Letter writing

Interviewer to 85 yr old bestfriends: i wanna talk about pop culture to you guys coz i know life is a little bit different when you were kids

Bestfriend 1: can u give an example?

Interviewer: are you guys on facebook?

Bestfriend 2: I prefer talking to somebody face to face.

Bestfriend 1: What has happened to letter writing?

Bestfiend 2: that's disappearing

Independence

I Don`t Care

"What the hell happened to rock and roll? Eyeliner? Energy drinks? And no guitar solos? I've taken shits with bigger rock stars than them!"


-Gilby Clarke (Guns N’ Roses)
-Fall Out Boys

When we say

I'm no Einstein but I know a sign when I see one
And I know you love me too
And I know you love me too...

And this is the part when we say we're in love
And the part where we have our first kiss

 

-AJ Rafael (Juicebox)

Influenced by the same rock bands

Is it just me or is it them, listening to hoobastank feels like hearing incubus.

The Script - Six degrees of separation

First, you think the worst is a broken heart 

What's gonna kill you is the second part 

And the third, is when your world splits down the middle 

And fourth, you're gonna think that you fixed yourself 

Fifth, you see them out with someone else 

And the sixth, is when you admit that you may have messed up a little

In the beginning

So Stand up stand up

Just gotta keep it

I wanna wake up wake up

Just tell me how I can

Never give up

狂おしいほど刹那の艶麗(えんれい)

AJ Rafael

I am so rooting for this guy. Go AJ!!

Dreaming in Everland

Ride all you can at 60, 000 Korean Won. One of the best places in South Korea! Everland Resort only spells fun, fun and fun. The theme changes every season, a flower festival during spring, winter wonderland for the snowy months, falling in fall and under the sea adventure during summer. Plus, around the world in one day... prepare for a very long one.

Sans Rival

Cakes and pastries accompanied by the fresh breeze right at the heart of Dumaguete City's boulevard. Euphoria! 

From top, left to right: pesto & garlic bread, sans rival cake special, bagoong rice & beef steak, strawberry smoothie.

pasta salad & kebab

In between

…somehow I got caught up in between. Between my pride and my promise. The things I want to say to you get lost before they come. The only thing that's worse than one is none. And I cannot explain to you..

In anything I say or do or plan. Fear is not afraid of you. Guilt's a language you can understand.  I cannot explain to you. In anything I say or do. I hope the actions speak the words they can..

Universitas Sillimaniensis

Negros Oriental

The first semester of AY 2012-2013 was bloody hell, so much I don't want to even think about it. My friends and I need to "de-stress" and do something exciting. So we decided to visit Negros Oriental since our college classmate is currently doing her law at Silliman University. Other than relieving the stress, the trip was actually more of catching up a good old friend and surprisingly it was in time for the yearly Buglasan Festival. We planned just a day before departure, sometimes not planning adds more adrenaline to the fun that lies ahead.
An so from the Cebu South Bus Terminal (Php 169.00) we head off for Liloan, Santander. We arrived at Liloan 11:45 AM just in time for the ferry (Php 60.00) bound for Sibulan, Negros by 12:00 noon. We crossed Tanyon Strait for about 15 minutes and the waves were plain torture. It might help to drink some meds for motion sickness. Another way (though this might take 15 min more of your time) is take a direct bus (Php 250.00) from the terminal, drop by Bato, Santander and take the RoRo straight to Dumaguete City.
By12:30 PM we were in Sibulan which is a 10 min jeepney ride (Php 11.00) to Dumaguete City. Kenny has been living in Dumaguete for 2 years now so she did all the recommendations, from food to the sidetrips and what not. We took our lunch at Sta. Theresa Resto, the food was affordable and delicious. When I say delicious, I mean it. So far of all the trips I've been, Dumaguete has the best food and my friends agree to that.

Dumaguete has a lot of foreigners, Asians, Europeans, Americans and locals alike so looking for a place to stay should not be bothersome. Just like food, hotels are also cheap. Ours was Php 1000 for 24 hours, we're four so we just spend Php 250.00 per person. We chose a strategic hotel located in the downtown area so it's easy to just go anywhere. After settling down we head off for a hot spring in Valencia, 40 min jeepney ride (Php 11.00) from Dumaguete, then we took a "habal-habal" to bring us to Pulangbato hot spring in Malabo. The place was very remote, a valley located in between ranges of a dormant volcano so when people go there they normal ask the "habal-habal" drivers to wait. From Valencia to Malabo plus the waiting period (2-4 hours), and the from Malabo to Dumaguete, the habal-habal cost Php. 150.00 per person. The name Pulangbato literally means red rock primarily caused by high concentrations of iron.

