// thoughts

Arvin and I were just talking and remembering the past when we were kids and all the toys and thing we'd do back then!

How we miss all those toys and those times where sky's the limit on what we could do. Just get together and play and do whatever you wanted to do in our own little worlds.

Matchbox Cars
Remember matchbox cars and how we'd crash them into each other! Or how we would make them DRIFT because it looked so cool. Then they came out with those matchbox cars that had the caps in it so when you crash them into each other smoke and that small "bang" goes off, how awesome is that. Every weekend I would get one new car - go to the mall with my parents and were in KayB toys. Would ask my mom if she could buy me a toy and she'd tell me only $1.00 and I'd go run to the matchbox rack and pick out a new car for me to drive...if only they had an audi a4 back in the day!

GI Joes
No I'm not talking about the crappy life size, 30 foot dolls they have now! I'm talking about the plastic, movable, 3 inch toys! Straight from the show with all the accessories and the vehicles. Oh man, the wars between Cobra and GI Joe were on a daily basis! GI Joe had their base made out of a red/white/blue shoe box that I had - all that was needed was to cut out holes for a door, a few windows and stick a couple of guns on it, draw on it if you want and GI Joe had a home to defend! My favorite of GI Joes were Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow - only had Snake Eyes but never got Storm Shadow. I loved the ones that had accessories! One of them had a rope where it had a grappling hook at the end and I would make him slide from the TV to my bed. O o O o ! The vehicles! The best one I had was the F-16 jet that Ace had. Santa gave that to me for Christmas once and it was the most awesomeness gift ever! That thing was huge and whenever I just wanted to end the fight with Cobra, I'd call in Ace and make him land his jet right on top of the enemies! There was even this one time where I skinned the head of the Baranes (spelling?) and left her bald! YOoooo JoE!!!!

Parachute Men
These where cheap little toys of plastic men with plastic parachutes, but there were off the hook! You just throw them up in the air and then watch them come down slowly as a real parachuter would. For some strange reason I happened to always, always lose them! Sometimes Mr. Parachute Man would make his way to GI Joe headquarters to try and save the day.

Motorcycles with the stick
Have no clue what they were called but it was a plastic motor cycle and when you pulled this stick that was lodged in the back tire, it would just speed off! Those were just amazing, simple toys but awesome toys. These I would always lose as well!

Marbles
My sister from Philippines had sent me a whole buncha marbles and I played with them a few times. After watching Duck Tales with the episode that had the "Great Masher" in it, I had to go find one! So during a field trip in school, in the gift shop of where ever it was we went, I found one! I got it and it was over. Played marbles with my friends and I kicked their butt! They couldn't hang with the Great Masher! But then they didn't want to play anymore because they would never win.

Ahhh so many toys but these were just a few off the top of my head, how fun it was to play with the simple toys of yesterday. We didn't need a computer, we didn't even need electricity! We used our imaginations, we used our hands, we would make these plastic toys come to life. I wish I would kept all these toys...

+ mon

Man once you say that you know you're old! I was just on the subway and thinking about how Christmas used to be when I was a kid - it was freakin' awesome!

We'd be in our apartment, sometimes relatives, friends and neighbors come over and I'd hang out with my friends and play with them. Remember that word - play.

"Hey watcha doing today?" "I'm playing..."
"Come over to my house and we'll play..."

Ahhhh sooooo innocent and not a care in the world back then. We'd sit there for hours eating and playing Sega, Nintendo, with our GI Joes, Transformers, Lego, Lincoln Logs, draw something, or just play some made up game that came off the top of our heads.

Then we'd count the minutes until midnight to open our gifts! Usually I'd ask for a video game or a video came console every year. It started out with Atari 7800, then Sega Master System, then Sega Genesis. I would get games for Christmas and play them until there was no tomorrow. I even remember a few times where I would open my gift, since I already knew what it was and asked permission to open it, and play it a few times then put it back in it's wrapper so I have something to "open" on Christmas. After I would open it, I'd just sit there for hours and hours just playing!

It was the best when I was younger, no school for a week or two and I'd just be playing that whole time, either with my new video game or with my friends. Then I'd go to sleep and when I wake up Santa left me a gift that I've been asking for or a totally other gift which made Christmas morning even better.

Ahhhh how great it was to be a kid! Now it's about the shopping, eating, drinking and worrying about last minute gifts that I haven't bought yet. Fun times but I so wish I were a kid again, no worries, no cares, just playing.

+ mon

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or, if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Reread tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.

hAhHAhHAhA great stuff!

+ mon

Man I remember when I used to goto school and we had those loooooooong vacations! Those were the best ever! I envy those of you who go to school (sometimes)...ahhh especially High School! I loved High School, College was crap

You guys are at home right now, just waking up, watching tv, eating, on the pc in your pajamas or pang bahay and just chillaxin! I wanna do that, damn I'm falling asleep here at work.

+ mon

Ahhh after a busy weekend and all the eating, drinking and having fun with your family and friends, when Monday comes around it sucks!

I can't stand waking up on Monday mornings...I'm so tired, so exhausted, especially after Christmas weekend! Just like Garfield says "I hate Mondays."

Or I guess I just hate waking up in the morning

+ mon

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas! A great time to spend with family and friends, eat, drink, eat, eat and eat some more MmmMmm I'm getting hungry. After all the gift opening and all the liquor, the food, the desserts, and whatever else you can associate with Christmas, don't forget to put Christ in it too.

This is His birthday so let's celebrate and wish Him a very very happy birthday! This is a time to let Him back into our hearts. Smile and be happy for the Savior is born!

Take care and hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas

Merry Merry Christmas!!!

+ mon

Eating ice cream and a warm slice of apple pie is always good! But when you don't eat breakfast and don't have anything in your stomach, then decide to eat apple pie a la mode....bad idea.

Just did it and well it's not sitting too well right now. Let's just hope my stomach calms down a bit.

You have been warned. Do not eat apple pie a la mode in the morning when you have nothing in your stomach at all!

+ mon

Ahhh the joy of Metrocards and buying them each daily, weekly, monthly to get to work and school. From my years of commuting here in the great old NyC there's one thing that I realize about Metrocards.

Seeing Metrocards on the floor at the subway stations means absolutely nothing, as people just throw their used and zero balance cards on the floor.

But if you see a Metrocard anywhere other than a subway station, pick it up! Chances are it fell out of someone's pocket and is loaded with money and rides!

For the second time in three months I have done just that. Yesterday I was in church and saw a Metrocard on the floor, I picked it up knowing that it had some sorta rides left on it (it was at least going to save me $2.00). So I got it and tried it out this morning and it's a 30 day metro card that someone just bought yesterday! Wo O o O ohoOo O o !

Back in October, the same thing happened. I found a Metrocard on the floor in the hallway of my office and picked it up. Found out that it was a unlimited card for a month! Sweet deal!

Ok that's it, just thought I'd share that - so if you see a Metrocard on the floor and it's not in the subway stations, pick it up!

+ mon

Went to Simbang Gabe last night at the Philippine Consulate on 5th ave with some friends last night. This was my second time going, the last time I went was on Friday and there was this Monsenior there that was doing the mass. He was freakin' hilarious! The stuff he was saying, the things going on were just too funny.

So last night, I was hoping it would be him again - low and behold it was him! He greeted me right before the mass since he remembered me from the other mass I attended. During mass from Friday he was just saying all this funny stuff and was very "entertaining." So I was expecting the same thing and wasn't expecting much "substance" from what he was going to say, but rather just a good laugh.

But I was wrong, I learned a lot of things last night from the little that he said. One of our youth has an awesome name! Some of you know him as Em, and his full name is Emmanuel. The meaning of Emmanuel is God is present. How awesome is that name?!

Well here are a few other things that I learned last night and had a chance to reflect on from Monsenior.

-in Christmas put back Jesus, say Merry Christmas and don't leave out Christ
He was saying here that during Christmas time, even when we know some person celebrates Christmas we'll say "Happy Holidays" and forget that the real meaning of this time of year. We're preparing for Christs birth, His entrance into the world! So when we go around greeting people, tell them "Merry Christmas."

-let Him in our lives so we won't be afraid
This is something that I know is true. Those days of not trusting Him fully and being apprehensive of listening to what He wanted to do and I'd just do what I wanted to do was the time in my life when I was scared of things, scared of anything and everything happening. But if we open ourselves up entirely to Him, with no hesitation, no holding back, we will see the wonder of His power. We won't be afraid anymore because what's there to be scared of when we know that He is on our side? We won't need to worry about the worldy things, we won't need to worry about the problems in our lives, just as long as we let Him guide us, let Him be with us, let Him. Like one of the things I quoted in another post I made - Let go and let God.

-freewill was given to us so we can choose to love Him or not, we can say no
This was one most touching things I've heard. I don't know why but this one hit me. He said that the reason we were given free will was so that we can choose what we do, say yes or no - even to Him. We can say "no" to Him, it's up to us. God wants us to love Him, but with free will it's our choice. Love is never forced, love is given voluntarily by that person.

-if there is no God then there is gluttony, averice, lust, greed, and all the other sins because we become our own Gods
This one is sooooo true! If we don't believe in Him, if we don't let God into our lives, everything is about me. I remember those times when I would just question God all the time and just forget about Him. Those were the times I would just think soley of myself - fight with my friends, family and whomever because I was selfish and just wanted things to happen for me.

These are just my opinions about the things he said, this is my analysis. Great mass last night and great lessons learned

Fun times for all!

+ mon

Ok I guess I am going to bring out some of my problems here for all to see. Sorry if it brings you down or whatever but you have the choice of reading it or not...

I don't get this...I really don't. If you buy somebody something as a gift for their birthday, Christmas or whatever occassion it is, they are supposed to accept it right since it came from you and it was something you thought about getting them?

Whenever I buy something for certain people in my life they seem to "not like" it or "not need" it and they want to return it and get something else. Every single time, I guess next time I'm just going to give them money instead of taking the time to think of a gift and then them returning it anyways.

Should I be upset? Should I be hurt? I really don't understand, it's every single time, but when someone else gets them something they love it, it's the greatest thing to them in the world at that moment in time. But when they open my gift, "they don't need it," or "I should have gotten something else instead."

Makes no freakin' sense to me. Christmas Spirit = -10 This is soooooooo ghetto. That's another way of me saying that this sucks.

edit : ok I've calmed down a bit from being "hurt" and had returned the gift, I figure I'm just going to give cash but do it in a creative way (haven't figured that one out yet). Lesson learned - you can't change the people around you, but you can always change yourself.

I remember hearing that from one of the councils in Kali. They said that if you are having problems with someone, don't expect that person to change for you but rather take the first step and change something that you are in control of, you. Change something so that the problem will be resolved, humble yourself.

+ mon

I haven't eaten breakfast in forever, I think ever since the retreat. Usually I'm fine and I can wait til lunch to eat, but sometimes if I take a bite of something before I get really hungry!

My firm gives out apple pies for the holidays to all the employees so I got mine this morning. I wanted to taste it so I just had a few crumbs of it and now I'm starving!

MmmMmM apple pie a la mode sounds sooo good right now! That's applie pie with a scoop of ice cream

+ mon

It's funny how I spoke at an Ultreya about Christmas a few weeks ago, but I really ain't feeling the whole "holiday cheer." Why? I have noooo clue?

