Please check out my GamePlan window on the left. I've added pictures! Yey! I'm so babaw! Anyway, I hope that the pictures entice you to watch the show. That is if you're bored at home on a Saturday night. :) Maybe you've been dying to try a new sport or exercise and oh my God! It's gonna be on GamePlan!
I also have a lot of race announcements to post, but I'll do that when I reach the mad house.
Oh! And mga friends! May cameo ako bukas! Pero mga 5 seconds lang. Haha! It's me parasailing! :)
Finally, my younger sister Julia forwarded something worth sharing. Haha! No offense, Jules, but please stop sending me chain letters. Please, please! Mwah! :) Anyway, guys! Do try it. It's really, really simple, short and worth the click. Just go to the site, type your name and voila. And dudes, you've gotta love the link's name:
Hey gals!! lets vote for Carlo Ledesma for FN's Boys of Summer!!! well he's currently in no.27 with 70 votes...so please gals vote for him!! for information, log on at www2.femalenetwork.com/boysofsummer/tally.php. Thank you!!!
Hahaha! Wow, that's so cool! If you check out the tally, Carlo's ahead of Jericho Rosales. Naka naman! Pero laugh trip ha! Ang #1 si BJ Manalo. Holy smokes, Chitae!
So anyway, girls, girls, girls. If you find Carlo worthy of the title, then by all means, vote for him. You'll be charged P2.50 for the vote, though. It's via text.
Hmmm. As of now, Carlo has 73 votes. Let's see if this post will help change things. Hehe.
I always get these job alerts from jobs.net. I guess it won't hurt to post them here. I'm being nice. :) But if you want to get your own alerts, go ahead and submit your resume to the site. Actually, my friend Kathy was the one who sent my resume when I graduated, so I'm very thankful to her. It really helps to get these alerts and it's cool to share the info with other people having difficulty job hunting.
Actually, I was inspired by the MTV job opening I posted last week. Sir Ed, an old boss of mine who now works for MTV Philippines texted me and told me that he saw my blog. Apparently, someone applied for the job and the resume said that the job announcement came from here. Wow! I was in a resume! Cool. Glad I could help. I asked Sir Ed if what I did was illegal and he said that he was pleasantly surprised that I was their unofficial billboard. Yeba. :)
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what do you see?" "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they got soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma.
The daughter then asked, "What's the point, mother?" Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water - but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"
Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.
When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate to another level? How do you handle Adversity? ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?
--- Don't tell GOD how big your storm is; Tell the storm how big your GOD is!
*** Plus, I finished my edit last night slash this morning. Yey! Thanks to Alexis for letting Ramil and I hitch back to the office after the movie. For his birthday (last Feb 11 :), I posted a lot in Indiefil. So go ahead check it out. It's a really good site. Tsk! Plus Meg gave me a new name sticker thingy for the forums. Yay!
*** I'd also like to plug Probe Productions' newest show called Art Is-Kool. It's the new kiddie show powered by former 5&Up producers Agay and Marj and hosted by our kind, bonjing Probe Team reporter Robert Alejandro. Kids in the grocery and the malls recognize him as the host already, so that's a really good and not to mention cute sign that this show is going to do so really well.
If you're a Nickelodeon fan, Art Is-Kool is similar to Art Attack, but very Filipino, of course. The whole show is done in Tagalog with a little English when the art terms have no Filipino equivalent. The show actually reminds me of Juice's shows Space and The Kikay Machine because all the materials for the art projects can be found here in the Philippines, whether in a store or in your very own bodega. So if you've got kids in the house, please, please encourage them to watch it. You'll be doing them a favor. Really. Seriously. I swear to God. Linyaaaaa!!!
Agay, Robert and Marj meeting in our in-house Istar Buko in the garden. :)
Watch Art Is-Kool every Saturday morning at 930 on GMA 7! Enjoy! :)
*** Now here's a long one from Joepi. I think Hannah could've used this in that 80s paper she had some time ago. Anyway, I had fun writing comments after each item, so you can say that this probably sums up my childhood. Well, almost. Heehee!
You know ur a (Filipino) child of the 80's when...
