The fall semester’s looking a bit heavy from what I can see right now, so I’ve decided to take Research in the summer. It starts, oh, tomorrow evening. An evening class. Once a week. In the summer. Greeeeat. I’m taking Patho as well, since I do have to retake it anyway. I really want to raise my GPA, so I’m trying out some new ways to get things done. We’ll see.

* * * *

For the past few days, after going back and forth from HM to the BEACH!!!, I spent most of my time catching up on about a year’s worth of missed television. I finished watching the epic yet shortlived Sci-Fi series called Firefly [it lasted up to only 14 episodes before Big Bad Fox cancelled it], its spinoff big-screen bonus called Serenity, the infectious and totally entertaining Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and the first season of Castle. The common denominator in all of these is actor Nathan Fillion. That actor is just brilliant. Aside from the fact that he’s the first Nathan I’ve ever known who isn’t an asshole [enter snickers and lols here], the guy’s just really really good. And hi-larious.

* * * *

Also, last night, I finally saw the unofficial LOTR fan-made film, “The Hunt for Gollum”. It’s surprisingly very good. For a fan-made film, it’s AMAZING. It looks just like the ones New Line made. The fans based it off the stuff from the appendices, when Aragorn and Gandalf looked for Gollum. It happens before the Fellowship of the Ring. They only spent $4000 on it & nobody got paid. It’s made by fans, after all. It’s only about 40 minutes. Click here to see it.

As my friend pointed out, “The Hunt for Gollum” isn’t entirely accurate, but the general plot sticks to what happened [according to what Gandalf told the Hobbits in RoTK and the stuff I've looked at on the appendices, History of Middle-earth & The Unfinished Tales].

This whole thing now makes me think of the future of film. First off, we’ve witnessed the huge success of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog as a purely web-distributed work. The continued success of films for the web may perhaps open up to a brand new business model for distributors and filmmakers alike. I know that this isn’t a new thing, especially with the rising popularity of the indie film scene, but mainstream cinema is dying… would people now turn to the Internet?

Anyway, enough rambling for now. So go and watch it!

* * * *

And lastly, I just want to post this here:

Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test
Your results:
You are Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)

Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 85% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 75% Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 65% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 65% Inara Serra (Companion) 60% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 60% River (Stowaway) 55% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 45% Wash (Ship Pilot) 40% Alliance 15% A Reaver (Cannibal) 5%

Medicine and physical healing are your game, but wooing women isn’t a strong suit.

Freaking hilarious. XD

Got it from an email forwarded to me by my sister.

I’ve been having these quarter-life crisis conversations with friends, lately. Most of you are graduating later this year [congrats, guys!] and for my case, I just had a change of career paths. Medicine is still my end goal, but as Julie said, that’s going to take up such a long long time. I really admire Rio and Ria. They’re the strongest, most dedicated, most focused, and hardworking people I have ever met. For those who aren’t sure about medicine, though, here are some inspirational videos.

They surely gave me a boost. I hope that they help anyone else in need of deeper discernment.

Interview with Dr. Jim Yong Kim – Physician, Founder of Partners in Health
Interview with Dr. Linda Li – Plastic Surgeon (seen on Dr. 90210)
Interview with Dr. Steven Rosenberg – Chief Surgeon, National Cancer Institute

… because we could always use a little bit of inspiration.

I logged on my Blogger account just a few minutes ago and found two unfinished drafts happily sitting on my dashboard. Nostalgia is an amazing thing. I have decided to reproduce them right here, just like Christopher Tolkien published his daddy’s unfinished tales. Bad bad analogy, but whatever.

