OPM Fever, Taking a Break from Kpop

For some reason, I felt like listening to one of Orange and Lemon's hits, Heaven Knows this morning when I woke up. I then found a Youtube channel with loads of OPM songs and after listening to most of them I realized I really missed Filipino music. So I searched for download links and ended up downloading OPM albums the whole day. Hahaha! Right now my playlist contains Callalily, Hale, Silent Sanctuary, Rico Blanco, Shamrock, Kitchie Nadal, Julianne, and even Noel Cabangon. I found a very helpful site with tons of OPM downloads so I kinda downloaded every album of my favorite artists. ^_^

During my highschool days, I was really into OPM. I think 2005-2008 was a period where OPM started to regain its glory but sadly it was short-lived. I don't know what happened. Maybe it was because of piracy? *chokes* I'm sorry. Sadly I am one of them piracy supporters. Forgive me. My meager allowance could only afford the cheap pirated CDs and "digital pirated copies/downloads". Haha! I think I only had one original album from a Filipino artist and it was given to me as a birthday gift. Anyway, that time, Rivermaya, Kitchie Nadal, Parokya ni Edgar, Hale, Callalily, Orange and Lemons and Cueshe were some of my favorites.

It was during the 90s that OPM was at its best.

Celebrations and Summer

Last week I went out-of-town with my college classmates to celebrate our classmate's graduation. We went to a beach resort in Talisayan, Misamis Oriental and stayed there for 2 days. I definitely had a blast during the whole time we were there. The sun was lovely, the beach looks so good, we had unlimited swimming pool and billiard hall use privilege, not to mention it was an all-expense paid trip. The best things in life are free. What's more fun than being in the beach, and playing under the summer sun with the best and most fun-to-be-with people in the world? I'm a very beach person. I just love the feel of my feet walking in the sand. Until now, I still get a wonderful feeling whenever I remember that weekend.

Just 2 days after, my stepmom's daughter came to visit Iligan City so we took her to the famous Timoga Spring Pools. It was actually an impulse decision for me again to join them since my best friend and I was supposed to hang out here in our house that day, I didn't know my step sister is coming and all. So yeah, since my sisters didn't want to swim anyway, my best friends tagged along and joined our "family day." I had a great time catching up with them and at the same time hanging out with my family.

So this summer has been soooo fun so far. It's just so good to bond with great people, eat good food, and just have fun under the summer heat. This summer is definitely another unforgettable summer. I can't wait to have more beach fun in the next weeks. But even though I'm not a sporty person, trying into sports activities for the rest of my summer would be a good idea too. I wonder how my other close friends are spending their summer. I guess most of them are into basketball betting now since the NBA Playoffs are already underway. My sister has been playing frisbee and I've been really meaning to join her but I can't wake up early in the morning. Haha! I want to learn how to swim too. Yeah, I love the beach but I can't swim. Such a pity, but I'll learn how to swim soon. My reviews for the certification exam I'm going to take will start next week. I hope I can still squeeze in some out-of-towns or beach outings with friends before that. It's just April and I'm very excited for the remaining one month of the summer.

[Life Update] Happy December!

It's this time of the year again! My second favorite time of the year(next to summer) is Christmas.

I just love waking up on cold mornings. But sometimes because of the cool morning air, I tend to curl up back to sleep then run late in my classes. Other than the cold mornings, I'm excited for Christmas because of the break, the food, and the gift-giving.

Philippines is probably the only country I know that celebrate Christmas the longest. Most of the people start decorating their houses in September and take down the decorations in the second week of February. For our house, we put up our Christmas tree last week after the Halloween. Last year, our theme was blue and silver but this year we sticked to the red-green-blue theme and added a little gold and silver accent. We also had more Christmas lights this year so I really feel happy looking at the tree and the decorations at night.

Christmas break also means that my friends who are not studying in Iligan are coming home, and of course, the annual school alumni homecoming. Last year, I was not able to attend but this year, I will definitely go because I already miss hanging out with my highschool buddies.

