Scruffy

Just trying out the scruffy look... haven't shaved for 2 weeks... hehe...
Tamad! =)

Weekend at the Lake District

We went to the Lake District and stayed at near the Grizedale Forest Park close to Ambleside. This is a link to our hostel: http://www.independenthostelguide.co.uk/Detail.asp?ID=36&

Margarette, Mama Liz, and I went with other parishoners from St. Augustine's parish where I go. It was supposed to be only a 2 night stay but it snowed quite heavily Saturday night and our coaster/van couldn't traverse the deep snow and icy roads so we had to stay one more night.

M, Mama Liz, and I cooked lunch dinner for our extra night and we made cream of mushroom soup with cheesy croutons for lunch and meatballs with tomato sauce and rice for dinner. =)

Although we had an unexpected delay going home, it was a really good weekend. We needed that just to get out of the dreary sights of Manchester.

Jordan XXI

Awsome commercial.

Closing Cycles

 

Nice piece by Paolo Coelho. I picked this up from EJ's, girlfriend's (Trish) blog. Might hit home to some of you.

 

---

 

CLOSING CYCLES

 

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through.

Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.

Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents' house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?

You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened. You can tell yourself you won't take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that.

But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister, everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

None of us can be in the present and the past at the same time, not even when we try to understand the things that happen to us. What has passed will not return: we cannot forever be children, late adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards our parents, lovers who day and night relive an affair with someone who has gone away and has not the least intention of coming back.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.
That is why it is so important (however painful it maybe!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home. Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.

Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them. Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return; do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.

Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the ideal moment. Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back. Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person. Nothing is irreplaceable. A habit is not a need. This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.

Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life. Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust. Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

It was snowing on my way to the movies...

An Open Letter to our Leaders...

I’m not sure if you’ll agree with this but it makes sense and I personally tend to agree with it.

Supposedly this was by Mr. Melvin Mangada, Executive Creative Director of TBWA (which is what was written in the email I got this from). However, a blog at INQ7.net says that it's by Bong Austero from his blog: http://bongaustero.blogspot.com/2006/02/open-letter-to-our-leaders.html

---

Open Letter to Our Leaders

Dear Tita Cory, Senators, Congressmen, Businessmen, Media people, Leftists, and all Bleeding Hearts Out There:

I am angry. And I know that there are many out there who are angrier than I am for the same reason. And that reason is simple. I am sick and tired of all you guys claiming to speak for me and many Filipinos. I feel like screaming every time you mouth words about fighting for my freedom and my rights, when you obviously are just thinking about yours. You tell me that the essence of democracy is providing every citizen the right to speak his or her mind and make his or her own informed judgments, but you yourselves do not respect my silence and the choices I and many others have made. In other words, your concept of democracy is limited to having your rights and your freedoms respected, at the expense of ours.

I am utterly flabbergasted that you still do not get it: we already responded to your calls, and our response has been very clear - we chose not to heed your calls to go to EDSA or to Fort Bonifacio not because we do not love our country or our freedoms or our rights, but precisely because we love our country even more. Because quite frankly, we are prepared to lose our freedoms and our rights just to move this country forward. You may think that is not correct, you can tell me all the dire warnings about the evils of authoritarian rule, but quite frankly all we see is your pathetic efforts to prop up your cause. You tell me that you are simply protecting my freedoms and my rights, but who told you to do that? I assure you that when I feel that my rights and my freedoms are at a peril, I will stand up and fight for them myself.

You tell us that GMA is not the right person to lead this country because she has done immoral acts. As someone who sees immorality being committed wantonly in many ways every day and by everyone (yes, including the ones you do), I may have become jaded. But you have not been able to offer me any viable alternative, while GMA has bent over backwards many times to accommodate you while continuing to work hard despite all the obstacles and the brickbats you have thrown her way. From where I sit, she is the one who has been working really hard to move this country forward while all of you have been so busy with one and only one thing: to make sure she does not succeed. So forgive me if I do not want to join you in your moral pissing contest. Forgive me if I have chosen to see things from another perspective.

You say she is the problem. I say, we are the problem, more to the point, I think you are a bigger problem than she is. Taking her out may solve part of the problem, but that leaves us with a bigger problem: you. That is right, YOU!

