If I could put everything in a bundle...

Alright, so it is the holidays and Christmas has been hectic.  And in a few days it is the New Year's.  For some reason, I've been finding the recent Christmas-es quite... boring.  I don't know.  It has become a chore.  Sure, it ought to be about Jesus Christ, peace on earth and parties and being on a series of drunken rolls, but frankly the holidays has become a period of panic buying and panic partying.  Seriously.  And to be honest, I'd rather work.  Seriously.  It's nice to work when it's cold and you're in the mood to work, not because some holiday forces you to take a break.  Why can't we choose our holidays, no?  If you don't want to take a vacation around Christmas time, well, use those points for some worthier holidays like birthday breaks and those days when you just feel like telling the world, OH SOD IT.

Or maybe I have stopped becoming like that nice Catholic-school girl.  The Christmas holidays has, I am sorry to say, started to irritate me.  The holidays give people many reasons to be stupid.  It has become obligatory and pointless.  Drivers become bigger morons on the road.  There are too many people in the shopping malls and on the road.  Where did these people come from??!!

Not that I have been having a lousy time.  It's been fun.  Just standard-issue fun.  Nothing special.

BUT --- if there's anything I love about the holidays, it's the New Year's.  I am very much into that symbolic shit-thing.  I have an article pending for electronic publishing on lucky foods for the New Year's.  Pretty interesting stuff.  And anyway, I guess I am a sucker for the "out with the old, in with the new".  I like the New Year's.  It gives me a good reason to clean the apartment.

And of course, I have had this yearly tradition which I call the Book of the Year.  Yes folks, I buy a book a few days before New Year's and call it The Book.  This year it's Eat, Pray, Love and I have to admit, my year kinda looked like that though a bit backwards.  It started with Love (it was not in Bali, Indonesia, but it sounds a lot like it!), and then Pray (let's say I am defining my spiritual path), and then -- ARGH --- Eat.  I gained about 5-10 pounds.  Really bad.  So a few hours ago I bought my book of the year called The Gift: Creativity and the Artists in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde.  Like many stories, I came upon this book by accident.  Actually, I was already clutching Chuck Palahnuik's Rant and Colin Thubron's Shadow of the Silk Road, but my mind was saying get another book!  And then I remembered that I had been looking for Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, but I saw Eating the Dinosaur instead.  And then this book with a heart on the cover kept catching my eye, and out of curiosity I picked it up.  It's perfect.

So with these in mind I though I'd put together a 2011 bundle for Jason Segel.  You know, if I knew him personally I'd give him these... stuff.  Though I don't really have "things" in mind.  It's a cliche, but it's all about the thought.  Like a 2011 care package.  Or a recommendation list.  Haha.

Okay, I think I'll start with a book.  I actually saw this on the shelf earlier, just quite above my Book of the Year, but some guy snatched it up hence I decided to pick up Hyde's book.  I do think that Jason Segel will like this book, and I do think it's a good match because I believe he is a genius.  Seriously.  Based on his career choices (i.e. not giving up amidst years of Hollywood rejection) he was initially Out of His Mind but now that he has a TV show and a list of movies ahead of him, his being a writer AND musician makes him a modern-day example of brilliance.  I think today he is Playing Smart.  The book focuses more on the music industry, and --- yeah --- Jason Segel will probably love this.

I hope he likes to read books though.  I'll come up with more in a few days.

To end this pre-New Year's entry, this song has been playing in my head a lot of times.  Actually, I am in this very strange Bloc Party mode, and I am loving this group a lot.  Earlier today my sister was watching How I Met Your Mother re-runs whilst I was preparing for my trip back to Manila.  I didn't watch it with her as I had seen it --- that episode with Lily going to San Francisco and leaving Marshall, and Ted and Robin getting together.  I saw this ep, say, months ago.  Well, I was in the bathroom and my sister was watching the episode, and it was about to end.  And then I told her my HIMYM theory: Ted is no longer married to the mother of his children and is back with his true love, "Aunt" Robin.  As the episode wraps up with Ted in the cab, and then Marshall on the steps of the apartment, Lily-less, my ears suddenly perked up as I listened to the last few seconds of the episode.

And of course, this music.  Frankly, this Bloc Party song seems to be following me almost everywhere. And I don't mind getting stalked by this song.

How to Fall In-Love

I admit, the past few days have kinda veered me off my mission to marry Jason Segel (ehem) due to, say, sentimental tendencies.  I am not sure if it is hormones or the holidays, but I have been thinking a lot about love lately.  And as stupid it sounds, the song "It Might Be You" keeps playing in my head... err, okay, I am off my rockers.  BUT --- since this is blogging about my pronouncement of wanting to marry a particular guy, and that guy being Jason Segel (seriously), I gotta keep this love alive therefore I have to remind myself --- hey, if I am writing about how to marry someone, I should take a few steps back and at least understand how to fall in-love with someone, no?

