A Moment of Silence

A lot has happened in the past few days that it would take forever for me to write everything here. I even sent my friends a "text-blog", a 5 part text message of what I've been wanting to spill in the days that passed.

My grandmother died, August 23, 2008, my mom and the rest of my uncles and aunts are grieving but in a way happy that they can't see my grandmother suffering in her bed. She died in my aunt's house at Digos City at 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

I never had the chance to visit her while she was still alive, I don't even think she remembers me, I don't have any "emotional attachment" with my uncles and aunts, honestly, I was so insecure that I can't step my foot at their place. Yes, I was insecure...

On the day of her burial, I left the house pretty early in the morning to travel to Digos, and when I arrived, my aunts and uncles were there that I haven't even met. I just met them that day, and I discretely looked for my cousin/friend (he's the one closest to me) but haven't found him for some hours. I saw his sister (who's really really pretty BTW) so grown up and turned out to be a pretty lady. There were a number of people that day that I really don't know, and I don't know if they also know me...i don't know anything about them, nor do I know something about them...

My insecurities left a mark on me, "I missed knowing my aunts and uncles and especially my late grandmother..."

As we were walking on the road bound at the cemetery, I had some chat with my cousin, I don't know if it was just me or he's aloof. I haven't talked nor seen him for months and a lot has happened since we last met. It was like a reunion but never really knowing what to reunite to. I felt no link between any people at all. I felt out of place.

After my grandmother was buried, I asked for my cousin's father, and he said "you don't know my father?!" and I was just like "I don't know anybody here at all!", so he pointed out to me who his father was and saw him.

I felt this urge in me to reach out to my relatives, really reach out to them like they are really my relatives! But I think it's kinda too late for that now...or is it?

With the past few days, I felt that I have to do something with my relationships with my relatives, my family, my friends, and every body else, not knowing where and how to start.

I missed not knowing them...i think I just lost the opportunity of knowing them deeper like I should.

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The Ensembles

en·sem·ble

n. A unit or group of complementary parts that contribute to a single effect, especially: A coordinated outfit or costume. A coordinated set of furniture. A group of musicians, singers, dancers, or actors who perform together: an improvisational theater ensemble; a woodwind ensemble. A work for two or more vocalists or instrumentalists. The performance of such a work. Music A work for two or more vocalists or instrumentalists. The performance of such a work.

After all of the rehearsals and silly moments at the Golden Palace Hotel in Tagum City, we finally had our first break, to sing in a wedding! We never really had enough time practicing all the songs, we practiced some of the songs during our stay at the hotel. We call ourselves The Ensembles, we sing in the funerals, weddings, birthdays, any occasion you want us to appear and sing, we would be pleased to serve you through our voices. The group is composed of people who can sing in Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass (SATB). Ms. Lalai sings the soprano, Miss Joy sings the alto, I sing the tenor, and John sings the bass though he sings tenor really and we wouldn't be singing without our pianist, Kuya Levi.

The wedding was held at the CAP Auditorium in Tagum City and so as the reception. When the wedding started I sang I Will be Here as the bride marches the aisle and as she approaches her "soon to be" husband waiting in the altar. We sang a lot of songs really during the wedding ceremony Mis Lalai sang Ikaw, Miss Joy sang Father We Commit to You, Miss Joy and I sang The Gift, and the most challenging song I ever sang but always thought of singing...The Prayer, a duet with Miss Lalai, too bad we weren't able to capture it on video maybe if we obtain a copy of the wedding's video coverage I could post it here and see how I was able to do it. We also sang together during the reception when the bride and the groom danced in front of the people.


The Ensembles

The above video was taken during our stay at the Golden Palace Hotel, Ate Lalai was practicing her piece, Ikaw, Joy and I were doing some interpretation of the song just being silly coz the song makes me yawn and feel sleepy but Ate Lalai really has a good voice that even made the song more like a lullaby! We have more wacky videos during our rehearsal at the hotel and if you want to check our own community site you may as well do so by going here to get a glimpse of our past, present and future engagements!

Now for some photos...

This is our picture together with the other wedding coordinators and the newly weds!

Joy and I are practicing our duet, The Gift.

(from left) Joy, Kuya Levi, and Ate Lalai

We were pretending shooting a new teleserye

A hostage crisis!

Ate Lalai took a crystal glass!!! "I didn't see anything..."

A rock star wanna-be.

The Ensembles
John, Joy, Me, Ate Lalai, & Kuya Levi

Singing You..."You are the one who makes me happy..."

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Avatar: The Last Airbender

At last I finished the three-book series of Nickelodeon's awesome animated series! Avatar: The Last Airbender is about a young boy named Aang who's destined to save the world from the hands of the Fire nation's Fire Lord Ozai.

