In Between Lines

Tonight, I did something brilliant for my taste buds
Since, I really should eat meat sparingly
I fried my tapas
And put it in the food processor
Which, chopped it into bits.
I would imagine
The process would have stimulated the meat
Into offering it’s flavor
The texture, of course
Will be different
But if mixed into rice
Like a tapa fried rice
One would mentally expect the texture to be that of rice
Thus, the bits and pieces of meat
With it’s full flavor
Would blend unobstrusively into what we call "fried rice"
Except of course
I didn’t fry the rice
But I did my dears,
Fry the meat.

Oh, the meat?
Is very SIMPLE.
It is simply soy sauce (I love using Marca Pina)
And Calamansi
I’ve tried the frozen calamansi
But nothing beats the taste of fresh
Plus,
Mix the tapa with fresh chopped onions…(lots)
And remember the chemistry of onions and beef
Onions in all of its cooked state is the perfect wife for the beef
Put garlic
Don’t forget to grind fresh black peppers
And that is the magic of my TAPA
To all my avid TAPA eaters
I’m simply enamored by it.
Here in Houston,
You may go to any Wal-Mart
And buy a beef cut called by the mexicans
As "Carne Picada"
It is the closest to the thinnest sukiyaki cut
That is available massively in our city.

Of course,
There are points to improve my TAPA
Such as, I do not think I had put sugar
I’m too blind with sugar
I will never know when it is enough or not
Although just the right amount
Will always heighten the taste of any PINOY dish.

And another question you may throw at me
Is to ask me where the vinegar is in all this?
Sometimes I put vinegar, sometimes I don’t
But since the calamansi would have been acidic enough
I did not in this instance bother with vinegar
Since, personally, I could drink a good quality of it in a glass
Heck, if I were a millionaire,
I would have gotten my own vineyard of good quality Vinegar
A what you call…vinegary?  (Parallel to winery)
Vinegar is just like spice.
There is a certain level to be achieved measured in its acidity.
And the taste for it grows…or should I say, ferments in your tongue.
Hyuk hyuk…

So to enjoy the taste of vinegar,
I would mix the tapa in my white boiled rice
And pour some sugar cane silver swan vinegar
With fresh ground peppers.
And egg poached in water or a thickened soup?
Yummmm…
‘Course, leave some room for veggies…

Ahhh me, ah me…food is awesome.
My scale can vouch for that!

Just this lunch, I had vietnamese
I love how they chop things up
And lay it out on their noodles
I love the turgidity of their rice noodles
And the texture of it against my tongue
Topped with crunchy chopplings
Like fried vinegar
Dried Shrimp
Or chopped fried pork
Heck, I don’t know what it is truly
But more or less, they are so…AWESOME!
Hmmm…not to mention, I think they put some sorta oyster sauce
On all these
Then, we especially asked them not to mix the soup
As I ate mine separated….
My vietnamese friend likes to pour red vinegar into her soup
And the other is enamored with Sriracha
So I did both.
Not bad, not bad….at all…

I am hoping for two possibilities in the coming future.

First:
I hope someday, I can bluetooth my brain to any internet source
And be logged in 24/7 to this wonderful portal of information.
I can surf and navigate using electronic impulses from my brain
And I can see what I surf using my mind’s eye.
Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Next:
I would love to be able to physically breathe in water.
I love staying under the still pool
And creating the waves.
I love how the water gently brushes through my skin
I love swimming with the water that is still.
I just like being in water.
I love drinking water.
Water is my life…

I know I haven’t been scaling the park lately
It’s just that, last time I went,
The rain poured. I had miscalcuated the clouds
And I forgot to check the doppler radar.
I had not planned in going too far
I just wanted to touchbase with Anne Schoeneberg’s Memorial Bench
(She’s not any historical figure….Simply a Mother with a doting son)
That would’ve been something like a 10 minute walk or slow jog.
But oh, no…as soon as we caught sight of the bench
Drops started to pour.
That was unfair, because I thought the rumblings were far
Unfortunately, the rain clouds were hovering above me.
Worst of all? I had Jake who happened to be extra hairy lately.
So he gets wet and I get wet.
That’s the fun part actually.
Getting wet.
What I hate it, when I have to bring him in my car.
And I didn’t have a towel to wipe him.
Even before he started to board, I asked him to shake.
But oh no…he had to shake when he was in the car!
And me dripping, needing to sit on my cloth covered seat.
Not good at all.

