Takipsilim???

Rayver: "Wala na akong lakas na lisanin ka."
Shaina: "Di wag."

Rayver: "Ang iyong amoy ay parang bawal na gamot." (whuat??)

Rayver: "Ikaw na ang buhay ko ngayon..."

Can't wait to see how this is gonna turn out. Haha. What do you think?

Looks like Christmas...I think.

Will this Christmas actually be a nightmare?

40% of my day (8:30AM-6PM) is spent at the office, 40% at my dorm and the remaining 20% can be equally distributed between eateries, shoot locations, malls, etc. The 80% part of my day that is spent at the office and the dorm comprises a big factor of my day to day life, right? Ok, so just where am I getting at?

Will Santa miss Christmas because of a hangover?

Again, the time I spend at the office and at home is more or less homologous (learning? hehehe). And its supposed to be Christmas Season already right? But in the 40% time that I spend at the office, and the other 40% at the dorm, I am not reminded that Christmas indeed is coming. This year, I am sad because we weren't given a Christmas tree to decorate the office para bisan gamay lang ta spirit of Christmas ba...wala gyud (*hint*hint*). And then at the dorm, they haven't started decorating yet. I doubt if they will though, I really don't know.

"Finally, I'm no longer JUST the red-nosed reindeer anymore! Bwuahahaha"

So this morning, I decided that I would put matters into my own hand. I gathered some Christmas RNB carols and played it on my music player for everyone to hear. I don't care if it loops around 40 million times today just as long as we could AT LEAST feel that it is indeed the season to be merry.

A sweet Christmas would be nice. :)

And then I decided to change my desktop wallpaper so there would be some sort of visual support to my attempts at letting them "hear" Christmas through my carols. Hehe.

Feels like home to me. :)

The pictures that I spread all over this post are my choices for the Christmas wallpaper. Can you guess what I picked? Hehe.

When will I ever experience a white Christmas?

Say what???

This week, I finally paid attention to my lack of grasp of certain vocabulary words. In my line of work, I always have to feed myself with information so that I would not stagnate to just using the very limited jargon I have in my mind.

When I was still a student, I had this weird "hobby" of reading the dictionary and highlighting some words that I thought would be useful to me someday. I'd write them on my yellow pad with their corresponding definitions and then I'd try to write sentences using those words. I know, I was such a geek before. Haha. But you know what they say, when you graduate, you only retain a small percentage of what you learned from school in your mind.


Then they said that because there's no pressure to learn as much as when you were in school (tests, prelims, finals--helloo??), your brain starts to stop working as much as it did. Its not as alert anymore.

So now, instead of just going through my uber dusty dictionary (yeah its still alive, barely breathing but definitely alive...haha), I've upgrading my "hobby" to checking out the Word of the Day portion at www.dictionary.com.

Today, their word of the day is HOMOLOGOUS. \huh-MOL-uh-guhs; hoh-\, adjective:
1. corresponding in position, proportion, structure, value, or other property
2. in biology, corresponding in type of structure and in origin but not necessarily in appearance or function
3. in chemistry, belonging to a series where successive members differ regularly in formula, especially a series of organic compounds differing by multiples of CH2, such as the alcohols and aldehydes

A human hand, a bird's wing and a whale's flipper are all homologous structures, she explains, in that each represents an evolutionary modification of the same ancestral limb structure.
-- John Noble Wilford, But Will It Fly?" review of Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight, by Pat Shipman, New York Times, 1/25/1998

But I think I know what you're probably thinking now. How the hell can this word be useful to your everyday life? Its not as if you talk about chemistry or biology all the time.



Well, that is my challenge. And here is how I can use it in my everyday life. I think.

1. Two years after graduation, I can probably say that my intelligence is homologous to that of a grade 3 student already.

or

2. Grabeha bai, akong kwarta ron ug ang kwarta sa lata nga gigunitan sa batang garugby homologous na!

Whatever.

How about you? Can you cite ways on how to incorporate the word "homologous" into your everyday life?

Friday night blues...

I couldn't go out tonight (just like I normally do on Fridays) because there's just not enough cash. So I decide to go to the nearest internet cafe just to pass away the time and probably forget the fact that I'm just bummin' around on a Friday night.

