home stretch

Another sunset, and the semester is one day closer to its end.

Coffee on such a hot day may be seen as some to be a bit eccentric, but to me it is a fitting way to relax after 9 hours of work.

At the UP Main Library there is one perfect spot for me. The coffee dispenser is only a few feet away, there is a beautiful view of the sky and the trees, and the silence is just what my overheated mind needs.

Yes. Silence. Isolation. Reflection.

The end is in sight. After my final exams on the 31st I would finally be able to rest and relax once again.

For the near future, at least.

Ad astra per aspera

the force is strong with me

Your overconfidence is your weakness. -Luke Skywalker

Last night I said that I had an exam in Econ 109 today. That exam was supposed to start at 8:30 in the morning. Guess where I was at 8:20. Hehehehe... I left home at exactly 8:30, and I only got on an FX by 8:45. Needless to say I was already fuming; my temper was already rising to dangerous levels. Sure, I was late in leaving for school since I just had to open up the computer and check my mail and backup my XDA and watch some videos on YouTube, but the FX driver was also to blame for my tardiness because he was not at the terminal when I arrived! Yes. The FX driver is to blame. Not me. Certainly not my addiction to the Internet. No way.
I got to my classroom by 9:15. With only 45 minutes to spare, I immediately started on the exam. I wrote so furiously that my pen actually gave up on me halfway into the second essay question. When it was all over I had filled up one and a half sheets of yellow paper. In 45 minutes. Wow. Of course I was overconfident for a reason: it was an open-book exam. The answers were never more than 5 inches away from me. Two nights before I had already read the two assigned chapters and highlighted all the important details. I expect to see another "1" next week. How's that for confidence?

Your faith in your friends is yours. -Emperor Palpatine

My troubles, if you could call them that, did not end with my exam. There was still that one-page Latin short story to translate. The assignment was given last Tuesday. We were supposed to meet yesterday, but no one showed up at the designated place at the appointed time. History repeats itself. Guess how much my groupmates and I had done by lunch time of the deadline. Translation is not an exact science. You do not just get a dictionary and replace latin word with english word. You have to consider the context of the sentence. You have to take into account the culture of the time in which the document you're trying to translate was written. And you cannot just move on after translating a sentence, you have to polish it up so that it would have meaning in the English language. It's just like writing a paper for grammar class, or a blog, except that you have to be able to choose and use exactly the right words and you have to be extremely careful with the cases and the numbers and the persons and the moods and the genders of every single noun, adjective, verb, and adverb or else what you come up with would amount to pure gobbledygook. So we were only at the third sentence. Big deal. Our Latin class was at 2:30. In the excitement of meticulously poring over the definition and inflection of every single word in the text I sort of forgot to eat lunch. A cup of hot brewed coffee replaced rice. It had such a stimulating effect that all the way into my Political Science 150 class I was twitching and shaking. Come Latin class the fruit of our labor was finally put to the test. Our hard work was not without reward, as we garnered 8 points before the class had to be dismissed due to lack of time. And because of the lack of time everyone was given the full 10 points to be added to the second exam. Weeee!

It is pointless to resist, my son. -Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker

To reward myself for my recent successes on the academic front and to congratulate myself for living through such a hectic and stressful day, I just had to have a plate of California Maki and Tuna Sushi at Teriyaki Boy. My lunch was at 6 in the evening. It's ironic. We're just friends now, and there we were, having dinner at a restaurant after such a long time without ever going out on a date. I had planned on watching Letters from Iwo Jima at the cinema, but unfortunately only Ayala cinemas were playing it. I had no plans of going all the way to Makati at such a late hour. Blue Wave Marikina beckoned, and there we went. When you're in a celebratory mood, stay away from any arcade; it will suck you in and bleed you dry, especially when it has Time Crisis 3 in it! 150 pesos in 30 minutes. Gone. O di immortales!

Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design. -Emperor Palpatine

*Return of the Jedi; Emperor's Throne Room, right before the Rebel Alliance launches its attack on the Second Death Star

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!

new look!

I finally got the chance to refurbish this blog! Hehehehehe...

