I like watching How I Met Your Mother, not only because of the funny gags, smart narrative, the interesting pop culture referencing. I also like it because they're bunch of friends in their twenty-thirties. Like me and my friends. They deal with stuff those weird, transition years throw at you: fulfilling work, significant others or the lack of both. Like me and my friends.

Anyway, in the last episode, Murtaugh, Ted has a list of things to be done now that he's thirty: the "I'm too old for this sh... stuff" list. One item that had me especially chuckling was, "I'm too old to put off going to the doctor." Because I'm like that now. I didn't use to be that way. I didn't even medicate beyond Vitamin C. But I can't afford that now.

Which is why when I got sick some weeks back, all I wanted were those awfully powerful antibiotics. And ever since I got a bad stiff neck some months ago, I've been meaning to see a chiropractor (which got pushed back because of that weeks-long infection). I finally got to see the chiropractor twice since and every visit is like a near-death experience. Every time my spine or my neck was being re-adjusted, I kept thinking how easy it would be for the doctor (?) to slip and break something. Thus ending my, so far, fun life. I've survived, obviously, and I've been recommended to take some maintenance treatment. But I don't think I'm going back unless I've got another injury or something.

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Someone who knew I was a fan of Dumas and The Count of Monte Cristo recommended that I check out Stephen Fry's The Stars' Tennis Balls, a sort of modern retelling of the tale. I found the book at Fully Booked Rockwell last night, and I can't wait to get going.

EDIT: I also woke up today, to a nice, rainy Saturday morning. Had a great tapsilog breakfast, and a potential Easter Finals matchup on TV, Cleveland versus Orlando. Except that the Cavs tanked and got soundly beaten by the Magic. By around 30 points. A day after they lost to the NBA's worst-performing team, the Wizards. WTF indeed. Anyway, another potential playoff mathup, in the West this time, is showing now. I'm hoping this LA-Houston game turns out to be more interesting.

I finished Season 2 of The Wire. And I won't have Season 3 until for another couple of days. Suddenly I feel untethered and that my life has no meaning.

So I'm re-reading Kavalier and Clay. Or maybe Remains Of The Day. I really want a new, great book.

Speaking of Chabon, his first novel, The Mysteries Of Pittsburgh is now a movie with Sienna Miller in it. I really didn't enjoy the book much, and I'm looking forward to the Coen Brothers' adaptation of The Yiddish Policemen's Union instead. The Frozen Chosen... hehe.

Anyway here's the trailer for Mysteries, I'm not expecting much.

Christina Dy

I should've plugged this sooner. Or at least earlier than now, right before I leave to attend it.

If you all have time, please drop by SLAB and check out between the sky and sea, an exhibit of drawings by brilliant artist, pole-dancer, and good friend, Christina Dy.

wake up

Aww.

HT: Ramon

shoot first sightsee later

So I've been back on my feet for some days now. Spent the weekend seeing friends, having dinners, getting a drink. I don't want to ever get sick again. I'm loading up on multivitamins, getting flu shots next time, and I should be watching what I eat. The last part's the toughest.

Anyway, the past week, when I was still under doctor's orders to stay home, I was lamenting (to myself) the dearth of good reads I've been having for the past months. It used to be that I could finish any book. Nowadays, if I don't get into it by the first couple of pages, I put the book down, and almost never reopen it again. I think it's partly age. You know what you want, you don't want to waste your time.

As soon as I was able to get out, I hit the bookstore and shopped for some books. First thing I found interesting was Thomas Pynchon's Against The Day. Pynchon is one of those guys tagged as one of America's greatest modern writers. Poor guy. He's sometimes mentioned in the same breath as Roth and McCarthy, which is good company. He's also almost as reclusive as Salinger. He does however turn up in the weirdest of places (i.e. cameos in The Simpsons, and supposedly in an interview for Playboy Japan).

Against The Day was published in 2006 and, from what I gather, is a whimsical, cross-genre, multiple-charactered epic that spans the time between the late 19th century (Chicago World Fair, 1893) and the WWI. I'm only on page 20 and I'm still getting the hang of it.

It seems already dense and ironic. So for to balance things out, I bought a Mario Puzo book too. While I enjoyed The Godfather and The Sicilian, and while I at least appreciated the shock value of The Family, this last one, The Fourth K, was just plain boring. It felt like a meandering, heavy-handed, melodramatic treatise on power and the covenant between government and the people. In the beginning of the book, the richest, most powerful man in the world got to be that way by amassing a never-heard-of wealth of ten billion dollars. I read that line, gave thanks for Dr. Evil, and checked when the damn book was published (1990).

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I just saw In Bruges awhile ago. Awesome. Everyone should watch it.