In a municipality in Bohol named Baclayon, there was a couple who bore fifteen children, ten girls and five boys. One of those girls became a nun and three became priests. The other surviving children populated the whole Philippines with girls and boys who bore the Plaza intelligence and good values, as this blog is evident of. (Cut me some slack, this is MY blog.)

It's been around a week since we got back from Bohol, my mom, Dan, and I. It's embarrassing and sad to say that the last time I was in Bohol was lola's funeral. I feel bad every time there's a reunion I can't attend. No, really bad. Bohol is my favorite place on Earth, and is the home of one of my favorite people.

When we arrived I barely got to rest and the next thing I knew, I was in Baclayon Church for the baptism ceremonies of my newest nephew and inaanak, Magnus, my cousin Karen's second boy.

I'm a Muslim. But my Christian relatives only show me kindness. There's no religion with family.

Four years ago Karen made me attend her wedding as one of her bridesmaids; this year she made me ninang. Normally, Muslim and Christian traditions wouldn't allow that. But there are things more valuable than tradition. (I stand out like a sore thumb in a Catholic church though. I have no idea what to do at what moment. But hey, as I said, there are things more important than that.)



And that was only the first day!

The next day was the celebration for Uncle Pol's 25th year as a priest, which was the main event of our reunion. If I was instant ninang on Magnus's binyag, I was instant emcee, dancer and singer at the program for Uncle Pol. I suck at emceeing even if people don't believe me (kasi nga raw, magaling sa English), and I don't like dancing in public. But anyway, I wasn't the only one who was pressured into doing things.



Things got even better on the third day, which was spent touring Bohol on bus. If you want to imagine the size a family of fifteen can amount to once they get together complete with their own families, imagine the number of people that can fill up a large bus. We visited Sagbayan Peak (I call it the other Chocolate Hills), a butterfly farm (they had great ice cream, LOL, and no, not made of butterflies; there was one butterfly that smelled like chocolate though, not edible), and Loboc River, home of the cutest primates (next to humans, haha), the tarsier.





If you're wondering why we skipped the beaches, well it's because we have one right in our backyard.


Come and visit Bohol. I want to live here someday.

Plenty of our Bohol pics here.

It's no secret: I love BONNIE PINK. I adore her and I have her music for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Okay, not really, but you know what I mean. If you do then you're a close friend. If you're a close friend you've probably seen my Plurks, YM status messages and other raves on her. Heck I'm serious on getting to see her perform live even just once before I die.

I first heard Bonnie singing It's Gonna Rain as an ending theme to Rurouni Kenshin. That song is among the ones that got me really interested in J-pop, and It's Gonna Rain is my all-time favorite Rurouni Kenshin song (RK featured L'Arc~en~Ciel and Judy and Mary among other bigatin J-pop artists).

My first Bonnie album was Even So, and all I can say is lucky, lucky me. This turns out to be (at least according to me, very reliable, haha) one of Bonnie's most liked albums by real fans of hers. It is a dark album (that's how most reviews describe it and there's just no better word), with Bonnie working the happy-sad elements she's really good at. I just became a dedicated fan after Even So. At present I have listened to all her albums that I know of.

I was able to listen to her latest album ONE this afternoon. I played the album on our old but still reliably loud stereo (I have to kick it to make it work sometimes, but it still produces great sound, LOL) despite the household not really being J-pop fans and sat back to enjoy the ear candy. Before the intro to track one could finish I saw the crossword portion of today's daily which I abandoned earlier on the living room chair and was suddenly in the mood from some brain cell work.

This is the result of this afternoon's activity:



LOL. I reviewed ONE while doing the crossword. I never cease to amaze myself. XP

As for the review itself, those scribbles pretty much say everything.

Won't Let You Go reminds me of Burning Inside from her previous full album Thinking Out Loud. I thought it didn't make a great track one and that maybe Princess Incognitio or even Ring a Bell should've been handed the job of intro to the album.

Fyewsha Fyewsha Fyewsha is another of Bonnie's songs that I just file into my mental playlist of summer tracks.

Princess Incognito reminds me of Just a Girl Bonnie.

Track four, Joy, has already grown on me since it was released as a single and it's not very hard to like anyhow.

