The DerfJam Chronicles

My middle finger is hurting like crazy. And my ass is sore. No, it's not what you're thinking. Hahahahaha. This is from bowling. Every time I throw the backup ball, my middle finger gets caught and feels like it's been jammed. And after bowling 6 games straight, my plant leg ass cheek gets real sore. We usually bowl 3 games on League Nights but since my team missed last week, we had to make up for it tonight.

I told myself that I wouldn't drink anymore after my b-day until new years but last night was different. I ended up drinking. Ha. For the first time I got a little tipsy at the bowling alley. And this was during my games too. We started drinking on maybe the 2nd game. And then we started playing "If I get a strike on this frame, then you gotta take a shot of Patron....". It was pretty damn fun. And I was drinking with this girl I'm diggin'. She's like 4'11", has some thick thighs, a giant booty, AND she looks like she's 16 but she's 21. Hahahahahahaha. Now that we've drank together imma start hittin' her up outside of the bowling alley. Cuz last night she kept blaming me for all her open frames saying I shoulda never got her Patron but I know she was lovin' it. She was hopin' we'd get strikes so we could get more Patron. Hahahahaha. She just didn't want to drink during our games. She wanted to drink after. But I kept pushing for right here, right now, SHOT...you're buying! Hahahahahaha.

There's this other girl in bowling league that's pretty cute also but she's pretty young. So I'm staying away. Not jail bait young, but freshly 18 young. I saw her at one of the 18+ events at Decos once and she apparently knows a bunch of people I've met from 18+ events. All her friends know me since I'm the photographer. Hahahahaha. So after I saw her at the club we became real cool at the bowling alley. I never really talked to her before that cuz she looked jail bait young. But I've been talking to her every week at bowling and she doesn't seem that interesting. Maybe our ages are too far apart where we can't really relate. We can talk about bowling stuff all night but when I bring up topics outside of bowling it gets a little weird. So that's the main reason I'm staying away from her.

This morning, for the 3rd straight morning I woke up before my alarm clock (aka cell phone) woke me up. And it's not like I slept early either. Am I that much of a robot that I know when to get up regardless of what time I sleep?

Yesterday, my new lens came in. It's a beast!!!!! The thing is huge for such a small focal range. I took a few test shots but I didn't really get to play around with it too much. I'll get to play with it tonight since we're doing a photoshoot at Ryan's place. I have the Bohemian Rhapsody or Death Row idea in mind where everything is black and all you can is are the people's heads and the front person's arms. We'll see how it turns out. I'll also get to use my new backdrop and new lights/umbrellas tonight also. My mock studio got turned into the guest room already since we have family coming into town on Thanksgiving.

My room is also being converted. I want it to be a lounge. Hahahaha. I don't have a bed anymore so my room looks twice the size. All I have is a love seat. I plan on buying a flat screen 32" and maybe mount it on my wall and hooking up my computer to it. My room will probably be the gaming room now too. My bro recently bought a PS3 and his room is crowded so I know he wants to put in my room cuz everyday he keeps asking me when I'm gonna buy a TV. Hahahahaha. I've lived for about 2 years without a TV. The only thing I've watched in the past 2 years are sports or whatever it is someone else is watching when I sit in the living room. Or if I go to someone's house and they're watching, then I'll watch too.

I have a few books I've been meaning to read:

-The Mystery Method by Mystery(started but not yet finished)
-Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
-Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk
-Rules of The Game by Style
-The Manual of The Warrior Of Light by Paulo Coelho

Of those books, the one most intriguing to me is Love is a Mix Tape. It basically captures some guys journey through love: meeting the girl, being with the girl, and then losing the girl. To me, music is my true love. It's my passion, my reason for being. And I can relate it with being in a relationship. It's crazy how some songs will remind me exactly of who I was with and how I felt at that moment in time. I'll remember it like it was yesterday. It's almost like music is a time machine. The soundtrack of my life. I haven't started this book yet but I have a good feeling about it.

Speaking of the soundtrack to my life, what would be the opening song to yours? I think mine might be Thunderstruck by AC/DC. That's just off the top of my head. I might change it if I thought about it for a long while. And for sure I want the closing song to be Dust In The Wind sung by will Ferrell. And every song in between is probably by R. Kelly and there might be a few break-ups in there too so maybe some Boyz II Men. Hahahahaha.

This morning I went to fill up on gas and I noticed that for the first time in a long time that gas was under $2/gallon. I was flippin' out. I seriously can't remember the last time gas was under $2. I felt like going home and filling up all the cars with gas. I was that excited. Hahahahaha.

