Something that's making me happy this week...

...I listen to NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour every week, at least before I go to sleep. It's a podcast hosted by Monkey See editor Linda Holmes, et al, and they talk about (what else?) pop culture. Anyway, at the end of the podcast they all talk about something that's making them happy this week, and it usually ends up being, like, a book, or movie, obscure TV show, or recently revived Broadway show.

So, I figured, I'm gonna try and do the same thing this week. It's so easy to get depressed nowadays (thank you Seasonal Affective Disorder), and I could use an exercise like this to put things in perspective. With that said, here's what's making me 'masaya' this week:

1) The worst of *this* snow storm is over - as people may or may not know -- and probably wouldn't have known until they saw pictures online of the collapsed Metrodome roof -- there was a crazy snow storm that hit the Midwest this past weekend. The storm dumped about 17" of snow onto Minneapolis, and needless to say there were wipeouts, stranded travelers, and frustrated people digging their cars out of the frozen tundra.  But, it's all done, and that's the good thing. People pretty much got back into the swing of things on Monday, and it's like everyone woke up from a dream because the downtown Target was bustling on Monday night. I think everyone was stocking up after getting stranded in their homes the entire weekend. Which reminds me, I really should stock up some Spam and corned beef. Yum.

2) Unlimited text messages - who knew there could be so much joy with having this kind of freedom? I try not to text one word answers still, remembering the days of yore (i.e. two weeks ago) when I only had 200 text msgs on my plan (in- and outbound). But, it sure is nice to not say something to the effect of "stop talking to me". Because everybody knows Mariel loves to talk!

3) Sun Chips Harvest Cheddar - 'coz I'm eating them right now.

4) Starbucks Coffee @ work - Man, I didn't have coffee for the first time today, and only then did I truly realize how much I love that strong liquid power to get me through the day.

5) Amazon.com's awesome $25 + free shipping - gotta love this awesome online retailer for having everything in the entire known universe, and then shipping it for free.

6) Christmas Cards - received some lovely festive cards from family and friends, and for the first time ever, I'm attempting sending some out. I'm so holiday the elf ears are starting to grow.

7) My Pandora's "The Christmas Song" Mix - I love holiday music! Especially while walking outside in sub-freezing weather, nothing puts me in a happy (ok, tolerable) mood like listening to "The Christmas Song" or "Oh Holy Night" or (how apropos) "White Christmas."

8) Elf on USA Network - It's seriously my favorite holiday movie. I think it's going to be a classic in the same way "A Christmas Story" or "Christmas Vacation" now are -- two epic comedies which I still haven't seen, to the shock of others.

9) Gingerbread House decorating - So, we have a competition at work for creative gingerbread house decorating. Our team is SO stoked to build our gingerbread house which has, among other things, Slipknot AND the Beatles. Yep, it's gonna be a rockin' one.

10) Groupon's recent deal on French Meadow - I haven't had their dinner before, but since I had an amazing brunch there twice (goat cheese quiche drool), I immediately snapped this one up.

11) Planning for my Christmas and New Years trips - there's no place like home, and no better loving than from the family. And no better state than California (haha, that's not true on so many levels, but that don't matter).

12) McDonald's on Nicollet - fun late-night run, and I haven't eaten in a McDonald's for a while now. Sometimes, there's nothing better than a medium box of greasy Mickey D fries, eh?

13) My heater - Oh. My. God. Can you imagine if I didn't have one? I can't; which really makes me happy AND grateful for this, as I am for all the other things in my list.

I know that the world's imperfect, and that there's a lot of crap going on a macro and micro level. But, if we spend so much time obsessing over how sucky our lives are, then we miss the many little things that do make our lives livable and, if we're really lucky, utterly satisfying. I know where I stand in the grand scale of personal happiness...actually I don't know. What I do know is I am making an effort to stay positive [on most realms of my life], because positivity begets positivity. And I would really rather live my life as happily as I can every day. :-)

Kung nasa Manila pa ako (If I was still in Manila)...

