The TIEN-o-Meter

The Price of Happiness

2011-02-28T22:13:00.006+08:00

Happiness scares me now.

Ever watch that TV Series, ANGEL? You know, that off-shoot of Buffy The Vampire Slayer? I love that show. Partially because I was a kid back then, and it seemed cool to me, and partly because I could relate to David Boreanaz's character, Angel.

Now Angel, is a Vampire with a soul. The story goes he was cursed with a soul by some gypsies and became good, cleaning up the streets of Los Angeles. Apart from the Brooding nature, Martial arts moves, Vampire mode and cool black trenchcoat, he also had this characteristic; when he experiences a moment of PURE HAPPINESS, he turns back into his psychotic alter ego, Angelus. Angelus was his identity for majority of his unlife as a vampire. They killed by the hundreds, him and his cohorts.

I recently felt like I could relate to him; I found it troubling that whenever I experience happiness in my environment, something happens that breaks that happiness streak. For example; back in college, I experienced the most fun I had in my whole life so far~ I did well on my course, had a lot of friends, etc. I was happy. but I found out soon that my classmates hated me. I inquired to the best that I can as to why. There were a lot of reasons; but the bottomline was: they hated me. It was the first time in my life as a young adult that I wept; the happiness I felt had a price: the good will of my peers. Even my closest friends had negative feelings towards me. And I felt sad because all that time, I thought I finally belonged. I thought I had finally gained acceptance from others; the kind of acceptance I was devoid of ever since childhood.I started asking questions:

“was there something wrong with me? Was it something I said, something I did?“

I got my answers and of course they hurt like hell. I was just trying to be MYSELF, and the people rejected me. The happiness I felt were illusions; and as the curtains came down, depression sets in. i'd felt this way back when I was really young; I was a hyperactive kid, very energetic, and very impulsive. Then came one time that my brother scolded me for it. That made me change my personality; from being a noisy, fun loving kid, to a laid back, silent, shy kid. I became like that up until high school; where I became a doormat. Experienced bullying, low social value and such. And everytime I become really happy, something always happens that turns that smile upside down. It seems that happiness always teases me, never staying too long.

Cut back to the present. There'd been recent events that made me realize what I become when i'm really happy. I dont know, I guess instinctively, and without conscious thought, I want to share what I feel with other people. Little did I know that that impulse would be my undoing. I become more of a PEST. When im all happy and stuff, its like i'm possessed; I become more talkative, more active in conversations, throw the usual corny jokes, etc. and it was only when I saw myself on camera this one time, that I realized how “too much” my happiness can spell for other people. I can see the awkwardness in their faces, the lack of comfort, the desire to move away. And to think that that time, I feel more MYSELF than ever. I felt happy about myself.

“is it wrong to be MYSELF? The state everyone tells me to be? Why isn't it working? I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not hurting or offending anyone. Why do they still shun me? Why?”

“have I asked too many people with too many conflicting ideas and concepts that i've confused myself as to which I should follow?”

as a stand-up comedian described it in one of his skits, there are various LEVELS to things. So must be with my brand of happiness. There must be some sort of extent or limiter to my happiness meter. I think it so happens that through my years of REPRESSED IMPULSES, and as one of our art directors put it, LACK OF AN OUTLET, I may have become a monster unto myself, unleashing a path of annoyance whenever I overshoot that happiness limit.

I've lost 3 friends from my favored site, plurk. Two of them through annoyance maybe; and one through a failed attempt at romance. Is it coincidental that I became close to them all before they left me? Or was it an unseen darkness that creeps up; a constant threat to everyone I get close to?

But not everyone has the same opinion about me. Most people dont mind, they accept me for who I am; maybe they don't know this side of me, or i'm different when I'm with them. Are THEY my true friends, instead of the ones i'm closer to? Or am I doomed to scare them away with my usual “charm”?

It almost feels like a CURSE to like people now. If I like them, I spend more time chatting with them and eventually, they'll get annoyed and fade away into the night. It really does feel like a curse; getting close to anybody outside my family.

I've been told I react in extremes. I get too noisy and annoying, and when i'm confronted about it, I become too silent and brooding instead. I've been mistaken for a snob because of that; but that was not my intention. I'm having trouble finding that right balance; that right amount of this and that, the prescribed dosage.

It's really hard being me. I don't know and I don't claim to know a lot of stuff, I just like to EXPRESS myself. I hope it doesn't become a crime. Nobody gets hurt; only I do.

Some tell me I should not mind what others think of me. But doing that only worsens my situation; people interpret that as being selfish and all the more reason to leave.

i just wish people would tell me immediately if they have a problem with me; i always find out the hard way when something like this happens. people never talk, for whatever reason.

I don't want to drive people away, especially those who I became close with. I want to be happy with them, and them to be happy with me. But that's in a perfect world. Nobody's perfect, and these are all the dents in my armor.(well, almost all of them). I hope I will not be judged by my impulsive actions, but by the intent I put in them. I don't mean to annoy people, I just want to find acceptance and common ground with my peers.

A reminder to myself; with great happiness, comes great dissappointment.

The Tien-o-Meter gives 2010 a -10 out of 10

Year-End Personal Recap

2010-12-31T13:15:00.014+08:00

December 31, 2010. 1:19pm.

Several hours before a New Year begins, and i turn another year older. 2010 became very special for me; 23 is somewhat a favorable number. I like the numbers 2,3,7 and 8. Just because.

Maybe another factor why i like 2010 is because it's the year of the Tiger; i'm considered born on the year of the Tiger when using the chinese calendar, since chinese horoscope normally references the chinese calendar instead of the roman calendar; it's their horoscope after all. If the roman calendar was used, i'd be considered born on the year of the rabbit. This year has been very eventful; i experienced a lot of new things, discovered things about myself i wasn't aware of.

Some of those significant First-Time events are:(not in order)

I got to meet Bruce Lee's martial arts classmate under Ip Man, Duncan Leung.
-I attended this mini martial arts seminar at a local school in QC, he was there giving a talk, and i volunteered for the demos he gave. I remember getting goosebumps because of the realization that this guy's experience level is very high, and he got to meet the real-life versions of the movie heroes i see.

I got to learn Jeet Kune Do.
-The martial art Bruce Lee invented, Jeet Kune Do was something new i encountered. I'm not a fan of Bruce Lee, but i respect the way he lived. Trying this martial art gave more insight for my overall martial arts experience.

Out-of-Town trips.
-I got to go to a lot of new places, Cagbalete in Quezon province, Puerto Galera and La Union. I love traveling. Especially when i'm with friends.

Got asked out on a date.
-A friendly date, but still a date nonetheless. Not that i'm a dateless loser, it's just that it's ME who usually ask girls out, not the other way around.

First Kiss(es)
-When you're single since birth,(and note, i still am :)) ) this is a significant event. LOL

First Time Breaking in the House.
-Yeah, stupid me, i left my keys in the house :)) i went all stealthy-ninja on the house so as to not alarm the neighbors
-Although, i got to break in my parent's house one time when the same thing happened back in sta. mesa--this is in parañaque, so it doesn't count XD

First Time i was Hired to Cosplay.
-I'm not really a Cosplayer, i just tried it once..and then got to try it twice..and eventually i got contacted by SM Cinema to cosplay the character i've cosplayed before. I was the only one who showed up out of the group that was supposed to appear. Most embarassing event yet. solo walking at the mall in costume. Got nice perks afterwards, though.

Got to meet an international celebrity.
-The perks i was talking about? One of 'em's i got to get in the premiere of the Tekken live action film in the same mall after my cosplay gig. And i got to meet Jon Foo, the main protagonist of the film; and a fellow chinese martial arts practitioner.

Got to try Parkour.
-Finally got to try a new discipline i've been seeing in movies. It's much harder in real life, and requires balanced upper and lower body strength. It's FUN, too. At least now i don't have to limit myself to the constraints of normal movement across the urban jungle.

First Time to Actually Break a Bottle Bottom.
-My Sifus and Classmates have been doing this for quite some time, and due to my lack of effort in training and busy schedule, ive fallen far behind. I trained in my own time, in my personal schedule and finally got to break one. I should continue this until i reach my ultimate goal: breaking a coconut, which they've been doing from way before.

First Time to learn some Ground Fighting.
-Mixed Martial Arts have been around quite a while, and i've been interested in learning how to counter moves when lying in the ground. Got my UST friends to help me learn some of the basics.

First Time to try the Infamous "HAPPY HORSE".
-We were having dinner with the project workmates when i chanced upon this oddly labeled drink. It was stronger than the regular Red Horse beer, and i had to commute a great distance to watch a movie~with a bit of daze.

First Time to do 3 Sports Activities in a day.
-Started at 5am, we joined a 5k fun run sponsored by DLSU
-Wall Climbed in Market Market after; did 4 climbs including that damned hard course :))
-Played a monkey imitation game in Parkour Workshop later that night.

First Time to Jump Across a large Gap.
-Parkour-related, this was our "Final Exam" of sorts.

First Time to go into a Spa.
-Tried something out for change.

First Time my Knees Shook Involuntarily when talking to a Girl.
-LOL. XD

First Time to Try Surfing.
-Got to try this water sport i've been wanting to learn; on a company outing, with friends. XD 'nuff said.

Got to Ride a Standing Jetski by Myself.
-One of Judge Lee's guests brought one for the Caliraya trip and let us try it :D.

First Time to Actually Tap Out on a Food Binge Session.
-Zark's Jawbreaker Burger, you Animal. So much grease :)).

2010. What an eventful year. Met new friends, Lost some friends. Expressed myself physically, Lost myself emotionally. These memories i hope will last through the test of time and help me become a better person.

My New Year's Resolutions:
~Learn Self-Control.
-I must control my "overflowing passion" for many things

~Learn how to Balance my Physical side and Mental+Emotional side.
-I've been doing too much physical stuff that i think i've neglected my other aspects.

~Learn a new Language.
-German seems like a good choice. So's Mandarin.

~Improve my Art.
-Since i've been so preoccupied with social events, i feel my art skills have been rusty, at most.

~Be Sensitive.
-Related to the first resolution, given that i'm a really dense guy, i need to be sensitive to
other people's feelings too. For their welfare and mine as well.

OVERALL: BE A BETTER PERSON. THAT~is my Ultimate Goal for 2011 :D

-Mike Atienza, 4:43 pm
now i'm off to celebrate the new year with the family~

The Tien-o-Meter gives 2010 a 9 out of 10

Remember, Remember; the whole of November

2010-12-04T21:08:00.019+08:00

November 13,2010: Cosplay Photoshoot

So my friend Ron planned this little gig with his cosplay group; it was a photoshoot to be held at Ma-Cho temple in La Union, far north of Manila, just before Baguio. The theme was Fushigi Yuugi, this rather old Manga and Anime series which reached the height of its fame in the philippines in the late 90's. I volunteered to join them for the chance to go to the place, which seemed really nice. So we had a dressmaker make my costume, prepared the other stuff on my own, and on to the shoot day.

The day before the shoot was eventful too, my plan was--after work, sleep at the office, eat with my friends at Little Tokyo at 10pm, go home to my parent's house, pick up mom's makeup set(yes, we were all told to bring some), sleep a bit, then off to Ron's house. I brought my Jian to the office too, since i was headed to Ron's place and would have no time to go home to Parañaque to pick my stuff up.

After waking up from slumber, i found that our programmers were still working overtime, along with the tester, Nikka. I prepped my stuff and walked to Little Tokyo which was just a few blocks away from the office. I waited and waited; my friend Ram was the first to arrive; the agreement was that we would all meet up there by 10pm, but the others arrived around 11pm. We all walked in, picked a restaurant and a table. Our friend Chris was running late, he was coming from his new work in makati. We had large servings of ramen each, and a bit of small dishes along the side.

We hitched a ride in Ram's car, then travelled from makati to mandaluyong, as he was going to pick up his girlfriend, Ajine from the office. He dropped me by shaw boulevard, which was kind of a shame because Ron's house was just nearby but i had to go home to my parent's first to pick up stuff and sleep for a bit. At any rate, i was late on my schedule. So i went home, ate a little, then tried to sleep.

Emphasis on TRIED.

I found it hard to sleep--maybe because my mind was too anxious, or the tv was too loud(it was on myx as my dad was waiting on me to arrive home). I drifted in and out of sleep for intervals of 10-15 minutes. I woke up at just the right time i was supposed to, still a bit groggy, i prepped myself for the next journey. I walked out of the house with my stuff, got a jeep at the avenue a few blocks away.

The jeep only had 2 passengers, me included. The other passenger was a girl seated next to the driver. I sat on the nearest seat to the exit, left side. The jeep stopped just short of a traffic light near Stop 'n Shop. 3 young guys boarded the jeep, all seemingly teenagers. One sat behind the driver, one sat parallel to me on the other side, and the other one sat beside me, yet a few feet away since my encased sword was across my lap. I noticed the situation was kind of fishy, so i stayed alert. Soon enough, the guy to my left asked me; " kuya, pwede po makipagpalit ng pwesto?". This simple sentence confirmed my suspicion. This was a Holdup waiting to happen. I waved my hand in response, holding up a hand signal that said "nah, i'm okay". The youth started to get agitated, and murmured; "damot naman nito, makikipagpalit lang ng pwesto eh. saan ka ba bababa?". This second sentence made me mentally put my guard up, and start to think of an exit plan. The boy then sat beside his friend(at my front) and just looked out the window. A dozen scenarios raced through my mind as i was thinking of how to escape. Since i had my sword with me, encased in a box, it would prove useful if i used it as a staff or a blocking tool if ever he lunged at me with a knife. I noticed he was wearing a sweater and his one hand never came out of his pocket; so i assumed it was a concealed weapon he was planning to use. One scenario i thought up was i take the guy in front of me out, then use his body to block the guy with the concealed weapon then bail out of the jeep. Or whichever of them comes first, i parry, then strike and break limbs then bail. The jeepney driver seemed like he suspected them too, and stopped by a nearby gas station to fill up. After that, the jeep went on back on the streets, and stopped near the traffic light on Shaw corner Kalentong. The girl in front bailed, and that left me as the only passenger. I noticed the guy in front of me texted and showed his cohort his cellphone, which i assume, he was warning the boy that i was on to them. The jeep moved forward and i spotted a 7-11 convenience store and made a quick exit. As i was leaving, the guy in front of me kept apologizing; "kuya, sensya na po kayo" in response to what he thought was my irritation with his friend. It was a well-timed action, they could chase me if they wanted, but i could take them because i had a larger space for motion compared to inside the jeep. And there was a security guard at the store, so i was ensured safety. I waited for the jeep to pass, then left to walk to Ron's house. I ran into him halfway, then told him of the incident. He said that it was normal for that neighborhood at that time of the night.

So we arrived in their house, all the other cosplayers were there, we arrived with the photographers and are now waiting for the rented van to arrive. After introductions, and around 20minutes, the van arrived, we rode in, and made our way north; picking up Mel, our makeup artist for the shoot.

Travel time was around 6 hours, we drifted in and out of sleep along the way. We passed by Pangasinan, Tarlac and arrived at La Union around 9am; had brunch first in chowking, then went off to the Temple. The road to the temple was a steep curved hill upwards, and we were greeted first by a parking lot in front. We settled in, Me and Ron went and made a tour of the place, the photographers did some sightseeing as well. We went to look for nice areas to shoot; we wound up in a hill near the top and saw this beautiful view:The waves from the nearby beach were huge. From this far we could see the arc of the waves. Indeed it was ideal for surfing. We went back down and pushed through with the shoot proper. Makeups were being done after suiting up. For the ones who finished earlier, we assisted them to the shoot area for the solo shots--while having a few fun shots as well:The place was GORGEOUS. A few hours and dozens of shots later, we packed up and headed back home. But not before a few more fun shots:Got home around 11pm, and i was sooooo tired from the trip. It was a one-day trip that was well planned and well-executed. Hat's off to Ron for making it happen.

The Tien-o-Meter gives this a 9 out of 10

November 15,2010: Binondo Foodtrip

5:45pm.

There i was, all prepped and ready to go to the gym for training. Waited for the muse to leave and carry on my journey alone as always. I traversed the busy and bleak street going to a corner, and rode the jeepney that was waiting on passengers to fill it up. To my surprise, there they were, my officemates Bryan, Kristel and Kulas, seated near the back entrance. They convinced me to postpone my training and join them in their night of gastric pleasure at Chinatown. Seems they do that once every few weeks and they've scoured the place so they know the best spots for specific kinds of dishes.

We got there at around half-past 6, and walked along the dark and mysterious pathways to the restaurant they recommended. I recognized the latter half of the walk as the place where i buy my chinese swords, and a local kung fu school. We went inside the restaurant beside Liberty hall and got a table. The place's name was lan zhao or something. All the customers were chinese, we were the only ones there that didn't look chinese.

So we ordered some ramen, and a few side dishes. The food there was GOOD. The price seems fair too. I'd like to come back there and try the other dishes some other night. So as usual, the conversation steered to THAT direction, which was no problem for me. I think everyone knows anyways. I got a lot of insight from them that night.

After eating, sharing thoughts and a lot of jokes, we parted ways at the station. I felt un-satisfied with my night and stopped by the gym to train for 30minutes before it closed

The Tien-o-Meter gives this an 8 out of 10

November 20,2010: CFAD week alumni homecoming

This year's CFAD week, as we all heard, was a long ways below the previous years'. There were no booths visible, just one tarpaulin in front of the building. I hear there were a few events, but they were more or less under the radar. I went to the ust dojo to learn grappling from some of my friends as i've been doing as of late--and i invite my other friends to join me. I learned new things about ground fighting, as i think it could help me if ever i fall into that kind of position some time in the future; i would know what to do and know how to defend myself. While i learn judo techniques from Earl, i learn Jujitsu techniques from Eman. The other orgroom friends arrived later on, and hung out in the dojo. It was an unexpected but welcome meetup.After the Dojo session, we headed on our way to our building, Beato Angelico and were surprised to see something new:There was a huge metal-plated name on the side of the building. lol. We then visited the orgroom to check out whats changed after we all graduated.

