How can you write Travel?

 

I suck at describing places. If I get the chance to visit the Great Wall of China and I have to put the feeling into words, expect this:

 

“The Great Wall of China is a beautiful place. Before, I visited places inside gates but now, I’m visiting the gates itself.”

It doesn’t give justice to the people who died building the great wall.

 

All I can do now is resort to showing photos that might bring interest. I have no time to upload all my photos to the internet and I did not go international to test upload speeds, I went here to enjoy (and I don’t enjoy speed testing and uploading).

 

 

 

Can you see the three scrape marks on this white whale’s skin? This MUST alert the curators at Ancol.

 

Oh. I wonder what monument they are trying to recreate this time.

 

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas!

 

If you are kind enough, you can comment below to help me with writing about travels. :-)

Lost In Jakarta

After some tears in the immigration which could be until now doubtful over their approval of me leaving the country, I arrived in Jakarta December 19 12:15 AM with no flesh lost.

Indonesia (the country that capitalizes? Jakarta) is full of Indonesians. Indonesians look like us, diverse. But they only speak one language in contrast to our capability to speak numerous languages, depending on the waves of international tourism.

I’m having major problems with communication because almost all of them can’t speak English. They are limited to verbs which ironically, are rarely used. But who really cares? I’m the one who entered their nation so I have the responsibility to mold myself to be comfortable to the newer environment I have submitted myself into. And to those people who say learning English is key to national prosperity, visit Jakarta and let their gazillionaire investors kick your smart ass.

For the interest of a longer blog post in repayment for the several days of rest, let me share one encounter with my limited Indonesian vocabulary:

My sister always takes us to the mall. And they have approximately 12 malls here that when exaggerated, can cover up the whole Panay. All of their malls here make me wonder why the Mall of Asia even came close to being the biggest mall in the region which includes Indonesia. So I get to visit shops that contains sales ladies.

It happens that part of the job description of sales ladies here is approaching and speaking with the potential costumers. The sales lady or men would talk to me in fast, 25 words per second Indonesian. Of course I can’t understand them so I tell them I only speak English. Scared I might carry a disease from wherever I come from or worst, bad luck, they run away. Moral lesson? If you don’t want being ran away from, run away first.

I'm Sixteen Tomorrow

Guess who's birthday it is tomorrow!!

Obviously, its mine. But I had no other ideas on how to start a day-before-blogger's-birthday post so I had stick with the obvious, almost rhetorical question I always see from other authors. Authors that have great careers and amazing writing experiences in contrast with my dwindling one.

The Fame Monster

For the past month, I have been crazy for Lady Gaga. The addiction started when I was reading the lyrics of her songs (because listening to them was not just good enough). Her songs are quite deep and they have meaning relative to the listener. The messages are not constant.The song "Lovegame" can change its point with your mood. That's why I bought her new album, The Fame Monster.

If you trust me enough with your money, I strongly suggest you get your own copy. Its all worth it. The songs were quite boring for the first two times I heard them but after playing the CD again and again, I never again touched the "next track" button.

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Eyecandy: Central Philippine University

A mother tries to take a photo of her hyped daughter
in front of the tree

I had my Kinder 2 to Grade 6 in the Central Philippine University. And by the 7 school years I have inhabited the school, I came to notice all the traditions like the Teatro Enhinyero (which is a comic stage delight), University Day Celebrations and several more.

(all photos are copyrighted and can be only displayed here or in any site I give permission to)

Every Christmas time, CPU has the tradition to put up extravagant lights for everyone to see. It was their way of preparing for the birthday of our Saviour. Unfortunately though, because of the faltering economy, every display was less extravagant than the last. But its not the finished product that really counts, its the effort the people put into it. An still, its a beauty.

The New Chatbox

I added a new blog widget! For those of you who haven't heard about it, its called the ChatBox or CBox for short. Its like a messenger where you get to choose your nick and you can send your messages to their servers for display here. You don't need to sign up or anything so be free to do anything you want (except that I delete derogatory messages from stupid people who are near worthless).

BTW: To the girl who asked for writing tips via IM on my previous Plugoo widget, could you please re-post your query on the new (drumroll), updated (drumroll again) and more advanced (and again) Cbox. Don't forget to give me your email. I tell you, I am very willing to help.

Get more updates by clicking here.

Old Filipinos Do What Should Be Left To The Vacuum

Oh, is that the guy who killed the villain after

hours of a cheezy conversation in the movie?

He's a senator

God Bless the Philippines.

I despise Filipino action movies and now I have to suffer listening to their dialogue until my ears retire. All thanks go to (drumroll) my co-dweller (not Bon) who can't understand any language from a country which produces quality one and a half hour films.

For those of you who define nationalism as clinging and swallowing every showbiz product of your own nation, stop reading or else this would break your heart.

>

Why do I hate Filipino action movies so much? The reason is that they have dialogues which are supposed to deliver quality human emotion to the viewers but instead, they bring sphincter dysfunction that make you vomit your intestines out. How would you feel if a killer speaks to his should-be victims in language like, "Dala ko ang sasakyan mo pa-empyerno"?

