This Boy's Life

I Want...



I SO want these books right now!!!

I was in Greenbelt III recently and I got overexcited when I saw Tom Ford's book at one of the bookstores. I hurriedly went in to ask how much the book was.

"P6,000," the saleslady nonchalantly replied.

The other book I went to look for at Power Plant Mall. I asked if they still have copies of the book.

"Sir, it's already out of stock," the saleslady sadly told me.

Sigh.

Only Gay Men Will Think of This...

Hunski and I met up with Lover Bunnies Richie and Suki at the Power Plant Mall. I wasn't expecting the mall to be crowded because people should have been done with Christmas shopping already. I was wrong.

Power Plant felt like being in Glorietta a day before Christmas. Anyway, it's a good thing we didn't stay there for long. We just went to Fully Booked to look for any good titles. Too bad Confessions of an Heiress was already out of stock. And I'm curious to see Philip Cruz's book, POP! If anyone knows where I can buy it, leave me a note please.

After we left Power Plant, we were thinking of what to do and where to go. Initially, the boys wanted to play mahjong but they don't have quorum because I wasn't really up for it. Hehe! Am I being difficult? While we were busy ordering dinner, Hunski suddenly had a great idea on what we could all do.

"Fondue!!!"

We all got excited, especially Richie (according to Suk), who couldn't wait to get home to get the fondue set. Suki called up our other lesbian couple friends, Abi and Chari, to ask if we can crash into their place. As soon as they said yes, Richie and Suki went off to get the fondue set and some chocolates. Hunski and I bought some fruits.

The minute we entered Abi and Chari's place, we started rearranging their lives. Hahaha! We began clearing the table, washing the dishes at the sink, bringing out a pot to melt the chocolate, getting knives to slice the fruits. Haha! Chari and Abi must have probably felt that they were invaded by the Fab 5.

It was really great though.

Richie and Suki set up the fondue set. Hunski and I sliced the fruits. And Chari prepared this wonderful salad of tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and tomato pesto. Abi brought out some white wine to go with our fondue and salad.

What can I say but "Lovely!" (in an English accent, please).

While enjoying our salad and fondue, we played Scattergories and Dirty Minds.

After going through several fun rounds of the games, we called it a night by midnight. It was such a fun night. I wish we have more of these lounging around get-togethers.

I swear only gay men will think of such a get-together of fondue, tomato salad and white wine.

A Little Disappointed...

Every Christmas, my family and I always go to my Grandfather's house to have a reunion with my Mom's siblings and their families. The annual reunion is always a pleasant one, minus the occasions when I've been thrown the perennial question "When are you going to bring your girlfriend?". This annual gathering is enjoyable for me because I get to see my cousins and we all get to catch up on what's been happening with each other's lives.

Aside from this, the selection of mouthwatering dishes is just overflowing. My Mom's family traces its roots from the province of Pampanga in Central Luzon. As most Filipinos would know, Kapampangans (the people of Pampanga) are prominent for being fantastic cooks. (Now you need not blame my love for cooking and baking on my orientation. Haha!) So it is always a joy for any foodlover to be present at a family gathering of Kapampangans. This year, our menu was pasta with three kinds of sauces (two of which, I prepared), steamed rice, tilapia in coconut milk, shrimps, roast chicken, leche flan, fruit salad and fresh fruits.

In addition to the great food and the great conversations, one of our annual traditions is to all watch a movie at the living room, or play bingo. This year, it was the former. When I was a little boy, we would annually watch The Ten Commandments. A couple of years later, it was the Sound of Music. Hmmm, come to think of it, could it be possible that my exposure as a young child to a half-naked Yul Brynner and a belting Julie Andrews for several years be a reason why I turned out to be queer? Haha!

This year, the family decided to shelve the two sacred movies and opted to watch something more contemporary.

Lovers in Paris.

Yes, for about eight hours, our eyes were all glued onto the television sets following the lives of Vivian, Carlo and Martin. Since most of us watch the series, we already began with disc 13. (There were 20 discs in all.) Some of my aunts were already insisting on playing the last disc so we would know what the ending is but my cousin Marian and I also insisted to finish the entire thing.

At the end of the last disc, I was kicking myself for not agreeing with the decisions of my aunts. Did I now like the ending of the series? No, not really. I also didn't like how the flow of the story went as it progressed. Things just became overly dramatic and I just found it to be a little dragging. Does this mean I don't like the show anymore? Well, I'm not going to hurry home every night to catch it, that's for sure. But I think I still like the first half of the entire series. I still would want to watch the mushiness, the blossoming of love, the sweetness and the humor of the main characters.

