Influence

"There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral – immoral from the scientific point of view."

"Why?"

"Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of some one else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly–that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one’s self. Of course, they are charitable. They feed the hungry and clothe the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked.”

“Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion–these are the two things that govern us. And yet–––“

“And yet,” continued Lord Henry, in his low, musical voice, and with that graceful wave of the hand that was always so characteristic of him, and that he had even in his Eton days, “I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream–I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of medievalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man among us is afraid of himself.”

“The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of pleasure, or the luxury of regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.”

“It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also. You, Mr. Gray, you yourself, with you rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame."

- Lord Henry Wotton

An excerpt from "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

Haha, wala lang. Nais ko lang ibahagi ang aking mga nababasa.

Glide

I was in loser mode. My first time to skate.

Last night, Leah, Sandy and I went to the Mall of Asia to do something fun. Just anything but skating was the priority primarily because we don't do it much or in mine and Sandy's case, it was our first time.

So before skating we ate at this restaurant called Mandarin Wok. The food was great, they're tasty, delicious and I specially love their Mandarin Orange Chicken. The sweetness of the orange just blends really well with the rich taste of the chicken. Yum. However, their service sucks big time. It was really slow, like 20 minutes slow for the first dish to arrive and almost finished everything before the next dish came up. The servers don't have any common sense, they're courteous and polite and all but they just don't think. They were serving the first dish without any plates for us to put our food. They were serving beef wanton noodles without bowls and utensils for us to sip. I mean come on. Do we really have to ask for whatever we need everytime they serve us something? It's like having been served with a pitcher full of water without any glasses. We went there to eat, not stare at our food.

Moving on, we then went to the rink. But it was cold and Sandy didn't have any warm clothes with her so we went to the nearest store, Terra Nova. They were on sale and Sandy found this really cool sweater. Very, as Sandy would put it, Sandy-ish. I too had that urge-to-splurge moment draining me two grand in one night.

We bought our tickets and rented our skates. I never tried ice skating before, even when I was a kid so the moment we stepped inside the rink we were seriously holding on the bars, the sides or any surface we could reach to stay upright.

I was able to regain my balance in no time. Thank goodness I was good in roller blades as a kid. Unfortunately for Sandy, she didn't. She was struggling and holding on for dear life. Leah was with here making me their photographer. Haha.

Skating was fun almost the same as roller blading but better because the surface was smooth and anyone could actually glide. I was almost perfect gliding my way through the solid ice but everytime I see these figure skaters doing their stunts, I get distracted, thereby losing my balance and falling off. My first fall was hilarious, I was so distracted by this figure skater that I didn't notice this little kid in front of me and at that moment, I still haven't figured out the right way to stop but I tried really bad and fell backwards. Crap.

I never fell as bad as my first time again. I was able to gain more control. And I'm happy because I was able to make the most of the one hour we have. After skating I was hurting. My back, my calves, my ankles, they're all in pain. But whatever. I'm gonna do this again. I want to do this again. Soon.

Sorry Na-Publish Lahat ng Drafts.

Sorry for the inconvenience. I'll try to bump all of your posts.

The House I Was Thinking While Reading

Angel, this is the house I was telling you about. This is what I was imagining while reading the book. It just looked so much like the description written. Haha. Wala lang.

And this second picture was the his room. Ang spacious lang kasi and the view looks exactly like the ones in the book. Just put lots of records everywhere and a couch and you're done.

I got this from coolhunter.net

read more | digg story

Beginning...

It's a start.

It is never too late to be what might have been.
- George Elliot

Twili... Red or Blue?

When I logged on Multiply this morning, my inbox was flooded with reviews from the "Twilight" movie. A movie adaptation of the successful first book from the "Twilight Series" by Stephenie Meyer.

My, my, my. The reviews are all over the place. I saw the movie last night to be one of the 'firsts'. Being one of the millions of readers of the series myself, I just had to see how the movie will tun out and see the characters in action.

