just a quick note before i watch Charlie's Angels I opened my email and was looking into it, i saw that there's this add that says... "are you lonely? feelign sad and blue..." LOL OMG! That has got to remind me of the Tagalog way of saying it and it's soooo funny!

So I guess that post above did not get published.

I watched Charlie's ANgel's already and it is seriously very funny!

In any case, i went out on a Saturday night!!!!! woohoo!!! That's almost like wathing tv - which i have not done since I started working! Yeah. yeah. I should get a life. but seriously, other than late dinenrs due to some deadline we're trying to meet, I have not gone out for a loooooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggggggg looooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg time! I will not tell you, though who I went out with - coz that'll be revealing my secret! Oh and I tasted the best margarita so far!

There's this job that alba heard about and she wants. She told me about it and since it's something really great and somethign i liek too, I wanted to egt it. But then, I feel like I'll be cheating her if I apply for that job. I mean, let's face it, she did know about it in the first place so she should get it.

Besides, my motives may be purely selfish - I want it coz I like it too. I want an easier load for ehalth purposes and the compensation is not bad at all. But wouldn't it mean I'd be cheating my friend if I apply for it? sigh

Sale galore!!!!


i'm not the type of person who loves shopping - particularly coz it takes me ages just to find the right clothes/shoes or anything at the right price. yesterday, during my meeting with the Secretary of Finance at the Department of Finance along Roxas Blvd, my mom sent me an SMS to tell me that there's a 70% sale in SM Makati. She was asking if I want to go. Normally, I woudl just answer sqaurely, "No. I don't want to go coz there are lots of people." However, I knew that she was asking me because she wanted to go and wanted a companion. And so I went. not really intending to buy anything, but just to hang around until my mom is done.


then I suddely realized, looking at the prices of the stuff, that I can try and look for an evening gown coz it'll have to be cheaper right? ;)


So then i went and I saw a shimmery light green evening gown. The style is kinda like this . just take out the spaghetti-strap at the other side. It's made of the olive green cloth covered with a shimmery light green that turns into olive green depending on the light and depending which angle you look at it . it's kinda metallic, really... kinda like this. It came with a shawl made of the same material as that shimmery cloth over the normal olive green fabric. i think the shimmery stuff is kinda like piña-cloth or something. Now you know I'm no fashion guru - that statement ought to win me the understatement of the year award. *lol*


...anyway, I also got a black shawl - the same metallic cloth for my black dress, 4 clamps and whatnot, 1 shirt for my niece, 1 shirt for my mom and a skirt for my mom. The whole package cost P608.25 !!!!! I looked at the price tag and the gown, i f i remember correctly costs P 2,000++ and each of the shawl cost P1,000++ as its originalprice and I got those plus everything else for P 608.25!!!! OMG! I think this will certainly encourage me to go shopping during sales! LOL.


Then my mom got 3 luggages. The first one costs P 800. It was made of cloth, but it was the one that's hard and has a pull-out stroller embeded within it that makes it easy to use. It normally costs P 3,000++ or so. then she got another 2 luggages - the ones made of metal on the outside at P 2,400. The pair normally costs P 6,000++ or so!

And so we also got the helpers at home a shirt each adn then i was also againa ble to get myself a pair of low riders for only P 245.00!!! What the $@*^%^*% is that?! LOL. This is certainly the first time I spent less than P 1,000 for a gown! heck even my highschool prom gown was more expensive!

okay, just saw HULK, not a great movie when it comes to special effects... but the story's a bit complicated, which says a lot about the film. one thing that bothers me though is how the pilot was able to bring his F-16 (was it F-16?) up into the stratosphere and almost into the highest "sphere" of our atmostphere. Fist, I should think that no jet can do that except for the space shuttles coming from NASA and other aeronautics around the world. Second, How could Hulk, who was outside the place, survive the perssure and lack of oxygen in that part fo the atmosphere? Third, why didn't gravity pull down Hulk and the place or why didn't it cause the plane to break into smaller pieces? Fourth, shouldn't the jet have encountered a "fire" of some sort going back down since it was so high up in the atmosphere? will talk about it more when i've digsted everything.

Anyway... Hary Potter got released tofday... have I told anyone that a good friend of mine is getting it for me? he ordered me a copy through Amazon! I'm sooooo excited! ;)

Now if there were any Mr. Deeds in the world, people ought to grab them. Coz I justs aw this movie and the person there "Deeds" only happen in movies!

training wasn't as tiring as it ought to be. possibly coz we were doing stance and practices - not so much kicking

that made me remember what my aunt always say about me - that i'm like this because I'm young and idealistic. i haven't learned to compromise.

Now by compromise, she doesn't mean being agreeable and solving things peacefully. She meant that i give in all the time even if what's happening is wrong and downright against the law and vioaltes severalpeople's rights.

