post 38

Alright. I actually have time to writhe... err... write.

First things first:

01. Mahaba 'to.

02. (Advanced) Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to everyone.


03. Interviews to be posted soon by me:

- Gosh Dilay (Spongecola's bassist)
here's an excerpt:

Ralph: uhh.. so how does it feel when people shout when your onstage?

Gosh: one word...nakakawindang! di pa rin ako
makapaniwala na nandun na ako kaagad sa stage
kasama ng isang bandang pabor ang maraming tao,
knowing that kamakailan lang ako natuto
maggitara. pahabol pa... siyempre, masarap isipin
na naa-appreciate ng nakararami yung mga pinag-
gagawa naming mga tunog...

sure mehn...throw in ka lang ng mga questions,
hindi naman nakakasama sa ekonomiya ng bansa yang
pinaggagawa mo eh hehe...laboh


more people to follow:
- haay. celebrity. basta.
- Inigo (part two)
- Isi
- buong and more na rin...
- hmm... jamie? onga noh.
- paul/frank/greg/chester??! yey!

04. Ateneo HS concert audition-- sure slot para sa and more. I can feel it. They'll accept everyone for the sake of music. Seryoso. I asked Mr. Ibarra and they're pretty much righteous about it... "Music is not a competition as he puts it." Hmmm.. very true. Although I'd really like to see AND MORE vie and somehow kick ass in our own definition in a battle-of-the-bands event. Pero ok lang talaga na konsert lang.. :) Ngiti pa rin ako. :)

05. Plane Divides the Sky could be and well... should be the greatest Filipino band so far. Hmm... they should've won the "in the raw" award in the last rock awards... Sana next year. PDTS. Wow. Rare stuff. Fundamental in your cd collection/winamp playlist. Immortal "emo"ists. Whooo! (their cd sells for 200 php in almost all record stores. It's worth it. Buy it if you want. I recommend it.. If you buy it directly from them, you get 50 bucks off the normal price and two free bookmarks.. Wow.) Alexis (vocalist)... tila di nga siya tao. Siya'y isang henyo (at halimaw).

06. I miss that girl.............

07. I'm going nuts.

08. Huh?

09. Nevermind. Just read on...

Ok. A LOT has happened since my last input, (which barely wasn't an input in the first palce) which was on the Tuesday prior to the retreat. I've always wanted to comment on EVERYTHING but I've never had the time to do all that til now because I was resting from almost everything...

Before I talk and most probably tirade about everything else I've left cold in my skull for the last two weeks, I just want to say... that I've actually considered and perhaps unconsciously applied already a NEW point of view towards my life. And darn it, I'm kinda late. Anyway, I realized something over the weekend... Life is SO precious. We should spend each day like we would irrepressibly desire to spend EVERY cent in our wallet for this girl (guy for the female reader) that perhaps won't even reciprocate. In other words, (point in case:) Spend each day in the best method possible. Righteously and pragmatically speaking. I know, cliche stuff... but I'll say it anyway... (even the word cliche is so cliche; even this whole parenthesis and reading beneath the lines thing is too, so... lemme say "argh") Carpe Diem baby. Do what you have to do and do it right.

So... a change of topic is but apt for all this to satisfy my urge to write. :)

::: Life-altering or not, I'll still write about all this :::
(let's take all these one at a time)

01. the retreat (the trip going there and what I really think about it all)
02. the (stupid) sportsfest
03. the exam aftermath
04. cutting TD
05. friday's CAT and practice
06. THAT SATURDAY WITH HER :)
07. Sunday: napping in the fileds of Ateneo and the party at David's place
08. Me somewhat evolving to a sloth last mundane Monday
09. 2day.

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#1.

The retreat was on November 28-30. Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches. We were headed by Fr. Gaby Gonzales. Everything was close to perfectly fine... and... the whole experience was like lighting a match in that dim hole in myself. I still have to maintain its warmth though...

Anyway, the trip going there was fun. Courtesy of King Pajaro and his F150 vehicle, we made our way from Robinson's (he had his usual Poveda detour) to all the way to SM Fairview, where we played videogames and ate. I beat King at that hockey-disk game... err.. I dunno what it's called. Anyway, we took pictures of that really goregeous Giordano model thru King's ... ahem.. P800 phone (which currently sells for about 30,000 php.. whoa. ain't that a bit too cheap for a phone...?). We also tried on a few shades and even ate at Burger King for some sloppy fries. Jonjon had his ass kicked in that Guilty Gear arcade game by this nonchalant zombified expert, whom he tried his darn sweaty hands to beat but ... failed. Whahaha! Anyway... at least we all had fun prior the whole retreat itself. After witnessing King choke the arcade machines with all his tokens, we went to Yamaha, where Ed and I tried a few guitars and I asked about the drumsticks. Is Zildjian better than Vic Firth?? Hmmm.. I'll try the new jazz sticks from the latter. New look/feel=New style. That's exactly what I'm looking for. After all that anyway, we left for sanctuary.....

