sa ngalan ng niyebe

i have fancied playing in the snow. quite a bit worried if i could stand the cold, but thoughts of making snow balls, throwing them at some snow-playmates and just playing crazy in it thaw my systems to the max.

then i got this emailed photo from a dear friend. jeesh! this got me by surprise! from the philippines to japan, THANK YOU, reagz, for taking time to do this for me. you got your hands cold from writing my nick but you definitely warmed my heart for the effort, so here’s a warmer “salamat” for you. this is the closest i could get to the real thing so i’m holding on to this.

i am still dreaming of making my snow fantasy a reality one of these days. and until that day comes, i’ll keep the thought as you attract what you think. well, this is a very good step one, though.

pinoy dream academy 10th expulsion night

i am a certified fanatic! i was still in love with ronnie liang this time. now, ronnie’s way out of the limelight after withdrawing his membership from star magic. oh well, where ever he is, hope he’s doing good. and i’m still not over the fantasy of seeing him in person again… more intimate this time. ;) i know iya is doing great in guam so i wish her nothing but more success in career and lovelife. naks!

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contrary to the ill-fortune of scholar joan ilagan, luck seemed to be on my periphery that fateful november 18 night. why?! i just can’t believe i was positioned at the bottom of the stairs leading to the PDA concert hall stage. up front, where my view of the performance and expulsion night was free from obstruction. forgive me but such fanaticism possessing me ever since kaye abad’s day 1 appearance in ang tv from way back when has taken over me once again. a visit to pinoy dream academy was actually one of my weekend agenda while on exile and it was just an enchanting twist of fate to have entered headmaster’s kingdom on the eve of my mom’s birthday.

… and without a ticket, for that matter. tickets have been exhausted a week before the 10^th expulsion night so i basically went to battlefield with no-nada weapons whatsoever. it’s just that big brother and headmaster love me and the fanatic in me dearly, they blessed me with an ever-supportive paps, who sapped out his network for sources of gate pass in the person of mr. bedimpled crowd controller i-forgot-his-name. but i would want to believe that it was still my charm which prompted him to stamp the pass on my arm.

then bambacute came running, er, strutting her butt towards the concert hall 10 minutes before the performance night started.

it was indeed an unexplainably awesome feeling… being there inside the concert hall, watching toni gonzaga and nikki gil practice their spiels, direk lauren having one last quick check on all logistics, abs-cbn staff and PA’s ushering the mentors and jurors to their spots on opposite sides of the dome, ex-scholars and dream girls making their way to their reserved seats, and fans here and there waving pictures and banners of their fave scholars who were then inside the academy still.

i was in the middle of these all… awe and star struck with everything and everybody. you probably saw the 10^th expulsion night, ok, so i won’t go blabbing about it anyway. just some behind-the-scenes unforgettables…

mom’s fave, scholar panky trinidad, really shook the entire dome with a powerful rendition of santa claus is coming to town, that is. maderloo, panky simply is superb! and ey, after a chitchat with ex-scholar chai fonacier (panky’s bestfriend), i found out that we’re neighbors pala in skyline. uhmm… not exactly mega neighbors, but neighbors with their relatives. greatness! hui, fitness master, teacher gege, has humongous feet. no wonder she kicks pretty damn hard, huh! early fave, gemma fitzgerald, was accommodating enough to enthusiastically smile for the digicam with me. such a lovely gurl!

jena, you should’ve seen your chad peralta in person. hunkable, papable is he! yoko na magsalita pa baka sabihin mo na namang inaagaw ko sya sa’yo. “let jena know it’s christmas time again…” flunked by an all-bisaya assemblage, jay-r siaboc easily spotted me amongst the audience and flashed me a big smile. hay naku, kung di ka lang bf ni bestfriend iya, akin ka na rin. oh well… “have yourself a very merry christmas” yes, I’ll have myself a very merry christmas, thanks to you, fafa jay-r.

toni gonzaga is a tunganga queen pala. in between spiels and takes, she sits quiet in one corner, stares blankly at nothingness with tired eyes and slouched shoulders. that’s how grounded she is, then takes a 180-degree turn of emotions right when the camera lights on her. aba, ganyan ka pala ha?! and nikki gil… she just answered why geoff eigenmann and gab valenciano went gaga over her.

