2008 Year-end Survey

How was your 2008?

*****PLACES:

1) PLACE YOU HUNG OUT THE MOST IN THIS YEAR: Room in Katipunan, SOM Mall during first sem, Lib

2) FAVORITE NEW PLACE YOU DISCOVERED: Lib, 2nd floor by the reserve section for my soul searching activities :))

3) PLACES YOU WENT ON DATES: Uhh, the usual places? ;))

4) FAVORITE VACATION SPOT FOR THE YEAR: Long strip of beach resorts in Laiya, Batangas, Las Vegas

5) PLACES YOU MADE OUT IN (OR MORE) THIS YEAR: In my dreams HAHAHA

*****PEOPLE:

1) PERSON/S WHO TAUGHT YOU A LOT THIS YEAR: Myself, Doc Queena Lee-Chua

2) AN OLD FRIEND YOU REDISCOVERED THIS YEAR: Karen Andaleon, although only during the latter part of the year : |

3) PERSON WHO TOLD YOU THE NICEST THING ABOUT YOURSELF: I really don’t know heehee

4) PERSON WHO DID SOMETHING REALLY GREAT FOR YOU (AND WHAT): My SIBS loves for giving me my own birthday surprise YAY

5) PERSON YOU SPENT THE MOST TIME WITH THIS YEAR: Myself? Haha Members of the inseparable trio, PC Magnaye and Pat Sarinas and my “twin” Angel Tio Cuison

6) PERSON YOU DID SOMETHING REALLY GREAT FOR (AND WHAT): :-??

7) SOMEONE YOU WISHED YOU TALKED TO THIS YEAR: *sighs* I’ll try next year, seriously. When I’ve mustered enough confidence.

8) SOMEONE WHOM YOU STARTED A GREAT NEW FRIENDSHIP WITH: Kythe orgmates :D

9) OLD ENEMY/S YOU MADE PEACE WITH THIS YEAR: I don’t have enemies, only friends. ;)

10) SOMEONE YOU LOST THIS YEAR: *more sighs*

11) PERSON/S YOU KISSED THIS YEAR: Family O:-)

12) PERSON WHO MADE YOU LAUGH THE MOST: Blockmates!

13) PERSON WHO MADE YOU CRY: The John Lloyd-Bea movie One More Chance =)) =))

14) PERSON YOU DISLIKED WHEN THE YEAR BEGAN BUT ENDED UP BECOMING GOOD FRIENDS WITH: None that I know of

15) PERSON YOU CRUSHED ON THE ENTIRE YEAR: David Archuleta during the summer, then jumping from one to another during the rest of the year. Hahaha.

16) SOMEONE YOU WISHED YOU APOLOGIZED TO: Joanne Dimayuga, for not being there during here despedida party before migrating to Canada. Sorry sorry jo. : ((

17) PEOPLE YOU WENT OUT ON DATES WITH: Friends. Hahaha.

18) FRIENDS YOU WENT OUT WITH A LOT: Blockmates and Visit groupmates/orgmates

19) COOLEST PERSON YOU MET THIS YEAR: Sir Cuenca. 8->

*****STUFF:

1) CLOTHING ITEM YOU WORE MOST THIS YEAR: Jeans, obviously

2) NICEST PRESENT YOU GOT THIS YEAR: US trip during summer

3) FAVORITE SONG FOR THE YEAR: Amsterdam by Anberlin

4) COOLEST EVENT FOR THE YEAR: Kythe Circle of Life :D

5) NEW 'HOBBY' YOU PICKED UP THIS YEAR: Playing games in Facebook :|

6) BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: I finished Jerry’s Spinelli’s Stargirl and Love, Stargirl this year. :x

7) BEST MOVIE: The Dark Knight definitely

8) MOST SHOCKING NEWS HEADLINE OF THE YEAR: Bolante’s return to the Philippines and his “heart attack” 8-|

9) FAVORITE FOOD FOR THE YEAR: Isaw sa UP

10) FAVORITE NEW ARTIST THAT CAME OUT THIS YEAR: The Ting Tings and... Jonas Brothers =))

*****LESSONS:

1) WISEST THING YOU DID THIS YEAR: Read my textbooks

2) STUPIDEST THING YOU DID THIS YEAR: Being too gullible

3) BIGGEST CHANGE IN YOUR LIFE THIS YEAR: Becoming more independent

4) BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF THE YEAR: Living alone

5) SOMETHING YOU LEARNED THE HARD WAY: Expecting something more often than not can make things worse.

