Thank you guys for reading my article on SOPA. I know it’s not the best explanation but it’s sort of a brief intro on it. I really want people to become aware of THIS HUGE ISSUE that’s going to affect the whole INTERNET. Call it communism or socialism but they are trying to hold a monopolistic power over your Internet freedom. Please read as much as you can about it even though it has been TEMPORARILY SHELVED at the moment because the FBI isn’t waiting for some bill to pass. They’ve already killed Megaupload and Megvideo and what’s stopping them from taking Dropbox (aww sh*t I have some files in there! I better back it up…). If you haven’t read it yet, I hope that you do read it if you have time!

Imagine that, Timothy Brown after 4 years of an innovative procedure… suddenly has no more trace of AIDS in his system… this is groundbreaking news! I hope that this year, I’d be able to blog more responsibly and spread news such as this more. I do like sharing information with people, information that I care about too. Maybe this is one reason why I’ve thought of being a journalist… but it isn’t one of my top career goals. I just really like sharing information with people… is there a name for such person?

If you were able to read about my very depressing post (the one about hamsters), I dreamt a very weird dream that night and I have been dreaming and have recalled EVERY DREAM THE PAST TWO WEEKS. Is this normal? Do you dream and then remember your dream every night? I was able to do some research online and every article says that EVERYBODY dreams except you probably don’t remember it since you woke up too far from R.E.M. stage or you didn’t have an R.E.M. stage. It’s so strange that ever since I internalized and thought about death and was frightened and shocked at the possibilities because of my sickness, I’ve been dreaming EVERY night constantly and sometimes I dream more than one dream. Sometimes I feel like the dream has been going on for a LONG TIME and once I even dreamt of the dream TWICE in a row but in a different manner. And just the other night, my dream felt SO REAL, I thought I was having a lucid dream. I somehow knew in my dream that I was dreaming…. and swimming in the ocean under the bright blue sky and I thought to myself, “Wow this is so realistic” inside my dream. Usually though I have weird dark and morbid dreams (i just had my Zombie Apocalypse dream, also me getting sliced by a meat cleaver at my back, don’t worry I wasn’t frightened of these dreams since they’re so common and I probably got used to it :/) so the wonderful dream about swimming in the ocean was such a respite from the past days.

Maybe it’s my subconscious telling me that graduation is nearing…

In one month I’m about to enter the real world…

and my subconscious is saying…

Not yet.

Questions

1. Did you hear about the medical breakthrough?

2. Have you every dreamt and recalled your dreams EVERYDAY for more than 2 weeks? Just hope that I’m not alone…

*title taken from Google’s post regarding SOPA*

****UPDATE! AS OF JANUARY 20, 2012, SOPA’s mastermind Lamar Smith POSTPONED and will review the bill once again along with the committee and various Internet entities. This is GOOD NEWS but I am sure isn’t the last act of this World War Web

It’s been so long since I made a REAL blog post and not just a filler video to keep my blog running. Priorities priorities I say! I even ran out of pre-made blog posts that I wrote before. This is how delayed I am -_-

Several serious issues have blotted the start of my 2012. In short, my too optimistic self who says that 2012 will be a better year is in for an extremely CHALLENGING YEAR. My successes will be greater but so will my failures. I’m willing to make that hundreds of TRIALS just to get that right formula or fix the light bulb and this, standing up to a great issue is one of the challenges that not only I but THE WHOLE 21ST CENTURY GENERATION will have to face.

Almost everyone on the online world must already know about the business regarding SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP) as last January 18, 2012, the world wide web witnessed the largest temporary shutdown of thousands of sites in protest to these US Bills that the US government wants to pass. Some known sites such as Wikipedia, Reddit, and even simple blogs like ours joined hand in hand in this silent war against this atrocious bill. By January 19, 2012, US President Obama joined us netizens by going AGAINST SOPA and PIPA.

But what happened to this stand from Obama when just a FEW HOURS LATER, The US government and FBI sued and arrested 4 out of the 7 shareholders including the owner of file sharing sites of Megaupload and Megavideo. They took their domain and this what you see when you visit their page

I haven’t really explained SOPA or PIPA yet to you guys and maybe you think I’m just riding the bandwagon here because it’s “in” to be against them. NO! I think that everyone should be against this because of the “ripples” it creates for EVERYBODY. Do you realize that when SOPA is passed (or not, wtf did FBI just do? and HOW COME OBAMA DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS yet he claims to protest SOPA), not only is Megavideo and Megaupload targeted, but EVERY IMAGINABLE SITE (which includes ALL FILE SHARING SITES, YOUTUBE, 9GAG, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, TUMBLR, WORDPRESS HECK EVEN MY BLOG, WIKIPEDIA, AND 99% OF ALL SITES) that can host copyright materials is a potential threat and will be shutdown. The Internet as we know it will cease to exist. Think of this analogy, SOPA treats it as a cancer so if they see that for example your hand has a cancer, they not only will chop your hand off, but KILL THE WHOLE SELF AS WELL. So even though Youtube has this agreement or policy that it is not responsible for the ANYTHING that is uploaded in their site, the bill will still target Youtube once a user uploads a whole movie or used a song in his music video. Because I can’t really explain the bill well and only give you scenarios, it’s best for me to leave the explanation to the experts.

