Student campers, foundation scholars and MVP...

Last Thursday, I was asked to host the graduation of the Student Camp. It was fun. It was great seeing some of the campers again, especially because some of them have already become friends of sorts.

The Student Camp is a special kind of apprenticeship. Out of the 400 hundred applicants, less than a hundred were accepted to the program. The Student Campers then spend about 2 months training with the company. They also get to engage in "Kamustahan" sessions, where they met top execs like Mr. Polly Nazareno, and they also got to hang out with the TNT basketball players. So it was really a good internship, I should say.

Anyway, the program went well. I had more fun after the program because I got to hang out with the kiddies-Tatan and Francis from the Global Access group, and then from the Foundation together with Chelle, Abbie, Sarah and another kid who's name I forgot. Eeep!

We all just hung out, chatted, and enjoyed the drinks.

Oh, the other highlight was getting to be on stage again with the main man, MVP. It was nice seeing him enjoying the company of the kids. The guy really loves students I must say. I met MVP during the recruitment for the Student Camp, and now we see each other again at the closing program. Maybe the next time we see each other again, he'll already remember my name. Hehehe!

Uhm, lastly, I've been having some hosting gigs for the company. Aside from the Student Camp recruitment and the graduation, there was this awarding ceremony for scholars of the company's foundation. Hehehe! It's all good, but I have to say that I always, always get nervous before I go onstage. I hope it's not that obvious. But I'm really happy once we reach the closing part because that's the time that I can say the whole program was a success. Or at least, I'm happy. Hehehe!

Smart Buddy Me na Me invades Cebu...

Yesterday was the Smart Buddy Me na Me mall invasion in Manila and Cebu. Colleague Aimee and I were assigned to cover the Cebu leg.

Me na Me is the new campaign of Buddy for prepaid subscribers. The celebrity endorsers are Gerald Anderson, Kim Chiu, Angel Locsin, and Piolo Pascual.

Anyway, the idea for yesterday's gimmick was 150 individuals clad in the same shirt "invading" the major malls. In Cebu, the malls we invaded were SM City, Elizabeth Mall and Ayala Center. It was kind of fun seeing the reaction of the malllgoers when they saw the Me na Me mall invaders walking around the mall. Most of the crowd had a "What's happening" look on their faces as the throngs of people in green shirts passed them by.

The whole day was fun, but it was also tiring. It turned out to be a hot day and traffic was just horrible. Hehehe!

I was happy though because I made new friends, somehow. Though it was a quick event, I got to bond with the Me na Me kiddies from the group assigned to me. Hehe!

Finally, tourist for an hour in Cebu...

Finally, I was able to do something touristy in Cebu.

Aimee and I arrived in Cebu at 6AM. From the airport, we took a cab to her house where we had a good breakfast. I had frice rice and danggit. Yum! Afterwards, since we had about an hour to spare before work for the day began, Aimee brought me to one of the most popular landmarks in Cebu - the Basilica of the Sto. Niño.

There I saw the much-venerated Sto. Niño and a line of devotees patiently waiting for their turn to be in front of the child Jesus. That was the Sto. Niño that is brought out during the Grand Parade of the Sinulog Festival every January.

The other thing that amazed me was the retablo. It was fantastic. It was grand. It was to be adored. I don't know but I really find myself drawn to old churches and the old altars. Hehe! When we went to Iloilo, I was just in awe of the beautiful architecture of all the old churches.

On the side of the church was the courtyard. It kind of reminded me of Fr. Blanco's garden in Intramuros.

And then just oustide at the rear of the church is Magellan's Cross, the very cross Ferdinand magellan planted on Philippine shores in 1521 when he claimed the country for Prince Philip.

That's it. Maybe next time I visit Cebu, I'd get to see the beach. Haha!

For now, I'm happy that I've seen something other than the hotel, the airport and our Visayas office.

Burger naman diyan...

I was craving for a burger since last weekend, but having taken a new path over a month ago, I knew that the numerous burger joints near my office just can't be.

So what do I do?

