books, doodles, decision groups

Last night I went to the launching of Manila Noir, an anthology of stories told against the backdrop of (yup you guessed it) a dark and sinister Metro Manila. The book is the result of a collaboration between various Filipino writers, the most easily recognized one probably being the likes of Lourd de Veyra. And it was edited by the Jessica Hagedorn.

Jessica Hagedorn isn't one of my favorite authors of all time, but when I received word that she would be coming to Ateneo, I just had to be there to have my three-year-old copy of Gangster of Love signed. I had read the book to fulfill a requirement for Lit class under Max Pulan, and I loved it. It was all sorts of twisted and funny, and after reading it I was certain of one thing: Jessica Hagedorn is one weird chick.

Anyway, at the end of the talk I was lucky enough to go home with a freshly-autographed old copy of Gangster as well as a pre-autographed and newly bought Manila Noir. National Bookstore was selling copies of it outside the venue, and at first I told myself I wouldn't buy it. (I have this frustrating inability to finish anthologies; I tend to only read a couple of stories and forget about the rest.) What eventually convinced me to make the purchase was that they were selling it for much cheaper at the launch - the regular price is P395 but I got my copy for P355, and it already came with Jessica's autograph!

I didn't take a picture of the autographed pages but look! I went home with these lovelies. 

Miss Hagedorn drinking bottled water.

Speaking of books, I was browsing through the fiction section in the library the other day. If you haven't gone there yet you should definitely go. It's quite theraputic, kind of like window shopping. And you never know what you might find! Anyway I found this ancient copy of Doctors by Erich Segal, one of my favorite books ever.

And on the first page I find this:

"'This is a must read for any pre-med student!'- S_017"

WOW, guy. You suck! And it's not so much that you vandalized school property. That would've been forgivable had you written something meaningful, like a lovely piece of poetry. But NOO you had to write this stupid recommendation, which you could just as easily have written in a Facebook status. To top it off, you had to sign it "S_017," which for no real reason just annoys the crap out of me.

Speaking of annoying, this is my drawing of Rap annoying me during Developmental Studies class.

This is his rendition of it.

I don't understand why I'm standing on a box of soap, either.

DS class is turning out to be pretty fun. As a free elective, I'm taking Social Enterprises under Mr. Mariel Rapisura, and wow this is better than I expected it to be. If you're wondering why I'm taking a businessy class when I'm all set to become a doctor, it's because I'm really interested in seeing how different parts of society can collaborate to enact social change. Social enterprises, I think, are the perfect embodiment of that.  

I'm really enjoying this class. And yes I doodled, but hey the class is three hours straight, from 6-9 at night. I need to doodle in order to stay sane.

But then again, sanity is relative.

Speaking of insane things, the Rizal Library hired a bear last week.

Talk about equal paw-pportunities! Am I right? :D
(I apologize for my lameness.)

If bears can find careers now, I'm excited to see what's in store for these guys.

Last year I talked about how a bunch of Health Sci batchmates got together to talk about their uncertainty about going to med school (see the post here). The group was six people back then. It's now seven months later, and they've more than doubled their size!

They actually meet regularly (about once every two weeks or so) to talk about their futures and stuff, and they even have a Facebook group. Don't ask me what's in it though because I left it many months back. Haha!

Anyway, if you're a fellow Health Sci major who'd like to be part of their group, contact me (or any of the people you see in the picture) through Facebook, Twitter, or in the comments section! They're really wonderful guys, and they're always happy to have new members join. They're actually looking into helping out those from the lower batches (because they're currently all seniors) so if you're looking for kindred spirits, here are your guys.

. . .

By the way tomorrow is Ateneo's first game of the season versus La Salle. I hope we win so we get free mochi. GO ATENEO!