9/27/12 - Dash and Lily's Book of Dares

Here is another book published by David Levithan but this time, he is joined by another author named Rachel Cohn. This is not the first time they wrote a book together. Their other works include Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist which was adapted to a movie a few years ago.

This book came out around 2010 but since I didn't follow David Levithan's career until this year, I only found out this book lately.

The book is told in two different points of view from the 2 lead characters, Dash and Lily.They are young kids who exchange messages through a red notebook. The timeline in this story is set in Christmas time which is not quite long and you can finish reading this quickly.

Lily is a young girl who allowed her parents to have a long-deserved honeymoon on Christmas season which leaves her under the care of her brothers. She receives a red notebook and leaves it at the book store with dares written on it, waiting to be picked up by any random stranger, upon the advise of her brother.

Dash, short for Dashiell, is a smart kid who has a knack for words and is a frequent visitor at the book store. He eventually finds Lily's red notebook and that is where we see the story flows as we see them trade each other with dares and what they come across as they try to know each other and possibly come face-to-face. 

I like how both characters kept this form of communication all throughout the story and it somehow gave them an idea of their dream girl/boy in their heads.

It's a cute story filled with adventure and humor that can make you smile from time to time. I like that despite the characters being young kids, they are quite smart and likeable.

I read that the two authors wrote this book by writing each chapter separately, although not through a red notebook like the characters did, it's still interesting how they came up with this story without pre-planning everything before writing the whole novel.

After reading 2 books by Levithan, one of them I have talked about here, I have 2 more Levithan books here on my computer and I can't wait to start reading them!

9/26/12-The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

Back in 1999, a novel written by an author named Stephen Chbosky was published by MTV. Years later, it has sold a lot of copies and recently, it was  adapted to a movie.

Lead by Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller with a supporting cast that features Kate Walsh, Paul Rudd and Nina Dobrev, it's a coming of age story that will move the emotions of its viewers. It is set in the 90's where people make mixtapes, watch The Rocky Horror Show and listen to bands like The Smiths.  The people who lived through that era might experience a bit of nostalgia with that alone.

In the book, the story is told through a series of letters written by Charlie, played by Lerman, which the movie follows. The movie is also directed by the book's author so you can expect that they tried to follow the book as much as possible. They did leave some storylines off the movie but it was probably due to the lack of screentime and it was still able to deliver a good story even without them.

Charlie is a high school freshman. He has a good relationship with his parents, his siblings and he is a good writer and is a smart kid. However, he doesn't really have a lot of friends in school. He's often ignored or made fun off. We later find out that his best friend shot himself and had a traumatic experience in life that is shown in the movie through flashbacks. From there, he befriends with the seniors played by Watson and Miller. The major story of the film is about his journey from dealing with his family issues and in his relationships with his new friends. We see him fall in love for the first time and commits some mistakes here and there. The movie also shows some issues that society dealt with in the past such as how homosexual relationships were still taboo. I was sad that they didn't show Charlie's sister having an abortion like she did in the book; in fact, his sister, played by Dobrev, was a bit underutilized in the movie. I would have loved to see more from her.

I love the acting from all actors. They pulled off their scenes on point and gave us a glimpse of how the teenagers were back then. Readers of the book may be surprised to see a more flamboyant Patrick, played by Miller, but I'm glad they made his character that way. Most of the film's humor came from him and yet he also delivered some of the dramatic scenes in the movie. I'm not sure if the award-giving bodies will recognize this movie but whether they do or don't, the actors deserve to be recognized for their talents.

The soundtrack was good and the general tone of the film is nostalgic enough.  I will surely buy the DVD of this movie cause I want to see this again. I actually feel like reading the book again.

I recommend this movie to everyone. It is definitely one of my favorites of the year. 

"We are Infinite"

9/25/12

It's that time of the year again. The Fall season in the US has started which means one thing for the couch potatoes like me. The Fall season marks the return of my favorite TV series! After Pretty Little Liars and True Blood filling in for the June-August duration, the other shows are premiering their new season by September/October.

It already started for me a few weeks ago with the return of Glee, then last week with Bones and this week, How I Met Your Mother. Also to premiere this week are the new seasons of New Girl,Modern Family,The Big Bang Theory and  Grey's Anatomy. By next week, we'll have Dexter and probably more.

