~* VISITA IGLESIA '07 *~

In observation of the Holy Week, our family had our traditional Visita Iglesia last Wed. April 4 plying the Tagaytay-Batangas route. As usual, our first stop is our very own parish - Sto. Rosario. Then we visited two churches in Tagaytay. In Our Lady of Lourdes church, we were fortunate to be there the same time as the famous relic of Padre Pio -- a piece of his glove -- was displayed there for the faithful to pray on.

In Batangas, the parish of San Francisco Javier had such a beautiful interior -- the grand altar, the painted ceilings and stained glass windows were awesome. The facade of the church was also nice to photograph since it had this regal-looking belfry.



It was our first time to see Caleruega and, indeed, it lives up to its reputation of being one of the beautiful churches to hold one's wedding. Inside the vast grounds of Caleruega are function halls, cottages, a koi pond, a hanging bridge and a chapel. The Transfiguration Chapel is ensconced in the midst of the flowery garden of Caleruega. The chapel is very picturesque and one could take pictures of it at different angles, at the upper and lower grounds. The pine trees frame the chapel and flowering plants line the stairs leading to it. Plant-lovers will have a field day touring the grounds of Caleruega coz they have soooo many varieties of plants around the compound. The place also has an outdoor stations of the cross which we couldn't pinpoint at first coz it was a wooden engraving featuring an "Igorotized" version of Jesus, et al.

To sum it up, below are the churches we visited:

1. Sto. Rosario Parish (Pacita Complex, San Pedro)
2. Chapel in Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (Tagaytay)
3. Our Lady of Lourdes Parish (Tagaytay)
4. San Francisco Javier parish (Nasugbu, Batangas)
5. Parish of Saint John the Baptist (Lian, Batangas)
6. Transfiguration Chapel of Caleruega (Nasugbu, Batangas)

More photos on my Multiply...

http://lilacstardust.multiply.com/photos/album/12

~* TUESDAY BEACH DAY *~

Like in the past years, the family headed to Camayan Beach in Subic to kick off the long holy week vacation. There weren't much people in the beach so it was great to unwind. The water was cool at 8am so there were some annoying tiny jelly fish stings here and there. I've never been stung in our past visits to this beach so it was quite an annoyingly new experience>:( Most of the time we stayed near the shore where the water was warmer (hence, no jelly fish!). It was lovely sitting on the cushy sand, feeling the wet sand on my feet and the lapping saltwater on my skin :-)

What I always loved about this beach was that one could always get a glimpse of varied kinds of salt water fishes even in waist-deep water. Near the shore, one would find a school of super tiny gray fishes. Farther from the shore and near the rocky part, one would find black and white striped cichlids and these silver split-tailed fishes with a hint of blue on the head. My dad and I held pieces of bread with our fingertips underwater and in seconds, the fishes swam near us and took nibbles of the bread. One time I got startled and shrieked when the silver fish took a quick nibble of the bread AND my finger. Not painful at all but it was just really surprising to feel a one-second fish nibble! I was about to go back to the shore when the morsels of bread were almost finished by the cichlids but then this totally unique fish came swimming by to eat the bread remnants. It was totally breath-taking: a lone fish, colored blue-green on the head til the mid part, graduating into a bright green near its bright yellow split-tail. It was about the size of my hand. It was sooo beautiful! I wish I've taken a picture of it but I couldn't since a) I don't have an underwater camera and b) my digicam is tucked inside my bag on the table at the shore. The fish would have been gone by the time I got back with my digicam.

We ate our lunch by the shore and come 12noon, we heard this shrill whistle-like sound coming from the forest right beside the shoreline. At first we just saw about two monkeys descending from the trees and onto the beach cottages. In less than a minute, we saw probably about ten monkeys hanging around for their lunch break. Some went near the hotel (I saw one toting what looked like a plastic bottle of sunblock or shampoo!) while the others went near the cottages where we were, rummaging through the garbage can. One was sipping a discarded zesto-ish kind of juice foil pack (the one with a built-in straw) and another one was trying to open an empty 1.5 liter Mirinda.

And now, for the NatGeo moments...

[click for larger image] the mirinda-loving monkey

More pictures posted on my Multiply...

http://lilacstardust.multiply.com/photos/album/11

~* AMERICAN IDOL BETS *~

Here are my top three bets: Melinda Doolittle, Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks. Who are your favorites?

~* NO, MAN.THAT WAS NOT COOL.*~

No, Armando Ducat, that was NOT cool at all, man! Tsk, tsk.

His Messianic Complex landed us on CNN .

I say: the end does not justify the means. What do you think?

Oh, and was that a politician's publicity stunt?

