Skittlez Pool Party

Some of us in the crew decided to have a pre-Christmas celebration at Karelle's house, and since she had a swimming pool, we decided to have a pool party as well. Our first crew papi, Decky, was also back from California so it was a great chance to have a get-together. Dinner at Karelle's, for lack of a better term, is bountiful. Haha!



And it was pool time! :D









The Skittlez "Qwerty Club" LOL


Wish you were here <3


For virtue of sheer cuteness, Karelle's pet Haley Dy (yes, she has a last name) deserves a picture on this post :D


Love you Skittlez! <3

Jay~

Office of the President and Chancellor - The Christmas Party

We may be one of the busiest and one of the most important offices in De La Salle University Manila, but we also know how celebrate and have a good time. First, we have to make sure that the rest of the campus know that we are.. Well, "busy" :)



So yes, we were busy. Busy stuffing ourselves with awesome Filipino food. We had adobo, kare kare (seriously becoming my favorite Filipino dish), steamed and stuffed fish, and the almighty lechon baboy. Here we go!





We then ate and the Chief of Staff, Sir Roj, and myself created some games for the other staffers. The two big bosses, Brother President Jun and Brother Chancellor Ricky, were really good sports and played the games with as much gusto as anyone.






Finally, we exchanged gifts with each other. It was really fun, since we had code names and didn't know who would be getting our gifts. We were just given a wish list the week before, and we picked one out of the three written. I asked for a bookstore gift certificate, and I received one from Powerbooks (I'm going to be a big customer one of these days, what with all the GCs I've been getting!) from Mdm. Marivic. I drew Mdm. Marife, and I got her a Bagabons shoulder bag.


Very fun and food-packed Christmas party :) I really enjoy working here, and I just have this feeling I'm going to be enjoying my entire stay at the OPC. Merry Christmas!

Jay~

Powerbooks GCs!

One of the best Christmas presents ever!
From my boss, the Brother President :D


Thank you for the AMAZING present! Powerbooks, watch out! LOL.

Jay~

Southbay Christmas Stroll

Visited Southbay again to be with PJ and supposedly to watch The Notebook, but the DVD was not very cooperative. We ended up strolling around Southbay (her village) and I took a snapshot of the very large Christmas tree put up for display. Had dinner with her dad and big brother when we finished with our moonlit stroll :)



Jay~

Minutes

Mentally tired. Two board meetings in four hours with no breaks in between. At least the working lunch was very good :)





Jay~

Useless College Degrees

As a recent graduate of International Relations, I often find myself questioning the value of my degree. In the words of one of our faculty, "You understand why conflicts happen. You know all the ways on how to prevent them theoretically. Then one day, a madman just f*cks everything up." HOW TRUE. At least, my degree taught me valuable research, writing, and critical thinking skills that apply to my current work.

So when I came across this Top Tenz site, I couldn't help but agree. Click the link for more details, but in a nutshell, these are the degrees (from tenth to first):

David Beckham Studies (the study of, OMFG, David Beckham)
(offered by Staffordshire University, UK)

Parapsychology (studying ghosts and the paranormal)
(offered by Coventry, Liverpool, Northampton, and Edinburgh Universities, respectively, among others)

PhD in Ufology (studying UFOs, post-grad)
(offered by Melbourne University)

The Phallus (studying the phallus and various phallic objects)
(offered by Occidental College)

Surfing Studies ("studying" surfing)
(offered by Plymouth University, UK and Southern Cross University, Australia)

Philosophy (philosophizing?)
(offered by various institutions around the world)

Queer Musicology (studying gayness and music science)
(offered by UCLA, USA)

Star Trek (studying.. Star Trek :|)
(offered by Georgetown University, USA)

Golf Management (LOL!)
(offered by University of Birmingham, UK and Florida Gulf Coast University, USA)

Art History (studying art history, duh)
(offered by various institutions around the world)

Some are downright dumb, some may be valuable. Make up your own mind! :)
Read and obtained from toptenz.net

Jay~

Anatomy of a Mistress Mauling

I saw this video on YouTube which happened in a mall here in the Philippines. Watch it first, digest it, and react. Then read my analysis and opinion on it.


The story is supposedly like this: wife goes to a mall with friends, one of which is armed with a video camera, intending to catch her husband in the act, that is, going out with his alleged mistress. Wife sees the husband with the mistress, and she - along with her posse - moves in for the kill. The wife proceeds to beat the living daylights out of the alleged mistress. Mall security personnel rush in intending to break up the beat-down, but the death-grip-from-hell wife manages to inflict a reasonable amount of physical punishment to the alleged mistress. Husband, standing there with his box of donuts, mounts a halfhearted rescue effort. After the whole fiasco, the husband goes after the alleged mistress leaving his wife behind in the hands of mall authorities.

This video highlights a few issues that sadly takes a back seat to the general reaction of the public who have viewed it: justifiable vengeance. However, I opine that no issue or conflict can ever by justified by vengeance, but in so saying, vengeance is, admittedly, a somewhat useful (if oft violent) deterrent.