I wanted to write a review myself but then after what I've witnessed from my inbox, I'd rather not. I'll just write something else. So here's some nonsense for you to see and think about. And don't forget to vote. or not.

The Girl's Bathroom

The most embarrassing thing happened to me today and the title is a dead giveaway. I've never had an embarrassing moment like this in a LONG while and I'm very thankful I don't stumble upon these kinds of things more often. Wheeewww!!!

So anyway, I watched a movie earlier today at The Block and we all know that SM Malls build their movie houses with lavatories inside. Today I was having my bad eye day that I have to wear glasses (glasses not shades) and obviously my eyesight wasn't so great.

After watching a movie, I'm pretty sure it's a common thing for people to visit the lavatory to take a leak and freshen up and that's just what I did. And I'm happy that not a lot of people was watching the movie I saw earlier because I didn't have to wait for a free cubicle/urinal slot. I left my seat from the movie house and went directly to the washroom looking at the sign before I enter to make sure that I'm going to the right place.

The room was empty and as usual (a bathroom habit of some sort), I took the second cubicle from the door. Urinals are a little too exposed and mounted a little too high for me, first cubicle seems a little too near and any cubicle further seems a little too far... and doomed, if I should say so myself, most of the time.

After taking care of business, I went to the sink to wash up and fix myself up, looking at myself intently on the mirror to check on any misplaced hair or unwanted objects whatsoever. I so badly needed a shave. With that thought, I was taken aback when suddenly, this woman in uniform, a cinema attendant obviously, came rushing inside the bathroom to find the nearest cubicle. I so badly wanted to ask her what she was doing inside the men's bathroom but I held myself back for it's kind of odd for someone like her, who works there everyday to not know where she's at. I turned around.

Only then did I notice that there were no urinals in that room. MAN THAT WAS SOOOO HUMILIATING!!! I rushed outside and looked at the sign again, more closely this time. And FUCK! There it was, the infamous skirt, symbolizing women all over the world. And to think I was so certain that it was a men's bathroom. The damn sign really looked like a boy stick figure from afar.

What the fuck have I gotten myself into? I mean, I almost had myself yelling at some stranger for the very wrong reason. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid me!!! Why didn't I look at the sign a little more closely. I almost ran my way out of that cinema to save me from further humilitaion. I'm just happy that I look like a girl (click here) (or I wish I looked like a girl) and hoping that she was thinking the same thing and that she didn't notice that I was actually a guy.

Had the movie been totally lame, this day would've been a disaster. At least it was funny. Sex Drive. See it.

A Nightmare to Remember

Will it still be called a nightmare when I'm having so much fun having it? Just think about it, having a bad dream should be awful, but what if, in a strange way, I'm actually enjoying that bad dream, then there would be nothing bad about it to begin with. Right? Hmmmm...

Here's the story:

Last night I watched "30 Days of Night" for the first time. It was great. I loved it. It's one of those vampire movies that I love so much. And one of the very few movies that sends me the creeps. Much like after watching the last full show of "I Am Legend" when I was kind of stuck at EDSA and the entire place was filled with nothingness. No lights, no vehicles, no people. Nothing. It was creepy.

Anyway, so "30 Days of Night" gave me the creeps. It wasn't scary or anything, just creepy and all. As if the shock of my life is just around the corner waiting for me in the darkness of our house. And I went to sleep with the movie, the gore and the creepiness of it all in mind.

The dream:

I was reliving everything that happened in the movie. Except, of course, there was no snow and I'm still in our neighborhood, slightly modified with abandoned warehouses, barren wastelands, creeks and marshes and lots of bloody corpses lying around. Haha. I have a morbidly creative imagination, I can't help it.

