Bago ko ito isulat, tiningnan ko muna ang year end blog ko for 2010. Aba, written in English! Napressure tuloy akong mag-English din this year. Pero hanggang pressure lang 'yun, mas masarap pa ring magsulat in Taglish. :p
Nahirapan din akong bigyan ng isang magandang title ang 2011 ko. Sobrang dami kasing nangyari, roller coaster talaga. Kung baga sa kanta, medley or mash-ups. Kung baga sa isang pack ng kendi, assorted. :) Parang walang theme na matino. Pero narealize ko, ganoon naman talaga ang buhay. Hindi lang naman ako ang may ganoong pakiramdam. :p Hindi siya annual event na pwedeng magpalit ng theme every year. Every day ang buhay natin ay event itself. Pwedeng may magkakasunod na araw na parepareho lang ang theme, pwedeng iba-iba sa loob lang ng isang araw. :)) And sometimes, ang theme sa particular event sa buhay mo ay kung paano mo tingnan ang sitwasyon.
Anyway, here goes. :)
~January 2011~
::Nag-celebrate kami ni mama at ng pinsan kong si Reyna ng New Year sa Bicol. Unang beses ito sa buong buhay ko. Ang saya sa neighborhood ng tita ko. Ang dami kasing bata. Tapos 'yung tita ko, saktong 12mn, nagpapasabog ng maraming barya sa maraming bata na nakaabang na sa doorstep ng bahay niya. Pati si mama kasali. =))
::Bought my first camera phone! Ang saya-saya ko nun kasi sobrang ito 'yung gusto ko at last stock na siya. :) Alam kong hindi siya mamahalin pero gusto ko na siya at kuntento na talaga ako sa kanya. :) Unang-una sa lahat, nakakapag-FB mobile ako kahit walang wi-fi at walang load. Secondly, nakakapagbasa ako ng ebooks. v^^ Thirdly, napapakikinggan ko anytime ang mga paborito kong mga kanta. Lastly, nakanood na rin ako rito ng anime episodes habang nasa byahe. :))
::'Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away.' - wizard
~Seven years have passed so quickly
And it seems like yesterday
...
I don't forget the promise we made
Still the same star shines above us~ New Years Day, Ellegarden. :)
Avril Lavigne is the first singer I went crazy with back during my high school days. I can still remember myself religiously copying and memorizing ALL the lyrics of the songs from her first album (generously given to me by Margot as a gift, and she has since supplied me with the rest of Avril's album until I got myself a job, haha.), Let Go, so that the lyric sheet (is that how you call it? XD) that comes with it would not get too creased. We actually got our barkada's theme song from that album - Anything But Ordinary. It goes like ~I'd rather be ehh-ni-thhhing but ooordinaaarii, please~ Haha, as if you can hear it. =))
Avril really went beyond the ordinary pop-rock singer when she surprised all her fans with the release of her third album, The Best Damn Thing. I was like, 'What happened to her?? What's with the pink-color-themed album?? And there are sexy songs! How will I sing them out loud like her other songs??' XD But being a fan I still memorized them all. My favorites from these album include Keep Holding On (used as the OST for the film, Eragon), When You're Gone, Runaway, and Innocence.
Margot and I decided to attend the alumnae homecoming of St. Scholastica’s Academy Marikina (SSAM) last July 17, 2011. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of our alma mater.
Since we came at around 9:45am, we missed the Holy Mass which started at 9:00am. Naturally, most of the people were gathered at the venue for the mass, Sr. Imburg Covered Court (SICC). Therefore, we took the opportunity to roam around the campus to take pictures! :D
And when I was so much younger, I never even knew that such an occupation exists. :p
Usually kapag bata, ang sinasabi:
Gusto ko maging teacher. (Isa ako sa mga nagsabi nito. :p)
Gusto ko maging doktor.
Gusto ko maging abogado.
Gusto ko maging artista. Nyaha. :p
I still want to become a teacher, though. But I think, unless makapasok ako sa international school, mas pipiliin ko pa rin ang maging programmer. Kasi siyempre, mas malaki sahod. And I need money. :p
Pero isa rin naman sa choices ko ang computer science nang nag-fill up ako ng UPCAT form. (You're partly the reason.)
Fascinated din naman kasi talaga ako noon sa mga nagagawa ng mga computer science graduates. It seems, they set the trend in technology. And habang tumatagal mas nadagdagan ‘yung desire ko na maging part ng ganoong klaseng industry.
Tapos, masaya pa kasi napag-merge ko ang programming at ang interest ko sa education nang ginawa na namin ang undergrad thesis namin. :)
And so, eto na nga at programmer na ako.
One year na akong nagwowork sa Asia United Bank. In-house kasi ang lahat ng systems ng bangko kaya may sariling pool ng mga programmers. :D
Situated ang Information Technology department sa 31st floor. (Ewan ko kung saan napunta 'yung letter 'L'. :p)
My work area. :D
Noong na-assign na sa akin ang una kong project, nakaka-overwhelm. I need to migrate from one database server to another, so I need to convert ang mga sandamakmak na SQL scripts. I was like, ‘For real na ito, hindi na quiz, hindi na exam, hindi na thesis. ‘Yung mga scripts na gagawin ko, gagamitin na sa real world’. :p
Haha.
