Miz M!

Or rather, Mrs. S. I know it doesn't take a genius to figure out Multiply's search tool-- I'm more surprised by the fact that it works! Haha. Found this a while ago (but it wasn't as if I was looking for it ha). I'm not sure if it's meant to be personal, but I just felt this huge "AWWW" moment coming up and I thought I'd post it here before I explode. I miss Ms Manahaaaaaaaan! All my previous HS English teachers are MIA: M[r]s Abarquez is on maternity leave, if you didn't know :) and Ms Aleena is most likely somewhere in Spain. Of course, Miz M got married to her rocker boyfriend and he took her away from the Seniors. BOO. I was looking forward to her discussion on the myths and Hamlet and Les Miz, but I guess I'll never ever have that. At least our section was lucky enough to get her for our junior year. I will be eternally grateful to her for not subjecting us to the same cruelty the other sections were getting at the hands of the other teacher.

Well Miz M, if you're out there and surfing and you happen to come across this entry which has your name on it (plus an exclamation point), then do tag me and say hello. :)

This weekend

Finished this up while waiting for mom to put down the phone. My pointer finger is creaky; I hear you can get joint damage from overuse of the click-and-drag mouse action...

My sister was telling me about our ridiculous pet bird yesterday, who happened to be let out of the cage for a while and was flying around the house. It perched on the aquarium, and was walking on top of it when (and I can't believe it happened!) it fell in. I've long accepted (the bird) Sabine's idiotic tendencies, but really, she does give "animal intelligence" a bad name. Well anyway, it gave a squawk and flew out without getting wet. My sister put her back into the cage after that.

We've also got a little ratatouille of our own running amok. Not the Disney-conceived one though. This one's more like its bastard brother, that, as afflicts all of its kind, has the usual preference for garbage. I don't know where it is presently, but I've had close encounters with the third kind. REALLY CLOSE. As in the I-was-doing-my-nightly-ablutions-at-the-washroom-when-it-leapt-out-of-the-trash-can kind of close. Actually, the can just rustled at the time; still, I couldn't be too sure if it was the mouse or the lizard or the (disturbingly HUGE) spider which made the noise. Didn't wait to find out.

Ang sarap ng weekend!!! With the QTs over, I have nearly nothing to worry about! And my non-existent free time finally materialized, how's that! I spent all three days watching Arrested Development (owned by my cousin-- he left it here when he went back to Canada). I don't know where the cds of the second season are though. Sayang, kumpleto pa naman yung iba. And this is the original dvd set, so andaming maayos na bonus materials, huzzah! Most likely I would've finished season 3 by now if dad hadn't sat through an episode with us, and, having seen what it was about, told us that it was too "adult". (This is why I hate watching anything with my parents. -_-) It is kind of... immoral (HAHA!), or more euphemistically, western. Well sure, it's no cherub of a sitcom, but compared to, let's say, Desperate Housewives, A.D. bleeps all the cuss words, has no graphic nudity, and has only implied sex (... on the other hand, everything has implied sex these days -_-). Maygesh. I can't believe I wrote that. But it's true. But whaddaheck. Why am I discussing morals?! I'd rather admire the sitcom for its hilarious script, credible cast, good storytelling style and great storyline. Where else can you find an excellent stew for satire, sarcasm, irony, allusion and the blunders of human nature? It's too bad this didn't go beyond three seasons.

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Happy birthday kuya David!

10 things I want to do before leaving school

The first quaterly exams are done. It's wonderful and awful at the same time. It's my last first quarterly test. It feels awful.

I've always seen highschool as a conveyor belt, a huge flat one that slowly, but reliably inches itself up up up the steep slope (I've always imagined it to be tilted at an uncomfortable 60 degrees). And we ride along, whether we like it or not. It's a long boring process. I've spent my younger years craning my neck to see if I was any nearer to the summit. Usually it felt like it was going to go on forever. I've stood outside my prep classroom, looking up into the multi-leveled high school building and wondering what sort of magic went on in there. Yet now I'm the one in the building looking down on my juvenile counterparts (they're happy little creatures, content to hold their teacher's hand and repeat their nursery rhyme repertoire in unified singsong. Lucky souls.)

And this is it. THE year. And I'm beginning to pass the landmarks that signal the close of my high school life. Review classes. College apps. UPCAT. Physics. Ms Olalde. First Quaterly Tests...

Suddenly, I kind of feel like turning back. But no use of that now. I'm headed to The Window, that venerable cliff that's comparable to the Tarpeian Rock, where all graduates will be swiftly thrown off and expected to land in the drudgery of The Real World. They can kick you off, or heave you aside, or do the sneakier things that won't make you realize you're falling until you're flailing your arms in wide surprise. And then they will say to the younger batches, "Observe. Bodies thrown on any height will fall on the same rate in the absence of air resistance." We may not be able to sprout wings, but by golly, we WILL land on the muck with a bit of dignity!

