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Meet my little Japanese friend

These past few days, my water jug has garnered some attention from friends and acquaintances. Someone even asked me about it in the middle of class. There seemed to be something…floating in my water.

Meet Red Octopus!

It’s a little plastic toy that my friend Rose got for me in Japan. It just floats there, yes. But it’s cute! And kiddie as it may seem, it does serve a purpose–a constant reminder to drink water, which I rarely do unless it’s from a glass. Bad non-habit, I know.

According to the packaging, it’s supposed to spin when you shake the water bottle. (At least that’s what it looks like.) I’ve tried spinning my bottle in every way, but it doesn’t quite do the rapid twirling, like in the picture. It spins a little, but nothing you won’t expect from a toy is a whirlpool of water. Maybe I’m doing something wrong?

Here’s the back, with presumably better instructions. If anyone can understand this, leave me a comment. I really wanna see this spinning action take place in my water jug.

In other news, I discovered what a delight Manuel Quezon and Quezon City are today. We should celebrate their greatness every week!

Pretty Unpretty

These past few weeks have been hard on woman-kind. Is it just me, or has there been a giant wave of insecurity blanketing the so-called fairer sex? Things like getting makeovers and not feeling pretty enough today are constantly the topics of conversation lately, and I just feel like sometimes we girls are really too hard on ourselves.

Photography by Tata Yap

A couple of weeks ago, my teacher played the Dove Evolution TVC in class, after which he asked who among the girls think they are pretty. Only two ladies raised their hands–two out of 15. I’m not sure why, but this kind of struck a chord in me. I suppose because I was with seniors and I was expecting them to be a bit more self-assured. I mean, I think it’s a given that almost everyone blooms in their junior or senior year, or by that time feels more secure about themselves.

In another instance, my friend was criticized for posting her daily beauty routine after she was asked about it on Formspring. The person insinuated that she would probably be ugly without her routine, and was high maintenance or something to that effect. It seemed like her routine was simple enough, and maybe even required by her skin doctor, yet someone still found that as a fault.

It goes both ways, I guess. You take care of yourself and put some effort into looking presentable everyday, and people say you’re too vain. On the other hand, you come as you are, wash and wear, and are dismissed as homely.

I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with “working on” your prettiness. Maybe you need more concealer today, after staying up until 3am writing your paper (or watching Mad Men, whichever). Or go ahead, visit the dermatologist if you have to. You feel like sporting curls today? Sure. Do what makes you feel good about yourself.

But I draw the line at well, cosmetic surgery. Do you dislike parts of yourself so much that you have to literally chop things off or something? Do you honestly need that to look presentable? Plus, it’s just too expensive for people our age. And there are other ways.

I don’t want to pretend like I never have days (weeks) where I feel like an ugly duckling, but I’d like to think I have a positive outlook about myself. Enough to admit that even if I’m a bit rough on the edges, I’m still quite charming. I know I’m not unfortunate-looking, for the most part! And yeah, it does take a little work. Anyone who tells you that their beauty is effortless is lying. Even Giselle Bundchen, the goddess that she is doesn’t wake up looking like that, I’m sure. I’M SURE! What I’m trying to say is it’s okay to feel ugly sometimes, but do something about it so that you will feel that way less and less over time.

I miss my super long, super thick, bionic hair

One of my favorite quotes, one which I usually repeat to myself when I’m almost at the end of a painful workout, is from Helena Rubinstein, a lady who ran a cosmetics company which rivaled that of Elizabeth Arden’s in the early 19th century. Though she was actually a very beautiful woman, there was something she was still willing to admit: “There are no ugly girls, only lazy ones.”

First photo involves two of my best friends, Rose Santos and Tata Yap. Photo was taken for a requirement for my Advertising Management class. Thanks, guys! ILU

Basta Driver, Sweet Lover

For a few weeks now, my friends (you know who you are) and I have been somewhat obsessed over making CDs with music you commonly hear in cabs. You know them, those over-the-top, epic love songs you would love to sing your heart out to, only manong driver is singing them more enthusiastically than you can, almost yearning for the world.

We have about 60 songs in the iTunes playlist so far, but only 17 fit in the first CD. I give you the first installment of The Ultimate Taxi Jams Playlist of Heartbreak and Unrequited Love:

1. I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing – Aerosmith
2. Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler
3. Always – Bon Jovi
4. (Everything I Do) I Do It for You – Bryan Adams
5. You’re the Inspiration – Chicago
6. More Than Words – Extreme
7. Alone – Heart
8. Fixing a Broken Heart – Indecent Obsession
9. How Do I Live – LeAnn Rimes
10. Superstar/Until You Come Back to Me – Luther Vandross
11. 25 Minutes – Michael Learns to Rock
12. She’s the One – Robbie Willams
13. When You Say Nothing at All – Ronan Keating
14. You’re Still the One – Shania Twain
15. True – Spandeu Ballet
16. Ever Since the World Began – Survivor
17. What’s Going On? – 4 Non Blondes

So the next time you hail an Avis or a MaryJhoneliza taxi, listen to kuya‘s “now playing”. You might have a new song to lip-synch to on a night like this, perfect for singing all these hits filled with anguish and passion.

