Sugar Infused!

17 - Sugar Infused!



     WOOOOH! I don't know why but I feel so pumped up right now. I feel so jumpy, and happy and perky. I just want to run around and jump and shout, but I can't. I'm at school inside the cafeteria. Looks like i'm going to have hold it in or write it out. Excuse me if I won't make any sense, I think I'm experiencing sugar rush.

     If you don't know what sugar rush or sugar high is, let me briefly explain it. A sugar rush or sugar high is the popular and scientifically controversial belief that consumption of sugar-containing food or beverages can lead to temporary hyperactivity. I think that's what I am experiencing right now. I'm not really sure though but, I just feel so hyper. I can't think of any other explanation though, since, I already had three cans of orange soda and three packs of m&m's. I don't know why, but I just felt like taking in that much soda and chocolate today. I don't normally do that. So maybe, that's what's causing my hyperactivity right now.

     Now, who could ever resist chocolates, especially m&m's? They melt in your mouth and not in your hands. I have always liked eating m&m's ever since I was a little kid. Well, not only m&m's but chocolate in general. I've always been a chocolate lover. I don't like it when it's too sweet though, that's why my favorite kind of chocolate is dark chocolate but unfortunately they didn't have any dark chocolate here in the cafeteria so I just bought these peanut m&m's. It was the only kind of m&m's they had too. So yeah. I had three packs though. It was so good. GAH! CHOCOLATE!

    And to wash all those peanut m&m's down, I had a refreshing carbonated orange drink, Royal Tru-Orange. It tasted good. I mean, it had just the right amount sweetness ,fizz and orange-y goodness. I don't really like sodas that are too fizzy, that it actually kind of hurts your throat. I mean, it's fun the first couple of time but after a while you just get tired of that. This had just the right amount of fizz. So, I kinda I ended up drinking three cans of it. That's approximately, a liter, I guess. After I drank all that orange soda, I felt an orange-y fizz, with B vitamins that help release energy, rush inside of me. Then, BOOM! There you go, sugar rush.

     I apologize if at some part of this essay, I wasn't making any sense. I just typed everything that popped into my mind. So yeah, that's basically what I am feeling right now. I feel like shouting and running and jumping. I feel so alive and hyper, but if there's one thing I know about sugar rush, it's that, it eventually wears off sooner than you think. After that, you just feel so tired and out of energy. You'd feel like a vegetable. I think it's already starting to wear off. I hope I don't get too tired though, I still have lots of things to do. 

Painting Frustration

16 - Painting Frustration

"Write about something that's frustrating you."

     Have you ever experienced doing something but you just can't get it right? You just try and try, but still, your effort is of no use. It is just really frustrating. You know, that feeling you get, when, you're really pumped up to do it and excited, and you're really think that you can do it, but once you're doing it, you realize that it's actually harder that you thought.

     Well, lately, I have been trying to paint. I'm currently trying to paint a self portrait, but the thing is, I just can't get it right. It  is actually harder than I expected. At first, I was already frustrated because I can't think of what kind of painting style I should go for. I really wanted to do realistic but given the time that we have left to do it, I was thinking that maybe it is not such a good idea. I thought of doing something that more like pop art or something, since it would be faster, but, I still ended up going for realistic. I just really wanted to challenge myself, and because of that, I'm even more frustrated because I can't get it right. I thought it would be easier, but it isn't. I mean, I painted it digitally first, and it turned out pretty cool, I guess. It is harder to paint it traditionally. Very hard, indeed. I guess I kind of did ask for this. Well, there's no point in going back now, I've already started on it. The only thing left to do is, as The Robinsons would say it, "Keep moving forward." Still thought, It was easier when I was painting it digitally. See, I wasn't even trying to hard when I did it digitally, I was just playing around, I guess. Then, eventually it turned out pretty good. Here take a look. 

I made digital self portrait of me,
 how vain does that sound? LOL

     It only took me about an hour to paint that in photoshop, but it's already been two days and I'm still not close to painting that as a traditional oil painting. I'm not even sure if it looks like me (by it, I mean in the traditional painting). I hope I can make this thing work. Wait, I just realized something. When, I was painting it in photoshop, I did not restrict myself or force myself to follow anything. I basically just let myself go crazy with it. Maybe that's why or how I made it work the first time. I guess, I was just over thinking this. I think that, maybe if I just go with the flow and now think about it too much, like I did the first time, maybe, just maybe, I could make this work.

     Wow! I never really thought that I would figure this out while writing. So, the secret is to just let yourself go with it, I guess. Now, I'm excited to paint again. Oh well, I hope I can do this. I got my fingers crossed. Well, not really, because I can't paint if my fingers are crossed. Or can I?