Enjoy! :D

troubleshooting convenience

My computer has been acting up as of late. Slow load times and random errors have become commonplace. The CD player is close to unusable and the speakers spout out loud static every time they are adjusted. Programs I've used with no problems in the past run sluggishly or not at all.
I would reformat it, if not for the slow Internet connection we've had since that earthquake off Taiwan. Download speeds are just a tad bit higher than in a dial-up connection, and there's a high probability of downloads just stopping way before they reach 50%. Web pages load painfully slowly or not at all. When once I had multiple tabs loading in Firefox at the same time I now find it hard to load one completely without refreshing it at least once.
A reformat now would erase over 3 years of patches and upgrades, not to mention security software, which would be nearly impossible to restore with our Internet connection problems.

It's very annoying and inconvenient to have computer problems nowadays. A computer has become a requirement for school; research, papers, homework, papers, presentations, papers, and reports (did I mention papers?) go through a computer before landing on the desk of your teacher. A printer would also be nice to have, as the lack of one would entail severe logistical problems and not a few unpassed assignments (yes, it happened to me). Communication with friends and loved ones is now done through the Internet; instant messaging, email, voice chat, webcams, threads, and forums now serve as meeting places. Some people build entire lives in the online world.

So imagine my predicament now. I admit I've become too dependent on computers, or on technology for that matter. I spend more time now in front of a screen, be it that of a computer, TV, or cellphone, than in front of a real paper book. In fact I have books -electronic books- just waiting to be loaded into my PDA.
I also find myself multi-tasking more often now; TV droning on in the background, cellphone in one hand, mouse on the other, headphones in my ear, YouTube loading in one tab while I'm typing in Multiply in another, Yahoo Messenger in another window, -and then the phone rings.

The convenience brought by technology can also be a curse. Having the world at your fingertips removes any need for you to walk. We are conditioned to demand speed at every turn, just so we could fit everything we want or need to do in the 24 hours given to us everyday, 24 hours which are squeezed and reduced more and more by more demands on our time so much so that soon nothing is ever fast enough. With various media competing for our attention and with all the things we do in our everyday lives we find that we have very little time for anything else.

And then we realize that we are inconvenienced by the very things we made and bought and used to make our lives easier. Computer problems keep us up all night in vain attempts to set right the effects of over six years of wear and tear (guess what I'm doing at 4:33 in the morning).Dependence on technology becomes a liability when the power goes out (remember Milenyo?). I won't even begin to describe the battles we've fought here over who gets to use the computer or the TV at this or that time.

I bought a book last Friday; you can now scratch off Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas from your Christmas gift lists. I spent the afternoon at the Sunken Garden with my new book. It was windy, cold even. I was laughing every once in a while -I think some of the people near me then thought that I was crazy. And for at least two hours I forgot about my 6-year old computer. I wasn't staring at a monitor and screaming invectives at Globe Telecom or pounding at the CD drive. No one was texting me at that time, and there were no TV sets in sight. It was just me and a good book. A cup of coffee would have been nice, but I was fine right there alone with my book and my thoughts of the day gone by.

I remember writing about how playing computer games was so relaxing for me. It seems I forgot how it felt to just sit back and relax and read and dream.

Haaay...

what the...

There is now a river outside our house; apparently an underground pipe cracked up just a few hours ago.

So now we have no water, save for what's left in our water tank. No more hot showers for a few days -actually no showers really. It's back to the tabo for us here.

Okay. So the water is out, check. The Internet connection, thanks to that huge earthquake off Taiwan last last(?) week, is crappy at best, check. Next target for elimination is the electricity- God, I hope not!

Why is everything going crazy over here?

crap

Obviously Performancing screwed up the last post. Aaargh...

all i want for christmas is...

My two front teeth.
Yes. Seriously. I've grown tired of the Harry Potter-ish lightning bolt on my front tooth. I want to go see a dentist, but I might be banned from munching on sweets like...

Chocolate.
Hi. My name is Andre, and I'm a chocoholic. The sight of Cloud 9 would get my mouth watering. The scent of Cadbury bars would drive me into a feeding frenzy. The mere thought of Swiss and German chocolates would be like heaven for me. But for now, my Mom's stash of Hershey's Kisses would serve as a worthy snack while watching...

Battlestar Galactica.
So I'm a Sci-fi geek. What would you expect from a guy who has the complete Star Wars Saga and watches it in order every few weeks? I would love to get my hands on the DVDs of seasons 1 and 2 of this series; something to tide me over until Cinemax coughs up Season 3. Yes, it's on YouTube, but why should I spend my days squinting at a little screen when I could be playing...

