May 31, 2003
Today is the big day for Jay & Aimee. It's Wedding day and it looks like it's going to be a nice one. Yesterday, the rehearsal ran quick and the rehearsal dinner was held at a really nice restaurant in Virginia Beach.

I though I'd known everything there is about this city, but this elegant restaurant was hidden in some neighborhood that I've never ventured into. This place was nice. Lu said that it seems like it could be Virginia Beach's best kept secret, the problem is that it wasn't much of a secret to the few hundred people there before us. I guess they only kept it a secret from me and lu.

I had a filet mignon and Lu had some seafood. A really nice dinner. Thanks to Jay's dad for flipping the bill for the 50 or so people there, because there was no way I was able to afford my dinner. Whenever I get married, don't expect a dinner at a classy restaurant, my mom's just cooking adobo & pancit for everyone.

There are lots of people from out of town for this, and I'll try to take lots of pictures whenever I'm not working on the cinematic vignette.

May 30, 2003
Luan is in town. I'll be hanging out with him all day today. He flew in from California to attend Jay Vergara's wedding tomorrow. This marks the final wedding this month for me. So to total it all up for the month of May - 3 weddings, 8 birthdays , 2 graduations, a mother's day, and an anniversary. This includes a birthday tomorrow, for my brother-in-law Marcial, after I attend the wedding. Another busy day to close out the month.

For this wedding, Lu and I have been asked to volunteer our steady hands to act as the official videography crew of the event. Yes, I will debut my directorial skills as I create my riveting documentary on the wedding. I'm not sure yet what to call it, possibly "The Wedding - the death of the bachelor". Maybe I'll try an avant-garde approach to it, so if you're watching his video later, and see my thumb all in the way, or the camera just on and pointing at my feet or something, that's not us making mistakes or forgetting to turn the camera off, that's just our interpretation of the moment. Any blurrines, shots out of focus, shakiness - believe us, they're all done purposely. I'll be submitting this to Cannes next year.

May 26, 2003
It's Memorial Day, and that means there are sales galore. With that, I was not planning on buying anything. There are a few big things on my wish list: Ipod, portable DVD player, etc. And so I was figuring that I should forget about an X-Box. But today I completed the triumverant, I already have a PS-2 and GameCube and now add the XBox. I was just surfing CompUsa's website and they had an Xbox for $129. That was too good for me to pass up. And they've got a 1 cent shipping special also. It may get cancelled though if too many people order, it's happen to me before. It happens to me all the time with the Best Buy clearance stuff.

Speaking of CompUSA.... Note to self: Don't wear a Red Shirt when shopping there.
I got dressed yesterday and couldn't decide what to wear. I already had khaki pants on (it was the only thing clean...gotta get to that laundry) and I thought that red, for some reason, looked reasonably matching. I didn't realize what I was wearing until people starting me asking all sorts of questions while I'm just walking around CompUSA, and it didn't hit me until I went to pay for the paper I was buying, I was wearing the same thing as the cashier. I looked around and everyone working there matched me. Good thing I realized it before I headed off to Target.

May 23, 2003
Okay, I know I haven't posted anything up here in about a week, but that's because it's been a busy week. To make up for it, I'm going to put down a lot now. I'll let you know about the highlights in sections, so you can read or skip what you want. It's a lot to read so you may want to just take it in parts.

Stefano & Jennifer's Wedding - it was a nice wedding at the newly remodeled Ascension Church. You can never tell what you'll get with a Filipino Wedding. For those that don't know, Stefano is filipino and Jennifer is a not. Sometimes you get just the wedding and no mass, and sometimes you get a full mass with a wedding thrown in the middle. This time we get sort of a mix. We basically get half a mass with the wedding, all the readings, some of the prayers, no communion. But Stefano & Jennifer were genuinely happy and it was nice to see that.

Now we have a 6 hour break between Wedding and reception. Nestor and I head over to PCC for some free hot dogs & hamburgers. Then we go vote to put Tina Sinnen on the ballot for City Clerk in November(a filipina working at the City Clerks office now - she won by the way). And then we watched the Matrix. I liked it, although I slept through the first 30 mins (I was really tired from working that morning, and the beginning of the movie drags along).

