Out of sheer boredom

If the world were flat
And my buttocks square,
And the kitty-cats one-eyed,
And my master a hare,
I would declare a holiday
And say it in rhyme,
Forge Bush's signature
And be paid for my crime.
I'd travel hell and go to heaven,
Jumping on headless heads,
Counting black sheep that had no wool
No three bags full for a bed.

If the world were square
And my buttocks flat
I'd bawl in my dilemma
And be a miraculous hat,
I'd rush to an executioner
To try out my gown
For weddings? For parties?
For chopping your head down?
Then I'd twirl to the ballroom
Past the Blubber-Mouth dandy
To tug Goldilock's locks
And get little Bear's candy.



Just two stanzas of the original five. The last three seem pretty sucky (for me anyway), so I'm saving myself the embarrassment by not posting it here. I kinda left it hanging rather mercilessly, but then again, that's what you call suspense.

Ciao.

Very uncomfortable

I couldn't sleep last night, partly because I was sweating so much, and partly because I am still scared of the night. Actually, I snuggled into Bianca's bed. Needless to say, at our age, a single bed is VERY UNCOMFORTABLE when shared, and in this heat too.

So why the hell did I do that anyway?

The vision of the afternoon just kept coming back to me. I went to the class party, and it was a blast, really. There was just one creepy thing. Some of my classmates were playing with this little kid, Erick (who's the househelp's kid, I think). I was sitting on the couch, Kyla to my right and Jenina to my left. We were watching them play, when Kyla quietly said to them "Don't listen to him." There was something very unnerving about the way she spoke. I felt an involuntary shudder run through me. Curious as to why she said that, I asked her. "Basta..." she said. After a while, though, I got her to tell me. The kid, she said, sees things and suddenly points. The problem is, he isn't really sure, because he doesn't know what they are. So you can't be sure if he's pointing at something (um, spirits?) or if he just does that to get attention. Strange little kid. I relaxed a bit and continued to watch them. Now Ghe was asking him "San yung mumu?" Tanungin ba naman! Erick pointed up, to the balcony/window, which I can't accurately describe.

"Nandon?" The kid nods. "What's his name?"

"Charlie."

WAAAAH!!! I was getting really scared. This was the reason why Kyla doesn't like staying at Anj's place when night falls, she told me.

That freaky incident was the reason why I couldn't go to the bathroom alone after that. Strange things happened, though as to their authenticity, I'm not so sure.

Well, nightmare re-lived, I'm going to write about other things now. Below are some excerpts from my favorite books. They aren't exactly my favorite parts in my favorite books, cause some of them's going to be spoilers if I put it here.

ABNKKBSNPLAKo?! Mga Kwentong Chalk ni Bob Ong - by Bob Ong
I think this is the only Tagalog book which I've read out of my own accord.
p.45

"Kung sa elementary e nagbabago ang itsura ng mga estudyante, lalo naman sa highschool. Asar. Public enemy number 1 ang tigyawat. Nakakahiya 'yung malalaking pigsawat (combined force ng pigsa at tigyawat) na pag dumapo sa mukha mo e talagang nagsusumigaw ang "TIGYAWAT AKO! TIGYAWAT AKO! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!" Dyahe, lalo na 'yung acne na nagbubutas-butas ng mukha na pag nilagyan mo ng ketchup e pwede ka na sa Night of the Living Dead. Isabay mo pa d'yan ang baduy na uniform, prescribed 3x4 haircut, at boses na piyok nang piyok. Pilit kang pinagmumukhang pangit sa edad na pilit kang nagpapa-cute..."

The Rainmaker -by John Grisham
Very entertained by this one.
pp. 302-303

"...The fifth member of Great Benefit's legal team is Brandon Fuller Grone, pitifully unnummeraled and inexplicably uninitialed. I can't understand why he doesn't proclaim himself B. Fuller Grone, like a real big-firm lawyer. he's twenty- seven, two years out of Memphis State, where he finished number one in his class and left a wide trail. He was a legend when I started law school, and I crammed for first-year exams by using his old outlines.
Ignoring the two years M. Alec Plunk Junior spent clerking for a federal judge, there are fifty-eight years of experience packed tightly around the defense table.
I received my law license less than a month ago. My staff has flunked the bar exam six times.
I performed all this math late last night while digging through the library at Memphis State, a place I can't seem to shake. The law firm of Rudy Baylor owns a grand total of seventeen law books, all leftovers from school, and virtually worthless..."

