I'm Crushing Someone

Some celebrity. I never really admired her until I saw her profile. I scored these pics from her blog. Oops, I can't tell you the URL. Wouldn't that be invasion of privacy? I mean, I don't know if she wants her blog address to be posted somewhere. Well, just, well. Ü

Meet Maxene.



She's so ravishing.

Harry Potter 6

I heard it on RX just now that the sixth installment of the Harry Potter septology will carry the title Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It was supposed to be the title of the second book, the Chamber of Secrets, but for some weird reason, it was changed and postponed for later until now.

Mugglenet.com has more.

Columnists Wanted

Nope. I'm not kidding. And I'm not talking about this site either.

TwoFourth.com, a website featuring an anthology of words, reasons, and emotions, is looking for columnists under the University of the Philippines section. It's almost necessary to be a UP student/alumnus to be our columnist, but if you totally know UP stuff (AS, the cost of IKOT/TOKI nowadays, the violence of our registration process), then you are so welcome to be one of our writers.

Interested people may contact me through the comment boards or email.

And We're Back

Apparently, I'm back.

In case you thought ScrewedProphet.com had gone for good, I think you ought to do some rethinking.

Check out these few samples I got from a collection of the dumbest laws ever passed in the US. Actually, I'm coming to the conclusion that there are dumb American lawyers. Or perhaps there are total geniuses out there who have forgotten how to word sentences properly. It just doesn't pay off that well to be a geek. Major thanks to Dumb.com.

Sunshine is guaranteed to the masses.

Oh yes, it is.

No vehicle without a driver may exceed 60 miles per hour.

I couldn't imagine how such thing could happen. Until it hit me. TOWING.

No person may show his or her buttocks on a playground.

I wonder why someone would.

Detonating a nuclear device within the city limits results in a $500 fine.

So, with a thousand bucks, I could detonate two nuclear devices?

Nobody is allowed to ride a bicycle in a swimming pool.
Toads may not be licked.

Makes sense. But it's surprising they had to pass them as laws.

You are not permitted to wear cowboy boots unless you already own at least two cows.

What if I have two horses?

Want more? Click here. You might wanna make a top ten list out of it.

ScrewedProphet.com went down

Sorry for the inconvenience. Our servers were experiencing major problems.

Mozilla Firefox 0.9

I downloaded and installed Firefox 0.9, a mozilla-based web browser by Mozilla.org, last night. The download and installation process was a total breeze. I didn't encounter any errors and stuff. After installing it, I went to try it. Here's what I think about this new software release:

Pages load a bit faster than on Internet Explorer (I use IE 5.5. Haven't had much time to download the latest version).
The program doesn't hang and do a lot of error things.
It also opens way faster than IE, which is quite a good thing if you're saving time.
This new version is less geeky and techie than the other ones, which were targeted to more technically knowledgeable people.
Some pages don't appear the way they were designed to (and a lot of pages were designed to work perfectly seamlessly with IE).
You need to do a lot of downloading again for the browser plugins, like Macromedia Flash and Shockwave and stuff.

After doing some research, I read some other reviews of the software. You can view PCWorld.com's here...

If you're that excited about it, you can download it here...

It's not that bad. But it's not that good either. Still, Internet Explorer for me. Microsoft just does it - except for the Windows XP OS, of course.

I'm Left-brained

Your Brain Usage Profile:

Auditory : 66%
Visual : 33%
Left : 57%
Right : 42%

MJ, you are mildly left-hemisphere dominant while showing a slight preference for auditory processing. This overall combination seems to indicate a well-working blend of logic and judgment and organization, with sufficient intuition, perception and creativity to balance that dominance.

You will at times experience conflict between how you feel and what you think which will generally be resolved in favor of what you think. You will find yourself interested in the practical applications of whatever material you have learned or whatever situation you face and will retain the ability to refine whatever knowledge you possess or aspects of whatever position you are in.

By and large, you will orient yourself toward intellectual activities and structure. Though not rigid, you will schedule yourself, plan, and focus on routine and continuity of operations, rather than on changes and disruptions

When changes or disruptions occur, you are likely to consider first how to ensure that such disruptions do The same balance is reflected in your sensory preference. You will tend to be reflective and measured in your interaction style. For the most part, you will be considered objective without being cold and goal-oriented while retaining the capacity to listen to others.

