.:Long Time, No Hear:.

Ellen Sheila Limiac has been one of my most esteemed friends. She was a veritable genius way back in high school, having graduated valedictorian in her school. She's currently a nursing student who will be graduating come next schoolyear. Ever-witty and ever-interesting, it was a good idea for me to give her a call yesterday.

I've known Ellen since about third year in High School, and I must say, she's always been interesting to speak to. I'm exceedingly glad to have heard from her. She seems to be doing pretty well (No lovelife yet, but it's not like she needs one.), and she more or less has a plan for herself already. I got her into the Broadcast back in 4th Year, and she wasn't so bad, really. This was during the height of Brod Pete and company, so you could tell that someone named Ellen was perfect material to pun along with...

Our conversation mostly revolved around politics, and that was pretty interesting, for the most part. I'm happy about the fact that her insights are rather straightforward, and like most people, she knows whom not to vote, but not whom to vote... had I registered, I would've gone for Eddie Villanueva.

I recently heard that Eat Bulaga is heavily for FPJ. That's sad. Even Joey De Leon is apparently for it, which saddens me, as he once ran afoul with Vic Sotto over their differences regarding Edsa II...

.:Disturbed:.

There's no better way to put it. I was plain disturbed when I saw last night's episode of Startruck Kids. Kids of less than ten years of age are being paired up there as love teams, being taught about crushes and the like out of the right context, and simply being fed atrociously adolescent lines.

You jabronis know I'm anything but a moralist. In spite of that, a cold chill ran down my spine seeing these kids do what they were tasked to do because these are bloody children we're talking about here. It's fairly obvious that they have no idea about what they're being taught, and these kid were essentially being treated like adults already. I thought that practice went out with the middle ages.

This is not to say that the Channel 2 counterpart is doing much better, either. In their attempt to rip off American Idol, the evaluators have ended up being rather brutal in their opinions about the contestants and not even the kids were spared of this. To make matters worse, as soon as a kid is eliminated, the hosts mercilessly interview the kid about how they feel over being eliminated. This is traumatic to these kids, any which way you look at it. I don't know why these people running both channels are treating these kids without any (pardon the pun) kid gloves. I wouldn't mind this stuff so much if it were the teenagers they were requiring to do stuff like talk about love and crushes, but come on! You realize how old these kid contestants are? Bah Gawd, what's wrong with these people?

I am flat-out disturbed. Coming from someone who's 93% evil, you know that something is horribly wrong about this...

.:Scathing Commentary On Our So-Called "Nationalism":.

I am proud to be a Filipino. There is no question about this. I simply am, as I have been for the longest time. I command the English language well, I love anime to bits, I am a fan of German Philosophers, but that doesn't take away my Filipino roots for one second, nor does it undermine my esteem for what our culture has brought to the table of man's history, no matter how trivial or how meager it may actually seem to the world at large.

... This pride in being a Filipino is precisely the reason why I find better things to do than scrounging the bottom of the Filipino barrel to look for some guy or girl, any guy or girl, in fact, with remotely Filipino roots, making it big, or even just remotely big, somewhere in the world. I'm talking about the Crista Velascos, the Hawaiian Governors who're half Filipino, the Special Effects Awardees who're somewhat Filipino, the Tia Carerres, and the Rob Schneiders of this world.

What do these jabronis have in common? All of them are Filipino or part Filipino, and they have found some measure of success abroad. We, as Filipinos, look to these people as a sign of our greatness, and proudly acclaim that these are "one of us". Codswallop! Just because Rob Schneider likes bibingka does not mean that he's outside and in, through and through Filipino. Just because Crista Velasco is half-Filipina does not mean she has a big spoon and fork in her house, or that she points to directions using her lips. Why am I not surprised that some people think that Crista Velasco was robbed when she got voted off of American Idol?

The problem with a good chunk of us Filipinos (And this idea I got from someone who made a false open letter about some DJ saying we Filipinos claim the success of any Asians as "one of our own". Absurd on that scale, true on this scale.) is that we can't seem to find anything to be proud of if it's not some person who's Filipino who's making it big anywhere but in the Philippines. I adore Lea Salonga like anything, but come on! Enough with the "Miss Saigon" references already! She's done things that didn't entail "Miss Saigon" that are equally worth of attention, you know.

I'm not taking a shot at the success of a Lea Salonga or a Rob Schneider (If you call that success...). I am merely pointing out how annoying it gets that we feel that the only time we can prove something is by looking good in the eyes of others. That we are naturally blinded (This aspect, I could understand.) to one's shortcomings when stumbling in the international scene by pure virtue of his or her being Filipino. Or am I the only person who thought Miriam Quiambao had no chance of winning Ms. Universe when she botched answering the final question? So Ms. Botswana won. Why hate her for it, neh? Because she's not Filipino? Well, well, well. Look who's racist now.

We have a lot to be proud about. Why do we even have to turn to people who aren't even that Filipino for pride? What has Rob Schneider done for this country by making a reference to bibingka? Has that actually raised our GNP by half a percentage point? Has Crista Velasco been such a great performer that she can outsell William Hung if she were to release her own CD? Will these jabronis even begin to compare to some of the great people, named or nameless as they may be, who are actually still here in the Philippines, doing their part? I'm a bit hesitant to call us "pure Filipinos", knowing how mixed our bloodlines are. But I'm not balking at calling a spade a spade, and I'm telling it like it is: as a nation, we're scraping the bottom of the barrel if all we could come up with as a source of national pride is some litte measure of success "one of us" happens to make abroad, neglecting to realize whether or not this person is actually representative of us as Filipinos, or if they're simply another person living out the American dream so many of us would want to live out.

It's codswallop, it's annoying, and it's downright demeaning. Or is this really the best we could come up with?

I hope not.

.:Movie Reviews:.

As usual, Spoilers Ahead!!!

Starsky And Hutch
Good thing they weren't in Canada...

I was never a huge Ben Stiller or Owen Wilson fan, truth be told. If anything, I didn't really like much of their movies, except perhaps Ben Stiller's “Meet The Parents”, which, even then, wasn't anything to write home about. I haven't seen “The Royal Tenenbaums” yet, though, so I can't comment on that.

Anyways, Ben Stiller stars as Dave Starsky and Owen Wilson stars as Ken Hutchison. This is more or less a movie version of an old television series back in the 70's. The storyline is extremely routine: an overtly dedicated cop who follows the rules to the letter is paired up with a cop with an attitude. Together, they have to go against seemingly insurmountable odds and prevent what could be the largest cocaine deal in history. Been there, done that but was the treatment unique? Not as much as we would've wanted it to be, sadly.

Traditional slapstick standbys abound in the film, especially gay innuendo, with one of the villains batting for the other team actually taking a liking for Hutch. In order to gain information from him, Starsky and Hutch had to do a special... double dragon dance number, which is an image that will scar me for the rest of my life. Nonetheless, the laughs were there, as I really enjoyed how they deliberately made the pairing have gay undertones, which is commonly seen but not acknowledged in any buddy cop film to begin with...

I enjoyed this film and had quite a good laugh over it myself. While I wasn't a fan of the tired comedy, I was mostly into the sheer campiness of the film, especially when they had a dance showdown between Starsky and some other guy. The main villain, who played a Jewish crime lord, was pretty good at what he did, and the misadventures that Stiller and Wilson encountered in their attempt to expose his undetectable cocaine plot was nothing short of hilarious.

The true revelation in this film, however, is Snoop Dogg, hands down. His comedic timing was simply amazing, and who wouldn't love a black gangsta guy going by the name of “Huggy Bear”? He had a lot of good lines, and the black guy who was really smart was extremely funny during Starsky's first encounter with Huggy.

This film wasn't your best comedy film ever, but it had its appeal. Children of the 70's would get a major kick out of this (Especially with the cameo from the original Starsky and Hutch, and the Carpenters song playing in the background while Starsky was reminiscing about Hutch when they had a rift... that was so... gay.). It's nice to catch, but a repeat viewing? Nah...

Marcelle's “Fun” Evaluation: B/B+
Marcelle's “Critical” Evaluaton: C

*************************************************

Masikip Sa Dibdib
Masakit sa ulo panoorin.

I always had respect for Ruffa Mae Quinto's comedic prowess. Unfortunately, she's usually the hit or miss type, as for every fun movie I watch from her, I also get a clunker of a film afterwards. Booba was the spectacular comedy. This one? Calling it a “clunker” is putting it nicely.

Anyways, Ruffa Mae plays Boobita Rose, a buxom girl working in a placement office with a guy whom she happens to like, Mark, played by real-life boyfriend Rudy Hatfield. She belongs to an extremely dysfunctional family that features a certain guy named John Lapuz trying to play a womanizing (!) drug addict. If you knew John Lapuz, this was simply a surprise.

Anyways, Boobita Rose has a friend, an FX driver, played by Antonio Aquitania. This guy is really into her, and is trying to woo her, but she has eyes for only Mark. What happens next is a sequence of events that led me to simply scratch my head, as her family life crumbles, Mark is found out to have already been married, and every single member of her family is taken away by either the DSWD or rehab people in the supposed climax of the film. Chinggoy Alonso also figured into this film, and it further... dropped my regard for the man.

Apparently, Boobita Rose's entire family has an affliction wherein their noses and ears bleed whenever somebody talks to them in English. An interesting plot point, but one that was exploited so pathetically that it wasn't too funny when they pulled it off.

