Meanwhile, read my 140-char (or less) updates on Twitter!

Those kids ages 8 to 10 brought a paperweight, a steak knife, and handcuffs to school with a plot to attack their teacher. Apparently, they got mad after the teacher punished one of their classmates. They said the plot was organized enough that the students each had a role in it such as covering the classroom windows and cleaning up the mess. Their “plan” was unraveled when another student reported that a classmate had a knife in her backpack.

While “experts” believe that the children were just being playful and would not actually have followed through with it, I on the other hand (an ordinary individual, tsss!) find the news alarming. Don’t you? I mean, if they wanted to get back at their teacher, they should have just thought of a less cruel revenge. Maybe spread a nasty rumor or make fun of the teacher when she’s not looking. Coz that’s what my classmate did when we were in high school. Lolz.

I hope those kids realize the gravity of what they could have done — if they were actually serious about it. 8, 9, and 10 are such young ages. When I was their age all my classmates and I could think about was the bell finally ringing for recess so we can get on with our Patintero tournament! The cruelest thing I’ve witnessed in school then was when two of my classmates screamed foul words at each other and didn’t speak for a whole year. Life was simpler then. Heh. :p

Read the whole story about the 3rd graders here. What’s the world coming to??

It’s not that I hate it, I actually love Christmas. I love the way people are extra-kind and generous. The way everyone’s doing his best to make the season more meaningful — maybe by decking the halls with boughs of holly, giving-gifts-exchanging-cards, and all that stuff. It’s just that, Christmas always leaves me feeling sentimental, nostalgic and vulnerable. That’s never really good for an introvert like me. Heh.

And the mall is just the perfect place to make me feel all mushy inside. Now that they’ve moved the terminal from Landmark to the parking area below the MRT station, I have to walk a long way to get to my ride. I don’t mind the walk, but I can’t say I’m totally enjoying the Christmas-y sights I see and the Christmas-y music I hear when I pass through Greenbelt, Landmark, Glorietta and SM Makati — during which my bag is being inspected five times by five different guards. Jose Mari Chan and Gary V. are once again flooding the sound systems. But you know what I think is the saddest Christmas song? It’s “The Christmas Song” itself! You know, the one with the lyrics “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping on your nose..” by Nat King Cole? The words don’t mean much to me, but the melody! It makes me feel sad as the song “Somewhere Out There” does. Lol.

Despite the inexplicable mixed feelings I have around Christmastime, I actually have a lot of things to be happy about. This year should be special compared to last year as I’m gonna be spending Christmas eve with my parents and brothers. I say Christmas eve because I consider it more special than Christmas day itself. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way.

As for my best friends, I won’t be able to spend Christmas with them again but I will see them very soon. I’m going home to Bacolod City next week to attend two weddings. One of my barkada is getting married at the end of month, and the other is my high school classmate that I mentioned a while back. Everybody’s getting married! This should be fun. And I can finally have the long vacation I’ve been looking forward to all year with the truest, funnest, bestest friends anyone could ask for! I love coming home.

It’s true that Christmas sometimes makes me sad but I still think it’s the best time of the year. Happy Holidays!

You wanna know what I mean about Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song? Play the MP3 below. Boohoo! [audio:TheChristmasSong.mp3]

“Can’t Focus?” You got that right, buddy!

This little thing fell into my hands last Tuesday. I was seated in front of my PC minding my own business, when suddenly a group of five or six people wearing bright green T-shirts entered our office and called out a loud “GOOD AFTERNOOOON!!” It was really rude how they just barged in unannounced and started shouting like that. They then went straight to our desks to hand each of us a leaflet with a teabag attached inside. Those “green” people were from this well-known international tea company that’s promoting their product by distributing teabag samples in offices. Apparently, drinking green tea helps one focus more on the work he’s supposed to do..

“When the pressure’s on and distractions are everywhere, it’s time to get in The Zone: a unique mental state that lets you block out any disturbances in your work, helping you make the best of your workday!”

While that message sounds appealing, I unfortunately do not like green tea. lol.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have something that you can just gulp down to wash all the stress and distractions away? I don’t know if that thing exists. The only thing that, at least, relaxes me everyday is having had a right amount of sleep (which I rarely get nowadays). And of course, downing coffee in the morning, can’t forget that one. Sadly though those stuff do not always keep me focused. lol.