Maybe I just have a lot on my mind or things are just buggin' me to the point of where I can't get into the mood.

Take yesterday for instance, my parents tell me to go out and buy a Christmas Tree. Last time I bought one, I bought a nice one and it was about 7ft or a little bigger (it still fit in the house, it's abour 8.5ft to the floor to the ceiling. So I bought it and when I get home with the tree they were all pissed of because it was "too big."

So yesterday we went out to go buy a tree, it was just me and Dudoy. I told Dudoy that he was going to pick it out because I don't want them to go off on how the tree is too big.

To be continued (back to work)...

Ok forget this post, I don't want to bring anyone down so this post will be stopped here

+ mon

Just some thoughts off the top of my head that don't have enough information to make a new posting about it.

> On the way to the airport last night to drop off the rental vans, Russel and I spun out in the snow! It was awesome, no one was hurt and no cars were damaged

> Let it snow! Yay the second snow of the season in NyC! Not much but enough to give things a little coating

> It's sooooo cold today! I don't know the temperature but it's brick outside (yeah I said "brick," now I'm ghetto)

> Go get an Ogo (read my view down there)

> My facial hair is starting to grow on me (get it! "grow" on me!). I'm not going to shave it anytime soon, I think I'm going to let it grow forever, just the one on my chin

> Why is everyone playing WoW!? They stopped playing CS because of stupid WoW!

> My hands smell like taco since I just had some for lunch

> My room was freezing this morning, so I covered my window with plastic!

> Dammit! My favorite Torrent sites are dead! Freakin' MPAA and RIAA, buncha jerks! Now I must find another place to call home

That's all for now, just random thoughts bouncing around in my head. There's a lot of room for it to go around up there.

+ mon

I look at my paystub and see how much I've made from January...where did it all go!? Holy effing cow!? I have no clue what I spent the money on~!

I know a lot of it went on food and BNP stuff but what happened to the rest!? Shopping? Transportation expense? Man o man, I hate seeing this money I made on my paystub and having no clue where it all went.

Starting 2005, I'm going to be tracking every nickel and dime that I spend! I said that last year but never did it, so this time I'm going to do it forreal. Gotta find out what I'm buying and spending all my cash on.

+ mon

After one of my friends (hi Jessica! ) got the Ogo and was IMing me through it I was curious as to what it was. I did some research and found it on the cingular site for $99 with a $30 rebate, bringing the price down to $69 (that magic number again! 68+1).

I was reluctant to buy it because of the price of the device, Jessica had gotten it for only $50 from a special promotion they were doing. So I waited and the next day the promotion was back on, $50 for the Ogo and a limited edition case.

I ordered it that night and I received the Ogo two days later (free shipping).

Don't know what an Ogo is? Let me explain what it is and what the pros and cons are of this device.

Basically the Ogo is a mobile device that can text, email and instant message. The text is just the same as with a regular phone (sms), the email is pretty much any email out there, and it also supposed POP email, the instant messaging is from AOL, Yahoo, or MSN. You can get one or all three if you want. The base price per month is $17.99 which comes with one instant messaging service. So you can have either AOL, Yahoo or MSN. If you want to have two instant messaging services, for example, MSN and AOL then the price goes up by $3 and if you want all three messaging services it'll go up another $3. I don't see the need for more than one instant messaging service, so I assume majority of people will be getting the $17 plan.

One of the great things about the Ogo is that there is no contract! It's a month to month basis. There is a $19.99 activation fee that you pay when you first activate the device.

After powering it up and the activation was simple, you just need a credit card to charge the monthly fee and activation fee and you're good to go. The message on the screen said that it could take a few hours to set it up but it was done pretty quickly. Once your Ogo is active, they give you the phone number that is associated with it. Then you setup your messaging and email - it's very simple.

So again, this device can text, instant message and email. There is no web broswer, calendar, calculator, phone or any other of those functions with this device (yet).

Pros: Very cheap at $50 Unlimited text, email, im for $17.99 Comes with free case ($10 value) Very easy to setup Keyboard is very good Stylish POP email Free overnight shipping Not too bulky Nice colored screen Very sturdy (I think I can drop this and it'll be alright)

Cons: No web browser No calendar or calculator AIM Buddy List limited to 80

Final Analysis: This is a very good device is you are just into texting, messaging and email. If you are looking for a phone and/or web browsing then this isn't for you. With possible firmware updates in the future some missing features might be available but time will tell. For $17.99 and a pricetag of $50 (special promotion price) this is a very good product. How annoying is it to text, im and email through our cell phones? Very! So here's the solution if you're willing to put up that extra $17.99 a month, I'm removing the internet and text feature on my cell phone to balance out the difference. I really like the POP email as I can always check my email and read it on the go - I can do that on my phone now but it's a hassle. Texting is a lot easier than on the phone now, and I can mass text through the Ogo instead of going through the sprint website for my cell phone.

Compared to the sidekicks functions (web browser and phone) it's a good competitor. The sidekick is around $200 and the plans are $30 without any minutes for the phone ($0.20 each minute used) and $60 with 600 minutes and unlimited text, email and web for each plan.

In comparison to the sidekick's plan and functionality, the Ogo is half the price planwise and about 1/4 the price of the device itself. Of course we have to keep in mind that the Ogo can't get on the web and isn't a phone, is double the price plan and paying another $150+ for the device worth it? You be the judge - for me, I say no.

Bottomline is that you can't go wrong with the Ogo, as it doesn't have a contract and you go from month to month. So give it a try for a month and if you don't like it then just stop paying and sell the device.

This is my Ogo number so if you want to text me hit me up at 917-753-7637. You can't call me on that remember it's not a phone, yet. So email me (simon@raymundo.us), text me or IM me...the Ogo is always on.

+ mon

Whoever comments on this post will get $10~! Go comment, hurry this is only going to last 24 hours!

+ mon

"Humility isn't actually humility unless you're good enough at something to be humble."

+ mon

I took a little nap this evening and when I woke up there wasn't much to do. Usually I play CS but there wasn't too many people online playing. I would watch a movie that I just dLed but I saw all the new movies already.

So I decided to watch the older episodes of Joan of Arcadia. I watched the first episode first - in this episode God reveils Himself to Joan and she's still trying to figure out if it's true or not. So during one of her conversations with Him, she says "let's say you're God...ok well let's see a miracle." So they are walking along and God says "ok, how bout that..." and points to a tree that they are passing.

We do this a lot, always asking God to show us a miracle, show us something so we can believe in Him. Look all around you, there are miracles everywhere. The people you are walking by, the trees, the sky, the birds, the snow, the rain, the sun - all that was made by Him.

All we need to do is open our eyes, open our hearts and see the beauty that God has put into everything. Even though I live here in NyC and you see sin every which way you turn, I also see the goodness, I see His everyday miracles. Open yourself to Him, open yourself to what He gives you and you'll be a happier person.

I'll end this with one of those everyday miracles that a good friend shared to me about. Have you ever looked up at the sky when it was cloudy, or there was a cloud covering the sun? Then you see the ray light breaking through the clouds and streaming down to the ground. She called that God Light.

+ mon

This is a song that I've been listening to over and over again. Just listen to the song and go along with the lyrics. You can figure out what it means and this goes out to all the people who have been having problems (you know who you are ).

I played the fool today
and I can see us vanishing into the crowd
longing for home again,
but home is a feeling I've buried in you

but home is a feeling I've buried in you
that I've buried in you

download the song

+ mon

Took the day off today to clear my head and just reorganize my thoughts, my heart and everything else. Rough day yesterday...gonna be rough for a little while, but I'll manage. Been running around doing a lot today, thought it was going to be a day where I could just chill to clear myself and get a few things that I've been neglecting done but nOoOoooooO! Had to take my mom and aunt from kali shopping!

Well I'm home and I'm doing one of the jobs I've been putting off (fixing someone's PC), and after this I have to update the website for work. Man so tired, so exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally...

This is so not a day off!

+ mon

You never know how people are going to surprise you. I've been around the BNP a while now and have seen my share of youth come and go. Some go for reasons that are very valid, and some go and leave something they found to be life changing for the smallest of reasons.

A lot of the times you will hear people tell you not to go to BNP because of the people but rather go there for God. Of course it's all for God, but on the surface it's because of our friends, family, boyfriends, girlfriends or whomever you know that's already there. Sometimes people don't understand why they say not to go for the people, but it's with good reason. If you go to BNP activities for the people, then a very simple and small negative thing from one person can make you stop going.

Someone talking crap, something you heard someone say, or something that might have been taken out of context or the wrong way could lead to feelings being hurt, and eventually you not attending the BNP anymore. Who's the one that's losing out? The one who's still active? Or you, who stopped going because of the smallest thing?

When I was in Cali, I remember this was also a problem over there and one of the councils (I think it was Kuya Willie) said something that I will always remember and want to share with you guys.

*Next time you guys are about to tell something to someone else, just think of these questions. Is it the truth? Is it loving? Is it necessary? If you did not answer yes to all three, then you don't need to be telling that person whatever it is*

Say for example Gerard told Arvin something about me. Arvin told Gerard that I lie about everything I say, I was gay and that I talk crap about everyone. Now Gerard is chillin' with Mark and wants to tell Mark what Arvin just told him! Of course, it's natural to do that! So now Gerard has the choice of whether he's going to tell Mark everything he just heard from Arvin or he can just let it all go. Now Gerard has heard the sharing that I just said up there about the three questions...so he asks himself...is it the truth - he doesn't know? He just heard it from Arvin, he'd have to ask me to make sure it was the truth. Now he asks himself the second question...is it loving - nope it's not, if he spread the rumors that he's heard, it's going to ruin a lot of people's opinions about me and might ruin other things in my life. So now Gerard asks himself the last question...is it necessary - again the answer to this is no. Telling Mark about the things he's heard from Arvin isn't something he would have to do. So he doesn't say anything because he didn't answer yes to all those questions, he didn't even answer yes to one of them.

It's really simple...when you hear a rumor or something about someone just keep it to yourself! Why do we always feel the need to tell someone else when we find out something juicy about a person? Why do we always believe it!? Is it because so and so said so? Or because we want to coverup our own flaws by making someone else "lower than us."

So next time you hear someone tell you..."hey did you hear about [place name here]? I heard that they [fill in rumor here]!" - ask yourself Is it the truth? Is it loving? It is necessary? If the answer to any of the three questions is not an absolute yes, then don't even say anything about what you heard - practice some self control and some humility by keeping your mouth shut.

This is just something that I learned when I was talking to some of the youth today, we could really all be the best of friends if we practiced those three questions. And regardless of the reason anyone goes to BNP functions, just keep going. Sooner or later people will see what it's all about, people will see the real meaning, the real reason we all still go today - people will see the love, people will see God.

Ask yourself those three questions before spreading something you've heard...

+ mon

I remember a few years ago, I was hardcore into praying. I would just pray and pray and pray! Fifteen mysteries, pito pito, whatever it was I was doing it every possible time I could during the entire day. Why'd I do this? I really don't know it was just something that I wanted to do, I felt that love for Him soOooO much that I couldn't hold back and I just wanted to talk to Him every waking hour!

