Life after Pink

A Series of Unfortunate Events

2008-09-01T21:18:00.003+08:00

I really think it all began this morning.

No, this isn't some sort of fairy tale that ends well because all's well. It's just as it is -- everything started when Mom started getting all yickety-yackety over me not giving her a copy of my schedule, when I could barely even remember my schedule at all. This was followed by me, getting to the hospital at the same time that I usually do, even if I did try to leave the house much earlier.

At midmorning, for some reason, we got told off for hanging windry, lacey curtains inside the recovery room...and for putting the shoerack in the passageway to the R.R. from the men' s dressing room (which was put there mainly to keep some watchers from going in and out of the area - a not-so-good thing for our recovering patients).

Just as we were about to end the day, we got another earful about infection control inside the R.R., which caught us by surprise, since we didn't realize that some of the garbages got mixed up at some point in time inside the garbage bins. It must've been the student nurses, clerks, and medtechs, who aren't really used to the R.R. setup, that did this 'unspeakable madness'.

Which would most certainly be blamed on us, nurse fellows, for our 'gross incompetencies', 'irresponsibilities', and for 'not having been oriented regarding hospital rules and regulations'. OMGWTFBBQ! Onoes! We're going to be set as a bad example to the rest of the hospital personnels and to the rest of the world!

Not that I was paying much attention. I was too busy not seeing Kris Aquino's face ~~with clown makeup on~~ and nudging my fellow...nurse fellow to stop whispering wisecracks when she's smack dab in hearing range.

It all began this morning, really.

Hopefully when I sleep in a few minutes' time, it'll all go away with the eyebags...

No visit from the Sandman.

2008-08-26T15:31:00.003+08:00

I'm lacking a good amount of four more hours of sleep.

And I have like, four hours to go before my next shift.

It's not like I can just plop back down on bed and drift off for at least another hour of shut-eye. I've tried doing that since last night, and absolutely nothing works. It's too hot, too noisy, there's an annoyingly itchy spot here and there, the position's not good enough, or there's too much going on inside my head.

Ah well. I hope I'd have a better chance tomorrow night.

Killing it.

2008-08-05T08:14:00.001+08:00

Am finally getting used to most of the O.R. work. Slightly. Like yesterday, some of the doctors were happy enough to let Jess and I try our hand out at assisting in two of the operations...as scrub nurses, of course.

All of us, O.R. Nurse Fellows, were tasked with doing more responsibilities, like receiving the stocks in each of the different rooms, but I don't think most of us would want to spend every duty day trying to do inventory work. We also have to do the packaging of instruments, and, for the night duty fellows, preparations for the scheduled operations the following day.

I'm enjoying our duty so far, and it's good being able to relate to people from various walks of life, though not on a more personal level. Speaking of which...

Ate Joy and I decided to visit the agency both she and my aunt were talking about last Sunday. The agency offered a cheaper alternative to the one both Kristine and I have been looking into for some time now. Of course, at least I want to go out and experience the world as soon as possible, but I'm not really that desperate enough. I'm not currently interested in going to the U.S., and my current target is some place which would allow me to go back and forth among most European countries as legally as possible - a kind of license reciprocity, if you will. But this agency isn't making the search easier: somehow, everything becomes just too complicated that I just don't know if I even have the patience to sit through all those explanations and boring business details.

It's not as if that agency is accommodating enough. I mean, come on. Why would I work with anyone who'd treat me as if I'm some bumbling kid who can't get anything right? *cue in bitter overtones, lol*

I'm getting somewhere, but I'm not getting there fast enough. =/

...for rubbing it in.

2008-07-26T20:27:00.002+08:00

'If you want to know where your heart is,
look where your mind goes when it wanders.'

Just one of the many quotes sent to me over the phone, just when I'm right in the middle of confusion and trying to deny and suppress what's trying to grow there. And then some days ago, some people decided to forward messages about letting go of what's not meant to be, and then about always wishing for what's not there.

Argh. Dammit, people. Thanks for making the brooding problem a lot worse than it really is! LOL.

Looking at it from another perspective, I think it's not about to get bigger than it is anytime soon. Maybe it's all right just being able to talk on a normal daily basis - well, as normal and as daily as it can get, anyway.

Thing is, I don't suppose things will get out of hand anytime in the near future, because for one thing, I already know my limitations, and to ask for something more when conditions are not exactly permissible is plain stupid. While there's still time, I think it's best to just lie back and enjoy what comes...

...and score points while at it. >:D

For those who are scratching their heads, wondering what in the world I was talking about, well, you don't have to know what it is. It's just me, blowing off steam, as usual. :D

rain, rain, go away~

2008-07-16T14:49:00.002+08:00

So. Effing. Cold!!!

There's this typhoon going on for about two days now, and it's pulling in the monsoon on our part of the country, not that I know enough to make out anything else except for the fact that it's raining like no one's business outside, and that I'm terribly freezing my ass off. Literally.

The temperature gauge thing on Yahoo! records the temperature here in Baguio as 17°C, but it feels more like 12°C or something colder. Meh. I've already donned my PJ's, sweatshirt, and overdid the ensemble with my comforter, but my nailbeds are still bluish, and I can feel the nose drip coming on already.

Oh well. I guess I'll sleep the cold off for now. All the weather and thinking about ~~disappointments and heartbreaks~~ some things trivial are making me feel chilly inside and out. =/

Beer-guzzling - Superhero Style: HANCOCK review

2008-07-14T13:49:00.004+08:00

Directed by: Peter Berg

Finally. A superhero movie without half the drama and romanticized plotline! Well, sort of.

'Hancock' is pretty much just that - John Hancock, the amnesiac, rough-around-the-edges superhero (and apparently the only one of his kind) everybody loves to hate - gets more than just a make-over when he (kind of) saves the amiable, impossibly optimistic public relations executive, Ray Embrey.

Before you go around asking, yes, this is the superhero flick where there's no apparent archnemesis of any sort. This is the perfect break from all the typical 'Marvel-ized' superhero stories we've been treated to over the years, but sadly though, there's not enough plot and action to make this believable and workable. Part 1 of the film is all right, but Part 2 gets confusing, in that Hancock's history is more complicated than another hour of screentime can handle. As a result, things become overly simplified and not that satisfying, especially for those who are looking for a good story.

Plot aside, 'Hancock' is passable enough, mainly due to how Will Smith handles his character. It's like a toned-down version of '(Queer Eye) for the Obviously-Socially-Impaired-Straight Guy', with a lot of wisecracks inserted for good measure. It's hard not to love the cast as well - of course, there's Will Smith; Jason Bateman plays Ray as an optimistic dude without being irritatingly chipper about it; and Charlize Theron gets into her role as Ray's defensive and high-maintenance wife, Mary. Their interactions throughout the film makes it enjoyable to watch.

I could recommend other movies than this, but Hancock deserves a chance, I think. Give it a go, if you're looking for something slightly different.

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MOVIE pHACTOR:

Fave Scene: John Hancock having a 'conversation' with the French boy, Michel. That ought to teach the boy a thing or two about bullying!

Spice it up!: Will Smith gets the misunderstood, socially-challenged superhero role well enough that it's enough reason by itself to watch the whole movie.

So sunny it hurts: Ray Embrey's optimistic attitude is infectious! I like how he's marketing the AllHeart symbol on all pharmaceutical products - though it's definitely bound to fail in real life.

Can you say 'wtf'?: The start of Hancock's Part 2 is guaranteed to leave you surprised, mouth open wide.

You know what those superheroes get riled up about?: 'Call me a**hole one. More. Time.' :D

This rates: A pretty neutral 3 on the scales.

It's all about tricking the eye: THE ILLUSIONIST Review

2008-07-10T18:59:00.004+08:00

Directed by: Neil Burger

When I first saw 'The Illusionist' on TV just this morning, I was thinking of a turn-of-the-century psychothriller/horror show, where the character in question uses dark magic to perform his illusions, but...yeah. I'm way off-target, as usual.

Running more on the crime/suspense genres, 'The Illusionist' is about, well, the illusionist, Eisenheim, who falls in love with Sophie, a girl way above his social status. After traveling the world, training in the art of magic, he comes back to Vienna, only to find out that Sophie is now engaged to Crown Prince Leopold, and that this guy will go to any lengths to disprove the authenticity of Eisenheim's craft.

This movie simply had an amazing cast. Jessica Biel, when dressed up, looked like she really belonged in that era of aristocrats and illusory magic. Rufus Sewell, who i haven't heard from since his movie, 'Dark City' (which I liked, btw), looks like what Tobey Maguire would look like give or take some ten years later. He also tends to go high-pitched when his character is getting frustrated, but that's not a big issue, really.

I'd like to commend Paul Giamatti for his excellent performance as the confused narrator, Inspector Uhl. Uhl is the neutral right-hand of Leopold, a perfect example of objective justice, who gets tipped off-balance as he gets to know more about the enigmatic Eisenheim, as played by Edward Norton. He plays into the story so well that you'd have to wonder if he is the lead character in this puzzling story.

At the back of my mind, however, I wonder if the writer(s) got any of his/their ideas from the 1995 film, 'The Usual Suspects', most especially since the last scenes of both films are eerily similar in tone and mood. That's not to say that this movie doesn't have originality though. 'The Illusionist' is still highly enjoyable, a movie that keeps the mystery going with its twists and plots.

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BITES:

Favorite Character: Inspector Uhl. His curiosity and moral dilemma makes his one of the more vibrant members of the cast. I think.

Film pHactor: 4 out of 5. Yeah, bad pun, I know.

You Might Want To Try: The more intense crime/suspense/thriller of epic proportions, The Usual Suspects, or the more closely-related flick, 'The Prestige'.

The Most Basic of Basics.

2008-07-02T14:44:00.004+08:00

Today is my off from duty. I just started yesterday, and to say that I lost my head back there is a huge understatement.

Of course, I'm going to say that it's been a while since I last had any O.R. duty, or any kind of hospital duty, for that matter, and it's my first time getting my exposure at the BGH operating room, so I really was bound to create my own recipe for chaos, sooner or later.

Sigh. Now that I know what to expect though, I should get myself shaped up for the weeks to come, if I really want to become efficient enough.

And I hope my feet and legs would stop hurting already. When I came home last night, I could barely feel my feet anymore, and aside from the stinging pain that liked to make its way up whenever I walk, I most certainly couldn't feel anything else.

That's Day One for you. This entry sucks and all, haha. Wish me luck!

Lurking.

2008-06-18T14:59:00.001+08:00

We have just finished the second of the three-week long didactics at BGH this afternoon. What is with our batch always being the Experimental Group for some new program, anyway? This happens almost all of the time, and entering the Fellow Program of BGH is no exception. I'm not complaining though - they made it so that we'd be having a refresher course on our chosen module instead of the usual getting-to-know stuff. It's all good.

I'm getting way behind my usual activities, actually. At the moment, I'm trying to get some of the albums and singles I've been setting my sight on, as well as rushing some reviews that have been long overdue on my hard drive. It's all because I've been working on this project, which I started some two weeks ago, and I really can't stop it right now, because if I do, it's bound to get forgotten eventually. Soon enough.

So, yeah. That's probably it, at the moment. I'm going to watch Urduja, the ~~sort of~~ first Filipino animated film ever made, this Sunday. I can't wait to see how it turned out!

The Importance of Stress Management: INCREDIBLE HULK Review

2008-06-17T22:27:00.004+08:00

Directed by: Louis Leterrier

When watching movies nowadays, one doesn't have to be surprised to find that less than a month after the release of a live movie adaptation of a comic book hero, another one comes along, boasting bigger, badder, meaner action.

Well, this movie is the quintessential 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' of the Marvel Superhero World. Bruce Benner, a scientist who worked for the US military before getting into a freak accident wherein he turns into a rage-driven green hulk whenever his pulse rate goes over 200 per minute, gets a ticket home after living in Brazil as a fugitive factory underdog. Before he can traipse around, looking for a cure though, he is hunted by the military, and is forced to face a man whose desire for power becomes his own undoing.

'The Incredible Hulk' had been made into a movie not so long ago, but it must've flopped so badly that they decided to release it again - and this take on a formerly bad flick has paid off in some ways.

I think that the strength of the movie lies in its role-casting. I couldn't have thought of a better person for the role of unassuming hero than Edward Norton, who gives Benner his characteristic normalcy and uncertainty. It also helps that I love Liv Tyler as an actress, because I never really like most of the leading ladies in the comic world for some reason, but somehow, Tyler makes being a docile and peaceloving Beauty to her Beast more bearable to watch. Also, while Iron Man was flashy and sophisticated, Hulk was more primal and raw, and it shows in the fight scenes involving the Green Mass of Muscles. Fans of action-packed movies are guaranteed to get their money's worth...what with the Hulk bounding on-screen most of the time, fighting baddies and courting his leading lady and stuff.

Unfortunately, the good stops there. The movie suffers from one plothole too many. Some people may have a hard time following the story, especially if they haven't really followed the comics which the movie was based on (like me). It took a bit of researching on my part for me to find out that the movie had deviated from the original storyline in a significant way:
SPOILER
from being an accidental hero to being an overconfident nuclear scientist
/ END SPOILER
which, pretty much leads to him becoming The Incredible Hulk either way.

Not a particularly mind-blowing nitpick, but I think that some of the scenes of the movie had been connected a bit too hastily and abruptly, that instead of a smooth transition starting with the background music, the music gets cut in a hanging part and then the set switches to the next scene. Or instead of the scene fading to black, there's a sudden cut again, and then we have the next scene.

It would also seem like the movie suffers from a 'Pirate of the Caribbean'-esque moment: the jamming-in-all-sorts-of-weird-stuff-into-the-plot-so-the-story-would-look-good-but-won't-make-sense-whatsoever scenario. In theory, everything which comes in contact with Benner's blood should be destroyed to prevent infection with the Gamma radiation in his body, but the movie doesn't give us that, so we're left to assume that somewhere in New York, a massive group of mini Hulks have already formed and are taking over the city. Eh.

Still, 'The Incredible Hulk' is a pretty much average film to say the least. I'd still choose Iron Man over this one, though this shouldn't discourage you from seeing the movie for yourselves.

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Eiichi Bites:

Spoilers abound. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Most Favorite Scene: Benner falling from the helicopter and realizing that he can't change into the Hulk. It was cool, in a funny sort of way.

I'm theming on: Beauty and the Beast. Go girl power! :D

There must be something wrong with...: Mr. Roth's back. Either his neck is too short, or he likes to go around haunching his shoulders. Meh.

Free Stuff?: Benner's liters of blood samples in Mr. Blue's laboratory. Shouldn't those things be...destroyed already?

Nasty...: Benner's instructor teaching him how to control his breathing and pulse rate. Look at those abs. It's very creepy.

Jill Valentine should be here: What's Nemesis doing battling Hulk instead of muttering about 'S.T.A.R.S.' and looking for a certain brunette and her companions?

Look out for a few familiar faces!: Stan Lee drinking Benner's blood? And a surprise appearance from none other than Mr. Stark, himself. Who was he inviting anyway...General Ross, or Hulk?

And here we learn that: Deep Breathing Exercises can get you a long way where anger and stress management is concerned. That, and you'd better run for it when the puny guy tells you that you won't like it when he's...hungry? Wait, could you run that by me again?

Final Verdict: 3.5 out of 5

I Can Make You Strong, But I Don't Know How: A KUNG FU PANDA REVIEW

2008-06-08T00:07:00.005+08:00

2008 seems to be China Year, what with the upcoming Beijing Olympics, the recent killer quake in Szechuan, and all the controversies surrounding everything China-made. You know. The lead and all other toxic stuff. And then there's the sudden rise of films about the Martial Arts from the said land. I've reviewed 'Forbidden Kingdom' before, and now, I'm going to do 'Kung Fu Panda'.

This animated film tells the tale of the ordinary noodle waiter panda, Po, who secretly dreams of joining the likes of the legendary Furious Five - Tigress, Crane, Monkey, Mantis, and Viper - kung fu experts under the tutelage of the red panda, Master Shifu. He gets a shot when he is accidentally chosen to become the Dragon Warrior, the one who will defeat the incredibly powerful snow leopard, Tai Lung. Can he get into shape in time to save the world of Kung Fu?

In simple words, 'Kung Fu Panda' is FULL OF WIN. You just know it's going to be one helluva ride when Jack Black starts narrating the tale of the legendary panda a-la-WonderBoy style right at the start of the film. This narration has a cartoon feel to it, and was done in shades of red, white, and black...gritty, serious, and absolutely whoop-ass.

A sense of hilarity is peppered all throughout. Ten minutes into the film, and it's guaranteed that you'd be having stomachaches and all nasties related to it from laughing too much, and maybe it's partly due to the simplistic nature of the humor in the story: it's not too subtle, nor is it over the top - just something that almost everyone can get at any level.

That's not to say the movie doesn't have its sad moments either. It's like, when the scene wants you to feel that it's supposed to be sad, you'd get pressed down by a heavy air of sobriety and being blue...though these events are few and far between. More often than not, they get overshadowed by the lighter side of the story.

Boasting a star-studded cast, all the main characters are pretty much jam-packed with personality and spunk. Just to mention them all: Jolie is the proud and headstrong Tigress; Dustin Hoffman is the stern Master Shifu; Lucy Liu is the sweet and deadly Viper, Ian McShane lends his voice to the vengeful Tai Lung; Seth Rogen is the wisecracking Mantis; David Cross plays as the laidback Crane, and Jackie Chan, surprisingly enough, is also here as the silent Monkey. Of course, there's Jack Black, the Meister behind the clueless Po. I think half of the magic of The Funny comes from their voice-acting alone.

I pretty much like how the animation was done. Yeah, I know. There's nothing special about it, but in a way, there's a certain touch to it that makes it somehow suitable for a story which was set in fictional China Land. The music lends a hand at creating the atmosphere of a particular scene, too. It's funny, dangerous, dramatic, and intense, and it still maintains a sort of Asian influence to it. Hans Zimmer also the guy behind The Simpsons and Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks, is THE MAN, obviously.

Nitpicks: it could've been better if Po's origin had been explained a bit. I mean, it is clearly hard to believe that he came from a duck, after all. MAJOR SPOILAGE There's nothing to explain how the Furious Five came to admire Po at the end of the story when they didn't see how Po defeated Tai Lung in the first place, but I'm guessing that they knew about it somehow, which doesn't make sense ~~because I'm too sleepy to think clearly right now~~, but anyway. /END MAJOR SPOILAGE

I really like how everything came together in the end. It's a kid movie definitely, but that's not to say that adult viewers won't be able to enjoy it. Yes, the rookie-suddenly-turned-master-kung-fu-warrior plot has been done many, many times before, and that the title of a Dragon Warrior being given to a panda, amongst other things, is a bit too farfetched, but really now, how can you beat the awesomeness and attractiveness of it all?

MUST WATCH!
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Eiichi Bites:

Favorite Kung Fu Warrior: The Crane, man. I dunno. Maybe I like his long sticks for legs. Or the totally mysterious aura given by his hat. Or maybe just because he resembles Pokiehl from Legend of Mana.

Can't Be Badass Without: Tai Lung, the evil prodigy. You know, he makes me more fascinated by snow leopards. He's a kitty behind all the snarls and lunges, mind you. There's this one move he's afraid of, after all.

Terribly Funny It Hurts: The turtle, Mater Oogway, trying to extinguish the flames of candles surrounding an entire room. Too funny for words.

A Tearjerker? Where?!: Also, Master Oogway's passing. It wouldn't have been too dramatic if it weren't for all those cherry blossoms, methinks.

Super Technique of DOOM: The Wushu Finger? Didn't really get the name. Didn't get what it's about, either. But it kicked Tai Lung's ass. DOOM.

The Noodle Dream: Mr. Ping, Po's 'father' (because I can't accept that he really is), telling Po about something really important. Way to go killing off a climactic moment, dude.

I'm Singing: Jack Black's introductory rendition. Can you say, 'Tenacious D'?

And We Learn That: The secret ingredient of the noodle soup is nothing, but what the eater puts in it himself.

Final Verdict: A solid 4.5 out of 5.

In Other News...

2008-06-03T17:04:00.003+08:00

Went to apply for a slot in BGH's Fellowship Program at 2AM this morning, and although we had to break and reform a proper line several times and deal with several commotions among others (no thanks to some random person complaining about her name not being included in the sign-up list, "which is unfair", because she "had been there since 2AM and saw no one signing up for the program". Huh., things eventually mellowed out and smoothened after nearly four hours, and most everyone got off, pretty much satisfied with the results. I didn't get a slot in the E.R. list, but I did snag a spot in the O.R. area. Didactics will be next week already, and that fact alone already gives me some sort of inferiority complex where experience and expertise are concerned. Haha.

Anyway, good luck to all of us! Hope we'll do well in this program~!

Ten Things I'm Still Getting Used to Here at Home

2008-06-03T15:28:00.006+08:00

Seeing the usual everyday traffic here in the city. It's a bit weird not to see right-seated drivers and those long-winded overpasses and roads with arrows that make me dizzier than they probably should. The only similarity I can think of at the moment is that Baguio is still adopting the one-way road routing scheme, whose results I have got to see this coming first day of classes.
Being able to see a starry sky once again. Not that it's bad thing, of course - during the past weeks, the only bright things I can see in the sky are Mars and the blinking lights of a passing airplane. And maybe a UFO or two. :D
Feeling extreme temperatures throughout the day. I kind of miss the constant humid warmth I've seem to have adapted to except when the moist heat is doing all sorts of things to make my dark skin look even darker, but I'll take experiencing abnormally cold winds any day. Really.
Waiting for chopsticks during meals, and then realizing that it's not an eating norm in almost all parts of the country. Except, of course, in Asian-style restaurants.
Seeing mountains and all sorts of greenery everywhere I turn. Although I always wondered what would happen if a tsunami struck, I'd still very much prefer knowing that the coastline is not that far from where I am.
Being paranoid almost to a psychotic degree, knowing that people here are fashion-conscious (...right.), and they have made it their job to nitpick to death others who don't follow their style and taste.
Not having a nosebleed when talking with other people because the best that they can understand you is in broken English, wild hand gestures, and a lot of pointing to this and that.
Accepting the fact that when you dye your hair and stylize it in various spikes and sweeping directions here in Baguio (and around the country as well), you're branded as emo. Not as a person trying to apply Japanese imagination (read: JRock and anime) and just generally believing that the Asian body build makes it possible for virtually any wardrobe to look good.
Expecting to see an outdoor eatery that specializes in noodles (which I really love), but not finding one.
Knowing that you'd get to see a fellow Filipino no matter where you are. It's pretty safe and pretty boring not having a population as diverse as the one in my Vacation Area, but you'd know that when you get lost, there's someone who's willing to point out the answer in a manner that's truly Pinoy. :P

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Sending off.

2008-06-01T07:38:00.004+08:00

Tito Kelly is a pretty awesome dude.

He's one of the few ~~old~~ guys that I know who is completely technology savvy, without giving off the Geek Alert! vibe. He knows almost all the hotspots here in Miri - where to go to unwind, soak up the sights and sounds, or simply just to get a taste of the nightlife - he'd give you the name of the place, and the complete rundown of what we should expect.

Most of the time, he also has his Hughes-moments. Sometimes, I could almost see him donning the glasses and the military uniform, and then sprouting out hearts all over the place..

Well, the best of luck to the man! I hope he'll do well in his future endeavors, whatever they are.

Glasses and almond-shaped eyes

2008-05-22T01:45:00.003+08:00

Still on vacation at the moment. I'm not telling where though. For the meantime, anyway. I might give some details some other time ... when I remember to. :P

Lately, I've been noticing that guys who look smart and a bit detached are nice to look at. More so if they're wearing glasses. I saw one guy this afternoon, while we were looking for some place to eat, and really, I can't help but stare.

Argh.

I think there are only two reasons for this awfully sudden thought:

1. I've been hooked to the NomiyaxAyu pairing ever since watching a rerun of Hachikuro season 2.

2. I got myself a copy of Famitsu with the feature on FFXIII and FFvXIII on it, and saw this character who looks awesome (to me, at least) for some reason.

Hm. Well, I think it's better this way. If this keeps up until I come back home next month, then I'm pretty sure I won't feel so confused anymore, huh?

Late Summer.

2008-05-16T21:06:00.002+08:00

I have, like, a few hours left before my brother and I set off for a two-week long trip to Malaysia, and I haven't gotten my act together just yet! Am halfway done with all the packing that I should have started some days ago but never got around to doing, simply because I've been cramming my head off over travels. For years. And --- Dad just called in to say that I'm not allowed to carry any liquid material over 100 mL in weight. Ergh. That means that the PhP460.00 125 mL sun lotion I bought a few days ago automatically goes down the drain. Together with the other toiletries I was anticipating to bring along with me to the vacation spot.

Talk about major spoilage.

I don't think I'd be able to sleep well with all the excited energy charging up the atmosphere inside the house ~~and partly because I downed a venti cup of coffee some hours ago~~. Made sure to bring along with me some memories from the happenings these past few days, including the coffee date with Kristine a while ago, and my...despedida party yesterday with Jum, Boie, Jen, and Winner, some of my co-volunteers at Red Cross.

As if I'd be able to erase the scenes from yesterday v. easily.

Anyway, I'll try updating once I find time and internet connection around the place where my Dad is at. Up again in a few days' time (hopefully)!!

"...the truth is...": an IRON MAN review

2008-05-02T15:46:00.004+08:00

Yes, I promised that I wouldn't watch any Marvel movie if Gambit weren't in it. Yes, yesterday, I cracked under the pressure of friendship and my terrible habit of giving in to impulse.

I haven't even tried picking up an Iron Man comic my entire life.

Tony Stark - genius weapon inventor, younger co-owner of Stark Industries, and blatant womanizer - has his world turned upside down when he gets kidnapped by rebels forces while promoting his latest invention, the Jericho missiles, to the American army in Afghanistan. Forced to work for the enemy, he makes for himself his greatest masterpiece as of yet - a bulletproof, weapon-charged iron suit, which he uses to escape (and destroy some parts of) the enemy base. This experiences forces him to rethink his life, and he perfects the iron suit he made in the desert, using it to wreak havoc against the men who held him hostage for three months. However, this action pits him against evil minds who are after the technology he has created.

