year-end notes

if i could call any one of the 16 years of my life a whirlwind, i would have to pick 2006. (so far.) why? it's all too obvious.

i entered this year knowing fully that i wouldn't be in the same place to enter the next year. when the time came for me to leave, i didn't want to go, but i accepted it anyway, knowing that my dreams will finally be fulfilled in the land of milk and honey.

while i was there, i had a nagging feeling that i'd be ending this year back at home. i'm not sure if it was rebellious optimism or a plain nagging feeling in the back of my head, but there was this some measure of certainty about my "prediction". and, lo and behold, all the teary goodbyes i had early in the summer were nullified, my pride was sorta shot down, and we had to go back home, 2 and a half weeks into the school year. luckily i didn't miss much, and luckily i didn't have to introduce myself to my adviser, who would turn out to be my omnipresent second father, sir lasap (nonoy is the third... no, he happens to be more of a kuya). senior-c happily welcomed me into their ranks. i haven't a tinge of regret for every moment with them, ever since.

the whole irony of it all is that once i got back, it didn't take too long for me to decide that the place for me was the states. i mean, come on, i couldn't realize my dream back home. i could only pioneer the industry at home when i was well-established. no, i have to go back soon. the second stint here at home shouldn't last well beyond graduation.

and things got muddied up along the way - plans are unsure, but i'm hoping for the best. 2006 was an adventure for me, and now i'm looking forward to the big '07.

cheers!

songs half sung

christmas caroling has lost all its former glory - at least it has, here in the Philippines.

its original premise of bringing about christmas cheer to each house in the neighborhood has taken a back seat to the shady, underhanded goal of making a quick peso. if, in the states, a well-organized troupe of singing children, adults, or both get to sing a good repertoire of
christmas carols, here in the Philippines, anyone, mostly streetchildren, will go right up to you in the street or in your church parking lot and half-heartedly sing you the undying "sa may
bahaaayyy...". they deserve a peso or lower for such acts. but since i'm such a softie, they get a minimum of five pesos from me.

i think caroling should have a rating system - i mean, you get plus points (more money) for effort. i mean, it's so easy to sing a song using a slightly improved version of your normal speaking voice - therefore, it's so easy to just hand you five pesos. and we all know
how much five pesos amounts to nowadays.

and isn't it annoying on how the money becomes an automatic off switch? i mean, once they get
their hands on it, they stop singing. the good carolers finish off their repertoire before leaving, and trust me, we rarely get good carolers.

please, give caroling the dignity it once had and has in other countries. going out and giving money to those who are literally begging for it, despite how good or bad they sing, has become
a chore for me, instead of an opportunity to be really entertained.

the sun shines, people forget

i'm pissed at my parents because they stereotype blacks.

yes, they stereotype blacks. i don't want to call it downright racism yet, though.

they don't want to move to somewhere in the States with a high population count of the said "minority". they don't want me to go to a college with black kids. why, you ask? apparently, black people are "too violent", which is the picture painted by gangsta rap and gang violence.

yes, tupac and biggie smalls did die of drive-bys. yes, the crips are a notorious african-american gang. but hell, that's just the outside! come on, a crime of one person does not equal to a crime of the whole race. just because they're unfairly associated with violence does not mean that every african-american is violent. hell, i want a black best friend! (aside from negs, that is.)

it's not fair. i get annoyed when they talk about blacks with such a negative connotation. they're trying to avoid them like a plague. it's just not fair.

all i've got here is my pride

if you ask anyone who knows me about what i'm like, one of the things they'll tell you is that i'm proud - sometimes too proud for my own good. and some people will say that sometimes, or most of the time, it gets to my head.

yeah, sure, i've accepted that definition of me; in fact, i endorse it. i say, too much pride is better than an absolute zero confidence.

that doesn't mean i'm not humble, though; in fact, lately i've learned to give the spotlight to those who truly deserve it, telling them to "savor the moment", because in all honesty, they really should if they deserve to. i acknowledge bragging rights to those who have them.

i seriously think that pride is a key human element. you just can't allow people to walk all over you and your pride - without even just a little sense of pride, you'd be no better off than an animal. you are a human being, you have good qualities somewhere in there, and it's your job to take those good qualities and display them like the trophies they are. just don't overdo it.

as for me, i inherited my overflowing pride from my parents, most especially my father - he's just a very accomplished man, and the stories he tells about his own father make me feel that i'm part of a legacy that is, to quote my idol, reeking with awesomeness. i also have great company and they contribute to my pride and confidence. i also have dreams; the career path i dream of taking requires me to always keep my chin up.

so, there. take your pride, stick it where the sun shines, and make sure to back it up always.

eloquence

lately i've been talking in speeches.

whether i'm proving a point or just making fun of someone, i break into a speech. it's not your typical martin luther king jr. speech, but more of a "wrestler-inside-the-ring" speech. i think it's fun, and good training for the future. who knows if i'll make it as someone's manager - it's as likely as being a 'rassler itself.

in other news, the soujourn in the warbirds' nest was really fun. one warbird is in trouble, and the others must back him up.

level up

experience, the wonderful thing we gain as we live life day to day, is meant to be cherished and remembered. experience teaches you things that might come in handy in the future, because experience is easily considered by many to be the best teacher around (next to sir cortel, that is). a wise person is wise because of experience.

so why didn't zobel, or rather, its administration, in all their wisdom, learn from experience?

two years ago, a learning system known as the LCLE, where a certain topic is integrated into almost everything, was snuck past us and shoved down our throats for a trial run. it was unanimously decided that it never worked and no one, student nor teacher, liked it at all. sure, we were sports and decided to give it a try back then, but only because we did not know que horror.

so everyone got a brief respite last year. we thought that was the end of it.

but no. despite initial negative reactions, the Great Minds^TM that run zobel have soldiered on and further insist to shove the much-maligned system down our throats once more, this time in full force. here we are back again to the many complaints, whines, and death threats that the horrible system has spawned, and i agree to each complaint without hesitation.

we have given it ample time to try and make converts out of us, but that didn't work back then and it doesn't seem to be working now.

rumors go around of teachers planning to quit because of the sheer stupidity of LCLE, and there's been already one confirmed report (i won't tell you who it is, though). no one wants to use it, no one wants to do it. it's simple.

to The Powers That Be^TM, are you blind? deaf? do you not hear the groans of your students? do you not see the utter disdain on their faces? what exactly is it do you plan to prove?

mr. evp has lost all credibility amongst the student population. that, my friends and readers, is a fact, and not false slander. this won't be the last thing you're gonna hear from me about this issue; nay, this is just the beginning.

i dare you to come get some.

big III

today marks the last CET out of the three i'll be taking here in the philippines, if you don't count SATs (by the way, i need help on this one...in all my wisdom, i have no damned idea how to set myself up to take the SATs. somehow and unfortunately, i have become dependent on ms. isidro). out of the big three, UP was the one wherein i went all-out, because i couldn't care less whether i pass or fail green and/or blue.

why is this the case? so that if ever the 2% chance of me not leaving after all completely owns the other 98%, i'd be in the school i really wanted to be in before i realized that i want to make it abroad.

there could be a million reasons why that might happen; either paperwork gets through or because of obligations i must remain dedicated to (right now, such obligations are nonexistent). a lot can change in the course of a year, much less a number of months; this is exemplified in wrestling, wherein we may never know if DX could split up next month or someone like randy orton might become champion from under our noses next week.

as jr says in one of his most famous lines, "anything can happen in the WWE!"

oh, i've gone on too much again =)) technically, we can replace "the WWE" with "life". you never know if you're going to survive to see tomorrow (but of course, there's a high chance you will) or you never know if i'm going to end up with a new girl this time next week. (hmm... do i even want to?)

ah, well. 'til next we meet, kinsmen.

dementia paradox

i've discovered that i've been quite forgetful lately.

i think of something to do or say, but just distract me, throw me off-tangent even for a while and i lose it. "ano nga ulit yung sasabihin ko?" seems to be my new catchphrase. sure, i will get it back after a few seconds or minutes, but the mere fact that i forget what it was i wanted to do or say scares me. what if it worsens? what if i get alzheimer's when i grow old?

funny thing is that my brain allows me to reach far back into my childhood and deep into the recesses of my mind to dig up trivia, but i can't even remember what i was thinking about five seconds ago.

if i'm getting alzheimer's, i'd rather that it comes as an after-effect of 20-foot leaps, not something that's slowly taking over from out of nowhere. ah, well.

dreams come true

as i was waiting for my dial-up to finally allow me access to their network, i opened up notepad and wrote a short essay. this is filed under "for-those-who-don't-know".