Preferentially you learn by listening and maintaining significant internal dialogues with yourself. Nevertheless, you have sufficient visualization capabilities to benefit from using graphs, charts, doodles, or even body movement to enhance your comprehension and memory.

To the extent that you are even implicitly aware of your hemispheric dominance and sensory style, you will feel most comfortable in those arenas which emphasize verbal skills and logic. Teaching, law, and science are those that stand out among the professions, along with technical sales and management.

Major thanks to Pao for this link.

Google Goes Lunar

Google will launch a new project, Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering (GCHEESE) in the late spring of 2007. You ask, So what? It's not a big deal if Google launches some stupid project. Now we're talking. It's going to be a hosting and research center located not in California, not in India, not anywhere on earth. It's going to be on the MOON. Read more here...

They're hiring. You might be next one to go to the moon. Don't worry. They do have a steady supple of soy low-fat lattes, oxygen, and The Sopranos. I wonder if they've got FRIENDS or Dharma & Greg.

Morning News Break

My TV production class did a very interesting thing today. We did a newscast production! We called it Morning News Break. Well, we're not really wanting to think of some really catchy name - just for the show's sake of having a name. Someone even suggested Gising Pilipinas but that would sound like a major Good Morning, America rip-off. Although there were lots of telling offs (or tellings off? I'm not really sure) by Jane (the instructor I've been having for at least one class since 3 terms back), it was really fun. During the three-hour production class, we didn't have a spare minute to do a makeup retouch (yup, no one was to go on cam without makeup - even the guys), fix our stuff, let alone rehearse the scripts. Everything was timed. We shifted crew work, one 7-minute production after another, not a single second wasted. The worse I was at was spinning (doing the background music and stuff), which is quite surprising. See, we did radio productions last term and aside from directing, it was the best thing I did. Well, anyways, I just didn't know which track to play because it wasn't indicated on the script. What, I was supposed to just guess? Knowing is one good thing. Pretending that I know stuff, however, is one bad bad bad thing, especially in production. Thank god that thing we did was just an exercise. Just to give us the feel of doing an actual graded production.

On second thought, come on. Graded productions don't feel like that. They feel awfully worse. Thinking about what grade you're gonna get for it, everything your crew does, that kind of stuff. TV directors have a lot of things in mind. And I seriously admire them for actually coming up with good shows.

The funniest part of it was when I did the anchor part. Everything was doing fine until the floor director said we were running out of time and I had to double-time and wrap up the show. So I was like, "Huwaaaaat?!" (that's supposed to be a joke if you're familiar with this Dove commercial) I didn't know what to do. I didn't write arrows and stuff that would point to specific parts of the script just in case problems with timing arose. As a matter of fact, I read the script only minutes before it was my time to be anchor. Ah, it really pays off well to be prepared. And I so promise to be more prepared. I mean to be prepared. I wasn't in any way prepared. So let's not talk about makeup.

And this has been another edition of the Morning News... Break. I'm Jim Joquico.



I did the opening bill board. And Jane thought it was great.

Major Night-out

We had a major night out yesterday. It actually was my high school friend and Sangguniang Kabataan National Capital Region (NCR) Chairperson's nineteenth birthday. I'm not mentioning his name because for one thing, I'd like to not invade his privacy, and for another, I just don't want to. Anyways, it was a very "political" party. There were Pasig councilors at the party and some people from the Congress. Dodot (is it spelled this way?) Jaworski was there. We weren't actually interested in him. We were more interested in Mikee Cojuangco (his wife), who unfortunately was unable to come probably because she was doing her horseback-riding routine. It could have been better if the president had been there (so I could do the long-awaited assasination thing myself). We did some videoke, got some beer, smoked a lot (and I remember I did promise to quit smoking for my health's and others' betterment), and did some more videoke. We were making fun of this woman who kept singing last-millenium songs like Hot Stuff and all that. She even got a grade of 91 (the highest that night, and as if someone actually cares about the videoke machine's rating) because of her choreography. Did a lot of dancing and hopping as though she was doing her Meteora World Tour concert.

