I just attended the first ever MTV Style Awards. It was held September 28 at the Tent in the Fort. My band 7Foot Jr. was nominated for our video of Kwento, as the most stylish video. Too bad we didn't bag it. Nonetheless I had fun that night.

That was the first time that the band was treated as VIPs in the most formal sense. The staging area was at Gourdo's. There the band had cocktails and drinks while hangging out with the other VIPs. Then Mazda provided their new Mazda 3 sports car for us to drive. I took the wheel of course. We drove to the red carpet in these babies. Cool.

The red carpet walk was overrated. The MTV production crew told me after wards that they weren't ready for us yet. Figures. Inside we hung out by the bar drinking scotch and vodka. The show itself could have gone better but overall it was ok. There were some good performances (must say, Bamboo rocked) and really boring ones. A lot of no shows too. At least Eddie Gil was there.

The afterparty was good too. It was at Belissima. I got smashed! Funny, I was mixing drinks. My drink depended on who I was with at the moment. With the band I was drinking beer (which is another funny story because we got ours for free, MTV had to pay for theirs), with the MTV people it was scotch. That was fun.

I forgot to mention what we wore. The whole band was in our "Daisy" outfits. That's a suit loosely worn while in sneakers. Better than the usual printed shirt and jeans.

Hopefully next year we get nominated again for another video. With the lessons they learn from this show it's a good bet next year will be better.

I'm exhausted. Mentally and physically. My lifestyle (ok work included) doesn't afford me much rest. These past weeks I've seen this take a toll on my body as well as my mind. This is very much apparent at work. My mind isn't as sharp as it used to be. I've been drawing blanks while writing (hence the long gap between my blog posts). This didn't use to happen. I always had something to say. I'm a little more irritable too. I should just get away from all this.

What I need is a real vacation. Get real rest, a good sleep. Just be what I used to be, a bum. I envy a friend of mine who quit her job and is now preparing to go on a trip to Europe. If I could do something like that I'm sure it would help me recover most of my (perceived) wit. Another thing is to get away from all these people I see everyday. A vacation from the routine. That would be great. Now back to work.

Don't you hate it when you have so much to say to someone but once confronted, you forget things because of the emotions going through you? In hind sight that happened to me today.

Because of anger, a lot of reason in my arguments with the management in my office were lost. After cooling down I remembered. Unfortunately too late for the discussion. I should learn to be a little more cool in situations like that.

Maybe if the discussion is revisited I can append to my statements. Lesson? Keep cool.

I was going through my previous posts and I've noticed a lot, if not most, are all about some gripe that I have. For the people that don't know me and only come into contact with me through this blog, they might think I'm such a sorry ass that bitches a lot. Hmmm...... Maybe I should find good things to write?

That's what it felt like this morning. Being sent to the principal's office when you do something wrong. In this case I was asked to see our higher up here in the office for my various spats with another manager. I expected this sooner or later.

So what happened? I've aired my greivances (some of which I've tackled in my other posts) and the other guy aired his. In the end we both have to work together. Both of us are too pig-headed to give in yet we have to. Oh well! Let's see where this leads. I've said what I had to and hopefully that gets acted upon. At least they didn't make me stand at the corner facing the wall.

I'm lucky enough to say I have good friends. You don't realize that until you've hit a low point in your life. Granted I haven't been at a point like that in a while, I still see how good my friends are.

Last night two of my closest friends came over. Art and Jurist I've known from way back in high school. In fact, my group from high school is more or less still intact. They've been with me through all the good and very bad times. I love them for it. Going back to Art and Jurist, they visited just to greet me for my birthday. They brought beer and food too. Really they came over to spend time with me. Awfully good of them.

What's better still is that my circle of friends is still expanding. My new friends might not be as tight as my high school group but I truly feel they're real. I'm one luck person.

Well I'm now officially 31. I celebrated my birthday last Friday. Or should I say I wanted to celebrate my birthday last Friday. I had an out-of-town gig that day so I spent most of my time on the road. Not to mention it was a crap gig with a producer I didn't like and an audience who didn't care. Man what a way to spend a birthday.

The run up to my birthday was more fun. We were in Eastwood for the Cold Play show (see previous post). My band and some friends were already sort of celebrating with beer and the show. Even the K-Lite people greeted me. That was fun. Angel, Val and Bats even got me a cool shirt. Too bad we had to end the night early.

Hello folks. I'm back. I'm once again able to collect my thoughts enough to write. Well last Thursday Overtone played the K-Lite "Lite and Live " gig which featured the songs of Cold Play. Man was that fun. I miss playing the drums. The venue was big too. Too bad it was raining. Very few people came out that night. Good thing it was aired on the radio. At least we had an audience even though they were just in radio land. We did covers of other artists too. That was even more fun. I have to say we rocked.

