And that Dave is David Aguirre, former axeman of the "legendary" pinoy rock band Razorback. Dubbed as one of the best guitarists in the Philippines, this cool dude has announced that he is selling his 1991 Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar on eBay!

Below is a pic to help those who don’t care much for the text ;)

How about details?  Here are some, from the eBay page (item #180086111062)

• 1991 Gibson Les Paul Custom (USA) Vintage Sunburst with a custom serial #93230330
• All stock except: bridge & saddle, volume/tone knobs, & toggle switch cover which has been replaced with "all parts".
• Head stock has been damaged (where headstock meets neck) but has been professionally repaired & is in perfect playing condition.
• Hard case included.

More pictures of the guitar are also on the eBay page, so visit it if the picture above doesn’t convince you.

Maybe you’re asking why this guitar is such a big deal?  Well, this guitar has been on every Razorback album and tour from 1991 to 2004!  If you’re a true blue hard rock aficionado, that’s like owning a part of rock history.  Want proof?  How about another pic:

Those who are interested in owning the guitar used by the axeman of one of the biggest hard rock bands in the Philippines should check out eBay here.

But do it now… why?  Coz there is only one day left for you to bid on the guitar. Yes, ONE DAY LEFT!   Maybe less than one day if you woke up late and just visited my blog just now.  Or maybe it has already passed if you took your sweet time to visit this site - in which case I don’t know why the fuck I’m still talking to you, haha…

Ahem, anyway… yeah, visit the eBay page now and if you can handle the $1000 starting bid, grab the opportunity - it might not happen again.  Borrow from your rich mom or dad, or pull a loan… or steal a bank, I don’t care.  Get it, and get it now!

p.s.  Dave didn’t pay me for this advertisement… although I wish he did.  I asked him if I could get the guitar from him for cheap if I swore fealty and worshipped him once a day and twice on Sundays, but he didn’t go for it…

What the fuck are you still doing here?  Visit the eBay page now, damnit!

I wouldn’t say I’m nervous, but it’s been a long time since I played on stage that I’ll probably be jittery the whole night…

Why am I posting it just now? Coz I don’t want a lot of people to come (hahaha). Anyway, I’ll post details after I embarrass myself in public…

I would have to say that this recent episode of Southpark’s 10th season was one of the best and funniest episodes I’ve ever watched… well, not mainly coz of the sick humor, but rather due to the subject matter they tackled - which was the wildly popular MMORPG World of Warcraft.

Even if you’re not into WoW, I am sure you would appreciate the sick satire portrayed in that episode.  I myself have been playing WoW on and off since late 2004, and the inside jokes really had me rolling on the floor.  Granted some of the game elements they portrayed were flawed - Stan’s dad said he was a “hunter”, but his character had a “shield”? Or how just killing boars in Elwynn Forest for a few weeks will get you up by fifty levels? Or how a seemingly legendary weapon isn’t “bind on pickup” or “bind on equip”?  And they conveniently left out the idea of “respawning” after a character death…

Meh…

But really, flawed facts aside, it was a very funny episode.  Kinda gives creedence to how World of Warcraft has now become well-known even in showbiz - it’s no longer just a geek thing! (I think)

The three best lines in the episode:

“Mom! MOre HOT-POCKETS!”
“Mom! BATHROOOM!!!”
“Oh no, not the Sword of a Thousand Truths?!”

But don’t take my word for it… watch it below ;)

* * * * *

Speaking of World of Warcraft, I think I may have fallen back into that obsessive game once again… As Al Pacino would say, “Just when I thought that I was out they pull me back in!”

For those who are reading this (the three of you, haha!), I am currently playing on the Executus PvP (US) server, for the Horde.  I currently have a level 49 Tauren warrior there named Aethercharge.  I would’ve probably been level 55 by now, but I’ve been spending most of my time there doing Battlegrounds to up my rank (my primary objective is to reach rank 11 and get my sweet Black War Kodo!).

