On the issue: why can't other universities have standards like Ateneo?

my reply on the discussion:
["quality education entails not just preparing graduates to become rank and file employees but preparing graduates to become managers (bakit sa ateneo yung linkages ng schools nila magaganda? trained ka dun na maging boss..."]

different universities have different missions. ateneo (de manila) molds their students to be future leaders and become nation builders. my beloved saint louis university's mission is to transform students into high quality "competent and socially involved" human resource. evidently SLU has reached that standard. and that's SLU for us...

[my UP education is another story altogether]

but i can't say the same for other schools... it is unfortunate that most higher educational institutions are only after the $$$!

On the issue: Charice being called a Filipino on Glee has a demeaning subtext

The 'subtext' that I observed was a commentary, if not a critique on Americans' lack of understanding (if not, apathy) to cultures outside their own.

When the writers penned Rachael's line "...you are... from the Philippines where its sunny everyday..." plus the increased volume of Rachael's voice when she attempted to explain what a glee club is to her Asian-y looking schoolmate the writers were trying to stereotype Americans' condescending treatment of foreigners specially non-Caucasians.

This time I believe the writers are "on our side".

STRINGS

as my grad school days draw to an end i might need to find my way back in the industry. a few weeks back my dad came in my dream and he asked me to learn how to play the violin. i am half hoping he doesn't mean i should go to law school.

on the dilemma: WHERE YOU SHOULD BE and WHERE YOU WANT TO BE

you should always be where you will be at peace with yourself and that's only possible when you are where you want to be. i know people who are rich beyond my telling and have achieved monumental things... regretfully though their present circumstance is NOT exactly what they want. the fleeting sense of achievement and the more fleeting fun of showing off their brand new LV are their intermittent reminders that they chose to be unhappy.

it's like a grant to take the last trip of your life. as a mickey fan you've always wanted to go to disneyland 'cause you grew up watching mickey and goofy but you went to las vegas for poker games 'cause that's what you expect yourself to do or what people expect you to do. surely, vegas' bright lights are rockin' fun...but only until the neons are on.

On Piracy

gate crashing a grad school debate on social responsibility:

i do not explicitly support piracy. but here's my take on the matter: the only way to curb piracy is to trim the expanding waists and bank accounts of artists and CEOs and make art affordable to the majority. i.e. if an original DVD costs P150 vs a pirated of P50... who in his right mind would waste his 50 bucks for a phony that would last a week when the real thing is an added hundred bucks and years of unending weekends or lazy days of re-runs? why should we allow these Caribbean island-owning CEO's pass the responsibility to the consumers and burden us with their supposedly expensive art?

like an indie

There's that eerie feel again. One a.m. shower. It feels like I’m living inside an indie film.

My typically dull senses seem amplified. Each shower drip takes a note when each hit the cheap tiles...an ethereal re or an unfamiliar sol and the re-sol, re-sol sequence replaces a supposedly enya-tic musical score if it were a commercial movie as the director's shaky hands point the camera to the semi-dusty fluorescent bulb to cue an abstract end.

late night work out

it's half past 11 pm and i'm still lifting weights in between typing these words.

i've been working out since 2002...stopped for 7 years and back at it late october last year.

i am alarmingly hooked up at lifting heavy weights...130 lbs on the bench press...

i guess i am back

a new blogger buddy asked me and his other friends to be straightforward and be critical on his writings:

i wrote this:

"half a decade of blogging and i pen no better than my high school theme-writing days. but i've been to several hundreds if not a few thousands of sites and read more blog posts than the number of verses in the bible and in the qu'ran combined...thrice!

your blog lacks life. you're full of heartbeats in 4D...that is why i enjoy your company a lot..but you are rather dull in HTML format.

breathe life into your pieces. that's where i toss my 2 cents.

3 posts in a few weeks...you're doing just fine... pen some more buddy.

PS

here are some of my fave:

http://www.momel8.blogspot.com/
http://thebashfulone.blogspot.com/"


right after clicking "post", i felt like writing again. and i just did. i guess I AM back.

Panagbenga notes from someone who’s seen enough parading sunflowers to last him six lifetimes

1. If you’re planning to leave your Peugeot at home and you haven’t bought a ticket yet then you should have started walking last year if you wish to make it on the big day this Sunday.

2. All rodent and roach-free hotel rooms are booked by now.

3. Baguio has enough of them skinny twinks with bayonet-like chins in aviator sunglasses. Don’t make things worse. Leave your chin and the face it is attached to pair at home.

4. People say wrapping your jacket around your waist is too clichéd. I think it is crappy like the 80’s.

5. Wear sunscreen. You’ll be 5,000 feet above sea level; you’ll be closer to the sun…I think *nail bites*.



6. Nevada Square is where you:
a. party the hardest
b. might lose your spleen
Your limbs are safer at Café Will.

7. Non-diva rodent and roach-free dining: Jack’s Restaurant or Good Taste.

8. Diva dining: Le Chef, Manor Hotel, Camp John Hay.

9. Please don’t point your fingers in SM’s direction like it’s the Eiffel Tower.

10. Beware of petty thieves.

Fine and Dandy (eating marshmallows while at it)

Bryan Star squeals and ...*fake faint*

Twink-le Twink-le Little Stars!

it's not exactly out of character. i post photos here... a lot.
akin to my habit of sleeping with nothing on i usually publish them in the buff too.


