thanks to edsa...
today, i am free to go wherever i want, free to do whatever i wish to...as long as i don't violate the law. i salute the filipino for their bravery in fighting against a tyrant many years ago. i was too young to understand things in 1986; i was just a carefree kid who knew nothing but playing and sesame street. i only learned about edsa at school and read about it in the papers.
now i'm 23, a thinking citizen (i'd like to think i am one) who is more aware of what's happening to the country. that's why despite the lousy salary and the long working hours, i chose a career in government service...somehow, i want to contribute something, even in little ways. i really doubt if people really benefit from the kind of work that i do now but i do hope that some of it trickles down to them.
ninoy aquino said many years ago, "the filipino is worth dying for". oh, i don't know; that was then and this is now...i don't think we have learned from the past; we are on the verge of electing brainless national leaders and i just don't see why i should die for all of these people. just goes to show how we, as a people, had deteriorated throughout the years...
thanks to edsa...
i didn't have to go to work yesterday!!! yahoo!! i had a nice whole day of rest but not very nice because it was so warm yesterday. i couldn't take a nap so i just finished "memoirs of a geisha", which i was reading for the nth time.
it was ash wednesday yesterday so i went to church with pau and aya. it was a good thing none of the adults at home went with us; the church was jam-packed, standing-room-only (sro) and it was a hot night too. pau got fidgety some 15 minutes into the mass; it was a miracle she didn't ask us to go home early.
i was stupid...
to think that i can just easily forget about mr. children. whew! sakurai-san brought me back to earth with "tenohira". so now i'm confused; i have so many songs to memorize until the next karaoke day!!! nyahaha! so what will it be: l'arc~en~ciel's "anata" or "driver's high", gackt's "decemer love" or "last song"...of course, i just have to sing amuro namie's "wishing on the same star"! and by that time, i hope i can sing glay's "toki no shizuku" without slurring on the words too much. not to forget smap too!! i cannot sing "lion heart" again...i sang that in osaka. maybe i'll go for "sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana" instead. woohoo! so many songs i want to sing...i hope i'll be courageous enough to actually take the mike and sing in front of everybody. ^^;;
speaking of karaoke...
the girl who won the open division of the nihongo speech contest last saturday said that "karaoke will change the world". nice topic, eh? nice singing voice, too. so she won. predictably. no one was at par with her, i'm sorry to say.
but what made me happier was that joy-san won in the beginner's division...also predictably, hehe. everyone from the nihongo center gave her a standing ovation and we were all very happy that she did it. unfortunately, when she goes to japan (that's the prize), she cannot meet up with corrie-sensei because...
corrie-sensei is here!!
yahoo! i just found out last saturday but i haven't talked to her since. gigi-san still hasn't sent me her cellphone number so i can't send her a message or call her. i really can't wait to see her; she'll be here until december and i heard she's going to have a baby boy. grace is going to have a baby girl...that's really cute!
that's really freaky...
lots of people i know are either pregnant or just gave birth...scary. all at the same time?? what's up with that?? just don't count me in, ok?? no plans yet, not in 10 years or so...
Posted by Unknown at 11:43
今日は悪心と悪感で元気がない。 even my feet are cold. i don't know what's wrong with me. i woke up this morning, feeling dizzy and disoriented, and my joints are quite painful. 頭と喉と腹は痛いし。風邪をひくいたようだな。だから、帰りたい。 maybe it's because of the sudden change in the weather. last night, it was so chilly and i had a hard time getting sleep. for those thinking i might be pregnant, who am i, the second immaculate conception??
was it something that i ate? i'm pretty sure that i didn't eat anything weird yesterday. i have been very careful about eating stuff, especially those being sold in the streets ever since i got a bum stomach over chicken intestines. at that time, i was thinking "omg, i'm the first bird flu case in the country...what a way to get famous. i will never eat there again".
i hardly get sick; this is the first time in many months that i came down with fever. i'm really, really sick...i don't even want to eat chocolate; this is getting serious! i wonder if my supervisor will let me take the afternoon off. i haven't asked her; she's pretty busy right now. omg, i just want to lie down and sleep this sickness away.
