In My Life

2009-09-18T03:52:00.000-07:00

So now my thoughts are mine.

I love blogging. Online diary. I never kept a diary. But still I have thousands of hours of video footage capturing moments in time. I'd like to think that after I've gone from this world then something of me may be left for others curious enough to see. Inscribed in Bruce Lee's headstone is the quote, "The first step to immortality is to first live a life worth remembering." Now, I don't want to think of what to scratch into the hunk of stone 6 ft above my final resting place, the internet provides a certain immortality. Basically you can't take the pee out of the pool. Now that the blog nation has been wittled down to the true believers and most of the non believers have deleted their blogs and are probably tweeting about every little thing thought to cross their awesome lives...I guesse my thoughts are finally mine (and to those who actually care)

For a while there blogging was for others entertainment. I pretended to live in a world where my blog thoughts were my own, but I'd feel bad when nobody commented. I poured way too much time and effort into my bloggs, more than I did with any writting I did in school. No more. Me.

/Introspection.

For the first time in a long time I can say I'm starting a new phase in my life. The last phase was knowing I was inheriting the Newspaper and basically waiting around to reap the benifits. I've watch all my friends get a career, get married, get kids. With me ever since I finished school I've been in a holding patern. So in every way I feel stunted. I'm still waiting for a big pile of cash to hit me in the face. Whats funny is that I'm not that greedy. I'm pretty much happy with the simple pleasure of life. So what am I really waiting for? I think my personality has played against me this whole time. I'm the most patient dude on the planet, I can win a blinking contest with a tree! Lately I've found that I'm tired of waiting. I suppose either I'm bored or I'm matureing. I'd lay money on the bored aspect.

Lately I've been working in a resturant. All I'm willing to say is that there is a lot of money invloved. Ive taken my mission very seriously trying to figure out where the money is going. I know where its going but I can't prove it yet. And the other day there was a big party going on that I was working with a lot of relitives there. At first I thought it would be weird serving drinks and cleaning up after ppl I know it turned out to be fine. But something my Uncle Bay said to me kinda shook me. He's one of my most admired uncles. He said to me, "So, you're playing a waiter now." And in that instant I knew that I'm still in my holding pattern. What I've been doing these past months is still temperary. Theres no freakin way I want to work in a resturant. I just don't know if I can keep it up before I finish what I set out to do.

My fam moved into a new house. I finally know that this is the last house my familly as a unit will own. After all the moving we've done since...probably when I was still in hs. This is it. The familly home base that will draw the future juatco's home every holiday. I can see it working already, in the past month I see some of my wayward cousins and their family's already drawn near. My familly home base used to be my Tita Lina's house but she passed about a decade ago and our familly has been scattered since. Her daughter, my cousin Ina, is sort of a polorizing personality to put it politely. Least to say not many of us have stood in that house very often since. This new house has an awesome aura. I can foresee my future kids running around here playing with all their cousins.

Rhoel

2009-06-01T00:11:00.000-07:00

Bacon fried rice.

Aperently one can make friend rice with anything. And I loved it. My Bro Randy has retired from KP. His bf is a super sexy sex goddess with the voice of a bimbo (direct quote from Michelle Correa via VeeJay Correa) She is so hot.

Ode to Devona. How can one be so hot? One is born, so hot. One can work in my resturant, being hot. And basically do whatever one wants....and be so hot. Question, how can one be so hot and not catch fire and burn up? There must be a level of hotnness that trandsends human understanding. I don't understand how one can be so hot.

As for Randys bf. I don't know your name but can you get any sexyier? I think I heard her talk for maybe 15 mins and I think I got hard almost right away. Honestly she played this bimbo thing that so worked for me. Time to sleep

2009-05-22T05:06:00.000-07:00

Mid season report card.

I havn't forgotten about my resolution to write my blog.

My birthday was fun. It lasted two weekends with familly bbq's on each weekend spaning mothers day and my birthday. It sucked having 5 hour practices Sat and Sun on each weekend but it was worth it to sit my tired bones down beside Ina and John John and Carlo each with familly because the greatest gift was to get everyone together after all these years of 'thanks for the memmories'. Reconecting with my one and only god daughter was awesome. I've missed all 13 of her birthdays except the first. Back then her dad was clean and responsible and Me him and John were kindred spirits/cousins/bff's. Now Terry is...out to lunch, and John (Jon, lets get real) has like 5 kids of his own. Once again I marvel that we three are the same age. Much like in KP world, I marvel how me Nick and Jeff are the same age. Evidence shows I'm not so old.

Speaking of KP world, Randy has declared his retiring from the scene. Gold watch time? As it turns out I was absent from that practice when he layed down the news. Which is just perfect considering before this anouncement his greatest kp anouncement was the day he 'came out'. Of all the millions of practices I've been to and the few dozen I've missed over the years I just happened to miss the two most important ones. This last one I was too hung over. The one in 1990ish I think I was out of town. It's like the one time I was passed out before new years and I spent the whole next year accedentilly writing down the wrong year...I never actually believed he came out to anyone because I wasn't there to actually see it with my own eyes. It's like it was a long wind up to a joke that will spring ...any day now...25 years latter...the punch line is coming... any minute now.... (FYI, after all this time I do realize he is gay and is retiring, I'm not that thick.)

What do I love? At this place at this brief period of time that I have witnessed this life I can identify a very few things that I whole hartedly love. Don't be shocked if two of them are cars. I love my familly, especially my newest nephew whom I think is a reincarnation of myself. I love the Astin Marting Vantage. I love poutine. I love the 370z, if I were to design a car this would be it. I love the Canucks and the Seahawks.

I have a storey of my greatest love. I think I was 4. As Nicky is a reincarnation of myself, I was told I was a reincarnation of my Uncle Larry. That would be the dad of Elena Juatco fame. All my life I was told I was my uncle. At such a young age I was dissapointed considering he was a rockstar playboy who worked at the mall. (keep in mind I was 4) But one thing I remember was his silver 240z. At 6 I didn't know what sex was, but this car made me feel woozy. I was breathless in it's presence. This thing was sent from the gods just for me. A few years latter he traded it in for a green 260Z which was probably faster because that year he lost his licence and he had to sell his car. The momment he broke this last information to me I made him promise, 'you promise you'll buy this car again.' Which he did promise thinking I'd never remember. I never forgott. I was a ring barer for more than a few weddings because I was good looking like that. I remeber this one time when everyone was running late and Tita Lina was running behind schedule so Tito Larry had to pick her up in his two seat Z which meant I had to ride in her lap. We wittnessed a horrific accident when I saw someone on a motorbike bounce off a car and then slide across the intersection and under a car to our left. Tita Lina covered my eyes yellilng, 'OMG! Don't worry he'll never remember this.' Shite, I remember all that, mostly because I was riding in my dream car. (BTW that was the moment I realized a trained psychyatrist dosn't really know what going on in someones mind. )I played dumb for the rest of the night while my aunt, uncle and both my parents stared at me with their mouths open wondering what was going on behind my eyes. I tried my hardest not to let on that I knew what was going on. That kid was so dead, they probably knew that I knew it. I think I was probably too young for it to affect me but I certainly remember. I could describe it if you asked me.

So in 04 I drove up to tito Larrys house in my new 350z. And I know he was remember what I was remembering. And I know he was loving it like I was loving it considering he never did buy back his 260Z. I let him drive it around the block and then I watched him trying to convice his wife the rest of the night that, "Its a practical car since the kids are going off to school and they can easilly afford it."

I've been buying car magazines since I got my first job. I collect articles from old magazines of cars I like. I have articles ripped out the binding that are older than my nephews. One day I caught a spy photo of the next Z. The 300ZX disappeared in the 90's but it kept re-appearing in the Nissan adds as the promise that Nissan hasn't forgotten. The next Z was a total retro design invoking the original 240z...my love. the official photo's were of a rear 3/4 shot of a strange door handle and a triangular tail light. At some point Nissan changed their stance and the new 350Z was a total modern design. I felt cheated. I actually thought I had a chance to buy the car that stired my soul, a car that hadn't exisisted for almost 25 years. Now that I had the chance, I didn't have the car. I baught the car, at first it looked kinda weird but then I loved it. BUT, if I were ever to design a car...

As soon as I saw the next gen 370Z I almost started to cry. The gods were monitering my dreams and instead of being mad my inner most being was being monitered I felt preditory thinking of how to aquire the thing they had that I wanted. Right out the corners of my own mind.

The first video I watched of the new 370Z in motion they showed a young flip guy being a little bit too familliar with my car. He came out the crowd, opened the door, sat down, started touching all the stuff and my initial reaction is that he just kissed my gf and I wanted to punch his face in. And then he started talking to the camera and...omg he's the guy that designed my baby. So I let it slide. And recently I figured out that he's my age and he's from Surrey. I recently added him on fb and my god he knows everyone I know and I'm pretty sure I've partied with him. Actually he's younger than me and as it turns out, his love for the Z is as deep rooted as my own.

Cheers Randy Rodriquez, thank you for making my dream true. To my dream, see you in less than a year and you already have a name.

Rhoel

2009-03-12T05:39:00.000-07:00

Beware the ides of March

If I'm not mistaken the Ides of march is the 15th. Julius baby, keep your head up for a couple of days. A quick Wiki tells me the ides describe the 15th of March May July and October. From this day forth my birthday will be describes as the Ides of May.

Time time time. What has become of me? As I look around, all the posibilities.

In a man's life there are defineing momments. THE first time. I learned to walk. Learned to talk. Learned to tie my shoes. Learned how to mack. I had sex.

The funny thing about memmory, a smell can mean so much. I left the Phils when I was a baby. I was just past 1. I grew up seeing pictures thinking everything in the Phils was black and white. By some magical force there were no colours that didn't fade from black to silver. Somehow all modern colours were invented in the 70's and 80's and then we saw a whole new world. In '91 I went back to the phils and complained how everything smelled like rotting vegitation...till I recoginized how it evoked my childhood. BTW, when I close my eyes the universe cesses to exist.

One day way later I smelled something...a particular smell in a very crowded small room...

Perfume is designed to evoke sex. And suddenly I'm in a way back machine in my head.

It took 30 seconds googling a certain name and High School to find an e-mail addy. The last time our history crossed I was doing a body shot off her 'chest'. The last time I thought about her was...each time.

The certian name was the first name.

And lately our historys have crossed once again.

Rhoel

2009-02-05T20:12:00.000-08:00

2009...

As part of my new years resolution I plan on reviving my blog. In the past I've always considered my blog as myself talking to myself not considering that other ppl also read my thoughts. Now that I see the blogging nation down to almost non-existence this consideration is probably more true than ever.

I just watched the movie Deception on dvd. I love DVD's, it may not be the most compact media, but there's something about collecting them. Like collecting books, which I also do. It's not the same as collecting e-books on an anonymous file in ones computer. It's nice to hold a book, turning the pages. Holding an old book sometime brings me back to when I last time read it. Example, my summer in Hawaii was Pearl Harbour, Eaters of the Dead, and the Beach. Opening, watching, tagging and stacking a DVD is a process I quite enjoy. I like to scour used DVD bins, and sales bins for those lost treasures at reasonable prices. And even thou my collection is in excess of 500 movies and TV series I watch them quite frequently. There's other aspects of DVD's that are Superior to the Theatre presentation.

The theatre presentation is the preferred method to experience a movie. The larger than life presentation, the sound, the crowd reaction, snacks, and of course the company. I can pretty much chart my life to my many theatre experiences. I remember watching Star Wars for the first time and how it pretty much influenced an entire planet. I remember my best friends birthday when everyone outvoted me and we watched Caddy Shack instead of Empire Strikes Back. If you name a significant movie I'll most likely have a storey or two. And it's not just the movies. I remember 2 dollar cheap nights at Eagle Ridge Theatre or (whats the theatre across from Coquitlam Centre in the Save-On parking lot?) was the place to be in High School. My friends calling me up at random times asking what was playing at my theatre my parents used to own. How I used to get a kick calling the movie-line cheap theatre's at Lougheed mall or the Theatre's in New West because my gf was the voice telling one the movies and times. One thing I don't like are the movie previews they show the movie. If you've ever watched a movie with me you may have noticed me close my eyes or stare at my popcorn or something as they played. I don't like watching them. I hate how they generally show all the good parts of the movie. The last thing I want to see before I watch a movie is the trailer. It ruins the movie for me. I hate how in a matter of thirty seconds I've figured out the entire plot, the visual style of the movie along with a highlight package, and on a few occasions they show you the final twist. For most of my life I've never seen any of them, even the ones of my favourite movies and I resigned myself knowing those trailers are lost to history and sometimes I wondered what they showed. It was worth it to me.

With the advent of the DVD I was delighted to see that they included the many trailers of the movie, even ones shown from other parts of the world. Among the other special features sometimes they'd have commentary from the actors and directors. Scenes, that ended up on the cutting room floor and sometimes alternate scenes or endings. I love it. A lot of times what ends up on the cutting room floors are truly excellent scenes. A person took the time to write it, to light it, to act it, to film it, to sound it, and to edit it. And at the end of the day nobody will ever see it. And a lot of times the commentary would say things like "It didn't move the storey forward" or "because of time considerations or pace" etc. So back storey's/extra info or saving 10 seconds in a 120 min movie doomed this scene? And these same ppl usually mention how they loved the scene and how it hurt to cut it. WTF? I think these ppl just enjoy torturing themselves and telling ppl about how they struggled with this and that. Today's movie selection had an alternate ending.

Deception. Solid movie. I'm a huge Ewen McGregger fan. It was a thriller with a solid storey line and excellent execution. Something struck me with the ending as I was watching the closing scene. *SPOILER ALERT!* It didn't make sense on a couple of levels. Such a well thought out movie and the ending didn't make sense. He didn't keep the money, after all he went through and the fact he let his identity die with Hugh Jackman...and he didn't keep the money? Why did he do that if he didn't intend to keep the money? Now he has no identity and no money. Second Michelle Williams magically finds him in a random square in Spain. It made me scramble back to my brain if Williams subltly mentioned something about a specific square in Spain or something...no. They just found each other. As it turns out the DVD included an alternate ending. And it was way better! It was simpler and it made sense, it book ended the beginning of the movie, it showed the evolution of the main character...and it made sense! And he kept the money! And of course the director's commentary of the final scene was all about how tortured he is that this wasn't the ending used in the final cut. What a dick. Just shut up. This is why 99 times out of a 100 the directors cut is preferable imo. They had time to realize they made a lot of bad choices and have the out of proclaiming that the director's cut represents their real vision, yeah right.

Rhoel

2008-12-26T02:20:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness. I decided to write my annual kp christmas version 4.0 and had to reach back into my blog to see version 3.0 was written in oh six! Check it out. http://rjuatco.blogspot.com/2006/12/kp-christmas-take-3-twas-two-nights.html btw the state of the blogging nation is a kahihiyan. Props to Randy for still blogging. One of my resilutions is to take up the fight and start blogging again. Reading some of my old blogs I must say I'm a good writer. Even if I can't spell. Spelling is for the birds.

Kp Christmas 4.0

T'was the night of KP Chritmas and all through Scotia Bank Place.
Not a creature was dancing,
not even your face.
The bamboo's were slung on the railings with care
in hopes a tinikling would soon be there.
But at the Lozanas house there arouse such a comotion.
The Kp'ers arrived two by two
like the ocean of the ocean.

Now Putrick now Jenilee
Now Pumala now smilee guy!
Come CrisPy come hot date
come Merboo and oriental guy
thats general but I'm stupid!

But do you recalll?The most randy KPer of them all?
Randy the KP AD.
Had a very shiney scooter.
And if you ever baught one
he would claim that his is cuter.
After the eating and drinking,
Kp did their gift exchange.
After the hustle and bussle
Alexa ended up with giant pants again!

Then they watched their DVD.
And Randy came to say,"Rhoel, even blinded with the side lightsI'm glad you hit your mark that night!"

Like a pebble in a pond,from calm to a clatter.
Day turned to night what the frak is a matter?
So I in my sled
I dropped down on the clutch
I punched farward my fist and burned out oh so much.
An echo to my drunken ears do appear?
Fast farward tonight so I can enjoy a new year.

Sleep sexy Vancouver.

In anticipation of my new years reseluotion this will be pasted in my blog.

.Rhoel.
__________________

2008-05-06T22:58:00.000-07:00

I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity. Dust in the wind, all they are is dust in the wind . Dust in the Wind. Kansas.

Time. Each day I wake up, make my play, and pray I wake up for another day. Not so much pray because I don't actually believe in a particular God. But more like hope nothing unexpected happens because I'd hate it if that happened. And a more than a few days have passed since I last cheched in.

I've actually written about 6 blog entries since my last published, but didn't publish. A couple of drunk mad rants here...a couple of heart felt epiphanies here...all deleted. I used to write as if only I would read what was written, neive I know. But the last year I knew if a tree fell in the forrest that someone would hear, and I didn't want anyone to hear. So now I'm back from my vacation. It actually took me a few tries to rememeber my user name and my password. I have random assortment of each and it took more than a few tries to get back in to my thought print out.

Lately I've had a certain feeling. Don't know where to start to close the gap between this year and last so how about a shot gun blast?

-I had a show last week. Three months ago Tito Leny asked me to help out for a show. Of course I said yes. He's asked this from me many times before. But usually it's to fill in for a cotillion that he's been teaching and 4 guys have dropped out at the last min and he needs a replacement who chan learn the coriagraphy of the last 3 months in 2 days. No worries, I've done it like 3 times before. The last time was when I was getting texts and e-mails when I was living in Hawaii about 6 years ago. I look at Marc as my little brother so that makes tito Len as kinda my dad. "Yes" I said. And then a time passed and I forgot about it. About a month ago I get a phone call. I was so hung over that I thought the phone call from 'tita Let' was Erica's mom talking about her wedding I was going to miss because I would be in NY for my cousins wedding. About 20 mins into the convo I figured out 'Tita Let' was Marcs mom reminding me of the show I had committed to. My first reaction was to punk out. A month before a show I hadn't even read the script for or practiced for. Two words. Unprofessional. Unprepared. But the word that stuck in my head after all...loyalty.

A month previous KP did a show for the COJCOLDS (thanks Put, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints) and we performed with a bunch of older performers...I thought that was what was going to happen again the momment of that phone call. I read the scene outline and I was thinking WTF this is fricken amature hour. But I committed. Marc (0f course because of his parents) committed. So MOFO I suppose I'm commited. My first practice with them my heart sunk. The two months from when I heard of the project till I was atually involved was spent teaching the Senior Citizens how to dance and teaching a new batch of young dancers. When I saw them...whats the kareoke equivelent to dancing? Tito Len had prepared me for the worst and he basically asked me, as a professional dancer, to fire these four old ladies. I think Tito Len had anticipated me and Marco's reaction to performing with a bunch of amatures. I was doing my thing after they had performed for me, I didn't know that at the time, and I saw 8 old ladies looking at me hopeing not to get kicked out of the show. Tito Len pulled me aside and asked me to fire these sweet old ladies. It looked on his face that he was embarassed to present me with "kareoke" dancers that had the gaul to share a stage with me. My reaction was "Weird question, they looked pretty good to me, I think they should all dance." and they all rushed me and thanked me. I had no idea what their deal was till much later. So on with the show. I missed 4 of the next 6 practices with my own group. And we have a much bigger show in two months time. Most of the practices was spent on the older dancers and I feel the rest of us were left to fend for ourselves. At some point Marc became involved and I helped him prepare as much as I could till it was...show time.

I was born a shy boy. One day I decided I wasn't going to be shy anymore. I studied acting. I became a dancer. The last company I joined was as an actor and 15 years later I'm an OG dancer.

KP committed for 5 dances. I committed for a lot more. The show lasted 4 hours. I figure 30mins of dancing, 30 mins of acting...and about 3 hours of ad libbing. My lasting thought of that night was," I didn't know there was dialogue in this scene, LETS GO." Usually when I stroll out on a stage, I know exactlly what I'm doing. When I'm in the middle of a show and all I have to work with is a two line blurb describing the scene...and I stroll out anyways...I think I've conqured my fear, but I'm still very shy. The show must go on. That night I made it so. The cast hadn't seen the last half of the show at all. We basically made all that shite up. Marc, Me, Gina, made that shite happen. Unfortunatly it took 2 extra hours but mofo that scene made it.

I'm tired. This post will be published. I pledge to go forward and to go back. There is some chapter back in Europe that I want all yall to hear about. Right wiL? hehe.

Rhoel

2007-09-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

Ain't no cure...

...for the summertime blues. What do you call one that is sick as a sick dog that is really really sick? Me! This morning I'm finally feeling better but I'm going to give myself the rest of the day and start my week tomorrow. With an issue comeing out and KP leaving for Kamloops on Sat 0600 I'm going to have a very busy couple of days. I need to practice the cup trick for binasuan. I'm having a hard time with it because my gutt is too big now. If it comes down to it I'm going to shite it on purpose and just make it look like a funny accedent.

So it's been too long since I've blogged. The year aniversary of the Belgium tour has come and gone. According to those back there the festival wasn't as good as it was last year and none of the groups were as good as we were. And recently we've been told that next summer KP will be KPPST.

Since it is a year later much of my memories from those days is curupted with time I'll conclude with some lasting memories from the end of KPBT.

Gong...gong...gong... backstage KP was preparing for it's encore. For the past 5 or so mins after our final curtain a rythmic *clap...clap...clap* has been echoing around festivalhal growing louder and louder. Then came the gongs which somewhat quieted the restless crowd who continue to clap. Then came the drums and then Vinta. With legs burning and exhaustion both physical and mental using up every ounce of concentration, the festival saw us entertain for the last time. Too bad such a dramatic ending wasn't the end as we basically hung around the rest of the night in costume waiting for the closing ceramonies which seemingly took forever. I remember taking stage with the other countries wondering wtf was going on with my customary super fake smile etched on my face. I don't remember specifically but chances are we got drunk that night.

The next morning Pat and I gathered our things and I took one last walk through the house and we along with our host familly gathered with the rest of the KPers at festivalhal. It looked much different that next day. Much like it did the first day I arrived in Edgem. Half struck it looked like a neglected characture of it's former glory of just a few hours before. I walked around with my carmera, into our change room and around past the bar and back out. I'd rather remember it when it was a stage, our home for the previous 10 days. This shell in a gym, I don't know at all. Too bad I didn't think to walk upstairs just to take a look. I didn't even see our change room up there. Back outside we said our sad good byes and exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addys and took a gagillion pics. We loaded on the bus and we were gone. Goodbye Edegem, I miss you already.

The bus ride to Dendermonde was fun. Everyone was excited to begin the next/last fabulous step in our tour. The town of Dendermonde was beautiful, more of a city than Edegem was. Very old school european. I seem to remember canals and bridges, but I may be confusing it with so many of the other cities we visited. We were dropped off at a school and we put all our stuff in a couple of classrooms and we proceded to the cafeteria where we enjoyed a pretty crappy lunch with the Russians who also performed with us. We checked out the stage which was in a tiny gym a block away and checked out the crapiest stage in all of europe. Honestly, my shoes were getting slivers and there were nails sticking half up. I believe Romeo or someone slammed a hand on one of them. After a quick run through we set up our costumes and explored the city for a couple of hours. Pam and I went shopping. At one point I was trying to talk her into buying a pair of stripper boots when she calmly replied, "I already have those ones." Nice. We went into another store and bumped into a bunch of other kper's going crazy and picked out a couple of nice peices before Randy told us our stuff was ugly so we put them back. The show itself was fun and slightly sad. Iris's last Princess (yeah right, me and Michelle heard that for like 2-3 years). A lot of our Edegem families showed up and we had our last tearful goodbyes after the show. We gave away our oldest bamboo, the only survivor of the orignal set to a group that were hopeing to start a group in Belgium and we had a mad packing job back at the changeroom.

It was a madhouse. Especially for the backpackers who were trying to avoid dragging their costumes and props across europe. We through away a lot of props. That night we broke out to our new host families. From what I can remember our host mom was a milf to the max. Her house was huge and real nice, that is if it didn't reak of cat pee. Eye, Pum and Cris P stayed in one room. I, Put and Edric stayed in another. That night we stayed up and reminised about the tour whilst we got attacked by little bugs. (Edric called them silver fish) that infested the house. Soon we hit the hay but unfortunately I couldn't sleep very well becasue of the smell of cat pee. I also remember almost knocking myself out hitting my head on the roof in the bathroom. We ate bread and chocolate spread and all the travelers through away all their bath goods. It was the time of the terrorist thing in London. At the airport the seeds of a summer of 'when the frak is my luggage getting home?' Were planted. Number one our lugage was way too heavy so Randy frantically started pulling stuff out of the boxes chanting, "I'm not paying for that". One such object was my spanish shoes which I planned on throwing away at some point anyways, which thank god I didn't because they saved my life while back packing. Another thing was we had decided to throw away the bamboos. As we stood in line someone got an idea, in fact a few of us thought it at the same time. Looking at the pile odd shapped luggage that had already been checked and placed on the side we decided to just place the bamboo right beside them and see if they took them. Which they did...which we would later regrett. Soon the group loaded their plane and left us backpackers on our own.

Myself, Mer, Celina, Marque, Wil and Edric began our own European adventures. To be continued...

Rhoel.

2007-05-22T02:19:00.000-07:00

What I got for my birthday, and the things I lost.

Mid term grades. When I was in school it took me at least 3 symesters to understand that a 'midterm' wasn't the halfway point throu a symester and that any test between the begining of a sym and the final was a midterm. I supose that I could use that as an excuse for being unprepared on more than one midterm or another. But as we all know, there are no excuses.

Since the begining of the year of our Lord two thousand and seven and now I've had many tests/trials/ tribulations. But my birthday marks the only half way point. New beginings was what I pleged on the opening chapters of this year and so far I believe I've embraced my new mantra more tightly than in previous years. At every chance I've literally driven down unknown streets when given the choice of a road less traveled. I joined a new hockey league when in recent years I would have probably bailed because I know my skills have since deteriourated. I went to Whistler and used all the new gear I baught last season. And in each case I found something new or rediscovered something I loved and forgot why I stopped loving.

I can't remember if I've ever written about my best birthday ever. My roomates in Hawaii set their busy lives on screen saver for an entire day and did everything I wanted to do. It was a surprise set in motion weeks before by Kat. I don't think I ever thanked you but you know how I feel. What I remember from that day...floating on my board just outside the break in Weikiki watching the sunrise...doing all my favorite things...my first luau getting hammered with my friends...watching the sun set on the beach with my friends thinking how I was the lukiest man on earth.

This past birthday I found myself once again getting wet. Me and three of my brahdahs went to Tofino for three days. I went through a day much like my days in Hawaii, thou it wasn't much later did I realise this. I snuck out of the house quietly so no one else would awake. I creeped out with my board under my arm into the night half asleep. But this time it took a two hour ferry ride and a two hour drive before I awoke on the water half wondering how I got there. My second birthday on the water and my whole time there I thought about the first and how much I miss those days. Our first day we checked out the whole scene and settled on Chestermans south. That day we got wet when it was flat and then almost as fast it was pumpin. One local came out to meet us because he was slightly shocked that this kind of action was only enjoyed by three ppl while all the other tourist were floundering on Insieorater Rock. The Gods were on my side. That evening we chilled with the tourist at Incinerator and eventually got wet half drunk. The last time I went surfing drunk was in New Jersey and I almost drowned. This time I knew better and I only drown a little bit. After a while a group of us set out to turn out the sleepy town of Tofino but my older brah bailed and drove us to our secret camp site because we had a big day the day next. Too bad, there were a couple of cute locals I wanted to get to know in the biblical sence. Honestly I never understood that term.

The next day I awoke to some of the crapiest surf a single person should be allowed to endure. I once watched a movie when a character emphisiesd that the 'squeeze should be worth the juice.' Imagine a whole lot of paddling and only three waves riden. We spent the rest of the day drinking on the beach waiting for things to get better whilst watching a couple of surf schools do there thing. Funny thing is that the local surfers acknowleged us like we were locals and the surf students jealously admitted to me that they'd love to be able to do this every day. I supose my previous experience in Hawaii lent me the air of being a Tofino local. Thou I didn't connect those dots till I was half way home. After a day of this my bradah's and I headed home a day early. A North Van native who studies ocean conditions told us the rest of the week would be crap and that we'd have to wait till (last) Sunday for the good waves. So homeward bound was I red faced and and red handed. The only parts of me exposed outside of my wetsuit.

