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...

I just finished reading Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood . I loved it. I'm not about to write a review of it, but I just wanted to write for the sake of releasing these weird feelings of... I don't even know. Melancholy? Shock? Joy? A little back story: I've been searching for a cheap copy of the book for some years now. It goes for around P600 (if I'm not mistaken) at Fully Booked (and presumably, in all the other commercial bookstores). It only occurred to me last week that I could borrow it from the Rizal Library. Which I did. On Friday morning I found myself by my lonesome, what with all my friends at immersion and all (yeah, the few friends I had just had to go on immersion on the same day). It was the perfect time to get started on Norwegian Wood, but I had just finished Abundance of Katherines the night before and I didn't want to move on just yet. (I like to take breaks in between books to let the first one soak into my mind. It's sort of like...

Okay, I have been blogging really erratically this year. But can you blame me, really? When I don't have school, I'm living my regular, civilian life - and nothing interesting ever happens then. Except me getting a condo. That's pretty interesting, right? We're still looking for one more roommate, btw. :D heeheehee (see: this similarly desperate and shameless post ) Anyway, I guess I have some summer blogging to catch up on. For Holy Week, my family went to Dapitan! Woohoo! Okay, you got us. My family never actually does holy things on Holy Week. While everyone else is out there reflecting and repenting, the Capinpuyans go a-splorin'. And how could you expect us to do anything else? Holy Week means no work for the parents, which means maximum family time. Why waste those precious moments sweating in a stuffy old church? I'm kidding, of course (sort of). Anyway, now for the obligatory summer pictures, edited by my mom! How awesome is that. River cr...

      Happy Chinese New Year everyone! :D It feels weird having done nothing especially Chinese today, other than eating yummy tikoy courtesy of the amazing  Tin  (who, by the way, would make a totally awesome sophomore Executive Officer for SOSE)! I remember last year, Kong Hua School (my alma mater) went all-out for Chinese New Year. There were free dumplings, egg rolls, and tikoy! Red-and-gold banners were hung from end to end in the Gym, and the entire student populace went to class wearing red.      Ahh, high school. I heard they just made Mandarin classes a requirement this school year. Phew. I graduated just in time then.     This week has been really lazy, even if we did have a long test in Chemistry (which I studied really hard for!). Fencing was cancelled yesterday, and so was Chem. This morning we had a pretty awesome time in the lab, testing for anions and such, and then for Filipino we watched this extreme...

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...