Whereabouts

Uh, hi there! Sorry for the unannounced hiatus. Actually, I never thought of leaving this blog for a more than a month. That was the first time I really went on to a real hiatus! In the past, when I go on hiatus, I usually go back after a week. But obviously, that has changed. Today, posting once every one to two weeks is normal… and disappearing for a month with no notice is also normal. But I hope it will not happen again. But as it’s my semestral break (praise the Lord!), I’m going to take advantage of my free time. I’m really glad that there’s nothing to worry about except for thinking of what to do to avoid getting bored.

A lot of things happened since the last time I posted an entry here. Each week was very rough for me. I had to endure miles of rocky and steep roads. Every day, I was looking forward for the end of my last class of the week. Struggling throughout everything was what I always did while I was missing in action over the Internet. Luckily, I was able to survive for a month, and most importantly, the first semester with only few scratches.

But what was essential for my survival were the days when there were no classes. Those were the times when I gathered the strength that I needed for the coming week.

Homecoming

Last month, there was a general alumni homecoming in my old school. After two years (the last time I went there before this was back in first year college), I was finally able to visit my old school. A lot of things has changed since I graduated. Most of the rooms are now air-conditioned, and there’s also a new lounge where students can spend their break time. Despite all of these, the population dwindled. Some of the rooms now are vacant (including the last room we last used back in high school).

I arrived there hours before the program started. I was glad that I brought my iPod. Listening to music is a good way to let time pass. Oh, there was also a bingo game. God, I miss high school. It was fun watching it. There was even this round where more than thirty people who won… and the price at stake? PHP 500.00. In the end, they decided that there should only be two winners, who each got a half of the price.

The program started an hour and a half late. Nevertheless, I was glad to see my high school friends and old schoolmates. It was really fun to see them again, even though there were only a handful of us who attended the homecoming. We talked a lot of things, but the main topic of our discussion (LOL) was our valedictorian. There was this rumor spreading around (I’ve talked about it on Plurk), and, well, it was really intriguing to talk about. A few said that it was true. There was still a part of me that didn’t want to believe. I wanted to see him/her. Alas, he/she did not show his/her face that day. On the other hand, due to some unexpected events, I finally saw that person last Tuesday. And now, I confirm that it’s true. It’s no longer a rumor, it could be even a broadsheet’s headline tomorrow and for the rest of the year! Haha.

Siiiiing!

During the night of the last day when I had to work with my groupmates, we went to a place where a microphone, a TV showing various scenery (no naked ladies included) and highlighting lyrics, a comfy sofa exists. Oh, our instructor was also present during the event. Actually, the girls in my group were the ones who planned it. They have a crush on our instructor, and every time I hear them talking about him I wanted to throw them out. Well, it was a crazy night. But no matter how they forced me, I didn’t sing. Singing was never my talent. If I were to sing, I would sound like reading a poem. But watching them sing was fun. I guess, I finally got to like them as groupmates (except for the naive and stoopid member of the group, who was fortunately missing in action during that night). The sad parts were that I lost my new umbrella, I spent around PHP 500.00 on that day alone, and I arrived home one day after I left.

TV Shows & PS2 Games

Two weeks ago, I started downloading TV shows again via BitTorrent. So basically, my eyes are glued to my notebook’s screen (which is suffering from jaundice, I think) whenever I got the chance. Currently, the shows that I download are Heroes, House, Grey’s Anatomy, Naruto Shippuden, The Amazing Race and Survivor (US version, not the local one). Hmm… any suggestions?

Recently, a package arrived from my uncle and aunt who reside in Texas, USA. They gave us loads of new PS2 games. Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror is one of them, and I’m liking it. There’s also a game intended for my young cousins. It’s called Ape Escape 3. I tried it, and I should say that it’s fun. The gameplay is different from the other games that I’ve tried. There are at least four other games but I can’t remember their titles. Sorry.

Wait. Don’t forget Vimeo. I simply love the site. Its layout is simple but cute. And it’s got a good community. Here’s one of the videos I found on the site.

http://www.vimeo.com/1820162

Obviously, these are some of the things that will keep me occupied for the rest of my semestral break. Hopefully, I won’t get bored for the next three weeks.

