Another belated entry! The Institute of Communication of Letran College always holds an Excellance Awards Night every end of a school year. The Excellance event last 2010 was on March 20. There are always five hosts, one of each communication courses and I was chosen from the female Journalism students.
It was my first time to host an event-- and a grand one I might add. We had one week of rehearsals and I have to say, it was very organized. We had our scripts or dummy cards, so we need not improvise. I really had a lot of fun in practice and most of our audience always cheered for me when I'm up. I was a tad nervous for the event that I might foul up by talking too fast or stammering, so I practiced my lines every night of the week. I guess I practiced so hard that I kind of memorized my lines already. It was pretty cool that I memorized my lines and I didn't have to read my cards all the time during rehearsals.
There was another thing that worried me though, we had to wear a gown. I was really bummed by the idea because I'm not used to wearing gowns, I usually wear cocktail dresses and I own loads of them. I had the impression that gowns were uncomfortable and only worn on weddings. Lol. So I always envision it as a frumpy, unstylish, ball gown because I was always handed that type of gown in weddings. I was also disappointed because I had already chosen a dress for the event. Oh shoot, so I asked my mom about a gown and it was a good thing that she has one. I just didn't like her gown because it was too frumpy. If I had known back then, I would shop for stylish, lean gowns. And oh my gosh, it was so difficult to dress in the gown!
So the event finally came and I was already getting myself ready in the afternoon at a salon nearby. I also made sure that I didn't drink a lot so I won't have to pee. I tell you, it's really hard to get in and out of the gown! But anyway, good thing my make up was pretty. So after make up, I went back home (which was like 1-2 minutes from the salon) and I wore my six-inch platform stripperish stilettos. lol. But you can barely see the shoes under the gown. It was already 4 p.m. and the call time for hosts was 5, so I already went to Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati.
I didn't eat the whole night, prolly because I was a bit nervous for the hosting. When the event finally took off, I did my hosting and I think I did a good job. I didn't stammer, I made sure I didn't talk fast, and most importantly, I didn't fall on or off the stage! We had to climb up and down the stage a number of times as hosts; I was really careful with my six-inch stilettos and my very long, overflowing gown!
I was also nominated for an award that night: Best in Spanish. Too bad I didn't win; I should have given my best when I was still in our Spanish class-- I could have won the award hands down! But back to the hosting, it was a wonderful experience and it was a magical night. I even got to see my friends after the event and had a few photos with them. I think it was my best Excellance experience yet. Yep, 2010 was a good year for me-- except for the nasty scar I got in September. Anyway, this was a night to remember and below are a few photos from the event. PS. I'm glad I survived the night with 7 hours of standing up with 6-inch stilettos and not peeing!
Here's a belated entry for September! It all started when I received a text from one of my best friends, Princess. She invited me to join them for a dance number at a surprise party for her brother. Achi Janice planned the whole shebang. At first I was excited, and then worried at the same time if I can still learn the choreography fast enough, and if I can still dance. lol. I haven't danced for a very long time, and I'm not that gifted with dancing even though I love to dance. So then I texted Cherry and asked her if she was going to join. She said she would and she cajoled me, so that's when the rehearsals started. The party was in three weeks so we rehearsed almost every day of the week. Our first dance was hip hop with "On The Floor" music by J.Lo. I really had a blast with the practice; it feels good to sweat my butt off! And I really enjoyed our practices because I get to see my best friends again, plus achi Janice and achi Kristel and the "girls"-- boy were the girls a lot of fun!
Those three weeks were such fun for me; our practices were at nights after their work and after my classes. Our "On the Floor" hip hop dance was finished in one week, so we learned another hip hop, "Teach me how to dougie"-- it was fun and easy! Then after two weeks, we found out that we still have an '80s medley. We actually practiced the '80s medley dance for about a week only; can't believe we managed to learn all that! haha!
The surprise party was an '80s theme one so I prepared an '80s outfit at the last minute-- good thing my mom helped me out on that one with her old clothes! So, the party was on September 25 and it was a wonderful night. Unfortunately I didn't get to join their '90s dance for this month! Damn! But here are the photos of the '80s party and dance stills!
