So after an ominous morning of heavy rain and howling wind, I woke up a year older. Work was cool, didn't do much. Abstained from meat. Went to Church. Had dinner with the fam and v-may. Ate cake (Rum Cream Puff cake from Dianda's - greatest cake of all time). Missed Smallville. Sounds like a cool 25th! I kept thinking about my 19th birthday, which also took place on Ash Wed my frosh year of college. And that's also the day where Reeg had his first 40 oz. I still have the bottle too. Thanks Keegan! If you didn't know, that was one of my roommates names freshman year. No joke. Regan and Keegan. And we were nothing alike. I'm sure the Trop people had fun with that. But he was one of the coolest dudes I've met in SB. And my other roommate Rob, another mad cool cat who smoked more than chimneys, dubbed me "reegsta." So thanks again guys.

Anyways, I'm kinda reluctantly having a lil shindig this Friday the 27th. So if your in town and down and near downtown, I shall be @:

The Triangle Lounge
3231 Fillmore St
SF, Cali 94123

Well its actually in the Marina. Close enough. I haven't drank since I got back yet. So hopefully it'll be fun. Hopefully I can have pictures up by Monday, to give you a recap of it. I have pics of my birthdays from 19th to the 24th. And I'm wearing a polo shirt in all of them. How sad, but at least they're not all stripes! Maybe I should continue and rock a polo on friday? One day if I ever get a scanner I want to scan them and show you the progression. Or lack thereof.

I wanted to watch The Passion sometime. Did you hear some woman had a heart attack while watching the climatic ending? That somewhat turns me off from watching it. And right now moms is in a theatre peeping it, and she hasn't stopped talking about it.

Oh yeah what's up with my ad banners? It's kinda scary me now. Laser hair removal? Skin whitening pills? Hey at least they're paying attention to what I'm writing.

One thing I wanted to do is watch Musiq Soulchild in concert. I think I blogged about it on our public blog when he last came to the Bay. So he's coming again next week for KMEL's House of Soul. But the tickets are $60! At Ruby Syke! Man, last year they were $30 at the Fillmore. And I paid only $40 for a Mos Def/Kweli/Pharoahe/Skillz show at RS. I cannot justify paying 120 bones for Musiq and some other cat I never even heard of. But I tell you what - this cat is one of my favorite musicians, and is easily my favorite R&B cat (sorry Justin). "Just Friends" is infectious; I've been playing it consistently since I first heard it senior year. And some cats from UCLA performed it at a show I went to. his albums are dope also. I like his steez. And one day I'll watch him live.

"I woke up early on my born day, I'm twenty(-five) it's a blessing
The essence of adolescence leaves my body now I'm fresh in
My physical frame is celebrated cause I made it
One quarter through life some Godly like thing created"
-Nas "Life's a B!+ch" 1994

Thanks for the shouts. One love.

I like to think I'm good with money. But I'm really not. That should change however. Instead of complaining about how much I DON'T make, more effort should be put into how to make my $ act better. So I scheduled an interview with my financial advisor on Thursday. A fee is involved, but I like to think of this as a short term investment for long term growth. You didn't really think about cost of college (not really at public school). Right now my savings is desert-like, my 401K is in its infancy (plus my co. doesn't match), my credit card balance is up there (thank God for balance xfers hehe), and I'm still payin car notes (40 down, 20 more to go!). Not a good pace for someone who wants to be a homeowner before he's 30! I'm gettin some money back for my tax refund, but not sure how I should disperse it. The 2K3 Reeg would've spent it on material goods, but the 2K4 Regan won't (hopefully). Options:

1. Go to savings.
2. Pay off debt.
3. Get Lasix (I'll go on a financial tangent about this later - but i've told most of you about it).
4. Get a 40gb iPod (not a mini one!!)
5. Obtain a Holy Grail
6. Go to Vega$.

Options 4 & 5 I'll have some cheese left. Option 6 I potentially could have LESS skrill, and nothing to show for it.

"If your outflow exceeds your income, then your upkeep is your downfall"

Happy Mardi Gras everyone. Not sure what to sacrifice or "make better" during this lent season, but its kinda funny how its only for 40 days. Meaning, shouldn't we keep it goin? Regardless, I remember last year I wasn't gon buy kicks for this span, but it turned out I bought more than usual. Whoa. I did give up fast food though. I may do that again (unless its a California Cobb Salad @ Crack-D'S - yummm). I just want to live healthy and prosporous life. Spoken like a true older person yo. Anyways, tomorrow I'ma get some Ash spread on face and we'll go from there.

Anyone see Euro-Trip yet? I downloaded the trailer yesterday after my bro told me he saw KK in the preview. Man I'm slipping. I do recall she was supposed to appear in a flick, but there was a last-second name change so it blew over my dome. The funny thing is I wanted to watch it even before KK was gonna be in it. How can you go wrong w/ the producers of Old School and Road Trip? (Old School is off the wall - i <3 it) There's a lot of gratuitous nudity in the flick, but I'm glad KK doesn't get down and derrty. Matt Damon gets some tongue action with her though. At least its not Ben Affleck.

