I’ve been meaning to write about the third installment of one of my most favorite series (second only after Harry Potter) but life kept on intruding. Exams to take, readings (real life readings. Read: How to treat cancer), faucets to fix, and students to give lectures to all created a buzz that just kept me from blogging about Mockingjay.

Finally, I’m all settled in and ready to talk about Suzanne Collins’ third book in the Hunger Games trilogy. How did I feel? Well, let’s see.

Although I really liked the happy ending, there were times that I found it too dragging. Especially the part where Katniss was in limbo in District 13, feeling all helpless and useless. Well, she *was* useless during that part. All I wanted to do was shake her up from her trance and yell at her that hey, you used to be cool. You used to be a freaking tribute for crying out loud! Do something!

I kept on hoping that she’d somehow silently sneak out of district 13 while no one was watching and go get Peeta herself. Instead, Suzanne had other people do what Katniss should’ve done while Katniss herself moped about at the rebel’s camp.

Then there was the part where she was used a s the ‘face’ of the rebellion- not allowed to do anything dangerous as she’s too valuable to the cause.

Come on, Suzanne, what the hell happened to all that bad-assery that characterized the first two novels? Why o why have you turned this hot, ferocious woman into a, a teenage girl lovesick and googoo eyed over her man who also by the way, USED to be a bad-ass himself?

And speaking of Peeta, why the hell did he have to be turned into a muttation??? That I just cannot dig.

I guess Suzanne was giving in to pressure from her publishers that she try and capture the market of teenage girls all gooey eyed over that uber-pale and freakish monstrosity Stephanie Meyer concocted. I really hope this isn’t the case. I refuse to believe it for one second.

There. I’ve said it. Although it hurt, I’ve said out loud how I felt about those agonizing moments in the book. But still. Despite its shortcomings, the ending more or less made up for it.

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Ice cream!

Everyone loves ice cream (just as everyone loves Online Schools!). And no, not on a hot sunny day as a way to cool off as some would suggest. As Fli says; “that just makes me thirsty”. On a hot, heat-stroke inducing day, I would rather have a really tall glass of Coke Zero or Pepsi Max with lots of ice. Or maybe a really ice cold bottle of my fave Sam Mig Light. Now that would be a nice cooling off strategy. Aaand I’m going off topic.

As I was saying, I love ice cream. But I love eating it when I’m relaxed and snuggled up under the sheets. When I’m chillin’ kum baga. Like right now. And there’s one flavor that I just can’t get over.

Selecta’s Pistachios and Cashew. But I don’t eat it right off. Oh no. It wouldn’t be complete without a liberal helping of Hershey’s hot chocolate syrup. To make it more decadent, I sometimes add crushed cashews. It’s just bliss. Flisha loves this concoction too. It’s a shame she isn’t here right now. Mmmmm…..

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Divide 120 by 12. What do you get? 10. That’s 10, T-E-N days to you! 120 days is all I’ve got left ’till I have to be ready for the medical board exams. And I have a total of 12 subjects to study. So which means that if I start today, I will have a total of just 10 days to review each subject (I might need that Blue Cross Blue Shield NC health plan after all).

Yikes! I am sooo short on time! Whatever happened to the nine months I had to review for the boards??? I still cannot believe four months have passed and I only have four left. Talk about time flying with mercury’s sandals. God, I hope I will be ready on time. A lot is riding on my passing the boards. I have to pass.

I think I know how this kid feels

I. just. have. to.

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Why oh, why is it that when I sing in the shower, I feel like I’ve gotten all the notes right- my voice filled with raw emotion and power that rivals David Cook’s (complete with an audience waving led flashlights). But every time I start singing along with the radio in my room, it seems like I suddenly lost my star potential and all I can manage is a blurt out random stucco’s of notes that seem more like poetry reading than singing.

The same thing happens whenever I try to sing during video-ke night with friends (one of the reasons why I insist on having at least two bottles of liquid courage before grabbing the microphone).

So I did a quick research to find out why the shower seems so deceptive. Turns out, according to this article, the shower acts as a sort-of low tech sound mixer improving my voice’s quality, reverberations and bass.

I betcha David Cook started out like this too.

And what’s more, it turns out that all those recording artists that you hear on the radio? They’ve all used high-tech sound mixers to improve their voice quality! So that’s why they sound so good! This means just one thing- I shouldn’t give up on my dreams of being the next David Cook just yet! 

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I was in the faculty workroom a couple of months back,catching up on some reading when I was startled by a scampering and a scurrying around my feet amidst the school furniture. Looking down I saw two white lab mice sniffing around the floor.

