Debede, Debede

DVD stall, Ever Commonwealth, January 10, 2009

Bisdak

Commonwealth Avenue, January 10, 2009

Nothing's for Free

Found along Quezon Avenue corner Banaue, June 7, 2008

"The Secret" Disciple

Found on the MRT, December 4, 2008

Madre Sandals

I hope this wouldn't be taken as a disrespect. I spent more than ten years of my life living across the convent of nuns. As a Catholic, I've had several encounters with nuns as well and as far as what my observation tells me, these are the kind of shoes that they wear.

I don't think four-inch stilettos are that expensive. In fact, these kinds of sandals shown in the picture are not cheap either so why not be fashionable while following their vow of poverty?

Sylvester Stallone

Photo studio, Makati City, January 16, 2009

Deceased

Marikina City, January 11, 2009

Pares Pares

Along Commonwealth Avenue, January 10, 2009

Parehas lang 'Ta Bai

Along Baan Highway, Butuan City

Welcome Indiana Jones

Taken at the Butuan City Airport

An Evening in December

Last night, my friends and I watched Nova Mancao-Ramirez in her benefit concert at the Almont Inland Resort. I, somehow, had a nice time - being with friends and picture-taking. Here are the uppers and downers:

UPPERS

• It is a benefit concert. Some people are still generous enough to share their talent for the sake of those streetchildren.
  
• The venue was okay. It was my first time to get into Almont Inland and I wasn't disappointed. The stage was simple but classy.
  
• The ticket looks good. Nova looks like Abegail Arenas there.
  
• Their male singers, especially the one who sang in "Miss Saigon," and "The Phantom of the Opera" medleys and "A Whole New World" deserve an applause - a roaring applause from the crowd. "Why God Why?" should have been sung with much intensity as it's the kind of emotion being warranted from the song.
  
• The dancer who had to do his own drama when putting up the set. He really ammused me.
  
• Marvin Gayramon is still Marvin Gayramon. No debate about it. And it's nice to hear that he's going back to school.
  
• Nova's dresses are nice.
  
• Butuan has artists! Wow!

DOWNERS

• The well-modulated voice-over person needs a thorough editing of his script. I know that he's a Pinoy and even a person in Butuan so why have the foreign twang when pronouncing those local names? And we're there to watch the concert and not listen to his frequent advertisement of those foods [sic] and drinks being sold at the counter.
  
• Though I love the repertoire since it contains mostly of Broadway songs, I was mad at how they interpreted the songs. Joanna and I couldn't help but look at each other with raised brows whenever she "murders" some of our favorite songs like in "Miss Saigon" and "The Phantom of the Opera."
  
• Nova often falls flat because she clenches her teeth. That also made her fail to enunciate the words properly making the long /a/ sound like long /e/.
  
• Her staccato part at the Phantom medley wasn't really neat. She should have cut that part out.
  
• That cute girl Nova had a duet with reminds me of Sharon's kids who have to go down of their normal comfortable pitch to make the frontline singer sing with ease.
  
• Marvin needs to be reminded that he's got a big head and that closed neck would emphasize his head. His pants and shirt would only work with tuxedo and boat tie with it, which were missing. He could have worn a different set of clothes.
  
• The slideshow. Shouldn't that be coordinated with the song as well? They were really fast that the show ended before the second song started. It could have been better that they would have shown Lea's pictures when she was a kid when those Little Miss Lea songs were sung, then a grown-up one during those songs when she was already grown up.
  
• Thanks to paying homage to those who have passed away. Aside from the fact that I don't know them, it's really creepy looking at those dead people's pictures being shown.
  
• Hasn't Christine Fernandez realized that she's not really a good singer? Come to think of it - she's been in voice classes for how many years, has joined Metropop Star Search, Star for a Night and Star in a Million, stars in a weekly variety show in Cebu where she could showcase her singing "talent(?)" but she's still off key.
  
• FSUU Choir has the voice. I would suppose that they are the college choir and not the high school one because I didn't see the class that our batchmates possess.
  
