Hear ye! My Arn‘s next book is coming out in a few months. Here’s the teaser:

More details to follow in the next few weeks. Incidentally he’s been updating the news section of his site so stay tuned for updates.

Please feel free to post it on your blogs. 🙂

***
Has anyone seen the new BPI commercial? A friend sent us a text last night saying that The Mythology Class is in it. We haven’t seen the ad but I know we have director kuya twin Quark to thank for the product placement. 🙂

***
Cool link of the day: Cooking by Numbers. Just tick the box beside items you have in stock and voila – you’re given a list of meals you can prepare. A boon for the kitchen-impaired (i.e., me).

Yup, since our mag is currently being printed (and my editor and her hubby are away in HK celebrating their wedding anniv – have fun, Marbs!), I’m using this healthy pocket of free time to polish my housewifely skills.

As someone who’s never held a syanse til she turned 31*, my adventures in the kitchen these past couple of years have been nothing short of… educational. Arn will gladly tell you about the time I served him a half-cooked tangigue fillet: the surface had baked to a nice golden brown so I plopped it to a plate, drizzled lemon juice over it and proudly served it to him. It turns out that it still hadn’t thawed completely so the meat inside looked – and tasted – like sashimi. :p

That was two years ago so I think it’s safe to say that I’ve now mastered a few toss together-and-mix recipes by heart. Here are some easy dishes I prepared last week: shrimp and egg salad sandwiches on ciabatta (with wasabi-mayo dressing, naks), oatmeal raisin and/or choco chip cookies (I use Alton Brown‘s The Chewy as base, it’s very basic and the cookies always turn out really good), sloppy joes (Arn’s favorite! It’s really just a chunkier, spiced-up version of bolognese sauce so you can spoon it into buns), and my friend Sheila‘s shrimp and garlic pasta (sauteed in butter, mmm!).

*My mom, a true-blue Pampanguena, is a spectacular cook and she reigned supreme in our kitchen so I didn’t feel compelled to learn til I got married.

***
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet: Wellie welll, I wasn’t even aware that a sequel to this underground phenomenon was in the works. Here’s a link to the trailer for Clerks 2, featuring older — and healthier — versions of our favorite shopkeepers Dante and Randal. (via Carlo)

If you like wearing, using, or making (and yup, making money off) one-of-a-kind items, check out Etsy, the place to buy and sell all things handmade. I just came from a one-hour ogling spree and if I’m not $10-or-so shipping dollars away, I would’ve gotten my hands on the following items:

I enjoyed making this collage too! All items are from Etsy.

These pretty creations actually inspired me to seriously look through and attempt* to make something from the old clothes and curtains in my parents’ attic before the moths beat me to them.

*attempt being the operative word. Wish me luck!

***
Have you tried out Pandora yet? I discovered it via my friend Earnest ‘s blog and believe me, it’s had me at “page loaded”. Really! It’s dooper fun, you enter a song title or artist and their engine will generate a playlist of tracks with interesting musical similarities to what you entered. As it says on the site, it’s just like having your very own DJ (minus the ego too, right Nest? ;)).

So anyway I entered “Cibo Matto” and was recommended songs by Moloko (close enough), Supreme Beings of Leisure (I have their fist album and I think their sound is more Morcheeba-ish actually) and surprise, Deep Forest?? Well of course a script can’t be 100% accurate. I also entered “Ivy” and discovered the excellent Ultraviolet by Anubian Lights. Do let me know what gems you find.

***
It’s 2006, have you made the switch? If you do so right now, apart from the reasons listed here, I promise that this blog will look prettier on your screen too. 🙂