IT WAS LATE September, and a thin film of sawdust crept up between my toes as I made my way across the attic floor. The stale air felt cool for the first time in months, its dank smell redolent of mothballs and neglect. High in the rafters leaked the oily light of a solitary bulb, creating the atmosphere usually reserved for seedy pool halls.
 I ( Read more... )

My half-asleep brain made me strap on the wrong bra to wear to school this morning ( Read more... )

My parents think I am a machine. For the past 12 years I've never given them anything to complain about in regard to my grades. Even when I did get top marks, they did nothing for me. They said "Keep it up, Maria," and went right back to watching TV or eating their fucking dinners. Then sophomore year came, and I was genuinely struggling to focus, ( Read more... )

It fits the season! READ ON.

The Costume

The October of 1996 marked the end of my first year in the States as a Filipino immigrant.  Unlike most kids, my early childhood was punctuated with the trials of learning a second language, and the tribulations of adapting to a new culture.

I was nearly five years old the day I discovered the wonders of ( Read more... )

Blaming Buns for Buns

“[…] it seems wherever America’s fast food chains go, waistlines inevitably start expanding.”  And expand, they do.  Eric Schlosser’s harrowing exposé argues that the American fast food industry is fueling this obesity epidemic.  What some fail to realize is that this is can also be seen as a reversible reaction.  In this ( Read more... )

A False Solace in College Admissions

( reverse reverse ! )

Music and Lyrics

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”  This cry for unity has a clear and powerful message.  Our backgrounds differentiate us culturally and physically on many levels, but essentially, we are all members of a single human race and we all experience the same ( Read more... )

Apparently the mods deleted Sendspace, my favorite mp3 fileshare comm. I wonder why, though. Hopefully no one's getting arrested.

So sad. No more free music for me.

On a lighter note, Saturday Feb. 2 = my 16th birthday. Groundhog's Day. Now if you want to get real technical, I actually turned 16 on Friday Feb. 1st.   O_o  I wasn't born in this ( Read more... )

What do you do when you realize you're not the kind of person you want to be?

I've spent the past few weeks trying to justify all my shortcomings. And now I'm stuck in my own guilt-trip. It's eating away at my self-confidence. I think about grades, competition, pressure, health, family, friends, tennis, doing what's right, exceeding expectations, ( Read more... )

Roger

Pete Sampras is just about synonymous with words like “Hall of Fame,” “Number One” and “record-breaker” in the tennis world.  In his prime, Sampras was without question the best -with a chart-topping 14 Grand Slam titles -the most won by a male professional tennis player ever.  Unless he was facing, say, Andre Agassi, Sampras’ losses were few ( Read more... )