the winning college... UP-"CBA" (CBA lang hawak nila kasi hindi umabot ng "U" saka "P" yung multiple choice--kahit umabot pa yun im sure champion pa din kayo! naks...) 

chanting "U-ni-ber-si-dad-ng-Pi-li-pi-nas!"... again, hindi pa tapos ang contest nito--in total fairness to us, nag number-one sign na kasi si master dave kahit five questions to go pa, and that was enough for us hehe

hindi pa tapos ang contest (five questions to go) pero nagvi-victory picture na ang UP "delegation" (convention ba to o competition?) 

abangan ang five minutes of fame ng FINEX team sa TV Patrol at ANC! (o sabi ni mam cleo, two days lang kayo kapamilya para abangan to ha... pagkatapos ng interview na to, KAPUSO na ulit kayo! -- i agree. ;-p) 

feeling oscars after-party... cleo and jude: grabee ganito pala ang feeling ng may hawak na trophy! we would like to share this award with our director (kami yon), the cast and crew (kami pa din yon), our makeup artists (kami pa din ulit), the caterers and drivers (hmmm... yes kami pa rin), and espeysyali to the fans out der (er, kami pa din ata yun)... tangkilikin natin ang pelikulang pilipino! 

mikoy: ...sandali, akin ang trophy na yan!
cleo: hindeee! this is MY baby anoo!
jude (to himself): nagagawan pa'ng dalawang to e pareho naman silang walang talent...

dani: tumigil na kayo! ako ang ultimate survivor! sniff sniff, this is worth all the encantadia episodes i've missed! (moi: sabi ni dani thank you daw po kay sir art sa kanyang mga animated recap ng encantadia--yun na lang source of entertainment nya while preparing for this contest)

paalis na may pahabol na pic pa... UP BAA 5th year studes 

proud and beaming: dinky, dave, sof, jude, cleo, aileen, peds 

classic pose ni master dave--buti nakailag si jamie 

ana and mak 

sino kaya ang mas masaya sa dalawang to... tingnan nyo na lang kung sino may mas malaking ngiti

mugging for the camera (jacob and lynn) at cascada... parang press-con ah 

Turning 30...

...no, not me. At least not yet. Tonight we had a suprise birthday for my friend Dona. Her closest friends from UP and SGV were invited. We met up first at Starbucks sa Greenbelt while the organizers, Harry and Clars, plus some friends of Dona and mine from UP (Ana and Dominic) were having dinner sa M Cafe at the Ayala Museum. We were "instructed" to go to the cafe one by one every five minutes and when we got there we were given three flowers to give to our friend and greet her happy birthday.

I came in with Joy and Pia. We greeted Dona from behind kasi her back was to us pagpasok naman ng M Cafe. The look on her face when she turned around and saw us was a classic (not to mention the "oh-my-gawd" expression that came with it)--sobrang surprised talaga. Her birthday's not until September 29 pa, but I think that day was made wonderful in advance because of tonight's wonderful surprise. :D (Pictures follow this post. Will post more as soon as I get pics from Dominic.)

....am thinking now if it's a big deal to turn thirty. Is it a big deal? Other people think it's a big deal and actually chide me about turning thirty next year. I smile and laugh along with them pero sa loob-loob ko... hmmm, so what, tigyawat? What difference does it make? er... should it make a difference at all? Ika nga: "age is just a number". More and more I feel that is true, now that I am, ahem, coming of age.

Thirty-shmirty... who cares? I think the most important thing is what we do with the years we have lived and not how many years we lived per se. And I don't think the main debate is about being old vs. being young--the main point is to keep things fresh and new always. This means opening one's mind about things and keeping this mind open to new ideas even if they carry the risk that the old ideas we had held on to for so long will be debunked. Turning thirty becomes a scary thing only if we allow ourselves to become outdated.

On the other hand, turning thirty also comes with it a sense of achievement... like a certain level of wisdom has been reached. But only, i guess, if tunay na may pinagkatandaan ka nga. It's an ugly thing to see immaturity at 30--infinitely uglier and more idiotic than immaturity at 13. The best part about being thirty is the fact that you're already done with the teens and the twenties... yes, there is definitely a sense of been here, done that. You can look at those still struggling through their acne-prone or quarterlife-crisis years and smugly smile, saying to yourself,... thank heavens I'm done with that.