I think I'm really strange.

Not the freaky, unusual, odd-one-out kind of strange; more like the strange wherein you're pretty normal but you're a little different than everyone else. Or maybe that's just plainly being unique. I'm not so sure about that, but as far as I know, I'm sure I'm different in a bizarre way.

Every one of my peers dreams to be successful, whether being a businessman, computer scientist or something that involves sitting around in a plush, air-conditioned office pushing paper full of technical jargon. Not me. Sure, I want to be successful, but just not like that. No. I, good sir, I want to wrestle.

Yes, you read it right. I want to wrestle.

The art (it can't rightfully be called a sport) of wrestling first got my attention early in my life, then finally got me hooked in the middle of my teens. It was, at first, more of a, "Hey, that's awesome!" thing to see on TV, until finally I realized, disregarding all those "Don't try this at home" warnings complete with brutal clips of injured wrestlers, that, "Hey, I can do this!" Then the rest became history and I was known to be the wrestling addict (among other things). To get a glimpse of how addicted I was to it, nothing else but wrestling could distract me from the opposite sex.

Basically, it all started with Edge's comeback spear in early, post-Wrestlemania XX 2004. I had been watching Goldberg do it a thousand times before he left but the way he did it never really caught my attention. No, it was with Edge. The whole simplicity yet notable impact of the move became clear to me as this tall, lean, long-haired blonde ran, leapt, and nailed the Bisch in the abdomen. Then I started doing it and threatening people with it (sparingly, of course) until I came to be associated with it.

After "mastering" it, I started to do other things. Leg drops, elbow drops, clotheslines, the basic striking stuff. Looking at my body size, I knew I couldn't get by with relying too much on power moves, so I decided to try out into a more submission-oriented style. I did leglocks (I could proudly show you a figure-four and make the guy scream in pain), ankle locks, armbars, STFs, half and full-nelsons, and the like. Then I found out I could lift my youngest brother, who was notably a lot heavier than I was, to some extent. Feeble spinebusters, sidewalk slams, a rather weak body slam (I couldn't lift him beyond my chest), moves that might come across as chokeslams, things like that. I also began to practice my frontflip/somersault, through which I slowly learned to get over my fear of pain. Of course, I worked out to get in some sort of shape, at the very least.

And damn, I am hooked. I seriously didn't care about the dangers of trying it at home. I didn't care much about pain (at least, I try not to). I dream of following in the footsteps of daredevils such as Edge, Christian, the Hardy Boyz, and Shelton Benjamin, and in those of the master showmen like Eddie Guerrero (God bless his soul), Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Ric Flair. I dream of wrestling a five-star classic, and I don't care how it happens, whether it's by jumping off of 20-foot ladders or putting on a good 30-minute show.

I want it so bad, I'm willing to go through hell for it. I don't care if the dream sounds too childish.

i suck at endings.

time is on my side

whenever i read fiction about time travel, i can't help but get lost in my own thoughts about how it happens. how come we can go back to a past or forward to a future that is ever-continuing and ever-happening? doesn't time flow just once, or does it have a cycle, much like water?

is there a sub-dimension for every moment that allows it to happen forever, so that we can go to it with some sort of time travel mechanism and alter it? if not for each moment, for each period, decade, or era?

what about the possibility of fractured time? about the difference of time's movement in certain areas? that would make time a dimension, wouldn't it?

but really... is time linear, or not?

(time spiral, i want you now.)

observations

this is a wonderful time to note the power of the blogosphere.

r.i.p. steve irwin. we'll all miss you.

two years. two years!

as of wednesday, this blog has been living for two years now. i was too busy to post on the day of the anniversary itself.

and i'd like to say, what a long way this blog has come. a really long way from the brash style of my young and carefree days. a really long way since the times of insulting teachers. (time teaches you things.) over time and with the advent of lj, this blog has slowly but surely shifted to the deep-thinking, opinionated (wait, it's always been opinionated), essay-ish form you see now. (but at times, trust me to write something personal, either openly or in a cryptic way.)

i also think that i lost some of the old, signature pepi wit (but the law of conservation of mass dictates that the lost wit went to my lj) with my unofficial preference of livejournal. i now aim to reclaim that wit in my future posts.

so, get it through your head, boys and girls; this blog is a long way from dying out. here's to even more years of deep thought to come.

cheers!

seniori-tah

brother leiron posted an entry about seniority in his LJ (it's friends-only, so not everyone can get to read it). the gist of it is, we seniors believe in seniority so much, but are we really that worthy of that privilege? some may use it just to have their way (in a totalitarianish fashion). after a compelling discussion with brother negs about the use of seniority as an excuse for getting into fights with lowerclassmen, the gears in my brain started up. then i went to blog.

recognizing seniority bluntly means respect. why? we have trudged through 12 years of studying in this school. simply put, this is our last dance, we're torn between leaving and staying, and every senior batch should be highly regarded for braving the storm.

we're old geezers. treat us like you would treat other old geezers.

while we're at peace, we will treat you like one of us. it's only when you cross us that things will turn sour. leiron says if we want to have their respect, we have to earn it. 10+ years of loyalty and braving the school are enough credentials for respect.

don't fight us, and we won't fight you. don't malign us, and we won't harm you. it's that simple, actually.

i guess the bottom line is, we're not asking for god-like idolatry here. we're asking for mutual respect, yet with a really little tiny bit of the former. we, or at least i, won't use the word "seniority" as an excuse to spear the hell out of someone. no, i'm better than that. but if some lowerclassman starts the fight, then it's fair game.

school peace, y'all.

panic!

if you would look at the lyrics of "i write sins, not tragedies" closely, there is a moral.

wala lang. hi allie! :P

props

normally, when i hear recent songs under the genre opm, i want to change the radio station. the "new breed", including the latest overplayed songs by callalily and frio (what the fuck is up with your names? callalily is such a sissy name... and your album, destination xyz? are you sure you didn't take a page off of coldplay?), is downright annoying, with everyone trying so hard to sound foreign, with bland yet no doubt inspired rock, (okay, okay, it's a necessary evil) yet ending up falling flat on their faces.

but.

yes, there's a but. magical, isn't it?

but there is a diamond in the rough. kala's "jeepney" is a breath of fresh air, quoting paula abdul, from the stagnant waters that is today's opm. i love its jazz influences (i don't know if i could call it jazz, though... drowsiness is getting to me) and the lead singer's voice fits the song, while probably sounding horrible in other genres.