So here are two of my unfinished blog entries. Yeah, even that Of Magic Lists, Positivity, and Getting Your Heart’s Desire series is unfinished [I'm working on it!]. But midterms almost murdered me, and the end of the semester has been piling up a few million things all at the same time so forgive me, my loyal readers. Yes, there’s still several of you left… I’ve got 12 RSS feed subscribers, and about 20 different people who religiously check on this blog for new entries. Well, better than none, I guess. XD Thanks for staying with me. I intended to abandon this blog, but I just can’t. I still have lots of plans for it, but not now, I guess. Anyway, off to the first unfinished draft, which, I have to say, is the typical circa 2003-2006 D’Arvit! blog entry…

The first one is a list. You see, before those professional bloggers turned “list-making” into a marketing tool, I’ve been doing my own D’Arvit!-ed lists ™ since 2004. Hah. Take that, cash cow “bloggers” who blog for money!!!!!!111!!eleventyone11!!

From Oh the shame. The SHAME!!! LAST SAVED ON APRIL 10, 2005

The D’Arvit! List of Signs that our Country will Collapse in the Next Few Years:

• People think that a person is “intelligent” if s/he has fair skin and Spanish-speaking skills. I mean, WTFH???!!! I SO DAMN F*CKING HATE THAT POND’S TV AD. For those of you who have been living in their respective shells, the TV Ad opens with this mestizo guy warning his girlfriend that his mother “is a perfectionist”. After that said warning, mestizo guy introduces the girl to his mommy. Mama Perfecionista, trying to act cocky and secretive, tells her Baby Mestizo–take note, in Spanish–that she thinks that his girlfriend “has a perfect face… but is she intelligent?” Before Baby Mestizo answers Mama Perfecionista‘s query, the girl in question answers MP in Spanish. Because of that, MP is impressed. And thus, they all live happily ever after, damn them. I mean, what the frell do I care if you can speak Spanish? FYI, English is the Global Language right now. I don’t care about your Spanish. And another thing, the knowledge of a second, third, or fourth language is definitely not proof of one’s intellectual capacity. IMHO, intelligence is what you actually do with your gift of tongues. There is a HUGE difference with just speaking in Spanish and well… speaking in Spanish. I just hope that people would be…hmm… INTELLIGENT enough to know the difference. A Spanish tongue would not make you perfect. And definitely, white skin would definitley NOT make you perfect. I have seen a bunch of old, ugly women, in their dire desperate attempts to lighten their skin tones, have, I must say, ended up looking like Michael Jackson‘s clones. Oh, how perfect!
• Angel Aquino blabs about how many Starbuck’s Coffee branches there are in our country, in an attempt to look cute in Oprah. Ok. So maybe I put in a little bit of exaggeration in that, but that’s how it looked like to me. For those who weren’t aware, last week, Oprah Primetime had an episode wherein they “went around the world” and gave their audiences an overview of the different lifestyles of 30 year-old women around the world. Some of these 30 year-old women actully went to Oprah‘s studio to say something about their lifestyles, but most of these women just submitted short feature videos that would describe their lifestyle in their respective countries. The Philippine’s “representative”, Angel Aquino, definitely disappointed me [and a bunch of other Filipinos who saw that shameful segment].

I do recall that episode of Oprah. So Angel Aquino was basically telling the whole world that 30 year-old Filipina women basically hang out in Starbucks and have merienda because that’s pretty much the only thing to do in the Philippines. What a pretentious c*nt. There’s lots to do in the Philippines, dammit! Manila has a lot of hotspots: shopping centers, restaurants, universities, business districts–just anything else aside from Starfarkingbucks! This is the remnant of the Starbucks folly that I mentioned around three years ago. She could also have been a bit more honest. She could have said that there are probably two kinds of 30 year-old Filipinas: the pretentious, social-mountaineering kind [e.g. her], and the hardworking, tax-paying, cash-strapped sensible one who doesn’t strive to get seen sipping Starbucks coffee in public. Yep, I totally hate it. I don’t suppose that it’s still that bad anymore, I hope?

