Gone?

I've heard from my friends just a couple of days, how a former classmate got into a grim situation between life and death - comatose. I even heard that what happened had caught up with the media though I wasn't able to watch the news about him.

According to a close friend of his that's visited him everyday, he was shot in the head. The details weren't that clear because she only communicated with me through text message. But that was enough to tell me what's going on.

A crook snatched his celfone. I'm not a close friend of Roland at all. I rarely spoke to him except those times when we had a few chitchats about the online game we were playing. But that's enough to surmise that Roland was the type of guy that wouldn't let someone snatch his celfone without a fight or a mark of his fist on the felon's face. And he did. But I imagine that after he taught the crook a lesson and turned away he was shot right at the head.

Thus... he was in comatose for a week. It's been all so confusing. A day ago, text messages were running around about his death. But after a few hours, I received a text message revoking that affirmation. Quite puzzling? How can someone return from death?

Well anyway, this time around, I was able to watch the news about him. I don't know which information's correct, the media's or my friend's. Nevertheless, I don't think that having hundreds of r.i.p comments on one's friendster can mean any more mistake.

Knowing you, you won't be in peace. I know you want to serve your death justice. I wish for justice.

Were not close friends... But still it's a sad thing.

It's all so unbelievable... No one ever thought that you'd die this young. I really hope the one responsible for this shows up. Nevertheless, he may escape justice, but he'll be eaten up by his guilt. If not, he's definitely a devil with no sort of conscience.

Looking at everything I said, I realize how short life is. You never know when you'll die. I've sometimes wondered how painful dying is -no living person can ever answer that. How about someone else you love dies? I know how the people close to his heart feels. Like how the day the person dies, even after years, feels like just yesterday. I don't want to think about it anymore.

I just know that when someone dies, everything you got is lost. Everything but the memories you left behind. It will never be lost. The moments you've shared with them will never be.

Virginia Tech Shootings

I don't really know how to put it, but I kind of understand why he did it. After I read more about him from the BBC news website.

Well anyway I'd really like to give emphasis to the gunman's message:

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today. But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

I feel both regret and sympathy for this guy. He probably went through so much pain in his life. Being insulted, pushed down, shoved off and rejected.

"You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfil your hedonistic needs. You had everything."

He hated those people.

"You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenceless people."

He kept everything inside him and it bursts off into one killing spree no on will ever forget.

"Do you know what it feels to be spit on your face and to have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave? Do you know what it feels like to have throat slashed from ear to ear? Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled on a cross and left to bleed to death for your amusement?

You have never felt a single ounce of pain your whole life. Did you want to inject as much misery in our lives as you can just because you can?"

People looked down on him... Made fun of him... Treated him like trash... I understand because I've felt like that... I've felt how pain can play with your mind and push you to the edge.

"I didn't have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run. It's not for me. For my children, for my brothers and sisters that you (expletive). I did it for them."

To tell you honestly, there was a time when I wanted to quit and kill the pain. I thought of "I wonder if I died would it mean anything to them or make them realize that they were wrong".

"When the time came I did it. I had to."

But I'm not like you. You're weak. You let pain get the better of you. I know I'm not that strong to be saying things like this, but at least it was enough to overcome that pain and realize that those crazy things won't do me any good at all. How I pity you for have wasted your life and the innocent others.

Summer Work?

It's been exactly 11 days since I arrived in Iloilo from Manila. I still remember how I slept only 2 hours that morning and woke up late... almost late for me to miss my flight. Anyway... I've learned a lot during the few days I was here. I learned a lot from my dad. He's been teaching me lots of things since I came. Of course that is with regards to the management of our corporation.If being a bratty kid in the office is summer work or leaving paper work to dust is then I'm in for quite a summer vacation! Hahaha!
Also, too ease up my boredom, I enrolled to Iloilo's Yamaha school. The course I got was intermediate guitar lessons. The teacher's pretty impressive. And I saw clearly just how amateur I still was. I don't regret at all. I'm learning as much as I can. And with my efforts, I was able to catch up with Yupangco's Summer Swing Out Sale!!! I'm getting a Squier Standard Stratocaster which is regulary 20k for only around 14k! Hahaha! That of course is only the guitar... I'll still have to spend a little more for the accessory stuff necessary like the hardcase and amplifier(which I plan on buying in Manila instead to lessen inconvenience of bringing everything back to Manila). I'll be posting a picture soon to show you all! I was supposed to post my new shoes too! But I left my memory card reader and I don't think I have time to buy one sometime soon. Anyway I'll just reschedule the post and it'll probably appear below this post.