Lirael - by Garth Nix
I still have Sabriel and Abhorsen to buy. Thanks to Ate Kit for lending me the trilogy in the first place.
p. 373-374

"...A few seconds after Lirael noticed the silence of the First Gate, the sound of the crashing water resumed. Whatever had stilled it had passed through,and was now in the First Precinct of Dath. With Lirael.
Lirael peered into the distance, unable to see anything moving. The grey light and flatness or the river made it hard to work out distances, and she had no idea whether the First Gate was close as it sounded. She knew it was marked by a veil of mist, and she couldn't see it.
To be on the safe side, Lirael drew both sword and pipes and took several steps towards Life, till she was close enough to feel its warmth at her back. She should cross now, she knew, but a daredevil curiosity gripped her and kept her there-- the urge to see, albeit briefly, a denizen of Death..."

Memoirs of Pontius Pilate - by James R. Mills
An excellent read, more on a historical view than a spiritual one.
p.121-122

"...After a while, my chief assistant came back to me and told me, "That carpenter walked in to the forecourt of the the temple swinging a scourge, and he used it on the men who were selling sacrificial animals. He also tipped over the tables of money changers, and that sent everyone scambling around after all the coins. It was very funny."
The next morning my scribe read to me the first of the written reports from the servant of he high priest. In part it said, "The fellow shouted at the merchants and the money changers as he was driving them out of the temple, 'It is written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer," but you have made it a den of thieves!'"
"So now he has infuriated those men who do business in the temple," I commented. "Can they do him any harm?"
"No, they can't," the scribe said. "Most Jews don't approve of them being there in the temple."
"If that is the case, why are they in the temple?"
"They all have licenses to be there," the scribe replied with a sour look. "They purchase them from the high priests."
"So what he just did was another attack on the chief priests."
"And it will really upset them. Selling the liecenses to do business in the temple produces a lot of income for them." ...

--------------------------------------------------------
That's it for now. I'm rather tired of typing, so that will have to do. Keep in mind, I DID NOT WRITE THESE (duh). A friendly reminder, just in case.

Done in 5 minutes!

Ooof... So friggin hot. We need to invest in more electric fans.

For later: CLASS PARTY at La Vista! Yay!

Gonna take a shower. Hafta go...

Going...

Going...

Gone.

*poof*



Note: This post was rewritten three times due my computer's stupidity.

After Dinner

Haven’t updated for quite a while. Here goes.


Piano lessons were today. I was supposed to do the Chopin piece, but since I didn’t touch it one bit, I sheepishly begged off. I did Sonatina instead. I’ve technically mastered it, though there’s still polishing to be done, specifically on the second movement. As for Czerny, still stuck on that E flat major piece. Darn it. I’ve been doing that for three meetings now! Boo! Hiss!

Anyway, not a bad meeting all in all. Didn’t exactly embarrass myself, happily. I’ve done my homework today, which means that it was a smooth session. Kuya Benji, however, NEEDS PRACTICE!!! I can hear Teacher sighing, ya know! Tut tut.
(Hee! I’m putting it here so you’ll know. I know you know, but do me a favor and practice. Pretty please?)

I watched Constantine afterwards. Couldn’t understand it actually. Partly because of the low volume (Ate Don was sleeping), the CRAZY subtitles (mga langkwentang pirata!!!), and the distractions. I need to watch it again, or have somebody explain it to me.

Ate’s on the phone right now. Most likely talking with Ate Nikka. I heard her telling Ate Nikka about Constantine. "Uy, have you watched Constantine? It’s really nice." Nice. What a vague description of a movie. I doubt that it was really NICE. If she understands the movie, which she doesn’t and I don’t too, then she’ll have a more apt description than NICE. "No, it didn’t change my views at all. I liked the angel’s wings, though." How nice.

Nice.

Nice.

Nice.


It wasn’t nice at all! Hel-lo!?! It was rather heavy stuff. It was about heaven and hell, God and the Devil. These things aren’t NICE. These are things you ponder on! You don’t take them lightly and say "Oh okay" and that’s that, especially not when somebody else is saying something that could change your views about it. Take that Da Vinci Code, for example…

Hmphft.

I should stop now. Before I overwork myself.

