Princess Anya

Say hello to Anya, the latest addition of our family. No, she's not my daughter (LOL I'm too young to become a father). Anya is my first pamangkin and I'm so hyped with the idea that I'm already an uncle! My cousin gave birth to Anya last September 26 and thank God there were no complications or whatsoever.

I'm going to see my beautiful pamangkin this Sunday! I can't wait!

PS: I really love her name: Francesca Anne. So sophisticated and beautiful!

Gonna spend my 22nd birthday...

Here!

Clue: It's not in the Philippines! Can't hardly wait for my first international trip!

Born in the 90s

I am fortunate that I spent my childhood during the 90s. It's just, I realized that kids nowadays rarely play outside their houses because it's either too hot or they're too preoccupied with their gadgets.

Ahhh, kids these days.

I can still remember when I was young, I play rough games like lupa't langit, tagaanay, tigso, PS-PS-I-Love-You and the famous tagu-anay (hide and seek). I always do that every 3:30 to 4:30 PM, usually after I get home from school, except during exam week or whenever I don't feel like socializing with other people and opt to stay at my home either to watch my favorite cartoon show or to read a book. Life back then was simple. Although I can say that my brother and I aren't deprived with toys; my parents ensure that we enjoy the things that are 'in' like the Family Computer and Brickgame. In fairness, we never asked for it, they just give us new toys whenever they have money.

Technology was a big issue when it comes to school works. Since we don't have an internet connection back then, I was forced to do research for my homework at our school library and write all of the important details (I was THAT kuripot back then that I opted to write all of the important information instead of photocopying some chapters of the book) of my research. Sometimes I'd use my grandmother's makinilya aka typewriter to type my book report. Those were the days when I have to think FIRST before typing anything it. As much as possible, I shouldn't commit typographical and grammatical errors with my reports or assignments; I simply can't afford it. So to avoid wasting so much ink and paper, I'd create a rough-draft first before finalizing it. But today, one can just type anything what he fancies, thanks to the backspace button.

Technology has brought people to a different level. Today, people would know what you're thinking or doing every minute or two, thanks to Twitter. And as the cliche goes, technology has brought people around the world closer making it smaller than everyone thought, thanks to Facebook.

Although seeing those kids playing Angry Birds on their iPad 2 saddens me. In my own opinion, playing with your friends under the heat of the sun is more interactive and more fun than just playing with your gadgets all day long.

But yeah, it's how technology works. It makes the lives of the people faster but has also changed their lifestyle and their way of life.

I'd still want to experience the life that I used to have when I was a child, only if I have a time machine. Teehee.

Realizations after watching Miss Universe 2011

1) The delayed ‘live’ telecast of ABS-CBN was done in purpose. ABS-CBN officials were hoping that the final standing would change up to the very last minute of the show.

2) I didn’t know that Angola is a Portuguese-speaking African country. Oh, yeah, I forgot. Her name already sounds like Portuguese. Leila Lopes.

3) Shamcey Supsup’s smile. Yes, her million-watt smile.

4) Being maputi is everything… NOT.

5) One doesn’t need a visa to visit Brazil. Now time to save at least Php 130,000 for round trip tickets! Hurray!

6) Hindi lahat ng mga taga-UP, atheist. Enough said.

7) Johanna Solano (Miss Costa Rica) is beautiful. I was surprised that Karin Ontiveros (Miss Mexico) didn’t make it to the semi-finals. Hmmmm.

8) Miss Japan and Miss Korea looked like Sooyoung and Yuri of SNSD respectively.

9) Filipinos are very skilled when it comes to multitasking. Watch-shout-tweet-watch-tweet-shout-tweet. Wow, just wow.

10) Intelligence is not based on how fluent you are in English. It really depends on how you deliver your answer. You better watch this video.

—-

Congratulations to all the winners of Miss Universe 2011! And of course, congratulations to Shamcey Supsup! Once again, Philippines made it to the final 5! Way to go!

Thank you, promo fares!

Just booked two round trip tickets to Cebu and Iloilo for only Php 2,800. That's right! You heard me, two fuckin' thousand and eight hundred pesos, all thanks to Cebu Pacific's promo fare.

So, I'll be at Cebu from Dec 12-15 (island hopping) and Iloilo (Dinagyang Festival) from Jan 19-23, 2012. This is going to be fun!

Brenna, Ivan and I are starting to plan for our Cebu trip. We plan to invade Moalboal, Bantayan and Malapascua Islands. So I should bring my  fedora hat for sun protection and also my Coppertone sunscreen.