Watch UK Law Graduate and Professional Gaming Commentator “Total Biscuit” explain SOPA

For those who prefer American accents, watch David Sohn’s explanation

And of course, the ever reliable Wikipedia (don’t use this as sources in high school or university dear students! but for blogs you can

The bill would authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites outside U.S. jurisdiction accused of infringing on copyrights, or of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. After delivering a court order, the U.S. Attorney General could require US-directed Internet service providers, ad networks, and payment processors to suspend conducting business with sites found to infringe on federal criminal intellectual-property laws. The Attorney General could also bar search engines from displaying links to the sites.
The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from conducting business with websites found to infringe on federal criminal intellectual-property laws, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites.
The bill also establishes a two-step process for intellectual property-rights holders to seek relief if they have been harmed by a site dedicated to infringement. The rights holder must first notify, in writing, related payment facilitators and ad networks of the identity of the website, who, in turn, must then forward that notification and suspend services to that identified website, unless that site provides a counter notification explaining how it is not in violation. The rights holder can then sue for limited injunctive relief against the site operator, if such a counter notification is provided, or if the payment or advertising services fail to suspend service in the absence of a counter notification.
The second section covers penalties for streaming video and for selling counterfeit drugs, military materials or consumer goods. The bill would expand penalties to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content and other intellectual property offenses. The bill would criminalize unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months.
The bill provides immunity from liability to the ad and payment networks that comply with this Act or that take voluntary action to cut ties to such sites. Any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement would be liable for damages.

And after everything, we can ask, “IS PIRACY THE ONLY THING THEY REALLY CARE HERE?”

NO.

They want MORE PROFIT. MORE BUCKS. MORE DOLLARS. So they eliminate competition from Indie film makers, programmers, artists and writers. They don’t want to share and instead EAT THE WHOLE PIE. So please I hope that you can include a STOP CENSORSHIP ribbon on top of your website to protest against SOPA and PIPA (well the bill has been postponed but doesn’t mean we can’t stop expressing our views and beliefs and be ready for the next battle as the American government doesn’t seem like to be waiting for the bill to pass to take action. Rapidshare could be targeted next).

Everyone must informed about this case. Everyone should be alarmed that this bill AFFECTS EVERYONE.

Questions:
1. Thoughts on this? Agree or Disagree?

Love Jesus.

Check out the poem that this guy wrote about religion and Christianity. You don’t have to be a Christian or even a theist to understand this. I want to hear everyone’s opinion!

Sorry guys if I can’t blog about personal stuffs now, currently sick (with hemorrhoids ONLY hopefully so I just change my diet) and dying with Academics, so please ponder on this!

*COMMENTS CLOSED. PLEASE COMMENT ON POST BELOW *

Hey guys! Just want to feature a rising Pinoy band that is composed of my fellow Atenean batchmates! Their music is actually quite different from the local Pinoy artists and it has a really good alternative so I’d suggest this to fellow 80s or 90s fans Check it out!

From their YouTube page:

Never the Strangers, after all, as the band members explained their name, comes from their love for music, how it is a common thread that brings people—even strangers—together. This unabashed idealism shows the age of its members, who are all still in college at Ateneo de Manila University.

Meet NEVER THE STRANGERS ACE Libre—lead vocals and keyboards, PJ LaViña—drums and percussion, FRANCIS Victa—bassist and JP del Mundo—guitars.

Never the Strangers is a band formerly known as Leonecast—the band Ace and JP carried over from high school to college. When they realized that they are already a different band from when they had started—half of the members are new, even the band’s sound has evolved—they decided to change the name to Never the Strangers.

When asked how they define their music, each member throws in: “New Wave synth rock,” also “keyboard-driven rock,” but they have songs that are guitar driven too—but they all agree that rock music is their main foundation, influenced by New Wave, alternative and synth.

Quick Site Updates! Added links, pages to my Europhotoblog, fixed Project 365 (now my instagram blog, having an iPhone can be handy dandy!), Project Filmography 2012, Project 50 Leaves 2012 (I FINALLY FINISHED 50 BOOKS LAST YEAR!! WOOT GONNA DO IT AGAIN!), added my old poem (will be making new ones soon!) and also added some Meme Questions that I got from Jess (do ask me questions! Would love to hear from you guys :D). So was able to spring clean my blog just in time for the first day of the year!

