SCANDAL Band ❤

I am currently addicted to this J-Rock Girl band. :D

Their songs have been in my playlist for months already.  And recently I got songs from their album, 'Temptation Box'. :D

Scandal is composed of four high school girls from Osaka, Japan: Haruna Ono (guitar, vocals), Tomomi Ogawa (bass, vocals), Mami Sasazaki (guitar, vocals), and Rina Suzuki (drums, vocals).  Yes, they can all do vocals. :)  Haruna, the band leader, does not have to get all the spotlight. And that is what's good about this band. :D

The band was introduced to me by one of my closest friends.  The first time she showed me a photo of the four, she identified each member effortlessly.  I was like, 'Huh?? How were you able to differentiate them? They all look the same to me!'  Hahaha.

I forgot the the title of the first song my friend had me listen to, but immediately what I thought was, the sound, the music, the melody were good. And they sounded like they were singing an opening song for an anime.  Sure enough, my friend told me that they also sang Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood's fourth ending theme song!  The title is Shunkan Sentimental. :D

But after looking and watching more of their photos and videos, I was able to finally recognize who is Haruna and who is Rina.  They became my personal favorites.  They are the oldest and the youngest members of the group, respectively.  I was still having a hard time recognizing who is Mami and who is Tomomi, though. Gomen. -.-

Among the songs in Temptation Box, I listen to Namida No Regret (Tears of Regret), Sayonara My Friend (Goodbye My Friend), and GIRLism the most.

S.L.Magic is my current ringtone because of the way the music starts.  It really surprises me.  Haha. :D

SCANDAL - SL Magic (TV Live 090802 Japon) by yuri304

I don't understand the lyrics but the first time I heard them I already liked them. :D The beat, melody, and sound seem very powerful to me.  I get the general meaning of the song by googling for their translations. Hehe.

Here is the video for Namida No Regret.  From my understanding, it sort of talks about how a couple decides to part ways.  However, the other still cannot accept it and from time to time cries about it out of regret.  

Scandal - Namida No Regret from gorkemtkc on Vimeo.

*Credits to Dailymotion and Vimeo for the videos.

On 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' by Mitch Albom

• 'But all endings are also beginnings.  We just don't know it at the time.'
• 'Had he known his death was imminent, he might have gone somewhere else.  Instead, he did what we all do.  He went about his dull routine as if all the days in the world were still to come.'
• 'EVERY LIFE HAS one true-love snapshot.'
• 'NO STORY SITS by itself.  Sometimes stories meet at corners and sometimes they cover one another completely, like stones beneath a river.'
• 'But the running boy is inside every man, no matter how old he gets.'
• 'People often belittle the place where they were born.  But heaven can be found in the most unlikely corners.'
• 'People think of heaven as a paradise garden, a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains.  But scenery without solace is meaningless.'
• 'Take one story, viewed from two different angles.  It is the same day, the same moment, but one angle ends happily... and the other ends badly.'
• 'That there are no random acts.  That we are all connected.  That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.'
• 'Fairness... does not govern life and death.  If it did, no good person would ever die young.'
• '...all lives intersect.  That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed, lives are changed.'
• 'Strangers... are just family you have yet to come to know.'
• 'No life is a waste.  The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.'
• 'War could bond men like a magnet, but like a magnet it could repel them, too.'
• 'Time... is not what you think.  Dying? Not the end of everything.  We think it is.  But what happens on earth is only the beginning.'
• 'That's what heaven is.  You get to make sense of your yesterdays.'
• 'Sacrifice is a part of life.  It's supposed to be.  It's not something to regret.  It's something to aspire to.  Little sacrifices.  Big sacrifices.'
• 'Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it.  You're just passing it on to someone else.'
• 'ALL PARENTS DAMAGE their children.  It cannot be helped.  Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers.  Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces beyond repair.'
• 'Things that happen before you are born still affect you... And people who come before your time affect you as well.  We move through places everyday that would never have been if not for those who came before us.  Our workplaces, where we spend so much time - we often think they began with our arrival.  That's not true.'
• 'Silence was his escape, but silence is rarely a refuge.'
• 'Holding anger is a poison.  It eats you from inside.  We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us.  But hatred is a curved blade.  And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.'
• 'PEOPLE SAY THEY "find" love, as if it were an object hidden by a rock.  But love takes many forms, and it is never the same for any man or woman.  What people find then is a certain love.'
• 'LOVE, LIKE RAIN, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a certain joy.  But sometimes, under the angry heat of life, love dries from the surface and must nourish from below, tending to its roots, keeping itself alive.'
• 'Lost love is still love, Eddie.  It takes a different form, that's all.  You can't see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor.  But when those senses weaken, another heightens.  Memory.  Memory becomes your partner.  You nurture it.  You hold it.  You dance with it.  Life has to end.  Love doesn't.'