Now the reception was cool. I enjoyed myself. I enjoyed myself even more after taking advantage of the open bar. I always have more fun when there is free drinks (take notes those that are engaged).

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American Idol - Now you know I've got to speak on this. I'll keep it short though because it seems to be everywhere else on the internet too. So we have Little Luther Vandross vs. Little Rick Astley. I think it's cool Ruben won. They were both good though, but Clay just has too many quirks that bother me. It is a risky twist they are doing though. They announced that they will both record albums and they will both be released on the same week. Now we've got some big time money involved when you do that. But it's a good risk since their styles are so different, they will be drawing from different audiences. So it didn't really matter who won the contest, the real winner will be the one who takes the charts.

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Shopping - With a few more birthdays and weddings coming up, I decided to take advantage of the Memorial Day sales that started yesterday at some places. I went to the Williamsburg Outlet Stores to see what I can give away, and I end up buying a shitload of stuff for me. At least I now have spring clothes.

I also decided to stop off at Busch Gardens for lunch. I was feening for some barbecue ribs, and since I had a season pass and was in the area, I got me some ribs. It was raining too on a Thursday afternoon, so the place was empty. I felt like the episode of South Park when Cartman gets his own theme park and doesn't let anyone else in. I could have ridden any of the rides with no wait and most of them I could have done solo. But I had a headache and I loaded up on the ribs.

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State Arrival Ceremony at the White House for Phillipine President Gloria Arroyo - Monday was a hectic day. After being up late on Sunday night, I told Nestor that we need to leave for Washington D.C. at 4am. The Ceremony was at 9am and we were told to be at the gate by 8:30am. I figured that this will give us about 4 hours to get up there. We didn't want to miss this rare opportunity to meet both Presidents of the USA and Philippines in one place. And we had our special tickets to get into the White House property that were only given to a select few.

In honor of the final episode this season of 24, I'll do this 24 style. Imagine me as Keifer.
some of the times are approximates, others are exact because I kept looking at the time all day

3:45am - my alarm goes off, but I'm asleep but I've got time since I showered before I slept at 1:am anyways. Just needed to throw on the shirt and pants and brush the teeth. That takes about 5 minutes, so I snooze.
4:02am - I open my eyes and think "oh shmacks". I call nestor up and as soon as he picks up, he says in a hurried tone "i'll be there in two minutes" then he hangs up, not giving me a chance to get a word in. Seems he thought I was going to scold him for not picking me up at exactly 4am when all the while I was going to tell him to give me 5 minutes. I hurriedly throw everything on.
4:11am - Nestor picks me up and we're off. It's dark and we're both hungry, but we decide it's best that we just head straight there. The roads are clear and Nestor is going the speed of traffic, not really speeding because it's too dark to see the po-po if they're hiding. We're making decent time. Our plan was to hit up a Metro station and take the metro into DC to avoid traffic, parking, and getting lost. I was thinking ahead and had everything planned out.

6:40am - We're nearly in Northern VA when Nestor needs to go to the Rest Area. For those of you who know the drive, we stop at the Rest Area right before Potomac Mills, so we're basically in NoVA already (I like to consider Potomac Mills as my marker for the start of NoVA). I ask him if he can just hold out because we're almost there. But he really needed to go, so we stopped. (they're doing construction here, so the old women's bathroom is being substituted as the men's room. I got a free 25 cents when a quarter fell when I was banging on the tampon machine).

6:46am - we're back in the car and back on the highway.

6:56am - we hit D.C. traffic. It's moving slowly, but moving.

7:15am - we're still in traffic when we get to an off ramp that leads to a metro station. I planned to not go to this one because I knew a lot of people were going to be at this one (it's one of the major stations) and I was worried that we wouldn't find parking. I figured that we still had time and the station I had planned on going to was coming up anyways, we just had to sit through another 5 minutes of traffic.