• What's something in common among Almont Chorale girls? Their bulging abdomens. Isn't empire cut designed to hide the tummy? Nice fabric, good concept of having their dresses different from each other, but the execution was poor.

So This is Christmas

Nakaraos din. I've been busy since I got here, attending my "kids'" Christmas Party, throwing a small dinner for my Mom's birthday, organizing my baby's anime-themed birthday bash, for their nanny, preparing the Noche Buena, seeing old friends and enduring the cold and cough. I haven't even practiced my song assignments nor have I vocalized. I know I'll be reprimanded once I'll get back.

I haven't received a call from my supervisor. I am aware that I've one NCNS (No Call No Show) because of my unapproved leaves. But being with my family is priceless. Spending the yuletide season with them is more precious than anything else.

I hope I won't be terminated.

Twilight

So the Twilight phenomenon is on. Where the plot is so shallow and the style is too simple. It's higher than Sweet Valley Twins but cornier than SV High. The romance between Isabella Swan and Edward Cullens is cheesier than the tuna omelette that I love to prepare. But still, I finished reading the first book and is in the middle of the second one and Janice and Joanna were able to convince me to watch the movie.

• As expected, the movie corrupted the book again. Things were so different from what I imagined - Swan and Cullen's houses, the supporting characters' faces, the ballet studio, the silver Volvo. Janice got irritated hearing me repeatedly saying that it's different from the book. What can I do? I haven't read and watched Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings?
  
• With the Cullen's faces, anybody born with the brain and curious mind would think that they are vampires. Unless people would think that they've been overdosed with Glutathione and color-stay lipstick or have it tattooed.
  
• Isabella's chin could stab my chest while Edward's eyebrows could slit my webbed fingers.
  
• Edward's lips remind of Gretchen Barreto saying "Am I pouting?! I'm not pouting!"
  
• I was glad when I heard "Libiamo" being played in the scene where the Cullens were preparing food while Janice exclaimed when she saw the Philippine flag along with the others being hung at ther cafeteria. It must have been there United Nations Month.
  
• I thought I've been already a stalker but Edward beat me. Ha ha! Isn't it scary knowing that somebody watches you while you sleep?
  
• Is that how a demi-god looks like - semi-dead looking? Edward looks and acts like a corpse.
  
• The actors haven't convinced me of their acting. I didn't feel the passion nor the rage.
  
• Whoever would fall in love with Edward and wouldn't agree with me is a typical girl.

Argumentum ad Baculum

Dear OM [Name of Operations Manager]:

Greetings!

With my attachment to my family in Butuan City who is longing for my presence during this Yuletide Season – a 58-year old mother who’ll be turning a year older this December 20, a 78-year old grandmother, together with my little nephews and niece, one of which will be celebrating his first birthday days before Christmas, and whom their parents are not around – are highly anticipating for my presence this Christmas. For the whole year round, it is only this time that I can be with them. It would therefore be devastating for me to be doing the countdown during eves of Christmas and New Year alone, and, at the same time, thinking the unhappiness I cause my family because of my absence.

As a Filipino, we have the culture to value much our family. I am fervently asking the honorable management to grant a request for a vacation from 18 December 2008 to 7 January 2009. Moreover, during my stay in the province, I also have to resolve those legal problems with the family properties which must be decided with urgency.

Furthermore, as a surprise Christmas present, my roundtrip plane ticket for the said days was already purchased by my sister who can’t be with her children because she is currently working abroad. Her earnest desire to have me sent back home in a few weeks, and, at the same time, get the cheapest rates, left her unaware that the inclusive dates are way too long, long enough for my left SIL credits.

Please find the above situations meritorious and let your decision be tempered with mercy, to that, I utmostly implore with all my heart, as I respectfully remain,

Very respectfully,

Eduardo R. Catayoc III

Unfortunately, our manager is good in logic and she found this letter as a fallacy of appealing to pity. She didn't approve my request for prolonged leave of absence. Waaa! She talked to me last week about it and explained the reason of her non-approval. I sincerely, deeply and very well understood her point. Fairness is something that a good leader must possess. If she'll give me this favor, then she'll be obliged to give the same favor to all other agents as well.

