The Capital City

I have hazy memories of the capital city. My trips to Manila were usually limited to a few hours or at most, a night and a short day. I was ecstatic that last Friday, me, my five other classmates and a teacher, went to Manila for a quiz bee (and a lot more). Wihi! Two nights in the National Capital Region. Of course, I was excited. NCR is the nearest domestic address we have to "the city that never sleeps" and I'm going with friends who fall under the same age group and with the same preferences as me.

(Read more for more fun...)

I've been busy with what I love

The exams are over and tomorrow will be a new week! Third quarter is going to start and I'm looking forward to whatever is coming. You can tell that I am in a good mood.

First things first. Its October 10, 2010. About three days after the last post so sorry for sleeping on my blog, I was really preoccupied. There was the exams that pulverized my biological timetable, there was my incredible liking of making videos and photographs to add to the to-do-list and I had to go back to school during the two days of break every week for lab work. 

Click Read more to...well... ermmm... read more! :) And I have a video presentation down there, I remember.

Barbie wears Pitoy Moreno!

They are leaving tomorrow so if you are in Iloilo, try to visit the exhibit because its not everyday that a parade of Barbie dolls dressed up in local designer labels park on the ground floor of the nearest mall. Its worth a look but honestly though, I'm afraid of anything that looks human but isn't human.

Look at this doll, she's coming to get you! aaaah.

God, I hate Chuckie! Since I watched it, every doll has became a nightmare.

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.

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.

The schedule had me running and bumping into people

Today was the last day of exams. During exams week in Pisay-WV, PM classes hibernate. In simpler terms, the exams occupy only morning periods. Its Friday and after all the exams, a big "Sigh. Its finally all over *faint*." should be heard from every student. Unfortunately, my hell wasn't over yet.

After the exams (which I tried my best to finish as early as possible) I had to report at 1:30 PM sharp for an appointment. I have a secret job that I do when opportunity comes. I do not discuss it  not because it is illegal but it will be too much information and you don't want that. Period. Plus, its vanity.

After 30 minutes, the job was done and I had to rush to the CPU Rose Memorial Auditorium to cheer for my  3 friends who got into the final round of the Search for Mr. and Ms. CPU High School 2010". One of them is a best friend, the other is a friend I badly need to reunite with, the other one is a very good male friend.

But of course, I had a lot of other friends who were there to watch too.

Fooling around with a very very very good (best)friend(Von or Vio):

Another best friend who won first runner up. I knew she wanted to win that award more than anything for some reasons =) (I had to crop out half of my face to save you from nausea) :

With Keze, Rachel and Von (again).

(From Left to Right) Angelo Listano (runner up and governor of the event organizers, very responiible!), the Mr. CPU HS 2010 and of course, Emily Victoria Oke (Ms. CPU HS 2010). Emily, you deserve every bit of it!

Emily promised me that we'll have a picture if I come and see their pageant. Well, here it is:

Again, I cropped out my face. I had to run around just to attend the show and I'm not about to give away my prize. Hehehe

Spell "Spageti"

Spaghetti isn't exactly the first word you'd learn to write in the first few years of your life. For as long as I can remember, D-O-G was my first spelling word. But here comes Dulcinea, with all her Spanish glory, spelling 'spageti' like no other, without hesitation:

Dulcinea is a Spanish-influenced restaurant strategically located near the second floor main exit of SM City Iloilo. Strategically because if you fail to plan out the cost, they can go over your lifetime's budget, and you might need your chance in running away. Well, its worth the try, the dining I mean.

Shrek Forever After now showing in the Philippines!

I went to the mall this afternoon and I was shocked the Shrek Forever After movie is out. Forever After is the latest installment of the humorous series called Shrek which introduced me to ogres. Before Shrek I didn't know ogres existed, after Shrek, I couldn't believe ogres could be a hit to young children. How about a movie with friendly tyanaks or 'demon babies'? Would movie magic still make vampire fetuses a hit?

Shrek 4 is available in 3D and non-3D cinemas. I get really confused in which way to watch because in 3D I get a third dimension and a headache and in 2D I get the boring sound and video but no headache. If you consider bragging rights as an advantage, 3D would be very advisable.

