Hmmm... been absent for a shortwhile... feels like it's been ages.

Yesterday
Started the morning with Sir Brian texting me that it's our chairman's bday. So I had to hurry off to Ayala to buy him a gift and a birthday card and had almost everyone in the council sign the card. Then I went to the department to give the gift, Doc Maja was very happy for the "surprise" gift... hehe thanks to Sir Brian.

Then Ma'am Ann asked me to tour some visiting students from Panay State Polytechnic College... so I toured them through the CompE wing and through the different laboratories, then I brought them up to the AS Building to hand them over to the CS/IT Department for their own tour.

Today
We had a very fruitful council meeting this morning. It's gonna be one of the last few meetings I'll be presiding, so I had to make them count all the more. In 5 week's time, a new set of officers will be handling this council I've been loving close to dear life itself for almost a year. Cheers in advance to the "would-be" officers... hehe

It's Kris Winnie's birthday... had light snacks at MILK (2nd floor Cocomall)... nice place and their crepes taste good. Diane was there, Rouselle, Kris and Dondon and Kris' other relatives. We had fun. Didn't see Leslie there... where are you Les??? And so I'm now blogging at the Metro Cafe... just bought an Infocom prepaid card 'coz my ISP is on maintenance... hehe See ya around... gonna be watching last Samurai tonight with family.

!!!Kung Hei Fa Chay!!!
Happy Chinese New Year to you all! We had a nice meal last night... lots of sushi on the table... Makes me wonder whether it's Chinese New Year or Japanese New Year... hehehe

Our circuit project was checked a few hours ago by Sir Burce... I'm so happy with the grade he gave us... wow! I'm so inspired to make more projects for this class of ours he's handling. I'm blogging here at school. I'm trying to steal minutes from my "break". I got dismissed early from our speech class since I finished composing my speech ahead of time, so I'm here at TAP enjoying the cold airconditioned air, which is in contrast to the warm dry air outside. Before my 3:00 class, I went to watch Kill Bill with my friend Joevic since I had a 2.5 hour break thanks to sir Burce again... I liked the movie. I kept on laughing at the background sounds they were using... kinda reminds me of old American west country style music coupled with some unique Japanese acoustics... The blood scenes... ummm... KEWL! Blood really squirts like a running hose... hahaha! Gives me the impression that those dead bodies had so much fluid at high pressure inside... hahaha! The effects looked like those you'd see in Samurai Showdown... and the legendary swordsmaker Hatorri Hanzo was starred in the story... yeah! He made the best tempered steel blades in ancient Japan! Plot-wise, the story was typical, but I liked the twists they placed in it... loved the sihouette fight scene most... plus the spanking that happened afterwards... haha! I was caught laughing at that scene... I didn't expect it to come up... brilliant director. Anyway, till here 'coz I still haven't taken lunch... oops. Again, may you peeps enjoy the first day of the lunar calendar. Take care!

My cousin has so many of these things she calls PUCCA... I find it nice and trendy. I'm sure it will be a hit when it hits the market by storm. Kinda looks like those Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty and Keroppi.

Today I got an invitation to run for the banner post of a certain political party for the incoming SSC student government elections. Had to turn down the invitation since I'll be 5th-year next school year and I'm definitely sure my academics will require much from me. I also can't picture myself standing infront of the different campus student assmblies making campaign speeches.... hehe. I know there are more student leaders out there who are more deserving than I am, so let the chance be given to them.

Went to the gym after lunch... I think I sprained my left upper arm in one of the exercises. I'll see tomorrow if this hurts and gets that "pama-ol" feeling when I wake up. School resumes again tomorrow.... argh! 7:30AM... and midterm exams results... yikes!