Despite the rain and the horrible EDSA traffic, I went all the way to QC just to satisfy my craving. On the way, I called good friend Bernice to see if she would be was free for dinnner. I told her where we'd be eating and by 830PM, we were making our way to Morato area.

Our destination was Greens. The last time I've been at that nice dining place was a couple of years ago. Once we got the menu, I started having thoughts about my tofu mushroom burger, because of all the other nice dishes. There was pasta and the tofu/mushroom kebab and shepherd's pie. Hay, they were all good but I decided to satisfy my craving and got the burger with fries and soy milk. Like me, Bernice was also going gaga over the menu because of all the good stuff. She decided to get the shepherd's pie with red rice and soy milk.

Over dinner, we had our usually light conversation about work, her scholarship results, among others. It was a good dinner. Hehe!

From Greens, we walked to the nearby bookstore (I forgot the name, yikes!) and checked out the pre-owned books on sale. There were a couple of titles I was interested in, but since I'm on a shoestring budget because of the August trip, I decided to not get any books. Hehe!

Greens at 92 Sct. Castor. On weekdays, it's open from 11AM - 10PM, while on weekends, it's from 12NN - 9PM.

The healer of the flesh now heals souls...

Last week, I got an email from a friend in the US. He was in town. Jo is a fellow Pahinungod volunteer whom I met several years ago. I was new to Pahinungod and he was one of the seasoned volunteers. Uhm, I think we got to go on a couple of volunteer activities like immersion and a couple of medical missions.

He left for the US not too long ago to do some post-graduate studies on human genetics. A doctor by profession, he surprised us all when he emailed that he was going to enter the seminary. He did, and last May 10, my friend the doctor was ordained to priesthood.

From healing the weary body, Jo decided to move on to healing the weary soul. I was happy for him.

Yesterday, I went to Sacred Heart church in Kamagong and waited for the 5PM Mass. Fr. Jo was officiating. It was surreal seeing him up on the altar dressed in a chausible, a stole, saying Mass, but I was happy for him. I thought he'd be giving the homily, but I was slightly disappointed when after he read the Gospel, the other priest made his way to the lecturn. After the Mass, parents and kids approached Jo.

I stayed on my seat and he approached me and joked, "Kamusta po?" It was good seeing the guy. From church, we went to the mall. Dinner at Tokyo Tokyo followed by coffee and a good chat at Gloria Jean's (again).

He's leaving for the US on the 23rd. His assignment will be in some town named Muscatine in Iowa. I'm not sure when I'll see the guy again, but it feels good to know that there's one person praying for you.

Carlo time on a Friday night...

Friday evening was spent with Carl. We met up at 9 at Glorietta 4. Got a quick dinner at Food Choices then sinful dessert from Dairy Queen. We then caught a late movie screening. Afterwards, we hung out at Gloria Jean's til 3 in the morning just chatting. I was asking him questions about the new Zsazsa he was working on. Hehe! One of the questions was inspired by one of the baristas of Gloria Jean's. Hehe! It was two in the morning, so you can't really expect my mind to be functioning well. Haha! Anyway, I shamelessly asked Carlo if he would consider something for the new book and Carlo being Carlo, he said yes. Hehe! We got both excited about it and the next few minutes were spent conjuring possible scenarios for that project. Hehe! Can't wait for the next Zsazsa. Oooohhh! I'm excited.

Dinner at Soms and dessert at FIC...

Sometimes, the most ordinary evenings can turn out to be one of the best get-togethers with friends.

Last night was one such evening. There wasn't any special occasion, but some friends from work decided to go out for dinner a long day at the office. For some reason, this week to be much stressful than the usual. (and we're all expecting the next three weeks to remain like this... eeep!)

We headed to Soms near Rockwell for a good dinner - tom yum, seafood friend rice, two kinds of curry, spring rolls, thai tea. It was a Thai cuisine feast. Haha!

From Soms, we moved to the ice cream bar of Fruits in Ice Cream at the Manansala in Rockwell.

We stayed out til 11PM, and the night really was good chatting and lots of good laughter.

Even if I only had five hours of sleep because of this gimik, it was well worth it. Hehe!

To throw or not to throw...

