Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Reborn

With hell week over, I thought I would have had more time for gallivanting. But no. It seems that stress and fatigue finally caught up with me and for the past few days I have been sleeping for 12 hours! I could just hear Rizal mutter "Indolent Filipina!"

Greeting the Lunar New Year consisted of pigging out on authentic Chinese food cooked by Chinese citizens (nothing could be more real than that!). And so the Year of the Fire Dog was ushered in with all the necessary trappings of bountiful food and numerous wishes of prosperity. In a way, celebrating the Spring Festival gave me a second opportunity to redeem myself in terms of following my new year resolutions (which in their 28 days of existence have been rendered meaningless by my seeming inability to strictly abide by them). Now that the slate has been wiped clean again ...

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

I think therefore I am ...funny

I think I belong in the wrong side of the universe...I am the one spewing out the jokes!

I have received a couple of emails stating to the effect that they "miss" my spam. Don't you worry. The tradition will resume the soonest with the break coming up. In the meantime, you have to content yourself with reading here! =)

They never prosper or do they?

I have been an oft repeated witness to this activity which teachers treat with disdain and students (both the desperate and the not so desperate ones) like to engage in amidst threats of being kicked out and other dire consequences. The strange thing is it thrives even in the most advanced academic environments, be it in the simplest form of the sneaky buddy system or the higher level proprietary-violating plagiarism of papers. Believe me, people were able to do it even when the exam was the essay type and not multiple choice (both in law school and in the college of science).

What motivates people to do it? I have one answer. Greed. To satisfy their own interests and be one step ahead of others, students are more than willing to forget the basic notions of right and wrong, throw caution to the wind and be "losers" for an hour or so.

The fact that academic honesty is getting to be such an alien word speaks much of the kind of values that is prevailing in society now. The danger is that this can be the start of a contagious malaise that will be hard to cure and which can transform into something far graver. Eventually, people become more tolerant of both legal and moral violations and end up as apathetic and indifferent zombies. The next step? Cheating in the presidential elections and claiming that nothing is wrong with it!

Monday, January 23, 2006

Disparaging Jollibee


There is such a thing as being respectful of other people's foods or having defective taste buds which simply cannot savor the more exotic flavors of Asian cuisine. Too bad I do not have the time to react to this right now. Otherwise ...!@#$%^& (of course this "UA" just doesn't know that Jollibee's winning strategy was the subject of a Harvard case study and that founder Tony Tan Caktiong won the 2004 World Entrepreneur of the Year award!)

Saturday, January 21, 2006

La Pinay



Following the footsteps of Melanie Marquez and Anna Bayle may be Charo Ronquillo who won 3rd place in the just concluded 2005 Ford Supermodel of the World competition. Doesn't she resemble the infamous face in the Burberry ads (the one who changed the meaning of cK to Cocaine Kate)?

Tennis never looked this good






Battle of the beauties at the 2006 Australian Open. Who do you think will win - Team Sharapova or Team Hantuchova? For sure the guys will be having cricks in their necks after the match. How I wish it would also be Roger versus Marat! But I'll settle for Andy as a substitute!

Have you finished your revision?

Setting: I am preparing for an exam and a classmate comes up to me asking if I have finished my revision. The what??? I just looked at her and thought that maybe I heard the word wrong. But then she added that she was on her way to the library to revise. I did hear it right! But was there anything incorrect in her statement? Apparently not. I just learned that word revise is another term for review...another testament to the differences between American and British English (which is not limited to pronunciation and spelling)!

Ang baybay ng aking pangalan


This is my name in ancient baybayin, more popularly known as Alibata script. It would have been nice if it had been preserved. One can actually make use of it as a secret code nowadays because hardly anyone knows about it.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

I am a Halo-Halo



I had vowed or rather resolved to sleep less, eat less and study more for 2006. But as they say, the spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak. I have been continuously following the "munching diet" while reading. So far, I have managed to finish 1 canister of Pringles, 2 chocolate bars and a large bottle of Sprite in one day. And the candies are still waiting in the wings. Egad! I have violated every rule in any nutrition wellness program out there. I am now so fat. And I feel sleepy all the time! Who wouldn't after eating a dinner of roasted German pork (which tasted exactly like Chinese ham served during Noche Buena), broccoli with cream sauce and frozen strawberries in yoghurt!

So many food (not necessarily junk), so little time ...

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Nearing the end of the chapter

Closing Cycles

-- By Paolo Coelho

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end.

If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through.

Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished. Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents' house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?

You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened. You can tell yourself you won't take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that.