Even now I talk to Him whenever I have a spare moment, I say "hi," or just tell Him about my day. When I pray I don't just ask for something or do it with the intention of receiving something afterwards - of course we all have our times when we all do that. But some people don't realize the power of prayer.

Earlier this year we went to this Catholic church in the Bronx - St. Francis of Cabrini. The story of that church was it was started by a lady who came from Europe, her first name I don't remember but her last name was Cabrini. She's the patron saint of Immigrants. There was this whole story behind how she got the church started there in the Bronx (but I can't remember it right now), and her body which is still preserved is under the altar in the main church.

Part of the story was there was a bench that was on that ground before the church was built, and this is where she would go to pray. When the church was built, they had built the church around the bench, so it's still there in it's position as she prayed on it before. When we were there, the person who showed us around told us that if we go there and pray for something, we will receive it.

One of the youth here went there a week before the retreat. He went there for confession and there he sat on the bench and prayed for two things - to have a lot of candidates at this retreat and for him to get a job before Christmas started. He's been looking for a job for a while, but he just hasn't had much luck - he's constantly sent out his resume to every place possible but nothing would work out or people wouldn't call back.

So his first request was granted, with a retreat of 68 + 1. Then he called me up last week and explained the whole story to me again, well he got a job! Someone called him out of nowhere and asked him when he could start! So he's going to start working tomorrow! Second request granted!

I'm not saying to go to the Bronx or some other place to go wish for something that's known to have wishes come true, but it just shows you how much power there is in prayer and in faith. Trusting in Him and going to God when you need Him, putting your life in His hands and just giving yourself to Him - He will take care of the rest.

Just let yourself go, don't hold back and don't let things slow you down anymore. Talk to Him when you can, He's just there waiting for you. Let go and let God

+ mon

Yesterday afternoon we went to the FASHI Christmas party and it was just spectacular! I thought it was going to be another one of those parties where you just eat and dance, line dance and exchange gifts. But it was more of a "show."

It was held at the Museum in Flushing Meadow Park. It was just incredible seeing all these "kids" performing traditional Filipino dances and rockin' the old school Filipino gear! I thought I was good to go regarding our culture, but after seeing the presentation tonight, it really opened my eyes to a whole new world of Filipinoness!

The things I knew about our culture were pretty much the tinikling dance, the candle dance and arnis. That was pretty much it! Yesterday I learned that we have our own alphabet! Man I don't know if I'll be able to learn that anytime soon, but now I know it exists. I also know what the Parol means and how it all started.

Seeing all the people into their heritage, into their culture and the traditions was just great to see. A lot of people forget who they are, or where they come from. I remember asking one of the youth before "are you filipino..." and they answered me "no I'm american..." but his parents are Filipino! He was born here and with the culture and the way he was brought up, he sorta lost that "Filipinoness" but hopefully it's coming back to him slowly

I got to see what Ted does and it's really inspiring to see the younger generation being cared for by a great individual and by a great organization. Leaving kids out there to the world today without any guidance and knowledge of where they come from will lead to a future that is Filipinoless. Great job Ted on all your hard work with the FASHI youth and being their leader.

We topped the night off with an after party at Kassandra's house - OMG this place was huge. What a great house! It even had it's own parking lot, no joke! Man I ate so much again there and at the FASHI party! Karaoke, drums, skatin', just hanging out with the FASHI Youth was great, it reminded me of how it was to be a kid again (damn I miss those days). Thanks Kassandra for inviting us! We had a freakin' great time! hAHAHhahAhHA Henry on that exercise machine - OMG hAhAHHA!

I gotta see your guys pics from last night hook a brotha up!

Great job to all those involved with FASHI and with setting up the party yesterday. Thank you Kassandra for bringing us to her house and sharing the fun and the food!!

Pictures available at my gallery

+ mon

Well the day finally came! Last Friday (December 10th) my brother and Rachael got married! Wo O O ho O o! They have been going out for a while now and I thought they would never get married, but it all went down on Friday.

When we would hang out and my brother would introduce Rachael to people, he would introduce her as his wife, this time it's the real deal.

The wedding ceremony and the reception was beautiful I got teary eyed a few times just seeing them together and hearing them say their vows to one another. You could really see it in their eyes that they were saying all the words with so much feeling and so much love.

Welcome to the family Rachael (officially), even though you have already been a part of us from way back

Pictures available at the gallery.

CONGRATULATIONS! MR. AND MRS. RAYMUNDO!

+ mon

Man I really don't like papercuts! They don't hurt that much until it "opens" up but it's all itchy right after you get it. I just got three on the same finger and I want to scratch it! SoOoooo itchy! It's almost at the joint of my finger, so when I bend my finger it opens up and hurts like a mofo!

+ mon

HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION - IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

If you're Catholic you're supposed to be going to church for Mass today! Today is the feastday of when Mary was conceived without sin.

I always go to church at St. Pat's for lunch and today was crazy! I got to the front of the church and there was a huge line, huge. One of the ushers was outside telling people that only those for mass could come in the church today - that's a good thing because the tourists are so annoying with their pictures and talking and all that, it distrupts the solemnity of the church.

So I get inside and wow, there were sooooooo many people! The 12:30pm mass usually ends before 1:00pm but it went on until 1:20pm because there were a lot of people getting communion still! The church was packed! Like seriously packed! It was really good to see the church filled to the brim today, it was standing room only and you could just feel Him there with us.

Just thought I'd share that with you guys now don't forget to go to church today!

+ mon

Short and sweet - no more budget meal for me, I've had it for two days and it seems that I have had the runs for two freakin' days! Gotta get some real food from now on...

Ppprrrrrtttt! (_|_) OoO o O o O o

+ mon

Well the night started out with me having to work a little bit late. I got out at 7pm and then went home - I was supposed to give Dudoy, Diday, Jon and Shing a ride to Ultreya (we were going to be just a little bit late).

So I'm walking up my block and I see four people standing in front of my house. I ask them where they are going and how they are getting there, they say to Ultreya and me. Diday didn't tell me that Miguel and Jason were going! Ok so there's still room in the car, we can all just squeeze in.

I go and change, eat really quick and head downstairs with the video cam and the digi cam because we were planning on video taping everyone saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Ate, a video card. And we were going to take some pictures of the youth. So I'm driving up my block and the kids say that Ken Ken is going! Went back around the block and picked him up - ok so in the car now, Diday is in the front seat and Miguel, Jason, Dudoy, Ken are in the back seat of the car. I'm pretty much full.

But I still have to pick up Jon and Shing! I get there we had to figure out how everyone else was going to fit! [flashback] during one Vigil we fit about 8 or 9 people in my car. So what ended up happening was Shing and Jon sat in the front seat, and the rest were in the back (five in the back). It was a pretty uncomfortable ride the whole way for everyone, except me - the kids in the back were having a great ol' time, laughing and tickling each other.

So we get to Ultreya at 8:50pm already, the Ultreya started at 8:00pm. I find parking by the Funeral Home and just use the "Clergy" tag that we have I walk in and I see the NJ girls in the front singing! I was like whoa, this is kewl. So I get up there and start video taping them (click me for the video!). They sang really good! You'll hear them in the video, and dang! Grace got a monster voice, she's o-some!

Ultreya went well, go to the gallery for some pics from the Ultreya, nothing fancy this time, didn't have much time to take the shots and didn't have a lot of time after we got there all late. Some of the youth afterwards had to wait for rides and whatever else so we here just waiting around a bit and "talking." Didn't get to leave the Ultreya place until 10:30pm and had to take some people home. Got home about 11:45pm - but all in all the last Ultreya of the year went out with a "bang."

One thing that I learned during this Ultreya night was that pride can be a horrible thing and it can mess things up. Sometimes people have to back down and let their pride just go as low as possible, humbling yourself is a lot better than being to proud about certain things. Admit their faults, admit their wrongs, and just say sorry, or just hug. Remember that everyone is B.A.S.I.C. - if you guys don't know what that means, give credit to the man who came up with that back in the 90's during an Ultreya in NJ - Michael Perez. And it means Brothers and Sisters in Christ. That's what we all are! So regardless of the beef, regardless of whatever happened in the past, let that sh*t go - no need to be carrying that sh*t around, for whatever reason.

Don't stress over the smallest things, the way I handle things is that if it isn't killing me or hasn't killed me then I don't have to stress about it.

Remember we're all one fam here, drop all the bullsh*t and let's do this together! BNP B.A.S.I.C.

+ mon

I'm bored here at work so I made some hot cocoa in the kitchen. They have those swiss miss things, and I just put one in the cup and put some hot water - good stuff. Then some of the cocoa was clumping up on the top, I still drank it without mixing that part in and MmmmmM really good stuff.

Now the "topper!" You know how muffins have those crunchy things on the top, well get another package of swiss miss and drizzle it on the top of your hot cocoa until you get the desired results, the bigger the clumps the better for me! Adds extra taste to the regular hot cocoa!

MmmMm OH! Here's a giant clump! Wo O ho o O!

+ mon

edit : or! you can put two or three packs together an bam! what a great drink! it's kinda thick but it's really good...MmMmm chocolate - it tastes like a milkshake! Or you can add the second package in when it's not hot anymore and mix it in, this will form automatic clumps at the top!

Ok whoever wants to get me a pair of these will be awesome in my book! Seeing as how I want to start DJing again, I saw these a while back but now they are out on the market. The reviews have been mixed but am going to the store to try it out for myself.

I want these!

Two of them! Man I never thought I'd DJ with CD's but with these...oh boy! Who wants to hook a brotha up!?

+ mon

Wo hO o O! I'm broke again because I didn't get my card yet, still waiting. So I have a whopping $3! I was soooo hungry but I just found a great budget meal that fills you and tastes good at the same time.

I went back to the place where I bought the chinese buffalo wings from and this time I got one eggroll and wonton soup. Each were $1 so it came out to $2.

Everytime I go there I ask them for dumpling sauce, so what I did was pour the dumpling sauce into the soup and instead of just regular wonton soup it now became hot and sour wonton soup! Yes I'm berry innobatib!

Good stuff and fills you right up...I think I'll be getting this meal daily now, it'll cut my food costs in half!

Wo o ho o ! O-some! $2 meals each day, hot and sour wonton soup and one eggroll. Good to G-O!

+ mon

edit : ok now my stomach hurts, but i don't think it was because of the food, I think I ate too fast!

Just something that I have observed in the past week - the spiritual high off the retreat is slowly wearing off. I don't know if it's for everyone but for me, I'm slowly feeling it calming down a bit. Calm is good, but sometimes we lose the entire "high" because when things calm down a bit, we get sidetracked, we get distracted by other things around us.

Maybe you guys are feeling it to? It's not a bad thing that it's going down, it's one of the nature things that happens here in the BNP - we have a big event, a retreat, an event in Cali and then after a little while, it starts to subside and we go back to our "normal" routine. The only time that it's bad is that you forget what you have experienced, you forget that special feeling you felt during the retreat, during the activity, during that part of your life and you go back to your old life as nothing ever happened.

For example - we go to the retreat, and during the retreat we experience something "life changing." Now we go home and are so "high" with grace that we say all these little "promises" to God or just to yourself that you won't do drugs anymore, drink or get drunk anymore. You're doing great, but after a while you start to level out and that initial "high" isn't as far up there as it once was, and you don't know how to get it back there. Then you turn to your old ways and start drinking, doing drugs again and forget that whole weekend, forget that whole "life changing" event.

