It's R-O-A-N!

Yesterday, I went to a movie date with my best friend. We decided to watch a film entitled 'Catch Me, I'm in Love.' Funny thing was that the name of the character Sarah Geronimo played in the film was (surprise!) ROAN SANCHEZ (different spelling though; my name is spelled as Ro Anne). We went ecstatic every time Erick (character played by Gerald Anderson) say something sweet and he starts his dialogue with the name Roan (that is because I imagined he was really talking to me. Hehe!). Also, Sarah many times said in the film that she is Roan of Caloocan and we joked that I'm Roanne of Laguna.

Okay, enough of the stupid gushes. I give this film 4 stars. It was a feel-good film and I don't regret spending some peso to watch it. Many can definitely relate to it since the movie revolved around the love story of two people coming from different social status. It ended nicely and that is something typical for Filipino films (just my opinion).

Sarah played her part perfectly as the bubbly social worker, and as for Gerald, two words: he's hot. :)

Earth Hour 2011: Off is On

The night when 'turn off' is a turn on. Join Earth Hour at 8:30-9:30 tonight. :)

Should I just keep...

Song: Chasing Pavements
Artist: Adele

This song always give me the chill. I think I even posted the lyrics of this song on this blog way back in 2008 when I felt tired chasing pavements. Sit back and enjoy. :)

Before I Die...

I found another gem off the Internet. I stumbled upon a very inspiring art installation by the artist Candy Chang. She turned an abandoned house into giant chalkboards with stencils of the phrase “Before I die, I want to _______.” Residents from New Orleans can fill in the blanks with their wildest dreams and aspirations. After only three days, the wall is already filled with many writings about people's life-long desires.

Just today, I tweeted Candy Chang this: “Before I die, I want to build a house with giant chalkboards as walls.”

More of this art here. :)

Anawangin: Let the Summer Begin

To kick off the summer and before our group start our series of training climbs, we decided to go to Anawangin. From Manila, it was a three-hour bus ride to Olongapo, then another bus ride to San Antonio (more or less 30 minutes), a tricycle ride to Pundaquit and the last stop was a 20-minute boat ride to Anawangin Cove.


Instead of a boat ride, Pat and my guy friends decided to trek their way to Anawangin via the Mt. Ermitanyo trail. They said it was a tough climb because there was no established trail, the weather was hot and the rocks were sharp but the view was breath-taking. It took them six hours to get to Anawangin.




Since I (and two others) came early on the cove and we have so much time to spend, we decided to set up our tents, prepare the food and sleep (to have energy for the long night!). The amazing part about Anawangin is that the shore has portions covered with pine trees.


I have to show this dish which doesn't look nice but tasted so goooood! This dish is stir-fried squid with chili and ginger. My friends call it 'Pugita' (Filipino word for squid).

More trips to come this summer! :)

Hello Summer!

Song: Pure Shores
Artist: All Saints

The song I can't stop listening last weekend.I was in a place with pine trees, sand and beach.

OakOak: Street Art and Humor

A day spent with Stumbleupon meant a new treasure unearthed from all the junks in the Internet. Today, I came to know about French street artist named OakOak. See samples of his works below.

Radioactive Sh*t

I checked my phone and saw two text messages. These messages were from two different senders but share the same content. What is the content all about? Uh-oh. Radioactive rain.

I checked on Twitter and people were already panicking. "Radiation is gonna hit the Philippines by 4pm," some tweets mentioned. This was in lieu of the Japan earthquake which happened last week; it was in the news that nuclear power plants exploded.

After all the fuss, it was confirmed by reliable sources that the text message was a hoax. I just hope the government will do their job of keeping the people safe.

As with the source of the stupid text, I think it doesn't help anyone to spread rumor like that. In situations like this, people are vulnerable to any information concerning their safety.

On a side note, some people made fun of the nuclear fallout and said this might be the chance to inherit super powers (talk about mutant frustrations).

Writer's Block...Again

Song: In the Sun

Artist: She & Him

I was listening to this song while I was on my way home to Laguna. I have never been in my parent's house for the last three weeks. This is such a happy song to hear with all the chaos going on.

#prayforjapan

The world was shocked with the news that a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck Japan this afternoon. Let's pray for all the people there. I also ask guidance from heaven for my fellowmen who live in the coastal areas. News said that tsunami are likely to hit Philippine shorelines.

Update: See here the video from CNN showing a tsunami nearing the Japan territory.

Drive Angry...Really

This blog post is a bit overdue. Two days ago, Pat and I decided to meet-up and watch a movie after work (Why? Because we have a free movie ticket bound for expiration). I already thought there actually no good movie showing on theaters but never mind. To keep it on the safe side, we chose a movie starring Nicolas Cage. It's called 'Drive Angry.' Ticket attendant tore off portion of our tickets and off we go inside the cinema.