Paminsan-minsan, pag nakikita ko yung mga pictures ng mga kaibigan ko sa Philippines sa Facebook, nagiisip ako kung nasaan na kaya ako at this point of my life kung nandun pa 'rin ako nakatira. Lalo na ngayon na may mga websites katulad ng Facebook o Friendster (haha, Friendster, that's so two thousand and late), mas madalas kong napagiisipan..."Kung nasa Manila pa ako, ano na kaya ako ngayon?" 


OK, I just realized that while it's so much easier for me to speak in Tagalog, it's exponentially easier for me to write in English. How's about them juxtaposition? It's funny, coz I've always written better in English, even though my native tongue is Tagalog, and always will be. Back in my sophomore year of high school in the Philippines, we had to write a minimum of 10-page (I think?) fiction piece, entirely in Tagalog. Oh my word, I think the only other time I've suffered as much writing anything was when I had to bullshit my way through a term paper for an online physics class (yes, online physics, probably the greatest WTF class in the history of man). 


Typical digression aside, all the online-stalking of my friends/family in the Philippines, my visit to the PI last year, and just the starkness of this Minnesota winter (so alien from what I grew up in the last 20-some odd years) is making me wonder what and where I would be at this stage in my life, if I was still living in Manila.


Oddly (or maybe, not oddly) enough, the first and loudest answer to that question is: If I was still living in Manila today, I would probably be scrambling to get out of there. I know it sounds anti-patriotic, selfish, and probably why the Philippines is still struggling today, despite its abundant natural resources and wonderful geographic location (read: World War II; thanks for dragging us through the mud, bitches). But, the reality for millions of intelligent, hardworking Filipinos is that their output would probably be better compensated elsewhere. I am sure there are millions of wonderful opportunities in commerce over there. I do remember seeing Deutschbank, Allianz, Accenture, and other top companies with offices in Makati, and there's a lot of 'great' companies like San Miguel Corp., PLDT, and SM. Anyway, I really don't want to delve too deep into this issue, but I will point out that it's absolutely fascinating that even as I'm trying my hardest to formulate my "what-if" scenario, I still keep coming up against the same, stubborn conclusion: it would most likely involve me emigrating. 


Ok, let's say we strike out that aforementioned option completely. I think it would be fun to start my phantasmagorical walk from where I left off (that is, when I left the Philippines):


Part I: High School
So there I was, marching down those next few yards towards my high school diploma. As I take my seat on the school stage, I am overwhelmed by happy memories. I look out to my 70+ fellow seniors and think of all our shared experiences in the last 4 years: overnight year-end parties, English week, Linggo ng Wika, camping trips, CAT trips, the Bivouac in Baguio, the quick therapy sessions where everyone get to pour their hearts out over four years of high school/teenage angst, et al. 


-PS: I can't help snickering as I type this, because the latter part actually happened to some BAA alumni I know. It's very healing, I heard. 


Part II: College
I go through college much like I went through high school: laser-focused and happily oblivious to my geekiness. I still live with my parents, because dorms are only for promdis (haha, how old is this lingo?). They pay for my college tuition, and I get a weekly allowance (I really cannot fathom this anymore). I commute a total of two hours every day, and I have developed an immunity to sweaty people on the Light Rail. During my four years in college, I find a favorite coffee shop by the mall, where my friends and I hang out to kill time until the rush hour dies down a little bit. On the weekends we go to the Mall (Mall of Asia, Megamall, SM North Edsa, Trinoma, whatever; we got them all). I drink a little bit, go to beerhouses once or twice with some friends, eat some street food, sing karaoke a lot, take the day off to watch Manny Pacquiao fight, all that fun stuff. 


Part III: Work
I struggle finding a job for a while. It is not easy to get into those multinationals when they hire mostly B-school graduates and ex-patriates. I work, this time for real, at my family's hospital in the province. I like managing the place, but I'm a true City girl. So, I head back to Manila and keep trying. Eventually, I find a [TBD] job that I'm cool with. I now live in an apartment with a roommate, and I like going out to the mall and trying out different restaurants. Still.