My other characters are scattered in the other realms - I have one level 60 Tauren warrior in Mal’Ganis, and one level 60 Night Elf priest in Bonechewer.  It’s been ages since I touched those characters and I found that it gets really boring after you reach 60, unless you’re one of those who enjoy a 4-8 hour session with a raid group of 40+ people trying to kill one bigass, badass dragon…

The damn game is a time sink, but I keep getting sucked back in… maybe it’s high time I uninstall the game from my computer.  Easier said than done, of course.

So if you are bored with your level 60 character as well, join me in Executus.  I’ll twink ya.  I’ll run you through quests.  I’ll even dance for you, the way only a Tauren can… Peanut butter jelly time…

FOR THE HORDE!!!

* * * * *

* * * * *

• Height of Honesty
  A pregnant woman asking the bus conductor for one & a half ticket
• Height of Confusion
  Two earthworms making love in a bowl of noodles.
• Height of Revenge
  A bastard roaming in a condom factory with a needle in his hand
• Height of Pain
  A monkey sliding down a knife’s edge using its balls as his brakes
• Height of Foolishness
  A guy peeping through the keyhole of a glass door.
• Height of Noise
  Two skeletons fucking on a tin roof.
• Height of Itch
  A fat man hanging (upside down) from a roof trying to scratch his balls
• Height of Innocence
  A teenage girl applying Clearasil to her nipples thinking them as pimples
• Height of Unemployment
  Cobwebs in prostitute’s cunt
• Height of Laziness
  A guy lying on a girl and waiting for an earthquake to do the rest
• Height of Competition
  A guy peeing beside a waterfall
  or
  A topless lady standing near Mount Everest
• Height of Bravery
  A naked man bending over to pick up a quarter on an island of gays
• Height of Sophistication
  Sucking nipples with a straw
• Height of Disgust
  While wiping after a good toilet dump, your finger pokes through the paper
• Height of Technology
  Condom with zip
• Height of Penetration
  A baby girl born pregnant
• Height of Patience
  A female lying naked under a banana tree and hoping for a banana to fall in the “right place”
• Height of Coincidence
  And the banana falling in the “right place”

* * * * *

It’s ironic that, even though I can do an extreme exercise in elaborate site layouts, I choose a minimalist approach. This theme was called Hemmingway, and it really suits my simple and straightforward approach to weblogging right now.

The weblog software I’m using right now is Wordpress. I debated for some time whether I would continue using Moveable Type (which was the weblog script I’ve been using for a long time, and one that was compatible with the Friendster blogs’ Typepad service), or try to use new weblog script that was “supposed” to be better. But after a good deal of googling and research, I decided on going with the latter.

I think the biggest thing that won me over to Wordpress was my inclination to try something new. And the fact that Wordpress is actually free and open source didn’t hurt either. There was a huge community following for it, and I think I’d be more comfortable using an industry favorite with a ton of support and user-created goodies.

So here I am, playing around with this shiny new script, and I find it really enjoyable. There are some things I miss from MT, but the customizability and features of WP more than make up for it. And it actually has easier-to-edit themes than MT. And, yeah, it’s free…

I’m still trying to decide what else to incorporate here. Sometimes I get obsessed about starting a whole site from scratch that I try to put as much scripts and goodies I can find. But years of experience in this thing has taught me to just keep it simple. In the land of blogs, content is king.

This is gonna be so much fun, man…

But in a way of speaking, the title is apt.

As very few of you know, my Friendster blog “began” a year ago, September 4th to be exact. It had a dinky name called “Tatak Tolitz” for about two weeks or so, before I changed it to its current name… But if you notice, I have posts that go as way back as 2002… which would be impossible since I just started the blog at Friendster last year, right?

Well, maybe that’s because I’ve been weblogging since 2002 at my own personal site, Tolitz.Com, which had been in development limbo constantly. If you visited that site, you’ll see the words there that say:

“Don’t worry, once Tolitz finds the time for himself and his site, this site will be up once again.”

