Just Jeric! | a personal blog

For the past few weeks, I’ve been busy working on my latest web project, Brink Notes Entertainment Daily. If you’ve heard about it already then GREAT if not, go ahead, and check out the site.

Brink Notes Entertainment Daily is obviously, an entertainment news website that aims to give the latest Philippine entertainment news as well as foreign entertainment news. Aside from putting up articles, photos, and videos daily, I also produce podcasts from Mondays through Fridays for the site. So, if you want your entertainment news to be delivered in audio format, I suggest that you subscribe to the BED Podcast via iTunes.

Let me know what you think about Brink Notes Entertainment Daily, drop me a line at jeric.pena [at] brinknotes.net.

I currently have two more pending web projects – first is the website of our church, and the second one is still a secret. It’s great that I still have a short break from school despite my decision to take summer classes. This short break gives me time to work on things I love to do. Summer classes start after Holy Week.

By the way, Holy Week is fast approaching and I’m not sure if mom has plans to go out-of-own or whatever. May you have a meaningful Holy Week!

Last Sunday, March 8, 2009, I spent my whole afternoon at TriNoma for we (me and my two sisters) are to celebrate Roxanne’s (my youngest sister) birthday. Roxanne’s birthday celebration started with my surprise, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ concert at the activity center of TriNoma. Thank you Jayvee for giving us tickets to the concert. We were seated near the stage giving us a good view of the concert. I gave the meet and greet stub to Roxanne and she seems very happy with her close encounter with the band. The band wasn’t able to sign her CD though.

After the concert and “meet and greet”, Roxanne and I met up with our sister, Dianne for dinner and ice cream. I really love Cold Rock’s Forest Berry sorbet, which is made of pure awesomeness!

Afternoon of Wednesday, March 11, Roxanne and I decided to watch Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience in 3D at SM The Block’s D Cinema. Although I’m not a fan of Jonas Brothers, I enjoyed the movie because it’s on 3D and Jonas Brothers aren’t that bad. (Please don’t hate me!) It’s also amazing to see how the film/movie/concert comes to life just by wearing the 3D glasses. I just wish that Coraline would be shown at the D Cinema of SM The Block too.

Happy Birthday, Roxanne!

For this month of February, I’m actually looking forward to watch two three movies — Confessions of a Shopaholic, He’s Just Not That Into You and You Changed My Life.

Why?

I’ve read the book Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella last year (or was it in 2007? Sorry I really can’t remember when I read that book). I’m quite excited about You Changed My Life is which the sequel to A Very Special Love starring Sarah Geronimo and John Lloyd Cruz. I love A Very Special Love. It’s a cute, funny and entertaining movie. Call me baduy or whatever but nothing can stop me from watching the film this February.

I need monies to see the three films! Confessions of a Shopaholic and He’s Just Not That Into You will be in theaters starting February 18 while You Changed My Life would premiere on February 25. So, probably I’m going to watch alone again unless somebody wants to have a movie date with me. Hihihi! Just kidding

On the other hand, it’s Valentine’s day on Saturday! According to my calendar, the 14th of February is just another school day for me. I’m just hoping that traffic on that day is not worse as everyone is predicting.

Happy Valentine’s day from me to you!

*Play Smooth Jazz music here*

Because I love coffee whether it’s an Americano or Latte (flavored or not), my mom bought me an espresso machine. With the Krups XP4020, I can now enjoy espresso drinks at home. It’s about time that my cheap but reliable one-cup coffee maker retires. The espresso machine comes with a free coffee grinder. So I always get freshly ground beans every time I decide to have coffee!

I love this machine and I’ve been making espresso drinks not only for myself but also for my mom and my sisters. I’ve been practicing steaming / frothing milk for the perfect cappuccino. I wish to learn how to do latte art but I can’t get the right consistency of the milk (smooth, silky and velvety). But so far so good!

I’m learning! Watching “how to” videos from YouTube Broadcast Yourself really helps.

For the 8 days that this espresso machine has been with us, we approximately saved P2,145 worth of coffee drinks. Isn’t great? Instead of having coffee outside, we’re enjoying our coffee at home!

Instead of throwing away the used coffee grounds, my mom used the “used coffee grounds” as fertilizer on our simple and small garden.

I really enjoy using this espresso machine although it needs a lot of effort (preparation, grinding the beans, pulling the shot, steaming milk, cleaning the machine, etc.).

EDIT: Sige, next time I make espresso drinks I’ll take pictures of them.

On January 6, 2009, I decided to try the new Wendy’s Baconator®. If you see any burger on the sidebar of this blog or at the top of this post, yes that’s the Baconator®. I liked it but it’s quite expensive especially for a struggling student like who gets less than a hundred bucks per day as my allowance. I finished the whole thing! I need to! It’s my hard-earned money. I think I spent P280 something for a Baconator Meal (Baconator + 1 Biggie Iced Tea + 1 Biggie Fries).

But I’m definitely coming back for more BACONATOR! Try it

Over at My Boring Life… Now A Blog! I posted my two year-ender posts. First, Assessing ‘My Goals for 2008′ which was posted last December 31, 2008. Second, I Thank You for everything a post where I thank everyone who made 2008 a great and wonderful year for me.