But I'm a little disappointed though. How can you do this to me, Park Shin-Yang?

Merry Christmas, Friends!


Image Via B-Gay.net

Merry Christmas to Everyone! Hope you all have a good one!

With the Gang...


Beautiful Men: Steve, Hunski, Me, Richie, Suki and Jigs

I really have nothing to post right now.

Actually, I do have several things in mind but with the baking and the other million things to be done before the holiday break, I don't have the time to sit down and compose my thoughts.

So let me just share some photos of one of the gang's night-outs. Thanks to Jigs for the pics.

Enjoy.

Bake and Bake and Bake...

We got a lot of orders for baked goods this Christmas. It's really good because it gives Hunski and I some shopping money. But it has been no easy work. Since we're baking five times more than the usual quantity we bake, you can just imagine how tiring it is. Can you?

On certain days, I have to head over to Hunski's house after my work to help him bake and pack. I would get home by midnight already and get up at six the following day to go to work.

I think we have to bake about six hundred pieces(!!!) of cookies and close to a hundred pans of brownies and revel bars!

I have only one word in my head - Toxic.

For Lack of Time to Post Anything Substantial...



You take the Stairway to Heaven.

Why stay down when you can go up? You, my ambitious friend, are going places, following your dreams. Good for you. Few people chase their dreams anymore. Never give that up. You are heading up in the world, making a name for yourself,
even if it's just a small group who know it. You're finding your way and are
heading straight for the top. You've got all the qualities of a great leader and
are probably a very optimistic individual.

Though you can be a bit selfish at times and have a tendency to step over people in your way. You must watch that. You could end up hurting the ones you love if you put your own goals above them. Never lose faith in that dream of yours, but make sure you can keep those close to you because in the end they'll be the ones to get you through the tough times. You have found your place and yourself, few can do so well and still struggle to find themselves. Don't let go of that sense of self you have even in times of confusion, it will help you pull through.

Be careful of your ego too, you could lose your balances and once you're at the top, it's a very long way down. So be mindful of others, strive forward to reach your dream, whatever it may be, be true to yourself, and you keep going up. Don't let anyone pull you down.

What Path Do You Take In Life? [X]For Guys and Gals! Pics and Lengthy Results.[X]
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Take It Off...



Amazing Race winner Reichen is getting hotter and hotter in his photo shoots.

First, there were those photographs from Instinct magazine which, I'm sure, satisfied the fans of the hunk in more ways than one.

Now, the Ex-Mrs. Chip Arndt is releasing a body calendar for 2005. Check out this one of the many hot photos that will make your next 365 days sizzle. Just a thought. Could there be any faint possibility that another version of the calendar is released somewhere? One where that blasted blanket isn't there. Hehehehe!

Now, you can have Reichen by your side day in and day out.

Two Things..

I've been extremely busy with two things these past few days.

First is my new job. I'm now working as an Executive Assistant (read: secretary) at one of the Foundations in the University. It's a contractual appointment and the pay is small but I decided to take it because it makes my schoolwork a little easier since I'm already in the University and because it provides a little income, just enough for my daily needs. I guess that Prada bag has to wait again, huh?

The work though sounds fun. The task of the Foundation is to generate additional income for the college. Ergo, together with the Executive Director of the Foundation, we must come up with projects that'll bring in money. Yes, this is a two-man show. So if you know of any private companies willing to sponsor a professorial chair lecture, or donate to a scholarship fund, or have one of the classrooms named after him or her, please feel free to give them my email address. Or if you know any insanely rich individual who doesn't know where to put his/her money, again, give them my email address.

The other thing that's been keeping me busy is the baking business. Surprisingly, there have been a lot of orders for baked goodies. It's much more difficult though because now after work at the office, I have to do another work for another couple of hours. By the time I get home, I'm just beat. But it's all good. I'm glad that somehow, this small business of ours will bring in some money. Christmas wouldn't be that lonely after all since I can probably get to shop for close loved ones.

These are basically the things that have been keeping me busy. Oh wait, I forgot. There's graduate school where I have prepare two reports, a thesis proposal and another term paper. There's the children's play/musical which will keep me busy because even if we don't have rehearsals this Christmas season, we have to prepare the props and the costume. And there's also the magazine which is due to come out this January.

