Baguio Again


Just arrived in Baguio yesterday, exactly by 10:30 PM and stayed at Baden Powell Inn. Today, I'm looking for a single room and never thought it would be a tedious experience. A guide named Manny, appoached me after I withdrew money at SM Baguio and he said that he had connections with landlord/landladies offering rooms for transient and long-time loggers. I'm highly suspicious with strangers thinking they might be hold-uppers but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He led me to a house with a room that costs 3,500. Though it's a very decent room with a closet, a double-deck bed, water and light included and you can even cook but no way! I have no budget for that. Finally we settled at house that offers 1,600 per room and is very near at SM Baguio however, the room will be available until March 2 and the landlady is not yet sure whether the current occupant will be extending his stay at that room. I told Manny to contact him whenever I've decided to stay at the 1,600 room. He even ask money for his breakfast when we departed. What a nerve! But since he was helpful, I gave him a measly 35. Well, it would be enough for breakfast right?

Right now, I was really worried what other options to choose. I have extended my stay at Baden Powell inn until Tuesday noon. Today after lunch maybe, I can look for houses near universities so I can save or look further for other cheap rooms. The ones Manny showed me earlier are the best ones and I think I'll be comfortable in it. Well as for now, I'm praying to God that He'll give me the right room for me.

An Engineer's Valentine Poem

I was alone and all was dark,
Beneath me and above
My life was full of volts and amps
But not the spark of love

But now that you are here with me
My heart is overjoyed,
You turn the square of my heart,
Into a sinusoid.

You load things from my memory,
Onto my systems bus.
My life was once assembly code,
Now its C++.

I love the way you solder things,
My circuits you can fix.
The voltage across your diode is,
Much more than just point six.

With your amps and resistors,
You have built my integrator.
I cannot survive without you,
You are my function generator.

You have charged my life,
Increased my gain and made my maths discreet.
And now I'll end my poem,
Control, Alt and Delete.

Birthday Pics!


At last, my birthday pics are here! Thanks to my friend, Butch Dako who emailed me these pics. The pics are taken on Feb at Eastwood, Libis QC.

Freedom


Once in our class in Introduction to Philosophy, we discussed what is "Freedom" in the general sense. Intellectual as my mind has thought, I have discussed the subject well as evident with the results during our quizzes but never did I experience until now (particularly yesterday) what "Freedom" is and what "Freedom" felt.

Yesterday, I and my father have our "first" father and son talk. It was nothing dramatic nor special. Just a simple chat. At first, we talked about me being accepted at Texas Intruments. I told him I was apprehensive, cause it'll be a new adjustment to me. He was comforting me in a way but was taking less attention into what he was saying. Suddenly and caught off-guard, my dad confronted me about all that I've written in my struggle journal. (I bet he 'accidentally' read it) Heat was rising in my head and I don't know what was coming next. I felt guilty and ashamed. I was stammering explaining everything to him. You'd think I'd cry but I didn't - almost. I was reclining on the bed, holding my head with my arms - and I was frozen in that position. I thought my dad would be angry like nuts but no... he was calm, and loving and the best thing is, he did not condemn me. He said, he has understood my struggles and he was proud of me that I've decided to change for the good, that I'd lay everything before the Lord. He even advised me to "cry" it out to God for repentance.

I felt heat left me and was aware of what was happening. I told him everything, how I struggled, how I repented about it. I even told him that's why I'm reluctant to go Baguio cause I've found a support group which I joined just recently for my healing here in Manila. My dad said, we will pray for it. When it's time to depart, my dad laid hands and prayed for me. It's an ordinary prayer, but I felt the sincerity and concern of my dad I can't help but to fight back tears. After the prayer, I felt an "inner peace". I feel I'd be all right even if the whole world will turn into chaos. It's not an agitated or exciting feeling but it's the best feeling in the world - a feeling not to feel at all. I felt free and in the silence of my heart as my dad led me downstairs to the lobby, I praised God for his mercy. I felt forgiven. His fresh wave of mercy washed on me taking the guilt and hate away I kept for so long. I thank God for his wondrous ways. His timing his perfect in His time. Trust God and He will bless you more than your worldy mind can imagine.

First Basketball Training






Yesterday, I was invited to a "Basketball Fellowship" by my BP brothers. I don't know how to play basketball but they assured me that all of us there do not know how to play. Four of us came, including a brother from another support group and we lal went to Palmdale at Pasig.