 After dipping ourselves to the 40 degree Celsius water, we were once again spoiling our gut to the sumptuous goodies of Dumaguete and head straight to Qyosko for dinner. We then spend the night strolling along the boulevard, enjoying the festivities of Buglasan and did a little of the booze in Hayahay.

The next day we went to Sans Rival, a must-go resto/bistro, and the highly acclaimed Silliman University. Sans Rival and Silliman are quiet big names in Dumaguete and I have only good memories for them so I will be scribbling a separate blog for these.(Silliman University, Sans Rival)

Meme

Learned a new word tonight, "meme". It's kindda hard to explain, watch the amazing video to understand more. Plus, Tim's proposal is a tear jerker. The couples are both Malaysian bloggers by the way, perhaps one of the coolest fellas I've seen on the internet. Song by Christina Perri, A Thousand Years which also happens to be the OST for Breaking Dawn. So let's get inspired, much love :)

Don't murder me

Everybody is having the Korean craze, from the drama series to fashion to gadgets to language. OK. I'm no fashionita or techy so I'm gonna get a point to somewhere I mastered more or less. A lot of people had been murdering the Korean language, blame it to ignorance, mistranslation in subtitles and habitual use. So today let us start the new year with an improved knowledge on Hanguk-mal (hanguk: korea; mal:language). First, one must know that each Korean character (called Hangul) has an equivalent English letter in the alphabet. Therefore mispronunciation starts from this confusion because more often an English translation is misspelled thus changing the way it is spoken. 

Here are the commonly used/mispronounced Korean words by foreign speakers.

1. Ramen

    Correct spelling: ramyeon (ramen is a general term for a noodle originating from Japan, when talking about an instant noodle in South Korea you are 

    actually referring to ramyeon)

2. Unni

    Correct spelling: eonni (should be used only by a younger girl when calling an older female)

3. Nuna (should be used only by a younger boy when calling an older female)

4. Hyung 
  Correct spelling: hyeong (should be used only by a younger boy when calling an older male)

5. Oppa (should be used only by a younger girl when calling an older male; may also be a form of endearment by couples but not all the time)

When to use "yo", "imnida", "imnika"?

Korean language is similar to Japanese, where there are terms to signify different levels of honor. All the time, yo, imnida and imnika is used by anybody when talking to someone older regardless of sex or even with a 1 year gap.

"Yo" is the same as "imnida" but it is more friendly and less formal but still tags respect. It is often used by students when talking to a professor they are very comfortable with, to a freshman talking to his senior or when talking to a street vendor (e.g. Annyeonghaseyo) "Yo" could also be used when asking questions. For example, olmayeyo (how much)?

"Imnida" on the other hand is used when talking in front of the class, when attending a conference, when talking to the university president, to a politician or to someone you first met (e.g. Annyeonghashimnikka). "Imnikka" has the same degree with imnida but only used when asking questions and is found at the end of the sentence. (For example, Myot (what) shi (time) imnikka (is it)?

   

3 things to do in Jeju Island

So far, the travel experience to Jeju Island was my best. I can't believe reading the results of the new 7 wonders of the world. Somehow I felt proud to have gone to one of the 7. It's quite sad tough, the irony of life strikes hard. Been in the Philippines most of my life but never been to the underground river of Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Well, looking back, conditions had been more favorable for a Jeju adventure. It was winter and our university's training ship was off to Jeju for the maritime student's monthly drill. I was lucky to rode for free plus the meal which was more like of a naval taste.

To be biased about it, Jeju is one, if not the most, beautiful place in South Korea. I bet Koreans agree with me on this. In fact it is favorite among drama and movie directors alike. It has a very windy summer, array of flowers during spring, pronounced deep blue waters during autumn and a mixture of everything during winter. A complete Jeju experience could be best defined by three things.

Of all places in the country, Jeju-do (as Koreans call it) is relatively warmer during winter because it is positioned lowest. We took off at Seogwipo, the part of Jeju where the falls and large stone formations were. It had numerous displays of a statue called "hareubang" which means grandfather (to-do number 1). We only had a map, a good walking shoes and a camera to keep the memories. We were clueluess about the rest. We did not plan where to sleep, where to eat, in fact we did not know anything. We were asking questions all the time and that was the key for any carefree expidition.