Oh yeah, by the way. I don’t mind you reading my blog, sis. As Zarah appropriately wrote in hers: "RESPECT MY THOUGHTS, OR GET OUT."


Thank you.

Scrambled

Sunburn.

Ouch.

No shoulder-tapping please.

Bianca forgot the sunblock-- darn it!

There's sand in my swimsuit! Darn it!

Mom's making us clean right now. DARN IT!

Ayaw.

Hmph.

We look so red.

I look so red.

To hell with that!

I feel sore too.

I want chocolate.

Yay! Kisses!

I need to buy ink pens.

I should finish Ate Joanne's drawing by now.

Still need ink pens.

"Patience perforce with willful choler meeting, makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting."

Did I get that right?

Hey!

It's Mr. Big Tree!

So...

Where are the monkeys?

Kabayan Beach Resort looks good.

Oops.

What?

Bianca, get me some matches.

Happy Birthday Vids!

Ate: Uy. We're on a dirty road!

Me: DIRT road, sis, dirt road.

Hmm...

Both are grammatically correct anyway.

Wish I could put ice on my back.

It feels like summer.

Summer is hot.

A swim would be nice.

Maybe after my sunburn heals.

"It's hard balancing in the water with a ball between your legs." - me

Figure that out yourself.

No.

Yes?

Why?

Huh?

Barbie looks pretty.

Too perfect.

Depressing.

Little critters are cute, though.

Mom has a houndog's nose.

She can smell the mice.

In the pantry.

That's what she says.

We should use her to track 'em!

And then?

Where are cats when you need them?

Oh yeah.

Next door.

No way.

Those are crazy ones.

Na may galis.

Ick.

Any tame ones out there we can borrow?

Gato could do the job.

Just don't know where he is.

Would fake cat meows work?

Don't think so.

Psh.

Should set the table now.

Darn it.

March 22: My first year of highschool life ends

The last day. Haaaaaay...

We watched a musical "play" in the Assumpta. It was called "The Life After the Cross", or something to that effect. Sister Carla thought it was a fitting close, since the school year ends on Holy Week. I didn't mind watching it. The air-con venue makes up for the 1:00 pm departure, instead of the usual 10:20am.

As a critique, I can say that they're not bad. They had good choreography, with just enough people on stage. And they could sing! At last!!! People who know how to sing properly. (I've seen enough stars on tv trying to even lipsync with the record to last me a lifetime. As I say, kung hindi marunong, kaawaan niyo na. Huwag pilitin.) On top of that, they were very professional. Even when they had to use the handheld mics instead of the clip-ons (I think those were broken), they didn't lose their lines. I could see them passing the mic when needed, but they did it so smoothly, that it wasn't obvious at all. No fuss.

But overall, however, I have only one thing to say: WOAH!!! ANG LAKAS NG APPEAL NI MATTHIAS!!! I think more than half the audience was drooling over him, and he ellicited such a response, even I was a bit stunned at his impact on the audience. He was a good-looking guy, not that old, I guess somewhere in his late teens or something. As Ms. Danah so aptly remarked:

"O ano? Makakita lang ng guwapo gising na."

He had the audience's whole and undivided attention, even if there were other people on stage.

It was like a phenomenon I haven't experienced before. Some even screamed when he came onstage. Sure, that happens at concerts, but not when you're in a theater, not when you know that such behavior si frowned upon. Yet he was able to move the audience to disregard that rule. He was that effective. He didn't intend it though; it just happened. He was even rather unsure of how to handle the attention.

His fellow actors must have noticed the attention he was getting, because when curtain call came, the one nearest to him grabbed him as he was exiting, forced him to face the audience, got his hand and waved it.

And all the girls squealed.

The fact that majority of the girls reacted that way is proof that they still had their eyes on him even as he was exiting. Wow. I didn't think a stranger could be that so effective with the ladies. It was fun altogether, though. The kilig moment was so... electrifying, that I'm sure some are still hung over. Even I didn't escape unscathed. I felt pretty giddy after that for a good while.

-------------------------------------------------
Uy! Kuya Mike just called. I thought someone was playing a prank on me, because it was a different voice that answered on the other end. Turns out it was Kuya Yen. Good thing I still scraped up enough decent English for a bit of conversation. My thoughts were thrown into a scramble, so surprised was I. He wanted to ask Mom how to make Kare-kare. Now he's talking to Dad.