But something's wrong with their internet connection so I couldn't really enjoy surfing the net. I decided that I'd just play Canyon Defense on miniclip but their connection is just to slow for me to even play a decent game.

So I decided to blog about my Friday night blues and I couldn't even type well because the letters in the keyboard are simply gone plus you have to press each key with a certain amount of pressure just so that I'd be sure that I do not get a typo tonight.

To top all that, I just loaded my sun after months of not loading it and the network is currently busted.

But its only 10PM. Who knows...My 11th hour savior might come and my Friday night won't be that bad.

And yeah, unsa kaha ako buhaton ugma? Mehn.

Twilight: My Verdict

Before I was able to watch the movie, I already heard a lot of reactions from random friends about Twilight. Most of them were disappointed because it wasn't as good as the book. Well, for someone who has never read the book yet and for someone who's addicted to vampires, I decided to watch it anyway.

I think that it has been proven time and time again that the book will always be better than the movie...and I guess what people don't get is that the movie will only be the best compressed version of a novel. I mean imagine compressing 2-5 days worth of reading material into a 2-hour movie? Ofcourse it won't have all the meaty details that the book has to offer! So, it was in this thought that I consoled myself about watching the movie first before reading the book. For a change.

I had Gwen check the movie schedule on the newspaper because I really wanted to watch it from the beginning. I picked the time, 3:45PM, Cinema 8 at SM. When we got there at around 3PM there was such a long line at the ticket booth that I was afraid that we couldn't watch it.



Good thing Gwen brought our interns so atleast they got a head start on the line. (Our interns are from Surigao, imagine that! We just love them. :) )

They even bought this large popcorn to share with everyone. Awww... Very nice. :)

Ok so now, MY personal verdict. MY opinion.

I actually liked it. I'm not crazy about it, I don't super love it but I liked it. I like how Bella Swan was put into life in the movie. In the first chapters of the book I found her to be a bit weak (I haven't finished reading the book yet though), but in the movie, she seemed tougher and she did not cry a lot. Actually I did not think she ever cried in the movie.

I did not like how they did the make up for the Cullens though because although I get the idea that they should look pale white, they just ended up looking like they had too much foundation on. I don't know why...but hey this is just my opinion.

And then I expected MORE gore. Mehn. It was 95% love story and 5% gore only. I think there were only two biting scenes. So no vampires were in action most of the time. I don't know if its a refreshing thought or not...but you know, I'm a big fan of Underworld 1 & 2 and Van Helsing...I kinda expected something like that, but you know it wasn't so...It kinda is refreshing.

I love the lines...I don't know if majority of the lines were lifted from the book, because as of press time I'm still on Chapter 3. (I know...I'm only reading it in my PC --ebook-- at the office so I don't get to read it as often).

One thing for sure though, I like it enough for me to look forward to the sequel.

But maybe I'll change my mind after I read the book. Haha. We'll see. :)

Calling ALL REAL PEOPLE in REAL CEBU!!! RCTV wants you!

We need people from ALL walks of life for our new spanking station ID. We need teachers, writers, children, moms, dads, students, firemen, traffic enforcers,disc jockeys, call center agents, photographers, graphic artists, musicians, athletes, survivors of calamities or diseases etc. etc. etc. to volunteer for our I LOVE RCTV station id.

As you know, Real Cebu Television is all about YOU my dear Cebuanos and the Cebu we all love. Its not just about the "high and mighties" of our society.

So if you think you are up for the challenge, and if you know in your heart that you love RCTV (Sige na gud, I know you do! hehe), just reply to this post or if your shy, just PM me or text me or call me at our office in this number: 4162202.

I need your responses before November 28 guys so I hope I get your support and response.

Thanks!

My new HAPPY thought =)

Cheap French toast! My favorite breakfast is now available the whole day at Tapa King. :)

My new HAPPY thought =)

Cheap French toast! My favorite breakfast is now available the whole day at Tapa King. :)

Forgive me but I just had to =p

What do you say to a person who lost a loved one but won the lottery?

Seen at the launch of a local shipping line's new vessel. :)

Now we can say it: Thank God It's Friday because...

...at TGIF, everyday is a Friday!

I've been "The Secret-ing" being able to go at TGIF when it opens but I got something even better! Apparently RCTV was invited to be one of their guests during their 1-day by invitation only opening.

