Young Casanova

IT'S ABOUT WAKING UP IN THE morning with a bad hangover and being hit by a very familiar feeling that you went overboard again last night.

It's about a one-night stand with a girl you met at a party, sneaking out of her room before she wakes, checking your things if something was missing, looking for her phone and purposely deleting your number from her phonebook.

It's about meeting a girl at a bar and offering her a ride home. It's about asking her if she wanted to go someplace private so you can talk--when both of you are aware that you have a different "talk" in mind.

It's about meeting your ex again after quite some time and noting how much better she looks now than she did before. It's about pushing the right buttons for her to give in. And finding yourself in bed with her without strings attached, all the while being grateful to your friend who told you it's good not to burn your bridges with your exes.

It's about seeing a girl and finding ways for you to meet her. With pickup lines being overused, you have a better chance of getting her number by having a friend go over and ask her politely if he can have his friend over there introduced to her.

It's about texting with her the whole day, getting to know her, showing that you have a genuine interest in her, sharing sweet nothings on the phone and forwarding her cheesy quotes that work almost all the time.

It's about having your friend, your partner-in-crime, the Robin to your Batman--or whatever you want to call him--validate to her all your pledges of devotion and loyalty.

It's about perfecting the art of lying. Telling your girlfriend it was just you and the boys last night--go ask Robin. And not bothering to tell Robin what to say because he already knows the routine.

It's about keeping your girlfriend happy. Giving her gifts and surprises so she won't suspect your wayward ways.

It's about not caring if your girlfriend broke up with you because she caught you cheating. There are other fish in the sea, you say. You're better off a free man, free to do anything you pleased without worrying about getting caught.

It's about asking the girl you just met out for a date. Convincing her that you're for real. Making her forget about the warnings her friends gave about you.
It's about doing anything so you can bring her home tonight. And if everything else fails, it's always a good idea to have a plan B.

It's about saying the L word without breaking eye contact. Making her believe that you really mean it and that you're starting to fall for her. That's plan B.

It's about thinking of ways to break up with her if she starts to get clingy. Thinking of the standard breakup lines and wondering if she'll buy it.

It's about rushing to your friend's girlfriend with a shoulder to cry on. Telling her that everything's gonna work out fine. Comforting her one minute, making out the next.

It's about going out with your friends and partying all night. Drinking till dawn and playing around with girls.

It's about waking up in the morning with a bad case of hangover and a very familiar feeling that you went overboard again last night.

Deja vu.

Ugly cycle

It really is an ugly cycle. After years of a life like this, you begin to ask yourself if there is more to life than drinking all night and finding someone to hook up with. And in the morning when you wake up, no matter how much you soap yourself, you still have this uneasy feeling that you're still dirty.

Your friend has found a girl that he's serious about. When you go out with your friends, you find him taking a raincheck because he has to spend time with his girl. You and your friends wonder what has gotten into him. You even wonder if he's lost his mind. How can he even think about trading this kind of life? There's nothing better than a bachelor's life.

It's all fun and games the first few years. But after a while, you look at yourself in the mirror and find the traces of abuse you did to yourself. And if you don't change your ways, you fear that maybe someday you'll find yourself alone and lonely.

And after all the years of booze and girls, you can finally sum up your life in one word--empty.

Maybe it's not good to spend your life that way. Maybe your friend hasn't lost his mind, after all.

What you need is to find someone who can make you look forward to another day. Someone who, when you think about her, never fails to put a smile on
your face.

Someone who makes you want to be a better man--to steal a line from pareng Jack Nicholson.

Someone who fills that emptiness in you, making you complete.

Before, when you used to wake up in the morning and find somebody in your arms, your first thought was how you could get rid of her without hurting her feelings. But now, what you need is a girl who makes you want to think of reasons and ways to let her stay in your arms.
Because when she's right there beside you, it is as if everything's okay. That nothing else matters but you and her.

You need somebody who makes you miss her so much that you buy a bottle of her perfume and spray it on your pillows so, when you go to bed at night, you can hug the pillow with her scent on it and wish that it was really her you were hugging.

You need somebody who makes your heart skip a beat when she smiles at you. Who makes you feel so comfortable and safe that you pour out your heart to her, unburdening secrets that you've kept for a long time. And having her tell you that it's okay, you have a new slate now, that you can leave everything where it belongs, in the past, and concentrate on what lies ahead of you.

You need someone who makes you listen more to love songs on the radio. Someone whom you pray for at night before you sleep. Someone you wish you'd dream about, for even while you sleep, you still want to be with her.

Someone whom you can finally look in the eye, without all the guilt and deceit, and tell her you love her. And you get this mushy feeling inside that tells you it's true. You want to shout over the rooftops, you love her, and she loves you!

There's no better feeling in the world.

I have found my someone. I have found my all. I've been wanting to ask this for a long time now. And I think there's no better timing than now.

So here I am, down on one knee, asking you, my someone.

Will you marry me?

____________________________________________
By Benjamin Joseph D. Collado III
Inquirer
Last updated 00:38am (Mla time) 07/26/2006
Published on Page C1 of the July 26, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Nice guys finish last

Hi there! I have to post this... Hahaha. I got this from a friend of mine....

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This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.

This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you’d ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.

The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.