waitness! correct me if I’m wrong ha, but was that a long second glance my ronniekins just gave me before going backstage? nah, no need to correct me coz i know deep in my heart twas really me his eyes were searching for in the crowd. “sana ngayong pasko ay maalala mo pa rin ako…” -- of course, babykins, we’ll be together by then. but for now, you have to come across that nomination clean, okei? mashado ka kasing na-distract sa beaming presence ko last saturday eh. -- ex-scholar michelle bond a.k.a. my ronniekins’ “cat” (puh-lease) may be there but i effortlessly over-powered her influence on ronnie by my mere existence. simple as that!

and to top it all… bestfriend iya ginez, who haven’t been watching the performance nights after being expelled, was there in support, of course, to boyfriend jay-r. what a sweetness sight to see! she was just there with chai, taking pictures and videos of jay-r and cheering on him. mind you, she’s not that chubby and dark in person as she is on tv yet still genuinely pretty. no-need-to-bat-an-eyelash pretty. and this… this picturesque is the main reason why i braved the crowd amidst the noise and haste.

mababaw and crazily funny, it may seem for some, but for an extremist fan (reads: fanatic!!!) like me… spare me the ridiculous-look in your eyes… coz i just had a definitely great night to remember.

originally posted on november 20, 2006 @ friendster blogs

can you name 13 of your friends?

this game is really nice! i wanna try this again with a different set of 13 significant individuals in my life at present. but i have to forget the questions that follow first so there would be no bias. one more thing, i have to note that “chenes” expression of mine. so old school na talaga. “chenes” pa ang fave expression ko noon.

**********

i saw this perk somewhere and thought of trying this out myself. just taking simple things naman after a hard day’s work. chenes lang, so to say. here goes…

name 13 of your friends that you can think of right off the top of your head right now. don't read the questions underneath until you write the names of all 13 people. this is a lot funnier if you actually randomly list the names first. no cheating!

1. dexter

2. jayrome

3. jenny

4. aiai

5. jena

6. ipertzee

7. ivan

8. jeanmae

9. gillian

10. chantal

11. zeng

12. monique

13. bjorn

how did you meet 11?
~ she’s a pop kid in high school, everybody knows her… got close with her coz we eventually ended up in the same crowd since 3^rd year high school until now

what would you do if you had never met 1?
~ wouldn’t have survived the intrigues and intricacies of high school life, and the more difficult peculiarities of my so-called life

what would you do if 6 and 2 dated?
~ laugh hard until i cry… hahaha! sabi ko na nga ba they could be into each other eh: drinking buddies, yosi partners, they even watched a movie alone ha. hahay, good old javlon days

have you ever seen 3 cry?
~ yezz! cry over something foolish, cry over pressure and cry over something serious. but she’s no cry baby naman talaga. nagkataon lang…

do you think 10 is cute?
~ of course! lalo na ngayong mas chubby chubby na sya. peace, santol!

how did you get to know 8?
~ the most important thing that happened to me in casa leticia… having found a super duper goodest friend in her. sumpay man mi’g tinai ana niya

would you ever go on a date with number 13?
~ given a chance, yes!!!

what's 7's favorite color?
~ blue? i bet it’s blue

what would you do if 7 confessed he/she loved you?
~ omg!!! why did i put ivan in the 7^th post?! haha! i’d be flattered, i’d blush (even if i’m not capable) and my life would turn from simple to crazily perplexing.

fact about 9
~ nice one, gie! our motto – once you tell gillian, you already told bamba… and vice versa.

who is 4 going out with?
- me! and the rest of the sukobers… and, of course, hubby daddy arvin

who is number 5 to you?
~ my trusty sukober

would you ever live with 13?
~ isa pang omg!!! nope siguro. di kakayanin ng powers ko

is 2 single?
~ his friendster status says so… but never had the pleasure of knowing the truth straight from the horse’s mouth (care to share, choi?)

where does 7 live?
~ he’s really from marbel but he’s got a boarding house, no, apartment (correction!) in acacia corner magsaysay streets

what do you think about 3?
~ brilliant! she speaks her mind out and a great writer. she’ll make it big in the entertainment industry in japan with kiat/singing/dancing/kabuang partner, no less, me!

what's the best thing about number 8?
~ never a dull moment with her! i could be myself around her, she knows how to have a great time even with the simplest things, doesn’t know how to get mad, free ilonggo tutorials, great listener, super friend!

