Hay Naku!

I’ve had the busiest week last week! I was applying for jobs from Makati to Q.C like a lunatic, I was tutoring my student – we were finishing her artworks for a school in New York, I was doing a lot of freelance jobs in between and still attending my regular job as a consultant in my former office.
Anyway, 2 companies are willing to hire me, they wanted me start right away but I told them that I need time to finish all my sidelines and clearances from my former office, so I might be able to start working for them in March. I lied. the truth is, I don’t want to work for them kasi may pasok sila ng Sabado, ayoko nga! And they don’t have Mac, they want me to use PC! Me! use a PC, no fucking way! I whispered to myself. I need the whole month of February to find me a new job with a 5-day working schedule and hopefully, an office that uses Macintosh. If I fail, I’ll try to beg any of the two to take me back. Waaah!!!
Upon learning of what I did, my father went ballistic, he said to my mother, "P*%#@inang bata yan, hindi nag-iisip, hindi ba nya naiintindiihan na may 2 anak sya, namimili pa ng trabaho! Sabihin mo nga sa kanya, mag-isip isip sya ng mahusay!"

I got the image from Lee of Anderson Cooper Corner, thanks Lee, I hope you don't mind.

This is Anderson Cooper's first book. It will be out in the USA in June of this year, if I remember it right. I've been dreaming to have a copy of it for myself since he decided to write a book about his travels and experiences of death, war, hurricanes, tsunamis and everything in between since late last year. Every Anderfan I know has already pre-ordered their copies. What about me? Where do I pre-order? I live on the other side of the world and I think I'm the only one in my country who loves Anderson with a passion.

I need to get me a copy of Ander's book before Oprah decides to pick it for her book club, I'm sure she'll do it. Because I'm sure it's a great book. It's a great help for Anderson, I know, but still, I want my copy without Oprah's icky book club stamp on it.

Poor me.

p.s.
i'm a bit disappointed with the cover, it looks like an ad for 360˚. i was hoping it would be something like a new photo of him with a black background with small images of him on the field but not in full opacity or probably something like a close up of him with a very dramatic light effects or something. I don't know, I'm stupid sometimes.

CNNI viewers like me only get an hour of 360 and this is what I get - a whole hour of James Frey and Oprah, I hate it. Is it really that important? Oprah really is that powerful huh? She must be really be embarrassed by the whole thing, but I think I saw her cry, I'm not sure, anyway, it looked fake, I think she forced out the tears out of her eyes. I don't know, may be I was imagining things. I used to like Oprah but now, I'm not so sure. She doesn't seem so sincere anymore.

It's a good thing Anderson's looking good this morning (my time). Man, Anderson looked liked he had a good rest. His hair looked so perfect now. I hope he doesn't get a haircut anytime soon.


The lovely screencaps are from the very generous bcfraggle.

Happy Birthday, GILLIAN!

January 20, 2006 by dancingnancy

Today, my daughter turns 7. She wanted a big McDo birthday party in her school like what she had last year but I explained to her that we can’t afford any party at the moment, "Nanay doesn’t have a job, remember?" After about 30 minutes of explaining, she finally said okay.

"I want mango cake with my name on it, kailangan tama ang spelling ng name ko ha. Kasi kung hindi, hindi ako yun. Kung wala pong mango cake, chocolate na lang," that was all she requested after the realization that she really cannot have a McDo party, a mango cake with her name on it. Of course she ended up having a small party in our house but not as big as she hoped it would be.

My kids, they amaze me no end. They can be very hard-headed one minute and very very understanding the next. I thank God everyday for having them in my life. I just love them so much.

"You know, people on TV use that term closure a lot. I personally never use that. I just don't think closure exists when you have experienced a loss,..."

That line was told by Anderson Cooper yesterday on 360˚, it struck and hit me deeply.

This is about my first child, the child that grew, fed, cried and kicked inside of me. The child that I felt but was never touched by my hands. The child that I never saw. This may seem odd to some but I really haven't gotten over her yet. "It's okay, she's a stillborn, she's in heaven now, she's your angel, what's more painful is losing a grown up kid," that was what everyone told me but it's not true. I look okay and doing fine on the outside but deep inside, well, it's a whole lot different.

My husband took a picture of Patricia, that was her name, and told me that he'd let me see it if I promised him that I would not cry – I haven't seen her picture yet. And it's been 8 years. It's her birthday tomorrow.

