More on the 10 Overrated Things of 2008, Happy New Year

I’m on WiFi right now here in Robinsons Midtown. LOL, I enjoy every minute of it! So here I am. Oh, did I tell you that my Dad is currently here in Manila? That is the perfect way to end 2008, after a long, hard, crazy year. Shocked why am I enjoying WiFi? I just got my new Acer Laptop! It’s pink, has a built-in webcam, and quite rare since this color of the laptop doesn’t exist in the Philippines. Wow. BTW, Dad came here last December 27 and will be staying up to January 9. Perfect.

I still have a hard time thinking of the nex t 5 to include in my list of 10 Overrated Things of 2008. Finally after a long break, I’m gonna reveal to you my list.

*This is just my opinion, okay?

6. iPhone 3G- It looks like you already owned an iPod Touch that costs thousands of pesos. It may have a good 8GB memory, but you may just spend it on music and video instead of SMS and phone calls. Recently, Nokia 5800 was launched, with its features similar to the iPhone. Touchscreen phones are definitely the next generation of cellphones, I guess.

7. Pinoy remakes- They’re everywhere! From songs to TV shows, And sorry to say, I’m getting sick of those Tagalized songs. Have you heard the “Always Be My Baby” Tagalog version? You might want to turn off the radio immediately as soon as your hear the lyrics. During one of our chats with Dad, he said that Mariah and Copk will go ballistic. TV shows? I woulld say that so far, it isn’t good.

Who wants to watch the Pinoy version of Gossip Girl and Twilight? I don’t.

8. Twilight the Movie- the book is one of the best I’ve ever read. However, the movie met poor reviews, saying that the story wasn’t followed. Some of those who watched it said that many of the scenes were cut. I liked the film overall, except that it was disappointing after it media overhype. Sadly, it really didn’t work. Better luck next time to New Moon.


Now I made up my mind, I will just cut down to 8. I can’t think of anything overated anymore. How about tomorrow, which will be 2009? Will these things hype more or die down? Time can tell.

I wanna wish you all a very peaceful New Year! :)))

Merry Christmas!!!!

Wow. This is my very first time to post a blog entry on Christmas Day. Honor, I guess.

It will be very quick, but I wish all of you a very Merry and Peaceful Christmas to all of you! Enjoy the whole day: exchange gifts and cards, say the sweetest words to your family and friends, be happy!

2 Days Before Christmas!!!!

Limewire won’t work. Arrgh.

But anyways, it’s just two more days before Christmas. Oh yes, this is the first time I’ll be spending my Christmas with my 9-month old blog. Yippee. I now realize that it’s the longest time I ever lived with a blog in hand.

Cloudy weather, I guess. Back to random thoughts!!!

Christmas vacation wasn’t a good start….I’m sooooo bored to death. Nothing to watch….except the movie The Clique. What can I say? Love it. This movie is much much better and more sensible than Bratz the Movie. Period. :)

I don’t know if I’ll be blogging this Christmas Day, but happy holidays to all of you!!! :D

2008 Was Disappointing.

Even before our Christmas party yesterday, I started to think about how horrible the year 2008 went for me. Almost everything went wrong, from school to pursuing the things that I want to accomplish. Nothing really went wrong with my family, since everything’s okay. Before the year ends, I’ll pour out all of the emotions that I’ve been hiding since January. Let’s begin with my schoolwork.

In the fourth quarter of my freshman year I was almost proclaimed as Outstanding Student. However, to be proclaimed one you have to have at least a general average of 88 and grades no lower than 85. Math was 82 although I had 3 90’s. Too bad. So when sophomore year came, I tried my best to work harder and reach the dream that I’ve been longing for since Prep. But there came the obstacles.

Suddenly everyone was improving. While they got perfect scores in quizzes I will get at least one or two mistakes. Within those weeks, everyone at least got a higher score than me. I was proud of them for their vast improvement. But I was envious because they were so good in Math while I wasn’t. Once I even thought that everyone was turning into a monster. First and second quarter were a blur for me: I was doing well in school but it wasn’t enough. During those quarters I was thinking that my intelligence was declining. I worked hard everyday, so I still made good grades but with bad thoughts. When I told this situation to mom, she told me to stop thinking about others’ grades and focus on myself. So what I did this past third quarter? I studied so hard that I got impressive scores, like a 34/35 in our English long test (I only got a mistake in the essay). Suddenly I was becoming stronger again. Now I’m proud all of us are improving this sophomore year.

Then there came the Candy Council of Cool membership.

I was shocked when mom told me the news over lunchbreak via phone call. Unfortunately on Saturday the same week, I got the text message saying I didn’t get it in. I cried on the way to the mall where I complained to mom while eating lunch. At first I thought it was unfair. But from then on I realized that I was lucky I got the chance to be in the second screening. God may have better plans for me; who knows, I’ll be in next year. I’m thinking of joining Theresian Mag this school year.

Social life and looks? I got more insecure than ever.

I got more conscious with my looks this year. Everyday I would look at the mirror and see how flat my nose was, how thick my lips were, and how fat I was. Everyday I would go to school and see how beautiful the girls were. They were stick-thin, something that I am not. I tried walking long distances to exercise but still it didn’t work. Some people even said that I am ugly. I got hurt by their comments saying that the camera will break if ever I take pictures in it or if ever someone downloads my photo, the computer will get a virus. But according to a book I’ve read, looks don’t matter in adulthood. I’m not sure if it’s true. Talking about my social life, I belonged to a group who are funny, smart, lovable, and strong. Qualities that only a few cliques possess. We don’t even have a clique name and it doesn’t matter to us, as long as we are one united barkada. I don’t care how popular or unpopular my friends are. However, my popularity dream took to a higher level this sophomore year. I wanted to be someone almost the whole HS campus knew, the girl everyone wants to be friends with. Looking at those “popular” and “cool” girls, I so badly want to be them. Everyone loves them, everyone thinks they’re pretty, and they’re “in”. There are the times when I want to be mean….but karma will come to you after years without knowing it.

Just like someone who was very mean to me back in Grade School and turned almost all of my classmates against me. They even picked her over me. I was hated for no reason. How pathetic. Then three years later, karma took its toll on her.

With all the problems I have in school, I would sometimes go to bed crying. I would think all of the horrible things that happened to me over the past weeks. There were the people who would comfort me: friends, parents, classmates, teachers, God. I was thankful for them for lending a crying shoulder. Many people were saying that all these things will have a payback. Failures are successes in disguise, some said. Rejections will turn into acceptances. 2008 made me a stronger and better person.

I just hope 2009 will be way better than this year.

Christmas Partyyy....

Finally! My blog layout is fixed again!!! Our Christmas party has just finished hours ago and it was loads of fun! Although that I received are fewer than of last year, I feel sad but I truly appreciate the presents. (Thanks, everyone!) I’m supposed to continue the 10 Overrated Things of 2008 today but I’ll have to save it first since it’s almost Christmas! Gosh, it’s 6 days before December 25! And tomorrow will be a month-long countdown before I turn 15!

What was my favorite part of the Christmas party? Before we ate our McDo pancakes and Jollibee Burger Steaks (with a boiled egg as a bonus), some of my classmates posted papers with each of our names in it. Each paper has a different question and everyone is required to write in it. I can’t recall the question that was given on my part but the replies my classmates wrote make me laugh!

Gonna miss all of my classmates this Christmas break! Hope it will be a fun two week-vacation! :)

BLOG REVAMP.

Layout sucks….bandwidth exceeded daw ang background. :))))

10 Overrated Things of 2008 (For Me)= First 5.

In a few days 2008 is over. Whoa, I just realized that time has sped by. I have to admit that 2008 isn’t really my year. What I love about this year is that so lot things have happened, fads exploded then dief, and many more. Then here are two things to separate the fads of today: overrated and underrated.