7:25am - it's still traffic and my estimate of 5 minutes of traffic was wrong, but we do get to our exit. Now I think I'm smart because I'm avoiding the busy metro station in favor of the one that's less busy and sort of "hidden" in the neighborhood. We get there and we've got a problem - there's no parking. This isn't exactly our area so we have no idea if we can just ditch Nestor's new car wherever. So we decide to either just drive all the way to DC or backtrack to the previous metro that we just passed, since we figured the rest of the metro's would have no parking either. So we decide to backtrack back to the traffic induced highway.

7:50am- we exit off the highway and get to the busy metro station. We get into the parking garage and circle around, level by level, until we get to the very top and we find a space. The time is now (insert ticking noise) 8:00:00am...8:00:01...8:00:02... I'd done my research on the internet and found out that it takes 33 minutes to get to the White House from there, and we had to be there at 8:30am. Now we worry.

8:03am - In order to save time and not have to figure out how much it cost to take the metro up to the White House, we decide to just buy the all-day pass. I buy two of them, hand one to Nestor and we both head for the turnstyles. I stick my pass in - nothing. It doesn't open up for me. I try again - nothing. I look over to Nestor, he's not getting through either, so I figure we've got to get the fare pass instead. We are just wasting time now.

8:11am - we finally get on the metro train and we're on the move. I also notice on the all day pass that it doesn't go into effect until 9am. Damn, screwed over by an hour. But no need to dwell, we were on the train. Since it takes this train 33 minutes to get somewhere we need to be in 15 minutes, I decide that we'll be savvy and transfer from different train routes to different trains. It's a gamble since we had to wait for the next trains, but we had nothing to lose. We got to one transfer station, and as soon as we got off, the next train was right there waiting for us. We do the same at the next transfer station, it was seamless. The 33 minute trip too only 25 minutes. Problem is we were still running late. Time is now 8:35am...tick..tick..tick.

8:38am... we're now out of the station and walking, not knowing exactly where to go, but my instincts said to head in a certain way. I knew we were about 3 blocks from the White House so we do our hurried walk down three blocks and low and behold, the White House. While we're walking, I had to tuck my shirt in, and I wasn't going to stop to do this, so now I'm doing my hurried walk towards the White House with my belt unbuckled while I'm shoving my shirt into my pants. I didn't care if people were looking because it had to be done.

8:50am... We're now at the southeastern entrance to the park behind the White House. We needed to get to the Southwest Gate. We had to cut through the park. We get halfway through and run into a police officer who tells us that our path is secured and we have to go around the whole place to get to where we need to go. I explain our dilemma and point out that we only need to walk 1/2 a block to get to where we needed to go. We could see the gate (it was closed) from where we were. And anyways, the area is secured because of the event that we were going to. We had tickets to prove it. So he empathizes and points us to a secret service guy to see what he can do. This secret service guy heres my sob story and then lets us cross under the yellow tape securing the area where we were to walk to the Southeast Gate and ask to get in. Looks like things were going our way... a cop and a secret service guy were on our side. 8:58:00...

8:59am - we're walking up to the gate, thinking we may just get in. As we're walking, a band starts playing the President's Entrance song. We knew the president was now in the area. The guard at the gate meets us as we're walking up and says, sorry but the President is now on the lawn. There is nothing he can do now. If we had shown up before the President, he probably would have let us slip through, but damn, we just barely missed it. That was a pisser. Just a few minutes earlier and we may have been able to get in. I think G-dub himself got word that I was on the way and told everyone not to let me in. It's probably for the best, I was expecting to yell out "G-g-g-g-G-unit" during his speech (50 cent joke there for those who don't get it).

9:01am - so we turn around to walk away, and sitting on the curb are 2 others who didn't get in. Turns out we know them. It was Dave Alegre and his new wife Grace Malinag Alegre (their wedding will be on a Wedding Story in September). Grace was going there to cover the event for her work, and Dave, being a videographer, had his camera in hand to record the event. We talk about how the situation sucks and we head our separate ways.

9:10am - Nestor and I just decide to walk around the white house (maybe there's a back door or something we could sneak into...okay, maybe we'll get shot sneaking into the white house). We'd never been there so we just become tourists and take pictures and stuff. All over the streets you could see philippine flags. There was even a huge flag on what I think was the Treasury Dept. It seems that this meeting with the Philippines President is even bigger than we expected. It turns out that ole' GW gave Arroyo the full Presidential Treatment, something done only for the most astute guests, and he's only done this two other times before.