After the party, (well, it actually hadn't ended yet when we left) we headed to Friends El Pueblo in Ortigas. We met the same band who performed at the bar two Saturdays ago. They did the same set as the last time we were there. It seriously sounds boring but, I don't know, we had fun. Kate and her bitching with this Jeff guy was totally hilarious.

Note: I tried to take pictures at the bar but it was far too dark.

Warning: Major (totally) camwhoring up next.





Don't tell me. That's the most decent quality my phone could come up with. It was dark, by the way.

Samsung D410: It So Rocks

And another Samsung phone is out. It's named SGH-D410. Ack, I bought a phone (Samsung X600) just a month ago and now I'm itching to get a new phone again. Who wouldn't be if they had a terribly close look at this phone? One of the things I really like about this phone is the display, which can display up to 262,000 colors. Most Nokia phones can only display up to only 65,000, and their other low-end models including the Nokia 7250i, a measly 4,096 colors. Another major upper of this phone is that it awfully looks like the Nokia 7650, the phone I used to have and really like. Hmm, I could probably save up 3-months worth of my allowance to actually lay my hands on this lovely phone.

Read the full review by MobileReview.com.

Squarespace

Look who's here now. Squarespace!

Now's it's no longer about publishing your own weblog. It's about publishing an entire website. A fully functional personal website that comes with journal and photoblog publishing, web space of 20 megs, webpage password protection, discussion forums, the works. What's even better is that it comes for free, and that it doesn't have any ads!

Because your website goes up in a snap, all you have to worry about is content. And who cares about layout these days?

I know. It could have been better if they named their service Squarepants. But that would be just too good. So everyone on Xanga, Tabulas, Pitas, whatever, make your switch today and make more out of your online publishing life. Give Squarespace a whirl. Click here.

If only I were not hosted by i.PH (a major blog host in the Philippines) and Chico of TwoFourth.com, I would make the switch - in a heartbeat.

www.screwedprophet.com

In a few days, I'll be moving to my new home, www.screwedprophet.com. I'm just waiting for this DNS thing to work. It usually takes 48-72 hours for the website to be up.

In The Rage of War: The Boxers-Briefs Jihad

Guys wear boxers. Guys wear briefs. Some guys wear thongs (and isn't that gross?). And here comes the underwear war. Although not talked about a lot by guys, it has been around and on for years, maybe decades. This issue, of course, has been totally sensationalized by women. They are the ones who talk about it a lot. They discuss and decide on which actually looks sexier on men. They talk about which one is a major turn-on and which one they want their partners to wear. Excuse me for my attitude towards this boxers-or-briefs thing, but that's just what I think is more often than not called invasion of privacy.

People of the opposite sex even came up with a list of why boxers are hip:

Reason One: Guys have very precious cargo down there. Do we really want that squished between their bodies and a tight piece of fabric?! We think not. So, briefs hold it in, but also don't squish anything.

Reason Two: Boxers are just plain sexier than briefs. Briefs make it look like a guy's a kangaroo with a pouch. Read more...

Okay, enough with the girls.

I asked my friend TJ, a boxers fanatic, what he thought of underwear stuff. "I don't like briefs. That's a personal preference. They kind of give you this tight feeling that you really don't like, and I heard boxers give you a bigger chance of being fertile. You know, the circulation thing. They're more hygienic than tighty-whities, too. And have I told you? Only kids wear briefs." Well, he definitely made a few good points about the snug-fit, for-kids-only thing about briefs and its hygienic purpose. And wearing boxers doesn't make the search for the best ones to buy boring, honestly. Boxers come in different prints. Smileys, cartoons, stripes and stars and checks, name it. You could even have your own picture printed on it if you're really that vain. But he brought up something that's been believed by a lot of guys since the "advent" of boxers which up to now has no clinical proof - boxers allow for better chance of male fertility because they give a more "natural" position of the you-know-what and thus a correct decreased temperature. That's theoretically correct, yes. But there had been studies about this conducted on dogs (read: they made these dogs wear a pair of boxers and briefs), and researchers found out there's actually no difference in temperature of the you-know-what between the two. Read more...

