KPOP World Festival 2011 in Changweon, South Korea

It's been weeks! And I feel really bad for not updating my blog right away. I've got so much to tell and share. So to be organized, I'm going to split my story into days. See, we had activities everyday, and it was so hectic that we we're sleep deprived. It was an amazing race kind of competition. Although I didn't really feel the competition. Quite irony.

I'll start off by sharing that I won the Pinoy KPOP Star 2011, held here in the Philippines last October 8. Result? I will represent the Philippines in the KPOP World Festival this December. And December came without me feeling it. It flew real fast but I was thankful that my song wasn't that hard compare to the songs I sang in the World Championships of Performing Arts. A once every three days practice did it.

Day 1 - Manila to Seoul

We took off at midnight on Asiana Airlines, bound for Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea. It was exciting since it was my first time flying on Asiana, let alone going to Korea. Although the excitement I felt didn't actually show on my face because it was midnight, and I needed sleep. So I slept all throughout the flight, and when I woke up, we had arrived.

The moment I stepped out of the aircraft, I felt like I entered a really huge freezer and started shaking. Was it really this cold? I looked at the bright side that it's only the air conditioner that's doing this, but I asked ate Jenny, one of my insulja, if the outside temperature was that cold too. She said, no, the airport was actually using heaters. I dropped my jaw. It was the coldest place I've ever been to, and it was shocking that the outside temp was colder.

When we went out to the arrival area, two guys wearing black jackets with a big "STAFF" print on their backs were holding a camera for filming, and a big sign that says, "KPOP World Festival 2011. Welcome to Korea!"

So you see, I was only wearing my Hello Kitty jacket and a scarf. Basically, if I go out wearing only those, I'd freeze myself to death.

We waited for a few minutes for Vietnam. Their flight is close to ours so I guess that's pretty wise, waiting for them. When they arrived, I felt really bad for myself since they all wore things that looked really KPOP-ish: printed jeans, Bruno Mars hat and other stuff. While me, I sat there, wearing jeans, shirt, jacket, Chucks and nothing else. I looked like a typical human being. xD

So we headed out to Yeouido Hotel after Vietnam's arrival. The staff were nice enough to lend us their jackets because the temp was really out of this world! Well, at least for a Filipino like me. We don't have winter seasons, so my body was really sucking the cold air like mad. We traveled for like an hour on the bus with Vietnam, and on the way, they kept on talking. It was the most interesting language I ever heard. Eventually, I learned that in Vietnamese, the tone changes the meaning. That explains a lot.

We arrived at the Yeouido Hotel at around 6am, without any proper sleep. Before I tried to sleep, I scanned the television in the Hotel room with ate Tech, and found a channel that plays music videos. There they were, the INFINITE. I'd no idea who they were, no idea that I will be as addicted to them as I am now. I watched them as I slept, ignoring the fact the I have to wake up as early as 12nn for lunch.

The next day, a.k.a. 5 hours later, my insulja's woke me up and we assembled at the lobby with the other participants from other countries. The lobby was jam packed with people wearing orange jackets: jackets that were provided to us by the organizers. The lobby was full of people I had only seen online. I've watched some of their performances through Korea.net and I was a bit shaken because there they were, a few inches away from me. Some were practicing their dances, but most of them were just sitting and waiting. Just like me.

We ate lunch at a buffet. It was one of the most neat buffets I've ever been to. The ambiance was so nice, and I'm thankful for the heaters. I stuffed my face with unfamiliar food and we left afterwards.

Back to the hotel room, we were given time to practice our pieces BUT with a camera filming us. It was a bit embarrassing because I've never practiced with a stranger holding a camera before. But after a few minutes, I eventually got the hang of it. I danced, I sang, I fangirl-ed in front of the cam, saying a few Korean phrases from time to time which makes the interviewer a bit hyped up and also a bit disappointed that I couldn't hold a Korean conversation. It was fun though. After like 20 minutes or so, she left our room. That was in the afternoon, and the next schedule wasn't until that night, so we had free time. We went to Yeouido park, and to the family mart, and that was the first time I ever tasted the heavenly taste of Banana Uyu.

I had two bottles that day, or three. I can't even remember.

That night was the elimination. Only 10 out of the 21 teams are to perform in the finals, so we had an elimination. I sang Byeol by Youmi, which was also my contest piece, and I'm happy that I sang it well. Although I was a little bit embarrassed for forgetting what I was about to say before I perform. >.< It was in Korean, and I'm a Filipino. I guess that's considerable.

So yes, the other teams got a lot of exposures because a lot of media men gathered around them. I sat there, waiting to go home. Haha. I was tired, and I lacked sleep. So I wasn't really showing myself off. We had dinner before going back to the hotel. And before I shove myself under the sheets, I finished a bottle of Banana uyu, and a bar of Hersheys: a little reward for myself for doing a good job.

Day 2 - Idol Mentoring and Announcement of Finalists

The next day, we woke up late. We were told to gather at the lobby at 8am, and me and my insuljas woke up at 8am. So we didn't have time to even process that we were already awake. We went down the lobby and went out for breakfast.

That afternoon was the best afternoon of my life. We went to the Starship Entertainment building to meet a few stars. Sistar, Boyfriend and K.Will. So when we arrived, we went straight to the training room, and the staff told us to dance. They played Sistar's So Cool and just right around the chorus, the Japan team, who were standing across the room, started screaming. I wondered why, so I looked at where they were looking. They were looking at the door, screaming and shouting, and I saw Dasom peeking. DASOM! The girl from Sistar. When the other teams started noticing her, everyone freaked out! So the staff let the Sistar in, followed by Boyfriend and K.Will. I was really starstruck.

(I'm the one with the bonnet.)

I screamed at the top of my lungs, but then I remembered that the finals will be on the next day, and if ever I got in, I would perform. So I saved my voice and just flashed my biggest smile with my left hand hiding it.

They started talking about things I never understood. They talked in Korean without any translators, so I just stood there and smiled and nodded and laughed. Awkward.

The downside was I never got a picture with Sistar, K.Will and Boyfriend. It was not allowed. Although other teams got a picture with some of them. I wasn't just that delinquent enough. Haha. Afterwards, we were divided into two, and I was in K.Will's group. Quite right because K.Will taught us to sing properly and gave us a few tips. He spoke in Korean, and I'm happy there was a translator.

I was with teams Vietnam, Chile, Poland, Germany, England, USA and China.

After the mentoring, they announced the finalists! It was scary! I was so nervous and I was shaking. They called in the first, second, third, fourth finalists. Still no. Fifth, sixth, seventh. Nope. I lost hope. Only 10. ONLY TEN. And we were, what, 21? I started thinking about what to post on Facebook. An apologetic status, maybe. I was composing a speech to say to my parents, a speech apologizing for not doing my best. Then they called in the eighth, and my heart stopped when they said, "PHILIPPINES!" I slipped and landed on the floor because of joy, forgetting everything I thought of.

When the announcement was over, I hugged my insuljas and started crying. My eyes were leaking so bad. Everyone flashed in my mind: my parents, my sister, my grand parents, my titos and titas, my cousins, my friends. I thought I would totally make them proud. After crying, I started dancing I Am The Best of 2NE1 with my friends and red eyes. We were totally the best. Media men gathered around, and started asking questions. How do I feel? What can I say? I said everything I felt in rapid English. It was one of the happiest afternoons in my life.

That night, we were off to Changweon and we traveled for 5 hours. Before I slept on the bus, I finished another bottle of banana uyu. God, I love it so much.

Day 3 - The Finals

We arrived in Changweon and slept a bit. After a few hours of sleep, we woke up for breakfast, and set off for the Changweon Town Tour. We went somewhere very traditional. Traditional houses and other traditional stuff. I enjoyed it. That was also the time when I started making friends with the other teams, particularly Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Vietnam and France.