In Hawaii I got to the stage where I disliked tourist. I suppose that was the same time I stopped being one myself. An imported local is still a local I suppose.

I had a good birthday. Not as good as my best ever but a resonable faximile is more than reasonable. But I remembered everything I miss in Hawaii.

I got a good birthday. I got a couple of waves. I got sunburn. I lost the stiches holding my lip together.

Rhoel.

2007-03-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wake up...

...expecting to be somewhere else. This happened for years after Hawaii. Almost everyday I'd wake up expecting to be in that overcrowded little apartment with everyone hi hoeing off to work and me wondering how best I should waste my day. In the water by 7...Magnum PI by 9...free hula show at the Shell bye 10:30...exploring and wait for Kat to get off work. Now it only happens maybe once in a while. This doesn't happen with Europe thou. In Edegem we were there for only like 2 weeks but we were ultra busy and at times it seemed a lot like work. As with Hawaii I treasure and miss my time in Edegem. But unlike Hawaii I don't have a little reminder of how things once were.

A mile in my shoes.

I love playing with Google Earth. I know where a lot of the past Real World houses are. I've seen most of the locations for shows such as the OC, Fast and Furious, etc. I know where a lot of my friends houses are. Now I'm going to use it while I finish my stories about Europe so you the random reader may walk a mile in my shoes or if you like 1.61 K's. I think I'm going to plow through the rest of Edegem, because most of the particulars I can't remember and besides most of it will be on the final DVD anyways, and get on with the adventures throughout Europe.

So far most of the adventures in Edegem happened in Festival Hal. 51*09'19.28"N 4*26'34.70"E. The house I was staying at 51*09'29.63"N 4*26'48.74"E. The field we danced at in Hof Ter Linden is at 51*09'37.96"N 4*26'13.33"E

The Monday of Aug 14th there was a picnic in a gym somewhere but Pat and I missed it. Our host family spent every spare moment taking us to someplace amazing. This particular trip I can't particularly remember where we went. I believe this is the morning we went to Bruugge. That morning our host family met up with Marc and Romeo's host family. We started with a nice lunch and then we explored one of the most beautiful cites in the world. Whats that famous Italian city with the canals? Sicily? This is called 'Sicily' of the north. We took a nice boat ride around the city and we all climbed up a giant spire. I believe it was called the Belfry or Belfort and stands 83 metres tall. The view from the top was breathtaking. It's amazing how 800 hundred years ago people were able to make things like this without the benefit of sky cranes or materials like steel or concrete. It was on this day I started noticing small matching blisters on my pinkie toes. I thought it was because of the new stage. So Marc et al left for Edegem and made it on time for our practice that afternoon. We left maybe 15 mins later and were severely late. This was also the day of WWIII.

We had two performances that day, one for the Seniors in the afternoon and then a night performance. I believe this was the night of Jamille's Voyage Vinta. The whole time at practice Jamille was very unsteady and I could see it in her eyes that she was unhappy with Romeo and my carrying. A few times I thought she was going to cry. We practiced all day and I figured out Romeo was taking these giant steps that was causing me to shuffle my feet tying to keep Jamille's ride smooth. This practice started out with a few Sicilians watching and then some left to bring them all out to watch, even BMOC. And that night KP's newest soloist was born. All I remember was that when we did our final exit that night everyone started screaming and jumping up and down in the wings. And as soon as Jambon and Jenilee locked eyes they both started crying. Why do girls do that? That night the organizing committee requested Vinta as our closing day encore and we started pimping ourselves trying to sell the DVDs. It was recently brought to my attention that the DVDs we were selling had the wrong region encoding and that everyone that bought one probably can't watch it. That night we partied like usual and brought home our Spanish gear.

Rhoel

2007-03-06T22:01:00.000-08:00

Sam I am...

Obviously I am not Sam. There is no green eggs. There is no ham. FYI, green eggs are most likely poisonous.

Two weeks ago a friend of mine passed away. Sam Largo died of complications due to liver failer. And on that Sunday his spirit went away. I look at a persons life like a book. These are my chapters to the book of Sam.

Once upon a time (the most timless storys begin this way) Likha met KP. I'm sure you've heard my side of this story, but at this time it is another telling of the same story. First generation KP and Likha made a special bond. Fighters from different armys finding themselves in the same foxhole fighting the same fight. My first impression of Likha was 'damn those guys are fucking good! I don't think I belong on stage with them' My second imprssion was, 'wow, they're just like us'. So begins the epic storey. In any storey one has to meet the characters.

I met Kuya Rudy, I met George. I met the other lead dancers whose names are important to the whole way of the world, but not to this storey. And I met a guy named Sam. My first impession of him was this guy leading the charge of Moe in his quest of the love of Liza, nevermind her bf. And then KP became Likhas bff.

My first turbulent time of this match made in heaven came at New Years, I can't remember ('96) when KP went down for the biggest NYE party in the west coast. If you watch my first kp movie 'California Love' I did a time laps segment that followed my steps from the airport to the middle of the giant ass mall where I met up with everyone (KP and Likha together). Nobody understands that peice but me because I was actually really scared. I drove from Van to Seattle and flew to SF with no warning because I finished work and decided to go in like matter of seconds. That was my most memorable NY ever. If you look at the pictures you see everyone dressed to kill except me. I wore a plain wool sweater. I called ahead and everyone said to dress casual. Then when everyone came up dressed up Jello dropped a few hun at Old Navy and Nick droped a few buying a new suit. Not me, I refused.

That first time to SF my first outing after they met me at the mall was a club. I know you all probably heard my stories of my first gay club experience in SF no less but I've never told the storey of when we left. Dinah A was trying to liberate her cousin from the gay dudes dancing cetere stage with him. And with my mind realing from George being gay we bumped into Sam. And he told us he was staying. Est tu Sammy? So Sam was gay.

Once Kp went to San Fran for our first tour. The first arivals was Eye, Flo and myself. Sam begged us not to let on to his roomates that he was gay. Two black guys. Cool dudes. So we decided to stay in and drink all night. Sam intoduced the girls to Boons Farm with Ghetto brown paper wrap. Of course I drank beer. All I remeber of significance of that night waswhen Eye decided 'Im drunk, lets see how much I drank." *unfold to see half the bottle is gone*. Flo asks the same, 'How much did I drink?' *unfold to see she only drank half way down the neck!*

KP used to do the workshops in the upper floors of the SUB at UBC. Sam showed up wearing the same cloths from the night before missing almost the whole work shop because he hooked up the night before.

I picked up Sam from the airport once and we ate Subway.

Sam did the lighting for many of our best shows. He did the first show at the QE with Nick.

Sam toured with us for the last time in Campbell river. He didn't return with us because of health problems. That was the last time I saw Sam I am.

But not the last I'll think of him. I'll miss you Sam.

Rhoel.

2007-01-19T16:12:00.000-08:00

Da GudPadder

Part of trying new things is trying old things that for one reason or another one has yet to try. I suppose this has a lot to do with knowing and sticking with what one likes. Personally its more efficient to figure out what you like right away and then to stick to it. Decision is already made not need to waste brain energy making up your mind each and every time, especially if you are gonna pick the same thing every time. Name any restaurant and I'll tell you what I'm most likely going to order. Next time I go shopping I already know what I'm going to look for even thou the next time I go shopping could be next year.

Part of thinking that one knows what one likes is projecting and deciding that one would not like something. So years go by before I tried my first Big Mac, played Pac Man, broccoli, mushrooms... (for the record: good, boring, I love broccoli and mushrooms). I finally tried a Caesar and almost barfed as I figured I would. It was like cold clam chowder. More than the taste I possibly didn't like it because one would expect clam chowder to be warm just like one would expect beer to be cold or food to be hot. A warm beer with left overs straight out the fridge is just plain yuk.

Sometimes someone can tell me for years that something is amazing and for some reason I resist. Perhaps my own instinct predicts the opposite I don't trust another's opinion. Perhaps I figure no matter how amazing something is it just may not be for me. Perhaps I'm so convinced that I know what I like that there's no point even trying. Soon time passes so that it's long forgotten and years go bye and soon it comes up again and you say with a sort of pride, "You know, I've never tried a Big Mack."

This past week I purchased the box set of one of the most iconic series in all of movie history...so I was told. This movie is quoted by other movies. Scenes of these movies are shown in film classes. Yet for some reason I always figured that if I ever watch the GodFather that I'd receive a fatal dose of Italian culture and that I may just barf on the spot. Back in New Jersey I had friends that just slathered themselves and everyone around them in their culture and I found it quite obnoxious when it's screaming in your face. One of the deadly sins is pride baby.

So I finally sat down to watch a movie. All three movies. Wow. Just wow. This is one of those instances which makes me stop and think of why I hadn't watched these movies a long time ago. What surprised me right off the bat was seeing that the original movie was made in 1972. For such a talked about movie I always figured it was much more recent. The second thing that caught my attention was how young everyone was. It was hard to recognize any of the actors because they were so young especially Pacino and Dianne Keaton. Imagine a movie that made so many careers. Brando, Duvall, Caan. I enjoyed the second movie even more than the first, and yet another career was made with De Niro who' performance over powered even Brando in the original. The third movie was just ok. It was interesting because it closed out the trilogy and brought the story full circle, but the story was kinda weak and Garcia looked like a sieve compared to all the other legendary actors attached to the franchise. Andy Garcia is just one of those actors I never liked. Instead of reinventing a character like De Niro did as a young Vito Corleone and spent the whole time mimicking Caan's character Sonny from the first movie. Another let down was with the impressive line of Don's from Vito, to Sonny, to Michael, that the last Don, Vincent was such a wanker. Not going into any spoilers I must just say that you should watch these movies.

Speaking of barfing I finally got around to watching one of those Jack Ass Movies, the most recent one. It was damn funny for the most part, those guys are damn idiots for the most part. I almost barfed a few times, I even tasted the bile gathering in my mouth. That last joke with the fake bomber and the taxi driver was the funniest thing I've seen all year. I was laughing freaking two hours after the movie was over. That Jay Chandraskahar from Broken Lizard played it perfect.

Rhoel.

2007-01-02T14:22:00.000-08:00

My Way

As the final curtain of '06 came to a close myself along with two others that shall remain nameless decided to form a brotherhood who's mission is 'new beginnings' for the year of our lord two thousand plus seven.

Regrets, I've had a few;
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.

during my year I have two points for evaluation. One is my birthday and one is NYE. It works out nicely that I have a review almost every 6 months. When I review I not so much reminisce but more like evaluate and see how I can try to better myself. And what I've found are that for the longest while my evaluation keeps coming up the same and that I haven't been improving myself. The word 'rut' comes to mind, 'stagnant' is another but the real problem I think is deeper. When one is stuck it can be viewed as something is inhibiting progress. Something is holding one back or anchoring one in place. Another way to look at it is that I may be holding on to something and won't let go. As for someone who tries to live life with no regrets, I know I have a tendency to dwell and have a hard time letting go.

I planned each charted course;
Each careful step along the byway,

If one always does what one has always done, one will get what one has always gotten. I think part of being where I am is bustin out of my comfort zone. That's been a problem for a while and I've taken daily steps to rectifying this. I think I'm pretty well out of the woods in this respect. I keep remembering when I was a kid, constantly in new situations living by other ppls rules. I think as we grow up we learn to adjust our surroundings to suit ourselves and if one gets too good at it you end up in a perfect little bubble. And then at some point one realizes that this perfect little bubble no longer suits ones needs but the skills to burst the bubble may be atrophied.

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows -

So for this years resolutions, instead of the usual ones (My resolutions are the same every year) me and my brotherhood toasted and drank to 'New beginnings!' May this year see me continue down the path I've set before myself and allow myself to fully close one door so I may fully open the next.

Rhoel.

2006-12-22T05:10:00.000-08:00

KP Christmas take 3

Twas two nights before New Years, two thousand plus seven
KP had it's Christmas party, was it hell or heaven?
The food was layed out in the kitchen with care,
Gorging and feasting would soon take place there.

The drunkards all boasted all stout in their deeds
while visions of Belgium all danced in their heids; (Scottish pronounciciation)
Kathy's in Sweeden,
Randy's on sabatical.
The group must move farward with players slightly less fanatical.
Mel times three, Mich times 2, Wil, Mondo, Polo, Ro, Cel, Crispy, Hotrod, Nette, Eye, PCP , and Merboo.
When out on the floor misconceptions shatter,
Our history on stage is all that does matter.
A quick change is made in the wings in a flash,
weekends are for glory, weekdays are for cash.
Brada's and sistah's stand with me with pride,
as truth and misconception colide.

KP is my familly more than mine is.
And we grow by generation with all these new kids.
One day I canot dance, one day I canot play;
one day I'll dream and boast of my momments on stage.
Another old story from an old man undeserved,
I hope you enjoy the culture I helped preserve.

Shy.

It's like 630 am and I should be asleep. But I'll publish this till I can rewrite. No takebacks till then.

2006-12-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

I didn't know I had a blog...

Wholly moly puddin in pie it's been a long time since I've written in here. And I'm talking the whole moly, not just part of it. How does one spell 'moley?...molly...moly?' I've actually started and stopped a few blogs which I ended up deleting because I hate half baked ideas because half baked things are still yucky in the middle.

As it turns out I've been stupid busy and lately when I get in front of the computer my brain has been a bucket of jello. And since there is always room for jello I think my brain bucket is full up.

I still intend to finish my tour memoires, but I'll intersperse them with current stuff as it looks that it'll take a while. As for now, it's off to the races yet again.

Rhoel.

2006-10-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

Ode to Hof Ter Linden

I´m dancin´ in the rain
Just dancin´ in the rain,
What a glorious feeling,
Squishy mud soaked kung-fu shoes make.
I´m laughing at Wyness
Wet T-shirt reveils boobies but no pinis,
Theres a chill in my heart
And I´m ready for a Kriek.

Let the stormy clouds chase.
The crowd from the place,
Come on with the rain
You can't handle my face.
I´ll walk down the two mile lane
With a happy disdain
Thru giant puddles soaked rain.

Dancing in the rain.

I'm happy again, with a Kriek in my hand.
Distorting my brain.

No more dancin', dancin' in the rain.

2006-10-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

All I Hear are Raindrops...

...falling on the rooftop...here comes the rain again falling on my head like a memory...blame it on the rain that was slowly falling...down came the rain and washed the spider out.

As a kid did anyone ever tell you that if you kill a spider that it would rain? I want to know who the mofo was that went on a spider murdering spree on day 6. I mean, DAMN!

The morning of Sunday Aug 13 was spent getting ready for our Rural performance at the open air Hof Ter Linden. As we prepared we traded stories, Randy mentioned how our performance gave someone important goose bumps, Jenilee and Pam told of how we were bringing the diversity the organizers had always hoped for when they first started the Festivals. And when we were ready to roll...we had to wait. Hof Ter Linden is the land of some Baron and we had to walk there but that day the skies opened up and the rain was unbelievable. The drops were the size of water balloons. I'm telling you it was biblical, like day one of the forty days and forty nights before we had to board an ark. Wyness entertained us with his wet t-shirt moment, I'm telling you that it's not as sexy as it sounds. Pam and Melissa entertained us with a stirring bongo rendition of 'officially missing you' as we all just chilled on the stage. Then when the rain stopped being ridiculous we made a break for it en-masse.

All I have to say is that $1.50 CAD kung-fu shoes don't provide the support or protection from puddles and mud as one would think. How do those ninja's do it? Another thing I have to say is that this Baron Von Linden must have been a total baller to have half the city as his private lands. His drive way is attached to the city centre. We walked thru the city past Pita palace, across the city square (which is approximately round) and down this drive way that looked like something straight out of the opening of a horror flick.

Scene: Our hero has to lead his band of WWII era dressed Filipino refugees down a 2 mile cobblestone drive way with scary sounds coming from the forrest on the right with moonlight leaking thru the line of trees separating the drive from the darkness of the fields beyond...

Beyond his giant driveway was his giant gate. Beyond his giant gate was his giant courtyard. Beyond his giant courtyard was his giant house and past that was another drive around his giant lake and thru his giant Forrest to a giant open field were there was this cool ass open air stage set up. Basically my and everyone else's kung-fu shoes were ruined. I thought Marc was smart wearing his hi-tops, that is until I found out later that he had ruined those. As we waited in and around our tents we got to get ignored by Sicily some more and the poperazzi followed Pam and Mer around. Hungary perfomed with us that day. Then it was time to dance.

The performance went by with out incident, unless you count Pam loosing her wrap almost immediately (which was later immortalized in a picture in my newspaper) or Randy crushing his wrapped candle glasses together trying to save his head glass from falling (which fell anyway) or Wil wondering where the hell on this flat stage he managed misplace his other hand glass (Edric punted it off) or the magicians having to stand up leaving the mics and move onto the stage during tinikling or getting trapped on stage after the performance because it was too dangerous to leave. So it was pretty much uneventful.

We had that evening off and our host family took Pat and I to the light festival in Reet. Apparently Reet means 'ass' and our host sister being from Reet and with a last name of Von Reet is actually literally 'from ass'. The Light festival was amazing. The city of Reet closes down this whole neighbor hood and sets up beer gardens and stages all over the place. The houses dress up their lawns with a series of puzzles. Example. One house had a series of clues arranged around what looked like a women with her legs open showing off her Pek Pek (Vagina Monologues) and another that featured a smoking jacket, a picture of Bugs Bunny and a bunch of women named June, April, and May (Hugh Hefner). The idea being you strolled around figuring out as many as you could. I figured out 3 out of the 4 we stopped at. I'm a genius eh? And the final stop was a giant tent where Marlies dance troupe was helping host a dance festival. I learned a bunch of dances including the Jig. I can now dance the Jig. Hungry taught a few dances. I also learned what was supposed to be an erotic European dance, it was pretty lame. Obviously these ppl have never seen the tango or any Latin dances. A few of the super hot Russian women were there and I tried for about 10 mins to engage them in convo (how the frak did those Panamanian guys do it?)

As mentioned previous this was the second night I didn't get any sleep, but it will be the first time I tell you why. Apparently the night of La Noche I kept Pat up all night with my snoring so he decided that it would be smart if he should fall asleep first and the best way was for him to read himself to sleep. So I'd close my eyes as he read in bed with the lights on and I would wait for him to fall asleep so I could turn off the lights and fall asleep myself. Unfortunately Pat sometimes liked to walk around downstair in our room all night before attemting to sleep. The first time I didn't mind, payback I suppose. But after a few days of this I was going batty. At the time I felt it was fair considering how my snoring was apparently pretty bad. Much later during our back packing I asked some of the others if my snoring is really bad and apparently Pat was just being OA about it. Now I find the reading in bed episode slightly inconsiderate on his part. Perhaps my snoring was just bad that one time when I was passed out after La Noche but still that was like our 5th night there.

Rhoel.

2006-10-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

The Morning After...

...is usually one sleep after la Noche before.

So I woke up from a wonderful dream that day five. As it turns out it would be my last good night sleep. So I get up and go about my business as usual. By this time Pat and I are well into our habit of sleeping through breakfast, in time to get ready in time for lunch and off to work. Have you had a dream so vivid that at some point the next day you momentarily wonder if it really happened? All that next morning I kept getting that sneaking feeling that something significant happened and I missed it.

Off to Festivalhal for costumes and props and then a ride with Walter to Hotel Ter Elst for stage blocking and run through. When I arrived I was leary of looking anyone in the eye just in case I did something wrong la noche before because usually when I wake up with alcohol induced amnesia I generally assume my brain is saving my sanity from some sort of trauma. Sicily was doing a run throu, I don't know why considering they were doing the same show...yet again...and I found it slightly tragic how BMOC had to illicit "applause" on cue. Even from spot in the middle of the theatre I was getting a weird vibe coming from the stage. This is the morning when BMOC stood in Iris's face when she was practicing Sinkil in the hall and stared her down. One version I heard had her calling him a 'shite head' under her breath but she kinda denied it when I asked her. When our time came to mount the stage I tried to approach Alyssa but she sort of just shook her finger at me and mouthed 'bad boy' as she smiled and walked away for the last time. As it turns out that would be the last I would make eye contact with her. Iris told me that Alyssa gave me a really evil look when I turned around. BMOC tried to eyeball me but I just brushed right past him like he wasn't there. It was at this point I tried to remember wtf happened the night before. As it turn out I remembered what happened the night before but apparently it was more of a big deal than I remembered. Apparently I was remember the Cliff's Notes version. Even Claudio wouldn't talk to me, normally that dude is a chatterbox. I started to get the feeling that BMOC ripped into his dancers because of the night before.

The run thru was fine, I noticed the bamboo's sounded awesome on the stage. I also noticed at some point that there were a lot of dancers from the other groups and various other ppl in the theatre and they were applauding us as if we were already performing. We left our stuff there and we went back to festivalhal, Cristina and a few others even tried to walk back when we were left short of rides. They eventually got picked up.

Because there was limited space at the theatre the groups got bussed back and forth in shifts. Prep at the Hall, bussed to the theatre, performance, then bus back. That day we actually did a meeting in costume on the bus. We performed Gala that night for old people. From what I remember we killed it. I think that was the performance that really got people buzzing about KP. We started getting accolades from the theatre director saying we were the most professional group. We were told how it was professional how we could party all night, but know when to turn it on at performance time, things of that sort. That was also the day that Edric became even more annoying than usual making yet another big deal about the pandango glasses. At least he wasn't making a big deal out of the Med kits. It was at this point I felt I may actually kill Edric at some point during our group backpacking trip after the tour.

After bussing back to the Hall most of the group went there separate ways, but a few of us chilled at the side of the hall using our free drink passes drinking and gossiping. Me, Pat, Pam, CC, Eye, Crispy, Jenilee, Jamille, RomeHo...I'm sure there were a few others did some chillaxing. We went over what happened the night before mostly, they filled in my memory gaps. Pat couldn't find enough people to tell how I slept snoring a storm the night before with an evil smile on my face, scratching myself (not what you think, but suggesting what you're probably thinking. Memorable moments: Pretzel Sinkil and Vinta. Boy Friend/Girl Friend. Re-inactment of Jamille in the box. Beer differential count plus one. This is the night that I found out Romeo was also counting the different types of beer he was trying and he was beating me by like five. I decided that I would close the gap even if it would deprive me of my Kriek. While we were chillin like villains BMOC was holding court in what looked like a very intense meeting. What a tool.

On the way home I ran into Claudio and he started telling me that Italian girls didn't give up the goods. At first I didn't know what the hell he was talking about because I just assumed it was a lost in translation moment till I figured out that he was talking about Alyssa and that she wasn't pleased about my performance the night before which I found ironic because part of the reason I started boozing hard core the night before was becaue everytime I went to talk to her she was glued to every other Italian dude, which slightly upset me in my inebriated frame of mind. My answer to the situation? Drink more! This actually works for many situations. Which further distorted my point of view. It's a vicious circle. Now that I think about it I may have been wrong about that whole thing. So that closed the chapter on that. Very regrettable. Not what I did because I did what I did and I did it. Regrettable because there are better ways and other ppl I'd rather waste my time on. I was under the impression that there would be other chances to socialize but as it turns out that was it.

I really got to get thru blogging about the tour so I can get onto the more interesting stuff that happened backpacking. Later on this week I'll try to knock out the rest of the tour real quick like 'cause I'm loosing my motivation and I'm having a harder time remember why back then.

Rhoel.

-We're caught in a trap
I can't walk out
Because I love you too much baby

Why can't you see
What you're doing to me
When you don't believe a word I say?-

Suspicious Minds- Elvis Presley

2006-10-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

The Night

La Noche. A night like no other, preceded by a day like no other. I qualify that last statement because I will never do the things I did that day in exactly the same sequence. This day was Aug 11th.

The day started off with Spanish. From what I remember of this performance was mostly about the Russians. I remember the Russian guys standing in the wings with us making fun of our Jota hats (just because you're talking Russian it doesn't take a genius to read your body language and actions), and I also remember them shutting the fuck up as soon as we started dancing. BTW, wtf were you doing in the wings mofo? I also remember all the Russians chillin backstage when we were all quick changing. My most delicious moment was when these three guys were chilling all over my quick change area and I ran at them yelling 'Get out of my fuckin way please!'. I said please. It was funny watching them dive for cover saying 'Sorry!' I wasn't even in a quick change I just wanted their arrogant asses out of my frackin way! As for the show itself, I was a little disappointed. Not at the execution, but at the reception. I genuinely feel that Spanish is the show stopper mother flucker. Spanish is the measuring stick. Spanish is the test of ones skills. My feeling was that Jota Manilenia should have floored them but instead it was just slightly interesting. It wasn't till much later that I figured out that they've probably seen something similar and the crowd seems to be impressed with the more exotic of our dances. It was at this time I also figured out that our magicians rock, Spanish is the hardest to play. I love the music for Spanish. I also realized that all European folk music sounds like clown/circus music.

After the show my host family took Pat and me to the city of Lier. When one thinks of Europe one thinks of cities of canals and Lier was the first city where I saw a canal. My first of many. Virgin no more. The city was so old world beautiful. Myself, Marlies and Pat explored the clock tower (a tower I mistakenly thought was featured in 'The Long Way Around'). I tried this famous Lier pastry, (honestly I can't remember it specifically) and I tried a Lier based beer that tasted yucky. Beer differential is approx 6.

So let the night begin. When I first heard of La Noche in the tour notes I just thought it was another party on the side stage for performers and festivalists. I knew we'd eat some Spanish rice, but I thought it would be low key. Who knew it was a huge party at the beginning of a festival? Well it was Friday, and apparently Friday was the night.

La Noche

In my experience, if I can't remember something...it probably didn't happen unless my imagination made it up. Therefore, most of what I heard about La Noche is myth. It's like everyone knows someone that knows someone that's seen a Sasquatch, but nobody has actually seen one. BTW I've seen one. I think it's written in the 'Guy Code' that if one can't remember something then it didn't happen. Alcohol induced amnesia or no. So, video evidence and key eye witness accounts decree that I had a ridiculously good time.

I rolled into festifalhal quite surprised that it was packed and that the seats were arranged into tables. Next I was slightly embarrassed that I was wearing the same stinky outfit since right after the performance. So as the party started I kept on my hot ass micro fleece as long as possible that probably caused me to sweat off a few pounds. And then it was on. I threw myself into the spirit of things mind body and soul. Then the spirits started to catch up to me as I lost my mind and sold my soul.

I remember drinking heavily. I remember Eye ordering 3 bottles of wine at one time. I slightly remembering my host brother giving me advice on some shite or other. I remember the "Cheers committee". I remember altering my ordering sign to give everyone 'the finger'. I remember my last happy moment with Alissa. I remember parts of Mafia GF and her hairy eye-balled bf that she introduced me to. It was at some point between Alissa and throwing myself on the granade that turned out to be Mafia that things start getting fuzzy. I remember Lyrical Randy. I remember rag-doll Mer. I remember serenading someone. I'm remembering it being Pam, but apparently I sang to Marlise at some point too so it may have been all her. I remember having the fricken time of my life. So basically La Noche is a myth.

And then I woke up from a wonderful dream.

Rhoel.

2006-09-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

Trying to keep count.

The third day was a day of firsts,... a few singles, too many, a number 1, a second, and a fifth.

KP has entered the building. Day 3 would be our first performance in Festivalhal. When I first dropped off my stuff at the hall the first night I saw the set still undressed. The stage was very impressive with two ramps leading onto the only openings in the corners. The magicians had their own stage and entrance. The light structure and sound/lighting booth set up looked very impressive. Our change room...not so impressive. It was like an elementary school change room. It was like having all our stuff in the hallway outside of our dance studio at Scotia. So of course we expanded our territory to include the massive shower room. If you peeked into the other countries change rooms you see orderly presentation of their only costume and everyone lounging around. With us if you peek in you see a mass of boxes, costumes, luggage and ppl all over the place. It's like they packed our change room so tightly that it all burst into the shower room on the other side. Apparently we had a large change room upstairs but I never even went upstairs the entire time in Edegem. I still have no idea what it was like up there. The shower room of course had motion detector sensors and during the first day I backed into one and my costumes got rained upon. As I hopelessly tried to block the flow with my hands all hell broke loose as everyone scrambled to save their own costumes and I hear a voice from across the way,"Um...move your stuff!" Lucky my water proof Pandango outfit was on top and it curtailed any further damage. That day marked the opening day of the Festival. It also marked the birth of Pam's "dancing for singles(money)". "UM! One Dollar! UM! One dollar for you! UM! One for you!" It marked the return of Kathy. It marked the birth of Jenilee's Miss Pill-A-Pines walk/wave/curtsy for the opening ceremonies. Our first Bastos sighting, and our first group outing to the Pita Palace (Millennium Pita) unofficial caterer to KPBT '06. It also signaled the beginning of KP's Quest for the poster. Every year a new poster is produced and displayed on a wall of honour featuring a group from the previous year and KP endeavored to be so immortalized. So let it begin.