Alright, there's actually more to write about the PI. As I may have mentioned, I was forced to go and get a pedicure. Since I usually wore tsinelas, my hairy feet were exposed. After enduring countless taunts of "Frodo!" and "Saam!" I contemplated on getting foot hair removal. At last second I backed off, but a perrafin wax was suggested to me. Advice: never do this! You put your foot into a bucket of HOT WAX. Man, that pain was excruciating. And then I had to put my OTHER foot in. Supposedly this softens your feet, but damn, they felt the same. So much for that. Then I was like whatever, I'ma go get a massage. Anticipating a cute girl giving me a lil rub-a-dub-dub, I instead find a middle-aged woman who looked provincial. WTF?!? Oh well, I just kept my eyes closed.

Filipinos are a funny people. They put such an emphasis on white skin. Ads everywhere: SKIN BLEACHING! WHITENING SOAP! I don't understand how people could stay that white in that climate. I admit, mestiza's are a hot breed generally. But ghostly figures are pretty darn scary.

For a few days I was sick, the usual diarrhea and yacks. We went to Greenhills Mall, which is bootleg extravaganza. They even have fake GAP gear along w/ the typical fake Jordans, Louis, Burberry and even a Hermes Birkin! (Please reference the Lucy Lui SITC episode). Also, they can't sell DVDs are the front (it's illegal), so dudes constantly go up to you and whisper "DVD DVD, 75 pesos" (~$1.33 USD) And they bring you to the underground railroad. The quality isn't that bad either, but you get what you pay for. Anyways, as I was saying, I was feeling a lil wooozy. I had Popeye's and couldn't really eat, so I just stayed posted and waited. My tum tum is shaking, like I'm about to yack. I feel it coming, so I burst towards the nearest CR (CR = comfort room = bathroom). Turns out running and yacking don't go well together. I swallow my yack once, meters (the US should go on the metric system) away from the bathroom. But I just couldn't hold it in much longer. I yacked on the floor of a mall. Ooooops. I burst to the bathroom without paying the 20 peso fee and go again, this time in the sink. I wash up and grab hella paper towels to clean my mess up. I used to cleaning throw up. I go outside, and I already see their maintenance crew finish cleaning it. Feeling bad, I gave dude 100 pesos and said salamat. So for the rest of the day I stayed in and finished reading The Da Vinci Code. Great book by the way.

Quick SV update:

I haven't watched the past couple weeks, but this episode didn't seem to rely on that. Anyways, it wa an alright episode. Thought Alicia was a mute at first, didn't know she was a mutant w/ her Nightcrawler abilities (remember X-Men?). Anyways, funny how they just walked away from that elevator after the camera was fried and a steel panel was ripped open. Ummm...isn't that a sign of something? And wouldn't the tape show Clark intently staring at the camera before it went off? Ya think Lionel purposely sabotaged the lift? Turns out Alicia was psycho-girl. She reminded me of Sarah Jessica Parker. Anyways, I knew that Adam cat was shady since the beginning, but had no idea Lionel was behind it. It was good to see Clark save Lana once again, for old time sakes. Another question is where is Alicia gonna go? Wouldn't she tell the world about Clark? I know I would if he played me like that. Oh yeah, that scene where Mr. Kent walks in on Clark got me rolling. Lana already knew Clark was hiding things, and that was even more evident from yesterday's episode. I'm sure its killing her inside. Clark was still kind of cold after their last dialogue, basically saying he's not in love w/ her. We all know that's a front though right?

So my body still thinks I'm in the PI. I arrived to work yesterday at around quarter to 10. Which wasn't so bad, for I just crept through the back door and slid into my cube. Anyways, let's discuss the trip. We landed like 2 hrs before we were supposed to, so we waited at the airport for a minute (minute = 1.5 hrs). We took a couple vans to Tagaytay, which is a really nice city. It has a higher elevation and is a little more green than metro Manila. There was a rehearsal dinner party where I ate like it was my last meal.

I love playing golf in the PI. I've probably played like 10 different rounds there. You never have to carry your bags or wash your sticks, that's what caddies are for. I feel bad initially because most of the caddies are female, but its part of the culture there. I didn't score too well, but a fun golf trip in Tagaytay nonetheless.

Primarily we stayed in Rockwell in Makati. I knew it was a nice area, but I didn't know it was that nice! It's like in a bubble in the middle of all the poverty surrounding QC. We stayed in a 9th floor condo that my sister-in-law's folks have bought. I've never seen so many Euros in the PI before. The residents in Rockwell are mostly Euro and other Asian, then Filipino. But they say the Chinese have all the pera there. For instance, one Chinese dude owns the Philippine National Back AND PAL!

We mainly went for my cuz's wedding, which had an interesting green and pink motif (see pics). It seemed like a traditional wedding, except I was in a barong. It also rained that day, but I hear that's good luck for the couple. So is no rain bad luck then? In any case, it was an elaborate wedding, topped off w/ a 9 foot cake. Crazy huh? But only the first couple layers were real. The Shangri-La is a really nice telly. We were supposed to stay there but our rooms were given away last minute.

Here are some pics for now. My batteries died. And my battery charger died. So I need to rely on my brother's and cousin's DCs for the rest of the trip.

Philippines 2004

I should update my albums on the right sometime too. Okay BRB.

Back home I am. And I wish I were still there. This was my fav vacation ever, and it would be hard to top. I thought I had fun during my first 2 visits there, but the 3rd time is the charm (funny because I primarily went there for my cousin Charm's wedding). Anyways, I shall blog about this trip throughout the week. Many eventful events occurred. Hopefully I have enough pics too! Hope everyone had a good past 2 weeks. See ya soon.