top ten

i chanced upon time's top ten lists for 2006 and after discovering new books & movies to hunt for, i resolved to make my own lists:

top 5 events of 2006
1. UP graduation
2. bicol getaway
- butandings, bagyo & everything
3. being a new hire@HP
- meeting SWAT, BI/DW, & planning the Nth new hire presentation...
4. jam@hp gigs
- dream come true for a frustrated musician :o)
5. caveman ink
- first serious shot at entrepreneurship. who could forget the binondo adventures?


top 3 songs of 2006
1. alapaap - eraserheads (jam@HP's first gig)
2. going under - evanescence (rock on, tanya!)
3. kapag nawala ka - stonefree (astig.


top 3 sites i could not survive without in 2006
1. google.com/ig (starts my every day. i swear by it.)
2. youtube.com (to get through my bakit-kaya-wala-akong-ginagawa? moments)
3. deviantart.com (nothing to say but loooooooove)


top 3 discoveries of 2006
1. panic at the disco
2. rockstar supernova (i first watched this while on the treadmill at fitness. i ditched the gym; i'm still watching the videos.)
3. stephen colbert (i just love him, love him, love him.)


top 3 things i miss most in 2006
1. getting up late in the morning
2. card games @ the tambayan
3. catching up with old friends


top 3 things i'm grateful for in 2006
1. P80 dvds (hindi ako makatulog dahil sayo, did you know? buti na lang hindi mo din ako pinapatulog tuwing night shift ko. :p)
2. LNS (wheeee!)
3. friends, new and old (double wheeeeee!)


top 3 lessons of 2006
1. kahit ano pang sabihin mo, family first.
2. regret's not a bitch. it's a he.
3. all things shall pass. bloom where you are planted.

for thought

After a while, you learn the subtle difference between holding a HAND, and chaining a SOUL,

and you learn that LOVE doesn't mean leaning, and company doesn't mean SECURITY,

and you begin to learn that KISSES aren't contracts, and presents aren't PROMISES,

and you begin to accept your defeats with your HEAD UP and your EYES OPEN, with the grace of an ADULT, not the grief of a child.

After a while, you learn that even SUNSHINE burns if you get too much.

So plant your own GARDEN and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And your learn that you can really ENDURE... that you really are STRONG.

And YOU really have worth.

it's all good

[ if you're looking for a rant post, then scoot. ]

during my birthday weekend, my HS crush, my college crush & my HP crush greeted me. yep, it's all good.

sometimes, we do feel that we have it all. even if just for a while. even if just for a trivial thing. yep, heaven's definitely here on earth.

====================================

[ non-geeks stop here ]

whoa. an ancient supercomputer.

rock on

it still overwhelms me, how we got from here to there.



well, it doesn't matter how anyway.



all i know is that it feels so damn good.



jam@HP, astig ka.

that prince

hmm, i think i deserve a good whack on the head, right about now. ikay made us watch this new koreanovela dvd called 'Princess Hours'. i'd rather watch a rene requestas film.

but lo and behold, by nightfall, my sister and i were marathoning up to episode 8. never mind the bad (and i mean really BAD) subtitles; i had to summon all my context clues skills. but man, we were hooked. especially me. whenever the prince's cousin comes out, i literally SHRIEK. can't help it. eeek. me, shriek at an intsikin guy? this is so not me.

*whack*

===========================

you were probably one of the nicest things God could have ever sent my way. if you weren't standing there, actually breathing & talking, i'd probably dismiss you as a mirage, a myth.

you're one of my biggest regrets too. i have to say, you're the biggest. knowing you exist could not let me forget this gaping loss. i feel hollow. cowardly. stupid.

the memory's vivid, the one when you told me how you knew she was the one. man, that hit me the hardest.