How to describe my favorite word “overrated”? It is to describe a person, thing or place that is overexposed, overhyped, overused. And what is “underrated”? Underused, underexposed, underhyped. Overrated things make me sick. They’re everywhere in the world, always on TV, always heatd. This year, so many things got popular for some random reason. However, some make me so sick of seeing or hearing it everywhere. Agree or not, here is my 10 Overrated Things of 2008 list for me. In random order! :D

1. Shutter shades= They’re cool, alright. It got so popular in our school that 90% of my batchmates during our outbound wore it. But what;s the big deal about it??? Come on, you only see bars and nothing else. It doesn’t differ from regular shades.

2. Miley Cyrus / Hannah Montana= So sick of this “singer”. Miley’s damn everywhere: she’s always featured on Total Girl and these teen magazines in the US, she’s ranked as one of the most beautiful (in my opinion, I don’t find her pretty at all), she’s got this merchandise in the kid department, and “top-selling” albums. The next Hilary? Noooooo! Then Miley posed for a controversial shoot in Vanity Fair, an act that didn’t please parents and some fans alike. Oh yeah, the juniors in school were grossed out when “Hannah Montana” was mentioned. I recently read an article about the most overexposed stars today….Miley came in with 40% of the votes. (Paris won this poll).

3. Nintendo Wii= I don’t know what’s with this Wii craze. You just get hold of the controller and you make the movements. Why does everyone want this? PS3’s waaaaaayyyy better.

4. Kimerald (for 2 years running)= Aahhh…my least liked loveteam in showbiz. Kim and Gerald never fail to annoy my TV set with all those lame shows (no offense, fans) and not-so-good acting. Their faces are always plastered on ASAP, those magazines. Gerald is fine with me because he has the looks and all….but Kim???? I wasn’t really happy when she won awards for Most Promising TV Actress. I don’t even like her singing! Plus. like I said, she had much more exposure than Gerald. I’d rather watch Piolo and Angel or Dingdong and Marian who took years before becoming famous than those ovenight sensations.

5. Facebook= Myspace’s biggest enemy, it’s clean and has lots of applications. But recently it’s trying to overtake MySpace which is the world’s biggest social networking site. The only disadvantage is that you can’t customize it with CSS. Many are joining it…I don’t know what is special about the website.

So there you have it, the first half of 2008’s Overrated Things. Tune in next week for the next half! :)

Twilight, GG Pics, No More Bashing.

I just deleted my post on “What Went Wrong with Religion Class”. I just got the text message from Dad yesterday saying that he wasn’t happy with what I wrote. He said that I’ll be in big trouble if I don’t remove this immediately. Apologies to everyone, especially to the person I referred to. I now realize that EVEN BASHING TEACHERS ON THE INTERNET IS BAD that your parents can read this.So anyway, I’ll have to move the Blair/Chuck pics that I found somewhere in the Internet here in my new post.

By this time I have to be finished with my post. But since the pics erased the text, I have to do that again…making me so angry!!! Anyway, I just watched Twilight with my mom and her younger brother last Saturday in Robinsons Midtown. Munching with my Taters Nacho Cheese popcorn, I was amazed with how the movie went. Some of my classmates have already watched the movie days ago and was quite disappointed with it. First of all, Edward’s catchy “Do I dazzle you?” line wasn’t mentioned. Second, the blood typing scene was cut and the movie jumped to a few chapters. However, my favorite scene was when the Cullens played baseball. The actress who played Alice was very graceful when she threw the ball. Love it so much! After 2 hours and 10 minutes, my overall rating with the movie is 9/10. Good job, but I hope New Moon will be better.

Once again, here are some Blair/Chuck pics that I found in somewhere:

A Twilight parody. Whoever did this was good. :)))



I got this from a blog found in Blogskins…but I cannot recall the link anymore.
Chuck is soooooo cool. :D

Quick Post.

Like my new layout? It’s so sad to know that Blogskins is pretty screwed up these days. There are the Skins of the Day which were selected but not deserving to get the title. Then the download numbers are I think un-realistic. But at least I finally re-vamped by blog with this great skin.

I now have a Multiply site, but it’s not yet fully constructed. I’ll tell you when you can add me. Not much pics, no blog entries. So view at:

http://pinkcandydoll.multiply.com

Sembreak!

Do you all want to know what happened on our sembreak?







But before that, I’ll talk about the Dance Pro. The sad news is that our class lost this year’s competition. However, instead of crying like pathetic losers, we just shrug it off and focused on having fun during the practices. At least, although we weren’t the champions like we were last year, we strengthened our bond as a class since it’s our last year together. I would just like to congratulate all of the winners. :)




Sembreak was fun. I had a fun time with my good friend Elaiz during the weekend before going back to school. We accompanied her sister (who was wearing a Piglet costume) trick-or-treating in SM Mall of Asia on Halloween. I already uploaded the pics on Friendster but sorry to say, my profile is private. So here are some snaps:





Elaiz’s sister, Elaine, in an arcade

A candid photo of the two of us.

Outbound + Lunch With Friends= FUN!

I haven’t updated my blog in two weeks! I decided since last week that it is best to write about two of the best moments that happened this 2008: the month-long postponed outbound last Sept. 30 and a lunch with friends at KFC last Thursday.

According to some of my classmates, the outbound was quite boring. It was fun to visit the UP Los Banos Museum where we get to see rare plants and some species of birds. We got to watch a short film on the purpose of forests in the world. After the movie, we went out, our class decided to divide ourselves into two (by friends of course), and we strolled around while the facilitators gave a brief info on every plant specie we encounter. The strolling ended; our next stop was Mt. Makiling. Before we trekked for around two hours, we did warm-ups. While we were walking up to Makiling, a facilitator told us not to be noisy since we might be distracting “anyone”. Did you know that during the trek, vendors popped out to sell C2 and water? Hehe…even vendors can sell refreshments in the mountains. Going to the Center for Philippine Raptors was unbelievable since it’s not indoors but around Mt. Makiling! I recall an eagle that we’ve seen there whose remains are reconstructed for display. She died during the typhoon Milenyo. (Sad story). The trekking was fun all right, except that I almost broke my right leg.

Some of the Teentalkers know already about this, so here’s the story. We were trekking on the dangerous zone, where the roads were slippery and we kept on screaming although we were holding on the ropes. I slipped around 3 times.while screaming. Then here came the fall: we are to go to this part where we have to use our flexibility. And when I did that, I split, and OUCH! My right leg got hurt. It got so painful that I thought I broke my leg. I cried out with no tears. Some of my classmates were laughing, but one of them shouted, “Mag-show nga kayo ng symphathy! May na-injured na nga!” (Thanks to the one who said that). So they all went on, with another girl telling me not to give up. I sat the whole time and I was asked by another facilitator to stand up and rest in the tree. The outbound went on although I had a hard time going down the bus when we went home. It was so painful that I have to go to CGH for an x-ray the next afternoon.

When we arrived there, I was immediately put in a wheelchair and was wheeled to the X-Ray Room. After sometime, we learned that there were no fractures but just a swell in the kneecap area. Result? I took an absence the next day and wore a cast on my right leg. Right now, I can walk normally again, I can sit cross-legged, and I can lift it. Phew! I can dance on our Dance Pro, coming in two weeks from now.

Another unforgettable moment is a lunch with 3 of my friends in KFC Banawe. I ate Chicken Steak. During the lunch, we talked about just anything under the sun. I will never forget the time my friend said, “You know, the three of your are my true friends.” It wasn’t flattering; it was pleasing to hear that.

Dance Pro is in two weeks! :)

Failing Is Bad (Or So I Think).

HEADLINES: I DIDN’T GET IN THE CANDY COUNCIL OF COOL.