If you ask me, I felt less human because the only justification I can find is this: The movie writers think that our South East Asian minds can be entertained by poorly written scripts with catch lines older than Erap and jokes cornier than corn molecules itself.

Haven't you noticed? Filipino movies are so rare nowadays? Maybe the Filipino line of thought became quality over time.

PS: If you are interested in the reason why my blog hibernated, you don't need to know.

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The Population Post

Photo from here

We have a new lesson in Health and its sex. Doesn't sex remind you of population? And solely because of the ability of the verb/noun/?adjective (eg. you look like sex)? sex to remind me of population - I'm going to blog about it. (FYI: I'm really not comfortable in the sex education class. I'm still a traditional conservative Filipino.)

Even The Sales Team Is Generic: The Peasants of the CD-R King

Cd-r King is like heaven to me. Every time I go inside their store, I feel high. Looking around the yellow themed space with gadgets at very low prices. The store makes you feel you can buy anything it sells. But whats the matter with the sales people? They look like vegetables lying around my geek haven. They all are slow and have a knack at annoying the customers.

I was to buy a laptop cooler and earphones (My old one were too big for my ears. Its either the earphones grew or my ear lost weight). The cooler was at Php 180 and the earphone at Php 90. The prices were incredible so I got a priority number. After 10 minutes, number 39 was called out and I was entertained. After telling the woman what I wanted, she hurried off and she took all my needs from their shelves. Everything was easy going until...

Video That Made Me Laugh For More Than 5 Minutes Award

I searched this on Youtube because my friend told me all about it. I may have been to young to watch TV during those times so I can't really remembering seeing anything of this sort... Hahahaha....

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Coexistence does not exist

Let's hear Christine's(happyslip) thoughts on spider encounters

I have a fear of spiders. It started out when I was a young child of about 10 years old. I was a gigantic fan and sought after event organizer of spider duels on barbecue sticks. Everyday at our terrace, I would congregate a crowd of children my age (plus minus 9) for the spider duels. There was no monetary betting but the sight of your fighter dying under the opponent's 8 legs and 2 fangs is emotional torture. I was so addicted to the arachnidal wrestling that I even ask several peers to catch spiders for me. They would immediately oblige (I was like a king back then). My parents were also giving maximum support that my spider case was even made by the top carpenter in the vicinity. Pacquiao has boxing to dominate, I had the daily spider duels to rule.

Happy Friday the Thirteenth!

Today is November 13, 2009 and its Friday. Its Friday the Thirteenth. The time were evil spirits squeeze out from the cracks where they live on happy days, armed to bring bad luck and fate. Wear protective gear and sunscreen, skin cancer is in sight. Don't let the children play at night. Its 2009, the spirits now know kidnapping.

Actually, Friday the Thirteenth is not a really bad day. Records show accidents are significantly lower during this day because everyone around the world suddenly becomes more careful. They don't drive, they don't go out at night, they don't hang around where danger lurks 500 meters away. And for people who celebrate their birthday today spend less because less people will come in accordance, the frequency of acute diseases over tons of lechon and low density lipoproteins also go down.

You see the power of human statistics? It can battle even the oldest of traditions.


Did you have a nice Friday?

Simulation Games 2009: Oh, look, PNP is doing something

I just saw our police on TV. The people who were supposed to protect the commoners were rolling around the streets like bowling pens. They look funny when you don’t know what they were doing. They were like role-playing, the James Bond way. Actually, they were under training. Not for travelling large distances or chasing cars in pursuit by tumbling down a cement road but they were simulating a high-risk kidnap situation, midday and in the middle of the entertained public. How realistic.

Did you know, our PNP has their own website? Of course it can't protect you from criminals, etc. But who cares? Its the new government agency fad.

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Photoshoot Tomorrow

I hope I can take something like this for tomorrow. A natural pose, a nice DOF and diffused light.

Tomorrow I’m going to take portraits of the scholars who made it into the Director’s List for the Recognition Program (there would be around 40 to 50 of them) and to prepare for the event, I researched on tips and simple guides from professionals who have put up their own helpful websites so I could come as professional as possible:

School, Again

I went to church today after several Sundays preparing my soul
for another heap of school work

After spending one beautiful week with asthma, Facebook, documentaries and reading books halfway, the people at school decided to congregate us all back again for learning.

I am scared of returning to school tomorrow. I'm not really sure if there was really nothing to do for the break because I currently have zero outputs aside from reading The Good Earth halfway. I always get this feeling every after weekend. I lived on cramming and I know how inconvenient it is so I'm trying to do every task as ahead of time as possible so when I sit down my chair, I don't have to scream and scribble down assignments in a torturing 300 words per minute.

The Jogging Diaries

My jogging track is the perimeter of the rectangular grass field
two buildings to the right of the sky blue swimming pool

To my personal dismay, I broke my promise on my previous entry. I vowed that I would wake up early and I would jog the track (pictured above) but nature planned that my body would sleep for 3 hours more than 6 AM. So to make up my deficiency, I decided to jog on the evening when the sun is out, the sky is dark and this body is in good physical mood.

