Wishlist

I have my eyes on this particular baby - Canon EOS 10d. I wish I have enough credit to purchase it.

Mom wants me to try out for some photo contest hosted by Petron, but I doubt I'm going to make it anyway. I just want the cam to cheat time and preserve memories - I'm going to Xiamen, China this May to visit our hometown.

*The itinerary sounds like real fun.. I hope the company proves to be the same...

*excited, excited! - Must have camera!!!

Child Labor

The busy and extravagant world of the urban city, filled with tall skyscrapers and multi-dollar corporations. A thin screen to hide the ugliness of a worldwide disease that seems to be industriously multiplying, poverty.

A scarcity that has brought a race for survival as one strives to bring bread to the table. Children are forced prematurely to face the intense competition of life, to work and be deprived of the simplicity of childhood.

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Last Friday, our Religion teacher allowed us to watch a documentary "Minsan Lang Silang Bata" (They Are Children Only Once). The film focused on three examples of child labor being tolerated here in the Philippines, where children are not only asked to work, they are given tasks which are not only grotesquely difficult for their age, but also are brutal to their healths.. for so little pay. We were asked to pass a reflection paper answering the two questions below.. These are my answers.

In what way are you “like” the kids? Unlike them?

There are many ways that link me and the kids presented in the documentary. First and foremost, we are both humans, and thus are both able to feel comfort and pain, love and hate, happiness and sadness – feelings, worries and thoughts derived from our daily human experiences. Second, we are both citizens of this country, the Philippines. We are both given the same rights and responsibilities as people of the country. I am unlike them in the small matter that I am, firstly, in an urban community wherein knowledge and perspectives are far more advanced, where oppression is more likely to be exposed rather than ignored. Second, unlike them, I benefited all my rights, since my parents are aware of them and are relatively well-to-do to defend them for me. In this matter, I have been educated and thus later on could defend myself and my family in the future. Not being properly educated gives one less chances to excel especially now in the information era where knowledge is key to success.

What should be done to evangelize (convert) the problem of child labor?

In order to evangelize the problem of child labor, there must be adequate transformation from our persons. A full scale action sprouts from a single ardent flame of willingness and dedication. We should immerse ourselves to their situations; research and learn more about them to somehow understand their places. It is through this action, that we could completely feel for them, as well find the reasons of their state, thus allowing us to find the roots of their suffering and cut it off. More importantly, we must have compassion and love within us in order to commit ourselves to such a cause. Through love, we teach them love. Through love, we can bring them justice, and hopefully, peace.

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Every child is a light that is burning with enthusiasm to bring forth the hope for the future. We all are dreamers, we all are wishers. We all are children. We close our eyes and dream of becoming somebody someday, we visualize a cozy little house with a loving partner and a pair of adorable children to play at our feet, and yet life has a twisted sense of humor. Instead of the life we hope, we ar faced with reality, the cruel path of greedy businessmen, of self centered politicians. There is no scarcity of blindness in men, but there is a plague that kills hearts that live for the very reason of life, love.

The children are stripped of their pleasant dreams and thrown helplessly into the clutches of a busy money-hogging community, where they are forced to soil their tiny hands and plead for a few coins to survive. This practice instills materialism, destroys friendships, limits possibilities, ruins morality and crumbles the ideal world that we as children have so innocently desired and wanted and needed.

Let us not kill their dreams. Let us not kill their hopes. Let us not kill our children. Let us not kill our future.

Day Highlights

Things that happened:

SUNDAY:
- took Cashflow101 again with my brother
(became a millionaire in the game, despite having 2 liability babies! If only it happened in real life..)
- my brother had our laptop repaired. It's working again!

MONDAY:
- was briefed out of our community service in Religion 4 for the term
(Marjorie and I are planning to take on the paralegal volunteerism in jailhouses in Manila.)
- had a quiz in Finance 1
- Arts and Communication work day
- Finished and revised rough sketch of org bulletin board
- Ate in CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) Tomas Morato with Marvin, Marie, Jourdan, Jimmy, Jen and Chester!

