cheers to beers

Some beers were born to be stars of our living room. They have earned a place in our hearts as a result of funny, thought-provoking, unusual and simply unforgettable TV commercials. Here are some of the best beer commercials on cable TV, so take a beer in hand, sit back and enjoy.

Heineken: So what is every man's dream??.. a walk-in fridge

Carlton Draught: The Big Ad. This Australian beer pokes fun at the big set-piece commercials by being purposely self-referential, but is all the better for it. Worth inclusion for the sheer audacity of pulling it off! Definitely a personal favorite.





Brahma: Refreshingly Voodoo. From the Brazilian beer makers is this inventive commercial with an excellent punch line. Saying any more than that would possibly ruin things…

tennis anyone?

Do you ever find yourself in a bad mood on the tennis court? Maybe you're losing. Maybe you're playing poorly and you're worried that your partner is getting a bit bored at you. Maybe you just have had a really crappy morning and there's no one reason you're in a bad mood, you just are. Times like these are just not avoidable. And let me warn you. Based on my own experience, if you don't snap out of that bad mood, you're going to lose. Trust me.

I was down a set and playing terribly yesterday. I smacked the yellow ball into the net, into the back fence, far left, far right. I hit the ball everywhere except where I wanted.. which is inside the lines. When I am distracted, the unforced errors just keep coming. I know I have to remind myself to get a grip, calm down, breathe deeply and then just play friendly tennis. Just get the ball back, stop the errors and wait to get into some kind of groove. But there was no pace, no rhythm to my game and absolutely no cerebral orchestration of my skill. My match was a joke.. a real disaster.

Coach Mikko and I took a break. I need more than a few seconds to calm down and lighten up. I need a real mental break of at least a minute. This might mean a slow walk back to my position or it can be a tied shoe that suddenly needs unnecessary re-tying. I try to find ways to calm down. Actually I just need to go ahead and acknowledge that I'm having a bad day. Making a joke out of it made it easier to diffuse the tension I'm feeling and soon I got into a better frame of mind.

So after I settled down, I quit trying so hard that things just fell into place. The ball starts landing where I was aiming, the points added up, and the next thing I know, I had come back and won the match... I wish. Well, it could've been better if it ended that way. Here's what really happened: While points are adding under my name, rainclouds came and killed our second set. And I was down one set, so yes.. technically I lost.

7-eleven date

You’d think weeknights would be rather boring, laid back and relaxing, well not for me. I promised myself that I will be meeting and making more friends as this lifestyle of not-knowing-anyone-apart-from-school-friends needs to change. This means that I’m going to start building a new circle of friends outside college and highschool.

So anyway the story starts in traffic. I was pointlessly sitting in traffic at 8:15 last night. So I took a turn and parked nearby and just walk the rest of the distance to meet up with the guys. We had a few drinks but I warned them that I can’t stay out late because I have to drive my sister to the airport 4:30 in the morning. I’m sure they wanted to stay out longer but probably only like a few more minutes and that wouldn’t be worth it. Few hours later, I said my final goodbye to my friends and two great girls who I may very likely never see again in my life.

As I walked across the street, I bumped into someone. Well apparently she was someone I knew from an old highschool soiree. Small world indeed. I was about to say hi when she ran to the convenience store. Either distracted, drunk or just not-so-intelligent, she almost got hit by an SUV while crossing a very narrow street. Pretty drunk I guess.

It's 2:45 and I have to go home and sleep. But I followed her in and pretended I'm out of yosi though I really don't smoke. She looks drunk and wasted as she struggles with her slurpee straw. Anyway, so there I was following her with my eyes, browsing over the noodles section until she walked towards me with her raspberry slurpee and said:

"Hi!"
"Uhh Hey!"
"I like noodles." was what I said grinning next to a bunch of instant noodles.. terrible.. not so creative indeed.
"La Salle right?"
"Uhh LSGH.. yeah I was." so she remembers.
"Nica." she said with a cute flirty smile, then she burped.

I smiled and offered my hand and she laughed like a drunk dog that I could clearly see the dehydrated overchewed gum in her mouth. She wanted to hang out and have a little talk. I agreed to hang out a bit well knowing that it’ll kill my next day because I’ll be so exhausted.

After a couple of 7-eleven coffees and a rather bizarre chat, I really really have to go. I'll be driving my sister in an hour and I'm still there killing time with a drunk girl from an old highschool soiree. I know it'll be awkward to walk away from a nice weird talk but I'm starting to picture that my sister will cut my blue balls off if I won't be home in an hour. So there there, we said our goodbyes, we hugged and called it a night and I walked out of the store and waved goodbye.

I know nothing about what qualifies a good date or what a successful one is, aside from a kiss, which didn’t happen. But it was a nice talk that couldn’t gone any better and I felt like she was into me (hopefully not induced by alcohol) just as much as I was into her. She was interested in my conversation and I was interested in her conversation. We both made serious eye contact all night while we just talked and talked.

Well you see I’ve never been with a girl who I connected with so much that neither of us wanted to leave except we had commitments early the next day. I haven't slept since last night and there are things that I’m still curious about. I've been recalling that cute "date" we had and it's hard getting my mind off of it. I was about to invite her out for a real date, and as I scroll down my phonebook, I realized I didn't get her number. I mean seriously??? How stupid was that?? So now if you'll excuse me I'll look for a strong sturdy noose and hang myself.

news flash

Everyone talks about the same thing: economic gloom, job cuts and recession. This is not what a young bum, fresh out of school, wants to hear. And worse, they all say it's not going to be over soon. But no worries friends. I read that the country is in a better financial position than most Asian neighbors and it can withstand the global financal meltdown. Not bad right?

a chef-architect

A friend had been staying with me since monday night. He's a culinary wizard where he can turn every bit of trash in our fridge to a swanky five-star meal. I never thought those rubbish leaves sitting in our fridge could still be made into edible veggie burgers and chicken sandwiches. The whole time he was here we just ate. And eating that much feels like drinking without the hangover. And I think I finally will sober up later today.

Girls love when a guy can cook. Let’s face it, cooking is not a top priority in the lives of every man. We often exist on boxed foods and packed mixes rather than taking the effort to prepare healthier meals. So in the mission to always improve my lifestyle, I’ve decided to dedicate myself to learning to cook... and then actually try doing it. I cooked something simple this morning just to get me into it, which I think is the best way to get into anything. I cooked pasta. Sounds easy for girls but reading my mom's tiny little handwritten note is really frustrating.

Anyway, cooking was fun. It turned out great. Delizioso! My pasta was well done, sauce was great and the spinach bread from last night's take out made it even better. I'm glad that now I can make myself a meal. And c'mon, we all have those days. Those days when there are no good left overs to toss in the microwave. So when those days come.. I'm ready to take charge in the kitchen.

fallon's first

We loved him on SNL. We all hated him in the movies. Now he's handed another chance, a gig that could either turn him into a late night TV institution like Carson or Letterman, or could be an embarrassing permanent blemish on his resume. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon was seriously one of the hardest shows to get through. Jimmy Fallon is naturally awkward, which makes him an awesome SNL skit actor, but man he's not a good talk show host.

Robert De Niro and Justin Timberlake were his pilot guests and I assume some parts were scripted to make De Niro seem disinterested, but you could really see his boredom kick in when he was booted to the second chair as Justin Timberlake took the reins. I’m still wondering how Jimmy Fallon even got picked to be the successor to Conan O’Brien. I'm a fan of Fallon on SNL but he was horrible on the Late Night show. He needs a lot of work convincing audiences that he's the right man for the desk.