Then it's all uphill again from down there.

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10 things I want to do before leaving school (in no particular order)

1. Photograph my school in all its dewy glory. Preferrably in the morning, when there aren't any people yet. (Like I'd be able to wake up THAT early...)

2. Pay my respects to the demolished Kinderhouse. It was a quaint little wooden structure, exuding every bit of the classic schoolhouse vibe with a hint of Little-House-on-the-Prairie. Or maybe the impression was more of overlarge chicken house? Whichever. I found it to be nice and lovely; it had a comfortable woody smell, the incessant patter of feet on the wood boards, plus it had a family of kittens under (it was slighty elevated in bahay kubo style). I liked everything about it when I was a kid-- well, maybe except for the bathrooms, which had cobwebs and black magic plumbing written all over it. They tore the house down though, years ago, and built the slick new Prephouse with the glass doors and plastic green carpet things.

3. Visit every one of my former classrooms.

4. Say my prayers in the sunken area again (which would be the first in 7 years).

5. Steal a library book. Haha! I get my moments. There are just some things you want to keep with you forever. (Doi. Parang gagawin ko to. -_- Ede hindi na ko nakagraduate kung ganun.)

6. Sit in my favorite teachers' classes one last time. Particularly Sir Andie's class. The entertainment factor is unforgettable. Plus ang galing pa niya magturo.

7. Walk on the corridor roofs. Yung parang ginagawa ng mga manong! I've been wanting to do this since I was in grade 2.

8. See the nitty-gritty insides of the Registrar's office, and the Pacem office. If you ever stopped to consider it, these two places are most likely the only two that students never EVER see. I've never seen it, and I've been studying there since kinder. I just wanna see what goes on in there.

9. Also, take a look at the wonderful world of the Faculty Lounge. And the second floor of the library. It occurs to me that there is probably a good 10% of my school I haven't seen, visited or heard of yet.

10. Verify all the urban legends in circulation. Ang elevator sa highschool building, ang kababalaghan sa classroom ng IV-3, kung bakit laging walang tao sa highschool satellite clinic (inefficiency! BAH!), kung nasaan na ang kalabaw na nagngangalang Jubilee...

Hm. The countdown to The End begins.

The Philippines has a lot of water. We just have it in all the wrong places.

Well. Wala na namang pasok. I'd love the chance to snuggle under the bed covers if not for the fact that we've got the threat of the Quarterly Tests glumly hanging over our heads. What a drag. Sana naudlot na lang ung pasukan pagkatapos ng QTs. So there. We've got an unfortunate six-day weekend, plus the problem of finding something to do.

I feel sorry for PAG-ASA and CHED. If they don't call off classes, the people get mad. If they do-- and when they do, there is certainly that 75% chance that it won't rain because they made the announcement early-- people still get mad. Either way both groups get eaten alive by the thankless multitudes. This is weather we're talking about people! It's supposed to be finicky! The poor blokes can't help it if the rains refuse to dance on cue. Tush tush.

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I watched the old tape of Lion King yesterday. For a movie set in the African savannah, it just struck me how little any of it actually has to do with Africa. Most of the characters have American or English accents; the only exception is Rafiki, who's as lovably eccentric as ever. If he's the African medicine man though, how come he knows kung fu? Hmm... There are a lot of things you ponder on when you're a little more grown up. Hehe, I still remember all of their dialogues though. Amazing what you retain when you're a kid watching an animated feature ten times more often than what's healthy.

Ngayon ko rin lang pala naintindihan yung first part ng Hakuna Matata song:

Pumbaa: And OHHH THE SHAME

Timon: (He was ashamed!)

Pumbaa: Thought of changing my name!

Timon: (Oh what's your name!)

Pumbaa: And I got downhearted

Timon: (Ohhh how'd you feeeeel!)

Pumbaa: Everytime that I--

Timon: Hey Pumbaa not in front of the kids!

Pumbaa: Oh. Sorry.

Well. Isang salita lang naman yung rhyming dun e. Aaaah. :))

I miss traditionally-animated movies.

Oh what's in a name--!

May kapangalan pala si Pauline La'o.

See?

And then I saw this at Burger King.

Michael Jack. Bitin! HAHA! Alam ko rin may nakatira sa subdivision namin na Bong Revil. :)) And then just yesterday, I was making a call at the Admin's office when I looked over the open log book for latecomers and saw this log entry: Princess Tagapulot. No kidding. Hindi ko malaman kung tatawa ako o hinde (well eventually napagkatuwaan din namin ni Bianca but anyway...). Poor kid! She'll be living with that for the rest of her life. Really, what were her parents thinking when they named her that?!

