Internationality

Men are dangerous mammals in general. Throw in above average good looks, charisma and some game and you've got a lean, mean wooing machine.
Allow me to use three nationalities as examples.
Greeks, mestizo Spaniards and Indians seem to have something in common - their beautiful deep set eyes and their charm. (Before you rise up in arms, I will state that Filipino men have these attributes regardless of whatever. It is a given and including them would make all this sound redundant.)
Yes, their women are attractive, but right now, it's the men I want to focus on.
So far, and from what I've seen anyway, the men of these countries have a strong sense of self, are quick to bring out the charm in whatever form they deem useful at the time, and know, just innately know that they are irresistable.
And its not just the looks mind you, it's their take no prisoners approach to wooing the womenfolk - whether by sugar laden outright flattery, shock treatment bordering on obnoxiousness or a raw display of their many, many "talents" - these guys will make sure they get the intended results. That is of course, undivided attention bordering on adoration and possibly, if things went well, a hook up for the evening.
Women within a ten foot radius are reduced to simpering, jelly like beings.
Author excluded - which is not to say that I do not appreciate the occasional charming sentence thrown my way - hey, only human!
One should be careful when handling men of this nature...blessed with good looks, innate charm and charisma, they make for wonderful adversaries who should be treated as one would a mousetrap - inspect it, have a bit of a sniff of the bait, and then walk around it and away.

Heat in the tropics

It's so hot outside that I've taken to actually sitting inside cafes instead of taking the usual outdoor table...
I think the heat makes people do strange things...and I'm now referring to more than one type of heat. People are more prone to shed unnecessary clothing in this weather. And that makes for (especially at the beach) fun people watching for both the ladies and gents. Happy happy joy joy surfer boys.
I end by quoting Will in Semi-Pro "Lets get Tropical!!!"

A Zafra moment

I'm taking it as a good sign that I almost physically bumped into Jessica Zafra at the mall today... but worrying that I didn't realize it was her until she passed me by.
I should stop reading too much into these random encounters.

Critics circle

Writers - we're a critical bunch, aren't we?

The Best Things in Life are Over

Blooferlady:
Sometimes I get the feeling that I was born in the wrong era. I was born in 1981, and somehow, I missed out on the best things in life, namely:

The Sixties. The era of the hippies and their comfortable chic fashion, the age of flower power and strangely enough political oblivion at the same time. This was also when sex was just an emphatic way of saying hello (we really should honor tradition and practice this ritual more often, ladies, in response to Woodbeetle's Gender Discrimination post)

The Eraserheads and The Beatles. The music icons who aptly write your theme songs. They have the ability to put all your hang ups, heartbreaks, frustrations, dreams and plans into music and carefully chosen words.

Friends, Ally McBeal, The Wonder Years, Perfect Strangers, Murphy Brown, Boy Meets World, Cheers, Who's the Boss, etc. It's over. Ít's all oveeer!!! God damn it.

Bar None. Why they stopped selling Bar None's, I have no idea, but whoever was behind its untimely demise should go to jail for killing it.

Woodbeetle:
I somehow suddenly hate you for mentioning the flower power and casual sex era...it depresses me to think that were we born in the western hemisphere during the sixties that we would have had access to quality vintage peasant blouses and guilt free sex.

Gender discrimination on casual sex

Why culturally, people will think that a girl is on the losing end if she decides to go down the path of casual relationships

It has been embedded in our consciousness since childhood that a girl should keep her purity intact until her wedding day. We now forgive the modern gal for engaging in pre-marital sex with her current beau as it is now commonplace and something most couples engage in anyway. But the story takes a different turn when we hear of a girl who is not in a serious relationship but opts instead to have the male friend with benefits. In colloquial terms, a fubu.
Call it what you will, but it stands that society still sadly frowns on this behavior if it is carried on by a woman. Warm blooded men who practice the art of fubu are forgiven. Gay men are forgiven as well as they are actually expected to be loose and promiscuous (no offence to the gay community meant as this fact was stated by a gay friend).
Women sneer at their own gender when they hear of such goings on but turn a blind eye when the males engage in casual sex. Unenlightened men view them as little more than tramps they’d like a taste of.
A gay friend of mine who has his own special friend, also surprisingly holds on to the belief that the girl is at the losing end of the deal. When asked why, he stated that girls, on top of being the ones who are expected to be pure, are more prone to becoming emotionally attached to their “special buddies”. He went on to explain that if the girl fell in love, and it didn’t work out the way she hoped, she was in jeopardy of losing her heart over a relationship that was intended to be purely physical in nature. In the end, she didn’t so much as lose physically, but more emotionally.

The incomparable year that was...

Woodbeetle:

With the close of 2007 upon us, I know things will have to change with the new year.

Its been one of the most "action packed" and life changing of years for me, LadyRain and BlooferLady. I know I can't stop change...but allow me to indulge myself with a sober walk down memory lane. Don't worry...I'm sticking to the non-earth shattering parts. I'd like to immortalize some of less memorable shenanigans just so I can one day, look back and say "Damn, that was a great year...I'm glad I had those two with me".

Here's to driving around town at 2am looking for a place to drink without running into officemates - and somehow still ending up at Makati Rep by 4am.
To playing wingman for each other - through beers, grandmothers, periods and for embarrassinly better or for worse :)
To getting to the seaside area too late and being harrassed by drunk waiters and bar boys closing up shop - and running back to the car like frightened prudes.
To sitting at The Fort sidewalk with a couple of beers and a laptop weaving ingenious solutions to every conceivable situation that we could face or were facing - and never really following our own advice.
To running to the fourth floor for a smoke when things got too toxic upstairs, one of us got kicked in the gut, had a foot shoved in our doors or had our lives altered by our personal and career decisions.
To Sunday afternoon coffees, foodfests and art movies - no matter what time our shifts started or ended! Yebah!
To griping about life and finding more about it through endless nights of liempo, vodka, and caffeine.
To sitting in the parking lot outside a hip bar after work, bumping into gorgeous guys - and feeling wretched that we didn't do anything about it.
To road trips we took together and apart - and to those we never took due to being broke or just plain being lazy.
To salivating over buff waiters moving furniture at closing time.
To running away to the beach - and realizing gay guys have all the luck. Ahahahaha.
To covering for each other when the world got way too close and nosy....
To playing hooky just to drink together.
To stupidly (and in a mostly inabriated state) laughing at everyone and everything no matter how bad things looked - coz we knew we were going to be alright.

Here's to the year that was...I wouldn't change it for the world.

Blooferlady:

Kampai to all that Woodbeetle! I just wanted to add a couple more though:

To the "wrong mistakes" in accidentally conveying totally different messages from their actual "consex", such as jaw movement burning calories and referring to bees as dragonflies or whatever.

To the many nights-slash-mornings spent at a diner where most of the "wrong mistakes" were born.

To SpiderPig!!! Yehbah!

To pedicures and foot spas.

...And a million other things.

May 2008 be a good year!

LadyRain:

Cheers to all the 1-million dollar ideas!

To all the things we believed in and were so sure about and finding out the next day they weren't all that. Just simply amusing at that time for whatever reason (alcohol, too much stress, purely contagious optimism, etc). To just laughing and shaking our heads about them...

To finally growing up and appreciating friends who are true.

To 2008... may it be full of fun, excitement, men (if possible?), new adventures and more 1-million dollar ideas... hopefully we know better this time!