If 'Iron Man' isn't a display of American patriotism, then I don't know what it is. Even if it is the primal driving point of the story, it can get rather...uninspiring after a while, watching about terrorism and Americans being heroes in an unresolved modern-day war against those guys in Central Asia. (No offense meant by that statement though.)

Is Robert Downey Jr. a fitting man for this superhero? I think so. Even though he seems to be rattling off his lines in the first part of the movie. Which brings us to another nitpick: The Mechanical Mumbo-Jumbos and the People Who Mutter About Them. It's bad enough that I'm not oriented to mechanics and physics. These guys just had to say things like they were in a tongue twister contest!

Anyway, on to the good points. The cinematics and VFX were pretty awesome. I just had to make the mistake of thinking Stark's prototype suit to be the Iron Man suit, which obviously isn't. If technology were to progress more, it'd match the technology found inside Stark's lab. Lovely thought.

Stark comes off as overbearing in the movie, but he's likable that way. His last line is so typical of his character. Watch out for the sequel!

Recommended!

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Mini Score Fest

Worst character: The female reporter Stark spent one wild night with, and then keeps on popping up like a pimple throughout the movie. I didn't bother getting her name, and apparently, even Downey's character didn't, too.

Pepper Potts?: Honestly, can't they give her a name that obviously doesn't sound like a plant that my grandmother has in her garden? Kidding aside, she's a pretty cool character, I think. She's not the stereotypical female who falls head-over-heels in love with the hero, and then follows him all the way like a lost puppy. I think Gwyneth Paltrow's cool and elegant aura adds to that effect. I just didn't like how she's standing and walking around slowly where danger is so obviously going to happen. How many times did I say 'obviously', btw? *rambling*

That's got to hurt!: Pepper running away from the giant iron suit in pencil-thin stilletos. She gets my respect for that.

Hilarious!: Stark's robots have a goofy sense of humor. They're just looking for a way to mess up Stark's already messed up life, even when he lies there, dying.

Strange...: Doesn't Stark get burned inside the suit when he's setting things on fire/things burn around him? And don't metal dents puncture some part of his body when he gets hit and stuff? Just a thought...

The Great Cameo Appearance: The Great Stan Lee, dabbling with girls in one of the events that Stark gets invited to. Keep your eyes peeled for him!

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Wall-Climbing Rats and Screeching Brakes

2008-04-27T16:49:00.003+08:00

Listening to: Sugababes - About You Now
Current mood: ambivalent

Not feeling too inspired today. Apparently, having your walks and dates canceled, and then getting stuck at home, listening to your brain cells having a pingpong match inside your head, can do that to you.

Have you ever experienced liking somebody so much, and then upon waking up one morning, you reach out for those deeply-seated feelings, and suddenly, you realize that they're gone? I did. A couple of times...but with good reason. I'm thinking it's happened again just the other day, but thing is, I didn't have enough reason to.

Why now, when I've already gotten far with him?

Well, the reason eludes me at the moment. These past two days, I've been hounded by question after question after accusation of 'What happened?', 'You don't say?' and 'What's gotten into you?'. Yes, people. I'm a horrible, weird person who doesn't take love seriously and ought to be cast away as a Loveless Individual for the rest of her miserable life, but it's true. The erratic heartbeats, the cold fingers, and the tendency to daydream about what could happen -- they're all gone.

Or maybe it's my hormones talking. Maybe I'll wake up again one of these mornings and find out that the stupid crush is back.

Still find myself hanging around his area though. For now.

So this is what it feels like...

2008-04-20T18:15:00.002+08:00

Listening to: Anna Molly by Incubus
Current mood: lovebugged

Unbelievable.

I'm still floating on some high-altitude cloud, all stupid smiles and dazed looks while getting weird looks from other people.

I'm aware that whatever I say now will not probably make any sense whatsoever, so I'm shutting up.

Later~!

Exclusively Disastrous.

2008-04-16T23:20:00.002+08:00

113 entries later, and I still don't know how to make a proper blog entry to save my life. Oh well.

Through a sheer amount of bravado and stupidity, I managed to erase all the pictures, themes, and videos stored in my phone this morning...all in the quick span of one-and-something minutes. Lesson to self: Never ever attempt to connect phone to PC via USB cable. Again.

My 500-hour duty at Red Cross had been officially over some two weeks ago, but I still come around from time-to-time, trying to help around and ~~not revert to bum mode~~ stuff. This afternoon, the remaining volunteers (because most were in the ITC seminar, and the rest were on some kind of extended leaves and vacations) were tasked to prepare tickets for the upcoming raffle this June, and really. Are you expecting seven volunteers to finish a box of tickets on a warm Wednesday afternoon, armed only with a pen, several Red Cross stamps, and a thick air of silence covering the entire room?

Anyway.

Jum made a contest on which pair can stamp the most number of tickets in the shortest amount of time. We both teamed up, and Diana and Winner took us up on the challenge, stamping our way through bundles of tickets until my middle finger blistered over and I literally couldn't feel the fingers on my right hand for, like, ten minutes or so. Jum and I won, anyway, by a long shot. We didn't win anything, but we finished the job quickly, and our tummies hurt from laughing so hard, and I've never felt sillier and happier these past few weeks.

After Red Cross, I visited my dentist to have my braces checked, since I obviously can't keep anything I have without damaging it some time. In any way. Ugh. Anyway, guess who I saw at the clinic? It's none other than Mr. Snob-Nose himself: Nellowe! (who might be reading this entry and laughing so hard at all my grammar mistakes. I offer a sincere just kidding. Not.) Needless to say, I was opening my mouth again before my mind can process what I was saying and put my speech into permanent brake.

Goodness gracious, great balls of fire. Maybe I should attempt slowing down before I hurt myself and others with what I say.

So. I'm off again to catch up on my reading. Later then~

Looking for signs.

2008-04-10T22:18:00.002+08:00

Listening to: [Get Down, Make Love] Queen
Current mood: confused

I'm not sure divulging stuff like I like a certain person to someone I barely know is such a good idea. In a spur-of-the-moment...thing...though, I did, and I'm not sure whether the disturbing flutter in my chest is a sign of regret or panic or God-knows-what-else.

Oh well. I guess we'll see what happens after. If he starts throwing me funny looks when we cross paths some time in the future, I know who exactly to throttle to death.

Also hoping that by that time, am really over this stupid crush, and I won't act like some high-school girl who gets her deepest, darkest secret exposed for all the world to see.

It's depressing, really, the fact that I can't v.well move on...

Sizzle, sizzle.

2008-04-06T21:55:00.002+08:00

Am ready to start swearing off global warming and summer, in general.

The temperature's been climbing up ever since this week began, and not even being way above the sea level is helping things in terms of cooling down. I've resorted to wearing lighter, thinner clothing, and have even started wearing my hair up in a ponytail/bun (even though I promised not to unless truly needed), but it's not helping any.

Shorter, skimpier clothing out of the question, as got nothing to flaunt body-wise.

Which reminds me, I have got to stop with the binge eating. Can practically see fat cells singing together and building little fat communities all over body. Arms, thighs, and belly also jostle with every movement in manner of stormy ocean or similar.

Argh.

Angst squared, squared.

2008-04-04T21:17:00.002+08:00

Must be resolved to become more zen-like. Must not give in to destructive and self-loathing urges when temper flares up, or take insults directed at self personally. I have been feeling emotionally low these past few days, and the constant bombardment of let-me-downs (i.e., getting shouted at by PMSing brother for no apparent reason and getting ganged up on by a couple of friends as if IQ level is below normal) is not helping my spirit at all. A while ago, was compared to a friend while I was overseeing a new volunteer 'tube' the blood bag, and then this friend was actually agreeing and affirming what the guy said.

Guy: Tignan mo, mas magaling pa siya magturo kesa sa'yo!

Friend: Oo nga, eh kasi magulo naman talaga yan eh!

Needless to say, I couldn't help but feel a bit hurt.

Am I a substandard human being now?

Am I reading too much into things?

Argh. I'm turning into an emotional freak!

Need help please.

A Change of Plans

2008-04-04T20:38:00.002+08:00

Got it!

After spending most of my postgraduate years feeling confused and changing decisions like nobody's business, have finally decided to throw caution to the wind and tag along with a couple of friends to the Land Down Under. Actually, the brilliant idea came from Kristine, who was listening to Jeanne ~~babble about~~ promote Australia to our group during the seminar yesterday afternoon. Instead of entering hospitals here in the Philippines as a volunteer and fellow ~~without emotional and financial merit, no less!~~, why not try the Australian scene? Besides, their health care system might be so much better than the ones found around here...

Only worrying about the temperature when we get there, as Australia is known as the Driest Continent in the whole world. Have turned offers to look for jobs in the lowlands because I simply cannot tolerate too much heat. What about the bush fires raging in the outbacks once in a while?

Ah well. I'll see it when I get there.

Bear It Like a Man!

2008-04-02T19:48:00.002+08:00

Finally found out what his real name is!

And I'd be lying if I say that I didn't find it embarrassingly funny to no end. Was initially shocked, then nearly burst into hysteric fits of laughter when I heard his co-worker call out to him a while ago. Felt like I was trapped in some bizarre plane between the present time and the then of our national hero's world -- almost expecting to see friars and his namesake's crazy mother on a chase around the restaurant while screaming bloody murder and other profanities at each other.

However, he gets props for being attentive and doing his job right. ~~Not to mention the fact that he kept on glancing to our table every so often, or what my deluded brain would want me to believe, anyway.~~

He still has a pretty ~~lame~~ old-fashioned name for someone his age, though. Hope he doesn't name his child after himself in the future... *sniggers*

Here on out.

2008-04-02T16:08:00.002+08:00

Hurray!

As of 12:00 noon, am now officially a Registered Nurse. Cannot believe it still - seemed like I had my head up in the clouds for the whole day. Wow.

This means I had better start thinking about where I want my life to be headed. Initially, had wanted to look for a job in Europe, but now, I'm having second thoughts. New York seems like a good place. And Alaska. And Vermont.

Really need to set priorities straight.

Oh, and a co-volunteer at Red Cross texted me a while ago (along with some other Baguio people) about the ongoing fire at Tiongsan Harrison, a mini-mall at, well, Harrison. Much as I wanted to, cannot do anything as I was with my family a while ago. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Here We Go Again.

2008-03-31T13:39:00.002+08:00

I'm a bit more than peeved.

My mom just rushed out of the house, both my siblings (and brother's friend) in tow, muttering about how there's no more time, how they're so late for my sister's violin lesson, and how we're not cooperating at all. She was asking me a while ago in this incredibly, gratingly, annoying voice if I was coming or not. Apparently, answering back in a sarcastic raised voice set her off, and then she went about, stomping around and banging doors and stuff. I wonder how more juvenile my mother could get...and with a guest around, no less. Crazy old woman.

Oh well. I'm going out now. I'm planning to have my PC reprogrammed in a few weeks' time, so best start preparing my files now.

Cheerios.

Misplaced Affections(?)

2008-03-25T20:33:00.003+08:00

Belated Happy Easter Sunday, everyone~!

How was your Easter? I had a very interesting one. Parokya ni Edgar played in the concert sponsored by Samsung at the Rambakan Drive...the one along the front of SM Baguio. It's the first time I saw them live, and I think it's safe to say that they make a pretty good live performance. Chito was good at crowd play, belting out joke after joke after every song. I didn't get to see the whole gig though -- my brother wanted to leave after 3 songs, and I didn't want to be left by myself, so... =/

I saw Powerpuff Corn's main vocalist and bassist at McDo SM as well that night. I won't say much, but seeing them has made me giddy and a bit ~~lovestruck~~ inspired...though my Dad wasn't too impressed. After they left, he remarked that the bassist looked like he inhaled stuff that I don't want to know about. That didn't go well as far as first impressions are concerned.

Kristine came back a while ago after a week-long leave! I missed exchanging stories and gossips, and generally being around with her, but at least she's back now. She and I both owe each other some very lengthy conversations...

I tried donating blood a while ago, but got deferred for the same reason I got deferred at BGH last year: low hemoglobin count. Which came off as a surprise for me. I donated blood last December even though I only slept for like, three hours, and nothing bad happened. Well, nothing really bad, actually -- just got dizzy a few hours after the whole process. Just to make sure, I'll turn in a wee bit earlier for the night.

Later!

Can't Think Straight.

2008-03-20T23:17:00.002+08:00

Listening to: Time and Confusion - Anberlin
Current Mood: confused

Just had our first of the four-day First Aid Station around Baguio for SumVac a while ago ~~(and yes, that sentence is wrong in all levels)~~. I was assigned at Burnham Park, and apart from a few wounds (from all the bicycle crashes) and blood pressure taking, there was nothing for us to do. Well, someone invited us to volunteer for a summer camp for special children next month. And we went people-watching and food-tripping, stuffing ourselves with sorbetes and all street foods that came our way.

We were bored out of our skulls.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day! I hope we'll make it through unscathed and un...bored.

My father came home a while ago without any earlier notice. During dinner, my mom dropped a fork, and, being the ~~semi~~-superstitious folks that we are, we quipped about the arrival of a male visitor. Turns out my dad is the mystery visitor we were expecting. Heh.

So, I'm stuck sleeping in my bedroom again for the timebeing. Normally, the sleep vibes would come in at this time, but I don't think I would be out cold anytime soon.

If only those cats outside the house would stop their mewling and shrieking!

Ah well. I guess I have to find some way to pass my time atm.

Man vs. Heat

2008-03-18T17:17:00.002+08:00

Just came back from San Fernando, La Union, and I'm soaked in my own sweat. It was hot, hot, hot! Baguio's summer heat is the dry kind of heat...the one where it hurts to be out there in the sun because you can feel tiny pricks of heat frying all the fats underneath your skin, and it hurts. And it makes your skin darker. But it doesn't make you sweat bucketloads.

La Union's heat can. And by the time we got home, I was sticky all over.

Ah, heat and I really can't go along well together.

Tomorrow, it's back to Red Cross duty for me.

I wonder how the others are doing right now...?

Everything slows down. Eventually.

2008-03-17T21:19:00.001+08:00

Hey! Things have started to wind down after a very busy three-week duty at Red Cross...at least to a level that I can finally sit down and catch up with other stuffs I've been neglecting for a while now ~~like reading fanfics and relearning how to play the piano~~.

Well, anyway, here are some of the bits from the past few weeks ~~including the much-neglected Panagbenga~~:

As you all know, I missed writing about the events from the Panagbenga, which happened during the last week of February. Save for the fact that it rained the whole week of the festival, it had all been fun, fun, fun. The float parade and street dance competitions went without major incidents ~~except for the freaking rain.~~ The Session in Bloom Fair was also surprisingly orderly and well-organized, with nightly musical performances from both local and national bands and artists. I gravitated towards the curious shops, buying 'tribal' (because I don't have any word for it) necklaces and some other foodstuffs. Needless to say, my daily meals when I was at the Red Cross First Aid Station had mostly consisted of ice cream, takoyaki (those Japanese fried balls with squid and vegetables inside), and free-taste coffee. Oh, and I was able to snag two hand-painted shirts with funky messages and designs on them. I might post the pics sometime in the future. Or not.

Had my braces put on during the middle part of the festival. Honestly, it wasn't that painful as most people said it would be - just uncomfortable. I still can't bite through most hard and sticky foods that I used to enjoy...but I'm getting there! I'm going back on March 26 to have them readjusted and cleaned and whatever. I have a very long way to go...
Joined the medical mission to Green Valley as sponsored by the local Knights of Columbus chapter some two weeks ago. Up until now, I still don't know why I didn't follow that nagging voice at the back of my head that told me to bring my jacket to the activity - Green Valley is, so far, one of the coldest spots here in Baguio...I was still having goosebumps in the middle of the day!
Got my board rating from PRC last week, and I'm relieved that my ratings were all right. I didn't have any line-of-7 grades, and my highest score came from some unexpected set, so it's all good. All I have to worry about is what I'm going to do with my life now that the exams have been taken care of: pursue my other interests, shoot for the international exams, or get myself hired in a local hospital in who-knows-where. Decisions, decisions...
Luna, Guiling, Yutuc, and I had another reunion during the Panagbenga week. Went for a two-night sleepover at Chriserna's, but I slept through the anime marathons we had, and had to leave during the morning because I was signed on to some important Red Cross activities back then. During Luna's last day, we went to Centermall and had our pictures taken in one of those cheap photo booths that prints the pictures on frames with cute designs. I had to dish out most of my hard-earned money ~~which I was supposed to spend on a 4gb memory stick for the PSP~~ since they found out that I passed the NLE's. I'm now officially truly broke. x.x
Attended the E.M.S. Concert last Friday night at the Baguio Convention Center. The proceeds from the concert will go to the funds that will help the group buy a new ambulance - which I think is a very nice thought. So I ~~was forcefully sold~~ bought three tickets from Brayle. The concert featured some of Baguio's finest bands, including Power Puff Corn and 13th Issue. Tom informed me that PPC's bassist already has a girlfriend, so... *is crestfallen* There was an art exhibit at the lobby, featuring the works of artist Joey Velasco. Gretch and I got some of his works that had been printed on glossy posters for autographs, and I also took a picture with him and another artist-slash-musician Kidlat Tahimik De Guia. Starstruck? Most definitely.

I think that's most of it. Right now, Kristine is at a Summer Camp, so we're a man down at Red Cross. I've also made friends with two persons that I haven't seen in a while, but the details aren't really that important now. =P Tomorrow, me and my mom and sis are heading out to La Union to get our passports and do some gallivanting while at it. :D I'll probably drop by in a few days' time.

Take care, everyone!

everything's all right.

2008-02-21T19:31:00.003+08:00

December 2007 NLE Results

I'm an R.N.!

Registered Nurse.

A qualified registered nurse!

*spazzes until brain cells fizzle out*

_____________

Also, kudos to my fellow Louisians for snagging the top spot in the Top 10 Performing Schools in the previous board exams. Go SLU!!!

___________________

Also, this entry marks the 100th post I've made on this blog! Yay! Congratulations to me! xD

Here's to hoping that I'll be able to make more posts in the future! :)

Sushi 101

2008-02-05T22:05:00.000+08:00

February is usually the month of festivities - if not for the city, then for me, at least. To start the month off, I ~~was forcefully dragged into~~ joined our three-day high school yearly alumni homecoming event. Of course, I couldn't expect my batchmates to actually be there, no matter how much prodding and threatening we use. I had a good time though. Our batch set up a fun booth featuring a mini-roulette and a chocolate fondue treat, which earned us about PhP600.00, still a bit short of the PhP2,500.00 debt we incurred just by setting up the booth and the collage (which failed on a grand level). Most of the participants had been middle-aged to old ladies, but the whole thing had still been fun. The band that performed on the second night played old hits, but had as tapping our feet and singing along with the rest, anyway. Cannot believe how energetic the alumni had been all throughout! The whole thing makes me miss my high school days a lot.

On a sidenote though, I think it'd be a good idea if we started preparing for the next homecoming in five years' time. It's such a headache knowing that we only had around four days to prepare, when the event had been planned three months ahead!

Panagbenga, Baguio's Flower Festival, opened last February 1 with a parade and street-dancing competition. Some people came to the Red Cross office yesterday to post this month's List of Events, and I'm really excited to see so many activities planned in the coming weeks! Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing which bands will be performing in several gigs already listed in the itinerary.

We learned how to make sushi a while ago! Actually, I learned it from Monet, who learned it from Kuya Dhags, who is working at the local Tokyo Tokyo branch. It's surprisingly very easy, but rolling the sushi mat requires a bit of working to do, since it's also easy to flatten the whole roll if the rolling was done hastily enough. For our first try, I could say it wasn't half bad, though the taste left a lot to be desired, what with the the rice being undercooked and all. Kuya Dhags promised to teach us a French dish next time ~~but away from the watchful eyes of the Chapter Head~~.

Just a bit more training, and I think we're qualified to make our own hit sushi bar! Or gourmet restaurant. I never imagined cooking to be this fun! xD

____________________________________________________
Signing out. Or risk having to drop more typos and grammatical errors on your heads. -eiichi

The January Chronicles part one.

2008-01-12T22:52:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year~!

There's nothing much to write about: the past few weeks of the first month of the year have surprisingly been uneventful, to say the least. Or maybe I'm too bored out of my skull to make things sound more interesting.

In no particular order:

First time to bleed someone for the blood donation this morning. Not bad, but not so good either. I slid the needle in, and the vein just bulged. I need more practice.
Got *the* planner from Starbucks - the one that's worth 24 cups of coffee (or PhP3,600.00, more or less). It's pretty practical to carry around, nice to look at, and brings out my creative side. Plus, the 24 cups of coffee were delicious. And I was able to give some (financial) help to this charity that the coffee shop is sponsoring. I am so not going to listen to the drivel that I practically wasted 3.6k for some measly book that I'm only going to use for a year.
Welcomed the year with the flu. Tough luck, but I've been snivelling my way through these past two weeks, and it hasn't showed any sign of stopping yet.
About to finish Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 on the GBM! I'm down to the last 2 weapon upgrades...and I'm hoping that after that, I'd finally get to move on to another game. Sometimes I hate being a perfectionist... ~~*geek*~~
Planning on going through a make-over within this month. Or after they release the results of the NLE, which is getting to be a drag, as the days go by. My anxiety level is as high as it can get, and my mind is such a mess, though I'm trying to push the thought to the back of everything else.
Volunteer work is going well, but Kenneth, one of my co-volunteers at Red Cross, just had to ruin everything by telling this trainee that I like him. Ugh. That telltale blush that I had sported on my cheeks wasn't from being found out about a secret crush - it's mortification for having my rep ruined in front of all those trainees and instructors who heard the commotion a while ago. Can never live this down...
Thinking of trying out archery. I think I was inspired by those high school kids doing their target practice at the track field this afternoon. I tried a hand, but the bow was surprisingly stiff and heavy, and I can barely focus on the target that well. My arrow went straight to middle ground. Fancy that. I'll try catching up next Saturday, I think...

I just found out how loud cats can get during mating season. Irritating as hell, but I can't go around shooting down neighbor's pets now, can I? Oh well...

Eyes on the Bass

2007-12-31T10:50:00.000+08:00

Woke up today feeling stiff and sore all over. As much as I wanted to sink underneath the covers though, it was already 10 a.m., and both my cellphone and GBM were running low on batteries, and it's the last day of the year, so I should spend at least the half of it awake, right? I was waiting for the proverbial pounding headache though, as I climbed out of bed, but apart from sore muscles and the angry violet bruising of my forearms (due to me being manhandled by Med Tech students when I donated blood some days ago), there's nothing there that would indicate that I went barhopping with my cousins last night.

I didn't know what to expect, actually. In some of my other posts (I think), I mentioned about joining some other friends for a night out in town, but they were nothing compared to last night ~~though I think it had something to do with me enjoying the company of more familiar faces~~. Our cousins had to sort of ask permission from the Chrome Dome before we could go, and since it had been 2 against the rest of the clan on this, they agreed, though not without backing down several times when our cousins ran a bit late for our meeting.

The first stop of the night was Hunters Bar, a bar somewhere near SLU Lab High in Pacdal. They had a pool table in the middle of the main room, and a door leading to a VIP room, where the customers can sing karaoke and stuff. The drinks weren't that special (and the rest of the group could agree on this): the vodka and gin tonics tasted like lime with water, with a bitter aftertaste, and the piña collada didn't go down too well either. I ~~was forced~~ to play billiards together with my brother, and needless to say, I found out that I suck. Horribly. I don't think pool will ever be one of my strong points...ever.

To finish the night off, we headed for 18 BC, a music lounge at Legarda Road, where local musicians and bands strut out their stuff. I was treated to a Zombie cocktail drink (at least I thought it was a cocktail drink), and it had that tangy taste to it, though I had to keep on stirring the drink to offset the strong cherry flavor that they used as base. Between that and Angel's Kiss though, I would have preferred Angel's Kiss, with its hints of vanilla and chocolate, and in the word of one of our companions for the night, 'Baileys-like. Our cousins knew the band that was playing, being musicians themselves. The music was really good! And the vocalist certainly knew how to entertain a full house.

Well, after their gig, we were supposed to crash in with our cousins until early morning, but since the parents have something for my brother to do back home, they dropped us off at the house at around 1 a.m. I'm pretty sure I walked to the door with a silly smile on my face, and the firm resolution that with the right company, I don't think the night life isn't that bad at all.

And for the record of four hours, our bonding session had been one of the most enjoyable moments of this year, hands down.

something wrong.

2007-12-19T22:46:00.000+08:00

Current Mood: thoughtful
Currently listening to: [Kiri] Monoral

While I was on my way home a while ago, this guy, who looked to be in his early teens, stopped by the window of the taxi I was on, and started caroling. I had my window down then, and the red traffic light was still on, so there was no chance that the driver could just speed on and leave the kid there in the dust.

To tell you the truth, I have this irrational fear of people begging other people for cash and kind. Well, technically, the guy wasn't a beggar in that sense, but still, much as I willed myself to remain calm and normal, I felt cold sweat starting to break out from my skin, and my heartbeats started going haywire.

When I looked at the taxi driver though, he was already reaching for his coin box, and after fishing out a few pesos, he reached over the window to the kid, before looking at me in the rearview mirror, with a seemingly amused look on his face. Feeling a bit relieved, I asked him, 'Manong, lagi bang nangyayari sa inyo 'yun?' It took him a moment to answer, but as the traffic lights became green, he told me, 'OK lang. Christmas naman na eh...may dahilan para dun.' I didn't say anything else after that, except for when I was giving the directions to our house. When I finally arrived, I gave him my fare, smiled, and wished him a merry Christmas, feeling suddenly tired and shocked by what happened.

I still am a bit embarrassed about the way I acted and thought at that time. I don't have plans of turning into a complete Ms. Scrooge anytime soon, but the offhanded way I've asked the driver if he deals with runts often, just because I can't stand persons like those for some inane reason, is completely left-field. I'm really sorry...

twelve days of Christmas

2007-12-16T19:39:00.001+08:00

Wow...I haven't realized it until this morning, but counting from today, it's only about nine days left before Christmas, and I wouldn't have remembered it if it weren't for Ate Es texting me a while ago about the deal we're having, and she had greeted me with a chirpy 'Merry Christmas!' when the fact finally settled in.