unless i'm terribly mistaken, (and if i am, please tell me) this is kala's only single as of now so i don't know if their record will be full of the same sounds that defined their "jeepney". hopefully it will, since kala's got something good, something fresh going on. i advise them not to waste it.

on a condescending note, imago's "tara let's" is just plain inane. good voice, but the song is inane.

regarding this blog

it's nearing the two-year anniversary, but things have changed since then.

a year ago this blog was full of life. when i say life, i mean comments were everywhere. now, i said that comments should not be a standard of site traffic, but sometimes, it's the only standard you've got. there's a big difference between just going to this site and reading this site. now i want to know: are you still reading this blog?

so what happened to this? maybe it's because LJ is easier to use and navigate around (maybe you should take this as a word of advice, blogspot staff) and LJ's load times are faster (for me, at least). i've unofficially separated the content of my two journals: surveys and personal life belong to livejournal, and essays/thoughts belong to blogger.

but lately i don't have much will to write here if i'm not getting opinions from others anyway.

so now, i'm contemplating about what to do with this little space of the web. i've been thinking about closing it down and fully surrendering to LJ but there're just way too much memories and sentimental value in this to let go.

ah, life.

the etymology of profanity

since the beginning of time, or human civilization for that matter, society has marked a number of certain words as "unsuitable for a decent person". that list of words varies from civilization to civilization, country to country, language to language, and dialect to dialect. these days you may know some of them as, and i do not censor them, "fuck", "shit", "ass" (to some extent, and when referring to the buttocks), "damn", and the show of rudeness that requires no spoken word, the middle finger.

one can only wonder how they came to be profanities in the first place, as even the rudest of words have a benign origin. for example, we all know that the word "ass" can refer to the donkey, the word "bitch" is the name for a female dog, and you may not know it, but the word "fuck" has its roots in old english (yea, i say, wikipedia does the rest). knowing these facts, it can be assumed that sometime in history, someone in authority branded such words as heretical, derogatory, and whatnot.

what ticks me off is the impact they have on the teachings of the Church. (yes, here i go rambling about religion again. everything seems to amount to it, doesn't it?) i used to go to confession and say that one of my sins was to use profanity, and looking back, i don't exactly see anymore how profanity could be so harmful to one's faith.

a "bad word", alone, is merely an expression of emotion. the thing we have to remember about profanity is that it is not God who brands such words as indecent, but in fact, society who does that job. for example, the word "pussy" originally referred to a cat, right? it wasn't until the modern times that it came to refer to a woman's genitalia. or, if you wish for a less crude example, the word "Jew" became derogatory after world war II, when the word is obviously used to refer to a Jewish person. who started that "Jew" trend? weren't the Nazis responsible for that? Hitler is just a member of a society, just like you and me.

my point is, profanities are not inherently bad. they are bad because it's what society makes of them, meaning, other people just say that they're bad because it's what they were taught. while, okay, maybe i just wrote this so that i have something to justify myself with whenever i curse, although i think that this is something that hasn't been really well thought-out by many.

so in closing, i'd like to say, peace out, bitches.

grieving for the skies

lately i've been playing ff9 on the ps2, and that revived my interest on certain final fantasy oldies. since i know i'm not going to play perennial favorite final fantasy tactics any time sooner, i decided to read the game script and relish in its dubious and bountiful plot twists.

it also contains many different takes on issues and ideologies, usually involving class, human manipulation, politics, religion, etc etc.

so allow me to post an insightful snippet.

Wiegraf: Hya, ha, ha. So much for 'God's miracle'. Governments
falsify history only so it favors them. But you can't blame
them. Because people always hope for a 'miracle'. Endlessly 
complaining, lazy, nuisances... that's what the masses really 
are. Governments give the people what they want...and history 
repeats itself. Governments might well have taken advantage of 
their insecurity.... But then again, people are satisfied
being used.

i know it doesn't make much sense without knowing the context, so forgive me on that. if you want to read the whole thing, just look up "final fantasy tactics" in GameFAQs and look for the "game script" FAQ. (i can't directly link to it.)

back to downloading the ff9 soundtrack. nobuo uematsu is a genius.

you can "keys" my ass

just when i thought i'd have a topic drought within the next few weeks. the news is such a wonderful thing.

part of tonight's entertainment news (both kapamilya and kapuso) is about, hence the title, keys me and its singer, alyssa alano. okay, it's mostly about the singer and how she sung it and less about the song itself. she says, instead of hampering her singing career (or lack thereof), the infamous youtube video (i don't know the URL to it as of this moment) has actually helped her confidence.

i say, "wtf?"

despite the saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity, i'm going to go out on a limb and declare this as HORRIBLE publicity. not just for the aforementioned viva hotbabe who murdered sixpence none the richer, but for the state of the english language in this country. i've rambled on and on about poor english in the philippines, and i swear, this does not help anything.

i guess she displayed a positive attitude by actually raising her head after the fall, but this is the kind of thing that damages a country's reputation. this is the kind of thing that no one should benefit from; this is the kind of thing that should be eradicated from the memory of the public, apologized for, and immediately rectified. shame on you, alyssa alano. shame on you. thanks to the popularity of youtube, the rest of the world may be likely to brand filipino singers as people who butcher foreign songs.

simply put, we shouldn't gain anything good from things like this, save for a message to do something about the state of the english language in this country.

in other news, manny pacquiao is ranked #1 among the veterans. despite being a sellout, one cannot ignore the fact that he still owns. also, ABS-CBN seriously needs to find a way to resurrect the body of ernie baron, since that new guy doing the weather doesn't exactly spell ratings like the walking encyclopedia did.

ooh. i guess i still have it :))

280th

the other day, wowie asked me why i haven't been updating this [blog] anymore. i told him i ran out of topics. aside from coming back home, which i already covered in my LJ, what is new that could be blogged about?

there will be more "bloggable" stuff that are bound to happen, i guess. until then i'll leave you all with a simple thought: every day is a battle.

break with your past

when i was a kid, i read the bible. though i guess everyone can attest to reading the bible, i sort of read it from front to back, skipping the psalms, the prophets, the letters, and everything else that did not constitute "action" to my childish mind. i wanted to read about the war exploits of joshua and moses, the adventures of the apostles, and of course, the perennial highschool favorite, revelations. (i believed it and was scared to death. now, everyone knows revelations is full of poetic symbolism.) somehow i believed every word of what i've read - every if not most children are gullible.

which leads us to the topic: how seriously should the Bible be taken?

mr. kalam (it's funny how everyone cares about him now) quoted a passage from leviticus about eating pork.