But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister, everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

None of us can be in the present and the past at the same time, not even when we try to understand the things that happen to us. What has passed will not return: we cannot forever be children, late adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards our parents, lovers who day and night relive an affair with someone who has gone away and has not the least intention of coming back.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.

That is why it is so important (however painful it maybe!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home. Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.

Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them. Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return; do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else. Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the ideal moment.

Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished:

Tell yourself that what has passed will never come back. Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person, nothing is irreplaceable; a habit is not a need. This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important. Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life. Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust. Stop being who you were, and change into who you are. Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

Monday, January 16, 2006

MirrorMask


So when are they gonna show MirrorMask in Manila? (I had to have a valid reason to upload this picture of Mr. Neil Gaiman)

The Infant Jesus of Prague


It was His feast day yesterday (although in other countries it is held on May).

Pas deux



These additions are courtesy of my high school batchmate Gina Lim-Bacolodan (a.k.a Aladin Bacolodan's better half)

-you know of a "kulangot" that is edible
-you can't swim
-your house has its decent share of woodcarvings
-you can pass off as an amateur tourist guide to visiting relatives who wanted to see the presidential summer house and ride horses around a park
-you bought stationery and hello kitty wallets from a white building called FRB
-you're a girl with the gargantuan legs of a boy
-you took the shortcut through shopper's lane despite your mother's constant warning not to, for fear of mugging
-you can climb trees, or hills, at olympian speeds
-you refer to any other city or province as "the lowlands"
-you start a trip to the lowlands with a tablet of Bonamine
-your pencils are from Rising
-you equate decembers with poinsettias and januarys with sunflowers
-you know the taste of gumamela nectar, strawberry jam, peanut brittle, and corned beef a la sayote
-unlike your cousins from the lowlands, you can tell a cauliflower from a broccoli, a Baguio bean from a sitsaro, and a pechay from a wombok
-the maximim number of times you've ridden the LRT is three
-you rode all the Festivale rides in Burnham
-your family was always designated to bring flowers on All Saints Day, whereas your lowland relatives brought candles and food
-your family thinks walis tambo is the standard pasalubong for everyone else
-you had your films developed at any of the three shops alongside Pines theatre, or at Cunanan's sa tapat ng plaza
-you treat every tricycle ride as a carnival ride
-you always compare every other city in the world to Baguio, and the other cities always come up short!!!!

From my elementary school batchmate Stephen:

-you know that when boys say cathedral, it wasn’t because they were going to mass, it was actually a challenge. Cathedral was one of the popular venues for rumbles.
-you remember a time when everyone one would freeze at the sound of the siren at 6pm (that is if you’re not yet home at that time. 6PM is already very late and you’re punished if you go home late.)

My first haiku


Beautiful blue bird
Flying high up the blue sky
Giving joy to all


This was a haiku which I wrote when I was 9 and won me the top prize in some sort of district press conference for elementary school students. I just thought about writing it down in dedication to one of my teachers in the primary grades who died about a week ago. She was one of the last persons I saw along Session Road five days before I left for Teutonic land. This one is for her and all my other teachers who showed me that there is simply no room for mediocrity in this world.

And when this world's insincere...



You'll Be Safe Here

Nobody knows
Just why we’re here
Could it be fate
Or random circumstance
At the right place
At the right time
Two roads intertwine

And if the universe conspired
To meld our lives
To make us
Fuel and fire
Then know
Where ever you will be
So too shall I be

Chorus:

Close your eyes
Dry your tears
‘Coz when nothing seems clear
You’ll be safe here

From the sheer weight
Of your doubts and fears
Weary heart
You’ll be safe here

Remember how we laughed
Until we cried
At the most stupid things
Like we were so high
But love was all that we were on
We belong

And though the world would
Never understand
This unlikely union
And why it still stands
Someday we will be set free.
Pray and believe

Chorus:

When the light disappears
And when this world’s insincere
You’ll be safe here
When nobody hears you scream
I’ll scream with you
You’ll be safe here

Save your eyes
From your tears
When everything’s unclear
You’ll be safe here

From the sheer weight
Of your doubts and fears
Wounded heart

When the light disappears
And when this world’s insincere
You’ll be safe here

When nobody hears you scream
I’ll scream with you
You’ll be safe here

In my arms
Through the long cold night
Sleep tight
You’ll be safe here

When no one understands
I’ll believe
You’ll be safe,
You’ll be safe
You’ll be safe here
Put your heart in my hands
You’ll be safe here

I just had to post this!!! So condemn me now if you want to.