Some of our friends from AoG, and Jemma (who was from Dizon 2, another venue during our review season) went to have a little reunion lunch at Don Henrico's at SM. It's a small Italian restaurant that deals big servings of everything, and I was forced to scarf down my own (big) meal because I didn't want to bring food home anymore. Anyway, while we were there, we had a spur-of-the-moment decision to hold a Kris Kringle, and while I spent the rest of the afternoon scouring the whole central district for the perfect gift for my...err...giftee(?), I suddenly thought that since it's going to be Christmas in a few days' time, why not make a brand new wish list, right? I was only able to come up with a few, and I don't expect that I'll get all, much less anything, but who cares? I can dream! And wish! ...though I would be infinitely grateful if I actually receive something...*more wishful thinking*

My Wish~~ful Thinking~~ List:

1. 80gb iPod
While the 120gb one's not out yet, anyway. My music collection has just started to burst out at the seams, I think -- getting exponentially larger than when I started collecting some years ago. I'm having the feeling that my current 30gb iPod won't be enough once I start uploading the additional sounds I was able to snag...and I'm only talking about my Japanese and Korean files. IDK. I just don't think that I'll be able to appreciate everything if I start choosing the things I'd have to get for my playlist. To each his own.

2. PS3
Yeah. Dream on. In the local market, the PS3 is still around PhP30,000.00, roughly around $750-800. Maybe I'd get around to owning it after three more years, when the PS4 is the new craze, and the PS3 starts to depreciate to a denomination that I can actually afford.

3. Neil Gaiman's 'The Sandman Series'
Even after three years, I still have my Philosophy instructor in college on a pedestal (along with my Asian Civilization professor). Her class had been a breath of fresh air from the rigid way we went about with our lectures, and if there was anyone to be blamed for me becoming more eclectic than I already have been, it would be her. For the most part. Anyway, this is just so I can satisfy my curiosity ~~after getting infected with the said instructor's ramblings about Neil Gaiman and his work~~.

4. Cecelia Ahern's works
I already have her 'P.S. I Love You', which is a great tearjerker, by the way. I always see consistent positive reviews of her works online, so I want to see how her other novels are. Looking at my collection though, I've realized that I have a penchant for choosing books written by Irish authors, for some reason...

5. T-shirt with an angel wings design at the back
A pretty neat design in my book. I think it's going to be a 'mood' shirt. Perfect for all those times you'd wish you can go somewhere far from the hassles of living, and just take off, or something.

6. Orb Locket

7. Vivienne Westwood Armor Ring
Lastly. The one thing I've been looking for ever since I saw it on Kagrra's vocalist's (Isshi) hand. And on Nightmare's lead guitarist, Sakito. And then on Nana Osaki from the anime/manga/live action NANA. And then apparently on every finger of someone from Japan. As you can see, it's a ring that pretty much covers most of the finger, but it doesn't hinder movement because it can adjust when you move the finger that it's on. I'll prolly stop looking for other jewelry when I get this one. @_@

So, my ~~partially completed~~ Wish List. Hopefully, someone kind enough will send one of them for the Holidays! They'll get my unconditional love for it, haha. :D

those lights in the sky.

2007-12-15T12:25:00.000+08:00

Last night was supposedly the first night of the Geminid meteor shower here in Asia. Thankfully enough, the sky had been for the most part, clear enough, with the occasional clouds looming overhead every now and then. So when a friend texted me that the shower had already started, I rushed outside to the balcony, only in shorts and two polo shirts over the other, forgetting how cold it could be at this time of the year, just so I can see what it's all about.

It should be my second time getting to see a shooting star, but my memory of the first is so blurry that I don't think I really really ever saw a star back then...

...or maybe I had.

Well, anyway, I was expecting a shower...kind of like multitudes of blazing entities coming down from the sky all at once ~~though after typing that, I realize how wrong that sounded~~. The meteors came in one at a time, as white-blue streaks that lasted for less than a second or so. They looked something like firecrackers when they go up to the sky and before they explode up there...only that the meteors went the other way.

The sight was really something else. Waiting there in the cold, dark spot in our balcony, craning my neck so I can take a good look at the stars above, I was able to think about a lot of things, like how small we really are, and how big the universe is, and on a dark night, I realized that clouds are really lower and nearer to the ground, and not high up like I originally thought they were.

Maybe years from now, after seeing a lot more meteor showers and comets and eclipses and planets, I don't think the novelty would ever wear off.

And while at it, I'd still indulge in breathing a small wish or two before they disappear, and it's back to normal for all of us, celestial viewers. :)

used to be.

2007-12-11T10:37:00.000+08:00

I was sorting through all the stories online when I took a passing glance over the hills opposite our subdivision -- and promptly did a double take. I could never fully remember all the stuff from my childhood and adolescent years, but I do remember that this time of the year is when the sunflowers start filling everywhere possible with their multitudes of yellow specks, and the hill beyond our own hill should be full of them too.

Problem is, I don't think it's possible to grow anything there anymore...not with all those tractors and mechanical activities and plans to make another subdivision just beside Spring Subdivision. In a few years' time, I reckon the red, barren area where all the buzzes and smoke are coming from will be filled with houses, but in a way, I'm glad that before it happened, I was able to see how it had been before.

Wala lang. I still feel a bit sad that they had to level that one spot over the hill, when they could have chosen somewhere better. And more deserving.

Too many people in the world? =/

Wishing I had one for myself...: THE GOLDEN COMPASS review.

2007-12-11T00:16:00.000+08:00

It's the children vs the adults! No, freedom fighters vs the Magisterium! Uh, no, a tomboy against the world!

Well, whatever it is, 'The Golden Compass' is a fictional movie that takes us into a fantasy world, where souls exist outside the human body as animal companions called 'Daemons', and where the population is divided into 4 distinct races: humans, witches, gyptians, and ice bears. In the middle of this world sits the Magisterium, a group that seeks to control all parallel universes after Lord Asriel (played by the tough and buff Daniel Craig) discovers a means of crossing worlds through mysterious particles known only as 'Dust'. At the other end of the story is the young orphan tomboy, Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), who, together with her Daemon, Pan, traverses towards the North to look for her missing friend, Roger, unknowingly getting entangled into a brewing war in the process.

The concept used in the story, 'The Golden Compass', is interesting enough. Lyra's world has been given a vivid portrayal: it's a world stuck between the 1700's and an alternate future using energy other than electricity and fossil fuels...which is pretty cool IMO. I mean, it's pretty cool seeing all those machineries being run by spheres of blue energy cores kept in orbiting golden rings. Also the idea about having the soul manifesting itself as an animal companion is purely original, but while it's a good idea, it also brings about certain problems, which I'll get to later on. The main character, Lyra, carries the brunt of the whole story, but she's not overbearing...much. Most of the characters also have strong personalities, so it's either you'll like them or hate them. No in-betweens.

'The Golden Compass', though, as you may all already know by now, is a part of a trilogy under the title, 'His Dark Materials', by Philip Pullman. As the first part, the movie is all about introductions. This is where things start to get overwhelming. To understand Lyra's world, one needs to know *a lot* of concepts, which I only got to understand partially after reading about the thing online. Apparently, the book continues a bit further where the movie ended (in one of the first tragedies that would ever happen in the three-part journey). I think it's all right though, assuming that this missed part will be included in the sequel. Much as the characters have that certain feel to them though, it's hard to appreciate them because they fade away into the background as supporting characters who drop by in the most opportune of times to either help or capture/eliminate the heroes. Nothing more, nothing less. A one-and-a-half hour timespan is clearly too short to make everything understandable and enjoyable.

Getting back to the topic of Daemons, I think the people in Lyra's world are really unfortunate to have their souls outside their bodies in certain circumstances. Since the body dies once it is separated from its Daemon (and vice versa), then it would follow that they have a high mortality rate in their area. You just don't get killed in war -- you can also die if, by some accident, your daemon gets itself into a situation that it can't get out of that the human body can normally rescue itself. And it makes the battle scenes in the movie all the more messier, to have all those people fighting each other while different animals flitter about them, making their hosts all the more susceptible to getting themselves killed.

This movie sets a pretty high standard for its upcoming sequels. Recommended, but it'd be better to wait for the completion of the trilogy before watching. You won't get a satisfying ending out of this one!

Bottomline: a 7 out of 10.

Best Character. So far.: Serafina Pekkala, the Queen of all witches, has the whole package: neat long-ranged and ranged attacks, a very long life, ability to fly, a soul that can separate itself from her in longer distances, and a very neat outfit. Oh, and she ties in with Iorek Birnison (voiced by Sir Ian McKellen), the Great Armored Bear for this position.

Wit Personified: Lyra. She's ok as the character...and Dakota surprisingly fits in for the role. Come on, managing to trick the enemy twice? She's something else.

Do I See Familiar Faces in Here?: Look for the people from Lord of the Rings. :)

Best Scene: Iorek and Ragnar facing off for the title of The Great Ice Bear Almighty. Brutally gory as the fight reaches its end.

Hello There, Nicole Kidman: Mrs. Coulter, Nicole Kidman's character, is a regal and powerful woman who hides a colder, more vicious interior. Nicole brings out this stunning aura in her character ~~though Mrs. Coulter originally has black hair against Nicole's golden locks~~.

My Own Daemon?: Some of the things I'm wishing were real. =/ The quiz in the movie's official site says I have a fox daemon, heheh.

the strangest thing.

2007-12-03T14:00:00.000+08:00

Exams ended yesterday, without much trouble. Granted, the exams weren't that hard, but it was certainly weird. In Set 2, I was expecting a lot of CHN and MCN-related questions, only to find out that the set was mostly NCLEX-based, and the topics we were expecting to be included came out only in 15 questions, at most. I was also surprised when I saw that Set 5 contained Filipino language options for the part regarding therapeutic communication. It was so...out of it, that immediately after the exams, a text message quoting the things said by a psychiatric patient in one of the situations in Set 5 was forwarded to almost all (I think) test takers this December.

Some of my friends and I met up right after so we could hang out at the mall ~~and add to the agony of waiting for the results by discussing our answers to the exam questions~~. I also saw him while I was walking away from Shakey's, and, needless to say, the image of him as I've built up for the past 8 months or so had been shattered in a scant time of 5 very long seconds. Even I could see that the other guy I was with last night had been a poor distraction to the misery I was feeling at that time.

Hello, passivity and isolation.

Speaking of last night, I got pulled into entering Nevada for the very first time in my entire life. It was sort of all right. People did their own thing, there's loud music thumping in every corner, and steady streams of neon and laser lights and smokes of ice came pouring through all the bars and disco places. I couldn't help but enjoy the cold air and the clear, star-lit sky instead though. Prolly it's because I really couldn't enjoy the atmosphere while I was wearing half of my nursing uniform while looking for a place to get it started. Maybe it's because there's not enough desensitization before I experienced the night life myself. Maybe it's because I was still thinking of what happened earlier that evening. Well, whatever. The point is, I didn't enjoy that much (though I'm glad that all the others got to enjoy themselves). There's always next time...but right now, I'm looking at a stricter curfew ~~not entirely related to my coming home at around 2 AM, smelling like beer and cigarettes~~.

Looking forward to our 3-month waiting period! I'm really hoping I passed that exam...

The Mighty and Undefeatable: a BEOWULF review.

2007-11-25T08:06:00.000+08:00

A spin-off? Nah. After seeing the actual movie, I realized that it *was* Beowulf, the old Scandinavian legend, but with a twist.

'Beowulf' is, of course, about the hero, Beowulf, who arrives in the kingdom of Heorot to slay the monster, Grendel, and successfully does so. Unfortunately, this act forces him to face Grendel's mother, who doesn't relent until Beowulf gives her another child. His actions consequently cause a chain of events that will forever alter history. Well, their version of history, that is.

Zemeckis used motion capture, which he also did in the movie, "Polar Express". I never did watch Polar Express, but judging from the way Beowulf was done, I think it would be safe enough for me to say that those guys who did this film are doing well on the 3D style front at the moment. Grendel looks something like a creature out of a really gory sci-fi/horror/thriller film -- a dim contrast to his 'would-be' brother, a Golden Man whose real form is that of a golden dragon ~~and apparently had not been named for the film~~. All the visual eye candy makes the movie more enjoyable to watch, especially since everything was done nearly realistically enough.

Secondly, I loved how the music had been integrated into each scene! The main title theme, as you hear it in the official website and at the start of the movie, is really charged with energy, in a way that is befitting the atmosphere and the given personality of Beowulf. "A Hero Comes Home", meanwhile, is a haunting ballad sung in the movie by Queen Estrith, King Hrothgar's wife.

I've had no major problems with the portrayals of the characters, though they sometimes give off the feeling of being detached from the plot. Unferth wasn't nearly the archnemesis of Beowulf as I've sized him up to be. Instead, he comes off as a bitter and jealous man who cowers in the shadow of the mighty hero. Beowulf, too, seems to be less than a hero everyone thinks he is, but it's one of the things I appreciated in the story. I don't think the writers portrayed him as an evil man -- just a typical man from their timeline -- proud, manly(?), headstrong, but still, with good intentions. Heroic as he is, the movie points out that Beowulf is also human, and he can make errors sometimes.

The plot is good, but some things weren't explained well, prolly to feed the viewers' imagination, which I couldn't appreciate because I wanted full closure. Why the hell would King Hrothgar jump off from his castle when the curse of Grendel's mother has been lifted from him? Is the ending a sign of the start of another curse upon the kingdom left by its two kings? Despite these things though, I think the themes were played out well, and the way the story draws out, the movie felt real enough to me.

All in all, the movie was good, but it felt like there's something missing from somewhere. You should try to watch it though.

Score: a 7.5 out of 10
Best Scene: Beowulf fighting off the Big Golden Dragon. A bit on the squirmy side, but it showcases Beowulf's galant personality.
Best Character: Wieglaf, Beowulf's trusted friend and companion. In all of the story, he is one of the more levelheaded characters.
I Don't Want to See It Again!: Beowulf versus Grendel. Poor guy. Grendel only wanted to some frigging sleep . Why couldn't they just drink mead outside the Mead Hall and make it Mead Ground or something...
Best Female Character: Grendel's mother, as played by Angelina Jolie. Can't possibly knock out the Golden Devil who wears high heels now, can you?
Tearjerker Scene: The one where Beowulf lies on the beach after he defeats and kills the Golden Dragon. This is followed by Beowulf and Wieglaf's conversation while his men are killing off some possible rebels or invaders. Pride is indeed the curse.

Where's Jack Black When You Need Him?: a BALLS OF FURY review.

2007-11-19T22:02:00.000+08:00

I'm sure most of you have already seen movies whose themes revolve around sports - from basketball, to golf...hell, even professional wrestling. Well, this movie adds itself to the growing list of the so-called sports flicks, all in the form of a ping-pong competition.

The hero of the story, one fat American guy named Randy Daytona gets reeled in by the FBI, care of James-Bond-wannabe Agent Ernie Rodriguez, to track down and capture the notorious criminal known as Feng (Christopher Walken). This they can only do by entering an underground pingpong competition hosted by none other than Feng himself.

Frankly speaking, I've seen this plot in almost all sports-related anime I've watched before: there's a guy who has the potential to excel in a sport, and his enemy just have to have something to make the hero have a grudge against him. Normally, this idea works most of the time, but in 'Balls of Fury', it clearly doesn't.

Apparently, everything and everyone just tries too hard that the whole movie just becomes a really tired sketch right in the middle of it all. The pacing was all right during the first half in the movie, but by the second half, everything goes by so fast that it becomes really confusing ~~and painful enough to figure out~~ at the end. I can't even comprehend why the guy keeps on winning every pingpong match set out before him, and at one time, even with his best hand in a sling. My brain just went...fizzzt.

It's sort of anti-climactic as well when Feng discovers, right before the final match, that Daytona and Rodriguez have both been spying on his business all along. I was expecting some major showdown between the American and his German (and apparently narcissistic gay) nemesis, but it was cut short with the German guy receiving the 'Death Blow' while he was demanding a match between him and Daytona. During this time, Feng, by some ungodly power, was able to conjure Daytona's sexy(cliche), mysterious, and intelligent Chinese girlfriend from out of nowhere so she and Daytona can duke it out to the death. Even Daytona and Feng's final showdown seemed unrealistic enough for all its worth. On second thought, help me here. I can't see the humor in both of them playing pingpong nonstop while walking to the frigging bridge outside Feng's estate. Get this: Feng dies from one electric jolt when the big fat American was able to endure two or three shocks when Feng keeps on changing the rules. Must be all that body fat.

The big macho men who were forced to become sex slaves in Feng's estate just doesn't seem to fit for some reason, and while I'm usually ok with gay elements in arts and media, I think they overdid it in the movie that it doesn't seem even remotely amusing anymore. The Rodriguez character is just as he is as I've mentioned in the first part: a James Bond wannabe who just fails miserably to impress anyone.

And hey! What's up with the main actor of the movie? I mean, he's ok, he acts as decent as Daytona's character can, but I couldn't help but wonder why Jack Black wasn't casted into the role, seeing as it's his kind of thing that he'd do well, given his roles in some of his previous films.

All in all, I regretted dishing out 75 bucks for this movie. The actors were passable enough, but it seemed like they rehearsed the whole thing for just a day or two. The plot fails miserably, and most of the jokes were too far out to be really *funny*. Not even Christopher Walken, whose outfit makes him look like a crossdressing and crack-smoking Dracula, can save the film from being such a big ball of shame.

The Verdict: 1.5 out of 10.

Favorite Character: If I really should have one, I guess it'd have to be Feng, for trying hard enough. It's Christopher Walken being funny! I used to be afraid of him, but he really does a good job of being this...American(?) Chinese pingpong master wannabe.

Favorite Scene: The part where Feng's shady agent imparts a platinum pingpong ~~watchamacallit~~ racket to Daytona, up to the part where the FBI and the rest of the party are discussing their options in an office.

Nothing Sweet About It.

2007-11-16T19:12:00.000+08:00

Mood: Brooding
Listening to: [Ikaw Lamang] Silent Sanctuary

I used to think that the bitter people in the stories I read were both funny and stupid. What's the use of being bitter if they eventually end up being with someone, maybe even for the rest of their lives, when the story comes to an end, right?

Well, I learned how being bitter really is a while ago. And I laugh at the fact that it had taken me this long to realize that I'm actually bitter about a lot of things.

I know I may be written off as another pity-case, or self-depreciating-emo, but anyway, I don't care at this point. Just wanted to bring it all out before I kill myself out of frustration. Anyway, I don't think many people would even be reading this, and I'm not planning on cross-posting this to my other blog any time soon.

So yeah. Today, I was able to prove one thing about guys in general: most of them are jerks. Most of them operate only by what their five senses can experience, and that's it. If you're not as good as the others, then you don't belong. Anytime. Anywhere. At least, that's the vibe I'm getting with almost all the males I've been encountering ever since my freshman college year. I broke up with Guy A when I felt that he was starting to drift away...twice. Guy B was too into himself to be worth checking out. I almost fell for Guy C when he suddenly stopped talking to me after I showed him a picture. Guy D and I had been good friends for almost six years, but he suddenly stopped responding to my mails just a month ago for some unknown reason. And just now, potential Guy E just had to ruin everything by being rude, and then having the nerve to ask me if I know anybody who doesn't have a boyfriend yet without even bothering to know who I am and letting me know who he is.

Yeah, I know I'm not actually Ms. Pretty here, but I don't think it's ever right to actually rub it in...with salt included, right? It's hard enough trying to fit in to the normalcy of a group, and these...guys have to ruin everything by being the stuck-up bastards that they are! *sigh* You'd think that with their kind of attitude, they'd actually look anything like the guys most girls dream about. Hah.

And I'm making myself more miserable because my self-esteem has been dwindling dangerously low for the past couple of months, and the recent events in my life aren't actually helping in anyway but to make me more depressed than ever.

How do you tell one person about your frustrations when he or she is a part of your frustrations?

Ugh. Really! I've had it up to here with men! I'm given to the idea that though you'd find a perfect guy here and there, they are few and far between, and the most that you'd be able to find are the chauvinistic, egotistical types who only think of themselves without caring to look at themselves in the mirror and realizing that they're not even that great as they think they are. Call me bitter or whatever you want, but I've resigned myself to the fact that I may not be able to find that special someone simply because men are PIGS who will continue chasing beauty until their lungs give out. Or until the butcher comes to take them away.

I'm Poetry.

2007-11-12T20:11:00.000+08:00

Took this quiz a while ago, and got a tie between the two:

I'm terza rima, and I talk and smile.
Where others lock their rhymes and thoughts away
I let mine out, and chatter all the while.

I'm rarely on my own - a wasted day
Is any day that's spent without a friend,
With nothing much to do or hear or say.

I like to be with people, and depend
On company for being entertained;
Which seems a good solution, in the end.

What Poetry Form Are You?

Ottava rima? Me? That can't be right!
   Too frivolous? But tut, there's no such thing!
Let others ponder thoughts of wrong and right,
   Or sit and think how much they love the spring;
I'd rather spend my time in gleeful spite,
   Or maybe laugh, or maybe sit and sing.
Besides, it might be fun to be inspiring -
But surely it would get so very tiring.

What Poetry Form Are You?

I honestly don't know how they came up with the results since you could choose more than one option at a time, and, well, I can't see how the questions could make any sense at all...

Still a good quiz, nonetheless. And they came up with test results in poetry form. Very creative.

18 days to go before the National Licensure Exams. While all of my friends in the review classes are rushing about, biting their nails, and fretting about the exam, I honestly don't know what to feel. It's like, everything's happening in slow motion, and I'm stuck not knowing what to do.

I just want to get over and done with the exams so I can move on with my life, you know?

Anyway, I still have to do some reviewing in my Ob-Gyne concepts. Had our Community Health Nursing and Communicable Disease Nursing exams a while ago, and I wasn't too satisfied with the results. Got to try harder!

gone too soon.

2007-11-03T16:34:00.000+08:00

This is just terrible.

A while ago, while I was going downstairs to get some drink, I passed by our lovebirds' cage and happened to take a glance at the two. To my horror, I found one of them lying at the bottom of the cage, and the other bird was just...looking at him. My mom and sis are burying him right now in our backyard, just beside Twiggy, our hamster's grave. I should be there, since I was the one who found him, but I don't think I can bear looking at the whole thing without getting all heavy-hearted and teary-eyed. I can't even go and touch our pet bird for the last time because I'm too horrified and shocked, if those two emotions can go together.

Incidentally, when I got back to my room, Ken Hirai's 'Aika ~Elegy~' started playing on my iPod. Yeah, the lyrics don't have anything to do with our pet, but the title hits home. :'(

I really don't like our birds as much as I loved Twiggy back then, but they're still pets, and I feel sad that one of them has to go already. I hope he's happy with all the other birds up there.

Real World Does Not Exist: STARDUST Review

2007-10-28T17:45:00.000+08:00

There was a time when I disliked Claire Danes - it was around the time that she said something about the country being nasty-smelling or something I think, but anyway, after that, I never watched any of her movies again. Until 'Stardust' came.

Based off a novel by Neil Gaiman, 'Stardust' presents as your unconventional love story. Long story short: this is about a young man named Tristran, who vows to bring back a fallen star which he saw with the girl of his dreams, Victoria. After a mishap though, Tristran finds out that the star he was looking for is actually a young lady named Yvaine - and she has half of their world's evildoers on her heels.

I haven't read the novel to be able to draw some comparison, but the movie was all right IMO, though I was expecting the set to be more magical than what had been shown - The story takes place in a fantasy setting, after all. Then again, if rolling hills, barren seasides, and medieval villages are the director's opinion of what a magical realm should look like, I guess arguing would be pretty useless.

That aside, I think the casting was done pretty nicely. Charlie Cox does well as the shy Tristran, though I find the change in hairstyle and personality a bit sudden. Claire Danes does a good job as well. She brings out Yvaine's innocence, wit, and girlish charm without going over the top. Michelle Pfeiffer delivers as the witch queen Lemia, and Robert De Niro does well as the secretive Captain Shakespeare. The scenes with him and his airship pirate crew are hilarious! And let's not forget about the doomed royal siblings - ghosts who can't get eternal rest until the next king of Stronghold has been chosen.

The real gem of the movie is the story itself. I was introduced to the world of Neil Gaiman by my Philosophy instructor back in college, and although I haven't really read much from the guy, I have it in good faith that he's a a pretty cool author. 'Stardust' is literally a fairy tale, and it's a fairy tale without half the romance that it should have, but it's all right. The story is rich on heartfelt dialog and surprising twists and turns, and thankfully enough, the cast can deliver.

This gets a solid 4.

Best Character: Captain Shakespeare, but only by a margin to Yvaine.
Best Fighting Scene: The swordplay between Tristran and Septimus. This is THE part of the movie you have got to see!
Funniest Scene: Septimus raiding Captain Shakespeare's airship, and discovering that he's...well...you have to watch it for yourselves. ;)
Villains Duke It Out: Lemia the Queen Witch wins over Septimus, though the sword fight was really something else...
Hot or Not?: Warm, I think. There's something different about the way the romance part has been played out, but it's still satisfying in a sugary sort of way, oddly enough.

And, here's what I think is the best line from the movie. This was said by Yvaine after Tristran has been transformed into a mouse:
"You know when I said I knew little about love? That wasn't true. I know a lot about love. I've seen it, centuries and centuries of it, and it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable. All those wars. Pain, lies, hate... It made me want to turn away and never look down again. But when I see the way that mankind loves... You could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful. So yes, I know that love is unconditional. But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and strangely easy to mistake for loathing, and... What I'm trying to say, Tristan is... I think I love you. Is this love, Tristan? I never imagined I'd know it for myself. My heart... It feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it's trying to escape because it doesn't belong to me any more. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I'd wish for nothing in exchange - no fits. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too. Just your heart, in exchange for mine.

Sweet huh?

drawing board.

2007-10-28T14:43:00.000+08:00

We had our Boodle Fight last 25th at Camp John Hay. It was a lot more fun than the one we had last season, though the food was better before. My legs and thighs still hurt a lot from all the squatting I did for the pictures. Maybe it's high time I tried losing weight. :/

Nothing new, really. The events of one of my friends being hounded by ~~stalkers~~ admirers of all shapes and sizes isn't a big news as it had been before...but it's still a bit disturbing.

