tAkE yOuR piCk!

friday night became the usual gimmick night. the same people, the same drinks, the same conversations.

then my friend ramon asked, "pare, would you rather have no arms or no legs?"

and thus started our unique conversation for the night.

..would you rather have no sight or no sense of hearing?
..would you rather have gorilla hands or gorilla feet?
..would you rather have claws as hands or webbed hands?
..would you rather have scales or fur?
..would you rather have a monobrow or no eyebrows?
..would you rather have sagging breasts or a sagging belly?
..if you had a third eye, where would you put it?
..if you were stuck on an island, what one thing would you bring?
..if you were stuck on an island with a tv but just one channel, what would it be?
..would you rather have the power to fly or the power to be invisible?
..better yet, would you rather fly or stop time?
..would you rather have one big tooth or teeth like a dog?
..would you rather be sweating profusely or farting a lot?
..would you rather have bad breath or putok?
..would you rather nagmumuta ka every minute or have a bad day-long runny nose?
..for girls, would you rahter have one boob or one butt cheek?
..for boys, would you rather have blond armpit hair or no armpit hair?
..for girls, would you rather have one boob at the center or three boobs?
..for boys, would you rather be good looking, rich, and "small" or ugly, poor, and "big"? (boys talaga, tsk, tsk.)

its fun, especially when your friends are drunk. try it.

my friend vix has some additional questions..

..kung may pagkakataon kang palitan ang balat mo sa buong katawan ano pipiliin mo... balat sa siko o balat sa talampakan? personally, ako sa talampakan at least pwede magpa foot spa ng buong katawan.
..ano pipiliin mo hininga na amoy putok o putok na amoy bad breath?
..ano pipiliin mo maging mukha kang pera o mukha kang walang pera?
..mamili ka! boyfriend na guapo na super love ka pero may "p and f deficiency" o boyfriend na perfect as opposed to "ferpect",... pero pangit!
..would you prefer... tawagin kang tanga to your face or calling you learning impaired behind your back?

o, diba.

fReEbiEs!

who doesn't love freebies?! :) here is a list of my recent champion freebie finds:



1 - kazumi - the bear (that looks like a mouse) hanging from my phone. i never really liked stuff dangling from phones, but when i saw kazumi i just had to put it. kazumi came free with yanyan (yes, the breadstick snack with chocolate dip), with matching name and birthday, and he is just one of the numerous designs available.

2 - charm bracelet - from the princess collection of the mcdo happy meal. its adorable! its a sparkly violet plastic ring, with a diary, a picture of belle, and a rose hanging, well, dangling, well, stuck to it. the child in me lives again.

3 - vintage shades - i am the person who, despite being 21 and a beach lover, has never owned expensive shades. i always wear those el-cheapo-shades-that-gets-you-dizzy-but-what-the-heck-you-still-wear-it-para-cool-shades. finally! thanks to gift certificates from guess (naks!) my eyes are now free from uv rays, the bright sunlight, and a future grade.

"hApPiNeSs iS a cHoiCe."

my friend jippo said that to me a few years back, and its been stuck with me ever since.

we say we're happy when..

- we're having fun with friends,
- we're in love,
- we're spending quiet time at home with the family,
- we get a job, a promotion, or a raise,
- we buy something we've been wanting for a long time,
- we are pleasantly surprised by someone or something,
- and when we make other people happy.

but sometimes we chance upon inspiring people that despite the not-so-happy situations they're in, still find genuine happiness..

- the friendly dancing policeman in alabang hills who despite the heat of the sun, never fails to salute you with a big smile that starts your day right,
- my editor and cameramen friends who despite being awake for 48 hours, can still crack jokes and share funny stories with you,
- the taxi driver stuck in traffic the whole day, who while listening to an am station shares with you his thoughts on how the country can be better.

don't these people just make you smile and help you learn to appreciate the simpler things in life?

defining slumbook answers.

what is your greatest goal: to be happy and successful in life

everyone answers it. even i answer it! when i am asked, "50 years from now, where do you see yourself?" i usually answer, "happily married with children, with a successful career or business." very general, but very true!

we all want a happy family, who doesn't? some of us may have grown up with dysfunctional families, but still, we long for our own families to be happy. we hope to marry the one perfect for us, and we hope to have healthy, normal kids who resemble us para pwede nating ipagmayabang na "sa akin nagmana yan."

we all want a successful career. something that will make us earn enough money to life a comfortable life and provide for our families. or for others, something that will make them known and established in their respective fields.

we all have the same goal, but we all have different paths to getting there.

what will make YOU happy?

i had dinner with my good-friends-slash-workmates mori, mae, and x, and we all got talking about career paths. i couldn't help but ask them, "when you're 80, old and gray, and you look back at your life, what would make you say you're happy?"

