When Pope Benedict went to Germany last week, he didn't realized that he would be the center of unpopular attention...

His claim that the 14th century Byzantine Emperor, Muhammad brought “things only evil and inhuman such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached”.

He later apologised over his words and said that "These words were a quotation from a medieval text which do not express my personal thought."...

Some muslim leaders forgave the Pope, but majority were still in awe over to what the leader of the Christian World had mentioned.



MY VIEWPOINT:

For me, leaders of any kind or celebrities I might add, should always be on guard to whatever they would be saying...because one way or another it is being recorded... and it would be criticised, discussed and be debated about.

Even if Pope Benedict had apologised for whatever he had mentioned, it will forever be remembered by the people, whether you are a catholic, a muslim or a jew.

As a leader of the Christian World, a Holy Man, he should never quote anyone to an extent that might in some ways be directed to different religions other than the Roman Catholics, he made other people think that we Catholics are people who judge members of other religion...which is definitely not the case.

I have friends that are Muslims, and they are fun, loving, compassionate people... and hurts me to see that they have already become a victim of other people's misjudgement... they are not a threat to the society. Those people who believe that they are should be ashamed of themselves.

It sad to think that Pope Benedict has not yet lived up to the expectations of the Roman Catholic Community, its hard to compare him to the late Pope John Paul II, but as Christians, he will be given a chance to prove that he can lead the people to the righteous way, the Christian way of living.

Members of the Catholic community were saddened by what the Pope had said, because Pope John Paul II had spent over 25 years building bridges with the Muslim community, lobbying for a cause that what we know about is Islam and our negative beliefs are false and that they are indeed a peace loving community.

And inspite with all the terrors, chaos and negative publicity they are getting, I believe with what the former Pope had said...

(Photos: Property of The SUN Newspaper, UK)

My youngest sister and I has an age difference of 8 years... I was a spoiled brat growing up (well, that's what Kathy used to say) up until I was 5 years old when I started to be more of a loner...

When April was born everyone was excited to have a baby in the family, but that was also the time when my mum got into a depression (which I believe is very normal upon giving birth) and she had a rough time with her eldest brother whom she had so many misunderstanding... I love my mother to bits, but she is like me...proud and stubborn.

Anyway, Kathy and I took turns in helping to take care of April. Mum is always busy and would often just leave the taking care business with our Yaya Wilma (who has been with the family since I was 3, she is literally the reason why I am fat now coz she cooks like an angel and serve food like theres no tomorrow)... :P Sadly though, she left when I turned 14 and never returned. She got sick with a kidney infection and asked us if she can go back home to her two sons, although it was sad that shes leaving and at the same time she's sick, we really wont be able to check on her progress. But we had to let her go, it was her decision and we cannot force her to
stay.

April grew up to be an exact combination of Abbie (eldest), Kathy (middle) and me... she got her ways with the boys from Abbie, the alluring features and fashion flair from Kathy, and sadly, the only thing I can contribute is her artistic talent... hehehehe... she can draw and appreciate art like I do...but she's more into traditional art...

When April was 8, she said she wanted to be a dancer... so my mum enrolled her to all sorts of schools...then 2 years later, she got bored with dancing, she said she wanted to act...so she enrolled at Trumpets....she got bored with it as well, so she said she wanted to join the TGI Friday's Summer Camp where you would be assisting on serving the food and stuff...for 2 summers thats what she did...grew tired of it as well... then she said she wanted to go back to dancing... so she went back to it...and her hard work was paid off when her HS (CSA) awarded her as Drama Club's Artist of the Year for her versatility with acting, dancing and singing...

She's on her 2nd year in college, and is already distinguished by the College as one of the most promising future architects. She got off from a 4 year relationship with her on/off boyfriend (which I still think is a jackass, never really liked him...) and inspite of her current state of lovelife, she never let it affect her...which I think is a strong trait of being part of the Benson clan... if theres one thing I can say about the women from our family, is that they are survivors...

Anyway... on March 2007 she will turn 18... me together with my friends are planning to throw a party in honour for her introduction to the society as a young lady... :P hehehe... It's a top secret, I might fly back home then coz I am due to leave January ...coz April will definitely kick our ass if we wont be here in time for her big 18... actually Kathy offered her to fly in and visit her and go someplace exotic but she didn't want to travel. She is dead set in celebrating her 18 with a bang, with her friends and family and loads of ex-boyfriend under her belt.

Although I did promise her that her escort will be Polo Ravales...(So Paul, in case you got lost in the worldwideweb and saw my blog...pare ko... I will owe you a buffet in a restaurant of your choice:P ) hehehe...

