Time flies when you're having fun.

...well it sure seemed that way tonight.

Also, it seems that recently my blog entries have been written past midnight... my sleep schedule's jacked.

Ok, so tonight after church, I dropped by the house to grab some quick eats. I then headed out to Palmdale to my friend Justin's house to play poker with him, his girlfriend Emily, and the other Justin.

To make a long story short, Justin Lebens got knocked out first, then Emily, then I did. I lost on a big hand, leaving Justin Gott with $15 more than when he started... except sorta not, because I didn't have any money on me. So, once again I am in debt to one of my friends. This happens often. My return rate is something up to 3-4 months or so. =D

After that game ended like around 11pm or so, we got to talkin and shootin' the breeze. Everything from High School Memories to drunkeness to lesbians to film noir. We talked about a lot of stuff. We were having a good time though, and didn't realize the time until Emily said she had to go. It was about 2:30am by then. Pretty late.

All in all, it was a good night. A good time of catching up and enjoying each other's company. Thumbs up.

I've got the munchies.

Yeah... so because I went to sleep at like 5am today, I woke up at about 3pm... did absolutely nothing, because, thankfully, I was not scheduled for work.

There's not much to eat at the house right now, I can't fall asleep... so I think I'm going to Jack-in-the-Box to get some eats. Enjoyable.

Aight, that's all I got.

I'm.. *yawns* ..sleepy.

Interesting day today. I wake up at about 1pm. Check my phone.

"You have a new voicemail"

Call the voicemail. Press '1' to hear the new message.

"Hey, Cy. It's Veronica. It says here that you're scheduled to be here at 10am. Didn't get a message saying that you weren't. Please call me back as soon as you get this. I have no one here with me for opening."

Press '7' to delete it. Check the time of the call. 10:32am.

crap.

I check my schedule. Sure enough, I was scheduled from 10am-12pm and from 8pm-3am. I forgot I was working a split shift.

I decide to pass the time to 8p with more World of Warcraft. 7:45p rolls around. I hop in the car and head to work.

Melissa sees me and says

"Oh hey, Cy. We didn't know you were coming in tonight. Maria said we'd be going home early if you don't come in."

Oh...

I walk into the stockroom where Maria and our assistant manager Brianne are. Maria says

"Cy! Missed you this morning. Were you OK?"

I explain to them that I forgot I was supposed to work a split shift.

"Oh Okay. Just wanted to make sure you were fine. We can talk about it later."

...what they really wanted to know was... "WHERE THE HECK WHERE YOU?"

So... we work. and work. on the visual change. The entire Men's side is redone. I did wall 2, so look at that and be proud.

12:30am rolls around and Maria asks if we're ready for our 30-minute break... which for some reason whenever it is, it is always called "lunch". I say yes, I'm pretty hungry, and she lets me go out to get food. I drive to Carl's Jr... and sit in the drive-thru right by the menu for literally 5 or 6 mins...

"Hello?"... "Hello!?" <-- for 5-6 minutes.

I pull forward and aparently they close at 11p.

I go to Jack in the Box and get a burger and fries. Eh, it's not all that great. I'm sippin on the large lemonade I got from there right now, too.

I return to Anchor Blue and we work some more til 3:30am.

Now I am home. I killed 40 minutes playing WoW, until I realized...

I'm dead freakin tired.

So now, after writing this blog, I am even more tired.

so... that's it.

good night.

The week in pictures. (sorta)

...so i got this idea that i should take pics everyday wherever i go. Well, it was a good idea, but pretty much, just that.

I did manage to get pics for two of the days!

Sunday i dressed up all spiffy for church...


That same day we went to Thai Cafe for lunch...


Thai Tea is... well, amazing...


Saturday i went to work, and when i got out at 9:30 i found this...


What goes best with cold weather?...








No, thank you, Starbucks.


I'm going to try to do a better job this week.
...oh yeah. I stayed up kinda late changing the site layout a tad bit. Hope you like it.