Even if you fall, even if you feel that grace decrease, you can always get back up! No matter how hard you fall, there will be people to pick you up now - the servers, your fellow graduates, and most of all God. Don't go beating yourself up about whatever sin you have commited, or something that didn't want to go back to, get back up and show your strength, show your perseverance, show your love for God.

Whatever you guys are going through, trials, test, or anything that might bring you down - pray, fight it, and go back to that weekend you spent with God. Go back to that time when you made those promises to Him, go back to the moment when you felt Him so strongly in your heart, go back to Him.

That "spiritual high" will come back, if you have any suggestions on how to keep it or get it back, feel free to tell us! We're here for you guys, both old and new grad alike! Remember that even if that "high" is not as high anymore, you still have that grace within you.

Grace is the constant state of being in love. If you fall get right back up and keep fighting. Fire it up!

+ mon

Hmmm something was seriously wrong yesterday at the Christmas party!? Let me tell you how we did it back in the day...

When there was a BNP Party and we DJ'd or whomever DJ'd put on some reggae or hip-hop/r&b we would all get up and dance! Then we'd get in trouble by the adults for either putting the music on in the first place (we DJ'd) or we'd get in trouble because we were getting our freak on! We'd stop but then if that kinda music played again we would dance (no more freakin' but just straight dance!).

Yesterday at the Christmas Party?! WTF was going on!? We rocked the line dancing and the old people disco music and everyone dance, including the youth. But when we rocked the reggae, hip-hop/r&b you guys just sat in your chairs and bobbed your heads! People would come up to us and request some hip-hop or reggae, but then you guys wouldn't dance to it! But when we threw line dance up there, you got down and dirty! Holy cow! 43 is a buncha line dancers?! No hip-hop dancers or people who can swing with the reggae?!

That just totally weirded me out and was my whole focus during the party! Would anyone like to comment on that? I just want to know why you guys request certain music and then you don't dance to it, or we put up music we know you like and have danced to (at the retreat) but didn't dance to it at the Christmas party? Blows my mind!

+ mon

I'll post about the party later, but until then - here are some pics!

www.raymundo.us/gallery

+ mon

HeyLo all~!

Just a heads up - this post isn't aimed at any one person, or any group of individuals. This is just something that must be said as it has happened in the past with other grads (both new and old) and we don't want you guys to end up in any trouble or lost whatever you gained during your weekend.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Please do not announce any activities that are not confirmed with the adults or youth officers as BNP. Meaning, don't tell everyone that there will be a "BNP Meeting," "BNP Party," "BNP Bowling," "BNP hangout," "BNP [fill in the blank]" - basically just don't label things as BNP without confirmation from adults or youth officers.

The reason we ask grads not to do this is because the parents and other people might take BNP as something different than what it truly is.

Take for example, you have a party, and you tell everyone that it's a BNP Party. You invite all the people from your retreat and friends or whatever - liquor is served and whatever else. Whatever happens at that party will now be labeled as "BNP." "Oh so that's what happens at a BNP party," "so that's what BNP teaches our kids," "BNP encourages drinking, partying, [fill in the blank]."

This has happened in the past where some grads would call everyone telling them that there's a BNP party and things happened at the party - the parents found out and they where not allowed to go to BNP activities anymore and they lost whatever they gained from the retreat.

Another thing is using BNP as an excuse to go out. Please do not do this - telling your parents you're going to Vigil or Ultreya and you go out and do something else. This will cause a lot of trouble, not only for you but for the BNP as well.

You guys know what BNP is about - it's about love, it's about God. It's not about drinking or partying - yeah we can party too but that's not what our goal is. I have come to learn that wherever I go, I carry the name of the BNP and most importantly, Mahal Na Ingkong with me. We always talk about what we represent, well this is the same thing.

We are representin' BNP, we are representin' God - so go out there and do your thang, but keep God in whatever it is you do.

I don't mean to sound like a strict old person, I'm just trying to let you guys know what we've been through in the past. We went throught the party, drinking, drugs, gambling, gangs, clubbin', girls, guys stage. We've seen things go from a little fun, to the worst situation you could ever imagine!

If you wanna know what happened in the past, or stuff we've been through, just ask. We know how to have fun, so don't think we're all just praying and goodie goodies. I was a bartender when I was in California, I'm a DJ, we've all been around and know what's up.

Just keep it good, clean fun. I'm not strict! I'm really nice! Really I am!

+ mon

//bump movie links added to the bottom

We had our practice last night for the presentation we are supposed to do for the Christmas Party at Anne's house. Hmmm who was there - Anne, JC, Mark, Marvin, Dudoy, Diday, Richard, Emil, Josh, Emilie, Arvin and me.

Mark was teaching the dance to everyone, it was very you got servedish. Pretty kewl dance but I couldn't do it, I'm way past my prime and I can't move into those positions anymore, might break something.

Arvin and I are the background dancers! Yeah we got our shiz down, shake that arse! G suggested that we do a NJ & NY battle presentation, like a you got served type thing - sounds interesting, what do you guys think?

Oh yeah I played photographer last night since I ain't dancing!

www.raymundo.us/gallery

For all those people who complained about the set of bowling pics here's a gallery and you can do a slide show and all that crap! You guys better enjoy, I was up til 3am doing that!

+ mon

edit: oh yeah we had our very own mister saturday night fever! do you know who that is?! it's brader Emil! Damn this boy can dance, I think he practices all the time or something, I predict that he will be the next "di" (dance instructor)

edit two: here are some movies from practice
movie one ||movie two ||movie three || movie four || movie five

Holy freakin' cow! Just got back from lunch and I went to this chinese place that I get my food from sometimes. I wanted something different so I order #20 - buffalo wings with fried rice and egg roll.

I was expecting the regular buffalo wings, like hooters, or whatever other place serves them. So I see the guy get the regular chicken wings and then he pours...pours this chilli hot sauce all over the chicken wings.

I thought to myself, ok I can handle that chilli sauce no problem! Get back to my desk, eat the chicken - first bite is fine, taste good and the "hotness" isn't too bad. Take another bite and it was all over from there! It was a regular bite, I didn't bite into the seed of the paper (that's later), but apparently the first bite was to draw me in!

So I'm eating, or trying to, trying to eat the rice at the same time as the chicken to sooth the hotness, also the eggroll to try to make it just a little tolerable. Poured soy sauce as usual, that was my last resort aside from drinking half a cup of water with every spoon full! It kept getting hotter and hotter! The rice was even hot because of the sauce! The only thing untouched was the egg roll which I thought would help, but didn't!

Ok now the bad part - so I'm eating, and my eyes are tearing and my nose is dripping and I can barely chew the food, I had to just swallow it straight! Then I bite into a seed of the chilli/pepper! OMG! It was all over...soooo freakin' over! Tears just came gushing out of my eyes, nose dripping every whichway! I couldn't control it!

Coworker comes in asking if I'm still sick and I try to explain to him what just happened with a mouth that is 75% numb!

I barely ate any of the freakin' food! I ate all the wings, but the rice was just wasted because it was drenched in the sauce!

So caution when eating Chinese Buffalo Wings! Don't know what they put in them, but...yeah you know my story.

btw it's still burning until now! 30+ minutes and going.

+ mon

...you eat lunch then you notice your shirt buttons around the stomach area clinging to each other for dear life

...you can't bend all the way down because some foreign object (your stomach) is in the way

...you eat a whole meal at 2 in the morning

...you have to take a deep breath to get your pants buttoned

...you have plates in your room from two nights ago

...you have white castle and cup o noodles boxes in your trash can in your room

...you try to suck it in, but it looks exactly the same as if you just let it go

...you try to roll over while sleeping but can't because your stomach acts as a kickstand

...your shirts seemed to have "shrunk" in the laundry

...your "muscle" shirts have now become your worst enemy

...your "muscle" shirts no longer show the muscle but show the rolls of fat

...you wear an extra layer of clothing to try to coverup the fatness

...you get out of bed and you're out of breath

...you can rest a coke can on the top of your stomach

...you don't even want to check how much you weigh on the scale

...your fingers hit two keys at a time on the keyboard instead of one

...you can't dial someone's phone number on your phone since your fingers are too fat

...you post how you know you're fat on your blog and it's all based on the past few days of your life!

Geeze I'm freakin' fat! Ok serious diet time, gotta stop doing the things I mentioned up there. Damn food my number one enemy right now!

+ mon

SoOoOoo happy to see that a lot of the new grads are still up there! Regardless of why they go to the activities right now, it's just good to see that there's still a good amount of them that are still active!

Last night at the Ultreya there were 32+ youth!

Some might be there for the girls/guys, some might be there for the food or just to chill. But whatever the reason, sooner or later they will be there for Him (if they aren't already).

That's how I first started, I used to go because my friends were there and we just used to play around and chillax but after sometime I was able to do one out of three of the Purpose of Life.

I learned to know Him. Now I have to learn how to love Him fully and then I will be able to serve Him with no hesitation!

Let that fire burn class number 43! Set it off!

+ mon

LoL! Someone has joined the blogging community! Welcome Arvin! The "free dj" has finally setup his blog and is on his way to blog away!

www.dragongstar.com/thoughts

Go there and harass...errr comment and read his stuff! Wo O ho o O o another blog to read while working the day away hAhAhhA

+ mon

Did anyone else notice this last night during Ultreya or was it just me that thought it was all "tore up?" From the start of the Ultreya it just wasn't off to the right foot.

The rally song (from the CD) was fine but everyone seemed to be dead when we were singing it! We tried to liven it up a bit but we were limited since we couldn't make the tempo go faster - we tried but went it ended up going off beat!

The speakers - Shing and I...well yeah we did our thang! But our talks were about 2 minutes each, so short!

Man the presentation - I read the script and I really liked it. But everyone kept on laughing! Comeon guys - forreal focus!

I think taning got to a lot of us last night, made us mess up in a lot of the things we did last night. Let's regroup and get our shiz together!

You guys know we're not all serious and prayers all the time. But there is a time for everything, last night is supposed to be a spiritual banquet so we really need to focus ourselves and not let things distract us. We'll have our fun - bowling, parties, whatever else we're going to plan for you guys!

Damn I sound like a freakin' adult! Ahhhhhhh! But forreals we gotta keep things straight when it comes to Ultreya and Vigil or whatever activities we have that aren't to chillax - we will have our chillax moments, trust me, we will! The youth know how to have fun

+ mon

Dang, what's up with the weather today!? So freakin' windy and rainy! I'm on the 31st floor of a building and I can see the rain going sideways, my window is shaking because of the wind blowing so hard!

Kinda scurry!

+ mon

Just wondering who reads my little entries!? I sometimes feel like I'm talking to myself but I don't feel crazy, so that's a good thing (I think).

Can whoever reads this post a simple comment with your name, just so I know if people actually read my posts. Thanks! Please comment on this post! Let's see how many friends I have! MmuUuuHhhAhAHHAhA~!

+ mon

Ok I think I have hit the 200+lb mark!? I just finished eating rice, hotdogs and cup o noodles! And it's almost 4 in the morning - I was working on the website for work when I got "hungry." I think I'm over 200lbs right now, I can totally feel it and see it in my stomach! It's the biggest it's ever been, sheesh.