After the tour, we left for the dome where the finals took place. There was already a long line of audience, waiting to enter the dome. The fun part of it was when we acted like we were the KPOP Stars, and those were our fans. We wore shades, and hid our faces and shouted "HIDE! Paparazzis are everywhere!" It was sort of true! Media men followed us wherever we go, so it felt somewhat real. It was fun times.

We started the technical rehearsals and the sound system was really good! After my rehearsal, I was called to the dressing room for my wardrobe, make up and hair style. Then, rehearsals again. Afterwards, I rested, and drank tea from Steven, from NYC. I thanked him for it because it really helped me open up my throat. I waited for the event to start, with interviews from time to time. The show started without me knowing it, so I freaked out! I was like "It's starting already?! HOW COME I DON'T KNOW!?" Haha. So I went to peek at the stage, and there were KPOP Stars already performing. I thought I should prepare already. So I said my little prayer of thanks, and asked for support and guidance.

When it was my turn to perform, there was the INFINITE behind me. I didn't know that they were next after my performance. (I'm spazzing while I'm typing this part. Srsly.) I got up on stage and started performing. The audience was HUGE! More or less 10,000 people were there. It was the biggest audience I ever had. It was also heart warming since they were waving their light sticks to the beat of my song. I bowed after I finished the song and went down the stage. My insuljas hugged my tight and gave me a thumbs up for a good performance. I was contented. I thought, even if I don't win, I'm happy that I got the chance to perform on a stage like that, and in front of a crowd like that.

I went to the audience to join them watching INFINITE perform Naekkeo Haja and Paradise, and seriously, I died. They were so handsome! They were so good! They are what I call REAL performers. They were charismatic, and I was under their spell. After their performance, I went to the backstage to see them, and fortunately, I got a picture with 성규 and 성열!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I'm so happy.

INFINITE were so nice. I said, "Annyeong haseyo, can we take a picture?" and Seong Gyu and Seong Yeol nodded with a smile and said, "Where's the camera?" with a very funny accent. Haha! They were so cute! And so kind to their fans. *cough*Unlike Boyfriend*cough*. And I totally freaked out when ate Tech told me that while I was performing, all of INFINITE members were watching my performance real closely. O___O I am so happy that they were paying attention. And I just realized that I should be happier since they actually know of my existence. They actually know that I exist and there is someone like me. At least I have a little space in their memory. Haha.

So yeah, when they announced the winners, it was funny because they said everything in Korean. So all of the participants had no idea what they were saying, except for Steven from NYC, who was fluent in Hangeul. Otherwise, the rest of us looked at each other with questioning looks. They announced the Philippines and Kazakhstan last, so we assumed that we were the champions. Confetti covered us, and Ring Ding Dong by SHINee started playing.

After the event, a bunch of media men gathered again, with numerous cameras and lapels, and our translators around us- Ate Jenny, in my case. They asked the most common question, "How do you feel?" Of course, I had only one answer to that. I was so happy. So happy that I made another big win, and so happy that I made my family and the whole Philippines proud.

We had dinner at the fifth floor. Not really dinner. There were only finger foods, so I helped myself on barefoot. I couldn't take my heels anymore. I wore it all afternoon and all night, so I gave it up. Good thing ate Tech was kind to let me borrow her shoes. She wore my heels, and I wore her shoes. Haha. Another series of interviews occurred, and the questions kept on repeating that I memorized my answers to every one of them.

When we got back to the hotel, most of the participants were all worn out. But me, not really. I invited some of still hyped participants to the noraebang, or KTV. I said I would pay for it, as a little treat for winning the contest. We went to the noraebang just across the street and sang our lungs out. From 11pm, to 4am. We were crazy. It was so fun. I never thought we would be THAT close to each other.

Day 4 - Back to Seoul and Seoul City Tour

The next day, we went back to Seoul and had a city tour. Seoul was super cold that day. It was -4 degrees celsius, so we had to really cover up ourselves and stay warm. So we kept on talking and chatting and laughing, which actually made no difference because the cold was really going mad by the second.

Of course, the media never left us. I guess we had interviews every 10 steps, and we were told to say We Love Korea and We Love KPOP a hundred times a day. It was tiring, but we really do love Korea, so it was fine. We toured the palace in Seoul, and left for Myeongdong.

Myeongdong is like Seoul's down town. Shopping centers were there and it was the best place for tourists like us. So I went straight to the CD store to buy albums of my favorite KPOP Artists. I bought Sistar's, SHINees's, and 2NE1's albums. I purposely didn't buy Boyfriend's album maybe because I have a little hate with them. Haha. Just a little.

After that, we went for dinner, and the saddest part of the event happened. We had to leave each other already, and we didn't even have time to say our proper goodbyes. What is time?

They brought us to the traditional Korean house for our Hanok experience. It was okay. It's like living in the past in Korea. The temp was cold, but the warm flooring of the house made us feel better. We shared the house with NYC, LA, England, and Prague: Steven, Tara, Cherelle and the sisters from Prague. We didn't sleep that night. We just talked, and laughed and pigged out because the fridge was packed with food and drinks!! FREE FOOD! YAY. I ate two cups of noodles, bunch of oreos and drank coffee... in the middle of the night. We shared experiences, and talked about our countries and our accents. It was sooooo fun. That's why it really broke my heart when we had to leave Korea the next day.

Our flight was in the morning, so we weren't able to say goodbye to the others before we leave. It's so depressing. We only had almost 4 days with each other. Time flew so fast. I had made so very good friends with them, and I am hoping that I will see them again someday, somewhere in my whole lifetime. I promised the gang that I will meet them again before I get married. Not so harsh because I thought "before I die" first. But oh well, I miss them.

Overall, the KPOP World Festival didn't only give me such good experiences, but it also gave me such good friends from different places around the globe. It was only 4 days, but it was the best 4 days of my life and I would trade a memory to live it again.

Please watch the KPOP World Festival on December 30, 6pm Korea Time on KBS2. It will be a 2 hour special and I'm really looking forward to it!

Merry Christmas everyone!

SHINee's Taemin

Okay. I'm currently in a trance. Lee Taemin of SHINee is just so.. I don't know.

First, I'm not really a SHINee fan, but while I was at the Korean Cultural Center, they have this big LCD screen on the wall with SHINee's Lucifer Music Video playing. I was like, "WHO IS THIS HOT GUY WITH LONG BLOND HAIR?" He dances really oh-my-gosh-ish and his voice is like DOPE!! I hate to say this but I think I'm fan girl-ing over him. And he is like what- 18? HOORAY. Finally, someone awesome near my age. *Insert hysterical laugh here*

Second, he looks like Kamiki Ryunosuke, except that I think he is taller than Kamiki, and MORE TALENTED. <3

So, I guess I'm gonna have to say good bye for now to Devon Bostick, until the Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3 comes out. Lee Taemin, you are love. 사랑해대민!

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder

A lot of you may have heard of this disorder, and there is also a possibility that you haven't. The name of the disorder is pretty much self-explanatory: people who have this disorder is hyperactive and impulsive, and most of the time, smart. It takes a lot of effort to deal with people with ADHD, because they are unique and special. I was going to say weird, but no, I realized they are not weird. They are not abnormal. They are what I call people with ADHD. It's just another classification of human beings for me. And having no ADHD doesn't mean you are normal. It's that you are a few percent more stupid than people who have them.

I have a 9-year-old cousin who has this disorder, and his tantrums on a daily basis is getting on my nerves once in a while. But I realized I should know better. I came up with the idea of dancing silly in front of him, which actually works. It immediately changes his mood from whining to laughing hysterically. Sometimes, it fails, since he would realize that he looked stupid by laughing while tearing up, and he would shout at me saying, "I HATE YOU! What if someone else sees me laughing while crying?! They'll think I'm crazy!" I love the fact that he cares about what people would think. On the contrary, he shouldn't be shouting that loud if he really did. But most of the time, my plan pulls off.

