Ernesto's Favorite Things (Right Now)

Instead of writing a long story of what I've been up to these past few weeks I've decided to compile a list of my favorite things (just like Oprah). I do want to clarify that this list only represents what I currently like right now (meaning the past few weeks) and not necessarily my ultimate favorites for each category. If I fail my exam, then I blame all of these distractions (I know lame excuse haha).

---Favorite Books/Authors---
These two prolific and excellent authors have inspired me to consider writing my own memoir...well at least part of it. I guess I need to get some more "life experience" before I can complete a memoir. Anyway, I'm addicted to their books. Both write about their wacky, unusual upbringings, their addictions and psychoses, their love life (both are fabulous gay men) and just overall crazy personal anecdotes. Check out the links.
David Sedaris
Augusten Burroughs


---Favorite TV Show---
Since its summer most of the great shows are on hiatus and we're left to watch crap tv. A couple of shows that captured my attention (not so crappy) are both reality tv shows, one is about dancing while the other one is a social experiment. So You Think You Can Dance is just plain good fun to watch (not to mention loads of cute guys) while the British Big Brother is quite interesting because of the various twists for this year's version (technically I don't watch this on my tv, instead I watch it online but the computer is practically tv).
So You Think You Can Dance
Big Brother UK

---Favorite Movie---
How much did I like this movie...I liked it enough for me to watch it three times (three different theaters, cities and company). Although I was only in Paris for one day, I fell in love with it. This movie is comprised of different short films, each shot at a particular district in Paris by different directors. Each one uses a different approach for telling a story about the various kind of love (some good tear-jerkers, some hilarious comedies and even scary genres). If you have'nt seen it, go now!
Paris Je T'aime

---Favorite Website---
I don't need to explain how addictive youtube is... Facebook is a better version of myspace and definitely worth signing up for if you're not already a member. The last one is quite entertaining. Its pretty much online karaoke! As a Filipino, I'm required to like karaoke eventhough I sound like an old woman who is loosing her voice and can only hit one note...haha I'm quite pathetic. I can already imagine what Simon Cowell would say about my singing...(In Simon's British accent) "Just plain atrocious". Below are a couple of my poor attempts in becoming a recording artist. Feel free to criticize, throw some rotten tomatoes my way.
YouTube
Facebook
SingShot


Yesterday-Beatles


Always on My Mind-Elvis Presley

Even More Random Thoughts

Once again, I admit that I'm the worst blogger. Lots happened these past two weeks, many stories I've imagined writing in this blog but of course they're left to rot in my head. Unfortunately, I only remember a few these stories so I'm going to write down what I can remember. They're not interconnected but each story gives an insight of my personality and my train of thought.
The Best Friend (Nat) was in town two weekends ago. She needed some time away from home and work so I promised that we were going to have a fun weekend. Without going into details, the best part of the whole weekend was doing touristy things with the some of the most important people in my life. We ate out a lot... visited my most favorite restaurant (Sushi Mac-its like crack to me) and got to try new ones (a completely vegetarian Chinese restaurant and I had some pretty convincing faux-chicken and not-so-real fish complete with the seaweed scaly skin). We even visited touristy spots ( Griffith Observatory and Watts Tower) and just did a lot of catching up. I really like planning the whole weekend. Its that inner host in me... I will definitely accomodate my guests as much as can.