Medieval 2: Total War.
Ever since I started up Command and Conquer: Red Alert on my very first PC years ago I have been hooked on strategy games. Maybe it's the feeling of power as I command hundreds of troops and decide the fates of virtual nations, or maybe it's the pure sadistic joy of watching poor, hapless peasants being bombarded to death by catapults launching fire pots. Or by the 16-inch guns of an offshore battleship. Or by a squadron of B-2 Stealth Bombers. It all depends on my mood really, but there are times when I just want to sit back, relax, and wish that I could read...

Harry Potter Books 1-6.
Yes, I've read them all already thanks to the magic of the Internet, but I have dreams of having a personal library someday, and I want to expand my collection of non-electronic books. Bookworm that I am, I've also set my sights on...

Ang Paboritong Libro Ni Hudas.
I've always planned to buy this and other books by Bob Ong. My collection of books is so lacking in humor, save for my two...

Pugad Baboy Comic books.
I already have 5 and 6, and the book sale at the Faculty Center had most of the others. It took all my self-control to keep from splurging all my measly economic assets right there and then; I still need the money to buy...

Teeth of the Tiger.
My Tom Clancy collection is nearly complete. This, plus Red Rabbit, will finally round out the fictional novels. Then I can move on to the nonfiction books, like...

Into the Storm.
I have always been interested in military affairs, and this is just one in a series of books which would give me an inside look at the American armed forces. After that maybe I could move on to another author, such as Dale Brown. The first book I would get would be...

Act of War.
Obviously, I'm a war freak. Let's move on, shall we? My birthday is in 9 days. Wow. I'm getting old. But what I'm really looking forward to is...

Dinner at a restaurant of my choice.
I'm thinking of having a...

Tenderloin Steak with Mashed Potatoes at House of Minis.
Or...

Eat-all-you-can Sushi and Sashimi at Saisaki.
However I could also go for the traditional...

Roast Chicken at Kenny Roger's Roasters.
Ever since I had a taste of the scrumptious wood-fire roasted chicken and flavorful gravy and creamy mashed potatoes we had been celebrating my birthday there...

Enough! All this talk about food is making me hungry, and our dinner isn’t ready yet. I only ate a plate of baked macaroni for lunch, and I spent a whole day walking around the campus. I’m so tired and so hungry and so handsome. Come to think of it, maybe what I really want –need- for Christmas is…

A vacation.

connection reestablished

I finally got to update this blog. Hehehehe...



Wala lang... :D

pushing the envelope(again)

Climb Mount Niitaka.
A simple phrase, seemingly innocuous.

Today was supposed to be another normal day. Classes to attend, people to meet, books to read, time to kill. Yet something felt different, even when I first woke up. My first class was at 10AM, so I had to be up by 8 to get ready for school. Yes, I still take more than an hour to go through my morning routine, but a lot of things have changed. The commute to school now takes less time than before, so I could afford to spend more time checking my email in the morning. I was so confident in the efficiency of Marikina's roads and its public utility vehicles that I left home at 9:45AM. Yup, 15 full minutes before my class was supposed to start. My confidence was not misplaced, however, and I arrived at Katipunan with 7 minutes to spare.

It means nothing, really.
Until you see it for what it really is.

I however forgot about Katipunan Avenue. Sure it was smooth sailing for a while, until the jeep got to the bottleneck at UPIS. It was stop-go, stop-go for all of 15 minutes. I was already fuming by the time the jeep got to the Tumana gate, and when I saw that the traffic stretched all the way to the other end I jumped off and walked the rest of the way to the Econ building. I arrived 20 minutes late, and the doors were already locked- wait, the doors were locked? The other time this happened, on the first day of classes, Prof. Esguerra was absent. Crap.

That seemingly innocent phrase triggered a chain of events that dragged half the world into one of the most devastating periods in history.

Who in their right mind would not want a class to be cancelled? Normally I would be happy, but I was already in a very foul mood after having to walk half a kilometer because some MMDA traffic enforcer didn't know $#!+ about traffic management, and finding out that all the effort and sweat was for nothing didn't help at all! And as if to add insult to injury, the jeep I left trapped in traffic passed right in front of me as I left the Econ building. It was only 10:30AM.