I still have other shows on my watch list but I don't know if I'll subscribe to all of them regularly like I used to. I promised myself that I'll wait until all of them are finished and have a marathon instead but that won't happen until next year and given that I couldn't even stop myself from watching the shows that already premiered, I might have a difficult time restraining myself.

Maybe our slow internet will prevent me but that didn't stop me before. I've had sleepless nights before just from streaming these shows which is why I am trying to refrain from watching new shows now and then and wait for other shows to finish.

Right now, here are the current shows I watch and their status:
*Pretty Little Liars-S3 break. Returns on January 2013
*True Blood-Returns on 2013
*Glee-Ongoing
*Bones-Ongoing
*How I Met Your Mother-Ongoing. Possibly the last season.
*New Girl-1 hour premiere tomorrow
*Modern Family-Premieres on Thursday
*The Big Bang Theory-Premieres on Friday
*Grey's Anatomy-Premieres on Friday
*Dexter-Premieres next week
*90210-Premieres on October
*Gossip Girl-Final season premieres on October. 
*Vampire Diaries-Premieres on October
*The Walking Dead-Premieres on October
*Supernatural-Premieres on October
*Teen Wolf-Returns on 2013(Wait on DVD)

With 3 shows on break, I still have 13 shows to watch. Only one of them is confirmed to conclude by this year though I'm kinda hoping at least 1 or 2 more will follow to loosen up my TV schedule since it is getting unhealthy for me.

I wonder what new shows are interesting to watch. So far, I'm only interested in Arrow but I know there are other new shows that are hyped too.

9/23/12-The Cab 2012

The day has arrived. The Cab performed at Glorietta and I got to watch their show. I am so glad I got free tickets care of my uncle because there were so many people who lined up early in Glorietta.

Here's the thing, I already have a ticket but I still had to go to the mall early so I can buy their cd because the first 50 people will have an autograph signing after the show. When I got there, the line was already long and I didn't think that I'll get a stub but I still lined up anyway. I was already 11am and the line wasn't moving and yet people kept on coming. We finally see some movement and we found out that there were only 9 copies being sold! There were some adults fighting with the seller but I never got to find out the whole story since I left shortly afterwards. I decided to buy their autographed cd that I found in Odyssey's Greenbelt branch so at least I still got a souvenir in a way.

I was already hungry by that time so I decided to have lunch then went around the mall. I was still groggy though and my legs hurt so I decided to sit down first to kill time. Hours passed by and I saw the concert area slowly being crowded by the concert goers but I had no patience to wait in line like them anymore. During the afternoon, the band actually came out to have their soundcheck so the mall were already filled with screams from loud girls even before the show. I was actually supposed to go with someone but he backed out at the last minute but it was fine with me. 

They finally let people enter at around 5:30pm which means there's another hour of standing. I'm glad I still somehow got a spot with a good view of the stage. It was even better than the spot I had during the Liv5 show in Glorietta.

 The show started quite on time. They sang most of their songs like Bounce,La la,Angel With A Shotgun,Bad, and some more. At one point, a lucky fan was called on stage and got serenaded with Endlessly. You can just imagine all the jealous girls at that point. A lot of people behind me were shouting at them to sing Vegas Skies but they didn't. LOL.

 For some reason, I couldn't get a clear picture of Alex Marshall no matter how steady I hold the camera. I wasn't able to capture a solo pic of the rest of the band, unfortunately; but I wanted to. Joey Thunder was amazing.

Here's a pic of Joey though rocking it out with lead vocalist, Alex De Leon.

 Here's my autographed Symphony Soldier album!:D

9/21/12

I'll keep this short since I gotta sleep in a while.

Earlier this week, I got an iPhone 3gs. I didn't buy it, it's more of a hand-me-down after my mom started using her iPhone 4s which she recently got unlocked after keeping it for quite some time in storage.

I haven't started fully customizing it but I already installed some apps and put on some music on it. I signed up for Instagram but it's still quite new and I'm not yet ready to share it to the whole world:p

I've always said that I don't see myself buying an iPhone for myself but I won't mind if someone gives me one for free. With a new iPhone 5 coming out, I might get the iPhone 4s as another giveaway.

9/20/12

I didn't follow the latest season of American Idol like I used but I was still familiar with most of the contestants.