My goodness! Whatever happened to the word "vacation"? I think I just erased it from my vocabulary. Haha!

I'm a Vermeer Girl...Hehehe!



You have the Vermeer girl look. A Vermeer girl appealed mostly to the old masters of the Dutch school, who painted pictures of everyday life as they knew it. With her fine, fair skin, she suited a light, natural, dewy make-up. The Vermeer Girl loved homely things, such as homemade soaps and candles. The following artists would have liked to paint you; Pieter de Hooch and Jan Vermeer.

'Pretty As A Picture' - Which Artist Would Paint You?
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I've watched Girl with a Pearl Earring, the movie based on the famous painting of Vermeer and I just loved it. I loved Scarlette Johannson in that movie.

Another Gay Movie...



Every once in a while I see these pairs of gentlemen, clad in immaculately white shirts, gray or black pants and the backpack. And I think it's somewhat homoerotic.

Over the weekend, I got to watch another gay-themed movie - Latter Days. Hunski found a copy of the movie when we went to Greenhills, and bought it. I'm quite sure that most of you living outside of the Philippines have seen it since it was released early this year, but I still want to blog about it for my Pinoy friends.

Latter Days is the story of Aaron (Steve Sandvoss), a young Mormon who leaves the comforts of Salt Lake and goes to Los Angeles with a group of fellow missionaries, and Christian (Wes Ramsey), a promiscuous, hunky waiter who lives in the same complex where Aaron and the rest of his group move in.

The moment Christian sets his eyes upon Aaron, he immediately begins to prey on him. Things, however, do not go the way Christian had planned it. As he was about to go for the kill, his prey turns on him and makes him realize of how vacuous his life is.

But just as Christian starts to mend his ways to prove Aaron wrong, the latter is sent back home after his fellow missionaries catch him in a tight liplock with Christian. Back in Salt Lake, Aaron is ex-communicated and sent to a treatment facility, after a failed attempt at taking his own life.

The good news is that in the end, love prevails and the two find one another once more.

While both Wes and Steve did a good job portraying their gay roles, the real star of the film was Steve Sandvoss. With his boyish looks yet overly masculine body, and that saintly charisma, how can you not fall in love with him? But Sandvoss is more than just good looks. He is the embodiment of the overly used phrase - beauty and brains. The guy's a Harvard University graduate, and a Cum Laude one too, where he was an active member of the artistic community. While taking up his degree, he also purused professional acting and modeling.

Could he be Mr. Perfect?

No. There's one tiny flaw.

He's straight.

Too bad guys. Get more of Steve here.

Pride March This Saturday...




Last Monday, Hunski and I attended (for the magazine) a meeting set by Task Force Pride. It was held at the office of Akbayan, a partylist group that advocates LGBT issues. The agenda of the meeting - the Pride March for this Saturday. It was my first time to attend the meeting. It is the first time that I am, in a way, involved in the Pride March. And I'm not even out...to my family and relatives.

Anyway, here are the details for this Saturday's march:

What: PRIDE MARCH 2004
When: December 11, 2004 at 3:00 p.m.
Where: Assembly Point is at 14th St., New Manila
March will end at the Tomas Morato rotunda. (A short program will follow after)

Bring your waterbottle, umbrellas, sunscreen, Evian spritzers and the most important of all, your Pride.

Some Trivia about the Pride March in the Philippines:

1992 - a lesbian group joins the march during the International Women's Day.

1994 - the Metropolitan Church and ProGay Philippines marched in Quezon City to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riot.

1996 - ReachOut Foundation organizes the first Pride March in the country.

1999 - Task Force Pride was established and has, since then, been organizing the Annual Pride March.

Finally...A Thesis Topic

Several of my professors have been telling my classmates and I that the primary reason why several graduate students in the University are delayed with finishing their studies is because of the thesis.

This semester, one of my courses is Thesis Proposal. And I am telling you, it's difficult to think of a thesis topic. I know what topics I want to work on though. Either Corporate Social Responsibility or Queer Studies. Uhm, I wanted Corporate Social Responsibility because I firmly believe in it and I really want to promote it. Queer Studies because I want to add to the Filipino literature on gay studies

In the end, the Corporate Social Responsibility won. But who knows, I may still change my mind.