Another video... haha

On a related note, I was at Justin Gott's house on Wednesday night with both Justins and we played Mario Kart 64. I killed them. In the courses and in battle mode. A rematch is scheduled soon.

On a sidenote, it snowed today in the Antelope Valley. Wow.

I work at Anchor Blue tomorrow from 5pm-9:30pm. Come say hi.

I've caught the VIBE once more.

Today was my first day back on the job at Anchor Blue. Apparently, Maria my boss is going to give me more hours this time around. I worked an 8 hour shift today. I have not had to stand this long in quite a while. Oh, and my pay's been moved up to $7/hour; a quarter more than last year. It was good to be back. I'm still familiar with the register and all that, so it's cool.

We bought two movies today; Shaun of the Dead ($10 at Wal Mart) and Jarhead ($16). We watched Jarhead tonight. It was the first time any of us had seen it. My thoughts on it? Incredible. Sam Mendes does an amazing job. I guess he also did American Beauty and Road to Perdition; two other movies that I also enjoy.

It's quite vulgar, but I bet it's a pretty darn accurate description of how the Corps really is. To think... I seriously thought about joining the Marines for a while... I haven't told many people that, but yeah, it was a serious consideration.

Well... I work tomorrow from 10am-2pm, so come drop by Anchor Blue and say "Wassup, Cy??"... That would be neat.

The Hollow Men - Train Noir

More thoughts for later...

...I have more to put up, but I was lazy. For now, here are some pictures on the day at the airport!

Thought 2

My friends. No one in the Antelope Valley has any idea that I am also coming home with my folks. Boy, are they in for a surprise. I’m trying to think of the best ways to drop the secret on them.

I figure with Justin, I’ll have my mom call him to come and pick up his My Chemical Romance CD that I borrowed ages ago and the first season of Lost. When he knocks on the door, I’ll be the one to answer it. That’ll be shocking. I suppose I’ll have to swear him to secrecy not to tell anyone. We’ll probably head over to his house where I can surprise his family as well. The Gott’s are a pretty cool family. They’re up there on my “it” list.

Lebens is going to be a harder one. Well, maybe not. I suppose I can just go to In-N-Out when he’s working and nonchalantly walk up, order a #1, ketchup only, with a chocolate shake in addition to the drink. He’ll probably say “What’s up, dude!?”, like he always does. It’ll be nice. I like surprising people.

As for Mallory and Emily, I have no idea how I can surprise them without waiting too long. I don’t want to be in the AV for a whole week and not have them know that I’m home. I suppose a simple phone call will have to do.

For JR, Grant, Fred, Charlie, Leila, Luke, Grace, Alden, and that whole crew, I think I will just show up to devotional on Wednesday unannounced. On Sunday, the whole congregation will know that I’m back. I might even song lead. Haha, that would be good.

For Becky, Tom, and all those cool kids, I’ll give them a simple phone call. Or I’ll ask Justin or Lebens to put some kind of gathering together. We’ll see.

Thoughts from the Airport

02.19.06

As I write this I am sitting at a table with my dad’s Apple Powerbook G4. We are in the international terminal at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila. I’ve got Microsoft Word open and I’m typing freely as thoughts flow out of my mind. Maybe they’re not really flowing freely. Actually, it’s a mess of thoughts. It seems really difficult to sort them all out; maybe even a bit overwhelming. I’m sniffling a lot because I smelled some cologne yesterday that had something I’m allergic to. It’s an uncomfortable feeling really.

Thought 1:
Dang. I’m so excited to be going home. I’ve missed my mom, my dog, my friends, my home, and my routine since day one in the Philippines. I’m glad my mom suggested that I come home earlier than planned with them. My time in the Philippines has been great, but man, there’s really no place like home. Lancaster is my home.

This is Sick.

I ROFL at Dancing.

ROFL = Roll on the floor, laughing.

So tonight, I go out with Mike, my parents, and King to "The Venue", or as I like to call it, "Ze Venu". The Venue is this nightclub/concert hall thing that people here in Davao like to go to at night... in their life... So Davao has a 'nightlife'. This is a word that is unfamiliar to an Antelope Valleyan.

