La Salle Dance Company - Jazz (LSDC-Jazz) joined their first competition in four years in the Maximum Groovity 4 dance competition. A total of sixteen schools participated. Some were good, a few should have stayed at home (no hating intended), and some were so-so.
One of my favorites, San Beda College.
LSDC-Jazz. <3
St. Luke's College of Nursing.
USTreet.
Our Lady Fatima College.
St. Anthony High School.
Another of my favorites, AMA University.
University of the East.
Dance League.
Ramon Magsaysay High School (eventual winners).
LSDC-Jazz, in their first competition in four years, won third place. :) I am so very proud of each and every one of you, especially my Gayle, on her first competition with LSDC-Jazz. :) You go, baby! A special congratulations to my Animo Squad teammates who also danced that night.
My angel. <3
The dancer with her friends and I.
Congratulations, Jazz!! :)Jay~
Game 2, September 25, 2008, UAAP Men's Basketball Finals (which pretty much equates to the UAAP, as it seems like no other sport matters BUT basketball in this country), and Animo Squad was invited to perform during the half-time instead of the DLSU Pep Squad (or Animo Squad Green).
Mostly La Salle fans.
Mostly Ateneo fans.
Definitely Ateneo fans.
Well we lost the game. Not a huge surprise for me, to be honest. Very unfortunate that here in the Philippines, the Men's Basketball title is a lot more important than winning the Overall UAAP Championship Title (which I believe is very silly).
I was disappointed at two things, one concerning Ateneans, and the other concerning some calls made by the referees.
While going to the basketball court to perform during half-time, we had to go past the Atenean crowd. A middle-aged, slightly overweight man stood up, gestured towards us and proclaimed loudly that 'these are people with no education'. I almost LOL'd. He does not seem to realize that his actions reflect more of his character, speaking as a supposedly mature adult to students like that. Well done, Mr. Atenean. Wear your blue proudly, for I will forever wear my green just as proud.
I won't elaborate anymore. Rico Maierhoffer of the DLSU Green Archers was sent out of the game for an innocuous technical foul (which was dubious to start with), and star player JV Casio (his last year as a Green Archer) fouled out of the game (with suspiciously lame contacts dubbed as 'fouls' by the referees). Officials, we will pray for all of you to sleep well for the next few nights. The nightmares will come years later. :) Have a good life.
Thank you, JV.
It's good seeing you held your head up high, like a true Lasallian. I hope to see you more in the 9th floor gym. Do come back and coach, like Cholo. :)Jay~
Here is an interesting article written by my good friend and fellow blogger. Unfortunately, her blog is set on 'Private', and you will probably be unable to view her site, so I have acquired her permission to reproduce her article on my blog.
Here is the article.
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So I read in the paper today that the ISA has made two arrests recently.
One:
A blogger that posted an article that insulted Muslims.
Two:
A news reporter who wrote about the Ahmad Ismail nonsense. (For those who don't know, Ahmad Ismail is a politician from the ruling party who made very racist remarks against the Chinese in Malaysia.)
Okay, I actually abhor politics, especially Malaysian politics. Why? Because they do stupid things like this, and many others, that make my blood boil.
Why the hell are you arresting someone for reporting on a politician that made outrageous racist remarks? Because the politician was part of the ruling party? Oh, but wait...you've suspended the idiot...so why arrest the reporter?
My government makes no sense most of the time.
I mean, they upped the price of petrol, and then gave the people compensation. Therefore creating more trouble for the people at the post office, because everyone was flooding the place trying to get some money back.
Whyy?
They give out scholarships based mostly on race, and not results, because the Malays and Bumis should get special treatment. Therefore creating resentment amongst the Chinese and Indians, who then feel no need to come back to their own country to work, because really, what has the government done for them?
And what does the government get in return for all this? Give scholarships to the people who are less smart, and you get less smart people working in your country. And all the smart ones go somewhere else and the other places profit more.
How stupid can you be?