***

On a lighter and “more focused” note — it was my mom’s birthday yesterday! She and my dad prepared food for the mini-dinner party at home last night for everyone: me, my two brothers, and my parents’ soon-to-be children-in-law. LOL! Anna Grace was there too. It was just a small and simple gathering, but it was nice to have everyone around.

“Smile, Mama! It’s your birthday!”

Papa’s birthday dinner at Shakey’s last July 1st.
L-R: Deej, me, Sharon, Jem, Jec, Papa, Mama

My mom is now 50 years old — time flies so fast! It seems like yesterday when I made myself not forget that she’s 37 so I would know how to answer my teacher correctly when she asks me how old my mother was (Obviously, I was just in Elementary school then). And my dad is now 53. Today he looks exactly like my Lolo the way I remember him before he passed away when I was just a little girl.

Parents growing old is kind of a sad thing. But to quote what my mom said to me last night, “I have to grow old so you can grow old.”, I don’t know if that makes much sense but maybe it means that she’s already had her share of experiences and now it’s my turn to face grown-up responsibilities and anxieties. Waaah. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to focus on those too. Can everyone just stop growing old?

I have a lot on my mind these days — the freelance jobs, my parents and my brothers who I’m sort of beginning to resent (waah), the rent, bills, and other expenses, friends who are in town for a visit that I need to see, the pressure to please other people, plus other silly things like the end of the first season of Heroes, the unexpected curse on Will Turner (dammit), the songs I’m hooked on that I badly want memorized, the need to buy new clothes for work (I don’t have that much semi-formal clothes), the need to lose weight, the novel that I can’t seem to finish reading, and the need to get up early so as not to get to the office late — when all I really want to do is get some SLEEP! I neeeeed sleep!

Any excuse to get those off my chest.

Okay, back to reality.

I discovered this when I was testing out www.joniang.com in SeoDigger to find out the keywords this website ranks for. SeoDigger is a great tool if you want to see if your site is visible in Google using which sets of keywords. It also lets you know how some of your random visitors are finding their way to your blog which, consequently, gives you an idea on the unique topic you should write about frequently to drive more traffic to your site. But you need to sign up first to see more keywords, otherwise it will just generate about 10 keywords or less.

So yeah, I really need to get rid of these flabs. I want to prove my old post wrong and avoid the possibility of being labeled as the top flabby blogger found in Google Blog Search and Technorati, hahaha! JK!

PS: Thanks to Reah, Romzkee, Riz, Michelle, Mae, Sarah and Jireh for responding to my tag and sharing your blessings.

And while you’re thinking about that, here’s a feel-good song by Moonstar 88..[audio:Moonstar88_SaLangit.mp3]

Sa Langit

Paano kaya mapapansin
Pag-ibig kong itong laging bitin
Panay sulyap, puro tingin
Hindi na talaga lilingunin
Lagi na lang nasasaktan
Puso kong itong nagdurusa
Laging pinipilit pag-ibig ko sa yo ay dinggin

Hihintayin na lang kita sa langit,
Hihintayin nalang kita sa langit

Marahil doon ay puro pag-ibig
Siguro naman ako ay pansin
Pagbibigyan sa aking mga hiling
Paano kaya mararamdan
Pag-ibig mong aking dasal
Marahil nga doon na lang sa langit

Hihintayin nalang kita sa Langit,
hihintayin nalang kita sa Langit

Palagi na lang kitang nakikita
Tila ba isang madilim na ulap
Walang kasinag-sinag para sa aking pag-asa

Hihintayin nalang kita sa langit
Hihintayin nalang kita sa langit

Ako ay may kaba,ako ay nag-alala
kung tayo ba ay magkikita sa langit
Doon sa langit
Sana sa langit, sana sa langit
Ang tanging pag-asa ko na lang ay langit

I’m glad that one went well. The last time we tried to get IMAX tickets was a big disappointment. Now the timing can’t be more perfect, because it’ll be my favorite superhero that I’ll get to see swoosh past me! Haha. No offense to Superman — I still think he, (Brandon Routh) is hot great but I’ve been a fan of Tobey Maguire ever since his Pleasantville stint with Reese Witherspoon, which was way back in 1998. Heehee.

Spiderman — I mean, Black Spiderman — we shall meet again! Go web! Fly web!

***

Last week, I received a great news from Riz about this blog being in the Top 6 pinoy blogs at Ratified.org. We had a good laugh when we talked about it, knowing we only somehow “cheated” our way to the top — meaning, we didn’t really do the usual or natural linkbait tactics but we ended up in the Top 10 rankings in Technorati anyway. How cool is that?

