The Line Stepper

Day 17-19: Land of Baklas and Tomboys:

2009-06-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

Alex’s mom Luisa is from the province area Bicol and apparently this area is like the San Francisco of the U.S. Alex has 3 uncles here and they all prefer to be called Titas instead of Titos, which are the Tagalog words for Aunts and Uncles. The plane ride was short, but it took 2 and a half hours in a van to get from the airport to the jungle area Luisa is from. Alex’s family here is very nice. This is true of all his family whether they be from San Diego, Manila, or Bicol. I have never met a member of his family that is not overly accommodating. Filipinos are just very nice people I guess. When we got here it was hotter and more humid then Manila so they took us to a local cold, natural spring pool for a swim. The water was great and very refreshing. It was nice to not be itchy from chlorine afterwards. Apparently they don’t get very many tall white tourists here in Bicol though. During our trip to the pool all the kids would stare at me for several seconds as we drove by on the tricycle. We went to a different natural spring pool on our second day and one girl rode by on a motorcycle and I could hear her say, “whoa, Americano.” I can’t help but laugh when this stuff happens. I think I am going to start waving at all the little kids when they stare at me from now on.

Unfortunately we received some bad news when we got back from the pool on our first day. One of Luisa’s best friends past away from a heart attack while we were gone. It was crazy because we had just saw her earlier that morning before we left. She was kind of like a sister to all of Alex’s aunts and uncles here in Bicol. Janine and Bheng had to take care of a lot of the communication from the hospital in Manila because their mom’s are here with us in Bicol. I feel really bad for them because that’s a tough thing for two 17 and 19 year old girls to have to handle. They have done a good job though and we are all flying back to Manila tomorrow, Friday, instead of Monday like we were originally planning. It is going to be sad when we get back to Manila, but we are kind of looking forward to it because we miss hanging out with the cousins already. Even in mourning Alex’s aunts and uncles drink though so like last night I am sure tonight will involve alcohol and Karaoke. For some reason they are dying to hear me sing. I’ve tried telling them that I have a horrible voice, but they don’t care. I think they just want to have fun laughing at the tone deaf white man. I am ok with that though as long as I have a few cocktails first haha.

Day 15-18: More Ice Tea, More Fun

2009-06-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

Boracay is the most beautiful place we have been to so far. Getting on the boat ferry from the airport reminded me of landing in Kona last year when I went to Hawaii for vacation. We spent our first night in Honolulu, but it wasn’t until we flew into Kona that it really felt like Paradise. That’s how I felt when we got to Boracay. It is a big tourist spot with lots of Europeans and Koreans. During the summer and Holy Week (which is equivalent to our Spring Break) it gets crazy like Cancun or Havasu. All shops, restaurants, bars, and discos are right on the beach just steps from the ocean. The beach is separated into 3 sections labeled Boat Station 1, 2, and 3. I am not sure how they differentiate between the boat stations, but I do now that we stayed at the far end of Boat Station 3 and to walk to the far end of Boat Station 1 took about an hour. After our first night there we decided it was best to take tricycles if we were going to the other Boat Stations.

We got into Boracay around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday June 5^th. We had a little bit of a hard time finding our hotel, but it was a nice place just 30 steps from the beach and the price was very affordable. Including our hotel, flight, and boat ferry/tricycle fees from the airport the stay was only $300 U.S. for the two of us and we stayed until Tuesday morning. After checking in we decided to check out the night life a little bit. Unfortunately this time of the year isn’t as busy because it is the start of rainy season, but we still managed to find some good times. We found this little outside round bar covered with a large umbrella top. The bartenders here were funny and spoke pretty good English, but had really funny Filipino accents. They kept saying, “more ice tea, more fun” whenever the servers from the restaurant inside when come out to get iced tea for the customers. The owner of this place was also sitting at one of the outdoor tables with some of his friends drinking. He is a German guy and the bartenders make it their goal to get him really drunk every night so he passes out. It didn’t take long after we got there for the owner to be sitting at a table alone passed out in his chair. This is when Victor and Renaldo (our bartenders) started drinking with us. About an hour after we got there a couple of girls showed up and sat across the bar from us and started having some drinks. I found one of them to be very attractive and I kept catching her looking at me so after I took a trip to the CR (a.k.a. the comfort room, a.k.a. the restroom) I decided to sit down next to her and talk a little bit. Her name was Mharvee and it turns out that her and her friend were on vacation to relax before school starts on June 18^th. Victor was taking tequila shots and I decided it would be a good idea to have a couple with him. After the second one we took he talked our new friends into taking one as well. Needless to say I drank myself under the table on this night. Eventually we left there and walked about 100 feet to club m2o at the Regency hotel. There was a live band and Alex actually enjoyed the music. There’s nothing like a Filipino rock band to make your night complete. Eventually the band finished and they threw on some Hip Hop so we all danced until m2o closed. Before saying goodnight to our new friends (we ended up making 4 new friends this night) we all went in search for a late night meal because that’s just what Alex likes to do when he’s really drunk. Alex ate way too much and it was pushing 5:00 a.m. so we decided it was time to head back to the hotel and get some sleep.