When I first entered the court, I was feeling when I was in 2nd year high school. I'm scared and nervous, never know how to behave myself as out PE teacher gathered us at the covered court. My male classmates were very excited that they will be playing the sport they knew by heart while I didn't have a clue. I knew I would be embarrassed and everyone will laugh at me. However, as the four of us gathered, I was told to show if I could do a little dribbling. I did and I guess I wasn't that bad. After me, one of my bro's did it and I saw him trying to learn as I do and to do it properly. That's when my nervousness fade away and decided to concentrate and try to have fun. We were taught with the basic dribbling - we first dribble the ball with a finger, then two and then with the whole hand. We were also taught to dribble back and forth with one hand and the other. Then the shooting came, which I guess was quite difficult but managed to improve at the end. We were supposed to learn lay-up but our time was up.

It was the most memorable "sport" time I ever had in years. I was encouraged and praised if I did it right. I was not laughed at unlike when I was in high school. I found basketball quite interesting, now that at least I have little skills I can boast of. I wish to improve more until I can play the hard court.

Shall We Dance?


I have my first movie fellowship with my BP family today and we watched "Shall We Dance?". I have watched this movie before, many weeks ago but never did I think it was better watching it with a group of friends. "Shall We Dance?" does not only teach us to appreciate Dance Sports but most importantly to stand up when we fall, to rouse hope when relationships falls into mediocrity and value our uniqueness.



Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez

I felt "so conscious" with myself being around a group of people whom I instantly trust my growth in them. I felt afraid that in one day, I could be betrayed. But I believe that meeting my BP family is not just a mere coincidence. God must've planned this all throughout. He has seen me stumble and fall and rise again. God, wherever your plans will be, please give me the strength and courage to face them all.

Birthdate - On Views About Life and Love


My friend, Honnie Ruth sent me an e-mail about how your birthdate describes your personality, relationships and views on love life. Here it is:

Is your birthday day 16 of the month?

Your Life, You always follow the good and the right instead of listening to your heart. Another word, you are a perfectionist. You care for every wordpeople say about you. You often seen isolated while you are, by nature, curious and a dreamer who is ready to get over the edge to make your dream comes true. Your Love, You often fall in love with a person who is much different from you, in age and other aspects. Your relationship grows on friendship. Love at first sight is not your style.

Verdict - True!

Malipayong Adlaw'ng Natawhan


Happy Birthday, in English. It's my birthday today and I'm 24 yet still feeling young. I woke up having no plans at all on what to do this special day of my life. My roommate insisted of buying pan de sal for breakfast but I'm craving for something offered in a buffet. So we went to "Something Fishy" in Eastwood to have our Brunch, and we only paid P80. Quite cheap, right? After that we took pictures of different sites in Eastwood just for fun.

When we got back at our room, we immediately get dressed to meet Choes at Edsa Shangri-la. We will submit our resumés at GMA^*.After we submitted our resumés we immediately went to Edsa Shangri-la Hotel to meet Owynne to give him my shoes he was asking to borrow. Owynne works at Fujitsu-Ten and he designs audio equipment for cars. They will have an exhibit at the E-Services area of Shangri-la Hotel tomorrow up to Saturday which will showcase their latest designs in car audio/video gadgets. Guys, if you consider buying cool audio/DVD stuff for your cars... consider contacting him.

When we get there, he's kind of busy and he can't entertain us so we went instead to Megamall to watch "Constantine". Keanu Reeves hasn't lose his kicks since the Matrix. With the battle between good and evil and keeping the yin and yang, Constantine got a lot of risks to undertake to save Weisz. After the movie, I have no choice but to treat my friends at Pizza Hut (parang pinilit ano?) and afterwhich we went home afterwards.

^* FYI: I have been accepted at Texas Instruments for their Apprenticeship Program for 5 months.

Nyehehe!



Jobstreet's Birthday Gift

Just arrived from Baguio... I'm quite tired but still able to browse the internet and update my blog. Tomorrow's my birthday, by the way.

Happy Valentine's Day from the City of Pines




Hi guys ang ghouls! Hehehe... Happy Valentine's Day. I'm currently in Baguio, just arrived here yesterday for my exam at Texas Instruments. And guess what! I made it! I'm hired. I'll be staying here for at least 5 months. What a wonderful gift of God's love for me this Valentines and for my birthday this Wednesday! It proves that you do not need a partner during Valentine's day.

