Kruhay and a few other things

Last week, my internet became picky and would only work with my phone's WiFi. Just today it realized my only method of fixing things is by hitting them with stuff. I pounded my modem with my equally sized WiFi router and the next day, traumatized, they started cooperating with my laptop again. I do not suggest my method but I guess everyone should have tried it once.

Our school just spent two days on our Humanities Celebration which is held annually. On the first day, we had a mass and a film showing of "Pisay", complemented by a Pisay Diliman Batch 1986 (the batch that inspired the movie) speaker. After that, we had a lunchtime food festival and being engrossed by all the calories, I forgot to take my camera out of its bag. I don't have pictures but fragments of what I have eaten will surely stay in my system for a long time. After the lunch, just before sunset, the Humanities department prepared a concert of local artists. The theme was after all "rediscovering our local culture".

A school choir. The San Agustin "Troubadours"  who originally performed

the celebrated piece Kruhay. See it performed by the Madrigal Singers here.

 

Infamous composo singer "Pirot (extreme right)". He brought

along two kids (girl and boy right next to the heart) who sang a

playful song about love and patience.

The second day (a Saturday) was spent on visiting several places. We visited the Miag-ao Church which is magnificent inside and out. I have to note that two out of the three churches we visited had burial masses going on. Miag-ao Church was having one for a baby. :-(

 

Occasional vanity:

Taken seconds after I hopped off the bus. Look at the background. I can actually fall a fatal 25 feet to cobblestone and hardwood trees and I dared to flash a smile. 

I bought a Griffindor-inspired scarf from a traditional cloth making house we visited for 250 Pesos.

Charice and Pempengco on Glee Season 2!

One of the few things the Philippines is internationally recognized for are its child singers and as Charice Pempengco's small frame resonated awe-inspiring notes on Oprah, I was pretty proud. I even started singing myself and realized later that not because Charice is Filipino,every Filipino can sing. I'm a little racist at that, I guess.

Now that she's casted on Glee, I can't wait to finish the episode! I'm already on the start credits and I saw this:

Every other cast had their names spelled out, even if it covered Sue's face except Charice'. We need international recognition for our crazy last names too!

In weird ways.

My school has this line of huge white boards with wheels on the 'lobby' and teachers have been using it as a venue for all their concerns and whatever else they need to communicate in text rather than in speech. A certain section was dedicated to the lost and found handled by an awe-inspiring faculty member. 

In the lost and found notices, creative students of my school express their feelings through erasing certain parts of words to make the notices funny incoherent. Look what happened to the "eyeglasses" here:

I do not admire this form of joke, in fact, I believe this is vandalism and is a direct violation of the Scholar's Code. Frankly though, it suggests our students can be creative (but I imagine a multitude of profanities in a Rorschach test), they only need the proper medium to employ. In the meantime, this is actually funny on the surface but these boards are on the lobby and you can't welcome guests or anyone for the matter with a phrase synonymous to "watch out for behinds".

A cake and a winged demon

After a whole morning spent taking the Ateneo College Entrance Test, rumored the hardest college entrance exam in the Philippines, I took myself, a few friends and my camera phone out to the mall to drive all the stress away.

We had this cake made:

It reads: "Congratulation for Passing ACET! Happy Birthday Cha". Although the designer at Goldilocks missed a few letters and a punctuation, it basically said congratulations to us for being able to pass the test papers back to the examiners and being able to survive sitting down in a chair for more than 30 minutes without extra body-wide contortions. Cha is a good friend and she's going be a whole year older tomorrow. Cheers for her!

The worst enemy of a cake are utensils and hungry teenagers. Poor cake.

In famished times, no one is ashamed to be caught on
camera devouring 1,000 calories. Again, poor cake. 

The mall had a population density which is against the definition of matter. If you stand steady on the second  level, you can really feel the floor vibrate because of all the footsteps. Its the second day of the 3-day sale and people are trying to grab on what's left from yesterday's market. Tomorrow will be another manifestation of our ability to reason out purchase with seemingly once-in-a-lifetime discounts.

