a few hundred dollars poorer but i'm here.

where? i'm in the living room with my laptop, running on batteries and with no network connection. actually, no cables that is. i'm blogging wirelessly from my funky laptop. i'm chatting with friends and i'm watching mission impossible 2. i had a few problems getting everything to work but nothing you can't throw money at. err, credit at i mean.

lovely, i feel so manager-like. what? what do you mean we're having a bottle neck? just buy a few more servers and everything will be all good. budget-cuts budget-smuts.

it's a 4 day long weekend here baby!

you'd think that i'm out partying it up pretty hard since it's a long weekend and it's been a while since i've had a break to myself. last night i went to fubar, spent the night at cedric's house and now i'm back home. what am i doing? redesigning websites, doing my accounting, cleaning up my room, installing things on my handheld and fixing my car. great! working on a long weekend.

so it's ank's birthday today!

one of the fond memories that i have of ank is driving home from the club during new years. we had just sat through a few hours of booty shaking, hoochie wearing, playa wannabe cool people wannabes in sonar. we all had a little to drink, but not as much as ank because everyone just kept buying him beers. well anyway, we were in the car and it was one of those awkward silences with my car cd player blaring out mary j blige. out of no where ank says, "mary j blige is the freaking best! she makes up her own words to make songs work. who the hell comes up with: hateration, holleratin' in this dancerie? man she's a genius!"

happy birthday ank!

heres to more cigarettes, booze and fun times.

i have the worst habits in the world.

i crack my knuckles, my back, my knees and my neck constantly. i'm sure that i will be suffering from arthritis by the time i'm 35 years old. i smoke and since my mom reads my weblog, that is all i'm saying about that. i'm filipino so i love gossip. gossip is in the filipino blood, just look at sfc. i have a gadget addiction to the latest and greatest. why do you think i have an ipaq, a laptop, an mp3 player and a digital camera? my sleeping habits aren't the best either. last night i slept at 5pm, woke up at 1, bummed around for 2 hours and tried to sleep again. i woke up this morning at 7am. sleep isn't my friend. i love to drink. water that is. have you seen my water bottles on my work desk? yea, i have at least 10+ bottles here. needless to say that i spend a good amount of time peeing it all out throughout the day.

bah! yea i know boring blog entry. but for your personal enjoyment, here's my cubicle neighbor tracy. she's in a video on how to make marzipan. you know those figurines on top of a wedding cake that looks edible but they're not... well maybe they are... i think.

oh god, i have crazy friends. i officially have proof of it.

it always hurts the next day. it was pretty icy last night up in the mountain. karma was not on our side either. i should've listened to karma and just cancelled going up. did i listen? no! the obsession took me over and karma got beat down. events that happened yesterday that said: "just go home ritchie. your body needs rest"

• john was an hour late when i came to get him, ended up talking to his sister sarah about semi-depressing sfc.
• we had no cigarettes. so we walked around a closed mall for 15 minutes looking for somewhere to buy. nothing. asked a few teenagers who asked how old we were and looked surprised when i responded 24. walked 15 minutes to the bowling alley accross the parking lot. nothing. tried to cross the street to get to london drugs, blocked by a fence. stood in the middle of the road for 5 minutes before deciding that the fence was too high to jump over. eventually decided to take the car to london drugs. ahhh nicotine goodness. the whole ordeal made us late in meeting benjie.
• benjie locks his keys in his brothers car. we waited for bcaa for about 20 minutes. it's already 6:30pm at this point and the mountain closes at 10:30pm. it was 7:30pm when we started making our way up.
• it was icy up there. which means that: (1) to slow down you have to turn. (2) you have to dig your edges in to turn. (3) it was hard to dig your edges in. which only meant that it was harder to slow down.
• the winds blowing downhill combined with your extra big jacket turns you into a really really fast snowboarder on a sail. stopping was even harder than slowing down.
• ritchie falls on his tail bone. was it attempting a 180 fakie tricky super jump to rival ssx tricky? nope. getting off the chair lift. he also managed to hurt the following body parts in the process: wrist and ankle. great!
• allergies were flaring! this means that i was sneezing ever 2 minutes seconds. sneezing is not good when you're trying to keep your balance on a board flying down a mountain. not good! did i say that it wasn't good? it's not good.
• gluttony at all-you-can-eat-sushi is supposed to make it better right? nope. 30 minutes of binge eating because it's last call and the waiter looks like he's eventually going spit on your food because you made him late for the jerry springer re-run. of course, john and i are walking japanese food compactors. 15 orders of everything please. my stomach still hurts.