I'm still hopeful that my application for leave will be plotted. Else, I'll be absent for three weeks, come back to work with a suspension waiting, and perhaps, resulting to my resignation. But then again, there's the law of attraction so I have to stay positive that my leave will be plotted. But nobody could really stop me from going home. So there.

Good luck to me and Merry Christmas!

Life is a Mono

I'm stuck in this hour-long 32 bit hardware diagnostics with a nice customer. And it's a chance for me to blog this.

I've been pondering about it since I was a kid and after reading another blog about this matter, an imaginable large force struck my head that kept me thinking until now.

Why do people have to cheat with their partner?

I still have a young mind. I live in principles, in idealism, in perfection. But putting all those impossibilities and improbabilities aside, I still can't understand why infidelity exists and why some people love to be the other man/woman.

Why can't everybody just be a Penelope and be monogamous? The idea of "trying other kinds of food just because I am fed up with this dish for so long" is nothing but the reason of a sick and psychologically incapacitated person.

I shouldn't be commenting about this. My Kaballah says that in my 30's, I am destined to be an unfaithful husband, not once, but twice. I have been praying to God that it wouldn't happen. I would be a big shame to my father and grandfathers if that would happen. Never did I remember that my parents fought because of a third party and I grew up hating people who don't have to balls to stick to one partner.

Proximity is my weakness. The more time I spend with a girl, and the more time I look deeply into her eyes, the more my heart is drawn towards her. And if there's just physical attraction that I would feel towards her, which we call lust, and there she is standing naked infront of me, I don't have St. Benedict's resistance to roll into the thorny bushes to distract my attention. I'm not that strong.

I don't know what lies ahead of my life. The drama "Oedipus Rex" teaches us that one can't get rid of his fate. The only thing that he could do is battle all the tides and do all those twists in order to end up with that fate.

I don't know. I shouldn't be believing in predicting one's destiny but it still leads me to the hypothetical question that what if it would happen to me someday? Shall I curse myself to my last breath? I might not grant forgiveness for myself then. So help me God.

Blog of the Month - Survivor

Outwit. Outplay. Outlast.

After seeing several episodes of Survivor Philippines, I've realized that this reality show is not for me. Being very picky with everything, introverted, candid, outspoken and hard to please, I know my tribemates would immediately connive to have me ousted on the very first elimination. I don't think I could survive moving my bowel on a hole that I need to dig. That makes me different from cats. Sure I love the beach but I don't think I am capable of those physical challenges that await me (but then that's what I also thought before joining that rigid two-month CAT officership training but passed). So there. Patani has already gotten her much-awaited "exfosure" and I'm still here in front of the TV criticizing every teledrama I'm watching.

At this time where I'm being drowned with debts, and debts and debts and still haunted by guilt that I would be the reason for my sister's imprisonment, I have second thoughts of writing this blog. But since I have to start looking at a glass half full, I need to see the brighter perspective of everything. I have work, I am still breathing, I am healthy, I have somewhere to live in, I have family and friends who I think love me, and I know how to speak and write in English.

I am a survivor because the fact itself that I still exist right now is already a proof that I have survived from all the challenges death has threatened me. Enriqueta's so heavily-guarded egg cell was still penetrated by Eduardo Jr.'s sperm cell. During the first trimester of her pregnancy, she has tried to abort me, but still, she was able to born me - healthy and well. I've almost had a lockjaw, been almost drowned several times, had so many injuries, and got bumped by a speeding vehicle which led me unconscious for three days, but still I'm alive. Whoa! So I'm already living my nth life where n is approaching positive infinity.

