ramblings, random musings, fascinations, rants, raves and revelations

Rada [H's friend] called me earlier to join them at MOA for lunch. I said No thanks but later on decided to give in to H’s prodding.

When I got there, the place was jampacked. H was craving for Sushi and so I suggested Sakae. Sakae Sushi has been in the must eat restaurants in H’s list when we were still together. The attractive feature of Sakae Sushi is the conveyor belt where various sushi plates are brought out. The Multicolored Plate is 80 pesos while the red plate is 189 pesos. Rada was totally mesmerized with the conveyor concept that she kept taking sushi plates as it passed her. After the hefty meal, we all agreed - Sakae Sushi: Good Place, Very Good Sushi!

We checked on featured movies and has been TAKEN almost immediately.

As the movie opens [these are the only parts I remeber before I closed my eyes]], the hero of the story, a divorced ex-CIA operative named Bryan Mills [Liam Neeson], is already paranoid about his 17-year-old daughter, Kim [Maggie Grace] traveling to Paris for the first time with only one other friend, Amanda [Katie Cassidy]. After initially refusing to sign consent for her to travel as a minor without parental supervision, he reluctantly agrees thinking that this may be his chance to bond with his estranged daughter since he has moved back closer to his daughter in London, although she has told more than a few lies to be able to slide past Bryan’s seemingly overbearing paranoid assumptions. Then, when she arrives in Paris and while on the phone with her, he overhears her being taken away by some group of men.

The next time I opened my eyes, H was mouthing curses already. We were on our way home already when I asked him what got him pissed. “Those stupid, uncivilized people from our back kept on talking and opening plastics of groceries…” I understand him. We have the same sentiment.

If you talk during a movie, this is an entry you must read. If you vent loudly about your uneventful personal life in public, this is for you too.

And for those of you who do not fall into either category, this is for you.

• When sitting in a crowded theatre, I neither wish to hear the plot analysis from Roger Ebert, nor you. If you have an urge to share, whisper softly to your loved ones, without disturbing others.
• When commercials force their images onto the screen prior to the movie, there is really no need to laugh out loud at the little backward humour and pretend that you really enjoy your date or that you understand the ad.
• When you are on a bus, there are many of us who wish the bus to be private and the sound of your breathing could already be somewhat violating.
• When you talk loudly on a train or a bus - and I don’t care if it is in a foreign language - keep it to yourself!
• When you cough in public, please cover your mouth. We aren’t all lovers. Spit-swapping isn’t necessary.
• When you clip your nails on the bus, the sight and sound can be hazardous to the collective mental health of all passengers. And it’s just plain gross!
• When you’re on a Jeepney or the FX, move your not so skinny ass and give way. Don’t pretend to be confused or you don’t understand what I am saying. Let’s see… “Ching Ni Zhou Dou Ho Mien!” Better?

All that said, it’s really not that hard to be considerate of others, is it?

If your Mom or Dad taught you nothing, it’s time for you to know that… you annoy the shit out of us.

That’s how my day went. Sushi. Taken. H. What could be more complete?

Do you really like your job? Do you feel like everything’s not working for you anymore? Do you feel shortchanged? So why do you stay? What’s your motivation?

Everybody knows that motivation is vital for our lives. If you want to achieve something, you need to have motivation to work on it. Have you ever came across someday where you feel very motivated and you are so driven to take actions? Have you ever felt like someday in your life, you just don’t have the drive to do anything, you are in a bad mood, you don’t feel motivated at all?

As you can see now, if you can make yourself keep staying in the motivated state all the time, you can achieve much more in your life. Why? This is because if you are motivated, you will do everything that you have put off long before, you will do your work with more energy, hence, better results. This is why you need to stay motivated if you want to succeed in your life.

In order to keep yourself motivated all the time, you need to understand where did all the forces and energy come from? Why can you stay motivated and where are the sources. If you can find where this powerful energy comes from, then you can make use of it in your life. This is how successful people find their motivation and keep them driven toward their goals and dreams.

So, the question now is, where is the source of energy? Where it is coming from and how can you create this source of energy? To make it simple, it is a one-word answer, reasons. Yes, you read that right. It is the reason that keeps you going in your workplace. If you don’t have those reasons, you wouldn’t want another day to spend there.