The opening day we got to practice on the stage for the first time. Our first performance of the day was for the Press con. I honestly can't remember that performance but I know we danced Malong and Blit. In the evening we watched Marc, Vince and Jenilee represent at the opening ceremonies and we got our first glimpse of the 'competition' as we wathed the first half and then we closed the first day with Variations A. I'm telling you they didn't know what hit them. With every other country performing happy go lucky dances I think we basically mugged the crowd with Variations A. In the words of Mitch, "I thought I knew what to expect but I didn't know you'd kill someone! Dang!"

That third day was a night of many firsts. KP sang in the shower all together. The first night we partially destroyed the stage while we brought the house down...for the first time. The first party on the side area of the stage for the performers and festival workers. The first real Kriek session at the bar at the back of the hall. We saw how those crazy Europeans line dance badly (and according to Pam dance badly in general). I also think it's the night Sicily decided they would try to compete with us.

It was the second day I had a nice conversation with Alasa. From now on I'm going to assume her name was actually Alissa. And by conversation I mean having Claudio translate back and forth till he got tired and left us to stare at each other.

Day 3, My differential beer count is aprox 5 I tried a Trappist that night. So FYI, Kriek, Kwak, Whitehal? (white beer, yuk), and another I can't remember from the previous night. I think I'll forget about trying to remember the names.

Rhoel.

2006-09-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

Later on that Night...

As I'm fumbling with the jigsaw puzzle that is my memory I'm trying to figure out the sequence of events. I'm following Cristina's blog to pace the performances and main events, but I'm forgetting what we did on which days when it came to our free time. With the aid of the video camera footage I believe that first full night in Belgium our host family took us Antwerp. If I'm wrong with the sequence of events then sue me.

As we exited from the parking garage I look over at Pat and I mention, "Hey, that dude looks like Edric." And as we got closer, "Yo mofo! That is Edric!" So Edric et al come with us to the famous underground foot tunnel. When we get to the bottom we find out that we are not allowed to run, scream, sputten "spit" or generally act like a tourist. But I live bye the rule, "To thine own self be true." So I, being a tourist acted like a tourist and decided to write a scene for the DVD. One that would look like everyone dashing down the tunnel screaming away from the camera (quick cut) to everyone stopping short of the camera wondering how they got all the way to the 'end' of the tunnel so fast. Needless to say Pat had a different idea on the scene which turned out much funnier, but you'll have to wait for the DVD.

After our groups parted ways we explored Antwerp. We saw the Castle with the scary Wraith statue, we saw the first of many beautiful cathedrals on the trip. We went to the square with the Statue of the epic battle in which a hero tears off the hand of a giant and tosses it into the river (apparently Antwerp name is derived from this storey, perhaps it means "To throw giant hand in river" or something). We had drinks in this pub with thousands of Mary statues and other religious symbols called 11th commandment. It was unreal. It was there that my and Patrick's beer education began. There are literally thousands of different beers in Belgium with each it's own glass. Trapist is made by monks. Qwak was designed for drinking and driving. It also has a built in drunk test (if you get qwaked then I don't know for you) I think Pat and I spent about an hour drinking and filming each others last half beer to see if we get qwaked. Kriek is a ladies drink yet its close cousin (same beer without the cherry) is not. I don't give a frak, I'm one with the Kriek. And I wear salmon shirts too. (apparently straight guys don't wear pink. IMO salmon sounds more gay.) After that we went to what looked like that scene in the movie "Interview With a Vampire" where the characters go into the catacombs beneath Paris...only it was a pub called De Pelgrom. All I have to say is that the narrow cobbled streets, massive open squares and incredible cathedral, which was lit as if in day light, was all so breath taking. I felt nostalgic for a culture and place I had never seen. It was all as my imagination could conceive the beauty of old world Europe would be. I Believe that is how my second night ended. With Pat getting swarmed by a squadron of mosquitoes and I untouched. My differential beer count was aprox 4. (The count of actual bottles of different beer I sampled and not merely tasted.)

Rhoel.

2006-09-12T23:26:00.000-07:00

A horse is a horse is a horse...

...and of course my first morning in Edegem I ate a horse. Not the whole horse. "There was an old lady that swallowed a horse, she's dead of course." Also that morning I ate chocolate for breakfast for the first time. It was at that moment I knew I'd like it Belgium. How can one go wrong when ones staple foods are fries, chocolate and beer? I remember this one time my dad put chocolate milk in my cereal 'cause we didn't have normal milk. I found it kinda gross. Cereal good. Choc milk good. Together gross. I also ate my first of many, many sandwiches. Many. Sandwiches. Getting back to the horse, like many moments in my life I charged fearlessly into a dark ally. I didn't think eating it would bother me and at first it didn't but the more I thought about it...the more it started to bother me. I mean if not told I would have thought it was just pastromi. But as I ate I started reconsidering the wisdom of eating pastromi... What exactly is pastromi anyways? But of course I kept eating 'cause I'm a soldier and a ninja. I had similar moments eating balut (which I ended up spitting out) as well as trying things I probably shouldn't have. My loyal readers know my theory of jumping head first into the pool. Lets just say that at certain moments it is wise to look before you leap. My first impressions of my new surroundings. Nice house, nice room. It was strange having someone prepare breakfast for me. It was weird eating at the same time. Normally before a show I don't talk much and like to think of the show instead of a lot of chit chat. Getting to the festivalhal and seeing everyone in the change room was really a relief that first day. I just wanted to get my mind on the dancing.

I believe that first day we performed at the old folks home. It was that first day I got my first whiff of Sicily. (I didn't get to actually see them dance till much later) Seriously, those costumes...oh my lord! Now imagine a whole herd of fresh ones wafting down the hall past us. I was actually slightly worried when they first walked past 'cause they were all confident and I didn't know what the level of 'competition' is at a festival. Personally I didn't feel my level of preparation and polish was where I'd like it to be. Deep inside I sort of half expected not being able to go to Europe and in hindsight I possibly didn't want to get to attached or excited to the idea of Europe. I would have been devastated if I got all excited and not be able to go. It wasn't until the last week before the trip did I really feel confident I was actually going. Our actual performance was really good. I think our clicking for Jota M was kinda random thou. After the performance we all saddled up to the bar, you know the one at the old folk home, and I asked the bartender to give me anything good so he poured me a cherry beer. I was expecting the beer equivalent of cherry coke or Dr Pepper, you know tastes like coke with some cherry syrup mixed in there. But what it turned out to be was ambrosia. Drink of the gods. It just tastes so good once it touches the lips. Soon we were all hooked.

As soon as the performance was over I was in party mode. All I wanted was to get together with all my friends and celebrate how much we rock. As much as I tried I couldn't get anyone organized. In fact at one point Cristina was annoyed at me for wondering aloud why it was so hard to plan something. As it turns out my mind wasn't where it should have been as I had totally forgotten that my host family had planned a dinner for us. That's another thing that was weird, having the host family planning all the supposed 'free time'. As much as I loved getting to know the families and all the places they took us I would have liked more time with the group. As it was, Pat and I were pretty much segregated from most of the other kpers unless we were in dance company mode. After a while Mer, Celina, Geri and myself set out to find some place to eat and possibly get a drink later on. The first place we stopped was a pub, but it didn't serve food. As we left a patron followed us outside and engaged me in pointless conversation for a long, long time. Everytime I tried to break away he would maneuver in front of me. About 15 hours later with CC resting her head on Geri's shoulder Mer moves in to rescue me and instead gets caught in the web. Finally I think we just bolted. On our way to find food we see a Match and decide to do some shopping for essentials. I think it took Celina and me about 40 mins to buy shampoo and conditioner. It would have taken longer if Mer didn't speak French. As I stood in line I see Mer burst out of Match and book it down the street. Apparently my and her host family was at festivalhal to pick us up. It was about that time did I remember they had dinner plans for us (I can't remember where Pat was, that may have been the day he went home with Pam). As it turns out I got a ride home. Monick looked very unthrilled so I did the mature thing and lied and said that I tried to walk home and got lost. I don't think she believed me 'cause she told me that she thought I went to a pub, which is where I probably would have been if we didn't stay so long at festivalhal after the performance along with the other adventures. I honestly don't know why I lied. No excuses. With Walter or Marlies I wouldn't have hesitated to say that I forgot. I hate lying for many reasons beyond the obvious.

That second night Pat was all paranoid about the squadrons of mosquito's that did a number on him the night before. So he slept in a sweatshirt and insisted the windows stayed closed even thou it was frickin hot in the attic. I slept in a t-shirt on top of my covers. Pat got bit thru his sweatshirt and I remained untouched.

Rhoel.

2006-09-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

Lets Get it Started!

Where to begin where to begin...how about the beginning? With Europe about two weeks behind me...or has it only been a week...? With Europe a week behind me...yes about a week behind me I think I've had enough time to decompress. My sleeping patterns are still messed up but as I learned on the trip, who needs sleep? It was my intention to write in my blog whilst I was in Europe, but as it turns out we didn't have much time for such things as Europe was happening all around us. As soon as I figured out that I wouldn't be blogging I endeavored to take notes in my note book, but alas, again who had the time? Then I figured I'd save it for the leisurely days of backpacking but those days of leisure were actually days of frantic thoughts like, "Where the hell are we going to stay tonight?" or "How the hell do we get out of England?". But as it turns out I must rely on my memory and the video footage aswell as the recounts of my fellow travelers. I'll go over what happened day by day. Lets start where I had left off in my last blog.

The day KP left Vancouver started off like any other day. But it ended up quite different with KP...leaving Vancouver. I got a ride to the airport with Marc and of course Tito Leny went over a bunch of little details to make sure I wouldn't corrupt his son and change him into...someone more like myself. And of course we arrived at the airport very early. I suppose tardiness is an Arboleda tradition. Of course everyone at the airport was shocked that I was on time. So I acted shocked at them being shocked. I was a bad actor before I became a bad musician. My first order of business was buying health and travel insurance. With the day being a holiday BCAA was closed aswell as the day before and me frantically making sure I could actually go to Europe the whole previous week and me being me...I left it for the last minute, literally. Insurance at BCAA, maybe 25 bucks. Insurance at the airport, 150 bones. Yikes! With work outta the way it was time for some fun.

As everyone gathered the excitement started to build and I took the opportunity to start with the interviews I had so anticipated. What was said will come out on the final cut of the DVD, but let me just say that I was relieved that everyone got into the spirit of it. After some final goodbyes and the labeling of all the stuff and a wait at the gate we were off! Well more precisely the rest were off, then I waited and about 3 hours later I was off! BTW Cristina, Ryan left you a little note on my camera and he wants you to call him because he was wooed by the voodoo that you do. And then I was off!

The flight was actually very interesting. I started chatting up the girl sitting beside me. Now that I think about it she looked a lot like Astrid, a character you will meet in another chapter. Actually there are two Astrids in this story, she looked like the other one. As it turns out she is a PE teacher from the Czech Republic that had been visiting friends. Very attractive, very toned body. Each time I went to the bathroom she followed me. A few times she got in and out of her seat (I was in the isle seat) and insisted I stayed sitting. She did this by stepping over and momentarily straddling me (it is at this point I felt the tone in her legs and booty). I found this slightly strange behavior and as I reflected upon this towards near sleep I suddenly realized that this totally hot babe may have wanted to fool around! Too bad she's sleeping now. What if I poked her a few times by accident on purpose... Honestly subltle hints don't work on me. Apparently sitting in my lap looking into my eyes doesn't work on me. Damn it just tell me already!!! Dannnnggg! I think I won her over when I read out of her Czech novel in my wicked Canadian accent. So after we landed we exchanged e-mail address (can't seem to find that one) and we shared a really nice long hug like were long friends (it was at this point I felt the tone in the rest of her bod). I was in London baybee! Well, Heathrow anyways. And soon I was in Brussels baybee!

I knew that I was being picked up because there was a Panamanian girl also arriving late and I had this fantasy that she would be totally hot and that we'd hit it off and live happily ever after for two weeks. She was alright, kinda not that great. But I was greeted by Myla and Wyness looking for the lost KP luggage. BTW I met the real Jean Claude Van Damn on the flight over. He's a surf instructor that was studying martial arts in Japan. His luggage got lost too, just as he predicted. What's with BA and their loosing luggage? Oh and just as we were about to leave and all the lost luggage was accounted for I happened to look on the carousel and what to my eyes appeared? Another KP luggage with a giant sticker on it and a little ribbon on the handle that wasn't reported missing...Celina... On the ride to Edegem I entertained all in the car with my theory on love and relationships and my back up plans for the future in to said love and relationships. I can't tell if the driver lady was amused or horrified, but at least she was laughing.

Upon arriving to Festivalhal for the first time I got a first glimpse at the magnificent stage going up and I dropped off my costumes to what would become our home for the next 8 days. Soon I was picked up by Walter, my host dad and was rushed home (5 min drive) to meet my host mom and sister Monick and Marlise. That first night we ate and drank all night. mmm, steak and french fries. Too bad I was so full and just picked at the fries. I was staying with Monsieur Patrick V and we were staying in the attic which was two flights of stairs that resembled narrow ladders to the room, then an actual ladder to the attic which looked like the inside of a ski cabin. That night Pat was attacked by a squadron of mosquitoes. I was untouched in more ways than one.

Rhoel.

2006-08-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

So I'm leaving...

...on a jet plane. I have a few mins to kill whilst I wait for monsieur Polo for our ride to the airport so a few quick hits:

-If I can borrow someone's laptop I'll try to update my blog.
-My backpack weighs aprox 42 pounds. About 30 of which is props and costumes. Both my backpack/attached day pack and my carry on back pack are almost completely packed.
-It sucks that a lot of the veteran dancers aren't coming. After years of dreaming about touring Europe they're not coming.
-You know when you clip your nails too close and you're finger gets all achy? I did that to my right thumb.
-My nice new glasses got the lenses all scratched up. I have no idea how they got scratched and it seemed to have happened overnight. Sucks, too late to get new ones. If it gets too distracting I brought my old glasses to switch up.
-I hope I every one gets into the spirit of the interviews for the video so that I get a lot of good usable footage.

Anyways, Marc should be here any min so I should get ready to depart. See y'all across the pond.

Rhoel.

2006-08-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

Almost there...

Guess what this mofo picked up this morning? Hint: it starts with a 'P' and rhymes with 'ass sports'. hehe. If you guessed 'passport' then good for you. If you thought of something else...I don't know for you.

Today I also picked up my back pack. 70L travel pack with detachable day pack. It looked big in the store but I just now laid it beside the duffel bag I've been using all year and they're about the same size...I'll do a test fitting tomorrow. I'm sure my costumes will fit, but I need enough room for enough cloths for the Eurotrip after the festivals. I imagine I'll pawn off some of my costumes on some of the returning performers and buy up some cheap t-shirts at Le Old Navy or Le Gap. I bought a little Canadian flag to sew on but I now realize I can't sew. Maybe I'll just tape it on...glue...staples...arc welder?

Three days to go. Things to do. To many to list. As it stands now Sunday seems like a panic shopping time. So I won't be surprised if I buy a lot of shite I won't even bring. Sunday is also costume cleaning day. As long as I wash my super baho pandango shirt then anything else is bonus. I actually think the smell is absorbing into my skin instead of the other way around as one might think.

All I have to say is TGIF (thank god I'm Filipino). This is the end of one of the longest weeks I can remember, and Saturday is gonna be even more sexy. I can just tell. So tonight is chill night.

Oh and remember my last blog when I said that 'I hope nothing else happens the next two weeks' or some such? Well of course something happened! My travel agent humped the pooch and f'd up my booking and now I'm on all the wrong flights, leaving two hours later and arriving 4 hours after everyone else. Oh, and I have no idea how I'm gonna get to Edegem. Well, I've been in worse situations in a strange country trying to get by on charm. I've watched Amazing Race, I can get thru anything. Well good night! And bedbugs! And by good night I mean time for another beer and to pop in a new DVD.

Rhoel.

2006-07-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

Belgium Calling

So I finally got my passport issues sorted out. I will be picking it up two days before we leave. What a nightmare. Lets just hope no other issues crop up the next few weeks.

Something I've been wondering about...there is a construction site near my house and my first stop on any trip West is a traffic jam. Early in my driving career construction site traffic was made bearable by the super hot stop sign girls. Every year new and more hotter stop sign girls would join the road crews. Now all the stop sign girls are old big fat hags that give you attitude if you don't look at them shaking their signs. At some point in 1990 was there a stop sign girl union created? And in the time since have all the young and hot girls hung on to their jobs instead of being recycled every year haveing slowly over time transformed into the abominations of today?

Something I've been debating...black (magnetic), silver (airstream) or dark silver/grey (silverstone) like the dearly departed Jessica? I have decided on a black (charcoal) interior. As much as I loved the burnt orange seats they would remind me too much of Jess.

Something I need...a haircut, badly. With me spending every spare moment not spent on practicing, performing or working being spent on trying to sort out my passport issues a lot of the little things have been neglected. Damn.

Something borrowed...two dvd's from Rogers.

Something blue...the sky.

This next little while will see some really exciting times. The count down to Belgium, the tour, European backpacking, and when we get back the NFL and NHL seasons will be starting up.

Rhoel.

May you live in interesting times.-Chinese proverb...or something I read in a fortune cookie or both. Perhaps the proverb ripped off the fortune cookie? Which came first? The proverb or the cookie?

2006-07-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Seattle Calling

It's been 5 years since I left Seattle. The 1.5-2 years I spent there were mostly all about working and driving back to Van for KP practice. And it was towards the end of my two years there that I came closest to quitting KP when I had decided that it was time to cut ties with Hongcouver and put down roots in the Emerald city. Then my mom got sick and I was summoned home and the rest is history.

The point of this blog is to mark and remember the chapters of my life, and this chapter hasn't even been mentioned yet.

Last week I had to drive down to Tacoma to my grandma's house to pick up something important for her. It took me 90 mins to drive from the boarder to Seattle, another 90 mins of traffic to Tacoma, 2 hours all the way back home. This gave me a little bit of time to reminisce. Most of my time in Seattle was mostly unremarkable. I was mostly in workaholic mode. I didn't go out at nights, and I came back to Van most weekends (maybe it was only every other weekend, I can't remember) and the weekends I didn't go home I went to Tacoma to visit with my family. But a few things I do remember.

I was living in a section of south Seattle called Skyway. I was renting a room in a house owned by my aunt's friend. The house and neighborhood reminded me of the older parts of East Vancouver but the ppl that lived there reminded me of living among extras for a John Singleton movie. Especially when Daisy and Hilda, sisters from upstairs, had bbq's; it's like I was an extra on a movie set, so funny. Daisy, Daisy Daisy. I was in severe like with her, but that all changed after she met some of my friends. I can't remember who it was, I'm thinking it was VJ and Michelle, Nick and Mel, we all went to Gillian's for drinks. Every time Daisy talked Michelle and Mel would just stare at her like 'is this chick for real?'. I became really self conscious about the way she talked, and after that I started to notice things like all her tat's and her binge drinking, you know all the things that worked in my favour at first.

A few other things I cherish from those days. I rediscovered the Real World. Hilda and I would make a day of it. Watching the marathons drinking and dissecting the episodes every Tues. My first 4th of July. We had preferential seating on a private dock because a friend of the fam had a food shack called the Happy Hooker. It was like Canada day meets Flip day meets the Symphony of Fire times 10. I loved how beer cost the same as pop. I loved going to Lakewood Mall and eating for free at my Uncles restaurant and buying bag fulls of cloths and only spending like 100 bucks. I remember getting to know my American family really well. And it brought back memories of all my summers in Beacon Hill as a kid. It was also at that time I figured out that I could move away from Vancouver and be fine. But on the flip side it made me appreciate my city even more. I'm sure there is more to remember. After Europe I want to go back to Seatown and spend a few days, see what comes back to me.

Rhoel.

2006-07-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Wholly Cow!

...it's been a long time since I've blogged! Well, it hasn't been that long so maybe a more accurate expression should be "Partial Cow!"

I watched Superman Returns and all I have to say is; I likes. Well, maybe that's not all I have to say. I love how it's a continuation of or in the very least an homage to the original movies of the late 70's early 80's. It was eerie how much Brandon Routh looked and talked liked Christopher Reeve. And he didn't get the role only because of that because he was really good. I also like the choice of Kate Bothworth, she's one of my girl friends. This is reminiscent when my one gf (Angelina Jollie) played my other gf (Lora Croft) in the movie of my favorite video game. Kevin Spacey is one of my favorite actors and Lex Luthor is one of my hero's. Not so much the older Lex of the movies, but the younger Smallville Lex with the hot cars and the conflicted personality. The opening sequence was surprising, then the movie started interesting, then it was nostalgic, then interesting again, then it was a little unrealistic, then interesting again, then it ended real well. On a scale from one to a lot I give it 984.32 stars. I want to watch it again.

I watched Nacho Libre recently as well. It started interesting, quickly got boring, got funny for a bit, got boring, saw the hot love interest, got boring, got really funny, then ended boring. The more funnier parts was when Jack Black broke character and became...Jack Black. Overall I give it 2.359 stars. I'd wait for the 7 day rental or for the previously viewed blow out sales bin.

Next I wanna watch some Tokyo Drift. Anyone up to seeing a bunch of 350 Z's and other assorted rear wheel drive cars with ridiculous paint jobs? I'm glad more car designers are developing more rear wheel drive platforms especially the entry level cars, I was never a big fan of the front wheel drive car and it sucked that only the higher end cars were available. With 30 grand Mustangs pumping out 300 horse and with drifting and street racing big with the younger buyers I knew the trend away from front drive cars would be inevitable. My very first car was a Datsun 510. It was shite brown and my brother and friends nicknamed it "duck poo". But the engine revved like a maniac, standard transmition, it had 50/50 weight distribution and it was rear wheel drive. It had all the ingrediants for for fun. Not soon after cheaper cars went to front drive, front biased, automatics. I used to drift that bad boy decades before I even knew what drifting was. I'm glad more kids will have that same experience now.

Sorry to digress, back to the cows on hand. On one hand I think wearing fur is cruel. On the other hand I don't believe wearing leather is. We eat the cows so making use of the leather is better than throwing it out. Besides I'm addicted to leather jackets and leather shoes aswell as leather car interiors. Leather furniture isn't as comfortable, but it looks nice and is easier to keep clean. On the third hand I think domesticating previously wild animals is also cruel. Birds were meant to fly, cats and dogs were meant to hunt and murder smaller animals. Fish weren't meant to stupidly swim in a bowl. They were meant to stupidly swim in the ocean or rivers.

Leather shoes come from leather cows. So do patent leather shoes come from patent leather cows? Does chocolate milk come from brown cows?

-On the other hand, I have other fingers-Steven Wright.

-...it's ok to eat fish 'cause they don't have any feelings.-Something in the Way, Nirvana.

Rhoel.

2006-06-23T02:12:00.000-07:00

Do do do do Do do do do...part deux

Sally: We are just going to be friends, ok?
Harry: Great! Friends! It's the best thing. You realise of course that we can never be friends.
Sally: Why not?
Harry: What I'm saying is... and this is not a come-on in
any way, shape or form, is that men and women can't be friends
because the sex part always gets in the way.
Sally: That's not true, I have a number of men friends and
there's is no sex involved.
Harry: No you don't.
Sally: Yes I do.
Harry: No you don't.
Sally: Yes I do.
Harry: You only think you do.
Sally: You're saying I'm having sex with these men without
my knowledge?
Harry: No, what I'm saying is they all want to have sex
with you.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: How do you know?
Harry: Because no man can be friends with a woman he finds
attractive, he always wants to have sex with her.
Sally: So you're saying that a man can be friends with a
woman he finds unattractive.
Harry: Nuh, you pretty much wanna nail'em too.
Sally: What if they don't want to have sex with you?
Harry: Doesn't matter, because the sex thing is already
out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.
Sally: Well I guess we're not going to be friends then.
Harry: Guess not.

When Harry Met Sally.

Rhoel.

2006-06-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Do do do do Do do do do...

This is Rhoel Juatco,
seeker of truth and, regrettably,
finder of truth. A man who will shortly
confront a problem that has tormented mankind since
the beginning of time....

... A man who knocked on a door seeking
sanctuary and found instead the outer edges
of
the Friend Zone.

After practice on Sunday a bunch of the KPeeps went to English Bay and had a little picnic. We ate, sang songs to a guitar. Wil Worked, Randy poured over the cast list going crazy with a pen. I myself had a Fatburger with cheese, chili and bacon with skinny fries and a Barq's. So, I finally sampled the much fabled Fatburger. Not bad, I'd say it's worth the 10 bucks for the meal. Personally I think Reds is better. Next time I wanna try the milk shake. At one point Randy gets off the phone and says something to the effect, "how do you get out of the friend zone?'

Category 1, became a friends first. In my history there are few times when I was friends with someone first before I wanted to hook up with them. This is usually a schoolmate, a co-worker, fellow performer etc. And out of these many of them are category 2, which is became a friend after. More than likely I became friends with someone in order to try to hook up with them at some point down the road. In either case, the friend zone for me is a black hole, where not even light can escape. I'm trying to think back and I can't remember hooking up with a long time friend, not to say that it will never happen, but history speaks for itself. I think with me my problem is I have a tendency to think myself into inaction. I always use the analogy of jumping into a pool head first . If I don't act on the initial impulse I may never get in the pool...unless someone pushes me.

My theory of getting out of the friend zone is a quantum leap. Something that changes everything. A cosmic kick in the arse or push from behind. Anything to jolt the relationship into a higher orbit. What that can be, only you can know. I obviously don't know.

BTW, on a related topic for anyone who hasn't watched 'Just Friends' I suggest you go out and rent/buy it right now.

FYI.

ef·fer·vesce: intr.v. ef·fer·vesced, ef·fer·vesc·ing, ef·fer·vesc·es

1.To emit small bubbles of gas, as a carbonated or fermenting liquid.
2.To escape from a liquid as bubbles; bubble up.
3.To show high spirits or animation.

effer·vescence or effer·vescen·cy n.
effer·vescent adj.
effer·vescent·ly adv.

Rhoel.

On the other hand, you have different fingers. -- Steven Wright

2006-06-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

Man on the Moon.

Hey, Andy did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby. Are we losing touch?

Wow, long time no read. First before I forget Congrats to Mr. and Mss Jenilee and Jamille's parents for their 25th anniversary. That was one rockin party. Who knew that Mr. Jenilee and Jamilles dad was so funny! 3 shows and a practice in 48 hours. A little taste of what's to come in Belgium me thinks. Actually it was probably only about 40 mins of actual dancing, 4 hours of practice, and about 5 hours of waiting in those 48.

I recently purchased and watched Man on the Moon and in a word, brilliant. I'd had forgotten how good that movie was. That was Jim Carey's role of a life time. In fact what I found hilarious was my mom thought the movie stared Andy Kaufman.

-I'm like...you know he's (most likely) dead right?
-Well then who is that?
-Jim Carey...

And with that she continued to think that Jim was Andy. If any of you are not familiar with the movie it documents the life and times of Andy Kaufman of Taxi fame. I loved Taxi. I even remember the day I heard that he had died, I was riding in the car and I heard it on the radio. Without going to much into it I have to say that Kaufman was so far ahead of his time that I'm sure that he faked his own death as to give everyone else a chance to catch up. The best moment was right before the closing scene when a bald Kaufman is in the Phils looking for a miracle cure and starts laughing hysterically when he realizes that this time the joke is on him. Don't miss the special features section on the DVD. This is easily on my top 5 fav list now.

Some interesting tid bits I found on my obsessive google of the late Andy Kaufman:
-The "Friday's" producer is the person that the character of George Custanza is based on. The actor that got the water thrown on him is the dude that plays Cosmo Kramer (Michel Richards?).
-He was one of history's first Elvis impersonators. They weren't even doing it in Vegas yet.
-Some of his family and friends wouldn't be surprise if he's still alive. At his funeral half the ppl still thought it was some kind of joke and were waiting for him to make an appearance and start laughing. His body was poked more than a few times at the viewing.
-The scene at the end of the movie where Tony Clifton is performing on stage with Bob Zmuda watching from the crowd was purely fictional and never happened (unless it did...)