What a bummer. I got in the second screening (which I’m proud of), but this morning on the way to the mall where my mom will be on duty for work, I got the text message from Ms. Marla. It said, “Unfortunately, we have chosen only the most qualified. Thank you for joining and try again.” I was shocked. I was near-tears in the jeep we were riding that time. My heart sank. My dreams shattered. I was thinking, I didn’t pass Dulaang Pinoy this year and now Candy? Am I destined to fail all of my life? Come on, I believed that I did well in the interview and the review I did on Queen Bees and Wannabes was already fine. Then I got this? Ever since the announcement that I qualified for the second screening, I prayed to God that I may get the opportunity I’ve been hoping for. When I was interviewed on Thursday, I could see that the editors were impressed by me. One of them also said, “Seems like you prepared your speech.”

So the text message arrived, I was like, WTH? I went absent on that day just to go there and now my efforts were fruitless? I remembered the failures that I encountered: not being a Junior Librarian in Grade 4, not being part of the Theresian Magazine staff in Grade 5 and 6, rejected in the Dulaang Pinoy last June. So okay, I’m destined to fail. When will I ever get success? I want to prove to those who judge me so much without knowing me that a simple sophomore can make it big. While rambling those thoughts, I was also thinking, I was born to be a loser. Why all of the opportunities I want are not given to me? Maybe God thinks I’m never good enough. I am even thinking of not joining the COC contest next year since I failed. My bitterness was so hard that I’m planning on not buying the November/December issue just because I’ll imagine that if I got in, the whole STC will know me and they’ll see how good am I. The Theresian Mag might even accept me as a writer this junior year. But I shouldn’t be bitter because if I did, I’ll never learn to be thankful. I should be thankful that out of the thousands of entries sent to Candy, I got qualified in the second screening. It is a sign of improvement regarding my writing skills. Not all people are destined to be good in writing. Not all girls like me get accepted in a screening like this. Most of all, there might be a better plan for me. It’s not that not getting in meant I’m a bad writer and I’ll fail forever. God wants me to stay focus because He knew it’s not yet the time to appear in a magazine. Maybe next year, I’ll be part of COC Batch 10 where Candy celebrates a decade of being Candy. I just have to trust His plans. Who knows, being in Batch 10 will be better.

I remembered a friend who said something to me when I failed the Dulaan auditions. “Stop whining about that pathetic audition!” she said. In fact, I’m happy in my Booklat SEG. If in Grade School I didn’t became a Junior Librarian, right now I am one, thanks to the club. Not only that, I enjoy it because my friends are there, which triples the fun. And besides, success doesn’t come to your doorstep overnight. Look at Charice. She wasn’t proclaimed the winner in Little Big Star but no one expected her international success three years later. Not all winners are successful. If you’re reading this post, hope you can name some celebs who are enjoying success although they failed lots of times. An important lesson: if life is perfect, you’ll never know God at ALL.

BTW, an earthquake occurred about an hour ago. :)

Candice at Your Service!

Our batch’s visit to the different communities assigned to our respective sections turned out to be a learning experience for us. Too bad I didn’t bring my camera, but I don’t it will be of much use. As I am writing this post, I am feeling excited for Friday’s outbound to Mount Makiling, UP Los Banos Museum of Nature, and I forgot the other venue. Our class color will be yellow (many of my classmates weren’t happy about it, since it’s the teachers’ turn to pick the color), and I already paid the fee.

So back to the main topic. The bus where I and some of us were assigned was so hot that we all complained because there was NO aircon. Is that what you call a bus? But at least there were open windows. Thank goodness we had fun while going to the ROTC Hunters Community. A lot of us showed off their phones and camera. It was a very short trip; we arrived there less than 5 minutes later. Since I was assigned to the Day Care committee, I went to one of the Day Care Centers with three of my classmates. We had fun teaching the 20+ kids there. We taught them the proper way to wash their hands, how to avoid getting a cold and cough, and some storytelling. By recess time I evenly distributed the Refresh juices and Dream bars. But there was one problem during that visit: we ran out of Refresh! We have to go to the other day care centers just to get the amount we need for the refreshments.

After the break, the four of us did some storytelling and played some games. By the time we left, we have plenty of time to go the nearest store across the community and buy softdrinks. For our reflection in our PALIHAN notebook, we need to get an object that we could paste in our notebook and explain why did we pick it up. I bought candy from an OSY (out-of-school youth) so I could paste the candy wrapper in it.

It was definitely a learning experience for me. Here are the things that I learned:

• Teaching kids the things needed in life can benefit all
• Simplicity is a must
• Love all kinds of people!

Book Fair Mania.

Yesterday was one of the best days I ever experienced so far. Want to know why? Since I’m a part of our Booklat SEG, we were invited to visit the 29th International Book Fair held in the SMX Convention Center in SM Mall of Asia. I arrived in school at 7:30 AM since my mom needs to go on overtime duty that day. I was one of the few people there, so I walked around the school to destabilize my boredom.

Our bus left STC at around 9:00 AM. The songs playing on the radio were great. While on the trip, two of my friends were joking around, calling names such as “pangit” and “baboy”. I laughed all the way round. One of them brought her PSP and was playing boxing, so we were joking about it too. We arrived at SMX at around 10:00 AM, when the weather was cloudy. We went inside and it was very cold! Thank goodness I brought my favorite pink jacket. We made rounds through the aisles of the book fair, from Powerbooks to NBS’ Pambansang Diskuwento booth. We were asked to leave by 11:00 AM so that we could go to the foodcourt and eat our lunch. My lunch was a satisfying meal of Spicy Chickenjoy with extra rice (see how I eat like a pig) and Magnolia Bottled Water. We sat in a table of 6 while two of my friends went to Jollibee just to buy food. It was really funny since by the time the four of us (one girl is in section 4 but came with us since she’s alone) were finished, they were just starting to eat. Lunch was over and we went back to the book fair to buy more books for three more hours.

I only brought money enough for two Baby-sitters Club books and A Little Princess, although the complete Twilight saga is there. Aww….I just wished that I asked Mom for more money so I could buy Breaking Dawn without waiting for the reservation we’ve made a few weeks ago. We hanged out at the Power Mac lounge for 30 minutes, tried out MacBooks (but no Internet connection), watched a cosplay contest, asked for a picture with some cosplayers, and had fun by the time we left at 2:30 pm. We were only about 15 in the bus since some were picked up by their parents already. My tita was already there when the bus came to school, and we ate McDo! Hehe. So much for a happy “ending”.

12 days to go before our outbound in Mt. Makiling! So excited. :)

The Post You'll Be Reading is Untitled.

Yesterday I finally got one of my wishes. Guess.

If you’re guessing I got a Nokia 5310, you’re wrong. If you think I went to a gimmick last week, you’re wrong too. Come on, keep guessing! Can’t guess? Okay…..

I finally have my own copy of Twilight! Yay!!! Now I can join in the fun with other Twilight readers and expect on what will happen on the movie to be released on January next year! Originally in the US, the movie will be shown on about November or December. But since the MMFF will be by Christmastime, we won’t get to see the movie until the end of that filmfest. Grrrr. As of now, I am reading Chapter 2 (what a slow reader am I) and enjoying every minute of the story!

I’m excited for three things this September. Look at my list:

1. This Friday, Sept.12, our class will be going to a ROTC Hunters Community in QC. I’m excited to be in the day care where I’ll be teaching kids on health and have fun with them for the two whole hours of our visit. Dum, dum, baby-sitter Candice here!
2. The next day, our Library SEG group will be going to the International Book Fair to be held in SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia. Not only that I’ll be buying another good book to read but also be with four of my friends!
3. Last but not the least…..the outbound!!!! The whole batch will be going to Mt. Makiling and other places in Laguna instead of having us divided into two batches. Supposedly our class is in Batch 2 when our outbound is on August 29, but because of the heavy rains it was cancelled, the same thing that happened to Batch 1. So on September 26, better get my camera ready for some nature-sighting!

What A Week. :)

I’ve got some good news to share.