Ok. I'll spare a lot of the heart-wrenching details. To begin with, the place was somewhat like a rehab center. Yep... it had that creepy feeling. I pity the nuns. Anyway... King and I kind of stole...err.. borrowed an extra electric fan and some...err.. i kinda lost count... pillows for us to keep us comfortable. We slept in different beds of course... they were diagonally oppositely placed. Anyway... the talks were ok. It (yikes) touched my heart? Hmm... did it? Well... yeah in a sense. Fidel cried during the first "imagine you're with Jesus trip to psychadelia-land"... Grabe. I was pretty much surprised deep inside. I just can't cry like that. Well.. all I can say is "good for him because he's in touch with his soul or something" :)

The food was... food. Plain and simple. Not bad. The nights were cold and King and I slept really late that Friday evening because we talked about how wev'e been so far. Hmmm... "alam na" is the right term to draw on I guess. If you're from 4G, you'll figure out what we talked about.

Saturday was sort of like an (in 80% of all my classmates' poignant point of view): " Yeah.. I love you yet I know I'm a man so I can't tell it to you straight... so I'll just cry here and eat and eat and just crya again then drink off the night" kind of day. Bwahaha! Classic 4g spirit. Don't get me wrong again though. You're all good... It was just 4G getting all hyped and pretending to bond. I'll understand. Cause I've understood. But yeah. There was authentic bonding at some level. Healing of wounds even... It was all in all a very productive and fruitful moment. I was dumbfounded and very emotionally psyched up as well and just really ok. Thanks to the everyone who wrote me a palanca letter. It all meant a lot to me.

Jamie, thank you for everything...

Then... that evening, after Abre cried and all and afet everyone was hogging the "sorry" and "thank you" candles, I hung out at Fidel and Edwin's room. Nagkewntuhan muna kami. Fidel's in love. Yep.. :) Hmmm... well, everyone is anyway. :) We ate chips and I played the guitar til I couldn't see straight. Then before sleeping, I read her letter again then I just thought... Damn, I'm lucky. She happens to be a really good friend of mine. I couldn't trade knowing her for anything. :) Well, to think of it, I have a lot of friends. Thank you... God.

Next day, I opened my eyes then I realized I was frozen still. I was shivering like hell. But I just took a bath after hearing the talk.. I made some clay.. it was a makeshift cartoon version of my future family. Hahaha!

That Sunday was fine. I had mass... played the guitar. Then thanks to King and his annoying sister, me and my family got home safely.

The retreat all in all was... like going to the beach in a sense that I was able to rest. There wasn't any beach music (duh), rather, it was all in my head. Yes Jamie, I felt rejuvenated. Haha! I guess I really had the chance to think about a lot of things and everything i thought about mattered this time. Unlike that time though, I usually think about the really diminutive things. There at the retreat, I became broader and broader then... I thought about how I should really stop not living... I realized I was wasting my time on many things which didn't matter. Ok.. it wasn't like being touched by some supernatural godly force to know all this. Actually... I can say on the contrary that the PEOPLE in my life just made me grasp the meaning of my existence. My friends, Jamie, my family, every person just really chipped in pieces of what was missing and I just thought again... the right thing was to do was to take in a new light in my life. It wasn't a really major moment. No applause or anything. I was just pretty darn happy all this happened.

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#2.

The sportsfest was disappointing. We lost a lot. But ultimately, we won first place overall. Weird huh? Well.. it basically was. We lost two finals and one semifinals to three different sections.... so, we still garnered enough points to make us WIN. Yehey!!! Haha... parang may paki talaga ako eh... I just got tired. I was even sick if I remember.
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#3.

Whoo.. the exam aftermath. It was relieving to know that it's finally ****** over.. so... I shouldn't dwell on it. I passed Physics and that's that. English...hmm... all smiles baby! :) :)

Math? More like mutt...
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#4.

Oh yeah. I've been bad. Ok... it's like this. I simply, quite recklessly cut 3 sessions of TD by accident. We were left by the damn bus! Goddammit! King kasi eh... argh! Hahaha! We were at the library killing too much time I guess. Haaaay... Inept free time. And we didn't even pay for it. I wanted to but we weren't even punished... Hehe.
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#5.

Last Friday. The return of CAT. Bummer. Stupid Moks. Ha! I just like blurting that. Haha! Haha! Moks: the emperor penguin who maltreated himself so badly, he now looks like this badly shaped sack of kamote. Hehe!

Anyway, it wasn't bad.

Practice after that was good. Pleasurebox was just ready. We rehearsed insanity. Ha! No... we rehearsed our 5 songs. Then we covered til we got exhausted. We did:

compo:
- nawawala
- keep
- swollen finger
- that zombie
- indie #1
- "yung bago" (that's what we sadly call it as of now. haha!)

- Finch's "Without you here"
- APC's "Orestes"
- APC's "Magdalena"
- Glassjaw's "Radio Cambodia"
- Green Daty's "Brainstew"

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#6.