The next day we slept in because we were pretty hung over. Eventually we got up and walked down the beach a little bit until we found this nice little restaurant along the beach. The bar area was just off the beach so we decided to sit here so we could people watch and enjoy the breeze coming off the clear blue ocean water. Boracay is beautiful like I mentioned before and enjoying a beer by the beach was very relaxing. We ate lunch here and decided to check out the beach during the day. After a long walk it was time to go back to the room for a nap. We went back to the bar from the night before and Renaldo was working again so we chatted it up with him for a bit. Then Mharvee and her friend ended up coming to the bar also so we had a couple drinks there and then went to m2o again. Unfortunately Sunday nights are not as crazy as Saturday nights so that place closed down a little earlier. We left Mharvee around 1:30 and headed back to the room. I wasn’t tired yet so I decided to walk outside our hotel down to the beach and enjoy the night. This turned out to be a bad idea because while I was hanging out there I got hit on by a bakla (I think that’s spelled right, but it is the Tagolog word for gay man). I thought it was fishy when he came up to me at 2:30 on the beach when I was chilling by myself, but I figured I would be nice. We had some small talk for a couple minutes, but when he mentioned he was a massage therapist and asked me if I wanted a massage I got up as fast as I could, ran back to the room, and cried in the cold shower. Ok it wasn’t that extreme, but I definitely was a little buzzed and the encounter freaked me out.

On Monday we thought it would be a good idea to do some shopping and get some souvenirs. Boracay is known for their pearls and the Muslim street vendors walk up and down the beach selling them. Similar to how you can buy fake sunglasses in Mexico, which they also have here. The pearls, however, are real, but they are affordable because they are harvested very close by. So we got some pearls as souvenirs and then found a roof top steak house to eat lunch at. The fries and the meat we’re pretty good. Not like they would be at an American steak house, but it was nice to have a meal without rice haha. Then we walked back to the room to chill before going out to dinner. We had not yet walked around D’Mall in Boat Station 2 yet so we decided to do that and find somewhere for dinner. D’Mall is a very busy place and I wish we would have gone there on Sunday also. We found a restaurant owned by an English fellow that was advertising 100% angus beef and a 2 for 1 cocktail happy hour. The waitresses were also beautiful so we easily decided this was where we were going to eat dinner. We spent a couple hours there enjoying dinner and some cocktails and made friends with a couple of the cute waitresses. Before leaving we made plans with them to meet up at a disco in Boat Station 1 later that evening. After getting ready back at the hotel we still had time before we had to meet up with our new friends from the restaurant so we decided to go to the Tree House bar near our hotel. We had dinner here on Sunday night and the same bartender was working again. His name was J.R. and he was a funny guy. We had a couple beers here and chatted with J.R. and some other people drinking at the bar. After that we met up with our friends in Boat Station 1 and enjoyed some drinks, hookah, and dancing with them. It is always nice to have the company of beautiful girls and for some reason that is easier to come by here in the Philippines. In Las Vegas waitresses will rarely jump at the opportunity to hang out with a customer outside of work like these girls did. It was fun, but at midnight we decided it was time to go since we had to leave our hotel at 5 a.m. to catch our flight back to Manila. While we were waiting for a tricycle our friend J.R. walked out of the disco we had just left and talked us into going to the other disco across the street. We said goodnight to the girls we were with and headed across the street even though we knew it probably wasn’t a good idea. After about an hour of hanging out and dancing J.R. left. The place was still pretty busy, but at 1:30 a.m. it was time to go get some sleep. 5:00 a.m. came too fast and we were exhausted the whole next day. When we got back to Manila we spent the day hanging out with K.C., C.J., Janine, and Bheng. We relaxed and watched movies instead of going out since we left for Bicol the next morning.