I’ve been talking about our MLA documentation in English a hundred thousand times already. No kidding. I always whined about how hectic it is to research a topic, make an outline, and made a draft. But this time it is good news.

MY TEACHER PRAISED MY ESSAY!

You’ve heard it right. She gave back our outlines/essays on the first topic we’ve chosen last Friday. My first topic is about Body Dysmorphic Disorder, inspired by Candy Mag’s July 2008 Hard Candy article. Since I find it the most interesting among the three topics I’ve decided, I chose to document it first. So there it was, our teacher handled my essay and she said, “Candice’s essay is very complex with complete sources. She properly used the quotation of some statements. This is very good.” I was shocked. I can’t believe that my work was praised by a teacher who gives bloody quizzes and research works (or so I think). Hehe!

I also received my first Bio quiz results….I got a 15/16 with a “Good!” remark on it! Yippee! Better keep it up. As of now, I am still waiting for my reserved copy of Breaking Dawn from Powerbooks. Can’t wait to read it aside from wishing to buy a new Chicken Soup book, Chicken Soup for the Girl’s Soul. Better wait for it…it’s too pricey.

A Random Post.

Since there is no classes today, I decided to make a new post while researching for our hectic MLA documentation. We have to choose 3 topics. Right now I’m searching info on anorexia, which is my second topic. Also after this, I will search more on cyberbullying. Guess when is our deadline? September 15.

I’m finished reading Eclipse! Yay! It took 5 days before I got to finish 27 chapters of the book. Now I’m looking forward to reading Breaking Dawn although I haven’t read the first two books (Twilight and New Moon). To do so, I reserved one in Powerbooks at Midtown. I gave my name and my mom’s contact numbers so that we will be informed immediately if a copy has arrived.

The place where I am right now sucks bad. Let’s face it: I’m in the computer shop. I’m not really liking any single time with it: filthy smell of cigarettes, an overkill song playing on YouTube (the song sucks too), and not-so-clean floorings. Bah. Want to know why I ended up here? The nearest shops are full! But since I need to do my research, I went to the next shop nearest to us. I have no choice. But at least the music on the radio is fine.

One thing’s for sure: Breaking Dawn, here I come! (I just don’t know when. Haha!) :)

My "50th" Post. :)

Time has surely gone fast! I just looked at my dashboard and realized that I have reached 50 posts already. Whoa! Blogging could never be so exciting. My old blogs never reached at least 6 months of blogging, but this is different. Updating this blog every weekend for the whole world to see, I was proud of myself. I’m thinking of this as an “achievement”! As of now, I also realized that on September 14, this blog will be celebrating its 6th month! Woohoo! But there is more than that. What a week I’ve been!

Wednesday- After a long vacation, we were back in school. Unfortunately, the weather was dark and stormy. The day should have been our SEG session, but because of the sky’s gloominess we were suspended a 10:45 am.

Thursday- It could be the very faithful I began to convert myself into a Twilight reader. In the library, I borrowed Eclipse (I can’t borrow Twilight, the first book, because someone will borrow it.) and will return it next week. In fact, 5 chapters later, I’m enjoying every single event of the book! Since we’re going to have another long weekend, I’m going to finish the book.

If only there weren’t any quizzes the next day, I’ll finish Eclipse. :)

Friday- That nightfall, I witnessed an amazing miracle.

My mom, who was on the way home that time, was about to visit a food shop to buy some barbeque. Then there was this person who was pointing above, but mom didn’t know what was he talking about. She walked away, and some electrical device from afar spit out some “fountains” that if you come near, you’ll get burned.

By the time she came home safely and told me the story, I asked who saved her.

“God saved me!” Mom said. I went to sleep thinking of the miracle. I was thankful to God for saving her, the one who gave me life and supported me throughout the years.

Emotional? You bet.

HEADLINES: The Geisha and (Hmph) Pinoy Idol

Glad to see that my blog revamp is done. *claps*

I’ve got to reasons on why I’m posting here right now. One, three sections of our sophomore batch (I’m in Section 2 so my class is included) watched the movie Memoirs of A Geisha for English class last Monday. I can tell you, the movie is incredibly amazing. Aside from the beautiful portrayal of its actresses, the story is easy to understand. Unfortunately because of a strong stomach cramp, I have to go to the Clinic and missed some parts of the movie. I can still recall the time when I suffered such major embarrassment while watching the movie.

You see, we didn’t know that there will be a scene where we have to fast-forward it (read: an EXPLICIT scene). Our English teacher asked me to pause the movie to discuss a summary of what we’ve watched. I was in the front, so I’m the one assigned to “control”. I tried to pause it in a good timing, but so it happened that when I paused it, the explicit scene followed through! My batchmates kept on complaining about it, so I tried to fast-forward. But it didn’t work. Instead of skipping, it went on SLOW MOTION! Thank goodness when the movie went on, our English teacher asked us why were we acting negatively when it comes to scenes like that. She also said that it’s part of life. *standing ovation!*

Second is bad news. Like I said, I’m never a fan of Pinoy Idol. In fact, I hate it. The contestants are tryhards and annoying voices. Finally, GMA killed the show off with their “finals”. Can you believe that:

• they eliminated a contestant just at the finals? (Actually, that guy wasn’t good anyway.)
• this contestant won BECAUSE SHE CAME FROM A WEALTHY FAMILY. (Boo.)
• the judges are like….AUGGGHHHHH! Can they judge properly and fairly?

Haha….that’s how my headlines go. :)

SORRY I HAVE TO TAKE A HIATUS FIRST.

I’m currently editing my new blogskin….so just wait before I come back! :)

To my link exchanges, please stay tuned for my return! :):)

Exam Hiatus!

EXAM HIATUS!

I’ll back on August 10 with a new layout! :)

Last Hurrah: Bloody Week.

For the next two weeks starting tomorrow, second year will be bloody as hell.

Tomorrow will be our quizzes for two of the world’s bloodiest subjects: Biology and Math. In Math it will be a long test (gahd no), and a short quiz on Bio about nutritional relationship. The truth is, tomorrow’s Bio will be easy to ace, just identify the relationship being described. But here’s the pathetic sitch: the next day, we will have FOUR LONG TESTS in Bio (again?), Religion, TLE, and English. It seems like the teachers are treating us like adults. Why? Some grownups say that sophomore year is just a passing phase. When you get to third year you have to ace Chemistry, Advanced Algebra, and Geometry. Plus, you have to study hard because when you apply in the university of your choice, the grades the deans look at is based on your performance in junior year. So even though you do well in senior year if you’re barely passing the previous level, you’ll not be able to enter UP. BTW, UP is my dream college.

Then there came the storm of assignments and projects. This week, we have to accomplish a formal and informal theme paper in Filipino. Do you know what is the subject for our formal theme? It is about everlasting…lalalalaLOVE! Although I’ve done this a week ago, I have to edit it again to make it eye-pleasing. Plus, this weekend I have to study for all of my upcoming tests. So wish me luck. I might be off blogging for the next weekend since it will be exam week.

Remember the last post when I crammed on being TLE leader for our cooking activity? The night before, I prepared all of my materials. I brought the rice, an extra fresh papaya for the tinola, the bowls for the buko pandan. All in one paper bag. I have to study for our Biology quiz (which have worked, I got a good score) at around 10 pm. Guess what time I slept? 12:30 in the morning. I have to wake up at 4:30 am just to get my cooking apron and to wait for my school bus to arrive. Before our cooking activity, I kept on praying to God for this to be successful. By the time the bell for TLE rang, I was shaking. This is it.

But you know what? All things went well. Even my second job as a dishwasher was fine too! I almost broke a jar borrowed from the school; thank goodness I blocked it quickly or else I have to pay! Now there goes my story.

EXAM WEEK HIATUS FROM JULY 27-AUGUST 9. AFTER THIS, I’M FREE!!!!!

