Pre-departure panic

I'm a very O.C. packer, so I'm freaking out right now because we're leaving for Europe tomorrow and I have barely begun packing. Instead of folding sweaters and putting toiletries in ziploc bags, I'm trying to file our company's income tax return through the BIR's blasted website, which is hopelessly bogged down by the thousands of users rushing to beat tomorrow's deadline.

Oh screw this. I'll try the site again later. Now where are my wool socks?!?

2-week blog silence starts... now.

Ever had one of those days...

...when it seems like the forces of the universe are conspiring against you and making you look, act, and feel like a complete and utter fool?

Yeah. Me too.

On the bright side:

• I can attend Nikki and Logan's wedding after all!
• one extra full day in Paris!
  
• thank goodness for brothers you can send on embarrassing emergency errands
  
• concealer is a lifesaver
  
• finally found a copy of John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick
• watching Gerard Butler in Nim's Island tomorrow =D
  
• 4 more days 'til we leave on our tour of Scandinavia and Russia, whee!
  

Why can't we all just get along?

First it was Darfur. Now it's Tibet. Everyone seems to be finding convenient, politically self-righteous excuses to ruin the Beijing Olympics. If the international community has so many bones to pick with China, then they should have protested back when the country was still campaigning to host the Olympics, not now in the middle of the torch relay. Do these activists and concerned citizens of the world actually think that dousing the Olympic flame with fire extinguishers is going to convince China to ease up on its military crackdown in Tibet? Will accosting the poor innocent athletes carrying the torch solve anything? Oh yeah, sure, using military force to control violent riots in Tibet is "excessive" and "inhumane", but viciously pelting wheelchair-bound athletes with bottles and cups is ok? It's pathetic how these passionately angry mobs, who are supposed to be advocating human rights and peace, are resorting to the very violence they are condemning. This shows how blinded they are by their hatred of a nation that admittedly is not the paragon of humanitarianism and democracy, but is currently being vilified to an extreme simply because they are hosting this year's Olympic games.

As we were watching CNN reports on the botched torch relay in Paris, my mom voiced out her theory that if it were the US hosting the Olympics, no one would be lining the Champs Elysee screaming "Free Iraq!" or lunging to grab the Olympic torch as an act of protest against the war. I don't think anyone can say that the human rights violations in Iraq are not as bad as the ones being perpetrated in Tibet. But for some reason, it seems easier for people to vent their rage at China, a non-Western nation with a culture alien to some and a political system disagreeable to most. And now everyone's seizing this golden opportunity to keep throwing monkey wrenches into the preparations leading up to the Olympics, just so they can deny China its moment of glory.

The real victim in all this chaos is the Olympics. The anti-China protesters don't see that they're not just ruining the Beijing Olympics, they're ruining the Olympics, period. What should be a venue for global interaction, camaraderie and solidarity is being stripped of its spirit and significance because it is being used instead as a means to gang up on China. I already made it clear in an earlier blog post how I feel about holding the Olympics hostage for political purposes. This is what upsets me the most when I see people trying to sabotage the ongoing torch relay. They may be succeeding in putting more pressure on China, they may be succeeding in bringing attention to the causes they're championing, but they're also succeeding in destroying a time-honored, noble event which espouses the very ideals they advocate. If these people have a beef with China, they have every right to raise a ruckus, but where the Olympics are concerned, they should put down their picket signs and empty Evian bottles (Christ, I hope they were empty!), and let the flame pass in peace.

KICK-ASS!

A spin-off of 90210. A New Kids on the Block reunion. And now, this jaw-dropping teaser photo of Snake Eyes from the upcoming film adaptation of G.I. Joe:

All together now, children of the 80s: YO JOE!!!

Back to Beverly Hills

If you're a late Gen X-er, or an early Gen Y baby like me, then chances are you'll be tickled pink to learn that a spin-off of Beverly Hills 90210 is in the works. 90210 is the granddaddy of poor-little-rich-kids TV shows like Gossip Girl, The O.C., One Tree Hill, and though I've never watched any of those so-called "emo" series, I freely admit I was a 90210 fan in my preteens through my teens. And since it was such a definitive pop culture icon from my youth, I feel a weird sort of protectiveness towards it, and I'm worried that the spin-off will not do it justice at all. But if they manage to pull it off a la Transformers, then this Gen Y-er just might be returning to the most famous zip code from 90s TV.

A nostalgic treat for my fellow 90210 groupies:



Threw this in too, because I found it cool in a cute, dorky way:

Snippets

For the next 2 weeks, up until we leave on our trip to Scandinavia and Russia, I will be going through a self-imposed period of detox from junk food, sweets, and snacking in general. My motivation is not rooted in health consciousness, but plain old vanity. I just don't want my siopao face looking extremely siopao-ish in all our Europe photos. I'm calling this my camwhore crash diet. You'll see the results next month when I post the gazillion photos I'll be taking on my Multiply.

* * *

Yesterday I found out that my guama's 80th (81st in lunar years) birthday celebration had been postponed from April 7 to 13, coinciding with Nikki and Logan's wedding. :( I can only hope that there will be enough time for me to make it all the way to Tagaytay in time for the reception, or else it will be the 2nd LM wedding I miss. I still feel bad that I wasn't at Yang and Angelo's nuptials 7 years ago.

I really hate the confluence of events in my life.

* * *

Today's Angkong's 8th death anniversary. I can't believe he's been gone for 8 years already. Lately it seems like time has done a good job of distracting me from its stealthy progress, and whenever I do catch it creeping past, I am startled at how far along it has come. My first batch of students have graduated from college, my dad is turning 60 this May, my brother will be leaving to study abroad... times like these I wish for a "universal remote" like the one from the movie Click, so that I could press "pause" or hit "rewind".

* * *

Stuff I'm loving right now: Yahoo Music's Vocal Jazz station, Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, the prospect of watching U23D this weekend, the TV series Brothers & Sisters, Obama leading Hillary in the latest Gallup poll, Haagen-Dazs Apple Crumble ice cream (but I have to stop thinking about ice cream right now because of my camwhore crash diet...)