An Open Letter to Friends

Dear people,

Everybody loves their friends! We are all blessed with such wonderful people that share almost the same characteristics with each other! Especially the ones who are:

-Always there for you when they need something from you. You can’t handle the pressure of them asking and asking and asking, yet you do favors for them because you love them as friends. And they end up leaving you behind when they don’t need you anymore.

-Never going to leave your side in times that you are fruitful and prosperous. They are always there to be showered with all the good shit that come to your life! And like the other type of friends, they leave when you’re poor and stuck in a deep fucking sense of losing it all.

-Listens to your problems because they want to top it off with their own! You can’t just win on anything, no you can’t. They always have a problem far worse than yours and all you can do is wallow in your own fucking room while thinking of a way to help them out instead. Why? Because your problem is probably just a fraction of theirs.

-Thinking that they help you when they really don’t. They are the “proud” friends for always being right and thinking that every word they say, no matter how much it hurts you, are helpful to your well-being. They’re the ones who say “stay away from that guy” and “nothing good’s gonna come out of your decision, trust me”.

-Never forgets you only if you remind them. They are the ones who visit other friends or places and only remember you when they get a hint. I’m not sure if they’re all fucked up in the head but what I’m sure of is that you need to literally plant in their heads that you are one of them too and that they shouldn’t forget you. That would make you look desperate though, but heck they don’t give a fuck.

-Always finds a way to make excuses. You can’t just convince these people to lend you a little help, treat you for dinner or just simply hang out with you. Why? Who fucking knows? Their excuses are limitless and you can’t crack anything out of them. Once they say an excuse, no matter how obvious it is, they’ll stick to it and make you look like an asshole for insisting that they’re not telling the truth (even though they really aren’t).

These friends are easy to find. You can find one around your block with their other friends, especially the ones who just made their pathetic excuse and now have this fucking priceless look on their faces.

To all those friends, I really do hope you won’t change. Because when you do, you won’t be recognized as friends anymore. You’ll be enemies.

Signed,

The kind of friend who writes bad shit about other friends because of no particular reason. Or probably to reveal that these kinds of people exist. I’m not saying ALL though.

P.S.
Note the sarcasm. There aren’t any. 

Araw ng mga (insert bitter-lentine word here)

Araw ng mga puso. Hearts Day. Valentine’s Day (with apostrophe. Kasi yan ang tama) at marami pang ibang tawag! Parang pasko yan eh. Inaabangan ng nakararami, lalo na ng mga magkasintahan at mag-irog na hindi magkandamayaw sa pagpplano ng gagawin nila sa araw na ito. Pero bakit? Ano bang ispesyal sa araw na to? Ano bang dahilan kung bakit napakamahal ng bulaklak at tsokolate, gayung isang natural na araw ito?

“Balentayms kasi. Wag kang bitter.”

Yan ang sagot ng iba. Ang iba naman, may pa ignore ignore pang nalalaman at panay sabing

“It’s just an ordinary day no. Nothing special”, *sniff *sniff

Valentine’s day. Hindi Valentines day. Ang dami namang Balentino nun. Ito ay ang araw na pinagdiriwang ang araw ng mga puso, o romantic love bilang pag-alala sa mga gawain ng mga nakaraang St. Valentine (marami kasi sila. So medyo valid na yung argument ng Valentines vs. Valentine’s).

Love. Pag-ibig. Pag-irog. Pagmamahal. Lahat naman siguro ng tao ay may natural na pagmamahal. Hindi lang ito partikular sa isang espesyal na tao. Maaaring pagmamahal ito sa alagang aso, pusa, daga, ipis o gagamba. Ang pagmamahal ng tao ay matuturing na tunay na makapangyarihan. Dahil sa pagmamahal, nagagawa ng tao ang mga bagay na hindi niya sukat akalaing gawin. Mga sakripisyo, pasakit at paghihirap, para lamang mapasaya at mapagsilbihan ang kanyang minamahal. Pamilyar ba?

OO.

HINDI LAMANG SA BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND/WIFE/HUSBAND ANG ARAW NA ITO. ITO AY PARA SA LAHAT.

Agape, Philia, at Eros. — yan ang tatlong klase ng pag-ibig. At gaya ng sinabi kong araw ito para sa romantic love, yun ay sabi lamang ng wikipedia. Ngunit ang tunay na diwa ng Valentine’s Day ay ang celebration of LOVE per se.

Di naman siguro mabigat sa bulsa mo kung ibili mo ng isang pirasong bulaklak ang nanay mong sugat na ang kamay, stressed at nakukuba na ang likod kakatrabaho para sayo. Di naman siguro nakakahiyang tawagan at padalan ng E-Card ang tatay mong nasa abroad at nangungulila sa iyong boses. At lalong hindi naman siguro mahirap ang magbigay ng limang minutong katahimikan at pakikipag-usap sa KANYA.

