you cannot imagine how ecstatic i was last wednesday when i submitted my final requirement. although it's possible the worst paper i have ever written, i figured i should just submit it and get on with my life. so ralph (my blockmate) and i passed our papers then i met some of my blockmates and we headed for mitch's place in tagaytay. our plan was to spend the day in enchanted kingdom and then right after, head up to tagaytay on tuesday and stay there til thursday (yesterday). thing is, i had to finish up my paper so right after enchanted kingdom, i hitched a ride back to metro manila with sina jv then followed the next day. twas really fun! plus the weather was perfect, albeit a bit chilly. we just hung out, shared stories (and secrets..hehe), ate, drank (i had a 1/4 shot of tequila..ewwww and 2 small sips of karl's concoction..i think i probably ingested more alcohol that night than i ever have in my whole life..hahahaha!), and sang videoke. videoke was super fun! we were just goofing off while singing (pang blackmail ata yung videos..haha!). then yesterday, we drove up to los baños for a super late lunch (or was that "lunner?" hehe) at the kainan by the dalampasigan. the food was really good! then we headed to up los baños where we met up with my friend from there, jefferson. he brought us to lb square and the freedom park where we TRIED , albeit unsuccessfully, to hunt for ghosts. then at about 7.30-8pm, we headed back home. it took longer than expected coz we got lost somewhere in laguna (though i slept thru most of it..haha!). then jv took me, jorbs, and kathy home but we had a lot of "adventures" going home, too. talk about fun! of course, we were pooped by the time we got home but it was a nice, warm and fuzzy kind of "pooped-ness." can't wait for our next block adventure. :)

i'm just so happy we're on break. even if it's a very short one, i'm really going to take advantage of this time to recuperate and recharge my batteries. had my first italian lesson today (was supposed to start much earlier but had all these conflicts in sched... my mom and sister started last week but i had an exam). it's an interesting language but i wish i had more time to dedicate to it. i'm planning to start learning german again soon and to practice my french and spanish (the ultimate question:WHEN?) and start taking muay thai again (also:WHEN?). hayy, so much i want to do, so little time.

heading to baguio later with some gasc friends. then while we're there i'm going to try to meet up with some blockmates and then on monday, my family's heading up there so i'll join them. can't wait! :)

top 2 things found in your wallet:
- receipts and money

top 2 songs you can listen to again and again:
- copacabana by barry manilow, nothing in my way by keane

top 2 books I read from cover to cover:
- more than two..hehehe

top 2 reasons to watch television:
- stress release, entertainment

top 2 places I'd want to visit 10 yrs. from now
- cambodia and greece

top 2 obsessions:
- shoes and chocolate

top 2 favorite nick name:
- yani and arianne

top 2 favorite food:
- filipino and japanese (well, almost all kinds of food.hehehe!)

top 2 favorite snacks:
- chips and ice cream!

top 2 favorite website:
- yahoo mail and google (haha)

top 2 things u want to do tomorrow:
- go to baguio and meet with a friend

top 2 goals you want to accomplish:
- master 2 foreign languages, become a lawyer (if it's really meant to be..)

top 2 favorite colors:
- aqua blue (well, blue in general) and pink

top 2 favorite part of the house:
- bedroom and den/study room (hahaha)

top 2 people that make me laugh
- lynnie and carmi (and many more..haha)

top 2 things i can't wait to happen
- graduation! life!

top 2 places where I love to shop
- powerplant and greenhills

top 2 movies I could watch over and over
- legally blonde and princess diaries

top 2 things I'd like to get for Christmas
- aqua iPod nano (drool), these shoes i've been eyeing...

top 2 things I'm grateful for
- i'm alive and i have great family and friends :)

create your own visited countries map

[x] High School Musical
[1/2 ] Holes
[X] Lizzie McGuire Movie
[ ] Cheetah Girls
[ ] Halloween Town
[ ] Halloween Town High
[X] Cadet Kelly

total so far : 3.5

[ ] Get a Clue
[ ] Motocrossed
[x] Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
[x] Pocahontas
[x] Pocahontas 2
[x] Lady and the Tramp

total so far: 7.5

[ ] Lady and the Tramp 2
[x] Cinderella
[x] The Parent Trap (original)
[x] The Parent Trap (with Lindsay Lohan)
[x] The Little Mermaid
[x] The Little Mermaid 2