She actually wanted Mark Nelson, but I always get too shy to ask him something so weird when he doesn't even know me...whenever I see him in the gym...hehehehe...so I told her oks na si Polo, he's an old friend...i'm sure he's gonna say yes, coz I was patient enough to tutor him in Highschool :D or else I can always scare him with "I know what you did last summer" hehehehe....just kidding... :P (For the record: di ko po alam ang ginawa nya last summer :D)

Anyway, what I am planning for the big 18 is a BIG BIG SECRET.... no one in my family knows anything about it... so ANNA, BEA, LILY, TOBY and ZARA...if you guys spill the beans...forget me not na ang emote natin... hehehehe :D

Since I have been introduced to indie music by merely watching Dawson's Creek and The OC... I'm never without them...

I always listen to them whenever I go...hitting the gym for my cardio, walking our dog around the block, walking my nieces JC and Maxene around the block too, in the car, in the bus, in the shuttle service I always took in the morning going to work...

In short, I am no longer into hiphop/R&B songs like I used to be in highschool... The indie music is slightly quieter than rock, and the lyrics are plain and more of like the kinds that leads to a romantic scenario.

Of course, Youth Group is one of those Indie rock groups, but their not the only ones I listen to...

In my iPod you would hear songs from Matt Pond PA, Tunng, Someone still loves you Boris Yeltsin, Brendan Benson, Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos, Jeff Buckley, Death Cab for Cutie, Ferraby Lionheart, Bjork, J. Tillman, The Album Leaf, The Awry, The Acorn, Bridges and Powerlines, Richard Edwards and another favorite...Imogen Heap.

This blog is actually for Cherry...because I don't get to read anything new from her... hehehehehe... and she said once she wanted to explore her musical knowledge...

For a sample of my favorite indie sounds...

Finley Quaye and William Orbit "DICE"


Imogen Heap "Hide and Seek"


Matt Pond PA "Champagne Supernova"


Rooney "I'm Shakin"


Death Cab for Cutie "Soul Meets Body"


and lastly...one of my ultimate favorite... I just can't live without it...

Someone Still Loves you Boris Yeltsin "Oregon Girl"


(all mp3's are taken from the exclusive RADIO:BLOG... If you want to have an mp3 version of the songs...let me know by leaving your email here... :P)

Youth Group is classified as one of Australia's best kept underground secrets...
(according to their website)

I first heard them in of course, in my guilty pleasure THE OC... when Marissa and Ryan listening to the radio and waited for a nice song they can call their own... and there it was popping on the speakers of Ryan's boombox "Forever Young", I believe this is an 80's song by Alphaville (as mentioned by bloggermate WATSON)

The moment I heard it, I fell in love with the band. I went to check them out in Tower Records in ATC, but they don't have any copy, except from the OC Mix Soundtrack. Bummer...

When I searched the web, and downloaded songs from the iTunes Music Store, I was able to get a good amount of songs from their 3 albums... Skeleton Jar, Forever Young and Casino Twilight Dogs.

One thing that catches my attention with the band...is that they have a wonderful artwork for their album cover....

Coz as an artist and a person who appreciate music, one of the reasons why I buy an album from any band apart from their music...is if they have a good album cover. Before I used to buy Lemonheads, Counting Crows and even AC/DC because of their album cover.

Anyways, Youth Group have already released about 12 albums since 1998. Hopefully, the next time I visit Tower Records or Music One they would already have their album.

Me, I was in a car en route going home from visiting my friend Doryn in their home in QC... I was listening in my discman, singing songs from the band Hootie and Blowfish, I remember it so vividly coz I was singing like hell, when my cousin said "Shut up Apple, Twin Towers just got bombed!!!"

And I got dumbfounded!

Then both my cousin and I thought that we have a 2nd cousin there (my dad and his mom are cousins) and he works for JP Morgan Chase in the Tower 2. Well, we've only met him once and I vaguely talked to him... but still... he is our relative. And especially if you have become a victim of an unending battle between terrorist and the US Government.

We went straight to my grandma's house and told her about the sad news with her grandson, she said she already knew because the moment she heard it on CNN, she called her niece Fiona.

When we spoke to Aunt Fiona and gave her our deepest condolences, she told us how life can quickly end... she told us that she was just reminding her son Josh not to forget to greet his younger sister Emily happy graduation day and bring cake for their weekend celebration. And his usual answer would be "Yes Mama, see you then!"... and the next thing she knew, a plane crashes in one of the towers... another plane crashes in the office of PENTAGON, while 2 more planes crashes in 2 different locations.

While I was watching tv in my grandma's house, I watched intently while Bin Laden strike terror to the US. And waited patiently as Bush says something that actually has value to those people who had just lost their love one.

