uaap =/ wwe

no, that's not a smiley. it's the "not equal to" sign. i've been trying to write this post for the past couple of days now, and i just couldn't get the groove. now that (both) the ateneo-lasalle series have concluded in our favor, i finally have my thoughts organized. this is mainly about the accusations of game fixing.

the promotion of the two entities may be based on the same principles, down to the heat of the rivalry, down to who's the most over worker in both teams, down to the booking of an ateneo-lasalle game every other day, but at the end of the day, the differences are significant.

you can't book a botched free throw, you can't book a fight breaking out, you can't book each and every foul thrown in the way, you can't book chris tiu not performing his best. it can't be done. it's not possible.

i may be a bit naive in my statements here, i do accept that it may be existent, but i'm too much of a wrestling fan to know what's actually predetermined and what's not. even though i mark hard every time i tune in to raw, smackdown, or ecw, suspending my disbelief.

you can't book it. it's pure skill, pure coincidence that it came to this. you can't book heart.

hey who's to say, you know i might have changed it all / post for allie

this morning allie and i, after our first periods and her cutting her second period, were musing about the direction our college lives are going. as of this moment, i'm failing my kas1 subject (can you believe failing both tests, the map test horribly and the first long exam by a margin - however the term is not over yet and there are still a number of things that can at least save me from a 5) and she's failing her math17 (which is a bigger problem because it's a major in her course). somehow i've decided to accept, with these kinds of grades, that i'm not shifting out sooner than i thought it would be. or maybe even not at all. or maybe shifting but not to the course i had planned to shift to. either way, it's a tough choice.

the thing is, we were musing about how we hated college because of all its pressures (on our oh so fragile first-year selves) and how we wanted to transfer to DLSU because at least, i had gotten in the course i applied for there. we then went from that to thinking about what the hell is gonna happen to our futures this way. strictly speaking and horribly cliched, i want my kids to not live how i'm living right now.

from that, we went to reminiscing about how we didn't have to work our asses off as hard in high school, about how i could sleep in ms. barcelona's class and she would still give me a grade enough to get a third honor, about how we never really had to lose limbs and minds all the damn time back then. what the hell happened? chua's supposedly a DL and we're here struggling the hell through first freaking sem.

i guess we learned a little late that this is, to blatantly steal a tired phrase, a whole new ballgame. this is not high school, my physics teacher isn't sir lasap, my math teacher isn't sir chavez, my english teacher isn't ms. denden. and you know what, it sucks, but who are we to do anything about that? we learned a little late that you're not supposed to just be sitting there when you have to do something.

however, luckily it isn't too late to learn that a completely rejuvenated hustle can still save you. it still could. it's not over.

though, i've yet to learn what i really really really REALLY want to do with this life of mine.

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Now playing: Garth Brooks - The Dance
via FoxyTunes

beautiful ink part 2

with the invention of the keyboard, the traditional pen and paper has been quite overlooked, and damn, that's quite the shame. there is a certain something in just taking a pad of paper and your favorite pen that writes just exactly the way you want it to write, that feels right as you trace lines and curves on the surface of the paper, and just plain letting loose. screw typing - the real you bleeds out as the ink of the pen.

i once read something from julie andrews, something her husband had told her - to just write and write away, because you can always go back and make changes. i just love letting loose with a pen because with it i am truly candid and there is less bullshit in what i say. if you just wield a keyboard, you can quickly cover yourself up without anyone noticing.

however, the instruments are only one-half of it. for some, rarely does the drive that makes the pen go and your fingers cramp come to them. it's the more frustrating part of the whole process, really. if you always had inspiration, you'd be making millions right about now. or you do have the inspiration but you're too slow to pin it down, and it flies away as another wasted opportunity.

and love can only go so far.

living someone else's life

i just got wind that westlife's covering home by michael buble for their next single. (that would make it the second song also called home in their catalog.) while i respect westlife as a cover band now (they sort of pigeonholed themselves into the category anyway... they did it sparingly and surely early in their career but now they're blatantly turning it into a living - but do listen to their rendition of more than words and all out of love), it annoys me that home became their next target.

why? aside from the fact that i am indeed a big buble fan (and i do see the irony that he also makes a living singing covers, but the main difference is that michael is singing a genre that does call for covers and innovation), they're completely rearranging the song from quiet, chilled love song to a power ballad replete with the trademark westlife backing chorale.

once again, it may be a matter of getting used to, but i don't like it. messing with michael's chemistry is not a wise move, in the case of more mainstream pop artists. this song doesn't need your help.

on the day that i die, i'd like songs to be sung

so i was listening (or more like forced to listen) to the news earlier tonight and they were still going on about chris mendez's funeral a day later. ah, well, who watches the news on sunday anyway? anyway, of course i wasn't paying that much attention (however, his mother sounded like a witch casting an evil curse to the murderers when she talked) but wasn't tuned out completely: i heard the background music, and man, was i both amused and iffed at the same time. (by the way, if you're wondering about what my stand on the whole hazing issue is, i blame the victim - why'd you join if you probably knew that you couldn't handle the haze?)

so the point that i'm trying to drive at here is that when i die and when we're all on the march to the sematary, i don't want the hearse to be playing the funeral home's damn stock, slow, dreadful mourning dirges. no, let's be more creative than that, could we please? i'd want you to feel anything other than boredom in a funeral.

the last playlist:

1. the allman brothers band - in memory of elizabeth reed
2. the who - old red wine
3. tupac - i wonder if heaven got a ghetto or only God can judge me (di naman kasi ako nakatira sa public housing/ghetto eh)
4. alter bridge - in loving memory and/or preferrably, metalingus
5. creedence clearwater revival - long as i can see the light
6. derek and the dominoes - the latter half of layla
7. eagles - already gone (yes i'm taunting ya)
8. queen ft. elton john and/or queen + paul rodgers - the show must go on (MUST be either one of those two versions, nothing else)
9. T.I. ft. jamie foxx - live in the sky
10. U2 - city of blinding lights
11. and lastly, to close powerfully, rush - YYZ

obviously the list is subject to change as long as life goes on and i'm still alive. =))

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Now playing: John Cena and Tha Trademarc - Summer Flings
via FoxyTunes