After gym, I reached Ayala in time for the 3:00 show of Kill Bill, but when I reached the movie house, the people I was with said that it's a lousy movie, so we decided to just make tambay somewhere. Then somebody suggested that we have snacks as early as 3:30 at La Marea... too bad I can't go 'coz I'm stuck at Ayala for my "would-be" errands from Commander. And so they left giving me that "We pity you can't go, but we really want to go... so we'll leave you here. We'll be back. Will you be ok?" protocol... I just hate it when people take pity on me. Can't they just leave with their thick faces and save me the effort of converting myself into an OROCAN (thick PLASTIK) by trying to respond warmly and nicely saying, "It's OK, I'll be fine!". It's a good thing I've reigned in my brutal frankness or else someone's gonna get tongue-tied from a dose of my heart-stopping zings. What's worse is that I was initially supposed to watch the movie with a friend of mine and they suddenly phoned in that they will join us with our gimik. And so I consented "willingly"... (What am I expected to say? A big fat NO???... I should have, considering the fact that someone with a very loud "subwoofer" mouth was gonna be there just to put us to shame when other mall goers will be noticing us due to his annoying rat-like squeaks.) What happened was that they snagged my partner with them and left me stuck at Ayala. People EAT TOO MUCH! Remind me to dissociate myself from them FOREVER! I've done that before, but I gave them a second chance since it's the New Year for 2004. Remind me peeps that there's no such thing as a New Year treatment for... (I don't want to say na lang 'coz I might sin if I say it!) Surprise surprise! It's times like these that you know the kind of friends you have and how pathetic their pitiful lives are!

So I went back to our store to watch over store operations and help around since the place was rather busy... and then read the papers and solved the entire crossword puzzle. Got all the words this time! Then went for a macchiatto at Starbucks, but on the way I suddenly bumped into Leorraine. She asked me to go with her to the lagoon area to take pictures of people doing picnic in the park for their school project. After taking the snapshots using her phone's digital camera, we had the pictures developed at Image Center. We went to Bo's instead since Starbucks was full with many customers. We waited there at Bo's for an hour for the photos to be developed, then on the way, we met this Turvy guy/model/actor near Timezone, so I took a photo of Turvy and Leorraine... hehe. She was all smiles... skipping like Little Red Riding Hood... parang naka-jackpot. Hahaha! I had fun looking at the people's expressions upon seeing that model... heads surely TURN! Hehehe Then at Bo's we just had a cup of coffee each and killed time with a... what I'd call a... "real conversation"... at one of the sofas. 7:00PM came and we took the developed photos. Split ways 'coz she had to go home and I went to Olympic Village to buy a birthday gift for my best friend. Now I'm playing Playstation with my cousins who are here for a few days till their parents return from Manila. I'm having fun here... kid life is surely less complicated.

Pit Se�or everyone! Karong Sinulog, MAGSAULOG!!!

Midterms are finally over! Ma'am Bandalan's exam surely ate up my brain... but I guess I'm OK, 'coz if I weren't I wouldn't be alive to blog this... hehehe. Anyway, I spent my day yesterday with my lola. It's good to once in a while spend time with people of generations ahead of us. Instead of watching last night's mardi gras at Ayala, I opted to be a slob on the couch listening to a CD someone gave me... Thanks!

I'm now in school blogging here at TAP, checking mail and Friendster and blogs... Hmmm... people have been busy to blog eh... hehehe. Well, till here lang 'coz I have a Robotics lecture in an hour. Take care peeps and hope to bump into you at HOME.

Numenorean


To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

My hands are full with all my midterm exams. Never been this hectic a schedule. Studied the whole night yesterday for my digital & data communications subject. Sir Lacorte said the exam will be All-Theory... guess what happened... his exam was All-problem solving. Thanks God I am a CompE student... I'm the only CompE student in his class, the rest are ECE's. I wonder how my other ECE classmates fared when Sir Lacorte gave us a problem set involving 1's and 0's... I don't know how their knowledge in resistors and transistors could help them comprehend 1's and 0's algorithms. Sir is soooo mean to give that exam that was bias in favor of CompE! Hehe... graces from the heavens I guess.

New template for the newly reinvented ME.

