On my phones: Folie a Deux

I finally have a copy of Fall Out Boy's latest album! I'm so happy! Thanks for the gift, Ate Lea!

There are thirteen new F.O.B. songs on this album, five bonus tracks, and a downloadable bonus song with the use of the CD online. It also comes with a poster and a pin. Sweetness. Too bad it didn't have a lyrics sheet.

Unfortunately, I'm having problems getting the bonus song online so I haven't got the chance to listen to it yet. But it's not a problem at all considering the other eighteen tracks on the album. I've only played through the album three times and I still haven't familiarized myself to all of the songs and so far, these are the ones that I like:

Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes
I Don't Care [We already heard this one]
America's Suitehearts
Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet
The (Shipped) Gold Standard
What A Catch, Donnie [My favorite song on this album. Check my previous post]
20 Dollar Nose Bleed [Also my favorite]

It's pure F.O.B. goodness. However, I loved more songs on their previous album [Infinity on High] and I like that one over this. If you like their music and still haven't got any of their albums, I suggest that you buy Infinity on High first, but Folie a Deux doesn't disappoint. Happy Holidays!

Edit: I'll add "Tiffany Blews" as one of my favorites.

The song for Fall Out Boy fans: What A Catch, Donnie

It may not look like it but I'm a big fan of Fall Out Boy. Their new album, titled "Folie A Deux," was just released last December 16. I still can't find a copy here in the Philippines so I listened to their new songs online. I ended up finding this.



It's one of their slower songs like "I'm like a Lawyer With the Way I'm Always Trying To Get You Off," and I instantly liked it. Then towards the end of the song, surprise, surprise! I heard this: "Where is your boy tonight I hope he is a gentleman." Wow. It turns out that they included lines from their previous singles into the song. Each were sung by different guest artist. Here they are:

3:00 Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet* Elvis Costello
3:45 Grand Theft Autumn Gabe Saporta
3:52 Sugar, We're Going Down Travis McCoy
4:00 Dance, Dance Brendon Urie
4:07 This Ain't A Scene, It's an Arms Race Doug Neuman
4:14 Thnks Fr Th Mmrs Alex Deleon
4:21 Growing Up William Beckett

*Their second single from the same album.

I know. They're all short. But they all make the already beautiful song a whole lot better. One more reason for me to love Fall Out Boy.

The term ends

I guess this is the end for my MANCOMM reports. [Haha! Kala mo naman napakarami nun. Ü] I'm kinda satisfied on how this blog turned out so I won't end it here. I still have a few stuff inside my head to blog about, but I don't think that I can blog very often from now on. We'll see. Depende na lang kung ganahan ako talaga. Besides, I don't have much to blog about. My social life is not as broad and exciting as most bloggers out here. But I guess that's what makes this one different.

To Ms. Aileen Apolo, I'm really happy to be part of your first class ever and I really appreciate that you forced us to do blogs. I know I'm a newbie and giving positive feedback is a big thing coming from what I've heard to be one of the best known bloggers in the Philippines. I hope you continue teaching as I try to continue blogging. [Okaayyy... Masyadong sipsip ang dating so I'll stop here. Ü]

Thanks for the 2.5

MANACOM Report 4: Doublemint mints

I'm sure that you've seen this by now. Wrigley's Doublemint, one of the best known chewing gum in the Philippines, is now selling mints. Yep. Sugarfree mints in fact. But why though? Chewing gums are proven to be very beneficial. It controls craving, releaves stress, improves oral health, and makes you stay focused. I doubt that mints can do better. Maybe a lot of people just like mints. I do.

But why release it in the Philippines? It cost a whopping 79.50 pesos on the supermarket, and as much as 85 freaking pesos on other stores. People can buy doublemint gums anytime anywhere for a peso each.

Maybe it's a sort of social responsibility thing of Wrigley's. People just doesn't want to throw their trash properly [despite the reminders on every single wrigley gum wrapper]. Gum wrappers are everywhere and chewed gums under everything. There are no wrappers to throw when you have a recyclable container. Recyclable how? I can't think of anything to place it with and we ended up having six of them lying around my sister's bookshelves.

Yep. Six. We just like the stuff. Three Eclipse mints and two Extra mints from our trip to Hong Kong and Macau, and the Doublemint mints that I just bought recently. What's the difference between the three? Extra is very, very, very strong. Akala ko habambuhay ako maglalaway sa sobrang anghang. Between Eclipse and Doublemint, not a thing. They're the same mints, same flavors [Peppermint and Winterfrost. Who comes up with a flavor named winterfrost?! HELLO?!] in different containers.