Speaking of Vegas, I purchased and watched seasons 1 and 2 these past two weekends. I love that show.

Rhoel Kaufman.

If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon.
If you believe thereÂs nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool. REM

2006-05-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

What if I was Jack Bauer...

I just finished watching Day 5 of 24. I love that show. It's the best show ever. To my horror I missed 3 episodes, the last 15 mins of another and had two doubles. I read somewhere that fox will be rebroadcasting them 2 hours at a time starting in July. When does those damn DVD's come out? Last night I had a dream that I was Jack Bauer...

*cue dream sequence special effect*

My name is Jack Bauer, today has been the longest day of my life. Now that the day is over, I'd like to spend an episode blogging about it. Today started off just like any other day then...
-I flew two helicopters.
-I talked to the President of the United States 18 times.
-My daughter was kidnapped and rescued 3 times.
-She got attacked by a cougar twice.
-I was accused and acquitted of assassinating a former President of the United States twice.
-I drove five different coloured Ford Expeditions.
-I secretly boarded, hi-jacked and landed a foreign ministers jet on the freeway.
-My wife visited me at work 8 times.
-I drew my gun 4 times and killed 18 ppl whilst wounding several others.
-My wife was killed by a former girl friend.
-I did not sleep, eat, or use the bathroom.
-I acquired and lost a vital piece of evidence 14 times.
-I got in two car accidents.
-I changed my cloths 3 times.
-I talked on my cell phone 84 times while only talking to 4 different ppl.
-I got in five fights.
...so basically it was just like any other day.

If I was really Jack Bauer this is how my season would really play out.

The following happens between 12am-1am.
Season opener entitled "I Go To Sleep."
Between 1am-2am "I'm Still Sleeping"
Between 2am-3am "I'm Still Sleeping Part 2"
Between 3am-4am "I'm Still Sleeping Part 3"
Between 4am-5am "I'm Still Sleeping Part 4"

At this point the series probably gets cancelled. I suppose I could start the season with me waking up and making breakfast as I check my e-mail. But then the Season Finale would be me going to bed.

So I met the Prime Minister of Canada. It was pretty boring. Me and one of my writers get there early to go through security which consisted of an RCMP officer giving me the hairy eyeball while I talked on the phone. Supposedly he was supposed to inspect my gear and press credentials, which I printed on my computer an hour earlier. I listened to some speeches, I took a lot of pictures. I watched him walk around kissing babies. Ate some crappy food. That was about it.

I'm getting kinda tired, I think I'll take a nap for an episode before going for a run for an episode and then maybe watch some TV for a couple of episodes.

Rhoel.

2006-05-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

Prime Time

Apparently I'm meeting the Prime Minister of Canada tomorrow. Apparently I'm covering a dinner he'll be attending. I could tell you details, but I'd have to kill you...apparently. Speaking of Heads of State, now that the season of 24 is over my brother and I started watching the episodes I've been collecting. There's no way I can watch this show from week to week. There's no way. We're at about 9 pm and all I have to say is that I want to kick President Logan in the nuts. He's proof positive that one can achieve anything if one has the right ppl around him, no matter how much of an incompetent jack ass one is. Without spoiling it for anyone who follows the show and hasn't seen this season yet...his character is about to get very interesting I think.

Of all the Prime Ministers and Presidents I've met my favorite was this kid named Freddy. He was the Prime Minister of my school when I was a junior. We were in Drama Club together and we actually liked to partner together when we did excercises, we actually had a talented bunch. I think our class held the record of causing 3 mental breakdowns in one semester for substitute teachers. One of us even made it to Hollywood, Kristen. She was in "Dog Park", "Way of the Gun" a few others, all the local TV shows, X-files etc. All I remember of Kristen was that she was hot, the kind of hot that was uber intimidating. But she was taller than me and therefore never really an option, not that I orbited in her stratosphere anyways. She was more a friend of one of my best friends Tom McIntyre, whom I also saw on TV a few years ago. Except he was on TV because he was a dumb ass that went snow boarding out of bounds and got lost for a few days. One of us I saw the other day was headlining at the Giggle Dam. And then there was Freddy. Freddy has been in tons of movies, bit parts in "A Guy Thing", "Just Friends" but his true claim to fame is "Corner Gas" a Canadian TV show.

When I first met him I thought he was Howie Mandel's clone. I heard about his legendary Prime Minister's debate the previous year. Instead of debating the topics he did a stand up routine that won him the election by a landslide. I've met a lot of famous ppl lots of Phillipine Hollywood types, but most I met after they had become famous. It's cool that I met a few that I can say, I knew them when...

One of my life goals is to live without regrets. One of the regrets I can never fix was that I never pursued acting. Not that I think that I'd be any good or anything, it's just that it was something I really liked and I never even tried. The fact that I'm a crappy liar probably tips my hand that I'd most likely be a very bad actor (perhaps I'm not committed to the material?). I think that dancing somewhat makes up for this regret. When I'm on stage I get a little taste of what I'm missing. This is why I feel so grateful and fortunate that dancing found me. But anytime I see either Kristen or Freddy on TV or film I'm happy that some of us made it but at the same time I'm reminded of what could have been. Hopefully no regrets.

Rhoel.

You know how it is when you decide to lie and say the check is in the mail, and
then you remember it really is? I'm like that all the time.
-- Steven Wright

2006-05-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

It's Ma Birfday...

...and I'll cry if I want to. At this time I choose not to cry.

There are certain days of the year that ppl naturally go into review mode. Usually it's New Years, but other times it's anniversaries, birthdays, etc because they mark time in a way more personal than the standard calendar. Surprisingly I've never written about my birthday in my three years writing a blog, I checked. Last year I was excited about a car. The year before that I was excited about a girl. Holly shite has it been two years since my last real relationship? And it wasn't even that real! On one hand birthday's aren't really a big deal in my family. When I was a kid my mom used to go all out. We'd have a party at school with my class, then we'd do the whole family luau thing. What's a flip word for luau? Then when I turned maybe 12 it didn't really become a big deal anymore. I think that was the year my friends came over and discoverd my extensive toy collection and started to *gasp* play with them! Soon it down graded to just a family party, then it became just a drinking fest with my fiends. Now we don't even do a family dinner or nothing. I think usually this time of year I'm exited about a coming show at this time and with my birthday being in the first half of the calendar year I'm usually still fresh off my last review.

My biggest birthday moments...

This one time in grade 12 me and my friends were at a party and we decided we were going to get drunk at school for my birthday the following Friday. We were drunk at the time and it seemed like a good idea...at the time. The following Monday My cousin Carlo and my best friend Sherman told me to come to school early and to dress well. They set up a photo shoot in front of the school where Carlo had changed the lettering on the billboard to read. "We love you Rhoel, happy birthday!" Or something like that. I don't even know if it said 'happy birthday'. I still have those photo's somewhere. More than a few students saw us and word started spreading about our plans for Friday. It was way heaty 'cause too many ppl knew and I thought word would get to the teachers so I said we were planning something else. So each day we did something different and each day more ppl joined in. It became Rhoel Juatco birthday week. Of course the party in the upper parking lot still happened on the Friday.

I suppose my best birthday was my 30th in Hawaii. First of all I was in Hawaii, hello! Second of all it was my 30th. And on top off all that it was just the perfect day. I got up real early and went surfing by myself just to zone and reflect on things. I went and checked birthday e-mails from ppl all the way on the other side of the world. Me, Kat, and all our roommates went to a luau that night and got totally hammered. I can't believe Hawaii was that long ago.

Rhoel.

-I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.-Steven Wright

2006-05-09T11:03:00.000-07:00

If you ever see me in church...and I happen to be smiling...

I'm not religious at all, but my parents are so from time to time you'll see me at church, usually a BLD related function. As a kid my mom made me go to church till I was about 10 or 11. Of course as soon as I arrived I'd immediately start to day dream. As soon as I'd hear the word, 'miracle' or something of the like I'd start thinking about how I'd react if I actually saw someone part an ocean or walk on water, or turn water into beer. So as a consequence in my adult life every time I go to church this same thing always happens to me. I think about how everyone around me would react if I started to float in mid air, or if I started shooting lightning out of my eyes...then I start to smile uncontrollably trying not to laugh. LOL. This thought usually happens whenever I bow my head and close my eyes. I spent my weekend helping out for the BLD Singles Encounter weekend. I did a lot of smiling.

A few things I've been wondering about lately:

-In movies they do things like "throw drinks" in ppls faces, and other grand gestures that personally have never seen. If I ever saw that my first thought would be "What a waste of a 6 dollar drink, she should have asked for a glass of water before she became outraged!" I have never seen someone or heard of anyone proposing by putting a ring in the food. If I ever saw that I'd think 'pure cheese, if I was her I'd say no just on that bases alone.' How about the girl that storms out during dinner. If I'm getting a free meal I'd storm out afterwards. Or slaps someone in the face. If some bitch slapped me in the face I'm slapping her back. Or how about that moment of attraction when they have "the long stare" and the proverbial violinist appears beside the table. If I'm staring deeply into someone's eyes for more than like two seconds I'm either going in for the kiss or I'm changing the subject. Or how about the beat before the moment of attraction when your true true love shows up to save you from a lifetime of misery and your realize "how can I have been so wrong?". Or how about the lonely guy at the bar getting drunk because of a girl and the bar tender giving him an epiphany. That guy is a loser, no wonder he got dumped and the bartender is thinking the same thing too. Do these things ever happen? At what point does one say "Hold it now, that's completely unrealistic, even thou I've seen it in the movies a million times I just don't buy it." I wonder how many ppl do things only because they'd seen it in a movie?

-What exactly is a 'dumb fuck'? Isn't a fuck a fuck? And is it not generally a good thing? Shouldn't 'dumb fuck' be another word for 'easy'?
-How about the saying "are you shitting me?" What exactly does that mean? That's ok I think I've only heard white ppl say that, or ppl from Cloverdale and beyond.
-Do ppl actually tell the priest EVERYTHING at confession? Like if you killed someone would you tell him? Or if you cheated on your diet with 15 french fries, would you tell him?

Rhoel

-All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.-
-What's another word for Thesaurus?-Steven Wright

2006-05-03T01:20:00.000-07:00

In My Life

There are places I'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all...

I think of my blog as an online diary. Although I'm not naive enough to believe that my thoughts on here are for my eyes only I honestly don't care who else's eyes trip these pages because the exhbitonist in me knows that Big Brother is always watching and that one can ever take the pee out of the pool. A thousand years from now someone is going to Google a famous descendent of mine of the same name and dig up my long lost blog and read up on someone long since dead and buried. Perhaps my kids and grandkids can look me up and get to know me like how I was when I was alive. I would loved to have met my mom and dad, my great relatives, when they were growing up and making there way in the world today.

Everyone goes thru this world collecting memories and experiences. For some reason I remember things, odd little bits that mean absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of eternity. Even to me these little things probably amount to a 'a poor player strutting and fretting his hour on the stage'...but for some reason some things stay. And I want to get as many of them down as possible before I forget and my mental hard drive is purged forever. So let us begin.

During the early days of KP I didn't think I would last. It was so early in the game that we weren't even KP yet, we were Kababayan(g?) Pilipino still. Back then if one said KP I'd be thinking, "What's that some kind of fish? Fish bait?" I didn't think they were the type of ppl I'd build my life around. I thought they were snobby and elitest. They represented everything I was afraid of becoming. The only person I kind of knew was Nick, and that was only because he went out with a girl I went to school with. And the only time she talked of Nick was when things weren't so great. So my preconception of Nick was that he was a playa extrordinaire. I also knew Dinah A because she did a hip hop routine at a fashion show I did this one time. The only reason I remembered her was because she reminded me of a flip Paula Abdul. During the early days of KP we did this one epic camping in the Okanogan valley. A few things I remembered was Nick being stressed because he was the one that did the research online and all the places he booked and we visited weren't anywhere near suitable. I remember making a funny random joke about propane tanks painted like cow print. I remember how on the third day the Chinese bag soup was the best soup I ever tasted ever. I remember lots of drinking, or don't remember. I remember how we took over the campsite and it became KPstock. I remember piggy backing little Mimi from party to party because she was too drunk to walk and I was too drunk to realize I probably shouldn't be piggy backing anyone. There are a few more little things I remember.

I think that it was during that trip that I really started to become KP. At that point I had done a show already, but I still felt like an outsider. It was that trip that I first started making personal connections. Dinah A was worried her bf Ken would get lost. He was a few hours behind the main group, I think he was with the group coming with Jeff L. that worked late that night. She was worried because we were in the 15th nameless random campsite in a nameless random city, and that he was trying to find a needle in a haystack following super vague instructions. She was distressed because nobody wanted to come with her to the supposed rondevous spot. So I decided to come with. Most of the dialogue of the next 2 hours really didn't matter. Most of what I remember was how worried she was, completely leaning on someone she barely knew. I remember thinking that in my lifetime I had never been that worried for someone. Mostly it was like watching a documentary of something that was so alien to me that every moment was completely fascinating. Of course as soon as Ken showed up all her worries melted away and were forgotten, as she brushed past me and pulled him down the road. But I remember. Not the details of course. In fact it may not even have been Ken and Dinah. Now that I think of it, it may have been Jeff and Gillian (actually that makes more sence). It may even be ppl I've completly forgotten and I may even be confusing different camping trips. The only thing I can be 100% sure of was that it was hella hot, that I needed another beer and that circa nineteenninetyforgotten we didn't use the word 'hella'. For some reason I'll probably never ever realize I'll never forget that day.

Rhoel.

...for people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life...The Beatles

Or according to the legendary uncle Fernando Valdes, The BeatLess.

2006-04-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

How does it happen...

...that I get sick on the nicest day of the year so far?

Oh, really...???

When I was in New Jersey in the early 90's I went to visit my cousins in the burbs this one time when I first discovered the difference between Much Music and MTV. I always assumed they were the same thing and that they both sucked. My cousins were watching a marathon of something called "The Real World". I was like 'what the hell is that?' It was the year they were in LA. After like 3 episodes I was hooked. Not soon after I moved back to Surrey and I forgot all about the World.

Fast forward many years when our hero moves to Seattle and rediscovers his long lost love. It was season 9 in New Orleans. One of the girls that rented a room where I was staying was also a RW junkie. We'd make an evening of it. Tuesday nights they'd play like the previous 4 or so episodes and then tack on the newest at the end. We'd drink and talk about the show afterwards. During my time in Seattle I got caught up on Seattle and Hawaii, which turned out to be my two favorite seasons. And then I moved back to Van and forgot all about them again except for the infrequent and somewhat random airings of the past seasons on (Life?) channel. Aswell as the Road Rules/ RW challenges. I like Road Rules too.

About a month ago I found out that I have MTV Canada. OMG, how long have I had this? I'm just getting into Key West and so far it's not bad, but with the proliferation of reality shows this past half decade RW doesn't have the appeal that it once did. Maybe Key West just sucks. I'll give it more time before I pass judgment. Other shows I've discovered are 8th and Ocean and Laguna Beach. It's seems MTV, the forerunner of reality TV, is trying to create yet another new genre of pseudo reality or staged reality if you will. Where it seems to work with 8th, perhaps a lot has to do with the eye candy, with Laguna all I see is an over produced, poorly written annoyance. The pointless dialogue and bad acting are just too much to bare. Again, I shall give it more time. Perhaps if and when I get to know the characters better I'll have a different opinion. With 8th I kinda wanna punch Teddy in the face because he's way too cool for school.

If anyone knows where I can purchase RW Hawaii or Seattle on DVD let me know.

Rhoel.

-I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.-Steven Wright.

2006-04-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Plot arc idea.

The OC season one was amazing. Season 2 kinda sucked hard. Season 3 I'm liking as much as season one. Not that it's necessarily as good as season 1 but more like it doesn't suck as bad as 2. When I was looking for the quote of the previous blog entry I noticed that this upcoming season finale was also listed as the series finale. This made me sad. After some digging I've found out that the producers are planning a major overhaul of the show. I stopped reading as soon as I figured out there would be a season 4 because I hate spoilers with a passion.

My idea of a major over haul. You can't really call it 'the oc' relocating the series to Berkeley or Brown, kinda like when they moved Dawson's creek to Boston so...go back to the beginning. Rejoin the storey of the OC 4 years later when they all come back. Watch Sandy continue down the dark path on his transformation in to Darth Caleb (I suppose in 4 years the transformation would be complete by then). Watch the return of the OC's former golden boy Luke return and assume the role of Jimmy Cooper, Katlin becomes the next Hailey (party animal) or Julie (turbo ho), etc.

Prequels are all the rage. In a closed system one finds generations of parts playing the same rolls over and over. When one has a finished product the interesting question becomes,'how did it get that way?' Of course with finished product the journey automatically becomes a close ended question but usually it's the journey not the destination that is interesting.

Much like Smallville, we all know Farm boy becomes Superman and that Lois and Sup' get it on, and Lex becomes arch enemy, yet the journey to the inevitable was the interesting bit.

Speaking of Smallville this is another of my favorite series that is coming to an end. After season 4 sucked major butt it was announced this current season would be the last. And of course the show got good again. I propose the series ends as the prequel that it is for a new series. Metropolis. Maybe catch the storey line years down the road when we catch up to the current mythology of the Superman franchise or even just relocate the current storey to the city as the evolution of Sup continues (less interesting because it's more of the same).

Rhoel.

2006-04-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Day

Summer: ...remember when the boys made us watch that movie about the gay guys on the mountain

Marissa: Lord Of The Rings

Summer: yeah, an you remember that Gollum guy (squints) how he got evil an more evil (raises eyebrows) (Marissa listens) the closer he got to that firery thing, that’s kinda how Seth is about Brown (nods)

Rhoel.

2006-04-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Did you ever wanna just...take a quick look?

Girls might not know what I'm talking about...you know that moment when you saddle up beside someone...two masculine type of guys "*Gruff*, how 'bought dem Nucks?"...in a somewhat intimate setting in close approximation when all one wants to do is wait for the buisness to be done and keep eyes front and centre all the whilst? Yeah, that's usually me at stop lights too. But why is that? We're all friends right?

I suppose with me it has a lot to do with spending parts of my childhood in NJ and the more ghetto parts of Seattle where one doesn't usually make eye contact with someone one wouldn't be comfortable getting punched in the face by...or shot in the face by... And then it continued in HS when for some reason everyone wanted to race me. Like I'm gonna race a V8 Camaro with my little Honda, why don't you bother some Mustangs or Vettes and see how cocky you are then muthafhukah! What's that saying about short guys that drive real big cars... And then I suppose at some point one justs retreats into their own heads to deal with the boredom of traffic and ones car becomes a bubble with nothing of consequence outside this metal box. For some reason I always picture the the guy beside me is always the same dude or dudette(if she's driving like a women, or an old women, or an old asian women or any combination of the words women, asian, or old) that want's to race me or shoot at me or shoot at me as we race. Like pushing through a room full of mannequins, I unconsiously imagine they have the same face. Actually when I know it's a female driver I generally don't want to look because I have a tendency to stare, it seems like I'm undressing with my eyes (9/10 time I probably am) but usually I'm just looking and thinking of something else (if 1/10 can be considered the usual)

Yesterday I distributed my newspaper. This requires me to be in my truck for anywhere from 5-7 hours (depending on traffic and parking situations) For the most part I'm usually thinking of the task at hand. But yesterday I tried to make it a point to look at the other drivers beside me each time I stopped at a light. For the most part I either forgot or didn't think to look, but still I don't think I've ever seen so many ppl in one day. I know it's not scientifically desirable to make conclusions based on such a small sample batch but I noticed a few things:
-Most ppl don't look, I suppose urinal etiquette is in effect. "I know you're there, you know I'm here and I know you know I that I know...move along nothing to see here."
-Genuinely hot girls that acknowledge you with a quick look usually smile.
-Big fat girls are quick to give you 'tude.
-Guys are generally a 'what's up' nod, more casual on the whole. I guess we're more used to the etiquette.

Speaking of urinal etiquette, I find it quite funny. I actually look around a lot, using my peripherals, but still looking. I don't go so far as trying to sneak a peak at Willey but I look at their body language. Especially the ones that act like they're doing something wrong. There's the kind that choose the urinal way at the end or in the corner trying their hardest to turn their back on you, or the ones that lean right into the urinal trying to create a perfect seal, both of which are hoping the guy standing right beside them doesn't notice that they're in a compromised position with parts hangin out. To me I automatically think the dude has a teeny weennie. LOL. For all I know he may be hung like John Holmes but if you act like you're trying to hide something... I suppose that's why guys don't go to the bathroom together, you'd have to talk to the person you know. In movies girls talk to each other thru the stall walls. That would be weird. Maybe that's why they go to the bathroom together. You know they're talking about us. And before you say anything just remember that just because one is paranoid dosn't mean one isn't being followed. Or in this case, talked about.

Rhoel.

Quickly editing what I wrote, and checking for spelling *thanks* lets take count on the different demegraphics I may have offended. Short ppl. Camaro owners. Women in general. Old ppl. Asian ppl. Big fat women. Guys with small willies. But before you think ill of me, may I remind you that I fit many of those generalizations. I'm not telling you which ones...definately not the last one...bam! Hehe, nice.

2006-04-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

Ode to the Max

When I was a kid I really didn't care what kind of shoes I wore. Back in kindergarten I thought I was the Fonze and wore a leather jacket and black cowboy boots with a squared off toe. After about a week of that my mom got a call from the school and suddenly I was dressed like every other kid. I had a Snoopy back pack for cripes sake!!! And I liked it!!! With no more cowboy boots I didn't care what shoes I wore. I seemed to remember a pair of Incredible Hulk shoes, GI Joe, Spiderman... Basically I was happy as a bug in a rug. One day shopping I reminded my mom I needed new shoes but being short on time she just gave me money and told me where to go in the mall. I'd never bought my own shoes before. So when I get there the dude asks me what kind of shoes I wanted? I don't know. What brand? I don't know. What colour? ...*blink*. All I knew was that I wore size five because I was in grade five, (using mneumonic devices at 8, god damn I'm brilliant) So perusing the wall racks my eyes were drawn to a pair of Nike Blue Max. Basically your basic white all leather sneaker with navy accents and Swoosh. I was in love. And putting them on for the first time it was like coming home. It's like that first test drive of that car you always expected you'd love and are proven so right. Of course being a kid, those shoes spent their brief existence being abused and soon after faded from this existence. They're probably sitting in some land fill site up north.

Fast forward to Seattle circa 2001. (What exactly does 'circa' mean anyways? I think I know what it means and I use it enough that I really should look it up one of these days to make sure I don't sound like an ass when I use it) When ever I shop for shoes, or cloths for that matter, I don't really have many brand loyalties. I just buy what ever looks good, whatever feels good. In fact don't be surprised to see me wear Reebok shoes, Champion socks, Nike shorts, random t-shirt, and Puma zip top like when I go to dance practice. I suppose one could call me a cross dresser in that way. In those days I'd save my shopping for the weekends when I'd visit my grandma in Tacoma so I could shop at Lakewood mall. Kinda a ghetto mall, everyone there dresses like a bad rap video so its nice to shop there because all the sales racks were loaded with cloths that I'd wear. Strolling into the Footlocker I noticed a stack of Nike boxes, one lablelled, "Air Max". Hmm, sounds familiar.

...and when I opened it...it was like a flood of child hood memories come flooding back. Holly shite! It's my shoes! And they've all grown up to fit me again! It was the last pair and it happen to be my size. I loved those shoes. For the first two years of existence I only wore them when I went out. Most of you would probably recognize them because I wore them to all the KP functions. But after a while they kinda loose that 'new' look and they became my favorite every day shoes. That is till last year when they just got too beat up. Now I only wear them when I'm feeling nostalgic but it's gotten to the point that when they get wet Max smells like donkey butt. I think I've poisoned about a dozen pairs of socks this year alone. I was considering washing them in the washing machine but that may wash away the smelly spirit of the beast. I think I have to put Max to sleep. I think that I'll wash them for sanitary reasons and put Max in the closet for safe keeping. Interestingly enough I still have Max's original box. I use shoe boxes to store momento's, like time capsuls, and his holds my Seattle stuff. Interestingly he hasn't seen that box since the day he was born and he'll be laid to rest in the same box. Lets take a moment of silence to remember our fallen hero...

Rhoel.

-BTW yes I've looked and I can't find another shoe that looks like him. I think Max's was an anomaly when the big shoe companies got on that throw back kick. They're still making old school Pumas so I haven't given up hope.

2006-04-02T05:46:00.000-07:00

Black

Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay.
Were laid spread out before me as her body once did.
All five horizons revolved around her soul,
as the earth to the sun.
Now the air i tasted and breathed has taken a turn.
All i taught her was everything.
I know she gave me all that she wore.
And now my bitter hands chafe beneath the clouds,
of what was everything?
The pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything...

I take a walk outside
I'm surrounded by some kids at play.
I can feel their laughter, so why do i sear?

Oh, and twisted thoughts that spin round my head.
I'm spinning, oh, i'm spinning.
How quick the sun can drop away.
And now my bitter hands cradle broken glass,
of what was everything?
All the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything...
All the love gone bad turned my world to black
tattooed all i see, all that i am, all i'll ever be...

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, i know you'll be a star.
In somebody else's sky, but why
Why, why can't it be, why can't it be mine?

Pearl Jam.

After a period of grief one lets go. Good bye.

Rhoel.

2006-03-30T09:41:00.000-08:00

...what did you say????!!!

I don't get to spend a lot of quality time with my mom. The few moments we are together is those rare times I have to drive her somewhere. Our usual conversations revolve around work/planning, discussing my dad's decreasing comunications skills, he's digressed to caveman like pointing, grunting and incoherent mumbling; or complaining about one of my brothers. Yesterday our convo took a strange turn...

I can't even remember what we were talking about. We might have been talking about Philippine Hollywood because we had just seen off Nellie Vangt and the Regine/Pops group as they left for Edmonton. But the conversation somehow turned to lesbians, my Aunt and her 'best friend'; when my mom said It. "Greedy women date lesbians because if they dated a man they would have to put-out." ...I have no response to that. She went on to qualify her statement with, "Do you see how your Tita is treated? If she was a man she would have left a long time ago." I think I was kinda in shock because I have no idea what my mom was talking about from that point after. Just the thought of my mom saying girls have to put out to keep a man. I don't even know if that was her point because I was in a yucky place mentaly.

It's funny how grown men and women can be so star struck. It's different when it's Cristina or some chick at the club visibly drooling whilst trying to ask Diether to dance(have sex with) her. But when I see my Tito Rey (Philippine News today) Nellie (Miss millionaire's) or the parents of my business partner in Edmonton with stars in their eyes...priceless. These pillars of our community become gleeful teenagers. It's like my nephew when I bring him to Toy's R Us. It reminds me of Mel and her Jason Molmo moment.

BTW, I updated my list. Jessica Alba, Keira Knightly, Scarlett Johanson, Natalie Portman and Lacey Chabert. Alyssa the veteran of 'The List' has been knocked off by the lovely Scarlett. Sorrey babe, thanks for the memmories.

BTW, Cristina if you're reading this I did call you 'Cristine' and I don't know why. I think I was trying to think of 'Regine's' name at that moment and I knew you'd know it, I was about to call you 'Crispy' but I realized there was a lot of new ppl around us that would think that weird so out slipped...

Rhoel.

2006-03-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

Just Friends

I rented 'Just Friends' last night and I must say that it was so freakin funny. That on the heels of watching 'Waiting' last month I have to say that Ryan Reynolds is one of the funniest actors in Hollywood. Canadian too. BTW, anyone who's ever worked in a restaurant or bar has to watch 'Waiting'. I identified with every one of those characters as someone I once worked with. Especially the Luis Guzman character. He is so my Uncle Fernando (My Tito Nunding)

When I was in HS I worked at Tony Roma's and my uncle was the kitchen manager. He kept that place running. He was so funny all the time that it was fun to work there. I can't remember all the little things he did, but one of the few things that stuck in my mind was this really hot Chinese girl named Christine that was a hostess. Whenever she walked into the kitchen area my uncle would start serenading her, "...the first time...ever I saw your pace!" Eventually it was shortened to, "...ever I saw your pace!". It got to the point where he didn't even have to look to know she was in the room and start singing, and she would already be laughing before she even walked into the kitchen. Oh I remember Christine but that's another storey for another time. One of these days I'll write about my uncle Fernando, he's just one of those truly funny ppl.