Some people say that I should look at her picture, say my goodbyes to her and cry 'til I can't cry no more. Just to have that closure that everyone's talking about. The truth is I don't think that I'll ever experience that closure, I don't think I want to. I'm afraid that if do get it, I might forget her. And it happens, sometimes I do forget about her, I used to think about her all the time, but now as the years go by, I think about her less and less. I don't want that to happen. If that closure would mean moving on with my life and not think about her...I don't want that. It's the only memory I have about her so i want to cling to it as long as I can. Painful, yes...but it's the only way I know to remember her always. She's in God's hands now, I know, but everytime I think about her, I couldn't help but cry. My heart still bleeds. I don't think it will ever stop.

This is a line from the very first blog entry on my other account that I made last year. I still feel the same way. We had no closure, I haven't said my goodbyes to her yet and I don't think I can, part of me was buried with her when she died.

Dear Anderson,

I really should stop doing this - posting very cute pictures of you. How will I ever shake this addiction off? You're ruining my life (in a good way) ...I don't go out anymore...I'm always in front of my computer, I don't talk to anyone who doesn't know you. I wonder when will I get tired of you?

I hate the weekends now! All because of you.

Anderson's all fired up tonight! Great show!

I talk about Anderson just about anywhere, regardless of who I'm talking to. I can't stop. Every chance I get, I drop his name. Anderson fool, I have become. Can you tell?

My daughter, Gillian, rolls her eyes everytime I watch AC360˚. My husband ignores me. My son, Dylan, likes Anderson, he likes his haircut. My mother ignores me, so does my sister. Clearly, they have no idea how good Anderson is. I think it's a crying shame.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you some of my conversations involving AC.

In our house:

Me: "'Mom! come here, quickly. Hurry up, Anderson's on TV!"
Mamang: "What!? I'm busy."
Me: "Hurry up! Please..just a quick look, and I won't bother you anymore."
Mamang: "Okay, where?"
Me: "There, isn't he the handsomest anchor on tv or what?"
Mamang: "You call that handsome? I think Bon Jovi's way cuter than Anderson."
Me: "Nah! You're just saying that. Btw, that person in quite smart and the son of Gloria Vanderbilt, no less"
Mamang: "He looks like Redford White!"

While watching "Jeopardy!" one night.

Tony: "Man! that woman is good. She's so smart"
Me: "Ooh, yes! Did you know that she used to be a lawyer, she gave it up to be a plain housewife and mother to her 3 kids."
Tony: "Really? No wonder."
Me: "Did you know that Anderson's a 'Jeopardy!' champion not too long ago?' "
Tony: "Really? Hand me over the remote, I think I'll change the channel!"
He was just kidding, of course.

Me: "I think I'd like to have a pet dog."
Tony: "Me too, I'd like to have a dog just like Paris Hilton's."
Me: "Oh, really, it's a nice dog but I'm thinking more in the line of Spaniels."
Tony: "Why?"
Me: "Because Anderson's dog is a Welsh Springer Spaniel, her name is Molly.'
Tony: "I knew it!"

Dylan: "Mommy! Do I look like Anderson already?" He was referring to his hairstyle.
Me: "Oh, yes!"
Dylan: "Mommy, please put some gel on my hair so it will stay that way. I wanna be Anderson all day!
Me: "Well, come here! My little Anderson."

My sister: "Y'know what? I couldn't take it anymore, I watched AC360˚ yesterday."
Me: "Really? Did you like it? He's so cute, isn't he"
My sister: "He's so thin! Y'know, he looked a lot like your crush when you were in college, remember Richard?"
Me: "Hmmm... "

Gillian: "I knew it! You're watching Anderson again." *eyeroll*

In the office:

Me: (talking on the phone) "I really hate those people at Pag-ibig (love) Fund. It's been four months and they haven't approved my loan! Arrghh!"
Yolly: (clearly, she overheard me on the phone) "Hey, Sheila. What happened to Anderson? Why are you scorching mad?"
Me: "Huh? No, silly! I'm talking about my Pag-Ibig loan, not the other pag-ibig (love), which is Anderson. There's nothing Anderson can do to make me hate him."

Mang Nilo (our messenger): (looking at my desktop monitor) "Hey! What's Steve doing in your computer?"
Me: "Steve who?"
Mang Nilo: "Steve...Steve...Martin, is that right?"
Me: "Mang Nilo huh!"
Mang Nilo: "That's Steve, right? He looks like Steve Martin, they have the same hair."
Me: "Mang Nilo! I so hate you right now!!!"

