madderthanthou

a wedding and graduations

2006-04-05T14:11:00.000+08:00

a close friend of mine is getting married this saturday! it must be the
most anticipated event of the year for us, his friends, and for him
too, of course. seems like it was only last week that i told him how
fast time flies when you're anticipating an event. and now that
event is only three days away! it seems like it was only last month
that we found out that he already has a girlfriend hehehe.

to Voltaire and Dona...CONGRATULATIONS AND BEST WISHES!!!

and tomorrow is my little sister's high school graduation. seems like it
was only last year when we rubbed chilli on her fingers so she would
stop sucking them and then feeling remorse afterwards cause she
wouldn't stop crying because of the burning pain in her mouth. she
was only two years old at that time, i think. still can't believe that
she'd be in college in a few months' time.

to Mimi.......CONGRATULATIONS AND GOOD LUCK!!!

while next month, my youngest brother will graduate from college--- finally!!!
took him five years to finish a four-year course. seems like it was only two years ago when the tip of the fence he was climbing ripped his left thigh open and had 24 stitches(i think) to close it. he was only five then.

to michael....CONGRATULATIONS AND WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF WORK, PRESSURE AND UNEMPLOYMENT!!!

haven't posted anything for quite a while but i hope to post more in
the coming months. that is, if i don't have any extracurricular
activities that will take up all my free time........

missing letters

2006-02-08T15:33:00.000+08:00

when i was a kid until i was in college, when emails and the
internet were still a thing of the future, when one reliable way of
communicating with friends and loved ones from far away are through
exchanging mails, getting those mails from the postman or the post office
is a sure thing. now, however, all the mail we get are postcards. i
wonder why? maybe because there aren't any money attached to them?

it's frustrating when your family, relatives and friends tell you
over some other form of communication(either through the phone or text
message, or by email) that they've sent you cards or mails or pictures or
cds in the mail and you never receive them. you wait for those precious
mails for days, or weeks, or months, or years, until eventually you accept
the fact that those mails are gone forever.

i wanted to believe before that those mails probably were
addressed incorrectly, or they might have gotten lost. but those lost
mails are just too many for me to believe that those were just
coincidences. and it's amazing when we still continue to receive
postcards which means that the addresses printed on the mails sent by
the same relatives couldn't be incorrect. i don't want to think negative
thoughts and assumptions about what the people at the post office here
in the philippines do with our mails but i'm starting to lose my patience
with them!

i remember when i was still in grade school and some of my
classmates have their fathers or mothers working abroad. and i
remember some of them telling me that if i were to insert money in my
letter or card, that i should cover it in carbon paper coz the people at
the post office sort of scan the letters(i used to imagine that they have
some sort of xrays for those) and take the money inside. at least in
those days, people still receive their letters though the money have
already mysteriously disappeared. but now though, i believe that the
possibility of getting a letter(especially from abroad) by using mail is only
10%, whether there's money inside or not.

i understand that these are hard times and people will try to
get money in whatever way possible. but to open other people's mail to
look for money and then just throw them away when there are none are
just not right! i am aware that a lot of people work in the post offices
and that the emergence of emails and other delivery services nationwide
and internationally are threatening their jobs. but i believe that this is
the time to gain people's trust and confidence so that they will still
continue to use the mail. what the people in the post offices don't
understand is that by opening other people's mails and throwing them
away are just hastening the extinction of the postal mail. people will no
longer trust them and use other forms of communication instead. and it's
sad, really.

i myself already told my cousins and our other relatives years
ago that if they have pictures they wanted to share with us, then it
would be better if they send it through email or to link us to their
website. at least we are sure to see them all 100%. i told them that
after one of my cousins told me through email that she probably sent
three mails already containing pictures and we haven't received even one
of those. but we got her postcards though...

what prompted me to write about this is my brother's message
that i got last night that he sent through a friend who came home from
his ship. he told us that he sent a cd containing his instructions for
some stuffs that he needed for us to buy for him in the post office.
surprise, surprise! we didn't get anything from the post....

i don't want to generalize and i believe that there are those
who still do their jobs with integrity in the post offices especially those
who work in the provinces. but those who don't are giving most of them
a bad reputation. i hope they see the error of their ways and do their
job honestly. i don't want the post offices to disappear coz i still like
receiving mail from the post now and then. it's got a more personal
touch between the sender and the recipient. that's why i still have all
the mails i've received ever since i started writing letters....

lost things and a party

2006-02-06T17:42:00.000+08:00

i seem to be misplacing a lot of things lately, it's getting
frustrating! last week, i couldn't remember where i put my newly-bought
.3 pen that i use to write in my diary. this weekend, i found out that my
mobile phone's cover is missing. this morning, i can't seem to find the
sketch i made for the character that i'm modeling right now in maya.
nakakainis! i guess i'm not as organized as i thought...

had a small get-together with some of my friends last friday at
market market. portia, my high school and college friend, came back
here in the philippines two weeks ago from china. i wasn't able to see
her when she came home last year so when she sent me a message to
meet up with her, i also asked a couple more of our friends to meet with
us--hazel, a high school friend of ours, and yeyeth, our college friend.
it's amazing how old friends can talk so freely with each other that it
doesn't seem like it had been years seen we last saw each other. and
it's amazing how, six years after graduating from college, none of us is
married yet ^_^(yeyeth has a boyfriend though). portia will be leaving
again for china this weekend. i guess it'll be another year before we can
have another get-together like that.