- "if i have a good, happy family."
- "if i see my grandchildren not go through the hardships i went through."
- "children. healthy, normal, smart, and GoD-fearing children."

i don't know if its too much philosophy, but i just really wanted to ask this question in light of our career talk, because if these are our end goals, wouldn't it necessarily follow that our career moves work to reach the things we want most in life?

my answer? i can say i am truly happy if i look back and see that i spent each moment of my life with the people i love, doing the things i love doing. so what is my path, then? that's why i guess happiness is a choice. because each and every choice we make in life, based on what we are given in life, will decide if we will be truly happy.

what would make an 80-year-old-you happy?

LoVe iS iN tHe aiR.

case one: age doesn't matter.

kinikilig ako whenever i see any korina sanchez and mar roxas feature. on the one hand you have this tough broadcast journalist, and on the other you have this simple top senator, and together you see them singing love songs to each other. haaay. flowing with the trend of kilig oldie love stories (jack nicholson and diane keaton in "something's gotta give", and pierce brosnan and julianne moore in "laws of attraction"), i can't wait to see how this love story ends. who would've thought we'd get kilig with grown men and women?!

case two: baby, baby, baby.

anyone who has seen mylene dizon lately will surely agree with me when i say she is just glowing. just when you thought she couldn't get any more beautiful..! beside paolo paraiso, they both just glow with happiness. its so great to see for once someone who celebrates and doesn't hide her being a mother. "a baby is always a great blessing", as boy abunda said. indeed it is!

case three: college sweethearts.

this is to celebrate the going-strong-but-at-times-rocky-and-cranky-but-still-crazy-in-love couples in my circle of friends.

i don't know if it was a trend in my school or it was just inevitable, but some of these blockmate-love-stories-that-started-in-freshman-year turned out great. happy three or more years!! here's to pat pelayo and patty laurel, who are just the most solid and most kengkoy couple i know. here's to alessa libongco and mark ibaviosa ("its not ibavio-SA, its ibavi-O-sa.."), who are the cuuutest and steadiest couple i know. and of course here's to justin ventura, who never fails to make me feel i'm special.

here's to my girls, and their guys, marion espano and jules del pilar, to crissy del rosario and cj javelosa, to roselle ramilo and duart loterte, and to justine ferrer and gabe borromeo.

they say grade school couples break up in high school, and that high school couples break up in college. i sure hope these college sweethearts pull it through.

LoVe iS iN tHiN aiR.

and then there is the other side of the coin.

case one: i don't want no scrub.

my fabulous friend v has been dating n for quite some time, despite our disapproval. this disapproval doesn't come from nowhere. n has this history of being a "scrub", yet v took n back because the feelings were just too strong. fine. the other day, v texted me complaining about n. this time, it wasn't scrubbing. it was seeing the ex after n just saw v. does n really think he's all that, that he can treat v like that?! the nerve!!

case two: tinimbang ka ngunit kulang.

my friend c just emailed me a long letter asking me advice about this girl he likes.. er, loves. he said he courted her for a while, he professed his love, she opted for friendship, but now he finds it so hard to let the feelings go. i really didn't (and don't) know what to answer.. hay love! "there is no easy way to break somebody's heart", and damn! it sure ain't easier to heal somebody's heart.

case three: i'm leaving on a jet plane.

my friend r and his girlfriend p were enjoying a long relationship when things started to get rocky. i didn't know much about their relationship, but when r suddenly shared a few stories, i found out that p was leaving for the states in a few days. whaaat?! i am in no position to give any useful advice, but since i'm ever-the-look-on-the-bright-side-girl, i would say that time and space apart would be healthy actually. at the end of that, if two people still opt to stay together, then that's lasting love right there.


thanks to the buzz, rated k, and mtv loveline for inspiring this post.

sOmE iMpOrTaNt qUeStiOnS mOviEs aSk.

q: there are four movies i saw recently that pose very important questions that really make you think about life..
a: i shall attempt to give my answers..
r: and my rating, based on a rate bar of 1 to 4, 4 being the highest.

collateral.



q: "take comfort in knowing you never had a choice," tom cruise said to jamie foxx when jamie was hesitant to do what tom was asking him to. can you really take comfort in knowing you had no choice?

a: we often feel regret in life, during those times that we say to ourselves, "i should've done this!" or "i knew i shouldn't have chosen that!" my philo teacher had a twist to spiderman's line, he said, "with great freedom comes great responsibility," and its true! the pressure is actually heavier when you have more choices as opposed to when there are just a few. but how about when you don't have a choice? i don't think its comfort that i'll feel.. when i choose something that i eventually regret, the blame is on me. but when i regret something i didn't choose, the blame is on the one responsible. so i don't think i can take comfort, i'd just be passing the blame.

r: ((2.50)) it was an "okay" movie. i don't know, i guess i was just expecting tom cruise movies to be always great. the story was inventive, i think it just lacked suspense, action, and intensity. tom cruise does a good job as an are-you-a-bad-guy-or-a-good-guy character, though its the movie as a whole that doesn't do it for me.