*whack*

what's the rush?

you ubiquitous starbucks cup, you. it seems everyone's scrambling for a frap today, just to get that 2007 planner.

it just dawned on me -- somehow, somewhere along the way, i stopped 'planning' my life. i used to keep this papemelroti calendar everyday, along with a bunch of post-it reminders. heck, i used to wear a watch. i've never really been a long-term planner, though. the farthest i go, i guess, is freeing the next weekends for birthdays & night-outs.

i guess i stopped when i realized that sometimes, not planning can ironically be more eventful. messier, but more eventful. more mistakes, but more life lessons as well.

here's to not knowing what tomorrow brings.

time-out!

and breathe.

that's something i forgot to do today. to exhale. to let it out sometimes. to do something really worth it.

thank God for Happy Feet yesterday. i absolutely have to watch it again. :)

minute post

i found this grad pic thumb among my long-forgotten files. eeek. but i won't trade my 5-minute morning prep time for anything.

ok, minute is up. this is for the lost musings i would have written down, if i weren't commuting. or wasted. or both.

unload

i've seen crap before, but never like this. trust me, never like this.

a sewer section 'exploded' in binondo. the stench reaches you a block away. must have been a crappy day for their starbucks & yellow cab. patrons scampered away, eh?

yep, when people see crap, they turn away but can't wait to tell others about it.

==========

i know why support's such a hit. finally, we got to pull together a system wherein we know who should help who, how who should help who with what, and for how much.

uyyy. sinong jaded?

============


'Sorya!' He was screaming for Sorya. More like barking, actually. And here I was, ranting, while this 6-year old yells for grumpy jeep drivers and stands in smoke all day. damn.

==========

self-actualization

ooh. big word.

it's the only thing to keep us sane once you realize you're in a race without a direction. be it as grandiose as an assault to everest's peak, or as trivial as managing to keep your room in order for once, it's important. urgent. vital, even.

i gotta get those sign language lessons.

ultimately, imho, the only heaven's here on earth. and it's grand.

woes

i want a job that stresses me to death -- but ends at 5.

demanding? :p

beer bash gig @ hard rock

wala akong pakialam kung nakatalikod ako. :p

salamat, jam@HP, sa pagkunsinti sa isang batang makulit para matupad ang kanyang pangarap.

salamat, HP, sa pagtangkilik ng sariling atin. it also helped na shenglots tayong lahat. :p

mabuhay jammers!

things to do on a free day

i get a giddy feeling when defragmenting. it gives me the illusion that i'm actually making some effort to create a semblance of order in my life (or at least in my hard drive).

======

may panda bear pala yung kinocross-stitch ko? (yes tons, i'm still at it. haha.)

happy halloween!

isn't this the cutest egg you ever saw? :)

ulyanin

why is it that more often than not, we remember the things we have to do at the time when we are absolutely unable to do it?

get high

we're a generation of stress junkies. yes, work can be a vice. our vice.

free time is not always good. in fact, it can be the most horrifying moment of your life. when the realization slowly creeps that you have no life to go back to. just when you thought you had all bases covered.

tsk tsk.

calling silver pen...

i finally finished the 3-paragraph news article I had to do for the team newsletter. it took me 4 weeks. to be fair, for the most part, i kept putting it off.

i don't know when i came to be so terrified of writing. it was probably when i discovered it wasn't flowing as= smoothly as it used to.

i used to be a poetry person. then i became the it girl for features. now i'm more of a news person. hmm. becoming colder, i see. how apt.

the amazing race

life is an extreme game.

it's all or nothing.

can't trust anyone but yourself.

the wager? life itself. and i guess anything that isn't worth your life isn't worth anything.

