I was able to have myself enlist new subjects for the 2nd term. By the way they are named, it looks like I’m heading for a rough ride. These are all Design Foundation Subjects. Hehehe…
Grabeh kahapon, nagkaroon ng sunog sa Wellcom Mall/Puregold somewhere sa Libertad, Pasay. Minalas na man na katabi nito ang estasyon ng LRT sa Libertad kaya sinara ang muna yon pati Taft station at Baclaran Station. Pansamantalang tumitigil ang mga south-bound na tren hanggang Gil Puyat.
Nasa Monumento Terminal na ako as early as 7:30 pero grabeh ang haba ng pila! Abopt hanggang KFC. Nakita ko sina Bernard at James T na mukhang sumakay na lang ng jeep papuntang Maynila sa kung saang school sila pumapasok.
Buti na lang gumagalaw ang linya ng mga tao kahit papaano pero ang problema ko ay nung nakahanap na ako ng mauupuan sa tren. Tagal lumayag kasi ung ibang mga tren stop and go dahil nga hanggang Buendia ang biyahe ng mga ito. Nagpatuloy ito sa isang mahabang 15 minutos kada estasyon. Nung nasa D. Jose na ako, inisip ko na malelate ako kung magpapatuloy ito sa inantay ko na makaabot ako sa Central Terminal para lumabas na rin at bumaba na mula doon.
Pagkalabas ng terminal, naglakad pa ako lagpas ng Liwasang Bonifacio (1st ko doon), Manila City Hall (1st time din), SM Manila (1st time rin) hanggang sa maabutan ko na ang Luneta.Doon nagabang na ako nang masasakayan. May bus na papuntang Alabang-Moonwalk so dun na ako sumakay.
Salamat at nakarating na rin ako doon kahit mga 15 minutes na akong late, at least may naabutan pa akong klase. As of last night may usok pa ring lumalabas sa Puregold.
Last Wednesday, nagkaroon uli ng meeting ang org ko with regards tungkol sa upcoming teambuilding namin na gagawin sa Kawit, Cavite (First time ba? Saya!).
Bago magmeeting, naglunch muna ako sa SDA caf at sinubukan kong kumain na kakaibang putahe, isang pagkiang Korean na kung tawagin daw ng mga lunchlady ay “Kimchi”. Moderate ang anghang nito pero nagbasakali ako’t bumili ng C2 para maibsan ko ang anghang nito.
Anyway, lagpas ala una ng hapon, dumiretso na ako sa A916 kung saan ginaganap na ang meeting. Maraming na angm ga taong naabutan ko doon, karamihan mga 108 frosh. May mga mangilan-ilang mga sophomore 107 ang naroroon bukod sa mga officers ng org na kapwa 107 ang marami(like Carlo and Gilbert). Heto ang lowdown ng meeting:
1. Inusod na sa August ang Teambuilding imbes na July
2. Php1500 pa rin ang bayad (sana di na palayok)
3. Sa susunod na meeting next week ay dapat marami pa rin ang dadalo (lalo na ung mga frosh).
So okay, medyo hindi ako kumportable sa laki ng mga fresher members ng Mediamax since, naaalala ko na last year nung nagsisimula pa lang kami, maraming 107 ang hindi na dumadalo’t nagpaparticipate sa mga aktibidades ng org. Salamat na lang naalala ni JV ang mga natirang members tulad ko, sina Regine, at iba pa na ngayo’y mga officers na rin. Feeling ko kasi nahahype lang ang mga members kaya lakas ng feedback nila.
I’m hoping that this hype would be enough for them to stay active, lalo pa’t JV thought of ways to keep them this way by announcing about helping out for the teambuilding as well as joining annual events like the upcominig Graphika Manila (which I plan to attend this year), so on and so forth.
So I guess good luck na lang!
(My first all-Filipino blog after a long while)
May nabasa akong blog mula sa isa sa mga contacts ko kani-kanina lang tungkol sa karansan niya habang nakasakay siya sa isang jeep sa Taft. may mga batang biglang umangkas at nanghihingi ng limos, pambili lamang ng mga kagamitan nila para sa eskuwela. Kung ibang tao ang nasa katayuan niya, malamang hindi sila magbibigay ng kahit anong limos sa kanila. Ang madalas na kadahilanan ay marahil maaring hindi totoo ang mga nais ng mga batang kalye na ito at posibleng ginagamit sila ng isang sindikato (Naaalala ko tuloy iyung palabas sa TV noon, iyung “Mga Anghel na Walang Langit”).