What was wrong with this film? First of all, the acting was too over the top. I'm used to Ruffa Mae's hamming it up, but she really upped the ante on this one, and it was annoying to death. At the same time, John Lapuz was convincing as a womanizer until his hands start moving. Then, your suspension of disbelief ends and you realize a flaming gay man is acting and trying to pass off as straight, but fail miserably. Gina Pareno was downright annoying and disturbing to watch, making out with Kier Legaspi. There wasn't any revelation in the film at all, acting-wise.

Secondly, the storyline was way too convoluted. There was no rhyme and reason to the story. Boobita Rose's family was crumbling to the ground, and she had to talk to them about it over and over and over again, to the point that it was so repetitive you'd think that they were playing a VCD that was looping. The story was that awful.

Most of all, any shots they had of coming up with a good joke was simply ruined by overkilling the joke. The first time a singer made a cameo to sing a song relevant (Well, not all the time.) to the storyline, it was actually funny. And then they did it again. And again. And again. Even Ely Buendia had a song number, for crying out loud. Jokes like these would've worked once or twice, but seven or so song numbers like this in a span of under two hours? Sheer inanity.

The ending? Oh, bah Gawd. Don't even get me started on it. Ruffa Mae finally went for Antonio Aquitania's character, only for him to reject her. Then the pilot in the plane where they meet comes out, who turns out to be Martin Nievera, and he sings “You Are My Song” Ruffa Mae then ends up making out with Martin, and they fall in love. Bull crud. Utter bull crud. Whoever wrote this stuff is about as funny as a funeral.

What else can I say? Oh, yeah. Stay away. Stay very far away from this pathetic excuse for a film.

Marcelle's “Fun” Evaluation: F
Marcelle's “Critical” Evaluation: D-

.:I'm A Really Nice Guy. Would I Lie To You?:.

Eh? What the Hades happened to the other 7%?

I am 93% evil.




I came up from hell just to take this test! I am absolutely pure seething evil!

Are you evil? find out at Hilowitz.com

.:Finally, Headway:.

I'm seriously considering moving into M.A. Philosophy instead of M.A. Teaching Philosophy, if it would actually be less reputable to finish with the former over the latter, or if it could affect my standing when I attempt for a Ph.D or something. With the things I have to do within the next few years, you might say I have better things to do than to dignify baseless accusations and the like that have been hovering over my head lately...

At least I have a good MA/PhD thesis in mind already. Given the stuff I write about, and given my Comm background, I suppose you could hazard a guess what I intend to work on when given the chance...

Nonetheless, my Chinese Philosophy class has turned out pretty well a couple of days ago. What I really enjoy about the whole thing is that I'm able to connect with both the undergraduates and the graduate students of my class. It was pretty fun, really. I was, for the most part, having a nice time talking to some of the priests there, who really felt that the insights I had regarding Mencius' loopy logic at the start of the discussion were rather... spirited. I personally found the lecture to be less as such and more of comedy hour, honestly. I was just giving mostly politically-edged commentary on the important things Mencius had to say, though.

The undergraduates were nice. I ran into one of them, Den Go, I believe, and I chatted a bit with her, and they seemed to find it such a novelty that I came from Comm and I'm now in Philo. I've heard this jump I made being called a novelty for the longest time, so I guess I wasn't too surprised. But yes, my classmates were nice for the most part. I connect quite decently with the undergrads, considering how I really don't know them that well. Still, I guess my being overtly participative in class has not been taken as arrogance or sure-footedness. That's good.

However, one of the graduates, a seminarian, asked me this question after the class...

Marcelle, you have what it takes to become a priest. Have you ever considered being one?

Now, honestly, I have, way back in High School. I know it seems like I can, because of my predilection for Philosophy, but I really don't want to become a priest, and it's not just because I'm enjoying the lovely company of ladies (As if I truly am, barring Grace.), but simply because I feel that it's not for me. I find teaching to be my vocation, and in itself, also a worthy vocation, without any doubt. So yes, it did cross my mind way back, and as much as I declined that before, I guess I'm declining it as well now.

I mean, where are the ducks?!?

.:Process Philosophy Madness:.

We had a class on process Philosophy today with Dr. Rosario. Apparently, he had quite a lot of funny commentary to give us during the class, and he was mostly discussing a perception of the self less as a concrete substance but more of an abstract society of events tied together by one man's continuity, which essentially speaks of a radically malleable identity. The comments he had to give were interesting, but his discussion on the actual over the potential was vividly amusing...

We have to regard the actual over the potential, but what is actual? Is it actual that Dr. Ibana will have a girlfriend come next week? That Dr. Dy will be married next month? No. Those are all potentials. What about if I just wanted to teach so I can always have girlfriends for students? Unless I do them, they're not actual.

Somebody has a lot of repressed notions... heh. But then, he had a key line that just hit me from the blue...

What of defining moments? Saint Paul's conversion was a defining moment. Maybe you wanted to work in Unilever or Procter and Gamble, and then the next moment, you felt drawn to teaching...

A couple of my classmates looked at me in that instant. You can tell that they knew what that statement meant to me...

.:Starsky And Hutch:.

RX had yet another premiere a couple of nights ago, this time for Starsky and Hutch. Am I glad I didn't skip this film. It was surprisingly fun, truth be told. Review next time, though. Maybe tomorrow. That film deserves t least a B, and the gay innuendo was nothing short of hilarious... ah, well.

Grace and I saw the film, and I have to say, it was fun. If Ma'am Lally didn't beg me to help out with the games for the premiere, I wouldn't have been there, so I was mostly doing her a favor, considering how desperate her text messages sounded when she was asking me for help...

Ran into Lindsay there. Interesting... she's now working for the Senate, apparently. I guess I really need to start working soon, lest I feel very... stagnant. I mean, even my blogging, unless I do something traditional, feels exceedingly... rushed.

Ah, well.

.:Confucius Say...:.

“The Duke of She told Confucius: 'In my country, there is an upright man named Kung. When his father stole a sheep, he bore witness against him.' Confucius said, 'The upright men in my community are different from this. The father conceals the misconduct of his son, and the son conceals the misconduct of his father. Uprightness is to be found in this.'”

- The Analects, 13:18

One of the most controversial statements found in the Analects would simply have to be this one. If only for the fact that this short passage is open to so many varied interpretations and treatments, this segment from the Analects would already be reason enough to spur discussion for hours on end. The question one must ask himself at reading this statement is, “What is Confucius trying to say?”

This question is not as simple as it seems. For a moment, it might seem as a support for hypocrisy. After all, this is saving face: concealing the faults of one's family. For another, it may seem as condoning the wrongdoing of one, without rectifying such an error. But you see, Confucius means neither of this. He did not mean to say that a family must act like hypocrites in concealing the mistakes of one member of the family. This is merely to keep things that can be kept in check within the bounds of the family. Nor did he mean to imply that the family must condone such a misconduct. Just because one conceals another's actions does not mean that they do not subsequently attempt to rectify it.

The dilemma that comes out from Confucius’ words is quite clear, then: are we therefore justifying actions such as those of Imelda Marcos, who would sooner be buried with her husband than to ever admit that atrocities were committed during the time of Martial Law? To some extent, perhaps we could justify it. Would admitting that Ferdinand Marcos committed crimes as president rectify anything? Perhaps, perhaps not. In denying the crimes of the Marcos family, undue shame and dishonor is avoided, as we cannot merely pass on judgment on the entire Marcos family. If we were to look at such a sweeping judgment, that in itself is likewise not righteous. The consideration has to come with the rectification of the transgressions within the family when it could be done, as is what most Barangay officials would tell to a husband and a wife involved in a marital squabble. This, to them, is merely a “domestic” affair, which means it should not be taken further than that.

However, we cannot justify Imelda’s actions completely, as the results of her actions is no longer a small affair but one that has affected the entirety of the Philippine nation. At the same time, her denial is not just for her late husband, in the first place. It’s also to keep herself from getting into trouble herself, knowing her heavy involvement in the whole matter to begin with.

Does this mean that Rudy Fernandez was wrong in turning over his son, Mark Anthony Fernandez? Not quite. Confucius’ main teaching is about righteousness. If rectification within the family was simply not working for Rudy Fernandez, then he would not be righteous in hiding the transgressions of his son, and would soon enough be guilty of condoning such misconduct. With that being said, if it got to a point where it was beyond his control, Rudy Fernandez would be doing what is righteous by bearing witness against his own son.

However, what I see to be the case here is that there is some relativity involved. Confucius never rebuked the Duke of She for calling Kung a righteous man. He merely stated that the righteous men in his community are different. Would this indicate that either path has their respective measures of righteousness? I would like to think so. For me to be able to determine this, it would be best for us to turn to the factors at hand. At what point can we say that rectification within the family is no longer enough? Is only one course of action always the righteous course of action? The fact that Confucius did not repudiate the Duke but merely showed a different kind of righteousness shows that depending upon the situation, either course of action can be righteous.

Personally, I find this to be a very sticky matter that requires an immense amount of consideration, either way. Not all kinds of misconduct can simply be fixed within the family, nor should all kinds of misconduct be made public by one’s own family. With that in mind, we are left to believe that Confucius was very much open to either course of action, given the right measure of guidance. It is, of course, more righteous to be able to rectify something within the family and not without, which may very well be the reason why Confucius attributed such a practice to the people of his community, in contrast to that of the Duke’s whose people are indeed righteous in rectifying from without that which they no longer can from within, which indicates a lack of prudence and temperance of the people in the family itself.

And so the next time I see my brother shoplift, maybe I wouldn’t be so quick to tell the security guards about it…

.:A Welcome Run-In:.

I ran into Glenn today at the Calf. Nothing much. Just glad to see a familiar face after a while, and it was nice that he had some affirmations for me that simply made my day...

