Barefoot in Manila

Fishing for compliments. Complimenting for fish. It's a life.

Thursday, October 31, 2002

Chicken no more. I finally did it. I took my oral exams in my Property class yesterday.
I passed.
I'm deliriously happy.

.: posted by cecille 9:49 AM

Tuesday, October 29, 2002

How (not) to get on the list. "What list?" you ask. Well, news reports in Manila have been speculating on the truth behind a supposed "look out" list drawn up by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. The list consists of six million names of Filipinos who may be, either wittingly or unwittingly, involved in terrorism.
Wow! Six million names. How'd they manage to put together such a long list? Better yet, how exactly do you "look out" for six million people? That would easily take about a million or two snoops. George Bush sure has money to burn. The Texas cartel must be very very good to him.
What bothers me, however, is what this says about Filipinos. Are they now saying that we are a nation of terrorists? We can't even boast of weapons that could wipe out a whole building. How can we possibly terrorize the world?
There are armed groups in the Philippines, but most of them (except maybe for the Abu Sayyaf) have legitimate issues to raise. Only in the US can you find people shooting other people (read:snipers, teenagers shooting up schools, people going "postal, so to speak) just for the heck of it.
George Bush and his minions should invest in mirrors.
They really need to take a good look at themselves.

.: posted by cecille 5:37 PM

Monday, October 28, 2002

I don't know what to make of this. It seems like it was written in jest, yet there's also a hint of seriousness towards the end. I got this through e-mail. It's asking people to vote for Fernando Poe, Jr. (FPJ), the Philippine's biggest action star. He is being prodded by many people to run, ostensibly to save the country from politicians.

I would have though people would be allergic to actors now, following the Erap Estrada debacle. People really never learn.

Please vote for FPJ as president. He is a very
sincere person, intelligent, witty, and most of all
trustworthy.

His record speaks for itself. As the "Panday", he
vanquished evil forces and as "Totoy Bato", he worked
his way to glory through his ringside boxing skills.

And who can forget the tenderness he showed to reel
daughter Judy Ann Santos in the film "Isusumbong Kita
sa Tatay Ko?" and to Julie Vega in "Durugin si Totoy Bato!" Like in
the movie, FPJ will protect us, like he is protecting his own children.

FPJ is also a happily married person, and his love for
Susan Roces is legendary. He is not a two timing man,
and only has eyes set for his Susan. He is not
involved in any scandals affecting his married life.
His dedication to his wife will serve him well as he
will dedicate his life for the country.

FPJ is also the fastest gun wielder in the country. No
one, not even the Abu Sayyaf and the NPAs, can beat
him to the draw. Even mining syndicates are afraid of
him as shown in "Ang Pagbabalik ng Probinsiyano." He
is a staunch environmentalist, as he cleans up
Palawan's environment in "Hagedorn." Our brother Muslims only have
high regard for him, as he never had any film which had anti-Islam
sentiments.

And most of all, in times of crisis when the
pandesal's cost is rising, FPJ has only one thing to
say: "Walang Matigas na Tinapay, Sa Mainit na Kape!"

Give the guy a chance. The worst thing we can do to
this country is elect a politician as president. We
complain of an actor's antics but okay lang sa atin na
ninanakawan tayo ng asawa ng isang economista, o ng
isang sundalong nagtapos sa west point, or worse, a bar topnotcher
from UP who went on to become an ugly, unburied corpse. Bakit?
I bet the only reason we have is because they have a
degree from Ateneo, UP, and West Point, while FPJ
comes from an unheard of school, if ever he did
graduate.

Hail to the Chief!
Hail to the King!
Vote FPJ for President!

.: posted by cecille 4:34 PM

Sunday, October 27, 2002

You can call me chicken. I was supposed to take my oral exams in Property yesterday but I backed out at the last minute. I even made the professor laugh when I told him "Sir, I think I'll ask for a re-sked." He was already turning on the lights in his room and getting ready for the one-hour grilling that he was supposed to give me.
"Why did I back out?" you ask. Well, it's not that I really an a coward. Most of the time, I'm not. But sometimes, you just have to be honest with yourself and admit when you're not in a position of strength. My "unreadiness," so to speak, became very evident to me as I was going through the concepts of Usufruct, but it was the topic of Lease that drove the point home.
I wasn't ready at all.
So now I'm hoping to go back there on Wednesday to face my fears and redeem myself. I hope by that time I'll be able to take on Easements and Servitudes without almost dying from a heart attack.

