Human Finger Found in Wendy's Chili

IT'S TRUE!!!! and it happened last mar22'05 lang!!!!

i've managed to remove my hands from covering my (still gaping) mouth to write this post. grabe, major gross factor talaga! and if that's not gonna make u stop eating fast food, then u might want to consider taking up the time to read Fast Food Nation. for starters, the author, in his extensive research, tells why and how french fries really taste that way, and pinpoints the possibility that all meat ingredients come from the same slaughterhouses... i dunno if i'm can still have the stomach (pun intended) to purchase this book. i mean, reading the reviews was horrible enough!

the scarier part is how this type of news wasn't hyped up at all! i just happened to pass by yahoo's buzz log (to see what's the latest surge in internet topics) and accidentally read it (while looking for Sin City articles). the shock was there, but really, isn't it more shocking to know there was hardly ANY public outrage?!

more articles below:
Wendy's diner finds human finger in her chili
Finger Food
Officials: Diner finds finger in chili

YUCK YUCK YUCK!!!!!!!!


i shall never look at Wendy's the same way again...

the need for time out

okay. m not really the one who should complain abt that, since i AM doing nothing right now. but can you believe THAT's actually tiring?

that said, i can't wait to get a car. or a way to just GO. GET OUT OF HERE. of course i know i'm gonna be stuck here for a while, but i desperately need to free myself, my mind, my body from the stifling confines of this place. and ye, the people, too. if i were back in pinas, all i had to do was get a tricycle or jeep, and BOOM! i'm outta here, baby! my commuting skills can be quite handy, i tell u.

okay, so maybe i usually just go to the mall, but it was enough to give me a change in scenery. and getting my mind off anything bothering me at the moment. the sad part is, there are no public transportation in sight from where i am right now. i could use the car if it were mine. but it's not. so i am left to use the only alternative i have -- my legs.

and last week, i walked for half an hour. and everyday since then.

somehow, i found some strange satisfaction to that. yes, i heard walking does wonders to the legs, physique (hah! given a few more months cguro. ahem), weight loss (uh, years?). but i've only begun to realize the calming effect it brings. breathing. walking. the repetition of it all. then that acute awareness to everything, but focus on nothing. it's weird, i tell u.

there's also room cleaning. EXCESSIVE blogging. did vaccuuming today too (also kinda relaxing). gawd, OC-tendencies really kicking in high gear (nooooooo!!). that, or i'm really bored, or really pissed.

i still want to get that mileage though. nothing beats knowing you can set this distance from where you feel stuck at/in/to. and while i'm at it, i wouldn't mind getting some serious spa/massage treatment, too.

i really, REALLY need a timeout.

more on movies for production

heard Joss Whedon (of Buffy fame) is being helmed to direct Wonder Woman movie. more info on film below (from TV Guide):

"I did, however, find out that Whedon is months away from finding his ideal Woman. "Everybody is in agreement that casting is not an issue right now," he says. "It's not a vehicle to be built around a particular star. We want to write the thing, find the right character and then figure out who should play her. There are various famous people whose names have come up, because that always happens, but you know, we're talking about Wonder Woman here. Those are tough booties to fill." That said, it sounds like Whedon knows enough about Lynda Carter's successor to rule out Lawless and (sigh) Graham. "I think we will go a little younger than the traditional idea of Wonder Woman," he says, adding that the new Princess Diana will likely be in her early twenties and played by someone outside the Buffyverse. "It's a movie, not a party for my friends." That certainly bodes well for rumored front-runner Jessica Biel."

looking at the WW teaser poster reminds me of the darna one (gma show):



come to think of it, darna IS the pinoy version for WW!