yes folks, i should've listened to my karma last night. i should've just stayed in my bed and read a book or something.

responsibility sucks sometimes.

last night was my last night of school, which only means 1 thing. final exam! the exam took 3 hours to write because everything was handwritten. yes folks, 25 questions combination multiple choice, short answer and essay type questions all to be written in a college style exam booklet. my hand started hurting after the 5th page of writing. sometimes i wonder what it is about school that i miss. it's definitely not the exam writing.

nevertheless, i'm free. long weekends are coming up and i intend to use them fully.

sorry kiddies, busy day today. finals and other misc stupid things. i didn't forget about you though. for your viewing pleasure, a new day in the life of ritchie (a photo journal). don't forget to visit these other great photo sites.

• the blue hoodie!
• suejon

cause they can take better pictures than i can anyday!

an overprotective mom is good sometimes. sometimes!

(scene: 2am, ritchie's bedroom)

i'm sleeping but i get woken up because i hear footsteps running down the stairs. mom comes storming into my bedroom and stands beside my bed.

me:*completely startled* whats wrong? whats wrong? is the house on fire? burglar?
my overprotective mom: are you ok anak? you didn't come upstairs to say you were here, i got worried!
me: oh, i'm ok mom. i was just tired so i went stright to bed.
(she then proceeds to feel my arms for broken bones and starts bending my legs to see if anything is unlodged or dislocated)
me: mom! what the heck are you doing?
m o m: are you sure nuting is broken? how is yur arm? are you sure i don't need to rush you to the emergency room?

...

(scene: during breakfast this morning)
m o m: reeetchieee! anak, did you go snowboarding last night again?
me: yes, mom.
m o m: ay naku! don't go by yurselp!
me: i go by myself sometimes, why?
m o m: diyos miyo! don't you red the newsfapor? a snowboarder died because he was by himselp!
(at this point, i've already tuned myself out)
m o m: hoi! are you listening to me?
me: yea mom, you know i would never be alone if i had one of those talkabout walkie talkies, cause everyone carries one when we go up.

(then my dad and i spend the next 20 minutes trying to explain to her that a talkabout is because my dad starts telling a story about how he went tobogganing, fell off, got lost for 45 minutes, came back and everyone clapped cause he was ok)

m o m: ok dats gud, go get one den.
me: but i have no more money.
(2 minute silence)
m o m: ok meet me later! lets go git wun.

i love my mom! yes i do exaggerate my mom's accent, its just soo much funnier that way.

i missed my 2 year blog anniversary.

it would've been 2 years yesterday. the funny thing is that my first ever post in my blog i said that i wouldn't promise to update regularly. who would've known that this blog would turn 2 years of "almost daily" updates?

i really don't know what to write for a 2 year anniversary, so i'm turning it into a free for all. if you ask a question on the comments link, i'll try and answer as well as i can. let's keep it clean though (get your mind out of the gutter, dave!) and i'm sure fun will be had by all. hows that for some organized fun?

i'll be falling down the mountain when i come. or something like that.

who ever thought about taking a piece of wood, strapping it to your feet and sliding (hopefully, gracefully) down the side of a mountain should be committed. the idea is just plain ole' crazy! i've been quite addicted to snowboarding this year. i'm not sure what exactly is the appeal, but its soo peaceful when you're flying down a run and you're carving and zigzagging. then you fall flat on your face and make a big huge snow explosion and before you know it you're eating snow.

a monster i tell you! you guys created a monster!