Walang sense kung magiging bitter ka at apektado sa mga taong may dala-dalang bulaklak, tsokolate at valentine card. At wala rin namang kaso kung ikaw ang may dala-dalang bulaklak, tsokolate at valentine card. Hindi normal na araw ang February 14. This is your chance to make somebody’s day special. It doesn’t have to be your partner. It could be your family. Your friends. It could even be yourself. You are actually blessed well enough for reading this blog from your laptop, cellphone or desktop. While most people are thinking about how they are going to get through Valentine’s Day, other people are struggling to get through every single day without anything at all.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

-ino- <3

Sponge Cola — Araw. Oras. Tagpuan. | Album Review

Heey guys once again I’m doing another review and this time, I’d like to present to you my 2nd Album Review of Sponge Cola with their latest, Araw. Oras. Tagpuan.

SC has been around for quite some time now and people learned to embrace their humble beginnings from Palabas, until they went semi-mainstream on Transit and finally trying out something new from their self-titled Album Sponge Cola (which I did a review back in Friendster Blogs which, err, unfortunately has been removed now). Will Araw. Oras. Tagpuan. live up to the expectations of their fans? Or will they target a new fanbase in the market?

This review will cover the songs of Araw. Oras. Tagpuan by track. And starting from one of their carrier singles, we have:

1. Tambay - Remember 22, Bitiw and ayt?? I don’t know if SC fans notice this but usually, their first song starts off as a “kicker” and is usually one of the most lively songs in the album. I found this quite amusing to see how consistent they can be. Although, based from their previous music, Tambay doesn’t really divert into a different genre and still delivers that same energetic starter as they always did.

2. Stargazer - This song is definitely a product of Yael Yuzon’s songwriting. It is very similar with Gemini and is just as moving. This is, by far, my favorite track from the album. It’s chock-full of emotions and the band did a very good job in doing this track. Honestly, this song is the one that convinced me to buy their album, so I guess their strategy worked ;)

3. Regal - This is a sweet song with a profound set of lyrics. Again, Sponge Cola delivers their familiar sound with a different twist in Tedmark Cruz’s drum lines.

4. OK Dito - Uh, I don’t mean to sound mean but this track doesn’t appeal a lot to me. This is full of experimental sounds such as sounds of sea waves and human beat boxing. I even kinda imagine this song being a little psychedelic, but no. It’s not. 

My biggest concern, though, would be the use of Filipino-English or TAGLISH lines in the whole track. This is not the first time they did this (Keep The Fire Burning’s end lines contained Tagalog lyrics) but I really hoped this would be the last. Honestly speaking, OK Dito is not as okay as it implies. Although this is a brave attempt in experimenting, we will still see more risk-filled experiments SC did in this album.

5. She Weeps - An acoustic that almost got me to sleep the first time I heard it. And again, this song contains TAGLISH lines which does not go well with the music. It’s not as appealing as it seems and I wouldn’t mind skipping this track if I didn’t feel like listening to sleepy music. Sorry but the TAGLISH just doesn’t work that well. Nice try though.

6. Kay Tagal Kitang Hinintay - One of the sweetest songs in the album. I kinda noticed something about the album per se but that’s for discussion later. This track made me realize that their songwriting is still good both in Filipino and in English (separately, not together!). This is another carrier-single and is worth the exposure.

7. She Wants You To - This track has honest emotions that makes me want to sing in public. The lyrics and melody go together perfectly and if anyone could relate to the message of this song, you would surely feel the emotion it portrays. It’s just that powerful. I can’t even forget the one line that goes, “Why do we stay for those who’d rather go?” Listen to this and tell me how captivated you are.

8. Walang Wakas - Remember their song Puso? This song brings the same energy and good message that SC fans would surely enjoy. I don’t know how SC manages to write sensible songs such as this but no matter how they do it, I salute their good songwriting. This song inspires me throughout the day. Gets me up and running! :)

9. New Steel (feat. Pao Valenciano, Ria Redulla, and Los Magno) - This is a collab track, featuring a lot of guys. Another energetic song that’s more “Gary V.” than “Sponge Cola”. And I’m not sure if I heard Tagalog lyrics here (they didn’t include lyrics in the cards that come with the CD). But then, this song is more like a so-so to me rather than something different.

10. Warning: (feat. Norma Love, Iwa Motors, and Mowmow) - As most of you guys who have complete sets of SC’s albums, one song will always be sang by the drummer. In the case of the first three albums, Chris Cantada sang Jillian, Myself In you and In Another Life respectively. This time, their new drummer Tedmark Cruz sang Warning:. And what I found very intriguing and interesting in this track is that this brought back the sound of the late 80’s OPM. It’s refreshing, something new (epxerimentally) and a bit risky for the group (especially to those who aren’t fans of  the VST and Company or Rico J. Puno genre). I personally liked it and found myself enjoying this song with a cup of coffee and a smile.