"And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you." - Leviticus 11:7-8 (New International Version)

leviticus is part of the 3 of 5 books of the torah that deal with the rules. the thing about these "rulebooks", if you will, is that they were meant for the hebrews and judaism. (what do you think bar mitzvahs are for?) and it doesn't take a genius to know that there is an obvious difference between judaism and christianity. therefore that verse or the books themselves aren't required to be followed by us. in fact, scholars interpret the book as a prophecy of Christ's coming.

going back to the Bible in general. i, for one, view the Bible, save for majority of the New Testament, as mostly literature. also, some people take revelations (*coughtruthseekercough*) way too seriously. they take it word for word, not as symbolism. yes, i do agree that in some point in time the world will end, but not exactly as described in the book.

there is also the case of the book of Genesis clashing with the Big Bang theory. i, for one, would not completely agree about Genesis's account of the world's creation, but instead i'll go for the theory of a scientific God. that seems to be the more logical way to go (see the Five Ways).

all in all, the Bible should be revered as both historical and theological, yes, but in some cases it needs to be taken in with a grain of salt.

bullshit dinners and the free champagne

it may be a late subject, but let me cut to the chase:

what is the appeal of Pinoy Big Brother and other shows of its genre?

needless to say, i don't like it. i don't like the "real life on tape" subgenre of reality shows. but if you think about it, that statement is quite ironic, as any other television show with a plotline is, in fact, real life on tape.

for millennia, people have enjoyed watching other people "live" their "lives" behind a looking-glass. from the ancient greek plays on the ampitheatres to today's modern, nonsensical, poor vs. rich soap operas, from old vaudeville to the movies on the big screen, people flock to watch other people go about their lives, be it as interesting as running for your life or as boring as going through a daily routine at a factory.

why?

intrigue, i guess. there's this basic level of intrigue that people don't know they have. people want to know what goes on in other peoples' lives, be it fictional or real. it's enough motivation to turn on the boob tube and see what happens on today's episode of drake and josh, or even simply today's edition of the news. (the news is, in fact, the first-ever reality show on tv. no, i mean, ever.)

going back to the big brother genre. it makes no sense to me to put a number of different people into one house, much less put them on tape, unless you're doing an experiment for the sake of psychology. what the genre does is, yes, take a number of people, stick them in one house for, what, a 100 days, watch the whole scene unfold and see who the public likes the most to win the prize. oh, and while we're waiting for the 100 days to pass, why not throw in a few challenges here and there to spice it up? and the show highlights all if not most of the issues that goes around within the 'housemates' and gives that to the public for them to consider eviction.

i don't know about you, but i feel that the contestants' lives are being cheapened every day they're in that God-forsaken house. if i was in a house like that, i wouldn't go insane over the other people; rather, i would go insane because of the fact that i'm being monitored 24/7. i mean, why would you want to watch me? i'm a real person, i'd rather you watch me when i actually act out. aren't you called nosy when you snoop into other people's businesses? and the networks actually condone this by handing out said life to the public.

i don't know, maybe i will never really understand why the genre is so popular. i probably can't fault its contestants for going out on a limb to win a big amount of money just by living. i just feel that there are better things worth watching than watching a show through the eyes of a security camera and whatnot. better things worth watching than life cheapened.

opm blues

what is up with [mainstream] opm lately? being in a foreign land i obviously wouldn't be able to keep up with the latest native music back at home, but listening to the multitudes of opm downloaded by my brothers, i can't help but wince once i hear them and quickly click next to the who. (i should probably start screening downloads, but that's a story for another day.)

maybe it's because my personal taste for music evolves at paces i don't understand, or my personal inner taste for filipino music only reached the intricate arrangements and styles of bamboo and the perennial old-school rivermaya. (the greatest hits album was all right, though. hi sis.) but everything else, beginning at the opm boom of two years ago, seems to be stale right now.

hale? cueshe? spongecola? 6cyclemind? kamikazee? even the once-different orange and lemons sounds the same as the mold. these guys have seemed to overstay their welcome already. for me, at least. they all sound the same. hale and spongecola are now the standards of bad vocals.

maybe it's really just me and my taste for foreign bands. i don't know. at least i can say my brothers have very poor taste.

[EDIT] as you can see, i changed the layout for a while. previous one's color scheme was a bit too hard for the eyes. i'm still cringing, but i had to do this. i'll probably get someone to make me a new layout, as i hate ripping off of blogskins (though i do have an account there), but i also hate not making my own. guess i must choose the lesser evil. [/EDIT]

most of us have something to complain about

i'm still waiting for the day.

biting the hand that guides

i'm not defending this kid anymore. bashing the closest thing he had to a friend is the final nail in the coffin.

[EDIT] this comment has summed up all of my thoughts about the commenters.

OMFG! said...

CAN EVERYONE PLEASE! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP! tangina.. is this what our batch has come to? tangina.. hindi naman pala si jahan yung may problema e.. kayong mga retarded na mahilig manggamit ng ibang pangalan para makainsulto sa mga kinaiinis niyo. buti pa si jahan, nagpakilala pa. tangina. mga bading pala kayo lahat e.

i'd also like to add another word: owned. [/EDIT]

unfriendly skies

the ongoing battle with jahan and his 405 (and counting) detractors goes on. (by the way, i linked it so that people will hopefully go through the archives and at least try to understand what is up with him. that's a hint, go take it.) though the war has slightly abated, there are still more and more stupid, humorous, and discriminating insults that are even more uncalled for than the post itself, being heaped on top of each other by the sincerely angry and the vandals alike.

thank God for the smarter rebuttals.

taking piccio's theory into mind (second time i linked him, by the way), this whole issue reminds me of a certain episode of CSI. an old man was found dead in the lavatory of an airplane, and this is how he died.

the old man was being a natural jerk to the other passengers of the plane. at first they thought nothing of it and politely asked him to stop, but he kept on being a jerk until the passengers got really pissed at him. push came to shove and the passengers beat the old guy to death as a mob, because they thought he was a terrorist.

but what really happened was that the old man was suffering from a killer migraine due to encephalitis (for those lazy enough to read another page, encephalitis is a swelling of the brain.) and when you get a migraine, you feel uncomfortable. so the old man is squirming in his seat, kicking the backs of other seats, squashing the call button. he gets on a few people's nerves, and unintentionally acts like a hijacker. this is what ticks off the other passengers, and this is what leads to the mob that kills him.

the thing is, this whole incident could have been avoided. and i'll quote gil grissom verbatim:

GRISSOM:  If just one person had stopped and taken the time to look at the guy
to listen to him, to figure out what was wrong with him it might not have
happened.  It took five people to kill him.  It would have only taken one person
to save his life.

see the resemblance to the situation? if people hadn't seen him as a "fat muslim boy" but as a human being just like them, he wouldn't have been so antisocial and he wouldn't have written that entry.

so fresh, so clean

so i guess everybody's heard of the alumnus who bashed the school. i won't link to him here and i'll leave it to you to actually find the blog. his statements are definitely making waves in the blogosphere, he's getting his 15 seconds of fame, and what nice timing as he expressed his feelings after graduation, when he wouldn't be an easy target anymore whilst walking along the halls of the school.

despite that, i am not for him nor against him and/or his statements.

people in the against camp would probably tell me to show just a little school pride. sure, i would. i admit that he really shouldn't have bashed those people like he did, even though he was making use of the first amendment.

i would have wholeheartedly joined the against camp were it not for some of its members. those members who stooped to a level even lower than the perpetrator's when they started making use of his religion and nationality as insults in the comments box. that's no longer school pride; that's discrimination. and when you're discriminating people, i don't want to be associated with you. some are just freeloading this issue to call him names and give him death threats.

so i found it wise to take the neutral stand. i do praise those who have countered the guy intelligently and properly. reassures me that smart people still exist in this world.

