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Friday, February 25, 2005

the enchantment

a scene set in black in white in 1919 paris. an auction of one of the pieces from the once grand opera populaire. a crystal chandelier that was witness to the tragedy that besieged the opera during the premiere of the phantom's own don juan triumphant! and then, a thunderous, positively brilliant aural introduction into the musicale that is the phantom of the opera.

yes, after all the reviews i've been seeing about and the interest that has been building up in me after i first heard some talented LNU peeps sing the song The Phantom of the Opera, in a roadside videoke in Ilocos Sur may i add, i finally got to have a firsthand idea of the magic that is behind this andrew lloyd webber musicale.

it was a really amazing experience, sitting there at the robinson's moviehouse with angela ranot, my classmate and groupmate in food micro, and being enticed by the score, and the scenes and the music altogether.

if i could not say much, it's because i still don't have the full use of my faculties to be able to put into words exactly how i felt when the movie ended. but this is all you need to know, go watch the movie and take part in this wonderful presentation. not the broadway musicale itself, but i'm sure it's pretty close after all the hard work of andrew lloyd webber himself and his team of talents.

you have got to see this for yourself. and next time, when i'm better, i'm gonna talk all about it.

so this is all for now. ciao! have a great day!

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

turning 19

i've got exactly a week till the next annual shift of my biological age. haha.. 19 years old. i'm not exactly looking forward to it. i don't think my age has any bearing on my personality. i've not exactly done superb things for the past 18 years of my life so why should i celebrate the start of my being 19.

i've no notion of changing my looks so that i could fit in with those my age. right now, dressing up to look good is not on my list of everyday things to do. i'm not sure i wanna stay like this forever but, i'm not really in a hurry to dress up and be grown up.

i don't know how to end this. i need to think some more. advanced happy birthday to me! yeah, ate mai greeted me already. there's plenty of people i know celebrating their natality day around these days. hehe.. have a nice day y'all!

a new haircut

it's been awhile since my last post. ano pa bang masasabi ko?

i've missed 3 consecutive trainings for soccer already: last saturday 'coz i went home, this monday 'coz i haven't had enough sleep for my return trip to qc and this afternoon because i overslept but i could have gone if i dressed up fast enough but i didn't anymore because i didn't want to be late. so i guess they're the only group of people left who haven't seen my new haircut yet.

yep, after two years of just letting my hair stay - besides my occasional trims due to a bad case of split-ends, i've finally had it cut. i really didn't want it to be this short because it now hangs over my shoulder but due to an error in calculation by my - what do you call those people? - haircutter, it's now layered and it hangs over my shoulder. at least it's not much of a hassle anymore. no more need for ponytails.

when have i decided this? when i went home last weekend. yes, finally, after one and a half month of missing home. and it's because that's the only time that i could go home before this sem ends. so i just took advantage of the situation since nothing nice is really happening with my hair since i didn't want to let it undergo hair relaxing and it's just tied up in a pony most of the time.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

happy valentine's sa ating lahat

-- if you care about that stuff. anyway, MABUHAY ANG MGA SINGLES! pero since it's Feb. 14, i got something i picked up from my cuz. yeba.. for those who are in or have been in or are currently in a relationship.

1. If a man wants you, nothing can keep him away. If he doesn't want you, nothing can make him stay.

2. Stop making excuses for a man and his behavior.

3. If you have ANY doubt in your mind about a man's character, leave him alone.

4. Allow your intuition (or spirit) to save you from heartache.

5. Stop trying to change yourself for a relationship that's not meant to be.

6. Don't force an attraction.

7. Slower is better.

8. Never live your life for a man before you find what makes you truly happy.

9. If a relationship ends because the man was not treating you as you deserve then heck no you can't "be friends." A friend wouldn't mistreat a friend.

10. Have faith in God regarding your relationship, but don't let faith make you stupid. God does things decent and in order.

11. Don't settle.

12. If you feel like he is stringing you along, then he probably is.

13. If he keeps changing his mind about the relationship--take that as a BIG sign that he is unstable. Do you really want to be with a man like that?

14. Don't stay because you think "it will get better." You'll be mad at yourself a year later for staying when things are not better.

15. Honorable men take care of their business and aren't involved in a whole lot of mess.

16. The only person you can control in a relationship is you.

17. There's only one 'reason' a man dumps you; he doesn't want you.

18. Avoid men who've got a bunch of children by a bunch of different women. He didn't marry them when he got them pregnant, why would he treat you any differently?

