What I'm Reading

I went to Barnes & Noble today and bought Gregory Maguire's new book "A Lion Among Men". It's the third in his Wicked series. The first was "Wicked", which I read about 5 years ago. The second was "Son of a Witch", which I have not read. The stories are a different view of L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz stories. The readings however, are not for school age children, but are more challenging. Anyway, I bought it and have gotten through the first four chapters.

On my way to the Philippines, I bought "Brisinger" at the Dallas airport, which is the third book from Christopher Paolini. The "inheritence" series began with "Eragon", which I read, the second book was "Eldest", which I received from Wendy and her family during Christmas of 2006 and have read. I finished "Brisinger" on the flight home from the Philippines and I enjoyed the book

I am currently on chapter 32 of the final Harry Potter book "Deathly Hallows", which I bought last year and am finishing for the third time.

I am already anxious for the last book of the "Inheritence" series, although it may be a couple years before that comes out.

p.s. I also watched "Max Payne" today. It is a film with Mark Wahlberg in it. My advice if you haven't seen it....save your money. Crappy story line and tons of fake snow in the movie. Having lived in a snowy environment for more than half my life, I get a little irked when I see fake snow in the movies, it's a newly formed pet peeve of mine.

Halloween New Orleans 25th Anniversary

This past weekend, Jerome, Lewis, Kevin, Todd, Michael, and myself went to the New Orleans Halloween party. We had a blast. Here are some pictures.


We dressed as the "Yankthese"

Some other New Orleans guys (our costumes were better)

Guess these guys didn't get finished getting ready.

"In the Navy"

Walking towards the party.

Me and Mike

"YANK THESE!!"

Y'all look Smurfy.

Memoirs of a gay-sha.

Islanders

Amazing bodies on these two.

Jerry and Matt as the PIMPS.

These are some cool costumes.

My absolute favorite costumes at the party. Elder #1 and Elder #2. (Yes, I know I'm going to hell for thinking that is funny.)

Breakfast the next day.

I want Barack Obama to win!

As the voting season is here and we are bombarded by news stories, if you can call it news, it sounds more like a couple of immature poo-poo throwing. I have looked at the different facets and histories of the candidates and their running mates and come to the conclusion that I want Barack Obama and Joe Biden to win. Here are some of the reasons why.

FOREIGN POLICY:
Yes, I know, Barack Obama does not have as much experience with foreign policy, but that's where his running mate Joe Biden can really shine. As the go to guy for experts across the board, Biden brings in a level of experience and grit that the other party cannot match.

Senator John McCain has served in the military and was a POW and that is unfortunate, but at the end of the day, his forerunner and partymate, George W. Bush has almost single-handedly ruined the perception of the United States across the world. I have been fortunate enough to have traveled to other countries over the past twelve years and I have seen first hand how other people's perceptions have changed in the past eight years. Additionally, I have friends from other countries and although the U.S. may have never won a Ms. Congeniality pageant, we are now not going to be invited to any parties either. Regarding Sarah Palin, she knows that Alaska is between Russia and Canada. That's about it. Way to go, Sarah.

ECONOMY:
Joe the Plumber, Joe the Plumber, Joe the Plumber. First of all, Joe is not a plumber, second of all, according to the USA Today, Joe the not-plumber would benefit more from Obama's plan than McCain's, yet remains the poster child for McCain.

Obama has an Ivy League education, knows how to organize communities and works to develop everybody. The current administration and McCain's plan continues to have 5% of the population receive 90% of the money. That's not something I like.

GAY ISSUES:
Neither candidate is supportive of marriage, but Obama supports civil unions, while McCain does not.

ABORTION:
I believe that abortion should be made available in cases of rape, incest or serious liability to the mother's life. Sarah Palin does not share those ideas, she believes that her unwed pregnant teenage daughter should not have an abortion under any of the above reasons.

INTANGIBLES:
McCain has a whiny voice, Obama has a strong voice.
Sarah Palin's accent is hella annoying.
Negative ads from McCain are very unbecoming, and are streching to make tangential/unrelated topics the main focus.

A quick weekend

Due to having to work on Saturday, my weekend was short, consisting of Sunday. I went to a movie "Eagle Eye", loved it!! And then went to the gym. Spent about an hour there before coming home.