Yesterday, we had a very successful outreach activity with the kids housed by the Cebu City Task Force On Streetchildren. We had short games with them in the morning. Thanks to Gary's star quality, the programme was taken cared off and the kids had fun! From the foundation, we took the 17 kids to SM to have lunch with them at Majestic. I decided to teach the kids a little something Chinese... so I taught some of the kids how to use chopsticks... then Van and the rest followed, and I saw around 5 kids eating using the chopsticks! Amazing how fast they learned how to use them. Hehehe... Afterwards, we went to the SM Department Store to buy them the things they wanted. Some bought shirts, blouses and pants, while most of them craved for shoes. Some of the kids wanted shoes worth 300 pesos and up but our budget was just somewhere 200 each. So we had to budget the money and choose the affordable ones for them. If only we had more money, we would gladly give them what they wanted, but sad to say we didn't. Well, they were happy with what they got. Thanks to the other officers there with me like Vanessa, Stanley, E-Pay, Canence, Tonette, Emans and Ramon, we were able to give them good quality stuff at prices that didn't overshoot our budget. All in all we spent around 6,000 pesos with just 40 pesos left. It was a fun-filled day and we definitely had a good time with the kids. It was nice seeing them smiling with their SM bags on one hand.

Realizations: It's fun to be a kid. Even if you are a POOR kid, it's still fun to be a kid. You can whine and end up getting what you want... you can give out a smile that can wash off worries on the faces of adults, and most of all people care for you no matter what. I wonder why and wonder what purpose there is that I had to grow up!

Back to the program... After our outreach, I reached Ayala very much drained. So I went to Starbucks to relax and chat with Leslie, Dianne, Kris, Mary Ann and Dondon. I ordered a Belgian Pegi Waffle and thanks to the barista who was my friend, Romaine, I got lots of caramel syrup sprinkled over an extra thick whipped cream. Hehehe...

At around 6:30, I left the group to have dinner with family at Tsai Tea Salon. Had their Chinese Paella which was very spicy... love spicy food! Reached home at 9:30 and I hit the sack. Woke up in the middle of the night at around 3:00. I'm having a bad case of interrupted sleep... perhaps a special isolated case of insomnia... I tried to sleep, but my mind just kept on thinking stuff. So I decided to divert my thoughts to designing my new template. Slept back at around 6AM and woke up 10AM. Went to mass at City Sports Club and took my first communion in 5 years. =)

Had lunch at home as usual with the big family, then continued my work on my new template for the rest of the afternoon. I'm now done with it, but still looking for a site that can host images and at the same time provide daily bandwidth for website linking. I'm so tired now. I'm just tired and suffering from fatigue. I don't know why, but this could be caused by a sudden pile-up of stress. Well, I'm tired of making my own plans and suddenly find out that my plans are not synchronized with His. I'm tired of the same old game and I throw it back to Him... same goes for my midterm exams next week. I'll study upto what my mind could absorb. I could only hope that my instructors will go easy on us in the exams and not pound our brains to sawdust.

Just came home from watching Lord of The Rings. What a loooong movie... clocked in at 3 hours 20 minutes. Very nice story, touching and lots of lessons to learn about life and just bout anything. I like watching movies about knights, archers and mages. I like movies like this... kinda spares me from reading the book version... hehe.

I'd like to use the title of Pope John Paul II's book "Crossing The Threshold of Hope" as header of this blog entry... and perhaps as a new theme for this site if I couldn't find a better one. Christmas is over and it's about time to change this rather pale background image. I'll get to the sketchboards this weekend.

It's been a long while since I last blogged this early (5:30AM). I just woke up rather abruptly as the effect of alcohol in my veins wore out. Slept at 12MN as soon as I came home from Cippy's house. The food there was gourmet, with Jamon Serrano (a kind of salty ham from Spain) and there was roast Angus beef and lechon. Many of my SHS-B friends were there, most of which came from the other sections B,C and D... none was from A... hehe... so I was kinda the only one there, but I have close ties with them... closer than some ties I have with the A people. Anyway, we got to drinking. And when I say drinking, it's not Red Horse Beer. They served Johnny Walker scotch (had 2 glasses on the rocks and one Depth Charge), Jose Cuervo Tequila (8 shots... thanks to the people who proposed countless toasts), then there was wine (didn't take it, 'coz I still have a lot here at home as surplus from the Holidays) So practically, I had alcohol running through my wires.