6 2 degrees of separation: a close friend of mine is classmates with her right now. another close friend of mine was classmates with her back in the philippines. what a small world it is huh?

today is experiment day at macapinlac.com where we conduct embarrasing social experiments on our co-workers.

a few months ago, we bought a case of diet coke. today there are 3 cans of coke left. we will put the 3 cans of coke in the shared refrigerator and take bets on how long before the 3 cans "disappear" magically. dan says that the cans will "disappear" thursday afternoon. i, on the other hand, being the completely jaded individual that i am put my money on friday morning. dave being the optimistic person that he is took monday morning.

we're taking bets! the winner gets an authentic icbc earthquake survival pack, which i will ship out to! don't forget to leave your email address when you put your bets on the comments.

impulsive! i'm known to be very impulsive.

when i see something i usually go for it. i don't usually think before i swipe that credit card, sometimes i do but most times i don't. theres something coming up though. it feels soo much like an impulse thing. it fits into my year plan, but i just have to force myself to think it through. of course, my instincts tell me to just jump on it but the last time i jumped on an opportunity like this, i was scraping bottom for a few months. it wasn't a pretty picture.

i have plans! i have many plans this year, all will be fulfilled. trust me, i'm determined.

yes folks my personal hell hath frozen over.

it has been snowing non-stop since 8am this morning. the people at the weather ouijie board station has predicted that we're getting 5cm of snow for today. i already see snow covered rooftops and old people slipping on their walkers outside my work window. if this keeps up; i'm going to run up to cypress and snowboard with my cubicle partition wall (yes, you've all created a snowboarding monster).

maybe they'll send me home early. maybe school will get cancelled. maybe my worn out tires won't cause me to get into a 15 car pile up tonight. maybe someone's flight will get moved. maybe work will send me snowboarding and pay me for it. maybe i'll just get to stay under my blanket tonight and just be warm and toasty. maybe i'll get to watch a dvd with someone while i'm warm and toasty (eww, ok that was sick).

i have joined the ranks of the "sooped" up!

it's not my car, although a few people would argue that my car is sooped up even if it's an automatic. it's not my car. i've fixed up my phone to the point of no recognition. let me explain why i did it (not that i could justify it anyway).

i ran over my phone. yes, with my car. it fell from my pocket and i backed over it. good thing it still worked. it rattled and it would turn itself off sometimes when it rang but it still worked. no cracked screen or anything. a few weeks later my power button fell off. i'd have to use my keys to turn it on and off through the little hole where the power button used to be. the only solution was to get a new case for my phone. hopefully the dealer where i get the new case fixes whats rattling inside, and the new case has a new power button.

through the miracle of shopping (and dragging everyone through metrotown twice). i managed to pick a new phone case: matrix style with the sliding door and everything. the dealer was kind enough to fix the loose screw that was making the rattling sound as well. there was a mean kid who was running one of those cellphone kiosks who was going to charge me 3 dollars per screw, screw that! i went with the nice man who gave me the screws and good service for cheaper.

i opted out of the flashing and blinking christmas lights though (to the relief of some of my friends).

yes folks, ritchie just got suckered.

so belle started a blog a year ago today. guess who coaxed her into starting one? yes sir that's right. so a year later, guess who gets coaxed into redesigning her whole website? right, me again.

so go to her website and tell me that i did a good job. if it doesn't work in opera blame ernie it's his css code that i stole.

isn't there something completely creepy with babies in flower pots?

i'm sure you all know what i'm talking about. world renowned baby photographer anne geddes and her creepy baby pictures. she's got a great eye, don't get me wrong. she does have talent but...

you must have some sort of twisted mind to photograph little kids in flower pots and cabbage costumes. who in their right mind walks around in a gardening store and thinks "hey, lets put some premature babies into those pots and take pictures of them sleeping!" or "look! it's a beautiful bed of roses. lets put someones kid in there and watch him develop severe allergies to flowers!"

whenever i walk by poster world, they always have a tadpole kid picture up there. it always gives me shivers. take some picture of some landscape or something.

ps. tonight (well, maybe tomorrow) there will be website updates. there will be sections updated and new sites put up. yes, i'm quite the computer geek.

i need a new alarm clock.

my alarm clock doesn't have the ability to wake me up anymore. it's set on the loudest it could possibly be and i still manage to switch it off and go back to sleep even in a half awake state.

let me describe to you my perfect alarm clock. it would have a HUGE clock display and also it needs to play cds. it would have a blowhorn and a large subwoofer for the alarm sound. the alarm noise itself would be a combination radio, cd and blowhorn. the control panel would be touch screen to control the time, radio and the alarm settings. once the alarm starts in the morning, the snooze button would be on some randomizer and change locations on the touch screen every so often. the off switch would disappear and there wouldn't be a way to turn it off other than to press a button located on the other side of the room. there would be no nature noises or incremental bird chirps because thats only for panzy light sleepers. the alarm clock has to be heard over my snoring!