Days 12-14 The Date

2009-06-12T03:30:00.000-07:00

After our trip to Palawan it was time to relax in Manila with the family for a couple days. We didn’t do much during the day besides go to the mall, but of course we went out at night. This is probably a good time to explain about the family we have been staying with while we’re in Manila. Alex’s mom Louisa owns the house, but her youngest sister Clarissa, her husband Joel, and 3 daughters live there. The three girls are K.C. age 10, C.J. age 13, and Janine age 17. They’re cousin Bheng (her real name is Jiezzele) also hangs out with us a lot. Her mom is also Louisa’s sister and they live down the street from Clarissa in the suburb of Manila called Pacig. These girls have been great with showing us around and hanging out with us. I have so many fun stories about all of them that would just take too long to cover in a blog.

However, one story worth telling here is when I took 3 of the cousins out on a date. Alex has taken a liking to one of Janine’s college classmates and wanted to take her out on a nice date so I decided it would be a good idea to take C.J., Janine, and Bheng on a date the same night. Unfortunately we were going out for drinks afterwards so we could not bring K.C. along. 13 year olds apparently can hang out at the discos in Manila, but 10 year olds can’t. Go figure. I decided to take them to the Hard Rock because that’s one of the nicer restaurants in downtown Manila and they serve American style food, which I was craving. The girls didn’t know what anything on the menu was and they wanted me to order for all of us. They told me to get something I like that they probably have not tried before so I decided that we would all share some fajitas and gourmet mac and cheese.

The meal was great, but the girls didn’t eat much. I guess the tortillas and pasta noodles filled them up fast because Janine said it felt like she just ate 4 cups of rice after one fajita and a scoop of mac and cheese. Of course I should mention that none of the girls weigh over 100 pounds so it doesn’t take them much to get full or tipsy for that matter. I also ordered Bheng and Janine mojitos because I knew they never had them before. Of course Janine got buzzed after just a few sips of hers, which was pretty funny. After dinner the Baja Girls were performing so we had some drinks and watched them perform a couple of sets. They are like a want to be version of the Pussy Cat Dolls, but they’re skills are probably equivalent to Tila Tequila haha. It was pretty funny.

Alex and his date Carmela met up with us at the Hard Rock after their dinner and watched the second set with us and then we decided to go somewhere else where we could dance and have more fun. The night ended a couple hours later after a lot of dancing and a little bit of drinking. We got home around 2:30 a.m. and everyone fell asleep watching a movie. We spent the entire next day just hanging out and sleeping. That was fine with me and Alex because we needed a day off before we left for Boracay the next day.

Day 11: Island Hopping

2009-06-02T03:41:00.000-07:00

Ok everyone, it's official, I got crabs in the Philippines. Just kidding ... kind of. More on that in a little bit though. Today was quite an adventure. All of the begets went island hoping and it was a blast. We were sailing the ocean on a bangka, which I still can't really pronounce in Tagalog, but then again I can't really pronounce anything correctly in Tagalog. It's basically a small sailboat with two outriggers. Our captains name was Gener and he was cool as shit. He even had a beer with me and Alex at one of our stops. The beginning of the trip was smooth sailing and we visited a small island and had lunch. There were a bunch of little huts/bungalows to relax and eat under. After some swimming and snorkeling it was time for lunch and this is where I got crabs. We had a bucket full of 15 rock crabs, a grilled snapper, and a couple other small grilled fish along with some young coconut for dessert. It was delicious and it came included with our island hopping trip, but I was shocked to find out the price when we asked about the crab. Gener said it was 300 pesos, but I'm not sure if that was for the whole meal or just the crab. Either way that is ridiculous for crab and I want more of it haha. After lunch it was time to bury the large white man in the sand. All the girls got a big kick out of this and Alex was nice enough to give me large sand boobies as an added touch.

After the white man escaped from his sand body it was time to go to another island. The second island was a little fancier because one of the local resorts uses it as a place for its guests to go for picnics. It was straight out of a movie with large huts for eating, flags in the sand, and bent palm trees all over the white beaches. Thankfully Gener was with us because he took the girls snorkeling. Alex and I probably didn't have the patience and they had a great time because of Gener so it worked out for everyone. Unfortunately I'm still struggling with a sinus infection so I could not enjoy the snorkeling as much. Every time I dived below five or six feet my head would start pounding because of the compression. The swimming was nice though and after Gener took the girls snorkeling he chilled and had a beer with us guys while the girls stayed by the water and played in the sand.

It was a great, relaxing day, but it was over and time to go back home. The trip back wouldn't be smooth sailing though. Alex decided he wanted to ride on the outrigger and two of the other girls rode on the opposite outrigger to balance out the wait. This was all fine and dandy until the monsoon hit. It was exciting and the girls got a little scared. We had to stop the engine so we could get everyone back on the main hull. Surprisingly enough K.C., the 10 year old, remained pretty calm even though I'm sure she was a little nervous. The storm passed after about 5 minutes and everyone returned to their positions on the outriggers. K.C. even joined Alex on his outrigger. Unfortunately they don't make those things sturdy enough for 230 pound white men to sit on so I could not join in the fun.