They are currently in the Philippines for a one night concert to be held on Friday at the Araneta Coliseum. But prior to the show, they are holding some mall appearances and TV show guestings.

I found out they were going to have an appearance at Glorietta yesterday so I took some time to step out the gym and see a glimpse of them. I was lucky I was still able to find a spot on the second floor just to have a clear view of the stage. A lot of people were watching the show and most of them were young girls and parents.

The show didn't start on time. There was a short program that included games and a performance of some singer. I remember it was similar last year.

The show finally started and Phillip Phillips,Hollie Cavanaugh,Skylar Laine,Colton Dixon and Joshua Ledet. The other half of the contestants were in another mall.

There were a lot of shrieks and screams from the crowd. They just answered a few questions and proceeded with the autograph signing. It's too bad they didn't sing. I would love to hear Phillip sing something.

I didn't finish the entire program and went back to the gym but after I left the gym, I heard a lot of screaming and running. It turns out they just finished and they were on their way to the car and shrieking fangirls were chasing them! It was insane but I wished I could have seen them up close too.

9/18/12

I officially missed my chance of watching Maroon 5's show later at the Araneta Coliseum.

Although I feel disappointed that this is the third time they've been here and I have yet to watch any of them, this is a sacrifice I can take.

First, this is their third time which shows how much they love the country. I bet there's a big chance that they will return in the future. Maybe even next year.

Second, their opening act is The Cab and I have seen them and most likely will see them again this coming weekend so at least I got to an act from the show.

Third, I still have Bazooka Rocks to look forward to. If I'm lucky, I may even get to watch Foster The People or Keane.

But earlier today, I found out my grandpa's restaurant is catering food for the band all day which means not only do they get to watch the show but they will probably meet the band! How I wish I knew sooner so I could have asked for a pass just to see them in person!

Right now, I'm playing Maroon 5's discography repeatedly here in my room. I don't get to see them live but at least I get to hear them.

P.S.
I just found out that The Cab's set has just finished and they only played 5 songs. I guess I didn't miss much from them.

9/17/12

I wanted to go to the mall earlier but I was so sleepy. I did get to leave 30 minutes earlier than the time I usually leave the house so that counts. I didn't really have plans but I need to be early to do some errands for my mom which was to give something to her trainer. So I did that and decided to roam around the mall a bit. I decided to inquire the Ticketnet outlet regarding FTP concert tickets and I'm glad there are still ticket left. I'm not gonna be as complacent this time like I was with Maroon 5. I also asked the Glorietta concierge if there were tickets already for The Cab and found out there were no more tickets as early as 11am this morning. I thought the releasing of tickets were still on Sunday so I was quite surprised. Now my only chance of watching them is having to rely on my uncle to get tickets for me. He still haven't contacted me yet and I'm getting worried.

After hitting the gym, I decided to buy myself some new shirts. It's been a long time since I got something for myself and the ones I got were cheap. I somehow feel guilt since I have to save money for the upcoming events this month so I'll keep myself from buying anymore items that I can live without for now.

9/15/12

Anyone had some sort of stalker experience? I think I had one yesterday. I wouldn't call it stalking but I'm not sure what's the term for it.

So here's what happened, after my workout yesterday, I drink my protein like I normally do. I was drinking it at the sofa area and all the 5 sofas were occupied. As time passed by, people left until only the two of us, me and the guy on my left were the only ones sitting. While drinking, I was watching the ongoing group class which was at the right side. When I turned my head back front, I caught the guy sitting beside me trying to take a picture of me with his phone. He quickly put the phone down as if nothing happened. I didn't want to assume anything so I just ignored him and pretended I didn't see anything. After all, I know how embarrassing it is to be caught red-handed. I don't think he meant any harm since he's one of the people I regularly see visit the gym. I would like to feel flattered that he would want to take a picture or maybe a video of me but I don't know how to deal with it. Fortunately, no other interaction came between us since it would be so awkward. I don't think of myself highly or handsome but I don't see why he would put his phone on that position, sideways with it pointing directly at my face. There is a signal at the gym so it can't be that and he wouldn't look alarmed when I turned my face towards him. He looks nice though and maybe we could be friends.

9/14/12

Back in college, one of my friends suggested a book for me to read. Since he was someone who has a good taste in everything, I decided to look for the book. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a copy at any bookstore. Fast forward a few years later, I finally got a copy of the book, just in pdf form but that doesn't matter.