Mousou Lover reminded me of Catch the Sun and later on Take me in due to its shady mood.

As for Kane o Narashite, I didn't think it was much of a hit when Bonnie released it last year, and now I don't really like it that its English version Ring a Bell makes it as a bonus track to this album. I mean, come on. They're in different languages but they're still the same song, and they're even very close semantically.

But after this came in the most disturbing-in-a-good-way and possibly the one I will conclude to be the best track after many listens: One Last Time. Though I thought there were just too many instruments that I couldn't really hear Bonnie anymore starting from the bridge part, this track is still a winner. I still think that Bonnie is at her best when she sounds in grief. And yeah, I'm afraid it's gonna be one of those tracks I'm gonna listen to when indulging in depression.

Rock You till the Dawn to me is a mix of pop rock and R&B, reminding me for some reason of Imagination from Thinking Out Loud.

Fed Up which is a collaboration with Craig David is the one I least like at first listen of this album. They sound really good together but I'm just not feeling this song.

PLAY & PAUSE is new! I've never heard Bonnie do an R&B track like this before, and she raps in it! (So cute!) But it strangely reminds me of Hikki. (O.O)

The next track Himitsu reminds me of anime themes in the 90s. A number of Bonnie's songs have been anime tracks so it's not a very far-off comparison.

The next one is another track I marked. Try me Out is added to my summer playlist. It's just so laid-back-by-the-pool cute and a very easy listen to my ears.

The next track is something I really liked at first listen (from her recent Joy/Happy Ending single), even more than I did Joy. The reason that I like Happy Ending so much may be Bonnie's hopeful lyrics, but I think it makes a really good soft rock track. It would have been the perfect last track to this album but Bonnie puts in Get on the Bus (which I note in the crossword sounds like a filler) and Ring a Bell.

Overall I think this is a really good original album from Bonnie, better than her previous Thinking Out Loud and Golden Tears. There are many new songs which are all treats. I've read in a Bonnie Pink forum how ONE has all the previous Bonnies in a package. I agree, and I think that versatility is what makes this album a real treat for all BONNIE PINK fans like yours truly.

If I review Bonnie by comparing new tracks to her old ones it's because I'm no musician or music expert and this is the only way a fan can do it. I'm very partial to older Bonnie albums (Even So which remains my favorite, Present and Just a Girl), and maybe this is another reason why I keep making comparisons to her old songs. But nonetheless any new song from Bonnie is a treat, and I am her fan now and always.


P.S. 70 down is gimlet, a drink which Bonnie mentions in A Perfect Sky. Look at how happy I was at the coincidence (I even drew a smiley x.x).

If I'm going to hell it isn't your fault, so stop trying to "save" me. You know I'm not going to hell. There IS no hell.

Although the main objective of this summer vacation was to actually do nothing, I’m still quite ashamed of myself for accomplishing just that. All those movies and books I’ve complained on not having gotten to read when I was so busy being a busy senior year student have been left ignored by yours truly. I spend everyday guzzling ice cold caffeine in all forms, watching TV shows which are all reruns and wasting my time on the internet. This blog is a disgrace.

 

I am trying to learn guitar again though, and this time I’m not too finicky on getting calloused fingertips. Who the hell will say to me someday “Oh my, you’re a great person but I just don’t like your freaky fingertips” anyway (though I’m the type of person who’s a bit vain about my hands and feet for the self-conscious reason that I might get comments like that).

 

Friends I keep in touch with know or have at least sensed my recent, present dark moment. It’s something I don’t talk about... for my world is forbidden as it is fragile. LOL. Hi Lip.

 

But the worst I can always go is to sink into a hopeless depression and probably go crazy. If there’s anything I do running on auto-pilot it is self-preservation. I take my iron pills everyday even (if I don’t forget to). I don’t, can’t do the hurt-myself-to-get-even bit. And I’m too much of a coward to just go end my misery myself when I’m in horrible emotional pain. I’m too afraid of the idea of missing out on a lot of things, and we all know there are a lot of things going on on this planet.

 

So I am okay, dear friends. Hardened, bitter, but okay. Choking on my own tears and snot every night, but alive. And I will learn more songs, I only know how to play five, and they’re not what you would call the most popular.

I hereby declare today my downfall.

