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!