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• Zombies Are Real - Ernest Reyes

• Setting Yourself Free - Gianna Parian

• Why Books Are Magic - Isabelle Arboleda

• Being The Only Girl - Christine Casa 

• Non-Academics - Justin Asuncion

• Skeptical Way Of Thinking - Philip Sartillo

• APC's Anti-Smoking Campaign - Gila Reyes

• Had A Dream - Nieva Balungcas

• Sonnets - Bianca Tesoro

• Racism and Discrimination - Nelly Macaraeg

• My Life Calendar - Mark Dela Cruz

• What Really Is A Hero Anyway? - Ellora Jandoc

• BANGTAN SONYEONDAN (BTS) CONCERT - Angela Motil

• When I Met God -  Mary Mateo

• Friends! - Reign Silva

15 ~ I KNOW WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT NOW!

See that post title? THAT WAS A LIE! I still have no idea what to write about! Oh man life sucks!

HAHAHAHAHA!

No really, I am so lost on what to write. Maybe I can talk about not writing? Yeah, why not?

Writing is a form of art, and a form of study. Being a proficient writer isn't just about knowing the write words, but also understanding the flow and form of what you write. You must be flexible, as depending on what you write, your style would change. Every change must still reflect yourself in each write-up, however, and you must still have a distinct mark or signature style no matter what you do. Above that, you must finally think of what to write, and how to do it! All the while still maintaining good quality.

Taking all this into consideration, perhaps, writing is difficult seems difficult. In truth, it is not, all you must do is find the right inspiration, the right drive the - !

. . .

Heh heh.

HA HA HA!

I lie! Writing is as hard as hell! So hard that it makes you want to give up, over and over and over again! Why do I even bother sometimes!?

. . .

Well, I suppose it's because . . . writing is fun. No matter how difficult it gets, or how uninspired I may be, eventually, I always get an itch to write again. It's a way of expressing myself that's both personal and impersonal, and an expression that almost everyone can understand and relate to. It gives me a sense of comfort, when I think that sometimes, all I need to do for the day is write down what passes my imaginations.

14 ~ Making Stories and Writers Block

Uh . . . crap. I have no idea what to write next, and yes, I am talking about this blog. I was supposed to write something but now I . . . well, yeah. Now what?

I have a story to finish, more blogs to finish, and I have no idea what to write about next!!!

I'm sure you've all experience that at some point, and maybe it doesn't even have to do with writing - it could even be related to speaking. You could be lost on what to say next or just end up saying a bunch of nonsense that makes no sense! Does that makes sense to you yet? What is supposed to make sense anyway?

What's the point of blagrgag#@#a aasdfg aasdfghjkla qwre ytju njh gmn wqegvfdcvwegfg rebtgbbvadsvcy5%*^%tgfbfdvsd%^&vgh7uytb@#!dasgferhubtgfdfvmjny!@

See that wall of meaningless nonsense above? That's what happens when I have no idea what to write next!

13 ~ I Wish I Had The Skills To Go Pro

Video Gaming has advanced a long way from when it started. From it's humble roots as pixel games to the technological marvels that allows us to experience adventures and excitement of untold depths, depths that we would have never experience anywhere else except through our screens. To some people, it may seem a bit sad or strange that we could call sitting in front of a computer or television screen with a remote in our hands an adventure, but those people have no idea how truly magnificent games of today are.

Gaming has advanced so much, that those that have the skill, talent and discipline so as to be called "Pro-Gamers" manage to make a living out of it. The money pro-gamers make is comparable to professionals in sports, with prizes reaching in the millions of dollars.

I wish I could be a pro-gamer. I love games, and if I could make money out of them, that would be a dream come true!

Sadly, such a dream is far off. Many people underestimate just how difficult it is to become a pro, and how much harder it is to stay as one. The very same discipline you see on football fields, and basketball courts, the very same sweat and tears shed during long hours of practice, still exists in the world of pro-gaming, simply existing in different, but no-less intense, form.

The youngest pro gamer for the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) DotA 2, Syed Sumail Hassan, known by his player name "Suma1l" became a 16-year-old million dollar winner through gaming, by winning the internationals this year last August.

He's two years younger than I am, yet has made more money than I ever had, or even, ever will - dunno, depends on the job I get in the future. The fact remains, however, that he has made a lot of money by simply being good at what he loves, something I wish I could do.