Hi again, Glenn!

.:Shi-Ann's Still In The Game:.

Well, she's the underdog because she's the lone non-Shapiro member left in the seven, but after having won that uber-hard immunity challenge where Shi-Ann held up her hand for over two hours, she managed to get her head off the chopping block. She got lucky there, no doubt.

Of course, her being uber-beeyatchy takes away a bit from her appeal to me, but she was sort of justified, as everyone was nearly ganging up on her already. It’d be quite a surprise if Shi-Ann wins Survivor All-Star, though… even for me.

.:Philosophical Humor?:.

Dr. Gus Rodriguez had a fun lecture a while ago on the topic of the “Play of self”. It was deliciously interesting, but it’s not the kind of “play of self” you’re thinking, you jabronis! It was mostly about the fact that human beings are immensely self-aware in contrast to other animals, and he used three philosophers to discuss that notion: Marcel, Levinas, and Derrida.

His lecture was so amusing, to say the least. He had this talk about dogs. What if your Dalmatian were actually self-conscious? How would it be talking?

Why, this is not the way I, a Dalmatian, should be treated! My ancestors used to be running around free in the farm, chasing ducks. *Raises arms in the air* where are the ducks?!?

Oh, what a line…

In any case, I really had fun with his class, although there was this odd feeling I got when he started discussing Marcel. As we shared the same name, every time he mentioned Marcel, people inevitably were looking at me, especially after the break, after they found out where I came from prior to entering MA… which was a fun discussion, to say the least. Joy was amused about my “Saved by GRACE” T-shirt. I asked her to guess who gave me the shirt… heh.

This was a really good lecture on the nature of a human person, with regard to answering the question, “who is this ‘I’ that I speak of?” It’s a really valid question, when one begins to consider the nature of his or her own existence, and this question is naturally answered for the most part with regard for the other. That’s how things would indeed get interesting.

But where are the ducks? :)

The Man I Was With You
by Jimmy Bondoc

listen just hear me out
yes i know we agreed
when we break up we'd never give in to this need
to admit to each other
i miss you

listen just hear my cry
no i won't break my word
if i do say i miss you it would never be heard
let my heart whisper
all that it needs to

*how could you make me take a start?
then just leave me here hanging
can't even say how i'm feeling
how could you make then break my heart?
if i can't say that i miss you
let me say one last thing

#i miss him
and all the things he could do
yes/oh, i miss him
just as much as i miss you
oh, i miss him
i know you're wondering who
i miss him
i miss the man i was with
oh i would never be the same

listen just hear my voice
can you hear all the tears?
that i'm planning to hide
for the next thousand years
just as long as you know that
i love you

repeat *,#

how can i blind then find the light?
how can i find the kind of right?
how could you take away my sight?
how could you lose me in the night?
then you took away the heart in me
now i'm losing this fight
no i would never ever be the same

ooh.. ohh

oh, i miss him
and all the things he could do
yes, i miss him
just as much as i miss you
i miss him
i know by now you know
oohhh, i miss him
i know by now you know who
i miss him
i miss the man i was with you

oh, i would never be the same

.:Double Time:.

It was an amazing run for me yesterday when I went and boarded for two shows within eight hours on RX yesterday.

There wasn't really much for me during the Morning Rush, so to speak. I was just around to deliver the Generation RX and all, although we had an interesting off-air discussion about how fun diving can actually be, even if one were not to be such an adept swimmer. Delle then started to talk about jellyfish and how she was bitten by one some time ago.

Delamar: So we had to ask someone to relieve himself on a bag of Piatos. He was so pressured that he suddenly had performance anxiety, so I had to ask a female friend to do it instead. She then asked me to get on my stomach, someone lifted my leg up, and then she straddled me to do it. Amazing. It looked like it was ripped straight from a porn film.

I was mostly doing the boardwork for a while when the dynamic duo went down to Mini Stop to get something. The assuring words from Chico?

Chico: In case we don't make it by the third song, don't worry. Just take the show all the way to ten on your own.

When the show ended, I stuck around for about an hour further. Chinggay was fairly surprised that I'm still studying, only for M.A. this time. And as usual, Chinggay finds ways of squeezing in compliments here and there. She's been really nice to me for years already. I left for Megamall after a short bit to wrap up a few more bits of trading that I had to do for RAW Deal. Apparently, I have a few good trades on my hands by now.

After the whole thing, I went back to RX, where I was set to do Radio 1, which, I thought, was going to be for Chico's buddies. Instead, it was just me by my lonesome, handling the boardwork, talking on the mic, keeping up with all the requests from the listeners. You might say I was a whirling dervish at that point. I was doing it all. In between songs, I was checking up on YM, getting the webcam up and running, among other things. Needless to say, it was simply a busy day for me. Even busier than my last Radio 1 run alone, as there were lots of commercials this time around. I was chatting on YM with people for the most part, and some of them were really talking to me about a lot of different stuff. Ah, well. I was really occupied.

There were moments that a particular commercial I needed to air was not around, and I had one commercial left to find it. The commercial ended without me or sir Jojo finding the missing plug, so I had to go on the air...

Hmm... let's see what we're going to play next for our listeners. Oh, I know! Why don't we do some... Britney Spears?

The moment I said “Britney Spears”, her song, “Toxic” kicked in. I just bought myself time by thinking on my feet.

As soon as Chico realized that I was all alone when he got my SMS, he texted me bac...

Okay. I'll try to catch up. Just don't do anything that'd get you or me into trouble :)

Soon enough, in the middle of a Jimmy Bondoc song, he came in, then took over the boardwork as I handled the chatting. After the song, he asked me to do the extro...

Marcelle: And that was “The Man I Was With”, by Paolo Santos... it's Paolo Santos, right?

Chico: That was Jimmy Bondoc! And the song was, “The Man I Was With You”.

Marcelle: Oh, yeah! I was so harrassed, shunting back and forth both sides of the booth! I'm saved! Chico's here.

Chico: Well, it does look like you needed some saving, especially with that last ad lib. Repeat after me: Jimmy Bondoc.

Marcelle: Jimmy Bondoc.

Chico: Jimmy, o! Anyways, Marcelle will be back after this break with the right songs and the right artists.

Later on, he tried to bait me with the new George Michael song, as he asked me who sang it again. Luckily, I saw the name on the computer before he covered it up, so I managed to say it was George Michael. Unfortunately, I forgot what the song's title was. Afterwards, he did it one more time by asking me about another song...

Marcelle: Ahh... Monster Radio RX 93.1! That was “You Take My Breath Away”.

Chico: “Take My Breath Away”. Close enough.

Marcelle: It was originally done by Cindy Lauper.

Chico: No. It was Berlin!

Marcelle: You sure? I mean...

Chico: Are you crazy? Cindy Lauper never had a version of “Take My Breath Away”. Anyways, it was from the movie... yes? Oh, fine. Top Gun.

Marcelle: I was thinking “Pretty Woman”.

Chico: Nope. And this version was done by Jessica...

Marcelle: Simpson. I had “Soho” in mind, though.

And with that, we ended the show...

.:Random Thoughts:.

Tournament got cancelled, but you should see my Evolution deck now. It's nothing short of spectacular. I also purchased Eddie Guererro's cards already, so I really should get something going with him or Los Guererros soon enough.

In any case, I ran into Mr. Mark Escaler all the same. Wonder if it's possible to teach in both the Philosophy and the Communications Department? I should look into the possibility of doing that, although I still would want to find employment still by next week. The library should be a good place to start once my schedule frees up a bit.

.:I'll Be On Air Tomorrow!:.

Tomorrow, I'll be on air for Chico and Delle's Morning Rush show, that's 6 to 9 in the morning.

Three hours later, I'll be doing Radio 1, 12-2 in the afternoon, also on RX 93.1

Hope to catch you jabronis there!

With less and less people giving a damn about what I write about (Mostly on Blogger, at times even on LJ.), I guess it would do me better to just do small updates like this for the time being...

.:Quiz Plug:.

I had one of these before, but I may as well post a new one. You think you know me? This is arguably a really easy test, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone perfected it... Check it out, jabronis.

.:An Existential Gap:.

I have no idea how to address metaphysical despair. I really don't. With that being said, I won't try to spell out my feelings and my disposition or state at this point, as it is simply beyond my means of articulation. Needless to say, the longer I am stuck not starting with my teaching job, the longer this metaphysical despair will linger with no means of approaching it. I guess we really can't help it when stuff like that happens.

.:More Shenanigans On Hobby Haven:.

Lost all the L5R games I played today. For one, I still have no idea about the phases of the game (Say... when does "resolution" happen? Why can't I do a ranged attack when you have no defenders? Stuff like that...), and I flat-out blow at strategy, so it seems. Nonetheless, it's not the deck's fault. Peppy's Crab deck is as one-track minded as they come, but I just have to get the hang of playing the game. Gawd knows I never had a problem like that in magic...

Looks like the H-Games are making the rounds in Hobby Haven now, thanks to the "Hedonution" I inadvertently started with SB 2. I came across a game I haven't run into, "Watishi Konya Anikite" ("Come See Me Tonight"). Knowing the nature of the game, I just had to ask...

Is this really "Come See Me Tonight", or "See Me Tonight And Come"?

I meant that one would see the other, then come with the other to their house. What were you thinking? I am, of course, the paragon of virtue and chastity ::rolls eyes:: ... yeah, this, coming from the bastich who was wondering about the Viva Hot Men VCD...

.:Riddle Me This:.

The Duke of She told Confucious, "In my country, there is an upright man named Kung. When his father stole a sheep, he bore witness against him."

