INTERVIEW

For the lack of anything to write. I copied this interview from Ms. D's page. So here I am, pretending that I am so famous to be worth an interview about my life.

1. What kind of first impression do you think you give people?
That I will devour them. I really don’t know, but it’s probably the way I look that those that I am not close to will always think that I want to eat them alive.

2. What's one thing you like to do alone?
Sing! And not only sing, I sing in a performance level with all the hand gestures and pretend that I am singing in front of a huge crowd. Then I practice waving, you know, like how Presidents wave when they get out of the plane upon their arrival. Don’t ask me why.

3. Are you a giver or a taker?
Giver. To a point that I have become a doormat.

4. What have you stolen before?
Coins from my Mama’s purse. A ballpen from the department store in my hometown. Well, I though I have already bought a lot of things from that store, so it won’t harm their business if I put one Kilometrico ballpen in my pocket.

5. How many drinks before you're tipsy?
If I haven’t eaten, three bottles of San Mig Light will make me tipsy. But If I have eaten and in an open place, I could go for more than three bottles of Colt 45.

I refrain from drinking beer nowadays. As much as possible, I limit my drinking to tequila, vodka, brandy and red wine!

6. Do you ever have to beg?
I don’t really beg. When I ask something and I don’t get it from asking. I’ll just walk away and find other means to get it! Hehehehehehehe.

7. What kind of books do you like to read?
Anything worth reading.

8. Do you think you're cute?
No. But some people are crazy over me to the point of stalking me, so I don’t know, am I cute? Or just simply irresistible?

9. Do you have a problem changing clothes in front of your friends?
Not when I am with a group of men. I don’t have problem undressing in front of them. Living in a dorm for four years and using the showers with no cubicles, I have learned to adjust. However, I get conscious when I undress in a presence of a woman.

10. What's the most painful experience you've ever had?
Losing my father and growing up in a place where not your skills, wit and talent matters in order to “belong” but what brand of clothes you wear. And I mean this literally. The problem was, my Mama just couldn't afford to buy me those branded clothes and I don’t really beg for clothes to my Mama.

11. Favorite communication method?
Sarcasm!

12. Do you care?
Yes I do. I care if people around me are so full of the soap operas they watched that they seem to forget and oblivious to all the bad things that are happening around them.

13. What is your most prized piece of your music collection?
Josh Groban Concert CD and VCD. Given to me by a lawyer friend after I wrote his speech that he delivered when he was invited as a graduation speaker in my hometown. Considering the remarks that he received about the speech, I think that CD and VCD is not enough! (Gaddd! The travails of a ghost writer!)

14. What is the geekiest part of your music collection?
A karaoke VCD of Tom Jones’ music. Again, don’t ask me why.

15. What do you eat when you raid the fridge at night?
Bread! Yes we put bread and cookies, hopia and all sorts of pastries in the ref.

16. What is your secret guaranteed weeping movie?
I cried watching “Bata, Bata Paano ka Ginawa?”, “Step Mom” and any commercial of a brother talking to his elder brother or a son talking to his father. In case you will wonder why, I am the only son and I lost my father at the age of 12.

17. If you could have plastic surgery, what would you have done?
I am seriously considering having some reconstruction on my nose and injecting some botox to erase the lines in my forehead.

18. What is a physical habit that gives away your insecure moments?
I am usually silent when introduce to a group new group. (But it would only take seconds for me to be noisy again! hehehehehe)

19. Do you know anyone famous?
Yup, movie and TV personalities, politicians, writers!

20. Describe your bed.
Typical bed of a boarding house. Double deck (I occupy the lower deck), two pillows in blue pillowcase, white blanket with some floral prints and a blue bed sheet.

21. Spontaneous or planned?
More of spontaneous. Like when I want to go out to sing along bars in Malate, I go there even if I won’t be able to pull anyone to accompany me.

22. Do you know how to play poker? No. The only card game that I know are “bulak-bulak” and “unggoy-unggoy”.

23. What do you carry with you at all times?
My wallet with my ATM, Credit and Health Insurance Card, my cellphone and some condoms.

24. What do you miss most about being little?
Swimming at the river just 25 meters at the back of our house in Bukidnon, even If my Mama strongly prohibits it. Getting some firewood and playing at the pine forest which is just less than fifty meters at the back of our house, even if my Mama prohibits it. Climbing all kinds of fruit trees, playing bahay-bahayan with a makeshift house that we built out of banana leaves, sacks, sticks we got in our backyard. Catching all kinds dragon flies in our back yard, playing “shatong”, eating santol with salt and vinegar, listening to radio plays like “Esteban Escudero”, “Mutya sa Saging Minantikaan” “Hayop ka man Mohilak Ka-usab”, “Handumanan sa Usa ka Awit” Ramini ang Batang Bronse” and many more courtesy of Radio Mindanao Network. There’s a lot that I miss about being little.

25. Are you happy with your given name? Yes!
My Complete name is Eric Samuel Paano-Joven. Eric originates from Scandinavia (Vikings, remember?) and it means above all kings. Samuel is of Hebrew origin which means, “called by God”. Paano, my middle name, is of course a tagalog word which means “how”. And Joven is a Spanish word for young.

26. How much money would it take to give up the internet for 1 year? Probably a million dollar. But I don’t think I can live without any internet for one year.

27. What color is your bedroom?
Brown! It’s a boarding house, so what can I do. If I’ll have a bedroom, it will be colored blue, a mixture of all shades of blue.

28. Have you ever been in a play?
Yes, back in my college days. I played as Mendel in “Fiddler on the Roof”, Pharaoh and Rueben in “Joseph the Dreamer”, Vincenzo in a tagalog play “Alitan”, and acted as that proud theater guy in the one-act play “Impromptu” for Alexis dela Cruz play.

29. Do you like yourself and believe in yourself?
Yes, but sometimes I slap my own face for the stupid things that I have done and hated myself for being stupid.

30. Do transient, homeless, or starving people sometimes annoy you?
Yes, especially when they look healthy enough to make a living, or when they use their kids to beg! I made it a policy not to give in to beggars. I believe that you are not helping them if you give. But If I have enough money, I donate it to reputable charities. Believe me, some of those beggars are part of syndicate, so the best way to help them is help organization that will take them out of the street.

31. Do you consider yourself to be a nice person?
Yes. It is only people’s first impression of me that isn’t nice. But once they get to know me, they know how “approachable” and how down-to-earth I am.

32. Do you spend more time with your girlfriend/boyfriend or your friends?
I wish I were in a relationship now. So I have no choice but to spend time with my friends, hoping that they will match me with their other friends. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

33. What's one thing you wish you could do but can't?
Run this company I am currently employed! and Kill Ryan!

34. What is your ideal wedding location?
Old small chapel by the beach.

35. What's one instrument you wish you could play?
The violin and harp.

36. Something you love and hate?
Good-looking persons.

37. What's one language you want to learn?
French and Spanish.

38. What do you order at a bar?
San Mig Light, Vodka, Tequila.

39. Have you ever pierced your body parts?
No.

40. Do you have any tattoos?
No. I don’t want to blemish my good complexion. A henna tattoo would be okay though.

41. Would you admit to getting plastic surgery if confronted?
Over my dead body! That is if, I’ll be dead first!

42. What's one trait you hate in a person?
Apathy! A person who doesn’t care at all deserves to die!

43. Do you consider yourself materialistic?
Not really. Most of my salary goes to food.

44. What do you cook best?
Rice! Although I cook, but I really don’t know if its good.

45. Do you cry in front of your friends?
Yes, but to a close friend.