I am a survivor because I was able to stand from my fall. I was kicked out of my the College of Engineering of my university because of so many flunked subjects. Bearing that very bad feeling, I transferred to a mediocre school and able to graduate on time. Among the 12 graduates of ECE from that school, I was the only one who passed the board exam. And one graduate from the university that kicked me out failed.

I am a survivor because I know that I am guided by special forces Science can't explain. Foremost, though I know that I'm a very very very bad person, God still directs me to the right path. I know that my father also guides me. As what my Mom said, "Hilabtunon ang Ginoo" (God meddles and interferes in a not so nice way).

And then again, I am a survivor because I can. Because surviving is a decision.

Eduardo's Got Talent

TL Tin and Diane are encouraging me to join our company's version of "America's Got Talent." I have second thoughts of joining because yes, I could carry a tune, but not to the point of singing like a pro.

My idea of that contest is to showcase one's extraordinary talent which I don't think I possess. Perhaps, if I could cook yema in two minutes, or ingest broken glass (not the food), or perform an acrobatic show, then I would be confident enough to register myself, even in "Talentadong Pinoy."

But I'm not really a singer. I added the adjective "frustrated" before that noun which gives it a different meaning. As Wyngard Tracy said during his interview before, it doesn't mean that if you could sing in the bathroom, you are given the license to sing on stage. In contrary to what people think of me, I'm not thick-skinned.

But I could give myself a try. I dared Diane to download a minus one copy of the song I sang in my recital. If she couldn't find it, then that means I couldn't join. But oh, I have the minus one of "A Whole New World." I might sing it solo. Ha ha.

Anyway, I already have an idea of our halloween costume. I'm so thrilled.

Connecticut, Here I Come!

Last Saturday, I was informed by our Division Governor that the upcoming district competition for four events - international, humorous, and impromptu speeches and speech evaluation - will be held March next year. Division contest will follow some time in April and the National convention to be held in Davao City will take place in May. Then in August 12-15, 2009, the international convention will be conducted at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, CT, where several artists like John Mayer, Josh Groban, etc. have performed. I'm imagining myself wearing my tuxedo and having my picture taken at the red carpet.

I was told by our board review master that we should aim for the top so that in case we would miss it, we would still be close to it. I'm starting to review the law of attraction and I'm aiming to be a part of the international convention. That means I'm rooting for the championship trophy in at least one of the categories in the national contest.

They're constantly grooming me for the impromptu but I need a nice and touching piece for my international speech. The subject should get to the nerves of all the people in the world in order for me to win. I also need to have a very funny topic for the humorous one. The callboy thing is already out since I've already delivered it last September. I'm not really a funny person so I need thorough preparation for this. Plus everybody in the club affirms that I need to get out of my shell in order for me to deliver my piece properly. I also admit that I have a problem with my organization so I have to start as soon as possible.

Would anybody be kind enough to suggest some topics for me? I would really appreciate it. If I'll pick that topic and win in the national convention, I'll really treat you out for a meal. He he.

Blog of the Month - Anniversary Issue - Why Blog?

Why blog? Let me count the reasons.

I blog because the world is full of solid wastes and writing in a diary contributes to it. Because my penmanship in cursive is not as neat and great as it was in my school years and reading my entry in a hardcopy irritates me more and makes me hear my mom behind me criticizing my handwriting.

I blog because I am narcissistic and I love it when people read my entries and appreciate my work even though some of them are just pulling my leg. In this world of papparazzis and undercover agents, I don't believe in secrecy and confidentiality anymore because sooner or later, my secrets would ultimately be revealed so I might, as well, reveal them myself.

I blog because I'd rather write than blow my head with a piece of gun whenever I'm mad at the world.

I blog because I'd rather give people the choice - to visit my blog or not and have them read about what I think about them and the world rather than hurt them by saying to their face how they suck. But sometimes, I couldn't really help but say it.

I blog because blogging is in and I must embrace this trend before it goes passe.

I blog because I have a lot of things in my mind that I want to write - not really to share but to express them.

Most of all, I blog because I can.

I Beat the Grandslam Queen!

