A Non-Fairytale

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a prince. This prince wasn't classically handsome, or dashing, like princes in other fairytales. (This is, after all, a non-fairytale, but I'm getting ahead of myself.) Mainly he was funny and witty and had a smile that could light up a room. He had a good heart, and his subjects adored him.

There was a princess traveling through this prince's domain. She was on the run from the clutches of her evil stepmother, who hired some ninjas to find and get rid of her so that she [evil stepmom] could be queen. Now this princess, she was kind of socially inept, as she was practically raised by wolves and had been imprisoned in a cave for the past few years by said evil stepmother. She also had bad hair, zits and the grace of an ostrich, as expected from someone who lived in a cave without proper plumbing and ventilation. (Needless to say, this princess was not self-actualized at all.)

While on a cart filled with vegetables on the way to the capital of the prince's kingdom, she had the misfortune to sit beside a fat, snoring peasant who so obviously had not taken a bath in days. Good thing her other traveling companions were more pleasant, nice-smelling people, so she made fast friends with these two girls (also secretly princesses haunted by the shadows of their pasts, but that's for another story). When they arrived at the town square, it was like they'd known each other for a lifetime. And like all normal females, they cemented the bonds of friendship by primping in front of shop windows and loudly complaining about, among other things, the stinky peasant on the vegetable cart.

It was while primping in front of the bookshop that they noticed a beautiful white coach parked across the street. It turned out to be the prince's coach, unmistakable because of the royal seal, sleek design and the proletariat masses gathered around it having their pictures taken with the horses. At that moment, the prince and his bodyguard came out of the bookstore, and one of the princess' newfound friends instantly recognized the bodyguard. It was her childhood playmate, now a tall, striking lad proficient in kung fu and handling firearms. This friend quickly rushed over to the bodyguard to greet him, while he thought she was going to attack the prince and karate-chopped her to unconsciousness. (He apologized later, though.) The point is, this was the prince and princess' first meeting.

The prince thought nothing of the princess. He didn't know her identity, and even if he did --- so what? It's not like she was pretty. But the princess was infatuated from that first moment that he smiled. The princess, as it happened, had a weakness for men with nice teeth (probably left over from the days of being raised by wolves, all of which had nice, sharp, shiny, white teeth). Of course, the princess knew that this was just something silly, and fully blamed her hormones, expecting the feeling to pass after a day or so.

But it didn't. The princess found a job as a lady's maid in the prince's court, and saw the prince everyday. The more she found out about him, the more she liked him, even with his bizarre antics and weird sense of humor. This prince was fundamentally kind, and extraordinary. Even when she had to go to a far-away land to be with her lady, she never stopped thinking of the prince. Even if all the odds were against her ever being with the prince, no matter how much she swore to stop adoring the prince with every fiber of her being, she always secretly held a twinkle of hope that they would be together someday. (AND she made an embarrassing gesture of affection that basically let the prince and the whole world know what she felt about him, probably unintentionally scaring the prince, or similar.)

So what happened? Well, the princess' stepmother died of a venereal disease (tsk tsk tsk) so the princess became queen of her own realm, a day's journey away from the prince's kingdom. Becoming queen had many benefits, and it moves one up the Jungian tree of self-actualization, as well as allow one to spend time with princes. She and the prince became...somewhat friends, and that's when it hit her: that was it. No matter how much she liked the prince, or strove to be more queenly to suit the prince, they were not going to be a golden royal couple.

But guess what? It was more than OK with the princess. Because she didn't want to be with the prince anymore, after she found out he was gay. (Just kidding.) She liked the prince as a person, respected him, thought he was the extra whipped cream in her frappucino, but it wasn't the all-consuming infatuation it used to be. The prince would always be special, but the princess had wasted enough time pining. (Besides, she had a harem of hot Japanese boys to cater to her every whim, so it really wasn't that bad.)

And they lived happily, not with each other, ever after.