I don't think there's really much difference if you wear boxers or briefs. It's just about being yourself, doing what you wanna do and wearing what you wanna wear. It's just about self-expression (if you do show your underwear off).

Boxers, anyone?

And The Blogs I Frequent

Of course, aside from those I have linked to, there are other blogs which I think are totally interesting. Other blogs I haven't given much comtemplation on whether or not I should link to them, basically for the reason that my link list would become so long that it would get swamped already and no one would click out.

Now let's get down to it.

Technology blogs. I'm a technology freak and I love visiting this kind of blogs. I like checking out what's the latest in IT, software, hardware, gadgets and gizmos. Aside from being informative, these blogs give me an idea of what there really is to save up for.

Blog News blogs. They give you updates on the blogging world. Who's famous then and now, what to do with your blog, how to actually earn money through your blog - these and more.

Humor blogs. A visit to these blogs promises a lot of laughing and the amusing thought, "How do these people write this stuff?"

Layout-ugly-content-lovely blogs. This is the most amusing part of blogging. There are those blogs out there which look as though their authors have paid hundreds of bucks for web design but haven't given a single thought on its content. And then, there's the opposite of layout-lovely-content-ugly blogs. And it's really surprising that those who don't have their own domain, and use not-very-original templates are actually those with thought-provoking content, and who get a lot of hits a day, probably hundreds. As the not-very-old saying goes, content comes first. It's must be really good to get visited and commented a lot without even shedding a single buck. But then again, intellectually stimulating articles are far more difficult to cough up than say, $300. Not for me though.

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New layout again! I have been getting a lot of comments about my previous template, saying it's not so legal to use it. Fine. Here's my new one. Satisfied now?

I Have Two Hands

I bought Calidad Trio ink cartridge refilling stuff for black and color cartridges tonight at Sta. Lucia East. I thought I would actually save money by getting them instead of geniune Epson ones. See, it doesn't matter if I spend a wee bit doing it if it could save me some good $20. I could spend that on more important things, like CD-Rs and foot scrubs. So I got down to business, and I so regret I ever bought that stupid thing.

I know. I made a little mistake. I forgot to wear disposable gloves. Disposable RUBBER gloves.

My hands look like dalmatians right now. Covered in freaky black spots, and seem to have done a lot of dirty work and never had the chance to get washed with a nicely scented hand scrub, they swear never to do ink cartridge refilling again. They almost look like they just have been used for voting for Fernando Poe, Jr., but they totally speak of otherwise. I sure am adding this one to Ninety-something tips: Always buy genuine printer ink cartridges. Now I'm gonna have to wait for like a week for the spots to vanish, my hands to return to it's natural colors, and get rid of the I've-got-two-dalmatians-for-hands impression. I so thank god for not giving me super fair skin.

"There's no harm in trying" doesn't apply to everything. Now I know. And I've come to know it the hard way.

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Screwed Shootout has been published! This photoblog features photos taken with a Samsung X600 camera phone and witty (you decide) by-lines written by me. Support Screwed Shootout!

Happy Independence!

It's the 12th of June and I'm doing quizzes. So what? I break my rules.



You are Viktor!
1400 years old, he is the supreme Vampire overlord who has been sleeping to restore his power. Selene trusts him as she trusts no one else and daringly awakens him when no one else believes her discovery of the Lycan plot to destroy the Vampires. Viktor is tall, powerful, haught, and ostentatious. And ruthless. He had his own daughter, Sonja, executed when it was discovered she was secretly involved with a Lycan leader. Many have elevated him to celebrity status. Many others wish him dead. But Viktor has his own secrets and a dark side no other Vampire has ever known. He may have been the one who began the ancient battle between Lycans and Vampires.

Which Underworld character are you?



The Chevalier personifies the vampire that acts with noble intentions, despite what it is capable of. Taking a conflicting nature and resolving its issues, the chevalier both embraces and yet keeps the vampiristic nature in check; the hunt and taking of blood is enjoyed greatly, yet is restricted to those who willingly give, 'wrong-doers,' or is taken in self-defense; its powers are also embraced willingly, yet while it blatantly and proudly uses them, those that harm are only used in self-defense or in the defense of others. The vampire charm is used in full, and the chevalier appears as one of the most alluring of all vampires, often lordly in appearance as well. Because of the open embrace of its powers and seemingly royal stature, the chevalier often is an immensely powerful vampire.
Dominant personality trait: Pride
Dominant color: Gold
Fictional Vampire Examples: Meier Link ('Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust'), Jean-Claude ('Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter')

What kind of a Vampire are you?

