Video: Justin Timberlake’s “Dick in a Box” on SNL Click here to comment

Video: Justin Timberlake’s “Dick in a Box” on SNL

Check it out, good stuff.

-TJ

Merry Christmas to all! Click here to comment

Hello everybody.

First off, Merry Christmas everyone. I wish you and yours a happy holiday season and good luck in the new year.

I flew out of Denver Friday evening. What was supposed to be an on-time flight became a cluster of delays, starting with a few minute delay to board the plane out of DIA, to waiting for the snowplow to plow the snow from around the plane, to waiting for the fuel tank (one of only two on the entire airport that were operational at the time), to waiting for the de-icing, to waiting to take off on one of two open runways. Despite all that, the crew working around-the-clock to get the planes back into the air at DIA worked very hard, and for that I am thankful.

My trip to Los Angeles on the 22nd was relatively uneventful, I’d imagine, compared to most of the other travelers who ended up spending a night (or two?) at DIA or surrounding hotels due to being stranded by the snow. Denver actually got more snow than Colorado Springs, I believe. Where there was maybe up to 4 or 5 inches of snow outside of my dorm room, the snow was easily at least one or two feet deep near the airport. One thing to consider, however, is that as the clouds aren’t exactly distributed properly, I’ve seen and heard of snowfall amounts varying significantly between two points less than ten miles apart, meaning snowfall in one part of Colorado Springs or Denver could be more or less than another place in town.

I ended up touching down in Los Angeles at around 11:00 PM, and arriving by 1:00 AM on the 23rd (They fucked up my violin case!!! Bastards!). I spent the day hanging out with Alvin and his friend Cindy, and ate dinner with extended family to celebrate my sister’s birthday later that night, then playing Gears of War for a few more hours even later that night back at Alvin’s while he was on the phone with someone. Alvin’s buddy Eddie came over, a fellow military vet, and we chatted a bit. But for the most part getting Marcus Fenix through whatever town it is that Gears of War takes place in occupied the majority of my focus and time, and I ended up coming home at 3:00 AM.

Christmas eve was spent sleeping most of the morning after I got back, then I went to Alvin’s place and played more Gears of War, participated in a potluck (I brought Ensaymada, much to the enjoyment of some of his family members who tried it), and met some of his relatives. Lawrence and Cookie dropped by for a bit, and when they left, I went with them to say hello to the Wangs at one of their friends’ house. (Mr. Wang says his office is lacking certain… people… and that he’d get in touch with me when I get back to Pete to see if I can arrange for duty in Los Angeles AFB.) I went home at around 10PM, took a nap, then went to midnight mass at St. Brendan’s Church. Conducting the service was a pastor, my mom says he is “Father Paul”, Oxford educated with a sharp wit and humorous demeanor, so even though I had to stand the entire 1.5 hours of mass due to lack of seats in the church, I enjoyed myself.
Which brings us to today. Today much of the extended family and friends will be coming over to our house to eat and watch TV and just generally catch up with each other. I wonder who I will see today… most likely lots of folks from my dad’s side, a few local relatives from my mom’s side, and probably some of my dad’s high school friends.

High school friends… I spoke a bit with Lawrence and Cookie yesterday about my class reunion non profit org idea, to raise money and do a scholarship for aspiring students at Whitney who would want money for college, if only to offset the cost of books or something. As expected, Lawrence grounded my ideas in reality, asking necessary questions like if I had thought of the legal logistics of running such an organization. Always the volunteer of good advice, he suggested I speak with my dad, since I was inspired to explore this idea due to the Cavite National High School class of 1966, my dad’s class reunion organization which runs just such a scholarship to send deserving kids in the Philippines to school.

Anyway, enough chatter for now. I gotta get fixed up, as guests are arriving and I haven’t yet so much as brushed my teeth. TTYL.

-TJ