I guess you've noticed I haven't been posting in a while. Well, I've been having trouble thinking of things to write about lately. To be frank (pun intended), my mind has been too messed up to think of anything. Don't you hate it when that happens?

I’m a lazy ass. If I could automate or eliminate any part of work that required physical effort I would. Good thing the remote control was invented. God forbid I’d have to get up to change the channel. Imagine if you could remote control everything. I’ve tried. Most of the gadgets in my room I’ve programmed to accept remote commands. Even iced tea is brought to me by hired help (whom I can call by pressing a button). Yet, there’s still more that can be done (a friend of mine boasted that he was lazier than me because his electric fan had a remote). Work is still an issue. I still haven’t found a way to automate that.

In my search for nirvana, I’ve learned that laziness is expensive. Gadgets that make life easier cost money. The more work a gadget does for you, the higher the price. So herein lies the biggest roadblock to true laziness. Unless your parents are filthy rich, or you’re extremely lucky and win the lotto; you have to work really hard to earn a lot of money to buy all the things to aid your laziness. Life’s just not fair.

A word thrown around so much. Something a lot of people demand, yet they don't know how to give. Respect is something I don't toss around lightly. I seem to bump into issues of respect so much these days because of work.

With work respect takes on so many aspects. Respect for co-workers, superiors and subordinates are I would say the most basic forms. Right now I'm irked by the fact that these three "basics" are being taken for granted right now here at the office.

I read the other day from an article in the paper an interview with some CEO about his thoughts on respect. He said "Title does not automatically give you respect. You have to earn it. You earn it from your accomplishments and from how you treat people". I wish the others in the office read that. I agree with that statement 100% because I've always felt that respect should be earned. That's why I can say that there are very few people I've worked with that I truly respect.

In this office, there are people who think that their position automatically requires that you respect them. I've heard it actually spoken, "You don't respect me". This coming from someone who thinks everyone is stupid and hasn't contributed anything useful. He just has rank. Get real dude.

Why do I bring this up? Because last night I got ticked off by a subordinate of mine bypassing me to show his colors to the higher ups. Normally I wouldn't mind but it screwed the schedule of all the appointments of the day up. Had there been respect for my position, or at least for following proper channels, all this would have been avoided. There really must be something seriously wrong with our company if respect going in both directions, up and down, is being taken lightly.

THE WORTH OF BLOGGING
I'm simply amazed right now about how many friends of mine actually have blogs. I only learned about this last night while fixing the Internet connection of my friend. I came over with my laptop and when I opened my browser, my blog came out. Jay, the friend with the Internet problem, told me "you know Chris, Debbie and even Marge have blogs". I was surprised to find out that they were pretty active bloggers. So naturally when I got to work today I looked their blogs up.

INSIGHTFUL POSTS
Reading the posts of Debbie and Chris I got surprised as to how much content their posts had. They didn't post anything trivial mind you, but deep thoughts that truly meant something to them. The other surprise was that the way they write is fairly artistic. Because of this, you feel a lot for them and what they go through, regardless of whether or not you can relate to what they go through. You end up empathizing with them.

Debbie's Blog
Chris's Blog

BLOGGING AS THERAPY
Jay this morning was a bit on edge about Val going to Japan. Trying to console (for lack of a better word) him I ended up telling him to start blogging. I told him it's "theraputic". You get to release a lot of that pent up feelings. It's a place for you to be able to say something on your mind without anyone interrupting you. Your blog is your space and no one elses. What ever you put there is yours and yours alone. All of this seems to be working for Chris and Debbie. I'm sure it will help Jay ease up.

On a side note, I actually sprouted advice for Jay that sounded deep and profound. It went something like this "your fate is only determined by what you do, not by circumstance". Don't know where I pulled that out of. Something repressed maybe? Paging Dr. Freud!

DOOM 3 BITS
As I said in my earlier post that I finished Doom 3. For the unenlightened (or those who have a real life I should say), Doom 3 is the re-incarnation of the old Doom game that heralded a new age in gaming. After a long number of years they finally came out with an updated version. So what do I think you ask? Well, I like it.

I know a lot of the reviews I've read and a lot of the gamers I've spoken too have a lot of negative comments about it. For the most part I agree with them.: thin plot, bad ai, stupid switching between flashlight and weapon, etc.. However, I have to say that I enjoyed the game simply because it did what it meant to do, immerse you in the environment.

The environment is fantastic. The look is fantastic, the sound is great. The world feels "alive". You seem to be on edge with every little sound you here. You're always looking out for what's around the corner. And there isn't anything really frustrating about the game (except the sound glitches it has with the Soundstorm audio cards) that will make you want to stop playing. That in itself for me makes it a good game.