Sa aking mga karanasan, medyo napapaisip-isip rin ako kung dapat bang pagkatiwalaan ang mga ganitong mga tao na namumuhay sa ilalim ng nakakaaalipustang puwersa na kung tawagin ay “Kahirapan”. Ang dami kong mga nakikitang mga pulubi sa mga kalye, abenida, at mismong sa aming subdibisyon. hati ang sarili mo, hindi mo alam ang gagawin pero hindi sa isip ang laging masusunod kung hindi ay ang sariling puso.
Sa tuwing naglalakbay ako patungong Monumento, marami akong mga nakikitang mga batang lansangan, ilan walang sinusuot na saplot pang-itaas, ang iba tumatambay sa mga establisimiyento, at ang iba ay pawang nakakalat tlaga sa daan.
May naabutan ako madalas na tatlong matatandang pulubi. Ang unang dalawa ay nakikita ko sa Avenida Rizal habang ang isa naman ay naabutan ko sa sakayan ng mga jeep katabi ng Nice Hotel. Nakaawa ang kanilang mag sitwasyon: Ang isa ay matandang babae, nakakuba halos ang katawa’t nakasuot ng duster. Umiiyak habang ipinahihiwatig niya gamit ang kaniyang mga kamay na siya ay gutom at kumakalam na ang kanyang tiyan. Ganoon din ang sitwasyon ng isang matandang lalaki: Nakasalamin at laging nakaupo sa isang plastic na upuan sa harap ng isang appliance store.Sa isang kamay ay may hawak siyang tungkod habang ang kabila ay naglilimos ng barya’t pagkain. Ang pangtlong matanda na aking nadadatnan ay paminsan-minsa’y nasa sakayan ng jeep, lumalapit sa mga taong nagaantay ng masasakyan, nanghihingi ng limos at habang ang isa niyang kamay ay nakhawak sa kaniyang tiyan para ipahiwatig na siya ay nagugutom.
Wala ring pinagkaiba sa nakikitang kong kahirapan sa tuwing ako ay nasa Taft. Maraming mga batang kalye ang nakakalat sa daan, lalo sa harapan ng St. Scho. Ang nakakalungkot ay, sa murang edad ay mulat na sila sa realidad ng buhay, kawalan ng pag-asa ay tinakip ng isang bibong ngiti. Nagiging bukas rin sila sa mga masasamang bisyo: pagyoyosi at pag-iinom ang kanilang kinahumalingan. Ang mga matatanda ay wala ring pinagkaiba sa mga nakikitan ko sa Monumento. May isa na mukhang wala na sa kaniyang sarili, namumuhay sa pangongolekta ng mga basurang iniiwan ng mga estudyante at sa pagpupulot ng nakalitang sigarilyo na gamit na’t tinapon sa kalye. May mga mag-ina at maglolang pulubi na tumatambay sa hagdanan ng Vito Cruz Station ng LRT, talagang pinapakita nial ang kanilang mga anak o apo na umiiyak sa kumakalam na sikmura para maawa sa kanila ang mga umaakyat. Ewan ko ba kung ano ag dapat kong isipin kaya pinipili kong huwag sila pansinin.
Sa tuwing pagsakay ko ng dyip, lagi kong nadadatnan ang mga batang lansangan. Kalat na kalat, walang pulis o kahit sinong taong may awtoridad sa lugar para paalisin ang mga batang ito sa mga lugar na ito. Walang magulang para gabayan nila ang kanilang mga anak. May ilan pa nga ako nakikita na mahilig umangkas sa mga pasaherong jeep o pribadong sasakyan, walang takot na baka sila madisgrasya. Mga batang kusang pumapasok sa mga jeep at naglilinis ng mga sapatos ng mga pasahero tapos deretso limos bilang pambayad. Ayoko ng mga nakikita ko.
