CCNA

passed the exam. now, a Certified Cisco Network Associate! lvl up ++ (yet again)

and now, on to other (greater?) things...

dead stars?

For most of a star's life, gravity and pressure balance each other exactly, and so the star is stable. However, when a star runs out of nuclear fuel, gravity gets the upper hand and the material in the core is compressed even further. The more massive the core of the star, the greater the force of gravity that compresses the material, collapsing it under its own weight.

-Science Background

stars on their own, science tells us eventually become black holes. nothing more but a shade of their former glorious self.
you know what i think? anything in this world, tangible or not, whether it be a great or terrible kind of beauty, as long as it feeds on itself or has the wrong kind of reason will eventually, "shine and burn" itself out.

what am i trying to say? go read between the lines and figure. if you can, that is. :)

now, a quarter of a century...

to those who remembered and greeted me on my natal day. :)

ma, pa, my siblings minus 1, cousteau for a bark and a lick!
cousins, girlfriends of cousins, boyfriends of cousins, titas, titos, aunts and uncles
extended families and cy's sisters most especially
colleagues in the faculty room, recomed inc. and upstrat inc.
students, MS classmates and once-classmates(both in college and in hs)
and my ebc family, capoeira, kick-ass training sessions, roda and good axe: (especially to contente, beju, piexe frito, pixote, pirulito, macaca and esquiva)

family, friends, acquaintances, and significant other**. for writing on my wall. :)

i know the celebration started early (sep 19) and ended kinda late (sep28) but company is sweet especially if you know that they are genuine. gb3 banana leaf, north park, gb2 bizu and bhs tgif :)

feliz aniversario, professora! parabens!

Capoeoira se me chamar eu vou

Sweat dripping. Chest heaving. I'm trying to catch my breath.
The berimbau is telling me to play. And not just play. It's telling me to play fast.
And so I do. My ginga is not even for resting like it's supposed to.
I'm moving. Sideways. Trying to find an opening.

He makes a move but I know what's coming.
I fall letting him think I'm got.
Hoping all the while that the glint in my eye does not show.
I escape and I make my counter.

When we're done. I clap and sing.
Try to give back what I took.
I raise my voice just as I had raised my legs, my arms and my body.
Let them feel how I feel when I start to play.
With him, with her, with you, with myself.
In this circle. We are one.

I played 5 or six games tonight. And it felt like everyone wanted to play with me. I'm ecstatic. So this is what Fantasma feels like when he steps into the roda. Pure. Complete. Utter rapture.

MBP is his Tiffany's

I remember a conversation I had with Cy regarding one of the many differences between the male and female gender. This particular one spawned from a scene in The Devil Wears Prada where Andy hands Lilly a Mark Jacobs bag and Nate fails to understand why women need so many bags. Apparently, Cy has a bit of Nate's character in him as he gave me a suspicious look and asked me what my excuse was for having so many myself. Ever since we had that conversation, the differences between our male-female interest became more prominent that we gradually added to the list of our agreed upon differences/quirks over time.

Yesterday, Cy got his Macbook Pro. A 17" beauty of pure computing power which I'm sure will make him all the more addicted to his work (that is, if he could get any more addicted). He's yet to give it a name but I am none less happy and excited for him. Congratulations on your MBP and I hope you write many more kick-ass programs on it. :)

Here's a Photobooth (using my MB Neve) of us with Cy's yet nameless MBP and Scylax (Cy's MB) at the back.

i am myself. even if the whole world should change.

there have been a lot of things that should have been written about as soon as they ended. a multitude of it since my blogging lethargy. but that doesn't mean that they didn't happen. nor does it mean that they are less than those i have written about in the past. and i guess, more than elevating them by writing about them, i transcend them over words and memory so that upon recollection, they are better than they ever were.

how do i know that i am more happy? you only smile. i laugh. :)

Have you?

Have you ever met one? Someone who was all talk? Someone so full of herself that she thinks everything is about her or at least relates to her? Someone who, butts in to your conversations or worse, gives her opinion or advice, however unsolicited? Someone who when you ask her something always says 'Yeah I know that' or 'Sure, it's easy' and then when you try to ask her to elaborate, she falters and tries to change the subject? Someone who thinks she's better than you just because she speaks with an accent?

So, have you ever met one? Have you ever met a phony?

If you've ever met one, or just in case you meet one, here's an advice: Let them run their mouths dry and let them waste all their energy trying to impress you. Even if they don't come with a self-destruct button, they always manage to dig their own graves.

(As an add-on, if you want added entertainment, always play the innocent and ask them one question after another when they try to monopolize the conversation to highlight their proficiency on the subject matter.. watch them squirm as they begin to realize that you know better than they do and eventually shut up.)

More than Light Grenades

today was a lazy sunday. though i woke up 4.30am due to a currently very messed up body clock courtesy of my work, i napped for 3 hours after i ate my breakfast. the only excitement was the concert later tonight which ironically, i never got to my opinion at least, the proper excitement it was due. again because of work. perhaps my body felt the blasphemy of my treatment of the upcoming event that it decided to overload me with all that i had missed.

as soon as cy and i got seated along with den, angel, she, jeric, lheng and estre, i was shaking with excitement. giddy in fact. they say that some things are only as good as the wait. the concert however, was beyond that adage.

they played 18 songs in all. yes i counted and i find no eccentricity in that. actually, i even took a mental note of the number of songs i particularly liked. songs 4-10, 13 and 16-18. sadly, i'm unable to recall the titles of the song in the order they were played. my absolute favorite was 16.

i counted 15 when the band left the stage and the lights went out. the crew was invading the stage, taking mike's guitar, taking brandon's micrphone stand... apparently at 15 songs, the concert was over. it only took an hour and 15 mins. i was disappointed. for Php3,360 i had expected it at least to be an hour and 30 mins long and i had hoped that they would play summer romance or stellar. although it was a tour that promoted light grenades, the two afformentioned songs are popular enough to be included in the gig list. apparently, Php3,360 fell short and the two weren't as popular as i thought. evidently, i wasn't the only one who was deep in my dissatisfaction. the crowd was starting to shout 'more'.

5 mins after the band left the stage, i was struck dumb with disbelief that the 5 who created most of the music in my playlist was reentering the stage. when i heard the first few notes, i recognized it unmistakably. even now, i could not find the words to describe the torrent of emotions i felt upon recognition of the song - stellar, the song that started it all for me and cy both. it was too much for me to feel all at once: the reentry, dramatic as if it were out of a movie script, the song uncannily selected as if by a divine hand and the serendipity of it all happening with cy beside me. by the time the first line of the song was sung, i was in tears. my heart was the biggest it has ever been as if it inflated itself 5 times its normal size. it was so big that i felt it in my chest. so big that i was conscious of its presence within me. i glanced to my right and i realized that the reason why i was aglow with the richness of what i felt was standing right beside me, listening to the same song i was hearing looking at me and harboring a silent, secret smile.

i was crying through the rest of the song. which is weird since i'm really not much of a cry-er. but i now believe that it is possible to be in tears in moments when you are in exquisite bliss. how should i describe it? empyrean perhaps, for it is higher than any notion of heaven i have ever been taught in sunday school. i was blissed out. so much, that it is beyond all telling. i can mark yet another item in my life's to do list. to be moved to tears out of sheer happiness.

Light Grenades

When you've got lower box tickets to watch one of your favorite bands, you're be sure to be counting down the days.



When they were here last, I watched them will college friends and Cy never got to go. Now that they're visiting again, I'm glad that I'll be watching them not only with college friends but with Cy too. We've got our calendar marked for March 9. I hope you've marked yours too. :D