19. You really do have to kiss a few frogs before finding the prince.

20. Always put yourself and your happiness first.

21. Always have your own set of friends separate from his.

22. Maintain boundaries in how a guy treats you. If something bothers you, speak up.

23. If he doesn't call, he just isn't that interested.

24. Be honest and upfront.

25. Know when to cut the cord, don't be strung along.

26. Don't fall for the "I'm confused role". Remove yourself from the situation to let him figure things out (but don't wait for him, move on).

27. If you want to have a clue as to how he will treat you, watch how he treats the WOMEN in his family (not just mom).

28. There's more than physical abuse, there's emotional and mental abuse. If he causes any of them...flee.

29. You cannot change a man's behaviors. Change comes from within.

30. Don't let him place rules on you that he is not willing to follow himself -- double-standard.

31. Don't EVER make him feel he is more important than you are...even if he has more
education or in a better job.

32. Do not make him into a quasi-god. He is a man, nothing more nothing less.

33. Demand respect and if he can't give it, he can't have you!

34. Don't compete with other woman, but be aware that men are attracted to what they see.

35. If you think he is cheating, he probably is. Confront him right away and if you feel he's lying, let him go.

36. Actions speak louder than words.

37. Never let a man define who you are.

38. Never rely on a man for compliments, look to yourself for that.

39. Never borrow someone else's man.

40. If he cheated with you, he'll cheat on you.

41. Just because he says he loves you, doesn't mean that he won't hurt you and it doesn't mean that you are meant to be with him.

42. To use painful hard-won wisdom -- 'get it right' the next time.

43. Know that you deserve to be the number one person in the life of the #1person in your life.

44. Love is a verb ...

45. Learn to give up your lifelong task of trying to make someone unavailable-available, someone ungiving-giving, and someone unloving-loving.

46. A man will only treat you the way you ALLOW him to treat you.

47. All men are NOT dogs.

48. You should not be the one doing all the bending...compromise is a two way street.

49. If you don't love self...you can't love anyone else.

50. You cannot mend someone else's broken heart.

51. You need time to heal between relationships...there is nothing cute about
baggage...deal with your issues before pursuing a new relationship.

52. You should never look for someone to COMPLETE you...a relationship consists of two WHOLE individuals...look for someone complementary...not supplementary.

53. Dating is fun...even if he doesn't turn out to be Mr. Right.

54. NEVER give more in a relationship than you are getting out of it.

55. Never become your man's "therapist".

56. When actions and words conflict, believe the actions. Respond to the actions.

57. A real healthy relationship requires two people. One person can end it - but it takes two to make it work.

58. Don't fall for the "I'm not the loving type"...when a man loves you there is nothing in this world (within reason) that he wouldn't do for you.

59. Make him miss you sometimes...when a man always know where you are, and you're always readily available to him he takes it for granted.

60. Give him his space...let him go out with his boys, don't pressure him to spend time with you, You cant force a man to hang out with you.

61. If you wouldn't allow your daughter to be with him you shouldn't.

62. Never let a man know everything. He will use it against you later.

63. Never move into his mother's house.

64. Provide financially for yourself and don't depend on anyone.

65. Never co-sign for a man.

66. Never believe you have the perfect guy and he is so innocent.

67. Never spoil your man; let him spoil you.

68. Never let a man mess up your credit.

69. When it's time to let go; let go.

70. Good men should be treated like good men.

71. Don't play games.

72. Don't fully commit to a man who doesn't give you everything that you need.

73. Keep him in your radar but get to know others.

74. Compatibility in terms of educational attainment, values, beliefs, personal and career goals, and socioeconomic status, are important.