9:55am - as we're about to leave the grounds of the White House, a band starts parading from the gates of the White House. They are playing all kinds of patriotic songs and Nestor and I go check it out. It marked the end of the event and so we wait at the gate as everyone walks out. Everyone was given free Philippine flags and nice embroidered handouts to commemerate the event we missed out on. Oh well, we were hungry, we decide to go eat.

10:10am - we walk around trying to find a good place to eat. Couldn't find anything. But I did get to see the filipina lady that does the news for the Filipino Channel, ABS-CBN. She was in front of the White House with her crew. I wanted to get a picture with her because I know this is sort of cool. She's like the leading news lady for the Philippines. She's like Dan Rather or Barbara Walters in the Philippines. I walked up to her but she was in a conversation with someone. I didn't want to be rude, so I stood there waiting for her to finish. I couldn't even remember her name though. Suddenly a large group of filipinos are walking by and recognize her. They pretty much talk to her and are overly excited about it. She basically brushes them off and then turns away as if she doesn't want to be bothered by anyone else. So I don't get my picture.

10:20am - we stop off at the visitor's center. We check out Micheal Jordan's restaurant over there. It didn't open until 11:30am though and we were too hungry to wait an hour. The Visitor's Center had some tight ass security too. It was tighter than the airports. We head back onto the metro.

10:45am - we get off at Pentagon City, the mall next to the Pentagon. I figured that there should be somewhere we could eat there and Nestor decides on L&N, a seafood restaurant in the mall. They had some pretty good food. We went off. We thought that we'd get some lunch time portions of food, but they were generous. It was all really good, or maybe we were just really hungry. I can go on and on, but you guys probably don't care. It was a highlight though.

12:30pm - we head back to the metro and back to the car.

2:00pm - we go to Ikea. This was planned. I had some stuff in mind to buy and since Nestor has a new hatchback Vibe car, I could fit some stuff in there. I went and bought a DVD rack that I didn't buy before, basically because I couldn't fit it into the car, but now this is a necessity with my DVD collection growing exponentially. The box is 7 feet long though. I also buy a wardrobe thingy. This comes in 4 boxes and two of them are also 7 feet long. The only way we could fit these into Nestor's car is to fold down all the seats on the right side of the car, including the front passenger seat. It barely fit, now the only place left for me to sit is behind Nestor. I know this looked odd, but it had to be done.

4:15pm - after gassing up we head home. It's smooth driving the whole way. We didn't hit traffic anywhere. We were just flying home

6:45pm - I get home. It took us 2.5 hours to get home, where it took 3.5 hours to get up there. What a pisser. Especially when I realize that I missed the two Presidents by minutes. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

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May 17, 2003
Today I'm going to the Wedding of Stefano Reyes & Jennifer Check. Stef's finally getting tied down. After years of living the life of a playboy, he's finally settling down. The Wedding is at noon while the reception is at 6pm. Now that's a big gap there. So what am I going to do to fill the 5 hour gap there? I may just check out the Matrix, while decked out in my good "wedding" clothes. At least I'm not wearing a black suit. Some may just get the wrong ideal and think that I'm so crazy about the Matrix that I had to dress up as one of the agents.

I thought I was going to have a dilemma tonight. I was going to have to figure out how to attend the wedding reception yet watch game 7 of the Lakers-Spurs match up. Well the Lakers made sure I didn't have any problems by playing lousy and losing. So who's gonna win the NBA now? I don't care. No Lakers, no interest from me. College is better anyways...

Monday morning, I may make a quick trip up to D.C. The President of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo, is going to visit ol' G-Dub himself at the White House and I may have an invitation to attend the welcoming ceremony. I'm still not sure yet though. My car's been acting up and the ceremony is at 9am, meaning, I've got to travel at around 4am. It's a rare opportunity though, so I may just make the trek. Now, do I call her Auntie Glo??? or Auntie President???

