adventures in neverland

just saw  beginners  and what a joyous experience it was. for more than an hour, i laughed, smiled, cried and fell in love so many times with the characters of ewan mcgregor, christopher plummer and melanie laurent. beginners is about christopher plummer (hal) who came out of the closet at seventy five (there really is no exact time when to come out and admit to the whole pink world who you really are. so you closet fairies, just take your own sweet time. you'll get there.) after his wife of forty five years died, got a younger man for a lover, joined various gay groups, held parties at home attended mostly by his newfound gay best friends, some in flamboyant outfits, wore fashionable clothes including colorful scarves, bought a lot of books, and filled his home and garden with flowery potted plants.  i wanna be like him when i grow old (but ewan should be my lover, not my son). chos! i love! it's about his son, ewan mcgregor (oliver), who accepted ...

sure, you probably think you are the hottest dish to ever come out of god's by-appointment-only kitchen. maybe you are. your face looks like a movie star, with those flirty, chinito eyes that turn into slits when you are smiling, prominent, well-sculpted nose, thick black hair that still looks gorgeous even if they are untamed with gel and comb, lips that pout like a virgin whore. what else? yes, those abs. your tall, slender body. the elegant walk. the tiny hairs that run from your nipples down to your pubes; then more on your longish legs. did i mention that your feet are size eleven? &&&&&&&&&& but you keep on wondering why after just a few minutes of conversing with a date who's a potential mate, things suddenly turn sour. his sweet smile suddenly turns into a series of uncontrollable yawns, the flirty eyes become droopy and about to fall asleep, the undivided attention suddenly becomes shifty, even staring at those red tiny...

FOR most of us, the company’s name may be difficult to pronounce. But it’s not stopping China’s Huawei from aiming for the No. 1 spot in the smartphone business currently dominated by Apple with its iPhone and the gaggle of high-profile tech companies behind the mobile OS juggernaut that is Android from Google. Mirroring the Chinese economy’s breathtaking ascent into the big league in the global stage, Huawei Device Co. Ltd. is currently ranked No. 3 in global smartphone shipments, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, just three years after the firm embarked on the smartphone business. “It’s a long way to go [before we become a leading smartphone maker],” said Shao Yang, vice president for marketing for Huawei Device, during a recent news briefing at the company’s sprawling headquarters in Shenzhen, China. “There is no exact timetable, but that’s our target.” Aiming for the No. 1 position has always been Huawei’s goal since he joined the firm in 1998, S...

there i was. unable to think straight. in a crowded airport in hong kong. my mobile phone had just died and i didn't have my charger with me. i simply forgot to pack that darn thing. it was a busy afternoon. tourists from around the world crowded both gates of the airport. there was a group of middle-aged men and women from the mainland wearing similar red jackets and carrying flags. their luggage spread on the sparkling white floor. there was a group of football players, all of them tall and muscular, some in shorts, others in sweat pants, talking in a strange european language. from where i was standing, a few feet away from them, i could smell their manly scent -- a combination of perfume, sweat and cigarettes. %%%%%%% i was there to meet my friend who was arriving from kuala lumpur that afternoon.  he was my passport for an overnight stay in the former british colony, which i left nearly a year ago. he agreed to let me stay for a night in his flat. but the thing was...

“DIVINE” was the very first word that raced through my mind like a sprinter eager for a win as Christoph Heidt was explaining to me the concept of Vom Fass, a store that is set to revolutionize how Filipinos shop for whiskey, scotch, vinegars and oils that they need to prepare for that perfect meal. “Exquisite” came next. Imagine going inside a shop where you can first taste, then smell the wines, vinegars and oils before buying them. You can also decide on the quantity of your purchase, the kind of bottle or container that the products will be placed into, and the packaging. The best part is, all of these will come straight from a cask. Now, you won’t get this kind of excitement when you shop for spirits and oils in the supermarket, where everything has already been bottled up. Chances are you might end up regretting your purchase when, after trying the products from the supermarket at home, you discover that the taste or the aroma is not to your liking. That won’t happen at...

after a series of very serious postings -- carried away as i was by the devastation wreaked by super typhoon yolanda on my beloved tacloban city and some parts of samar, leyte, cebu and iloilo -- i am doing something light that can hopefully bring a smile or two on our wrinkled faces and restore some luster on our greying hairs caused by the government's ineptness in dealing with the storm. if you are tired of staying inside the airconditioned shopping malls that tempt you to buy, buy and buy things that you don't actually need, then may i suggest walking around roxas boulevard (if you don't mind the occasional stench coming from the filthy manila bay, street kids in tattered clothes begging for money, and the homeless staring at you with hunger in their eyes) and the cultural center of the philippines all the way to the philippine international convention center. it's best to do this in the afternoon so you can catch manila's famous sunset along roxas boule...

volunteers should log out, surrender their ids, and talk to psychologists or psychiatrists before leaving villamor airbase to help them de-stress and process their feelings after interacting with the victims and survivors of the storm. that's from a dswd (department of social welfare and development) staff tasked to brief volunteers before they are sent to different tents to help out. &&&&&&&&&&&&&& but before that, let's start from the beginning. &&&&&&&&& we arrived at the villamor airbase at around thirty minutes past seven after getting lost thrice. the taxi driver that we hailed from harrison plaza took us to resorts world where he thought there was a packing center for relief goods intended for the yolanda victims. but a staff in-charged of traffic at resorts world told the driver that the packing center is somewhere near marriott hotel. so he drove again to marriott w...

there's always a moment in our life when we are shaken from our endless, dreamless sleep and realize that something beckons us to do something, either chase a dream or cast a spell on someone else, or be somewhere else, a thriving city or an unfamiliar virgin forest. it doesn't matter really, what's important is we have been awakened from a deep slumber and is ready to move. the good news is, i am almost there. &&&&&&&&&& i can't pinpoint exactly what is that specific event, stimulus, or even who that person is who becomes the trigger for this renewed vitality. maybe it was the typhoon yolanda that devastated tacloban city, my sister's beloved city and right next to the town where i was born and grew up. or it could be my beloved younger sister's strength in facing the storm (days before the typhoon made a landfall in tacloban, i asked her to consider moving elsewhere, but she assured me that her place is safe. ...