my family and i went home to lucban to celebrate my
grandfather's 80th birthday last weekend. it never occured to me that
he was already 80, it always seemed to me like he was always 73
hehehe... i can't believe my eyes when i saw him dancing a little at the
party when only a few months ago he was sent to a hospital. it's a good
thing that he's feeling a lot better. i hope we'll still get to celebrate his
90th birthday ten years from now.

libro, bookstore, rides and prophecy

2006-01-17T20:40:00.001+08:00

i've been running out of books to read last december and since i didn't have time to roam the malls and hunt for good books to read because i was among the nytshifters in the office, i asked one of my friends if he could give me a Garth Nix book for a christmas present. i was so happy when he gave the whole Abhorsen trilogy instead of just the first book! and now i find myself hooked to anything that garth nix wrote! i went to National Bookstore this afternoon to buy a plastic cover for my books at home (i started covering my books completely instead of just the covers so as to protect them from dust, heat and paper-feeding insects). but when i saw copies of nix's "The Keys to the Kingdom"'s first two books, i couldn't restrain myself from taking them off the shelf. so even though i only had 500 bucks in my wallet i decided to use my father's credit card for the moment and then pay him later. and lucky for me, the bookstore's got an ongoing sale until the end of the month! so i got a 20% discount for those books. i'm almost done reading the Abhorsen trilogy and i wonder if the other Old Kingdom book(actually, it's just a short story), "The Creature in the Case" will ever come out here in manila? i hope garth nix writes more Old Kingdom novels... anyway, i guess i'll just have to start reading "Mister Monday" and "Grim Tuesday" while waiting...

one of my friends celebrated her birthday last week. and because she's a bookworm like myself, my friends and i decided to go to Fully Booked to buy her her present. it was the first time we've visited Fully Booked since it was moved to another floor. it was still as huge as ever but the floor plan is very different from before that a person could get lost easily inside hehehe. good thing there was a map.^_^ i hope i can go back there soon.....

my family and i, and my brother's friends went to Eurostar Carnival at the Global City last sunday. hindi ko akalaing mahihilo ako sa mga rides doon noong pagpasok namin dahil kokonti lang naman yung mga rides nila kumpara sa mga rides sa Enchanted Kingdom. pero pagkatapos naming masakyan nang isang beses lang yung iba, i don't think i can ride them again! sobrang nakakahilo pero nakakatuwa rin....bagong thrill, bagong experience hehehe..... buti na lang hindi ako ang nag-drive pag-uwi namin sa bahay ^_^;. kahit nahilo ako doon, babalik pa rin ako kapag nagkaroon ng chance (gwapo rin kasi yung mga foreigners na nag-o-ooperate eh hehehe ^_^)...

the animated movie we made is doing well in the states. never imagined that it will become #1 in the box office. never imagined that my name will be immortalized in the credits of a movie. it seemed such a long time ago when my college friends and i went to watch Space Jam in Cubao. we did not leave the cinema immediately and we just sort of sat there watching the credits roll by. i didn't know why i said it then, coz we were studying to be future interior designers, but out of the blue i told my friends that one day they will see my name in the credits section of a movie. i never imagined that what i said then will come true! honestly, my name has come up in other movies as well. but those are just from the local movies here in the philippines(i used an alias on one of them). pwede na kaya akong maging fortune teller? wahehahaha......teka, eh hindi naman ata nila napapanood pa yung mga pelikulang ginawa namin, so hindi pa rin nila siguro nakikita ang pangalan ko sa credits, waaaaahhhh!!!!
aryt, that's all for now....till next entry!

the holidays are over!

2006-01-09T17:26:00.000+08:00

haven't visited this blog o' mine for quite a while now. i
haven't been able to write anything coz:
a) i'm too busy watching animes/cartoons/movies/tv series in
my computer
b) i'm too busy surfing the net and looking for whatever i
could think of
c) i feel like i have nothing significant to record at the
moment
d) i didn't feel like writing thoughts which i think should only
be kept to myself
e) with the knowledge that some of my friends read this
blog, i wanted to write things that are worthwile to read
hehehe
f) i haven't been able to open a computer for most of the
holidays
g) i've been in a "holiday mode" so i didn't feel like writing
anything at all
h) too busy reading a book
i) etc. ^_^
i know i have a lot to write about. but at this moment, i can
feel my "procrastination mode" taking over so i think i'll just
write about whatever it is i was going to write next time.

adieu!

inkspell, hp4, and others

2005-11-18T16:06:00.000+08:00

my friends and i tried to get our pictures taken from
a neo-print booth last week. it was our first time to
use one and we kept giggling and laughing all the
time. i'd like to try it again, but with my siblings this
time.

