Fifty Shades

When I was browsing through my News Feed on Facebook, I saw a parody cover of the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' with Gandalf the Grey and Frodo wearing a ball gag. Granted, it was enough to pique my interest and made me ask the question: "What the hell is that?" And so the search began.

Thanks to Google, I got my answer as soon as I clicked on the Wikipedia entry. To my surprise, Fifty Shades of Grey penned by E L James was in fact a book. Categorized as an Erotic Romance novel catered to mature audiences (or basically anyone who can take reading carefully depicted sex scenes without fainting), Fifty Shades of Grey and the rest of its trilogy is not for the feint of heart.

Saying it that way would in essence answer the unspoken question of whether or not I could handle the topic, let alone all the smut. To be honest I enjoy reading these types of things to help in my so called "research" (take the air quotes a bit seriously but no pressure) for my fanfiction or blog roleplays. Plus it put things - like all those yaoi, yuri and hentai manga - in better perspective with good descriptions like James uses in the book. Yes I've read fanfictions that off the same prowess but there are limited reading materials that 1) use first person PoV and 2) talks excessively about the practices of BDSM which also turns out to be a topic of interest to me.

But don't get me wrong! There is no way you would convince me to suck up my submissiveness and get involved in all that. Again, I take interest in using what I learn through research and reading explicit manga titles like 'Hoshi no Yutaka', as well as the Fifty Shades Trilogy, for character development in my fanfictions and roleplays. Not to mention the general theme of writing out elaborate sex scenes (or lemons) has grown to be a talent of mine as time passes and this book is just helping me along that swimmingly. Fifty Shades provides me with an excellent avenue to explore heterosexual interloping jumping out from the pages of a book, crafted into a story to die for. A great inspiration and ultimately, a niche away from its primary idea as being a mere fanfiction of the Twilight series.

With all these descriptions it may already be obvious that I am in full swing of reading through the three books. I purchased them during my family's trip to the US a few weeks back; the first at Barnes & Noble in San Diego, and the other two at Costco wholesale in San Francisco. I am well into the second book as of this writing, and already there are dozens of ideas to stemp from it. The possibilities are endless.

When time permits, something more than a drabble will rear its head, probably once I've finished the trilogy of books. Here's to that undying splash of creativity!

And looking forward to the upcoming movie! :)

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.

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~

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. ^___________________________^

Manga Reading

Currently, while still free from much required reading for the semester, I busy myself with reading a few manga series to get updated and satisfy my need for anime. Having had the patience to get through an entire series - provided that all chapters and volumes are readily available on OneManga.com - was a way I could better relate myself with it.

At times, however, I found myself reaching dead-ends, with still-publishing series on my Manga Currently Reading list (found here) and subjecting myself to reading through what's available and await the latest chapter release.

On the other hand, there are other series I want to get through that are already complete and just waiting to be read on OM, both as a way to better criticize the anime version and a way to grasp a better understanding of it altogether.

At present, I have finished two series: Prince of Tennis and Death Note. On my current reading list, I have a few series I'm awaiting the latest chapters of: New Prince of Tennis, Nodame Cantabile, Fullmetal Alchemist, Captain Tsubasa - Road to 2002 and Tantei Gakuen Q. I'll update my list (as I've begun regularly doing so) with more titles I plan to read in the future. I guess that'll be something to look forward to.

Rock Band

It all began with trying out Guitar Hero II on my cousin Dabz's PS2. Back then, we were still entertaining ourselves by using the standard analog shock controller. The songs grew on me and the techniques with playing with the controller became like second nature. Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80's was then acquired by Dabz and we later on got hooked to the songs from there as well. It wasn't until Jostin got a guitar controller did things change. A new challenge was set and it took quite a long time before I could easily get through a song in the Medium difficulty.