Don't get me wrong, if you're Malay or Bumi or whatever and are smart, then you deserved that scholarship. But giving someone who got 5As in SPM a scholarship for medicine, and forgoing the student with 11As? Just because of race?
"Don't you think it's sad that, 50 years from independence, the issue of race is still such a big deal in our country?" - Pastor
Yayy. I know I'm bitter about this. It's so unfair that some of my friends are really smart and can't afford to go overseas, and their own government can't help them. Not only that, they even get discriminated from going to local universities! How screwed up is that?
Anyway, I've gone waay off the mark. I have a very extreme dislike for my government. Not to mention my state (Sarawak) contributes so much to the economy in terms of oil (we have lots) and get hardly anything in return. The oil and revenue we give the government, and the income generated from that, is spent all on making West Malaysia better.
What do East Malaysians get in return? Shit roads and jacked up prices for simple things like newspapers because they have to send things over the sea. Our state is not as developed as the ones in West Malaysia.
I feel like such a special citizen of Malaysia.
Discriminated because of my race, and living in an underdeveloped state.
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From personal experience, I can confirm that all the above are true and accurate. Original article can be found in her blog, but, again, it is set on private.
Article from:
www.blog.blogspot.com. Writer, Anonymous (2008)Jay~
What an amazing term.
I achieved quite a lot of my goals on the right-hand side of my "goals/wants" list for this year. I made varsity, by being in the Animo Squad, and I made it in the La Salle Debate Society too, which I hope to build on in the second term. Grades? Well..
Gender Studies - 2.5
Theology 2 - 3.5
Literature - 2.0
Spanish 2 - 3.0
Advanced Speech Communication - 4.0
GPA: 3.0
I made Dean's List. :P
Every term, a professor gives me a ridiculously low grade, and this term was no different (for Literature) but I was pretty fortunate that I had a +200 in class recitation points. Whew!
This term (2nd term), I'll be having five majors, in addition to Theology 3, so wish me luck on that! So far, I have a combined total readings of 120 pages. Not quite sure if I can do those by Tuesday, but hey, no pain no gain ain't it? :)Jay~
This is the email that appeared in my inbox this morning:
"Dear the black skittle author,
Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given it an 8.0 score out of (10) in the Personal Blogs category of Blogged.com.
This is quite an achievement!
http://www.blogged.com/directory/personal-blogs
We evaluated your blog based on the following criteria: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style.
After carefully reviewing each of these criteria, your site was given its 8.0 score.
We’ve also created Blogged.com score badges with your score prominently displayed. Simply visit your website’s summary page on Blogged.com:
Click on the "Show this rating on your blog!" link underneath the score and follow the instructions provided.
Please accept my congratulations on a blog well-done!!
Sincerely,
Amy Liu
Marketing Department
amy@blogged.com
http://www.blogged.com"
Isn't that cool? :D
Review my blog here:
http://www.blogged.com/blogs/the-black-skittle.html
This is why there is now a rating on the right side of my blog. :PJay~
Another dinner date, after a long time!
We decided to try out this place called Gumbo - A Taste of New Orleans, located in Midtown Wing, Robinson's Place Ermita. It looked like a really nice place, and we were not disappointed. Far from it. :)
Us. :)
View from our king-couch. We were pretty lucky to be seated in these huge, comfy seats. :D
The cool fans.
The food! :D
Appetizer: Baguette with Honey and Garlic
Entree: Buffalo Wings
Gayle's: Prawn Kebab with Corn-on-cob
Mine: New Orleans' Seafood Gumbo
I have to say, the food is fantastic! I never would have thought bread would taste good with honey and garlic, but darn. The wings were very average, I thought, and we didn't finish them (they were complimentary anyway LOL).
Gayle's food was delicious. She had these prawns skewered on top of her rice, and they looked so tempting! The corn was really buttery too. She doesn't gain weight like I do anyway, so it was cool. LOL. I had the house specialty, a Gumbo. I've never eaten Gumbo before so I didn't know what to expect. Turns out it's a seafood stew. REALLY delicious. As in, REALLY delicious. As in.. Well you get the idea. It was also spicy, just the way I like my food. :D
The servings in Gumbo are huge.