Last night/this morning I didn't sleep until 3am. I went to bed at around 12 or so but I just couldn't fall asleep. I didn't really have that much on my mind but I did hear some crazy sounds. It was weird cuz every few minutes I would hear this humming sound. It was more like the sound that you do when you wet the tip of your finger and rub it on the rim of a glass. I guess that's not really a hum but I can't describe it. Whenever I'd hear it, I would envision alien spaceships outside my room just hovering. And when the sound would disappear, I imagined they took off to their home planet. And the fact that the sound would come back a few minutes later was confirmation in my head that traveling at light speed was possible. Hahahahaha.

Oh, the other day someone rang the doorbell at my house. My bro was closer to the door so he went to answer it. And when he got to the door no one was there but there was this package with my name on it. It was b-day gift from Jay. And guess what was inside it? Yup, you guessed it. It starts with a P and rhymes with morn. Hahahahahaha. As you all know I love me some pizzorn. I'm just glad it was my bro who got the door.

Drank like crazy on Monday til the early hours of Tuesday morn. Slept for a hours and woke up for work and felt fine. It's now Wed. and I woke up feelin' like major crap. It's 9am and I've already takin' 3 shits. I've eaten nothing so far. I dunno what's the deal with this late reaction. I dunno if it's the fact that I barely slept after all the drinking that made my body think it was still the same day and now it thinks today is the day after. Oh well.

My cousins are now attending school(4th, 5th and 7th grade) and they come to my place for tutoring. I never knew how hard it was teach kids lesson plans and what not. And it's even harder cuz I don't know the Tagalog-English translations of certain things so I can't thoroughly explain to them what to they need to do on their homework. I feel like a horrible tutor cuz I can see the frustration on their faces. I also feel like an idiot cuz some of the stuff they ask me I haven't seen in decades and I can't really remember what to do. It's like that show Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader. I've never seen that show but I imagine that's how the contestants feel. Like idiots. Ha.

In other news, the "vampire" thinks I'm the mastermind behind the "defection". Hahahahaha. I guess he started ranting on how I always criticize his every move. And I guess I leave a sour taste in his mouth. Hahahahaha. I take great satisfaction in knowing that he sees me as a threat. He's trying to play mind games but I'm playing them too. Except mine are real words and real actions. He knows that I'm aware of the truth behind the situation and he's trying to cover his own ass. The only thing I can tell him is the truth isn't hard to remember. When you start trying to come up with stories to cover lies is when you start stuttering and backtracking and getting all defensive. I know I did nothing wrong so I'm not backing down.

Last night I ordered this lens for my camera. It's a little b-day gift for myself. I've been wanting a decent lens for a while, since all my lenses are pretty shitty. I was thinking of buying a new camera but I thought about it and decided to just buy lenses. A new camera would have new features that I probably wouldn't even use. Sure, it'll have more megapixels but I don't blow my pictures up and print them bigger than 8x10. I don't even print them bigger than 4x6. My Dad has a DSLR also, so I can just borrow his if something goes wrong with mine. We use the same lenses anyways.

Oh yeah, last night I also started turning my sister's old room into a studio. We gave all the stuff in there to my relatives who recently moved into an apartment. There's still stuff in there that we need to give them. Maybe I'll do it this weekend. But my Mom wants to turn the room into a guest room but since we don't have any furniture to go in there yet, I'm using it as a studio for now. My bro keeps asking me if I called my sister to let her know what I'm doing. She comes home every other weekend so I'm sure she would like a bed to sleep on when she's home. So if she comes home this weekend, the couch will be her bed. Hahahahahaha. Yeah, I'm a great big brother.




Here's my Mom's yearbook picture. Hahahahahaha. It looks like it could go in a yearbook.

I don't think I write long blog posts anymore. I dunno if I ever did but I enjoy reading the longer ones that other people write. So just to make things fair, and by abiding by the Golden Rule, imma make a concentrated effort to write more thought out and lengthy blogs. I know I just ramble about the most random things but it's hard for me to sit down and think about what to write. I usually just write what's currently on my mind. I know when I'm driving I think of all this crazy stuff but as soon as I get home or near a computer, I forget all about it and start doing some other stuff. I don't foget what I was thinking about, it's just I get caught up in wanting to look at other things like reading up on the Chargers or something of the sort.

I know I probably touched on this before but I'm trying to build good habits. I don't want to have to act a certain way around some people and censor myself. I want to be able to do the same things I normally do around everyone. Therefore I refrain from using profanity at all times. I just don't want to get in the habit of cussing and then when I'm in a situation where I'm surrounded by children or the elderly I accidently let out some bad words just cuz I always do that. So I usually replace the F word with "Fudge" but I extend the "u" sound so it's like "Fuuuuuuuuuuuudge". I don't say "What the f*ck?", I say "what the eff?" Instead of "Oh sh!t" it's "Oh snap". I replace "Holy sh!T" with "Holy hot crap". I didn't really mention this specifically to any of my friends but I know I'm rubbing off on them cuz I'm starting to hear them say the things I say and less profanity. You just never know if someone's Mom is standing behind you.