I am so Viktor! Actually, I've always been fascinated by characters of the underworld, and I'm not talking about just the movie. I totally have this thing for the dark side, especially vampires. It's just amusing to actually have canines that long. Oh, and the thought of immortality, that definitely says something. Maybe I'm really evil. Or maybe, I just love imagining things.

Maybe I'm Popular

First, the sales manager of dotPH called me. And now he's telling me their Vice President (friggin' VP!) wants to speak with me. I wonder what it's about. Perhaps an interview for a magazine. Or maybe a real writing job. Or a book deal. Or a film deal. Ah, the possibilities are endless.

Am I getting really popular or what? I wouldn't be surprised if someone would inform me that I'd be doing a guesting at the ABS-CBN show, Private Conversations.

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Here's a poorly edited photo of me and my sister. Haha.

Not Exactly A No-pointer

Dear MJ,
Here is your horoscope
for Friday, June 11:

You've been gearing up to tell a dear one exactly what you think. It's now officially time to do just that. Ready or not, clear your throat and start talking.

Check out your horoscopes for yesterday, tomorrow, or today's extended.

P.S. Find out what's happening with The Stars This Week.

Warm Regards,
Your Astrologer


Okay, it said it was time to tell L (a very dear one) what I think, not how I feel. Well, maybe it's not really time yet. L is just too young.

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Revitalize your senses with a cooling cucumber and melon scent as it cleans, softens and smoothes skin.

Actually, I use the peach splash scent. And I've used a lot that I was already getting used to it.








Discover the Swiss Secrets for Smooth, Radiant Skin
Over the centuries, the Swiss have developed and perfected their secrets for naturally beautiful skin. Only St. Ives captures these secrets in this deep cleansing formula that gently exfoliates, removing oil, dirt and dull skin cells that can lead to blackheads and blemishes.


Juice up your skin!
Totally Juicy facial care products are packed full of natural fruit extracts for clean, clear and healthy-looking skin. Drench your skin in refreshing satisfaction.

This zesty facial scrub performs double duty as a foaming cleanser, washing away dirt and oil deep inside pores. Bursting with Vitamin C, juicy Lemon-Lime Blend gently sloughs skin to reveal a smooth, shine-free complexion.

I did a total body shop galore yesterday! Uh, not really total, perhaps only major, but it's getting there.

Ninety-something Tips

Yay! I have finally updated my ongoing book project, Ninety-something Tips for the Ultra Cool Teen! I'm down to less than twenty tips. Please click the link above to check it out.

Most Boring Blogs in the Community

Here's a list of the different categories of blog that I have come across with in my years of bloghopping, and swear I will never come back again to.

Political blogs. No, don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about always-political blogs. I'm talking about the sometimes-political-most-of-the-time-personal-disguising-as-political type of blogs. Uh, give me a break. Stick to one theme for Pete's sake. If they want to publish their take on political issues, then do so only if there are such. Wait until there is actually something you could comment on. They shouldn't mix political critiques with this-is-what-happened-today-and-it-totally-sucked posts. They just confuse readers. And please, don't they claim that they author a political blog if they post their daily ramblings on it. That's just so not amusing.

Dark-themed rant blogs. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. This blog used to be exactly like that. And I did realize I wasn't getting any readers because of my content. That's why I switched genres, from totally dark stuff to light, popular, loving life kind of writing. Accept it. No one wants to read depressing stuff. One reason may be that they don't wanna get affected by what you write (read: get depressed). That is, if you write effectively. If you don't and you just think you do, visitors end up leaving your site and swearing never to come back again, pissed. Another reason may be that it's just boring. See, there are a lot of rant blogs out there waiting to be read and recognized. Some actually are, for crying out loud. But if you don't do that well in rant writing, you had just better write about something else.