Well, my friends, that time is almost here… Yeah, I’m gonna be moving my weblog back to my site in a couple weeks, and I’m gonna be resurrecting my little corner in cyberspace once more.

* * * * *

What does that mean for my Friendster blog right now? Well, I’ll still be using it, of course, but I will slowly wean myself off it week by week. Does that mean I’ll be abandoning my Friendster blog after I get my site back up? Hell no! I met most of my good friends in this place, so it won’t be going away soon. But the posts will not be as regular or as constant as it will be on my own site when I move my weblog there.

What prompted me to make this move? A lotta things, really. Friendster blogs, specifically the Typepad service, limits me in some way… The fact that only Friendster members can reply to my posts is also a small part of it, and the pains I have to do in order to get around the pre-formatted design can be very unnerving at times. I wanted more freedom - not just in content, but in aesthetics.

Of course, that would mean the people who visit my weblog would once again dwindle or start from scratch once again, but I was already used to that. I’ve been weblogging since 2002 until 2005 with only a handful of people reading what I write, so it won’t be a shock to me :)

I do have to hand it to Friendster, though… the blogs here increased my readership by 500% from the time I started writing… no doubt thanks to the blog email notification spam, hahaha!

* * * * *

So expect an announcement from me, here, on when my site will re-launch itself. It might come in a couple of weeks. Maybe a month. But it will come. And then the hour of the wolf will be upon this little room I have in Friendster, where I share the dark, funny, often confusing thoughts that play around in the dark recesses of this thing I call a brain.

Will you miss me? I dunno. I sure will miss you guys, though :)

* * * * *

• TAOISM:  Shit happens.

• CONFUCIANISM:  Confucius say, "Shit happens".

• ZEN:  (What is the sound of shit happening?)

• JESUITISM:  If shit happens and nobody is watching, is it really shit?

• ISLAM:  Shit happens if it is the will of Allah.

• COMMUNISM:   Equal shit happens to all people.

• CATHOLICISM:  Shit happens because you are bad.

• PSYCHOANALYSIS:  Shit happens because of your toilet training.

• SCIENTOLOGY:  Shit happens if you’re on our shit list.

• ZOROASTRIANISM:  Bad shit happens, and good shit happens.

• UNITARIANISM:  Maybe shit happens.  Let’s have coffee and donuts.

• RIGHT-WING PROTESTANTISM:  Let this shit happen to someone else.

• JUDAISM:  Why does shit always happen to us?

• REFORM JUDAISM:  Got any Kaopectate?

• MYSTICISM:  What weird shit!

• AGNOSTICISM:  What is this shit?

• ATHEISM:  I don’t believe this shit!

• NIHILISM:  Who needs this shit?

• AZTEC:  Cut out this shit!

• QUAKER:  Let’s not fight over this shit.

• FORTEANISM:  No shit??

• 12-STEP:  I am powerless to cut the shit.

• VOODOO:  Hey, that shit looks just like you!

• NEWAGE:  Visualize shit not happening.

• DEISM:  Shit just happens.

• EXISTENTIALISM:  Shit doesn’t happen; shit is.

• SECULAR HUMANISM:  Shit evolves.

• CHRISTIAN SCIENCE:  Shit is in your mind.

• BUDDHISM:  Shit happens, but pay no mind.

• SHINTOISM:  Shit is everywhere.

• HINDUISM:  This shit has happened before.

• WICCA:  Mix this shit together and make it happen!

• HASIDISM:  Shit never happens the same way twice.

• THEOSOPHY:  You don’t know half of the shit that happens.

• DIANETICS:  Your mother gave you shit before your were born.

• SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST:  No shit on Saturdays.

• JEHOVAH’s WITNESSES:  No shit happens until Armageddon.

• MOONIES:  Only happy shit really happens.

• HOPI:  Corn fertilizer happens.

• BAHA’I:  It’s all the same shit.

• STOICISM:  This shit is good for me.

• OBJECTIVISM:  Our shit is good for you.

• EST:  If my shit bothers you, that’s your fault.

