Nishiboy According To A High School Friend

Here's the second entry for  The "Nishiboy According To His Friends" Series aka How To Blog Without Really Writing Anything

This one was written by a good friend from high school. We were also schoolmates for a couple of years in college until he transferred to another university. He was one of those who witnessed my transformation from high-school wimp to college wimp. And he knows enough of my secrets to blackmail me for the rest of my life.

Nishiboy According To A High school Friend
By Cyril


I hated Nishiboy, known to us, his high school mates, as Jap, when I first came to notice his existence. He was taller than I was, he was way meaner, and most of all he could belt to Celine Dion's "I'm Your Lady [and you are my man]" without much of an effort. It’s quite true what they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But if I may, to that saying a phrase I'd like to add: so they'd eventually become your friends. That's exactly what happened to Jap and I.

Fond memories I have of Jap would reveal our shared addiction to Harry Potter, animes (Bleach and Naruto), and singing. Forgive the lack of modesty, but Jap was my apprentice when it came to Harry Potter trivia. Hahahaha. But Jap sure made up for that with anime stuff and his prowess at karaoke. Jap, Sondra and I spent countless hours way back in our laid-back UPLB days just talking about anything that came fleeting into our idle minds. In retrospect, Jap, just like us, would fit uncannily into the dictionary definition of the term nerd.

Jap used to have an oppositional defiant type of personality. Jap was super stubborn and disliked being told what to do, a trait which currently lingers a wee bit. Hehe. He once made our Biology teacher cry. He also fought with and got into our Filipino teacher's nerves and irked our English mentor over a hidden shoe. He's got quite a knack at defying any authority figure. Now, I'd say Jap has progressed for the better. The Jap I knew then wouldn't have graduated from UP, would never have kept a decent job, would be penniless hours after pay day, and would basically be a pain in any of his friend's butt. Honestly. Hahahaha. Peace Jap.

Something must have come and changed that old Jap. I was flabbergasted last year when Jap and I met for the first time after college. For one, he had a neat-looking bag. Although contents of said bag may be tousled unceremoniously inside, but hey, now he's put things in an actual bag and not stuff them in his pockets. Second, he now has no stinky, sweaty, snot-covered towel draping over his pronounced shoulders. Third, he smelled of perfume and not of his usual cigarette smoke-drenched self. Moreover, he had with him a towel, bath soap, even shampoo. The old Jap would have comfortably scavenged through your drawer.

Most amazing of all, he was in love. Like for real. I've never seen Jap like that ever. That may have been that something I was looking for. Jap has come a long way from highschool but just like the rest of us he still has leaps and strides to go. He may fall short sometimes, be hurt and commit very appalling mistakes, I'd expect this new Jap to come out wiser, a grin plastered on his face, bravely putting on display his scathed heart and bruised ego.


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Other entries in this series:

Nishiboy According To A New Friend
Nishiboy According To A College Friend

Nishiboy According To A New Friend

I always find it interesting to know what a person’s friends have to say about him. It’s like that Johari window thing says, what a person sees about himself is not exactly the same as what others see. That’s why I decided to ask some of my friends to write something about me. I thought it might be interesting both for me and for you, my dear readers, to know what my friends have to say about me.

Gentlemen (and a couple of ladies, at the most), I bring you: The "Nishiboy According To His Friends" Series aka How To Blog Without Really Writing Anything

I wanted to be fair and ask people who hated me to write something about me too, but good luck getting them to do anything for me.

The first entry is from Kerwin, a person who was mostly a stranger to me until recently. Since this series will be about friends saying stuff about me, this is me according to a "new friend".



Nishiboy According To A New Friend
By Kerwin


In high school, stereotypes rule. Cliques are formed organically all the time. People gravitate towards people with the same interests, and the simplicity of high school life dictates that you stay within the boundaries of your associated group. As High School Musical puts it succinctly, "Stick to the status quo."

But there's another lesson to be learned in high school: it always ends. Boundaries will shatter, the world will be filled with shades of gray. The next time you see each other, people have changed, and you can no longer define them by any one trait.

What's this got to do with Nishiboy? Nothing, and perhaps everything. Yes, I met Nishiboy back in high school. But I hardly knew him. We weren't classmates. We weren't even batchmates-- I was two years ahead, which meant that back when I was a "ruling" senior, he was just a sophomore. What little I remember of Nishiboy consisted of his looks: he was short and pudgy--adorable, yes-- but not what I'd consider "commanding." And as high school stereotypes go, he wasn't exactly jock material.

Eleven years later and I meet him again. A stroke of destiny, a manifestation of fate, whatever. Both of us have transformed into people far removed from our high school selves, but where he was merely surprised with what he saw, I was shocked with what I saw. The boy I once distinguished from the rest by virtue of his unique surname has become a MAN. Not only has Nishiboy grown taller (ah, such is puberty) than I had, but he had also attained a certain kind of swagger. Improved stance? Check. Steel in his eyes? Check.

