you belong to the city

by spending a big chunk of my money (when i say a big chunk i mean i am left with barely enough to pay for an fx ride) last saturday to invest in a new copy of SimCity 4 (the old copy i lent humphrey and i never got it back. it's okay, it was a little defective anyway). and i gotta say, it's money well spent. it ain't common that i get to say something like that anymore.

since i am a little rusty i got a nudge over at gamefaqs. now i would consider myself a good mayor... if i decided on keeping my city a little hamlet in the san francisco region. but an urban jungle must sprawl, and as it grows, you have to feed it, and as you feed it, you waste more money on maintaining big things. therefore, my budget is currently a sinkhole, compared to when the city was a little smaller, i was earning.

guess it's time to build a neighbor.

and i would like to get simcity: societies but man, new things don't run smoothly (*cough*oblivion*cough*)

animo baby

i may be in college, and external influences are always trying to persuade me to change colors, but i'm keeping green.

i still have my ties, my people, my boys and my girls back at the green side. so no, i don't imagine myself 100% maroon, but there is this natural support that you give the school you're in, however minimal. after all, they did take you in out of how many people.

the soljah

in accordance with my newest-ever mantra for my life (for those of you reading this on multiply, just look up at the header), here is a "progress report" of sorts.

hustle - i've been giving the better part of my hustle for little or nothing.
loyalty - i've always been loyal, but once more, for little or nothing.
respect - i give all my respect but i rarely see it go my way.

now without going on too long and sounding like a fanboy, i shall end with this. life is hard but one has to keep going. might as well, because something better might be waiting.

meanwhile, i couldn't find a better song to convey my thoughts than terry kath's indignant declaration of wanting freedom. i just wanna be free, from all the hurt, from all the pain. i just want to end these lonely hours, end these lonely days.

the overlap

today/yesterday i cooked my first-ever plate of pancit (yes, the version we love the most). though since i am a beginner and i haven't cooked anything other than rice in a long while (3rd year t.h.e. i miss you), it was too soggy and rather spaghetti-like.

i have learned, oh, i have learned indeed. and i'm missing you but i can't find the confidence and the willpower to pick up the phone.

turn the eagles up

i am slowly beginning to have this grudge against the AM band. like i said before, the news is a stressful little creature, so i try my best to avoid it as much as possible - either by playing one of the twelve cds or switching to the FM band, where i listen to only one station anyway (RJ. bite me). i wanna listen to the eagles, they wanna listen to the news. what gives?

like don henley sang in his annoyingly synth-driven song, and i agree with it all the way, "people love it when you lose, they love dirty laundry. / it's interesting when people die, give us dirty laundry."

so i am forced to listen to the god damned news, which in turn forces me to lose my faith in humankind. what did i hear tonight? rod strunk. the highlight of that news coverage was the american homeless shelter dudes who gave some statements (especially the black guy. you don't hear much black guys on philippine AM radio). what else? kids (read: teenagers) storming and stampeding down comelec just to register themselves for the damn SK. as if there was no greater show of stupidity. man, am i ashamed or what.

the only respite i get is when mike enriquez does his endorsements. now that, my friends, is how you advertise. no stupid, inane jingles and songs, no dumb catchphrases and taglines. mike enriquez is like jbl; he knows how to put over something. the only problem i have is that he overdoes it (think, after every other commercial break he's got something to patronize).

this is why i live, breathe and think music. it's the only way. FM > AM. screw the damn news, you'll just die early from all the stress you'll get from listening to all the dirty laundry. you only listen to the news for suspension announcements, period. and foreign exchange rates. showbiz news ain't even funny - it's useless. if i were kris aquino i'd take a macho gun and shoot down any reporter who tries to ask about what james yap gave me for our 2nd wedding anniversary.

why not just listen to RJ 100.3? if you tune in from 5 'til 6 in the morning, you get an hour-long beatles marathon. saan ka pa?

not going quietly

for reasons i have already all but forgotten right now (read: it has been reduced to 'for kicks'), i have been counting the number of hours of sleep i get, every time i wake up. maybe, this is to estimate how long my tank will run for the day (which is nullified by the fact that i get to refill it when i sleep in the car - of course, in the case of lack of sleep).

today i woke up at 'round 9:30 am after having an unusual dream, yet something i have already seemed to dream about before. so, that gives me roughly 10 hours of sleep.

yet, i still have eyebags. what gives?

we're gonna find out, pretty mama, what turns on your lights

as i type this i am watching the eagles' farewell concert I, live from melbourne, australia, being telecast over at star world. man, these guys are the shit - they're still class acts even though they're 'round 40-60 years old. of course, it seems that don henley has never hit puberty, but that's what makes the songs great, innit?

it's a shame, however, that don felder had to be kicked out from the group. i had always thought that don felder > joe walsh (as seen on hotel california from hell freezes over) and i really wanted to hear visions... as if they would actually play it. joe walsh was always the mid-tempo slow rocker kinda guy (listen to his songs, from rocky mountain way to the rather candidly amusing I.L.B.T.s) and i preferred don felder's much more energetic style.

timothy schmit is as mellow as ever. i prefer his high voice to don henley's.

one of these naaaaaaaaghts!

longing

missing lazy summer afternoons.