House MD

lessons gained from marathoning two seasons of House:

- duty is a lousy excuse. don't do anything that doesn't excite you.
- never apologize for weirdness.
- sometimes, people need crap to happen.

for some reason, images of several people come to mind . i've never really understood them before; maybe they have a point.

bunso

isa talaga akong bunso; hindi ko ito maipagkakaila. kahit siguro hindi ako huling pinanganak, bunso pa rin ako mag-isip.

brat. pikon. mayamot. brat.

naalala ko dati nang isang gabi, nagbabasa ako sa kwarto nang biglang pumasok ang aking ama at sinabing papatayin na ang ilaw at ang tv kasi matutulog na siya. wag na nating alalahanin na nakakatulog siya nang tanghali sa tapat ng tv sa sala araw-araw. humingi ako ng lima pang minuto para lamang matapos ang kabanata. kakasara lang ng bibig ko e narinig ko na ang 'click' ng switch ng ilaw.

umusok ang ulo ko. labas ng kwarto. upo sa sofa. basa nang konti. umuusok pa rin ang ulo ko.

uy, remote. hmm.

sunod na araw ay nataranta ang buong bahay kakahanap ng remote ng tv sa sala para sa tatay. ngiti lang ako.

bunso. brat. ako. bow.

snatching a minute post on a comeback monday

Tama si Ebe Dancel. Minsan, mabilis nga talaga ang ikot ng mundo. Ang resulta, biyahilo. -- Tonet

Panalo ka talaga, Tons. :)

======================================

[ /ti-ket/ n.: issue; problema; minsan nagiging ugat ng sakit sa puso ]

I thought I'd get swamped with tickets today, but all I have are 3 [ kunyari na lang di sila lahat pula...].

DSL, i just want you to know.... NAMISS KITA!!!! kahit pinagpalit kita sa pagma-marathon ng House buong weekend. at sa pagcro-cross stitch [ don't ask. pag wala talagang kuryente, natutuklasan muli ang mga lost-lost hobby. buti na lang wala na yung crochet needle ko. ]

off guard

i love my job -- or non-job, for that matter. for the longest time, i've been ranting, looking for stress that has become my vice, i realize. but no, no place for that here.

thus, it challenges me in a way that i never expected. in a world that has bombarded me with duties, routines and orders, it gave me free time. free time? there was no way i could have prepared for this.

now, i ask myself new questions -- what do i want to do? if it was totally up to me, what would it be? i rediscovered music, family, friends, laughter, the outdoors -- all things that used to mean the world to me. i've tapped other hibernating facets in me, as well.

my (non)job totally caught me off guard. i love it.

pinoy thoughts on a pinoy day

brain drain. an issue that keeps popping up. it almost makes you want to bawl whenever brilliance flees to greener pastures rather than sticking it out... and you can't blame them at all. all they want to do is work, and get paid what they deserve. how many of our officials can say the same? sad, sad.

========

i'm really digging the Apo tribute album, especially the tracks from bands I only heard of now. Sugarfree's Batang-bata ka pa, Drip's Kabilugan ng Buwan, Rocksteddy's Blue Jeans and Top Suzara's Anna were phenomenal. Did you know that Apo coined OPM? It must be such a high for them to see the pinoy music scene right now and see how far it's gotten (oh well, except for the novelty genre, i guess...). Mabuhay ang OPM!

grouchy me

i think this was probably the first i ever had a bad day at work. it was the first time that jerkship at the office became a reality (i still don't think of them as jerks -- yet. i mean, i don't think they meant to piss me off. but they did. eek. crabby, grouchy Ish. tsk tsk.)

might as well. there's about a million YM status-es i can use when these days come:


Conclusion: the place where you got tired of thinking.

Out of Body. Back in Five Minutes.

I don't suffer from stress. I'm a carrier.

Program halted -- Hit any user to continue.

I smile because I don't know what the hell is going on.

If only everything came with pull-down menus and online help.

Mental backup in progress! Do Not Disturb! I Am NOT Asleep!

THINK -- it gives you something to do while the computer is down.

-----------------------

it's beginning to pour. it figures.

geek with a cause

To those who actually want to make use of their time, you might want to check this out:

UN Online Volunteering -- http://www.onlinevolunteering.org

Geekcorps -- www.geekcorps.org

rainy monday and grad school thoughts

yeah, i'm sure your day was pretty interesting too, but so was mine.

monday usually means showing up at the office a little before 8 am. today's suspension of work was annouced a little after 9 am.