Sudden Awakening

Me and my mother were at a shoe store waiting for a shoe she ordered from the sales clerk of Florsheim. While waiting for the clerk, my mother said in a low voice, almost inaudible, "You lack physical activity. You look fat. You should jog around the school campus every morning". Ladies and gentlemen, my mother has spoken.

"Made ME Laugh for More Than 5 Minutes" Video Award

Video Info:
This is a video of a woman auditioning for the Bulgarian Idol. Her lyrics are what I call innovation.

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my first Cheaper Medicine Act encounter

As I have shared, I just visited the doctor. With the consultation came a list of medicines that were compulsory and (cliche) expensive.

One of those medicines was Zithromax (Azithromycin dihydrate) from Pfizer which originally costs above 950 Pesos per box containing a whooping 3(three not thirty) tablets. If you already have experienced bacterial cough, you might have taken this tablet before. Because of our lawmakers that burned their eyebrows (an attempt at translating nagsusunog ng kilay), the price was lowered to 454. 29 Pesos. Just look at that giant leap!

If you want more 'wow' effect, just try subtracting the original price with the new price. You will see a 3 digit number. THAT is the amount you saved.

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The Doctors Vs. My Trachea

The clouds remind me of Staphylococcus on blue agar. What a good omen, I certainly believe that this day will be better than any other day. Yehey! What better way can the sky welcome you to a new day but by reminding you of unicellular creatures?

After several whining routines, I finally agreed to visit the doctor. Its not that I don't want visiting clinics but this is a lazy day for me. Any action other than eating, lying, sitting and going to the bathroom is considered too much.



My doctor's clinic was located on the second floor of one of the taller buildings here in Iloilo City. I don't know why he took clinic space on the second floor when he could take the one on the eighth floor, with that he can make use of the building elevator to the fullest. I just don't understand the medical breed.

After the whole check-up, I was diagnosed, of course, of asthma. What else?

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Are You Not Entertained?

Some people who actually read my blog ask me, do I have a specific topic? Well honestly, no. Contrary to what professional bloggers believe in, I do not have a topic. I blog about everything that catches my attention and anything that is worthy of writing about. I don't follow any set of rules. I am free as a blogger.

The only point I have this blog is to have a good outlet where I can shove my ideas into. This blog is for entertainment purposes only. When you entered my blog stupid, you will leave stupid. This is for timed satisfaction only and do not expect tons of information about certain subjects that you have love for.

This is like a personal diary with entries that most of the time I can only relate to. Are you not entertained?

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Do I Look Dead To You?

Left overs of the flowers we sold at Jaro Plaza

I have cough which sounds like a slamming door and runny nose which can flood the whole kitchen. I don't know what I have done to upset the gods or what I did not do that disappointed my windpipes. My fate made me breath 50 percent mucus for the past 3 days.

This Is It

Before I proceed to giving my insights on the movie, let me share the environmental factors which may have affected my reactions:

The Dawn of the Break

Finally, the Intramurals 2009 are done and over with, now its time to enjoy the ‘Semestral Break’. After tearing my tendons on a few sports I dared to try and taking numerous photos of people who were gifted in P.E., I could finally enjoy a nine-day break without school or any graded chore.

The Business Establishment I Never Thought Existed

Has anyone ever heard of the Town Square here in Iloilo? It exists. I know, I was shocked too.

Naming Photos

While I was looking for good websites that could sell my photo stock, I found this interesting photo with a funny page title (encircled in red in the photo).

AF-D 50mm f/1.8 on Nikon D40

Just recently, I bought a 50 mm f/1.8 lens from SM City Iloilo that sadly could not do AF on my Nikon D40. I was pretty scared because I did not trust my capability in manual focus mode but my friend from the Team D40 said you can never go wrong with a nifty fifty.

Alobijod Cove – October 23-24, 2009

The house on top of the rock (obviously)

Me and my 11 other classmates just had a trip to Alobijod Cove to reattach to nature and temporarily escape the hustles of a growing city and a science high school.

We met at our school, 3 o’clock in the afternoon and we arrived at the ferry port near the University of Iloilo at around 4 PM. We braved the waves which were 3 feet tall and 5 feet wide on average to arrive at the Jordan Port. I have to commend the port officials and crew who do their jobs. There is no ferry overloading and they all leave on time so the hassle is kept at the minimum.

Parody Movies Diet

I searched several forums on the internet that rank parody movies and I ended up downloading the following:

1. Robin Hood: Men In Tights
2. Spaceballs
3. Scary Movie 4
4. Disaster Movie

Control Your PC With Your Bluetooth Phone

Once in my life, I have drooled over computer remote controls.

I have Windows Media Center on my laptop and I use it all the time if I need to cool down and listen to songs. The interface of the Media Center is really integrated for PC RCs so I looked up the internet if CD-R king had one. Well they had some but I also found out about this cooler freeware that you can use with your Bluetooth laptop and your Bluetooth Java phone.

PBB: Famous People Edition-The Challenge

If you are Filipino and you enjoy stalking people around on hidden cameras, you must know that there is a new season PBB that's been the talk of the town.

Do you notice the supposedly descriptive 'subtitles' they add to their contestants' nicknames like the transgender's The Math Wizard: Rica, or JP : The Twin of JM. You get the point? If you don't, well God bless ya.

