Raison d'etre

Damn growing pains

2009-07-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

I cried over a boy today. Sigh.

In case this small nook in the vastness of the cyberspace universe is still open and readable to people, I'll skip the gory details and just lament the fact that I wasn't strong enough to hold the waterworks in.

PMS. Makes you as emotionally-imbalanced as hell.

Come to think of it, the only times I have cried these past few months coincided with my crazy hormonal swings. Not really a happy thought.

Anyway, I epic failed on my promise of never ever ever crying over any boy. I suck.

Welcome to the club.

Back here

2009-06-14T06:05:00.000-07:00

I had the vague idea that my old blog was already useless and yellowing, given the present circumstances. Seeing that my most recent activity dates back to March this year, I guess it's not as irrelevant as it seems.

I took off the cross-post feature in Multiply, cause you know, Multiply sucks and Fezbook is the new king.

And besides, I kind of miss this place. Sometimes, the thought of having my thoughts drifting out there in cyberspace, without directing them to anyone in particular, offers a bit of comfort. Most people can't scream in peace nowadays without someone injecting a side comment. -_-

So.

Hello blog. I'm back.

PIDC 2009

2009-01-22T02:46:00.000-08:00

Get your game on.

In which we discuss poisonous apples falling from (uprooted?) poisonous trees and other Such Things

2009-01-05T21:46:00.000-08:00

If that's not reality tv, I don't know what is.

Nothing induces groans of horrified boredom more than the prospect of watching pudgy old men in a room conduct a (VERY :|) lengthy inquiry on What Really Happened. Of course I'm talking about that congressional hearing on the Alabang Boys; I had to watch it because my parents couldn't--they had to leave due to an emergency--and they wanted a "blow-by-blow" account. Trying to grow nose hair would be more exciting, but in any case, I grabbed my math notebook and plopped down in front of the tube anyway.

It was interesting enough, I suppose, with moments of much-needed comic relief-- one gentleman's comment on the resolution having too many grammatical errors merited a chuckle, and that quote about poisonous trees and poisonous fruit (or something to that effect) being read aloud sounded ridiculous enough, that it distracted me. I just didn't like it when some of them took too long to answer, which disconcertingly put my train of thought out of line. Still, I have to hand to to them; I think being in the hearing itself would have been far more agonizing than just watching it at home, where it's already desensitized and all. I could understand the state prosecutor's apparent discomfort at being flayed alive-- it was obvious from the line of questioning that they wanted him to contradict himself.

Enough of that. Why did I bother watching anyway? Because, in spite of my misgivings, I at least had to pay attention to a crucial event in determining the fate of Joseph Tecson. It's what you do when you're family friends, even though that label only applies to my parents and their parents. They're wonderful people, really. But niceness or wonderfulness doesn't make you innocent, or guilty. At this point it really is about technicalities--and whether those investigating this would actually be able to secure this writhing eel of an issue in the right places. It seems that they've tangled themselves in unsightly knots as of the moment, what with the constitutional neepery and all.

My parents are solidly convinced that the boys should be let off at once. I suppose friendship has something to do with that. As for myself, I remain undecided. I just wish he hadn't been using drugs in the first place. I can't imagine the kind of agony the family's going through--to have your moment of pain flashed on national television, to be picked apart again and again by people from all sides. It's a media circus masquerading as public vigilance; it's so easy to forget that we're dealing with real people here, and that usually, it's the families of those involved who get the worst of it.

For the people who have long been resigned to any Philippine government institution's incompetence, to finally and solidly capture someone will be a welcome change from the system's morbidly unchanging habit of not doing anything. Perhaps money and power isn't everything afterall.

The Law is a blunt instrument. It's not a scalpel. It's a club.* I just hope that if PDEA does get the Alabang Boys, they won't revert back to the selective bludgeoning that's been plaguing this society for centuries. It's gone on long enough.

Note to self

2008-12-30T04:35:00.000-08:00

Pictures are for capturing moments, and words are for committing them to memory, but memes are for times when both are insufficient. It'll take too many hours and too many words to describe the awesomeness of 2008; hopefully what the general idea of this year was, this post can chronicle, all in the span of 40 questions.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Hm, lots. Commuted alone; went home as late as 10 pm; walked 4.4 kms in 43 minutes (:|); talked to completely random strangers, roughly one per week; got sloshed in muddy puddles; snail-mailed a package(!); saw the moon make a smiley; watched naked men running in the corridor...

Grew up, mostly.

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I never make any, cause I usually can't remember. Oftentimes it'll go something like, "I shall remember all of my relatives' names and faces correctly this time around," or "I shall grow a plant and feed it and pet it and hug it and name it Bunny," or "I shall read the Bible as a piece of literature for this year," or even, "I shall make a shiny ball of mud just because I want to", but yeah, it never happens.

They aren't really resolutions. Mostly it's because I want to remind myself to do one cool thing per year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Does our dog count?

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Lolo. Well he hasn't really, but in any case, he's been wanting to since September. :| Nope, it didn't happen this year, maybe it won't happen in the coming year. Poor lolo.

5. What countries did you visit?

Meh, none. Boo.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

Complete training hours. HAHAHAHAHA. And more money and love to go around. :)

7. What date from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory?

~~Hmm... dates of my period. HAHA. It comes pretty regularly.~~ Er, not so good with dates. :))

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Graduating, probably. Whew. Finally out of the clutches of my high school, which means we can now do PMs, right Shai? =)) Hahahahahahaha.

And also, passing Math 17. Glad that's over.

9. What was your biggest failure?

To be honest, the whole first semester had one moment of failure too many. I suppose it was my fault, as I was naive enough to think that I can handle crap standing up. Ah well. Got knocked off my socks pretty often, but the important thing is, it was very educational. I guess I'm a little wiser now.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Aside from the occasional bouts of hyperacidity and abdominal cramps, none.

Oh no, wait. Right. Ozzy bit me two weeks ago. :|

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My blue automatic foldable umbrella, which cost me dearly. :| And my fan.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

Zarah, for her "rebel day" episode three weeks ago. =)) =)) HAHAHA.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

That vile politician. :|

(Googling "vicissitude" and "decidido" together yields 17,500 results-- and about 10 pages of the search results are about the blog post, before it all peters out to less relevant pages. Kudos to Bambee de la Paz and the internet!)

14. Where did most of your money go?

Commuting. Food. Drinks. Debsoc fees. =))

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

When David Cook won over Archuleta in AI. I watched the results show x number of times, to the point that I nearly memorized the program sequence. :| It made me very very happy. And yes, I still feel rather smug about it all. :P

16. What song/album will always remind you of 2008?

Womanizer (Britney Spears). Crush (David Archuleta). Viva La Vida (Coldplay). With You (Chris Brown). Disturbia (Rihanna). Hmm... and there's definitely a Jonas Brothers song there somewhere...

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

happier or sadder? happier
thinner or fatter? thinner (although the holidays negated much of that :|)
richer or poorer? richer, in many ways :)

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Hanging out with friends more, both old and new.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Being late for my 10 AM classes. Eep.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

Same as always every year: a trip to Pampanga to visit my dad's side for lunch, and then dinner with grandparents on my mom's side later.

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?

I realize that I've never used the phone since God-knows-when, so for this question I'll refer to people I usually talk to on Yahoo messenger.

Yup, it's you. You know that, right? :))

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?

Haha.

23. How many one night stands in this last year?

None, but let me quote Nica on this:

Always practice! Kahit hindi safe basta sex lang! (Endaluz, 2008)

Go Nica! =)) =))

24. What was your favourite TV programme?

American Idol. The Amazing Race. Pushing Daisies. Mythbusters!!!

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Hating people is just an unnecessarily tiring thing, you know? Which is why I don't do it. Not for long periods of time anyway. It usually fizzes out by the next day.

26. What was the best book(s) you read?

Meh, this year was not a good book year. For me at least.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

The X-box Song, by Tripod. Thanks Kuya Luis.

28. What did you want and get?

An uno for Socio 10, 1st sem. And Stardust for this Christmas. :D

29. What did you want and not get?

If I can't remember, it probably means that it doesn't really matter anyway.

30. What were your favourite films of this year?

Prince Caspian, because Ben Barnes is yummy. =)) =)) Kung Fu Panda. HSM 3. A Very Special Love (<3 John Lloyd!).

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

On my birthday, I woke up to a screaming gale battering against my window. Hours later, the electricity went out. Gah. Not the stress-free 18th birthday I was hoping for. :|

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Getting higher grades? Or being smart enough to work for it in the first place. Oh well.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

I like being comfortable. Flats and sneakers are pretty much a staple with me.

34. What kept you sane?

My imaginary friend who's sitting next to me.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Charlize Theron, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, among others. And the Mythbusters crew. They're awesome.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

The RH Bill, among others, and how my old school is handling the situation (read: it's pushing the anti-RH Bill notion down its students' throats without letting them think for themselves! :|). It's the same with my parents too, so I'm pretty much a closet pro-RH Bill freak. :| Gaaaah.

37. Who did you miss?

Old frieeeeeeends!!! And high school humor. :(

38. Who was the best new person you met?

I like everyone I meet, really. As for the best...

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.

As Bear Grylls always says, "Always keep going." (I'm sorry it's not more profound or poetic. Maybe next year.)

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?

Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never been this way before
All you can do is try to know who your friends are
As you head off to the war

Pick a star on the dark horizon
And follow the light
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye

--from Regina Spektor's The Call

Daft, that's what

2008-12-29T03:06:00.000-08:00

Of course it came as a shock to see my classmates answering a test the moment I came in. My teacher whipped around and pointed to the board, where there a list of people who had missed previous requirements. Not only was I missing out on the exam-- I still hadn't passed two exercise sets. Damn. And this was Physics, a subject I hadn't made peace with yet. I stood there feeling god-awful, while centripetal forces whirred in my head and blew my brain to bits. It was an epic fail of a morning. :| Thankfully enough, my teacher rescheduled my exam to the next day, so I could study.

I suppose it was my fault that I got sidetracked that day, that I was squandered my minutes like money found in the gutter, and that two hours into the silent darkness of the morning, I realized that I was utterly unprepared for a squeamish encounter with the forces that be.

I died a little, inside. Only two options made sense to me: cramming, and praying for divine intervention. At this point, I wasn't really hoping for the Almighty's hand. It was only during the midst of negotiating the principles of Boyle's Law for the sake of my poor head, that I stopped and realized that

SHIT. I'm in a dream for crying out loud. And a mental recap of my subjects for this semester showed not a single particle of the neurosis that is Physics. :|

Gah, that really ruined my sleep. I can't believe I didn't suspect it to be a flaky sort of reality when I saw my highschool Physics teacher handing me my exercise sets.

I really hate these dreams. :|

-----

As a sidenote:

I can't remember if we also took up the Gas Laws in my fourth year, which would mean that we studied it in Physics. I expect I'll be digging around for my old notebook in the coming days, just to the sake of knowing; I just want to verify dream logic-- afterall, it's not the most reliable sort out there. (I think Gas Laws straddles the two fields, chemistry and physics, so studying it in a dream isn't completely invalid... right?)

Meh.

The fact that I actually have to think about this tidbit bothers me. :|

Charlie the unicorn is the boonana king

2008-12-16T01:41:00.000-08:00

There was a mad crush of people in front of AS this morning-- apparently everyone were thinking of the same "strategic place" to view the spectacle of naked men running. I dunno, I simply wanted to see what all the fuss was about, but I wasn't as competitive as the other people around me. (For one, I didn't bring a camera, and for another, I didn't really mind the prospect of not seeing them.) It was pretty interesting all the same, just being there, even though the person next to me was already using me as a pseudo-tungtungan in an effort to glimpse fleshy body parts. (I politely made him stop. Geez.)

The Run was over in pretty much 10 minutes or less. Basically they just stood there, in the nude, waving placards that denounced the government. And then they went back in. People around me pressed forward, wanting to follow. Partly because I wanted to go to the CAL lib (aircon, hooray!), and partly because going through AS would be a cooler option than walking outside, I let myself flow with the tide of people going in. There was a crowd in the lobby-- didn't bother to see what they were looking at though. I made my way to the right side, quite happy about the uncongested corridor I could actually walk in.

It was a little over one third of the way when people suddenly began waving other people to the side, telling them to clear the way.

And that was when I stopped

and saw

the Oblation Run.

Finally. The whole male anatomy de-mystified. :))

I never thought that their organs actually bounced, you know? But yeah, kebs. It pretty much looks as it should, so much so that it seems funny now to be so scandalized with the idea of nudity. (Jenina, you can take us to your relative's nudist resort in the mountains now! HAHA.)

I suppose it's also worthwhile to mention that I got a rose. I tried putting it in my bag, but then it bobbed in a way that was disconcertingly akin to what I had just watched. So I held it instead going to class, like an unwieldy sceptre that's near decapitation, until I negotiated a better placement for it in my bag.

It's now hanging near my bed, next to my prom corsage.

Reticulating splines

2008-11-28T23:37:00.000-08:00

I think I've heard of the name before. Pepe Diokno. You see, I like storing names in my memory-- except that they get lost somewhere and they only turn up when I need them. I do remember eventually. It took me about ten minutes to recall:

Right. MyoldersisterhasabatchmatewhohasabrotherwhowritesforthePhilippineStar! And this batchmate's last name? Diokno.

Paolo Lorenzana, Gino dela Paz-- I think I used to read Philippine Star Supreme back then, when I thought that the awesomest thing to become was to be someone like them: yuppies oozing with that thing I used to know as coolness. But then they got tiring after a while, what with all the repetitive shallowness that subtly defines their articles. They can still be fun to read though, depending on your mileage.

And now we come to the part wherein I actually say something about that article.

Okay, two things:

1) I found it really really amusing, and

2) I now feel rather sorry for Sharmila.

And so before anybody out there actually shoots me for this, I simply want to point out that this article doesn't really need a rebuttal, so to speak. It's enough knowing that debating doesn't necessarily involve being a motor mouth, and that, yes, we do have people who can speak coherently without fainting for lack of breath.

But if you're still reeling from a bruised ego... you can probably plot vengeance on Pepe Diokno, if it will make you feel better. Afterall, I see his sister on some days.

She walks around UP. :))

Biboness (or the lack thereof)

2008-11-21T03:03:00.000-08:00

I wonder what is it about converging shadows and inky pools of darkness that makes the atmosphere so unconducive for debating. Maybe it's the dimness of the light in the corridor. Or the chill wind adding to the discomfort of strained eyes and soupy brains. Or maybe it's the deepening gloom playing tricks on us by impeding our hearing-- how that happens I don't really know. But what I've observed so far, is that debates happening in that rather gloomy vagueness sag towards the bottom, in the wide spectrum of things. (Then again you know, this might only be a coincidence that makes sense in my world. :)) ) After watching two debates occuring at that particular time, and being in one myself at another, it reminds me of The Annals of Waz Speeches shelved neatly at the back of my mind-- and yes, my speech at that time definitely got filed there. Thank God I was adjing for the other two times (today included).

Training with the old members. It's like being an app all over again. Just when you think you know something about debating, ignorance jabs you in places you never you even existed.

Adjing for high school tourneys is pretty much synonymous to growing devil horns and developing a sinister maniacal laugh. It's fun, in its wonderfully sadistic way, and it does wonders for your ego. But we don't know anything. Not really.

Which is why, in spite of deep unspeakable feelings of wazness towards the people make us cry (well... si JC, naiyak), little candles of devotion still burn at the altars of them who bestow their wisdom. :))

Today is Be-A-Lazy-Blob Day

2008-10-22T23:18:00.000-07:00

6:30 pm

Today I spent the day doing nothing. Woke up at 10, breakfasted at 11, had lunch at 12 then plopped down in front of the TV for a good five hours. Then I transferred seats and am now sitting in front of the pc instead.

This is inertia, I tell you. Even the hot afternoon seems to agree with me, seeing its reluctance to stir some wind for us bedheads. To my credit, I actually did something productive yesterday: I baked a cake. The only downside to that is that most of it has now succumbed to the evil conspiracy of forks, plates and stomachs. If we keep up this trend, I predict bloated squishiness for our physique.

I don't know what it is about the sembreak that makes me want to do as little activity as possible. It's not so much having nothing to do, it's more of not being in the mood to do it.

I have books to read, things to cook, stuff to clean, people to draw, episodes to watch, programs to install, emails to send, and sisters to annoy, and yet between those and just wanting to be still, there never seems to be enough time within the day to get around doing those.

It's during these days, when your brain slackens to the tension of soggy noodles, that you think about what you're doing, and how different you seem to be.

...

I was thinking of using that statement as a segue, but maybe that's a topic for another day. Right now it's just fun to read quotes on the internet, like this one:

I was depressed last night so I called the Suicide Life Line.
I reached a call center in Pakistan.
I told them I was suicidal.
They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck

Or this one:

DragonflyBlade21: A woman has a close male friend. This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around so much. She sees him strictly as a friend. This always starts out with, you're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way. This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying, You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired.

So sad, so true. :)) If you take the time to read through the stuff, you'll probably realize how wonderful it would be to stick some of those quotes on shirts and then sell them. :)) I dunno if I should link the page; most of it is stupid, obscene and funny all at once.

I'll link the Winterbells game instead. The bunny is cute. You should try it.

Consultation

2008-10-09T03:06:00.000-07:00

FC 1120

I was standing outside my professor's door, looking uncertainly at the note tacked onto the corkboard which said that she'll be back in five minutes. It was my first consultation experience, and I was unsure if I should knock or come back later. Five minutes, it said. So I went a little way off and sat there, trying to conquer my moment of indecision.

At five minutes I stood up and looked again. Same closed door, same tacked note. I had a sneaking suspicion that Prof Kwe had forgotten to take it down, but all the same, I didn't want to just barge in. It was a good thing I saw Maan, who provided enough moral support for me to knock twice and open the door.

There were two other students inside the room. I sat down and waited for my turn, taking in the nude sketch to my left, the bookshelf to the far right, the large desk roughly across me, in front of which sat my professor, cross-legged and perky as usual in her beige socks and brown sneakers. There was a desk to my immediate left, with a MacBook quietly humming. A musty old smell hung in the air, as if dust and moisture had mingled silently and had now settled on yellowing sheaves of paper underfoot. Outside it was raining.

If I was surprisingly observant, it was because I was trying very hard not to listen to my classmate as she led her poem to the slaughterhouse. Prof Kwe was taking it on line by line with brutal honesty ("I wish I had an Ewwness Meter, you know? So I'll just scan the line it'll beep by itself, etc..." I heard her say jokingly. I leave it to your imaginations to figure out what she meant by that). Sitting there was silent agony. It was like going to the dentist or worse, and I was trying to figure out how much poetic sins I had committed so I would be relatively unsurprised when she pointed them out.

My turn finally came. I nervously handed her my draft, which had already received its initial critique last Tuesday (as did everybody else's), and waited for her comments.

"Ah this one. I like this poem," she said. Whew. She proceeded to discussing it with me, pointing out which lines can be further strengthened to sharpen the impact. I was surprised that her impression of the poem was strangely different from mine, and even though I wrote it, I found myself trying to remember if I really intended it to come across that way. I kept nodding my head to let her know I was taking in everything she said, but at the same time I wondered at how I had come up with those lines, and if putting them together was merely a happy accident to begin with.

At one point she said, "You know what, you remind me [...] of Gelo Suarez. You have the same tone," or something to that effect.

Two things: First, I couldn't bring myself to tell her that it was his book I was reading right before I wrote my poems-- it helps me imbibe a more poetic frame of mind. (Maybe I should try this before debating. Like, I dunno, invoke Leloy's spirit for example. HAHA.) Second, I inferred that she must have been friends (or more than friends?) with Angelo Suarez, else she wouldn't use his nickname. Afterall, she's the subject of his poem, Caffeine (third to the last post), and she's in the acknowledgements section of his first book.

I left there at around 1:15, a little relieved that it's now over and done with. I had my own share of the Ewwness Meter, but for once in a very long time, I finally did something right. It's one little nugget of happiness for the afternoon.

"I would like a prof now please."

2008-10-06T02:47:00.000-07:00

As the semester ends, I thought it was high time to do an act of public service and post an assessment of the profs I've had for this semester. So freshie kids for next year (by then I hope that doesn't apply to me anymore, leastways figuratively), listen up! This is to add to the plethora of Google sites that profess both love and hate for the people who control our academic destinies. In UP, everything is prof based. EVERYTHING.

Gerardo Sicat (Econ 11)

He has impressive credentials: he studied in several prestigious schools, was a part of the government at one point, wrote econ books and got away with it, and has grandkids to boot. He even knows how to use technology: look out for the green-colored ppts and the uploads to the UVLE. Not bad. On the other hand, I'm willing to bet that his teaching career peaked way before my time and that right now, due to old age and arthritis, it's not exactly the most enjoyable class I've had. Sicat is about as adorable as a wrinkly old turtle pottering on the stage (and that's cute, if wonderfully wrinkly turtles are your thing), but I find it more forgivable to see him as a grandpa than a prof. On the plus side, his class is highly uno-able; for GC people, you might want to consider this tidbit. Be warned though, he absolutely hates people who come to class late, and I say this with no more vehemence than he does, just to emphasize. What does he do? Well you'll just have to find out for yourself.

Eric Arances (Math 17)

Math profs are like the families you're born in: you can't choose the perfect family for yourself so you just have to live with it. I suppose there's no point in doing this write up about my math prof, but just in case it helps some unknown stranger out there who might read this years from now, I might as well do it.

To characterize Sir Arances, he reminds me of a panda, or a cuddly bear you want to squeeze to itty-bitty pieces until forever and ever and ever and ever. His teaching style, however, is as sharp as cut glass, and coupled with his occasional sardonic remarks, the cuddly bear image soon dissipates into something else. Make no mistake, he knows his stuff well; I have to grudgingly admit that he's really good when it comes to math. Personally I find his teaching pace too fast, but then again that might just be me.

The good points: if you take the math out of it, he's actually very nice. And he put up a website where we could view our grades, get exercises and read announcements. He's very open to consultation, although I didn't consult during the sem.

CP David (Nat Sci 2: Geology/Earth Science)

Very funny prof. I like his class, very light and uno-able. And in spite of all the jokes he cracked and all the hilarious but irrelevant segues, he's surprisingly knowledgeable about his field. You'd go to his class not because you have to (and you don't even have to cause he doesn't check the attendance), but because you want to. If my attendance is any indication, then it's surely a testament to that.

Jonas Quilang (Nat Sci 2: Biology)

He's the other half of the combo package. After an extreme high with Sir CP, Sir Quilang may strike you as that typical science geek who churns out scientific names at random like Old Faithful. Once you get used to him though, you don't mind as much. His lectures are dull and plain, but if you want info then you'll surely get it. Biology studies all sorts of nitty-gritties, ones that he doesn't mind teaching. He's a nice prof, one you wouldn't be scared of. Tests are multiple choice, and the attendance is 10 points per class. He uploads his lectures in the y! groups and also posts results there. Bio is something you really have to study, and after the loosey-goosey treatment of Geology, it helps remind you why you're in college in the first place.

Francezca Kwe (CW 10)

The fact that she missed class several times, and usually comes nearly 30 minutes late most of the time, overshadows the more important aspect of her: that she really is a writer. And a good one at that, I have to say. Her name actually yields google results, often in the company of other notable writers. I didn't enjoy her class as much as I would've wanted-- I mean, I wish I had participated more, or that I had produced that one brilliant nugget of a contribution. But then again, we're talking about poetry discussions here. POETRY, that shape-shifting nymph, which no one really understands, so everyone pretends that they're seeing the emperor's clothes when the reality is otherwise. I wish we took up something else for the semester, but for what it's worth, there really is a lot to learn about poetry. The subject at least made me more astute listener, if not an incrementally decent poet. For that, I have to thank Prof Kwe, who taught me that there is no such thing as vomited poetry, and that she will tell you so in the manner of grades when you get your bluebook back.

Uno-able? Hmm... that depends on your skillz really, but if you're looking for a light subject, this one is. No tests, no note-taking, no research papers; just a bit of homework and two poems at the end of the semester.

Kenneth Cardenas (Socio 10)

Of all my classes, I have to say that this one takes the cake. Sir Cardenas (and I hope to God he doesn't have a multiply account -_-) treats his students like his equals: we have as much to teach him and contribute to the class as he does. His discussions are very interesting, all the more so when he rises to the occasion and punctuates important points by a song, a dry remark or two, or even an amusing impersonation of famous personalities. His lessons made me think a lot; if I was quiet on certain Tuesday or Thursday afternoons, I was probably pondering a question he posed.