Millions died because of events begun by those three words.
Innocent words transmitted by radio before one fateful December morning.

I spent the rest of the morning in the library reading newspapers. Lunch was spent at the CS Canteen, with baked macaroni again. My next class was at 2:30, so I went up to the air-conditioned confines of the Econ library to wait. I didn't really want to attend that class, but I had nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon and I was supposed to have another meeting for our BA 101 case presentation at 5:30. So with a cup of steaming hot coffee I listened to an hour-and-a-half long lecture which I could have easily read from the book. After the class it was back to the library again, to wait for 5:30.

It's simply amazing.
One innocent phrase with the power to change the world.

If you've been reading my blogs for quite some time now you probably know that I really hate waiting. I. Really. Absolutely. Definitely. Hate. Abhor. Despise. Waiting. So if you make me wait it had better be damned worth it. But history has a funny way of repeating itself, and as the clock hit 5:45, I found out that it did. Again. I arrived at the designated meeting place to find out that none of my groupmates had arrived yet. A text message clarified everything, and really made my day: "Ei di matutuloy meeting ngayon, lahat may ginagawa e. Wala bang nagsabi sayo?" My blood turned cold as I read that message. My face twisted into an evil smile, a smile I usually reserve for when I'm desperately trying to control my temper. This was the FOURTH time my dear groupmates saw fit to cancel meetings without notifying me until literally the last damned minute.

How I wish I had that kind of power.
If a group of letters could have it, why can't I?

You should be thankful I'm not some crazy, megalomaniacal dictator with access to certain 'weapons of mass destruction' because at that time I really wanted to press the proverbial button and send the world back to the Stone Age. Oh, what I would give for an MX-Peacekeeper ICBM with 10 megatons worth of pure thermonuclear goodness... Almost 2 wasted hours... I could have gone home early instead of wasting my time waiting for nothing!

Power. Unlimited power!
Power to change the world, to bend things to my will.

I was so frustrated that I just started walking around aimlessly. My normally handsome face was twisted into something- let's just say that if looks could kill a lot of people would be lining up before the Pearly Gates by now. For about 20 minutes I walked around UP, vainly trying to vent my anger yet failing miserably since 'venting' for me usually comes with 'shouting' and 'screaming', which I couldn't quite do in the civilized Diliman campus.

Yes. I'll have that power in the future.
Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

I got home at around 7PM. Thank God for salpicado and baked potatoes and YouTube and blogging. Some ants just got a new lease on life.

extraneous thoughts

Certain things have been taking up valuable real estate in my already overcrowded mind for the past few weeks. This is a desperate attempt to purge my mind of these extraneous thoughts and at least return some semblance of order to my gray matter.

People are going to kill me after they read this post.

I don't get jaywalkers. Specifically those stupid bastards who cross the street under the damned pedestrian footbridge. Are those people blind, or are they just idiotic morons just asking, begging, to be turned into road kill? Just give me the chance and I would cheerfully and gleefully introduce them to both my car's bumper and the concrete road. Give me the power and I would declare every major road a free fire zone: jaywalkers would be considered as targets. Most targets eliminated bags a cash prize. That ought to drill some freakin' discipline into the unruly masses.

Animal rights. What the hell is up with giving rights to something that is destined to go into my stomach? Ever hear of the friggin' food chain? News flash: we're on top of it! I love pigs, especially if they're cute, pink, and chubby. But I don't care if the pig that provided the juicy tenderloin steak I'm about to eat was treated 'humanely' or like the freakin' Prince of Wales, I only want it medium well on a freakin' platter along with some gravy and mashed potatoes! Ah, but there are those who would rather have us just eat *shudder* vegetables and *shiver* imitation meat made from plants. Yeah. Just wait 'til the plant rights activists come knocking on your doors!

Havianas. Okay. Deep breath. Here we go. Explain to me the merits of buying a pair of rubber slipp-er, flip-flops, for around 600-800 pesos. Wait- never mind, opportunity knocks! I'll just buy some cheap slippers worth 30 pesos from my friendly neighborhood tiangge and pass them off as Havianas! Cha-ching! Damn! I'll make a killing! Woohoo! Money DOES grow on trees- rubber trees, that is. Yeah, that's right. I'll open up a store at the Mall of Asia right across the Flip-flop Store, or whatever the hell they call that little nook packed with people going gaga over something made in the friggin' Philippines ever since rubber replaced wood and the integumentary system as the sole [pun intended] provider of open-air protection for our smelly feet, and "liberate" Ninoy Aquino and the Banaue Rice Terraces from their wallets. Ahhh... Capitalism.

