C- Pinoy Traveller

My Lakbayan grade is C-!

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Created by Eugene Villar.

Switchfoot Manila

so i was flipping thru YouTube videos when i chanced upon a clip from the Switchfoot Manila concert last Sep 10 at the Cuneta Astrodome. i realize it's way past overdue to blog about the concert. i don't even have nice pictures because banne and i only had our phone cameras along then. so you will have to live with my lame-ass pictures. anyway, here are some facts about the event (from what I remember):

1. mosh-pit tickets are way better than any other seats in the house. yes, your legs and feet will suffer irreversible damage from standing for more than three hours, but at least Tim Foreman can see you from where you are.


2. Jericho Rosales and girlfriend Heart Evangelista were behind banne and me the whole time.

3. Jerome Fontamillas is Filipino. he proved this by downing a balut in the middle of the concert (you can call it intermission). all the other guys didn't like the idea for obvious reasons.

4. before the concert, banne and i were thinking what we will say to Jon Foreman in the event we had to talk with him. i came up with: Hello Mr Foreman. I have a quotation of you that I use as a signature since forever. it sounded like i'm a stalker. (fyi: the quotation has gotten me published in Cebu Daily News hahahha... thanks Jason!)

5. Jon Foreman is awe-inspiring. he repeats one overriding theme in his songs and speeches: do not settle for an ordinary life. believe in something bigger, something more significant.

6. the Switchfoot concert is better than Jars of Clay's. I know, i know... i can't play favorites with these two bands. but i need to get that one out in the open.

7. Christian bands rock.

wow bohol

everyone had time off work this weekend. we all went to bohol to poke at tarsiers, watch ati tribesmen, dine at a floating restaurant, poke a giant python, and wear funny hats.

here are some more pictures...

... of the virgin island,

... of the chocolate hills,

... of the ati tribe extravaganza.

webcaming with dodong

so it ends for the fed

Roger Federer talks to the press after his loss to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open 2008 tournament.

clarity of passion

do yourselves a favor and watch atonement as soon as you can. this movie is a work of art, each frame is like a painting. of course i do not have to add another superlative to the on-going ian mcewan worship happening all over the literary world -- the story is original and it will not disappoint you.

i love keira knightley in this film, she plays a character whose properly disturbed and nonchalant at the same time. james mcavoy is superb. no matter how his character is suppose to mature as the story progresses, he retains enough boyish innocence to keep our sympathy all along.

towards the end, robbie tells cecilia that he longs to return to her with the "clarity of passion" that they had once shared in the past. this strikes me as particularly fascinating since we often speak of "passion" as akin to a frenzied state of mindlessness. interestingly enough, the tagalog word for lust (which is essentially passion in the physical sense), is libog -- visayan for confusion. in the story, this passion was far from madness: it was single-minded, focused, clear.

even war and deception became peripheral.

goodbye, pig

i don't like the chinese zodiac or any kind of zodiac for that matter. but i do like pig. and pork. and since the chinese ancients have mystically assigned 2007 to our dear beloved pig, let me say adieu to 2007 thru this picture of my favorite girl wearing my favorite animal. (coincidentally, pigs are colored pink, banne's favorite color.)



Happy New Year everyone! and if you're dumb enough to play with firecrackers then, there you go, you're dumb. Let's all have a great 2008!