Samantala, maging ang aming lugar hindi rin ligtas, maigkakaila na dumararami ang bilang ng mga batang kalye dala ng di makontrol na paglipat ng mga ilang taga-lalawigan sa Kamaynilaan lalo sa aming subdibisyon na nakakranas ngayon ng pag-usbong ng populasyon nito. Minsan may 2 bata na kumakatok aming gate, nanghihingi ng makakain, o kaya nanghihingi ng mga boteng puwede nila ibenta sa junk shop. May mga pagkakataon na nadoon sila para bigyan serbisyo ang pagtatapon namin ng aming basura kapalit ng maliit na salapi (nagiipon daw sila ng pera para hanapin ang nawawalang kaibagn na taga-subdibisyon din). Ngunit imbes na tulong at grasya ang kanilang natatanggap, galit at pag-aalipusta ang nakukuha nila lalo na kung galing ito sa papa ko. Isinisisi niya ang kawalan ng paggabay ng mga magulang nito kung kaya nagiging mga pulubi.
Lagi niyang sinasabi na lagi kaming maging maingat sa mga taong katulad “nila”. Huwag daw sila pagkatiwalaan dahil ginagamit lamang siguro sila ng mga sindikato at marahil mga isnatser sila. Pati daw ang mga mag-iina’t maglola na nakikita ko sa daan ay diumano’y nagpapakitang gilas lamang para makuha nila ang awa ng mga tao. Mga walang pinag-aralan, mga hindi dapat bigyan ng aming tiwala, kanyang kuwento sa amin.
Ayoko maniwala sa mga sinasabi ko sa tatay ko pero mukhang may katotohanan ang kanyang mga sinasabi. Hindi ako naninwala nga lang na wala nang pag-asa para mabago ang mga kapalaran ng mga batang lansangan, mga palaboy’t pulubi. Kung sana may mga tao na ganoon din ang kanilang paniniwala, marahil may pag-asa pa na mabago ang lahat. Marahil hindi kopa panahon pero sinisiguro ko na hindi magiging ignorante ang aking mga magging mga anak at maging gabay sila sa kanila.
Sana magsilbi tayong liwanag sa mga taong namumuhay sa kadiliman, malaman sana nila na sa laban ng buhay, ay may taong tutulong.
The world is experiencing a global crisis: soaring oil prices, increasing food prices, prevalent food shortages, global warming, terrorism, eco-disasters, among others. In the Philippines alone, it is experiencing the brunt of this crisis: Close-minded politics, narrow-minded Church people (over population and political concerns that is), rice shortage, terrorism, ambitious yet unfinished infrastructure projects, and among others, the rising costs of education.
I consider myself as one of the lucky ones whose parents can afford to give their children education in all levels. Other than that, I’m lucky that my tuition comes from an insured educational plan coming from one of the most stable pre-plan insurance companies around (and I’m not talking about CAP). And that’s the least of my worries.
Rising fuel costs prompted major transport groups to hike a petition for an increase in minimum fares. Recently, the LTFRB approved the petition raising the minium jeepney fare to Php8.50, a 100% increase from the now-previous fare of Php7.50. Students and senior citizens have the privilege of getting a 1.50 discount from the minimum fare thus we pay a minimum of 6 pesos with a Php0.50 increase per km after the 5th kilometer.
Now that the 8.50 minimum will take effect anytime now, i’ll have to make a couple of sacrifices for me to save money. For once, I spend 10 pesos worth of a jeepney ride coming to and from Monumento (non-students pay Php11 for the same trip), about Php20 a day. Plus 15 pesos/ticket for my LRT ride (30 pesos a day). On average, I spend Php50 a day for my transportation expenses. I’m lucky if I have morning clases so that I get to hitch a ride to my ada’s car or my mom’s carpool, and if I have an extra 100 pesos for me to buy myself a stored value ticket (which would last for 3.5 days a week, boohoo). if the discount increased to become 7 pesos, that’s a different story.
For my food necessities, I try my best to cut down from buying very expensive rice meals which ranges from Php55 to Php80, eating a large chunk of my lunchmoney (a minimum of Php500 a week with an additional 100-250 for Thursdays to Saturdays). I’m trying to spend my money on least-costly yet very fulfilling food orders like pasta (spaghetti, macaroni, etc.) and with occasional food drinks like C2, Fab, and mineral water.
I seldom buy food from Jollibee and McDonalds anymore now since they have raised the prices of their orders there. The problem that I have when it comes to food is that since most of classes are held inside the SDA building, I have no choice but to buy food in their caf. Everything there is pricey and the least expensiver ones are usually the least-quantity (in short: hindi nakakabusog!). I wanna eat at Main but I have no one to eat my lunch with plus nagtaasan na rin sila ng presyo ng pagkain.