Bulk of the coursework is basically class participation, journal entries, required readings (and it's not even a lot-- we just had two this sem) and debates. No exams, no papers. You're given a lot of freedom with respect to your journal entries so it actually turns out to be fun. There's also a lot of bonus coursework to bump up your grade. Definitely uno-able.

PE: Cheerleading

(In case people want to know)

Requirements: attend x number of games of your assigned sport (usually this is during the UAAP season) plus 5 other events. Complete all and you get a 1. Fail to accomplish even one event, and you get a 5. You only meet during the first few weeks to learn the cheers; after that, you just have to submit your completed attendance cards. Signing of attendance cards is care of PEP Squad (if you're looking for people to suck up to, it's them).

Relatively easy PE, but it's annoying that it butts its way into your sched. And that you have to pay for your own tickets. If you're good at time management though, this is a cinch.

Pag hindi techie ang magulang mo

2008-10-03T01:11:00.000-07:00

The other day mom came up to me, that morning, and asked me out of the blue to teach her to use the internet. I was running late, but then what else was new? So we trooped to the pc nook and I introduced both of them to each other, and then proceeded to instructing mom how to boot the thing. There was that tricky part on which buttons to press-- there are three, afterall, and you have to get them in the right order :P-- especially when my magic touch failed to elicit a response. I dunno, must've been the cables or something. But anyway, we got it working a little while later. I pointed out parts of the desktop and explained how to know when the desktop has loaded completely ("You look at that pointer over there and see if the hourglass is gone"). The best part came when I opened up the world. Well no, not really, just the browser actually, but we went to CNN for a fieldtrip, and technically world news is the world-- or at least, a big chunk of it. I think mom got the hang of it, though she still holds the mouse like it's a rodent.

This morning she turned the pc on.

But she forgot she did.

And a good part of the morning passed before she remembered that the world was waiting.

Ah well. Better late than never. :))

So that's what my Mom has been up to, aside from her usual catering duties. Now Dad is a different story entirely. I mean, Dad knows how to use the computer as well as we do-- his reaction time is just slower than ours. :D My older sister was making him a Gmail account yesterday. He wanted to use the same id he's using for Yahoo. But it was already taken. Puzzled, my sister asked him if he had a gmail account already in existence. And my Dad, surprised as well, assumed that the account was his-- maybe he forgot he made one, you know? The passwords he kept trying were wrong so he decided to change it. The security question was a simple Yes or No. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that one out.

Long story short, he got in.

Only to find out

that the account wasn't his.

ZOMG. MY DAD IS A HACKER. O_O =)) =)) =))

Wafaz. I should try this one sometime. Hmmm... =))

Anyway, he looked through the listed email addresses and emailed someone he assumed was related to the owner, explaining what happened. He gave the account back, as well as his yahoo email address, in case there were violent reactions brewing. No replies yet. I hope they do reply. =))

So my friends, the moral of the story is to toughen up your security question, in case an unsuspecting middle-aged man suddenly and inexplicably runs away with your email address for non-evil reasons. Either that or teach your parents what NOT to do online. Just in case.

Manila International Bookfair: screwing illiteracy for 29 years

2008-09-15T01:51:00.000-07:00

I went to the book expo yesterday. FINALLY.

Happy as I was to be going, I wasn’t sure if I’d actually buy something. My book preferences have been in limbo as of late, as with all the other aspects of my personality. My dusty book pile is comprised of two issues of Seventeen magazine and a book Alvin lent me called, New Ideas from Dead Economists. It takes me a moment to pick between the two—eventually I reach out for the, er, latter one. Whew. Fortunately, it’s not as deadly as my economics book (it has me asleep five words into the paragraph—and to think I’ve never slept on any book except this one).

But anyway, I did buy something. Albeit it took me nearly forever (translation: roughly four hours). My strategy was to work my way through one end of the hall to the other end—which, if I think about it, was rather sad and laughable, given the sheer enormity of the place and the pace at which I peruse books. Thank God not all of the booths carried books I’m into, or else it would’ve taken me a good two more days to finish. I was able to reach half though (I know because the last place I visited was National Bookstore, and it sits smugly in the very center nearest to the entrance); didn’t bother to go to the other half, as my friend told me it was all med books and law books.

In spite of wearing my shopping version of combat boots, my gams were still tired by the end of it. This was a different sort of power walking, one that had your head constantly swiveling from left to right with the intention of getting to look at all sights (ie. Pink-haired cosplayers in frilly skirts) with one sweep. There was a pounding in my head that coincided with the throbbing in my legs and the creaking in my shoulder, but it was all worth it.

And so this is the part where I actually say what I bought (it just occurred to me that I’ve been mentioning it all throughout the post but never getting around to it).

Life in Progress (by Julius Villanueva)

Basically it’s a comic book of a guy who does comic strips for Manila Bulletin. I used to read him, until we switched to PDI. I like the humor, which makes up for the art. I’m not saying the art is bad, it’s just needs cleaning up at times; people who are used to, say Pugad Baboy, may be confounded by the cramped look it has (but Kiko Machine by Manix Abrera looks more cramped, I say).

I bought both of his releases. You should too. Go, buy, and feed a hungry artist today!

A Nymph of MTV (by Angelo V. Suarez)

He’s Spanish. JOKE. Ang ganda kasi ng pangalan e. He’s a Filipino poet. I only like poetry when I’m the one reading it (and not making it).

Shadowboxing in Headphones (by Lourd de Veyra)

Oh my Lourd. HAHAHA. Grabbed it from the UST Publishing House booth so I can “study” his style for CW 10. My teacher says that poetry is not meant to hide things; it is for expression. If I can’t make sense out of what he wrote, then I’ll eventually have to conclude that vomiting poetry is a perfectly sensible way of brandishing your poetic license. :|

Hmmm… what else did I buy? Oh right, this slim recipe book on cakes. I might make one this Saturday, on the off chance that I don’t have to do anything.

I would’ve bought Arnold Arre’s After Eden as well, except that I couldn’t find it and the people I did ask weren’t helpful.

So there. Interestingly enough, everything I bought is local (maybe except for the recipe book). A shift in taste? Maybe. As I said before, my book preferences are in limbo. But I’m quite satisfied, enough to forgive Henry Sy for constructing the unnecessarily gargantuan behemoth that is MOA.

Definitely looking forward to next year’s. Please, please let the venue be nearer.

Pictures to follow.

The happy post

2008-09-06T01:42:00.000-07:00

Griping doesn't solve anything, it makes you feel worse and it is pretty much a pointless thing to do. So this is an exercise in listing down all the good things, just so I won't forget. There is no such thing as a bad day in college without good moments, and I've had plenty of them, more than my fair share of things. Life isn't too bad when there's no way to go but up; sometimes, I just need to remember.

Got inducted into the UP Debate Society last week

Last Saturday was a day of unbloggable euphoria, after a long and grueling final interview. They will make you cry, yes (I thankfully didn't-- crying is such a messy business afterall), but in retrospect, the interview was englightening. There are some things I learned there that resound louder than messages from month-long retreats. That doesn't make it any easier though; if anybody's planning to apply for DebSoc, you have steel yourself for the moment of truth. I wonder what they thought of me as I stood there, dry-eyed and stoic. I took all their comments unflinchingly, even conceding to most of it. I thought afterwards that the emerging self-deprecation strategy would ultimately cut off my chances to pass. But strange things happen, you know? I ended up hugging a lot of people last Saturday. :))

Finally watched Wall-e

With my sister! Yay!

On the movie: it was neither good, nor bad; it was... bland. The movie had an interesting concept-- it's set in the far future, where one transnational company actually rules the world to the point where cultural identities have dissolved; everyone is simply a Consumer. The robotic love affair seems quite insignificant compared to that more intriguing theme, but since it was made for a younger audience, it had to compromise its ideas in order to keep its appeal. The fact that they practically had no dialogue was also unfortunate; a good script usually makes up for what the movie lacks. In this case, it was mostly a variation between "Waaaaall-eeee," or "Eve", or in those rare times, a line or two by those doughy beachballs called humans. :)) It leaves nothing to sink our teeth into.

Rotten Tomatoes rates it at 97% though. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter declared that WALL-E surpassed the achievements of Pixar's previous eight features, saying that the film had the "heart, soul, spirit and romance" of the best silent films. I love the movie for its originality and its animation, as well as Wall-e's endearing character, but if you're gunning for silent films, you might as well watch Jessica Simpson with the volume off. Makes life so much easier. (Or you could catch Untalkative Bunny at Disney, or simply go see Wallace and Gromit. Gromit absolutely is the funniest non-speaking character I've watched so far.)

Math test

Er, because I watched Wall-e, my brain collapsed into limp overcooked noodles, and basically I crapped out on my math exam the next day. There are no good moments in Math. :|

Miscellaneous

I can't remember the rest of the week, but it was pretty much all about getting up, getting dressed, eating breakfast when time permits, and then running off to school. I've been relatively better at crossing the street, and I get home earlier than usual. And I've gotten to this particular minute, on this particular day, without any major accidents. Hindi pa ko nahold-up. =)) And I hope that will never happen.

Taco dance, whoo! :))

Karma deflector

2008-09-04T01:36:00.000-07:00

Hindi ako nakapag karma deflector. And it has come back to bite me savagely in the arse.

There are a million things I want to say, a lot of it leftovers from the past weeks. This is one of the rare times I can actually sit down and type my feelings. My messy, difficult feelings of being in college, which I can't put down because my finger hits the backspace button every time I try.

To the Harbormaster (by Frank O'Hara)

I wanted to be sure to reach you;
though my ship was on the way it got caught
in some moorings. I am always tying up
and then deciding to depart. In storms and
at sunset, with the metallic coils of the tide
around my fathomless arms, I am unable
to understand the forms of my vanity
or I am hard alee with my Polish rudder
in my hand and the sun sinking. To
you I offer my hull and the tattered cordage
of my will. The terrible channels where
the wind drives me against the brown lips
of the reeds are not all behind me. Yet
I trust the sanity of my vessel; and
if it sinks it may well be in answer
to the reasoning of the eternal voices,
the waves which have kept me from reaching you.

Well at least CW 10 is good for something.

This is exactly it. I've been making excuses for too long, and it's time I owned up, despite the bitter truth: I have been found lacking. I hate it.

So this is frustration. Pleasure to meet you.

Isn't anyone else feeling the same? T_T Slap me please, I'm on the verge of losing my focus, and I simply can't afford it right now.

AA visit!!!

2008-08-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I don't have pictures; I had to wake up at quarter to six (on my free day, no less) and I simply lacked the will power to grab the camera on my way down. A little more and my sister would have had to tear me off the couch since I was going with them to Assumption. Anyway, they weren't late because of me (a crime they've been accusing me of since time immemorial), so that's good.

Gosh, I just loved the drive going up to Assumption. (I just realized: we were literally going up a mountain. O_O A MOUNTAIN. It just didn't strike me as odd before.) Except for the hideous smog obscuring the view of the city to my right, the trip was actually the most pleasant I've had in months. No jeepney fumes, no traffic, no irate passengers, no rain-- it was (and still is) a morning unspoiled. I would have melted onto the passenger's seat if I could; it was that relaxing.

I was honestly a little excited to visit. The thought of going back to one of my venerable comfort zones, where people are friendly and all students are younger than I am(!), just made me very happy. I even saw Ms Olalde getting out of her car, and I had to fight a maddening impulse to hug her because I looked like a freakish creature in rumpled bed clothes. I was in shorts and slippers; strangely enough, I was half afraid she'd admonish me for coming in forbidden attire. But then again, I'm not a student there anymore.

AA is: blue sky, green grass, golden sunshine and red skirts.

Let's get these teen hearts beating faster, FASTER

2008-08-16T00:59:00.000-07:00

Panic! at the Disco

I can't believe I actually went to their concert even though I had an econ test early next morning. Sinamahan ko si ate, who's the bigger fan between us. Wait, scratch that, she's the only fan between us. I like PATD well enough, but not to the screaming fangirl extent-- it's more of a feeling of respect for their musicianship and the genre they're pursuing (to great success, I might add). While some people might prefer their first album's style, I'm glad their second album proves that they're not FOB rip-offs, and that they do hold well on their own. And besides, I like happy music. Everybody should listen to happy music.

I'll be posting the album eventually.

They're real! O_O

This is from their meet-and-greet in Podium. Ate and I went there after school. I didn't even bother changing-- so... I kind of carried over my haggardness. But who cares anyway?!

(L-R): Spencer, Jon (or is it the other way around?), Ryan, (and obscured by the belly of this bouncer in front of me), Brendon

At the concert: yes, I had to drag my Econ book along. I nearly popped a vessel trying to digest marginal revenue and marginal cost in the market structure of monopoly. :| And yes, I didn't change for the concert either. I was in shorts and sneaks. Top that! :))

They're great people. Speaking of people, Tracy Abad and Lia Hernandez were standing to our right. And at one point, Miggy Chavez (who looks strange when dressed as one of the ordinary folk) was standing about ten paces away to my left, in the ten o clock direction.

I just feel like posting

2008-08-11T02:39:00.000-07:00

Another week.

Please excuse my incoherent writing, I just finished my non-existent weekend and I'm preparing to have breakfast with an exam tomorrow. What cheery prospects. Of course, provided that the new Katipunan traffic scheme works itself out and we get to strangle each other before we all die of fumes or worse, it'll just be another blasted day in another blasted week.

Two months into college and counting: I have just lost fifteen pounds, have gone down a cup size and am currently trying my best not to fail in Math 17. If anyone wants to slim down, you might as well go to UP and drag a freakishly huge bag along; technically, if you keep running around the campus with your house inside your backpack, it'll count as "working out". Thus, the slimming effect.

---

It's strange. There are times when I feel like college is not my reality, like I'm supposed to be somewhere else, or that I'm supposed to be doing something different. It's still hard to wrap my head around the concept of joining an org, or the fact that there are no "classmates" in UP: just people, people, and more people. We are all floating around like dust motes in sunlight. It's strange not to be anchored anywhere else. Back in highschool, I used to consider my section as part of my identity. In the big wide world of UP, there is simply no such thing as a "section", let alone people you can count on/leech off. It's just you looking out for yourself.

I sadly have to admit: I'm not used to that.

I saw Ms Lanzona a while ago at Cherry Foodarama. Five months ago, she was my teacher. Five months ago, I was in high school. I briefly considered saying hi, but didn't; I also considered texting one of my friends just to say that I saw her, but I didn't. I realized: it's just not relevant anymore.

What do I miss?

Everything.

What is Graphic Design?

2008-08-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

I was casting around for poster ideas when I came across this site:

http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/winners_of_the_what_is_graphic_design_poster_competition/

The winning entries were quite amazing. You can look at the site for the posters themselves, but here below is one of my particular favorites.

All posters have to answer the question posed above, btw (what is graphic design?). First to figure out what this one says wins a cookie.

What in the world am I going to do with my education?!

2008-08-01T03:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it bothers me that I’m taking up Economics. Aside from the fact that, roughly eight weeks into the first semester of my first college year, I am bored with studying it, I have no idea what I’ll do with it afterwards. It’s not just Econ; there’s Nat Sci and Creative Writing and Socio. And PE, regrettably. As much as I enjoy the novelty of attending classes I picked and interacting with a greater variety of people, sometimes I feel like throwing it all out the window. I feel restless. I don’t know what to do with myself. If the world had a nuclear explosion and all life got wiped out or mutated, there is actually no sense in continuing these sorts of studies. I mean, I may well be able to tick off the great thinkers one after the other in accurate succession, but at the end of the day, when you’re dying of hunger (in a world where possibly the grass is red and you have web-like appendages growing between your fingers), it’s not the ticket to getting yourself fed. Of course that’s just my imagination. I guess I’m thinking up of reasons why not to study. I like to learn, certainly, but that is, as Oscar Wilde points out succinctly, quite different from “education”.

What am I going to do? As a child, I used to want to be an archaeologist, until that idea bored me. Then I wanted to become a chef, until relatives dissuaded me; to my great bitterness, I learned years later that my cousin enrolled herself in CCA. Dream stealers—they came in and took away what I really wanted, and all that was left of me was my “smart” head. Ah, then UP is the key!, they told me. They urged me to take up Accountancy, a surefire way to getting paid afterwards. It was during those times that I absolutely despised discussing my future; I wanted to be spared of the pressure and of the alarming feeling that I was going to end up with something I didn’t want. In the end, it didn’t matter. I chose Economics partly because it sounded good enough to pacify my critics. But as I said, it doesn’t matter anyway; blindfolding myself and shooting darts at courses randomly would have been as effective. So here I am, in Economics, where the book is so tedious that it makes me want to tear it to little pieces and feed it to the dogs, where I don’t even get the reason why its discussion is important in the first place. This, of course, begs the question: then what is important in life? I honestly don’t know yet. Family, I suppose, and friends, and finding out who you are. Is there any course to study this? Psychology I guess, but the real classroom comes in the form of Everyday Life.

Right. Well. Attempting to live in Everyday Life can be frustrating. College has stripped away all the secure familiarities I’ve had, including the ones that I thought were permanent. A small implosion has gone off inside my head, and everything I thought I stood for has just been smashed to smithereens.

I hate it; I just figured out who I was and what I wanted, then bam. I have to start from scratch. Again. Like a house of cards lovingly, painstakingly built up, a slight tremor from the ground has suddenly upset everything.

Growing pains and hormonal imbalances—and suddenly, I feel like a wreck.

You know, if I just didn’t have a conscience

I might have probably stopped school right now.

It's been proven.

2008-07-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

Given:

Study = No Fail

No study = Fail

--------------------------------------------------

Study + No Study = Fail + No Fail

Study (1 + No ) = Fail (1 + No )

Study = Fail

HAHAHAHAHA!

And we now have thus proved that studying is indeed equivalent to failure. Applause please.

(NOTE: Credits for this mathematical piece of genius goes to an unnamed person who happened to scrawl it in one of the arm chairs in Nat Sci. All hail.

Warning: Do not try formula at home.)

Take a Stand: the UPDS free debate seminar

2008-07-22T03:15:00.000-07:00

Stand out this centennial: attend TAKE A STAND, the UP Debate Society's free debate seminar for college students. Drop by on July 25, from 2:30 to 5:30 PM at SE 125, UP School of Economics to learn the basics of the art of debate. Text Marc at 09183132806 or email updseacom@gmail.com to get sure seats.

Visit http://updebatesociety.org/seminar.html for more information on UPDS and its other debate education programs.

We shall instruct you in the art of SLAUGHTER

2008-07-21T02:54:00.000-07:00

Slaughter of arguments, that is.

I had my first graded debate a while ago, with Nina (Bahjin). To think that she deferred last Friday and then showed up today... well, just goes to show that it's not over til it really is over. Anyway, I'm just glad that the Tina-Nina (or Nina-Tina) team is alive and kicking again. Pangalan pa lang, panalo na! HAHAHA. It's an excellent conversation piece, mind you, and it helps people remember us two, though sometimes they can't remember which is which.

So, to the debate. I was feeling anxious about this over the weekend, to the point of pleading to my family to pep me whenever I'm on the verge of deferring. And I have to tell you, I was THISCLOSE to deferring because Nina's deferment last Friday was rather deflating for the morale. But whatever. I have the firm belief that someday, I will be ready for everything; it's just a question of whether the time is right. I mean, I do believe that I was old enough to take on the Speechfest during my senior year (and I was right, to my relief). And now I think, after three years of swearing off debate, that I'm ready to try debating again.

The motion:

This house would legalize abortion only for rape victims.

I was Government Member, Nina was the Whip.

This would be the first time I took on the role of GM. I honestly don't get what they mean by "elevation" [of the debate], which supposedly would come from the Closing side (meaning us!), but Mels told me that the usual tactic was to zero in on one perspective in order to differentiate the Opening Government's contributions from the Closing Gov. I was a little nervous when it was my turn, but after I did my arguments, everything became a hundred times more amusing-- to the point that the debate was actually funny. To me at least.

Anyway. Enough of the debate jargon.

In the end, our team was ranked

FIRST. (Gov won overall, though Opening Gov came in second.)

It was totally unexpected; we were partly lucky and partly good enough, I guess. But I'm quite relieved to know that I'm not totally bad at debating, as I had previously thought. Debating, more than winning an argument, is like Proving in Geometry: you start off with a banner statement, give a premise, and then wiggle down to your conclusion, which will support your side's stance. I think I'm getting the hang of the logic thing.

If we came in third, it wouldn't have been so bad (though of course, it would have been a nip on the ego)-- I mean, nobody has to be brilliant the first time. Like me for example. If my arguments were insecticide, their toxicity level would brand them under "Organic Insecticide". It's not the DDT of arguments, but it's getting there. It will get there.

It comforts me to know that everybody starts from scratch. It gives you the hope of being better next time. :)

The people in my neighborhood

2008-07-15T02:25:00.000-07:00

Chronologically speaking, they are:

Tobie

Hmmm... friend or non-friend? I have no idea. He's the guy Milcah and I would occasionally say hi to or talk to, the Nat Sci classmate who's technically our blockmate but with a different schedule, the block head who exists only in theory but not in practice. He did say hi this morning for once. We talked for a bit about the upcoming Econ exam. That's a good thing, I guess. Mission namin ni Milcah yan e, to befriend Tobie. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Why? Not for any special reason; we just wonder why we always see him alone (not that he's a socially-challenged creature or anything-- on the contrary, he seems like the very capable type). Naiintriga lang kami. Maybe when we're friends, we'll ask why he doesn't have the usual clique of guys. Cause isn't that weird? I rarely encounter solitary creatures in UP.

Geoff

Okay, now that I remember our first conversation, a supremely intelligent person could have pointed out the first time that Geoff is gay. I mean, Powerpuff Girls? Little Lulu? The topic wanders into cartoons and he's the one mentioning those. :)) I suck. HAHA! My gaydar does NOT work. :| Of course I learned about his gayness through somebody else, but the revelation astonished me. It took three days for it to sink in, and a few more days to get over my homophobia. I don't mind it so much anymore, as long as he doesn't mention Math. Or Chris Tiu. =))

Si ano... ung hindi ko kilala :))

Hindi ko pa rin siya kilala. Even the reconnaissance work I did a while ago was futile. I can tell you what he wore though. :)) If that helps.

This random person

So it was raining around 1 pm and I was walking. The narrow sidewalk made it awkward to move with umbrellas, and I was getting fed up with hitting myself with my own umbrella because I was trying to dodge somebody else's. And then suddenly, someone to my left said, "Ang sama ng timing ng ulan no?" And I swear, I had no idea who he was. But I talked to him anyway. We talked about the weather all the way to AS, without even asking for names. :)) Watisdut. That is the most random experience I've had yet. :))

My Socio prof

I hate to say this, but he is absolutely awesome to the point that I don't even want to like him, because if I do so then I'll be putting him on a pedestal. And what happens to people you put on pedestals? You worship them. And how do you react to people on pedestals? You become so awed you just swallow it all up. So anyway, because of his background in Debate, he says things with irrefutable logic. (Or maybe I'm just too unimaginative to see the loopholes?) He starts talking about imagined communities and history as fiction and my mind goes all soft and squishy like an overcooked noodle. That's what I feel when I sit in his class. I love the discussions, but honestly, if you measure my output per class--

Brilliant thoughts: 0

Profound insights: 0

Wala pa kong matinong contribution! And he knows such a lot. I sometimes wonder where he gets those theories; it's like he pulls them out of the air and says to us nonchalantly, "You know the concept of Neo-liberalism? Okay. It says that..." La la la la. And he connects that to the discussion and stuff. Of course it's enriching, but by that time my mind is so overstretched, it can barely comprehend his irrefutable logic. Somewhere in the middle of it, my train of thought stops, gets entangled and disappears. Later I find it dangling dismally in a corner of my brain.

And finally...

Julie!

Siya pala ung katabi ko sa jeep. =)) AHAHAHAHA! And I never noticed, until I was five minutes away from my stop. Kala ko ale siya HAHAHA. Sabi niya kanina pa niya raw ako tinitingnan. Eh. Her red jacket practically blended her in with the red paint. :| It was too bad I had to go down so soon.

---

More people to appear in my neighborhood, I expect.

Especially since tomorrow,

I start my tambay debate. O_O

Bidding love

2008-07-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

UP Debsoc's Buddy Bidding

So.