13 going 30.



q: would you ever wish to skip a decade of your life, just to avoid all the awkward and harsh things in life?

a: its very tempting, and i can't say i've never wished it, but i don't think i'd ever want to grow older overnight. there are times i just can't take the hardships and pressures of life that i wish there was a fast forward button i could press. but then again, when i do get through that hardship and that particular pressure-giver, i find myself stronger and wiser. so as tempting as it is, i think every hassleduck, hassledeck, and hasslefeck moment in life makes us better persons.

r: ((2.25)) its an entertaining movie, but you're not missing anything if you don't see it. jennifer garner is nakakaaliw at times, the visuals are pretty, and it gives a couple of laughs, but aside from that its nothing striking. i won't be a spoiler, but the ending for me is a cop-out ending.. its like they made the story so entagled and didn't know how to get out of it, so they ended it that way.

catwoman.



q: how can a movie be so bad?!

a: i have no idea.

r: ((no comment)) i just think they could've used more time in planning, filming, and editing the movie.

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.



q: you can erase someone from your mind, but can you erase someone from your heart?

a: people have this great ability to "selectively forget" what they want to forget - its a great coping mechanism that GoD built us with. it may take some time, a lot of tears, and sometimes even a bit of cash (shopping to feel better), but sooner or later the hurt goes away and we choose to put it at the back of our minds. but from our hearts, are they ever erased? no, i don't think so.. wait, make that i know so. and this, is why i fell in love with the story. (charlie kauffman you're a genius!) you see, GoD also built us with this ability to squeeze in an infinite number of people in our hearts. cheesy but true! once someone touches our heart, there's no way on earth that space can be erased.

r: ((4.00)) i loved it, loved it, loved it. some people find it slow, some find it to be a movie you gotta be in the mood for, and some loved it as much as i did. the story was so simple and original, yet so basic and universal. the acting was great (i'm not a jim carrey nor a kate winslet fan but they were fabulous here), the script was dynamic, witty, and rich, the scoring was so emotional, the lighting was dramatic, and the structure couldn't have been any better. i watched it for the second time last night, loved it even more, cause its the kind of movie that reinvents itself the more you watch it.

gRoWiNg uP.

young versus old.

first crushes and first kisses..
barkadas and barkada wars..
love letters and n-millionth break ups..
term papers and book reports..
job hunting and jobs..
babies and weddings..

and now, more than ever, the order gets jumbled up in really insane ways! so do "signs of the times" really exist?

optimism versus pessimism.

my favorite comedian, jerry seinfeld, had a very interesting observation about being young as opposed to being old.

he said, "when you're young, everything's up. 'wait up!', 'shut up!', 'can i stay up?'.. but when you're old its.. 'slow down..', 'calm down..', 'put that down!'"

endings versus beginnings.

"when GoD closes a door, he opens a window." these are usually the words of wisdom thrown at someone who just lost something valuable to him or her. and i happen to believe its true.

someone very close to me recently found out about his dad losing a job. sounds sad, but in reality, things aren't over. my philo teacher eddieboy calasanz once said that freedom is actually "freedom FROM something, to have freedom FOR something". and its true. sometimes we become free from something only to find out about many more opportunities we never saw before. and the loss of something becomes the gain of something bigger. as ate vi said, "its a blessing in the skies."

i don't know if i'm just being my "disgustingly utopian" self, but i recently just lost a job, and i'm actually enlightened more than anything. it was a great experience, i learned a lot, i gained friends who became family, i loved every minute of it, and i don't feel bad about it. which is great. its a great feeling that i just want to share. :) so now that this chapter of my life is over, i'm looking forward to turning the page.

the reason for this post.

maybe its a time that bianca-the-12-year-old who is in reality a bianca-the-21-year-old is feeling like a bianca-the-30-year-old.

losing a job, being a ninang (GoD bless you cristiana noelle!), attending a friend's wedding (congratulations martino and michelle!).. are these really things 21-year olds are supposed to deal with!? not to mention back aches, recurring migraines, and unsolicited weight gaining? my, my, my.

21 is such an odd age. you're not young, you're not old. then again maybe its just me. maybe i'm just naturally odd. :p