Total so far: 12.5

[x] Mary Poppins
[x] The Fox and the Hound
[x] Dumbo
[x] Pinocchio
[x] Bambi

total so far: 17.5

[x ] Basil: The Great Mouse Detective
[x ] The Rescuers Down Under
[x] Toy Story
[x] Toy Story 2
[x] Lion King
[x] Lion King 2

total so far: 23.5

[x] Peter Pan
[] Peter Pan 2
[x] Fantasia
[ ] The Three Caballeros
[x] Alice in Wonderland
[x]Sleeping Beauty

total so far: 27.5

[x] 101 Dalmatians
[x] 102 Dalmatians
[x ] The Sword in the Stone
[x] The Jungle Book
[x] The Aristocats

total so far: 32.5

[x] Robin Hood
[X] Oliver and Company
[x] Beauty and the Beast
[x] Beauty and the Beast 2
[x] Aladdin
[x] Aladdin: Return of Jafar
[x] Aladdin: The King of Thieves

total so far: 39.5

[x] Finding Nemo.
[x] Monsters, Inc.
[x] Hercules
[x] Mulan
[x] Mulan 2
[] Tarzan

total so far: 44.5

[x] Lilo & Stitch
[x] The Hunchback of Notre Dame
[X] The Emperor's New Groove
[X] The Nightmare Before Christmas
[x ] Bed knobs and Broomsticks
[ ] Pete's Dragon

total so far: 49.5

[] Remember the Titans
[X] Who Framed Roger Rabbit
[] James and the Giant Peach
[x] Mighty Ducks
[x] A Bug's Life
[x] The Incredibles

total so far: 53.5

[x ] A Goofy Movie
[ ] An Extremely Goofy Movie
[x] Atlantis
[x] The Chronicles of Narnia
[x] Around the World in 80 Days
[x ] Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

total so far: 58.5

[X] A Cinderella Story
[x ] Pirates of the Carribean
[ ] Pirates of the Caribean: Dead Man's Chest
[x] National Treasure
[x] Princess Diaries
[x] Princess Diaries 2

total so far: 63.5

[x] Freaky Friday
[] Honey I Shrunk the Kids
[x] A Muppet Christmas Carol
[] Ice Princess

total so far: 65.5

the title of this post makes me sound incredibly shallow. so sue me.

while everyone is enjoying the beginning of their semestral break, i'm still slaving away studying for two final exams and trying to make my method paper halfway presentable. don't get me wrong, i've had my share of pasaway moments these past few days. take for instance yesterday, i slept practically the whole day and didn't get much done. the same pattern of unproductiveness was followed today by yours truly. studied for consti then went to greenhills with pop and noel. that's when i saw this very cute pair of shoes in shoppesville. quite similar to the shoes i bought two weeks ago but what made me want to cry was that it was roughly 71% cheaper than the pair i bought in powerplant (well, it IS powerplant). i promised myself no shopping until finals are over and done with but now i'm obsessed. i WANT those shoes. i'm OBSESSED over those shoes.

as i said, sue me for sounding shallow. but given the choice between fantasizing about those shoes and thinking about The Supreme Court's Decision in Veteran's Federation Party: Judicial Legislation or Mere Interpretation? (my paper), i'd much rather do the former, hands down.

two saturdays ago, we had our legal history finals. last saturday we had our persons orals (woohoo! we survived!). today, (well technically it's already tuesday so i actually am referring to yesterday..hehe) we had our persons WRITTEN finals. on friday, we have consti then next week we have crim. oh, and sometime in between stuudying for my last two exams, i have to finish my method paper. it's that time of sem again... ewww.

funny thing is, for the past two weeks (more, even), i've been stressing over persons. especially the oral exams. but both our written and oral finals were easier than expected. i'm glad they're over though i can say with confidence (not something i've had a lot of lately) that i actually learned a LOT this sem in persons. twas so funny nga, when i'd study at night in the dining room, my dad would sometimes keep me company and "test" me by asking hypothetical persons-related questions. his questions made me think and i was actually able to explain some concepts to him. funny thing is, my dad's not even a lawyer. hehe. made me realize how much i miss my bonding time with pop.

anyhow, just de-stressing a bit then it's back to work again.
cannot wait til exams are over and done.

let the sem break (what sem break?!?!?) countdown begin...

my puny brain cannot take in any more information. i feel as though it is stuffed with too much data i can no longer formulate coherent bits of information.