You bid with what, exactly? With moolah, of course. Nina and I set our budget to 3.5k, but ALAS. I ended up bidding for Mels (the current UPDS president) for P3.8k. Not bad I guess (although of course, in my head I was like, CRAP! O_O). They said it was a two-in-one package-- you know, UPDS president plus her debater boyfriend. Hahahaha! It could've been worse you know. One of the really good mentors were auctioned off at P8k++. No kidding. It was really really fun though!! There's something intense and addicting about auctions; reminds me of playing with slot machines, not that people are slot machines, of course. Anyway, in case I'm being vague about this, buddies are debsoc members who mentor the apps during the application process. Basically teach them the ropes and fight for them in the deliberations. Woohoo! And who better person to put in a good word for me than the president?

It's just been two meetings, but I already love the org. It still stands to see if I'll enjoy the art of debating itself (maybe I will, maybe I won't), but I absolutely love the mix of people. My parents are just pissed over the fact that I get home late when I go to these org things. I got a lecture a while ago-- although what's the point of that anyway? It's not as if I go there evilly and party the night away. O_O I honestly would rather go home and sleep like a normal person, but the experience is honestly too good to pass up.

---

On last Thursday's boycott/rally:

Well. They were noisy. During Math. I'm not sure if the momentary distraction was a good thing or a bad thing.

Our Math teacher ignored it, in accordance with his cuddly-sadistic-sarcastic image. I don't like him, nor his subject. I wish hard Math didn't exist in this world. : Anyway, the person to my left, Geoff (who is such an absolute genius in Math that it actually annoys me to be sitting next to him because it makes me feel more irrationally stupid), seems disappointed that I don't like Math as much as he does. He can't discuss answers with me, because most of the time he's right and I'm wrong; sometimes, a non-Math person can only take so much, you know?! But whatever. As the poetic writing on the bathroom doors declares, "Math is only a phase. It too, shall pass."

Guess I'm not alone in my misery then.

---

Muriel dropped by this morning to borrow some books from me. I've been lugging them around for roughly two weeks now. Not that their absence made any difference in the weight of my bag though. Anyway, with Milcah, we ate some barbecue in Beach House, then crossed in the middle of the sunken garden to the far left side. We were walking along slowly (discussing how life would be if, theoretically, Muriel was a boy) when our feet suddenly sank into this boggy marsh part. Gyah. There was a little stream running there, hidden by the grass, ready to swallow up the unsuspecting walker. Somehow, Muriel and I were able to safely clamber up past the mud and onto the sloping side. Milcah, on the other hand, was left there to die. HAHAHA. The soft brown soil was swallowing her feet, white pants and all. Because Milcah needed rescuing, Muriel went down again (this time her foot unfortunately sank into the mud :)) ) to find another way.

As a result of the muddy specks on her pants, Milcah and I (Muriel by this time had already left) went to the SE bathroom to wash her pants. Anyway, the long and short of it is, we were super late for Math. To the point that we actually considered cutting the blasted subject. Walang Toking masakyan! We walked under the damn heat and moaned our way up the stairs, to where Sir Eric was teaching with his usual... vigour. :

Ah, what a day. As usual, there were extremely good parts (Muriel's visit, my afternoon nap, Debsoc) and extremely bad parts (the heat, Math, I autoloaded the wrong number, Math). This is the latest I've been out so far; I arrived home a while ago at half past nine, just in time to see Kim Chiu go back to Gerald, and watch Fredo discover Dyesebel in mermaid form. :

Right now, I just feel hungry.

A blast from four months past

2008-07-02T08:42:00.001-07:00

I saw Ms Lanzona at the Econ building today!!! After class. And I was so pleasantly surprised, that I

actually

bussed her cheek.

Bineso ko siya. :| What was I thinking?! Nothing apparently, as my reaction would suggest. The funny thing is, we've been joking about this day for so long (the agreed protocol being a quick dash in the opposite direction), but when it comes down to it really, it honestly isn't that bad. I realize that I do owe a great deal of my understanding of Econ to her, and that in spite of the impatience, the ridiculous clapping and the times when she was really really REALLY annoying, you have to hand it to her for sticking it out with us and for somehow forming our solid Econ foundation.

For the people like me who're taking up Econ, it's one of the high school things that matter. :)

I just had to :P

2008-06-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

WHAT MAJOR IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as History/Anthropology/LiberalArts

You should strongly consider majoring (or minoring) in History, Anthropology, or related majors (e.g., African and African-American Studies, Chinese, Classics, Cultural Studies, Economics, English, French, Geography, German, Greek, Hebrew, International Studies, Philosophy, Sociology, Women's Studies, or other Liberal Arts majors).

It is possible that the best major for you is your 2nd, 3rd, or even 5th listed category, so be sure to consider ALL majors in your OTHER high scoring categories (below). You may score high in a category you didnt think you would--it is possible that a great major for you is something you once dismissed as not for you. The right major for you will be something 1) you love and enjoy and 2) are really great at it.

Consider adding a minor or double majoring to make yourself standout and to combine your interests. Please post your results in your myspace/blog/journal.

History/Anthropology/LiberalArts

100%

Visual&PerformingArts

94%

English/Journalism/Comm

94%

French/Spanish/OtherLanguage

94%

HR/BusinessManagement

75%

Accounting/Finance/Marketing

75%

Education/Counseling

75%

Religion/Theology

75%

Psychology/Sociology

75%

Biology/Chemistry/Geology

69%

Physics/Engineering/Computer

50%

PoliticalScience/Philosophy

50%

Nursing/AthleticTraining/Health

44%

Mathematics/Statistics

13%

SHIFT NA KO!!! Hahahahaha.

Hello, let's be strangers

2008-06-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

I don't know what was it about yesterday that left me all out of sorts, but at last night's acquaintance party, I didn't feel like making any acquaintances. I sat sullenly in my chair and crossed my arms and didn't bother to talk to anyone. At all.

I left feeling glad that it was over at last, though I felt a pang of guilt that I was rather cold to my friends. I guess I have to be extra cheery next week to make up for it.

It's rather strange though. Yesterday was an extremely good day-- I had lunch with Shai, Joanne and Muriel at Shakey's; wandered around Katipunan with Muriel after Shai and Joanne left; said hi to Steph, Kay and Jeric (their friend) at Starbucks; then went to Muriel's house to play Wii, watch tv and nap (a very spontaneous plan, that). I felt good! But apparently it didn't last long enough to put me in my best friendly condition.

Guess I was just tired and cranky. Oh well.

---

In other things.

It seems that all the good guys are either gay, taken, fictional or just weird.

They say there are a lot of fish in the ocean. In my part of the water, there are no fish, just lots and lots of duds with fins.

That lovin' feeling

2008-06-24T03:40:00.000-07:00

Today was a bad day. Math totally sucked (earbleed :|), and my Creative Writing class, while exciting to attend, does not move me in the way Sir Andie does with his antics. GAH, I miss the AA HUMOR!!! I mean, everyone in CW is so totally into writing that the humor they buy is something we call "wit". Unfortunately, I'm not buying it. I don't care about "the stainless sorrow of emptiness" and other whatever things that string along with it. Sometime in the middle of those ninety minutes, I can hear my gutless soul screaming for Shai and Zarah and Melinda and Jen and the good old days when we'd just hang around and CHILL. And laugh for no goddamn reason at all.

I ate lunch with Justine today, and talked and talked and talked. Then we said goodbye. We bussed cheeks. Beso. I don't think I've done that with anyone in UP, not even with Milcah (I'm ready to bet it's because she doesn't think it's hygienic. :| But that's a topic for another day).

If UP had a vendo machine for hugs, I'd go straight up to it, select the AA kind and pour all my loose change into it.

Because for the past weeks, my quota for feel-good hugs has been nil.

Snippets nonchalant

2008-06-20T04:48:00.000-07:00

It's been one long week and I can't believe that it's only been about nine days of seeing blockmates, professors and sore feet. There are interesting things that happened over the week; I'm quite apologetic that I couldn't write them down sooner-- between dinner and arriving home, there's the huge likelihood that I fall asleep or forget this thing completely. Too bad, it wouldv'e been amusing to describe these things in greater detail.

Tuesday, OUR 1:00-2:00pm

Sometimes you think you're the end-all-and-be-all of some things. Like the UPCAT, for example. So I was really surprised to see long lines at the Registrar's: turns out that it was the second to the last day for submitting the application form. Jamie, a classmate from Math, was getting her id and so I, having nothing better to do, went with her. I sat near the fan while she sat in the id queue. Incidentally there were other people near my area, most likely getting registered or something. A mom sat to my right; she was waiting for her son to finish: he was one of those tall, mestiso types who obviously like sports and who's probably rich enough to enroll in an elite all-boys' school and go to the US every summer. I didn't know him, therefore I had no opinion of him, except that he was being incredibly whiny about something that was not getting done. He kept going back and forth between the chairs and the window with a scowl on his face. His mom, on the other hand, who was coaching-nagging-talking-not being helpful to her son, was calling out his name for all heaven to hear. His name was Mark.

Anyway, he was given the Bracket B certification form a little while later. So he went to his mom.

Mark: Mom, do you have a pen?

Mom: *looks into bag* Ay wala. I changed bags.

Mark: Shoot. No wait, I got it. *rummages in own bag* Crap. I don't have a pen.

And so they tittered for a while on what they were going to do. I was sitting a foot away to the left, and through sheer inspiration, I opened my pencil case and sedately said, "Would you like a pen?"

The mom was nice enough to thank me at least, and so I opened my Socio 10 reading while waiting for them to finish with it. With the form accomplished, the mom returned my pen to me with her thanks (but not her son's :|). I continued to read while waiting for Jamie to finish, but I couldn't help hearing the the little drama being played out to my right.

Mom: O Mark, since you're in college na, you should start reading. You know, they give you thick books to read, etc etc...

Mark: Mom, I don't read. I'm a soccer player.

I must've read one sentence fifteen times. What a jock!!! :| I hope he doesn't get into UP, cause he doesn't deserve the slot some poorer bloke could've occupied.

Wednesday, Econ 11 discussion 1:00-2:00pm

It's the only time our block gets together. It's a pity we don't know everyone too well. I think I'd love to be friends with all of them, even with the Makati girls; college makes you realize that people are people, and there's something to be discovered in each of them.

We had group work for that day. Yay! It's roughly the only social interaction you can hope to get in class, since you can usually go through a lecture without even turning to the person beside you. I quite realize that making friends is somewhat of a choice, because reaching out is not exactly the easiest thing to do in the world. It's a small achievement of mine that I've managed to know perhaps 45% of my blockmates by name, and an even bigger achievement to match those names to the right faces.

Another thing that group work makes you realize: that everyone in UP is SMART. Like really. And sometimes they don't even have to look like it.

Guess the UPCAT counts for something then.

---

Oh yeah, there was an Oblation Run earlier that day. :)) Yes, they are naked, and yes, they do run/jog and give roses and make the queers screaaaaaam like hell. And most likely all of the rumors you've probably heard about it are true. :))

Thursday (Birthday!)

Twas okay. Although of course it was a little strange "celebrating" it in an environment where virtually everyone is a stranger and most of them won't care if you're turning a year or not. I mean, it's not a piece of information you'd let slip to someone you've just met; otherwise they'll think that you're asking for attention and all.

Friday

Generally today was better than yesterday, because the weird awkward feeling of my supposedly special day had passed. First day of eighteen today! And I spent it catching up with old friends and making new ones. There's Geoff and Gilbert and Iris. So I have guy friends now. Well at least now I know that not all of them have the social capacity of a teaspoon-- I used to think there was something wrong with me because I couldn't carry a proper normal conversation with guys, because usually they vomit out one word and then leave it to fate and silence to direct our conversation. Wala lang pala. :)) Whew.

I rode the wrong jeep going home. Good thing I realized it before I got lost, so I got down at Robinsons, where I decided to get the Econ book I needed. I was able to buy it at the NBS in Q Plaza. The baggage guy was trying to talk to me. Wth. Generally I like chatting with random, friendly strangers, but I wasn't in any mood to do so today. I had been walking for hours on an empty stomach, which made me really cranky. The weight of my bag was cutting the circulation in my left arm, so I guess that was another factor.

Back in AA, I didn't have good days and bad days. I just had school days, which means that all of them were the same to me. In UP, I have good moments and bad moments, and times when I just want to sit somewhere clean; the volatility of my day (and the weather!) astounds me. But it can be quite fun actually.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday

2008-06-15T22:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday:

Got a haircut.

Before and after.

<- My hair looks like the creature from the hairy lagoon. I'd tie it up in a ponytail and it STILL would be long. There are times when I like my long hair (like when I can play with it or something), and then there are times when I don't like it (when it gets in the way-- which is all the time unless handled with care :|). So I told mom I'd have it chopped off last Saturday. I didn't care where, as long as it got cut off. I didn't think of the style I wanted until I got there, so I simply said something vaguely about a bob-- a long bob. The hairdresser looked at me like I had two heads or something. Now that I think about it, it was probably a stupid thing to say: a bob is a really short cut, and it simply doesn't work when it's not the proper length. Anyway, with her proper reconciliatory skills, (s)he got it done and I was pretty happy about not having to sweat it out anymore. I just want it short. That's all.

One thing though: I should never ever get it blow-dried and bouncy, unless I want to look like Burton's Willy Wonka. :| :)) My hair looks more human with just a plain shampoo treatment.

---

Sunday:

Father's Day. Went to Lolo's for lunch. I missed it, because I slept on the couch for half the afternoon. I spent all morning baking these, which took me three unhappy hours:

Lemon cream cheese cupcakes! They're expensive to make but they're really tasty. :)

---

Monday:

We had a teambuilding activity for our block earlier, since we don't have class every Monday.

So for the activity, we were grouped into groups of 4. (We were just 16 freshies, not everyone came.) My groupmates were Carrie, Kendra and Tobie. Our first stop was near the Econ audi where they had strings tied between two pillars like a spiderweb. Parang Stargate, the crude version. :)) So as usual, we had to go through without touching the strings. Tobie went first. After he got through, the activity leader told us we couldn't use the same space as he did. So... it's either we crawl through some other space, jump over (yeah right) or get carried. Unfortunately, we picked the last one, and even more unfortunately, I had to be the next. And before I knew it, nakaakbay na ko kay Carrie at kay Kendra, and they were ready to lift me through. O_O Parang Rexona moment. There was something wrong with the distribution of weight; medyo nasasakal ko na ata si Carrie, but I couldn't let go cause my FEET were already through. And inside my head I'm just going OhnoOhnoOhno. Tobie pulled me through, which was just-- GAH. I can't believe I did that in my sweaty state.

After I was done, they eventually allowed people to repeat the exit spaces. :| So my other teammates didn't have to suffer the indignity of getting lifted and all. Wth. :))

Anyway, I got to know a lot of people from my block. May mga taga-AC (like Carrie and Louie)! Whaddya know. And then I got to talk to the friendly upperclassmen from the UP EcoSoc. They even treated us to The Beach House(!!! :)) ), where we had lunch and just talked and stuff. It was pretty fun actually, even though it was a little outside my comfort zone. It's just too bad that the only time our block gets together is during Math 17 and Econ 11, and even so we're not always all there.

Second day

2008-06-11T03:16:00.000-07:00

I have three subjects for today: Econ 11, Math 17 and Econ 11, again.

Econ 11, the lecture at least, is from 8 am to 9. I got to school at about 7:30 am. Hindi pa ko late! Hahahahaha. Well anyway, we filed into the Econ auditorium; we sat in the first row, kasi un ung tip ng upperclassmen pag audi ung venue. The prof was a little late, and the class was even more delayed because there was a virus on the ppt he wanted to open. :)) He was rather old, kinda reminded me of Sir Beni without the random mumbling. :)) Same slowness though. :)) So anyway, his assistants finally got the ppt to work, and we got on with our very first (!) official class. It was an introduction basically, but he numbered it as Lecture 1 as opposed to Lecture 0, because "It is good to start things on a good number, etc etc..." I was feeling really really sleepy midway, when he suddenly turned to his left and said abruptly, "Who is that over there? Is that a person?" And from the podium, he crossed to the righthand dark corner of the stage where there stood... an electric fan!!! He thought it was a guard! Ok, nabuhayan na ko nun. Tawang-tawa na kaming lahat. :)) He laughed at his mistake and went back to the podium after saying a few more things about the fan. :))

He's prof Gerardo Sicat by the way. Well sikat din ata siya (pun not intended), cause my mom was really impressed when she heard it was him. I hope his future classes would be speedier next time, but I don't mind too much; I actually like him a lot, cause he's such a roly-poly old man. :))

I had a two hour break til my next class, so I went with Milcah (who's my blockmate and therefore has nearly the same schedule as me) to the University Registrar to get her id changed. We walked there. Of course it was inevitable since the jeeps were going the opposite direction, but I still disliked the walk. Mukha na kaming yagit pagkatapos. Ba't kasi ang init ng Pilipinas?!?! Anyway, we got there only to find that the Photo Office was still closed. So we sat and waited. Dalawang electric fan ung nakatapat samin, haha. Grabe, kung pwede lang, ok rin un tambayan kasi may electric fan na marami. So there we were, sitting for a good while and just watching people, when I looked to my left and suddenly saw... this guy. Crush ko na siya registration pa lang (hindi kami pareho ng course though). :)) Akalain mo un, sa laki ng UP dun sa OUR ko pa siya nakita. :)) Kaya... wala lang. Nakakaaliw lang na may tinitingnan na tao. :)) Tanungin niyo si Milcah kung anong itsura hahaha!

Thirty minutes later we got up and started walking to the Math building for our next class. Sabi ko, "May alam akong shortcut!", kasi gusto ni Milcah mag-jeep. Sus, jeep ka pa e pwede naman lakarin. So we went back to the main road and turned left, another left and another left. So kumbaga, kung i-drowing niyo yan sa mapa umikot lang kami. :)) Gusto na kong barilin ni Milcah. Well we should've turned right pala. We got to the MB pretty okay, except that we were drenched with sweat and the hour we spent in front of the fan earlier became useless.

So, Math 17. The prof was late 15 minutes, though I don't know if it was because he went to the wrong room. He gave us the syllabus and a few reminders. (We'll be using the book we had in 4th year, ung Leithold; whenever I see that book I'll be reminded of Ms Valente.) He started our first lesson, which was about Sets (and crap, wala akong dalang notebook nun!). Definition of sets, elements, operations, rule and roster method, etc etc. Medyo nakakakaba kasi he'd randomly call out a name from the list and ask you something. And you have to fight down the impulse to stand when reciting, cause he said not to. So we were getting along fine, when he gave us this statement towards the end of the lecture.

True or False: If A is a subset of B, then A intersection B and B are not disjoint sets.

"How many say true? Raise your hands."

Inanalyze ko muna nang onti. Di ba... true? And then he said, "How many say false?" Perry raised his hand. "Why do you say it's false?"

"Because sir, if A is a null set and B is also a null set, then the intersection of A and B will be a null set. Therefore..."

Basta he said something more. He lost me at the elipses. :| And then the people in front started this null-set neepery and everybody was like, what?! WHAAAAT?! Or maybe that was just me. Basta, the intersection of two null sets will produce a set that is equal but also disjointed. Kasi null sets have nothing in them. But if you have nothing in both your sets, then technically you have something common. Which is nothing. So... ba't nga ulit false? False ba ung sagot? O True? (PLEASE kung may nakakaintindi ng kaguluhang ito, sagutin niyo ung tanong. :)) )

Crap. Smarty pants ung Math class ko. Pano ba yan, wala akong gusto sa mga ganyang intellectual discussions. :| Mag-aaral nga ako para makasagot ako nang tama.

Hay grabe. More Math 17 tomorrow. Hooray.

We were late for the Econ 11 discussion class right after. I agreed to take the jeep pa, na umikot nang kahaba-haba. Then is stopped at AS, kasi naghintay pa siya ng pasahero. So wala ring point sumakay ng jeep, kasi hindi rin kami dumaan ng Econ building. As in malayong malayo ung AS sa Econ. :| Nilakad pa namin. Anyway the good thing is, since I surmise that people just barge into class without having to say hello or explain why they're late, we just walked in and took seats. Buti na lang we just had to present our Form 5 to Ms. Iva, who's one of prof Sicat's teaching assistants.

That basically sums up my second day. I fell asleep on the couch the moment I got home.

Mula sa malayong lugar ng Peyups

2008-06-10T02:15:00.000-07:00

4:30 am:

Woke up. I lay on my bed for a good while, just staring at the darkness and yawning. My sister was already taking a bath. I couldn't remember the last time I woke up this early.

Pinagbaon pa pala ko ni Ma. :)) So... may bitbit pa kong lunchbox at jug. Hay nako, kulang na lang stroller e. :)) Nilagay ko na lang ung lunchbox ko sa bag ko.

7:15 am:

Arrived in UP. I decided to walk to the theatre since I wasn't in a hurry anyway. It was pretty much a straightforward route, with no loopy-loops or curves. This is a cinch, I thought. Which was my mistake exactly: it was one long FREAKING walk!!! I was walking for fifteen minutes, my body was breaking into little beads of sweat, and all this occurred even before anything significant had happened. There were hordes of people milling around outside the theatre, most of them in little groups of safety. I was on my own social island for a while, trying not to look too pathetic. I eventually saw some AA people, Justine and Ate Inna being the first of them. We were waiting for the registration lines to become a little less congested before sweating it out with the rest of them.

There was a guy in a khaki media jacket holding a videocam. I wasn't thinking much about it until I realized... OMG. Omgomgomg. It was Howie Severino!!! I was a little awed, because he was my absolutiest favorite documentary-maker guy! I wanted to tell him I liked his work but he was a little busy, so I didn't. He may have been documenting the protest against the tuition increase, which means to say that: there was a simultaneous mini-rally happening alongside the registration. And they actually had small megaphones and placards. And they do break out in choruses. All in a day's work for them, I guess.

Amazing. My first taste of student activism(!).

8:10 am:

Got through the registration tables. They gave me a UP Survival Kit cd, plus some brochures and leaflets which I didn't read. I was too busy stuffing everything into my bag. I walked into the surprisingly roomy theatre (aww, miss ko ung Assumpta :( ), where their ethnic ensemble, Kontra Gapi, was playing (awww, ethnic!).

They proceeded with the program, which was quite a formal affair, full of welcoming speeches and clapping and introducing people. I was falling asleep in the middle of one long speech when it finally ended and the UP Concert Chorus walked in to bring us out of our misery. Or was it the UP Pep Squad? Anyway, I can’t remember much of what they said, but it was full of things like, “Congratulations! Out of the 50,000 people who took the UPCAT, you have passed it in order to stand here before us today, as our centennial freshmen, etc etc,” and more ego pumping.

Nagreview din pala kami ng cheer, haha, at which we spectacularly failed at. Mas malakas pa ata ung bangaw sa labas. At least nakikipalakpak ako hahahaha. At dahil bibo kasi an aming pep squad, they performed a routine for us! Only the effect was rather spoiled by the fact that as soon as the pep squad cleared the stage to start, the student rally swiftly moved onto the stage with these huge “I-rollback ang tuition!” banners that completely obscured the poor pep squad from our view. Medyo nakakainis but oh well. Freedom of expression to the next level na.

12-ish:

So finally the university welcome ended. Our block handlers were supposed to meet us outside in order to lead us to wherever we were supposed to go after. Unfortunately they didn’t have their signboards on hand, which left a lot of us confused. We huddled around like bleating sheep to the side of the theatre, near the under-construction bell tower. The scary part was, there was an occasional piece of scaffolding that fell from way up, and damn, it COULD have hit somebody. The guard made us change our area after that and line up somewhere safer, at which point our block handlers now had their bloody signboards on hand and were organizing us into lines.

They led us into an SE room. Yay aircon. Naglaro kami ng Super Manok, ang paboritong laro ng estudyanteng UP (or so they say). Anyway, pinakain din nila kami eventually ng Jollibee burger steak, at tinour kami sa building namin. I’m happy to say that the bathrooms look clean and civilized, hahahaha!

1:30 pm:

School of Econ orientation: the student council, the orgs, miscellaneous things… One Econ singing group performed Seasons of Love; it was a whiff of nostalgia that only carries one thing with it: the spirit of IV-3. How do you measure, measure a year?

