The Perfect Duo: Chemistry and Zoology

Posted on February 26, 2007 at 5:13 pm | 18 Comments
Filed under Random Realities • School Sabotage

What am I after all? Who am I? A mere creature of God. Yes, a creature made out of clay and molded skilfully by the powerful hands of Him whom we call Father. He made me just like that, and for what reason? To suffer the temptations herein? Am I really important? What am I in this world? To eat, play, drink, and study? Study. Why do we have to study? To gain knowledge and be superior overall beings here on earth? Or do I study merely because of pride so I may not be counted among the ignorant idlers. Why do we have to study and take examinations? Why not let life be only for eating, sleeping, or pleasure. Why do we have to suffer the pains of the damned? Why was I born? Why babies have to leave their mother’s womb when it is much secured there than outside. There you’re kept warm and you don’t have to bother about food, clothing, or shelter. Lastly, why do mothers have to suffer just so we can be brought out into this world. They love us, and yet, very often we fight them when we are grown-up. I don’t think that is right. One should never give his parents cause for worry. God created us in order to be happy with him after death… why do we have to die before we can see God?

Anonymus

That was a piece that I got from a book (actually, it were some of my high school classmates who discovered it) when I was still in high school for an oral examination in English. If I’m not mistaken, the author of this piece is unknown, but if you know who he or she is, please let me know.

Have you asked yourself with those kind of questions. In my case, yes. And most of the times, I don’t get the answers. And if I have, it would lead to yet another question. One of the questions that I always asked myself is the one that I bolded.

Yes, okay, it is a fact that we should learn in order to know something. But why do we need to know those unnecessary things? Let’s have Math for example, even if I like it so much that I would gladly trade it with Philosophy if given the chance, I still don’t get the point why do we have to know algebra, trigonometry, geometry, and other stuffs that has something to do with Mathematics when simple MDAS — the four basic Math skills — would make you survive life even without those complicated Mathematical skills. Besides, what’s the use of calculators? Lol.

*****

Chemistry and Zoology are driving me crazy! With tons of jargons to memorize, who would not turn into a lunatic? But hey, I’m not one yet, I’m still in the process of becoming one. Lol.

Yesterday, I was memorizing the frog’s bones (e.g. humerus, occipital condyles, fenestra, mento-meckelian, astragalus1). And this morning, I had a test about them. Boy, it was brain damaging! There were even some bones that I did not recognize because they were cut and chopped into pieces. For instance, the pectoral girdle that has ten (more or less) parts was cut, making it too hard for me to recognize as pectoral girdle that consists of clavicle, fenstra, epicoracoid, coracoid, episternum, and other parts that I’m sure you don’t want to know and don’t care about.

And later, I have to review for Chemistry because I have a test tomorrow about lipids. Yes, about those fats you have in your body.

Until now I still don’t know why do we have to study all of this things. Why do we have to memorize names of chemicals such as “acetic acid” (IUPAC name: ethanoic acid) when you can simply say it as “vinegar.” I’m sure, nobody from you would go to the nearest sari-sari store2 and ask the owner “Do you have acetic acid (or ethanoic acid)?” If you don’t want him to pour vinegar on you! Yuck!

On the lighter side, there are some interesting things that I knew this semester, thanks to my excellent Chemistry instructor3 and Zoology laboratory instructor. My Chemistry professor told us that you can create diamond (synthetic) out of methane gas which consists of one carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms. (Are you already getting bored? Or am I already killing you with all these terms? Haha.) She even also told us that putrescine (IUPAC name: 1,4-butanediamine) and cadaverine (IUPAC name: 1,5-pentanediamine) are reasons why dead animals have unpleasant odors. (So the next time you smelled an unpleasant odor, just simply say “Gorss! It smells purtescine and cadaverine!4) And oh, you could also make vinegar (or any other carboxylic acids) have a pleasant odor just by adding alcohol (this process is termed as esterification).

With all of these, I’m just so glad that I’m doing great with these two subjects… and I’m still alive!

PS: Hey! Want to earn money? Join BlogToProfit now! Please put harry07[at]gmail[dot]com as your referrer. Thanks.

  1. Hey, it’s only the word “humerus” and “occipital” that the spell checker of Firefox has recognized as correct. [↩]
  2. My English instructor last semester said that “sari-sari store” is already included in the English lexicon so I’m not going to italicize it. Lol. But a simple search of it in Dictionary.com would not give me a positive result. [↩]
  3. Who enters the classroom with only her chalk box. All of the things that she teach are programmed into her brain. Lol. [↩]
  4. But who would understand you? Lol! [↩]

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My Chaotic Room

Posted on February 24, 2007 at 9:51 am | 11 Comments
Filed under Random Realities

NOTE:This essay was written on January 23, 2007 at the wee hours of the morning. It’s just I can’t sleep at that time that’s why I wrote this.

“Christian! Karinat na ning kwartu mo! Linisan mu ne mo!” is the comment that I always hear from my parents whenever they visit my room. For the sake of those people who don’t understand Kapampangan, its English equivalent is “Christian! Your room is so filthy! Clean your room!” It really irritates me every time I hear this remarkable remark, but as what I always do — and I’m sure you also do this — I simply ignore their comment.