TLE Leadership is Easy...NOT!

If you think being TLE leader is easy, think again.

Being leader is one of the toughest decisions and responsibilities that I have to face and do. I never had the feeling of shaking two days before our Cooking Day, which is this Tuesday. Over the last week, I assigned my groupmates on who will be the marketers, cooks, housekeepers, and dishwashers. I can’t be the cook because I’m already the leader. I can cook fried foods but not a soupy one-course meal like chicken tinola. So with a classmate, I became the dishwasher to be fair. I was thinking of what will I do on the day of our cooking:

♥Ask my groumates if they brought the ingredients and supplies needed.
♥Bring my cooking apron. What’s a cooking activity with the leader without her proper attire?
♥Pray that all goes well from beginning to end.
♥Wash the dishes…☻!!
♥Forget the pathetic cramming that I did the week before the activity.
♥May Mrs. D give us a good grade for all of our efforts. Amen!

So to all of you readers…wish me luck. :) And I have question to ask: should I change my layout? There are lots of pretty blogskins right now, especially one that I really like. It’s navigational with an electric pop theme. But I can’t let go of the header that I made and my super long bio. So maybe after two months? Only time can tell.

My Life After Two Weeks of Absence.

It’s been two weeks since I last blogged here.

I missed Teentalk, Blogskins, Friendster, etc. Gawd, there were so many assignments, researches, and projects. Here is what happened in my life during my Net-absence for two weeks:

-I became leader for our TLE project. It was my groupmates who chose me. I was like, “OMG! I’m leader again? I hope this will be a success this time.” You see, I can still recall this traumatic experience of leading the road to a good grade (or a failure) back when I was in Grade 4. I was a first-timer then. I was never voted as class officer (until now), so it was shocking when I learned that I have to lead my groupmates in a Music practical test. Did you know what I did? I just left them in the dust, not wondering how stupid it could be. Result? On the day of our presentation, we were just standing in front, now knowing what to present. Guess what we got? 28/40. That’s where the “leader trauma” began.

This time it was better. A few days before the deadline, I already assigned my groupmates to collect pictures and type the captions for the food pyramid construction. So they did. Fast forward Tuesday this week, our project was beautifully furnished and done. Then there is a groupmate of mine who I would credit to for a work well done. Supposedly the deadline will be this Monday, but because some groups aren’t done yet, I requested our TLE teacher to extend the deadline tomorrow. So she asked me, “Candice, okay lang sa iyo kung pagandahin ko siya, add more pictures and that?” I was touched. So I gave all the pictures and captions my co-members submitted. The next day, she was done. I was touched when she shared to me, “I woke up at 4 am just to finish this.” In my whole time of leadership, no other member did this sacrifice for our group grade. I really thanked her for the effort she gave. Now I’m keeping my fingers crossed to see what will be the grade. On the day of its submission, our teacher once again gave the group guides an assignment that will be due in three days. Us leaders should present two recipes with all of the necessary portions from the food pyramid and one for the Filipino merienda. So right now I’m going to search in my Lola Glo’s cookbooks for healthy recipes and a yummy merienda. Wish me luck!

-We had our super duper fun Recollection last Wednesday in Bukal ng Tipan, Taytay, Rizal. I woke up at 4:20 AM to give my hair a good old blower, clean my blue Skechers sneakers, and wear this oh-so-wonderful Bench shirt with a stylish printing. My mom was a bit lazy to get up; I nagged her for about 5 times before she fixed herself and accompanied me in the taxi to go to school. We arrived there at around 6 am where I saw some of my classmates giving out reco letters inside the air-conditioned bus. I’ve got around 20+ letters, thanking me for being nice to them. Thanks, guys!!!! But this reco touched me:

“I hope you will continue to let others respect your integrity for who you are and NOT for what they are.”

Awww…so sweet! For the first activity, we went to the Recollection Center by a 1 kilometre nature walk. Last year, we went straight ahead with the bus. But this year, we stopped by at the gate and our facilitators asked us to walk there one by one. Whoa, it was really tiring. My legs turned to jelly from walking. But through this, the air was so cool and fresh and the sunlight matched the swaying of the green trees. The place could put the rainforests to shame. After the activity, we did some exercises matched with a prayer. We had our snack, made our lifebook (which turned out to be a requirement for us the whole year), ate lunch (it was beef and veggies), continued the activity, had a snack, and we had our prayer ritual. When all of these were over, our class had a class pic in front of the Bukal place. It all went well, especially the time when our two Religion teachers showed their vanity side. Then there came the mishap…Sir N said, “Pagbilang ko ng tatlo, pumunta na kayo sa bus!” In a rush, I stood up…and tripped! Ouch! On the way to the bus, some were joking at me.

We arrived in STC at 6:00 PM. Tita Badette arrived at around 6:25. It was raining, but at least we were able to eat at McDo with the P100 my mom gave me. Back at home, I fell on the bed to sleep. Phew. When I woke up the next morning, I was still in “reco hangover”.

Second Helpings.

Thursday was the day I experienced my biggest failure yet. Dammo. I should be publishing this last week but because of lack of time, I wasn’t able to accomplish it. PALIHAN was fun two Fridays ago. I haven’t been blogging for almost two weeks!

I love acting. It’s my most blessed talent aside from creative writing. Over the past week I’ve been mind-fiddling more times than Hey Fiddle Diddle. I can’t choose between auditioning the Theresian Magazine and for the Dulaang Pinoy club. It all started with this story. It was Friday last week. I jumped for joy when I saw the ad posted in our blackboard. It was all about the auditions for the school paper (Theresian Mag). They were calling all writer/artist/layout artist wannabes to join the mag. The scheduled auditions was last Wednesday at 3:10 pm. But then came the clash.

I learned from my friends in the Third Year that the Dulaang Pinoy auditions will be held on the same time and same day the Theresian auditions will be held. On Monday and Tuesday I was mind-boggling and debating between auditioning for the school paper and the theater club. I even played “heads and tails” where I got the heads (theater). Finally on the day of the auditions, since I didn’t have a letter of consent with me which was needed in order to join the school paper tryouts, I got the chance to join theater.

At 3:10, I was shaking nervously. We were only about 25 auditionees in the room. We were asked to pick a paper where our assigned audition piece is there. I chose the mangkukulam part which was really darn hard to act. During my time, I tried my best. I tried acting like a real villain with evil laughs and self-proclaims. Then one of the teachers who was there told me that the results will be posted in the Filipino bulletin board the next day.

Time went by and the results came. I was really afraid to look at the paper full of the people who passed in the tryouts. I didn’t hesitate to look at it so I went to the III-4 classroom and waited for my busmates. In that section there’s a close friend of my busmates who auditioned. She passed and I asked her about the auditionees in the Second Year. Unfortunately….she said that only one passed from Section 1. I started to burst in tears and complained to my friends. While whining about my failure, my friend said, “Stop complaining about that effing audition! It’s not the end of the world!” So I got over it.

This Tuesday we had our SEG enlistment. I was planning for Cyberwiz or Psyheads. But because of a friend who wants to join the Booklat, our school’s library club. Since some of our other fiends will join too, I didn’t hesitate. I thought in my mind that not being part of the Dulaan wouldn’t mean I won’t be having fun in my SEG sessions. You know what? God really has a plan for me. I joined Booklat and on our first session, I enjoyed it! Besides if I was in Dulaan, I might not be feeling the happiness that I have as a member of Booklat.

I and Dad had this witty conversation last Saturday, talking about PBB. Dad doesn’t like reality shows because he thinks they’re all scripted. Here is what we chatted through YM:

dad: yeah…i couldnot believe that pinoy teens is represented by that weakling ej
me: yah…charity show?
dad: even if i am valerie…i will lose hope and basted him right away..
dad: it is a friggin circus..PBB the circus edition..
dad: and the king is a complete clown ass
me: dammo…..effing scrpited. housemates to damn overrated celebs
dad: what i can only see is beauty O.A. fat ass all over the screen
me: haciendera? babe in the city. the pig
dad: and big brother I think is a homo who thinks of crazy games
me: oo nga…nakita mo ba iyong nangyari sa pbb teen first eidition?

