Aftermath of the Tropical Storm

This is one of the rare moments that I tune in to the news channel on TV. For once, I want to be updated with the current event that was the typhoon that passed. That's how much of an impact Typhoon Ketsana is right now. Everywhere I turn, I hear about the typhoon and the affects it brought with it; whether news came from the internet, TV or radio.

What may be more difficult to grasp is the fact that this typhoon has made itself known to not only my girlfriend Kai and her family, but also to a number of my previous teachers from grade school and high school. DDDDD8

The escalating number of cases I hear right and left about the state of things our country, especially of people I know, is such an eye-opener. A tropical storm this intense... to cause a flood so high.... to take so many lives... to displace so many families... to cause so much disarray... is something I didn't think I'd see in my lifetime.

To not experience the flood in the house during the worst is a blessing.

To not be stranded in a place that's not your home during the worst is a blessing.

To basically live through the worst is a blessing.

Be grateful for any casualties that you've avoided through the weekend.

So... truly... my greatest sympathies to the victims. My prayers go out to those who died during the storm... to those who are homeless... and to my friends who are going through hardships because of Ondoy. You are all in my prayers.

Typhoon Ketsana

Bagyong Ondoy is the local name. Typhoon Ketsana is the international name. Take your pick, either way it was a devastating experience for the people of the Philippines yesterday, September 26, 2009.

The only thing I can say about it: Absolutely catastrophic. Never once did I think I would bear witness to such a natural calamity such as floods, let alone be right under it. The heaviest rainfall in history in the span of six hours here in the Philippines. @_______@

Lemme share my own personal experience. So at around 10:20 in the morning, I went out under the storm to head to Katipunan to hand over some documents I printed out for Kai for her Marketing class the night before. The rain was coming down hard, yet I found myself driving smack dab in the midst of it all. Luckily I didn't meet much traffic until just before Katipunan. I was stuck in slow moving traffic for an hour, and already both Kai and my mom had told me to head back home. So I wasn't one to complain.

The rain was, to say the least, unforgiving. Not only were there strong winds, the heavy rain was coming down non-stop. I admit, it was such a challenge braving the little flooded areas heading to UP - where I passed - and went to Fine Arts to pick up my sister. A lot of areas around UP Diliman campus was flooded, so we had to go around to find a less flooded road to travel through.

One of my sister's classmates hitched a ride with us, and she became a key part in our journey to brave the traffic and heavy rains to get to Commonwealth. The car - my dad's -'s aircon was on the fritz one reason or another, and it was getting quite foggy inside the car. As we were driving through UP all of us were literally wiping the accumulated fog from the windshields and windows to at least have some visibility to the side mirrors. Even my sister's friend pitched in, wiping the back.

We found our way out of UP after failed attempts at trying to see if the gate at Ylanan Road was open. Sadly it wasn't. Finally, we got out at Balara and chartered the way all the way to Tandang Sora. In the slow moving traffic of Balara, I received calls from my parents, asking us how things were, and texts from Kai, who was worried about how things were above her own situation stranded in school. D8

It was past 1 in the afternoon when I bothered to check the time as we were in Balara. We even got into a little casualty. Because of the rain and fog, my sister didn't see that the right front tire had hit a small rock (and I say rock because it's quite big), leaving us stuck for a little bit. After a bit of debate of what to do, me and my sister's friend got out of the car and tried to move the stuff and helped the car move back enough to get past the small obstacle.

After constant wiping of the fog and the back defogger making slow progress, we finally reached Commonwealth and to our surprise, saw it as open as the it ever was. The final hurdle, as I called it. We dropped my sister's friend down at one of the pedestrian overpasses and made the last few kilometers into our subdivision.

During our drive and I had already drenched both sleeves of my long shirt with fog, my sister and I talked about how lucky we were that we were together, otherwise we'd have already met an accident if we were alone. That being the case, it was when my sister finally sounded the horn outside our house did we scream out 'FINALLY!!!' to each other, touched down in our garage at quarter to 3 in the afternoon.

The latter events that followed - the blackout for 4 hours at our subdivision - was unimportant. I feel very strongly to all the victims of this Typhoon, especially those in the areas of Marikina, Cainta and Pasig. This was the first that I've bothered to pay attention to the news channels and be updated with this natural disaster, hoping against hope that everybody is fighting to stay alive and surviving amidst this catastrophe.

I'm grateful that my family and I did not see any floods collect here around our house, but I worry still for my friends and relatives who may have been greatly or even partially affected by this disaster.

Kai's family, especially, has been greatly affected by it. And to me that's something to very much worried about. But I'm happy to report that her mother and grandmother, who were left stranded on the rooftop of their house most of the day yesterday, have been attended to by Kai's uncles and will be making trips back to their house in the coming days to see what they can salvage of their belongings. R.I.P. to Kai's lovebirds who died during the Typhoon. )8 You four will be missed.

My thoughts go out to all other victims. To all the students who were stranded in their respective schools, I hope you all have been cared for. Let's all do our part to help restore our country. I send a prayer to all those who did not make it through the night, people and animal alike.

In short, STOP CUTTING DOWN THE TREES!!!!! DDDDDD8

Reminiscing a year and summer spent

Last September 11 was the JSP Week Culminating Activity day. Oh how that brought back memories. ^__^ Practically a year before, (on September 5, 2008, to be exact), I vividly recall hosting the activity with Kim, Hansel and Yuiko. It was such a fun way to spend my freshman year by involving myself in something like this. ^__^b

L-R: Hansel, me, Kim & Yuiko

This was a picture taken by one of Hansel's friends during the event last year. You gotta love Hansel's costume. ^___^b Planning it and going through the actual activity was just pure fun.