From And he turned around and said, “We’re home…” LAST SAVED ON DECEMBER 4, 2005

We drove East. Straight ahead on the highway, watching the buildings disappear into open fields of corn and trees and cattle. Over fields. Over roads. Across mountains. We went through Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia. Illinois’ snow melted away as we…

It ended there. I can’t believe it’s been three years since we moved to the US. Anyway, I wrote that after the Chicago-North Carolina roadtrip back in November 2005. Hard times, they were.

* * * * *

Anyway, this is just to let you all know that I’m still alive. I’m just really busy trying to keep my grades up (and my scholarship) these days. Summer won’t give me a break, either. Oh well. I’ll get back to blogging and web design someday.

That’s what I’ve been telling everyone ever since I’ve heard of this book’s “ingenious concept”.

“The Secret reveals the most powerful law in the universe.

“Without exception, every human being has the ability to transform any weakness or suffering into strength, power, perfect peace, health, and abundance…

“The Secret explains with simplicity the law that is governing all lives, and offers the knowledge of how to create – intentionally and effortlessly – a joyful life. This is the secret to everything – the secret to unlimited happiness, love, health and prosperity. ”
–Official Site

The book (and audiobook and movie and website and diary and lunchbox and undies) talks about the Law of Attraction. In a nutshell, when you think of something, you’ll get it. Positive thoughts attract positive outcomes, and vice-versa. I haven’t read it–I don’t think that I even plan on doing so–yet from what I have been hearing from the reviews and write-ups, I think that this is all common sense. People have been doing it for years… what’s so new about it?

Miss Jackie’s Collage

You see, back in my old university in the Philippines, UP Manila, my English professor picked me together with a friend, Essel, to join her and her other hand-picked students for some dinner and a mini get-together and party of sorts.

So he and I attended the thing (it was at Blue Frog, in Malate, Manila) just because it’s such an honor to get picked by your professor for something that sounds so exclusive. Late into the evening, we found out that our professor, Miss Lumain, is actually a Life Coach. You know, those people you pay to make your life better.

That evening, she taught us how to get our Hearts’ Desire.

How to Get Your Heart’s Desire:

1. Gather some old magazines, construction paper, scissors, and glue on a table. You are going to make a collage.
2. Browse through your magazines and pick out all the items that you desire. You may pick out these pictures and attach literal or figurative significance to them.
3. Make sure that you truly–truly, madly, deeply–desire these things.
4. Using your scissors, cut out the pictures that represent your desires and paste them on to your construction paper. Finish off your collage.
5. Admire your work. Make sure that you allow the images to seep in to your inner consciousness.
6. Wait a couple of days/months/weeks/years. One or all of your desired objects would be given to you, and your wish(es) will come true.

Simple enough, eh?

“Who is skeptical about this exercise?” she asked.

Essel and I both raised our hands.

“You don’t believe in this?”

“It’s hard to believe in it,” Essel answered. “It might not work.”

“What would you do if it did?”

Fast-forward to November 6, 2005. It was early evening of my little “going away” house party. I was leaving for the United States on the 9th. Essel wasn’t able to come, and he sent me an SMS stating his apology. Along with it, he also said that,

“pam, nagkatotoo yung isa sa mga nilagay ko kay ma’am lumain!”
(translation: “Pam, the one of the things that I placed there in Ma’am Lumain’s [collage] came true!”)

I asked him what it was, but I don’t remember receiving his reply. Whatever it was, it came true after a few weeks.

Three months after I did that exercise, I got that new car and laptop. Okay, the car may not be registered under my name ( XD ) though I am its primary driver anyway.

This may all seem far-fetched to you (it still seems far-fetched to me as well XD ), but I read something off O Magazine (okay, guilty… ) that backs up all this positivity and visualization logic.

I’ll tell you all about it on my next blog entry…

* * * *

Sorry for not posting anything in a long, long time. My sister, Andi, just came home to the Philippines right after the holidays, and school immediately began right after, so things just went busier than I had imagined. School rocks and I am having lots of fun in my classes. A particular favourite would be my Philosophy class, which I am taking under Dr. Geller whom I have met with my dad early last year, at the Honors College banquet.