All I can say is, I may be a spitfire, but at least I have fire! It's so hard to move people without any purpose in life or people without anything driving them to do better. I may be idealistic, but at elast something spurs me on. unlike those who just sit there and watch life pass them by everyday of their lives.

following statment is not mine, but I think you'll like it. Everyone knows about this in the Phils., I think.

What's better than...?
Posted: 11:35 PM (Manila Time) | May 31, 2003
By Butch Jimenez, Contributor
Inquirer News Service

Better than being negative

Butch Jimenez, head of PLDT's media and strategic communications department, delivered this speech at the UP Diliman Class 2003 commencement exercises

As college students, you're just about to set sail into the real world. As you prepare for the battleground of life, you'll hear many speeches, read tons of books and get miles of advice telling you to work hard, dream big, go out and do something for yourself, and have a vision. Not bad advice, really. In fact, following these nuggets of truth may just bring you to the top. But as I've lived my life over the years, I have come to realize that it is great to dream big, have a vision, make a name, and work hard. But guess what: There's something better than that.

So my message today simply asks the question, What's better than...?

Let's start off with something really simple. What's better than a long speech? No doubt, a short one. So, you guys are in luck because I do intend to keep this short.

Now, let me take you through a very simple math exam. I'll rattle off a couple of equations, and you tell me what you observe about them. Be mindful of the instructions. You are to tell me what you observe about the equations. Here goes:

3+4=7, 9+2=11, 8+4=13, and 6+6=12. Tell me, what do you observe?

Every time I conduct this test, more than 90 percent of the participants immediately say, 8+4 is NOT 13, it's 12!

That's true and they are correct. But they could have also observed that the three other equations were right. That 3+4 is 7, that 9+2 is 11, and that 6+6 is 12.

What's my point? Many people immediately focus on the negative instead of the positive. Most of us focus on what's wrong with other people more than what's right about them.

Examine those four equations. Three were right and only one was wrong. But what is the knee-jerk observation? The wrong equation.

If 10 people you didn't know were to walk through that door, most of you would describe those people by what's negative about them. He's fat. He's balding. Oh, the short one. Oh, the skinny girl. Ahhh, 'yung pango. Etc.

Get the point? It's always the negative we focus on an d not the positive.

You'll definitely experience this in the corporate world. You do a hundred good things and one mistake-guess what? Chances are, your attention will be called on that one mistake.

So what's better than focusing on the negative? Believe me, its focusing on the positive. And if this world could learn to focus on the positive more than the negative, it would be a much nicer place to live in.

Better than working hard We have always been told to work hard. Our parents say that, our teachers say that, and our principal says that. But there's something better than merely working hard. It's working SMART.

It's taking time to understand the situation, and coming out with an effective and efficient solution to get more done with less time and effort. As the Japanese say, "There's always a better way."

One of the most memorable case studies I came across with as I studied Japanese management at Sophia U niversity in Tokyo was the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies.

The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a box of soap that was empty. It immediately isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty.

Management tasked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast.

But a rank-and-file employee that was posed the same problem came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soa p box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Clearly, the engineers worked hard, but the rank-and-file employee worked smart.

So what's better than merely working hard? It's working smart.

Having said that, it is still important to work hard. If you could combine both working hard and working smart, you would possess a major factor toward success.

Better than dreaming big.

I will bet my next month's salary that many have encouraged you to dream big. Maybe even to reach for the stars and aim high.

sure heard that about a million times right before I graduated from this university. So I did. I did dream big. I did aim high. I did reach for the stars. No doubt, it works. In fact, the saying is true: "If you aim for nothing, that's exactly what you'll hit: nothing."

But there's something better than dreaming big. Believe me, I got shocked myself. And I learned it from the biggest dreamer of all time, Walt Disney.

When it comes to dreaming big, Walt is the man. No bigger dreams were fulfilled than his. Every leadership book describes him as the ultimate dreamer. In fact, the principle of dreaming and achieving is the core message of the Disney hit song, "When You Wish Upon a Star".

"When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are; anything your heart desires will come to you. If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme. When you wish upon a star, as dreamers do," as Jiminy Cricket sang.

But is that what he preached in the Disney company? Dream?

Imagineering.

Well, not exactly. Kinda, but not quite. The problem with dreaming is if that's all you do, you'll really get nowhere. In fact, you may just fall asleep and never wake up.

The secret to Disney's success is not just dreaming, it's IMAGINEERING.

You won't find this word in a dictionary. It's purely a Dis ney word. Those who engage in imagineering are called imagineers. The word combines the words "imagination" and "engineering."

In the book "Imagineers," Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, claims that "imagineers turn impossible dreams into real magic."

Walt Disney explained there is really no secret to their approach. They just keep moving forward-opening new doors and doing new things, because they are curious. And it is this curiosity that leads them down new paths. They always dream, explore and experiment. In short, imagineering is the blending of creative imagination and technical know-how.