Everyone made it home safe and it was a great time and that's all that matters. Tonight is Alex's birthday party and I think we have a big party reserved at a restaurant in Puerto Princesa where we're staying. Apparently there is a bar or two in town that are pretty busy and fun so we should be able to celebrate him getting older in style. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm definitely not looking forward to leaving for the airport at 7:00 a.m. Our flight back to Manila leaves at 10:00 a.m. and the airport is only 5 minutes from where we're staying, but for some reason Alex's family thinks it's necessary to be at the airport 15 hours before take-off haha.

Days 5 - 10: Late Nights and Beautiful Palawan

2009-06-01T01:30:00.000-07:00

It has been a couple days since my last journal, but not a lot has happened. We did a lot of going out at night and a lot of sleeping, eating, and resting during the days. Brandon Lagao, a friend of mine from college, spent the last couple days of his trip with us in Manila. He spent a month traveling the Philippines and it worked out that he could spend some time hanging out with me, Alex, and Alex's family before he left. The first night he was with us we went out with Alex's cousins again and that was fun. Out here we have a lot of money so we can go to all the fancy clubs that play good music. We got some good dancing in, but unfortunately I started feeling like poo poo towards the end of the night. We napped a lot the next day and ate food of course. Breakfast is always ready by 6:30 a.m. and even if we don't get up 'til after 9:00 or 10:00 it will still be waiting for us. The only problem is that no matter what time you eat lunch will be served by noon if not earlier. They don't care if you ate breakfast at 10:00. Like breakfast, lunch will be waiting for you still at 2:30 and that's precisely when we ate haha.

Alex's mom ordered KFC, but none of us were hungry when it got there. Instead we decided to start drinking and singing Karaoke. Finally around 10:00 p.m. we started eating on the KFC. Drinking leads to hunger I guess haha. We were still really tired, but we couldn't let Brandon's last night in the Philippines be boring so we rallied up and got ready. We finally left the house around midnight and headed down to Makati, which is a ritzy area in Manila. It is a huge shopping area with lots of nice stores, restaurants, and clubs. We grabbed a couple drinks at the Hard Rock and I had a real life cheeseburger and fries. It was a welcome delicacy haha. All this Filipino food is delicious, but it doesn't agree with my stomach much. From there we went to this club called Absinthe. I think its because they serve Absinthe there. It was already pretty late and the club was dying down, but they were still playing some good music and had a few people on the dance floor so it was fun. Before we left we made friends with the manager who poured the three of us 2 shots on the house. By the time Absinthe closed it was 3:00 a.m. and I had no idea how I was still awake. Thank goodness for redbull vodka's I guess. After that we went to a restaurant/bar downstairs called Havana. It was a really cool seen because it reminded me of Cheesecake factory style restaurant only smaller with a dance floor, bar, and a few tables inside and lots of tables in the courtyard outside. We met some girls here and they took us to another club that stays open 'til 6:00 a.m. so we decided to go. I don't remember what the place was called because it had a funny name, but it was kind of like an upscale Las Vegas or L.A. type club. Very modern and overdone. It was very expensive too. 4 drinks cost 900 pesos, which is almost 20 U.S. dollars. As you can see I have become accustomed to paying Filipino prices already haha. This place closed at 6:00 a.m. and we hung out in front for a long time trying to catch a cab. We finally took a walk in the rain to a busier intersection so we could find one. It was 7:00 by the time we got home and we were soaked, tired, and laughing our asses off. Of course breakfast was ready so we ate and crashed. Brandon had to leave by 9:00 to go to the airport, but I was so tired that I didn't even hear him leave. It was good times and all I can say is that, "What happens in the Philippines stays in the Philippines."

After yet another day of recovery Alex and I took the begets and some of the forgets out for a little party time. I don't think I'm spelling these words right, but forgets are what you call older people in Tacolog because they forget a lot and begets are what you call younger people. There's an outdoor shopping center in Manila that plays live music and everyone wanted to check it out. We had all the girl cousins with us again plus the young 10 year old K.C. She has to be one of the funniest 10 year olds I have ever met, but that's a whole other story in itself. We also had Alex's Aunt Clarissa, Uncle Joel, and Uncle Pohpoy with us. It was a good time and even the begets got to drink a little (except for K.C. of course). We went through a lot of beers and food between the 9 of us and Alex and I picked up the bill. Its hard to complain about splitting $35 U.S. two ways for that many people and that much fun. The highlight of the night was when the band played Careless Whisper. This song is ridiculous over here right now and I will always laugh when I hear it from now on. There is a big Paris Hilton size sex tape out right now that a famous doctor/actor is in with some stripper or model or something and they're dancing to this song in the video. So when the band starting playing this song the crowd went wild. They eventually got a volunteer to come up and sing and asked for a lady to volunteer to come up and dance with him. Well when the lady got up on stage the crowd quickly discovered that she was a he. It was pretty funny. She, I mean he, was working his dance moves to the song, but it was a little gross when he lifted his shirt in a sexy manner to display his happy trail. I vomited in my mouth a little bit. That may have been from drinking too many beers in the heat though haha.