The book is called Boy Meets Boy and it is written by David Levithan who wrote Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. This book has always been on the back of my mind as one of my must-find books to read so I was excited to read it.

If the title isn't already a giveaway, the story is about an openly gay boy named Paul meeting Noah and instantly forms a connections with each other. It's not a simple love story as he faces problems that other teenagers experience. For instance, the parents of his best friend Tony, who is also gay, is very religious and has a hard time accepting their son's predicament. His other friend, Joni, fell in love with a jock who is known to be violent and also causes jealousy towards her ex-boyfriend, Ted whom she has dated 12 times. Those are just some issues we see unfold in the book. What I like about this book is that even though this was published in 2003, the author tried to break away from certain stereotypes and faced homosexuality as if there is nothing wrong to talk about it. Yes, this was before queer characters on TV were considered as cool.

I also like how every character is written and has their own problems. The only thing I did not like in the book is how it ended with Joni's character still with her boyfriend who doesn't even have a redeeming quality in the book.

In the book, there was a love triangle between Paul, Noah and Paul's ex-boyfriend, Kyle. I like how it ended which you have to find out for yourself and the things that happened before that final resolution.

I somehow want this book to be written to a movie. I can see this as a similar movie to Perks of a Wallflower which is also a good book which will have its movie version shown in a few weeks, something that I'm looking out for.

I'm still on the hunt for this book. I want to have a physical copy of this. I already downloaded pdf files of Levithan's other works and I can't wait to read them.

9/13/12

I wouldn't say I'm a fan of MTV's series nowadays. Shows like Teen Mom, Jersey Shore or The Hills are something that I am not interested in and personally, I think they're crap. The shows they produce are getting worse everytime and they're playing less music. They should change their name to something else since they're obviously no longer about music. But I won't start talking about it right now.

In the past few weeks, I had some spare time to do some things I want to do. Most of the shows I watch are on break so I thought I would try to watch new shows. I stumbled upon this show called Teen Wolf. I'm familiar with it since it's on MTV and a lot of teenagers are going crazy over it. Although I was hesitant to watch it just because it's MTV, I still bought the first season and wondered if it's like those other badly-produced shows. To my relief, it wasn't that bad at all.

The story is about Scott who got bit by a werewolf and in turn, he turns into one. The only person who knows is Stiles, his happy-go-lucky bestfriend and Derek, who is a werewolf himself. Scott has to deal with his transformation, hiding it from his mother and everyone else. Complications occur when he falls in love with the new girl in school, Allison who happens to be the daughter of a werewolf hunter. Actually, her family is actually devoted to killing werewolves so Scott can't tell her the truth. But Scott's problem isn't safe as one of his teammates in lacrosse (yes, that's the famous sport in their school), Jackson, starts to suspect something has changed him. He must face these problems as he is hunted by another werewolf that is stronger than him called an Alpha.

The 1st season consists of 12 episodes so I finished it within 3 days. I enjoyed it to a point that I bought the 2nd season as soon as it was available. I finished it earlier today because it also had 12 episodes only like the 1st season.

The second season was about Scott facing new dangers brought upon a creature called the Kanima who possesses one of the people close to him. Major trouble also starts when Allison's grandfather arrives. We are also introduced to other new characters in the show such as the new members of Derek's pack. Pack is what you call a group of wolves.

The show's storyline can be a bit generic but I somehow manage to enjoy it. The lead star could use some improvement though. There are times when he would come out as whiny during scenes when he should be surprised or angry. His bestfriend pulls off his role perfectly though. The guy that would make you laugh and make a fool of himself without knowing it in a good way . The parents also are fit for the roles.Allison gets a bit annoying in the second season though but I blame her storyline for it. Jackson also appears stiff at times, most likely due to lack of acting experience since he used to be a model before doing TV roles.

The show is renewed for a third season but this time, the show has been ordered for 24 episodes!Good news, however, the new season starts next year and I probably wouldn't be able to watch it until 2014. Good thing I have the dvd so I can watch it again.

