Pre-Shoot Obstacles

sad.

my friends are having their graduation pictures taken right now (barkada pics included), while im stuck with myself, swimming on my own pool of photocopied paper, preparing for my exams tomorrow. bakit naman kasi of all times, natapat pa ung dalawa kong exams this week...? unfortunately for me, my gradpics will not be eye-bag-free.

wala nang pumapasok sa utak ko. tsk. i cant wait for my shoot. by that time, tapos na ung physics at international econ exams ko. saaaaaaaaatuuuuuuuuuuurdayyyyyyyy...

huff. hell week all over again.

-christiaan huygens-

Bibo Things

a lot of good things happened to me today.

first. my french quiz went well. i studied well about the french comparaison, les comparatifs et les superlatifs, because the last time we had a quiz about it, i barely made an 8 out of 15 possible correct items. by my standards, it's below performance level, so i studied well for the next quiz. i got 21 correct answers out of 25 this time. not bad!

second. the batch shirts were released today, and i got one for free! yehey! i was so bibo for passing a design for the batch shirt... good thing my batchmates liked it. it won an election, and i was given a starbucks gift certificate worth Php200 pesos. that is in addition to my batch shirt being free. yehey! im very happy about it because i was just fooling around at adobe photoshop one day, designing a batch shirt, and now it's been printed, and lies at the foot of my bed. the feeling is ecstatic. im actually euphoric. inside my head im saying... "i made that shirt. i made that shirt! and now everybody has one." wow, i feel proud.


third. when i finally got my starbucks gc's, i wasted no time going to both of katip's starbucks cafes and scouring for the best-looking tumbler up in the displays. i was craving for a tumbler for the longest time now, since im always buying coffee in school when i already have coffee at home. i thought maybe i should buy a tumbler para magbabaon na lang ako ng kape. so after some hopping around the cafe displays, i bought a Philippine-flag-inspired tall tumbler, and i like it. it's like being patriotic, coffeeholic, economic and ergonomic at the same time.


after my dismissal, i also finally photocopied the three readings we have to study for international economics. and that's supposed to be a good thing, although up until now, i still don't feel like it is.

then i also helped out at the senior batch's cheerdance practices. although i wouldn't be able to attend the schoolympics tomorrow, im glad that i helped in my small simple ways by putting my ipod on their employ. good ipod, good ipod. that's another good thing.

finally, i just finished my haraya assignments, the minutes, the pubmats, and everything else. i just have to buy like 9 packs of nimble-food when i go home to batangas. they will be repacked into smaller bags and sold at lower prices, tapos the profit from the fundraiser will go to haraya's petty cash. as of now, we have like, Php225 pesos on hand. (grreat right? i know it's too small to be considered an asset, but hey, it's petty cash in the first place. lalaki din yan.)

buti na lang magaling magpaikot ng pera ung edboard heads.!! yey!

important lesson learned: returns from being bibo always add up to larger things, so always be bibo. bibo is the way to go..!

-godspeed-

Rainy Weekend

soooo.

i eventually went back to batangas the afternoon of friday because boredom, my dauntingly silent but overwhelmingly annoying roommate, came to life and told me to pack my things and go... so i packed my things, hoping that batangas would give me some life-loving.

unfortunately, batangas is as boring as QC during rainy days. :|

...

well i used to love rainy days, back when i was half of a melancholic kid who loves to hear how the rain drops make thumping noises on the rooftop. it's kind of relaxing, in my own terms now, although back then id term it as "taking me away to a better place..." haha!

what a sad child i was.

maybe i don't enjoy the rain that much anymore because im a happier person now. hmmm...

...

im not much of a bragger person but can i just say: i became a tailor over the 6-day weekend. ha! there actually comes a time when eating, sleeping, sweeping the floor, or watching porn stop sufficing our anti-boredom needs. seeing the many many tops that i dont wear in my closet (they're either too big or too small or too ugly.), i decided to give them an overhaul. you know. try to fit them over my disappointingly unsculpted body. it's kind of fun, although you'd probably develop carpal-tunnel syndrome if you keep doing it. but it's fun nevertheless.