YMCA 3 Day Camp Lazy Report

It's been fun being part of the camp. I have lots of things to tell but... I'm sort of... well... lazy to say more than enough. So the best way probably would be to go through a brief review of each day of the camp. I got some pictures as well :D


Day 1

I got up kind of early if I do say so myself. Considering that I slept 2 in the morning because I couldn't sleep and only had 3 hours of rest (Man... I may be having insomnia already! What do yah think?). Well anyway, IT'S NOT my fault I came in late. Not really late... but late enough to have all eyes on me when I came in. My mom accompanied me to the 5th floor to see how things are and to bid me goodbye. Again, it's not my fault for coming late... It was their fault for waking up off schedule.

Then... Welcome remarks... then lectures... while my stomach ached of hunger... I occassionally had these stomach pains (hyperacidity I believe?) but day 1 was definitely one of those unlucky days. I tried holding up until lunch though ( we had an icebreaker game before lunch and I was alleged of a mistake entitling me of a performance that I stalled up and promised to do later on w/ a guitar...)


Then came lunch... The stomach pain was still there even after I ate... even with my condition... I tried to hold up thinking that it’d go away after some while... So I had my co-criminal with me to practice on the song we were going to perform.

I thought they all forgot about it after the long boring lecture... But I guess we had no escape.

Then right after the performance... the pain was just unbearable... So I was asked to rest on the other side... I felt ok after a while... What a miracle!


Then the days ends... I was still up by midnight still laughing my internal parts out with my friend Marie... We both couldn't sleep... so what else could we do? :p

And yeah… I failed to mention of having gained attention through getting injured and people giving me “SPECIAL MENTIONS” during dinner.

Oh and yeah.. here's some pictures I haven't mentioned of yet:

Everyone's busy-> Here we have cedrick fixing Iris' crown, John and Keenly at the back and Jam taping Iris' crown to her hair.

Jam, Iris and Cedrick -> still preparing for the big fashion show, oh and at the back near the chairs is Mr. Manny Chan the big guy who's been in charge of a lot of things since the orientation. Really nice for someone bigtime :D

Fashion showdown-> From L-R --> Charles from Group Y, Mommy Wesley from Group M, Dan from Group A and Iris from Group C

Here we have Marie making "chikas" with the koreans while I sat quietly at a corner (I'm not in the picture though as I was the one who took the shot)

Everyone in the group poses... from L-R: Jenny, Hero, Stephanie, Clara, Joy and Marie

Something sure smells stinky... I wonder where it's coming from...

Here's an only picture of me and proof of my existence during the camp... and I can't believe that my only picture's with 2 monkeys on the back making fun of me... (joke :p) let's make that 2 genius monkeys.

Day 2

We had morning lectures… then some activity. There was this activity that recquired us to push against each other’s backs to be able to stand… But like I said… I’m too lazy to give all the details out.
But what I would never fail to mention is the Amazing Y Race…
It’s of course similar and taken from the famous Amazing Race. It was consist of 12 challenges in all. I’ll to go through each of it as clear as I can…

1.) Code Word -> we had to pass a letter through scribbling with our fingers and feeling what letter it is. After collecting all the letters and is confirmed correct, then we may start figuring what the code is. The code was Manila DownTown YMCA… it took as a while to advance because we made a mistake on one letter. We were the last to proceed but we managed to catch up.
2.) … Wah.. I don’t really remember what goes next or what… Nevermind.. let’s just get to the annoying part. After getting 2 or 3 obstacles ahead… they were able to catch up with us because of the annoying smiley face draw lots… whatever that is… it took as a while… maybe 45 minutes to find it… We were lucky enough that John looked through the pieces of paper down the floor and saw it.
3.) I believe we came in second… but due to technicalities… we were pushed to 3rd place instead… how sad L O.o oh no! not another one of those stupid smileys! RUN!!!

Day 3

I finished doing the chorus part of the song I was asked to revise and compose. I did well… but not without the help of the three gutty volunteers who out of pity helped (just kidding :D)

And that gained me excuse of not joining the “MEETING OTHERS” activity which I hated the most ever since I was in nursery. You know… I’m blah blah.. I’m this old… blah blah… I’m blah blah blah… I hated that a lot… That’s really not for people like me… ( a loner if put in a simpler term)

Then we practiced the song and performed it in front of Korean guests from YMCA Korea…

But before the guests came… everyone talked about the youth club. And the meeting was ended with everyone wholeheartedly joining the club.