After walking around, we decided to ride a bus off to Jeju City which is the center for most of the activities in the island. We were strolling in the biting winter until sunset. We decided to take a taxi and asked the driver to take us to any public bathhouse. Things like these are not dangerous to do in South Korea, especially in Jeju where people are generally friendly and crime rate is zero. Like most wandering Koreans, we warmed ourselves into the hot pools of the bathhouse and slept to regain energy for the next day's adventure. When we checked out early in the morning, we found snow scattered all over the streets and Halla-san (the highest mountain in the country excluding that of North Korea) was pure white. From Jeju City, we took a bus and visited some historical village at the foot of Hala Mountain. Unluckily, it was closed for renovation, which left us wandering again. We were walking for more than 2 hours until we decided to make a detour in a remote tangerine farm (this should be second on your list). Our pure intent were only to take pictures but to our surprise the owners handed two bags full of tangerine. We had too much tangerine on that day, believe it or not up to now I feel as if I had enough tangerine for the rest my life.

We were on our way back to Seogwipo, exhausted and cold as we finally head home. We got a second surprise. We found a horse ranch and the scene was simply irresistible. Lots and lots of horses and lots and lots of snow. The place was bright all over, we were so overwhelmed. The place was very quite, it was just us and the horses. We were busy making some snowman when suddenly we lost track of our tangerine. Just in the nick of time we saw notorious crows munching on our precious citrus. My friend ran as fast as he could to scare them away but the ground was so slippery with ice. He decided to take a handful of snow on the ground and throw right at the fiery birds. I followed him instantly but I was useless. I could not help myself from laughing out loud over our ill fated tangerine. Lucky day for us, those crows only managed to have a few and left us with still a half full bag of the seedless fruit. 

Later that day we found ourselves chasing the bus, hoping to catch up with the training ship. We can't afford to be left behind. Our 2 day ramble had mostly long hours of walking, very few gobbles with food and a whole sense of the unknown. Jeju is quite small and buses are available in an hourly bases. The population is not large, very few establishments and the rest is beauty. I will definitely go back, very soon.

The Secret World of Arrietty

Hayao Miyazaki is a living legend. Who knows better than Studio Ghibli and Disney? Since 1984 he has showered us heart warming stories and explicit animation. The last film he wrote and directed for Studtio Ghibli is Ponyo. Among all creations of Hayao, Ponyo will always be my favorite character. I think Ponyo is the epitome of the Japanese expression 'kawai' (かわいい) which means cute.  One of the most recent Hayao masterpeice is The Secret World of Arrietty although it is sometimes called The Borrower Arrietty. Just to emphasize, this film was writtend and produced but not directed by Hayao. Unlike Ponyo, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service and many others which are both written and directed by him.

The story of this 2010 film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi revolves around the girl named Arrietty who is living in a not-so-different world together with his mother and father. Their species are in danger of speedy disappearance so extra precaution not to be seen by humans must be taken. However a little boy named Sho sees Arrietty in the lawn for the first time and thus the journey begins. It is also called Borrower Arrietty because these small creatures often borrow tangibles from humans such as sugar, tissue and the like. Arrietty's first borrowed material was a pin which she showed off to her mother. All this time the family thought they were the only ones left, turns out there are others living in some distant land. Perhaps I had expected too much on this film, something as adventurous as magical and adventurous as other Hayao films. I must say the climax of the film was not clearly highlighted. I was neither able to see depth nor the complexity. To top it all, for me Spirited Away remained on the top list among all Hayao animations and Ponyo will and forever will be, the cutest.

Eat like Koreans do

A typical Korean meal is composed of rice, the main dish (which is usually meat) and lots and lots of side dishes termed as "pan chan" (반찬). We were on our way to Busan to attend the gala night of World Ocean Forum. It was past noon so we decided to munch on food available in one resto at the bus terminal. We had 5 side dishes mainly composed of beans, radish, lettuce and one leafy vegetable each picked differently. 