Yesterday, my aunt, the mother of my cousin who has ADHD, got home from work and told us about what happened to her in the Jeepney on her way home. She said she was almost victimized by the las-las gang. Las-las gang is basically a group of thieves who have the same lame and stupid strategy of stealing your things. They would sit beside you in the jeep, and start slashing on the hems of your bag that will let them able to get your things. My aunt was nearly victimized, thanks to the passengers of the jeep who were mostly men. They were aware of the blade that the culprit held.

So there, that was my aunt's story yesterday. The good thing was that her things weren't stolen, and the downside was that we shouldn't have told it to my cousin. It got on his nerves, he raged, shouted, whined, screamed, went upstairs, shouted some more, went back downstairs, shouted some more, and went back upstairs, and shouted some more. I was going crazy. Even if I was in the bathroom taking a shower, I could hear him curse those frustrated thieves. I was thinking he freaked out like that because it's either he didn't want anyone touching his mother, or he hate criminals. Perhaps both.

When I was done taking a shower, I wasn't surprised at all. My cousin was all calmed down, and there he was, watching Kung Fu Panda and inviting me to watch it with him. That was one of the good things about people with ADHD. They immediately forget they were in a bad mood.

I was wondering if I also have ADHD, or I am just a crazy freak trying to look like I have it because of Percy Jackson. I assume I don't have it. Because if I did, I would have shouted at my cousin when he shouted at me in the first place.

First Lady of the Republic of Korea Kim Yoon-ok Meet and Greet

So I met with the South Korean First Lady the other day and I was so spazzed! It was such an honor to perform for the first lady and I'm really glad she liked my performance.

"The girl who sang a while ago has a very soft and beautiful voice. I hope to see her perform again when I come back here in the Philippines."

That's what the translator said.

There was a meet and greet at the first part of event, where we were able to ask the first lady a few questions we had in mind. (I asked her if she knew any Filipino words, and she said she wasn't prepared. Haha.) Well, all of the other people who were invited in the event could definitely speak in Korean. I was a little bit out of place when they started talking to the First Lady in Korean, so I just laughed and clapped. Talk about awkwardness.

The second part of the event was the mini concert, where I performed first, and I was followed by the Off Crew Limits from Bulacan. Those guys were so dope.

Then, to end the event, we had a picture taking, one formal and one candid. The First Lady was so cool that she did a candid pose! Plus, she said she wanted us to be comfortable around her. She clearly didn't want awkwardness hanging around.

The odd part of the event was we weren't allowed to take pictures with her using our own cameras. So I haven't had any. But, fortunately, someone was able to take a photo when the performers, basically me and the Off Limits Crew, were asked to take a picture with the first lady. How lucky are we?

So there. That day was really spazzing, seriously.

KPOP World Festival 2011 @ Korea.net

The website is officially up!

You can view the website here: KPOP World Festival 2011

As you click the link above, it will direct you to a website, and make sure you check out the Cheer Messages page by clicking on the second option on the home page of the website!

This is the Cheer Messages page where you can cheer for you favorite Team!

And CHECK. THIS. OUT.

PHILIPPINES IS LEADING! FTW!

Here are all the teams from all countries by the way.

And this one is my profile. You can view this on the website by clicking on the thumbnail below the "Philippines."

Alright. Notice my age just beside my name? It says I'm 18. Great. I'm an official adult in South Korea! And oh, my name is not Yumi. I remember that one of the commentators missed my name and thought my name's Yumi. Yumi is the singer of the song I sang, by the way. But oh, never mind.

I would like to thank all the people who left a cheer message for Team Philippines. Thank you so much guys. The online voting starts on November 21 and please, for goodness' sakes, please participate and vote for team Philippines! By voting, you'll get a chance to win amazing prizes!

That is all, folks. Much love from me. <3

Hex RPG: An Interactive Harry Potter RPG

I've been a member on this site for a couple of days now, but I just started to stroll around the website today. I was sorted into Ravenclaw. Their process of sorting a student to their houses is not like any other Sorting Hat Quiz or whatever. You get to ACTUALLY TYPE IN your profile, or bio, or anything you'd like to say about you (or your character in mind). I sent them Kylee Reyes's (my camp half-blood Athena character) whose personality is almost the same as mine. I get lazy to even write my own personality stuff sometimes.

Anyway, here's a screen shot of the site if you are too lazy to even check the actual website.

Notice how dark the site is? This is the home page by the way.

The downside of the website is it's too dark, it hurts my eyes. Unlike the camp half-blood RPG, where the theme is GREEN, which is very friendly to the eyes.

Here is my Profile. I was classified as a muggle born. I don't even know why.

Another thing I like about this website is, among all other Harry Potter RPG I've been to, this has a classroom where you get to register to up 13 classes. But before you can start the lesson, you have to buy the listed requirements for each specific subjects first. It was fun, because you have to look for them in the Diagon Alley like an ordinary wizard does.

I have completed all of my home works and a few of them were already graded by my lovely professors. Check it out.

It's like an actual Hogwarts, except that it's online. eHogwarts, perharps?

If you're interested in the website, just go to http://www.hexrpg.com.

Logan Lerman and Alexandra Daddario

Last night, I had one of the most awesome dreams in my entire life.

I was in some airport (it was an airport I've never been into before, but it's somewhat similar to Frankfurt Airport), and I was traveling alone and I was carrying a blue luggage with me. I can't remember every detail of it, but all I can recall is I'm a bit lost, and I happen to bump into Logan Lerman and Alexandra Daddario. Logan was awesome, and Alexandra was so pretty. It felt so REAL, but I thought, no, it's so GOOD to be REAL. I mean, you can't just bump into two of your favorite actors at once. So there, I bumped into them and we, like, talked for a while, chatted and stuff. At first, in my dream, I didn't recognize them in the first few minutes of chatting. But then I realized, this guy looks like Percy Jackson, and this girl looks like Annabeth Chase. Wait a minute.. WHAT?

For a minute, I was lost again. I lost track of Logan and Alexandra too, and I regretted that I didn't take a picture with them. REGRETS. I was almost waking up, but someone poked me from the back. I looked. It was LOGAN! SERIOUSLY. By that time, I was already aware that I'm dreaming. But I hoped that if we took a photo in the dream, maybe if I woke up, the hard copy will be under my pillow. It was a crazy idea, but I really hoped.

When I woke up, I literally checked if the photo was under my pillow. It broke my heart when it wasn't. Like really, I was already planning to upload it on Facebook or something. I mean, we took a bunch of photos, most of them were candid. It was, indeed, one of the craziest and awesomest dreams I had in my life.

I got accepted in the Athena Cabin!

YAY FOR ME!

It's been, what, two days since I applied for a character for the Athena cabin. And now, I can proudly say that I got in at last! I feel so lucky, since they won't be accepting any applications when the Athena cabin reaches 8 campers. I'm the 8th camper! How cool is that. The admin just accepted my app today (or last night while I was sleeping) and I made my very own signature already. I have every right to make one, since I'm already claimed. HOORAY.

So as you can see, Kylee Reyes, my character, is played by Maple Batalia. Ever since I first watched the Diary of a Wimpy Kid, this girl caught my attention. She's a pretty, petite girl and a good actress too. But it's a sad thought that she already passed away, shot by a jealous ex-boyfriend in the parking lot of her University. So in her memory, I'm using her as the role player in the Camp-Half Blood RPG and she totally fits for a daughter of Athena! She didn't inherit Athena's blue eyes, though.

Plus, today, I posted my very first thread and I'm looking forward to a very hardcore RPing for the next few weeks!

Athena: The Goddess of Wisdom

This morning, I've been lurking around the Camp Half-Blood RPG on ProBoards and I wondered, Which of the Olympians is my parent? So I took a whole lot of Quizzes online to see if I was a daughter of which Olympian. The result? Athena.

