Writer's Repose

I don't know if I'll be updating this section, since the freetalk section contains most of the stuff I discuss (well, I am just lazy... should've sorted my "blog-like" stuff here, and discussions over at the freetalk part). No matter, you'll be told of any new things at the main section (updates, of course).

Monday, September 15, 2003:
Ack, it has been so long since I updated, I feel that I've neglected this place somehow. Anyway,
what has been up with me? A lot of things happened. So many new things, that I probably won't
be able to tell all of their stories. Lets just say that I had my fair share of fun and disaster.
Today, I had a flat tire so I missed my morning class and had to attend another class which
was later that day. I guess it wasn't that bad at all. But then on my way to school, I saw this lady
standing stiff as a tree in the middle of the street with her eyes closed. It's a bit sad that she wanted
to end her life so soon (the dirt on her face made her look older than she was already, I guess),
and through such a pathetic way at that. I mean, who would be crazy enough to actually hit her?
I don't think even a vigilante would make an attempt. That's life, sometimes you get so desperate,
stupidity and wisdom get all mixed up... which is also the same effect you get when you get drunk.
As much as I did not expect, a final burst of rain came pouring down on my car as I drove home
this afternoon. I hoped to go home early to get some rest and avoid traffic, but it seems that I
was able to get neither. I wish I stayed in school for a while longer. Nothing productive to do at home,
and yeah, I guess I should put my priorities in place.
It's going to be my grandmother's and grandfather's birthday celebration on October, and me and
my siblings were tasked to make a song performance. I'm the guitar guy again, since I can't
really sing and play at the same time (depends, though). Hopefully I can pull it off (now I have to
study how to play John Mayer's Neon, with all that tapping : p).

Sunday, July 13, 2003:
Yikes, got an exam due tomorrow and I still haven't studied for it. I'm a procrastinating little monkey
alright. All I did this day was spend time in front of the computer reading Meteor Garden 1 and 2
episode summaries. Yep, you heard it right - boredom does this. Anyway, I feel good nonetheless.
My old high school class had a reunion yesterday, and I had to admit that it was quite nice to be with
old friends again. We spent the night reminiscing old stories and lauging at corny, made-up jokes.
After dinner, we killed time by playing Warcraft 3 and Counter-strike.

Tuesday, June 24, 2003:
Feeling a bit under the weather lately, and I don't really know why. Well I do know why, but I don't
know why the reason is like that. For some weird reason I always share what a friend feels (rather,
someone I'm with often anyway). Maybe it's just some messed up sort of empathy, and it comes
whether I like it or not. This feeling brings all sorts of thoughts to my head, making me have the
sudden urge to drink coffee alone in Starbucks and make myself a music video.
I still have so many things to do (catching up with studies, write stuff, make a logo, all that crap)
and I haven't done any of them. I just don't feel like it right now. Hm, and to add to that, I still need
to quench my almost unending need for sleep. I skip dinner just to sleep from the afternoon to the
next morning (4:30 AM to get ready for class) and I still can't get enough. Sheesh, that's life. And to
think I still have so many things I want to do that I don't know how to do.

Thursday, May 29, 2003:
Aha, back to school for me. It has only been barely a week since classes started, but already I've gone
through some "misadventures" as of late.
What's up with me? Hm, a friend of mine invited me to play with their band when they play for their
friend's debut party. I've got the songs all ready but it seems that the song line-up keeps on
changing : / That's okay with me, though.
My friends are teasing me that I own a "bump car" (you know, that ride in carnivals). Hey, I'm
proud to say that two scratches were my fault, one was by this big bully-car (well the scratch
overlapped my scratch, so it seemed like I did everything, heh), and just recently, I found my
rear-left tail lights with a small hole on the glass. So much for that! I guess my dad was right
about "giving an old car to a new driver". But I'm an expert driver now, though *nyahaha*
Hm, school... well it's great to see and be with old friends again. Already I feel like the
summer vacation was never there, almost like those many "long" weekends... except
that this "long" had lots of "very very very very very" before it.
I went to this other friend's debut party this month, and I found myself in quite an amusing
situation when me and my friend got lost and ended up getting to the debut after two hours.
Sheesh, I could've sworn that my feet died! To add to that, I found the sole of my sandals
(hawaiian theme : p) rapidly deteriorating. By the middle of the party, half of my left sole
actually detached itself and made a run for it. Turns out that the pair of sandals that I wore
had soles made from styrofoam. Damn : > No wonder they were kept in the cellar. This
update's new sonnet was written for her. Good, eh? : ) (By the way, if "you're" reading
this, I promised to make a website for you but I guess we didn't have time for it. But then
I don't want to go back on any promises, so here it is. Well it's much simpler than it looks,
but at least you can say that it's uploaded, and it's yours : ) )