The Tien-o-Meter gives this an 7 out of 10

November 22,2010: Megamind Megafail

I was supposed to watch the CG movie: Megamind at Megamall with my girl buddies, Karen, Cy and company. It's been put off for quite some time and was nearing it's showing cycle in the cinemas. So we decided to push through with it on monday, november 22. I invited my officemates Nikka and Dana, but only Nikka could join me for the movie. After work, we commuted to SM Megamall via MRT and arrived there a good 20mins before screening time. Cy texted me she was gonna be running late, she did overtime at work, and was having difficulty in commuting to Megamall from Immaculate Concepcion Academy where she works. To kill time, Nikka and i played in timezone at the basement while waiting for Cy. Nikka was actually great with the basketball shooting game, scoring a lot of points. We played some guitar game and some DDR, which was my first time to try a dance game outside the house. My schoolmate George suddenly appeared while we were dancing , and cheered on me; and disappeared while i was concentrating on the game. After the games, i got a text from Cy telling me she won't be able to make it, and that she'll go home instead. I didn't feel like watching the movie anymore, since 2 of my friends bailed out. I treated Nikka to a free dinner at sizzling pepper steak instead.I noticed we were wearing Red and Green shirts, so an idea popped in my mind.lol.
The Tien-o-Meter gives this a 4 out of 10

November 26,2010: Inn Revival Dinner night and Harry Potter Movie night

Our Producer, Dino, treated us to a fancy dinner at crocs grill in Greenbelt as a token of appreciation for our team's hard work on our project.and i chanced upon the infamous "Happy Horse" bottle; which was said to be more potent than the regular red horse beer. We also got shook up because the restaurant staff surprised us all with a bang of a birthday greeting--it appears they thought Dino was celebrating his birthday. It would seem someone from the table tipped them off. We also got to try this new drink they had:
--aanndddd this is my troll face. lol.
Their Blue Marlin was so deliciously marinated in butter. Too bad it was pricey.
All in all, i drank a bottle of san mig light, one red horse, and one happy horse. I got out of the dinner at around 8:30pm, because my other friends Ida and Cy were waiting for me in Greenhills; we were supposed to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Karen and Pam were supposed to join us, but We can't seem to contact Karen, so we assumed her battery was low. Pam told me thru text that she wouldn't be able to make it. I commuted from Greenbelt to Greenhills while still tipsy. With luck, i was able to reach Ida and Cy at starbucks in the theater mall. Ida treated me to some hot chocolate as her post-birthday treat. We got inside the cinema, and as we were watching, Ida got a text from Pam telling her that she found Karen and that they were together. But alas, the movie was already playing, so there was nothing we can do about it. The movie was okay; as expected, it was just build-up for the finale, the second part of the film which is to be shown next year.

The Tien-o-Meter gives this a 6 out of 10

November 28,2010: Triple Physical Activity Combo Day

I woke up at 4am, prepped myself, had a little snack of hard boiled eggs and bananas. I went out of the house afterwards, and since there were no tricycles available at the time of dawn, i walked all the way to the second gate. I then rode a tricycle and a jeep to McDonald's in Evangelista corner Edsa, where, i was supposed to meet my officemates Dino and Jayson. We signed up for a 5km fun run in the De La Salle university Greenovation event at SM Mall of Asia. I arrived there early, and ate breakfast first. Dino just picked me up via car since he already ate at home, and Jayson was gonna be a little late so he let us go ahead. We went to the place, saw the crowds, and got ourselves ready for the run. As expected, since the event was hosted by DLSU, majority of the participants were students with chinese backgrounds :))

I set my playlist up with motivational upbeat songs, starting off with the traditional "Gonna Fly now" by Bill Conti; the famous Rocky Theme used in the movies. Around twenty minutes into the run, i can already see some students slowing down and taking deep breaths. I told myself it was a good marker that my cardio had improved compared to a few years ago when i joined the Adidas Run with my officemates. I reached half of the route without stopping, and as i crossed that halfway mark, i started slowing down, feeling the tightening of my lower shins. I'd been feeling shin pains for a long while now, and i was concerned that it might be shin splints. But i continued with the race nonetheless. I took a lot of walking breaks on the way back, and it wasn't good, but i had to pace myself, i still had 2 more activities after that one for the rest of the day; i can't have myself exhausted from the first activity much.

I gave myself a sort of funny moment as i was on the second to the last road stretch of the race-i got a cup of water from the station that served water for the runners. I saw one of the girls there and was distracted because she was so beautiful; i slowed down near their booth. As i passed them, i splashed the water on my face intentionally, to remind myself to focus on the task at hand.

I reached the finish line, clocking in at 53 minutes and something seconds. It was way longer than my previous run in the Adidas Run, which was around 30-40 minutes only. just goes to show i slacked off too much, and i had not prepared my body enough; i did one week of panic run the week before the race.We then drove on to the Fort area in Taguig, to wait for Market Market to open, the wall climb opens up at 11am. Along the way, we encountered this Audi R8, and i managed to snap a photo using Jayson's camera phone:We ate breakfast in McDonald's, then hung around in Fullybooked in bonifacio high street to kill time:We checked out the Hobbes and Landes store to see if they have the expansion pack to the Settlers of Catan Board game, the game we got hooked onto at the office. They didn't have it there yet, as Dino suspected. After having been there, Dino went on home earlier; passing up on the chance to scale the wall with us. Jayson and i went on to Market Market as it opened, and checked out the wall. Since we were famished from all the walking, we had lunch in Tokyo Tokyo first. As we went up to the top floor, where the cinemas were, and the wall was, we inquired about the price for the climb; it was around 50pesos per climb, 100+for unlimited climbs, and you had to hire the person holding your lifeline; which cost around 100-200php. I had already tried this wall before, when i went on a date with Diane; i took her here. But the last time i only had 2 climbs. This time i was determined to go all-out on the whole layout of the wall. We both tried the easiest side first, then moved on to the next level. After climbing 2 of the easier walls, i dared to try the wall on the far right, which was second or third to the most difficult level. It was a challenge, since the wall was tilted in the first place, you can feel the extra pull of gravity on your weight, through your fingers. But of course it was my third climb, fatigue must have something to do with it too.

I completed this wall, and rested for a long while. The muscle tension in my forearms prevented me from regaining my grip. I rested for around 20minutes, and in a bout of masochism, dared to try the next level of difficulty. Jayson had this idea of mounting a camera on my forehead to see the climb from a first-person perspective. So we mounted his cellphone camera on my cap strap in my forehead, and used an ID lace for added support. We experimented at first, and then gave the climb a go. This was the footage we got:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OstLCZN7UHU

I slipped a few times in that epic climb; i scaled the wall in a zig-zag approach, climbing through the easier parts at first, then moving on to the middle part which had a tilt in the wall which was more slanted than the first ones i've tried.

After the whole deal with wall climbing, we rode an Fx back to Ayala area. Due to exhaustion, we both fell asleep at some point during the trip back. He woke me up to inform me that we were gonna get down on the nearby stop. We parted ways in Glorietta as he headed home, and i went to the last stop in my Triple Physical Activity Day: Parkour.

I arrived there a bit later than my usual early time, and found Molyn and her sisters there. I sat beside them while waiting for the session to start and i was already feeling the after-effects of a very tiring day. We got around to starting a bit late, nearing 5pm; and for this session we did something new: we played a game using only a few parkour skills. It was a game similar to imitating monkeys--we can only use crawling and monkey shifts. there are 2 clans, black and white, and we have a capture-the-flag objective.

i went home and slept early that night. XD what a sleep that was.

The Tien-o-Meter gives this a 9 out of 10

OctoberFest

2010-10-03T23:23:00.036+08:00

Oct 3, 2010: Jeet Kune Do Workshop with Mickey Lay

Mr. Joel Ramos was gracious enough to invite me to join their Jeet Kune Do workshop with Mickey lay. Mickey is one of Mark Stewart's students in JKD, and he hails from "the lend deown undah". He is a man in his late thirties, Asian, and had a thick australian accent. It was a one-afternoon event, though they also had their exclusive JKD training sessions with him beforehand. We started with some arm stretches, waist rotations, leg stretches and a few plyometric exercises.

Since not all of us were regular JKD practitioners, Mickey had to start with the basics; which comprised of the lead straight punch and kick. I had trouble with the push-off because i was wearing flat-soled shoes against the smooth flooring, and i was constantly sliding across the floor with my rear pushing foot. I shoulda worn rubber shoes, to help with the friction. It was a bit frustrating, i didn't get to achieve the desired effect of extending the range due to slipping. As for the lead kick, it involves clipping the lower leg part before extending. I had a lot of questions i threw along the way, and mr. Ramos and Marc were able to clear up things for me. Like one of their kicks, they use the tip of the shoes/toes as a hitting point. This was similar to our snake kick back in traditional kung fu. The tucking in of the pelvis reminded me of Wing Chun's method of tucking in the pelvic bone- maybe that part of JKD came from Wing Chun, seeing as it was Bruce Lee's first art.

(and yes, i tend to protrude my head forward when i'm in need of air )

Sir Mickey mentioned that he also studied different martial arts, among them was Eagle style kung fu. I was curious about his experience with that and asked him a bunch of questions. He said that he was training in the gym when an elder man walked up to him and let him try a few exercises. Soon enough, he became friends with that man and stayed with him for a while (who, from what i understand, was a former monk) and started teaching him a few techniques. I asked about their conditioning methods, and sir Mickey elaborated some of their hand conditioning; like swinging a kettle for the hands; and their finger push ups--he showed me a technique in which he curled his hands, his fingers close together and struck my left pectoral. We also had this technique back in my school but the conditioning was different. I asked him about JKD's conditioning exercises, and he shared one specific example: they use their knuckles to hit a tiny sheet of metal; small enough to fit a hand. Sir Mickey told me he got this from Ted Wong when they asked him about it.

The workshop wasn't as extensive as Mark Stewart's, but it did provide some good solid base for the basic tools of JKD.

The Tien-o-Meter gives this a 6 out of 10

Oct 16,2010: Philippine Parkour and FreeRunners Association Flow Workshop: The first URBAN JAM

I've been seeing the Discipline and Art of Parkour and FreeRunning since i was in college and i've always wanted to learn some of the stuff they did. Mostly because they were doing the kinds of moves that Spiderman, Ninjas, and Kung fu movies have been doing. My then-Officemate Nicole joined a workshop last year that teaches Parkour--i liked to try it back then, but i wasn't fully determined; only when i have the chance and most of all: budget to do so.

Then came this year; and the same organization that started the workshops that Nicole attended was organizing another one. This time, i had the resources and drive to finally learn Parkour. Nicole sent me the link, and since there was a discount if you enroll with a friend, i just HAD to tap the Tienster™ social network and ask around for fellow interested people. A few people responded, but ultimately, my officemate and Art director Molyn had the green light. She also brought her 2 younger sisters to learn parkour so we both availed of the discounts.

The first meeting was in Quezon Memorial Circle- where my school also trains every sunday mornings. The Parkour course outline comprised of 9 sessions, 2 of which are outdoor urban locations; QC Circle and the Datu shrine in Luneta. The bulk of the sessions are to be held indoors at a gym in pasig.

We started with basic stretching, and something they call QM(as of this time i forgot what that means, but it's essential to parkour fitness). Almost the same stretching routines found in our school, but with 2 new routines i've never heard of--the elbow rolls. In most of my physical sessions, the elbow roll was nowhere to be found; we weren't taught this in kung fu or in jkd. This was something new to me.

The crawling exercises were next(which were part of QM, i think). we were told to stand on all fours and crawl on a straight line,keeping our torsos parallel to the ground. Doing this gave our hands some scratches, and made our shoulders feel the burn. After that, we did some Bear Walks, where we stood on all fours, legs stretched and then walked the same amount of distance as the first crawling drills. This was harder, since the pressure was on the shoulders and calves in mobility.

The Monkey shifts were next, where we were in a crouching position, similar to spiderman, then shift our bodies sideways, planting our arms on the ground, pre-shift. This was a very exhausting drill(well, all of them were) but it made me feel closer to my target capability.

After the conditioning drills, we moved on to a different spot; for every new technique being taught, we had to switch locations so as to maximize the different variety of techniques they can teach us using the diverse structures found in the park.

First up, was the wall climb- this was a means of scaling walls from the bottom going up via the momentum of a run. The technique is to run to a wall, jump, put your foot/feet against the wall to absorb the shock, then grab onto the top ledge and use your arms to pull yourself up, your legs pushing against the wall in a simultaneous manner. This technique was a bit difficult to master at first, but eventually i got the hang of it.

Next was the lazy vault- another common parkour technique, the person swings his/her leg up, using the momentum to cross over to the other side of a fence. The leg nearest the fence is the one that swings up. I could compare it to a medium-level double kick, but in doing this drill i seem to overshoot, using up too much energy. In parkour, some techniques are done in a relaxed way--the lazy vault is usually done when crossing over railings and/or similar structures of height in a diagonal direction. For this exercise, we moved to an area with railings; which was near where we usually train every sunday mornings. The group was pretty big, so i understand it was difficult for the instructors to keep us students in check. Some of the english-speaking students(who i assume were from ateneo) went ahead and tried jump-hop techniques on the side of the railing while waiting for the girls to finish trying the lazy vault.

We then moved to the grassy area near the middle, where most of the exercise structures were in place. monkey bars, push up bars, etc. We went to this half-uprooted tree which had a part in its trunk that was protruding sideways, making it stand like a railing. There we were taught different techniques for passing over this obstacle. I forgot the other names and i only remember one: the Kong. The first technique was passing over the trunk in a spin-like maneouver, which i could compare to a tornado kick, but in a relaxed manner. The next technique was skipping over the trunk by combining the momentum of running, jumping, and pushing of the hands against the trunk. The kong was a similar technique but with more emphasis on a monkey-like flow.(maybe a factor why it was called such)

(photos grabbed from various sources)

After this, we moved to the area with a huge rock. This was ironically the same rock we put our stuff on years back when we were training kung fu in that spot. We trained how to skip over that rock in a freestyle manner. When i first tried it, i did as some others did, used one leg to step onto the rock, planting a hand on top, and then skipping over. Then came the athletic students and sequentially one-up-ed each other, showing off how they did better than their peers. I was kinda envious that they could do these things, and i tried my hand with a medium-level front vault and every pass after that, became a disaster.

I keep overshooting, first, with the jump off, i jump too high and i get a hard time planting my hand onto the rock. Another thing i couldn't get was the technique: i asked the instructors how the technique worked, but they seem to be divided on this, since one side said don't think about technique and the other side said it was subject to preference. I needed a technique in which to base my actions, but since they didn't give a concrete answer, i just made my own way(with much difficulty, i might add). I always landed badly, drawing squeamish reactions from the crowd. I kept landing in such a way that my left hip absorbs the shock instead. This gave me a sore hip the days after.

As for the last drill, we went to the kid's playground, where there were these 10+feet high giant cement books, and they had us try the vertical wall climb. This technique was an upgrade of the earlier technique, because of the sheer height difference. I still had no courage to do that technique since i felt it was still beyond me; so i joined the others with the next technique, the gap jump(not sure if that's the correct term, but thats how i would describe it). This was a move straight out of Prince of Persia; the person starts out from a ledge, jumps towards another ledge separated by a huge gap 9 feet above the ground.

I felt the fear of heights setting in, but i had to remind myself that i've been through worse; i've been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, this should be no problem for me. As i psyched myself up, i started swinging my arms to get my momentum pre-jump, and then just threw my whole weight to clear the gap, and caught the ledge, landing sideways in a crouched position against the wall. I slipped for a moment, but regained my composure.

It was a great experience, trying that out, i felt that i overcame a huge barrier psychologically. As we were wrapping up our first urban jam session, i felt kinda confident and tried my hand with the vertical wall jump. I didn't execute the full technique but i was able to measure that i CAN do it. And maybe i WILL next time :D

The Tien-o-Meter gives this a 7 out of 10

Oct 24,2010: Philippine Parkour and FreeRunners Association Flow Workshop: The first GYM SESSION

A week after the first urban jam, we had our first Gym session at Club Gymnastica, Pasig. I'd been there once before, i tried to scope the place out before when i was still considering if i were to study parkour or not. It was located in between Robinson's Pioneer and SM Megamall in terms of distance; inside the industrial area. It was a huge warehouse-type building with a large area floor mat, and a lot of gymnastics equipment. Perfect for training agility and flexibility movements. Since there were only 3(or 5) of us who wanted to go on the Thursday night batch, they had no choice but to merge us with the Sunday afternoon batch.

I arrived there quite surprised, because there were a LOT of people practicing there. I saw the instructors and put my stuff near them. Saw everyone was barefoot and i assumed that was the house rule while in the mats. I took off my shoes and joined the others in the middle.

They started us off with stretching, and then the QMs(Quadrupedal Movement). This time though, the drills were formatted for a squared venue, which meant we had to do all the drills in all directions, either clockwise or counter clockwise. It felt like punishment, doing the bear crawls(which i hated most of the drills we were taught).

We then proceeded to the curriculum proper; they made us do handstands, handstand walks, headstands, rolls, jumping rolls, etc.

Handstands: This wasn't something new to me, i'd been doing this in my house and here in my room ever since i had surgery done on my midsection. I miss doing handstand push-ups though, if i'd only continued them, i wouldn't have to feel so burdened now.

Handstand walks: I never practice this, as i am afraid to fall over. But since we were in a mat area, and the floors were reinforced with springs at the bottom, it was okay. i couldn't walk a few steps because i had a hard time balancing with the handstand; i only do the handstand here in my home with the aid of a wall.