Confucius said, "The upright men in my community are different from this. The father conceals the misconduct of the son and the son conceals the misconduct of the father. Uprightness is to be found in this."

And so I ask... is Confucius essentially telling us that we should be covering up for our family members when they do something wrong, inasmuch as Imelda would never admit to any of the atrocities levelled against his late husband, nor would Loi Estrada ever show visible disdain at her husband's well-known philandering ways.

I have a lengthy discussion on how this position of Confucius can be justified, but I want to see if I can spark some insights from the rest of you first...

.:The Morning Rush Again:.

Today's odd news item of the day: a rhinoceros, apparently two fries short of a happy meal, rushed towards a car some time recently. Instead of goring the said vehicle, it proceeded to... *ahem* attempt to procreate with it. This bizarre occurrence simply proves to us that there is nothing beautiful or ugly for a rhino who's exceedingly "angry". Unless of course, he was just really happy to see the car.

And bah Gawd, you should've heard today's Hot 10. And the one yesterday. The topics were: the Top 10 Good And Bad Combos, and the day before that, the Top 10 Rejected Tourism Slogans. Here're a few golden answers:

The Top 10 Good And Bad Combos:
- Santa Claus and kids: good combo. Michael Jackson and kids: bad combo.
- President in a barong: good combo. President in a leather jacket: bad combo.
- Your brother and his stash of Polaroids of naked girls: good combo. Your mother and her stash of Polaroids of naked girls: bad combo.

The Top 10 Rejected Tourism Slogans:
- Forget what Claire Danes said. We're more than just ghastly.
- Isuko ang Bataan sa Bataan. Visit Bataan!
- Welcome to Las Pinas, where all of us play with our bamboo organs.
- Outwit. Outplay. Outlast. Welcome to Tondo.

... plus a few others that were funny, but I failed to keep track of.

.:Gakk:.

Had an amazingly boring class for Philosophy of the Human Person today. This was mostly brought about by the fact that the person talking to us was on a webcam, had a thick Australian accent, and didn't really care if we didn't particularly hear whatever the Hades he was talking about.

Then, I ran into an old friend of mine through chatting online today. She seems to be distant now, though. Ah, well. Can't be helped. Three years can do that to you...

.:Trading:.

I'm currently sealing an online deal with someone in the U.S. for some RAW Deal stuff. As we don't have this particular set, I'm about to get four boxes of it, and this will definitely help up my chances of getting the stuff that I want. ARUS will be coming into the Philippines this way, hopefully, and it cost me no more than two Title Belt Cards. Not a bad trade, as I get my belts for free since I'm the one running tournaments in the Philippines.

.:A Realization:.

It can now be said what Sacha's appeal is: she sounds like about half of all those high-pitched girls you find on H. I guess there really is a market for that...

Ah, forget it. It's a funny thought at first, and then it makes you want to scratch your mind out (As your mind's eye is the one that sees these disturbing images...) in a while...

See you jabronis soon. I guess.

Here's my review of last night's premiere, Jack Black's "The School Of Rock". I really loved this film. Elbert, if you can read this, let me know if it's good enough as a review for publication or something. :)

However, from now on, I will edit my reviews to all contain two distinct ratings: a "fun" rating, meaning, the level of how much I enjoyed the film, and a "critical" rating, meaning, I put to work all the film classes I had, and give it an honest, slightly detached evaluation. Any movie reviews or basic reviews I have, for that matter, will now contain these two different ratings, and expect me to add this change in to each of my past reviews over time. Somebody just tell me how to do the html code to hyperlink to a specific spot on my LJ (Not just a page, but a PART of the page.) or weblog, so I can just make an easy access archive of my film reviews...

In any case...

Spoilers Ahead!!!

.:Movie Review: The School Of Rock:.

The School Of Rock
More stereotypes and cliche's that actually work than you can shake a guitar at

Jack Black scored it big with this sleeper hit of a film, and like most comedians, his fans and detractors are about as polarized as you can imagine. People either love Jack Black so much and believe he was the spark plug in this film, or people simply hated Jack Black so much that they think he condemned to doom this film even before the opening credits rolled, probably because they see him as some underwhelming yet overweight Jim Carrey. Whatever your opinion of him may be, the fact of the matter is, this movie sold, and it worked.

The plot is extremely been-there, done-that: Dewey Finn is a rocker wannabe who gets kicked out of a band he himself formed because his onstage antics don't really help get the band over. Worse for him, his best friend, Ned Schneebly, who himself used to be a rocker, is threatening to throw him out of their apartment if he doesn't pay the rent, under pressure from his shrew of a girlfriend, who made Ned pretty much as straight-edged as a ruler (Except a ruler like George Bush or possibly FPJ, but I digress.).

Dewey needed to find a job, and fast. To his great luck (Or so he believed at the time.), Ned, who happens to be a substitute teacher, was asked to substitute at a particular posh private school, and Dewey decided to impersonate Ned to take the job. Having no teaching experience, much less competence, he simply had no idea what to do with these kids until he discovered that a good chunk of them can play instruments. Realizing his chances of getting back into the Battle of the Bands and perhaps even upending his own band, he decides to teach these kids how to play rock music, and bases his curriculum around it.

The grade school kids were all hooked: they were led to believe that it was a secret project, and they never even knew that "Mr. S" was actually Dewey Finn. All throughout, their rather uptight principal was extremely apprehensive of what seems to be a rather unusual approach that this substitute teacher actually has. Behind her back, however, the kids have formed a complete band, from the band members, to the roadies, to the security, to the band manager, and down to the groupies and the fashion director.

In the end, do they win the Battle of the Bands? Not really, but not that it mattered. What mattered was that these kids, for once, discovered how it was to just live on the edge, and still have good, clean fun. Of course, this was to the detriment of the poor principal, who didn't really hope to be this uptight, as it's her head at stake once the parents discovered Dewey's deception during parent-teacher night itself.

Shades of GTO, for the most part, although in Eikichi's case, he really did have lectures. In spite of that, films like these, no matter how you might say that they're "bubblegum and fluff", do have their appeal. Black's comedic timing is a hit or miss deal, as it's not necessarily an acquired taste, but it works for everyone. Joan Cusack as the uptight principal with a hidden anarchic streak is downright endearing, as she was the closest thing the film had to a villain, yet she still had a connection onscreen with Jack Black.

The supporting cast of Ned and the girlfriend did their roles pretty well, but I would have to say that those two were the least appealing characters to me in the film. Jack Black's former band was amusing for the most part, though, especially his replacement, who was grinding like a macho dancer while playing the guitar...

The kids were your typical stereotypes, although there were quite a lot of African-American kids. It was pretty obvious that there was going to be a token Asian kid, though: we've seen so many black people that they stopped being token minority requirements already. In spite of it being a movie geared to kids, these kids weren't the least bit annoying. In fact, they were downright lovable.

Summer was cute as the grade-conscious but well-meaning kid (And off the record: is quite a looker already at ten years old. And she's not even Chinese...); Zach captured the feel of a young kid who has what it takes to be a real rocker and is well on his way there; the drummer kid had that rebel attitude who was quick to expose his teacher's inconsistencies between telling him to "break the rules" one moment and then telling him to "follow my orders" the next; Mr. Cool, was amazing on the piano, and really had that clueless but wide-eyed wonder that evoked a lot of emotion; the bassist kid was the most underwhelming in the group, yet she still had her appeal.

The back-up singers were very nice kids who could really sing, and the chubby one in particular was very good at evoking some empathy; the so-called groupies were great at what they did; the security detail kids were funny at what they did, especially with the CCTV stuff they did to check if the principal was nearby; the roadies were fun, and the kid handling the computer reminded me of some other computer genius I know; the gay kid was downright funny. I haven't seen that stereotype in Hollywood in all the films I watched, so his doing fashion and all that was such a refreshing sight for me, as he had this natural air of beeyatchiness around him that really helped his character along.

Overall, this movie really had great comedy gold. I especially loved how some of the kids developed their characters, especially Summer, who went from following the rules for the grade all the time, to doing things for their own sake. Of course the writer never saw it the way I see it, but a bit of Kantian rationality really does my heart good. I liked the way they side-stepped the principal for most of the film, and this classic line from Jack Black...

I know I'm not a real teacher, but your kids are amazing. If they were my kids, I'd be proud of all of them. In fact, I'm proud of all of them. Every single one of these kids touched me. And I know, I touched all of them, too.

That line was just so wrong on so many levels...

In any case, the strongest thing going for the movie is its ability to make you suspend your disbelief. Some people would probably wonder how it was possible for Dewey Finn to get away with the things he did, but apparently, the movie was set up in such a way that it simply made sense. Of course, having Dewey's former band win the contest was to make the film more believable, but their performance was nowhere near half as good as the kids' number, by any standards. Still, it was all believable how he pulled it off, and how the parents were prevented from lynch mobbing Dewey for taking their kids to BotB after having been exposed as a fraud.

The comedy was well-written and witty, and any rock fanboy would love all the references found in the film. I myself, and I'm far from a true blue rock fanboy, enjoyed most of the references.

Makes me feel a lot better about being a teacher in the future...

Marcelle's "Enjoyment" Evaluation: A+
Marcelle's "Critical" Evaluation: C+

.:The First And The Only Time Thus Far:.

Abby and myself on graduation day...

I don't think that a moment like this would come again in perhaps a lifetime. In all the years Abby and I have been friends, this was the only time we ever had a picture together...

Ah, well. I know she'll be starting work soon. I hope she does well.

We Don't Need No Education:.