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also waiting word for possible Spike film (hopefully, with James Marsters in it!!!)

remaking asian movies

as much as i like the fact that hollywood is taking notice of asian movies (i just heard they've taken up production for the korean 'Il Mare', to star Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. here's another site) , i still prefer the original, subtitled ones. at least they haven't tackled 'the love letter' (japanese) yet. and i surely hope they won't DARE touch 'my sassy girl' (korean). that's tantamount to SACRILEGE!!!




hehe, too cute for words!

to date (from my knowledge anyway), the following movies* have been repackaged for US audiences (and were box office hits):
- the grudge (sarah michelle gellar)
- ring, ring two (naomi watts)
- shall we dance (jennifer lopez)
*japanese

to shall we dance's credit (at least in the dvd), they showed a trailer from the original version.

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ack. just realized i don't have people/dvd sellers to go to here for these (and more) subtitled movies. waaaaaaaahhh...

and so it ends...

...Mulawin, that is.

today is the final episode of that fantaserye show i've religiously (hehe) been keeping track of ever since i left pinas.

an excerpt from what i posted in mulawin network blog:
"as for moving on, (which might be the theme of this post), i wonder what will next week's mornings will be like (no more frantic hurrying to the computer). still, the fact that will remain is the pride in this blog, which has been the silent witness to the all our emotional rollercoaster ride from the show, great writing, inspirational thoughts, and most of all, the unexpected but undeniable online camaderie :) SIGH.."

more on my thoughts on mulawin here (see "dilemmas...")

can't believe i'm sentimental abt a show ending (well, buffy was another one), but saying goodbye to those dear bloggers will be somewhat of a wrench. i don't think they -- strangers no less! -- realize how much they helped me cope with my being here.

a temporary disillusionment that i am still 'connected' in pinas? of course that's absurd, i know i'll always have my roots. i'll always be pinoy ("deep deep down in my heart"). but sometimes, the feeling of being surrounded by a different culture, foreign people (wait, i'm the foreigner pla), well, it can get overwhelming, and then the need for that certain haven/refuge arises, kahit sa internet lang. there's nothing like being with kapwa pinoys (albeit face-less and impersonal interactions) to calm you.

a new show (darna) is coming up, though i'm not sure if i'm gonna follow it as fervent as mulawin. i'm glad to hear its another filipino-based myth/story tho.

yes, i can speak english

for the nth time, i've been told by an american, that for somebody from another country, i can speak english very well.

duh! jeez, sometimes, i dunno if these people are just making polite talk (is it an automatic conversation line? sort of like, when you greet somebody with "how you doing", you would almost always here the reply "good"?). or maybe that they're just plain ignorant. still, i give them a surprised-yet-happy face (as if i've heard that comment for the first time), smile, and say thank you. yes, i also have manners. but i feel my humor/amusement may be waning thin.

however, i don't fail to follow up by informing them that english is the medium of instruction since gradeschool.

and yet they insist on saying "yes, but you speak english very well".

SIGH.....

big relief!

have you experienced that helpless feeling when something happens to a close relative/friend or a loved one and you wish you could be there for them?

i just heard my sister fainted during her highschool CAT graduation. you can just imagine how i, si ate* , got into panic mode! thankfully, that gave way to a sense of relief when my sister, now recovered, began telling her experience with much gusto. her voice alone was enough to paint the story. how she stubborningly refused to fall out of line despite repeated pleas from comrades (hinde, kaya ko pa to). how she didn't notice that people were eventually carrying her as she walked (grabe, tuloy pa rin ang loka) until she fainted. how she didn't know she had actually fainted (nor did the family know, since from afar, they wouldn't have recognized her). how she finally woke up, alarmed to be in an ambulance (why am i here?!), and was then wheeled into the emergency room (i CAN'T relax!! i'm GOING to relax when i'm NOT in the hospital!!).

soon after that, we were all laughing and teasing each other over the phone (mom, you're the ULTIMATE champion! hehe!). occasionally, a twinge of loneliness crept in (hay. i miss 'em already), but right now, i'm just glad they're doing okay there.