19.For the girls: You dressed up like Punky Brewster, Madonna and Debbie Gibson. For the boys: You dressed up like David Hasselhoff's Knight Rider, David Bowie or had Clark Kent's little bang. And now you think that the 80's had the suckiest dress sense. *Hey! I dressed like Knight Rider, too!
42.You get confused playing Play Station because of all the buttons on the keypad (Nintendo only had the direction pad, A & B buttons and the start & select keys ). *Yeah, but my Nintendo had Turbo A and B. Mwahaha!
59.You loved Cheezels and Chicakdees because of the great prizes it had! (Remember sticky hands, bear popups, and the stick on tattoos which were "banned" due to drugs daw?) *Haha! They had LSD daw! Oh, and I miss Clover Bits. :)
86.You know the lyrics ng "Tinapang Bangus" at "Alagang-alaga namin si Puti" ng Batibot. *Camille! It's Syd!
87.) You know these commercials: a. YCBIKINIBRIEF - Ycbikinibrief / ycbikinibrief / ycbikinibrief for the man who packs a wallop / YC had fashion / YC has style... b. RA Homevision - those guys from cash and carry Makati couldn't have done it better. Sports. Adventure. Cartoons. Award Winners and more. Featuring the voice talent of Frankie Evangelista. I will never forget the creepy hand at the start of the ad. Parang ET na nasa spaceship! c. Arthur's Legaspi Towers - nuff said. d. La Germania Mama Mia commercials - ditto. *Caronia! And Seiko, Seiko wallet, ang wallet na maswerte!
90.You're familiar with this song: Si nena ay bata pa, kaya ang sabi niya ay um-ah-um-ah-ah. Hanggang patanda siya nang patanda at pabastos ng pabastos hehehe! *Hahaha!
I finally caught a movie at Pelikula at Lipunan...the last one that is. Cam, Ramil and I met up in Mega Mall to watch Punk-Drunk Love and even if I am super dooper pobre right now, I think the movie was worth my hundred bucks. The Wednesday people were there, too, and I was so glad to see them and finally watch a movie with them after so long.
Punch-Drunk Love was a cute and simple love story with twisted factors all around it (Including a 1-800 call gone bad.). These factors didn't necessarily play a part in the love story. They just made things more complicated and colorful. The cinematography was very intimate and real with no glory shots at all. Just a play with the exposure. It was a little distracting when the shots were too dark, though.
The soundtrack was also very intresting, with an endless love song that doesn't get to you, and this very unnerving yet adrenalin-pumping composition that will just drive you mad whenever Barry Egan, played wonderfully by Adam Sandler, goes mad, too. Barry has 7 overbearing sisters who nag and whine and call and snoop. At one point, the music gets to you and the sisters get to you and you find yorself cheering for Barry, "Go, Barry! Speak your mind!" Of course, this means that Sandler gave his usual going-psycho act, but it wasn't irritating. Really, it wasn't. In this movie, you don't feel that it's an act. You feel that it's real anger, real rage, and real crying from a loser. At first you don't know whether to laugh or be bothered. Sandler's performance was definitely unexpectedly good. He really portrayed a real person, born with genuine goodness but also capable of incredible rage and strength.
Lena Leonard, played by Emily Watson, was a wonderful sheath who had a subtle and honest development from wanting to meet the man, get the man and hopefully be good for the man. When she enters his life, everything seems to be falling into place. Now if only those colorful factors I mentioned earlier weren't around, right? Well, those factors were dealt with somehow. "That's that." :)
The movie's also about Barry and Lena just being two really nice people. The few moments when they overcome their shyness or fail to keep their anger within are memorable; and when they leave their fears and inhibitions behind, the scenes become really pretty, you can't help but have this faint smile with a matching sigh. The scene where the silhouette of the two are kissing was done so cleanly, it reminded me of the OBB of Catch Me If You Can, except this one was romantic. And everything just looked sooo realistic. I can't stress it enough. Majority of the shots were at eye level with no cranes or anything. I think that's the best part about the movie. Everything was at eye level, and it worked.