Pinagmeryenda kami ng Greenwich pizza. Sosy. Hahahaha. And they forced us to play games. I say forced kasi lalapit na lang sila sayo, tas papapuntahin ka sa stage. :| Ngyur. For this one game, they got five guys and one girl, tapos sabi sa guys (kasi kumakain sila ng pizza nun), “Gamit ng pizza niyo, makipag-flirt kayo kay Marga. O contestant number one, go!” (This is a Greenwich-related game, kasi sponsor nila un.)

Guy 1: Pano ba makipag-flirt sa pizza?

Eyng. =)) Di nakikinig e. Basta kahit papano, nakaraos din sila dun hahaha. Sobrang nakakatawa lang.

5:00 pm:

Akalain mong natapos kami ng 5. Grabeeeee. Ang hirap makakuha ng sasakyan na jeep!!! Uwian hour na kasi, kaya agawan talaga. Whenever an empty jeep would roll by, people would just swarm on it like ants—you know, the vicious kind that can usually bring down small animals. So kaming apat ni Milcah, Misha saka ni Nicole, di makakuha ng jeep. We were like timid rabbits that hopped forward and flopped back. Sa tagal namin dun, sumakay na lang kami ng kahit ano, basta dadaan sa Robinsons. Kaya ayun, nakauwi na rin ako.

It was a good first day, I think, but I couldn't help thinking of my friends (and how I miss them so much), and what they were doing at that moment. There were times during the day that I wished I could live my four college years over and over again, except that I'd go to a different university every time and get all the chances I want to take in life. It was exciting that was in a way rather sad, because to accomodate the new, you have to push aside the old.

There's a new hymn I'll be singing soon, one slower than the one I've been accustomed to. But for now I'll keep the old school song in my heart, exactly the place where all my good memories go.

Caked.

2008-05-26T04:10:00.000-07:00

I baked a mocha cake yesterday, so I could use the leftover icing I made.

It tastes like cake. So I guess that went well. Oddly enough I'm racking my head, trying to remember what Ms Brigino taught us about baking conversions and what not. I never thought I'd live to see the day when I'd look for that dratted piece of index card I wrote the formula on. I must've thrown it away. Oh well.

Anyway, the cake looked like this last night. Right now it's down to one-fourth of its original size. Not bad.

A World Handwriting Contest! Who knew?!

2008-05-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

And in accordance with the title, I must now direct you to

http://www.global2000.net/handwritingrepair/WHAC/

So that you can see for yourself.

I got that at:

http://www.contest.googlepages.com/

Well. At least ads are good for something sometimes.

---

Worldwide contests makes me feel really small.

AI, JB, BB

2008-05-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

This is going to be one extensive post, so slap me if I'm becoming redundundant. :))

On one particular Wednesday a few months back, this guy, a bartender, walked in, sang his piece and got the golden ticket. Exactly one moment after he left the room, I turned to my sister, who had been watching with me, and said to her, "What's his name again?"

"David something e. Cook ata. Naalala ko kasi parang kapangalan niya yung trabaho niya, haha."

"Ahhh."

And that was how he became my favorite. I liked him even before everything, and I wanted him to win even before the world witnessed what he was capable of. He sailed through Hollywood week, got in through the Top 24, and with much confidence, I knew he could stay on for a long time. It was pretty easy to lose him in the crowd, what with David Archuleta and all, but Cook was pretty good and I was baffled to not meet anybody else who liked him as much as I did. (Well if anyone reading liked Cook as far back as the Top 24, wave your hand where I can see you.) And I mean, I really really really really really really really really like freaking really liked this guy, burger belly and all.

So the competition went on and stuff. People watched, Americans voted. And then the Mariah Carey week happened. And that, my friends, is just one example of his genius. I think he blew everyone's socks off with his rendition. After that, I was just glad that people began to sit up and take notice.

I won't write too much like an appalling little fangirl, but when it came down to the final two, well, I can't say that I haven't been waiting for the match-up since forever. Archuleta, as Simon said, picked better songs for last night. Cook's performances, on the other hand, while strong enough on their own, paled in comparison to Archuleta's song choices. And gosh, I was just crushed about it. I have never felt so... sad about any reality tv contest since the Cho Brothers got eliminated once upon an Amazing Race season ago. (It's actually pathetic how involved I am. :|) On the bright side, you can't predict something that hasn't happened yet, so I just hoped that Cook's artistry and originality for the whole season (and he is the most consistent performer I've watched so far) would be enough to tip the scales in his favor.

Just so you know, I had bad dreams throughout the night. No, not of Archuleta winning-- that was a minor thing-- but of actually missing the results show. I dreamed of waking up at 10 am and learning horrible news, and then I re-dreamed the dream and instead saw myself waking up at 4 am, to be doomed to watch a never ending results show that will never have results. How perverse. I often have those get-caught-with-your-underpants-off type of dreams when I'm nervous.

Anyway.

I woke up exactly on time for the results show, thank goodness. It was one long and entertaining spectacle. If they wanted the tension off for a while, they succeeded in doing that. It was only when the moment of truth was there, finally there, that I felt a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. I hated the suspense. I glumly expected Ryan to read Archuleta's name, but then, I have to smugly say that David Cook, roughly twelve hours ago, became the American Idol.

And I couldn't help mentioning this fact to my family once every fifteen minutes, interspersed with sincere apologies for having to be so annoying, and telling them to punch me when they felt like it. They didn't though; they just had this deadpan face (accompanied occasionally by a roll of their eyes) whenever I was bothering them. Again. And again. And again.

There will be life after Idol, but I will miss it.

---

I went to JB's debut last Monday (incidentally, it was also James Blunt's concert). I may not post the pictures anymore, since I didn't take enough to contribute what people would think is a decent album, but here's JB, in all her goddess-like splendor:

Pictures available upon request, I suppose.

---

And finally, BB stands for Baby Brownie, a vintage Kodak cam we recently dug up again. By vintage, I mean that the most recent date I found on the bottom of this baby is 1942. I used to play with this as a kid, but even now I can't figure it out. It's a sweet little thing though. I'm thinking it's a point-and-shoot camera, since I can't see through the viewfinder, nor through the round red window at the back.

This uses black and white film, I think. Does anybody have any idea how to run this thing, in theory at least? I think it's kinda... broken. Haha, must've been all the playing way back.

Airbending Aangadoodle

2008-05-15T04:18:00.000-07:00

There's a cartoon on Nickelodeon called Avatar: The Last Airbender, which they originally intended for its 6-11 year-old demographic. I am apparently part of that demographic, although I am nearly 18. *cough cough* I originally didn't get the whole anime+Western sensibilities movement, since I staunchly believed that anime at least should be drawn by the original creators and so should be left alone by the Westerners, who usually execute the style in a rather appalling way. Totally Spies and Marvin Mysteries (ok, suki nga ako ng Disney :|), which I assume are made by the same people since they have the same drawing style, both really annoy me because they are lame and sadly unfunny. So when I happened to watch Avatar at Nickelodeon I was initially unimpressed; on a minor note, the dubbing bothered me a little, because Aang's voice disconcertingly reminded me of my little cousin's :)). Not that it was bad, but the familiarity of the sound often made it seem like the voice was disconnected from the character, for me at least anyway.

About a month ago my 4 and 7 year-old nieces borrowed the second season from my older cousin, and having nothing better to do this summer, I decided to have another go at the series and borrowed the cd from them.

Well, the second season definitely proved itself worthy with every episode I watched. And interestingly enough, not only did my two other sisters like it (which is rare, considering that this is a cartoon we're talking about), we even went ahead and watched the third season online.

In summary, it is a great series. Watching it made me feel like I was watching a thirty-minute Hayao Miyazaki creation. It had that slight flavor of Japanese animation, coupled with the best of American sensibilities in directing, writing and story development. The Western influence kept the Japanese tendency for extreme exaggeration at bay, while the Asian aesthetics spun the story into something entirely new and unconceived before. And I liked the diverse ethnicities that looked like real people. And yeah, I liked the fact that hair in this series actually grows, a feat I have never seen before in other cartoons. :) I suppose it's not something everyone's going to sit down and watch and discuss with me, but hey, I like it for the same reason/s a lot of people like, say, Pokemon: it's appealed to me in a way other cartoons haven't before.

I drew this on my white board, on a whim. I wasn't intending to try drawing any of the characters, since I liked the animation too much to touch it. Besides, I wanted to keep the integrity of their art intact by not messing around with it too much. Oh well, I thought, one wouldn't hurt. So I went ahead and drew one.

Which I eventually colored digitally.

Which eventually turned into this.

It's predictably in a static position. The composition is pretty lame, but there's not much you can do with a small white board and a fat marker without gouging someone's eye out. Still, it's wonderful to draw something after being in hiatus for so long. My Deviantart account is gathering dust somewhere, which is quite a shame, but I may now pluck up the courage to post something there.

There's something to be done about that orange block of a shirt/cape thing, which perhaps I will decide tomorrow.

Dear Jen

2008-04-28T02:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Jen,

I was listening for your plane last Saturday, pero mukhang hindi dumaan sa bahay kaya wala kong narinig. Andun ako sa bintana for thirty minutes. :)) Anyway, I was thinking of yelling good-bye, but as there was nothing to yell to except the empty sky, I just ESP-ed you my love. Kuha mo naman di ba? :))

I have this weird thought that you'll be flying on the plane forever, so we can't contact you and stuff. Weird no? Parang pupunta ka sa lugar na walang signal kaya di ka makatext or what. Anyway, your plane has probably touched down on solid earth right now. At least, I hope so, so you can message us back and give us the weather report over there. I hope the distance and the time difference won't change things between us, because with some people, it has. Keep us updated with your life, so we won't have to be stuck with old memories. What I mean is, old memories are fun, but making new ones is even better. :) HUG!

We await your multiply post. ;)

Love,

Tina

And we sang, here we go again

2008-04-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

I attended Melinda's debut last Friday, reveling in the fact that I was going to see my friends again after a long long time. It was fun, in the good old-fashioned sort of way-- you know, just hanging around, talking, goofing off and stuff.

I went to Noemi's debut the next night at the Richmonde Hotel. It wasn't too hard to prepare for it-- afterall, it just required a long gown and such; Melinda's party had everyone in costume, and compared to that, wearing a dress is so relatively easier. The tricky part was, I suppose, deciding on what to do with myself after wearing the dress. It might be just me but there was a niggling feeling I got at the back of my head that I at least had to apply some make-up and all that mishmash. Crap, I have no idea how to do that. I might as well birth a cow for all my skill and delicacy. Thank God I have two other sisters to order around and help me dress, or else I would've taken forever and ever because I utterly fail in that fancy aspect.

Anyway, I got to the hotel. I think, out of all the debuts I attended so far, this one was the most impressively organized. I mean, they had registrations, table designations, program booklets and everything. I sat down at table nine [:))], next to Ayesa.

They opened the buffet table a little while later, after Noemi's grand entrance and the regular picture taking. And the food...!!! Okay, there is something to be said about the food(!). We ended up taking at least three plates per person back to the table. HAHAHA!!! Table nine loves to dine. Needless to say, we were all agog with the salmon and the dill sauce and the dessert bar and whatever delicious things that were lying innocently on the buffet table.

They started the program not long after. Everything was followed right on the dot, no more, no less. Knowing Noemi, this didn't surprise me. But I liked it; nice, neat and everything very well-meant. I think the organizers did a good job of keeping it under two hours.

They opened the dance floor after Noemi's thank-you address. Fay and Muriel were dancing crazily, facing the mirrors. It was fannie, hahaha! There were flashy lights going on all over. This went on for a good while, with me watching and laughing with the rest of them, when they decided to go to the bathroom. I went too, since I didn't see the point of keeping my hair down anymore and I wanted to tie it up neatly.

So we were in the bathroom, Muriel, Nicole, Liberty, Joanne and I. I don't know how it happened, or whether it was the loopy feeling of happiness I had at the moment, but I mumbled something about a cute guy to Nicole. She bloody looked at me like I had an astonishingly fat slug coming out of my mouth. I blinked at her in return. I was perfectly nonchalant; I mean, it wasn't a big deal, was it? But it was only a horrified moment later when I realized that I had said the wrong thing to the wrong people. And all of a sudden, the whole situation was volatile. Everyone was like, which one? Which one? And of course I told them, and being girls that they are, they failed to be discreet about it altogether.

Which was alarming, I have to add. I didn't mind too much, even when they were pointedly making noises about it back in the room, except that Liberty called Noemi over and asked to be introduced to majority of table ten. Out of the ten seats on that table, I think eight of them were guys, and if you get my drift, then you know where this was going. It was mortifying. It was like I just hit puberty again and I have to say that my pathetic tween feelings were horrified.

There I sat, sinking into my chair, arms crossed, because I felt rather furious at the ambush; at the same time, I didn't want to appear badly unsociable. Crap. Whatever. Social exertion is just awful at times, especially when I feel so taciturn.

I learned their names, except one, and they were nice enough about it. I don't suppose any of us will ever meet again, since that doesn't happen to a room full of random strangers (not unless, of course, this was a cheesy movie and all that). But that's exactly the beauty of liking a stranger-- it's as inconsequential as a snowflake on warm skin. No need for names, no need for pointless socializing; it all boils down to looking across the room and feeling curiously glad, and you shrug it off again when the next day comes.

Awesome Spandex Powers

2008-04-06T02:40:00.000-07:00

What does it feel like, graduating? This apparently is an irrelevant question, as the event itself occurred a good two weeks ago. You know, the Filipino, as a people, only has a memory of two days; after that, you have to give them another sensation. So I guess that to most people, discussing something that happened Two Weeks Ago is like taking a dusty book out of the annals of eternity.

Anyway, who cares? I just feel that it's important to mull over it, you know? Before handing it over to oblivion. I have to chew it up like a doggy bone. I mean, does a dog actually taste a doggy bone? Or is it in reality, tasteless? Memories are like that. And I've found out that the best way to preserve a memory is to immortalize the sensations before letting go.

So. Graduation. I've had twenty-four hours to think and recover (if you read my previous entry you'll understand). And then I knew.

Graduation is like dying a little. Chipping away at an old self and all that jazz. Or actually, it's like growing a new skin. In the span of a day it'll have fully grown around your old self, and you'll find that you're a different person altogether. You've just replaced your old self with this new thing, which I like to think of as tight and stretchy and terribly itchy at times. It's weird. People spend their lives trying to figure out who they are and then suddenly, they're different and they have to start all over again, just when they've nearly settled the pieces. It's a little depressing. I hate to think that I've outgrown myself.

I guess that's what they mean by "growing pains". If you stop and think about it, these cliches, no matter how dead they are, have become cliches for a reason: it's because they do hold true.

Oh well. Onward and upward. I think I've sucked all the flavor out of that memory, so I'm letting it drift off. What a relief, to have cut away so cleanly. It makes a reexamination of yourself so much... neater.

Ah college!!!! New sights, new smells, new places to piss on. No kidding. The smell of a new arena is exciting, all the more so when you realize that

we've grown spandex suits.

We're superheroes. Awesome. I don't think anybody else has this much power to change the world. We have so much potential in all of us, that to grasp the world and hold it in the palm of our hands is as tantalizingly close as smelling coffee in Starbucks.

And that's just one of the many possibilities.

When it's too bittersweet to savor

2008-03-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

After finding a lump in my throat all throughout the week, I finally had a good cry yesterday. It had actually started during the singing of Psalm 4, at which point I could still stop it and be composed, though I just popped after being sworn in to the alumnae association.

"Congratulations, fellow old girls."

CRAAAAAP. Ayun na. I couldn't do anything about it. I hated, absolutely HATED the fact that I was losing my right to the places, and most especially, to the people I love. My classroom, the Assumpta, the beautiful campus; my batchmates (even though I find that we have the immaturity of a three-year old coupled with the wilyness of an adult-- makes us uncontrollable like hell), the manongs and manangs, the sisters, my teachers and of course, Ms Ettie. I have never found anyone who has more wisdom, humility, goodness and the firm decision to shepherd us, even if all her hair has to fall out. I understood why both she and Ms Olalde were TERRIBLY angry earlier afternoon yesterday. It was because for our sake that they wanted to make our graduation as beautiful as possible. Only people who truly love you do that.

I felt utterly wretched at the end of the ceremony. I cried unconsolably all the way to the car, and down the highway. I didn't even get to say good bye to my friends!!! DAAAARN. Whattaday.

Well batchmates, that certainly was the real thing. The whole senior year was like a very long and unpleasant birthing process. It was rough, and even if I usually excused ourselves as troubled artists who have no decent outlet, there were also times that I found myself doubting as to whether we could pull it off. It upset me to think that we were to graduate without any respect or understanding of what we were about to accomplish. But everything fell into place in the end. Hopefully we've made our peace with one another, and we've parted ways in good faith.

Strange to say, but I find that it does hold true, for me at least: I love you, AA08. I wish everyone all the best in their college life.

I am a dire wolf, prey-stalking, lethal prowler

2008-03-02T01:25:00.000-08:00

If you're familiar with that line, it continues on in this animated gif banner for Obama. It really is a nifty piece of work. Makes me want to vote for Obama as well.

---

It's the second day of March! Unbelievably. I wanted to celebrate February 29th with a blog entry, but... well, the belatedness of this post means that that didn't happen the way that I wanted it to. The past week was so stressful that I literally collapsed on the bed in front of the tv and promptly morphed into a potato couch. Having cable tv is so interesting. I really like watching those obscure Indian channels at the tail end, if not for entertainment then at least out of curiosity. It tells you a little about them. Anyway, I ended up doing nothing this weekend, except perhaps learning how to draw more cartoons (you know, if you pay really close attention to those Disney how-to's, you're likely to get a good result).

Fourth quarterly tests in two WEEKS. How scary is that?! With the way things are going, we're likely to get caught with our pants down when test week comes.

Runny Babbit

2008-02-14T21:54:00.000-08:00

I didn't go to school today because I had to go to the doctor; apparently there's a strange little lump in my inguinal area. I have no idea what inguinal means. My major commitments for the week were done anyway, so that's good. Mom and I commuted all the way to UST only to find out that there had been a mix-up and that the OB-GYNE wasn't coming. Boo. I got to ride the LRT a lot though, which was fun! Wish AA had its own transit line. It's a more civilized form of transport. I was thinking about the sights and smells of the disturbingly dirty area around UST and as much as I LOATHE to admit it, my delicate burgis sensibilities (-_-) were profoundly unhappy with the environment.

They say burgis is fair skin, hatid-sundo schedules and bubbles of paradise. They're right. The burgis need more courage then. (That's what I need!)

I say burgis means having to face our own glaring realities and setting the world to rights, even while sipping a moccha frap. :)

---

Belated happy Valentine's day to you people, even though I'm a non-believer when it comes to that. Valentine's Day is about as real as Santa, which means the reality of it depends on how deluded you really are. Santa is a dead fat man stuck in a chimney, but at least everybody gets a day off on Christmas. Or he could really be real, since they took him off Forbes' Fifteen Richest Fictonal Characters some time ag (a little boy protested his un-existence-- they're still considering the appeal). But Valentine's Day? Nope. You spend the day hoping a little baby in wet diapers is going to spear you. You hope that it's gonna be a vicious kind of piercing, something that hopefully will be repeated all throughout the year.

I just don't get it.

Troublesome thing is the commercial ploys get really crazy. The Black Valentine's campaign was an interesting novelty though. Still, it was actually a nice day yesterday, in spite of panicking like a headless chicken when the Clavinova wasn't in tune with the sax, and Shai and I had to defer our number until Ms Ettie figured out how to lower the tuning by a half-step. When I think about it, teachers act like little kids when they're left to themselves. They should do that more often-- maybe school would be more fun if they just relaxed.

De-fluffing between the ears

2008-01-30T06:07:00.000-08:00

I just finished Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It's about angels and devils and the ineffable plan and the end of the world and bits about the Antichrist. Which all means that it has about as much spirituality as a toothpick. And which also means that I enjoyed it immensely, especially the good bits.

The style kinda reminds me of "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy", though I think Good Omens is more comprehensible. I had a feeling that if I attempted to deconstruct "Hitchiker's...", it would... I dunno. I think that would be silly to do in the first place, so nevermind that.
---

Baked the second batch of blueberry muffins a while ago. The addition of the blueberries could shock you-- they colored the batter in an unsightly moldy green-blue-grey shade. It was like Picasso dropped in and made some abstract batter art. People tell me it smells (and tastes) good though. I wouldn't know; I have to buy one for myself. As it is, I don't have money even to do that.

---

Floobie-doobie
Iwannawatchamovie

Maybe if we rhyme stuff hard enough it'll come true...

In which we feature Mrs. Lovett with a meat pie

2008-01-27T23:55:00.000-08:00

It's what I do in my better hours. And on Shai's white board, usually, because it's the easiest thing I can reach when I'm on my bed.

Here ya go, Mrs. Lovett with a sample of the worst pies in London. I might do another one on paper, to see if I can add the dark circles under her eyes, which is a such a distinct feature for her face; you can't really do that with a thick whiteboard marker without having the face looking like something the cat left on the litterbox. Hmmm... that and perhaps redoing her wild tangled mass of hair into a more aesthetically-pleasing/more understandable mop. It's supposed to be sort of brushed back and stuff. Will think about that, as well as adding a tangible hand to support the tray. :)

Now that I think about it, Helena Bonham Carter done in cartoon reminds me of that goth girl in Beetlejuice.

Maroon na ko. O_O

2008-01-12T20:15:00.000-08:00

It feels a little foreign on the tongue, but I feel relieved that my vague future can now be imagined in a tangible setting, which is, most fortunately, the UP campus in Diliman. I checked the results yesterday. Saw some batchmates there.

I sort of knew it beforehand, since my sister asked her friend to check it for me via text (I jumped and hollered on the street when we got it), but we went anyway to make sure. My mom and dad were ecstatic. I had brought the camera along just to take a shot at this momentous moment, though I regretted it later: my mom and dad were making me pose beside the boards, which not only was embarrassing (because people were pointedly making polite coughing noises for me to move), it was mortifying. They kept treating me like I wasn't seventeen, which took out all the fun of passing the UPCAT. Sigh.

Well anyway, congratulations to the rest of you guys who made it. I only checked a few names, and remembered even less, but in case you still don't know: Melinda, Zarah, Angel, Julie, you passed. :) Congratulations. (Short-lived memory, I know. :P)

Haha. May karapatan na rin akong magliwaliw sa UP.

2008. Finally.

2008-01-01T22:36:00.000-08:00

I love 2007. I think it was one of the best, liveliest, sunniest, loveliest, newest, most wonderful darned good years of my life. I love being 17! It's definitely the best age ever, which is why I'm a little sorry to turn 18 this year. I didn't want to grow up too soon.

Well anyway, we baked cookies last December 30. Our first chocolate chip cookies ever.

Amazing we didn't burn them.

Cookie munsters.

This is how you do it. With coffee. Hmmmm.

Okay, now segue to New Year's Eve-- here's a picture of the chocolate platter.

Grabe. Look at that. It's just begging to be eaten. We didn't finish it though. Umay kasi, hahaha.

Spent the New Year with my mother's side. They turned the central airconditioning system on after we lit the fireworks. Kaya nakatulog silang lahat, except me, and my cousin David, who were still going at it with the MagicSing. Medyo lang alas-kwatro na kami tumigil. Actually hindi ko naman gusto talagang kumanta ng ganun katagal, e kasi pumipili sila ng kanta, tas nakatulog na lang sila, tapos naiwan sakin yung mic. Well then. Sing like you mean it, kahit na hindi ako makascore nang matino. Haha.

Salutations to my moldy writing space

2007-12-29T04:01:00.000-08:00

Hello blog, I'm quite hungry now. The stove doesn't have gas at the moment and the gas delivery guy is running late, so we have to order pizza. Trouble is, Older Sister is on the phone which means there is no way to call pizza people to feed us. As we do not believe in microwaves and instant noodles, we will have to starve until Older Sister gets the point and obligingly lets us dial 911.

911-11-11 that is.

Well now, hungry rantings of my stomach aside, how are you? I haven't wrote to you for weeks now. I've been saving it all in my head, but then the catchy soundbytes don't seem as good when I write them down, so I wave good-bye to that entry for the moment. It's two days til the New Year. I sent a future email to myself, by the way. I'm going to receive it on my 22nd birthday. Hopefully the world will still be spinning by then (and that the apocalypse hasn't come yet, as the ancient Mayans had predicted) and I can still rule the world and distribute the continents to my friends. That is, if the melted icebergs haven't sunk the good cities yet.