in other words, come our persons oral exam on saturday morning, i'm a dead duckling.

on the bright side, keilah, my kabarkada from high school is back from a seven month long world tour (she's with UPCC) and we had a mini-reunion at ann's house yesterday. so while i was supposed to be memorizing, i was having fun wih my high school friends and stuffing my face with way too much junk food. and i wasn't feeling too guilty.

bliss. pure and utter bliss. :)

of course, when i woke up this morning, it was another story.

where's my inspiration when i need it most? haha.

i've been quite irritable stressed lately. lately i've been feeling as though i'm the person in edvard munch's painting "the scream." i feel as though i have been screaming my head off yet no one seems to notice.

take today for instance, i walked out on someone. well, somewhat. i don't think my actions were construed as "walking out on someone" but in my heart and mind, i did. the intent was there coupled with the action. i was extremely irritated and what happened was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. and although i do not want to admit it, i felt an enormous amount of satisfaction.

what's happening to me? usually, it takes a lot (and i mean A LOT) to make me lose my cool.

must be exams.

i hope it's exams. i want to feel like a relaxed, happy and contented cow (or elephant) again.

it's mom and pop's 35th wedding anniversary today. wow, they've been happily married for 35 years, have 5 kids and still managed to retain their sanity. hehe. :)

i feel guilty, though because i haven't been able to prepare anything special for them. been too preoccupied with studying for finals (though i went on a stress-induced shopping spree yesterday... found the cutest shoes!).

i have no idea HOW ON EARTH i'm going to memorize the family code. :(

i should be ecstatic. just got home from our legal history exam. my first-ever final exam in law school. but no. instead, i keep thinking about what happened yesterday. i feel guilty but then again, i don't know what it is specifically i should feel guilty about. i think i should've taken initiative. or been more sensitive. or been less spaced out. but no. i was my usual sabog self and the damage is done. haaayyy...

oh well. i felt better after i had some isaw, though. our ultimate post-exam comfort food. though my tummy's all weird since all i had to eat today was a ham and cheese sandwich (with dianne's special ingredient..hehe), a mocha blended drink (from baang coffee. good stuff!) and around ten sticks of isaw. oh yeah, as of a few minutes ago, a bag of chips. talk about healthy. NOT.

something tells me i'll be eating a lot of isaw during the next few weeks.

one down, five (well, four) more to go...

although i strongly disagreed with former SC Justice Isagani Cruz's column practically bashing gays, i strongly agree with his opinion in this particular case. i believe the COMELEC as it is is sorely damaged and beyond repair. and while i am opposed to charter change at this point in time for many reasons i will not delve into now, i do think it's high time that people take a look at the marred constitutional commission that is the COMELEC. radical as it may seem, my personal opinion is that the COMELEC as it is should be abolished and replaced with an entirely new institution.

Abolish the Comelec
First posted 00:25am (Mla time) April 08, 2006
By Isagani Cruz
Inquirer

THE proposal to change the present Constitution, by whatever method this is done, should include the abolition of the Commission on Elections as the most vicious obstacle to the safeguarding of the ballot as the highest symbol of the democratic society.

This function was originally entrusted to the secretary of the interior, but this arrangement was deemed unsatisfactory because of his partisan identification. A statutory body was thus created to take over this responsibility, but it was also found to be unreliable because of the pressures that could be exerted on it by the political departments that had created and could abolish it.

It was, therefore, converted in 1940 into an independent constitutional commission that was thereafter retained pro forma in the 1973 Constitution and seriously reestablished and improved in the Constitution of 1987.

Its record on the whole has been disgraceful rather than commendable. It has miserably failed to achieve the constitutional ideal of "free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible elections" for which the present Constitution had strengthened its powers. Its lack of independence and integrity was first revealed in the case of Mabanag v. Lopez Vito, 78 Phil. 1, where the Commission on Elections (Comelec) refused to examine the claimed insufficiency of the votes required for Congress to propose the Parity Amendment.

In fairness, it was sustained by the Supreme Court on the ground that the issue raised was a political question that neither the Comelec nor the Court itself should decide. Fortunately, this evasive doctrine was later reversed in the case of Tañada v. Cuenco, 100 Phil. 1101, which held that questions involving the legality, not the wisdom, of a particular act were justiciable.