Yehey! Panalo si Dr. House!

My daughter and I were watching the '63rd Golden Globe Awards' this morning, thank goodness, I can come late to work in the morning and I think she was more excited than I was. Half of the reason for her excitement was because of Dr. House and the other half was because she recognized the casts of 'Lost', 'Desperate Housewives.' and 'Edward Scissorhands,' she was referring to Johnny Depp, of course.

I loved Geena Davis' speech – the one that involved a little girl that "wanted to be a president because of you," I totally fell for it. She made it up but I believe her, "it could've happened." I like Geena because she has brains! (Mensa member, hello?) not just a pretty face.

And s'yempre, we wanted Dr. House to win, she was delighted when Hugh Laurie's name was called, although I didn't like the way Evangeline Lilly delivered her line, all she had to do was read her line, nothing to it, it's not brain surgery or anything about rocket science, arrgh! Kainis! Pangalan pa naman ni Hugh Laurie yun! I made a mental note:I don't like her anymore.

As expected, Hugh won for best performance for an actor in a television series (drama). Gillian and I cheered for a moment and then she suddenly got confused, "Bakit wala sya tungkod, nanay?" "Nasaan na yun, magaling na ba sya?"

She became more confused when Hugh started to talked, he didn't talk like Dr. House at all. "Si Dr. House ba talaga yan? Bakit iba sya magsalita? Taga-London ba sya? Neighbor ba sila ni Harry Potter saka ni Ron?" I explained to her that Dr. house is just a character that Hugh Laurie is playing, "Diba sya yun daddy ni Stuart sa 'Stuart Little' dati tapos si Geena Davis naman yun mommy."

"Ahhh, okay. So, dalawa pala si Dr. House."

I said yes. I didn't want to explain anymore. I might have confused her even more. I'll try again tonight, God willing.

i got the pic of hugh from jld1119 from anderloads.

I can't resist, just one more.

I think I could squeeze in a bit of Andercuteness a little more. He's just so beautiful.

I got the caps from Anderloads, I forgot who I got it from, sorry. Will credit as soon as I find out. Sorry again. *embarassed*

I've got way too much free time, I might as well put it into good use.

Usapang Nanay

Uncle Fester

My son, Balong, is just the sweetest little kid on the planet (syempre, anak ko eh). Last Tuesday night when I got home from work, I found him sitting on the stairs, he looked sad so I asked him what's wrong.

He said "Nanay, umiyak ako."

"Why? What happened?"

"Umiyak ako eh, kasi nami-miss kita. Antagal mo dumatin."

"Alam mo naman na uuwi din si Nanay, di ba? Next time wag ka na iiyak ha."

"Miss na miss na kita eh."

Then he started to cry again. It broke my heart to see him cry like he did, I almost cried as well. So I hugged him and assured him that we'll be spending more time together in February, God willing.

"Alam mo ginawa ko kaya ako nag-stop umiyak tanina? Nikuha ko yun ID mo dlower, tapos may pitsur ka dun di ba? Tininnan ko yun, tapos di na ako umiyak. Di na kita na-miss ng madami, konti na lang."

He's a very sweet and loving kid, naughty and mischievous most of the time but entirely adorable.

I told my mother about it the next day, I didn't expect her to go all melodramatic about it because my mother is a bit sarcastic, just a bit. I want to stress the 'just a bit' part because she just might read this. Anyway, I was right, her response took me by surprise.

She said to me with a very visible can't-hide-the grin-off-my-face kind of look in her face, "Alam mo, 'wag ka magagalit ha, pero kasi may narinig ako sa radyo, may studies daw na ginawa ang mga researcher na yun daw mga batang lalaki na masyadong malapit sa nanay nila... lalaking bading yun."

"Sobra ka naman! Kainis ka 'ma ha! Mama's boy lang siguro?"

"Bwa ha ha ha!!! Totoo yun. Ha ha ha..."

Hmmm...pwede kaya di ko muna kausapin ang nanay ko? Asar eh!

I so miss the hurricane season. I'm not wishing anyone any harm. But I really do miss Anderson wearing the red CNN slickers.