...

oooh, vanilla flavored coffee. i like. only it's not meant to be brewed. tsk, i love brewed coffee. oh well. that's what opportunity cost of pulverizing coffee and cramming it in foil packs.

i cant wait for my starbucks gc's!! which kind of tumbler will buy???

...

im gonna go watch friends season 3 now.

-my rainy weekend-

Flooble Pad

well, out of boredom, i embedded a wishlist on the sidebar. just in case you were planning to give me something because you like me and you want me happy since i have a side that's completely materialistic... you can browse the pad, see if you can buy me one gray tee, or a pencil case, or a robust mug... or a car? why not... right?

i suggest you buy me a vios. it's cheap.

...

okay, mum texted and told me i can't go home to batangas. apparently, she's the one coming over, to our cousin's condo in makati, because cousin accidentally made herself pregnant... with a guy who has a wife and kids... great.

*blok blok blok*

im boooooored.

-egay-

Break-Even Suspensions

wala na naman pasok bukas?? tanginaaaaaaaaaaaa... patong patong na makeup classes ko! at actually sa dami ng class suspensions eh namimiss ko na pumasok. tsak.

as an economist, i think there is a certain number of class suspensions optimal for schooling, and i believe that we are way beyond that optimal level already. i was just reading a certain peyups thread, and am still hating those people who wished that friday would be suspended as well. blaha?? are they not acquainted with the concept of make-up classes and crammed deadlines? not to mention the overlapping exam periods caused by numerous rescheduling.

oh no, there's no moving the graduation pictorials, no no.

...

on the lighter side of things, napatunayan ko na things DO always find their way back. sabi nga ni luna lovegood, although not all of them come back in a regular fashion, they still come back. like ung umbrella ko. i kind of lost it for how many hours today (sa jollibee) and i almost gave up my search of it. buti na lang, i went back to jollibee to buy me a serving of nacho beef fries, tas un, binalik sakin nung guard ung umbrella. great right?

hmmm. i wonder what other things might come back... yee.

...

im currently downloading the third season of friends. can i just say, i so love this series. i remember the last time i watched friend's season 6, it helped me through some tough life problems. ive watched seasons 1 and 8 (i know, kind of skippy, but that's the way the torrents want it.) im planning to download them all, since it's free and safe and it will benefit me in many other ways (haraya is up with its dvd rentals, i might be able to contribute... although they're all pirated, but that's another story). then after that, i'll download heroes, and then gray's anatomy, and then scrubs if i still have time.

...

you know what, i had this weird dream - i was in malaysia, studying, but it was very difficult because i ddint have much money, and the situation is very adverse, i had to duck out of many misadventures. it's not vivid anymore, but it's really engaging coz i woke up breaking a sweat and my heart was racing.

...

yey! starbucks has reopened! and it's bigger, and better, and... greener! see it has expanded land area by buying out the beauty shop that lead a butthole existence beside it, so now the store's bigger. and i saw the drapes and they're all pastel green. i like... i wish i get my gc's this week; im itching to buy me one of those rangy starbucks tumblers. it is the perfect time to have one since it's the rainy season so there's more cold mornings, and i am currently experimenting on my coffee blends. (actually, instant coffee blends, hehe). im gonna try out sugar-free nescafe coffee and vanilla flavored coffee creamer, see if it mixes well.

...

c'est tout! happy sleeping everyone.

-updates-

Bébé Rit

mintymonsters...

ang cute! oggle oggle..