Eisner expounds on this thought by saying that "Not only are imagineers curious, they are courageous, outrageous, and their creativity is contagious."

The big difference with imagineers is that they dream and then they DO! So don't just be a dreamer, be an imagineer.

You must have all been given a lecture at one time or another about the importance of having a vision. Even leadership expert John Maxwell says that an indispensable quality of a leader is to have a vision. The Bible also makes it very clear that "Without vision, people perish." So no doubt about it, having a vision is important to success.

But surprise! There's something more potent than a vision. It's a CAUSE. If all you're doing is trying to reach your vision and you're pitted against someone fighting for a cause, chances are you'll lose.

The Vietnam War is a classic example. Literally with sticks and stones, the Viet Cong beat the heavily armed US Army to surrender, primarily because the US had a vision to win the war, but the Vietnamese were fighting for a cause.

In the realm of business, many leaders have visions of making their company No. 1, or grabbing market share, or forever increasing profits.

Nothing really wrong with that vision, but take the example of Sony found er Akio Morita. He did not just have a vision to build the biggest electronics company in the world. In his biography, "Made in Japan," he reveals that the real reason he set up Sony was to help rebuild his country, which had just been battered by war. He had a cause he was fighting for. His vision to be an electronics giant was secondary.

What's the difference between a vision and a cause? Here's what sets them apart...

No one is willing to die for a vision. People will die for a cause. You posses a vision. A cause possesses you. A vision lies in your hands. A cause lies in your heart. A vision involves sacrifice. A cause involves the ultimate sacrifice.

Just a word of caution. You must have the right vision, and you must be fighting for the right cause. In the end, right will always win out.

It may take time, and it may take long. But if you have the right vision and are fighting for the right cause, you will prevail. If not, no matter how sincere you are, if you are not fighting for what is right, you will ultimately fail.

Two final quotes

Allow me to end with two quotes that I have lived by ever since I stepped out of UP.

The first comes from the Bible, which says, "To whom much is given, much is required."
Having been given the opportunity to study in UP, no doubt, much has been given to you in terms of an excellent education. Don't forget that in return, much is now required of you to use that education not just for yourself, but for others.

And as you move up and start reaching the pinnacle of success, even more will be required of you to look at the welfare of others, of society and of the country.

Though I have often dreamed of addressing any graduating class of UP Diliman, I never really thought it would happen. This brings me to the second quote I have held close to my heart as I traverse the destiny God h as laid out for me.

"There is no destination beyond reach of one who walks with God." My standing in front of you today, as the youngest commencement speaker of this esteemed university in 92 years, is proof of how true that quote is.

A final review:

* What's better than focusing on the negative? Focus on the positive.
* What's better than working hard? It's working smart.
* What's better than dreaming? Imagineering.
* What's better than doing something for yourself? Doing something for your country.
* What's better than a vision? A cause.
* What's better than a long speech? Definitely, a short one.

my friend witnessed aperson die today. SOmehow, due to his job, he blamed himself. But hey, we're not God, right?! netiher is he. All he can do is try and make everyone under his care feel comfortable and maybe say a little prayer here and there.

vegetable

normally, that word can either describe something green, leafy and kids hate, particularly on their dinner plate. eeeyuuuuckkkk! pluchhhh! Or a person who can't move, but can basically function. I mean, come on people! the person can still think.

As for me, the word describes Wednesday night. For some reason, I was sooooo tired that day even when I had just woken up. Our division secretary at work actually asked me if something's wrong because I wasn't my usual self. I told her therewasn't anything wrong. She is soooo... caring! ;) But that I didn't feel all too well. And then I had to attend this meeting with the NYC people, which emant that I will again be attending one of the most boring meetings of my life. now don't get me wrong, I like my job precisely because I attend all these meetings and all. The problem with this particular meeting is that nothing ever gets done! And I do mean nothing! they started with this whole Action officer's thing since last year. This is already the first half of the year and still, none of their programs has been implemented. Now, if you knew that the NYC had as much money as it has just for this specific project, you'll know what I'm talking about. heck, you'll probably breeze through Quezon Avenue just to come up with a rally to protest why they haven't received the fund!

Anyway, I decided to take a cab to the meeting and also on the way home because I was sooo tired. Unfortunately, traffic was so bad when has it not been in Manila? that the airconditioner of the taxi driver went haywire. now normally, I would have been sizzling mad, but then the taxi driver was so apologetic and he told me that he was supposed to have it done in banawe (where I took the cab), but he didn't have enough money so he decided to just go home to Antipolo - lucky for me coz I live in manggahan. We passed through several side streets and so I arrived home earlier than I first thought I would. To top it all, the driver aonly charged me P100 (this was a trip from Banawe to Pasig, aiight?!) and again told me how sorry he was for his busted aircon.