Here's my proposal. Let me know if you have some suggestions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Corporate Social Responsibility, simply defined, is about business giving back to the society. It aims to advance the treatment of business stakeholders in a socially responsible manner. These stakeholders exist within and outside of the firm. Corporate Social Responsibility is a concept that is continually being promoted by several sectors of the society with the belief that the corporate organizations in a community have a responsibility to help in human and community development.

In this regard, below is a proposed study on the subject of corporate social responsibility:

Is there is a difference on their concept of corporate social responsibility between Filipino companies and multinational companies?

General Objectives:
The study aims to determine if there is a significant difference between the concept of corporate social responsibility between Filipino and multinational companies.

Specific Objective:
1. To determine and compare the concept of corporate social responsibility between Filipino companies and multinational companies in the country.
2. To determine and compare the level of importance of corporate social responsibility between Filipino companies and multinational companies.
3. To determine and compare the practice of corporate social responsibility between Filipino companies and multinational companies in the country.
4. To determine and compare the communication strategies used by Filipino companies and multinational companies in the country in promoting corporate social responsibility to the members of the organization.

Not Too Loud Please

Since there were only three days of classes last week, Hunski and I didn't have to bake much today. It was, in a way, good because we got to leisurely spend the afternoon.

We went to Greenhills, the haven for bargain clothes and bargain Guccis, Pradas, Louis Vuittons and Chanels. Of course, you know that they're not the real thing.

Another part of the shopping arcade that is frequented by several people is the part where bootleg DVD and VCD copies of movies and popular television series are being sold. I know piracy isn't a good thing at all, but in this case, I have to think otherwise primarily because this is where a number of gay-themed movies are available. Movies that have no chances of ever being shown on the Philippine silver screen can be purchased here.

But this afternoon, I wasn't there to look for any movies. My only search objective was to look for a copy of, uhm, Lovers in Paris.

Gawd! I'm starting to get heavily addicted to the television series. I've begun reading all 70 plus pages of thoughts about the show in the Lovers in Paris thread at Pinoyexchange.com. I'm on the constant lookout for nice videocaps and photos of the series over the Internet. Heck, even my current wallpaper is a photo of Park Shin Yang and Kim Jung Eun ballroom dancing. (Sorry Hunski. Hehe!)

And now I want to have a copy of the entire series.

So there I was, amidst a sea of people, all looking for a movie or a series they'd want to watch yet again. I dunno why but I was a little shy to ask any of the salesladies if they had Lovers in Paris.

While Hunski was busy looking for PS2 games, I went to one of the stalls that didn't have too many people. I pretended to look at the catalogue but the truth was I was mustering enough courage to ask the saleslady.

Finally, I looked at the saleslady and almost in a whisper, asked, "Do you have Lovers in Paris?"

But my attempt to be discreet proved to be useless as the saleslady, upon hearing my question, nonchalantly yelled to a helper, "Hoy! Lovers in Paris daw! Kumuha ka nga ng Lovers in Paris! (Hey! He's looking for Lovers in Paris! Get a copy!)"

I wanted the floor where I was standing to open up and swallow me whole.

Did she really have to do that? Did she really have to yell it out for the entire Greenhills shoppers to hear? This was worse than buying porn. I was mortified. I looked down smiling and feeling red, and I could see from the corner of my eyes that Hunski was amused by the whole situation. Hehe!

As the helper of the loud saleslady brought the copy, Hunski approached me and asked if I was going to buy it. I wanted to but I was having thoughts because it's a bootleg copy and I'm not really sure how long that copy would work properly.

I decided not to buy it. Hunski suggested that we buy the original copy, which I think is a way better idea. I think we can order it online from Amazon and have a friend abroad bring it back here to Manila.

Though that would be more expensive, at least, it's the real thing and there are no loud saleslady announcing what you're buying.

Out with OUT!?



In case you still dunno, OUT, the first and only gay and lesbian oriented television show in the Philippines, has been axed by its network - GMA 7.

It's really really saddening that the show has been pink slipped after only one season. It should be given another chance! Gawd! There are other television shows that are more deserving to be removed from television. And this is not to say that OUT is a bad show. Sure, it has flaws but removing it is not a solution to correct those flaws. As for us, the Filipino LGBT community, instead of criticizing the show, why not email all our comments to the show so they can improve on it.

These are just my thoughts. I'm sure you have your own.

If you feel that the television show should be given a second chance, check this petition site and let GMA7 hear your thoughts.

I Found One...

A job.

It's temporary.

But it's okay.

I start tomorrow.

Wish me luck.