Cleaning my room is really a big chore. With so many personal projects and school stuffs that I do, cleaning my room is always on the latter part of my to-do list.

My typical day would always start with my morning rituals: groom myself, eat, and go to school. And hours before the night strikes, after getting back home from school, I would directly start my computer and surf the internet under a slow dial-up connection trying to look for something that would interest me. The next thing that I would do is to review the day’s lessons or review for a test in Zoology or Chemistry — that is if I was in the mood. With little time to spare before getting into the comforts of my bed, I can’t afford to clean my little space here at home as I still have other important things to do. And this process repeats day after day.

Yes, I admit that I have a dirty and chaotic room that would make you react “Eeew! Gross!” if I was not able to do some last-minute cleaning before you entered my room. But then again, whenever I clean my room, it’s as if I did not do anything. In the end, my parents would say, “It does not look like you cleaned your room. Look! Do you call this clean?” Mind you, with all these mess, I still know where I put all of my things.

One day, while I was out for a birthday party, to my surprise, my father decided to clean my room. Instead of getting happy, as my room was more conducive to study and sleep in, I was somehow disappointed. Because yet again, he threw my things to the bin. No, not those essential things that you need to bring everyday. These are the things that I wanted to keep for a lifetime. Good thing that this time, he let me look at the contents of my bin before completely disposing its contents.

By the time I finished sorting the contents of my not-so-big-but-not-so-small trash can, it was less than 1/3 of its original content. I retrieved a gift wrapper, a library card, an empty pen, a receipt, and other things that a normal person would not collect.

Basically, all of these things have sentimental values to me. I always find a reason why I should not dispose these things. An example would be the empty pen; it was the last My Gel, 0.5 pen that I used back in high school so I keep it, and the gift wrapping paper which covered the book Angels and Demons that I got from my favorite teacher two Christmases ago for our exchange gift. The weirdest thing that I keep until now is the fragments of a Harry Potter figurine that my uncle gave me. It was the reason why I became a Harry Potter aficionadoÂ… so why should I throw such memorable things? After all, they are all mine so I have the choice to throw or keep them. Alas for my parents, I decided to keep all of them.

How much chaos is in my room? This is a cliché but let me use it still: it was as if a humungous hurricane — the furriest among all hurricanes — had devastated my bedroom. I have a computer table in my room that is always crowded with pieces and strips of paper and other memorabilia. My cabinet does not only houses my clothes but also litters to the eyes of my parents: multiple copies of our official publication in high school, a 3 Musketeers wrapper, and a script of a short play. I also have drawers that were supposed to contain my shirts, but are now holding most of my things that I reckon are worthy to keep.

A couple or three days ago, on the dinner table, my mother mentioned to my father that our temporary maid wanted to buy our broken and rusty pedicab. Suddenly, my father blurted out “No way!” His reason? Well, he said that it has sentimental values; it was the pedicab that rescued us and our things (like our 21-inch colored Sony TV which still works up to date) back in the early 90’s here in Pampanga when the lahars flowed which wrecked our house.

That night, I almost opened the topic why my room is always littered with things that they think I would not need and why I don’t like cleaning my bedroom: every single thing in my room has its own precious value imbedded on them. I treat them as if they were my friends who are emotionally attached to me. It’s hard for me to throw these stuffs. It would take me years before I can forget their sentimental values. But I know, my parents would not understand me. They would still tell me to clean my room ever now and then.

Nothing is permanent in this world, but as long as these memorable things to me still exist, I try to cling on them so I give them extra importance. I know, I can’t have all of them until I reach the senescence stage as some would be destroyed by time, some would be eaten by termites while others’ texts would fade away making them almost worthless, and some would cease its importance to me as we travel forward through time. Nonetheless, as long as they are here, as long as they are in my room, these are all perfectly guarded. They are my little treasures.

11 Comments

From TV to Meters Away

Posted on February 22, 2007 at 8:25 pm | 11 Comments
Filed under News Central

This has something to do with the coming May elections here in the Philippines, you can skip this post and proceed to the previous post if you don’t feel like reading this where I discussed why I decided to go back in this site.

Two days ago, four known people in the whole country visited my school. One is a current senator, three are senatoriables where one is an actor-slash-director-slash-politician-wanna-be.

It was Senator Mar Roxas (Mr. Palengke1) who is also one of my school’s board of trustees whom arrived first. He was in my school not because of political matters, he discussed something that I did not listen to. Lol. The way he spoke was boring to me, and the interactivity of the activity was not that good. But then, before he left, it was announced, and he even personally said that he will run for the position of Vice President in the May 2010 Elections. And by that time, I could already vote! Woot!

After ten minutes or so, Mike “‘Tol” Defensor came. Just a side note, he said that they attended a mass. After taking a look at INQ.net, I learned that they attended the mass for the birthday of Bong Pineda, a suspected gambling lord here in Pampanga. Okay, so he was there and tried to convince the whole crowd to vote for him in the coming May elections (though most of us will not vote this year).

