Month: March 2014
Romance Roots: Strawberry Feels Forever
The bitterest of endings does not lessen the beauty of a tale. Thus, no matter how much it excruciatingly hurts me every single time, I still read my favorite manga of all time, the holy grail – Ichigo 100% – and of the love and melancholy of its one true heroine. Why? That is because among those who have read the manga, there are a lot of those who claim that she deserved her sad fate because she neither acted nor spoke about her feelings; some even claim that she is a boring character who is single-faceted. I SAY NAY! I don’t think they read the same manga.
Aya is definitely not boring. In the parts of the manga where she plays a big role, she always got a lot to say about life, dreams, love, happiness, and her passions – movies and novels. Her parts are not only entertaining; they’re also quite philosophical.
I have lost count on how many times I used this picture. I’ll probably use it again.
And Aya isn’t single-faceted; sure she’s shy, especially at first, but that is her default trait, her inner confine, which she always tried to break. As the story progressed, she outgrew her shyness, as she was able to share her life with Junpei and her friends at the Film Studies Club. As if there’s something wrong with being shy. In the end, she’s still reserved, but there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, I like reserved girls, ’cause they don’t really let people, especially a guy, in their life. But once they do, you’ll know…
Besides, Aya doesn’t always keep things to herself. There was a part when Junpei was ignoring her because he was hanging out too much with Satsuki, and then he asks Aya out of the blue to join the Film Studies Club, and she was pretty ticked with Junpei because she’s envious of Satsuki. Of course, she didn’t tell him, but she told him off when Junpei was being insistent, even though we all know that she still joined nonetheless. After Aya officially joined, it was she who approached Junpei and showed him videos of previous Film Studies Club members that she was secretly looking for in order to help him, and then they were in good terms again. See? She’s even working harder than him even though it’s his “dream”. As the story progressed, Aya joined and prioritized the Film Studies Club. She not only looked for movies for reference; she also wrote their movies’ scripts. Anyway, I’m digressing too much. Let’s go back to Aya’s other and less displayed “attitude”.
Once again, I’ll digress because my heart can’t help but to do so. I kept reading on, and I just can’t see how the other girls can compete. Especially Nishino. Ugh. Just refer to chapter 76 where she drives Junpei off, only to be picked up by Aya later on. Seriously, Aya, despite having her own thing, is always there for Junpei. Nishino, on the other hand, is only there when she needs her or she’s feeling lonely. No comparison.
Damn it, no matter how many times I read this, the same conclusive proof that Aya is the best girl in the manga surfaces…and I get the same feeling of sadness for Aya, so much so that I wish she was real so that I can make her happy…
It’s like sophomore college all over again…
I Wrote Once Again Because I’m Done With Homework, But I Received An Email From My Boss Last Night So I No Longer Am
“FREEDOM!” That is what Sir William Wallace shouted at the top of his lungs before the executioner beheaded him. That is what truly happened…in the movie Braveheart, not according to history. However, even though Sir William Wallace is a prominent historical figure and has a lot more significance than I probably ever will, this post ain’t about him – it’s about me, myself, and I. And just like him, even though my head ain’t against the chopping block, I want to proclaim something…
LIBERATION!
What’s the difference? Well, liberation is a kind of freedom that you either receive or obtain. Some men are born free and stay that way until they die, while some are either born without it or lose it at some point, and so they strive to get it back. And once they do, it’s going to be much sweeter than the plain old regular freedom some men enjoy, as things you strive for are sweeter than those you don’t have to.
Yes brothers and sisters, I have liberated myself from the shackles of…work! Finally, I am done with the textbooks I am supposed to summarize, and hot damn, this “liberation” is pretty damn sweet. I no longer have any work to do for now, so I can do whatever I want to do. And you know what the best part is? I no longer have any thoughts of unfinished work to distract me from them. I can play Final Fantasy XIV and DoTA 2, read manga and novels, watch anime and movies, or even hang out (if I have money) without my brain telling me that I’m a lazy bastard who does not deserve to do all these things. Well, not anymore…TAKE THAT BRAIN! And don’t think about the next batch of work…yet.
Unfortunately, much as I hate to agree with it, my brain is right – what about the next batch of work? Heck, I ain’t even done yet with the nitty-gritty details of the current batch, and I just received an email from my editor telling me to pick up the next batch of work later at 5PM AND to edit my summaries according to how my first ten summaries were edited because the errors were recurring. OH GREAT! JUST PERFECT! I don’t even how to do my own damn work right, now I have to edit it, I also have to do at least twenty!?