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And summer was just another thing to enjoy. Since I needed to take a foreign language class, I decided to take up Japanese. Upon my blockmate Lev's suggestion, I enrolled into the same class with her and out other blockmate Tiff under Ian-sensei. Section E was a great class to be in. The atmosphere was great and everybody there was so warming and fun altogether. It got my motivated to go to class everyday! ^o^/

JSP1 Section E, Summer '09

Above is a picture of most of the class and Ian-sensei during the last day of JSP1 from Tiff's camera. We watched the videos the three groups made applying everything we learned throughout the course, and it's been nothing but a laughfest. xDD The last day is always the most memorable day.

L-R: Lev, Ian-sensei, me & Tiff

And who wouldn't want to have a memorable picture with the great teacher himself?! xD To commemorate the occasion, Lev, Tiff and I had a picture with Ian-sensei~ A memorabilia to take with us as we leave behind JSP and move on to harder things.

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Finally, we go to the near present. Kim and I went to pass by the Culminating Activity at the ever-familiar MVP Roofdeck where we saw Hansel, who dropped by to help out/attended the festive event. (Note: Kim was in Ian-sensei's earlier class over the summer) By chance, we were able to see Ian-sensei and get a picture with him (taken by Hansel with my camera below) before he left for Japan the following Monday. We miss you, Ian-sensei!

L-R: Kim, Ian-sensei & me

iTunes

As it's been a week since my last entry to his blog, I think it's about time I write another entry. ^____^

The topic at hand for this entry is about iTunes. If, like me, you own an iPod (not the black and white version, mind you), you sometimes have to worry yourself over the album art, proper compilations and lyrics (for some) so you have easier browsing time when you're on-the-go. Unfortunately, even more so if you're a little bit obsessive-compulsive (OC) like me. xDD

So you allot some of your time doing just that if you didn't do it gradually when you acquire new music and stuff it into your library of songs. It's not always easy finding an album art for a particular song, especially if you don't even know the album name to begin with. The lyrics, of course, can come later. You'd be satisfied with seeing something on your screen instead of that paired eighth note, right? Right.

It's not all bad, though. In fact, sometimes it becomes a little addicting to do in the long run. But yeah, that's probably just me. ^____^;;;

Fuuma no Kojirou

So yesterday I finished watching the 13 episodes of the live-action drama of the anime Fuuma no Kojirou. It was something that my girlfriend got into since one of our favored Tenimyu actors Furukawa Yuuta was portraying one of the characters there. I had to admit, the story was pretty awesome and the ninja genre was taken to a whole new level for me, despite it being an old-school anime (you should see the anime version; the animation resembles Sailor Moon).

Playing Bridge

Being part of a block who has nothing better to do during their breaks besides coming together in groups of four to play card games is one great block to be in. A quartet of players, regardless who they may be, would often gather in a particular area to play one of the following games: Pusoy-Dos, Bridge or Hearts. For this entry, I'll be focusing on the game of Bridge; in particular, Mystery Bridge.

Here's a simple explanation of how the game is played. With four players, the card deck of 52 is divided equally amongst them (13 per player). Bridge is a team game, and pairs (often across one another) try to work together to gather a pile of cards enough to win the game, dependent on the bid. In Mystery Bridge, whoever wins the bid will choose a card. Whoever has that card is their partner.

For us, the bidding starts with whoever dealt the cards. To bid means to technically assign a particular suit as a 'trump', deemed highest among all other suits. On some occasions, there can be no trump, meaning that all suits are equal in value so to speak. The bidding level is alphabetical, with Clubs being the lowest, then Diamonds, then Hearts, then Spades. The highest one is No Trump.

The number of piles of cards needed by each pair is determined by the number. Normally, a bid would be "1 (insert desired suit here)". The number tends to increase until all other three players pass. If nobody made a bid, the trump would immediately be 1 No Trump.

If the bid was 1, then there will be a race to 7 piles for each pair.

If 2, the winning team needs to get 8 piles, while the other pair, 6.

If 3, the winning team needs to get 9 piles, while the other pair, 5.

If 4, the winning team needs to get 10 piles, while the other pair, 4.

If 5, the winning team needs to get 11 piles, while the other pair, 3.

Rarely does the bid go up to 5 unless the hand of a player is really good.

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Now that I've explained the game as best as I can, I'll move on to a particular game I had with my blockmates Tiff, Neil and Gie over lunch to end my blog entry. So it was our last game before we headed off to Math class. In my hand, I recall having the following cards: A, K, Q, 9, 8 and 7 of clubs and A, K and Q of diamonds among my 13 cards. I raised the bid to 3 No Trump where everybody passed. Since it was a game of Mystery Bridge, I declared that my partner would be whoever had the Ace of Spades, to which I believe I only had about one or two. So since it was a no trump game, I was the first to make a move.

And wouldn't you know it, by the end of the game, I on my own won with the mentioned cards. I exhausted the clubs and played the three highest Diamond cards and got the 9 piles all by myself. ^____________________________^v

Epic win, epic win.

My New Gadgets

It won't be very often, but there'll be times when you'll be seeing my face on my own blog posts. Such of course, would be for this occasion, when I introduce you all to my two new gadgets: Daisuke and Yuu. I actually already introduced you all to my phone Daisuke in my previous post, but might as well, give you guys a visual. So yes, my blue sliding Nokia 2680. :3 And then of course there's Yuu, my blue iPod Nano 4th Gen Chromatic 8GB. This was something I wanted to purchase with the money I acquired from my grandfather, so I'm glad my dad was able to find a reasonable price and get it. ^________________^v

Also, I got a haircut as well. Personally, I'm seeing my old Kyouya look, so I'll have time to grow my silly bedhair back to get that Tezuka/Daisuke look. xD

New Phone

Old news for some, new news for others, but I lost my Nokia 6120 Classic phone during my commute to Petron, Katipunan last September 2, 2009, a Wednesday. So I was without a phone for a school day. My mom got me a replacement sim for my number since it's a post-paid plan, so the number's still the same.