Before the hip hop dance
Before the hip hop-- with the GIRLS!
Strutting on the runway-- intro of our hip hop number!
So I've finally decided to post a few of our old Christmas photos taken at our house these past few years. I hope you guys will join the festivities and decorate your house as well. I love it when Christmas is in the air
It’s superb how two people can work so well together to come up with a chilling, tantalizing comic book series. All it takes is a talented writer that has a knack to grab people’s attention by the balls at the very first page and a creative artist that can serve the hauntingly magnificent story on a silver yet sinister platter through his eerie artwork.
The story begins by taking the readers instantly at the edge of their seats as Joe Hill opens it with two suspicious students who suddenly show up at a summer house where the Locke family is on vacation. Gabriel Rodriguez captured and executed the trepidation so well as he illustrated the two students with an axe and a gun that they’re hiding behind them, and their pick-up truck with an incompletely concealed bloody corpse that is parked outside. Hill gives the story more suspense as the readers know about their plan whilst the wife in the story who answered the door remained completely oblivious on what is about to happen.
The first arc of Locke and Key, Welcome to Lovecraft, is about the Locke children and the mother, moving into the Keyhouse in Lovecraft, Massachusetts after the murder of the father. It focuses on how each of the Locke family members is dealing with the death and how recurring images of the event haunt them. The three Locke kids, Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode are very much different from one another and each of them has dissimilar coping mechanisms.
Tyler, the eldest of the three, is still remorseful over how he took his father for granted and we can frequently see how he just wallows quietly in his piteous pond. Kinsey, an awkward teenager who is still unsure of herself and how she fits into the world, struggles everyday to be unseen and unheard at school. Lastly, we have Bode, the youngest of them all and he happens to have the most interesting escapades in this arc. It is through Bode that Hill slowly introduces us the secrets of the Keyhouse and how the many doors of the house have different keys that can lead to various and peculiar places or happenstances. The mother of the Locke children, who has painfully survived the unfortunate occurrence, tries to handle her grief by slowly drowning herself moderately with wine.
Living with their uncle, the Locke family has yet to discover the magic of the Keyhouse. And through Bode’s curiosity and innocence, he was the one to uncover bit by bit of the secrets of the house and how it may link to a darker, stranger, supernatural realm or force. This arc also introduces the killer of the Locke father and how disturbed he really is. Hill shows the readers how this juvenile delinquent should not be taken lightly.
Locke and Key is a dark, bloodcurdling comic book series that can satisfy many of our generation and older ones as it is under the adult horror genre. Hill definitely wraps the readers around his little finger as he expertly controls their attention and gives them what they want, piece by piece. Hill’s pacing of the story is brilliant as he knows just how much and how little to give the readers in each scene and dialogue. Joe Hill can definitely outrun his father, Stephen King, on his works. Joseph Hillstrom King, or Joe Hill, deliberately used that pseudonym so as to escape from the inevitable comparison of his and his father’s works. He believes and hopes that his works would be acclaimed purely from the superiority of his writings and not because of his father’s fame.
Hill first wrote “20th Century Ghosts”, a collection of short stories which was published in 2005, received numerous awards for Best Fiction Collection, Best New Horror, etc. He also has two published novels “Heart Shaped Box” and “Horns”. His first novel Heart Shaped Box, which was published in 2007, won numerous awards for Best Newcomer Award. “Locke and Key” is his first comic book series which was published in 2008, was immediately sold out after its initial release.
Locke and Key has been an ongoing comic book series and it now has 5 arcs. To pick up where it has left off, “Head games” was published in 2009, “Crown of Shadows” and “Keys to the Kingdom” in 2010, and “Clockworks” at present. Locke and Key was supposed to have a series on Fox but was immediately cancelled even before it hits the tivo. Despite the ill-advised decision of Fox, you can view the trailer of the supposed TV adaptation series over the internet. Fortunately, the comic book series is still up and running. I can promise you that “Locke and Key” is very addictive. Ditch the heroin and cocaine and go for this series; it’s a healthy drug-- and a cheap one I might add, if you got it from torrents.
