The Blower's Daughter

The earth is about to complete its nth revolution around the sun. Well, I'm just trying to say in other words that year 2005 is about to end. Fortunately we were given this 10-day hiatus ('forced' hiatus, but I like it) to enjoy the holidays, to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we start working our asses off again. One of those ten days I spent watching the movie Closer (Roberts, Law, Portman, and Owen) and covering the books/novels that I received this Christmas. So, that's all. I'll end this blog entry with the lyrics of the song from Closer.

The Blower's Daughter
Damien Rice

And so it is
Just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time
And so it is
The shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky

I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes...

And so it is
Just like you said it should be
We'll both forget the breeze
Most of the time
And so it is
The colder water
The blower's daughter
The pupil in denial

I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes...

Oooohh
Did I say that I loathe you?
Did I say that I want to
Leave it all behind?

I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind off you
I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind off you
I can't take my mind off you
I can't take my mind
My mind... my mind...
'Til I find somebody new

Christmas!!!

It's finally here! And it's been a long time since I last posted here. So many things to write, but I don't know where to start and which ones to include in this post.

I'm starting to feel the pressure of treating everyone in my family because (1) I've just received my bonus, and (2) I've just received my bonus. It's not that big, though, compared to some of my older officemates whose bonuses have already reached the 'taxable' state (but I've heard some complains 'coz the tax is too high). Anyway, contrary to what people say of me as kuripot, I'm now more of a buyer than a saver, so it's ok with me if the whole bonus is gone by the 1st of January next year.

Last night I went to my second Christmas party, this time with my batchmates in college (the first one was with the company-that-must-not-be-named that I work for) and... honestly, I didn't enjoy it that much compared to last year where we really had loads of fun. I could think of a number of reasons for that: (1) One of my classmate's mom just passed away last week, (2) Many peeps didn't make it this time, (3) The venue hasn't changed (we were planning on holding it out-of-town, but due to unavoidable circumstances, we had to settle with holding it at Tin Tan's house again, which is the best venue next to an out-of-town venue). Nevertheless, I'm glad to see them again. Hope that the summer trip will push through next year.

I Think That I Finally Found...

Not 'someone', but 'something'. Hehe. I was browsing through my e-mails and I happened to have the patience to stop by this particular e-mail ad from Nokia to check out their latest cellphone models...

With VGA camera? Nah.

...With camera? Nope.

...(couldn't find the word 'camera' in its main features). Hmmm.

So I checked out its full features and found that it has no camera. What's more, it's got everything that I am looking for in a cellphone. You flip it open (I dunno how they call it), it has no camera, it's black (which makes it look sleek 'n savvy 'n sophisticated *wink*), and that's it. I will further check if it's available in the local market, though. It could be a great gift, you know, for myself this Christmas. LOL!

Testimonial Dinner

Just last night I went to the testimonial dinner that was held to recognize (?) LaSallian ECEs, I mean, Engineers *ahem* who passed the April 2005 Board Exam. Unfortunately, because me, Iking, Erick, and JR work relatively far from the school and because heavy traffic never ceases to exist in Metro Manila (except maybe around 2 to 4 a.m., I guess), we only got to experience the 'dinner' part, and not the 'testimonial' part. Oh well, so much for that 'once in a lifetime' thing. At least I get to capture some moments with my ever reliable, handy digicam. I noticed that this time around, a lot of my colleagues wanted a solo shot with that beautiful background (see sample photo). Vain people! hehe.

We were supposed to go out after the event, but it rained heavy that night. So, we just spent the remaining hours talking, talking, and taking some more pictures, until a security guard approached us and shooed us out of the conserv (in a nice way, of course *wink*).

*Sigh* I wish we will have more gatherings like that. Even though my digicam's memory could not accomodate anymore the almost-every-minute-picture-taking that it captures plus the constant reminding of my friends to e-mail the pics to them, it won't matter... As long as we're all happy and gay! Yeah! LOL!

I Couldn't Think Of A Better Title For This

It's a nice, warm sunny day today. The weather these days, I just couldn't comprehend. Just yesterday it was raining like hell and the sky was as gloomy as ever. Nevertheless my spirit was high all day.

That's because I met up with some of my batchmates in college. Though there were only a few of us, we still managed to have a good time eating dinner and chit-chatting for hours. It's really good to see them. See how they've been doing with their work, new friends, and other updates we could think of. Wait a minute, I'll just pause a while with my blogging. I need to see who's winning the match...

...

...

Ok, that's good. We're leading. They still have to worry, though. I know (and I'm pretty sure most LaSallians know) how these Ateneans are capable of coming back to spoil the fun...

...

...

See? Now the lead's no more. Tsk, tsk.