So I decided to go to the fundamental, pre-50 First Dates type of ideal and thought of that moment of realization of falling in-love.  We all have had that in one way or another; you know, I can write a 1000 page essay on my particular experience which took place in 1998 but I am now in for making new experiences in 2011 and would rather leave the past behind.  But anyway,  as far as movies go, nothing beats this love-at-first-sight scene from the movie The Legend of 1900.  I saw this movie a couple of times on HBO back in early 2000 (or late 90s), and since I have been thinking a lot about love lately and listening to Beethoven (I am such a cool gal), I am suddenly reminded of this Tornatore film starring Tim Roth.

Of course you can Google about the film or better yet, you should watch it.  It's quite good, well-made, and underrated, unfortunately.  But I can still remember my impression about this scene although I saw it, say, a decade ago.  1900 (Tim Roth) falls in-love in the middle of doing something--- he is recording music for this bunch of producers who want to make money out of his talent.  As he plays the piano and starts the piece, he looks out the window and sees The Girl.  And then his music changes.  And then his sense of existence changes.  And the girls who watch this will just want to cry.

So here's the clip.  Thanks to YouTube and YouTube account holders who have the passion to share bits and pieces of great things.  And on a last note, who would have thought of putting Jason Segel with The Legend of 1900 in one blog entry, in one sentence?  Seriously.  Me.  So Jason Segel, out of the girls who want to marry you, I am your 1900... or better yet, that immigrant girl outside the window who does not have a name... because I am the girl.  And you should be Tim Roth/1900 because... you're the guy.  Alrighty then.

Because it's almost mid-December, Rocky took a lover

"I'm trying to. It's so hard here. Brian, everywhere I look I'm reminded of her, okay? Like, she got me this, okay because I would always leave my cereal boxes open, and the cereal would get stale, and so one day I came home, and she had this waiting for me, because it keeps my cereal fresh. And now I have the freshest cereal." - Peter Bretter (Jason Segel), Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I (sort of) saw Dead Man on Campus on HBO the other day, and I was surprised to see Jason Segel there.  He looked so young... and he was pretty thin.  He and ex-gf Linda Cardellini played a couple in this movie.  Anyhow, I thought Jason grew into a fine awesome dude despite the extra 20+ pounds.  Trust me, a bit of padding is nice.

A Dreidel for My Segel

Happy Hanukkah, Men.

Hmm.  I thought I would take a break from my last "dinner date" planning mode with my last week's fantasy Thanksgiving dinner I would make for Jason Segel.  But as Mr Segel is Jewish, I guess it is only appropriate to give him dreidel and give it a spin!

I didn't really know much about Hanukkah, but --- again --- as I am writing Hanukkah-related food articles, I seem to be turning into some kind of an expert on the subject.  Actually, I wrote an article on Kosher yesterday, so with my knowledge that I only attained less than 24 hours ago, I think I can pretty much tell which is kosher or non-kosher.  I find this strict Jewish dietary laws quite interesting; some may find it mental, but hey, tradition is tradition, and we respect those who practice it (and as it does not include heinous killing and all that sort).  All I can say is I like my dairy with my meat, and I had porkchop for lunch, so I guess this makes me very non-kosher!


With Hanukkah, some people may go the kosher route even though they are not strictly kosher (hence, it is now a fallacy to say that all Jewish people only eat kosher).  But anyway, I find two very interesting Hanukkah tradition which I'll likely feast on should I get my hands on them: latkes and sufganiyot.

Aaahhh... don't they sound a tad exotic.  Latkes.  Sufganiyot.  What the heck are they?

For some reason I don't want to share what they are because I like to keep the mystery... but what they hey.  Latkes is just potato pancakes, alright?  With onions. You can top it with apple sauce.  Or maybe sour cream... which makes latkes, a parve, a dairy food in kosher context.  Aahahahaha.  I am such a geek.  And well, sufganiyot is just... jelly doughnut.  So yeah, doughnuts for everyone!

Don't you just love the simplicity of these Hanukkah food staples?  I can buy a jelly doughnut around the corner and I am celebrating Hanukkah already!

So Mr. Segel, if I would take you on a Hanukkah date, we'll head out to Krispey Kreme and I'll get you a lovely jelly doughnut.  We'll eat it in-front of a lighted menorah and snack on some potato pancakes.  And then we'll drive off to the sunset and sing"Oy Chanukkah" and "I Have A Little Dreidel".  Stick with me dear, it's going to be a lovely date!