Anyway, while at Ze Venu, we sat around, listened to some loud dance music and drank beer. And yes, I had some. 3, in fact. To be totally honest, I never drink alcohol unless my parents are there. The one time I drank without them around was actually the first time I touch a drop of alcohol and I actually had a blog entry that I wrote about that two years ago. First time having alcohol = first time being drunk. haha, didn't know my limits. Eh, you live and learn. On that same subject, when I do have a couple beers, my parents make sure I don't have too much. heh. Thanks, mom and dad. I actually feel that if you have to alter your state of mind in order to have a good time, something's wrong with you. Mainly, I'll have a beer or two just to "share a drink with someone". Aparently, it's rude here to not drink with someone if you go out with them somewhere.

Eh, enough bout da bears. I mean, ze beers. So at Ze Venu, there's this band that is playing this weekend. They're actually not too bad. Nothing spectacular, but nothing terrible. They did some nice covers of songs by Beyonce, Santana, the Eagles... it was cool. Between their sets random dance club music would play and people would go up to the dance floor to shake their groove thing.

One group that caught my attention in particular, was a gathering of 3 guys and 2 girls. All but one of them were Filipino. The other, a Korean exchange student (after being here for 4 months, I can tell). Anyway, after watching them for awhile, it became obvious to me that the girls were trying to give the Korean girl dance lessons. And I'm sorry to say, but it was one of the most amusing things I've ever seen in my life.

Now I don't claim to be an expert at dancing. No sir. In fact, the girl could probably have gotten a chuckle out of seeing me dance. What's with dancing? The whole moving the hips thing, where to put your arms and flap em around? I dunno.

So yeah, that was the highlight of my evening, drinking a couple brewskies with my folks and watching 2 Filipina girls give a korean girl a lesson in 'sexy' dancing. LOL

well... the time is drawing nearer to when I will be returning to the States. I can't believe it's almost been 4 months. A third of a year. Wow.


Do I have a sexy dance? ROFL.
Cy

It's Easier.

To not give your all. To be weak. To not live up to your full potential. To be lazy. To be selfish. To be distanced. To be isolated. To loathe in self-pity. To sleep all day. To not pour out your heart. To lie. To cheat. To steal. To forget. To remember. To hold a grudge. To let go.


To make life harder is to make it easier.


Doesn't that make sense? It seems that if we always take the easy route through things, life actually becomes harder. Though, not always in an external way visible to others on the outside, but rather on the inside; a battle within our consciousness and spirit for what is and what isn't; what should and what shouldn't.


To make life easier is to make it harder.


It's odd how life can be so difficult and yet so simple. Though for others, maybe it's not so simple... maybe the choices aren't so clear. But maybe they are. Maybe we choose not to see things as simple as they are. Maybe we choose to make things difficult.

Iunderstand that I am speaking in obscurities, but it makes perfect sense to me.

I tend to get the best of myself.

I'm lazy.

Tis true.

Hmm... so January 29th was my birthday. I am now 19 years old. Goodness gracious.
The friday before that, my mom and Mike, one of my really great friends flew in to Davao... they will be here til the 19th of this month. Great times.

Today I was in Kaloi's wedding. He and Lea are now married. that's awesome. They asked me to play something for their wedding on the saxophone. I did. It was alright. I'm always embarassed to play my instruments in front of people. Honest reason is because I'm out of practice. That's embarassaing.

Eh... yeah the blog thing... I'm not so great at it right now. lol. laziness.

Interesting...

