Hooked on Phonics

Powerbooks has a warehouse sale going on this weekend. It started today and will keep going on through til Sunday. 10am to 7pm at their warehouse in Capitolyo (Brixton Street). Normally, I never make it to these things. Plus I'd been told that usually the discounts are very minimal. But today, I took a chance... and scored big time!

After an hour of scouring and comparison shopping, I finally walked out of the warehouse with 15 books. All for P1,500. Wooohooo. That's like (busts out calculator) P107 something per book.

Among the finds:
- A Griffin and Sabine for P200
- The Vagina Monologues for P79
- Stephen Kings's Eyes of the Dragon for P49 (my old copy is falling apart)

So drive, dont walk, to that sale! Go now. Well, or at 10am tomorrow morning, depending on when you read this.

La Union Long Weekend in June

The last I surfed was back in May when Aya, the Sarmiento brothers, Andrew and I were in Siargao for the 2^nd International Girls’ Surfing Festival. So it was with a happy heart that I loaded my board and bags into Phillip’s car for a long weekend in La Union.

From the beginning there was something in the air that suggested that this was going to be good weekend. The music in the car ranged from old skool R&B to seriously trippy house tracks. For the first time ever, I didn’t have to fight sleep to stay awake as we made our way up.

This is where I’ll just skip all the boring details and get to the point of this entire blog. The beach break and the Point weren’t working for us. But we’d been told about another spot that was breaking beautifully. So on Sunday we loaded up the boards and drove to it. For some reason, none of us had ever heard or seen this spot before so when we got there, it was… magic really.

You know those moments when everything is just perfect? Like in your mental checklist, every single box is ticked off? That’s what being at that new spot was like.

Sunny weather? Check.

Beautiful beach? Check.

Un-crowded line-up? Check.

Great company? Check.

Good sized waves? Check.

Clean water? Check.

Fun rides? Check.

Shade? Check.

No jellies? Check.

No wind? Check.

The only potential buzzkill was the sound of the evil karaoke machine that we could hear from the line-up. Never mind that I haven't gotten rid of my "hold on to the rails for dear life" problem... or that I may have flashed the beach when my bikini popped open... or that, sometimes, the air also brought the fresh scent of a nearby piggery. But I refused to let that bother me.

We surfed all afternoon, getting more and more stoked with each ride.

On the ride back to Hacienda, Terrence popped in a cd and played Sunshine Through by Richard F featuring Samantha Stock. And while the lyrics are kind of about love, the overall mood of the track was perfect for how we were all feeling.

That stoke stayed with us for the rest of the weekend.

For photos of the weekend click this please.

Outing My Inner Geek

If you havent been to Think Geek go now. No, now. Why? Because of all the cool shiz that they offer.

I'm glad they only accept PayPal as it's the only reason these virtual nerds havent absconded with all of my savings. If I did have a PayPal account... or if the Geeks decided to accept credit card payment, I can only begin to imagine the financial carnage.

I personally love:

- The carnivorous desktop plant set. How awesome would it be to have your own Venus flytrap?! The answer? Super cool.

- The assorted microbe plushies and the Ugly Dolls.

- Swedish Fire Steel. Described on the site as "a flash of genius. Its nearly 3,000°C spark makes fire building easy in any weather, at any altitude. Used by a number of armies around the world, Swedish FireSteel's dependability has already made it a favorite of survival experts, hunters, fishermen and campers. It has also found its way into cabins and backyards as a fool-proof way to light stoves and gas-barbecues. Amazingly enough it also works equally well when wet. We think geeks will appreciate the power of being able to start a fire with such a simple tool." (see photo of it sparking!)

- The desktop ninjas are nifty too. It isnt every day you can send ninjas named Eric, Roger, Al, and Takashi to attack your co-worker.

- The shirts are pretty cool too. Personal favorites are "Obey Gravity, Its the Law", "There's no place like 127.0.0.1", and everything that has the Caffeine molecule on it.

- Gotta give props to the Swiss. And not just because they created gentlemen like Yves and Flavio (right Millie?). So, the Swiss raised boys like those two... and then went on to not only make good cheese, they've also inspired geeks to create a Swiss Memory USB which contains a USB flash drive, an LED light, a Swiss Army knife,and a ballpoint pen.

- Why stop there right? The Swiss Beat Mp3 is a swiss army knife that also has a built-in mp3 player.

- And while we're at it: I *heart* the concept of the Gorillapod, a tripod that "firmly secures your compact digital camera to just about anything - anywhere and everywhere." And they mean everywhere. Check out the action photos of the Gorillapod at work. It too is neat and nifty!

So many brilliant geekoid gadgets and toys... go now! Check it out! Indulge your inner geek!