My cookie dough teacher

If life was made of gingerbread, Ms O would look like this. I'd imagine her to be the soft and bunchy kind, with raisins and honey in the middle sprinkled all over with cinnamon. She'd live in a gingerbread house with gingerbread cats, go pottering around the garden in a flowery apron with a happy smile. She'd be that tea time kind of snack that goes well with tea or coffee or milk, never mussing your afternoon dress; or that one cookie you nibble on while sipping hot chocolate on a rainy day. She's a good cookie with a good soul.

Be warned though. She grows fangs.

HOLY FRIKKIN MOLY-- it's finally done!!! :D

After two days of semi-hermitage, I have now emerged-- slightly more overloaded than usual, but still functioning. At YES! TAPOS NA ANG UPCAT! WOOOHOOO! Happy dance on eggshells! *crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch* What a relief! I never thought I would actually have the balls to do those things. It's not just about taking the test (and thinking you're contending for a slot along with 70,000++ others who are better than you-- what a glum thought -_-); it's the whole agonizing ordeal of reviewing too. I hate hate HATE reviewing. I like to learn, fine, but I'd rather do it at my own pace, thanks.

I think this was-- is-- a good day. And I think I did fine, considering na medyo alanganin ako sa Science (puro genetics! WAAATISDUT.) at sumemplang ako sa Math (huhuhu). I reviewed my lessons, ate peanuts, listened to Tchaikovsky, prayed to St. Philomena, took a double dose of vitamin C, wore sensible clothes (although the colors were, fashionably speaking, irreconcilable) and did some brain calixthenics (is it spelled "calisthenics"? Bah, whatever. Now is not the time to be mature about spelling. -_-). Ayun. I call that preparedness! Haha! I also answered tons and tons of review booklets. Kadiri yung math dun sa mga booklets!!! O_O Puro nosebleed math!!! I tried asking my sister for help, who looked at the problem(S) I was pointing at, disconcertedly grunted and waved it aside. Gee. Thanks. It's a good thing the UPCAT Math part wasn't that hard. My arithmetic foundation just isn't so stable as others think it is...

But I'll stop obssessing now. What happened twelve hours ago is now in God's hands. Haha!

In other things...

It's the first time I've seen my batchmates in a college setting. I saw Joanne and Erinn lined up (they were the batch after me), and suddenly, I felt this wave of fondness for my classmates. The idea of everyone parting ways after several more months is already sinking in. It's a sad thought, one that makes you want to cling to the present all the more. Awww.

We also dropped by South Supermarket after to buy groceries. Nagpa-picture na rin ako ng 2x2 kasi kulang ako ng pics for my other application forms. And MAI GOLLY. I look-- I look-- 'ORRIBLE. And 'AGGARD. And simply god awful! :)) Iyan and itsura ng isang UPCAT examinee pagkatapos ng UPCAT. Hay naku.

Well anyway, with the UPCAT done, it's back to unhappy reality. I have two essays waiting for me as well as costume planning for English. I'm doing Bast. I actually wanted to do a character from Celtic mythology (Baba Yaga would have been cool!), but I don't think everybody could relate to that (aw, it sucks) so I chose Bast(et) from Egypt instead. She's the goddess with the cat head. And since I have a fondness for cats (I mean, a fondness for cats as CATS, not as pets), I think I'll be able to stomach doing a five-line monologue as her. (I was also wondering if I should pick Anubis, but I thought cat ears are more distinguishable than dog ears so I picked her.) I don't really like taking on a Greek god/goddess. They're pompous and silly creatures, you know? And besides, me trying to pull them off would be awkward. If I was going to do Greek, I'd rather pick Charon or some sedate minor character. It's easier to act them out.

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Oooh, I already saw the Stardust poster in Robinsons a while ago! YAAAAAY! 2007 is a GREAT movie year.

Salvaged

Still scratching my head over what happened to that weird post. Tsk tsk.

Well, the last thing I wrote there was really about the UPCAT (not those random links *shakes head*). To put it in less words, I just realized that I do not have that kind of stamina to do those kinds of tests. Practicing it already resulted to mind-numbing... numbness. Haha! Tapos isang oras pa lang yun.

I think... I hate this year. I hate the pressure, and the stress, and the sick fear of failing everything. Sometimes I wish I was in college, or working... then I think about what I'm going to encounter when I get there. And then I don't know where I want to be. It's so hard finding that kind of direction, you know? I never understood it before when I was a kid, but now, I do agree that finding yourself and being yourself is one of the hardest things to do in this lifetime.