Harharhar... look what I found over the weekend. Pack rat that I am (blame it on my parents), I've still been keeping this box.

What's inside are cheesy greeting cards, movie tickets, Starbucks receipts, musical tickets, wrist bands from parties, souvenirs from trips, a small stuff toy, happy photos, among others, from the (almost) four years of you-know-what. Haha! Truth is, there are three boxes, but the one above is the box.

Hmm, I'm wondering whether I should throw all the contents already or if I should just keep the boxes and just let them accumulate dust for the next few years.

Part of me can already throw the stuff away, another part is sort of wanting to keep the stuff not because I still don't want to or can't let go, but because these are souvenirs from the first and only I've ever had.

What to do... what to do...

The bigger news for me is that the last time I saw this box, it was just there on my shelf. When I stumbled upon the box over the weekend, it was inside a plastic bag. That means only one thing. My Mom saw the box. And my being my Mom, I'm quite sure she opened the box to see what's inside.

Maybe that's the reason why she put it in a plastic bag and hid it in the shelf. Looks like more than me, it's my Mom who has the letting go to do. Hehehe! Bad Angelo.

Finding "shelter" and loving it...

The weekend turned out to be a movie weekend - Trick, Soldier's Girl and...drumroll please... Shelter.

But before that...

Yesterday morning, I was supposed to meet some people for a get-together, but that fell through. The get-together pushed through, but I wasn't able to go join so that was a bit of a bummer. I was really looking forward to go see these people.

The entire afternoon was spent sorting papers, newspapers, folders, forms at my cubicle in the office. All these junk is starting to pile up and it's about time that I sit down and go through the stuff to sort the trash from the important files. Four hours wasn't enough, but at least I was able to put some semblance of order in my files. Though Thom Filicia would still faint if he saw my work area. I'm a disgrace. Hehehe! Though I think I would get pogi points for the file organizer and the labels and the Angelo corkboard. Hehe!

The last one is a corkboard which has some stuff posted on it that reminds me who I am. I'll take a photo of it one of these days and post it. I think I need it because I'm afraid of turning into something I'm not, just because...

Anyway, in the evening, I stayed up late to watch Shelter. Really good one. It's been awhile since my last good film from that genre. It's as real as it can be. It made me wonder a bit why local indie films can't write a simple plot like that. Most of the local films I've seen are either tragic or overly dramatic. Or it could be funny but the object of laughter is the main character. Sigh.

Going back, Shelter was a fantastic watch. I love the storyline. It's so simple. The film is set in Southern California and it's about young graffiti artist Zach and his rich best friend's older brother Shaun. Talented as he may be, Zach gave up his dreams to take care of his five-year-old nephew Cody. Surfing and art serve as his escape from the family drama. When Shaun comes home for a few weeks, sparks fly between the two. This makes Zach take a look at his life once again and make new decisions that would affect his future, Cody's future and a future with Shaun and Cody. I love the soundtrack. The choice of music was just great. And I love that, like I said, it was close to real life. Much applause to Jonah Markowitz writing/directing and JD Disalvatore for producing.

Trick and Soldier's Girl are two films I've seen before. Both films are great. Trick is a good drama/comedy between a young musical writer and a young man. What was supposed to be a trick turned into something else. That was cute. Soldier's Girl, on the other hand, was intense. And it's heartbreaking because it was based on a real story and it's a bit scary because the tragedy that happened to Pvt. Barry Winchell can happen to anyone. For choosing to be different, for choosing to love differently, the price one had to pay was, in this case, his life. I had to watch again my favorite parts from Shelter after seeing Soldier's Girl just to lift up my spirits again.

So even if my weekend turned out to be quite by myself. I was glad that Zach, Shaun, Gabe, Barry and Cali kept me company.

Maybe I could be this...

Uhm, I'm on a high from Shelter right now and I'm loving every second of that flick so today's post will be screen caps from Shelter. Hehehe!

This is how things are right now...

But it would be great if there could be this...

And maybe this...


So that maybe someday it could lead to this...


Because I'd like to have this...

But if all these won't work, I'd already be the happiest guy if I can at least be this...