Today's a new day for me. I went up the imperial steps to the IRS building way up in the "bukid" to meet Fr. Alex Gaut to have him hear my confession. My 4:30 class teacher didn't show up again (Where's Sir Barangan?) so I decided it would be the best time to have a sincere heart-2-heart talk with someone close to the Lord... to get the bunt of my questions of faith and doubts on the existence of an Almighty. My confession lasted 2 hours from 5:30 to 7:30 (just in time for dinner at Cippy's house) It was a long talk with Father and it was a very meaningful one. I've regained my faith once again from a 5 year-long separation (that explains why it took me 2 hours to confess... hehe). I swore to myself never do it again... EVER. I've realized that even if we lose faith due to some harsh circumstances in life, somehow the bitterness wears off and we will soon realize that it's pointless to be bitter... so why not just carry the cross, move on and quit whinning. This is probably the best thing that happened to me this year. I feel happier, more free and more at ease. I no longer carry the guilt of unbelief and I can now see the Lord as my savior and ever forgiving best friend.

God does put us to the test. Even if it's just minutes since I regained my faith through Fr. Alex, he put my convictions to the test. It's really a mean thing to do... really!... but what can I do, who am I to complain... all I can do is pray and draw strength from him. In my moment of strength, He reminds me of life's reality and He tries to make me weak. Despite the new strength, I still struggle. Why is that? At Cippy's party, I didn't feel like eating. Something happened before the dinner that made me just lose my huge appetite for the tasty food I earlier mentioned. I'd usually consume pounds of steak, but I just had a slice of it, a slice of lechon, a slice of Jamon Serrano and a glass of Coke. That was it. I don't want to mention what happened 'coz I'd be boring you peeps... It sickens me too, so why mention it... It's just one of those situations that you'd just like to throw your cellphone away and wished it was never invented to make communication easier and faster. Why does technology seem to complicate things instead of serving its purpose which is to simplify things? If only I won't need my cellphone for emergency purposes, I'd gladly give it to someone or dump in the nearby dumpster. It's really a big troublemaker and big fuss and a big nuisance... not to mention the weight it adds to your trousers. And so that explains why I took in more alcohol than I should. Got a bit tipsy come to think of the drinks I had, but I didn't vomit or get wasted. I like this machine I have in my body. It handles "gasoline" very efficiently... hehe. I'll end here 'coz the sun's rays have touched my room and in a few minutes I'll be heading off to school. Hanggang sa susunod... abangan.

Hmmm... got to finally tell her. She was clueless too... Half shocked, half smilingly happy... Should I take it as a happy thing to ponder about? Clueless too on that. Hmm... I was made to wait for her reply, and still I am waiting as the clock ticks by the second, and so I must. It's really agonizingly painful to be kept clueless for such a long time but who am I to complain. Good things come to those who wait and as for the pain... well, let's just say I'm already too caloused to feel pain... more like those wrestlers on WWE.

I'm searching for the best time to have my confession of the century. Haven't had one for around 5 years??? and haven't taken communion for that same number of years. I've made it a point to mend this broken part of my life and so I should. Problem is, I'm either too busy or when I'm free, there's just no priest to hear me. Hopefully in the next 5 days, I get to do this. It's for my own good anyway. To put it bluntly, it's my soul's salvation.

Well, I'm gonna attend a party at Cippy Lu's house again, so better cut this short and hope that the world out there is OK.

