Lazer Tag

I could barely get out of bed this morning because I felt like dismantling. I played 2 games of lazer tag last night at LazerXtreme at Market Market. I missed the play set-up by Benj a few weeks ago, but I told myself I was going to try it out.



Yesterday morning I brought the kids to LazerXtreme to play lazer tag. We missed celebrating Miguel's birthday so I thought it would be fun to get the kids hungry by playing lazer tag and then have a hefty lunch at our all-time-favorite Max's Restaurant. They didn't have an idea what I put them up to, but after the first game they were all excited to share their experience inside the "field".

I didn't join the kids coz I was scheduled for an evening run since Kuya Andrew's here from Davao. Most of those who said will join eh nang-indyan (should I name them here??? hehe)! Anyway we decided to still play even though it was just Sweetie, Drew, Juned and me.

Despite reading several blog posts about the game I still didn't really know what to expect. I felt like I stepped in a ship on Star Wars when we entered the cool sliding door. Since three of us were noobs we went through a short briefing session where the guide explained how the game was played. After that we entered another room where the lighted vests were located. We got our vests, wore it and had a photo taken.

There were so many other players in the first game and I unfortunately became the bait! Argghhh!!! I found out too late that I was holding the phasor the wrong way and that prevented me from tagging. Gah! But my game improved a lot in the second game. We played free-for-all, meaning we had no teammates and you could just tag anyone. It was a crazy game and I had a hard time hiding since my light was pink! I ended up second (out of 4) and secret ko na lang how I got that score hehehe.


I definitely had a grand time and despite all the muscle pains I'm experiencing now I'll definitely go and play again!

LazerXtreme
4th floor, Activity Center wing of Market! Market!
Fort Bonifacio, Manila, Philippines.
Telephone: +63(919) 4652654 or +63(2) 8566467
E-mail: info@lazerXtreme.com.ph

Caught by the High School Principal!

I haven't been to my high school alma mater for more than a decade now (whoops! buking ang age ko!) and I guess I just never had a reason to visit. The last time I visited was when I got my yearbook.

I was quite excited to visit when I got an invitation. I was so atat I arrived 30 minutes before my appointment and asked permission to go and explore the campus first before settling down for the meeting. I wanted to bonk my head for wearing heeled shoes since I couldn't move around the place as fast as I could. I just had a chance to go check out the high school department and wasn't able to peek at the new buildings at the grade school area.

While walking around I couldn't help but remember the mundane things I used to do back when I was a kid.

The field where we would hang out after eating, marched during CAT, held field dances and where I usually got dizzy whenever we had Misa ng Bayan.


The hall where we held carpentry and electricity class. My alma mater's an all-girls school so you can just imagine how many times we blew up the fuse box because of our lamp projects. I was also in this area when the 90s big earthquake happened.


The stairs where I slipped several times. It's also near the prayer room which I visited every morning before class. And that door at the bottom of the stairs was my homeroom when I was a junior in high school.


Both grade school and high school memories came flooding back when I passed by the hall where my grade 4 classroom was. I couldn't help but look for the lunch counter where I ate with my high school friends everyday (and I still hang-out with them actually). Each step I took on the stairs (where I slipped several times) brought back a lot of happy memories and memories of feeling anxious due to Physics, Geometry and my-all-time-not-favorite Filipino-Balarila class. I even felt like I was wearing my uniform once again (I'm sure it wouldn't fit me now because I'm so huge already).

The classrooms were closed. Back in high school we only had aircons in AVRs, so I felt like the place was deserted. When I started walking towards the high school principal's office I automatically straightened my back, patted my hair down and walked the way we were taught ("carry your shoes girls! don't drag it!"). I saw a nun walking towards me and I felt a bit sheepish. I was loitering around and I thought I was going to get a scolding, but then she smiled, said hello and asked if I was looking for an office. I realized too that high school was already half my life ago and that I am my own person now. So I smiled back and introduced myself as an alumna wandering around. I was glad to meet the Sister Mikey, the current high school principal.
I'm sure my teachers from grade school and high school would be surprised on how I turned out. I was a shy, gawky kid with braces (ala Betty Lafea? LOL!), who'd go tongue-tied during speech classes and I never really raised my hand to recite (and here I am forcing my kid to do it ha-ha-ha). Well I'm still the same, just a bit crazier! I realize though that if it wasn't for my third grade teacher who scolded me a lot about my English compositions I don't think I would've pushed hard to learn how to write better. Or if not for my super bait and matyagang speech class teacher I wouldn't have that teenie-bit of self-confidence to believe that I could actually do speaking engagements "when I grow up".

LOL. So much drama, but ya-know I'm sure it's what you'll feel too if you have not gone to your high school alma mater for more than a decade.

Have you visited your high school recently?

