Fabulous Opening of the College Cup

Season III of the College Cup kicked off to a grand start with a fabulous opening last July 29, 2005. There was the requisite parade showcasing all 5 teams from the volleyball division and all 12 teams from the basketball group. Since I am the captain ball of the most popular, most handsome, and most attractive team of the College Cup, the White Team, I get to parade up front with our muse, Mikki Mangrobang.

Mikki wasn't able to win the best muse prize though, that award went to the muse of the Yellow Team. For me, I thought the contest was a no-brainer. I mean, even if all the muses' beauty were combined and multiplied to the 100th power of 1000, they wouldn't be touching the gorgeousness that is the muse of the Red Team. In fact, the muse of that team had such an aura, that team went on and beat defending champions Black Team.

But fanaticism aside, I was pretty relieved that the muse of the Red Team didn't get the award, or else I would have clobbered the best escort from the SFC. But considering the garguantan size of that guy, I'm glad that never came to be. Going back to the Red Team vs. Black Team, I was surprised of the outcome, and quite frankly, hugely disappointed. Black shouldn't have lost. But they did. And it was all their fault. Substitution mishaps.

Oh, and did you guys see the tarpaulin banners of the College Cup? Nice, eh? I'm hoping that Reuel gets the MVP award for this sem so that we can use his face in next sem's tournament. How creepy is that. Tats was very happy with the banner for the volleyball, just look at the pic above. I loved our team's jersey. Lovely, isn't it? The white and light blue combination resembling the jersey of the Denver Nuggets. I'm wearing #30 by the way, let's see you decipher the meaning behind that.

I can't wait for our first game. We're stronger now. I think. And I hope students would come and support us. Go White!

BSBA Week

In an activity that took more preparation than initially thought, the BSBA Week Celebration, I'd say, was pretty stellar.

It started with the 'Business as Usual' mini-party. There were games, prizes, and food (Thanks to Ate Tin for the lovely, top-notch food -- loved the potato marbles!!!). My dear friend Rod Vasquez participated, quite reluctantly, in the trip to jerusalem game (you know, the game with the chairs and music). Due to his visible lack of enthusiasm, he was promptly eliminated. Wawa naman.

Meanwhile, JRF and France were busy munching the free food to their stomach's delight. Shao wasn't there because he's not BSBA (which means he's a psycho!). Don't worry though Shao, we'll prepare a BS Psychology Day...or hour...hehe.

There was also a retailing activity which lasted for two days. It was fun although it rained heavily during the first day and that hampered quite a bit the festivity. I seriously digged the BSBA Challenged, a sort of adaptation of Amazing Race. The challenges included eating polvoron; transferring a bottle of water using only straw and your hand into another bottle; looking for stuff in a deep box filled with corn starch; etc. But my favorite was the challenge wherein they had to find three guys whose signatures they must acquire. I was one of the three people they had to find so I hid. And the contestants, I'd imagine, were thinking of a few choice words while they were sweating like Rod Vasquez in any given moment with a crush trying to find me. Me bad.

The second day of the BSBA celebration was also fun. We had a food preservation demo courtesy of our dear prof., Dr. Mendoza. My friends Graziel and G-ann, together with my dear, naughty pet JRF tried their best to follow instructions (we were preparing quick-cured ham and slab bacon), but to no avail. Actually, their final product was pretty good with the most tender meat of the three dishes. It was on the receiving end, though, of too much cinnamon (hate that stuff).

Finally, we went to Honda Cars Phils. in Laguna for a plant tour. They gave us a nice-looking cap (see pic) during the orientation, but told us we had to return the cap after the tour (bummer!). Instead, we got a pretty ok pen as souvenir. To be honest, I had mixed emotions with the tour. It was fun and yet boring. Educational yet pointless. Get it? The free food was nice but I really wanted to see Asimo (their robot). Too bad he wasn't there. What was there, however, were the poor "associates" who seemed to be awestruck by the sight of females. Pity their souls.

Retreat? More Like Food Trip...

As you may have all known, Southville is home to a program aptly called the Comprehensive Growth Series (CGS). It is usually held every semester for different classes of the different levels of IC. It's supposed to be a venue for personal, moral, spiritual, and whatnot development, but actually it's more of a sleep then eat kind of thing. Not that I'm complaining, those stuff are wickedly fun.

This is the first time that we had non-close friends in our room. Aside from my ever-present, and ever-dependable (NOT!) best friends (JRF, Shao, Roddie Boi, France), there was also Vhal Billiones and Marlon Bungato to share the room with us. There were only six bed spaces, so the Swiss guy had to sleep in the floor. No worries though, that guy usually sleeps in the College Cafe (kiddin' - he actually dragged a bed from the other room.

I have to say, though, that these two guys are downright weird. Weird enough to last two days and one night with us - the Lords of the College Cafe. Vhal, with his "and dalandan bridge is fallin" joke and Marlon's...actually...I better not say anything more about his...uhm...action with Kevin Miranda. All I can say is: ewww! How ewww? Much ewwwer than JRF's breath in any given day. Yes, even after brushing.