Oh I forgot about the Christmas shopping!

The Good that Ondoy and Pepeng Brought

On September 26, 2009 Philippines was hit by a very strong typhoon that put 25 provinces under the state of calamity. Typhoon Ondoy, internationally known as Ketsana, was brought the worst amount of rainfall in Metro Manila. It was the most devastating typhoon I have witnessed happening to my country. Flood water went up to the 2nd floor of the houses in Metro Manila. There were cars floating and a lot were stranded. That time, I hated watching the news because the calls and text messages of people asking for help and the videos and photos of the situation in Luzon really made my heart break. The typhoon was even stronger than hurricane Katrina that hit the US in 2005. Up to now, there are still people missing and the trauma it caused to Filipinos is apparently hard to take away.

Just days after Ondoy, another typhoon, Pepeng(international name, Parma), came and made a landfall. It was a super typhoon and was much much stronger than Ondoy.. The Philippines haven't even recovered yet from Ondoy and then a much stronger typhoon comes to our shores again. At first, since the Filipinos were a little prepared, days before Pepeng made its landfall, people from those areas predicted to be affected by flood and rains were evacuated, it was "okay" since we only saw Pepeng damaging our agriculture and homes instead of lives. Pepeng was about to leave the Philippine area of responsibility when another weather activity near it brought more water to the typhoon and made it even more stronger and made a U-turn back to Central Luzon. Flood water covered a lot of provinces leaving people trapped in their roofs and a lot of rice fields washed out by water from the dams surrounding the area. There were also land slides that left many people homeless and lose their families.

This is probably the biggest calamity we had to face this year. Central Luzon is the rice and vegetable bowl of the country. Prices of such commodities are now going up and people from Luzon are now being supplied by Mindanao. People lost their homes, families, and their means of living.

During these times, what amazes me is the Bayanihan spirit and kindness of Filipinos.

HOPELESS OR HOPEFUL?

I feel so lucky and blessed because throughout my college life, all my History(and this semester, Political Science) teachers were just great. They really inspire me. I learned a lot from them. We all have this notion that History and PolSci subjects are boring BUT because of my teachers (yes, I believe that the teacher has the greatest sphere of influence on how not to make the subject boring), I learned to love and am loving History and PolSci subjects. I even think that maybe I should shift to AB History. haha!

Just this afternoon, in our PolSci class our professor was discussing about David Easton's Systems Approach in defining or describing politics. I won't dig into the details of that approach now because the main reason for my blog entry tonight is that I was struck of the question my professor asked us after citing the Rice Crisis or Rice Shortage in the Philippines as an example to explain to us the Systems Approach in defining politics. He asked us if we are still hopeful that the Philippines will be a newly industrialized economy or hopeless. haha! If you ask me, honestly, I am losing hope that this country can progress and be a "Tiger" economy.. I know that's so un-nationalistic of me. But my own experiences, all the news I hear and see on TV and even all the things I see that's happening around me took all my hopes away..(Maybe naa pay gamay.. mga 10%.. huhuhu..) I really felt sad after listening to that discussion. And luckily, my teacher said that we should be hopeful because there are still good mayors and good barangay captains remaining.. but still, GREATLY OUTNUMBERED BY CORRUPT OFFICIALS. duh.. What do we need to turn this situation around..?? Change in mentality? Change in beliefs? Change in ourselves. Sooooo much easier said than done.

How sad.. I really hope I can help the Philippines..Sincerely.. But then society is dictating me to go abroad after I finish my college degree.. If not, I'll die because of hunger. hahayz.. I really wanna help.. I don't know.. I'm still partly hopeful, partly hopeless..



OK, since the videos I want to watch(Butil ng Buhay - I wasn't able to watch in on TV) are still in buffering in Youtube... I felt like writing about the things that are running through my head because of that discussion during our PolSci class this afternoon..