Blogs authored in the conyo (English-Filipino slang) language. Uh huh, conyo is slang. It's never okay to use it in a civilized, much more, a formal conversation. And the same goes with writing. Don't tell me you haven't stumbled upon one. If you really haven't, click here. Let me warn you first before giving it a whirl. This totally is one of the blogs your mama warned you about. Don't you go there if you're already in a bad mood. You will surely want to take the author's head off for publishing such content on the internet.

Poetry blogs. The not-so-applause-deserving kind of poetry. Poetry is one great thing to mess with. I'm referring to aspiring poets who start with writing nonsense. Say, a mug for example. These people try to make a rotten poem out of this mug, thinking of all possible rhymes they could use, and coming up with something far less than what is actually called a poem. It may also give an impression that it might just be a seven-year old learning how to do rhyming for the first time.

Personal story blogs. Personal blogs are fine. They're fun most of the time, especially if the author writes well and never forgets to inject some humor into the posts. What's irritating to read is the personal story type of blog. The blog that only contains here's-what-happened-and-that's-just-it posts. I mean, what do they think they're doing? They blog just for the sake of doing it on a daily basis. No reason. No sense. No idea. No insight. So why read at all?

Most of the time, you have just got to adhere to what works for you. You have to set your rules and standards to make the best out of your blogging experience. Sometimes, though, you have just got to break your own rules.

Elections 2004

Fine. GMA's going to win the presidential elections. I honestly don't want her to be our next president. For one thing, we've already known what's she's like being the national leader. For another, she's no good. Maybe I'm being biased. Maybe not. I didn't get to vote this year because I left for Dubai in April and came back only on the 30th of May, when the elections were way over. That's one excuse for not voting. Even if I was here during the elections, though, I wouldn't vote either. Yeah, I know, I'm wasting one very important privilege given every Filipino citizen. But if enjoying such an important citizen privilege means voting for someone who's been known to be The King of Philippine Cinema, a "corrupt" Department of Education secretary, a sometimes-I-make-sense-most-of-the-time-I-don't political-religious leader, a former president married to someone being accused of corruption of sorts, I'd rather waste it. I'm saved the long lines, the fatal heat of the sun, and the dirty ink-covered thumb.

A lot of people from the university want Roco to take the post, which, maybe quite a pretty good choice. There are quite a handful too, who are voting for Gil. Some are for GMA. I've never heard of anyone from UP who's pro-FPJ, though. And that always makes me wonder why. Why not go in league with FPJ? We all know he never went to college, was a high school dropout, and is very much like his compadre, Estrada. But is education the primary basis of actually winning the post to lead our country? I don't think so. Filing presidential candidacy only requires a fifty-something age. I was chatting on #up Undernet one time and they were having, again, this debate about who's deserving of being our president and who's not. One pointed out that the best candidate is the most intelligent. One argued that good governance is never a matter of who's brainy. One said the candidate has to have a good heart to be a good president, for without a good heart, a big brain is useless. One argued, "what happens to us if there's all heart and no brains at all?" Very good point. Here's my take on it. A big heart and a big brain equal a good president, good governance, and a progressive country in all aspects.

It's never easy to find my best bet, but I will stand by it nevertheless. I will never do what most people who claim they're intellectuals do, the pick-the-candidate-of-the-lesser-evil thing. What's the point of that, anyway? Picking someone, even if he is of the least evil, is never the best thing to do. We are not limited to only choosing who to elect as president. We, also, are given the choice to deny. That may be what I think is the best action. I'll just have to wait for my ideal president to come. Until then, there's always the choice of denial for me.

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It's Screwed Shirt day has been relocated somewhere. I feel it has been getting so much attention that my other more thought-about posts are not being given any. You can find the link to It's Screwed Shirt Day on the sidebar, under into me.

Regged Out

I'm so done with the totally tedious and unnecessarily power-draining UP registration process. I'm so done! I feel so free. All I have to do now, well, actually on Monday, is pay my five thousand-something tuition fee and I'm all set. I got fifteen units (that's 5 friggin' major classes) and the instructors are total kickasses! I heard my Radio Performance class instructor, Pinky Aseron, is that one who says "The number you dialed is incorrect" or something like that, if you're a GLOBE Telecom subscriber and you enter the wrong number. She's certainly cool! I also got Ma'am Jane for my TV production class. By the way, I've been having her for my instructor every term in at least one class since I entered my sophomore year. This is definitely gonna be a nice way to start my junior year.