Note to self: “Enjoy it while it lasts..”

Not that I’m a kiss-ass or anything but I think the creator of the Ratified.org project is a genius. It takes a great deal of coding skills to be able come up with something like that — I can only imagine how complicated the codes he used are. Something my brain will never understand! LOL.

Hats off to Andrew dela Serna! And congratulations to all the Filipino bloggers out there who made it and will make it to the top 100 in Technorati.

To those Pinoy blogs who haven’t been Ratified, submit your blog for ratification today!

I had to pack my stuff the whole night of Friday because we have to move the next day which is why I wasn’t able to join in the fun at Metrowalk (Shari and Darwin, thanks for inviting me! I really wanted to come, but I couldn’t. I hope to make it next time though. If there’s a “next time”.)

I’m loving the new 2-storey apartment mainly because of the cool breeze that’s blowing through the windows on the second floor. I know it’s not a big thing but I’m just glad I can sleep snugly at night from now on. And, look! The fan is not turned up a full notch anymore!

My Smartbro broadband connection has also been successfully transferred to my new home. I know I’ve badmouthed Smartbro not just once but twice in the past, but I have to commend their technicians and customer service for doing a fast and precise job. I requested relocation earlier this week and they responded right away, just like the first time. I still think Smartbro’s Internet connectivity is not so great, but they do have their strong points.

And yet Smartbro never fails to meet my expectation. Just more than an hour ago, my connection went down again. I heaved a sigh of disappointment knowing this is gonna go on for a while. I thought about trying out the airborne access I signed up for recently but then I remembered I’m not in a hotspot, so that’s out of the question — and yet I also thought searching for a wireless network connection was worth a try. So I pushed the wi-fi button on my laptop, hit Start > Connect To > Wireless Connection > Refresh Network List and…

TA-DAH! I found one and connected to it right away! I placed a blur over the name of the account holder lest my new neighbor turns out to be a blogger and eventually reads about me stealing borrowing a portion of his wireless fidelity air. Teehee. I know the odds of that happening is slim but I just wanna play it safe.

I’ve already unplugged my Smartbro cable (and seriously thinking of not renewing my contract next month. LOL. Just kidding!) and have been using this guy’s wifi connection for the last hour. This is perfect for when Smartbro goes down again (which is about once or twice a week). And what do you know! It’s even faster than my own Internet connection!

Now I know what Joey and Chandler must have felt when they turned on their cable TV one day and found out they had free porn.

The man who shot 32 people at Virginia Tech yesterday morning (April 16, 2007) was identified by authorities as Cho Seung Hui. He is described as a 23-year-old student, a senior majoring in English, who lived in one of the dorms. He is also a legal resident from South Korea.

Additionally, ballistics from one of the guns retrieved at Norris Hall, where the second shooting of 30 students took place, matched ballistics evidence from the first shooting at a dormitory. (NBC News says that it appears he legally purchased the guns in the past few days -and it’s legal for legal residents to buy guns.) The authorities are starting to release the names of victims, after they have been identified and next of kin have been notified.

Some of the Virginia Tech Victims (from msnbc.msn.com)

They came to Blacksburg, Va., from all over the country — and all over the world. They came to study, and they came to teach. They had plans. They had friends. They had families.

As the list of confirmed victims in Monday’s massacre on the Virginia Tech campus grew, so too did the number of stories about the individuals who fell victim to the gunman, 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui of Centreville, Va.

There were stories of heroism. Students of Liviu Librescu, an engineering science and mechanics lecturer, say he blocked the door of his classroom with his body to protect those inside. Librescu, 76, was a Holocaust survivor.

Ryan Clark, a popular and gregarious member of the Marching Virginians band, was just weeks away from graduation. A resident adviser on the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston dorm, Clark came to the aid of a student the morning of April 16. It cost him his life.

Students told of teachers who inspired them. Neighbors spoke of children they’d seen grow up and leave for college, lives filled with promise.

Kevin Granata was one of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy. He coached his children in many sports and extracurricular activities.

Reema Samaha, a freshman who performed with the school’s Contemporary Dance Ensemble, was shot dead in French class.

Juan Ramon Ortiz, from Puerto Rico, decorated his parents’ one-story concrete house each Christmas. A neighbor heard Ortiz’s mother scream when she learned of her son’s death.

One Blog Silence

This blog will participate in the One Day Blog Silence on April 30th 2007. In honor of the 33 victims at Virginia Tech. Read more about it here.