Anyway, I'm not really that into basketball anymore. UAAP in particular. I guess it's part of getting older. I mean, maturing (getting older seems to be not the right words, hehe). I can say that because now I'm realizing a few things about myself. I want to learn new things, like a new language, a new genre of music, a new sport, or any new hobby or passion for that matter.

I just have to be patient, that's all. I know these will come in my own good time. And hopefully, I'll continue enjoying life as I go about absorbing more knowledge into my system.

Updates, Updates

Aahh, it's nice to be back in the blogging world. However, I'm not going to blog much.

Just some updates about myself:

• I now find myself listening over and over to Carmina Burana (the Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi part of it). Actually, I never knew this is the title of that noir-ish song that I very rarely hear of (but loved it the first time I've heard it, mainly because it made almost all the hairs on my body stand). It's an orchestra with a church-like choir singing latin-sounding (well, this was before I researched about it, it's really in Latin) lyrics with voices that could have reached heaven. LOL! They must have been composed of a dozen sopranos.


• I bought a large notebook. I am now aware that the ideas, thoughts, and other stuff that have been swirling inside my head needed to be poured unto some kind of a repository. Just like what a pensieve is. Or else, they would simply evaporate into nothingness.


• I like this www.20q.com. Reminds me of my college days. It was supposed to be my group's thesis, but we never pushed through with it. Well, not exactly what the site does, but the "intelligence" that's behind the site is supposed to be our thesis' topic. We landed on the same concept as that anyway.


• In just about half an hour, I'll be going to a monthly reunion with my batchmates. Just a simple dinner, or if someone has thought of other cool stuff that a large group of people could enjoy doing altogether.

So, I'm signing off now. ;P

I Hate Shampoo Commercials

They make me sick. Even my mom says so. I think these shampoo commercials are 'over-advertised.' I mean, every single commercial break on every single TV show that I watch, there's always at least one... no, at least two shampoo commercials showing these pretty women swishing and swashing their long black hair, singing silly songs. And these songs have rhythms that are patterned after some popular song. They're all trying to say the same thing: it'll protect your hair, keep it soft, shiny black, et cetera, et cetera... Aaaarrrgghhhh!!! It's just too overwhelming, just like what a cliché sounds like.

Anyway, I'd like to state another good reason why I haven't been to the blog world for a long while now. I've been, and I'm still, reading this Sandman by Neil Gaiman. I never really was interested in comics, even though the movies that I've watched even when I was just a kid were originally taken from comic books (mostly DC comics). Yeah, I think you already know what these are. Anyhow, this Sandman... it's pretty cool. The author incorporates concepts from different kinds of literature. One of them is mythology - one of the things that I've always wanted to study. Even those short stories were fascinating, I myself was astonished at the imaginative mind of Mr. Gaiman. It's only a pity though that I came to know of him and his work after he had already visited Manila and done some autograph signings, etc.

Well, time to continue my 'Sandman' sessions, hehe. Hope to see you soon, my blog. And uhm, hope I could continue your makeover mission, so at least you could look presentable to the visitors. Heehee ;P

Sorry...

Oh my blog! I'm so sorry! I've neglected you for soooo long. I really am very, very, very, very sorry. It's just that I'm trying to give you a fresh, new look. Something more personalized. See? It's also for your own good. Just be patient, ayt? See yah!

As Promised

The first workday of the week is about to end and, as promised, I'll be posting something. Not much really happened today at work. I just spend almost half of the day trying to personalize everything on my work PC, from wallpaper to the littlest animation of icons on the taskbar. Well, ya can't blame me. It's my first time to work on a Unix platform, and for me it's way too cool than windows XP. The experience was only quite overwhelming, so after exploring one desktop environment, I got a little bit saturated already. BUT! There's more desktop envs, so I'm gonna try the other one tomorrow. heehee.

Some of my co-hardware engs just came from Japan. And, as usual, they brought chocolates as their pasalubong.

The company meeting today was, so far, the wackiest assembly I've had.

I did not enroll in nihonggo class. At least for now. First, because I wanted to have a classmate coming from the same group and project as I am. Second, because I have other books to finish, a blog to take care of, a blog template to study and alter the appearance, a comic series to finish, a number of things to download, etc. In other words, I'll be bumming around first (if that's what you'd call it, but hey! I'm undergoing project-specific training huh!) before I finally decide to concentrate on learning my 'very' second foreign language.

Whew. ;)

I'm About to Blog About...

Nothing really. Well, it's just that I've been sittin' and starin' in front of the CRT for almost 2 hours now and still I find nothing to blog about (except these words that I'm typing in). Aaaarrrggghh!!! My mind's totally blank today. Sorry. I'll come back tomorrow, ayt?