I'm officialy powered by i.ph, a dotPH subsidiary, and a personal domain, blog, and photo gallery hosting service company. I'm one of their feature bloggers for I don't know how long. Well, there's not really much of a catch, but I'm being offered to use their BlogStarter service for free for one whole year which costs $15.00, and my website's going to be totally ad-free. And the sales division manager whom I talked to yesterday even said he could extend that to forever if I post regularly and do well. Haha. Do well, he said. I'm so sure blogging is one thing I do well at. And if at some point I get gutsy, I might even ask him to get me a .ph domain registered and upgrade my service to MindBlogging level! Ah, www.screwedprophet.ph, hundreds of disk space and gigs of bandwidth. Sounds good, huh?

Regged Up

I was so excited about the registration yesterday, that I so thought I was so gonna finish it in a single day. I even went to school a bit later than everyone else, because all I needed to do was get my CRS results print-out, get enlisted in only one more class, and pay my tuition fees. I was so wrong. When I arrived, I went directly to the department and left my ID. I had waited for like two minutes before I got called for what I actually thought was pre-advising. Then the registration assistant (RA) there told me they didn't have my curriculum checklist and that I should go to the admin to get it. Well, okay, that was fine with me. I went down and saw a friend of mine who, just so fortunately, was an RA. I told I her I need my checklist so I can finish everything before lunch and go see Prisoner of Azkaban afterwards. She checked the piles of files and after what seemed like half an hour, she said "STS." I was totally shocked and kind of pissed. What would I need to see the college secretary (that's what STS means) for? I mean, I passed 4 out of 7 classes in the past term, and 2 out of those remaining 3, were given incomplete marks because I missed exams and stuff then. Fine, I went through the admin door. Another RA asked me what my business there was. "I need to see the secretary," I said. "We ran out of numbers. There are a bunch of people waiting outside to see the secretary too. Maybe it would be better for you to just come back later, perhaps in the afternoon." Yeah, sure. I'd rather go somewhere. I'd rather do something. I'd rather watch PoA.

And I did. It wasn't really that good. Well, I guess I just expected too much. Or maybe, I expected what was supposed to be in the movie. A lot of things were omitted. A lot of things were changed. The most important details were left out. The director, in my opinion, must have assumed everyone who's gonna watch the movie had read book. And that's not exactly how to be doing a movie, especially a Harry Potter movie. I even read somewhere that the director didn't read the book. He just did the directing based on the script that was handed to him. Ugh, what a director. All I can say is that it would have better if some more things were injected and explained so as not to arise confusion in viewers who haven't read the book.

I woke up this morning and I was feeling really sick. My back was aching, so was my right thigh. Perhaps I drove too much yesterday, and bowled too many games the other past two days. I couldn't open my eyes and my head felt like it was gonna split in half any minute. Thank god Panadol does work. I went back to school when I felt a little better, and got to meet the College of Mass Communication secretary for the first time. There was nothing wrong with my grades, she said. She only wanted to give me a warning because I flunked Journalism, and told me to promise her I'll do better next term. Hah, that's just it. It's funny I could think of a lot bad things that would happen when I see her, without even pondering why on earth she'd like to see me. There, nothing to be afraid of. It was just a warning, anyway.

Tomorrow is going to be a big bad day. I'll get this whole registration thing done and over with.

Luckstruck

"You know what, I envy you. You seem to enjoy your life so much. I wish I were you."

I was with my ex yesterday. Just visited her, you know, the common comeback bonding. She said she can't go to school this coming term because she's financially incapable of doing that. She's gonna have to work at a call center for at least one term to be able to save up for her tuition fee in the fairly near future. She totally thought it was really cool to be me, have everything I do have, and feel just what it's like. I was feeling really bad to hear she can't afford UP tuition fee, which, aside from PUP, is the cheapest. Everything I have, my lifestyle, my spending/shopping habits, even my perfume, was taken note of. With every word she said, I was hurting. I just didn't wanna show it because I was supposed to be the one being supportive to her. I didn't wanna let her know that I can't manage to be in that situation. That would be so like hell. I just pretended I was the strong one, and can take over just about anything. I told her not to feel awful about it, and that it's her parents' fault, not hers.

