this morning while andrea and i were having her breakfast, we noticed a column of ants disappear into a small dot of a space near the ceiling. so promptly, i got a chair and traced the ant column with an insect chalk all the way to the dot. yes, i killed the ants by crushing them. with insect chalk.

so i wondered, is that how insect chalk really worked? because i could accomplish that with regular school chalk, or with my slipper, for instance.

later this morning, while i was having my breakfast, i found what’s left of the ant army (about twelve, fifteen of them - i counted, yes) huddled close together. so i took out my insect chalk, drew around them and waited.

so the ants dispersed and stepped onto the insect chalk lines. and believe it or not they started looking as if they were dizzy. no, seriously - they were shaky. and so i waited and watched some more.

fact: this was how an ant would die by insect chalk–

1) they step on insect chalk track

2) they walk around aimlessly - not in a line anymore

3) after a while, they stay put

4) they don’t move

and finally:

5) they let go of the wall. and fall.

i was standing there sipping my coffee when i saw this ant just disappear from the wall. it was kinda sad actually.

but at least now i know insect chalk does work.

nakakahawa ang ka-hardcore-an ni irene at ang kanyang “ultraelectromagnetic” na effort sa pagkuha ng tickets para sa eraserheads concert tonight. ibang klase. sa katunayan, pagpulot niyo ng diyaryo today, andun yun.

naalala ko lang yung mga sabog na gabing kinatatampukan ng gitara ni julie nung college. siyempre jamming at lahat, kung me gin pa yan, malamang ang partner niyan e Huling El Bimbo, Magasin, at siyempre, Pare Ko (na later on sobrang swak ng lyrics lang. hahaha. mantakin mo yan.) nakakamiss. kahit wala pa ngang inom, kahit pancit canton lang at kape na 3in1 ang katapat ng lahat, sabog pa rin ang jamming pag busog eh. solb. hahaha.

oh to go back to those lazy saturdays. na hindi spent at work. hahaha.

anyway.

spent most of this non-Readalong saturday in Salcedo market with chief sana laging magising nang maaga pag sabado para solb ang brunch walked around makati in my worn rubber shoes, ate bopis and raspberry tea (!!!masarap). sayang di pa rin ayos ang camera ko

earlier this week, i discovered i could draw. (/end epiphany)

last night, chief made this fantastic bubble toy.

materials:
large PLASTIC mouthwash bottle (e.g. listerine), bottom removed
knife
cloth
rubber band
dishwashing soap

how:
carefully remove bottom of plastic mouthwash bottle with knife. with rubber band, cover hole with cloth. dip cloth in dishwashing soap mixed with a little water. blow hard at the other opening. watch the suds grow and enjoy.

tip:
works best when your parents are not around.

note to self:
try next time with bubble bath. hihi.

so my sister’s undergraduate seminar yesterday was awesome. as in, brain-numbing awesome. or, total-nosebleeder-awesome. or, alternatively, jaws open half the time / couldn’t understand a thing but ohwow my sister knows A LOT-awesome.

in a nutshell: zebrafish are awesome. as in wow they’re transparent awesome. that’s about everything i understood really, because she lost me around there.

seriously, it turns out that zebrafish are indeed pure awesome because they regenerate damaged parts of their bodies, including their hearts. interesting. scientists found this out by amputating a small portion of zebrafish hearts and observing that instead of scarring, they mended themselves with fresh functional heart tissue. WHICH IS AWESOME. because hey, the potential uses in emo literature, but isn’t it just awesome?

imagine.

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photo courtesy of people.com

… someday. <3

my cell phone broke down last night for the second time.

last year, it was a black screen. last night, it started restarting itself and then this morning it just somewhat died on me. =(

so i spent most of this morning waiting in line at the nokia care center in glorietta, lifeless n6288 in hand. i’ve had it for more or less a year. i’d never dropped it, never gotten it wet; it even had a screen protector. it had bubble bash and the mobile version of guitar hero (cries) that we had just finished last night before going to bed. oh had i known it would be our last time together (a tear fell.) it allowed me to check my mail, a few blogs, whenever there was signal. it took great pictures, plus it sent stuff from my phone to flickr directly. (cries some more)

even with a service phone (i bought a nokia 2626 for less than 3k) i feel still somewhat incomplete. for someone who names her gadgets, this is really a heartbreak.

what’s even more heartbreaking is the fact that they have to delete all of its contents to get it back up and running again (wails). remember the last time i had to part with a phone, i had to delete some 1,+++ messages? at least i pushed the delete all button. this time i won’t be able to do it myself. =( call me sentimental but this phone was my ligaw phone (hah if we could call something such). the jokes folder may not be as sizeable as before, but… you know how it is.