And here's where the vegetable thing comes up... I borrowed Mr. Deeds the previous day from the video store because I wanetd to watch it and never did. i was gonna watch it so I turned on my computer (I prefer watching DVDs in my PC) and lay in bed for a while - that was nearly 7:00pm. i found out that I had slept! By the time I woke up it was already 4:00am! To top it all, I couldn't bring myself to get up - literally. I was only finally able to get up at 7:00am!!! Holy #$%*^(#@$%! Now THAT was fun!

And so here I am, the DVDs were supposed to be due tomorrow, but I have a class early in the morning and so I am watchign it tomorrow night and will just have to pay the fine - and I borrowed 3 DVDs!

the guru

watched The Guru this pm with my friends. It was mortifying and hilarious at the same time. Actually, 90%of the time, you're really gonna be mortified because of what's happening in the film, which I will of course not tell you. LOL. Now, let me tell you about this guy in the film... he was really good looking! Talk about dark and handsome! I don't know about being tall though coz he didn't look like he was tall. But he was definitely handsome!!! LOL. okay, not yet done gushing. LOL. but the film was still mortifying particularly those Indian dances. not that they were bad looking, but it was liking going back in time when PPhilipipne movies had all these singing and dancing in them. LOL.

and i need to know what kind of girl friend i am because...? shakibng my head ... i don't understand these types of questionnaires.

-Perfect- You're the perfect girlfriend. Which
means you're rare or that you cheated :P You're
the kind of chick that can hang out with your
boyfriend's friends and be silly. You don't
care about presents or about going to fancy
placed. Hell, just hang out. You're just happy
being around your boyfriend.


What Kind of Girlfriend Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

The question remains, how do you know if you love someone? Now we're not talking about prince-charming-you-can't-live-without kind of thing. Not infatuation, not liking someone, not being in love, but loving someone.

My friend asked me what was the difference between being in love and loving someone in her hopes of trying to convince me of something. Until now, I actualyl cannot answer that question. But I know that there has to be something more than just wanting the best for that person, right? I mean, I want world peace yeah. yeah. miss universe, but that does not necessarily mean that i love each and every person that's gonna be affected by it in the way that I would love someone I am in a relationship with. Point in fact is, there has to be something different not the usual autograph book definition of what love is. Come on!

I guess mainly being in love means you can fall out of it. I would relate it to infatuation. Loving someone... now THAT's hard. i know it's a deeper feeling.

... thinking about the question again, I do have some answers that may lead to it, but I'm not really sure. First, I always thought that you would know you love a person if you can't live without that person. but then, everyone can live on his/her own. Heck, everyone should be able to do that!

Second, I thought that love is an act of the mind. getting philosophiacl here, but it's really your mind recognizing something beautiful in this person without really discarding that person's faults. but then, what the heck does that mean? Act of the mind? I need something concrete to determine if the act of the mind is THERE or NOT.

Third, Love has to also include the emotions and passions. I mean, let's be realizstic here, married couples HAVE children.If they don't then they should. But that really fraks me out so I will not go into that.

Lastly, I keep thinking about how This Mighty Being made all these things happen in such a way that it all fits into the grand plan of things. But then, is that really shared among couples or even among ordinary friends or relatives?

What I do admire are those people who spend all their lifetime committed to Someone intangible careful of their actions so as not to jeopardize that personal relationship they have with Him.

Is that love? I certainly know it is a manifestation of it, but THAT is not what it entirely is. All I know is I see these people and they are happy. They are happy not because of anything other than the fact that they know that that Person will always love them. And no matter what, that Person will never turn his back on them. That person can never hurt them. They are not spared of hardships in life. In fact, they even suffer more because they ahve to stand up against society's ridicule and trials such as seeing people they ahve learned to care for leave because of circumstances beyond their control. I keep thinking maybe this is selfish too coz while they give their lives, they have the assurance that the Person they have given their whole life to will never turn against them.

so when do you determine when you love someone? Heck if i know!

fitting myself under the reg table

so alba was registering for her subjects. But then she still need to register a fellow classmate who was out of town at the moment. Naturally, as isnormal, the classmate gave her the authorization letter and the classmate's ID. Wouldn't you know it? Alba, for some unknown reason that is out of this world, but cannot be solved by XFiles, HAD to get the registrar's signature for her to be "authorized" to enroll her classmate! What kind of a dumb rule is THAT?! I thought authorization comes from the person authorizing and not from some third party entity?!

But that's not all. We were stuck at the reg waiting for the people in there to get the authorization letter and have it signed by the registrar. Possibly because we were in the inner most corner, the reg people weren't minding us. We were stuck there for a long time and since we were getting restless, this girl said she knew what to do. So she then got my pen and got a scratch paper and started scribbling something on it. Thinking it was just her usual doodling, I never really minded... not until I saw her put up a sign in capital letter, NEED SERVICE PLEASE! OMG! I was sooooo mortified I literally sat down on a chair in the corner ans started figuring out a way to pit myself under the ledge of the registrar's table!

note to self: never give alba a pen and paper!

makes me wanna strangle some people

I cannot freakin' believe what happened today. Ok. So I was in school getting my registration certificate that would allow me to enroll in UP. Of course they told me I can get it on Saturday. then they told me last Saturday I can get it on Monday morning - which is UP's last day of enrollment. Then, when I get there, they told me to wait till 1pm!!! By 2 pm, they naturally still didn't have my reg certificate. Finally around 2:30, it was given to me.