Over at Plurk, I decided to delete my account and start anew. I gave up my karma, my nirvana badge, my awesome set of emoticons. It made me feel better. It’s nice to start from scratch. I’ve been thinking of deleting my account for weeks but it is only now that I was able to do it. Now, I’m busy re-adding all the Plurkers I know. By the way, I’m also back using Twitter.

Happy New Year!

My comments are based on the matinee show last November 23, 2008.

When the first news about Atlantis Productions’ doing Hairspray here in Manila came out, my Plurk friends and I started planning to see the said show. After months (or was it weeks?) of planning, we were able to see the show last November 23, 2008 at the Star Theater, CCP Complex. We were able to watch the matinee show with Madel Ching as Tracy Turnblad.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see the first musical number, Good Morning Baltimore, which I was really looking forward to. Anyway, we were able to hear the song but wasn’t able to see the execution for we were at the lobby. Latecomers are not allowed to enter the theater when a musical number is being performed. So for those catching the remaining shows of Hairspray, please be at the venue at least an hour before the show.

Madel Ching really shined during the November 23rd Matinee show. The role of Tracy Turnblad really fits her. But, I really want to see Karla Reyes (Tracy Understudy) perform. So if you have an idea when she’s performing as Tracy, please please please inform me! My friends and I were unanimous in saying the Tim Espinosa isn’t the best Link Larkin. We were actually disappointed with his performance. And, who would have thought that Nyoy Volante, who played Seaweed, dances very well? Props to Michael de Mesa (Edna) and Leo Rialp (Wilbur) for a superb performance; they looked very cute onstage. Dulce, who played Motormouth Maybelle saved the whole show from doom. Her performance that day was really superb and gave me the goosebumps especially during the “I Know Where I’ve Been” number. Claps to Mechu Lauchengco-Yulo who played Velma and Christine Allado who played Amber. I think some of the cast members lack the energy.

The sets and props are just fine — nothing extraordinary. As similar with my West Side Story experience, the sound system is a major distraction. There are a lot of times that crackling and popping sounds would come out of the speakers. Some of the body microphones were problematic too; hence, the bad audio quality. During the first part of the play, I actually thought that they are using canned music until one of my friends pointed out where the orchestra (Filharmonika) was located which happens to be at the right side of the theater.

My favorite musical numbers include Good Morning Baltimore, I Can Hear The Bells, Welcome to the 60s, I Know Where I’ve Been, Without Love and You Can’t Stop the Beat.

I know that flaws during a stage musical presentation are unavoidable. Despite all, I enjoyed the shows and it didn’t fail to make me laugh. Congratulations to the cast, the orchestra, producers, director, staff, crew, and everyone else behind Hairspray.

HAIRSPRAY is directed by Bobby Garcia, Choreography by Cecille Martinez, Musical Direction by Archie Castillo, Production Design by Gino Gonzales, Lighting Design by Shoko Matsumoto and Specialty wigs by The Broadway Wig Co.

Hairspray runs from November 14 to December 7, 2008 at the Star Theatre, CCP Complex. For tickets call Atlantis Productions at 892-7078, 840-1187 or Ticketworld at 891-9999. Tickets are priced at P1,200, P1,000, P800, and P600. Ticket Prices are subject to surcharges.

Last Saturday, November 8, 2008 I had to go to school to attend this assembly for freshman students. So, I was at the National Computer Center where the UPOU Learning Center is located and I was hoping that there would be WiFi in the building. Unfortunately, there’s no WiFi (at least on the AVR where we the assembly was held). The assembly ended before 5:00pm. My friends and I decided to go to the Bahay ng Alumni to attend the UP AME Convention.

As we were walking along the University Avenue, I heard some bells being rang. “Can you hear that?” I asked my classmates. “The Carillon!” I said. I bet any UP student would know the Carillon. Upon hearing the Carillon, I excitedly plurked, “I want to cry tumutunog ang carillon!!!” Forgive me for that would be my very first time to hear the Carillon being sounded.

You want to know how the Carillon sounds? Take a listen to this mp3 that I recorded.

I’m so happy for I was able to hear the Carillon!

After eating with my family in Trinoma yesterday, I headed to Gateway to meet some bloggers Mica and Noemi for the screening of Panudlak, a documentary about Filipino volunteers in Cambodia. After the film, Mica and I joined Jen, Billycoy, Manolo, and Arbet for dinner.

We were about to go home, but we decided to check out the action happening at Ninoy Aquino International Airport. And this is what we saw:

Yes, we joined Jocjoc Bolante’s convoy to St. Luke’s Medical Center and saw the whole action. Yes, I got a crappy camera phone. Arbet and Manolo (Manolo’s Flickr Set “Chasing Bolante”) got better pictures of Jocjoc’s convoy.

Here’s Arbet’s video of Jocjoc Bolante in a stretcher being brought out of the ambulance:

You could also check out the blog entry of Jen, Arbet and Manolo about the things that happened last night. My thoughts are all over the place right now that I don’t know how to write about the Jocjoc hullabaloo last night.

Why I don’t have decent pictures?

*Tee hee*