I was being chased by the vampires in the story and well.. I can't remember every detail or the sequence of all the scenes. I could only remember clips. There was a scene where I was running on the rooftops, then one where I was crawling inside the sewers with roaches and rats everywhere (gross, I know), and then I was held captive in one of the abandoned warehouses by the vamps where I was able to escape with the help of one vampire who betrayed his coven (or whatever they're called) and then I jumped on top of a building and landed on a huge puddle of marshy waters and then I was swimming along a creek/river with lilies, bushes and shrubs and trees everywhere and then the trees were alive and they hid me from my abductors.

It was an adventure of a lifetime. Scary as it was, I was enjoying every moment of it. The thrill, the suspense, the fright. Everything. I woke up in the middle of the night panting and gasping for air with cold sweat and wet sheets (because of the sweat, just so you know). I went back to sleep hoping that the dream will continue. And it did!

I was hiding in a cupboard which leads to a hole behind, which leads to a crawl space or some sort of vent where I can climb up towards a hidden attic (like in the movie). But the attic looked more like the "Panic Room" with monitors and controls connected to security cameras around the house. Impossible, but hey, I was dreaming. Give me a break. I was looking out the peep hole to see if they're still out.

Man it was fun and scary. I mean come on! It was a life and death situation. It had to be scary and yet, there I was having the time of my life. Hahaha. Weird right?

And then the sun came. I woke up to some festive music of a band marching outside. Apparently, fiesta samin. Hehe.

Uneventful Tuesday Night

Bumming around all day, for a couple of days, just makes me sick. I'm losing sense of time and start to space out more and more. And it doesn't help that there's a computer nearby. Being in front of the PC all day for quite some time now just makes me more unproductive than I already am. So I decided to go to watch a movie.

I went to Trinoma yesterday to check out the latest movies showing before they get pulled out and replaced today. But before I did, I had a little detour and went for some window shopping even though I already did a good amount of shopping last Sunday. Having found nothing, I headed to the cinemas to check the schedule. Hmmph. One hour pa.

So again, nothing to do. What a waste of time. And money. I've spent of couple of bucks for some stuff along the way. Urge to splurge. Can't help it.

The crowd was growing at the activity area, then I heard this familiar music from an American Idol performance. Then I remembered, there's going to be a show. Michael Johns will be performing live.

So much for watching a movie, this one's free. Since I already have the pass, a reward I received for shopping big last week, I might as well go. Man I wish I had passes when "Boys Like Girls" were here. I bet Sandy would've screamed louder. Anyway, about the show.

He really had that good rocker vocals and amazing presence during his performances. Too bad he got eliminated early on Idol. That was quite the shocker during the season. But well, shit happens.

He performed a total of twelve songs, four of which I'm not familiar with.

1. (Unknown)
2. Greenday - Boulevard of Broken Dreams
3. Pink Floyd - Brain Damage
4. Oasis - Wonderwall
5. (Unknown)
6. A Michael Johns Original
7. Coldplay - Yellow
8. Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me
9. (Unknown)
10. The Beatles - Come Together
11. Queen - We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions (performed during AI)
12. (Unknown)

It was a good show actually, granted that it's only a mall tour, it's still nice. And I really like Wonderwall and Yellow. He performed those songs really well. And his voice was just as great. Too bad really that he didn't advance furrther. I still wanted DA to win though DC was much much more favorable. I just suddenly remembered my addiction back then. I had to text updates when we were in Sumilao. Haha. Which reminds me, what happened to DC? DA's doing well on his first single and I didn't like DC's latest release.

The show ended a couple of minutes before 9. It was getting late, not that 9's my new definition of late but I was tired, I went home. I haven't had enough sleep for the past couple of days (as if I had enough sleep during college) for playing PC games the whole time.

I need to do something. I have to go out. I can't stay at home any longer. I need to do something not too expensive. I'm still counting days before twilight. My mind is going nuts for having nothing to do from now til then. Ugghh.

Sana pala umuwi na lang din ako ng probinsya. Wala pa ring magagawa dun, pero at least wala ring internet at walang pagkakagastusan.

Okay. Bum mode ulit.