Thursday, April 17, 2003:
Damn, two months passed before this update. And to think that I made this section so that I could update more!
So what's been up with me? Well, "busy" summarizes everything quite well, although I'll do my best to make a story.
Going as far back as I could remember since my last post, I was working on quite a number of school projects.
Reaching a total of about five, they were consecutively due in a span of two weeks or so. As usual, I was up to
my usual cramming routine - it's in my blood : p Anyway, I managed to barely finish all of them just before their
deadlines. I was feeling great then, when my dreams of relaxation were shattered when the reality of examination
week loomed. To top it all off, me and a two of my friends got caught cheating in one of our projects. Great, all I did
was give them a copy (oh well).
Allow me to digress for a moment: I'm sure that you've all heard about how the "outside world" can be so ruthless.
Everyone seems to have a "dog eat dog" mentality for some weird reason. What, they weren't given enough
ice cream or toys when they were kids? Heh. Anyway I'm saying this because in the conference in which we
(me and my two friends) were called for to discuss the cheating incident, I was asked to stay after the other two
were dismissed. My punishment was losing fifty percent of my grade. Their offer: keep the grade but ditch the
friends. I couldn't believe they'd offer me something like that. I even humored them a little, asking them questions
about the "friend-killing" process, but they all looked pretty serious about it, as if they, the "elite", didn't want to
lose a potential member of their high-ranking group. Quite frankly, I replied with a simple "I'll keep the fifty", and
they all responded in unison with a sarcastic snicker. So much for that.
After that, and the continuing chaos brought about by studying for the exams:
a) I learned to drive (and drive alone for that matter... yey! pathetic! : >)
b) I discovered that my other hidden talent was being lazy.
c) Some things that are usually taken for granted do have meaning.
d) Our band lost its female singer and now we're looking for one.
d - 2) There was this guy who volunteered himself to be the male singer - hearing his voice would bring
you to tears. (Note that I did not say "move you to tears")
Yesterday, in our band's usual jamming session, the guy in d- 2 started his audition. My other bandmates,
who knew the guy, were obviously just trying to hide their laughter as the person started getting ready.
At first, we played a few of our usual songs, then as we were running out of songs to play, the song book
turned to a page with John Mayer's "No Such Thing". (Could you believe that the first intro chord that was
written was EM7? Sheesh!) I started playing the song, and he started sing too, although as the song
progressed, he couldn't catch up. Too bad he just couldn't make it : p After practice, we ate dinner at a mall,
then just hung out for a bit with a few stories. Eventually, our conversation turned to things pertaining to
spirits, ghosts, and the like. Supposedly there's this "kapre" (A being of some sort from Filipino folklore)
residing in this ancient one hundred year old tree just beside the place where we practiced.
To make the story even worse, there was this person who "dared" the spirit to appear - she went mad
after doing so. Makes me want to crap in my pants (heheh, I'm exaggerating : p). We talked about that
and a lot of other ghost stories, and we ended up going back to our practice site to ghost hunt. It was
about nine in the evening, and we just sat by the stairs near the "haunted" tree. The other members
of the band, (husband and wife who were the guitarist / bassist / drummer and keyboardist / singer
respectively) were feeling odd things already, since they were the ones who could see spirits.
Juju and I, though, just sat there and wondered what the fuss was all about. Deep down inside,
however, I figured that it was enough for me to know that there were things there. I didn't really
want to see them, since curiosity "might kill the cat" if you know what I mean. The other band
members then started saying that "it wasn't time" or that "something bad might happen" with our
"quest", so we started to leave. Freaky shit if you ask me! : >
After that, Juju and I hung out at Starbucks for some old-fashioned brotherly bonding. We just
chatted and stuff, regarding school and a lot of other things. Everything would've been relaxing,
if not only for that rotten smell emanating from my brother's car air-conditioning unit. We ended
up having to brave the summer heat. *sigh*
Well this update probably won't make up for the almost two month absence, but at least I got
myself to update again. : )