I believe my friend, Dona, is in that been there done that stage. She's in a certain state of contentment that ensures facing the big "three-oh" will be a graceful affair and not a scary ride. Should this state of contentment wear off, however, she'll definitely take consolation in the fact that, in a few days, our other friend Kaye's gonna take the ride with her, and in a few months, myself, Joy, and Edelle will all be turning thirty too. If turning 30 becomes a fun ride, then we'll have fun together. If not, then we'll still have fun getting depressed together too.

SGV friends (except Pia, my French friend from ESSCA)

joy and dona

soon to be thirty-somethings

Impromptu Date

What's so special about this date that I have to mention it in this blog? Well, the fact that dates like these are so few and far in between for Nats and me that the fact that it happened at all is an event in itself!!! That's what I get for dating an ortho resident at PGH. Oh, well. That's why we make a big fuss about these little things. There's a kind of cuteness and sentimentality about it that may be a bit too corny for the world to know. But, like in most things, I really don't care what the world thinks so here are the pics from this "inpromptu" date. (Is that spelled with an "n" as iNpromptu or "m" as iMpromptu? Can't remember and too lazy to spell-check in MS Word, so shoot me.)

nats' idea of a candid shot

some giggling kid inside the resto... only if we all can be as worry-free, inhibition-free, and well... just FREE as this kid is all the time, this world will be a much much HAPPIER place

Christmas lights in GB3 as early as September... welcome to the new mall-ing, window-shoping, holiday-ing Filipino culture

a forest of greens in the mall complex at greenbelt: too bad passersby NEVER stop to notice these trees, most of them would rather hang out at the coffee shops to make pa-cute with each other

doing the asian tourist thing with the peace sign: except i don't look anywhere near anything oriental

cheap appetizer: baked clams with garlic and cheese... gone in FIVE minutes!

it's been YEARS since i had butong pakwan (watermelon seeds)... a cute gesture from the resto, Sentro at Gbelt 3

Scenes From A Rainy Day

It rained all throughout last week. The mornings start out sunny, the afternoons a bit cloudy, then the rains pour down over Metro Manila come 6pm. Last Thursday's dark showers were the worst, I think. Took some pictures from the backseat of my car on the way home...

the gloomy ride starts at UP

the light still put up a fight as we coursed through katipunan avenue

bet even these huge potted plants were only reluctantly happy over the downpour

this is not a black and white photo. this is c5 road in living color (or lack of it). the clouds seemed ready to drop from the sky--but in the meantime smoked Camels.

5:30 pm: feeble attempts from a streetlamp to illuminate our way

Got Tagged to Do the Quiz of Sevens

Got tagged by dessagirl, so here goes...

Seven things that scare you:
1. snakes, big reptiles, e.g. iguanas
2. going deaf
3. drowning
4. earthquakes
5. the quintessential "white lady" in pinoy movies
6. the wicked witch in disney's snow white
7. madam rosa

Seven things you like the most:
1. cats
2. my ipod
3. shopping
4. travel
5. movies and novels
6. strawberries
7. kikay things, flowers, girly stuff

Seven important things in your bedroom:
1. AC
2. night lamp
3. the color yellow--on the comforter, on the pillows, on the walls
4. laundry hamper
5. wastebasket
6. my ventolin inhaler for asthma attacks in the middle of the night
7. jane austen on the bedside table for when i can't sleep
8. (pahabol) my cat "bituin"

Seven random facts about you:
1. my left ear does not work
2. my parents are distantly related--but i'm not abnoy! or at least hindi pa lumalabas ang ka-abnormalan ko
3. i choreographed philippine folk dance in high school and college
4. i get sleepy drinking coffee
5. my toenails are reeaaallly small (except for those on the big toe... duh kaya nga big eh)
6. i wore black everyday in my last sem of college
7. i'm kuba

Seven things you plan to do before you die:
1. have kids
2. travel to africa and south america
3. get a Ph.D.
4. get my parents a vacation wherever they want
5. swim the Philippine coral reefs... but first i need to learn how to swim
6. drive
7. oh yeah,... get married too

Seven things you can do:
1. play the piano
2. write words upside-down in legible script
3. say no... :D
4. find even the most boring person interesting
5. reason my way out of most anything... except if the one on the other end of the argument is nats
6. laugh at myself
7. sing