Dad gave me some advice on skill.
dad: the only way to be popular is to be good with what you do best…follow your passion and work hard to be the best
dad: there will always be stages…try phase, then you struggle, failures then success..lastly mastery. When you master a skill, keep on improving..that will keep you on the top..stay relevant
dad: don’t settle for being ordinary..majority is like that..to get the attention of everyone…be the MASTER
dad: have you seen picasso’s works?
dad: that is his own style..because picasso can draw straight…he used abstract..then became the best at that medium..can you imagine picasso making still life painting like van goh
dad: haters will never leave but they will be converted…so don’t be afraid having haters around. Being praised is easy but the challenge is when you convert those skeptics/haters to view and believe in you…got it?
dad: most artists are baby..
me: got it…
dad: that is the bad side of being a painter..your works will sky rocket when the artist is dead
me: yup…
dad: so now..that is your challenge..convert skeptics to believers
dad: but in order to do that..you got to believe in yourself..OF COURSE, stay real. Don’t fool yourself into believing something which is too damn impossible.

Aww…I’m so touched. I just updated my Friendster profile today with a new profile pic (the pic is seen in the Candice section) and a new shoutout. Gotta go…wish me luck on being a Council of Cool auditionee. I just sent my entry to the Candy webteam. I hope I get to accomplish it!

BTW, I can’t wait to watch Gossip Girl. I just bought the CD of the whole series today.

Happy Birthday/Father's Day, Dad.

I’m currently chatting with my Dad. I’d like to greet him a very Happy Birthday and a belated Happy Father’s Day. Here’s what I made for him, courtesy of my downloaded Shabby Princess kits and Photoshop. LOL!

My So-Called Life As A Sophomore: The Beginning, Part 2

Everyone wondering what was the news that I got on the first day of school? I’m going to continue it now. It’s Friday the 13th today, my mom just celebrated her 37th birthday yesterday, and I’m currently in between blogging/Teentalking/listening to music. So I entered our school bus that morning, with Kuya Arch giving us the good news about Kuya “Geynan”, that a-hole conductor of ours. Here it is…*drumroll*…He RESIGNED! Ha! Now our everyday second trips will be filled with comfort with his absence. Let me tell you what happened in the other three days right after the first:

Wednesday: first day was a bit better. I met our new Computer teacher (it’s Talens, not Talents!) who shared us two similar stories that happened a few years ago in his computer class. Mr. T didn’t give out the names involved in this sad situation. Both of them were Outdtanding Students in their graduating class. One of them gave her diskette with the answers to her struggling seatmate during their practical test. Result: the OS got a 74 for the incident and wasn’t declared one at the end of the school year. As for the second incident: another graduating OS helped another struggling classmate by exchanging seats and she (the OS) did the girl’s program. The result was the same as with the first one. How sad for them not to graduate with honors only because of that incident.

Thursday: I didn’t expect to get a good grade in our Diagnostic Test in Math. Come on, I am never that good in that freaking hard subject. Although it wasn’t recorded, my classmates were shocked to see me stand up when our Math teacher (Ms. A, yay!) asked us who got 19/25 in the DT. They were like, “Weh, Candice!”.

Friday: Today falls on the 13th. Enough said on the superstition. Our groupwork for Social Studies (Ms. R rocks the house) really made me work more on our artwork and have a good time. While we were drawing and coloring the Philippine flag and the weeds, our group had this comical conversation about doves and weeds:

Classmate 1: (talking to me) Candice, ba’t mo kinulayan nang green iyan? Iyon tuloy para naging weed na mukhang ewan!
Me: Ano ka ba, may drawing na kaya ng weed!
Classmate 2: (points to her drawn dove) Tignan niyo! Iyong dove ko nasususunog iyong buntot!
(we all laugh)
Classmate 3: Huh? Eh dove ko naman, may paa!
Classmate 4: Nakakalakad pala ang mga dove!

We had another conversation, this time while we were drawing a family.

(Classmate 3 draws the father and mother)
Classmate 2: Ba’t ganoon: mukhang rocker na lolo iyong tatay? Tapos iyong nanay, walang mukha! Ang sexist naman niyan!
Classmate 4: Tignan niyo rin naman: pink iyong noo parang nag-Ponds at iyong isa maitim. Racist naman!
Classmate 1: (commenting on the family)Wala silang katawan? Dagdagan niyo naman!

Since time ran out, our group will have to present on our next meeting. Filipino subject was fun, especially the teacher. He told some information about himself: Mr. R graduated in UST with a Major degree in Education, he’s in DLSU from 6-9 pm, and he’s single. He even joked to us that he has a bit of “manly beauty” which made many of us classmates swoon. Plus, Mr. R has a Friendster page so many of us asked him their e-mail address! Fast forward once again to Math period. We had this group activity that involved solving equations to form a triangular pyramid. As soon as we were finished, Ms. A called names for recitation. In one of the easy problems that was written on the board, she called the girl who hold class #27. Since two of us left the class, I stood up while a classmate said, “Candice, umaasenso ka na!” But then came the phobia: my classmates thought that I was holding the wrong number! To make things simpler, Ms. A just called up the real #27 to team up with me to solve the given problem. Tonight I now realized something. I was thinking wrong in Math class!

Okay, I’m done sharing my first week. Then there came the bad news this afternoon: Kuya Arch will be heading back to S9 next month when he’s done tutoring the new bus driver. AND GEYNAN will be COMING BACK! NOOOO! BTW, we have homework over the weekend. This Wednesday I’ll be auditioning for the writer spot in the Theresian Magazine. Wish me luck, okay?

My So-Called Life as A Sophomore: The Beginning, Part 1

First day of school was a blast. I kept worrying about what will happen the next day during the whole night. Because I took a brief nap at around 4:30 in the afternoon yesterday, I couldn’t sleep well last night. I tossed and turned around my stuffy pillow with the hot air released by our sole electric fan. My dream last night was just useless. I kept on looking at my mom’s cellphone to know what time it is. I had a couple of drinks of water so that I could sleep better and not feel thirsty. Finally at around 4:45 am, I totally felt asleep. Then there the cliche: I suddenly woke up with sound of the alarm at around 5:15 in the morning. Our regular school ritual is back. I was really shocked to hear the siren of my school bus when it arrived at around 5:25 AM, 30 minutes shy from the original arrival time last year. From the eight student to be fetched by our bus, I am now the second one! My heart kept on pounding as we shared our summer stories and we were nearing the school gates.

Since our batch has too many students in each of the 6 sections, we have to reshuffle our classrooms once again. Section 6 occupied the I-1 classroom near the staircase on the first floor, while the rest of the Third Year sections were in the same corridor as theirs. The freshman classrooms were scattered in the second and third floors. Sophomores from Sections 1, 3, and my own section 2 were stuck together in the classrooms that were used to be occupied the other three sections of our level last year. I searched for a classmate to ask where was our classroom. Luckily, I found one. She answered that it was in the former I-5 classroom, in between the classrooms of II-1 and II-3. I was happy when I arrived at our new room. My classmates, friends and I exchanged hellos. Our YPM Coordinator called us our attention at 7:00 to line up alphabetically so that we can go to the HS Covered Court. Some selected students were chosen to prepare presentations to welcome the new freshmen. As we were all sitting in our chairs this year’s batch of freshmen came out of the stage one by one, section by section. There came the boring speeches, introduction of the designated year level’s personnel for this school year. Time came fast: we met our new adviser who is also our teacher in Biology, had our temporary seating arrangement by class number, and met our new teachers.

