New Year Wishes

 

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

-- Neil Gaiman

Thanks Gli for sharing this quote with me!

Riddle: Petals Around The Rose

Petals Around the Rose

The name of the game is Petals Around the Rose, and that name is significant. Newcomers to the game can be told that much. They can also be told that every answer is zero or an even number. They can also be told the answer for every throw of the dice that are used in the game. And that's all the information they get.
The person who has the dice and knows the game, rolls five dice and remarks almost instantly on the answer. For example: in Roll #1 the answer is two.

Roll #1.

"The answer is what?" says the new player.
"Two."
"On that roll?"
"Yes."
"Would it still be two if I moved the dice without turning any of them over, just rearranging the pattern?"
"I can tell you only three things: the name of the game, the fact that the answer is always even, and the answer for any particular throw. In this case the answer is two."
"So that's how it is. What am I supposed to do?"
"You're supposed to tell me the answer before I tell you. I'll give you all the time you want, but don't tell me your theory, just the answer. If you figure it out, you don't want to give the idea away to these other jokers around you. Make them work for the answers, too. If you get the answer right on six successive rolls, I'll take that as prima facie evidence that you understand the game."
"OK, roll again."

Roll #2.

"I give up. What's the answer?"
"The answer is eight."
"Roll again."

Roll #3.
The answer is fourteen.

Roll #4.
The answer is zero.

Roll #5.
The answer is four.

                                          Roll #6.

What's the answer?

(Click here and go to item 12, to see if your answer is correct.)

Happy Birthday Nards!

And because you've been a good boy all year, you get a new pair of shoes.

 

And because there was an available pair in my size....

Lace up!  We're going out to celebrate!

Cupcake from Carrots

Sansrival Cupcake.  Yum.

House Arrest

I am now on house arrest.  Nards is keeping a watchful eye because my cough has worsened.   I am once again a permanent fixture on the sofa for most of the day, alternately sipping lagundi and oregano tea, drinking meds every six hours, eating citrusy fruits and sleeping.

Sounds like I'm bored out of my skull, but I'm not.  My sister lent me a book she recently bought.

I'm afraid, it's not a compilation of the stories we all heard during bedtime stories, but the real unadulterated version as written by the Grimm brothers.

Click to Enlarge

Remember how the glass shoe was too small for Cinderella's stepsisters?  I bet you didn't know that in the original version, the stepsisters cut off their toes and sliced off their heels in their bid to be the Chosen One.  And that after the supposed "happily ever after," the stepmother and the stepsisters were pecked to death by pigeons.

I love it.

I'm alternately reading this with another Peter Mayle book:

It's funny and it's full of sarcasm.  Even Nards likes it.  (That's why I have to alternate it with the Grimm book, because Nards and I are taking turns with this one.)

My iPod has also provided ample entertainment.  (A perfect companion for sick people.)

Nards downloaded Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.  It was written and produced during the writer's strike early this year and was aired only on the internet and made available on iTunes.  It's now one of my favorite films.  It's quirky and funny and very-well produced.   Neil Patrick Harris is really talented.

 

I also watched the two Christmas Charlie Brown movies.

 

And listened to holiday music from the Starbucks radio. (Hooray, it's free! Starbucks normally charges a hefty sum to stream their radio. It's actually cheaper to get their Php150++ coffee if you want to hear their radio. Ridiculous.)

I have to get well soon.  Nards won't allow me to go out of the house until I'm feeling better.  And I just HAVE to see the lego show at High Street before it packs up.

My Brother's Gift

My brother gave me bath gels from The Body Shop for Christmas.

 

I love TBS products.  It's not tested on animals and the company is environmentally-conscious.  Mitzie and I have been long time fans since college, when it was launched in the country.   I still remember that their cosmetic line was then called Colours.

What made me more delighted was this tag:

 

Isn't that neat?

Bah. Humbug.

 

That's my sister.  Not me.  She spent Christmas Eve and the early hours of Christmas on a hospital bed, with an intravenous needle attached to her left hand.  My parents and (my furious--another story regarding insensitive doctors at the first ER) brother were with her.   Nards and I were twiddling our thumbs at the house waiting for updates, watching the first season of Six Feet Under.

I'm happy to say that it was nothing serious.  They got back home at 5AM, and after everyone had a couple of hours of sleep, it was back to normal.

Drive Thru

I've sworn off McDonald's after watching Super Size Me.  I have no excuse, but we were stuck in really bad traffic and we were getting pretty ravenous.   The double arches loomed high on our right side and our bellies overrode all the ingrained fear of cholesterol, obesity, hypertension and diabetes.

I don't know how long this has been going on but I was highly entertained by the new (to me, anyway) drive thru system.

 

I ordered through the speaker on this box.  I didn't give the screen much thought.

 

Until my order appeared on it.  It's so convenient, it compensates for the sometimes horrible communication device.  Plus, I can see how much I need to pay right away.  

Now I wonder what other stores have this system? :)

Enteng and Jessie Get Hitched

The invitation said 3PM. We were coded, we got caught in traffic because of a fender bender on Quezon Ave, and I was frantic behind the wheel. It was a photo finish: we entered the gates of Intramuros a few minutes shy of 3PM.

We parked at Casa Manila, where the reception will be held, and walked to the Cathedral.  We made it just in time; because the beautiful bride was about to enter the church.
 

 

 

It was a lovely ceremony, solemn and moving. 

There was a curious thing hanging from the ceiling. Is that a hat?

Socrates would approve!

We left while they were doing the church pictorials. The driveway in front of the Cathedral was packed. There was another wedding after Enteng's and Jessie's. And the party for the next wedding were crowded around the church doors, and the next bride in her stretch limo was causing traffic up and down the streets.

There were a lot of wedding guests getting lost in Intramuros that day. As we were walking back to Casa Manila, we saw this formally garbed couple grab a pedicab towards San Agustin Church. I saw them earlier at the Cathedral and left quickly as soon as they saw Enteng and Jessie. They presumably went to the wrong wedding.

We met a nice couple who teaches in Ateneo at the reception.  We had a long extensive discussion about photobooths.  Ahehe.

 

Our competitor.  Heeheehee.

 

 

Cheers to the happy couple!