my short term solution was to snap off the off button and unwire the snooze. although i think throwing and cursing at the alarm clock for 15 minutes this morning didn't help its current broken state either. i hate that alarm clock.

if anyone has heard of a good alarm clock. please let me know.

we're all bitter scavegers here.

so it's on surprise that our beloved work team has been slowly degrading. the latest tragedy? bonnie, who took the early retirement has got to be the biggest hit on our team so far. we're all happy for her and wish her all the best.

bonnie's old desk is prime real-estate. it's nice, big and right by the window. the only disadvantage is the plant that sits right beside her, which sucks for allergy suffering people like me. a few people have laid claim to the property but no one has gotten to it. although a few people have already been circling like vultures. this morning i look over and i see that her stash of pens have been taken and her nice ergonomic foot rest has been "transferred" to the cubicle over. her books aren't even there anymore. vultures i tell you! vultures!

in other news, i'm silently boycotting the monthly organized fun birthday cake celebration this afternoon. i will glare the evil eye while i bitterly consume my slice from 1/3 of a chocolate mousse cake. i've never taken well to sharing anything, let alone a birthday month or cake. organized fun, yay!

i've been soo busy the past few days.

the urge to go snowboarding has become a monster to control. work has turned into a crazy ball of chaos. i got beat down by my friends last night. birthday traditions can be painful, really they can.

i was planning an entry about timesheets and filling out forms at work. it was going to be funny but you'll just have to take my word for it. instead, i bring you an article about jollibee in the philippines. they have pretty funny description of the food (which mj says is based on a dare).

Filipinos tend to cook meat with stunning amounts of sugar and salt, and to soak it in bagoong, a sort of brine. But no matter how poor, they like to splash out every so often on fast food. And then they like burgers that are sweet and juicy, spaghetti that is saccharine and topped with hot dogs (no Italian would recognise it), beef with honey and rice, and, for dessert, variations on the mango theme....

it also talks about how mcdonalds and burger king are being blown away by the chicken joy. chicken joy and that thick clog-my-arteries-in-less-than-15-seconds gravy rocks my world!

the big 2-4? really? i'm 24 years old today?

could you believe that i've been on this planet for 24 years? since i'm at work today, and tonight i'm in school you might be wondering what i've been doing to celebrate. well besides dinner festivities tonight with a few close friends and family, i went to whistler this weekend and boarded my heart out. i'm not sure if anyone saw me but i was the person with the matching snowboarding outfit tumbling down the mountain. i still had fun though. sometimes its not the actual activity but the people you're with.

<sap entry> my phone has been ringing off the hook since last night. i love all of my friends and family. where would i be without them? i also got 2 cool surprises this morning. i got a gift and a card with a nice little message from person x and my mom got a bit too excited at her "my son, my love" turning 24. special cause it comes from the 2 girls in my life.</sap entry>

also happy birthday to everyone who celebrates this day with me. ninong (thanks a lot for everything), sarah and kate. who says cool people aren't born on this day? look at us!

our mood lighting for this house comes from the radiance of computer monitors.

my friends and family are at some church concert tonight. i'm not there because there are people there that i don't care to see.

this left me with a nice quiet house and time to relax with a video and a book. although, as i cook myself dinner i noticed something. the dining room with the lights turned off has a certain glow because of my dad's laptop. i walk to the bathroom and my mom's room is illuminated by her laptop which has the lines screensaver running. i get the video downstairs in my room and i see my computer with the fish screensaver creating a certain mood in my bedroom. i walk into the upstairs living room and i notice the romantic mood created by the glow of the video capture computer's monitor sitting beside the television.

i really wished i noticed it more but monitors can really establish a romatic ambiance to a house. or it could just be the geek in me.

cafeteria food can be hazardous to your health.

i think that the cafeteria staff has lost their zeal for serving. there were times when i've waited by the counter, waving my 5 dollar bill to pay for my overpriced muffin, for 5 minutes while the cashier gossiped on the phone. when i actually caught her attention she gave me the "why the hell are you bothering me" look of death for disturbing her conversation.

