Hair issues

Look at my hair. LOOK AT MY HAIR.

The last time it had a hint of going beyond shoulder length was last year. LAST YEAR.  It's long enough now that I could tie it in a ponytail without leaving a strand behind. With the length I've been keeping my hair in recent years, this is a milestone (I kid you not).

Anyway, early this year (call it a resolution, if you will), I decided to do a little experiment with my hair, and if I am successful, that means loads of money saved (going to tuition funds, of course) and less hours spent at the salon.

The experiment is simple enough - grow my hair again. Like, beyond the longest I've ever grown it (way beyond shoulder blades, or as I'd like to call it, beyond the bra strap. Bwahahahaha.) 

Here's where it doesn't get simple. I have to resist the urge to get my hair straightened or colored. I've done both since high school, and to see the state of my hair without these two is something I really dread - especially seeing the white hair. #geneticsproblems

But more than saving money, I've decided to do this because no matter what I do, my hair will never be straight permanently - or black, for that matter. It will always curl at some point, and for the past ten years I've wrestled with that inevitability by going to the salon every six months and spend like...nearly P10,000 to get straight hair. Plus, I've got strands of hair that are hopelessly damaged due to too much treatment.

So...yeah. No treatments for a while. I can do this.

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By the way, this is how busy tomorrow will be:

7:30 AM - Going to a correctional facility. NO, I DIDN'T GET INTO TROUBLE WITH THE LAW. I was asked to go for a church thing. I'm actually curious with what I'll see inside. Will definitely blog about the experience. 

12:00 PM onwards - OL GIMIK. OH MY STARS I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER WHEN OUR LAST ONE WAS. It will be Little Tokyo for lunch, then Wako. I AM SO EXCITED.

Hurrah for the weekend!

Not by might, or by power...

Hello universe, I am back. /le sigh

This will be long. Let's take this one event at a time...


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One hundred years of Lasallian presence

One hundred years of Lasallian education

One hundred years of Lasallian awesomeness

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Me, along with some college friends celebrated the Centennial last Thursday. We first met at CBTL in the newly renovated University Mall (promise, the University Mall that we experienced was FAR from the UMall now), then we had dinner at Persia Grill just beside it. By the way, DO NOT EAT THERE and spare yourselves terrible service and forced tipping. We had to be in school before 7:30 to get to the acoustic concert/poetry reading, but since service was poor, we got to school quite late. And yes, we were forced to tip. No joke here. They didn't have change for the money that we gave and the server had the gall to tell us "I-tip niyo na lang yan." We were late, so we didn't have time to argue. If we argued, it would have been over a Php20 bill, but then again it was worth the arguing because they didn't deserve the tip to begin with. Anyway, I hope that this blog post will serve its purpose when the adventurous person Googles Persia Gril U-Mall and finds this entry here. It will be worth letting go of the Php20. =D

Now, DLSU is very different from the campus where I spent a year and a half with. It's very urban, which very much suits the city where it is situated. It doesn't help too that the football field has been excavated in order to make way for the Henry Sy Hall, so now the school is left with but a few trees. But football field or none, the memories that we collectively shared in DLSU are the stuff that not even new buildings can take away from us.

Since we were late for the acoustic concert (THANK YOU TALAGA PERSIA GRILL UMALL), we celebrated the Centennial at *drumroll please* the 4/F of the Miguel Hall.

This building was my home for nearly a year and a half. M314 was my first classroom, so a lot of my "testing the waters" happened in this hall right here. What I'll never forget about Miguel is its ridiculously cold aircons. Ang lagi ko ngang biro in the workplace is that in La Salle, we are trained not only for the real world, but also to withstand cold room temperatures that are common in the workplace. Some go as far as believing me with wide-eyed wonder. HAHAHAHAHA.

Yes I know there's a concert and other things, and celebrating the Centennial in a deserted hallway seems like the most boring way to celebrate...but just reminiscing college life in sheer quiet, without sharing the humidity on ground and getting the sweat of other people on your arms is blissful.



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Have I mentioned that I lost my voice? *looks back at previous entries* Yes, I did.

It's been a month since then. The "breathy" phase of it is gone, but I still sound rough. What's worse, I seem to have lost control of my diaphragm/lungs, in the sense that I cannot hold air for too long.