Rolling: This was one of the main techniques i wanted to learn, i could use this as an additional slot to my moves set. The instructor explained that this was sort of different from the rolling technique taught in martial arts. We started with basic rolls, and then proceeded to running rolls, then jumping rolls. I had fun learning this since this was one of my most coveted techniques to learn.

(pics from a certain miss kindred pasana?if that's her real name)

The springboards were fun to use, i remember watching the behind-the-scenes footage of Star wars episode I: The phantom menace,the part where ray park(darth maul) uses these to force-jump over his opponents obi wan kenobi and qui-gon jinn. I want to try them sometime when i'm over there at the gym. There were lots of stuff you can practice there, like the bars, the huge trampolines, etc. I'll be looking forward to training more there and enjoying the rest of the course.

The Tien-o-Meter gives this a 6 out of 10.(which turns to a negative the days after :)) )

Hung Fut Training

I've been training in this 400+ years old southern chinese martial art system for over 5 years now. I started when i was 19 years old, in 3rd year college; my schoolmate invited me to join them, because i was interested in kung fu and wushu and i kept watching them train in the football field in UST. When i started training with them, i was a bit disappointed at first because i wanted to learn the high-flying acrobatic stuff that Jet Li does. But when i thought about it, that sort of stuff belonged to wushu and is not good enough to help me defend myself in real combat. So i turned off my desire to fight with flair and kept to the ground instead. When i got my taste of the southern style martial arts, i just grit my teeth with the body pain that came after my first few sessions.

I wasn't the most disciplined student either, i didn't train like i was supposed to, i didn't attend as much. Mostly because of the combination of my own problems at the time, lack of drive, and the impending thesis. Time passed, and lots of new students enrolled at the school; some of them now way better than i am(not to say that i'm good or anything), but the fact that my juniors are now stronger than me, kind of sets a nerve off; a wake up call of sorts. I NEED to get my act together, else i'd be going nowhere fast with my training.

I know that MOST people nowadays discredit traditional kung fu as a "relic of the classical mess", "non-effective", and "non-practical". But based from my experience, and of the experience of my teachers, traditional kung fu still has its place among the best martial arts systems. This might come off as the ramblings of a student who blindly follows a media-fueled tradition, but rest assured, there are a LOT of great exercises and effective techniques not found in Mixed Martial arts and other arts that can be found in traditional kung fu.

For example, in my school. Our number one unique selling point is our conditioning training. We have training routines that strengthen grip, calcifies the forearms, shins, throat and torso; as well as iron palm training, finger thrust conditioning, and many more. We train these 3 times a week(everyday is even better), then forms practice on sundays at QC Circle. Forms practice are also a misunderstood practice method. Forms practice a.k.a. Taolu was formulated to promote muscle memory and improve reflexes. They serve as a manual in which we can select an arsenal of techniques we can use for certain situations. Its like having a dictionary, and selecting only a few of your favorite words as your main weapons.

In our school, we are taught to be open-minded; take in what is useful, like what Bruce Lee said. As for me, i try to study other chinese martial arts styles as well-be it wing chun, shuai jiao, chin na, zi ran men, sanshou etc. because i lacked enough training to be able to use our style effectively. Our style needs a certain level of expertise for it to be useful in combat. This is where our power training comes in. Since i haven't reached any of those levels yet, i'll supplement them with knowledge of techniques instead.

Here are some of the stuff we do back at my school/kwoon:(courtesy of an episode of GamePlan back in the 90's where my Sifus were featured-they were all so young back then lolz)

Yep. Those routines FRIGGIN' HURT. Good thing the chinese were smart enough to invent Dit Da Jow- or else every practitioner wouldn't have proper futures with hands that seem tortured. Its also funny that some modern martial arts have only recently begun to discover some of the things that the chinese have discovered hundreds, if not, thousands of years ago; like in martial arts medicine. And some traditional chinese fighting techniques have found their way in modern martial arts like krav maga etc.(i noticed krav maga has a lot of similar techniques with praying mantis kung fu) Yeah, i know, this might be mixed with a little bias since i'm a Sinophile and i prefer chinese-looking girls; but truth be told, they're one of the most inventive and innovative races in the world.(not in modern times, though. :P)

As of late, i had only begun my real kung fu training. The past 5 years were not very productive, i lost a lot of time to practice, and more importantly, the drive to practice. Understandable though, if we were to compare ourselves with the old kung fu practitioners of day's old, they didn't have all these distractions in their daily lives. They trained, they eat, they sleep, they mingle. They didn't have internet, or the television, or 9-hour work shifts. Not to say that's a valid excuse though.

My long term goal is to be as powerful as my Sifus. They can break coconuts(the green, more solid ones, not the brown brittle ones), they can bend steel with the stability of their throats, they can resist heavy forearm impact, they have iron shins.(they also had decades of continuous training) For now, i'd have to be patient with the little things; i had only recently been able to break the bottom of a beer bottle using iron palm on the top nose, and it was a great feeling--and a realization of what i could possibly be able to do given continuous training.

We'll see what happens in a few months >:)

The Tien-o-Meter gives this a 7 out of 10.

~in other news; i've recently found a new source of inspiration. let's see if it turns out well in a few months too. Not being optimistic though, given my impressive track record with these things.JEEZ. Here we go again. God help me.

Oct 30,2010: Hard Rock Halloween, Meiday Mayhem, Metrowalk

I arrived at IGDA manila's monthly meetup only too late; because i was roaming around the metro. The gameplan was, get a haircut, go to divisoria to buy a shirt, go to UST to train with some college martial artist friends, go to IGDA, and proceed to Hard Rock cafe in glorietta after. As the holiday drew in, there was traffic everywhere. I DID get a haircut though, went to divisoria but to no avail, the shirt i was looking for, i couldn't find there at that time. i travelled to the IGDA meet via the LRT and the MRT, went to Shangrila Plaza to check out the shirt-printing place my friend Ryan recommended. It was there, and i was to get my black t-shirt printed on; but they had no stock design of the superman logo.(i was gonna go to Hard Rock cafe dressed as superboy. It costs 400php to get in, but those in costume can get in for free.) So i had no choice, since i was running out of time, i made the design myself in their booth's pc using the pen tool.

When the print came out, it was wayyy darker than i expected, but it was ok. I was never gonna make it in time for the IGDA meeting; and this day, it was all about ART. I totally missed out, but at least i had the shirt. I met up with my other officemates and friends at the IGDA meeting venue, talked for a few minutes, ate a few. Then me and Luna had to go to Hard Rock cafe; we had some difficulty in getting a cab though.

We arrived there, some costumed X-Men cosplayers were outside, having photo ops with some kids. We went in, got a table and had dinner first. Luna had a spicy chicken burger thingy(i forgot the name) and i tried their so-called "Legendary burger" (Thanks, Luna! XD) and it was indeed LEGENDARY. Was like an inch thick patty on huge buns, with everything on it. Thinking about it makes me wanna eat. Jeez. After eating, we went to the main hall where the program was being hosted by our common friend Niki, who was dressed as a random S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and Oneal who was dressed as guy gardner(complete with MOE hair and a glowing green lantern ring!)

There were a lot of familiar faces, i saw some people from the cosplay community, and some of which i do not want to hang out with :P the event was great, with bands playing, costumed heroes and villains, great food, nice program.

(photo from niki yarte)

Before the event was over, we hitched a ride with Dante's friend Kenji(or Kenchi?) and his girlfriend (they were dressed as the avengers-uma thurman and ralph fiennes)going to Cubao Expo for the Meiday Mayhem party. Luna kept telling me how awesome that event was, and i was intrigued so i went along to see what the fuss was about.

We had a bit of trouble finding a parking spot, but we got in anyways. LOTSA HIPSTERS roaming around. Not surprising though, it IS hipster heaven :)) there were a lot of bands lined up to perform, most of them, if not all, famous. I saw a lot of familiar faces, college friends and former officemate, Shin.

--who got dressed up as the crow.

after a few hours there, i had to go to metrowalk after, my friends were drinking there, among them my friend who had a car and who lives nearest to me; so i could hitch a ride home just in case. I got there, some of them were talking about martial arts(these were the college friends i was supposed to meet early in the day's gameplan). I got home at around 4:30am, and slept the rest of the day, woke up in the afternoon.

The Tien-o-Meter gives this an 8 out of 10.

Rants

2010-09-14T00:01:00.004+08:00

Warning: this is a RANT.

Nothing hurts more than losing a friend. Especially when it's your fault. Adding insult to injury, there's nothing MORE you can do to set things right. You've tried your best, consulted friends, stopped yourself from feeling anything more; as requested. You've passed the ball of goodwill and friendship oh-so-many-instances to the other team. And you don't get it back. Maybe just a whistle if any. Sad.

In my 23 years of being in this earth, i've come to realize that getting over something is easier now than it was back then. Why? because of the countless times i've received the reply: "No, Sorry, Not interested", it doesn't sting as much. The shell just hardens every time. I realize that i'm on the path of the dark side, getting colder and colder each instance.

In my opinion, all problems can be solved by communication. It only takes humility, willingness to compromise yet stern to one's point. The problem with ME is; i'm not very good at being able to tell WHEN to stop something, to the point of being a pest. The problem with other people is, they DON'T TELL ME ANYTHING. That's a problem in the process right there. If one side never talks and just acts, the other is left to wonder and assume. I've experienced this before, with my block back in college. Before i knew it, everyone hated me. And for such Immature and selfish reasons, mostly. And it got to me. It got me down. I hate that feeling. I kept feeling sorry and hating myself. But i've learned to accept that its also

NOT ENTIRELY MY FAULT.

Its not my fault i want to score high with my grades.
its not my fault i want to pursue a higher quality of education.
its not my fault the others were looking bad because i was doing good.
its not my fault my older brother was having a hard time because i was setting the standard and graduating way ahead of him.
its not my fault i didn't stop texting her and trying to chat her up most of the time. she NEVER told me to stop; she never said anything. I'm the kinda guy who takes no for an answer. but there was no answer. why? because there was no clear intention. true. but ASKING would've been the logical thing to do. it's not rude, it's not presumptuous, it's what it is. harmless curiosity.

better than launching a nuclear strike cold-war-style.

my point? TALKING HELPS. A LOT.

and i have to stop blaming myself all the time. I'm a better person compared to who i was before;yes, i have my faults in the situation. But i am not the ONLY one at fault. i only do what i think and feel is right.

I'm one for honest-to-goodness conversations, and it's a general outlook that the TRUTH hurts. It always has. But that shouldn't stop us from being truthful. Being frank about something is WAY BETTER than the veil of pretense.

by the way...friends are people who can talk to each other casually-people who don't are considered merely acquaintances..

I'm sure it will take TIME for the wounds to heal; on both sides. One can only hope that after all the fiasco; true friendship will prevail.

The Tien-o-Meter gives this a -7 out of 10

An EPIC compressed blog post

2010-02-22T23:34:00.102+08:00

Okayyyy--- since i haven't been active in this blog for a few months, i'm just gonna go over the major events that happened. *ksshhhkk*please bear with me*kssshhhkk!*

February 22,2010: Monday

So i just got home from The Gym; it was Grandmaster Jorge Ramos' 69th birthday celebration. He spent decades passing the chinese martial art of Shaolin Hung Fut Kung Fu to the filipino community. Everyone was there, old students, new students, and everyone in between.

Grandmaster Jorge(pronounced Georgie) is a simple yet tall man, heavily-built. The type of guy that just observes and puts in his two cents when he sees a student practicing incorrectly; with a big smile and a warm stature. He started learning Kung fu in his twenties, in the old Kung fu school in Binondo, manila, called Hung Sing. Hung Sing was an international chinese martial art school, similar to chin woo(jing wu men). while there, he met a quiet, middle-aged man who was just observing in the bleachers and corrected him one time he was doing his forms. the young jorge felt that the mysterious man was knowledgeable, so he started to seek his tutelage.

this man was jose poon sin, also known as "mang joe". he was a carpenter by trade, and one of the select few who possesed the power training secrets of the hung fut system. this man was trained by another master, named ho tien po, who fled from his native land in china to escape the cultural revolution(period in chinese history where martial arts, among other traditional chinese things, were banned. all who knew how to fight were executed for fear of uprisings against the government)

sir jorge tells us that during his time, he didnt know why the chinese were so secretive with their real names, taking on assumed identities while here in the philippines. he only became aware of the situation when he saw a documentary on national geographic about the cultural revolution. he realized that the kung fu masters from china went here in the philippines to hide and passed on their respective arts. lucky for us, one of them passed on very important power training methods--ho tien po taught jose poon sin, his distant relative.

i keep hearing of the extraordinary feats of strength that mang joe could do, like:

- squeezing a can of alpine milk(the huge kind) to the point of combustion.
-grabbing and lifting a sack of rice, almost his own weight or heavier with one arm
-had other people attempt to bend his index finger with two hands, to no avail
-could parry attacks even from close range, using only minimal hand slaps

these all might sound farfetched and fiction-y, but with what i've seen these people do so far, I BELIEVE THEM. sure, kung fu might not be practically appealing to most modern fighters, but rest assured,ALL the movements have their own purpose and use.

so i arrived at the gym around before 7pm, i got off early from work. when i arrived, there were already a lot of people there, although, i expected the headcount to be more. tables were set up etc, but the food was still being prepared. i greeted them all with our standard chinese salute and proceeded inside the doorway to put my things. since i'd like to maximize my time there, i started to condition my hands, like i usually do when im there. first, i grab the sand bags, starting with the 5kilos then on to the 3kilos. after getting the feel, i switched to the iron palm stand, and hit my palm and backhand 400 times each hand. after that, dinner started.
looking back, here's what i learned after:
when doing iron palm: stand up straight, no need to drop on horse stance,as it reduces impact.
pebble piercing: spine must be straight, weight involves toes in relation to fingers. don't hunch forward.
bags:horse stance
iron palm: let back of hand hit, not the top of the wrist.
iron fingers: the highest level is finger thrusting(with the fingers apart) a small cloth bag filled with stainless bolts and nuts.

The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event an 8 out of 10

March 7, 2010: Sunday, Wing Chun workshop with Duncan Leung

okay, so i heard about this through one of my IGDA contacts, Ryan Sumo. he forwarded me this message on facebook about one of the IGDA members post about an upcoming wing chun workshop in Quezon City. Ryan remembered i was into martial arts so he sent me the message. The guy was Yuri Timg, a peruvian native, the former head of Suspended Animation, a locally based art studio. I invited one of my kung fu teachers, Sifu Edwin to join me attend. It was for free,actually; and the venue was in a school along commonwealth avenue in Q.C.

So we arrived a bit late(okay, one hour late. so sue me :P) and we were directed toward the gymnasium where the workshop was ongoing. There was this old man with a microphone, talking to the people sitting on the bleachers. This, i supposed, was Duncan Leung, student of Ip Man, classmate of Bruce Lee. With him were his group of students, among them Yuri.

one instance, Mr. Leung asked for a volunteer for a demo of wing chun. Sifu Edwin kinda pushed me to volunteer(my knees were actually shaking from the stage fright and the fact that this old man in his seventies can kick my ass from here all the way to hong kong) so his english was a bit better than other chinese people's, but still had an accent. I can't really remember what he did to me, but it wasn't anything i didn't already know at the time. just some applications when being attacked.

after this short demo, i went back to the bleachers beside my sifu, my knees still shaking from the stage fright. a few more talks here and there, and after everything, they asked if there were any audience members willing to try it on the spot. we got up, went to the mat, and joined all the other audience volunteers(who were clearly martial artists too). Mr. Leung set his students to teach every group some basic wing chun techniques. I had learned a bit of wing chun from sifu edwin who was a bit well versed in other styles aside from our own. he studied ziranmen kung fu(natural boxing), a bit of wing chun, choy lee fut, and our own hung fut. the student who taught our group was this short caucasian dude from europe. he explained that they dont use the wing chun standing stance in actual combat, rather, they modify it by spreading the legs a bit more and positioning them in such a way that resembles a xingyiquan stance.

after the sessions, i got to talk with Yuri, introduced him to sifu edwin, and learned he's been studying wing chun for 7 years now. he also mentioned he'd been offering wing chun lessons to those who want to learn, in exchange for having a partner to practice with.

i also met this guy there, mike co. this bespectacled guy seemed very knowledgeable about martial arts in general. he was a bit smaller than me in stature, but had more mass than i did. we got talking about martial arts, and as usual, sifu edwin tries to avoid having to let others know what martial art we practiced(i didnt really see the point, this was a free country), and just went on with the usual "ah, tai-chi, tai-chi." we met this one bald chinese guy who practiced ngo cho kuen(five-ancestors fist) and learned that ngo cho also has hard and soft aspects to it, not just the hard,external stuff we normall see from the local school of ngo cho in binondo.
there was this one guy we met, who was inviting us to join this uber-exclusive jeet kune do workshop the following week. the guy's name was joel ramos. problem was, the fee for the workshop was expensive. nevertheless, sifu edwin kept it in mind.

The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 7 out of 10

March 13 & 14, 2010: Saturday & Sunday, Jeet Kune Do Workshop with Mark Stewart

and not long after, i got pushed to join the jeet kune do seminar i mentioned above. sifu edwin made me a deal; he was gonna pay for my first day of the two days, and i pay for my second day; and he wasnt coming since he had other duties, he sent me instead to learn what these people have. i arrived early, the venue was in makati, near cash and carry mall. (convenient since i live near the vicinity)

the first people i met were regular students, one was marc, a guy in his mid-twenties, (who also resembled local actor dennis trillo) who had a background in wushu. he told me he really sought out jeet kune do, thats why he was there. the others arrived, and i was introduced to joel ramos' students, a lot of them from different backgrounds and different body types. joel arrived, and we talked about the terms of my fees. he gave me a discount though, 200 off(not bad, but coulda been better :P). i had to ask a lot of questions about their art since i was only gonna try it for 2 days, and my mission was to learn as much as i can.

the stuff i learned from the students pre-training: stay relaxed, no tensing. the fists must be relaxed enough that you can hold an imaginary egg. keep the torso curved inwards, the feet should form a 90-degree angle with the lead foot facing forward. the fist should always hit before the foot lands when doing the straight lead. advancing requires the heel to hit the ground first before the ball of the foot:

the basics: normal stance, open stance, side stepping/evasion , leg shuffling when kicking, attack with your nearest weapons(your lead side), combinations, kick catching, etc. bottomline, the same concepts were being taught to us back in hung fut. this one's more expensive though, so no thanks,jkd.