THE END.

Twenteen

20 isn't old

But somehow it feels like the

End of innocence.

Kind of what I was thinking while attending all the company talks held in Engg this past week. I needn't worry about jobs for at least another year, but I couldn't help but be swept away by the Jobfair fever, and not just because of the free food. :P So I'm dealing with this the usual way I deal with everything else: eating making lists.

How to be THE Company This Girl Will Devote Her Productive, Working Adult Years to [v. tentative, off-the-top of her warped head]:

1. Have a name with a nice ring to it. Something easy to pronounce [eg. not ridiculously long], or at least with a catchy acronym. Say, HP. ;)

2. Hold an interesting, thought-provoking company talk. This means no annoying hosts who makes jokes that they and they alone think are funny.

3. ...Although I am willing to overlook these unentertaining individuals if the new recruits who "share their experiences within the company" radiate enthusiasm, passion and happiness with the career path they've made. For me, it's mainly the enthusiasm and feeling that they like, no, LOVE what they do. That I too, in the future, could be that same bright-eyed new recruit, just loving learning about drilling engineering, making music videos, peeling bananas, and all that other fun stuff new recruits do.

4. NOT have a garbage-y past blip on the radar, or an unreadable, endearing frustrating woodland creature constantly flitting about the recruitment booth. Contrary to what a certain person may think, they aren't criteria for wanting to work in a company. Seriously.

5. Not be a hardcore, delta point-computing LL extraction-undertaking [haven't gotten too far in my majors, I know] sort of ChE company. I don't think I can take it, and I just know I'd end up at the best indifferent and at the worst totally unhappy with what I'm doing.

6. Be a company with HEART [obviously not actual beating heart, but more like the Captain Planet power]. An environmental company would be a good option, but a multinational one would be great, too, as long as I get to work where I won't lose my soul, or be just another denizen of the corporate world. I want to do something more than to add to the entropy of the universe and make some riiich company be even richer.

Hmm.

*
It seems fitting to end this post the same way I started it, so...

If I don't see you,

There's karaoke with friends

I'll sing Lady in Red.

Mall of Asia (or not)

Finally made it to the great (literally) Mall of Asia after several months of whining to my family. It wasn't bad. It was just like SM Megamall on steroids, maybe?

I left the mall with:

1. A pair of nice blue flats. Yesss. I would've wanted them in red but due to my freakish, un-feminine, humonguous feet, that was all I could get.

2. Curiosity about the many Koreans buzzing in there. What are they doing here??? All of them studying English? Or maybe it's just cheaper to shop here. I swear, 1 out of 10 people in there was a Korean. [Note: I may be many things, but not racist. Nothing against them, really just wondering why there seems to be so many of them.]

3. Appreciation of the genius that is Henry Sy. He even had Mall of Asia designed in such a way that the fact that it was sinking a little every year [because of it being built on soft, reclaimed land] could be disguised. The roofs, I mean. And there's an SM in every major city in the country, practically! In any other country, a train station (or city hall, church, plaza...)would be considered the center of town, but in the Philippines it's...SM (and other malls).

4. Slight amusement. Or not. There was an alarming number of ugly old American + Filipina (with whole extended family in tow) couples, eating at family restaurants. But then again, there were some non-obese/hideously deformed young Caucasian + Filipina couples as well, so. There might not be a trend after all.

5. Realizations. Everyone in my family is a drama queen. Except for my dad, who is not female so is a drama...duke? We're all whiny, to certain degrees. But we all try. And that's what counts. Effort. :)

And newsflash! Chalk Magazine named John Lloyd Cruz the #2 hottest guy of 2006. :D

Akemashite omedetou!

Happy 2007 to everybody! :)

I read somewhere that believing in the goodness of humankind is the path of least resistance, but I find that hard to accept in these trying times. It's so much easier to be paranoid. Whatever. It IS a wonderful world, you know. :D