I didn't watch the movie today because I wasn't prepared. I spend a decent amount of time aging in front of a television set and I haven't seen any trailers or TV ads show up on ABS-CBN or any other local channel. Maybe I'm in the wrong time slots or maybe THEY are on the wrong time slots. I consider my age group to be still attracted to humorous animations. Why don't they advertise on my shows? Confident much they'll earn through word of mouth, maybe. The Shrek series would be a success and an explosive last installment would be an appropriate grand finale.

Crossing my fingers I can watch the film tomorrow!

New Music Album

Shown in this video is the album cover, just in case you can't read. Click the sleeping rectangle to hear the first song in the album.


I just bought Ely Buendia's Wanted: Bedspacer album. Its an original copy because the thought of downloading a knock-off, subpar album from an Eraserheads member is just awful.

The album has 10 songs. I never heard of their lyrics before so I'm 90% sure they are new songs. I kind of see techno in it, a dash of indie and a sparkle of true music, a new solo artist named Ely. Its music that wasn't made for the audience but was made for the urge of making it.

This is supposed to be a review of the album but its hard criticizing an album which happened to be my dream, a techno, indie Ely. My suggestion is you buy it and be happy with me.

If you live in Iloilo, you can buy the album at the second floor, upper ground floor whatever of the mall. Some people who are still raising funds tend to hide this album behind April Boy's music. Be sure to dig well!

Finally, something to do!

For a few weeks since the start of summer, my daily routine was suicide. Sleep, breakfast, sleep, TV, sleep, lunch, sleep, TV, sleep, dinner, Facebook until near morning. I knew after several months I could die of heart failure so I looked for something to do. Summer should not be paired with lack of activity.

I received a text message from my classmate that a tutorial center here in Iloilo will be holding review classes for college entrance exams. I'm an incoming high school senior and it was music to my ears. I was even happier that it was slightly far away from my school. Now I have to walk everyday and while walking, I can take photos of Iloilo. That is why I started this other photoblog. Check it out to see my photography!

Happiness is just inside of me that I finally found away to spend the summer without choking my arteries with fats!

I Went to Church !?!?!

For the first time in a long time, I went to church. My mother is a die-hard fan of religion so every time she is around, we need to go to church. Just to be clear, I am not against the church, I just don't go to church once every week.

The golden light emitted by the sun

during near sundown

For this week's Sunday, my mother decided we go to church late afternoon because the temperature is extremely hot. Walk around the city without protection and you will return home a big block of charcoal. The sun is just so extreme. So we waited for the cooler afternoon before flying off to churchland.

The city's church named Jaro Cathedral, was our church of the week. The church, although still under renovation, looks very beautiful and glamorous. Its like a mix of the antique and modern architecture. All these courtesy of the donations handed over to the church. Its amazing how much people are willing to give for religion, I hope they give the same attention to our nation. If we treat the state of being a Filipino as a religion, the Philippines will be a gold mine.

No giant cathedral will be complete without LCD

television sets to show lyrics and video feeds of

the proceeding mass. :-) Classy, eh?

This is only about 1/16 of the church.

After church, where I had to get squeezed sit between two strangers, I suggested we eat at Carlo's. Carlo's, according to the stories of my friends, is a fine restaurant. 

If you have heard from the news, Carlo's was bombed about two weeks ago. The picture below shows the exact point where the hand grenade landed(you can actually see the dent on the concrete lot caused by the explosion):

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Journal: SM City Iloilo's Free Air Conditioning

My mother is lying down on the bed, obviously uncomfortable while I check my photos on Facebook. Suddenly a voice behind me whispered, "Let's got to SM. Its really hot in here and if we use the aircon, our electricity bill will be taller than Everest". I froze and I tried to look behind me, wondering who this phenomenal economist is. Its my mother, gripping the remote and looking very enthusiastic.

I took a bath as fast as I can, preparing myself for exposure to thousands of other malling people. If life is a stage, the mall is YouTube. Thousands can see you there so its only proper to try prepare yourself for such limelight. 

We passed through the welcome arch of SM and parked at the nearest lot. We entered the mall, reclined at Figaro (a cafe) with my mother's friend. It felt like home if you have thousands of housemates. It was noisy but entertaining noisy, not annoying noisy.