I took like more than 20 quizzes and I guess I got Athena for at least 18 times. The other two were Hephaestus and Apollo. But the rest, I got Athena. I answered the questions HONESTLY, and I guess I am really a daughter of Athena, or should I say, my mother in Saudi Arabia is pretending to be a mortal. She's Athena. Haha. No wonder she's good at strategies and always gives me good advices. ;)

So yea, if you ever wonder who Athena is, keep on reading.

I was researching about Athena and her birth story and I found this on Palothea.com.

"Athena was the daughter of Zeus and Metis. But there was a problem, Zeus checked up on Metis and found out that if he had a son by her this son would be mightier than him (you know, the same way he was greater than his daddy and his daddy was greater than his grandpa). So he tricked Metis and ended up swallowing her when she turned into a fly and figured she was no longer a threat. However, Metis was pregnant with Athena and when Athena was born, this turned into quite a problem. Soon Zeus was plagued with killer headaches and he ran to Hephaestus (Smith God) and begged him to open his head. Hephaestus did as he was told, and out popped Athena, full grown and ready for battle!"

I find the story really interesting. Athena was born from Zeus head! Awesome. Zeus is my grandfather, which is my lolo either the one in heaven, or the one here with me. They are both my Zeus.

Camp Half-Blood RPG

I was looking for an RPG of Camp Half-Blood, since I want my mother, Athena, to claim me already. Haha.

So I found this website, or forum site, that is accepting applications for Demigods, like me. Here's the awesome website:

http://www.demigodrp.proboards.com

I've been in a lot of RPG, but nothing like this. I know I'll do a good job since it includes writing. And writing is practicing. It's a good practice for me. And check out my application here. It's interesting since we had to make our OWN story about our character. It's awesome because it's demigod stuffs, and writing. Did I mention I love writing?

I can't wait to get claimed, Gods. And be sure to check the RPG out! Or I'll send you to Tartarus.

My newest blog!

So I made I new blog here on Blogspot! It's a Tagalog blog that will be containing a lot of rants and complains by yours truly. I thought I could make one since I like to keep this blog light and happy without anything negative. That other blog will be full of negative things I have in mind that I'd like to share with you. It's not so harsh, but it will talk about a lot of things I hate. It's not a hate blog though. Well, basically it is. A hate blog for THINGS, not certain people. :)

Check it out here!

I called it, Problemadong Tunay, which is like, "real full of problems" in English, sort of.

PLUS, I edited this blog! YAY. Finally, a new template after a long time.

Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Last Olympian

This is my own copy of The Last Olympian. My mother bought it from Jarir Bookstore. It's a hard bound copy and the first page of it is somewhat like a symbol of Olympus. It's awesome.

Yesterday, I locked myself in my room all day and did nothing but read The Last Olympian. Now, I can say that this final book of the series is the most intense and most thrilling of all. I don't remember a chapter where there's no battle happening. Maybe the first few chapters are a bit peaceful, but it always ended up with a conflict and I guess that's what made the story so awesome.

The romantic parts of the story are also a bonus. As I was reading halfway through the book, I was wondering whether Percy will end up with Rachel Dare or Annabeth Chase. I tried to look at the series in general, and I ended up thinking he'd date Annabeth in the end. But there was also something with Rachel Dare that made me think she and Percy would end up together.

These are my copies of the Percy Jackson books. If you're wondering why I don't have the 2nd installment, I left it in Jeddah. But no worries, I'll get it back in a month.

Percy Jackson is also a sarcastic hero. When he gets in trouble, it makes his day great. He's also more like Greg Heffley from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid. When a hero in a prophecy dies, he always thinks that HE is the one mentioned. I don't know exactly what is wrong with him but I think he likes the thought of dying heroic. On the other hand, he's a smart hero. He always has a plan and strategy in hand and it works, of course, with the help of his friends Grover, Annabeth and his brother, Tyson. Plus, he's also one powerful half-blood and I'm not surprised, he's the son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three.

Overall, I love the series! If you love Harry Potter, you'll love Percy Jackson as much. I recommend this series to everyone who knows how to read. So go to your nearest book store and grab your copy now, if you haven't. A salute to Rick Riordan, author of the series. If J.K. Rowling is the Queen, then you are my King.

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

We were in SM North Edsa yesterday and I finally got to watch The Three Musketeers in 3D! It was my first time watching a movie in 3D so I enjoyed every bit of it.

What happened exactly was first, we went to SM North Edsa, ate lunch, and headed to National Bookstore to apply me a Laking National Card. But the lady said that there will be a new system of the Laking National Card, and if we wait at least a week, we can try to apply, and get the Card right away. Plus, they said they don't collect points anymore. I don't exactly know what she meant but, oh well.

So, as I expected, Logan Lerman had SO MUCH sword fights in the movie and I love it. He was d'Artagnan in the movie, a young country boy who wants to be a musketeer himself, and accidentally meets the actual three musketeers on his way to look for the guy who insulted his horse and almost killed him, if it weren't for Milady de Winter, who stopped the guy because of d'Artagnan's pretty face. I agree with her.

The movie starts with a little bit of introduction of the three musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. They, together with Milady, sort of looked for certain keys to open a dungeon full of scrolls. They were looking for the scroll which contains an instruction on how to build a flying boat or whatever they call it. Turns out, Milady was a traitor, and she worked for the Duke of Buckingham. After a year, there comes d'Artagnan, training in the grass fields with his father while they chat about being a musketeer. His mother comes with his white with black patched horse, named Buttercup or at least I remember it was.

After that, a series of sword fights comes in and the adventure starts right away. There were comedic scenes, which really made me laugh, especially the one who served the three musketeers, who always gets a "shut up" for mumbling non-sense and gets to sleep at the balcony with birds pooping on his head all night. All I could say was, d'Artagnan was one cocky teenage looking man. And he needs a haircut.

I bought The Three Musketeers Book by Alexandre Dumas and was translated by Richard Pevear. I just learned that the original book wasn't in English so it was news to me. I'm looking forward to reading this. First, it's a classic. Second, I'm crushing on d'Artagnan.

It costs Php605.00 and I know it's quite the price but I just couldn't help it. I spoil myself when it comes to books. And my mom and my aunt got no issues about it. ;)

Soon enough, I'm gonna post a review about this, after The Labyrinth and The Last Olympian.

The Three Musketeers 3D

So my aunt, cousin and I are planning to see a movie tomorrow but the main problem is we are currently in a war between Real Steel and The Three Musketeers. Basically, the sole reason why I wanted to watch The Three Musketeers is because Logan Lerman is in it. I watched the trailer just a few minutes ago and I think my heart skipped a beat.

See, Logan Lerman is one of the celebrity boys I'm currently having a crush on. I can actually line him up with Devon Bostick (Rodrick Heffley from Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and Skandar Keynes (Edmund Pevensie from The Chronicles of Narnia). This Logan in The Three Musketeers is not so far from the Logan in the Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. He is also into a lot of sword fights in this movie, well, at least in the trailer.

Plus, unexpectedly, there's a kissing scene in this movie. I made sure it wasn't Logan, so I tried re-watching the trailer a few more times. But yes, it was Logan with this girl. I'm pretty sure there's a good and valid reason why they kissed.

The bottom line: I have to watch this movie because of Logan, seriously. Either tomorrow, or next week, or next month. As long as I see it in a huge screen of a theatre. His face is just so damn perfect. I also wanna see him in a sword fight once more, after The Lightning Thief, because I'm quite sure that I'm gonna have to wait for a long time before The Sea of Monsters is out.

My Narnia Map from Amazon.com

When I was in LA, I bought a $25 Amazon Gift Card to buy a $7 book, plus the shipping, on Amazon.com. It was “The Goddess Guide.” Too bad I wasn’t able to make a review about it because I left it in Jeddah. But I sure do remember making a review of it on the actual website.

With $10 left in my Amazon Gift Card balance, I decided to buy a map of Narnia, which is basically a poster for a collector/fan and it surprisingly arrived today! For only $1, plus the $8 shipping fee, this is what I got.