Oh and this song has a bit of TAGLISH lyrics but I didn’t mind it because I was too busy enjoying it. Risky, but I liked it. Mr. Tedmark Cruz, my hats off to you sir! :)

11. Scenic View - Again, Sponge Cola from a different angle. This track deviated from their usual sound and is more aggressive with a bit subtlety. I personally like this song too and inspires me a lot. I find myself singing to this song after I listened to it about four times. This is one of my favorites. :)

12. Araw Oras Tagpuan - Their title track! (and reasons why it deserves to be) Who wouldn’t love this song? They should release this as their single. It uses a similar “clanging” sound from Jeepney. The lyrics bring forth the message of the album, which I believe I deciphered and will discuss after this track. This is a sweet song with meaningful lyrics that many would surely relate to. I know, I did. :)

They have a bonus track titled “Easy As Pie” but I wouldn’t recommend listening to that because it’s mostly chatter. The song itself is good but I would prefer the chatter to be cut off. I mean, after listening to the preceding track, you wouldn’t really be in the mood to listen to a recorded conversation with Armo doing a girly voice impression.

CONCLUSION:

Sponge Cola took a few bold moves in introducing experiments to their music. From their past albums, we can see how much they changed, while still remaining to the sound that’s been familiar to us. Their songwriting is still inexplicably good, producing sensible songs with powerful meanings sang by a powerful voice and performed by a well-talented band. You’d be sure to have your P300 well-spent on this album.

On and the message that I deciphered? From the way I see how the songs are arranged, I hypothesize that this album talks about relationships that ended but were able to reconcile. I theorize that Araw. Oras. Tagpuan. actually means that two persons who have been together but got separated, who knew and loved each other almost entirely, would someday be back together. The possibility of them reconciling is so high because they already know when and where to meet (literally and figuratively). It’s so wonderful to grasp a message like this from their album and I must say that their songs were effective in delivering this message to their listeners. The tracks Kay Tagal Kitang Hinintay, Araw Oras Tagpuan and Stargazer strongly emphasized this point.

Overall, I give Sponge Cola’s Araw. Oras. Tagpuan a score of 4 out of 5! Nice job SC!

[[]]Photo originally from me.[[]]
ino_underscore 

A new entry point

It’s so intricate - this society.

While we always have to conform with everybody’s expectations, we, ourselves, sink into our deepest, darkest forms, hopelessly trying to catch up with the winds of trend.

It’s sad to think that decades ago, we used to give meaning to the word “CIVIL”. Now, all we hold on to is the word “HOPE” for us to be civil again.

Streets are darkened. Skies are reddened. Our children will breathe in air that will kill them slowly. Food will become scarce and shelters will cease to be available for the many.

Maybe the hoax apocalypse is not a hoax at all. Maybe what the Mayans were trying to say was that there will be a certain point in time that everything has to end. And when that time comes, we will be denying ourselves the truth, depriving the smallest sign of life. Of hope. Of what small amounts of humanity remains within us. The society eats us up by devolving us and leading us the wrong way.

Have you ever noticed how people in the early 18th to 20th century seem to be extensively smarter than the people of our contemporary times? It was because they craved for knowledge of how things work. Not fighting over who gets to keep the oil (although wars induced the creation of certain formulas that can be considered masters of modern destruction).

It was necessity that drove them to become great and elite. They weren’t satisfied in mediocrity. They are driven by the necessity to survive. To live. To learn. Necessity taught them to bring themselves up to create a better society. A society that unfortunately, created its own evil and is eating us now. We all fell apart. Because we let ourselves fall. This wasn’t what they lived for. This wasn’t what they died for.

As much as I want to sound optimistic, it would only lead to a debate of ideology and a dream of utopia. Hope? Yes, I wish it would exist. I wish it does. But from a new viewpoint, I can only see despair. One can only hope for a better tomorrow. Because based from what we do everyday, on how we fight for our ridiculous beliefs that lead to nonsensical bullshit, on how we treat our home and resources,

I can assure you all…

we are doomed.

I don’t mean to sound discouraging. I’m just stating the facts. Based from how people make decisions today, if an opportunity to survive presents itself in front of us, we would take a picture of it, post it in the net and forget about it in the next 10 minutes.

Sad. But unacceptably true.

-ino-

We hurt the ones we love because we have this stupid assumption that no matter what we do, they will stay.

There is no such thing as everlasting happiness. Much like sorrow, anger, and every other emotion, you feel it for some time… and then it fades away.

That sweet awkward moment when you accidentally hold her hand and she doesn’t move it away.

We all get tired… Eventually.