[EDIT]i read piccio's take on this issue and i was impressed. taking it on from the psychological angle - and i wonder why i didn't think of that. maybe because i was angry about the half-asses who insult rather than rebutt.

anyway, it might just be a cry for help. a cry because he's been neglected.[/EDIT]

browsing

last night, i was managing the comments in my comments box when i advertently clicked page 10 on the archive. one thing led to another and i found myself reading about the past. i really couldn't help but laugh at some of them. i guess i've just come a really really long way.

for example...

i remember the time when jam got mad at me over lindsay lohan's boobs, when we came up with MKSMA, and the time when my dog bit me. this blog used to be so vibrant when i updated it almost every day.

now i hate to admit it, but i finally will: i (obviously) prefer livejournal for its ease, but there's something about this blog that keeps me coming back to it. i have contemplated closing it at times, but since i've come so far, this one's going to stay.

cheers.

sixteen years and still banging

not exactly the happiest birthday, but it's still fun to be alive.

especially when you're finally legal for a license.

he doesn't need to make anyone proud

i will only say two things.

one: i'm glad taylor won. it may seem unlikely for katharine to win, but taylor is the underdog here. he obviously does not have the "idol" image, but in fact, i wanted someone without that image to win the actual contest. hans, berna, everyone, please bear the fact that taylor won. after all, it's just a competition, and there's really absolutely nothing wrong with being second best. or third best, in elliott's case.

two: "american idol" is just a title. anyone in the competition is considered to be an american idol in at least one person's eyes. you can be the champion, but that doesn't necessarily make you the best.

bow.

playing chicken with the train

most of you don't know it, but the philippines does have a hip-hop scene. thankfully, the local music channels focus more on the rock side of things. while i am an avid listener of (more likely than not) mainstream rap music and tend to keep an open mind to things, i believe that what pinoy rappers need to gain credibility is a change of clothes.

"pretty shallow reason," you may be thinking.

okay, so tagalog in rhyme doesn't necessarily sound good (because of the typical kanto-boy accent which you sophisticated upper-class people don't usually like) and it does have a tendency to sound better in the hands of, say, jose rizal or kiko balagtas. but if you're in the business, you're more than likely forced to rap a song or two in tagalog (krook and jolo, fil-am rappers, do have an all-tagalog track. hi sis :P) in order not to be branded as a sellout (trust me, that's a bad thing).

back to clothes. seriously, heavy use of the do-rag, saggy pants and the typical oversized football/hockey/basketball jersey isn't meant for filipinos. it wouldn't kill anyone to actually think and innovate a new style to associate pinoy rap with. now, i'm not saying they should all be rapping while dressed as farmers and fishermen, but rather the usual hip-hop gear is so stale and redundant that it only looks safe and good on the african-american rappers themselves. having said this, i applaud john cena for dressing down and sticking with a jersey or a chaingang t-shirt, cap, and the unique denim shorts. (i do miss the steel chain, though.) same goes for the black eyed peas for emphasizing style with their outfits; you see will.i.am wearing rodney jackets over lakers jerseys. and in the words of my man carly colon, "that's cool."

the point is, think of something new to wear. it wouldn't hurt pinoys to rap in nothing but shirts and jeans that actually fit and the occasional bling. think of something that redefines your identity aside from your tagalog vocals. it may be answered with immediate criticism, but it's gonna be, in the words of paula abdul, "a breath of fresh air" and it's going to eliminate stereotypes in the long run.

and for those who want to experience a breath of fresh air right now, you should listen to cowboy troy and his hick-hop. for starters, download "rollin (the ballad of big and rich)" by, obviously, big and rich featuring cowboy troy.

cheers.

diamonds are forever

i just realized that rude people (henceforth known as "assholes") still live and exist in this world. don't blame me; i live around love, peace, and kindness.

case in point: i was having a game of dota and i had the rudest teammate ever. before the game even started, i knew he was going to be an asshole once i lagged (it's sporadical, but i knew it was going to happen.) and true enough, he did. i won't go too much into detail, for the convenience of those who don't play the game, but all you need to know is that this guy is a complete and total asshole. instead of being supportive like a good teammate, he put his teammates down. i'm blocking him the next time i get on gg-client.

what's more, this guy doesn't come from anywhere else but my very beloved philippines. knowing the people back at home, i wasn't too surprised. if you sport a screen name directly from, or if not, influenced by anime, and you are a complete bastard/bitch to those around you, you're more than likely to be the poster child for kajologan.

and we all know the sad truth: maraming jologs sa pilipinas.

maybe it's because they come from a gritty lifestyle. i don't know. but in all my limited wisdom, i know that being nice, maybe at least in the outside, goes a long way.

here in the U.S., it's such a big difference. everyone is actually nice; it's rare to find someone rude and mean. i should know, i haven't encountered one yet. every store clerk and salesperson is going to greet you, ask you how you're doing, ask how the family's doing, etc. it's like what the geico gecko said: "we make them feel important." the greetings you get when you enter a fastfood here is completely different from the greetings you get when you enter a fastfood back at home; at home, it seems like something out of routine, while here, it feels like actual interaction. now, that's being nice.

if someone would like to beg to differ with that, i'd like you to know that i don't go out much, so please go and beg to differ. :)

sadly, i can't change the fact that rude assholes exist in this world, so i thank the Lord for creating whoever invented the "ignore" feature.

regarding the code

the film adaptation of dan brown's wonderful creation, the Da Vinci Code, is facing criticism and potential boycotting from various religious forces around the world. the usual claims to the book were given to the movie: too blasphemous, too erratic, too wrong. in fact, one anti-porn group in the philippines claims it to be the "most pornographic and blasphemous film in history". come on, as if they're really going to show two old people doing it in the middle of a huddled circle - that's going to see people walking out of theaters faster than another shaq movie. (okay, i might be wrong.)

what these people don't realize is that dan brown did not write the book to forever change the world's outlook on Christian and Catholic beliefs. rather, mr. brown wrote the book for the same purpose as any other bestselling author would have written theirs: to entertain people and to provoke their thoughts. the book is art, not doctrine, and there is a distinction. there may be a fine line between the two that brown has probably crossed (what with the "fact" sections of the book), but he crossed that line in the name of artistic license.

i mean, come on. people love it when a literary curveball is thrown at them; it's what sells books in the first place. but when a book is clearly labeled as fiction, the smart are separated from the gullible - those who are smart enough to know that the book is just a story, from those who are gullible enough to forget that they are actually reading fiction.

so cut tom hanks, sony, dan brown, and everyone who worked on the project some slack. movies and literature are forms of art. brown just used the legend of the holy grail to make a good story, and make a good story he did - he wasn't banking on altering your perspective on Christianity and the Gospel because he knows you're smarter than that.

remember, it's art, not doctrine.

roll call

if you're reading this, no matter who you are, please click on that comments link down there and state your name and a simple hi. thanks. :P please. it doesn't matter who you are; just say hi if you're reading this, whatever the purpose. thanks again.

the pain doesn't hurt but it's really much worse than i thought

so the class lists are out. i ran through them over and over again, and i really can't find my name. some suggest that it's crossed out, but there's no name crossed out in the right place. i don't know. maybe noy knew enough not to list me anymore.

it hurts, when i think about it. it hurts because on june 5, everybody else will start their last first day of school, while i'm sitting around at home, rotting. my eyes begin to well up whenever i think about it. and come march 2007, everyone else that i know and love will graduate, while i rot, because i'll graduate in the year 2008.

it hurts enough to make me want to cry.