C’mon guys, with feelings! “Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I’m only falling apart~”

Vampire Weekend

Fans of the band, I’m really sorry but this entry isn’t about them. It’s about my somewhat nocturnal weekend up and about around the city. Kind of.

Friday

Had lunch with Rico, but no pictures. We both ordered my favorite CHIBI MEAL, but unfortunately I don’t think he found it as filling. He was thoroughly amused, it seemed. We also discovered that it takes forever to get a glass of water in Teriyaki Boy Katipunan. No service charge daw kasi!

Friday was supposed to be Inception day for me, Rose and Paul, but he had an interview that ran til late, so we skipped that and tucked ourselves away in our usual hangout instead. Because we were all sort of in low spirits, we feasted on some breakfast food to make us feel better. We made a giant tomato-onion-cheese omelette, toasted some bread, and heated the customary Japanese soup. It was a good, simple meal. No pictures though, but it did happen.

THEN! We went to Banchetto! If you have no idea what it is, it’s a food market that starts at midnight and ends at 11am the next day. Lots of good stuff there, and people too. (Though I overheard someone saying that because it was raining, they had a smaller crowd come in that day.)

Rose was going for the “Rhythm Divine” effect here. As in Enrique Iglesias’ unpopular song, released in 2005. Don’t recall? Haha thought so. Youtube!

Lugi-face Paul. He didn't like his cheesecake because it was mostly fluffy cream. (Sorry, I picked a gay picture!)

Yummy takoyaki! Kind of better than the ones you see in the mall, the ones with hardly any octopus. Or maybe that was just me...

And we bumped into Steve-o! So happy to see us! "Wow, people I know!," he said. Haha

We also saw Abi, Solo, and new-friend-but-old-face Lee. We didn’t really get to hang out with them because we had different priorities, food-wise. Hahaha!

We left Banchetto at around 1:30AM. If you plan to go, I suggest mentioning that the action starts at 12MN when you ask for permission. My mom checked it out at 11:30PM and wondered why everyone was packing up. They were actually just setting up! She probably thought this thing was a fib, but here are pictures, so it happened.

Saturday

Not as eventful. Second attempt at Inception with the same people, but no go once again. We suck at planning things. We’re watching tomorrow hopefully, so please cross your fingers for us! Til then, I am part of the uncool sample of people who haven’t seen the movie yet.

Also, got a haircut. I forgot to tell the hairstylist that I wanted to trim my bangs. I only remembered when I got home, so I decided to DIY it. Bad idea. Oh well. For your entertainment:

I cut my own bangs. Hehe. WHY! And here I'm eating my last macaron from my birthday.

Oh, caught up with a bunch of people online, like Kate, Anna Bee, Raymond, and Mia. SEE YOU SATURDAY!

And then at 1am, I decided to finally watch Forrest Gump. Does anybody have the soundtrack? Can you zip it and send to me please?

I wish people still had mailboxes like that, and I would actually get postcards and stuff. Anyway, I slept at around 3am, so I didn’t finish the movie. It was kind of long, I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore; plus, my brothers and I were leaving for Batangas in the morning. (Aureus, if you’re reading this, I’m finishing it now.)

And like a true vampire, I woke up pretty late again today. (I slept through the ride to Batangas, and slept again when I got there.) Ugh, I should really fix my body clock. Morning people, how do you do it?

I am ending this post pretty abruptly because:

1. Dinner is waiting to be prepared
2. I never know how to end these things

THE END.

ETA: Did you know the girl on the cover of the Contra album sued “Vampire Weekend, Inc.”? Yeah, you probably did. ‘Kay.

Growing Pains

Last night, I messaged my friend in Sweden about some personal stuff going on, then I messaged my friend in LA and we talked until 4am. This morning, one of my best friends texted me that she was late for work, another said that today he was waiting for a call from some multinational, and another one asked me for my schedule, presumably about work matters. Oh, and some HR person called me on my way to school, asking if I can come in for an interview with a “big multinational American company.”
Well, what was I expecting post-college? Post-college for many of my friends at least. The past month has been really different and difficult; I went back to school to find out that I didn’t know anyone anymore, and many times had to understand that no, my friends can’t hang out today because they have grown-up things to handle in a big office. Them telling me to “meet new people and find other things to do” doesn’t actually help that much. There’s really no other way to say it–I feel left behind. Left behind, and sometimes lonely.