I am now officially a fatso! Official weigh in will be tomorrow, I'll post my results. I know you're all dying to find out if I have crossed over into the world of obesity, well you will all just have to wait!

+ mon

I'm speaking at Ultreya tomorrow and the topic given to me was The coming of Christ - I had thought that they meant the 2nd coming, end of the world type thing. I had a lot to say about that, but...

I find out today that they mean the coming of Christ in Christmas! Totally different topic from what I first thought it was...

*sigh*

Now time to do some research tonight. Wish me luck!

+ mon

Does anyone watch this show? I've been watching it since it first started and I love it!

If you're not familiar with it, the basic storyline is that there's a girl who lives in Arcadia, her name is Joan. God talks to her through these people who she encounters, people she knows or complete strangers, it doesn't matter who - but God uses that person as an instrument to talk to her.

So God will propose her to do a task, of course she is never obligated and it's her free will to do whatever she wants. The description of the task given to her is pretty vague most of the time - something like "help Grace with her bar mitzvah." But she doesn't know exactly what to do or how to do it. In the process she'll just do something and things will work out. After she's done what God has asked her to do, you can see the effect things had on other things, and how the "ripples in the pond" have effected everything else around it.

It's really interesting to watch and it's a great show. I can relate this to my life since I see how God uses people as instruments all the time, not necessariliy Him talking through them, but them intervening when it's needed. I can see how things tie in together now. One action will lead to another, the simplest of gestures can help those in the worst possible situation, even if you don't know it's helping them or know the person - ripples in the pond.

Watch this show it's a really inspiring and I'm sure that mostly everyone can relate to it. If you want the video file to watch on your computer, just let me know, I have season one and am currently working on downloading season two.

+ mon

Dang, bowled only 2 and a half games on Saturday and my arm is still hecka sore! Need to bowl more often, next time we go I'm gonna break 200!

+ mon

After reading all those xanga's about the retreat, I'll post links here to the xanga's that I was able to find - if you have more that you know of that's not here, comment me!

New Graduates
Eve
Nikki
Jason
Rachelle
Wilson
Kasandra
Ricardo
Kim
Jake
Edge
Krystle
Kate
Michael
Lisa
Agnes
Marifelle
Angelica
Camille
Julius
Lawrence

Servers
Emil
Dudoy
Diday
Jessica
Anne
JC
Jerry
Lourdes
Ted
Eser
Richard
Patrick

Still have more to add as I see them

^bumped so that people can link up

+ mon

From watching the episode of Joan of Arcadia on Friday, a question came up - Why did you make so many religions...wouldn't it be easier if everyone had the same one?

God's answer in the show was There are so many different people, they all need different way of relating to Me, and that's what religions are different ways to share the same truth.

+ mon

Good gosh man! We were trying to get a little get together setup, so we decided to go bowling! I sent out a txt, call some people, IM some people if they wanna go - this of course was a non bnp event but just friends hanging out and having a good time

OMG! Everyone! EVERYONE wanted to go! But of course the problem was rides again...rides rides rides we need drivers and cars - so many people so little drivers.

We started out with just the old core group and thanks to the kindness and the love for God that G has, he brought the NJ heads all the way to Long Island - Bellerose Lanes. Good stuff G-rard!

I was bowling awesome that second game, but left two frames open in the 7th and the 8th...was on my way to a 200+ game but my score dropped b/c of that! Dang it!

Ok enough with the chatter, here are some pics and videos from last night
movie one ( 6.22MB )
movie two ( 4.87MB )
movie three ( 10.22MB )

+ mon

Thanksgiving weekend + Youth Vigil = no rides!!!

Man what a Friday! LoL usually we have a lot of rides, the adults help us out a lot. There were a lot of new grads from class fourty three that wanted to go to Vigil, but couldn't go because the ride situation was just non existant! A few of the grads wanted to go but their parents said they couldn't because it was too late already. Some of the others were on vacation or with their families for the weekend or had family over.

But it's all graaaavy! Maybe next time we'll be able to bring all those who want to go - man we even prepared a lot of food for you guys! I've noticed that the food at Vigil when it's youth sponsored has gone from a little to so freakin' much food!

Well there were about 7 or 8 new grads there that showed up with a few non grads too, along with the "old" youth. It was a good turnout considering all the things I said above.

Some people had to leave early so they didn't get to join the Saltine Challenge! What is the Saltine Challenge you ask!? It's the challenge of eating 6 saltine crackers in 60 seconds. Think you can do it?! Bring it on foo! This is how you NOT do it! ( 42.6MB )

The Vigil went well, after everyone had to go home there were about 10 of us that were left. We just talked about things and whatever was on our mind for a few hours and talked about some problems we had. We also made a list of things we wanted to do as a group, bowling, skiing, Marian Retreat, Panawagan Retreat - we'll let you guys know when this stuff is gonna go down

There was some good sharings and good bonding at Vigil again this past Friday hopefully next time all the youth that want to go can come through.

Here are some pics that I took at Vigil (yes my dad's new cam has become one of my obsessions!) Woops forgot to resize some of the pics! Some of the pics are blurry since I was trying to get used to the cam - sorry, enjoy

+ mon

We will be having Vigil at St. Rose in Rockaway beach tonight. It starts off with a Mass at 9:00pm and the closing will be at 5:00am in the morning. Those who cannot stay until 5:00am can leave earlier, some people leave as early as 11:00pm and so on.

If you're wondering what Vigil is, I'll give a little explanation about it.

Every 2nd and 4th Friday of the month we go to St. Rose of Lima who has the Blessed Sacrament exposed 24/7. We usually start things off with a Mass at around 9:00pm and then we take 30 minute shifts to pray in the chapel with the Blessed Sacrament. This is the time where you can talk to God one on one and just talk to Him.

Each person will select their time slot and they have to stay in Vigil until the next person comes in to relieve them. We can't leave the chapel empty.

While people are doing their Vigils, we have activities - sharings and other things that are planned.

Basically Vigil is a time where you can grow in your relationship with God on a personal level, and also get to know your BASIC (brothers and sisters in Christ).

This Friday (tonight) is youth sponsored, that means we are in charge of the food, drinks, etc. If anyone would like to volunteer to bring anything that would be great! Any questions or anything you need, just call me up (619) 253 6989. If you need a ride or need someone to talk to you parents about Vigil, just call me and we'll set something up.

Don't be scared to call me I don't bite - I'm really nice! Ask the other youth Hope to see you guys at Vigil tonight!

edit : attire is pretty much the same thing at the graduation for the retreat (white button down shirt with collar for guys / girls white blouse with white long skirt)

+ mon

break time one || break time two
break time three || break time four
break time five || break time six
break time seven || bro christian (hadjee)
after hours || ultreya one
ultreya two || ultreya three
ultreya four || ultreya five
ultreya six || ultreya seven
ultreya eight || ultreya nine
ultreya ten || ultreya eleven
ultreya twelve || ultreya thirteen
ultreya fourteen || ultreya fifteen
ultreya sixteen || ultreya seventeen
ultreya eighteen || ultreya nineteen
ultreya twenty || ultreya twenty one
ultreya twenty two || ultreya twenty three
ultreya twenty four || ultreya twenty five
ultreya twenty six

Here's a little slideshow that your brother Arvin prepared! If you don't know who Arvin is, it's the "free DJ" during the retreat

http://www.dragongstar.com/Class43.mov
(right click and save target as)

If you got pics post em up! We wanna see!

+ mon

Ok this might be a little stretch for some people but for me, this was divine intervention.

My credit/debit card is broken from overusage, so I can't get any money out from my account until my new card comes in the mail. I used the last few dollars I had left to buy some plates and utensils yesterday for Ultreya.

I can't eat breakfast for 68+1 days because that was one of my sacrifices for each of the candidates of the retreat.

So I leave my house this morning and take $1.50 in quarters to work just so I can get some brownie or something. It gets to around 1:00pm and I'm hungry, like pass out hungry! And I need something a bit filling and not just junky to eat to keep my going until I get home.

I'm walking to the cafeteria, and I just mention to God how awesome it would be if I opened my wallet and found some money in there so I can get real food, I was just going to get a cookie or something.

Then something (or someone) tells me to open my wallet, so I did. Inside my wallet I look and there's no money, but then I flip through some papers and there's a folded dollar bill there! I was so happy because now I could buy a slice of pizza!

Man God is good...I was seriously starving and He hooked it up with another dollar so I can get something that would be filling!

I have learned from the years in the BNP, that when you serve Him with all your heart, He will look out for you and hook you up whenever you need it - be it tests, term papers, money to eat, or whatever, He will be there.

God is good - all the time

+ mon

This was the song that we played during the skit that portrayed evil all around us. Man I just saw the lyrics and didn't know they meant so much and was the perfect song for that skit

I spent a day by the river
It was quiet and the wind stood still
I spent some time with nature
To remind me of all that's real
It's funny how silence speaks sometimes when you're alone
And remember that you feel
It's funny how silence speaks sometimes when you're alone
And remember that you feel
Again I stand, Lord I stand, against the Faceless Man
Again I stand, Lord I stand, against the Faceless Man
Now I saw a face on the water
It looked humble but willing to fight
I saw the will of a warrior
His yoke is easy and His burden is light
He looked me right in the eyes
Direct and concise to remind me
To always do what's right
He looked me right in the eyes
Direct and concise to remind me
To always do what's right
Again I stand, Lord I stand, against the Faceless Man
Again I stand, Lord God I stand, against the Faceless Man
'Cause if the face inside can't see the light
I know I'll have to walk alone
And if I walk alone to the other side
I know I might not make it home
Again I stand, Lord I stand, against the Faceless Man
Again I stand, Lord I stand, against the Faceless Man
Next time I see this face
I'll say I choose to live for always
So won't you come inside And never go away
Next time I see this face
I'll say I choose to live for always
So won't you come inside And never go away
Again I stand, Lord I stand, against the Faceless Man
Again I stand, Lord I stand, against the Faceless Man
Again I stand, Lord I stand, against the Faceless Man.

+ mon

Just found out Alicia Keys worked here at my law firm Her mom worked here for about 14 years.

WoW so now I can be a singer! I have some glimmer of hope knowing she worked right here! Freakin' awesome...

+ mon

They always would tell us that the meaning of Ultreya was a spirtual banquet, but majority of the time I would never feel that it was. Tonight was a different story!

During the whole day today at work, I was just sitting there reading people's Xanga's and crying because I didn't realize that the retreat had such an impact on people. Then I was about to leave and my boss asks me if I want Knicks tickets for tonights game - I said no. Then he said to me that they are courtside tickets! Man!? Taning working or what!? Courtside tickets to the Knicks game on the night that the new grads are supposed to go to Ultreya! Well I chose "my kids." I guess I'm calling them my kids since I was chosen to be rector of their retreat, and I feel it's my responsibility to keep them here and on the right track.

But yeah it was definately a distraction, those Knicks tickets seemed mighty tempting! I went to Ultreya expecting maybe 10-20 new grads there and I was going to be happy. Ummm, yeah - we ended up with 50+ youth. No I didn't stutter! I said it - 50+ youth! There were 80+ people in total, but the youth was just crazy!