Contrary to common knowledge, kimchi does not only refer to pickled lettuce. In fact the word "kimchi" means "pickled" itself. This means there could also be types of kimchi other than lettuce. The fifth side dish was the soup which is often considered a side dish too. Last August 2009, I went to the countryside of Anda and experience the traditional "chuseok", also called as thanksgiving day. My labmate's mother stated that historically,  Korean side dishes are usually picked using chopsticks while spoon is exclusively used for rice and soup. Modern practice uses chopsticks for rice too. Korea's chopstick are unique because they are made of metal and flattened, opposite to the round and wooden chopsticks of the Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese.

According to my Professor, Koreans suffered a lot during the 19th century. During this time people barely eat and life expectancy was very short. To make up for the hard times, the all new extravagant Korea made each meal into a feast. The many side dishes made them feel they eat like the kings. Since they are served to people in excess, most of these are wasted indiscriminately. There had been notions by the government to pass an ordinance to minimize the pan-chan served in restaurants, food shops and the like. Food establishments worry that costumers may give negative feedback, thinking they were not served right. This lifestyle became a tradition up to the present. Maybe Korea has little to worry since solid waste management is prioritize in the country. Part of the scheme is a heavy out pour of funds on bioethanol production. The solid waste management lab in  MMU, a lab next to ours, was doing the exact thing. My friend used to gather food waste from the school cafeteria. Ingenuity indeed.

71: Into the Fire

I always thought that PS I Love you was the best movie of all time, the setting was perfect, the story was perfect. I cried my heart out watching that movie, feeling the imperfect yet undying love of Holly and Gerry. Until last night I watched 71: Into the Fire  (also known as 보화 속으로) and found myself in a fetal position sobbing. I downloaded this movie last summer but never paid attention because it appealed to be dragging in the beginning. This Korean movie was released June 16, 2010 which became a major box office hit and had a gross revenue of around $20 million.  

It was based from a real-life story of 71 student soldiers who defended the Pohang Girl's Middle School and slowed down the advance of North Korea soldiers for 11 hours. The fact that they were student soldiers, they lack the skills and war tactics. The 71 soldiers were lead by Oh Jung-bom which was played by the Bigbang rapper TOP who had only been to the real combat once.

The rest were teenagers, untrained men and few criminals who wished to see a real battle. Kwon Sang Woo played the role of Kap-Jo whose parents were killed by communists and chose to live a life without regard. Cha Seun-won played as Park Mu Rang,  commander of North Korean forces who wishes to advance to the Nakdong River. Colonization of the Nakdong river spells the end of South Korea and is therefore on top priority. Most of the South Korean troops and its American allies defended the river, leaving the 71 student soldiers all by themselves. 

For me endings are as important as beginnings because it could either spoil or stride the movie and I think I just saw the most heart-warming ending. It's all embedded in my head now. I must say TOP was the most impressive because he was the most amateur in terms of acting but he kicked himself gracefully. The picture shown below was a tear jerker, watch to movie and find out why.

   

Crazy over Asia

I have been soaking myself to lots and lots of Asian series lately. City Hunter, Protect the Boss, Code Blue and the most recent Greatest Love. If ever you're interested, you can always watch these series online at http://otaku-streamers.com/ which has also numerous anime streaming list. However you must sign up for unlimited viewing. I do not usually go online streaming since it's quite time consuming. What I do is I download each video via the very convenient internet download manager. Let me recognize my computer genius Vietnamese friend for introducing this ultra fave dload manager. It is fast and easy compared to torrent, however it may slow down your computer system. 

There is also http://www.epdrama.com/ which has fewer anime list compared to that of otaku-streamers. Both otaku-streamer and epdrama gives you high resolution downloads. Only, otaku-streamer downloads faster and groups each series per episode while epdrama divides each episode into either 5 or 6 parts. Based on personal experience, otaku-streamer often encounters more webpage problems compared to epdrama so I often do dloads via epdrama for Japanese and Korean series. All of my anime dloads are from otaku-streamers. The downside for both otaku-streamer and epdrama is that scrolling is slower since they show numerous video list in their homepage. What I do is I go to http://mysoju.com/ for suggestions of what Korean or Japanese series is hot for the month. Mysoju is not ideal for dload because their videos are usually flv in format, has very poor resolution and therefore ideal for online streaming. For anime suggestions, I go to otaku discussions such as those available in otaku-streamer. The users will usually name their best slice of anime for example, and most of them has a common answer so you can never go wrong. 


For more drama and anime list, you can also visit www.crunchyroll.com and  www.dramacrazy.net respectively.