Why Learning English is Important

Here is a funny commercial aired by a language school in Germany. Well, it's not really that funny in the beginning but you will get the humor afterwards.

My Theory on the Calamities

The Landslide. Photo by Espiritu for Inquirer.net
Click here for the full story.

First there was Ondoy who coated Manila with water and Mud. After some hours, Ketsana entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility and wrecked more havoc. Ten thirty morning yesterday, 150 Filipinos died in a landslide in Bengeut. What more has mother nature in store for us?

This is Why I Find Her Hot

Her intellectual sexiness, Senator Miriam Defensor in one of her highly publicized speeches you better not miss.

Spitting out rain

Well, nothing has changed for Iloilo. The weather is still teary with showers boring into skulls and umbrellas.

The rain reminded me of Barney, "If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh, what a rain it would be". So I went outside with my mouth opened wide and gobbled down all the rain I could. A flashback of factories depositing smog in the air, cars raising dust from the road, the particulate matter ever present around me caught in the rain drops happened.

Cooking Inventions

We had an activity in Filipino 3 just last week and the judges were the teachers.

The judges’ table filled with concoctions of unknown compositions. Because of the activity, I know now I don’t want to be a cooking critique.

We had to come up with an innovative new recipe which can be edible or at least safe for ingestion. Me and my group came up with “The Cheesy Egg of Lobres (our group mate)” or in Filipino “Ang Makesong Itlog ni Lobres”. It was basically egg with cheese and canned mushroom in small proportions.

When it rains, everything smells

I'm stuck at my desk, all alone and desperately searching for entertainment. My co-habitant is not here. She's probably looking for food we could devour together.

Its raining again here. It has been raining for three hours already and a brackish water swimming pool is materializing in our front yard.

What A Shame

Well, after being happy and overwhelmed by my Speedtest results (could be found on my previous blog entry), I immediately found a reciprocal to cancel out the 'awe' PLDT baptized me with.

The ping test is to be ashamed of. It's an F or 5 in our grading system or 0 in our class standing grading system. The description on 5 is

"Very poor. Real-time Internet application performance will suffer greatly on such a connection. Test to other servers to confirm the result, but definitely talk to your ISP about troubleshooting the issue."

Should I call PLDT for this matter? The Pingtest website says so. What shall I do? I feel like a trying hard geek right now.

My new ISP

My internet is too fast for my needs. Thanks to the lady in PLDT who told my mother the cheaper plan was not enough for my needs. To make the whole thing worst, I'm the one who will be paying for this connection. That's why the government increased my monthly allowance to 3,000 Pesos.

I'm on a PLDT plan with a landline here in Iloilo. I don't even know the name of the plan I am on. My mother was the one who bought the package. I had no say. It was between the sales lady and my mother. The two of them sharing their thoughts on economy and current events scared me.

The phone comes with a one year free unlimited National Direct Dial (NDD) calls. Maybe that is why my mother agreed to this plan so she could call her friends from the 7,106 different islands when she is here in the city (My parents and I don't live together. They work 98 Kilometers away from where I stand but they come to our place every twice a week).

My Project for Biology.

Worked hard for by:

Leo Agustin S. Lutero II

III-Neon

To be equally appreciated and proportionally rated by:

Dr. Edgel Bayag, M. D.

Teacher and a good friend of the biologically challenged

1.

The discussion on myocardial infarction or heart attack was the one who hit me hardest sending me to medical outer space. I was touched (or hit in the head) by the spontaneity of the heart attacks. I can’t imagine a person walking down the aisle of mediocrity when suddenly; his heart muscles die out and kill him. Because the Philippines cannot afford good statistics, I had to be nurtured with the math of America. Every year, 1.1 million Americans and Filipino green card holders have heart attacks and 4 out of them die on the spot, as in die in a flick of a wand or in a blow of a candle or in a twinkling of an eye or star or in a count of three.

Weirdly enough today, while I was riding a jeepney, a woman with her daughter was chatting with an old friend she wanted badly to reunite with. When the friend asked him about her children, she reversed her smile and wet her eyes. She lost her husband half a year ago and his eldest son 2 months ago, both because of heart attacks. I felt an urge to tell her 440,000 people die of the same acute disease every year in America only but I remembered I was not the one she was talking to. I flew off the jeep. End of story.

2.

I have a Tita who had a heart bypass millions of centuries ago (exaggeration of before my actual birthday). Does this answer the question?

3.

I’m proud to say none of the diseases have penetrated my family yet, only dengue, amoebiasis and all, but cardiovascular weaknesses? Not in my address.

4.

For the first time, my family’s health status will be a problem. Because of my healthy parents and sisters, I wouldn’t be able to pick out a disease for me to write a paragraph for. I figured out a method to solve this problem, fishbowl. I fairly and squarely picked the easy peasy hypertension, only after six, long tries.

My ill, fictional (IF) parents do not always complain about any symptom of hypertension. They both say it’s a silent, deadly killer like the blond girl in Kill Bill. When they feel something inside of their bodies telling them to grab me and the nearest sphygmomanometer, I know their BPs in the 150/95.