The entire Ultreya felt like a continuation of the graduation, it was freakin insane! Never before had I seen a bigger turnout than what I saw today. See it's not just about the number of people there, but what they shared!!! Good gosh man, I'm full of grace and I just keep getting more?! Where does it all go!? But the new grads sharings were really really touching and motivating. Makes me want to do so much more for them and the other youth!

One part of the Ultreya was the question and answer - Kuya Willie from Kali would answer he questions that were asked. Then someone asked about apostalating - and Kuya Willie opened the floor up to anyone who would like to share how they do it. You'll never guess who answered the question...a new grad! Yes a new grad did, not just one, but two! Two of them said how they apostalated! Man it was just so much grace!

I know we're on a "high" right now, but this aint going nowhere anytime soon. We're going to nurish this and make that seed grow.

So many things that Kuya Willie said were just awesome. Some I remember, some I took down, some I hope I'll remember later. But his words, his messages, his stories were just so inspiring and they were just so much great things to get from it! I remember I loved how Kuya Willie spoke back in the day and I always will. Here are some of the things he said tonight that I was able to remember:

-What is a BNP Graduate? A BNP Graduate is someone who is commited to God and serving His people.

-Saints are sinners that are willing to keep trying.

There are more that I will be adding as they come to me, now off to sleepland now - still haven't caught up on my sleep from the weekend

+ mon

Two days after the retreat, I just want to go back to the campsite and linger in all the retreat memories. I was talking to Diday and Dudoy last night and we were saying how we just want to go back there, even if the retreat is over and just stay there with the youth!

But it's back to the real world now - school, work.

It sucks, but now we have some more tools added to fight the temptations and the trials that we will be going through each day. We know we have our BASIC and God right there whenever we need them.

Maybe this time the grace can be kept just a little longer and we can keep it going for a longer time! Plans, plans, plans - we need to get things together for this weekend so we can all share!

+ mon

Two 300 word posts back to back?! Exactly 300 words, how crazy is that shiz! Ok I'm still on my retreat high and am buggin out

+ mon

Onward and upward! To infinity and beyond! Time to get activities started, even during the little break since it's the Holidays and New Years is coming up! This is usually where everyone just chills out and things die down. This time we're going to do something about it.

That fire will keep it's light, that fire will burn. We will not back down, we will not slow down, we will not let this get away from us this time.

They say that it's the rectors responsibility to carry the class - but I think the responsibility comes long after the retreat is over. We need to focus and work on the new grads, they are fresh, and as Kuya Willie said, they are fragile, they are still under construction. So we have to nurture that seed that God planted in them. We have to let all the fear go and trust in Him.

We will not let these kids go this time, anything and everything is what we will be doing to get things on point!

I've read a lot of their xanga's and one of the main things that I've seen is "I hope we have this feeling for a while and it doesn't wear off!" - those words alone are enough to just make you want to work super hard for these kids! They needed this weekend, we needed this weekend. Now that the weekend is over and done with, we need each other.

The NyC/NJ youth is blowing up and there's no time to slack anymore, full speed from here on out and we will pick up anyone who falls in the process. God is in all of us and we have to show it to the world - live each day as if it were a retreat.

+ mon

Onward and upward! To infinity and beyond! Time to get activities started, even during the little break since it's the Holidays and New Years is coming up! This is usually where everyone just chills out and things die down. This time we're going to do something about it.

That fire will keep it's light, that fire will burn. We will not back down, we will not slow down, we will not let this get away from us this time.

They say that it's the rectors responsibility to carry the class - but I think the responsibility comes long after the retreat is over. We need to focus and work on the new grads, they are fresh, and as Kuya Willie said, they are fragile, they are still under construction. So we have to nurture that seed that God planted in them. We have to let all the fear go and trust in Him.

We will not let these kids go this time, anything and everything is what we will be doing to get things on point!

I've read a lot of their xanga's and one of the main things that I've seen is "I hope we have this feeling for a while and it doesn't wear off!" - those words alone are enough to just make you want to work super hard for these kids! They needed this weekend, we needed this weekend. Now that the weekend is over and done with, we need each other.

The NyC/NJ youth is blowing up and there's no time to slack anymore, full speed from here on out and we will pick up anyone who falls in the process. God is in all of us and we have to show it to the world - live each day as if it were a retreat.

+ mon

Thank you to all the servers who were able to serve this retreat and also to those who were not able to make it but joined us in the preparation and in prayer

All the sacrifices and everything you've done for this retreat helped out a lot. You guys worked hard and pushed for this soooo much.

I can truly say that this is the first NyC retreat that I have seen the love of God just flowing through you guys with no reservation! We all had our moments of being distracted, but in the end we all came out focused and on top of our service.

Seeing everyone there from the new servers, to the old OG servers was just sooo freakin' inspiring! There have been times where I have questioned, why we still do this, if we can't even keep the old ones - and I saw it in this retreat. No matter how far you are, or how long you haven't been to BNP, the love and grace you felt that weekend from God that weekend of your retreat will never be forgotten.

It was evident when I saw a lot of old grads in the back during graduation! Adrian, Heidi, Jedap (spelling!?), Ronnie, Jiggy, Carlo, Agnes and so many more! It was a great surprise seeing everyone there and just pumped to share their love!

Thank you Youth Worldwide for making this retreat as special as it is. Thanks for igniting that fire that was dormant in a lot of us for so long!

You guys inspire me, you guys motivate me and are true examples of soldiers and servers of God. I am happy to be walking side by side with all of you to His kindgom.

We are marching in the light of God.

+ mon

Where to begin?! Well I woke up this morning after the weekends of weekends after 3 hours late for work - I had left a message for my supervisor earlier at 4am to let him know that I just got back from the retreat and that I'm going to be a little late.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!FLASHBACK!!!!!!!!!!!!
-------------------
FRIDAY NIGHT
-------------------

Ready, go go go
I got home early from work and try to take care of things, clean up, get ready for the retreat, pick up the van from Tita Jane, pack, cut my hair, all that good stuff.

I picked up the van and took it to the carwash to get it cleaned just a little bit. Funny thing was that it only had one row of seats, which worked out b/c there were a lot of "things" that the candidates brought.

So I get home, and start getting ready, cut my hair, pack, iron my clothes and get dressed. I was nervous like a mofo! Scared, nervous, anxious, everything and anything possible, I was feeling it.

Get done cutting the hair and was talking to Dudoy and Diday before we were going to leave. They both seemed a bit bummed out because their candidates backed out - all of Dudoys and Diday only had one left out of so many. I saw the sadness in their face because their friends started making up excuses and things came up so they wouldn't go anymore.

I was supposed to leave at 7 to pick up Ted's candidates at his job around 7:30ish. We went downstairs around 7 to 7:30 and I was waiting for Em because there were 8 candidates we had to pick up and we needed another van to fit them in! So I waited around for another hour and a half before I left to go since Em went to confession and was still getting the van.

Waited around outside with the kids, Kuya Noli and them were loading some things so I helped a bit. Kuya Willie was also there so we chit chatted for a while too . A few of Diday's friends come in front of the house and just hang out, these were some of the ones who backed out already. So after a little while of talking, they go and get their stuff from their house and I saw Diday and Dudoy's faces when their friends decided to go again! They were so happy and had that little sparkle in their eye.

Some of the NyC Youth came back with the Kali Youth from confession and we were just waiting around for a while until Em got the van. Ted was calling me like crazy asking me what time I was going to come by and pick them up.

So I finally left around 8pm from Ridgewood to go pick them up, and I took some of the servers things with me since there was a lot of room for their bags. I went to gas up on the way there, got back in the van and man I swear the other side was trying hard to throw me off course, I'd later figure out why the other side was working so hard to mess this retreat up.

Bring it on!
After gasing up and driving about a block from the gas station and I'm sitting on my jacket, so it's hard to steer. I try pulling out the jacket from under my leg and I didn't pull that hard but then I heard a pop on the right side of my body - I couldn't feel my arm and my right side went numb! Then I had this horrible pain shoot down my arm and all through the right side of my body. I pulled over to just relax and let the pain go away. Sat there for about five minutes in one of the most painful things I've ever experienced! I thought it was just going to go away, but after 5 minutes it didn't, I started to panic just a little bit. All the times when I talked to G bout heart-attacks, he said that you'd get numb in your arms, and I thought I was having a heart attack or a stroke! Seriously, I thought I was going to die before I even made it close to the retreat. I laid there for a bit, then I call my brother to come get me, but he's already on the bridge, then I call Mark up to help me out, when I called him he sounded really worried when I told him what happened, and said the same thing that I was thinking - "man tanings working hard man." After a minute on the phone with mark, the pain subsided, but I couldn't move my arm much - still a bit numb and really really weak.

I drive over to Ted's place and wait for Em. I told Em that I can't drive and that Ashely (from Kali) would need to drive the van. It was a pretty scary thing to happen before the retreat, thinking you're about to die with no one around.

So I get to the place and I meet all of Ted's candidates and we just wait around for a bit - Ted's "kids" seemed pretty well behaved so that was a plus

We have arrived
Em, Carla and Ashley get there and Ash drives the van, so we're off to the actual retreat place. We got in at about 10 to 10:30pm.

OMG - we walked into the main hall and saw all these people! There were just soooooo many people there! Candidates, servers, whomever, it was just packed. Almost brought a tear to my eye when I looked over and I saw all the bags on the floor because I knew they were candidates' bags! Back on Tuesday, the last count was 57 confirmed - then by Friday afternoon, I find out that about 20 people had backed out, so that leaves around 37 confirmed now. Was a bit worried, and had some concerns but hope and faith still prevailed.

The servers were doing their jobs, we were getting things ready for the candidates, Ricardo was freaking out about being 1VR, and shing was too about being 2VR, especially since there was a lot more candidates than we would have ever expected! The count of candidates there at the retreat that night was 65 with more to come.

We waited up a bit and talked, got things ready, planning some things, and 4 more candidates showed up, making the total count of candidates 68+1! Yes that's right we have that many candidates! It was freakin' insane - the biggest youth retreat in NyC!

SATURDAY

Opening
The Rectors were scared about what they were going to say, what to do and everything else the Rectors were supposed to do. The other youth did their duties and we saw all the candidates on Saturday morning and, well like any other retreat, they just seemed to just wanna go home and forget the whole thing. We did our best to welcome them - when they were being introduced, we screamed and yelled each one of their names as if we've known them for years and years. A lot of us lose our voice that morning hAhAha. Our opening presentation was Siya Hamba and we sang it well but the way we did it just wasn't working since we tried something new and didn't practice .

Intimacy!
Saturday went on as planned, everything was "alright," with the candidates being bored out of their mind. Yikes, during the breaks it was hard to keep the "kids" under control because there was such a huge age gap in the candidates, 13 - 27. There were a few couples there and they were pretty much all up on each other, some of them actually making out and kissing! Yes folks, as soon as they walked out the front door for break, LIP-LOCK! SMOOCHES! MUAH!

Operation Third Wheel
Servers were still intimidated, even though we were older, we were still a bit "scared." Eventually we had come to a solution that if we see the candidates coupling up, we would take action and put into action operation third wheel (OTW). This is where one of the servers would go in between the couple and just start talking to them and make them feel as uncomfortable as ever so the "intimacy" level is dropped way beyond comprehension! At first no one was doing it, still scared.

