Mga Magulang ni Isko't Iska

I thought I was the only night freak alive in this wee hour of the morning. Actually, sunrise is nearing and the sky’s condition (while typing this entry) had this dramatic dark blue haze stretching from the eastern horizon. But, I was a little bit surprised when my former Ecology professor posted a comment on one of my albums in my Facebook. Yey, at least di ako nagiisa.


I find it hard to sleep again. I slept at around ten in the evening and woke up at almost three in the morning with no apparent reasons. Seriously, I just found myself lying in my bed, staring in the pitch black of the room and bearing to an almost absolute-zero temperature of my room. Just kidding! :))


So for three days straight I am in UP because Chippy wanted me to help the student council. So I didn’t vacillate myself to help them since all of the officers were my friends too. It was a fun experience, actually, meeting new anxious and nervous faces of incoming freshies of UPMin and laughing our asses off with those nonsense jokes. Speaking of jokes, I really had a hard time to decipher some of the incoming freshmen’s email address. I was assigned to make a database and their email addresses were mad, like: byutipul_in_pink@yadayada.com and sexy_naughty_bitchy9312@yada.com. Of course, yadayada does not exist in the cyberworld, but I assure you, some of the email addresses were crazy.

(CCW): Kuya Sonny, Me, Chippy, Rennel and John

Step 4: ID thingy, insurance and etc.

Yesterday, I was a bit surprised by the number of students who attended the orientation. The said event was held at the AVR and it was a fairly large place. But then, the place was heaved with fretful faces of the freshies and the excited looks of their parents. WAIT. Did I say write/say parents? My God! It’s not a bad thing, actually to bring your parents in the freshmen orientation, but heck, they’re [your sons and daughters] about to enter college. Oh well. Two years ago, when I attended our freshmen orientation, I didn’t see any mothers, fathers or even guardians lurking in our school’s Lorenzo Hall. I can’t imagine myself having my mom in the orientation proper, pampering me with all those donuts and McDo stuffs during recess and lunch breaks. Yikes.


On the brighter side, the presence of the parents in the orientation actually makes the Q & A portion resilient and alive, at least. Freshies don’t have enough guts to speak in front of stranglers… este… strangers.



Anyhow, I’ll be going to school again and this time, I’ll be their tour guide for the day. I’ll be touring them around the campus, particularly in the College of Science and Mathematics. This seems to be an exciting job.



I’ll just give them my warmest welcome to UP…




WELCOME TO HELL! BWAHAHAHHAA >:))

Memoirs of Decada Noventa

See? My summer break, as of this moment is somehow productive in a sense that I did something that is not bound in a cycle. God, I get easily bored whenever I do the same things over and over again. Right now, I keep on reminiscing those good old days. I didn’t plan or write it in my summer checklist (if you can still remember my blog entry last month). An invisible force keeps on telling me to revisit the memories of the past. So I just grabbed the those filthy photo albums, wiped off the dust with my bare hands and felt an awkward feeling while browsing those old pictures of mine.



I think 90s is the best decade for teenagers.



Well, spending your childhood days in that decade is also fun too. I think 90s was the decade of transition, most especially in the field of mass media and technology. There were already computers, yes, but there were not yet advanced and sophisticated as what we have right now. Apart from that, I still encountered those traditional Pinoy games like Lupa’t Langit, Tag, Pog, Text (though I didn’t know how to play that game), Dampa and hmmm.. what else? Ah! Yung PS-PS-I-Love-You!


Thinking of my childhood days was really great. I find it ironic since when I was a kid, I often wondered the fate of my facial features when I’m eighteen and often times I wish that I’m already a grown up. Today, with those itchy stubbles thriving and growing in my facial area, I always wonder the pitch or tone of my voice before I entered the teenage years. Pffft.


But anyway, these are some things that remind me of 90s.

1) TV Commercials of Philippine Airlines. And yes, GRAND AIR!


2) Speaking of Philippine Airlines, who wouldn’t forget when a Boeing 747-400 PAL with a flight number PR 434 bound to Cebu to Tokyo blew off midair, killing a passenger. Good thing the plane didn’t split into pieces, 30,000 feet above sea level. I think this incident was featured in Air Crash Investigation (National Geographic) and it was now confirmed to be an act of terrorism.


3) The Ozone Disco incident. It gives me the creeps and goose bumps whenever I remember those charred bodies of the victims. If I’m not mistaken, a finalist of the Calendar Girls, one of the segments of the defunct show, ‘Sang Linggo na Po Sila, perished on that incident.