Posted by Unknown at 10:58
my blog is not showing right; i wonder what's wrong...
Posted by Unknown at 15:04
今日も一日仕事か。。。今日早く起きたので、今元気がない。
昼ご飯を食べたあと、すぐ眠たくなってきた。ああ、大変、大変！
あたしの側にフィガロのチョコドリンクがあって、よかったわ！！
この仕事もううんざりした。大統領選のあと、すぐ仕事を止めること
に決めた。どこへ行こうかな。。。決まってるじゃん！外務省へ！
土曜日に日本語スピーチコンテストが行われている。日本語センター
のジョイさんが参加する。ジョイさんの日本語センターの仕事
についてのスピーチはとても面白い！！だから勝つはずだ！
ガンバレ、ジョイさん！！
来年コンテストに参加するかな。。。いや、とても恥ずかしいよ！
自信ないから、だめかもね。^^;; 去年スピーチを書いたが、
あまりよくなかった。まあ、大丈夫だった。日本語能力試験２級に
合格するのが一番大切だよ！
2 hours more...please, please clock, move faster. i want to go home...
Posted by Unknown at 15:02
well, well, it's friday the 13th! more importantly, it's valentine's day tomorrow...and i am dateless, as you know. but again, you know i don't care. well, i do have a "date" tomorrow, if you can call it that. i'm meeting my friend ritchelle (also my former co-worker) at her university. while everybody is going out on dates, i will be visiting a couple of universities to apply for graduate school!! romantic, huh? anyway, just for the fun of it, i made a haiku for the occasion.
愛のため (ai no tame)
明日へ行こう (ashita e ikou)
二人だけ (futari dake)
loosely translated as:
for the sake of love,
let's go to tomorrow
just the two of us
sappy, i know. that's just something i thought of while in the bath last night. honestly, i don't really like the first line; it sounds lame but i couldn't think of any other line with exactly 5 syllables. i'm used to writing 5-7-5 haikus but i might try experimenting with 6-8-6 later. what i like about haiku is that you get to say much without using lots of words. i have some random stuff written during some past meetings (that were boring me out of my skull)...if only i could find them, maybe i can also rediscover my lost passion for poetry! ^_^
(if there is any japanese teacher or japanese national reading this, you are welcome to comment on the grammar, contents, etc. of my haiku. the comment thingie is below, right after this post. ^_^). if you are reading this, sensei, be nice! ^_^
if i were japanese...
i would probably be buying some chocolates to give to men on valentine's day. mind you, these are not tokens of love or anything. in japan, it's called 義理チョコ (giri choco) or obligatory gift chocolates that women give to men (co-workers, friends, classmates, etc.) on valentine's day. the men who received chocolates are then supposed to give presents back to the women on march 14, called "white day". the gesture doesn't really mean anything deep...from the term itself, it's just for "obligation".
as a matter of fact, the concept of "giri" is an important part of the japanese culture...which foreigners find difficult to grasp. so much like 本音 (honne) and 建て前 (tatemae). honne is the real intention or motive, while tatemae is the public opinion of how things should be.
but then again...
this chocoholic would probably eat the chocolates herself, nyahaha! yesterday, i was so hooked on amuro namie's "wishing on the same star". surprisingly. i never really cared for j-pop females, since i think they were all made out of the same cookie cutter: same whiny, girlie voice, same cutesy look (blond hair, brown eyes, anorexic body). but when i heard "wishing on the same star", i thought maybe amuro is different from the rest. i have yet to find out...and i am not in a hurry because i have loads of j-pop and j-rock guys keeping my ears (and eyes) busy right now, hehe! so this means, l'arc~en~ciel's "anata" is lording it over amuro. ^_^
nobody's talking about it but i can guess that everyone in the office is offering a silent prayer for jervin, for the "success" of his valentine date. go for it, bro! we're all behind you, jeering...er, cheering, i meant CHEERING. ^_^v
well, everyone, enjoy your valentine's day! have fun, and be safe! (you know what i mean).