So many changes are taking place for me this year, though I don’t believe that I am even ready to tell you all about it.

Earlier in life, I had thought that my life was simply like a highway: it goes on a straight, distinct path and even if I may not know what goes beyond what my eye can see, I know that it simply goes on straight and right ahead. I thought that it was all so simple: after graduating from MCHS, I’d get into my dream university, UP Diliman, then perhaps study something to become a doctor, or a writer, or be both. I would graduate and pursue higher than higher education, and just be, as what Julie referred to me back in high school: “an over-achieving biatch”.

All of that never really happened. UP Manila happened, and moving to the US had to happen. UNC happened. I chose the university closest to home, switched my majors and all that jazz… I never knew it could get that complicated. I thought that it would all be simple.

It never was.

I guess just like Anne, I’ve taken a bend on the road. Well, I’ve taken a couple of turns along the way, and all this uncertainty–all these changes–are rather overwhelming. There’s just so many sacrifices to make, so many new opportunities to take on, and so many old dreams to let go of in order to pursue, yes, the same thing, albeit through a detour.

I speak in riddles. XD Pardon me, I’m not ready to let it all out. Not yet.

I sure hope that this all works out. I really want it to work out.

I miss you guys….

Loving everyone from NC,

Pam

PS: For your laughter and mine, well, randomguy is BACK! I received yet another fun letter from him! More on him next time…

My mom and I were talking yesterday when suddenly, she said something that I have never heard of before:

“Pinabugbog ni Imelda yung Beatles nung andun sila sa Pilipinas,”
[Translate: Imelda (Marcos) had the Beatles beaten up while the group was in the Philippines.]

And boy, was I shocked to say the least!

My brother came in and joined in the conversation. He agreed and said that one of his high school teachers told them about it. The Beatles were beaten up by some of Imelda Marcos’ thugs at the airport, on their way out of the country during their 1966 visit.

Imelda Marcos had the Beatles beaten up at the airport? Why haven’t I ever heard of this before?

So I did a bit of research and ended up with this brilliant page that features a transcript straight from the fab four’s recollection of their traumatic Philippine visit. This was taken from The Beatles Anthology documentaries.

To those who, like me, are quite shocked by this, I recommend that you read the entire webpage to be enlightened. Their ordeal has some eerie resemblance to the last few events in the movie, The Last King of Scotland.

The story in a nutshell [according to their Wikipedia page, at least]:

In July 1966, when The Beatles toured the Philippines, they unintentionally snubbed the nation’s first lady, Imelda Marcos, who had expected the group to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palace.[69] When presented with the invitation, Brian Epstein politely declined on behalf of the group, as it had never been the group’s policy to accept such “official” invitations.[70] The group soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to accepting “no” for an answer. After the ‘snub’ was broadcast on Philippine television and radio, all of The Beatles’ police protection disappeared. The group and their entourage had to make their way to Manila airport on their own. At the airport, road manager Mal Evans was beaten and kicked, and the band members were pushed and jostled about by a hostile crowd.[71] Once the group boarded the plane, Epstein and Evans were ordered off, and Evans said, “Tell my wife that I love her.”[72] Epstein was forced to give back all the money that the band had earned while they were there before being allowed back on the plane.[73]

I guess that dictators’ wives are really spoiled rotten like that. The fact that she even had the nerve to maltreat the Beatles like that and give the country a bad name just shows how God-like and superior she thinks she is. To be able to tell everyone that “Hey, I beat up the Beatles! Get it? Get it? *roflmao*” would be a big ego-booster, I guess. She is, after all, the dictator’s wife.

Don’t you just love to hate Imelda?

And oh, look, they’ve made fun of her! XD

To my Filipino friends: Am I living under a rock this entire time? Have you guys heard of this before?