Seven things you can't do:
1. drive
2. swim
3. hear with my right ear
4. talk without flailing my hands and arms about
5. stick on a budget
6. play "rhapsody in blue"... yet! ;-)
7. part with my dave matthews band CD's (yes... aaminin ko na)

Seven things that attract you to the opposite sex:
1. nose
2. eyes
3. skin
4. voice... lalo na pag singing voice
5. choice of music
6. sense of humor, wit
7. sense of responsibility and chivalry (the last one is a definite plus point because it's hard to find in men nowadays)

Seven things you say the most:
1. ewwww
2. awwww
3. ang taray
4. chuvaness
5. something-something
6. whatever
7. nyar/nyek

Seven celeb crushes (whether local or foreign):
1. Keanu Reeves
2. Dennis Trillo
3. Colin Firth
4. Matt Lauer (The Today Show)
5. Kim Sung-su ("Luigi" in Full House... when he smiles: haaaayyyyy)
6. Jakob Dylan (Lead Singer of The Wallflowers... not chaka like his dad, Bob)
7. Dave Matthews

(more than) Seven people you want to see to take this quiz:
1. Ate Abbie
2. Dona
3. Kuya Chris
4. Stephen
5. Naomi
6. my friends at rm. 201: Dani, Peds, Dave, Clek, Mikoy, Jude
7. all my BA 191 students
8. Anna
9. Vienna
10. the Godfather
11. Belle in the Big Apple

one-man welcome team

i'm seeing metro manila for the first time this weekend. i'm seeing it through my "etranger" friend's eyes. last friday, i met my friend pia, a french student of ESSCA, at the ninoy aquino airport. she's going to be staying in the philippines until april, and studying at the de la salle university. first thing i noticed was... pia was sooooo tanned! turns out she came from a five-week holiday in AFRICA! imagine that, huh?! and another thing was she cut her hair! i still recognized her though--good for me. :) i'm set to be her one-man welcome team, and hopefully i can help her get accommodations, get enrolled, and get oriented with metro manila where she'll live for the coming eight months.

from the airport we tried to catch the bank (HSBC) to get her ATM card, but failed as we arrived five minutes after closing time, tried to look for a cafe with WI-FI access but also failed because, of all the darn times i've eaten at the coffee bean and starbucks at greenbelt, the one time i need their WI-FI access is the one time their WI-FI access is down (in the case of starbucks) or the one time they ran out of WIFI prepaid cards (in the case of coffee bean)! these things always happen to me! oh well, seeing that our first attempts at productive activities all failed in the first few hours pia is in the philippines, i thought: darn! maybe we should just sit down at a starbucks, have frappucinos and chat away!

and so we did just that till the sun came down at 7pm. i was surprised pia wasn't tired, it seems her energy level was still up even after the 12-hour flight. we walked across the bridge at makati avenue to the next mall (glorietta), checked out CD's at tower records and walked a little bit around.

i was walking with pia and realizing that, with the long lines and thick mass of people, the philippines has become such a mallrat culture! glorietta was SO crowded and not just because people pass through there to take the MRT, buses, or FX's to their respective destinations: a lot, and i mean a LOT, of the people DO linger and spend time IN the wall rather than THROUGH IT. we walk around, window shop, meet friends, eat, have conversations, date, quarrel, wait, walk... we LIVE in these malls. maybe a study should be made on how much time a person spends in a mall doing unproductive activities, i.e. walking, waiting, window-shopping. maybe that can be a factor to measure national productivity, you think?

so after some very unproductive browsing at Tower Records (just a few minutes lang naman), we went to Cibo, the Italian resto, to meet Dani Rose, another professor from UP who's on her way home to Rizal from her "raket" job at Leon Guinto. pia got to sample her first SMB but dani and i only got fruit shakes. (good girls, hehehe) i didn't get to ask her how SMB was--maybe later--but i told her that a lot of people in europe think it's a spanish beer, but no... it's philippine-made. we chatted about ESSCA, angers, the people we all knew, things pia can do in the philippines, etc., etc. i remember how it was when mikoy and i were in angers and were slowly taking in all the new things that we see happening and, well, just sitting there and being... around us.

