luck. swerte. chamba.

March 30, 2008

(this is just a rehased version of an idea that was presented during a speech given during this afternoon’s high school graduation at ateneo. it ended up quite long, no?) 

i never considered myself to be a person who had much going for him. i’m just your average joe in almost anything you can think of. probably even a "loser" in grade school and high school standards. i never excelled academically although i never failed any subject as well. i’m average looking at best, but i don’t think i’m ugly. i have no exceptional talents whatsoever, but i’m decent in a lot of things. i’m also a klutz and something of a scatterbrain, but i have my moments. i’m not at all a social being, but i have a handful of friends that i really am thankful for.

no, this is not a pity entry. no, not at all. i look back at my life, what i’ve been and what i’ve been through. then i look at my life right now and think "how did i end up here"? this here place where i’m in… it’s not heaven-on-earth, but it’s a good place. but how did i get here? luck. swerte. chamba.

my parents were never well-off. you could even say that for they most-part, they were just getting by. when they were my age right now, they were just newlyweds struggling to make it in the world. five years later, they were first-time parents still struggling to make it in the world. my mom would go around office-to-office in makati as a shoe saleslady and she’d take me along. my dad was just your typical struggling engineer. but for some bizarre reason, they always just had enough to make it through whatever we had to go through. and that meant sending all their kids to the best schools from preschool to college. i spent 16 years in ateneo. my sister spent most of her student life in miriam, and my bro is taking the same route as me. we were never rich. arguably just middle-class. maybe even lower-middle-class. but for some amazing reason we all got by. "ginapang lang" is the appropriate phrase for how we were all put through school. for some reason, we always had just enough. luck. swerte. chamba.

in my 16 years in ateneo, i never excelled academically. i never got a first honor award. i got a handful of second honors, which turned into mere honorable mentions as early as grade 3… and then after that, totally nothing. in all my graduations - grade school, high school and college - the only times my name was mentioned was when i was called to receive my diploma. but then, it’s a noteworthy thing to mention that i never failed anything either when i was in school. i just fell under 80 once - a 79 - but that was it. even then, i got into the semi-honors class in high school and i hardly got any D’s when i was there. i also got into an honors course in college, and i also hardly got any D’s. i was never in any danger of failing and i actually just missed the dean’s list by 0.02 during one semester. when you see my transcript, it’s full of all sorts of C’s and B’s. for some reason, i just had enough in me to pull through… and i got through quite decently. luck. swerte. chamba.

all my life, i’ve never been the friendly type. i even call myself mildly autistic because i seem quite weird sometimes. i like being by myself, talking to myself and just being holed up in my own little world daydreaming. so following that train of thought, i never had many friends, and i was never any good with girls. i was an introvert and i was torpe. actually, my biggest worry about college wasn’t the academics. it was girls. things went fine though. i didn’t exactly have a difficult time, but i wasn’t someone to get noticed either. however, during college came the biggest chamba of my life thus far: i met mau. i remember quite clear the events leading up to "us", but i won’t get into details. the point of the matter is that this introverted torpe somehow met the girl who he felt was the yin to his yang, and the girl felt the same way too! luck. swerte. chamba.

and right now, here’s how it stands… my mom is the head of the HR department in her company, my dad is similarly the head of his department in his company, my sister is a sophomore in ateneo and made the dean’s list this semester, my brother just graduated from ateneo high school and will be an ateneo college freshie next schoolyear. me and mau have been together for 6 years and have been working for almost 4 years. with what we’re making, by the time we have a family of our own, we’ll have enough to make things work quite well. none of us are rich. not even close. we live in a small apartment, but compared to where mama and papa were around 32 years ago, where we all are right now is really a big stretch. luck. swerte. chamba.

when i started typing up this entry a few minutes ago, all i had was an idea i heard this afternoon from some guy. right now, what i have is some sort of a realization. this entry isn’t a testament to being average. i still think i’m average though. i still think i don’t have much going for me compared to the "who’s who" of the world. but when i look back at my life, what i’ve been and what i’ve been through… it starts to become clear that things could have been much much worse. relative to what was and what could have been, life did give me and my family a lot to go on. luck. swerte. chamba.

what is that, really? luck? swerte? chamba? in the words of this afternoon’s speaker, it may seem that way, but it’s not really chamba. nothing happens by accident. all of it is made possible by the grace of God.

but wait… i don’t practice Christianity and i don’t believe in organized religion. so how… uhm… paano na yan?

no biggie. i may not believe in religion, but i still believe in a higher being. i really do. so whether you call it God or Buddha or Allah, it’s all the same to me: "a higher being". and yes, i do believe that nothing happens by accident. everything is provided for (in proportion) for those who work for it and have enough faith.

i really don’t know what my point is with this entry, so if it ends abruptly, then so be it. but just a final thought: you never really know what’s going to happen down the road. you can plan all you want, but life throws more curve-balls your way that you can imagine. all you can count on is that everything happens for a reason. things work themselves out accordingly and the reason reveals itself eventually.

luck. swerte. chamba… …if you want to call it that. ^_^

Earth Hour 2K8

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D&D

March 29, 2008

nenoked from cami. at 129 questions long, i wouldn’t say it’s your typical online quiz.

i never really got into D&D, but I’m failry familiar with it. neutral good eh? hmmm. 