I went to UP with alba who was kind enough to bring her car and driver. by the time I got there, I had to fill out a form adn fall in line with the rest fo the State school population who were enrolling late themselves! It was a good thing that people at the CBA, stat department were so accommodating! in fact, my professor - a Ms. Loreli Santos was kind enough to allo me to enlist in her class even though I still don't have that thing calle, "FORM 5". Heck, she even told me that in UP, I would need to put the "class code", which she showed me on FORM 5 when I go back to the registrar tomorrow.

God lvoes me! If it weren't for these people who makes things oh so much easier, I would have literally opened the floor and beg it to swallow me up!

so i was still talking to the guy and he brings up the many friends i have. He said, "and to think that one person told (one of my friends) that you'renot cool." It then reminded me of this one time my classmate told my friend, "why do you hang out with her (meaning me. yep and no one else) She's so not cool!" Now to understand the story, you'll have to remember that my friend IS Hermione Granger.

Background: We had an elective class and i had decided tot ake up business Law. unfortunately Hermione Granger, her beautiful soul, took another elective, which turned out to be something she didn't expect and so she transfered to my elective. nd i am happy to say that I aced busness law, which actually surprised me since Hermione Granger IS normally the one who aces anything. I found out fromt hat class that I had a knack for understanding ang applying law given several situations. And so now I am determined to take it.

To Continue... My friend sent me an SMS message asking me to hurry up to our meeting. So we ahd a meeting (with that classamte and soem other people). After the class, she told me what happened almost incredulously. LOL. See? The Hermione Granger ofthis world ought to have a medal for their loyalty.

While I was naturally irritated at first (who does this person think she is to say that about me?!), I realized it doesn't really matter. the person who said it doesn't matter one bit in my freaked out life so what she said didn't reallymatter

That brings us to my conversation with the cab driver a few days ago... he said that houses (we were passing by Greenmeadows on our way to UP Diliman) are like people. you never really know it's worth until you go inside. He related as tory about this particular BMW dealer place in Pasay. He used to stay there while waiting to be called into the International Airport Terminal (I don't know why he was there with his friends, but apparently, that's where they hang around). People entering the store are usually men and women in business suit. There was this guy who enetred the place with his "clutch bag". Since he was wearing shorts and a plain sports shirt, no one really paid much attention to him. The janitor passed by and saw the guy. Seeing that no one was attending to him, the janitor asked, "Sir, may maitutulong ho ba ako sa inyo?" "Can I help you with anything?" The guy said, "Ah. Tumitingin lang ako. Salamat" "I'm just looking [at the cars]." The janitor then motioned for the guy to follow him toward the newwest BMW they had, "Ah sige po sir, Eto po ang pinakabago naming model." "This is our newest car model". The story goes on to relate how the janitor entertained this guy. Finally, the guy said, "Sige, ayusin mo na yung papel, dadalhin ko na ngayon yan." "Fix the papers. I want to bring hoem the car now." The salesmen were astonished. this guy paid in cash and waited until he could bring home his car. After the papers were done, he approached the janitor, "Oh, pasensya ka na dito. Salamat sa pag-aasikaso mo." "Thank you for seeing to my needs" The janitor stared at his hands. The guy just hanede him P10,000 in cash!

Moral of the story: Be a janitor. ROTFL ROTFL ROTFL! man, that was funny! but you get the drift ;)

So this guy tells me he needs a shave. So I asked, "ok. do you own a razor? or do you wax? or better yet, do you use this thing that pulls the hair one by one?"

Guy: an electric razor.

Me: i prefer the thing that you use to pull the hair one by one. ;) He he he. evil me. rotfl rotfl rotfl

Guy: yeah right

Me: they use that for plucking eyebrows. btw, the one from the store plucked my eyebrow (which i do not do, though i know it's common in the US) and it goddang HURTS!!!!

Guy: boy am I ever lucky. I get to leave my eyebrows alone. Now THAT was helpful! ;)

Me: and since i have thick eyebrows, it took such a long time. dang! the only times i had my eyebrows plucked were when i'd go to the salon and have my hair cut. they do it as a servcie too and they wax it so that it's only painful one time. It's freakin' painful. Why oh why do i have to be a girl?!. lol

Guy: lol

Me: girls have to shave their legs, pluck their eyebrows, put on make up, and to top it all give birth to their babies when they become mommies!

Guy: having your eyebrows plucked would be one time that you might be considered a damsel in distress, but nobody can save you from that oh really. you havdto rub it in, didn't you?!