Then, I came to know that two other friends of mine are also gonna stop going to school for a while - for exactly the same reason. Ugh, this is so not good. It just means we're all not graduating on time.

Then it struck me. Amidst all those ordeals, minor and major alike, that I have dealt with, I'm still lucky to have enough for each passing day. I'm still lucky to have enough to eat at least three square meals a day, go to school, buy whatever I wanna buy, do whatever I wanna do. I'm still lucky I have mum and dad and my entire family behind me.

I'm so lucky. I'm so happy to be me.

###

I'm posting my grades for people to see. Have a good laugh, everyone!

Radio 2.0
Speech 1.75
Portuguese 3.0
Comm. Theories 2.75
Logic INC
Bio/Geo INC
Journalism 5.0 (So frustrating. He kicked me out of his class because of too many absences.)

End of Days: The Repost

November 2nd. A few minutes past three in the afternoon. The sun is shining brightly outside, but I don’t care. I’m in front of my pc, chatting, surfing, playing computer games, writing stupid stuff – just passing time. I’m not supposed to be up yet. Life, for me, starts at 8 in the evening – at least during term break.

Ah, only 2 days to go and it’s the end of my beautiful lifestyle. I’m back to my dreadful academic days. But before that, I’m gonna have to go through a transition process that the university has devised to, uh, bridge the gap. I’m gonna have to go to school, meet that weird adviser of mine, and fall in endless lines for hours, even days. I’m gonna have to walk from building to building in the heat of the blazing sunshine, leaving me awfully exhausted, inevitably smelly, so damn broke, my cell phone battery dead, and my schedule for the coming term all screwed up. I don’t know why I have to go through this truly heinous process. All I know is that I have to, because if I don’t, I’m on AWOL*.

Only 2 days left. Then, there won’t be 6am to 6pm naps anymore. No more vodka and soda, no more playing cards and serious betting, no more mahjong, no more beer and pizza, no more all-night IRC life, no more internet marathon, no more video karaoke, no more race wars at Select*, no more. No more fun.

The end of days, beautiful days, has come. A hideous week awaits me. I pray to the gods to give me enough strength, patience, motivation, determination, cell phone battery power, and an umbrella to withstand and overcome this test.

The anticipation of this event is gruesome. Just the thought makes me look for a cigarette to calm my nerves.


*AWOL – Absence without Leave
*Select – Select at Shell gasoline station, Marcos Highway

###

Lemme rave for a moment. I'm doing a silent rave. Just read this email I received today.

Hi,

Our company, dotph, is looking for bloggers that we can feature in our
site.
I personally like your blog site and have recommended you to become our
feature blogger.
Please give me a call so we can discuss this further.

Best regards.
Alvin Gopilan
Sales Division Manager
mySRS
www.mySRS.co.nz

This is so much fun!

It's Screwed Shirt Day!

Hey, I'm giving away exclusive Screwed Collection shirts to the first 15 people who'll post their name and contact info (i.e. email address, mobile phone number) on the comment board. I don't care whether I know you/you know me or not, as long as you're within the 7,000 islands of the Philippines, I'll give you a shirt. The shirt designs are now available for everyone to see. Just imagine the designs actually printed on the indicated part of the shirt. The shirt colors available are black and white. If you have difficulty visualizing what it looks like with the shirt black and the fonts white, save the image to your computer and invert the colors. That should do the trick. People who have requested their shirt must post their size, and the color and design they want on the comment board.


Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Note: This is a no-stir, drama-free promotion.

###

Took an IQ test on Tickle.com. Here's the result:

Congratulations, MJ!
Your IQ score is 140

This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others.

Your Intellectual Type is Visionary Philosopher. This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others ? and at anticipating and predicting patterns.

I just wish that were true.

###

Edited this post to make it always appear as the most recent post. Don't mind the date. If you're looking for something, you can find Give Me An Ooohhh between GMail and LSS. There will be newer posts below this one. Go ahead. Read away.