While I felt outraged that she called a Comelec official during the elections and that she may have rigged the elections, I have since then taken the higher moral ground and forgiven her. Yes my dear bishops, I have done what you have told me to do since I was a child, which you say is the Christian and moral thing to do: forgive. Especially since she has asked for forgiveness and has tried to make amends for it. Erap certainly has not apologized and continues to be defiant, continuing to insult us everyday with his protestations. Cory has not apologized for her incompetence but we have forgiven her just the same because like GMA, she has worked hard after all.

I know you do not think that GMA's apology was not enough, or that she was insincere, or that that apology should not be the end of it, but please spare me the hypocrisy of telling me that you do so for the sake of protecting the moral fiber of society. The real reason is because you smell blood and wants to go for the kill.

Well, I have news for you. I do not like her too. I did not even vote for her. I voted for Raul Roco. But as much as I do not like her, I do not like you even more. I may not trust her, but guess what; I do not trust you even more.

You know why? Because all you do is whine and sabotage this country. You belittle every little progress we make; conveniently forgetting that it is not just GMA who has been working so hard to achieve them. Every single day, we keep the faith burning in our hearts that this country will finally pull itself out of the mess and we work so hard to do that. Every little progress is the result of our collective effort, we who toil hard everyday in our jobs. Yet, you persist in one and only thing: making GMA look bad in the eyes of the world and making sure that this country continues to suffer to prove your sorry point. In the process, you continue to destroy what we painstakingly try to build. So please do not be surprised that I do not share your cause. Do not be surprised that we have become contemptuous of your antics. You have moved heaven and earth to destroy her credibility, you have convened all kinds of fora and hearings and all you have done is test our patience to the core. For all your effort, you have only succeeded in dragging us further down. I say enough.

Don't get me wrong. I am not asking that we take immorality lying down, or that we let the President get away with anything illegal. But you have tried to prove your accusations all these time and you have not succeeded, so it is time to let things be. Besides, you are doing something immoral as well if not utterly unforgivable. The Magdalo soldiers are consorting with the communists - the same people who have been trying to kill democracy for years. Cory has been consorting with Erap and the Marcoses.

So please wake up and take a reality check. In the absence of true and genuine moral leadership, many of us have decided to cast our lot with the President, even if we do not like her. A flawed leader is better than scheming power hungry fools who can not even stand up for their convictions in the face of an impending arrest.

Your coup attempts and the denials that you have consequently made only underscore what we think is true: you are spineless and unreliable people whose only defense is to cry suppression when your ruse do not work. You are like bullies who taunt and provoke, but cry oppression when taken to task for your cruelty.

I would have respected you if you took the consequences of your actions like real heroes: calmly and responsibly instead of kicking and screaming and making lame excuses. You say you are willing to die for us, that you do all these things for the country and the Filipino, but you are not even willing to go to jail for us.

Come on, you really think we believe that you did not want to bring down the government when that is the one and only thing you have been trying to do in the last many months?

We love this country and we want peace and progress. Many among us do not give a f*&k who sits at Malacanang because we will work hard and do our share to make things work. If you only do your jobs, the ones that we elected you to do, things would be a lot simpler and easier for every one.

The events during the weekend only proved one thing. You are more dangerous and a serious threat to this country than GMA is. We have seen what you are capable of doing - you are ready to burn this country and reduce everything to ashes just to prove your point. If there is something that we need protection from, it is protection from you.

 

Ateneo Checklist (from Ella)

(X) eaten at Manang’s
(X) learned the alma mater song

(X) lay down and slept on a bench along EDSA walk (wala nang bench sa EDSA eh... pero I slept on a bench in Kostka/Berch/and SocSci Foyer)
(  ) been a TNT!
(  ) jogged around the campus in the evening (ayaw ko. scary! hehe... pero walking with someone, yes!)

(X) visited the art gallery
(X) knew at least one Xerox lady, manong, or technician by name
(X) got a Jesuit for a teacher
(  ) itched from higad bites
(  ) have gotten an F in something
(X) have taken a crap in school
(X) watched a La Salle vs. Ateneo UAAP game

(X) given a Powerpoint presentation
(X) studied in the caf upstairs
(X) watched a T.A. play
(  ) sat on the SEC ledge and watched the stars
(X) ate in Full House, Martha’s Kitchen, and Ken Afford

(X) slept in the lib (esp sa Filipiniana section... pero malamig dun!)