The next day we left for Palawan and this place is beautiful. Of course we turned on the karaoke machine after dinner and that was going for a couple of hours. These people love their karaoke haha. We got up early this morning and drove into the jungle. This was the first "adventurous" day we've had since being here. The underground river is amazing. We went about 1 kilometer into the cave before turning around. I guess it opens at the other end, but it takes half a day to get through it. The thing is 25 kilometers wrong. It was crazy. After that we had lunch on the beach in Sabang, which is where the pier to get to the underground river is located. After a delicious Filipino lunch we went swimming in the ocean. This was great when it was sunny, but even better when it was raining. We did some body surfing and swimming for an hour or so, but finally had to get out when it started raining a little harder. I definitely slept the entire 2 hour car ride home. Apparently I snored a little, but I think the rest of the family was sleeping also so hopefully not many of them noticed. We're in Palawan until the morning of June 3rd so we still have one more day of adventures. Tomorrow is Alex's birthday so hopefully it is a good time. We are going island hoping during the day and I believe we are renting out a restaurant in the evening for eating and drinking. I hope it is a lot of fun. I know Alex is excited to get to spend his birthday in a special place with his family around.

Days 3 and 4 - Family Time

2009-05-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

So far everything has been great, but we always go out in big groups. And there is no age limit for anything. In fact, I do not know if there are any laws out here period. Driving laws are non-existent. People laugh at me everytimg I get in a car and start to put my seat belt on. It's a force of habit, but I'm starting to get it down now. I don't reach for it anymore. This could be bad when I get back to the states.

We spent a few hours in the Mega Mall and Alex bought some sunglasses, but I didn't find anything worth picking up. Everything is pretty much the same price as it is in the states, but when it comes to shoes they do have some cooler designs that we don't have. The mall was ginormous though. It had 5 stories and we spent 3 or 4 hours just walking around the thing. And they have everything there. You can buy your furniture there, clothes, back to school supplies (which is huge right now, because the kids go back to school on June 10th), cooking supplies, car supplies, etc.

We got home around 6:00 p.m. and it was time for dinner. This was the first meal we did not have home cooked since we've been here. Alex, 4 of his cousins and I all walked down to the local Jollibee and picked up some dinner. We spent 750 pesos for dinner for about 6 people. That is about 15 dollars U.S. You can barely feed two people at McDonalds for that much and Jollibee is pretty much the Pinoy Mickey D's. There are actually a few of them in the states now if you didn't already know this.

After some resting it was time to go out. This time it was Alex and I along with his girl cousins. I am starting to think that Alex doesn't have many girl cousins because when ever we visit his family whether in the Philippines or San Diego we only hang out with female cousins. Not that I'm complaining ... I just find it interesting. Anyway, we we're getting ready to go out, but I was confused why Alex's 13 year old cousin C.J. was getting all dressed up. Apparently the drinking age out here is only 18, but they don't really follow that, especially if you're out with Americans. Of the 4 girls we were out with only one of them was older then 18 and only by a year. His other cousin and her friend are 17 and the youngest is 13 and never once did we have a hard time walking into a place or ordering drinks. Although the 13 year old was the most under control one, but still seemed to be having the best time. The night ended with us getting kicked out of Starbucks at 4 a.m. because they were closing. This is also where we encountered our first females with enlarged Adam's apples. And by that I mean they were men.