I got a story to tell though! Something happened right before the start of 2012. Remember my last post when I talked about the alien conspiracy theories and how people think that another reason why the Mayans predicted that December 21, 2012 is the end of the world is because the Mayans MET the aliens. Actually not only the Mayans but including ancient civilizations such as the Greeks (EVEN PLATO THOUGHT THERE WERE ALIENS, well the Earth is a made of grids and this is related to aliens coming here) and Egyptians (how were they able to build the pyramids with no pulleys and other forms of equipment in just a few years?) were visited by them too. Well the creepy thing is that at around 3am in our room, I saw two small dwarf-like creatures that had alien shapes with blinking eyes(????) were kinda moving at the 2 corners of the room beside the air-conditioner and on top of my cabinet. I WAS SERIOUSLY FREAKED OUT BUT I KINDA SUPPRESSED MY SCREAMS. I ran and opened the light but nothing was there O_O I decided not to look at the corners again and just sleep well. Oh gosh that was creepy and I think I hallucinated it because I haven’t been sleeping early the past nights and my brother has been bugging me with all this alien talk so maybe that’s it….

That has to be it right?

Oh and we kinda mistook a flying lantern on New Year’s eve as a U.F.O. Oh flying lanterns are the craze now! The Philippines by the way is always fun on New Year’s Eve since people LOVE to make a lot of noise and lights. Our family was treated to a free fireworks show as usual because our neighbors were kinda competing against each other on who had the best show. Well all of them were awesome! Here are some photos I took

Shower of Lights

Little Piper Boy and the Fountain of Youth

Scarlet Fever

Well back to the alien part… I’m not gonna deny that there might be other beings in the INFINITE universe. Maybe there’s an alternate reality or something and we might never know. But I am still a Catholic Christian at heart (though the Church is another matter, oh gosh) and just wanna share this amazing book by C.S. Lewis called Till We Have Faces. Religion is all about creating a way of life and this is how I choose to be and in Lewis’ book, which he claims to be his masterpiece, he tackles it in such a profound way by retelling the myth of Psyche and Cupid in the point of view of Psyche’s sister. It’s such a beautiful philosophical and theological book but requires a bit of deep reading (need to read it again! don’t worry it’s not too deep as reading Ricoeur or other German/French philosophers. Still enjoyable!). Like what a reviewer said, tt basically tackles the psychological honesty about the human sense of injustice by the gods. Who has not been tempted to say to God, “It’s not fair”?

The ending is one of the best endings I’ve read. I teared up just because of the honesty and revelation of it. It’s quite an experience reading it, nothing like I’ve felt before. LOL this is turning to be a love story by the way I’m talking about it. But seriously I loved it.

Just some favorite quotes

“I have seen something like it happen in battle. A man was coming at me, I at him, to kill. Then came a sudden great gust of wind that wrapped out cloaks over our swords and almost over our eyes, so that we could do nothing to one another but must fight the wind itself. And that ridiculous contention, so foreign to the business we were on, set us both laughing, face to face – friends for a moment – and then at once enemies again and forever.”

“I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?”

I have this in PDF (I thought that it would be boring so I didn’t bother buying it, now I NEED to get a paperback copy!) and am willing to email it to those who want it.

Now I’m going to end this post with something light. All Asian girls have to relate to this video in some way or another. THIS IS FREAKING HILARIOUS! Been playing this every night before I go to sleep just to make me smile again What made this funny for me was the guy in the video dressing up as a girl and everyone keeping a straight face about it And the way he played the girl was kind of funny too. I’m not saying all asians girl do this but it’s funny how some do (like me! I do the starting today no fast food bit and break that promise after a few days or something XD) and how it’s portrayed her. Hope nobody takes offense (I’m asian and a girl too btw)

and I GOT THE SLATE PLANNER! (My other post talked about my planner dilemma but I solved it!) Am liking it so far especially the art, quotes, and there’s even a space for a Bucket list! I have my own list in my blog but I think I’ll make a list of things to do in 2012 (sort of a new year’s resolution, but nah, no deadlines or constraints for me Check out their site to order or you can go to any Fullybooked branch near you.

Toodles peepz!

Questions
1. What’s the first thing you did after you woke up on January 1, 2012?
2. Do you think you’ll read this book? What’s the most thought-provoking book you’ve read? If you don’t really like to read, what’s the most thought-provoking thing that happened to you last?
3. LOL Do you do any of the things that Asian girls do? (Doesn’t have to be Asian really, most girls do those too!)

*PLS COMMENT ON REAL POST BELOW hahaha! Play this as background music if u want haha! Comments are closed here*

For the sake of old times…..

Once upon a time….

A long long time ago….

Just wanted to share the real Scottish (I LOVE SCOTTS!) version of the song. It’s so beautiful ;-( ;-( ;-(

HAPPY 2012 EVERYONE!

and Satisfaction Brought It Back.

So which do you believe? The first phrase or the whole sentence? I kinda believe both and context is always important!

So when Discovery Channel started its Curiosity series, I was intrigued. Heck and they keep on showing the commerial for its episode on female orgasm and what it’s for narrated by maggie gylenhall. But what really interested me was their segment for….WAIT FOR IT….

WHAT IF U COULD LIVE FOREVER?

Yeah what would you do? Would u avail these medical treatments if it were possible? Andrew Sage (guy from myth busters) tries to explore this world and yep, freakily (is there such a word?) the technology we have today seems to be telling us that it is possible in the near 50 or so years. THEORY OF SINGULARITY GUYS! (try googling what it is. XD) I really liked the segment except for a few farfetched parts (a flying brain… Seriously? but…) anyway i’ll stop yapping and you can check it out now. Thank you Youtube for full videos and movies!

FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY ▼

So it’s the New Year tomorrow. Besides asking a lot of questions, I do want 2012 to be a fresh start. So many thins will change and i am optimistic at saying that 2012 be an awesome year for me. I swear that today will be the last day of procrastination. I have to fix my life and find le reason! LE REASON! I even thought of a new tradition of writing down this year’s failures and achievements and burning it afterwards. Or maybe i should only burn the failures… Maybe oh dear i only have a few hours to decide xD.

So before I say goodbye and welcome the new year, a little plugging for my offline friends’ new spaces in the cyberworld!

1. Randz’ Randzomeness! I swear he has a knack for blogging and of course mixing and matching clothes! He even did a stint at Topman! So go scurry ahead please

2. Mariel’s Indeemand dot com! She’s a very curious girl who likes to snap pics at everything and anything! Also if she’s bored, she does these.

3. Nicole’s Fashion Blog! She’s an investigative journalist and writes well and is addicted to lashes, pink and SHOES! Man you should see this girl! Please head over to her blog!

4. JV’s Sociologist Chemist Chinese Blog! hahaha I hosted JV before but he’s on his own now with a new perspective in life especially shifting to BS Sociology. Go for what you want guys! But he’s still a Chemist at heart methinks!

5. Chair’s dreams and realities! One of my best friends and she has a lot of stuff to talk about especially gaming! She just recently returned to blogging (like me!) so please show her some lve. She also featured Inotia 3, A SUPER ADDICTIVE ANDROID AND IPHONE RPG GAME! I slept at 3 and 4am for this. And in 3 days am now a level 47 archmage. So yeah, TODAY IS MY LAST DAY OF PROCRASTINATION!

6. GEORGIE’S FREE WORDPRESS THEMES! Hahah I haven’t really met Georgina personally but I loved her themes so much and have been a follower of her blog for YEARS now, I think that it’s just right to promote it. PLEASE DO CHECK HER FREE THEMES OUT

7. Oh this is just shameless plugging but do visit my Europe photoblog and instagram blog! Currently updating them. Can’t believe I left it alone for months now. Again 2012 WILL BE A NEW YEAR.

LOTS OF LOVE!

Thank you so much for the new visitors of my blog! Hallo and hope you guys don’t get bored here Sorry if I annoy some people but heck, you’re still here hahaha

I WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY FANTASTIC AND YES NOT THE LAST HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 (UNLESS YOU BELIEVE ANOTHER THEORY LIKE ALIENS– CHECKTHISVIDEOSERIES :alien: :alien: ) TO YOU!!!
(stop 9gagging! XD)

Lol I forgot to put the…
Questions:
1. So would you want to live forever if you could?
2. Please visit one of my friend’s blogs and tell me what you think
3. 2012 will be… I will…

OF THE BEGINNING! *oh also the beginning of a new rebranded look of my site! Pls read my previous post on explanation THANKS!*

Sorry just wanted to twist the words a bit! But you know with the impending Mayan prediction that 2012 is gonna be our last year ever… I’ve been thinking a lot… like which planner to get. (Okay the least of all my worries but I’m a realist-optimist-ifthere’ssuchathing and in my gut feeling, the earth still has many years to come -andheckIdontwantittoendyetcoz…) Everybody has been raving about the 2012 Starbucks planner and as my brother and I’s annual Christmas tradition of collecting at least 3, we indeed were able to get 3! Maybe we might even get a 4th in January, all these thanks to the help of our friends! We gave away 2 and 1′s for my brother. Actually one was set aside for me but I didn’t find it appealing enough and I needed bigger space. I’m not really a planner person but I want to sort out my life on 2012, it’ll be a good change.

Another planner that I’ve been hearing about is the moonleaf planner. But I’m not that much of a fan of moonleaf to actually want a planner from moonleaf but I can’t deny the sleek and wonderful design.

More info on this blog

And I figured that a lot of people would be eyeing this planner and I’d spot everyone using that planner now (do you also get that feeling of wanting to be unique? I’m kinda like that especially with clothes. The minute I see someone who wears the same shirt as I do, I don’t wanna wear that shirt again and I might stop buying clothes from there. Just like what happened to me and Zara though I still like Zara!). Belle de jour is also out of the question since it’s too thick for me.

So where can I find this unique, inescapable, awesome planner? Well I think I have a few choices and maybe you can help me? Being Little Miss Fickle, I need help!

So there’s

1. Slate – liking the planner because of the color, simple front cover and the art inside! More info here and photos of pages

2. Because I love food and this planner is by Our Awesome Planet food blogger so there’s definitely a lot of food tips in here. And the design isn’t too bad too!