Knowing that Biology students used white mice for various experiments, I wondered whether some escaped then bred with other ‘local’ mice. I initially thought that these were the ‘wild’ white rats. Then my fellow English teacher (FYI, I’m teaching English to help support my medical board exam reviews. Effectively busting the myth about all doctors being rich!), Sir Joy, came in with an exasperated look on his face.

Turns out, some students gave him five white mice to keep as pets. He placed them in a can under his desk. When he returned, only one remained- all escaped. So that explains it! They really were escaped lab mice! After learning about this, most of the other teachers in the faculty workroom (around 7 in all) volunteered to get Sir Joy’s mice back.

It turned out to be an amusing evening as 7 teachers scrambled around under chairs and tables all trying to chase down the escapees. In the end, we were able to catch just two out of the four escapees.

What happened to the other two? Well, let’s just say that every now and then, I find gray mice with white splashes on them.

Happy together

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So there I was, settling in for a movie all snuggled up under my sheets and outdoor chair cushions. However, before I double-clicked on that VLC icon, I decided to go check on my Facebook account.And this is what I find from our friend Dee:

‎”It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.” -Mockingjay

My jaw drops. This is the book I’ve been waiting for since last year. Apparently, it was released last August 24, 2010 with the ebook released on August 18! I have gots to have a copy, and stat! I wonder what happens to Catniss? Or to Peeta?

Damn, I’m so excited I could barely wait for that download bar to reach 100%! Goodbye Pelham 123, hello old friends! I really could say that I missed you guys!

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I’ve never tried authentic Japanese cuisine. Living in Zamboanga, you really don’t have a choice when it comes to finding real cultural cooking. The only ‘authentic’ Japanese restos in Zamboanga are Hanazono and that place in Skypark Hotel; and they aren’t real Japanese cooking in the sense that most of what they serve are ‘Filipinized’ versions of the real deal (Living in Zamboanga is like living in a mattress, really comfy but it gets a little too boring after a while).

So it was a real treat when Fli and I popped into Little Tokyo for a taste of genuine Japanese cooking (Little Tokyo is a tiny strip of Japanese restos along Pasong Tamo Ave., Makati). The place we went to (I forgot the name- eeps!) is owned by a Japanese couple. The ambiance is very homey- with a warm kitchen-ey feel to it, and the staff are very polite and friendly.

And the food! God, it was delish! We ordered Shoyu Ramen (Japanese noodles), Gyoza (steamed dumplings), California maki (rice dumplings with mango, raw fish, and seaweed strips), and Katsudon (fried pork cutlet with eggs). For me, the maki was the best. I even got Fli to finish half of the plate! Unfortch, we didn’t bring a camera so I don’t have any pics to show! Well, maybe next time- ’cause there’s definitely going to be one.

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Remember Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield? Steven and Lila and Enid and Bruce and Todd and Jeffrey and… SWEET VALLEY HIGH?!? Remember?

If you do, I’d say you’re in your late twenties, or maybe even early thirties. You grew up in the 80′s, you’re a girl, you’re fantastically sensible like Elizabeth, and cute and fun like Jessica and you most probably owned/read all of the Sweet Valley series – Sweet Valley High, Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley Kids, Sweet Valley University and you probably even watched the short-lived series on TV starring Brittany and Cynthia Daniel.

Actually, I stopped reading around the time Sweet Valley University began… it just was never the same for me when Elizabeth left perfect handsome Jeffrey and took back selfish, arrogant and insufferable Todd.

Sweet Valley High brings back so many fond memories. I remember my elementary years in the library and discovering these amazing books. I used to max out the limit of books I could borrow in a day and I’d devour the stories at home. And when I realized the library had ran out of the later books, I’d save up all my allowance – AND I would even wash my dad’s car every morning for ten pesos a day just to get 50 at the end of the week. Then on the weekend my dad would bring me to Golden Bell – our local bookstore – and I’d buy one Sweet Valley High book. Those were the days when paperback novels cost only Php50.

It was the first time in my life I ever saved up to buy something. At the end of my high school years, I had shelves lined up with Sweet Valley High books. Later my sister Patricia would read them, then much later on my youngest sister Melisse. Now they’re all packed up in boxes and ready to be donated… I don’t know if my mom actually donated them already. But though it was really hard for me to part with them — especially my most favorite cover ever, the one with Jeffrey on the cover; or my most favorite book ever, the one with both Jess and Liz on the cover staring daggers at each other because they were fighting over the same boy Jeffrey (Jess, for Lila; Liz, for Enid) — I knew that it would be a travesty if the books lay gathering dust and weren’t enjoyed by other coming-of-age girlies.

Anyway, enough background. If you get me going on SVH, I never stop.

The point is – you thought SVH was over? You’re wrong. Because now there’s Sweet Valley Confidential! And guess, what?? The girls are all grown up just like us!!!