I was wondering why it came four days early, since I chose the Standard shipping where it’s supposed to arrive 10 to 16 Business days after placing an order (I placed the order last October 17). When I checked the package, it said “USPS First-Class International”! This is news. According to the information in my Amazon account, it confirmed that it is Standard shipping. But, seriously, the package says First Class. No wonder it came so early.

Tthe map is very neat and very detailed that I can actually think I’m in Narnia. The material is also good for a poster/map; you can actually think it’s a map to a real world. Now, I can visualize what really happened in the books and movies by looking at the map. I was all like “Oh, look! That’s the battle field, where the battle in the first book/movie took place,” and “That’s the witch’s castle! Look how big it is.” It’s also amazing that there’s a picture of the wardrobe near the lamp post, to show that that’s where the Pevensies came from.

Kudos to Amazon.com and to Tony Santone, the seller, for a good service. Surely, when I lay my hands on some extra bucks, I’m gonna stop by again on Amazon and buy a few more posters. I was thinking of buying books, but I decided not to, since the shipping fee is higher than the actual price of the item. And I can always go to the actual book store and buy the books I need, without having to worry about the shipping and stuff.

Korea, here I come!

It's been weeks since I updated my blog. But here I am again!

So last October 8, I won the Pinoy KPOP Star 2011 in the Korean Cultural Center in Taguig. Here's the article by Jonathan Hicap of Manila Bulletin.

http://mb.com.ph/articles/338812/teen-jeddah-crowned-pinoy-kpop-star

It was a tough competition. All of the other finalists were so good, they sounded like they were Korean themselves. I was a bit conscious about myself because I was the only one who couldn't cope up with the rest of them. They were all like talking about KPOP singers that I'm familiar with, but never really heard them sing. I know the names alright. But I've no idea who they are.

We were 13 all in all. We were supposed to be 15, but 2 other contestants got disqualified for some passport issues. I felt bad for them. Anyway, we were 13 and I was the 9th contestant. The program went on smoothly but then there were some technical problems with some finalists. I think there was something wrong with their MRs. And guess what? The finalists who had technical problems were the finalists BEFORE me, and AFTER me. I was so tensed. It's like the bad luck skipped and missed me. Well, not really bad luck, but you get the point.

This is my performance that night. I sang Byul by Youme. This video is by Ate Dang, one of the awesome finalists on that night.

I was wearing a dress from Freeway and shoes from Payless. Only the shoes were from Saudi. Haha.

Now, after winning the title Pinoy KPOP Star, I'm gonna have to go to Korea this December to compete with the other teams from other countries. The event is called KPOP World Festival and I know it's gonna be so exciting. I just got the itinerary yesterday and the most exciting part of it was the Idol Mentoring! KPOP stars will sort of teach us stuff before we head to the finals. I just really hope 2NE1 will take part in it.

So there. That's just about every big event that's happened since I came back here in the Philippines.

PS: My mom got me a new Acer desktop. The downside of it was I can't seem to use it with an internet connection. The monitor goes blue. Basically, I use my aunt's mac book.

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Collection

YAY for my book collection of Flamel! I bought The Necromancer the other day and finished reading it last night and I had a total blast. Although I feel really bad for some of the characters because they had a terrible fate, I know in the end everything will be well.

So in the photo above, you can see the first four installments of the series which I have read already. I've read The Alchemyst and The Magician last December and The Sorceress around February this year. It just so happens that I got so busy since March up to August that I haven't had a time to buy and read the fourth book. The other day, we went to the bookstore and bought The Necromancer, which I have been eyeing on since May, together with the Do-It-Yourself Diary of a Wimpy kid for my cousin in the Philippines, 'cause I'm flying back home in a week!

All I can say about the fourth installment of the series is that among all the books from the series that I've read, this book is by far has the most excitement, thrill and romance in it. Well, not really romance but I got to discover that Elders also fall in love. I once thought they don't find these kinds of emotions useful and productive but yes, I found out that they can fall in love. In this book, a sudden turn of events also occured. I won't give away much of it, but I think it broke my heart when Aoife, twin sister of Scathach, had gone into a distant Shadowrealm just to pull the monster Archon, Coatlicue, with her and is gone forever. What makes it more sad is that she did it for her sister.

WHEW. I won't talk anymore. I tend to give out spoilers so, I'm zipping my mouth. Haha. That's just about it.

Pinoy KPOP Star 2011

I auditioned for Pinoy KPOP Star 2011 and some of the other contestants are against me because:

1. My video is a year old.

2. I have decent recording equipment.

WHAT THE HECK? SERIOUSLY? Let me give you my answers.

One, my video may be a year old but to tell you the truth I STILL SING THE SAME WAY I DID IN THE VIDEO. I sing the song almost every time. You don't know how much I loved the song. And if your concern is the views, it isn't the basis of the Popularity Award. According to the Facebook Page, the finalists' entries will be posted on the page, and the one who gets the most number of LIKES, as in FACEBOOK LIKES, will be awarded. And to clear things, I AM NOT AIMING FOR THE AWARD GUYS. If you want it, it's all yours. I'm not even aiming to win this competition. I just wanna try something new. I've been joining a LOT of singing competitions lately and this will be the first competition that I'm gonna join with a Korean song. So this is new for me.

Two, is it my fault that my dad tried his best to support my singing and provided me with the equipment I need? Seriously, guys. Even though it's not a live recording, THERE WERE NO EFFECTS USED. Yes, I did some overlays but it IS STILL ME. It is STILL MY VOICE. The back ups you hear? It's still me. And if you think it's unfair for those who don't have the equipment, it's not. They don't judge us by our equipment, they judge us by our voice quality, style and pronunciation. This is a singing competition, not a recording equipment competition for goodness' sake.

Why does everybody sees me as a cheater and an unfair contender? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU GUYS? Why don't you just be happy for me? I'm a Filipino. We're all Filipinos. This freaking crab mentality is messing with us.

Twitter Followers.

For the past few days, I've been followed by a lot of unknown people from different places randomly and I've no idea HOW they found me. Eventually, I guessed that it's because Matt Rivera, a buddy of Devon Bostick, has been tweeting me and has been retweeting some of my tweets to him, including my cover of Super Bass. I don't actually have THAT MUCH of followers but I guess there are secrets in getting a lot of them. I only have like 350 and I love the feeling when I get an email saying, "ASDFGHJKL (@asdfghjkl) is now following you on Twitter!" I don't follow back right away of course. Well, it depends in some way. If they're some sort of fans of someone I'm fanning over then that's an immediate follow back.

Anyway, there are a lot of spammers on twitter at the moment. They just randomly follow you without any valid reasons. Well, others follow you for advertisement reasons ONLY and some are just typical spammers. You know, like, they have porno default photo and it annoys me a lot. So the best you can do is just block them and never tweet them back. Because base on my experience, once you tweet them back, MORE SPAMMERS LIKE THEM are gonna start to tweet you too.

I remember once, I tweeted about Justin Bieber. I said, I dreamed about making a hate song for him and I enjoyed it a lot, well, at least in my dream. And then there came these spamming beliebers saying, hey help me get this blah blah trending. Like what in the world? I don't know if they're like robots programmed to tweet users who tweet about certain topics or people and force them to visit a site or just ask them to do something else.

My Twitter is not in the private mode and I like it that way since I don't wanna be annoyed with notifications from people who want to view my tweets. And I don't even tweet things that I don't want people to see. It's my twitter, and I wanted every follower of mine to know what kind of a person I really am. And it also annoys me whenever a follower's like, hey follow back, and then when I'm already on their twitter, they're in private. Who are they kidding? It's bad enough to ask for a follow back. Asking for a follow back when you're in a private mode? That's worse.

Basically, Twitter is a great place for celebrities and fans. Celebs get to interact with their fans in the easiest way while their fans just stalk them whenever they post updates on what they're up to at the moment. "Stalking" is too harsh. Maybe "intense research on an individual"? LOL. Just kidding.