Haven't had much to talk about lately in the way of all things interesting. In a few days' time, maybe. Or weeks.

Of broken locks and doubts.

2007-10-11T21:35:00.000+08:00

These past few days had been weird.

I'm not really one who remembers every small misfortunes that happen to me, but I do remember feeling very irritated and very close to snapping last Tuesday morning. I swear, it had to be the longest jeepney ride I ever had here in the city. Normally, it would take me about 10-15 minutes to reach our review venue at Bonifacio coming from Harrison Road, but the ride took about 30 minutes, and I was so pissed off because I went out with the thought that I'd be able to be really early in coming to the review. Honestly, it took every inch of my self-control not to burst out and do the driver's face in while we waited for the jeep to be filled with potential passengers who, for some reason, don't want to ride anyway.

Anyway, after that, the saddest misfortune that ever came to me happened: I lost the necklace given to me by a friend. It's something special, because it had come from another country, and I had it for five years until I lost it just this Tuesday. I feel depressed, you know? I should have followed the nagging voice at the back of my head. The lock was coming loose a few times before, and I still wore it even though I had the feeling that I'd lose it sooner or later.

I just hope the one who picked it up will take care of it for me. I hope he or she will cherish it as much as I did. ;_;

A~nd. Something of a last note. There's this weird guy who seems to be getting too close to my friend and I. I mean, yeah, I think it's good that we get to have some new friends, but this guy is just plain...creepy. Just to lighten the mood, I keep on teasing my friend about it, and while it's fun to see her face get all scrunched up at the mere mention of the guy's name, I still keep on an alert status, in case things get a bit too weird for us to handle.

Dammit. I want to have coffee right now.

when the wheel turns sideways

2007-10-07T20:02:00.000+08:00

Frustrating day.

Well, I had to wake up a bit early for a seminar on Cardiology and Neurology, but for one reason or another, I seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed...or the weird part of it, anyway. I couldn't find my wash and conditioner, so I had to use another brand that I don't normally use, because it makes my hair go frizzled.

At 7:30, I went out and decided to ride a taxi on the way to BGH, since my friend and I had to meet up at 7:45. San Luis isn't exactly walking distance to any point near the central district area, and I had the feeling that the line for registration was going to be a very, very long one. Upon arriving though, I found out that I had to wait for my companion for another 20 minutes.

~~The only consolation I had was that the taxi driver was kind of cute.~~

~~And my mind tends to wander to those kinds of thoughts when it's void of other thoughts.~~

The seminar itself was kind of nice. There was a lot of info and a lot of people, but the venue was large, and surprisingly cool enough. The food was also good, and just for a short while, it felt like we were in some review session for the board.

Oh, during lunch, while Ma'am Mia went around promoting Northcap to the undergrads, somebody suddenly went to the mic stand, demanding for the Genius Teacher of Northcap. Of course, most of us thought she was referring to Ma'am Ramos, the founder of the review center. Ma'am Mia even joked about it, but the person in question kept on standing up and asking for the 'Genius Teacher', until Ma'am ignored her and concluded her speech. The next speaker went to auction a small pup, when the same person stood up and spoke about 'kingdom of paradise', 'genius God', and all those other hard to understand string of words. Everybody went quiet as all of us realized the same thing: Psyche patient. The crowd broke into loud murmurs while the nursing faculty headed to the person and the person got up and ran out the hall.

After the seminar, I went with my friend to church since apparently, my home fellows reverted to stay-at-home-on-Sunday-no-matter-what-happens mode. It was a rather refreshing time, but my mood immediately turned sour when I got into a spat with my brother over some minor details.

So I went home dripping wet, my frustration not yet sated by my taking the longer cut home. Atm, I still don't have the drive to review my Pediatrics notes without thinking of ripping my notebooks to shreds as I think about all the things that happened this day.

Yes, this has been a b|tching post. And no, I really don't care if I appear darker than I used to be because of this. I still have a whole lot of frustration to vent out before I turn emo and rude and homicidal. Argh.

of getting past the score of 65...

2007-10-04T18:58:00.000+08:00

Had our Pediatric Normals Reinforcement Exam this morning. Score wasn't that bad, but I'm beginning to wonder why I tend to get higher marks when it comes to the Abnormals part. Something's wrong with that statement, huh? I mean, to get a good grasp of what the abnormals are all about, you should at least have some good background on normal anatomy and physiology (and other what-nots).

Hmm. Maybe I'm not reviewing enough. Too much distractions, but I can't find the energy to make it all go away.

Anyway, here's a video about this professor who has terminal cancer (I think). It's something like Tuesdays with Morrie, but it's more lighthearted and sad at the same time. I pray this guy and his family find all the strength and happiness that they can until the very end...

Here's the link to the video. Apparently it's streamed with other videos, so I can't really get it now and paste it without taking a lot of time, can I? I hope people will be touched by this.

of coughing and swirly green candies.

2007-09-23T12:38:00.000+08:00

OK, I seem to have fallen into a rut again...two weeks of no updates ~~though none of you probably care anyway xD~~, and even now, I think I still don't have the energy to write about anything in particular.

Anyway, the past two weeks had been rather hectic. Since I joined the first batch for the new review season, I started on September 10, so it had been preplanned study periods all throughout - at least, that's what the plan should be until the December Boards - but I've never been one to stick to a fixed plan for too long. *dead*

Things are rather peachy at Assembly of God right now. I admit that I miss the previous season's batch, but our crowd now is a lot livelier, and there are a couple of crowd favorites as opposed to last season's darling of the crowd. Just yesterday in fact, all of the September birthday celebrants were called onstage to be recognized, and were also given those big lollipops that you see those little girls and boys carry with them in comedy and cartoon shows. Yummy.

I hope the positive atmosphere in AoG remains at a constantly high level all throughout. I want to see our venue be recognized as Northcap's Best Venue this time around, after all.

I think I'm coming down with something. I've been surrounded by sick people this whole month, and most of them ~~especially both of my siblings~~ had been rather hell bent on making me sick as well. I've been sneezing nonstop yesterday, and this day, my throat has been feeling very sore. I'm expecting the fever to come within the next couple of days.

Oh well. At least I'm pretty sure I won't get the flu when the Board Exam Days come around. That would be disastrous.

fasting and abstinence

2007-09-09T22:28:00.000+08:00

We had an orientation regarding the review season a while ago at BCNHS. That was a whole day affair, might I add. I spent half of the time contemplating my life up to this point in time, and I realized how wasted I had been these past couple of months while waiting for the next reviews. It's my fault, anyway, and even if I drill it into my head that I just wasted a couple of months on my ~~hobbies~~ extracurricular activities instead of building up on my knowledge base just like any good student, I don't think I can change anything at this point.

So, I figured that since I still have around two and a half months to get my act straight, I might as well follow what Sir G. and the other Northcap staffers had been telling us a while ago: Focus on priorities. In other words, I have to put myself on temporary hiatus with regards to updates to my fics and playlist, and also temporary halt from future attempts to read the ~~newly-arranged~~ pocketbooks on my shelf, and create any artwork or piece (unless I'm truly in the mood to). I'll resume all activities on December 3 or 4. Whenever possible.

It won't be that hard ~~hopefully~~, as long as I keep that resolve up. Maybe taking the December board exams isn't really worth it, after all - people tend to put more pressure and unneeded expectations to and for you, expecting you to become something you're not even sure you could surpass or even emulate. Oh well. There's nothing to it but to prove myself, I guess.

Of Early Risers and Past Tenors

2007-09-07T00:14:00.000+08:00

This from Yahoo News:

Early rising no good for the heart: study

TOKYO (AFP) - Generations have praised the wisdom of getting up early in the morning, but a Japanese study says early-risers are actually at a higher risk of developing heart problems.

The study, conducted by researchers from several universities and hospitals in the western Japanese city of Kyoto, revealed a link between wake-up times and a person's cardiovascular condition.

"Rising early to go to work or exercise might not be beneficial to health, but rather a risk for vascular diseases," said an abstract of the study.

The study, covering 3,017 healthy adults aged between 23 through 90, found that early risers had a greater risk of heart conditions including hypertension and of having strokes.

However, the study also noted that early risers were usually older.

The study is being presented this week at the World Congress of the World Federation of Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine Societies, being held in Cairns, Australia.

A separate study released in June by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that chronic sleep deprivation adds stress to the heart, putting a person at greater risk of cardiovascular disease and death.

_______________________________________________

Does that mean I'm in the clear when it comes to heart disease? :D

Also, I feel bad about the great Luciano Pavarotti's passing just a few hours ago. When I was young(er), I had that silly notion that this guy was sort of immortal. I'm not really into the sort of music that he does, but still, he's one of the biggest music icons during our time, and to lose him without a proper farewell is just...sad. I hope he's happy wherever he is right now.

Resolution in the rain

2007-09-06T20:56:00.000+08:00

Went out this afternoon with a friend. A few days ago, we both agreed to have some sort of make-over so that we'd look and feel fresh before the review season starts, prolly in a few days' time. Well, that, and I was also hoping that I'd give myself a treat before my birthday exactly a week from now. Anyway, after meeting up, she decided to go for a haircut, while I opted for a facial in a dermatology clinic she's going to. I could have gone for a haircut as well, but my cousin told me that my hair was still too short...though I wonder, since my hair is already reaching the middle portion of my back. Or maybe I'm too reluctant to go for another style change after having it done like two months ago...

So, after a few more walks and discussions on what cut Kristine would like her hair to be done, we separated, and I headed for the clinic she was referring to. Of course, I was nervous, because it'd be my first time doing this thing alone, and I have no clue about what'll happen once I'm left with the people in the clinic. The experience was...interesting. I don't know, I was half-expecting the treatment to be a little bit more painful, and the ladies to be a bit snobby, but I'm glad that I was wrong. :) It's a good thing that my skin doesn't remain flushed for too long after undergoing pressure, else, I would've looked like I've been sunburned and mortified for a long time. It's a pretty embarrassing scenario, yeah, but my face returned to its normal color after what seemed like 5-10 minutes later. Hehe.

Kristine's cut looks good on her. It makes her look more feminine and mature ~~a bit xD~~. I just had to put that in here. xD

We went to a nearby coffee shop to hang-out right after, and because someone was waiting for me downtown, I left a bit earlier. It was raining cats and dogs, for lack of better word (like it always does in this here city every evening), but I still went on my merry little way.

After meeting up with said someone, I waited for another hour and a half, walking up Session Road and then going to the City Hall area, before I was able to hitch a ride. Needless to say, my umbrella did nothing to keep me from getting very wet from the downpour. By the time I got home, my feet were all prune-like from being submerged in water for too long, and my jeans felt like I wore it immediately after immersing it in a tub of water.

*sigh* You know, I've been thinking a lot about our review while I was on my rainwater spree a while ago. I really, really want to start reading my notes and books, but it's a bit difficult, especially since I have the attention span of a five-year-old. Ah well, I guess I have to try a bit harder. Because SLU was able to snag and share the top spot with two other schools in the recent Nursing Board Exams, people are expecting that we maintain, or even surpass that level (if possible), because "we've been given about six months more to prepare ourselves for the exam". Ugh. I hope we can live up to their expectation of us. However, before I can even start with that goal in mind, I'd have to convince myself to concentrate ~~even if there are a lot of other activities waiting for me -- and they're not even nursing-related~~. Other things can wait...hopefully.

Must set priorities straight.

I need to go back to English class. Srsly.

2007-09-04T11:30:00.000+08:00

Writing a post at the crack of dawn isn't really something I should do often.

Just this morning, I decided to look over the entries I made last night, and I'm so embarrassed to say that I've made some huge typos and errors in both posts. Well, fighting sleep and barely winning could do that, I suppose.

I could go back and edit some more later. For now though, I'll just be taking a bath. Ja!

The Road to Becoming a Lady: YAMANADE Review Part 2

2007-09-04T02:22:00.001+08:00

I don't have any complaints about the major characters -- they're all likable (and sometimes hateful) in their own quirky ways. Sunako is so not your typical heroine at all. Her fascination for the scary and morbid stuff is a loud cry from the females whose interests lie in the usual girly direction -- boys, school, romance, and life...though maybe it has something to do with her past rejection. If you look at it from another perspective, she already has the inkling of being a perfect girl; she just needs some dragging in the right direction. Her lack of self-confidence is almost always a problem, either getting withdrawn, hysterical, or just plain creepy when triggered. Apart from that, Sunako is good in almost everything (except math). When something special is going on, she turns into her beautiful grown-up self, with all the elegance of a lady they're trying to turn her into, but reverts to chibi form easily just by being near 'radiant creatures'. Sunako can get a bit irritating during these times, ruining a particularly good moment when she bursts into one of her massive nosebleeds. Kyohei and the rest of the guys aren't hard to like either, but that's personal opinion. You have to wonder where they get all the money to pay for their living though, since it was stated by the landlady that their families won't be giving them their allowances anymore. Noi, Tamae (Ranmaru's fiancee), and the weird group who call themselves the Goth Loli Sisters, get more screen time in the anime than in the manga, with Noi and Tamae playing more vital roles in the progression of certain episodes.

Sometimes, I think that it's unfair of people to compare this series to Ouran High School Host Club, then say that it's a rip-off of the latter, simply because you have a girl and a lot of boys with her all the time. I believe it's a known fact that YamaNade was based on a manga which has probably existed for years already, maybe even longer than Ouran, so it's a bit pointless to be using that argument. I don't think YamaNade is even close to being a reverse harem, since the only person in the series who has the closest chance of becoming involved with Sunako is Kyohei (apart from the occasional odd guy here and there). Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Anyway, the plot is pretty much straightforward. Or it should have been. But because the plot is simple enough(turn ugly girl into a perfect lady and throw in some romance while at it), I'm thinking the events get difficult to execute. I mean, it's a bit hard to get a plot to be linear with that kind of premise in mind, right? So, we get treated to episode after episode that may not be connected with each other, but have one thing in mind: the progression of Sunako's personality and character. Although I think it's all right since they're all entertaining and sometimes reveal something about one of the characters ~~and it feeds the audience's craving for more Sunako and Kyohei interaction~~, it's probably a bit unnecessary. One would have thought that after 15 volumes and/or 25 episodes, one of them would have already come up with The Epiphany, but until now, we only have hints to content ourselves with: SPOILER!more than a few kisses (initiated by Kyohei, of course), getting saved from some sticky situation, and Kyohei seeing Sunako naked on one occasion.SPOILER!

I really appreciate how the mangaka tackles the topics on self-confidence and beauty in YamaNade. I've mentioned about confidence in the first part of this article, and beauty is discussed in the points of view of several characters throughout the series. Being the anime/manga that it is, I think you already know where I'm coming from. :)

The music is all right, I guess. Judging from the mangaka's like for the (JRock) artist, Kiyoharu, it'd only be logical to follow that he would get involved in the project somehow. Look up the lyrics of all the songs used in the series, especially if you're a romantic at heart. The voice acting was all right; they fit the bill for whoever character they were portraying. However, there are times that Yuki comes off as too whiny, and I have to admit that I'm not amused at all with Sunako's tendency to let out high-pitched wails/cries -- it makes me want to fly over to Japan and give her seiyuu a good whacking, but I digress. Also, the way the group tends to answer in chorus kind of gets old and unreal after a while.

This series finally falls in the animation department. For an anime done in the early part of 2007, the art just doesn't live up to it. Really, I felt disappointed at how everything had been drawn, more so because I expected quality work, since 1.) the manga had exceptionally good art, and 2.) it's 2007, dammit! You'd expect recent works to be nicely done and all. Also, the use of white person thingies was a bit excessive, although yeah, it contributed to the humorous atmosphere of a particular scene. I find it funny how the main characters have been made with such detail, while the other characters fade into the background. Then again, the details poured into the way the main characters were drawn had been rather rough at parts, so you'll get the feeling that they almost look alike. Or they're competing with the Bratz for ~~biggest~~ poutiest lips ever sported on by anyone. Is it me, or is LAZINESS written all over the animated YamaNade?

NOTEWORTHY: (in the anime, anyway)
Best Doll: Hiroshi-kun. You gay doll, you.
Scariest Sunako moment: The one in the Pirate Island episode.
The Radiant Creatures favorite: Easy. It's Kyohei.
Coolest Adult: Sunako's aunt..followed by her mother, followed by her father. Plus points to Landlady Nakahara for speaking several languages including Tagalog.
Funniest Scene: This is tough. Almost all of the episodes are equally funny, including Hiroshi's introduction every chapter. xD
Most Beautiful Sunako Moment: The Final episode's final minutes. Of course, the scene gets destroyed by Sunako nosebleeding all over the place. *rolls eyes*
Kyohei and Sunako Moment: Again, the final episode's final minutes. And the pingpong game between the two. And when the group pleads for Kyohei to come home. Ah, dammit, there's just too many choices!
New Phrase: "Goth, Goth, Loli, Loli~", while rubbing the index and middle fingers together. XDDD

RATED: 3 out of 5...and I give it with a heavy heart, since this is a favorite title of mine.

RECOMMENDED: Rent or borrow. If anything, you should follow the manga version, as it's more interesting, though sometimes I wish that the mangaka would stop dragging the story on and just let Sunako and Kyohei get it up and over with already.

The Road to Becoming a Lady: YAMANADE Review Part 1

2007-09-03T23:21:00.000+08:00

I got introduced to manga some five years ago through a friend, who was fond of looking up manga scanlations on the web. She had a whole lot of titles in her collection, and every time she came up to the city for a visit, we'd gather around the computer to see what she brought at the time, while she provided some background info on whatever we're seeing, in that listless, sleepy voice of hers ~~which I kind of miss, really, but it's not the point of this article at all~~. Among all the manga that she has though, I remember being drawn to a particular title, which until now, is still ongoing (and very difficult to track down). Of course, I'm talking about the manga that goes by the title of Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge -- now also an anime series with the same name.

Created by mangaka, Tomoko Hayakawa, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, or The Wallflower, or Perfect Girl Evolution, is the story of four beautiful guys and one unusual girl. Brought together for various reasons, the guys, Kyohei, Yuki, Ranmaru, and Takenaga, all live in a mansion owned by an excessive and regal lady, who seem to go in and out the scene with different partners throughout the series. The landlady makes a deal with them -- they get to have free rent under one condition: that they turn her niece, one Sunako Nakahara into a proper lady. Sounds easy, right? The guys think so too, until they meet the real Sunako -- and all hell breaks loose.

To give you an idea of who the characters are:

Sunako Nakahara is, of course, the story's heroine, and a rather strange one at that. As the narratives go, Sunako used to be a normal high school girl. However, after confessing her love for (and to) a guy from her school, she not only gets turned down, but also sort of ridiculed with the words, "I hate ugly girls." Since then, Sunako changed for the worst -- the most apparent as seen during the first episode of the series. She has become a creature of darkness, and a lover of all things macabre and morbid, shunning and getting nosebleeds whenever there's a 'dazzling creature' that gets too near her. She usually appears in a chibi form, but when there's something serious going on, she reverts to her grown-up form, which isn't really bad-looking at all.

Kyohei Takano is the main hero of the story, and is one of the four boys sharing the rent in the Nakahara mansion. He's the most good-looking out of the four, but he's not happy about it. What others may consider as a blessing is actually a curse to him, a reason why he doesn't like people, much more women, a lot. A good fighter, it would seem that he only finds his match in Sunako. He also seems to care a lot for Sunako more than he lets on, and dammit, I'll get to this point later on!

Takenaga Oda is the group's smart guy. He's usually the serious and studious one, but only until Noi Kasahara, his girlfriend, appears, then he becomes all flustered and absent-minded.

Ranmaru Morii is the resident playboy of the four, and has a harem of older, beautiful women who can be reached with just a call from his phone. A ladies' man, Ranmaru knows how to play it up well. He has finesse, and a good eye for detail, style, and beauty.

Yuki Toyama, meanwhile, is the group sweetheart. Small, a bit cowardly, and a lover of animals and cute things, he is often mistaken for a girl, most of the time ending up in girl roles and in girl dresses, much to his dismay. Yuki is the kindest of the four, often coming up to check on Sunako, even though she scares the life out of him.

Finally, we have Noi Kasahara, Ranmaru's girlfriend, and Sunako's close female friend later on. She revels in Sunako's declarations of her being a 'creature of light', and often gets Sunako involved in her plans to get closer to Ranmaru.

I'll cut it off here. The ~~rant~~review goes to another entry, if you don't mind. :)

into a single entry...

2007-09-01T10:55:00.000+08:00

...It looks like asking for a bit of a fairer weather this day is too much. Though the clouds have been hanging low all over the city for the past three days or so (which, basically, is the reason why I've missed out on the total lunar eclipse a few nights back), the closest thing we've had to precipitation so far is a light drizzle.

Maybe I won't get to see the meteor shower tonight as well, but I'm hoping that there'd be some miracle by late afternoon -- the skies clearing up just a bit and all.

I love September. Yes, I love December more, because it's cold, and there's that signature excitement and gaiety that permeates the air wherever you go, but I also love September. I know. It's halfway through the year already; it's the start of classes for some people; the lush greeneries turn to the rustic shades of autumn in some places; and dammit, we celebrate Senior Citizens' Day this month! Well, there are a some things worth mentioning this month, including a two-week-long celebration of birthdays (including mine), the start of another review season, and another chance to explore a hobby I haven't picked up on since elementary. Jam-packed is what's September's all about.

Yeah, I'm rambling already. I went to the hospital yesterday to try and donate blood for this young girl who has AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia), and I was so excited, because it would be my first time donating blood ever. It...wasn't successful. Apart from learning that I'm overweight (dammit), I've allergies that'll stick to me until the day I die, and I'm not hypertensive yet, I learned that I have decreased blood count -- a bit short of the 125 lower-limit of the normal value.

Of course, how can I forget my insomniac tendencies these past few months! jkrhagwdsjfah?? So much for really wanting to help. -_-;

Yes, yes, the rambling ends here.

Eclipses and Histories

2007-08-29T12:04:00.000+08:00

As all of you may know by now, the total lunar eclipse happened last night. It was beautiful, in a mysterious and creepy sort of way.

Based on what I saw on TV anyway.

The weather gods here in Baguio either are sadistic or have a very bad sense of timing. Or both. Every time there's some astronomical happening that needs to be seen, the clouds bunch up and/or it starts raining. I should know. It happens all the time, starting with the solar eclipse back in my elementary years.

Anyway, there's another astronomical happening this Saturday -- the meteor shower. I'm crossing my fingers for it!

I'm assuming Naruto fans have already read Chapter 367 of the manga (though you need to register before seeing any of the goodies on the page...including the manga). Honestly, I stopped reading the whole thing a while back, ever since they focused on Sasuke and his merry group of henchmen. Sasuke was never really that interesting a character for me, anyway except when he's being paired off with Naruto *fangirling*, even though I read somewhere that he's Masashi Kishimoto's favorite character.

Going back to the topic, I think things are looking up for Naruto right now. He might not be installed as the 6th Hokage, but he can become the 7th, right? How's that going to sound like, anyway? Shichidaime? Nanodaime? Oh, and people saying that the 4th's name is Kazama Arashi should consider changing it to Namikaze Minato, though I think the former sounds a bit better than the latter. I hope the next chapters will reveal more stuff about Naruto's heritage!

Lateness

2007-08-28T12:27:00.000+08:00

Woke up at exactly 12 noon today, and I wasn't surprised to see, upon waking, that I'm the only one left in the house. Obviously, both my brother and sister were at school. Mom and Dad left a note saying that Mom is going to have her back checked up on. She was complaining about it a couple of days ago, and last night, she was starting to walk bending sideways and back. I joked about it being arthritis or some other disease of aging, and promptly told her to seek for medical help. It's good that she listened to me this time. Her back pains were starting to get rather scary.

The Lowdown on the June 2007 NLE Results

2007-08-26T22:20:00.000+08:00

I reckon this would be all over the news, headlines, the web, and everywhere tomorrow, but anyway, this is the link to the latest results on the June 2007 Nursing Board Exams Results: Clickie here

And congratulations to Saint Louis University for being one of the 3 #1 top performing schools during the exam. Good job, guys!

Of course, this adds to the pressure on the second batch of the 2007 NLE takers -- us. It's not obviously stated, but I believe that after seeing the results of the June 2007 exam, the school will be turning its head to the last few Louisians who'll be taking the tests on December. Yes, last few. Apparently, even though the PRC registration had been very chaotic, some 300 of our batchmates were able to make it through the deadline. So it's up to the last 90-something of us, I guess. If it's the case, I'm guessing we'll be facing some very tough competition...

God, where did that negative thinking come from?

Anyway, yeah. Congratulations to the people who took the exam and passed! You deserve that license, after all. ;)

The ice belongs out there: BLADES OF GLORY review

2007-08-21T23:55:00.000+08:00

Blades of Glory (2007)
Directed by: Will Speck and Josh Gordon

From elf to anchorman to F1 racer, Will Ferrell is at it again in "Blades of Glory", a film about two top figure skaters, the id-centered, and sex-crazed Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell), and effeminate, classic, and graceful Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder), who, after getting into a not-so-pretty fistfight, gets banned from figure skating for life. However, after discovering a hole in the by-laws, the two are again reunited, not to compete with each other, but to go as a pair in figure skating doubles. To win though, they must defeat the slightly crazy and incestuous pair of Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg, who aren't giving up the competition without a fight.

To start off, I guess it's better to summarize the film in a few words: CRACK. ON ICE. I've watched a couple of Ferrell's films before, and I'd have to say that this isn't a far cry from his previous roles. He's still the self-absorbed male that he has been, but frankly, it works well. It even works better with the performance of his co-actors (especially Heder), and I've got nothing against it there. Also, everything about the figure skating biz has been done well - the music, choreography, AND even the costumes.

Jimmy has this weird guy stalker, who is totally not funny and a bit awkward in the film. There's a romantic subplot involving Jimmy and Katie Van Waldenberg, but it's not that striking as compared to the on-ice action. The gay innuendo may also irk some people, and may come off as over-the-top, but other than these nitpicks, the film is 93 minutes made up of sheer entertainment.

Anyway, this film must have some serious message for the audience, but whatever this message is, it gets lost under all the antics and the humor, and it doesn't even matter. You won't care anyway. I know I didn't. This is definitely a must-watch. :)

I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

Public Service Announcement.