In the tradition of Great Teacher Onizuka, the Monster Movie Premiere last night was for Jack Black's top-grossing film “School of Rock”. I'd write a review about it next time, but let me just point out that unlike most films about kids, this one isn't the least bit annoying. In fact, the film is downright lovable, as there were no true antagonists in the story, yet the friction was already quite apparent. Truth be told, while I would definitely have to stay within some bounds as a teacher, that doesn't deny the fact that I still can do something that would make a difference... ah, well. That's counting my chickens before my eggs hatch, though.

Catch this film. It's really great.

Classes were fine. I like Dr. Dy's class on Chinese Philosophy not only for the lectures themselves, but also for the nice session of Shibashi after our breaks. It's some sort of simplified Tai Chi that really helps me ease my stress... that, in addition to calligraphy, are two things that I foresee hinder me from ever teaching this subject...

Dr. Dy taught for my Philosophy on the Human Person Seminar class, though. That was fun, as we started talking about the phenomenology of love according to Max Schaler, plus the discussions we had on morality and values.

Marcelle: So would a woman in her entirety be the value, and her looks be the "good" that you speak of, sir?

Dr. Dy: No. The woman in her entirety, including her looks, would be the value. The value of a human being. The good is elsewhere, inasmuch as two friends have a value of friendship. Whether or not they stay friends after years does not undermine friendship as a value, but undermines the both of them.

That, I can dig. In effect, values are immutable for Schaler, whereas goods can change. A person's looks, emotions and such, are all fleeting things. The value of friendship, or love, on the other hand, simply does not change, regardless of who has this friendship or love.

.:A Song To Contemplate Upon:.

Uninvited
by Alanis Morissette

Like anyone would be
I am flattered by your fascination with me
Like any hot-blooded woman
I have simply wanted an object to crave
But you, you're not allowed
You're uninvited
An unfortunate slight

Must be strangely exciting
To watch the stoic squirm
Must be somewhat hard telling
To watch them burn me shepherd
But you you're not allowed
You're uninvited
An unfortunate slight

Like any uncharted territory
I must seem greatly intriguing
You speak of my love like
You have experienced love like mine before
But this is not allowed
You're uninvited
An unfortunate slight

I don't think you unworthy
I need a moment to deliberate.

The more I think it over, the more I feel how much I really am in tune with this song. Yes, I'm uninvited, not merely in the literal sense. People who claim to be my friends, most of them just say that because it's a nice thing to hear. I know I've used this exact song again, but the meaning is heightened right now. Because I've had more than my fair share of "friends" who say I mean something to them. But in truth, I'm not allowed. I'm uninvited. An unfortunate slight.

Ergo, let's forget the good times, and recall the bad, true or otherwise. Let's forget that it was our fault, and only drop it all as though we don't owe any reparation. In fact, let us delude ourselves into thinking that they deserve to crawl back to us and we are merely being magnanimous to them.

Easy for us to do. It's not we who have a hole in our souls.

.:To Fun And To Frolic: The Unsent Series, Part X:.

If you have no idea what the Unsent Series is about, check my archives. It ought to give you a good idea.

Dear Fun and Frolic,

Marcelle has known you for the longest time, and he's always looked up to the both of you. It's hard to imagine his mornings without so much as thinking about how you're doing, how things are going, and so forth. It was a dream come true to be spending so much time in your company, to be hearing from you, knowing the things that you know, doing the things that you do.

But you see, Marcelle can't help but feel that he hasn't seemed to have earned your trust after all these years. You still keep things from him, and you still refuse to take him into your confidence, in spite of his fierce loyalty and reliability to the both of you all this time. That saddens him. That hurts him. After all, what harm would it be to at the very least regard the one person able to put up with the both of you in that way for so long without seeing a penny for it? Is it so difficult for you to trust Marcelle, as though his iniquities are so great and ominous?

Marcelle begs you to reconsider. Not unless of course, if after all this time, you never really saw Marcelle as a friend to begin with.

I have this friend who I'm sure you all know, but I really can't divulge his identity. For the longest time, rumors of his sexuality have been around (I, for one, don't find this an issue. So what if he's gay?), and while people like me, who's known him for the longest time do happen to believe he's not, people really close to him have been dropping some hints otherwise.

The topic was about marriage, and whether or not he was the marrying type. Lo and behold, one of his friends asked him what country he hoped to be married in, then quickly covered it up by saying the venue might be just for sightseeing and all. We know where he was trying to steer that conversation to. In fact, two of his closest friends, when referring to his S.O. that he seems to try to not mention out loud always play the pronoun game. That is, no "he" or "she" is ever mentioned. It's always this guy's love interest, or this guy's whatchamacallit. If he were straight, would they consciously be doing that? I, for one, am inclined to believe more and more that he's gay, but I think that coming out of the closet would not be good for him.

But if that were the case, I think he ought to lay off on the gay jokes. That'd make him look bad the minute his secret comes out.

I'm sorry, my friend. I just call it as I see it.

You know who he is? Oh. I'm sure you do. Care to hazard a guess?

Main source: Lords Of Pain.

.:A Bad Marketing Gimmick:.

Hey! WWE is out to market some Power Pasta in Canada? Here's what a former top employee had to say...

Why does that seem like old news to me?

.:Justified At Backlash:.

It appears that the WWE has pulled quite an act of redemption in Edmonton last Sunday night at Backlash. We had a repeat of the triple threat match between Shawn Michaels, HHH, and Chris Benoit for the main event of the night, after what was, for the most part, a mediocre program, barring Orton vs. Foley, Flair vs. Shelton, and a Jericho vs. Trish and Christian match that was nothing we haven't seen them do before. Ergo, to save the pay-per-view from falling into disgrace, this match just had to be great.

Of course, I'm not too fond of the fact that this turned into a triple threat match, but Benoit retaining it made it all right with me. While I admittedly find him boring on the mic, he is not so inside the ring, where to me, it counts. At the same time, a short reign for him after winning "the big one" would speak volumes of the esteem the WWE has in him, in Canada, of all places, where he hails from originally. If Shawn were to win the match, they'd have a riot in their hands. The Canadian fans hate Shawn Michaels with a passion. If HHH won, then so much for Blade III, and so much for all the props he got for putting Shelton Benjamin over. Plus, we've seen him with the title for so long already...

Anyways, it was the ending of the match that made this sweet. Benoit made Shawn Michaels tap out in Canada, with referee Earl Hebner, the other guy involved in the Montreal incident, calling it. The ending was dramatic, and if anything, I felt that it was a very nice, sneaky "apology" for the Montreal incident, truth be told. This ending was seven years in the making, and I love it.

What I don't love, though, is the many people I've been noticing hating on Mick Foley, though. For some strange reason, people seem to not merely not like the guy, but even hate him. Why? Because he's no musclebound hoss like Brock Lesnar? Because he's no technical wonder like Benoit? Because he's no jumping bean like Rey-Rey? Big deal! Mick Foley connects with the average WWE fan like only a select few can. His electricity on the microphone, the insane bumps he takes, more than make up for his perceived shortcomings in the skill department, of which he has a rudimentary amount. Moreover, he's one of the very few people who would willingly come out of retirement just to put some new, young up and comer over. I hate Randy Orton personally, but you have to admit, Foley must think pretty highly of him to do the clean job for him like that.

As far as I'm concerned, you don't have to like Mick Foley for you to respect him. As long as you do, I think I'd be cool with your not liking him.

.:Now This Is Interesting:.

Oh, yeah. More wrestling news:

The Raw brand talent had an extremely difficult time crossing back into the United States after a very successful house show in Monterrey, Mexico on Saturday night. Apparently there was some kind of problem with all of the paperwork; therefore the talent did not have the proper credentials to regain admittance into the US.

After several hours, officials were able to get the situation cleared up, however, with an early show yesterday in Laredo, Texas the entire Raw crew was said to be very irritated and physically exhausted.

I wonder how the RAW people were talking about the delay?

Raw Staffer #1: Why won't they let us back in?

Raw Staffer #2: I don't know. Maybe our papers are out of order or something....

Raw Staffer #1: Wait a minute? Did we get rid of RVD? He's probably sneaking some of his '5-Star Stash' past the guards!!

Raw Staffer #2: No no. We traded him to Smackdown like 3 weeks ago.

Raw Staffer #1: Oh good. I'm sure glad no one like that is on the Raw roster.

Raw Staffer #2: Me too.

Grandmasta Sexay: Hey guys, what's up? I wonder why they aren't letting us back in the USA.

Raw Staffer #1: Maybe it's paperwork or something.....

If you didn't get that, well, that's too bad. I could explain the joke, but it wouldn't be funny anymore...

.:A Creative Meeting?:.

... and yeah, check THIS LINK out for even more comedy gold...

.:My Hopes Are Dashed... Again:.

So yes, I'm taking Chinese Philosophy for this summer, and yes, I do love the subject, even if there're only four Chinese girls in the class (A new one popped up yesterday.). I really appreciate the subject and want to teach it. However, I realized one good reason why I don't suppose I'd be teaching that subject anytime soon, even with, say, a Ph. D....

... Calligraphy.

You see, to teach Chinese Philosophy, you not only have to know the matter-at-hand, you also have to have a flair for the language, the writing styles, and such. In short, you have to write Chinese. The closest I can write Chinese is when I try to write plain English in cursive. That ought to tell you how bad my handwriting can get. I got line of 7's in my writing in grade school, and line of 7's in my Drafting in high school. Grace, who's trying to be a doctor, writes infinitely better than I'd ever hope to be. For crying out loud, I can't even read my old diary in my own writing!!! :)

With that being said, I guess I have to drop my aspirations of ever teaching Chinese prett... I mean, philosophy. The former, I think I can still do. :)

.:Weird:.