Part IV: Religion
I stayed as the pianist for a children's choir until I left for college. Since I went to a non-religious school (against the strong protests of some relatives), I start to think more outside the churchly box. But, my family still goes to the same church every Saturday, and I still play the piano during 2nd Church service once in a while


Epilogue:
That's really all I can think of right now. Oh, I probably would be smaller there coz restaurants don't serve manhole-sized pancakes and 50-piece chicken nugget Happy Meals, and you can't just buy a side of cardiac arrest for a dollar. I find a guy who's slightly taller than me, and we would hang out at the mall. A lot. I'm telling you guys, the mall is to the Philippines what Costcos are to the United States: plentiful, huge, and air-conditioned.


Even with all this hard imagineering, all I've really come up with are generalities and a few scenarios I remember doing last year. I guess it's harder for me to visualize what could have been simply because I haven't been home in the Philippines in such a long time. I don't even know if it's home anymore; it seems more like a distant birthplace and childhood memory now. 


There are days when I think, "Oh, how simpler things would be, if I just lived back in the Philippines." But, I know that's a naive statement, because what I'm referring to as 'simple' is my outdated concept of the Philippines from seven years ago, when I didn't have to worry about paying the bills or buying groceries or things like that. Whether I'm in Minnesota, California, or Manila, in 2010 I would be an ADULT, dealing with adult situations. Maybe my next note would be "If I was still a kid." Or, "If I was a millionaire" (I'll be on the cover of Forbes magazine, smiling next to Oprah and the Queen. You know it).


I'm probably going to be writing more about this "shoulda, coulda, woulda" the more I think about it. It's a fun exercise for my brain. The scenarios will change, and the details will evolve, but one truth remains the same: I'm proud of where I came from, and I'm prouder of where that has taken me. 

"Community" College: I am the Human Being Mascot.

I'm so unabashed about the fact that I went to community college. I really appreciate that decision because it allowed me to:
1) Go to Spain for a month for cheap - a me encanta Espana 
2) Work a part-time job at Subway, which allowed me to buy things I didn't need and save up for stuff I didn't even know I wanted, such as my first smartphone and a horrid Compaq laptop. 
3) Live on the cheap - nothing beats free boarding and mom doing your laundry every week. 
4) Take the time to decide my major, without sucking the money from my wallet hole - not to knock on those that change majors multiple times, but it's definitely better doing it while you're paying $1 a semester versus 10 grand or so. 
5) Oh, and pay only $1 a semester - thank you FAFSA. 
6) Take the time to vet my top transfer schools carefully - I knew I was only at community to prepare me for the next step, which is four-year. Back in high school, I really wasn't passionate about any particular university. I had only been in the States for about two years at that point, and I've hung out with enough nerds who breathed and sighed "UCLA" or "USC" that I wanted to smash my head in if I heard those acronyms one more time. So, the moment I stepped into Pasadena, I started looking at different schools that fitted the path I was sure I'll take and landed on my dream school (and eventual alma mater): UC Berkeley. Take that Pepperdine, you sickeningly gorgeous, pretentious school (can you sense the animosity of getting rejected, 3 years later? haha). 


So, my point of fanning the feathers of community college is because it has an undistinguished rep for a lot of people. But, finally - FINALLY - there is a show that is putting community college in the limelight, albeit not always in the most helpful ways. I think one of my favorite network shows, "Community," is a dichotomous representation of community college: sometimes it's lambasting community college as nothing more than a second high school (like in Episode 1 and Dean Pelton's hilarious welcome speech denigrating his own school), other times it portrays community college as this fantastic (for lack of a better word) community of a diverse student body with secret trampoline gardens, fantastic chicken fingers at the caf, and easy breezy classes like pottery and anthropology taught by Betty White. When I saw the pilot of this show, I wasn't surprised that Community College is portrayed as the former: a joke of an institution where bored old men, single moms, frustrated punks, dumb jocks, and disbarred lawyers go to get a throwaway education (reminded me of this funny SNL sketch). That being said, it still had an amazingly funny plot that got me hooked, and the show only got wildly better from there. And, as the series progressed it was very obvious that Greendale Community College is the eighth (or ninth, if you count Senor/Student Chang as a main) primary character here. Bearing all of community college's high and low stereotypes, the school has served as this fantastic backdrop, world, setting, arc, supporting role, et al. for every stupidly hilarious episode. 