<insert cusses here>
So much for liberation and doing what I want to do. Seriously, this is the worst job I ever had; it’s difficult. time-consuming, and demanding. Sure, it’s home-based so I spend absolutely nothing and don’t get tired from commuting, but my brain has never been this tired since…ever. And from all this work, what do I get? Since I was only able to do 100 textbooks in a span of three weeks, and one summary is worth Php 30, I get a whopping 3-freaking-grand. Yeah, I don’t have to spend utilities from this sum, but what I previously earn, while not exactly big, is definitely bigger, and I only have to wait two weeks for it. Well, yeah, I have to spend some of it for food, fare, and other luxuries, but what is left from all of that is almost the same amount, if not slightly less. In short, this work ain’t worth it when I factor out the workload and pay; the only thing that’s good about it is that I don’t have to leave the damn house, although I think that also has become a bad thing because now I am stressed in my own home. Wow James, it’s only been three weeks and you already hate your job; that’s a world record. You know what that means…PARTY TIME! Bring out the alcohol, the weed, and the babes, play some Pitbull, get wasted, high, and laid…SCREW WORK!
Not really…
So, what now? The pay is crap; the workload is heavy. Well, I guess I’ll stick around until they give me the damn boot. They’re gonna have to, ’cause they’re making me do twenty summaries a day from Monday to Saturday. First off, ten summaries is already a killer, how much more with twenty? And no, I ain’t doing jack on Saturday. Whatever, so what if they fire me, I don’t care, ’cause I got a pending grad school application. If that fails, I can find other work anyway. I’ll probably have to leave the house every day and spend for fare and food, but as long as the job ends at the workplace, I got time to do what I want to, and the pay is worth the workload, I’ll take it.
P.S.: I went to my boss and told him that I ain’t sure if I can do twenty a day and I’ll quit if I can’t, ’cause even though the damn job ain’t worth it, I don’t want them expecting something from me only to let them down in the end. I’m badass, but I ain’t heartless. Anyway, he told me that he’s just going to have to see how it would turn out.
Seriously, if grad school doesn’t take me, I’ll be a broken compass.
Dream Blog: Knapp-time
“Tell me what you know about dreams”
-Kid Cudi, Pursuit of Happiness, from the Project X Original Soundtrack
My friend Fernan has many admirable traits and impressive talents up in his sleeve. Among them, the most impressive one is his ability to see how things truly are and how they will turn out in the future. Don’t believe me? Well, he has only correctly predicted how things turned out with Ampie, Ina, Lin, and Sean. He has also made predictions about different people, but it’s not exactly related to our lives so I didn’t put much stock in them. Bottomline, Fernan is good at predictions, so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised that it’s actually on a superhuman level. And because his unconfirmed power saved my ass from total destruction so many times before, it’s only right that I return the favor the exact same way. I may not be clairvoyant, but I do get vivid dreams; and my dream last night, a good one, was all about my friend…and a girl he’s been bragging about. Dreams don’t always come true, but some do, and this one hopefully would…
I was back in college, and Fernan and I are in the same class again. Just like before and now, we always talk, mostly about women. However, in the dream, he didn’t talk about women; he only talked about one woman only. The same woman everyday. He’d always tell me how beautiful, hot, good, and sweet she is. This wonderful woman is known only by her first name: Alexis.
I have never heard Fernan talk about a woman with such intensity and fervor before, so I thought that this Alexis chick is really all banged up Fernan is making her out to be. Unfortunately, I never really saw Alexis in the dream per se, although I did imagine what she looked like. Yes, I imagined something while I was in a dream – must be some kind of bizarre and impractical superpower. Anyway, I pictured Alexis as a tall, slim, and fair chinita with really long hair – the type we go for. Well, whatever she looked like, to say that I was happy for Fernan was an understatement.
After waking up, I was still wondering who Alexis could be, so I tried recalling if I know any Alexis-es. It turns out I know two, but one of them is a dude, and I know Fernan does not and never will swing that way, so he’s automatically out. And for the last Alexis I know…well, I know an Alexandra Nichole Guzman, a pretty mestiza back in fourth year high school, but Fernan clearly stated “Alexis” in the dream. Alexis, Alexis, Alexis…who can you be? Then, as I took a piss, I had an epiphany. Apparently, she isn’t how I visualized her, for the real Alexis is infinitely better. And great goddess of sex, she is no other than…
ALEXIS KNAPP. THE UBER-STEAMING HOT CHICK FROM PROJECT X. THE MUSE AND THE VERY REASON FOR THE PARTY OF THE MILLENNIUM. I heard she also did Pitch Perfect, but I haven’t watched that movie, and I don’t have to watch it to daresay without a shadow of doubt that her role in Project X was way better in X ways to Sunday, where X is the hotness of Alexis Knapp in a scale of 1-100, which is definitely not less than 95 according to any normal heterosexual male.
So Fernan, you better get your act straight and cross your fingers. Who knows, maybe you’d actually get Alexis Knapp? Then again, maybe it’s another Alexis, an Aya Toujo-ish Alexis. Well, I know either one works for you.
