In the ayer ayer.. ay ay.. ayer ayer

Like this… like this..

Party like a rock star party like a rock star

So what? I am a rock star.. I’ve got my rock moves

Bless those brilliant marketing managers or whoever they are who thought of coming up with Guest Lists to promote their party place. For a striving yuppie like me who does not have the luxury of time and moolah to be considered a party animal, free entrance is such a relief. Do I sound like a low-life free loader? Nah… In the deep recesses of your mind, I know you dig the reason behind this. Let me spell it for you then – Practicality, plain and simple. I don’t want to pay what others have and can afford to pay so that I can groove.

For the second time, I was invited to party the night away at this (in) famous place called the Embassy. Far from being the sosi type, I always look conservative on my tank top whenever I am on this “where you should be seen” district. Scantily clad youngsters flood this place and it is the definition of “coolness”. I beg your pardon if this sounds offensive. Anyway, I was there to dance and not to flaunt my body. But in fairness to those fashionistas, some wore their little black dresses in such a good taste; critics would give them a very high rating.

While dancing to the beat of the music, inhaling the smoke that will make Juan Flavier utter Yosi Kadiri, and begging off when being offered to drink Bacardi, the curious jologs in me emerged. I caught myself watching how other people dance, the celebrities and socialites that I recognized, the obvious wanna-bes, and the “others” (I’d rather be in this safe category).

While watching them, I cannot help but to wonder if they are living perfect lives or they other way around. When they wake up in the morning, do they just have to holler and everything will be served in their polished golden platter? Do they have such brilliant minds that they can still comprehend what their Prof is trying to inject in their minds despite the lack of sleep? Are they the kick-ass bosses of their family-owned businesses? Are they thinking on what to wear on their next party? Do they have soft spot for the underprivileged ones? And then I asked myself, am I reading and thinking too much of Jessica Zafra?

Was I able to answer these questions?

Thinking while in this crowded place clouded with smoke, pretensions, shallow laughter and what not is such a futile exercise. I am so un-cool and provincial after all.

Gising ko ay alas siyete

Para makarating sa opisina ng alas nuwebe

Hindi alintana ang usok ng jeepney

Pinapangarap na magkaroon ng sariling kotse

Pagdating sa desk ko ay memo

Mula sa supervisor ko na kala mo kung sino

I’m not appropriately dressed daw

At pag nagsasalita ako ay parang sumisigaw

Limang beses na huminga ng malalim

Pinipilit na ang paningin ay huwag magdilim

Bakit nga ba may mga taong makitid ang utak?

Kailangan bang paulit-ulit na mag-explain na para kang may sapak?

Hindi ba tataas ang boses mo

Kung malinaw na ang pagpapaliwanag mo

And you even translated it in Filipino

At sasabihin pa rin sayo “Can you do it in slow-mo?”

Siyempre hindi rin mawawala

Mga inggetera at backfighter mong kaopisina

They drive you like crazy

When they gossip so much and yet are so lazy

Kung tutuusin ay kulang na kulang talaga

Ang sweldo ko pati ang overtime pay na pinagsama

Kung ganito ng ganito sa opisina

Mabuti sigurong ako ay mag resign na

While doing some work-related research , I came across this interesting prayer. Read on!

*PRAYER*

"Heavenly Father, we come before You to ask Your forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe on those who call evil good,’ but that’s what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that:

We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people and who have been ordained by You to govern this great state. Grant them the wisdom to rule, and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the Living Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen."

Rules:

In the 8 facts about yourself, you share 8 things that your readers don’t know about you. Then at the end you tag 8 other bloggers to keep the fun going.

* Each blogger must post these rules first.
* Each blogger starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
* Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
* At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
* Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1.       I erase my bulk mails and group mails first before I read the important ones.

2.       I can recite the 10 dynasties of China, chronologically… hahaha… thanks to Asian History. If I’m not mistaken, it was Jenny Rose Bea who put a melody into it so that we can perfect the enumeration.

3.       The “bading dance” is my signature dance step. People in the dance floor laugh everytime they see it. It was actually Ivory who taught me the steps. Thanks girl.

4.       I only learned how to swim when I was already in second year college. I only know two strokes – freestyle and backstroke. How’s that for a beach lover? =)

5.       I kept a lil notebook filled with quotations about love when I was in 1^st year College. Yikes! (I’m not sure where it is right now.)