I'm on Twitter for, like, everyday and I never get tired of it. Well sometimes I do, when there's not much updates from people I follow. But when everybody is online, I couldn't help it. My medium on twitter is English, btw. Because I lost followers some months ago when I kept tweeting in my native language. I guess they got annoyed they couldn't understand a thing I said.

I love Twitter. If you don't have a twitter, you better make one, like, now.

My 17th Birthday!

So I woke up this morning and got my Facebook exploding because of wall posts, comments and messages from my friends and relatives greeting and wishing me a happy birthday. I saw this coming, really. This happens every year if you have a Facebook account. Haha. It's very heart warming to know that there are a lot of people who would spend a few seconds of their lives just to stop by and post something on your wall. Some posted a simple happy birthday and some wished me good luck in life and in my career. Oh, and some also said they missed me. I missed them too, if they only knew.

Anyway, I am very happy right now because not only my friends and relatives greeted me a happy birthday, but also Devon Bostick, my favorite actor of all time.

My birthday is totally complete. :') This is a chance I get once in a while. It's not every time you get a reply from a Canadian celebrity. And not just a reply, it's more special since it's a birthday greeting. He is the first ever most famous celebrity who replied to me. And I love him because he tweets his fans and make them feel special in special occasions like this. Not the "love" for a boyfriend or whatever. It's the "love" for, like, a friend. I'm not dreaming of having him as, you know, a boyfriend. I'm a FAN. That's just it. Nothing more, nothing less. Just trying to clear things up because some fan girls tend to dream about being Dev's girl but pffft, not gonna happen. And I'm not one of them. I just thought he's the kind of dude I should be making friends with. I'm sort of a Rodrick Heffley at times. Haha.

And now I'm thinking, my cousin, Sid, will be so happy about this. I told him I have a contact with Devon via Twitter, and he's such a big fan of the wimpy movies. He couldn't believe the power of Twitter. Haha.

Anyway, THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO GREETED ME A HAPPY BIRTHDAY! This is my 17th birthday, which marks my 17 years of existence (does that even made sense?). Thank you, God, for giving me another year in my life. I'm gonna prove to you that I'm your child. :)

I can't believe I'm already THIS old btw. It seems only yesterday when I entered high school, and I was 12. Dang, now I'm 17. That was 5 years ago! Time flies so fast. I have to stop and take a look around. I don't wanna miss it.

Super Bass by Nicki Minaj Cover

So when I was in Los Angeles, Super Bass was ALL OVER the radio stations and I think it was on repeat and I decided to try the rap part ONLY but then I ended up singing the whole song. When I got back here in Saudi, I chilled for a bit and then continued practicing the rap parts since my tongue gets a little bit twisted in the 2nd verse of the song but I did it pretty well in this cover. :)

This song is for the friends I've made in the World Championships of Performing Arts. Glee, Hariette, Princess, Joshua Davis, Joshua Pineda and kuya Joseph the Sand Artist, this is for all of you. I miss you guys. :(

Anyway, for everyone's information, I don't really have a thing for American guys so I changed the lyric into "You know I really got a thing for Canadian guys." For the past few days I've been a fan of Devon Bostick, a Canadian Actor. That's why.

Matt Rivera on Twitter

Okay so I've been freaking out a while ago because Matt Rivera greeted me an Advance Happy Birthday on Twitter!

AAAAND I promoted him and we talked like close buddies do. I am so freaking out. I mean, he's such a nice guy, replying to his mentions on Twitter. I hope I make friends with him. He's got swag.

Different time zones suck big time.

Don't you think having different time zones with your friends and family sucks so much?

I live here in Saudi Arabia, which is GMT+3, and almost all of my friends left for the Philippines. Most of my relatives live there too and some of my friends are in the US and Europe.

I was chatting with my girl best friend a while ago and I really did suck at math. She asked me if I'm gonna be online for the whole day today and I told her no, I'll be off by 3pm here, or 6pm there. I added only 3 freaking hours to the local time here. I was stupid I didn't notice it should be PLUS 5, not 3. Time difference blows my mind.

And just last August 22, a boy best friend of mine left for England, which is 2 hours earlier than the local time. He hasn't tweeted me since 23. Do you think it's the time difference or something else?

Plus, my friends in Delano, California have been sending me text messages via Viber and I'm not receiving them at the right time. It's always delayed. And it's almost the total opposite. When I wake up in the morning, they're getting ready for bed. When I'm getting ready for bed, they're just about to start their day. What sucks more than that?

Lastly, this mental relationship with Devon Bostick is getting harder and harder every minute. He tweets early in the morning, while I sleep soundly. And when I'm awake, he stops tweeting and starts filming Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3: Dog Days in Vancouver. Just the other day, he tweeted A LOT of his fans. And you know what I hate about it? I wasn't online. I wasn't on twitter. I was even sleeping. He tweeted them at 8am, I woke up at 11am. Geez this is heavy.



Basically, time difference sucks more than anything.

Writing stories.

I get frustrated. A LOT.

I've been blogging for years and been writing a lot of different stories since I was 7. Now I'm 16, I always get this frustrated feeling of not finishing a single story line. It's either I get a writer's block, I get lazy or I'm out of words. Every time a good story line comes up, I start writing and eventually get stuck in the middle of the story, clueless of what would I wanna write next. I hate it so much. At this moment, that feeling is coming back at me again. The feeling that I wanna write a story. A story about my dream last night. It was actually an awesome dream to base a story from. I never would have thought of anything like it at all. Only I don't know how to start it off, or how should the story go beyond what I dreamt of.

Oh well, I guess I better try writing about it anyway. It might end the way I never would've expected.

Chocolate topped Biscuits!

Made these yesterday because I was bored. And hungry. And bored.

Ingredients:

Butter (like 2 teaspoons. idk I just eyed on it.)

1 bar of Cadbury milk chocolate or any chocolate

Biscuits

Procedure:

1. Put the chocolate and butter in a small bowl (make sure the chocolate is chopped to pieces so it'll melt fast) and put it it in the microwave. Let it melt for 1 minute and stir it every 15 seconds to avoid burning, 'cause burnt chocolate sucks. It smells so bad, trust me.

2. Get the melted chocolate from the microwave (be careful 'cause it's gonna be hot) and stir it again to achieve the consistency you wanted.

3. Top it on your biscuits, and if you fancy, put on some sprinkles or small marshmallows or whatever you like. You can also put it in the refrigerator to harden the chocolate (it tastes better).

It's easy. Easy as 1-2-3. ;)

My Los Angeles cap. :(

Lost this cap in Bakersfield in California. :( I loved this cap so much. I bought it in a store in Macy's in Los Angeles for $10. And I lost it for some serious reason: my fingers were shut stuck in the car door by my friend in Delano. It was epic. It hurt, but it was a funny remembrance from them. Haha. I still can't get over this cap however.

Tween Hearts? SERIOUSLY?

Okay. Are you guys familiar with this TV Show on GMA, Tween Hearts? If you are, what do you think?

What I think about it is..

SRSLY? Is there even a school in the Philippines with a uniform like theirs? Long sleeves with blazers, short skirts and long socks. Are you guys kidding me? The Philippines is a tropical country. We don't need long sleeves with blazers as a uniform. We don't wanna sweat our armpits like heck.

And the bullies. Personally, I haven't experienced being bullied since it's not really a thing Filipinos do. But in Tween Hearts? They're like, wth? Obviously they are copying whatever they saw in Korean and Japanese dramas. Srsly, guys. I haven't encountered anyone who is as mean as the girls in Tween Hearts. ANOTHER THING is that not everybody can relate to whatever the story is trying to tell. If you watch the show, there are teens who, like, go to starbucks or whatever coffee shop that is, and sit and chill like they have no life. And all they're talking about is their LOVE LIFE. I CAN'T EVEN. ASDFGHJKL. There are more important things to talk about than that kind of shit. It will be more relevant if they are talking about saving money just so they can pay their tuition fees or even buy a book they'd love to read. Typical teenage Filipinos don't do it like them. Tween Hearts dudes aren't doing it right. They don't even act like a Filipino.