As celebration and advanced proclamation (hopefully, I don’t jinx it), more gratuitous photos of Alexis Knapp.
DAMN IT FERNAN, STOP READING THIS NOW-USELESS POST! FIND. ALEXIS. THIS. INSTANT.
Oh wait, before you do, click HERE for the almost sex scene with Alexis Knapp so that you wouldn’t have to manually find it on Youtube.
P.S.: Don’t forget to tell me how it turned out once you tapped her.
I Haven’t Been Writing Lately Because I Got Homework
Finally, I have returned. It’s been awhile. Did you miss me? Probably not, but I don’t care, because the important part is that I and my mistress, which is this blogsite, missed me. And now that I am back from my absence, it is time to once again make sweet love and sweet art according to how I, not how my editor or my new boss sees fit. Witness the return of true passion and beauty.
Hiyori, you’re cute and all, but not now…
After turning down the offer of TalkShop, which I deeply and gravely regretted, I frantically looked for a job. Not just any job, but a writing job. Thankfully, I found one, and fortunately it’s home-based. Unfortunately, it’s not what I thought it was, the pay is on a per-piece basis, and it’s home-based. You see, I am now a textbook abstractor, and it is my job to summarize college-level textbooks of subjects I do not even have the slightest idea about for Php 30 per summary, which means I need to do at least twenty summaries five days a week to match my previous basic salary. As if making five a day isn’t bad enough.
I don’t know why, but the home-based gig isn’t really working out for me. Sure, it’s totally cost-efficient because I don’t have to spend on food (because I live with my folks, shame) and transportation, but the home lacks that slave-driving motivating workplace environment and is instead replaced by a plethora of distractions. Aside from that, I have zero social life save cosplay/otaku friends, college friends, and church friends, and the home becomes a stressful place instead of a relaxing one. Then again, maybe it’s not the setup, but the work itself. I mean, summarizing textbooks I hardly understand for chump change – that’s not what I want to do.
However, what is perhaps the worst part of it all is that apparently, writing about something I don’t like is very mentally exhausting, so much so that I find myself no longer able to write for my own personal satisfaction, thus the lack of updates here in my blog. In my previous work, I had more than enough free time and energy to write. Heck, I even wrote during work. But now, once I’m done abstracting, I can barely muster a single paragraph. Well, I could just write in this blog first, but it’s so time-consuming that I wouldn’t have enough for work.
Damn, maybe I should consider doing what Lester Burnham of American Beauty did.
In the movie, Lester Burnham (played by Kevin Spacey) is exasperated from his life as a middle-aged office worker. Because of a series of events that begun with him getting infatuated with his daughter’s friend Angela, he resigned from his post, worked out, and applied for a job at his local fastfood chain. When interviewed by the HR, he said that he wanted a position with the least responsibility, so he became a drive-thru service crew. Thus…
He was more than satisfied with it because he got to do the things he want, such as work out, listen to 70’s-80’s rock, smoke weed, drive around town, and hit on his daughter’s hot blonde bel0w-legal best friend (as if I wasn’t hitting on a seventeen-year old as of late, but that’s another story). Damn, I want his life. If you have watched the movie, you might be one of those who’d say that he wasn’t in the right mind. If you’re one of those people, I’d have to disagree with you. After all, isn’t that what life is about – having fun and doing what you want? Of course, career growth is important, but simply just doing whatever you please is a rocking way of life too, as long as you don’t live off other people’s money to do so and neglect important responsibilities.
Much as I need and want the green stuff and get to keep my time for myself, I cannot just stay stuck forever in a low-risk low-reward zero-career growth dead-end job and shouldn’t be looking for another one again EVER. However, I do miss staying for eight hours in the office, spending two out of that eight hours for actual work, and then doing whatever crap me and my friends can get away with for the remaining six. Unfortunately, that lifestyle won’t pay the damn bills ten years from now. Besides, that’s not what I really want to do for the rest of my life, because what I really want is to do is to write articles and books and get paid for doing so. It’s a long and winding road that probably doesn’t lead to wealth, but that is what my soul desires, and so I will walk down that road no matter how hard and tiresome it may get.
Ugh, why can’t people have growth in a career they want, get paid well for it, AND do whatever they crap they choose in their free time? Guess I’ll have to choose between the three, and I pick…isn’t there a high-paying and career-progressive job that involves doing something that I love, doesn’t have too many responsibilities, and too consuming of time and energy?
Adult life sure is getting harder, and I ain’t even getting started yet. Well, whatever, the important thing is that I’m back…
P.S.: Guess I’ll keep my damn job for a few more weeks until I get accepted in graduate school…
I put the I in the UNIVERSE. I hope I can put U too. 