Level Up!

Posted on June 3, 2008 at 10:24 pm | 6 Comments
Filed under Daily Dose • School Sabotage

Two years have passed since I entered college and until now, I still hate the course my dad forced me to take. But that’s not what I want to talk about. In that span of two years,I’ve already mastered the right time and which jeepney to take to get to school at the right time. As an evidence, I’m pleased to tell everyone that I have a clean attendance record. No tardiness, no absences. Unless you would count that instance (I think I’ve mentioned it before) when I was marked absent during my Philosophy class because our instructor only entered our room with only a few minutes to go before dismissal with no notice that he would still meet us.

Back in my first year, I used to take a jeepney-jeepney-jeepney-jeepney ride. That nearly drove me insane, transferring from one jeepney to another was really a hassle. That was when I still gave more importance to money than time (less expensive but time consuming). The previous school year, it became jeepney-jeepney-tricylcle ride which was more expensive but faster. In just a few weeks days, I will be a junior student and that means I’ll be spending more time in school which could also be equated to less time for blogging and surfing the Internet, and not to mention less time for sleeping. I’m not sure if the usual ride that I take would be enough to bring me to school at the right time. I can’t really afford to be late for my classes. Besides, getting late is not in my vocabulary.

That’s why I’m thinking that I should get an apartment somewhere near the university. With that, I do not have to wake very early (I do not need the early worms anyway). I could also dedicate more time for resting since that would mean that I don’t have to spend 1.5 agonizing hours on the road.

But then again, there are a lot of complications. Actually, I could think of more disadvantages than advantages. Like, how will I survive? Where would I get my food? Fast food chains? Well, I’m old enough to stand on my own, but I really prefer going home everyday. Do I have to share the room with someone else? I prefer to be on my own, though. Where would we get the payment for the apartment? Electricity? Water? My parents have enough on their plates and I don’t want to give them another helpings of not-so-appetizing bills. And then, I have my biggest problem… Internet. You know that I love surfing the Internet and as a student, I will surely need it. Where I would get an Internet connection? SmartBRO? Thanks. I’ve read a number of bad reviews about their services, and I don’t want to be included in their fast growing number of disappointed customers.

See? There are so many disadvantages that I could think of. Haha. Call me pessimistic, but renting an apartment doesn’t sound good to me. Besides, if I were to get myself one, I would surely miss the stretch of road that I take, the numerous banks (especially the branches of Banco de Oro), gas stations, churches, branches of Jollibee and McDonald’s, the single flyover that I know of here in Pampanga, the irritating passengers in the jeepney, the passenger versus driver matches, the crazy tricycle rides, and everything else that I see every time I go to school and back home. What’s more, that means that I would have no time to review. Lol. You see, the only time I review (most of the times) is during when I’m in the jeepney. Hahah.

Of course, I could change my mind. XD

PS: I know, I’ve already blogged about this before, not as specific, though. So yeah, forgive me. There’s really nothing interesting that happened to me lately. I’m just stuck here in our house, but I’m definitely enjoying every bit of it. And I just felt that it’s time that I had to update this blog. Haha.

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Earsplitting Volume

Posted on May 18, 2008 at 3:46 pm | 18 Comments
Filed under Daily Dose • Music Mania • Random Realities • School Sabotage

iPod touch med grön Apple-sockaEven though I have an iPod touch, I’m not one of those people you see in public places especially in public utility vehicles and malls with their earphones on and listening to music. I love my ears more than music and I don’t want to be deaf and use hearing aids.

The volume on my iPod is currently set on 25%. I usually don’t go beyond that point except for attacks of the LSS. The engine of the vehicles and other roadway noises simply drones the music that comes from my iPod, so instead of increasing the volume, I simply turn it off. Besides, there are other things that I can do during my jeepney rides. I usually study my lessons while waiting to reach for my destination. Sometimes, I read books to avoid boredom or if I’m with somebody that I know, I chat with him/her about various things: demanding and perfectionistic instructors, how I miss my high school life, insensitive blockmates, and toxic subjects.