Yesterday, my parents, sister and I went to Trinoma - since plans of going to Manila Ocean Park was cancelled. In the process, we brought my new phone: a blue Nokia 2680. It's a sliding phone. :3 The shade of blue is just awesome. ^___________^v

We ended up watching Year One starring Jack Black and Michael Cera. :3

The Lucky Shirt

L-R: Izza and Neil

This was a picture taken about two weeks ago before Physics class began. Shirts say so much, and this was the particular week when the CompSAt Geek Shirt Sale was ongoing. Here's two of my blockmates. Izza, on the left, is wearing one of said geek shirts, but the printing press made a mistake on the shirt if you notice. I mean, who reads <3 upside down? >>

Oh well. Neil's shirt, however, is just full of epic win. His Google shirt is just for the win. Especially the back, which Izza points out. ^_____^b Yes, Izza. Don't we all feel lucky?

Because more than a year has passed...

If and when I have the time to actually sit down and write a blog entry like this are indicators that I'm not: spending my time in class, spending my time with Kai, doing schoolwork or sleeping.

Sometimes I get surprised with the whole idea that when I started this new blog, I had all the time in the world to type entries about anything that came to mind to serve as an interesting topic. Nowadays I realize that I've gone through almost a week without so much as a short blog entry to keep this going. On the upside, that tells you that I don't have all the time in the world to be sitting down, typing away these types of things regularly.

I'm already three days late for this, but it's still something that should be contemplated upon, especially with someone so dear to your heart. My lolo's death anniversary was last Monday, August 24. I can still recall that Sunday noon when it was confirmed that he had passed away. The loss was overwhelming that I couldn't stop crying.

Growing up in the one household that I've known my entire existence has been a place full of memories. From the very beginning, Lolo Tomas was living with us, so he literally watched us grow. He took care of us almost as much as our own parents did, and spoiled us on some occasions as well. Taking us out to eat for an afternoon snack, bringing home some food from his trips to play Bingo were one of the things I can still recall.

A French Baker baguette and a roll of Mentos Spearmint are perhaps two food items that I would often associate with my lolo. My interest in that particular flavor of Mentos was because of him, though I don't quite remember how. And growing up, I was quite a fan of bread (with dreams to become a baker back then) and would often ask him if I could have a portion of the bread he bought.

At the time he was hospitalized, I felt a wave of nauseousness every time we went to visit him. I guess you could say that seeing my grandmother pass away on a hospital bed right before my eyes more than three years ago would be a cause for that. I could never prevent my tears from falling every single time we would go to see him. Oh how I miss him.

Last Sunday, we brought his urn home and invited some relatives over to pray for him. Seeing that urn after a year immediately brought back memories of the mourning period; nights spent at the funeral parlor, late nights crying myself to sleep and just more tears falling when he was placed in the columbarium.

But I really hope you were happy during your first year in heaven, Lolo. You're with Grandma Rose, Uncle Art, Uncle Arthur, Ninang Cecile and others, after all. Love you and miss you much.

Saturday Classes

I could hear the rain pouring in the early hours of the morning as I twisted and turned in bed trying to get a few more hours of sleep in before I had to wake up to get ready for school. Having Saturday classes ruins the long weekend, especially if they're scheduled in the morning. This is probably where living in close proximity to school comes in handy, as I don't have to leave extra early just to get to school on time.

At about quarter to 7 in the morning, I was still laid out in bed, blinking away the last of the sleep as I pondered whether to get up or not. I had to be in school within the hour and I was taking a car. With my body aching still from my fall on the pavement (scraping my right elbow and my phone) last Thursday, I pushed myself up and headed to the bathroom to grab a shower.

I was dressed not long after, got some money from my mom before heading downstairs, had a banana and brushed my teeth before heading off to school. A 15 minute drive from the house to school. It was raining a little bit even until I got to school and parked the car. My section left a little later than usual, waiting for the rest of the group that could arrive. Personally I was hoping that classes would be cancelled, but alas, my wishes (as well as my classmates' wishes) were unfulfilled and we were on our way.

The jeep ride was always quite silent with everybody keeping to themselves and would most often be taking naps while listening to their iPods. It was a long drive, after all.

We got to the area a bit before 9, where me and my co-tutor Bianca spotted our tutees Joyce, Gaile, Honey Mae and Novelyn. We were a little lax with the lesson plan provided since apparently our kids already knew a thing or two about what was to be taught, so all that was left to review them or on the rare occasion, teach them from scratch.

I actually enjoy teaching little kids. I've been doing them a number of times while I was growing up as part of a club or requirement for a subject so it's really nothing new. Guess this is why I chose to go into the LTS component of my NSTP.

Tezuka's Brand of Mizuno

The rubber shoes I've been using these past five years that my godfather bought for me in the States back in 2004 has finally caved in, so I say good-bye to my PE shoes for my entire high school life and first year of college (well, just put it away in my little shoe cabinet, but don't expect me to be wearing it again).

So I finally got my mother to buy me a new pair of rubber shoes last Sunday. After hearing Mass, the family went to eat out to kinda celebrate my mother's return from India. We ended up eating at Tempura, a Japanese restaurant that newly opened in TriNoma. Afterwards, my mother and I went shopping for my shoes. I pulled her towards the Mizuno store to look at the shoes there, but my mom commented at how expensive they were before we moved onto the next store: Badminton Hub.

For people who know, I'm quite the fan of Prince of Tennis, and Mizuno happens to be Tezuka Kunimitsu's favorite brand. In the second store we entered, however, a pair of Mizuno shoes caught my eye with an affordable price so we asked for my size to try it out. Quite satisfied with the fit, my mother purchased it along with a replacement grip I wanted for my badminton racket.

Leaving the store a bit after that, she went back to the Mizuno store to see if the price was the same for the same type of shoes, and indeed it was. ^____________^;;

Well, bottom line is: I have new shoes. 8DD All that's left is to find a Mizuno tennis racket and my Tezuka Kunimitsu cosplay kit will be complete~

Past Week's Events

This week has been a busy one. You notice I wasn't able to post at all since Sunday. Geh, this is just one of those 'hell weeks' school keeps chucking at us students. Piling the week up with long tests and the bunch. Not to mention CompSAt's Tambay Week. I'm absolutely beat. Thankfully next week is a lighter load. I guess I can try and talk about what's happened the past week to make up for the posts I owe this blog of mine. An update for myself and my readers, if you will.