6) GREATEST LESSON YOU LEARNED ABOUT:

A. LOVE – Love is bitter sweet. ;)

B. LIFE – For every failure we experience, something better is given back in two folds.

7) BEST JOKE YOU'VE HEARD ALL YEAR: I laugh at anything, so most of the jokes I heard were the best ones for me. Hahaha

8) BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR: David Archuleta not winning American Idol

9) BIGGEST BLESSINGS OF THE YEAR: Family :)

10) BIGGEST THING YOU DISCOVERED ABOUT THE WORLD: The world? Uhh, that in one way or another, we’re all connected by an invisible thread.

11) BIGGEST THING YOU DISCOVERED ABOUT PEOPLE IN GENERAL: They can surprise at the most unexpected time.

*****AND LASTLY!!!

1) GOALS/DREAMS FOR THE NEW YEAR:

Less of: Internet time hahaha asa

More of: Having fun, and studying :>

2) PREDICTIONS FOR THE NEXT YEAR ON:

A. LOVE – I want love, lots and lots and lots of it =)) =)) i kid!

B. CAREER – Continue doing what I’m doing, and probably decide if I’d want to go to med school or take a master’s degree

sneaky

And I was beginning to get comfortable by the fact that I've moved myself away from that chapter. I thought I was done. I guess I'm not. :-<

blessings and assholes

There are two kinds of people that exist in my world: people whom I appreciate, and people whom I completely abhor. Let me give you examples of these two types of human beans that exist.

It’s been two days since our house helper went home to her province to welcome the coming of the new year. With her absence, we are forced to work around the house. Work equals cooking, washing the dishes, watering the plants, feeding the dogs and what not. I don’t want to be such a brat and complain how difficult it’s been to do things on our own, but it really is. And I’m thankful that in a few more days, Ate will be coming back and our lives will go back to normal again. The 9 or so years that she’s been with us has made our lives a lot easier, and I feel like I haven’t thanked her enough for all the hard work. YAY go ate! :-) You see, she, along with other supermaids, should be honored properly. I know some people who treat their helpers simply as helpers, as slaves. And it pisses me off that these arrogant human beans call the wok saviors by their first names without any signs of respect like ate or manang. Konting respeto naman di ba. I mean, we should all thank them and show them how much we appreciate them because seriously, finding someone to trust our food, transpo or home on to can be really difficult these days. So let’s all rejoice and be thankful that for our yaya’s. :D

On the other hand, there are people we simply cannot take, people we should literally bury to the ground because they don’t deserve to receive any shed of light except hell’s. Do you know Nasser Pangandaman? Of course you do, he’s the good ol’ secretary of DAF who has consistently been meddling with the Sumilao/Calatagan farmers. We’ve all been hating him since then, but guess what he’s done this time. And now he has his son, Mayor Nasser Pangandaman, Jr., to join him in yet another crazy act. Like father like son. Politicans will always be politicians no matter where you place them. Be it in a mall, or in a golf course. TO HELL WITH YOU. These men especially prove why our country continues to flop. If they can't be good citizens, how the fuck can they be good politicians? Gaaaah, die Pangandamans! :| I pray Bambee de la Paz and the rest of her family gets the justice they and the rest of us deserve. Read more on this.