So…eversince I’ve been spending my health investments in the club pool,
I kinda left Jake to short nightly walks
Now…Jake is the one getting heavier.
And as for me…I didn’t know that swimming in a chilly pool
Makes one so hot in the inside I need to cool the temp before ever trying to catch some zzZZzs

2 (15 oz) cans whole kernel corn drained.
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 cup may
1 cup green bell pepper chopped
1/2 cup red onions chopped
1 (10.5oz) bag coarsely crushed chili-cheese corn chips

Mix first 5 ingredients and chill.  Stir corn chips
Just before serving.

Methinks…The most genius move I’ve ever done
Was Buy an IPOD and a TIVO subscript at the same time.
Okay…I must confess
I’m not that good a bargain hunter
So I bought it at retail
‘Cep for the TIVO
I opted for the year subscript
Ergo it wouldn’t interfere with my monthly savings

But get this
I’m a control freak when it comes to time alone
I want to get as much done
So I have my t.v. programs recorded
And uploaded to my ipod
Via my pc who has been around for 4 years
And it’s still working…acceptably doing its job
But not that greatly, I may have to add!

A lot of video ‘pods’
Have come up with a much larger screen
But I’m fine with my ipod
Since my vision close up is greater than perfect
I love anything small

Now Traffic, I must say in Houston is
Almost comparable to MANILA
The difference is,
Because it’s on a much larger lot
There is more distance to travel
And the congestion is not that of a lane becoming two
However, the common element is
A LOT OF TIME is being wasted on the road
Especially on popular routes I’d like to travel

My 2006 Scion (Dang 2008 just came out about)
Has an auxiliary to its 6-speaker radio
So I could plug my ipod using a male to male cable.
That makes for great sounds! (Didn’t buy the ipod capability)

And this I picked up my friend from Manila - Jun
Who listens to his Harry Potter Audio Books during traffic.
Fanatic I say!
Well…I’ve started to download audio books
And its just awesome!

It was a good alternative from teaching myself to speed read…although, I would still love to do that some day…

For all the brain deadening times you have to sit on your butt to wait on something
Finally there is INFORMATION and Entertainment Technology
That I could dig right out of my small purse.
It feels so good to get wired.

My next venture would be a laptop.
Unfortunately, I’ve no need for it right now.
I may have to wait another year to get one
And so relieve my pocket from spending too much at one time.
But DELL is coming up with so many variations in its lines for laptops
And APPLE is starting to evolve and looking really delicious…

Battle of the Brain: Right Side Versus Left Side

Imagine the tree of probability
Where one origin
Can exponentially grow into several finite possibilities
Such that the alternatives may seem infinite if grown to proportions
Beyond the existence of numbers
Will the human mind be able to contain these amount of events?
And how much can you analyze one event if you wish to go farther down into its origin?
The quality of analysis on each event will suffer if you wish to take it further down
Analogous to strength versus endurance in physical strength
How far can the logic of our minds
Trace back the cause of an effect?
How much time are we given to think this through?

Research or analysis by deduction
On the origin of a result
Took its form as a critical path
On one of the many branches of probable events
The person who thinks on the left side of the brain
And proudly calls himself logical
Can only analyze up to a certain point
Never reaching the origin of a particular event that may be the source of it all
An incomplete analysis may have a strong point
But the lack of comprehensive reasoning
Contributes to its Limitation
Thinkers…

The danger of logic is in its incompleteness
A single factor may divert the critical path of an event
Considering that there is a combination of paths that may differ slightly from the other
But yet, yield the same result/event/effect.

The right side moves more mysteriously
As it inculcates the wave of thought that follows a pattern.
The right side follows a statistical pattern
And encapsulates possibilities into patterns that are
Accessible at a higher speed in a thought process.
However when it comes to justifying their thought process
One does not necessarily make a logical connection
As the speed of arrival has compromised with the depth of analysis.
And so, one has to divert back to the critical path method
Or the reason of cause and effect
And may make it tiresome for a person with this thought process.
Doers…

The speed of thought can also be encapsulated into emotions
And thus a strong association between emotions, intuitions and patterns.
The primary basis of a thought may have been born of logic
But to what type?
The right side has its package to speed up delivery
But the left side contains its quality

Fact or crap? Or crappy fact?

Perhaps, this is why I enjoy playing the windows-based game called ‘MINESWEEPER’
A good exercise for decision making, brain management
It is the optimal use of strategy
To come up with the shortest time to resolve the problem.
You have to come up with an optimal arrangement
An optimal mix of chance and logic
That will give you enough backbone
To speed up resolution in an acceptable time frame.
Productivity and efficiency…

In conclusion to this thesis,
A Left minded person is not necessarily superior to
A person who predominantly uses the right side of the Brain.
And vice versa…
Ergo…how dare anyone thinks one is more superior than the other
What matters is
How the person uses his or her brain
To become the most that he or she is
And thus be effective and valuable in his or her own existence,
His or her own reality.