When my father had purchased the Wii for quite some time, my sister and I had asked him to purchase the (at the time) new Guitar Hero game, Guitar Hero III for said console. It wasn't long before I was immersing myself with it, trying to play songs on a higher difficulty until I managed to clear most songs on Hard, and some songs on Expert.

That hard work and experience of mine was what I took with me when I was invited for the first time by my blockmates back in my first year to try out a game of Rock Band at Blue Skies one day after classes with nothing else to do.

The experience was so much different. Besides the fact that I was playing with at most three other people, it was a completely different feeling. The essence of being part of a band to get through a song was just how one would want to feel when playing this kind of video game. It was exhilarating. I knew I wanted to experience it again.

Over time, we eventually formed a band with me on Guitar, Gabby on Drums, TC on Vocals and Lev on Bass and decided to join a few competitions: two of them organized by Ateneo orgs, while the other was a general RB Competition organized by an org in UPD in cooperation with XBX Interactive. The name of our band - POMSTARS - was all Lev's idea, and what was used for two out of three competitions.

The first competition was held in the Ateneo campus; the eliminations at one of the MVP org rooms and the finals at MVP Colayco Pavilion. At the time, we had a back-up vocalist - one of Lev's friends whose name escapes me - who helped us along when needed. We managed to get to the final round for the Medium difficulty (though we joined for the Hard difficulty and got knocked out) but due to one thing or another (which we figured was utilizing Overdrive to its fullest capability), lost.

The second competition was another Ateneo-based organization, which was held this time at someone's awesome house in La Vista. For this competition, the original band - me, Gabby, TC and Lev - attended, going with a different name that Lev also thought up: Night Shift. Only three bands had been competed for this (all students from Ateneo) and we ended up coming out on top quite easily and won gift certificatees for a gaming place in Greenhills.

The last competition we joined last school year was more general, where bands from Ateneo or UP joined. The eliminations were held at XBX Interactive, and the finals at Route 196. The whole experience of constant practicing and synchronizing with the rest of the band can never be summed up into so many words. But we had fun and that would be enough. We managed to place 3rd, and won gift certificates to Worlds of Fun.

The rewards are always secondary, as my father constantly told me as we awaited the results of that last competition. "Win or lose, it's all about having fun." And I couldn't agree more.

Parties and Mahjong

To be honest, I don't think I've put complete attention to a party in a long time until last night's celebration of my parent's 25th Wedding Anniversary. It's not along the lines of my mother almost making me feel guilty of staying cooped up in my room in front of my laptop, mind you. I just thought of spending the time not having to worry over any conversations for the rest of the day.

As far back as I could remember, everytime there was a party here (with the exception of celebrations for my birthday, of course), I would always spend time here in my room with my younger cousins Dabz and Jostin and stay here doing our own thing until dinner time. But now that my youngest cousin and his family had migrated to Canada last August, there was barely anymore reason for Dabz and I stay upstairs in my room.

One firm reason why I managed to stay away from upstairs was because Dabz had brought along his PS2 that could only be hooked up downstairs in the den where the Wii was, so it was enough. Another reason that kept me downstairs was the constant arrival of the guests that consisted of the usual relatives plus a few family friends.

And then of course... there was mahjong. Call me crazy, but my family kind of has an unspoken 'rule' of sorts that says that you're not part of the family (both my mom and dad's side) if you don't know how to play even a simple game of mahjong. It was actually an awkward thing to see that the kids (that is, my generation) were the ones playing the game while the adults busied themselves chatting with one another, catching up on their lives. Believe me, you never see that.

Of course, mahjong can be addicting when it can be. Especially since we were all just playing it out of spite rather than with chips as the adults normally would. My sister's boyfriend, my brother's girlfriend and my cousin's girlfriend all managed to learn how to play and eventually enjoy it, so the next party should post to be an exciting event I would not want to miss by staying in front of my laptop anymore.