75. Never date a guy who wears colored contacts

Friday, February 11, 2005

a drinking story

friday last week, i watched campus idol since three of my orgmates joined the search: jok, rocky and mitch. they had a talent portion where they had to sing and the search was like the american idol competition. so they had someone famous like wency cornejo on the board. there was also a search for an hip-hop dance group and among the 3 contestants, the up streetdance club, unsurprisingly, won. but i dunno what authority wency has to have a say on the dance competition. he's not a dancer for gods's sakes. anyway, he also wasn't a very good judge. he was making comments that were not warranted or he wasn't making comments that should be said at all. and jok was really pissed at him. anyway, the one who won this competition was a tenor, a music major - siyempre di ba? - who sang this is the moment. but my golly, when he spoke, he had this really thin voice. oh well, the suprirses signers bring us.

alessa and i planned to stay overnight at their house in sta. mesa because we were going to practice for their mini-program the coming thursday wherein we will be playing some love songs. so when we went to watch campus idol, she already brought along her keyboards and i brought along my guitar. it was the ga before that, and gino had been asking everyone to have a little drink afterwards. so after the campus idol search, we did. however, my group composed of r.a., alessa, jok and yves were left behind since we still commuted from up to bartolo's, just opposite the mini-stop at the teacher's village.

when we arrived there, we also had no table so we had to wait awhile outside for some to clear out. when we finally got a seat, one of my orgmates borrowed my guitar. so they began singing. then when tet played mariposa, the whole place, which was not bigger than our room at the boarding house and every table full of people with some peeps already way drunk, started singing along. as in everyone. and some peeps at another table had a shaker and a cahon with them so they started jamming with the song. astig! as in we didn't know all the other peeps there, it's just us orgmates and them other people in 3 or four tables and everybody was singing along. the guitar was passed around and eventually, a guy at the other table played it and the songs that everybody sang to, if i remember them correctly, were perfect by true faith, shake yer head by the eraserheads, to be with you by mr. big and even kitchie nadal's wag na wag mong sasabihin. it ws really a very cool moment. r.a. also had his chimes along with him so jok brought it out and a really drunk skater guy was having fun with it.

it was a really, really cool night. imagine everyone in that place who did not know those at the other table singing to one song. such is the power of music. since everyone grew up to almost the same songs, everyone has this nostalgic feeling and singing it at such a time when everyone's trying to have fun while drinking is something that's really natural. it was a really powerful moment, when you could unite everyone with just a song. the person beside me who belongs to another table was eventually talking to me, though he was not the type of person who i'd normally walk up to to inquire about something or make small talk.

the barangay police eventually showed up near the place since everybody was already making a racket with the number of people singing so the proprietor asked us to lower our voices. they also tried closing the front door and the windows. i thought i was gonna suffocate from cigarette smoke but when the proprietor announced that they were closing at 12 since that was the rule, my orgmates decided to leave already. so thank God i was saved from such a tragedy. anyway, what matters was that time when everybody was singing to the same song. i hate the smoke but these moments, they last. 'twas a really cool night.

headache blues

yes, my head is in the deepest pits of the earth. it's hurting a lot. it's probably because of the intense heat before i got here in the CHE lib and the coolness within the lib afterwards. i dunno. but i wanna talk about other things.

the past week has been the upmc applicants' dare week. it's a process every batch goes through where the applicants showcase their wares by playing in dorms for four nights. i went through my own two years ago - yep, it's been that long. and since, i think, the last two batches, there's a culminating activity during the last day, which has been traditionally played at the kalayaan dorm, which has sort of become a tradition. so after the dare night, the apps and mems gather together to bond. others do drink, others don't. but most of the time, i think everyone drinks. everybody makes a contribution so that there'll be gin or beer and chips to go around, then there's an assigned mixer/"tanggero" - i'm not sure about the word right now - and only one glass to go around for everyone to have their "tagay." and things happen in between. if there are guitars, then there are people singing, or people holding on-the-spot workshops. there could be a game of truth or dare or simply people teasing each other and sharing stories.

