Food Strips

Wifey and Marcus are away for a vacation which left me no choice but to liver or rather survive on my own. Without wifey, there’s no one to cook food. Without Marcus, there’s no one around hauling Lego figures on the table during meal times.

So to fill that void I feel inside our house, I have come up with what I will start to call Food Strips where I integrate the Lego characters with my cooking skills–or the lack of it. Kudos to the trial version of Comic Life from Softonics and if I am satisfied using it I might pay for its full version after 30 days if the two still decide to stay put in Batangas.

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“Sometimes quiet is violent.” — Car Radio, Twenty One Pilots

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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Weekend is near.)

Recovered

Almost had a panic attack when I discovered that marcuscanblog.com is not available anymore. Apparently, WordPress went ahead of its expiry deadline and stopped my domain mapping subscription weeks before April 29, 2014. Left with no choice I have just let go of $13 and was able to recover my custom domain. Whew!

Tomorrow I will try to write again. Sounds like a plan.

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Mood: 3/10 Honks! (Missing wifey and Marcus.)

From 300 to Minecraft

Three days ago the radio station I have been listening to for several months already started to give away tickets for the sequel of the movie 300. On twitter, the DJ asked for suggestions on how they should go about the contest which on a whim I tweeted, since the original 300 movie brags a cast with washboard abs, “How about sending a profile pic showing good abs. One that can be verified on Facebook or twitter.” Lo and behold, they picked up the suggestion and got willing participants to strut their stuff. I was tempted to send my own yet let go of the idea with an alibi, “…300 days more.”

Perhaps if I maintain my current gym regiment, however unscientific it is, I might achieve, or at least get closer to, the form that I should have had years ago. While low in the standards of weight training, considering I started being more serious about it just when I reached that age when they say life begins at, I cannot believe that I have upped the ante in terms of the weights I am now lifting. The significant of which is with my chest and shoulder exercises wherein I have transitioned from the embarrassing 20-pound to 70-pound dumbbells in a matter of weeks—and that’s sans any drug supplement such as the creatine I once planned to buy. The problem now is that school will be over soon and I won’t have the opportunity to kill time at the gym, so as early as now I need to plan an alternative training schedule. I plan to be more frequent this summer and would need more of wifey’s perfect carbo-filled breakfast. (Yes, she can now cook again.)

Every Monday morning as I wage my personal war against body fat and laziness, just a street across the gym, Marcus fights his own battle—the start of his school week. Remarkably, despite the usual resistance to report to school, he has been making good progress inside the kindergarten classroom. After earning the top three spot in his class in the third quarter of the school year, his next monthly exams were a lot better. In fact, he excels in Math and Science subjects wherein he perfected his recent exams. (Reading and writing though present some challenges but I am quite impressed nevertheless.) So if in the previous grading period wifey gave him Ben 10 CDs—and a regular supply of imitation Lego figures—this time I got him a genuine Minecraft for Xbox 360. It was dream come true for him after spending several months of just watching walkthrough YouTube videos of this game from this person with the name StampyLongHead.

This is a cross between Lego and World War Z. Doubt it? Get one.

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Marcus has stopped playing the game due to the Zombies and Creepers which I think is a good thing since the last exams for this school will happen next week.

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Mood: 1/10 Honks! (Our second normal week.)

No It’s Not Cancer

“My Body tells me no, but I won’t quit ’cause I want more, cause I want more…” — My Body, Young the Giant

Cancer is for the rich people. I believe it just like how others believe in superstition—irrational but nevertheless a belief so strong that it can hardly be disputed by the others. It is a disease I am aware exists but I have neither really bothered nor cared to understand. When someone gets I cancer I just know that he or she is rich. Period. So uneducated, so stubborn but that’s just me.

Several Decembers ago during our vacation in Bacolod, my wife and I visited my lolo while he is confined and bedridden in a hospital. My mother said he has cancer of the blood but I thought that maybe it’s something else other than cancer. Months passed after that and he succumbed to the disease, whatever it was. No, I believe it wasn’t cancer.

Years later, another one made a sad revelation that she’s got the condition. We learned that she’s had it since about three years ago. She kept it from everyone in the family until it has become so obvious. It was also cancer or so they say. I still didn’t pay too much attention to what caused it but from what I have seen the last time I saw her, it was painful, it was unbearable, it was just nasty. My sister-in-law died on that fateful December. It wasn’t from cancer.

Two years passed and a check-up due to unexplained bleeding started a series of hospital trips—we jokingly called it dates as it was only when we get to be away from Marcus—and consequent operations for my wife. Tumor, malignant, carcinoma, and other dizzying medical terms began to surface. The diagnosis screams cancer but I didn’t believe them. I told myself that it could be somewhat related and that it is just something else. Apparently, I am uneducated in this field. Or I just want to remain that way.

Again, we are not rich, though I used to believe we once were–relatively–so it can’t be cancer. I must be that stubborn, I must be that ignorant, or I must be just not so willing to accept—yet—that cancer is a fact of life. That it is the condition those people, not only patients but including relatives they bring along with them, who come in and out of the LINAC and BRACHY section of this hospital where I was at are dealing with.