May 15, 2003
Yesterday was my parents' anniversary. I got them a grill (not exactly a sentimental gift, but rather practical). It was on sale but once I got to the store, there was only one left, the one that was already assembled and on display. I was just going to shove the box into my car, but now I had a problem because I couldn't just shove an already assembled grill in there. I called my sister to see if her little Civic hatchback could do something, but I should have known better. Luckily, a friend of hers just happens to call her while he was in his Rodeo driving by the store we were at. It was still a hastle, but i got it home.

The Lakers... I'm not even gonna say anything about them right now. I'm just upset. I say - if you're gonna lose, and you're already down by 25, don't come back to lose by only 2. If you're gonna do all that, WIN the damn game. You guys are killing me with this drama.

Ali vs. Frazier... Lakers vs. Celtics... UNC vs. Duke... DC vs. Marvel... Kool Moe Dee vs. LL Cool J... Britney vs. Christina... and now Ruben vs. Clay.

E3 stuff
It's the middle of may and it's E3 time. The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has become the mecca for gaming aficionados. All the big time gaming companies converge to unveil their newest games and technologies.

Unlike previous years, the biggest buzz at the Electronic Entertainment Expo isn't be about the novelty of online gaming or the sizzle of next generation's boxes. It's about how soon Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are going to slash the prices on their aging Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube consoles. And it looks like they didn't hesitate. Both the PS2 and XBox are now $179 everywhere - a $20 drop, although everyone was expecting a $50 drop. I only need the XBox to complete my triumverant of consoles and I would have jumped all over a $150 console. Especially with all of the recent hacks for the machine (no region coding for DVDs, use it as an FTP/Telnet server, backup games/mp3s/movies, download/run games from the harddrive, & lots more). But by dropping only by $20 isn't making me run to the stores right away. And so far no word from Nintendo about the GameCube, but they're doing alright with their free game promo. If you're in the market for a Playstation, note that a new version comes out in June, complete with Network Adapter and DVD-R/RW readable capabilities as well as progressive scan DVD mode, but this will be $199.

Playstation did pull a surprise move by unveiling the Playstation Portable (PSP) and stepping into the portable gaming world dominated by Nintendo's GameBoy. Nokia earlier this year announced that they are throwing their hat in the ring with the N-Gage, but from the buzz I'm hearing the PSP is blowing them all away with the use of a 1.8 Gig mini-disc. It also has MPEG-4 and MP3 capabilities and is also equipped with USB 2.0. So far it's the big buzz of the convention.

Other notables so far: Warm up those vocals everyone & step aside Dance Dance Revolution. We now have new ways of making fools of ourselves - Karaoke Revolution. The PS2 will now have a Karaoke game, much like the way DDR is played. Jennifer Love Hewitt made a surprise appearance to show off the new game at E3. Hey, If you're gonna get a celebrity singer to show off a game, might as well get the best... or get Jennifer Love Hewitt if everyone else says no.

Castlevania is making lots of noise, NFL2K4 is winning over a lot of people (even Madden loyalists), did someone say Ninja Gaiden?, Mario Kart -Double Dash !!!, let Hugh Hefner play the Sims and what do you get - Playboy: The Mansion.

May 10, 2003
Okay so the Matrix opens this Thursday, but there are a bunch of places that are showing unadvertised sneak previews on Wednesday night. Pretty much all of the theatres in Virginia Beach that are showing the Matrix are having at least 3 showings starting at 10pm. Just check Fandango (change the date to Wednesday) for the times. Buy tickets early because they will sell out. I've got to work though, so I guess I'm waiting till the weekend for my fix.

May 10, 2003- shopping stuff
It's going to be one busy week for me.

Today I'm going to a wedding shower. Tomorrow is Mother's Day. My parents' anniversary is this week. And next Saturday, I'm going to a wedding. And add that to the other two weddings I'm going to this month and the couple of people I know that are graduating this week (congrats by the way). That's lots of presents from someone who doesn't have lots of money. If you just happen to glance out the window and see some money flying away, it's just my hard earned overtime money saying bye-bye.