AND YEAH, some of the the actresses and actors are like, 13 years old? 14? Whatever. Our generation sucks. We should be thinking about our STUDIES and not LOVE LIVES. We should be thinking about paying back our parents because they are giving us a favor sending us to school. We go to school to LEARN, not to flirt. I mean, it's a good and normal thing to have a crush on someone or even fall for them, but you have to know your limitations. Crush, love, no problem. But making your world revolve around it? That's no good. Basically, the show Tween Hearts, which everyone finds very nakakakilig, very inspiring, very funny whatsoever, is actually a bad influence on teens, well, at least in my opinion.

C'mon GMA. I've been watching your shows for years. Please give us, teens, some TV show we can learn something from. Something that'll make us do our best in school and in other aspects of our teenage years. Please don't make us expect for a love life like that. Make us expect for a good future ahead of us. Inspire us to be good citizens of the Philippines, and not some happy-go-lucky ass who doesn't know anything but Starbucks, boyfriend/girlfriend, gimicks, and some other unnecessary shit. Hope you get my point.

No hard feelings. Just saying.

PS: I'm not hating on the show. I just think that there are A LOT OF ROOM for improvement.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

You're probably wondering if this movie also sucked like the first one. I thought so too. I guess we were wrong. Thank goodness I was bored in the plane to Abu Dhabi and I decided to watch this movie. I had too many options, Kung Fu Panda 2, Sucker Punch, Wall E, etc. But THIS one caught my attention. I saw the movie poster and there was Greg, standing right next to someone SEXY. It was Rodrick, his older brother in the first movie who made his life miserable. I was like, "This guy's something." And so I watched it.

And from that day on, I've developed this irrevocable obsession over Devon Bostick, a.k.a Rodrick Heffley. Devon, why'd you have to be so badly awesome and cute? He's 19 btw. Turning 20 this November 13. Just saying. Haha.

Anyway, this is a must watch movie since it's a story about sibling rivalry, which is one of the most common problems of parents these days. You gotta love it. It's comic, realistic and funny as heck. Sometimes sexy because of Devon Bostick. ;) And oh, watch this and you will know about Rodrick's rules to an easy life. I'm sure it works. LOL.

World Championships of Performing Arts 2011!

This is a late post, so sorry!

Any, I got back here in Jeddah just last week, on August 4, from Los Angeles, California. I had a blast in the worlds! It was an amazing experience and I would not trade it with anything. It was my first time in joining an international performing arts competition and it really was a memorable event.

I arrived in LAX on July 14 and spent the day in Delano, where my family's friends live. The next day, we went back straight to LA, to the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, where the worlds took place. I was a bit late. When we arrived, the registration area was empty! Well, of course the staff were there, waiting for late registrations. So I went in and told them my name. The funny thing is, they thought I was in the Junior Category because of my freaking height! I know. If I wasn't in the mood, they would have got into my nerves. And I think that's a good start, them noticing me because of my unusual, usual for Asians, height.

That day, I met the delegates from Qatar and the rest of the Philippine Team. Unexpectedly, they were nice. One of my expectations is that other teams will be awkwardly mean to me, but no. They even became my buddies in LA! Now, I sort of miss everyone of them.

Whew, I don't know if I can tell every single detail about the worlds but one thing I know is that I enjoyed it so much. I won 4 silver medals for my 4 entries. I basically flunked one of my entries because of some reasons, I failed to sing it. I was so sorry. Haha! But I'm happy with what I got. I'm proud with what I achieved. I gave one of my medals to FAME, Filipino Artiste Migrant Ensemble, my org, to thank them for the support and love. Without them, I wouldn't have made it in Los Angeles.

That's me with Hariette and Glee Nette, from Qatar and the Philippines. More photos on my Facebook!

I would like to thank everyone who supported me in this competition. Thank you so much for all your support and just so you know, you all are my motivations to keep on singing. Thanks to my parents who pushed me to the top, scolded me when I don't practice, and kept on raising my spirits. To my fans, thank you so much for the lucks and congratulations and love you've given me. To FAME, thank you so much to all of you. You guys are my second family here in Jeddah. And also, to God, for giving me this talent to make my grandparents happy, especially my lola, who just undergone a surgery yesterday. I can't describe how touched I am when I learned that she listened to my songs right before she went into the operating room. I am happy that the surgery was successful. I hope she recovers as soon as possible. :)

That's all folks! Have a good day and God Bless you all. <3

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Song

I saw this on Tumblr and went laughing out loud. If you're a Harry Potter fan, you MUST watch this and DON'T, under any circumstances, ignore this or you will miss the laughter. This video was made and uploaded by AndyWithAnM on YouTube. Check her Channel out.

This video made my day.

RIP LG Ice Cream Phone

It broke into two pieces! It's a flip top phone as you can see and it died the other day. I bought this phone 2 years ago with my very own earnings for 700SR or less than $200. I loved it so much that even though the time came that I had to change my cellular phone into an iPhone 3GS 32 GB, I still used it. I bought another sim card just to use it. It's a very user friendly phone and it has so much of my sentimental value in it. It has been with me through rough times, yes.

I remember using this phone to go online at night, when my laptop is already shut down and everyone's asleep. I also used this phone to take photos of me and my friends when we were in 3rd year High School (check out my flickr). And yes, I took videos with this phone too and I posted it all over the internet, particularly on Facebook. And just the other day, when my mom decided to borrow it and use it as an e-loading phone, it broke into half and fell on the floor. I expected that I'll cry and be depressed and all but I didn't. We laughed about it. I guess I saw it coming.

I posted the photo above immediately on Facebook right after it died and I a lot of people sympathized with me.

To my LG Ice Cream phone, you will always be remembered. May you rest in peace.

A Night with Karla on June 30, 2011

Yours truly, Karla Carreon, is going to have a concert on the 30th of this month! This will be my 2nd concert here in Saudi Arabia and the objective of this concert is to gather a certain amount of funds for me to be able to go to America for the International competition I'm gonna join, which is the World Championships of Performing Arts, wherein I will represent the Filipino Community here in Saudi Arabia.

The said event is 10 days away, yet I haven't rehearse ANY of my songs. LOL! I guess I have to cram once I got the list of expected songs I'm gonna sing on that night. Fortunately, there will be a lot of guests! Most of the talents of FAME or Filipino Artisté Migrant Ensemble, an organization here in Jeddah which handles me and everything, will be singing with me and will have a solo spot on that night.

Last night, we were roaming around and visiting houses of friends and colleagues of my titos in FAME to sell tickets for the said concert. Supposedly, I should have been outside now instead of writing this entry since we are also scheduled to sell tickets today. But I think it's canceled.

Any how, I was practicing my contest pieces a while ago and I had a bit of a hard time singing 5 songs consecutively. I guess that's the result of not practicing seriously for a week. I feel sorry. I'll make it up to it. I'm gonna practice everyday from now on. I don't want to embarrass myself in the US. That would suck. And if that happens, I know I can hardly face all the people who supported me. I have to do my part. :)

Thank you to all the people who supported me ever since I knew how to sing and up until now, when I am a step away in reaching my dreams. You became God's instrument in making my dreams come true and my motivation in doing everything I'm destined to do. Thank you so much and I won't let anybody down.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters

by Rick Riordan

I finished reading this book the other day and I really, really love everything about the story. From the characters to the adventures, everything is so damn creative. I love how Rick Riordan twisted the story and how he wrote it with humor.

I won't talk about it anymore because I don't want my post to be a spoiler to those who haven't read the book yet. But for me, The Sea of Monsters is better than The Lightning Thief. Just saying.