Speaking of cousins, I remember the time we used to stay over at our aunt's place (my mom's sister). My cousins and I used to play Pillowfight in the Dark. Kuya Patrick was invincible. He could take the three of us down with a single swipe of that huge pillow. We couldn't swing those humongous hotdoggy ones back then, so we had to use the smaller ones. We played that game every night, until Kuya David hit his head on the corner of the bed.
Oooh! What a hit! I never saw a bump as big as his. After that, Ate Katrina warned us never to play it again, so we just ate balut night after night.


Mouse update: Naghahasik parin ng lagim.

Now it's in our room! Gah! Much worse! I hope it gets caught, preferrably SOON.

Of anti-piracy and little mice

Really freaked out a while ago. There was a little black mouse near the pc. I first thought it was a spider... but then, it was unusually too shy to be a spider, so I thought it was a lizard. And then, the horrifying revelation happened when it dared to go out of its nook, and I saw that it was a dreaded mouse. I gave an involuntary shriek and bolted.

I hope it's gone now. Dad chased it downstairs a while ago, just before dinner. Creepy little mouse. Wish it'd go away.

Dad bought a pirated VCD copy of Hitch. I just couldn't stand watching it, because for one thing, Will Smith was blending into the background. It was THAT dark. Dammit. I hate pirated copies. I will hate them until the end of it all... or when the people who do piracy finally use their heads. God, if I was copying movies illegally, you wouldn't know it was fake.

Nap is good.

All right. I take it back. Catcher in the Rye isn't as bad as I thought a while ago.

Must've needed my nap. How tired was I? That much? Enough to make me mad over a book. Sleep cleared my mind a little, and I now see it in another perspective. Tsk. I want to read the whole darned book again just to know if Holden really was what I said before (except for being repetitive--that one's definite), or maybe I got that impression because I was getting cranky. Well, he was being slightly unreasonable... But anyway, no need to argue with myself again. I have three days to finish the book.

The hurrying does not help, especially when I have no mind to devour it that fast.

Gack.

WAAAAH! A thin high-pitched sound is coming from the pc!!!! It's driving me nuts! It's like eveytime I turn my head, it goes one octave higher. It sounds like a high-frequency thing, and what's more, I can't locate the accursed source.

. . .

Ah. Good. Silence for now.


It just rained. I usually like rain-- it's the best time for sleeping. I just hate the darned thing when it rains on you. You have to be inside the house for the perfect rain-day. Otherwise you're gonna have a very very sucky time, especially when it just drizzles and the heat under the ground seeps out. Very sticky feeling, that one. I like the big-raindrops kind the best, which splatters on the roof like innumerable little drummers drumming away.
I like the rain, but I hate getting wet. Other people love it... but then again, this is acid rain we're talking about.

It's the first day of tests today. The second will be tomorrow. Man, life must be hell for the people who have to go to school six times a week.

I'm reading Catcher in the Rye currently, and I still can't figure out why they say it's a great book. But then again, I'm still too early in the book to judge anything. I'm already trying to analyze Holden cause I'm beginning to hate his attitude, and up to know, I'm still pondering if he's worthy enough to hate.. He has this This-world-is-so-crazy-stupid-and-fake-and-I'm-the-only-one-sane-enough-to-see-it-dammit! attitude. I'm still trying to look for a single word to describe him, so that will have to do for now. It was pretty funny, at the start, but it became tiresome as it went on.

He's kinda repetitive. Really he is. But he's so just goddam repetitive, really. I hope he won't turn out to be a flat character, because if he is, I pity his immature and sulky thinking. What a miserable world he made for himself. And I can't understand why he thinks everything that's good is fake.

I'm starting to think of him as one twisted creature.



I can't believe I'm getting so worked up over this thing. Gaaaah! He just irritates me so much!



And to think I'm still continuing to read this.



Hmph.


At least I know why Mandy (from the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy) reads this. They think in the same way, except that Mandy's a lot worse, and she amuses me much more than he does.

Schooby-Dooby Wee!

Happy Blog day again, I suppose. I’m not exactly sure when the real Happy-Blog-Day day is. I guess it’s supposed to be on March 14, but since February has only 28 days, today would technically be one month. I’m posting an entry today just in case. I hope it doesn’t become as sucky as Monday turned out to be. I mean, there I was, scribbling away to my heart’s content and just when I wanted to post it, the pc crashed, to my utter dismay. I was pissed enough to scream on the shoutbox before shutting the computer down.
Thought for the day: back-up is good.