What else can I say? The chewing gum is the more practical choice, but like I said, we just like the mints. I have always preferred chewing Orbit gum (another one of Wrigley's) over other gums, candies, and stuff. Maybe I'll just try the winterfrost flavor of doublemint before switching back. As much as I love the mints, they're just too much pricey for me.

Mas beneficial, mas mura, at mas matagal maubos ang chewing gum.
Mas masarap nga lang yung mints. Hay buhay.

MANACOM Report 3, Pugad Dencio's

Here's another post regarding my "thoughts and discoveries about communication strategies being used by practitioners," which is the point of making this blog in the first place.

This time, it's about the communication strategy made by Dencio's. If you haven't noticed yet, [Yeah, I know, It's been going on for quite a while] they are being endorsed by Pugad Baboy's creator, Pol Medina Jr., and my favorite band, Sugarfree. They even made a song called "Pugad" and its brilliant music video featuring the some of the Pugad Baboy residents. They have a bonus disc for this that comes with the "Sugarfree LIVE!" album. For me, it can't get any better than that.

I haven't got the chance to actually eat at Dencio's since the endorsing began, but I did saw the changes that they made to the place. From the outside, you can already see the windows covered with pictures of the band with the Pugad Baboy characters eating. That's all there is [from what I've seen] and they're everywhere. My friend, Maruel, mentioned that even their menus have the same thing. [Visit his blog!]

I wonder how much they spent on this project. Convincing both PMJr and the Sugarfree to endorse them looks expensive, with the music video and all, the billboards, their website, other promotional stuff, and the changes that they've done on all their branches in the country. I think that it will be worth it. A lot of people are fans of their endorsers and I may be one of the biggest fans of both of them. Next time I'll be celebrating something, it will definitely be at Dencio's.

On my phones: Sugarfree LIVE!

Ok.Obviously, I'll ask you guys to buy it, or at least listen to it. I bet you've heard at least one of Sugarfree's great singles. Well, here's one of their hits, with a twist:

Edit: imeem's history now so the clip's gone. It's basically violins playing "King and Queen of Hearts" then the band strikes up their single, "Prom." Got the connection?

While you're listening, you can read on...

Sugarfree is my favorite OPM band right now. It's my favorite band ever next to the Eraserheads and Parokya ni Edgar. We've been playing their latest cd in the car for a while now and I just had a MANCOMM idea. I'll talk about it later on my next post, right now, here's a flashback:

I remember my sister telling me about it and got excited when she bought it the day after. We played it as soon as we got to the car. It's like having my eyes closed while listening to it, although I was quite wide awake since I was the one driving. Next thing I knew, my left feet was stomping with the beat, so did my hands in the steering wheel and my head was just moving with them. It's a perfect combination of modern and classical music. It's like a marriage made in heaven.

I salute Ebe, Jal, Kaka, the Manila Symphony Orchestra, and everyone involved for a job well done.

If you like what you're hearing, you'll love the whole album, complete with 18 of their best songs. Some of my favorites are: Prom, Sablay, Telepono, Kung Ayaw Mo Na, Huling Gabi, and Burnout. But I think the best ones of all are "Kailan ka ba?" and the one that answers it, "Ikaw pala" from the album "Tala-arawan." If you haven't heard of them yet, it's because they haven't been released as singles yet. I kind of hope that they won't be so that I won't hear everybody singing two of my favorite songs all the time. Nakakasawa naman din yun no? Hehe...

Basta. Go buy the Sugarfree LIVE! album. You won't regret it. There's also a bonus disc. I'll talk about it later.

MANACOM Report 2, Palistuhan

Now it's time to post some "thoughts and discoveries about communication strategies being used by practitioners."

It's been going on for a while but since it's still happening, I might as well post it.

Nescafe, I think, made a very great way to promote its product and make their audience enjoy it. I'm talking about the new Nescafe Iced Coffee. I heard on the radio that contestants can actually rap agianst each other, answering each rap until they blank out, just like what they did in the TV ad. And boy what a great commercial it is.

