HELLO 2013!

On 2 January 2013, I drafted:

"Okay, so it's past midnight on the second day of 2013. Which means, tonight I'll be flying back to Manila. It's kinda bittersweet because I am both excited to start my third trimester and sad to leave my hometown. The latter is a particularly stronger emotion since I have been having a blast for the past few days. Perhaps this is one of those vacations that I didn't spend much. And yet, I was extremely joyful sharing quality time with my family and friends. :-)

Whether I was having a chat with my cousins, or cooking a special dish for my folks, or playing at the mall arcade with my friends, I was utterly happy. And this happiness made me realize that truly, the best things in life are priceless.

Okay, enough of that.

What I really want to do right now (after verbalizing above how I feel at the moment) is (1) to jumpstart blogging /*since I have been missing in the blogosphere for many weeks*/; and (2) try out this new scheme of uploading photos in this blog. For the first one, I'll try to start writing some pending blog entries that I have been meaning to publish but didn't find time to do so. And for the latter, as advised by a couple of Facebook friends, I'll try to use Flickr as a means to upload photos in blogspot despite my storage capacity issues with Blogger.

And to start with the latter, let me attach a trial pic in this entry. Hope this works."



<<<<<< Fast forward to 12 January 2013:  Okay it didn't work. If I want to continue blogging here, I would need to upgrade this account and avail extra storage for a fee. Since I seem to have no choice, why not push all the way through, get extra storage + have my own domain name + host my own site? Good plan, eh? Except for the 'annual fees' part. Not cool. However, I really have few alternatives, so I just have to deal with the fees.

So anyway, I revived my original blog in Wordpress (which has nil entries). If ever I'll host my own site, I'll be using Wordpress due to its flexibility /*think of the iOS vs Android analogy*/. Perhaps I should have entitled this blog "GOODBYE" instead of "HELLO" because this is going to be my last entry in Blogger. Awww... I hate goodbyes. It gets me teary-eyed every time. T.T

But seriously, I'm thankful that people read this blog, and some few even clicked that "Follow" button.

Anyway, you can still catch me in my Wordpress site. Hope you still follow me there. Here's the URL:

http://lonewulfsdirge.wordpress.com/




Thanks guys! This is LONEWULF signing off...


...in Blogger.

ELBI

Los Baños, or “Elbi” as we fondly call it, is a place that I consider my second hometown. I have generally lived most of my life in four places: Tagum City (~11 years), Davao City (~4 years), Los Baños (~6), 

Makati (~4).

Carillion and the Fertility Tree

Feb Fair

THE MAÑANITA

When I was a child, we had this tradition in our neighbourhood that involved people secretly gathering on someone’s birthday (normally at the request of the celebrant’s family) and surprising him or her with an early morning serenade. Normally, people gather between 4-5am and starts to sing the serenade in front of the celebrant’s house – the first song is supposed to be sweet sounding and it is meant to gently wake the celebrant up. We normally use the song Silayan. And then the mesmerized celebrant lets us in and we continue the merrymaking indoors, singing different songs that celebrate life and gratitude to God. The singing normally ends with people dancing to an upbeat song, e.g. Mingaw mingaw ang tiyempo, sa pag-uros sa hangin... And then... eating time ‘till break of dawn!

We call this whole affair the mañanita.

KIMCHILANDIA CHRONICLES: JEJU ISLAND – JEJU FOLK VILLAGE

Kimchilandia Chronicles – Chronological recounting of Lonewulf’s great Korean adventure

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umi-emo si koya

Folk villages are a common type of tourist spot in Korea. It is one of the must-go-to attractions in Kimchiland, so I insisted that we should visit at least one. However, even if there was one near Seoul, we were only able to visit the one in Jeju (one of the two in the island).

The Jeju Folk Village features an actual village, albeit uninhabited except for dolls, where you get to peek inside traditional village homes, farms, backyards, etc. The village also features an administrative house, where the most influential man in the village ought to live.

The compound has some restaurants and souvenir shops where you can shop for neat Jeju thingamajigs. Plus, there's an area where you can don traditional Korean costumes, for a fee of course. And it even has a hut filled with Jang Geum memorabilia. Yes, that Jewel in the Palace girl.

Wait. Why am I spoiling everything? Here, take a peek of our experience in the Jeju Folk Village.

Enjoy!

BEHIND LIES

I would just like to share with you these two videos of my latest performances. Both of which happened in the same event, Verve 3.

 

VERVE is a dance concert series being staged by the UPLB Street Jazz Dance Company (my college hiphop group). If you’re familiar with other school’s dance concerts, Verve can be likened to UP Manila Indayog’s SAYAW MANILA, UP Streetdance Club’s STREET FUZION, or LaSalle Street Dance Company’s DANZ DISH. I’m sure the Company of Ateneo Dancers also has one but I’m not sure what it’s called.

W.O.C.D.T - HELMET DIVING

 

Finally, I was able to find some time to post this. The last installment of the W.O.C.D.T. series. :)

To complete our Bora activities, we allowed ourselves to be submerged was that 15? feet below sea-level, and had a one-of-a-kind experience of playing with some fish.

SWEATING IN FRONT OF A MOB NEVER FELT THIS GOOD

For months, I've been dying to post this vid but I can't find a good reason to turn it into a blog entry. Finally, I managed to find an opportunity. That's because this entry is going to be all about dancing. :)

If you didn't know it yet, I dance. It is a passion I have since I was a kid. I danced while I was struggling with my strenuous high school curriculum in Pisay. I danced while completing my baccalaureate degree in Los Baños. And even now while I'm learning the ropes in the corporate world, I still dance. Heck, a handful of my friends ONLY know me as "that guy who dances". They don't even know I have a day job.

ALWAYS LISTENING. ALWAYS UNDERSTANDING.

Our code "Always Listening. Always Understanding." emphasizes our belief in the Power of Listening as our main tool to provide solutions to our clients. This ad has been airing for a month now, and has targeted slots of top-rating primetime shows like Mara Clara.

Just want to share to everyone, since I'm proud of our company and our products.

If you are interested to learn more about Pru Life UK and its products, go to this website.

URBAN ELITE MARCH 2011 GIG

 

This is a video of our (Urban Elite) performance last 11 March 2011 at PCU GUIDance (GOD U and I Dance). Apologies for the quality, I lowered the pixel counts so I can upload it here. Enjoy!

Choreo Credits:

Never Ever - Athea Baraquio
You Belong With Me - Athea Baraquio
G is for Girl - Isa Lexie Martinez
Get Buck in Here - Louie Canaria / Erik Javier
Bleeding Love - Erik Javier
We Need You - John Roy Deimoy

Dancers:

Me!
Erik Javier
Louie Canaria
Jude Eco
Xan Yee
AJ Tapia
Tope Peregrino
Lexie Martinez
Joie Gabriel
Sabrina Marin
Charm Ubalde
Mariel Ortega