Another thing about this particular party is that after the longest time, the last guests had left at past midnight already due to numerous conversations and much catching up. I don't think I've ever spent that time completely away from the laptop, but it was a good change. Once in a while, it's nice to just spend the evening having fun with your relatives, which I'm very much thankful for.

PS. The second hole of Wii Golf in the Beginner's level has been conquered with my hole-in-one, which was executed by pure chance. ^_________^b

The Family Wii

Back in 2007 (if my memory serves me correctly), our father came home with this video game console after our constant pestering one afternoon coming home from the mall. We were intrigued with the Wii Sports the four of us (me, my brother, sister and father) got to try out at one of the toy stores and wanted to have one for the house.

Due to my father's constant trips to the United States back then, it was no surprise that he managed to purchase a console there for a better price and bring it home with him. The first few months since the Wii had been with us, everybody got out of their way to spend time together to play a few rounds of Bowling. Even our mother enjoyed it.

Perhaps among the family, it was I who grew most attached to it in those first few months, staying on longer in the den when everybody else had already retreated upstairs to their bedroom for the evening. I tired my arm out playing repetetive games of Bowling to best my own record in certain Training events provided with Wii Sports before I was satisfied enough to head to bed myself.

And without a doubt, I made some progress with my overtime, scoring a Platinum medal in the Bowling's Power Throws training among others that I have, until now, been unable to beat.

During our trip to the United States that same year in October, I purchased myself a Wii game of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which I played immediately when we arrived back home (but not before I tried it out on the Wii console of my cousins back in San Diego).

The summer of 2008 brought about more interesting tokens from my father on his return from Honolulu: my laptop Roy and Guitar Hero III for our Wii. I had asked for a laptop for my high school graduation + 18th birthday + Christmas (though my parents being loving parents, still spent for a proper 18th birthday celebration for me, and I love them to bits for that), and Guitar Hero III was something me and my sister have been prodding about once again.

The Wii, these days, is now used for mere entertainment to be used when having guests over. My 3-year old nephew, in particular, insists on playing with it whenever we have parties here in the house. On other occasions, me and my cousin, whenever he finds time to come over with nothing else to do, spend some time downstairs to play with the console.

Of course, that's not to say I've abandoned from playing with it on my own once in a while. I just need to find the energy to pull myself away from the laptop for a few hours to play a rousing game of tennis or bowling.

Which I just might do to properly end my summer vacation.

Sudoku

It just became a craze no matter how many times I try to look back on it. I remember tilting my head in confusion when I saw my older sister or my mother tackling a puzzle. The 9x9 grid printed on the pages of that book baffled me the first few times I cared to look at it. I didn't understand what the objective of that was, and just stuck to the Fill-Ins my grandmother would so often urge me to do.

One afternoon, my mother came into my room and sat down on the bed beside me and was doing a Sudoku puzzle and later on, started telling me what was needed to be done. The rule was simple enough; fill in the blank cells with the numbers 1-9 with a number not repeating in each column, row or 3x3 grid. That was when a bit of logic was required.

I guess I picked up on it when I managed to successfully help my mother solve that puzzle and asked if I could do one on my own. That piqued my interest to an extent that I eventually began spolving numerous puzzles in the span of an hour or two.

It was addicting, if one came to really think about it in that manner. The accomplishment of besting the puzzle by logically finding the exact place where a particular number was to be placed heightened as the puzzles got more difficult.

When my grandfather was sending things back home via balikbayan box, I would always ask him to find my some Sudoku books to work on, and without fail, he delivered. I've found myself completing so many Sudoku puzzles because of the many books he's managed to send over.

The leisure time spent in solving a puzzle was one of the things I would turn to when there wasn't anything else to pass the time with. At times, I would challenge myself by solving more advanced Sudoku puzzles the likes of Samurai Sudoku, with 5 intertwined Sudoku puzzles and the rules still apply for each 9x9 grid.

Just thinking about it is making me want to do one right now. And I will. See you all for another blog entry another time.