.: posted by cecille 7:51 AM

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Some words. And they're from my favorite song at the moment. Listen to this song at 3:00 am. The night is quiet and the music is just sublime. It's like meeting the Buddha.

Grace Is Gone
Dave Matthews Band

Neon shines through smoky eyes tonight
It's 2 am - I'm drunk again it's heavy on my mind
I could never love again so much as I love you
Where you end where I begin is like a river going through
Take my eyes take my heart I need them no more
If never again they fall upon the one I so adore

Excuse me please one more drink
Could make it strong cause I don't need to think
She broke my heart my Grace is gone
One more drink and I'll move on

One drink to remember then another to forget
How could I ever dream to find sweet love like you again
One drink to remember and another to forget

Excuse me please one more drink
Could make it strong cause I don't need to think
She broke my heart my Grace is gone
One more drink and I'll move on
One more drink and I'll be gone

You think of things impossible and the sun refuse to shine
I woke with you beside me your cold hand lay in mine

Excuse me please one more drink
Could make it strong cause I don't need to think
She broke my heart my Grace is gone
One more drink and I'll go

Excuse me please one more drink
Could make it strong cause I don't need to think
She broke my heart my Grace is gone
One more drink and I'll move on
One more drink and I'll be gone
One more drink my Grace is gone

.: posted by cecille 1:26 PM

Tuesday, October 22, 2002

Which Disney Princess are you?

Except that this is wrong because I chose intelligence in a man, not understanding and tolerance.

.: posted by cecille 9:21 AM

Sunday, October 20, 2002

I'm exceptionally artistic!

Find your soul type at kelly.moranweb.com.

.: posted by cecille 3:25 AM

Sally can't wait but she must... because the Oasis concert in Manila has been indefinitely postponed. The organizers say it's because of "unforeseen difficulties" but I really think it's because of the bombings in Bali and in the Philippines. The British government has already issued an advisory to their citizens to keep as far away as possible from here.

.: posted by cecille 3:08 AM

Supposed-to-be-Friday Five:
How many TVs do you have in your home?
Three. Yes. We. Are. All. TV. Freaks.

On average, how much TV do you watch in a week?
Pre-lawschool period: About 5 hours a day or at least 35 hours per week.
At present: Just about 10 hours per week. I wish I could say this is because I'm busy with my studies but it's actually because the TV in my room is busted.

Do you feel that television is bad for young children?
No. There are good shows on TV, especially on cable. I think parents should keep an eye on what their kids watch.

What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you're heartbroken?
I used to love Friends, Felicity, Ally McBeal (before it became too crazy), the Practice, Sex and the City, and the X-Files. But then I started going to school and I pretty much got used to seeing just bits and pieces.

If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like?
I don't know exactly how the line-up will turn out but I'm sure there won't be any game shows.

.: posted by cecille 3:05 AM

Saturday, October 19, 2002

One down! A day after my Consti I finals and I'm still reeling. I don't think I did well on the first part of the exam--twenty 'true or false' questions worth three points each. Some of the questions were vaguely familiar and I had a gut feeling about th answers. Unfortunately, I couldn't even hazard a guess since the score is going to be computed right minus wrong. I just hope I pass.
I was pretty pissed last night though because my classmates were openly cheating. Not 'looking through their notes' cheating, but 'asking each other the answer' cheating. I was just so disgusted. Future lawyers? More like present fuckwits.
I'm not a freak for morality but I think that being a good person means that you try to do the right thing, whether or not someone is looking over your shoulder and judging what you do.

.: posted by cecille 11:12 AM

Wednesday, October 16, 2002

Oh. I was doing this Chinese Horoscope thing that a friend sent me. It said that the song that describes my attitude toward life is "Pardon Me." Well, that explains everything.

And also... the song that best describes the state of my mind is "stellar." Ahem... ahem...

.: posted by cecille 4:10 PM

Not exactly. Try looking at the top of your browser window and you'll probably see this

{trying to get myself some gravity}

Sometimes when the browser window is not set to full size, the text that appears is "trying to get myself some." Well, that's not exactly the message that I'm trying to convey so don't get any ideas.