haven't been able to post anything here for a while
and a lot have happened. i still keep thinking how
we are already on the second half of november
when i feel like it's still september. where have all
the days gone? as i grow older, the days go faster
and shorter. my brother left yesterday for japan
and he'll be boarding his ship from there and will be
gone for at least 6 months again. my sister has just
finished defending her research project and i'm proud
to say that she's got a 97% grade for it! our
japanese spitz, champagne, is now pregnant
and will be giving birth to puppies soon. my
grandfather was taken to a hospital but is now
getting better. my mom has had her hair dyed a few
weeks ago and i think she needs to have it dyed yet
again. my dad was interviewed by our president,
GMA, last saturday coz the topic of the discussion
was about seafaring jobs. my other brother is still in
college and doesn't want to get a side job even
though he spends only 6 hours a week in school.
our movie's trailer is now being shown on the web.
still can't believe that it will finally be shown in the
theaters! well, in the US anyway, we're still not
sure if it will ever be shown here in the
philippines.my birthday's just around the corner and
i'll be a year older again. whew! time sure is a fast
runner!

i'm nearly finished with reading "Inkspell" by Cornelia
Funke though i really wish that i'm still in the middle
of the story. it's such a wonderful book that i wish
it would go on and on. well, it still has another book
coming(after all, it's a trilogy) but i can't wait! it's
just so wonderful!!! i remember reading the first
book of the trilogy, "Inkheart", and it instantly
became one of my favorites. when i found out that
it has a sequel, "Inkspell", i couldn't stop myself from
jumping up and down in the bookstore with
excitement. i was just so happy that the story of
Inkheart still continues and that it still has a third
book coming. and i was never disappointed even
once while reading the sequel. i just love the stories
of Mo, Meggie, and Dustfinger. i wonder when the
third book will be released?

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has been
screening here in the Philippines since wednesday,
16Nov, 2 days earlier than the release in the US.
but i haven't seen it yet (i don't have the luxury of
spending the night out watching movies because of
my second job). but tomorrow's a saturday so i
hope i'll get to see it then. however, some of my
friends who have seen it already said that the movie
was too fast paced and a lot of the things in the
book were not included. well, we can't really include
everything that happens in a more than seven
hundred-pages-long book into a barely 120-minute
movie. and i think i've read enough about the
making of the hp movies from their preprod to post
prod days from the web that i think i already know
what scenes they retained for the movie. whatever
my friends say, i'm planning to enjoy that movie
when i see it. ^_^.

comparisons between myself and a character from a korean soap

2005-11-02T15:34:00.000+08:00

had a much-needed rest yesterday. though i still
wasn't able to get a full 8-hour sleep, i got to lay
around the house all day and do nothing but watch
another korean tv series, "My Name Is Kim Sam
Soon".

it's a good enough soap for me and it was rather
surprising that i did not shed a single tear for the
entire series(i usually cry whenever there's a
tear-jerking moment in an episode). but i think i
would have enjoyed it more if i watched it with my
sister. lots of funny moments and i guess it's
because i can relate to the heroine of the series.
well, the main reason why i asked my friend to buy
me this series is because i've read from korean
websites that the heroine, Kim Sam Soon, is chubby, not so
pretty, already 30 years old and still doesn't have a
boyfriend. i was kinda curious at first if the main
character would be a lot like myself. i'm not yet
thirty(but getting there), i'm chubby, and i also don't
have a boyfriend. i think i also act the same way
that the main character acts sometimes though i
think that she's more sensitive and more feminine
than i am. oh, and she also cries a lot (i only cry
when i watch a movie, a tv program, or when i read
a book). but the similarities end there. i'm not as
unfortunate as her situation in life and i'm not as
desperate to find a boyfriend. unlike her, i have
friends who i spend my free time with aside from my
family, i'm the eldest among four siblings, i don't have a funny name , i'm not as
loud as her in public places, and i can't bring myself
to wear girly clothes hehehe(she's always wearing
skirts and high heeled shoes). so i think that if i
were in her shoes, the things that have happened to
her wouldn't have happened to me. i still envy her
though...getting herself a handsome, kind, rich,
sensitive and funny enough guy who's crazy for her
and doesn't mind if she's fat or not. sigh!

sometimes i feel depressed after i watch feel-good movies or tv series like that. i get more convinced each time that good things like that only happen in the movies and not in real life. from my position, i can't tell if i were to end up with a richer, cuter and smarter guy or with a less fortunate, not-so-handsome and not-so-smart guy. i know, i get too picky most of the times. one of my friends even told me to "lower my standards". but i also know that though we always set standards for our ideals, the ones we end up with are always an exception. crazy, crazy world. all i want is to experience something romantic and out of the ordinary before i turn thirty! (like being stranded in europe and meeting the man of my dreams there harharhar!!!)

...........i'm starting to babble.........
.........ookaayyy.....
.......enough for today...........

vitamins in the mornings

2005-10-28T10:06:00.000+08:00

yesterday i had a good, long look at my face in the
mirror. i think i must have aged more than 3 years!
haven't slept properly for days and i can't work
properly in the office(not that there are lots to do
anyway). can't even finish a single children's book
for a week now. even my mom has bought me
vitamins to keep me awake in the office. i think i
should proceed with the decision i (and someone
else) have made two days ago which i believe will
help me/us reduce the stress i'm/we're in at the
moment. i just hope that the people that will be
affected with that decision will understand and not
harbor any ill will towards me/us. if only there were
more hours in a day, or more minutes in an hour, i
may be able to do all the things that i woould like to
do. such is life.

our mtv project in the office has finally wrapped up
last week. now i find myself with nothing to do in
the office. again. yesterday, i came in for work and
did nothing but surf the net all day. but i couldn't
write anything here coz my mind is a bit sluggish.
even now, i'm having a hard time thinking of the
words that would express what and how i think at
the moment. i will be taking the the vitamins my
mom bought me in a few moments to stay awake
and energetic.