Anyway, I'm more than excited for the movie of this book and I hope they don't remove too much scenes because really, every scene from the movie counts and completes the story.

The Bermuda Triangle

Spoiler Warning.

I was reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters and I'm in this Chapter where Percy had a dream about Grover wearing a wedding dress and telling him that he is trapped in the sea of monsters. When Percy woke up, she told Annabeth about it and they talked about the Bermuda Triangle. I was a bit thrilled about the thought of the triangle because I remembered researching about it in the past. So I happen to research about it again to find out what I'm expecting to find.

According to Wikipedia, the boundaries of the triangle cover the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas and the entire Caribbean island area and the Atlantic east to the Azores. I don't know the places but I'm pretty sure it's damn far away from here. All I'm wishing now is if ever I'm going on a trip somewhere riding a plane or whatever, I don't pass that triangle. Does the triangle has something to do with this illuminati bullcrap?

Anyway, some say that the reasons for the disappearances in that triangle are the UFOs, the mythical place Atlantis, a wormhole or some other natural reasons. I don't think it's the UFOs. And so is the wormhole but I have the feeling of agreeing with Atlantis. I sound funny, believing in Atlantis but I don't know, I love the thrill of believing these pieces of non-sense theories and myths. Did I mention I love myths? LOL.

Whatever is in there, I really wanna find out. When I'm a Journalist, I swear that would be the longest article I will ever write about. Might as well write a book about it.

Check out this site:

http://bermudatrianglefacts.com/

Food for the Brain.

I just discovered this website yesterday and I'm loving it. It's a really good exercise for the brain this summer. Since I'm not attending school for this year, I decided to spend my time studying at home on my own using the internet. I have all the resources, why not use it?

The website, Vocabulary.com, is obviously a site where you can fully enhance your vocabulary by just playing The Challenge. They also have "the quickest dictionary" around. It's a good exercise and really fun 'cause you get a hundred points with every correct answers and when you reach a certain number of points, you get to proceed to the next level and that's exactly what I was looking for! Every level up motivates me to play more and enhance my vocabulary in no time.

For just one day, I've already got some of the achievements! Check this out.

The highlighted ones are the achievements I got. And the others are what I'm still aiming for. :) I dream to reach the Walking Dictionary. >:) I'm doing this to prepare myself for next June because I don't want my brain to rot during my idle this year.

I recommend you check the website out!

Visit my profile here.

Jar of Hearts Acoustic Cover

Check out our acoustic cover of Jar of Hearts, together with my friend Fai.

It all started with a simple idea like "Hey, why don't cover a song?" and then it went like this. I didn't expect it will be like THIS but I think it turned out really good. We recorded this last June 9. Fai only heard the song for like 4 times and he still doesn't know his way around the song but he was as professional as THAT so he tried his best to finish playing it like he's been hearing it for years. While in my case, I have been listening to the song for at least 2 weeks and been loving it ever since.

The song is full of deep emotions put into words by Christina Perri herself according to the internet. She wrote the song when she split ways with her husband. And I recommend this song to everyone, especially those who got their heart broken. :)

I hope you enjoy our cover and if you have any comment, please feel free to let me know!

The Weirdest Dream.

The other night, I had the weirdest dream EVER. It’s not your ordinary dream where you’re just there watching yourself and not feeling anything. It’s WEIRD. If you are familiar with the movie Inception, I sort of had a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream. I can’t remember how many layers my dream went but it felt like I was there waiting for YEARS before I wake up.

It started off when I woke up in the dream and immediately knew I was dreaming. I was in our old house in Bulacan in the Philippines and I was there, lying on my bed and I saw my sister and my mom lying on the other bed inside our bedroom. At first I was like “Oh great, I’m lucid dreaming.” A Lucid Dream is a dream where you are actually aware that you are dreaming. So whenever I get a Lucid Dream, I always do the things I wanted to happen in real life. Like fly, drive a red sports car and run over the civilians (I know this is evil as crap), eat a gallon of ice cream, ride a broomstick and fly like Harry Potter, hug Skandar Keynes etc. Name it. But the dream I had the other night was not like any other Lucid Dream I had. It was different. The feel is different and it’s not like fun to do shitty things at all. It has a dark sense in it. I got scared so I decided to try to wake myself up. I slapped myself a few times but it didn’t work. I banged my head against the wall but it didn’t work as well. I was freaking out. I tried all the things that can hurt me but nothing worked. So I went back to bed and tried to sleep to dream another dream that is at least better than this one. Then again, it didn’t work.

After a while, I found myself waking up. I was a little bit happy about it only to find out that I woke up in a dream again. It happened so many times that I’m getting so crazy and really freaking out in the dream. Then I decided to hug my mom because I thought it will make me less scared. But it didn’t. Next thing I knew, she was laughing real hard and when I looked at her, she’s not my mom anymore. She morphed into something that looked like a Minotaur, or something like a devil. But something tells me it’s a devil that snuck into my dream and scared the crap out of me. The devil took hold of my wrists and kept on laughing. I don’t know what’s so funny but it didn’t stop. Its laugh got louder and louder every moment and I got more scared. So I closed my eyes and prayed to God and ask him to get this devil away from me and when I opened my eyes, the devil turned into dust as it let go of my wrist.

But that wasn't the end of it. After the devil turned into dust, I fell back to sleep and woke up in ANOTHER DREAM! Now, it gets creepier and creepier. I woke up crying in the dream and I looked for my mom. Although she turned into a devil in the previous dream, I still thought that she was my mom so I hugged her real tight and shouted at her ear "Mom if you can hear, wake me up NOW! For goodness' sake WAKE ME UP!" But she just opened her eyes and laughed again. She turned into the devil again and the devil stabbed me not once, but many times in the chest with its sharp nails. And this time, I woke up.

I woke up in our bedroom here in Jeddah and I was so relieved about it. I pinched my cheeks and got hurt and I knew I was really awake. I'm in the reality. I thanked God for still keeping me alive after that dream because really, I thought I was gonna die and I thought that devil was Satan. That night before I went back to sleep again after waking up from a nightmare, I was thinking of writing a goodbye letter to my family because I thought that if THAT dream comes back again, at least I've written my goodbyes.

Vacation in the Philippines

HEYYY GUYS. I'm sorry for not updating so soon after my vacation in the Philippines. Let me make it up to you!

So the picture over there ^ would be me and my long time gay best friend, Louie. We were friends since 3rd Grade and we met again after staying for 3 years here in Jeddah. WHEW Boy that was fun, seeing your long time friend after a while.

We left Jeddah last April 26 and arrived in Ninoy Aquino International Airport the next day. We had a stop over in Riyadh for 2 hours by the way. My aunt and her son, basically my cousin, went to fetch us from the airport. When we came to our house in Pasig City, I noticed that the place was quite different from I thought it looked like 3 years ago. But of course, time passes and things change inevitably so yeah, I got the hang of it.

I also noticed that in the Philippines, there occurs, according to me, the scarcity of space. I'm not stereotyping like "If it's the Philippines, then it should be snug-ish" or something of that sort. We live in Rosario, so it's the type of place where you can hear the noisy streets, noisy people outdoors, noisy Jeepneys and trycicles and all kinds of noises all day long. ALL. DAY. LONG. It's a miracle if by any chance you went there and Pacquiao is in L.A. beating the hell out of the Mexicans. That way, Pasig is quiet and peaceful. LOL. Enough of the blabbering. Here are the photos from my vacation. :)

My cousins (left to right) Ched, Makong, Jastine, Ian, my sister Pam (at the back), my cousin Joshua, Abby and Mariel.

And while waiting outside Club Manila East..

Then after 34534875237423985093485034 years, we got inside at last. What do you expect the first thing we did? CHANGE INTO SWIMSUITS! YAY. And then we jumped to the nearest pool we can spot. LOL.

It was really fun. No words to describe it. Spending your time with your family along with your bestest friend, my life is complete. I love them all and I wouldn't change a thing.