2007-08-20T10:42:00.000+08:00

Forgot to mention last night about this certain lady who I was following in line at the mall. I don't know about other places, but before you enter the mall in these parts, you'd have to go through security -- complete with the bag and body check. It gets tedious, especially if you're the type who goes in and out of the mall frequently throughout the day, but after the terrorist scares and the bomb threats, the security thing has become routine somewhat.

Anyway, I was following this lady in the line, because the car was parked in the basement level, and going through the mall was the easiest way to get there, even though there are a couple of exits at both ends. She couldn't have been much older than I am...at least I thought she's not over 30 years old yet, and she had the air of a sosyalista, someone from a well-to-do family. When it was her turn to get the bag check, she walked right past the whole thing, until the guard called out to her. In an irritated tone, she ordered the guards to open her bag, and when they were finished, she told them to close it, scathingly adding that it was their fault they had to open it anyway, before she walked on. All of us in the line exchanged looks, and the guard was still able to manage a bit of a polite retort after her leaving back.

Well, again, some routine things can get a bit tedious, so I can't blame her if she felt irritated at the way the guards tend to "look around" her private stuff (or whatever it is in her bag). Then again, she could have been more polite about it, rather than dissing the security, because she can't get it through her head that they were paid to do so. What's so tiring about standing still for 5 seconds, opening the two buttons on your bag, and closing it again after the procedure? It's not like the security people would get the stuff from her bag now, would they? Why be so rude about it? Did it ever occur to her that it's how things go around here?

After a few more minutes of mulling over the thought, I figured this must have been the first time she went inside a mall. Or this must have been the first time she went inside a mall in Baguio. Maybe next time I'll be visiting a mall in some other area, I'll make a scene as to why there aren't any security personnel guarding the area. *sarcasm*

some Sunday.

2007-08-19T21:47:00.000+08:00

Went to another seminar this morning, almost running a bit late for the 7:30 meeting that I was supposed to have with a friend of mine (though she called up at 7:35 to tell me that she just woke up...and the other friend was still on the way). Well, anyway, by 8:00, we were already sitted near the front row of the UB gym, waiting for the thing to start. It was on endocrine disorders, psychiatric emergencies, and concepts on contrast X-Ray Imaging; the speakers were all informative, but the crowd got a bit restless towards the end, probably because the seminar had a one-hour extension over lunch, and there weren't any extra food left after the burger and tea drink they served at 10:00. We didn't even get our certificates and free CD's due to some mix-up over the printing and distribution business, and a lot of people left a bit irritated and all that. The majority of the SLU people decided to come back another time to get their stuff though. All that mattered was that we get some grub before getting all hot-headed and hypoglycemic over matters that could be fixed by putting them off for another day...

Anyway, Kristine and I, and later, my family and I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening at the mall. Kristine and I ate a leisurely lunch at Teriyaki Boy, one of the Japanese restaurants in the city. Had a bowl of Katsudon and the usual bottomless ice tea, and we ate for two hours...still a bit short of our record of four hours at Shakey's. We spent another hour browsing the bookstore at the top floor before I went off to meet up with the family.

Nothing new to report, but I keep on bumping with an ex's friend (though he didn't seem to recognize me, thankfully enough). I found out that a neighbor is working at the restaurant I mentioned a while back...well, the first one, anyway. There's no sign of him anywhere ~~but it's not like I was looking for him anywhere in the mall~~. I'll probably stay home tomorrow...until someone calls up to invite me to something, and my parents actually agree to let me go.

Nothing musical about the stars at night : THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES review

2007-08-16T13:44:00.000+08:00

'The Music of the Spheres' dates back to the London of the 1700-1800's, focusing on Jonathan Absey, a brilliant mind better suited to the more advanced workings of the British espionage network than the work he is handling currently. For a long time, he has been searching for his daughter's killer, who has been active recently, in murders including red-haired girls strangled to death. His search leads him to a group of astronomers, whose activities may not only affect Jonathan and those he knows, but the whole of England as well.

This is the first historical thriller I've read, but I've never believed in the novelty of this kind of stories - in the end, you'll know what the whole thing is about, so it kind of robs it of its rereadability value, knowing it won't be as suspenseful as the first time...but anyway, this story was done well. Details of the French and English wars were given much attention, as well as the topic of astronomy and the discovery of newer heavenly bodies, which, I reckon, was something new at that time. It also showed a glimpse of the darker side of England (or London), and the mechanics of its investigations network, which have, in one way or another, been tinted with corruption and even darker secrets.

However, I couldn't feel for the characters much, except Jonathan, who has gone through so much within the story, and Lucket, his trusty watcher. Most of the characters are pitiful, in whatever state they are in, and the whole atmosphere gives out this hopeless vibe, as if nothing will ever turn out right for all of them. Even the ending wasn't really that satisfactory enough, and while all's said and done, there's still that feeling that the remaining survivors would still be on the run, and reputations are still smeared by the doings of the past.

I wonder why I don't see a lot of reviews for this book, but anyway, give it a read, if you don't mind the dark air of the story.

There's a place in Hollywood dedicated to the most perverse of pleasures : Coldheart Canyon review

2007-08-14T20:26:00.000+08:00

'Coldheart Canyon' is set in modern Hollywood. Todd Pickett, a famous action icon slowly spiraling out of stardom, gets a failed surgery which could ruin both his career and reputation. Seeking a place where he could let his wounds heal, he is led to a loft not far from Sunset Boulevard, unaware of the secrets and the forces that lie hidden within its grounds.

Let me warn you about one thing: this novel is huge. Big-ass huge. While this isn't really a bother for me, especially if the story is interesting enough, 'Coldheart Canyon', for the most part, doesn't really catch my attention much. I just couldn't find anything engaging in the first 300 or so pages of the book, and had to stop reading the entire thing for days and weeks on end because of it. It could've ended in several good places, but there had to be some closure, and again, the details weren't interesting enough.

On the other hand, Clive Barker's vivid portrayal of just about everything is what makes the story stand out. He has a gift for bringing life to the incredibly bizarre imagination running through his head, and it shows in the Canyon's creatures, in the deaths surrounding the characters, and in the world hidden within the estate. Yes, the story is a bit slow at the beginning, but starts becoming a fast page-turner by the end, which I think is quite a redeemer in itself. There's a bunch of remarkable characters in the book, including Tammy, who relied on her inner strength and her unfaltering devotion to her idol throughout; Katya, the cold seductress and single-minded romantic; Jerry, whose loyalties and unnerving neutrality remain questionable, and finally Todd, a lost soul seeking for warmth and attention in ruthless Tinseltown.

This is a nice addition for readers who appreciate and can stomach the bizarre, taboo, and the unholy written in all graphic and grotesque glory.

at the end of my wits.

2007-08-06T00:22:00.000+08:00

Ever experienced wishing for something to happen to you for a long time, and then BAM! You get what you wished for -- only that it happens a few more times and in a quick succession that you suddenly feel disoriented about everything to the point that you think it's the cosmos' way of pulling a prank on you?

Well, I think I am, and although it feels a bit nice (sort of), it just...scares me. No matter how real it is, I can't help but feel that all it takes is just one blow, and all of it will disappear as suddenly as it began. Risky business, totally. I can't even play my cards right, because then I'll be putting everything else at risk, and some of the chances I've been hoping for may just go up and disappear.

Really now though. The one I've been waiting for forever to happen hasn't happened yet. With the recent turn of events though, it looks like I'm going to be the one doing most of the pursuing until I knock some sense (and then some) into someone's head.

Immobile for Two Hours

2007-08-04T22:58:00.000+08:00

Kristine, Ate Es, Carla, and I went to this seminar a while ago at the CAP Building at Camp John Hay. It was on Evidence-based Nursing Practice in a Clinical-based Setting (but then again, I could be wrong, and I'm too lazy to check up on what the correct title is -- for now), and the guest speaker is none other than Dr. Joyce Black, author of what could be considered as The Bible on Medical-Surgical Nursing here in the Philippines, if not abroad as well.

The seminar went on smoothly for the most part. Well, the topic in itself is boring in a way, so I couldn't blame Mrs. Black at all if some of us had dozed off a few times during the duration of the event. I was a bit interested though, but I don't know if it was because she's the first non-Filipino speaker I've heard from ever since, or because she had a lot of interesting anecdotes on what nursing is like in America. Or both. She focused on patient care regarding pressure ulcers and wounds -- and although most of my colleagues (xD) wondered why this was so, I think it has something to do with the fact that she's head of an American organization which focuses on the said topic.

Anyway, I'm certain of quite a few things:

I am never ever going to become a nurse researcher by choice. Even if it means earning a lot of dough, and even it means not being able to attain the professor level if I ever decide to become a nurse educator. I think a year of research back in third year college is enough...I don't want to have to spend most of my life making my life more miserable however good the intentions of the research maybe.
Geriatric nursing may be a tempting job offer, I don't think I can handle being all-out on it. Critical care nursing too, mostly for the same reason. I was toying with the idea for some time now, and looking at all those slides a while ago had cemented the decision, so yeah.
My chosen field has a lot of complications, in the form of lawsuits and errors. It makes me anxious for a bit, thinking about all the possibilities when I haven't even taken the local board exam just yet. Seriously, I need to learn how to relax...

Also, the intermission number done by an ethnic dance troupe was nice, and I've got to hand it to them, the way they kept playing those instruments and dancing for 30 minutes straight without slowing down. Granted, I'm not really big on ethnic dances, but I really appreciated the effort they placed into it ~~just to please our guest speaker~~. In exchange, Mrs. Black taught us the Chicken Dance, which was kind of stupid, really. It was cute though, and I think it'll be stuck with me for a while longer. I'm afraid I wasn't to take any photos ~~because of some circumstances owing to peer pressure...but I'm not upset about it. Really.~~ though. I met Rodel in the seminar, and to say that I was surprised is an understatement. Then again, people change, right? :) Also, I'm betting Sir Engel and the rest of the instructors present will be thinking about those nasty little tricks that Mrs. Black pulls on her students to make them work. Good thing we're out of college now.

It was a great activity back there.

Wanting to say something

2007-07-27T23:45:00.000+08:00

I went off to the local PNRC chapter in the central district at 1 pm this afternoon ~~while resisting the urge to obey my newly-established biological alarm of 12 noon...in a rather unhealthy state at that~~ for our orientation. I figured that since I have nothing really worth doing with my time, what better way to spend it than by being such a good citizen and volunteering my services for something as noble as the Red Cross, right?

Ah, anyway.

When I got there (and ftw, I wasn't close to being late, despite my reputation as a latecomer), I waited for close to 30 more minutes, before the head of the PNRC chapter came out of the office and told us that the instructor in charge of our orientation could not make it, so the whole thing had to be canceled.

CONCLUSION: A waste of what could have been the respite I've been looking for ever since my sleepless nights started a week ago.

Sir Lambert met us after that and told us that they were planning to have a month-long activity to be held at SM next month, and if the orientation will push through next week, there's a chance that they might pick us and let us participate in the project. Talk about being excited!

After that, Kristine and I headed to SM (as always) to ~~gallivant~~ kill time. She had to meet her mom anyway, and I also had to meet up with the family so we could go watch The Simpsons Movie on the big screen. It's really amusing, because I kept on bumping with a few familiar faces on the way. There's Dr. T (if you remember my college entries from before), who I saw getting into that old junk of a car he has. I thought he already transferred to some big-shot hospital outside Baguio, but seeing him here still...I guess I'm wrong about that. Kristine said he looked like some old guy chewing a piece of tobacco, and I nearly snorted at that. The sight of him smoking a cig kind of ruins his image for me though. That, and the rather obvious beer belly that he can't hide, except when he has his labcoat on.

Another meeting with him a while ago. This time, he was with a couple of guy friends who look more matured than he does. That should give you an idea of how young he looks like. It's stupid, really. I wasn't able to get past a soft-spoken 'Hi', and a small grin and wave because he had a bunch of friends with him. And he looked like he was in a hurry. Even though I'm pretty sure of what I want now, I don't think I can cross some lines without being entirely sure of what the end result is going to be. Is it all right if I ask for a more definitive sign from You, God?

A~nd, surprise, surprise. I saw my Philosophy teacher in National Bookstore. Some of you might ask what's the big deal about meeting some teacher from college, but just like anyone would have a favorite teacher when they were (or are) in school, I have mine, too. And my Philosophy instructor is one of them. She doesn't look like your normal instructor - she wears a lot of black, is into the gothic, grunge look, may have been into self-inflicted injuries, is part of a band, and reads comic books and likes X-Men a lot. Plus, the way she explains things just blows me away. To the next solar system.

Anyway, she was there...just there. I had wanted to say hi, or maybe be brave enough to ask her how things are going, or if she still reads Neil Gaiman, because I've just started to, and I think he's rather awesome, as she said some two years ago...but I was running the risk of sounding like a lovesick high school girl spouting off a love confession to her crush, and I didn't want her to remember me that way, if she even remembers me at all. Before I knew it, I had switched to my 'grin and wave' mode, and I was pleasantly surprised that she gave me a small smile before sauntering off to the local books section. Even now, I still want to ask her about the things that she would have recommended for me to enjoy, but all I can do is look back on those few seconds and say to myself, 'There goes my childhood hero...'

Hoo. This is like the eighth night of me having difficulty of finding my sleep. I think I'm going out of my mind from all the sleep deprivation, and this thing hasn't done anything but add more bags under my eyes and encourage a sporadic burst of acne on my face, but it's not like I'm not doing anything. Man, what I wouldn't give to have a decent night's sleep right now...

A Spot in the Perfect Plan

2007-07-26T00:10:00.000+08:00

I saw him today.

It wasn't the type of reunion that involved flowers, tears, hugs and kisses, or any of the sort ~~though it wouldn't hurt to at least hope for something to that effect~~, but it was special, to say the least.

I felt that time actually stopped when our eyes met.

And even though I try hard not to, I still remember, and remembering is a bad thing. For everything that I have said before, I'm retracting them now. Again.

Anyway, I don't think things regarding him matter that much anymore. Big deal that he'll still be around somewhere near, but no way in hell will I be doing what I did before! It's just...dumb. And plain obvious.

Really though, I'm confused at how disarming his smile can be...

The Proxy of Death: ERGO PROXY review

2007-07-20T18:17:00.000+08:00

So, anyway, first off the list of reviews is Ergo Proxy, one of the recent works from the people who brought the ~~wretched~~ pieces of work such as Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo to life. Of course, I love the two titles and of course, I don’t really plan on comparing the three manglobe works, so any comparison that would be made in this entry would be purely accidental. Like when I say that I was half-expecting that the ending would be ~~disappointing~~ tragic or too open for my own liking, like the aforementioned titles. Purely accidental, I say.

I admit that when I first heard of the title, Ergo Proxy, I was half-interested and half-bored. I mean, it sounded cool, it sounded edgy, but I had the inkling that it must be too complex to really be enjoyed. Nevertheless, the picture of the aloof-looking gothic woman on the cover piqued my curiosity, so I got my copy...

...and only got around to watch the series after approximately 8 months of letting it sit on my CD rack. So I turn the player on, and was treated to bad subtitle editing and one of the best animations I’ve seen recently. Love at first sight? Not really.

Ergo Proxy roughly starts in the lab of the story’s resident doctor, Daedalus. Apparently, some kind of living thing that they had been keeping inside the white walls of the laboratory had gone berserk and ran off. The scene switches to a young and seemingly cold woman by the name of Re-l Mayer, who, together with Iggy, her Autoreiv entourage, enters Romdo City, and after a few more scenes, we are also introduced to a wimpy guy named Vincent Law, an immigrant who aims to become a citizen and catch the elusive Re-l’s eye. Almost immediately, trouble starts, and Vincent is forced to run as he is blamed for something that he has no idea of, and thrust into the mix of lies and forgotten memories is Re-l, who only intended to find out the truth about the Proxy she met that fateful night…

Ok, the idea of technology being one of the central themes was immediately trashed after I watched a couple of episodes. Romdo City may have been running an advanced system, but really, that’s not the main point of the story at all. Actually, assuming that the use of the word ‘ergo’ has been intentional, then it could be said that the show would have a philosophical side to it. It was a good thing that the copy that I got has endnote references at the end of certain episodes, because it helped somewhat in understanding what the story is about. And although this is one topic that would keep me interested for hours on end, it may not be the same for some people, who might dismiss the highly intellectual dialogs as psychobabble. I’m no expert in the philosophy area (since I was only able to take a sem’s worth of philosophy as a prerequisite for graduation back in college), so I know that I’d make a mistake in interpreting somewhere, but really, all the talk on existing, death, identity, and creation may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

The story started out well. Immediately, we are presented with the main point of the story, and there’s no failure in bringing it up again in the following episodes, but sadly, it ends there. After Romdo City, Ergo Proxy’s world is a bleak one, where life almost seems impossible except for a few areas (which would already be a spoiler topic, so nvm), and for all its worth, 23 episodes just couldn’t cut it. There are just too many possibilities, so many loose ends and rushed plots that by the end of the show, you’d be left with a lot of questions running inside your head. I, for one, remember yelling “That’s it?!” when the credits started to roll. Hell, I couldn’t even remember when the Cogito virus started, or how Monad Proxy was revived and implanted into Re-l’s clone, Re-l-2. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why Proxies were created and what the Creator has got to do with it all. I couldn’t even begin to understand if the ‘Who Wants to be in Jeopardy’ episode was supposed to be a filler or what, because it just lacks any sense whatsoever, except probably become loosely connected to the events that would follow in the next episodes.

The main characters are lovable and interesting in their own way ~~and in a way, it’s Cowboy Bebop all over again, with a bit of mixing in personalities. I’m really resisting the urge to draw parallels to Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. Really.~~ I really hate Vincent’s prim and proper look because he looked like some low-life follower of some leader or something; his windswept, untamed hair looked infinitely better IMO, and I could imagine him more as a hero that way. xD Fangirling aside, Vincent is like the typical hero – a bit clumsy, lovesick, kind, and lost. Yes, lost. If you haven’t noticed already, Ergo Proxy is about the search for his lost memories and the identity hidden within. I like his character development though, and how, even after all the battles and after being whisked away by his first lady-love, he remembered his existence and the girl waiting for him in the world he created and left. That was a rather unnecessary cheesy line at the end though.

Following the line of the spunky, spirited, and willful heroines comes Re-l. Honestly, I give manglobe credit for coming up with a decent mix of heroines, because stories nowadays have whiney damsels-in-distress, soft-hearted feminine personas, or exaggerated tough-as-nails girls, yet somehow, they managed to make ‘her’ into all these three while being as real to the character as can be. Re-l can be a cold, cynical, perfectionist bitch, and she doesn’t hesitate to make people know that she knows it. At first, there is some sort of disconnected air about her, and this continues as she persistently searches for the truth that would satiate her curiosity, but later on, there is a noticeable difference in the way she treats everything and everyone around her. It’s rather sad that Iggy wasn’t beside her in the end though, but I think that this event was the pushing stone to the change in her perception of the world in general. I’m still unclear as to what happened to Re-l-2 though, but judging from Daedalus’ final words, I would assume that she died after going too far up in the sky. Lack of air or because the sun burned her (just like in the storyf Daedalus and Icarus)...I don’t know. It’s just a theory, after all.

Speaking of Daedalus, I sort of felt sorry for the man. And for Iggy too, for that matter. It’s not their fault to seem to have fallen for a girl who was simply too out of their reach, is it? I find it funny in a morbid sort of way, that even though Daedalus created Re-l-2 and raised her up in his world, he wasn’t able to prevent her from going to Vincent, until the very end.

Pino is really a cute character. Throughout the series, getting infected by the Cogito virus basically meant being freed from human control and gaining emotion and thought, therefore losing reasoning and logic, therefore meaning that it is absolutely a necessity for the infected Autoreiv to be disposed of. However, through Pino, we are shown that becoming infected by the Cogito virus doesn’t make the mechanoids some sort of berserk monsters; rather, it makes them more human in a way that they are able to think and feel for themselves. Sadly, this is the path that Iggy has been led to, and in the end, his own thoughts and feelings led to his own demise. Similarly, I feel much for the sad story between Pino and her adoptive father, who, until his death, was not able to meet his daughter, even though he could have been several feet away from her.

The music wasn’t really perfect, but given the atmosphere of the whole story, I’d say it fits well. I really like the opening theme (and I swear I’ll get my copy once the net at home gets up and running) – it has that sad, disjointed feel to it that fits well to the overall mood of the series. I’d say it’s the same for the voice acting. There’s nothing that stands out (well, maybe except for Pino, that is), and there are times that it would feel like the actors, especially that of Vincent, were merely reciting their lines.

The animation is fluid. There’s no CGI that’s out of place, and although there are some odd ways of drawing the characters’ faces at times, it’s not enough reason to complain. The action, characters, and everything else were nicely done, and the art itself contributes much to the ‘feel’ of the story. Points also go for the way Re-l was done. So far, I haven’t seen any lead female character who has had that kind of look and personality and carry it as well as she did.

My final thoughts? Ergo Proxy could have been better if they went further than 23 episodes. I think I have an idea about where the story is coming from, but I think it’s not a good idea to spew forth philosophy and mix several ideas all together because it could get confusing. The concept of using the Ergo Proxy as setting an example for Descartes’ view on life and existing isn’t simply enough. Then again, I wasn’t really fond of the Cartesian viewpoint to begin with. This is a promising piece of work that could improve with a few more tweaks here and there. Almost there, manglobe, almost there.

Grade: 8.5/10
Tearjerker moment: Raul and Pino searching for each other in the fallen city of Romdaul, followed closely by Re-l and Iggy’s dialog before his death.
Slap-my-knee episode: The one where Re-l, Vincent, and Pino were stuck in the plains of nothingness because there was no wind to propel their boat.
Romantic moment: OMG, I can’t decide on this one. I think it can be any of the scenes between Vincent and Real after they meet each other on the outside world. Or maybe it’s when Vincent as Ergo Proxy decided to come back to the planet to keep his promise to Re-l. ~~Resisting another urge to fangirl.~~
The Best Proxy: The proxy from Smiley Land, Will B. Good. I don’t know, he’s just pathetic and funny and serious all rolled into one. Also note the reference to Mr. Walt Disney. Very clever.
New Record: Vincent and Re-l as my new best canon couple. The ending was just too casual though, but whatever. He came back for her, and had been rather obvious from the get-go. This is also one of the few canon pairings that I could tolerate, because their combination is really…I don’t know, right? Again, whatever. Still sorry for Daedalus and Iggy though. Oh, and Monad too.
Best Character: Pino, just for being the lovable character that she is, and for remaining untainted, even when she is surrounded by death. ~~Also for resembling Edward from Cowboy Bebop, but you didn’t hear anything.~~ >_>;
Wimp of the Year: Vincent. Lovable wimp. He keeps on misinterpreting Re-l’s behavior as signs that she’s attracted to him as well. And she is, actually, but I’m not going to explain any further. My brain cells are starting to sleep on me.
Replay value: High. If only to understand the story more, because there’s a lot to be understood in all the concepts, dialogs, and the characters themselves. Plus the Vincent x Re-l scenario is just too good not to be played again and again...

the graveyard entry.

2007-07-20T18:10:00.000+08:00

Nowadays, our internet provider at home hasn’t been able to provide decent internet services for almost a week now. Honestly, my mental state can’t tolerate an entire week of very low levels of mental stimulation ~~ok, this is where the geeky jokes are supposed to come in~~ at all, especially since I’m becoming a couch bum and what-not. So, I’ll be dropping by the said IP’s center at the mall so I can ~~vent out some of my frustration~~ find out what exactly has been going on.

That said, I think I have quite a number of reviews in mind at the moment. The internet-less days had been spent in front of the TV or with a pair of ear plugs permanently stuck to my ears as I listened to music from, well...mostly from Japan. I don’t think any of you reads this stuff anyway, but I figured it would be better if I split the reviews and what-nots into several entries so it wouldn’t necessarily look like I’ve been flooding message boards and emails with recent updates.

We had our one-week SFAT & BLS-CPR (Standard First Aid Training & Basic Life Support – CardioPulmonary Resuscitation) at Red Cross last week, and it was a BLAST. We spent the first part of the week learning about bandaging techniques and how to carry patients in an emergency situation. Normally, I wouldn’t go for that kind of experience, but I’m aspiring to be an emergency/trauma nurse, dammit, and this is part of the job that I’ve been wanting to go into!

Anyway, after that, we had our CPR training. First, we had a simulation with a partner – which was of course, done without the mouth-to-mouth part. Afterwards, we had a return demo on three dummies for adult, child, and infant victims. I fail at infant rescue situations, really. I think my instructor was laughing at me everytime I puff on the infant dummy’s nose and mouth, and there’s a whistling sound that says I’m doing something wrong.

On our last day, we had a simulation at Burnham Park, on the grassy area just beside the bicycle place. It was good that it was raining, because at least we didn’t get sunburned...but we were awfully wet, and the earth, small rocks, and the grass managed to get my white tee to a semi-permanent brown color and my elbows had a couple of cuts and bruises from the zero-vision fire rescue simulation that we had. Believe me when I say I had fun, despite it all, and despite me getting picked as a victim again and again.

Man. It’s really not a good idea to write these kinds of things when a lot of time has passed. I kind of miss the people at Red Cross now. :(

preposterity(?)

2007-01-27T05:56:00.000+08:00

There are just some things that I can't do by myself.

Like doing some suctioning and feeding on a less-than-alert patient unsupervised.

Like troubleshooting the PC when it's having technical difficulties.

Like managing the house and the dog for a day.

Like fixing my own problems when my problems don't even come from me.

I'm leaving for school now. Ta~

is it any wonder?

2007-01-16T07:48:00.000+08:00

In just over a year, my PC has crashed again.

And I'm taking it to the repair shop first thing today, because if it can't be fixed by tomorrow, then I'm totally screwed over. Six times. The chance to redeem my grades for the Coronary-ICU rotation will go down the drain faster than I can say "Screw it all, dammit."

I just hope all the pics, fics, artworks, and the music files that I've managed to save up for the past year will still be salvageable before any drastic measures will be taken.

Again.

I wonder why these things happen when I least need them most?

Damn it.

This is just peachy.

and the deal is...