ISH was at WORK.
WORK was SUSPENDED.
SUSPENDED = SINE.

Therefore:

ISH ---> SINE!

(of course, this was totally high school mentality, but that realization came when we were already halfway towards Liz's car, so what the heck.)

we watched Lady in the Water. you HAVE to watch this. and m. night --- dude, is it me or is that cameo looking more and more like a career?

during the ride home, that inevitable wave of guilt came over (conveniently right after the movie, of course). as soon as i got home, i changed into bum clothes, set up my laptop and opened the Service Desk to say hi to the issues awaiting. they weren't that many; apparently they also appreciate a good stay-in-and-bum day too.

i took the time to surf everything that i still haven't the guts to surf during work. no, not porn, you pervert. games, google jobs (whoops), and grad school. i got this sudden urge to plot for the future (which was rare). i narrowed down the good grad schools for computer science studies --- Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Berkeley (dammit, these names scare me to death). i came across some good scholarships too. what i didn't expect to come across was some good tips:

- Graduate school is all about research. Training about research. Papers, papers, papers. If you can't stomach any more research, SCOOT. Maybe it's just not for you.
- An MS or PhD is for obsessive people, people who get more excited about digging deeper than actually having a job.
- Also ask yourself, what's after grad school? Probably teaching, or even more research work. If you can't stomach that, then SCOOT. Cmon now, I gave you a second chance.
- Graduate school's all about depth, not breadth.

I nailed the first four - I'm obsessive about details and unanswered questions, teaching college brats could be cool, and I hell do want to meet other obsessive weirdos like me. But one essential question left me stumped:

WHY DO I WANT A PHD?

The lady who wrote the tips said that it was imperative that this question be answered. Since I very well took her other tips to heart, I can't just ignore this one. Honestly, I don't have an answer. Yet.

Here's to hoping that 'yet' has a purpose.

flashback

back in high school, we had this Trig professor, Sir Melo. He wasn't really your dreamy wow-pare-dapat-nag-artista-ka-na-lang guy. He didn't even try extra hard to make your heart skip a beat. He was just this laid-back, witty, yeah-my-day-sucks-too-pero-kebs-lang kind of guy. i remember how our class made him lose his cool one day (which wasn't often) when we hid his chalk. now, i think he married one of our English teachers. he was perfectly normal. perfectly flawed. perfectly cool. perfect.

i don't even know why i thought of him today, but i want my own sir melo. no, not sir melo himself. nah, i want my own one.

critical

i solved my first critical ticket today. yey me. although it wasn't really that much of a feat --- just needed to bounce an application (e.g. stop and restart the container -- as i always say, the comp sci solution to everything).

it's funny how relative it is, what 'Critical' means to different people. an employee about to be late for a report. the signs of a bulge in a socialite's tummy. a pimple on the teenager's nose. lost tsinelas.

disturbingly blank

nothing really sends my head spinning more than that morning walk at the underpass from the Enterprise to Insular. a thousand blank faces -- yuppies, vendors, bosses, transients -- greet me everyday as they scurry off to their cubicles. hiya, rat race. is it silly that it bothers me that it's a thousand faces i don't know?

i want

everything that we do should be done for selfish reasons. wanting to be famous. wanting to be appreciated. wanting to save the world. different reasons, same drive. I WANT.

it's the only way to be sure that what we do is real. to do with passion and utter stubbornness. it's the only way everything ought to be done.

escapism

thank God for StumbleUpon, or else I would have lost my mind. it's the perfect i-don't-care-if-hell-breaks-loose-if-i-don't-solve-this-issue breakaway.

http://www.dumb.com/dumbcriminals.htm - i feel so much assured now. hehe.

http://www.geekologie.com - my favorite geek nook as of the moment. i love the swiss knife couch.

http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/features/20moviethings.htm - apparently, i wasn't the only one who noticed.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_problems_solved_by_MacGyver - finally! haven't done reading them all though. :)

c'mon, spank me

i'm a sinner. yes i am.

i have a new crush. he's sort of this new celebrity in town. charming and funny, he's at least 5"11 (+1000 pogi points!). he's also cute, in a professor-in-powerpuff-girls sort of way.

we had him over for lunch, and it nulled my other doubts. this guy is smart -- no, witty.

he's also a man of the cloth.

sheesh. it's fun to have a new crush, but i'm up against God, i know better than to push my luck.