Last night, I watched Mano Po 2 with my family. The movie's plot was VERY confusing at the start, but it was explained and revealed near the end. It's one of those movies where you're supposed to understand it backwards. Bad ending too. One of the sons committed suicide and the story just ends without showing what happened to the poor boy's body. His family even wore RED on New Year's banquet. That's not what happens in Chinese families! Maybe they ran out of film and so had to cut it short. Crazy directors. Well, for what it was worth, it was a nice movie. The actors spoke better Fookien. But I still think the first Mano Po movie was a lot better. Poor Kris Aquino, sad life in both real and reel life. No wonder she's like that. I was smiling at the movie house everytime Carmina Villaroel (Janet) was in a scene. Minus the wheelchair she was on, she looks like this *someone who's made my days so light, uplifting, happy and somehow heavenly bliss.

Speaking of her... I just wanna write this here so that I could reflect on it some other time and I could say that I had a happy start for 2004. Before watching the movie last night, I visited Starbucks to buy coffee beans for her 'coz she needs coffee for studying those sleepless nights. I practically had 2 baristas by my side to help me choose a good blend. I dunno what made me do that, but I think I really care a lot for her who's more like my better half. I never thought I could feel like this again with all the things that happened before. But I just did last night, and now I j just DO. Caring and missing someone hasn't been a thing for me for a long time.

Today, I started to miss her. I became restless. Maybe it's because it's the first time I liked someone who doesn't go to the same school as I do. I know I shouldn't like someone this much 'coz I could end up terribly hurt like before. I dunno, but somehow I have gathered strength once again to take a risk and prepared to accept whatever happens. Speaking of risk, I felt the pinch today. My 4:30 subject teacher didn't show up, so I wanted to drop the coffee at her house. Texted her first, but I was given the impression she was busy and didn't want to mit me. I was afraid, but somehow she changed her mind and the next thing I know, I was at the gate of their house. We walked to their clubhouse and had a nice talk with her. Wanted to tell her how I felt, but I thought it would be too fast and ... I was afraid. So after an hour, we left the clubhouse and she insisted to walk me to the exit of their village instead of me walking her back to her house. I dunno. Was it a good sign? I don't think so... I'm still a bit of a pessimist. I'm clueless, but I'm happy to see her today... to see her laugh with me, to listen to her voice talking to me and to have her walk side by side with me. I dunno. We've been to texting even after I left her place even till now! And I somehow feel that she's helping me say my true feelings, but I'm speechless... errr textless... just beating around the bush. I'm afraid to tell. I can, but, but, maybe.... Oh brother, she just texted "Spill it out!" Ummmm..... I'm shaking now here in this cold internet cafe inside school. Better log out before I freeze to death. Bye... I'll blog later.

Today, well, technically yesterday, I was supposed to watch "Crying Ladies" with a friend, but di natuloy, so I went to a medical clinic (forgot the name) within the mall to see a friend of mine who's working there for the holidays. Today's her last day at work, so I paid her a visit... at least bumisita noh...

Something To Tickle Your Funny Bone... Heartwarming True Story That Makes Me Look Like a Clown, So Laff On... ang haba!
Well, my visit was a colorful one... made colorful by a... BADING. You see, I was talking with this friend of mine and biglang may dalawang bading na hitsuraon pud (those types of badings where women say: "Sayang!")... (no comment on that)... who entered the clinic and nagpalista for treatment. One bading then asks my friend whether I'm her boyfriend ba daw... kasi kami lang daw dalawa nasa ofis. So she said "Nope. He's a close friend of mine lang. Why?" And then the bading goes, "Just asking lang kay parison mo." Time stopped! I felt like someone just choked me so I gave him "THE Look"... na parang "WHAT the f#$#&^@#???" People can be so tactless sometimes. And so... after some moments of silence, the bading asks me, "Kuyogon ra nimo imo amiga dire whole afternoon?" My mind goes: "What kind of question is that? Kilala mo ba ako? FC (Feeling Close)." Then I said, "Well, I had plans to watch a movie, but now that I have 2 hours free, I'll just stay here instead of wasting my energy walking around the mall. It's cozy naman here." So tumahimik ulit... and then ilang minuto lumipas at hindi pa dumating ang doktor, so yung dalawang bading umalis and nagsabi lang na babalik daw sila after 20 minutes. When they left, my friend and I had puzzled faces. Hahaha!