last night was such a night. they've improved since the first night at narra. i haven't been able to watch their gigs in between. anyway, it was almost okay. but there are still some things lacking. and it had been agreed that the "culminating activity" will be held at yves' place in matimtiman st. it's like a condo building where he occupies a room with 3 female roommates. we stayed on the rooftop since that was the only place that was wide enough for everyone of us to stay. at first, there was alessa, yves, jok, mitch, martin, jude - the tanggero for the night - owen and i among the mems. the apps present were daniel, sally, i(rish), jason, jek, honey, carl and gia. then afterwards, the guys came back from bartolo's which was just across mini-stop after the game of ginebra and talk 'n text. ginebra won the game. i'm sure mars, my roommate, is very happy while ate fe, our landlady's companion at home won't be too glad. i'm sure she's gonna be pissed if the people who buy at the sari-sari store will continue to talk about ginebra's success (she's a san miguel fan). so the new addition were dave, rob, ron, mario, tet and rocky among the members and marco, among the apps - he's applied for the last two sems and still hasn't been able to make it to the FR. r.a. followed afterwards, as well as joyce and sid, who was practicing with rocky for their performance for the fair. that was around 11pm and some of the apps had to go home. but we were just starting. i had three rounds of gin-iced tea and gin-brandy. then i drank up what's left of owen's red horse in glass. after that, i was really drunk. i couldn't feel much and the world was spinning when i walked. afterwards, i lay down and i think i eventually got some sleep. my "amats" was gone but my head was really hurting. that continued till 4:30 am when everybody else went home and alessa, mitch and an unconscious jok stayed at yves' place to sleep since we can't go home to our respective places of residence here in UP. when i woke up at around 7, my headache was gone. and we left a little after 7:30 because mitch still has an exam for math 55 at 8:30. i hope she does well, considering she's still a bit drunk and hasn't studied when we were having breakfast at mcdo. and she has to get a good grade, since this is her second take of the subject already.

ah, where am i going with this?

i can't really say i enjoyed the past day since due to my terrible headache, i haven't participated in the storytellings. and there were different groups different things. so my headache did not make me in the mood and i just ended up sleeping only for some two and a half hours and another headache this very moment.

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

HARANA 2005

guys, narito na po uli ang HARANA 2005 ng UP MUSIC CIRCLE!



mangyari lang po na dumaan na lang kayo sa AS Walk mula Pebrero 7-11, mula alas-diyes ng umaga hanggang alas-singko y medya ng hapon para ibigay ang inyong mga orders.



kahit sino - maski crush o kaibigan - pwede niyong ipaharana. at siyempre, may kasama na ring flowers yan. doon niyo na lang po makikita sa booth ang mga iba-ibang packages.



so ano pang hinihintay niyo? if you can't say it, sing it!

rewind

nakakainis naman..nag-hang ung pc..ang dami ko nang naisulat e..REWIND!!



it's been a long day today, and i'm expecting another long one tomorrow. this morning i was at the che library with my groupmates trying to finish our report on our activity on alcoholic fermentation. then after that, due to my inherently good heart and my lack of self-respect, i practiced with some members of the tourism management society (tms), namely alessa - my roommate - and sheila, for a mini-performance tomorrow at the asian institute of tourism (ait). hope that turns out well. tomorrow's gonna be my first time to perform to an audience once again since the dare week i went through when i applied at the up music circle (upmc). afterwards, i was at the up sunken garden for the wednesday training of the Football Club (FC) - UP Sicad till around 7:30. then i went back to area 2 and had dinner at lutong bahay. and i'm now here at the newsstand trying to make sense of what's going to and is supposed to happen for the next 24 hours.



i realized this afternoon that i really got to take advantage of the opportunity to practice when i'm with my fellow up sicad-ers (well, i'm still an applicant) because i don't have my own ball. frances had me practicing passing the ball so right now, my pelvis is aching. but that's a good sign since that means i'm actually doing something right. and because of that, my kick when i pass the ball has improved. it's really fun to play. i think this is my second time that i really enjoyed playing in the 5 times that i've been attending training.



so what else is new? nothing much, except i have a piece of sudden fiction due at 1 pm tomorrow along with 30 copies of it and i don't even know where to start yet. and i'm gonna be freaking busy around 12 since that's when i'm supposed to be at the ait to play r.a.'s guitar. i have 3 characters already, all male, but i haven't a single situation where i could place any of them. this really sucks. at least, i've started on my blog which i haven't been updating for quite a long time and it's already the middle of february, did you know that? so probably, later on, my mind will be used to writing down thoughts and i could already come up with my piece of sudden fiction. yes, i haven't read my emails yet. just the short ones coz' this is my priority at this moment. and when i get home, i still have to fix my chem lecture notes and probably practice the 3 songs that i've to play which are sway, insensitive and just my imagination.



this week, the upmc has a booth at the as walk for accepting orders for HARANA 2005. yes, it's that time of the year again. you can pay the org to serenade your friends, crushes, profs or loved ones along with the corresponding flowers you paid for. yes, it's a unique way to profess your affection. if you can't say it, sing it.



alongside this, our applicants are also going to be on their fourth night tomorrow at molave for their dareweek. exciting uli. but i'm not really acquainted with the apps unlike last sem. something's different. it's probably me. yeah, i'm not around often.