so here we are again... in the valley of gold

ok... here we are again... in the city of golden friendship, Cagayan de Oro. Literally, the "valley of gold". But poverty seems rampant in my wallet. haha. Al the money I earned for this trip has all been spent. Well, I don't mind really. "Pasalubongs" have been bought. And a well earned spa treatment. It was all good. Feeling refreshed after a day out in the sun... working the day away. But now all is well... after a body scrub and a full body massage with my dear friend ee at local spa, I feel all but renewed. In a way at least. Stresses of the last few days were just scrubbed and rubbed away with each stroke of the hand on my body. Woah... stop that... no imagining how it looked now.

Now back at the hotel. Well, this blog serves as my review of the hotel, among others. Later... well... let's see where this writing takes me.going back now... let's start off the review. And that comes in the next paragraph.

For this trip, eeyan and I are staying at the Southwinds Hotel near Gaisano Mall and Limketkai Center. This became so after that horrific experience in our last trip (check out my previous blog entry for more details). OK.. the place is nice... nothing really special about the place but it is "quaint" (don't make me define quaint for you... look in the dictionary). Quiet and physical would be the words to describe the place. Physical coz there's no elevator and our room is on the third floor. Quiet... well.. far away from the downtown area and will not so many people checked in (at least until now while i'm writing this).

Good points: Rooms for a cheap price. We got the Executive Room and it costs less than Php1500. Well.. nothing really special on the room. The room was spacious enough for two people... a thrid or fourth person could possible stay in too. You each get two pillows... I like this as I'm used to sleeping with lots of pillows. Free WIFI!! This is very important as eeyan and I stay up for this. (Define desperate). Down side... well later for that. Food is cheap and servings are standard Filipino servings. Smoking areas inside the hotel and restaurant (eeyan likes these). Very large parking space up front... not that this matters to us. Courteous staff... for the most part. What else?? Well, I'll add to this later... On to the bad points...

Bad points: Do NOT believe in advertisement pictures from the internet or whereever that show the rooms as very nice. They're not. The rooms are simple. Two standard single beds for our rooms. We have a ref... not much use for us. TV was a measly 14" but the reception was clear as it should be since it is cable TV (can't say the same about other hotels). Very limited menu selection... servings are Filipino servings... meaning, if you want to pig out... this ain't the place for it. Staff... courteous as they are seem to always be stunned or awed by our presence... I guess it's their firt time to see celebrities up close... and even more talking to them (at least to ask for water or the menu). WIFI is only available in the lobby and resto... can;t complain much since it's free and it's fairly fast. Small bathroom in the room... I can barely move in there... it's like working in the lab... err... clean room. I don't want to write anymore. I'll leave the rest to ee at this point.

Overall... The hotel is great if you're just gonna be staying there at night... that is.. if you're just gonna be sleeping there. If you want more, go somewhere else. I would come back here if the case is like that... just to have a place to sleep. But if I'm having another trip like this one... I'd look for another hotel.

Ok... so that was the review... short and that's it. It's around dinner time. ee seems engrossed in what he's doing... i really don't know what he's doing... last night he was modding his multiply account... I'll do that some other time... no pix of mine are ready yet.

My head was cleared up with the scrubbing and rubbing... but now it seems to be getting clouded up again with so many things.... Sigh... as usual... we go emo at night... during nights I'm with and without... Well, you know what I mean... I think... I hope... Well... can't realy stop this... it's just how I feel... it's like stopping to breathe... or stopping yourself from blinking. Whatever time brings... I'll cross the bridge when I get there.

If your reading this and got this far... leave your thoughts... I'd like to hear them... I know you know who you are... haha... I'll stop at this point to prevent myself from burying myself deeper in this pit of despair... I just can't stop thinking of you sometimes... Well... that's all... STOP IT NOW!! (shouting at myself right now)...