On our way to TGIF :)

People were invited to come at different times of the day because there wasn't enough space to accommodate everyone all at the same time. When we arrived a line was already forming outside.



I even saw Jen from The Freeman. Yes she's the one responsible for having some of my entries published there. Hehe.



Before we went in, we were briefed by one of the personnels that we shouldn't expect the best service that day because it was some sort of a test drive. "Worst case scenario, you'll get your order after 2 hours." We were also told that we can only sit where the waiters would lead us and that we couldn't change tables anymore. Well, I could understand what with all the people and it being a test drive. At first when our waiter led us to the bar, I was kinda disappointed because I did not want to be seated besise each other, contrary to being seated across each other which would have been ideal. But as luck would take it, sitting at the bar was, I belive, the best place to be in when you are at TGIF.



When the waiters asked for our orders, I ordered their Jack Daniel's chicken. Hmm I wonder how that was gonna taste like.

While waiting, we were being entertained by a bartender who I later on found out was the BEST bartender in the world. This is according to the TGIF search for the best bartender in the world contest--that is.



Since there were only three of us at the bar that time, we were the lucky ones who got free cocktail drinks and those were the only ones that were not free that time! I got a bacardi-soda-lime cocktail. Ok, drinks before meals it is then.



After a few minutes, my companions' orders came but where was mine??? I couldn't complain because I have been forewarned. But oh well, when the food came, I wasn't that hungry anymore because of all the free NON-alcoholic drinks.



All in all, I had a great time. The people there were all literally happy to be working. Very energetic. Very hyper. But we'll see how long they can keep up theire happy faces. Hehe. I definitely will be back.



Thank God It's Friday is now open to the public (just last November 14 or 15) and they're located at The Terraces in Ayala.

Here's to trying...

Murag si Teban na wala si Goliat.
Murag si Budoy nga naupaw.
Murag barbeque nga walay puso.
Murag Sunsilk na walay Creamsilk.
Murag Skycable nga walay RCTV ch. 36 (suuus plugging juuuud!)
Murag radyo nga walay Roch Herbal Capsule nga commercial.
Murag tambayan nga walay Redhorse.
Murag videoke nga walay mokanta ug "Crazy for you" o "My Way".
Murag skina nga walay Jolibbee or BDO.
Murag USC-TC nga walay nagtsinelas.
Murag ginabot nga way Sparkle.
Murag Sto. Niño Church nga waly gabaligya'g kandila sa gawas.
Murag balut nga way asin ug suka.
Murag Pasko nga walay mangaroling sa jeep.
Murag internet nga walay Youtube, Friendster, Multiply ug Facebook.
Murag nilarga ug Boracay nga wa nagdala ug camera.
Murag cellphone nga walay load nya 1 bar pagyud ang batt.
Murag banda nga nagtukar nga wala gyuy nasul-ob ug itom.
Murag Eraserheads nga wala si Ellie.
Murag ABS CBN nga walay Wowwowee.
Murag Colon nga walay tindahan sa mga Insik.
Murag Holy Week nga walay taw sa Bantayan.
Murag dakong selebrasyon nga walay letchon.
Murag advertising agency nga walay mahuyang (or Gay). (Naa ba?)
Murag guitarista nga di kamao motukar ug "Leaving on a jetplane".
Murag Sunstar nga wala gyud bisag usang dagway ni Gov.
Murag JS Prom nga walay punch.
Murag eskwelahan nga waly "Old Maid" nga maestra.
Murag pinoy comedy nga salida nga walay manganta ug manayaw.

Murag in-ana.

Kuwang.
Lahi.
Weird.

Murag ako nga wala ______________________________________.

Sa makatubag lang! :)

Kamo naa moy madugang aning "Murag ________ na wala'y/dili _____________"?

Searching for my muse (AGAIN)

I had to be cameramanNA again this morning in an Aboitiz presscon because Mr. Bong "Sam Milby" Aller was sick with fever. Well, you know how presscons go. You see people from all the media establishments, you have polite talk, eat, ask questions and whatever.

When I was just about to pack up the camera, I heard someone calling my name. When I checked out to see who it was, it was Ms. Mayen Angbetic-Tan. I thought she had a Healthwise question (she's the host for our show, Healthwise) but I was quite surprised when she asked me a totally un-RCTV question.