Okay, back to the subject…

So when do I use my iPod? I use it whenever I’m in my favorite place in school: the library or anywhere there isn’t much noise. The library has been my cradle, it’s where I feel at peace. Hu? What am I talking about? Well, if you had very noisy blockmates with mouths larger than a car’s tire, you would know what I mean. There are times when I even go to the library just to listen to music. Lol. I’m really thankful that the library is just a few steps from my room.

And oh, lately, I’ve been listening to music during my Rizal class. Everyone in the class couldn’t hide their boredom. Some talks with their seat mates, some are busy pressing on their phone’s keypads, others would even dare to sleep. Good thing my professor sits on the back of the room while listening to the reporters. That’s why I dare myself to listen to music even though my class is going on. And I’m pleased to tell you that I wasn’t caught… ever. Actually, during my last three Rizal classes, I was not only listening to music but also reading a book that has nothing to do with the Philippine’s national hero.

While on the subject, I just want to mention that I really don’t know why we have to study Rizal’s very detailed life. I think, the authors of the book that we are using included all the information that they could get about Rizal. I don’t know why almost everything has to be precise. Some of the not so important events that happened to Rizal were also well documented. As a matter of fact, there are times when the book mentioned not only the date but also the time when this and that happened. Aren’t the basics enough?

Take the following excerpt as an example:

… the two tourists [Jose Rizal and his friend Maximo Viola] went to Brunn. According to Viola, “nothing of importance happened” in this city.

Why add that if “nothing of importance happened”? Duh. And now… I’m bombarded with unimportant dates, names, places, and events that I’m not even sure if I could and how I would apply them once I landed with a job. Haha. (I’m not saying that RA 1425 aka Rizal Law should be abolished. What I’m saying is that the basics are enough, we don’t need to know all the places Rizal visited during his lifetime. Besides, what sense of fulfillment would you have if you memorized them?)

Before I close this entry, I just want to talk a few things about Death Cab for Cutie’s latest album: Narrow Stairs. First, I want to say that it’s a nice album, but not as good as Plans. My favorites from the album are: Your New Twin Sized Bed (I can’t get it out of my system), Bixby Canyon Bridge, No Sunlight, I Will Possess Your Heart, and You Can Do Better Than Me. And oh, have you seen I Will Possess Your Heart’s music video? Well, Death Cab rocks!

YouTube Preview Image

Well… you look so defeated lying there in your new twin sized bed. XD

PS: Yesterday, iTunes mistakenly recognized my iPod touch as an iPhone. WTF.

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Summer Classes

Posted on April 9, 2008 at 10:41 pm | 13 Comments
Filed under Bulky Books • Daily Dose • School Sabotage

So yeah, my visitors are starting to deplete. And I will not wonder anymore if in the coming weeks, Google Analytics would report to me that the number of my visitors will plunge to two-year low. And that’s because of the shortage of new blog entries here and I haven’t returned comments lately. Yeah, I know, it’s my fault. But then, I was too busy. Busy with school work (refer to the post below), reading books, relaxing, and most of all… preparing for my summer classes.

Yeah, you read that right, I have summer classes. So I can’t say that I’m an incoming junior… just yet. Actually, I was in school yesterday to enroll myself for the summer classes. Good thing, I didn’t have to spend the whole day there (the last time I enrolled, I spent the whole day in school, it was totally a waste of time). I got there very early and I finished everything I had to do in just a couple of hours or even less. I was the ninth student to finish the enrollment process. Yeah, the early bird catches the early worm!

So now, this summer, instead of going to beaches, have an adventure somewhere in the country, or just be a bum here in my scorching room surfing the Internet, reading a nice read and follow the latest development on the rice shortage in the country, I will be in school, stressing my self. Also, this could also mean that I’ll not be able to go to iBlog4. I cannot really believe this. I’m already tired of thinking about school work. I still haven’t had a decent rest. And in just a few days, hell will dominate my world again. The worst thing is that I’ll be in school five times a week, from morning to afternoon. My schedule really sucks. Come on, Satan, please, spare me! I just hope that I will survive the summer heat.