Fu-zu Jen, SEAS/WH, 2003

Absent blogger

guys i'm really sorry i haven't written any blogs for the past couple of months. Hindi dahil busy ako. Nde ko lng tlaga alam isusulat ko. Though sobrang dami nangyayari saken ngayon medyo nde ko pa alam kung san ko sisimulan. so iba na lng muna pinagkakaabalahan ko. check this site http://bazurak.deviantart.com. so either jan ako magppost ng mga bagay bagay or pag naisip ko na ilalagay ko ulit dito magpopost ulit ako. ;)

Passion

it's 11:30PM and i can't sleep. i remember i haven't done some blogging for quite sometime so i decided to write this one, the date may not be sunday coz i'm writing this using my phone, i'll just post this tomorrow. i woke up late today, been to a birthday party of 2 of my friends, they've both celebrated their birthday at the same time, quite a party actually. ‘Yun, so i decided to just lay on my bed and watch some movies from my archive. eventhough i should've been to kR’s mom's party. she invited me but i'm not quite in the mood. so there i got about 7 CDs in my hand. and then i started watching for hours. then i've seen "The PASSION of the Christ". and then it struck me, Jesus has really such passion! eventhough He was scourge and everything He still didn't let go of what he believes in, which is to serve God and free us from our original sin (whew, for a minute there i sounded like my REED professor in college, hahaha!). but still passion is what really drives us, in work, in our family, in our relationship. PASSION is the key. being able to maintain that passion is one hell of a job. i know coz i've been thinking about that lately especially at work. i dunno if it's the environment, coz it seems fine. but i'm not driven by the same passion i had before. before our manager was a mommy to us, eventhough sometimes we argue but still we like what she does. she stands for us. and my barkada is also in our department, smart guys whom i know are really good and driven by the same passion as i have. but now, since they've left, i don't know. i can't feel some competetion. i dunno if i'm just so fucking conceited, or i really just can't feel that they are driven by the same passion at work that i had before. but don’t get me wrong, the guys and gals on my department are some kick-ass engineers. I just don’t know why I feel this way. I felt like that passion that i have is somewhat fading... i've read a blog from wilson ng, a business man, talking about how he admire bill gates for having the same passion now as he had 30 years ago. and continuing his legacy to the IT community. i hope i had that passion... so i say this to you, BE DRIVEN BY PASSION... and you will achieve contentment and excellence! as for me, i'll be finding a way how to regain that passion...

20 Questions

20 questions, and your 20 photographic answers!

got the idea from ollie.

gather data

i really hate long meetings. yesterday, i'm with my colleagues, and we are stuck on the board room the whole day, with our client, regarding the finalization of our project.
what is the "project"?, you might ask. well, for the past 9 months we've been doing this project every weekend. it's a billing system. like the ones Meralco is delivering every month. and it's our first project, on our newly established software company. well we can say that practice really makes it perfect. because what we learned in school don't really apply that much in the philippine setting. and with this project i really learned quite a lot, like accounting, escaping tax payment that is. and also from some friends with their company established earlier. the best thing that i've learned is setting "LIMITS". when we were starting we're so excited about it, pouring all our knowledge on it. making everything perfect, giving the clients what they "want", but the client sometimes take advantage. asking to add this and that, which makes the project take several more weeks to finish. and that is one thing that i learned. [on data gathering] ask everything there is about the system process, make them layout everything from starting until the end, ask for especial cases and standards (if there is any), for you will suffer in the end if you don't.

unreciprocated love

unreciprocated love is something that i couldn't get a hang on for quite sometime. february last year, a friend of mine, introduced me to this really beautiful, angelic faced girl. we were mere acquaintance. but i really liked her the first time i layed my eyes on her. there is "magic", some might call it.
i think for about a week about things, like will she even entertain me and stuff... then i decided that i'll court her. i went to their house, she introduced me to her parents. we were going out to see movies, gimmicks with friends. everything was good. everything seemed to be well.but one day i stopped. i have heard something about her, and it kinda shocked me. i lay lowed for a bit. and then, we're just friends again. haven't seen each other for quite sometime.
but just 2 weeks ago, our paths crossed again. every friday we do gimmicks, and i was surprised that she was on the driver's seat when my friend picked me from the office. my friend then teased me, how we don't end up together before, and that he brought her for me. hehehe. i just played along, so not to seem awkward.
we then arrived, picked our usual spot, and ordered beers. i then asked her how she was, what's new with her, etc, typical questions. we were talking and talking, my buddies even left us two on the table, just to have some privacy. really good buddies eh. hehehe. then alcohol sanked in.i held her hand just like before, and everything was wonderful. we were talking then of what happened before, that she liked me. and the world was wonderful again. we then part, i kissed her and told her i'll call her when she got home.
she texted me that she was home, so i called her. i told her what i haven't told her before, that i really like her, because i really want to get serious this time. then we said goodbye.
i texted her the next morning to take care, and she replied. that was the last text message i got from her. i texted her 3-5 time every day for more than a week. but haven't got any replies. i even asked her out and she still won't reply. then i saw her account on friendster which she always checks, then left a message, then she replied. she said that when she said she liked me, she only meant as a person, but it was really different when she told me that on that day, and then some lame excuses like she doesn't have credits to text me. WTF! she just bought a new Mazda3, and she don't have the money to buy some credits! That she was busy or sleeping coz she's an FA, so most of the time she really is tired. i didn't argue. i just replied, ok, thank you for being honest. she doesn't want me, that's for sure. but i am still hoping, call me a loser, but when you love, you love until the end. if that love vanish, then it's not love after all...