They're nice companions and I hope that we'll be seeing more of them in school. But where will the true essence of the CGS go if not for the ridiculous givings of food, drinks, and other stuff. Of course, eating isn't complete without sleeping and in that regards, my dear friend JRF can't be beaten (see pic above). He's the master of sleeping and he spent probably 75% of our stay in The Farm doing that mentally-straining, physically-draining activity. The other 25% he spent eating, reading his 'retreat letter' from his 'baby angel', and trying his best to molest me. Really ewww.

Rod, as usual, went on and on about this new girl while the Swiss guy was inconsolable with the venue's disturbing lack of alcohol...and cheese. Shao, back from his much too brief stint as a smoke-free guy (about two days), also dwelled on his misfortune as he wasn't able to inhale that darned substance of a gas. And, oh yeah, can you guess which is which in the pic of the two semi-kalbo guys above (choices: Rod, France).

Anyway, the CGS was tremendously fun. With all the food, the ice-cold water that you had to use as bath water, all the Menthos, the Milo and the Nestle coffee, and all the events which transpired which should never leave the confines of our memories, the CGS was indeed comprehensively growth-building for our series.

empty

I don't have a glamorous life. I have just enough to go by and enjoy some bits of luxuries here and there. I do have a PS2 and a 29-inch television so that's pretty tasty. However, most other things come at intervals which would make others cry. I'm not whining though, I think I have a fantastic life right now. I have good friends, I have nice acquaintances, and I don't live in a basket or anything like that. God has been really good to me.

When sometimes I evaluate myself as a person, one thing pops up almost always: the empty feeling that I have. Sure, I'm terribly busy with all the extra-curri stuff that I'm doing. I nary get a breather sometimes. And the consequence? Well, my friends don't see much of me as they used to (don't know whether that's a good thing or not, though). Yet, I enjoy all these things. I really do. If you examine my heart, you'll see how happy and fulfilled I am by all the things that I'm doing. Many of these things never even reach the ears or eyes of the community that I am in.

I crave not attention. I crave not recognition. I crave not rewards. I crave not admiration. And I definitely crave not pity. When I do something, the realization that it is for a worthy, noble cause is enough reward for all the work put into it...at least for a night...

But I guess what I'm really trying to say is that behind all the titles, behind the reputation and the fame, behind the congratulations and the handshakes, behind the overly overrated perception of my intelligence, I'm really just someone trying to find something which will make up that emptiness.

When I fail at whatever, when I don't perform as my community expects of me, and when there's nothing for me to do for lack of inspiration, I cringe...temporarily. But after a while, that weird feeling is gone and I'm back once again at my seemingly perennial dilemma. And after comes the bitter sensation that if I had that one thing which I crave, then my failures would mean nothing, because compared with that one thing all the failures in the world are nothing.

I can't back out from this situation. My options are wide open yet I refuse to take any of them. I'm stuck with the assumption that maybe life has better plans in store for me in the future...maybe it isn't my time yet to be complete.

There's one thing that I'm sure of though, the one thing which holds me through all this clutter, and that is I, Ryu Uchida, Master of the Universe, will not willingly let go...If it leaves me, then it leaves me. And that, my dear friends, is the end of it.

Prelim Time

Finally its prelims time. And finally, I have the time to watch movies and play videogames again. Woo. It has been a very busy prelims period for me and I'm not talking about academic duties. I'm exhausted yet fulfilled by the amount of work I do. Good thing I forget about that one tiny problem that I have when I keep myself busy.

I'm sorry to my friends because I'm not able to go with them anymore to gimiks. Di ako nakasama sa Fantastic 4, sa B-day celeb ni Rod, inuman kela swiss boy, and other stuff...sori...bawi nalang...

Hay...still can't stop thinking about....ops tama na...

Happy B-DAY Big Baby!

My nephew, Shaun Justin, celebrated his 1st bday last Sunday and me and my relatives went to Quezon City for a kiddy party. Yey!

We went there using my aunt's vanette which was extremely excruciating. Me and four of my cousins were seated at the back and my aunt apparently 'tweaked' a few things in the back of the car without really any idea of what she's doing. The result is a uber-bumpy ride akin to riding a roller-coaster. And since my uncle drives so damn fast, the problem is compounded.

But after an exhaustive trip all was well and good with many food delights courtesy of a food cater service. Lemon-cured porkloin, veggies with quail egg, seafood pasta and other stuff were all in hand and in outrageous quantities - fun stuff!

It was mostly a kiddy affair for my super-heavy, super-big nephew (son of my sister type of nephew, actually as opposed to son of cousin nephew) who looks nothing like a one year old. In fact, it was a repeated joke that we were celebrating his 3rd bday because he looks so freakin' big. If you look at the photos, he was 3 months in the left pic and about 10 months in the right (didn't get to take a pic at the bday).

speak

Just got back from a inspirational message stint at my friend Rod Vasquez' school in Cavite. They were gracious enough to invite me as guest speaker for a leadership seminar for their Student Council - fun, I tell you.

And I got P1000 as honorarium - fun stuff even if its a little hard to swallow for me since I merely gave a lousy talk. Oh well.