Rhoel.

2006-03-15T23:30:00.000-08:00

...ahhhh....mmmmm....*blank*

It's been too long, for many things... I suppose I'll just open my mind and see what spills out.

Speaking of too long...ever hear of the term 'squeezing the stick'? It's a hockey term when someone hasn't scored in a while and no matter what he does he just makes matters worse causing him to grip harder. It's a vicious circle. Anyways...

The Canucks are sucking some major arse and are sitting in 7th in the conference. With the way things are going it wouldn't surprise me if we didn't make the playoffs. If it wasn't for the Olympics we wouldn't have lost our second and third top defencemen. Just rotten luck. With Jovo and Baumgartner out we were without 4 of our top 5 and were forced to use up some of those draft picks we had acquired in the off season on two frickin old d-men. I was really looking forward to restocking our rather empty system.

I've been a total flake lately. I'm working on a deal that's got me on edge. I'll talk about it after it goes through or falls thru. I think I'll know by Friday. Come to think about it I'm a flake most of the time so forgive my liberal use of the word 'lately'.

I finally watched the third and forth Harry Potter movies. Really good. I don't think it was a good idea watching them back to back because I started drifting half way thru "Goblet of Fire". I want to read all the books now. Its been so long since I've seen a movie in the theatre that everything I want to watch is coming out on DVD. Now that I have time there's nothing good to watch. I watched Jar Head. I love war movies.

Well can't think of anything else, kinda getting bored. Hopefully I can get things going so I can stop squeezing the stick.

Rhoel.

-The bad news is that you lost a lot of blood. The good news is that we found most of it.-Some movie I can't remember.

2006-02-24T10:43:00.000-08:00

How I met KP.

Like it is for most interesting story's; it was about a girl.

But I think the best place to start would be the beginning. When I was a kid my dad owned a pair of these really long bamboo sticks. What I really wanted in life was to cut off a piece of one of them so I could make a babmboo glass like Mr. Howell on Gilligan's Island. That would be so cool. Every time I'd ask they'd say no. When I asked what they were for I couldn't understand the explanation and so a few days later I'd ask again. One day I took a hacksaw and just started cutting. Being 6 yrs old as I was I got tired after about 5 mins and all I made was a little hole. That's as far as it got and I never asked again.

My Dad used to direct plays at the Robson Square play-house. His set designer was my Tito Roger. Tito Roger and his friends used to do this weird dancing every Flip day. Old ppl dancing looked weird.

When I was about 14 my two older brothers started dancing for the Roger Cabrera dance troupe staring Roger Cabrera, Roger Cabrera Jr,...and a bunch of other ppl. So odd of them. At least they stopped getting into gang fights. That Flip day I saw 'it' for the first time. It was so interesting. My only thought was, "I can do that." And that Flip day I saw Her and my only thought was, "I want to do that." Lets just say that I met possibly the hottest Filipina girl to ever walk the earth. That next year I joined up. About a year later my brothers and I were forced to quit because of familly politics. Translated: A fellow dancer Jr. fancied liked my brother. By 16 I was retired from dancing.

In 1991, Mt Pinatubo erupts. A group of like minded youths gets together to form a group dedicated to raising funds for the relief effort. Kaibigan is born. After Pinatubo we raise money to buy heart/lung machines and after that it was something else. It was my work with Kaibigan that got me involved in the initial group that founded the Philippine Women's Centre. You may have seen them around town. They're the group of youngish Philippino's that are always protesting some thing or the other. Then came a summit of all the local youth groups and FSA's in the area called upon by a group calling themselves Kababayang Pilipino. Our group, who was dedicated to real world change, frowned upon this new group as a bunch of elitist forming a social club. We sent a couple of reps who came back reporting what we expected and that they were planning a show and needed dancers. Pft!

That Flip day I watched this "KP" perform and man, they kinda sucked. I met a few of the dancers as they walked around in their costumes recruiting. They came to our booth and talked to me because they heard that I used to dance. I gave them pamphlets damning the man. It was about this time that Kaibigan died. Eventually I met Faye, the director for the drama portion of the show and she got me to read for her. That first day I met some of the other actors including this dude named VJ. With all the female actress being really hot all the guys read for the part of "Boyfriend". Of course I landed the part of "New Immigrant", you know playing to my "type". As it turns out the then hottest girl in the world didn't get the part of "girlfriend" anyways. The actors, dancers and singers, (kp was so sad that they didn't have musicians yet) operated as separate entities. That first joint practice Faye demanded 'performance level' and I was so ready. I took all those present on a journey of an oppressed new immigrant who had left everything only to be scorned by a new culture and who's only recourse in life was to take it and like it. I'm getting all choked up just thinking about it. Of course afterwards I was informed that the part was written as a comedy. It was during that first practice that I realized I still wanted to dance. So tirelessly, I lobbied both Faye and Randy that I could do both. How about...no. I practiced the dances anyways and eventually Randy put me in a few dances. So how did I thank him? I went to New York for the summer only to return for the last few practices before the show. To make a long story end all I have to say is that first show I didn't know any of my dances, didn't know my costumes or how to wear them. At least I made them laugh.

During my time and adventures with KP our hero met many more most hottest girls in the world.

I never got the girl.

Rhoel.

-Drama is easy, comedy is hard. Charlie Chaplin.

...a few afterthoughts that I thought might be interesting. My first link to KP was also a girl. Dinah A. did hip hop at a fasion show I did before and actually convinced me into meeting Faye. The unnamed actor that landed the coveted part of "Boyfriend" was last seen by VJ when a group of us took Likha to the beach this one time. Apperently "Boyfriend" was walking hand in hand with his boyfriend.

2006-02-13T00:34:00.000-08:00

Scientific Method.

Observation:

1-The term "Soul-mate" is a re-ocurring theme through out history.
2-Two girls for every guy. Since a large percentage of those guys are 'girls' then that improves upon the 2:1 ratio.
3-Love comes in spurts.
4-I am still single.

Hypothesis:

Love is blind.

Experiment:

-Once upon a time,
there was a lonely kind of a guy...who'd resigned himself to the fact that love was blind. Now, if love is blind, he thought to himself...how will it find me? For how many times has love knocked on the door...when it should have been knocking on mine?

And so one day, he went off in search of the aloof creature. He soon happened upon
the cute and fuzzy bunny gang. Perhaps they could help him. "Pardon me, cute and fuzzy bunnies, l wonder if you could help me find love. " "Love would have nothing to do...with such a stupid-looking creature." said the first cute and fuzzy bunny. "Roses are red, violets are blue...but love will have nothing to do with you! " They chanted and danced around him. Naturally, our hero was very saddened by this, so...he....actually, he....he reached into his suitcase...and pulled out an lsraeli submachine gun...and he sawed those cute, fuzzy bastards in half...with hot lead! lt was beautiful!-Opening sequence to the movie "One Crazy Summer (1986)".

Conclusion:

I suppose I'm a romantic when I declare that I beleive in true love. I also believe in love at first sight. But 'love at first sight' is revisionist history of the actuality of 'lust at first sight'. I'm not naive enough to believe in one true love. One can have many (infinite) true loves. Accounting for everyone on the planet, considering the right sex...age range...oppertunity...accesablilty...etc etc ; A single soul-mate is the equivilent of winning the lottery. In my observations I've seen too many lottery winners. Therefore, for every one of you there are many soul mates and for each soul-mate there are many "you's". It's my opinion that the human palate is not as diverse as we'd like to think, not by a longshot. We'd like to think there's 40 million distinct individuals stalking the earth but I don't think that is the case at all. More like millions of copies of a few distinct models. There's a very finite number of models most of which fit together. Vanity is what keeps them apart.

Rhoel.

2006-02-08T18:28:00.000-08:00

BBQ on a Stick: Grilled marinated meat on bamboo

skewers

Which Filipino Food Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

2006-02-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

We got robbed.

That's all I have to say. Pittsburg fans can thank the officials for personally delivering them one for the thumb.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs05/columns/story?columnist=smith_michael&id=2320683

Rhoel.

2006-02-04T08:18:00.000-08:00

Finally

Superbowl eve. A Superbowl I care about. Usually this time of year I look at the super bowl as just another reason to get together to drink and eat chili dogs with a side of chili. I'm so exited that I haven't been sleeping well all week. In fact, I'm skipping KP. I plan on having a buzz on by 2 o'clock tomorrow. The Canucks have this thing when they make it to the finals every 12 years, so we're due this year. the Seahawks have never been to the finals. None of my teams have ever won a championship. The Vancouver Millionaires won the cup in the early 1900's so that doesn't count. The Lions winning the Grey cup a few times isn't quite the same 'cause there's like only 9 teams in the league and they all kinda just take turns winning it (not really, but kinda).

Don't Believe the Hype

The entire planet outside of Washington state, BC and Alaska have the Steelers taking the Superbowl. This reminds me of game 5 of the '94 Stanley cup when Rangers fans were paying 5 grand a seat to watch the home team end their 1940 curse only to have those dastardly Canucks come in and ruin everything. If I'm not mistaken, we crushed them that game and took game 6 too. It's not only the picking of the Steelers, but the refusal to concede that the 'Hawks even have a chance. By my count the teams are very evenly matched, actually I think the 'Hawks have the edge. People forget that the Steelers struggled all year and just got hot at the right time.

Steelers win if they can counter the Hawks pressure and throw deep.

Hawks win if they can control the ball on O and out play the Steelers O line.

Shy.

2006-02-02T12:40:00.000-08:00

Love Monkey

Isn't it sad when ones life mirrors fiction? Certain shows post mark my life. 21 Jumpstreet was HS Jason Preistly got his start there with his now famous mullet. Twin Peaks was senior year. 90210 was post secondary till I realized the show wasn't that good anymore. And then there are the characters. In Kindergarten I wanted to be the Fonz. I wore black cowboy boots with a squared off toe, and a black leather jacket. (Interesting...this may explain my thing for leather jackets and biker boots. I need new boots...)That lasted about a day when my mom decided that I should wear my Incredible Hulk shoes with my Snoopy backpack. For a while there I traded my pseudo gangsta mullet and trench for a tail, and then eventually Brandan Walsh trademark sideburns. If I'm not mistaken he cut off his mullet after the first few episodes. Right before I became grunge, (in case you're wondering Singles came out afterwards and the characters in the movie were older than us.)

I was working through the hours of programming I'm behind on and came across a show called Love Monkey. The show itself is not half bad, actually it kinda reminds me of the movie Singles for some reason. Preistly is in the cast and in this one episode he has this startling revelation: That he is no longer rugged and handsome, but a guy that was once good looking and now out of shape. Just like me. I'm thinking Preistly should play me when my memoirs get published and becomes a movie.

I've been in denial for years, but yeah. I'm fat. I mean I've know it for years, but now I can say it. Maybe now I can stop talking about getting into shape and just do it. Maybe I can now say it 'cause apparently talk is now cheap.

Rhoel.

-I went to my reunion. It's just as if everyone had swelled.- Joan Cusak. Grouse Pointe Blank.

2006-01-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

All Hail the Seahawks...

...the mighty mighty Seahawks. Is that a drinking game? My two teams on the face of this world are the Canucks, and the Seahawks (And the UW Huskies, but they suck lately). For the first time in their 30 year history my Seahawks are going to the big dance. Last weekend I taped the NFC final game 'cause we had dance practice at the same time. I drove to and from practice with the radio off 'cause I didn't want to hear any updates. In my world, if I haven't seen or heard of a thing, it hasn't happened...yet. In my mind the Hawks are a far superior team. But every thing I read in the papers and on the net pointed to a closer game than I figured and had the Panthers as favorites. We absolutely killed them. The game was over by half time. National coverage gives anything Seattle no respect, Vancouver too.

Next up, Pittsburgh Steelers. Vegas has them as early -3.5 point favorites. No respect. We'll see.

Now I'm going to bask in the 'Hawks glory for another week then it's Superbowl XL (btw how do you get 40 from extra large? hehe) Detroit city here they come!

Rhoel.

2006-01-26T11:02:00.000-08:00

Sticker Shock.

I was strolling on Burrard heading to my car when I passed by a shop called London Motors. I'm normally not one to stroll, but considering my frame of mind contemplating acquiring something I probably won't ever use and with no place to go in particular as I was; this can only be described as strolling. Knowing that my dream car the Austin Martin AmV8 may already be on sale and that Austin is an English car maker and that London is in England...I stopped in for a peek. What I found were a plethora of Euro exotic cars. My brother used to sell used cars and I was used to seeing many older Farrari's and right hand drive Japanese imports so this was nothing really new to me. And with the multitude of impressive auto's motoring around Van these days I expected many of these shops existed. But then I saw for the first time with my own eyes a Lamborgini Mureblahblah. It was the same colour as my Jessica and roughly the same size but oh so much more sexy. But the more I looked at it the more it seemed to me to resemble a space ship and less like a car. And at a mere 335 or so thousand monies (I can't count that high so I didn't really recognize the exact amt) I decided that anyone purchasing that car is just retarded. Beside it was a 2001 Farrari Something. The paltry 178 grand ticket actually momentarily seemed reasonable considering the car beside it. For a second there I lived in someone else's world where the number 178 for what I assume is a previously owned car seemed reasonable. But what really got to me was the mileage, 11 thousand km's.

Someone paid a lot of frickin money just to have this car sit in a garage. I have mixed feeling on this. First and foremost a car is made to be driven. To me garageing such a beautiful machine is like putting a wild mustang in a tiny tiny cage. Cruel. It is for this same reason that I believe demosticating and keeping animals for pets is equally cruel. May as well put it behind 20 feet of hermedically sealed glass. On the other hand as a child I collected Star Wars toys and never opened them and all my friends looked at me like I was nuts. It's not unreasonable to own something way to valuable use. I wouldn't use a collectable coin to buy ice cream. But a five dollar action figure is a little different than a quarter of a million dollar car. So. If I was a megaillionaire would I be happier with a Farrari in the garage or racing a Hyundai around the track? Probably the latter, especially considering that I'll most likely never be a collosalillionaire. But knowing me if I'm retarded enough to spend that much on a car I'll most likely be retarded enough to drive the hell out of it. That way I could be loathed by all aspects of society equally. Thank god my dream car is only merely ridiculously expensive. And this from a guy who's only about half way thru paying for his present dream car.

The funniest part of this particular adventure was when the sales person strolled up to me and casually asked if he could help me. I guess he's not as jadded as say a Honda salesman having to deal with pimply faced teens drooling over the S2000 knowing that he knows that they know that he knows that there's no way in hell one can afford such an auto working at Mcdonalds. But this dude seemed dead serious. I almost laughed in his face when I blurted out, "Ah...just looking." As I bee lined for the door like I was caught stealing he pretty much grabbed me and told me to look around all I like. Dude was cool. We talked cars for a bit. As it turns out he's dosn't drive the cars either except to move them around the show room. I suppose we now know where that precious 11000 km's was spent.

Shy.

2006-01-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

Deconstructing Christmas Tree

Holly cowabunga it's been too long since I've blogged. It's surprising how busy one can get when one is busy relaxing. Btw, if the previous blog posting seems incomplete it's because it is...incomplete that is. I was working on it and put it off till it no longer seemed relevant, but seemed like a waste to just delete it.

How does one get rid of a dead Christmas tree? Since I move so often I never really had to think about it before. I think I've left a dead tree in the back yard of like 4 houses the past 5-6 years. At least this time I have a forest behind my house to hide it. I dragged it across the field in the back yard and used my best rendition of a Scottish tree flinging technique only to have it bounce off a bush and back onto the field where it landed in a giant mud puddle. I just left it, didn't want to get too dirty. Taking all the ornaments and stuff off the tree was kinda sad. I didn't help put them on so it felt weird touching them for the first time just to put them in a box.

Some notables from the past holiday. My brother got me board boots, which promted me to buy myself a new helmet, jacket and pants 'cause all my old gear is long since lost. I suppose I'm a snowboarder again. I bought all the stuff because it was so cheap. Sportcheck is closing down so I got the jacket and pants for like 50 bucks each. My pants look like jeans, so funny. My helmet looks like a black army helmet. I went across the boarder to Belisfair to buy Battlestar Galactica season 2.0. I'm slightly disappointed that I spent 40 bucks American for only the first half of the season. But still, I couldn't wait to watch it because it won't be aired here till this month. That's got to be the best show on television.

New Years was so memorable that I can't remember it. I called most of you so perhaps you'all can fill me in on what I missed. The pictures surprisingly didn't tell much of the storey. But in this one pic...

I'd like to quickly add that we had our first workshop yesterday. It's so exiting to see so many new faces. I just hope most of them stick around. They all seemed excited (with the exception of Francis, I think Mondo threatened to with hold services unless he at least tried) So that's about it. You're all caught up in the world of me. And in my world there's a girl in yellow and a girl in green...

Rhoel.

2005-12-24T10:33:00.000-08:00

'Twas the night of KP Christmas '05

'Twas the night of KP Christmas '05, at the Romero residence
Not a creature was drinking, which made me quite hesident;
The roast beast and seafood medley was layed out with care,
a calm before the feeding frenzy soon would happen there.
In two and in fours the Kpeeps they came,
Aperently 6 o'clock is 4 o'clock, what's in a name?
Now, Iris! Now, Ron! They're going to the Philippines.
On, Melissa and two guys! on Michelle and Michelle, there's storks on the doppler screens!
The Kpeeps all nestled watching some past shows,
while visions of Belgium played out on their brows.
A poker game broke out, one got rich the rest got poor,
as Randy recruited everyone for the tour.

2005-12-16T09:56:00.000-08:00

Regrets

When I was younger; regrets hovered over my everyday life like a black cloud blocking out the sun colouring everything grey. I used to fret and revisit every decision, action, or non-action. Second guessing everything. It used to consume so much of my time and energy that I was afraid to add to the pile of things to worry about. I would be so afraid to make a mistake that I would be paralyzed into non-action. There-bye adding to the pile anyways. And then one day I decided, "No more regrets." I would walk thru this life and any other with no stone unturned and at the end of the day the only person I had to answer to would be myself. To never apologize for being myself. "I said it, I did it, so be it." And I was much happier.

Of course problems like that don't actually go away. I just learned to deal with it better. Denial is a handy survival tool. I suppose out of sight out of my mind.

But every year around the holidays, I suppose it's because of New Years that most go into review mode. For me it starts off reviewing the past year, and then sooner or later some of those old regrets re-surface. Now a days thou it's only those really big ones that endure after all this time. And as much as I hate being vague and as much as I like to believe that I'm not being true to this electronic realm of mine without pouring my every thought down. But I do recognize this as a public forum and some things need not be spoken. Lets just say that I just used a long forgotten e-mail addy. I don't even know if she still uses it. Just a simple little note to ask to see how the world has been treating her. In case you're wondering she's not the provervial 'one that got away', just the one I let down the most.

Now that I think about it the day I decided to live with no regrets may have been the same day I decided not to be shy. I mean, I'm still shy, yet I can now run around in front of a thousand ppl in a buhug with all my stuff hanging out. hehe. The similarities make me wonder if it was the same moment...

Rhoel.

On a less serious note, when was the last time you scanned your list of hot-mail addy's on your contact list? Some of those are so old that I don't even know who they belong to.

2005-12-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

Children of an idle brain.

My weekly baby sitting duty of my one and only nephew is giving me the chance to see him in a different light. Maybe it's because I've changed all the light bulbs to those low energy kind. On the surface I can see traits from all of my brothers in him. He's pretty much actively opposed to any sort of authority like his dad. You tell him not to do something it's pretty much guaranteed that he'll do it at some point. He's a motor cycle and overall general speed freak like his uncle Ben. When we double him on the mini bike we bought him last year he sits on the tank.
I find that the faster we go the more exited he gets. He even tries to steer it himself. Ever since he was a baby I've always thought that his mannerisms mirror those of my dad which would make sense if parts of Jello remind me of the brothers. I wonder which family members above me on my family tree I inherited bits from. I'd like to thank them for my good looks and my fine numb chuck skills. When I was a kid I was told I was a lot like my uncle Larry, Elena's dad. Watching him as a child I decided early on that I didn't want to be a gigelo like he was. Every time I saw that cat he had a new girl.

Some funny ideas I had as a child:
-I thought a convertible car would be cheaper because it had a cloth top, and cloth is cheaper than steel. I wondered who would ever want to buy a convertible because it wasn't safe when it would inevitably flip over.
-I thought beer would be like an ultra sweet pop. The way my dad and uncle's drank it I thought it would taste so good. That was until I finally tasted it then I figured that I'd never like it, ever.
-I thought my aunt was pulling my leg when she told me she liked dry wine. How can a liquid be dry?
-I figured that when I finally learned to drive that I'd just leave the stick in top gear so I could drive fast all the time.
-I thought everything in the phils was in black and white. Every picture I saw confirmed what I suspected.
-I thought jet lag was a type of sickness caused because the human body wasn't designed to travel so fast.

I think I may have blogged about this before...it seems rather familiar. Maybe I just saw the future again.

Rhoel.

2005-12-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

...and the snow is so...frightful.

So it snowed. Then it snowed again. And instead of washing away, it snowed again. Is it too early to be hopeful of a white Christmas?

After the first day of snow I decided to stay home and wait it out. Then I realized I had to return my movie and then proceeded to have a hard time getting off the property in my Expedition...in 4wd no less.

The worst snow storm I remember was when I was about 3 or 4. The whole family was trapped in our house for like 2 days but when Christmas came it was decided we would walk to my Aunts house. All I remember was being really scared because the snow was up to my hips and that there weren't any cars on the roads. I also remember just wanting to go home with my mom bribing me with toys if I stopped crying. It was about a two mile walk. And I walked most of it when my dad got tired carrying me. At some point I realized it was shorter there than it was to go home and my parents looked kinda scared for me so I stopped crying. When we arrived I was surprised to find my whole family had made the trek. All my aunts, uncles and cousins made it. As it turns out we were trapped there for so long that I don't remember going home for New Years. It was like a big party for like a week. It was a week of playing with new toys and playing in the snow. I think that was my favorite Christmas as a child. But then again I barely remember anything from when I was that young.

I think Vancouver averages a white Christmas once every 10 or so years. My two cousins from the Phils just moved to Vancouver and were so exited to see snow. They somehow had it in their head that Christmas=snow and had circled it on their calendars even thou it was looking to be a wet Christmas and that the previous was a white Christmas. Miracle of miracles their first Christmas in Canada was a white one when it snowed Christmas eve.

I went with my brother when he bought all new snow board gear. It kinda made me want to get back into it. If I do thou I'm gonna have to buy some new boots, and some other assorted new gear because when I moved I saw only one of my boots, and I can't remember the last time I saw my outer gear. I think maybe I just want to buy the gear. Besides my old stuff is so heavy compared to my bro's new stuff.

Who can believe the early Christmas present to all you Shark Fans. Joe Thorton is going to be your superstar player for the next 10 plus years. How the hell did Stuart and Strum (Premeau is a fringe throw in, maybe to absorb some salary) equal Throton? Dang I'm envious, if I were to have one player for my Canucks it would be him. We've had more than our share of rediulously lop sided trades, (Naslund and Bertuzzi come to mind) but how sweet would Joe look in midnight blue? It's cool. the Sharks are my third favorite team.

sorry for blog slacking lately, but I haven't been in the writing mood lately. I think I'm getting the holiday blues a little early. The holidays can be lonely for a single ROckstar.

Rhoel.

"I'm dreaming of a whhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiite, wommmmmmmmen!!!"- My uncle Fernando.

2005-11-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

Video killed the radio star

So I suppose one can say that DVD killed video tape. But not completely.

I was listening to the radio as I drove around the other day when the DJ mentions how he doesn't even know how to program a vcr (because it's rocket science right?) and he goes on to mention how '...who uses their vcr's now a days anyways?". Ah, well I do. The first thing I do in the morning is go online, check out what the TV scedule is, then program 2 or maybe 3 (depending of there's a game on)vcr's. As you read this I have a stack of tapes of programs from this season that I haven't viewed yet. In fact, in some cases I can't go home flip on the TV and start watching one of my favorite programs because I'm 2-3 episodes behind. If anyone misses an episode of one of their favorite shows just give me a call I probably have it...somewhere. Unpacking my stuff from my latest move I came across some unmarked tapes. I quickly figured out that they were the last 4-5 episodes of Paradise Hotel that I haven't watched. Wasn't that like 3-4 years ago? And I still don't know who won.

During my last move I contemplated throwing out a video collection that I don't even watch. Slowly most of the movies have been repaced by DVD. But some of my collection is rare, some I wouldn't bother to buy on DVD, and basically video movies pretty much have no value anymore. They take up space, more personal value then actual value, don't watch them...I'll probably end up tossing out most of them.

A few reviews (hopefully no spoilers):

Porno. I finally finished the second book of the Trainspotting series. For the most part it was shite. Where the first book was a collection of short stories, each of which was clever and interesting the second book was a short story that was 50% fluff. Imagine a 400 page short? Basically the first half of the book was to set up the fact that the main character of this book, Simon 'Sick Boy' Williamson, was a bastard. Over and over again...ok he's a bastard...move on already. Equally the storey line arc of 'Spud' Mackenzie was pure fluff and pointless. I trudged thru the first half of the book in about a month. The second half was actually quite good and took me like a week. Over all I like the book only because it advanced the storey of the first book, and the storey arcs of Francis Begbie and Renton fueled the second half. Plot was pretty predictable.

OC season 2. I recently purchased the series on DVD and I'm liking it the second time around. When it was current last year I remember only truly enjoying a few of the episodes. On a side note, I'm loving season 3 as much as I loved season 1.

Veronica Mars season 1. On the strength of what I've seen of season 2, I went out and purchased season 1 on DVD. I freakin love it. I can see why my cousins raved about it all of last year. I'm only about 7 episodes in. I'm thinking Kristin Bell is going on my list.

Mitch Robbins: It's nothing to be ashamed of--I had the same problem.
Phil Berquist: Didn't you feel stupid; I mean, didn't you feel . . . inadequate?
Mitch Robbins: Yeah, for a while, but then I overcame it. Can I explain it to you again? I mean now promise me you won't get upset.
Phil Berquist: O.K.; it's not gonna to do any good.
Mitch Robbins: O.K., if you want to watch one show but record another show at the same time, the television set does not have to be on channel 3.
Phil Berquist: Yeah it does.
Mitch Robbins: No it doesn't.
Phil Berquist: It does.
Mitch Robbins: No, if you're watching what you're recording, then it has to be on 3.
Phil Berquist: What . . . the TV or . . . or the machine?
Mitch Robbins: The TV.
Phil Berquist: You're saying I can record something I'm not even watching?
Mitch Robbins: Yes, that's the point. You don't even need a TV to record.
Phil Berquist: How would I see it?
Mitch Robbins: Well to see it you need a TV.
Ed Furillo: Shut up! Just shut up! He doesn't get it! He'll never get it! It's been 4 hours! The cows can tape something by now! Forget about it please!
Phil Berquist: How do you do the clock?
Ed Furillo: You're dead. You are dead.

Rhoel.

So what will kill the DVD?

2005-11-11T01:25:00.000-08:00

Here I am...

...rock me like a hurricane.

I suppose that's bad humour considering how mother nature has wiped the whole south east america off the map. When I think about the usual run of things I figure I'm safely hidden in the forgotten corner of North America where nothing much happens. It doesn't really get very hot in the summer and it doesn't really get very cold. If there's a heat wave, I stay in for a few days. If it snows, I stay in for a few days. There are very few times I've been scared for my life. Now imagine if hurricanes and tornados or monsoons were one of the four seasons.

When I was young I was scared of almost everything. Spiders. The dark. Onions. And I suppose a lot of those fears stemmed from the unknown. And as one grows older those fears seem to subside, thou I can only eat onions if they're battered or sautayed and well cooked. In fact I think I would kick ass in the show 'Fear Factor' because I'm not afraid of anything...except that gross shite they eat. I have a weak stomach, I can't even eat liver without the barf reflex. (nervous relex action is a misnomer, because I'm not nervous at all about barfing. Only slightly embarrassed)

Things I'm afraid of:
-Monsters.
-I'm afraid of my nephew hurting himself. Actually any small child hurting themselves. Whenever I see some small child in what I consider a dangerous situation I usually get weird looks from their parents. I think little kids should be born with goggles, little hockey helmets and tiny suits of armour. Thou that might suck for the mom at the time of birth.
-Sharks. A wetsuit isn't gonna block out the most successful eating machine in history. Once in Hawaii, I almost had a heart attack when I saw a big grey turtle surface right beside me. I swear I saw a big black eye for a second. Actually anything that can eat me.
-Unsecured doors and windows.