4) The teen show Gimmik (is that the correct spelling?). Diether Ocampo’s hairdo wasn’t cool, so as Dominic and Rico’s.


5) The World Tonight – the late night news show in the early 90s. It can be compared to today’s time, Bandila, though the anchorman was different, it was Frank Drilon. I am annoyed with his giant mole somewhere on his face.


6) President Fidel V. Ramos… and his iodized salt campaign. Remember the TVC jingle about it? “Iodize salt, iodized salt, mag-iodized salt tayo!!!”


7) Batibot. Ahhh, one of the classic kiddie shows here in Philippines. I sometimes watch 5 and Up. Chynna Ortaleza looked so innocent, as well as Atom Araullo.


8) Sineskwela. Christine Bersolla is still the Christine Bersolla today, with a new surname plus her lovely daughter, Antonia. Who were the characters of this educational show again? I can only remember a few…Agatom, Palaspas (I’m not sure of this), basta yung bird, yung walking tree, the kid with an onion bulb on her head, a lot of special guests and of course, their ever reliable jeepney, Buknoy.


9) The three famous love teams of 90s – Juday-Wowie, Marvin-Jolina and Rico-Claudine.


10) “Four thirty nah, ANG TEEEVEEEE NA!!!!!” and “Esmyuski!”. Gaaah.


11) I can’t afford missing even a single episode of Mara Clara. I think it’s an afternoon teleserye. I was so curious with the diary thing. At that time, I don’t have an idea of what’s a diary. And then, I asked mom about it and made my own diary. It turns out that, I wasn’t interested with writing about my life. I was only four at that time. Duh.


12) Halloween Special of MGB (Magandang Gabi Bayan). God, I was scaredy cat back then and I suffered insomnia for like two weeks? Three weeks? Basta, the horrendous looks of kapres and the eerie appearances of white, black and red ladies scare the hell out of me. Plus the traditional sound effects, like the GRIIIIIING (when a white lady appears on the tv screen) was really frightening.


13) The old terminal of Davao International Airport.


14) Mishaps on the water - the Princess of the Orient ferry tilts and capsize in storm-whipped waters near Batangas province south of Manila, leaving 70 dead and 80 others missing. On a special MGB report, After Image’s Habang May Buhay was used as background music. It was such a dramatic and heavy scene, for me. Hanggang ang dugo ko ay dumadaloy, sa ‘yo lamang iaalay.


15) The sinister laughter of Selina (played by Princess Punzalan), the antagonist of my favorite Pinoy teleserye, Mula sa Puso. I won’t forget her evil snicker when the bomb exploded inside the bus, and believed Via (Claudine Barretto) was instantly killed in the explosion.


16) I can’t forget when Cebu Pacific Air (flight number 5J-387; a DC-9 jet) crashed on Mt. Sumagaya, on final approach to Cagayan de Oro’s Lumbia Airport and claimed 104 lives. Ang joke pa nga noon, nag “my heart go shalalalala” ang pilot, then ayun, bumangga sa kabundukan ng Sumagaya.


17) Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, the burger alien who had an annoying expression (ayayayayayayay!), Captain Planet, Scooby-Doo, SWAT Kats, Centaur, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes.. naah, those were my favorite cartoons.


18) The song Right Here Waiting for You. For one simple reason, I keep on singing this song, everyday. I was six.


19) Typhoon Rosing. Grabe, I think it was the first time that I encountered Singal no. 4. It was such a terrible strong typhoon. That’s why I was so engrossed with weather that I would rip the Philippine map from PAL’s inflight magazine, Mabuhay and draw some symbols and the typhoon direction all over the map. I even predicted that Rosing would get stronger to public storm signal no. 6. Pathetic.


20) Ernie Baron – one the reasons on why I’m so obsessed wit Physical and Biological Science.


21) Oh yeah, I also remembered Pia Hontiveros. She was tied in a pole while having a special report about Typhoon Rosing.


22) Speaking of Rosing, she wreaked unimaginable havoc to Central Luzon. Deadly lahars (or mudflows) ravaged the plains of Central Luzon. Because of this, movie makers and producers became inspired with that it became a movie two years later. Lahar pa rin ata ang title and Dawn Zulueta portrayed the main character.