2007-01-14T15:19:00.000+08:00

Have you ever had those days that felt like there's a complete lull in the swing of things, but you still get the feeling that something big is going to happen sometime soon? Well, this is one of those days.

Two revelations made my whole world come to a standstill this week. One, my former group mate texted me that her boyfriend was already dead, and that his remains were in Baguio Memorial Chapel. Of course, my initial reaction would be to be shocked. What happened? She wouldn't be the type to joke about those kinds of matters even if I was witness to a few of their squabbles when we were still group mates, would she? After confirming the information with a few other friends and the rest of the group, I came to realize that it really was true. I admit that I don't know how it must have felt for her, but it must be devastating to have lost a loved one at such an early time... :(

One of my friends also texted me earlier this week, telling me to go to some site because my "crush" was there. I was a bit apprehensive at first, but curiosity finally got the better of me, so I did as told the following day. What I found out was...well...

Let's just say that I'm really relieved and happy that I didn't get the nerve to ask him out all this time. I was saved from the idea of wasting myself away into some love-starved idiot with no hindsight for hope. -_-; So, to that friend, if you're reading this really pathetic entry, you know who you are. Thanks a great deal.

Sober Lucidity

2007-01-02T11:53:00.000+08:00

We~ll.

In the event that my life suddenly became so busy these past few weeks, I wasn't able to do much with the PC, except boot it up so that I can play my music files like nobody cares. xD

I have had my last completion duty for the year at BMC last December 29, and although I'm really disappointed that I didn't get the delivery case (since I kept on drawing 'cord tie' from the draw lots, for some reason), we still had a very interesting day, to say the least. I learned that a simple thing always has the possibility to turn into something major and critical, and it's something that we should always watch out for. I'm not going to pore over the details of what happened though. :P

Luna, one of my close friends, came up to Baguio for a visit last December 29 too. For me, it's a big thing, because it must be a hassle for her to come back here when she doesn't have a reason to, except to see what she has left behind in over four years. I don't think that what we have all become is something that she's happy about, though. Something tells me that we're drifting apart - that somewhere in the midst of growing up and setting new priorities in life, there are ties that don't matter anymore, from a certain viewpoint.

Some things are not what they used to be...

This afternoon, Luna, Guiling, and I will be going to the mall to have some last-minute fun time before Luna goes back to Manila this evening. She said that she's not coming back anymore, unless something comes up. She'll be graduating this year...we'll all be...and our priorities aren't going to be the same once we move up. When she said that a while ago, I felt completely and utterly sad and nostalgic. That's not right, I thought. It will never be.

Why are we giving up?

Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

2006-11-11T08:35:00.000+08:00

There's another typhoon crossing over the city, so they raised the alert level to signal number 3 just after midnight. I'm supposed to meet up with my groupmates for a practice for our group presentation on Monday, but...yeah. ~~I'm too lazy to be bothered to go out~~It's too risky to do anything right now but wait. So I'm going to waste my time here waiting.

By the way, have I told you that my resolve to forget went down the drain a while ago? I've angsted and angsted about moving on, but when I saw his smile again...God, my resolution just stabbed itself multiple times to death. Now the longing just got worse, and I still have no idea how to handle it, especially now that we don't see each other often anymore. I barely have five months and I haven't made a move just yet.

*sighs* Whatever am I going to do?

in awe

2006-11-06T09:56:00.000+08:00

Final Fantasy XIII owns.

I thought of actually linking you to a site focused on FFXIII news, but I did that some time ago on my Friendster bulletin boards (where I spammed it a few times so people won't miss it), and I know you can just type away on Google and let the engine do the rest.

Anyway, this has got to be the most beautifully done title in the FF series as of the moment! Details were nicely done, and it's got in-your-face fluid animation. And to top it off, the game has a badass female lead character ~~who, by some amount of miracle, does not look anything like the Tifa clones of the series (i.e. Tifa, Rinoa, Garnet, and to some degree, Yuna as well)~~ with a gunblade-like weapon which looks even cooler than Squall's.

Now if only I have enough funds to get myself a PS3 and this game when they come out...but that would take me another 5 years or so. Oh the horror!

I think I've died and gone in limbo. X.X

it can't be helped...

2006-11-03T15:19:00.000+08:00

I think I'd better give up now.

It's the thought that has been plaguing me ever since I started noticing that way. I realize that along the way, I've given up a lot just to hang on to nothing. I don't even know where to begin, but it's just too...perfect, you know? I'm asking for far too much. I'm asking for something I can't have. So I thought, why bother? Besides, it's not like I've been in too deep to make it out just fine. And it's not as if anything will come off it anyway.

It's like chasing after the sun, you know? Too impossible. Too out of reach. And in the long run, when the sun disappears to the West, all I'll ever have are the burns that prove how foolish I have always been...

the power of Suggestion

2006-11-02T12:21:00.000+08:00

The first days of November are supposed to be the creepiest part of the year, according to tradition. It's the time when logic and rationality go flying out the window in favor of the weird and unexplainable. It's the time when people indulge in their darker sides, letting their imagination and fear run wild and take over the more sensible part of their minds. The full moon's coming up in a few days' time, as well. So far, I haven't run into any hauntings lately (and I sincerely hope I won't...ever.), except for the tapping on my windows during the night returning again just a couple of nights ago. Nah, I can live with just that.

Anyway, in the spirit of the season, I decided to indulge and consult the supernatural with regards to how my life is doing at the moment. I told myself that it's going to be a one-time thing, and that I'm not going to totally believe whatever the psychics and their otherworldly senses tell me. The first was the trip to the Bell Church in La Trinidad with my friend, Rozel. Kristine told me before that they were doing fortune telling sessions inside, so Rozel and I decided to check it out. After doing a ritual (which involved offering respects and incense to the spirits), we got pieces of paper with our fortunes on it from a cabinet. That was after we dropped two blocks on the floor until we got our results...which I won't delve further into. I got my fortune saying that all's good with my life - and I think I don't even understand what that meant. Figures, since the question I asked at first was all jumbled up and not really focused on anything. Judging from the way Rozel dealt with me the rest of the afternoon though, I would be inclined to think that she didn't fare well with whatever's written on her small piece of paper. ~~That and she's blaming me for bringing her to the Church in the first place. XD~~

Yesterday, I threw caution to the wind and decided to go for a tarot card reading. Although I was a bit reluctant to ask about it, I concentrated on him, and when the results came in, I could almost swear that everything fits. Hell, even for the last few days, the stars in my horoscope were telling me not to hesitate and just go for it.

Last night, I dreamt that a couple of students and I were in some sort of a hall. We were dismissed from whatever meeting took place and were about to settle down for the night, when he came and moved in with me and some random guy. I remember him joking about us not giving him enough room to sleep in and some other stuff. When I was about to doze off, he shuffled nearer to where I was, and I remember hearing him say, '...alam ko naman na gusto niya ako eh, pero wala namang nangyayari...'. It's the one vivid detail that I don't think I'll be forgetting anytime soon. Basta, everything seemed so real - the sights, the sounds, hell, even the tactile sensations that went with it. The last thought in my mind before I was rudely awakened by my internal clock was that I was going to talk to him again and get his number and make my move.

Argh.

If that's not an indication that I'm becoming a 'love-starved twit' (in the words of General Celes Chere), then I honestly don't know what. Or maybe the impending completion of the monthly lunar cycle added with the season's theme is making me too much susceptible to the lunacy that's been hounding me ever since we crossed paths...

Retraction.

2006-10-24T14:25:00.000+08:00

I don't know what to think anymore.

Or maybe I do, but everything seems to be one big mess inside my head that I don't know if thinking is even an option anymore. Anyway...

Truth hurts. It hurts a lot, even to a point where you just want to run away and hide from it...pretend that it doesn't even exist. Sometimes, truth also drives you crazy, because it tends to confuse you. You perceive with all your senses, so you assume that it's the real thing. Even the simplest act of glancing your way, every so often at that, must mean something, right? When you see him notice, wouldn't that mean that he cares, even for a bit? Then you get your hopes up, because some way, somehow, you believe that there's a chance that maybe, just maybe, you could be together.

Then again, though the truth sometimes eludes us, it's always there - direct and harsh, if it needs to be, and you're back to where you've started from - nothing. In the cloud of believing and feeling, you fail to realize that there's just too many possibilities and only one definite fact: there's nothing happening. You know you can break ground, but you don't want to. There's just too much of your self that you'll be risking to even consider making a move. When you do, you'd make sure that you'll have a positive answer. Anything else just won't cut it. Because you fear rejection. And you're almost sure that it's what you'd get for stepping over the line.

So you do what you've done since Cupid decided to grace you with his presence - nothing. And as you watch from the corner of your eyes...as you cross paths and swear that you feel the weight of his gaze on you, you don't wonder when you hear the distant sounds of a heart breaking.

And there's never a truth more cruel than that.

_________________________________________________________________________
Stuck here, humming out
Singing words I'll never get out of my head...

what it's like in real life

2006-10-23T19:00:00.000+08:00

Michaeline and I had a close encounter with two shady characters a while ago. We were walking along Bonifacio Street when we noticed these two guys tailing us suspiciously from behind. By the time we crossed the street in the hope of getting away from them, one of them had already followed us to the other side while the other one stayed where he was and was looking at us. I guess that was a sure signal that we should make a run for it, and we did! We weaved through the crowds in a desperate attempt to lose track of those guys, until we reached the mall, where the guard checks the bags of all those who are entering. We decided to wait out for a few minutes inside the restrooms, then we sent an SMS to our companions, telling them to just meet us at SM for lunch. We were so scared then, and I still feel a bit of the adrenaline rush that was pumping through my veins. It's a good thing that I already paid my tuition fee before that happened too.

Incidentally, it's not the first time that this thing happened when the two of us go out together. The first time, I caught a guy trying to get my cellphone from my pocket. That was when I accompanied Myke to a small parlor in one of the run-down buildings in the public market. There was another time when we had to walk fast enough because the man who was walking behind us kept on eyeing Myke's backpack.

Bad luck seems to catch up with me when I'm with her, but I've decided that I don't care. These kinds of experiences add a lot of tang into the cluttered normalcy of my life.

But if today were any indication, I think I'd better start being more careful with my stuff.

To Eternity and Beyond...

2006-10-05T20:21:00.000+08:00

A Countdown can either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you make it to be. There are those that evoke within you some sort of elated and giddy feeling, knowing how pleasant of a surprise the end is going to be. On the other hand, there are those that you dread...those that you keep wishing not to come even close to ending, because for sure, the end isn't exactly a happily ever after in a land of rainbows and chirping birds and crisp mornings with cool breezes. There might not even be a countdown at all, and things happen just the way they would, but that's only because you choose not to wait for them obsessively. Just let things happen and worry about what happens in the 'now'. Let the future worry about itself when it comes.

Like when there's only one day to go before the deadline on a school requirement...

...one day left before the final exams for this sem...

...an estimated three days left on your first sem calendar...

...and about five months to go before you go out into the world on your own.

Days continue passing by - slowly, quickly. It depends on how you make it to be. You realize that even if you seem to be the same old person you've been as a child, eight years ago, and in your second year in high school, you've grown - matured, if only for a bit. You realize that the people you've known throughout your life have, in their own way, broken free from the glass that you've kept them in your mind for so long...that the 'them' that you've foolishly and desperately believed them to be would only be a touch of who they really are. That the relationships you continue to severe yourself from, mend, and form are not the figures of another happy fairy tale you keep on foolishly believing.

And as countdowns come to a close, you think back on all your regrets...the 'what ifs' and 'should've would've could've' of everything. For a moment, your 59 seconds of fame isn't enough. For a moment, you wish that you could feel something and not hold back. For a moment, before the countdown ends, you wish that he knew and felt back.

But it's only a countdown, and you assure yourself that there's another day, another week, another month.

The world goes on, and we aren't going to get any younger.

And time continues to count its way down.

Palmful of Sunshine [part 3]

2006-09-14T23:25:00.000+08:00

The Second Week

MONDAY

We went back to the ward, and this time, I had a new patient, Kuya Tomasito, a patient with drug-induced schizophrenia. He was an aloof guy with authority problems and a tendency to become violent at random, and he also tends to burst out into random bouts of loud singing, which would sometimes be joined by Kuya Fernando, Kuya Victor, and some of the other patients in the ward. Straight enough though, I knew that he could care less about me being his student nurse during the remainder of our time there. Madz, Cha, and I brought with us some pictures to show them during our stay there. The new patient, Kuya Ben, for the most part, was really hesitant to answer, and it would seem like he's being bullied by Kuya Fernando and Kuya Tomasito. While my patient was obviously all right when it came to the answering, Kuya Fernando was obviously trying to avoid certain topics at some points. In the room, our groupmates were letting the patients draw on paper. I don't know if Mae Joy's patient was up for it, since he's always asleep, according to her. I think this was the day that they admitted a couple into the ward. I don't about the lady, but the guy was really out there, and was a real bully to boot. The Male 3 room admitted a patient who's having hallucinations about seeing St. Paul. That afternoon, we again went back to school for the case presentations.

TUESDAY

I celebrated my birthday with two other female patients in the ward. We also had another activity wherein we begin a sentence, and the patients have to complete them. It was fun while it lasted, but as usual, the two were having trouble concentrating on the activity, and got easily distracted by passing people and our groupmates outside. A bit irritating, if you ask me. Anyway, Kuya Fernando's story is a little sad, even if his mind is a little mixed up and all. He said that he had made up his mind that he'll stay with Tomasito's family when he gets the go signal to go out. He'll even do the laundry, cook the dishes, and clean the house and stuff...he said it could be better than what he experienced before in his home. Anyway, thanks to Kuya Fernando, the whole ward knew about my birthday faster than you could bat an eyelash. Result: I had to go treat the entire ward to some pancit and some juice! It came as a surprise that the first to sing me a 'Happy Bday' song were the people in the psych ward. That reason alone makes the event all the more special, no matter how cheesy that sounds.

WEDNESDAY

The Final Day. We only stayed in the ward for like, an hour and a half, just to give the morning medications and to terminate our working relationships with our patients. Kuya Victor was moved to our ward because the guy I was talking about earlier (I've forgotten what his name is) kept on harrassing him verbally and physically. Even though Kuya Victor was suicidal, I think he finally snapped and fought back, so he had to be transferred somewhere safer...our room. It was a good thing too, because when I got there, I found out that Kuya Tomasito was discharged already, so I had to look for another patient again. There was this new patient, who, incidentally, has been named Jesus again. In so far as affect and mood go, I think he was all right...a little disoriented and incomprehensible, but follows requests and commands when prodded enough. The only problem that I saw there was his mother. The mother came in packed with a nagging ang a bit domineering attitude, and constantly fusses over and scolding the guy for getting himself in his situation. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to know how much her presence aggravates Kuya Jesus. It was sad saying goodbye to our patients though. In a way, even if they're not in their right minds, there's still something uniquely different in the way that they are from the patients inside the hospital setting. Even if my grades are going to be low, I've enjoyed our duty really much, and I think that's what really matters.

After that, we ate at ...everything nice, a small shop across the highway. I don't know what our instructor's basis for pricing is, but I spent almost all of my allowance just to get something to eat, and it's not even that special-special! I bet my mom could even do a better dish than they do, though pizza is out of the question.

We wasted a couple more minutes in there, before heading out for school again for the case presentations. That afternoon found us gathering a small class of AHSE students for our research dissemination on music therapy. Midway through the presentation, I began to wonder whether or not we chose the right audience for the dissemination. I mean, 2nd years? Yeah, sure. But the more we discussed subtopics, the more it became clearer to me that maybe, it was not yet time for them to learn those things. Then again, if we had decided to disseminate the information to a bunch of high school students, I guess we'd have had a harder time to do things, wouldn't we? The class wasn't really passive...since they participated a little, and those who were asked to recite did so without hesitation. I remember my younger years, but all I can do is sigh. -_-;

In a nutshell, that was about it. The two weeks that were. If I were to get more detailed on the research dissemination ~~and on the way that I totally flunked my case presentation~~, this would prolly be a little longer than what should be. I don't even think that what I'm doing is all right, since I'm not making a novel here. :O Oh well.

__________________________________________________________________________________
I hear voices in my head...telling me I'm way behind my schedule. Eiichi.

Palmful of Sunshine [part 2]

2006-09-14T17:25:00.000+08:00

...I thought my other post was getting long, and I haven't even reached the meat of the topic yet, so I decided to cut the entry in two. :)

Anyway.

The First Week

MONDAY:
This has got to be the worst day of our rotation ever, but that figures since it's my first time being there and all. We entered the main entrance for the medical staff in the MH, and the first thing that I noticed was the smell. My friends who have been to the psych ward had warned me that the smell inside was really nauseating / horrible / putrid / aromatic / and the like, so I took it upon myself to be prepared for whatever may be there, but the smell that assaulted my senses wasn't really that bad. That's not to say it was nice though, because it's still not! We chanced upon what would be my only time to join the occupational therapy, a gathering of some of the psych patients to do activities and stuff, like dancing and singing. There, I got the chance to meet first-hand Kuya Victor, who is one of the most unforgettable faces in the ward, Kuya Everette, Kuya Roland, and Ate Josie(?). This is also the time that I got to meet my patient for my first two days in the area, the soft-spoken and withdrawn Kuya Jesus. During the afternoon, we went back to school and watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a film starring the then-young Jack Nicholson as the (never diagnosed)antisocial R.P. McMurphy.

TUESDAY
Nothing extraordinary happened this day. I only had a couple of minutes to interact with Kuya Jesus, and even then, I wasn't able to break into the quiet and withdrawn world that he surrounded himself in. Actually, he is pretty nice, and has the initiative to do some work inside their 'cell', like filling the water containers in the rest room during the morning, and at times, fixing and cleaning their area. He seemed pretty normal to me, but his answer to the question, 'If you were to be discharged from here, what do you plan on doing?' would scream at you that there's something wrong with him. This is also the day that I've finally been introduced to another of the ward's most unforgettable people, the manic and ever talkative Kuya Fernando. He's the reason why I didn't get the chance to discuss things with my own patient, after all. He made the three of us (Madz, Cha, and I) sit across from him and Kuya Rodrigo and then proceeded to interviewing each one of us while interjecting every now and then to tell his own story. It's from him that I learned the term, 'nagrorobot', which is used to describe the cramping and stiffening sensation in the patients' hands and feet due to their antipsychotic medications, (which, according to Kuya Fernando, is Serinase, which is something all of us haven't heard of yet). Kuya Victor is in the other room, and we would occasionally hear him sing his versions of songs such as 'Sing a Song', among others. According to my groupmate, Kuya Victor is good at math and the sciences, and though he isn't a genius in the area, he loves to draw. According to her again, he's bipolar with suicidal tendencies, so they have to look out for him all the time. I don't know much about the people in the female, isolation, and male 3 rooms for a number of reasons, so I can't tell anything much about them. :( You remember Kuya Ronald, right? I thought he was a depressed person because of the way he acts, but he's just like the rest of them pala. :D I've heard about Ate Jinky, but I'm bad at recognizing others when I don't see them at least 2 or 3 times. Meh. -_-;

WEDNESDAY

We weren't able to go to the MH because one of the groups were doing their research dissemination in that ward on that particular day. In addition to that, our clinical instructor left us during the morning half of our duty because her third year research group were having their defense at that time. All we did was have a character analysis of the main characters in the film we've watched before, then we watched Girl, Interrupted, a nice psychological film starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, who are on my top list of fave actresses. XD

To be continued...

Palmful of Sunshine... [part 1]

2006-09-14T14:37:00.000+08:00

It's exactly 20 years, 1 day, and 7 hours since I've been brought out into this world. Officially out of my teen years. Those years when the chemical and hormonal imbalances within my adolescent body reigned supreme over the puny existence of logic and reasoning in my brain.

Not like they're letting up any though.

My 20th birthday came and went without the excitement of a fireworks display, or the festivity of a great big town feast. It was only minimal to say the most...disappointing to say the least. Hell, you'd find it disappointing too, if two of your closest friends both forget to greet you for living another year on this Great Green Earth with them (and I'm still bitter about it). And the only thing that made it nothing but special was that I celebrated it in the Psych ward.

So yeah. Like I said before, we've had our two-week rotation (and the second to the last one this sem) in the Baguio Mental Hospital at the BGH area. When I was a younger nursing student, I've always dreamt of becoming a Psychiatric Nurse, in all honesty. It was either that, or become a Pediatric Nurse, I've said to myself a hundred times. When we were in third year and had our Peer Counselling rotation, I've wished desperately to be assigned to the Psych ward when I step up to fourth year. After that, other options seemed more open though, I've decided that I like Trauma Nursing and IV Therapy much better.

Then fourth year came. And I saw Psych ward in the areas that we were assigned to. It was a small feeling at first, but by the last week of August, that small feeling became a huge whale tossing itself inside my stomach as the date of our rotation drew nearer and nearer. It was then that I realized one thing: I did not want anything to do with the Psych ward. Ever.

So imagine my apprehension when we met each other (my groupmates and I, that is) outside the old building of the MH, where the patients are being housed in, since the new building has been deemed unfit until certain changes can be made ~~read: suicide-proof~~. We were held up for a good couple of 3 hours, since we were sharing our rotation time with another group, so by 10:00, we were all good and ready to go. And as I descended the stairs going to the MH's main entrance, the only thought in my head was, 'Damn, I don't want to do this.'

To Be Continued...

...the white rag wipes it away

2006-09-08T21:34:00.000+08:00

Oh noes, I'm turning into a blog addict! XD

Actually, the rant I've made earlier made me feel better and lighter somehow. I get a high from lashing out on no particular thing, it seems ~~except my really sucky life XD~~. To anybody who feels like I'm implying their involvement in the sorry mess that I am at the moment, really sorry. I'm not referring to anyone in particular when I made that post.

I was just reflecting on the emo thing I've said earlier, and I remembered a friend's post on her LJ account some time back:

Public Service Announcement to Emo Kids.
Take a breather. A few hours or so.

If you just wait long enough before actually posting or ranting or going 'woe is me my world/relationship/day/week/*insert here* is screwed forever', you can cut down your emo levels by even 90%.

Then you think 'was that really worth getting worked up over? how about now?', keep that mistake in a brain file, and go on with life as usual. And also gotta try your damned best not to let it happen again, because what's the point of building an AngstPac to eat your brain and other brains with and cause more CRAAAWLING IIIN MY SKIIIN if later you just do the same old crap?

And if it does? Take another breather. Odds are you'll learn your lesson just before the other party runs out of patience.

Slim down on emo! Live longer, healthier, calmer if not happier.

No way! Heh heh. I think she's telling the truth, and somehow, I think she's not, as well. I'm an overly angsty person deep down, but it doesn't happen often. I'm trying to run towards the brighter side of the fence, but for more emotionally involved people like me, that'd take a lot of effort, especially if your inner bully is as big as mine.

But I'm running towards it, anyway. That's the main point, right?

Either way, i don't really care. Fighting! Fighting!

the world in black-tinted glasses

2006-09-08T18:50:00.000+08:00

What's with me and my daily spammage of posts nowadays? XD

Oh well, anyway, I think I'm entering the zone of Fate's Twisted Humor at the moment. I believe I'm going to have a replay of the disastrous birthday I've had last year when I got frustrated over moronic trivial matters when I shouldn't have been. No really, I think I must have messed up somewhere along my miserable excuse of a life so I got this...this thing wrought out upon me.

I'm honestly scared for my life. Are my birthdays turning into one horrible event after another, or am I just being too cynical? I need someone to tell me, in all honesty...because there's only so much that I can take before I snap.

Crud. This post isn't me. This way of thinking doesn't become me either. I could be saying a couple of things right now, like, "F***, I'm not supposed to bring this up online," and, "Well, s***, I'm turning emo!" I'm not. Really. Only certain people ~~like Karl~~ can be emo and look cool while at it. I can't.

I'm rambling already. Kill me now.

__________________________________________________________________________________

My Death Sentence approaches: 4 DAYS

sleepless.

2006-09-08T04:36:00.000+08:00

I woke up early and then I can't fall back to sleep. It's also cold right now too~~but it's not because I'm wearing a light cotton tee and a pair of cotton shorts~~ >_<. What I wouldn't give to just crawl back under the covers and sleep a few more hours away... *wishful thinking*

Anyway, I did mention doing a survey a while ago, didn't I? I got it from Verena, one of my former schoolmates back in elementary and high school, since she migrated to the U.S. right after our graduation. Gah...I'm getting goosebumps from hearing the DJ on the radio do some rap. Not bad, really...but I don't know...it's not good either? Ahahaha...

This quiz has 85 questions. Here's what you're supposed to do....and DON'T spoil the fun. Copy this entire bulletin and paste it onto a new bulletin that you will send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you.

The theory is that you will learn a lot of little known facts about those who know you.

1. Start Time: 4:53 a.m.

2. Name: Evita Mae

3. Nickname: eiichi, eviichi, evitz...among others. Take your pick.

4. Astrology sign: Virgo

5. Gender: Femme

7. Hair color: black, dark brown, white

8. Eye color: dark brown
.
9. Height: 5'4"

10. Favorite color/s: blue, cream, apple green, dark red, baby pink, silver

11. Glasses: I don't wear those. :D

13. tattoos: If I'm going to get one, I want to have a pair of wings done on my back...just like Hyde's. XD

14. Birthplace: Baguio City

15. Area code: 2600

16. Siblings: 2

******HAVE YOU EVER*****

17. cut your own hair? yeah...

18. Done something in the past month that you regret? I think I did. :O

19. Have you ever met someone you were not supposed to? What is that supposed to mean?

21. Skipped school? Not really...if you don't count the times we joined the school-wide pep rally last year.

22. Bungee jumped? I don't think I can handle it. x_x

24. Punched someone? yeah...but we were just playing around. =P

25. Cheated on someone? technically...yeah.

26. Been arrested? nope

27. Broken into someones house? My conscience won't allow me to do that... :D

30. Been rejected? job screening, research, ideas...yeah. And it hurts too. :(

31. Been to a funeral? yeah.

32. Used a lighter? yup. once.

*****FAVORITE*****

34. Season: winter, I guess.

36. Ice cream flavor: cookie dough! *_*

37. School subject(s): english, history, philosophy

38. Candy: I like a lot of candies... :O

39. Breakfast: what a typical morning meal should be...

41. Book(s): classics, novels by a couple of authors (who will remain unnamed because I don't want to browse my personal library for their names), manga, graphic novels

42. Movie(s): I usually gravitate towards movies of the comedy, sci-fi, mystery, epic, and (Asian) action genres. Romance is okay, but I tend to be fickle about the pairing involved.