A New Beginning.

14 - A New Beginning

"Write about moving to another city."



     In the 16 years of my existence, I have always lived in one place, good old San Carlos City. A very peaceful and quiet place in the province of Negros Occidental. Though I have lived in other places but only for vacations and recreational purposes, not actually live there. In terms of actually moving to another city and living there, I have never lived anywhere else but San Carlos City, until I started college.

a picture I took from the roof top of the condominium.

     Last May of 2012, I moved to Manila, because I was going to go to school here. I was with my uncle, my brother and my cousin on the way to Manila. Getting here, was actually quite a journey, because instead of just taking a plane like most people would, since it's much faster, we took boats and land trips, because my uncle brought his car. When we got here, it was just me, my brother and my uncle living together in a condominium in Taguig, since my cousin had his own place somewhere in Parañaque. A week later, my uncle had to leave because he got this job in another country. So, it was just me and my brother left, the two amigos.

     I kind of found it cool that I get to spend time with my brother because I rarely got to spend time with him in the past four years because he was in college here and I was back there. So yeah, I guess my move here got me closer to my brother, which is pretty cool. During the summer though, we didn't really do much. Most of the time we would just stay at home, play World of Warcraft or watch movies. On a productive day, we would go out to the pool and swim. Sometimes, if there are any cool, new movies showing in the cinemas, we would go out and watch them. Then, on the third week of May, we went to Asia Pacific College to get me enrolled. I didn't really take any entrance exams at other schools or considered going to other schools for that matter. Mainly because I was too lazy and APC was where my brother graduated from and I heard it was good, so, I just went with it. I'm happy to say though, that I have no regrets going to APC. Anyway, after I was enrolled, there was only one thing left to do, wait for school to start. My brother already had a job at that time, which meant he wasn't going to be there to take me to places and teach me stuff all the time. So I had to be independent, which I never really had trouble with. 

     After my brother started working, I had to do stuff on my own. This is where I realized and learned how the big city actually is. How fast pacing, hectic, and stressful it can be. It was a completely new environment for me. You could barely find any place that you can just chill and just get away from the fast pacing, hectic, stressful city environment. Well, technically, there are some, but after a short moment, you have to face the city environment again. So yeah, the thing I learned here, or I had to learn, is proper time management and stuff like that, especially when school started.

     In the beginning of the school year, I had trouble with time, since I had to wake up early because of travel time to school. If I had a 9:30 am class, I had to leave the house at around 8 o' clock because you'll never know what might delay you on your way there. Sometimes, I would still be late. Okay, not sometimes, most of the time, but I got pass that now. That was just the least of my concerns; new school, new set of subjects, new teachers and new people to meet. Usually, if it's just the start of school, I tend to be very quiet and isolated. I don't really know why, but I think maybe it's because it takes some time for me to get comfortable with the new people I meet, I think everybody does. Eventually though, I did manage to make some friends, a lot actually. I was glad that they also helped in making it easier for me to adjust and stuff. I mean, everyone was trying to adjust in their own way.

     So, moving to another city might be a big change and all, but if you actually think about it, it's actually pretty awesome. You get to experience new things, meet new people and stuff like. It's like you're expanding your network or something like. If you're worried about fitting in or adapting to the whole new environment though, don't. I mean, we're human beings, it's biologically built in us. We adapt to survive. Just relax and think of it as a new beginning. 

Dance Can Change Things

13 - Dance Can Change Things

 "Write about a time when you performed in front of an audience."

     Have you ever performed in a school event or activity where all the students at your school are watching? Not only that, but you're also performing in front of the entire school for the first time? Have you ever experienced that weird feeling you have in your stomach before you perform, worrying if they would like your performance or not? Or even just danced because you really wanted to and then people just started to watch you?

     Now, a lot of people actually don't know this about me but, I love to dance, like I really like to dance, even though I'm not really that good at it. Though, back then, I was always a closet dancer, meaning I only danced when nobody was there. I really don't know why but, I guess I just feel a lot more comfortable dancing when no one was around.

     Back then in high school, when I was still a junior, I was actually new at the school I graduated from. I was a transferee. So, I didn't really know anybody that much, but some of my friends and classmates from grade school were there. Though for some weird reason, some of the students there actually knew about me already. I don't know why or how.