The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 7 out of 10

Going back to training:

after attending that JKD seminar, it revived my passion for martial arts; i havent been training for a long time, and somehow i lost the drive. good thing the current events that happened pushed me physically and mentally back into shape. i missed the gym. i missed the iron palm boards. i missed the punching bags. i missed the sand bags and the feeling of getting physically stronger than i was before.

April 17, 2010: Saturday, Cagbalete Trip

my friend pidik invited us to join their block's summer outing at cagbalete island(cagbalite for the natives) off the east coast of quezon province. nice opportunity, since i know quite a lot from their section back in college. two of our other friends also joined; bert and aurelio but they don't hang out with the block much. the night before, we were all having dinner at mister kabab with the whole orgrum gang. we havent seen each other for quite a while, and a friday night dinner seemed an appropriate atmosphere for a mini-reunion/hangout. after the dinner, we were supposed to hang out at our jerome's place to kill time since our bus departure is at 2am.

instead, we went to the nearby starbucks, spent a considerable amount of time there, and finally left for mcdonald's in Q. avenue, to meet up with bert. we didn't sleep at all that night, after hanging out in mcdonald's we went straight to the bus terminal in kamuning area to wait for our other acquaintances. some arrived early, some arrived late, and some were to be picked up along the way. the bus ride lasted for around 3 hours from edsa kamuning going to quezon province; then we switched to a different bus when we got to a mall down there. the bus ride took around 2 hours, the roads were a combination of asphalt, rocky mountainsides and jungle terrain. we reached the town soon after, where we stopped by for breakfast at a small dining place. the contact person for the venue was stationed there, and the trip organizer talked with him for a bit. we then headed through tricycle to the pier,where the next transportation was via a small ferry boat ride to the island itself which was a few dozen kilometers.(i think) that ride also took around 1 and a half hours to 2 hours.

we reached the island around 10am-ish, and walked the shore til we arrived in our cabin, lunch was served on the outdoor huts, and the food was awesome. :D we had some fun on the beach after:
this island had a special feature: when the clock reaches 11am-5pm, low tide occurs. and this island is famous for its VERY shallow seabed, so when the water level dropped, a landmass appeared along the shores, extending up to 2 kilometers outwards. we saw a lot of lifeforms stranded in the dried land,like some huge-ass starfish. we trekked a large percentage of the landmass that appeared; it was a very unique experience, only sunburn got us down eventually. after trekking, we went back to the hut; afternoon snacks were being served. after eating, i fell asleep on the bench, and when i woke up, it was time for yet another eating session. after that, i fell asleep again, and woke up. felt like i was livin the easy life. lol. we got into drinking late into the night, we tried their liquor; not much, only the bar among other hard drinks were available there.

The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 10 out of 10

May 1-2, 2010, Saturday-Sunday, Caliraya Trip

every year, my friend Ram's family invites us to join them on their family outings; usually in caliraya or subic. those trips usually involve large amounts of alcohol in the form of beer and tequila, swimming, and boating. this year was kind of different; in the number of guests. aside from us, the usual suspects, they invited our other orgroom friends; composed up of 2 couples, nikka and berns, aya and jl and ajine. the more the merrier seemed the motto this year, and it would be interesting to see how the others would be like after we've downed the usual 3+ bottles of jose cuervo. we stayed overnight at the lee family's house as usual; departure time was around 4am-5am. we went for a pit stop somewhere north, our route was thru antipolo going to caliraya.

we arrived there around afternoon, set up our tents, and assisted inflating the banana boat. this banana boat could carry around 7-10 passengers at a time; i wasn't sure if this was the same banana boat we used back in subic all those years ago. anyways, we had it inflated, and then we spent the remaining daylight hours in the water riding the banana boat felt like riding toothless in how to train your dragon. judge lee was pulling us using his jetski, giving us obstacle courses in the waves and curves he creates. i've managed to stay on the boat more often than not, this was a good test of balance and coordination. one memorable moment was when i celebrated too early, judge pulled a dirty harry on us, and i fell off,dragging aurelio behind me. lesson learned :P
i also had the unique experience of riding one of these:(pic from the net, because i never got to have my pic taken while riding the standing jet ski)
it was another balance game, i got the hang of it after after a few wipeouts.

aya and jl had to vamoose early because aya's parents weren't too comfy with the idea their only daughter will be spending the night with a large group of strangers. we escorted them via van to the bus terminal.

so night fell, and the bottles were opened. we used some of our delaying tactics to escape the immediate threat of drinking under peer pressure. mission success--we managed to avoid having to drink as much as before. good thing judge lee had a few more friends with him, helping them finish the booze. that night, while we were letting our drunken selves stabilize, we got into talking about a lot of stuff, mostly i was asking them questions, like whats it like having a girlfriend(the couples were fast asleep in their tents--or were they? :P) and all that jazz. once again, i've managed to successfully steer the conversation away from myself when they try to ask me about the same topics. not that im avoiding having to answer, but i dont think i CAN answer properly. come to think of it, i DO have this habit of avoiding lovelife topics when im with that group of friends. i dont know why, but i'm just not comfortable sharing it with them. we were all seated in a circular fashion as if on a bonfire, exchanging our pieces. then judge lee came over, telling us we should sleep, because our voices could be heard meters away, and everyone was sleeping already.

the next morning--well, i don't really remember much about the next morning(not because i was hung over,i never get hang overs) it's just as i'm writing this, months have already passed and i can barely recall the events. whats important is we enjoyed the outing, and we came back home tired but happy.
The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 7 out of 10

April 25,26,27 2010:Sunday til Tuesday, Puerto Galera Trip

okay, so the company im working for, anino games inc. held a company logo-making contest for the company's new casual direction. we each had a weekend to come up with logo designs. the prize was not yet announced, as it was still being kept a secret. but we were so busy that only a few were able to make their logos and submit them in time; so they arranged for 2 hours from the company's time for us to make logos to add to the existing choices. cutting to the chase, i won the contest with this baby:and then it took quite a while before i knew of the prize. it wasn't cash, wasnt some high-end gaming console, or a psp. it was a trip for 2 to puerto galera. it was okay, though for corporate identity design, it usually fetches around 40k and above depending on the client. according to my count, the company spent only 10k for the whole trip package. jeez. but i took it anyway, seeing as i've never been there before.

next problem: who to take?

i had only a few people in mind, but they weren't available during those certain days(work) or parents won't allow. i wanted to take a girl along because if i took a guy along, then that'd be like..so gay. walking along the beach while the sun is setting, taking dips in the water, that kind of stuff. so i asked around a bit, then chanced upon someone who was available.

5:30am.
I leave the house, back pack ready. The sun was rising, and the birds were chirping. It was, by far, the earliest i've woken up for an out-of-town trip. Made my way towards the highway, commuting to the pick-up point at a hotel in Ermita, Manila; and will wait there for my two companions. The hotel was serving breakfast, and there were foreigners abound; i felt like i stepped into a different country. Nikka's friend Sheena finally arrived 15 minutes later, she showed up with her older sister Clarisse. I met Sheena during the Manila International Book Fair last 2009, and this was the first time i was introduced to her atsi, who, my other friends speak highly about.

We boarded the bus, and headed off to Batangas Pier. There was minimal traffic, since it was a sunday morning--and there were only a few of us on the bus, so the trip was fairly relaxing. We arrived at the Pier by 9am, and was greeted by the travel guide. He conversed with us using english, thinking we were all chinese nationals. I talked to him in tagalog, reassuring him we understood the language. We then switched to the ferry boat. It wasn't big, more like an oversized fishing boat, judging by the bamboo poles on its sides used for balancing. It seems like the standard mode of transportation there, and passenger counts were always high.

The boat traversed what felt like the high seas, as we were journeying towards puerto galera. the sun was high, the waves were huge, and the passengers were sleepy. Travel time was around an hour or two, and we reached Puerto Galera at around noon.the boat made a stop at Muelle Port for the passengers who will be staying there, mostly the foreigners. After which we then headed off to white beach as our last stop. The ferry cruised along the island borders on the way there. The mountains were clear, the trees were viridian green, and the waters were cerulean blue . It was truly PARADISE. --and then something unexpected happens. The motor of our ferry boat experienced a malfunction, and we were stuck off shore for about 10-20 minutes. The crew members had other ferry boats tow us along to the shore via fastening ropes. We got to land shortly after, and made our way to the hotel(the one with the huge blue-colored signboard on its roof).

We settled in, and went down to the hotel restaurant to get some late lunch. They have large servings per order(good for 2-3 people per viand) and delicious seafood. So it took us quite a while to finish eating; and after that, we then stayed in our room to cool down. The temperature was so high outside, that a few minutes out there, and one is guaranteed to sweat profusely. Me being the restlessly curious guy, decided to go out and explore our new environment. The sisters declined, and stayed in the room to rest. I walked away from the beach area, towards the town to do some exploring, pokemon-style. the houses there were very much the same as in manila, congested, minus the tall buildings. Near the town's exit, there were hordes of tricycles; and from what i read, they're a bit pricey. I asked one driver how much it would take to reach sabang(the nightlife capital of puerto galera) and he replied 400pesos (to and from san isidro). I expected them to raise the price whenever someone inquired, good thing i did a bit of research before coming there. I went back to the beach, realizing there was no other place i could reach by foot. I went to the nearest shade, along the shore, and took some more photos(pardon the quality, we weren't able to bring any decent cameras)After taking in the sights, i went back to the hotel room to check up on the two. They were ready to go out, and i took them to the rocky shore shade with the nice view of the beach. We then strolled together to the other end of white beach, enjoying the sand and afternoon breeze.

As night fell, we went back, got some dinner (the beach front is full of restaurants and souvenir stores) and went back to the room to chill out. That too, was the first time i saw "kimmy dora", it was on the local cable channel.

We woke up the next morning at around 9am, prepared ourselves for breakfast, and got to another place to eat since the hotel food was a bit expensive, and we already tried their dishes. We then decided to tour around puerto galera instead of just staying at the beach area. We got a tricycle, and we negotiated the price terms for a trip to Tamaraw Falls, since Sabang was too far and would cost more. (and besides, it was daytime and that area was basically asleep)

We rode along the winding hills beside the mountains, the view was breathtaking, as one can see the very far reaches of the sea, as well as the landscape that lie beyond the horizon. We passed by the town in Muelle, where i saw the re-elect campaign posters of former Mayor Teo Atienza , and i remembered my dad telling me that the well-known doctor in puerto galera was our relative and that the family has inherited land in puerto. the tricycle driver shares that the doctor was Teo's daughter; and i thought of visiting them when i come back to puerto galera to acquaint myself with family.We arrived at Tamaraw falls at around noon, and took some pictures. The access point for tamaraw falls is via the main road, the mountainside road, then a few stairs downwards to the resort situated in the falls. There was an entrance fee of ten pesos,which we did not enter because we didn't have our swimming clothes/bags with us.the tricycle driver then offered to take us to the hidden paradise area in puerto galera, another tourist spot. After consulting with the sisters, we agreed to go there.

The way to Tukuran, the hidden paradise, was a long one. It takes one from the main road, turning southwards, along the rice fields and across the hills. We arrived at a certain area where we had to switch transportation; from the motor tricycle, to the humble carabao-powered wodden cart. There was a fee of 300 for the ride to and from Tukuran. So we rode in the cart, and the slow but powerful carabao pulled our weights up some hills, across 4 rivers, and through the lush vegetation of the forest. The guides were not far behind, as they take shortcuts walking across the forest.

We reached tukuran in an hour; it was this hidden valley paradise with falls where the rivers stream from:
There were also a bunch of koreans there, enjoying a dip near the falls. Our tricycle driver (who happens to know the place very well) guided us up beyond the waterfalls, where the water gushes from. It was a rocky segmented complex where there were different pools connecting to the falls:
and we found this neat spot where we stayed for the rest of the trip there. The girls took a dip, me just standing by, prepared for battle just in case the tricycle driver gets unruly or takes their valuables.i couldn't resist, of course, and joined them in the dip. :))We stayed there for an hour or so, before heading back, trekking along the rocky crevasses. Sheena used to be in the mountaineering society back in UST, so she was very comfortable scaling the rough terrain:--not before one last round of picture-taking,though. :)

So we headed back to the base camp at the foot of the valley, had a few coconut refreshments:Coconuts were priced at 25 per coconut, and you can have them broken in two after, if you want to eat the cococnut meat. The rate for the place is 45pesos per person. When we were about to leave the place, there was this sudden inflow of caucasian tourists arriving; and it was fortunate that we had the private pools all to ourselves. It seems that even weekdays(it was a monday) were no stranger to tourists.

We rode the cart back past the forest and rivers, and to the tricycle. We saw a few more carabaos along the rivers, just relaxing half-dipped in the cool waters. We rode the tricycle, and were planning to head back to the hotel; but we made a quick stop-tour at port muelle, the area we saw the day before, to check out the place. There were a lot of people offering boat rides and scuba diving sessions to every person that passed. We walked along the port, there were lots of stores and restaurants, groceries and whatnot. We bought some supplies while we were there, knowing that water was an expensive commodity back in white beach.

Arriving back at white beach, we paid the driver around 2000pesos for the whole trip(which was not bad, knowing how much more the other drivers would charge for the same amount of traveling we did) and went back to the hotel. We went outside for our last chance to swim, it was our last night in puerto galera, and we never even got wet in our own beach. It became dark soon, and we were enjoying night swimming. Made a huge sandcastle in the sand near the shore, which stood for more than an hour before getting devoured by the waves. After a while, it started getting really cold, and we went back to our room to bathe and have dinner.

Nighttime at white beach was lively in itself, there were all these loud music, and fire dancers abound. I could only imagine how wild the nightlife gets way up in sabang. Not to mention all the gay people performing dances while serving guests. We stayed at a nearby bar to enjoy the sounds, ordered some seafood, and i finally had a chance to taste the signature "mindoro sling". it tasted like "tempra" the medicine,though; i expected more.

The following morning, we woke up early, since the calltime for boarding the ferry was 7am. We checked out of the hotel, rode the ferry, and left at around 8am. It was a fairly relaxing and enjoyable trip overall. The bus ride home was also very interesting, but that's a story i'm willing to share at some other time ;)

Who knew designing a logo could get me to the far reaches of my philippine map? Although corporate identity/logo design usually fetches us graphic designers at around 10-50,000pesos(sometimes more,depending on the company) per design, Puerto Galera for 3 days, 2 nights was a pretty sweet deal too.
--P.S.: if you guys were wondering why this particular part in the post is longer, i was asked to write an article by my company to be posted in our website. but they decided not to go with it because it was too long. and then when i reduced it by half, they decided it has nothing to do with my job as game developer, so they asked me to rewrite.(i was thinking, WHAT THE FUCK,man. it was a VACATION, its got NOTHING to do with my job in the first place. assholes.) so i didn't rewrite. screw them.

The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 9 out of 10

Depression Nights

i've been getting depressed a lot. been walking the long dark road every night after work. even walked from office to home once again; thinking. just thinking. i wonder if there's anything wrong with me, why am i still single(i know why, but i wonder why i never get the opportunity to have mutual feelings with someone. it's always one-way) i try to hang out with friends as much as possible, its just that--they have their own lives to live, and i feel like i've got nothing and no one. so its been dry,these couple of depressing days. no one's available for hanging out, and i don't have my family with me. i feel ALONE. so ALONE.

May 29 2010,Saturday, Drunken Docksmen Pub Crawl

My college friends, Patrick and Javy invited me to this event; the international pub crawl. it was this event where people gather to a certain area, drink, and move on the next area via walking. Patrick has been to one pub crawl, and from his feedback, im intrigued to try it for myself.

This year's pub crawl was held in makati; which was in the same area as our office. around that time, i was still working on our project: despicable me for iphone and ipad, we were in a sort-of-crammy state, working during weekends, and sometimes sundays. so it was during a saturday that this happened; after getting some work done, i headed off to greenbelt to meet them(it was only a few blocks away). the plan was, to go drinking in 14 pubs in makati, and when i got there, they had already gone to a few. the group was composed of a couple of english-speaking kids, and javy told me this was where he came from; they were his schoolmates.

the next stops were closed, so we skipped a few and went to chili's, this latino place(idunno if mexican or spanish) which offered bottomless nachos. this wasn't in the itinerary but we went there as an alternative. javy even had several printed papers indicating the itinerary of the pub crawl; which places have which specialties, and details like opening and closing time. in chili's, i had a few fajitas, and a huge (and i mean REALLY huge)glass of one of their cocktails, i forgot the name, but it sure was a fancy drink. i think it was El Niño(tequila+orange juice)

we then moved on to the itinerary proper. overall, i had--
El Niño(tequila+orange juice) Mango Tango(mango juice, cream, vodka,etc) Budweiser Guinness Beer Chimay
--and a take-home beer, ASGAARD. which i drank almost a week later.

we didn't follow the rule which stated that participants should walk to every pub/bar. Javy had a driver and a huge van to carry us everywhere. for the last parts of the crawl, we ended up in the red light district of makati. this was where all the foreigners hung out, and the bars are a\plenty.
the last stop was the hundred beers place; which, by their namesake, had a hundred different beers onsite. it was a semi-classy little cozy place with a few couches. across our table was a local celebrity(i forgot who she was, and she wasn't that familiar in the first place, since i don't watch tv). we hung out there til closing time, and it was a nice end to a great crawl.

we were able to go through more than half of the list of pubs in the itinerary, and only our wallets gave in.