*older sister

philippines - love ko 'to!

to everyone that said the philippines is not a beautiful place, I BEG TO DIFFER. and if they need a foreigner's opinion on that, i suggest they go to this site and see the wonderful pics (and amusing comments) of my country first-hand.

God, this man is sooo lucky. how can you NOT delight in a scenery such as this?

other shots have human interest views, which makes observation on pinoy life all-together real than just mere photographs. of course, there are some that don't paint the pinoy lifestyle in the best light, but you gotta admire his honesty.

naturally though, reading his essays mostly brings an amused grin to my face, as only a pinoy would (and then have the difficulty of explaining) when confronted with a foreigner's bewilderment and fascination. that said, i'm torn between strangling this guy out of sheer jealousy (for experiencing pinoy sight and wonders, both beautiful and bizarre) or hugging him for embracing my land and culture so well.

likewise, gazing at the photos for so long only stir up feelings of homesickness, too, (sigh) but i'm just glad it leaves me with a deep appreciation for the beauty of home.

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years before, my friend tin and i promised never to be strangers in our own land, vowing to visit as many places (mostly beaches) we could go to as possible. so far, konti pa lang napuntahan namin, but that just makes us all the more eager to discover the rest, one at a time, for an exciting adventure -- from packing for the trip, solving money-pinching dilemmans, picture-taking and the actual journeying -- that will never get old.

of course, my being stationed here has temporarily derailed that, but m confident we can get back on track. we'll probably use this lapse of time to earn scuba licenses, scuba gear, underwater cameras (teka.. kakayanin ba natin to, tin? beaches and snorkeling na lang! haha!) basta, the dream lives on!

too bad corruption is leaving a sad impression/stigma on the philippines. sigh. kinda leaves a bad taste in the mouth talaga. makes me think that the only time that philippines reaches international attention are for bad stories, like this one. sigh.

m off to looking at tommy's site (hah! close daw ba?) again.
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NEW HARRY POTTER COVER REVEALED!

where's the romance?

i plopped myself onto the couch to catch last sunday's telemovie "their eyes were watching God", which oprah had boasted as being THE best love story of all time.

strange how quotes like that could ruin a movie for you. because to me, it WASN'T a love story, it was a woman's journey to discover herself. that said, my expectations were clearly not met, leaving me with a feeling i've been robbed of a good few hours. an unimpressive acting on halle berry's part didn't help either. loved her in "dorothy dandridge", but not this one.

a few days later, i felt compelled to look up comments on the show. unsurprisingly, a LOT of bad reviews , but what did catch my attention was that its screenplay was based on a book of the same title. THAT one had good comments. and that made me seriously consider getting it.

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MY romance is with books of course. a noted bookworm since i was a kid, i even asked for a then-popular sweet valley twin paperback for every A-'s i got (which, now that i think about it, WASN'T a fair deal at all. i mean, 1 book lang? for 3 months of hard work??). anyway, that 'love affair' has me really set on having a small library (i can imagine my sister bringing her hands up in mock horror) if and when i get a place of my own.

wish list on the top of my head are:
- Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (since i have its prequel already, Confessions of a Shopaholic)
- Shopaholic Ties a Knot (hopefully, after i get Shopaholic.. Manhattan)
- Can You Keep A Secret? (same author as Shopaholic series, different heroine)
- Memoirs of A Geisha (read it, but want my own copy)
- Samurai's Garden (read it, but want my own copy again)
- Bridges of Madison County (technically, it's my bro's. i don't he has read it, tho)
- The Notebook (if Gem doesn't return it to me)
- the Twins' Legend (the next trilogy to collect after the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy set. that, and me being a professed Tasslehoff fan. no, not Hasselhoff, fu!)
- My Utmost for His Highest (which i like better than Purpose-Driven Life)
- The Hiding Place (because i lost it.. or don't remember whom i lent it to)
- The Time-Traveler's Wife (just because i hear it's good)
- The Joy Luck Club (i've seen the movie. and i hope the book is just as good. or better)
- Sun Tzu's Art of War (hehe)

incidentally, i found an online book page that allows you to read some popular reading materials. for free. its not the same experience as actually reading and holding the book in your hands, (plus the added glare of the monitor might do more damage to my vision) but who knows? might give it a shot some day.