In time, through several bottles of beer and cups of coffee, I learned more about Nishiboy and the tribulations he had to undergo to be where he was now. Growing up had its price. What strength he showed today he attained through heartbreaks, through rejections, through failures, through pain. What's amazing about all these though is that despite the maturity in his face, a little bit of that sophomore eleven years ago peeks through-- when he laughs, when his voice gets excited recalling the experiences of the yesteryears, when he has a bit of scientific knowledge to impart. The world may have beaten him black and blue (and continues to do so, based on his latest entry), but just seeing that youthfulness still reside within him makes me think that he can weather this bout.

I may have known Nishiboy for years, but this friendship has only begun. And I'm excited as hell to see what he's going to do. With Nishiboy, I have a feeling this is going to be one hell of an adventure.

Other entries in this series:

Nishiboy According To A High School Friend

Nishiboy According To A College Friend

For the curious, Kerwin has a blog, but it's been ages since he last updated: http://www.thesunbakedking.com/ . Do me a favor, though, and don't just say "Kerwin is cute" when you comment.

Your Place or Mine?

So I’ve always been curious about this.


When hooking up with a stranger, which one do you prefer: you go to his place or he goes to yours?


Each one has its own cons.

If you go to his place, you’ll be placing yourself in his turf. He could be a serial killer for all you know and have knives hidden in every corner, and you’ll just disappear without a trace. Or he could have hidden cameras all over the place and you’d see yourself in the next xtube video you watch. Or simply, you’re the one who still has to go home after an exhausting five-rounder.

On the other hand, if he goes to your place, you’ll be letting a stranger into your home, which is always risky. He could kill you and take all your stuff. Or he can get obsessed with you after you gave the performance of your life and he can stalk you. Or simply, you’re the one who has to clean up after.

Those are just some of the things that dissuade me. I'm sure you have your own issues with each case.

What I usually do is I tell him to get a room in some motel or just get on with it in some public place so that we’d have equal vulnerability.

But assuming that the only choices are his place or yours, which one would you pick?

Motivated

I am twenty-five years old and I’ve recently been going through a “phase”. It’s the one where you feel like your life has been going on circles. I don’t know which way to go. I heard that this is called the “quarter-life crisis” or something. Assuming that I’ll live to be a hundred, I’m right on schedule.

The past several weeks have not been very pretty for me. I spent almost every night out drinking or cruising. Then I woke up the next afternoon with a nasty hangover. Sometimes, I still went to work for the rest of the day but most of the time I just went back to sleep.

I’m not really sure if I still like my job. I took it because I was already bored with my previous job but today, five months later, it’s already starting to bore me too. It’s stupid because I used to complain in my previous job that I did too little coding for a programmer. Now I’m bored because I do nothing but code.

Motivation is the key, I know. I have to find a reason to love my job so that I’ll put my best into it. That’s why I sometimes envy those guys who have families to feed or parents to impress. They have their motivation thrust so close to their faces that they never lose sight of it. For me, on the other hand, motivation has always depended on the fun I derive from what I do. Unfortunately, “fun” and “work” are more flings than lifelong partners.

Someone told me that she thinks this phase doesn’t just happen once, but rather comes in waves. Looking back on my past year, I think I have to agree with her. It did happen in waves, I just didn’t realize it. I was not prepared for them and my life got washed away every time.

I have to be ready. I’ve been pushing my luck too far already. Heck, it’s a wonder my boss didn’t fire me. I should take this opportunity to really clean up my act. Not going to work so that I could play Kingdom Hearts in the morning and go partying in the evening is not the way to get out of this circle.

I’m going old-school on it this time. I’m going to work for the money and the experience points. I still have no idea where I want to go from here, my life is still going on circles, but it’s okay. I’ll keep an eye out for all the possible exits so until I find the one I’m looking for. At least, when that happens, I’ll have enough resources to go for it.

Good enough for a motivation.

When Can You Say That You've Messed Up Your Life

It's when movie and popcorn has become a luxury.

It's when the only reason you got in a club is because your friend guest-listed you.

It's when a student offers to buy you a beer.

It's when you have to budget your cigarettes.

It's when you join a training for the free food.

It's when you agreed to have sex with a guy because he mentioned free dinner.

It's when you only hear "I love you" if you're naked in some motel.

It's when you have coyote ugly moments three times a week.

It's when you're not sure if you still have a job because you went AWOL for a week.

It's when you don't know how to explain to your boss that you were playing Pokemon and Kingdom Hearts while you were gone.

It's when you've finished every game and watched every movie in your laptop and realize that your life has reached a blank wall.

It's when someone three years younger than you tells you to get your act together

It's when you're sitting in a mall, typing a blog entry on your phone because you have nothing better to do.