~* RANDOM RULES *~

Ok, I got this blog post idea from sillypipedreams who also referred to this site wherein "The A.V. Club asks its favorite rockers, writers, comics, or whatevers to set their MP3 players to shuffle and comment on the first few tracks that come up—no cheating or skipping embarrassing tracks allowed."

It's a cool way to take a peek into someone's music collection. So shall I say, "tell me what's on your player and I'll tell you who you are?" ;-)

Here's mine...

THIS WAY (JEWEL)

Oh wow, I didn't even know it was there! It's not really a memorable nor a fave song from Jewel so umm, I'd rather listen to Hands, Foolish Games or You Were Meant For Me the next time I'm in a Jewel-y mood.

IN DA CLUB [REMIX] (50 CENT feat. 702)

I sooo love this trippy happy remix of In Da Club. The cheerful bouncy melody and feminine touch of 702 makes it better than the original version.

LOVE ME STILL (CHAKA KHAN)

I think this started my obsession with TV show soundtracks. This nice dramatic song is from the 90s tv drama Party of 5 (remember Matthew Fox a.k.a Jack from Lost? I think he was Charlie in Party of 5.) Luckily, I was a practicum trainee in Studio 23 back in college. Party of Five was being aired by Studio 23 back then and at the end of our practicum, our boss gave us a Party of Five soundtrack CD as a token. See, I was really lucky back then...

BLIND (LIFEHOUSE)

I totally dig Lifehouse's sappy love songs and this is one of them. I love it so much that I actually have three versions of it on my PC. One album version and two different live/acoustic versions. I am a sucker for hot band guys with gravelly singing voice. Jason Wade, will you marry me?

GONE [N'SYNC COVER] (JOHN MAYER)

Now this one's really funny! John Mayer takes a jab on the boyband craze. The mp3 starts off with John Mayer doing some funny adlib and then proceeding with a storytelling interspersed with Gone verses. Really cute of John to do that. I love his humor. I've seen this concert DVD of his and his commentaries were really goofy-funny :-)

LET ME HOLD YOU (BOW WOW feat. OMARION)

Nice collab between Bow Wow and Omario but uhh, since I'm not a big fan, I don't know who's singing what in the track. But I love the melody of this one. I am having visuals of Bow Wow/Omarion doing that let-me-hold-you part in the video...

IT DON'T MATTER TO THE SUN (ROSIE THOMAS)

Not a big playlist mainstay but it's a pretty decent song. It's from one of the Grey's Anatomy episodes. Umm, I can't remember which one though.

INSENSITIVE [ACOUSTIC] (JANN ARDEN)

Haven't you noticed that I keep acoustic versions of songs? I'm a sucker for acoustic versions and this is one of those songs which sound nicer in its acoustic version. Did this come from a Julia Roberts movie? I forget. Or maybe I'm just too sleepy to recall. Anyway, this is the classic "I'm pining away here, can't you see that I'm in love with you, you jerk?!?" kind of song.

EWAN [APO HIKING SOCIETY COVER] (IMAGO)

Hey don't get me wrong, I really think Aia is a wonderful vocalist and I like most of Imago's songs (esp. Taning and Akap. But I could never ever like Taralets...) but I am really annoyed with the way she sings "mahal kita, mahal kita hindi to bohhhl-lahh" part. The really arte way she says "bola" is driving me nuts! Which brings me to the thought that I should probably delete this annoying song on my PC...

BREATHE ME (SIA)

This has got to be one of the most amazing song discoveries I've had in my channel surfing history! I LOVE THIS SONG! I don't really watch Six Feet Under on HBO but I just happened to channel surf my way there one night and apparently, the finale of the series was airing. This girl was driving along the highway while vignettes in between were showing how each cast member dies over the years. This was the background music during that long final scene. I didn't know the title nor the artist of the song back then so I searched for "Six Feet Under final episode soundtrack" on Multiply. And voila! Thank you my dear Multiply!

I BET YOU LOOK GOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR (ARCTIC MONKEYS)

I've been hearing the buzz on Arctic Monkeys so I got curious about their music... and so I downloaded this coz it was the most prevalent track over at Sharezaa back then. Nothing spectacular but it sounds cool when I want some energetic music going on.

OBLIVION (30 SECONDS TO MARS)

I think this is from their first album? The self-titled one. Not a memorable 30STM song for me but rockin' enough anyway.

Ok I'm really sleepy na so I'll stop. Nitey-nite!

~* DRAMARAMA: THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE LIGHT *~

So I've been pretty much depressed lately and I'm making a wild guess that it's coz my birthday is coming up again. Ahh, another year. One step closer to the edge of the calendar days. And still freaking single. Fudge.

