the perils of

Many years ago, I begged my mom to buy me this really big and heavy Jane Austen book. In my memory, this took place in the National Book Store at SM, but I don't know that for sure. My mom had hesitations about making the purchase since it was expensive, but when I explained to her that it was really a collection of 3 Austen novels ( Pride and Prejudice , Mansfield Park , and Persuasion ) and therefore worth the money, she acceeded to my demand request. So that night, I set to work trying to read the famed  Pride and Prejudice.  I was not a reader of classics, so I really wanted my first to be special. I affixed small, neon strips of paper next to sentences that I liked. Whenever I encountered an unfamiliar word, I looked it up in our big dictionary (yes, the old-fashioned way;  hindi pa uso ang Internet noon)  and wrote it down on a Post-It. Needless to say, it was the most effort I had ever  put into reading a work of fiction. Alas, my young and fee...

lindly following advice I found from a stranger online, I went to National Book Store this afternoon to look for "cheap, twenty-peso review pamphlets" that were supposed to help me with the NMAT. I didn't find any. Come to think of it, I don't recall ever seeing such a thing at National. You lied to me, stranger!        But my quest to find these mythical magic pamphlets was not for naught, for it took me to the less-explored nooks and crannies of NBS. And, in a stroke of serendipity, I discovered the Sale section! It's an inconspicuous-looking strip of short bookshelves on the second floor. If not for this one, medium-sized sign that said "SALE!" in bold red text, you would not have known that amazing deals were to be had here.          And what amazing deals did I find!           Squee! Books! Jessica Zafra is one of my favorite authors. Imagine my surprise when I saw that her book "T...

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'm back! Now, where did I leave off? Oh yeah. Wednesday       I stayed up until 4 AM, thanks to the annoying errors in Adobe Premiere that kept popping up whenever I tried to export the file as a .avi. If there's one thing I learned from my previous experience editing videos, it's that if something can go wrong, it WILL go wrong. (And in hindsight, everything I had expected to fail did actually fail.)       So I spent the day with that fuzzy feeling you get in your brain whenever you lack sleep. I don't remember much of what happened that day, but I do recall myself extolling God when our chemistry teacher said that the quiz he had planned to give us that day would be moved to next Wednesday. PERFECTO. I guess Murphy's Law doesn't apply to everything after all.      When I got back to the dorm, I got a text from Deo congratulating me on getting the part of a donya in our Lit 14 play. I fussed because I'm a really terrib...

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...

[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,...

        Something about living on my own and learning how to budget the P300 my mom's allowing me per day is turning me into a real cheapskate. This week, I started keeping track of my expenses for my meals. I wrote them all down in this purple notebook my sister had gotten me for my birthday, and ever since then, I've been obsessed with figuring out how to cut back.          I think that being able to actually see those figures written down on paper like that instead of mentally keeping track of them is what's suppressing my impulsive tendencies. Sudden decisions to order dessert, or last-minute detours to Rustan's Supermarket to pick up cookies or cold juice - such was my life before the Purple Notebook. There's my magic little notebook. This picture was taken in Cagayan, the night before I moved to Manila.            Today, I learned when NOT to be thrifty. It was raining buckets here, you see, and...

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...