i still say give the weekend back its dignity, it has long lost it. how disgraceful.

you arrive in my life like a fragrance

the downside of having a great start to the weekend is that subsequently, you feel lazy to try and accomplish anything productive.

and that you really don't look forward to going back to the drabness of school on a gray monday, because, well, we can always meet at the mall, can't we?

and it seems that doing anything that even slightly resembles schoolwork is already raising the white flag on your weekend. please, give the weekend back its dignity!

the boy who heard music

along with edge and a few other of my peers, mr. pete townshend is one writer that i am quickly growing to love. lately it seems that i keep wishing that i could write like he does (both songs and blog entries). his writing style is quite different from his songwriting style, but you can see, and if you do listen to the music of the who, that there is a certain connection and similarity in his creation of the two separate media, which you really can't point out, because it's just... there.

there is something about the way he writes. i guess it's his years. years of writing lyrics have probably made writing about your life plainly as it is seem easier. somehow i still couldn't find all of the confidence that allowed me to write like i did some three years ago. where is the romeo moran that gave little damn to what others thought of his writing?

but the more important question is, do we want to see him again?

under my artificial moonlight

the current soundtrack to my life:

1. creedence clearwater revival - fortunate son, from the album willy and the poor boys. it almost completely describes my life up to the present.
2. derek & the dominoes - layla, from the album layla & other assorted love songs. if fortunate son described my life, layla describes my love life. most of it, at least. plus the present as well. clapton is a genius.
   
3. don henley - the last worthless evening from the album the end of the innocence. what i really want to say is something along the lines of this song.
4. eagles - you never cry like a lover from the album on the border. somewhat something i'd like to say to a few certain people.
5. the who - odorono from the album the who sell out. i'm not saying i stink - i just wish all commercial jingles were like this. (some, however, are on that direction already.)

and on another note, y'all gotta download jenny by the flight of the conchords. you'll love it, i promise you.

could you actually bet your life today? and win?

look at your calendars!

wait, you already know?

damn.

ah, of course.

the media has been constantly reminding you for the past week that today's date is july 7, 2007. when you numerize that it becomes 7/7/[0]7. what does that mean? will you win the lotto today? will the girl you've been chasing say yes to you? will you finally get that new gadget you've been eyeing forever?

if by 11:59 tonight, you can answer yes to any or all of the questions i just asked you up there, then, well, congrats. you are, in creedence clearwater revival's terms, a fortunate son. or daughter. or better yet, child.

however, that's such a long shot! the media (and to a certain extent, the church, but they're a different story) has been hyping today, because the slots all stop at the right places to form the jackpot number, and apparently you're supposed to be extremely lucky. some have turned them into gimmicks (hello gma, though you're entitled to) and lots of people are buying.

newsflash. nothing special's gonna happen to everyone. maybe some people will get lucky today, but not everyone. the media has taken a piece of pop numerology, pimped it and showed it to the world, preaching that today, of all days, is the day. for what? dunno. the world didn't end on june 6 last year, what makes you think today should be any different?

oh, and if it makes a difference, according to wiki, many people died today. how's that for their luck, huh. on the other hand, al gore's brain-child, live earth, happens today - which according to sir roger daltrey, is quite unnecessary, really.

i hope you had a happy triple seven. if there is one person who is definitely up on his luck, it's gotta be bruce willis - as john mcclane. if y'all haven't watched it yet, y'all gotta go see it, y'hear?

stuck in a moment i couldn't get out of

random thoughts, for i am unwinding. emotional stress, y'know.

- okay, now that the misconception has been cleared up, i have made up my mind. i want that phone. i want that phone. phone > flash drive/mp3 player. i want it. i might even go so far as to say that i need it. i don't care how long it takes, i want it.

- this week i've learned two things on the piano: the opening notes of michael buble's everything, and the famous three-chord riff of the who's baba o' riley.

- i don't get it, music one has almost a complete back catalog of U2, but they're not carrying queen, eagles, or even the who's live at leeds? the concept of the "greatest hits" album is overrated, people; however, it is handy for the casual fan. especially when they cost only 'round P365. hooray for the "gold" collections!

- speaking of music one, now that i think of it, here are the CDs on my wish list (because, you know, i'm already feeling guilty enough for downloading and burning whole albums): the joshua tree and achtung baby by U2, the long road to eden by the eagles (when it comes out later this year), live at leeds by the who, chronicle (volumes one and two) by creedence clearwater revival, and the gold collections of both cream and the allman brothers band. and maybe rush's gold collection as well. oh, and that tribute to queen has piqued my interest.

- rush's 2112 has finished downloading! time now to immerse myself in geddy lee's rather annoying, high-pitched voice. still don't know how i can stand it. not.

music philosophy pt. 2

there is a corollary to my previous posts, and it involves old songs.

i do realize that listening to classic rock/classic pop/old songs in general does not equal to listening to what is mainstream in the present, and that would fall under the non-conformist category.

but!

the 'classic' genre is called classic for a good reason - they were mainstream back in their day. therefore, you can be considered conforming... just not with your generation. it was the 'in' thing some years ago - just not now - but the fact remains that it was the in thing after all.

despite stepping in each other's territory sometimes, nostalgia is quite different from being a bit esoteric.