11-11-11: Last year of the same date, I went to my mom’s province for the first time in 15 years: Iloilo City. It’s rather unfortunate that I didn’t get to blog about my experience at the time, so I thought of sharing it today.
November 11, 2010 at around 1 a.m. my cousin, mom, and I were busy getting ready to go to the airport and making sure that we didn’t leave anything that we will need on the trip. Some time in September, my mom and my cuz were asked to perform at their school in Iloilo for the alumni event. They were always asked to perform because my cousin’s an amazing singer and my mom’s a fantastic ballroom dancer. And in early October, out of constant persuasion from my dear cuz, Angel, I finally agreed to also perform for the said occasion. My cousin’s a natural born singer (she’s like a Whitney and Celine Dion combo) so I agreed to sing a duet with her because I thought her spectacular voice would drown my poor excuse of a singing voice. We chose a pop song by Lady GaGa & Beyonce called “Telephone”, which was a real hit during the summer.
We actually didn’t practice much during the break. But just one week before the event, we decided to go to a recording studio to record our duet because we had also decided to do a choreography for the performance. There wasn’t much dancing, it was just mostly acting out to the song and we had our placings. Thanks to my mom’s dance instructor, Jaja, btw, for the simple yet, far from dull choreography. So we had 4-5 choreography practice sessions at nights after school. Talk about last minute, huh. I guess we really work better if we cram—most of the time. We also added a few of our own moves for the performance—a little creative opportunity.
Anyway, back to the trip. We went to the airport around 2 a.m., as of I remember, and we met Jaja there. Angel and I roamed around the airport and took photos of ourselves for our album.
We finally went aboard to the plane around 4:40 a.m. (I think) and I was so excited to reach our destination. Whenever the plane takes off or lands, it always frightens me a bit—that’s why I listened to my mp3 at the time. (Yes, I’m one of those stubborn passengers who do not abide to the rules when inside an airplane). Finally we were off, and I continued to listen to music to soothe my nerves. Soon after, the sun rises, and I was mesmerized by the breathtaking view outside the window. Yeah, I’m one of those people who appreciate the beauty of nature—it never gets tiring. I started to secretly take photos of the clouds in the sky, despite the constant reprimanding of my cousin. Lol.
When we finally arrived at the Iloilo City terminal, haha, everything was suddenly, small… but in a good way. Iloilo is such a small but a happy city. Despite its size, the city is kind of complete in a way. It has malls, shops, stores, beaches—I mean, wow! I love the fact that you can get to a beach within a half hour, more or less! It felt good to be in another place—another city besides the daily humdrum that Metro Manila offers. Iloilo city may be quiet, but I enjoyed every minute of my stay there because I got to visit my grandparents, I got to see the Villa Beach and eat the most fresh and palatable seafood dishes and of course, I was excited for our performances.
We went straight to my grandparents’ house the moment we arrived in the humble city. I remembered the house to be a bit bigger the last time I went there, or perhaps I was just smaller back then. Their home was already dressed with Christmas decorations—courtesy of my grandma’s artistry expertise. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a picture of all the decors.
Our first day in Iloilo City, my mom was already busy with planning for our performances for the event on Nov. 13, 2010. She was busy making appointments with the transportation, the beauty salon, the video, the school, and her two own dance numbers to deal with. My cousin and I just relaxed and enjoyed the days ahead, and of course, the seafood galore. I remember that it was lunch, and there was a plateful of prawns, and a plateful of alimasag. I was busy devouring the prawns and Angel was busy consuming the latter.
We also got to visit a few malls during our three and a half stay in the city. And in our second day (Nov. 12), we got to go to the Villa Beach. Our grandparents went there with us to have our lunch at the Breakthrough restaurant. More seafood came pouring in and we were soon engulfed with every bit of the delectable delight. There was also this particular seaweed called gato that our taste buds took pleasure in. It was so fresh and scrumptious! Our trip pretty much consisted of eating a lot of seafoods—which was a dream to me. We also had a few picture-takings!