Check out the trailer to see what the show is about:

9/12/12

I finally got my mom to ask my uncle about the tickets for The Cab's show in Glorietta. I told her to ask him if he would be able to get me a ticket for the show. I was glad to hear that she finally did but I asked her if he said anything about making it actually happen and my mom said that my uncle just replied "Ok" to the text. That left me a little dumbfounded. Maybe I'm just panicking again but an Ok wasn't exactly enough for me. To leave me hanging to ponder if I'll actually have to get tickets for myself or not is confusing. Though I understand it's probably the best he could answer since the mall isn't giving away the tickets yet as far as I know but I just wished he would have given a more reassuring answer. Now I have to worry if I'll actually have a ticket or I'll have to watch the band from outside the railings.

I guess I should just be glad that I could watch them again either way. There will also be a cd signing during the day of the show but it's only for the first 50 people who buys their sophomore album which I already have. I'm not sure if I'll still try to try my luck but we'll see. I feel like I've had enough experiences of falling in line very early and ending up being told that there are no more slots left so I'm just hoping that, as mean as it sounds, there won't be any fans who will arrive early that day.Ha!

9/11/12

Back in March, I watched the Smash Project. It's a concert featuring different foreign bands and one of them is The Cab. It was a great show and I wish to see all of them again.

The time has come and it was officially announced that The Cab was returning in Manila to open up for Maroon 5 when they come here this September for their Overexposed tour. It's not as good as headlining their own show but that was enough to see them again. 

Unfortunately, luck was not on my side as tickets quickly sold out and I was not able to buy one. I still plan on going to the venue with hopes that SRO(Standing room only) will be available during the day of the show like what is usually done.

However, I may not have to worry anymore as The Cab confirmed that they were having their own mall shows a few days after! It's going to be held in Ayala shows which is convenient for me.

It is usually hard to get tickets for mall shows like these since you have to buy a certain amount of purchase for a certain amount of time and you have to compete with other fans for very limited tickets. But I have an uncle who works for Ayala so I might ask tickets from him just like what I did during the Liv5 shows. I hope he isn't bothered of me asking but it's just my second time anyway.

But even if I can't get hold of any ticket, I'll still be able to watch them from the bleachers since it's an open place and the seats won't matter cause I'll probably be standing anyway. I'm just excited they're coming back!

Here's one of my favorite songs from them called Endlessly:

9/10/12

Last night an exciting news came to my attention when it was announced that Foster The People was coming to Manila next month!

I am a fan of the band and I am crossing my fingers that I can watch the show. It's gonna be their first time to come here in Manila so I don't want to miss it. There's no specific date yet but I need to find a way to get money for the tickets. My online job won't be enough.

Maybe it was a blessing that I won't be able to watch the Maroon 5 concert so I can watch this but I'm still not giving up on watching both shows. Hopefully, they will sell tickets during the show, at this point, I'm willing to get even general admission tickets which is the farthest section.

I just hope that the FTP show won't have expensive ticket prices since I'm already missing out on a lot of shows just because of that.

Meanwhile, here's one of their popular hits:

9/9/12

I wrote my first article yesterday. I was a little overwhelmed by the topics so I picked out an easy set to work with. I was able to finish it early since it was only asking for 1 article with 400 words. I think I did well and I hope I don't get a revision request. I probably won't find out until the week starts so for now, I'm allowed to start a new set but I'm not sure if I want to.

In other news, I finally got hold of the season 2 of Teen Wolf this morning. I was looking for it last week but the sellers doesn't have a complete one yet.  I'm going to try finishing the whole season fast like I did with the first.

9/8/12

What's happening to the youth?

A few nights ago, I overheard a simple conversation between my mom and my younger sister about her broken water bottle that lead to talks about allowances and it was going well until my sister revealed she was saving up for a concert next year. That's not bad but the ticket she was saving up for was a VIP ticket and it costs around 15K! All that for a K-Pop band? She insists she doesn't want to get lower priced tickets because she wouldn't be able to see. 

So as expected, it turned out to be a shouting match with no one winning. I seriously doubt she'll be able to go unless she asks money from our relatives or grandparents. But even if she comes up with the money, the tickets will probably sell out before she gets to purchase one for herself.

I can't believe her obsession over these K-Pop artists have gotten over the top. I don't know who exactly she's planning to watch but I'm sure it's not worth spending all that money. She's giving them too much importance over her education, even insisting to buy the ticket with her tuition. I'd understand if that statement was coming off a grade school student but this is a graduating student going to college next year and she's acting like a child. It's obvious she doesn't have her priorities straight.  I partly blame myself for being a bad brother and not a good role model to them but I also put some blame on her circle of friends. I haven't met all of them but I always hear their phone conversations and they're basically ranting and talking a lot about everything like a spoiled child.

