First term is over. It was hell, but I passed all my subjects thanks to the compassion of some professors. I'm hopefully ready for International Law this coming Wednesday. Sakoda-sensei left us (nooooo!!!) so we're going to have a new JAPALA professor. The real thesis starts this term too (and we don't have a mentor yet!), I have to raise some money for our activities as part of the externals team.

Term break has been okay. I've been catching up on some things, and hopefully I'll be able to do everything I need to do.

RAVE

I was able to watch the last scheduled show of Cinderella in CCP with my brother thanks to a lot of luck. I've always been a fan of musicals even though I haven't had much opportunity to watch them (this is only my second, not counting the musicals turned into movies; Annie was first, and that was back in 1998). It was everything I expected and more. It was witty, engaging, everyone was so talented and much more... it was everything I've always looked for in a production. Everyone and everything was awesome. Like wow. I couldn't even describe it~~~ it left me feeling so happy~

RANT

I've never been a fan of Gossip Girl, and it never caught my fancy until a blockmate of mine called my attention when she gave out a link during an online conference and was mocking it because this show entitled "Lipgloss" was supposedly a ripoff of GG. Out of curiosity, I checked it. My first reaction: WTF. That is NOT how high school in the Philippines works. Backstabbing, "pasahan ng boyfriend" , people trying to fit in - and failing - sure, all of those things happen. But how those things were portrayed is just tasteless in my opinion.

Some parts seem too unrealistic for a Philippine setting, the directing sucks, lighting sucks half the time. I'm sorry if some people here are acquaintances/friends/BFFs with the people involved in the show, but they might have made a mistake in taking on this project. I watched episode 2 on YouTube and episode 3 on TV5. I am never watching that series ever again unless it's for the lulz.

To be fair, I did watch the first two episodes of Gossip Girl. I was rolling my eyes at a lot of moments too (mainly the ones with Blair and/or Chuck in it), but somehow, I did buy the story because that's really how the elite (or feeling elite) act in the USA, albeit exaggerated half the time. I'm on my 5th episode, and I might finish the entire first season if I have the time.

In a nutshell: Gossip Girl is exaggerated. Lipgloss is unrealistic and a ripoff (I can name about a dozen too-similar similarities). See the difference?

(For the curious, episodes 2 and 3 are up on YouTube. Episode 3 is better, from what I've seen.)