In 1949, Jose P. Laurel appeared initially to have won the presidential election, only to be defeated by a torrent of votes from Lanao province, where it was generally believed "the birds and the bees" had voted for Elpidio Quirino. The Comelec took no steps to investigate the apparent massive irregularity and in effect sustained it.

The elections of Manuel Quezon in 1941, Manuel Roxas in 1945, Ramon Magsaysay in 1953, Carlos Garcia in 1957 and Diosdado Macapagal in 1961 were relatively clean. But the victories of Ferdinand Marcos in 1965 and 1969 were marred by tremendous vote-buying that the Comelec took no action to prevent and correct.

The declaration of martial law in 1972 further eroded the authority of the Comelec to protect the purity of suffrage that was ravaged with the "ratification" of the 1973 Constitution, the several plebiscites and referendum held to sanitize the Marcos abuses, and the snap election of 1985, which was the straw that broke the camel's back.

It was during the dictatorship that the Comelec sank to its lowest depths. Of special depravity was its decision against Evelio Javier, who appealed it to the Marcos Supreme Court, which deliberately sat on it to protect the respondents. The new Supreme Court unearthed and reversed it in the case of Evelio Javier v. Commission on Elections and Arturo Pacificador, 144 SCRA 194, which posthumously sustained the assassinated petitioner.

How has the Comelec comported itself since then?

Its past abuses and ineptness have caught up with it at last and its reputation, which used to be satisfactory if not exactly commendable, is now in tatters. It is now disdained as among the government agencies least deserving of the people's respect for its inexcusable notoriety.

Its reprehensible conduct in the automated election scandal that was denounced by the Supreme Court itself, its failure to even restrict the proliferation and uglification of prohibited posters in Metro Manila and other urban centers, the "dagdag-bawas" [vote-padding and vote-shaving] anomalies that have tainted the election of some members of the Senate, the suspicious activities of Luz Tancangco and other Comelec officials, its needless acquisition of million-peso vehicles for the ostentation of its members, the believable charges of the fraudulent election of President Gloria with the connivance of Virgilio Garcillano, and many other faults of character and competence demand no other action than its abolition as the supposed but failed protector of the ravished ballot.

The other alternative is for the current chair and members of the Comelec, including all their tainted personnel, to immediately resign and give up all their arrant privileges so they can be replaced by worthy civic servants who will not reject but instead respect suffrage as the oriflamme of the real democracy.

But that is hardly probable if they go by the attitude of their idolized exemplar, who insists on remaining where she is no longer fit or wanted. That's the sum and substance of Philippine democracy.

after five days of of literally living in the dark, we finally got electricity back yesterday. i cannot describe the feeling i got when my dad sent me a text message saying the aforementioned yesterday shortly after lunch. i was suddenly excited to go back home and re-acquaint myself with the blessings and privileges of electricity and the modern life. seriously, i am thankful for these conveniences. i cannot even begin to imagine what life was like pre-electricity. i think i spent the last few days hopping from one coffee shop to the other and spending way too much money on over-priced drinks and wi-fi. though it was all worth it, i think for a few hours reprieve.

i know, i know, i sound like a brat. i really wouldn't have minded the power outage if not for the fact that i have a TON to study and i'm asthmatic and since the weather's been skewy lately, i've had trouble breathing like a normal person. believe you me, it hasn't been fun. compounded is the fact that i've been weepy and sniffly lately. by-products of the asthma, most likely.

i know i've been ranting and complaining about the typhoon (you should see our patio roof, or lack thereof) and the inclement weather but i also realized these past few days that there is still so much to be grateful for. my sleepless nights and asthma attacks are nothing i'm sure compared to those who lost their homes and some even their lives. makes you realize that there's still a lot to be thankful for. many of which are those we have the tendency to take for granted.

first year law student.kid at heart.idealist.optimist (except about myself).hopeless romantic.daydream believer.dreamer.klutz(hehe).


lay-out
{designer}
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{AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel}
{UP ALYANSA}
{spam}
{tricia}
{kristian}
{mica-rabbit}
{jeboy}
{emma}
{paolo}
{lia}
{ralph}
{cheska}
{mara}
{leo}
{marian}
{kevin}
{gwen}
{mark arthur}
{darwin}
{dianne}
{jam}
{cha}
{boom}
{salma}
{emil}



"I don't care if I never grow up
Don't want to shrink in a suit
Don't want live just to suck someones bones dry
I'd rather die."
- Chris Trapper, Waiting Watching Wishing

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