Infidelity is an issue that has been around since marriages (and relationships for that matter) became commonplace. It has been the cause of countless study and philosophizing, but in the end, no one really has an all-encompassing answer for this social problem, if one sees it as 'a problem'. There are various legal ways of finding resolution to these kinds of conflict, and the option of choice for most is divorce. However, this highlights the difficulty in procuring a divorce here in the Philippines. Most married couples - and I speak from personal observation and opinion only - who wish to "end" their love affair simply stay away from each other and pretend a marriage never happened. In this case, it seems like the wife held her marriage at a high enough value as to pretty much do anything in order to "punish" whoever gets in the way. Props to her, but now this brings about problems.

First of all, even if the husband was cheating on her, the husband and the alleged mistress was clearly on a group outing. It could hardly be said that they went out "alone" as their friends were spoken to by the camera handler. Any notion of exclusivity in this scenario is out of the window. I am not saying he was not cheating, merely that it is difficult for me to see any exclusivity between the husband and the alleged mistress.

Secondly, it has never been easy to justify assault and battery. Every sovereign state on this planet have laws against private citizens hurting each other - no matter the reason bar self-defense. "Self-defense" is clearly not applicable here (unless we take into account that the supposed cheating as an "attack intended to cause bodily harm" towards the wife); actually, the very fact that the wife's party had a video camera suggests that they intended to capture in film some sort of confrontation or - as seen in the video - a downright physical fight. The bottom line is, for whatever intents and purposes, the wife clearly assaulted the alleged mistress. Emotionally justifiable? Perhaps. Ethically justifiable? Personally, I would say yes. Morally justifiable? No, because she did inflict bodily harm on the alleged mistress. Legally justifiable? HARDLY, as far as I am informed. We cannot simply harm (or wish harm) to another person because we were offended or insulted. Infidelity is a serious breach of love and trust, yes, and that is exactly why we have a legal code. The majesty of the law should be our number one back-up in cases of severity such as these.

Finally, it is said that there are two sides to a coin. It takes two to tango. I can rattle on more relevant phrases, but it all underlines a simple point: why did the wife assault the alleged mistress, when her husband - who she is in a legal and consecrated relationship with - was easier to have access to, so to speak? I can understand the anger, insecurity, and mistrust the alleged mistress probably caused to the wife, but attacking her does not solve anything if her husband himself was the instigator of the affair. If I was to justify a beat-down (and I'm not saying I would, in any part of this post), I think that the husband was more deserving of it simply because he either opted to cheat out of his own free will OR he took the bait that the other woman dangled in front of him. Whatever the reason, it was HE, the husband, who should have borne the brunt of the consequences arising from his infidelity.

Having said that, this post is merely a reaction to many comments I have read online regarding this matter. There are so many people who laughed at the alleged mistress, with many egging on more punishment for her in the future. There are some who state that they would inflict even worse damage on her, including enough harm as to cause her her death. DEATH. There are many crimes worthy of the death penalty (I support the death penalty for drug-related crimes, murder, and rape), sure, but infidelity? It is painful, yes, but I doubt that it is necessary to want to take someone's life because of it. Jealousy and envy - no matter how justifiable - should never be the basis of any reaction, opinion, or thought. The sad part is, none of us who have seen the video can truly know the story in its entirety; we are limited by what we see in that video.

From what I've seen, the wife should have just filed for annulment, demanded her fair share of property and assets, and at home, beat her husband silly (she looked capable anyway), and be done with it. There is no need to stoop down to the level that she succumbed to on that one eventful day at the mall.

Jay~

Pardo Golden Wedding Anniversary

Attended the Immaculate Conception of Mary private mass at the St. Marie Eugenie Chapel in Assumption College, San Lorenzo, Makati for the Office last night. It was the 50th wedding anniversary of former Cabinet Member Jose Pardo and his very humble and demure wife. He also happens to be a Lasallian, which would explain my Office's presence in the mass.

I also met former President Joseph Estrada for the first time. He cracks good jokes. I like him.

After the mass, we were brought to Hotel Celeste just outside of San Lorenzo Village, Makati, for a simple dinner. It was a simple 6-course French dinner, and I took some pictures of the food to blog on here. The red was also delicious, but of course, professionalism dictated I had no more than two glasses. I work for the religious Brothers, after all. I forgot to take a picture of the first one, the asparagus soup in a shot glass.

Squash soup

Steamed egg with vegetable sprouts

Roasted prawn in mashed potatoes and pesto paste

Red snapper on vegetable puree

Caramel pastry

Pretty good dinner, and even better company.

Congratulations on your Golden Wedding Anniversary, Secretary Pardo, and thank you for the delicious dinner.

Jay~

Grandma's 75th

Celebrated my maternal grandmother's 75th birthday at home with the girlfriend and some KR chow. Pretty decent birthday celebration. I suppose birthdays do get easier when one is at that age, since one has already had plenty! :P

Some pictures:






Jay~

Lovin' The Job

I'm building quite the impressive portfolio of written work now.