Life Is Choice

Yesterday, my co-kagawads and I had a discussion regarding the current situation of our barangay. Apparently, the government agencies handling us have become stricter in implementing their procedures and protocols that we cannot take any more chances with our signatures being handled carelessly by the one mentioned in my Read Between The Lines, Leave Me Alone entry. It was told to us that he has been caught in a problem the year before because of these documents and if we're not careful, we might get pulled into his problem as well. Another information of chagrin is the fact that he has been receiving a monthly salary, in addition to bonuses from projects, we gave go-signs to with our signatures, which he never did mention to us, and thus never shared with us. Ignorance.. the devil!

Our superiors have expressed their disappointment in him, and one of them have already assigned me to confront the issue with him. I fear though if he would accept my proposition since my superior mentioned him going into fits in their previous confrontations. I hope things would go out smoothly and that he'd shape up somehow.

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Yesterday I met with my co-kagawads for the first time in years. An embarassing thing to admit, really - since it only goes to show how much we slacked off our duties and responsibilities as elected officials in our barangay.

One of them already has a one year old baby. It seems awkward to be looking at her, and rather than seeing her just as a peer, I see her now as a wife and mother. I kept looking at her, and thinking.. she's a mom!! It seems like a few years back that she was just with us campaigning, laughing about, dancing in our barangay presentations. She is maybe a couple of years older than I am, and I cannot believe that she's already bounded to the responsibility of motherhood, rather than spending time frolicking around the metropolis. Oh well... life is choice...

Scorched

Walking down the streets of Manila during noon time, under the immense summer sun to do an errand (not advisable), later finding out that the office where the errand is supposed to be completed, is not open on weekends!!

My arms are now light brown!! aaaahh.. and I haven't gone swimming yet!

Quarter Life Crisis-ee

I'm not 20, and I'm also already experiencing quarter life crisis.

I received this via email..

They call it the "Quarter-life Crisis." It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like.

You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones.

What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job... and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.

Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't.

One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life.

You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lay in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better.

Or maybe you love someone but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person.

You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision.

You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender! What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it.

We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.

Twenty-something friends... U aren't alone in state of confusion...=P

I sure hope not (I'm not a twenty-something friend yet!!)... It seems not a lot of people think or care that much anymore..

Think about it.. since some of the people I know aren't exactly as mature in decision making as they are supposed to be! I wish some folks could just quit being spoiled brats.

House Exploration

Today, I tried my camera again, shooting around the house. I guess, stopping once the counter reaches 20 shots, is going to be my camera's recurring problem. I believe that if I practice around the house first, discipline myself to focus on things, I'd get the hang of shooting soon enough. It's been over a year since I last took a decent artistic photograph.

While going through the nooks and crannies of our house, I suddenly had the urge to go to the top floor. There is a veranda there, and a metal stairway that leads to the roof. It was quarter past half past five and the sun was mellowing down behind the stakes of buildings and bulletins. Beautiful warm summery colors blasting through the horizon, orange, yellow, red, and a shy violet later growing to a deep ebony consuming the rest of the colors into blackness.

I have never really spent time up in the rooftop. I even went out of the safety area and sat right at the edge of the roof. Breath-taking. Maybe I'll spend more time there next time. My new inspiration corner.

Faithless

Faithless - Miss You Less See You More



I don't have any idea why I like this video alot.. although I have fears that it may be blasphemous to Buddhism. I've been searching for this video for quite some time before, didn't know that I'll just find it in YouTube... :)

Read Between The Lines - Leave Me Alone!

I have a persistent visitor which I would like to get rid of. He wants me to sign some documents, which I have no intention to do so - because he is a rather suspicious and questionable character. He repeatedly returns to our house, or calls to request to go to my house and I am getting tired of thinking of reasons to tell him off! I have told him that I'd just sign the documents in the office, at the back of my mind, so that I could have other people's support whether I should or shouldn't sign the papers, but he seems to continually find reasons why such a scenario is implausible! Hay...

I Call Thee Boredom

Having nothing decent to do, my friends began giving me links to keep me amused while we were chatting. This link kinda got me laughing for while, but a warning do-not-click for die-hard Harry Potter Snape fans. :) Me included in that list, he's perhaps the best looking guy in the movie.. haha *link given by Masi Villa

Another link of interst where you can order a chicken around. Said to be a promo by Bugoy King. *link given by Raymond

Day Signing Out..

Thank God this day is over.
One of my three wishes last Thursday - to pass Mathan.. and I did!!!
No failing grades this term... Wahooey!!!