3. Cover says it all. And I doubt that this is sold in stores.

Hmmm so there, am in a pickle…

On other news… WE JUST GOT A NEW DOG! We wanted to preserve the lineage of our first favorite poodle, Hollywood the first (R.I.P. ), we asked for one of Pawpi’s pups. So we got little Hailey! Isn’t she adorable? The great thing about her is she isn’t too boisterous nor too timid. She’s just right (ala Goldilocks LOL)!

Isn’t she adorable? 8D

OH AND I CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT TO BLOG ABOUT THIS! OMG! After that long disappearance and that stint with cooking (please check out my gastronomic food post!), I’ve decided to try my hand at…

BAKING!

YES! I HAVE ALWAYS DREAMED OF BAKING AND I’VE DONE IT!! Crosses off bucket list

*EVIL CACKLE*

So I’ve done Butterbeers and such, BUT WHAT ABOUT…. BUTTERBEER CUPCAKES? My love for Harry Potter is still alive and will always be alive, so I decided to celebrate Halloween by baking my very first batch with the help of Chair! The first 6 didn’t come out that nice but the rest were like natural cupcakes! I lacked moisture and softness but they were edible and looked like cupcakes! I then tried Carrot Cupcakes on my own and I can say that my cream cheese icing was AWESOME! hahaha And they turned out better too. So here’s to MORE BAKING STUFFS!

Creamy Buttebeer cupcakes!

Adding ze ganache

I suck at icing decors. Well I think coz I have the wrong icing tip.

FINALLY CARROT CUPCAKES!

Next on the agenda is baking a REAL CAKE! I have to study a few youtube videos still though. Baking cakes are definitely WAAY harder now. I’ll start with chocolate cakes. Nothing too fancy yet. Hope that I’ll be able to do it!

WELLL TOODLES NOW

Questions:
1. Which planner did you like best? Do you have a planner or planning to have one?
2. DOGGIES?
3. Do you cook? Bake? What’s the last thing you cooked/bake/what’s your fave food? LOL

THEME IS A BIT WONKY ON FIREFOX. PLEASE BEAR WITH ME. Hope that you use Google Chrome or Safari first Thanks!

—> FIXED!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!!

Have I ever mentioned that I love this holiday? Haha and I took this opportune moment to herald the total revamp of my site! I’ve finally updated my rotting pages (heck my bio hasn’t been updated in 2 years!) and fixed some broken links (still open to link exchange!) and also do you notice anything? Anything different at all? Nah you probably don’t…

BUT IF YOU DO……. It’s all thanks to my dearest and most awesome artist friend Liza! Please head on over to her site and give her some loving while you oooh and aah at her other works. I didn’t think a Harry Potter Panda theme was possible but she made it all happen. So what do you think? I decided to shake things up a bit here because I thought that I needed an “identity” and I felt lost amidst all the other blogs there and I needed a look that would scream me.

Man I can’t believe that 2011 is ending…
SOME PERSONAL CRAP. Read on only if you want to ▼

and (the end of the world OMG haha naah) 2012 is just right around the corner. Honestly for me, 2011 hasn’t been one of my best years. I’ve always thought that Senior Year would have been awesome because of what my friends have gone through but I absolutely feel NO SENTIMENTALITY at all. :/ It’s kinda crazy but I just want 2011 to be over and done with. I may sound like a cruel person (or maybe I am…) but this is just another phase that I will get through. Maybe because 2010 has been so awesome that 2011 is left behind the shadows but I doubt that this is the case. I’ll stick to the reason that I’m just not a sentimental person.

I won’t deny that 2011 has given me a LOT OF FIRSTS. Check out my about me page coz I added a few things there! I’ve started to bake, climbed a mountain, got drunk, blacked out, first time to go to Palawan, first k… okay so a lot of things happened but I seriously can’t wait for 2012 just because I have this bubbling optimism for it. I’m finally, FINALLY going to be able to work and make a difference with my life. I think that’s the biggest step anyone can achieve. To finally be able to plant a flag and say “I DID THIS ON MY OWN AND I CAN SUPPORT MYSELF”. Well to that effect anyway. I want to help my family and myself so much and I think that this is one of the only ways to do it. And really, working entails meeting new people and creating a new life, wherever I may go to. I don’t want to divulge anything yet but I’ve been applying here and there. Let’s just see how it goes.

So my only Christmas wish this year is for everything to fall in place. Vague but it stands true for me. I don’t want any material things (okay who am I kidding, if anyone can give me Steve Jobs’ biography or the Harry Potter Page to Screen book or any of the books in my shelfari, or a book shelf, or a trip to HK, etc. I’D LOVE YOU FOREVER!) so no Christmas lists for this year. Being stable is the most important thing for me now.

In my last post, I blogged about making Butterbeers and here’s one of the recipes I’ve used (Please add whipped cream). There are actually a lot of versions online and I didn’t even get to try this flaming butterbeer (do tell me if you do!) because Schnapps are hell expensive! And so are the other ingredients.