For most of the week, I was able to bring a car to school. I would almost always be coming home late, so I was able to gain some experience night driving in the most familiar places. ^___^b

Monday, August 10:

Badminton was as it always was; fun and tiring. Academics-wise, there isn't much to talk about. The first day of Tambay Week in the org room was quite the interesting thing. If I recall, I played a game of Twister with a few friends, as well as a game of Clue. I had a shift from 3:30-5:00 before meeting with Kai for dinner.

Since we couldn't really celebrate properly for our 9th monthsary the day before, we decided to have an early dinner that evening in Katipunan (since my dad didn't want me going beyond Katipunan with the car yet). So we settled with Teriyaki Boy as was our custom. Yes, tempura and sushi is always the best way to celebrate.

Tuesday, August 11:

The second of our Physics Lab professors was taking over for the latter half of this semester, and we were further paired with another lab pair to form groups of four to do the next experiment. So my partner Gie and I joined forces with Izza and Joyce.

I had another shift for Tambay Week from 1:30-6:30, so I enjoyed myself once more with Twister and Clue with the people available. Of course, playing Twister had its consequences. (><)

Wednesday, August 12:

And lo and behold, my fatigue was diminished by the time of the matches for badminton that morning. I was literally out of breath halfway through the class when I normally had so much energy to spend. Oh well. Wednesday was AMC 124 (Math) second long test day.... consisting of 5 questions. CS 110 had a take-home seatwork. Java after how long. @__@

I didn't have a car with me that day, so I decided to meet up with Kai and go to Cello's for a doughnut before moving to McDonald's afterwards. We passed by National Book Store twice; the first was so I could get a form to replace my lost National Card, and for Kai to purchase some notebooks and pens before we parted ways and I commuted home.

Thursday, August 13:

Filipino Critical Quiz and Theology long test were scheduled on this day. Found time to meet with Kai during her lunch break, where we went to Chowking. Afterwards, I spent some time in the CompSAt room once again. I played a game of Clue with the people before rushing off to my Guidance routine interview before returning to the org room for the rest of my shift until 6:30. Clue is the best way to spend your time, really. Especially since the version that was provided was like an improved version of the original Hasbro game.

I attended the Tennis Club session and watched the people there play. My body was aching from badminton to let me play, but I stayed to update our IVP Cy on some matters before finally heading home.

Friday, August 14:

Today was the scheduled Physics 21 second long test. There were only about four-five problem solving questions in the test, so all the equations and conversions we scribbled down were practically useless. xD Oh well.

Being the last day of Tambay Week, Jim brought his Wii to the room, and Liban brought his projector. Of course, what better way to play than by playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It was a huge hit the way everybody was eager to have a turn. At one point, I had my turn playing and I never really switch my character and always use Pikachu. I paused the game, the screen zooming in on the current position of my character who was hanging onto a ledge. I didn't really understand it, but people started exclaiming how cute the position was and wanted to take pictures. So everybody was suddenly taking out their cameras and taking pictures. xDD

And from another angle...

After a game of Mahjong with the mini-set that was brought, I left early to come home.

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And that completes the report for the week. I'm tired for reasons I don't know why, so I'll most probably be sleeping early if I don't gain any strength from dinner in a bit.

New TeniMyu Blog!

I just want to plug-in a new blog I started yesterday evening, authored by this same account. Since I was in such a TeniMyu mood I decided to make a blog containing the cast and song/music list of the myus.

Click on the link!

TeniMyu Lists (http://yudansezuniikou.blogspot.com)

Don't kill me for the lame title. It was all I could think of at the time. ^___^;;

A little trivia: 'Yudan Sezu ni Ikou' was first performed by Shirota Yuu in the 8th musical, The Imperial Match Hyoutei Gakuen. It's a Tezuka song that was sung brilliantly by Watanabe Daisuke during the final live concert Dream Live 6th. I've used it countless times across cyberspace as a title for things like my Multiply. 8D

Back to TeniMyu

After getting back into the TeniMyu craze upon downloading and watching the last live concert that is Dream Live 6th (Ueshima-sensei said so himself Dx), I'd have to say IT'S GREAT TO BE BACK! Recently my iTunes or iPod has put my TeniMyu playlist on shuffle as I listen to songs spanning the 19 musicals to date.

Six years, TeniMyu's lasted since 2003. With Dream Live 6th, there have graduated four Seigaku casts, with the 5th cast set to do the final two myus to close the first season of the manga, covering the Finals of the National Tournament against Rikkai Dai Fuzoku.

It's actually quite nostalgic to see the 'evolution' if you will of the changing actors, and the myus in general. The time of the Legendary Seigaku cast led by Takigawa Eiji playing Tezuka Kunimitsu has come a long way indeed. One has to admit that the casts that followed have become more flexible and capable of doing more complicated choreography, which is quite evident in the continuity of the shows.

To be honest, I'd dub Dream Live 6th to be my favorite among the live concerts, and it's not because it's the last; nor is it because of the Seigaku 4th cast, whom I've come to love as well as the preceding casts. The songs that were featured in this particular concert covered songs ranging from the first cast to the fourth cast. A quick breakdown of the 30 songs from DL6 (title-Seigaku cast-first musical sung) to give you an idea:

