There's one more picture, but that would have to wait...

.:07 April, 2004: A Long Drive:.

Apparently, traffic is quite an issue on the way to Baguio, once you hit Tarlac. I was trying to listen to Chico and Delamar on the radio during the morning, but it was apparent that their programming was really screwed up because of Radio Works... a third or so of their songs were being constantly cut by Radio Works traffic updates.

Nothing interesting, for the most part. The drive was nine hours long in total, including stopovers, but we hardly felt it because of the pacing. Barring the huge traffic jam in Tarlac, I do believe we were going at a pretty fine pace, really. I just hope I don't get another asthma attack again this time, as that seems to happen quite a lot to me when I'm up here. I really don't know what else to say about today. Rather non-happening, and I'm more interested in seeing classes begin soon enough. As soon as they do, I suppose I'd be more inclined to write stuff already. Admittedly, I really don't have too many stories to share about my family, as we're mostly mundane, to begin with.

.:08 April, 2004: Hardly Any Change:.

While I'd admit that things have been slightly different here in Baguio, there're still so many things I've been up to here that hasn't really been so different when I'm back home, sans daily blog updates (Which I sort of do by having these blog entries written down at the end of each day.). Nonetheless, of all places to head out to, the funny thing is that we're in Baguio, yet we still ended up going to SM Baguio, just so we can go online, and in my case, play a few arcade games. Obviously, I had a pretty good advantage on the challenges I had for Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and more so SNK vs. Capcom Chaos, as I really knew how to exploit the game system to my advantage. Most of my opponents fell for the Spiral-Cable-Cyclops triumvirate, as they tend to lock down my opponents. Lost only once, but it wasn't so bad, since it was a mistake on my part. I forgot to put Spiral first in line after putting Cable on my frontline against the computer.

SVC was even smoother for me. Nobody had any idea how to handle Tessa/Tabasa, as they seemed too inept at doing the block dash cancel, which is Tessa's most important move to open up her opponent for punishment. Her throw likewise sets up her opponents for an unblockable ghost projectile, which essentially means my opponent has to rethink his old school KOF/SF strategy and make sure the dash attack is never forgotten. Not even the Geese player could beat me, as he didn't know how to cheese his way to victory, and Tessa is one of the least likely to be beaten on jump-ins in the game, so all she has to do is look out for a fireball from Geese. If he tries to use attacks, one strong attack, and Tessa dashes into him...

Been doing a lot of checking online, but there really isn't much to see over the Holy Week. Still, it seems like my team on the OB Fantasy League is likely to win this season. Pretty interesting. I've been having lots of fun with Extreme Warfare Revenge as well, as I've been playing things safe enough so that I can actually be able to get some good wrestlers on board but still keep my personal favorites like the Undertaker around, although I did have a few problems as I lost two of my TV shows in the process. Now, I do believe things are looking up for my version of the WWE... I think I can be sure about how good the company will run right now...

We lunched out... literally. Nothing much, but I'm glad the binagoongan finally had green mangoes for me come dinner time... it made things a whole lot better. Ah, well. I ought to sleep more, though. This is my only chance to get some decent sleep for myself... I'm happy about EWR, though. Booker T is coming along nicely, and he'll be due for a title run soon enough for me... at 80 overness, I know he's not yet at the best level for being World Champ, but I'm quite certain that a couple more good feuds in his direction would certainly get him over as a top heel in quite a hurry. I have faith in the Booker man... on RAW, on the other hand, Chris Benoit is coming along quite nicely, though he doesn't really have a program to work with yet. Which means I should make Booker and Benoit work on one, soon enough. That'd get them along into their respecitve niches quite well. That's a good idea, although I'd be breaking RAW vs. Smackdown restrictions, of which this game is lax about anyway...

.:09 April, 2004: So Much For Good Friday:.

It's fairly obvious that Baguio is quite the exception to Good Friday. Apparently, a good chunk of the stores are owned by Muslims, which explains why Good Friday is hardly felt over here. This place is about as cold as Hades, though, and it's not doing my lungs too much good. Heh. Truth be told, my asthma has been acting up quite a bit on me here, and I hardly had any sleep to speak of thanks to my difficulty in breathing. No problem, nonetheless. I'm pretty certain I can achieve something soon enough, despite EWR. I really hope I could finish even just the poems before I go back home on Sunday... I got stuck in a creativity rut, so it seems.

.:Wowie!:.

Apparently, the rather interesting stuff that happened on Good Friday mostly revolved around the television...

For one, a rude awakening hit me for the plain and simple fact that it's "I Am Sam". Let's just say that this film has bad memories for me less with what happened on the movie screen, and more what happened while I was watching it. And this is not just bad memories of some person tryng to steal from me, or some fag (No offense meant to my friends who are gay...) trying to hit on me. What happened in this particular film almost led me to break up with Grace almost two years ago, and to this day, I still cannot help but feel exceddingly bad about it, to this day. I guess I'm not at a liberty to go into details (Even in LJ.), but leave me to say that I simply cannot help but scratch my head over the whole thing. Considering my choices at present... Oh, well.

