A waste

Ruslana Korshunova, a 20 year-old model, fell from her Manhattan apartment yesterday. Her death, which is believed to be a suicide, is still under investigation. If it was indeed a suicide, what could have pushed this girl to do such a thing? She was so beautiful, so young, and so successful. What happened to her is such a great waste.

Sparkling

Dear readers,

I'd like to present to you my shock absorber, boredom buster, and mood uplifter...





This is Sparkle, the most delicious beverage in the entire world (for me). I don't know what's in this drink that everytime I take a sip of it, I forget that I have a problematic document to edit. In other words, it's effect is similar to eating chocolates. It's strong lemon flavor is better than that of Sprite. What's so peculiar about Sparkle is that it has a "pang-masa" appeal to it as one can only buy it at sari-sari stores. Warning for glucose intolerant people though, try to avoid this drink as it may contain dangerous levels of sugar.

Waiting in vain

In my search online to find a cheaper alternative for buying Pomegranate Soup: A Novel, I discovered this Manila-based second-hand online bookstore in Multiply. So, I immediately texted the contact person to ask if they have the Mehran novel and Jitterbug Perfume and if they deliver to Cebu. The contact told me that yes they deliver to Cebu and yes he'll find the books and will just text me for updates. It's been three days and I still haven't received any feedback from him. Actually, I'm already at my breaking point. I've been lusting for these books for so long. I don't want to order anymore at Amazon. The last time I ordered something from them, I almost got a nervous breakdown for awaiting their delayed delivery. Although they reimbursed me for it, the anxiety and the sleepless nights I've spent for worrying about my order cannot be compensated by money. My hope for getting these books resurged when I heard that Jackie is going to the US for her training. Unfortunately, she was denied at the embassy. So, my very last option is to order them from National Bookstore. The cons: I will have to wait for more than a month and it will cost 1500 pesos for just these two books.

Writing and break-ups

There is this blog that I used to like so much. It belongs to someone who is a friend of a friend. I used to visit his site everyday because he is a great writer and I learn so many things from his posts. Just recently, I happen to lurk in his site again and I was shocked upon learning that he had stopped writing. According to his last post, he won't be writing for the meantime and he does not know when he'll write again because he is nursing a broken heart. Ouch. To think that I used to envy his fiancee because she was immortalized in his blog. AVM's experience has alerted me to the perils of divulging too much in a blog or in an online journal. What some writers don't realize is that they may be exposing too much of themselves when they blog. While it's just right to be honest about what you write, we must caution ourselves from being too carefree when we write about our emotions, our experiences, and even about the people we care about.

So, for those bloggers out there, here's two tips for saving your blog and your passion for writing after break-ups. I hope they make sense.

1. If you can help it, never ever blog about your relationships. Unless the person is already your spouse, it is wise to leave your love life out of your online journal. Let's face it, sooner or later, a relationship is bound to turn sour in the end and there's nothing more terrible than to delete most of your posts in order to finally move the person and his or her memories out of your life. And it's doubly terrible to delete the entire blog just because of this particular person.

2. When you're in the phase of grieving, again, if you can help it, don't talk about your emotions in your blog. It's much better to write down your feelings in a paper which you can keep or burn afterwards.

Craving

After weeks of relentless heat, it finally rained today. Actually, there was already a light shower since last night but it was only today that it poured continuously. For some reasons, I woke up at 5:30 am. Since I could no longer go back to sleep, I just reread my favorite book, Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. Kitchen is a very, very light read. It is a love story between a girl named Mikage and a boy called Yuichi. Actually, its more than a love story. It tells about how Mikage and Yuichi made sense of all the deaths that happened in their families. Mikage lost her grandmother and Yuichi, his gay "mother." Even though the theme of the book is centered around death, surprisingly it is not a heartbreaking story.

I love Kitchen for one particular thing: Yoshimoto's description of food and how it is relished by her characters. There's a mention of soupy rice with eggs and cucumber salad and the one l liked best, katsudon. According to wikipedia, katsudon is a Japanese dish, a bowl of rice topped with deep-fried pork cutlet, egg, and condiments. It is an easy dish to prepare and the ingredients are not that difficult to get. It is also a perfect dish for rainy days like today. Right now, my craving for katsudon is building up. Poor me. I should have read a different book.

Before I end this post, here's a picture of katsudon.

Longing

What I terribly missed about living in Fujairah (arranged in random order):

1. cheap onions (usually sold in small sacks)
2. cheap tomatoes
3. fresh cow's milk (sold in quarts, half-gallons, and gallons)
4. fresh orange and apple juices
5. there's always a sale of chocolates in groceries
6. the heavenly taste of Indian parathas
7. biryani
8. dried dates and sultanas
9. ice cold cream soda
10. one can always see a breathtaking sight of stars during nighttime
11. "damayan" or helping out among Filipinos
12. there's always a party to go to during Thursday nights
13. henna tattoo
14. eye brow threading

Bitterness

I was so disappointed with the results of last night's conclusion of Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition Plus. I was rooting for Robi, who ended up as the second big teen winner. He deserved to win than Ejay, who did not make an impact to the viewers while he was still inside the house. Ejay was probably chosen by the viewers because he is the poorest of the lot and he terribly needs the money. But for me, this is not a charity show. Ejay did nothing inspiring inside the house. He is not a good role model for the youth. And for me, he was the most uninteresting personality inside the Big Brother house. Yes, you're right. I'm just bitter because Robi did not win.