In Hindu mythology, gods manifest themselves into Avatars to restore balance on earth, usually after a period of great evil. The Chinese characters that appear at the top of the show's title card mean "the divine medium who has descended upon the mortal world."

In order for Aang to defeat the Fire Lord and restore balance on earth, he needs to master all four elements, air, fire, earth, and water. As the title says, Aang is the last air bender, meaning he can control air, and use it anyway he likes, but he still has to improve his air bending.

In the Avatar, the world is divided into four nations, each according to the four elements, Earth nation, Fire Nation, Air Nation, and Water Tribe. And luckily Aang found friends who could teach him all four elements, from each country. Katara, from the Water Tribe and her brother Sokka, found Aang, so Katara began to teach Aang water bending, because, Katara was the only one alive in the water tribe who knows water bending, the others and her brother Sokka, doesn't water bend. But as the story progresses, Katara was able to meet an old lady banished from the Water Tribe who knows water bending and taught her to master the techniques, and introduced to her Blood Bending, which has the ability to turn humans or anything that has blood into her puppets! (alright! that's awesome!)

When they got to the Earth country, called Ba Sing Se, Aang found an Earth bender, who also has the ability to bend metal, she's the only one who could do that from the Earth country, and guess she's blind! She calls herself the blind bandit when Aang was looking for her, she's Toph Bei Fong. She's pretty annoying in the beginning but as the story changes, so she does, she's really kickin' ass!

And the last but definitely not the least who joined his team, and became his fire bender teacher, is Prince Zuko, Fire Lord Ozai's one and only son, whom he banished from the Fire country because he's a disgrace to the empire. Prince Zuko wasted his effort on defeating the Avatar to regain his honor, but later realized that his honor could not be given by anyone, not even killing Aang could regain his honor, with his uncle's help, he changed into being a good friend of Aang. Though it was kinda difficult for them to accept Prince Zuko in the team, knowing that he's the son of the Fire Lord, he earned their trusts and taught Aang fire bending!

So when the time arrived for the Avatar to face the Fire Lord, it was one awesome duel, hope you could see the episodes too. If you want to you can go here. You can watch the episodes there via streaming. Aang, doesn't want to kill people, so he didn't kill Fire Lord Ozai, but removed his fire bending and locked him in the dungeon of his own country. Then, guess who took the throne, Prince Zuko!

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WordCamp Philippines 2008

I read about this event via Henshin's post, here. And so I registered! Events like this should not be missed by all bloggers.

To know more about WordPress.com and the geeks behind it, look thru here.

Joining this event would be a great opportunity for me, personally, I want to know what WordPress has to offer to its consumers, I already ordered a shirt from them, weee! It's here at last, this rarely happens in Davao!

This event will be on 4 September 2008 (Thursday), at Toto's Bar in Casa Leticia, J. Camus St., Davao City. It will start promptly at 6:00 PM.

So what are you waiting for? Join now!

For more of the event visit the WordCamp Philippines 2008 or Mindanao Bloggers

The event is made possible by the following:

• i.PH: the Domain for Individuals


• Free Online Flash Games


• Wazzup Manila Philippines


• Real Estate CRM


• Real Estate Website Designers


• Orange County Real Estate


• Auto Insurance Quotes


• Lane Systems Inc.


• RedMedia


• Orange County Business Lawyer


• Cebu Pacific Air


• Buddy Gancenia Reality TV


• SmartBro Wireless Broadband


• SPOT.ph


• Make Money with Performancing Ads

See you on September!

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Coeur brisé moi

No, this isn't a blog written in French, it's just the title...

I was trying to find the better words to say when i'll be writing this blog, I kept lookin' and lookin' 'till i couldn't find any. So I just have to spill it out. If you happen to see the video above, it might look funny, and the lines were funny but in a way, it makes sense...and i feel for the guy.

yes, i feel what he felt, the time his girlfriend uttered the words, "it's not you, it's me", this line has been used over and over again in scenes like this...a breakup scene. It's a cliché euphemism that has been around well since i guess our first parents, Adam & Eve, broke up!

I'm not going into details of how it happened, because I don't want to. I'm in the first stage after breaking up called denial. It's the stage that you deny to yourself and to the people around that you are not hurt, that you are "Ok". It's been 2 days, and I haven't showed pain to myself, and the people around me and I think that's denial. In Psychology, there are at least 3 stages that I have to go through before I could start another relationship, I haven't grieved yet, oh! how I don't want that time to happen where I would just wallow and pity my self.

I'm so much the guy in the video! Argghhh! Good for him that his girlfriend told him of what went wrong, unlike me, I never got the chance to ask why she broke up with me.

Well, that's how it is, you love, you get hurt, you cry, you'll live...

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