Our building at night. Ang liwanag, ang dami ilaw. :))
I finally scanned those few sketches I made ages ago.
But only after Ondoy almost drowned my sketchbook. =/
Pero buti na rin na nailigtas ko sila. :D
Drawing ang isang hobby na malapit ko na yatang makalimutan. :( Palagi na kasi akong walang extra time.
Nakakapag-drawing lang din ako kapag may kopyahan. :D
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. -.-
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.
'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.'
Gumising akong puno ng notifications ang FB page ko. Hihi. Birthday ko na kasi.
Sa paulit-ulit na pagta-type ko ng Salamat, (insert name here), iniisip ko kung maya-maya pangalan mo naman ang itatype/itetext ko.
Pagdating ko sa office, binati ako ng attendance system. Gusto ko sanang i-screen shot at i-mail sa'kin. Kaso, nahiya ako. Fire drill. Exercise. Mula 31st floor hanggang ground floor. Magpapasalamat na rin ako dahil walang 14th, 13th, at 4th floor. Muscle strain after, grabe. Hindi bale, may reward namang tatlong oras na petiks time. :)
Ay naalala mo ba 'yung unang beses na nagcelebrate ako ng birthday na kasama ka? Fail kayo sa plano ninyo. Ever late kasi ang susundo sa'kin. Ayan tuloy nagpang-abot tayo. Haha. :)
It is an annual event held all over the world whose objective is to develop a game within 48 hours. The theme for Manila is bug, slugs, and plugs. We met and interacted with high-caliber people, got more than enough freebies, and ate regardless of the time. J We somehow messed up with the final presentation, you know, technical stuff. But we bagged the runner-up title. J
Here’s the video of one of our games, Trash Talk. (Yes, we made not one, but two games. ^_^)
I don’t know with you. Did you start counting again?
February (2)
Jomai’s Birthday Surprise.
Me, Jomai, Guillard
Location: CS Department Faculty Lounge.
It entailed a little bit of mischievous acts like sneaking inside the folders in her laptop to get some pictures and luring her out from the venue while the rest are making preparations. :)
I paid your Meralco bill. Feels like I’m in being trusted with a house thing already. I like it. :)
March (3)
Our worst fight. You took back the key. One of my darkest nights. Never thought that you could do it. Never thought that I could walk that distance – alone.
Jomai and Guillard surprised me for my birthday.
We made polvorons.
I treated them at Jollibee. :)
But still, it is my worst birthday.
The hell month. Three major projects due. Make-up classes and exams.
April (6)
I chose to attend summer classes while everyone was up for the OJT.
Bought Loving Angels by Laureatte Therrien.
Angels Raphael and Santi
Started reading Death Note manga.
You returned the key. Reconciliation. The sweetest that I could dream of...
‘Last night I wished on a falling star...’ Too bad, I cannot have that note you wrote.
May (4)
I did not join the field trip for my Philippine Institutions subject. So I completed a project on acquiring every school in the Philippines named after Rizal.
I got an exemption from our Natural Science 1 final exam.
You were actually very upset that I agreed on meeting up with you the following day, knowing full well that the exemption list was not yet out. You cannot accept it if I have to cancel our meeting because I was taking up an examination. You would get hurt. But, I knew myself. J I calculated. And I was 98.9% percent sure I was going to make it at the exemption list. Yes, I knew I impressed you. :)
End of summer classes.
My Natural Science 1 class. :)
June (1)
I am officially a fourth year college student.
Attended TEDxUP. But it was only a series of projected videos at the Lecture Hall. I was deeply impressed by the technology now available to help children with their studies. It was like an industry already, and I call it – education technology. Hehe.
You got terribly sick and texted me you cannot even stand and walk your way around. So I hurried to your house. You were crying when I opened the door. You thought that I was not coming at all. I brought you something to eat. I asked what happened (you did not understand that what I needed to know were the details), and it fueled your irritation once again. The least you need is my irritating ignorance and insensitivity. Fortunately, I was able to soften you down. And fortunately, you liked the food I brought you, even if it was just instant noodles. I was thinking you would want something cooked, like arrozcaldo. I was actually skimming through the recipe as I was traveling and I was starting to get nervous that I might fail you again. Finally, your fever notched several degrees down. And there was nothing stopping you from going out. Apparently, you had some business to attend to and I was not allowed to know what that was. You did not answer me when I asked why you were still going out instead of resting. Time had taught me not to pry and get very nosy, so I did not push you into it. So, I just offered to boil the water you will be using to bathe. I was glad when you conceded.