The CPP-NPA. Ah, yes. The 38 year old protector of the poor and the oppressed. Right. Let's call a spade a spade okay? Those purge-happy propaganda-loving revolutionary tax-hungry landmine-laying destabilizing morons with a cowardly leadership hiding blissfully in the Netherlands are terrorists, plain and simple. The Armed Forces can have at them all they want. I would be the happiest man alive if I were given the chance to see Jose Maria Sison or Ka Roger through the scope of a sniper rifle, or if I were in the cockpit of one of our high-tech, propeller-driven, Vietnam-veteran Bronco bombers raining napalm on one of their training camps. Ever watch Munich? I do hope the government grows some backbone and takes the terrorist leadership out of our collective misery. Yes. The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.

Right. Animal rights activists and Havianas fans may leave their gracious comments below. Jaywalkers, wait for me at the C5 road where I'll introduce you to my little friend Optra. And to any member of the CPP-NPA, please, come back to the light. Communism is a fool's errand. Join me in my capitalist quest to liberate Manuel Roxas, Diosdado Macapagal, Ninoy Aquino, and the Banaue Rice Terraces from the millions of Haviana fans out there. Otherwise, feel free to point your AK-47's on your heads, set the switch to 'automatic', and then gently pull the trigger. Save the AFP the trouble, and by the way, free up some money for the education budget.

Cheerio!

...maybe later... hehehe...

You Are Somewhat Machiavellian

You're not going to mow over everyone to get ahead... But you're also powerful enough to make things happen for yourself. You understand how the world works, even when it's an ugly place. You just don't get ugly yourself - unless you have to!

How Machiavellian Are You?

i really should be getting ready for school...

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"Nice doggy."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

how vain are you?

You Are 43% Vain

You're a little vain, but more than anything you have a healthy amount of confidence. Thinking the world of yourself is great. Just don't think less of those who aren't as pretty as you!

How Vain Are You?

how evil are you?

You Are 40% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

what planet should you rule?

You Should Rule Saturn

Saturn is a mysterious planet that can rarely be seen with the naked eye. You are perfect to rule Saturn because like its rings, you don't always follow the rules of nature. And like Saturn, to be really able to understand you, someone must delve beyond your appearance. You are not an easy person to befriend. However, once you enter a friendship, you'll be a friend for life. You think slowly but deeply. You only gain great understanding after a situation has passed.

What Planet Should You Rule?

perfect disaster

When the conditions are right, everything will go wrong.

August 14, 2006
My German 10 class had ended the week before, and now I had 2 hours of free time on my hands. I had already eaten lunch so I went to the SE Library to get the required readings for my Kasaysayan 112 class, Contemporary Philippine History. I remember Erika's reaction when I enlisted in that class: "'Contemporary Philippine History'? Martial law, People Power, politics, etcetera? E alam mo na lahat yan e!!!" Modesty(ahem) forbids me from commenting further on that, but I can say that I have had an active interest in history ever since I was a child. Anyway, I had two books photocopied that day, Nationalist Economics, and The Roots of People Power, the first chapter of which I had finished while waiting for the other book. Over the next few days I had finished reading the rest, in preparation for class and the first exam just a week away.

August 21, 2006
No classes today. I spent most of the long weekend in front of the computer, whiling away the hours commanding virtual soldiers on an imaginary battlefield. Of course I stopped soaking in radiation from time to time, taking glances at my Econ 106 notes or making the long trip to the refrigerator for another load of Hershey's Kisses.

August 22, 2006
I actually had time to fire up my computer in the morning. Yes, I was early for class. After checking my mail and catching up on the news I made my way to school, where my first stop was the launching of a lecture series for the Linggo ng Kasaysayan. I met my classmates in Kas 112 there and I confirmed, again, that our exam was on the 25th. Next up was Econ 131 and a problem set. Thank God for STATA. At least the days of doing regression analysis by hand are over. BA 101 had me and my groupmates deciphering codes and puzzles; our professor gave us a break after the grueling exam last week. I let loose my inner C.S.I. instincts, solving many in the first set, then cracking the second set just a few minutes after we recieved the paper. I was really feeling good about myself that day.

