The Freshman

The Freshman is a song by the band The Verve Pipe which was a big hit during the 90's and incidentally I was a freshman in high school when this song came around. I instantly like this song back then and even now still. When I heard it played in the radio it brought back a lot of nostalgia from my high school days. One thing I've liked about the song is the lyrics. The lyrics are, in many ways, easy to relate with. All of us, in one point in our lives became a Freshman. We were in that stage when we were full of optimism, dreams, idealism, arrogance and carelesness. Looking back at the things that we've done and noticing how flawed and full of shit our lives were, we wish we can turn back time to make things right. But that's where the genius of this song lies, being a Freshman we had the license to commit such mistakes. Less is expected on us back at those days and messing up is like a part of our job description. It's just but a part of life's lessons that we need to learn from our past no matter how regretable and forgetful those experiences were.

Here is the line by line explanation straight from the writer of the song itself, Verve Pipe's vocalist and songwriter Brian Vander Ark:

In 2001, Brian Vander Ark explained what the song means to him on Verve Pipe's bulletin boards:
"When I was young I knew everything" - We all think we know everything at a young age. I thought I did. I realize I didn't know sh*t until I was 36.
"And she, a Punk who rarely took advice" - How many people do we know like that?
"Now I'm guilt-stricken, sobbing, with my head on the floor" - Something happened that caused this reaction, but I wouldn't want to give that away this early in the song, so let's throw in an some ambiguity:
"Stop a baby's breath, and a shoe full of rice, no" - First of all, forget the NO. Stop a baby's breath is just that. Abort the baby. A shoe full of rice is a result of a wedding. So - stop a baby's breath AND then you stop a wedding. She's pregnant, get her to abort, and then there's no wedding. And you know what?
"I can't be held responsible, cause she was touching her face" - When I wrote this song, The Divinyls had a song out called 'I Touch Myself.' The TV was on, she was touching her face in the video. Very sexy. So, I can't be held responsible because she was trying to be sexy, trying to seduce me, etc.
"I won't be held responsible, she fell in love in the first place" - I didn't tell her to fall in love.
"For the life of me, I cannot remember what made us think that we were wise, and we'd never compromise" - What was I thinking back then? Who am I to put a girl though that? Why was I unable to compromise? Guilty feelings.
"For the life of me, I cannot believe we'd ever die for these sins, we were merely freshmen" - We were just kids, let it go, we all make mistakes, etc.
"My best friend took a week's vacation to forget her" - He needed to get away because of what happened.
"His girl took a week's worth of Valium and slept" - This is why this song is not that strong literally - it's confusing. HIS girl is MY girl. the same girl that had the abortion has now killed herself.
"Now he's guilt-stricken, sobbing with his head on the floor, thinks about her now and how he never really wept he says" - He has the same guilty feelings that I do about the abortion and death.
"We tried to wash our hands of all of this, we never talk of our lacking relationships" - We rarely spoke after the incident - we just tried to forget it. We never spoke of her or the fact that we can't have a decent relationship with anyone since then.
"We fell through the ice when we tried not to slip" - No matter how careful you might be, there are other perils out there. The girl is real, the abortion is real. the death is not. it's poetic license to make the story more interesting.

The Freshman by the Verve Pipe

When I was young I knew everything
She a punk who rarely ever took advice
Now I'm guilt stricken,
Sobbing with my head on the floor
Stop a baby's breath and a shoe full of rice

I can't be held responsible
She was touching her face
I won't be held responsible
She fell in love in the first place

For the life of me I cannot remember
What made us think that we were wise and
We'd never compromise
For the life of me I cannot believe
We'd ever die for these sins
We were merely freshmen

My best friend took a week's
Vacation to forget her
His girl took a weeks's worth of
Valium and slept
And now he's guilt stricken sobbing with his
Head on the floor
Thinks about her now and how he never really
Wept he says

I can't be held responsible
She was touching her face
I won't be held responsible
She fell in love in the first place