About 6ish years ago we went on tour to Campbell River. Me and Marc A. were staying with this nice family and on our way home they told us how it was so safe that they didn't even lock their car doors or house doors at night. At 10 at night we saw little 5 year olds walking to the store hand in hand with their little flashlights. That night even thou I was exhausted and nervous about the show the next day, I couldn't sleep. At like 4 in the morning I went for a glass of water. In the kitchen I noticed the door lock unlocked. The moment I locked it I felt immediately better. Walking around the house I locked the remaining doors and fell asleep moments later.

Isn't it weird that ppl are afraid of heights and not afraid of speed? It must go back to our tree swinging days. Logically speed is more likely to mess you up. Actually my lack of fear of heights kinda concerns me. As a child I wondered why ppl freaked out when they saw me sitting on the edge of a 3 story complex or climbing a tall ass tree. I still felt that little tingle of fear, but it sorta thrilled me more than anything.

When I was a about 10 I walked into my aunts house in Seattle and I heard some crying and blubbering. I looked up and saw my brother and uncle hanging my cousin Francis off the balcony by the ankles. Apparently he was being disciplined. Francis was very well behaved from that point forward.

Now that I've moved I can say that there was a ghost living in my room of my last house. And he was a mischievous mofo. The first time I noticed a ghostly happening was when I was living in my house on the other side of HWY 1 near Fraser Heights. That scared me (a storey for another day), but the second time around wasn't so scary. My last house I saw the ghost maybe twice before. Then one night I woke up with the sensation that someone was chocking me and holding me down. I panicked at first till I realized that I could still breath. So I just went back to sleep. It happened once again, but this time there wasn't any panicky sensation and I just ignored it. He left me alone after that.

This one time I was scared for a short while when I thought I was a dad.

The only time that I can remember being scared for my life was when I was in the back of a jeep doing about 150 kph on a narrow jeep trail a few hours into the bush. Sheer cliff straight up on my left, sheer cliff straight down on my right. My brother was forced to flip the jeep so we didn't drive off the cliff as we missed the bridge ahead while we were in a power slide. I honestly thought that was the end of me. Oddly enough I didn't see my life flash before me eyes. With the jeep on it's side after 2.75 flips me, my bro and cousin Mo stared jumping up and down hi fiving each other. Then we stared gathering and shot-gunning all the beers squirting about.

It's been a while since I've been scared. I kinda miss it. But I should be careful for what I wish for since Vancouver is on the ring of fire and is about 100 yrs over due for a massive quake. Rhoel.

2005-11-03T13:34:00.000-08:00

Home is where the heart is...

...so I guess home is in my chest cavity.

My whole life I've moved around a lot. In fact I can't even remember how many houses I've lived in. I lived in Vancouver, Port Moody, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge (for a few months) back to PM, Surrey, Richmond, and back to Surrey. And there were a few moves around each burg a couple of times. In fact, at one point we moved across the street because my mom always dreamed of living in a pink house (It was really nice).

When me and my brother Rocky were young we used to spend our summers in Seattle with my Grandma and Aunt.

After Grad I lived in New Jeresy for about a year and a half. Four years ago I lived in Seattle for almost two years. Two years ago I almost moved to Calgary, then Edmonton, then to Calgary again.

When I was younger I used to loose entire groups of friends at a time. I know how those army brats feel. I was never able to put down deep roots. I think deep down I'm still terrified to get too attached to ppl, places and things, because in the back of my mind there's a clock counting down to when I have to leave again. In fact the longest I've held on to a group of friends is KP.

Twice moving I think saved my life. Once when I was running with a bad crowd that I left behind in my late teens, and once when I left behind a psychotic gf that to this day am convinced was planning to kill me. (That move required switching schools and all my phone numbers.)

This new place is nice. It's an older house but not as Brady Bunch as my Richmond spot, but it's on what I would describe as a small park. There's a small out-building that's a kind of work shop/clubhouse. It smells like a musty cabin in there thou. Behind that is what can only be described as a gravel 4 car parking lot. Walking to my car it feels like I'm camping 'cause there's no lights out there.

For one reason or another I've moved around a lot and I can say in my expert opinion that I fucking hate moving. And what sucks the most is that I can see in the foreseeable future more moves to be made. Rhoel.

-Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean nobody is following me.-
-The quickest way to a man's heart is thru the breast bone.-

2005-10-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

You know its one of those days...

...when you proceed to point your keyless entry key chain at your house trying to unlock the front door. "What the hell is wrong with this thing?...never mind..."

It seems I've been having a lot of those days lately. I don't know if I'm actually getting dumber or what. I'm pretty sure I'm too young to go senile. I have had a few concussions in my life...

I was watching a recording of Veronica Mars. I'm giving it a chance because my cousins swear by it. Watching the season opener I found it kinda boring and completely unimaginative. During the opeing of the second episode she poses a question during her opening monologue:

VERONICA VOICEOVER: If a school bus, traveling forty miles per hour

...drives off a cliff and plunges ninety feet into the jagged coastline

...how many seconds did the six high school students, their teacher, and bus driver have to contemplate the fact that they're about to die?

...Two Mississippis' worth of screams, life flashes, and prayers, maybe?

I stopped the tape and thought this over. Flashes of physics classes past started flashing before my eyes. I figured if I had the formula that it'd take me like 2 mins to answer the question. It actually took a little longer than that because it took me a few mins to figure out the awkwardrd way the formula was written. But still I had to sit there and remember...

BTW, why doesn't America just go metric already? If you watch Star Trek or any other futuristic movie or TV shows you must realize that at some point in the future they will convert, its inevitable. Just do it already, sheesh:)

Nothing in my every day life requires me to use my brain in any challenging way. It's like an unused muscle. I think I'm getting soft in the brain. Maybe I should go blonde again...ah,no.

Rhoel.

BTW...2.37 seconds. Someone check my math, it's probably wrong.

2005-10-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Memories...

...light the corners of my mind. Funny thing is I think of my mind as shaped as an inverse sphere.

It's been too long. So long in fact that I think I have ideas pouring out my brain like a burst dam. I hate when that happens. It's moments like this that I can start rabbiting and nothing said would make any sense.

If you can't really remember, then it didn't really happen.

I'm one of those ppl that loves to walk around with a camera and film everything. Or before the advent of portable video I loved to take pictures of everything. I suppose it's a memory aid. Ppl's mememory is inherently inaccurate because the experience that memory is 'recording' is filtered by things like mood, association, preconception, and imagination. And on top of that recall is 50 percent revisionist history. Two ppl witnessing the same event can remember totally different events. So there is my memory in digital clarity. Some would argue that walking around with a camera dilutes the experience. That one is missing life whilst trying to remember it.

I brought a camera to Rodneys stag. Best stag I've ever been to. Randy, brilliant idea with the house boat. I've recently screened the footage. I find it strange that the camera man pretty much forgot about his memory aid after the fireworks on the beach and the dance party on the Merv. So I suppose it can be said that nothing really happened after that...

Another thing about memory is that it's shot from one point of view. Try imagining watching a movie or tv show when the camera followed around only one character. And it's not like the scenes are in third person either but in first. I suppose that is the beauty of the shared experience. One gets more of the complete picture. Like at Rodney and Jeanettes wedding. In my immediate sphere there is what I experienced. The next sphere out is all the ppl I interacted with or shared an experience with. Third layer is the ppl they shared an experience with. It'd be impossible to know the whole experience. It makes me wonder how the storey would look from the eyes of a new husband, a new wife, a brother, a mother and father. I suppose it's enough to remember and cherish my own experience.

I've been starting to realize that I am very self centred. I always thought a self centred person had to be a diva, a self important ego maniac. Me first. When I think 'self centred' I think of those ridiculous sport stars or rappers that talk about themselves in the third person. I'm starting to figure out that one doesn't have to be greedy, high on one's self, or be a spectacle all the time. I am beginging to realize that when ever I experience something my first thought is 'how does this effect me?' or 'how does this relate to me?'. I find that as soon as someone starts talking about something my first impulse is to start talking about myself. Possibly this is why I'm happier when I'm single. Maybe it's because I haven't found someone to care for more than myself. Interesting. I gotta work on that, knowing is half the battle.

Rhoel.

2005-08-24T03:49:00.000-07:00

Taboo.

Today I ate ice cream from the tub. It tasted just a little bit better.

Generally speaking, if society tells me not to do something I pretty much want to turn around and do it. I mean there's things like say...not killing ppl, but that goes without saying. Don't steal, no problems here mate. But most of what society says is pretty much arbitrary. Some dude 100 million years ago decided unilaterally that...I'm suppose to park 3.5 metres from the corner. Fluck that! That's like freakin 10 feet! Well, Tyra is only like 7 ft long so I'm freakin parking on the corner. I'm pretty sure Jessica is about 8-9 ft long so I probably won't get the kick ass parking at practice anymore. Even the dang signs are like 3 ft from the corner. I'm sorry if I no longer drive a horse and carriage. Essentially what society decrees, most of which is arbitrary and antiquated so I have no problems...hitting on younger girls or...driving 160 kph on the freeway (as long as I can get away with it). Honestly if I were to like...put my jacket in a puddle for a girl to step on I'd get stared at, and probably ruin my jacket. At some point you gotta realize "Man, that's just dumb. I'm not doing that." Like kissing on the first date. If I'm not getting some kind of action almost immediately, do you think I'm gonna call again? Basically I freakin don't care what society deems is acceptable, except the stuff that'll land me in jail. Basically at the end of the day I only have to answer to one person, myself. If I can live with it, then so be it.

But there are certain things...

When I was still in school I worked as a security job at a high school. Mostly I made sure nobody got mugged walking to and from their cars for night school and that kids weren't loitering around the school after regular school times. But every once in a while I worked a school dance or sock hop. Mostly that entailed dealing with fights and flirting with bait. But I remember this one time a motion detector went off at the far end of the school and I found myself running thru the school. My gawd was that fun! All my life I was told not to do this and not to do that, and me being the straight arrow pretty much flew true. I rarely coloured outside the lines. But running thru a school broke so many rules and if felt so great. Something as simple as that. Like eating ice cream straight out the tub.

I always say that before I die I want to (sky dive, go to Mardi Gras, hunt something big, surf a giant ass wave, bash a car with a bat, see the pyramids with my own eyes etc etc)...usually something big. But before I die I also want to:
-yell in church.
-run with sisors.
-swim right after I eat.
-play with food.
-run a few miles on a track going clockwise.
-leave toys on the stairs.
-drink out of the carton.
-write in a text book.
-take a peek at the next dude's willy at the urinals.
-cross the street without looking (safely like at a cross walk with the walk flashing).
-not say hello and bye before and after a phone convo.
-not feeling bad not putting the seat down at a girls house.
-eat desert first and dinner last. (Thou I'm not really a big desert person)
-declare that the glass is half empty.
-ride a bike, roller blade or skate in a mall or in a school.
-colour in random directions and outside of the lines.
Edit: Add
-stand in an uncrowded elevator the opposite direction.
-(any more?)

Too many to list. These are easy things. Yet they would feel so good. I wonder if I could do all of them in one day. Nah, I think I'll spread them out and savour them.

Rhoel

-PS, I had started a blog entry about camping that is as of yet still unfinished. ( I wasn't feeling it) So when I do publish don't be fooled by the timeline.

2005-08-09T00:58:00.000-07:00

For the time being, call me Marvin

Once again I'm feeling like Marvin. I hate when I'm a paranoid andROid, c'est la vie. I'm going camping tomorrow for a few days so maybe being out in the peaceful woods will cheer me up. Maybe if I stalk and kill something...and eat it even. hehe Nah, I could never eat something that once had a face. Except fish, but they haven't got any feelings. Thank God steaks are born at the supermarket in those convenient shapes with the foam and plastic wrap. I remember the day when my cousins kid at 4 years old figured out the chicken one eats is the same chicken that runs around. We were having a family party and he comes running into the kitchen "Hey, there's a pig in a box!" We're like, wtf this kid on eh? He hauls us outside to the deck...right to the lecheon... Back ground story: Isaiah once had a pet pig. It got sick when he fed it a stick of butter. He now lives at the S.P.C.Y. where he will one day pick up his baby pig. "See, in the box!" "But Isaiah, that's food." "No it's a pig, see it has a face!" So my brother breaks off a piece of skin, and eats it. Isaiah has a 4 year old epiphany and starts crying. Suddenly he becomes a vegetarian and even when his mom cuts up meat in to tiny little pieces he'd still pick them out.

Back to the lecture at hand. Lately I've been in pretty good spirits but it seem I easly become frustrated or I become Marvin (or I get frustrated then I become Marvin). For those of you who know, I never get frustrated. The normal run of things I have the patience of a mountain. Yet, my paranoid andROid phase seems to be fleeting. But the frequency is alarming. I think I need a vacation, or a beer...or a beer on vacation. (That is me on the vacation, not the beer) Actually I know what I really need, but we won't go there. There may be some ladies in the house. Know what I'm sayin??? hehe.

So anyways, camping this week and then KamPing on the 27/28 th.

Marvin

-A 4ish Alexa Rose Roberts "I'm a meatatarian."

On a side note, I've stopped reading the Resturant. I recently picked up "Porno", it's the continuation of Trainspotting. It's written as a novel instead of the collection of shorts that Trainspotting was. I'll finish Resturant after because it's too heavy to take camping and I think I'll blaze thru Porno. Picture the cover, it shows the face of a blow up doll under the title in giant letters. I keep having to explain to those who stare that it is not in fact a porno (which to be precise is a movie) but a novel.

2005-08-08T01:29:00.000-07:00

Benvolio

I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire:
The day is hot, the Capulets abroad,
And, if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl;
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring

When I lived in Hawaii I started taking ice cold showers to counter act the extreme heat. Last summer in Toronto I reprised that habit. Lately I've been using it here. What's with the heat? Dang with a capital 'D' and a small text 'ang'.

You know when they say that when one is all horny and shite that they should take a cold shower to cool off? I think that's a big false lie. Everytime I try that I find that my pulse quickens and I get more exited then before the shower. I end up doing stuff...by myself...joking (not really).

I'd like to congratulate my somewhat cousin Ciena (pronounced Shena)(my cousins cousin) for an awesome cotillion. You guys kicked some serious booty. And the party itself was damn fun. You Hintay's really know how to throw down. After a month of thinking to myself (holy cow, these fuckers can't even count to 4) I was mildly shocked when everyone was in sync and on count. If we had more time the next lesson would be titled "Emote". But all in all, you guys took it to another level. I was actually watching the crowd a lot during the dance trying to gauge how much my choreography sucked but ended up really stoked. And having to shake 99 million hands with attached giant smiles I know we did good. And as much as I explained that I'm retired in this game, except for family favors, I got 2 offers to do cotillions (one from the dj). Some things never change. Damn I'm good.

Congrats to another KP theme party, but this time most ppl actually dressed to theme. It was on the whole subtle, next time I think it was decided that the next theme will be more obvious. I believe the table was favoring 'Gangsta Rapper' wear or Hawaiian beach theme. For the record, it's not my fault that I'm still wearing the same cloths as the early 90's. I'm fashionably retarded, so shoot me. (Is it mean to shoot a retarded person for being retarded?)At least I had the grungish plaid shirt tied around my waist and I had to dig out a pair of retired army parade boots. I love the fact that 99.3 The Fox was having an all 90's weekend. But considering that I doubt many of you listen to the Fox and don't know what I'm talking about I'll just mention that it helped me get into character. Man, I got all into the remenising about the 90's. That was my time. My time has passed.

To all my Likha bradah's and sistah's. Break a leg in Brazil. Charge'em!!! K,den.

Rhoel.

2005-08-04T01:50:00.000-07:00

The Island

As you may all know I hate spoilers so I won't spoil anything for you but only to say the The Island was an awesome movie. The story line was very familiar and reminicent of a 70's classic (that I won't mention because it'd give away too much of the story for those who know what movie I'm talking about.) along with a little of that movie and a little of this. Still, for a sci fi movie it was really well written aswell as it's requisit amazing action sequences. A must see and I wouldn't wait for dvd. Ewan Megreggor and Scarlett Johanson are two of my favorites. Rhoel.

2005-07-27T14:05:00.000-07:00

There ain't no cure for the summertime blues.

There's something wrong with me. Actually there are several things wrong with me and most of those are mental. But I've been totally out of sorts lately. I think the heat has made me lazy and the lack of activity has put my brain into a low energy cycle. Anyways, as I was saying...last week...

So I drove up to frEdmonton, saw a squished beaver, and lo and behold all the rooms are booked because of the stupid Indy. Our hook-up up there works in a couple of hotels and assured us it wouldn't be a problem. As it turns out my parents stayed at their friends house and I stayed in a...camper. I now belong to the trailer park demographic. To be precise the camper was actually in a driveway and was really nice. Like a small hotel room bathed in fake wood paneling complete with a shower and a TV. As it turns out the guy who owns the camper is the same dude that pirated our (kp's) DVD unbeknownst to me until after the fact last November. As it turns out he's the brother in law of the president of Barungi. I met with the president and she told me how they did two shows over the span of a month for a Casino and ended up with like 85 g's. As is stands they apparently have 100 g's in the bank and no idea on how to spend it. I told them that if we had that kinda money that' we'd be in Europe. She was very interested in doing an exchange with us, in which we take turns traveling and performing back and forth. With workshops in between. Apparently they've done it before with Montreal and Toronto and they know how to get funding for it. The next day I went to their practice. I met their dancers, their core is about 10 senior dancers (about our ages) and about 20 little kids. One of their dancers knows and met us thru Ron, Dean, et al when we performed there like back in the day. Their AD was a younger guy named Jodi, the way he danced he kinda reminded me of a slightly shorter WiL. He's the same guy that contacted Kuya Rudy about coming to Edmonton. When he met me he asked me if my KP was the same KP associated with Likha then he got all star struck talking about Likha. And I think he kinda got a little intimidated with me watching (he said so) and proceeded to introduce me to the rest of the group as a memember of Likha who was there to observe and maybe help out. Yeah right. (Not Likha, on vacation, don't wan't to undermine the AD) apparently his dance knowledge doesn't include a lot of traditional stuff so his teaching is kinda like a traditional/jazz/interpretive dance fusion (with a bit of cheerleading lifts and pyramids). apparently Barungi has been slapped on the wrist before from visiting dance instructors from the Phils. Their previous AD was also named Soriano but she was apparently ousted from power. (OMG lots of politics in Edmonton). Honestly I couldn't make heads or tails of wtf they were dancing. Even their Tinkling was so f'd up that the rhythm was soooooooooo off. (they were dancing to some weird jazz music). When I got back to my trailer I got to watch a DVD of their last big show. It was more traditional and kinda looked like our kp stuff from about 5-7 years ago (didn't we leave a tape back there around that time?) I watched the first half and it looked kinda simplistic (their feet, hands, and expression were all off for the most part) and I couldn't tell the young ones from the seniors. I was supposed to be given a copy of the DVD, again it didn't happen. I became friends with the presidents son Shawn whom I partied with all weekend. He'll be sending me one, hopefully before our cast party.

As it turns out Barungi is going to be touring SF, San Diego, Disneyland for two weeks in August and wanted me to come with. If I didn't have a cotillion on the 6 and the Cast Party on the 7 then I would go. Maybe I can meet up with them in SF.

On my way driving home from Calgary I saw the car behind me squish a mama mountain goat.

Rhoel. The Paranoid Andriod.

BTW, I'm about half way thru Restuarant at the End of the Universe, and it's not as funny as Hitchiker's. Maybe it's a statement to my state of mind lately.

2005-07-20T05:34:00.000-07:00

Can you smell what the Ro is cookin?

I just drove 10 of 13 hours (my dad is a weak old soldier) from Edmonton to Calgary to Van. Three days ago it was a matter of 9 of 13. I'm delerious, tired and full of gossip and revelations. I've seen video, (thou for the second frickin time in two trips I was not ferbished with a copy. I'll fix that before I do anything for them. It mostly involves KP, Likha, Barungi of edmonton (at this point who gives a fuck how it's spelt) Karilagan dance society, a two week tour thru San Fran and LA, San Diego, Disney Land, and 100 thoursand dollars. If you're interested (only after sufficient interest is expressed and not before) I suppose I can write a bit on it after my 10 hour blink that starts...right...about...now...ish... Rhoel.

2005-07-14T22:13:00.000-07:00

I going back to Alberta

I just found out that I'll be going to Calgary and Edmonton over the weekend. Be back Tuesdayish. Don't know if I'll have internet accessibility so I'll probably see you guys in about a week. Rhoel.

2005-07-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

Paranoid Android

In the beginning mass media was a dude (or dudette) painting on a wall. A few sleeps later it's 24 hours a day live up to the second on location as it happens type of world. Anything of significance that happens anywhere on this planet, I'll know about it by the time I've done with my breakfast. How famous would say...Billy the Kid be if I lifted his image off of a surveillance camera after his first kill, produced a computer simulation of his likeness instantly distributed EVERYWHERE, tracked him down with a live satellite feed, drove out there in my armoured hummer at night with my starlite night vision dressed in kevlar body armour and apprehended him using pepper spray and some plastic zip restraints. History would ask "Billy the who?"

I don't remember where I was going with this...

So I finished reading the first book of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Funniest damn book I've read in a very long time. I'm a movie junky. It takes a pretty crappy movie for me not to have in some way enjoyed myself. I also like reading books, again one of my favorite things is to read a really bad novel every once in a while. I haven't read all the classics, I mean I own books like Mobey Dick but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Call me Ishmail. Probably the most famous opening line in literature. That's as far as I've gotten with that book. Like when someone tries to impress me by quoting Chaucer or something, I don't know what you're talking about so how is that supposed to impress me? I also love books that have become movies. Some of my favorite books have become movies. Usually the movie sucks ass and somehow taints the book. Sometimes a movie somehow captures the essence of the book (I find this happening more frequently now a days, better screen writers perhaps). Most of the time I'll see the movie first and then hunt for the book like in a used book store that has a beat up copy of book 3 in the series that he'll let you have for 15 bucks. I'd rather see the movie first anyways to enjoy both, instead of enjoying a book then dreading the movie afterwards. Like eating all the crappy bits on your plate before finishing off the good stuff.

I was lucky enough to find a new hard cover compilation of all the Hitchhiker books (with a bonus new short storey) for like 15 bucks (with discount) at Blackbond books. I've never so enjoyed every page of a book before. I only read 2-3 pages per sitting so I could savour and enjoy every joke and avoid joke overload in the process. And I'm glad to say that the movie was just as enjoyable but I'm still glad I read the book after. I wanna watch the movie again. Then in a few days I'll read book two. Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Stay tuned.

Rhoel.

-BTW paranoid android was a line from the Book 'Hitchhikers' that was used as a title for a song and album from Radiohead. If you told me that I probably would have been impressed.

-Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that someone isn't following me.-

2005-07-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

Third eye blind.

Insane. Information overload. I'm away from the computer for a few days and suddenly there's a couple of hours worth of blog entries to catch up on. It's like a monumental task I don't want to start at this particular moment.

Whenever I chill with my youngest brother and his wife they always seem to have the same circus of ppl partying around them. They're all interesting and fun ppl and very divergent in personalities. One of the faces in the crowd is this dude Cristo.

Cristo is among other things a psychic.

When I was in school way back, you know one of those times between majors, I had taken a few semesters of philosophy. I don't remember much of what I learned in school but I remember this one discussion we had about predetermination vs free will, essentially what it comes down to is that one can't have both. Either (god) or something greater has a pre written plan for you and you are merely an actor performing a script, or you are a creature of free will makein your own decisions and essentially write your own destiny. This is a somewhat simplistic view of the sides to the discussion but what it kept coming back to was that you can't have both. I think one of the reasons I remember this discussion is that I do believe in both, I don't know how logical that is but on one hand I believe there is a grand design for my life that I as yet do not understand or see, contol is an illusion, (may be echoes of a catholic upbringing as is the disclaimer that God helps those that helps themselves) and on the other hand I believe that my future is yet to be determined and that I have control of my life. I believe control is not an illusion. I have faith that I will be placed exactly where I need to be and what I do when I arrive is ultimately up to me.

Now if someone has the ability to tell me my future...do I want to know?

I'm sure that a lot of what a psychic says involves a lot of psychology, a lot of insight into human behaviour, a lot of telling ppl what they want to hear, a lot of vague phrases that can be interpreted this way or that. But I've seen enough to believe that there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,than are dreamt of in your (my) philosophy.

I often relate my life as a really bad novel, or as a B-rated (lately very G-rated) movie of which I am the protagonist (who on occasion does antogonistic things). When I'm reading a book do I go and skip ahead or read the ending? No. When I go to the theatre I actually avoid watching the movie clips and avoid discussions about movies I haven't seen yet because when I step into that theatre I want no expectations. I just want the experience that was intended by the director or writer...of in this case my bad novel or B-movie.

Rhoel.

-I don't mind G-rated movies as long as there's a lot of sex and violence-Elvira, mistress of the dark.

2005-07-02T01:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Canada Day!!!

Or to Manok, Happy Canook Day!!!

I was talkin to a friend back east in NJ, a former Torontonian, mentioning how I was thinking of going to TO for the holidays and was thinking of skipping down to NY while I'm out that way. She said, "For Canada day? Like tomorrow?" I'm like, Canada day isn't a holiday, it's just a day off. She's like,"I know right?". Essentially we launched into this comparitive Canadiana/Americana view on the holidays. Maybe it's just my familly but Canada Day isn't really a big deal. I mean the fireworks at Canada Place are so lame that they didn't even bother this year. My first year down in Seattle I woke up on the 4th to a giant loud ass bbq being thrown by the two sisters that lived upstairs. I think I was pretty much drunk by around 4-5, but I don't know exactly when because I was drunk. Before I know it I'm in the back of a car with like 4 hotties I don't even know fighting our way to Lake Washington for the celebration. It was like trying to get down town durring the Molson Indy or the Symphany of Fire. Luckly the two sisters had a realitive that had a food shop down on pier whatever, and we had VIP on the pier and spent the afternon drinking at "The Happy Hooker". It was crazy. 100m down the beach there's a giant big top where a black tie affair is in full swing with jazz band incluse. 100 m the other way is a gathering of red necks complete with mulleted childrens. Over the lake the Blue Angels are doing their thing while other various military fighter planes are doing mach 1 fly by's at Sea Level. As the evening fades to black I find myself snuggling with one of the sisters' hot Spanish friends listening to her talk like a bad rap video pretending not to be staring at her...shirt. And then the specticle begins. Crazy fireworks that last a really really long time. Soon we're home where the real drinking begins. After me recantation Celeste starts talking about american thanks giving... Sometimes being Canadian can be very non-thrilling.

So today I helped my brother move, drank some drinks, and now have kept up my streak of consecutive blog days to 8. I had planned to resume my erratic bloginess but it looks like I've generated enough mommentum to push forward thru rain sleet and drunkness. BTW,of the many things one should not do while under the influence, blogging and posting online should be umong them. For instence last night (this early morning) I had planned to finish off my week of blogging by talking about something that wouldn't require much thought because I was drunk, tired, and drunk. I planned to blog about how much I hate pets, and ended up talking about religion. How the fluck does that happen???

I had these two friends who were models and they had this rule that if they couldn't physically open something with their own hands then they couldn't eat it. It's surprising how tough it is for two skinny flip girls to open a bag of chips, wrestling and swearing at this now pulverised bag for like twenty minutes before they give up. I once made the mistake of taking it out of their hands and opening it for them only to have them turn on me like Brutis on Ceasar. I think I should invent some elaborate way to turn on the computer so if I'm too inebriated to turn it on then I can't use it.

Rhoel.

P.S. Pets smell. (right Lora?) To be continued...

2005-07-01T03:39:00.000-07:00

On the seventh day.

Today is the last of my week of writing. I for the third time invoke the Tomorrow isn't till after I sleep clause. Time is the fire in which we burn. Somewhere on this earth tomorrow is today, conversly yesterday is today. I actually believe time is a man made entity and has no real worth to the natural way of things. Another man made thing is religion.