The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 9 out of 10

June 12, 2010: The Karate Kid

okay, so i've been hanging out with the San Juan girls for a while(Eiya, Cy, Pam, Kat), sometimes chilling at greenhills, sometimes watching movies. This time i was gonna watch The Karate Kid with Nikka and her beau Berns, Camille and her sister Mabel, and Aya. I also invited Cheska over, since the area was in greenhills, and she was with her family there. We were supposed to watch it in greenhills promenade cinema. i met with aya and berns first in robinsons, then we headed to camille's place in san juan to pick her up. her sister was also there, and they didn't have any other plans so we pulled them along our little movie quest. everyone met up at their place, and then we walked to Greenhills shopping center, and met up with Cheska. We lined up at the cinema, but the screening schedules were booked, so we had to switch to SM Megamall. we rode the shuttle van that went straight there, and watched the movie. after which was early dinner, then the others were planning to hang out at Camille's again. Cheska had to go home, and i escorted her to their place in QC. there i met her family and their house Cat, Muimui :3. An Orange tabby. So cuute. We played a few games before i headed off back to Greenhills, and on the way out, she noticed that their dog didn't bark at me. It usually barks around new people, so idunno, maybe i have an affinity to animals? or something. I made my way through España as the Jeep i rode's route is españa going to taft. I got down on Araneta ave, since i knew of a shortcut to san juan instead of going to morayta. I took a bus and when i got to camille's, they were watching Ip Man 2 on the huge tv, with camille's dad and brother. After a few minutes, we left for Metrowalk in Ortigas to have a few drinks. Turns out, Earl and other CFAD people were there, also having drinks. So we joined up with them.

The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 7 out of 10

June 19-20 2010: Saturday-Sunday, Toycon

This year's toycon was same as every year's except for the new crowd. everyone's the same people we see every Toy convention in SM Megamall. I hung out with Joanne, a new (old)friend for most of the first day, and met a lot of new people at the event too. I met Agent Kia(i don't know her real name, only met her at plurk.) who was a living snow white because of her complexion, i also met Carol, a fellow CFAD Graduate a.k.a. Jao Rung Wo(I keep seeing her back in college, and i always notice how much she looks like an instructor we had, ma'am Mortel). I also met Max, a.k.a. Makuu, a fellow Kamen Rider afficionado who i also met on plurk thru common friends(who also, is a vocalist for a local band XD). Another new person i met was Jen Ching, a new cosplayer who makes a bit of headline because of her beauty and skimpy costumes.

I didn't get any new stuff from the event, because what i was looking for wasn't available there. My current faves are the miniature Kamen Rider Figurines, been collecting them and displaying them on my office desk for the lolz. this is what my office desk looks like now:--plus a few more additions.The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 9 out of 10

June 30, 2010: Parkour Night

I went on a date that day; the girl asked me out. I figured she was trying to cope with her recent breakup, and i didn't take the whole thing seriously, since she's just on the rebound phase. So we went out on a friendly date--and when i got home; went to the door,i realized that they locked the door; even if i texted the seamstress to NOT lock the door because i left my house keys inside(and yeah, SEAMSTRESS. We used to have a dress shop at home, until my Grandma left to live in the province). i went to the other side of the house to call on the seamstress' window, only to find out she wasn't home. The only person inside was my Grandfather, who was, i assume, fast asleep due to drunkenness. I tried the doorbell, but he still hasn't woken up. I tried calling inside, but no one answers. I realized that the only working phone that time was in his office in the ground floor. I gave up my attempts to contact him by phone, and went outside the gate to formulate a plan of action on how to infiltrate the stronghold that is my house.(will post a comic of how i got in a bit later)

The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 10 out of 10

July 2, 2010: Toy Story 3

I went on another sudden socializing trip, and asked my friend Cy to go watch toy story 3. She was a bit excited about the film since she was a certified Disney-Pixar fan. I invited people from plurk too, the more the merrier. only Carl responded though. I met Carl at the Open Gaming Meet; i also met the pinoy geek community through that event and by joining star wars philippines. So we all met up in Savory Restaurant in theater mall, Carl arrived shortly, and with him was Dek(K or C? idunno.) who was a freelance director. I met her before through my then officemate Shin, who introduced her as his mentor. So we hung around Fully booked a while after eating, since the tickets we got were for the last full show.

I kept hearing a lot of hearsay that Toy Story 3 was a definite tear-jerker, that it touched the emotions of even the most stern of people. Given this premise, i was more intrigued to give it a try. Im not hard to nudge emotionally, i may look like a stiff guy, but i'm definitely sensitive compared to the average male. When the movie was playing, there WERE some scenes where the overall mood/ emotion was clearly emotion-inducing. And pretty soon, i can hear and see my companions crying over the sad scenes. For me, it was bittersweet in the way that i think; "it's for the best." that may have been a factor why i never cried or shed a tear during the whole film. Cy, same as me, never cried. She was an emotionally strong person, always have been. In fact, i've never seen her in any sort of negative emotion, like crying or sad, or even angry. Not that i'd like to, i'm sure she'd be a HELL of a character to put up with if provoked. Anyways, she's cool that way. We finished the film and gone on to our separate ways. At this point while i'm writing this, trying to recall what happened that night--i can't. i forgot. I'm gonna halt at this point for this story instead.

The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 7 out of 10

July 4, 2010: Epic Dream

I had an awesome dream--

I was studying in a ninja school, she was there, accompanying me as a very close friend. We were hanging out, watching tv together while sitting in my bed. I took her to meet my powerful ninja yakuza family,who didn't approve of her due to recent complications-a blood feud with another clan. i let her sit at the side,while i consulted the head of the family-the grandfather ninja told us what happened--one of our relatives had been giving us problems because she wanted to take over one of our castle islands.

After the meeting, i took her to a steep ledge outside the window and asked her if she trusted me. She paused, and i opened the secret sliding wall behind her to reveal a secret room,and talked to her about the situation; she understood fully well; and suddenly the whole household was attacked by an enemy clan, who greatly resembled the water tribe from avatar:the last airbender. We turned out to be similar to the fire nation,but not firebenders. Our palace was on fire, and our only escape route was only a window on the door which could only be broken via waterbending. Our pursuers kept attacking us by using bending skills, which i used to trick them into opening the window. We jumped outside, and our other friends followed suit. One of our companions stayed, said he was a traitor,but it seemed like he was making a ruse for us to escape. We escaped to the beach shoreline, and decided to transfer to our new headquarters. She wanted to go home first to check on her family. I offered to accompany her, wanting to meet the parents. I felt conscious though, since i was only wearing my pants, shoes, and belt-shawl. She said it was okay,they wouldnt mind at all. We rode a jeep in chinatown, and it passed through under the LRT and arrived at a large area(combination of steampunk and traditional japanese design) and there we were greeted by another rival gang, which had giant martial artists as their muscle. They captured us, and tortured her by binding her hands and feet spread outwards in a vertical hanging position, and lowering her into a lava pool. She endured the torture while we made a break and attacked our captors. The rival gang then acquired a scroll in which they learned who their true enemy was, and regrouped suddenly. It was the kenpo clan, and the giants attacked us all indiscriminately. Using our agility, we defeated the giants by hitting their pressure points. I rescued a man and his family who were held hostage by a woman traitor in a car. my close friend was nowhere to be seen--and then i woke up.

crap.

Looking back, i realized "she" was a combination of 2 people that i like. one is a meek, silent, intellectual, insightful introvert. The other is an outgoing, fun-loving silent extrovert. Yin and Yang. It would seem that the qualities i love most about these two people merged together to form a girl that only exists in my dreams. *sigh*. But my feelings linger toward the introvert more. Maybe its because of the connection i feel when we talk, or how i think we'd enjoy the simple things in life. Overall, i really think i'd be happier with her. IF.

The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 1 out of 10.(it was only a dream. go figure D:)

July 24, 2010: Cosplay and Tekken Premiere

So i was contacted by a Cosplay.ph admin, inviting me to cosplay as a character from the series: AVATAR: The Last Airbender. I was reluctant at first, seeing as this was a promotional event for the much-failed bigscreen adaptation. But i went anyways. Just for the Lolz. I arrived there, turns out i was the ONLY Avatar character cosplayer who made it there. The girl who was supposed to be Katara couldn't make it. So i was hired to walk around the SM Cinema lobbies, dressed up as Prince Zuko, and get pictures taken with kids. NOT MY PROUDEST MOMENT. It was bad enough feeling weird cosplaying in a mall, it was worse feeling weird(er) cosplaying with no event happening. I felt like an absolute Jackass. Everyone was staring of course, and it felt a little like a public humiliation-initiation thingy. Why then, do you ask i was there? Simple. I was HIRED to do it. So i grit my teeth, hope nobody recognizes me(and dear God, someone did.) and get on with my life after.

The only consolations were i get to make kids smile(just like a clown), and i got a free advanced screening ticket for SALT starring Angelina Jolie. I tried to ask for another extra ticket, but i would know the day before, sunday if there are any left. After the gig, i segway'd the conversation with my handler(liason with SM Cinema) if i could get in line to meet Jon Foo, the star of Tekken the movie. He was gonna appear there in the cinema lobby to promote the film. She told me she could get me past the long line, which was awesome. I had planned to go to THAT event officially first, while keeping the cosplay thingy second priority. But i got both, and with great benefits. I got to meet Jon Foo a couple of hours later:--oh, and Gary Daniel's pose is from Tiger Style Kung Fu. They can't even tell the difference; passing it off as a pose from a Military Kickboxing style. Jeez.--On another note, i got my ass kicked by some guy's girl in Tekken arcade. They set up an arcade machine as part of promotion.

My friend Ron and his girl Robina arrived, they won tickets to the advanced screening of Tekken. I got into a convo with my handlers from the previous event a few hours ago, and got them to get me in to a free pass for Tekken. Sweet. So we waited, lined up for more than an hour, but at least we got what we came for: an encounter with Jon Foo, and a free movie. :D

--oh, not to mention the funny menu at the place where we had late dinner--Reyes Barbecue:--MEGA LOL. :))

The TIEN-o-Meter gave this event a 10 out of 10

Personality Test

2010-01-14T12:10:00.004+08:00

I took an online personality test. this is what showed up:

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid Disorder:	Low
Schizoid Disorder:	Low
Schizotypal Disorder:	High
Antisocial Disorder:	Moderate
Borderline Disorder:	Low
Histrionic Disorder:	Moderate
Narcissistic Disorder:	Low
Avoidant Disorder:	Moderate
Dependent Disorder:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:	Moderate
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! -- -- Personality Disorders --

I was like; what's schizotypal? *checks wikipedia*

Schizotypal personality disorder, or simply schizotypal disorder, is a personality disorder that is characterized by a need for social isolation, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconventional beliefs.

...........................................
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...DAAYYYMN. O_o

Last few months of 2009

2009-12-24T08:32:00.022+08:00

Okay, once again, haven't toushed this site in a whi--- a LONG while. where to start..where to start..

since August, many things happened, like:

Sept 25-26 2009: Death and Typhoon Ondoy

It all started early in the week; i got a text message from one of our classmates from college. Our classmate, Jeslie Esperas, had just died of Dengue. Shocking news. We attended her wake up north in caloocan. Saw old classmates, stayed there for a while. It started to rain. Ram started to talk to me about the upcoming convention, where we were gonna release our new indie comics, notebook in hand. It was kinda inappropriate, seeing as we were at our classmate's wake. He was always like that, has a tendency to do things at the inappropriate time. I was trying my best to ignore him, replying as little and monotonous as possible. Jeslie's mom noticed us and jokingly pointed it out. I made up a lame excuse and said we were "workaholics". She said if jes were still alive, she'd laugh at us. After a long while there, we eventually went on our way home, Me and Ron hitched a ride in Ram's ride. The rain was pouring now, they dropped us off in north edsa. I got home past midnight (as usual). I had to get a cab because it was starting to rain down at magallanes. When i got near the subdivision, the cab was in feet-deep flood already. So i went home, went online for a bit and then went to sleep.

I was woken up by our maid, in a panic. I got up, and as i went down the stairs, to my shock, it was FLOODED inside the house--the house that was in an elevated area. Water was EVERYWHERE. First instinct was to shut off the fuse box because the water level was almost gonna reach the wall sockets. To my horror, they still haven't shut it off; turns out they didn't know what to do during an emergency like this. We walked near the fuse box, and i started to feel the slight electrical ground as we approached the the refrigerator which was still ON, by the way. We had the neighbor called from the opposite house because i was Electrophobic, and had him shut off the fuse box. We continued on to salvage the other stuff we had in the ground floor, the TV fell into the flood, but no water seeped inside, thank goodness. The whole day, electricity was powered down, because the flooding was widespread across the whole metro. Our house in sta. mesa was flooded as well. I heard the pet Cats disappeared in the madness of the flood, so i was worried. Work was suspended because of the national disaster.

Saw internet pictures of the typhoon's aftermath with much sadness. The Cats came back unharmed, thank God. The whole of metro manila was slowly recovering from the disaster.

The TIEN-o-meter gave this event a -10 out of 10.

Oct 29 2009: Adidas King of the Road

Same as last year, i signed up for the annual ADIDAS running event. This year, the singlets were in the color YELLOW:

UST colors much? :))

Add this to the fun of running 5 kilometers to the tunes of eye of the tiger, molossus, etc(thanks, patrick!)

FAIL MOMENT: I woke up 2 hours AFTER the race started *facepalm*
this was kinda okay, seeing as i lacked sleep and enough training.

The TIEN-o-meter gave this event a 5 out of 10.

Nov 4 2009: SSC Elementary Batch Reunion

I recently got in contact with my former schoolmates, and they were planning a get together. I had other plans, like going to binondo to interview the old brother of our grandmaster's sifu, and that other thing, which i can't remember right now.LOL. I went to join them anyhow, saw the old mugs again. Lotsa drinks and chatter later on:

most of them got either fat, pregnant, or successful :P

I took my leave when it was getting kinda late; we still had work the following day. Probably wouldn't hang out with them ever again. They have matured much, from the old days back in GANGSTER HIGH, but still, not really my kinda crowd.

The TIEN-o-meter gave this event a 6 out of 10.

Nov 27 2009: Dinner out with Eiya, Kat, Cy and Pam

Hung out with the usual suspects, Eiya treated us to some Yellow Cab pizza for her birthday and because she passed the teacher's exam back at Immaculate Concepcion Academy in Greenhills. Met their friend, Kat Ong, who was our batchmate and a painting major. After pizza, we hung out in Starbucks.
The TIEN-o-meter gave this event a 8 out of 10.

Nov 29 2009: photoshoot

Was supposed to go to a cosplay event in makati's A venue, but i woke up late. So i went to my friend Meng hua's thesis photoshoot instead. Was with officemate Ricah(the model), and her beau Keith. We went to the Chinese garden and Japanese garden back in Luneta. As usual, people kept staring, they weren't used to seeing a Loli cosplayer. We finished when it was dark, and we ate dinner in Jollibee in Kalaw. After seeing Meng off, we walked towards taft to get a ride. I felt we were being followed, so i looked behind us. True enough, there was a middle-aged guy wearing a cap and jacket, holding a bag who suddenly stopped following us as soon as he noticed me looking at him. EVIL STARE really does work XD well, if he'd went on with his original intent and robbed us, i could've kicked his ass for free.

The TIEN-o-meter gave this event a 7 out of 10.

Dec 3 2009: Depression

I had a talk with a certain someone over from plurk; i noticed she hasn't been replying to my messages and whatnot in plurk, so i asked her directly if she had a problem with me. True enough, she DID have a problem with me. Said i was too "feeling close" and it made them(her and my other "friends") uncomfortable. This really hurt, because i was just being friendly with them, just being myself. I wasn't doing anything extraordinary, just replying to their posts and stuff. After that chat, i haven't talked to them again, and i don't think i will in the near future. Sad though, that thats what they thought of me, when i thought highly of them. Met them back in college, seemed like nice girls. Oh well. I realize that they can't be my friends, even when i want them to be. or maybe im just speaking out of hurt. Whatever.

The TIEN-o-meter gave this event a 3 out of 10.

Dec 5 2009: Tree Planting

As part of the Company Christmas celebration, we went down to Caliraya to plant some trees--some environmentalism thing. We spent the night over at the office, got up early, left makati earlier than last outing. The trip was rather excruciating, it was so tight and uncomfortable. 3 hours to get there, had some last minute food arrangements mistakes. So we got there a bit LATE, and when we got there, they (the boss and some officemates) already finished planting ALL our trees, and left us with one tree each. GADAMMET. Its like we made a long trip just to take pictures of ourselves in a forest environment setting. SHEESH. At least the lunch at a nearby resort wasn't so bad. food was kinda okay, the place was smashing. too bad we couldn't stay longer.
Took us a total of SIX FRIGGIN HOURS of travel time. oh, and we passed by 19 branches of Colette's buko pie stores. Franchising tycoon.

The TIEN-o-meter gave this event a 6 out of 10.

Dec 7 2009: Mixed Martial Arts Tournament

Our friend Ram invited us to this kickboxing and MMA event hosted by the national kickboxing association, of which his Teacher was president of. We got VIP seats, and met up at Amoranto Stadium in QC. The event was an inter-school tournament pitting students against each other. Funny thing though, the guy coaching at the red corner was my classmate back in high school. LOL. When the fighters took the stage, there was this one guy who, while making an entrance, jumped the top rope, fell on his back. Looked like it was an accident, which he made a recovery of by passing it off as comedy.
As it turns out, he was the winner, knocked his opponent a few seconds after the bell rang. Comedy was just his front. XD

The TIEN-o-meter gave this event an 8 out of 10.