Author’s note: My blog, my rules. I value freedom of speech, but for Pete’s sake, STAY ON TOPIC. Off-topic and verbally abusive comments have been rejected, and trolls have been banned. Now about the blog entry… Read first and understand the original entry before proclaiming your love for me. Come on, we’re civil people around here.
UPDATE 06-28-2009: Commenting has now been disabled.

I have noticed during these past few days that traffic to my blog has exponentially increased due to the fact that people who were searching for “The Awful Truth About Filipinos” on Google have landed on one of my many personal blog entries.

This has kept me wondering: what the hell is this “awful truth about Filipinos”? It definitely sounds like a title of some book, a documentary, or some nasty e-mail chain letter.

My last guess came in close. Upon further investigation, I found out that some ignorant outdated dude posted the deleted Slashdot comment that reproduced the infamous Art Bell e-mail chain letter hoax on this forum [notice the date that the forum member posted this outdated 2001 message].

The aforementioned essay rant called “The Awful Truth About Filipinos” was originally attributed to popular American radio personality, Art Bell. According to Wikipedia [because I'm too lazy to summarize stuff for you]:

The Philippine Daily Inquirer printed a letter found on a web page purportedly from Bell that made derogatory statements about Filipinos. This letter was subsequently demonstrated to be a hoax perpetrated upon Bell, who in fact had a publicly loving relationship with his Filipina wife and his previous wife Ramona who was also Filipina, and who often spoke openly about his admiration for the Filipino people on his radio show. Subsequently, the Philippine Daily Inquirer printed a retraction and apologized for printing the statement upon their verification of the hoax. This fraudulent act upon Bell still periodically results in serious threats to Bell when this material surfaces from time to time.

Please, just stop. Haven’t you even read Bob Ong‘s essay regarding this? I am sick and tired of reading these types of articles and forum posts.

I hate the fact that Filipinos keep talking about how awful our country is. Please stop the hate and negativity.

 
I hate the fact that the most insecure strangers that I come across online are most of the time Filipinos. [i.e. They always start threads that go along the lines of "What Do You Think Of Filipinos?". God, why are you all so insecure?!]

 
I hate the fact that Filipinos try to bring down their fellow Filipinos [see crab mentality].

 
I hate the fact that a lot of Filipinos are so ignorant—many believe that “buying foreign products will kill our economy” or “speaking English is unpatriotic”.

 
Be open-minded.

 
We are living in a global economy, a global society–a global world where “nationalism isn’t bound by time or place. People from other nations migrate to create new nations, yet still remain essentially who they are,” as Patricia Evangelista has said in her award-winning speech.

 
I’ll end this by quoting more of Patricia’s words for those idiots who accuse me of being a traitor to my beloved country:

“Leaving sometimes isn’t a matter of choice. It’s coming back that is. The Hobbits of the shire traveled all over Middle-Earth, but they chose to come home, richer in every sense of the word. We call people like these balikbayans or the ‘returnees’ — those who followed their dream, yet choose to return and share their mature talents and good fortune.

 
“…I may take advantage of whatever opportunities come my way. But I will come home. A borderless world doesn’t preclude the idea of a home. I’m a Filipino, and I’ll always be one. It isn’t about just geography; it isn’t about boundaries. It’s about giving back to the country that shaped me.”

Narrow-minded fools.

Coming up with titles is an art form. It should be.

When writing these blog entries, I always write down the title first. However, I often come up with a long title that would pretty much sum up my blog entry, then later on realize how inappropriate or how off-topic [off-tangent ] it actually is.

For this case, I’m afraid that I’ll be doing that again. XD

* * * *

Spanish II is fun. I’m currently serving as chauffeur to two more people [my brother and a Filipino friend living in the same area]. I’m not complaining, though–at least I’m actually doing something to stop Global Warming. I don’t think that holding energy-consuming and resource-draining concerts simultaneously would actually save the world. I have nothing against the music on Live Earth–in fact, I love most of the artists and I just had to watch when Bon Jovi, the Smashing Pumpkins, and the Foo Fighters started playing–but I hate the irony that comes with this Live Earth thing in general. It centers along the blissfully pointless–pointless, yet fun, nonetheless. Pointless and painfully ber-commercialized.