I think that last line is just an invitation to get flamed. He he.

MONDAY, MONDAY, MONDAY
My heading says it all. Don't you feel weary just thinking of Monday's? It's some psychological thing. Luckily today didn't seem too hectic. Just simple errands.

They installed a cool windows aquarium in our office. The tank is big but thin so huge fish are out. Funny thing is because the fish are so small it looks like the tank is empty. Nice to get back to collecting fish though. I haven't done that since I was nine years old.

OH! THESE ARE WHAT DRUMS ARE!
Overtone practiced a full-band set last Friday. I finally got to play drums. That felt strange, but good. As usual it was a slow start for me. I actually had to use my feet. After playing Cajon for so long it feels, to quote Jay, liberating.

The Cold Play songs were fun. Especially "Shiver". I've played the song before with my other band 7 Foot Jr. so I'm pretty familliar with the ins and outs. That gives me a little room to stretch my playing a bit. The other non-Cold Play songs were fun too. Big Machine is going to kick ass. Can't wait till the show on the 16th.

WEEKEND UPDATE
The weekend was just fine. I stayed in the South most of Saturday. I only went out to check out my sister's show. She was part of a dance concert in Alabang Town Center. We totally missed it. We left late and when we got there she was done. I ended up just shopping for "stuff". I finally finished networking the house that day too. All cables crimped and running through the ceiling. Coolness.

Sunday was a good gaming day. I finally finished Doom 3. Now I have nothing to play. Good thing I still have Collin McRae 4 installed.

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY
How cliche but very apt. I'm dead tired. Getting up this morning was hell. I was actually shaking from exhaustion. Bathing with cold water seemed to help. Shook the groggyness out right away.

McDonald's was again on my way to work so I stopped to get breakfast. The crew seemed to all be newbies. The guys I normally deal with were on kitchen duty. I kinda like them better. They knew my order and were quick. The newbies were just that, newbies. They were still figuring their system out.

Work was different today. I finally went to that one network I had to clean up two days ago. This time I asked Rod to come in. He's actually clear of the German Measles. It's just the others at the office who're scarred of him. But today I really needed his help. There were 25 computers to clean up. It took a while but I can imagine it would have taken longer without help. One good thing about going there today was that apparently that office has first Friday mass during lunch time. Right after they throw lunch for everyone. Of course we were part of it.

COLD PLAY
Wouldn't you believe it? Overtone is practicing tonight. We never practice. Well, we're doing an electric gig on the 16th for a radio station called K-Lite. We were asked to do covers of the band "Cold Play". It's like an hour and a half till the practice for that show and I still haven't learned the songs. Time to listen to some music.

MEDIA PLAYER 10
Oh goody. A new download. Looks like Microsoft let out the new version of "Media Player". Something new to tinker with.

A SHORT RECAP...
I feel a bit bad that yesterday's staff meeting started and ended late. I missed the Virgil Donati Drum Clinic because of that. At least I got to follow to badminton. Really late though. That was fun even if only four of us played. Jay and I were teamates and we dubbed ourselves the Phat boys.

The gig at Yaku was really fun. Yaku was packed. Some friends but mostly newbies. They all seemed to enjoy our show. That felt good. Sound still kinda sucked though. You know, it's been a year already since we started playing at Yaku. Imagine that. I was amazed that I only last night discovered that their Tonkatsu is actually good.

BACK TO WORK
I just got in for work. Dropped by McDonalds for my usual Sausage McMuffin meal and two hash browns. Funny, the usual counter people were no where in sight. I actually had to give my order. I've actually taken it for granted that the people there know what I want.

Lots of things to do today. Remember those two networks I had to clean up yesterday? Well I did one. I re-scheduled the other for today. I'm leaving to do that in a bit. Man that took long. I really need help. I should push to hire new assistants. Luckily someone really wants in. I'll talk to Akira about him.

Ok. Time to show everyone in the office I'm actually in.

BACK FROM THE DEAD
I recently dug up this blog. I totally forgot I had it for the longest time (more than a year). It was only when going through other people's blogs that I remembered that I had one. Funny thing is, when I look to the first post I did, I said I won't be lazy. I guess it's pretty hard to break old habits. =)

WOE IS ME
My body aches today. I had an intense night of playing badminton and now my body is paying for it. The part that sucks is that I had to get up for work this morning. Knowing that we'll be short handed at the office kinda sucks too. I'll have to do all the work. Rod, my one staff member, is out with the German measles. Dang! I'll have to cleanup and fix two entire networks by myself. Maybe I can weasle my way out of doing both today.