But I have the tendency to but snacks at the SDA caf in between classes so around 100 pesos a week.
Since most days of the week I have classes in the afternoon, I opted to eat lunch at home beforeI go to school. That may mean i only have to spend at least two days worth of lunchmoney, around Php120 a week (it depends if I I wanna eat my lunch at school on Saturdays before my one and only class starts at noon).
My other major food sacrifices would be not buying merienda anymore in Araneta Square except for the occasional 10 peso- Mr. Donut and the seldomly-bought bottled-mineral water from Watsons (Php 16).
Over all, from 500 pesos a week I spend: Php300 on transpo (if I buy stored value, I’d saved Php135), Php420 on food (if I spend 70 pesos a day worth of lunch). What I would lose for the week will be Php220. If it’s possible I wanna ask my parents for an increase for my weekly baon.
If that happens, I’d be able to afford to buy a stored value card, and buy pre-heated food from Mini-Stop to mitigate my expensive at the very least.
This is my proposed logo of a 4-part blog series I’m planning to write. Not really the best since I’m still looking for certain oomphf to make the logo look more attractive.
The planned series will be in 4 installments and it will be published one by one every once in a while. I’m hoping that I’d be able to finish this since I’m bad at continuing my other series that are chapter-driven.
I learned from ate Claire that there will be a live taping of a show from CinemaOne called Inside the Cinema hosted by Boy Abunda. This show is similar to a US show aired previously in 2nd Avenue (now in RJTV-29) called “Inside the Studio”. Usually, there’d be a guest whom Boy Abunda will conduct an interview with, regarding his/her cinematic experiences, and what’s really great that other than having a studio audience, they will have the opportunity to participate in the show by asking them questions.
The show taped 2 episodes last Thursday inside the Black Box Studio, at the 6th floor of the School of Design and Arts Bldg. Popular actress Dawn Zulueta is a guest for the 1st episode taped and the 2nd is veteran actress Anita Linda. I didn’t know then who would be Boy Abunda’s guest that time but I thought I should check it out since as an MMA student, I felt I should take the opportunity to learn how a show is made.
The Dawn episode was supposed to start at 2:30 pm so since I don’t have class then until 4:20, I went to the 6th floor to watch it. It’s my first time to be there since SDA is a really huge place to begin with. there’s still a lot of areas inside that I haven’t been in. Anyway, the actual taping started around 4 but I have to leave early because of I have my midterms for my last class back in Main.
Mr. Boy was already there by 3, he was wearing plain blue shirt, chekcered shorts and a pair of slippers to go with it. He was given instructions from the director on how the should should commence. What I like about his proefssionalism that, he is never afraid to give suggestions on what should be done. As he read the script, he asked if he could make changes in the introduction, citing that it’ll take too long of an intro to welcome his guests. Later he was introduced with the SDA dean and some prominent people from the SDA community as well as well-known cinema perosnalities like Aureaus Solito of “Endo” and “Maximo Oliveros” fame.
I came back to the studio around past 5 (I finished early on my midterms so I could leave right away) and Dawn was already there, right in the middle of taping. I guess I’m in the nick of time as I was able to get a good seat to watch the show from where I was sitting at. Boy showed Dawn clips of her past movies like “Buhay ng Buhay Ko”, “Una Kang Naging Akin”, “Maggie De la Riva Story”, and of course, among others “Patayin Mo Sa Sindak si Barbara”. Questions from Boy ranged from her early experiences to her relationship with Richard Gomez, to her future aspirations in the industry to her current role as a wife to her husband and as a mother to her son.
I found Ms. Dawn very entertaining, no clear traces of DIVA-eeshness can ever be found in her body, just her plain wholesome self. She was never afraid to answer straight forward questions and even gave advice to SDA students that we should go further to make our country the best in cinematic excellence among others.
And yup, Boy asked members of the audience if they have any questions to ask and there were a lot of them. I wanna ask something too but don’t know what to. Froma piece of apaper, I wrote several questions but in the end, I didn’t use them. Then the time for me to ask Dawn Zulueta came and what I had in mind was this : ” You are one of the brightest stars in your generation as well as one of the best actresses [around]…if given the choice, would you wanna be a star or an actress?” (More or less something like that). A provocative question it is, Dawn simply said “I’m already an actress so [gusto ko na lang maging star]”.
