Autopilot

Like any sane, materialistic human being, I have my favorite things. These aren’t those favorite things that I sing when I’m afraid, a la Sound of Music, but these ease me through every level in the game that is life. Think of these as what mushrooms are to Mario or rare candies in Pokemon installments; these are the things that give me a boost and help me veer away from the seeming realization that life is but a jambalaya of incoherent experiences that slowly amount to a (hopefully) meaningful death.

Without further ado, a list of ten things that make me genuinely happy:

1.) Judd Apatow movies

…because the films in the Apa-verse, no matter how bad the scripts or how exceedingly immature the scenes, are flashes of a utopian comical life, fraught with characters from Freaks and Geeks and tongue-in-cheek humor that draws from awkward personal experiences (everything except the Kevin James movie);

2.) news on BBC

…because news on disaster, terrorist attacks or world economics never sounded hifalutinly smooth and clever. Their reporters’ accents, which we only hear in Harry Potter, Skins or ungodly doses of Hugh Grant, are fried gold, even in the face of global turmoil;

3.) dark chocolate

…without the frills and the gastronomic effects of dairy. Always a treat with almonds;

4.) San Antonio Spurs

…because the organization is first-class, owing to a playoff-tested Big Three (Duncan, Parker, Ginobili), a frugal yet talented front office, and an emphasis on defense. Their unselfish, team-oriented core is the antithesis to the three-superstar framework now prevalent in NBA circles. I can only hope Duncan and Co. keep it together for one more title run;

5.) Spider-Man

…I’ve never read any of the comics, but the films gave me theatrical goosebumps. The series always came with kickass OSTs that perfectly accompany the action scenes. Never mind that lame-boy Peter Parker ended up with his powers by chance and that he shoots webs from unappealing parts of his body; I’ve always imagined that swinging through the concrete jungles of New York more than made up for it;

6.) The Smashing Pumpkins’ 1979

…I didn’t live through that year, although the song encapsulates the tempest that Billy Corgan probably lived through, which included bouts of sexual abuse, depression and youthful angst. The Smashing Pumpkins take on a slower tempo, side-stepping from the usual grunge feel that most bands in the ’90s (Nirvana, Blur) committed to. The slow-paced bass also encourages to…well, take it slow and steady;

7.) Olivia Wilde

Thirteen Hadley: “We are who we are, lotteries are stupid.” (House, M.D.)

8.) Flight

…because contrary to what people say, flight food is delicious, and new places are always an adventure. My trips can still be counted with the fingers in my hands, but I’ve logged enough miles to say that travelling through the airways is more surreal than breezing through the seas or slaloming through EDSA in the eve of a Manny Pacquiao fight;

9.) 10K runs

…are probably an exercise in escapism, but the physiological and emotional effects are wonderful. To run, figuratively, is to shun all the problems of the present while channeling energies and mindset towards the sole goal of reaching the finish line, but the thought processes occurring in between laps and the constant push to complete a run is determination in its purest form. The shaky knees, shortness of breath and buckets of sweat aren’t  tantamount to the lightness of feeling, the osmosis of stress and the sense of accomplishment after every run;

10.) big words

…because there are more words to creatively express the ‘good’ and the ‘beautiful’ aside from ‘good’ and ‘beautiful’.