Posted by Unknown at 09:54
if only i had a 48-hour saturday...
we had another kanji quiz, (which i didn't study for, by the way) but i managed to get a perfect score -- YAY!! ^_^ i can only hope this keeps up until the proficiency exam in december, hehe! after the class, i went straight to mega mall for my favorite past time...shopping! nothing like shopping to release all the week's stress, right?
overtime - a great way to start the week right -- not!
not that it was my choice to stay in the office until 12:30 midnight. everybody wanted to go home early on a monday to get some much needed sleep...after all, we still had some "hangover" from the weekend. good thing i have msn installed on my work pc and was able to chat with some of my friends from japan (hajime and saori) and france (virginie) so i wasn't too bored-out-of-my-skull.
i got home at around 1:00 am (thank goodness for the shuttle service driver who could give schumacher a run for his money), took a quick shower and tucked in with wet hair. after only 5 short hours of sleep, i woke up to the unforgiving sound of my alarm clock. i swear, it's my least favorite sound in the world.
nobody is in a working mood today; we're all drained of our energy and all we wanted to do is sleep. i wasn't even planning to eat lunch at all. i just felt i had to so i won't get an upset stomach from drinking too much coffee. anyway, jervin and i went to --where else??-- kfc (which was unusually empty, probably because of the avian flu) for lunch take-outs. i fell into line behind a college girl. as she was leaving the order counter, she jerked her food tray and accidentally spilled her soda all over my feet!! wow, i wasn't expecting a midday shower...and i prefer using water instead of pepsi, by the way. well, i wasn't angry at her; she probably had an all-nighter yesterday so i forgive her. ^_^ BUT it was yucky walking back to the office with sticky feet...
yes, you can be friends with your ex...
and i proved that last night. i was chatting with nelson via msn and it was fun. ^_^ we didn't talk about the break-up...just the usual "what's happening with your life" chat and i am looking forward to more chat sessions like that with him. ^_^
but right now, i don't want to be in a relationship. i just wanted more time for myself, for my career and for my postgraduate plans.
which means...
that i will be dateless on valentines day. but ask me if i care...i'm way past that stage!! ^_^v
Genjo Sanzo is your ideal match!!
Which is your ideal Saiyuki boy?
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Posted by Unknown at 13:19
thank you lord, for the gift of music...
this morning, i woke up at 2am to take a bath. it was so cold, and i couldn't sleep afterwards so i decided to listen to a couple of my cds, 'let it be...naked" and "weiss kreuz: dramatic image 2". i haven't listened to the beatles in a long time, and hearing john lennon sing "across the universe" made my skin tingle. it was like he was singing from inside my head, like he was alive. weird, i know, but i'm a beatlemaniac and i am prone to things like that, hehe. it felt really good, and i actually thought that listening to music sure beats sleeping!
they finally took the dead dog away...
the neighborhood stray dog, which has been there for as long as i can remember, died last sunday. i'm pretty sure it wasn't hit by a car or poisoned or anything. he's been looking dreadful for weeks and he has lost a lot of his fur. on my way home from a party on sunday, i was surprised so find him lying on the side of the road, lifeless. i was wondering who would give him a proper burial since his original owner left the town several years ago.
he was just there, dead and nobody even cared to cover him up or something, until he began to stink a little. finally yesterday morning, some good soul took him away; i don't know where but i was really praying that he didn't have to rot on the roadside again.