I'm totally convinced that a CNN spy is lurking among us, at least in my Anderson Community in LJ. Why would I think that? Here's why:
I was reading/lurking/browsing all things that was written on my LJ community yesterday...because it's what I do, most of the time. Specially on Mondays, I need to know all the things that transpired during the weekend. Besides, there's not much to do in the office, I mean, there are things to be done but...I like to work fast. I finish all my workloads for the day in a matter of minutes, really! I've been doing this kind of work for almost 10 years now – I so enjoy/love my work, it's like, I'm playing all the time.
Anyway, I was browsing the page when I saw this picture of Andy (of course) and Peter O'Toole from the movie, "Lawrence of Arabia." They had the same angle, Andy's stare in the pic reminded her of Peter's, so someone from the community photoshopped it.

I jumped in and made a few improvements, I asked for some title suggestion – we didn't think "Lawrence of Arabia" with Anderson's face on it would be appropriate so merry suggested "Anderson of America." So I made it, here it is:

We all had a laugh, we had great time watching the photos evolve and progress. Thanks to Merryfitzmas for the idea and the title. Some suggest that I send the photo to him, someone ask for my permission to send it, someone asked to use the picture for their blogs. It's all fine with me. I wanted to send it to Anderson, really, but I'm much too shy, I just can't do it. I asked them to do it. I hope they did.
And today, on 360, Anderson Cooper mentioned "Lawrence of Arabia!" Unepetiteetoile, pointed it in my direction, I didn't hear/watch it because I'm here at the office. But, why in the world would he do that? Mentioning "Lawrence of Arabia" right after we talked about it. So "Freaky Friday" except it's a Monday ET. *attempts to be funny*

Someone from CNN must be spying on us.

One of us is a spy.

Someone is pretending to be an Anderfan.

Could this someone be Anderson? Is it you, Anderson?

Anderson or not, I think he's sending us some sort of a secret code. He loves our community, It's his way of saying 'hello' to us. I'm sure he knows about us. This is so weird and scary.

Some delusion, this is.

Actually, he mentioned "Lawrence of Arabia" because Omar Sharif, who co-starred in the said movie is being charged for smacking a guy in a parking lot.

I don't believe this, Anderson and Kiki have been emailing each other!

He's been emailing her?

Emailing back and forth?

He emails her? That little girl?!

Did I hear it right?

That is the most adorable thing he's ever done! I wanted to kiss him on the TV monitor.

*looked from side to side* *daughter is looking, I better not*

Okay girls, gather 'round now and be still!

This photo is just too cute to ignore. Even dogs like Anderson! Thanks to Phebe for letting me use it.

I added clustrmaps to my blog!

I've seen this from other blogs but I never really thought about putting it on mine until now...I didn't have anything to do, so there it is. I just wish I could figure out where to put it. I think it's kinda weird that it's placed right after my profile box. Must try to fix that soon. I think it's also weird that I put clustrmaps on my blog since not a lot of people visit my blog. But I gotta do something before I start screaming, I'm so bored, I don't know what else to do.

If you want to know where all of the readers of your blog are from. You can check it out here, try it.

Relatives ask who's to blame

Woman approached with horrible news while we were on air

From Anderson Cooper
CNN

Lynette Roby and her children approach Anderson Cooper with news of the dead miners.

SAGO, West Virginia (CNN) -- Just hours after news spread that 12 miners had been found alive, something wasn't right.

A distraught woman, Lynette Roby, came out of the darkness and approached us with her kids while we were on air. It was a little before 3 a.m.

There was this horror in Roby's eyes and this stunned outrage. She said 12 miners were dead, not alive. She said they had all been terribly misled. She was confused and angry and hurt and scared.

It was such a terrible moment.

I had spoken to her and her kids earlier in the night. She lives near the Baptist church where all the families had gathered. She hadn't wanted to come down and be part of the story when it was a tragedy because she didn't have any family members involved.

When she heard the bell ringing around midnight, she wanted to have her kids become part of history. At that time, reports were that 12 miners were alive.

But later, she found herself inside the church when she heard the terrible news. She was worried about her and her kids' safety, so she ran out of the church.

As with everyone we had talked to, you do double- and triple-takes. Everyone we talked to last night and early this morning, we quizzed them. Who did you hear this from? Where were you?

I asked those questions of her. At first, I wondered if maybe she misheard something. We were very limited at that point. The media had been pushed back from the church. She was the first person to come out and say this. I was quizzing her pretty hard. Then I started quizzing her kids about it, just to make sure they were backing up what she said.