God, bati tayo ha? haha. :p

at the office on a friday night

i spend roughly around 3% of my time riding elevators now. it's getting to be a familiar scene -- the elevator doors, the security guard, and the waiting chairs beside him. i glance at the office door and realized that i belonged to the other side of it now. i remember the time when my place was at the lobby -- getting a visitor's pass, rehearsing interview answers in my mind, staring at my rarely-worn formal shoes.

for a moment, it felt surreal.

sometimes, i just feel old.

often, i just feel too contemplative.

twilight zone

By moonlight many years ago,
my true love did I know.
And by that moon I begged her wait,
but that night did she go.
So young lovers heed my words,
don't squander love away.
The moon is changing ever still,
soon comes the light of day.


did you like that poem? was it a little familiar? if yes... then buko ka na! dawson's fan ka no? :p it was the poem used for the episode near the finale, i believe. this was unearthed when a friend asked me for the url of a website i made way back.

i'm talking about way back 2nd yr HS, when i first learned how to code html. and you know how thrilling that can be for a geek like me. :) my (over)enthusiasm was obvious -- with the moving marquees, frames, overloaded backgrounds, midis (midis! eek.). it unanimously screams 'NEWBIE!!!'. picture me cringing right now. yeech.

for the spcp friends who want to take a nostalgic trip, visit ishg.tripod.com/a. while you're at it, you can visit ishg.tripod.com/parokya and ishg.tripod.com itself for some dawsonisms, quotes, etc. (eeek! so high school!) but don't say i didn't warn you. :)

yoohoo, tickets, where are you?

it's a pretty slooow day for the service queue today. all afternoon, i had 8 tickets. the same 8 tickets i had morning, save for two E2E auto-tickets. TWO AUTO-TICKETS?!? come on people, something must be wrong here. our web apps are too quiet...

(haha, i'm not really complaining. i'm just in disbelief. :p )

bored to death? then click away:

need a no-brainer break?
http://people.freenet.de/schnubelken/bunnys/

lie-detector manual
http://www.blifaloo.com/info/lies.php

is music your life?
http://www.pandora.com/

kaleidoscope world
http://www.zefrank.com/byokal/kal2.html

ascii image maker
http://www.typorganism.com/asciiomatic/asciiomatic_afterupload.php?fileID=4790&fileTitle=

windows auto-philes
http://www.cothrun.com/gallery/albums/Misc/windows_mix.swf

mag-aartista ka, kid

i met the most adorable kid during the ride home. i know everyone says theirs is the most adorable kid, but out of all the adorable kids, this guy was the most talkative.

he wasn't even on the jeep, yet he had us all secretly smiling. when told by his mom to go ahead and climb up the jeep while she paid their fare, he shouted "ma! may driver! ayoko pa, baka biglang umandar!". once inside, he was told to sit across the free seat from his mom. "ma! gusto ko kumandong sayo!", he retorted. (i know it sounds whiny, but imagine that it was said in a cute way :p )

talk about being kidnap-prone. he chatted with anyone and called them 'ate' and 'kuya', he sang 'makita kang muli' for everyone in the jeep, and i believe he told everyone about yesterday's episode of Panday too.

i guess little tykes aren't so bad after all. :)

starstruck

i got another cool link! for fellow stargazing geeks, check out http://www.neave.com/planetarium. i wonder if i can get this as a screensaver?

