Finally! After three years of wanting my own broadband connection, PLDT finally hooked me up with DSL. I’ve wanted this since our last place at Henares. Too bad the phone lines sucked. I couldn’t even get a decent speed with dial-up much less use DSL.

Last Friday PLDT woke me up at around 7:30am to ask me if I had all the hardware requirements. Even if my brain was still asleep I automatically recited to the tech all the stuff hooked up to my pc. After the call I drifted back to sleep still thinking I’m getting hooked up already. At around 9 the tech was at the house. I shook my sleep of in record time, guiding the tech to the “veins” of my home network. Eagerly waiting his installation, I was buzzing around him, checking to see if he missed anything. Then he hit the power.

After a minute of waiting, THE MODEM WOULDN’T SYNC! What that means is that no matter what you do, you won’t be able to log on. Panicking, the tech called their data center, had the line checked, wired a new line, changed modems; but nothing. No heartbeat. He told me he had to retreat and he would figure it out from the other end of the network. And that was that. I stayed home till about noon (I had a 2pm client meeting) waiting for word. It went on once and died. Even as I was out my mother was coordinating with me on the status. Finally at about 5 in the afternoon I got word that it was alive.

Unfortunately I couldn’t come home to test it. I had a gig. Two in fact. So I went and attended both. Played well (see previous posts), got blasted, then went home. So at some 5 in the morning there I was working on the home network. Making sure that when everyone woke up in the morning they’d be online.

If Thursday I felt crappy about my playing, Friday I was on fire. As I promised myself I’d make up for that really lousy gig. I had two opportunities Friday night, and I capitalized on both.

My first gig was with 7Foot Jr. That’s my other band. We rarely gig (we’re mostly a recording band) so live performances are always too important. We were playing the Miriam High School Fair. Unfortunately, the only hitch with the gig was that Leo, our vocalist, had the dumb idea to enter a call center. His schedule didn’t permit him to perform that night. Kudos goes to our bassist who stepped up and did all the singing duties. The gig went really fine. If you have the fantasy of having hundreds (I’m guessing) of screaming teeny boppers watching you, well that’s what was happening. That only fueled us to rock better. My playing isn’t what I would say my usual style but it was fun. It was rocking. Seven songs went by really fast. That gave me the warm up that I needed for the next act.

Dash to Capone’s. I got scolded by a lot of friends for being late. I did ask permission from the rest of the band. Oh well. I did a quick setup and went straight to the set (sans dinner). Man I loved it. I was nailing everything I wanted to do. Too bad Jay wasn’t feeling the same. He was totally collapsing (performance wise) on stage. Probably feeling what I did the night before. The second set went much smoother. Rico Blanco jammed with us. We did a really good “Last Goodbye”. Jay finally got his act together and we rocked. That was also a kind of “despidida” for Debbie. I’m happy that they decided to celebrate it there. We ended pretty late. I ended up leaving with Sherwin. Man that was fun.

Last Thursday, Overtone skipped the usual Yaku gig and played a special show at Aruba Bar on Meralco Avenue. This was more of an emergency gig. Our friend Angelu was the one who booked us. We were basically a birthday gift for her friend.

The night started out well enough. Food was really really good. Pritchon, roasted calf, the usual assortment of hours devours. We even booked an alternate band, Intensity, to give the audience a different sound from us (they’re a “show band”). The gear seemed good too. Tito knew the tech from before so he wasn’t worried about the sound. But, for some reason I wasn’t at home playing what I was playing.

I was going through the motions. Very few mistakes made, tried as hard to give 100%. For some reason I really couldn’t nail the feel. And for me that’s everything. I’m more of a feel musician. I try to make the music feel good. Technically I may not be great but I get by with my feel. That night it was as they say in French “Blech”.

After the gig I was noticeably disappointed with my performance, though my band mates were nice enough to comment that it seemed ok. I just knew that I could have performed better. I promised myself that the next day I’d do better. Good thing that I was surrounded by friends. I got to enjoy myself the rest of the night anyway. I guess it was just one of those nights.

I haven't written in for a while. Too busy with too many things. I have a lot to say too but I'm mobile right now that I can't really write long. I promise to write in soon and fill you all in.

Ah the long weekend. I totally enjoyed it. Last Sunday my friends and I went up to Tagaytay for the day. Man did I enjoy getting out of town. Granted we just played badminton (that's a mighty long way just to play) it was the company that I was with that made it good. We enjoyed it so much that we had so many side trips, ending in Greenbelt. How's that for being "gala"?