oh, and this morning when i got here, i opened my
studio email and visited the site that my cousin sent
me. just a glimpse of the site gave me the
impression that it is something that will keep me
awake. i'm not a person who gets scared easily and
i already expected to see scary stuff from that site.
but just the same, i got spooked. here's the link:

http://members.thai.net/sinthai/room.htm

so now that i have written something for the day, i
guess i should go back to more serious stuff in my
computer such as pretending to work hehehe. 'til
next entry...........

be careful what you wish for

2005-10-19T17:43:00.000+08:00

several nights ago, i asked my angel if he could help
me get extra work so that i could earn extra money
before christmas. so far, my angel has never let me
down whenever i asked him for anything...........

so now, i find myself working for several companies
simultaneously. and just this afternoon, one of my
friends who's getting married has asked me if i could
make the invitations for her wedding. of course i
accepted. whew! somehow i get the feeling that
i've bitten more than i could chew. even now, i'm
feeling the effects of not having proper sleep for
four nights in a row. i feel like i'll drop off or get sick
anytime soon. i'm not complaining or anything to my
angel coz this is what i have asked of him. i just
hope that i could do and finish all the work that is
required of me and not end up in the hospital ^_^;.

short stories

2005-10-13T08:56:00.000+08:00

i learned about the short stories by Lucy Lane Clifford from Neil Gaiman's website. her stories always begin like an ordinary fairy tale until you get to the middle when you realize that something bad is about to happen and you don't know how that will come about. i don't know what to anticipate when the story nears its end and i kinda like it coz it's something different from the usual fairy tales. and so, for the curious, here's the website where i've read some of her stories:
http://www.geocities.com/orwellus/index.htm

i also read an interesting short story by Susanna Clarke yesterday afternoon and it's somehow related to Gaiman's "Stardust". well, i think it's related coz she used the Village of Wall and the Land of Faerie in her story and it's got magical stuff in there too. great short story. here's the link:
http://www.jonathanstrange.com/copy.asp?s=4&id=10

i think that's all for the moment. couldn't think of anything else to write about. some thoughts are not meant to be shared....

movies, absences and slow computers

2005-10-12T10:24:00.000+08:00

watched two movies for the past four days(which is rare for me nowadays, i haven't done that since i was a freshman in college. i could watch every english movie there was in the cinemas in a week and still get high grades!). The Corpse Bride was another masterpiece but i can't help but compare it to Nightmare Before Christmas. TCB was such a sad movie and i like happy movies. therefore, i still like NBC more than TCB. but i love the music piece played by victor on the piano. and because i like happy movies, i enjoyed watching The 40-Year-Old Virgin more. it was so funny even my mom and my aunt were laughing out loud in the cinema(which barely happens because my mom always falls asleep in the movies hehehe, just kidding). now i know why it topped the box office in the states when it came out. and i can't understand why my friends haven't seen it yet, it's so funny!(oh yeah, i forgot, they're "too busy" with their "workout" hehehe).

i did not go to work last monday(that was why i was able to watch the 40-year-old virgin). it's not that i'm a bad employee, it's because our administration person told me last week that i still have two leave credits for this month and so i decided to use it last monday. i didn't have much to do in the office anyway coz i've finished my workload since last week. and then when i got back to work yesterday, i wished i was still on leave. our production manager asked me if i could help render some files on my computer but our computers were going soooo sloooow i could finish a whole book while waiting for my files to open. sabi ng tech guys namin, lahat daw kasi eh nag-a-access sa iisang server kaya nag-ta-traffic sa network. ay sus ginoo!!! kaya tuloy di ako makapagbasa ng libro ay dahil sa init ng ulo!!! sayang lang at hindi ko magamit yung natitira ko pang leave kasi gagamitin ko yun sa kasal ng pinsan ko. buti na lang at may "workout" din akong natanggap, pampaalis ng init ng ulo ^_^. pero next time ko na lang siguro isusulat ang tungkol doon, i have to get back to work na hehehe....

of books and book temptations

2005-10-06T06:28:00.000+08:00

i congratulate myself for entering a bookstore last night and leaving it without buying a single book!! and to think that the bookstore still have an ongoing sale, the temptation was really too much... but i overcame it!

one of the reasons why i was able to control myself is because i just bought "Inkspell" last friday. it's the sequel to one of my favorite books, "Inkheart", by Cornelia Funke. i didn't have money that time because i wasn't really planning on buying a book(still have at least 5 unread books at home) but after seeing "Inkspell", i just couldn't put it down. so i used daddy's credit card and promised myself that i will pay my dad for it when i get my salary this friday. one other reason is because, as i've already mentioned, i still have several books lined up for me to read that may take most of my free time before christmas. oh, and if ever i will buy another book this month, it would be "Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman. Though i'm also tempted to buy "Gifts" by Ursula K. LeGuin, the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud(but i think i will buy them when the trilogy is complete), "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke(hardbound please!), any Diana Wynne Jones book that i haven't got yet, Terry Pratchett's novels, "The Wish List" by Eoin Colfer, "The Hiram Key", etc, etc. whew! so many books to buy, so many books to read, so little time, so little savings! and i haven't finished reading "Lionboy" yet! sigh!

waiting for my rendered images....