This is my 100th post! And with this post is a survey or an analysis of me that is surprisingly acurate:

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||||||||||| 80% Stability |||||||||||||||| 66% Orderliness |||| 20% Accommodation |||||||||||| 50% Interdependence |||||||||||||||||| 76% Intellectual |||||| 30% Mystical || 10% Artistic |||||||||||||||| 70% Religious |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Hedonism || 10% Materialism |||||||||||||||| 63% Narcissism |||||||||||||||| 63% Adventurousness |||||||||||| 50% Work ethic |||||||||| 36% Self absorbed |||||||||||||| 56% Conflict seeking |||||| 23% Need to dominate |||||||||||| 50% Romantic |||||||||||||| 56% Avoidant |||| 16% Anti-authority |||||||||||| 43% Wealth |||||||||||| 50% Dependency |||||||||||||| 56% Change averse |||||||||||| 50% Cautiousness |||||||||||| 50% Individuality |||||||||||| 43% Sexuality |||||||||||||||| 63% Peter pan complex |||||| 30% Physical security |||||||||||||||||| 76% Physical Fitness |||||||||||||||| 64% Histrionic |||||||||||||| 56% Paranoia |||||| 23% Vanity |||||||||||| 50% Hypersensitivity |||||||||||| 43% Female cliche |||||| 30%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stability results were moderately high which suggests you are relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.

Orderliness results were low which suggests you are overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense too often of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment.

Extraversion results were high which suggests you are overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense too often of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

trait snapshot:
messy, disorganized, social, tough, outgoing, rarely worries, self revealing, open, risk taker, likes the unknown, likes large parties, makes friends easily, likes to stand out, likes to make fun of people, reckless, optimistic, positive, strong, does not like to be alone, ambivalent about chaos, abstract, impractical, not good at saving money, fearless, trusting, thrill seeker, not rule conscious, enjoys leadership, strange, loves food, abstract, rarely irritated, anti-authority, attracted to the counter culture

hmmm...

This be them pick-chos.

So here it is... I haven't updated in over a week, but that's ok, because what I'm giving you guys is worth all that! Anyway, it all starts with School...


This is Rey, one of my classmates in Philippine History. He is seriously one of the funniest kids I've ever met. He's pretty much your typical class clown. And I love it.


This was the boy I wrote about in my blog titled "Circumstance".


This is a street corner right by my school. You can see how different it is from the United States. Check out the vehicles. They're called Jeepneys... the major public transportation system in the Philippines.


Our church threw a Christmas party with a retro 60's and 70's theme of "Staying Alive". The Campus ministry decided to go "Grease" style... and well that's me dancing. LOL.

I spent my Christmas week in Kiamba (my mom's hometown). On the way there, we stopped at a mall and I picked up a book at a used book store entitled Intesnsity written by Dean Koontz. It was one of the best books I've ever read. And I don't like reading... since this book, I've read another book by Koontz called The Taking and am now reading another one by him called Fear Nothing. I'm pretty much a devoted Koontz fan now.


Dean Koontz's Intensity. I read this novel in three days. And I don't even like literature that much.

My cousins and I in Kiamba love to play this game called "1, 2, 3, Pass" where you pretty much try to get 4 of a kind by passing cards around in a circle. The first one to get 4 of a kind, slaps his/her hand on the table. Everyone else is supposed to slap their hand down too. The last person to slap gets a penalty... our favorite penalty is lipstick.


Playing "1, 2, 3, Pass"

I came in 2nd place pretty much... (that's good)... but this is what I looked like sitting well in second place:



The "1, 2, 3, Pass Gang"

Kiamba is a beautiful town set right on the southern coast line of the Philippines. Thus, there are beautiful beaches.


Woodbridge Beach in Kiamba.

Christmas Eve we had a family party and some good eats...


Most of the fam gathered around for dinner.

You might be wondering... "is that a pig on the table?"
...well, Indeed it is. "Lechon Baboy" is a delicacy in the Philippines. It's pretty much roasted pig. It's delicious.


This pig was the victim in the latest slasher movie "Porked".

Kiamba was great because it was just a nice time to spend with cousins, aunts and uncles.


Some of my cousins at the plaza in Kiamba.

Did I say Kiamba's a beautiful place?


Kiamba just before dawn.


My closest cousins and I on the dock.


More family.

There's a lot of dogs in the Philippines... and no, Tom. I did not eat any. I've seen some unfortunate dogs in my life, but none so much as this one...


The dog from Hell.