If only I ccan gather all the bad people in one enclosed area and bomb/suffocate/judo throw/shoot them to death, the country would be a much better place.

live today

On the night before Christmas, I finished reading Love, Stargirl. And right now, I’m thinking of the proper way of telling the story without actually telling the story. I don’t want to be blamed for spoiling anyone, right? Let me just suffice myself by saying that Jerry Spinelli did an amazing job of ending the novel. It didn’t end the way I first thought it would, but he did something better, something more than I expected at least. Spinelli, in Stargirl’s point of view gave me hope, inspiration and well, love.

I want to be like Stargirl. I want to have the same optimism she never ran out of. I want to have the same sunshine she brings to everyone she meets. And more importantly, I want to be hopeful, of something or of someone. I want to look forward to each day knowing that something good will happen. I want to count my happy pebbles and hope that it gets filled with every happy moment I encounter. And of course, I want my Leo. But well, this one’s for later. :)

gaudete

Forgive me for not attending mass for the last three weeks that I failed to realize it’s the third week of advent already. *gasps* Pink candle symbolizes the third week right? So anyway, I’m happy I attended the afternoon mass today. A priest from Batangas delivered the homily. He talked about commitment which came from a Latin word that meant “to carry”. When we commit to something, or to someone for that matter, we are entitling ourselves to an investment. He used the word investment to speak of time, effort, money and emotions. These were the things we give or share to someone when we commit ourselves, and he said that if we have invested more than enough of these things to the person, there’s no turning back. Why not? Because what’s the point, we’ve invested so much, why put them to waste? You’re already there, might as well make the best out of it. And that actually made a lot of sense, not just in a romantic point of view.

I spent the whole day trying to keep myself awake while studying for dev psych. And you know when you reach that point when it’s been 8 hours and you’re still not yet done, you just want to throw the stupid textbook and go home for the Christmas break. But then you realize that you’ve already invested so much of your time and energy, you can’t simply turn back and skip the hell week. You have to put all the things you learned into good use. So let's go hell week. :)

So after the mass I was walking along Katipunan with my dinner in one hand and I was in a way, introspecting about this coming week. I feel something good’s about to happen.

clearing the air

Thank you God! Exactly what I need to get myself back on track. Thanks so muuuuch. :D :D :D

COA MAGAZINE RESULTS

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Maan Bernardino	Writer
Beng Villanueva	Creative Director
Dani De Castro	Managing Editor
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Geno Tolarbas	Writer
Mylene Ladan	Writer
Pauline Del Mundo	Writer
Almira Uy	Writer
Abby Castelo	Writer
Chase Sy	Features Editor
Claudia Fernandez	Managing Editor
Justin Gatuslao	Associate Editor

painful

Earlier today, I was running errands with a friend and talking about some shit that I normally don’t feel like talking about because, well, it hurts. There, I finally said it. I’ve been meaning to write something about it, but failed to do so only because putting my feelings into words somehow tells me that it is real, that the pain is here. But what the heck, it’s not the only thing that’s hurting me right now. I’ve got this minor shoulder pain due to my lack of capacity to do a proper rolling in Judo. I hate it. I try really really hard to understand the new lesson, but I just can’t. I end up making a fool of myself, while the rest of the class plus the varsity people look at me like I’m some crippled loser who can’t even execute a simple step.

And well, aside from the pain Judo’s been giving me for the past few weeks, my grades have been spanking me lately, slapping me to do better, to read the chapters and to write book notes. I don’t know why this semester is giving me all these bad energy, and worse part is, I can’t point my finger to anything or to anyone. This is all on me, me and my screwed decisions. I want to do better this semester. Although I’m extremely thankful for the turnout of the first semester, I’m scared for the current semester. People have been telling me that this sem will be easy, that my grades will reach their highest, but those comments just keep on raising me to the pedestal and pressuring me that I am supposed to do better, or else. Gaaaah.

***

When something ends or at least you think it's ending, does that actually guarantee that something is opening up for you? What if that window remains closed and you end up waiting for it to open, not knowing that it will never again open? I think, people are scared to put an end to something, because we are scared that we'll remain stagnated. We are afraid that nothing will be left for us. That's why we hang on to some bit of hope, because we refuse to believe that a window is closing.

I'm a walking splinter of hope. :)