Boy took this into consideration and he asked that question to me. I answered “I want to be an actor than be a star because it doesn’t matter to me if I don’t have the most endorsement [deals], …but what matters is that (more or less) the recognition that I receive as I want to hone my craft”.
Taping for the first episode wrapped up past six, Anita Linda was already there. i took the opportunity to ask Ms. Dawn and Boy Abunda for their autographs. They’re really nice people in person and I can’t believe that something like this really happened. Guess I’m very lucky that day (a complete turnaround from what happened exactly a week before).
I really can’t tell more unless you watch these episodes for yourselves. So I’ll try to know when they will be airing them so stay tuned to CinemaOne: Ang Buhay Natin, Parang Sine. :):):)
Grabeh, blogging help me cope with the stresses at college life may bring, especially when I had my biggest personal crisis in Benilde. Brr..I’m obliged not to tell the entire details but all I can say is that I can safely say that it is all over. Sooner after, my luck had turned for the better: 1)My preparation for our Philien report was not really a total waste since we are to have it reported by next Tuesday, more than 2 weeks after I was easy to already done with the Powerpoint presentation and everything, 2) I can feel that my midterms are very easy, 3) Maria Makiling Vs Henry Sy is a good a version of the popular legend. And to cap things off are two things but for now I’ll just focus on one.
Just late this afternoon, I caught up with my old grade school buddy, Michael (del Mundo). I was gonna buy my godchild a gift for her birthday in Ever Gotesco Grand Central’s department store. I invited him to come along so I have someone to accompany me with as I browse for items.We haven’t directly talk to each other in the face for a long long time.
So we talked about things of our interests which i haven’t talked about with my friends in Benilde. Michael and I had a lot in common since we knew each other ever since we were in Kinder. Even along the way home, we still kept on talking on stuff. I just discovered that he’s also a fellow Brewster thus the Bobonic Plague has already become an epidemic in the radio community. Hehehe.
Good times, good times! Ang suwerte ko ngayong linggo
[Note: This is serious]
Yesterday was a rather tense day for me. I don’t want to accuse anyone who was caught redhanded for taking something away from me by way of a CCTV footage. But right now I’m close to pursuing the person identified for alleged stealing.
Okay here it goes. Around 12:30 pm, I logged myself out of PC-8 in comlab Rm. A1002 (SDA building) because of hygienic reasons. Then I came down to the 9th floor in preparation of my 1pm class. It was only there did I noticed that my I-pod was not in my bag and completely forgot that I brought it out earlier to download some file back in 1002.
Believing that I was only away for a few minutes, at 12:45 I came back but my Ipod was nowhere to be found. I asked the technician at the MLO if they found an item left around 12:30. They said i should come back around 2 so i could ask one of them who wasn’t in the office that time. 2 pm came and I hurriedly came back to the MLO but they have no clue about the whereabouts of my missing item.
2:30 pm came and I have an hour and half hour before my next class would commence. So I tok the opportunity to investigate further. I went to the GAS Office upon the recommendations of the MLO but from there I was sent to the OSB to check if ever someone had found it and had it surrendered at the lost-and-found of the OSB. At OSB, they don’tt have any record of such. I almost gave up by hopes were raised when they said I should check out the people manning the security cameras installed inside the comlabs.
To the MLO again I go and there I was able to gain access to the raw footages they recorded from the time I left 1002. from what I’ve observed, there was one who came in just as I left 1002. “He” logged himself on PC-16 which is across the PC I just used. There, he was swinging his chair and came across something near the area around PC-8. He swings himself more then stand up and went out of the room. Moments later, he came back in and took that he saw andput it into his bag. he logged himself out, left the room but that was before he took another thing found near PC-8 (My USB cord was attached with my I-pod so that was missing too). There, we saw the culprit, next phase: identification.
I asked the technician (Mang Rene) if he could check the names of students who logged in and out from PC-16 between 12:30 to 1:00 pm. From there we narrowed it down further from the time I logged out to the time the suspect logged himself out from PC-16 based on the footage. Finally, we identified the name of the student. I won’t say the name but what I can tell you is that it’s not a “he” but a “she-he”. Currently I aired my complaint before the SDA Security Office and the OSB as well. As of now, they will try to contact with the suspect for questioning and present before her evidence of the alleged stealing.
I have no intention of filing a case against her unless I am sure of her intentions of taking the item, whether she would have it surrendered at the OSB’s main office back at Main or keep it for herself. I really hope that I’d be able to get through this.