You see, a person may have invested in the left side
Where quality is better than quantity
But in suffering the time to arrive at the
Most purest logical proposition,
He/She may have lost the chance in time
To have made that decision
And so, what good would it have done
In one’s reality?
Just hold on to that thought, store and keep it
Distribute to your friends
And use it when the next chance passes you by.
A person may have invested in the right side so much
The pattern may be correct but misplaced in such a situation
And the possibility of erroneous actions are quite in fact, a bigger one.

*Sigh*

Even our inner mind is an infinite universe

Along with the universe around our planet

And the possibilities that surround it

Our dreams are limitless

And this makes living in the world an exciting game of chance and logic.

Viva Las Vegas!

It’s ironic
That my dad’s dad is a medical doctor
But my dad who never became a doctor
And is quite old right now
Is living reasonably healthy
Yet, he never really goes out to see a doctor
But he practices healthy habits
And is ridiculously consistent about it.
When and if something is wrong about him,
He is keenly aware of his body
By trial, research and error, he alters his diet
And with an unearthly discipline
He rises above it.

Ahh…the mysteries of my family life!

It is May 20, Sunday
And on this special day
Forty years ago
My mom married my dad.
She wore a bridal gown
That looked a bit Chinese of origin
But such, that if worn today
Could definitely make a fashion statement.
Gosh, If she had preserved it
And if I had a wedding coming in soon
I would’ve worn the same thing
And done my hair and make up the same way!
My mother was very beautiful
And my Daddy, very handsome!
I’ve never been a proud child of two wonderful people.

I heard from family secrets of the past
My grandparents from my mother side
Had required a dowry from my Dad
But he never obliged.
Ah, the rebel.
The ‘why’ is still a mystery.
They had met in Dagupan
Where my mother worked in a bank
And he was a deejay with a radio station.
My Dad visited the bank
And my mom would be required to make him some coffee.
Pretty picture?  Unfortunately
Since I have not lived that long ago
I know no more.

But I do know of the days after the marriage.
They had borne 4 sons and two daughters.
They are still together
And I thank the Lord God for that!
There were times when I wished them to part ways
In the midst of a fight too loud too ignore
But we will never know what they fought about
At least, the topic was always hush-hush.
It’s a good thing, the Maker above
Turned a deaf ear on me when I prayed that they would part
Because I was dreadfully afraid of being in middle of their ‘war’ zone. It was terrifying for me and painful.
But how selfish of me
When to realize
If they had broken apart
One could not have survived without the other.
Although, upon speculation,
My mom would say she could
But sometimes, the bark is just that…a bark!
But my dad? He needs my mom.
They need each other
I’m so glad God had put them together.
And I have forty years of the past to Thank the Lord
For such as this…a Joyous event!

Our family, I could not say we were rich
Heck, I don’t know where everything came from
All I know, we were provided for ‘enough’ and maybe a little more than that
Yes, we ran some short ends and my mother would freak out
She’d let out tidbits of some harsh reality
But something good always seem to happen, we were always saved somehow.
Just like that one night
Driving from Canada to New York
We were in our big brown family car
Ted wasn’t born yet
So, there were five of us
Somehow we crammed in fine in that big brown car…was it a lincoln?
I remember the emblem in front ressembled a lincoln.
Maybe it was sometime between 1981 - 1983
There was a snowstorm
And we were somewhere in the mountains
On the edge of a slippery road
If we had slid
We would’ve fallen off a cliff.
My dad was driving a bit tense then
Maybe more than a bit
I remember that split second he had panic
And I had actually felt our tires slide down the ice.
And I remember that moment we seem to all hold our breaths
All at once.
At the edge of a mountain.
What a snowstorm.
We reached Long Island in the dead of night
Safe…safe…for many years to come.

Do you know
How powerful a mother’s prayer can be?
My mom ever tried to be controlling
But knowing she could not control everything
Prayed a lot to God about each and everyone of us.
She prayed too much some times
We, her children would find it ridiculous
But she persevered.
We prosecuted her for her actions
Feeling sometimes, that she did not justify herself
But she persevered…and as a consequence thereof:
There were times, I felt so perfectly safe
That I could swear, I hear my mom’s prayers.
My dad, has always been true to his word
And honored his position in his family
Oh my goodness, I think he is SUPERMAN
For having provided for all six of us
Up until this day, for my younger brother.