I have my reason. I have Kelly, Gay, Almsie, Abi, Ron, Abhi, Evette, Carol, Nina, Ed, Lanie, Gen, Zelot and Liz [now I'm missing Julie-ly].

Are you friends with your co-workers and your boss? Or even former bosses? There’s a difference between being just colleagues and being friends, your relationship extends beyond the confines of the office. Some people might say that’s not professional and make it a big deal. But for some it’s normal – like I hang out with my bosses outside office. And it’s not always true that a friendship between a staff and his or her boss have to begin from the boss. Friendships aside, if you do your work and you kick butt at it, your boss will always be impressed. You’ll always stand out. At the same time, it’s always a pleasant experience when co-workers extend the hand of friendship to you – like how my friends did with me. You spend more than 8 hours in the office, you need to have friends to hang out with, go to lunch, talk, and shoot crap and so on…

Personally, I think having friends in the office lifts up the morale. It’s really important, especially now, when we hear everyday about the recession, the economy, and the layoffs. It really keeps the team spirit alive. There are also dark linings on silver clouds. Don’t take your friend/co-worker for granted. You can’t take liberties with your work just because you had drinks with your boss the other night. [Gay would kill me if I didn’t do my wok right! Sometimes I think she’s harder on me, the same way I feel the pressure to do better because she might think I'm taking advantage of our friendship].

Never forget to keep personal things personal and keep your professional nose clean. That way you can always have a great professional work atmosphere and enjoy nights out with friends. We spend most of our time at work, having friends around makes working fun, and more productive.

Almsie, Kelly and I have somehow talked about gay gestures earlier. We were waiting for some of our friends to join us for lunch when the issue came up. A question started to bother my mind. How are straight people reacting to the current situation? Anywhere you go, you will see gay people. I will categorize everyone that is not straight to be gay okay? I don’t want to argue on this.

A straight colleague of mine has recently expressed some of his gay fantasies, trying to intrigue gay colleagues of his that there could be a little bit of bisexuality in him. A close friend — for years — had trouble fending off sexual advances made by his same-sex supervisors, but recently he outed himself as a bisexual man. An acquaintance, who is on the verge of getting engaged, finds his gay friend’s admiration of his good looks a bigger turn-on than his girlfriend could ever be in any piece of sexy lingerie. A girl friend once told me that if only she’s single and with no kids, she would have been with the same sex.

Are these “straight” men/women trying to prove that they are just open-minded? Or is there more to it? Has political correctness gone overboard, and now straight people think it’s not only okay to tolerate gay lifestyles but to share some of their homosexual desires, too?

What is behind these sudden confessions of bisexuality? Can sex be just sex, no matter the object of desire? Do we live in a world with a population more ” bisexual” than either straight and gay?

A person both Z and I know, hiddenly flaunts his bisexuality and I don’t know if he notices it. He pushes himself to act like a straight guy but his gestures shed his true self. These acts never stopped him from paying compliments to both his male and female colleagues. And so strengthens our observations.

Sometimes, you can see the awkwardness in the girls receiving them. One might think he’s one of the very rare, vocal “bisexuals” out there. But what if his sexuality isn’t all that rare. What if the only thing that makes him a minority is his willingness to be so vocal about it?

People may have assumed a sexual identity through their social interactions and influences. Afterall, how do you know what you’re attracted to, or what “beautiful” looks like to you? Maybe our sexual identity is a product of the images of “beauty” and “gender-appropriate” attractiveness we’re exposed to from birth.

Metrosexuals, the modern straight paragon of male fashion and grace didn’t exactly learn their sense of style and good looks by imitating women. Rather, they copied gay men. Can straight men, then, learn to be gay? Is sexuality more an attraction to a “beauty” aesthetic than a to a gender?

In our society, physical attractions have never been clearly defined. Gay men learn to worship styles from strong, heterosexual female icons. Straight men admire the extraordinary athleticism from their male baseball or hockey stars. These attractions may not be sexually charged but can sound just as homoerotic. But who is to say that if you’re straight you will never go gay? And if you’re gay, being traditional will forever be out of the question.

So tell me, do you also have the tendency?