Oh yeah. Saturday. Dec 6. Haha. Alright. What a day.

12:15-2:15 pm --- and more practice:

We covered the usual set-- freak, etc.. But Inigo... goddammit.... he rocked. Grabe. I just can't believe he could shout like that and...err.. abuse his diaphragm. Ang galing.

We covered new ones like:
- Chico Sci's "Amen"
- Finch's "Watitistobern" (what the?)
- STACIE ORICO'S "MORE TO LIFE"

Yeah!!! *applause from ourselves* Geez. Kelan tayo naging punk?? Haha! Astig.
I'll bet people'll jump when the chorus starts kicking in. Grabe talaga. May potential 'to kahit papano. :)

Mabuhay si Stacie. :)

At saka yung Omega reds on rampage (tama ba yun?) Grabe. Speed Metal... Ginulat ko sarili ko eh. Si Isi ngiti ng ngiti eh. :)

Si Edwin late.. haha. :) peace.

Uhh.. the whole thing was a really momentuous thing for us. We even had our.... first photoshoot. Tada! Hahaha! Ang kapal... Damn this.. Sorry ha. Me take pics lang of and more for the site ok? haha!! It was a lot....

Anyway, the pics will be out by next week. I'll scan them myself and post them in a new gallery. :)

2:45-4:30 pm --- nothing.

I killed time in the Ateneo.

4:40-6:00 pm --- pleasurebox practice

Yep. I was back in the Future Star studio in no time for about p15. I practiced for the gig at ardz later that night and begged them to let me out earlier because I wanted to see her already... (we were without mikko and mark. argh. essential... tuloy.. we had to ditch the smashing pumpkins cover..)

NASIRA PA CAMER KO! SHET!!

6:35 - 8:20 pm --- i met up with jamie at the ateneo high school.

It was fun seeing her again. I actually never realized til that evening how... pretty she really is. Sobra. This is so true.... :)
I got to talk to her about stuff. And I also noticed that she was shy for the first time... I DON'T KNOW WHY. But I was really happy she kept on smiling. I don't know why either. But nevertheless, she just looks so nice when she smiles out of nowhere. Argh. Pretty talaga eh. Tapos... ang bait pa. Hmm... think she liked the chocolates I gave her?? Hmmm.. :) I hope she had a nice time kahit sobrang nabitin ako. Argh...

9:10 pm --- the "wala lang" gig at ardz

You know what essentially metaphorically rhymes with THAT gig??? Neutral. It was the most uneventful gig I've ever had. No friends besides my bandmates were there. 3 songs... weird amp... what else?.... the crowd was a painting. They never moved at all. The only frggin time they ever did was smo when they decided to smoke and smoke and smoke and drink and drink and drink. Argh. I hate the rockstar myth dressed up with the vice-glamoured ideals. Tangina. All that with music?! It's stupid. POINTLESS. Very fucking pointless. Anyway... the drums was close to really really ok. It wasn't bad. No big flaw or anything. After everything... I dropped by Select and went home thru Obe's help. Salamat talaga Obe sa lahat. Thanks!!!

God, I missed her that night. :(

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#7.

Sunday... Sunday... I spent the day by going to mass, then... napping in the field adjacent to Moro Lorenzo Center in the AHS. It was very windy. :) I had a nice time.... I felt like an animal. Ha!! Everything was fine. :)

I woke up just before 6pm... then I rushed to David's place for the party. It was really nice. I talked with Rael. Thanks for listening to me by the way. It meant a lot... Thanks for putting up with my emotional baggage with apparently spilled out that evening. Salamat talaga. My brother even played the guitar. Such a genius. :) Hehe. Utol... teach thy kuya. :)

Of course I slept. Ayoko na maging abnormally nocturnal.....

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#8.

Last monday thoughts..
Sloth. Me? Sloth? Hmmm... konti na lang.. I'll be hanging from a palm tree down south sleeping 24/7.

Actually... I've been itching to study. Haha!
Kidding.

No... actually what happened was that I jammed at Cai's place at Ayala Heights. I hurt his drumset all afternoon. Bad trip nga lang... di nagpapakain.. Argh. He should. next time.. Ok lang. :) Anyway... the double peds rocked!! Astig.. I jammed with the Plane Divides the Sky CD and covered few songs with them. Oh yeah. Drumsolo... ngek. :)

Then... I crammed til about 12 am for the Math assignment.

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#9.

Yesterday Wednesday was tiring. Really. We fed the kids there at the San Roque public elementary school for the christmas party. Uh..ok. Man-for-others mode swtiched on. Yesiree.. :) But then again.. Roque ate a whole chicken. Every part he pilfered amounted to one whole hen. Haha! We ate a lot believe me... but Rani Roque... Hahaha! Bus-tilter... Joke! :) At least we made the kids happy. Yun lang yun... I mean... to end with... that's the main point of life: to become God's instrument and by being so, make people you care about happy and well-treated. Ika nga ng Wolfgang, serve in silence.

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That's about it. Til next time.... Happy Holidays everyone. :)