12 ~ Why I Don't Work Well With Blogs

Blogs, as I've come to understand, are a creative, easy, and fun way to express yourself over the internet. It's allowed the spread of information and the cultivation of friendships that would have otherwise been impossible to foster because of distance. I respect it's contributions and feel glad for the people that manage a blog on a daily basis, but that doesn't change one thing:

I do NOT do well with blogs.

I've thought on it, even as I make this blog I want to put down my laptop and go for a stretch somewhere. Possibly forget about the whole thing.

I've come to the conclusion that the reason I don't like it is simple: I can't just express my personal things unless I'm face-to-face. Things I'm supposed to put on a blog, I feel much better communicating in front of a person. I'm not sure if it's weird or not, but it's the truth.

I'd much rather talk with someone about myself than write about it. It feels personal, which is just the way I like it. I don't like doing useless things, and for me, writing about my feelings where people who I don't know or care about can read. Ultimately, the best thing I could use a blog for is to vent out my frustrations, or write a story, but that's about it.

11 ~ Bayani Ba To? Heroism Seminar

Firstly, that seminar was great. Secondly. the movie preview was even greater. Thirdly, the ones in charge of the seminar were excellent. Overall, for the first non-academic related seminar I've had of the year, it was fantastic. I really like the way he explained things, and the answers he gave to certain questions from the crowd.

I like how they did not side with a particular belief about our heroes, and how they did not overtly glorify them. They reminded us that they were just normal humans like us, and had flaws and mistakes just like us. They were heroes not because they great beings, but because they were simple people that did great actions.

I for one, am excited about the movie. The people behind it really felt like they knew what they were doing; the last movies, about Aguinaldo and Bonifacio respectively, were, in short words, terrible - mostly due to the fact that they were biased towards a certain side of history, and the overall directing was terrible, so I'm remaining cautiously optimistic about this one.

Like what was said in the seminar, one should not believe that they are unable to contribute anything to the country, no matter what age. Simply doing your best and being helpful to the people around you, even if it's small acts only, is already a great contribution. Small actions eventually pile up and become big ones, and that is how the world changes.

Moreover, that is how a hero is made.

10 ~ APC's Anti-Smoking

When I think about smoking, the act of placing a carefully combined roll of tobacco and nicotine in your mouth and inhaling it into your lungs, I always tell myself that it has a special place near my heart - namely outside of it and nowhere near my lungs,

Excluding the steam from baths and the aromas from cooking, I absolutely hate smoke, smoke of any kind, whether it be from cars guzzling gasoline, smoke from burned trash, or smoke from a cigarette. I hate it because it makes me sick, it smells bad, it's cancerous, and many more reasons. It doesn't help that I'm asthmatic as well.

It's why I support APC's anti-smoking campaign completely. Most people don't realize or don't care about the inconvenience and dangers smoking does for themselves and others, If the campaign APC's running makes everyone just a bit more aware, that counts as a win in my book.

Also, I like the way they're going about it. Using animated slides is actually a better way to get the point across, rather than focusing on using real pictures. Real examples, while they provide a powerful image and the desire to turn away from it, can sometimes become more personal to a person, causing offence which could lead to them rejecting the message overall.

In any case, I just wish that people would stop smoking, or at the very least, do it in a place where it doesn't affect others. The air is polluted enough as it is.

9 ~ APC and my Academics!

My first subject at APC made me nothing but pleasantly surprised. Why is that? Because, as it happened, it was a glorious, glorious ALL ENGLISH TERM! Yahoo~! Isn't that wonderful?

Of course, you might be asking why it's wonderful, so allow me to answer: I consider myself very good, or at the very least well-versed at speaking and understanding English. So naturally, when I saw that all the subjects for my first term were in English, thoughts of a card where my grades averaged 3.5 floated fantastically.

Of course, life has a way of not going the way you want, and sometimes we forget that only to be reminded of it by a slap to the face, courtesy of reality. That slap to the face for me was when I realized that our grades would mostly be project driven, instead of based on test scores. 

Let it be known that I am absolutely terrible with projects - not because I can't do them, but because I am freaking lazy. As in, really lazy. Cramming is practically my occupation.