Then all left after the merienda (goodbye meal)

-Sofia
Lazy Reporter

My Cool New Shoes :p

Ok, we were out at SM MOA, my mom was looking around for bed sheets she's a fad of. Then I decided to have a look on shoes. My old shoes was a little shabby already too. And everything was on 10% sale. So why don't I have a look? Haha, then i saw these! ^

They were so cool! The model has 2 colors available, the blue one and the cocoa one that you're seeing right now. But it sure cost me a lot! I got this for 3.8k which was originally 4.2k. But it was worth it. I don't want to use it much though... it's too beautiful to wear... haha... I'll feel so bad even if a little scratch gets to it...

YMCA Leadership Camp

Yesterday I was late again...

I checked the time. I was 5 minutes late... *whew*

Luckily they haven't started yet. I attended an orientation for next week's Leadership Camp! Pretty exciting if I say so myself. As you all know I'm not a social person. I don't talk much to people I just met but of course if it means winning... I might change my mind. So why is this camp exciting? It's my first actually. We're staying in for 3 days and 2 nights with major meals free! AND... I just paid a hundred! And hey, it's not carinderia meals or canteen food... it's from Wai Ying, Jollibee and Tasty! I bet they're the sponsors... Dunno...

Anyway... there's about 38 of us joining the camp. 7 from Sakya of course and other schools.

During the start of the orientation we were given seat numbers. THEY HAD IT ALL PLANNED... underneath our seats was a piece of paper. It had an animal name written on it. Our job was to sound like it. I got a duck. So I had to quack to find other ducks who is actually my teammates for the rest of the camp. After settling in, from the 4 initials of YMCA formed the names of each team. I suggested chameleon (to emphasize an animal that adapts to its surrounding no matter where it is). They were ok with it. But we had a tough time thinking of a cheer for it. We ended up with CUTIECOLAS instead. Ok... I did agree... but... it's... just not my style... >.< I don't care! It's just for 3 days! Better shut up!

So why did they pick that up!? Because ... we adapted a cheer from CocaCola... you guessed it. I didn't like it much at all... just being honest.

We finished off the orientation with some blue guy touring us out.

Goodbye School! Hello Vacation!

Exams are finally over and finally free! Haha! After months of school who could blame me for loving vacation so much?

Right after exam we worked on finishing our delayed project in science which can't really be helped since Cedrick left it so we had to wait for it until exam was over anyway. It's not much as we haven't been given enough time which I really don't want to mention over and over again.

Oh and have I mentioned that just 2 weeks ago I got a scratch on my left knee? I was wearing slippers then when I slipped off the gutter. And right after a week after it was done healing I got another one when we were in PICC for scout service. I fell off the van and hit the pavement. See how unlucky I am? And it's on the same spot! When I got home I almost fainted while they were dabbing it with betadine. No kidding... I almost really fainted. Good thing I asked them to lay me down in bed to rest or I could have lost consciousness.

Moving on...

After the project I went to SM Manila... I don't know... The original plan was that we go to STAR CITY. But since Star City opens up late... we shifted from Plan A to Plan B. Then we were supposed to watch a movie. A scary movie. It's not that I was scared or what... I was all ready to watch the for-little-kids movies but a particular someone didn't have the feel for it. There were no other good movies then so we got bored and walked a little to catch a cab to shift to Plan C. Ok... so where was the cab? No cab at all... I thought we were going to ride a cab... But no... we rode jeepney instead... Can you believe that? O.o But I guess it wasn't really that bad... it took a while to get to Robinson's but it's not everyday that I get to ride one.

And then we walked all around Robinson's after having a ride on the bump car. They looked for a birthday present for Troy! Happy Birthday Troy! They got him notebooks and pads of papers. Who could blame them? Troy always loved new pads of paper! Haha... and to be honest I loved paper when I was kid too :p Ok so maybe I still like paper a lot... geez...

Rock On!