Last Saturday we celebrated the birthday of two of my friends/bandmates, Tito and Jay. It's so weird they both have the same birthdays, live on the same street, are best friends, class mates and have been in practically the same bands. What gives? Cris says Jay and Tito were lovers in their past life. I'll buy that for a dollar.

Anyway, we celebrated their birthday at Vivere suites in Alabang. The two got a suite for the night and invited a bunch of us over for food and drinks (mostly drinks). Good thing they brought stuff. It was supposed to be a potluck but I noticed most people didn't bring anything. Me on the other hand, I brought too much bread. What can I say? I like bread.

As the night progressed, the neighbors began to complain. Kill joys. Must have been all the laughter. I guarantee alcohol and the dvd of "Euro Trip" will elicit that much noise.

I finally bought cymbals for Capone's. I got a low-end set of Paiste (my brand of choice ever since) cymbals without actually hearing them. The only time I did was during the gig last Friday. The band and I were pleasantly surprised. They were brilliant in sound and weren't deafening. I like. It made me play more agressively that night. Totally enjoyed it.

Capone's was more full than usual. The night started off with a jazz duo. This made me a bit worried about the crowd. Luckily they dug us. We've made new "fans". Always feels good. Some of our friends were there too. Glad they could drop by.

I must also mention that it was the celebration of Margie's birthday. Happy birthday!

I was out most of the day today and while going around I couldn't help notice a lot of annoying traits that Filipino's, better yet Manilenos, have. I say Manilenos because I've been around the country and have seen other places that have more disciplined people than here in Manila.

On the MRT do you notice how guys tend to be "asleep" when they get to sit down? They do this mainly to ignore the poor lady standing in front of him. Call me old fashioned but it's rather annoying for these people to play "blind" just to avoid having to give his seat up to a woman. This morning I saw this. The poor lady was also carrying a big bag and had to stand up on a moving train with it. The guy in front of her was conveniently "asleep". But when his stop came he was quick to get up and out.

People still don't know how to wait their turn. Entering a shopping mall where all the inspections happen people line up to get in. Yet there are a few people that cut in front of you just to get ahead. Another thing is some disregard the separation of the women and men search. Just because that's where they're pointed.

Pedestrians crossing are also lousy. They risk life and limb to get to the other side of a road. Making a dash for it with total disregard of the SUV that's about to run him down. Why can't people wait and cross properly. If they're in a group you see that some are able to, yet the others cross haphazardly.

Go to the provinces. It's rare to see people like that. Maybe it's something to do with being in Manila where if "he does it, why shouldn't I?" No wonder our country doesn't shape up.

I stepped out lunch time and took a trip to Bagtican. Over there is a shop called Oishi Mart. You got it. The very same Oishi that makes those bags of chips and crackers. Nice store. The Oishi selection is fantastic. Some cheaper than usual. You can even buy at wholesale prices. I picked up a stash of wasabi flavored ridges and their version of fruit loops (at three bucks a bag). I even ate lunch there since they serve rice meals. I'm probably going back. They have Lavazza coffee for a mere 20 bucks a cup. Cofffee and chips. Sounds like a good combination.

That's what I wish I could do right now. I feel so lethargic. The rain, cold and silence in the office makes me so. Add to the fact that I'm not doing anything.

May the force be with you! Ok. I know. I'm geeking out. I'm sorry. You see I'm a huge Star Wars fan (I have the boxer shorts to prove it). I was able to download off the Net the teaser trailer of the upcoming Episode III. Man am I excited. So many things there that make me wonder "What's happening here? Who's that?" I can't wait till May 19, 2005.

I took the advice of Cris and changed Comment handling duties from Blogger to Haloscan. Hopefully that would fix all the comment problems that others have been experiencing with my blog. A bad side-effect though is I lost all the previous comments. Oh well. The price of progress. Please "Be Frank" with me and leave your comments.

Everyone by now knows about my trouble with my mobile blogging. My having problems sending my blog entries in by email. I haven't checked if it's ok already but I am trying to figure it out.

The dates and times of the posts are also wrong. I'll have to go back and correct them.

Another thing that was brought to my attention is that some friends are having trouble posting comments on my blog. That might explain why I only have very few people leaving them (or I really have nothing worth commenting about). I'll try to get to the bottom of this too. Maybe I'll switch to another solution for the comment portion.