2005-10-01T06:57:00.000+08:00

have nothing to do here in the office for the
moment. i'm waiting for my rendered images from
the render farm. so to pass the time, here i am
writing nonsense once again.

starting two days ago our office hours end at 6pm.
it used to be from 9am-7pm eversince we moved
here in the new office to make up for the days
when we did not go to work because of the
location move. but we've filled up those hours so
we'll be going home earlier from now on yehey!.

don't really have anything interesting to write. saw
friendster's new feature where you get to see the
persons who viewed your profile. spent a lot of
free minutes this morning looking at the people who
visited my page and writing letters to old friends i
have not heard from for a while. found out that a
lot of old high school classmates are now working
abroad. i don't really need to find a job abroad
because my salary here is a lot higher than the
ordinary employee. but still, i hope i get to
experience working overseas, mingle with people
with a different culture, learn a new language, eat
new dishes, and possibly meet my soulmate
hehehe. ^_^ it's not like i haven't been out of the
country before coz i have travelled to quite a few
countries here in asia. but a tour of a few days in
those countries are very different from a stay
requiring a long period of time(i.e. because of
work). sigh, i wonder when i'll get my chance to
work overseas.

speaking of friends, one of them has invited us to
meet her near her place tonight. she said that
they will be moving to a new house soon and that
it will be their last day on sunday at their presently
occupied apartment(which is quite near our new
office). i guess i won't be tasting that free pizza
again tonight(every end of the month, our studio
holds a beer bash where we get free pizzas,
barbecue, beer and softdrinks). i wasn't able to
attend the beer bash last month because of the
Mojofly concert. anyway, i hope i don't forget to
take pictures of our get-together from my mobile so
i could post them here hehe.

gee, this entry has gotten pretty long. and i
thought i had nothing to write for today.....

books i've read recently

2005-09-28T04:09:00.000+08:00

finished "The Dark Flight Down" last night. it's the

sequel to "The Book of Dead Days" and i guess you
really shouldn't read one without reading the other.
it's got a pretty dark theme for a children's book
but i like the author's descriptions of the
environment and background. he makes an
ordinary thing or occurrence seem so dramatic. i
think the story is good though it reminds me of
"Crispin: The Cross of Lead" by the time i got to the
last chapters of the book. i might have enjoyed it
more if i've read it immediately after finishing "The
Book of Dead Days" last christmas, but i bought
TDFD only last month. guess i should've read the
first book again before reading the TDFD. Anyway,
it's a good book nontheless and i like it better than
some.

oh, and i also finished "Artemis Fowl: The Opal
Deception" last week. it's the best artemis fowl
book i've read so far. there was more action and
emotion than the other three books and there was even death.
i couldn't believe that commander root was really dead.
throughout the book, i've always hoped that he would miraculously
live again, but nope, he really is dead. sigh! but i
couldn't help myself from laughing whenever mulch
diggums enters the scene. and as for captain holly
short leaving the force and artemis going clean? i
wonder what will happen next? can't wait for the
next book. again, i think a reader will enjoy the
books much more if he/she reads them in
succession.

am starting on "Lionboy" now. i've read some good
reviews about it a couple of years ago but i found a
copy of it here in manila only last month. funny
thing is, i've bought it's sequel, "Lionboy: The
Chase" early this year but i couldn't read it coz i
didn't have the first book yet. so now that i have
both books, i'm off to a long read(tama ba ang
sentence ko manong T? baka sakaling binabasa mo
'to hehehe). so far, i find it intriguing and the main
character isn't your usual kid. for a start, he's
multiracial and he can talk to cats(which he thinks
is not extraordinary). so far, so good. after i finish
these two Lionboy books, i'm off to another
book-hunting expedition harharhar!!!

saturday night surprise

2005-09-27T07:07:00.000+08:00

went to a fund-raising concert(entitled MARINO,
BOW!) last saturday night with my mom, dad,
brother, and my brother's two friends. we went
there expecting to see some mariners to sing their
hearts out(my dad was originally scheduled to sing
but he backed out at the last moment) and not
really hoping to see big celebrities to perform
except for nyoy volante. turned out that we'll be
getting a BIG treat!

richard gutierrez was the one to open the program
and wow, ang GWAPO!!! umpisa pa lang, nabigla
na kami. and then in came nyoy volante and kyla
accompanied by dancers and a choir composed of
seamen and employees from various shipping
companies. arnel ignacio and ruby rodriguez then
entered as hosts of the evening and provided
comic relief. videos of interviewed seamen and a
seawoman are shown between performances and i
find it amusing when their friends and family shout
out and hoot when their faces are shown on the
screens. the talented mariners finally got their turn
to shine in an American Idol-themed program where
they sang the top five favorite songs of seamen
and seawomen. ang dami talaga ng mga pilipinong
magagaling kumanta! nakakabilib silang lahat(and
to think that my dad could've been on stage singing
with them, sayang!). and then sunud-sunod na
ang performances nina aiza seguerra at nyoy
volante again. tapos lumabas na si ruffa mae
quinto na may konting drama/comedy bago sya
kumanta at sumayaw wearing skimpy clothing.
kagulo ang mga kalalakihan sa paglapit sa stage
para makunan si ruffa mae ng picture gamit ang
mga mobile phones nila(bawal daw kasi ang mga
cameras). and then si chynna ortaleza naman ang
lumabas na kunwari eh ine-entertain nina ruby
rodriguez at arnel ignacio sa isang luxury liner.
nakakatuwa talaga yung dalawang komedyante!
after a few more songs nina nyoy at kyla, lumabas
na si ogie alcasid! ang galing nga ng audience eh,
sabay-sabay sa pagkanta sa 2 songs ni mr. alcasid.
sabi tuloy ng singer, pinadadali daw ng audience
ang trabaho nya kasi di na nya kailangang kumanta
hehehe. and then the final surprise of the night
was introduced -- si regine velasquez!!! grabe,
sulit na sulit talaga ang gabi!!! pero bago
magtapos ang show, ilang kanta pa rin ang kinanta
ng lahat ng performers with the dancers and the
choir. may mga sumabog pa ngang mga confetti
eh, bigtime talaga yung show! buti na lang at
sumama ako, nagdalawang isip kasi ako na hwag na
lang sumama. sayang lang at wala kaming dalang
camera, pagtityagaan na lang namin yung mga kuha
ko from my mobile phone.