23) The suspension of Willie Revillame, Randy Santiago and John Estrada on their defunct noon time show, Magandang Tanghali Bayan sanctioned by the MTRCB due to acts of lasciviousness. I think the chairman of MTRCB at that time was Armida Siguion-Reyna.


24) Philippines, particularly Manila became famous when the World Youth Day 1995 was held there. I remembered when the news covered the arrival of pope. They were stationed at NAIA Terminal 1 and watched as the late Pope John Paul II’s chartered plane, an Alitalia DC-10 arrived in our country. Unity was clearly evident to all Filipinos. Everybody was singing “Tell the World of His Love”.


25) The infamous Vizconde Massacre, the Jalosjos rape controversy, MILF and Abu-Sayyaff.


26) No Doubt’s music video of Don’t Speak and Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn.


27) “I’m the King of the World!!! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!” and “come back, come back!!!”


28) Lea Salonga. Special thanks to Miss Saigon, she became a world class performer.


29) Ahhh! Thalia! Lots of Filipinos went crazy with this Mexican actress. When she came into our country, her concert was jam packed and millions of fans loved her when she sang a Tagalog song, I think it was Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang. Truly, her Mexican teleseryes namely Marimar, Maria Mercedes and Thalia were all smash hits on the TV screen! Today, Filipinos are now shouting for Wu-Chun, Dao Ming Sue, Lee dong Wook, Rain and other yellow-skinned artists of the Far East.


30) The Pasig River. This historical river of Manila (Pasig area, hence the name Pasig River) became an icon for environmental concern. Different kinds of trashes were seen floating on the river and the color of the water at that time was black. Today, Pasig River’s conditions were better than a decade ago.

What are other things that remind you of the 90s? Go on, share something. :)


I think this is already long.
Hope you enjoyed this entry. :)

Bulilit Days

Hahaha. :))


Roughly twelve to fifteen years ago, wala talaga akong pakialam sa sarili ko. Okay, I know how to comb my hair in an old fashioned way and I ain't a big fan of looking and grooming in front of the mirror.



And twelve to fifteen years ago, I'm quite chubby.


Twelve to fifteen years later, my jawline became prominent, so prominent that I look like a skull, yung nakikita niyo sa symbol ng poison nga, or the skull that you always see sa mga Pirates.. sa cartoons nga? Whatever. :))



I wish tumaba ako kahit ng konti.


Bulilit days: No fuss, lots and LOTS of adventures, and uhhmmm, the famous hairdo of kids back in the 90s - "Iskrab hairdo".

Today: Super OC, tons of kaartehan paraphernalias, technology, and peer pressure (well not in my case). :))

Mahilig pala tatay ko sa "candid" shots. Lol. :))

One Hot and Exciting Race

I can already smell the million bucks waiting in the finish line of the race, but the three remaining teams must struggle through different tasks, tricky directions and grumpy taxi drivers.



But before that, I was quite happy with the outcome of the race and dude, it was the funniest episode that I’ve seen in the show!


Let’s start with Jaime and Cara. They all thought they were about to win the first place. If I’m not mistaken, their highest standing in this season was only second, only a few minutes from Margie and Luke. When they arrived on the mat and when Phil announced that they were the first team to arrive on the “pitstop”, both of them rejoiced, for just a couple of jiffies. I couldn’t forget their faces when they received another clue from Phil. They were deeply disappointed because they all thought that they have won a special prize for finishing this China leg first. Too bad girls, but I guess the experience from joining the race is the most important thing.

One by one, the three remaining teams (Margie and Luke, Jen and Kisha and Tammy and Victor) retrieved their clues from Phil.

Beijing is an amazing place. But if you’re stuck on the middle of the bustling streets of Beijing and armed with only the English language, then it’s going to be a disaster. Now that’s the primary predicament of Jaime and Cara especially on acquiring a taxi and/or asking directions from the locals.

Tiananmen Square was really breathtaking, apart from the bloody protest back in 1989.

Images courtesy of cbs.com

Now the four teams rode an electric bicycle and headed straight to their next location. They found a clue box and it was a detour. In this Detour, teams had to choose between Beijing Opera and Chinese Waiter. The latter requires teams to address the orders of the hungry Chinese customers in MANDARIN while the former needs teams to dress like a princess and a gentleman (accompanied with heavy makeup) and present it to the opera master.

