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Lhen was supposed to take me out somewhere tonight to celebrate my birthday but she fell sick. Poor girl. So I’m just gonna stay home and enjoy this surprisingly fast Internet connection and catch up on movies and season two episodes of Gossip Girl. Bryan’s out to watch Chicane tonight in World Trade Center. I didn’t feel like going so it’s a good thing his friends didn’t bail out on him. And he was so sweet to buy me another gift when he went out this afternoon to get a haircut. Meet my new orange cow Guyito sitting on a box of my favorite brownies. Weird name, right? He said he got it from Inquirer. Hehe…

My Internet connection is unusually but remarkably fast today. Is there anything wrong with Smart Bro? If ever there is, DO NOT FIX IT! Never, in my three years of being a subscriber, did I experience this speedy connection. Is this some sort of loyal members’ who stayed with the company despite shitty connections most of the time upgrade? What’s great is I reach 1Mbps in speed test to a US server and 4Mbps to a Metro Manila server. Whoa!

Servers in the Philippines

Bayantel’s service must really suck to get this low score! It’s only in QC, hello!

Servers Abroad

Why I’m so thrilled about this? I pay for a 384Kbps plan for 999Php. For three years I barely reach the 384Kbps range even at night – only around 256kbps. And to see this happening is like totally shocking (in a good way) but I don’t mind getting these kinds of surprises. Keep them coming! Hehe.

UPDATE: This is heaven! Right now my download speed is actually hitting 3Mbps! That’s 300 kilobytes per second! I downloaded 300MB file in less than 15 minutes. This is really unusual here in the Philippines!

Birthday wishes? I’ve got a long list pero the ones on top: one – world peace. Two – lots and lots of money. Three – good health. Oh! And I want to go back to the gym. I want that body back! Spread love everyone. Thanks Bryan, Kaye and Liezel for being the first ones to greet. Parang binantayan nyo talaga yung time at 12AM kayo nag-text. So sweet. Mwah!

UPDATE: I’ve received a lot of greetings today. Another round of thanks to my family Bryan, Barry, Kuya TJ, Kieyh, Czarina, Ate TinTin, Daddy, and Mama (my aunt). To SPMF Bhu, Dennis, Lhen, Vern, Gilbert, Jack, RJ and Thine. To DTC Jeyelle, Harvey, Yosef, Jack, Marianna, Mato, Elaine and Celle. To WELS Angel, Andy, Aimee and Merly. And to Paulo, Jessie, Ralph, Lester, Al, Gladys, Seychelles and Cristina. You guys never forget.

And most of all, again, to Bryan who just treated me to a very happy ice cream moment at Haagen-Dazs – sorry I had to leave so soon but you really made me happy today. Love you.

UPDATE: I only wanted ice cream for my birthday so here we were, Bryan and I at Haagen-Dazs in Shang.

I’d watch TV only on weekends so I try to get the news and other stories from the Internet to keep me aware of what’s happening in this world. I can’t let my head go Big Brother-ish just because I’m busy. And a couple of things I stumbled upon today got my attention:

DAVID BLAINE’S LATEST TRICK
Early this week, David Blaine was hung upside down in New York’s Central Park and challenged himself to stay upside down for 60 hours. The challenge finished today without him blowing up his head. But the catch was he had several breaks when he was standing right side up and it wasn’t really stated naman daw that he’d stay upside down for 60 consecutive hours. Well, I actually laughed at that alibi. Hehe… And he needed those breaks to be checked by doctors. The doctors said he’d die if he did not take those breaks. What’s the point of the challenge and all its hoopla then?

PETA WANTS TO USE HUMAN BREAST MILK FOR ICE CREAM
Instead of cow’s milk, the ever-famous and active PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) wants Ben & Jerry’s to use human breast milk for their ice cream to decrease the suffering of milking cows. Whoa! Can they actually eat that human-breast-milk ice cream themselves? Bravo to them if they can but I think it’s kinda icky.

So it’s finally happening. Mariah’s song “I Stay In Love” will hit U.S. radio stations on October and that means it’s gonna be a potential commercial single. Listen to it here in my previous post. I’ve always rooted for this song ever since I heard the album. Thank God they didn’t go for “I’m That Chick” though it has always been the critics’ choice for best track from the album. For me, it is well-produced but melodically and lyrically insufficient. It’s almost a monotonous upbeat song that makes you want to dance but pull back mid-verse because something’s missing. “I Stay In Love” on the other hand is a classic Mariah ballad that meets modern RNB wiht full vocals. It’s We Belong Together remixed and mellowed-down. Sadly, this song doesn’t appear on critics’ reviews.

I can’t help but think, are these critics branding a  bad song to be the best just so the true good ones won’t get released? Is this some kind of propaganda to suppress the album’s popularity – stabbing your friend at the back? Don’t take my word for it, I’m not in the music business. I’m just asking…

The most recent Mariah releases were a waste, actually. “Bye Bye” was a very good song and a potential number one - most people loved it and expected it to hit the top spot. But it was accompanied by a shitty and irrelevant video. C’mon, it’s not a love/romantic song so why were they smooching and cuddling and why was the photoshoot for Vibe magazine in it? Plus it was neglected by the fact that Mariah got married around this time so promotion wasn’t full force. Too bad a song this good went to waste.

Next was “I’ll Be Lovin’ You Long Time”. This one’s good too. But then again, the video. I watched it once and I grew tired of it instantly. The set was great. The colors, tones and editing… Perfect. But the entire video was senseless - filled with beauty shots of Mariah in different angles and closeups. We all know she’s sexy and pretty but this video is too much - it overloads you with images of her face and body that you’ll eventually feel nauseous. She could’ve used Nick Cannon here instead of in ”Bye Bye” and they could’ve played around in good places in Hawaii to put life and story to the video. Oops… Did you know that it was shot in Hawaii? Right.