Even by Manila standards, they are well-worth the money you pay for them (food is very expensive here). This place offers good dining for the price of just about 2 very average meals in an average eating place. When I say 'good dining', I mean it. The service is really good! Quick, and the staff are very amiable. :) The place also looks very fancy, a place you'd expect to shell out serious moolah to eat in, but it's not quite the case. :)
Will definitely go to Gumbo again sometime. :)
We hearts the king-couch. <3
Jay~
Before I start, note that I will try to be as fair as possible, because frankly, I do not give a crap about school politics and stupid rivalries. If you think that this post offends you and/or your alma mater, you are free to close the tab/window you are reading this from.
In my honest and true opinion, I believe that we were screwed, and we were screwed bad. The Animo Squad placed seventh out of eight squads this year, the same exact position as last year's disaster. How can it be? The dance was clean, we had some great elements, and we made very minimal mistakes. Yes, we were a new squad. But does that justify giving us low scores? I saw that the Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU, also DLSU's biggest rival) gave Animo Squad a 46/100. Forty-six? Tell me, dear judge, could you sleep well that night? If you would like to be biased and prejudiced, at least don't make it so obvious, because the next score after yours was in the 70s. 30 points' difference is an anomaly, and giving such a score is nothing less than a disgrace.
We had no illusions of winning, or even landing in the Top 3, which has been dominated by three powerhouse schools, but this year, something definitely proved that the rankings in the CDC does not anymore reflect ability, as it does reputation and/or grudges against other schools. Adamson University (AdU) performed so well this year (ask any neutral observer, and they will tell you so) that I think they deserve to be in third place. University of Santo Tomas' (UST) Salinggawi Dance Troupe performed weakly in my opinion, as compared to main rivals in the CDC, University of the Philippines Pep Squad and Far Eastern University Pep Squad. Comparing their performance this year with all other previous years, you can easily see how much weaker this year's was. They weren't as clean as last 2 years' performances, nor were there anything 'wow' about their performance. At least, I think Adamson definitely edged them out.
UP Pep Squad is by far the most amazing of the groups. Sharing the locker room with them, one can see that they are ALL amazing athletes, built like Greek statues. No kidding; their workout was once mentioned in an edition of Men's Health. Everything they did on the floor was excellent, from tosses to pyramids to transitions to their dancing. Worthy winners, and congratulations, UP Pep Squad. You are way beyond all the other school's level.
Final Rankings:
UP Pep Squad
UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe
FEU Pep Squad
I think it should be:
UP Pep Squad
FEU Pep Squad
AdU Pep Squad
But I'm no judge.
And to underline this one last time, Animo Squad was screwed this year, and you people know it. Those who watched us know it. Watch it on YouTube (I don't have any link, but if there are any videos, see for yourself) and you'll know it.
Whatever. There's one set of rules for other schools, and another set for DLSU. That's just how it goes, people. The Green and White has many haters, best you know it now.Jay~
The big day.
2008 UAAP CDC.
In the locker room, which we shared with eventual (and defending) champions, UP Pep Squad, from the University of the Philippines.
The long hours put in practices resulted in several bizarre behavioral quirks..
A-Squad captain Totie Martinez.
Jaime can't find himself.
Andrew decides to strip.
Superman that ho'!
Brent's "cheer" face. LOL.
Stu and his "cleavage".
More locker room photos!
After the performance.. Our exhaustion finally caught up with us. Considering that we are such a new team performing at such a high level of competition, we pushed hard, but the push finally shoved some members back.
Proudly wearing our Green and White!
A-Squad and Araneta Coliseum.
It doesn't matter that the results were disappointing, and we faced extremely obvious prejudice and bias, I am so proud to have been in the A-Squad with each and every one of you, from the dancers, to the drummers, to the coaches and PT staff, I love you guys so much.
Let's go Animo, let's go!
We are the very first generation of the A-Squad. :)Jay~