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, he created...no, he didn't create. He showed us something weirdly real. I've heard about the raining frogs in Magnolia, which I haven't seen by the way (Well, Chris and Mo showed me the intro, but that's it.), and I think that it's good for him to venture from one extreme to the other. Keeps one up and about to "diversify".
Honestly, this shot took my breath away.
PS. I want an accordian. And someone who'll collect flier miles to go on out of town shoots with me. Wait. That's wrong. I need someone to PAY for my out of town shoots. Yeah. :)
For those who know the booshigishigi song, did you know that the man who played Alexis aka. Shaider died? Sad. He died in 2001. And damn it, the webiste that was forwarded to me is in French.
*** I watched I-Witness on GMA 7 last night and it was a good story on garbage, the pros and cons of sanitary landfills, recycling and segregation. The feature was entitled Basura and it was a strong story. Unfortunately, it had a lousy edit, poor script and very little sound. Well, I only caught the last segment, but it was really bad. I was so interested ni what Bayani Fernando and Lumen Ioge had to say, but the footage was so boring to watch. Heck, I'm not even sure if Lumen's surname is Ioge because the chargens were so bad, I couldn't read them. They matched the black and white and gritty look of the episode, but the fonts were just so hard to read. And I have 20-25 vision mind you.
I cannot stress enough how important natsots (natural sounds) are. There were too many VOs with no music, the natsots could've added to the feel of the story. If you want the audience to sympathize with people living in dumpsites, then let them hear the garbage being squashed in the garbage truck, the flies fying onto food and wounds, and feet swooshing and mushing through icky garbage swamps. Without natsots, it's just a video, bland and lifeless.
Sayang. I was very unimpressed by Jay Taruc, the reporter and writer of the episode. And the sentimental music in the end of the last segment was so forced. It was a song sung by a child about living in a dumpsite. Talk about forcing you to sympathize.
What a waste. Literally.
*** Here's something nice from a triathlete. Huling hirit pagkatapos ng Araw ng mga Puso. :)
Love is in the air... tell her you love her by.....
Taking her out for a late night run... and after a few miles, go home together and give her a bath... if possible, take one together...
And before you go to bed, tuck her comfortably by your side and sleep and dream of marathons, duathlons and triathlons, both of you finishing side-by-side...
Lastly, reassure her that, although new and sexy ones arrive (by ship or plane on freight, from Bangkok, Korea, China or Japan), that you won't replace her. The miles you've spent together on (and off road) have molded you both and made your relationship a perfect..... fit.
I went to the Ateneo some Saturdays ago to attend the first practice of CADS Street Alumni. While waiting for the dancers I walked around Gonzaga with memories of college racing through my head.
The lady who sells buko juice in the Caf remembered me. She apologized for no longer providing those big sago straws for my buko juice, and for not having any cheese sticks for me to munch on. Haha! Dang, I used to buy cheese sticks and buko juice almost everyday. And when I was sad or stressed, a good friend of mine used to buy buko juice for me, and he always remembered to get that big sago straw, too.
I also said hello to the janitor who cleans the pubroom (I think his name’s Jun.) and I had an interesting conversation with Ma’m Karen of the ORP. She had this really, really nice poster of Gandalf behind her desk with Elvish written all over the background. Such a pretty poster. And oh my God! Trinka! I saw Trinka and we gave each other our usual bear hugs and complained about having to be in school on a Saturday (She was there for some production work.). Haha. Felt just like old times.
Walking through empty hallways is more sentimental than seeing them on a school day when the place is filled with very young and unfamiliar faces (At times like those, you don't feel senti. You feel old!). I took a few pictures of Gonzaga spots that remain very close to my heart, and seeing zero benches on EDSA Walk was heartbreaking. EDSA used to be lined with benches filled with happy people making kwento, playing cards, studying or just plain lounging around, smoking and waiting for their next class. EDSA used to look like a very friendly place. Now it looks so bland, it’s sad.
When the school took the benches out, I think they took out a huge chunk of the college’s happy culture. But there are rumors that the benches might be installed again after PAASCU. Sus. It’s just a front. Still, I hope the rumors are true so that the GSM Bench can start having reunions in school. That’d be really cool!