August 23, 2006
2:45PM
Econ 106 exam tomorrow. Cramming mode: ON. But the siren song of the computer is calling out to me...
6:05PM
Must... start... studying... linear... programming... open... book... Whew!
6:34PM
Dinner break begins.
11:15PM
Dinner break ends.
11:30PM
With a hot, steaming cup of coffee beside me and the drone of the TV set to ANC, I finally get down to studying for the exam. Matrices, determinants, caffeine, eigenvalues, demand, supply, the kitchen sink, linear programming, and differentiation enter my head in a marathon cramming session.

August 24, 2006
2:50AM
I finally decide to call it a day and fix my things for the next-- erm.. for the day. Time to sleep!
3:15AM
One little, two little, three little piglets...
3:38AM
"...and therefore, Mr. Speaker, I say yes to the commitee report... *click*"
3:59AM
"...is positive definite when the determinants of the leading principal minors..."
Approximately between 4 and 5AM
Zzzzzzzzz....
8:15AM
Rrrrrrrrrriiiiinnnng!
10:23AM
"...the employer must have an incentive to train his employees..."
2:45PM
"This is the exam?"
What I held in my hand at that time was a piece of bond paper containing the easiest math exam I had seen since I came into the University of the Philippines. Or maybe because the cramming the night and early morning before, plus during the preceeding hour, had really paid off. Either way, I was smiling at myself during the 2 hours alloted for the exam. I came out of that exam feeling refreshed. Unlike in all of my previous math exams, I had answers --and sure answers at that-- to every single question. What a happy day!
5:06PM
"...Trade Act virtually guaranteed the unrestricted entry of American goods into the country..."
7:37PM
AstroSoc emergency GA. Supposed to start at 6 they said. Right. Buzzzzzz... *pak!* Damned mosquitoes.
9:22PM
Dinner. Finally.

August 25, 2006
TODAY
12:39AM
Must sleep... soooo tired... Zzzzzzz....
5:30AM
*Rrrrrrrrring! Rrrrrrrrring!*
5:35AM
*Toot toot! Toot toot!*
5:45AM
*Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!*
5:50AM
*Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring!*
5:55AM
*Toot toot! Toot toot!*
6:00AM
*Rrrrrrrrrrrrriing!*
8:36AM
*Toot toot! Toot toot!* *EXPLETIVE* "Bakit walang gumising sa akin!"

What a cruel world. I had prepared for 2 weeks for my Kas 112 exam today, which was supposed to start at, get this, 8:30AM. There I was, hurling various invectives while scrambling to get through my morning routine and attempt to salvage the exam. The normally placid pace of my morning rituals turned into a mad flurry of activity. Coffee hour was scrapped. Shower time was cut to a mere 6 minutes. Looking at the mirror and reveling in my good looks took just a few minutes. By 9:02 I was running out the door. My Mom had called one of my Dad's friends and I got a free ride to UP. Once there I literally hit the ground running; with only 10 minutes to spare before the exam ended I was quite in a hurry to get to class.

It was a good thing that my professor gave me another chance to take the exam. I was not about to let almost two weeks of preparation to go down the drain! Instead of going to my next class I stayed in the room and penned one of the longest handwritten essays I had ever written. Luckily, not much was done during my Econ 131 class that day, and we all got a 1 on our previous problem set!

At least now all my exams are over. Tomorrow, I'll be going to Paranaque for a night out with my high school barkada(can't wait!). Time to relax once again.

bad day

Mein Gott.

Everything seemed to go wrong today. I woke up early this morning, hoping to get to school on time for a change. I was walking out the door by 9:15 AM, and I was at the terminal 10 minutes after. Two FX taxis full of people left as I arrived. The next one came after I had stood in line for another 15 minutes. I got to UP with barely seconds left before my 10 AM class started.

My classes were supposed to end at 4 PM, but no, I still had a meeting with my BA101 groupmates at 6. So I went to the library and waited until 5:30. Since I had only a Milky Way bar for lunch I bought a hotdog sandwich just to keep from keeling over. I sat at the Sunken Garden, munching away while watching people playing tag football (or whatever that was) and Frisbee. And I waited until 6 PM. I went to the Econ building, where there was some sort of party. And I waited for my groupmates. I sat at the lobby. I walked around. I read the announcements. I studied for my finals in German. And I waited, until one of my groupmates came by and told me that "we won't be meeting today, just be ready with your output tomorrow".