Oh here you go. The gas just arrived, the same time that Older Sister finally allowed Parental Unit One to use the phone to call the pizza people. Huzzah.

I don't have much to tell, except that I haven't done anything particularly useful (I wrapped gifts though, does that count?). I wrote down everything I was supposed to do last night, in black angry letters with exclamation! points! all over it. As I said before, I sadly have to report that none of those tasks are checked yet. Oh the lethargy! It's infectious! There's nothing like a day spent sitting on the couch. Just terrifically sitting, not even watching tv. Lounging is a meditative activity, like the way cows chew their cuds all day. You chew your thoughts, after which you roll in the grass and sleep in the sunshine.

My older sibling is doing a "study" on emo, by the way. In my unwanted personal opinion, I think it's a dangerous and decidedly uncomfortable topic. Undefined. Highly debatable. Volatile. Kind of like deciding Michael Jackson's innocence, you know? It's one of those pop culture things that no one has quite put a finger on, and it's usually best left alone to thrive, mutate and slash itself to depressing little pieces.

---
They're calling me to my chores. Toodles.

"Conserve energy!", we all decried, as we sat there and enjoyed the icy coolness of six airconditioners.

2007-12-06T07:28:00.001-08:00

There's nothing better than spending an afternoon listening to an "exchange of ideas" about how the "youth can be the hope of the environment". It elicits the "same excitement you can get from proofreading science textbooks". Oh the wonderful glories of being there! If it's one thing I really like, it's being out of school during school hours, in a different school, on official school business. I was curious to see how Ateneans conducted themselves, and if they actually live up to their proclaimed standards. But as that's a topic for another day, let me get back to the Oratoricals.

Right-o.

Maika and I had spent the whole Tuesday practicing and performing. At that time we still had no idea who was going to present. We did it over and over again, up til the afternoon wherein Ms Abarquez finally asked us to perform for the coordinators to help her decide. Perhaps it was the fatigue, the constant tension, and the fact that I had spent a good hour doing diaphragm exercises (in a rather baffled way, I must admit). Or perhaps it was because I didn't really have my heart set on doing the oratoricals. But whatever the reason, I was dimly aware that I was slightly out of focus when I did that crucial minute for the coordinators.

They finally were able to decide, but Ms Abarquez, before breaking the news, sat down with us and asked what we honestly thought about the thing. Maika's answer, in case you want to know, was that she had been waiting for this opportunity since her freshman year, and that even though she was scared, she wanted to do it. I was a little amazed that there are actually people who want to go through this type of hell, even though there's a prize at the end of the agony. Ms Abarquez nodded, then turned to me, waiting for my answer.

And I said,

"Well. I've been thinking about this since the weekend. And I think I CAN do it, ifever it boils down to that. I enjoy soliloquies and oral tests (whatta nerd, I know), but speeches are different. Frankly, I'm not sure if I want to do it. You don't get to pretend. You have a message. And the thing I'm afraid of, aside from facing the crowd and all, is that if I don't believe what I was saying, if I don't have that CONVICTION, then... how am I going to impart my message?"

I'm afraid I can't type it verbatim, but that's pretty much what I said. But more than what I said above, my deeper reason was that I had to be true to myself. I really DID think about it all weekend. Over and over. I knew I'd like the glory of winning, of being important, of being commended (it's a nice feeling, you know). But if I did it for those reasons, then my reasons would have been selfish. And I would have completely missed the point of doing it in the first place. The activities of the Eco Week, although debatable in their usefulness to the real cause, all aim to make their own stand for the environment. And I asked myself, Would I do it for the earth? You see, it's not so easy writing and talking about the state of our surroundings. You could talk fine and act noble. I've been there, done that. It was only later on, through the uneasy pricking of my consciousness, that I realized that I had merely deceived myself and the others around me on the merits of my actions. I've learned that doing things for all the wrong reasons, for all the wrong motivations, have no reward. And more than that, people are bound to pick up the stench of unclean charades. You can't deceive the universe.

I've had that lesson imprinted starkly in my mind since then, and I always came back to it when I was mulling over what to do with the oratoricals.

Anyway, the teachers had decided to go with Maika. I'm glad that I said I didn't want it-- for a moment there a scene flickered in my mind, with someone saying "You're fired!" and with me retorting, "I didn't ask for the job, actually." Whew. At least I got off the hook with as much dignity as I could muster. It did hurt a bit-- the outcomes of looking yourself in the eye are often scathing-- but I was largely relieved to find the pressure off my shoulders. I, the understudy, spent the afternoon giving my own inputs to help Maika's improvement.

It's a curious word, understudy. It sounds like a euphemism for a handicapped sub who isn't up to par with the original contestant. Sigh. Nevertheless, that afternoon, I found that I could face the challenge squarely and deliver what was expected. It became a vindication of sorts. Now knowing what I was capable of, I had that guarantee that I could enter any future contest at will and step up to the plate any time I wished it.

I slept well that night, because I had nothing to worry about, haha! That Wednesday was a nice day actually. The only downside was that people kept telling me, "Good luck!" I felt a little guilty accepting the well-wishing, knowing full well that I didn't really need it, but as people tended to leave me as I was about to explain, "Actually, it's Maika who's--", I didn't bother with it anymore. If you noticed the pained smile I was wearing that day, it was because of that.

We left for the Ateneo at quarter to eleven, arrived there at eleven-thirty. Ate for half an hour. Looked for the venue. Killed time. LOTS of it. The contest was to start at 2 pm. Did you know that you could play around a hundred rounds of the staring game with the floor with that much time?

It finally started. Everyone was on their toes. I never knew that there were so many styles of delivering a speech. Some preferred to do some theatrics, other liked to do it with made-up accents. So this is how things go, I thought to myself. I was looking at a small part of the oratorical playing field. For now I contented myself with just peering in, not doing any actual playing myself. Maybe in a year or so.

Maika was finally called. I was a little terrified that she'd miss a line. She did, but nothing damaging. It went smooth as silk, at least I think so-- but then, I've already seen her do it so many times that the effect is rather lost on me. (Her footware worked fine, by the way. She had broken the heel of her shoes early on. Thank God I brought the extra flats.)

So there. It was done at last. And I think she won, if I'm not mistaken. Assumption Antipolo won. As much as I applaud her, let's not forget the other people who also contributed to the effort: Ms Cartagena, Ms Michelle, Ms Abarquez, Ms Rory (for her stage tips), Steph Gumaru (for her excellent example), Ms Miranda, and me. :))

The competition wasn't particularly tight. There were few of them who really stood to par. I think I would often wonder how it would have been if I had been the one delivering the speech. It this regret? No, not that. I promised myself I would never regret anything I firmly decided. And I did this, being consciously honest with myself. I promised myself that I would never look

back with those kinds of thoughts.
Besides, I'm less likely to trip that way.

The things I owe my blog

2007-12-03T05:11:00.000-08:00

Like blog posts, for example. I have a gazillion topics I have yet to hash out, but that's not possible with the time I have, so I'll just have to put a quick word in and such (which is really unfair, but that's the way it goes). I might as well do it now; I think I just hurt my blog's feelings with the slow updates. So anyhoo.

IV-1 Baguio Retreat
Suffice to say that I loved every bit of it, down to my cold blue toes and the creepy things that go bump in the night. The pictures are still in my camera. As it is with my digital photos, I most probably won't upload them... yet. HAHA! (Perhaps by our 3rd monthsary?) Anyway, I think the Retreat was a great way to relax and just chill. Also, I think it brought out the best in us. My section's not so bad when you take them out of the classroom setting. It's more bearable for all of us that way. The only downside to it though is that I've seemed to run out of things to say to them, and that oddly enough, I don't really feel like conversing much.

IV-3 Baguio Retreat
I missed you guys SO MUCH!!! Ack! I even woke up early morning to check the time and say a little prayer for good weather as (I knew) you guys were leaving. And though you might not know it, I was thinking of you guys most of the time. I could envision all of you in my head, and creepy as this sounds, I had this BELIEF-- that I knew that I could BE THERE if I wanted to, in a less corporeal form. (The universe told me. Shhh.) I knew it would freak you more than it would scare me if it did happen, so I desisted and went to sleep instead. But really. I engraved every inch of that retreat house in my memory so I could somehow be with you when you were there. *Wuv hug :D*

Fair and Variety Show
Backstage privilege is heavenly. And Sandwich was freaking awesome. Sa wakas nabawi ko na rin ung pictures na hindi ko nagawa nung nagperform sila sa AC (cause I didn't bring my camera then). Grabe. Huling fair at variety show na to. In spite of all my complaints about how boring it is (and it's the truth!), I felt really sad when the variety show ended. It was the only time it SANK IN. Ayan na. Kahuli-hulihan na. I've just passed another landmark in my senior year.

On a side note: The bands were supposed to return the backstage passes to us once they left (so it could be used again next year), but we lost a lot of them. Since I was in charge of the backstage gate at that time when Tansan ni Gaston was leaving, I had to run after them and politely ask for the passes. Chris was like, "Aw shit," sabay balik ng pass. Sinosouvenir pala nila. : :)) Anyway, we let him keep one, out of the three they returned (dunno where the other passes went. Hm.).

Neil Gaiman at the Ad Congress and Fully Booked event
I didn't go, but I'm glad to hear that he enjoyed himself immensely. I was too dead tired to fret about it really, what with having sore feet and all from the variety show. Also glad to know that Andrew Drilon won, which doesn't really surprise me. Ah, there is such a lot to learn from the lives of creative people! It makes my little heart swell with happiness. Teehee.

Eco Week Oratoricals
It's either me or Maika, though Maika's the priority since she wrote the piece. I'm sort of her understudy, as I've explained to countless people who stopped short of congratulating me when they heard that, and then let a moment of awkward silence pass. It's fine really. I sort of like performing soliloquies (spelling? omaygad, I'm so cerebrally incapacitated right now) in fancy costumes and stuff, but it never entered my mind to enter speechfests. Soliloquies require some degree of acting and pretending, and I actually like playing around with the whole hoopla. But with speechy things? I dunno. I'm not sure if I WANT this one. I needed three days of soul searching before I finally convinced myself to believe what I was saying. I reasonably think it's within my powers to perform this, and I'm sure winning would be a nice feeling, but the pressure is turning my stomach weak with just the thought of it. With the unbearably shaky hands and jittery knees, it's even worse than the recital madness I put up with every year (which is being betrayed by my foot by running horrifically, insensibly, off the piano pedal).
Ah well. We'll know tomorrow. Whatever happens, I just want to WATCH the event. That's about the most concrete thing I've decided about the whole shebang.

Pan's Labyrinth
FINALLY! I watched it! On pirated dibidi of course. I watched it with my sisters, and I actually thought that it had no title menu, cause it went straight to the movie. Sabay Korean subs ung lumalabas. And the movie is in Spanish! I wanted to watch it badly enough to sit there and try to figure out what they were saying. By then the only progress I made was understanding "Gracias!" and "Ofelia!" Well anyway, we sort of found out that the thing actually had a menu, and that you could change the subs afterall. Holy hallelujah!

I loved the movie! It's creepy and beautiful at the same time. Watch it! Watch it! I wish Stardust was as dark as that.

Chronicles of Narnia, books 3-6
I've read them all before, back in Grade 4, but I had no idea it was a series then, so I started it all wrong, and read them in the wrong order. I actually began it at the last book, because I liked the picture of the unicorn. The faaaancifuuul unicorn! *twirl* So anyway.
Now that I'm actually paying attention to what I'm reading, it actually reminds me of Enid Blyton's books. Or is it the other way around? Whatever. The books are pretty simple, but the character I love best is Aslan.
Wish I could hug a huge lion too.

On decorating the house for Christmas
We're still not done. It's taking us so looooong, because we're taking the task to heart and we just had to come up with a unified theme for all the decor. The tree looks wonderful though. I'll try posting a picture sometime.

Strange. I feel highly excited about Christmas this year. (Could it be because I'm dressing up as Willy Wonka on Christmas Eve? Could be.) Nothing like cold air, hot chocolate and Ryan Cayabyab's Filipino Christmas songs to make for a perfect evening.

How to make a GREAT hypocritical essay

2007-11-25T06:33:00.000-08:00

How to make a GREAT hypocritical essay

As based from the experience of yours truly.

First of all, you get this really really hackneyed topic, like, let's say, NATURE. Or to be more dramatic, pick stuff like how we can help the environment, what Al Gore says about global warming, how the youth is the hope of the environment... that kind of crap. Next is you try to FEEL something for you topic (like something that's halfway between concern and pessimism, but not quite). And then, my friends, you WRITE. Write as if you believe what you're writing. Write as if this very topic's fate hinges on what you're typing on your keyboard. Because in fact, this, to some degree, is true. So write with passion. Write with anger. Dictate. Preach. Command. Stir them to action and to such other huge displays of social responsibility. Let the guilty be guilty, ho! And let the sinners be beholden to punishment!

Of course with such subjects it's very easy to get carried away by your emotions. I bet you can spend two pages bemoaning the horrific statistics, and then a good two pages more numbering the people to blame.

Control, friends, control! Exercise thy emotions with frugality. Because you are actually beating around the bush with that technique. Unless you have a large page limit to fill in (which I doubt because even your English teachers are tired of reading these shoddy essays), that approach is not useful.

So what do you do?

You THINK.
of.
ORIGINALITY.

Think of an approach that wouldn't make you barf inside your mouth when you read your material. Think of something that hasn't been rehashed for more than a dozen times already (because by that standard, it's pretty new). REACH FOR THAT LAST FREAKING GLIMMER OF ORIGINAL LIGHT. The kind that streams down from the dust and crags of Old Material. Hold it. Treasure it.

And then my friends,

you BUILD.

Build upon that light and make it pretty. Arrange your emotions around it , to make it aesthetically pleasing to ear, eye and mind. Order it with Logic. Sprinkle in some humor. And most of all, kick in the rhythmically-appropriate words that will give your composition weight and credibility.

Thus it shall end, and thus shall you print.

So applause, applause. I'm glad I can help the verbally-challenged with making their essays, all the more if it's about important stuff. My essay-writing crash course is perfect for students who want to do good.

But really though.

If ANYONE these days has some bit of integrity left in them, nobody would be doing this sort of crap. NOBODY would be dedicating a week to oratoricals and essay contests and songfests dedicated to saving the environment. They wouldn't be wasting their time making unusable junk art and meaningless paintings.

If ANYONE care about the environment at ALL, they wouldn't just be singing about it. They would be OUT. DOING. SOMETHING. THAT ACTUALLY COUNTS! Like doing massive baranggay clean ups, planting trees, fixing the leaky faucets, replacing all the light fixtures with energy-efficient ones, having a no-fastfood/junkfood week... That sort of thing. If I really cared about the environment, I wouldn't be writing abominable stuff that I myself wouldn't follow; If I really cared about the environment, I wouldn't be using the electricity, paper and ink to fart out one fake essay.

This is why I absofreakinlutely despise this one week pantomime of caring. I cannot THINK about a problem-- I want to DO something about it! More than just thinking about it and holding placards and yelling, "Save the Panda Bears you fools!" More than that! Because in some cases, the thoughts, the intentions, do NOT count. You don't say, "Oh, I'm THINKING about homework right now," and then expect to pass senior year. Life doesn't work that way.

Someone should make an essay. Name it as, "The Importance of the Current Eco Week Activities in the Life of Earth's Creatures and Its Contribution to the Upliftment of the Dire Environmental Situation"

Cross-posted from Blogger... I think

2007-11-18T01:08:00.000-08:00

I'm typing this now at Blogger. I should really figure out how to disable Mutiply's cross-post feature. The vast expanse of cyberspace is not as huge as I once thought it was. I figure that stopping the posts at Multiply lets me make more discreet posts. (Which is totally NOT the point of having a blog in the first place, haha.) That way I get to control the verbal diarrhea in case it does come up.

For now, please excuse the gushings of a high schooler.

It's IV-3's second to the last day in Baguio. Aww, I really miss them. Right now I think they're doing Father Edwin's trademark "Imagine" sob session. :)) I didn't cry during that time though, when we had it.

Because there's something wrong with me.

HAHA. Kidding. I just don't have any issues with my family, that's why I'm less prone to crying about stuff. I have nothing to cry about, though I did well up a tear here and there for my sake; the teachers must've thought I was emotionally incapacitated when I wasn't sobbing along with the others.

I don't SOB. I CRY. There's a difference. Crying is letting the tears flow, minus the agitating shortness of breath. Crying is like a more energy-efficient way of being emotional. And besides, I hate being incomprehensible when I sob. So I don't.

I have two compositions up for submission tomorrow. English and Filipino. The trouble is, they have the exact! same! topic! Is it cheating if I translate my English compo to Filipino? It's not exactly plagiarism... it IS mine anyway. The trouble is, I'm submitting the Filipino piece for the Eco Week writing contest (blame Ms Lacs, not me), and then I'm using the English version for the oratoricals. :)) Huwaddaheck.

Our topic is, "Youth: the Hope of the Environment". If you have any reactions, at ALL, to that subject, then drop a line. :))

In connection with that, here's an astonishing fact:

The hamburgers that McDonald's serves in a week equal more than 16,000 head of cattle. And it takes 100 times more water to produce a pound of meat than a pound of wheat.

I took that from a book published nearly 20 years ago. I wonder what the statistics are NOW.

How's that for food for thought?

So he IS coming

2007-11-12T02:47:00.000-08:00

If you like Neil Gaiman, you might as well click this entry.

Hang out with the Dream King

A Gathering of
Dreamlings and Nightmares
with Neil Gaiman

Where Neil Gaiman reads from his latest works & answers your queries

Only 1,000 tickets available
Includes an autographed Beowulf manuscript

The first 100 attendees to register at the venue get to be part of the an exclusive book signing hour with Neil Gaiman.

El Centro Subic, Subic Bay
November 24, 2007, Saturday, 9am
Tickets at P1,500 (cash basis only)
A Gathering of
Dreamlings and Nightmares
with Neil Gaiman

Where Neil Gaiman reads from his latest works & answers your queries

Only 1,000 tickets available
Includes an autographed Beowulf manuscript

The first 100 attendees to register at the venue get to be part of the an exclusive book signing hour with Neil Gaiman.

El Centro Subic, Subic Bay
November 24, 2007, Saturday, 9am
Tickets at P1,500 (cash basis only)

Call Lucre Mae Villaluna at 09156436040 or (02)751815
Call Lucre Mae Villaluna at 09156436040 or (02)751815

---

Got this from Budjette Tan's blog. I was actually blog hopping from Elbert Or to Andrew Drilon then by chance, to Budjette Tan's site. Anak ng patatas! Hwaddya know! It has details to the affair! I remember Neil Gaiman saying something about talking to an ad congress. Well there you have it folks. I'm not sure of the exclusivity of the event though.

HAY. EVERYTHING is set on the 24th!!! The Variety Show, that Makati photo exhibit I want to see and then this. I just KNEW Neil Gaiman's visit would fall on the 24th. I knew it in my gut.

Oh well. As for Fully Book's event... they're not going into the specifics on their site. Hmpft. Please tell me if you know.

I might as well plug in the variety show. We have SANDWICH! Hehe. Come see, come see!

It's on November 24, 2007. Gates open at 5 pm. Tickets are P150.

Owrayt? AWRAYT!

Blue schools

2007-09-30T02:27:00.000-07:00

Talo Ateneo.

I watch a minimum of ONE Ateneo game per season (I lack a sense of affinity for the school... go figure). And that ONE game, as it happens, is always the one that gets them eliminated. Coincidence perhaps? (It's a conspiracy!!!) Unless...? Maybe the universe has actually bestowed me with incredible curse powers whenever I watch basketball games.

Nah.

I slept through the fourth quarter though, because the game was going downhill anyway. I don't think I like sports that much. I don't even watch Pacquiao's matches, which, come to think of it, must be the most traitorous thing I've done so far. *GASP* I must make amends.

---

Well, the next part of this entry is dedicated to that Saturday I went to AC. I wasn't able to write about it due to the workload, but I think it deserves a bit of space here, especially because I realized a lot of things after the experience.

That day started at 5:30 am, which was already pretty late; I had forgotten that my alarm isn't set to go off during Saturdays. I nearly banged my head twice on the bathroom tiles trying to soap my feet less than thirty seconds after I jumped out of bed, but other than that, I got to take a bath fine. Met up with Zarah and Pen in Mcdo. Jen overslept, I think, because of the FOB concert (SAYAAAAANG! You should've come with us!). Shei met up with us in AC.

We got to San Lo and registered and stuff. It was my first time to be there. I guess I felt slightly nervous to be in The Other Side of the World; I was curious to see how their culture differed from ours. (I always thought different campuses bred different types of creatures; I actually regard people from AC as foreign organisms). We were in the college area, so I couldn't judge rightly, but still, it felt... shockingly small. AA has a pretty wide expanse of terrain (which you would come to realize when you're five minutes late for class and running from the multi to the high school building). You can't blame me for feeling a little claustrophobic, since I've been stuck with AA since Kinder. But looking around was very interesting, nonetheless; it felt like a field trip! Of course, everybody loved the sports complex. And the Mother Rose Auditorium was an awfully nice place to be in (in terms of size, it's somewhere between the mini-theater and the Assumpta-- it actually feels like home! :D). I was actually expecting to see my teachers walking around any moment. What a bizarre experience that would be, if that really happened. :))

It's easy to get lost though. I kept getting surprised at the buildings that showed themselves after I pass through a passageway (in some areas, it's more of an alleyway actually). We had to do that to get to the testing site. I didn't prepare for the ACAT, believing it to be something within our powers (I owe it to 13 years of testing, Assumption style), but gah, I nearly didn't finish my test. It was slightly unnerving; I told myself afterwards that that's what happens when I don't pray for guidance. Haha!

Bands were playing outside when we emerged. The loud noise was interrupting our usual whispered discussions of how difficult the test was, so we retreated to the cafeteria for some quiet. We passed the time walking around, sitting around, and basically trying to stay out of the rain. I met Trish there (Hey Trish! I actually passed you by once, but I was too surprised to say hi.) Sandwich came later and played. WOOOHOO! Super fun jumping jumping going on, which took my mind off the results for a while. We were actually afraid that we wouldn't pass; but we did anyway, as it turned out. Passing the test is a nice feeling.

Well. There. So ends the important part of the AC experience. I liked it overall. Ate Francesca was really really nice hehe.

I think it would be great to study in AC-- except that the atmosphere reminds me too much of high school. It isn't a bad thing, but after spending most of my life wanting a change of pace, my mind is set on something different. And besides, I wasn't able to pass my application. So there it goes. :))

I just remembered: our proctors (who were also students), just before we started the test, asked us to stand up for the prayer. After making the sign of the cross, she then prayed, "Lord, thank you for this day..." in the exact. same. tone(!) my fellow Assumptionistas use.

It's Assumption to the last. :))

TINA Is No Acronym

2007-09-28T02:34:00.000-07:00

I chanced upon that while googling my name. Apparently Google's Tina Number One isn't a person-- it's a site for electronic/programming blah blah blah I don't understand...

SHEI! You're Sherlamaine Number One! Which means to say you're at the top of the list when you google your name. At eto pa: apat lang yung entries mo. Sa world wide web. And all four are about you. :))

Kay Zarah : :)) Zarah Company- Bringing You Jewelry That is Fun to Wear: Developers of unique enamel on sterling silver jewelry and hair accessories. :)) And then the next entry is about a florida bikini model. :)) Labo.

---

I don't think we seniors mean to sabotage the PAASCU plans; it's just that everything is being pounded down our throats in ways that make choking seem more preferrable. Of course it gets uncomfortable, that being the ultimate understatement, but we're trying. At least. Nobody likes being scolded everyday and feeling like we're the crappiest citizens alive. Do you think we don't get embarrassed by that? I know I do. I hate feeling so irresponsible, just sitting there dumbly because I didn't come up to par... I can't believe Ms O actually called our class "SHALLOW", in terms of thinking. And while it is true at times, it always offending to have your shit thrust upon your nose. I thought decent people talked those things over politely. But then again, we shouldn't have been blanching all over ourselves in the first place.

Oh well. It will just be two days. Two days of polite smiles and overzealous class recitations. PAASCU calls us to dance, and under the glare of the A-Team and Ms Olalde's You-know-I-can-bulldoze-you threat, AA08 shall, as best as we can, twirl to our master's batons. Or whips. Whichever you prefer.