There’s this male Religion teacher (who happens to be our co-adviser) who is very funny. Although he happens to have a problem with his left leg, Mr. N is a really great teacher. He’s much, much better than last year’s Ms. DL who makes the weirdest things ever. I’d like to share all of you the prayer that he taught us coming from St. Catherine of Siena. According to Mr. N, that was what catapaulted St. Catherine to sainthood. Here is the prayer:

I am beautiful, I am loved.
Forgive me for the mercy of God.

We sang and added some actions. At dismissal I got one of the best news that I’ve ever heard…or so it seemed. I find this post so long that I have to make Part Two! :)

The Post You're Reading Now Is The Last For Summer 2008.

You are currently reading the final post for summer 2008.

Yesterday’s post was what I thought the last time I’ll be posting a blog entry for this year’s summer vacation. But no. Currently mom’s on duty in Asiatrust Tutuban, this will be the first duty where I won’t be coming with her, and now I’m toting around in the PC telling myself that this post will officially close my vacation. Right now I’m listening to music, posting in Teentalk, and looking at Blogskins. If you have seen my new Multiply site, expect this to be cross-posted soon. I’m accepting more friend requests there, if you met me online (Teentalk, bloghopping) please add me as your “Online Buddy” and I strongly suggest to give me a message before adding me. I’ll accept your requests, I promise. But I won’t add you if:

• You’re my pathetic hater.
• You’re not a Teentalker, schoolmate, relative, bloghopper yet you don’t give me your introduction. Saying “Hi Candice! I saw you in ______” is as easy as ABC!

After my mom had her seminar (again) in her bank’s Main Office, she texted me from my lola’s house to meet her in 7-Eleven and to change in civilian. So I did. When I met her in 7-Eleven we hailed a jeep on the way to Tutuban. She was planning to download a few songs in her cellphone. Time was fast: we ate at KFC, finally bought a Candy Mag (I love the current issue), and I have a new game on my PSP. It’s The Simpsons game! I’m enjoying the game but there are some problems. I can’t figure out in the level “Bartman Begins” how to reach one of the places there. Harrumph. There has been a problem when my mom had her favorite songs downloaded. First the songs can’t be played, then all of them got doubled in number. It took about an hour before the problem was fixed. The guy who in the downloads converted the music files into MP3s. Plus, I was amazed that Vista have 3D screensavers! The computer in that station had a Samsung LCD and it’s screensaver was a 3D aquarium. Looks like you’ve been in the smaller version of Ocean Adventure! That night was also the PBB Teen Edition Big Night, so we rushed home after downloading to watch the new Big Winner get his/her wish come true.

We arrived home at around 8:30 and we missed half of the extravaganza. By the time the commercials ended, the “My Girl” cast came out to present their number. I’ve noticed something odd during their number: only a few fans were cheering when Kim performed alone but many more were added when Gerald came out. So that means Big Four and Gerald got more cheers than the “My Girl” star herself? I didn’t like her rendition of “Say It Again” in ASAP while she’s with the newest Teen Big Winner. Did PBB pull another big upset last night? I guess so.

We are all expecting that Robi will win the Big Winner title, with his oozing charisma, incomparable brains, and wide audience appeal. (911 to all the Robilievers reading this!) He’s a real candidate for the title. But I would also like to congratulate Ejay for being the newest Big Winner. He’s one of the people who have the famous “rags to riches” story. His father won the Guardian Big Winner a few weeks prior to last night, now they’re celebrating their triumph. In the viewers’ minds the winner is their bet housmates. So the Big Four are winners to all of us.

I think June is birthday galore for my parents. On Thursday my Mom will be celebrate her 37th birthday, while my Dad will be on June 16. Did you know that the birthday difference between my mom and dad is only four days? You’ve heard it right. They’ve been born on the same year. The next time I face this beloved computer, I will make a birthday scrapbook dedicated to both of my parents then I will post them on my Multiply site for the whole world to see. I’ll have to think yet if I’m going to add that in my Friendster site.

This ends my last entry for the summer. I’ll be back….to tell about how my first week as a Theresian sophomore went. Have a happy opening of classes!

Bye Summer, Hello Candice the Sophomore.

It’s been like 2 ½ months since I posted my entry “Officially On Vacation”. Then there was the fun time I had in Teentalk, the memorable visit of Dad from Singapore, the crazy dreams I had with my classmates, learning how to edit my template HTML, Jakey (hotness!), and lastly my growing list of blogging buddies. What a summer bliss. Haaay. I have to admit, we may not have been to Singapore last month but at least I’ve learned a lot over the summer. Brushing my images with Photoshop and digiscrapping with downloaded kits from Shabby Princess are two of my newest talents. I’ve first learned digiscrapping from Ate Xy who made her fabulous layout using different kits from the site. I’d like to thank her for introducing me to the world of digiscrapping.

My life now begins this Tuesday from fab freshman to sassy sophomore. I’m thinking of what I think will happen on the first week ahead ever since Monday. The first thought that came to my mind is looking forward to see my friends and classmates. I haven’t seen almost all of them since March 13 except a few ones during the enrollment. On this “fateful” day, I’m going to see the whole bunch of II-2ers again. I’m gonna see my dearest buddies (hello!) that I missed and worried so much through the summer sunshine or the breezy rain. I’m gonna ride the school bus again, share some summer stories with my busmates, and meet our ugly, hellish conductor once again. I’m gonna meet our new adviser, study harder, deal with more complicated lessons, learn how to carry a palayok on our heads (oh gawd have mercy on us sophomores), and probably the highlight of our social calendar: the interaction with an all-boys school. But there is the biggest heartbreak that we have to face at the end of our school year. After the last day on March next year, we’ll be re-shuffled with our last class to be with us on our last 2 years of high school.

Something clicked into my mind just right now. Taylor Swift’s “Picture to Burn” played on the radio and now Marie Digby’s “Say It Again” is booming on our clock radio. I keep on thinking of my expectations this Tuesday. I want to share to my schoolmates all of the wonderful things that happened to me over the summer. All of my learnings. All of the new friends that I’ve met. Now I’m stepping on the second year of this torture chamber we call high school. But believe it or not, I’m loving the life now. It’s with the help of my classmates and buddies. Time has gone fast: in2001 I’m going to taste the freedom out of STC forever and find a good college to take up Mass Communication which I wanted to take ever since I was 11 years old. I used to dream of being a doctor, but I then realized that it’s not the career for me. Science was never my favorite subject. However, why do I get grades like 87 on the card since Grade 4? WTH? I guess studying leads you to grades like these. Haha! By the time I post a new blog entry again here, I’ll be talking about my first day and how it went.

There you go. Wish me luck on my first day. :)

The Sixth Blog Makeover in 2 1/2 Months. Nuff Said.

Yesterday I might have completely gotten head over heels over our Adobe Photoshop CS2. For the first time in my life, I decided to turn my plan into a reality. I’ve been planning on making a customized blog header with my own style ever since I’ve started this blog on March. We’ve installed Photoshop into the PC last February so I’ve been learning the tricks of the trade. At first my plan was a layout. I’ve started searching in the Internet for tutorials on how to make one for a blog, but then I learned that it wasn’t as easy as I thought. You have to make your own codings! It’s complicated for a blog with just one page (the default layout) but it’s more complicated when you add the navigations. So the dream died bit by bit. I was thinking, “You have to be a Photoshop master in order to do an impressive that was made by yourself.” For inspiration, I studied the blog designs of my blogging buddies and of Teentalkers. It wasn’t until my fifth layout (Drama Queen feat. Science Box) that my lightning bulb shone. I checked the Blogskins info of the Drama layout so that I can download the header. I changed my header because having the “Box Full Of Nice Things” header is a bit inappropriate with my reality show blogimmick. My layout changed dramatically. As the famous saying says, the rest is history. My hope raised. I believethat I could change my layout forever!