The Zen of Malling

A few years ago when I went to see my doctor he asked me what kind of exercise I do. I said in a sheepish, little voice, "Malling." He didn't quite get what I said since he's Singaporean and well I didn't speak up so he asked again and then I said in a louder voice, "Malling."

And then he said, "Very good." I was quite pleased with myself coz he agreed that the exercise I was doing was good for me. Who would've thought? was my balloon thought. We were half-way through my check-up when he asked again what exercise I did and then he paused when I said, "Malling" and he said, "Malling? Malling? What's that?" It was my Kuya who explained that I normally just walked around the mall to go window shopping on weekends as my exercise.

My doctor burst out laughing and then promptly scolded me. LOL.

Is there such a thing as being "zen" in a mall? My good friend Juned keeps reminding me to relax and just "be zen" since he knows I've been quite stressed lately. So yesterday I brought the kids (Miguel and 2 nephews) to the Mall of Asia. Miguel was scheduled for a lesson at the Lego Mindstorms Robotics Center while his cousins didn't want to go with their Mom and sisters to Glorietta. So I was in-charge of three boys yesterday.

When we arrived I was curious why there were a number of policemen, security guards, a medical team and a lot of people lined up outside of the Adidas store. After seeing a couple of posters we found out that Gilbert Arenas, a NBA player, was going to visit the Adidas store. I shuffled the boys away from the store since there were a LOT of people and I was quite scared that I might lose one of them to the crowd. Anyway, after lunch we got to about a foot away from him and I caught him on video! Here it is -



The boys thought that the experience was "Really cool Tita!" I was quite pleased with myself after that compliment. After that I left them at the SM Science Discovery Center. I had about 3 hours to myself and I actually didn't know what to do. So I went malling. I walked and zipped in and out of different stores. I've been so used to having someone with me whenever I go to the mall and the experience of just going wherever I wanted to go without anyone in tow was quite refreshing.

At some point, of course, my feet got tired. So I debated with myself whether I was going to go to the spa or get a magazine and hang-out at Kopi Roti. I did neither since Time Zone was just in front of me and the Simpsons pinball machine was beckoning me to play a couple of games. I indulged myself and was quite pleased about my game. My feet were still killing me after the game. I decided already on heading towards Booksale, but then the tram stopped right in front of me. So I jumped in and for the next 15 minutes I just enjoyed observing people walking around the mall. I think the other people in the tram found me quite weird since I was busy taking photos and I guess I looked pretty happy with what I was doing.

That 15-minute tram ride actually relaxed me a lot. After I got off the tram, I got a magazine at Booksale and parked myself at Kopi Roti. I bidded my time at the coffee shop before I went back to pick-up the boys. I had nothing to worry about anyway since they had a grand time at the center.

I should window-shop more often then. (And stay offline on weekends). LOL.

Monster Mom

I was looking forward to watching a funny movie yesterday afternoon. So I had the brainiest idea of suggesting to Sweetie that we watch "Monster Mom". The trailer showed on TV indicated that it was going to be a typical fun and entertaining movie.

I was wrong. And good thing Sweetie still loves me!

I did not count on experiencing almost 2 hours worth of shouting, screaming, and cursing. I waited for a resolution. A point where the lead was supposed to realize that her behavior was causing her family and community distress. That never came and it seems that the message of the movie was, "I'm a monster-b**ch, take it or leave it". Do we really want to encourage people to become bungangera?

I thank God that my Mom is no Monster Mom! When we went out of the movie house our ears were ringing and it took awhile before the pain subsided. And what I'm saying is not exaggerated! If you want wax to clear out of your ears on its own, watch the movie.

And the last few paragraphs above are probably the meanest words I've churned out in this blog. I'm sorry, but the only pambawi I could say is, "The movie was directed well (I love JJR movies!) and the artists played their part appropriately". I hope the producer (if ever he gets to read this post) takes my comment constructively.

Which also brings me to the realization that sometimes we bloggers could get so spoiled and bratty. We churn out criticisms, comments and what-not like a machine gun. We think that the world exists for us. Condescending indeed.

Humility, after all, is a virtue.

Happy Sunday everyone, hope you hear mass.

Beauty at Taste Asia (the Pond's Party)

Ask me about beauty stuff and you'll surely get me stressed out. LOL. I've never been to the derma in my whole life and I think I fear going to one more than going to the dentist. I just wash my face before I sleep, drink lots of water and I honestly just put on moisturizer whenever I go out. And our friends from Pond's were promptly shocked when I said this.

I was quite happy that Pond's offered to host a party for bloggers. It definitely shows that big brands are already willing to experiment with doing more online stuff (so let's help them guys ha). Pond's is quite a niche market and geared more towards women and I was quite surprised that a lot of girl bloggers actually turned up at the party last night.