It's been a while since I last posted something. I have been very busy lately. Ok, so maybe not too much. I was just off in a new world called flyff. I'm a tough and burly mercenary there in the name of Grupples. Cool huh? Anyway, I was mentioning that one of the busiest was yesterday.
I was the overall in charge of the band to represent Sakya at Baden Powell's Day. We were given a chance to show off. Talent's no question, the difficult thing there was they had no musical equipments for us. So we had to carry all of the instruments (the amplifiers, guitars, keyboards, and DRUMS!!!) to St. Stephen (the venue) and back to our school. And we even have to be the one to set it up. What a day! But then again, all our hard work paid off after the performance. Everyone was shouting for more! Everyone were very excellent audience. They cheered and paid attention.

We were supposed to play 3 songs.

• Crazy For You
• Narda
• Tara Lets

We started off with Crazy For You. As the title goes... Everyone was nuts over us. And then we quickly moved to the second song. From playing Bass Guitar, I and Aimee quickly switched guitars. So then I was holding an electric guitar and she had the bass. Everyone rocked with us in Narda. Unfortunately after the 2nd song, the host finished us up. We weren't done yet... we still had one more, Tara Lets to rock everyone.

Oh well, at least we did a great job. We showed how Sakyans can rock.

Battle of the Bands Outcome

Battle of the Bands was far over. It's been a week since the competition. We only placed 3rd. It's really disappointing for me. We've managed to endure minimum bloopers out of the rest but we weren't credited for that. Anyway, our teacher said that we could have won if our song was a little more difficult. That's what he said... He said that the winner won because their guitarist did a very well job containing Smooth, Santana's song featuring Rob Thomas. We were the first to perform. At first I was nervous... But it can't be helped. We'll try better next time.

FinaL Line Up is In!

Due to the overlapping of the supposed-to-be schedule for audition of the Battle of the Bands and the Music Department's dry run practice, audition was moved to lunch time. We started out with the sensational intro of the dramatic I'm Just a Kid (Simple Plan) and continued on to the invigorating chorus and the rest of the song. Mr. Capobres (our very talented all around music teacher) then told us to wait for further announcements which he promised to be the day after. I'll be adding up more of the details about things when we win... I don't feel the fervor of winning yet... so what's the use of telling you all about it without winning the no.1 spot first? Anyway, due to the delay of our keyboardist, we had to repeat the audition all over again the next day, where Mr. Epres (our very kind and considerate science teacher) gave us 5 minutes to have a try again. This time around, we had more audience. Things weren't perfect as the practice we had during the weekend and I've been a little nervous as well... I can feel my heart pound from inside like the bass of the drum hitting hard. After the second performance, Mr. Capobres announced that our endeavor and talents qualifies us to the main battle. We'll be having another practice tomorrow as we have not had the time today. And regarding our local song pick, we are holding it concealed for now and shall be intimated soon.

More Band Updates

With only a few days left before the music band eliminations, we've been preparing. We've thought of the worst to happen. But I reminded everyone in the band to just hang on and have the confidence. We knew we would win. The elimination wasn't what I was worried about. I was more worried with the competition. Elimination hasn't even begun, but I've seen people from other years with great potentials that I know we'd be crossing and go up against in the competition. To those who are from another band at school. FinaL Line Up is not a band you would want to trifle with and go easy on. I wish you lots of luck. Work hard. We're all given equal chances. Make good use of that. We'll work much harder as well right after eliminations are over. It's time to shine!

Earthquake.... School... Music

Finally, things have been working again!!! It's been a week more or less since the earthquake that hit Taiwan had affected the whole internet! That's the reason I wasn't able to update at all.... Well enough of that, what's important is that I get to post up again!

School's back again... and I guess it ain't as bad as thought it would be. The New Year's over and I haven't even greeted you guys! I hope my belated greeting still reaches ya'll.

So what's new? Well, it has been announced that the band poster we have submitted will be assessed and I bet we have a big chance of getting a place! It's been announced as well that we'll be having the Musical Band Contest soon. Moreover, it's been clarified that our Music Subject Exam will be another band participation similar with 3rd Quarter's style. We were asked to play a foreign song and a local one. The only difference is that this time, we'll have to work on 4 songs. 2 songs (foreign and local) for the Competition, and another 2 for the exam. This means we'll need to work twice as hard. Let's see what happens... Up on us the only contender is Salt n' Pepper the band we've helped last Quarter. We're up for the challenge and ready to rock the school once again! It's another opportunity to prove our talents and skills once more to the whole of Sakya!