     For the first month and a half everyone knew me as the kid who's good at drawing and is always silent. I tend to be like that during the first couple of weeks in school. Mainly because I'm still trying to get comfortable with the new environment and stuff like that. Until the culmination for nutrition month at school. You know how that usually works, we go to school, we cook stuff, we eat it for lunch and then just chill for the rest of the day. So, what happened was, one of my classmates brought speakers to class and just played songs while everyone was enjoying an entire day with no classes. Then at some point, most of my classmates went down because we were free to roam around the campus. So, there were only a few of us left in the class room. Since there was music playing, one of my classmates, who was also in to dancing, started to. I, on the other hand, have been wanting to dance ever since they started playing songs. At that point, which was already in the afternoon by the way, I couldn't hold it in anymore. I just started dancing at the back of the classroom. At first, nobody really noticed me, but as I kept dancing, I started to dance, like really dance. That was when one of my classmates suddenly said, "WOAH! AWESOME!", with a loud voice. Everyone in the class room heard her so, everyone started to watch. Then, I kind of wanted to stop but I was already in the zone. How could I possibly stop dancing? I just kept on dancing, while more and more students watched me because one of my classmates called his friends in the other sections. By then, a crowd was already forming. For that reason, more people started to watch, I guess, because they were curious of what was going on. It got to the point where most of the students from two other sections of our batch and some sophomores were watching me dance. Eventually, I got tired, as would every normal human being would feel after almost 40 minutes of dancing.

     After that, everyone started saying stuff like, "Woah! I didn't know you could dance?", "DUDE! You're awesome!", and then, I guess the weirdest one would be, "Emman, dance with me!" I know. It's quite weird and funny at the same time. One of the biggest reasons why I started dancing in front of people happened that day though and how I was able to meet my high school buddies. Two of my classmates, whom, I guess, I was kind of already close to at that time, were in a dance crew, PORK LEG. Basically, it was just their group of friends, who eventually became my group of friends, that just wanted to dance for fun. Nothing really serious, they just wanted to dance for the heck of it. So, they invited me to join them and I accepted the invitation.

*This is a video of my first performance with the dudes. Check it out if you want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEdBdEHokoc

     After my first legit performance in a school activity, which was "Buwan ng Wika", the entire school knew that I could dance. I got the same reactions from students from different year levels, like the ones I got before. I guess, that's basically how I got out of my shell. And I have been dancing ever since.

     If I think about it, that experience actually helped me a lot. I mean, if it wasn't for that, they wouldn't have invited me to join their crew and maybe they wouldn't become my high school buddies or something. I guess, being part of that crew, though all of us weren't  really dancers, made me realize the fun I could have when dancing with other people. It gave me a confidence boost. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have danced in an international conference in front of more than six thousand people, but that's a different story.

Siblings

12 - Siblings

"Write about being friends with your brother or sister."



     Do you know those people who will always be there to help you and to be your friend no matter how crazy or annoying you may get? Well, I do, I call them "siblings".

     There are actually five of us. I'm the fourth. I have three older brothers, Keith, Kenneth and Karl, and a younger sister, Khristin. If you have noticed, I'm the only one whose name starts with the letter E. Well, that's because I'm awesome. Anyway, I'm not going to talk about our names and such. I'm here to talk about how awesome and wonderful it is to have brothers and sisters.

     I'm actually pretty glad that I have my three older brothers and my younger sister. I mean, we may not always see eye-to-eye, but hey, that's part of the whole brother-sister experience. They're the ones who have been there ever since I was a little kid. They were my first friends. It's really really fun being around them. All those times we pulled pranks on one another, all the inside jokes only we could understand. I can truly say that there are no dull moments with them. The house is never silent when all of us are there. Although, we do have our misunderstandings, I still wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. Maybe I did not realize how important they are to me back when I was still a kid, but now that all of us have grown up and we don't really see each other that much any more, it makes me realize how much I actually miss them. I never thought I would say that or type that. We are rarely complete. The only times we are complete now is during the holidays, that's why every time all of us are together, I always cherish it. Even though, we've grown up though, we still do same things together back when we were still kids. Maybe not the games, but the "giving each other a hard time" bit never gets old. I mean, no matter how much they drive me crazy sometimes and it can be very very annoying at times, honestly, I can't imagine my life without them. They're a very big part of who I am today.

     So, if you have brothers and sister, cherish every moment you have with them because having brothers and sisters is awesome. One day, you might not get to spend much time with them like you used to.

Musically Inclined

9 - Musically Inclined

" I always wanted to ___."

     Do you play an instrument? Did you ever want to learn how to play one? Well, I did. Currently I can play three different kinds of instruments; the guitar, the drums, the bass guitar and I can also play a little bit of the piano and the violin, but i'm not really that good. . . yet. I have been playing instruments since I was 14 years old. 