And then we ended up watching an interesting film... it's a film series made for television on the life of Mother Teresa. I must say, that film is quite an inspiration, to say the least. I realize that it's not so easy to follow suit with Mother Teresa, but it really is a fine film, if only for how strong her faith truly happens to be. She simply didn't want to rely on the ways of the world to carry her through. To Hades with the organizations, the permits, the standard procedures. What mattered was she helped, and help she did. I can't help but feel how tough an act she is to follow, when she suddenly asked how much the bottle of Evian served to her happened to cost. Rather intimidatingly enough, when she heard that it was worth $3, she indignantly wished that this amount was instead spent on sending a child in Calcutta to school for one whole year. I guess in this time and age, we hardly give these things an afterthought, but it simply is the case that she has a point, in the face of our "trust in God, but lock your car" culture...

After having seen "George of the Jungle", though, my younger brother decided to watch the Wowow channel, which essentially made me realize what the hubbub over the channel happened to be all about. There was this petite but busty Japanese girl who was getting it on with a masked guy... err... okay, so it wasn't a consensual deal. Point is, as soon as the scene started getting interesting, my mom walked into the room, and Francis, expert that he was, switched channels right away. What reflexes. I guess as he was the only one at risk if he decided to slow down (Both me and my stepsister, Caren, were ready to pretend we were asleep...). Another girl was also in on the action, as was another. One looked like a not-so-pretty version of Madame Fire, but I assume you don't know her much. Another one was flat-out repulsive. She looks like a full-grown version of Mahal. Oh, well. Why don't we have that cable channel in my aunt's house? Hmmm... Wowow... Wowow... Wowow... what an interesting channel, I have to admit.

.:10 April, 2004: Black Saturday:.

Funny, really. In any case, we went to SM Baguio again. Went online for a short while to check on some stuff, and then I headed straight off to look for a couple of pairs of pants. Ah, well. My new camera's resolution is huge. Of course, as the file size of my pictures are about 1MB each, I guess I have to work on reducing the quality of these shots... I suppose we have to find a way to do that, as it seems to me that I've no means given my current software to do just that... heh. So I guess the pictures would really have to wait, then.

I can't wait for this vacation to end. My weblogging quality is soooo castrated right now.

.:11 April, 2004: Easter Sunday:.

I'm typing this the moment I got back from Baguio, and it's already 1:32 in the morning, Monday, actually. In any case, we had Easter mass at Agoo in La Union, where Cami and I had a short burst of text messages to one another. Silly me neglected to mention that it was her birthday yesterday, and given how she seems to be right now, I couldn't but be happy for her. She deserves all the good things coming to her right now, and she deserves the good job that'll come a-knocking at her door any moment now... I just feel that it's only a matter of time.

No big shake-ups here for the most part. Wowow was already the most interesting thing that happened, and I wasn't even able to buy any pasalubong. Anyways...

.:Of Viva Hot Men And Dreams:.

I have the original Viva Hot Babes VCD, which I must admit, was a flat-out disappointment, as I could not see enough shreds of talent among all the Hot Babes for me to actually put together a makeshift rag out of all the shreds. It's pretty obvious what one can expect when watching a rather tame Viva Hot Babes VCD... T&A, obviously. Most of the time, mere teasing of such. Still, it's no big deal, as it's actually an interesting point of consideration, to say the least. Let's just say that I really didn't like it, but that's the way it is.

And then came the Viva Hot Men.

Let's face it: you can expect these bastiches to be just as "conservative" as the Hot Babes are. The question is, what can they possibly show of in their video that would actually pique the curiosity of people? You see, that's precisely what makes me wonder about them. They obviously can't show off "the goods" (Bah Gawd, I can't believe I'm talking about this.), so what does one get? Rear shots? Navels? Muscular chests? Err... packaging? Considering this, I'd be surprised if their VCD would really fly, as this country is still extremely repressive of sex towards women, so I'd be surprised if I'd see oodles of women lining up to get this VCD. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised to see oodles of gay men going for it, but really...

I, for one, am curious what Viva intends to put out for a VCD on their so-called Hot Men. If it weren't for the price tag and for the fear of further leaving people with skewed notions about my masculinity, I would've gotten a VCD for myself just to find out how the Viva Hot Men VCD would actually go, as I'm pretty sure they can only take it so far... but I think I'll let discretion get the better part of my curiosity, lest I end up really freaking people out...

In other news, I had the weirdest dream a few nights ago. Forgot the premise, but it's as though I haven't seen Rowena in a long time, we've been really close, and then we just hugged the moment we met. I know it was an odd dream, but it wasn't so bad... not so bad at all. Rowena's a great friend...