Thoughts of an old fogey... Cheering edition!

After six long years, I was able to watch the the High School Cheering Competition in San Beda again. I have always been a big fan of cheerdancing. Back when I was in high school, the competition was always one of the highlights of the year. It was always fun anticipating the big day, practicing the batch cheers, watching the amazing cheerdancers doing their stuff. The rivalries between batches were pretty fun too!

Watching this year's competition was fun but disappointing. The freshmen, sophomore and junior teams were average. The seniors were pretty good although not as good as I thought they were gonna be (some said that their routine was better last year). The cheerdancers themselves were pretty great, I don't think the dancers from my batch could have competed with these groups. What I didn't like were the routines themselves. I had my expectations raised since I was expecting UAAP-caliber routines so I guess it's my fault, they are still in high school after all. I also didn't like the entrances and exits of the cheerdancers... I guess I wanted something a bit more organic.

I also didn't like the music used. There were so many cuts from song to song but apparently, that is the in thing with cheering these days. I'm such an old fogey, I'm used to long stretches of songs being played and danced to hahaha!! I watched the video of our batch's cheering competition afterwards, it was weird that we used half a Ricky Martin song when this year you can barely get ten seconds of a song hahaha.

I did not like the cheerdancers' outfits at all. The freshmen's outfits had nothing special going, the sophies' were pretty fugly (the black stripe on the sides made them look wide!), the juniors' kinda looked like costumes for gymnastics, and the seniors' outfits looked like chocnut wrappers as one friend of mine accurately observed. Hahaha!

It was pretty obvious that the senior were going to win but they were not very ecstatic leading to the announcement of the awards. There was some snafu with the announcement of winners, whoich kinda explains their lack of enthusiasm. And maybe it's also because their win is already expected that's why they were not that noisy. But then again, previous batches were always so happy and noisy even if their win was a sure thing. Weird, weird, weird...

But I guess the main reason why I was disappointed with the competition this year was because I am not a student anymore. I'm not part of the mass of students sitting in the bleachers cheering their respective batches. There's a big difference between being a casual observer/visitor and actually being part of the different batches and having a part in the competition. I missed participating in shouting the cheers and I really missed having batch spirit. Sigh... Ugh, I really am an old fogey...

Thoughts of an Old Fogey

Dang... I haven't blogged in such a long time. I miss it but at the same time, I always have no idea what to write.

The past week was a good one. I was on leave the entire week and I got to do the things I wanted to do and also to rest my mind and body. I went to the dentist, watched the Golden Globes telecast, visited DLSU, endless videoke singing, watched the Cheering Compeition, gone on various gimiks and most importantly SLEEP, SLEEP, SLEEP!!!

The Golden Globes was not that good this year. Sure, some of my favorites won (Congrats to Jennifer Hudson, America Ferrera and the Ugly Betty cast!) but the telecast itself was not that fun. The speeches weren't that great (Helen Mirren disappointed me but Meryl Streep was a blast once again). And there were these annoying interviews conducted by some Entertainment Tonight reporters. Bleeh!

Videoke was fun. Two hours in one day with Mikki, another two hours in a day with Mikki and Aena... I thought I was gonna run out of songs to sing but surprisingly, I was always able to find new tunes. Never got hoarse while singing, which is a first for me. I must be getting pretty good at this. Now if only I can carry a tune...

Going back to DLSU was a blast. I was going round and round the campus, looking at some of the familiar and unfamiliar sights. SJ Walk now has a proper roof, Aristo still has the delicious and cheap mojos, there are new P.E. uniforms, the museum at the Yuchengco building was pretty cool, and there's a new building in front of the Gym. But I did not enter that new building (I think it was named after Bro. Andrew), I was too shy! Only freshmen use that building and it's kinda hard to blend in with the younglings ahahaha... Biggest disappointment of my visit: no more Kaibigan! I wanted to eat some of their famous sisig but it's gone... Or maybe I just can't find them anymore. Baaahhh!

All the rest afforded by my leave apparently had a good effect on me. Some of my officemates said I looked relax, even a bit younger looking. Ahahaha! That's pretty cool... But I am tired at work today, very sleepy... I was tossing and turning in bed all night last night so I need to catch some serious zzz's tonight.