I would like to thank all my friends, who have always been so supportive and helpful. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

My grades were fair, most of them, that is. I am slightly bitter about the outcome of my Video Production grade, but it is nothing worth giving so much weight on.

Jourdy gave me a (CD) copy of all our pictures during the shooting, as well the photographs in my portfolio, which I requested him to scan for me. All I need now is to learn the art of photoshop to fix a couple of this and thats.

Favorite part of Jourdy's CD - an MP3 of Akafella's version of Billy Joel's For the Longest Time...
*kilig kilig

The highlight of the day was eating dinner at Dampa. It has been an intended eating destination for quite sometime now (It's been a year since we last thought of going).

The People? Me, Marvin, Jourdy, Marie, Oscar and Gretchen
The Place? Somewhere near Blue Wave
The Food? Select and buy food in a wet market then ask nearby restos to cook them for us.
Foods available: Fresh seafoods (Lobsters, Crabs, Fishes, Clams, Oysters, Mussels, Shrimp, etc) and Liempo
Our chosen Resto: Josefin.. - good Filipino ambience, location suggested by James
Total cost per person: 410 Php - the shopping, the cooking, rice and the drinks included
Comments: Busog!! (We're so full..) It was a worth-it experience!!

TOO BAD NOBODY THOUGHT OF BRINGING A CAMERA...

The Parent-Child Gap Explained..?

I have often pondered why so many parents do not seem to understand the situations their children are in. We, youngsters, after being turned down so many times would often be mumbling to our parents, "Parang di ka naging bata.. (It is as if you were never young..)"

I had tried to take some time to reflect why situations seem to become exceedingly different to our parents when our parents became parents. I would like to believe that in their own minds, they have desired to be wonderful, caring people who are capable of providing all their family's needs and wants, as well as being able to raise good, well mannered and discipled children who will be distinguished and acknowledged favorably by the society. They have also perhaps dremt in their youth of avoiding the harshness their parents have treated them, to give their children some space perhaps to grow as individuals. Perhaps they thought that they have finally created an effective formula/theory that would aid them in becoming well-loved but firm parents. Why then are we, their offsprings, so hostile and rebellious to them now? Why do we complain that they don't understand? Why don't they seem to understand at all?

And I guess I ended up creating an analogy that parenthood is similar to being in and out of a love relationship.

For one who has never been in a love relationship, they can only understand it in their minds. They can create theories and beliefs which would flow entirely the way they want them to flow. But for those who are already within one, the situation would be an absolutely different paradigm and all those theories that were once made would be tested, and others might even be forgotten (intentionally and unintentionally). We cannot see our faults when we are in one, and we would at times have to rely on other's judgements to understand that we are committing exactly the same faults we vowed not to commit when we were outside the said relationship.

And thus perhaps is the situation of a parent and his child. We cannot really blame them for their fault, for forgetting what it is like to be young and carefree because maybe they didn't intend to be this way. Perhaps their only motive for doing what they do is to choose the best option that they, at that particular moment, believe to be the best alternative for their child. I don't believe any sane parent would want to cause the downfall of their child (intentionally). And thus, perhaps this answers the question why do parents have to buy all those how to parent books, because sometimes how we understand things can never be good enough, nor effective enought, or just simply be enough. There is no effective formula, there is no perfect theory, there is only love.

Misplaced

Sometimes it feels that I am born in the wrong time. It feels that I should have been born somewhere in the past. I don't seem to fit in in this modern world, in this high-tech society. Sometimes it feels that I should be back way before the information era, before the post-modern era, before the industrial era... I should be somewhere else.

Three Day Recap

A tiring Holy Week indeed.

THURSDAY
Bisita Inglesia.
Our parents took us to 14 different churches to symbolize the 14 stations of the cross. My siblings and I went to 12 new churches this year. Dad makes it a point to map out new churches for us to visit every year to make the trip more exciting.

It is a belief that if one goes to a church for the first time, they are entitled to 3 wishes. My siblings confessed how were they running out of wishes as we came to our 13th stop.

FRIDAY
Good Friday Liturgy
The church choir I am involved in participated during the Good Friday Liturgy mass. I had to learn quite a variety of songs for the mass and it was fun.

It was awfully sweet of Raymond to stop by and attend the mass, although he did not inform me that he was there. Thanks thanks thanks...