• REAGANISM:  Don’t move; the shit will trickle down.

• FASCISM:  Shit makes the trains run on time.

• CARGO CULT:   A barge will come and take all the shit away.

• EMACS:  Hold down Control-Meta-Shit.

• DISCORDIANISM:  Some funny shit happened to me today.

• RASTAFARIANISM:   Let’s smoke this shit.

• CHARISMATIC:  This is not shit and it doesn’t smell bad.

• MASONIC:  Shit happens, but we can’t discuss it during Lodge.

• RED CROSS:  Shit happens - send money.

• THE MATRIX:  There is no shit….

• BRAVEHEART:  SHIIIIITTT!!!

* * * * *

Hope you liked it, and my apologies if this shit offends your religion or belief… but frankly my dear, I don’t give a shit…

(also see:  TAE, UTOT and BFWOT)

Are we wiser? Are we better? Are we safer?

Where were you when it happened? What were you doing? How did it affect you? Does it still affect you? Do you think America (or the world) is prepared - so that this horrible event will not happen again? Do you think that the measures and actions done in the name of this tragedy were all warranted, and necessary? That we just made the world better - or worse?

Looking at the image on the left, what comes to your mind?

It’s annoying to read nothing but questions, but questions are all I have. Sure, it’s disturbing to put up a picture of that horrible attack once more (as I just did), and it might seem that I’m trying to cut open old wounds. But it is my intention to make some people flinch. They seem to forget what really happened five years ago, and are all willing to swallow whatever our leaders force-feed us, all in the name of September 11…

Fuck that.

They say that hindsight is 20/20. Learning the lessons of history will do us all a lot of good.

I have an old blog entry written three years ago that recounted where I was, and what I was doing, during the September 11 attacks. Do you still remember where you were, and what you were doing? And what you felt “needed” to be done?

Looking back to the last five years… at all the things we have done ever since… makes me shake my head in disgust despair…

We still have a lot to learn…

* * * * *

Those of you in the Los Angeles area who are into hard rock (meaning, those of you who are "cool"), and missed Ryan Hudson’s debut as the new vocalist for Lokomotiv, should really check out this gig.  Those who still miss Basti and are still going emo over his departure from the band, well, stay in your homes and go nostalgic on your Wolfgang CDs, then…

Oh yeah, for those who don’t know yet, Lokomotiv’s debut album, Rock N’ Roll Death Toll, was just launched in the Philippines yesterday (Saturday).  So visit your nearest music outlet and grab this "collector’s" CD now!  Why do I call it a collector’s CD?  Well, it might be the last studio album released with Basti doing vocals as part of a band.  Hear that, Basti fans?  Another addition to your Basti Artadi shrine, for sure :)

For more information on Lokomotiv’s future gigs, check out their Tour page.  I guess I’ll see you guys there - give me a holler if you recognize me, and I might even buy you a beer ;)

Don’t be shy - come join the fun, and rock on! See ya there! \m/

Alright, alright… I admit, that was a pretty bad thing to say, but I can’t help it.  As I was browsing through my friends’ blogs (unlike most people, I DO visit the blogs everytime I get the notification through email), and I came upon one of my friends’ blogs which had something really interesting…

She mentioned a site called MyHeritage.Com, and posted some "face recognition" samples.  Basically it tries to analyze a picture of your face and finds close matches with various celebrities.  Meaning, it shows you celebrities who bear close similarities with your facial features based on a percentage.

Being the megalomaniacal egotistical narcissist that I am, I tried it.  And I found some very interesting (and flattering) results!

Coincidentally, Gary Valenciano happens to be my favorite singer/performer when I was in grade school and early high school.  So imagine my surprise that I had him as my closest match!  Maybe I had the subconscious desire to look like him when I was growing up?  Hmmm… yeah, pretty far-fetched, I know.  But still, it was a pleasant surprise…  Maybe it was a mistake, so I tried it again:

Hmmm, same result, hahaha… It was all good fun, and pretty great to know that I "resemble" my idol when I was growing up… yeah, right.