Mayen: Queenie here is asking why you stopped writing for The Freeman.
Manna: Hi Ma'am! Lagi writer's block ma'am uy.
Queenie: Sige na you wirte. I liked the one you wrote about the mermaid.
Manna: Haha. Lagi ma'am, mura man to siya'g out of place sa The Freeman oi. Shock gani ko gi coverstory ninyo.
Queenie: Its for the young readers man sad. You write pa.
Manna: Sa ako raman tong blog ma'am. Nakit-an ra ni Jen. Sige lang ma'am try lang ko suwat balik. =) I'm happy you liked what I wrote.


Mainspire man sad ta ana oi. Haha. So far The Freeman has published three of my blog entries:

1. The Vampire












2. Payong
3. Major Mermaid Rant

I'm actually very flattered that they thought it was worthy of their space. Sometimes I wonder where I got the inspiration to write those stuff because now I cannot seem to come up with anything decent. Oh well.

Hay I hope I find my muse again. (Not because I want another entry published in The Freeman, but you know, for my own personal satisfaction.)

The MANna who can't be moved

I know its the title of a song that talks about a guy who camped in a busy street with a picture of a girl clutched in his hand asking people if they saw the girl to tell her that he was waiting for her. Pretty extreme measure huh? Well its a funny (in a cute way) song but in this entry, I'm definitely not gonna be talking about me trying to do the exact same thing.

As a matter of fact I am doing the opposite. If you've seen at the top of my site, there's a widget that say's "I am invincible." Well I know no one is invincible. Not unless you're a God...but chances for that too are pretty slim.

All I'm saying is, at this point of my life, I'm tired of being vulnerable to every little thingiemajiggy that life throws at me. So I'm sort of making it my mantra. I'm the invincible Manna. The Manna that can't be moved.

Actually my parents also have a similar mantra. "I am not moved by what I see, I am not moved by what I hear, I am not moved by what I feel. I'm lifting everything up to God."

It's my way of toughening up my act and despite a few slips, it has worked pretty great for me. If things don't go the way I plan to, its not gonna be a big deal anymore. Its tiring to waste my time and energy on things that I no longer have conrtol of so why bother?

I have my God. I have my stars. I have myself.

So whatever it is that life plans to throw at me again, I only have three words to say.

BRING. IT. ON.

Theories

Do you know that in one way or another we are all scientists? Each of us come up with our own personal theories and conclusions that we believe in so much that we think that they are universal facts already.

"Ayay, wa nasad nanagad. Suko lagi to nako."
"For sure gisaway nasad ato akong sanina, pwerte man jud niyang tutok gud."
"Magbuwag najud mi ani. 30 mins na wa pa nireply sa akong text ay."
"Nindot ni na day ron kay nakatug kog tarong gabii."


My friends always tease me for my "theories"...or as a co-worker would like to say, "Hypothesis nasad na nimo mans??"

But hey we are all guilty of it. In my case, I just blurt it out. Some would kill themselves first before they even admit it. But I guess we are all gifted with "scientist" minds that always come up with theories and conclusions about the most mundane stuff.

Pero theory ra na nako. Basin para ninyo, gabuot2 ra ko. Haha. Whatever.

*thinkingaloud*

system error

Whoever thought of that Clusivol tagline was brilliant: "Sa panahon ngayon, bawal magkasakit."

I've lost my voice, I have cough and colds, my head throbs 70% of the time, I can't sleep, and to top all of that, I think even the simplest form of medication nowadays even makes my wallet sicker.

I hate being sick.

I wonder if my 42 days (and counting) without rice has got something to do with it.

So last night...

RCTV private anniversary party. Simple pero makapagaw. Hehe.

Well, there won't be a "5&Alive" if it weren't for these guys. With the resources that we have, we've done the impossible. Good job everyone. :) Last trabaho nalang tonight. 80-TV at Formo. :)

You know its really bad when...

1.) You go to the office on weekends because you do not have anything better to do at home.

2.) You look forward to cheesy soap operas on weeknights.

3.) You stop buying load because you don't get any texts, or you only buy load because you need it for work.

4.) You start downloading movies to put in your ipod just in case there would be nothing good on tv on days when you're just home.