-bébé-

Canning Love

ambababaw.

man, i know it's too early to be hating for the day, but why can't people just stop talking about luuuhv for a minute? i surf the net and all i read about are cheesy testimonials about love, or bitter love, or anything in between... you know, there's nothing wrong if we drab on love once in a while, but it is not all that there is! lives do not revolve completely on love! they're making love more and more common, more and more stale, it's losing it's sacred appeal. what's worst is that these people sound like they're preaching about love, sending out quotes and things that people don't even have to read. people do not need these things, because love is an instinct, it's hard-wired in our systems, as humans, to love other humans, that's why love doesn't have to be taught. it's wrong to teach it. just wrong. it's like teaching a dog how to bark .

hay. why can't people just talk about cakes, or surface tension, or something else that's more sensible... tsk.

-im allergic to cheesy people-

Power Layouting

oomph.

god the taste of jolly cheezy fries on nachos and hot chocolate swiss miss with double servings of burger steak... oohh, heaven. and the bed was never better. the simple joys of being at home with nothing to do after some rigorous power-adobe-photoshop-layouting-session with haraya, aaahhh... can i just say - sleep is bliss.

im profoundly astounded by the dedication i embodied yesterday when we started creating the graduation primer designs starting mid afternoon of friday and ending at 8 this morning. non-stop. talk about power-layouting. i have the most supportive team around me. Haraya is a force!

and everything is made spicier because, see, we are the centennial graduating batch of the university of the philippines.. how cool is that? ha!

100 my friends!

-click!-

Deep Sea

rainy days are perfectly made for bummy hours of movie marathon. today should've been hectic for me: a Haraya meeting should've started my day, followed up by a trip to makati to fetch the council's money from stocks, and cap the day with the bagsakan of SIDHI's first issue. well, all of these scheduled events were scrapped off the calendar when the rain got started. and im home snugged in my most comfortable sweater, watching movies that inspire me despite the very gloomy surroundings.

i just finished watching aliens of the deep, a science documentary directed by james cameron. it is a feature film about deep-see life and how the environment that barely knows the sun creates a very precise depiction of life on other worlds. it's kind of ironic, that to be able to understand life on other planetary systems, we must dive to the guts of the deepest oceans and study it's life. the stars/scientists in the movie says deep-water life is the closest thing to extraterrestrial life that you could get here on earth. ominous blind fish, pale sinister crabs, and tall tubular worms thrive in the area where the freezing water clashes with hydrothermal vents, creating an environment where temperatures fluctuate from near boiling to near freezing. oh and if you could just see the octopi.. weird transluscent octopi... my favorite is dumbo. it's an octopus that reminds us of dumbo the elephant because it has big flappy ears and a stocky physiology.


anyways, as of current, the best astrobiologists, physicists and astronomers are exploring the near solar system for signs of extraterrestrial life. after earth, the most popular choice is mars, because mars seems to have a history of having water, the most essential compound to sustain life. but higher technology and higher education suggests that there can be other places for a search.. NASA is trageting the moons of jupiter, the four largest moons of the largest planet in the solar system, because they exemplify characteristics of the deep-see environment.

orbiting jupiter are two large celestial ice worlds: ganymede and callisto, two great grey rocks that are believed to be containing liquid water underneath their barren and icy carapace. orbiting just close is another big moon, Io, whose yellow crust is dotted with volcanoes and geysers, making it knows as the world of fire. these three moons are believed to be rearing some foreign kind of life that is not based on photosynthesis but on chemosynthesis. they partially resemble the environment of the deep-sea.


but orbiting yet closer to jupiter is another very interesting moon - europa. like the other three largest moons, europa is a very harsh environment, but what's unique about it is that it is a land of fire and ice. ocean ridges which are sources of fresh magma (yep, i learned from my geol class) lace the permafrost shell covering europa's crust. and scientists believe there is non-photosynthetic life thriving underneath the icy surface. this is what the underwater explorations are all about... to imitate europa's nature before a satellite is sent to explore it.

at the end of the film, the filmmakers depict a scene in the future, when a satellite manned by two scientists penetrates the thick ice covering europa... underneath the ice, there is an ocean, and a lot of stone structures, and everything is blue. the submersible spins around and a creature approaches. it has tentacles, it has eyes. it resembles an octopus or a squid, only, it is in a weird way, humanoid. it stretches out a tentacle that tapers into two fingerlike appendages, touches that glass of the submersible, as black female scientist inside reaches out too... and then the camera wheels in to reveal a community of such creatures, and behind them, there was a structure that gleams with biotic light... and the movie fades to black.