For the life of me I cannot remember
What made us think that we were wise and
We'd never compromise
For the life of me I cannot believe
We'd ever die for these sins
We were merely freshmen

hey yeah
hey yeah
hey yeah

We've tried to wash our hands of all this
We never talk of our lacking relationships
And how we're guilt stricken sobbing with our
Heads on the floor
We fell through the ice when we tried not to
Slip, we'd say

I can't be held responsible
She was touching her face
And I won't be held responsible
She fell in love in the first place

For the life of me I cannot remember
What made us think that we were wise and
We'd never compromise
For the life of me I cannot believe
We'd ever die for these sins
We were merely freshmen

For the life of me I cannot remember
What made us think that we were wise and
We'd never compromise
For the life of me I cannot believe
We'd ever die for these sins
We were merely freshmen
We were merely freshmen

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Conflict of Interest

I read an article in the Inquirer yesterday that was about the practice of "soft-selling" medicines by Medical representatives to Doctors. Maybe you have heard of the grand parties, hotel accommodations, luxury gifts etc. etc. thrown at Doctors by pharmaceutical companies just to "promote" their brand of drugs. Now we wonder why branded drugs are so expensive compared to the generic ones.

I haven't found a copy of the article online but it says there that the Congress has passed a bill that prohibits and punishes Doctors who accepts such kind of "tokens" from drug manufacturers. It's great to know that someone in the Congress is actually doing their job. I can't help to be pessimistic when it comes to the implementation if this bill becomes a law but still I consider this as one of the rare brilliant moments in Philippine politics.

Conflict of interest is one of the reasons why this bill has been created and I couldn't agree more. How can a Doctor pass his/her judgment with no-bias and clear objectivity if he/she is indebted from accepting lavish gifts from business entities? I'm a professional myself and one of the topics that were discussed in our company during our orientation is integrity. We were told that it's wrong to receive gifts from our clients even how small it is because by doing so we will put our credibility in jeopardy.

I have a friend who's sister is a Pediatrician and I remember her proudly telling us that she will be spending a couple of nights in a posh hotel because her Pediatrician sister got a free accommodation from one of her medical representatives. I envy her before when I haven't realize fully the moral backlash of such an opportunity. But now that I do, I feel lucky that I didn't contribute to the dilemma of patients that have no money to pay for their medicines while such kind of doctors are soundly sleeping their ass off in their cozy hotels. It baffles me why such people who spent at least six to eight years in post-college education and pledged to uphold their duties and responsibilities to their patients first before any other (at the same time gets paid a hefty amount with their services) can sleep soundly knowing the implications of their actions.

I thought that my most hated bunch of people are the corrupt politicians but now, I hate these gift-accepting-doctors equally or to some degree maybe even more. Life is unfair in so many ways but I find comfort knowing that this imbalance will be left here on earth.

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On perfumes and perfume bottles

Tommy Perfume
Originally uploaded by BeeBoy

One of my hobbies is collecting perfumes and as much as I'm fascinated with their scent, I also fancy the variety of bottles that they come in. For me, the bottles speaks a lot about the characteristic of the perfume itself. Whether we admit it or not, presentation carries a lot of weight when we decide to take our money out of our wallets.

When it comes to scent, my most favorite perfume would be the now classic Tommy Hilfiger for Men. Not only because it always smell refreshing even if you wear it everyday for the rest of your life but also the history that I shared with this cologne. I wore this on my prom, my graduation and other memorable occasions of my youth. A close second would be Lacoste Essential. Girls just love the smell of this perfume and this maybe the perfume I would use when dating at night.

Other honorable mentions include Davidoff's Cool Water, which is essentially a perfume you must have if you don't have any idea what can mix with your sweat yet still will smell good, Carolina Herrera 212 for Men is a bit picky unlike Cool water but still does the job and lastly, this list will not be complete without a Calvin Klein perfume. For the CK line, I have two recommendations: 1) CK Crave - the nice fruity smell is perfect for daytime and summer getaways, 2) CK IN2U - this is something I've been planning to buy for a long time now, very close to the refreshing scent of Crave but packs a lot more punch. Hopefully, I can get to buy this soon.

How about you? What's your scent? :)