after dinner we went home to my house and pia got to know my parents, my cousin, my ate inday, my cats and my dogs. our dog lester kept chasing her--he's not really a people person. but our cats JB and Bituin were all over her, rolling over the floor, the table, the sofa, essentially doing everything they can to be noticed. they were all over the place!

later, we're going to DLSU for pia to enrol in her subjects, and looking for hotels/hostels for her to stay until we can find an apartment for her next week. i'm so excited for her! she's got eight whole months ahead of her to explore the philippines, to explore asia! travelling is really an amazing experience--gives all of us a sense of maturity, a sense of presence, that we won't be able to get elsewhere and in any other way. haaayyy... not that i'm being sentimental or anything, is why i'm talking this way. maybe it's because i'm just griping: i have NOT yet been outside freaking METRO MANILA since i arrived here from Europe hundreds of miles away last June. hmp hmp hmp.

Aileen the Mastermind Rational

As part of my masters class, our professor asked us to take the Myers-Briggs personality test. I've heard about this test many many many years ago and I vaguely remember taking it at some point in time in the past although I've forgotten all about it na. Anyway, I took this test tonight at humanmetrics.com and found out that I am a Mastermind Rational. :) What this is exactly all sounded like psychic jargon to me but I'm figuring it out.

As to the details of the MBTest? It turns out I am an INTJ... Introverted Intuitive Judging Thinking personality.

• moderately expressed introvert... 44%
• moderately expressed intuitive personality... 25%
• moderately expressed thinking personality... 38%
• slightly expressed judging personality... 22%

Like I said I really don't know what the heck all this means so I followed the link from the results page and got this...

(Taken from... Typelogic.com)

"To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of "definiteness", of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age... INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know.

...INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest... INTJs are known as the "Systems Builders" of the types, perhaps in part because they possess the unusual trait combination of imagination and reliability. Whatever system an INTJ happens to be working on is for them the equivalent of a moral cause to an INFJ; both perfectionism and disregard for authority may come into play, as INTJs can be unsparing of both themselves and the others...Anyone considered to be "slacking," including superiors, will lose their respect -- and will generally be made aware of this

...INTJs have also been known to take it upon themselves to implement critical decisions without consulting their supervisors or co-workers. On the other hand, they do tend to be scrupulous and even-handed about recognizing the individual contributions that have gone into a project, and have a gift for seizing opportunities which others might not even notice.

...Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few), and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations. This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship).

...To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private people... easy to misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. :-)

...Probably the strongest INTJ assets in the interpersonal area are their intuitive abilities and their willingness to "work at" a relationship. Although they do not always have natural empathy, they are good at synthesizing the probable meanings behind such things as tone of voice, turn of phrase, and facial expression. This ability can then be honed and directed by consistent, repeated efforts to understand and support those they care about, and those relationships which ultimately do become established with an INTJ tend to be characterized by their robustness, stability, and good communications.

the highlighted (bold) phrases are those that i think are more accurate than the rest about me. all in all this profle of mine as an INTJ is quite representive. by the way INTJ's are also called the Mastermind Rationals.

...Very interesting, these personality tests. the myers-briggs is a bit more reliable, i think, not just because it's a bit more comprehensive in scope, but also because it has a lot more credibility than other personality tests. it has been recognized worldwide as a key component of understanding human resources and a key piece of resource information useful for team-building as well as organizational development. i myself want to encourage my students to take this test. it's easier to understand them that way and figure out if they're just lazy or simply "psychologically predisposed to avoiding details" or some psycho hullabaloo excuse like that.

Take the test. See the "Mastermind Rational".

Self-Realizations While Waiting For My Prof To Get Here

Took a personality test today while waiting for my class at UP-TMC. Was checking out the blogs of my students when I chanced upon this in another blog... came from a guy who had the same interest in an artist that i had... anyway, about my students' blogs--nakakatuwa kasi kakablog pa lang nila, nagko-commentan na sila sa blog ng isa't isa. I really don't know if may mapapala sila sa tinuro ko kanina (MS Frontpage and Blogging) but I hope they put whatever they remember to good use.

As for the personality test, it's called the Big Five Personality test. Here's what the site says:

The Big Five is currently the most accepted personality model in the scientific community. The Big Five emerged from the work of multiple independent scientists/researchers starting in the 1950s who using different techniques obtained similar results. Those results were that there are five distinct personality traits/dimensions.