so now that i've finally wrote that down and after
telling my friends all about it, i wonder when i'll be
able to watch another show just like that?
hmmmmmmm....

koji murofushi

2005-09-23T09:28:00.000+08:00

i've been wondering why koji murofushi did not participate in the World Championships in Finland last august as well as from the other athletic meets that he was preparing for after the olympics. but being busy with work and letting my mind drift aimlessly, i always forget to check up on any news about him. today, after finding time to search the net inconspicuously here in the office, i read some articles why he wasn't there. turns out that a lot of other top athletes have pulled out of their respective games due to injuries, health problems, etc. in koji's case, the articles said that he's got an injured rib. poor koji, i hope he recovers soon. i believe that that competition was very important to him and i hope he'll be fit enough to compete next time.

searching the net for any information about koji murofushi isn't that hard coz he's gotten pretty famous since he started gathering medals from hammer throw. however, a lot of those sites are in japanese! anyway, i stumbled upon a blog spot this afternoon posting japanese commercials. i saw koji's ad for nissin and i can't decide whether i should be turned off or not. though i would like to take that commercial seriously, i can't help myself from laughing!^_^ i hope his other commercials doesn't have him shouting "men!".

i remember the boy

2005-09-20T09:44:00.000+08:00

i saw joey albert's version of "i remember the boy" the
other day. if i remember correctly, that song came out
when i was about 7 or eight years old. i used to sing
that song back then coz it was a beautiful song. but i
must admit that i did not even understand what that song
was saying. my english vocabulary was still very much
limited.

hearing that song again made me reminisce of my own high
school and grade school days. it made me remember the boys
i used to like throughout my adoloscent and teen life. i
can't believe how serious i thought i was back then but
now, looking back, i can't believe why i even had a crush
on those boys. among all those crushes i had, none of
them became my boyfriend(well, i never had a boyfriend
anyway). they were special to me and i guess they always
will be. "i remember the boy" is a perfect song to sing
when i think back on those good old days:

I Remember The Boy

Today I heard them play the song again
An old familiar strain from way back when
Every note and every line
It's always been a favorite song of mine

It used to haunt me so some years ago
Reminds me of a boy I used to know
And although the melody lives on
The memories and the boy are all but gone

And while the song still brings that certain glow
And the words still sing of love I know
It isn't quite the way it was before
I remember the boy
But I don't remember the feeling anymore

The promises we made seemed easier then
As if we knew our love would never end
But seasons change and time erases the tears
As quickly as the rivers disappear

So while the song still brings that certain glow
And the words still sing of love I know
It isn't quite the way it was before
I remember the boy
But I don't remember the feeling
I remember the boy
But I don't remember the feeling anymore

untitled

2005-09-16T01:03:00.000+08:00

eversince i started writing in this blog i thought that nobody else will be
interested enough to read my entries. little did i know that some of my
friends were reading my blog. funny thing is, they've also been posting
entries in their blogs thinking that nobody else will read theirs...and i was
reading those! and so, after a little case of misunderstading between our
little circle which threatened our 5-year friendship, we found out that
we've been reading each others' blogs for the past few months! this blog
thing wasn't the source of our little misunderstanding, rather, these blogs
of ours were the reason why we discovered that there's been a
misunderstanding and we were able to fix it just in time. thank goodness
for blogs! =D

haven't been able to write or draw anything for the past months. it's like
i've got a writer's block or something. whatever. it just seems like a day
is not enough for me to do what i want done. it's amazing how, when we
were young, a day seem so long and we get to do all the things we want
to do, have new and exciting adventures each time, and still get enough
sleep. these days, you wake up, go to work, go home, watch tv or read
anything, you sleep, and then you wake up again the following day. we
get a few ecxitements to break the monotonous progress of our lives but
it doesn't happen everyday. maybe that's why i love books. nuff said.
must work now. slave awaaayyyy....

finally...the concert pics

2005-09-10T04:19:00.000+08:00

the band

lougee

ali

ricci

the band(again...)

ardie(guest guitarrist)

clockwise from top left: chito miranda, rachel alejandro, ali and sis rachel, ebe dancel

the group again before they played last song

gusto ko pa sanang maglagay ng marami pang pics kaso nakakahiya naman sa blogger.com. ^_^
hope these are enough though.

mojofly concert

2005-09-06T12:04:00.000+08:00

AYUSSS!!! Group pic taken after Mojofly's concert(i'm in there somewhere with the band members, the music video crew and some friends and family).

finally met them in person with dennis introducing me as the last of the crew who did the band's latest music video. they were really, really nice! and i love their concert! if it wasn't for the music video thing, i wouldn't have discovered their music. more power to them!!!!

it was also a good thing that i brought along my brothers coz archie's the one with the camera. he took a lot of pics and woah, the pictures really came out nice! will be posting more pics here maybe tomorrow hehehehe...