This by far is the worst completely-lost-my-voice incident I have ever had. To make matters worse, I absolutely hate salabat.

Today, I visited the ENT again (two or three weeks ago he prescribed me some steroids, which goes to show how bad it was...), and he gave me some anti-inflammatory and anti-reflux meds, plus he told me to hydrate and refrain from vocal abuse. I wanted to snicker when he said that cause I absolutely loved the term...

So, there's nothing left for me to do but obey the prescription, do vocalizations...and probably take a swim at the Sports Complex so I could strengthen my lungs again.

Hay, hail to thee alma mater talaga.



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I mentioned the voice issue because...*breathes in*

I went to an audition yesterday. My first audition in...years. Like, seriously.

Against all odds (including my voice teacher XD), I decided to go with my audition for this musicale. It was the last day of auditions, and I chose to confirm on the last day on purpose cause I thought my voice will be back by then. Of course...if anything can go wrong, it will. /le sigh

I was the fourth to audition in the afternoon batch. When I heard the first one, I was like oh my stars, why am I here? I fumbled for my iPod inside my bag and tried to distract myself with my music and the lines that I was given for the audition. Inside my head, I was telling myself, why am I here? I was told that I shouldn't be here, and yet I came! My voice isn't in perfect condition! The one singing sounds incredible - how can I stand a chance with this voice?! 


So I prayed. I think I remember praying that God will help me do whatever I can in order to sing at the very least in tune, and not to sound too hoarse...and probably a hodgepodge of other fragmented thoughts that came at the spur of the moment, and then I distinctly heard:

Not by might, or by power, but by My Spirit.

At that point, I knew that whatever the outcome will be, it will be as God wills. And with that thought in my mind, with all fear shoved aside, I was asked to enter the audition room.

And, as how most anime episodes end: つづく . . . Heeheehee. The story goes on.

Pomp and circumstance

Today is the day - JUNE 16. One hundred years ago, De La Salle College had its first day of classes. A century later, De La Salle University, together with sixteen other La Salle schools across the country, will finally be celebrating one hundred years of Lasallian presence, one hundred years of Lasallian education, one hundred years of Lasallian AWESOMENESS. XD

Won't make this long...I still have school stuff to do (one hundred forty eight pivottables, Statistics knows no mercy), but I will be there at the acoustic party/poetry reading tonight with friends. It's gonna be awesome.

Hail to thee our Alma Mater! Hail! Hail! Hail!

Our typical (but actually not-so typical) karaoke gimik

Hey you! This is my lips-pouted-finger-pointed look (which looks stupid, heehee), and I posted this cause I want you to look at this entry. Here, I'll be talking about something fun:

KARAOKE GIMIKS.

OL gimiks are always epic (for all of you first-time readers of my blog posts, OL is office lady, a term used in Japan for the working female. Its masculine counterpart is salary man. Now you know.) regardless if it's food tripping, mall hopping, bookstore raiding or movie watching. For our first OL gimik this year, we decided to sate our craving for karaoke. We've been wanting to do this since December, but Wako had different hours during the holidays, so we weren't able to go. Finally, we were able to go out last Saturday - with great timing too, cause they had this Valentine's promo going on. We paid nearly half of their usual rate (not bad, diba?).

As the title says, our karaoke gimiks aren't typical. Kung kami-kaming magbabarkada na ISJ (at former ISJ na katulad ko) ang magka-karaoke, hindi uubra ang Red Box sa amin. We'd rather watch a movie or use the money to eat in some restaurant we haven't tried. We will be happy with Music 21, but happier with Wako - which was where we went. Except for maybe Bohemian Rhapsody (hahaha!) almost all of our song choices are Japanese. At Red Box they'll only have the popular old school Utada songs (and probably Voltes V No Uta), and we don't want that. We want a wide and deep selection of J-pop, J-rock and anime opening and ending theme songs. Music 21 and (most especially) Wako have these - and more (don't get me started with their K-pop selection, although Wako mostly has early 2000s K-pop, they've got a broader selection than M21).

First big difference with our karaoke gimik is obvious enough - our song selections are Japanese. Wako is obviously a Japanese karaoke place (being in Arnaiz Ave, which has a bajillion Japanese restaurants, clubs and then some), so when you choose a song, the lyrics will appear in Japanese. When you sing an English song here, the English lyrics will appear, but there will be katakana above the English words.