Prior to this, I looked up for the movie's synopsis: Nicolas Cage plays the character of Milton, a guy who returned from hell to save her grand daughter from a cult leader who also killed her daughter. Along the way, she met a girl named Piper who joined him in his pursuit.

And this movie just drove me to disappointment. Not only is Nicolas Cage aging (he played a grandfather from hell here, literally. hehe!) but I think he is also struggling on what film projects to accept. I have nothing against Cage; I like him on Con Air.

The plot of the movie has missing links and identities of characters were not fully established. I think the movie just followed the typical Hollywood movie formula: put in sex, hot cars and some gory scenes.

On the good side, I found the Accountant’s character and the scene where Nicolas Cage is on a gunfire and uses the naked waitress as shield quite cool.

Two stars for this movie. Three stars for the popcorn. And five stars for Pat. :)

International Women's Day 2011

"Women are responsible for two-thirds of the work done worldwide and yet..."

In celebration of International Women's Day, Equals blog (http://weareequals.org/blog/) shared a video which showed James Bond (the world's most popular male icon) put himself, literally, in a woman's shoe (and clothes).

Until now, women from all over the world feel insignificant and underrated. But it is never too late for women to stand and let the world know what they can do.

For my own idea of 'Equals?' When women get to drive buses here in Manila. :)

Rirkrit: Art, Food and Interaction

Instead of the usual art exhibits consisted of paintings, shorts talks and people walking around, an artist named Rirkrit Tiravanija prepares tables, chairs, blender and food ingredients for his latest exhibit. No, he is not a chef or a food stylist; he's an artist who work on the element that art is about interaction and socialization.


I learned online that Rirkrit Tiravanija or simply Rirkrit is a contemporary artist living in New York. His installations often involved cooking and sharing meals. I read that his art teacher challenged him 'to stop making art' (confusing, right?); this pushed him to think outside the box and so he put up plywood panels on selected sites and he invited people to do whatever they want.


Seeing this kind of art presentation makes me think that we can really find art in anything. The limitation is our imagination. Funny how I'm thinking about people eating in the food court/food stalls or standing to eat on fishball carts can be considered art. :)

Wants

Since I lurk on Twitter for almost nine hours a day, I get to see many people, shops and bloggers promote different products. Seeing these advertisements, I tend to create in my mind an imaginary shopping list which has to wait to be fulfilled (save money!). For now, lemme tell about the things I badly 'want.' (haha!)

I saw this Swatch Lady Double Tour watches on Chuvaness' blog. Looks so chic and stylish. Plus, the double strap makes it unique among other watches. Got to have the one with the color violet (extreme right).


Since college, I always want a pair of Vans but oftentimes I settle for a pair of Chucks. I hope I can save more money to buy a high-cut vans.


Since my office bag looked a little worn-out, I'm thinking of buying a new one. Then I found this cute tote bag off Team Manila's twitter account. I fancy the colors and the bag size seems just right for me. I'm just wondering if the material is waterproof or not.

That's all for now, who knows I might get these stuff tomorrow. :)

Pulag Via Akiki-Amabangeg Trail

Finally! I get to write my blog post about Pulag! Actually,I have to wait for my other friends to upload their pictures on Facebook so I can borrow a few to include on this post (So thank you Bard and Roland). Let's get started with a dramatic photo on the summit of Mt. Pulag (haha!).


The whole climbing trip kicked off with a 4-hour bus travel to Baguio and another 3 hours to Benguet in a jeepney (Thurs night to Fri morning). We went to DENR to register and listened to the Ranger's orientation. Just before 12noon of Friday, we were on the jump-off of the Akiki trail.



After an hour of trek, we arrived at Eddet river where our group spent our first night.

Then Saturday morning came, the day the 'real' climb commenced; the first challenge was to cross this bridge. (This is not so scary, the bridge is made of metal. Sorry for the blurry image)


After the cross on the bridge, the next three hours consisted of climbing slopes like the one in the photo below.


We reached the camp site after about 8 hours of walk and climb. That's our group who still managed to smile despite the 6 degrees Celsius cold at the camp site. This is where we spent our second night.


The next day (Sunday) was the day for our climb to the summit. Unfortunately, Sunday morning turned out to be gloomy so we didn't get the chance to see the sunrise. We just waited for the clearing to take good pictures:


The climb via Ambangeg trail was fairly easy but still ate 3 hours of our time.


All in all, it was a fulfilling experience since I survived the assaults, cold and long walks. I can say now I'm one of the many others who 'killed' the killer trail. :)

1999-2011

Despite the rain, I made sure to attend the very, very last gig of my favorite band, Sugarfree. My admiration to this band started when I was in college and I can truly say that college became the best time of my life because I got Sugarfree tunes to keep every moment unforgettable.

Thank you Ebe, Jal, Mitch and Kaka for the music. Ironically, your band made my life sweeter. :)