"tumatakbo ang oras
naiiwan na ako ng panahon....."

....still playing some of their songs in my mind ^_^

plans for tonight

2005-09-03T02:26:00.000+08:00

Finally finished the music video! No more sleepless
nights! Back to boring days....

We'll be going to see the band's album launching
concert tonight. Hope i'll get introduced to the band
members at last(i met their manager last tuesday and
she was sooooo nice!) Just hope that they still have
enough tickets at the Music Museum coz we'll be
bringing along some friends and family to watch the
concert. I guess i'm getting excited about this whole
band concert and music video thing coz i've even
dreamt about it last night ^_^. Just hope that the
concert is a success and our video welcomed warmly.
I also hope that i don't get too excited coz i get jittery
and i start trembling whenever i get really
excited(heck, even my teeth start chattering when i
get excited/nervous). ;P

------------------------------

i was trying to make a poem two days ago. i've
already started the first stanza but i can't get any
further. i know that it has the potential to be a pretty
long poem but somehow, i can't finish it. here is the
first stanza:

catch a falling star and keep it
never let it free until
it has learned to love and trust you
and grants your wishes if you will

..................

2005-09-02T10:03:00.000+08:00

can't write anything.............

........................................

my mind is a blank.........

........................................

must sleeeepppppppp................

...........................................

another entry for today

2005-08-30T09:36:00.000+08:00

yesterday, i saw the biggest, majestic and most
complete rainbow that i have yet seen in my entire
life! i thought it was going to rain so i brought an
umbrella with me when i went out yesterday
afternoon. but it did not rain, which is good. and just
when i thought that it was going to be just another
boring afternoon like the others, i happened to glance
out of the balcony and there it is!!! the biggest
rainbow i have ever yet seen!

i hoped that that rainbow was a good omen. but of
what? the first thing that came to my mind was that
the music video that we are just about to finish today
would be a complete success. and the second thing
is.....well, i haven't really thought about any second
wonderful thing that could happen, much less a third
or a fourth, etc. not seriously anyway...

too bad i haven't got a good camera, all i have with
me yesterday was my trusty mobile. i couldn't really
get a full picture of the rainbow coz the building where
i'm in was blocking the rest of the rainbow from my
view. too bad! anyway, seeing that rainbow was
something i never expected to see in this big city. it
was probably the first one i've seen for years since i
came to live here in manila. rainbows are common
enough in the town where i grew up which is just at
the foot of Mount Banahaw and rainshowers are very
frequent. but the one from yesterday was even bigger
than those that i have seen in the province. what an
experience! i hope i never forget that majestic
rainbow showing the tall skyscrapers that nature still
owns the sky.

here comes the train again...

2005-08-29T23:40:00.000+08:00

we moved to a new office three weeks ago. it was okay when we first visited it when our bosses have just signed the deal to rent the place. but that visit was only an hour at the longest and we never anticipated what we, artists, were getting ourselves into. we thought that the place was alright.

but now, after working here for three weeks, the train behind our office is starting to get on my nerves! i keep imagining myself falling through the floor whenever it passes by and our workstations begin trembling. and sitting smack in the middle of the whole second floor doesn't help coz i'm the one farthest away from any posts or beams that support the building. add to that trembling the loud noise coming from the train and its whistle! it's too distracting!!!

our bosses have been asking us suggestions to what we should call our company coz they're planning to change the name. an apt suggestion would be "Studio Along The Riles" hehehehe.....

keeping a secret we want everybody to know

2005-08-07T02:20:00.000+08:00

haven't slept properly for the past few weeks now.
haven't even had time to get bored even for a few
moments. i've been so busy since last month that i
feel like i'm going to collapse any moment now.

the reason i've been so busy lately is because some of
my friends and i have accepted a side job where we
get to do an mtv for a local band here in the
philippines. it's tough having to juggle my time
between the office and that sideline but it's even
tougher keeping that extra work from my friends in the
office a secret. we have to keep it a secret coz we're
not really supposed to accept any extra jobs outside
the office. but i needed the money and i happened to
like the concept of that video and i love the song(the song seemed to be made for me). aside from the fact
that i could learn a lot from that experience and add
the finished video to my resume and demo reel, i get
to meet the band in person! (i haven't met them yet
coz i joined the wagon a little later in the project, but i
will meet them next week =D). and having done a full 3d mtv for a
filipino band might help pave the way for fellow filipino
3d animators to do more cg mtvs. MABUHAY FILIPINO
ANIMATORS!!!