One excruciating week done. Seven more dodgy days to go before the next weekend.

Patience perforce with willful choler meeting/ Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting./ I shall withdraw, but this intrusion shall,/ Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt'rest gall.

Libro atbp.

2007-09-15T03:33:00.000-07:00

[Warning: long post ahead]

Neil Gaiman is coming HERE. Again. In NOVEMBER!!! Ata.

The long-awaited book compilation of the winning entries from the 1st Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards will be launched by end-November at Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street, together with the awarding ceremony of the 2nd Philippine Graphic Fiction competition with Neil Gaiman as co-presentor!

Co-presentor. I take it to mean that he'll be here. In the flesh. Di ba? Haha, sabay via webcam lang pala. Ngyeeee.

But I feel so PSYCHED! Who wouldn't be? This is way better than consoling myself that I'd get to see him in six years' time (you know, when I'm not tied to my parents' apron strings anymore... -_-).

Anyway, tapos na pala ung 2nd Philippine Graphic Fiction competition! Parang hindi ko alam na nagsimula un a. Haha. At natapos din nang hindi ko nalalaman. I kept an eye on the first one though; the winners were pretty good reads. I just wasn't able to finish reading any (they were posted online) cause the pc had to be reformatted then, so I lost the adobe acrobat reader plus all the downloaded pdf files.

Ay. Wait.

Due to the success of the first nationwide competition, we are proudly bringing you the sequel in the name of filipino unrealism!

We want you to be the next big name in the science fiction, fantasy or horror genre!

Send in your original work for the two categories: comics and prose fiction. All winning entries will be compiled and published by Fully Booked, with a foreword by Neil Gaiman.

Over P300,000 worth of prizes will be given away!
Including P100,000 grand prize for the first place winners!

Deadline of submission is October 31, 2007.

Coming soon this November!
Catch Neil Gaiman again in Manila when he visits Fully Booked for the Awards Night and book launch of "Expeditions," the 1st Philippine Graphic/Fiction compilation.

Aaah. So hindi pa pala tapos. :)) You can check out the article and the contest guidelines here; I copied the other article from here.

Speaking of links, you might want to check out the following:

http://www.powerbooks.com.ph/ PMJ is having a book signing of Pugad Baboy 19, on September 29. Check the site for more details.

http://www.nationalbookstore.com.ph Well... sale sila ngayon e. I think it has a better variety of books online, compared to what it stocks in its outlets (which are quite pathetic actually...). I'm seeing The Sandman series priced at around p600++, quite a huge difference compared to its price in Powerbooks or Fully Booked. I'm not sure if it's still applicable after tomorrow though; their big sale ends on Sunday.

http://read-or-die.org/ Haven't explored the site much yet. I got a leaflet from their booth during the International Book Fair. Looks interesting. I actually wanted to buy a shirt of theirs, but I wasn't sure how mom would react if she knew I bought a shirt at a book fair.

http://www.booktopia.com.ph A modest site for an independent book store. I like it. I have yet to check out their shop though.

http://www.booksale.com.ph/ HAHA! May site pala yung Book Sale. They should catalog all their books and enable a search function. And I really mean ALL of their books. :)) Leastways, I'd like to see them try. The site has a link to a new section: their "Rare" and "Medium Rare" book sections. They make it sound like steak. Or Grade A beef. Hm.

Books for Less also has a site, but it's not really worth clicking. On second thought, Book Sale's isn't worth clicking either...

http://webservice.mnl.ust.edu.ph/publishinghouse/index.htm UST Publishing House. I spent a good deal of time wandering around the International Book Fair, just looking for a particular book. It was only much much later that I found out that the UST Publishing House actually had a booth. I could've saved myself a lot of grief! But nooooo, I had to walk through ALL the booths on this side before I bothered to look at the other side. The sad part about it is that I didn't buy the book even though I found it. (It was Angelo V. Suarez's The Nymph of MTV, if you're wondering. The only collection of poems by a local author that I truly like.)

It seems that Aeon bookstore in Katipunan doesn't have a website. The bookstore still exists, right? RIGHT??? I passed by a while ago but I couldn't find it. I dunno... maybe it's my natural ineptitude for locations but I don't think I was looking at the wrong building...

Whew. What a long post. I didn't mean to go on and on about book shops all of a sudden, but I haven't had a really good book in a long time. And I seem to be craving for a decent book. At nakakarindi din kasi yung book fair sa school. I mean, Scholastics lang?! And all of it was for keeeeeeeeeds. *tears hair* All of them were for "bringing kids into the wonderful world of reaaaading", but BAH. It's another disgusting commercial ploy. They were even giving out flyers to the kids which said, "Dear mommy and daddy, I'd like to buy these books at our book fair..." And then the grade schoolers would list everything they wanted while the evil Scholastics overseer would flash greedy smiles at them. If they want to bring kids into reading, they should give them substantial literature, not the flimsy frappery they have the balls to call books.

It's been a hard day's night(!!!) and I've been working like a freakin dog

2007-09-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

AAAAAAAARGH! I can't believe I asked for this headache a few days before the school year started! I can't believe I was actually excited for it. I hate it. I've been trying to hold everything together but there will always be one more damnable THING I'd have to misfortune to forget.

I need a gig. Which reminds me, I just watched one a week ago! I didn't know if it was going to push through, since it kept being put off for weeks, but my sister wanted to watch real badly, so there. (Kaya hindi ko nasabi sayo Jenina.) Medyo ayoko nga pumunta kasi inaantok ako e. It was fun, in a distracted, I-wish-I-was-sleeping-right-now kind of way, with mixed thoughts of essays and papers and reports to do. My friends, if you have any compassion for yourselves, never EVER go out on a school day. Do not stay out late. Because, as the story goes, you will predictably function at a sluggish 50% the next morning. I mean, last Thursday was awful. Everything just blew up in my face. I had no food to bring for the salo-salo, I didn't do my Econ essay, I forgot to bring a white shirt for the Ifugao costume, I also forgot my slippers (thanks Bianca for lending me yours) and my day was spent worrying worrying worrying. As it turned out, the worrying wasn't really necessary: food was pretty much abundant on our table, I somehow worked out the problem of the shirt and we didn't have Econ because the presentations extended after lunch and ate up the time. Medyo nagsisisi tuloy ako na I went through the trouble of typing it out in the CAI room during lunch, only to find out that it wasn't going to be passed that day. Nor the next day for that matter; Ms. Lanzona wanted it TODAY, six freakin days after she gave the assignment.

Sometimes, the anxiety of trying to be responsible isn't just worth it.

This is a picture from last week. Yup, it's The Bloomfields. If you look closely, Sir George is also in the frame. Walking. Haha. May karma ata ako e. Lagi na lang may extra sa picture tuwing kukuha na ko ng shot. They come in exactly as I press the shutter, kaya naman sira ung Kodak moments. Nge. Oh well.

anak ng patatas!

2007-09-10T02:36:00.000-07:00

I was looking for UST and AC's admissions site on Google. And since I was running through a lot of tabs a while ago, I clicked on the first links google came up with. Aaaaaaaand...!

http://www.stthomas.edu/admissions/

http://www.assumption.edu/admiss/udefault.html

By golly, kung hindi ko lang tiningnan nang matino, baka kung ano na napindot ko sa sites na yan. I was wondering why the pictures featured caucasians. Turns out, may Saint Thomas University pala sa Minessotta, tapos may Assumption College sa Massachussetts (or is it the other way around?). Wala lang, I just found it strange. Medyo tumutugma pa yung test dates and stuff, kaya akala ko talaga. Well anyway, I didn't get the info I wanted even after getting the right sites. Kelan yung deadline ng applications ng AC and UST? Much thanks to anyone who can answer.

---

And speaking of... Parang kelan lang nabasa ko yung listahan ni Zarah tungkol dito a.

It now comes in actual book form! Tada! I saw a review on it on the Philippine Daily Inquirer today. There was a picture with the article but I wasn't paying much attention to it. I thought it reminded me of Elbert Or's style, only to find out that the drawings were by him. Sabi na nga ba e haha!

Ok. Tama na ang liwaliw. Back to my pending essays.

Miz M!

2007-08-31T02:44:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

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.

---

Happy birthday kuya David!

10 things I want to do before leaving school

2007-08-23T02:46:00.000-07:00

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.

---

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.

2007-08-17T02:20:00.000-07:00

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.

---

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--!

2007-08-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-05T00:08:00.000-07:00

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.

---

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

Salvaged

2007-08-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

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.

"We're going to Mount Olympics!"

2007-07-30T02:14:00.000-07:00

I quote that from Mark Caguioa, dakilang manlalaro ng larangang basketbol. Never mind if he got his verbal imagery mixed up. =))

---

Thank you to the people who took some time to look at my previous post. I'm glad you liked it. :) I'll make you one if you like. I'm happy doing those things for people who appreciate them.

---

I got a stamp on my hand that says "Keep up the good work!" with a smiling sun in the middle. I haven't had my hand stamped since I was in Kindergarten! Hehe. Thrilled me to bits when I got it for English-- it reminds me of my backpack-toting days (back when my backpack was still bigger than I was).

Haha. The stamp made my day. I was having a bad one because of Trig (and we had that first thing in the morning!): ginawa ko nga yung assignment, puro mali naman. The frustrating thing about it is how easy it is to understand, yet I can't get anything right when it comes down to it. Carelessness, darn! A stub here and a nick there-- by the end of the day, bugbog-sarado yung grades ko. Nge. At the rate I'm going, I don't know how I'll make up for it in this quarter. -__-

---

And here are my hero artists! (because I wasn't able to stick this in the last post.) My stuff looks... BLAND compared to theirs. But that's the way it goes.

Spork's work: It's hard picking one to represent the kind of art she does. Er, just click over her site to see her other works. I learned anatomy proportions from her, as well as a bit of other oddments (I attribute my pouty-lips and lidded-eyes illustrations to her). I haven't quite grasped her coloring/digital painting techniques though: I tried her tutorial, and the practice sheet seemed to look fine until I took off the lines, and it came out as a blotchy mess. Haha! That's what I mean by being messy with PS.

This image is FRIKKIN HUGE(!!!!) though. Sorry about that.

Elbert Or-- I first saw one of his comic strips in Meg. I liked it so much I tracked him down online. Turns out he has a blog: http://mars4.blogspot.com HUZZAH! I really like his drawing style and versatility. He writes pretty darn well too. I think he's teaching English in Ateneo now.

Bleedman (also known as Vinzon Ngo)-- He has his own Wikipedia page, and an online following to boot. Beat that! He's Filipino by the way. If you're one of the tech-savvy artists out there, I'm sure you've heard of his comics. http://bleedman.deviantart.com I didn't bother saving the bigger version of this image.

An oodle of doodle

2007-07-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

I think it's cute. Haha! Well it should be! I spent about three hours mopping it up for neatness points even though the out-of-line coloring wasn't really visible. And considering I photoshop like I have my arse on instead of my head, I think this one came out pretty well. Half the credit goes to PS, whose nice colors, pretty effects and excellent brushes make anything worth looking at. And half of the credit, I suppose, goes to my left hand (for doodling this in the first place) and to my right hand (for putting up with the manual coloring, even though my poor pointer finger was already locking at the joints). The plaid skirt was a PAIN to draw-- I'm counting it in as one more reason why I don't like our skirt-- and coloring on the wrong layers can make you cry. But I don't mind the extra minutes of rectifying everything. This is for someone, and I like giving stuff to people. :D

If I'm not mistaken, this is Cuteness Variation number... 4. I can't remember. It's something I acquired about two years ago, from either Spork, Bleedman or Elbert Or. (I'll try linking to them so you can see their works). That's it.

SPOILAGE! But not really.

2007-07-23T04:23:00.000-07:00

So many-- DEAD!!! I got a little weepy on those parts. Everything, EVERYTHING about it was BRILLIANT. BRILLIANT. I was clutching my face for the most part because I was seriously and honestly on the point of jumping up and yelling, "RUUUUUN!" At the book. Harhar.

I clocked it in at 9 hours and 30 minutes. Hm. That's 11 AM-5PM-- then we watched HP5 (maygad, what a Potter-saturated day it was yesterday)-- and then I resumed reading at 9PM-12:30AM. Partly because of suspense and partly because I did not want anyone on Monday spoiling it for me, I finished it.

Basahin niyo na, bago pa nila ikwento sa inyo. Ayun.

The Deathly Hallows

2007-07-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

No I haven't read it yet. I haven't even bought the book (HAHA!). But as with all things huge and popular and highly anticipated, there will be fans excited enough to finish the book in one day. And then they lend the book to me. Within the same day. Huzzah! In this case, it's Ate Kit, who just finished HP7 two hours ago. Not really surprised. I've known her to read into the wee hours in the morning and finish book 6 without stopping, as well as juggle three fantasy books with work (keeps her sane, she says).

Ah, The Deathly Hallows. I hope Harry dies, MWAHAHAHAHAHA! I like sadistic plot endings. Or maybe Voldemort could die and everything would be well blah blah blah, but Harry would be too scarred to be happy, so he sails off into the undying lands (sounds familiar? :P). Or if Harry doesn't die and Voldemort doesn't either, Rowling would make book 8 and make everybody happy. Yay! Win-win situation!

I think I'll borrow the seventh tomorrow. After I watch HP 5. (And see angsty Harry raaaaaawring at everybody else.)

Greekiness

2007-07-18T00:21:00.000-07:00

I took some screenshots of this game I was playing all summer long. Geeky, I know, but it actually helped me retain the Greek gods and goddesses and whatnot. There ya go! So it does have its uses afterall. Just thought I'd share it with you guys. :)

It's a bit image heavy though.

[L-R: Arkantos (fictional Atlantean hero... I think), Ajax, Chiron the centaur. I'm referring to the picture above btw.] I'm in the Underworld trying to get out.

Enemy Minotaurs

Enemy Cyclopes-- the shades are mine; they scout for me hehe.

Tartarus. They're not supposed to be ramming it down...

Pegasus, two Medusas (and hey! They actually look like the Medusa in the movie!) and another Minotaur. My camp this time.

A Kraken sent by Poseidon. Personally, I think it looks better than the godzilla-lookalike the film conjured up. Even though this one looks like a squid. It's also throwing one of my archers around.

Some gods and goddesses

That's just for the Greek episode of the whole game. It still has an Egyptian and Norse part, but those are boring, especially the Norse.

---

I was looking around Book Sale last Saturday, and this made me do a double-take:

It needs tweaking, but it's close enough, di ba? You know what I mean. Pero kung hinde, just skip this part. :P

Vasovagal syncope is another word for SWOON

2007-07-13T04:35:00.000-07:00

I'm doing my research now for Emergencies. Frankly, I don't know what to look for; I'm a bit lost on what's going to happen tomorrow. I'm not sure I'm excited about meeting with PNPA cadets...

Okay. O_O I think I may be doing something to my contact lenses that I'm not supposed to do. My right eye has been acting unhappily for two weeks now-- its moods are acting up every other day, and I've had people ask me if got punched or something. I didn't think this was serious! Right, maybe more cleaning would be required than usual, but since my left eye is doing fine, I don't know why it's still going this way. My mom's getting mad at me for not getting glasses-- she's been saying all sorts of cheery things like eye infections and eye damage. Well I DID tell her that my pair got broken. -_- She didn't seem to mind then. BAH. I want to goooo to a doctor! And to think they scare me.

Lessons learned: (as said by the world wide web)

Never wear your lenses for more than 12 hours.

ALWAYS put in a new solution when storing lenses.

Do NOT touch the opening of your lens solution, ever. (Oh shit!)

GUILTY! Oh I am guilty! I would bawl at this, if not for the fact that my eyes are weepy enough as it is. (I've taken them off though. As soon as I read an entire web page on the subject.)

Sorry. This really is another boring blog entry on eye care. So to compensate, these are the (slightly) interesting things that happened today:

i tried practicing the kulintang part (DX... or DP ba?) for the National Anthem. It's a little tricky going about the rhythmic pattern, but I think I'm going to like hitting on round metal objects with a boss on them!

I saw Anna Theresa Licaros a while ago. She was being eaten alive by the gradeschoolers, who were cornering her for her autograph. It was a little... scary.

I managed to scrape by Envi Ed without research. Dapat hindi niyo pinapahalata na wala kayong alam tungkol sa pinag-uusapan nila. I'm a little used to it already, but still I was relieved when the period was over.

I watched the Bloomfields at RP with Ate. Saw Martha (hey Martha!) and Kookie.

I took a look around at the shops. So it is true then: we are now entering the BAGGY JEANS phase. Msn already broadcasted that during the summer, so I'm not really surprised. I'm not sure as to what kind of bagginess they really are though.

There.

7/11!

2007-07-12T04:35:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, exactly on this day, Neil Gaiman ended his three-day stay here in the Philippines. That was a Monday. A sad Monday. Iwasntabletogodangit!

Someday, I will meet you. And take pictures! And get my books signed! So keep yourself healthy Mr Gaiman, so you'll still be alive 8 years from now.

-(This blog entry is 1 day late.)-

---

My Tito actually bought me the Pride and Prejudice sheet music, as per my request!!! YES! I was jumping around when I got it. I will finally be able to play it! I don't think anything I've ever asked for has made me so happy-- maybe except for times when I'm able to get decent sleep. I've been frequenting the piano this week more often than I've done so in a month, and that's saying a lot.

I've realized though, in spite of revived enthusiasm fueling my practices, that I need to go back to my exercise books to brush up on technique. I suddenly find myself lacking enough fingers to press everything at the same time. Bad fingering, I know. I can't believe I lost that! Ah well, I might get around to it over the weekend. Just maybe. Senior year is such a... struggle. I feel like I'm holding a huge pile of stuff in my arms held together by parcel strings; the load isn't bad, it's keeping everything together that sucks. I'm losing a quiz here and a requirement there-- and the teachers are NOT helping by being unavailable all the time. Pfft.

I think being a good student means delicately balancing delinquency and excellency. (Well it's the academic mantra that got me this far!) Scrimp when you can (so you can get some sleep for goodness sake!), but take all opportunities that come by. And by that, I mean even raising your hand to answer the most inane questions your teacher throws at you.

But that's just me. I'll still have to see if that applies to college as well.

The Camera

2007-07-07T04:24:00.000-07:00

Some of our cabinets are equal to your lola's classic baul: they contain things so old, they could've been prehistoric. And most of the time, I'd rather not open them. Just a while ago though, I had to look for this particular book on Philippine presidents for Economics. I came across it about two years ago, cluttering up the table with the rest of its space-eating brethren. I found it mildly interesting. But it was boring, so it didn't really occur to me to put it somewhere better.

So yes, I can't find it now.

But I did get something better! I opened one of the cabinets over our study table (which, by the way, is a first in 17 years!) and took a peek at the contents: papers, folders, paperbacks. These were my parents' pre-offspring days, when they still read stuff about children and families and getting spiritual (which comprised a good 75% of the book titles)-- there was actually nothing special about those, and I was going to go look somewhere else when something caught my eye.

(Cue background music here.)

Black and hardbound, the cover was simply a bird's eye view of a camera. On the spine, in plain white letters was the title: The Camera. (And crescendo!)

A photography book!!! And a really good photography book at that. My parents never told me much about their previous life (that is, what they were like as individuals before they got married), so I feel ecstatic when I come across their books that happen to be in my field of interest! Ah, cabinet, you do have your perks!

I plucked it from the shelf (after warily shaking it a little) and set it in front of me. The first page housed an insect that looked like it could've come from the primordial soup. I scared it off with the dumbell (easily reachable on the right). Dunno if I killed it though. It disappeared after a few pokes.

I spent the next hour unsticking the pages, which was like opening envelopes with a letter opener. (I tore one page, oops, but who cares. The book is mine anyway.) It has a section on the camera, camera history (I didn't know Lewis Carroll was a hobbyist photographer!), photography as an art, and personal styles. And it really is turning out to be something quite fascinating.

My sister happened to ask, "San nanggaling yan?"

"From the 1980s."

Haha, old, I know, but I like it all the more. I believe in traditional photography. And finding a book that was written with no Adobe Photoshop in mind is so comforting. I don't have anything against PS-- it's just that I don't believe one should solely rely on it to enhance a photo. I believe skill trumps all, regardless of the newness/oldness of technology or medium used. If you have that, then you don't need fancy effects.

I love photography. But I don't think photography likes me back. Oh well. For those who can't do, we read and take note. So that though we can't shoot the photo, at least we have enough sense to admire a photograph for its worth.

What a fun, tingly experience! On the downside, I still need more research on the Garcia administration. T_T Boo.

Eh!

2007-07-03T23:52:00.000-07:00

Martha!!! I was going to tell you if you asked. IF you asked. (I know it's illogical, but!) :)) You could've aaaaaaasked me-- your group kinda HOLLERED it at me ten meters down the corridor. :)) Technically, that doesn't end with a question mark. :)) But now you know; I'm just surprised you didn't notice it sooner. :)) I was actually in your (distant) network even before the Kapatiran.

---

Got sick yesterday. My head felt like a bucket of slops. So yeah, if the pasta wiggles, don't eat it. It could've come from my head. Still a little busy collecting bits and pieces of my brain, you know.

Back to my sprightly self now. And my tongue is back to 50% normalcy! This means I now can taste a grand total of two flavors(?) at present: salty and saltier. Fuuuun.

---

May theory si Bianca kung bakit mahaba yung bangs ni Miggy Chavez: mataas daw kasi yung hairline niya. =))

Kapatiran

2007-06-29T05:55:00.000-07:00

For a supposedly bland week, I think this one was okay. :)

I went as Samurai Jack (Samurai Jill? :-X) a while ago-- I commanded Martha to be Aku, haha! (Such an obedient sister!) :P Shei and Jen told me I looked like a sushi chef. Er. No. I have a half-unsheathed katana on my side!!! -_- At least Fides got it, haha. And Kyla.

Saw a lot of interesting costumes. I think Shrek was a popular choice, as well as the MIB, Powerpuff girls and Charlie's Angels. I asked Denden and Dana who they were. They said, "Ah, Hansel and Gretel kami. Pero hindi ata nagkaintindihan e. Wolf yung sister namin." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ibang fairytale!

We had games. Lots and lots of games. Well, no, just four to be exact-- it just took us soooo long to settle down and stop taking pictures of ourselves.

That was it, basically. Costumes and games. I think I participated more this time around than when I had my Kapatiran four years ago. It's funny how time flies-- I just sighed a bit and poof! Senior na ko. So much growth, so much change... And still I find myself coming round full circle.

We still had classes after lunch. BOOOO!!! I was already tired out from talking so much (ganun talaga, inaantok ako pag masyado akong madaldal) and jumping around in sacks and still trying to keep a heads up-- on top of that, my right eye was already irritated (as to why, I don't know). It was awfully uncomfortable! And it was tearing up (TEAR ha, as in water, not TEAR as in "tear here").

Wah! I have a leaky faucet for an eye! And it was just... DRIPPING. On and on. And my nose was getting sniffly too. I endured the constant discomfort for 6 hours or so; somehow I also managed to recite a bit in Economics. I put my head down and slept in Physics though. Hindi ko na kinopya yung exercises, haha! Talk about being delinquent.

One hour of CAT and one more hour of waiting for the carpool...! I finally got home. By that time my eye had already cried itself out and was just getting puffy. I took out my contacts and fell asleep.

So here, I'm typing this out at 12:41 am, still with no contacts on. My glasses are broken and I don't think I'm getting a new one, so yeah, my back is aching from leaning forward too long. Maga na talaga yung isang mata ko. On the plus side, may tuklap na rin siya, sa wakas. :))

Will be posting pictures, once I steal them from some people. My camera's battery conked out even before the activity started. Ayun naman. Well it was my fault anyway, I forgot to check the batteries and charge them.

Kapatiran

2007-06-29T05:51:00.000-07:00

For a supposedly bland week, I think this one was okay. :)

We had games. Lots and lots of games. Well, no, just four to be exact-- it just took us soooo long to settle down and stop taking pictures of ourselves.

THIS IS WHY I DON'T DO FRIENDSTER

2007-06-27T23:34:00.000-07:00

Why I'm opting out of the Facebook generation

Posted by Ian (msn article)

One month ago Patrick, our Tech & Gadgets editor, made a confession: he had yet to sign up to Facebook, and, being MSN's in-house gizmo expert, thought he better do something about it. So he registered, and within 24 hours admitted to having become hooked. "I have," he disclosed, "been browsing through other people's friend lists in a vain attempt to find anyone I might possibly have ever met."