The only thing I heard from him, are CRAP!!! He said AMERICA will FIGHT BACK, AMERICA will not bow down to TERRORIST, and AMERICA is condemning BIN LADEN!

But America does not want to fight back, sure some war hungry citizens would want to enforce terror to those who threatened their country. Because they feel, America is not a country of cowards. But not going to war and seeking peace is not a crime either... I still feel that less problems would be faced today if America did not enter war against some countries in the Middle East...especially in Iraq.

Like what Bin Laden mentioned during his interview to one muslim reporter that works for CNN, "The difference with us and America is that Americans love life. They extremely scared of dying."

Bin Laden only eyes America as its number one enemy, they are not out there killing everyone, but since most of the countries are associated with the US one way or another... they eventually strike terror there too.

When will this war ever end, I don't know... but somehow I hope it will end soon, because too many innocent people had died and too many people had sacrificed their life for a cause they cannot understand.

For those who haven't seen the movie, do watch it...especially if youre a Meryl Streep fan and die hard fashionista or simply a fashion wannabe or if you feel that your boss is actually the devil personified...

I am a Meryl Streep fan, eversince I first saw her in the 1995 film Bridges on Madison County opposite Clint Eastwood and I adored her even more after I watched Marvin's Room released 1996, whom she shared the big screen with Leonardo di Caprio.

When I saw in the magazine that the book by L. Weisberger "Devil Wears Prada" will be adopted into a motion picture, I became excited.

There has been loads of film based on novels, but the one's I love the most apart from the given (eg...lord of the rings and Harry Potter)... I absolutely adored, A walk to remember and The Notebook both by Nicholas Sparks, In her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner, Bee Season by Mary Goldberg and now...The Devil Wears Prada

I am not a fan of Anne Hathway, I think the character of Andy can be portrayed better by other hollywood artists...sure, we all know how dorky Anne can be if she's not wearing designer clothes...we all saw that in Princess Diaries films. For me, I think I would love to see Maggie Gyllenhaal, or any other Hollywood actress who is not exactly a size 0 but willing to slim a bit for a movie role...(eg...BRIDGET JONES??? anyone??? :P)

For someone like me who loved the book, if not for the fabulous characters of Meryl, Stanly Tucci (Nigel) and Emily Blunt (as Emily)...I wouldn't have seriously enjoyed watching the movie. A lot of plots were taken out of the book, which I believe is essential to the entire story... Lily would have given a much bigger movie time and consideration, cos she was the pivoting point as to why Andrea really came back from Paris.

Ms. Weisberger insisted that Miranda Priestly is not, I repeat is not ANNA WINTOUR... the celebrated Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Magazine. I mean, I don't know how she is as a boss coz I've never met her... but I'd like to believe that somehow, Ms. Weisberger have indeed took some character evaluation with Ms. Wintour...I mean, hello!!! Anna Wintour is Anna Wintour...no one else can come close to it...it's like what Nigel said about Miranda...

"Miranda's opinion is everything"

I took fashion advertising as one of my electives in college, and which eventually led to my decision of taking Fashion Design as my thesis.

Well, I have always been interested in fashion, but I am not that fashionable. Learning fashion is HARD WORK no joke about that, and you need to want it badly like everthing else you feel is important in your life...because the world of fashion changes every second and if you're too damn lazy to catch up...you can never will.

There's nothing wrong with being a fashionista...my bestfriend is one...and in her college application essay for Yale and Berkley she wrote that Tom Ford save her soul... imagine how it looked from the angle of application reviewers when they saw that... hehehe...but I read it, and her application essay is very spontaneous.

Anyways.... all in all... I'd still go for the book...

I'd give the movie 3.5 stars out of 5 :)

I have never thought of myself as an ethical person, but I assumed that since that I try to see the good in everyone... I can safely say that my ethics are intact.

But for the past months, I have been in agony over where my ethics lie.

Should I tell this person that I know about the secrets she's been trying to hide from me? that I am fully aware that the reasons why she is nice because she simply had to, and probably because she is the type of people who simply cannot resist the temptation of being able to be the source of a hot gossip...

Is it really that cool to gossip about other people? I mean, yes, it can be... but only sporadically... It can be tiring. (hehehe)...talking often now is really tiring and can drain your energy... (hehehe)...

I never gossiped about people whom considers me as a friend... what happened between me and Doryn was an entirely different notions that both of us eventually became unprepared to what was already happening within our friendship. I cried when it ended, but both of us needed to move on and heal our pain away from each other.

I have remained quiet and calm about certain situations that is currently happening in my life, during my last talk with Anna before she left, she advised me that to continue being quiet... coz no good will come out over a heated argument... but if its too much, don't just sit in a gutter and do nothing...