Dec 19 2009: UST PASKUHAN

Originally, i didn't think i'd be going to this year's paskuhan celebration, because i hurt my foot in a sparring injury; i accidentally kicked Jerome's elbow with the top of my foot, so i've been absent from work a few days because it was swollen. I had my foot X-Rayed; my first x-ray ever. I made it there nonetheless. went to UST by lunchtime to pick up my alumni card, but they posted a note saying the cards will be available in january 2010. so i went home to pick up my artworks and went to Ride n Roll Diner up at Katipunan for our star wars-themed Art Exhibit:
Made luke skywalker for a few days because i couldn't decide what to do, and made darth vader overnight.

Anyways, so after submitting, i made my way to UST just in time; was supposed to meet online friends, Bernice Chan-juan and Briks Benigno face to face for the first time. They're cool :).
Saw a lot of old friends too, there's Michael Gonzales, Ceejay Yungco, and the Orgrum Peeps; Ram, Nikka,Ajine,Aya,Patrick, etc. cameo appearance by George Benta. There were, however a few awkward moments that night; i saw her again, we kinda ran into each other near the entrance of beato. Met some of Bernice and Brik's friends, pretty nice people. After a long sit there near the entrance, i took my leave from them, and hung out with the old buddies at pav 5.
Fireworks were EPIC XD. Was kinda curious about the lantern parade in UP, which occured at the same time frame that night. Good times, Good times.

The TIEN-o-meter gives this event a 10 out of 10.

Dec 21 2009: Company Christmas Party

So the second part of our christmas celebration, was a dress-up event; dress up as a rock/popstar. The event was held at Center Stage in makati. Was my first time there, wasn't there when the company held a karaoke night there. I was at Jeslie's wake that night. The meeting place was at the office, and lunch at centerstage.
I came as Alex Band of the Calling, and Shin as Paul Stanley of KISS

Got a FULLYBOOKED gift certificate worth 600php XD.

The TIEN-o-meter gives this event a 9 out of 10.

--AAND there were these other things, like that date with Cas, the dozen conventions i attended in november, the secret christmas dinner, and that swimming night in the rooftop of west tower plaza ni makati. YYYYEP..pretty much enjoying life as it comes, being single is lonely, but still pretty NEAT. I get to do a lot of extracurricular things before i get to fall again. Falling is too hard and stressful,thats why i keep myself from it...for a while, at least. When it happens, it happens. que sera sera.

After writing this, imma go get a shower, and prepare to go to Mall of Asia for that new year's countdown and celebration. I don't wanna spend new year's eve in an empty and lonely house.

2009 has been a most EVENTFUL year for all of us;

Hopefully, 2010 would be a more excellent and fun year for everyone. HAPPY NEW YEAR! XD

Touching Base

2009-08-21T17:55:00.019+08:00

Okay...Haven't touched this site in a while...a LOT of things happened, and i can't remember them all, so i'm gonna go over some in summary:

June 5 2009: Anino Games Inc. outing @ La Luz Beach Resort, Laiya, Batangas

We stayed overnight at the office to avoid having to go out from home early in the morning. The timing was kind of odd, since it was the start of the rainy season right after the summer season, but since we were jam-packed with projects. I spent the night watching Dragonball:Evolution on my pc, while the others were playing Ps3. So we went to Batangas, the driver got screwy with his directions, we arrived later than expected. We ate lunch, then proceeded the afternoon with the program. Lots of games, team-building exercises, etc:

so after spending the night there, we headed on our way back to manila.

the Tien-o-meter gave this event a 10 out of 10

June 14-15 2009: Toycon

Same as every year, we attended Toycon @ megamall. Lots of toys, reunions with old friends, etc. I submitted my entry for the toyclicks contest, but i didn't win:

Anyways--got to see former officemates-friends, like POPO, JABO and ANNIE.

the Tien-0-meter gave this event an 8 out of 10

June 24, 2009: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen night

I met up with my friend Kachina @ Gateway Mall to watch the premiere screening of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Kachi got us free premiere tickets care of their company, Executive Optical. The tickets were custom made, when unflapped, the folding reveals a pop-up of a mini-allspark, with The Fallen's hand clawing out. SO COOL:

We watched in the same cinema where we watched the advanced screening of Death Race back in august 20, 2008. She even won a free shirt from the pre-screening program, just as she was telling me she was kinda unlucky when it came to those promos. The movie was great, full of action, drama and all that jazz. The ending part was kind of a let-down though. I was expecting the action figure sales to skyrocket after the movie came out. I also suddenly wanted to buy either an action figure of The Fallen, or one of the Primes(if they made action figs of such), and soon enough, i was able to pre-order the voyager class figure of The Fallen, i'm expecting it to arrive in the stock by this week. Love the design, he's got a pharaoh look to him, which adds to the story that they all inspired early man's civilizations XD XD XD

the Tien-o-meter gave this event a 9 out of 10

August 1, 2009: IGDA KUCHA night

I met up with my friends Luna and Karen in glorietta, ran into Pam on the way there. We were gonna go to this event where the local game development community had a gathering where they share stuff about the game development scene. The event was held @ a building in ortigas area, in Paul Gadi's office lounge area(Paul was a former officemate, and a fellow comic book and gaming fan). I learned a LOT from that event in particular with the industry im working on. I had the rare chance to meet Chester Ocampo a.k.a. elpinoy on Deviantart:
--turns out, he was an acquaintance of Luna's. Small world talaga.
--Oh, and he looks like MASI OKA, Hiro Nakamura from Heroes. LOL.
Other friends arrived, like Mike Velasco, Michael Gonzales and Ceejay Yungco. I also got a free pizza to take home after the event.

the Tien-o-meter gave this event a 10 out of 10

August 14, 2009: G.I. Joe night

I met up with 2 of my kidlat™ friends, Ron and Ryan to watch G.I. Joe: the rise of cobra. It was a FUN movie to watch, although i never really knew much about the old series. We were just 3, because the other 2, Seph and Bobbit couldn't make it. My only comment was on the action scenes of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow; they resorted to quick cuts too much, that i couldnt make out what was going on. still a great movie though.

the Tien-o-meter gave this movie a 9 out of 10

August 15,2009: Graphika Manila

I met up with my friends Ram and Ajine @ SM Mall of Asia to attend the annual Design conference known as Graphika Manila. It's basically a gathering of the Graphic Designers, Artists, etc in the local scene, with guest speakers from the International scene. Last year, the BIG one was PIXAR. This year, INDUSTRIAL LIGHT AND MAGIC.(ZOMG) so i just HAD to attend. This year's was more interesting compared to last year's boring one. Not to forget mentioning Tim Yap's laptop FAIL. I got to see some old friends, like Leah del Rosario, Lorenze Buenaventura, etc. The Graphika Manila Book was okay, nice reference too. My artwork submission for the contest to be included in the book didn't get in (as usual):

August 27, 2009: Nothing Special, just Updating. OH WAIT. There's SOMEthing.

At around 2 days ago, i saw my college professor post a status on Facebook™, he said to try typing his name in YouTube™, we will see his tryout videos. True enough, i tried it, out came different results for Fernando Torres, the Football player. LOL.

--So i tried it for myself, typed in my name. I was half-expecting to see some "Hommies" who share my name, but to my immediate SHOCK, i saw one of MY pictures in the search page:

I checked the profile of the one who uploaded this video, and this is that person's page,along with THE video:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ailin17forest

While watching this, i was completely creeped out. I.Was.Stalked. O_o Note to self: make my friendster profile private. LOL. I DO have a clue as to who it was, though.

Visual Mediums

2009-05-05T01:08:00.042+08:00

May 2, 2009.SATURDAY

The maid woke me up around 8am, asking me if i was going with my Grandpa to our Ancestral house in Balayan, Batangas for the alleged "film shooting" he told me about the day before. I went downstairs to his office, Groggy and lacking an immediate plan, i declined, saying that he go on ahead, i'd just commute later on in the day(amidst my qualms about the expensive transportation fare). When i regained my senses, i suddenly remembered why it was a good thing that i hadn't come with him that early; it was because i was gonna attend Free Comic Book Day, when stores gave away free comic books, the biggest event being held at Comic Odyssey in Robinson's Galleria, ortigas.

I took a shower, fixed myself up, and left. I got there around 10:30-11am, took my lunch first in mcdonald's, because i wasnt sure where the store was located. After eating, i scoured the 3rd floor; that was my only marker for the place. I wandered off into the west wing, i think..and i saw this Pet Store that had a huge window display, showing the pets. NATURALLY, i'd go near the store, looking for CATS. hahahaha. i saw this pair of cats that had a fur pattern resembling a white tiger's. They were so cute, i wish i could take them home, but my grandpa's house isnt pet-friendly, except for my cousin's pug, Gigi. I found comic odyssey a while later, and the place was PACKED. a huge crowd outside, and a long line. I bumped into Mark Poa, whom Luna introduced me to at the Open Gaming Meet(and who also, by chance, knows Tonet Domingo. Small friggin' world, right?). He was there with another dude from OGM(Open Gaming Meet), i forgot his name though, i just recall that he was a fellow CFAD Graduate. Carl was with them, also from OGM So we hung around after getting our respective numbers.(this system was far more organized than i have ever seen anywhere else.)

It was one of comicbook Geekdom's most awaited events of the year, where avid fans get to line up in front of comic book stores for hours, to get FREE comic books care of the local comic book retailers, in participation of the international event of the same name. Being the Geek that i am, i was one of those who patiently lined up, waiting to benefit from this Christmas-like celebration.

I saw one of our Artist friends, Wilson Tortosa, there for the signing and sketching sessions for the promotion stuff. We chatted for a bit, he asked me about work and stuff. Other bigshot artists were there too, like Gerry Alanguilan, Carlo Pagulayan, Harvey Tolibao, etc. I lined up, waited patiently for my turn. and BOY, DID I WAIT. It took me more than an hour there, just standing in line with the others. This was expected of course, i was in the same event last year, and the year before that. It just never gets old.XD

Photos borrowed from Wilson's Multiply site: http://batangbatugan.multiply.com/

While on the line, the guys behind me were talking about the upcoming Green Lantern Series; BLACKEST NIGHT. This was after the Sinestro Corps war, and i was very much curious as to how it will turn out. I never got the chance to read up on the events of the war, but i'll be buying the trade paperback instead, to save me the effort of having to hunt the single issues, part by part. I noticed that the ushers and usherettes were THE VERY SAME people from years ago. It seemed to me that they were a whole, single, english-speaking family. I was surprised to see an old classmate there, Mr. Ken Steven Chun, our "KUYA" from first year college(because of the fact that he was OLDER than our instructor at the time, Mr. Buen Calubayan). A fellow comic book enthusiast, we talked about our expectations for the event and such.

I finally got in, and selected 3 titles of my choice; then at the end of the line, a lady gives us 10 more pre-selected comics, as a package. I stayed there for around an hour more, browsing through the non-free stuff, because i was thinking of making the most of my stay there. My friend Patrick Flores had to do an errand at home so he couldn't catch up with me in the event; so according to my schedule, i was supposed to go to the next(and last) comic book store on my route, which is Druid's Keep in Magallanes:
I arrived there, and saw an old friend, Mr. Bong Seriosa(whom i met a few years ago, in one of Glasshouse Graphics' Seminars) and we catched up on each other's work and stuff. He told me of his problems back at Glasshouse, the reason why he's not working for them anymore. It didn't hinder my dream of working in an international title, but it DID taint it a little. Couldn't blame him though, he has a wife and kid to worry about.

So i left the place, only 2 books caught my fancy. I went straight home, and tried to finish up some unfinished business. Ending at around 7pm, i immediately packed my stuff, and sped towards Pasay-Rotonda, where i was told that there were shuttle vans going to Balayan, near our house,no less. I made it to the Last Trip, and was texting my friend Meng Hua that i was already on my way. She wanted to come along, to watch the shooting and, if heaven allows, get noticed by the crew.

The trip lasted for around 2 and a half hours, we left at 7:30pm and arrived at 10pm. It was my FIRST TIME to commute THAT FAR all by myself; the previous trip had only been to Los Baños Laguna, to attend the "company outing". I got out of the van in Antorcha street, where our house was located. It took a while for me to find the house, because i only visit there during ELECTION PERIOD, where one of my uncles, Benjie Martinez, was mayor for consecutive terms, and needs family support. My Grandpa, being all Gung Ho every election, had us register to vote there, even though we have no idea who the candidates were. This term however, Benjie's camp LOST because Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita(malacañang's speaker and my grandpa's second cousin or whatever) bet on the opposing party. Oh well, thats Politics for ya. Anyways, i rested for a while at the house, then grandpa gave me some cash to go get myself dinner from the Jollibee near our house.

It was a Small town, and you can already count the modern establishments with your fingers. It was a mix of OLD and NEW; a lot of the houses retained their spanish-era architecture. I was walking along the dark, unlit street, the moon was enchanting even though only half was visible. I felt like a vampire prowling through the night, stalking for victims. It was dead silent in that place, you can hear every little noise even from a distance.

I arrived at Jollibee, but it was already closing time. the McDonald's across the street was closed too, so i had no other choice than to pick any random food stand i could find. Luckily, there was a Shawarma stand near the basketball court. i ate there, and strolled home again. Grandpa had another bed set up for me in his room, the only habitable room in the house(ironic, since the house has a total of 5 rooms).LOLz. Sleeping there was a bit of a challenge, the night was dead silent, the radio was on for the whole night, but in fairness, they kept playing mellow tunes all night. ME LIKEY.XD. love songs galore haha. I drifted in and out of sleep, and that bothered me a bit. i couldn't sleep straight, and i'm gonna need a full rest for the following day.

May 3, 2009.SUNDAY

I finally got some sleep, and woke up near 5am; Grandpa informed me the previous day that the cast and crew will be arriving the very same time. So i got up, fixed myself, and proceeded to join him downstairs to welcome whoever came in. We waited for 30-45minutes before the crew arrived.

It seems Filipino Time is not an alien concept to them. I talked to one of the first crew members(Kuya Boyet) to arrive, and i asked him WHAT exactly is going to take place in our house. He said that it was a film for star cinema, and the main characters would be played by Aga Muhlach and some leading lady.

One of my grandpa's drinking buddies came over to visit and/or assist. He was Kuya Romy, a tall man in his forties; he offered to tour me around the town in his motocross bike for a while, get me acquainted with my heritage. along the way, he showed me the important houses there and who they belonged to, mostly my relatives who were actively involved in politics. He told me that my mother's side, the Martinez family, was said to be one of the most powerful and influential families in Balayan, Batangas. When he was still a student, one of the Former Presidents of the philippines, Manuel L. Quezon, was just a humble Shoeshine boy under my ancestor, Don Pio Martinez. In fact, the suit he wore to his oath-taking as president was a gift from Don Pio. His father, Don Pedro Martinez, was the 4th filipino millionaire. Had stocks in manila hotel, etc. I had previously been oriented about my family's roots, but still i feel no sense of pride; because the question remains: Where did all the glorious family history and wealth go to? The answer was simple; they spent it all.*facepalm*. It doesn't matter if you're the richest man in the country; what matters is how you spend all that and have the enterprising spirit to let it grow for your family, and their family's families.

We stopped by the so-called"Balayan Baywalk", near the edge of the Batangas Bay, and took in the sights. Kuya Romy showed me the place's significant change thanks to the current mayor's efforts, but started by my uncle, the former mayor:

The beach had charcoal-dark sands, and was not pleasing to look at, compared to the white sands of normal beaches. There were a lot of morning fitness participants there; and almost everyone knew kuya romy because he was tito Benjie's official speaker a.k.a. Lapdog. We left the area, circled around town a bit more, then finally we went back home.

By this time, the rest of the crew came in, we met the Director, i forgot her name though. TURNS OUT, it was just a taping for a tv series on abs-cbn; entitled precious hearts something-something. I was initially told by my grandpa that the talents would be Marian Rivera and John Pratts. So i got thinking, it must've been a combination of LIMITED INFORMATION DRIVE(need-to-know basis) and my grandpa being DRUNK. He's a classic alcoholic, he just doesnt resort to physical abuse, he resorts to verbal and psychological abuse. PURE EVIL when he gets it on. Anyways, given that clarification, i still stuck around to watch; it would be a total waste if i'd go home early.

The first of the 2 celebs that were gonna be in the episode arrived; a small brunette, with western features. i was told that this was Denise Laurel, granddaughter of some famous laurel named "doy"? so she hung around the waiting area while the crew started setting up the rooms in our house. I never watch TV these days, so i dont know who the hell Denise Laurel was. They took out a lot of items, added some stuff. It was like EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION, minus the part where you get to keep the new digs.

I got to see how a TV production crew works firsthand; they visualize the scenes based from the location and the requirements of the script, and they plan the lighting etc:

I got to see what a dolly looks like:(the assistant director pronounces it as "doh-li" rather than "doll-lee")

I also saw this Directional Microphone that resembles the one used by Raiden in METAL GEAR SOLID 2: SONS OF LIBERTY:

Kuya Boyet also mentioned that they were fresh from taping at the other house across the street, which belonged to my uncle, Leo Martinez(he's my mom's first cousin, so i get to call him that anyway). They were looking for ancestral houses in batangas to shoot the series; im not sure if the whole series, but a number of episodes.

So it was high noon already, John Pratts arrived, and they went to work with their scenes:

here's me with a photo-op--
--and YES, the gay Location Manager who took this photo was spasmic. Dang.