I was enthralled with how they managed to transform Taste Asia. From orange it became very pink! And despite the rains a lot of people still turned up and a number of newbie bloggers from far, far away also came.



There was a number of games! And the star of the night was Poyt! Here's the debut of her singing career -



Also get a chance to win an iPhone! Join the Pond's beauty blog contest. More details at the SM Hypermarket blog. (I wonder if I can join? I actually tried out the cream they gave out last night! Teehee).

We capped the event by having cozy fun at Starbucks.

Some more reads/photos `bout the party. Let me know if you have one too!

An Apple a Day
Rock ko toh! Photos
Ronald Guanzon
Something Sweet & More
Phaelun
Travel Tayo
Halo-halo Pinoy
Ken Pun
Rockerfem
Ken Pun Photos
An Apple a Day Photos
Abbie unReal
Xeemomma
Brinknotes
AJ's Flickr
Tiohem
Tom's Library
Fritzified
Fritz the Paparazzi
Poyt's Photos
Mistervader
Schnuppi
The Life of a Breadwinner
La Bubbly Chica
I'm Roanne
All the Vanity
Brown Pinay
JayDJ's Photos
A Doll's Mask Unmasked
Christa Uy's Photos

Introducing Pinoyvloggers.com

I've shared before that I had been wanting to learn how to edit videos and after doing some experiments and getting the push and support from friends I created YouGotTech.com. Eventually I started to experiment doing video blogs for my travel experiences and have since done a number of other studies.

I also organized a small workshop for vloggers (and wanna-be vloggers) with Buddy Gancenia and attended the CBTL workshop on video blogging. It was really helpful since they gave a lot of techniques and ideas on how to create videos. What's great though about video blogging is you're quite free to do stuff on your own since at the end of the day it's the number of views you get on your video that would dictate if your work is relevant, entertaining or boring.

For me though it's just about having fun and learning new things.

So one day I got curious and checked if the domain PinoyVloggers.com was available. It was! So I got it without knowing what I was going to do with it. It was my good friend, Andrew, who brought up the idea of creating a community site for Filipino video bloggers and we've been collaborating the past few weeks about it. If you're a video blogger (whether you have a blog with videos or just a video channel) then you might want to join us, but if you just love watching videos then maybe you can come over and see what Filipino video bloggers are up to.

PinoyVloggers.com!

Many exciting activities for Filipino video bloggers are happening! If you're a vlogger or maybe want to become one then maybe you can join these contests to jump start your vlogging career -

1. Buhay Coke

2. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

3. Google has one too! Check out this video -



I'd like to issue a challenge though to the following video bloggers and wanna-be video bloggers to join these contests!

Cokskiblue, Poyt, Juned, Marcelle, Micamyx, Noemi, Jeric, Ria, Winston, Jehz, Azrael, Fritz and

Youtube Pinoy superstars -

Komikero, Trebornoican, Jaywalkur, Mhelpogi and MoymoyPalaboy.

Ano na? Dali! Mag-vlog ka na! I'm sure it's the next big thing!

My Choice for the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2008

I've been having a difficult time choosing my Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2008, I'm just about half-way coz I just realized that some of my other choices did not meet the cut-off. So I'll probably update this post as soon as I find others I'd want to include in this writing project.

1. You Got Tech - this is a shameless inclusion! LOL. But I know that this project is something that would help non-techies become techie too.

2. Food Blog for Hungry Bachelors - I've been enthralled with the posts the guys have been making! Reading it was easier though and more friendly when they had it on Blogger.

3. Conrad Miguel - I met him when I was at the Davao F.A.T. last March and I must say that this kid is going to go a long way just like Winston.

4. Bloggers Da Who - it's a fun read, though I hope the blogger can post consistently :)

5. Manila Foodistas - great reviews and posts about dining in Manila.

6. Eye in the Sky - the posts make me feel like I'm traveling too.

Update:

After careful review I have finally managed to complete my list. Here it is:

7. Fritzified - a witty blogger and a mobile phone photography-fanatic, check out his Plurks too!

8. General Santos.com - is the "idiot's guide to GenSan". There's really much to discover about the 7,100+ islands in our country and I'd definitely love to go back to GenSan.

9. Davao Deli - I have been very vocal about how I love Davao and their food! Blogie provides great write-ups about Davao's yummy food nooks.

10. Blasted Brains of Billy Coy - I was gunning to include a blog written in Filipino but he did not make the cut-off date so I looked for another blog written in Filipino that's easy to read. Billy Coy's quite entertaining and very Pinoy!

Update!

Since Billy Coy's disqualified, I'm replacing him with Migs Mobile - everything and anything mobile! Migs is one blogger who's really passionate about this blog coz he really does a lot of research for his posts =)