One/One/Twelve

Happy 2012!

The family heaved a collective sigh when the clock struck twelve midnight. We've had it with 2011. We welcomed this year by watching the neighbors' fireworks, which was kind of boring. I went to bed thirty minutes after midnight.

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This term, I am enrolled in just one class, which falls on a Monday. First day is next week. Tomorrow is the first working day, and I'll have to go to work ALONE, because the parents won't be coming in. Bummer.

I'm still pretty sore about ministry-related stuff, and that's kind of an open secret (LOL). I think the reason for this is that it's not been resolved until now. Because of that, for the past two months I've been leaning towards not going for the extra mile, or not giving a damn about stuff that others think I should. I know I have to find that passion or whatever that is somewhere inside me and take it out of last year's major funk. Something has to change.

I think the key to making this year different from last year is attitude. I've been told this a zillion times (and if you're one of those people, thank you), and I think it's about time that I heeded that advise.

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By the way, I haven't talked about my birthday present to myself. I bought a Yamaha PSR E323. I was learning how to play this last year, and was even assigned to play synth a few times during services. Buying this wasn't necessary, but I was dead serious with wanting to learn how to play, since I don't have an instrument I could play aside from voice.

I have...four months(?) left to pay for this baby, which I have named Angela, after Angela Aki. =D  How I decided on "Angela" is quite interesting. I was mulling over possible names on Twitter, and the first idea that came to mind is to name it after a really good pianist, and I tweeted that Angela Aki was my top-of-mind pianist. I mentioned others like Hiromi Uehara (who at that time was also a very viable candidate), but all that changed when this thing below happened: 

Turns out that THE Angela Aki herself retweeted said tweet of mine (which was in Taglish, increasing the epic/fail of it all).Hence, I have decided to name it Angela in homage to her. =D

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And that's it, basically. I'm watching Tron now, and up next will be Tron Legacy.

This feels so hipster. 

Busybody

I should really work on regularly updating this.

Been really busy with everything, basically (haha, that's a nice way to put it). It's finals week in school, plus I'm getting one task after the other in the new job. I'm okay, so far...I just have less bulakbol time (le sigh).

Anyway, onward to the updates!

Had a photoshoot at the SDA Building of DLS-CSB. It was my second time coming here, and shooting there was...well...quite a pleasing experience. There was a lot of natural light, lots of angles, lots of interesting things. The photos will be used for mock-ups for one of my finals.

I realize that there are still a lot of things that I need to learn about photography...like using light effectively, among other things. Everything I know in photography I've learned by observing how people do it; I was only "formally" trained once.

Speaking of finals, I also took my final exam for Stat last Friday. I was the first one to submit (aside from finishing, I was getting really restless, plus my right shoulder hurt so bad that I couldn't continue), and I was told that I passed (which is great, cause you can only either pass or fail). All that sisig-na-ang-utak-ko moments were worth it.

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I was sort of out of the loop this weekend, so you could just imagine my shock when I learned that the new RuroKen anime will only have the Kyoto arc animated, so far. So much for all they hype and the beautiful Newtype spreads (specifically Kenshin/Tomoe, which was the biggest hint the Internet got so far that the Jinchuu arc will be animated). The picture above isn't even enticing me one bit, but I'm going to give Aniplex/Studio DEEN the benefit of the doubt and treat this as a draft, for now.

The only way I could make sense of all the Jinchuu arc hype prior to the above screen grab being published is that the "new" Kyoto arc will serve as the foundation for the animation and, eventually, the showing of the Jinchuu arc. The Kyoto arc is is the pivotal arc of RuroKen, IMO, in the sense that this is the arc wherein Kenshin doesn't have to go all Battousai and stuff to defeat Shishio (prior to that he always had to); aside from that, Jinchuu is the next arc after Kyoto.

Having said my speculations, I cannot deny that I am so disappointed with this announcement. So much for all the "OHMAYGASSSHHHEEEEPIIIIIC" reactions when the Kenshin-Tomoe Newtype spread came up. Whoop dee doo.

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Other things: I have neon green nails, I'm working on character looks for Unforgiven using DreamSelfy (hahaha!) and I may be going to a celebration dinner this Sunday...

I'm crossing my fingers that this won't be the only post that I make this week.

When you live in a cookie-cutter world, being different you can't win

Two posts in one day. I am on a roll.




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If you've seen my Tumblr lately, you must have chanced upon this post.

Last Saturday, I said that I don’t feel any remorse - YET. =/ A few days after, I still don't feel remorse. However, there's a tiny emotion that's of the slightly disturbed kind, though. I've said it on Tumblr, and I'll say it again: Yes, it’s my high school; yes, that school did some good things to me; yes, I met a lot of great friends there that I still keep now…but…yeah. The thing is, what I remember most from this school is that I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

I dare not elaborate.

I think the batch may be organizing some effort to help the school out. I have no qualms about it; I'm actually open to helping out, in spite of my feelings.



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When I comment on fandom stuff, I try to minimize the "AHHH OH MY GOD HE IS HAWWWTTT SHAKE IT LIKE A POLAROID PICTURE" kind of comments. I graduated from that already (except on Tumblr, which is another realm altogether!). I'd like some kind of meaningful discourse, so when I do post a comment on a group/community, it's often something that's aimed towards a good conversation.