Ms. Parinas got mad at us today because of our complaints and refused to teach. We spent the period doing nothing yet it’s our test tomorrow. Wow. What a happy way to spend the last meeting. But my class realized that we were at fault, and I’m proud of them for admitting that. Well, maybe except for a few isolated cases like *cough* Cara *cough* some people I know.

It’ll be Thursday tomorrow, the last class day, though not the last school day. We finally decided on something for the prac test on Music. What do you get when you take a pukey Britney Spears song and couple it with boy band moves?!? A bloody mess? Nope! Our presentation! Tadaaah!!! I don’t mind. I’m cool with it. I guess you only get to do a few embarrassing moments in your life intentionally, so make the most out of it. It’s something of an interpretative dance thing, though not so complex, so the actions are a cinch to memorize.
Besides, this is Music, not P.E. We just have to do it in sync.

I got to talk to Alecs for a little while during departure. She likes Mike Elgar so much. Yup, the Great Mike Elgar with His Equally Great Bangs! Wonder where he got those… hm… I love the bangs, if not the voice. He sang some songs in the Rivermaya album. I guess one was for his wife, since the title was "She". Speaking of songs, I just finished running through "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It sure feels different playing a song, rather than my usual classical pieces. The notes felt… naked, somehow. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t have the elaborate runs, trills, variations and the like. I guess when it’s a song, since somebody’s supposed to sing it, you have to mute everything that accompanies it so that the focus will be on the voice. Hmm… Fair enough. I just wish that it had more "décor", so to speak… but then again, that’s just me.
--------------------------------------------------------

And about the poem… I’m not sure if I’m going to post one, because I’m still mad at the computer for crashing itself. That poem has a rather long history, you know, and it’s no fun to wreck something I laboriously tried to remember!

. . .

Ehe. Well maybe not that long and laborious.

Happy Blog Day

My blog is one month old now. I feel as if I should do something "special" but I can't think of anything, so what the heck. Maybe I'll do a poem... later. My thoughts are rather disorganized at the moment, even if I'm doing nothing.



Oh well.

No title today .

Well, thank you first of all to Ate Fay, for the Shoutbox, and to Kuya Benji, for putting in my blog. Thankies!!! Seriously, HTML gives me a headache. Sure, I guess it’s simple enough to understand, but that involves a lot of memorization and stuff. Maybe I’ll learn it later. Hopefully. I still have Kuya Benji fix anything if I do something wrong anyway. Yay! Har har.

I wanted to post something last night, but I was too busy watching TV to drag myself to the pc and type. I usually don’t watch TV during school days, often because my after-school routine is just sleep, eat, use the pc and if I still have time, do my homework. Hmmm… I admittedly don’t have any study habits. Now that I think about it, I’m lousy when it comes to studying, but I manage anyway. I have to establish study habits soon, however. I’m now feeling the pressure of aiming at academic honors for graduation, even if it’s three school years away. I don’t want to feel so indifferent about it, then realize how badly I wanted it after all. It happened when I was in seventh grade. Just around a few days before graduation, it suddenly dawned on me that everyone was expecting me to receive a medal, and I lamented (and even cried a bit) over the fact that it was now too late to do anything, because I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. Thankfully, I still got honors. Felt VERY relieved after that.

Anyway, back to last night.

I was able to watch Gilmore Girls, my favorite show. I’ve been missing a lot of episodes lately, due to the fact that its time is in conflict with our dinner. There are some people who can’t fully appreciate it because they’re kinda slow in catching the humor (read: Bianca, Mom and Dad). I dunno. Maybe they’re just not concentrating or whatever.

I stayed up late just watching no particular show because I was too lazy to go to sleep. Too lazy! Well… sort of. I’m a scaredy-cat. I’ve been one ever since I read The True Philippine Ghost Stories. I used to scoff at it, mostly for its grammatical errors, wrong editing, typos and stuff. But it began to scare me so much that I rather dread going to sleep nowadays. I fear the unseen mostly for two reasons: one, they cannot be scientifically explained and two, there is no certain protection against them. I’m a skeptic. But I know these things are real, yet I deny their existence. Funnily, this is the same kind of thinking that leads people in the movies to their death, just because they refused to believe something that could have been true. This is the same kind of situation that I vowed never to be caught in, but now I wonder. Could my skepticism lead me to my untimely demise?

