuesday evening, all through the dinner with doctony and the gang, i was without a phone. it was actually bliss since i didn't get any text or phone calls. i just concentrated on the cutie that was demomstrating the salad master cookware.

buttercup (thad) handed me his old purple 7260 for me to use. and i hate it! ryan, my infinity slave, tossed me a service phone another 6600 that refuses to sync with my laptop. bummer.

my 9500 won't be ready till next week and here i am left to fend the world with an antiquated 7260.

i didn't realize how tech dependent i have become. And to think i started my working life when the only high tech gadget i had was a HP financial calculator.

oh yeah and the 21 year old cutie demonstrating the salad master happens to the the son of the distributor. he's cute but he's not that cute to make me want to buy their cheapest set at 250 grand!

besides, it a better deal to save up and get me one of mosscake work as a christmas gift to myself.

Finally it's over and I get sick with the Flu!

In my past blogs, I mentioned that I am Chairman of the Junior Finex Committee of FINEX (Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines). FINEX is an organization made up of CEO's, CFO's or owners of the largest 2,000 corporations in this country. It's really made up of self important men and women who have achieved some sort of financial success. In other words, spoiled men and women with delusions of gratness. Lol.

That's what I like to tease them about. Or what Lolo Erling (one of the oldest members with a very irreverent mouth--thats why I like him) calls them ASC==Aspiring Social Climbers. For some very strange reason and because their so called self importance does not faze me, the powers that be decided to appointment me as Chair of the JFinex Committee, a committee that does a lot of work with the schools and FINEX. Since I'll be dealing with a lot of young college students, I nick named myself, HEAD PEDOPHILE.Lol.

I'm suppose to run a committe composed of richer more powerful people than me and expect them to take orders from me. That of course requires a litte skill in getting these people to work in a voluntary organization. Anyway, the biggest project in this committee is the holding of the Intercollegiate Finance Competition or the ICFC. This will be the 7th year this competition will be held and it gets bigger every damn year. And more complicated too!All the big schools are in it. UP, Ateneo, DLSU, UST, etc. The only supposedly big name school out of it is the University of ARmani and Prada (UA&P). 3 years ago, they decided not to participate because they have been doing so poorly that schools like Pasig Catholic College has been beating their collective asses. Lol!

We hold this ICFC nationwide. Its an organizers nightmare and a challenge at that. It a good thing my committee members are as dedicated to this project as I am. I've also got to balance the different egos in the committee. The committee has hired this queen named Engelbert. He's barely competent. I say barely because he can get things organized but misses out in the small details. I don't think I'll be renewing his contract soon. I'll have to look for another queen.

My predecessors have been kind enough to lay down the ground work. All I had to do is renew the sponsorships and get new ones. Last Tuesday, the finals were held. The schools that won the top 6 were UP, UST, DLSU, ATeneo, DLSU-Dasma, Pasig Catholic College, Xavier University of Cagayan de Oro. The prizes were attractive. The champion team gets a trophy, P50,000, P1.250MM scholarship from AIM, 3d2n stay at Boracay and 4 day participation at the Citibank Junior BAnkers Congress at the Shangrila in Makati. The 1st runner up gets P30,000 and the Citibank thing. 2nd runner up gets P20,000 and the citibank thing. While the 4th to 6th place gets the citibank thing.

So after the contest, the winners checked into the Makati Shangrila to encounter real life simulations in very luxurious surroundings. I being Head Pedophile had the priveledge of checking in too. Thats when I knew that 3 finalist were queens! Lol.Anyway, I enjoyed the food in the hotel and slept through the lectures. Lol.

That's when I got sick. I woke up Friday morning with a fever. And the whole weekend I was in bed sick.