Met up with Grace last night, as she gave me something from her trip to Bulacan last weekend. I was joking about her regarding pinipig (Let's not ask what the jokes are about....), but I mentioned that I like eating the stuff, but haven't done so in years. She surprised me with some, although I was half-expecting it already. She also had some really sweet pineapples as well... that was great.

In any case, her brother seems to have a new girlfriend already, and this is where the weirdness ensues. My dream last night involved me being just friends with Grace already. We weren't together anymore, but we were okay. Then, she introduce me to her new main squeeze: her brother's ex. Throughout the dream, it never occurred to me how odd that setup seemed, but as soon as I woke up, I realized that I have just had an exceedingly weird dream...

Ah, well.

.:A Chance Encounter (Warning: A Vituperation.):.

I ran into Mr. Limpoco yesterday. The guy is my teacher for Science 10 way back in second year college. We had an interesting talk. He's apparently going for his doctorates already come next term, hopefully. He's had a few nice stories about having taken Fr. Ferriols, so I guess I should make it a point to sit in on his class soon.

Like most people, he was mostly intrigued about why I decided to enter teaching instead of playing up on my advertising background, power trip, pull some strings, and make it big someplace I have "people in high places" I can talk to.

Sometimes, I myself wonder.

My stepdad once told me that the time will come when I graduate from college, and I'll find out for myself exactly who my real friends are: the ones who will still stand the test of time from beyond the academic world all the way to this so-called "real" world, which isn't any more "real", when you think about it, really. With my little blogging community slowly grinding away yet winding down all the same, I can't help but think back to this. A friend of mine (Maybe a former friend, I wouldn't know.) is set to have this little get-together soon, and as if there's any cause for surprise, Marcelle is not going to be around. Is it anyone's fault? Not really. Then again, it just goes to show you how deep the roots of these friendships Marcelle managed to build really go. It's easy to forget about him: to lose him in the shuffle, regardless where he stands in your life, regardless how great the memories are.

This is not to say I'm indulging in a bout of self-pity again. But I just can't help but have that nagging feeling that yes, it appears as though everyone else graduated. I'm still in the academe, I'm still trying to "make the grade", and few of the people whom I called friends are people I still believe I could regard as so. Ironically, most of the friends I could keep with little problem are friends who weren't even my classmates. People like the OBers, Sacha, Grace, Chico and Delle, and so forth. If anything, I can't help but feel I unconsciously realigned my friendships. Most of the friends I consistently talk to now are people on my LJ or weblog. It makes me quite a bit unnerved, truth be told.

Everyone has moved on, and in the back of the heads of most of my so-called friends whom I speak to, they think I'm just stuck because I can't move forward. The academe was kind to me. Why go into the big, bad, scary "real world", knowing I don't have the advantages I have in the academe? Codswallop and balderdash to that. I've been working in RX for the longest time. I've had experience in both events and productions, plus the fact that I could pull strings if I chose to.

But I choose not to.

I want to do what I choose to do, yet I still feel lost in the shuffle. For all I know, everyone else is just feeling the same way and isn't so vocal about it. For all I know, it's just me. There's just this feeling that most everyone else seems to have moved on, and I'm little more than an afterthought to them. People whom I thought really meant a lot to me and I to them likewise, appear to be showing that the latter was never the case. It was just I who treasured them. It was just I who took the initiative to wish them well, to ignore countless hurtful things that they've done to Marcelle, yadda, yadda.

So am I putting myself over as a saint? Eff that. That's not what I meant. What I simply meant is that all in all, I'm disappointe. So many choices I could've taken, and yet, in the end, the people who truly matter? Not "friends" I've had for years, but out-of-the-blue new people who just popped up in your life like Tsumenki or Jonsi. Old friends are gold, new friends are silver? Ha! It's not how long. It's how well.

.:Waxing Philosophical Again?:.

A story I heard today...

Once there was a mouse who lived in an underground cave. Never having seen the outside world, he once heard a strange murmuring sound in a part of the cave he had never been to before. The sound seemed to be coming from above, yet, he had no idea what it was. Unknown to him, this was the soothing sound of a waterfall. The other mice told him to pay no heed to it, but he was downright adamant in finding the source of that sound.

And so one day, he escaped from the cave. He travelled aimlessly, until he found a rabbit whom he asked about the murmuring sound.

"I know that sound," the rabbit said. "I can take you there, but I am blind. If you give me one of your eyes so I could see, then I will take you there."

The mouse gave one eye to the rabbit, then rode on the back of the rabbit until they got to the edge of a forest.

"I am sorry," began the rabbit. "I cannot go further than this, because rabbits are forbidden to go beyond the forest. Fret not: you are near."

The mouse walked aimlessly again, until this time, he found a frog.

"Dear frog," said the mouse. "I have heard this soothing murmuring sound, and I could not but help to want to see the source of this sound."

The frog replied. "I know the source of that sound. Sadly, I am blind."

The mouse gave his other eye to the frog, and the frog took him all the way atop a small hill that views the waterfalls. The frog beams in joy as he describes how beautiful a sight the waterfalls are, and how the sound they make brings such tranquility to his soul. The poor mouse could only listen, for getting to see what he has dreamed of the most has cost him his sight.

After an hour, the frog leaves him to go home. The now-blind mouse hears a flapping sound above him, and then feels as though he is flying. In a moment, he is laid down someplace soft, and then he simply falls unconscious. The next moment, he feels that he is flying again, only this time, he can see. He can see the waterfalls in their glory, and it is he who is flapping his wings now.

Ask yourself: in the two occasions that the mouse gave his eye to the rabbit and then the frog, what was the difference? And then ask yourself: was it worth it, even if he were not to see the waterfalls at all (Unlike the way the story ended.). And then, ask yourself: what really happened to the mouse at the end?

Ah, yes. Words are our vessel to enlightenment. That much is true. Yet words, like any vessel, are of little importance when their purpose has been met. We would no longer need a pen if we have written what we wanted. We would no longer need to study something if we already know fully what it is, save for further knowledge, which belies one's knowing it fully.

Unfortunately, I am yet to find a man who has found no more need for words because he has simply understood. Harder still, if I were to find this man, how could I speak to him?

I'll leave this song for you to think upon...

Hintay
by Sugarfree

Mabilis ang ikot ng mundo
Sa kakasabay nahihilo ako
Isang hakbang sa limang patlang
May panahon, pagkakataong

REFRAIN:
Nawawala kapag di hinawakan
Dudulas kapag di iningatan, hoy, hoy, hoy, hoy


CHORUS:
Hintay, hintayin mo ako
Mahirap nang maiwan dito
Hintay, hintayin ako
Dahan dahan lang hoy


Mabilis ang galaw ng oras
Sa kakasabay nauubos ang lakas
Bilis na mahirap sabayan
Kung may panahon, pagkakataong

Repeat REFRAIN, then CHORUS

I'll... catch you guys next time. I don't know what just came over me... I'd get my head out of the clouds and talk a bit less vaguely about things like Aquinas and dialogue and Dr. Ibana's lecture when I get around to it...

.:Omigosh! Classes!:.

GRACE:



Good fortune follows from firm but flexible action, to produce a happy time for you... Remember that adornment is beautiful but not essential, so ensure the reality of the future is not hidden by the 'rose-coloured' tinge of the present.

No, that's not a quiz. I'll explain that in a while...

In any case, as you all probably know, I was absent from my classes last Thursday, since silly old me was completely unaware that classes began that day. Ergo, since I discovered the fact only Friday noon, I also missed my daily three-hour class. It's sort of a blessing in disguise, anyway, as I got treated for my particular malady...

So there I was, then, beating the clock to get to Dr. Manny Dy's class. It's a mixed class of both people taking it as a free elective and M.A. students, so I was in good company. If you're still wondering what class it is, then let me tell you (Wow! This is a surprise, isn't it?): Chinese Philosophy. I now seriously have a new class that I would want to teach in the near future. And no, it's not because of the type of students I'd get, contrary to what Abby suspects. It's more because I love this subject, and I've had quite a bit of Chinese history already with Mr. Cheng-Chua...

Nonetheless, Dr. Manny Dy is really a good teacher, and fun as well. I particularly enjoy hearing his funny insights into Chinese culture, and his very eloquent way of explaining the way the Chinese Philosophical mind goes in contrast to the European Philosophical mind. It's a change of pace, and a virtual 180-degree turn from all my Philosophy with the likes of Kant and Descartes, who work from the categories of the mind and the self, whereas the Chinese sensibility works from a pressuposition of immersedness.

He even has a value-added goal for us: to learn how to pray the "Our Father" in Chinese. How cool can that be?

In any case, let me reiterate: don't worry much about my classmates. I only have three female Chinese classmates, and one of them is Vida, Earl's (Peppy's college blockmate.) girlfriend...

The discussion was fun. We were talking about the history of Chinese Philosophy, and we even tackled the book burning issue. And then, Dr. Dy mentioned that the book of Changes, or the I Ching, was spared from this.

The I Ching is a book of permutations of changes, with each change having a particular meaning. Moreover, the I Ching is the most widely read among the Five Books (Shu Ching, Shih Ching, I Ching, Likan 1, Likan 2, Ch'un Ch'iu). According to the Sacred Texts website:

The book was traditionally written by the legendary Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi (2953-2838 B.C.). It is possible that the the I Ching originated from a prehistoric divination technique which dates back as far as 5000 B.C. Futher commentaries were added by King Wen and the Duke of Chou in the eleventh century B.C.