My cousin Giselle in New York came up with a slogan to put on a t-shirt for us... "Got Adobo?" parodied off the "Got Milk?" ad slogans. Adobo is a very popular Filipino dish.


Cousins, nieces, nephews and "Got Adobo?"

I returned to Davao City (my dad's hometown) where I spent New Year's.


This is portion of the entire Serrano clan gathered in front of our house.

Most of my cousins on my dad's side are all older than me... Most in their 30s. The majority of them already have children.


Me, nieces, nephews, and someone's head.

It's a Filipino tradition that in the coming of the New Year or a major event, money is rolled up in little balls and thrown to the family to symbolize good luck and fortune and coming wealth and hapiness in the coming year... It was pretty fun to watch and everyone had a good time.


Catching the money.

I also have some photos that I've added to my deviantArt.com. Check em out...
"Ocean Sunset" - an incredible capture I got at dawn in Kiamba.
"Mother and Child" - a shot of my cousin's wife and their child.
"Pikoy" - a close up shot of my uncle's really rad parrot.
"Pikoy Dos" - another close up shot of my uncle's really rad parrot.

Yep, that's all I've got for now. I have taken more pictures, but I haven't uploaded them to my computer. So that's pretty much all the pictures from before 2006. Hope you enjoyed em!

Pictures...

...are coming tomorrow. Hold on to your hats.

So today is my father's 50th birthday. Wow. 50 years old. Congrats, man. That's half a century. Amazingness. And you dont look much older than 42 or something.

Happy birthday, pops.

Hey HOBY, HOBY, Are you ready?

so... every summer, hundreds of people from all over the world gather together in Washington D.C. for a week and a half of motivation, learning, enlightenment, and fun. This huge event is called the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership World Leadership Congress. of the HOBY WLC.

I now officially have the distinct pleasure and honor to be the assistant to the Director of Ambassadors (DA). The DA is pretty much the chairperson for the whole event so she has a lot of work to do. My responsibility is to help her with all that work.

Anyway. I'm pumped.

Click here to read more.

More info about HOBY at HOBY.org

HOBY always gets me excited. I can't wait for this summer!

/sigh

So being back in school isn't all that fun. Christmas break was awesome. Got to hang out with family and that was great.

Now, I'm back at school and I'm disliking it more and more each day. I'm finding it increasingly frustrating to interact with people here and with me being the extrovert that I am, is very difficult for me. I'm normally talkative. I'm normally outgoing. Yet here, it feels impossible to be my 'normal' self. I want my friends. I want my 'normal' way of life back in the U.S.A..

Granted, I have learned so much in my stay here, but I am so ready to come home. And I have THREE months left! I guess I must be being ungrateful or something, but really... I'm not being myself here and I hate that.

I've tried. I try to talk or joke around with some of my classmates, even some of my family, but they don't get it. Needless to say, I just feel so left out here. It's like everybody's in on some kind of joke that I'm totally oblivious of.

It sucks that my parents didn't raise me to learn tagalog, but that's just the way the dice landed.

Eh, so with my frustration, I've secluded myself and stayed in my room most of the time either on the computer or reading a book. This culture shock is starting to get to me. I've really never been here this long... and it seems to me right now that three more months is going to be torture.

Luckily, my mom and one of my best friends is coming for three weeks on the 25th of January. My 19th birthday is on the 29th, so they'll be here for that, which I'm very excited for.

Honestly, I'm just so worn out from being here. I don't have many real friends, if any. So emails and occasional phone calls and voice chats online is all I have. My friends back home are what sustain me through tough times, and I don't have that here. I'm not getting constant refreshment, so I just feel so freakin tired every day.

I miss home.

Oh man, i'm sick.

Sick like allergy sick. It's mega annoying.

Well happy passed holidays to everyone! I know it's been almost a month since I've posted, but i've been out of the city for a while and when I came back it was all work and no play. I don't have the energy to really type out a huge blog right now, but just wanted to tell you all... that i'm alive and kickin, even if the kickin is more like a little punt. I'm so tired and sick.

Meh.