It’s Christmas time again! Hooray for convicts who get whatever they want by using the holidays!! :D

iPhone 4s Firsthand Review

Ahhh Finally! I know there are a lot of review sites that reviewed this fine piece of gadget, but I certainly wouldn’t want to rely on them alone. I got my 4s just recently, and I think it would be a good idea to share my experience for other people like me who took a big interest on this phone.

I used to be an Android fanboy. Yes. Used to be. Well, I probably still am but not as enthusiastic as I was before. The iPhone 4s, powered by an amazing software, the IOS 5, certainly brought a good deal on the table, packed with surprising features that is guaranteed to provide satisfaction to their customers.

The Look

Style-wise, Apple never failed to integrate good looks with a good device. The only problem is, the 4s didn’t really differ that much (if not at all) with the iPhone 4. Yes, we know, iPhone 4 was a huge failure because of its dysfunctional antenna and poor build quality (source here) and personally, I can’t help but think that the 4s might suffer the same disappointments as its ancestor. But with all these, somehow Apple proved me a little bit otherwise.

I don’t have actual pictures yet but here are a few from other sources 

The Camera

Through the years, Apple has provided poor cameras with their devices. Yes. POOR. I can’t stress this enough but a good-looking device with badass features should have a high quality camera to have it near perfection. The past iPhones failed in this department, but not the 4s.

The shots were more than fine, they were of good quality. Well, it should be, given that the 4s is powered by an 8-meg camera. The only problem I had with the camera is the setting of ISO and Focal points which weren’t available with the stock camera app. Although you can download camera apps that have those features and use it with the 4s.

Can’t upload pictures. Photobucket sucks. Will update this post later on.

Siri

Ever heard of an AI asking you to be polite? Saying it has no capability of love? Predicting the rain?

iPhone 4s’s Siri is an AI virtual assistant that can send messages for you, remind you of meetings, set alarms, call people, etc. Siri is the flagship app of iPhone 4s because so far, it is the best voice recognition software in the market for cellular phones (even Iris of Android couldn’t compare that much). Sure Siri may be a bit annoying sometimes, but overall, it is a great feature that people would love. I find myself having too much fun with it though. And sometimes, AIs get annoyed.

The only awful thing about Siri is that it couldn’t provide maps and directions in the Philippines. This is a huge letdown since Siri boasts of its intelligent sense in looking for places for the user. A lot of people are missing out on a huge part of Siri, and I am not happy with it.

At this rate, asking IRIS on my Galaxy tab for directions in my country is way more reliable than Siri.

The Bad

I’m withdrawing the line of good reviewing here and I’m going to discuss the cons first.

iPhone 4s might be a good device, but for an A5 Dual-Core chip, it sure drains the battery as much as it could. With Wifi, Location Services, Siri and Push Notifications turned on, your battery wouldn’t last a day. You could literally see your battery percentage draining by 1% every 2-3 minutes, on maximum brightness display. This is bad. A very bad thing for such a good phone. I was expecting a longer battery life from it but continuous use wouldn’t make your experience fun as you would run out of battery sooner or later. Perhaps an OS update would fix this (hopefully). At the rate of its battery life per full charge, the Samsung Galaxy Tab (with huge battery issues as well) lasts longer than the iPhone 4s.

SIM cards! Ugh the annoying microSIM card. You can’t fit a standard size SIM card on the 4s. You need to have it cut to a smaller size before you could use the phone. Sure it might not be a problem for those who have SIM cutters but to the rest, this would cost you a trip to the mall before you could use your phone.

During FaceTime, I also noticed my iPhone crashes every 4-5 minutes. I’ve met some users online who had the same problem and nobody seems to come up with any fix. Again, I am hoping that this could be fixed on the next OS patch update.

Need I mention the PRICE? The price for iPhone 4s varies in my country, ranging from Php 45,000 up to Php 60,000. For a phone, that IS very expensive already and it would be better if it cost a lot less.

The Good

Everything else worked more than I expected from my iPhone. From making calls to sending text messages, I had a great experience. I am now officially addicted to my 4s and I certainly would do great things with it.

IOS 5 surely brought a good deal coupled with a sexy device, powered by a highly demanding processor and a voice recognition software that “thinks” for you.

Side Note:
On Jailbreaking, one piece of advice though, if you’re not much of a fan for risks, don’t Jailbreak the 4s anymore. Sure, the iPhone dev community might pan me for this, but the 4s is already good the way it is. If you want free apps though, I wouldn’t stop you from that department. Just make sure you are Jailbreaking it safely.

Conclusion:

iPhone 4s has definitely impressed me with its sleek style and remarkable features. Hopefully, Apple would continue producing products of such quality at less cost so that more people could afford a great piece of technology without spending too much.

And overall, I give the iPhone 4s a total of 8 starts out of 10.