I Am A: Neutral Good Human Bard (3rd Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-12
Dexterity-13
Constitution-13
Intelligence-10
Wisdom-13
Charisma-9

Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Bards often serve as negotiators, messengers, scouts, and spies. They love to accompany heroes (and villains) to witness heroic (or villainous) deeds firsthand, since a bard who can tell a story from personal experience earns renown among his fellows. A bard casts arcane spells without any advance preparation, much like a sorcerer. Bards also share some specialized skills with rogues, and their knowledge of item lore is nearly unmatched. A high Charisma score allows a bard to cast high-level spells.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good —– XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)
Neutral Good —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21)
Chaotic Good —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
Lawful Neutral — XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
True Neutral —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (18)
Lawful Evil —– XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Neutral Evil —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)
Chaotic Evil —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)

Law & Chaos:
Law —– XXXXXX (6)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Chaos — XXXXXXXXX (9)

Good & Evil:
Good —- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXX (9)
Evil —- XXXXX (5)

Race:
Human —- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Dwarf —- XXXXXXXX (8)
Elf —— XXXXXX (6)
Gnome —- XXXXXX (6)
Halfling - XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Half-Orc - XXXX (4)

Class:
Barbarian - (-2)
Bard —— XXXXXX (6)
Cleric —- (-2)
Druid —– XXXX (4)
Fighter — XX (2)
Monk —— (-19)
Paladin — (-25)
Ranger —- XX (2)
Rogue —– (0)
Sorcerer — (-4)
Wizard —- (-4)

stf

March 27, 2008

One of my favorite movie sequences/quotes ever. As always, you’ll have to watch it to really get it. But it’s good as it is.

This is from the ending of "Stranger Than Fiction" (Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal)

As Harold took a bite of Bavarian sugar cookie, he finally felt as if everything was going to be ok.

Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair… in routine and constancy… in hopelessness and tragedy… we can thank God for Bavarian sugar cookies.

And, fortunately, when there aren’t any cookies, we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin…

or a kind and loving gesture…

or subtle encouragement….

or a loving embrace…

or an offer of comfort…

not to mention hospital gurneys…

and nose plugs…

an uneaten Danish…

soft-spoken secrets…

and Fender Stratocasters…

and maybe the occasional piece of fiction.

And we must remember that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we assume only accessorize our days, are effective for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives.

I know the idea seems strange, but I also know that it just so happens to be true. And, so it was, a wristwatch saved Harold Crick.

\m/ that was such a good heartwarming ending \m/

it’s the little things - the mundane things - that make the world spin around and around. hehe.

just like watching escalators

last week, we went and saw "horton hears a who". "the grinch" was terrible and "cat in the hat" was terrible. but this one… is pretty darn good. (maybe it has something to do with being animated as opposed to the other two, which were live action)

it’s the only seuss adaptation so far that i think really got seuss right. but enough about the movie. it’s absurd. it’s nonsense. it’s absurd nonsense with morals. it’s for kids and kids at heart (and kids at mind i suppose). it’s seuss. that’s all anyone should know.

ever since i saw that, i’ve had this itch that i just had to scratch. i wanted to read seuss.

aside from all the weird absurdities stimulating my brain, reading/listening to the steady rhymes sort of relaxes me. it’s like standing in a mall and just starting at an escalator (a moving one of course). mau always points that out. like when she has to go to the ladies’ room or i’m just waiting for her or we just choose to do nothing at all… you can bet on it that i’ll be caught standing somewhere just staring at the escalator. i find it relaxing. weird ba? ^_^

i haven’t found anything on the net yet that has any of dr seuss’ material. T_T

wala pa naman yata ako sa point na bibili ako ng libro. i’ll save that for when i have kids. i’ll provide the seuss. mau will provide the disney. hehe. (but imho, seuss kicks walt’s ass ^_^) it’s quite appropriate, really. i’m more of the out-of-whack type like seuss and mau’s more the classic-fantastical-kiddie-fun type like disney.

i went to wikiquote and looked up dr seuss and found some very very nice quotables from the man himself that are worth sharing (the first one is my favorite):

"You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

"Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them."

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities."

"Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age. Humor has a tremendous place in this sordid world. It’s more than just a matter of laughing. If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack."

 i just can’t help myself. I went through the whole seuss entry on wikiquote. like i said. it’s relaxing. ^___^ just like watching escalators. hehehe.

and before i forget and run out of time
i leave you with one good quoted rhyme
(hey, what’s a seuss entry without writing your own line? =p) 

this is from one of seuss’ last published works, "Oh, the Places You’ll Go!". It concerns life and its challenges and is supposedly a popular gift for students graduating from high school and college. If I can find and get my hands on a copy of this, I suppose it’ll pass as a graduation gift for my bro who’s graduating from HS this Sunday.

    * You have brains in your head.
      You have feet in your shoes.
      You can steer yourself
      any direction you choose.
      You’re on your own.
      And you know what you know.
      And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.

    * You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.
      You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.
      Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.
      Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

    * I’m sorry to say so
      But, sadly it’s true
      That bang-ups and hang-ups
      Can happen to you.

    * On an on we will hike, And I know we’ll hike far
      and face up to our problems whatever they are.

      We’ll get mixed up of course, as we already know.
      We’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as we go.

      Let’s be sure when we step.
      Step with care and great tact
      And remember that Life’s a great balancing act.

      Let’s never forget to be dexterous and deft.
      And never mix up our right foot with our left.

    * Will you succeed?
      Yes you will indeed!
      (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)