This Blog & Beyond

During the past month, I was trying to think of something new to put here on my blog. Obviously, my site is getting boring. It’s so evident in the number of comments that I receive. I wanted something new, but most of the things that I though of are not suitable for my blog…

How do I make a video podcast without exposing my face, voice, or anything that is related to me?

I guess that’s all for now.

PS: Tomorrow is a Google-less day for me!

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Facts ‘Bout Me

I decided to rewrite my “About Me” page. I started from scratch again and I come up with an seven-paragraph introduction to myself. I decided to post it here so that it’ll get the attention that it will need. The front page is always the best part where you can put stories that you want your audience to notice.

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During the year I started blogging, my answer to the question “What’s your ASL?” was 14/M/Pampanga. Now that almost four years have passed since I first encountered that question, my answer is still the same, except for the age part which you have to add to four (that’s equal to 18). But of course, giving you a two-digit number, a letter that stands for “male”, and the name of a province here in the Philippines is not enough for you to know me. So the purpose of rewriting my short description of myself is for you to visualize me better on your head. Feel free to make your own image of myself. I’ve also provided links to my previous posts, that you can freely read (minus those password protected entries) which can help you know more about myself.

I was born three days after Christmas in the year of 1989. December 28, 1989 was the start of my journey here on earth. Eighteen years later, I’m already 18 years old, obviously. Kidding aside, I think, I’ve achieved a lot of things but there are still many things to conquer. Currently, I’m a college student but I still have to learn how to love my course and I still think that college is synonymous to hell.

Reading books has been my main source of entertainment since sixth grade when I first read JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Since then, I have read more than 50 books which include the whole Harry Potter series, two of Dan Brown’s controversial books, reads by Mitch Albom which are all talking about death, and even books that are more disturbing like Ian McEwan’s Atonement and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner which is my most favorite book, by the way.

Other forms of entertainment that I enjoy include watching American TV shows especially Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes and The Amazing Race, ridiculing incompetent teachers, sleeping, surfing the Internet, and most recently, listening to indie music by Feist, Death Cab for Cutie, Snow Patrol, The Postal Service, Hellogoodbye, Jack Johnson, and many more. As a matter of fact, because of my obsession to indie music, I named my iPod touch as Gibbard, in honor of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service’s singer: Ben Gibbard. Just visit my Last.fm account to know my listening patterns.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I also love writing. I was actually the news editor of our official student publication for two consecutive years back in high school. But until now, I still don’t know how I was able to get that position because of my faulty grammar. I know, my grammar sucks. And if it were not because of Firefox’s spell checker feature, I would have committed lots of misspelled words. I need an editor, really. Haha. But despite all of those reasons I’ve mentioned, I’m really thankful for my adviser who trusted me. Writing news never gave me pleasure. You have to be specific with the facts and you can’t give your own points and using adjectives is a big no-no.

Now, I want to tell you what I’m not: I’m neither a singer nor a dancer (I suck at both). I’m not also a cellphone and SMS addict, I can leave even without a phone. I hate PE classes (I’m just glad that I will not wear my PE uniform ever). And oh as some of you might already know, I don’t have the ideal body weight (take a guess if I’m overweight or underweight) and I don’t look like an 18 year old student (I look younger… lol).

I’ve got more things to tell you but I guess, I’m already boring you. Just watch out for the next version of this introduction to myself to know more about me. But if you need something or you just want to leave your two cents, feel free to contact me.

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DanHellbound and Dre tagged me to post facts about myself. BTW, Mr. DanHellbound tagged me way back in December of last year. Dan says I should post seven facts, and Dre says that I should post eight. But obviously, I broke the rules. Lol. And oh, I didn’t make this post because of these memes. It’s just coincidental. Of course, everyone is invited to post random facts. Yeah, I’m tagging you everyone!