He's not alone in undergoing a rapid conversion from Facebook apathy to addiction. Both my homepage colleagues, Dom and Laura, spoke loud and long of how they were going to have nothing to do with it and thought the entire thing pitifully absurd...until they signed up, of course, and in a flash became fully paid-up rabblerousers for the social networking revolution.

Nicole, our boss, was the same, freely admitting she once thought it sad and a bit pathetic, but who's now happy to sing its praises and testify to its virtues.

It's a trend which has taken root throughout MSN Towers, one that seems unstoppable in its popularity - and one which I'm reluctant to have anything to do with.

It's not that I'm against the potency and potential of the internet as a means of communication, or friendship, or even gossip-mongering; it's the means, rather than the end, which I object to.

In other words, the way Facebook depends upon you being happy to lay bare all aspects of your life in order to become one of the crowd. The way you have to actively search and round-up every "friend" you've ever known, no matter how tenuously, in order to prove that you're popular. And the fact it is predicated on you wanting to boast and brag about your social circle in as public a way possible.

It's the primeval law of the school playground translated online, and it's profoundly unnerving.

There's an unspoken assumption that if you haven't got x number of "friends" to your name - at least a few dozen - you're a failure. Tied to this is the implication that if you've got to a certain age in your life, you should have x amount to show for yourself, be it wacky companions, photos of trips around the world or breathtaking career accomplishments.

(In other words... YOU HAVE JUST BEEN FACEBUCKED. -me)

Hence what, on one level, is merely an old-fashioned bulletin board or mailing list, becomes an arena for online showboating and no place for the mundane. Heaven forbid you are boring and have barely as many friends as you have fingers, or have done the same job all your life, or have never been abroad.

The way Facebook has become so successful so quickly - it was only last autumn that membership was extended from only those with a university email address to anyone at all - is testament to the innate appeal of its mix of tittle-tattle, grandstanding and voyeurism.

And it is undeniably a hit. "Its simplicity is its strength," argues Dom. "It marries an extremely useable format with that basic human nature to want to stay in touch with everyone you know." Megan, our photo editor, had a more down-to-earth reason for joining: "I wanted to find out who was fat and who was pregnant from my school."

Yet there's something about its promotion of noseyness as a leisure activity, its encouragement of social rivalry, and above all the way it encourages your past to return to haunt you, that leaves me cold. Indeed, Megan's other half, Jon, explains his dislike for Facebook three ways: "I'll call the people I want to get in touch with. I don't care who's fat and pregnant. Plus my wife spends all evening on it." (HAHAHAHAHA! Poor guy.)

I know these arguments will, for most readers, count for little, and that I will pilloried variously as a Luddite, a loser or a loner. But for me, for the moment, Facebook remains a no-go area, an exercise in social engineering of which I don't want any part, an excuse for the people you know now to find out about the people you knew then, and yet another cultural trend that fashion orders you to be part of.

Is anyone else with me?

---

FINALLY!!! SOMEONE WHO'S ON THE SAME PLANE OF THOUGHT AS I AM!!! Hallelujah!

---

We had the diocesan mass for Saint Marie Eugenie yesterday at the Antipolo Cathedral. It was ceremonious and long, but it was oddly interesting all the same. They had 27 priests!!! I counted. And yes, I did that during the homily because that part was too long. :| I saw some people making interesting facial expressions too HAHA! Oh the variations of boredom!

People asked us what school we were after the mass. In all fairness, I think our gala uniform does look pretty-- so yes, Assumptionista po kami!!!

---

I'll write more tomorrow. I've taken to bringing my books home now (so I can READ and STUDY :|), which is something that does not happen everyday! I have only two skimpy notebooks in my locker, plus that Lab manual; everything else is with me. I'm getting studious! Huzzah. Most likely I won't get around to writing everything until the weekend.

Balik na naman sa dating gawi.

Come to think of it...

2007-06-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

I rather miss lurking around in Lit-net. I'm missing the intellectual stimulation.

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/

Iba talaga yung crowd depende sa forums.

If all the animals on the equator were capable of flattery, Halloween and Christmas would fall on the same date.

2007-06-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

If you watched Ocean's 12, then you'd know what that means. Or not.
---

The Meg office is actually just a small part of a whole floor, on which the whole MMPI Publishing group is settled. It's to the left, just a little way beyond that huge blown up cover of MEGA (and encased in glass, no less). The Meg office reminds me of a narrow alley, really, with several cubicles in all. Office is as office does. It's not the Mode office from Ugly Betty (that one looks like garish candyland masquerading as a minimalist white), but everything around it tells you it's a fashion magazine. Paper bags are all over the place. Pin-ups, plans, dates, photographer lists, features, accessories are on every space imaginable. Exclusive invites were visible and readable for inquisitive eyes (the cube I occupied, Pipay's [the beauty assisstant who was out that day], had three). It all spelled on thing: Peaceful chaos of work and play.

It was fantastic. I would've rummaged through their trash if it didn't seem obscene, because I was dying to know what interesting things lurked there. I looked calm outside, but inside I was bursting. And I was nervous all over, but I managed okay. I think.

I met Peewee, Shai, Kim and Mabel, the Meg staff. I wanted to ask questions about the magazine industry, but the timing didn't seem right-- all of them looked rather busy. So I looked around mostly, and tried not to feel so small and painstakingly unornamental. My sister was transcribing something, so I was left to myself. The office's fashion sense is really interesting. So THAT'S what they mean by style (okay, wala pala akong style haha! =)) ). Their look was casual and uncontrived, yet at the same time edgy and interesting.

It was a slow day that Friday. All the deadlines for the September issue (they do it three months in advance-- talk about efficiency) was done yesterday. All they had to do was interview the Meg Face finalists.

I went with them to the small conference room on the same floor. (Hindi siya malayo actually. Kumbaga sa floor ng Year III, kasinglayo lang niya yung CA's office sa section 4.) I sat at the back, not on the table with them. I just watched, really.

So the girls came, one by one. There were shy ones, chatty ones, young ones, tall ones, petite ones, ones with bad teeth, ones with big ears... No offense, but they looked REALLY different from their pictures. The interview itself was pretty short; the discussion goes on after the girl leaves though. Though they weren't catty or snarky or biatchy (they're nice, I assure you guys), I'm still glad, in ate Mabel's words, that I'm on the safe side of the camera. "Hindi tayo chinachaka-- tayong nanchachaka!" (tapos natawa siya.) As if to answer the question on my mind, Ate Mabel said, "It's a superficial industry-- it's the way it is."

I mostly listened to their deliberations, which was fun. They told me the story of "Trash Can girl", the girl whose photo Kim (beauty ed) threw away (which, I suppose, was the "NO" tray). Ate Mabel happened to see it and fished it out, and waved it around "Eto, eto eto!" (Ifever that girl does win, she has to thank Ate Mabel for giving her salvation.)

Ironically, the girl blew them all away on her interview because of stunning physique and determined personality-- she's a Filipina (whose family migrated to Japan) and who worked so hard to pool money so she could support herself here when she enters the contest. On her Why Shoud You Win question, she wrote: "Kasi gusto ko patunayan sa nanay ko na kaya ko tong gawin." Really, that's a lot more admirable than saying, "Because I'm half-Filipino and half-American." (TCG didn't say that, but someone else did. Hay naku.)

After that, I finished the second half of the taped interview Ate was transcribing. Guess what it was about? Vaginal healthcare.

Okaaaay.

So there I was, typing away at the vagina monologues, care of an OB-GYNE. I have learned more from that interview than Health and Bio put together. I looked like this when I finished: O__O

I spent the rest of the day surfing the net on the free computer. Hm... Parang gusto ko rin mag-office, haha. We left at around 4:30 and returned the reviewed books to Powerbooks.

Thinking back, I liked the experience. But I think I'd rather be a writer for a magazine than be an intern. I do like the office though. Mucho mucho. Anong office kaya ako pwede pag Economics yung kinuha ko? Hmmm...

---
All in all, I think the summer was wonderful. Really. I can't help saying, thinking about it all, that I do like lazy days. I like the sun. I like jumping around in the moonlight, which I did while Dad sipped his coffee on the patio. I like doing chores. I like seeing how fast I can surf all the channels in one go. I like the luxury of time, and the privilege of reading three books at once without caring.

I like being creative and messing around in the kitchen. I like spending time with my sisters. I like spending time with my family all in all because I don't see my parents for a huge part of the day.

I think I've gotten the hang of cooking. And washing dishes. And being domestic. And I don't mind, really.

Maybe THIS is what they call "growing up". Somehow, I feel up to the task of keeping house, being responsible for myself and all that. The biggest surprise to me is that I don't mind the change at all.

Minsan

2007-06-04T02:57:00.000-07:00

Minsan - Eraserheads

Minsan sa may Kalayaan
Tayo nagkatagpuan.
May mga sariling gimik
At kanya-kanyang hangad sa buhay.

Sa ilalim ng iisang bubong,
Mga sikretong ibinubulong.
Kahit na anong mangyari,
Kahit na saan ak man patungo.
Ngunit ngayon,
Kay bilis maglaho ng kahapon
Sana'y huwag kalimutan
Ang ating mga pinagsamahan.

At kung sakaling gipitin ay
Laging iisipin na
Minsan tayo ay naging tunay na
Magkaibigan.

Minsan ay parang wala nang bukas
Sa buhay natin.
Inuman hanggang sa magdamag
Na para bang tayo'y mauubusan.
Sa ilalim mg bilog na buwan
Mga tiyan nati'y walang laman.
Ngunit kahit na walang pera
Ang bawat gabi'y anong saya.

Minsan ay hindi mo na alam ang nangyayari,
Kahit an anong gawin
Lahat ng bagay ay merong hangganan.

Dahil ngayon,
Tayo ay nilimot ng kahapon.
Di na mapipilitang buhayin
Ang ating pinagsamahan.

Ngunit kung sakaling mapadaan,
Baka ikaw ay aking tawagan
Dahil minsan tayo ay naging tunay na
Magkaibigan.

Guys, kanta ko to para sa inyo. :(

Eto na naman yung isa sa mga araw na weird ung feeling mo. I feel... put out. Lalo na't ang kulimlim, at di ako makapaglaro kay Bianca. Kala ko dati gusto ko ng ulan. Ngayon naiisip ko, parang ayoko na ng ulan. Nakakalungkot e.

Alam niyo yung feeling na napapag-iwanan? Parang ganun ung pakiramdam ngayon. Ngayon ko lang naintindihan yung kanta ng E-heads. Naiisip ko... hindi ko na nga nakasama yung mga kaibigan ko nung junior year, tapos sa summer hindi rin(!), tapos ngayong school year... what if hinde?! ANG SAWI NAMAAAAAAAAAAAAN! Seriously, naiiyak ako pag naiisip ko yun. And to think na naiiyak lang ako pag sobrang frustrated na ko, or galit. Hindi ako umiiyak pag nalulungkot; nananahimik ako sa kama pag ganun.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!! Ang tae naman pag hindi ko at least makasama sa retreat yung friends ko. :((

Pero yung gusto ko sa summer na to (even if I didn't see much of my friends), naging best friends kami ni Bianca. Alam ko na yung ibig sabihin kapag best friend mo sister mo. I'm glad I'm not an only child. (Ano nga pala plural ng "only child"? Only childs? Only children? O_O)

The rise of Newglish: an evolving language

2007-05-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

The rise of Newglish: an evolving language by Laura Simpson (http://news.uk.msn.com/the_rise_of_newglish.aspx)

It is only a five-letter word but it has got the bigwigs at McDonald’s all of a McFlurry [HAHAHAHA!]. The fast food giant is so unhappy with this offensive newcomer to common parlance that it is calling on the British public to support its bid to alter the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the very bastion of all that is proper and correct in our language.
The word? McJob – hardly an expletive [haha!], but its definition as "an unstimulating low-paid job with few prospects" is one that doesn’t quite fit with McDonald’s global brand or, presumably, its recruitment programme. Outlandish as it sounds, McJob has been in the OED since 2001, but the restaurant chain yesterday launched a petition attempting to update the definition in a way deemed less insulting to its employees.

War of words

Whether the might of McDonald’s can hold sway with an institution that has set the standard for the way we use words for over a century remains to be seen, but what the campaign does highlight is the English language as we speak it is advancing at a colossal pace. Even the meanings of words are changing to an extent that ambiguity is inflecting our conversations and no one seems quite sure whether their utterances are in vocabular vogue or if they constitute a social faux pas.

This week Jeremy Clarkson felt the wrath of media watchdog Ofcom after using the term “ginger beer” – rhyming slang for queer – disparagingly about a car on Top Gear. But last year Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles managed to dodge accusations of homophobia by effectively redefining the word “gay” after using it to describe a ringtone he did not like, insisting in modern banter it mean rubbish or lame. The BBC accepted his definition.

So, with words such as chav, bling and stylee making the grade and being included in the OED over the past year, could it be that an entirely new form of English is evolving – a language shaped by urban-speak, American teen flicks and uber-modern advances in technology? If the way you talk and write is enough to send your computer spell check into meltdown it could be the case that your usage of English, with all its nuances and colloquialisms, is developing faster than technology is.

Say what?

In his novel 1984, George Orwell depicted a world where English was being slowly superseded by Newspeak, a language which sought to reflect the principles and ideologies of a rapidly altered society. We may not yet be at the stage when we use “ungood” to mean bad, as Orwell’s fictional work envisioned, but if the author were alive today he may be alarmed at just how prescient his future language was. Entries to the OED over the past year now mean we can now not only be surfers browsing the internet, but “cybrarians” who travel the “Infobahn” to retrieve information [=))], leading “virtualized” lives. We like our discs to be “rewritable” and if we make a mistake we know we can always “undelete” or “uninstall”.

All these newfangled definitions and extraneous words are enough to flummox even the most streetwise of lexical minds. But with so many “Newglish” terms floating around, it is easy to land yourself in a conversational quandary. Are your words actually in the dictionary? Do they mean what you think they mean? The OED says access to its online service is available to most public library members in England and Northern Ireland if you need to check your vocab. In the meantime, here is a quick guide to 20 of the most bizarre, controversial and ingenious new words that, according to the OED, did not officially exist a year ago – and a few suggestions for a dictionary of the future.

20 new words you probably didn’t know existed

1) anoraky – boring, overly studious, unfashionable, nerdy

2) automagically – something that is done automatically in an ingenious or inexplicable way, as if by magic.

3) bimbette – a young, attractive woman thought to lack intelligence or distinctive personality

4) bippy – the buttocks or backside

5) celebutante – a celebrity socialite (ie Paris Hilton)

6) doobrey – a thingummy (a what?)

7) Eeyorish – pessimistic, gloomy

8) fakelore [=))] – specious stories with stereotypically folkloric elements falsely presented as genuine folklore

9) flob – a piece of spittle and mucus that has been spat out

10) freakazoid – a bizarre or freakish person

11) fugly – a very ugly person (derived from an expletive and ugly) [isn't this from Mean Girls???]

12) hacktivist – a hacker with a social or political message to propagate

13) hinky – mainly police slang used to mean nervous or uneasy

14) irritainment – broadcast material that is irritating yet still entertaining

15) looky-loo – a person who views with no intention to buy, or out of curiosity

16) scooby – as in “not to have a scooby” – not to have a clue

17) technopreneur – an entrepreneur in the technology fields

18) tighty-whities – men’s snug-fitting white cotton underpants

19) tweener – a person or thing falling between two recognized categories or types

20) twonk – an idiot, fool

Word wish-list (useful and quirky terms that could be included)

1) blown out – a state of being dumped, avoided or let down by a former date or pal

2) beer jacket – the invisible layer of warmth that forms around one’s body after consuming alcohol and stepping out into the cold, particularly favoured by revellers in the north of England

3) disco dirt – the unexplained black residue left on shoes, legs and feet after a night out

4) dudette – female form of dude, a chummy name for a young woman

5) Facebucked – someone who signs up for social networking and discovers they really don’t
have any friends [ ansama! =))]

6) predictoff – a word completely out of context in an SMS message – created by predictive text messaging

7) schmee – rubbish, lame, substandard (ie. “the UK didn’t win Eurovision because the song was a bit schmee”)

8) telecrastination – the process of screening one's calls and deliberating whether to answer

9) unfan – someone who takes more pleasure from other football teams losing, than their own team winning [=))]

10) Wiinjured – someone who strains themselves playing Nintendo Wii [HAHA! Maraming ganito a =))]

What do you think? Should we embrace new words - or is English rapidly becoming an unfathomable language? Have your say.

--

I really LOVE msn.com

Sab's slumbook

2007-05-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

If our pet bird has a slambook (o slumbook ba yun?), it would look like this:

Name: Sabine Ong

Nickname: Sab, Sabong, Huy

Breed: Peachfaced African lovebird (variation is American Yellow)

Status: Single

Address: In the Cage. You can tell where her sleeping corner is because it's also her poo corner (the diarrhea corner, we call it).

Favorite food: Birdseed! What else?

Favorite color: Yellow

Favorite human: Kaming lahat, pero may preference siya for mom and dad, pati na rin sakin

Favorite spot on human: shoulder, head, fingers

Likes: chewing paper, chewing books, chewing ribbons, pecking fingers, pecking shiny pearl earrings, tasting salty human flesh, nibbling on hair, pooing everywhere, talking to wild birds, perching on the electric fan (hala, mamatay ka dyan sige!), listening to piano music (true), singing with the piano (also true, kahit wala siya sa tono), taking a bath

Dislikes: taking a bath, huge freaky things (aka the remote, banana peels, chocolate wrappers, my ponytail), being put in the cage, people blowing on her crap hole

Describe Sab in one word: BIRDBRAIN

Actually, para siyang aso. Na hindi nag-iisip. Tsk.

Favorite word: Cheep.

What I like about her: She's flies to you when she's called. It's really cute.

What I don't like about her: Her poo! It's everywhere. Evil biting habits. And she doesn't get the word "No!!!"

Our relationship: Love-hate

But I do like our bird. Blasted tailfeathers and all.

Not exactly a bad day. Just unlucky.

2007-05-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

For starters, kaming dalawa lang ni Bianca (na naman) yung naiwanan sa bahay. Breakfast for two can be quite lonely. So eto na pala yung feeling pag nag-ooffice na yung kapatid mo. It wouldn't have been so bad, if not for the fact that:

1. Naputulan kami ng tubig. Great. Buti na lang nakaligo pa ko. Hindi ko lang mahugasan yung pinggan. I can't stand dirty dishes! Dang.

2. Naputulan kami ng kuryente. Ayun. Dobol strayk! Nahuli si Dad sa pagbayad by a few hours. Nasa kanya pa yung resibo! Worse, ako pa yung nakikipag-usap kay Mr Meralco Man-- ako, yung ignorante pa naman sa bagay na ganyan. I didn't know what to say, except for apologetic silence.

3. Dumaan yung mga basurero sa bahay namin. Okay, I know na parang hindi siya malaking issue, but the thing is, kaming dalawa lang ni Bianca yung nasa bahay. Kaming dalawang dalagita lang. So do you know how scary that is?! Sobrang bulong lang kami, and we waited for them to go away. Eto nga lang: nagpahinga sila sa ilalim ng acacia tree namin sa labas. Kamusta naman yun! Hindi ko naman ipagkakait yung acacia tree namin, pero tumumpak lang sila sa araw na kaming dalawa lang ang nasa bahay. I didn't want to go out! Kinausap ko na nga si Mr Meralco Man at lahat e.

Isang oras din sila dun nagpapahinga.

4. At dahil wala ngang kuryente, hindi ko na-charge ang aking phone at hindi ko nakuha yung message ni Zarah.

5. Sawi pa rin kami pagdating sa LOTR1. Lahat ng nahihiram naming kopya di gumagana. Nakakaiyak.

So in the end, pumunta na lang ako kay (chenchenenen!) Joanne, yung bestfriend ni Bianca na nakatira sa FEU village. Syempre kasama ko si Bianca. We watched John Tucker Must Die (finally!) and She's the Man.

Chick flicks are the greatest! You can absorb it all without thinking. Medyo nakakasawa nga lang yung predictable stereotyping nila, as the lack of realism. Isama mo na rin yung pareparehong plot: nobody highschool girl+ jock guy + pretense + problem + eventual guilt + Big Confession In Front of Everybody In the Middle of an Important Event+ tears + kiss + more kisses + kiss kiss + rock music intro (usually the All American Rejects' Dirty Little Secret)= Happily Ever After.

Same old same old. Kaya nga wala ka nang iisipin. San ka pa?

"I get claustrophobia when I look at skinny jeans"

2007-05-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Says one shopper whom I will now admit to be, quite disappointingly, me. Maybe I'm weird that way, but I do feel shortness of breath and a panicky sense of not being able to get out of any pair of SKINNY jeans, ifever I do try them on (unlikely). Which is why I stay away from them, even if I do feel the urgency of buying "baston pants" (mom calls them that; my goodness, she makes it sound so old). Medyo nakaka-conscious magflares or whatever, since everybody's wearing dark skinny jeans (even if it's not exactly a match with their body type). Even my mom is insanely trying to get me to wear those things. Must--resist!!! Come friends! Let us form the last stand against this evil capitalist called FASHION! What say you? Hello?

Anyway, my sisters and I went to Robinsons a while ago to shop a bit. I've been wanting flats for a long time now, so that's what I had in mind. We had our usual run through of the usual boutiques before going to the department store. Buti na lang katabi ng Freeway yung Janilyn cause Bianca and I decided to take a look there too, on a whim. And I saw this wonderful-looking sky blue round-toe pumps (which was somewhere on my wishlist too) sitting there on the shelf. I casually looked at the bottom for the price tag and-- homaygad!!!!-- P100 lang siya. Seriously?! SERIOUSLY. Nowhay. Nung una natawa ako, tapos sabi ko kay Bianca, "Tingnan mo o, P100 lang," na parang pa-joke pa.
"Namamalik-mata ka lang no." And then she gets it from me. "Onga no."
So I asked the saleslady, and she confirmed it.

I have never bought anything faster in my life. When I think about it, it's probably the most rational purchase I've bought so far, because: what are the chances that I'm going to get a pair of awesome heels like that for a hundred bucks? Nada. So there.

I'm feeling quite wise now actually.

I bought a practical pair of flats din, from the department store.

I like malling once in a while. Ansarap ng air-con! Though it was so annoyingly NOISY a while ago, because Calla Lily had to show up and sing songs. Their legion of fan girls sounded interestingly like a collective scream from a newly-hatched clutch of Godzilla eggs. Going down there was INSANE. It was "as if the very evilness of Mordor had come upon us, and we were drowning in the precipitation of orc breath and god-knows-what-else." (I guess even the good-looking guys aren't spared from having their own jumping orc collection.) Dun kasi kami sa baba sinundo e.

---

Sidestory:

Bago kami pumuntang mall, we stopped by Katipunan first. There was this couple on the other side of the street, bumibili sa tindahan. Sobrang lovey-dovey nila na nakakatawa. The girl was all over her (unattracti--*cough*-- normal looking) boyfriend and was all touchy feely. Muntik na ata mag-FK kung hindi lang nahulog yung butil ng kornik (san galing yun???). So kiss-kissan na lang sila sa cheek at kung saan saan. By this time nakatingin na rin yung mga nakaparadang tricycle drivers. And then I saw the guy touching her thigh!!! In broad daylight. Whatda. Sabay yung girl, napa-wedgie-- sa harapan!! Gets niyo baaaaaa?! Huwatisdut. Medyo horrified kami ni Bianca na sobrang tawang-tawa. HAHAHA. Loko talaga yung mag-syotang yun.

Ayun. La lang.

Portents of 3v1L

2007-05-15T00:25:00.000-07:00

George Lucas on Spiderman 3:

"It's silly. It's a silly movie," he said. "There just isn't much there. Once you take it all apart, there's not much story, is there? People thought 'Star Wars' was silly, too," he added, with a wink. "But it wasn't."

HAHAHAHA! George Lucas, you crack me up. I think Star Wars is silly-- script-wise anyway (though I do like the story arc, as a whole). Star Wars 3 was a torment (you can't get worse with lines like "Anakin, you're breaking my heart!"); personally, I think Spiderman's screenplay is better written and better delivered. Compared to Hayden Christensen's robotic acting, Tobey Maguire simply gives his character (and the movie) the justice it deserves.
---

I finally finished reading the whole Lord of the Rings series-- again.