Still, I'm nothing if not flexible, so I adapted quickly to the new curriculum. Take note, however, that quickly, does not mean easily: I had a killer of a time forcing myself to adjust to this new pace!

8 ~ My Life In APC

As a person that just recently graduated high-school, you could imagine that I was excited, nervous, and a myriad of other emotions. I quickly got over it though - I don't like dwelling to long, and I'd rather be actively doing something anyway. Still, if I had to say something, it's that when I first entered APC, I just couldn't stop doing anything. I needed an outlet for my energy, and thankfully enough, APC was able to provide that outlet.

Though APC itself does not have much to offer, the people that make it up are great to be around, and it's mostly thanks to them that I adjusted so quickly. The friends I made in my block are great and easy to talk to.

Moreover, APC is actually pretty close to some good hangout spots, where my friends and I go to during our breaks. In all honesty, I have very little regrets about choosing APC as my college, and if I had a regret, then it would be the fact that none of my old high-school friends study here, but then again, that's called nitpicking.

7 ~ Musical Taste

My taste in music is somewhat different from most kids my age. I grew up with parents who were interested in theater, classical music and classical rock. Naturally, when I was old enough to develop my own tastes, they were incline to those genres.

Naturally, we all believe that our tastes are somewhat superior compared to others - there's no denying it, we will inevitably have a bias for ourselves when compared to others. It's just the way it is and it's fine so long as you're aware. In any case, why I brought this up is simple:

I loathe the music of today.

Miley Cyrus, Justin Beiber, etc. The music idols of today are less about the music, and more about the image. Their music isn't even that good! I hate what music has become, and even more, I hate how everyone is buying into the image. For some reason, nobody seems to care about it.

Young people are being raised to these kinds of people - to these kinds of creatures - and I'm stuck here, thinking about days of music that were so sweet yet not my own.

6 ~ Ignore Your Love!

Ah, love, such a wonderful emotion. It's empowered kings, prophets, peasants and slaves to feats of greatness. It is an emotion that has stood the test of time, and has become the undisputed feeling of all time. Everyone knows about it, even if their opinions are different. Love truly is, the greatest feeling in the world.

It's also one of the greatest ways to ruin your education.

Love among adults is tenuous and full of problems at best, but love between teenagers is a certified natural disaster!

When one becomes a teenager, the feelings of love, lust, passion and desire all mix up and slowly erode at your common sense. Love makes you capable of great things, yes, but it is also capable of making you do stupid things! and woe to you if it happens to be a combination of both - great AND stupid!

Sadly love likes to bloom in its own time, and usually that time is when it's most inconvenient; namely in the middle of the school year. It's the time when you should be focused on your studies, but instead you become absorbed by thoughts of your loved one, and one way or another, you forget what you're supposed to be doing.

Now I'm not saying that falling in love as a teen is a bad thing, and in fact I encourage it - it's a part of growing up! but I caution being too absorbed in your love story, or else you lose both love and life shortly, and in that order.

5 ~ Rush Rush Rush!

The midterm is almost over and everyone's rushing - including me! This is not a good thing, by the way, but it certainly leaves me with a deep impression: never ever cram!!!

Cramming, it's the messiah and Satan of every student everywhere since the dawn of time. Cramming is when you leave your work undone until the very last second, before panicking and hitting the books or computers or whatever in a vain attempt to complete your requirements.

Sometimes it works, most times, it doesn't, and at all times, cramming is very, very stressful. Usually, the work you create while cramming turns out to be utter cow-dung, so all your efforts were a waste in the first place, making the whole thing even worse.

A little work goes a long way when it comes to things like this. There was a saying, 'an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure'; a phrase that is self-explanatory, but I shall explain it anyway, but in the context of work - a little work, bit by bit, is better than a sudden, large amount of work! It's easier, less stressful, and over all the better choice, but for some reason we rarely choose it.

Anyway, that's about it. No cramming now people!

4 ~ Power of a Smile

Never underestimate the power of a smile. Having someone smile at you and to simply tell you, "It's going to be okay" can have a greater effect than what ever you could have imagined. I realized this when I was feeling down, and a stranger, someone I didn't know, walked up to me and asked what was wrong. We talked, and he listened, and gradually I felt better. By the end of it all, he reassured me with a smile, and told me everything would be fine so long as I put effort into it.

