Blackbook

This is a very delayed blog entry. The events mentioned here happened in December  17, 2005. Yeah, and if you’re a smart ass, you’d say that they happened December 17-18. Fine!)

1.    Packed my war stuff from 12 midnight until 1:30AM. Yeah, it took that long because I had to pack extra clothes and equipment for 1 paintball game and 1 night game.
2.    Slept for 3 hours.
3.    Woke up, had breakfast, picked up Vistan, and waited for the others.
4.    Waged war in Gotcha Antipolo with SPL War Group until lunch time.
5.    Had lunch in Padi’s Point.
6.    Dropped off some new war friends in Ortigas and Quezon Ave.
7.    Drove back to FARview, took a shower, and was gone 20 minutes later to pick up my sister and my niece in FARview.
8.    Watched and took pictures at my niece’s school presentation.
9.    Bought some doughnuts for the Christmas Party in Greenhills.
10.  Laughed and stuffed myself silly with all the food at the party.
11.  Left the party at 1AM and proceeded to my night wargame where more than 100 other warfreaks have been waging war since 7PM.
12.  Went home at 7AM, cleaned up, and slept at 8AM.

Total Hours Awake: 27
Total Wars Fought:   2

I guess my jogging program proved useful this day. A little background might be helpful. I’ve been wanting to write about it anyway.

The Jog
I’ve been jogging five miles (8 kilometers) every other day for the past few months. I never thought I would actually be able to run that far again since my C.A.T. Officer Training days in high school. There was this month when our officers ran the hell out of us every single day in preparation for the 13 kilometer (we weren’t told how far it would be) run in the last week of our training.

On the day of THE RUN, my fellow trainees were practically dragging me on the last kilometer. I only had 2 hours of sleep! Some of us chose to sleep in school that night since our assembly time was 3AM. Big mistake! It slipped our minds that Pops Fernandez was going to have a concert in the covered courts beside our sleeping area! It was loud! And one of the trainees, Dylan, kept cracking jokes preventing us from getting any sleep long after Pops left!

Anyway, I hated jogging! One of the Honor Guards under me in high school asked, “You don’t like jogging do you? In our one year of training, you only made us jog once–to go to McDonald’s!”

Times have changed though. One of my tried and tested counter-boredom (also works for stress and depression) activities is doing something more boring. Jogging is definitely on the top of the list of boring things a person can do. Running around in circles in the middle of the night without really getting anywhere is a major bore!

The first time I completed 5 miles, I thought it was the end of me. I had told myself that I was going to reach my objective that night or die trying.  So I wasn’t going to stop because of thirst, bruises, or exhaustion. Halfway through, I was tripping and falling on imaginary obstacles on the concrete sidewalk. By the start of fourth mile, my skin dried up—probably a sign of dehydration?  By the last mile, I was seeing bright spots in front of me. I was thinking, “This is it. Those are angels just waiting for me.” But no, it wasn’t my time yet that night. I’ll be knocking on heaven’s door another time. 

I like jogging now. I prefer to jog at night when there’s less pollution and less people. It gets interesting too when I start after 11pm. At exactly 12 midnight, they turn off ALL the lights in the route I follow. From a nice and safe jogging place, the area turns into a spooky place full of weird shadows and eerie sounds. Really inspires me to hasten my pace.

Unfortunately, I had to stop last week. My knees apparently have a 5 mile limit. They start to hurt when I jog. I had to undergo physical therapy last year for my right knee and I had to stop jogging for several months too. So I decided to give myself a break for awhile before I started to jog again.

The break came just in time because I just learned of my schedule for Saturday. It was packed! I used my free time to rest my injured knee and tired muscles. I actually considered not going to the night wargame but I was intrigued to see if I can last fighting two wars with civilian duties in between. I thought what’s the sense of my jogging program if I can’t exploit and abuse its results? So I didn’t turn down anything scheduled for that day.

The Massacre
I play paintball every chance I get. I really like the game. As with any of the war games that I play, I enjoy the opportunity to fight and die many times over. This day,  that was what exactly happened!