"Splice" is a movie about mixing of DNA and unfortunately, someone financed its release in the Philippines. Filipinos are very sensitive to linguistic errors and dictionaries disprove "specie". Species is species. No specie or specieses. How can a crew who made a movie about genetic engineering fail at a simple, taxonomic term?

Oh, its Lady Gaga and she's wearing a meat dress to the MTV Video Awards

photo from Nicola Formichetti

When you think she had ran out of ideas, when you think she has outdone herself enough and when you think that another of her shock-attacks would be much less corrupting than before, here is Lady Gaga, fabulous in a meat dress, wearing meat shoes, with bacon on top of her head and looking like she could use some more. The MTV Video Music awards was shaken.

She said it wasn't an insult to the vegetarians and that she had her own explanation with her ready-to-wear slaughter house but Ellen DeGeneres, a vegetarian, couldn't help but give her a vegetable bikini anyway.

In my opinion, it would be impossible that it was real meat. Although the sanity of Lady Gaga is questionable (who cares, she's a rare gem), I still believe she is hygienic and siding your body temperature with raw meat bites is really nasty and stinky, plus I don't believe that the Nokia Theater could have allowed her leaving bloodstains everywhere.

She won 8 awards. Eminem, the second biggest winner, took home only two awards. She's really about bringing the bacon here.

Pen and Paper.

For the second quarter in school, we were tasked to read and digest the play Oedipus. Before reading the whole selection, I was already looking forward to the part where Oedipus falls in love with his mother because eras ago, we have already discussed the psychological disorder called Oedipus complex. You have to be happy for me because I had an idea of what would happen. During the first quarter, we discussed Homer's The Iliad and while my classmates were graceful enough to know at least three-fourths of the gods and goddesses plus whatever corresponding noun they are ruling, I had no single drop of knowledge aside from Hades was from the underworld and Zeus carried a lightning rod of some sort. Too bad the Holy Trinity, a major ingredient in my family's native education system, was unique to Homer. No salvation for him and I then.

Back to Oedipus. My teacher cleverly devised a procedure to pressure us to get into our handouts. You are grouped into packs of 4 and your follow-up quiz scores will be averaged. Meaning, if you have the lowest point in your group, you just destroyed a part of the future of your classmates. My group mates' memory dwarf my aged brain. First quiz, 2 got 13 out of 15 while one got 16 out of 15, using the bonus points to rise above us all. I got 12 and that meant I just tainted their grades.

I have the Eraserheads Box Set and I will tell you its components and why you need it.

Click 'continue reading' to see and know more :-))

Fieldtrips to the past

Yesterday, I grabbed myself the Eraserheads Box Set and apart from a majestic, silver-design adorned "The Heads" shirt, a metal box that brings back memories of school with bring-your-own-lunch policies, and a tearjerky photobook of the band (Eraserheads and their music in visual art) is a gigantic collection of 11 CDs.

I also bought Youngblood 2.0 from Inquirer Books. Its a collection of the 70 best essays from the youth of 1976-1977, published in the groundbreaking Youngblood coloumn of the Inquirer. I've been eyeing the book for so long and getting the box set, it was a sign that today was scheduled to fulfill material desires.

Like a box of pure joy

Pictured above is a box and its contents representing the happiness of age-confused teens living in the world full of absurdities - which can actually be written in pleasing, even happiness-inducing soundtracks of Pinoy life. I love the Eraserheads and this box set was made to make every fan happy.

UST Entrance Exams and more

Last night, I jogged a few kilometers and even moved almost in time with Billy Blank's classic video-taped Tae Bo sessions. I was doing all these for two separate purposes -  one, to lose weight and two, to be stressed out and hopefully earn a comatose-deep sleep for the UST Entrance exams the next day. I sweat out a lot of fat last night that I easily regained with a bowl of rice and a fatty pork soup of some sort and I learned that minor muscle cramps and pains don't help when you're trying to sleep. My efforts were rude and they flew out the window instantly.