What we know was that only him and Mr. Mar Roxas who will be in our school. Guess what, Cesar Montano (with his wife, Sunshine Dizon) and Migz Zubiri were also in attendance! They sprouted from nowhere!

Personally, I think Team Unity is just using Cesar Montano just to get the attention of many people, and sadly, he lets Team Unity to use him. There was an uproar (sort of) from the students when he entered. If you’re an uneducated animal, I’m sure, you’re one of those people who had shouted, had a picture taken with him, ogled him, and shook his hand. Either Mike Defensor or Migz Zubiri asked the audience if we wanted to hear Cesar Montano sing! And well, you’ve guessed it correctly, he sung. Urgh… he’s being used, really.

I don’t know why, as far as I can remember, it was only Migz Zubiri who said his platforms. Tsk. Tsk.

GMA7 reporter Ivan Mayrina (spelling?) was late. Lol. He arrived when all of these people were preparing for their departure.

And yes, they were literally a few meters away from me. Sometimes, they were even a few inches from me. (I did not dare touch them, they were the ones who were getting closer to us.) But hey, all of these really gave me a good laugh.

  1. His nick, which when translated in English would be Mr. Public Market [↩]

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It’s Back

Posted on February 19, 2007 at 12:43 pm | 2 Comments
Filed under Internet Insanity

Note: This was posted when this blog was still in Skrapbuk.Net.

Yes, it’s definitely back! After it getting in “comatose stage1,” and eventually getting “dead,” it was “resurrected” from the dead today.

So what exactly is back that I’m talking here? And if you have not yet noticed, it’s a thing that is back, not a person. Asteeg.Net, my old domain which celebrated its “second birthday” (and its “deathday”) last February 03, is back! Yes, I asked the “doctors” how much will it cost me to revive it (I was not able to transfer it into another “hospital”), they said it will cost me PHP 560.00. I don’t have that kind of money but thanks to BlogToProfit, it gave “donations” for its revival!

As for this site, I suppose, Skrapbuk.Net will be in “comatose stage,” once Asteeg.Net is out of the “ICU” which I hope will be this week.

*****

My main reason for renewing Asteeg.Net is that I don’t really feel this site. And according to my cousin, it does not sound like a domain of a guy.

I want to ask for pardon to my dead grandfather to whom I dedicated this domain. But then, I’m still dedicating Asteeg.Net to my grandfather (and to my other grandfather who is also already in heaven). And I also want to say sorry to my regular readers who had to change my link into Skrapbuk.Net almost last two months ago, and now, back to Asteeg.Net

Asteeg.Net will house my blog plus personal content, as for Skrapbuk.Net, well, I still don’t know, any ideas?

PS: Join BlogToProfit now! It’s the easiest way to earn money in the internet! And don’t forget to put harry07 [at] gmail [dot] com as your referrer! (It’s a way on helping me financially). Thanks!

  1. Please don’t take all the quoted text in this entry literally [↩]

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Finding Solitude

Posted on February 16, 2007 at 10:14 pm | 8 Comments
Filed under Random Realities

Yes, I’m looking for solitude. No, I don’t have any emotional break-down or whatever. I don’t plan to kill myself. I just want to be alone. I want to hear the voice of silence. I want to be in nowhere where nobody will find me. Perhaps, that nowhere is an island here in the Philippines, far from civilization.

At my arrival in my new home, I’ll inspect the surroundings and find the perfect place to sleep. I would treat my new home as if it was the home I used to live in. At last, I can just be alone, with no one to disturb you all day long. No mother who’ll ask you to do an errand, no sister who’ll call you names, no teachers who’ll make you feel as if you were in hell, no friends who’ll chat with you until your jaw gets tires, no classmates who’ll ask you every now and then about the test in Zoology or Chemistry, no politicians to irritate you because of their corruptness, no techie stuffs that’ll take your boredom away in a mere second.

I will do there all the things that I wanted to do, things that I was deprived to do because of my so hectic life. I will try to finish there a novel with my mighty mechanical pencil and the Corona Notebook my grandmom gave me while sitting in the white sands, watching the rising or setting sun to inspire me. I will also do some affirmation with myself, retrospection, meditation, or whatever you want to call it. With that, I’ll know more about myself, I’ll know what’s the problem with my system and try to resolve it. I’ll have the chance to make room for the other things that I wanted to think of.

At night, I’ll be staring at the sky for hours, and try to memorize the stars and constellations that I’ll see, or read one of my favorite books under the bright moon while listening the chorus of the waves. I’ll be like that until sleep will come…

During the time to go back home, to the chaotic real world, I’ll be marking that island by putting a message with all my sentiments and the promise to return their someday inside a bottle in a two-feet-deep hole.

I know, I cannot do this as of this time. But before reaching the age of 30, I’ll make sure that I had been to an island here in the Philippines alone.

I believe that no man is an island, but I say, there are times when mas has to be an island.

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