Good ol' Stephanie
I saw this couple holding hands, and I turned the other way to see if there were any servers around, I turn back quick to the candidates, and I see Stephanie - yes, little, quiet, Stephanie - going up to them and talking to them! The couple tries to walk away to a more secluded area where there was a bridge - I was still trippin' on the fact that Stephanie of all people put OTW into effect! She followed the couple down to the bridge! Was standing right next to them and just talking, and talking, and talking - making things as unromantic as possible! She did a great job putting OTW into play!

Piety
The rolios continued, then came the Piety - O o O o O o o o yes here we go! Ate Janice from Bay Area did Piety. The servers were there listening outside of the rolio room and we shed a few tears when it got serious. The candidates, you could hear the sniffles, and the cries - they were starting to open up and let God into their lives, bit by bit.

The servers were pretty much composed, but then...Ate Janice says "...and the Staff and the servers! You've made so many promises..." and we just start balling like no tomorrow! I can't even remember what came after "promises" because it got really loud. The power with which she spoke, the love that flowed with her words, hit the candidates, hit the servers, and anyone that could hear her speak. It was so powerful, having the Holy Spirit in you can help you accomplish anything. Everyone started to open up here, people were talking more, emotionally they were able to let out whatever was in their hearts, whatever they were keeping, they were able to let some of it go - ask God for forgiveness, talk to Him, see Him, be with Him.

Mass and Confession, and Practice
After the Piety, we continued with the rolios and then had Mass and Confession. OMG I almost forgot one of the things that we had to do...PALANKAS!!! The Rectors had to do 69, each! Oh man, and all this was due at 3pm. There was no way I was going to be able to do that, Ricardo and Shing were able to do theirs, but I was writing personal messages to everyone and was only able to do about 29 of them. Man did my hand hurt...

The candidates then went to their rooms after the M & C. The servers stayed down to practice for Mananita and get ready for Social Hour. While we were practicing, we started noticing a change in one of our servers. Don is his name...at around 8:00pm he will undergo this transformation! He starts buggin' out! Yelling, being sooo energetic and so loud! LoL hAHHAhAhhahahAha while we were practicing for Social Hour, Don was there and they were asking if we should do one more practice. Don started yelling to practice "one more time, one more time!"

The skit that we were going to do was something that the Kali people helped us a lot with. It was to help portray the evil in the world and how it's all around us. But with God by our side we have the power to lay down the evil in this world. Jan from Bay Area was the regular guy, Eser from Maryland played Jesus, and the rest of the youth played all the evils.

At first I didn't think the skit was going to be effective, I thought it was kinda lame and weird - the other side was getting to me. I fought it off and saw the deeper meaning in the skit, I saw the portrayal of the different aspects of life and saw the power that comes with and from God.

Every freakin' retreat!
We headed back to the cabins to get some rest after the practices. We learned that some of the guys snuck out and were caught by the girls cabin! loL! hAhHAa great story on how this happened, that we can laugh at now since the retreat finished . Three guys went down to the girls cabin, there they knocked on the window to get some girls to come out, but they knocked on the wrong window! So the girl next to the window screamed, LOUD! And started yelling that there was a ghost in the window! Tita Naty told her to sleep and that there's nothing there, but she insisted that there was something there! So they went to check and the three guys were caught, Kuya Ed (assigned to security) was flashing the flash light on them as if they were criminals!

Focus
After we learned about that, we talked to the servers to focus on the retreat again, and stop playing around since the candidates aren't all there yet, they haven't all opened up. We did a little sharing that night, I fell asleep after a few minutes, but everyone else was sharing good stuff, and people were actually lisenting! I knocked out with Archie talking to be the last thing I remember.

SUNDAY

Good Morning!
Sunday started off early with Mananita and this wasn't the best Mananita that we've done, we were so capable of doing more. It seemed that everyone wasn't singing or really awake enough to do it, but nontheless God was there. One of the candidates didn't want to wake up, so GB pushed his head into the cross to make him "kiss" it - hAhaha.

We can DANCE and SING!
We headed on downstairs after everyone got ready and got breakfast set. Singing cooks and waiters was on the menu! OMG some of these costumes were just too freakin' funny! hAhAhHahaa one of the best ones was Teds! hhahahahhahA - oh man I'll post these pictures as soon as I get them from arvin lol it was just too funny!

Go Jason it's your Birthday! Shake what Yo Mama Gave yA!
It was one of the candidates birthdays and I forgot about it, so we weren't able to get him a cake! We made this little "cake" just to sing a little happy birthday to him for breakfast - nicely toasted pan-de-sal surrounded by drizzled sweetened tomato paste, accented with slices of sausages from vienna, topped with chocolate covered in a colored crunchy shell amongst the sweetened tomato paste, with a candle and four elegantly decorated accessories added to the pan-de-sal. Lol AhhahAhahaa

Do a "Stephanie" on them couples!
After breakfast, they had a little break and OTW was taking effect, the couples couldn't get couply anymore since there was always another person there, and the servers weren't scared as much.

Boys vs Girls
Then we got ready for Social Hour and got the candidates ready. Once we told them about it, they started practicing their dance moves, singing, breaking and all that good stuff. You could see the excitement and the energy level raise from the opening on Satuday to the Social Hour, some of the candidates were into it a little more now. We sorta did "guys vs girls" and they were singing, dancing, some of them even showed a couple of line dances. Don gave some flowers and shimmy'd a few of the guys that were singing! hahAha, freakin Don!

Bring it back a bit...
Then we slowed down a bit when we did the skit, it was really really powerful! The song by Creed, Faceless Man went perfectly with it. Evil is all around us, it doesn't have a face and it can be anything or anyone around, evil can take any form, and this skit really helped portray that.

You could slowly see the candidates start to open themselves up to God and just let Him do His work, little by little. It didn't have to be a full acceptance, but just as long as they knew He was there, just as long as they knew that He existed in their lives and will never leave them alone no matter how bad things get.

It's done...err...it has JUST begun
Then it all came out when I saw the candidates, errr, graduates come out at the Graduation! OMG just like Shing said later to me, it felt like a fiesta! Everyone was just so into it, the floor was shaking, it was loud, it was so powerful to hear them all, new grads and servers alike!

Words of Sis. Grace De Jesus: I'm not done yet...

+ mon

Ummm yeah. Just found out who the "top three" are and this is who they are from the 2nd vice up:

Ricardo Tingson
Anne Ramos
Simon Raymundo

OMG...after all the jokes to other people about them being rector, and even that emil joke last night - I'm the freaking rector. WoW, so surprised - God works in mysterious ways.

Right now I'm happy and nervous. No matter how many times you get up in front of people to talk, it never gets any easier! hAhA I can see my hands shaking while I type this.

SOoooOo yeah, I'll post some more after the weekend is done. Man this is going to be one heck of a ride.

GoooOooOoO Class Fourty Three!

+ mon

For sometime now I have seen the NyC youth go from strong to almost nonexistant. I seriously had doubts about this retreat coming up next weekend...wasn't sure if it was going to go through or not. And I really didn't care that much since I had my own problems to deal with.

The novenas we've been having have just been awesome! 12+ people are always there. It's a great thing seeing the youth like this, striving, growing and just being together again.

We had vigil on Friday, it was the mandatory vigil for servers. We sent out texts and called people to come to the vigil. The youth also found out a bit late that it was youth sponsored! But we got our things together and were able bring food/drinks and all that good stuff for the vigil.

But WoW! I would have never expected vigil to be that awesome! What I expected was just a regular vigil, opening, briefing and maybe a little chit chat here and there. Boy was I in for a surprise.

The night started out running a bit late since it was raining and I was picking people up. We got to vigil at about 9:30 instead of 9 as scheduled. But there wasn't any mass b/c Father Peter wasn't feeling well. So we opened the vigil and well there was an awesome turnout from the youth! We had 23 youth there! It was freakin off the hook! The numbers weren't the only thing that was great about vigil - everyone was actually into the preparation for the retreat! We were getting our opening song ready, people were singing, people were looking up the lyrics online and it was just great to see the youth participating! That's something that I have never seen before. G, Jen and Jessica weren't able to make it b/c of some last minute problems that came up. After we practiced for the song and did our novena, Kristelle and Mark wanted to do some sort of sharing, they have been for the past few weeks but we were just not able to b/c there was other things going on at the time. We all went to the other room and practiced our songs for another hour or two and did a few kewl things to them siya hamba!

It was so much fun practicing the songs and singing it together, people were actually into the whole thing. Then I told Mark to set off the sharing and get things started. So he asks everyone how they felt about the retreat, why they are serving and all that. We were waiting for someone to just start talking, but no one did, sooooo they volunteered me. It was just great talking to the youth and bringing up some issues that we know people were having. The youth really opened up to each other there! Even if not everyone spoke, we still know that they were listening, new servers, non actives were attentive. People talked about their problems, people gave them solutions, we were really interacting with each other! I remember when I shared about the experience at my retreat, the two new grads and first time servers, this is the first time we've seen them ever since the retreat, they were sooo attentive and their eyes lit up and I talked about Mahal Na Ingkong! I was on the verge of tears for the most part of that vigil.

It was just an amazing and inspiring thing that happened at this vigil. I see it as a revival of the NyC Youth. This time I will not be letting go of that rope that we're all hanging onto now...

+ mon

I remember talking to Shing and telling her that whether we have this retreat or not, I think that something great has been accomplished here. The youth of NyC was once sleeping, dead if you will - but the preps for this retreat have brought everyone back together, working, striving, prayer, loving together. Regardless of if this retreat goes through or not, I believe that something awesome has happened here.

The NyC Youth have been revived, the life of the Lord has been put back into our hearts. The love that we so longed for is everywhere! The grace that we didn't have, is not just overflowing from our souls!

Bottomline, this retreat is...was an awakening for the NyC Youth. You can call us the sleeping giant, and we have now been awakened! The purpose has been served, and should this push through, the blessings will be ten fold for all those involved.

Ahhh I can't wait for this weekend coming up

+ mon

I think we really started preparing for this retreat when we started Novena last Tuesday. Ever since then, it's been preparation, preparation, and more prep for the retreat. It's really great doing the preparations and just getting everything together, getting the youth together.

After that vigil, I thought nothing would be able to top that off - but I was wrong. Satruday after the vigil, we planned for a seven church visitation in the city and confession too. Not many people said they would be going when we asked them at vigil. So come Saturday afternoon, I left for the city and went to Hunter College, where we were all meeting up - this was something that just popped into my head when someone asked where to meet up. Everyone was running on Filipino time. I was there for a while by myself and waited for Mark, JC, Em, Arvin, Ricard, and Shing.

I sat in my old spots of the comfy Hunter couches...there was this filipina chick sitting two away from me and I wanted to ask her to the retreat but was still my scared, timid self. So Mark and JC come, and I see Mark staring at this girl as he's walking towards me. I thought he was just checking out the girl, but apparently it's Kristelle's friend. Mark says hi, and JC sees another friend and says what's up to him. It was such a "coincidence" that all these people they knew were here at Hunter and we just happened to meet here - devine intervention, I think

So Kristelle's friend tells us that there's a flip club meeting downstairs. This was the perfect opportunity to get more candidates! We went down there but they told us to come back after the meeting was done. It was getting late, and we waited for the other guys to show up, Shing finally got there at 6:30pm (hour and a half late!). So we start doing our church visitation and it's freeeezing! All the churches we went to were closed, so we just prayed outside. Another "coincidence" was that there were only seven of us, and we had seven churches to visit - coincidence? I think not.