1. Overture (This is the Prince of Tennis) - 1st cast - 01.Musical Tennis no Oujisama
2. Do Your Best - 2nd cast - 08.The Imperial Match Hyoutei Gakuen
3. Koori no Emperor ~ Hyoutenka no Jounetsu - 2nd cast~4th/5th cast - 08.The Imperial Match Hyoutei Gakuen ~ 17.The Imperial Presence Hyoutei Gakuen feat. Higa
4. Katta Mon Gachi Ya - 4th/5th cast - 18.The Treasure Match Shitenhouji feat. Hyoutei
5. ECSTASY ~ GO GO FUJI! GO SHIRAISHI! - 4th/5th cast - 18.The Treasure Match Shitenhouji feat. Hyoutei
6. Boku wa kawaru - 4th/5th cast - 18.The Treasure Match Shitenhouji feat. Hyoutei
7. Kore ga Shoubu to iu Mono ~ Hijou no Tennis - 3rd cast - 12.Absolute King Rikkai feat. Rokkaku ~ First Service
8. Ore wa Koroshiya to Yabareru Otoko -4th cast - 15.The Progressive Match Higa feat. Rikkai
9. Yudan Sezu ni Ikou - 2nd cast - 08.The Imperial Match Hyoutei Gakuen
10. Samurai - 3rd cast - 14.Absolute King Rikkai feat Rokkaku ~ Second Service
11. Koori no Sekai - 4th/5th cast - 17.The Imperial Presence Hyoutei Gakuen feat. Higa
12. Ore wa Moeru - 4th/5th cast - 17.The Imperial Presence Hyoutei Gakuen feat. Higa
13. Omae wa Seigaku no Hashira ni Nare - 1st cast - 02.Remarkable 1st Match Fudomine
14. Isshindoutai - 4th/5th cast - 18.The Treasure Match Shitenhouji feat. Hyoutei
15. Bukiyou'su kara - 4th/5th cast - 18.The Treasure Match Shitenhouji feat. Hyoutei
16. Kikumaru vs Fuji ~ Rival na Futari ~ Good Combination - 1st cast ~ 2nd cast - 01.Musical Tennis no Oujisama ~ 06.Side Yamabuki feat. St. Rudolph
17. Koitsu wo taoshitai! - 4th/5th cast - 18.The Treasure Match Shitenhouji feat. Hyoutei
18. Kejime - 4th/5th cast - 18.The Treasure Match Shitenhouji feat. Hyoutei
19. Shinuki made BURNING! - 4th/5th cast - 18.The Treasure Match Shitenhouji
20. Poker Face Fighter ~ Active Volcano - 4th/5th cast - 17.The Imperial Presence Hyoutei Gakuen feat. Higa
21. Remember Hyoutei - 3rd cast - 11.Advancement Match Rokkaku feat. Hyoutei
22. Heavy Rain - 4th/5th cast - 17.The Imperial Presence Hyoutei Gakuen feat. Higa
23. Challenge ~ Subete wa Shouri no Tameni - 1st cast - 02.Remarkable 1st Match Fudomine
24. Oretachi no Aikotoba - 4th cast - 15.Dream Live 5th
25. Now and Forever - 1st cast - 03. Dream Live 1st
26. One More Step ~ The Top - 4th/5th cast - 18.The Treasure Match Shitenhouji feat. Hyoutei ~ 17.The Imperial Presence Hyoutei feat. Higa
27. This is my best! - 4th/5th cast - 18.The Treasure Match Shitenhouji feat. Hyoutei
28. Refresh Aratana Jibun e - 4th/5th cast - 17.The Imperial Presence Hyoutei feat. Higa
29. On My Way - 2nd cast - 09.The Imperial Match Hyoutei Gakuen in Winter
30. F-G-K-S - 3rd cast - 13.Dream Live 4th

Nostalgia doesn't hit you this hard. Hearing the line-up of songs will make you realize that the range of songs encompassing the past 19 musicals can withstand time and still be appreciated with much fervor. ^___^v

To end, let me just share with you guys some pictures I took while watching DL6. This was during the graduation speeches of the 4th cast Seigaku. Subjects of course are Tezuka and Fuji played by Watanabe Daisuke and Furukawa Yuuta respectively. ^____________________^b

Watanabe Daisuke as 4th cast Tezuka Kunimitsu

Furukawa Yuuta as 4th cast Fuji Syuusuke

I'll put up a track list of the songs from the myus for the heck of it. Probably create another blog for it. xD

What's for Lunch?

So we have a wide array of food choices in our school cafeteria. Two floors, with the different food stalls bordering the numerous tables where most anybody can sit down and eat. For me and my blockmates, we usually spend our lunch time eating up on the second floor. Since my freshman year, that's been our practice.

It's actually quite funny how buying the same thing one too many times because it's just 1) delicious and 2) affordable makes the vendors recognize you and already know what you want. That's actually the case with me in two particular stalls in school; particularly in Chillers and Sumo Boyz, which coincidentally, are adjacent to one another.

Yesterday, Gie and I finished our lab early and went to have lunch. The time was still around 12:30 or so. We went upstairs to find the rest of our blockmates who had their lab after ours still there, which was a rare sight in itself. Sitting ourselves down with them, I decided to have my usual tonkatsu-ripe mango shake lunch combo that day, so went to buy.

My Pork Tonkatsu lunch from Sumo Boyz

When I set my food down on the table, I looked at it and found that the guy who added the sauce for my tonkatsu put it on my rice in a particular manner:

I love Sumo Boyz~ <3

Badminton Revisited

Mondays and Wednesdays are two days that I look forward to. I guess for me, PE is one of those few stress-relievers that I want to get the most out of. It's partially my form of exercise when Monday and/or Wednesday classes aren't suspended.

I've probably been stressing my body out since the second semester of my freshman year ever since I joined the LS Tennis Club and got busy with the clinic and club sessions. But hey, tennis is a sport I want to improve at, so what the heck.

To add to a previous entry of mine concerning Badminton (self-titled entry found here) is a little event I got myself into today. What I failed to mention is that I scheduled my PE at 7-8 in the morning under Coach Vargas. Coincidentally, he handles an 8-9 badminton class for the boys. I've developed a habit lately of waiting for my blockmate Gie to get out from her 8-9 Wushu PE class at the covered courts.

Earlier, I was merely watching a doubles rally of people from the other class before I heard Coach Vargas calling me and asking if I still wanted to play. I agreed and found out that he set me up to play with Ernie, a former classmate of mine from my Fil 10 and Fil 12 classes, who was now taking up badminton under the coach. I ended up playing two matches with Ernie and another guy from the class against the same opponents, which was, sad to say, a pretty bad defeat. ^___^;;; Oh, the level of play these aggressive boys have. Well, one of them really does have talent, so I won't complain.