For some reason everyone wakes up really early in the Philippines. By really early I'm talking about 5 a.m. That's too ridiculous for me even if I go to sleep before 4:30. This morning was the first time I wanted to punch Alex since we've been here, which isn't bad considering we've been together non-stop for a little over 4 days now. Coffee was a bad decision before coming home after the bars because he would not shut up and let the rest of us sleep. We ended up getting out of bed and eating breakfast around 7:00 and then we all went back to sleep until about 10:00 when we had to get up to drive to Tagaytay. Alex's parents have built a retirement house in a country club out there that's almost done being built. We went to check it out for the day. The area is really nice and the weather is a little cooler since it's up in the hills, but just as humid. Unfortunately there was a ton of traffic so what should have been 2 1/2 - 3 hours total drive time ended up taking us around 6. And today my sinus infection started getting pretty bad, so the drive was absolute hell for me. We slept some during the van ride, but none of it was very good sleep. We got home and I passed out on the couch. I didn't even eat dinner because I felt so poopy. Hopefully I can get some good medicine to clear up all this congestion or I going to be in trouble when we go out. Everyone is so paranoid about swine flu here that if you even sneeze a little bit everyone runs away from you haha. Maybe I can find out a way to use this to my advantage. I will definitely write about it if I do.

Day 2 - The White Giant

2009-05-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

Alex kept telling me that I was going to get a lot of looks when we got to the Philippines, but I didn't fully understand what it would be like until I got here. Before I talk about that though I have to say that Filipinos are some of the most hospitable people I have ever met. Everyone is very friendly and as soon as we got to the house there was a feast waiting for us. The food was great so we ate and spent the rest of the day resting since we were tired from all of the traveling.

After a couple hours we decided that we were just going to stay in for the night, but we went to the mini mall down the street from the house to pick up some adult beverages. As with most Asian cultures, Filipinos love to sing karaoke. After a few cocktails the family talked me into singing some Karaoke. I definitely scored a 69 singing Big Poppa. My rapping skills are better then I thought. We also got massages. We paid 500 pesos including tip and the masseuses came to the house. That's what I call service. And in case you're wondering 500 pesos is equivalent to $500 U.S.

We ended drinking some more after the massages and singing karaoke until about midnight when we finally went to sleep. We also learned a valuable lesson. Don't buy cheap alcohol. Now you would think we would already know this, but cheap alcohol out here is way different then cheap alcohol in the U.S. Alex decided to buy a bottle of whiskey that cost as much as his bag of Tostitos. They were both 150 pesos. Alex quickly learned that if you're whiskey only cost $3 U.S. it is probably going to taste horrible. This is also when I fully understood how much I stand out. While we were at the market down the street from the house we're staying at, which is in a suburb of Manila, I could feel all of the eyes burning a hole in me. I have not seen a white person since we left the airport. Most white people that come here stay in the resorts so they're not used to seeing the whites walk around the local neighborhoods and markets. Especially not white giants like me. This is definitely going to take some getting used to haha.

That's about all that's happened so far. It is around 10:45 a.m. right now and we're watching the Lakers vs. Nuggets game live. I am so glad that Filipino's love basketball. I may even have to find somewhere to hoop it up. Alex has some uncles and cousins that like to play so I'm going to try and get in a pick up game while I'm here. I'll show these short guys how tall white boys can ball.

Filipino Adventures Day 1

2009-05-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

I can't really say the adventures have started since I have spend the past 20 hours in airport terminals or on airplanes, but it has definitely been an experience so far. Before we even started planning this trip I knew the plane ride was going to be pure misery. It wasn't as hellish as I expected, but it was definitely an unpleasant experience. You would think that they would create more space between seats on planes that fly internationally ... you would think. That definitely is not the case and I spent most of the 12 hour flight from L.A. to Korea squirming in my seat. I was able to get a few minutes of shut eye hear and there, but as soon as I found a comfortable position and fall asleep I would wake up 10 or 15 minutes later not so comfortable anymore.

Enough about that though. I was able to watch a couple movies during the flight. Gran Torino was an interesting choice of movies for me to select from considering the population I was surrounded by on the flight. There are so many racial slurs in the movie that I probably would have felt uncomfortable if everyone on the flight was watching the movie at the same time.

We are flying Korean airlines and I encountered greetings from the flight attendants that I am still not sure how I should respond to. They bow at you all the time, but I don't know if I'm supposed to bow back. It feels kind of awkward to me. I don't think bowing is a tradition in Filipino culture so hopefully after our flight to Manila (we are on Korean airlines) we won't encounter anymore bowing haha.

Right now we are sitting at our gate and our flight doesn't leave for another 3 hours. It is 5:00 a.m. here and none of the bars are open. It feels kind of weird wanting a beer this early in the morning, but my internal clock is all jacked up and it would be nice to have one and relax. It would probably help me sleep for a little bit before our flight. These seats aren't the most comfortable things in the world, but they definitely beat be cooped up in a plane.