Me: and what do guys do? shave their face! ...[as for me]and i never know how to do it [pluck my eyebrows] on my own so i HAVE to have someone do it for me... geez! there's this whole art of shaving eyebrows that gay men really know how to do in this [PInas] part of the world. i'm like, "i should be able to do this coz i'm the authentic... errr... girl", but no! THEY know it more than i do. now if it's only as easy as putting up & fixing my own PC, fixing the VHS, VCD, DVD, TV, remote control and whatnot, we wouldn't be having this problem

note to self: some guys do get *it*. i hope they're not as rare as they appear to be.

On another note, I also happened to borrow Hot chick from the video shop. It wasn't as funny as I expected, but it was okay. Now this guy in that movie could portray a damsel in distress really well, but there are these parts where it could have been funnier if he didn't forget that he's supposed to be a girl trapped in the guy's body. Coz sometimes, even if he was whining like a typical cheerleader, he was still such a guy that the film gets disgusting instead of funny.

i watched The Sweetest Thing yesterday. I keep thinking about what Cameron Diaz's character said. She said something like, "that's why you shouldn't look for Mr. Right. You should look for Mr. Right-Now." To some extent that is true - not that I'm a Dr. Ruth or some love-sick guru nor do i hate men. But to some extent she IS correct. With the real nice guys like Landon of A Walk To Remember don'r really exist except in movies. I mean I have some guy friends who are really good people, but I of course never thought of them as more than guy friends. you know what I mean? I actually wonder why their girl friends are too demanding and get angry at some measly thing as the guy not showing up on time due to an extended meeting or something. mean come on! It's not like they're gonna die if the guy's meeting goes on too long! Damsels in distress! They should have been locked up back in the 90s. They certainly shouldn't be allowed roaming around in the new millenium ;) LOL.

ok. ok. i'm blabbering! sue me! ...Now where was I? Oh yeah. Anyway, I liked what Christine said because it couldn't be more true these days. I see guys (yuppies) almost everyday passing by my store and buying stuff (I pass by my store almost everynight to check up on things.). These are working professionals and the way they talk really just makes me thankful for not being a damsel in distress. These are nice guys and some of them are even acquaintances of mine. but do they have any direction? Nah! They go from one job to another - whoever pays more gets them. What's more, come payday, their first stop over is a bar to have some drinks and meet girls with whom they never really get serious.

I'm sure some guys out there are great men too, but I have yet to meet a guy who is not too dependent on their mom, who can stand up on his own and who does not get threatened merely because the woman knows more than he does or she earns more... Actually there is such a guy now, but other than this one that I know, I wonder how many more there is.

note to self: do not look at everything when watching a movie. there are certain things you DON'T need to know and you DON'T want to see.

some good news: i have been surfing online for possible scholarships from different universities. There are only 2 courses that i want to take up: International Studies (another MA for me) or Law (I'm searching in the US or UK since I don't plan to practice law, but practice International Trade Law and since these two countries are basically THE institution for such, I figured it'll e easier to take the MA once I get the undergrad from them).

naturally, several schools came up:Columbia, Yale, Cornell, Stanford, Penn Law School, etc. for Law. SOAS, Birmingham, Columbia, Univ. of OH, etc. for MA. Wouldn't you know it? The by far, most accomodating among different schools are the once written above answering any inquiry I have through email! ANd to top it all, Univ. of OH was actualylVERY accommodating! The Director of the Southeast Asian Studies even emailed me twice! Oh please. let them give me a scholarship and a work-study program! How else am I gonna be able to support myself?

I can't BELIEVE this! So mom calls and asks me if I changed my sister's number in my mom's cell phone. Of course I didn't. Why the freaking world would I do that? What's more? What's it gonna achieve?! Freaggin' b*******!!!!!! Am I that low that I would actually change a cell phone's address book? Besides, I'm the one who lost her money, why would I need to do that? I swear these people around me will drive me insane soon.

Ok albs! I get the picture. You can put back my enentation now

Just finished having lunch with a friend and well it was refreshing seeing her again after a couple of months. Since we don't live in the same house anymore, we're been catching up. Turns out that i know more about our other friends that she does! LOL. and wouldn't you know it, i got those updates from another friend of ours who we never thought of as someone who would update herself about all these things... well they're not gossip, but still...! LOL. It’s refreshing to know that that friend of ours goes out of her way to know about everything that's happening to us.

my friend asked me if i had a guy already. i said nope. Not yet. If you know the history of these friends of mine, you'll find it weird that they're asking me. lol. She asked if there was someone interested and of course I said yes. What was so funny and seriously freaky (if you know her) was that she started asking me to describe the guy! OMG! And she kept giving me this LOOK that women give someone when they're practically shoving that someone into the "arms of another guy (I think Lydecker4 was right, we should have digitized language so I didn't have to use the phrase I just did). Anyway, I could practically feel myself turning blood red before her! Sheesh! Good thing the guy wasn't there!