I only finished three units of Japanese during my time in DLSU, so my knowledge of Nihongo isn't as good. But I know my katakana and hiragana, which really helps when I forget some of the lyrics. =D (But based from last Saturday's gimik I know I'm getting rusty...tagal ng recognition ko. I guess I'll have to read more manga ulit.)

Second major difference with our "typical" karaoke gimik is how we find the songs. In Wako, they have three or four song books - a list by artist, by song (both in Japanese), a separate book for the anime, K-pop and English selections, and a smaller book for...I don't know what it is, they're not really new acquisitions, but they're separate for some reason. When we look for artists or songs, we throw the "ABCDEFG..." out the window and think in terms of gojuon, which is "AIUEO" and "KSTNHMYRW".  It's kind of tough adjusting to this, especially if it's not something you do on a regular basis. So whenever I find a song I want to sing, I'll feel really happy when I'm able to do it on my own.

Our karaoke gimiks are crazy. If you saw the videos I uploaded, it could get worse than that =D. But probably the best thing about our karaoke gimiks is that we could sing our hearts out to the songs we really want to sing without being ridiculed for it (you know, the typical "ano ba yan, naiintindihan mo ba ang kinakanta mo?" or "bakit hindi Ingles ang kantahin mo?"). Before those kind of comments really hurt me, cause people thought I was weird and I didn't quite fit in with "regular" girls who played with Barbies and Polly Pockets. Now, when people wonder aloud why I do these things (in a negative way), I don't really pay attention anymore. Fact is, I'm happy with what I'm doing, I'm not hurting anyone, and this kind of singing earned me some moolah when I needed to buy Kangta's second album (at once again, maraming salamat NKK. Kahit basag na yung CD ko na yun dahil nasobrahan sa kakapakinig, I'm forever grateful XD).

If this post didn't bring any newfound appreciation for J-pop/J-rock/Japanese karaoke or whatnot, I hope you were entertained at the very least. XD

Remedy

I'm still under the weather. I have different outlets - I turn to music or reading, or I splurge myself with food (not too much though, but I tend to eat small-sized expensive bites when I'm depressed).

So, here's what went down.

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I went to Caffe Ti Amo and bought an affogato. Their espresso was really good. I'm interested to try other flavors of their gelato some other time. But then again...there's Red Mango and Qoola and Gelatissimo! Oh the temptation!

Anyway, their affogato holders are heart-shaped, which were really cute! (Also, congratulate me on my almost-clear face since my facials from hell! WOOHOOOOWWWW!) Their affogato costs Php98, which isn't a bad price.

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After that I went to Powerbooks to see if there were any interesting books I could read (or purchase, if I like any well enough). If there was a book that I'd get right away, it would be Catching Fire, but they only hadve The Hunger Games in trilogy box sets, and the only ones they sold by the book were Mockingjay and The Hunger Games. So...yeah.

I did find this here - an excerpt from The Warrior Of Light by Paulo Coelho (not to be mistaken with Final Fantasy's Warrior Of Light)

For those of you who are too tamad to click on the pic and read, here's what it says:

When the master sees that the Warrior is depressed, he says:

"You are not what you seem to be in these moments of sadness. you are better than that.

"Many have left - for reasons we will never understand - but you are still here. Why did God carry you off all those amazing people and leave you?

"By now, millions of people will have given up. They don't get angry, they don't weep, they don't do anything; they merely wait for time to pass. They have lost the ability to react.

"You, however, are sad. That proves that your soul is still alive."

I will get a copy of this book. /mental note

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In an hour or so I'll be off to Makati to meet up with Annie and Miko at McDo Greenbelt 1. We'll be taking advantage of the promo at Wako and sing our hearts out at karaoke. =D

There will be pictures, and probably videos too.

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A few days back I fixed a glitch in this blog that only enables comments for those who have Google Accounts/LJ/what-have-you; now I've enabled anonymous comments, which means you can comment without logging in to some account that you have.

That's it. Hopefully there will be more happy posts in the coming days.

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Before I forget...
I♥U CHRIS WHITELAW PINE.

Ehem. I just finished watching Unstoppable. Heehee.