Jaded Perspectives

We didn't hit the pool today since it was raining hard. Also, if we took any more wet laundry along, we might have to pay extra for baggage on our airfare. I think the hotel had a laundry service, but we never really bothered with those -- in hindsight, it would have been easier if we did. I checked the prices and they're quite reasonable, actually. We still had a lot of extra provisions in the refrigerator and it was already Friday, so we had a light breakfast of some yogurt and empanada (a type of small meat bun with the bread fried around the edges to make it crisp). We'd actually brought the empanada along as a gift for some of the people we'd be meeting in Manila and my mother brought a ton of it along. It's a Filipino tradition called "Pasalubong," which would literally translate to "for encountering." Basically, the gift is something you bring with you for meeting someone -- and it's usually a delicacy or some kind of novelty item/so

This review was delayed quite a bit due to me reformatting my SD card and accidentally deleting all my previous footage. Apologies for the shaky cam. I really need to find a stable place to mount my phone. Summary of the review: Good pigmentation, slightly chalky, no lightfast rating so it's probably student-grade, no water brush -- but over-all, pretty easy to use, very portable and the colors look nice.

Today, let us talk about a topic of monumental importance for all women – and men as well, to some extent, I suppose. And of course, that topic would be: how to avoid rape. Naturally, we’ll be using Nagi Sanzenin – specifically, 16 year-old Nagi from the end of the series as an example. Anyway, let’s keep it short and sweet today and get right on it. The Scenario Just in case you didn’t realize it yet, this will be a spoiler for the final chapter, but if you’re watching this video then you probably don’t even need this warning in the first place – thus, we continue. So the scenario here is that it’s Christmas Eve and Nagi is by herself in Loser Park thinking about who else? Hayate, of course. She’s reflecting on her personal growth and how far she’s come without him in the past two years. Suddenly, two men with obviously ill intentions approach her. Now it might be a bit of stretch to say that these two goofballs were thinking of raping her, but they were definitel

The third day of the trip was pretty much a free day as well. We weren't scheduled to meet anyone until later in the week. Anyway, we had a lot of food in the mini-refrigerator (that I forgot to mention the hotel had). Therefore, we had breakfast just inside the room. After that, we got ready to go swimming again. The weather was a bit cloudy this time. Also, there were no other people in the pool -- but that was fine. It's a really small swimming pool anyway. Naturally, this was a chance to take a pic of Nagi in another one of her swimsuits as well. Nagi is cute and sexy as usual today We spent just about an hour in the pool and then went back to the hotel room to get changed and hit another one of the nearby shopping malls. By the way, I got my shirt wet when I jumped into the pool and forgot to take it off, so I had to get inside the elevator with just a towel around me. An older guy who got inside the elevator looked pretty surprised to see me like that. Anyway, he

I think I woke up at about 7:00 AM. One thing that I like to do when I'm in a hotel is to just leave the TV on all night at low volume for background noise. I dunno, it just helps me to sleep better, like the sound of falling rain. Speaking of which, there's actually a rainfall sounds app that I use on my phone. The hotel left a small memo pad with a pencil in our room, so... Anyway, I stayed in bed for a bit longer until my mother decided that she wanted to get into a little Zumba session. There was actually enough space inside the room, so I set up the laptop to stream a Zumba session from youtube and hooked it up to the room's TV via HDMI port. After that, it was time for breakfast. We went downstairs to see which restaurants were open. Luckily, there was one called "The Pancake House" just across the street. There were actually two branches of this restaurant back in Iloilo, but they closed down for some reason. I think it's because their prices are

Unlike my previous trips this year, this one was purely a leisure trip. We were at Manila from July 3-8. My mother and I had booked this flight earlier in the year all the way back in February in order to take advantage of the low-prices on the ticket fare. You know, it's worth noting that people in Manila speak Tagalog, while we Ilonggos speak a different language altogether called "Hiligaynon." There are some words shared in-between the two languages, but otherwise, they are actually completely different. Still, most Filipinos, know how to converse in Tagalog because the national language, "Filipino" is actually just glorified Tagalog and it's taught as a mandatory subject in school from Primary to Tertiary levels. Furthermore, Tagalog is used in national television including all local TV shows, soap operas, and Filipino movies. Anyway, many ilonggos, usually from generations before Millennials actually have a hard time actually speaking in Tagalog with

I do not think that Nagi Sanzenin is a perfect character. Far from it, in fact. After all, as much as I am an idealist, I am also a realist – and it is all too obvious that as a person, Nagi is not perfect and that she was never meant to be in the first place. With that said, because I love her, she is perfect in all her imperfections for me. Still, there is one aspect of her that I find disagreeable – as it was portrayed in the manga and this would be. Actually, since I’m sure a lot of you out there just don’t like Nagi in general, I’ll let you take a guess. What do you think I don’t like about here? Ready? Go… Ok, I’m back, so what do you think? Is it… A.       Because she’s an immature spoiled brat? Well of course not. This is one of her perfect imperfections (as the song goes). She was indeed quite a spoiled brat at the start of the series and perhaps for a good majority of it… but you know what? For me, this is a part of what makes her character so likeable.

The world is empty… shallow… devoid of depth… would be my perspective right now if one thing had not happened on April 12, 2017 in our time – and of course, this would be Nagi Sanzenin’s total victory. Not only in securing the so-called Hayate bowl and being actually the one whom Hayate chose to be his true romantic partner at the end of the series. Certainly, it’s an open-ended type of ending with nothing really concrete said, but the implication is strong and quite clear – so let’s not argue about that. If you don’t like it, you’ve lost so stay salty forever~ But hey, I’m not here to talk about how salty you should be today. Today, I want to talk about what Nagi’s victory meant personally for me – and that’s just what we’re going to do. So first of all, let’s talk a little bit about me. I believe that the best way that I can describe myself would be – an empty shell of a person. I am basically someone with no big dreams and no strong desires in life – and as such, I am

An Earthquake in Davao (Inspired by an older Filipino classic) Story and Art by lordcloudx It was only halfway through March, but the humid temperature was already reaching hellish levels in the fair city of Davao, Philippines. In a tropical country, the heat is often compounded by moisture and humidity, making it extremely uncomfortable unless you have a job that allows you to sit all day inside an air-conditioned room.   Unfortunately for Attorney Farah Duarte-Isidro, the split-type air-conditioning unit inside of her otherwise lavishly adorned office was currently out of commission. It was a fairly new unit and still well within the five-year manufacturer’s warranty. Of course, it had been three days since the service center had informed her that her unit was on queue for repairs because of the busy work load of its authorized service repair technicians. Still, the sweltering heat was of secondary importance for the 34 year-old budding lawyer. The truth is that s