Ah, well it's good to be here. I'm staying at an inn near SM Baguio and just a few walks away from Burnham Park. The sight of the Pine tress and feeling of the fresh cold mountain air revives me. Even my rhinitis does not got against it. Actually I'm starting to feel lonely, leaving my newly found friends and a ministry I am accountable with. God indeed has his ways and if it's His will that commands our lives, we just bow down, be humble and obey.

Tomorrow, I'll be going back to Manila. I hope I could bring my friends some strawberry jams.

StarWars vs. Titanic


A friend of mine posted this quite nonsense crap in his Friendster bulletin, anyway, its humor justifies all of it

Reasons why Star Wars is better
than Titanic..

Titanic's big, but it doesn't have
hyperdrive.

Yoda could use the Force to lift Titanic
out of the water.

Leia is a princess, a senator, a freedom
fighter, and Jedi material; Rose is just
marriage bait.

Yeah, Leo can dance, but can he fly an
X-wing?

If Luke were handcuffed to a pipe below
decks in a sinking ship, he would use
the Force to get the key.

Han is frozen in carbonite and turned
into a wall ornament. Leo simply freezes.

Stormtroopers blast big holes in stupid
minor characters; everyone in Titanic
was a stupid minor character.

Titanic morals = gamble, cheat on your
husband, pose nude for pictures,
premarital sex is OK if you're in love,
etc.

Star Wars morals = fight evil, do good,
respect all life even if it's ugly and
slithers, rescue princess, save planet.

Millenium Falcon flies through asteroid
field unscathed...Titanic hits the only
iceberg for miles..

No cool aliens in Titanic. (Well, unless you count
Leo, but he's not cool.)

Emperor Pal[atine's shooting lightning bolts out his
hand is better than a six shooter.

There will never be "Titanic: Special Edition"
Han & Leia make a better couple than Jack &
Rose.

When you see Star Wars you don't need lifeboats
to get out of the theatre due to Leo's death.

Rose would seriously get her ass kicked by Leia.

Titanic finale: Everyone dies. Star Wars finale:
good triumphs, good guys live, bad guys die,
galaxy celebrates.

Star Wars had sequels! And prequels! Can't really
do that with a sunk ship.

We know Cal is the bad guy because he sneers at
the poor and treats his fiancee like property. We
know Darth Vader is the bad guy because he
strangles people and blows up planets for fun.

George Lucas- period...

May the Force be with you all..

Wherever the Phantom went...


I just read my emails and came across with Texas Instrument's Inc. invitation for an exam and interview this Monday! Wow! It's been like 5 months since I applied for the Apprenticeship program they are offering. I never thought they will ever contact me. Anyway, yesterday I watched "Phantom of the Opera". I've heard the musical many times but never knew what the story is all about. When I watched yesterday, it was a musical turned into a movie; with only few dialogues as compared to Moulin Rouge. However I was so drawn to the character of the Phantom - a hateful soul yearning for an unrequited love from his object affection, the chorus girl turned lead Soprano, Christine. Gerard Butler was really good in portraying the role as the Phantom and Emmy Rossum as Christine. In the end, the Phantom escapes and many years after that Christine dies of course as wife of his childhood sweetheart, Raoul. On the grave as Raoul came to visit her, a red rose was seen beside her epitaph's stone. Wherever the Phantom went... who knows?

Weeding


Not the leaf! LOL...

I and Choes decided to today to apply at PNOC (Philippine National Oil Company) but before that we had lunch, visited the office where he will have his interview tomorrow, went to Powerbooks Greenbelt and read FHM. It's almost three when we left at Ayala station to Guadalupe. From there we will ride a jeepney that will be going to The Fort. Everything was a breeze and we have a merienda afterwards at Chowking, eating "Halu-Halo".

Choes and I departed ways by 5:30 from Guadalupe station. I went to Megamall to buy new headphones for my walkman. I went to Galleria to have my dinner afterwhich I hurriedly went home to pump some iron again. However when I got home, I was so tired. I immediately slumped myself to bed and fumbling inside my bag to test out the new headset. It was better than I have expected. It's worth the P400 after all.

