ARGH.
I haven’t blogged about anything in the last month. Don’t get me wrong. I have lots of things to write about, I don’t feel like writing. I’ve just been feeling so uninspired lately, in a literary sense.
I think in a way, it has to do with my detachment from the internet. You see, I deactivated my Facebook account in an attempt to wean myself off the site and reclaim my life. As many people already know, Facebook eats up lots and lots of precious time. Time, you could use, towards being productive or doing something fun. In short, by giving up Facebook, I decided to stop living on the internet and start living in real life.
Admittedly, the first week was difficult. Now I don’t miss it anymore. I get so much more done!! Amazing what I can accomplish instead of staring at my Facebook feed all day, looking at how my friends live their lives. I’ve always said that Facebook breeds envy. I mean you stalk your friends/crush/boss/enemies/exes/coworkers/person you met at the bar/relatives/classmates and when you see how seemingly amazing their lives are, you feel a tinge of envy because you wish you had the same. Unhealthy. So glad I’m not a part of that.
It’s been good so far. I deactivated my account on August 12, 10pm. I’ve sworn off Facebook for 30 days. As incentive, my friends are giving me Php1/day (total Php30) when I’ve successfully completed this challenge. I’ve received a total of Php380 in pledges from friends who have supported my cause. I’m going to donate this money to charity.
I’ll be back on FB soon. I hope it will be less addicting now that I’ve been able to successfully step away from it. I wonder if people noticed I was gone.
I’m so proud. A Filipino dance group called The Crew took home the gold medal at the 2012 World Hip Hop Championships adult division. Their “mother” crew called UPStreet won bronze in the Megacrew division. For those of you that don’t know, UP Street is short for U.P. Street Dance Club hailing out of the University of the Philippines. The Crew is the smaller all-male crew of UPStreet. To put it succinctly, they are incredibly good and they deserve to win.
This year, many Filipino teams flew to Las Vegas to compete in the World Hip Hop Championships. Other crews – The Philippine All-Stars (won in 2008), Tha Project, A-team, Legit Status, Freshflow, Lsdc street also competed. Filipinos are so amazing at Hiphop and the number of entries we have is only a small portion of the talent that our country has to offer. I’m proud that all these teams represented us. We may not be good at the Olympics, but we can rock the hell out on a dance floor.
One of the members of the Crew, Xernan Alfonso, is a friend of mine. I used to take dance classes and he would teach us some incredible moves. I’m honored to have been able to dance with him even if I’m only 1/1000th of the dancer he is. He and I used to talk about the championships and how he’s been wanting and praying to be able to compete and win. The dream has finally become a reality and they totally deserve it.
Congratulations to you Xernan, The Crew, UP Street and all of the Filipino dance crews that represented us. You did us so proud. Pilipinas Pataas!
Here’s a video of the winning performance. I can’t stop watching it. (Xernan is the guy who does the elevated moonwalk among many other gravity defying backflips)
…Obviously I should not be taking photos while driving. So these photos are from when my dad was driving or when we were at pitstops. Don’t worry, I’m a responsible driver..for the most part.
Pit stop. The weather in Krabi was bi-polar. Here in this photo it’s crazy sunny and warm. However, five minutes later, it was drizzling. Another five minutes later, it would be pouring with zero visibility. Then, when we were thoroughly confused, it would be sunny again. Make up your mind, weather! These unpredictable weather conditions continued throughout our drive.
Dad and I took turns driving. Thank God he drove the difficult routes. Not only was the road extremely winding, it was also twisty. It’s like Baguio but worse. I guess when they paved the road going up the mountain they followed the terrain which means the road wasn’t flat but slanted. You’ll see in the photos. This part made some of us dizzy. It was that extreme.
Dizzy yet?
We’re pretty spoiled and they gave us this tablet and cellphone to test the car’s technologies with. It has Sync by Microsoft which has voice command. This lets you command it to play songs (specific artists, genres, albums), make calls and hear text messages. Pretty cool. They had Backstreet Boys, Michael Jackson and Jay-Z! This is what we were playing in the car.
Scenes from the Drive. Krabi is beautiful. Picture Batangas except with massive rock outcrops and jagged cliffs.
We got to really push the car to its limits. We raced on the highway! Dad was able to push the car up to 180 km/hr and I was too afraid so the max I did was 120 km/hr. Oh my goodness, the need for speed! So fun! The car is really powerful and stable even at high speed.
Another Pitstop at Borseanvilla, a spa/resort. This time for lunch! Notice how it’s overcast.
We’re setting up for a group photo.
At some point we switched cars also to car #15 (a sedan).
Our Convoy:
Me! Driving:
At the end of the trip, this is what our odometer said. Wow! We drove that distance in 6 hours!
We had some free time before dinner so dad and I took the liberty of checking out the hotel grounds.
You gotta take a golf cart to get from the main lobby to the rooms.
The Sheraton Krabi is pretty in the day, it’s a massive well-manicured property.
There’s pools, lots of buildings and a looong stretch of gorgeous white sand beach.
Because we were there off-season, the beach was gloriously deserted. Too bad we were not dressed properly which makes us look funny in these photos. Jeans at the beach?! Atrocious!