To end this on a lazy note, here's a double-whammy list of what is and isn't true about CCs as portrayed in "Community," solely from my experience as a loud and proud CC alumni:


Realistic
1) Chicken fingers are, indeed, the best things offered in the caf. That, and tater tots for breakfast. (S1E21)
2) There are many, many fun blow-off classes, like (and I took this class for real) an online Physics class. Like, seriously. (S1E19)
3) You will definitely meet an old guy trying to stave off dementia by enrolling in community (Every episode; we love our Pierce)
4) You will also definitely meet a neurotic, crazy nerd who is so focused on transferring to a four-year university (all signs point to me) (S1E13)
5) Your 'notable' alumni will run the whole gamut, from super-accomplished people who prove that community colleges aren't just for losers (Pasadena has Jackie Robinson and Eddie Van Halen) to those who you wished just stayed in high school...or their mom's womb (S1E6)
6) Starburns


Not realistic
1) Community Colleges do not have that many dances. In the words of Jeff Winger, "How many dances does this school have?!". They also do not have Transfer Dances and "Tranny" queens (S1E25)
2) There are no fantastic paintball wars that take place and decimate the entire school population in a pool of wet colorant (S1E23)
3) I'm pretty sure you can't get butt-naked playing pool (S1E17)
4) There are NO DORMS in community colleges (S1E23)
5) No professor will survive after shooting his/her student with a multi-weapon contraption. Then again, no professor is as great as Betty effing White (S2E1)

It's coming...

...that's what....ah, that's too easy. Anyway, winter is inevitable. God damn it. There I was, less than 72 hours ago, reveling at the freak experience that is a 'warm' November day in Minnesota. Warm, for my Pacific coast amigos, is low 50's, high 40's. But now, upon checking on my trusty weather widget on my Mac, I find that the next few days are going to be an average high of 37. That being said, I'm still trying to stay zen about the whole thing. I just can't believe that it's going to snow again. It's kinda funny how less than 18 months ago I was so looking forward to seeing a snowflake and putting on my kick-ass sherpa-like snow boots to trudge through the white powder. Now, I'm kinda over it, to be honest. It's fun if you have enough space to run around and make snow angels and snowmen and what-not. It's not fun when, four months into winter, you still see the same, stagnant pile of dirty snow piled up next to the Domino's on 11th street.
Ok, that whole 'zen' thing just totally went out the window, didn't it? Haha. Well, I will make a list of things I want to do to get through the cold weather blues that I didn't get to do last winter season. And I'm making a list because, to Linda Holmes's point, lists are a lazy way to write:
1) Make a snowman
2) Engage in a playful snow fight (ok, my pragmatic, adult subconscious tells me this isn't happening)
3) Go to the Winter Carnival in St. Paul
4) Walk on a frozen lake
5) Stay in someone's cabin. PS: I love it when people use the possessive "MY cabin," like they pay the mortgage on the thing as opposed to the reality, which is that their grandparents already paid off the cabin years ago and they just share it with the rest of the clan.
6) Watch the Nutcracker
7) Volunteer to serve warm meals at a soup kitchen
8) Drink eggnog
9) Sled
10) Be happy!

Any more winter ideas, bring it on.

And, to give everyone a little happy, here's an amazing Taiwanese animation titled US-Sino Currency Rap Battle. Enjoy.

Don't think, just do!

I don't know what I'm trying to get at with this posting. 
1) I think I will just write a haiku about how much I love Wikipedia. 