Today, most people don't see the value of a simple smile. The world is too dark, and our media, the media of the world in fact, likes to promote this ideal, with movies that have dark themes and even darker characters; they love to portray the world as a dangerous, unsafe place.

In a sense, this is true; the world has its dangers and is definitely not always a safe place, however, that is only one side of the coin. The world can be as colorful as it is dark, and I feel that no one should forget that. The world is not in the shadows all the time, because after every night comes the dawn of a new day.

So, to those reading this, never forget to smile, and never forget that you can trust and put your trust in people and in the world. You may be cut down, but you can get up, and similarly, when you see someone cut down, help them back up.

3 ~ Worst Day Ever

Ever have those days were its starts of bad and then just gets worse? For me, it was this one time when I over slept and ended up late for school. So there I was, rushing everything, then I go to commute. It took forever for a jeep to arrive, and to make things worse, it was steaming hot out. So naturally, once I was on the jeep, I was sweaty and grumpy, and thought to myself: 'How much worse could this guess'.

Rule number one of life: Never ask how much worse things can get, because the answer is always 'it can always get much, much worse. I've had the pleasure of finding this out personally.

Once off the jeep, I get to the front gate and am all eager to get into the school, until the guard points out I'm not wearing my I.D. Panicking, I try to call home to have it brought over soon, but then I find out I'm out of load. Deciding to just take the penalty, I go into school without an I.D. and head straight for class. There were no elevators available, so I had to walk up ten flights of stairs. Naturally, I was rushing, so I ran.

Upon reaching my destined class, I found out that nobody was there. Checking my schedule, it turned out that I was looking at the schedule for the day afterwards, and that I had no classes today. Cursing to myself, I decided to rest for a bit and eat at Jollibee. Can you guess what happened next?

That's right! I LEFT MY WALLET AT HOME.

The money I had on me was only good enough to commute going to school, but the money needed for lunch and going back, I had accidentally left at home, probably because I was rushing.

Frustrated, demoralized, and angry, I had to start walking home, a trip that goes on for five kilometers and roughly an hour and thirty minutes while under the unforgiving sun.

Halfway through, I received a text: My driver was back at school, waiting to fetch me; apparently, I had told him to fetch me, but it mus have slipped my mind because I had no idea he was going to show up. So, having no load to tell him to fetch me, naturally I had to walk back. YAY!

So I ended up back at the start, where my driver was, and finally began heading home. As soon as I got home, I wanted to sleep so badly until I looked through my bags stuff, and realized I had left both my leather shoes and change of clothes at school (it was PE day) and tried to contact my driver to bring me back; unfortunately, he was already gone.

So, that was how my day ended, and I drowned my sorrows in games and ice cream. That day, I learned that if you think something can't get any worse. well, it can. Moreover, always keep your cellphone loaded, or else. Really, cellphones are a gift from god, but only if you can actual use the thing!

2 ~ If I Could Talk To Animals?

Recently, a question popped up in my mind: What if I could talk to animals? Let's face it, humans are the most complex creatures on the planet, but that doesn't necessarily make them the most interesting. In terms of  what looks cooler, a person, or an iguana, an iguana wins hands down. Anyway, with that thought in mind, if I could converse with an animal, what animal would it be and why would I choose it?

For me, the answer is simple: The Turtle!

Why is that? For the simple reason of that turtles can live up to two hundred something years! There is no other animal their size or species that lives as long as they can, and when I think about how long lived they are, I begin to wonder exactly what they experienced in their long lives! I would probably ask simple questions like, what has changed for you since you were born, or has there ever been any animal that you've no longer seen lately; you know, stuff like that.

If, for some reason or another, I'm unable to talk with an old turtle, I have a back up: dogs~! Dogs, who know every nook and cranny of their territory, and who are one of the most domesticated yet free creatures I've ever seen. They're playful, wary, vicious, kind, and basically come in all sorts of colors! I imagine dogs would talk somewhat like humans, only with the occasional mention of things humans would never actually do (like pee on a fire-hydrant) or some weird mannerisms.

 If I wanted to talk to a turtle because of it's experiences in its age, then I would talk to a dog for a simple, good time.

So, that would be my most likely animals to talk to. Of course, given how there are so many strange and interesting animals on this earth, it's likely that I'll end up trying to talk to every single one of them anyway~!