God, why must it be like this? i'm going to graduate with people i don't know and love as much as i do back at home. it's not the same.

i feel like there's someone for me to blame and hate for this.

bad and good news

the bad news: i'm lonely and homesick.

the good news: i just saved money on car insurance! (yeah, you won't probably get it.)

i can breathe for the first time

it's been one of Sigmund Freud's theories that if you live your life with your anger all bottled up inside, not only will you die early, but you will have the tendency to become violent later in life. in this house, there is no way i can loudly release anger (by slamming doors and hitting walls) because quite frankly, it's contagious, especially with my high-tempered mother.

so i just stick with tekken. it's already proven in past occasions that if i'm playing tekken while i'm angry, i win more. especially against those warlords, conquerors, and tekken lords in the hard difficulty.

and it's also funny how going to church works.

well, maybe it really wasn't because of church itself, but probably because of my everlasting trait - i don't really get angry for a long time. but if i come to think about what made me angry in the first place, there i go again.

what really got me angry today is something i can't talk about for now. sorry. but i'm glad i did what i did before.

i can breathe for the first time

it's been one of Sigmund Freud's theories that if you live your life with your anger all bottled up inside, not only will you die early, but you will have the tendency to become violent later in life. in this house, there is no way i can loudly release anger (by slamming doors and hitting walls) because quite frankly, it's contagious, especially with my high-tempered mother.

so i just stick with tekken. it's already proven in past occasions that if i'm playing tekken while i'm angry, i win more. especially against those warlords, conquerors, and tekken lords in the hard difficulty.

and it's also funny how going to church works.

well, maybe it really wasn't because of church itself, but probably because of my everlasting trait - i don't really get angry for a long time. but if i come to think about what made me angry in the first place, there i go again.

what really got me angry today is something i can't talk about for now. sorry. but i'm glad i did what i did before.

goodbye, my friend, it's hard to die

to kick off my "five days of goodbye", here's a song that will serve as my "general goodbye" to those whom i will not say farewell specifically on my LJ.

seasons in the sun - nirvana

Goodbye to you my trusted friend
We´ve known each other since we
Were nine or ten
Together we´ve climbed hills and trees
Learned of love and abc´s
Skinned our hearts and
Skinned our knees

Goodbye my friend it´s hard to die
When all the birds are singing
In the sky
Now that spring is in the air
Pretty girls are everywhere
Think of me and I´ll be there

We had joy we had fun we had
Seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed were
Just seasons out of time

Goodbye Papa please pray for me
I was the black sheep of the family
You tried to teach me right from wrong
Too much wine and too much song
Wonder how I got along

Goodbye Papa it´s hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
Little children everywhere
When you see them I´ll be there

We had joy we had fun we had
Seasons in the sun
But the wine and the songs like the
Seasons have all gone

We had joy we had fun we had
Seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song like
The seasons have all gone

Goodbye Michele my little one
You gave me love and helped
Me find the sun
And every time that I was down
You would always come around
And get my feet back on the ground

Goodbye Michele it´s hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
With the flowers everywhere
I wish that we could both be there

We had joy we had fun we had
Seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed were
Just seasons out of time

We had joy we had fun we had
Seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song like the
Seasons have all gone

We had joy we had fun we had
Seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song like the
Seasons have all gone

We had joy we had fun we had
Seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song like the
Seasons have all gone

(if you didn't know already, that's what's written in the background of this layout.)

believe me

i used to have a little bit of a plan, a little bit of a concept of where i stand. you proved to me unintentionally that you'll self-destruct, eventually.

looking back

one year ago today, i posted an april fools' joke about me migrating to the states. in retrospect, i guess i probably shouldn't have done that. not because of the reactions i got (i actually loved the reactions, no offense) but because the aforementioned "fictional" scenario eventually turned into non-fiction. although, i doubt i would've ended up in this spot anyway, april fools' joke or not.

my next week is going to be jam-packed; i'm actually trying to juggle and figure it out. sleepover at jules's house is permanently from the 5th to the 7th in the morning (because of the damned report card distribution). but, i'm supposed to have a "date" with fozzy on the 5th, as it's probably her only free day. on top of all that, i'm scheduled for kumon starting from the 3rd to the 6th, as a desperate attempt to cram as much sessions as possible before i leave.

by next saturday i would probably be so drained. hey... i'm pretty much free on the holy week, with the obvious exceptions of thursday, friday, and saturday. (duh. lalo na sa sabado.)

as for the large-scale despedida plans, i don't know. nothing is being planned at the moment (i mean, i'm not planning anything... anymore) because i'm not really sure of attendance anyway.

we're having a garage sale from today until tomorrow. fun.

remember kids, this blog is good for a 1024x768 resolution only

...because i am an intermediate html programmer.

yesterday's party was something quite unexpected. i digested massive amounts of food and drink - think about it, capitalizing on two mcdonald's drumsticks - but i never got to touch the gonuts. i think i was too busy with the main course to bother with dessert.

i won't be able to attend friday's outing because of the s-b party. so many gatherings, so little left of two weeks.

after said party, jules, bea, johann, and i went to town to watch she's the man (we had four free movie passes courtesy of jules and we wanted to laugh. we couldn't use it on nanny mcphee, so we had no choice.) i like the movie - amanda is really mature, although i have to say that she is sort of treading the anne hathaway road, but that's really just fine with me. :D

you can take that statement from me as a 'you should really watch this movie'. i mean, you really should. it's white chicks, switching roles.

after one school year...

...i get myself a new layout!

it's not as complicated as the old one, because there's only one div layer here, and you're basically reading it.

sorry if i happen to offend anyone [who is linked] by removing the links. :) whoever you are, i still love you :)

theatre etiquette / the last friday of my life

what's with juicyfruiter.blogspot.com? it looks rather innocent but it's so suspicious to me. i mean, why do spammers spam links to a forest ranger's blog?

anyway.

i'm guessing everyone who was present at the turnover ceremonies witnessed sweet spot's performance and were aware of the bit of controversy surrounding it. let me just say that ms. telen had no right to interrupt agi that time, specifically in the middle of his performance.

i'm not saying that she had no right to get angry at him (though i believe it was not reason enough; it's just agi's traditional showmanship, for god's sake) - but she should've waited until after the song or the performance itself to tell him off. you don't see a stage manager going onstage and reprimanding the actor because he forgot his lines in the middle of the show.

i have to say that i actually thought better of ms. telen until now. her act has offended the stage performer in me.

anyway, i heard agi was actually suspended?

really shameless plugs

i was watching the news while eating dinner when they showed a news report about a tsunami scare over in nasugbu, batangas. my thoughts were, "how could people be so gullible and stupid?", as the report went on.

but that's not the good part.

it was learned that the mass scare came after they heard arnold clavio, who is that fat guy with his very own puppet over at the rival station, report that the said tsunami was supposedly going to happen today. seeing the chance, i guess good old ABS-CBN went for the upper hand and went for a little self-promotion as they got the townspeople to say on camera that they were all kapamilya, and proud of it.

such good journalism.

sacrifice is a state of mind

lately people have been making 'sacrifices'. sacrifice meat, sacrifice dota, sacrifice chocolate or whatever. you may have purely good intentions or whatever, but all these sacrifices strike me suspicious. i, for one, am not going to sacrifice anything, because my view of religion is rather 'free' - i don't bind myself to the exact written law, but i have full sense of what is right and what is wrong.

i can sense now that you're thinking, "not sacrificing something for lent is wrong, you dotard."

yeah, maybe. i mean, it is pretty unfair for me not to sacrifice something in repayment for christ's death. but lately, with the last few sacrifice declarations i've seen, it seems that this is slowly becoming a trend.

maybe i'm speaking too soon here, but please spare me my ego. let me refer to the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector. wasn't it that the tax collector who kept quiet and prayed the simple prayer got the favor from God, over the pharisee who was praying as loud and as eloquently as martin luther king, jr.? it might sound cynical to you, but that's sort of what i'm seeing now. one person declares that they're sacrificing whatever (out of sincere expression, probably) and then another person declares their sacrifice, until one by one the pharisees emerge.

maybe i'm thinking way too much outside the box or my method of thinking is just plain warped. maybe it's because i'm not the strictest catholic in the drawer. i believe that sacrifice and abstinence are just a state of mind.

with that, i now let the flames rain, the flak shoot, and the stones thrown.

but then we grew old

yesterday i was busy doing classwork when these two kids, a boy and a girl, were busy arguing with each other. eventually their topic came around to "girl conversations", which the boy described as "plans to destroy us". with that, i laughed.