My denial of its existence remains until now despite the facts. But for how long before I will admit that it is for real, I don’t know. Maybe soon or maybe after the 45th hour when my wife comes out of the radioactive brachytherapy operating room where I wrote this blog post as I look at the CCTV monitor to check how she is doing in bed. No wifey, it’s just a bad infection, it isn’t cancer. Hang in there.

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Happy Valentine’s Day wifey. I wish you more Valentine’s Day to come.

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Mood: 3/10 Honks! (Questions, questions, questions.)

No More Kragling

Here comes our master builder.

Robocop, Lego, Robocop, Lego, Robocop, Lego. And the winner of Marcus’ moody decision-making process…Lego The Movie! As much as I would like to also see the new Robocop movie our little boy made up his mind before I reached SM cinema’s ticket counter and I agree 100% with his choice.

Our son belongs to the huge fan base of the famous building blocks brand that started way before his generation began to connect their first pieces together.  Someone whom we observed to be a natural in assembling cardboard puzzles, it did not surprise us when at barely age of three, Marcus showed interest and knack in creating shapes out of his first Duplo set. It was also when he began to be aware that each set has its own instruction manual—one that has to be followed by the number.

Thanks to having someone (yes, you Santas in California) who can support him in acquiring the pricey original kits, and as supplemented by the rip-offs and Shell Lego promo items that wifey and I can afford, our son always gets excited whenever he sees the individual blocks form into distinct shapes as shown on each of the boxes—usually followed by the questions why the lighting streaks, the whirlwinds, and other graphics meant for illustrations purposes only always remain missing at each end of the assembly.

As a father who knows that these building blocks aide in the learning phase of children, I am among those who strongly enforce that the instruction manuals are followed. And Lego The Movie made me realize that I am President Business as well as I am part of the legions of Micromanagers and even the Good Cop/Bad Cop. Unconsciously, I have become someone who holds the Kragle ever willing to freeze anyone who deviates from the instructions.

By being obsessed in keeping the toy appear as it is supposed to be based on its instructions manual, the toy that is designed to foster learning also became the toy that suppresses creativity. Thankfully, someone came up with Lego The Movie to show parents who the real owners of these toys are. In the movie, the Lego figures did not just move to entertain the kids, it also delivered a very strong message to the adults. Recalling the duration Marcus has kept his 3D glasses on, I would say that this beats other 3D he has watched so far. It was two ‘buttered-popcorn’ thumbs up.

I admit, however, that while I will likely continue to keep an eye on how he takes care of his Lego sets, I will now give him more freedom this time. No more Kragling. I will now let him fly and slam his Jay’s Storm Fighter plane into his Kai’s Blade motorbike as its masked rider stalks in front of the brown snake temple that is built under the shadow of the Duplo mega carwash-mall-fire department building wherein a smiling dog stands beside a giant fireman who seems to be talking to a bearded bad guy who just got away with a huge bullion but with nearby Lego City cop figure in pursuit followed by an army of fake Star Wars characters flanked by genuine Ninjagos and as viewed by the shocked fresh out-of-the-box Chimas. Whew, such chaos. I now wonder if somewhere someone will indeed sing “everything is awesome!” I will let you know.

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Happy 11th birthday to one of the young Santas 🙂

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Drafted this while at a radioactive environment.

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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Everyone’s under one roof again. Master builder is now sleeping.)

Not So Usual Monday

Today seems to be just another usual Monday for all of us at home. Our routine remains the same: wifey prepares breakfast while I prepare Marcus’ uniforms. And when I say prepare it involves ironing his small shirts and pants which I discovered since last week as a task that is more complex than doing the regular adult clothing size. Not to be forgotten, of course, is dealing with the small guy’s resistance—something we have to contend with since the opening of classes.

But heavens must have wanted to reward us for all the sacrifices we continue to make just to send the kid to school.

Marcus and I arrived late which is usually the case on Mondays. We were met, however, with an excited class adviser who told me an unexpected news—Marcus is their class’ top 3 pupil for this quarter. “Top 3?!” I almost exclaimed in front of his restless classmates but I held my composure and was able to fake a bland reply.

“Marcus you made it to top 3, do you know what that means?” I asked him as he takes a seat and as I make my way out. He just smiled and shook his head. Yes, he probably does not understand all about it and he might not even care right now.

Just like any other Mondays, I soon left the room and went straight to the nearby gym but this time I was already pumped up even before I started my usual weight training routine. This Monday’s so usual yet not. Thanks to you Marcus. Good job son, you made us proud.

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Mood: 1/10 Honks! (So this is feels to see a good report card.)

Bye Treadmill

I’m now 30 lbs lighter, he’s 3 years older, the treadmill’s a goner. 

I have gotten rid of the treadmill after a finding a buyer online. About three  weeks ago, the initial purpose of the sale was just to free up some space as this exercise machine is just starting to gather dust, but things have changed…

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Mood: 5/10 Honks! (Happy to get wifey back home.)