After a couple of minutes, I woke up or rose rather to wash my hankies (smeared with goo... yuck!). Feeling inspired, I cleaned the "aged" electric fan until it looked like as if it has been recently bought. Not contented, I fixed all my things, dusted the wall, fold my clothes, swept the floor. Wow! My room is squeaky clean! It does not look like a doghouse anymore. I don't know what hit me I just cleaned and cleaned and now, I'm tired. I'm currently here in the net café to relax... Well good night folks.

Sunday Sunday


Important things stream inside my mind far more important than the material, the physical and the emotional... It's Sunday Sunday and I was really planning to go home after church to take a nap and maybe pump iron in the afternoon. But something came up, my friend texted, inviting me to a little stroll this afternoon. My spirits are high when I left the church. I felt energized and I felt I could do anything. Something exciting and new will come this week and I'm sure God has made all of them planned up for me.

I'll be meeting my friend, Choes at Glorietta but we have a "direction" misunderstanding. He thought we will be meeting at Ayala station ... but anyway, we ate together by almost 1 o clock, after an hour of texting asking where each one is located. We went straight to Megamall to meet another friend who prods us to watch "Elektra" but since we already watched it, we decided to watch "Assault In Precinct 13" starring Laurence Fishburne and Ethan Hawke. The movie is not really as bad as what it's poster looks like. My initial instincts tell me it's just another action movie but tell you what I was "quite" taken away. Appearances by John Leguizamo, JA Rule (I never thought A in JA stands for Atkins, the name most familiar with the Atkins diet) and Maria Bello (How hot could you get?) also spiced up the movie.

I got a text from a company I was applying saying I have to be there tomorrow for an exam. I have to sleep early since I have to be at their place in Parañaque by 8. Plans of late-night iron pumping is again thwarted. Maybe tomorrow...

Movie News Bits


I haven't made my movie critiques since last New Year. Many movies have passed and ... yeah done with the introduction. Let's start with "Meet The Fockers". The old gang is back and is funnier then ever with the meeting of Ben Stiller's parents: Dustin Hoffman, who is a retired lawyer and prefers staying at home, cooking and practicing Capoeira and Barbra Streisand, a reputed Sex Therapist. Well, saying this movie is hilarious will be an understatement, since you'll puke your guts out laughing at De Niro's stiff demeanor trying to fight off Hoffman's and Streisand's antics... and not to mention the maniacal dog that humps on everything and the De Niro's baby grandson who learned his very first word which is ***hole.


Jennifer Garner as Elektra

Next movie, "Elektra", starring (I don't know what to say... drumroll), Jennifer Garner. We can find here that after Elektra was killed in "Daredevil", she was revived by a sensei and awakened to be trained as an assassin. She was off to kill a widower and his teenage daughter but what's hindering her from killing them are her traumas in the past. Filled with cool visuals, yeah the Tatooed Man and the Miss Poison, (whatever their names are), "Elektra" is an eye-candy but it is not really your total action film (like Blade Trinity, which I haven't watched yet) but for the deep and insightful, Elektra is noteworthy of your attention.

Next, the creepy and hair-raising "White Noise" starring Michael Keaton. In the movie after Keaton's wife dies, some guy recorded his wife's message from the spirit world through his device known as Electronic Voice Recorder. This process is called EVP or Electronic Voice Phenomenon and is practiced by psychics who believed that sometimes souls communicate to their loved ones while embedding their energies on our TV's white noises. Filled with illogical explanations why things happen like this or like that, still "White Noise" is for the ones penchants for some chair-raising actions.

Hurray for the Jean Pierre Jeunet's entry for Oscar for Best Foreign Film but unfortunately did not make it, "A Very Long Engagement" starring Amelie's star of the same director, Audrey Tautou. Audrey plays Mathilde whose fiancé, Manech goes off to war. After the war, unaware of Manech's whereabouts or status, Mathilde starts off a long ang complex journey of finding the truth with her hope in believeing that Manech is still alive as her reason to live. A highly touching movie, not really dramatic or romantic (unlike our own Pinoy love stories), "A Very Long Engagement" is worth to watch and cherish. Adding up to the challenge is Mathilde's condition. She is stricken with polio and could hardly walk let alone run. It's wonderful how hope could help us find the truth instead of giving up on things which seem to go against our way.

Next movies to watch are "Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events" and "Phantom of the Opera".

"Hala! Ikaw Pusa Ka! Alis Malas... "




... as a pure Chinese would say in halting Tagalog.

Happy Chinese New Year! Everyone. Always believe that prayers and faith in God are more than just luck.