I guess I should just be open to all possibilities, no matter how far-fetched they may seem.

Feeling Reflective - 11:15 pm

Thank God for blogs. I've never thought that I might be missing half of my life because I don't really know who the people around me are. I know myself as distant... but now it makes me regret things. I wish I'm still a kid, you know, not this mature, yet. It's what sets me apart from people my age.

So who am I anyway?

---------------------------------
URG. Flowery undies disturb me. Anak ng tinapay, nasira tuloy litanya ko.

Hay Patatas!

Friday. End of Hell Week. Yay! I was able to pass all my projects on time. Very happy about that. I think I messed up the colors on the Capulet's coat of arms, though. My colors backfired, because I used too many. I couldn't stick to just two main colors because I wanted to experiment on using more than just the usual. The Montague's coat of arms looks fine, though the main color was more on yellow, rather than black. I had to vary the color of the flowery border things around it from yellow by subtly blending in some orange, just to separate it from the yellow in the crest itself. Didn't want to use black as the main color 'cause it's hard covering up the white spots to make it look solid. The Capulet's had a rather complicated design, and though it looked pretty at first, the coloring took a long time. I finally threw down my colored pencils in frustration and just continued without giving a damn. Sa kahuli-hulihan, nagmukha siyang sabog. Tada. But I found an explanation for it anyway.

Haaaay...

ang nakakainis sa blog pag hindi ka makasulat agad, yung susulat mo na matagal nang nanyari, panis na bago pa makarating dito. Anyway, again, a recap of noted events during the past week:

Monday - Submission of the news diary. Ayesa lost hers. Grabe, I really feel sorry for her. She was making it diligently, without cramming and now she lost it, exactly on the submission date. Good luck in making another one. And oh yeah, I found the first news diary I made (just half-done) which I lost; it was in my cabinet all along. Oh well. The second diary was a whole lot more organized anyway.

Tuesday - Wala lang. Test.

Wednesday - Submission of English paper. It's supposed to be a personal anecdote about love. Maybe I'll post it here, when I feel like it.

Thursday - Practical test in Music, supposedly. Our tempo: Moderato. What song is on moderato? Our dilemma at the moment, so we haven't practiced anything yet. Kyla's group looked very cute doing the Chokolate. At least that's one novelty song I can tolerate.
Madz's group had an amusing presentation during CLE: Search for Mr. Apostle 2005 and 12 na! Apostle Ka na Ba? (Hindi pa!). Interesting. Though I couldn't hear what they were saying over the din the audience was making.

Friday - Test in Filipino. Sana mataas naman ngayon. We watched Romeo+Juliet. A very sad story. Sigh. And then I watched the Pamulatan play, Miss Saigon. It was... alright. At least air-con yung venue. There's just something... awkward in watching a love story with females filling in the guy roles. As Angelica said "Ano ba yan, parehong maganda yung bida." Shrug. The lovey-dovey scenes made me nervous. Their faces were too close for comfort, but it was too far away for believable intimacy. I understand it's just a play, but still... it's weird.

Anyway, Full House na, ang Koreanobelang sobrang bitin kaya nakaka-bad trip. Dapat bawasan pa yung commercials. Hmph.

2 more weeks!!! 2 more weeks!!!

Just a little more push, and we'll be out of school!! Finally!!!

The wolf attacks with his fang, the bull with his horn

My sisters and I just fought. Actually it started off with Bianca and Ate, but I soon joined in, because I was defending Bianca.

Bianca wanted Ate to edit the article that Ate made her do for the Plaid. But Ate refused. Why? Because Bianca's handwriting is so bad, she reasoned, which I think is so petty and stupid. It was mean of her to refuse just because of that! Of course Bianca got mad, saying that she shouldn't have forced her to do it in the first place. Ate said that she should have told her. Bancs didn't want to actually. As I said before, she was forced.
My older sister was getting more maddeningly unreasonable, and seeing as how Bianca was rather unskilled at the art of word-fighting, I took over.
I laid my weapons bare and attacked her unstable "defenses", or rather, poor reasons.

• Poor handwriting or not, it's her JOB as the Assistant Overhead of the Plaid (school paper), and the one who assigned the article, to edit it.
  