They shot the scenes in a certain sequence so that they could maximize the amount of natural light, since it constantly changes. They shot the opening scene for the episode; where these two old manangs come by the house and get spooked by what they thought was a "maligno":

They shot this scene a couple of times, because the 2 manangs couldn't achieve what the director and assistant director's preference. The director was nowhere to be found, the assistant director was the one doing all the dirty work. They communicate via those earpiece-headphone thingies. The assistant director reminded me of Ma'am Gigi ocampo, one of my instructors back in college( not because of how she worked; but mainly, how she looked like.LOLz). But this assistant director had LUNGS. She was shouting all day so that everyone can hear whats going on in the set. Gotta admire that lung power haha.

here's a few takes of some scenes:

The taping went on the whole day, til night and on to the next day. As the day progressed, i met a lot of my grandpa's posse; his drinking buddies Kuya Rico(errand boy in his late twenties) and Tito Albert(grandpa's nephew, a guy in his mid twenties). They both had THICK Batangueño accents..and i mean THICK. They pronounce JOLLIBEE as "DJO-LI-BEY" and McDonald's as "MAC-DOONALD".LOLz. They helped assist my grandpa, as well as maki-UZI sa happening.

But an unfortunate thing happened. Grandpa went out and gotten himself drunk at his buddy's house. The worst part is, he CAME HOME, while the crew were still renting the place. When he's drunk, he acts all high-and-mighty, trash talks people, threatens people just to show his superiority; and the fact that he's a lawyer doesnt help. His buddies told me that he drinks there EVERY SINGLE DAY, morning and afternoon-nighttime. Good thing that the directors were too busy to notice, or his voice wasn't that loud as to disturb the acoutsics of the place. He kept ranting ON AND ON about stuff thats got nothing to do with the present situation, except it makes him feel powerful. He goes on about how a lot of powerful and famous people all used to bow to our clan, about how much he can influence those people. JEEZ. He sounded like a broken record on repeat mode. most of the stuff he says MIGHT be true, but the way he goes about it is NOT something to be proud of. So full of hot air. Good thing his associates there were able to calm him down and trick him into sleeping, else we would have a humiliating disaster right then and there. He insisted on sleeping on the hut we were on, while the other production crew members were also with us. I stayed away from him as much as possible from this point on.

The taping continues, and in between takes, i stroll around the venue, "pakalat-kalat", making sure none of our stuff gets stolen or what, and staying away from mr. high-and-mighty drunkard. After one take, John Pratts asked me about the house, he was fascinated with the fact that it was very much antique, give or take a hundred years old. I told him that the house they taped on a few days before ours(just across the street) belonged to Leo Martinez.

I managed to sneak in a little photo-op with Denise before her hair and wardrobe were fixed for the takes:

-she was kinda intimidating--she got this "don't-talk-to-me-i'll-talk-to-you"-aura. Like a stuck-up spoiled little rich coño kid. But she was actually easy to talk to, her looks ARE deceiving. Oh, and i rarely smile at photo ops.LOLz.

Hours passed, and it was afternoon already. I was getting tired and bored and thinking about how to get home from there. I asked our driver how, and surprisingly, it was as easy as the way i came. The nearby plaza had every bit of civilization there, even the shuttle terminal. The taping was still going to continue on til the next day; and since i got work the following day, i hadta vamoose by 6pm. After saying my goodbyes to the good people there at the house, i left for the plaza terminal, where i lined up for AN HOUR, there were a lot of people coming back to manila since it was a long weekend.

After what seemed like hours, we finally got on to a van. It was the LAST TRIP for the day, 6:30pm but we got one around 7:30pm because all the vans were in duty. The trip home was faster though, we took the highway going back. The lady to my right, a girl in her mid-twenties, was kinda sleepy(so were we all), and kept leaning on me, swaying her head drowsily from side to side. I got my share of sleep minutes ago, so i when i got around to it, i offered her my shoulder. She declined, feeling a bit ashamed(or maybe she was kinda creeped out at the fact that a total stranger offered her his shoulder to lean on). We arrived outside Metropoint mall around 10pm-ish and went on our separate ways. I had a sudden craving for dunkin donuts so i stopped by and bought a pack o' munchkins and a cup o' hot chocolate. YUM.

The TIEN-o-Meter gives this event a 9 out of 10.

May 6, 2009.WEDNESDAY

I went with my friend Luna Cruz and we watched the advanced screening of STAR TREK:The Future Begins, at Festival Mall in Alabang. We arrived outside the cinemas and we saw the huge crowd that showed up for the advanced screening; most of them in their thirties and above. This was STAR TREK, THE scif-fi TV series that started it all, and it had a huge cult following.

We saw the other peeps from OGM there, i spotted Beerkada Creator Lyndon Gregorio with them, they were all wearing star trek uniforms:

The event was sponsored by the parish of St. James the great, and Singles Apostolate. Hence, it was kind of a church thingy. I noticed there were a lot of chinese people in the crowd(of course, i'd notice THAT.lol). The Program started, they plugged in their special events; after which we were treated to upcoming movie trailers that included G.I. Joe and Transformers: revenge of the fallen.

The movie was AWESOME, it had elements that would please a normal fan and a true-blue trekkie. The characterization for kirk was very nice, althought it employed the typical "from zero to hero" formula. Chris Pine's portrayal was okay, i wasn't much of a trekkie to start comparing him to William Shatner. It was also the first time i got to see spock's childhood in Vulcan. Zachary Quinto was indeed a nice pick for the role of spock. Apart from the similarities in facial features, he pulled off the "Logically boring, yet intense" character of spock quite well.

Leonard Nimoy makes a grand cameo, and has a major role in the movie. 8D

Overall, i liked the movie a LOT, even though i'm not a trekkie. I'm a Warsie. LOL ang corny haha

The TIEN-o-Meter gives this event a 10 out of 10

First of Summah

2009-04-19T19:50:00.022+08:00

A LOT of stuff happened; finally got the chance(and mental constitution) to blog about it just now hehe...

A.)March 18, 2009, WEDNESDAY
~My Sister's GRADUATION DAY. I wanted to go there (St. Paul University) after work, but i was too late. I hitched a ride with my officemate, Dino Diaz(Trivia: Me and Dino met when we were NEWBORNS. i was born on january 1, 1987, he was born the day after. Same hospital. We probly shared the same Nursery room.lolz). I got off near our birthplace, and rode to greenhills; my mom told me to pick up grandma at my tita's place.

We went to celebrate at TENDER BOB'S @ Greenhills. Yummy Food in that place. Archie Alemanya and Mickey Ferriols were there, with their kid, who was VERY VERY noisy. I had a HEAVY MEAL as usual, along with a power dessert:My sister had a Mango Ice Cream something--(i forgot the name)
The TIEN-o-Meter gives this event a 10 out of 10

B.)March 26, 2009, THURSDAY
~My OLDER BROTHER'S GRADUATION DAY. I woke up at 1pm in a panic(i was on leave for that day, but i was gonna be late). So i rushed and fixed myself, no time for breakfast, sped up to Pasay Rotonda, got a taxi, and arrived at PICC. I was supposed to get my ticket from JL De Castro, an alumni friend. I ended up waiting outside for about 45 minutes after the program started 'cause i was waiting for JL to come out. His cell had no juice, so i was left there waiting. i kept texting Aya, asking where JL was. He finally came out, gave me the ticket and the same moment, Ram arrived, carrying flowers for our friend, Ajine. We had to do a little TACTICAL ESPIONAGE action to get in, since Ram didnt have a ticket.

We watched the whole event, i saw my mom and sister in the front. I saw my friends walk the stage as students for the final time. I saw HER again. After the program, it was photo-op time for the graduates, my brother and my mom went ahead to Pancake House nearby. I stayed to greet my friends and other acquaintances.

I initially wanted to greet her, but things went sour between us; seems she didn't want my friendship anymore. She deleted me from her friends list at plurk for SOME reason i was not aware of at the time. My friend Onard told me it has something to do with a plurk i posted, something about me talking about her in a negative way? my reaction to that was, WHAT THE HELL? was she SO SURE it was about her, that she just gave up on our friendship in an instant? i never talked about her negatively and/or had negative feelings towards her until now, when this happened. Heck, our last conversation at plurk was even full of light-hearted jokes. Then this suddenly happens. Dammit. I hate it when friendships go sour.RANT ENDS HERE.orz

I saw her MOM on my way to the exit, and so i greeted her mom instead,made small talk. She DID recognize me, surprisingly. After an awkward moment, i made my way out, hung out with the crowd for a while, saw Lianne Lim with Gwen So, they were waiting for Onard.
So i went outside with Bobbit, we waited for stuff to happen, like friends coming out, saying goodbye, etc. He went on ahead, since we thought Ron went home early. I went to pancake house and along the way, an SUV parked to my right, and out came my Thesis Adviser back in college, Sir. Noel Flores and Ma'am Mortel, his hunny. I arrived @ pancake house, my whole family was there, i ate a HUGE meal, as usual. We got home to our original place in sta. mesa, and i played around with my favourite pet cat, rocky balbatchoy for a while.

I hitched a ride on my brother's scootercycle and he drove us ALL THE WAY here in parañaque. That was my first time ever to ride in an unstable/potentially hazardous vehicle THAT long. When we got home, our mom texted us, asking if we got home safely. I asked why she sounded very worried; she said she just heard on the radio that an accident occured on nagtahan bridge, near our place, and a place we passed through a while ago; 2 guys got into an accident, the one died on the spot, the other was in critical condition. so THATS why she was so worried! Thank God that wasn't us.

I texted HER, congratulating her that night..she replied with a simple "tnx!" and when i replied, she never did again. I have finally given up on our friendship. I'm SO tired of always trying to be someone worth keeping for her, as a true friend. There's no use trying to explain when your words fall on DEAF EARS...

The TIEN-o-Meter gives this event an 8 out of 10

C.)April Something 2009(forgot the date O_o)
~Went along with the famiLEE's subic excursion. We had a lot of sparring matches on the sand; i got to watch my friends go at it, then they let me have a go. I went up against Omar Gabito, the tallest of our group, also the slimmest. He studied karate as his core art. As i expected, he was jumping a bit when he fights, and that his forward motion is always along a straight line. His reach was SO long, and i was trying to come up with a fight mentality in which to use; since i learned a bit of other kung fu styles different from my core art which was Hung Fut. I tried experimenting with wing chun, i parried a number of his punches with tan sau and bong sau. The match ended when i was taking a short break, but i wasnt able to regain back my cardio. This reminded me of the importance of endurance along with technique. I learned a LOT from those sparring matches at the beach, and i'd be raring to go at it again any time soon XD. The following morning, Judge Lee gave us a ride on his speedboat, we toured around subic bay.

A bottle of Fundador™ later, we got into Drunk Sparring again, this time in the water.LOLz.
after that, on the way home, we stopped by for lunch on a pit stop.
I treated the guys to starbucks a while later.
The TIEN-o-Meter gives this event a 10 out of 10

D.)April 7, 2009, TUESDAY
~Holy week. Tuesday. I met up with Karen Manalastas(my batchmate friend) and Cyrille Ching(my longtime college friend) at Greenhills McDonald's and we hung out, ate lunch, and went to Conti's to eat their critically-acclaimed MANGO BRAVO, which both karen and cy just couldn't stop raving about.
I tried the mango bravo, along with their mocca frap,(pictured below) which was kind of odd for me, since i dont usually drink mocca frap, not even from starbucks. They tried the Tsokolate "GA"as a side addition..we don't have a clue why it's called that way, but we just laughed about it instead.LOLz.After which, we escorted Cy to the gus stop, since she was gonna go to divisoria to fix some family stuffs. It was Karen and Cy's FIRST MEETING :D.

Me and Karen went back to fully booked and browsed through the Art section; She was supposed to meet up with Michael Gonzales, my former officemate at ANINO, now with BOOMZAP later that afternoon. Karen applied and was offered an Artist position there. XD.
I decided to go along with her to see my former officemates now with BOOMZAP. We all met up @ Timezone Glorietta, and i was surprised to see SOMEONE there(name withheld). we sang a few, and i tagged along with them to the bus terminal going to the fort, they were going to a company dinner there, the head honcho visited. Luna was there at the fort already, so we didn't get to see each other.

The TIEN-o-Meter gives this event an 8 out of 10

E.) April 18, 2009, SATURDAY
~I 've been planning an outing for a long time now, i planned to go to Club Manila East in Taytay, Rizal; to take Surfing lessons. I planned this originally before Holy Week, but the people weren't available. So after Holy Week it is. I wanted to organize a swimming outing, with me and friends who i rarely/ doesnt interact with much, so that we could all get to catch up with each other, and meet new friends. Days before the outing, things were looking pretty bleak; most of them weren't replying to my messages, and most of them were too busy to come. Some got sick, some doesn't have money right now. It's sad that these things happened right at the time before the event i planned was going to happen...

In any case, of ALL the people i contacted, there were only 2 of us who were sure we'd go, me and my friend, Tonet Domingo(met her back in college, from a different block. she can be usually seen in pop culture conventions, like cosplay, etc. most of the time as part of the organizing team XD). Since we were both Southeners(jang's slang term for indicating residence directions), we planned to meet @ Robinson's Galleria in edsa cor. ortigas at around lunchtime. I waited there in McDonald's for a while, and i noticed this dude who looked like Kazunari Ninomiya, but had the HAIRSTYLE of Jun Matsumoto(from the japanese idol group, ARASHI). Too bad Tonet arrived a bit later, she would've seen the guy; her being a NINO fan. I texted my former officemate Annie who was an OHNO fan about what i saw.

We(me and tonet) finally got together and headed for the nearest bus stop going to the place. I have NEVER been there, and have NO IDEA of where we would get off the bus; so it was a sort of adventure for us. We caught up a bit along the bus ride, watched Family Guy episodes on my iPod. Oh look, we're both wearing RED hahaha.
"Traffic was a killer." Zhang Ziyi couldn't have said it better. Took us 45+ minutes for the whole trip. I texted my contact in advance that we were gonna be late for the lessons, so i asked if it was possible to move the time, so we could get the most out of our fee. 1,500bucks for surfing lessons there, gear included, and all-day entrance to the pools. We got to the point where i recognized the view from the satellite maps(thank you, wikimapia!), and we got off, rode a trike, and got there by 3:30pm. Our lesson was supposed to be on the 2-4pm timeframe, but heck, we were late, so what were we to do, right? We decided to go with the normal swim rate there,since we couldn't avail of the surfing lessons; turns out, it was by batches.

We ran into a few more snags before we got in; the terribly LONG lines at the reception area, the fact that we need to bring our own padlocks for our stuff in the lockers there(i had to go out again and buy elsewhere because they ran out of padlocks in the souvenir shop). We finally got set up, we changed into our swimming attires by 5:30pm, and we immediately scoured the place, taking in the sights first. We came across a dozen pools, and it seemed like every pool had its unique feature; whether it was the end point for a slide, the pool for Kayaking, a pool with waves, or one with a diving area.

We chose THAT one first, for our FIRST dip. Fancy for a first dip huh, a 3-STOREY drop into a deep pool.XD. The feeling of vertigo was overwhelming, we each had to take a few minutes before we took the plunge. I attempted to do an aerial cartwheel, but when i flipped in midair, i suddenly froze, probly because i wasnt used to the sensation of falling. So i fell in FACE FIRST. Then Tonet came in next, She was also trying to overcome the vertigo, and when she jumped, she was covering her nose, because it really hurts the nose when you suddenly plunge into water. We jumped 3 times each, because the special areas like that were gonna be closed by 6pm. So we went to the wave pools next, there were 2 huge pools shaped like beaches, and they both had wave generators. We talked about a lot of stuff while hanging out there, and the sunset sky was stunning; like from a final fantasy image; we can see the airplanes descending towards the cityscape horizon.

When night fell, we moved on to the next areas, we came across a WAVE POOL thats open til night, so we jumped right in; there were a LOT of people there, enjoying the waves. We bumped into Stephen Segovia, Lui Antonio and some other Glasshouse Graphics guy again, like we did earlier when we got there. We went near the front, where all the BIG waves start, and man, the feeling was great, we hafta jump in sync to the waves so that we won't be smothered by them. I carried Tonet when we got into that area where the waves clash in from both right and left sides, because the waves were GI-NORMOUS.O_o it was one of the most physically tiring swims there, because we were riding the waves.

After that area, we moved on elsewhere, to the kayaking area which was previously inaccessible because a group rented it privately for an hour. The line was also LONG, so we talked a lot to pass the time. Tonet got a boat first, i'd take the next single boat available. She looked very happy, she was waiting to do that ever since we got there(^__^). I followed shortly, and it turns out to be quite tiring for the upper body, the arms would really ACHE if one were to paddle to speed up. It was FUN, though, thats whats important. After that, we moved to the area with a long, circular slide. We tried it, but turns out it wasn't really THAT special because there were corners where kinda rough, so we'd lose our momentum at some point there. We slid a few more times,then we hung out and chilled in the landing zone. We talked a bit more than usual, about stuff at her work, which seemed to bother her(maybe?).

We moved to the last pool we haven't got into yet, it was constructed like a Basketball Court, complete with 2 rings. We talked a lot on that part, mostly about the main thing we had in common, which was: we both had surgical procedure done on our midsections. We laughed about the different things that went on before, during and after the procedures. Oh yeah, i saw someone i recognized; a classmate of my friends in another block, he was there with his girl.

Anyways, someone cut the lights off, signaling the people(us) to vamoose. It was already late that night, and we both went on to get our things and take a shower, and get dinner before going home. The transportation going home was WAAYYY easier, there were jeepneys going directly to CROSSING ILALIM, the way to EDSA. We were both from the same city, so we'd have the same way home. I asked her if she'd been to Metrowalk, she said no, so i told her we'd go grab dinner there, since that's where me and the guys went for my former classmate fritz's post-graduation par-tay. That was where me and the guys sang our lungs out in the KTV bar. Turns out, Tonet had been to metrowalk prior to that, after the OZINE event, she told me they(the organizers) had a post-event party there. We passed along an italian resto called Sicilian? We tried the food there, we had a regular pizza, and 2 dishes of pasta. XD the food was good, actually.(candid shot below--TONET,PLEASE DON'T KILL ME.)So after eating, we headed towards metrowalk starbucks, Tonet was very drowsy at that time. We got in, got our cups, and sat down in the couch. Tonet was REALLY sleepy at this part, so she wanted to watch the Family Guy episodes again, to keep her awake, i guess----But then, as we were watching, Tonet fell asleep.LOL. We stayed there til about 2am, which was okay for me, but i was thinking about how she was gonna get home in her condition. So after a few minutes, she got up and we decided to go home. Since we were both from parañaque, i offered to escort her back to her house, it was very late and it could be dangerous for a girl to walk the way home in a dark alley, all by herself. O_o.