we're nearly finished with the video and it will be
previewed next week during the band's album
launching concert. can't wait to see the finished
product of our sweat and blood hehehe....here's
hoping that we'll get a good response to that video
and more projects to come. there's just a downside to
this experience: we can't tell the people at the office
who did that video >:(

my thoughts on the Half-Blood Prince

2005-07-23T07:48:00.000+08:00

**if any Harry Potter fan ever reads this and haven't yet read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, i suggest you stop reading right now cause this entry has got some spoilers**

here's what i should have posted two days ago:

finally finished reading HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
last night. what a treat! jkrowling is really fantastic....can't wait for
the last book! and i can't help imagining myself within the wizarding
world and helping harry in his journey. and i couldn't help myself from
feeling how harry felt when dumbledore died. also, re-reading the first
five books before HBP came out really helped me as the plots,
characters,timeline and clues in each book were still fresh in my
memory. i am amazed at how jkrowling is so good at hiding clues that i have
never noticed in the preceding books and at writing the twists in the
stories that i could never really guess what's going to happen.
but being the second from the last HP book, eventhough there were
more new characters introduced and more questions that arose, this
book has answered a lot of the questions that i've been wondering
about in the first five. though everybody now who has read the HBP
are sure that harry has found his true love in ginny, i can't help but
feel disappointed 'cause i was really hoping that harry and hermione
would be the ones ending up together(i admit, i'm a harry/hermione
shipper hehe). anyway, i think ginny is a better choice than cho and
ron is harry's bestmate and he's way better than any other guy(except harry) for
hermione(even if he is victor krum). and the half-blood prince? i've had my suspicions that he could be snape. but the reason on how he came to be the "half-blood prince" was so far from my mind! and as for the significant person who died in the book...sigh, i can't believe he's really dead!!! sniff! sniff!

and here are my thoughts for today:

six days after the book came out, i expect i'm not the only one who
turned to the net and searched for anything that could lead me to
what we, readers, could expect for the last book. and, as usual, i
went to mugglenet. and i was not disappointed. emerson of
mugglenet and melissa of leaky cauldron interviewed jkrowling in the
flesh and, so far, they've asked the questions a lot of us fans have
been dying to ask and more. i've learned a lot from the two parts i've
read so far(they're posting their interview one part of it a day) and,
for me at least, that interview is very informative. jkrowling is her
usual self, very careful in answering questions that could give a lot
away in the final book. but what the heck, i've enjoyed reading that
interview ^_^. my patience will once again be tested while waiting for
the last book. sigh, can't believe there's only one more book to
anticipate......

Neil Gaiman's Book-signing

2005-07-12T08:37:00.000+08:00

Neil Gaiman's book-signing....
YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!! i still can't believe that
i've had my gaiman comic books signed by him!!!!
and i even exchanged a few words with him!!!!
last saturday was just sooooo surreal...............
he was sooo NICE!!!! i did not kiss nor hug him
though, which is alright coz i don't even hug my
brothers and father hehe... but just being able to
talk to him was a dream come true!! i can finally
say to my future nephews and nieces that i have
met a very great man in my lifetime! and i've got
books and pictures to prove it. he was so nice
and funny and so down to earth, he doesn't even have
bodyguards with him! so very much human but
bigger than life! waiting for him in line to sign my
books from 10:30am to 1:25am was sooo worth
it! it was such an experience!!!

my boredom has left me for the moment. i'm still
savoring my book-signing experience and i guess
it will last till saturday when Harry Poter and the Half-Blood
Prince comes out. it'll be another boredom-buster
for me. well, can't wait for saturday. but still, i
can't help but think of what i will be looking
forward to after the Half-Blood Prince?

brief respite from boredom

2005-07-06T06:12:00.000+08:00

Finally, we'll get to work on something in the
office! At least my mind will be occupied with
work and i wouldn't have to keep pretending to be
working. I don't know why, but i feel more
stressed out when i have nothing to do in the
office. I like it better when my schedule is full of
work and deadlines for weeks. I hope i can say
goodbye to boredom for the rest of the year.

Boredom is a regular feeling that i had since the
start of the year with some occasional
excitements that keep me out of it from time to
time. And there have been two things that are
occupying my mind for a while now and i'm getting
more and more excited everyday. Firstly, it's Neil
Gaiman's book signing here in the Philippines! I
still can't believe he's coming here! I mean,
WOW!!! I can't wait for saturday!!! ^____^
And the second excitement for me, which will
probably be the biggest excitement that will
happen to me this year(actually, i've been
anticipating it since last year when i learned that
it will be coming this july), is the release of HARRY
POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE!!! Can't
wait! Can't wait! Can't wait!!!

escape

2005-06-18T08:55:00.000+08:00

my life these days have been so boring that everytime i wake up in the morning, i can't wait for the night to creep in so that i can sleep and escape to my more exciting dreams........

constantine

2005-02-22T02:46:00.000+08:00

finally i'm able to create a post here! and i have to rent a computer just to post here! and i only have three minutes left!
just a quick note... i finally saw constantine with my friends! and though we missed the first 15 minutes of the movie, it has exceeded all my expectations making me want to watch the movie again sometime this week. and it's in good timing, too. i've just finished reading neil gaiman's murder mystries and gaiman and terry pratchett's good omens. guess i would have to start reading hellblazer ^^;. these stories really get you thinking. i wonder when they'll release the movie's dvd?

WHY CAN'T I CREATE A POST!!! SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH MY PC!!!

2005-02-13T02:11:00.000+08:00

just testing on my linux .....