We did our prayers outside, where people would pass by us - I thought everyone would be "shy" or quiet in their prayers so they don't get embarassed. But it was totally the opposite! We were loud, some of us kneeled on the sidewalks! Everyone volunteered to lead when we got to a church, we never had to ask anyone!

The night was just awesome, how we bonded and how we all stepped up and weren't scared of anything that night!

Tonight, the seven church visitation in NJ...I was getting lazy and didn't want to go, but I went anyways and most of us from yesterday went with the exception of a few. We met up in NJ and this was also a great experience to be with everyone from NJ and see people we haven't seen in a while - Don, Marvin, Michael and Jessica. It was just amazing how things fall into place when you let God take the wheel and let Him drive.

We ended up going to Jessica's house to do the Rosary, since she couldn't join us for the church visitation b/c she had to study. We all went to the final church together and she led the prayer which was really nice.

The preparations for the retreat are just amazing this time around, I have never seen the youth in NyC this strong and so much full of fire ever! If this retreat isn't going to happen, we're not going down without a fight - we'll pray our little hearts out.

+ mon

Ahhh felt good last night to see all the youth there doing novena we did this little underground thing.

For a while the youth here in NyC haven't been on the same page and have had different priorities - be it clubbing, drinking, card games, boyfriends/girlfriends, work, school or anything else that would detract them from BNP functions.

I've been sitting back and letting things happen, I want people to step up a little bit and take some more incentive and some more responsibility. At first it didn't seem that way, seemed like maybe one or two would step up - Em and Carla, they would always volunteer to cook food is good mmMmmM. But as time went by and the retreat drew closer I noticed that other people stepped up, and I could see the fire in some people again. I could see that they really wanted this retreat, not just needed it.

Gerard is doing his thing on his limited schedule. Mark is doing his thing now which is something that we've been waiting on for years now . I can see Arvin's "fire" as he wants the youth to bond with each other before this retreat. The younger youth, Diday, Dudoy and Emil are the ones who have the most candidates for this retreat, who knows maybe all three of them will be the rectors!

Last night was a last minute organization of doing novena together. A few of the youth have talked to me and told me they aren't feeling the grace and don't want to serve because of some factors, namely some things certain adults did or said.

I wanted to just sit back and relax and let everyone else do the work for this retreat. I wanted everyone to be able to stand on their own two feet and make this retreat happen without me pushing or without me planning something. I wanted Mark to plan something, I wanted G to plan something, I wanted anyone to plan something to get things going.

I guess it's pressure time and I saw a need for a little activity such as last night. The adults had setup the buddy system to do Novena, where you are paired with one of the adults and they will call you each night of Novena to remind you to do the Novena. That's all fine and dandy but I think we need much more than that for this retreat to push through.

So last night we planned to have the youth just meet up and hang out at Mark's house. It wasn't an official BNP activity, just hang out and eat, talk, and perhaps do the Novena together .

Of course the plan from the getgo was to do Novena together and just solidify everyone as one. I wasn't expecting a lot of people to go but surprisingly 14 youth showed up . Jerry, Lourdes, Em, Emilie, Richard, Diday, Dudoy, Emil, Mark, Kristelle, Arvin, Shing, JC, and me.

But it felt great having everyone show up and we decided as a group that the buddy system is not for us and we need to do this on a nightly basis, Novena together as a group. So hopefully this is a giant step forward to getting things together for this retreat. I know it's last minute and it's a week and a half away from the retreat, but it's better late than never.

I had doubts about the reteat just last Friday, but from the turnout last night, I feel a surge from the NyC Youth coming on.

At this point in my life and my situation, this is something that will keep me hanging on. I almost let go of everything and everyone, including Him because of everything. But last night was an inspiration and a motivating factor to keep me striving and going.

I think that this retreat will push through, if not, well at least the youth has gotten back together because of it. There's a reason for everything, and I know that the reason for this retreat, go or no go, is to bring the NyC Youth back on track.

+ mon

LoL I just fell asleep here at work for a few minutes. Thought I'd just close my eyes and ZzZzzZ

Woke up not knowing where the heck I was...that was fun, now back to work!

+ mon

Ahhh yes finally! I have brought food from home. It's been a while since I was planning to bring food from home. The last time I did this was when my parents went to Pi for a while and I bought pork chops and cooked them and ended up bringing it to work

My plan was to buy some mexican food, this fried chicken which is really good for $2.89 and that could serve as my lunch for two days along with rice. I never got to do it but finally!

I bought some mexican this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday...so now I have enough food to bring over to work, yay! No more $8+ lunches for me! $2.89 and it will last me two days of lunch, that comes out to $1.45 a day for lunch! Yes! Maybe I can finally save some freakin' money!

+ mon

This will be an ongoing list of what I had for lunch, I just want to keep track of it and see what it is that I'm comsuming within a week, a month, a year. Let's see how long I can keep this up.

October 14, 2004
Sbarro Pizza
-one slice mushrooms
-one slice ham, baon, pepperoni)

+ mon

This is a lesson I learn every single day...whenever I eat lunch I get soOoOoO sleepy right afterwards all the way until I get home. Maybe it's something in the food or maybe it's just the combination of work and eating that makes me sleepy?

ZZZZzzZzzZZzz

I'm about to knock out right now! Maybe next time I just shouldn't eat any lunch...just wait til I get home and then eat there - oh it'll help me lose some of this fatassness that I have!

+ mon

I keep getting these bug bites on my legs! I don't know where they are coming from or what's biting me! I think I should buy some lysol and kill these mofo's that are biting my legs...grrr sooOoO itchy!

+ mon

I was driving to go to Home Depot last Saturday and I passed by this Tae Kwon Do place. Then all the memories of when I was a kid and I wanted to take some Martial Arts classes came flashing back - I never did it them because it was too expensive for my parents to handle and I was a scared little boy.

So I figure I'll take some classes now! I asked around for which Martial Arts is the "best" and someone suggested Muay Thai. It's basically kick boxing, you remember that game Street Fighter. Well it's the style that Sagat was using.

There's this movie called Ong Bak that showcases Muay Thai. I'm still trying to figure out if this is the one I want, I've seen a couple of places here in NyC that offer Muay Thai classes.

What would be awesome is if I could do like Tom Cruise in Last Samurai! I love that movie! HmMmm maybe I could be a Samurai!? Go to Japan for a few years and learn from the best of the best! That would be sweet.

Still trying to contemplate which Martial Arts I want to take. I have the money to pay for it now, even though I am still a scared little boy.

+ mon

I'm blogging alot?! What's going on here! Seems like this is a good place to vent without having the entire world think you've lost your mind.

Somewhat feel like Dougie Howser typing the journal and shiz.

Ahhh I like this place better than the whole Myspace/Friendster type places. I think those places are just an excuse to get their mack on, seen it too many times, too many relationships have gotten f@cked because of it.

This place is my little room, my little apartment. Feels very safe here since I can monitor who's looking at what and who has access to whatever I write.

Yay Raymundo Readme!

+ mon

Ahhhh those who know me know this is one of my major beefs in life! I hate it when people take up more than one parking spot! This happens all the time in my neighborhood and I swear one of these days I'm going to lose and it break their windows, or just eff up their car!

How inconsiderate is that!? Hmm I wonder what they are thinking...hey look there's a lot of parking, let me park right here in the middle of these two spots so I have a lot of room to get out in the morning...ahhhh the luxury of having more than one spot...

People have no effing common sense! Dumbasses! That's what they are DUMBASSES. Oh boy, if I were a cop these people who get tickets and all sorts of trouble for parking the way they do!

BE EFFING CONSIDERATE TO OTHER PEOPLE WHO NEED TO PARK!

+ mon

It's almost lunch time and I've been here for a few hours pretty much not doing much. Been trying to get the permissions and all for this BLOG! working properly.

I've been on this same project forever...it's the Enron case so this is going to be an ongoing project for sometime. There are soOooO many documents.

I wonder out of the 8 hours of the day I'm here at work, how many hours of it do I actually DO work?! I'm estimating a total of about 2 to 3 hours total. Pretty good stuff

+ mon

Here are some things that I want to get from this website that I saw while I was buying this James Bond Camera. There are sOooOoO many things that I want from this site and they are a lot of awesome things! Man I need some more money so I can buy all the shiz here...

This will be an ongoing list, I'm going to add more to it when I find more things that I want.

I updated the list just now and well the list got a little bit bigger than I thought it would but I still want all of these!

Green Laser Pointer
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/

Key Katcher
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/5a05/

Potential Poster
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/posters/despair/65b7/

Achievment
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/posters/despair/65c7/

Teamwork
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/posters/despair/65d7/

Smart Mass Thinking Puty
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/toys/5ac8/

Ambition
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/posters/despair/65bf/

Brilliant Earth Poster
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/posters/techie/6a93/

Flashflight LED Flying Discs
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/toys/6def/

Meetings
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/posters/despair/5cd9/

Abusive Stamps
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/toys/6a73/

STFU Mug
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/mugs/3788/

WTF? Mug
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/mugs/366f/

RTFM Mug
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/mugs/299a/

Invaders Surface/Wall Graphics
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/toys/6425/

Swiss Memory USB
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/6b3b/

Utili-Key 6-in-1 Tool
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/6d98/

Smart ID Wi-Fi Detector
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/6447/

Leatherman Micra
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/331b/

Belkin 65-Piece PC Tool Kit
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/370c/

USB Desk Fan
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/63ec/

C.H.I.M.P. Monitor
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/accessories/2940/

DocuPen Handheld Scanner
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/accessories/69cf/

ZeroFriction Mouse Skates
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/6f46/

iRiver 20GB Portable Media Player
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/video/6f83/

LED Light Stick
http://www.thinkgeek.com/pcmods/lighting/5e66/

SPST Switch w/ Red Military Style Cover
http://www.thinkgeek.com/pcmods/cables/6c9d/

+ mon

WoW!? I'm blogging, can it be...well yes I am. Hmmm I guess I can just use this to put my thoughts, any news or anything kewl I find online. What a weird world this is of the online "journals." I wonder if I'm going to let anyone know this exists, or am I going to keep this to myself and just read it on my own. In a way it would make me not so crazy if I posted entries here and read it by myself...I wouldn't really be talking to myself...ok no brainpower used there at all.

This might actually be a good thing since I wanted to start some sort of journal a while back, something like Dougy Howser (sp?). Let's see how long I keep this up for.

Oh yeah, I found out what blog means now. I saw it while I was searching on what a blog really was. Are you ready!? I hope you're sitting down now? Ok the wait is over I'll let you in on what it means! Blog = web log, are you alright?! I hope that wasn't too much of a shock for you! I know that blew your mind.

Alright well I'm off, and I'll update this thing as much as I can with whatever I can think of. I hope it's interesting and someone finds it entertaining and/or funny.

+ mon