Of course the PV just had to be about long-distance relationship, what else?

As he retires from the NBA, two kittens will continue his legacy.



Note the resemblance:



Will post better pics in the future.

In the middle of a hearty family lunch yesterday (minus Mommy who, as she is two days a week, stationed to monitor telecommunications in North Cotabato), we heard three successive grunts from Tess, who had retreated a couple of minutes ago to a certain corner she's been inspecting for the past few days. The kittens finally wanted a taste of daylight.

 

I have to introduce Maritess, or Tess as we call her, named, I think, after a neighbor way back when we were still in our old cramped, rented place. I was too young at the time to remember her now anyway, but when Dandy told me about the new pussy Boogie brought home pregnant my dad named Tess, I just had to roll my head back and cackle on the phone.

 

When I got home about two weeks ago after graduation she was already heavy and bulging at the sides. We became friends immediately.

 

We've been uneasy in the house for the rest of the afternoon yestereday, checking on Tess every few minutes—like fathers outside the delivery room burning a hole in the floor. It was a first-time experience for me.

 

There are now two Boogie Juniors (the two look a lot like Boogie, with a black patch on the head that looks like an inverted heart when seen from the top and a black tail, the rest of the fur white). We've agreed to name them Dikembe and Mutombo, after the NBA player for the benefit of whoever reads this blog who isn't into basketball. I'm excited to potty train and feed them, and especially to squeeze the little fur balls with love.

P.S. Will post photos of the new family as soon as Tess allows it.

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The thing with blogging is the longer you don't post anything, the harder it is to attempt. So I'm gonna be crude and just try and list down and summarize the things that have happened to me after my last post, what I'm doing now, and what I intend to do in the coming days.

 

On the 31^st of March Mommy and Dandy arrived in Iligan to attend the pre-commencement program, where each college would award its outstanding students (I can't help but snigger at the sound of that, sorry). I graduated with honors and with the institute journalism award. I liked the cum laude medal, and I've always thought the school logo was neat. On April Fool's Daddy and Pai and two of my uncles and a cousin arrived to attend my graduation.

 

The best thing I can come up with for not being very emotional about graduation and the things that come along with it is that I've said good-bye so many times to so many people that long before it happens I've readied my system for it. In short I've accepted, acknowledged and understood farewells at this point in my life. There will be future permanent farewells that will tear me up but for good-byes that have to do with people going their ways, I'm—well not inured, but maybe I've attained the EQ for it. And technology helps too. Who isn't an IM or SMS away nowadays.

 

What I remember about graduation is that it was a happy event. The grad song was kinda infectious: Reach for the Stars by (wipe that smirk off your face please) S Club 7. I know, I rolled my eyes too but at least we could dance to it, an advantage to those tearjerker songs that would leave us with ruined makeup. I was in good spirits—not ecstatic, but happy enough—but I knew I couldn't party with my friends and classmates since I was scheduled to celebrate with relatives in Marawi (the same went for everybody anyway; we all celebrate with relatives first). The grad ceremonies finished at noon and after lunch at Sunburst we checked out of the inn, dropped by the dorm to get some of my stuff, and drove to Marawi right away. Marawi isn't my dream place for a celebration, but again, in this country relatives come first. At least my brothers were there to entertain me with my kind of humor.

 

There was one thing that was giving my day a sour twist. I don't even know how to go about describing it or writing about it, but along with my relatives someone else (uninvited as far as I'm concerned) tagged along, and that was this old guy whose family has been bugging my dad to marry me to their boy for as long as I can remember. My life can't get any crazier than it is now: a marriage proposal was present on my grad day. I've made it clear to my dad that the answer will be duh, NO, but my dad, ladies and gentlemen, finds it hard to say no to relatives and close friends. That's why that family keeps coming back to ask even if I haven't shown the least bit of interest in getting hitched to a boy I'm ten years older than (when I said my life was weird I was serious as a heart attack). So even if I know for a fact that my dad loves us to the point that he gets nightmares about people harming his family, and that he will never coerce me into doing anything that isn't my decision, these "people" still scare me. And that is why I don't intend to work on the same island as they are, but that's another story.

 

My family went home the next day and I had two days to pack my stuff, finish all school requirements, and hang out with my friends. Not enough time, that's for sure. We spent our last night together raiding Booksale. It's ridiculous and makes perfect sense to me at the same time.