The Boyfriend and I spent this past weekend with his family who was in town. I enjoy hanging out with his family especially his hilarious aunts and even more hilarious grandpa. We picked up his mom from the airport and spent part of Saturday with her. While I was driving, I had to consciously stop myself from bursting out in my usual road-rage infused language in front of his mom (because of some other crazy drivers). When it was just the two of us, The Boyfriend told me that he enjoys how I get soo fired up when I drive. Its true that I'm becoming like any other Los Angeleno driver... aggressive and vocal about what I think of lousy driving. I admit that I'm not the best driver so I contribute to other people's road rage. Mostly, this is due to the fact that I get easily distracted when I drive...well not just driving but I'm easily distracted with pretty much everything. Sometimes I feel like I have a mild case of A.D.D. I guess the lack of focus of this story is an even worse proof that I'm extremely scatter brained (pathetic I know).
Something is going on with the people around me. It seems like almost everyone is going through some sort of major transition in their life. Most of them (and by my last count; 4 people) had just ended a relationship. Others are taking a gamble and moving to a new place. I've stated in my older posts that I'm not a big fan of change. I don't think anyone is but we all know that everyone goes through it so we can move on to the next level of our lives. Right now, I'm just helping out these friends and family of mine while they go through this transition but I know that I'm bound to face my own transition... could I just be changing labs? Or will the result of my qualifying exam (which I'm afraid could be bad news) determine what change is going to occur in my life in the next few months. Only time will tell (haha thats soo cliche its disgusting!)

High School Stories: Sleeping with the "Frenemies"

Frenemies--- two people who are in an odd situation of being friends and at the
same time, enemies.



First I want to clarify... NO I did not sleep with this frenemy of mine (although we were roomates for our senior trip and had to share a bed), nothing scandalous happened. I just kinda like the title of this post.Now that's clear, I should get to the story.



When I was in high school in the not so lovely city of Vallejo, California (a.k.a valley of the ho's) I had a classmate who in the beginning I was attracted to. Normally, I don't use people's names in my blog but since he's on some silly tv show, I'm sure that he wouldn't mind being talked about in this lowly blog of mine. I first saw Ruben in my locker hallway. Like every high school-er who had a thing for one of their mates, I would ocassionally look at him while he's at his locker or sometimes I would change my way to class so I can pass by him. His hair was always perfectly coiffed, and he has a pretty handsome face. Although there are cuter guys on campus, they're all straight and based on my gaydar he definitely plays for my team.



My little crush oh him slowly disappeared after I actually got to know him better. Since I was the new kid in school (and a new kid in the country) I started in classes for non-English speakers. I was pissed off! I knew that I'm not in the right place so I asked the school counselors to move me to other classes. They insisted that I have to show that I'm capable of moving to the regular classes. Now, I don't want to brag or anything (ok maybe just a little bit) but when they asked me to write a few sentences... I wrote an entire fucking essay... breaking it down to why they're ass holes and why my stank ass should be in the honors classes ( Ok my essay was more formal than that). After a few weeks, they realized their mistake and placed me not only in honors classes but also in advance placement (AP) classes. Sorry I digress... that is when we became classmates and finally got to talk to Ruben and spend some time with him.



The first thing I didn't like about him was how annoying his voice is. He kinda sounds like that character on "Friends", I believe her name is Janice and she was Chandler's ex-girlfriend (for people who watch Friends you know who I'm talking about). Almost, high pitched and overall painfull to my ears. He also had some major diva attitude. He was part of the cool crowd since he decided to be a cheerleader (well more like the guys who carry the cheerleaders). Sometimes, he would say some snide remark about me being an immigrant or what I was wearing or other stupid comment he had that he would say outloud in class. I secretly wanted to tell him "BITCH PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!" Of course I didn't have the guts to say it so I just ignored him. By the end of our 10th grade, I completely avoided him.



We had a World History class together and one part of the class is to get a good grasp of world geography. Every week our teacher assigned a region of the world or a specific country and we're supposed to learn where the major cities and points of historical interest in this map. We are then tested either the same day or the following week by drawing it out and labelling all these places. I LOVE GEOGRAPHY so I started to catch up with the work (I was transferred to this honors class three weeks after the school started). I would complete that week's work and ask our teacher for some more. Ruben did the same thing.We had this unspoken competition, every week we would up the ante. He would do the entire South America and in response I will draw out all the African countries, label their capitals and then some. It got really competitive that in the end of the year we had drawn about 60 maps while the rest of the class were still working on their 20th map.