43. Song(s): I like a *lot* of songs. I don't like listening much to country, heavy metal, rap, or jazz though.

44. Sport to watch on TV: lawn tennis, (Spanish/Italian) futbol, and wrestling , though I know it's not real and all. :O

50. Letter(s): J, M

51. Favorite fast food restaurant: no particular fave.

52. Disney Princess: Aurora. XD Ariel was just annoying.

53. TV station? again, no particular fave

54. Name for a son: Jude Guevrel...might change later on. XD

55. Name for a daughter: Ren Shizuka...might change as well. :D

******DO YOU PREFER*****

56. Chocolate or Vanilla? chocolate

57. Alcoholic or non? depends

58. relationships or one night stands? relationships, of course.

60. Scary movies or comedies? comedies, provided they're not totally mindless or crude.

61. Short or long hair? on what? guys? doesn't matter.

62. Croutons or bacon bits? depends

******FIRST THING THAT COMES TO MIND******

64. Mexicans in general: I think of tacos, so my thoughts are invalid. ^^

65. School: a big looming institution with a lot of students milling about.

66. Grass: green weeds with dew

67. Cow: milk

68. Canada: the maple leaf on their flag

69. Mouse: Twiggy!!! ;_;

70. Hand: writing

******THE PAST 3 DAYS, HAVE YOU******

71. Watched a movie? yeah. we have had movie marathons during our psyche duty. nyeh. :P

72. Talked on the phone? yep...did all the calling, so my load's about to go. :(

73. Cried? shed some tears, but not cried *cried*

74. Choked? nope

75. Drank a glass of water? yeah

76. Done Drugs? nope.

77. Read a book or magazine? I did.

78. Watched TV? yes

79. Looked in the mirror? yes. It's a ritual, you know.

80. Taken a shower? daily. no point missing a day. -_-;

81. Taken a picture? yeah. :D

82. Listened to music? I always listen to music...

83. Kissed someone? nope..

84. Told someone you liked them? ...I don't think I have.

85. end time: 5:21 a.m. Too slow, aren't I? XD

I'd better go down now and take a shower. Signing off~

The Call.

2006-09-07T09:03:00.000+08:00

I'm on a break right now, after our first week duty in the Psych Ward of BGH, but I'll get to that next week, after the whole rotation is over over, you know. I think it's much better that way. That said, since I have a lot of time in my hands at the moment, I've decided to post another God-forsaken survey (XD) some time later. I know...kinda sucks, doesn't it? And here you expected an entry with at least half a mind to it. Oh well.

I've been reading my last entry (the review on Peach Girl) and it really mortifies me to find so many typos in there. I feel so ashamed of myself, ahaha... *is really sorry*

As all of you may already know, Steve Irwin, of Crocodile Hunter fame, was killed in an accident while shooting for a documentary on marine wildlife. I admit I have never been a fan of the kind of shows that he does (that is, wildlife documentaries), since I'm more into humanities and the other mysterious aspects of the universe. I have tried watching those shows though, not just his ~~since we don't have Discovery Channel because of the stupid, moronic cable company known as SkyCable, dammit!~~, and I admire people like him who continue doing what they do even though they know how dangerous of a work it is. I was moved to tears while watching a tribute to Steve Irwin on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. No matter how weird it may seem that he always hangs out with 'the wild', or how nasty a few people think of him, he would always be someone who I think would be remembered by the majority as one of the few who opened up a new path for people to view Nature as she is. All his detractors could go on assuring their delusional selves of their smug 'victory' and rot in hell for all I care. For all we care.

I find myself agreeing with Jay Leno's statement after they showed several clips from some episodes where they had Irwin as a guest. In the end, Steve Irwin died doing what he enjoyed doing best - being in the wild with all the life Mother Nature has to offer.

Stephen Robert Irwin
(February 22, 1962 - September 4, 2006)
You will be missed.

___________________________________________________________________

And counting: 5 DAYS

I'm Not Just Tan, You Meanie!

2006-09-02T11:21:00.000+08:00

I'm back with a review. This one's an anime show, appropriately entitled, Peach Girl, after the heroine, Momo-chan, who sports bleached hair and a tan darker than the usual Japanese skin color, which causes her to be marked as one of the girls - those who party hard and apparently have no real personality where academics and social graces are concerned - when in fact, she got it from being one of the best swimmers out there.

So, no. I wasn't able to watch each and every episode of Peach Girl, what with my busy schedule and all. It was shown on the local network for some time, and it took me a rerun of the show to watch it, due to my good friend's urges. Even then, I missed ~~almost all~~ most of the episodes to really be knowledgeable about what Peach Girl is in general. Heck, I haven't even read the manga, so even if the more well-versed people deem the manga version to be exponentially greater than the anime, I could care less, until I can find the motivation to pick up a copy and read it for myself. That aside, more info on this series can be gleaned here.

THE REVIEW:

Peach Girl is a shoujo anime that has some fresh points and some not-so-fresh points. For one, it features the usual ~~high school~~ girl torn between two guys who are total polar opposites of each other. However, Momo is a bit more different in her appearance alone. While most shoujo heroines tend to be shy and really girly in nature, she is more upfront and brash, though we all know that deep within, she's still the girl we know she really is. I've said earlier that Sae is pretty much annoying during most parts of the show, truly a character that one would love to hate. However, she starts redeeming herself well towards the end of the show, maybe because she also have found a love of her own, in the form of Kairi's older brother, Ryo. Toji had been a flat and boring character all throughout the series, but I've got to give credit where it is due. Toji is supposed to be the perfect gentleman, and although he is annoyingly gullible at times, I appreciate him for his kindness and his self-sacrificing and self-giving ways, though Kairi also has the self-giving part down pat. I feel that Kairi is more deserving than Toji, since he supported Momo through the thick and thin of it all, his only fault being that he only admitted that he liked Nurse Misao when he and Momo got together. I feel sort of bad for Toji though. If only there were two Momo's... XD
Characters: 4/5

The plot was ok. Like I said, it's what one would expect of a shoujo anime. However, I can't help but feel that there are a couple of loose ties hanging by the end of the show. Whatever became of Sae and Kairi's brother anyway? We are only treated to a scene of Ryo browsing through a site of how to take care of a baby, which is, by the way, a bit nonsensical. What do you need to be browsing the net regarding pointers for, anyway? I thought nursing a child is an instinctual thing...and supposed to be learned from parents or other health workers available. Anyway! I'm happy that *HEAVY SPOILER OF DOOM!!!* (highlight to read:) Kairi and Momo got together at the end, but I'm not satisfied with the way they presented it. There was no transition where Momo's feelings are concerned. From an objective point of view, it would seem that Momo is a selfish and weak character who can't make up her mind. I also don't like the way that by the end of the series, the two boys have become emotional trainwrecks over one girl. I guess that's what love does to you. I dunno.
Plot: 3.5/5

I'm not fond of the style of animation used in Peach Girl. While I understand that Peach Girl was based off a manga, and most manga art are difficult to transform into fluid anime art, it doesn't change my opinion that the animation could have been better. I don't know, there's something off when the boys start becoming to look like girls, the girls sometimes look like boys, the character design varies from time to time if you look closely, and the only norm there is is Sae.
Animation: 3.5/5

Because I haven't watched the series faithfully, I feel like wouldn't have anything much to say music-wise. I'm an avid music lover, and I feel that music can totally contribute to the atmosphere in the particular scene. The absence of it does too, but that's another matter already. Anyway, based on what little I've watched, I could say that the music is not particularly outstanding, but there are certain keypoints in the story wherein they've made use of the right music. Good one.
Music: 3.5/5

THE VERDICT:
Peach Girl gets from me a 14.5 out of 20, or 7.25 out of 10, if I'm not mistaken. It's a soap opera in the making: only that it's high school personalities involved, and not grown men and women and their long-lost people-turned heroes or lovers. The series could have used a bit more development and exploration in terms of history and feelings, but it's not as if they could go back and change how it is, right? Overall, this is recommended for those who are into shoujo type anime, with a lot of villainy in the first parts and Kleenex-inducing moments in the last.

Zoom~

2006-08-31T20:43:00.000+08:00

Today was a good day. Had our last duty at the SLU OR, so I guess it'd be all right to say that I really will miss being on duty there. It's where I got 99% of my major and minor cases anyway, and it's the only OR I've been rotated to ever since third year, but I'm repeating myself. XD

.

Anyway, Mitz and I didn't get the Exploratory Lobotomy with possible Nephrectomy case since the patient had low PTPA levels...so we had to settle for the emergency CS which came in 2 hours after we had scrubbed and donned our surgical gowns. Until then, we had to wait for the PTPA results to come in. The resident doctor (who's related to me somehow, like both of us believe) was shaking his head, and telling us that the procedure was not going to pull through. Hell, even the uber hyper and ~~goodlooking~~ resident anesthesiologist was poking fun at us both for waiting forever for the case to start. Not that I'm complaining though. I got my 59 seconds of schoolgirl bliss because of that...not to mention that he kept on ~~coming onto~~ pestering us well after our duty hours were over XD. I'm allowed to dream, aren't I? :DD I think I owe Mae Joy, my groupmate, a lot. ^_^

~~

On a sidenote, here are several scans from the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, which was already released in Japan for the PS3. Damn. It makes me want to have the console now so badly! =_=

~~

Days left before my financial status ups a bit more: 13 DAYS. Me wants the PS3!!!

2006-07-27T20:28:00.000+08:00

You Are A Weeping Willow Tree

You are a dreamer, and you're into almost any kind of escapism.

Restless and capricious, you love to travel to exotic places.

You are easily influenced by others, as long as they don't pressure you.

You tend to suffer in love until you find that one loyal, steadfast partner.

An empathetic friend, you love to make others smile and laugh.

What's Your Celtic Horoscope?

Crap.

I almost got this posted last night, but somewhere between editing and the saving post, the entire entry got deleted, so I have to do it again. x_X;

Anyway, I watched Acoustic Idols Season 3 at SM Baguio yesterday, together with some of our groupmates. It was my first time attending a musical competition (apart from the recitals we've been to before in Musar), so I guess I was a bit hyped up for the experience, especially since I've already heard the bands' originals on K-Lite, one of the city's local radio stations. I guess I was pretty much psyched for it, enough for my other three companions, that is, since I would think that they'd much rather want to be some place else, judging from their gestures and...nonverbal cues? XD

All seven finalists were good, though some could need a few more improvements in their performances. I couldn't remember all of them unfortunately, and I don't even know the correct spelling of the names of those I do, but I do recall all of those bands who have performed well. I don't know, but I guess there is something about the people here in Baguio being passive and all when it comes to this kind of events. Artists should definitely know that they should not be expecting a million of screaming and adoring fans throwing flowers, rice grains, and themselves at their feet, doing anything to their bidding. No, Baguio is way too level-headed for that kind of worship. The most that they can expect is a few screaming ~~which is more often than not some way to poke fun at the artist~~ from some people, who are more often than not, not really fans ~~but attention-seeking asses~~. So when the dj's-slash-emcees ask the audience from all four floors of the mall for some active participation, they might as well go talk to a wall.

From the first down to the last group who performed during the competition:

I don't remember the name of this group, actually. It sounds a bit like Exodus, or Exodia, or even Obscura, but I'm not rightly sure. All I know is that the vocalist looks like, sings like, and acts like Bamboo, from the kick-ass band of the same name. He got the act right down pat, but Aubrey, one of my companions, was suspecting that he was using make-up to resemble Bamboo's natural...eyebags. *sweatdrops*
(+): The band performed well enough, and their style generates a laidback sort of atmosphere, like everyone is in a cozy little room, drinking cups of coffee and just chilling out, instead of freezing their asses out in an open area, standing until their leg veins become distended, just to watch these artists do their thing.
(-): The vocalist, in my opinion, is trying just too hard. He isn't, and won't be Bamboo, no matter how hard he tries, but it's still good to say that he does have talent enough. No amount of impersonation would get me to like him that much though. *lol* Plus, his speech before beginning their original song, though insightful, was a bit unnecessary. Statements like, 'You should know who your true friends are', and 'I found out that some of my friends aren't loyal/true to our friendship', are bound to receive much reaction, which would probably last until after the contest has ended. It's like getting your feelings out to the open only to be buried by them a while later. Anyway, I get where he's coming from, so no biggie.
I think the name of this group is J-Jam (which is exactly how it sounds like), with a cute (and petite) singer up front.
(+): J-Jam generates a sort of happy and poppy feel from their style of playing. I have the feeling that should they continue with their life as musicians and Japanese producers would get hold of them, they might make it big in the JPop scene, although technically, they are Filipino, so the argument is invalid. XD Their style of play is reminiscent of that of Barbie's Cradle, another defunct pop/rock band with a girlie vocalist, which in a way, is a bit cute. They also had a rather lively performance...for their part. As I've said earlier, you cannot get people from Baguio to really be passionate about something as trivial as a musical competition. Go figure.
(-): Just like the first band, this group tries hard without the usual measure of success. Maybe the vocalist was just being nervous so she was hyper while being stiff at the same time. Maybe it's just me when the bassist was starting to be hyper on stage as well. There's actually nothing wrong with them, but their performance style was something that only artists who are assured that they actually have fans would pull off. So, all the whoo-ing and waving/clapping of hands and strutting on the platform? Out of the question. Actually, I feel sort of concerned that midway through their gig, the girl started having the voice quality of Ms. Hikaru Utada - meaning getting all wavery and nervous. Overly hyper is one thing. Getting nervous all of a sudden in the middle of the presentation might have been the final trigger to seal them off the top list, it seems.
This is the actual band whose name I absolutely cannot recall. All of them look like they're into their late 20's, but I could very well be wrong. :D
(+): This band is actually okay. I like their two vocalists' voice as well. Their bassist did a nice cover of one of Creed's songs, but I don't remember what it was. ^^; Their original song also had a very nice melody to it.
(-): ...but they so lack the spark that makes musicians charismatic to their target audience, IMHO. Also, while their original composition may have a nice melody to it, the music drowned out the singer's words, so that we couldn't understand more than half of it.
Entablado was up next, complete with their duet vocalists: a boy and a girl.
(+): The guitars were great, especially considering the fact that this group is the only group in the finals to have a majority composed of female members. Rosemarie, one of my former highschool schoolmates, is one of the two vocalists in the group, and I daresay that she has a really good singing voice, as well as mad guitar skills I haven't seen in quite a while from someone from our Alma Mater.
(-): I dislike their male vocalist. If we'd compare their group to the pogirock band, Cueshe, he would be the band's lead vocals. Cueshe's lead has all charm, little contribution to the group. This time though, this guy doesn't possess that much charm, and I can't seem to appreciate the way he sings, no matter how hard I try. He has an okay voice, but still, it wouldn't hurt for him to have decent stage presence, right? Oh well. I guess we couldn't change that one thing. Also, I find that their song, "Salisihan", to be a bit shallow. So, ok, they're telling a story there with the thematic tragic meeting...but that doesn't make the message any better than how I interpreted it to be. I'm going to stop there, in case someone will object to how I wrote it out. I'm just going to add or change this altogether as I see fit...if people are going to comment, that is. :)
Rewind was up next on the list, and from their entrance alone, you could tell that they're a reggae group...a large one at that, composing of about 6 members, as I remember.
(+): I actually like this group. One could tell that there is something different about them the moment they stepped on stage. It's almost as if they're already professionals and not starting bands/groups like the rest of the participants. The vocalist alone possesses an aura that gives him much power while onstage. I think they practiced well and good for the event...that or they're naturally good at what they do. Their performance was laidback goodness as well, almost reminding one of lazy sunsets on the beach while serenading a loved one with a lighthearted love song. It also helps that most of the members of this group are good-looking as well ~~especially the guy with glasses who was playing one of the guitar~~. XDDD!
(-): I'm too distracted by the guy wearing glasses to notice anything negative about this group. *lol* Well, actually, Rewind oozes so much with self-assurance that they might come off as overbearing and elitist-like to some. Or maybe they just feel strongly for their music...just like all those characters in anime. (> <,)

6. Agi was undoubtedly the people's favorite from the seven. I actually have high expectations for this four-man band, since their original composition, 'Malasmas', has been at the top K-Lite's Daily Dozen program for quite a while now.
(+): And they didn't fail to deliver. The group has that certain charm that makes them a hard hit with the audience, and the song that they chose for the first part of the competition (Bob Marley's No Woman, No Cry), generated a favorable reaction from all the onlookers. Suddenly, you'd see people swaying and singing along with the vocalist, which, in the City of Indifference, is quite a feat in itself.
(-): They don't have much when it comes to the overall presentation of the group. No, they're not ugly or anything, but there's something plain about them, and I think it's a barrier to how much they can perform and how far they can go.

To cut it short, the winner of the event was Rewind, followed by Agi in second place. It was a good competition -- people enjoyed themselves well, and the music can be enjoyed by almost anybody. I'm hoping the next Acoustic Idol will pack a punch like this one~!

Yo-Ho-Ho! (And a Bottle of Rum!)

2006-07-14T19:01:00.001+08:00

You've Got Captain Jack Sparrow's Eyes! You've Seen So Much Of The World, And Lost Many Friends And Dear Posessions.
Take this quiz!

The country has been struck with one of the biggest storms of the year, bearing the name of Florita, though I don't know what it will be called when it enters another territory. That said, classes and duty hours had been suspended for the past two days, plus this day, plus tomorrow, since we'd be celebrating Cordillera Day here in the uplands of the North. XD It's safe to say that pretty much two thirds of the residents of the city were tucked in the safety of their homes, enjoying hot cups of coffee/choco/milk/whatever, or else burrowed underneath their blankets, dreaming their days away. I got tired of staying at home though, especially since there had been no electricity for the past 48 hours, or if there is, it had been fluctuating, so it's as good as gone. My mates called up so we could watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest together, and since I was about to rot from boredom ~~and it's just crazy to not watch one of Johnny Depp's movies~~, I quickly agreed to come, regardless of the downpour and the slight howling of the wind outside. My brother and I arrived at the mall about two hours after the agreed time of meeting due to some problems, so we came upon almost midway of the movie.

Again, be warned that the following paragraphs may contain spoilers, so if you don't want to know how things go without watching the flick for yourselves, then you can at least skip the next paragraph...or this entry altogether. XD

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest basically picks up where Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl left off, with Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) regaining control of his ship, the Black Pearl, after the mishaps of the first movie. The first parts of the movie shows us an interrupted wedding belonging to Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). Apparently, they, together with the Commodore James Norrington (Jack Davenport) from the prequel, are being arrested for 'helping a wanted man escape' from his crimes, which are punishable by death. Nonetheless, the officer behind the arrest (and I'm not going to be nice enough to get his name :P) takes Turner aside to offer him, Elizabeth, and Jack a chance at freedom: he must retrieve Jack's compass at any cost...but he does not reveal as to why he wants the compass to himself, when we all know that the compass doesn't even point to the north, like it's supposed to.

Back to the Black Pearl, we see a drunken Jack searching for rum below the decks of his ship late at night. Suddenly, he sees an 'apparition' of an old friend, Bill Turner, who warns him that he is coming for him, and before disappearing, leaves a mark on the palm of Jack's left hand. Jack is obviously distressed about this, and soon enough, he discovers that the legendary Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), captain of the Flying Dutchman is on his heels, adamant on him paying up a debt from long ago. Now, he only has three days to harvest ninety nine souls, or be eternally damned to the afterlife. Things get worse when the former Commodore Norrington shows up as a crewmate of the Black Pearl, and officials start coming after the Turner couple, who are once again drawn into Sparrow's world...this time, with a lot more than their reputation on the line.

PotC:CotBP was a damn great movie, and PotC:DMC isn't a far-cry from it. It spans about 2 hours and a half of movie-viewing goodness, which surprised me a bit, because I had no idea the movie was that long. The story doesn't really drag on, or progress slowly - it goes straight to the point, with only a few comedic reliefs in between. That's not to say that the movie was entirely serious though. It's a balance of action, adventure, and comedy put together in one big fantasy movie, although it's more noticeably bloodier and gorier than its predecessor.

The characters were ok. Johnny Depp once again shines in his portrayal of the odd and absolutely lovable Captain Jack Sparrow, but the other actors did great as well. The idea of having Davy Jones, complete with his armada of sea men-turned sea creatures, was a bit too big of an idea for me to swallow at first though. I mean, undead pirates, I can handle, but actual sea creatures come to human life? Then again, I didn't know that pirates could cover a fourth of the globe so as to come across the cursed Aztec gold pieces...the Caribbeans must have been a ripe haven of all kinds of tales of the sea. That, or the writers must have fit what their imagination can feed them to create the plots for the two movies. I also don't know how Orlando Bloom's acting could be wooden, but maybe I wasn't paying attention enough. Keira Knightley was ok...I really admire her for her non-woman skills (not meant as an insult), because I believe not everyone can pull it off just like she does. Hurray for girl power! \(^o^)/ I just don't like her character, Elizabeth Swann, a lot. She's cool and all, but she keeps hitting on Jack Sparrow too damn much!

Sorry, that was my Johnny Depp fangirlism talking. XP

One thing leads to another, I guess. ***BIG SPOILER OF DOOM***It's Elizabeth's meddling with Sparrow after all that leads to his demise at the tentacles of the Kraken near the end of the movie. ***/END BIG SPOILER OF DOOM***

The comedy, though there are a few subtle jokes here and there, didn't fail to deliver, and that's especially true with Johnny Depp, and his antics as the infallible Captain of the Black Pearl. There are a lot of swashbuckling action and then some, and some of these fight scenes also have the tendency to lean on the more humorous side than otherwise. The final scene with Sparrow and the Kraken is by far my most favorite scene of all. It's a shame that I don't have a pic to show it though. It's just that I find the way Sparrow stands and attacks when the Kraken bares its fangs(?) really inspiring. My take is that while he had been running from his fears the whole course of the movie, he charges head-on, without fail, to the unknown in the end. A probable sign that people ought not to underestimate the depth of Sparrow's character.

So...the movie is nice. However, it is notable that we don't know where half of the story comes from. We don't know why there seems to be some sort of treachery in the English government, leading to Turner and Swann's arrest. We don't know why the officer is interested in acquiring Sparrow's compass, or how the compass actually works - only that it points to what one's heart desires the most. Why does the compass point to Sparrow when Elizabeth holds the compass? Is it because Sparrow is her key to Turner, or something else...? What exactly is Sparrow's debt to Davy Jones? A~and...surprise, surprise - how did Captain Barbossa come back to life at the end of the film? I was bothered by the fact that the movie ends with Barbossa sneering at Sparrow's fallen crew, uttering the words, 'So tell me, what has become of my ship?' I was, like, at the edge of my seat with excitement, waiting for the reactions from the rest of the crew, when the credits began rolling. WTH?! Anyway, I hope all those questions would be answered come June or July next year. According to some sources, the finale to this movie trilogy was shot back-to-back with this movie, so we don't have to wait for another three years or so to find out what would become everyone's favorite pirate. Until then, we would have to content ourselves with the fact that the tale is far from over.

Score? 8 out of 10.

Additional review articles could be found here and here. Looking straight for a negative review? Look here

-------------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth: "There will come a moment when you have the chance to do the right thing"
Jack: "I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by."

Love Is a Force of Nature

2006-07-07T21:52:00.000+08:00

Mocha Frappuccino

Hyper and driven, you'll take your caffeine any way you can get it. Frappuccinos are good, but you'd probably chew coffee beans in a crunch!

What Flavor Frappuccino Are You?

Before anything else, here's something I got off from a LiveJournal comment box on a supposed rumored sequel to the anime Gundam Seed: Destiny:

....................
(Anonymous)
2006-06-17 09:42 am UTC (link)
kei minato star is crap/bluff kira was da ultimate coordinator where da hell is he come bak n steal da show!anyways where did this so called idea of gse found from n wtf with da names there so dahn crap gundam splasher-_- good luk trying out for name school n go athxcag let c it progress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: ....................
stellar_gsd
2006-06-17 01:38 pm UTC (link)
My guess you are Filipino ? As an anonymous user ?

Re: ....................
(Anonymous)
2006-06-25 06:59 am UTC (link)
yup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh. My. God.

I know I'm not an expert on spelling and grammar, as I do get my fair share of typos and grammatical errors once in a while, but please, the next time you post something as trashy as that, then don't go out acting like it's normal to talk like a retard drunk machine...and then admit that you're a Filipino. I don't care if I'm trampling on everyone's right to express themselves, but I really really think that there's something wrong with the conversation above. Doesn't it sound like the question was meant to be an insult? Sheesh. The fact that you feel strongly about something (as with the Anonymous poster's case) doesn't mean that you have to totally lose sight of correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, and ugh...the thought of the post just makes my blood boil...! ~_~x Congratulations on having created another way of speaking, but I don't think anybody here in the country would accept it and proudly flag it as our own. Please. Go get a dictionary or something. They were made for a reason, you know.

With that said, I will now proceed to my review on the movie, Brokeback Mountain , which was released some time last year. I know there had been a lot of mixed responses from audiences of all kinds, but all of them were strong ones. The movie had been the butt of jokes to some, and I saw it myself, since I used to watch The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, before schoolwork whacked me upright on the head for not paying too much attention to it. Why wouldn't it be though? I mean, the movie is about gay cowboys, for crying out loud! Not only about gay cowboys who can't seem to get it into themselves to tell each other that they love...them, but gay cowboys who get it on at the heat of the moment...you get the idea. Even now, I imagine that you must have some really strong opinion on the matter as you read along this humble piece of review material. However, if you're looking for someone who'll share your sentiments at how terrible the film was, literally and figuratively, then you're looking in the wrong place. Brokeback Mountain was one helluva movie.

