Same difference

At the Perm, if you work through the night, we call that "nag-overnight". At the Firm it's called "pulling an all nighter".

This week alone, I have pulled 3 all nighters.

Do the math and that is one every other day. So if I worked through Monday night into Tuesday morning, I worked again through the night Wednesday, through Thursday. And then again Friday night through to Saturday morning.

When this happens, days gel. I cannot remember when one ends and the other begins. There is only one day. Just one really long one and it gets dark for a bit now and then. I really can't tell. My back is to the window.

Days gel and your mind turns to mush. You see, I am in the business of details. Commas need to be where they should be. Numbering and bullets formatted properly (indent here, tab there). All these small details need to be processed at 4am. Uniformly throughout 5 documents.

Another day (or maybe it was 4), another dollar.

I haven't been home in a month and a half

This is the longest I've been away from Manila, not counting NY when I was away for 18 months. Strange, but these 6 weeks have felt really long.

I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

It's quiet at the top

I live on the 22nd floor. I've never lived this way up. I spent almost my entire life on the second floor. I was briefly on the 4th, 7th, 8th and recently on the 9th, but 22nd is the highest I've ever been.

The first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. There is no street noise from the 22nd floor. Apart from the almost imperceptible muzak coming out of the 22nd floor landing and the elevator (which you can't hear at all with the A/C on) it is eerily quiet.

And I love quiet.

Pass on Catch and Release

I saw Catch and Release last night. A sappy romantic comedy with Jennifer Garner in it. It was awful. SO bad. And this coming from someone who thinks Cutting Edge is a good movie.

Catch and Release is about woman whose fiance dies just before the wedding. I thought (and I think the director thought too) that the movie was supposed to be about her coping with the loss by spending time with her dead fiance's friends (and of course, eventually falling for one of them). That's the premise, but the execution was so poor.

[Aside: If you want to see a really good movie about the same kind of loss, watch Moonlight Mile (2002) with a still not-so-famous Jake Gyllenhaal.]

And what was weird about this movie was that not only was Kevin Smith in it, he had a pretty big role too. Kevin Smith made Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Mall Rats. Those were really good movies. He understands what goes into a good film. You really don't need a lot of money, what you need is a killer script and some smart editing. Catch and Release had a script that sounded like it was written by the guys who did 7th Heaven or Party of 5. It had a TV vibe to it, and not just because of Garner. Catch and Release went nowhere very quickly. The writers didn't know what to do with the characters -- there was no plot. There were pretty scenes of Boulder, Colorado, but there was no plot.

Also in the movie was Juliette Lewis, who I think is absolutely brilliant, but who was absolutely too good for this movie. Such a waste of talent.

[Aside: Why doesn't Juliette Lewis make more movies? She's totally underrated.]

[More aside: OMG! I just looked up Catch and Release on IMDB and the woman who wrote it, wrote Party of 5! I just said that to make a point and without looking it up. I actually guessed correctly. I am a genius.]

So there, that's Catch and Release for you. A strong cast, but with a script written for Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Moving Out, Moving In, Moving Up (Again)

So I moved out of my fabulous apartment and moved into a nice one. It's serviced too, so my linens and towels still get changed regularly (just not everyday). I now have two other neighbors on my floor (it used to just be me). And my celings are no longer cathedral like. They're now prayer room like.

There are a few things I need to get used to: my bathroom is now just a real bathroom, not a room where I can bathe and hold soirees. There's no DVD player in the bedroom (I never used the one in the old apartment, but somehow I actually miss it), no iPod dock. I know my flat is the farthest thing from "roughing it", but somehow when you get used to these small luxuries (and believe me, you can "get used" to these things in no time), not having them suddenly becomes an annoyance. Which is strange because I lived the first 32 years of my life without an iPod dock and I did just fine.

My new place is also smaller, so I can't really walk around my flat anymore. I have a nice view of buildings and a ledge where I can sit and read (something I didn't have in my old digs), but the whole concept of "going from one room to the next" is now a memory. Sorry, future guests, we'll be very "cozy" on your next visit.

And one other thing -- I have room service now. Which is both a blessing and a bane. It's great to have someone bring in a hot meal at 11pm when you're exhausted and can't even figure out the light switches, but it feels so artificial, just like a hotel.

Good thing I can get used to these things in no time.