After everything, Coach Vargas told me that if I wanted to play with his second class, I was free to do so; so that my workout spanned two hours, which was something I didn't mind at all. In fact, I welcomed the invitation. I guess that's another thing to look forward to. Too bad this Wednesday is a non-working holiday.

This month of August will hurt my PE days a lot, though.

o(>__<)o

August 19 - Quezon City Day (a Wednesday)

August 31 - National Heroes' Day (a Monday)

*shrugs* Howell.

Real Time Driving

It was an awkward morning. Last night, I found out that my sister didn't have her usual Saturday class because of the UPCAT. So basically I was the only one who needed to go to school. That kinda meant that I was eligible to bring a car. Of course, my parents being a little uneasy with the idea as it was technically my first time to drive alone, they wanted to make sure I was ready and all that.

At one point, my mother said that they'd accompany me, but eventually took it back, both of them finally trusting me to go on my own and just told me to be careful and all that. One couldn't blame them, really. ^___^;;

So I was off. I experienced some light traffic along the way, but all in all it was a nice experience to be driving on my own. The weather conditions didn't bother me at all since I practiced under it when I was in driving school. Parking was rather smooth as well.

I left the house at around 7:40 and to my surprise, got to school at 7:58. Not as much traffic as I expected. So that basically meant that I was an hour early for class that ended at around 11-ish. I had lunch at the cafeteria with a few of my classmates before killing some time in the usual open lab before heading back to the car, waiting for Kai's text.

I picked her up, much to the dismay of a freshman or two that were there at the lanai (yes, my girlfriend is quite popular) before we headed back home to spend the rest of the afternoon together. We experienced some 'heavy' traffic on the way back, but hey, that's where some tunes can take up the time (if Kai wasn't busy skipping through my 3000+ songs on my iPod to find a good song xD).

It was an interesting afternoon as usual. She managed to beat me in one game of Wii Bowling, which I think is quite an achievement for her. Though she has yet to beat her own best score. ^___^;; Wii Tennis is always a bundle of laughs. We kinda like injecting some Prince of Tennis moves and characters while playing to make it a little bit more entertaining for us both.

And since my parents didn't want me to take her home yet, we settled for calling a taxi for her. I guess there'll be next time. But hey, my first real time driving was a huge success.

^_________________________^v

Driver's License

This time around, I made it a point that I woke up earlier this morning so that I could go and get my non-professional driver's license with my father. I woke up at about 6:30 and was ready to go by 7. The airconditioning of my dad's car, however, was being uncooperative so he tried to fix it but to no avail. Seeing the time, we headed off without the luxury of the aircon to the LTO along East Ave.

After getting the drug test and medical check-up done across the street, we headed to apply and anticipated a long wait ahead. After filling up my application form, I submitted it when my name was called, then went to the lecture room to start reviewing. It's kinda funny because I had to go back and forth from the lecture room just to have my picture and signature taken, then pay for the application fee before finally entering the examination room.

I'm quite amazed with the process that it was quicker than I anticipated. Even my father told me that things were better now and all that. I managed to get a 35/40 (^_____^)b for my written exam and just had to wait for the actual driving test to take place. There was a test track in that particular branch, but because of the number of applicants, they only had time to have us drive around the track once and we're done. I paid a second time at the cashier for the license fee and at around 11:40 in the morning, got my license before my father and I finally headed home in time for lunch.

Sooo, there's my little adventure at the LTO today. ^____^

My LS Tennis Club

Little by little, I begin to recall the reasons as to why I joined the LS Tennis Club during its formation last semester, and continued to stay with it as the Secretary-General (as Coach Dave likes to term it) until this very day.

Coming into the new schoolyear, me and the core members (the current officers) were having a little trouble kicking off club activities due to the weather. But lately the skies have been clear and we've been able to meet on dry, clay surface that is our tennis courts in the university. We've luckily been getting new members to join the club, so pretty soon we'll be a well-operated club a little later on.

Moving on to the sport itself, I find it a little difficult once again to make adjustments, particularly with controlling my wrist power. I say this because I take badminton as a PE, which demands the use of my wrist for gameplay. So I guess it's no surprise that Coach Dave put me in a group that did drills for most of the night's session so I could work on my strokes. I know it's a bad combination, badminton and tennis, but hey, I love them both.

To be honest, what I can't easily regain control of is my forehand. I already had a rhythm going down for me last semester, but again, badminton plays a bad hand in this. Needless to say, that's not what I wanted to focus on. When we were free to practice our service while most of the others were playing King of the Hill, I found that I was getting more consistent in my service, getting them in 80% of the time. While I still lack enough power for a decent serve, getting them into the appropriate service box was what I wanted to focus on.

Hopefully as time passes I'll be able to master locking and unlocking my wrist power for badminton and tennis when it's rightfully needed.

^____________________^v

PS. I'll be getting my driver's license tomorrow. Wish me luck~

Afternoon Nap + TeniMyu

My urge to want to have an afternoon nap has sufficiently decreased these past few months. Probably only happens on the occasion, especially when I know I have some time on my hands to do it.

Yesterday, I did just that. Spending about 4 hours just snuggled up on my bed and letting my dreams overtake me to pass the time and catch up on some sleep. Sometimes I think I should do this more often, take a nap. Even just a few hours gets me to think of bizarre ideas it's verging on funny.

Maybe one of these days when I dream something interesting, I'll share it with you all. ^___^v

Just so you all know, I was completely random with this post because I up and realized earlier after my Theology class that: 'Hey, I actually took a nap yesterday after how many weeks!'.

Ain't that a swell thing to realize? ^___________^

In other news, I'm eagerly waiting for a chance to get a copy of Dream Live 6th and watch it. I've searched the net dozens of times to get good copies of previous TeniMyus from the first to the most recent (Treasure Match Shitenhouji). I'm also looking forward to the next two myus focusing on the final match of the original series of the manga; that is, the National Tournament Final between Seigaku and Rikkai.