6.       I was bullied when I was in Grade 1 so when I transferred the next year I became the bully. I used to pinch my seatmate then because she’s so maarte yet  kinda dumb. (Yeah, I was one of the mean girls then… sorry =(… It’s something that I’m not proud of…)

7.       Mulan is my all-time favorite Disney character.  So when we were asked to write something applying the Art of War, I got a 1.5 for  writing about Mulan. She’s my kind of hero.. Girl power!!! Hehehe…

8.       Ever since I was a kid, I don’t like the clothing brand Petit Monde. My cousins know why… hehehe

After four days of my self-proclaimed hibernation, I was able to finish The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason – authors who have been best friends since they were eight years old.

The book is about Tom and Paul, friends who were not able to escape the hypnotic powers of the puzzling 500-year-old Renaissance text, Hypnerotomachia, while they were studying in Princeton University. If Sophie’s World is to Philosophy, then the Rule of Four is to the cultural account of the Renaissance. I regret that I did not pay much attention to our world literature back in third year high school (there are A LOT of things that I did not pay much attention to). I would have appreciated this book better. But there are things that I still can relate to. It reminded me of my college years in UPLB - the friendships that I’ve built in that short span of time, the wisdom that I’ve learned in and out of the 4 corners of my classroom, and my constant struggle with myself.

Since my limited brain still can’t write a decent book review I just compiled these points from the book which we can all ponder upon.

• Nothing is lighter than being young with the world on your shoulders, it gives you a feeling of possibility so seductive.
• Good fences still make good neighbors.
• The only things people can ever know about you are the ones you let them see.

• Hope which whispered from Pandora’s box only after all the other plagues and sorrows had escaped, is the best and last of all things. Without it, there is only time. And time pushes at our backs like a centrifuge, forcing us outward and away, until it nudges us into oblivion.
• All it takes to be happy is to love the right things, in the right amounts.

• It is the greatest houses and the tallest trees that the gods bring low with bolts and thunders. For the gods love to thwart whatever is greater than the rest. They do not suffer pride in anyone but themselves.
• The delicious futility of impossible tasks is the catnip of overachievers.
• Love draws lines between us like an astronomer plotting a constellation from stars, joining points into patterns that have no basis in nature. The butt of every triangle becomes the heart of another, until the roof of reality is a tessellation of love affairs.
• Perfection is the natural consequence of eternity: wait long enough, and anything will realize its potential. Coal becomes diamonds, sand becomes pearls, apes become men.
• Only a man who sees giants can ever stand upon their shoulders.

• My heart is a bird in a cage, ruffling its wings with the ache of expectation.

1. Read books.. Lots of books.. The Rule of Four, The Other Boleyn Girl, etc. etc.

2. Enroll in a French class. It’s time for me to say Bonjour to the world!!!

3. Watch pirated DVDs =) My apologies to Edu Manzano =0

4. Bond with my girlfriends.

5. Bond with my sisterets. =)

6. Visit my highschool classmates.

7. Shop in an ukay-ukay store.

8. Spend my weekends in Divisoria.. ahahay

9. Try a new recipe so that I can cook for you when you’re back.

10. Think of you and include you in my prayers… =)

1.     Jane: I never do anything like this.
Kevin: I know.
Jane: You do?
Kevin: Yes, you kept repeating that over and over last night - I never do anything like this… I NEVER do anything like this… I never do ANYTHING like this…

2.    Jane: I feel like I just found out that my favorite love song was written about a sandwich.

3.     Kevin: [in Jane's apartment, with her showing off her dresses as she pulls out a loud-looking Gone With The Wind dress] What is that?
Jane: [holding the dress up to herself] Theme wedding!
Kevin: What was the theme? Humiliation? 

4.     Kevin: What color is that - vomit?

5.     Kevin: What about you? You don’t have any needs?
Jane: No. I’m Jesus. 

6.     Jane: Can you please find somebody else to be creepy with?

7.     Jane: Oh yeah, I’m a real good caulker.
Kevin: [into recorder] Likes caulk.

8.    Kevin: You’d rather focus on other people’s Kodak moments than make one of your own! 

9.     Kevin: Wait, what are those?
Jane: Nothing.
Kevin: Are those?
Jane: NO.
Kevin: Are they bridesmaid dresses?
Jane: This is none of your business!
Kevin: Ohhh… good God. What, you kept them all? You have a whole closet full, why?
Jane: I have a lot of friends and I like to keep them.
Kevin: Right. Well, that makes complete sense because they’re… beautiful.
Jane: Some of them are not that bad.
Kevin: Not that bad? I’d like to see one of them that’s not that bad.