You grew up in the City of Pines if ...


This is a combination of what I saw in the net (thanks to them whoever they are) and my fond memories of childhood. =)

You grew up in Baguio City if…

1. you bought your school supplies from CID Educational Supplies

2. you bought your fabrics from Tiong San Bazaar (before there was the Old, the New and Harrison aside from Valiram's, Bheromull's, Bombay and Fil-Indian)

3. you bought your imported ingredients from D & S Fine Foods

4. you went to Tea House for all its delicacies like the pancit, the cakes, etc.

5. you went to see movies at Pines or Session Theatre either in the orchestra, loge or the balcony section (without airconditioning)

6. you went to Gold Mine Disco at Hyatt Terraces for night outs (sometime later Spirits became the "in" place)

7. you thought that the best Chinese restaurants in town were Rosebowl and Star café (Mt. Peak where Abanao Mall now is was also good)

8. the only grocery store you remember is Sunshine Grocery (the small one)

9. you had your photos developed at Pines or Mountain Studio

10. you remember where the politicians met for coffee – Dainty! (It is Luisa's café right now I think)

11. you know where to buy the best Sans Rival – Sizzling Plate

12. you bought chiffon birthday cakes at Tesoro's

13. you know what cooking oil looked like if not in bottles

14. you remember there was a real tree in the rotunda fronting what is now SM Baguio and the post office (which was cut down to give way to the fountain of tiyanaks and eventually to the concrete pine tree)

15. you remember that there was a Session Café!

16. you ate toasted siopao from Handaan when it was the craze.

17. you enjoyed eating pizza at the old Shakey's located at the basement of Skyworld (now the haven of ukay ukay)

18. you had your milk supplied in bottles from the Baguio dairy farm

19. you had eaten good food at the slaughterhouse (like papaitan)

20. you speak straight and clear english without an annoying colegiala accent

21. you listened to DWHB when it was not yet corny (or in fact it was the only cool FM station playing the latest hits)

22. you ate lunch at Benedict's

23. you spent your free time hanging out at FRB

24. you ate the best fried chicken at Mother's

25. you roller skated at John Hay

26. you remember that Sharon Cuneta's half brother had a restaurant in Maharlika

27. you bought imported goods either at the John Hay commissary (for those who had the privilege), the PX goods stores in the market or at GP arcade (for the rubber shoes)

28. you studied music at Musar or at the Girls' High music department

29. you remember that there was no Berlin Wall between Center and Lab

30. you were once hospitalized in Notre Dame, the hospital run by sisters

31. your mom studied at St. Theresa's boarding school

32. you had friends studying in Marishan or UP High School

33. you felt sad at Pines Hotel burning down (it was always featured in the movies of the 70s and 80s)

34. you rode the jeep at the paradahan where the Baguio Center Mall is now located

35. if you are Chinese, you were enrolled in Chinese lessons at Patriotic

36. you could hear the voice of Baby de Guzman, a local announcer, emanating from your lolo's transistor radio in the early hours of the morning

37. you used oil lamps at night

38. you are/were not awestruck at the sight of an artista or celebrity

39. you did not wear the Baguio City bonnet

40. your idea of a good weekend was a picnic at Burnham or Camp John Hay or swimming at Asin or Klondike hot springs

41. you ate imported ice cream on cones with square ends in John Hay or the best American food in Halfway House or 19th tee

42. you somehow attended a classy party in the Main Club when it was still just one wing (which eventually became two wings and which were demolished to give way to the Manor)

43. you played at the bowling lanes lining Mabini St. – Olympia and Aurora (Mile Hi was in John Hay)

44. you regarded Hilltop hotel as a monstrosity looming over the market (a predecessor of SM Baguio!)

45. you traveled to La Trinidad without encountering traffic

46. you managed to sample fried ice cream at Greenwich (back when it was not yet owned by Jollibee)

47. you at one time or another wore "civilian" clothes in school instead of the usual blue and white uniforms because the laundry didn't dry up in time during the rainy season.

48. you visited the Orchidarium which was located where the skating rink is now which used to be the original site of the original skating rink(?)

49. if you studied in Girls High, you remember the Kundirana (Animo La Salle!) visiting every year

50. you paraded on the street because it was Baguio Day (not because of Panagbenga)

51. you somehow graduated from playing with spiders to pigeons to aquarium fish to fighting cocks

52. you could actually leave home and be at the plaza in 5 minutes (which is totally impossible now)

53. you had a sayotehan in the backyard

54. you knew the lion head in Kennon had a different color (what is it now anyway? From black to red to yellow to ???)