i'm suffering from what?

the new problem
a recent commercial, had me sitting up my seat in attention, yet cocking my head to the side in disbelief. it starts out with a room of a shot of young 20-somethings, all fashionably dressed, laughing, talking. enter newcomer, who looks... hesitant. then he pops paxil (the product of said advertisement), and all is well, he suddenly becomes happy, talking to strangers as if they were his lifelong best friends.

watching it, it appeared shyness is now a mental problem. but if it weren't for the voice-over, i wouldn't have learned it was really social anxiety disorder (or social phobia). so with my curiosity piqued, i google the meaning. i had to, what with my recent reflections (waaay before the commercial came on) on whether i've been changing into an introvert, or a reclusive individual (haay, so different from my outgoing, wa-pake personality during childhood. ah, innocence).

the underlying fact is, people nowadays rely on drugs and medicines as their instant solutions to personality trait problems. resorting to pills will only increase dependence (and some serious side effects) on these foreign substances, and we end up with a more f**ked-up individual. in reality, it is society that imposes what it perceives to be normal, then subtly forces people to live up to them, or else suffer the consequences of being labeled as abnormal. not unique. not standing to your own standards, principles, and beliefs.

and whatever happened to celebrating the normalcy of life, anyway? for that matter, what is normal? so people have problems, that's normal, isn't it?

apparently, m just suffering from too much worrying. but with any luck, modern science will probably come up with a pill for that one, too.

advertising woes
ugh. i used to love this field. but studying in college led me to the belief that we were overhyping most products which weren't really needed in the first place. using psychological manipulation through exaggeration and clever choice of words, in a sense, false advertising boils down as a clear attempt to mislead people. that deception isn't really a good trade-off to however big salary it would've provided me.

take for example SUVs. here in snowy east coast, i've been hearing a lot of highway accidents involving these vehicles. reports surfaced that many owners thought they were invincible machineries, capable of driving any-weather conditions (hence turning drivers into road warriors, and sometimes, with crappy bad-ass attitudes to match their newfound superiority). watching those same commercials, i wouldn't blame them for thinking so. sigh.

on the loneliness issue

i gave myself a few days to 'recover' before blogging.

so my mom left already. she's now back in sweet ol' pinas *sigh, i envy her* when we were saying our goodbyes, it took a lot of self-control not to let her hear me cry. i was only glad she didn't see me.

attempts to calm down followed. i tried to philosophize and see my life in different perspectives. the martyr approach (pain muna, rewards later). the sympathetic and empathic approach (others are experiencing the same. somebody out there is saying goodbye to his loved one, or is in the same BIG out-of-country decision towards a better future). the learning experience (you will become a stronger, happier woman). but for all the logic and reasoning, i knew it was useless to battle the emotion that was welling inside me. so i gave in, and gave myself a good cry. only then i knew i could go on.

its not really all about loneliness, folks. it's the bitter sadness over my helplessness, the loss of control over stuff that has been happening in my life. that, and the vulnerability of it all.

God. m almost this close to crying again. sigh.

granted, i knew i still had the chance to change my current situation. just as i am free to do so, it was of my free resolution to stick to the decision to stay and get things done.

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so what else would you do? check on yahoogroups, see how your friends are doing (while not participating). check friendster, see what's new with friends (again, not participating)...

speaking of friendster, they've introduced a new feature - blogs. ok, so by today's standards, it's not really new anymore. but its interesting to note the irony that friendster is notoriously known as the company to fire its own employee for blogging abt them.

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with lots of spare time, you also get to surf the net on a lot of stuff... such as, SPOILERS FOR STARWARS EPISODE 3!