My neighbor Michelle had some left over Jambalaya and brought it over...well, brought isn't the right word. She walked so she stood under our balcony and tossed it up....her toss was short, FOUR TIMES, but on the fifth time, it finally made it to where I could grab the abused Ziploc bag. :)

Jerome returned home from his family and we started talking about Halloween. I believe we will be going to New Orleans this Saturday and spend it with Mike/Todd and others. Regarding outfits, Jerome and I pulled out our old outfits from years past. He was an Indian and I was a Sugar Daddy candy bar. It kind of got us excited for this upcoming weekend, but we're still not sure what we will be exactly.

I also watched Spiderwick Chronicles and currently Windtalkers is in the DVD player, although I'm also blogging and doing laundy/cleaning my room at the same time.

That's about it for now unless inspiration hits me later.

Pics from the Philippines pt. 5 (last part)

Pool at the Blue Coral. We spent the night at Blue Coral, complete with little house on the beach. It was so relaxing. I also got a massage on the beach from the staff there. I fell asleep and after 20 minutes, she woke me up saying that she had to take her mat and go. LOL

Beautiful beach.

Dinner at TGI Fridays', accompanied by Wolverine, Superman, and Sailor Moon.

On the way home from the beach, we stopped and bought a pink chick.

Dinner with the transition group from Alabang. (Mike, Amy, Zarah, Zeke, Alice, Carlos)

Me, Superman, TGI Friday worker, and JP. :)

Pics from the Philippines pt. 4

Call centers are popping up like weeds in the Philippines. There are call centers up the street....

And call centers down the street. There were 9 call centers on the same block where I worked.

Anne, Oliver, Boom, JP (eating)

We drove to the beach on my second weekend and stopped along the way for a quick break, it was funny that we stopped next to a cockfighting arena.

A sari-sari store. These little stores dot the neighborhoods of the Philippines and we stopped for lunch here. They cooked up a can of corned beef and rice. Yummy!

Pics from the Philippines pt. 3

The crew at the beach. Me, Anne, Boom, Oliver, JP.

The Blue Coral

Beautiful beach

Beautiful beach

View of work from my hotel room, it's the smaller white building on the corner.

Did you know that McDonald's delivers in the Philippines? These handy bikes will help take care of any Big Mac Attack.

Party time! Anne, Ryan, JP, Oliver, Boom, I forgot the last three. It was Oliver's birthday, and he is Boom's boyfriend. I trained Anne, JP, and Boom the first time I went to the Philippines for work four years ago.

Boom and JP singing Karaoke at the b-day party.

Shopping for pearls at the Greenhills Shopping Center.

Pics from the Philippines pt. 2

Hiring requirements can be gender/height/education specific. (this was a posting for positions at Max's Chicken restaurant)

Aside from Jeepneys, Trikes are also another way to get around.

Hotel lobby.

Hotel lobby, staircase.

View from my room. The tall building is Vivere hotel, then the larger building past it is Festival Mall.

Pics from the Philippines pt. 1

Packed and ready to go.

I started off in Baton Rouge, flew to Dallas, then Tokyo and Manila. "Welcome to Tokyo"

Anyone ever seen a Japanese toilet?

Security is big in the Philippines. There are security guards everywhere, including at the entrance to this outdoor mall.

Jeepney. These are a main mode of transportation in the Philippines.

Tons of catching up to do!

So, if you are wondering why I haven't been updating my blog while I was in the Philippines, it basically came down to the fact that I didn't have much of an internet connection. I could get on for a few minutes, then it would drop and I couldn't get on again. As far as internet connection is concerned, this was probably the most frustrating three weeks of my life.

Anyway, I have completed my three-week assignment and am currently sitting in the Tokyo-Narita airport waiting for my flight to depart. When I get home, I have lots of pictures and stories to update. Here is my flight schedule:

Leave Manila at 9:00am (Manila Time)-Friday AM

Take a 3.5 hour flight to Tokyo.

Sit in the business/executive lounge for 4 hours during my longest layover of the trip.

Leave Tokyo at 6:00pm (Tokyo Time)-Friday PM

Take a 13 hour flight to Dallas, TX.

Collect my bags, go through customs, then re-check in for my final leg to Baton Rouge. (During my 2 hr. layover in Dallas.)

Leave Dallas at 5:45pm (Dallas Time)-Friday PM--Hey, I'm a time traveller! I get to fly out of Dallas, fifteen minutes before I fly out of Tokyo.

Arrive in Baton Rouge at 7:05pm-Friday PM.

I'll probably end up spending the good part of next week, just loading photos and recounting stories of the Philippines, I really wish I could've done better at keeping it updated real time, but c'est la vie!