I am getting creative (read: cheap) for some of these presents though. And I just happen to make out like a bandit yesterday during a Hecht's sale. Because I was there at 8am, I got the early bird giveaway for the first 300 people - a $15 hechts card!! Just a perk for working the graveyard shift and getting off at 8am. And being the cunning person I am, I always try to figure how I'm going to maximize this opportunity. So after I get my $15 card, I jump into my car, speed down the highway and hit up Hecht's #2. Since it's only about 8:30am still, I get to be one of the first 300 people there too. Now that's a free $30. So I take that $30 and it to the 15% off total purchase coupon and I've got a buttload of savings. And then I only bought stuff on sale. So I've bought 3 presents and some clothes (I've got to look good at these weddings without wearing the same thing) and I've got $150 worth of stuff and I only spent about $75. Like a bandit I tell ya. But I still have a bunch of gifts to go.

When I was at Hecht's, I was trying to find a Mother's Day gift. I never know what to buy. I like to get practical stuff though, not flowers or food. So I'm looking at clothes in the women's section. I'm looking around for a while because I don't really know what I'm looking for. I then happen to notice a nice looking girl behind the counter. I just notice that she's nice and then I forget about it and go on about my wandering around in the women's clothing section, looking out of place. I just happen to look up. Eye Contact. Not the "hey good looking" kind, but I'm getting the "what are you looking at" look. So I ignore it and go to another women's section (these women sections are huge, the guys section get like 5 racks). I'm just minding my business, looking clothes when in the corner of my eye I see a girl coming down the little pathway thingy. I take a quick glance to get my peek in, and it's the same girl. Eye contact. The "What are you still looking at" kind. So I decide to give it up and walk over to the guys side and spend some money on me. While I'm at the guys section, the employee door opens up when I'm standing next to it and homegirl walks out. Eye Contact. And now she's thinking that I'm stalking her. So now I'm trying to purposely avoid her so she doesn't think I'm some crazy psycho customer. I go do my wedding registry shopping, but that requires searching for stuff in several sections. Problem is, while I'm going back and forth searching, I end up passing by her section several times. Eye contact. Eye contact. All by accident, because I didn't notice where she was each time. She was sneaky, sneaky. I was glad to get out of there when I did, just because I made myself look psycho in front of a pretty girl. Story of my life yall...

May 8, 2003
Okay, I think I've done pretty good about not talking about American Idol this season, but now we're down to the final three and I'm pretty happy about them. (all you non american idol watchers...sorry, but bear with me while I vent). Last night, the last of the "how in the hell did they get this far?" group was kicked off and I'm glad about it. Actually, I can sort of figure out how good ol' country boy Josh Gracin made it to the final four. First of all, he's a marine, and with current events going on, he's portrayed as an american hero, even though he had nothing to do with the war in Iraq (because he was working on terrorizing the world every Tuesday night on Fox). Second, he had the typical american good boy look. That annoyed me. He came off sort of gay to me, which I normally wouldn't mind, but it sort of contradicts his hardcore marine stance from his audition. One time he sang some slow song while batting his eyes the whole song, very gay, and Simon called him out on it. Lastly, he switched to country music and there are a million country music fans out there.

Now we've got three good singers. I'm not too crazy about Clay Aiken. I'll admit that he does have an amazing voice but it doesn't suit the style that they are looking for. They want Justin Timberlake, Clay is Michael Crawford (the phantom of the opera guy). I listen to him and I can't help but think of one other person - Rick Astley. A clean-looking white guy with a voice that doesn't match. And some of his little quirks are beginning to bother me. His slow blinks on EVERY episode while he recieves his praise from the judges and then he mouths "thank you" with his eyes shut. It was cool at first, where I'd think "he's so humble", but after a few months, he's still doing it and now it looks like a fake act he's putting on. You know you're good now, so stop being humble and smile or joke or show some other emotion when they judge you. At least they covered his howdy doody ears with his hair.

I can't complain too much about the other two. Kimberly Locke, it's hit or miss with her. She sounds good most of the time, and then some other times it's just boring. And Ruben, the overall favorite. He needs to quit with that 205 shit. We get it already. Hopefully he'll get some money out of this and buy some decent clothes sans numbers. And the audience isn't helping with all of their 205 signs. I'm sure half of them don't know where the 205 is. And others are thinking, "wow, yelling out an area code is really hip and cool". News flash - rappers have been doing it for years. At least we've got decent voices left. I don't really care who wins thought.

