the perils of

I found out yesterday from Alessi that our last exam is on the 23rd! (Yeah, I haven't gotten around to checking the March calendar yet.) My flight's on the 26th (with Gerard! ), so that gives me three extra days of ~COMPLETE IDLENESS~ woohoo. So anyway. I'm really excited to go home. It's just two weeks though, and after that, TWO MONTHS of summer classes. Which means I'll have to fly all the way back to sweltering Manila to take up the TWO SUBJECTS that I and the rest of the Health Sci majors are required to take. Gahh. I can feel the heat waves reverberating towards me from the future. Right. Lest I digress any further, here are some of my (our) ~summer plans~ roflmao March:  Go home and be happy as a bee for two weeks! April-May: Take Psychology and German. -_- Take the Carlos Celdran tour around Manila! n_n Sign up for PAWS! At last! Light up some environmentally destructive floating lanterns, and then later lecture everyone on how they've just...

Right now, I can feel only two things: disappointment and exhaustion. I'm disappointed in myself for not having worked harder, and I'm exhausted because... I'm working harder to make up for my laziness? Nah. If I were, then I wouldn't be blogging right now. My forehead would be resting on a Chemistry book instead of parallel a laptop screen.  Anyway, I cannot sleep until I update this thang, so here goes. My English/Literature class, section MO2, has been preparing for our Lit play. We're doing "Portrait of an Artist as a Filipino," written by Nick Joaquin (and masterfully abridged by Mika and Ali!).  Today we went over to Jessica 's house for rehearsals and for props making. In case you were wondering (and I highly doubt you were), I'm working as both an actor and a props person. It's not easy, especially since I've got tons and tons of lines to memorize - huge, dizzying chunks of text that I must jam into my limited memory. Kidding. I...

I really haven't been in the mood to write lately. I don't know if it's some brain chemistry thing associated with the weather (they say cold weather causes a chemical imbalance in the brain, making people sadder), but I've just lost the urge to type out the entire proceedings of my day for all the strangers on the Internetz to see. However, upon the prodding of certain friends (hi, Rap and Andy), I. Will. Write. After all, the show must go on, and the uncreative blogger must feign creativity. I don't really know what's in it for you, dear reader, but in writing this, I supposedly benefit from the theraputic nature of blogging. And then there's that other thing about my future grandchildren finding this blog and saying, "Oh look, Grandma wrote that!" (Ugh. How creepy does that sound? Hello, grandkids. Ack! So very creepy.) But what exactly do YOU benefit from reading this? You will have wasted around five minutes of your time, that's what. Fi...

I forgot the PAWS volunteer orientation was today. Instead of signing myself up and learning the ropes around the Animal Rehabilitation Center, I spent the whole day in my dorm, playing Pokemon Leaf Green on a GameBoy emulator. And to think that this was the day I'd been looking forward to since classes started! :| alsdfj aslf jas; zas a[sklf as; Looks like I'll have to wait until next year for the next orientation. :| In other news, it's been two weeks into the semester and it's still been pretty good. Mr. Pulan actually complimented us ("us" being the whole of my English block) on a job well done writing our personal essays. He said something along of how he could see why we were placed in Advanced English, and that we had some real talent. But then he said that we can't just be satisfied with knowing how to write well. He said that we had to push ourselves intellectually and take on more complex topics. This, I think, is one creative ploys of ...

Three days into the second semester and so far, so good! I haven't even stopped writing my novel. Yet. There's a research paper due two weeks from now :| Our English and Lit professor is still Mr. Max Pulan, only this time, we're taking English 101 and Lit 14. Level ups! Yayz! Speaking of profs, our Filipino teacher is Mr. Alywnn Javier - the author of Sa Victory Liner , the poem that Ren and I did a report on last sem! He seems like a cool guy, but I'm really scared of Filipino class now. I don't speak much Tagalog, and it was all cool in Mr. Devilles' class last sem, because even he spoke English here and then. While Mr. Javier also spoke English during our first meeting, he made it absolutely clear that he does not want us being conyo during his period. :-s Also, he said that he does not want students coming up to him "stupid" questions like what Huwebes means. When he said that, I swear that a tingle went down my spine. I was just about to ask ...