SM Mall, Lower Ground Floor

So we sat there until lunchtime. Another friend of my mother arrived and we decided we chew on some ribs from Kenny Roger's so we did chew on ribs for another hour. My mother and her friends had to go to the BINGO and as the only one in the group below the "BINGO age bracket", I had no say. BINGO's don't hurt me. I'm still a minor but when I'm not wearing a uniform, I'm good as a 21 year old so nobody really throws me out of the BINGO hall. BINGO amazes me. I never thought it was more than a farm dog. Looking at the massive amount of people enjoying the random calling of numbers was keeping me curious. I do not play, for the math's sake so I just watch those who play.

The Grocery Area, SM Iloilo

After sometime, I got tired of watching people do BINGO. I got out of the hall and investigated the mall. Most people go to the mall for the shops, I go to the mall for the mall itself. Its a giant collection of merchandise no one will be able to appreciate in a single day. Its also action everywhere. On another corner, a man is buying an expensive watch for his aging wrists and on the other corner, a baby is throwing up. Its random and fun. Just like BINGO, but the numbers are the people.

HUMAN, the store where I bought

my new bag from. Pretty cool store.

After a few minutes of walking around the mall, I saw this small bag that I liked very much. I have a Girbaud leather bag which is too big to carry around for casual strolls. My leather bag was made for schooling where you need to carry numerous books and I needed this smaller bag. It was a cheap bag running under 7 Dollars and it was beautiful and it looks like it can last for more than a year. So I bought it but now, I'm still figuring out what if I bought the t-shirt which retails at the same price.

The mall is a fun place. Its like a giant TV with a lot of characters, most of which you will never understand. I hope malls will never have admission tickets in the future. 

Iloilo, soon to be on green power

Iloilo will be soon friendly to earth lovers! A British firm, Global Green Power PLC Corp. (GGPPC), just signed papers to start the construction of Green Power Panay Philippines Inc. along with a Nueva Ecija subsidiary.

The Green Power Panay Philippines Inc. will be a power plant generating about 17.5 Megawatts using biomass, earth-friendly technology. Agricultural wastes such as rice husks, sugar cane residue and rice straws will be loaded to the future plant  and voila, out comes electricity! The power plants will be great news to mother earth as it complies to nature-friendly standards. The plants will be constructed at Mina, Iloilo. Excited?

Read more.

Fancy Food Forecast

It is very ironic that in the previous article, I have stated my goals of living a good life and implementing a diet and a few days after, I will be blogging about my mortal enemy, food.

For the past few days, I have been bonded to Coffee Break at Nelly's Garden here in Iloilo, thanks to my good friend which is an addict of the unproductive sitting down. When she invites me to sit with her at the cafe, she means serious sitting, the likes of 3 or more hours of resting on a chair.

Plenty of chairs to

fill up!

I am not the laid back type of person. Moving is a need for me which stirs up another irony of why I'm a few sizes above prime. Back to the story, so we would sit there for like forever. I get bored a lot thats why I end up eating some 'panini', 'sans rival', 'frappe' etc.

They all taste good but why do all their names sound French? Its like gay language in wrestling. Why can't they be called 'tinapay na may palaman' or 'palaman sa gitna ng tinapay', and 'kalabang araw', even 'meringueng naligo sa whip cream at mani'. By that, product comprehension will be easier and people can easily expect what they are getting.

Why don't I build a cafe with the menu I just produced above? Reason: It would be stupid because one of the few reasons why these cafes exist is their ability to elaborate a person's ability in fancy food talk. Who doesn't want a friend who can translate 'basil salmone terrine' or 'pasta jeux tu amor' into human language?

While I was sitting down at Coffee Break, I had a vision. The cafes of today are cousins of the typical Filipino 'tindahan' where the youth spends most of their waking times doing nothing. Cafes are for young professionals that love to get attention but I couldn't deny the fact that there are some other people who consider cafes as a haven for reading or reviewing or doing other mental work. I know its a 'chillax', laid back place and I am a fan of caffeine, but why stay longer than 3 hours? Is economy the answer? I would understand if the 'tambay' that comes with purchase is actually a fraction of the price. I guess so because I can't tell you Coffee Break is cheap.

BTW: I know cafe is spelled with the other e with the curved line on top but your not the one typing and at the moment, I am not in the mood to look for French letters. And if by any chance you drop by Coffee Break, grab a Sans Rival bar and any cold drink with lots of caffeine. You will thank me. :-)

Failing at diet,

Warped Opinion

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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.

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...

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.