i guess it's not surprising to say that almost everyone my age went through this as a child. "girls" and "cooties" or "germs" would be mentioned in the same breath, and same goes for "boys". touching someone of the opposite gender seems to be the only way of transferring a imaginary disease, and it would be some kind of mad leprosy that not one of your friends would want to make contact with you from then on. such wars would be represented in kids' games such as tag, cops and robbers, or whatnot.

for some reason, i miss those days.

of course that's not to say that i miss feuding with the opposite sex. it's just that i want to go back to the time of childhood games and nonsense. life is too stressful as a teenager (as much as i hate referring to myself as one). it is funny how we wish to be old while we're young and wish to be young when we're old. life is crazy, ain't it?

exactly what the fuck?

twenty years ago, the country changed for the better. today, it is on its way to hell.

classes were suspended today due to a coup d'etat threat. right now rallies and riots are going on in manila (while RAW is happily going on, i'm glad to say) because apparently the masses still don't like GMA.

but i ask you rallyists: who do you have? who's your secret tech? how could you possibly replace the only decent president we're having?

the economy was slowly stabilizing with GMA. your rallies begin to ruin that, starting from the continuous drop of the peso's rates. if ever you do find a suitable replacement, that person will be subject to huge speculation and criticism due to GMA's overthrowing.

please, don't do it. if you absolutely hate the woman, let her term die the natural death, because it shows that she's really dead set on bringing the country up from the ashes. if you claim to love this country a lot and hate the president, leave her be and just don't vote for her if she runs in the next election. nothing right will ever come out of this.

there's gotta be a way

someone left a very well thought-out comment concerning the previous post. i love well thought-out comments. they're rather rare, so i wanna take the time to respond.

stupidity... ignorance... being in imbecile... sure, i've heard them all before. shrugged them off, actually, because not one person has ever bothered to mention them in the same breath as a smart comment, until now.

anyway. i did see the potential of my opinions garnering heel heat - especially discriminating "underprivileged" people like that.

in fact, i agree with what you have said - that is, that it is mostly the government's fault for this massive mob that gathered for a chance of hitting it big. that the government did nothing to alleviate poverty. yes, i agree. i might not have implied it in my previous post, but that side has come to my attention ever since and i agree with it.

but - yes, there is a but - they were led on by, i don't know, 50-70% false hope, and killed by the misconduct caused by the same false hope.

i understand that they are not just the ones to blame, but most people have so much sympathy for them to overlook the idea of blaming them, at least just to a lesser extent.

good evening.

death day afternoon

if you don't know already, here's what happened today: instead of a bomb scare over in town (which happens to be the sole reason on why i'm not out with a certain someone when i should be), a stampede over in the ultra/philsports arena killed 73 people and injured 200+ more. the sad part is, it's because of wowowee's first anniversary. and you all know how i am with wowowee.

as stampedes go, they are bound to leave people bloodied, bruised, and ultimately dead. just ask mufasa. my stand on this issue is that papi or abs-cbn is not to be majorly blamed for it. it was not their fault that this happened, though i will not deny that such a popular noontime show that draws a lot of people (and also on its very first anniversary) will cause some sort of chaos.

the real fault goes to the audience itself. demographics show that there are more "unprivileged" people than "privileged" in the audience. since the show is tailor-made for the "unprivileged" rabble, stakes are high and the prizes are to die for. (okay, bad pun.) these same people were disorderly - push ultimately came to shove, and i heard that someone shouted "bomba", which aggravated the issue and started the stampede.

now if there were more "privileged" people in the audience, or if the audience were comprised of 100% "privileged people", i doubt that something like this wouldn't have happened. yes, i'm implying what i am implying - "privileged" people are more, shall we say, "civilized". now, i'm not drawing heat - everyone was pushing and shoving just to get in the arena.

the irony of potential ironies might be that people will sue abs-cbn. they will sue abs-cbn and/or papi for organizing such a clogged event, while abs-cbn and/or papi was just trying to help out, and the people willfully went to the event anyway. now if they do actually sue abs-cbn, they're aiming their anger at the wrong people - they should be complaining to the management of the arena. the entertainment company was just using the place; abs-cbn is not to blame when the arena doesn't meet safety standards.

still, my point stands strong for all to see: it was [more of] the public's fault, they brought this on themselves, they could've been a lot more orderly. i will not deny, however, that none of them deserved to die.

condolences to the innocent deaths that occurred today.

there is a fine line between a swindler and eddie guerrero

eddie cheats for laughs.

we just got our jerseys, and to be perfectly honest, they look like shit. shit, like the guy who had them made for us. (if you want some, come get some. you're the one in the wrong anyway.)

this is still rumor status, but we have backing evidence anyway. so mr. assclown here collects P300 from each of us for the jersey. so we said, fine. we pay 300. then we get the said jerseys today, and let me tell you, they look like crap. honestly. not just that, but mistakes in the manufacturing themselves. girls have shirts and guys have sandos - it's supposed to be that way, but some guys got shirts and some girls got sandos. and the quality is crap.

that's not the bad part.

nay, i say. i haven't touched on the bad part yet.

the true "rumor" of this is that chio heard from anne that P300 was not the real price of the jersey, but maybe somewhere along the lines of P200. with quality like that, i'd have to agree. so that means mr. rude-as-hell assclown here gets P100 for himself, for every person that paid for the jersey. and we're 38 in the class.

he also said he's going to be absent tomorrow to go buy himself a prom suit.

when we do confirm that this is true, you better run. and fast.

starbucks

after seeing chio's starbucks planner, i suddenly became so interested. :))

anyway that strawberry and cream was so good. bitz and i bonded after chio and mona left - i never knew that bitz had quite an amazing summer.

angelic... we need to go to starbucks.

conversations part two

i don't know what score i got in the speech, but i can easily summarize it like this: i delivered pretty well, but the speech itself (content-wise) was what brought me down. quoting noy, the focus was a bit shaky.

what the audience (and maybe noy himself) didn't perceive at first (but my lovely vena did already) is that death-row prisoners are offshoots of prisoners, which are underprivileged people themselves. ah well, i've been known to write speeches that stray off-topic more often than not; see my talumpati's first criticisms by mama. i think i'm better off delivering a speech i didn't write.

"what makes you think i don't love you? ...i finally admitted that to myself."

"well, sir cortel taught me to doubt a lot."

"ah, yes. therefore, you exist."

"aren't you glad that i do?"

"hahaha. yep."

listen, i am not ready

tomorrow. tomorrow. tomorrow.

i am number 21, which means i have the unhappy power of going first in the third batch. yes, i like the fact that i'm getting it over with, but i really wish i wasn't going first. maybe second. second would be preferrable.

tomorrow. tomorrow. tomorrow. number one.

i hate public speaking. i was never really good at it, despite whatever amount of charisma i have. i hate the concept of speaking in front of a number of people, be it five or thirty-nine. despite having good things to say, i hate it.

though all that might change when i cut a promo inside the ring in the future. ;) "AT WRESTLEMANIA, I WILL MAKE YOUR ASS TAP!"

"hmm... it's either i look at you or noy tomorrow."

"w-why?"

"i don't know. or i look at podie."

"if you look at podie, that's looking down."

"eh. then i look at you."

"me?"

"why not."

"uhh... well... i'll freeze! you know very well what happens when you look at me in a certain way!"

"which way?"

"you know very well which way!"

"well... forgive the butterflies, but, i just want to look at you."

"because?"

"why not?"

"you tell me."