Thursday, February 6, 2003:
I still can't keep on making frequent updates all the time... suffice to say, there are a lot of things happening
in school that I can't really miss.
Was feeling bluer than usual today and yesterday. Maybe its because I just "woke up on the wrong side of
the bed" during those days. Anyway, I didn't really like the feeling, and I figured that people would think I'm
becoming weird or something. A friend of mine had his birthday today, and was planning to treat his friends.
Me and my usual gang didn't really think we were part of the plan, but we decided to go to the place where
the celebration will be. I was already decided in not going, since I didn't really feel like going (simple reason
eh? : p) . It was kind of funny that it took me an offer of beer and billiards to go. I could probably get my mind
of things then. The day felt unusually long, and we ended up going to the arcade later on and riding in the
go karts. One thing I'd like to point out: I got a score of 67 (or was it 87? hm, forgot all about it) in Sonic
Blastman (the punching arcade thing with the dumb looking hero). A friend of mine got 27, too bad I wasn't
able to see it : > (Hehe... just kidding).
I left the place with my friends with this feeling that was hard to explain. I probably wasn't able to do something
but wasn't able to do it. On our way home that afternoon, I still was my unusual "down" self. But then, there
was this thing that happened to me that, well, just snapped me out of my misery.
Back when I was in high school, one of my best friends gave all of us in our circle of friends this billiard ball
keychain. Maybe as some sort of group thing : p Mine had the number 14, others had 3, 9, etc. This is just
to give some sort of background history to the story I'd be saying.
As me and my friends were riding the train home, I was standing at the center aisle in front of this kid, along
with his mother. Immediately upon seeing the keychain hung enticingly on my "laptop bag", the boy shouted,
"(translated) Hey, a ball!" and proceeded to examine the keychain like some sort of doctor scrutinizing a
wound or injury. I didn't take notice, because I thought that the kid was still "innocent", in the sense that he
probably still hasn't heard the saying, "Don't play with stranger's keychain." Now the funny part. As me
and my friends were talking, I was able to see from the corner of my eye that the kid was already playing
with the keychain (I know the feeling, I play with the keychain myself : p). Of course I didn't really want to
spoil his fun, so I just ignored him. Later on, whenever I'd look out the window in his due direction, he'd
quickly withdraw his hand as if he was a rabbit who just saw a poacher. Heh, I even thought of giving
him the keychain, but then his mother looked like she absorbed all of the "anti-stranger" energy of the kid.
I don't know, this probably sounds corny, but I realized that if this kid's already happy with just a simple
keychain, why the heck am I feeling down? I just saw that there was no point in feeling crappy.
Enough said : p
Had guitar class again today, too. We were reviewing guitar scales and playing riffs, but then I was too tired to
concentrate and play well. Oh well : )

Friday, January 31, 2003:
I was hoping I would be able to come to my friend's recital today, but unfortunately, I knew I wouldn't be able to
go because my dad just told me that there would be a family dinner this evening. The occasion? Why, the
Chinese New Year of course. I couldn't say I was that excited... I mean my relatives on my father's side aren't
exactly the liberal types. It's like they have the words, "generation gap" as their middle names. At least I'd get
to meet my "close" cousins, since we get to relate easily due to our ages.
The day passed as usual, and I was my usual sleepy self (only lately... also I've been having a sore throat from
time to time, which gets kind of distracting). I waited with two of my friends until the time that I would be fetched.
But then, the time kept being pushed further due to "unknown circumstances" (like traffic maybe... doesn't look
that "unknown" now : p). Eventually, I got a text that said that they were already fifteen minutes away from
my school, so I immediately raced towards the exit gate. I figured that fifteen minutes wasn't that much of a
big deal, so I just stood there like a tree and watched the people passing by. To my surprise, two foreign-looking
girls (looked like they were Japanese or Korean or something) approached me and said, "Would you know where
--- is?" while pointing at a business card in their hands. I thought they were "Filipino" enough, so I just said,
"Doon o! (There!)" while pointing due towards the direction of ---. A few minutes passed, and I was only met
with confused looks and a simultaneous reaction: "What?" Realizing my utter stupidity, I composed my self
and told them that --- was just straight along this road, past ----. I told them that twice, and pointed at the
direction of the place just to be sure. Well, they sure left in a hurry, so I assumed they got there all right.
And with such impeccable timing, my mother called and said that they were just a few minutes away.
I was beginning to doubt them, since their "fifteen minutes away" became about half an hour's wait.