The numerator on their BP tells the pressure of their arteries and veins at contraction and the denominator, at the relaxed state. No wonder the numerator is always bigger. My IF parents’ doctors say their hypertension was most probably caused by blocked arteries and veins on their bodies. Thanks to their fondness to attend fiestas at neighboring barangays and islands. The great lechon is to blame.

5.

For my IF parents, I will help them by enrolling them in Gym programs and feeding them with minimum LDLs. Everything must be healthy for them. If they don’t comply with my dietary orders, I will scare them off with bedtime stories from Revelations of the New Testament. Tell them in detail the pains in purgatory and describe what Satan will do to their behinds all because of not following my rules and regulations in combating their overly pressurized blood vessels.

PS Sorry for the sabbatical I took. Too much drama and work for blogging these days and I have been busy with my inner softball player.

That’s not me in the picture but I’m the one who took it. Don’t dare use this for yourself without my written permission or you’ll rot in jail.

Mothers are too good

My mother is old fashioned.

She drinks coffee and goes to church at wee hours in the morning, takes a bath twice or thrice a day, prays the rosary every night, believes in traditions like pasyam and sindak and she trusts Chinese and herbal medicine.

When we eat in a restaurant, my mother always scoops up some of her food and  deposits it on my overflowing platter. When I look at her, annoyed with what she did, she will make an unconvincing face signaling she’s full. I don’t fall for it but the least I can do is appreciate their efforts so let it be.

Sometimes, mothers can be too kind that the children gets so annoyed and learns to hate what they do. Motherhood is a very hard job. You get too kind, your hated. You get unkind, your hated.

 

 

Externism Part 1

I moved out of the dorm today and I went back to our boarding house we left a year and a half ago because of trauma Frank brought us. It was great and I was happy to pick up things again from where we left them off.

Here are some photos I took:

The first computer our family ever bought. It was a 256 Mhz, 64-MB RAM and 8.64 GB running Windows ’98 beast. It rocked the late 90’s. Frank murdered it so expect this contraption to be in the junk shop soon.

Synopsis of Psychiatry book my brother-in-law owns. It introduced me to the world of pictures governed by one theme, medicine. I saw patients of STD, diarrhea and boils rocking the pages of this thicker-than-life, ultimately expensive book that the flood destroyed.



Our refrigerator. Isn’t it cute? (There is a warping in the photo because I used an 18mm lens but this ref is a perfect rectangle). On its record are 4 floods and 20 years. I guess its going to die with me.


A glow in the dark sun I put up on the ceiling when I was in Grade 5. I'm in third year high school now.

For those who really miss me, just look up to the night sky. We might be admiring the same moon above us.
 

Note: All photos in this blog entry are copyrighted by the owner. Any use without written permission is punishable by relevant laws.

Some Filipinos Are Stupid

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Inday who took up B.S. Nursing in an unknown school in the mountains of the Philippines. After graduating and passing the exams, she got her Nursing License. Her name was changed to Inday, R.N. She went to an employment agency willing to send her to America for a job at a giant hospital with an even bigger paycheck. After 3 months abroad, her name changed again to Inday Johnsons, R. N. After a few more weeks, it became Mrs. Irene Johnsons, R.N. Her husband killed her.

This is not a factual story, just a work of my imagination. If you have a tita or cousin who suffered the same fate, do not worry. This story is not unique. In fact, I wrote this to generalize the lives of many Filipinos.

I hate it when I see Nursing students because I know after they graduate, they will soon find jobs requiring them to serve other people and not their own country men, all longing to live a happier and fuller life. When asked why they will prefer wiping American asses than Filipino behinds, expect a “The salary’s exponentially greater there [abroad] and our country’s hopeless”.

How dare you say our country is hopeless when you readily gave up on your own motherland? You did not even try. All you want is the benefit of cash. You are all selfish.

That is why I hate nurses, but not only nurses, also engineers, doctors and all other professionals who have never served the Philippines before migrating to their employers. All of them.

In my school, if you tell everyone your going to be a nurse in the future, we laugh at you and YOU WILL LAUGH with us. The profession is a joke to us. Too much controversy, too much sub-standardization, too much students. Too un-Filipino for our taste.

Before posting hate comments, please understand that this is my personal idea and I have activated anonymous commenting for your freedom of speech.

The Crap Known as FSS

Friends for Sale on Facebook screenshot

I'm sorry to the people who love whoring their friends on Facebook but Friends For Sale just got to stop. I'm annoyed by the game that's why I tell everybody who tries to sell or buy me to quit tossing me around for non-existent millions of dollars. Even if the dollars were factual, they should still all go to hell, but this time with me and the money.

Come on. Am I the only one getting annoyed with that cheap application feeding off your hidden desires to manage your friends' lives?

Try to play Mafia Wars and go build yourself an interplanetary crime gang or try Farm Ville and tilt the cyber soil. Give your life more worth, you deserve it.

When Guilt Makes Everything Harder

Just today, our research teacher was silently disappointed with us (in general) for not doing her assignment. I felt bad. Me and my 2 other group mates has already finished making the assignment but our SIP classmates didn't, they forgot all about it.