5.) You take your time in reading a paperback novel because you've read everything else and you can't afford to buy a new one any time soon.

6.) You look forward to going to the supermarket because its that one time that you're out of your house aside from work.

7.) You buy a big fluffy pillow because finally, sleep is now a luxury you can afford because you've stopped going out.

8.) On nights you do go out, you already get tipsy drinking half a glass of margarita.

9.) You start looking forward to Mondays because finally, you coud start working out your vocal chords again--a body organ you havent been using for 2 days.

10.) You panic when there's a holiday because you know you get restless when you don't do anything, and you know that on that particular day, there will be nothing to do.

Love of work minus love life minus social life minus budget equals to MYLIFE.

And yeah, believe it or not, I got a big check on my 1-10 list because I've done all of that.

But you know what, its not that bad. Its not great, but its not bad. :)

I JUST WON A BET

When I bet on something, I make sure I win.

Two weeks ago I decided to stop eating rice...and two weeks ago, Mr. Bong "Sam Milby" Aller told me I couldn't survive two weeks without rice. Thus the bet was made. I get a hundred bucks if I could resist rice for two weeks, and I'd give him a hundred bucks if I got tempted.

There was the problem of honesty though. What if I lied to him? Good point, right? So I told him that I will be completely honest with him. After all, it was for my own good. I almost got disqualified when I ate bibingka. But I did not know it was made from sticky rice so it was decided that I could get out of that.

This is Mr. Bong "Sam Milby" Aller. Behind him is me and Judith :)

Today completes my 14 days of abstinence from rice and today I got paid a hundred bucks. (But guess what, I'm not stopping until I actually see myself lose weight. haha)

Today we just made a new bet. We are going to buy a weighing scale. Use that to get my current weight, and use it again after 1 month to check if I'd lose 7lbs.



1 month. 7lbs. another 100 bucks.

Boy am I ready to win this bet again. :)

Now...I wanna be challenged some more so I want you to answer my poll. Do you think I will win the bet? Click2!!!

DRY SPELL

I haven't been very inspired to do anything lately. Whether it was for a storyboard or a blog, I've really lost it. Temporarily, I hope.

Its not a good thing bya. In my line of work, I always have to be creative. I have to be an innovator. I have to always step-up and introduce something new. And its such a hassle when I'm having a dry spell such as this.

I was talking to my friend Kawewina yesterday and she said she was also having a dry spell. She's so into photography when we were in college and she always got really good shots.(She was even president of our Photo Society--to which I was her lucky VP.) Now however, she felt like she's "lost her mojo".

Hmm...how do you get out of a dry spell? Its sad when "talents" just stopped being talents for you huh.

In my case, its not just depressing, its also a hassle. Because if I don't get out of it fast, I am going to make one lousy plug/storyboard/blog entry after another.

I need to be inspired.

Dayem.

Which life would you choose?

I'm living one of them. Care to guess? Hehehe

the evolution of 4b's

4th year students, hanging out at Tequila Joe's

graduation pactice :)

Graduation Day :,)

4B'S FAVORITE POSE

tessa's birthday at kaona grill...fresh grads :)


i forgot the occasion...i think it was a mini reunion, probably 6 month in our first jobs


our mini reunion last night, Sept. 20, 2008, 2 years after graduation :)

Past vs. Present

Conversation:

Past: Thesis woes, curfews, studying for Theo, passing Mdm. Tabada's class, love life
Present: How to get a personal loan, the current economy, ENGAGEMENTS and marriage, love life (still)

Fashion Sense:

Past: Tshirt, jeans, sneakers, sling bag
Present: More girly, heels, skinny jeans, preppy, shoulder bag

Waistline:

Past: Normal.. (haha)
Present: 1-3 inches wider...haha (except probably for belle and tina!)

Hangout place:

Past: Baseline, Boss, Burger Machine, Angelica's, Brews
Present: IT Park (Plus paying for the bill i so much easier now...haha)

Gadgets:

Past: 3310 cellphones and the like
Present: cellphones from mars...an average of two per 4b

Choice of happy drink:

Past: Redhorse
Present: Mojito, Margarita, San Mig Light

Companionship:

Past: Fun
Present: Definitely still FUN

Thank for the time 4b's. :)

*Pictures from kawewina.multiply.com