Tammy and Victor opted for the Chinese orders due to their advantage in the language. The three remaining three teams chose to have a Chinese makeover. Tammy and Victor finished their detour task quickly and went straight to the U-Turn, and made a right decision for they’ve U-turned Jen and Keisha. Imagine having them as the opponent on the foot race, the Chinese team wouldn’t outran the six-footer black sisters. This made Margie and Luke and happy and was very thankful to Tammy and Victor critical decision.


While Jaime and Cara struggle for directions and finding a taxi driver, Jen and Kisha suffered in their U-turn. Writing down phonetically what they heard, the sisters didn’t fare very well in their first recitation to the chef. Fried chicken became “Monthly use Taiwanese Chicken” and Kisha’s pronunciation of vegetarian noodles turned it into “Good western heads lack fish.” After a few more tries, Kisha & Jen finally received the chef’s approval and served the dishes to the waiting patrons. I can’t help but to laugh so hard on to the silly translations. Good thing, the chef wasn’t insulted by it. Lol.


The last task, which is the roadblock, needs only one member of the team to accomplish the task, and if you’re hungry, it’s going to be a perfect time to relish weird and alien Chinese delicacies – deep fried grasshoppers, starfishes, maggots and scorpions. It may taste like deep fried potatoes, but Westerners may find these to be weird. Even the Chinese team freaked out with the exotic street foods. Victor didn’t mind the food at all – gobbled the crunchy scorpions and went straight to the pit stop, the famous Bird’s Nest (Beijing National Stadium), used to be a stadium during the 2008 Summer Olympics and the penultimate and the tenth Pit Stop of the race. Tammy and Victor finished first and won a trip for two to Galapagos Island.


Meanwhile, Margie and Luke came in second place. The two remaining teams are still in the Chinese exotic food task and it was really a close fight. Because Jen drank four bottles of water, she really had to pee. So upon arriving in the pit stop, they first went to the porta-potty, wasting valuable amount of time. After a while, Jaime and Cara arrived on the pit stop and finished third, leaving the black sisters to be the last team to be eliminated on the race.


Lesson learned: Do not pee if you haven’t checked in to the pit stop.

And next week, I can’t wait for the season finale. Who will win the million dollars?!



The finish line of this race will be on Maui, Hawaii. I’m so excited!!! :)

Wrinkled Forehead

Old people are sometimes cranky that you end up thinking of giving them up on an institution that takes care of them. But no, Homes for the Aged aren’t that prevalent in our country due to our culture. Sometimes, they do not comprehend on today’s generation. They are fond of giving sermons to the younger generations and apparently, their ideas are a little bit far-fetched and already impractical. They sometimes pass their frustrations (like being a doctor but failed med school on their era) to their sons/daughters or even to their grand sons and daughters. Luckily, my grandparents aren’t like that. Phew.



We often shout at them because we have to. It’s not because of being rude. If we speak in a normal voice, they tend to accuse us of being uncouth because they thought we’re just whispering to them and they can’t understand what we are talking about. Take note that as we grow old, our body reflexes slow down and our five senses start to dwindle, but not entirely - the qualities of the five senses are just becoming dull.



We often take them for granted, believing those words coming from their mouth are pure rubbish. But let us be considerate sometimes. Old people are very lucky since they have existed for more than sixty years. If they give sermons, just listen. If you’re uninterested with their puritan behavior, just don’t show you’re apathetic. Let their “words of wisdom” enter your left ear and exit to your right ear simultaneously, unless if it’s important. But I tell you, I find it enjoyable when listening to their sermons. You can really see how the gradual changes in the society had changed and shaped our beliefs.


They may be annoying due to their infuriating behavior. But old farts should be treated fair and square no matter what. Let them enjoy life to the fullest.




You know, life can be compared to one of the basic principles of thermodynamics:

In the irreversible process the initial state of the system and surroundings cannot be restored from the final state.

So as life. You can’t return to the past and fix those mistakes.



Let them live to the ripe age.
Let them breathe.

Let them relish life up to the last second, up to the last drop of it.

Prey (Michael Crichton): Book Review

Prey is one of Michael Crichton’s techno-thriller novels. It tells the story about Jack Forman, a father of three, jobless and the lovely husband of Julia Forman, who embarks on a quest to solve the series of mishaps of the latest scientific innovation of nanotechnology. The novel was indeed compelling, the plot was delivered in a straightforward manner and the facts were presented evidently.