There are so many things that I want to do but my two-week vacation is almost over. I guess, I have to postpone them. One of the things that I really want to do is to revamp this blog. I’ve mentioned in my Twitter account that I’ll change the theme of this site and everything. But I’m really not in the mood to make a new one. I already know how will my next layout should look like but I’m really lazy to do that now. I guess, for the mean time, I will change the banner of this current theme and hopefully, I will also find a good background image that I can use.

Lately, I’ve also started reading books again (I’m trying to read at least 20 books this year). So far, I have already read three books this year. Seventeen to go! (Sorry, I haven’t updated my “Books” page) But I’m not sure if I’ll get to my target as for sure, I’ll be tremendously busy for the rest of the year my college life. Right now, I’m reading “Atonement” by Ian McEwan. I’m enjoying it but there were parts where I felt bored. And oh, just before I move on, I want to say to Briony (a character from the book) that you’re stupid and you took it all wrong!

Last Sunday, we went to Quezon City and we visited two malls. Lol. I still don’t get it how TriNoma became a triangular mall and SM North Edsa’s The Block never failed to make me awe me with its magnificent structure (see the photos that I took in The Block below). For nine straight hours, we were in the malls that I mentioned and by the time we were going home, I really felt exhausted. Actually, that was my family’s so-called outing this summer. But I still hope that after my summer classes, we’ll go out of town and have a real excursion. That day, I bought three books: “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri1, “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” by Michael Chabon (finally, I’ve got a copy of this book), Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” and Story Philippines’ latest edition which I confirmed that it’s not a magazine for children (read “Isabel Jimeno’s Price” by Jonathan Jimena Siason to know what I mean).

I guess, that’s all for tonight. Oh, I forgot to mention that I didn’t fail in any of my subjects. As a matter of fact, my grades are really okay. I have the chance that I’ll be a college scholar next school year. Dunno if I should be happy with that. We are just really required to attend the summer classes. I really don’t have any choice, unless I want not to graduate in time.

Waiting ChairsShop 'RoundBottlesFully Booked
  1. She’s got a new book called Unaccustomed Earth but I’ll just wait for the paperback edition of it. [↩]

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And I Thought it’s all Over

Posted on April 2, 2008 at 10:00 pm | 3 Comments
Filed under School Sabotage

It’s been over a month now since I and my stupid blockmates who are made-up of 99% plastic and 1% human started doing a very important project. I can’t divulge all of the information here because if I did do so, then, you would know what my course is which I don’t want to happen yet1. Basically, what we’re doing is a class project for one of our majors. Actually, it’s an academic paper where we had to interview people in school, present facts and statistical data, analyze and interpret graphs and tables, give recommendations and support our work. It is indeed tedious task. Because of this sleep-depriving requirement, it has divided the class further into smaller groups. And now, the whole class is experiencing its consequences.

Actually, one of my blockmates whom I’m always with had predicted this. It’s inevitable. As what I have written previously, when they only see your back, evil horns start to sprout from their heads. I didn’t think that all things will go in the wrong places. I didn’t want to think about this. But now that it’s here, I still don’t know what to do and I still don’t want to think about it2. Just thinking of it keeps me on the verge of fainting and lose my consciousness.

I can’t tell you much about our preparations to the finalization of our written report because, well, because I only did a few things during these parts. Yes, I know, I’m bad. Haha. I really didn’t want to make the analyses, interpretations, and even the introduction and recommendations. But of course, I helped in the tallying (and checked if there are conflicting data) and created the 50 plus graphs that we used. Actually, I was one of the few students in our class who knows how to make graphs in Microsoft Office Word. As a result, they still had to contact me whenever there are changes. When I asked them why they don’t know how, they simply answered “We already forgot how to make a graph.” God, I mean, if they had a Computer subject in high school, they should have learned how to. It’s very basic. And duh, what is F1 doing? By just reading the “Help” feature in MS Word they will surely know how to make one.