It is not often that a person can do something that he/she loves and get paid doing it. It's not a dream job as yet, but I certainly enjoy it.

Green at heart <3

Jay~

Skechers 6 - Shoutouts and Opinion

Skechers 6 was awesome! The level of dance in the country has certainly gone up since last year's Skechers 5, and I'm very proud of the winners.

Company of Ateneo Dancers
This group, otherwise known as CADS, have finally won Skechers! It's been years in the making; they have finished consistently in the top 3, but always just missing out on the top dog position. My krump brother and Skittle supporter friend, Phillip Pamintuan, a huge congratulations on this one! You guys ABSOLUTELY deserve to win the championship. When I saw your routine, it was all heart and soul, and I was very inspired and encouraged. No better winners than you guys. I may be a hardcore Green, but on that day, I was singing Blue :) Now, that's a compliment I never give! LOL. Congratulations on breaking the UP - Street invincibility.

University of the Philippines - Manila
The dance group of UP - Manila, known to the dance community as Indayog, finally bagged a top 3 spot. I am very proud of these guys, especially since a lot of my Skittlez kids have danced with them a few months ago. They were all heart and soul as well, and the great thing was, one could actually see they were having lots of fun on stage. Very inspiring. To a Skittle friend, Dan Manalastas, congratulations to your crew! It was a well-deserved trophy. I am very proud that my crew has affiliations to you guys.

La Salle Dance Company - Street
LSDC, even though you guys didn't bag a trophy this year unlike the previous couple of Skechers competition, I have to say that I really loved the piece this year. It was raw, energetic, and highly passionate - character traits that define a champion and would-be champions. I understand that I personally had several differences with you guys, but in the end of it all, we are all dancers dancing under one roof: our university. My fellow Lasallian dancers, this is simply a trial of fire. Remember, ignis aurum probat: gold is made purer by fire. This is a challenge, and the only way is up. Remember what happened to Skittlez last year? We didn't get the championship, even though our piece was insane. We came back this year. That's exactly what I expect of you guys. To come back, and give CADS, UP - Street, and UP - Indayog (the top 3 placers, respectively) a run for their money. I believe in you guys. Don't ever take off the Armor of God that I told you guys about. IT DOES NOT FAIL.

La Salle Green Hills Air Force
Air what? AIR FORCE! Finally, champions! I am very proud of you guys as well, more so that so many Skittle boys and friends came either from LSGH and/or were members of Air Force. LSGH gave us our competition members Pau and Rocky, as well as mainstay dancers JC, Big Pao, Mickey, and Cham. The piece was sick, and it was, again, a well-deserved win. I am officially a hardcore fan of the GH dance boys aka AIR FORCE :)

**

Skechers 6 as a whole
I was very disappointed and somewhat insulted with the battle system of Skechers. The battle system, over the few years that it has been in place, really needs an overhaul. Preferably with the advice of actual underground icons, and the Philippines is not short of them. What I witnessed was a gross disrespect of the dance battle system, the sacred cipher, and the esteemed dance icons present that night. Let me touch these three points one by one.

A dance battle is an activity of sharing. Winning is besides the point sometimes; the important thing is the dancers share with each other their best dancing abilities, and try to outdo themselves in order to improve and get stronger in their art. Now, this happens when the battlers take their art seriously. What I saw in Skechers 6 was mostly a bunch of hooligans making fools out of themselves - and indirectly, the art and culture that they represent, namely, street dance. What a disgrace.

The cipher is the battle ground. It is the venue where opposing dancers would share their skills and talent with each other, utilizing skills such as creativity, flow, musicality, and sheer talent. What happened in many of the battles were stunt performers flying and flipping - displaying utter disregard to the music playing on their particular battle. It was highly disrespectful to the dance styles certain music adhere to, and disrespectful to genuine practitioners of said style. What a disgrace.

One of the judges was the great Lenny Len. Among the audience present were two-time world champion members of the former Philippine All-Stars, funk community's Pinoy Funk'n Style, Philippines premier krump group Krumpinoy, as well as various icons in their respective styles. Hence, it was simply unacceptable that many of the dancers that battled pretty much spat on many of the dance styles by doing just one thing: gymnastics. I understand that stunts are part and parcel of dance pieces, but they do not have, as far as I know, any direct correlation to genuinely battling unless as part of a complete dance set. Horrific. What a disgrace.

**

My final verdict of Skechers 6 is this:

Dance crews and companies:
WELL DONE

Skechers and organizers:
More on street dance art and culture, less on selling your products.

Jay~

www dot Jason dot Com

WWW
Welcome to the Working World!

I signed my very first official employment contract yesterday, and it was with my beloved alma mater, De La Salle University - Manila.

I will be working in the Office of the President and Chancellor :)
This is a public blog, hence I will not post details, but if you are my friend in Facebook, then you can definitely see it there.

Here we go!

Jay~