Our teacher walked out of our room and she gave us 20 minutes to prepare for her class. After the 20 minutes she returned with one of the hardest essay questions of all time, "Is it worth the government's money paying for your education?". I was dumbfounded. The signals on my neurons blasted into spontaneous propagation. I had a cranial shut down. Guilty for the crime.

When I saw my seat mate's crosswise filling up, I was pressured. I needed to answer the question so I wrote No. I know it was the best answer (in general) and I know you all know why. Most of our actions become more un-scholarly each minute. This is so embarrassing and do you consider this corruption? Oh, the guilt. It makes essay questions harder.

Confirmed

It's next week. No more movements or cancellations. No more next of the week that is next again. It's confirmed, locked and key thrown away. I'm moving out of the dorm next week. No typhoon can stop me now and I'm pretty sure we won't meet doomsday in 15 days.

I'm moving far away from all these limits that kept me awake till 10 PM. Away from the slow inferior internet that infuriates me (I got a 1 Mbps connection outside the dorm!) and no more rules, or at least, the laws are at minimum.

Note: I'm so influenced by micro-blogging my entries don't even reach the 500 word count.

Bored with Blogging

Obviously, my number of posts decreased un-dramatically. I had been to busy and preoccupied with things that convinced me they mattered more than blogging.

Last week, I cursed a teacher. I did not do it directly. I wrote on my notebook in bold blue two cusswords and waved it to him unconsciously. He was kind. I am so bad and I think I’m more animal than ever before.

Stinking, uncanny, tensed and furious. Disrespectful, aggressive and violent. Thanks to my voice box that nobody called me a monkey yet. I’m sorry for any typo, unclear point or grammatical error, I’m not in the mood. Thanks to the auto-spell checker on MS Word that I can endure this hell of a typing job.

Sometimes, things fade away and it seems that I’m losing my interest in blogging. I don’t really care about my site’s traffic, I just want to share what I think about but unfortunately, my memory bank’s on leave and my system is at rest. I’m unsure if I’m really typing or just dreaming, awake or sleeping.

The Freezer Blender

The canteen has one giant freezer with architecture adapted from coffins. On its front is photo of strawberry in frozen cream with an offset of the logo of a giant ice cream company. Maybe the freezer was given for free by the company or maybe it was bought from a giant garage sale. The origin of the freezer was a mystery.

Our Microbiology teacher finished living off another year. Its his ‘Happy Birthday’ today and he decided to stuff our hungry and loud mouths with the Cornetto cones from the canteen. I opened its paper packaging and stared at the creamy purple substance known to many as the ‘ube’ ice cream, I called it heaven on cone. I took a bite and died.

The beautiful purple cream became trash at the mercy of my tongue. Instead of the tropical ‘ube’ flavor, I tasted adobo. Again, the vapor of the frozen viands in the same freezer I was describing crept into the paper packaging of my ice cream cone. To hell with the Packaging Engineers, you destroyed my teacher's and my day.

Lately...

I have been feeling de-inspired lately. Not sure if it is real or if it is just an excuse I unconsciously cooked while in the search for the reason on why my grades are rolling off the hill into purgatorio.

Here is a slight exaggeration on my current status: My grades are FAILING. I would be glad to earn a 2.5 after all this second quarter ordeal. My hopes of entering the top universities here in the Philippines are quickly fading. Do you know that 60% of a UP admission score comes from the high school report card? I could settle with CPU or UA and P. All my dreams of stepping on the same handful of sand the Eheads stepped on years ago are all gone to the furnace of my own shortcomings, all gone. Sob, sob, sob …

Even worse, the school’s internet is testing my patience. I’m having the elevator disease with it, clicking the link or hitting ‘Enter’ a thousand times hoping it would make everything go faster.

My life is not really the way I want it right now, it’s starting to prefer the opposite ways, going through every possible hole that can make my journey longer and darker. Soon enough I will be free. Soon enough… like this Saturday. My parents are planning to send me out of the dorm and deposit me to a real house here in Iloilo. No more limits in laptop use, higher bandwidth with less users, real food and no more cheap fast food, all of it on its way and will hopefully reach me this Saturday.

“Free at last, free at last” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dorm Room Reassignment

My parents brought me back to the dorm for another week of school jobs. Again I'm sad being back in the mass of cement that kept me from the outside world.

Unfortunately, the manager decided to reassign our rooms. First floor for the first years, Second for the sophies, third for the juniors and the seniors will be distributed and spread out like peanut butter on loaf bread.

What a nice welcome. A typical way for my dormitory to say "Welcome home, bitch!".

Why I Love Photography

I have my own DSLR equipped with two lenses and a tripod. I also have a minimum of three imaging related application on my computer. Many people I meet ask me how I developed my love for photography. Actually, I did not develop it, I discovered it. I did not learn it, I had it me but it took me 15 years to find out about it. I might not be the best or even good at the field but I have the passion that keeps me going.

Every time I hold my camera and I move to peek through my viewfinder to capture an image, I become happy. It might be temporary but its still happiness. And every happiness is priceless. When I press the shutter button and hear the mirror inside flick, I feel high. I just captured a frame of memory that can last forever.