Song of the night... "The (Shipped) Gold Standard" - FOB... listen to it to find out why... I just wanna scream... but I'm afraid... I got no one else to blame but myself...

ranting about a friggin' hotel and other things...

well... let's see... here at CDO again... for the fourth time. Staying at the same hotel for the third time... hating almost every moment of it... the hotel's renovations seem to be over.. but wtf... the hotel really needs to get a better grasp at why people stay here... at least those who come here on business. the wifi's all shot up (you could be right beside the router and still get nothing)... the toilet's got a leak... there's only one towel in the bath (i'm with... ehem... someone here)... airconditioning S*CKS... it's right beside my bed... as in i could hug it if i wanted to (of course i don't want to)... argh!!..

we asked for a room transfer and what did the stupid front desk guy say and do? "Ok, sir." then the arsehole hung up on my friend. what a loser... yeah.. okay okay. it's not his fault everything here's in disarray... but is that the right way to treat a guest... one who's stayed here before and has come back... wtf!!??

anyways... so we're here on business... just a bunch of meetings and an overnight stay at the hotel... (imagine... they're making this one night really s*ck)... had lunch at 5pm... no time to eat since our flight got delayed... we were supposed to depart at 10... but we boarded after 10... imagine the delay.... so we got off the plane and went straight to the hotel to check in... everything was fine and dandy...

meetings... meetings... meetings... then we're back at the hotel... hoping to get some rest and surf the net... but to no avail.. the first room was really a disaster... no wifi... noisy crowd outside (it was a corner room)... and the tv doesn't work right... we complained and... well... you know the story...

now it's late in th evening... still awake... surfin the web... got signals from other routers... so i'm bloggin' away... ranting... my dear friend is asleep... not even having eaten dinner... had to share a burger coz the friggin resto forgot to make two. i don't mind his snorrin at all... i've gotten used to it after all this time. well... i think it's time to wake him up for a bit and make him shower... hasn't changed clothed all day... yet he's sleeping soundly... and i mean with a lot of sound... gonna wake him in a few minutes... just when i'm about to sleep.

so here we are... our flight is at 9:40am.. it's now 11:36pm... yet i'm still awake... sigh... what a disaster... sigh... why am i getting this way again... slipping from ranting and raving... to some sort of sento mode i can't explain.... well.. let's stop before this get's out of hand... my back is starting to ache from sitting on this bed and typing here... good night to all those who are lost and searching for someone... yeah.. someone... not meaning... but someone... good night all... may we all find that someone for us...

Last night here...

Well... it's been two days. We got here to Bacolod from a rough start yesterday. Unforeseen stuff almost caused my friend to miss the flight. But all is well. Even though so many bad vibes have been spread... late check-ins... run backs to places you wouldn't need t have gone to... left behind money... broken chargers... and missing contacts... it all went well in the end. Yeah we wasted some moola earlier and got nowhere. But the night is young... though we're now just staying here. Well... a movie or two and a fairly early wake up tomorrow should do the trick of wasting us away, leaving us with little energy and a yearning to just go home and sleep.

It's our second and last night here in Bacolod, on this business trip we have. We went out, but to no avail. Two places went and two places gone. And we're back. A noontime flight tomorrow would send us travelling back home... at least part of the way home. What is there to do here? Is it just a movie? A blog entry? Unlimited browsing? Is that it?

Well... whatever then. Multitasking... listening to the TV while I write this. Me writing a blog... and the character on TV writing on her diary... how funny coincidence can be... And now another movie comes along. Let's see how it goes... Perhaps I'll take a shower now... and get ready to sleep... but not necessarily going to sleep. This has gone on and on and on... in this cool room... under the light of fluorescence... So what now? It's time to watch... or shower... or whatever... 'till next time...

Hopeless...
Helpless...
Hapless...

trying something out...

SO i'm just trying out a feature and see if it does what I think it does... Supposedly, there's a cros blogging feature from Multiply allowing me to post here and it automatically posts on Multiply... I do hope it works as we're not allowed to access Multiply at work... So here goes...