10.  Jane: That was yesterday. Today you’re just the bitch who broke my heart and cut up my mother’s wedding dress. 

11.  Kevin: Love is patient, love is kind, love is slowly going out of your mind 

12.  Jane’s Aunt: Must be so hard to watch your younger sister get married before you.
Jane: Yes. Then I remember that I still get to have hot hate sex with random strangers and I feel SO much better!

13.  Jane: You would rather hang out with Italian models than come with me to my *awesome* work party?

14.  Jane: Wanna go find the ugliest stuff in the store and register Tess for it?
Kevin: Let’s do it.

15.  Jane: [after passing out] Are you a doctor?
Kevin: No, but Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Drunk were bugging me.

16.  Casey: [she and Jane are in mutual friend's wedding. Casey's hair is a mess] What? Don’t look at me like that! The bitch said "Up" so it’s up!

17.   Jane: I think you should just admit that you’re a big softy. That this whole cynical thing is just an act so that you can seem wombded, and mysterious, and sexy.
Kevin: [pause] . Woaw, woaw, woaw. What was the last one?
Jane: What?
Kevin: Did you say sexy?
Jane: What?
Kevin: Do you think I’m sexy?
Jane: No.
Kevin: Its OK if you do.
Jane: I don’t.

“Sandaang taon na tayo
Lagi ka pa rin sa aming puso
Kaya’t kami sumasaludo
UP ang galing mo!”

Maaga kong tinapos ang aking mga nakabinbin na trabaho upang makadalo sa Centennial Kick-off party kahapon ng UP sa Diliman.

Naabutan ko pa ang ilang motorcade pagdating ko bandang alas kuwatro ng hapon. Sayang nga lamang at hindi ko na nakita ang float ng UPLB kahit na may nakita akong iilang guro mula sa aming Kolehiyo – College of Development Communication.

Maganda ang puwesto namin nina Jam (aking “blocmate” sa M.A) at Nancy (kaklase ni Jam sa Media Ethics). Malapit kami sa stage kung saan nakaupo ang mga VIPs kagaya nina Senator Drilon, Senator Gordon, Senator Pia Cayetano at Secretary Neri, UP President Emerlinda Roman. Sa kasamaang palad di ko nadala ang aking digicam. Buti na lamang at girl scout si Nancy kaya may ilang kuha kami kasama ang mga VIPs at ilan ding kuha na nasa background ang ibang floats.

Isa sa aking mga nagustuhan sa parada ay ang grupo ng College of Medicine ng U.P. Manila. May paninindigang namutawi sa kanilang mga bibig ang chant na ito:

“U-ni-ber-si-dad ng Pilipinas

Malalakas, Matatapang, Matatalino…

Hinding-hindi kami magna-nursing

Ganyan kaming mga taga Medicine!”

Siyempre, bidang bida rin ang College of Fine Arts. Hindi magkamayaw ang palakpakan at sigawan ng mga Isko at Iska ng Bayan ng sumayaw ang mascot ng Ateneo at La Salle upang magbigay pugay kay Oble. Ito ang taon ni Oble kaya’t buong sigla niyang sinayaw ang Papaya!

Akin ding nasaksihan ang mga paratroopers na inorganisa ng Ep Chi Fraternity. Ang mga skydivers ay kumatawan sa pitong contingents ng UP – Baguio, Manila, Diliman, Visayas, Los Banos, Mindanao, at Open University.

Isa sa mga highlights ng gabi ay ang torch relay na pinangunahan ni Engineer Fernando Javier, na kasing tanda na ng UP. Kahit na 100 taon na siya ay nakaya pa rin niyang tapusin ang pag-ikot sa oval. Ilan sa mga prominenteng tao na kasama sa 100 torch bearers ay ang mga former UP chancellors ng ibat ibang campuses, mga student council representativcs, former UP Presidents gaya nina Abueva at Nemenzo, sina Che-che Lazaro, Mario J. Delos Reyes, Ryan Cayabyab, at sa maniwala kayo’t sa hindi, si Richard Gomez.

Pagkatapos ng lighting of the cauldron na pinangunahan nina Pres. Roman at Secretary Neri ay umilaw na ang UP@100 display sa Quezon Hall kasabay din ng pagkanta ng mga Iskolar ng Bayan ng “UP Naming Mahal”. Maluha luha ako habang inaawit ko ito. Bigla kong naisip na ang sarap maging UPian at kasama sa ganitong uri ng selebrasyon.

Hindi pa doon natapos ang aking gabi. Kasama ko naman sina Tet at Jona sa panonood ng Concert sa ampi-theater. Nagbalik tanaw kami sa aming College days at pinag usapan din naming ang aming mga frustrations as a yuppie habang umaawit ang iba’t ibang grupo gaya ng UP Madrigal Singers, UP Concert Chorus, atbp. Siyempre paborito ko ang performance ng UP Pep Squad.