I defeated La Oro - not in acting but in public speaking.

Last Saturday, September 13, I, together with Alex, our Area champion, was fortunate enough to be chosen to represent our Area in the Division A (half of Metro Manila) Toastmasters Triathlon Competition. 10 contestants showcased their impromptu speaking, prepared speech delivery and singing skills and competed in order to represent the division in the upcoming National contest to be held in Bacolod City this October.

As always, I hoped for the best but expected the worst. I was only notified that I'll be one of the contestants the other Thursday which only gave me nine days to prepare, which I also didn't make use because of my poor time management.

The moment I saw Raul, the former trainor of our company, I already knew in myself that I wouldn't win. My God, he's already a Distinguished Toastmaster, which means he has delivered at least 50 prepared speeches, while I only did five so far. But competing with him is already a pride itself. My only objective was to perform well, be competitive and not to humiliate myself which, fortunately, really happened.

Impromptu speaking was the first category where I was the fourth to speak. The topic was "What is something that you are most thankful for?" Other contestants (the remaining six) were so pageant patty that they said "life, love and (I forgot but I'm sure it's not lust)" while most of them said "life." Raul talked about "a thing's conclusion" because in every problem and question is a conclusion. That was a witty answer. Mine was a very basic but emotional answer - my Mom because she sacrificed her physiological and emotional needs in order to raise and send the three of us to school, narrating about how my father died to enumerating the hardships we've had in the family to the time where we all graduated from college. I forgot all about the format because the usual PREP (point, reason, example, point) wasn't applicable with this topic and it's only the pattern that I know. What I just thought was speaking from the heart, be conscious about the time (since being overtime will merit a disqualification) and call for an action when I end my speech. Raul placed first, another seasoned speaker placed third and I got the second place which was a big surprise.

Singing speech was the second category where I was the last to perform. Raul even said "At least I'm done with this category." Ha ha! Mechanics for the singing contest kept on changing that I was able to finalize my piece the night before the competition. On Saturday morning, early morning, I kept on singing "Say that You Love Me" multiple times that my sister already expressed her irritation towards the song but what could she do? I just wanted to practice the timing because the arrangement was quite different from the original one. I know the song too well that I thought I could sing it with my eyes closed. I was mistaken. I forgot the lyrics that I ended up repeating the verses and even the stanza. I also forgot to shift my voice from chest to head tone when the key had to change making me sounding like I was strangled to death. To those who love the song, I apologize for not giving justice to it. Janice and Hunnie even laughed with my performance level because they never thought I could do that dramatic face and the hand waves on stage. Ha ha ha! I didn't win in the category but what I really wonder about was why that woman got that third place when in fact she didn't give emotions to the song, there wasn't any timing, and yes, other contestants including me, had a better performance than her. The professional singer got the first place.

Then came the prepared international speech where I was the sixth to speak. I talked about my experience as a callcenter agent, wherein my opening salvo was "Whoever of you here would think that I am a callboy?" Everybody just laughed. For me, that was my best performance as a speaker, so far. For the first time, I didn't bring any notes, I made use of the stage, I had vocal variety and eye contact. Though people really laughed hard at my speech, I don't think the content was good enough to merit any placement. Raul got the second place , the one who placed third in the impromptu was the champion, and the professional singer was the third.

Over-all, Raul was the champion (who'll represent the Division), the lady speaker was the first runner up and the professional singer came out as third runner up.

Janice kept on complaining that the champion was a boring speaker and that the audience didn't laugh to any part of his speech but what could she do? She's not a Toastmaster nor a judge and she needs to be a seasoned speaker first before she could have a place in that panel. I wasn't really sore with it. For a first timer, and for a member who just started last June (or July), placing in a Division contest is already a big thing. The medal is really special.

As for La Oro, obviously, her change in costume, her stardom status, and her live guitarist didn't give her any advantage to win. The one who defeated me in the area-wide contest also didn't place in any event, which I understand because he's not in a winning form. I promise, I didn't sabotage his audio CD.