I did get to try butterbeer latte and my friend and I loved this! Better than the Cream Soda one I think but seriously, only drink small amounts because of the buttery-ness! For those who are health conscious… I’m not sure if Butterbeer is the best bet for you

Oh! And for your Christmas movie list, please PLEASE include Les Choristes (The Chorus in French) in your list. It may seem dark and depressing at first but I assure you that you’ll have tears in your eyes. Or at least a few drops! haha! We watched this for our European film class and so far this is the most heartwarming one. Good thing for youtube, the full movie can be seen online! Watch the trailer then hit the spoiler for it

On 15 January 1949, the former music teacher Clément Mathieu arrives in “Fond de l’ Etang” (“Bottom of the Well”), a boarding school for orphans and problematic boys, to work as an inspector. The place is administrated with iron fist by the cruel director Rachin, and most of the boys have severe punishments for their faults. Clément decides to teach the boys to sing in a choir in their spare time, and identify the musical potential of the rebel Pierre Morhange, the son of a beautiful single mother for whom he feels a crush. He also has a special feeling for the young Pépinot, a boy that expects the visit of his father every Saturday near the gate, but indeed lost his parents in the war. With his methods, Clément changes the lives of the boys, of the other employees and his own.

Taken from IMDB.

The beautiful angelic voices shall serenade you this Christmas eve

Watch the WHOLE thing ▼

Another reason why I like this film ▼

OMG OMG OMG OMG I have somebody new to fangirl about! Although I’m sure not everyone will agree with me on this but please bear with me. Or you can click close on this spoiler. haha!

Wasn’t Pierre Mohrange’s voice DIVINE? Seriously his voice is so angelic and kinda makes you want him to sing you to sleep. I researched about the film more and also the choir that went on tour after this film was released last 2003 and lo and behold, I found out that Jean-Baptiste Maunier, the actor/singer with the awesome voice who played Pierre, is just the same age as moi! 8D Well it was his birthday 2 days ago! It’s so hard to fangirl about him though because there’s hardly anything on him save for a few movies. Even his main site doesn’t look that updated. Oh well, I shall enlist the help of my expert-stalker friend and help me! hahaha! Well here’s an eye candy pic for ya’ll! 8D <3 <3 <3

Oh by the way, this friendly doggy also wants to say Merry Christmas!

Watch some feel good movies such as It’s a Wonderful life or Les Choristes and enjoy it with your family! Or read a book or something. Or just do something joyous! Oh and another crazy thing to think about this Christmas (got this from a friend, not sure if he composed it himself XD)

Is there a Santa Claus? – a physicist view

Consider the following:

1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn’t (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total – 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that’s 91.8 million homes. One presumes there’s at least one good child in each.

3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc. This means that Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man- made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second – a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that ‘flying reindeer’ (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload – not even counting the weight of the sleigh – to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison – this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

5) 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance – this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force. In conclusion – If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he’s dead now. Say what?..

Hope you all have a merry holiday! *dance*dance*dance*

Questions are back!
1. Any Christmas 2011 plans?
2. What’s your Christmas wish?
3. If you could change anything in your Christmas tradition (or have one if you don’t), what would it be?

*NOTE THIS IS NOT TO DEGRADE any of the coupon site or the travel agency. This is just a recap and opinion and FEELINGS of MY EXPERIENCE which I think can help a lot of people who had/have undergone (or ARE undergoing) this experience with the said sites. I was able to book my flights, accommodations, tours and everything in the end and I will fly on October17-19. I will make a separate blog post for POST-vacation to see if everything really has gone smoothly. I am not telling you to bash or boycott these people, just BE WARY AND TAKE LOTS OF CAUTION*

In case you wanna skip the whole post, here are the RELIABLE CONTACT NUMBERS

*With updated Metrodeal new hotline number*
ENSEMBLE E-TRAVEL AGENCY
DARYL (for PALAWAN DEALS)
E-mail: ppsdeal2@gmail.com
Celphone: +63 9174886388
Landline: 5469083
OTHER Person people have been able to contact
Joey Regis +639174246558
+639174886386

BANTAYAN DEALS
E-mail: bantayandeal2@gmail.com

METRODEAL
Landline: 8858848
MetroDeal Inc.
27F (Regus) Tower 2 The Enterprise Centre
6766 Ayala Avenue cor. Paseo De Roxas
Makati City

I feel so STRESSED AND HURT the past weeks.

Okay sorry how very callous of me to start my post with these kinds of words. But I haven’t endured this kind of stress and axiety with any other TRAVEL AGENCIES in my whole years of…. almost adulthood. My parents have been the ones arranging flights for me but I am sure that they have never encountered such horrendous service in their entire life. And we thought travel agencies were service-oriented. We didn’t demand leopard skins or a red carpet treatment, we just wanted BASIC customer service. Listen to the customer, reply to the customer ASAP, respect the customer and be a cheery dude.

Okay so let’s go into detail about this.

Am sure that everyone must be acquainted with coupon sites already which I think is an ingenious thing. The stores, establishments and agencies put up this limited offer and people would react impulsively to this because they would all think, “if i don’t buy this now, I may never get the chance!”. These services are also PRE-PAID so they immediately earn money without even doing anything. Smart eh? I mean look at this travel deal we bought, it’s worth almost 10 thousand pesos and around 3 thousand bought the coupons. Do the math and they’ve instantly hit GOLD! Such was the case of our deal in Metrodeal and Ensemble E-travel.