Anyway, I’m waiting for my training. Just my luck, the first time for my training and it turns out that the instructor cancelled the class on Friday nights so I'll have to go on Saturdays - a day when I really hate going out coz of the traffic! But it's all good. What’s a little time out under the sun, right? It's not like I live in Africa!

On another note, I am taking this World Bank Institute CSR online program. I think i caused a lot of... let's call it curiosity because of the posts in the discussion area. As I always say, "qualify your terms in order not to get into trouble!" tsk tsk... some people just can't do that.

I'm back home and i have this feeling that will kill me coz I didn't pass by her place as promised. Sorry, dude!

I NEED a blogeditor! LOL! i cannot be posting typos all over the place and my beautiful hands just keep typing and typing without really thinking which finger should go first! grrrr!

have lots to say but will update this later. But before I go... can anyone be THIS lucky?! I wrote to the Director of SEAS in OH and asked about scholarship for another post graduate degree in my field of study. I would have thought it was gonna take time before i get a response. By 4pm EDT, I had a response clarifying my question! Then I wrote back since he asked to be informed if I would want to pursue the MA with the knowledge I had gained from his email. Heck yeah! So I went and wrote another note... Lo and Behold! I got another response by 6:23pm stating he (Director of the Institute) understands my need for a scholarship and would be considered for an award as soon as i have my stuff in the University so it's easier for them to review! The Director looks forward to receiving my application after two months (since he's traveling for 2 months). The world seems bright again, but I gotta go and sleep.

pausing to talk to someone i like...

Ok. Am I back to surfing the net the whole night?! Dang! But I did get to talk to... so it's all good.;) Why wouldn't it be? Anyhow, it still cracks me up that i would be bunking with a friend of mine. Coz I did move out back when i was in 3rd year college, but oh well... life in the Phils. Is just too "family oriented" for my parents to actually live their lives enough and not bother me at all. In any case, here I am in this room and then ALBA (God bless her soul) proposes that we bunk together by October! Heaven help me, but there IS a God! Best part is it's near my work place!

btw, i have now paced a curse on my wallet. so anyone who wishes to take $100 should think twice. Will print a sticker later that says, "Open me and you're dead!" I'll be hunting for scorpions to put inside my wallet so unwanted hands can't touch it! hehehe.

Sheeks! i forgot to mention! There was this sports fest of sorts in the village for the summer thing and part of the program is a singing contest. My 8-year old niece registered without our knowledge. On the day itself, she was hesitant coz my mom didn't go and get her the VCD she "needed" (she had one, but she wanted a minus-one and not a VCD - like minus-one still exists!). Anyway, she put in so much of her energy and time that she wasn’t able to go and sing. The good part about it though is I was the one with her in the Village "Courtyard and we spent some time together. Part of her resolution is she will now do exactly as she says and not change her mind particularly since she loves singing and don't really care about the award. She did say she wants a trophy (I was tempted to tell her I'm gonna have one made for her. lmao). Instead, I told her that if she joins 50 contests, she'll get one in at last one of those. ;) She's aiming for a "no grade lower than 85 or B" for each and every subject this school year because she wants her ABS-CBN Summer Workshop and her very own volleyball, which I promised her if she complies with my condition.

After staying online for a long time and explaining students' rights to those who... say have the best of people in mind, but didn't really know how to explain it, i went through the information highway and lo and behold! Someone actually had the nerve to say hello to me!

Now, come on! Anyone who knows me would be pretty hesitant to say hello to me and sound like we know each other and expect me to talk to them when they are not in my list of friends and I do not have my name published!

So this person comes up and says, "Hey, how're you?" I’m like duh?! ergo, "who's this?" this person actually had the guts to say, "a very nice guy." I thought it was one of my classmates/ friends and they were just teasing me (possibly a product of my habit on teasing people so I never thought that the person was serious) and so I said, "I don't know any nice guy." This person actually goes on to say, "Too bad." "You don't have friends, do you?" That's when I got the feeling that I don't know this person - not my classmate nor any of my friends just waiting around the corner to pull the carpet from under my feet - coz my friends know that i have a lot of friends and more acquaintances. And so I said, "Sorry, I don't talk to people I don't know." To that he replied, "Then you should not talk to your mother." "You shouldn't talk to anyone." "That's why you're alone."... At the back of my mind, I was... "What the-?" he continued sending me messages until I he got tired that I wasn't replying to any of it."

I’m at Alba’s house right now transcribing some WBI stuff. Alba says it contains 15 different accents. Dang! Why did Babel have to build that tower?!

Btw, off for my training by 7:30!

So I went to the University of the Philippines today to cross enroll for a subject. Hopefully, after October, I'll be done with everything.