Thursday, January 30, 2003:
I stayed up late last night because I got kinda hooked to this old video game. And as usual, I woke up pretty damn
early. I planned to skip my first class by adjusting my cellphone alarm an hour later, but I the funny thing was that
after my daily morning "rituals", I was still able to get to my first class. I guess some things are just meant to be, eh?
I felt somewhat down today, and planned to stay late in school again, but then I figured that coming to my guitar
class at home would do me a lot of good (probably since I treat my guitar as an extension of myself : p).
Speaking of things being "meant to be", my guitar teacher invited me to become the guitarist of a band he was
going to set up. The band was going to have sixmembers, with me and Juju as the guitarists, my teacher as
bassist, some guy as drummer, and one woman as vocalist and another as "keyboardist" (pianist?).
All of a sudden I felt a lot better.
My teacher, whom I call "John Mayer" on my cellphone (well his name is John, so much for me and my
"cornyness"), played three of his compositions to me (two alternative/sentimental and one rock) and I
couldn't help but be impressed and excited about all this. Six months was going to be the time for practice,
then he said that after that time would be the "gig" time. He knew people who own really good places, luckily.
I hope this goes well : )
My brother got a letter today, from a kid. I just looked at it and just felt warm all over. Kids are cute : p.

Monday, January 27, 2003:
I woke up at 4 am today with an unusual feeling. I didn't feel a bit groggy or light-headed at all that morning for some
reason. Our old college block's recollection was set for today, and I remember praying for "strength to wake up" the
night before (Heh, I'm a simple guy : p). I quickly took a bath and set up my travel gear (ID, wallet, handkerchief,
eyeglasses, and my necklace just for the heck of it) then, and after doing those things, ventured out to seek a
means of transportation to bring me to my college (I won't elaborate : p). It took me a while to get there, but
I enjoyed the pre-sunrise scenery. The funny thing was that just as I left the house, I could still see the sky as if it was
nighttime - complete with the moon and the stars.
Anyway, I got to my school soon enough. Me and two of my friends planned to meet at 630 am, so I hurriedly went
to our meeting place since it was already about 640 am or so. I don't know if I expected it beforehand, but I was right to
think that they wouldn't show up (sorry guys! haha.). I headed straight to the lobby of our college's building, and met up
with my other blockmates who were waiting there as well. The recollection wouldn't start until 730 am, so I decided to
hang out there until that time.
Come 730 am, everyone started heading for the "resthouse" where the recollection would be conducted. For those
who don't know what this recollection is about, it's basically some sort of activity that aims to help one in terms of his
religious status. Hm, that sounded almost technical, but I'm sure the point is obvious anyway. Well I think it would
take me too long if I would write about each and every detail about the recollection, so I'll just summarize all of
the events briefly. We mostly had prayer activities and parlor games (of course, with religious undertones) that day.
I must admit that I got some sense of direction that time. Although I had a bout of "the spirit of the stairway"
(l'esprit d'escalier - the one I explained in the freetalk) as I left the place. Oh well, so much for that.
I've been wondering... what does it take for friends to be friends? Does a person have to know each and every
detail about the other? Must a person be an exact "duplicate" of the other? It's a very complicated deal. However,
I think that a person need not know much about another's personal life, or past for that matter, for them to be friends.
All it takes is a similar situation in which both of them can relate. Or maybe, they can even be opposites, like the two
sides of a battery (positive and negative). The battery cannot actually operate with only one charge, and I guess
that's sort of applicable to friendship. You do the connections.

Sunday, January 26, 2003:
Had our once-in-two-years family reunion today. Hm... well what can I say about that? Two words: Generation gap.
Me, Juju, my small brother Calel and my sister Tricia, along with my three cousins had no choice but to bare through
the long party. It only lasted three hours, but boredom can really make time seem to pass pretty damn slow. We just
spent most of our time finding a hang-out place and sitting there until the party was over. During times like those, I
really wish I had my trusty old guitar with me.
Speaking of my guitar, I am beginning to have the urge to replace it. I have been using it for so long already, that I
am already noticing that the strings have been "thinned" at the fretted parts of the guitar. Well it's kinda hard to explain,
so I'll just leave it at that.
My sister has just recently begun expressing her desire to learn how to play the guitar. What is it to me? Well I can
now dump my old guitar on her and go buy myself a new metal stringed one! Now is that a plan or what? Hehehe...
I'm sure you must be wondering why I created this new section called "writer's repose". Lets start from the meaning
of the word, "repose", meaning, "to relax". So there, this is basically my way of relaxing. How is this different from
my freetalk section? Well, I'll be able to update this section more, since I created this with simpler coding methods.
(Wait... is that "simpler", or "more simple"? Anyway...) Think of this as some sort of day to day journal.