coool. not cool like, sci-fi movie cool. it's cool because you know in some part of your brain that it can happen, when humans can finally interact with an extraterrestrial species and transcend the limits of evolution...

cool right? it's hard-science-nasa-physics-meets-biology-stuff. i would be glad to live to the day when scientists will proclaim to the world that they found life on the moons of jupiter. hmmmm, what joy could that be?

-dumbo-

Parchment Scrolls

i spent my weekend creating Haraya's pubmats for the yearbook's panelboard. since the theme of the yearbook is 17th century Europe, and the overall theme of Haraya for this year is the centennary, i made extra effort of giving an old style camelot effect in my materials. i used scrolls, old gaelic fonts, and gold colors to emphasize it's "centennial-ness." here:


first i printed out the base materials (im beginning to love CMYK because the colors on the monitor are what comes out of the printer.). Then i glossed them over with a compound composed of white coat glue and water. Then i let them dry over an electric fan.


after the "electric fan" stage, i also air-dried the mats (you see them now hanging on my bathroom door haha!).


then after air-drying, i cut out the excess pieces of paper, and voila! pubmats!! the edboard is gonna love this. it's perfect for the two themes...


two more assignments and im done for the day. i hope my batchmates cooperate with all this.

-camelot-

Contract Signing

every now and then, a savior comes to us and rescues us from the very lonely throes of acad life.

for me, today, it comes in the form of haraya. thanks to it, i momentarily forgot about my daunting french class standing. and why am i obsessing about my french grade all of a sudden? well... let's say i've come to the realization that it is what sets me apart from the horde of econ students that i come into contact with all week. if they have flambouyant personalities and soaring GWA's, i have... well... french.

i know it's mismatched analogy, but to me it is the only way i know how to make sense of my french electives... hehe. erm.

anyways, i love haraya because i always feel happy when im doing something for the yearbook. it makes me feel that in some way, indirectly, i could relate to my batchmates, and help the batch in the way i know how to.

anyways again, today at dinner, we had a contract signing with our photographers for the grad pic and printer for the yearbook. (schlewp i love scallops, my favorite.) can i just say, signing contracts made me feel a bit jittery. coz while i was penning my whispy signature on the pristine piece of paper, i became aware that i am of legal age in this country, and i could get sued if something went awry... and that doesn't just mean reprimands and vocal exercises... it is law as we know it, the kind that jails felons and kills murderers through electric shock (well at least a decade ago). i just wish nothing goes wrong until the yearbook is published. im afraid of being jailed.

so, since the first wave of exams is over for me, i could allot my whole weekend to making pubmats for the panel board and creating a yearbook dummy for layout (oh yes, im not only the associate editor of haraya, i am also a member of ace's layout team. i am so bibo and all... :p). im so digging designing things. maybe i should take an advertising elective or something.

-image-

Grade Conscious

what misery it is to find yourself committing mistakes you were never aware of.

i was very confident during the french exam i had last monday because i was at the height of my exam week and my brain is in full-blast study mode. i simply brushed through the exam, intelligently sufficing each blank with a coherent conjugated verb or whatever. i was even fancying a very high grade..

unfortunately, i committed mistakes i weren't even aware of committing. when i got back my paper, i had 30 mistakes overall. it was painstakingly big.

i scanned through my mistakes and found out that i was so careless in conjugating the verbs... so lame, i couldn't forgive myself. the thing is i knew the answer, but i wrote a different thing, maybe due to carelessness, or mere stress, i dunno. but im pretty sure in myself that i knew the right answers, only my hand wrote differently.

my score should've been 77. tsk. how lame.

i promise myself that i'd do better in the next exam, and i will give extra effort to reviewing my answers before i submit my paper... it's so stupid not to.

-get over it...-