Today

I've never felt so tired at work today. It's as if I've been working my ass off for a decade already. Think that's a bad sign? Nah. I don't think so. Maybe it's just the gloomy weather right now. Wait. I couldn't see the weather from inside the office because they don't want those huge blinds unfolded. I could take a peek, but I'm too lazy to do that. Or maybe, just maybe, this is just some sort of take-a-rest-because-you'll-be-doing-a-lot-of-work-starting-who-knows-when gut feeling inside me.

Anyhow, just got deployed to a group whose members are pretty interesting to ponder on instead of its projects. hehe. Just kidding. Well, I'm happy and very thankful they didn't kick my ass out of the company... at least for 2 or more months. haha! Hmmm, not to worry about that... for now. Because for now, I'm thinking of doing something else. Something new. Like a certain routine that would take my mind off of worries for a while. Gym? Yay. Movies? Sounds OK. Sports? Hmmm, interesting. We'll see that in my next post. For now, I say: "Carpe diem!"

...humdrum...

I'm bored. There are a lot of things that I still need to do. Chores, assignments, papers, etc. Yet I am still freaking bored. I dunno.

Today is like any other dull, insipid day of my laborious life. Nothing new, as usual. I now fear waking up one morning, finding out that my life was all for nothing. I shudder at the tought of this. I still need to find the meaning, and I mean the 'real' meaning of all this. Sheesh. What the 'fffroth' am I talkin' about?!?

Yeah, I'm bored. That's all.

Tension of Opposites

Here's a quote I'd like to share:

Tension of opposites: Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.

Read it from "Tuesdays With Morrie". It was actually a long time ago since I've read the book. I just feel like musing this quote because right now I'm feeling the 'tension of opposites' more than any other moment before in my life *sigh*.

My Master and I

Here's a poem I found hanging on the wall of our house in the province. Cool eh? Sadly, I realized after reading the poem that my life is still stuck in the first and second paragraphs. Hopefully, I'll be moving on to the third paragraph soon. LOL. And then I wonder: when will I be able to realize the succeeding paragraphs? I hope it won't be too late. Seems pretty scary if that happened. ;)

note: you can click on the image to get a clearer view for reading the whole poem, ayt?

Curved Blade

My PC just went crazy - rebooting infinitely. I had to open the case and patiently search for that component that may have been causing the delay to my creating the post that I was itching to do. During the troubleshooting, I was in a mood that was so fired up that I wanted to write everything that was on my mind before they all vanish. I got impatient. Gradually, my mood turns from heated to relaxed. Now I don't know if I still wanted to post my 'previous' posting mood. I'll try, though...

I just finished reading this book entitled "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. Took down some good quotes that I find applicable to me, and turned out that my favorite of all those was this:

Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.

The reason why I find the quote very applicable to me is because I have felt how it is to hold anger within myself. Problem is, I haven't felt the effect of its curved blade. So I was left guessing when will it be. Today? Soon? A long time from now? The question was answered as fast as I've guessed or expected. Or 'will' be answered for that matter.

I have this deep hatred for a person whom I think never really did much harm to me. It is such that I never wanted the person - attitude, guts, everything. I couldn't even recall now why this hatred had build up over time. A simple wish that I may never encounter the person again for the rest of my entire life would make it simpler for me to live peacefully and forget everything about it. It came true... until recently, just hours after I have finished reading the book and taking down quotes from it. It seems that in the near future, I would be, let's just say, 'seeing' the person again everday. The anger that I thought have been forgotten suddenly resurfaced, telling me that it never really vanished from my system because all this time I've been holding it inside me. God must have been testing me, teaching me that I have to learn how to forgive and forget. But how could I forgive if I have not forgotten? How would I do it if I would be constantly reminded of it whenever I see the person, or even hear something that is about the person? I suddenly wanted to go somewhere else. Away. Far away from all this. I could not believe that I am about to feel the curved blade as it slowly lacerates my 'inside' if I will not take action as soon as possible. Nor do I even know what action to take. Time. I need time to think. Time to plan things, my course of action. Then I'll be ready.

Whew! That was it. I think this would be my most personal post (considering that this was only my second post) ever. If not, then this is my 'darkest' post ever. haha! I don't think I'll have the guts to do this again. LOL! This surprises me, really. I hope my succeeding posts will be much happier.

hello world!

So this is my first blog... not too much excited though. I created one to add some 'new' activity that I could waste my time on besides those other dull, boring stuff that I usually do. On the brighter side, I suddenly realised that this could be a good, effective (i hope so) way of expressing myself, venting my anger (uh, not really), voicing (or typing) out my thoughts about everyday life - life's drama. Because nowadays I'm finding it quite amusing to think about this thing they called... life. Well, I guess this blogspot of mine will have to wait for a longer period of time before it gets to 'post' a new post. I'm quite busy right now. So, till then... hello world! ;)