While it’s true that I’m meeting younger, mostly less mature (but fun) people and I still have the constant influx of money called allowance, I’m also feeling slightly smaller next to friends who are out for dinner and drinks with some co-workers and getting a sweet paycheck every fifteen days or so.

I know that I chose this for myself, that I have to stand by decisions I made some months ago. It doesn’t mean though that there are never moments when I regret those choices. I feel like I put myself in a twilight zone (ugh, Twilight) where I just have to wait it out for seven months until it’s all over. Seven months is a short time, but when you’re counting down the 210 days, it  doesn’t seem so quick.

“Make the most out of it.” Yeah, I get it. I do love my subjects now, and I feel like I made the right choices career-growth-wise, studying what I wished I learned in my 101s and 102s. But…life-wise is a different matter. I guess I’ll just be happier than those people who got jobs fresh out of college and are already unhappy, big fat pay or no big fat pay. Or people who aren’t getting any calls back. Or people who like their jobs but are dying to go back to school anyway, just because.

We’re all in this twilight (ugh, Twilight) zone together, maybe some people are just closer to the end of it already or are in the better parts of it, and thus seem happier. Of course it’s bound to happen when you’re jumping between two major chapters of your life. Until it’s over, I guess I’ll just have to keep messaging people in Sweden or LA, and text friends about their life at work, and tell HR people that sorry, but they have to wait seven months, just like how I have to.

So uh, Carina tried to help me figure out this whole “plugins” thing, only to realize that it’s just not possible. So instead, I link you to a video of a song that is appropriate to end this entry: Stuck in a Moment by U2

My birthday, in pictures.

So my birthday was all sorts of awesome. Highlights include:

1. Boys harmonizing to “Lucky” by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat in my car.
2. LAZERTAG XTREME with some friends, against kids and their moms. (Thankfully, we won!)
3. Yummy Thai food!
4. Cake, cake, cupcake, and macarons!
5. A beyond-awesome video by my best friends, about my bizarre appeal to manongs of the Philippines.
6. A gerbera plant.

Because I am busy with the Ateneo-FEU game, here are the pictures already.

Rose made me a compilation of birthday messages from some people and put it together nicely in this scrapbook. It includes a collage made by Raymond Ang. Click here for a better view --> http://twitpic.com/2446kk

My gerbera plant, plus me being a cat. Some toys + a cupcake. A nylon bag, some birthday cards, and our table numbers from Som's.

From Raymond and Carina. SO GOOD, I wanna cry. D:

The huge cake with the eloquently-written "Yaaay! Birthday!"

After this birthday, I realized that my friends know I eat a lot. Luckily for me, my friends have awesome taste in food so I get scrumptious goodies for me birthday loot!

Still not done replying to my birthday greetings over Facebook. I was really overwhelmed with the amount of HPBD messages I got over there. Thank you, birthday alert.

Cheers to 22, and thank you everyone for an amazing birthday!

WELCOME TO WORDPRESS

Wow, a blog. Again/finally.

Again, because I know I’ve had previous attempts to maintain a blog.

Finally, because I actually plan to write in it, no matter how mundane the subject is.

For example, today I was the victim of arbitrary rule implementation in no less than the Rizal Library. According to the guard stationed there at 3pm, I could not be allowed to enter because I was violating the dresscode. Here is my provocative, “backless” dress:

"Backless"

I don’t even own backless anythings! And I’m wearing a tank top inside that dress already. You can’t even see my shoulder blades. Plus, I was allowed entry in Matteo. Can you say inconsistent? (Also, poor judgment call!)

I really don’t understand why they must follow such a strict dress code for the library and the study hall. Are you saying that because I didn’t wear shoes today, I can’t get my tuition’s worth by using a facility I very well paid for? That’s a bit unfair, isn’t it. (Not a question.) I also can’t go to Xavier Hall to get a temporary ID if I’m in slippers, so now the guard has to charge me with a violation against security. Great.

Additionally, the people who decide on the dress code are those who are stuck in their airconditioned offices all day, don’t have to walk in the sweltering heat between four classes everyday, and don’t have to sit through lunch in a stuffy cafeteria like your average student.

I understand when they’re trying to establish measures to keep us from dressing like skanks, but hopefully they can be more consistent and considerate of other factors too (like the weather!)

And I stand my ground, Manong, that wasn’t backless.