SATURDAY
Easter Vigil
The church decided to celebrate the Easter Vigil a bit earlier this year, thus we had it at 7.30 pm.

The choir began practicing at 9 in the morning. We had a short break from 12 noon, and resumed by 1 pm. It was a rigorous day, we had been singing and exhausting our voices. By the time our performance came, thank God we still had energy to pull it off brilliantly.

Although we had exerted much effort, the other choirs seem to be far more fantastic than we were. I guess, it's because they had professional training and we don't, but despite that fallback, the choir is like one big group of friends and that's all that matters

Twisted Truths

Mom and I had a "friendly" debate a while ago. I had been reading the book, "Dark Side of Catholicism" and was asking her opinion regarding particular details mentioned in the book. She said that the book was fair in its claims, but cannot be completely trusted since not all its contents could be taken as absolute truths. I supported that notion by telling her that there is no such thing as absolute truth, as I've explained often to most of my peers. She began becoming hostile by reproving that if there is no such thing, we might as well label Jesus to be faulty in his discussions of the faith since he too was human and his words are subjected to human bias. I responded that it was different case since he is both man and God, blessed with special powers and knowledge which no mere mortal is capable of understanding.

Here's a rough script of the debate that followed:

Me - For every situation, we would have our own interpretation of things. If you compare my version with another person reagarding a particular situation or say, event, it would be easy to detect discrepancies despite the fact that both of us are speaking the truth. Sometimes I may give more information, sometimes I may give less. The relationship of the speaker to the object, as well as the relationship between the speaker and the listener does present some form of bias in how a story is molded, understood and translated.

Mom - So there is no sense in this conversation since there's no absolute truth anyway, and thus its best that people should just shut up.

Me - Not exactly. You have to know how to listen to people. Take different sides of the situation. Understand it from the different perspectives people take, then take your stand as to what or how you would like to perceive it. That will your truth, a bias, but nonetheless, your truth regarding the situation. If we speak of faith, no man can tell you exactly the depth of their relationship with their creator in parallel versions. Your dad, my grandfather's spiritual understanding, no matter how profound will not be similar to your mom's, my grandmother's spiritual understanding, no matter how devout she is too. Thus, all we have to do is to supplement everybody else's truths to find and build our own. We make our own truths, because we believe what we would like to believe, understand what we want to understand, perceive how we intend to perceive.

Mom - *quiet... Oo na, oo na. You done? (Fine, fine.. are you done?)

So much for explaning the philosophy.

Projection

After arriving home, I was caught by my mom - accused me of drinking, she did.. and I can't deny it.. I had been drinking - 2 glasses of punch and half a bottle of beer, enough to get my face blushing pink. I also have a whole folderful of high school compositions (poems, stories and essays) to correct that night since my mom needed them the next day.

While trying to edit the students' works, I begun to notice their fondness for handsome caucasian men with blue eyes as deep as the ocean, green luminous eyes and blond locks of hair. French sons of royalty and sultry paramours with blood red hair. Hello, we're Asians, we don't live amongst such beings.

Not to mention, there were frequent mentions of spring, snow, winter, fall and all such Western symbolisms which are not observable nor applicable here in the Philippines. Does such an esteemed perspective towards western culture healthy for us? Or does it simply reflect how much we are still under the colonialism of the Western countries, more particularly the US?

My mom told me that the students were just executing their fantasies and I should treat their work with respect, since I did also pass that stage wherein my characters were rough shadows of how I picture foreign people and locations to be. I just find it irritating that my manner of thinking then is echoed in the works of high school students now. In time, they will learn and grow out of those fanciful and shallow interpretations of the world, but still I wonder.. is that stage of "colonialism" really necessary?

Our Date Movie

Last night, my high school peers and I hung out in Xtel's place. We got a NYC Yellow Cab pizza, Andok's liempo, a bottle of Sarsi and Mountain Dew and gin and Tropicana. And the rest was history.

We watched a movie called "Date Movie" featuring American Pie's Alyson Hannigan as Julia Jones. It was so grossly twisted and hilarious that we practically lost of appetite just watching it. It was a love-comedy-spoof of all the other love comedy stories out there as The Wedding Planner, My Best Friend's Wedding, Bridget Jone's Diary, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers and many others. A could-watch if you have a strong stomach.:D

Btw, it did spoof Paris Hilton and her burgers..