But I realize that the more I try this, the more I frustrate myself.

The iris, it thrives in the rain

For someone who's not working, I'm kind of sort of very very very busy right now.

I'm just saiyan saying. (LOL sorry I can't help but make the reference.)

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Here's what I've been up to:

I did a rewatch of Rurouni Kenshin Tsuiokuhen. Why did I do that? I don't know. Maybe it had something to do with the 15th Anniversary...but I decided to indulge myself.

What happened? Oh, well, pretty much the same reaction when I watched it for the first time. I CRIED. Being a hardcore Kenshin x Tomoe shipper (never was for KxK, though I admit that the nighttime-fireflies scene struck a heartstring or two...), this OVA was basically my most anticipated part of the RK series, until it was doused in cold water when it became evident that the Jinchuu arc won't be animated (but the reanimation solves that problem, oh sweet rapture!).

Another thing that I love about this OVA is the blood. I remember when I first watched this, I was going "OHMAAAHGAAAHHHHDDDD" at the bloodwork that was happening. It's quite on the extreme side, but then again that plus the animation (including character redesigns) looked very realistic. I'm not sure if the key to fully appreciating this OVA is a good background on the anime series...but if you were to ask me it would be best if the non-RK fan will watch a major fight in the anime prior to watching the OVA so he'll be able to see (and appreciate) how striking the difference is with the rurouni and the hitokiri. Just my two cents.

Also, they symbolism. OMG THE SYMBOLISM. The top, the differing tastes of sake, dead bleeding Kiyosato with a buddha at the background...and more...when I first watched this I couldn't understand a lot of these things; though now I understand most of them  I sometimes feel that I'm still scratching the surface...

Okay enough about the serious stuff! The reason why I cry everytime I watch this is because of this scene:

Super special awesome ultra special sexy transformation sequence, go!

"I'M BACK, BABY."
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, I owe you one.

Ladies and gents, I give you the camp post.


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"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me..."
Galatians 2:20

That verse pretty much sums up my entire camp experience. It was absolutely WRONG for me to think that it was the typical clean fun camp that I experienced during the camps that TFCA held for us. It was dirtier, messier...and I'm still not inclined to say that it was more fun XD. If they told us "This is like CAT/COCC camp" then I would have prepared myself mentally as well as physically.

I was not ready for mud.

In the previous post, I said that camp was a traumatizing experience. It was so much so that I completely broke down (as in waterworks talaga) on the last day. I had lost my voice, I had no wit left, and barely any reserve power to even will myself to eat. But somehow, I survived.

But more than these experiences, that verse really applied in the fullest force possible when it was time for altar call counselling. I had training (but I admit that I did not listen as well as I should be, HAHAHAHAHA!), but it still felt like I was coming into a battle that I wasn't prepared for. Yet, as I said in the post prior to this, I was fully aware that it wasn't me who was ministering to these people anymore, like...I became a vessel, and my self took a back seat. It seems unbelievable, I know...but it's an experience that one has to feel for himself, I guess. =D

Now that's been said, it's off to my personal best (and worst) experiences.

You may ignore this

I have been writing a SaiMono fanfic since February (or was it January?) that's about famine and death, and until now it's not finished. It's getting there though - I've got a beginning, a middle and a near-end. I'm struggling with how to end it, though.

And May is coming up already! FIVE MONTHS IN THE MAKING! EPIC FAIL ORZ.

And just like that, it's Monday

Just when I thought it was going to be just like any manic Monday, the following things happened:

- It rained (and now it's sunny, but let's talk about the rain first). When I got to Sta. Rosa and saw that the ground was wet, it was...well...the least of my expectations. I brought an umbrella but it was buried in way too much junk stuff in my bag, so taking that out in a cramp tricycle would be impossible. So I used my grocery bag as a shield and walked in the rain.

- When I finally settled my stuff in the dorm, I started my walk to school. The rain had stopped by this time. I had to go down the stairs that led to the outdoor basketball court. Now, the steps of the stairs had a lot of ants, like the big-ass, tree-living type of ant (I forget what we call that kind in Filipino). I thought that it wouldn't do much difference it I stepped on them, so I did. But lo an behold, when I looked down, my boots and pants were swarming with ants. I tried swatting them with my badminton racket (which hurt, by the way), but they weren't fazed. I tried jumping up and down but that didn't do any good either. I tried running in place but they were still there. So, I panicked. Long story short, I got all the ants out of my blouse, pants, boots and socks (yeah had to freaking undress) after much whimpering and screaming.

- And now, I don't know what to do here.

So for 2011, Probinsiya = 1, JC = 0.

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When it rains here, you don't hear the sound of rain pounding on pavement. The sound of rainfall here is serene, almost as if it's not raining at all, and when you do hear the rain it's when it's raining buckets already.

The problem of that is, I don't really know how hard the rain is already unless I hear it. Of course, when it's morning all I need to do is come out of my dreary four-walled office, but at night it's much, much harder.