"why not? it's love."

*hugs*

fafs pernandes

the concert was astounding, orchestra-wise. mpo lives up to its reputation. pops, however, sort of doesn't. she really can't do "only hope" and she needs a monitor in front of the stage to show her the lyrics.

but that wasn't the highlight of the night. no, virginia. "markdums" was.

who is "markdums"? no, he ain't the real mark dumlao. heck, "he" is actually a woman who looks like mark dumlao. the thing is, during the hyper dance songs, this woman stood up (in the middle of the audience, mind you) and just danced her night away. soon after her daughter (much to our dismay and constant plights) and three other women in the back followed suit. it was pretty hilarious, yes :P

now, i have nothing to say yet about the orchestra to write in the reaction paper. give me some more hours to think.

god i need a change

tomorrow i'll be going back to pili park. it may very well be one of my last visits to the place, where we danced our asses off for JnJ (and just to win third place. it still has a sour taste in my mouth). this time, it will be without my dear fozzy, and now with my dear J-A.

i miss the times we would try to come up with steps, the times where we were just bumming around in the swings, the time when utensils didn't come with the jollibee we ordered (we had to eat at gellie's house), and the time where we did the psychology test with each other. i'm going to miss those even more, and i'm going to have a new set of memories to miss.

anyway.

am i just fooling myself? is this just an excuse? some replacement because things don't always work out your way? is she just plan B, or is there really more to it?

podie the podium

here's my speech. nonoy thought it was mediocre, but i couldn't disagree - i had no idea in my head at that time and when i did get one, i was unsure of how to write it (due to lack of time). now i've revised it, and here it is. please let me know what you think.

Romeo Moran III

J-A

Good morning.

I believe that children are our future. Then, they grow up to become adults, and eventually mess up. They smoke crack, kill people, et cetera, and then usually end up in juvie, a halfway house, or worse, jail. Or if things are really worse, they rape their stepchild, get caught, then go to court. Afterwhich, the holier-than-thou judge, with his almighty gavel, declares the two most feared words in the whole judicial system of whatever country in the world: the death penalty.

It is supposed to end a person’s life because he or she has committed a mortal sin. From the most primitive forms – hanging and stoning to death – to the modern methods of the electric chair and lethal injections, the death penalty varies a lot. Though, they are all conceived and designed for just one purpose: swift justice and ultimate vengeance.

But I ask: Is it fair at all?

I think it is not. Everyone deserves another chance, even if all the second chances are used up. Even the Holy Father, almighty ruler of heaven and earth, the judge of judges, finds it in His heart to forgive man in his every error, even if he is not willing to repent. I think we must be like this as well, even if the sin committed is the gravest. After all, isn’t murder, which the death penalty is, a mortal sin as well?

Of course, that doesn’t mean that these death-row prisoners are automatically off the hook. Criminals are still criminals. Incarceration is the option, along with rehabilitation, but it must be proper incarceration and not degrading.

The death penalty is inappropriate in today’s world of modern thinking and values. Death penalty is basically a violation of human rights. There are lots of other ways, I believe, to set even the worst offender straight. We must realize that taking someone’s life as payback for sin is not the right method of delivering justice, nor does it send any positive message to people. I say to you, once more, that death penalty should be abolished.

Thank you.

greatest hits... or not?

my lovely sister just gave me rivermaya's latest greatest hits compilation for christmas. (i know... medyo belated. but that's okay.)

now, i think the cd is great. really. it's just that i have some gripes about it.

rivermaya cannot declare it as a [complete] greatest hits collection. the thing is, it only has things from the rico blanco era (which was since the departure of bamboo to present). i don't know whether that decision was influenced from a vendetta with bamboo or what. now, granted that, yeah, there were some hits in the aforementioned era like balisong, liwanag sa dilim and et cetera, most of the real gems belonged to the rivermaya songs bamboo sang.

if you don't know what i'm talking about, let me put it this way: what's a rivermaya greatest hits without kisapmata, 214, ulan, and hinahanap-hanap kita?

if i were to compile a rivermaya greatest hits cd, it would be like this:

1. Posible*
2. Sunday Driving
3. Himala
4. Balisong
5. Umaaraw, Umuulan
6. Makaaasa Ka
7. Kung Ayaw Mo Huwag Mo
8. Kisapmata
9. 214
10. A Love to Share
11. Ulan
12. You'll Be Safe Here
13. Hinahanap-Hanap Kita
14. Ambulansya
15. Basketbol
16. Liwanag Sa Dilim
17. Alab ng Puso
18. Awit ng Kabataan

* - I included Posible because it's in the original list. and where else would you get it?

anyway, i thought awit ng kabataan was a suitable ending.

so, the general review for this cd is that if you're an old-school rivermaya fan, you would rather get himig ng dekada nobenta over this (provided you don't have it yet), but don't get me wrong: this one is also a solid buy. the tracks that win it over are makaaasa ka, basketbol, and ambulansya.

good evening.

the team noy

intrams are drawing near, and last week we were coming up with team names. section C has "jo-on's C-garettes", and i don't quite remember what we ended up with. but here are some stand-out choices, nixed at the last minute for fear of noy losing his job:

- section B (the joke is, they would announce us as "the section A 'section B's!'")
- daddy
- noy's boys
- nonoy's toys
- nonoy humps (the first suggestion was nonoy's humps, but wowie suggested moving the 's')
- nonoy's angels

and my personal favorite:

- nonoy's butotoys

also, we can't dance to songs with indecent lyrics! exactly how the hell are we going to dance "my humps"?

she says, "nothing's forever in this crazy world"

dear bibbo,

somehow i find it hard to write this.

it's really true. i've been meaning to tell you sooner, given that i'd held this secret since, what, november. i've been dropping hints - really obscure ones, to everyone in both lj and blogger. the way they said and exclaimed "wtf are you talking about?" and "what is this?" proves that i done did a good job on these hint things. hints and proddings aside, i guess what's really left amidst the ciphers and cryptic messages is the whole meaning, the point of the whole enchilada.

before i get to that, how's the family? kim here is doing all right. how are the siblings? forgive me because i really don't remember their names anymore - you're the only one i remember more because of our short yet very fun time together. oh, and alan as well. how is nanay? hope she's doing okay. guys over at the sao say that we're going back to your area next week; i hope i can drop by. (by the way if you wanted to know, i did contact the girl and did what you wanted. sadly she never replied to me. well, at least i tried.)

so, anyway, back to my point. the thing is... well, it's really painful for me to say it, seeing as knots in my stomach have magically appeared when i thought about it just now. the thing is, we're moving. to the states. there. got it out of my system. oh, wait. nervousness requires me a trip to the bathroom. okay, there.

so, not just that. it's that we're moving sometime right after this school year. so by the middle of summer i'll probably be in the states already. i know, i know. it sucks. imagine, pulling me out right before my last legitimate year of high school. i know, i know. it really sucks. what sucks more is that i can't fly back here until after five years. five years! i know, i know, it totally sucks. i'm going to miss a hell of a lot of debuts i'm supposed to be in.

so, that's the big news. why, you ask? well, everybody knows how everybody else is migrating over there to get more buck for their bang. anyway, you might remember that i posted an april fools' joke saying the same thing, and in all my foresight i know people are going to start accusing me of crying "wolf". but i assure you, bibbo, that, quoting my sister, i am seriously serious. this time there is a wolf, for crying out loud. (forgive the pun.)

for now i'll let you take the time for it to sink in. i miss you guys over there. i wish we could come back soon - they say we're going to the same place, so i'll keep my hopes up.

hugs and kisses,
pepi