Make sure not to take the result from the site too seriously.   Otherwise, I would be going around telling everyone, "Hey, I have a 67% resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio!"

… which would drive all the women screaming… for my blood…

Almost two days ago, when I was talking to my brother Rodell (who’s in Chicago) on the phone, he mentioned that the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, just died.  Actually, what he asked was, "Remember the crocodile hunter?  Guess how he died?"

I thought it was a trick question, so I obliged and answered, "Hmmm… an alligator got him?"  My brother chuckled but said no.  A stingray got him.  Through the heart.

It was said to be those "one in a million" types of freak accidents.  Almost as rare as getting hit by lightning.  Or dying in a plane crash.  Or winning the lotto.  But this was the first time I ever heard of a stingray actually earning its name.

Granted, I didn’t know Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter as much as most people.  When my brother mentioned that the Crocodile Hunter had just died, I was actually thinking of Crocodile Dundee.  There are times when Hollywood has jaded your perception that sometimes you just couldn’t tell between those wacky Australian accents.

I’ve only seen Steve Irwin a few times on Animal Planet.  It wasn’t one of those channels that I watch religiously (I usually tuned in to either the Scifi Channel or Comedy Central).  I remember him as that crazy Aussie who seems to have the knack of sticking his hand into cookie jars - filled with poisonous vipers and scorpions.  I remember him humorously exemplifying the phrase "not looking before you leap." His fearless attempts made you laugh more than it made you gasp.  It made you ask the question, "would I do what he’s doing, even for a million dollars?"

Like most nature-loving Aussies you see on film and television, he has that over-enthusiastic attitude when he talks about what he’s doing.  One can almost imagine him saying, "Check these out kids!  This is a black mamba, a VERY poisonous snake, and I’m gonna try to kiss it!"

…usually followed by his trademark "Crikey!" remark…

Steve Irwin’s death is definitely considered a tragedy and a huge loss to the animal-loving commmunity.  I am sure Animal Planet wouldn’t be the same without him.  His voice has been synonymous to so many things that are both fun and dangerous, like watching a roller coaster jump across a broken track (damn, wouldn’t that be somethin’…)

But hearing about his death, I can imagine that he probably wouldn’t have had it any other way.  For someone who has devoted his life doing something he loves, the way he met his keeper would’ve probably brought a smile to his face.

As One Stab from Legends of the Fall would say - it was a good death…

Now, I’m not new to the whole Cafepress thing.  I had an old account associated with my tech support site almost four years ago, and it was a good thing at a time, and I got to sell some OTS merchandise lilke caps, shirts and even a beanie baby.  But the absence of black, gray or green/red shirts kinda dampened my enthusiasm (there’s only so much you can do back then with WHITE colors for almost everything), so my Cafepress store kinda faded into obscurity.

Seeing Tiyen’s Cafepress store once again rekindled that little voice inside me that says it would be fun to once again create some "funny" or "satirical" shirts and merchandise associated with my site.  And now that I have a (semi) regular weblog, it might not be such a bad thing.

Would you buy things associated with my blog?  I don’t really know, and I asked myself that question too… will I buy something that’s associated with someone’s blog?  I probably would, if I like what they write.  Or if I feel pity for them.  Or if I feel the overwhelming need to fill up their meager, lint-filled pockets with measly change.

* tries to dig into the bottomless pit known as his wallet *

Hmmm…

Once in a while I’ll be posting these types of things for my own amusement, and let you in one how the song came to be, how it was written, and where it was first played.

So the first is the song "Kaibigan", which means "friend" in English.  It can also mean "friends" but that would probably bring back "so no one told you life was gonna be this way - clap-clap-clap-clap!" flashbacks (ugh!)…

Anyway, the song was composed primarily for a Battle of the Bands event in Batangas in the early ’90s.  Since it was sponsored by San Miguel Beer, they were also searching for a new jingle.  My band back then was Beowulf, and we were essentially a "weekend warrior" type band, because all of us were in college.  Beowulf during that time was made up of me (as vocalist), Jay Baloyo (lead guitars), Mok Oliveros (rhythm guitars), Gaylord Garcia (bass guitars), and Vince I-forgot-his-last-name (drums).