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Summer Classes

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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The Aftermath

For me, maintaining multiple blogs is very difficult. I don’t have the luxury of time, not like when I was still in high school. I’ll keep this blog, my review site, and my LiveJournal where I publish entries not intended for the whole reading public, as for my other blogs, well, I don’t know what I’ll do with them. I suppose, I’ll just cross-post the entries that I publish here in my other blogs when I have the time and when I don’t feel lazy. I added a new category here which I named “Shameless Shots.” The posts which will be labeled with this category will have a photo that I took (unless specified), and a description of the photo. Please take note that I’m not converting this personal blog into a Photoblog. I will still post regular entries about my life and my rants about life, things, and of course, school.

And oh, I’m just an amateur, and the camera that I’m using is an old model of Sony CyberShot.

For donations to help me buy a DSLR, feel free to contact me. Lol. Joke. :lol:

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Aftermath

This photo was taken shortly after a program during my high school days. I can still remember that the program that we had before this photo was taken was the drawing of the lucky winners of the raffle tickets which we were forced to buy bought for Php 50.00. This kind of raffle started in my school, I guess, during my third grade. And this is done annually during the foundation day of my school. For eight years, I paid Php 400.00 for the freaking tickets. And never in that span of time that my ticket number was called. I was never a winner.

Right after the announcement of the winning ticket of the jackpot price, everyone stood up from their seat and left the covered multipurpose court. Everyone who didn’t win looked disappointed. Some even shouted “Punitin and sedula… Punitin1!” Then they tore their raffle tickets and threw the fragments into the air. So if you would notice, pieces of yellow-green colored paper litters the place in the photo.

You know what? I miss the programs that we had during my high school days. Today, programs seem to be scarce. Not all students are invited to watch a program. Only chosen classes are given the chance to watch a show. This is just one thing I miss about high school. So to my readers who are still in high school (and even those who are grade schoolers), enjoy the most out of it. And as what I always say, college is hell, believe me.

Photo taken with a SONY DSC-P73 on September 28, 2005.

  1. In this case, sedula pertained to their raffle ticket []

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A Decision

I’ve decided not to run after something anymore. I’m already tired. Besides, I don’t really like what I am doing. I’ve already had enough. My plate is already full and I don’t need an extra serving. But then, if I caught up — by accident — with the thing that I’m supposed to be running for… why not? That would be great and I would really appreciate that.

What the hell am I talking about? Oh, I’m talking about grades.

I’ve decided not to push my efforts to their maximum level. I’m no longer interested on getting enlisted as a Dean’s Lister. I don’t care anymore if there will be others who would surpass me when I know I can reach hinger mountains than them. I’m tired of memorizing dates, names, and other key terms. Surely, this is not the way you can measure a person’s intelligence, right? I’m not motivated to study hard. It’s goodbye high grades.

But is it? My blockmates told me that my grades are still satisfactory — Wow! Ang tataas naman ng mga grades mo! (Wow! Your grades are high!) — but then, they are not as satisfactory as when I had started going to college back last year. I know to how much extent I can do, and I’m only using 80% of my ability. And this is how I want to be now. Besides, my grades are not the things that make me; they’re just numbers. And as what Talamasca have commented, grades are not everything.

I want to thank all of those who have commented in an entry I posted back in June 28, LetÂ’s Talk About Grades, for their insightful comments. For those who have read that post, you might have thought that I’m still a grade conscious student, eh? Well, I’m not one of those kind of students anymore. I’ve relinquished my membership in that group. Yeah, I know, that my grades had gradually increased back in high school, and now, boom! There has been major changes in my grades. But as what I have written, I don’t really care.

But of course, I’ll still cherish those days when I got these…

My Awards
My Awards. Those certificated have my real name printed, so I covered them.

That’s when the time when I really felt the tension building up against this certain person because of, ah, I’m not supposed to talk about that. And of course, I felt how to be on the stage to get my academic awards. That’s the first and I hope that it’s not the last (I hope that someday, I may get motivated to study hard again).

And those would remain as remembrances. Those would remind me that once, I was a very grade conscious student who was inspired by a best friend to perceive hard in school and that I have the ability to conquer foreign lands where other students haven’t set foot before.

Yes, this is the second half of LetÂ’s Talk About Grades. But I decided not to include this in that post, because as you have read, there’s no chance for my readers to get “inspired” with this post, unlike the previous one.

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