...


if only these twinks were asked to join the Villar chorus, it would have meant one less vote for Noynoy

...

i'll pick these kids, scabs and all, anytime over my diva of a classmate and his yards and yards of burberry's. he turned catty overnight. he blames his acne-causing quarter life crisis. my heart goes out to him but i am not too crazy about the fact that his claw retraction symptom is aimed at me.

you can't help but feel sad for him. i wish he'd figure out how his EQ can fare higher than the fabric-per-inch of his dolce & gabbanas' 'cause i'm sure it will take him ten eternities to find a way to fare higher than my GPA.

...

"nakaligo kanetch ba sa jagat ng jasura?
nagjasko kanetch ba sa jitna ng jalsada?"

it's killing me! har har

A Pilate Act

I’m thinking… maybe my partner and I adopt a new born blue-eyed Latvian girl to mark our ten years together this 2010. By 2015 our five-year old daughter is all grown up and smarter than both of her dads and slightly prettier than me. Life is good except that our cute-as-button family lives in a rubbish of a republic and I must expect that sooner she’ll ask me why is the Philippines the poorest country in the world.

With a straight botox-free face and in faux Liverpool accent I’ll tell her: “But dhaaaling, stupid voters ignored UP Economist Professor Winnie Monsod. She’s a brainy one, that lady! A bar of soap soaked in chlorine is no cleaner than her reputation. I trust her so much, I'll side with her if she argues that Katrina Halili is not a slut”. Then I will ask my daughter to google “Hayden” if she has any questions about Katrina Halili. "Anyway, Prof. Winnie tried to warn us of Villar but…I even blogged about it...daddy did his part...I'm sorry...".

Pontius Pilate may not be the metaphor of choice but I’m washing my hands now—not with chlorine and soap but with html and java script just to make sure I'm in the running for the straightest face for my blue-eyed daughter...

I Gasp

Dear Mark Zuckerberg,

Please write a check amounting to PhP 50,000,000.00 payable to me for the emotional stress caused by a photo posted on facebook of a place from my past. I am distraught that there is no prevent-photos-of-places-that-cause-nausea-inducing-nostalgia-to-appear-in- my-window application available in your networking site.


It stressed me out so much, I missed a party today. Meaning, I spent two hours of dress rehearsals for nothing. My friends can download at least four HQ one hour-long porn with that amount of time. I could have spent that two hours driving to SM Rosales for a takoyaki take away, stay inside the Giordano shop for 45 minutes to ogle at their handsome staff and on my way back drop by the palengke for a kilo of lansones.

I believe that this application should have been a priority of your company. This oversight on your part must be addressed immediately, hopefully over the next banking day (but if there’s a Western Union in Palo Alto, I believe they are open on Sundays).

Otherwise, please send a handsome shrink who’s a citizen of a country that allows gay marriage to come and see me.

Gasping still,

Bryan


For the last time, at least in writing, farewell port of Moresby.

Work it!

i sent a resume to a bank thinking i can work there as an accountant but they set the interview to test if i can manage one branch. i shrugged and agreed to sit with a panel. things you do for a buck!

I'm. not. good. at. panel. interviews! wa!!

can't i just send a video like elle woods did?


i can rant in flawless English under two circumstances only: 1. when i am under the influence of tequila or tequila-based cocktails or 2. when the issue is about high-fashion.

darn!

A new strain

moving back to pinas six months ago, i was surprised to see A&F (genuine or otherwise) in pinoy mainstream fashion...

the letters and ampersand trio is everywhere...from the lechon manok guy chopping my Chooks take away, the pimply auto load girl sa kanto to them closeted ABS-CBN homos...

in the RP alone A&F will recover every single dime of the $45 million they paid to rejected applicants and affected employees (re: anti-asian/afro-american lawsuits)

it instantly reminded me of the Tommy Hilfiger epidemic (note to self and to everyone: A&F is the fashionable strain, i love their recent spring collection, below are my pickings)




















check a parody of A&F's retail culture:

in good terms

Walid, our Sudanese classmate was the fourth to the last person who left the room. A tower of 6'2, he is probably the tallest and most dark skinned (perhaps one the most handsome) person I ever took a midterm exam with.

Closing the door after him, his first sentence was: "I used all the English words I know on the exam."

Terrell Owens

I scoffed, "Me too, except the words vagina and orifice."

He laughed, I didn't.

Ten p.m., eighteen degrees Celsius and a petition for a re-take in mind, I ordered fresh milk at a Session Road bar and commenced my unprecedented dairy protest.

A week later: UP economics major Kat, the last soul to pass her paper took home a 99. Paulo from SLU's debate team placed second with a 97. Later in the evening, the Baguio breeze still 18 degrees, at the Giligans the third placer with his blue margarita was sipping away the end of his lactose protest.