*EXPLETIVE* *IMPRECATION* *PROFANITY* *OBSCENITY* *@#$^#$&^$!*

2 wasted hours, plus the other 1 and a half hours I spent waiting for my dad. I could have finished the entire single player campaign of Age of Mythology instead of staring at thin air for almost 4 hours! Schade!

My entire day was not wasted however. I saw and talked to more of my friends today than in the past week. I received a high grade in my 3rd German exam, guaranteeing at least a final grade of 1.75. I'll be taking the final exam tomorrow because I want to have a higher grade. I had a fun time at the UP AstroSoc tambayan. And I got a free ride home.

And then I got home. The first thing I saw was CNN reporting on a foiled terror attack, causing airplanes to be grounded all over Europe and America. And then there were reports about bombings in Mindanao, NPA raids in
Luzon, suicide bombings in Iraq, rocket attacks in Israel, and
airstrikes in Lebanon.

Apparently I wasn't the only one having a bad day today.

proportional response

It's the rainy season once again, and mosquitoes are once again in the air. I HATE mosquitoes. I hate how they fly around, darting here and there just beyond reach. I hate it when they buzz in my ear. And I most certainly hate the itchy welts that they leave after they suck my blood! But aside from the annoyance, mosquitoes also spread disease; malaria, dengue, and encephalitis are some of the more commonly known mosquito-borne diseases.

I absolutely despise those foul creatures. I don't care if they're only doing what nature and instinct tell them to do, I want to wipe them off the face of the earth!
That is why I am always ready to kill the first mosquito I see. I don't care if my hands get red and sore from all the smacking. I don't care if they get all bloody and grimy from the crushed black carcasses of the unlucky mosquito that wasn't quite fast enough to escape my wrath.
Bottles of Raid or Baygon don't last too long in our house; I ensure that substantial amounts are dumped on known and suspected mosquito hideouts. I don't care if I get an asthma attack, I want all those mosquitoes dead!
But even with all the pesticide I've dumped, even with all the mosquitoes I've killed with my bare hands, with my slippers, with a fly swatter, with a pillow, with a book, with a water gun, with fire, even with the freakin' kitchen sink, they just keep coming and coming. Like the unstoppable tide they come year after year, until we decided to go after the root of the problem.
Mosquitoes, like all animals, don't just appear from nowhere. They first enter the world as babies, those cute little wriggly thingys that infest the pools of stagnant water that collect around our house. Adult mosquitoes may be quick and stealthy enough to evade active pursuit, but their poor little babies are sitting ducks, like fish in a barrel, trapped like rats, and whatever other cliche you can insert here. So we dumped the water in the cans, in the boots, in the flower pots. Anything that had even a drop of water was drained. Countless little mosquito babies perished in one, swift, stroke.
Over time the mosquito problem died down. The buzzing gave way to silence. The welts no longer appeared. The odd mosquito reappears from time to time, but it is quickly and efficiently dispatched. There is no longer any stagnant water in our home, no place for mosquitoes to breed.
In the all-out war I declared against the mosquito pestilence in our home, I had won.

plans

President Arroyo's State of the Nation Address today was full of her plans for the nation. It focused on the division of the country into 'super regions' so as to allow the said regions to concentrate on their competitive advantages. I was impressed by the plans for improved infrastructure, poverty alleviation and for a better economy, but I couldn't help but notice the President's silence on other issues, such as education. Nevertheless, she delivered one hell of a speech, outlining her vision for the nation, even mixing in some humor. She also gave recognition to the efforts and achievements of certain people. I do hope that she follows through on her promises. Her plans looked impressive on the Powerpoint presentation; they would most certainly be more impressive when turned into reality.
***
The opposition must be feeling really stupid right now. For the past few months all they have been doing is planning PGMA's removal from office. All this time they have been promoting divisiveness, when many have decided to take a break from politics. They had better get their act together if they plan on getting elected or reelected come 2007. The smart move would be to cast politics aside and work for the betterment of the nation. The effort and dedication they give working against the President would most probably be of better use when applied to working with the President.