Searching for answers
I rely on humankind
Enlighten my mind


2) Or a free-verse on cheese:


Brie, I am you and you are me
Your exterior so tough and hard to swallow
But inside you are as soft 
As a beautiful Daydream


Why bleu cheese, must you be
Existentially
Be the epitome
Of mold? 
You are how cheese is made
But sometime people don't want to be told
About the work; but you're bold
I can taste your hard work in my tongue


3) There's a difference between being lonely and being alone. Whoever wants to be the latter just gets tired of the mad crush of humanity once a while. The one who wants the former is lying to themselves. 


4) Lastly, more about cheese


American Cheese
Are you real cheese? 
You are humble, simple and unassuming
Mocked and sneered at by many 
But, when all I want is comfort and compassion 
Between two pieces of warm understanding
There's no one else I'd run to
But you. 

Support for this show comes from viewers like you. Thank you.

Ever since I got into watching PBS specials, I've always promised to no one in particular that once I start making good money I will be one of those donors that they thank at the beginning of every PBS special segment. I longed for the day that I would be able to pick up the phone and call one of those folks you see on TV at those telethons, longingly looking at the camera and expecting my call. 

Well, that hasn't happened yet. I gotta say, the different membership levels start off pretty high, and I guess I just haven't seen any good freebies worth becoming a PBS member for. I know it's very self-serving and not exactly the point of 'supporting public television,' but what the hell am I going to do with a DVD of Lawrence Welk's best hits? Or Ross's painting shows. Ooh, actually I would so dig watching Ross any time of the day: I can sleep listening to that man talk. Which is probably why nowadays a favorite nighttime habit of mine is falling asleep not to voices from the big black box with magic pictures, but from the big Blackberry beside my bed. Total side note: did you know that more than 50% of Americans sleep with their cellphones next to them? It's the new security blanket. Ok back to front note: As I was saying, podcasts are now a few of my favorite things. It really started with Chicago Public Radio's This American Life, and now I can't get enough of it. So, today I'd like to share and recommend these three podcasts that I have fallen madly in love with:

1) This American Life - I think the first TAL episode I've listened to in passing was last year's ep called "Someone Else's Money" (about the US healthcare system) but the first one I really got into was the ep called "Bait and Switch." Anyway, for those who haven't heard about TAL, it's a show hosted by the adorkable Ira Glass, who sounds a helluva lot like one of TAL's frequent contributors, David Sedaris. In the words of Mr. Glass, on TAL "each week, we choose a theme, pick a variety of stories to tell about that theme." Sounds kind of mundane, but then the TAL staff presents these fascinating stories about your average Americans. For example, in the Bait and Switch episode, you learn of a young couple who called the police about an abandoned car in their neighborhood, then subsequently got accused of stealing the car and spent years fighting their wrongful accusation in court. There's hilarious stories, like David Sedaris's SantaLand Diaries; there's heartbreaking stories, like the man who is inflicted with cataplexy; there's also just - for lack of a better word - amazing stories, like the girl from Michigan who became friends with infamous drug trafficker Manuel Noriega. If you're getting into public radio and public radio podcasts, this is the best, most surefire way to get addicted to it. It's wonderfully produced, intellectually stimulating, and beautifully told by people, not robots or actors. This is the one podcast that I actually give moolah to, 'coz I don't know what I'll do without my stories now. :)

2) Planet Money - I started listening to Planet Money because of TAL. Often TAL and Planet Money cross lines and do segments on each other's shows (as Chicago Public Radio is an affiliate of NPR). Planet Money has a lot of hosts, but I always remember two names: Chana Joffe-Walt and David Kestenbaum. I remember them because of their memorable names and because to me they were the primary owners of Toxie. It was through Planet Money's multi-episode project with Toxie that I finally understood (even in the simplest terms) what the eff went down with that subprime mortgage mess that we're (still) in. And that is the beauty of Planet Money: they make the most complicated, bore-your-pants-off topics and make them not only coherent, but also entertaining. For example, I was just listening to them talk about how to market their first line of PM apparel, and then they went and broke down the economics and logistics of actually developing a line and made it remarkably interesting. 

3) Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me - the NPR News Quiz hosted by Peter Sagal and announced by Carl Kassell. This is the best way for me to test my knowledge of the week's top news. It's done in front of a live studio audience, so it's really hard for me to sleep while listening to it. It also doesn't help that it can get very, very funny. Of course, the week's worth of stupid politicians, TV shows, and other pop culture shenanigans only cultivate the humor. The best part of the show is "Not My Job," wherein they quiz celebrities and other public figures on random stuff. Brian Williams is a definite favorite, but also Dick Van Dyke just this past Sunday (I don't even like Mary Poppins and I want him to be my grandpa). 

And a couple more I'm kinda listening to right now:

1) How Stuff Works - oh, what I now know about grow houses would make my Berkeley roots proud.

2) The Sound of Young America - fun interviews with celebrities and other pop culture figures like Rob McElhenney from It's Alway Sunny, and Samantha Bee from Daily Show.

3) Culturetopia Pop Culture Happy Hour - it's amazing listening to people who watch more TV than I do! 

What's your favorite podcast that you like listening to? 

Mumblings of a Mad, Asian Woman with a Full Belly.

I should take a creative writing class, non-fiction. I have to learn more descriptors than "amazing," "fantastic," and "awesome." I know I tend to use "definitely," a whole lot. I can probably make a drinking game out of it (raise your hand if you know the Robin Scherbatsky "But, um" Drinking Game reference).

So, yeah, this is just me thinking aloud before I go to sleep; fair warning, this is the butterscotch budino (so f*cking heavenly) talking. BTDubs, I've been yawning since I got back from an (you guessed it) AMAZING dinner @ 112 Eatery in the North Loop area. I really wish money was no object and neither is weight, so that I can spend the rest of my days just going around the world trying out different restaurants, and reviewing them, and making friends with chefs and people in the food industry, and traveling to all these hole-in-the-walls to these great, 5-star restaurants and trying the best, ethereal food ever, and all that. But, in my real world where the student loans need to get paid, and the clothes are as inelastic as Joan River's face, I gotta do what I gotta do.

But, that said, would it be so criminal to have a pipe dream of being a well-respected/renowned food critic and/or travel expert (I can do a Samantha Brown, I just gotta cut my hair, die it blonde, lose the weight, and act super cheery even on the shittiest days, for the camera!). Or even a podcast opinionator who talks about random stuff that normal people like me listen to, like This American Life, or Planet Money, or Monkey See. I guess the common thread in these Lalaland jobs is that a) it involves me sharing my thoughts and b) you taking it.

Which could either be very selfish and/or annoying, or entertaining and/or bearable. I know I am an excruciatingly talkative gal, insofar as it has become an actual component of "feedforward" for me at work (I don't mind, I'm here to 'develop my opportunities' anyways). But, my theory is, everyone in this world -- you, me, Ashton Kutcher -- would like to think that someone, somewhere in the world cares about what you, me, and Ashton Kutcher are thinking and/or saying. I might as well say something potentially helpful or useful or damaging or enlightening or invoke a reaction other than "WTF?" I don't want to just share 140 characters of what I ate for dinner @ 112 Eatery or a short status update of how I just watched The Script in concert. That's fluff that'll interest your closest, most recent friends. I want to write objective, useful commentary with enough organic, witty comments without sounding like Jimmy Fallon desperately grasping for a laugh. (I wanna be Conan, not Leno, damnit.) Additionally, an important aspect of this lalaland job is listening to other people's opinions and sharing information, debating over superficial subjects like best jucy lucy or dingiest club bathroom in the Twin Cities; I'll leave the heavy debates to the politicians and the people who just really like to argue in circles.

And, of course, the best part of this lalaland job is that it'll be me doing stuff I am obsessed in: TV, food, restaurants, traveling, what-not. How can you call it a job if it's something you enjoy doing for free anyway, right? But, again, since this is lalaland, everything goes my way and I get paid stupid big bucks to do it anyway. :)

So, yeah, my eyelids are starting to close. I hope I have an amazing dream.


God damn, I really need to take that creative writing class so I can be a bit more wordsmith-y without referring to my thesaurus all the freaking time.