Metrodeal is an established coupon site here in the Philippine as one of the first few coupon sites. My friend recommended it to me because of its great deals on food and services. When the offer for 2 people to go to Puerto Prinsesa for 3 days 2 nights including airfare, accommodations, tours and breakfasta for only 10 thousad pesos, my friends and I jumped at the chance and boight the great deal. It’s my dream to go to Palawan coz I believed that it was better than Boracay because there was less people. I researched the hotel, Kookaburra Lodge and it rained with GREAT reciews so I told my friends, all systems go! Let’s do this thing!

This happened last July 2011. Here’s a screenshot of the offer.

Note the terms and conditions, it said that they would immediately call you after the deal has ended. Note again that it did say subject to availability on SOME DATES but does not mention that you can actually go to only if you pay an additional fee so we all assumed that all flights WHEN AVAILABLE ONLY (meaning if it isn’t available on October20, then there aren’t flights at all) would have the same price. NOTHING SAID DEPENDS ON PROMO PRICE. It’s vague and discreet. Why didn’t we notice this? So guys always READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS VERY CAREFULLY. If you feel like there’s something wrong, don’t push through with it and find another deal.

Note also that I actually didn’t check on the travel agency. BIG MISTAKE. I assumed that all travel agencies would function well since booking a flight actually takes less time now especially local flights since you don’t even need passport details. Again DON’T ASSUME. ALWAYS MAKE SURE OF EVERY DETAIL. It was a mistake to assume that Metrodeal and Ensemble actually had GOOD COMMUNICATION. I was only alarmed after 2 weeks when my friend kept on wondering why hasn’t Ensemble contact us yet. So I did my part and emailed them our voucher details.

Tik tok tik tok… a day has passed… two… three… four… (hey did they really get my email?)… five… six… seven…

HOW DOES A TRAVEL AGENCY TAKE 7 DAYS TO RESPOND?

I got scared thinking maybe Metrodeal or Ensemble scammed us. I looked again at Metrodeal making sure it was a legit site (well of course it was, they had HUNDREDS of deals!) and then I searched for Ensemble’s site. Their site didn’t look professional and actually shady and they had TONS of numbers which I tried to call to NO AVAIL. No one was answering and one number was even WRONG. I then googled and did my own research about the company and I saw SCAMS, COMPLAINTS, ANGRY WORDS written all over the forums. I called up Kookaburra Lodge just to ask if Ensemble really did make reservations with them before and if they were legit, I finally got their cel number from them and the landline number from a blog I found. I tried that but again NOBODY WAS RESPONDING. I emailed Metrodeal and they replied back an email that only told Ensemble to please handle our matters immediately. Knowing that I couldn’t actually just depend on an email that might be left unanswered once again. I kept on calling and trying Ensemble directly. I NEEDED to speak to someone. I tried for 50 FRIGGING MINUTES CALLING THEIR DARN PHONES and gave up so I just sent them TWENTY texts inquiring our situation. By the good grace of the Lord, THEY FINALLY REPLIED (via text) and then I replied FOUR TIMES AGAIN just so that I can get a reply. What are they thinking? Are they not getting our texts? The good thing was I got a reply from the e-mail afterwards. After feeling harassed, stressed and frazzled. I knew that we had to call them immediately because flights were probably running out and we had to really book in advance.

His excuse was that they lacked manpower and the phone lines kept crashing because of the number of calls. They were going to add more people and more lines. Well THIS ISN’T MY PROBLEM. They should have expected this to happen when they put up that good deal/voucher on Metrodeal. They should have anticipated and added more lines to their communication. They should have REVIEWED OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT (and to think i’m not a business major but I do know that CONTINGENCY PLANS MUST BE MET) and fixed this problem BEFORE SERVING TO THE CUSTOMER. I know that no company is perfect, heck nobody is. But to not look like they prepared at all? YOU BE THE JUDGE.

Um…. where did all the other information go in their original voucher? This is the email one they sent us.

What contained in their e-mail frustrated me even more because the dates that I asked weeks before WAS NOT APPLICABLE but we could go if we add a thousand pesos to it. Promo wasn’t applicable on those days but we can still go. Now wait a minute, nothing was said about promo fares or anything. My friend whose brother was a lawyer was even encouraging us to file a lawsuit against them because of misinformation and lack of legitimacy (im not sure if Ensemble is listed in the Department of Tourism) because of their service (I read also from blogs that some actually have tried to file, I am not sure what happened to these). I emailed Ensemble about this concern and they mentioned that it was MISCOMMUNICATION WITH METRODEAL, Metrodeal didn’t put that fine print there in the promo. But AGAIN this shouldn’t have been our problem, this should have been theirs.