Upang lalong mag umapaw ang kaligayahan ng mga tao ay nagkaroon ng 15-mins. Fireworks display. Sa sobrang ganda ng fireworks halos magka stiff neck na ang mga tao sa pagtingala. Tinalo pa nga ata nito ang taunang fireworks display sa Mall of Asia.

Ibang  klase talaga magdiwang ang U.P. Kaya nitong pag-isahin ang iba’t ibang klase ng tao na kilala sa iba’t ibang larangan ng agham, sining, at pati pulitika. Kaya nitong pag ibayuhin ang pagiging makabansa at makatao ng mga estudyanteng hinubog nito.

Hindi sapat ang mga salita upang ilarawan ang kasiyahan ko at ng iba pang UPian sa pagdiriwang ng sentenaryo. Ang pagdiriwang kagabi ay hudyat pa lamang ng mas marami pang selebrasyon sa buong taon na ito. Ang taon na ito ay hindi taon ng mga Daga kundi taon ng mga MAROONong!!!! Maligayang Sentenaryo sa mga Isko at Iska ng Bayan!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!

New Year… New Me!!! How many times have you silently and on some occasions loudly recited this mantra? Hmmm… I guess since the concept of New Year’s Resolution was introduced to our fickle mind.

I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Resolution. I have learned the hard way that instead of inspiring you, such list only suffocates you then you suddenly suffer from bouts of selective amnesia that you can’t almost remember anything from that list. So when another year comes to an end and when you welcome the next you will just list the same promises that you are about to break anyway. Oh well, maybe it’s just me. Maybe for some people New Year’s Resolution is actually effective and produces remarkable results. But for those who are just like me, why not try writing your Faith Goals for a change. Faith Goals is also a list, but instead of just focusing on the traits that you want to change, you also include the things that you want to achieve on that year, the goals that you want to work on, the stuff that you really really want to have (Material or not), the places that you want to visit, and so on and so forth, no need to limit yourself. It is something that will pump up your blood and will tickle your imagination. It is like a vision statement and a wish list rolled into one. Remember, Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

To give you a vivid picture, here’s some of my Faith Goals for 2008:

·        Be more organized and focused

·        Renew my compassion

·        Be more considerate and kind

·        100% increase in my savings

·        Hongkong Tour

·        Join APRRC 08 in Bali, Indonesia

·        Out of town trip (somewhere that I’ve never been before)

·        Pass my Comprehensive Exam

·        Learn French

·        Learn Adobe Photoshop

·        Improve my Public Speaking Skills

·        Write a short story or several short stories about children

·        Update my blog more often

·        Have a new swimwear

·        Digicam is also a must

So what are you waiting for??? Hope you’ll be inspired to write your own faith goals… Have fun writing and checking your goals while thanking the Lord above, the giver of it all. Happy New Year everyone!!!

Numbers.

I know, you couldn’t believe it. I really don’t know how it suddenly occurred to me that I am good with numbers… I, who used to copy our valedictorian’s answer in our Geo and Trigo exams back in high school (something I’m really not proud of. Thank you Dr. Earl Ilano for being so generous with your answers then, hehe). I, who got a grade of 3 in Math 11 and took Math 14 twice. I, who almost cried due to fear of failing Statistics last sem… hahaha… Oh, yes, I can say it with conviction that I am now so in love with numbers.

I guess when simple arithmetic and logic is concerned, I can already be counted upon. After reading de Quiro’s column, I immediately turn the page to the Lifestyle Section not for vanity’s sake or to read my daily Horoscope but to fill up the numbers game. And when it came to a point that I was not already satisfied in completing just one game in a day, I bought a lil Sudoku puzzle book.

Well, everyone must be aware that I am so busy these past few weeks with our upcoming Rotaract Alumni Homecoming. One of the most important thing in events like this is the M word. Although I never dreamt of being an accountant or an auditor, I just found myself computing and computing and re-computing our budget. When we thought that we’re going to earn a lot from this and our club fund will finally be 5 digits, our world suddenly crumbled when we learned that Dencio’s had a 4% increase. So again, I have to compute, compute and re-compute. I have to deduct here and there so that our money would suffice. After doing so , I still see a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel… We’re still, somehow, going to have a successful "fund raising" activity.

And although we are not as optimistic as before, and if my projection would go wrong, again, I wouldn’t regret having this lil affair with numbers. It would be another very important and humbling lesson for me.

As the Idiom goes,  "Don’t count your chickens until they’re hatched" .