There were other problems that arose during this part, a few were telling the whole class that they haven’t slept just for this project. Everyone could smell sarcasm in the air. In the end, I learned that they were referring to one of our classmates. They said that she didn’t do anything at all. But this person they were referring to said that she did her part well. Actually, before this, these two parties have already existing issues and they just got bigger. But what I really don’t get is why they’re treating this person like that when she’s trying to avoid these people.

On the day when we had to pass it, everyone thought that everything was fine. A few hours before the deadly deadline, things started to fall apart. They noticed that there was something wrong with our project. And so, we were not able to pass it on time. During that night, they had to edit so many things with our work. Graphs were missing (that’s what they said but I did all of the graphs and I’m sure that I didn’t miss a thing), a table was not tallying with another table that should match with, some pages were not numbered. It was only a day after the deadline when we submitted our project. There were still many errors in our written report, but we couldn’t afford to wait for another day so as to make the necessary changes that we had to. Besides, we were already losing 25 points during that time and the next day when we could pass it would be only a week after (because of Holy Week).

During the Holy Week and the week after that, nobody ever dared to check our written report because everyone was dreading about our final examinations. It was only last Saturday, after our exams when we had the chance to check it again. Actually, it was only that day when I got a copy of our report. By that time, I still haven’t read our report and it was decided that I was one of the ten students who’d present it to our panelists (which we had earlier this week). I also volunteered myself to do our slide show presentation. And so, I and the one who predicted everything will go wrong went to our house to make our PowerPoint Presentation. She did the text part, and I edited the graphs. Two of our blockmates also went with us so they can study our project for our oral defense.

It was also on that day when I first read the analyses and interpretations my classmates did. It was totally a disaster. I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t know if I should feel mad or annoyed or if I should laugh or not. Hell, the interpretations that my classmates wrote were really funny. There were so many errors. Typos, factual errors, you name it! Sorry, I can’t give you an example even if I want to because I can’t think of one without giving away clues about my course. Too bad, I don’t have my copy anymore which has so many red circles, red crosses, red lines, and red question marks. If I still have it, I could have looked for an example that I can publish here.

A day before judgment day (our oral defense), we knew that we’re allowed to pass an errata. It was godsend! I even told my blockmates that if we passed one, it would surely be as thick or even thicker than our written report. But during doom’s day, the list of our corrections was incomplete. Lack of time didn’t allow us to collaborate. It was only a quarter of a centimeter thick. I really thought that we would be sautéed; we were really preparing for the worst because we know that our project has so many flaws. Good thing our panelists were good to us. They gave us tremendous amount of recommendations and they gave us two weeks to revise our written report. After four hours of defending our work I was relieved. But I thought it was all over… I thought they wouldn’t need me anymore…

Remember my last sentence in my first paragraph? Well, the class was divided further, my blockmates who were friends a few weeks ago have now their own issues and they’re treating each other as enemies. No one is cooperating. Because of this, I don’t have any choice but to help. As a matter of fact, there are only six of us who are willing to revise our academic paper. And from the six of us, we don’t have a soft copy of our report which is the main reason why we can’t start revising.

Well, I’m wondering when I can say “It’s over… it’s all over.”

[EDIT 04.05.08] Yesterday, I revised a part of our written report. I also changed the format of another revised part of our project to match the format that I used. So I guess it’s over… it’s all over… ???

Abangan… [/EDIT 04.05.08]

  1. You’ll know what my course is in due time. Haha. May ganun? [↩]
  2. Wow. Ang gulo ‘nun. [↩]

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Biggest Bother: Brother

Posted on March 25, 2008 at 4:50 pm | 12 Comments
Filed under Featured Flicks • School Sabotage

There are so many things that I want to tell you about our movie. But then, I don’t want to bore you reading a very long entry. You see, there are so many problems that arose in our group especially during the production part. As a matter of fact, our leader-slash-director is the biggest problem that we ever encountered.