My benefit of the doubt and my desire to see Palawan at all costs made me lose heart in arguing over this so we just made a compromise and settled for October 17-19. I have to give it to the one that I was talking to though because he was able to settle our flight in one night (which made me wonder, WHY COULDN’T THEY HAVE DONE THIS FRIGGING SOONER?). He told us that he will e-mail us our itinerary, flight details, accommodation details (travel docket in short) by September. One month after. I felt more at ease now because I was able to talk to a real person this time and he seemed efficient anyway. This is DARYL (not sure if Darryl) from Ensemble and he sounded nice.

So there… one week passed… two… three… four… FIVE… SIX…

It was already October 2 and since our flight’s on October 17, I started panicking a little and decided to call them again. Same problem. My friend told me that she saw new deals that they were servicing (THEY EVEN TOOK MORE JOBS, CAN THEY HANDLE IT?) and saw that they added more cel phone numbers. So they did fulfill their promise of adding more lines. GOOD JOB. But were they answering? UH… NO. Even Daryl wasn’t replying to my calls or texts. I was also using two other cell phones and trying out ALL the available cell phone numbers they had. FINALLY I got in using their landline. I asked to speak to Daryl because he knew our problems unfortunately he wasn’t there. I can’t remember what the guy said but he transferred me to a guy named Kurt/Kirt. Now this is where I blew my fuse because when I inquired about my problem, KURT/KIRT seemed like he had absolutely NO IDEA what I was talking about. He just kept on telling me that he will email me this week (it was a Wednesday when I called I think) and if I don’t hear from them this week, I should call next week (next week meaning, uh just 7 days away from our flight, OH GREAT) again. He didn’t sound ACCOMMODATING OR FRIENDLY AT ALL. I can see him shrugging his shoulders in the phone, not even caring for the customer, didn’t even sound like he was making an effort to view our package or emailing us, it’s as if his shift was done and I was just a liability. I was HURT AND EXTREMELY FRUSTRATED AT THIS but I kept calm. I waited again but of course to no reply and I tried Daryl once more the next day and THANKFULLY HE PICKED UP. Now he was appalled and confused as to why our travel docket wasn’t made yet so he told me that he would finish it tonight (AGAIN, it is not my problem that the people in the agency didn’t seem to know about my deal with my the agency. How was I supposed that only one guy knew about my problem????). He was able to make it even though it was around 9pm already (bless his soul for staying up late), but when I saw the travel document that the agency sent,

“As we are the only e-Travel Company in the Philippines available 24 HOURS and who derives 100% of its business from the travel market industry, you are important to us. ”

I almost spat my drink out and almost wanted to cry uncontrollably. 24 hours, me being important to them. I can’t help but laugh at the irony of it all.

There were some curious things though, they changed our accommodations when a big part of why I wanted the deal in the first place was a good hotel and also they had lots of typos and mistakes in their travel docket. I emailed Daryl about this and he obliged and found a way to comply with my requests. He was really nice and everything. The only problem I had was with the optional Underground river tour which I wanted to cancel (we didn’t pay the fees yet so I thought we could cancel it ahead of time) but he texted that there would be cancellation fees. I was… WE HAVEN’T PAID YET, HOW COULD THERE BE CANCELLATION FEES? Well i again gave the benefit of the doubt and maybe he thought I was talking about canceling the whole trip which wasn’t what I meant. Good thing in the end it was all sorted out 5 days before our departure.

So my friends, would you have been stressed if you were in my place? Maybe. I know I certainly was stressed from all the confusion, the extremely HARD-TO-CONTACT agency but we were able to pull through. If Ensemble had more people like Daryl and can be contacted easily, I wouldn’t have no problem at all. If they had more Kurt/Kirts, then I’d really be fuming! I just want to tell the people who availed of vouchers by Ensemble that

THEY ARE NOT A SCAM AGENCY. THEY REPLY. JUST FRIGGING TRY AND TRY AGAIN. DON’T LOSE HOPE! CONTACT THEM UNTIL THEY REPLY!

It’s just so frustrating that Metrodeal also doesn’t answer on their landlines. And frustrating that Ensemble’s offices are in Cebu. I suggest going to the office directly would be the most efficient way but it’s in Cebu… aww man…

Here are the contact numbers that I was able to reach through. I’m not sure with the others. I also got this number from another blog site. If you have any problems with contacting them, I would contact Daryl and tell him about it.

*With updated Metrodeal new hotline number*
ENSEMBLE E-TRAVEL AGENCY
DARYL (for PALAWAN DEALS)
E-mail: ppsdeal2@gmail.com
Celphone: +63 9174886388
Landline: 5469083
OTHER Person people have been able to contact
Joey Regis +639174246558
+639174886386

BANTAYAN DEALS
E-mail: bantayandeal2@gmail.com

METRODEAL
Landline: 8858848
MetroDeal Inc.
27F (Regus) Tower 2 The Enterprise Centre
6766 Ayala Avenue cor. Paseo De Roxas
Makati City

If you have any other difficulties, please contact me or them. PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS. A GOOD DEAL DOESN’T MEAN IT’S AN EFFICIENT DEAL. AND ALSO GOOD LUCK!!!! Pls spread!