What I find unbelievable though is how easy and inexpensive it is to enroll in UP! My University asks for more than US$ 1,000 a semester whereas UP requires US$40 for enrollment - that's with the registration, the Student fund and the fee for a cross enrollee!!! Man! If I went to UP and kept the rest of the money my parents gave me for my current university, I would have been rich by now! ;)

In any case, I have found out how best it is to go about my situation... my mind, full of conspiracy theories as it is, has given me way more than 1 lee way to turn to so now... here I go! Hehehe and no one can stop me. ;) Best part is, I don't have to see people i don't wanna see.

Anyway, a friend said the whole thing about "all being fair in love and war"... NOT!!!! ;) As much as she's my friend, nothing is fair in this world. Not to sound pessimistic, but really, we have to be very practical and look at reality. NOTHING is FAIR. So... we live with it. Go figure! ;)

I wanted to sleep tonight, but i guess I’m too nervous to be able to do so. i mean, what if i don't get to enroll for a class? GEEZ! I certainly don't want to wait for my school to start having brain implants before i graduate! Anyway, i hope that the "stars" will be out and everything will be okay.

so i went through my stuff and expected to get some money for the stuff it's intended for... guess what? It’s NOT THERE! the crazy thing about this is i never left my money anywhere and... Well, everyone be damned, but it sure as hell pisses me off that this happened to me - again aand for the nth time, no one even bothers to consider that I JUST MAY NEED THAT MONEY I LOST. In fact, now *I* AM AT FAULT FOR NOT having any proof as who took the money! I can't go around accusing people when there's only 1 time that i bothered to leave the money under the nose of 1 person due to nature call!

Oh brother!!! Can the ground just open up and swallow me?! PUHLEASE! That is certainly more intellectually stimulating than putting two and two together and expect not to come up with four!

... Why do I even bother? No one is listening anyway.

what have i found out today?

that those who are not economists should not bother with formulating equations for wealth creation! ;) I was at the officwe the whole day partly cleaning up my files and putting them into available drawers and partly doing an update on my committee's presentation to the SEC.

When Lo and behold! As much as I understood what the SEC was talking about, I could not understand the formula he described! sheesh! talk about a "wrong way" of showing relationships among variables! I was able to find the correct equation - with the help of a former classmate and another co-worker. It's funny though how people listened to the SEC, but never really thought about what he said!

I hope my tag board is working now.

BTW, I wanna watch that Orlando bloom film!!!!

Still haven't gotten the button pin made. Darn it! I want a button that says, "Don't piss me off, I BITE!" but maybe that would make for a betetr shirt than a button, what say you? LOL.

Have to acknowledge the help of the two people i really hate ;) being in my life now - Alba & Bundi - for doing a gerat job with my blog! Hurrah to you guys!!!

Watched Bruce Almighty today. not what i expected. i mean, I know a lot of people love Jim Carey, but his brand of comedy is just too much for me. I have watched the Truman Show, though which I found to be a great movie. Anyway, it's such a great movie. nope no spoilers ehre. Watch it if you wanna know what it's all about.

At the same time, I found out the meaning of "checking out" someone from Alba, which was really an interesting conversation. Lol. Try talking about "checking out" someone the Pol Eco way - with the Philoisophy and Political analysis in place... now THAT's one heck of a headache! ;) In fairness, though, I think it made up for an otherwise long wait!

Got off the phone with a friend just now. And I had to spill on how my interest in someone is, i an now certain, genuine and not just me going with the MILE HIGH CLUB. Talk about Romanticism in the post-modern age! I was talking about acknowledging that I really like this guy and she was talking about "being in love". Heck1 I only know the guy for more than a year and SHE's talking about love?! What the heck! I am not some measly Ophelia who falls for some idiot of a Hamlet whose only purpose in life is to "leave a mark" worth his name! Not that I'm calling him hamlet, but you get my drift. I can certainly tell that I AM interested, but who the heck talks about "love" (eeewwww!!! puke puke puke!!!!) in this century?! Don't get me wrong. I would vote for love anywhere anytime, but puhleeaaaazzzeee! iw asn't most born last century where women think that every man they come across with is the love fo their life.

Sides... who knows? I may be or I may not be. Too soon to tell, if you ask me. And the thought gives me creeps - not because of the person involved, but because... duh?! I'm only talking about interest and here's this person talking about love. some people are really plainly hopelessly romantic!

Btw, no matter what other people say, I love How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days. Would ahve wished the girl was someone else within the realms of Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts - now THAT would ahve been funnier! but all in all - with the exception of the main character writing a piece on "How to have PEACE inTajikistan" - which is totally bogus since no one really writes a paper with sense when you're talking abvout solving "peace" problems around the world - problem sugar coated with political agendas... I mean, come on! SUCH an article would be appreciated if it's possible to write it and expect it to have good and tangible insights as well as measurable variables, which does NOT happen. At the same time, the articler is not THE political article the main characterwould write if she were a erally great journalist/writer. But heck, i loved the movie. 'Nuf said.