We all lived in a cynical world and reading this novel makes you realize that a small mistake would lead into a catastrophic disaster. Small things, like the programmed nanoparticles can coalesce with each other and wreak unimaginable havoc to humans. It’s an eye opener for us, and gives us an opportunity to take a peek on to the possible drawbacks of science and technology.


I think Biology, Computer Science and Biotechnology majors could relate or even love this novel. Imagine the intricate courses like Biology, Computer Science and Genetic Engineering in just one book.




A great book, kudos to the late Michael Crichton.


One of my favorite authors (I love Robert Ludlum too!). Sigh.

Twitty Bird

Almost everyday, when I check my Yahoo! Mail, I get numerous invites from my friends and online buddies telling me to join Twitter.

I am pretty much familiar with the platform of Twitter. It is the same as Plurk, minus the Karma madness. Both of are social networking sites which allow users to shout their current state of mind, their status shout outs, whatnots, sweet nothings, greetings and etc. Users are allowed to write anything as long as it's only a hundred forty (140) characters long. Now this is what you call microblogging. You don't need to blog something in more than a thousand words, but instead you need to state your points directly.


I already have an account in Plurk. I joined Plurk last September 20-something 2008. At first I thought microblogging was more exciting than anything else. Plus, people are becoming crazy of accumulating more karma points, more smileys to choose from and more friends and fans to add with. But when you reach Nirvana (starting from 81.00 karma points), the drama starts to unfold and everything gets dull and boring as time goes by.



You know, I already have accounts from different social networking sites (as well as blog sites).

I have 3 accounts in Multiply.
I have an account in Friendster and I rarely open it.
I have an account in Tagged.com and God, why did I sign up on that site in the first place?! Maybe I should cancel it though.
I have a Plurk too and karma’s almost 97. Like who cares.
I have a Facebook and somehow it connects me to my old classmates and distant relatives which I think will play a significant role in the near future.
I have several accounts on different blog sites namely Blogger (my first home), Livejournal, Wordpress, I.ph, Windows Live Spaces, AlivenotDead.com, Imeem.com, and in G-blog (because I had to have an account there).
I also have an account on YouTube, well just for commenting and video streaming purposes.

I have watched a news clip from Yahoo! and it tackles about different Hollywood celebrities who have recently joined Twitter (boo Plurk for having less celebrities on your site, lol). It all started with Ashton Kutcher’s dare and I think it had attracted internet users to join Twitter. According to the news, in just three months, the number of registered users has increased by up to 700%, thanks to the advertising powers of the stars. Even Oprah Winfrey had just signed to Twitter about a week ago or two.



So, should I join the bandwagon?


The answer is NO.




Why?



The answer is simple. Hindi ko na siya ma-follow up or ma-update ng todo-todo. Plurk seemed enough already and the platform is pretty much the same.


But then again, my behavior is not inevitable. If you possess this “ultimate convincing powers”, then convince me why should I join Twitter.


I’ll be waiting for your replies. :)

Freshmeat Life, oh Freshmeat Life!

Roughly two years ago, I went to an accredited hospital of UPMin to pass the medical requirements – urinalysis, stool analysis (that was a disaster), blood sample and X-ray. I was pretty anxious and curious about college. Lots of “what-if” thoughts have entered my mind.

Will I survive UP?
Will I have a hard time to gain friends?
Will I get something prestigious when I graduate in UP?

I have envisioned my goals before I entered college, and I even wrote in on my secret notebook. But it seems that not all of my goals will come true. So sad, but I guess you won’t get everything what you want.


My first day in UP was a little bit awkward – new faces, new environment, new set of subjects and new professors and instructors. I thought I was a crazy teen, who kept on smiling to everyone I meet in hallways, library and other places in school. I even remembered I was nominated as our batch’s Isko, and during the nomination process, Mark mumbled something sinister and Mon got surprised with the result. But eventually, Neil got it due to some “cultural reasons”.


The girls kept their heads low and were somehow gullible. Haha. =)



Enough of this “first bloc encounter” cheesiness.


Basically what I did to survive UP was simple: Set your goals and stay focused.


We have been through different predicaments, yet we’re still survivors. Even though our population is dwindling at an alarming rate, we still grasp on each others arms and try not to fall into the pit of darkness.


I have learned a lot from the first half of my college life, and I really don’t know what’s in store for us on the second half of our college life.

I think it’s a wrong notion to fear college. It’s the most exciting part of man’s life, I tell you. :)



A big good luck to all incoming college freshmen of this country.


May the force be with you. Starwars. Whatever.