---------------

i must say, i'm downright in love with HP right now. it's my first night stint, i shadow for the 8pm to 5 am shift. after going through hell on tuesday morning trying to commute at 5 am (everyone was going TO makati, kamusta naman?), i availed of the Late Night Shuttle service at HP. as i climbed up the van, the driver started the engine. i asked him, "kuya, tayo lang po?" and he nodded. hanep, it was like having my own van. diretso hatid pa sa bahay. hanep. manong driver, sana yumaman ka talaga.

i also got to work from home for the first time. hanep talaga! i could work draped in the comfort of my big shirt and shorts.

they say i'm just in the honeymoon phase right now. maybe they're right, but right now, i don't really care. i'm currently happy with my delusions. :)

fresh from workload management training

this was the sort of things they should have taught way back in high school. i thought i was good at juggling, but boy, was I way behind. we got tips from the pros on how to stick it out in the big league.

i especially liked the idea that saving time was a myth. no one can ever save time; we can only invest in it. this means one should spend time wisely as to spend less time on tasks in the future. bear in mind that it's a matter of working smart vs. working hard.

handy, eh?

feels weird

a full moon is more often than not a beacon that weird things are coming.

like how my sister and i got lost at the makati walkway in the morning searching for kfc. we ended up at mister donut.

like how i thought my biggest problem of the day was my HP password conking out again.

like how i got the call which said that my mom got hit in a car accident and was rushed to st. luke's. like how you never never expected for the doctor to say that she needed bed rest and that she shouldn't move for 3 weeks if she didn't want an operation.

i know moons aren't stars, but still i find myself wishing on one.

muni-muni

Everybody has their own 'mot-mot' (e.g. "emote-emote") time. I usually have mine during the ride home from school (er, now, I guess it's from work).

While trying desperately not to hear an over-enthusiastic cellphone call next to me, I zoned out and thought about college. I'll probably never get over the 'I-miss-UP' phase.

And who can blame me? College life truly magnified every fear I had; I never felt more incapable in my life. But it also equipped me with skills and an outlook that is priceless, probably more than I could ever fathom.

It taught me that the first step to being wise is to acknowledge that you are stupid. Being wise doesn't mean knowing the answers to everything. The trick is to know where to find the answers when you need them. Meanwhile, just learn and learn; the thirst to be educated should be insatiable and the well of knowledge is bottomless. Never waste mistakes; they probably are the best ways to learn.

Also, all my life I've been taught to play nice. But now I've learned that if you play by the rules, you get burned. Instead, play smart. Never cause another person misery on purpose though; pissing off karma is a recipe for doom. Play smart instead. Make mistakes and you'll know what I mean.

too much time on my hands, eh?

then check out Spell with Flickr. enter any word,

and it'll skim through letter photos from flickr to spell it out. if you happen to not like

any letter, just click on it and the site'll find another photo for you. cool. come to

think of it, this is good for ransom notes. or fanmail. or whatever.



what, still bored? i got some more sites left, although i haven't checked out some:

http://imageeditor.net

Online photo editor. Very handy.


http://30gigs.com

30 gig Mail service. Yep, it's yet another email provider, but this one lets you see from which countries your emails are coming from thru a map. :p


http://www.ksolo.com/

Up for some karaoke? This site lets you sing, record and playback your fave songs.


http://goffice.com/

Online office suite. Handy for cramming.


http://allmydata.com/

Online data backup. No more my-pc-crashed-and-it-had-my-thesis-on-it! excuses.



this is what you get when you put a restless loony in an office.

for hard core geeks

scientists_shed_new_light_on_invisibility

i used to think that invisibility was something meant to remain in sci-fi books. hmm... i wonder how long it would take them to figure out how to teleport? the future remains promising.


other ways to change the world:

classroom 2.0: revolutionize the college experience

books 24/7: imagine what this will do for africa. or maybe life in artartica.

gprs auto-ticket: no more speeding for you, i'm afraid

dark clouds hanging

There are just days that just weren't meant to be good. Early day spoilers are the worst -- a cranky parent, a ride with the world's worst taxi driver -- and the rest of the day is doomed. Summon all things good but still it's hopeless. No matter how hard you try or how bad you want to psyche yourself up, nothing can brighten your mood anymore. Not perky siblings. Not treats. Not even a good movie. And you know it's bad when a good movie doesn't work anymore.