At the printers

The last time I was at the printers was a little over two years ago. I was still at the Perm and the client flew N. and me to Hong Kong to work on their "book" (prospectus).

Most of you are probably wondering: why the need to print the book in Hong Kong and fly your lawyers out there? Why not just print it in Manila? Well, because printers in Hong Kong are far more sophisticated than Philippine printers. They can churn out prospectuses (with very complicated formatting -- from a printing perspective) with ease and in very little time. In the Philippines, the process would take weeks of type setting, proofing, etc. In Hong Kong, it takes hours. So that's why we Shanghai-ed to Hong Kong.

I remember being unbelievably excited about the whole concept of flying to HK. Until then, I had never had the opportunity to travel overseas for business. So this was a pretty big deal for me.

Amazing how just two years later, I get out of bed and literally amble to the printers in jeans and loafers. This whole sudden shift in perspective. It never ceases to amaze me. It's never lost on me.

Incessant thoughts

They say men think about sex every 8 minutes seconds. These are just a few of the things that I think about ALL THE TIME (actual thought pattern in parenthesis).

1. The location of my wallet ("Where on earth is it? Ok. It's here.")

2. The location of my bathroom keys. ("Where did I leave them this time? I really should just keep them in one place.")

3. The number of Chinese people in Hong Kong ("Ang daming Instik sa Hong Kong")

4. The Chinese quality of everything in Hong Kong ("Grabe talaga ang ka-Intstikan dito sa Kong Kong")

5. The size of my tummy. ("Ang laki ng tyan ko, p*tang ina.)

6. What I'll have for dinner ("Should I cook? Nah. Nakakatamad. What then?")

7. What day it is ("How many days till the weekend?" or "How far is it to payday?")

8. W.I.M. ("I wonder what W.I.M. is doing right now.")

9. Existential stuff (Combinations of: "Why am I here? How did I get here? Why am I awake? Is every one's perception the same? Do we all see and hear and smell and touch the same way? What is it like to be dead? We all live and die alone. Why can't I see my own face? Why is there so much suffering the world? Why is there so much excess? What makes people evil?")

10. The size of my tummy. ("I really should stop eating, p*tang ina.")

French movie junkie

I watch about one or two French movies a month. That's about 20 a year, give or take a few. I'm thinking that's more than the average non-French person's annual requirement.

I'm not exactly sure what it is about French cinema that I like the most. It could be just listening to the language. (Aside: I once followed a French couple all over my neighborhood just to listen to them speak.) It could be the Parisian backdrop (although Wasabi is set in Tokyo). It could be the constant intropsection of the characters and the extra minutes allotted to character development. It could be the bizarre plots (Cache is THE MOST bizarre movie ever).

What I do like about French movies is the slightly alternate perspective almost all the directors of French films manage to capture in about 3 minutes. There's this mood they want to pull you into. It's not just the story or the characters. It's a state of mind.

If you watch and enjoy French cinema, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't, you think (pardon my French) that I'm talking out of my ass.

A little over 5 months, but really, I'm not counting

I'd like to think there's a difference between waiting and looking forward.

Waiting assumes you have nothing else to do but drown in anxious anticipation. Sa Tagalog, hindi ka mapalagay. Looking forward assumes nothing of that sort. You can be painting a bathroom wall or revising a contract and be "looking forward" to something in the back of your head. Much like how anti-virus software runs every two weeks or so.

Waiting is active. You're on the edge of your seat. You're tense. Mentally pacing, counting seconds go by. Looking forward is laid-back, enjoying an ice-cold diet Sprite and a salad.

I'm looking forward to Halloween this year. I wonder if people dress up over here.

Newly charged batteries

No, the title of this post is not a metaphor for rest or exercise or any sort of human rejuvintation. This post is literally about newly charged battiries. Like cellphone batteries or digicam batteries.

I love the sense you get from having newly charged batteries. The sense of "I can take a gajillion pictures without worrying about running out of juice." "I can text all day!" It's having this sense of security.

And in the same way you feel powerful with newly charged batteries you feel so insecure about being "low-batt". You can't make calls and you're worried if each text is going to be your last. You kick yourself for not charging when you could ("Ok pa 'to, this will get me through the day.."). And when your phone finally dies, you worry about all those inane messages you're not receiving.