Mirror Self Portraits

2008-10-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

What's the deal with people taking a pictures of themselves in a mirror and posting them on myspace and facebook? Usually it's chicks in slutty outfits trying to get attention, but I mean seriously, is this really necessary? Are you so desperate to put up a new picture of yourself that you have to rush into your bathroom and snap photos of yourself? Are you really that vain? I understand that you have great abs and a nice figure, but I don't need you to take a million photos of yourself in the mirror to prove it. Photos on myspace and facebook are supposed to be fun and to share with your friends the activities you have been up to in your life. A photo of yourself in the mirror tells me nothing about what you're doing with your life. Honestly, I don't care that you were so bored with your life that you had to take off some clothes and pose in the mirror. These people need to get over themselves.

Gay School

2008-10-10T19:04:00.000-07:00

I saw this article posted in the Chicago Tribune ... take a gander:

Pointing to studies showing that gay high school students are at greater risk of dropping out because of stigma and fear of violence, Chicago Public Schools leaders said Wednesday that they will recommend opening a campus aimed at these students.

Final approval of the School for Social Justice Pride Campus, designed as the city's first school for gay, lesbian and transgender teenagers, along with 17 other schools, is expected to come Oct. 22 when the Board of Education votes.

Schools chief Arne Duncan said he will ask the board to approve the schools, which are expected to open in the fall of 2009 and 2010, to give greater choice to parents and students. "We want to create great new options for communities that have been traditionally undeserved," he said. "If you look at national studies, you see gay and lesbian students with high dropout rates. . . . I think there is a niche there we need to fill."

About 50 people attended a public hearing Wednesday night, with most supporting the school.Supporters said they envision a high school with a maximum of 600 students. It would have the same staffing and oversight requirements as other district schools. Students would be admitted from throughout the city on a lottery basis, officials said. A site has not been chosen.

Chad Weiden, an assistant principal at the Social Justice High School who would be principal at Pride Campus, said the school would incorporate lessons about sexual identity in literature and history classes and offer counseling. The school would be prohibited under state and federal laws from asking about a student's sexual identity, officials said.

A 2003 district survey shows that gay and lesbian youths are three times more likely to miss school because they feel unsafe. On Wednesday, the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network released a national survey of more than 6,000 middle and high school students that found that nearly 90 percent were harassed at school and about 61 percent felt unsafe.

At an earlier public hearing, some gay rights advocates said the school would segregate these students and that the district should work to foster acceptance.

I can't wait to see the headlines when "gay school" wins it's first football game. Is there going to be problems if the quarterback and the center start dating? Is there going to be groping whenever there's a dogpile? I can see controversy all over this one.

Hooters III

2008-10-09T21:35:00.001-07:00

Definitely went back in again this past Monday and she didn't even recognize me. Guess that solves that!

Max Payne

2008-10-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

I can't wait for this movie to come out. It looks sick. Check out the trailer if you haven't seen it yet.

Hooters II

2008-10-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we returned to Hooters to find out if it is really possible for a waitress or bartender to genuinely be interested in an everyday patron. Now obviously if a drop dead good looking rich guy comes in, of course they're going to be interested. The question is whether or not they would be into an average Joe such as myself. Well here's what transpired.

Before we even headed to the bar on Saturday night something happened the night before that must be mentioned. My friend Alex who was with me on the original visit to Hooters when I met this beautiful sports nut of a bartender has a friend who is a bartender at Hooters. It just so happens that on Friday night Alex was out with some friends including Megan who works at Hooters and the subject somehow turned to this particular bartender. Megan said that Patricia had recently dumped her asshole ex-boyfriend and that Alex should tell his friend to hit on her. This leads us to Saturday night.

Alex, his roomie Dave, and I went in after the UNLV game. We sat at the bar and Patricia and Megan both happened to be working. Patricia was closing out her drawer and getting ready to get off, but we still talked for a good while. In fact, Dave and Alex observed that she was talking to me the whole time and barely said a word to anyone else at the bar including them. Not too long after that she got off work and we didn't see her for the rest of the night. Megan came over to us a little later and told us that she told Patricia I was into her. We asked how she responded and all Megan would say is that she smiled. We're guys so of course we don't really know what that means, but she wouldn't give us anything other than that. On our way out Alex said bye to Megan and she told him to tell me that we have to come in again.

So that's where it is. There is still no definitive answer to the question at hand.

The Hit Man Part II

2008-09-25T21:52:00.001-07:00

Now Lil' Wayne is blogging for ESPN the magazine? Are you kidding me? He's taking over the world by making one goofy voiced rhyme after another. The interesting part is that I read his blog and although it wasn't very in depth he actually seems to have an intellectual appreciation for sports. He mostly talked about Football, but surprisingly enough he's into tennis and even had a party at his place to watch the Wimbledon finals. Not to be racist, but how many people out there would have thought a black super star rapper would know and appreciate Rafael Nadal? That's what I thought.

