History of Happy Juice and Cancer Sticks

So i'm sipping on Fruit Punch Gatorade and playing some old school tracks in the background hoping to recover from a few early drinks so I can enjoy the rest of the evening before tomorrow's work day. I finally did some refilling on my wine rack (thanks guys!) after being empty for a few weeks with my beer spurt. I was wined out for a while but in the mood for more now. But tonight I settled for two glasses of vodka tonic and a bottle of Red Stripe with my fish and chips dinner and I feel cool now. I don't know if its the alcohol taking over my fingertips mixed with the college old school jazzy electronic sounds of Mike Francis but I can't help but write and reminisce over the years of my discovery of happy juice.

I remember being a junior in high school when my mom found an empty bottle of gin in my room. Stupid me forgot to throw the bottle away after pouring the contents into a thermos for a class Christmas party. So one day my mom cleans my jungle of a room and finds the empty bottle under my bed. I wonder what it feels like to find a bottle of gin in your sixteen year old son's room. Sorry mom! I remember denying that the bottle was mine, but of course, what the hell would I want with an empty bottle of gin, and on top of that, try to hide it. And that wasn't the only bottle that was brought in the house. Its cool mom, I still graduated at the top of my class right?

This wasn't the first time I was caught. My mom always smelled smoke on my clothes but I always made excuses that everyone around me at school smoked and the secondhand smoke was sticking to my shirts and that I don't touch the stuff. I remember whenever I would go home to see my parents I would brush my gums like crazy so they wouldn't look dark and blame the cold Baguio weather for my chapped lips. Anyway, while loading the washing machine with my dirty clothes, my mom found an empty pack of Marlboros in one of my shirt pockets.

All she said was, "Look what I found".

And all I could say in fear was, "Cool!". And that was the end of that conversation.

When I was a senior in college the whole smoking thing was brought up again. I used to smoke in my bathroom before taking a shower and one day my parents could still smell it even after exhaling through a window and through the scent of shampoo, soap and cologne. My dad said he could smell it and asked if I smoke. I was in denial mode again especially since he quit smoking years ago.

And then he said, "Don't be so defensive. Its okay if you do, I'm just asking.".

Its fine if they accepted all these things, but of all things, its the one thing I don't want my parents to see me do.

One of the highlights of college was drinking while completing group projects late at night. The video technician at school had his own video production business where all of us would go to finish our projects and it was conveniently located next door to a little eatery that served alcohol. I remember the semester when we were completing our film, my money was reserved solely for production costs and beer. Its stupid but I remember being mad at myself for eating a good pricy lunch and end up being short on money for beer for the evening. I would budget everything so that I was sure that I would have enough for a few bottles of Red Horse malt liquor (people called me Rhod Horse), then get into creative mode while buzzed, finish my work, then walk home drunk at three in the morning and make it to class by 7:30, and get good grades. This was the routine until graduation.

And the next semester being my last had me drinking everyday at three in the afternoon since I only had four classes left to graduate. During my last two years of college, I loved having people over the apartment so I could cook and drink. I even had a five gallon water jug which was filled with gin and triple sec at the end of each week and I became the homebody that made my apartment the Saturday night spot.

I do miss the days. I don't know if I could still drink as much as I did before.

Its weird but I miss waking up with a hangover on a Sunday morning, finding friends half dead in my living room, brewing coffee while listening to Cafe del Mar and enjoying my first cigarette of the day while staring out into the city from my balcony while the sun rises.

Toast to all that made those years last!

I'm fucked up right now.

I Got Tagged

Well I guess I got tagged by J so its my turn...