I know that I don't really talk to my younger siblings as much as I want to because of the age gap and other factors within our family, but I don't want to see them go down this path. I can't give them the perfect example of a bright future but I want them to achieve greater success and they're not showing it.

I hope they realize that they are growing up fast and need to start making wise decisions for their future.

9/7/12- MTV VMAs 2012

Did anyone watch this year's MTV VMAs? It's one of MTV's big award shows held annually attended by major celebrities in recognition of music's finest.

It's one of the shows I look forward to every year but I admit that these past 5 or more years have declined in quality. Maybe I'm just getting old but you can't deny that despite the new generation of superstars, it's credibility has been lackluster and it's perceived to be a venue to promote and cause controversy and surprises. But it's supposed to be fun and they try to give the viewers just that.

One of the reasons that the show is getting boring is that they are giving only a few awards on-air. The technical awards are announced online and some are announced on the pre-show. Also, in recent years, there seems to be a shortage of celebrities attending. It's mostly the ones nominated who attend. This year, I believe most of the nominees for the Best Rock Video did not attend which is quite disappointing. I miss the days when the guests were varied. Now, the people showing up is all the same. If not, most of those who attend are the new acts trying to gain some exposure.

But let's move on to the show. This year's show was held at the Staples center. Rihanna opened the show with her new single Cockiness with some rapper and followed it up with her big hit, We Found Love featuring Calvin Harris who was also the house DJ of the night, playing the music tracks all night long. There were some surprising wins such as those from Nicki Minaj who won Best Female video and Chris Brown winning Best Male video, beating, believe it or not, Justin Bieber! Speaking of him, he was absent from the show but it didn't matter as he lost all the awards he's nominated for. Yup, what a shocker. But not quite when it's One Direction who he was mainly competing with. During the days leading up to the event, fans of both parties are engaging on fights on twitter and everywhere on the net. Seems like One Direction fans won as the band won 3 VMAs in one night. Despite being the most nominated person for the night, Rihanna only won 1 VMA but to be fair, she won the major award which is the Video of the Year award.

Despite the show running for only 2 hours, which I'm not really sure why when I thought it would be at least 3 hours, we still saw a lot of performances and appearances that night. I read that the show has been moved an hour earlier to avoid competing with Obama's speech in a political convention held the same night but they could have moved it even higher or better yet, put it on another day instead of a Thursday.

I like most of the performances such as those by Pink, Green Day and Alicia Keys with a special appearance of Nicki Minaj and American gymnast, Gabby Douglas, all of whom played their new songs. The crowd also got a treat from performances by One Direction, Frank Ocean, Lil Wayne and Demi Lovato.

But what made me enjoy the most was Taylor Swift's performance. She was very cute and her finale performance was different from her other performances on other award shows. Wearing long sleeved red and white top and short shorts, she danced along with the crowd with her dancers.

The awards show this year lacked some excitement, mainly due to the rapid pacing of the show and lack of surprise factor, I mean c'mon, newcomer One Direction was a heavy favorite just because of their huge fanbase while other veterans are struggling to keep up with these young batch of new performers despite putting out good music but it still made an effort to entertain and I will surely watch out for next year's show.

Meanwhile, take a look at Taylor's performance:

9/6/12

In my efforts to continue blogging regularly, I decided to change it up a little bit by changing the template. I loved my previous design but it did not have any venue for other people to make comments as the comments link was not present unlike other blogger templates.

I'm still not a pro with html stuff so I just downloaded this template from the net. I'm glad I found a nice one immediately. I'm trying to think of ways to make it better but this will suffice for now.

As you may have noticed, I do not like labeling my posts with titles but for a cleaner look and easier referencing, I'll just put one using the dates of my blog posts.

I don't like the font used for the blog title but I'm continuously trying to figure out how to change it. But I do hope you like it so far.