An I Ching interpretation is performed by making six binary decisions (a hexagram). This is called 'casting the I Ching'. These are written down as a stack of six solid or broken lines. This was traditionally done either by tossing yarrow stalks or coins, although there is no reason why the hexagrams can't be generated by some other means (such as a computer program).

There are actually four possible values for each of the lines; the two on/off values, and a line which changes from on to off or vice versa. Thus one cast of the I Ching can generate two different hexagrams, which adds depth to the interpretation. The sophistication of this method has not escaped modern interpretation, and the four-valued logic has been compared to the biochemistry of DNA amino acids. How a Neolithic shamans' divination technique presaged the basic logic of the human genome is one of the ageless mysteries.

We used the coins method to attempt one permutation in order to divinate what the best course of action to take. A female student volunteered to do so...

The coins method works like this: you have three coins, and you flip them all at the same time. Record the number of heads and tails, then do it five more times. The six combinations will form a hexagram, and this hexagram is what will be referred to in the I Ching, of which Dr. Dy had several copies.

So the girl flipped the coins six times, and she got Hexagram # 22. What does Hexagram # 22 indicate? That's right: GRACE. That explains the picture at the start of the post, and the explanation below is lifted right from the online I Ching I Googled for.

I don't know with you, but given the fact that there are a total of sixty-four different hexagrams in the I Ching, I'm amazed that the girl came up with this. It was quite a throwback to me, realizing how every single thing we do is half chance, so we really can't be too hard or too proud on ourselves. At the same time, my getting to know Grace likewise hinged on chance. If you're wondering what that's about, ask me real nice and I'll tell you about it. :)

There's a more detailed explanation of Grace in the I Ching, but I'll just leave it in my LJ. Check it out, if you're interested. It's pretty long, though. :)

.:Random Tidbits:.

Apparently, Sacha is starting on Aikido. That'd be a sight, seeing her rolling around, and breaking people's arms. I suppose she won't need her pepper spray any longer...

Grace is currently headed home from Bulacan. I think her classmates had a post-graduation outing there, and it was overnight...

RAW Deal tournament last Saturday, and another one this coming Saturday. Really interesting stuff...

.:Another Visual Gag:.

An office worker got a pen stuck inside the printer. He started to try and remove the pen, but he didn't have enough time for that, so he just put a note on the printer telling folks not to use it and then report it to the Help Desk. So he grabbed a piece of paper and scrawled on it. About 20 minutes later, one of my techs comes in laughing and says he was just in the lobby, saw a piece of paper on a printer and went to investigate.

Here's what he found. Sometimes things don't always come out the way you want them to...

I'll be on air with Chico and Delle, 6-9 in the morning, tomorrow, for the Morning Rush!

Anyone crazy enough to wake up that early, see you there! :)

Did classes begin already? Uh-oh... I might've missed my own classes... that's not good...

.:Heard On Thursday:.

I was a guest last night for Raffy Reyes’ show, “Heard On Thursdays”. We were talking about The Passion, and it was pretty interesting how the discussion went. All in all, there were seven guests: two priests, four members of PETA, and myself. Truth be told, I was quite the odd man out, I was the only one who wasn’t too squeamish about the violence in the film, having been quite the veteran with Fudoh and Kill Bill already. That, to me, wasn’t really so big a deal. It was more guilt-inflicting to realize that whatever was happening onscreen, I was partially responsible for it as well. Ah, well.

We mostly concurred with one another, as far as the impact of the film was concerned. We all found the film good, but we figured that the impact of the film was not really so powerful as though it would spawn a new breed of anti-Semitics, unless one was already predilected to be an anti-Semitic to begin with. It could only embolden those who already were, not make new ones, really. Lots of hype and hubbub over the film, but it was pretty obvious some weren’t true. For example, Satan wasn’t really exclusively hovering around the Jews. He also did the rounds with the Romans.

We realized that being a very charged topic, the Passion cannot help but step on some politically incorrect ground. Satan as male, female, or androgynous would all have their respective backlashes from the rednecks, the females, and the homosexuals. Like Jesus Christ Superstar’s Afro-American Judas, I wouldn’t be surprised if this dialogue ended up being true…

Marcelle: We can’t avoid it at all. What if they found out that the actor portraying Judas was actually Chilean? Would they now say that they have something against Chileans?

Raffy: That’s right- but wait… Chilean?

Gay: Of all nationalities…

First one that came to mind. My bad.

Amusingly enough, I saw the film only that morning. How ironic, as the PETA members were telling me that they didn’t think so. We were of course mortified to realize how pirated the Passion was. Of all films to rip off… damn.

I especially liked the commentaries of the priests, especially Fr. Amir, when it came to the symbolisms. According to him, the raven pecking out the “bad” thief’s eyes was less of a symbol of Christ’s vindictiveness (But you have to admit, the writer played to the crowd on that. Everyone wanted some comeuppance by then, I’m sure, and they got it.), and more of the thief’s blindness to faith. Nice analysis.

Raffy found it funny that I was an amateur film critic as a Comm graduate and taking up studies in Philo, which meant I was very “qualified” to speak on the topic. In this case, one might say that Comm and Philo was the “perfect combination”, so to speak.

The discussion was lively, but someone wanted to throw a spanner in the whole thing by asking an incendiary question. This texter was saying the Passion proved that the Holy Trinity is untrue, as Christ was talking to God, so they can’t be the same. And the point of that is? As a pluralist, I know by now that not everything is contained in the Bible, insomuch as the American Constitution does not contain all the laws of the country. With that being said, the Bible does not need to say a thing about the Trinity for it to be true. Dinosaurs are true. The Bible said nothing about that. Why even start a very divisive argument like that, neh?

Raffy was apprehensive about the film on the grounds that it did not focus much on the resurrection. When I pointed out that Mel Gibson could make a sequel for it anyway, he was even more apprehensive, considering that it may be just as violent… heh.

Overall, it was fun. I loved guesting on the show, and it was quite a pat on the back for one of the priests to tell me that they really appreciated my insights, and even be thanked for it. More of the same was given to me by the PETA members… really heart-warming…

.:Movie Review: The Passion Of The Christ:.

The Passion Of The Christ:.
Don’t read this if you don’t want me to spoil the story for you…

First of all, I would gladly skip the story and make this a shorter than usual review because I can assume by now that I don’t need to recount the story as you’ve either seen the film already, or you already know what happened to Christ, anyway. What Mel Gibson did for this film that no other Christ films has done is to simply amplify and point out to us as vividly as it can how much Christ really went through. The blood and the gore was there not to make us happy, but to make us realize that Christ’s sacrifice was, by no means, simple. He was God, yes, but He was also irrevocably human, inasmuch as Neo shared that distinction, but I digress.

The Passion hits hard and hits instantly. As early as the first five or so minutes, the pain already comes into play, and the squeamish would begin wincing at the film. Mel Gibson masterfully managed to depict the pain in so vivid a way that we don’t lose sight of the fact that this is a human being, God though he may be, who is being beaten raw to no end. Even though we know the story for the most part, a few of us were just hoping that the pain would end sooner than it was supposed to, especially at the scourging, which had more than the generally acknowledged thirty-nine lashes.

The film is loaded with symbolisms, but I’m sure you’ve read about most of it already, from the small miracle that happened when Jesus’ cross was flipped over (He floated.), to the twisted Madonna and Child version of Satan while walking across the screen at one point. I would have to say that the symbolisms were used to good effect, and did not feel the least bit out of context, unlike some of the symbols used in The Matrix series.

I loved the characters, for the most part. Mary's subdued acting was great and true to form, lest she go crazy over not restraining her feelings. The actress there also portrayed Mother Teresa, so you know she knows a thing or two about character acting. Mary Magdalene was fine, and well-cast. I especially liked Caiaphas' demeanor as well as Simon of Cyrene's ironic reference to being "an innocent man carrying a condemned man's burden". Jesus Christ "sold" the pain very well and realistically. All in all, the cast did their job more than adequately.

However, there is one gripe that can be held against the film validly, and this gripe is fatal. A film of this magnitude, giving this treatment to the greatest story ever told, can and will make a lot of viewers miss the point. I’ve said this before on the air, and I’ll say it again here: no matter how good and how vivid the message is, if the only thing people think after watching it was that the violence was so bad, or that it was so exaggerated that it was unrealistic, the moment people stop thinking that this is a movie about Christ and His Passion, then so much for all of the work.

It’s a sad fact: people tend to lose sight of the point, and this film was clearly no exception. Everyone was too busy picking up this or that opinion they read about the film, and using it to analyze the film, and it got to a point where people stopped remembering why this movie is there in the first place: to vividly remind us that Christ died for us. If you’re not Christian, it is to remind us that this is a good man who had a good life and died with dignity. This is not a film to make us squeamish, nor is it a teaser to Kill Bill vol. 2. Unfortunately, the more that people see it as such, the more that I realize that this film, while it is undoubtedly good, is simply not for everyone.

With that in mind, I implore anyone who has yet to see this film: if you will, please, don’t lose the goshdarned point. If you've already seen it and you already have, I highly suggest you find the point. Otherwise, this film would have sadly been a failure.

Marcelle’s Evaluation: A-/A

.:Explosive Questions:.

The Morning Rush yesterday was rife with classic moments. The topic at hand that day was, “The Top 10 Explosive Questions”. Debates ensued about stuff like how the Bible could account for the dinosaurs (It couldn't. Its writers were literary writers, not paleontologists.), to whether one is to scrunch or fold his toilet paper (Brad was extolling the virtues of scrunching to me off the air when I got there.). Brad's friend, Matt (Whose family name, according to Chico, is “Amboc”.), was also there...