maybe you're wondering why i am very much affected of a stranger's dog. well, for one, i love dogs very much and even if i wanted to adopt him, i don't think my father will allow me to. second, i think that dog is my own dog's father. i'm pretty sure of it, although they don't have any resemblance at all. arianna (that's my dog) takes after her mother. ^_^
i just hope that people will become more responsible pet owners, particularly dog owners. i hope that people will take care of their dogs like their own family members; feed them well, give them dog houses (or at least, a clean, warm and safe place to eat and sleep), have the vet see them regularly...but most important of all, DO NOT EAT DOGS!!
little old doggie, may you rest in peace (at least you're with nikki now).
muffy, welcome to the christian world and sensei, you're looking good!
last sunday (february 1st), i went with grace and the sasakis (minus daichi) to muffy's baptismal party. kozue sasaki is warming up to me. ^_^ at least, she knows my face now...and she knows i always bring chocolates...so that's probably why she's beginning to like me! muffy is the baby girl of niaga-sensei (my teacher in elementary 3-4 japanese) and jimmy (a classmate and friend).
muffy's real name is sarah michelle, like the vampire slayer. while pinching your nose really hard, try saying "buffy"...what comes out is "muffy", hehe. she's a pretty girl and i hope she grows up as intelligent as her mom and as nice as her dad.
motherhood suits sensei, it seems. she's slimmer and she has that certain radiance that draws your eyes to look at her. ^_^ she's gone back to teaching; this time she's handling "children's nihongo"! cute! ^_^ last term, it was alfred-sensei. we went to his class once and we were laughing at how he kept on chasing the little rugrats who were trying to get out of the classroom. nyahaha!
the philippine economy is doing good...
although some cynics might think otherwise. well, what do they expect, an overnight miracle?? maybe we're not doing as good as some of our asian neighbors but they didn't have an actor for a president, right?
at least almost everyone at the yearend economic briefing yesterday thought that the government did a good job in managing the economy last year. the government kept its promises (well, most of it, anyway) and met its targets. we are slowly inching our way to recovery but if this wannabe president gets elected, the filipinos can kiss recovery goodbye!
which makes me wonder again...why ordinary people like me had to go through so many exams and interviews and had to pass the civil service examinations in order to be employed in government while anybody can run as president, the highest office of the land! i have a college degree in economics, graduated with honors and have several years working experience...so does that make me overqualified for the presidency??
i swear, if this actor wins, i'm going to quit my job in the government, study full-time for my post-grad degree and maybe leave the country altogether!
really, the filipino people needs to wake up from this dream; their favorite actor cannot make this country better.
Posted by Unknown at 13:32
where did the weekend go??
what a drag...i really hate mondays...実は今日元気がなくて、病気になるようだ。帰りたい！仕事が嫌い！残業が大嫌い！！！
my father is such a saint...
he just lent our house in the province to total strangers for FREE. he was apparently moved when our neighbor told him of this family who can no longer pay the rent because they aren't earning enough.?well, they used to rent a house not far from where our house is, but they can't afford to pay the monthly rent of 500 pesos. so our neighbor contacted my father and asked him if he is interested in renting out our house (which we aren't using, by the way, because it's quite far from the city). my father lent the house for free but he made the family sign a letter saying they will vacate the house if my dad needs it, and that they will pay all the monthly utilities and keep the yard/garden clean. so there...i'm sure he's not up for beatification but it sure was saintly of him to do that!!
actually, actually, actually...
people keep on abusing this word...which annoys me to no end. i think they are just using it to sound really cool, you know, like they're so up there. like "actually, i already ate lunch" or "actually, i am watching a movie tonight", "actually, blah-blah-blah...really annoying. i just hope people will realize the proper use of this word.????
to quit or not to quit...
i am in that zone again...that stage where i am doubting whether this job is making any sense at all. should i just quit or wait until a better one comes along...?
sorry if i sound like an a-hole today...i'm not feeling good. my head throbs, and it's the time of the month again. i want to go home but NOOOOO, i have to stay behind and wait for some more additional work. what a charmed life, huh?? anyone want to trade places with me??
Posted by Unknown at 17:49