I passed the first interview of the company. I suppose I should feel happy about it but I don't feel any spark of happiness. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I actually passed an interview but the thought of accepting this job is starting to become a nuisance than a pleasant treat. I was scheduled to take my 2nd interview this Thursday but I asked to move it on Friday afternoon. I just wanted it to be on that day so I can go to the gym on the same day. But thinking about it now, maybe it's just my mind subconsciously telling me that I should not waste my time and decline it while it's early? I just keep on telling myself that doing another round of interview will give me more experience for similar future situations.

I actually tried to stalk the person who was going to interview me by looking for his twitter and facebook accounts and I managed to find him! He was apparently an SEO specialist and I assume the 2nd interview will be the technical part of the hiring process.  I initially thought I had to take another exam first before going for another interview just like what the department manager said but I suppose I'll take it after the interview since the interview is set an hour earlier than my previous interview. I am seriously thinking that this is where I would fail, especially if the interview is more on the technical aspect and that is where I lack knowledge and experience. But as I have said, I am not really looking for a good outcome for this job anymore, I'm just looking forward to having experience in improving myself for interviews.

I decided to go to the interview like I mentioned. It's good that it was in the afternoon so I didn't have to wake up early and beat the morning traffic.

There were no other applicants in the office as I arrived. But there was someone who was undergoing training and it made me feel better to know that the job was on a day shift or at least the training was. The last time I've been there to the office, there was someone who was there for her 1st interview and her interview started late. I was starting to assume that mine would have the similar fate as the clock struck 3pm, which was the time of my interview, but my worries disappeared after I was called to a room by the department manager. The room was another area filled with rows of computers to work with although no one was using any of them at that time. 

The interviewer introduced himself and I realized he was holding on to the exam sheet I filled up the last time and I thought I was doomed because I felt I shared too much and even made up stuff that I might not vbe able to explain in the future.

The interview started with a couple of probability questions like how my bestfriend would describe me if we were working at that company at the same time. I feel like I stumbled in that part as I ran out of adjectives to describe myself. The next part of the interview was regarding my answers of my exam. He clarified some info and I feel like I was doing well. I did realize I was repeating some words over and over again and committing some errors like wrong choice of terms and giving incomplete sentences. At some parts of the interview, I was asked questions where I did not know how to answer or did not have any answer to back it up so it took me some time before I answer or gave indirect answers. The interview asked a lot of questions that even my fascination for Greek mythology and the Lorien Legacies book were brought up and it felt good at that time as I felt a little comfortable during the process. However, I was taken aback when he asked for this blog after I told him that I blog but I don't want to give away my blog and just lied to him. I told him that I didn't have a domain yet and started to post my blog updates on facebook so he stopped asking for it, to my relief. A couple more generic questions followed before we ended. He asked me if I had more time to take up an exam but I was not prepared so I told him I have some other commitments to attend to and he assured me it wasn't a problem. He later on explained that if I pass the interview, I would have to take another exam before moving to a 2nd interview and a final interview which is a panel interview. I feel like it's such a long process and the thought of a panel interview is already a horrific thought but I need some time to delay any work until the end of September which is a date I'm trying to free myself of any commitments due to the big event so I'm fine with the long process.

Before I left, it didn't seem like there were others who were going to be interviewed. I assumed the other interviews were held earlier in the day or on other days since there were a lot of applicants when I was there before.

I still haven't started with my other online job but I can start anytime now since my inquiry regarding my bank account was already resolved. Maybe I'll start on Saturday.

Exactly a week after the exam, I got a response from the company telling me that I passed the preliminary exam and scheduled for a 1st interview this coming Monday.

I already confirmed but I'm still not sure if I want the job anymore. It is a good job but I am just worried about the shifting. I have handled graveyard shift in my first job and it was a horrible experience. My sleeping pattern was changed and it was hard for me to sleep in the morning because of the heat, the surrounding noise and the sun. It was hard for me to commute at night so I usually had to leave the house earlier and forced to hang around in random places that are still open since I do not want to go to the office too early to avoid being asked to do work even if it's not yet my shift. It's gonna be even difficult with this job as it is not as easy like my previous job and being stressed at work won't help me accomplish my job. I have been sleeping late for a couple of months now but I don't think that can make me want to work at night for a long time. 

There are also some big events happening in September so I hope that if I do get this job, I can still attend to them or better yet, have a starting date beyond September.

I'm still glad I got in my part-time work but I haven't started working on it yet. I still need to fix some issues with my bank account.