Someone...

This is but a small part of the piece. It's funny that this is the twelfth piece and that it is written about a year since this all began...

It’s late. But I’m still up. For reasons beyond that which I have learned in my life, I do not know why. These things I feel are all so alien to me. My heart is racing. Faster than ever I have felt before. Even more than those times of great anxiety for horrors I had to face. Mundane though they were, they were still horrors from my life. But then again, these things I face now are far more unknown to me. I do not what it is really. Time has certainly given me so many things. Life has challenged me many times. And this… whatever this is… I feel is just another one of those challenges. But I do not know if I can face it alone. It frightens me to think thus. These feelings… What are they really?

It’s been a while since this started. And I have had a lot of hurdles to face. But until now, I feel that I haven’t even scratched the surface of this challenge that has been brought before. To have to learn so much is so short a time. To feel things I have never felt before… or perhaps I have felt it before. I just never realized it. Naïveté. I’m so naïve. All these years I have been with people… people who cared… people who were there, but I never knew it. I never noticed them. And now, I yearn for the care, longing for that soft touch, that tight hug. Someone I could hold in my arms. Someone with whom I can be.

For now, someone care dearly for lies sleeping in bed. I want to hold that person in my arms and say what I feel. I just hope I can muster the courage to do. It's all so hard... this life we live.

Narrow and Broad... A Conflict of Menial Prowess

Let's see... I actually wanted to start with something lighter... But, hey, in this world nothing is light anymore... The supposed intellectual advancements of man have actually created complications instead of solutions, in a lot of cases at least. Well, here's piece number 06 from the brain farts of the panda... this was written half a decade ago... never published... always kept in the recesses of dark folder on my hard drive. Read... Understand... Reflect... React... Enjoy...

Narrow and Broad... A conflict of Menial Prowess

Patience is a virtue. It aids one in his quest for enlightenment, the light of wisdom that shines forth and sheds truth and understanding. But what goes when patience woes? When the light of wisdom fails to break through the mundane reality of the existential and the subliminal. Harsh, though it may be, the answer is the only other alternative to apathy. An apathy tested by the loss of patience. As earthen and as petty as reality, the harsh truth is the answer, the only force that may, in time and in thought open the mind of both the wise and the ignorant.

The ubiquitous effervescence of the paradoxical relativity through temporal alteration is the evanescent perpetuity of the existence of psychic melancholy. This statement best serves to show how the passage of patience goes with the passage of time. The existence of absurd ways of thinking; that which does not consider that which is and which is not. An uncanny relation between reality and ideality is present in whatever event occurs. This is what is and what is not.

Be warned of the narrow ways of thought of humans; of those who think right but are wrong. Wronged not by what is existent around, instead, wronged by what is existent within. The narrow path… the never ending train of self-righteousness deficient in what should be. The conflict of the mind of one and the minds of many. It is in the nature of humans to defend themselves even to the extent of being wrong. It is as inevitable as the existence of conflict, for it is the root of conflict. Man is fraught with turmoil. Not only in the mundane plain but also in the ethereal realm. This is the cost of existence.

The vex in such petty reality is the source of trivial idiocy of mind. A lapse in what seemed perfection is truly a flaw in what really is. The melancholy of man’s existence is self- preservation. Man would best his fellow man and even himself. Irritating, yes… inevitable, definitely… foolish, truly… man is but a vessel of idiocy and selfishness. And just when it seems all is for, one rises… disparate to the ideals and beliefs of the lot, with no intention to resort to diplomacy unlike the most. Why is it that man wishes to complicate his existence? Another proof of an eternally damned existence? The idiocy of man goes on. The endless quest for non-sense, a pathetic journey.

Only few have seen theory. Only few have let the light of wisdom transcend their being. Only few truly exist in the plain of truth and righteousness. The remaining lot still insists… still persist on their wrong. Inevitable… interminable…