Thank God there's a good life to compensate for bad days.

dahil sa isang sako ng bigas, napa-post ako

it finally came, the first delivery of my bimonthly rice allowance from HP. and it hit me, this is my first real contribution to the Gagno home since I started work. it's really a long way from the once-walang-kapantay-na-bratinella.

oh, who am i kidding. i'm still a brat, and i have no idea why i would want to be otherwise. :)

googly-eyed 2

i found this today. isn't it cute?

want more? check out http://www.google.com.sg/intl/en/holidaylogos.html .

how i met your mother

guys, you just have to check out this series. the best set of writers since Friends.

remember doogie howser? he's the one on the left and he's definitely my favorite character. :)

caloy kolokoy

caloy, we will never forget you.

from team bugsy to team bagyo

From jam's rat-up-your-pants surprise during the ride going to Irosin, I knew this trip was going to be eventful.

Surely enough, Caloy greeted us with rainfall on our arrival. Here we were, an overexcited bunch on a getaway five years in the making, and we were welcomed by the rainy season's first storm.

Caloy does not know us very well yet. A storm's not enough to get us down. As soon as we settled at Mig's house, we went off to Bulusan Lake to, well, to see the lake and Mt. Bulusan. Next stop was the hot springs, which never fail to spark a discussion about Dante's peak. Add some of Irosin's giant ensaymadas and you get a lot more grins.

Since I just got my wisdom tooth pulled out, I stocked up on soup mixes, thinking I would have nothing but soup. But the moment someone mentioned 'Bicol Express' and 'Tinuktukan' during dinner, I knew that thought was out the window. Yum!

The storm brewed during the night, with a wind that went 'whoosh' and rain sprays through the window that go 'haha! basa ka na!'. It was house arrest for us during the 2nd day, with no electricity nor water. Kamusta naman ang buhay probinsya? But with true self-entertaining Bugsy spirit, we passed time with our friends Poker, Psycho Game and Pinoy Henyo. (Btw, probably 70% of our photo ops were made inside our room. Haha.)

The third day brought light... literally. I couldn't help but gasp, 'SUN!', once awake. We trooped the Dorotan private beach. My last days as a dependent were actually had a lot of firsts for me. For those who don't know me, I've always had this morbid fear of the sea. For some reason, although I love Dory, sea+corals+fishes+me = love<->hate relationship. But thanks to Tidoy, Dana, Migs, Mace and the whole troop who put up with my whining, I actually got to dive and sea the marvels underneath, even if just for a few minutes. It was also the first time I got to play frisbee with my bikini-clad friends (sorry guys, you missed out). It was also my first beach-MTV (haha! eto nagagawa ng nawawala sa sibilisasyon!).

Fast-forward to day four: It was also my first time to attend mass in Bikolano. We were leaving Irosin that day, onto Donsol where the butandings await, commonly more known as whale sharks. No, they're not whales, they're sharks. For a sea-coward like me, this actually means a whole lot. What the heck was I doing swimming with sharks? Yes, they only devour planktons, but who said they haven't got any other shark friends?!?!

But once our butanding spotter shouted 'Go!', all thinking stops and you find yourself jumping off the boat. You look down and sea the butanding swimming under you. Ayos! For those going to Sorsogon, you simply have to do this.

Then off we go home. The stop at Casagwa wasn't originally in the itinerary, but it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless. The sight of Mt. Mayon was enough to dwarf anyone. You know that tiny church tower peeking from the ground in Mt. Mayon postcards? I never expected to see that up close anytime during my life; that really made my day.

Never mind that I almost niffed my first day at work. Never mind that I arrived 6 am at home to my frenzied family worried about the 9am shift I had that day. It was all worth it.

Here's to Team Bugsy and to more adventures. :o)