Giving Way

Minsan, pababayaan mo na lang magsalita nang magsalita ang isang tao tungkol sa technicalities ng isang bagay kahit ikaw naman talaga ang mas nakakaintindi. 
Pinagbibigyan ba, kasi feel na feel niya ang pagpapaliwanag. 
Kahit pa panget sa pakiramdam mo na sa paningin niya ikaw ang walang alam. 
Basta maiwasan na lang din ang mahabang diskusyunan na posibleng mauwi sa bangayan. :|

Club Manila East: AUB IT Department Outing 2011

Asia United Bank's Information Technology Department went to Club Manila East (Taytay, Rizal) for this year's summer outing. :D


Compared to last year's attendance, there were more employees who joined this year.  Main reasons were, the summer outing this year was not an overnight activity and for a minimum of thirty (30) employees, each person gets a subsidy of 700Php courtesy of our HR. :D


The entrance fee to Club Manila East is only 350Php, so we still got 350Php left to spend for our food, fare, etc.


I went there alone, as I already live in Marikina.  Most of my officemates, however, met at Ministop, Robinsons Galleria at 6:45AM.  They then took a G-Liner bus to CME.  I believe it was less than an hour ride for only 20+ pesos.  It was so unfair because I spent 90Php for my fare. Oh well. :D Ang arte ko kasi, FX - LRT - FX - Shuttle.  Pwede namang palitan ng jeepney ang lahat ng FX. =p

Upon arrival, we went to our cabana named Pakil and numbered 121.  It was complete with a shower room in which a small family of cockroach lives (buti na lang bongga ang public restrooms/showers nila), chairs, a working telephone, and at the center is a circular table for placing our belongings.


After changing to proper swimming attires as imposed by the resort, we immediately headed to the pool. :D Yipee! Water! :D


I do not know how to swim, though.  So as usual, I just stayed near the 'shore'. Haha. But still, by the patience Au has exhibited in teaching me, I learned how to do the Dead Man's float and the normal float. Hahahaha.


We spent most of our time at the somewhat private pool behind our cabana and Doña Nellia restaurant.  One our bosses, Sir James, started out a game of diving for the 25centavo coin thrown in the pool.  It was not being participated by most at the start, however, when Sir James shouted that for every time you get the coin, an equivalent of 50Php would be given, everyone suddenly became competitive. Hahaha! Nagkaka-pisikalan na nga eh.  Nakisali na rin ako, kahit paa at mata ang gamit ko para mahanap 'yung coin. =p


Before eating lunch, we braved the OceanWaves. :D Grabe, stressful! We needed to jump in sync with the waves continuously. One can't even shout properly because the waves suddenly lands at you hard in the face! Hahaha! :D


During lunch, we opted to try for Doña Nellia restaurant rather than at the available fast food restaurants in the resort - Jollibee, Chowking.  Food prices are really affordable, less than 200Php or so per meal. And each serving is actually good for 1-2 persons already! There were lechong kawali, sinigang na baboy, breaded porkchop, adobong baboy, lumpiang shanghai, chopseuy, fish fillet, etc. But before we got to enjoy the meal, we needed to wait for.. was it 1 hour? Apparently, the staff were not ready for the number of guests that they needed to serve.  Pero friendly and accomodating naman sila. :D


Then, the 25centavo game commenced once again. :D


Au and I wanted to try riding the kayak after knowing that no additional charges were needed.  But the line was relatively long.  Tamad namin.  =p More so with the zip line, mas mahaba ang pila. Ang haba at ang bagaal din kasi ng ride. XD May na-stock pa nga sa ere, kung kailan malapit na sila sa finish line. Haha. :D


Therefore, nagbabad na lang kami sa pool. :D


Lastly, when I dug into last year's outing photos, I found a great change in me. Hahahaha!

Before-after. Spot the... changes? :D

Within a one year time frame lang 'yan. :D

Sad