(  ) visited Mr. San Andres
(X) went to the chapel (ACMGer through-and-through... the Chapel is our home)
(  ) have gotten a pebble stuck in your shoe/slippers in the middle of the quad (hindi pa Zen garden ang quad noon... although it did happen during one of the big masses)
(X) cut class with your block to watch a movie (not with the block but with some ACMGers... hehe....)
(X) signed up for those institutional (i.e. difficult but brilliant) teachers: Ferriols, Dacanay, David, Manacsa, Ang, Escaler, Arcilla, Totanes, and many others (does Roche count? or Dy?)
(  ) gone to CERSA night
(X) have tried siomai rice (with garlic-chili! yum!)

(  ) learned how to smoke (non-smoker here...)
(X) actually read the book you keep borrowing from the lib
(X) played cards during your free time
(X) dressed in business attire 
(X) learned to stay awake for more than 24 hours straight (esp. during ACMG carolling days!)

(  ) have gotten side comments from ASSOC
(  ) taken Saturday classes (never!well except for ROTC. avoided saturday classes.)
(X) gone to your immersion (Erap City)
(X) eaten Food for Thought sandwiches (meatloaf, lettuce, tomato)
(X) had a boyfriend/girlfriend (yup. my one and only girlfriend - Mia)

(X) taken time to read the vandalism in the CR doors (although the vandalism on the desks are better)

(  ) watched “Minsan Lang Sila Bata” and “Macho Dancer” for class
(X) done a last minute paper (more often than not?)
(X) have spent a lot for 1x1 ID pictures
(X) gotten exempted from final exams
(X) attended a college mass (attended everyday for a sem once... mass rep, then 2 ACMG masses, plus 2 Kinema masses)
(  ) promised to quit smoking
(  ) played hide-and-seek in the mini-forest

(X) know where the best restrooms are on campus (3rd floor SEC C... until the renovations were done in Kostka and Berch)

(X) joined an org (ACMG all the way! plus Kythe, Tugon, DevSoc, and Sanggu)
(X) allowed yourself to make mistakes
(X) taken summer classes (every year... full load! I got my eco degree this way! haha!)
(X) admired the sacred heart statue in the evening (esp. after night masses)
(X) made a video for a project
(  ) had a crush on a teacher
(X) attend a Jesuit retreat (Senior's 5-day silent retreat in Baguio)
(  ) have gotten a parking ticket (benefits of being in a carpool!)
(X) come to school in your crappiest yet most comfy clothes

(  ) learned how to use the Bayantel pay phones
(X) participated in school activities
(  ) watched the Blue Babble Battalion tryouts

(X) dated an Atenean (my girlfriend is an Atenean. hehe...)
(X) rode a tricycle on campus

(X) found a tambayan (ACMG room!!! and the DS Dept when it was still at the Eco Dept)
(X) admire the marikina valley at night (from the back of Pollock Center... nice night...)
(X) gone drinking along Katipunan (only once with DS people at the Shade)
(  ) learned how to beg for a higher grade

(X) used your cuts wisely
(  ) volunteered to be class beadle
(X) had the worst lottery schedule for reg
(X) admired the trees on campus
(X) have forgotten about your freecut and gone to that class

(X) eaten in the ISO canteen
(X) been active in your org (ACMG choir the best!)
(  ) have signed up on an ACP class just because the girl or guy u like signed up for it
(  ) gotten as many app forms as you can during the job fair
(X) learned how to cram (I've been cramming since High School! hehe...)
(X) sold tickets (or watched) an org-sponsored movie premiere
(  ) saved money to Xerox all of your seatmate’s notes

(X) have accidentally seen a make-out session (org rooms in the morning or late at night are steamy places...)

(X) checked out the Meron Lagoon and Lambingan Bridge
(X) have dozed off in class in Bel right after a class in CTC/SOM/Comm. (not really after a CTC class... I just doze off in every and any class... Math, Eco, Stat, Fil... sleepy head...)
(X) learned how to work with groupmates from hell
(X) perfected the art of parking on campus (parked a Nissan Safari between the small carpool spaces of Gonzaga where other cars don't park well... had to go out from the back... not sure how the owners of the other cars got into theirs though...)
(X) had a bad encounter with one of the guards on campus
(X) developed a love for sisig

(X) learned how to pronounce “AEGIS” properly
(X) have used typing rooms at the library
(X) have reserved a classroom, AVR, etc. for a class or org function
(  ) have asked the library for an endorsement to research in other libraries
(X) have lost a perfectly functioning umbrella
(X) have used consultation hours properly
(X) looked forward to lab breakage refund, in case you didn’t break any equipment
(X) visit the Guidance Office
(X) and Infirmary