     I wasn't always that interested in learning how to play an instrument though. When I was in third grade, my parents enrolled me in a summer guitar class. All of my older brothers and my dad, know how to play the guitar, that's why they put me in that class. Well at first, I was a little excited about it because a part of me wanted to play the guitar, but when I got there, it did not interest me at all. I easily got bored. At the end of the day, I always forget what the instructor taught us. I didn't even go to the recital. I didn't even join because I didn't like it. I tried to play though, I did, but I just wasn't that interested that time. After that summer, I still couldn't play the guitar. When I was a sophomore in high school though, I found a guitar in our attic. It was old and dusty. It only had four strings, it was missing the two bottom strings. I picked it up, cleaned it and started tinkering with it. Eventually, I learned how to play the guitar. And ever since then I always wanted to play more instruments. 

     Right now, I am trying to learn how to play the ukulele. I just started playing it today. I think the ukulele is the underdog of all instruments. A lot of people think that the ukulele is not cool or something like that. I feel like it is under-appreciated. If you think about it, the ukulele is actually pretty cool. It has it's own unique and distinct sound that makes it incomparable to any other instrument, I guess. The ukulele is becoming more and more popular though. These days the Ukulele is experiencing a revolution, both as a valid instrument that can sweetly transform pop music and rock and roll, and as the focus of dozens of clubs springing up across the world. I saw this video of this one guy, who actually inspired to play the Ukulele, just as Victor Wooten inspired me to play the bass guitar and Travis Barker with the drums and there's a lot for the guitar like John Mayer, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, to name a few. Here, check him out, his name is Jake Shimabukuro.

     Music is just awesome, isn't it? I think once you get in to it, you just keep on going. It's another form of self-expression that's why you can really feel the different type of emotions when you listen to different kinds of songs.

     I'm not that good in playing instruments. I mean, there is always room for improvement. There are a lot of great musicians out there, and I know it wasn't a breeze for them to get to where they are now. They had to work hard for it. Hopefully, with a lot, like seriously a lot of practice, I will master the Ukulele and the other instruments that I play and play like those other great musicians out there.

The Ice Cream Quest

8 - The Ice Cream Quest

" Write about an outdoor experience."

      I really like going outside to play. Just staying under the sun, feeling the breeze, the sound of the trees as the wind blows its leaves and just having fun. I haven't been going out much lately though. Ever since I got here in the big city, I haven't really gone out as much as I used to. I stay in the house all the time, always in front of my laptop. I rarely get any sun, unless I go to school though. That's why I take every opportunity to go out.

     Last February 13, I was with Kim, since class finished early, I took her home. I was supposed to take her to her house, but it was still kind of early, so she suggested to stop by the park over there. And so we did. When we got there, everything was calm. It was only the both of us there. There was a playground there. We put our bags down and sat on the swings to rest our feet and we just talked. After a while, we started fooling around and decided to make a video of all the random stuff we were doing. In the video, I did parkour and other stuff. We talked about random things that we saw there, and made it like a t.v. show. It was pretty hilarious. Then, the video was already about 20 minutes long, so we stopped. After that, the craziest thing happened. Kim accidentally deleted the video. I was like, "What the hell? Noooooo." 20 minutes of random stuff, gone. But I wasn't mad at her though, I was just tired from doing all those things, I still had fun though. After that, we just sat down on this tiny hill under the shade of the trees. It was still just the both of us there. We were just talking. It was very relaxing. You can feel the warmth of the sun, just the right amount of warmth, enough to moisten your skin a bit, and the breeze that blew through the branches and leaves of the trees was very cool. The place felt so serene. The sound of the birds on the trees and the wind blowing. It was just awesome. Not to mention, Kim was there. She completed it. She made it perfect. Just the two of us, under the shade of the trees, sitting, talking, feeling the breeze. I wouldn't want to spent that day any other way.

     Kim told me, that not much people see that park as something special or something. That they just pass by it like it was something neutral to the. I told her that they just don't notice. It depends on the person I guess. For me though, I like those kind of places. It's places like those that just makes you so happy that you're in this world. It was just beautiful. For some people it may just have been an ordinary park, but me and Kim made it 10 times better. It actually just depends on the person to make something so ordinary, like a park that's been there since ever, into something special.

     Anyway, back to my story. After a while, we were craving for ice cream. She said we could buy some at this one street. So we got up and walked there. On the way there, we decided to take another video of US walking to that ice cream place. This time, she didn't delete it. THANK GOD. The video was pretty hilarious and awesome. We posted part 1 of the  video on facebook. I doubt that you could see it, but if you want to try, click this link Benedict and Hannah: Ice Cream Quest. If you can't here are some screen shots instead. :D

me talking to a smiling tree

the swings

beautiful as always

I found a butt tree

there's only one way not to P. lol

      To sum that day all up into one word, AMAZING. It was just awesome, how the day turned out. I guess, things really are better unplanned. It was kind of like a mini vacation from the normal, hectic, fast-pacing city life. The both of us really needed that break.