Yesterday, they interviewed two kids who were around the New York concert area. One of the kids said something like, “I’m so glad to be here, saving the world!”

Yeah, and I bet that you didn’t walk to Live Earth New York, right? How can you save the world by holding a concert? All the rock stars have arrived in their gas-guzzling limos and jets. Scientists have been telling us that we should all cut down on our carbon footprints, yet, we still think that consuming megawatts of energy all at the same time would actually save the world. Brilliant. It’s just effing brilliant.

I just hate the fact that they’re using Global Warming as another excuse to cash in on the market. Of course, it’s good that this time around, there’s a good cause involved, but then again, it’s still crass commercialism in disguise.

Green is in. It’s just another marketing trend pulling at the consumers’ eco-heartstrings–it’s genius, if I have to say so myself.

I hope that these people are actually serious. Global Warming is a real problem, not just another eco-friendly status symbol.

Meh, whatever.

</rant>

Okay, then. Let’s process what we just saw.

That video clip above was a deleted scene.

In that episode, Brian’s flamboyant gay cousin, Jasper, drops by with his [her?] Filipino boyfriend, Ricardo.
At the end of the episode, the two of them get married in the family’s backyard. Notice that Jasper [yes, the dog] is wearing a wedding gown, and Ricardo is too stupid to know what the hell is going on.

Also take note of Stewie’s sarcasm.

Filipinos all over the Net have been passing on this video, and are just too gosh darn proud of it.

I watch Family Guy myself, and I know that everything’s done all in good fun–heck, I bet they even have Filipinos on board–but still…

Yes, I don’t want to apply Lit.Crit. on this video clip, so I invite you to analyze this clip yourself.

Reactions, anyone?

Being mistaken for a thirteen year-old [no kidding, majority of the idiots here think I'm thirteen! :O] could probably bring out the inner pedophile in these creeps. *shudders*

I never liked talking about this, and I don’t think that I’ve told anyone yet, so…

My school welcomes non-traditional students [translate: older people], so I have encountered quite a lot so far.

A creepy DOM-looking black man [I'm not racist, I just thought that mentioning race is significant to this post] had been hounding me since the beginning of the semester. His first quip was, “hey, let’s start a study group!”

I agreed to the idea, thinking that our other classmates would join [I was hoping that I could at least study with my seatmate, ***** <3], but then again, he never announced it to class. I immediately told him that I’m backing out. He then asked me to ride with him in his car. Now this, I thought, was sacrilege, so I kinda freaked out, politely declined, and [almost literally] ran away.

That man freaked the hell out of me. Call me paranoid, but hey, I think I have the right to be. I made it a point to avoid him at all costs. He eventually got the picture and backed down, thank goodness.

The second one is some older white guy in one of my lab classes. To get a better idea of how he looks like, he reminded me of Deal or No Deal‘s Howie Mandel. Yes. Bald. White. Guy Man.

All of my guy friends were never “touchy”, and I find it disturbing how this one made it a point to squeeze my shoulder, slightly rub my back, or squeeze my upper arm at least once for each lab meeting. He did it again today. I feel… violated. My guy friends never did that to me, back in the Philippines.

This afternoon, another one of my Calc classmates, an older gangsta-looking man [he literally wore blings, a huge jersey, cap etc.], was playing “eye games” at me. I never looked back at him, but I saw him through my peripheral vision. He would also always be around when I was at the computer lab; he was like an eye constantly watching me.

Am I too paranoid? Or is this just an example of culture shock?

I don’t wear any revealing clothes–I am rather conservative, mostly tees and jeans–and my hair is rather…. sad.

I plan on being as ugly as I could possibly be for this week, if that would even help.

Thoughts, please.