Not long after she showed up, we had a reporter confirm some of her information. Then it was another 20 minutes before we heard from the mining company.

When Roby first approached us, we could hear shouting at the church. It was another five or 10 minutes before many more people came out of the church. People were furious. They didn't want to talk to anyone.

They wanted no media. They were just furious. Some of them rolled down their windows as they drove past. They wanted to know which officials were to blame and why the mining company didn't tell them sooner.

The head of International Coal Group, the mining company, admits now he wished he had come forward immediately. At 12:30 a.m., they got the word that more miners had died, but held onto it.

They were caught up in the hope. They thought maybe they were alive. They didn't want to put contrary information out there.

What the family members are saying now is: Why didn't you at least come forward and say we are getting conflicting reports? Frankly, people would have been disappointed, but they wouldn't have been as horrified or felt as betrayed as they do now.

For those of us in the media, I'm not sure what we could have done to keep this news from spreading like it did.

When you have the governor of the state giving you the thumbs-up, a congresswoman talking about this on air, hundreds of relatives and family members jubilant, some of who received calls from mining officials, it's tough to ignore what they're saying.

There is only so much you can do short of seeing firsthand who is alive and who isn't. We made requests to have access to the rescue operation, but they were denied.

At some point, you have to rely on officials and the people you come in contact with. We had more reporters on this story and in more places than anyone else -- Randi Kaye, Joe Johns, Sanjay Gupta interviewing the doctor.

We now know company officials had information they chose to withhold. At the very least, we know there was conflicting information in their hands. They chose to withhold that information.

The bottom line is that there are 12 families in mourning today. That is what this story is about. It is easy to get caught up in the drama of the moment and the horrible roller coaster of emotions.

There need to be investigations about what happened in the mine. And there will be.

But today there are 12 families in this small town feeling great loss and sadness. That is the important story here.

"PLEASE DON'T CALL ME SIR, CALL ME ANDERSON." Yay! I think my Anderlove just grew even more! He's soooo adorable and so polite. ( I wonder if I can call him...boyfriend? *shameless*)

I took a day off from work yesterday because my son had a slight fever, I could go to work but I chose to stay with him because he was crying and begging me not to go, so I stayed. I'm glad I did, not only did I get to spend more time with my son, I also had an Anderson Cooper overload yesterday. Loved it.

He was on "Larry King Live" and "Anderson Cooper 360," of course. I was watching him from 10 am till 5 pm, there were some interruptions but I kept on watching CNN cause I know he's gonna be back, the story in West Virginia was just too big to ignore.

I watched him when he reported that all of the 12 remaining miners were found alive, he was visibly happy, everyone was happy, I was in near tears when the first ambulance came pass by him with a miner inside to be taken to the hospital. Everyone was thrilled, everyone was in jubilation. It was exactly 11:49 pm ET.

After 3 hours or so, he and the other media present there was still reporting about the "miracle in Virginia," when Lynette, the same woman he interviewed a couple of hour earlier came back to him while he was reporting live in TV, came rushing to him along with her kids and basically told him that they were misled. And the report that the 12 miners were all alive was in fact, a lie. All 11 are dead and only one survived. He was so stunned upon learning that indeed what Lynette told him was true. He talked slowly as if he wanted to make sure that everything that came out from his mouth would come out right. And what's more shocking is that the CEO and some officials of the coal mining company knew that only one survived of the 12 remaining trapped miners as early as 20 minutes after the announcement that all 12 are alive but they opted to wait for more than 3 hours before telling the families, what were they thinking? It was indeed a roller coaster of emotions, I could not imagine what the families of the miners must feel.

I was feeling Anderson's anger building up, I immediately saw him with Sen. Landriue in my mind. He should do that to the CEO of the company. For not telling the truth, for withholding the truth, for making up a very lame excuse! Go interview him Andy, that ought to teach him a lesson!

Poor Anderson, he was on air for more than 6 hours and he's still going. I wanted to take a nap but I just can't, he's working, reporting and standing nonstop, all I had to do was lie down and watch him. So, my son and I watched him till 5 pm. I was glad when finally Miles O'Brien took over, because Andy will finally get to rest but somehow I felt sad, watching Andy for more than 6 hours apparently is not enough still.

Thanks to the lovely and generous people of Anderloads for the photos.