And what really turned me off about Mariah recently? This video of her throwing the first pitch in Japan’s baseball game last May. It has all sorts of wrong in it. The major one? Hello, stilletos? In a baseball field? And she could’ve at least tried to really pitch and not be all too girly cringing in the middle of the stadium.

Anyway… I am a Mariah fan. Absolutely. I know the lyrics of all her songs from the first to the last album. I’ve read on the Internet almost every magazine interview she did so that means I know a lot about her personal life. And my iPod playlists consist of mostly her songs. But it doesn’t mean I can’t disagree. It would be like supporting your friend to jump off a cliff if he wants to just because he’s your friend. Hehe… O diba I’m so convicted. With passion pa yan ha.

I never thought I’d be called a teacher. When I was in high school I had a small desire to teach just to correct the wrong ways and things that my teachers were doing/saying and to show them how it should be done (from a student’s perspective, of course). I’m far from perfect but as a kid then with the eagerness to learn but at the same time surrounded by so much distraction, I sort of demanded a certain way of teaching to keep me interested. Some of my professors knew how to do it but some were doomed by following only the book and disregarding the fact that nobody was listening. That desire was later on drowned by my interest in computers. And besides, I especially wanted to be a teacher then because of the gifts that teachers receive during Teachers’ Day – that wasn’t a proper motivation.

Now I’m here at the academy. It’s my break and I just had sessions with five of my students. I never thought I’d like them but I do. At first I thought I’d just do my job and get things over with – I’d get paid. Little by little I feel connected to them in a way or another and it’s good. I’ve spent barely a week here but I already get worried when a student is absent, I have my favorite student now and I know certain things about their lives. It’s fun and I like being called a teacher.

These kids are eager to learn. Everyday they spend more hours learning than me working in DTC. They’d study at school and at private institutions all day and then receive calls from me late at night to study again at home. No wonder they’re tired. But they inspire me to keep this busy schedule – they can do it and so can I. That’s why I’m struggling to be a good teacher. I want them to really learn. As much as the pay, it means to me to hear them learn, correct themselves, try to say things right and be a good student. I love it. Do I hear another calling? I’m not sure. All I know is I now love teaching and one day I hope to teach them in person.

A shot of my homepage greeting (using a phone camera)

Early last month I realized I needed a second job. Working in DTC alone was not enough to send my brothers to school and provide our daily needs. RJ gave me the idea about having a part-time job but the company she referred me to suddenly stopped offering part-time positions and it was a waste of time because I already took the interview and their long exam when I found out.

Anyway, this past week I balanced my work schedule to get in WELS Academy as an online English teacher. It’s located just a few buildings away from my primary workplace so it wasn’t a big deal. But they were having second thoughts about hiring me because of their past experiences with part-time employees quitting early. They thought, since I already have a full-time job, I might just let go of them when I get tired of my hectic schedule. I made them understand that I have very important reasons for taking another job and spending extra five hours everyday working. I know it’s not easy and if I had a choice, I honestly wouldn’t do it. But I need this and if they don’t accept me, I’ll still continue searching until someone hires me. They must have seen my persistence so now I have a schedule and set of students to teach everyday. I now teach English to Korean students via phone.

The first day, Thursday, was crazy and unexpected. I went to WELS at 11AM for my second day of training that lasted until 3PM. That time I still didn’t know when I’d start teaching so before I left, I confirmed my next training schedule which would be the following day at 2PM. So, at 330PM I logged in at DTC to start my eight-hour work. I replied to a few emails and met with Yosef about things. Then at 5PM I received a call from WELS asking me to start teaching that same day at 6PM. Apparently, a teacher quit and I’d have to replace her starting that day.

To show them that I’m serious about the job, I agreed to start the worst day of the week. I logged out of DTC for a while and went to WELS. My classes went fine but I called some of my students too late, which was bad, because the computer I was using was fucking slow. Closing an Internet browser would take around 15 seconds so imagine how long it’d take to open a PDF! Embarrassingly, I was the only one left when they all logged out at 11PM so they knew I screwed up.

After a bad night at WELS, I had to come back to DTC to continue working for another four hours since I only accumulated two hours that afternoon. You see, in DTC I can work in broken shifts as long as I complete at least 6 hours per day and 45 hours per week and of course, finish my deliverables. Good thing I had extra four hours I could use to offset the three remaining hours to get a total of 9 hours that day. That night I felt so weak but I still finished my assigned tasks and dealt with issues that worsened my already bad mood. I ended the day and hit the bed at 5AM.

The second day was way better than the first. And next week should run as planned so I’m not worried anymore. I’m happy with my current work schedule but I already lost 5lbs – in two days! Later I’ll do carbo and protein overload to regain my body mass. Haaay… We’ll see better days, I’m sure.

I was browsing around and found this funny commercial of Axe Soap. Is it available here now? Anyway, it’s sexy and I like the Snow White concept complete with a tiara. Haha!

I just got home after a very stressful hell week (details later) and this is what I saw inside my closet.

Two cute little stressballs and a very thoughtful letter of love and thanks from my youngest brother. That was so sweet but my eyes were too tired to cry buti na lang . It’s true pala that warm fuzzy things like these can really make you feel better when you’re very tired especially when you’re not expecting them. I’ve never been this happy that it’s the weekend and I’ll sleep better this morning. Happy days everyone!