Since my relatives moved out of my house, we're gonna convert the extra room into a guest room. I kinda wanna turn it into a studio, maybe for photography or music. Or I can turn my room into the studio and just sleep in the guest room all the time. Hahahahaha. BUt yeah, last night I was measuring the room so I can see what kind of things can fit in there. I also want to get rid of all my old clothes. They're too big for me now. And I don't want to keep them so I can make sure I don't get that big again. Before I was thinking I should keep them just in case I get fatter again, but that's not the right mindset. Imma get rid of them so I can ensure that I never get that fat again. I know I have relatives in the Philippines who are pretty big so I can give them all my old clothes.

Did I mention that I love Under Armour? I mean, I'm too cheap to buy the real thing so I buy the Wal-Mart brands but they feel so good. It keeps me cool on hot days. Last night I bought a bunch of the long sleeve ones so I can be outdoors and not get sunburnt. And I really don't feel the sweat when I'm working out. It works as advertised.

Last night we helped my Lola, Uncle, Auntie, and my cousins move into their new apartment. They live down the block from us now. My house feels so empty. I got used to having them around and I enjoyed it even though my house was pure madness. It was fun to come home to a loud house. There was so much energy. Being around so many people helped me NOT feel like an imbecile. I felt I had some worth, some value.

I welcome new things into to my life but when it leaves, it's hard for me to deal with.

So last night I went to a bachelor party. My buddy Eisen is the best man so he invited me along for the good times. It was crazy, weird experience. We met up at the Groom's place and I didn't really know what to expect. I was thinking it was gonna be dudes around our age but these cats were maybe mid 30's or even in the 40's, since Asians age well. But yeah, it was pretty fob-ulous. I felt like I was at my own house or something with all the Tagalog being spoken.

But yeah, we rented this Limo Bus which was pretty damn dope. It had a stripper pole and a good ass sound system in there. I've never drank while we were in a moving vehicle, other than the time we were on a boat in Lake Havasu during spring break. It was a crazy experience. We ended up going to this strip club but all these old cats were broke. So they got the groom a lap dance and then we booked. We were literally there for like 20 mins. That's the quickest I've stayed at a strip club. And then we headed downtown to cruise the streets but these cats were so old they didn't know where to go. So we drove around for like 2 hours, or at least it felt that way. Hahahahahaha. And then when we finally posted up somewhere, these cats didn't know how to holla at girls. This was the beginning of the weird part of the night. It's like these guys didn't know how to have conversations with girls. I mean, I'm still learning. It's difficult for me to come up to a random girl and strike up a conversation but these cats would be all like "Hola mami!" after the girl has already passed by and is like 20 ft away. That's not gonna work. Hahahahaha. And then when we got back on the bus, one of the old cats starts puking his brains out. He yacked all over himself and the bus diver pulled over. This guy is probably 37 and he cant handle his liquor. How pathetic. He's drinking like he's 18, like his first time ever.

Like I said, it was a crazy, weird experience. Hahahahaha. I still feel a little faded and I already drank a gallon of water.

After growing my hair now for over 2.5 years, I'm debating on if I should shave my head or not. I like having long hair but from the looks of it, I'm going bald. My hair is super thin to the point where my scalp is visible at all times. And all these people keep commenting that I'm already going bald and it's making me super self conscious. And a lot of people, like my family/relatives, say I look better with short hair but I beg to differ. I feel the long hair suits my personality and allows me to express myself.

I dunno, maybe it's time for a change? Maybe I'll start the coming year fresh? We'll see what happens....

I'm starting to get sick again. Damn. I started coughing again and this morning I had phlegm. I really need to sleep more. Now that I'm NOT working for the magazine, I think I'll have some more time to myself. We'll see what happens.

On Friday, I didn't go to work cuz I went to LAX to pick up my Mom's sister and her 3 kids from the airport. They came from the Philippines and are now living with us. Man, my house is full. We got 10 people living a 4 bedroom place. And over the weekend my sister came home so there was 11 of us. And we only have 2 bathrooms so it was madness. But it's fun. I'm speaking more Tagalog than ever, since my cousins don't speak too much English. I only know "proper" Tagalog since I only speak it to the elders but my cousins are teaching me all these slang terminology. And it's funny cuz I tell them I don't know what that word means and they don't know it in English so we have to play charades to try to explain things to each other. Hahahahaha. And I'm teaching them all about the internet. Their friends in the Philippines have Friendster so they asked me to create an account for them, now that internet is readily available.