We rode a jeep going to EDSA, a bus going to SUCAT, and a taxi going to their place. the taxi driver initially asked for a 300peso- fare when we first talked to him, and since it was already nearing 3am, i figured we had no choice, i'd let her get off at her house then have the driver take me to mine. The driver was VERY well versed in the intricacies of the Better Living area, lots of twists and turns there. I thought to myself; "MAN, I WOULD NOT WANT TO GET LOST IN HERE".lol. So i got home, and turned on my PC for a while. I was surprised that Pam and Karen were still awake, it was already past 3am.

--and then i woke up at 3pm of april 19, 2009.

The TIEN-o-Meter gives this event an 10 out of 10

Of Martial Arts and Gaming Geeks

2009-02-08T03:09:00.018+08:00

Whew,these past few days are very busy, i seem to be running low on power..i have a tendency to snooze at around 10pm which is not normal for me, because my usual sleeping time is 2:30am. After that quick snooze, i wake up,dazed and half-panicky because i still have a lot of work to do. I haven't even touched my training bags in a long time..it's been a year i suppose, after i stopped training in traditional kung fu.. Lotsa things happened and since those things are over now, i was thinking of coming back to my physical prime.

I went by the Gym or kwoon because i had a chat with my sifu (whos currently in norfolk,UK)the weekend before and he told me i should drop by the gym and touch base with my classmates there; i heard that our old group who practices in Quezon City Circle during sundays are each on our own, disbanded in a sense. He told me of his wish that he could train us all to be hardcore.. FIGHTERS,all.

I had abandoned my training earlier(around october 2007) because i had a LOT of personal stuff to do, and a LOT more things happening, namely; i got a job, fell for someone, got hospitalized, etc. Now those things are done for, i can get back to my roots, find myself, go on a SABBATICAL for a while..because i REALLY lost myself in the whole year of 2008. I did get to learn a few important things in that whole period, like patience.. Hopefully, this newfound mantra would carry me through the rest of my training; never losing my drive to excel, to be better, to be ALL THAT I CAN BE.

Following my sifu's advice, i swung by the GYM to catch up with my classmates and talk to the Grandmaster, and to buy some of his quick healing liniment:

--And i saw 3 new faces in the gym, 2 guys and one girl. I talked with my sifus and the Grandmaster and asked if i could train again. There were no objections since i was a student and a member at the gym before. Apparently, all it took for me to get back there was a good kung fu movie. Watched IP/YIP MAN earlier and i was typically blown away at all the action. It was a semi-biographical account of ip man(bruce lee's teacher) and his experience during world war 2. Here's the link to the official website. It's really fun to navigate, the user interface has truly incorporated the WING CHUN theme. Having Donnie Yen playing as Ip Man seems an odd match at first, but he seemed to get into it really well. Donnie yen is the SON of a traditional female wushu master in china; and he started with traditional wushu, but later moved to mixed martial arts. He slimmed down for this role to get Ip Man's thin stature:

(Ip Man with bruce lee)

(Donnie Yen as Ip Man)

Overall,the movie was GREAT; the TIEN-O-METER gives it a 9 out of 10.

So, i woke up at 3pm earlier; and i was EFFING LATE for my first OPEN GAMING MEET with Luna. We were supposed to meet in ayala area by 3:30pm,so i panicked and texted her the embarrasing occurence. We met in glorietta 4 near the cinemas, she was with her friend Dante(Dante was the one who invited her,and in turn,she invited me). We went to the place, it was on the Penthouse area of the building (forgot the name, but it had "8888" on its end.) in front of University of asia and the Pacific. We went to the gaming areas, there were a lot of people i didn't know(it was my first time there) but i soon saw a familiar face, Berd from deviantart(bigberd) was there, he didn't bring his buddy Nicholas(razekiel). We played the game called "SHADOW HUNTERS" first,and it was AWESOME. horror-themed board game whose purpose is to KILL EVERYONE ELSE! mwahahaha! I won at our second(or was it third) game XD:

Then after a few games, We moved to the other room at the other side of the pool, and played "WASABI", a board game based on making japanese sushi recipes, it was a FUN but COMPLICATED game. I WON at our first try XD:

After that mind-boggling experience, we shifted to our LAST game of the night(it was already past 10pm) it was a board game called "TSURO", an oriental-styled board game where the gameplay was similar to water pipes, you hafta guide your dragon piece through the lines in which they are set. The objective of the game is to be THE LAST MAN STANDING. i also won a round in this game, but that wasnt my focus, my focus was, the board game had a FRIGGIN' KICK-ASS ASIAN ORIENTAL DESIGN! i just couldn't get over it, i just had to take pictures:

--The cards all had chinese inkbrush designs at the back.XD

So after playing, we had to go because it was already late. So Luna dropped Dante off in EDSA-Shaw, and me at Magallanes. And now, i'm currently plurking and chatting and sleep-deprived yet again (@_t_@)

the TIEN-O-METER gives this an 8 out of 10.
It was a FUN WEEK for me.lol. Now,back to my commitments..*sigh*

Captured in Art

2009-01-18T02:35:00.008+08:00

okayyy...i haven't updated my blog in a while, and lots of things happened already..so before i forget everything, here goes:

~immediately after january 1,my birthday, a major family problem happened, one that put our family to the test.after that, we(me and my older brother) have been coping with the situation we're kinda in the middle of.~

~at least now, everything SEEMS okay so far...~

~ANYWAYS~

Today was a fun day, i woke up at 2pm, and i was kinda late for the MISTER KABAB™ thingy with Luna Cruz(my fellow geek friend and former producer at Anino Games). So i took a shower, prepped myself as fast as i could, and commuted to trinoma from parañaque via the MRT. I was supposed to meet Luna in mister kabab™, but seeing as i was late, and i was going through trinoma before going there, she was kind enough to offer to wait for me before heading there. So i passed through trinoma, and while walking, i saw a familiar face, a girl from UST CFAD named michelle(6/10). Didn't know her last name, but we call her yi-shin because she looked like this character from the taiwanese soap opera "Lavender". so i saw her, she was with her current squeeze; a guy from the same course, probly her classmate.

i finally made my way through trinoma, and i must say i'm not too familiar because i don't really go there that much, seeing as it's in the north, and im in the south. They picked me up near starbucks instead because i got kinda lost. The PONY MOBILE(Luna's hot-pink-colored car) just arrived, and not a moment too soon, i just left through the exit, going to starbucks. So i got in, and we were all set and headed to the famed restaurant.

~Mister Kabab™ is a restaurant serving..well..you get the picture. We discovered it about 5 years ago, when my friend jerome's brother(who was a band vocalist) recommended that place to us. The original branch was in the Delta intersection, and they moved to the inner part of west avenue. They also have another branch, in recto(near UE) although its pretty much hidden and i dont know if it's still there today. It's a 24-hour restaurant and lots of famous people dine there(west avenue branch).~

We arrived there, picked a table; surprisingly, it was not as full as one would expect, and the waitresses were undermanned. Maybe because it wasnt the peak hours. It was Luna's first time there and she was a bit unsure what to order so she got their bestseller, the Chelo Kabab. I got my usual meal there, the Upside Down rice, Persian Burger and Yoghurt Shake; the same set i ALWAYS order there, and i never get tired of it.XD. So we catched up on stuff, talking about miscellaneous things like the company, her work, our other friends,etc. After that, she was supposed to meet our friend Shin(whose REAL name is Elendil Gil-Galad. YEAH, im not kidding, that's his REAL name.XD ASTEEG.) and his girlfriend Beany(whose mother is CYNTHIA ALEXANDER) at ayala for dinner. We were ALL supposed to go to mr. kabab together, but our skeds were kinda hectic. So after eating, we hopped in her car, and the driver drove us going to ayala through greenhills. The traffic was, in simon cowell's words: "HORRENDOUS".

We finally got to greenbelt, and parted ways;Luna went to meet with Shin and Beany i was going to the magazine launch ofArtinsite magazine, the philippine's prime art magazine that will be shipped internationally to showcase the local talents. They held the covers project, where artists were given the opportunity to create their art for the covers, and the magazine will be printed with all covers, one cover art for each piece. They picked only a number to be sold here at 3000php, way higher than the tag price of 400php to keep up with all the costs of production,etc. I was also gonna meet my friend Cy Ching, who was coming in with her friends. We were also supposed to meet Karen Manalastas, my batchmate back in college(a good artist, by the way) but she cancelled last minute so we didn't get to meet up. I was texted by Pam, our common friend, that karen couldn't come by.

I arrived at ayala museum, and i saw quite a few people and i didn't immediately enter the museum because i was waiting for Cy and her friends to arrive. the gates opened and the people seemed to rush in, so i joined in the fray. After the registration, i spotted an acquaintance; Mark Kwek, and Nicholas Trinidad(kwekachu and razekiel on deviantart) and hung out with them for a while because i didnt know anybody else. We asked the staff there if our works made it into the selected magazines that were gonna be sold at 3000php. At the same time, the projector slideshow started showing all the submitted works. we all saw our own works displayed, and i even saw the works of many of my friends and acquaintances, who were not present. A lot of people filled the room and the cocktails started. We had the free mini-pizza, the spaghetti+chicken+lumpia meal and some iced tea. My friends Faiye and Johan(tropical-angel and deep-south-demon on deviantart) followed shortly and we all hung out, catching up, chatting about the artists. Nick and mark went on ahead, and we stayed a bit longer, looking at all the artworks. After that, they were leaving and i accompanied them until the way to the parking lot. Cy was hanging out with her friends at Coffee Bean, and i was supposed to accompany her home, since it was already late and i don't want her to go all the way home all alone. She opted to stay at her friend's house overnight, and i went on my way.

While walking towards Landmark, i suddenly remembered Luna met up with Shin and Beany, and i texted her to ask if they were still there, since i had no company. We met up and hung out in Coffee Bean,talked about work, and other stuff. Shin gave Luna a Tarot Reading,after which i was next. I can only remember bits and pieces of the reading done on me, so here goes:

The cards i remember were the reversed king of pentacles, the reversed spades/swords, the star, the wands, reversed cups, 1 spade/sword. The spread was a celtic cross type.

My current state: I am influenced by reversed spades/swords.the influence of my influence is the reversed king of pentacles=I am in battle with a person, thing or emotion, and that person, thing or emotion is a pessimist, telling me i cant do it, or telling me to doubt myself.

A glimpse of my future: single sword= Shin tells me it symbolizes AGGRESSION towards something. Im not really sure where that applies to me, but in my career, maybe?in what i do?

My fear: reversed cups=wasted opportunities.

My wants: MORE reversed cups..odd, because normally people would want something good to happen to them, but it seemed that i wanted the opposite. I dont really know how that applies to me.

What others think about me: forgot the card, but it meant that they think im going through a phase of some sort, where i dont seem to care about my future.

My actual future: the star. it means good,basically.

So there. Thats what came up. After that, we all parted ways, and i hitched a ride with Luna til EDSA, and from there, commuted via bus to fairview.

I reached Judge Lee's house by 2am, and i was gonna spend the night there with my friends.What a day.XD

The TIEN-o-Meter gives this day a 7 out of 10

2009: Day One:the 22nd birthday

2009-01-02T04:10:00.000+08:00

After the new year's countdown and the fireworks,we had our media noche; and my grandpa teased me, saying "oh, isama mo yung barkada mo, inuman kayo mamayang tanghali! dalhin mo dito yung gerlpren mo!" I just laughed it off. I stayed up til 3(or was it 4?)am surfing the net, and chatting on ym while watching the whole seasons 3 and above of family guy on my pc. Multitasking. XD. My mom and my sister slept in my bed while i slept on the carpet. Our tradition was, every new year's eve, my mom and siblings would stay here in my grandparent's house(where i currently live) and spend the new year..

So i woke up at around 8:30am(surprisingly), and my mom and sister wasn't in the room, obviously they woke up earlier, and my little brother was watching tv in my room. I struggled to lift myself up from the carpet to my bed and extend my slumber, but since it was my birthday, there were a lot of things to be accomplished.watched a little more tv before finally leaving my room to take a bath and get ready for the day.

We had 2 visitors for the day; my grandpa's brother and his wife.i arrived downstairs to the feast; there were chicken and spaghetti, chocolate cake, fruit salad, lengua, my grandma's famous bread pudding, and a whole lot more. To my surprise, i wasn't really that hungry..and that IS unusual for me, a guy who once ate 11 plates of corned beef with rice in one sitting, who ate seven slices of domino's pizza, who can finish a gallon of vanilla ice cream, and still retain my figure. I wasn't as "pigging out" as i always do. I only had a small serving of spaghetti, and 3 pieces of chicken.plus fruit salad for dessert.

After all that, i went back to my room upstairs and turned on my pc, ym'ed for a while and pikatchua greeted me a happy birthday. Yay! :D Then me, my dad, sister and little brother went to mass that afternoon in MERVILLE, where i spent the most fun parts of my childhood.after the mass, i asked my dad to drive us around the whole friggin' place 'cause i just want to see how much the place changed..ALL the houses there looked so AWESOME.i dream of living there someday when i have a successful carreer and a family of my own.

After that, we went home(here) and picked up my mom and we went to sm mall of asia, seeing as it would be the most probable open mall this new year holiday. We walked around for a while, and my dad tells me he'll be doing research on our family tree,our ancestry, from the archives of the latter day saints(the religious order which allegedly has records of everyone's lineages on microfilm). I'd join him, since i find history appealing, and since it was OUR family's history. We walked around some more, and most of the stores we went to were BOOKSTORES(go figure.XD). I found this book i really wanted to buy; a color index book that i can use for my work. My friend jerome highly recommends a color index book but i was short on cash that moment. Dayyymmmnnnnnn.birthday na birthday, walang pera! hahaha!

We heard there was gonna be a fireworks display that night, so we all headed to the bay side area of MOA. All the people started gathering there, to view the fireworks. We waited for a while, my dad giving us acronyms to guess..Then it started to RAIN. And i knew that the people would start rushing to the shades, so i led our family immediately to the nearest lamppost(the lamp had a diameter of around 2 yards), since the rain was only a slight drizzle. The fireworks began, and everyone started to come back to the open field area. The fireworks were AWESOME, but the whole show lasted for only 15 inutes tops. I was also texting piKATCHUA that time, and i also texted my friend meng-huaHAHAHA, her cousin. They were both on a road trip to baguio that moment.

When all the commotion was over, we headed back inside MOA, went to Gloria Jean's cafe,a place i've never visited before, it was my first time entering a GJ's,--since we don't usually do coffee: y'know, its EXPENSIVE and all,and we weren't that financially obtuse.XD

My usual S.O.P. when going to a coffee place is to order their HOT CHOCOLATE first. One reason, is that i'm not that much of a coffee drinker, another is I LOVE CHOCOLATE DRINKS. So i tried their hot chocolate with marshmallows, and MAN!WAS IT GOOD!!

And so, we left MOA. My dad offered to drive me back here, even though it was out of the way..I guess being a BIRTHDAY CELEBRANT has its perks XD. I wanted us to go through that new road i heard about from my sister, along villamor airbase. By the way, did i mention our subdivision is right beside the airport?so there, they brought me all the way here, and when i entered the house and ate dinner, my older brother was there, FLAILING about the harry potter book he's been reading on an e-book in his cellphone. Ugh. Though it was a very informative dinner, i learned a lot about the story without having to struggle through the thick book page per page.

I turned on my pc and activated ym.i got to chat with my friend AYA, and asked her about this girl, nikki kawaguchi, a fellow DeviantArtist. this girl had me intrigued, because last christmas, she spent her time in MERVILLE, near here, and she messaged me on DA that she wants to learn WUSHU; which i happen to know.(although my knowledge is of the traditional wushu, kung fu) I learned that she watched the wushu tournament during the sea games, and ironically, i was also there. Aya tells me this girl is currently studying violin, another thing i have a bit of knowledge from(i studied in freshman college). So i was like, i'd lke to talk to this person more, maybe i can learn stuff.

Overall, this birthday was rather complete, despite the fact that i hadn't done my BIRTHDAY RITUAL(sitting in a quiet room alone when the time of my birth arrives and reflect). Not bad for my first blog post for the year, huh?

The TIEN-o-Meter gives this birthday, an 8 out of 10 XD

Alpha and Omega: the beginning and the end

2008-12-31T21:00:00.000+08:00

ahh yes, finally my own blog..a place for my innermost thoughts and whatever..prepare for an eye-full of events, random thoughts, the occassional emo posts and other personal stuff..

i felt the need for an outlet,since i always bottle things up inside, and it's not good for my health.this will be my diary-of-sorts, chronicling the "captain's log".this is where i'll be rating things from time to time XD

behind the scenes:

when i started my professional carreer in Anino Entertainment, there were a lot of michaels in the office, so i had to have a different nickname. hence; they gave me the name "tien" from my last name--atienza.that name stuck even after the 2 Anino companies merged to form Anino Games, Inc. By the way, TIEN also means sky/heaven in chinese(also read as "TIAN"). I've earned somewhat of a.....reputation.... for rating...uh..beautiful girls. Well, which straight male hasn't? that's what i say.

as i write this now, it is only a few hours before the end of 2008, and the coming(popo bastos) of 2009, and my birthday.

will update again tomorrow.

the Tien-o-Meter, now signing off.