The tour is making it's way to D.C. and Richmond this year. Tickets go on sale next Saturday.

Did you guys see Britney on Punk'd this week on MTV? I think one of her little friends was trying to peek out at me to say "hi Elbert".

The Lakers are in a hole, and this time I'm worried. Mainly because they are now playing a quality team in the Spurs. They claim they can turn it on when they want, so turn it on now D@mnit! You guys are losing! Argghhh!!

I've got a stack of DVDs to go through now, mainly Hong Kong flix...

May 7, 2003
May is a busy month for weddings. I know it's a nice time for a white wedding, but I've got to buy 3 wedding presents for 3 consecutive weeks. That sort of spreads my paycheck thin, so you guys are probably getting cheaper gifts than I would have given if the weddings were at different times of the year. All these weddings are sort of keeping my weekends busy. I would like to take a little vacation somewhere, but I can't because of the weddings.

I'm finally not working on the weekend. After 6 straight weekends, I'm going to be able to go out this weekend. With this little bit of extra income and the need to get away, but again, the month of May is booked for me. Maybe a little trip back up to New York sometime in June.

Most of you don't care about this, but the MTV Road Rules/ Real World Battle of the Sexes wrapped up this week. I mention this because, for those who watched it, the final four females happen to be the four asians on the show. Lori mentions on her site :
"I would also like to point out...in case you haven't noticed, that there are all Asian girls left. They asked us about it in interviews, but it never made the show. Yes, we have Melissa (half black/half Filipino), Ruthie (Hawaiian, Samoan, Filipino, and I think a few other things too), Ellen (Korean), and me (half Filipino/quarter Irish/quarter Italian). I was the TALLEST GIRL THERE!! Do you understand that that never happens? I'm 5'2" and I towered. "
You can even here Melissa exclaim "I love Filipinos!" when fellow Ruthie wins a car for them. For some inside scoops on the show, check out Melissa's Blogs (she's one goofy Pinay) and Lori's Website (she was looking good at the end). Some really interesting insights on the stuff we don't see aired, and a twist to the stuff we do see.

May 6, 2003
So Elbert, where have you been the past week?
I've been right here... but because of yahoo's big screw up, a couple thousand people haven't been able to update their websites. It was a busy week too, but everytime I tried to post something, I'd get a can't connect to server message. But it looks like Yahoo has fixed their big bug and everything looks to be running okay, but I took it as a sign and now I'm looking to better my stuff in the near future. I actually have a couple other sites you could have checked out (mostly blogs) but I don't think most of you know about those. They're rarely used anyways, just stuff for me to play around with.

So what did I do this past weekend? Pretty much nothing because I am STILL working overtime on the weekends. My co-worker is extending his leave of absence a few more weeks so I'm still stuck sacrificing my weekends for work. It's been about 6 weeks now and I'm worn out.

Okay, so the big summer movie season started a little early this year with Xmen 2. I'm sure you've heard a lot about this already (if you haven't already seen it) to know that it's been getting good reviews, so I'm not going to waste time on my own review. Just know that I liked it. There are some parts that deveate from the comic, but overall it compliments it.

Some little things that you may have missed:
Cameos: Beast - when Mystique was in the bar, they showed a news report with Dr. Hank McCoy being interviewed.
When Mystique hacked into Lady Deathstryke's computer, you could see the names Remy LeBeu (Gambit) and Jamie Maddrox (Multiple Man).
They showed a file with the name Franklin Richards (son of Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic).
The older asian girl trapped with the other kids was Jubilee, who was later next to Professor X at the end while he talked about "The Once and Future King" (the same book Magneto was reading in jail).
And then the other kids: Siren, Kitty Pride, and Colossus (sans russian accent). I'm also guessing that the girl he's carrying may have been his sister Illyana aka Magik.

I'm not sure if they are going to mention that NightCrawler is Mystique's son, and I'm sure they did away with the whole Rogue being her foster child thing.

For those of you that had no clue as to what was just written may want to check out the profiles of some characters or just the main Marvel website.

Hope your Cinco de Mayo was muy bien.