Doctor, Doctor.. I am Sick

This morning, I accompanied my little sis to the doctor (dermatologist) to check whether the infections on the web of her feet have improved after a week of applying her prescribed medicines.

I woke up late this morning - half past 10 - (unaware that the doctor's appointment was at 10 am) and thus, we were entertained in the doctor's office a lot later too - doctor's policy (around 1pm). After over a hour and a half of doing nothing, but alternately playing with the clay my sister brought and texting folks, we were finally given an audience.

In less than 15 minutes, the doctor managed to check the problem, give her opinion, give a follow-up prescription and a follow-up appointment. Total bill? 500 pesos.. ka-ching!

Although I couldn't really think of a better way for doctors to meet with their clients, but the very quick paced transaction seems to be worth a lot less than what we were charged. No wonder so many people rely on home-made remedies before bringing the sick to the hospital. Not only do they pay big money for so little service, they also are not given the guarantee that (a) the doctor is completely sure of his diagnosis (ever heard of second opinions?) (b) the doctor knows what he/she's doing (ever heard of freak accidents because of malpractice?)

The intellectual era. Know more, earn more.

Body Jam

They say that when you're close with somebody, somehow you'll end up resembling each other no matter how different or polar your images are. They say that if you want to know if your husband is having an affair, you have to check whether the two of you still look similar - haven't you heard priests complimenting newly-wed couples how much they look alike?

Oh well.. A couple of days ago, my mom browsed through my pre-production casting sheets and found Marie's photo since she acted for our group in our first run-though of Enrico's sequence. Mom suddenly pointed out that somehow we are beginning to look like each other. It's just that her face is longer, while mine is more round. I don't know how the body works, but my high school peers also noticed that me and my girlfriends would have a similar menstrual period. They say it works that way too.

Is there any scientific manner in explaining this phenomenon?

What For?

What kind of person announces to the whole yahoogroup "Greet me, it's my birthday last....."

Apparently, a very lonely, attention-craving sucker..
*jokes!!

And now the yahoogroup is flooded!!! AAAaahhhhhhhh....

Senseless space-consuming mails....

MUST DELETE ASAP...

Optimism

People always say that life would be a success if people only learn how to think positive.

My rebuttal? Isn't that the same as being in denial???

We Need You, Nanny McPhee

I have a new addition to the list of movies I've watched!

My mom was very perky in reminding me to watch that particular movie to the point that I procrastinated answering my take-home examination because of this movie, and I'm glad I did.

It was a child's movie, with a whole sequence dedicated to making Colin Firth (Mr. Darcy in Bridget Jone's Diary) a complete pervert - of course, against his will. It is comical and light-hearted. Although the movie already hints out how it'll end sooner than the climax, I found the whole thing, especially the children, very endearing. I loved it.

What I liked even more was the participation of Emma Thompson as both the screenwriter and as one of the main casts. Emma Thompson, if she is one and the same, wrote the brilliant screenplay of Sense and Sensibility, a true masterpiece that gave due justice to the Austen novel.

My twist to the movie..
Bridget Jones and Mr. Darcy were married, had 7 children, and changed their names from Darcy to Brown. Bridget dies. Devastated, Mark Darcy (now, Mr. Brown) gives us his profession for that of a mortician (to be with the dead, which his wife is amongst). Thus begins the wonderful story of Nanny McPhee...

At Long Last...

At long last, I have completed all the requirements for this term.

Yesterday was spend doing totally nothing but editing. I've edited our video and yielded two versions of it (one with Carlos and the other with EJ playing the role of Anton Garcia). The final project videos were shown today in a class viewing session. I found that it worked very well, and was rather out-of-the-ordinary. Music was from the Final Fantasy Soundtrack collection my brother lent me.

Curious though, that when our video ended, nobody really clapped compared to the works of our other classmates. For some, they considered the story confusing. I would like to call it intellectually complicated. My friend, Lynda, also a Communication Arts Video Production student, told me that the editing was good especially in the first part (the part we crammed.. yey!).

My groupmate, Terry, wrote the concept proposal and the screenplay, and in my opinion, was the best story we could ever work with. I am already bored with typical plots of love stories and unhappy teens - ours focused on schizophrenics..

Today I had two final examinations - "Obligations and Contracts" and "Mathan1" (Introduction to Calculus - I need a final examination score of 80 to get a passing grade..). I hope I passed them both.