3 Names I go by: rhod
3 Screen names I've had: lokeliko, lokeliko78, yournamehere
3 Physical things I like about myself: i don't know- eyes, beer belly, full head of hair
3 Parts of my heritage: filipino, a few drops of Chinese blood
3 Things I am wearing right now: cargo shorts, tshirt, tempurpedic slippers
3 Favorite bands/musical artists: mark kozelek (sun kil moon, red house painters), a tribe called quest, coldplay
3 Favorite songs: Mark Kozelek's "Ruth Marie", A Tribe Called Quest's "Electric Relaxation", Coldplay's "Warning Sign"
3 Things I want in a relationship: affection, trust, humor
3 Physical things about the preferred sex that appeal to me: eyes, smile, legs
3 Favorite hobbies: drinking, writing, hiking
3 Things I want to do badly right now: drive and get lost, go to the Philippines, try a one week Guinness only diet
3 Things that scare me: death, being unemployed, fat rats
3 of my everyday essentials: an alcoholic beverage, a cigarette, sleep
3 Careers you have considered or are considering: architect, lawyer, film director
3 Places you want to go on vacation: europe, jamaica, maui
3 Kids' names you like: nicolas, nicole, kayla
3 Things you want to do before you die: play with my own grandchildren, write and direct my own film, fly a plane
3 Ways I am stereotypically a boy: i look for beer before water, i bet on basketball games, i'm addicted to little gadgets
3 Ways I am stereotypically a girl: i always have to make sure my hair looks fine, i love to go shopping, sometimes i can be indecisive
3 Celeb crushes: alyssa milano when i was growing up, zhang ziyi, nicole kidman

...and the next 3 are elf, john, and parker.

A True B-Rated Movie Plot and Coldplay

Same stuff, over the past two weeks; I put in close to one hundred hours at work. At least I'm getting used to the morning drive and the price of gas has dropped significantly over the past month.

We axed someone at work who, over the past several weeks, started showing signs of insanity and loose screws. He often shared his thoughts of paranoia, claiming that the world is out to get him, and spent his breaks researching on historic wars and borrowing audio books from the public library to justify his claim that he is the center of terrorists' intentions of world domination. During a meeting with management over his poor performance, he stated that his work is the result of the injustices thrown at him. Loony claimed that he was fired by one of his past employers, who happens to be from the middle east, after the movie "Sum of All Fears" was released. One of the actors in the film happens to share the same last name as Loony. He thinks that all people from the middle east have a secret agenda to go after everyone that shares the same last name as this unknown B-rate actor because they didn't like the way their people were portrayed. He also talked about how the Khmer Rogue is after him and that the FBI planted microphones in his apartment. Where cuckoo got these ideas, I have no idea.

I first met him about three months ago when I was still working in Palo Alto. The company wanted me to train him for two days before he started his regular hours. At first I thought he was kind of weird and tried to let it all slide, but after a couple of hours I couldn't help but think, "This fucker has a fake smile and that crazy killer look in his eye...". A month later when I transferred to Burlingame, he happened to be working in the same office and when he saw me again he just kept to himself. I later learned that he thought I was some sort of spy for the CIA and that the company sent him to Palo Alto for me to check out and continued my investigation when I transferred to Burlingame.

Well he's out now, but the day he was let go he made mention of a journal that he keeps and a list of names of people that have done him wrong over the years. He says he will get revenge someday. In some ways I feel sorry that this guy has a psychosomatic illness and is emotionally unstable... on the other hand he fits the description of a Rambo knife wielding madman.

Sounds like a movie.



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x&y
Originally uploaded by lokeliko.

Maybe my expectations are too high. Coldplay's new CD, X&Y, comes out this Tuesday. I already got a copy from work and all I can say is that its the same Coldplay formula that we all know. There are some standout tracks but there's nothing new- the opening track "Square One" reminds me of "Politik" from "A Rush of Blood to the Head", which in turn reminds me of "Don't Panic" from "Parachutes". Even the first single, "Speed of Sound", sounds like "Clocks" revisited and several songs sound like "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face". There are a few new things like the use of an organ on one of the songs and they kind of copy the dream pop sound of My Bloody Valentine on a few tracks, but nothing impressive that has the staying power like the first time I heard "Yellow", "Trouble" and "Shiver". Maybe I need to give this more of a chance, some of the songs are starting to grow on me, but I never had to wait for a song to grow on me from the first two albums. Don't get me wrong, this CD is awesome, but I expected so much more. Chris Martin's voice is definitely better in this one though. There were moments in "A Rush of Blood..." when I thought his voice would crack or sounded like he was just one note off from being tone deaf, but he seems pretty solid here. But lyrically, the content is closer to "Politik" than "Yellow". I thought this would be my "CD of the Summer".

Silent Alarm from Bloc Party just might be it instead.