I take photos of everything. Myself, animals, plants, inanimate objects, etc. I always have one or more photos of the things I would like to remember in my archives. Viewing it a month or so pleases me.

For those who would like to buy a camera and start their own photo sets, go on. Sooner or later you will surely get what I mean. You don’t need expensive equipment in this field. A film camera will do. Even I who uses digital imaging wish I can have a film camera.

Photoshop 1

Its boring all day long inside the room so I decided to use my camera again. I took some pictures of myself and I tried to edit them using Photoshop.

TITSER: Carla, use recharge in a sentence.

Carla: Ang guwapo talaga ni 'Recharge' Gutierrez

Mariele Rodriquez(singing to the tune of If I Were A Boy):

If I were a voice,

Sintunado ako....

The first joke I read from my mother's inbox (then again, I'm not spying, she asks me to check it from time to time) I found them funny.

The second one I saw live on Wowowee. You should have seen it. Search it on YouTube. I know it was a moment for her.

Use Smart Money to Verify Paypal-Philippines

I recently recieved an e-mail from one of my friends that Smart Telecommunications, Inc. is now opening their doors to PayPal with Smart Money. Here is a tutorial on how to add your Smart Money Card to your Paypal account.

What will you need:

1. A Smart Money card with the starting number 5299. Mine is the new blue and white one.

2. The Smart Sim linked to your card. Check your Smart menu, open Smart money and look for the Internet Txns Menu (If it is not present, call the Smart Money helpdesk and request for your Internet Txns activation). Phone must be online during the process with a minimum of 5 Pesos load.

3. A Paypal.com account, verified or not.

What to do:

1. Log in to your Paypal.com account.

2. Click on the Get verified link at your account main page.

3. Insert your Smart Money Card details.

4. Before hitting submit, on your cell phone go to Smart Money, click Internet Txns, select unlock and pick the card name, enter your w-pin and when you recieve the confirmation of the unlocking, hit the Submit button on your Paypal account.

5. If the registration is successful you will recieve a text message on your Smart Cellphone with text like P*XXXX. That XXXX is your confirmation code. Enter that to your Paypal credit card confirmation interface which is accessible by dashbord/ account mainpage.

6. Voila, your verified! Always remember that after every online transaction, Smart Money automatically locks your account so don't forget to unlock every transaction to avoid delay.

More good news? This new feature is also available to almost all online check-outs with credit/debit card support. All you have to do is unlock your card everytime you have to use it for online purposes.

Good day and comment me for more questions.

My Parenting Tips

I am a 15- yr old Filipino student. I go to school with 3oo plus students who all have, in one way or another, superiors like parents. I decided to make this parenting tips set because I know that by experience, I can honestly and accurately tell you what's in and what's not for your teens.

I am a memeber of the youth, the parents' target population, the one you are destined to assist on growth so God bless adn read my tips. Follow them or hate them. I'm just being honest.

The Iloilo Strait Has Rare Dolphins!

A dolphin of unidentified species died of suffocation after being trapped by one of the nets of the fisherman in the Iloilo Strait. The dead mammal was then brought to SEAFDEC, a marine research organization in Iloilo. The dolphin was later identified as an Irrawaddy dolphin, one of the rarest in the world.

Mrs. Louelle Dolar-Perrin, a Filipina marine biologist specializing in marine mammals associated with the Silliman University Marine Laboratory in Dumaguete City,Negros Oriental, handled the case of the dolphins and NatGeo international bought the rights to her study. She studded the Irrawady population and she found out that only 30-45 of them are left. Frequent ferry boats (Weesam, Supercat, Oceanjet) and cargo jets disturb the animal's feeding time and mating rites. Some of th edolphins were later found lifeless and mutilated probably by the blades of the same boats that passed Iloilo Strait.

The dolphins can be sighted 6:00 -7:00 in the morning by the Siete Pecados in Guimaras.

Mrs. Perin is also thinking about establishing a new species. The dolphins in the Iloilo Strait could have been there for thousands of years already so they might have developed new adaptations (eg. larger back dents) worthy of being named a new species.

When Mrs. Perin presented her study to the LGU of Guimaras, a joke was cracked by the officials saying that a civil war might break out over the new name. What do you think? Orcaella guimarasis or Orcaella ilonggonensis?

Lady Gaga's Most Outrageous Looks

I found this on UsMagazine.com website. Click the link to see those very wierd and seldom glamorous clothes Lady Gaga dared to hang on her shoulders.

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebritynews/photos/lady-gagas-six-craziest-vma-looks-2009149

This is what I call a good day

Today, my parents are going to pick me up and move me away from the dorm temprarily, and by temporarily I mean 'in less than 6 hours'.

5 hours out of the dorm might be short but it can be life-changing. Can you see the difference in my mood now? I became more fidgety, excited and adrenaline infused than ever before (by before, I mean 12 hours before). I made my parents promise to pick me up and you know them, they seldom break their vows.

Before everything else, let me enjoy the little time I got left before I walahoooloooo into outer space of overwhelming happiness and excitemement. I'll see what I can post before all happiness breaks loose.