The SPL War Group* is a fun-loving and very accommodating group. The first time I played with them at the start of 2005, I only knew one of them. Now I have a whole section in my Yahoo Messenger just for them. I have been able to join several of their activities. I even got several of them to eat barbequed bats in an overnight jungle survival training program in Subic! And I don’t work for their company! Hmmm…it’s either they are really nice or my face is just pretty thick!

This time, I joined another paintball game but with a different happy bunch of warmongers! I swear it probably says in SPL’s recruitment criteria that the employee must be excessively and contagiously happy! It’s always fun hanging out with them! (Thanks for all the fun and laughter, SPL friends!)

The game started out pretty well. I was grouped with Vistan, Jamih, Au, Nina, Feyn, and Ayen. The other side had 6 guys and 2 girls. They said they gave us 4 girls because Vistan and I were in uniform and had experience. No problem. From my experience, girls love to fight! So I thought we had a fighting chance. I also believe in girl power. Ever watched G.I. Jane?

Unfortunately, my glasses and mask fogged up at the very start of the game! I could NOT see a thing much less tell anyone where to go or which general direction to concentrate their fire at. I’d try to wipe my glasses to clear it up but when I put it back on, my mask would fog up too!

I was in big trouble. I didn’t really consider fogging because my mask or goggles did NOT fog up the first time I played paintball! It probably wasn’t that humid before.

To make a long story short (and to not confuse everyone with lots of war terminologies), a guy named Ken from the opposing side, single-handedly hunted us down and killed us one by one during the first game!

Losing isn’t so bad. Especially when you get to meet a skilled warrior who you can recruit for future operations. Kenneth practically massacred us during the first game! He was good. When the marshall declared that the defenders can already leave their base and attack us, Ken left his teammates to defend the flag while he maneuvered around the battlefield so he can flank our position. While he was stealthily doing this, our team was trying to assault the defenders so we can take their flag.

Vistan and I were yelling at each other. We split our team in two groups. My group was assigned to be the one to charge and grab the flag while Vistan’s larger group was going to provide suppression fire so the enemy will keep their heads down while we ran on open ground towards the objective. I told Vistan to get ready for “Blue”, our code for an attempt to rush and grab the flag. He thought I was telling him “to DO a Blue” and that he will be the one to rush the flag. He gave the signal and our team started firing. As I prepared to jump over the sandbags, I was shocked to see Vistan run from his hiding place towards the flag. Oh well, two heads are better than one. More targets for the enemy to shoot at. I jumped up and rushed towards the flag too. Vistan was able to grab the flag but not before an enemy paintball hit him. I was unscathed and only a few feet away from the flag but for some reason, the marshal stopped the game and made me go back. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!

Back, in my foxhole, I had to clean my glasses and mask with my fingers several times. During one “clear vision” moment, I thought I saw someone from the opposing team running somewhere to our left. I shifted position and faced that direction. Protecting the left flank was my immediate concern for the time being. My mask and glasses fogged up again and before I could clean it, I received a splotch of paint on my mask. I was dead.

From the sidelines, I watched as Ken, slowly but surely, maneuvered himself and eliminated my teammates, one at a time. I was horrified! It is one thing to die yourself but to watch your teammates get slaughtered is another thing. One of them told me before the game started, “Just tell us what to do.”

I couldn’t tell them what to do because I couldn’t see anything! It was a disaster! If that was a real war, the angels would have court-martialed me when I got to heaven!

We also lost the second round as defenders. It just wasn’t my day!

I suddenly had an idea on the third game. I removed my glasses and just wore the mask. It was a four on four game. The other fighters were pretty worn out already and didn’t want to play.

I was able to maneuver behind the opposing team’s position and caught them facing the other way. I got two of them! Now why didn’t I think of removing my glasses at the start?! It was so ironic that I had to REMOVE my glasses to SEE! And we won!

War is hell! I want to play again!