I woke up the day of the exams and I was shook into consciousness with a gut feeling that something is wrong... Nobody woke me up! Its either because zombies attacked my housemates while I was sleeping or I, least likely, woke up very early. I looked at the time. 6:30!!! The exams will start in 30 minutes and I am still fresh from bed in my pajamas. I rushed into the kitchen and I saw a scene that gave me a sucker punch. My mother was sitting on a chair watching TV, having casual talk with my guardian like nothing is in schedule. I immediately reminded them that today was the UST exams and they told me they know but they thought its not going to start until 8. Good Lord, is this a sign!?!?

I rushed into the bathroom naked and got a sad excuse for a bath, brushed my teeth, gargled on mouthwash and rushed into the car my mother will bring me with to Angelicum Iloilo. The few drops of mouthwash I swallowed were my only breakfast. I was hungry but I didn't care. My only goal then was to defeat all the negative elements and to take the exam. I want to pass the UST exams because just in case I fail in all others or if I decide to finally sell my soul to being a medical doctor. I have this belief that they have the best Med school in the Philippines.

The exam started at 8:30 AM. Before that, I was already looking for the people who told me that the exams would start at 7 AM because they/he/she/it put me into cramming hell as a good morning. 

The exams were beautiful, not that tormenting and not that boring either, plus we had a really cool proctor. After the exams, we got a folder (pictured above) and a bookmark as giveaways. Look how some few free stuff erase the scars of a bad morning. Amazing.

Freezing, with wheels

We (mother and me) went to the mall and discovered a wedding fair on the ground floor. It showcased an array of local wedding fashion houses, a handful of photography groups that  show off their masterpieces either with hectare-wide canvas print-outs or/and on big-ass TV's (they obviously earn a lot), a couple of cake-makers and a lot of other booths that might need considering if your planning a wedding or just dreaming about planning one. An eye catching display was a white, vintage Chevrolet car that looked something like this:

photo from here

It was really cool to see this car inside a mall on display. Suddenly, it felt like I was in a museum.


Me: Cool car.
Mother: It looks familiar.
Me: Huh?
Mother: It looks like a refrigerator.
Me: Hahahaha.
Mother: Wonder if they sell some ice in there.
Me: I won't allow you to find out. 

Amen

The image foregrounded by a multitude of followers.

You need to be inline to get 3 meters away from this rebulto.

My mother got me into a church with this image of Our Lady of Fatima on its pilgrimage from Portugal. Its currently housed at the Alta Tierra Village's Our Lady of Fatima Church. Its going to stay there until September 12. Its leaving this coming Sunday already so go grab your family and pay a visit to this image. I know you want to go to heaven and as a Filipino, visiting and paying homage to traveling images is a way.

I just discovered a method called conscience manipulation and its widely used by mother. Let me outline it for you: On the first part of the day, she will spoil me in return that I agree on whatever thing she will reveal later. If I don't agree with her, my own conscience center will punish me. Brilliant! Now I have to spend a few days thinking about an antidote. 

This night's trip to the church was a product of this method but this time it was mutually good because I needed a spiritual reboot given all the demons I have dealt with the past week.

PS: A very good health/psychology teacher told us that wether you serve the Lord or the gumamela etc., its alright. People can sometimes be very bummed that they just need someone unlike them to share their emotions with (like God or the gumamela). This reminds us that in order to be human, we have a maximum stress level, go over that and you'll die or achieve god-ness.

On September 16, 2010, I'll be moving to leolutero.blogspot.com. Subscribe via e-mail on the top-right of this blog to never skip a blog post. I don't spam because Google controls the system and Google is very, very good.

Wasak Waltz Music Video Teaser: Die for a few seconds,

Screen caps:

IT:

Relapse

I have already decided that I should work with the fact that nobody will ever understand me. I have learned this from several, repetitive event in my past. Samples below:

(I will be writing in personal code and will only give a super(100x)ficial concept, otherwise you will be alarmed and you will get me arrested for just being alive)

Organism A was significant (hereafter referred to as A). A was one of the few reasons I was scared that I have to be someone I'm not to make good friends. A was really happy when I was in confusion and fear. A did things beyond reason that I did not enjoy directly. A found it fun and when I see A having fun, it becomes fun for me, too. Now, A is being an ass, telling me that its all my damn fault when it was behind the wheel all the way. (Confusing but our brains just need to work once in a while).