But for me, creating a situation that needed confrontation is burning the bridge already... After what may happen, even if that person and I finally placed everything on the table, I would still walk away and just think of you as someone I used to know... I have a long patience line, I try as much as to avoid being angry.

Anna and Bea said I'm very stupid, because of what I do. I don't say anything, I don't fight back... I just simply smile at them and I'll just say that "I'd rather not have another heart attack!"... and they all agreed..."Oo nga...wag na!"

But since I still believe that my ethics are still intact
Yes... to everything...

I am and without a doubt will always be an asshole...a bitch and a weirdo...combine the 3 and it's a natural disaster.

I know who I am, what I am capable of doing and I am not doing anything wrong to you, I don't criticize you whenever you write a wrong spelling of a word from the English language because everyone makes mistakes, I don't judge you even when you say that you never going to have sex until you are married...and I believe you because that's your choice and your belief. Coz my mother would always tell me that "Never stray away from your beliefs, because thats who you are"...I know that there are things in my life I am never going to be proud of, but those are the things that shaped me. You tell me often that you never judge people, because it's wrong... it is wrong, and yet you do it.

Shame on you, because you tell yourself that you are a good example, that you live by the rules... shame on you because people still think that you are. And most of all, shame on me...because I considered you as my friend... treated you with respect and honestly felt your pain when you were in pain, comforted you when you feel that your world will be torn into pieces and I laugh with you when ever you feel being happy.

On the questions of my ethical dilemma, I guess I am just sad...because I am genuinely true of being your friend.

And this is what you make out of our friendship.

This my friend, is how I burn bridges. After this blog, I shall no longer find the need to see you nor talk to you...having you in my life was a blast, it was fun while it lasted... Like what Britanny Murphy said to her friend Barb in the movie "The Little Black Book"...

" I should tear your eyes out right now. But how will you ever be able to look at yourself in the morning? "

He is Brendan Benson, one of the many aspiring indie rock British artists...he is under the record label of Virgin (Sir Richard Branson's fashionably cool record label), but now he is with a new band...I don't know who...

My other distant cousin Henry (Robert's brother) looks slightly like him but with cleaner look...hehehehe...neat and tidy...clean shaven face...thats Henry... Brendan, looks like...well a rock musician.

I've listened to his most notable song "Alternative to love"...and downloaded it from the iTunes Music store and cost me 99cents...hehehehehe.... its good music and he was even featured in the hit US teen drama series "The OC" with his other song, "What am I looking for"...

So far, with all the songs and the 99cents I have paid to download, I am liking his music more and more...stylish, lyrics are plain romantic like how Chris Martin of Coldplay would do his music masterpiece. Simple, straight and lovely.

I've never met him, and even if we share the same last name... but for what is worth, he is one of the reason why Im turning to indie music now... :P

Rock on!

Our family of Benson apart from my ancestors being born in Spain, France and across Europe and my great-grandfather eventually settled in the Philippines in Vigan...to be exact...

My cousin Roland, did a historical research about our family and he found alot of distant cousins that are almost of the same age with him and a few with my age...

(A weird thing with the generation gap... :P)

Last year, he was one of the guest family member of the annual Benson clan reunion that happened in Copenhagen Denmark... (which the current matriach from the European part is living)and also the host for the event.

There he met distant cousins whose a musician, photographer and alot of political activist... I mean, thats cool coz considering most of my cousins here are activist as well...

It's nice that my cousin was able to meet and greet people who share the same surname like us...

I hope when I go to the UK next year, I'd be able to meet them too... I love meeting new people, more so, if we share the same name...hehehehe :P

I will write a cherrish blog type of medical treatements...

I have been on a terrible headache recently due to my colds... and it became worse yesterday when I woke up with a swollen eyes...Panic mode for me, so I called in my friend Bea and asked her to drive to the hospital for a quick check up. Apparently, my regular doctor isn't there yet, so I was transfered to another doctor... He was quite shocked to see my eyes...but none the less it was going to be a painful visit.

The new doctor said that almost half of my face is full of "sipon" hehehehe...and thats a major reason as to why I would always have headaches, my cough doesnt change at all even with all the medicines... although I also am anemic, insomiac and among other things... its a long list...rather not divulge on it.

Anyway, my head hurts like hell today, but need to work coz my HRH sisterhood texted me yesterday about a certain school thingy... hehehehehehe...

Life's dull for me this days, Anna went back to her other life in the US... and soon migrating back to Switzerland... and Bea will be back in her US Peace Corp duties and Lily heading back to Cebu... shacks...I hate it.... I hate the colds, I hate the colds, I hate the colds.... and I hate having all my friends living in different places...