*It is not really called  SPL War Group. It is a multinational  IT firm with its local office located in RCBC Towers in Makati. It is a leading provider of mission-critical software solutions for the global utility market. The real company name is SPL WorldGroup (SPLWG). The company is NOT related to any military, guerilla, or terrorist organization.

The Presentation
I love my niece’s school presentations! She’s five years old and watching her on stage is always a blast! In the middle of a major presentation, she’d start waving at us when she sees that we’re about to take her picture. We would also always see her whispering to one of the people beside her,

The first time I watched a presentation of hers, I had tears in my eyes. It was only then that I realized why my teachers in my early years made me do stupid things in front of other people during special occasions. My niece who used to do nothing but sleep and cry was actually performing! I was very proud as if I was actually her dad. Somehow I felt that I had contributed (she’d probably disagree) to her growth.

But this year, I didn’t have an emotional moment. There were a lot of funny moments during the presentation. The barbeque that one of the parents brought was also delicious. I grabbed a few and proceeded to a Christmas party.

The Party
It was the Christmas party of the Ateneo Rifle and Pistol Team.

This event was my favorite among all the parties I attended this holiday season. Our coach, who just suffered a minor stroke, was there and was his old cheerful and noisy self. I say his presence alone contributed to 50% of the fun and laughter of that party. Also, more of the older alumni attended because he was there.

The caroling group sang for everyone twice that night. I loved it! I had just come from war and was about to go to another one. It was perfect! I’m a Christmas guy and I love Christmas songs. Kenny really did an excellent job. Of course, the carolers did a great job too!

The food was great! There was so much! The high stack of pizza boxes was enough to keep me happy for the night. But there were other dishes there and I had to try them.  Really great!

There were quite a number of alumni there that I haven’t seen in a while. When our alumni get together, one of the usual things to do is reminisce about the old days when we were still varsity. In our case, reminiscing meant making fun of some people especially this guy who fell into the pool without anyone pushing him in! Haha, Sorry dude!

I had a hard time leaving. There were still quite a number of people left. But then, war is hell.

The Game
I arrived around 130AM in Parks and Wildlife. The guard wouldn’t let me in at first but finally allowed me in when I made a call in my cellphone and got confirmation that I could enter. Duh, I could have been talking to Donald Duck on the cell!

They were taking a break when I arrived. It took me around 15 minutes to find the location of our base. It was really dark. If I didn’t have a gun with me, it would have been scary. Funny how a toy gun and a military uniform can make you brave.

I spent most of the time crawling on the grass, getting shot at, and waiting. There were three groups—the Red Team, the Yellow Team, and the rebels. The objective of the Red and Yellow Teams was to get the other’s flag. I was part of the rebel group which also organized the event. Our job as rebels was to create chaos and confusion—to get in the way of the two warring teams.  Unfortunately, our base got surrounded by the two teams. This prevented me or any other rebel from going beyond several meters from our base. It was still great fun trying though. And it was very entertaining to hear people shoot their teammates since it was too dark to see anything. We weren’t needed to bring chaos.

Around 330AM, one of our rebel soldiers grabbed the Yellow Team’s flag and declared victory. Victory?! The Yellow guys were mad as hell! What were the rebels/organizers doing capturing their flag? I swear I had no idea why he did that! It wasn’t part of our mission!

Since it was still too early to go home, another game was started. This time, we were able to position ourselves favorably. Unfortunately,no one was attacking. There were only a few shots here and there but no real engagement. Everyone was waiting for first light.

But when first light came, all hell broke loose. In an incredible show of political maneuvering and diplomacy, I saw the Red and Yellow Teams, side by side, attacking us! The flag incident must have pissed both of them really bad for them to attack the organizers of the event.

War is hell!

Amen.

The Title
So what’s up with the titles here in this blog entry? It always takes me awhile to think of a suitable title for my blog entries. I’ve been reading John Grisham novels for the past few months. John Grisham really has it easy when it comes to giving titles—The Client, The Firm, The Brethren, The Partner etc. So I thought I’d try it out and see if I can get away with it and make my life easier, too.

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