So here are my results on each dimension:

Big Five Test Results

Extroversion (34%) moderately low which suggests you are reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and private. Accommodation (60%) moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly kind natured, trusting, and helpful at the expense of your own individual development (martyr complex). Orderliness (56%) moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly organized, neat, structured and restrained at the expense too often of flexibility, variety, spontaneity, and fun. Emotional Stability (62%) moderately high which suggests you are relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic. Inquisitiveness (60%) moderately high which suggests you are intellectual, curious, imaginative but possibly not very practical.

Take Free Big Five Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

It's a bit close to the truth, actually. I'm impressed. But I don't think I'm as relaxed and as optimistic as this result says. I'm more on the panicky side--I don't show it that often nga lang, and not to a lot of people. Nats and the people at home, though, can attest to how REAL panicky I can be. :-P

better late than never

i've been a bad, bad girl
i've been careless with a delicate man
and it's a sad, sad world
when a girl will break a boy just because she can
don't you tell me to deny it
i've done wrong and i want to suffer for my sins
i've come to you 'cause i need guidance to be true
and i just don't know where i can begin

what i need is a good defense
'cause i'm feeling like a criminal
and i need to be redeemed
to the one i've sinned against
because he's all i ever knew of love

heaven help me for the way i am
save me from these evil deeds before i get them done
i know tomorrow brings the consequence at hand
but i keep living this day like the next will never come
oh help me but don't tell me to deny it
i've got to cleanse myself of all these lies 'till i'm good enough for him
i've got a lot to lose and i'm bettin' high so I'm begging you
before it ends just tell me where to begin

what i need is a good defense
'cause i'm feeling like a criminal
and i need to be redeemed
to the one i've sinned against
because he's all i ever knew of love

from "Criminal" by Fiona Apple from the Album Tidal

Why I Love Jane Austen, Reason 1: Darcy and Elizabeth

I have read Pride and Prejudice more than a dozen times and I must confess I still hold my breath as I watch Darcy swallow his pride and Elizabeth her prejudice enough to realize how they love and need each other. Sigh... Theirs is a love story that almost didn't happen, an against-all-odds tale that is neither dramatic nor pathetic, but straightforward and reasonable, simply a case of misunderstanding and false impressions corrected by the truth finally coming out in the open. As mundane as it might sound, the story is made sophisticated and fragrant not only by the delicate intricacies that pepper the "commonplace" lives of ordinary people and the twisted snobbery of the sophisticate culture of the Victorian era, but more importantly by the elegant writing of the story's creator, Jane Austen.

I share this in my blog today because I am in the midst of reading "Jane Austen: A Life" by Carol Shields and am once again in the process of being delighted by this woman who, despite being many cultures and generations away from my own, seem to speak my thoughts for me, and conjecture the theories in my head out loud in her novels. I was quite amazed to know that she was self-taught and lived a socially confined life. Anyway, I'll probably write more about her in the days to come as there are many many reasons why I love her work. These are quotes from Jane Austen in my reason #1 for loving Jane Austen: the love-hate-confused-misunderstood-accepting-and-finally-enlightened relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of someone or other of their daughters." - the opening lines of Pride and Prejudice.

"She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men." - Darcy's first remark regarding Elizabeth, when he was asked to dance with her when she appeared to be without a partner at a ball.

"Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticise. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying." - Darcy realizes how attracted he has become to Elizabeth.

"In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." - Darcy struggles against his own principles to propose his love to Elizabeth.

"I have never desired your good opinion, and you have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly. I am sorry to have occasioned pain to anyone. It has been most unconsciously done, however, and I hope will be of short duration." - Elizabeth's response to Darcy's proposal

"And this is all the reply which I am to have the honour of expecting! I might, perhaps, wish to be informed why, with so little endeavour at civility, I am thus rejected. But it is of small importance." - Darcy's appeal

"I might as well inquire," replied she, "why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?" -- Elizabeth

"...Disguise of every sort is my abhorrence. Nor am I ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just. Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?" - Darcy, the "Pride" in Pride and Prejudice

"Unfortunately an only son, I was spoilt by my parents, who allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased." - Darcy, coming to his senses, after which a storybook wedding follows, in a very Austen-like manner