.: posted by cecille 1:15 PM

"What's on the radio?" you ask, and I answer "me!" For about five minutes yesterday, my glorious voice carressed the airwaves nationwide.
I was listening to NU 107's morning show, Zach and Joey in the Morning. The segment "small talk at the breakfast table" was on and they were talking about how the Philippines could do better in the next Asian Games. I called them up to give them a piece of my mind, thinking that a station flunkie would probably just take my name and comments and I'll be done with it. So this guy answers and I tell him that I used to work for the government office in charge of sports and I'd like to give some comments. Then this guy goes, "Zach, zach.... (unintelligible murmurs)" in the background and the next thing I hear is "You can put the phone down now."
So I do.
But then Zach, on air, tells everyone that "we have here **** who used to work for the PSC." But since I put the phone down already (it turns out what the voice said was "don't put the phone down"), all he got was dead air. Zach asked me to call again. And me, being the media-hungry, attention-deficient person that I am, dialed back as fast as I could.
And then I was on air.
24 hours later, I can't exactly recall what I said. I think it was about athletes eating instant noodles instead of good, nutritious food. But I can distinctly recall that I was able to say "big fat slobs" although I can't remember the context.
I just hope that it wasn't because Zach asked me to describe my former bosses.

.: posted by cecille 1:06 PM

Friday, October 11, 2002

The not so Amazing Race against time.
Deadline for my legal theory paper: October 12, 2002. 12:00 nn
No. of words written so far: Zero
Probability that I'm totally going to fuck up this paper: Steadily rising by the minute.

.: posted by cecille 9:59 AM

Thursday, October 10, 2002

Googlestalking. I was randomly going through some blogs (via NextBlog) when I came across the term Googlestalking. Now I have a name for what I've been doing to this hapless person for the past year.
It's amazing how much you find out about people from the net. Now I have this person's e-mail address, ICQ number, and home phone number.
Now if only I can work up the nerve to actually do something...

.: posted by cecille 4:34 PM

Interesting? Don't you just find people who keep responding to your comments by nodding their heads and saying "interesting" as a bit pretentious? When you do that, what exactly are you trying to convey? That you are taking my thoughts seriously?
Are you just saying it for the heck of saying it or are you really finding my comments interesting in the sense of 'that's a really good idea and I wonder why I didn't think of that before'? If you're doing all these for the latter reason, I don't believe you. Sure, I'm charming. But I'm not that smart and my ideas aren't really original.
Otherwise, I'd have won a Palanca, a Pulitzer, or a Booker prize already.

.: posted by cecille 4:15 PM

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

The last hurdle. Today is my last day of class. That sounds really good. I just have to tackle a few big hurdles��one paper on legal theory, a final written examination on Constitutional Law, and an oral examination for Property��and then I'm home free.
I'm one semester closer to graduation.
Seven semester to go.
Hey, I just might make it. :)

.: posted by cecille 1:49 PM

One big wow! is all I can say. This website is almost perfect. I like the layout, I like the blue, I like the fonts.
I followed the link from kottke.

.: posted by cecille 10:05 AM

Monday, October 07, 2002

Move your butt. "We are not the circumstances of our life, we are what we do with those circumstances. That's what I try to write about." Chuck Palahniuk

.: posted by cecille 4:34 PM

Sunday, October 06, 2002

T.O.M.S. is The Object of My Stalking to you. I've been wanting to talk about this for sometime now but somehow I never get around to doing it.
There isn't exactly anything to tell. Nothing so far has happened. And I doubt that anything will.
Before you mistake me for some psycho, let me clarify that "stalking" in this context is not used to denote that act which is punishable by law. Stalking as I use it leans more closely to unrequited love (if I may be so bold as to use that word). The plot has thickened considerably since last year. Recent information that surfaced buttress earlier suspicions that TOMS does have a sordid past (I drown in the muck just thinking about it) and still carries on in an equally scandalous manner. It's really disconcerting when people tell me stories about him. It's like he's this amoral, amorous monster who'll hook up with anyone (and anything!) just for the heck of it. This information should at least give me hope because then it means I have a chance with him.
Except that he hasn't deigned to hook up with me thus far. I know. There are deep metaphysical questions that need to be answered about why this "congress" hasn't happened. But I won't go into that because I may not like the answers I get.
Anyway, as John Mayer says "I am invincible as long as I'm alive."
You don't know how much hope this gives me.

.: posted by cecille 9:37 AM

Suck-hira. The tv is blaring with Shakira's weird voice doing exotic vocal stunts as her belly tries to equal her throat's gyrations. I admit that at first I thought that her being on stage getting paid to do all these things was a good idea.
Well, I now realize it's not.
It's actually very, very scary.

.: posted by cecille 9:36 AM

Tuesday, October 01, 2002

Resistentialism.

resistentialism (ri.zis.TEN.shul.iz.um) n. The belief that inanimate objects have a natural antipathy toward human beings, and therefore it is not people who control things, but things which increasingly control people.
--resistentialist n., adj.
--resistential adj.

This also aptly describes my relationship with my cases and books on commentaries.