Dad and I goofing off
After this not much else happened. We had dinner that night and flew back the next day. It was an exhausting trip but getting to drive the Ford Focus was a great adventure 🙂
Ford Philippines has launched the All-New Ford Focus. Whenever a new vehicle is released into the market, a Ride & Drive is held for dealers and media to get to know the car and its features in depth.
Usually the Ride & Drives are held in Thailand because Ford has a large manufacturing plant and presence there. The Focus R&D was hosted in Krabi, Thailand. I’ve never been there and had no idea what to expect. It’s apparently one of the more low-key beach destinations in Thailand, with the more popular ones being Pattaya and Phuket. Here are some photos from our 3-day sojourn.
Day 1 was spent traveling. Our flight was at 10:30am and we didn’t get to the hotel until 9pm. They put us up in the Sheraton Krabi. I was exhausted and incredibly happy to see my bed and hotel room that I had to snap photos. These are the only photos I took on Day 1. The room was so nice but I’m sad I didn’t have enough time to enjoy it!
Day 2 was the Ride and Drive.
We got up early for breakfast.
There was a quick product briefing in these super super comfortable lounge chairs. So tempting to nap!
Walter Sullivan discussing the Sync Technology feature installed on the Ford Focus.
Q&A
Snacks. I like the attention to detail (mini flags)
These banana fritters were pretty awesome.
A safety briefing before the drive. This guy is funny.
Back to fundamentals of road safety
This slide made me excited that we might see elephants crossing.
Our route
Our Convoy
We’re in Car #10 – this candy red hatchback. My favorite color, if I were to get one.
FINALLY! Time to drive! Woo! I was a little nervous because it’s right hand drive. This was going to take some getting used to since Manila is the opposite. I was veering off to the left in the beginning and had trouble figuring out the right lanes.
Start of the trip.
…To be continued!
The Friends You Lose and The Strength You Gain
I lost a friend.
Now this can be taken two ways:
Literally – If a friend disappears (as in dies, moves to a different place and other ways he/she is physically absent from your life and you barely communicate), you are sad because they have left you. They are no longer around so you cherish the memories and think quite fondly of them. Perhaps, if you can, you keep in touch. If not, then you send them your prayers and hope they are watching over you and are in a better place. You miss them terribly and if you were truly close, then there is a void inside you that other friends can’t fill.
Figuratively – If you lost a friend this way, then unlucky for you, you still have to deal with their presence because they’re still around. How? They’re still making rounds in your social circle and constantly coming up on your Facebook news feed. News of what they do and what what they say about you still trickles through the grapevine as painful reminders of the friend you once had. They hold the ability to hurt you further by damaging your reputation and driving wedges between you and other friends. You are sometimes forced to make pleasantries with them when deep inside, you really want to tell them to “go f themselves.” Unfortunately, you have to make nice because social conventions tell you that you should try to get along with everyone. But still, this doesn’t change the fact that they hurt or betrayed you and for that, you can no longer see them as a friend.
I lost a friend, figuratively. While I DO NOT want to lose friends literally, I’m inclined to believe that the figurative way is worse.
I don’t think I can explain this post properly without alluding to the events that led to this realization so I won’t say too much. All I will say is, when I realized the truth about my supposed friend, I felt like someone punched me in the gut. I literally felt the wind knocked out of me. I cried a river because I was so livid and I felt quite betrayed. There was a time in my life that I had welcomed this person into my life, introduced them to my family and friends and by doing so, made myself vulnerable to them. The moment of clarity I experienced upon realizing what kind of person they really were filled me with a whole barrage of emotions ranging from a deep sense of loss and sadness to regret. On top of it all, I am absolutely furious.
To my credit, at some point I was already wary of this person so I’ve been quietly observing them and taking mental notes. I already began to distance myself. Unfortunately, my mistake is that I didn’t do it fast enough.
Someone once told me that if I had more than 5 true friends, that’s suspiciously too many. Apparently, as far as real and true friendships go, 5 is the ceiling. I don’t know who decided on the number 5 or at what point of your life you should make the declaration but that’s the adage and it got me thinking. “How many true friends do I really have?” (Obviously family or any blood-relatives don’t count.) It’s tough for me to answer because as recent events have shown me, in this day and age, friendships are good up until a limit. Few friendships will live to see those limits tested and even fewer will survive the challenges. Whoever is left could be a true friend but then again, only time will tell. People walk in and out of my life on a daily basis. I know to some extent who my real friends are. This person I am referring to in this entry is not one of them.
I know some of you might be wondering now.. who is this person Jules is referring to. Honestly, it’s not worth the trouble. You’re better off taking a long hard look at your own social circle to determine who is real and who isn’t. Protect yourself. I know I will be. However, I’m not the kind of person who goes quietly into the night so I do have a game plan for my situation. It’s not antagonistic by any means, it’s just being myself and letting their weaknesses do all the work. In the end, I know that what goes around comes around. Let’s just hope that this person I’m referring to has real friends of their own because when karma’s done with this person, he/she’s gonna need them.