My gilagid picture with Trinka. Hehe.
EDSA Walk, benchless and sad.
The Gonzaga entrance where we used to wait for carpool.
The pretty chapel that I used to visit everyday.
The Pubroom hallway where we used to meet up and fool around in between classes.
Our view from the Pubroom windows. People-watching was fun from this height.
The staircase behind the chapel where I used to cry. So thank you to friends who used to bring tissue and yosi down there for me. :)
I had 3 yellow roses delivered to Mama in her office and my note said:
Happy Valentine’s Day! You know I love you even when I’m masungit. Just stop asking about my love life please. I’ll tell you when I get one. :) –Alia
Hehe.
Like a true GSM-er, I wore black for V-Day and to my surprise, majority of the Makati people were in black, too. Wow, I actually blended in with the season on my second Valentine’s as a singleton. Black rules!
But black is also sad. Haha! The GamePlan girls agreed to meet up (date daw) in Galleria to watch Shanghai Knights and Camille and I were the first ones at the scene. But she had to leave early, and Joy and Gretch couldn’t make it. So there I was waiting for Ka and Gie in Coffee Experience, alone, in BLACK! How sad.
Shanghai Knights was a really cute movie. The play with the music (I’m singing in the rain...), Chan’s amazing and hilarious fight choreography that makes use of anything and everything in sight, villains Donnie Yen (who played Sky in Hero) and Aidan Gillen’s fantastic fight scenes, and Fann Wong and Olsen Wilson funny combo (“She’s going to win my battles for me.”) made it the perfect date movie. Not that mushy (Two Weeks notice), not that scary (They), it had enough action for guys and cute comedy for the girls. Oh, and I think Olsen Wilson’s cute, but his nose bothers me. It’s so, um, jagged. But at least he's not an irritating sidekick like Chris Rock.
Right after the movie, I rushed over to Nikki’s office where I met Cricket and VJ, former schoolmates in college. Their office had a cute Valentine’s Day ala Kris Kringle gimmick. They picked names from a box a few days before and on V-Day, they paired up into baduy love teams and exchanged gifts. So Nikki was Regine Velasquez and her ka-love team was officemate Ariel Rivera. Cricket was Sheryl Cruz and she exchanged gifts with VJ aka Rustom Padilla. Heehee.
Going home wasn’t so bad. Traffic on the highway was horrible, but only until the new SM Bicutan Mall (It’s like, you know, the party place! Nye.). Nikki and I were craving for some delicious pizza, so we went straight to Town to find the world there (I was joking in the car, “Ano ba? Bring your dates to Makati or something! Darn couples. Hehe.”) and decided to eat in TJ’s. But they only had a special V-Day menu, so none of our favorite pastas and pizzas were available. Dang, I just wanted to eat The Vatican! It was discrimination I tell you! P600+ for a meal? Forget it.
We went up to Food Island and shared a large heart-shaped Shakey’s garlic and cheese pizza. Yum-yum. Yeah, beat that, TJ’s! Camille joined us after dinner and we enjoyed some yummy coffee in Seattle’s best. I’m so glad they finally opened up in Alabang because their coffee is so much better than that of Starbuck’s and San Francisco Coffee. A few hours later, the Town started getting a little noisy. So we drove to Guava Park and we talked about many different things and I smoked so much that I ended up smoking the strawberry flavored DJ Mix cigs I originally bought for Mich (Sorry, Mich. I’ll buy you another pack. :) We also played around with my sister’s camera, modeled our “V-Day Black Collection” outfits and smiled liked wide-mouthed frogs (Halloh!!!). Camille shared some Elvish with us and we played with our imaginations by giving life to the clouds in the night sky. It was a lovely night.
The Big Dipper was clearly visible and Orion had moved behind us. It was 1am and I think I just had one the most wonderful V Days ever. See! Just because you’re single, it doesn’t mean you should have a sour V-Day.
Absolutely lah! ;)
A lonely man on the C5 ramp.
The usual V-Day traffic on South Super Highway. How lovely.
Eat your heart out! :) Nikki and me with our garlic and cheese heart.
I'd also like to plug 
I finally caught a movie at 