Like the first Rikkai-featured myus (Absolute King Rikkai ~ First Service, which focused on the doubles matches and Absolute King Rikkai ~ Second Service, which focused on the singles matches), the Final Match will again be split into two separate myus, with the 5th cast of Seigaku taking the stage, and a mix of old and new cast members of Rikkai reprising/taking the stage along with them.

It'll surely be something to look forward to. According my sources, I believe Ueshima-sensei (the director of the TeniMyu franchise) will also be adapting the new manga afterwards. I kinda hope that it's true, but I really would love to see the previous Seigaku cast members, as well as rival school cast members reprise their roles.

Birthday Celebration

After spending a day away from school, I find myself just a little disoriented and in the lazy stage of things. Despite the bad weather (with varying strength of the winds and rainpour, of course), my overall day was still spent quite well. My Physics lab finished an hour early so I had time to run off to meet with Kai during her break and spend some time with her before I went off to KFC for lunch while she had class. We met up again after he class and spent the rest of the afternoon in Cello's.

I met up with my cousin Trina (who was teaching in the grade school department) before my dad and my sister picked us up from Cello's before we all headed to a certain McDonald's where my nephew would be celebrating his party.

My 4 y/o nephew Tristan with his Transformers cake

This is a picture of Tristan with his cake; one of the gifts my cousin Troy got for him. My lil' nephew is a huge fan of Transformers and can brag about knowing and naming the different Autobots and Decepticons, but I think that would be something he would have inherited from his Daddy Travis, who himself is a fan of the franchise since he was a kid.

Tristan in his Optimus Prime costume

You just gotta love this little boy. So spontaneous and bright. I'm sure in the future, he'll have so much happy memories to look back on. To think that he was still a baby not so long ago... and through the years, he's already learned so many things. I mean, this lil' guy is spoiled, considering the numerous relatives he has (i.e. my cousins, aunts and uncles plus his mom's side of the family). He'll be great someday, though. I just know it.

Shirota Yuu on Tenchijin

Shirota Yuu as Sanada Yukimura in Tenchijin

Tenchijin is one of those feudal era Japan j-dramas. As soon as I found out that Shirota was going to be in it, I sought out to skim through the episodes for him, but I kind of stopped at episode 16, complaining how long it took before he actually made an appearance.

It wasn't long before I caught wind of Shirota's character's appearance in episode 22 of the series, so I got myself a copy and say him in all his glory. His character is so bad-ass for most of that episode. He's awesome with his spear sword (or whatever you call it) too! 8D

I took that screenshot of him, by the way. ^__^;;

An interesting weekend

This past weekend has been nothing but full of a good time. Not to mention that tomorrow has been declared 'No classes all levels' by CHED. There are a few points I want to share with you all.

1) NSTP Insertion

Setting aside the fact that I had to wake up at 6:30 in the morning to get ready and wait for my sister to take me to school, the insertion we had to Lagro-Maligaya was a fun - yet tiring - experience as would all succeeding ones be. There was no set modules, so we were free to interact with our tutees and play with them if we wanted. I was assigned three kids from the 4th grade level - Joyce, Gaile and Dimple. Dimple was absent that day, so I had Joyce and Gaile to entertain. I joined forces with my classmate Bianca and her tutee Honey Mae and we all played a little bit before having a short feedback session with everybody and heading back to school afterwards.

2) An afternoon with Kai

I invited Kai to come over to spend the afternoon together after her Marketing class, so I immediately decided to take a nap right after lunch in the guest room where my mom frequently did her work. At about 2:30 when I got a text from Kai saying that she was on the way, I woke up and headed upstairs to my room and before long, went back downstairs to let her in.

As both of us were tired from our morning classes/activities, we both took a nap in my room, watched a few parts from one of the TeniMyus (Treasure Match Shitenhouji 5B) where we commented about some of the Seigaku 5th cast members and headed downstairs to play some Wii Sports (tennis and bowling). It wasn't long before she had to head home. But since our landline wasn't working, we had to go to the subdivision gate to hail a taxi. I suggested to take one of our family's cars to drive her there, and to get some more practice down with my driving skills.

Kai suggested I do at least one round about the subdivision as it was still a little bit early, so I obliged. She commented that I had been practicing, but was honest with her and said that I had not had the chance to drive ever since the last time I drove around the subdivision with her two Saturdays or so back. After I found a parking space, we quickly found a taxi that she took and I decided to have one last drive around the subdivision before finally returning home.

3) Driving Incentive

When I got back, my mom was telling me how I should already get my license. After telling her that I was planning to get it this Friday with dad, she told me the upside of already being able to drive around on my own. Since she was going off on a business trip some two weeks in the future, she would naturally be leaving her car to be used. And if dad would ever have a flight to the States and not use a car, then me and my siblings would each have a car to drive. That actually gave me more of an incentive to get my license already. 8DDDD

4) Learning how to prepare some food

My mom's birthday is tomorrow, July 27, but she wanted to invite people over to dinner and celebrate, hence tonight's birthday dinner celebration. She decided to make her famous lasagna and baked chicken, and I offered to help her out so I was able to know how it was prepared before it was put into the oven to bake. I still don't know much about actually preparing the ingredients, but now that I have a rough idea how it's prepared, I can probably be of more help next time around. Eventually, I'd be able to make it myself in the future! ^_____^v

Strange Phenomenon

L-R: Jason, Gabby and Dar

Occasionally, I would probably be posting some pictures because the contents of which have a bit of a story or idea that's just begging to be shared. Photojournalism, if you will. xD For a moment, I have to be asking myself if why I chose the major I did. ^__^;; Oh well.

Anywho, this picture is of three of my blockmates while we were waiting for our CS class yesterday afternoon. What got me and my other blockmates to laugh was their orientation. All three of them were leaning to the left (right in our perspective) for reasons beyond our understanding. xD But yeah, it was really cool to look at first-hand, hence a snapshot.