• Ate refused to acknowledge Bianca's unwillingness.
  
• She said Bianca's article was crap (which was MEAN of her. what do you call YOUR articles?). You knew she didn't write that well. If so why make Bianca do it? Ate: You're the only 6th grader I know (it's an article about a 6th grade activity). What do you call Jamie, Bianca L. and Joanne?
  

There were a lot other things in the dust. It was a furious exchange of word play and sarcasm. I think I won, but how would I say, since I didn't want to talk to Ate after she apparently could NOT get those three reasons (above) INTO HER MADDENINGLY THICK HEAD!!!!

I admit, it was also very nasty of me, even if I was acting in my hapless sister's defense. I want to apologize, but it would kill me to do so.

The Inanities of the boob-tube

I got this article from the Manila Bulletin website while browsing for my last two entries for my project. (Hallelujah!!! Matatapos na kalbaryo ko!) It's a very interesting read, done by LOI LANDICHO from Makati.

Here it is:
(link: http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2005/02/22/ENTR2005022229289.html)

I have had enough of the following boob tube inanities and I shall combust spontaneously if I still see any of these on TV in the next few days. Enough already!

1. Celebrity porn videos. Boy Abunda was right, "sobra na ang kababuyan." But then again, gossip-oriented shows like "The Buzz," help proliferate kitsch by showing this on television. Think Cristy Fermin. The woman had the guts to proclaim on nationwide TV that she had seen every pornographic video that involved local celebrities. Yes, including Mahal’s.

2. Mystika-Madam Auring-Tita Swarding rift. Again, showbiz-oriented talk shows, and of late, even gag shows, are guilty of exploiting the non-issue that was the trio’s alleged animosity toward one another. There was a time when the triumvirate appeared in six shows in just a week! As it turned out, the fight was all for the show, and the ratings!

3. Reporters who outdo one another in creating the news instead of just reporting it. We have seen them during relief operations: News reporters handing over the goods to typhoon victims or news personalities sealing boxes of instant noodles and canned goods themselves. Oh please, leave the job to Rosa Rosal and Sec. Dinky Soliman!

4. Novelty songs with double meaning. The popularity of Lito Camo’s compositions like Basketbol and Bulaklak are indisputable. However, when your talent borders on the creative and the crass, that isn’t funny.

5. PR people who give awards. A majority of them were able to legitimize their "entertainment scribe" status by taking their oath as members of organized groups. They choose television’s and cinema’s best every year. But then again, who are these people? Can they even define what filmmaking is? Being fragmented has also eroded their credibility (if there was any). Most PMPC members are identified with ABS-CBN while the break-away Entertainment Press is perceived to be "closer" to GMA 7. They work as publicists for the networks’ stable of artists. So come awards season, who do you expect to win a lion’s share of their awards? Not IBC 13.

6. Madam Auring’s pregnancy. If the septuagenarian’s claims were all to be believed, then she would have been a new mother five times for the past five months. And that excludes miscarriages!

7. Network wars. The battle has become a bit more personal as each network’s artists exchange diatribes through their respective shows. It’s actually getting worse and each "patutsada" is inviting a potential mayhem!

8. Out of schedule programming. I miss those nights when I could still catch "Dong Puno Live" or "I-Witness" before the clock struck 12. Today, even late night newscasts cap after midnight. Ironically though, anchors still end their programs with the line, "Magandang gabi." Oh crap! It’s already morning and Ukraine’s got a new president!

9. Commercial overload. While strict implementation of the rule against excess airtime for advertisements is applied to larger networks like ABS-CBN and GMA 7, the KBP ignores the violation being committed by government stations like RPN 9. Imagine a boxing show lasting from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. due to commercial overload! While RPN 9 rakes in hundreds of thousands of pesos in revenues, boxing aficionados had to wait for 60 minutes before a three-round fight is shown.