It wasn't till our senior year that we actually sort of became friends (and I'm using that term loosely). We were hanging out with the same group of people, often having lunch together in the cafeteria. Sometimes he would hang out with his cheerleading friends but you would often see him in our table (and we had a great table, it came with the senior status and most of my friends were leaders of whatever school club). We would even hang out outside of school. He's still pretty abrasive but thats just his personality. When I left for college, I lost any sort of communication with him ( I was also preoccupied with all these cute college boys hehe).


Recently, I started adding high school friends/acquaintances on my friend's list on Myspace and found his. Apparently he was on an MTV show (for more info click here NEXT) where he was on a series of dates with 5 guys. It was a medieval themed date and as always he looked good but acted like a complete ass... I guess things never change. Check out the video...sorry this was the only one I can find online and theres French dubbing but you can sort of still hear the real conversation (in English).
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Terrible Two: Happy Birthday Tres

Baby Tres is no longer a baby. He's about to embark on his second year of life where a lot of a childs development occurs. Apparently, this is also the time when their personality really starts to show. I just hope he doesnt turn into a complete brat!

From left to right: Birthday boy with his mom, my lil' sis, aunt, uncle, The Boyfriend, cousin and moi. Ready to feast.

Ready to open his gifts with Ernesto Sr.

Tres and some of his playmates enjoying the party.

Time for the pinata. Well someone's addicted to Sponge Bob.

Will he hit it?

Ooopppsss better let the big kids do it!

Hmmm cake time...just what I've been waiting for.


Its his birthday and he'll pig out if he wants to.

Race L.A.

Before I talk about the race...just a quick update. Baby Tres is feeling much better. He's also preparing for his birthday party this Sunday. I can't believe he's turning two. He's currently addicted to "Finding Nemo" so I'm getting him a small bowl aquarium and hopefully a clown fish (but most likely a regular beta fish since it'll be easier). Now to my race story.

As most of you (my dear readers) already know... I'm addicted to the show "The Amazing Race". How addicted am I? I spent way too much time watching (re-watching), reading up online about spoilers, recaps, reviews etc. I've gone to a couple of finale parties, met previous racers, and forced The Boyfriend to try out with me. Since the casting folks didn't quite like our 3 minute tryout video... I decided to do the local version instead.

I found online that theres several scavenger hunts around L.A. thats inspired by the show. They were mostly for a team-building retreat for office workers or some organization except for Race L.A. I saw on their website that they really stick close to the "Amazing Race" formula. I convinced The Boyfriend to join. Originally we were Team Boots. Its weird, I know but its a term we use to call each other (as opposed to calling each other honey or baby). Where did it come from? I'm not even going to attempt to explain it.

A week before the race, we decided its a silly name so we asked to organizers to change it to Team E.C. ( I know it still sounds stupid). Its our initials and its easy to remember (yes its a pun hehe). I was sooo excited, I've been thinking about possible scenarios of how we can win (haha I'm soo full of it).

So last Saturday, we got to the starting line bright and early. It was interesting trying to scope out the other times...see who would be the good competitors. There was a good mix of teams, most were couples, some siblings, cousins, friends. There was one team from the local NBC station so they were filming the entire race and hopefully I can find a clip when they finally show the segment. In the beginning of the race we had to introduce ourselves ... it was exciting to say that we were dating. Im sure throughout the race we were called the gay dating couple by the other teams.

Anyway, I don't want to spoil the details of the race (for those who are in L.A. who wants to do it )... ok I know I'm attaching pictures but I won't mention the places and certain tasks. As you can see from these pictures, we went to a lot of places and had to do different task. Unfortunately, we lost by one minute. It was small mistake of not paying attention to the details of the clue. Oh well...second place out of twenty teams ai'nt so bad especially we worked hard to get it sprinting to the finish line, passing several other teams ( as seen in one of the photos below). I hope I didn't piss off The Boyfriend during the race so we can go do another race.