All of us hate her so much! She even wants to be the script writer and one of the characters in the story. During the day when we decided to choose a plot, it was one of her plots that won in the voting. I don’t know what happened but until now, I still can’t get it why her out of this world plot was chosen.

It goes like this…

A group of friends have this certain project so they went to the house of their leader. But what they didn’t know is that place used to be a tribal burial place, and on that day, that group of friends were locked inside… and one by one they started to disappear. But in the end, it turns out that it was one of the members of the group who killed the others and she did that because her group mates were teasing her.

The story was so shallow. There were hardly any underlying reasons why the killer decided to murder her group mates. And there were so many plot holes in the story that she created. There was even this big hole that only she didn’t notice. Everybody who read her draft were in the verge of laughing so hard just because of that big plot hole that she didn’t notice.

And from then on, a new group arise from our group… a group within a group. I’m proud (lol) to say that I was one of the three members of this group and we called ourselves as the “Conspiracy Group.” As much as possible, we didn’t want to bypass our director, but then, we had to. Because if not, her outrageous ideas and suggestions would reign! Who would want to film a gas tank exploding (this was in the plot that she made)? Duh, we’re not in Hollywood!

We (the CG) decided to do major revision in our plot. In the end, what only remained in the revised story was that there was a group of friends who got killed one by one. I liked it so much and the plot was really interesting. The second version was really good. The whole group decided that our movie’s title should be “Brother” and yes, it really fits our movie. But I think our leader didn’t like that. She has her own weird ideas. Actually, she suggested “Big Bother” to be our movie’s title. But you see, “Brother” really fits our movie, and besides, majority of us wanted it as our flick’s title.

During the production part, our director did only little in our movie. Actually, it was us, the CG who made almost everything possible. It was always us who were on the camera, filming this and that, directing our group mates on what to do, checking the props that we’ll use, and many more. By the end we were over filming all of the scenes, everyone was really mad at our so-called director. Someone even told the actress who starred as the killer to kill our director. Haha. But the catch was that it looked like our leader didn’t like with what we did. We didn’t had any choice at all but to put all of those things on our hands and be the ones who’d settle what we had to.

We didn’t include our leader in the post-production part. Basically, it was only the three of us (CG) who worked during this part. As a matter of fact, what she knows was that we didn’t meet at all. All she knows was that the editor was the only one who edited everything that needed editing and it was me who did the poster and the DVD cover. Well, she has her own ideas on what should appear on our poster. She wanted it to be something like serious…. something like the posters for “Maging Sino Ka Man.” Yuck! It doesn’t really fit for our movie! Good thing they didn’t have time to have a pictorial session. What I did was to search for pictures (of course, that have something to do with our movie) in Flickr that are free to use.

Brother Theatrical Poster
Photo Credits:
the toxic dragon
strobist flickrazzi
Note: The names I used in the poster are not real.

Last Saturday, the three of us met and finalized everything we had to finalize. I enjoyed doing our poster, all I need was their approval. And hey, they really liked it. So when we got everything about the poster settled, we had it printed.1 I really liked our poster, as a matter of fact, I have my own personal copy of it!

During the afternoon, we were editing our movie. And because I was also the one who was assigned as the musical director, I used indie music in our movie! Yay! That afternoon, I also made our DVD cover which took hours of my time. It was only around 10 in the evening when I was able to finish doing it.

Over all, I really had fun doing this tedious and tiring task, especially during the post-production part. Even the other two members of the CG said that they had fun. Just seeing our poster printed was such big joy on my part. It was just our leader wasn’t cooperating and she’s really a big problem in our group. And even though there are still some flaws in our movie I can say that we really did great, after all, we’re not even BA students.

  1. Just a side-note, that was the day I knew that somebody can be allergic to tarpaulin. Lol. My friend is! Haha. She was itching after she touched our newly printed poster. [↩]

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