My brothers and sisters, including myself.
We are not all that influential, famous, successful persons
We have been striving to become.
(On the contrary…)
But most of our richness however lies so much
Intagibly upon ourselves
In our souls.
And this is thanks
Mostly because of where we came from
The family that was born, forty years ago, from today.
God had truly been there during their wedding
And had Blessed that Marriage.

Anna Nalick.

She’s my new favorite singer
She’s been around though
Her alternative musical style is faraway from Jason MraZ
I don’t think she takes as much drugs (lol)
But like Jason Mraz
There is no song that she sang that I do not like!

Okay, I am not starting some tsimis about Mr. A-Z
It’s just that he’s a mouthful of words
And don’t you know how exhausting that is?
He must have some help or high from something.

Normally, I would only like 1-3 songs
From a singer and the rest are just blah.

But these two I like! I love.

I consider myself a regular gym nut
Because I’m there 5 days a week.
I’m addicted.

Step Class.
That was my first love
Maybe because I had started that way back in pinas
In front of my VHS player
Eh, its fun pala to do it with a group
It’s somewhere between, C.A.T. and a dance class.
But its exercise
And sometimes you have to do lightweights
Because it’s repetitive too.
I’m a follower of Liz and Nathan
I heard through the grapevine
That Nathan was a student of Liz
Liz is so absolutely great
That gym teachers from all over Houston
Attend her class
To pick up some new stuff?
Or to find out how great she is?
Even our kickboxing Teacher is a regular in her class!
Sunday class is advance class.
It is pure unadulterated step.
And beginners are too intimidated to attend it.
As a beginner I didn’t mind that I would stop
During the routine to observe and
Just to memorize the step and her terminology.
Liz is the punisher (she’s the fat killer)
I call her that only in my head.
But really, she’s the greatest!
They should make all gym teachers like her

Kickboxing.
Is only as intense as you want it to be.
You can do kickboxing and hardly sweat
But you can also do kickboxing so vigorously
You get wet everywhere!
Our kickboxing rocks.
Jab, Cross, Hook, Uppercut!
She’s a bit hip-hopish in her moves
And She rocks.

Salsa.
Is simple and enjoyable.
But I do not think I have mastered
The movements of my hips
And so I continue to attend.
My friend at work work’s advise:
Do the figure 8!
But really, its more than that
But it was a great first step.
I saw somebody do salsa so vigorously
She sweat her whole shirt.

Belly Dancing
I have a potbelly
So I though it would be funny
To lose it through belly dancing
And gosh, do I find my belly funny
Because of my tummy.
Belly dancing made me look in the mirror
At myself (and I’m shy like that)
At first I didn’t want to
But it starts becoming a necessity to see if you’re doing it right.
Just like weightlifting.
Maybe one day, I can carry the hip movement here
And bring it to salsa.
I can’t wait to be a little more like Shakira.
Our teacher is a bit more like a ballerina.

Pilates/Yoga
I have never cried
Silently
With no tears until I started doing this.
The struggle here is internal
And its largely about flexibility and balance.
If I do it too vigorously, I am in the danger of
Looking horrible and experiencing convulsion.
If I do it a little lighter, kinder
I feel like I just had a massage.
The biggest mistake that I have ever done taking
This class was preparing for it by eating beans for lunch.

24.
It’s a great club.
And the people are great.
They’re very happy.
Amiable.
Maybe because at the end of it all,
They have found they have been kind to their own bodies
In a very punishing way.
How Ironic.
How good it could feel after.
But how torturous it feels during.
And while I’m gasping for my breath
Sometimes, I forget why I keep doing it to myself.
But after the workout
I wonder no more.

Life is la-la-la wonderful!

In our reality, time is linear and it passes only once
Through every point
There is no retracting in practice
Going back exist only in the mind.

You know how, some times
Time can be so slow, the agony of waiting kills you?
And in another point, time can be so fast that
It had slipped past through you didn’t know where it had gone?
Time is relative.

If one places so much value
In every second that counts
Time actually slows down.
I remember doing this way back in school
Where you are pressured to deliver
And there was time but you weren’t sure whether or not
It was enough
How I prayed that God would delay time.
But, logically I would think time moved at its constant pace
However since my mind was brainstorming
Was actually racing with so much thoughts
And with so much depth
That movement against the measure of time
Went ahead on its own.
My prayer, answered.

Let’s turn the coin around
If one takes time for granted
It actually speeds up and time gets devaluated.
Simply put, if the mind was lethargic
Time would’ve sped up so fast ahead of you
There would’ve been no catching up.
Could this be how it is like to die?
Your mind is stopped.
And should you have waked again
It would have been the end of time.
Past my twenties
I may have let go of so many cares I had before
And the next thing I knew, I was nearing my 30s
And my accomplishment? In so much approaching nil.