Also, I am thinking of the possibility to cliffdive at Malapascua. I have already tried that at Tinago Falls last Feb 2010, of course with a life jacket. In Malapascua, you only wear your fancy swimwear (of course). The Tinago experience was a 15-20 ft dive. Malapascua's a 50 ft dive and that's totally insane. I am not afraid of heights and I do have the balls to cliffdive but... but... it's just I do not trust my swimming skillzzz and cliffdiving would surely hurt my balls. Hell I just know how to float and to swim like a dog. No, I won't take it; my life would be at risk ye know.

In other news, I'm hoping that I'll win AirPhil Express' contest. I wanna experience MassKara Festival this October!

And as for my September, well, I'm planning to spend it with my fellow Davao bloggers (so excited with our movie night at Kuya Drew's mansion), food trip with friends and concentrate with my blogging business.

I can now smell the spirit of Christmas. Wow.

Learning Experience

I started blogging last 2006. I discovered it through Coconuter. I was really inspired to document my life over the internet. During that time, blogging wasn't really a big hit and I do remember that I'll get ecstatic whenever I receive at least 10 page views per day. During that time, most blogs are just personal journals and niche blogs haven't sprouted yet.

Whenever I am bored, I read some of my previous blog posts. Reading those previous blog posts of mine brings back those bittersweet memories. Back then, most of my posts were full of complaints, rants and whatnots; a typical blog of a teenager (hehe). I'd always ranted how hectic my schedule was or how awful my professors were. And oh, my grammar was not that good, believe it or not.

I have learned so many things about blogging and I didn't regret of signing up at Blogger five years ago. This personal blog of mine used to be chocoholic-memories.blogspot.com (LOL IKR ang baduy ng URL) then after a year or two it became the-pseudoneuro (I used to dream to become a Neurosurgeon like Dr. Shepherd of Grey's Anatomy). My first purpose of making this blog is to document all of my childhood memories and publish it here. I told myself that blogging is an innovative tool since I don't need to waste another ink and papers (yes I do own and write on my diaries when I was younger). Eventually, it became a personal blog filled with, yeah, rants about my high school and college life.

At least whenever I am happy or sad, I have someone to share all of it; a channel of my emotions. At first I didn't care whether if I gain readers or not but I realize that the bigger the audience your blog has, the more it becomes interactive. It's one of the reasons why I have gained a LOT of online friends. I even met some of them and mind you, they're all awesome.

I may have transferred to Multiply last 2007 then to Tumblr last 2009, but I will never, ever leave my first cyber abode. This is where I seek refuge whenever I am emotionally unstable.

Thankful

I really can't believe that my blog post about my recent trip in Manila would have more than 800 page views 12 hrs after its inception. I am also constantly receiving positive feedback from that particular post, and I am thankful for that.

More so, Google AdSense has finally approved my blog after 10 attempts. Really. I almost gave up, but thank God I didn't.

Now time for serious blogging. Let's get it on. Gonna earn a lot from it. I can feel it.

Huyeaaaah!

The Youth Today

Hi. You said ask anything. So anyway, what is the reason behind the growing profligacy among today's youth? :) (thedorkasaur)

Technology has already made several changes to the society. It has made our lives easier and more accessible. Although it has made our lives prone to the dark forces - forces that made the lives of others in peril.

But how about the youth? It’s the other way, my friend. I’m pretty sure that each and every one of us will undergo this stage, the stage of being a youth. It is a preparatory stage before entering adulthood. In this stage, each one of us will start to experience different things which can help to mold our emotional character. We start to realize something and carry it to our own principles in life. If we compare the youth today and the youth yesterday, it doesn't really spell any differences. They may have different interests and views in music, arts, politics, history and other relevant things but the thing is, they have this same notion of acquiring all the things they wanted even if it is not really important to their life

Sometimes, we fail to discern good things from bad. There are still flaws. Our very own principles would soon be compromised.

At first, we start to experience different situations in life – either good or bad situations in life. We get happy whenever the situations are good; otherwise we try to look for good solutions. Likewise we start to work things out. Ideally, if we look for a good solution for that certain predicament then our principles start to get its own shape. In real life, it is sometimes the direct opposite. You see, we sometimes wanted to straighten things up, even if it doesn’t need to! Thus, we are wildly extravagant. We are spending too much effort and energy to insignificant things. We start to think that what we are doing is always right, even if it’s relatively wrong to the eyes of multitude. We start to become reckless to things around us.

Nevertheless, we are prone to vices and some dark forces. We often think that these are the best ticket to euphoria. We fail to realize that these things will destroy our precious lives little by little. Time is relative but it’s still the same story.

Despite these, I am still confident that the youth will outgrow its decadence, material or non-material things.