i'd probably take the poor service if the food was good, but it isn't. oh trust me it isn't. i'm not a picky eater. i've long outgrown the days where i would selectively pick at my food because the stew had peas and carrots mixed into it. i usually eat anything and everything but when your soup consists of water and dehydrated vegetables. that's where i draw the line. actually, when the burger is undercooked and the fish is still moving or when your corn meal muffin is greasier than a mcdonalds burger, thats when i draw the line.

p.s. i've gone over to the dark side. i've decided to sell some junk on ebay. just a little bit of a test run though, don't want to start selling my soul there just yet. so here it is boys and girls: a beautiful 16MB Secure Digital SD Card for your Palm 500 or 505.

i'm not mentally awake today.

i did manage to get more than my fair share of sleep last night but i'm still a bit drowsy today. i think it's because i'm slowly becoming dependent on caffine and/or caffinated products. that isn't a good thing.

yesterday, i was quite the work horse. in the morning, i took a redbull and that kept me awake for most of the day. i worked non-stop all the way until the afternoon. after lunch i had a large cup of coffee and a small dose of nicotine and i managed to work for the rest of the afternoon. after work, i worked out, did some shopping, ate dinner with my family, accompany my friend to dinner and do more work for dave and other little projects. i was pretty pooped by the time i went to sleep.

today, i told myself: no cigarettes or caffeine. so i currently feel like biting my tongue and/or grind my teeth to nubbins while i slowly nod in and out of reality. it's a beautiful sight just trying to watch me keep a calm and friendly demeanor here at work.

i'm getting ready for a 2 year anniversary.

can you believe that this weblog has been in existence for almost 2 years now? it seems cliche to say but, it seems like only yesterday that i was coming back from sxsw and celebrating the 1 year anniversary of this site. it's been a long time.

there are plans and work in progress for a redesign, resurrecting sections and revamping other areas. not an easy task when there are many other projects to be worked on. i love this site, 2 years is a long time. longer than most of my real life personal relationships (and what does that say about me?).

so as most of you know i'm in edmonton. so i thought i'd write about things that i've been doing or planning to do in edmonton, alberta.

• watch in facination as your spit freezes before it hits the ground in the negative 20 degree weather
• stand in line for a club outside in said weather only to get denied by a power tripping bouncer
• take pictures in west edmonton mall with bronze statues, and pretending to pee with the fountains
• go to a club called the juice, where cover is 5 dollars (canadian, and no tax) and beer is less than $5 dollars
• watch in facination as your best friend completely makes a fool of himself on the dance floor, knowing full well that he hasn't had anything to drink
• eat out after the club thinking that it's only 2:30am and eat for an hour then figure out that it's already 4:00am because the clocks are 1 hour advanced to vancouver
• marvel at your best friends room and wonder one of the following things: why does he have a britney spears poster on his wall? why does he have a complete collection of pokemon cards? why does he have multiple sailor moon posters on his wall? or why he has a scary amount of troll teletubbies dolls hanging around here? yes folks, he's 25 years old and getting married in june (and he doesn't read this site he just did)
• yea, shopping tomorrow!

so there you go. things that i've been doing here. and no i didn't stand jodee up, dood needs a cell phone or something.

ritchie's geekiness comes out yet again...

we're in the hotel room in the holidays. ernie is telling the story about how he was studying for some programming concepts test. he turns on the radio and he hears that "back at one" song by brian mcknight. so he starts explaining how the whole song is a recursive pattern. cause look at the lyrics:

one, you make my dream come true
two, just wanna be with you
three, girl it's plain to see... that you're the only one for me
and four, repeat steps 1-2-3....

everyone laughs and a fun time was had by all. so recursive pattern right? well fast-forward a few weeks later. the scene is in dave's house, dave and i are having our coding session for our contract job. desparately trying to finish the job before belle gets there with the ps2 (cause then we're not going to get any work done). so we're talking and the recursive joke story comes up and we both start laughing, that is until my true geeknoid nature comes out.

it's not quite a recursive pattern. it's actually a simple loop similar to the old "goto" statement of qbasic. yea, i think about these things when i'm alone, someone save me.