10. Mahal. Let’s all leave her alone.

Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus - Never tickle a sleeping dragon

Tasklist:
English
a.project (due March...10?)
- costume design for on character from R&J (half finished)
- Capulet and Montague's coat of arms (still drafting)
- a postcard
- a dialogue of Spongebob and Patrick talking in Shakespeare's language
b.written composition (due March 9)
c. test (March 8)

AP Misc.
a. newsdiary (due March 10) a. Ate Joanne's sketch
b. test (March 8) b. buy graphing paper

Oral English
a. monologue (for Monday)

CLE
a. oral reporting (Monday)

Algebra
a. assignment - p.244 # 43-48 on graphing paper

Science
a. test (March 7)

Filipino
a. test (March 11)
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SUCH A LOT TO DO!!! Wai! And I'm sure I've left something out... Thoughts are slipping through my mind like water. I can't remember what I was going to write about. The number of tasks is rather overwhelming. And I take so long in doing my artsy projects. So little time to do everything. I've been thinking about them for weeks now but still not doing anything. Oh well. It's already Saturday morning. I should go to sleep now. I've got piano lessons later in the afternoon . Weirdly enough, it's only when I go to my piano lessons that I feel awkwardly stupid about things. My teacher once asked me what key was the piece I was assigned to play. I answered "E." And she was like "E what?" Confused, I replied "E what, what?" Turns out the correct answer to that question was E major. And then she spent the rest of the time teaching me how to build chords, all the while I was struggling to comprehend why I couldn't answer that simple question. It was like staring into a blank wall, and then vainly clawing the air to find the answer. It makes me realize how little I know of music, how incomplete the lessons are in school, how useless and incompetent my music teacher was back in gradeschool and how grateful I am that my highschool music teacher is very capable of teaching and motivating us.

I had a really freaky dream about three nights ago. It must've come from reading Romeo and Juliet. I remember that it started with my sister chasing me all over the house, trying to convince me to marry some stranger. I petulantly refused. But she was pushing and coaxing me so hard, I agreed if only I had the assurance that it was someone worth it. "Oh yes, he's tall and he looks alright." she said. So I gave my yes, only to find out the wedding was later that night. If the preparations had been done properly, I don't think my dream version of me would have minded so much. But it was the saddest, ugliest, and most horribly unromantic thing ever. Might as well go to my funeral. I didn't even have a damned wedding dress, nor make-up nor my hair done nor flowers even. I think I wore an long drab yellow skirt that was ancient and just a shirt to go with it. The church aisle was very long, giving me plenty of time, so I asked someone on what year the groom was born in. That person said "Around the 1940s I think." If it had been real, I would've screamed my head off but the answer so stunned me that I couldn't speak. I think I numbly continued walking down, feeling the looming sense of doom growing larger and larger. Fortunately at that point, I woke up, thanks to my handy-dandy alarm clock, and got ready to go to school.

Shirking my chores...

It is Wednesday, the day with an afternoon of most non-acad subjects. Nearly slept in Health, where Ms. Morales was droning on and on about the Medical-Dental Mission. A glance at Cara led me to believe she was just bored, not sleepy, for once. Amazing. I wanted to rest my head on my desk and close my eyes, but Cara was threatening to pinch me, as I had done when she was nodding off in Science.

AK came after Health, but they talked about the same thing anyway, that Medical-Dental Mission. To be frank, I have no desire to dabble in these sort of things. It's always donations, donations, donations. I'm already spent, what more can I give? I can't believe my classmates eagerly volunteer for this sort of thing. Running around and taking care of kids, facing the clamoring crowd as they try to get everything that's free. And then they get mad when it all becomes a very disorganized affair. They should be thankful we haven't given up on them and their undisciplined and unconctrollable ways. I might be assuming too much, but I feel rather sour about the whole thing. I do this because it's school work, but if it's anything else, I would rather not. Don't get me wrong. I want to help people, when I have a capacity to do more than just remedy their problem. I want to give them JOBS, not cash donations. Sure, it helps, but does it TEACH anything? It's teaching them to be a mendicant, perhaps. Even if we're more fortunate than they are, I don't believe it's an obligation to help them through donations. Perhaps to the poorest of the poor, that I would agree upon. But what about those who are able-bodied? Why not WORK for a living? And do some family planning for Pete's sake! They seem to be happy breeding and breeding in their spare time, which means ALL the time. I wish they'd be more responsible for their actions. The poor can't keep blaming the government without keeping up their part. They have more to give than just bumming aruond, making kids and dirtying the rivers.

Tuesdays: I pity the people attending remedials

Tuesday is the slowest day of the week. Double Home Ec (cringe), double Lab with Ms. Carrie (no!) and double Algebra. Study period comes after Algebra, which is also Remedial Math for some people. Triple Algeb in a single afternoon! Kawawa sila.

Back to homework.