         I'd always counted on my cellphone to wake me up every morning by playing some Manila radio station at precisely 6:30 AM, but for four days this week I found myself scrambling out of bed around 7:15. Rather than pin the blame on my phone's not going off, I have a feeling that I just sleep through the radio alarm when it comes on. That would explain why, when I was dreaming once about being in my lola's house in Cagayan, that infernal Korean song "Gee" started playing out of nowhere. And, yes, much Korean-style dancing was involved.        Today was different. The alarm ring tone was "Miracles Happen", by Myra, and from the moment I was able to separate my eyelids, I knew it was gonna be a good day. For one thing, today was the last Friday of the sem. And, for another, today was our last English 12 class!!!!!!! (Under normal circumstances, I would add thirty thousand more exclamation points to my previous sentence. However, today do...

My Countdown Countdown SEM BREAK'S COMING!!! Can you tell by the huge and gay countdown timer at the top of this post? It's only TWO WEEKS AWAY!!! Goodbye Manila and hellooooo SUBIC! (please) In other news, ATENEO WINS! It's a three-peat! I'd never paid much attention to UAAP games before, but when you're studying in Ateneo, you just can't help but embrace the sports culture. The campus itself is decked out in posters of the basketball players wearing Nike and tarps saying "GO ATENEO BLUE EAGLES!". Even the teachers suspend their consultation time to watch games. In other, other news, I just took what is probably the worst test of my life last night, Mr. Pulan's notorious English 12 critical thinking exam. Ugh. Worst. Test. Ever. I guess that just goes to show what a critical thinker I am. Hurrr durrr. Twilight is better than Harry Potter, durrrr.

Taken from Michael Eric Dyson's "Be Like Mike?: Michael Jordan and the Pedagogy of Desire"... "Jordan's body is also the screen upon which is projected black desires to emulate his athletic excellence and replicate his entry into reaches of unimaginable wealth and fame. But there is more than vicarious substitution and the projection of fantasy on to Jordan's body that is occurring in the circulation and reproduction of black cultural desire. There is also the creative use of desire and fantasy by young blacks to counter and capitulate to, the forces of cultural dominance that attempt to reduce the black body to a commodity and text that is employed for entertainment, titillation or financial gain. Simply said, there is no easy correlation between the commodification of black youth culture and the evidences of a completely dominated consciousness." You know what that all amounts to? It's essentially the same as saying: Michael Jordan represents mor...

[above photos] Chilling in the LS Bookstore with Jhalec, AC, Julian and Cheryl (who took that last one). It was a much-needed break from English class, in which I am not doing so well. It's a good thing I arrived early for class, because I had to go to this 24-hour Internet cafe' along Katipunan to have some readings printed. But even then, I forgot to pick up a copy of Clifford Geertz's Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight , and so spent English class copyless. Which was NOT good, because Sir Pulan asked me about the opening anecdote of the essay (which I had not read, of course) and Deo, God bless him, had to whisper to me a quick summary, which I then told to Mr. Pulan. Very high school, but what choice did I (and poor Deo) have, really. When I felt like I was in the clear, Mr. Pulan asked me to continue summarizing the anecdote, at which point I just kept my mouth shut and hung my head in shame. SHAME.  For Lit class, we had a test on the Elements of Fiction,...

I CAN'T WRITE!!!  Why do people not notice this? Have you actually read any of my blogs? They're not about anything relevant at all, plus they're all messy and unorganized and unstructured- And now here is this blank MS Word screen that I'm supposed to fill with 2-3 pages worth of words. WORDS. That actually make sense when strung together. COHERENT. SENTENCES. I have to write an essay for English 12 as a continuation of Walter Benjamin's up to present time. Oh, and what's his essay about, you ask? I HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA. Well, actually I do. I get the iea that it's about the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. Oh, have I mentioned the title of Benjamin's essay is The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction ?  So basically, I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT BENJAMIN IS TRYING TO TELL ME. All I understand is this: He uses the word "aura" a lot Art is supposed to be reproduced so that the masses can view it How on Earth am I...

Phew. Finally, I've submitted my Chemistry pre-lab report today. I was up till 2 AM figuring it out (and I only just finished it before Math class at 2 PM!) and now I feel like I can just sit back, relax, and enjoy the aircon and Internet here in the Rizal Library. :) And Math? Well, I'll just put in a little extra effort tonight and tomorrow and over the weekend. The quiz is still on Tuesday, after all. That gives me five days prep time! And I've already scheduled an appointment with Mr. Tolentino, my Math teacher, for next Wednesday afternoon. I've already explained to him that I didn't take up in high school the topics we're discussing right now. He understands. Man, I feel so behind because my blockmates have already learned this stuff - in their sophomore year, at that! But I'm all mellow right now. I've got only three classes tomorrow - English, Literature, and P.E. All in the morning. So the rest of the day, I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... t...