Energy.
Now that’s another thing.
If one had so much energy, one would be so rich
In thoughts and in practicality
One could accomplish so much in so little time
Given a generous heap of it

Earthly love is a mere manifestation
Of Energy Investment.
Investment is the allocation of energy through time.
Where do we place more of our energy on?
Given the dimensions of time
The length of time need not be a measurement of energy
Much energy could be poured out in split nano seconds
Worth the energy poured out in a year’s worth.
Truly love exists in so many dimensions
Takes forms in every unique imagination
And can barely be contained
As to get it measured.
Maybe that is why we are called not to be judgemental.

Does the end truly justify the means?
I think the end is the resulting quality of the means
The thing is, people isolate all types of situation
The end is varying, if defined as so.
But truly, it is a midpoint
Of a much larger picture
Because the end has not yet arrived.
But who cares to look at the larger picture?
It seems we are only capable of looking at only a piece of grandeur
Unfortunately the person who sees large will not find time to see the small
And so forth mirrored
A large person’s downfall will be the mundane
And a small picture is unable to see the large
Will be labeled inferior

In this world, an indirect effect
Is left to the speculation of an intellectual idyllic mind
And a big heart
People lean towards instant gratification nowadays
They only care about a certain thickness outside
Their own core.
People refuse to see the larger picture
Because it only makes sense to see what is immediate
And how we may conquer what is near
Because, it is what directly
Would affect us
In our immediate here
In the now.

What if, we were capable to see the larger picture?
It would have been easier to forgive
Small errors.
Because small errors
Are harder to forgive, sometimes
Isn’t it true sometimes that smaller wounds sting more?

However, if we did see the larger picture
Would we have understood it?
We wouldn’t have known by experience
How it actually originated
How it evolved.
Such is the puzzlement of creation
Such is the wisdom of the old

Maybe, before we were born
We already saw the universe
But because we weren’t in it
We couldn’t have understood it.
But we knew, what we were supposed to look like from afar
And from there
Somebody hit us in the head
And took us down to be smaller
In order to grow and know
And be part of the wonder!

There is a large universe
There is a small universe
And there is the parallel that exists
That makes the ecosystem of the small
Emulate the ecosystem of the large.

I guess at this point
If I were to have a series of tattoo
I will probably have that of the universe.
For now, I’ll settle for planet earth.

Mr. Psycho Brother, dude:
I know you specialize in battling depression
But can you trademark a thought for me?
I can collect on a 10% basis
For all cures you lend people
Who are inexorably depressed
To gather
Natural endorphins
From going to the gym everyday!

I would like to tag myself a regular now
Because I can basically identify
The receptionist
And what channel she turns the t.v. on
at the reception area
(Sponge Bob - a toonlover like myself)
She had apologized once for this fact
And I had to tell her,
Hey, Dudette, Xiaolin Showdown
Does it for me!
http://www2.warnerbros.com/xiaolin/main.html
But every work day
I sacrifice an episode
For gym class, my precious.
A colleague at work
Once told me, he doesn’t understand
Why I subject myself to a plot
That turns itself over and over again

This brings me to Christianity
Warning: Only read this portion for religious appreciation
Otherwise…this is a waiver:
The Word of God is said
Over and over again
But, the Word of God must be eaten with experience
Or through shared experiences
And each time the same Words are spoken
The meanings become deeper
The appreciation is deeper
And the love reaches a depth beyond comprehension.
Hey, it’s like eating Max Fried Chicken with Jufran (for me)
Or the Garahe BBQ with a mixture of vinegar, toyo and ketchup

I know the teachers at gym, too.
And I have something about teachers
Who teach to make a student feel bad
(But maybe to themselves, they are appearing
To present the class with a challenge)
But hey, we’re not deaf, blind and mute
And we know if it is a genuine challenge
Or you simply want to shove us and trample on our egos.
Ah the temptations of a teacher
Because of that power that is given them.

And then there’s a teacher
Who either loves teaching
Or loves the subject she’s teaching
And it’s that love that embraces all forms of learning!
It’s that same love you would have encountered in
The Dead Poets Society
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_poets_society/
A love that embraces
That teaches even a rebelling mind.
Teachers who tap a potential within you
Who can plant a seed in your head
To help you realize
How much more you can do
How great a person you can be
If you had that knowledge.
Ah, that switch that inspires learning!
That turns on dreaming
The thoughts that forms words
That provoke actions
To the tree that bears fruit.