*sighs*

*cries*

i’m thinking of taking down the old blogspot haunt one of these days, if only to put it up again in a much simpler, more coherent mega-site of sorts. blame it on serialcomma.net and the simplicity that i’m in love with. i’m itching to resume my hot passionate underwear-scorching affair with html. yun lang, for sentimentality’s sake, i’m torn between just keeping it the way it is (design and spacing and all) and overhauling it almost entirely (keeping only the text, a few pictures). decisions, decisions. how do we let go of blogs? (thoughts?)

anyway, next Friday (Aug. 22, incidentally also our 11th monthsary <3) my sister would be holding her undergraduate seminar. i’m taking a day off from work to attend it, at the risk of perhaps not understanding a thing. she needs me there. so, anybody else interested in talking about fixing broken hearts? yun lang, she’ll talk about it in zebrafish. don’t ask me why. and don’t ask me why i’m actually excited. i think it could be for the sole realization that my sister has indeed come a looooong way.

*with apologies to Stephen King. this is about your book anyway. 

I’ve never picked up a book by Stephen King – mainly because I was afraid to be afraid, to be haunted. But last night, I did pick up one of his books, and it couldn’t have come at a better time – it was his writing memoir, On Writing.

And so, Mr King says to me:

“You approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness or even despair – the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: You must not come lightly to the blank page.

“I’m not asking you to come reverently or unquestioningly; I’m not asking you to be politically correct or cast aside your sense of humor (please God you have one). This isn’t a popularity contest, it’s not the moral Olympics, and it’s not church. But it’s writing, damn it, not washing the car, or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can’t or won’t, it’s time for you to close the book and do something else.”  (pages 92-93)

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Bilib talaga ako kay Jiggy Manicad at sa tapang niya sa mga ganitong tipo ng coverage. Sukat bang dapat magcocover ka lang ng eleksyon, pero instead e naipit ka sa giyera. Ang tibay at ang tapang.

Bukod pa diyan, nakapag-file pa siya ng istoryang nakakagalit talaga: yung pagkamatay ni Marine Cpl. Angelo Abeto. (basa dito: TV reporter recounts 4-hour dying of a Marine corporal)

excerpt:

Manicad found himself witnessing the agony of the severely wounded Marine Cpl. Angelo Abeto, begging for a “medivac” as he lay bleeding for four long hours.

No Philippine Air Force (PAF) helicopter arrived to evacuate Abeto and three other wounded Marines and a militiaman, Manicad said. …

“We learned that on the way to Zamboanga, Corporal Abeto died,” Manicad said on the phone from Lamitan, Basilan.

The way he saw it, the Marine, who was hit by shrapnel from mortar fire, had bled to death.

“His whole body was already pale when I saw him lying on the gurney at the Marines camp. He kept on shouting, ‘Ang sakit na ng ulo ko! Hindi ako makahinga! (I have such a headache! I can’t breathe!) Medivac! Medivac!’” Manicad recounted.

Four of Abeto’s fellow soldiers stayed by his side, rallying him to hang on and fight for his life.

Manicad said he had heard a number of Marines complain that military choppers were immediately available when generals needed them but that it was often a futile wait for wounded soldiers.

On the phone, however, Marine Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga, chief of the AFP Western Mindanao Command, denied that Abeto had died from loss of blood and that the PAF had not sent choppers to Tipo-Tipo.

“[Abeto] did not die because of loss of blood. He was hit in the head and back. He was seriously wounded,” Allaga told the Inquirer. Quoting military doctors, he said Abeto would not have survived his injuries.

(emphasis mine)

tapos na ang eleksyon sa ARMM – abangan ko na lang kwento ni jobert. pero mukhang mahaba-haba pang usapan ang Bangsamoro, lalo na’t mukhang madadagdagan ito ng ugong ng Cha-cha. Hayyyyy. Sana may magandang balita ang Olympics para masaya naman.

Something has to be said about Tara Santelices, who is currently fighting for her life in Medical City’s ICU after being shot in the head in a hold-up incident in Cainta, Rizal on Wednesday. She was with a friend around past midnight onboard a jeep to Marikina when a man announced a hold-up. He put a bullet through her head; the kind that doesn’t have any exit wounds, the kind that fragments inside. That day was also, incidentally, her birthday.

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today’s feature heartbreak is brought to me by wordcamp philippines.