what do you like about number 6?
~ his passion for fun, his undying love for mahal, his humor and the way he discretely cares for us, javlon gurls, by being brutal on his comments but you could note the concern in his eyes

favorite memory with 2?
~ huh! this is hard! sooo many great and wonderful memories of this guy, happiness during those times spent together, lessons learned, hardships surpassed, everything about him. summed up in 4 words: my one true love!

originally posted on october 25, 2006 @ friendster blogs

sleepy head

wrote this entry during my first week as a gent. it was the longest one week of my life doing nothing from 8:00AM to 6:00PM but read the company manual. so damn boring! but little did i know that that was the only week in my five-year stint as trainer that i actually got to have the luxury of time. as my programs started to kick off, time was the last thing on my checklist. i’d like to go back to this blog, to this one precious week, when i was so rich with priceless time.

**********

ever felt sleepyness, sleepyfull, sleepymore during the first hours of work even if you've just gone from a good sleep, great hot bath and hurried through the bustle of city life? damn, i did! i do... always... a lot! sleepyness is taking over me once again... but why?! why do i always feel sleepy during morning work?

let's do a little rewind...

slept early last night, well, comparatively early. had, though not a complete 8-hour sleep, but a deep, fulfilling 6 hours instead. had a nice hot bath (fyi: lamigin ako eh), and ate not much breakfast but enough to last me til lunchtime. the jeepney ride from home was uneventful (viz., did not worry much about running late coz i left home early and the traffic was a breeze), i even had time for a jeepney nap before finally reaching the office 10mins before 8am. mixed my fave 3-in-1 with hot water to make sure i'd be up and about doing my morning tasks. (ok, this is the point where i snap out of the rewind thingy...)

reading through "paradigms of credit and collection," the next lines started to blur a bit... getting more blurred... lines now doubled... waaahh! had to walk down the corridor to the ladies' room pretending i've got some serious business there, just to perk up the sleepy nerves.

why is this happening to me? feels like i'm caught in some sort of vacuity trying to fight against hypnotism. (nah, mala-ibong adarna kind of sleepyness while it's singing blah blah.) why, again, is this happening to me? check items that apply:

[ ] didn't get enough sleep (i just said i had 6hrs. isn't that enough?)

[ ] i'm bored - well, i'm reading. reading could get boring if the subject didn't spark one's interest. but hey yo, kapal naman ng mukha ko... i'm reading work stuffs, the least i could do is get myself interested whether i like it or don't. (evaluation, hija, ikaw din...)

[ ] it's a saturday and i'm supposed to be lying lazy at home - ey, it happens every damn day of the week, not just on a saturday. and besides, you used to have saturday classes (not to mention your sleeping during your morning classes too. remember?).

[ ] senti background music - so you think hard rock would do the trick?! for the years i've known you, i am aware that music has no effect on you. remember how deep your sleep was while manong's wolfgang music (er, noise) was playing? no effect... all sleep.

[ ] i'm not a morning person - that's more like it! to simply put it, you are not as effective a person and a worker in the morning compared to when the sun has retired already.

(it's bamba's alter ego talking to the sleepy-head bamba)

after laying down the assumptions (er, they're not really assumptions, bamm. la lang, just feel like using the word. heh!), what efforts have i been doing to combat the sleepy head morning monster lurking inside of me?

1. water therapy - to get me going to the toilet every now and then. moving around wakes my sense up. temporarily, though.

2. eat, munch, chew - chew, actually. i could very well be the next top ranking stockholder or, better, image model of mentos for the tons of chewables i consume... per hour.

3. self-infliction of pain - masoquista? sadista? whatever you call it! just look at the bruises in my right arm after pinching myself so hard, believing it could do the trick. slap me for even considering. bleh may pasa, buti nga!

4. coffee - coffee runs through my veins, ano bah! kahit pa siguro gawin kong polvoron wrapped in goldilocks wrapper ang coffee, wa epek na po. sad to say. immune na yata ako eh.

5. unlimitext - huh! texting nonesense during office hours ha (blogging too!)... even that didn't work. like i'm allowed to do that often?

6. ok i concede... wait for lunch time and catch up in the afternoon

well then sleepy head, get back to work. you're not paid to blog all you want. oops!

originally posted on may 5, 2006 @ friendster blogs