Unifying until the bitter end...

The massive yellow ribbon campaign almost pushed my emotional buttons. Indeed, until the bitter end, you unified the Filipino people.

Rest in Peace, Tita Cory--I'm glad I was able to shake hands with an icon like you.

If the year 2008 were an academic course, what grade would I get?

First, let’s have a look back to whatever resolutions I said I would do, and whether I got to do them or not.

1. Regarding tennis, I was unable to do the 10 hours a month quota, until the remaining one-third of the year. In total, I played 121.5 hours of tennis for 2008—an amount to beat for next year.

2. All the stuff about chips and pastries and when to eat them were fail.

3. I am more affable this year that I thought I’m turning into an extravert. (No, I’m not).

4. I did not overanalyze most things, but ironically, on the things where analyzing mattered, it turned out my analyzing wasn’t enough even if I thought it was.

The year 2008 had me thinking about a lot of things—realizations that needed reinforcing—some of which I realized on my own while the others have been shared to me, all within 2008 (in no particular chronological order):

1. Drink vitamins DAILY—even if it’s just ascorbic acid. I may not look it but my resistance to germs had been shaky ever since I began to lose weight. I need the supplement…and the psychological effects it brings that make me think an orange pill can render me invincible for the day.

2. Having fun is all good but too much of it can sometimes make you forget some important, basic things in life. One should always have a good bird’s eye view of the whole situation so as not to lose oneself.

3. Must you choose to cover something up, make sure that the context you plan to lie for is worth it and is far greater in significance than the one you are planning to lie to.

4. In a collectivistic culture, “Me. Myself and I” will almost always still be associated with “Others and the Rest”. Therefore, if you say something like, “I don’t care what they think”, apparently does not always work because those who care about you (in whatever ways) give a damn about what people will say about you, because you carry or reflect some part of who they are…and they care about what people think about them. That leaves you with taking an individualistic stance (owning up to your beliefs) and at the same time being a collectivist as well (being considerate of others). Sounds like a stalemate, doesn’t it?

5. True friends not only think of their own convenience, but will also go an extra mile for you—and you don’t even need to ask it from them…they just know.

6. You make your own destiny, the world does not make it for you.

7. Forgiving others versus forgiving oneself—both can be challenging depending on the type of person you are dealing with, the type of person you are and the values that you adhere to.

8. The most academically intelligent people don’t always make the best decisions once they are faced with the course called Real Life. I strongly believe that learning is not just about what course lessons have been retained in one’s mind and its equivalent grade, but equally important are the interpersonal dynamics that a person goes through in the journey of learning.

I never imagined these thoughts would sound so profound when placed in writing. Or maybe that’s the age talking, LOL! So, what’s my grade…?

Uno na lang—pass or fail naman ang buhay, eh! (DLSU grading system, ha.)

Here’s to a positive 2009! May all of you have…

Christmas 2008

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!! =3

Special Post: Replies for those who left a comment about the entry: “The Fugly, the Bad and the Good Enough”

Because I checked my blog really late and was surprised with the number of those who cared to look ^-^ And since this entry is a bit passé and I doubt people will look at the comments so I’ll directly address them here.

TINTIN: The learning there is to help students realize that society and technology work hand in hand and have mutual effects. It’s really a nice set up, it’s just the effin’ accommodations that kind of ruined, or maybe, derailed whatever learning there could’ve been. Hehehe, I never really cared so much about Haros since usually they are portrayed as cute mascot robots but this orange one is actually functional! And whoever made this icon made me laugh.

RIA: You know, I actually checked your blog and see if you really used the phrase “field trip from hell” before I made my post script entry. Remember, reliability is key, LOL! Oh, and I’ve been lurking at your blog for some time now. One of these days, I will delurk : )

=3KAT: Er, I already replied in your blog so…^^;

PAULA: Thank you for sympathizing. Actually, there were complaints but I won’t elaborate on those anymore. It’s just that on our part (the “big kids”), complaining would probably just agitate the situation. Positive psych, yeah?

CHOCO: Well, I ranted in my own alien-ish way, haha! Yup, I did feel better after a week (see post below). That experience was kind of like an unexpected uppercut that blindsided me. I didn’t expect much and yet it ended up like that.

Welcome, 2007!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! It’s over a couple of hours early but might as well post since later, I’ll probably be too groggy, deaf or both to make a coherent entry. Make sure to make realistic New Year’s resolutions—something you can actually stick to ^__^.

MeRrY cHrIsTmAs! MaLiGaYaNg PaSkO! mErI KuRiSmAsU! hApPy ChRiStMaS!

LOL!!! If you’re not familiar with Tenipuri, this might not be so funny. Let’s just say that they are teammates and Santa’s the narcissistic captain and Rudolph is his loyal slav—I mean, minion who only utters that monosyllabic-sounding reply. By the way, I did not make the above pic--credit for the art goes to ‘snowbunnyluv’ (go visit her deviant art site).

***
An uncle and my cousin and his family came over for lunch today. I saw my nephew and niece again and I can totally relate to Choco and K-chan about kiddie antics and how it can completely ruin(?!) one’s mood to be a “diligent-student-who’s-suppose-to-do-her-thesis-blah.blah.blah…” aka “pagpapanggap” hehehe. See, the niece likes dogs (I like dogs..) and the nephew worships Spiderman (I think Spidey’s good…) so I ended up…playing with the kids.

I rarely feel at ease mingling with kids but for some reason, today was an exemption. They kept asking my mom to give them their gifts and mom tells me to give it to them…and I delay it. Hahaha! I was the one who chose their gifts—a stuffed dog and a Spiderman action figure where he kicks this wall-thingy. When they finally got their gifts (after ripping off my late night, time consumed, hard-worked gift-wrapping in less than under a minute), we played with them. The wall-thingy was like a 4-piece puzzle which I was unable to put together but nephew did it...quickly.

[Darn it! What the hell was that about?! Here I am trying to get some higher learning and I can’t put together a freakin’ 4-piece wall-thingy puzzle!]

Ahem…My cousin brought with him his laptop and we tried to go online and talk with his mom (my tita) in the States. It turns out that he’s got some Death Note anime with him and shared it with me. Great, another temptation to resist—good thing I’ve read the comic already so it’s not that hard.

In the afternoon, a little last minute grocery shopping with mom and later in the evening, bro and I went to cousin doc’s house to deliver gifts. We basically exchanged presents ^^; While we were there, old stories came up about my entire mother-side cousins and their childhood escapades and mishaps, including which adult went crazy because of it. I wasn’t with them at the time because either I was way too young or not born yet. Cheh…youngest ; )

It’s Christmas Day. I can finally eat chocolates ^_^

***
If you’ve watched anything that’s dubbed, mostly likely, you’d know what voice actors are. Since I don’t watch telenovelas and more into anime, they are called ‘seiyuu’ in Japanese. It’s amazing how their voice give rise to different characters, from the sickeningly saccharine sweet tiny voices of anime girls to feminine-sounding voices of samurais (hehehe, that’s Kenshin again for you, Choco), to feminine-sounding voices of female-looking samurais and shinobis…who are actually…men…Ergh, you guys get the point.

Still, nothing beats seeing the voice actors of The Simpsons! There are only 6 of them and they make up almost the entire neighborhood of Springfield! And their talking voice are actually different from their character voices—really different! They were the guests on Inside the Actor’s Studio and the host (dunno his name) even joked that he’s never had 30 simultaneous guests in his show. The fun part there was when the “characters” were interviewed and the voice actors went into action. I got lucky that I channel-surfed at the right station ^_^.