the beautiful queen nefertiti's mummy has not been found yet all these years. perhaps she is among the undead who still roams this realm and watches you from among the shadows. will you become her next victim?

the magical kingdom of captialism

not exactly a place i’d wish upon a star just so i can go. wouldn’t even put it in my list of places to see before i die. well now that i’ve been to one i can see i don’t need to see the rest of it anywhere around the world for the rest of my life, unless my [future] kids wanted to. you’ve already paid up a lot of money to get in, later you’ll end up paying up much more for expensive disney merchandize, if you’re that weak-willed.

the space mountain and the jungle river cruise are the only rides i could say i appreciated. the theatre shows were good too, until mickey and minnie started speaking cantonese (or maybe mandarin). that’s when it all got weird. the morning started out real cold, and then it started to rain right after lunch which got me from cold to freezing. i was miserable from then on and was wondering what were all these grown-ups, with no kids in tow, finding so facinating about this place. because they’re the young at heart? bollocks. i can pull out the inner child in me for far better occasions and far less money. i’d pick the enchanted kingdom several times over the magical kingdom anytime. even if the former is a copycat somewhat of the latter. in hindsight, maybe i should’ve had taken the HK architecture tour instead, or bought me a few pairs of booties.

i had one momentary consolation tho.. i loved the nai cha from the bakery. it helped thaw my cold spirits and my frozen fingers. eventually, it also made me think of the fine chinese black teas i could have bought instead.

See more progress on: Hong Kong Disneyland

a good hearty laugh is like falling in love in this singular manner:

when it hits you right, you just have to give into it and let it all out till it leaves you breathless.

we've been burglarized yesterday. here at our home, south of the city, sometime in the late afternoon towards the late evening. my mom lost a considerable amount of money (to spend for our year-end party) and some jewelry. all the spare keys to all our vehicles are missing. the scaled-model evo 7 which i gave my brother MJ for his birthday last year was also taken, my brother CJ lost all of his eyewear, my US-based aunt's costume jewelry which dates back from the 60's are gone, and lastly my dad lost his magic-sing karaoke microphone. so far i've not lost anything. nothing else is missing, fortunately (which i hope, remains that way). my 2 old canon film cameras were not stolen. the desktop computer, printer, the video players, they're still here.

last night, even if my body was tired and wanted to sleep, but my mind was racing from the anxiety of this incident, and i was actually up until about 03h00. in the 28 years we've lived here, we've always believed that these four walls we call our home was impenetrable. then this one incident will change things overnight. literally.

my mom heard from the neighbors that they think they saw a heavily tinted white car parked outside our house yesterday, and a taxi cab sometime last tuesday. our van usually parks outside on the street, but when my parents are out to work, our neighbor's van takes its place. on her return from grocery shopping last tuesday she noticed the cab parked there but doesn't seem to have any business being there. she actually asked to move. yesterday, another neighbor who just came home from work saw a man in the garage, starting up one of my brother's bikes. Since both bikes were there, the neighbor thought that my bro was already home and had a guest with him. CJ had a planned visit to some broadcasting company yesterday to checkout a casting call for martial artists, and decided not to bring a bike because it would be difficult for him to bring his costume and jianshu sword all the way out to QC on one.

these crooks seems to be pros who know how to scheme and pick out a target. who or what tipped them off? are they neighbors, former employees who were fired for stealing, the guy who sold us the property in silang (whom i heard squandered his family's money that was made from the sale), tricycle drivers who come in and out of the village, or people who just really scope out targets for a living? crimes of theft go up with the coming of the holidays. with the recent news of car theft on tv, we've all been a bit cautious about driving out on late nights. little did we know that we'd be targets in our own home. for us it doesn't stop there, because of the theft of our spare vehicle keys, all of our rides can be targets at any time of the day. it's upsetting, really. whilst house locks can all be easily replaced, for car locks and security systems it's going to be a little more difficult and costly. the keyless entry units will have to be replaced, for one. for CJ's bike #1, both primary and spare keys were stolen, so now we have no key at all for it. if i may play hero in my head, am really going to beat the lights out of these lowlife beings once i get my hands on them, but it is always best to leave this things to the authorities. the barangay and municipal cops have been notified, btw. no sophisticated crime scene investigation going on tho. it's disheartening. right now we can only wait, wonder, and be vigilant.

i want to go to my regular wushu practice this afternoon, but i don't know if i should take my car. i could take the public transport, but am worried about leaving my personal and office computing devices at home. sure, no criminal will go back to the scene of the crime that soon, but who knows? i could just stay put, but with that last thought, maybe i shouldn't. i am in much confusion and i do really want to leave. to escape.

darn it. darn them all.

La Luz

La Luz
Originally uploaded by snaphappy.

this is how i chose to spend my birthday. at la luz resort in san juan, batangas. far away from everyone, from the busy city, traffic jams, and deadlines. i've managed to reallocate 3 unused leave days from last year into this year. luckily my boss agreed not to have HR forfeit them.

i missed out on spending summer at the beach last year, so here i am starting early this year.