Lets go to Organism B. Organism B was once a good friend of A but things really change. Organism B blames me for some of its problems. A didn't know about me and B. B indirectly said that if I didn't exist, its problems should have been fractioned by millions. It was painful to know you are a pain in the ass. I like A as a friend. I wanted him to be happy so I had to drift away.

Organism C is a different story. C enjoys a lot as I do and we both have problems beyond teenage capacity. We can relate to each other and we enjoy each other's company. Organism X, Y and Z started talking trash but C and I stood strong. I pity C because it turned itself into something less than its potentials. I could understand because I share its problems. I want to help C but I remind myself that I only serve confusion.

Organism fictional letter 'zoolah' is in a faraway land. I'm happy he's actually away.

AND I find it hard to earn new friends because being my friend means you need to face a crowded room and be scrutinized by a lot of mean people until you become god. I am very hard to be with and its really hard to find a friend brave enough to stand by. I sometimes always wonder if there will be somebody out there who would dare stand by me. I'm too weak to see somebody nice suffer and yes, I am whiney.

(awkward silence. unprecedented degree of seriousness). Don't assume you know ABCXYZ or 'zoolah'. 

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Weird

What's common with these two videos?

Video no. 1 features 16-yr old Margaret Ortega, Filipina, and the winner among the  2,000 plus contestants in Hong Kong's American Idol equivalent, Star Power.

Video no. 2 Neon Lights- Rico Blanco. Number one in Hong Kong's music charts.


Music doesn't take grudges. If we only talked in notes and moved in beats. Really weird.

Obsessed with Beauty

It was already dark on my way home when I saw a spaceship tricycle. It had high-frequency blue lights everywhere that I swear it would almost look like a ball of burning ethanol from afar, all the other parts that were not covered with blue LED was black metal. It was a cool cross between the future and the old concept of Pinoy tricycles.I was lucky it was the first on its line, meaning I got to ride it. After a few minutes of waiting, I got to ride it alone.

Inside the contraption, you can find.... another set of blue lights! I was cursing then on because the two-minute ride can turn into a giant headache anytime. After a the first thousand of indecency, I noticed awkwardly placed megazillion watts speakers. They were so epic that the whole clunk of metal vibrates at every strum of the baseline. He was listening to the radio and it was late in the afternoon. The dance beats were causing turbulence.

18:24 H: I arrive safely home. 

I don't understand why we are so obsessed with aesthetics in a major major way. The tricycle could have burned 6x more fuel with all the bling but the driver is still confident its all worth it. (Escapism?!?!?)

Opening the season with bad news

I don't like working with terms and conditions and I have a domain name, WarpedOpinion.com which gives away the idea of a blog sharing weird and out of the ordinary insights on whatever. Well, being hyperactive and an avid challenger of life, I can't really avoid talking about myself and all my deeds.I break the essence of my web address, so.....

WarpedOpinion.com will be closing soon. I heard its on the September 16th, on its first anniversary. Sad. Its been a year that I have been working on this and suddenly it has to... wait... I won't stop blogging. I'll just be transferring to another address that is: leolutero.blogspot.com (bookmark!). Those who have already enrolled their E-mail to the Google's system will still receive their updates. If you haven't done so, do it now with the widget at the top right side of this blog.

I also broke my earphones which are second to the most expensive(iestest) pair of hearing paraphernalia I have ever bought. Its sad because I'm really an audiophile that at night, I sometimes hear my ears telling me to get a life and stop listening at full volume. I browsed through my photos and I saw this:

This was the last day of the normal life of my Nike Motion earphones with a slim white band (it doesn't deserve being called headphones). I was swinging at Assumption Iloilo with it and it had motion sickness. It died soon afterwards. (Don't mind the girl in pink in the background. hahaha)

Its been a few days since the last blog post. I have been really busy and I'm just doing this quick post to make sure that my few readers wouldn't suddenly get 'effed up wondering where all the trash they have been reading has been dumped away.

I really love blogging and I just realized that no matter how busy I am, I always try to find time and inspiration to write down mediocrity.