I remember the last time Abbie, Tin and I went out drinking (Charo, we missed you that night!)... we were supposed to watch Music & Lyrics but we were so bummed out with our personal dramas that we decided to just drink and talk the night away. After that, I resolved that I might as well start saving up and hope to be filthy rich when I'm older so that I can at least be artificially happy with an obscenely expensive vacation or whatever uneconomical material thing money can buy. I will always go back to that Dogbert mantra : "The key to happiness is self-delusion. Don't think of yourself as an organic pain collector racing toward oblivion." Can you smell the pessimism in the air?

Well anyway, I think the positive effect that my freaking-out-about-turning-29 has brought upon me was that I've learned to be *super* financially-conscious. I've read these two bestselling locally-authored books (one was by Francisco Colayco and the other by Efren Cruz) that teach one how to be financially prepared and be responsible in terms of handling moolah. Sorta like a Rich Dad, Poor Dad kind of thing (though I haven't read this book yet). Last year, I was done with paying off a pre-need plan (a term life insurance which has a lump sum amount at its maturity date which I can opt to just let them keep for my future pension plan). This month, I applied for a life insurance with endowment and dividend payouts which I can also just opt to accumulate til I'm retired from work. And then I re-evaluated my liquidity as well as net worth and have done some measures to save up some more moolah on the bank and also some investment on mutual fund stocks. Basically, I'm trying to make compounding interest work for me. I have also religiously listed down my expenses and have come up with a monthly budget. Not a strict budget though coz I just blew some money buying new office pants and this cute bandeau for summer. Arghh. Got. to. fight. the. shopping. spirit.

Now back to turning 29 and still not *categorically* moving on...

It just sucks how some people just pop up out of nowhere when you think you are almost there at the finish line where it says "Congratulations, you have *finally* moved on!". Whatever popped up last 02.16 is still in my freaking inbox. Why did I not delete it?! (I am scolding myself and I'm figuratively banging my head on the desk in disgrace.) And whatever THAT was disappeared into thin air the same way as it came -- quicker than the brown fox that jumped over the lazy dog.

I remember hearing Chico and Delamar talking about viewing someone in a negative light in order to let them go. (The topic was the Top 10 Break-up Lyrics...) Yeah. I think I did that already. I remember being *very* pissed to the point of feeling animosity towards a person. And boy, look at me now! Gee, that sure worked *rolls eyes*.

Anyway, I was multiply'ing and saw this post from a friend of a friend: "The sadness you will feel once someone is taken away from you is directly proportional to how happy you were when you were with that person."

So do I still have a long way to go? Dammit, where the heck is that friggin' finish line?!?

~* IPOD WHEEL OF FORTUNE *~

Abbie and Tin have done this already so now that I'm in a blogging mood, here goes...

HOW THE IPOD GAME GOES:
1. Put your iPod/music player in shuffle mode.
2. Answer the questions below through the song being played.
3. Click the forward button as you move along the questions.


how are you feeling today?
Doo-wop (That Thing) ~ Lauryn Hill

will you get far in life?
Love and Affection ~ Nelson Brothers

how do your friends see you?
Again ~ Lenny Kravitz

will you get married?
Just Take My Heart (acoustic) ~ Mr. Big

what is your best friend's theme song?
Tattooed on my Mind ~ D'Sound

what is the story of your life?
Volcano ('97 demo) ~ Damien Rice

what was high school like?
I Remember You ~ Skid Row

how can you get ahead in life?
Opposite Direction ~ Union of Knives

what is the best thing about your friends?
She Runs Away (acoustic) ~ Duncan Sheik

what is today going to be like?
Every Rose Has It's Thorn ~ Poison

what is in store for this weekend?
Last Request (piano acoustic) ~ Paolo Nutini

what song describes you?
Liar - 8mm ===> {to my dear iPod:} ugghh! you traitor! :p

to describe your grandparents?
Bend ~ Stonefree

how is your life going?
The Scientist (KCRW live session) ~ Coldplay

what song will they play at your funeral?
In Bloom ~ Nirvana ==> wow, totally done in rock chick fashion. this is feasible ;-)

how does the world see you?
Karma Police (Radiohead cover) ~ Tori Amos ===> I'd have to agree on this one!

will you have a happy life?
You Turn Me Around ~ Aqualung

what do your friends really think of you?
In Repair ~ John Mayer

do people secretly lust after you?
Take Away ~ Missy Elliot feat. Ginuwine & Tweet

how can I make myself happy?
Somedays ~ Regina Spektor

what should you do with your life?
When I Look into Your Eyes ~ Firehouse

will you ever have children?
Say it Right ~ Nelly Furtado