I am in no way a religious man. As it is right now I do not believe in god. I was baptisd and raise as a Roman Cathlic. I pray every night out of habit, but I don't go to church. I believe in reincarnation (life after death) but don't believe in heaven or hell. I believe my dearly departed to be in a better place than which they came only because I feel peace when I think of them. I feel (and have been told) that I have a very old soul, and at times I dream of many lives past. I have memories and experiences that do not relate to my current life. I remember experienceing very ordinary and unconsequential things. When I sleep I sometimes see what I percieve is a window and watch things thru it of ppl and things that are of no consequence to me. I have been told that these things are out of body experiences. Of which I believe. I've been told of these things by my mother, probably the most religious person I've known.

I believe myself a very spiritual man. I believe that everything not explainable by science can be explained by the powers of an individuals inner strength.

On the Seventh day I helped my brother move all day. He bought a house really close to VJ's house. If you were to stand on VJ's porch, the neighbor to his right, the house behind the one across the street from this, is Roque's new house. The view from his front porch is a cemetary. Congrats to my brother for hustling enough to provide a nice home for his young familly.

On the 8th and 9th day I will also help move shite that isn't even mine. I am reminded on how much I hate moving.

Rhoel.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

--From Hamlet (I, v, 166-167)

2005-06-30T03:24:00.000-07:00

Goldfinger

I once again immpose the "today ends when I close my eyes" clause. Lets see where this leads us. When I started yesterdays blog entry I had something entirely different in mind. And then it became what it became. Today is the second to last blog entry in the self imposed week of writing. As I was explaining to Bev and Gary I'm not doing this out of any sense of peer pressure or anything. I just needed an excuse to exercise my writing muscle. Necessity is the mother of invention. A plan without a deadline is just wishful thinking. etc etc cliche cliche. With me I find I do my best work when a little pressure is applied. And in my pressure free world I felt my creativity left wanting. Kinda like when I stop reading regularly my vocab reverts to grunting.

Yesterday I felt goofy, and kinda horny which may explain the unexpected tangent my thoughts traveled. Tonight I feel tired and lazy. Like I said, suddenly I've been really busy. It's amazing how busy one can get when one has nothing to do. I really thought today was gonna suck ass but as they say, life happens when....

EDIT: I had written this long ass description of my day on how it started out really sucky then ended up a little bit of all right. Question: did you ever have a day when everything you touched turned to gold???

Love comes in spurts.

If you take a small sample, say a small time interval, you may see chaos. If you lengthen the time interval you may see some pattern emerge. With me usually I'm alone and don't meet anyone for long periods of time then suddenly I meet a lot of ppl in a very very short period of time, like all in one day. Like today. Lets see how I screw this one up. I give myself a week.

Did I ever tell you about the time I had one date on the Saturday and one date on Valentines day? It wasn't till the Thursday did I figure out that Valentines day was on Saturday... To make a long storey short I tried to cancel both but couldn't, so I figured out an early dinner and a late movie. Dinner went well and long. Date asks, 'why you looking at your watch every five minutes, do you have another date or something?'. I can't lie. End of date. Felt so guilty that I had a terrible time at the movies. I believe one is now engaged and the other has a kid. Fact check: Looking at the calendar this 'Saturday Valentines day' must have either been 2 years ago or 9 years ago. I seem to remember it was about 4-5 years ago so it probably wasn't a Saturday.

Did I ever tell you about the worse date I ever had? I had met this girl, lets call her L.L. She was probably the third hottest girl I've ever met. Lets make this quick to save some pain. (Most of the following are excerpts from imaginary transcript from her cell phone at various time index or direct quotes from her) Pick me up at 10 after work. I work at Richmond Centre. It's the mall on 3 rd. It's 11 where are you? What do you mean you can't find the theatres? Oh you must be at the other mall on 3 rd. What? You're at the airport? Oh you accidentally found the mall? What? You locked your keys in the car? The spare is in Surrey, I'll drive. It's like 1 what's still open? White Spot it is. *Wet Kiss* I had a really good time call me tomorrow.

The problem was that I was so embarrassed by the whole Mr Bean like Odyssey that I never called her again. Sometimes I wonder.

Rhoel.

Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs;
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears;
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a peserving sweet- Romeo and Juliet Act I Scene I

2005-06-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Ain't no half steppin...

...'cause I'm the big daddy Ro.

Did you know that a sneeze releases 1/8 the endorphins as an orgasm? Its true, I heard it on the radio. And I just sneezed 3 times, almost there. In fact I can't remember the last time I sneezed 8 times all at once. It's been a while. Now that I think about it I once heard a woman's orgasm be described as a 'full body sneeze'. I guess that's a better description than I first gave credit for.

Did you ever hear about that experiment where they hooked up these monkeys 'orgasm centre' to a red button. The monkeys kept hitting the buttons till they died. I bet you a million dollars they were male monkeys. A female monkey would have asked itself to stop for a sec.

I was reading Oliver's blog, more specifically his latest entry regarding flirting. I find myself normally doing most of those things on his list but I don't consider myself a flirt. With me it's more of an exercise on how far can I take this without getting a) slapped, b) getting a drink thrown in my fayce c) get beat up by someone's Neanderthal bf or d) all of the above. Ultimately my goal is to either close the deal, or set up another meeting. And why is it when one talks intimately with more than one female in the room suddenly he's a dawg??? Ever hear about the 'all the eggs in one basket' theory? If one pins all his energy into one pony, what happens when that pony walks out with another stud? You're shite outta luck and you just missed last call. Say with one girl in the room you have...a 1% chance. That's a low number to put money on. But if you take that 1% times 100 women...nice. I rather like that. Not bad for something I just made up. Makes it sound like I actually know what I'm talking about.

And how do you ask out someone you know? With a stranger if one crashes and burns then one justs wipes off that drink and moves on to the next bachlorette without missing a beat. Easy Breezy. I seem to remember a cliche about having to break a few eggs before they hatch in order to make a bulut omlette or something...A friend thou that would be a hard one. No guts no glory right fellas? I wonder if Nick was shiting...eggs...before he asked out Mel, or Ed and Tina, or Bert and Ernie...

Disclaimer: The opinions and attitudes presented in the preceding work are mostly a work of fiction and do not necessarily represent the opinions and attitudes of it's author...except for the parts that do.

Rhoel.

I shall live in thy heard, die in thyn lap, and be buried in thyn eyes.-some Shakespeare line that I heard from a movie once.

2005-06-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

Crash

I made it threw the weekend, woot!!! I think posting till Thursday should be easy now. Gary, it's not so much I'm forcing myself to blog. I just wanna force myself into the rhythm of it. A plan without a timeline is just wishful thinking. So I've heard. I'm exercising my blog muscle. I'm trying to get back into the habit of writing in general, I've gotten away from that.

So I'm not into the lazzzzzzzz...zzzz...ZZZ...zzyyyy days of summer. Since the show I promised myself a week of being a bum and then to start up again, running working out, playing sports again (I stopped because I was afraid of getting hurt before the show). I'm now into week three of bumminess. It's like suddenly I don't have the time. We have ppl over tonight so tomorrow it begins anew.

About a month before the show I hurt my foot and I could barely walk for like two weeks. I was kinda panicking because how can I dance if I can't walk? Lucky it happened on a Monday and I had all week to heal. Sunday came and I was still injured. I tried my best to hide my condition and I think I only yelped twice and only two tears of pain hovered on my left eye lid. I don't think anyone noticed. But on the following Monday my foot was even worse. The following Sunday was about 50% and a week before the show I was pain free. What a relief. When Marc hurt himself at QE I know exactly what was going through his mind and I didn't want to look at him because it would have freaked me out. Mur's latest blog kind of brought back that icky feeling for me. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't walk. It is in these moments I feel blessed. These simple daily miracles that can easily be taken for granted.

Summer projects:
- Plan a KP kamping. I was in the midst of planning something last year when I dropped everything and suddenly took off to Toronto for three weeks. I was walking down the street one day in TO thinking, "I think I'm supposed to be doing something today". I'll guage the interest and I better get on that because everything may already be booked. Rodney says he knows a spot on the island near Long Beach so we could do some surfing. There's some other things in the works aswell. I don't think we've done a KP kamping since the summer Princess Di died.
-My cousins cousin, no relation, is having a cotillion which I have been recruited to teach. Since they're kinda family I don't feel right asking for payment of services. So I'm teaching a Jota, a Pitik, and maybe a Cha-cha. So that should be pretty easy. One month of 5 a week practices should get it done.
-I want to do a road trip somewhere. Where and when doesn't really matter. I just have that wonder lust again. Flying somewhere isn't the same because it's all about the journey in this case. All I know is that I do NOT want to drive to Edmonton again. I hate that drive and hope I never have to do it ever again. Except if it's like on a kamping adventure or something.
- I'm thinking of going back to TO for the Christmas holidays, maybe go to NY. My cousin Lei Lei got the lead in a production of...I can't remember, in Toronto. Oh summer, right.
- Why is it the only time I have to play hockey is in the summer? The only place that still has ice is Richmond Ice (is that what it's called? Near Silvercity Riverport)

That's about it. Till the morrow.

Rhoel.

HOLLA!!!!! (with hand on forehead)

2005-06-27T01:48:00.000-07:00

Technically...

...it is no longer Sunday and I have failed in my one week of blogging. But in my world technicalities are for lawyers and time passes in sleeps. As I have not yet slept all it takes is for me to write a blog entry later on today (after my sleep) to have kept me on tract. But, as I have nothing really to say I will substitute substance with volume. (I've been drinking and just got in.)

Random thoughts

-writing massive blogs everyday requires a dedicated readership. As one who checks ppls blogs maybe every other day if there's like three giant blog entries I've missed I'm more likely not to bother. Unless I get really bored later that day.

-I normally hang all my cloths so the hook of the hanger points back and all my cloths line up facing to the right. This morning I for some reason mounted something facing left and when I went to hang it I had this momentary feeling that someone was playing a massive joke on me and re-hung everything facing the wrong way. Then I thought about it..and then switched the jacket around.

-My cloths that don't get hung end up on a pile on my floor which I sift around looking for what I'm looking for. I have a separate pile for dirty cloths. I believe my carpet is beige...

-I need to do some shopping. My standard uniform is usually a t-shirt, jeans, and puma's. (leather jacket if it's cold enough, or some kind of pull over). All my other cloths suck. I even need new jeans as I have only one favorite pair. I have a room full of stuff that I've never worn or have only worn once.

-I love to not shave for a week and dress like a bum. Shaving every day is for the birds. I only shave when I have a date, am meeting an advertiser, am going to practice, or have a game. I think some of you would be shocked if you caught me mid-week being a soap dodger. I find it kinda funny. (like a joke that only I get. I have a lot of those)

-I want to shave my head, totally bic it. I've been thinking about it for a while, but I'm afraid that I have a funny shaped head. I doubt I'll do this but if my hair gets any thinner I may not have a choice. I think the summers of blonding my hair have permanently damaged my scalp, getting older hasn't helped. Lex Luthur from 'Smallville' is my hero. My hero is bald...

-I've done the lone wolf thing all year. I need a girl friend. Since Trish it's been almost exactly a year. I think she's on her third girlfriend since then. At least she hasn't dated any guys since me, or is that a bad thing....

ROMEO
Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace
in thy breast,
Would I were sleep and peace, so
sweet to rest.

G'night. Rhoel.

2005-06-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

The Legend of the Z

Zed...or Zee to you American cousins.

When a baby is born it imprints on the face of the mother. Something happens in those first few moments that intertwines two souls. It is this sort of relationship that wrote the inevitable conclusion that I would one day own a Z.

When I was around 4 or 5 my uncle Larry bought a green 240 Z. The colour was odd in that it was that typical 70's green that seemed rather dull in colour even thou it was new. From the moment I saw the car I loved it. Even thou I had no concept of lust at 4 years old I did know that just looking at the car made me feel something inside. According to my uncle I loved to watch whenever he washed the car or worked on it. I liked to ride in the cargo compartment instead of the front seat. I remember that distinctly. I remember what the car looked like inside and out. A few years later he traded in the 240 for a silver 260 Z. It wasn't soon after that he sold the Z. I remember myself crying when he told me and I made him promise that he'd buy another one. The story of the demise of the Z remains a mystery. I seem to remember my uncle getting too many speeding tickets, not being able to renew his licence. My mom says that his new wife made him sell it. My uncle says he can't remember, but he thinks that he didn't have the money to keep it. I counted down the year to when my uncle would buy another Z. That year past, and so did many others until I forgot about it.

Over the years Datsun became Nissan. After the 260 model came the 280. My 7th grade teacher had a 280 as did my friends dad, thou it was a 2 plus 2 variety (yuk). In high school my first car was a shit brown Datsun 510 wagon nick named 'Duck Poo'. I once had an argument with a girl on the bus that Datsun and Nissan were the same company. At one point the Z became the ZX. One of the bad girls in the cartoon M.A.S.K. drove a 280 that turned into a plane. My oldest brother almost bought that same model, but it was an automatic. He bought a Mustang instead, another car I imprinted on. Soon the 280 morphed into a pseudo super car, the 300 Z twin turbo which quickly priced itself out of existence. So for about 5 or so years there was no Z.

Then in the early millennia there were whispers that Nissan was gearing up to resurrect the legendary name. Early indications were that the styling would be retro to recapture the magic of the original 240. I was getting all excited because finally the opportunity was there for me to one day own the car of my dreams. But in a change of strategy the new cars styling would be cutting edge and stay away from the retro. I was crushed. There would be no way I would find it in my heart to love this new Z. And the early photo's of the tail lights and door handles made me think that they were designing a space ship and that the new Z wouldn't deserve the name. Early conceptual spy drawings had it looking like the gladly departed 300 twin turbo. And then I saw her. Hello sunshine...

From the moment I sat in her I knew I was home. Some of the retro touches of the early design had remained in the interior. It looked like an evolution of the original Z.

With my cousin Lei Lei in from Kingston we decided to chill at the Reagle Beagle last night. According to her and her brother, their dad, my uncle Larry couldn't stop talking about my car. He had walked into a Nissan dealership a week previous and had unknowingly picked out the exact car that is Jessica. And when he first saw her as I pulled up to his gate I saw the look on his face that must have been the same look I had as a 4 yr old looking at the Z for the first time.

This morning before I drove home my Tito Larry made my Tita Lillian sit in the Z. She had the look on her face that she knew she was being sold on something. "See Lillian it has the Nav and it looks like my old car and it...take it for a drive...and it's even the same colour I want...take it for a drive..." As she sat there she just kinda smiled and asked Leonard when he was graduating. As it turns out they may need a new car next year.

Rhoel

2005-06-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

Keeping up with the Cruz's

The Gary and Bev variety. I'm going to take a week, try to write something substantial every day and see if I can get a rhythm going. Think of this as an experiment as I'm in front of the computer almost everyday. A few things that may derail this train, the fact that it is summer and I may not be in front of the comp as much as the rest of the year, during production when all the computers are actually doing work, during the weekends when my brain has checked out. I think a week is a good goal with getting thru this first weekend as the initial challenge. Starting now.

Hitch

Reading Randy's blog got me thinking about my own personal rules of dating. Every once in a while a movie comes out and tries to spell out the rules of dating like a film version of "Dating for Dummies". I recently watched Hitch. As I don't like to spoil movies for ppl (one of my biggest pet peeves) I'll just say that the movie was funny as hell. As for the dating advice, I thought it was kinda corny. Another movie that comes to mind was Swingers, wait 3 days to call her back. As a movie I thought it rocked. It was money baby. I think every guy in the world now thinks that 3 days is the right time to call back. I wonder what a girl would think about that?

As for my own personal rules. I don't think I have any. I mean I suppose it would be easier to have set of guidelines to help, but I think rules are too specific for too broad of an application, which in my opinion is why they rarely work. With me its more of a fluid progression. Like playing quarterback:
-a play is called on the probability of a certain defence.
-you saddle up and try to read the formation of the d and adjust accordingly, even audible.
-during the play you make your reads and you progress from one option to the other until the point comes were you commit to an action then for good or bad you let fly.
-Huddle!!!

Reading Randy's plight on his third date encounter reminds me of how unfulfilled my own personal life is and how far away I am from being in an adult relationship. In fact I've only very recently began considering myself an adult. I think in modern dating practices the third date is the make-it or break it moment. I think with me I pretty much know almost immediately if I want to seek a relationship with someone or if I want to just get some. If it's a relationship I have to start to think and stuff, maybe take a step back and formulate and strategize (I'm a sucky strategist). Otherwise just jump in...head first... .I actually like it when the girl does all the strategizing and I just act all surprised when the trap is sprung. Easier that way I suppose.

For the rest of the summer I pledge to go out more to chill with ppl and to date way more. This I decree.

Rhoel

-He who hesitates masterbates.-a blind wise man.

2005-06-24T02:15:00.000-07:00

Conspiracy Theory #67489B Subsection 2

I want to know how these Likha cousins of ours post blog entries EVERY day. And not just a few words here and there, but entire well thought out volumes. It's like a gift. Even at my bloggiest I can churn out something maybe once every 3 or so days. After much deliberation I've come to the conclusion that either my life is pretty uneventful compared to most or that all of Likha are robots. We've all seen "The Steppford Wives"!!!!That would certainly explain the insane dance moves and the fact that they have to go to Europe every year for a "tour". I think they're being serviced and are planning to take over the universe starting with Davie street so they can start marketing Fritz poutine to the rest of the universe. It's late. I'm sleepy.

Rhoel

2005-06-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

Season in Review

Now that the 'high' of the show is now in the 'crash' phase I think I've pondered enough on the season that was. Since I'm pretty much brain damaged and can't remember what I had for breakfast (didn't eat anything today yet) a lot I may miss out so feel free to add to the pile. (or even create your own pile).

This year started out with a lot of potential. For the first time in forever we had as many guys as girls, and more...girls...than guys. I remember those first workshops when Randy was working with a group downstage left, Kathy a group ds right and the guys working in the back. It was beautiful chaos and no unutilized space. It's not only the amt of new dancers, it was the quality. Marc teaches hip hop, the dude with the weird hat dances ballet, Percy...had the right bod, and Mondo already had a tour under his belt. There were a few others that eventually stopped coming but thankfully most stayed. There were a few new girls too. Lorie, a kper by association finally signed up.

A common discussion amongst the more senior dancers that off season was that a lot of the small polish type things had been negligent the past little bit. I wouldn't go so far as saying 'sloppy' but it seems a lot of the 'crispness' had drifted. Precision. Learning and teaching on the run sort of thing. I think with a veteran core that had been together for so long and the scarcity of recruits over the past 5 years previous we'd become somewhat laxed, assuming everyone was on the same page all the time. So with the 10 year anniversary Likha reunion on the books I got the feeling that the name of the game for this year was quality, not quantity. And as usual I pledged myself to be more involved in the polishing of dances, a pledge I soon forgot the moment I became busy...as usual.

Looking back at our line-up and with Likha doing half the dances I see that this was a unique opportunity and the ambition wasn't to learn an entirely new suite as per usual, but to take what we already know and do well and do it better. This was fine at first but towards the middle of the process I started having this fear that we were on cruise control, that there was a general lack of any sense of urgency. I had this fear because I had the feeling that I was the worse offender. Knowing the senior dancers as I do I knew that this wasn't so much a problem because I know they can pretty much flip a switch and be in stage mode, I also trust that each of them will be ready in time. I think the real fear was that we were setting a bad example for the younger dancers. I think I tried to remedy this by sticking my face into everything and being all huffy and puffy for a couple of weeks but all I think I did was become annoying so I killed that pretty quick. Besides, I got busy again and totally forgot about all that soon after.

As it turns out all is well. I read a few comments from the Likha blogs that apparently we were on the ball and sharp even during the rehearsals. Which is really good to hear. My biggest fear stems back from when our groups first met when we thought we were ready till we saw their first practice and realized that we were woefully unprepared.

Normally at this point I'd present my winners for my made up categories but brainstorming with wiL it was decided that they would be presented in the forum to be voted upon by you the viewers to decide who is the next KPidol.

Rhoel.

2005-06-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

The Wizard

I think the only time it feels real is the moments before the opening curtain. I think that's the only time I'm actually aware of everything in the universe. Everyone in their spot and in costume. I always take a moment to look at everyone individually trying to absorb everything. A few lucid moments before I loose my mind. This world and the real world separated by a velvet curtain.

My build up to the show was the same as always. I thought with no solo's this year that it would be a more relaxed experience that I could enjoy and appreciate in the moment. But that my friend was not to be. Weeks worth of sleepless nights thinking about the show. Waking up every hour because I'm so anxious and excited on the days leading up. Spending every spare moment having fun with our Likha friends. Mentally visualizing my every step on and around the stage. I think that the process stops right before the opening curtain. I think this year it took me two days to physically recover and mentally I'm still having a hard time concentrating on things for more than a few hours at a time. For instance this is my third bash at this blog entry. But after all is said and done, I figure I'll take a week off and be a bum and I'm ready to start on next year!!!

It was so hot performing with like this year. I love seeing another group work, getting new ideas on how to do things, seeing how other ppl prepare. The Lika girls I still don't have right. There's Casey, there's Cassy (which one is related to Christian I still don't know, it's not the one with the lip piercing but which one is she I'm not sure), there's 4 of this name, 3 of those, Oh wait you all changed into different cloths so I have to start again. I'm so confuzzled!!! I think that 'getting to know you' ice breaker from Sat overheated my brain, wait I need a beer to bring down the operating temp. Shanna Lou I know, Casey is lip ring, Cassy (Cassandra) is Christian's 15 year old sister right? Who's the 26 year old one...???? Argh!!!! Anyways...

Thurs was fun day with Likha. I got to meet new ones and got to better know the ones we met before. BTW I was NOT hogging baby Isaac, as soon as requested I passed him along. Riding in the car with the one and only Manok, Eman, Brian...and one more...was pure comedy. I haven't laughed so hard in my life. The hi-light was Manok's rendition of our national anthem. Robson was...Robson, but the party at Kathy's was fun. Celebs was fun till I turned around and everyone had suddenly left. How do 40 ppl sneak out from behind me??? I want poutine too, wait for me!!!

Friday kinda seemed like an extension of Thurs, well considering that I barely slept may have something to do with it. Getting a hold of Iris was interesting. A lost cell phone and a 12am call time can easily turn into a Mr Bean routine. Lets see, I call Iris and leave a msg. Melissa M calls me then calls Iris. Randy calls me. Iris texts Randy who then calls me telling me to go online to IM Iris. Hi Iris! All was well, that is considering she got in 10 mins previous and got a solid hour of sleep and was still hungover from her grad. The performance for the consulate was a nice warm up to the show. I was having Vogue theatre flash backs with those non-existent wings and I apologize to the girl I almost body checked into the percussion instrumentalists during one of the BLACK-outs.

Saturday was covered my most of the others on their blogs, but a few things that only I may have seen. For one, the surest way to give ones partner a heart attack is to constantly wait till two seconds before you have to go on before you nonchalantly make your appearance on the wings. Geri, if you're my partner again we're going to have to do something about that. I think we should tape reflectors on the little kids to stop them from being run over. Joey is convinced that there's a ghost of a girl in the girls (pink) bathroom that was talking to him. Note to first set Sinkil clapper girls: the cloth goes over, not thru my face and when it's stuck no amount of pulling will help disloge it. I want to know who helped me tie my bahug. That fucker was so tight that my nuts almost became diamonds for crying out loud and I couldn't get the mop/hip thing in! The best I could do was maybe 3 or 4 strings and I pulled it all the way thru. It was then I realized that it was all tied up in my g-string and that I had a quick change right after. While I was dancing I was mentally trying to track down my sissors just in case I had to cut off the g and go commando the rest of the half!

I'd like to take a moment to thank all of the Likhettes, Kuya Jun and Kuya Rudy. This is such a great experience and performing with you guys just enhances everything. Ledge, Ed, Big Sexy, Mur thanks for the dedication and friendship thru out the years. Kpeeps and Randy, thanks for being my family and best friends and the only constants in my world.

The Wizard

Sitting in my seat the house lights now dim,
time for the spectecle to begin.
For two hours I am swept away from my life,
and am transported to a world of movement, music,
costumes and light.
As a witness to wonders upon wonders
where miricles abound.
Its easy to be inclined to assume
what I hear and see.
And that it is natural to astound.
To take for granted that magic isn't common.
But if I looked more closely as I watched
or listen more intently as I heard,
I'd know to pull back the curtain
on either side
to see the ideas, courage and heart
that make this illusion real.

Rhoel

2005-06-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

American Invasion

When you think about it America can decide one day that it wants to annex Canada, do it, take a nap, then start answering the complaint letters. I don't think anyone else on the planet would even help us out as our army gets routed by their army reserves in a training exercise. It kinda makes me nervous knowing that our national security plan revolves around living right beside the States.

Tomorrow members of our sister company from San Fran start to arrive for our shows coming June 10 and 11. I believe this year marks the 10 year anni of when our two groups first met. I still remember that time, oh how naive we were.

Back then we were under the impression that Likha was an older group so we planned things like bowling night and stuff like that. I also think we took that initial show kinda lightly, it was kinda like a last min thing and I think we sold like 10 tickets and we weren't too worried about it. And then when they arrived I remember thinking, 'Damn they're just like us!' (age wise). The second thing I noticed was, 'Damn they're really freaking good, I don't know if I want to go on stage with those guys!' The third thing I noticed was 'Damn, that Kuya Rudy yells a lot, he must really know what he's talking about!' The fourth thing....you get the picture. Basically Likha was in another stratosphere and we were hovering about a metre(3.28 feet) off the ground. Burr it's cold in here, there must be some Likha's in the atmosphere! (traveling north at 1010 kph or 627.6 mph)

The last thing I noticed was man do they like to party. I hope that hasn't changed because I intend to work hard and play just as damn hard. I also know that Likha's coming to town and we better be ready!!! C ya'll tomorrow. Btw, you guys better pack some jackets 'cause it's burr cold here the last couple of days. I had to close my windows at night and turn the furnace back on and everything.

Rhoel.

2005-05-30T23:39:00.000-07:00

Jessica

First things first. Episode 3 was utterly amazing. My favorite movie ever. Since I hate spoilers I won't ruin it for anyone else by giving any details. All I have to say is watch it in the theatre, don't wait for the DVD. I hope Mur is somehow mistaken (Lucas throwing ppl off the scent to disguise his true intentions, or maybe having a change of heart at some point down the road) and makes more Star Wars movies. I don't know how I'd feel about made for TV SW projects. Thoughts of those silly Ewok movies/cartoons dance in my head. Even thou I love how Battlestar Galactica has played out on TV I don't think I'd want SW to go there.

Second things second. I'd like to introduce you to Jessica, my new mistress. Mistress because all my future gf's and wives will have to share me with one other. She's a Nissan 350 Z. Silverstone with Burnt Orange leather interior. In a word; so damn sexy.

Third things third. I think the fabu photo shoot everyone is talking about went a long way to getting us ready for the show. I don't think it's a coincidence that we had an awesome practice yesterday. It's been a long while since we've all been together and just had fun. With everyone's divergent lives it was a good unifying activity. I've seen personally worried because the run thru's have lacked a certain intensity and energy. Yesterday all of that seemed to change. It wasn't technically perfect or anything close to perfection, but the level of performance was noticeably improved. Hopefully we're on pace to peak in two weeks. We'll see, but I'm now a little more confident.

That's all for now folks. Smell ya later. Rhoel.

2005-05-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

Just like Christmas eve

Tomorrow is the day I find if what is seeming sweet will convert to bitter gall. Exiting as that is I'm trying not to think of that right now.

Every since I can remember I've been a Star Wars fan. I was 6 years old when I saw the first movie. I only saw it once but instantly I was a huge fan, even thou admittedly I couldn't remember anything of the actual movie. From the age of 6 I started collecting the toys and eventually got into buying two of each toy, one I'd play with, the other I'd leave in the package. I did this till one Christmas my mom sent all my toys to the Philippines with the intention of replacing them later (because they were packaged she thought them new and current) not knowing they were irreplaceable. I think I collected the toys till I was like 15-16.