I have to say I really like the book. As in I really like it. Not for the movie's sake, but for its own strengths as a book.

I think it's sad that everyone has to go away in the end, after all they've been through. I mean, Aragorn eventually dies (and leaves Arwen, who wastes away in Lorien), Frodo and Gandalf move to the Undying Lands (and Sam does too, when he gets older, as last of the Ringbearers), Pippin and Merry also die, and Legolas and Gimli (as the appendices say) build a ship and sail away into the Sea. Sigh. It's strange to feel like I miss them all.

I wish they would make some sort of epilogue-type short film, concerning the tale of Aragorn and Arwen. I'd really love that. Hehe, I actually dreamed of an LOTR 4-ish movie called The Purging of the Black Lands (uy, pwede!), which depicted Rohan and Gondor rounding up the last remnants of those scattered orcs. It was pretty cool.

---

Did you know that...

Donkeys and mules kill more people than plane crashes, yearly?

And that men are four times more likely to be hit by lightning than women?

Thanks National Geographic.

---

If I'm not mistaken, I think Meg needs a campus cutie to interview. Sabay campus cutie ng... Assumption. Haha! Di pala lalake e no.

---

I was able to watch Rock Ed's Malinis Please pre-elections event on tv, and they interviewed Gang Badoy.

And WOW.

Her enthusiasm is infectious! It transcended the tv screen and hit me squarely in the face. I actually wanted to go out and do something right then and there (regardless of the fact that it was already 11 pm at night and that I was in my PJs) and just... DO SOMETHING. Something for nation building! More than the modern young professionals, more than the cool socialites and rock stars, Gang Badoy is exactly the kind of person I admire: relentless in empowering people to WORK for the good, and selfless in giving themselves for a cause. Hearing her voice makes me think that we, as the youth, have so much more to offer-- so much, that the rest of our capabilities still remains untapped, and it actually got me excited to think of the possibilities that could happen when we mobilize ourselves for action.

I think AA08 definitely has to meet her.

This is what happens when you're PRANING

2007-05-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned that I'm reading the dictionary? No, seriously. I am. I'm studying it. I'm on letter A now actually (woohoo, what an achievement). They say that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, and it's like that when you handle a dictionary: just one page at a time. Although actually, I'm starting to feel that a page of the dictionary a day will someday blow my brains out. It's three columns of teeny font and word variations mehn. But this is a test of will power! I shall make it! I shall one day make it to letter B at least, and there shall be no shame when I lay down (or angrily chuck) my book (I don't even think that's appropriate to describe this gigantic mammoth of a thousand page book, and that's not even all the way to Z yet). Hay. I couldn't sleep thinking of how hard the entrance test vocab would be. Hindi talaga ako makatulog! My blood runs cold thinking about it-- and it's not even anywhere near the math and science part yet! And I detest those parts. Deym.

Bahala na nga.

AAAH! FLOG ME WITH FREEBIES!

2007-05-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

After her first day on the job, Ate came back with three cds and an MTV VJ Hunt shirt, plus the promise of three books (she gets to review THREE!!! Fresh from Powerbooks!!! Ican'tbelieveit.) and (most likely) a beauty booty shoot tomorrow (meaning today). Magulo ba? Hahaha. I'm just so excited for her!!! EEE! Exclamation point fest!!!!!!!!!!!!! [Pray, excuse me while I run around in circles squealing.] WOW. Just... WOW. This is my dream job! To be surrounded by music and cool events and BOOKS and great make-up stuff (make-up is an art nowadays, you know). Ah, let me count the perks! Let me kneel down and worship! I'd love to work in a magazine! It's another epiphany! I want to work there!!!

Definitely. I will. Try. But I'll try nonetheless.

All right, one minute of lucidity and... okay. Back to less saccharine-high inducing thoughts.

We watched The Bloomfields again last Wednesday. Nung una sobrang na bad trip ako, cause the tables directly in the Central Plaza circle were already full, and the table we got had a TREE blocking the view. Sobrang... grrrrAAAAWWWrrr!! Yung parang medyo sumasakit na yung lalamunan ko sa bottled up bad-trip stress. Pag tumayo naman ako, apat lang sa Bloomfields yung kita ko. Argh! Yung kaisa-isang taong gusto ko makita, hindi ko man masilayan. Kaya dun na lang kami sa side nakatayo ng mga kapatid ko. But I felt better after seeing all of them. Yehey! Kita ko na si Rocky! (Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!!!)

We stood there for an hour and a half-- the only times we went back to the table was when they were playing a slow song (well, not like we were going to miss anything when they play slow songs). It was a great show, syempre kasi andun si Rocky! (Rocky! Rocky! Wahehehe.) Inambush namin sila pagkatapos nila bumaba sa stage. Well, legit naman yung reasons namin e: Ate wanted her cd signed. Una si Jayjay, tapos si Pepe (hiningi pa nga ni Bianca yung pick niya e-- hanga ako sa kapal ng mukha mo a, Biancs), tapos si Lakan, tapos si Rocky (ako humingi ng signature, hehehe), tapos si Louie. We scrambled out of there as fast as we could, because the fan girls were coming in droves.

Poor guys. Halatang natataranta rin sila.

Ate and I walked around after that. Nakinig pa kasi yung mga oldies kay Mon David, tsaka may mga smokers sa tabing table (tsk, thanks to them, they just shaved off 20 years of my life). We saw Jayjay walking our opposite direction. Napasmile ako, tas napatingin ako sa daanan, kasi baka mapakaway pa ko at parang weird kung ganun, kasi di naman kami magkakilala. He sort of smiled back anyway, kahit papano. Pero baka kay Ate. Nagsmile din si Ate e. Anyway.

Super hyper kami pagkatapos nun. Hanggang dinner the next day, hyper pa rin. Ansayaaa!!! Hahahaha. I love the Bloomfields!!! Lalo na si Rocky ahaha.

Things to be happy about

2007-05-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

1. INTERN NA SI ATE SA MEG MAGAZINE! Huwaw. Gusto ko rin! Gusto ko rin!

2. I found Pepsi's commercial jingle (yaaaay!!!). It's Hey Now Now by The Cloud Room.

3. Fiesta Europa is still ongoing! On the downside, I'm finding it difficult to make schedules work. Boo. I hate being a kid.

4. We're going to watch the Bloomfields tomorrow! Makikita ko ulit si Rocky!!! Yehey yehey!

5. Nakagawa ulit kami ni Bianca ng unan. Pero maliit lang, parang throw pillow. It took us four frickin hours(!!!) though to finish. The bigger pillow only took half of that time, sheesh.

6. They say that movies are getting longer and longer, which means that, a) the movie's okay but it was half and hour too long, or b) the movie was NOT okay, and they could've cut an hour's worth of frappery and turned it into something half-decent. I suppose that does apply to some movies, but I have no qualms about Spiderman 3 and the hundred and twelve plus plus minutes it takes up in our lives. Oh the joy of seeing Tobey Maguire in the spidey suit! Lovely.

7. Shrek 3 and Pirates 3 coming in at two week intervals!!! WOOOH! More minutes to see Johnny Depp in eyeliner! Aaah!

8. Ocean's 13 is coming out this year. I say, it's quite a big year for third installments, though Harry Potter 5 quite spoils the effect. Sana mas maganda na yung Harry Potter; I haven't liked any of the movies yet. (Especially detested the first one: Harry's broomstick had more personality than he did. And Ron had all the funny lines-- maybe they should've called it Ron Weasley's Movie instead.)

9. I got my movie stuff from msn.com . I love their articles. You should read them, they're funny.

10. Computer games are fun. Age of Mythology lets me bash my mythological enemahs, plus recruit a flying purple hippo with frilly wings and kiss powers to boot!

---

Things to be sad about

1. Dad deleted Photoshop. By accident. &^*%$%£&%^$!!!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!! And it upset me so much, I cried over it. I have never cried about THINGS. This is a first, and you have to imagine how upsetting that was.

2. I broke my metronome. WAAAAH. I didn't cry over it though, but it made me feel SAD. Like really SAD.

3. I wish I had review classes. I feel inadequately educated right now, and even though my sister confessed to me that she didn't learn much from her review sessions, I still feel... put out. Competition is tough. I'm a little scared that I'm not studying that much (though I do). And I don't know what to do. They say it's stock knowledge, but I feel like I'm going to fall apart when the pressure comes.
Failing the test won't be the end of the world. But it sure would be one heckuva hole to crawl out of.

what I'd want to name my future dog and cat

2007-05-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

Dear me,

Ten years from now, I'd like to have a medium sized dog, brown and slightly furry, with a long snout and big paws and call him Scooby. As in Scooby-DooG. That's right friends, I'd like to call him Doogie, because it will make me split my sides laughing, same as the day I thought of adding a 'g' to this particular name. And Doogie will love me everytime I say it, the same way my future fat black-and-white evil cat will hate me for calling him Mister PuddsyFoot-- extra emphasis on the baby talk accent by the way. Puddsyfoot shall hiss and spit at me while I laugh my head off and split my sides-- yet again-- in the process.

The End.

More Fiesta Europa links (if nobody else is interested, then I'm putting it here for my sake):
http://www.jalanuza.com/scripts/body.php

Fiesta Europa

2007-05-04T00:17:00.000-07:00

Ah, it's that lucky time of the year again when foreign culture obligingly spreads out its arms and lets us ordinary people glimpse a little bit of the Old World.

www.delphl.ec.europa.eu/index.cfm?pagename=whatsnew&ID=228

Photography exhibits, lectures, wine expos, art films, performances and many more! Ah, how excitingly sophisticated! And cultural! I really like culture. It makes me happy.

I suggest you click on that link above and take your pick. I'm not sure if all of these events are free though. I've tried looking for that kind of information, but only the date and place are given.

Hay. It's these kinds of things that make me wish that I was ten years older (which is contrary to my current mood: demanding to be kicked off to Never Never Land), legal and working, with no curfew and certainly no parents to hold my hand. Don't get me wrong; I like being with my parents. They just cramp your style sometimes.

But anyway, I suggest that you tell people about this. I think everyone would enjoy this.

What is it with stardom?

2007-04-26T08:29:00.001-07:00

Ate is now, as of present time, a BLOOMER. And what is a BLOOMER? A BLOOMER, my friends, is someone who is an enthusiastic disciple of THE BLOOMFIELDS.

I've never really understood how some people can be groupies. As in, follow the band around, be friends, get backstage invites and the privilege of being protected from the backstage bouncers. I've often wondered how I'd act around a band that I was crazy about. Probably I'd be too starstruck to even ask for a picture, let alone doggedly follow them around. I shun talking to "stars" (well, not that the chance comes by that often)-- I think I might make a bad conversationalist. If you talk to someone you admire, of course you can't really say anything else except how good they are when they do their thing. Most likely this is going to come out in an excited rush, topped off by a fan girl squeal and glittering eyes and nimble fingers reaching for that camera button. But who wants to be treated like that 24/7? It does get awkward after a while (according to my imagination's theory), because if you don't run out of exasperatingly redundant compliments (that most likely everyone else is tired of), you're now faced with the problem of talking to them in the setting of Real Life. Meaning, how you talk to anybody else. That's one thing I crack my head thinking about. I know it's supposedly simple but-- oh bugger. I'm just not good at it.

I'd rather watch, thanks.

On a sidenote to this whole thing (my bland musings aside), I'm actually happy that Bloomfield groupies have a decent name. I thought they would be called FIELDERS (which is campy) or BLOOMIES (which, honestly, reminds me of flowery underwear worn by old ladies).

Since I am on this topic already, one other thing that often had me wondering was how bands with hopelessly unconvertable names cope with it. Cueshe didn't have much of a problem with that one-- they just forced an '--ean' on the end of their name: we now hereby declare this legion of ardent fans as... CUESHEANS!!! Awkward stressing, and it's damn fugly, if I may say so.

I haven't heard Orange and Lemons' groupie name. Nor Bamboo's. Nor Mayonnaise's, nor Kwjan's... Come to think of it, there are a lot of unconvertable band names. *shrug* Maybe I'm just unimaginitive with these things.

I'd like to discuss that interesting topic of band groupie names a little further, but that's a story for another time. I need research.

Some people have too much time on their hands.

2007-04-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

I tried cleaning out my spam-swamped email account a while ago. I love the bulk section. Just one click and --whee!-- everything flushes down the virtual toilet. I sometimes look through it though, just for kicks, and the material it has is so NUTTY, it's awesome! It's random! It's fantastic! Most of it doesn't make sense, but it sounds smart, hahaha.

Here are some email subjects I got. Sometimes they're sentences...

-The desire to have children is a barrier to protection
-Asbjorn Lonvig for sale
-One in every ten people in the world live on an island (come to think of it-- hey! I live on an island!)
-We are in Iraq as Iraqi doctors and union, building a union
-In the UK, News Corp has more unique visitors each month than Expedia

Sometimes, they're just wonderfully random words...

evocative gigantic
stint than conversant
italicize consumption
wiretap offspring
approachable misogyny
demotion merriment
weed (haha, anlabo)
tatty than trio

It's tatty, and it's more than a trio (although 'approachable misogyny' looks sensible enough). Where they come from, I don't know; the senders' names never repeat themselves. I think it's one of those email+name+gibberish generators, but what purpose it serves, I don't know. At least none of them have suspicious attachments. A bit of it is uncomfortably infiltrating my inbox, but deleting is quick, so no worries about being flooded there.
---

Raul Gonzales has run off with his famous mouth again. After blaming Campbell for being stupid and uncareful and likely to be killed with the way she was acting (damn, she's dead, okay? Why would you say such a thing???), he now offers P10,000 to every barangay captain who could make 12-0 (in favor of Team Unity) possible.

How dare he.

HOW DARE HE.

The insolence of that man is just... appalling. And he has the balls NOT to call it vote-buying. Peter Cayetano immediately commented against this action, which Gonzales waved aside, saying that Cayetano had a wild imagination.

It is not vote buying because it is just a promise. There is no real action yet, therefore there is no violation. I heard someone on TV say that.

But even if it "wasn't", technically speaking, vote buying, this action is encouraging people to do exactly that. And why wait for a "real" violation to happen?! Why argue on the technicalities? You can call it anything you want, but it all boils down to this: it's a bribe for your votes. You can't call it anything more indignified than that.

Ode to THE COLD

2007-04-24T07:27:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm socially backward but am too insane to realize it. Sigh.

I never really did get people. As in minsan... hindi ko lang talaga sila gets. I thought friends were people who were warm and cheerful and sympathetic, even if they didn't want to be. I thought friends were supposed to be "the shoulder to cry on", "the wall to lean on", "the hanger to hang with", "the box of chocolates-which-you-never-know-what-you're-gonna-get"(okay, malabo yung isang yun), but aside from being the embodiment of every well-meaning cliche conceived in this language, they are supposed to just BE THERE. Regardless of distance. Or situation. Or ANYTHING at all!

They are FRIENDS. Doesn't that mean anything?

It means something to me! Why is it that whenever I give myself fully, I always end up on the losing side? I just want someone to look in my direction, squeeze my hand say it's all right to buckle down and sob into my pillow, to say that loneliness is a poverty which afflicts more human beings that I can imagine possible, and that it's not true people forget friends so easily. I just don't want to go through this paralysis alone; I just want someone to be there even when peple are snowblasting me in my face.

But if not...

Well then.

I just wish you'd tell me you've stopped being my friend, just so I won't have to think about you. At all.

"The SCI-FI Channel ruined my books!"- Ursula Le Guin

2007-04-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

A Whitewashed Earthsea
by Ursula Le Guin (excerpt from article posted at http://slate.msn.com/id/2111107/ on December 16, 2004)

"On Tuesday night, the Sci Fi Channel aired its final installment of Legend of Earthsea, the miniseries based—loosely, as it turns out—on my Earthsea books. The books, A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, which were published more than 30 years ago, are about two young people finding out what their power, their freedom, and their responsibilities are. I don't know what the film is about. It's full of scenes from the story, arranged differently, in an entirely different plot, so that they make no sense. My protagonist is Ged, a boy with red-brown skin. In the film, he's a petulant white kid. Readers who've been wondering why I "let them change the story" may find some answers here.

When I sold the rights to Earthsea a few years ago, my contract gave me the standard status of 'consultant'—which means whatever the producers want it to mean, almost always little or nothing. My agency could not improve this clause. But the purchasers talked as though they genuinely meant to respect the books and to ask for my input when planning the film. They said they had already secured Philippa Boyens (who co-wrote the scripts for The Lord of the Rings) as principal script writer. The script was, to me, all-important, so Boyens' presence was the key factor in my decision to sell this group the option to the film rights.

Months went by. By the time the producers got backing from the Sci Fi Channel for a miniseries—and another producer, Robert Halmi Sr., had come aboard—they had lost Boyens. That was a blow. But I had just seen Halmi's miniseries DreamKeeper, which had a stunning Native American cast, and I hoped that Halmi might include some of those great actors in Earthsea.

At this point, things began to move very fast. Early on, the filmmakers contacted me in a friendly fashion, and I responded in kind; I asked if they'd like to have a list of name pronunciations; and I said that although I knew that a film must differ greatly from a book, I hoped they were making no unnecessary changes in the plot or to the characters—a dangerous thing to do, since the books have been known to millions of people for decades. They replied that the TV audience is much larger, and entirely different, and would be unlikely to care about changes to the books' story and characters.

They then sent me several versions of the script—and told me that shooting had already begun. I had been cut out of the process. And just as quickly, race, which had been a crucial element, had been cut out of my stories. In the miniseries, Danny Glover is the only man of color among the main characters (although there are a few others among the spear-carriers). A far cry from the Earthsea I envisioned. When I looked over the script, I realized the producers had no understanding of what the books are about and no interest in finding out. All they intended was to use the name Earthsea, and some of the scenes from the books, in a generic McMagic movie with a meaningless plot based on sex and violence."

Oh Ursula, I share your anguish.

I hated the movie. Sometimes, you have this it's-so-bad-it's-actually-good kind of movies, but this one is just... BAD. It had a less than stellar script (full of horrific cliche one-liners delivered in a deadpan voice), chilllingly fake special effects, ineffective acting and a bad story. It's sacrilege! You can't treat Earthsea like that! Ah, piss on them. It's so disappointing for another book to convert to movie waste.

Remake! Remake!

Wanderlust

2007-04-18T00:14:00.000-07:00

Wann wird das Licht mein Auge finden?

"When will my eyes find the light?"
"Soon, soon, youth, or never."

I haven't realized this before, but I'm actually consuming roughly 2 books per week. I've read The Hobbit for the SRP though I haven't answered the sheet yet. I hate answering sheets, particularly because I'm weak at those. Hmph.

I'm reading Violet Clay at the moment, by Gail Godwin. It's one of those random books with a good enough cover and large enough font size; thank goodness for that. I don't really feel like tramping through a book with ant-size text.
The book is pretty good, though one may get a little impatient at the author's style of moving the story forward, then doing chapters of flashbacks to conveniently provide the backstory. There's actually little happening in the present timeline, but I think the value of the book lies in the fact that the character has so much feeling. It's hard to explain, but I'm connecting with her startlingly well. Portrait of an Artist Without Direction. That could also be me.

I hate stagnation. It puts me out of shape. I can't even gather my thoughts properly now, neither could I organize it into orderly paragraphs!

Stagnation makes me ramble.

Boo.

But then this is my writing space. Maybe I could even say this pointless wandering and rambling on is some sort of abstract writing style that I can own somehow. Wait, that would be terrible. I'd hate to own this mediocrity.
---

I was looking at a back issue of Preview magazine about some days ago. The price of those designer things are appallingly overkill. There is something obscene about advertising those P55,000 designer shoes or P47,000 designer bags while a million people in the Philippines are dying of hunger. I swear, there really is something wrong with that, but I can't put my finger on to what it is. Maybe you could help me, and then we'd write to them and ask them why.

I wonder if they feel any satisfaction with their jobs. It's so sickeningly worldly.

Since we're on the subject of sickening things anyway, I'd also add that Philippine news shows (particularly on the leading networks) are degenerating more and more into a muckier version of themselves. The way they sensationalize and dramatize things, plus that loud exaggerated narrating voice is getting so obnoxious!!! I hate it! It's like watching an indecent tabloid. What's worse, they do all these pakitang-gilas announcements about being true to public service. Grrrr. I wonder if public service includes getting the latest scoop on bikini contests and which young starlet has decided to go bold. They aren't even delivering news anymore. It's like... entertainment + talk show + features + Manny Pacquiao + nonsense. Argh. I just hate it. They're not helping the masses intellectually, and I'm always more confused by the end of these things.

Everything about them is irrelevant. Nakakainis.

Wunderkind

2007-04-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

I haven't forgotten this.

Dreadfully behind though.

I think I poked Sab's eye with my hair. Do birds get blinded by that? It makes me feel uneasy to see her close that eye for such a long time. Eep.

Blee~!

2007-03-22T05:26:00.000-07:00

Ayan. Summer na.

I did lie on my stomach last night and have the heebie-jeebies, but other than that (and waking up at 9:00 today!!!), nothing much has changed.

Truthfully, I'm not as attached to my class as I used to be. So saying good-bye was all right. I'm quite sure of the fact that we'll be seeing each other again sooner before we can blink. What's in a month? Four weeks? Waaaah, ayokong isipin na pasukan na ulit nang wala pa kong nagagawa!

Kaya eto ang gagawin ko this summer:

1. Mag-aral
Shucks. Into the belly of the beast and out the demon's ass. Kelangan na maghanda para sa ACT.

2. Go out with Patrick
Patrick. My! beloved! 35-mm SLR cameraaaa! *happy dance* I need practice handling film and the finer points of aperture and shutter speed. And I'll finally have time to do it!

3. Fix stuff
Oh yeah. I still have to pack my old books in boxes. Darn.

4. Get down and ARTSEH~!
Do more doodles, inking, get my game going. Practice, as usual, though hopefully with more direction. I'm getting burned out all the time.

5. Buy a darn good book
Provided that I have the money, that is.

6. Search for scholarships
Muntik ko na makalimutan. It's a "summer project" my aunt imposed on me. I'm eyeing Singapore at the moment, though I have to check back at their webpage because it's down.

7. Do some writing
Para naman maging writer na talaga ako, for a change.

8. Play with my sister
It sounds weird, but I really do like playing with my sister (kasi nauutusan ko siya, tas sunod naman siya, mwahehehe). There should be a Costume Day, a Movie Marathon Day, a Photoshoot Day (c/o Patrick-cam!), a Walking Day, Opposite Day...

9. Exercise
I shall cut down. Promise.

10. Unwind
Until my brain is as limp as a lovely, overcooked spaghetti noodle. Huzzah!

Yay! I love having time for myself and my hobbies. And I can finally get around to practicing all my piano assignments, because I've been terrible for a whole year.

Hehe. I feel a bit excited.

Unclean charades

2007-03-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Mad World - Gary Jules

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very Mad World
Mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World
Mad World
Illogical world
Mad World
---

Evil - Interpol

Rosemary

Heaven restores you in life

You're coming with me

Through the aging, the fearing, the strife

It's the smiling on the package

It's the faces in the sand

It's the thought that moves you upwards

Embracing me with two hands

Right will take you places

Yeah maybe to the beach

When your friends they do come crying

Tell them now your pleasure's set up on slow-release

Hey wait

Great smile

sensitive to fate not

Denial

But hey who's on trial?

It took a life spent with no cellmate

The long way back

Sandy, why can't we look the other way?

we speaks about travel

Yeah, we think about the land

We smart like all peoples

Feeling real tan

I could take you places

Do you need a new man?

Wipe the pollen from the faces

Make revision to a dream while you wait in the van

Hey wait

Great smile

sensitive to fate not

Denial

But hey who's on trial?

It took a life spent with no cellmate

To find the long way back

Sandy, why can't we look the other way?

You're weightless, you are exotic

You need something for which to care

Sandy, why can't we look the other way?

Leave some shards under the belly

Lay some grease inside my hand

It's a sentimental jury

And the makings of a good plan

You've come to love me lightly

Yeah you've come to hold me tight

Is this motion everlasting

Or do shutters pass in the night?

Rosemary

Oh heaven restores you in life

I spent a lifespan with no cellmate

The long way back

Sandy, why can't we look the other way?

You're weightless, semi-erotic

You need someone to take you there

Sandy, why can't we look the other way?

Why can't we just play the other game?

Why can't we just look the other way?