Famous Sunglasses

2008-09-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

This clip on youtube is hilarious. The kid is a total D-Bag, but funny none the less. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWj4gQivR3o

I can't believe how cocky this kid is. Some of my favorite quotes are "I'll apologize, but I won't take off my glasses." why not, "because they're famous." Seriously? Who thinks of this?

I also loved that he told kids they should call him to plan their parties for them when the lady asks what he would tell any kid thinking of throwing a party.

The best of all though was at the very end when the lady tells him he should go away and take a good long, hard look at himself. His response was, "I have ... everyone has ... they love it."

To top it all off this kid has a shirt made in his honor. I couldn't believe it ... take a look:

http://www.bustedtees.com/sunglasses

I'm sure there are some people out there rocking this shirt and totally idolizing this kid. It's really a shame.

Hooters

2008-09-16T19:26:00.001-07:00

Is it ever possible for a waitress or bartender to truly be interested in one of their customers? Are their intentions in conversing with you solely to get a better tip out of you? These are questions I ask my self occasionally and found myself asking again on Saturday night. 95% of the time when I experience a waitress or bartender being friendly or slightly flirtatious I can immediately tell that they're just working me for a better tip. I'm ok with this. They're going to get 15-20% out of me regardless unless for some unforeseen reason they decide to hook it up with a free drink or two. There are those rare occasions, however, where I cannot tell if the flirtatious vibes are authentic or not.

Saturday night was just such an occasion. First of all, we were at Hooters, which automatically tipped off my suspicion radar. These ladies are trained professionals at personalizing their way into your wallet. Anyways, I was sitting at the bar with my friend Alex enjoying some wings and a beer, when the bartender broke down my wall of suspicion in a matter of just a few minutes. A true southern bell in orange shorts stood in front of me recapping all the highlights of college football from the entire day. Needless to say I was infatuated at this point. It wasn't until after we had been there for an hour or so and she had stopped to talk on a number of occasions that I began to wonder "what if". Eventually it was time to go and of course I was too big of a pansy to ask for her number, but in hind sight the effort would have more than likely been futile.

Maybe she was just trying to up her tip by talking to me. Maybe we were the least creepy guys at the bar. Maybe I had some funny things to say and it livened up her night about. But could there have been a small chance that she was actually interested? When do you know? How can you tell? These are answers I need. If not to go back and talk to Patricia, at least for future reference when this rare occasion might happen again.

The Hit Man

2008-09-03T22:31:00.001-07:00

Lil Wayne is the man. I know he's been on the charts with his past couple of albums, but honestly, did anyone see this coming? I remember when he first came out with The Hot Boys when Juvenile was the man at Cash Money Records. Juvenile's not even with Cash money anymore. Wayne was pretty clever with his voice affects in his rhymes, but I never thought that teenager would turn into the star he is today. The guy has topped the charts for a while now and his record sales for The Carter III are ridiculous. I mean he's selling records at a pace that hasn't been seen since The Slim Shady LP. And considering how easy it is to download music for free now that's pretty impressive.

I actually think it's pretty sad though. There are so many artists out there struggling to make it that probably have more talent than this guy. I'm no music genius, but it seems pretty absurd that someone who can fluctuate their voice in some cool ways while they're rapping can sell more records then someone with amazing vocals that actually plays instruments. Now Lil Wayne probably has great talent when it comes to producing and mixing sound affects with base lines and what not, but could he get on a guitar or piano? My guess is no.

Don't get me wrong, I like Lil Wayne and his songs are cool, but I just don't see how he can have one of the top selling albums in recent American history. Is this a reflection of music appreciation in our country? The only music class I ever had to take was once a week for a year or two in elementary school. Now I know not everyone can be a musician. I can attest to this first hand, but shouldn't everyone be taught how to appreciate music and recognize when an artist has just done something incredible with an instrument? I think so. I'm not trying to say that rapping isn't music because it is. It takes a lot of talent to come up with a rhyme and match it to a beat as well as make it relevant to the audience. But society's dominant appreciation for Lil Wayne (or rap in general for that matter) over all other types of music reflects a laziness. It is a lot easier to bob your head to a catchy beat and laugh at some clever lyrics than it is to appreciate a difficult guitar riff. One must have a knowledge of the difficulty it takes to be a talented guitarist to appreciate something like that.

What's the point of all this? I don't even know. All I know is that I was in shock when I heard Lil Wayne's album was selling at a pace not seen since the Slim Shady LP dropped. I didn't see that one coming at all.