Today and Decisions

I only had one class today (just my 9-10:30 Theology class), but as I still had my Tennis Club to attend to tonight at 6:30pm (for this I blame the AHS varsity for reserving the tennis courts until that time. -___-), I was contemplating what to do with my time until then. Setting aside the fact that I have lunch with some of my blockmates, chill around for an hour or so before meeting with the core members for CompSAt's Tambay Week in 3 weeks' time.

Now I'm back at one of the few open labs to waste more time before I go and meet with Kai. I didn't really expect to be meeting her today due to her busy schedule (I mean, she already informed me the day before that she would be having a meeting for one of her classes until 6pm), but I guess circumstances change. I more than welcome the opportunity to meet up with her again for this week. ^___^

I feared that having so much time to myself, whether it was just walking around campus or staring blankly at the computer screen here in the open lab wondering what the hell to do/type, I would end up thinking about some unnecessary things. And... I guess I still did. *groans* I believe I already concluded to myself how emotionally unstable I can be as well, given the right... stimulus to cause such depression relapses, as a friend of mine termed it.

I don't think I ever forced myself to just stop talking with someone to resolve a problem. Normally, I had this mindset that no matter how much I loathed a person, I still had the least bit of courtesy to acknowledge them; to converse with them if it was possible. It was with this mindset that I can say that the quality of being friendly was something I righfully possessed.

However, regret is not something I can feel right now. I'm not living my life for just myself anymore. I'm living, making the choices I do because there is somebody else in my life now who I want to share happiness with; who I'd do anything for to assure that they were just as happy. Even if it meant sacrificing something like this, I'd do it. It's silly to recognize this only now... this far along... but if she trusts me... then I will not betray that trust by being selfish. I love her too much, now more than ever to second-guess the decisions I should be making to keep this relationship afloat for many more years.

Badminton

I guess I enjoy the whole idea of running around the court chasing after the shuttlecock and sending it to the opposite court in the best way possible. Run, hit, recover. That was something that always slips my mind on the occasion of actual games. One thing is on my mind: that I absolutely HAVE to reach the shuttlecock when I can and hit it back and get ahead in the game.

Quite similar to tennis, I find my strength when I play 'up front' in a doubles game. I'm able to finish a few rallies with a smash or drop shot to get us the point.

Personally, I think I want to be as active in sports as I'm still able to, considering the mild scoliosis that I have. I want to play tennis and badminton to the best of my abilities for as long as I am able to.

Now, having badminton as my PE this semester is truly the most interesting. I can actually pull out all the stops and just give it my all in the way I know how and focus on improving myself and the stamina that was taken from me due to the summer lag and bumming around.

Earlier today was the second day of mock doubles games (although graded) as me and my partner Stef were playing against players from the other class. As opposed to our dominating win in our first two matches last Monday, the first match today was full of unforced errors, resulting in our first loss in a match of two sets. Personally, my whole body was complaining early this morning, plaguing me with the morning sniffles and a few aching muscles. Not to mention my loss of fatigue by the end of the class.

The second match, to which we only managed to finish the first set (with a score of 22-24 in favor of our opponents) was where Stef and I wanted to redeem ourselves. We promised ourselves that we would be fully recharged and ready for Monday to at least bring that match to a draw and not another loss on us.

What surprised me, though, was the fact that as I sat there to catch my breath after recording the score of the first set, the teacher from the other class complimented my skills and told me how good I was. My own teacher would often ask me to demonstrate or assist him with things for probably the same reason, I would guess.

I'm excited for the coming weeks in PE now, actually. I'm actually competetitive when I want to be, and I will surely do whatever it would take to try and turn a game around. ^_____^

Which reminds me... Kai plays badminton very well, so I've heard. She and I have yet to play a singles match against one another, so perhaps I can arrange a Saturday afternoon for it... *strokes chin in contemplation*

I look forward to our showdown. ^___________________________^

A Thursday Adventure

July 16, 2009

Where I live, it's no surprise that it rains every so often, especially during this time of year. And being in college, it's a rare occasion before our classes are suspended by the higher-ups based on the weather. But of course, that's not the point of this blog, now is it?

That day was the day Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was premiered here in the Philippines. And being the Potterhead that I am, I wanted so much to watch it on opening night as I have since the third movie. So, the day before, I had asked whoever wanted to watch to watch with me. In the end, I only had one companion among my block who was free and able to go. Not that I minded.

So, Kim - my blockmate - and I headed off a bit after our Theology class under the rain to commute to the LRT station and to Gateway. It was quite interesting to note how much of a difference a few hours made in terms of the availability of watching a movie. Then again, given that it was a weekday and most everybody was either at school or at work, the cinema wouldn't be as packed as the usual times when classes were dismissed or whatnot.

We purchased 12:55pm tickets and, seeing that it was still a bit more than an hour early, we headed down to the foodcourt to help ourselves to some lunch. I ended up purchasing at Burger King, while she bought lunch at Pizza Hut. After that, we ended up chatting about Junjou Romantica to eat the time away before deciding to go around and look at some shops.

Kim was looking for a bag/sleeve for her laptop, so I had nothing against going with her to look for one. When that was done, we both headed upstairs to the cinema level and after a while, headed into Cinema 6 to watch the 2 1/2 hour movie.

I won't delve too much into the details of the movie as of the moment to save myself the trouble of getting yelled at for giving spoilers to those who desire to watch the movie but have not yet have the privilege to do so. ^_______^v

When the movie was finally done, I decided to entice myself with a DQ Blizzard despite the cold weather before Kim and I finally parted ways as I returned to school, only to find out that the club meeting was cancelled due to lack of attendance and the weather.

But you know... there were some moments while in the movie house where I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't watching the movie with my girlfriend. Maybe next time I won't watch a movie with just one other person to save me the trouble of having that train of thought. ^___^;; Goes to show you how much I wished it was my girlfriend I was watching the movie with.