Saturday, February 24, 2007

carpe diem

I have been meaning to update this blog for quite some time now, but it was only today that I was finally in the mood to do some writing. Actually I still don't feel like writing. It's as if there's a dam in my mind keeping the ideas from flowing through my hands into the computer.

So what do you do if something is in your way?

Why, BLOW IT UP of course!

Or RUN OVER IT!

CRUSH the opposition!

SWEEP it away!

SEIZE the initiative and ANNIHILATE the enemy!

Now that's better. I actually feel warm and fuzzy inside.

So what's new? Quite a lot, actually.

My mom has been at the hospital for 5 days now, thanks to a stone (or stones, but I only saw one) in her gall bladder. Her entire gall bladder had to be removed, since the stones had already caused it to be inflamed. In less than a year we've been 'invited' back to the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital, and she even got my old doctor from my 'midterm vacation' last year. She'll be coming home today; thank God that she got treated in time and nothing else happened. However, this entire episode has had one good side effect: my mom has FINALLY been banned from smoking. And when she comes home I fully intend to ensure that that ban is well and truly implemented.

I actually have a good chance of getting high grades this semester. As I may have written about earlier, the results of my midterm exams were way above expectations. Besides that I've been speaking out in class more than before, which is saying quite a lot since I RARELY spoke out in class before. I don't know why, but I think I've got this 'studying' thing finally all figured out. Hehehehe... Just kidding. Maybe it's just because after FOUR YEARS I don't have a single Math subject. Not one. Not even a teeny-tiny-itsy-bitsy hint of Math. Yes. There's still a month to go before the semester ends and I still have loads of papers and reports and exams to wade through, but hey, at least I've regained the initiative. All I have to do is to sustain the momentum, and then my dream of becoming a university scholar will FINALLY become a reality.

Speaking of speaking out I think I actually spoke out TOO MUCH last Tuesday during my Latin class. It's election season once again, and candidates for the University Student Council and the various college councils have been going room to room to campaign for their respective parties. It so happened that some candidates of the STAND-UP party chose to campaign during my Latin class. After the usual introduction speech and the 'call for mobilization against the TOFI (tuition and other fee increase)' speech there was the usual question and answer portion, which I quite nervously took advantage of. I asked them what their alternatives for the tuition fee hike were, given that they were vehemently opposing said policy and I wanted to know what they wanted to do without it. I forgot exactly what they answered but it was the same old line of fighting the tuition fee increase with more demonstrations and lobbying for a larger budget for UP. And they didn't answer my question. I wanted to know what alternatives they had to solve the funding problems of the university in place of the tuition fee increase. So I asked again. I asked what they planned to do NOW to solve the funding problem. Besides waiting for a budget increase (which by the way is, while idealistic, totally impractical given the current state of affairs in our country) I wanted to know what CONCRETE plans they had for solving the problem. This is where I think I blew up. "LOOK AT THIS CHAIR! LOOK AT THIS ROOM! What do you propose to do about this NOW?" Their answer? "Solicitation." I did not push any further. After that and with some parting words they left, and that was when I noticed the funny looks my classmates were giving me. It turned out that during that short space of time I looked as if I was about to THROW MY CHAIR at the guy who answered my question. I didn't even notice it; I was so lost in the moment. What shocked me more was that my professor COMMENDED me for my (I can't remember the exact words) caring so much about the issues confronting the studentry today. Not bad for my first time ever speaking out publicly on an important issue.

Whew.

I guess I have to take a break here.

But wait, there's more!

Now that I've moved to the new Google-powered Blogger I can finally go back to updating this blog on a more regular basis. Weeeee!

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