Summer vacation.. here I come!

So Sick

For those who are not fully aware of what is happening between me and particular people. This is a short summary of what I just want to point out.

I'm sick of taking responsibility for reminding everybody their respective duties and later getting blamed for not informing them of other to-be-submitted requirements for the class.. You're college students, fuck it, use your head for god's sake.

I'm sick of doing their assignments just because they're too lazy-assed to do it themselves. Calling me in the last minute to help them out. At first, it's good samaritan, but later on, it's getting old, buddy.

I'm sick of telling groupmates the organization of how to handle situations, which they'd later mess completely up because (a) they were not paying attention in class to know any better, (b) they were panic-ing like crazy and couldn't distinguish how the fuck to follow the organization because they were not absorbing the details in class

I'm sick of getting all these bitchy looks and comments from that groupmate who's often absent anyway, and doesn't really give a damn whether he/she will pass.

I'm sick and tired of becoming a leader to such uninspired, incompentent, irresponsible, self-centered, egoistic, unenthusiastic, rich little brats. Get a nursemaid!

Bang My Head On the Wall

I can't believe what a scatter-brain I am. In our university, to use the computer laboratory, the lab assistant scans one's ID then gives one a card with a number of the computer designated for the person. I fulfilled that requirement just fine. But, when I found the computer, and got comfy in the chair, I realized... where the fuck did I put my ID??

I'm still in panic mode right now.

Amigos Para Syempre

Yesterday, my high school peers and I went to Christel's house to hang out. It was her birthday, and Mark planned to bring her a cake. It was so last-minute that I had to lie my way out by telling my mom that I'll be in school working late in editing. Damn, it was good darn fun to be with them again.

I guess, I would never exchange their company for anybody else's in the world, except perhaps for a few couple exceptions.

Free Food Never Tasted So Good

I'll get fat if I keep hanging out with Jourdan! He's beside me right now, offering me some of HIS Wendy's fries, right after we ate up all of HIS Mcdonald's Twister Fries. I'm expecting sundae later! haha :) joke

Free food.. Yum!!!

April Begins With A Volcanic Eruption

So far, the month of April begun with me being pissed with everybody else. People have accomplished in making me angry, furious, mad and moody. I am not really this sort of person, what the fuck is wrong with me? Everybody seems to be either incompetent, unreliable, shitty or just plain pathetic. I hope this kind of feeling won't last for the whole month, I don't want to build the impression that I am someone who constantly has her menstrual period (in other words - "constantly hot-headed") or worse, menopausal!

Maybe it's just the stress and lack of sleep especially since finals are swiftly coming.
Maybe it's the tension and excitement to get it on with summer.
Maybe it's the warm breaths of the weather.
Maybe it's simply the worry that my grades won't meet my expectations.
Maybe it's because I have a lot of problems to think about at the moment.
or maybe everybody's really either incompetent, unreliable, shitty, pathetic freaks!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Last Saturday, my groupmates and I shot the second to the last sequence for our finals video. It is the bulk of the screenplay, thus it was of great importance that we commit as much effort and artistry to its production. It was the third attempt of our group to shoot the scene since the previous two proved to yield unfavorable and inconsistent lightings. Using Niro lights and gels and diffusers is a bitch, but imperative, to make a good video.

We had to change our main actor for this sequence since we were already embarassed to ask for the services of the initial actor after he dedicated over two days from his busy schedule for our purposes. Jourdan also tagged along since we needed an actor to portray the professor in the screenplay. At first, he was coming because we were casting in one of his online girl-chatfriends, unfortunately due to unforeseen complications, she couldn't make it and thankfully, Jourdan still consented that he's still willing to participate in our project.

I had warned him that it will be relatively boring since most of the scenes are focused on EJ, the main actor (who, btw, I owe a DOTA session. - Trivia: He's one of the guys responsible why I learned how to play Counter Strike). So, to waste time, Jourdy spent the day taking pictures of us as we were working. In the end, it proved to be a fulfilling and tiring shoot. We ended by 4.30 pm, watched "Waiting" as we waited for Faiqah's (one of my groupmates) maid to hail a taxi, on our way back to "civilization", the guys were sleeping in the taxi, guess they're really pooped.

Last week for the term. Hay...

P.S. Will post the pictures of the shooting soon, after Jourdan cleans them up....