Chill Wind by Janet McDonald

This is a story about Aisha, a 19-year old black girl with welfare running out, 2 kids and no high school diploma. Her story is both a typical novel and an inspiring one. McDonald writes complicated ideas in a way the reader understands and she successfully creates specific personalities for each character inside your imagination. This book targets 50% or 100% mature people.

I got my copy from home, dug up from archeological degree. I bet you you are not going to find this book anywhere in the Philippines easily. Because of my kindness, I'm selling my copy for a measly 3 Dollars via PayPal Request. It has minor folds and is obviously used. The price includes the shipping fee. E-mail me at wingspan300@yahoo.com for more info.

The 6-Yr Old Erap Fan

It started Kinder 2 (circa 2001 A.D. ) when I first became an Erap fan. It was the height of Erap's fame. Everybody just had to blaspheme Erap. They believed he deserved it, but not I. I stood with him, though he does not know me well during those years (until now).

I was 6 or 7 back then. I was young so nobody believed me even my teacher that time. Here is an actual conversation as I remembered it (translated from Ilonggo) :

Me: Erap! Erap! Erap!

Teacher: Gloria! Gloria! Gloria! Erap is corrupt, he deserves jail!

Me: Erap! Erap! (silently curses the teacher) Erap! Erap! Erap! Erap! . . . .

I hope my teacher reads this.

You see, Ma'am? I told you Erap's not going to die before the next or the next after the next election! He's going to live ,maybe not for forever, but he will run for president again for the sake of my loyalty to him.

I was below 10 but I pledged my soul to politician. What a sad, sad life I have. I trusted him too soon without even being able to read his name or anyone's name at all from a newspaper. I should have known what happened or what those newspapers say.

Now, Erap's starting his chain of law suits. First, between him and the tycoon who claimed he was tortured and next, the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

God bless him with that. If he's gonna run for elections, he better make friends and not judicial archenemies. Excuse me, its a giant national newspaper company you are quarelling with. The word 'newspaper' rhymes with 'publicity', remember?

But that is what attracted me to him, he is brave. Brave enough to face a nation running after him. Brave enough to accept all the blows without fighting back like a shallow, stupid, unpresidentiable, etiquette-less ball of flesh. He doesn't care if his image is pooped on, at least the truth will prevail.

I am still with you Erap, I assure you!

Bad news: Dear Erap, I'm only 15 years old so you can't be sure you have a sure one on your ballot count, sorry age doesn't lie.

Does Miriam Defensor hate Rhinoceroses?

The dictionary defines a rhinoceros as a large, powerful, herbivarous, thick-skinned perissodactyl mammal with two horns. Thus, a rhinoceros is a template for cabinet members and other executive officials who use public funds, or gifts from so-called “friends,” to campaign for next year’s elections. They are all thick-skinned and should be shot on sight.

That was a direct quote from one of her recent famous speeches. Read again the last line. Shot on sight? Is she still referring to the officials?

She used the rhinoceros as a metaphor for human violence and wildlife destruction. Creative. I'm starting to like her some more.

No, I do not support wildlife destruction. I'm an environmental activist. It was her creativity I was attracted to and by the way, this is partly an unfunny joke, do not take it seriously. Treat it like how most public officials treat you like, a joke.

Here is a link to Sen. Miriam's Blog.

Smart Bro or Globe Tattoo

I experienced using the two modems so I made this entry to guide those who are torn in between the battle of Smart Bro and Globe Tattoo.

First, study your area. All you need is a 3G (or preferably 3.5 G/HSPDA) phone and normal SIM cards from the two networks. Try to survey if the available signal is on 3G or the normal 2G.

If Smart has 3G in your area, buy Bro. If Globe has 3G in your area, buy Tattoo.

If both of the providers have 3G signal or just 2G signal, prefer Smart Bro. Bro does not disconnect you to its service as much as Tattoo does and Smart is also know for its stability.

Check out their websites: Globe Tattoo Smart Bro

Am I Under Depression?

I see too much, I hear too much. All I feel makes me crazy. I can't eat, can't talk, can't concentrate. I want to live out of the dorm but I can't. My parents don't take my ideas seriously. My head hurts and my thougth are all mashed up like potato. I might be joking around but all that is here is approximately 90% accurate. Is this depression? I don't know.

I have been having this weird feeling for a month and a half already. It all started one night when I went back to my dorm room and all seemed too familiar. I memorize the dirt, dust, grime and all other stuff in my room. I know it all and because of that, I'm tired of it. All of it.

When you have to file a leave pass to leave campus premises, when you have to finish all your laptop duties before 10 PM, when you have to force yourself to study at 8-9 PM, when you have to keep on hoping you are still a member of the family you once eat dinners with, when you have to keep worrying about your family who are pleased when you are away from them, when you have to swallow food you barely like, when you have to undergo rigorous science training after all that, that's dorm life. I want to quit but I have gone too far already. My hard work should pay off and quitting can put them all away.

I can't even end my posts right. I hate myself for pulling myself into this mess in the first place. 3 years ago it all seemed glamorous. I hate me. If I haven't passed the entrance exams, I might have been enjoying my existence right now, outside the four cold walls that keep me to myself. Soon I will get out. Soon enough, I hope.....