Fred Agustin, our previous lead guitarist at the time, came up with a catchy 3-4 chord loop, and I decided to put English lyrics on it (which eventually became "Dying on a Cloudy Day").  But when we caught wind of that San Miguel Beer bandfest in Batangas, we thought "wouldn’t it be cool if we joined that thing?"

* * * * *

So I wrote some Tagalog lyrics to the looping tune that Fred made, and Mok did minor revisions to it, and then we were set.  The catch phrases and slogans of San Miguel Beer were "Kahit kailan, kaibigan" and "Iba ang may pinagsamahan".  I attempted to translate these into english for this blog, but they came out cheesy, so let’s just say they mean "anytime, friends" and "companionship makes a difference" respectively…

To make a long story short, we didn’t win in that bandfest - we performed three songs:  Born to be Wild, Anatomy of Decay (a Mok Oliveros original) and Kaibigan.  But we got so much good feedback on the song "Kaibigan" that I removed all San Miguel Beer references and made it into a full-fledged song.

Two years later, it was what won us first prize in the De La Salle University - Dasmarinas ‘Battle of the Bands ‘95′.  So I would go as far as to say this song was our anthem within the band, and one of our more successful forays in Pinoy Rock - relatively speaking.

* * * * *

Our band Beowulf faded away after we all graduated college.  But that doesn’t mean the songs died.  At least, I won’t let them.  With the help of David Aguirre and Miguel Ortigas, who have become my good friends, we recorded the "improved" version of Kaibigan this year.  It’s truly great, to have friends help you out, in recording a song about friends.

So below is the song, and its lyrics.  Might not be the best song you’ve heard, but it’s a song that means a lot to us who have played it.  I hope you like it!

* * * * *

KAIBIGAN

Ang alaala ng pagkabata
na hindi iaalis sa isipan ko’y
ang mga kaibigan na katulad n’yo
kahit na magunaw pa ang buong mundo

Sa tuwing tayo’y magkikita
Umaagos muli ang bukal ng saya
Hindi mapapantayan ang pagsasamahang magbarkada
Gaano man ang agwat

Kahit kailan, kaibigan
Kahit kailan ay daramay sa ‘yo
Sa lungkot, o saya, o saan saan pa
Pare ko, hindi magbabago

Sakali ma’t tayo’y may alitan
Mga bagay na di mapagkasunduan
Nandiyan ka, at ako, at ang bote ng beer
Problema’y alisin, at huwag nang isipin

Kahit kailan, kaibigan
Kahit kailan ay daramay sa ‘yo
Sa lungkot, o saya, o saan saan pa
Pare ko, hindi magbabago

Hinding hindi malilimutan ang pinagsamahan
Iba ang may pinagsamahan!

At ‘pag tayo’y magkasama
Umaagos muli ang bukal ng saya
Hindi mapapantayan ang pagsasamahang magbarkada
Gaano man ang agwat

Kahit kailan, kaibigan
Kahit kailan ay daramay sa ‘yo
Sa lungkot, o saya, o saan saan pa
Pare ko, hindi magbabago

Hinding hindi malilimutan
Hinding hindi malilimutan
Sa lungkot, o saya, o saan saan pa
Hinding hindi malilimutan ang samahan…

Of course, when MacDonnell took his leave, next came the very potent lineup that ripped through hard rock scene in Los Angeles in the last two years, and this lineup consisted of Wolf Gemora, David Aguirre, Basti Artadi and Danny Gonzalez:

And after Basti took his leave two months ago, we now have the current (and hopefully final) lineup for Lokomotiv, which now consists of Wolf Gemora, Danny Gonzalez, David Aguirre, and their new vocalist, Ryan Hudson:

Now ain’t that a great, and short, lesson on history? ;)