Then after a few minutes, I left the clinic to buy something to eat because my stomach was grumbling. After some 15 minutes at McDo, my friend then texted me to go back to the clinic 'coz she has something daw for me. I was curious what this something was (Christms present???... nah...), so I went back. When I went back to the clinic, my friend said na bumalik daw yung dalawa. And so I said, "So anong nangyari?" They interviewed pala my friend about who I was. I said, "WHATTTT?????? What did you say?" And then she says, "One of them, katong puti-on nga mas gwapo sa duha asked me again if sure ba jud nga dili tika uyab." And I got irritated so I said, "Ngano curious man jud cya? Ganiha pa jud cya sige ask about ana." And then my friend goes, "Mao ning akong ihatag nimo. Chika! That gay said nga dili daw cya mu tuo nga dili ta uyab kay cute daw ka." WWHHHHAAAATTTT???? My friend was laughing hilariously and she really was laughing at the whole thing. Kaya, iniwan ko... bleeee. I left also 'coz she had to assist the doctor. I wasn't feeling right there and then, so I went to buy a Mr. Softy Ice Cream to wash clean my palate. Yuck! Paita ani uy.... sige na lang jud ug tripan ug bayot. Wala man juy babaye.

Ows, meron pa pala. Salamat, naa pay pag-asa intawon. *Someone I care for cared enough to text me tonyt and we just finished a series of texts with a nice goodnight just now... kay mag study pa daw cya for her exams on Monday on all chapters about BLOOD: Histology, Pathology, etc. Brayt! (Yikes, naa na sab ning brayt, Mangks!) Bahala na kay nice jud ning same wavelength thingy. Hahay... happy days na naman. Now I find truth in this quote someone once shared to me: "It's not wrong to love someone who belongs to another, but it's better to love someone who loves you the same."... or something like that.

January 1: New Year's Eve
Every New Year's Eve I get to cook something new. This year it's Apple Pie. Plus I get to open this year's Asti Martini Champagne.

Today
I spent my afternoon at Bo's with my SHS-B batchmates who are now working in Manila. It was nice hearing their stories about their workplace in Makati. Their jobs are quite interesting... the pay isn't that different from those jobs you'd find in Cebu, maybe just one or two thousand difference... but one thing common they had to say was that Cebu life is less complicated than that in Manila. They said that though they could find the best stuff in Manila, life in Manila is fast, cost of living is higher, the traffic is bad and life in general is more complicated. My mind drew a thought bubble for a while and wondered if I'd want to live a life like that. I'm used to living a fast life, but complicated???... hmmm... I'd love the challenge, but when it comes to life, this year I swore to make my life less and less complicated... hmmm...

By the way, FYI, Miko Sotto was buried today. It was just today that I learned the cause of his death. Fell from his condominium unit. No, not suicide, he just went out of balance in the balcony and fell. What a senseless death. Seeing the wake via GMA, I felt sad for his parents, his brother Chino and the GF he left, Angel Locsin.

I'm now composing a Friendster testimonial... seems like it's hard to write a little something about others if you've been with them for quite a while and have so much to tell. Hmmm... writer's block again... my cure for this is a dose of tech trance music. I'm listening now to this nice track I just found. It's entitled "Never" by the Roc Project featuring Tina Arena... I like the chorus. It goes something like "You never hear me crying. You never see me trying to love you once again. Your love is so Past Tense". bwahahaha! I love that line in bold letters. Very appropriate! Nice beat and nice vocals by pop star Tina Arena. I never knew pop stars make great vocalists in trance music. If you peeps find CDs or tracks with pop artists singing in trance music tracks, please let me know.

--+--!!!Happy New Year!!!--+--