July (2)
I finally created my Facebook account. The first Facebook app I tried was Pet Society. If pets there were real, mine would be probably dead by now. XD
Solar eclipse seen at CS Department. I have not seen it though. A popular Computer Science professor at the department was allegedly seen with students in front of the department. They were reportedly holding what appears to be a sheet of material that will enable anyone to see the eclipse without harming his or her eyes.
Graduation pictorial.
It was happiness yet trepidation.
August (1)
Pancake House with Margot. It was my first time. I ate cinnamon. Delicious! Especially that white creamy stuff you have to put as a coating before eating. Yum, yum. :)
It is the first time (and probably the last) that you took me to the rooftop. I watched your drenched hair get dry as the winds roughly blew its strands. We made up stories about the building that we saw, the car on the street, and the people in their homes. When we got down, amazingly, the strands of your hair turned into a perfect curtain of soft silky black after being tossed and turned by the winds.
I am so excited for your birthday. You were the one who invited me and made special requests. It made me quite happy.
So I had plans laid out.
September (0)
FAILED plans. I made a major decision. I hope you understand.
Attended BFreeDay with friends at MegaTent, Meralco Avenue. J We got our free UP-designed SmartBro. We were also very lucky during that day because we got everything else beyond the limits! Basketful of jellyace, overflowing Real Leaf, more than a serving of fishballs and squidballs, etc.! We even got very competitive when we got to the freedom board. We wrote ‘UP’ in big, bold and red letters – covering other writings from students of different universities! Haha. :)
Guillard’s Birthday Surprise. It was not what I thought it would be. We utilized all the resources we can harness – Facebook, YahooMail, Gmail, MSPowerpoint, classroom, projector. :)
A professor caught me sneaking down the stairs. I was sneaking because I was being careful not to be seen by Guillard. XD
Special thanks to a professor who willingly lent to us the projector and joined the fun.
October (0)
Thesis Final Presentation. Aubrey and I were the one in charge to do the talking. We were wearing formal outfits. And some people from Smart were actually invited. It turned out great. :)
Me, Ate Ru, Ate Rose Ann, AÜ
End of first semester.
November (0)
I am officially a graduating student. The fastest enrolment I have ever experienced since I entered the university if it was not for the fact that I left my Form5 at the laboratory when I was about to pay my tuition fee. XD
Lileth’s Birthday Surprise. I disturbed her sleeping younger sis and busy mother – I raided her house at around 6:30am to 7:00am to give her my gift. Haha. :)
Started reading Stephenie Meyer’s series.
Was not able to watch New Moon.
Bought Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom at a booksale.
December (0)
After nine years, I cut my hair super short.
Margot’s Birthday Date at Ministop. We ate ice cream. :)
TEDxManila. An unforgettable experience. I was a participant-turned-organizer. But it was worth it. I got free shirt, free pins, free food. :)
We were with one of the speakers, Mr. Iliac Diaz.
Web Science Laboratory Christmas Party. The first time that I had my stomach full the whole day. I did not join the exchange gift but got lucky enough to win the raffle – I bagged a Cadbury chocolate. :)
You were once my Cadbury Romeo.
My first job interview.
Best Lantern Parade experience. I was watching from the very front. The media cameras were directly in front of us. I was able to see the fireworks from start to end – it was the first. The experience was thrilling. The night sky became a large monitor showcasing different lights from different directions.
Ice Cream House date with Margot. :) We ate cherries. :)
In general, we like to give promises..
And whether we accept it or not, we like to hear someone promise that things will be like the ones we hope them to be..
But these promises often break..
Then the next time you hear another promise, you take it as another false hope..
Sooner or later, you proved you’re right..
And so false hopes pile up..
And then you ask..
What is better..
..saying that things will come out better, saying versions of ‘don’t-worry-i’ll-be-here-forever’ lines.. ?
..or just being with someone you care not to lose..
..seeing yourselves happy together without any expectations of what each other is supposed to do..
..feeling contented with each others presence..
..and even if no words come out from anyone of you, you feel your dreams come true...
It started with goodbye
You look at me straight in the eye
There’s nothing stopping you
You’re going for your dreams
And I’m not in those…
I pleaded let me wait
I’ll change you’ll see, our dreams will all come true
‘Cause hey, we’ve come so far
I’m not going to lose you.
But it appears you’ve made up your mind
You’re gonna leave me behind.
So baby stop calling me
I thought you wanna be free
I want to be alone, I’d rather turn off my phone
‘Cause I can’t resist to answer
And still come when you asked me to…
I pleaded let me wait
I’ll change you’ll see, our dreams will all come true
‘Cause hey, we’ve come so far
I’m not going to lose you.
But it appears you’ve made up your mind
You’re gonna leave me behind.
Leave me now, if you must
You are confusing me
Goodbyes are endings, can’t you see
I still love you, can’t you feel
I pleaded let me wait
I’ll change you’ll see, our dreams will all come true
‘Cause hey, we’ve come so far
I’m not going to lose you.
But it appears you’ve made up your mind
You’re gonna leave me behind.
You’re gonna leave me behind.
You’re gonna leave me behind.