That night, we attended a party at the school—the alumni event was for three days but our performance was for the Saturday shindig.
Angel & my sexy mama
I was quite surprised when around 9 p.m., the party was over and a lot of people were leaving! Usually in Manila, parties will take until around midnight. Guess I forgot that we were in a province, but it was good timing because at least we get to have a good night’s rest for the big day ahead.
So, third day came, Nov. 13, 2010, and it was like a hurricane for my mom. It was finally performance day and everyone was really busy. We already went to the beauty salon early in the afternoon.
Angel- the singer!
my grandma Around 5 p.m. we were all finished with being made up and we went back to my grandparents’ house. We wore our shoes for the performance and rest there for a bit. Around 6:30 we finally went to face the music. The event started around 7 or 7:30 p.m. and there was a huge crowd.
There was a number of performances and my mom was the first of us to perform. Backstage you can see her really nervous and panicky. She started with the Rumba and it was divine.
There was an intermission and then it was Angel’s turn to enchant the audience with her extraordinary voice and her charisma as she performed a Chinese song for her solo. You can watch her fantastic performance here:
After another intermission, it was my mom’s turn to perform her second and last number: the Samba! She was on fire!
After her number, there was another intermission and Angel and I were supposed to go next, but after a turn of events, we waited so long at the back stage—we waited, and waited, and waited until a few minutes before midnight and we were suddenly called to go on stage! Imagine how exhausted and sleepy we were while waiting back stage!
The moment I went on stage, I wasn’t sure if I could remember all the choreography; my mind was asleep. There I stood, waited and waited until after 30 seconds, the music went on! Wtf!!!
Soon, the music finally started and Angel went to the stage and there we were-- performing in front of a huge crowd that we hoped were still in the mood to watch our number. Because of the exhaustion from waiting, I forgot a lot in our choreography and I also forgot a lot of my own actions that I conceived before. But I tried my best to get all the energy back inside me. And so I went with a mood to kill and I tried to give everyone a kick-ass show (even if I had no ammo to fire).
The performance was like a blink of an eye! It was so fast! Imagine a month of thinking about it, and a number of rehearsals and wow, it was finally over! I couldn’t believe that we were done.
You can watch our performance here: (I was sleepy & exhausted at the time so please excuse my poor performance! lol.)
After our performance, Angel and I weren’t certain if our family loved our number because we weren’t that up to it and I made a lot of mistakes in the choreography (Fortunately, I managed to adlib a bit… I hope it was good enough). Angel was naturally, AMAZEBALLS!!! So anyway, surprisingly, they loved it.
We went to eat at Chowking (of all the places) afterwards because my cuz and I didn’t get to eat dinner (I wasn’t really hungry but our grandma cajoled us to eat). We finally got a good night’s sleep after the chow.
Nov. 14, 2010- Our flight to Manila was around noon. Angel and I woke up around 7:30 a.m. and we hurriedly got ourselves ready and went to the beach to get last minute picture-takings because we didn’t have ample time 2 days before.
It was already 9:30 and it was time for Angel and I to go back to our grandparents’ home and see my mom. Time check: 10 a.m. and it was time for us to leave. My grandma and my mom cried when they said their goodbyes, I tried to control my tears.
When we arrived to the airport, Angel and I had a few picture-takings to kill time before our flight. We ate Bulalo for breakfast.
Finally, it was time for us to board the plane and away we flew.
And after 45 or so minutes, we were back home. I guess it was good to be back in Manila, but I felt like a part of me was still in Iloilo.
I really could not believe that our performance was finally over. Despite a few technical difficulties of the music and the fact that we waited for two hours back stage, it was a fun performance. I hope there would be more soon. There’s never a doubt that Angel will have more performances because she’s really a singer (she always joins and wins at singing competitions). After a few days, the photos and video of our performances were delivered to us and I’m glad that we have a memento of the exciting night that we all had. Hope there will be more performances soon because I feel like a different person when I’m on stage—a better one (even if I’m not). Lol. So, till then for another adventure!