55. you ate raisin bread from Country Club

56. you remember the PMA graduating class always giving a dress parade at the soccer field

57. you recalled that the Baguio Botanical Garden was formerly known as Imelda park (and you knew of the urban legend that it was the old zoo and that a giant snake had escaped from its cage)

58. you tried ghost hunting (or as they now call it spirit questing) at Diplomat Hotel

59. you crossed the streets and not the overpasses

60. you knew the Hangar was where you could buy the cheapest veggies

61. you bought medicine from the Parungao pharmacy (the only competitor of mercury)

62. you ate merienda and bought hopia from Master Hopia!

63. you could buy the yellow cinnamon roll (in the form a round cake) anywhere

64. You ate cheap long johns stuffed with cheese

65. you had shoes bought and fixed along General Luna road (if you didn't buy from Gregg in Session road)

66. you marveled at the fact that you could see your breath out in the cold! (which meant it was still that cold then!)

67. you wore those colorful plastic boots (in red, blue or black) to school when the rains got so heavy

68. you could recall that there were indeed mines in Mines View Park (and not the roofs of houses)

69. you rode on cabs that were 4 door sedans and not FXs.

70. you knew what Chaparral signified

71. you wore socks to bed to keep warm

72. you had a 4 digit telephone number courtesy of PILTEL

73. you were able to venture into the Crystal Caves when it was still pristine

74. you knew Boys' High as being only for boys and Girls' High and Holy Fam as two separate high schools for females (with different uniforms)

75. you can enter the SLU campus without having to show any ID (it was that open)

76. you read the Midland Courier or the Gold Ore due to your lola's proddings

77. you saw elderly men wearing their best suits and hats while walking along Session Road

78. you had leather shoes shined by a shoeshine boy

79. you witnessed a dog show at the soccer field in Burnham

80. you knew of the Golden Buddha story

81. you once enjoyed camping as a boy or girl scout at the site near the John Hay fire station (where a convention center is now located)

82. you had a school-sponsored recollection in one of the many convents and seminaries in the city

83. you saw the Marcos mansions while they were still not ruins

84. you passed by Kennon while there were still the Twin Peaks (due to numerous landslides the other peak has disappeared) and the Bridal Veil falls

85. you once planted a pine tree sapling for the a regreening movement effort

86. you had a dried up garland of everlasting around the Infant Jesus statue at home

87. you ate the best bananas from Sablan (not anymore!)

88. you somehow ate at any of these Cating-owned restos – Solibao, Ganza, Cañao and Tom Sawyer's

89. you were able to travel to Manila using the old non-airconditioned buses (there was even a train from Manila to Damortis)

90. you had FEN courtesy of those special antennas and therefore enjoyed to the max all the hit Western TV shows (that's why you were so angry when the bases were pulled out!)

91. you ate at Café by the Ruins and O-Mai-Khan

92. you rode on the Philippine Rabbit back when its terminal was at Magsaysay avenue

93. you traveled to Manila using Dangwa or to Ilocos using BAL or Times

94. you drank Benguet coffee

95. your family may have owned a Volkswagen beetle (Baguio has one of the highest densities of this car since the Tabandas of La Trinidad had a dealership)

96. you always were afraid of that pine tree in the middle of the road on the way to the Loakan airport (it has been cut down)

97. you attempted to explore Mt. Sto. Tomas and remembered to remove your watch (they said it was going to be damaged if you didn't)

98. you used your fireplace during Christmases of yore

99. you knew Europa as the one and only condominium

100. you bought your vinyl albums and eventually cassette tapes and the posters at Plakabar

101. you distinctly remember that there was a small public library near the Athletic Bowl and the tennis courts in Burnham

102. you enjoyed the bump car rides at the basement of Maharlika (back when it was not yet a food court)

103. you never went malling and instead enjoyed the numerous parks and outdoor amusements that Baguio offered

Unang bakas




After an anticlimactic New Year's celebration at the Elbe with dancing (yes…you heard it right…what the heck…nobody knew I had two left feet) at the RAT CLUB in St. Pauli (better to digest those humongous dinner portions from Big Easy), 2 neuron-stretching exams, a company visit with freebies to take home (Beiersdorf), a touching movie (The Family Stone), hoarding goods at Walmart and resuming the insane routine of studying, sleeping, pigging out and chatting/surfing the net/downloading entire music albums for free, I finally found the time to delete my first Blogger.com blog and create a new one. I think the new year deserves a new blog. Nuff said...I'm on the Brangelina watch...