While Chico was out at the start of one of the Hot 10's, Brad tried to imitate him by holding his nose and making his voice more high-pitched. Chico got there, and then retaliated by imitating Goofy and saying that he's Brad, and he's from Australia... funny stuff.

Here's some of the interesting dialogue...

Chico: At number 3, from No Name- “How many one-night stands have you had?”

Brad: Nice question. After all, 98% of all people who have had some already also have tried one-night stands. The other 2% are liars.

Delamar: But I didn't have one-night... oh, wait!

The horse's mouth, indeed, neh, Delle?

And then there was the one where Chico had to do a Touchmobile tag for a song over the intro...

Delamar: *off the air* Chico... the Touchmobile tag.

Chico: *on the air, with no script in hand* Laaa... aaa... rraaa...

Brad: *off the air* Nine years in radio, and all you can come up with is “Laaa, aaa, rraaa”?

As if Delle getting caught by her own words weren't enough, Chico had to do more of the same. Do remember that he has an S.O. right now, so...

Brad: How about you, Chico? How would you answer that? If you had the chance to cheat on your S.O., and nobody would ever know, and you'd do it only once, would you?

Chico: Ideally, I wouldn't, but realistically, maybe.

Brad: And nobody's listening to us say that, right?

The way Chico's eyes widened over the shock of having said that on the air, knowing his S.O. is most likely listening, was priceless. His eyes must've widened to twice their usual size at that point...

.:Now We Know:.

I finally know why I was under the weather this past week...

I had amebiasis, but I have no idea where I got it from. In any case, I already went to the hospital for it, and I got treated for it... but I need to take some medicine for a week. Thing is, Grace accompanied me to it, after we watched “The Passion Of The Christ” (Movie review in a separate post.). I owe Grace big time. She was keeping me company throughout the three hours I was there in the Lourdes E.R. She was her usual bubbly self, telling me stories left and right, but then there was a point where she was really ribbing me by not answering any of my questions when I was asking her some...

Marcelle: Ano ba talaga yung hitsura nung bago ng kuya mo? (Exactly how does the new [girlfriend] of your [elder] brother look like?)

Grace: May hitsura naman, hindi mo lang alam kung maganda o masama yung hitsura... (She has some looks, you just don't know if it's good or bad looks...)

Marcelle: Eh?

Grace: So there.

Marcelle: Grace, eto limang piso. (Grace, here's five pesos.

Grace: Bakit? (Why?)

Marcelle: Bumili ka nga ng makakausap mo! (Go buy yourself someone to talk to!)

But seriously, I'm grateful to Grace for being around me. As usual, “saved by Grace”...

.:Last Night's On-Air Foray:.

I'll talk about it some other time, bundled with my review of “The Passion Of The Christ”, as the on-air bit was about the Passion...

Tonight, Heard On Thursdays, 9-10 in the evening (Kaya nga "tonight", dava?), they'll be talking about the Passion of the Christ.

Yours truly will be one of the guests. :) Catch me tonight, RX 93.1!

.:Evolution Is A Mystery:.

Registration was a relative breeze as I didn't have to fall in line for anything at all yesterday. Things went smoothly, so it wasn't long before I was hanging around Hobby Haven already. Funny thing about it is that I was playing quite a deal of RAW Deal yesterday. First, Peppy and I were playing from the starters of Stacy and Sable. Then, I built Evolution, reconstructed RVD sans the cards Evo needed, then I ran a tutorial for Jason on RAW Deal. I can tell he's going to get somewhere in this game. He already managed to do well with my Evolution deck, considering how self-destructive the deck can be, burning through itself thrice as fast as most other decks.

In any case, after playing that for a while, I proceeded to play Diablo II, as my interest in SB 2 was quite depleted, thanks to sheer boredom. People were asking me if I tired of “hack 'n' slash” by now, but I don't think I have... I always loved Diablo on the PS, so Diablo II, which I was playing for the first time ever, is something I really am enjoying. Up next? Age of Empires and its sequels, I guess.

I sure disturbed Peppy with the segments of Fudoh that I showed him... I think he'd be talking about it already so I need not delve much into it. :)

.:Second Thoughts?:.

I'm beginning to think I need people who know to give me specific terms on compensation for teachers. The more my parents drop hints at me that I've been wasting my whole college life by going into teaching Philosophy, the more I realize that they have a point.

Forget stoking my ego by having everyone tell me how “amazing” it is that I'm teaching Philosophy. After all the amazement, these jabronis will be making more money than I will be by their “mundane” jobs in advertising, anyway. While money is secondary to me, I still need some. Ergo, if I'm going to have problems getting, say, a car, or a small house, for myself by teaching, then second thoughts can and will exist. There is fulfillment in teaching for me, no question about it. However, providing for my future family in the form of car and shelter is also fulfillment...

It's a bit disheartening that while my parents are supportive of what I do, they'd still naturally rather want me in, say, advertising, or at least in broadcasting. The more saddening thing is, if I were in their place, I know I'd prolly do the same thing and tell my children the same thing. It's a fact of life: the times are hard, and if they're not yet so tough for you, they're going to only get tougher. With that being said, I'm left to reconsider my options. My mom didn't want me to get ceramic braces because they cost too much (Around an extra 60,000 pesos.), and I have to admit, there's no guarantee I'd get modeling gigs all the time, either, so yes, I'd have problems with coming up with that amount on my own if I go for it... guess I have to wait for six months or so to sign the contract...

The dilemmas of the realistic idealist...

.:Psychoanalsis When I Least Needed It:.

I was really sick yesterday, which seems to be brought about by both indigestion and a lack of sleep. With that being said, I had a nagging feeling that I was anemic at the time, so I really felt the urge to go and drop by the infirmary for it. When I got there...

Nurse: What seems to be the problem?

Marcelle: I've been feeling really sick. As though I were really weak and out of energy.

Nurse: Why? What did you eat?

Marcelle: I don't think it had anything to do with that. I think it's more that I've been so insomniac lately.

Nurse: Insomniac? That's not good. Why? Why are you so underslept?

Marcelle: I don't know. I feel anemic, even.

Nurse: Really? You need a blood check for that. What year are you by the way?

Marcelle: I just graduated, but I'm taking graduate studies now...

Nurse: No wonder you're such an insomniac! You just graduated and you already have so many things on your mind! Why don't you just get some more rest, you deserve it! Try to bring back the way you used to be... the less worrisome you.

Marcelle: Uh, yeah... thanx.

Ma'am, I sincerely appreciate the advice, but... couldn't you just have handed me some vitamins instead of a couch session? :)

On the other hand, and I guess this would make people like Sach happy, but in addition to all the programs Peppy installed on my computer that I asked him to, he was kind enough to take the initiative to install Open Office in play of Microsoft Office, and then, E Macs. I, being just a geeky non-geek have absobloodylutely no idea what I'm supposed to do with it... that's why I had to turn to help. Guess what e macs' concept of “help” is...

I am the psychotherapist. Please, describe your problems. Each time you are finished talking, type RET twice.

What am I supposed to do here?

Why do you say what are you supposed to do there?

Because I'm not a geek.

Is it because you are not a geek that you came to me?

Hell yes.

I would appreciate it if you would watch your tongue!

Sorry.

Can you elaborate on that?

Whatever.

Perhaps you could continue.

No, not really.

Earlier you said you are not a geek?

Yes, I did.

Maybe your plans have something to do with this.

More psychotherapy than I particularly needed for the day...

.:A Nice Encounter:.

I finally got to meet up with Jonsi just before he left for San Fran. In any case, it was good. I just wrapped up my registration, then I scheduled an appointment with my dentist (Which I missed... heh.), but most importantly, I met up with Grace. She was nice enough to meet up with me at Centerpoint, where I racked up nine wins in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, among other things. It was nice, really.

Going to ADMU was a breeze, coming from Centerpoint. After all, the LRT station was just nearby. It didn't take much time for us to get to Ateneo, and then after Jonsi saw Glen off, we met up in the Caf, where we finally got the opportunity to talk with one another. Probably the first and last time we'd get to talk like that in person, as he'll be leaving the country by Saturday...

The conversation was fine. Nothing earthshaking, as our censorship body was in front of us, since Grace was with me. Seriously, though, I didn't have as much enthusiasm for Oriental pulchritude anymore since I graduated. Jonsi was mostly comparing notes with me, although I didn't quite buy into Camille Ng... in any case, it was okay. Grace even had a common acquaintance with Jonsi. Talk about a small world. Hope he'd be doing well when he goes to the States...

I also met Ma'am Sining's fiancee today, as they were both at the Caf. Nice guy, really. He also seems to have lost some weight from when I saw him in ma'am's pictures... still, it was fun, and it was almost embarrassing how she showered me with compliments like her “brilliant student who's now her colleague”... but it felt... warm and fuzzy... :)

.:Only Fools Are Sure:.

Three guesses who gave this shirt to me...

Grace was asking me about her lip gloss a while ago...

Grace: Marcelle, where's the lip gloss I gave you?

Marcelle: I left it somewhere in my room. You know how messy it is. But I'm sure it's there...

Grace: You sure? How sure are you? I'd feel really bad if you lost it.

Marcelle: I'm 100% sure!

Grace: *Brings out the lip gloss* I guess you won't be needing this, then? You're 100% sure you already have the lip gloss in your room, right?

Later on, I get the lip gloss from her, and she wants to borrow it from me. I ask her to kiss me on my left temple. All that without me stooping so she can reach me. She had to jump to reach me, but she was instead blowing air into my face as she was laughing while she was trying to do it... height differentials... heh.