(Thanks Debbie for bringing the comment problem up! I swear it's purely unintentional. I don't choose who gets to leave a comment or not.)

Overtone played at Studio M last night. I must admit I was hesitant of the place. I was really expecting the worst. Luckily my fears were proven wrong and we had a good turn out. Very few of our friends were there and most were new to hearing Overtone. Feedback from them and the management about our show seemed to be good. Hopefully we've turned a few more people on to our sound and they come back. We'll be there next Tuesday again.

We were having fun on stage. Granted a lot of mistakes were made but making fun of those mistakes was a blast. Tito (Norby to those who know him as such) and I were, at one point, doing a "bump-and-grind" dance while playing because our stage seemed set up for it.

Speaking of bump and grind, the Studio M girls did their show in between our sets. I really hope they get paid well in that club. It's obviously "voluntary" exploitation but exploitatioin none the less. I really wonder what they think about their gig.

I'm in a cab right now going back to the office from a client. Tech work was more like pr work since it really wasn't our problem. Gained a new contact though. Traffic sucks. All within Makati.

Don't you hate it when tech doesn't work right? Case in point, e-mail.

I've become so accustomed to being able to send mail from anywhere I am. Thanks largely to my cellphones capabilities. That's how I've been able to blog basically from anywhere. Recently though my mail hasn't been going through. I check on my blog in the morning to find out that I lost what I sent in the previous night. This puts my "blog anywhere, anytime" project in jeopardy.

Time to think up new ways to do this then.

edit: This is one of those posts I did from my phone (see previous topic). It has now "magically" appeared.

Several actually. I've recently been having mobile email problems. That's when I send my blogs by email from my cellphone. For the past few days, I just can't seem to get anything to post. My phone says that I've sent the mail successfully yet, when I check my blog in the morning nothing is there. It's getting frustrating. I've lost so much. Time to find a new way to send stuff in.

I've rechristened this blog to "Frank Being Frank". After all that's what most people know it as. The original name "The Beatbox" is what I used to call my old site. I just decided to carry it over. Since I don't talk much about drums, drumming and music in the blog; I've decided to let it go.

Trivia: "Frank Being Frank" was the name of a column I used to write in the Virtual Asia newsletter.

As an addendum to my last post, I'm now at V Bar (V to V). I can almost imagine seeing an exotic princess here. Paging Cris. I know, I know. Reforming.

You won't believe where I am. Take a guess. Ok, I'll tell you. I'm at Club V. What pray tell am I doing here you ask? Well, it's like this. I'm at a reunion of sorts. My childhood friends, BMX team to be exact (go Zooks!), gets together something like once a year. Tonights that time.

We were looking for someplace with 80's music and ended up here. We were trying to get nostalgic with music you see. Unfortunately the club is in a identity crisis of sorts. You see, we're in the smoking room and it's sandwhiched between two others. One room is playing 80's dance, the other is playing hip-hop. We were hearing both at the same time! Bummer!

I'm just glad the company is good. That in itself makes up for everything else. I missed these guys. We may be working, owning businesses and so on but when we're together everyone becomes a grade schooler again.

Oh! By the way, I think this can be considered drunk blogging too!

I know this is a topic that's far from applicable to me right now but a friend of mine asked me my opinion on it.

She asked "Are you less of a person if you back out of a commitment you made, such as marriage, even if you tried as hard as you can to make it work? Remove the religious aspect of marriage. Take it simply as a contract.”

It's a pretty tough question that I actually paused to think of what to answer. I didn't have a ready opinion on it. As I was thinking, she gave me her opinion.

She said "I don't think that you'd be less of a person for doing that, assuming you really did try everything you could do to make it work. Life is short and you have to make the most of it. Why stay in the commitment just for commitment's sake?"

I agree with it, just not completely. I feel that you would be less of a person simply because you should know what you're getting into right before the commitment. You should decide on entering something as great as a marriage thinking ahead, knowing what might or might not happen. Yes I agree that if after some 20 plus years you become miserable because of being together, you should part. That's fine with me. However, in my opinion, it still does make you less of a person. Now if being less of a person makes you happier, so be it.

This is another of those "anywhere, anytime" blogs. I'm on the MRT right now. I just came from Galleria and am heading back to Makati. I just dropped of the Laptop (fine, notebook) I reviewed at the T3 Magazine office. But that's not important. What is is that I'm on the train baby! Chalk another one up for mobile blogging! Just passed Guadalupe......