Pairing up master rapper Francis Magalona with funny man Ramon Bautista is I think, very brilliant. As in genious! It made my stomach hurt laughing. If you've watched only the 30 second commercial, you may not be getting what I'm saying. Watch the whole thing right here [under "About the Product"]

You should also try the palistuhan game. It has hard, simple, and even stupid questions whose answers would make you go: "Why didn't I think of that?" It's a very good way to waste time while surfing the net. You'll enjoy the questions, you'll find yourself moving with the beat, you can find out your rapper name [I turned out to be "Kid Nasty Jab"], and you won't even notice that you can win a prize doing it.

Of course, it's all for promoting and selling the product. For 10 pesos, it's actually very small [Just look at my hand on the picture], but I think it's fair for an iced coffee and it definitely won't stop me for buying them again. The guys at nescafe really did a great job promoting it. They are just brilliant. Otherwise, I wont be blogging about it. Hehe...

I'm on my way completing my second set of 100 questions on the palistuhan quiz. You guys should try it. Click the link above. So ano? Listo ka ba?

Edit: R.I.P. Francis Magalona. Saludo ako sa'yo at sa mga pinoy na kagaya mo.

Striding and digesting

Hi! Since I have 2 and a half more hours until my next class and my friends haven't arrived at school yet, I think I'll update my blog.

So. Yesterday night, my sister got home from her 4 day vacation at Macau and Hong Kong. [Hi Ate Lea!] My mom and little brother, Chris, were supposed to pick her up at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport but we went to SM Clark first. While my mother went shopping and my brother was beating his high score [again] at time crisis 4 , I spent my 200 pesos food tripping while walking around the mall.

I bought a new flavored Plato Wraps [Grilled Cheese and Garlic], a brownie fudge Ice Monster [most of the flavors were out of stock] , and fried noodles from Oi!, while walking around the mall for about three times. We then had dinner at Shakey's. Chris and I devoured the mojos and fried chicken while mom enjoyed her spaghetti. We then ordered 2 more thin crust pizzas for take out and walked around the mall until our legs hurt.

We went to the hypermarket where I saw some Nescafe iced coffee that gave me an MANCOMM idea for my next post. Hehe...

After that, we went to the airport, met with my sister [whose ears are apparently still popping], and drove all the way home and got there at around 1130pm. She brought me home a Macau shirt and 20 patacas, Macau's currency. Collecting foreign currencies is one of my small hobbies. [Haha! Masaya na ko dun!] And that's what happened yesterday. Hehe...

[Still trying to find out kung pwede mag-emoticons dito] Ü

MANACOM Report 1, Orgcom

Dont mind the title, I just like to call them "reports."

So, since this blog is one required for us in school, we were told that it has to contain our "thoughts and discoveries about communication strategies being used by practitioners." As of now, I really can't think of any.

Luckily, we were told that we "might want to share [our] thoughts about why orgcomm practitioners are important in organizations." Haha... it's one of the questions frequently asked to us every term.

Well, organizational practitioners are people who are trained to deal with communications, internally or externally, in an organization. We are trained on different communication theories, methods, and skills for different situations that could arise in an organization. Public relations and organizational change and development are only examples that could give you an idea of what an organizational communication practioner does, and what it is all about.

Of course, other people might think that anybody can do that. I agree. Anyone who knows how to deal with people can do it. That is exactly what we are trained for. We are brought up to specialize in this field, with courses heavily focused on communication and organizational theories and research, and this can assure you that we know what we are doing. Communication is very important in an organization, and if it fails, so does the organization. That's why we are important. Besides, additional courses on photography, video production, graphic design, and other communication tehnologies can never hurt. Right?

The blog is on!

Hellooooooooo world!

Welcome to my blog. I would like to congratulate you for being the one of the first people reading this. Hi Ms. Apolo! [wala bang emoticons dito?]

Haha...

So, anyway, about me: I'm Michael Buen Abueva, a 20 year old, organizational communication student at the De La Salle University, and the only reason I am making this blog is because everyone in our class is required to make one. Hehe.

This is actually my second blog. The first one is also a requirement for my philosophy class 2 years ago. I didn't like how it turned out so I deleted it after the term. Hay nako... I'm obviously not one of those people who enjoy blogging but I'm keeping my fingers crossed so that this blog could survive well after the term. Haha.

I'm not expeting anyone to read this aside from my prof, my classmates, my family, and my friends. [I'll ask you guys later this week kung bumisita kayo at malalaman ko kung hindi. Hehe]

Forgive me if my first post is lame. Like I said, I'm not the blogger type. So join me and let's see if this blog can actually survive. This is Micky, Michael, and Buen's blog. This blog begins and ends with me.