I remember seeing Empire when I was about 10. It was my best friends b-day and we went to the theatre and got to vote which movies we got to watch. I figure one of the two had to be Star Wars so I wasn't too worried. Son of a...Empire only got one vote! We watched Caddy Shack and something else. At one point I left to take a peek at Star Wars and came in on the lightsabre meets the Ton Ton scene. I was soo amazed. I didn't know that kangaroos could be ridden. After explaing to the others what I had saw in the other theatre they all got up to take a look. It wasn't till Caddy shack was over did I realize that they all didn't come back. Mofo's watched SW and didn't bother to fetch me. Mofo's!!!! I went home so pissed off that my mom took the whole fam to see it the next day. I cried at the end when I thought Han Solo was dead. My mom tried to explain to me that he was sorta sleeping indefinitely, "He's dead!!! Bwahhhhh!"

When I watched Return, my brother took me. We took the bus to Granville street and stood in line all day. From the line up I saw some guy get beat down by three other guys. I saw a guy on a bike get hit by a bus. It was funny because the guy didn't get hurt but the cops questioned him for like two hours on how one could be so stupid as to be hit by a bus moving 1 kph. I can't believe it, we got the last tickets of the last showing, we came into the theatre and the movie had already started. The movie ended at like 2am and we had to call our dad to pick us up from dt. He was pissed.

Phantom was the best episode so far. Empire was the best of the original series but Phantom was just insane. Lucuas comes up with the coolest bad guys. Vader was the original baddy, then Boba Fett, then finally Darth Maul. OMG, how cool was that guy? The only thing of significance that I remember watching that movie was me, my bro and Coy jumping up and down yelling during the final fight scene between Qui-gon, Obi and Maul.

Clone Wars was a movie I originally didn't really care for originally. Anakin grew up into a whinny biatch, Padime fell for a whinny biatch and Obi,supposedly the greatest Jedi ever, went out like a chump. The more I watch this movie the more I appreciate it. IMO More than any of the other movies the storey line was the star. This was the story that had to be told to set up not only Episode 3, but the original 3 movies. I'm glad we finally got to see Yoda kick some booty.

Today I will be watching Episode 3. Revenge of the Sith. I fricken can't wait. And tomorrow...I can't wait for that either. Good news or bad, lets put that sucker to bed.

Rhoel

2005-05-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

So close I can taste it

I never talk about a deal until it's complete. I try to stay unemotional and logical especially if there's a lot of money involved. But it's been such a long time since I've been this exited about something, so much so in fact that I really want to talk about it even thou there's a good chance I may not get it. So if I'm just gonna ramble and if I accidentally talk about it I promise to be very vague.

Man last weekend almost sucked. First off thanks to everyone that wished me a happy birthday, normally I'd think that that sort of thing is kinda like a formality (well it usually is for me) but it's surprising how good it makes one feel. Back to last weekend. Well first of all having to drive to Edmonton on ones birthday really sucks. But ya gotta do what you gotta do. Thankfully I was able to avert that chore the morning of ma party. It's too bad that this Edmonton trip was hanging over my head all week because it would have been nice if I planned my weekend a little better.

Damn, I gotta go. Anyways at least I didn't talk about my thing. Well in a few days I'll know if it's a go or if it's a no go. So my next blog entry I'll either be ecstatic or really disappointed.

Rhoel.

Reading over what I just wrote, I feel the need to mention that it's not a house or condo or anything like that.

2005-05-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

Time time time, see whats become of us...

I just noticed that it's been over a year since I started my blog. Quickly looking back on the past 12 months I've been on two tours, prepared for another big show, been in one relationship of note, almost moved to Edmonton, almost moved to Calgary, witnessed the Canadian Idol first hand...and that's all I really looked over 'cause there have been alot of blog entries.

I knew that I'd like this blogger thing and there was never any doubt that I'd keep on it. Looking back on my old entries I'm very greatful that this is acting like a running commentary on my life of which I can go back and rememeber and re live. Like chapters in a book still being written. I think on my very first entry I likened my blog as a very bad novel of which I am the writter and main character. Looks like things are unfolding as expected. I can't wait till I can go back a few years. Rhoel.

Harry: Oh really. When I buy a new book I always read
the last page first that way in case I die before I finish I know how
it ends. That my friend is a dark side.-When Harry met Sally.

2005-04-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

What is Joey's favorite food?

Sandwiches!

The other day I was about to make some breakfast before I set out into the world. Damn, no eggs, damn damn, no cereal or milk, damn damn damn, no rice. Well now what am I supposed to do? I made a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. (actually light peanut butter and blueberry jelly) And for the five mins it took to eat it I was suddenly 6 years old again. It was so amazing.

-1,113 licks to the middle of a tootsie roll pop starting from the ridge. Damn, I wonder if that's the highest I'll ever count?

-When I grow up I'm just going to leave the gear shifter in 5th so I can drive fast all the time.

-Why would anyone buy a convertable? Are they too cheap to buy a car with a steel roof?

-If I was a Stormtrooper and I shot C3PO with my laser blaster, would he fall forwards or backwards?

-Would I die if I accidentally swallowed my Jolley Rancher stick with the tip licked sharp?

-Why are all my friends afraid of girl germs? Sherry Thomson is hot, same with that Beth Schizarothski girl...why is she always eating glue? Oh no! They're all looking at me, I better pretend I'm afraid of girl germs too!

-I'll never have a girlfriend, if I do she'll probably just want something from me.

-McDonald's is the best food ever! When I grow up that's all I'm going to eat!

-Why does nobody know what a Filipino is? I'll just tell everyone I'm Hawaiian.

-I bet beer tastes like the best and most sweetest pop ever! I can't wait!

-How the hell can wine be dry, it certainly feels wet...?

-I wonder if Mr. Wing will finally ask for the note when I buy cigarettes for my dad today?

Damn that was a good sandwich. Rhoel.

(Smokey the Bear) "Only YOU can prevent forrests fires."
-"ME? Oh man!"

2005-04-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

Houston...we may have a problem...

All of Sunday I may subconsciously have known something was wrong, I kept finding myself flexing my right foot against the floor for some reason. You know when one pushes the tops of the toes against the floor to stretch out the front of the ankle? Well come Monday morning the ball of my foot hurt like a mofo on the inside near the big toe. My first thought was "shite I have gout". My oldest and youngest brothers are afflicted with gout. But as it was described to me the symtoms didn't quite match. Actually what it feels like is 'turf toe'. I got that once in hs playing on the shitty astro turf at the old Empire Stadium (and yes I realize that totally dates my experience). So what did I do? I messaged it till it didn't hurt and proceeded with my Monday routine that involves alot of squats and lunges. I walked on it all day and now most of my foot feels numb. Shite, we have a show on thurs.

So Mel and Cristina met someone on their list. Actually I'm pretty sure it was Nick that pointed him out to everyone. I think a few of the Plastics are now contemplating lists now that they know what 'The List' is. It got me to thinking about my list, which I haven't thought about in a while. I work under the assumption that once the roster card is submitted that no changes can be made till the next game. So even thou slots 1-3 are automatically reserved for the core 4 and 5 on the depth chart should be held for the phenomenal rookie or high priced veteran. It wasn't till 2 days later, today while I was contemplating my foot, that I realized that the list currently doesn't apply to me as I am between games; or in the off season if you will as I am currently unattached. The world is my oyster, thou I don't really like oysters or seafood in general for that matter. If I actually met someone on my list I would probably just drool on myself and start making yummy noises. I hate that! Actually I have met someone that is on my list... Rhoel.

-Nothing hurts me, only pain-Conan the Barbarian.

2005-04-24T00:38:00.000-07:00

Draft Dodger

I just love drafts. Mostly the NHL or NFL drafts. I love studying up by buying the guides and trolling the internet for information, and mock drafts. Normally I'd arm myself with lots of snacks and drinks and sit my ass down for 5-6 hours, whilst video tapeing the whole event to watch again later on down the road. But today I had to teach a stupid cotillion, but I still video'd the whole thing.

IMO the best drafting stratagy will always be going with the best player available. Drafting for need is short sighted and not maximizing value, especially in the NHL draft where drafting 17 and 18 yr olds trying to project 5 years down the road is basically the equivelent of throwing darts at a list of names. I still remember the stretch that the Canucks drafted 14 centres over three years (7 in one year) ,and no goalies, out of a possible 21ish picks. This year the Seahawks positioned themselves beautifully to draft the bpa.

With the Hawks obvious needs at Rush end and at ILB and OLB, I thought drafting D would be a no brainer. BPA netted them centre Chris Spencer. Not the sexy pick I was expecting but he is described as the best interior linemen to come out of college the last decade. Experts are predicting probowls giving us 3 probowlers from C to left tackle for the next decade. Mind boggling.

In the second round we moved up to snag ILB Lofa Tatupu. Slightly undersized but the definition of a gamer. The leader of the 2 time national champion USC defence. Speed. Tenacity. Might be considered a reach at that spot in the draft, but the Hawks had him targeted. Compared to Miami's Zack Thomas.

Third round was strange. With some tantalizing talent at rush end and blitzing LB (Blackstock) still available we took QB and an Anthony Simmons clone at OLB. David Greene was considered a Heismen candidate before the season started but failed to live up to the expectations. Still he broke Peyton Mannings (39)record for wins in Div1 (42) and passing yards. Basically he sounds alot like current starter Matt Hasselbeck. Leroy Hill is undersized but FAST. Esentaially I believe he's a faster more pollished Blackstock. His 40 from the combine matched blackstock's 4.7 but I read a report that he was sick at the time. His Pro work out was in the 4.56 range with another timeing at 4.62. Rediculous for a LB. Before the draft I had a hard-on for Blackstock in the first round but feared he was too one dimentional. I think I'll like Hill better than even Simmons.

Well, that enough for now. Rhoel.

2005-04-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

Riders of the Storm.

Most picture hell as a very hot place. Well sometimes it can be being very very cold.

There was this time I was in the water just off of the world famous Bonazai Pipeline trying to imagine what it would be like standing in the shadow of a 50 foot wave. It was summer so the North Shore was very flat so imagining the presence and violence of such a thing in such a peaceful place seamed surreal. I still remember the light breeze and warm sun of that day as I looked north towards Alaska mentally plotting the path of such a thing, then I realized if I looked to the west I was looking towards Vancouver.

I was thinking of that day when we left for Tofino two weeks ago. I was thinking about standing in the water and looking back the other way. I had a feeling that things would not be as expected. Even before we left we were already down one rider who for some reason thought we were leaving the next day. On the island driving over the mountains it started to snow. That was the most damn snow I've seen all year. And when we arrived there were a lot of surfers in the Long Beach parking lot, but after an hour of waiting and drinking they all went home (must have ran out of drinks), which wasn't an option for us so we went in anyways, us and one other guy that was way down the beach.

My brother called it the washing machine. It was terrible. Totally random waves coming from every direction with no predictable breaks. But according to some of the others on the beach and the park ranger guy that was the best we were going to get that day. And besides we just wanted to...get our feet wet. So with out a hat or gloves I decided to go for the total California look and go in without bootys either. And as soon as much feet touched the water they went completely numb, it was like magic. So I spent my whole first day having to look at my feet to make sure they were on the board 'cause I couldn't tell otherwise. That night we drove down some logging trail and camped in the van at some clearing on the side of the road. It rained all night.

The next morning we checked out Long Beach again, much the same but the waves were a lot bigger. We check out some place called wreck point (there was another Spanish sounding name but I forgot it) and as we came down the trail I saw some beautifully lined up sets coming down for some real nice long rides and stared to get exited. Till we got closer to the point and saw the vicious ripe tide I've ever seen and just as quickly my excitement was dampered. The third spot proved to be it. It was called (I wanna say Coquihala) just down a place called Lynn road. As soon as we pulled in was say a lot of locals driving up with their wet suits already on, on bikes with the boards racked on the side, aswell as little kids running around looking like bi-pedal seals in their little wet suits. Also there was this gang of cute local surfer girls. The surf was good. Tons of little waves for us to play on with like dozens of breaks so everyone was like spread out in ones own little area. And out a bit there was one really good break for the better surfers. With bootys on I ventured forth. The breaks were still kinda random so every once in a while a big wave would break right on your head or in your face. The first time that happened I got an instant slurpee head ache. Like being hit by lightning right to the brain. Althou my head and hands were freezing (the only warmth was from the warm snot dribbling down my frozen face) and the fact that it was raining and generally freezing out; I had a blast! I actually forgot to look out and think about Hawaii. What was actually running thru my mind was the last scene from the movie Point Break (the rain and general misery of the weather) when Patrick Swayze was paddling out. That day I got 'El Cabonged' and I fell on a fin tearing half way thru my suit. If I wasn't wearing a wetsuit I think I could have been impaled. My bro got tossed in the air and landed on his hip in hard ass sand. He's still limping.

After lunch it was agreed that we weren't going to warm up enough to go back in. Soon it started to hail so hard we couldn't hear the movie on on DVD player so it was decided we would head home a day early. So to home we were delivered thru the rain, sleet and snow, aswell as a ferry ride. Can't wait to go back.

This summer I was thinking of organizing a camping trip up there for whoever is interested.

Rhoel.

2005-03-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

Happy...

I'm guessing that it's Easter. My first clue was the long weekend. My second clue was all the Cadburry Creme Egg commercials on TV. I've been told I'm not supposed to eat meat today, but I'm allowed to eat fish... I still don't get that one. Vegetarians out there want to enlighten me? How about eating eggs. I know that it's not meat yet, but give it a few months and that sucka's fried chicken!!! Even thou I don't even go to church I suppose I could refrain from eating meet. Who am I kidding I can't refrain myself from anything...except today.

(beat)

A few days ago my brother strolls up to me and says he's planning a trip to Tofino on the island. First things first:
-find stand in for UBC International House Tinikling exhibition. Msg Randy, post on forum, call Marc. Check.
-Try on wetsuit I haven't worn in 4 years. It doesn't fit, not even close. When the hell did I fit into a medium suit? Price out suits. Look for bootys and cowl (I'm Batman).Check.
-Watch surf movies...

Endless Summer II. Watching the movie...holy cow...suddenly I miss Hawaii. Three years ago I spent three months of my best summer there. And what I felt watching the film could only be described as being homesick. I started to remember the sights, the sounds, the smells, friends I haven't thought about for a long time. Even some of my troubles and worries 3 years buried started to come back. Check.

So everyone have a wicked weekend. No practice, no cotillion. Stress free weekend begins...now. Check.

-Whenever you meet a beautiful women remember that somewhere out there there's a guy that thinks she's a total bitch.-Rhoel.

-Whenever you meet a beautiful women remember that somewhere out there there's a guy that's tired of shagging her.-Alfie.

2005-03-22T00:37:00.000-08:00

Addicted

As it is with most addictions it pushes all other things aside as if nothing else exists. The sole purpose of ones life becomes securing ones next sickly sweet hit. A curiosity becomes a taste, which becomes an indulgence, which in turn becomes an insatiable monster. The pusher becomes the junky. How does one recover from such an affliction?

I got my parents hooked on Smallville, they watche all 3 seasons between Christmas and New Years. I got my brother and his wife hooked on O.C. He texted me last night around 9 telling me how good it is. She texted me this afternoon around 2 damning me for hooking them and how they are just about to go to sleep. And now I've been 24'rd. With my brother over skipping work with a sore ankle I had lunch rewatching episode 4 of season one (which I'd watched just the previous night). So as I leave this day for the land of dreams I tear myself from the family room having watched 15 episodes today. Unintentionally breaking Eye's record of 14. And the only reason I stopped is that I started getting dizzy. Honestly it's like I stepped into a time warp. I just thought of an idea. A 24 hour marathon starting midnight airing each episode on the hour with a 15 (or whatever) min recovery time between episodes. I've seen the light, it can be done with minimal chance of permanent brain damage and or a psychotic break.

Another series I've recently procured and am starting to rewatch is Wonderfalls, man that was a good show. Interesting how after it's fourth week I did some research and found rave reviews galore only to have it mysteriously disappear. Equally curious is the fact that the DVD contains all 13 episodes made, 9 of which never aired.

Rhoel.

2005-03-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

The best of men

I have a list of things I want to do before I die. Some I'll do some I won't. But a few on that list are more a must than a want, like coming of age landmarks.

First crush. First kiss. First drink. First...Time. Most I've kinda stumbled into before I even graduated from HS.

Then as you grow older those landmarks become things like first house, first love, first marriage...

One of the things I've always looked forward to was being the best man. I want to plan the legendary stag party. I want to sit at the head table thinking 'thank god it's not me'. I want to give the legendary best man speech. I want to console (hook up with) the hot vulnerable bridesmaids as they wonder 'why not me??' But it looks like I just missed my last chance...

My Best friend in HS was a cat named Sherman Hu. He was a funny Chinese guy with big enthusiasm and big dreams. Reminded me of a Chinese James Bond. Unfortunately those big dreams are what drove a split in our friendship as he became involved in Amway. World Wide Dreambuilders. He kept involving me in things I wasn't interested in. The second to last time I saw him was on his wedding day where his upline Fenton was his best man. The last time I saw him was when I was jogging around the track at Holy Cross when I noticed this little girl waving at everyone as they ran past. And right beside her was her dad Sherman. After Sherm was Don Scott. Reminded me of a real life Fido Dido. Wasn't really what you'd call a best friend, but more like my partner in crime, and legendary wingman. It was the perfect partnership, he loved the Filipino girls (even the butt ugliest of the strain) and didn't like the white girls (even the hottest of the strain) which worked out perfect for me 'cause it didn't matter to me. I lost track of him soon after I had came back from a summer in NY to find out that he hooked up with the girl I was seeing when I left and was seeing when I got back. He hinted at it, she denied it, I said fuck off to both. She wasn't even Filipino. Last I heard he married some flip girl and had the wedding in Hawaii.

When I was in HS me and my cousin Carlo agreed to be each other best man. Which was cool with me because we are very close and I was single at the time (like usual) and he was in a long relationship (like usual). Fast forward to this year. After a long engagement Carlo tells me he has to get married right now (in 3 weeks). I don't hear anything else so I assume that he has forgotten our little pact and has chosen someone else which on some level kind of upsets me. But that was a long time ago and things change. Then on the Wednesday before the wedding his mom tells me to wear suit because I'd be his best man at the head table. Maybe not all would be lost if I could plan him a last second stag party, to somewhat fulfill my duties as best man. But after getting a hold of only a small handful of ppl and making arrangements at Brandys I thought all was well...till I got a phone call from my press when they told me my Newspapers wouldn't be ready till Friday night (night of the stag). Son of a bitch. It just wasn't meant to be so I cancelled it.

Carlo and Denise were Married last Saturday at a small civil wedding. Since it wasn't really a reception we had at the restaurant afterwards and with Chinese customs I didn't have to do anything so I just sat there. Althou I was really enjoying myself I found it kinda strange that Carlo's mom's life partner wasn't sitting at the head table. Then I noticed and found it somewhat strange that Denise didn't have a maid of honor and the only ppl at the head table were family (namely siblings and parents) and the fact that I was sitting beside Carlo instead of his mom when it hit me. I was standing in for Carlo's Dad. I almost started crying (admittedly I was kinda drunk and I didn't actually almost cry but poetic license and all) I was very moved. That night Carlo introduced me as his best man but I suspect I was fulfilling a more important role than needed to be mentioned.

The dinner was an abbreviated reception, Carlo made a very good speech (not quite legendary thou) they thru the bouquet and the garter...twice. Right before the first toss I decided that if it was meant to be then it'd fall right in my hand so I had a beer in my right hand and just stuck out my left. I was thinking of my brothers wedding when the bouquet weaved like a heat seeking missile around all these women fighting for it when it hit denise as she just stood there. As I was thinking this I saw the garter fly up in the air in a perfect trajectory to land in my hand...when it got caught in this tiny Christmas light sized light fixture. Million dollar shot right? It'll never happen again right? So I stick out my hand again almost daring fate to do it again. Second time the arc wasn't so perfect, but it again hit the same fixture and deflected to land right beside my other hand on the table I was leaning on after I had put down my beer. It just sat there for a beat while everyone just stared and waited for me to pick it up. I suppose I can throw it on the pile of other garters I've caught over the years.

Rhoel.

2005-02-14T15:33:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been cubed?

Happy Valentines day everyone. I suppose I can expose my bitterness by ranting how Valentines is a little too contrived to be romantic and how I never really ever bothered with this holiday, much like the time I asked someone out on a date on Valentines day and asked out someone else for a date on the Saturday...not knowing Valentines day was on that Saturday...looking at a callender that must have been 98. Anyways I'll let all of you in love have your day. One day I'll have mine, day that is.

Here is my cube.

My cube is far in the distance lyeing on the sand. It's chrome and reflecting the desert sun brilliently like a beacon in the distence. It's cool in the heat.

The ladder is in the foreground. It's wood and is somehow freestanding at an angle like it should be leaning on the cube if it were at the same location.

The horse is unremarkable. Brown healthy and young, not very well groomed thou. Kinda scruffy. It seems to be loitering around the ladder in the foreground.

Rhoel.

2005-02-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

license to chill...

So today I finally renewed my drivers license. It's been 2.5 years since it expired. So for everyone that's driven with my the last 2.5 years...oops. In that time I've rolled thru a dozen road blocks and been pulled over maybe twice and knowbody said anything. The first year I just acted all surprised when the cop pointed it out. This past year I've just started to drive slower and avoided driving downtown on the weekends. Apparently if I waited another couple of months to my b day then I would have had to have taken the road test over again. Wow. I wonder if I'd have to drive with one of those stylish L's or N's on my car. When it came time to renew my insurance I just went to one of those mom and pop shop insurance places in Richmond and distracted the semi cute Chinese girl with some sweet talk while she did up the paper work. Then I made it a point to remember her name (took her card) and only went back to her. Insuring 3 different cars 3 months at a time I saw her quit a bit. Probably the most significant relationship I've had in a while.

I'm actually enjoying life without goatee. It feels cleaner and it only takes me like 30 seconds to shave. What do you guys think? Goatee, yay or nay? Polls close one week from today.

DVD obsession update. I'm now into Season 3 of Smallville, I'm trying to slow down my intake to let season 3 last a little longer. I'm done OC and am thinking about starting up Dark Angel again (I only got 3-4 episodes in when I bought it last year). My bro is planning on buying up the 24 series and according to many it is quit addicting.

As for current shows, is anyone else loving the new Battlestar Galactica? Isn't if funny how Caprica City looks exactly like Metropolis and Vancouver respectfully??? As for Smallville season 4, I'm so glad they brought back that totally hot teleporting blonde girl. A better fit for Clark than Lana Lang. Speaking of brining back characters this season's OC lack any kind of tension or conflict. I think they painted themselves into a corner when everyone became friends towards the end of season 1. They need to bring back Holly ('cause she's hot) and all of Summers hottie friends from season one. They also need to bring back Luke, Anna and Oliver. And get rid of DJ and (Summer's new BF). Some idea arc's I would pitch. Oliver and Luke become allies against Ryan (enemy of my enemy is my friend). Ryan hooks up with Summer (she liked him in the pilot till she found out he was from Chino). Ryan and Seth fight (maybe over Summer) I mean no family grows up without feuding.

That's all for now. Rhoel.

2005-01-28T11:48:00.000-08:00

Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!

When I look at old photographs the one thing that dates a picture is the subjects hair and cloths. When I covered the Holy Cross Christmas party this past year I took a stroll down memory lane looking at everyone's grad photo's. Here we see Nicks sportif stacked flat top. There we see Randy's GQ doo. Over here we see Michelle's expensive looking bounty of curls. And finally we see VJ...with the same haircut. My Grad picture I can't even describe my hair cut. Back in the day I'd have described it as an Asian gang cut (since all my friends sported similar doo's). I also had two braids with beads. Today I'd say it kinda looked like a the bastard child of something GQ smooth and a mullet (it was long in the back). What did I wear in those days on a Saturday night? Black shirt, black dress pants with the tight fold, black trench coat, black patent leather sandal's with white socks or patent leather (doll) shoes. Oh I almost forgot about all the silver jewelry. Anyone want to party at Changes??? How about the Paramont??? Club USA anyone??? OMG I was so cool.

Pictures from the 60's 70's 80's etc you can tell bye the dress and the hair. My oldest brother dressed and had the 'fro and mustache that belonged on the set of Welcome Back Carter. My second brother dressed in pink polo shirts. My youngest brother thought he was black with stripes shaved into his head. But underneath it all the ppl look the same, except slightly thinner.

So as I prepare to renew my license I choose a path that will stand the test of time (till the next time I renew) Black collarless shirt, I'll tame my hair, and off go the hairs on my chinny chin chin.

Rhoel.

RIP Goatee (if you can call it a goatee), see you in a couple of weeks.

2005-01-20T13:56:00.000-08:00

How much is that doggie in the window? Barf barf!!!

You ever watch one of those cartoons when the dark rain cloud follows the character around when the rest of the world is in sunshine?

Saturday I fly down to Scotia to participate in Marc's Hip Hop class only to decide that I'm still too hung over so I just go home. 20 mins after I had parked my car almost directly in front of Scotia I come out to find that someone had barfed on my windshield. Lucky it was raining.

Tuesday morning I wake up to find out that someone had broken the tiny window in front of my mirror on the drivers side. They rummaged around in my shite making a mess only to leave empty handed. Unfortunately it rained about a foot that night so my car was flooded and my faceplate which was discarded on the floor got wet and the screen shorted. Unluckily it was raining.

Weds driving my dad's new car I stopped into Newtown in Chinatown. As soon as I exited the car I smelled cheese. When I drove away I realized a few blocks later that the smell had followed me. Then I realized that what I was smelling was actually barf and I had stepped in it and smeared it on the rubber mat and pedals. It took me ten minutes to find a puddle so I could stop and wipe my feet. Unfortunately it wasn't raining hard enough.

Today I brought my car to ICBC. 300 deductible on the tiny window, 200 on my windshield...........................I'm just waiting for the rain to stop.

Rhoel.

2005-01-13T14:47:00.000-08:00

A paddle or my joystick?

Have I become such a format snob that I turn my nose up at video tapes? Did you at one point snob Beta in favor of VHS? Tapes for CDs, 8 tracks for tapes, records for 8 tracks? Anyone remember what a floppy disk was? What kinda misnomer was that anyways, they weren't even that floppy? (Was that a rhetorical question? BTW what exactly is a rhetorical question? Never mind I think it may be a run on sentence.) Once upon a time one of my little cousins asked my other little cousin what that (record) is? Apparently it's like a big cd.

So today I watched only my second vhs movie in the last probably two years. The movie previous was my KP gift recycle of "Duece Bigalow Male Gigelo". But watching that was more of a requirements since it was a gift, funny ass movie. I think it was better than some of those other gifts. How's the gianormous pants BTW? Picture frame? Lately I only use the video to record all the TV programs I miss. I suppose I was feeling a little nostalgic because I read a write up the previous day about how The Atari 2600 had an incredible production run from 1977 up to about '88 and how the advent of the commodore 64 in 84' and the NintendoEntertainmentSystem in '85 finally rendered it obsolete. Ppl are now scouring the earth for the gameing system and it's cartridges.

So what have I seen lately?:

Napoleon Dynamite. Basically I like pretty much any movie and can usually find some redeeming quality and a movie is going to have to suck something fierce in order for me to not like it. This movie sucked a lot. It was mildly humorous for the first few lines of dialogue then it got so boring that I actually considered stopping it on a few occasions when I didn't think I could hack it anymore but eventually it became a mission to finish it. It was so painful to watch, yet I couldn't look away! Kinda like watching a traffic accident. I'd compare it to a really bad student film staring a bunch of retarded kids.

Ali G Indahouse. Funny ass movie. I'm a real fan of British comedies and to have two in one month is like Christmas all over again. Funniest movie I've seen since Team America. If you're looking for a deep storey line and intelligent witty humor this is not the movie for you. But if you want to laugh your ass off...Basically the British Vanilla Ice goes to Washington.

Shawn of the Dead. Another British comedy. Basically Dawn of the Dead all over again except funny as hell. I actually watched it 3 times in 4 days.

Boondock Saints. PPl have been raving about this movie for two years. Lora wants to ftp it to me. The guys working at Footlocker are raving about it as they fit me. And then I finally watched it. It was alright. But the whole time I was thinking that it was a blatantly rip off of the Luc Besson movies. I'd rather suggest Leon the Professional or the original La Femme Nikita that Boondocks was copying.

Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Man this is definately the funniest movie I've seen all year. Funnier that Team America. If I was to recomend a movie this would be the one by far.

BTW, I'm loving watching the OC all over again. More on that next time 'cause this is looking rather long. Toddles.

Rhoel.

-FYI the word Boondock is a term brought back from American GI's from the Flipippines. Boondok (sp?), isn't that the word for mountains?