Anyone?

I didn't think so.

Since elementary, or even kindergarten, the story of the bloody girl in the mirror has circulated in and around classmates and friends. As a result of all the spreading, most people are now afraid of stepping into a bathroom alone.

Though it may seem pretty silly now, there was a certain point in our lives that we actually believed the whole Bloody Mary thing and other urban legends (mine was when I was in second grade). Here's the rest of the weird stories we were terrified of (and still terrified of, probably).

Bloody Mary


Yeah, probably the most spread around and common urban legend out there. Popular among children, Mary's story has a lot of variations. Some claim that when Mary was a child, she was presumed to be dead and was buried alive. When they opened her casket, they found her nails stuck to the top of the coffin and signs that she had tried to claw her way out.

Others, however, say that Mary was a witch who used her dark magic to summon and murder the daughters of a town's families. Apparently, she used their blood to make herself youthful again.

Either story, anyway, one thing's common with them. Mary can be summoned through a mirror by saying 'Bloody Mary' three times. The room has to be dark, presumably, but a candle could probably be lighted. Without that light, how are you supposed to be scared when she appears in the mirror, anyway?

Blue Baby


The recipe for an urban legend: a mirror, a child, a girl, and the dark.

The story of Blue Baby most certainly has all four of these ingredients, making it another slumber party scare-down-your-spine favorite.

Legend has it that Blue Baby, or Baby Blue, was killed by his/her mother by being stabbed with a shattered bathroom mirror. No one really knows why, but I guess it's safe to guess that the mother was just another nut.

Though there are two ways to summon the baby, both requires you to be in a dark bathroom. Anyway, one way is to steam up the bathroom mirror by turning on the hot water and letting the steam cloud the it. Once it's all covered, write the words 'Blue Baby' and hold your arms in the position you would do if you were carrying a baby. You will feel weight on your arms, but don't let go of that position or you will drop the baby. When you do drop the kid, your arm will get scratched. The more you drop the baby, the more scratches you get.

The second way is to simply position your arms in that baby carrying position and rock it. You'll feel the baby's weight again, but when you feel it, you have to drop it and run otherwise his/her crazy mother would appear, scream "GIVE ME BACK MY BABY!" then kill you.

Bottom line, don't do or say things in front of your bathroom mirror.

The Rake


This is probably the weirdest urban legend I have ever heard of.

According to a lot of accounts, the Rake (yes, that's the creature thing's name) caused so much trauma, some people have committed suicide just to stop seeing his figure in their dreams or when they close their eyes.

In one account, a woman claims that she woke up when the Rake was staring at her husband for about thirty seconds or so. Later, it crawled through their hallway and went to her kids' rooms. Desperate to stop it, she flicked on the light, only to see her daughter seriously injured. The last words she said were "It is the Rake."

When she and her husband drove to the hospital, the car crashed into a lake, leaving both her daughter and husband dead. Since then, she couldn't really go to sleep without the fear of waking up to find the Rake on the foot of her bed, staring at her.

Yeah, as scary as this legend is for some people, I'm really more concerned to why it's called a Rake, when in fact it has no relationship whatsoever with that gardening tool.

But that's if you ask anyone. If you ask Charlie McDonnell, he'll tell you that it all started with a tea making video.

Charlie, or charlieissocoollike in the Internet, was just seventeen when he uploaded his "How to Be English" video. Sure, it was random and he wasn't thinking about it much when he posted it probably, but that piece of randomness and boredom started his YouTube career, raised his popularity and subscribers, and even got him spots on TV.

EXPLOSIVES.

Yes, as in kaboom explosives. Really, are artists running out of ideas right now? Once one of them starts a song with a certain theme it's like they think that they're supposed to follow.

Firework - Katy Perry
Well, fireworks aren't exactly bombs, but they fit into the category pretty well, anyway. Miss Perry's number definitely gets a gold star for being inspirational and for actually being something other than partying. The song, being dedicated to the gays of the community, makes use of metaphors that basically spell out that there's a spark in everyone that makes them unique and useful.

Dynamite - Taio Cruz
They can't really be avoided, can they, songs about partying. See, at least Katy's work was meant for something good, not just some other party song about getting drunk and dancing. Sigh. Anyways, Taio's Dynamite, apparently referring to a club that he plants to um...'light up', is really another song worthy of a club. Yeah, I don't get what it means either. Seriously, though. What is the substance of singing and filming a song that talks about and shows the singer partying with a bunch of slu-scantily clad girls grinding their behinds and using you as a stripper pole?

Grenade - Bruno Mars
As long as the party songs live on, apparently the sappy love ones won't stop either. Bruno Mars' latest single, Grenade, basically talks about how he gave everything to a girl but she never really gave back. It's really cheesy, what with lines like "I would go through all this pain for ya, take a bullet straight through my brain". As much as I hate songs and videos like this in general, it was still pretty funny to watch Bruno Mars stupidly drag that piano around town.

Yeah, clearly I have watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire waaaaay too much. 

Disclaimer: I don't really like him, as in all those people with sappy things in their minds would think, but I think he's pretty awesome.

Any of those sound dreadfully familiar? 

These ridiculously corny comments are known today as banats, cheesey romantic words used by Filipinos to declare their love for a person...or to annoy that person to death.

Well, that's what Jeffrey did anyway.

During the Regional Schools Press Conference, the usual parade took place supremely early in the morning. While we marched at a funeral dirge's pace and talked about random stuff, Jeffrey, our contestant for sports writing, remained silent, which was surprising as he's one of the noisiest people. Pretty, soon, however, he started talking again...with banats.

Only his were waaaay more cornier than the common ones.

1. Kape ka ba, kasi ikaw ang nang-gigising sa akin.
2. Ref ka ba, kasi tuwing binubuksan kita...yeah, I'd rather not continue
3. Piso ka ba, kasi ikaw ang bubuo sa milyon ko

Trust me there is a lot more like that, but I honestly can't remember anymore.