 

I spend my days lately just playing PC games, watching movies and True Blood, helping around the house, seeing old friends (or rather they come to the house), taking care of the cats, listening to music and forcing myself to go through all of my unread books (which there are a lot of, I'm guilty to say, and which I haven't been very successful at finishing so far). I also jobhunt on the net. I'm not aiming too high, but I'm so out of Mindanao. I've gotten over my permanent homesickness, I've learned how to live with it. As much as I love my family, if I will stay here in this city I will go insane. My favorite people next to my family aren't within miles. So dorks, see you guys soon.

I finished The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood today. She is my favorite author (along with Milan Kundera), though I'd already decided that even before I laid my hands on The Blind Assassin.

I've bought so many books in the past two—now turning three—months, but the only books I finished are Margaret Atwoods, a Milan Kundera, and the usual Agatha Christies when my brain screams for light reads. The only book I've gotten to finish ever since all academic tasks had been taken care of (and that was already about two weeks ago) is the book I finished today. Knowing I started on it weeks ago (I'm being vague with how long so as not to reveal how lazy I have been, since this post, if not totally about it, will mention my giving in to lethargy ever since our last day of classes), I read this one slow. I did it deliberately in two senses:  one is that I didn't want to finish it too quickly and regret not having taken my time with it, and the other is that I often got distracted by other useless things.

As everybody who's read my Plurks know, I'm graduating soon. On April Fool's Day at that, which I somehow find unsettlingly ironic. I imagine fate mocking my six in years college. But nothing's stopping me now, not my own self-seeking, which has caused me a lot of packing and moving, and I'm graduating.

But it's not really the idea of getting a degree that makes me... not ecstatic, but relieved. It's finishing this around-90-page monstrosity:


It's not that I'm not proud of it. How can I not be when it's the closest I'll ever get to publishing something that resembles a book. This final requirement to all degrees which the purpose of I still haven't fully made myself understand yet has caused me much, much anguish. So much that I cannot bring myself to feel affection or any semblance of it towards it. Had I known that the road to fulfilling a thesis would have brought me to THIS end, I would have done things differently. But then again, I will never do it again even if you strangled me. But it's all done now. I longed so much for retrospection, to get to the point when all this would only be something to look back on, not something I am PRESENTLY doing, and now I have it.

I'm not stoical. I cry during sad movies, scream when I'm ecstatic. But I'm not anxious or excited about graduation yet, not in the amount that you'd expect from someone's who's been in college longer than normal. Maybe I'll feel it on the day, but for now no extreme emotion. Am I in reality just afraid that something might go wrong and thus no celebration on my part yet? Maybe. I've always been the suspicious type when good things happen in succession. Am I subconsciously repressing the sadness I know I'll feel the day I'm gonna have to kiss my friends good-bye? I've already admitted to feeling sadness about it so I think not. Even if I know that I've long accepted that partings will occur inevitably in life, I won't be in denial of feelings to preserve myself. Am I anxious of the life ahead of me, the scary independence of employment, or worse, not finding any at all? Yes, but not so much. Maybe I'm exhausted and thus numb. I really don't know yet, but I'm expecting to discover, realize or feel it soon.

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After lunch with the Dorks we came across this in the City Proper. I unthinkingly shrieked expletives in the presence of the children who were selling them.


Add this to the list of things that make me misanthropic.

When your teacher is one of the country's best poets and creative writers, you get a week off school when he attends some gettogether by the country's literati. So this week has been a rollercoaster ride, or to be more precise bus rides.

So last Tuesday after exhausting all possible outlets for boredom with my friends, I was somehow able to convince Faith to just go home to her family in Cagayan de Oro that night instead of the weekend, so we could go to the beach on Saturday instead. All of a sudden, Ken decided we should go with Faith and go back to Iligan Thursday afternoon. After much of his hyper prodding I finally managed a nod. The rest is history.


The dorks and I have been dreaming of going to the beach for ages, and yesterday we decided to stop the dreaming and get on that bus to Initao. Beach, booze, buds, and karaoke—woot!


Yesterday was the best beach trip I've ever had. Looking forward to more. (^___^)