The film was actually adapted from the short novel by Annie Proulx, but since I don't have an idea on what it's about, or who the author is, then I'm not going to delve into the matter. The next paragraphs may contain spoilers, so don't read if you don't want anything spoiled for you, right? Highlight the following spaces to read the half-finished summary. :)

Basically, it's about two cowboys, the rancher, Ennis del Mar, as played by Heath Ledger, and the rodeo cowboy, Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who were paired up for a job herding(?) sheep during the summer of 1963 in the mountains of Wyoming. Things go well, until one night, when something broke between the two, and we are treated to a short gratuitous 'scene'. Of course, these kinds of things don't go by without the dreaded 'morning after', and we find our two heroes denying what happened the night before - or at least we see it from Ennis - only to find him coming up to Jack that night, like a lost child seeking for the comfort of a loved one, thus establishing what seemed to be a more than platonic relationship between the two of them. Summer ends though, and before they knew it, they had to part ways, once again suppressing what's inside them. Ennis gets married to his fiancee, Alma (Michelle Williams), and they have two kids, both girls. Meanwhile, we see Jack driving up again to the office of the local rancher (Randy Quaid), but was immediately turned down..prolly because the rancher saw them frolicking about while they were at the Brokeback Mountains. He goes back to rodeo, and meets Lureen (Anne Hathaway), and they have a son together. They both continue on with their lives, until one day, when Alma hands Ennis a postcard from someone named Jack. Ennis eagerly takes it, then learns that Jack wants to come over at a certain date (which I can't remember...heheh). When he sees Jack's truck pull up at the driveway days later, he hurriedly runs out and embraces Jack, and, in a fit of passion, kisses him hard. This does not go well as Alma soon opens the door and suddenly sees the two outside. Here on starts the trials the two would undergo while trying to keep what they have alive. It ultimately leads to a bittersweet tragedy, with Ennis left alone at the end, with nothing left but the memories and Jack's shirt and his from their young summer days in the Brokeback Mountain of 1963.

I honestly can't find the correct words to describe how I feel about this movie. Obviously enough, as some of you know by now, I actually support this kind of relationship. Heath and Jake, oddly enough, fit the roles of the stoic, tied-down rancher, and the loving, amiable rodeo cowboy. With their Texan accent though, even though it was done well, I had some difficulty understanding some of their words because they come off as garbled to me at times, especially on Heath's part. I thought I was listening to a paralytic during the first parts of the movie, although it became a bit better later on. I especially love how Jake Gyllenhaal portrayed Jack Twist as a dreamer who wears his heart on his sleeves. His eyes are the most expressive eyes I've ever seen, and the way emotions seem to pour out of them just moves me to tears, especially during the part where he watches Ennis leave for the last time, before he dies. Damn...just remembering that scene moves me to tears.. ;_; Their partner actresses played well too, though I don't know whether I should pity them because their husbands do not really like them, or irritated, because they're also the reasons why Jack and Ennis can't get the ending they deserve. In a way, Heath's character is a bit unlikeable as well, since his personality is too stoic and stiff...not yielding in to what his heart would have desired until it was too late.

I admit that the first thing that came to my mind before watching this was boy love, but I was not prepared for what I saw...and believe me when I say that I've seen enough. O_O! It was really not that explicit, but the act was there, and I fear that I had just lost my innocence forever. What's left of it anyway. XD I wonder how the two actors were able to go through the whole film doing those kinds of things? I give them credit for that one.

Another point worth mentioning is that the film is full of symbols. From the clothes, down to the last scene, there are a lot of speculations on the implications of these symbols. Ang Lee must feel very proud of himself. The famous last words, "Jack, I swear..." has also raised a lot of questions as well, but I think I have to agree with what was said that it could have been Ennis's outpouring of emotions, and not meant to be continued at all. Other topics worth discussing could be found here.

All in all, I really like Brokeback Mountain. Though I don't approve of tragic endings, I find that it seemed rather fitting for the movie, though they could've just kept Jake alive so the idea that they would be together won't be too far off. In the end, I was left thinking that maybe if Ennis had been truer to his feelings, then maybe they could've worked something out. I think that what they had wasn't just a one-time thing, because if it were, then they wouldn't have stayed together for 20 years, would they? Maybe Ennis was just afraid of the social consequences of letting the world know of the bond they shared. As he said during the early chapter of the movie, their father made them see the corpse of a cowboy who was living with another man, and that, in itself, must've been a terrifying experience for him. So when he learns of Jack's death through Lureen, the scene of Jake being beaten by a couple of rednecks must have come to Ennis's mind because of what he experienced as a child. That, or maybe his imagination held a ring of truth to it.

The movie had been really heartbreaking until the end. If I could glean any morals from it, one of them is to seize every opportunity as they come, before it's too late. Ennis only comes to a closure about his feelings towards Jack when Jack was already long gone. As in the movie, Eight Below, the saying, "You've got to take chances for the things you care for", applies here as well. Nothing could ever be gained if you continue to hold back, only to regret everything later on. As I said earlier, I really don't have any issue about homosexual tendencies and relationships ~~because I'm already a fangirl~~, so I wasn't bothered a bit...except during the make-out scenes...since it was my first time to actually see one. XD The emotional impact it has is totally...out there. I swear the tears won't stop coming once they started...and they started about thirty minutes into the movie.

So, if you want a good-old romance movie with a bit of a twist, and with a not-so-happy ending, then I recommend you go watch this movie now. I give it 9.5 out 10, only because the themes are not really suitable for everyone. That shouldn't hinder you from watching it though. :)

Other reviews and whatnots here, here, and here.

“You’re too much for me, Ennis. I wish I knew how to quit you...” - Jack Twist

Trekking isn't a walk in the park [part 2]

2006-07-06T22:30:00.000+08:00

You Are Teal Green

You are a one of a kind, original person. There's no one even close to being like you.

Expressive and creative, you have a knack for making the impossible possible.

While you are a bit offbeat, you don't scare people away with your quirks.

Your warm personality nicely counteracts and strange habits you may have.

What Color Green Are You?

I'm a really really bad person. Here I am, updating my entry as I've said I would though. ~~Did I tell you anything about doing it a day after? No? Well, I thought so.~~ Unfortunately, since a week has passed since the really fun part of our trip, I don't think I'll be able to retain everything from my memory bank, because my brain isn't exactly reliable when it comes to remembering things. The time I'm writing this entry is when our community is over-over...meaning I'm back in Baguio for good. Well, at least until the next community duty anyway. :P

Stories! I think I have a lot of them, but I'm already anticipating that I'll lose interest just as quickly at midway. I do have short attention span, after all, and much as I'd like to change that one fact, I can't. It's just another way of heaven's saying that my life is one screwed-up mess. But that's digressing from the point already.

So. Last week. It wasn't as tiring as our first week, when we ~~were forced~~ had to go to Lower Botiao for our ocular survey. Just to give you all an idea on how Botiao is, it's at the foot of the mountains. Our starting point is at the top of the mountain. The pic you see to your right was taken just a bit midway to where we were supposed to go. There was one particular incident that happened during the way, but it's nothing you should know about. :DDD Forget I even mentioned that. XD *clears throat* Anyway, see that hilltop at the middle to the right that looks cleaned out? That's our destination. It's no wonder that the local people wore incredulous and amused and pitying looks their faces when they heard that we were going there. The whole trip actually confirms what I've been fearing ('not fearing...anxious!,' I can hear our Philosophy instructor's voice reverbating inside my head) for a long time - heights. Don't get me wrong, I do love being in high places. It's when I'm near the edge and can see what's below that my brain shifts to reverse hypermode, and then the insane urge to back down and flee kicks in. Hmm...actually, I think it's not the height that I'm afraid of, but the thought of falling itself.

For the record, I fell down flat on my bum three times, lost footing at least five times, had accidents twice, got lost twice, and received no less than ten lacerations on my hands and arms from gripping the blade grasses too hard. And that's just on the way to Lower Botiao. I must've uttered and thought too many foul words that would've made a drunken sailor proud.

We started climbing down at 7:00 in the morning, and we reached lower ground (at last!) at 12 noon. It's just lower ground though. We stopped there, and the more enthusiastic of our groupmates made their way up a beaten path uphill to the other side to where Lower Botiao lies. When they returned about 20 -30 minutes later, we ate lunch at one of the houses near where we were resting. After an hour or so, we made our way back to Tulodan where our quarters were at through the Macbas route. The old couple who own the house made sure we brought home corn (which, we were to find out a while later, was for the very very long trip back home), the old man in particular telling us that it wouldn't take us more than 2 hours to reach home base.

And how wrong he was.

In reality it took us about 4 hours and 30 frigging minutes to get back to the staff house at Tulodan. WTF was the 2 hours about?!?!!!?!?!?!111!oneone was what my mind was snapping to nobody in particular while nursing bruised feet back at our quarters. Granted, the path was a whole lot better than the "trail" at the suicidal drop of a mountain, but it was thrice as long, and painful to the feet. Almost two-thirds of the trailway was pure pebbles and gravel and ground rocks, which makes me wonder how the vehicles passing through it could endure the treatment to the tires. There were bits of cemented road once in a while, which appeared well over three hours into our journey, but they were only about 4-6 meters long, before cutting off again to the same bloody gravel road. I wished I brought my Gatorade drink with me, instead of the damned small bottle of C2. It wasn't even two hours when I felt myself get dehydrated already, but no matter how much I wanted to satiate it, I ignored my thirst and the fact that there isn't even any saliva left to swallow during the rest of the hike. It felt like we were never going up a never-ending trail leading to nowhere, so imagine our relief when we finally saw the houses not far-off. Again, we started the hike at around 1:30 pm, and then arrived back home safely at around 5:30 pm. We were too beat to actually care about anything but sleep, but we had to have an action-reflection-action session that night. I swear that I could feel that nobody was mentally present during that activity that night.

Going through that experience, it feels like I've been in one RPG adventure of a lifetime...only that I haven't. But it would've been cool, wouldn't it? I guess I was just taken by surprise...at how sudden our hiking was. I could take on small trails at a slower pace, so taking on that kind of path for a whole day and surviving it is a huge feat for me. For all of us in the group, I'm sure. However, if hiking mountains without any trails is a requirement for being a nature lover, then with all my heart, I'd never be one!

Anyway, the next days would find that out we won't be able to go back to Lower Botiao for the following reasons:

the weather was not cooperating
we had a lot of activities at Tulodan
we simply had no time

Regardless of those reasons though, I'm not complaining at all. Though it might have been a nice idea to have returned there to visit. I never even got to step foot on that area of our assignment as a team...

There's no other noteworthy incidents, really. Only that we bring home bouquets of calla lillies, milflores, and carnations everytime we go back to Baguio. One of the community people was even kind enough to let me have one of her cabbage cacti, and also have a picture of her asters, which is, like, the birthflower of September babies. :) Now that I've seen it, btw, I've started liking it (because I haven't, in the past), but it still needs a little getting used to...it's not one of my favorites before, after all.

So, what am I going to miss, apart from the extremely cold climate and the flowers? The children, that's what. I've developed a liking and sort of attachment to the kids at the Rufino Alawas Elementary School, especially the extreme types, like Marc, Hardy, Kate, Sundoval, and Alex. I only have a pic of myself and Alex, and it's with one of my groupmates. I regret that I wasn't able to get one with the others, so I'm hoping I'll meet them again next sem, when we (hopefully) have out community again at Cattubo, Atok.

There ends my story. Pretty boring and rushed, don't you think? That's what I thought. Hah. I was supposed to include a review for Brokeback Mountain, but this entry is already long, as it is, and I wanted to concentrate on this one topic for this entry. I'll only try to write the review later on, if schoolwork won't catch up with me yet. XD

Later then!

Trekking isn't a walk in the park (part 1)

2006-06-22T19:41:00.000+08:00

You Are a Bloody Mary

You're a fairly serious drinker, who's experimented a lot with different drinks.

You're a drunk, but a stable drunk. You don't ever let your drinking get out of control.

What Mixed Drink Are You?

Ok. So apparently, I was lying when I told you I was going to do a review of The Da Vinci Code. I got hold of my brother's copy of the novel-made-movie a few weeks back, or around the time I made this entry on my other blog (with the same contents as this one, if you're wondering). Anywho, due to all the biz in my schedule, I'm still twenty pages into the supposed prequel, Angels and Demons. I suppose I'll be done with the promised review once all the craze has died down, which I know won't help us any.:D

Anywho, I just came back from the first four days of a three-week long community immersion in Atok, Benguet, which is like two hours away from Baguio when riding a jeep.

Our group is supposedly assigned to the highest point in the place, which is Cattuba Barangay, composed of at least six sitios: Oyusan, Bangabang, Tulodan, Botiao, Macbas, and Sapilew, all of which are located past the central district, Sayangan. Of course, I was ecstatic to actually be in Cattubo, regardless of endorsements from friends and acquaintances, mainly being that Atok is a lot colder than Baguio, which I'll get to later.

The trip to the area was made easier and more comfortable by the fact that most of us know each other since first to third year college, and that our clinical instructor was as amiable as we'd hoped for her to be. Granted that the roadside view of Ambuklao Road was more interesting than the present one, the mountains on the way to Atok still hold some sort of breathtaking grandeur with the thousands of trees lined up and scattered along the landscape, and the ingenuity displayed by the natives as seen in their manmade rice terraces. Another plus factor was the slightly cooler wind breezing through while we were riding to our destination, which, for me, was like a hint of what was to come.

Well, the area where our staffhouse is located isn't exactly like some busy town or business area. All around, all you could see are mountains, with gardens plotted on some of them, mostly in terrace-style. Tulodan Proper, the exact sitio where we are staying during our community immersion, isn't crowded nor bustling with life, if you could put it that way. It's what a mountain village would look like: with houses on both sides of the roads, not too close to each other, but not too far apart as well, and with the quiet and peaceful atmosphere that can only be attributed to one such area. The staff house itself stands between the daycare center and the elementary school, and in front of a small store. I can't say that the house was really bad, because really, it's good enough as it is, although I can't help but wish for some things to improve, at least ~~like the comfort room and washing area, for starters...and the girls' room as well, seeing as the entire roof seems nonexistent when it rains~~. We don't have to fetch water from God-knows-where as well, because we have our own supply, although the supply gets cut off at certain times during the day since we share it with one of the residents. It's not that cold, as others claim it would be...more like how Baguio is during the day, only a bit cooler, but it gets really nasty during the night and onwards early morning. Being such an anal person though, I endure this stuff and the even harsher ice cold water just to take a bath before I start and end the day. Suicidal or what?

The first day went by without any problems, prolly because it was our first time in the place, together with our clinical instructor. We just stayed in the staff house, trying to settle down and getting the hang of things around. The second day was without trouble as well, but then we started surveying the area where we are assigned. Like the community I've been to before, the sitios are mostly far apart from each other, so we had to walk back and forth to reach them. During the afternoon, we headed to Oyusan, the sitio which branches out from the highway and downwards the rest of the mountain. The path was rocky, and along the way, we encountered several gardens of calla lillies, cabbages, cacti, and onions, until we stopped over one of the houses where it was said that a young woman just gave birth to a baby boy just a day ago...

(To be continued...because I'm really really tired right now, and this entry is getting too long. I'll definitely conitnue this one tomorrow.)

Lady Luck frowns upon us...

2006-04-30T16:40:00.000+08:00

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind.
You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life.
Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling.
And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

Really now, I would have thought otherwise. *smirk*

It's our first day in the SLU OR for this summer's rotation (and yes, I'm perfectly aware that it's currently Sunday), and although we did enjoy each other's company (meaning the eleven groupmates plus our clinical instuctor), it would look like we've been dealt a bad hand where cases are concerned. Where do I even start? Well:

April 30 : It's a Sunday, meaning there really aren't any scheduled cases for now, unless it's emergency operations we're talking about. Unluckily though, we spent the whole eight hours sitting our bums flat and goofing around the operating room.
May 1 : Labor Day. Wait, what? What do you mean that we're not supposed to have any duty? Of course we'll be having our frigging duty! On a holiday, no less! And people should let themselves be operated on this day - SLU is open for operations, so why not take the chance right? ~~And let's just forget the fact that the fee for any procedures is doubled during holidays~~
May 2 : This is what you may call a free day. And I sincerely hope we'll get a lot of cases other than circumcisions and excisions. God knows we're full of them already.
May 3-6 : Guess what? All surgeons and anesthesiologists are going to attend a conference in Cebu, which means we'll be taking only emergency cases yet again. On the 7-3 shift.

If that's not bad luck, then I don't know what it is. We were joking a while ago on how we'll have a blast bonding with each other what with the lack of cases supposedly placed in our rotation days. Super happy.

Anyway, anyone of you ever heard of Dollis Marry? I don't know how long they have been in the Japanese music scene, but I remember hearing from them since last year. They're the guys who made hits such as 'Mr. Romantic' and 'Yuzuriha' (I think). To me, they sound a bit similar to other such bands as Antic Cafe and Alice Nine, only happier and bouncier. The lead vocals are really nice...not nasal or scratchy or unpleasant to hear. I think the vocalist's name is Seiju, but since I'm not at all good in reading Japanese, that makes me not entirely sure. XD I haven't heard any song of theirs that I have disliked yet (not that I'm ever planning too)...that's how good they are. :D

Images kindly taken from Public Eyes . Much thanx! :)

Recently, I've taken a liking to their song, Hajimari no Wakare. Even though I couldn't understand the lyrics initially, I was immediately drawn to the melody of the song...and I could immediately feel the melancholy as soon as Seiju belts out the first few lines. Having known what the song is about now, though, I can't help but feel angsty and dark. So, to remember the song that has been stuck in my head for a while now, I bring you the lyrics courtesy of Ki-rame-ki!

「始まりの別れ」

*さよなら…さよなら… 幸せになってください…
sayonara...sayonara...shiawase ni natte kudasai...
まだこんなに好きだけど
mada konna ni suki dake do

いつの日か別の人愛しても　二人の思いでだけはなくさないで…　　　
(itsu no hi ga) betsu no hito aishite mo futari no omoide dake wa nakusanaide...
さよなら…
sayonara

「私のこと好き？」って聞いても　曖昧な答えの貴方
watashi no koto suki tte kiitemo aimai na kotae no anata
今思えばあの頃から気持ちは変わってたんだね…
ima omoeba ano koro kara kimochi wa kawatte tan da ne...

心はいつも　移り変わり行くものなのに
kokoro wa itsumo utsuri kawari yuku mono nano ni
何でもっと早く気付かなかったのかな…
nande motto hayaku kizukanakatta no kana ...
せめて貴方の心が痛まないように
semete anata no kokoro ga itamanai you ni
今、最初で最後の言葉を…伝えます…
ima saishode saigo no kotoba wo...tsutae masu

*repeat chorus

昔は　にぎやかだった貴方のメール　もらうたびに嬉しくなった
mukashi wa nigiyagadatta anata no meeru morautabini ureshikunatta
私があげた小さなプレゼントこれからも使ってくれるかな…
watashi ga ageta chiisana purezento korekara mo tsukatte kureru kana...

今はこんなに　貴方を遠く感じてる
ima wa konnani anata wo tooku kanjiteru
私をわすれないで… ずっと忘れないでね…
watashiwo wasurenai de... zutto wasurenai de ne...

これから二人の思い出は作れなくなるんだね
kore kara futari no omoide wa tsukurenaku narundane
涙溢れ出して明日が見えない…
namida afure dashite ashita ga mienai...

悲しい日々を　辛い日々も　乗り越えて絆深めた
kanashiihibi wo kuraihibi mo norikoete kizuna fukameta
それが全部なくなるなんて
sorega zenbu naku naru nante

愛し合い惹かれあった二つの心　一つにはもう戻せない　　　　　これで本当に　　さよなら…
aishiai kikare atta futatsu no kokoro hitotsu ni wa mou modosenai korede hontou ni sayonara...
　

これ以上泣いても　貴方の悲しむ顔見るだけ
koreijyou naitemo anata no kanashimu kao miru da ke
だから今はそっと消えて行きます…
dakara imawa sotto kiete yukimasu

貴方への糸を辿り　進むことはもう出来ないけど
anata e no ito wo tadori tsutsumu koto wa mou dekinai kedo
思い出には逃げない
omoideni wa nigenai

　
たくさんの愛しい日々をありがとうそして… さよなら…
takusan no itoshii hibi wo arigatou soshite... sayonara...
立ち止まらず　歩いて行きます
tachitomarazu aruiteyukimasu

貴方だけ愛してた…　　心から愛してた…
anata dake aishiteta ... kokoro kara ashiteta ...

Translation

Beginning of leaving

Goodbye..goodbye..Please become happier...
Although I still love you so much
At this day, even when you love someone else I hope you do not lose the memories we shared...
Goodbye

"Do you like me?" you gave me a vague answer.
Thinking of it, maybe at then you have already changed your feelings.

Even though your heart always changes
Why didn't I notice it earlier?
At least, your heart won't feel pain
Now, for the first time (i'll) tell (you) the last words

In the past when I receive mails from you who's so lively, I became so happy.
I think, you're still using the small presents I gave to you?

Now, I feel so distant from you.
Don't forget me, forever,never forget me...
From now, we can no longer create memories of the both of us
Tears overflow, and (I) can't see tomorrow.

The sad days, also the painful days, all bound together
All of them will become lost.
The two minds that loved each other withers.
It is impossible to return
This time, really
Goodbye...

Even if (I) cry further, only your sad face is seen.
Therefore let it slowly go away.

The traces of you
Although it can't move on anymore
(I) wont escape from memories

Thank you so much for the days you loved me
And, goodbye...
I wont stop and continues to walk

I only loved you
From the bottom of my heart, I loved you...

Crying to the Moon

2006-04-16T23:46:00.000+08:00

Yep, it's a Siberian husky that you're seeing at the left side of the page. We just came back from watching Eight Below, one of Disney's latest movies, which tells a (true?) story about a certain guy and his sled dogs. I was a bit adamant about watching the story at first, since most Disney flicks bore me to death, with the exception of some, like Pirates of the Caribbean and Finding Nemo. I may have made enemies just by saying that, so I apologize to Disney fans out there for that statement, haha.. ^_^;

*cough*

Well, I bought myself a cup of Espresso Freeze at the coffee shop beside the cinema area of the mall, believing that at least it was a bit of consolation for being dragged into watching a movie that I haven't even planned on viewing. I was telling my family (particularly my little sis and my Dad, as my Mom and brother just wanted to go out and watch a damn movie) that Ultraviolet may be a good watch. My brother and I were making jokes about how Ultraviolet runs similar to the main character in Equilibrium, as played by Christian Bale the Actor. We couldn't watch Ice Age 2 since we already saw it last week, and D'Lucky Ones is already out of the question, as it reeks of novelty-ness and cheesiness and cliches. Much as I want to support the local film industry, there are times that I just want to shake my head and give up hope that producers would come up with films that are on par with at least some of our neighboring countries in Asia (read: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan). What's so interesting about their TV dramas and movies that get us so interested, anyway? I see a strange fondness Filipinos have for the rivers of Asian novelas flooding the local networks...which is lesser in intensity when it comes to what they hold for Filipino films and the works. Is it the actors and actresses with their almond eyes and exaggerated motions? I'm sure it isn't, because the Philippines has its own share of good-looking actors and actresses who are capable of performing different roles, if with a lesser degree of commitment. I mean, I think we've got what it takes to match up to their qualities...heck, even surpass them. What's keeping us from doing so, right?

Back to the topic, a few minutes into the show, I found myself instantly falling in love with Paul Walker's character's eight huskies. I'm not much of a dog enthusiast...let alone an enthusiast of any particular cause, but being a dog owner myself, I was immediately taken in by the relationship between man and his best friend. For the sake of those who haven't watched the movie yet, I won't go telling all the details of what happened within the two hours of the movie, but at least I'll attach a link later to a nifty review or two on this particular film. :)
~
Anyway, yeah, the whole point of the story revolves around the main character (Jerry Shepard, I think), and the lives of the eight canines who were left in the vicious frozen depths of the Antarctica for what seems like five or six months...all on their own. I've watched National Geographic specials on huskies before (though I haven't payed much attention to them, unfortunately) ~~since Sky Cable is such an ass corporation and decided to drop most of their more interesting channels, like Discovery and Wowow, among others~~, and I'm pretty sure that because these animals have their origins in one of the most unforgiving places on earth, their nature may also tend to be harsh, wild, and instinctive at times, though they may have been tamed and trained by the best of tamers even at birth. I'm pretty certain that they would've been able to survive at long periods of time in even the roughest of terrains at subzero temperatures since Antarctica is their home after all, but I'm willing to be contested regarding that idea. =) However, factual or not, the interaction between the dogs, their hardships, and just the beauty of nature untouched by humans just bring me to tears. ='( Especially the part wherein the kernel experiences circumstances that threaten one of their own, no matter how the innocent these circumstances may seem. The best part for me may have been the ending, because although there are some unhappy pieces revealed to Shepard, the other elements came together to form one big fluffy ending.

I could think a few points that need to be pointed out, however. For one, some of the characters didn't really seem to be much of an importance to be noticed or appreciated. Jason Biggs may play the role of Walker's goofy bud (much like CSI:Las Vegas's Greg), I didn't find his antics and lines to be much amusing at all. For the most part, all he got from me was a couple of "Huh?"s and "What was that about?"s. Secondly, the relationship between Shepard and his teammate Katie (as played by Moon Bloodgood, who seems to have a bit of Asian blood, but maybe I'm just imagining it), seems a bit awkward for me. I admit to being a romantic, but I didn't feel anything for their relationship, you know? Was she clinging to Shepard because she broke it off with her current boyfriend? How long has it been anyway? Why weren't things clear? How come I felt that the attraction part between the two of them (though they had a past, as Katie is Jerry's ex-girlfriend) was a bit too sudden? Why am I being such an ass asking all these questions?

The movie taught me one important lesson: You've got to take chances for the things you care about. Dr. McLaren, whom Jerry accompanied on an expedition to find a piece of meteor that supposedly hit the earth some time ago, told this to Jerry as he was asking him to stay on the snow-capped landscape of the south pole even though they have been warned that a major storm was coming. It's a lesson I'm going to take to heart, you know? I'm a person who has had missed a lot of opportunities because I wasn't able to let go of some of my inhibitions, but I think I'm going to try it. Taking risks, that is. I'm going to give this movie an 8 out of 10, if not for the portrayal of the huskies, then for the message imparted by the film. ^_^

More reviews here and here.

Happy Easter, by the way! :D