1 ~ Who Is A Person Alive Today That You Would Like Most To Meet And Talk To?

Back when I was in elementary, preschool, specifically, I was bright kid. According to my teachers, I thought faster, read more, and memorized quicker than anyone else in my batch of students. Unfortunately, that isn't what was most notable about me - instead, I was well recognized from my slight autism (very slight, I assure you) and my not so slight ADHD. 

I would run around, throw things, shout things, and generally be a freak. Highlights of my time in prep-school involve climbing on the roof of my school using a Fire Exit ladder hanging from the school bathroom. Those times weren't exactly my best moments, and while I did attract a lot of attention, I also made a similar number of bad impressions.

Of course, I did have a lot of friends, after all, with stunts like mine, I was bound to pull in some people who would think I was fun to hang around, but I had an identical number of people that avoided me and outright denounced me. Most of them were girls, and they were quite vocal about their opinions on me. I especially remember the time when it was the birthday of one of my classmates, and one particular girl freaked out when she saw me approaching the birthday boy, before telling him in rapid-fire that he shouldn't let me attend his birthday or else I might do something weird again; admittedly, the day before that was the day I tried to bring down the schools transportable basketball ring (again, not my best moments), so her reaction, though a bit stinging, was understandable. 

So where exactly am I going with this? There was this one girl, who, from day one, stood out to me. For privacy as well as personal reasons, I will not divulge her name, but simply refer to her as 'K' - K was a silent girl, but bright, as smart as me or possibly smarter. She had the grace and maturity of someone twice her age and had unrivaled social skills. She was the schools darling, and my first crush.

There, I said it. Does the reason for the title seem obvious yet?

In any case, what attracted me most to her wasn't her looks or her brains (though admittedly, she had a good share of both) but ultimately, her kindness. She was the nicest person I had ever met. Unlike the other girls, she could talk to me so patiently that I had to sit down and behave, or else I felt like I was committing some unspeakable crime by not doing so. K could sit through my blabbering (and anyone else's, for that matter) and still find the time and interest to respond accordingly. All these traits left a deep and long lasting impression on me, and while time has made those feelings fade into simple respect and admiration, I can still recall quite vividly how attracted I was to her.

Of course, realizing as how infatuated I was with her, I did the most logical thing: I confessed.

Take note: I confessed. At age SIX. To a girl I HAD ONLY KNOWN FOR LESS THAN A YEAR.

For the third time, allow me to say that these were not my best moments. 

Obviously, I was rejected, on the obvious grounds that she didn't like me that way, but we did remain friends afterwards (the perks of being young and innocent: if you screw up a confession, nobody treats it as a big deal) so I was fine with that (again, the perks of being young and innocent); we were around each other for a good time afterwards, but eventually, we had to go our separate ways.

I wasn't heartbroken about it. I was young, and the concept of love hadn't really fully been realized yet, Still, her gentle nature and patience wouldn't be forgotten in a long time.

Eventually, five years passed and I was grade five. By that time, I had forgotten how she looked like, and even her real name; her nickname was what I remembered. Still, I didn't forget her attitude and disposition, and neither did I forget my affections for her. But still, she was the furthest thing from my mind - at least, she was the furthest thing from my mind.

Summer came, and I was grade-five-turning-grade-six, and we were spending our time in Baguio. Seeing as our cousins live near the Grotto Shrine, one of the more popular tourist destinations, it was natural that we visit it. At the time, I wasn't expecting much, just the usual 'up and down the stairs of death, say a quick prayer, then back down and gasp for air' routine, but just as I began the ascent up the stairs, my mother called my attention, mentioning a certain name I hadn't heard in five years.

If you haven't guessed it yet, I suggest you call a doctor or a psychiatrist. 

Yes, it was her, looking at her then, grown up and still as mannered as I remember, I practically froze on the spot (Baguio's weather not withstanding) and suddenly, a lot of different feelings came rushing back, only this time, they had the blessing and curse of an older perspective. For the first time in my life, I was embarrassed of showing affection.

We spent a little time catching up with each other about that, but I'll gloss over that. The important part is that I began wondering: I still feel this way after five years, will it be the same after five more? Six more? Will I like anyone as much as I did (and still do) her? We haven't met since that time at the Shrine, but I feel that the only way I'll be able to get an answer to my questions, is if I meet her again, face-to-face.