Fast forward ten years later (actually if they were to be honest, it’s definitely more like twelve, because they were 18 when I was 16, heh). They’re both 27 years old, single Liz is a hotshot reporter in NYC while Jess is a soon-to-be divorceé – and the girls are NOT talking to one another! Oooh, I wonder what sort of drama they’re up to now!

I’m definitely going to be watching out for this series! Though I hope it’s going to be a lot edgier. After all, we’re all adults now. And… don’t string us forever, Francine Pascal. Maybe a trilogy would be enough, yeah? ( I don’t think I’m up for another SVH collection, sorry.)

You can download the first chapter of Sweet Valley Confidential here and you can even follow the book on Twitter here.

Excited, excited! Comes out March 29, 2011. Mark your calendars!

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…is probably an understatement of how I’m feeling right now. I don’t think I’ve ever been scared, and I mean really scared until now. Of course I’ve been scared before. Lots of times. But never in that gut-wrenching, heart pounding, hand shaking kind of way that I felt just a little while ago. What made it worse was the fact that it wasn’t just my life that was threatened, it was my brother’s too. Let me start from the beginning.

Me and my brothers were on our way home a little past 8 pm a while ago. We were driving two motorcycles (I really wish I had a car. It would be safer and I could get that cheapest auto insurance network). I was driving one of them with my brother Ikee in the backseat and my other brother Gp, was driving the other motorcycle with my youngest brother, Gino who’s around 9 years old.

En route, Ikee asked me if we could drop off a package for his girlfriend before heading home. Since it was on the way, I agreed. As I turned into the drive leading to the girlfriend’s place, I suddenly remembered that Gp, who was tailing us behind, didn’t have any idea where we were headed. So I stopped at the entrance to the drive and looked back at the highway, waiting for him.

Just then, I saw someone on a motorcycle suddenly veer in our direction.  He stopped right behind us. Thinking I was blocking the entrance to the drive, I moved to the side of the road to let him pass. He didn’t. Instead, he moved his left hand to his waist, brushed the side of his coat around and flashed us a holstered handgun.

At that moment, a lot of thoughts coursed through my mind- first thought: what the hell? Followed by, oh shit! Then, this guy must be freakin drunk! Underneath all these were stark pictures of patients felled by guns that I attended to in the ER, god, I didn’t want to be one of them!

I instinctively adopted an appeasing tone-

Boss, pasensya na po. May inaantay lang po kame.

He pulled out his weapon. Anong ginagawa mo na nakaparada ka sa daan? Yung kasama mo kumakaway-kaway pa o (referring to my brother).

I really did not know what he was talking about. All I knew was that he was waving a fucking gun at us!

Pasensya po ulit may inaantay lang po kame. I tried again, this time extending my hands in the most non-threatening way I could.

Eh bigla kayong huminto at yung kasama mo kaway ng kaway. The same response.  And then it hit me- this guy thought we were staring at him! Given the spate of violence that has been erupting across the city, most of them perpetuated by goons on motorbikes, this guy must think that we were following him- threatening him even.

This time I replied; Boss ala po kaming masamang balak. May inaantay lang po talaga kami. He still didn’t seem convinced but he clipped the handgun back on his waist and told us- sa susunod wag nyong gagawin lang kung hindi… he trailed off gesturing to the gun he still held. And then he was gone.

It happened so fast that I barely could understand what just happened. My only thought being- we just narrowly avoided being shot! My mouth dry, I told Ikee to quickly drop off the package while we waited for Gp to show, as I didn’t want to risk hanging around in case that guy decided we were threats after all and came back to shoot us.

Thankfully, we all made it home alive.

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Most Zamboangueno’s will recognize this dish. Freshly steamed crab swimming in its own natural juices, soaked and drizzled with Alavar’s sauce (made from aligue or crab fat, garlic and ginger) and served with steaming garlic rice.

It’s uber good! And very very fattening and thus, it’s very very important to find diet pills that work. It’s a mouth watering putaje that is simple enough to prepare. Check these ingredients out:

1-2 kilos of fresh, still alive mud crabs

1 kilo of grated coconut

1/2 kilo of Alavar’s sauce (available at any Alavar’s take-out counter)

A handful of salt

A bulb of ginger

A bulb of garlic

1/2 cup water

Preparation: Extract the milk from the grated coconut by adding 1/2 cup of water to it, mixing it thoroughly, and squeezing the milk out. Place the extracted milk in a separate container and set aside.  Wash the crabs with fresh water to remove river/pond detritus and place them in a big kawa or karahay. Season with salt, crushed garlic and crushed ginger. Add extracted coconut milk and boil the crabs in it until it turns a delicious orange color. Add the Alavar’s sauce. Continue boiling until the sauce is thick and oily. Serve.

So there, an easy to do recipe of a family favorite. Bon appetit!

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