How did I make my first customized blog header? I searched and credited “dramatic fashion” photos from Photobucket and Deviantart. Second, the photos were edited in Photoshop through spongy brushes with an overlay effect. Then I resized the edited pics with the same size to make them well-proportioned. I arranged them in my desired order, gave them one last retouch, saved in JPEG format, and uploaded it to TinyPic. Using the “Edit Your Template” feature, I copied the image URL of my header, saved the changes. Then here is the result of my hard work…..VOILA! Here’s the screenshot of how should it look like:

(click the picture for a bigger view)

FAQ: I was browsing Teentalk and two great blogs when I clicked the “Print Screen” button for the screenshot.

For the real life. My Tito Charles has finally moved from UE Caloocan to the main campus! Good for him. He shared last night that all computers in the IT building have Wi-Fis. He also wishes to buy a laptop for himself since Computer Science is his current course. And I just got this screenshot while I’m visiting my new Multiply site. Lobo-related eh? LOL! BTW, if there would be a Social Network Tag Team, Philippines will have Friendster and Multiply. FS allows importing Multi photos, Multi advertises ABS-CBN ads. Keep up the web teamwork!

I was browsing my e-mail that time. For privacy purposes, I highlighted my visible e-mail address in black and the message summary.

The PBB Big Four was already announced last night. I don’t know why B got in. My mom and I are betting for her to be out, but Al was out instead. The percentage of votes was a bit disappointing for poor Al, he only got 5.60% while the others are in the 20%. Let’s see what will happen on Saturday.

Movie Weekend

Last weekend I might have discovered more teenflicks in the World of Movies. My mom bought two amazing DVD collections at the mall last Saturday. One of the DVDs consisted of teen flicks while the other one is a random series of comedies. Let me share to all of you the movies that I’ve watched during the weekend:


Clueless is a great movie for high schoolers. My mom liked this since it was first released in 1995. Now I want to watch it too, which is the main reason why she bought the “teen flick” DVD collection. I love this movie at first sight! Interactive closet with millions of dazzling outfits, a funny yet romantic storyline, lots of memorable lines and good acting from the characters make the movie tick.

Rating: 4.5/5. I’m gonna watch it again soon!

In my opinion every teenage girl should watch Aquamarine at least once in her life. I haven’t watched the movie until this morning while cooking my breakfast of chicken and zesty fries. At first, I thought it’s okay for me not to watch the movie. But I was wrong! The story was good with a lot of exciting twists and turns. I definitely agree with the review from Yahoo! Movies: “The sweetest treat since Princess Diaries!

Rating: 4/5. Good job for a teen-made movie!

John Tucker Must Die is a comedy that plots on having revenge and being true to yourself. Tucker is the most popular guy in school and every girl wants to date him. But three of his ex-girlfriends wants revenge for being a "cheater” while they meet a girl who they give her tasks in order to make Tucker’s life a living hell. Some of the scenes are really funny to watch especially when girls took pictures of him wearing a daring outfit and it started a trend in the school. Soundtrack was great too.

Rating: 4/5. You can learn lessons here.

I guess having a summer with watching a lot of undiscovered movies was fun. Arrgh. School will start in a few days. My mind is rambling once again with what will happen on my first day as a sophomore. Who will be the first person I’ll see? Who will be our class adviser? Will I finally get the chance to be an Outstanding Student or Theresian staffer, the opportnity that I’ve been waiting for 3 years? Who among the classmates that I haven’t been close last year will turn into a friend? Only time can tell.

For the first time in my life, I’ve been tagged by Ate Chesca. I think this tag is a little complicated for me at this time because of two reasons: I haven’t decided the 20 friends to put and my 7 taggers (I think some of my blogging friends To Ate Chesca, apologies if I’m going to answer your tag later on. But I would like to thank you for giving me my first tag!

"My Heart Is For Heart"

I’m laughing about this video about Echo who seemed “shocked” about Heart breaking up with her. TH ata siya mag-English as the people who commented say. Is that real? Watch the video and be the judge.

A Year of Being A Teentalker

I’d like to present to you my self-made 1st birthday banner as a Teentalker.

I woke up this morning to realize that tomorrow will be my first birthday as a Teentalker. I kept on realizing that time has gone so fast: it was just May 31 at around 11 am last year when I first caught a glimpse of Teentalk and signed up. I’ve also tried my luck of making new friends through joining the Total Girl board but it didn’t work because after a few posts I became inactive. The word “inactive” used to be my frequent status as a Talker when I was clueless about when to post a new topic (I soon learned that you have to reach 15 posts or the “sugar drops” status to make one), what to say on the featured topic, and how to introduce yourself to other Teentalkers who will be your future online buddies. Did you know that from June-October I rarely ever posted there? I had around 10 posts by October, but miraculously I raised my rank to “sugar drops” on December! It was because of Who’s Who, the place where you will make a thread to introduce yourself and find friends who have the same interests as you. I was a shy Teentalker before: once I posted in someone’s thread asking if we could be buddies, I would wait for her reply and never come back. I then thought that doing that won’t make you any true cyberfriends. You might be the subject when others talk about people who introduce then never return.

Summer vacation rolled around. All the blessings of being a Teentalker began to pour like falling rain. I kept on posting on Friendship and TV Talk. My rank reached up to jellybean before the end of March but by the time I had my 100th post I received my first boo. I’ve blogged about this around March, so check that month’s archive to read how sad I was. Beating out my sadness, I posted more on these two forums. Then there came the COPIED clan. I joined there and made lots of new friends. I even became their second founder! Although the clan is not as active as now, I became part of the Crazy Club. To tell you this, I loved it there! More friends were made and I was happy there. It was one of the first times I enjoyed chatting with cyberbuds where we could link exchange in blogs and add each other in our online accounts. As of now I enjoy posting in Who’s Who where I met more wonderful friends and learned a lot of lessons. And yesterday, I am officially a taffy! Being an active poster and a friendly person made me reach this far. So as my first Teentalk year has gone by, I am going to post 10 lessons that I’ve learned there.

1. Don’t judge a person by its username/avatar. Personal info is one way to hide our true identity, that’s why we make up creative usernames. Sometimes our username is “meangirl” but that doesn’t mean that person really is mean. Joining clans or making friends in Who’s Who is an opportunity to learn that we should not hate a person only because of his/her avatar or siggie. They might be your closest friends too!

2. Teentalk is a place not only to have fun but also to respect each other’s opinions. That’s the purpose of karma functions: yay a person if you like his/her opinion and boo if you disagree. Unfortunately, some booers do that for immature reasons.

3. Never, ever abuse one’s freedom. Similar to #2.

4. When you make friends in Who’s Who, always remember to drop by their thread and say hi. I’ve been doing that lately. My technique is to go to “Show replies to your posts” and drop by to the threads I’ve posted in. If before I’ll just say “Hello, friends?” and never come back, now I go to their threads everytime I log in to Teentalk.

5. It’s a place where you meet people who share with you the same interests. PBB fever, Samsters, J. Bros fans, Callalistas, Robilievers, fans galore! Be free to say in your interested topic, “I ♥ this!”

6. Give advice to teens who have problems. Lovelife, Homebound, Friendship, and You Go, Candy Girl! are places to seek and give advice. Time to reach out a helping hand!

7. Share some stories…but not the personal ones. Laugh and cry with the Teentalkers with your stories. Just don’t post the stories that you want to keep it to yourself.

8. Link exchanges are welcome! Long live tagging and bloghopping! That’s why lots of Teentalkers are posting their blogs, Friendsters, Multiply pages, and Deviantarts in their siggies or website icons. How about getting to know a Talker first, bloghop, and link exchanging? This will be the sure way to keep in touch.

9. What you are in the online world can reflect your real personality.

And most of all….10. HAVE FUN! Enjoy posting in each others’ threads, share the same interests, and enjoy!